A Catholic Man

Apostolic Succession By Francis J. Beckwith

2011-03-05T01:00:00.001-05:00

Francis J. Beckwith

In 2007, when I was prayerfully thinking about returning to the Catholic Church, there were four theological issues that were deal breakers for me: justification, penance, transubstantiation, and apostolic succession. I have already discussed penance, transubstantiation, and justification. Here, I offer a brief account of how I became convinced that the Catholic Church is also right about apostolic succession. Catholicism holds that if a Church claims to be Christian it must be able to show that its leaders – its bishops and its presbyters (or priests) – are successors of the Apostles. This is why the Catholic Church accepts Eastern Orthodox sacraments as legitimate even though the Orthodox are not in full communion with Rome. What amazed me is how uncontroversial apostolic succession was in the Early Church, as Protestant historian J. N. D. Kelley points out in his book Early Christian Doctrines. I expected to find factions of Christians, including respected Church Fathers, who resisted episcopal ecclesiology. There aren’t any. In fact, a leading argument in the Early Church against heretics was their lack of episcopal lineage and continuity and thus their absence of communion with the visible and universal Church. In his famous apologetic treatise, Against Heresies (A.D. 182-188), St. Irenaeus (c. A.D. 140-202) makes that very point in several places. Tertullian (A.D. c. 160-220) offers the same sort of apologetic as well.

Link (here) to read the full fantastic piece by Francis J. Beckwith

Zakaria Botros

2011-02-21T07:59:00.000-05:00

Meet Coptic priest Zakaria Botros from Egypt. Little known in the West but making waves with Muslims in the Middle East.

He fights fire with fire. He sits with the Christian Scriptures and the Koran in front of him. He is an expert at Classical Arabic and all the literature of Islam. He challenges the Muslim to respond and refute him.

To read the article about this courageous Christian, click here. To see him on video, go to www.youtube.com and search for Zakaria Botros. To read his Nine Demands of Islam, click here.

Link (here) to Catholic Convert

Who Is Your Favorite?

2011-02-12T17:05:00.000-05:00

Best Catholic Blog Finalists:

American Papist (http://catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?show=papist)
American Papist, by Thomas Peters, is hosted at CatholicVote.org. Peters, the son of a canon lawyer, focuses largely on the intersection between Catholicism and politics, and the American Papist is always a good place to turn to for breaking news.
(visit blog)
Catholic Icing (http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/)
Catholic Icing, by Lacy, a 25-year-old wife and mother of three, is "a place to find Catholic Arts and Crafts, Cute Food Ideas, Feast Day Celebration ideas, and much, much more! Once you have a solid foundation for your Catholic Cake, why not add some icing?"
(visit blog)
The Faith Explained With Cale Clarke (http://www.thefaithexplained.com/)
Cale Clarke reverted to Catholicism in 2004, "after spending ten years in Evangelical Protestantism, with much of that time spent in pastoral ministry." Director of The Faith Explained Seminars and creator of The New Mass iPhone app, Cale explains the Catholic Faith in everyday language.
(visit blog)
Fr. Z's Blog - What Does the Prayer Really Say? (http://wdtprs.com/blog/)
Featuring "Slavishly accurate liturgical translations & frank commentary on Catholic issues – by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)", a regular columnist for The Wanderer, What Does the Prayer Really Say? is the first place to turn for those who want answers concerning the celebration of the Mass, in both its Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms.
(visit blog)
Whispers in the Loggia (http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/)
"One of global Catholicism's most prominent chroniclers, Rocco Palmo has held court as the 'Church Whisperer' since 2004," and his Whispers in the Loggia has developed a reputation for having the inside scoop on Vatican politics.
(visit blog)

VOTE NOW (Here) Which is the Best Catholic Blog?

2011-02-11T19:01:00.002-05:00

Espresso bars and soul-patches (here)

23 Reasons Why A Priest Should Wear His Collar

2010-07-24T06:53:00.000-04:00

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray. “Why a priest should wear his Roman collar.”

The Roman collar is a sign of priestly consecration to the Lord. As a wedding ring distinguishes husband and wife and symbolizes the union they enjoy, so the Roman collar identifies bishops and priests (and often deacons and seminarians) and manifests their proximity to the Divine Master by virtue of their free consent to the ordained ministry to which they have been (or may be) called.
By wearing clerical clothing and not possessing excess clothes, the priest demonstrates adherence to the Lord’s example of material poverty. The priest does not choose his clothes – the Church has, thanks to her accumulated wisdom over the past two millennia. Humble acceptance of the Church’s desire that the priest wear the Roman collar illustrates a healthy submission to authority and conformity to the will of Christ as expressed through his Church.
Church Law requires clerics to wear clerical clothing. We have cited above number 66 of the Directory for priests, which itself quotes canon 284.
The wearing of the Roman collar is the repeated, ardent desire of Pope John Paul 11. The Holy Father’s wish in this regard cannot be summarily dismissed; he speaks with a special charism. He frequently reminds priests of the value of wearing the Roman collar.In a September 8, 1982 letter to Ugo Cardinal Poletti, his Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, instructing him to promulgate norms concerning the use of the Roman collar and religious habit, the Pontiff observed that clerical dress is valuable “not only because it contributes to the propriety of the priest in his external behavior or in the exercise of his ministry, but above all because it gives evidence within the ecclesiastical community of the public witness that each priest is held to give of his own identity and special belonging to God.”In a homily on November 8, 1982 the Pope addressed a group of transitional deacons whom he was about to ordain to the priesthood. He said that if they tried to be just like everyone else in their “style of life” and “manner of dress,” then their mission as priests of Jesus Christ would not be fully realized.
The Roman collar prevents “mixed messages”; other people will recognize the priest’s intentions when he finds himself in what might appear to be compromising circumstances. Let’s suppose that a priest is required to make pastoral visits to different apartment houses in an area where drug dealing or prostitution is prevalent. The Roman collar sends a clear message to everyone that the priest has come to minister to the sick and needy in Christ’s name. Idle speculation might be triggered by a priest known to neighborhood residents visiting various apartment houses dressed as a layman.
The Roman collar inspires others to avoid immodesty in dress, words and actions and reminds them of the need for public decorum. A cheerful but diligent and serious priest can compel others to take stock of the manner in which they conduct themselves. The Roman collar serves as a necessary challenge to an age drowning in impurity, exhibited by suggestive dress, blasphemous speech and scandalous actions.
The Roman collar is a protection for one’s vocation when dealing with young, attractive women. A priest out of his collar (and, naturally, not wearing a wedding ring) can appear to be an attractive target for the affections of an unmarried woman looking for a husband, or for a married woman tempted to infidelity.
The Roman collar offers a kind of “safeguard “for oneself. The Roman collar provides a reminder to the priest himself of his mission and identity: to witness to Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, as one of his brother-priests.
A priest in a Roman collar is an inspiration to others who think: “Here is a modern disciple of Jesus.” The Roman collar speaks of the possibility of making a sincere, lasting commitment to God. Believers of diverse ages, nationalities and temperaments will note the virtuous, other-centered life of the man who gladly and proudly wears the garb of a Catholic priest, and perhaps will realize that they too can consecrate themselves anew, or for the first time, to the loving Good Shepherd.
The Roman collar is a source of beneficial intrigue to non-Catholics. Most non- Catholics do not have experience with ministers who wear clerical garb. Therefore, Catholic priests by virtue of their dress can cause them to reflect – even if only a cursory fashion – on the Church and what she entails.
A priest dressed as the Church wants is a reminder of God and of the sacred. The prevailing secular morass is not kind to images which connote the Almighty, the Church, etc. When one wears the Roman collar, the hearts and minds of others are refreshingly raised to the “Higher Being” who is usually relegated to a tiny footnote in the agenda of contemporary culture.
The Roman collar is also a reminder to the priest that he is “never not a priest.” With so much confusion prevalent today, the Roman collar can help the priest avoid internal doubt as to who he is. Two wardrobes can easily lead – and often does – to two lifestyles, or even two personalities.
A priest in a Roman collar is a walking vocation message. The sight of a cheerful, happy priest confidently walking down the street can be a magnet drawing young men to consider the possibility that God is calling them to the priesthood. God does the calling; the priest is simply a visible sign God will use to draw men unto himself.
The Roman collar makes the priest available for the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Anointing of the Sick, and for crisis situations. Because the Roman collar gives instant recognition, priests who wear it make themselves more apt to be approached, particularly when seriously needed. The authors can testify to being asked for the Sacraments and summoned for assistance in airports, crowded cities and isolated villages because they were immediately recognized as Catholic priests.
The Roman collar is a sign that the priest is striving to become holy by living out his vocation always. It is a sacrifice to make oneself constantly available to souls by being publicly identifiable as a priest, but a sacrifice pleasing to Our Divine Lord. We are reminded of how the people came to him, and how he never turned them away. There are so many people who will benefit by our sacrifice of striving to be holy priests without interruption.
The Roman collar serves as a reminder to “alienated” Catholics not to forget their irregular situation and their responsibilities to the Lord. The priest is a witness – for good or ill – to Christ and his Holy Church. When a “fallen-away” sees a priest, he is encouraged to recall that the Church continues to exist. A cheerful priest provides a salutary reminder of the Church.
The wearing of clerical clothing is a sacrifice at times, especially in hot weather. The best mortifications are the ones we do not look for. Putting up with the discomforts of heat and humidity can be a wonderful reparation for our own sins, and a means of obtaining graces for our parishioners.
The Roman collar serves as a “sign of contradiction” to a world lost in sin and rebellion against the Creator. The Roman collar makes a powerful statement: the priest as an alter Christus has accepted the Redeemer’s mandate to take the Gospel into the public square, regardless of personal cost.
The Roman collar helps priests to avoid the on duty/off duty mentality of priestly service. The numbers 24 and 7 should be our special numbers: we are priests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are priests, not men who engage in the “priest profession.” On or off duty, we should be available to whomever God may send our way. The “lost sheep” do not make appointments.
The “officers” in Christ’s army should be identifiable as such. Traditionally, we have remarked that those who receive the Sacrament of Confirmation become “soldiers” of Christ, adult Catholics ready and willing to defend his name and his Church. Those who are ordained as deacons, priests and bishops must also be prepared – whatever the stakes – to shepherd the flock of the Lord. Those priests who wear the Roman collar show forth their role unmistakably as leaders in the Church.
The saints have never approved of a lackadaisical approach concerning priestly vesture. For example, Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Patron Saint of Moral Theologians and Confessors, in his esteemed treatise The Dignity and Duties of the Priest, urges the wearing of the appropriate clerical dress, asserting that the Roman collar helps both priest and faithful to recall the sublime splendor of the sacerdotal state instituted by the God-Man.
Most Catholics expect their priests to dress accordingly. Priests have long provided a great measure of comfort and security to their people. As youths, Catholics are taught that the priest is God’s representative – someone they can trust. Hence, the People of God want to know who these representatives are and what they stand for. The cherished custom of wearing distinguishable dress has been for centuries sanctioned by the Church; it is not an arbitrary imposition. Catholics expect their priests to dress as priests and to behave in harmony with Church teaching and practice. As we have painfully observed over the last few years, the faithful are especially bothered and harmed when priests defy the legitimate authority of the Church, and teach and act in inappropriate and even sinful ways.
Your life is not your own; you belong to God in a special way, you are sent out to serve him with your life. When we wake each morning, we should turn our thoughts to our loving God, and ask for the grace to serve him well that day. We remind ourselves of our status as His chosen servants by putting on the attire that proclaims for all to see that God is still working in this world through the ministry of poor and sinful men.

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray. “Why a priest should wear his Roman collar.” Homiletic & Pastoral Review (June, 1995).

Founded over one hundred years ago, Homiletic & Pastoral Review is one of the most well-respected pastoral magazines in the world. HPR features solid articles on every aspect of pastoral life and eloquent weekly sermons that illuminate through exposition of Scripture. Subscribe to HPR here.

THE AUTHOR

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan has been appointed by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, to a position serving the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Ordained in 1989, Msgr. Mangan formerly served the Diocese of Sioux Falls in several parishes.

Father Gerald E. Murray is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was ordained in 1984 after completing studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N. Y. Currently he is studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome.

"‘The Tablet" Finally Died

2010-07-05T22:21:00.001-04:00

There is a custom in the Catholic Church of a Month’s Mind Mass, which liturgically is the Mass on the 30th day after death or burial. As ‘The Tablet' finally died as a Catholic magazine with its 5th June 2010 pro-abortion issue, today is it’s Month’s Mind. Others will write, and have written, long polite articles explaining The Tablet’s long and painful spiritual death.

Link (here) to the blog entitled, Ecumenical Diablog. Stuart McCullough is a convert to the faith, his post is entitled, "Catholics Don't Take The Pill or The Tablet".

Hat Tip to Fr. John T. Zuhldorf at WDTPRS (here)
Photo (here)

Book Review: Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition

2010-04-29T22:32:00.000-04:00

Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition By Fr. Gabriel Bunge, O.S.B.

Published by Ignatius Press

A great book recommended to me by a friend of mine Marco De Vinha, I did not have to time to read the book so I asked Marco to write a review, I must say he did an excellent job.

I came upon Fr. Bunge quite by chance (or would it be Providence?). He was mentioned in passing on a program on Ancient Faith Radio, in relation to his book on Rublev's icon of the Trinity. I then googled his name and found an article with an excerpt from his book on personal prayer. What I read was very much in line with what I have been looking for, so I figured I might as well take the risk and buy the book.

Fr. Bunge offers a solution to the Christian West's current spiritual dryness - a return to its practices, a reclaiming of its identity. According to Fr. Bunge, "faith 'evaporates' when it is not practiced in accord with its essence", and Christian praxis is not just "social action" (though this is one of the facets of agape) since it can become something merely exterior or even a subtle form of acedia. He also points out something often neglected (and sometimes even denied) in today's world: that the apostolic unwritten traditions have just as much weight as the written ones. Another point: that the "contemplative life" is not opposed to the "active life"; they are simply different stages on the spiritual path, and that they are always present to a greater or lesser degree. Also clarified is the correct order in what pertains to theory and practice. Currently we understand that theory is subservient to practice; the Fathers well knew that it is actually the other way around: all "practice" is only a means to "theory", which is the knowledge of God. Fr. Bunge dedicates a sub-chapter to explaining just what does it mean for a Christian to say that he is "spiritual". This is a much welcomed explanation! With the word "spiritual" tossed about so casually nowadays one sometimes wonders what it actually means. Fr. Gabriel leaves no doubts: according to Scripture and the Fathers, the "spiritual man" (pneumaticos) is one who is taught by the Person of the Holy Spirit, in whom the Spirit dwells; any other claims of being spiritual are, in fact, nothing of the sort, but are relative to the "natural man" (psychicos), who is led simply by the "unaided soul". In this book one learns also about the authority of tradition, and why one cannot ignore the sacred traditions handed down to us: they are tried and true ways of attaining salvation, i.e., of entering into a living communion with God. Another welcome point made in the book is the role of the body in prayer. Though it seems to have been lost to us (at least in the West), the Fathers well knew that the body plays an important role in prayer since man is not just spirit, but body AND spirit. Yet the Christian does not have "methods" for prayer as Eastern religions do since it is the Holy Spirit that prays within; rather the body reflects the spiritual realities in prayer. We are then given a list of a number of practices as well as their rich theological meaning. One also learns some practical methods for dealing with demons.

I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone trying to discover what it means to truly be a Christian, to truly pray as a Christian. It has opened up my eyes to many things which I had previously overlooked. I only regret that I had not heard of Fr. Gabriel before and that it had to be an Eastern Orthodox mentioning him. Not that I have anything against the EO, much to the contrary, but that he should be ignored by his fellow Roman Catholics is quite strange. God bless Fr. Bunge as well as all those that help to bring us pack to our Patristic heritage.

Read the original review (here) at Amazon.

Photo with short bio and book description at Ignatius Insight (here)

3,500,000 Visit Jasna Gora In 2009

2010-03-11T23:31:00.001-05:00

Fr Ignacy Rekawek, custodian of the Jasna Gora Shrine and Fr Stanislaw Tomon, Jasna Gora Press Office.
– About 3,500,000 pilgrims came to the Jasna Gora Shrine in the year 2009. – 167 national pilgrimages gathered 867,298 people. The biggest pilgrimages were: Radio Maryja Family, Renewal in the Holy Spirit, Farmers, Workers, Motorcyclists, Family of the John Paul II Schools, Anonymous Alcoholics, Children’s Yard Rosary Circles, Electricians, Married Couples and Families, Teachers, Legion of Mary, Postmen, Catholic Action, Railwaymen, Secular Franciscan Order and Amazon Women (breast cancer survivals).
– There were 252 walking pilgrimages, embracing 142,316 people.
– There came 156 cardinals, archbishops and bishops from 15 countries: Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Germany, the Vatican, the Republic of Congo and Gabon, Brazil, Belarus, Croatia, the Republic of South Africa, France, Mexico, Slovakia and the United States. The visitors included Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Paul Poupard, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the Pontifical Council for Culture, Archbishop Jan Pawlowski, the new Nuncio to the Republic of Congo and Gabon; Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, the President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
– Pilgrims and tourists from 83 countries visited the Shrine. The Jasna Gora Information Centre provided guided tours in 10 languages. 2,742 international groups, embracing 65,741 people, used the guide services.
– Priests celebrated 61,544 Masses. They delivered 5,930 sermons, homilies and Jasna Gora Appeals. 1,866,000 consecrated hosts were ministered. Confessors devoted 35,300 hours to pilgrims, serving them in confessional booths through the sacrament of reconciliation. 88 couples got married, 62 people were baptised. Various prayer groups held 220 vigils of prayer. There were 14 congresses and scientific-pastoral symposia. 21 series of retreats were conducted for various organised groups. And there were 27 musical concerts.
– 1,422 people looked for help in the Family Counselling Centre. 1,560 individual and group talks were given in the Psychological-Religious Counselling Centre. 2,375 people called the Jasna Gora Helpline. The Central Centre for Spiritual Adoption trained 680 animators. 32,000 people decided to join the Spiritual Adoption Programme. 75,000 people wrote their prayer intentions in the Book of the Jasna Gora Appeal.
– The Charity Centre at Jasna Gora provided financial and material help to 30,000 poor, homeless, unemployed and lonely people. 650 families, i.e. ca. 1,200 people, are under its continual care.
"Niedziela" 3/2010

Fr. Dwight Longenecker's New Book "The Gargoyle Code"

2010-02-14T09:13:00.004-05:00

The Gargoyle Code

Not since the Screwtape Letters has there been such a devastatingly diabolical collection of correspondence. Master Tempter Slubgrip writes daily to trainee tempter devil Dogwart, advising him on the temptation of a confused young Catholic, while he struggles to control his own 'patient', an older man who is facing a serious illness. Meanwhile, Slupgrip has to watch his back, ieep control of various under devils who are plotting to take control of his territory and send him to the banqueting house of his Father below.

The Gargoyle Code makes for un-put-downable reading at any time, but it is especially designed as a book to be read during Lent. The letters from the tempters begin on Shrove Tuesday and follow day by day, taking the reader on an entertaining enlightening and sobering journey to Easter Day.

Link (here) to purchase.

The Curt Jester has a nice review on the book (here)

An excerpt.

The original Screwtape Letters were brilliant and I think Fr. Longenecker has pulled off equal brilliance. Having a specifically Catholic context really improves the concept and offers excellent spiritual advice at the same time.

A Love Letter From Your Father

2010-01-19T19:22:00.001-05:00

My Child, you may not know me well…

But I know everything about you.

Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up.

Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways.

Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.

Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image.

Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.

Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring.

Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived.

Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation.

Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake,

for all your days are written in my book.

Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth

and where you would live.

Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born.

Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented

by those who don’t know me.

John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry,

but am the complete expression of love.

1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.

1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child

and I am your Father.

1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.

Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father.

Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.

James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.

Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love.

Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless

as the sand on the seashore.

Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you.

Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession.

Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you

with all my heart and all my soul.

Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.

Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart,

you will find me.

Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you

the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires.

Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you

than you could possibly imagine.

Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you

in all your troubles.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted,

I am close to you.

Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb,

I have carried you close to my heart.

Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away

every tear from your eyes.

Revelation 21:3-4

And I’ll take away all the pain

you have suffered on this earth.

Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you

even as I love my son, Jesus.

John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.

John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being.

Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you,

not against you.

Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His suffering and death was the ultimate

expression of my love for you.

1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved

that I might gain your love.

Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,

you receive me.

1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you

from my love.

Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party

heaven has ever seen.

Luke 15:7

I have always been Father,

and will always be Father.

Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…Will you be my child?

John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you.

Luke 15:11-32

Politics, Morality and a President: An American View

2009-10-08T21:52:00.004-04:00

by Charles J. Chaput

One of the strengths of the Church is her global perspective. In that light, Cardinal Georges Cottier’s recent essay on President Barack Obama ("Politics, morality and original sin," 30 Days No. 5, 2009) made a valuable contribution to Catholic discussion of the new American president. Our faith connects us across borders. What happens in one nation may have an impact on many others. World opinion about America’s leaders is not only appropriate; it should be welcomed.

And yet, the world does not live and vote in the United States. Americans do. The pastoral realities of any country are best known by the local bishops who shepherd their people. Thus, on the subject of America’s leaders, the thoughts of an American bishop may have some value. They may augment the Cardinal’s good views by offering a different perspective.

Note that I speak here only for myself. I do not speak for the bishops of the United States as a body, nor for any other individual bishop. Nor will I address President Obama’s speech to the Islamic world, which Cardinal Cottier mentions in his own essay. That would require a separate discussion.

I will focus instead on the President’s graduation appearance at the University of Notre Dame, and Cardinal Cottier’s comments on the President’s thinking. I have two motives in doing so.

First, men and women from my own diocese belong to the national Notre Dame community as students, graduates and parents. Every bishop has a stake in the faith of the people in his care, and Notre Dame has never merely been a local Catholic university. It is an icon of the American Catholic experience.

Second, when Notre Dame's local bishop vigorously disagrees with the appearance of any speaker, and some 80 other bishops and 300,000 laypeople around the country publicly support the local bishop, then reasonable people must infer that a real problem exists with the speaker – or at least with his appearance at the disputed event. Reasonable people might further choose to defer to the judgment of those Catholic pastors closest to the controversy.

Regrettably and unintentionally, Cardinal Cottier’s articulate essay undervalues the gravity of what happened at Notre Dame. It also overvalues the consonance of President Obama’s thinking with Catholic teaching.

There are several key points to remember here.

First, resistance to President Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame had nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad man. He is obviously a gifted man. He has many good moral and political instincts, and an admirable devotion to his family. These things matter. But unfortunately, so does this: The President’s views on vital bioethical issues, including but not limited to abortion, differ sharply from Catholic teaching. This is why he has enjoyed the strong support of major "abortion rights" groups for many years. Much is made, in some religious circles, of the President’s sympathy for Catholic social teaching. But defense of the unborn child is a demand of social justice. There is no "social justice" if the youngest and weakest among us can be legally killed. Good programs for the poor are vital, but they can never excuse this fundamental violation of human rights.

Second, at a different moment and under different circumstances, the conflict at Notre Dame might have faded away if the university had simply asked the President to give a lecture or public address. But at a time when the American bishops as a body had already voiced strong concern about the new administration’s abortion policies, Notre Dame not only made the President the centerpiece of its graduation events, but also granted him an honorary doctorate of laws – this, despite his deeply troubling views on abortion law and related social issues.

The real source of Catholic frustration with President Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame was his overt, negative public voting and speaking record on abortion and other problematic issues. By its actions, Notre Dame ignored and violated the guidance of America’s bishops in their 2004 document, "Catholics in Political Life." In that text, the bishops urged Catholic institutions to refrain from honoring public officials who disagreed with Church teaching on grave matters.

Thus, the fierce debate in American Catholic circles this spring over the Notre Dame honor for Mr. Obama was not finally about partisan politics. It was about serious issues of Catholic belief, identity and witness – triggered by Mr. Obama’s views – which Cardinal Cottier, writing from outside the American context, may have misunderstood.

Third, the Cardinal wisely notes points of contact between President Obama’s frequently stated search for political "common ground" and the Catholic emphasis on pursuing the "common good." These goals – seeking common ground and pursuing the common good – can often coincide. But they are not the same thing. They can sharply diverge in practice. So-called “common ground” abortion policies may actually attack the common good because they imply a false unity; they create a ledge of shared public agreement too narrow and too weak to sustain the weight of a real moral consensus. The common good is never served by tolerance for killing the weak – beginning with the unborn.

Fourth, Cardinal Cottier rightly reminds his readers of the mutual respect and cooperative spirit required by citizenship in a pluralist democracy. But pluralism is never an end in itself. It is never an excuse for inaction. As President Obama himself acknowledged at Notre Dame, democracy depends for its health on people of conviction fighting hard in the public square for what they believe – peacefully, legally but vigorously and without apologies.

Unfortunately, the President also added the curious remark that "... the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt... This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us." In a sense, of course, this is true: On this side of eternity, doubt is part of the human predicament. But doubt is the absence of something; it is not a positive value. Insofar as it inoculates believers from acting on the demands of faith, doubt is a fatal weakness.

The habit of doubt fits much too comfortably with a kind of "baptized unbelief;" a Christianity that is little more than a vague tribal loyalty and a convenient spiritual vocabulary. Too often in recent American experience, pluralism and doubt have become alibis for Catholic moral and political lethargy. Perhaps Europe is different. But I would suggest that our current historical moment – which both European and American Catholics share – is very far from the social circumstances facing the early Christian legislators mentioned by the Cardinal. They had faith, and they also had the zeal – tempered by patience and intelligence – to incarnate the moral content of their faith explicitly in culture. In other words, they were building a civilization shaped by Christian belief. Something very different is happening now.

Cardinal Cottier’s essay gives witness to his own generous spirit. I was struck in particular by his praise for President Obama’s "humble realism." I hope he's right. American Catholics want him to be right. Humility and realism are the soil where a commonsense, modest, human-scaled and moral politics can grow. Whether President Obama can provide this kind of leadership remains to be seen. We have a duty to pray for him – so that he can, and does.

Link (here)

Orlando Shrine Becomes A Basilica

2009-08-21T21:25:00.004-04:00

By MIKE SCHNEIDER (AP)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Even though Mary Jo Smith and her husband had just arrived in Orlando to start their vacation late the night before, they still showed up for noon Mass at the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe before hitting the theme parks with their five children.

"You've got to start the day with God," said Smith, 43, of Manassas, Va.

The Smiths are ideal visitors for the 2,000-seat shrine, home of a ministry that began in the trunk of a car in the 1970s and is aimed at the millions of tourists who visit central Florida every year for attractions like Walt Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios.

Pope Benedict XVI recently designated the church a minor basilica, one of only 63 in the United States, and the church planned a celebration Saturday to commemorate the honor.

Becoming a minor basilica is "kind of like a stamp of approval" for the church, said the Rev. Ed McCarthy, the basilica's rector. "This is an affirmation by the Church that ministry to people who are traveling, tourists, is an important thing."

A major basilica is a term assigned to only the most important churches in Catholicism, currently eight, most of which are in Rome. Minor basilicas are more numerous and geographically diverse, and they're given the distinction for their historic significance, architectural beauty or ministerial uniqueness. In their respective cities, they sit atop the pecking order of churches, and are given certain ritualistic privileges.

Located next to a high-end outlet mall about 1 1/2 miles from the entrance to Walt Disney World, the red-tiled, triangular, stucco edifice built 16 years ago rises off Interstate 4, framed on either side by one-story buildings, a separate bell tower and a tranquil garden.

"If the pope ever comes to central Florida, he would feel at home in this particular church," Bishop Thomas Wenski said.

It's a different pace from a typical parish church for the three priests who serve the shrine. There are no baptisms, weddings or funerals to perform. Familiar faces at the Mass are rare because 95 percent of attendees are tourists. Relationships built up from years of regular contact with families in the parish don't exist. The shrine relies on tourists for donations to support its $1.5 million operating budget.

One of the attractions for priests is ministering to an audience from all over the world, even if they only attend Mass a few days during vacation. Several thousand visitors a week attend Masses, which are held twice daily during the week and five times over the weekend. Confession is held seven days a week.

"In a home parish, I see a family on Sunday and that family may have children, so they'll be celebrating first communion, first confession, confirmation," McCarthy said. "Here, you have one shot at helping people feel at home."

At a recent weekday noon Mass, the Rev. Thomas Kenney did just that with a warm smile and a reassuring Irish voice. About 50 worshippers packed into a small side chapel dominated by a dark blue stained-glass window flecked with white to resemble a night sky filled with stars. The priest left the worshippers with a serious message to think about on their vacations.

"We're living in very materialistic times, where people are not measured by who they are but what they have," Kenney intoned.

Not all the parishioners at the Mass were tourists. Some like 67-year-old Richard Janetka, a Disney resort worker, pray at the shrine because it's close to work.

"It's very peaceful," said Janetka, who attended a noon Mass with his wife, Ellen.

The ministry for tourists started in 1975, just four years after Disney World opened, when several Masses a day were organized for visitors at nearby hotels. The driving force was Monsignor Joseph Harte, who led the ministry from the trunk of his car, carrying Mass vestments from hotel to hotel. Harte, who became director of the Orlando diocese's tourism ministry, realized that makeshift hotel Masses wouldn't be able to accommodate the growing number of tourists coming to the area.

The diocese eventually purchased 17 acres off I-4, where high-rise hotels and restaurants catering to tourists eventually would sprout up like kudzu, and ground was broken in 1984. The main church wasn't built until 1993. An accidental wrong turn into the shrine's parking lot lands one in the parking lot of a Nike outlet store, and vice versa.

But that's OK if non-Catholics accidentally stumble onto the church's grounds: One of the ministry's goals is evangelization.

"It probably gives non-Catholics an opportunity to experience Catholic worship that they might be more hesitant to pursue in their hometowns," Wenski said.

On the Net:

Mary, Queen of the Universe: http://www.maryqueenoftheuniverse.org/

The Smile

2009-08-11T15:48:00.001-04:00

Irena Sendler

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

2009-07-17T07:50:00.001-04:00

Pope Benedict XVI broke his right wrist in a fall during his vacation in the Italian Alps, officials and the Vatican said Friday. A hospital spokesman confirmed the pope was undergoing surgery to reduce the fracture. Link (here) to the full story

Communists Are Fundamentally At Odds With Catholicism

2009-07-17T07:40:00.004-04:00

HUE, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province say they have tried their best to follow Church teaching on the use of artificial birth control methods in the face of the government's two-child policy.

Children celebrating an autumn festival in Vietnam. Catholics
have opposed the government’s two-child policy. -- UCAN photo

Huong Toan villagers, just like Vietnamese elsewhere in the country, are required to have no more than two children per family since 1994, when village authorities launched a nationwide family planning program. Families with more than two children have to pay rice to the government as a fine.

Many local Catholics say they have done their best to remain true to Church teaching but some have had to resort to using contraceptives later on as they could not afford the hefty fines.

Catherine Pham Thi Thanh, 44, said that since 1996, she has been fined a total of 3,800 kilograms of rice for having six children.

Thanh, who produces rice alcohol and raises pigs to support her family, said she was fined 300 kilograms for her third child, 600 kilograms for the fourth, 900 kilograms for the fifth and 2,000 kilograms of rice for the sixth. Her children range from two to 15 years.

She pointed out that her family makes an annual profit of only 700 kilograms of rice from their 1,000 square-meter farmland the local government grants them.

Thanh said that in 2007, she decided to use an intrauterine device to save her family from having to pay 3,800 kilograms of rice if she were to have a seventh child.

Thanh, who has studied only until the first grade, said she knows about natural family planning methods accepted by the Church, but is unable to practice them.

She recalled that in 2005, local village authorities confiscated the possessions of a family who could not afford to pay the fine for having more than two children.

Another villager, Anna Pham Thi The, 50, said she has seven daughters aged 2-29 years. The, who produces rice alcohol and raises pigs, said she is willing to be fined for having more children because her husband wants a son.

According to sources, local people who have two children have been asked to use artificial contraceptive or undergo vasectomies free of charge.

Father Joseph Nguyen Van Chanh, Huong Toan parish priest, said 90 percent of his 1,200 parishioners have agreed to pay fines as a way to be faithful to Church teaching. Local Catholics are taught natural family planning methods during marriage preparation courses, he noted.

Some local Catholics said Father Chanh is asking for donations from benefactors to support local people with large families. Huong Toan village has about 14,000 people.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "'every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible' is intrinsically evil."

Meanwhile, local state media reported that Pham Ngoc Minh, executive director of Vietnam Airlines, was chided by the prime minister recently for having a third child.

Vietnam, with a population close to 86 million, has an annual increase of 1.12 million people, according to media.

Link (here)

Southern Catholic College Has New Leadership

2009-07-16T21:51:00.002-04:00

ATLANTA (July 16) – The Legion of Christ and Southern Catholic College (SCC) have now officially agreed to make the college a Legion institution.

“This is a great step for Southern Catholic and, we hope, for Catholic higher education in North America,” said Jeremiah J. Ashcroft, president of SCC. “With the Legion’s experience and leadership, we’ll be able to attract students from across North America and develop programs with institutions around the world. This expanded reach and support greatly enhances our ability to achieve our mission to prepare moral and ethical leaders who will enlighten society and glorify God.”

“We want to build on the great reputation SCC has established,” said Father Scott Reilly, LC, territorial director for the Legion. “There will be considerable sharing of best practices with our existing institutions. I expect that SCC will experience significant growth in the years ahead, as we can expand the availability of Catholic higher education to students from across North America.”

Southern Catholic College is a co-educational liberal arts college, Georgia’s first and only residential Catholic college. The school provides a learning environment for academic excellence grounded in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition. SCC was founded in 2000 and has more than 200 students from 25 states on its campus in Dawsonville, GA, an hour north of Atlanta.

The Legion of Christ currently operates 15 universities, 50 institutes of higher education and 176 schools. It is present in 22 countries, with 800 priests and over 2600 seminarians worldwide.

For more information about Southern Catholic College, visit the web site at www.southerncatholic.org.

Congratulations! You Have Just Been Excommincated

2009-04-28T17:29:00.001-04:00

Excommunicated Woman Deacon

Michelle Chava-Redonnet, author and hospital Chaplin won the 2006 Women's Ordination Conference Bishop Murphy Scholarship. This past weekend she was ordained a woman priest in the Woman Priests she was promptly reminded of her excommunication by Cardinal Justin Rigali.

More links (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Some Background

According to the Spring 2008 newsletter of the Rochester, NY, Catholic Worker House, a woman named Chava Redonnet is preparing to exercise her ministry at the Rochester Catholic Worker as a “priest” once she is “ordained”. Many of the leaders of this Rochester house who are good people, have unfortunately been led away from the Catholic Church by Fr. James Callan’s breakaway (here) Spiritus Christi Church (here) here in Rochester. It looks like a trend, unfortunately.

Link (here)

We Are At War

2009-04-22T22:22:00.002-04:00

by Bishop Robert W. Finn

Dear friends,

Thank you for coming together for this second annual Gospel of Life Convention, co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. It is a privilege to welcome you and greet you this morning. I am grateful for the encouragement of your presence and – as a Bishop it is my solemn and joyful duty to do all I can to fortify you in your own faith.

But as I speak a word of encouragement today I also want to tell you soberly, dear friends, “We are at war!”

We are at war.
Harsh as this may sound it is true – but it is not new. This war to which I refer did not begin in just the last several months, although new battles are underway – and they bring an intensity and urgency to our efforts that may rival any time in the past.

But it is correct to acknowledge that you and I are warriors - members of the Church on earth – often called the Church Militant. Those who have gone ahead of us have already completed their earthly battles. Some make up the Church Triumphant – Saints in heaven who surround and support us still – tremendous allies in the battle for our eternal salvation; and the Church Suffering (souls in purgatory who depend on our prayers and meritorious works and suffrages).

But we are the Church on Earth – The Church Militant. We are engaged in a constant warfare with Satan, with the glamour of evil, and the lure of false truths and empty promises. If we fail to realize how constantly these forces work against us, we are more likely to fall, and even chance forfeiting God’s gift of eternal life.

The ultimate promise of the Gospel.
Before I go any further I must proclaim a most important truth – a truth that we have just been celebrating throughout the last week: Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and Resurrection, has already won the war: definitively and once for all. He has conquered sin and death and has won the prize of life on high in heaven forever. We know the final outcome, but the battle for eternal life is now played out in each human heart with a free will to love or not, to be faithful or to walk away from the life which has been offered as God’s most wonderful gift.

Every day the choice is before us: right or wrong; good or bad; the blessing or the curse; life or death. Our whole life must be oriented toward choosing right, the good, the blessing; choosing life.

If you and I fail to realize the meaning and finality behind our choices, and the intensity of the constant warfare that confronts us, it is likely that we will drop our guard, be easily and repeatedly deceived, and even loose the life of our eternal soul.

As bishop I have a weighty responsibility to tell you this over and over again. This obligation is not always easy, and constantly I am tempted to say and do less, rather than more. Almost everyday I am confronted with the persuasion of other people who want me to be silent. But – with God’s grace – you and I will not be silent.

This work of speaking about the spiritual challenges before us is not just the responsibility of the Bishop. I am not the only one entrusted with the work of faith, hope and charity. You are baptized into this Church militant. You are also entrusted with the mission of righteousness. You have the fortification of the sacraments, and the mandate to love as Jesus loved you. You share in the apostolic mission and work of the Church.

What can we say about this constant warfare?
Our battle is ultimately a spiritual battle for the eternal salvation of souls – our own and those of other people. We are not engaged in physical battles in the same way military soldiers defend with material weapons. We need not – we must not – initiate violence against other persons to accomplish something good, even something as significant as the protection of human life.

But it is true that we might have to endure physical suffering to prosper the victory of Jesus Christ. He carried the Cross. He promised us that – if we were to follow Him – we also would share the Cross. We must not expect anything less. When you stand up for what is right – you will be opposed. The temptation will be to avoid these attacks. But through our responses we must see what kind of soldiers we are.

Who is our enemy in this battle of the Church Militant?
Our enemy is the deceiver, the liar, Satan. Because of his spiritual powers he can turn the minds and hearts of men. He is our spiritual or supernatural enemy when he works to tempt us, and he becomes a kind of natural enemy as he works in the hearts of other people to twist and confound God’s will. In our human experience people deceived by Satan’s distortions and lies may appear as our “human enemies.”

But, in his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul makes, for us, a very important distinction. “Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power,” He tells them and us. “Put on the armor of God, in order that you can stand firm against the tactics of the devil.” “For, our struggle,” St. Paul tells us, “is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the rulers of this darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Eph 6:10-12).

So let’s be clear: Human beings are not Satan, but certainly they can come under his power, even without their fully realizing it. When we, in our sinfulness, put something in the place of God: pleasure and convenience; material success; political power and prestige, we open a door for the principalities and contrary spirits who war against God. They want you and me for their prize. When we forsake God and outwardly reject His law and what we know to be His will, we make an easy victory for our supernatural enemies. We fall right into their hands.

But what about the so-called human enemies?
What about the persons who wish to establish a path of living which contravenes God’s law: promoting abortion; unnatural substitutes for marriage, and all such distortions of true freedom? Here Jesus is clear: “But I say to you, love your enemies: and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matt 5:44)

We cannot hate these human enemies, and we must find a way to love them. But we need not show them any sign of agreement. We pray for them. We do not lie to them – and we seek that which pertains to their conversion – not to their worldly comforts, but to their eternal salvation. To ignore their destructive errors, particularly those that cost the lives of others, is to shirk our responsibility to attend to their eternal salvation.

There are people who make themselves the public enemies of the Church. They openly attack belief in Christ, or the Church’s right to exist. Quite honestly such groups or individuals are less prevalent than they might have been in prior moments of history. In some ways they are not the most dangerous opponents in our spiritual warfare, because they show themselves and their intentions more forthrightly.

The more dangerous “human enemies” in our battle are those, who in this age of pluralism and political propriety seek ways to convince us of their sincerity and good will. With malice or with ignorance, or perhaps with an intention of advancing some other personal goal, they are willing to undermine and push aside the values and the institutions that stand in their way. They may propose “tolerance” and seem to have a “live and let live” approach to all human choices – even if the choice is not to “let live,” but actually to “let die,” or “let life be destroyed.” These more subtle enemies are of all backgrounds. They may be atheists or agnostics, or of any religion, including Christian or Catholic.

This dissension in our own ranks should not surprise us because we all experience some dissension against God’s law of love within our own heart. But the “battle between believers,” who claim a certain “common ground” with us, while at the same time, they attack the most fundamental tenets of the Church’s teachings, or disavow the natural law – this opposition is one of the most discouraging, confusing, and dangerous.

In my first U.S. Bishops’ Conference meeting – June of 2004 – the bishops passed what seemed to me to be a compromise statement as a result of our lengthy debate on politicians and Communion. There we stated that pro-choice leaders (and specifically, Catholic leaders were mentioned) should not be given public platforms or honors. As we all know the eminent American Catholic University, Notre Dame, is poised to bestow such an opportunity and honor on President Obama, who is, of course, not Catholic. But it doesn’t take another Bishops’ Conference statement to know this is wrong: scandalous, discouraging and confusing to many Catholics.

God knows what all motivates such a decision. I suspect that, since Notre Dame will need a scapegoat for this debacle, and Fr. Jenkins will probably lose his job, at this point perhaps he ought to determine to lose it for doing something right instead of something wrong. He ought to disinvite the President, who I believe would graciously accept the decision. Notre Dame, instead, ought to give the honorary degree to Bishop John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who has supported and tried to guide the University, despite their too frequent waywardness, faithfully for 25 years.

In my remaining time this morning I want to talk principally about three things: 1) I want to comment briefly on some of the particular battles we face in the cause of the protection of the life of human beings. 2) I want to reflect on some of the costs of doing battle; and 3) I will suggest some ways we can fortify ourselves to go forth in this mission.

First – the battle for Human Life.
The battle we face for the salvation of our souls is the most important one we face – bar none. Where I spend all eternity; where you spend eternity – in bliss or in damnation – is important beyond any individual choice I make. But the individual human choices I make – even one grave choice in which we remain unrepentant – can determine the direction of my salvation.

To deliberately destroy a human person, and without any justification of self-defense, is to preempt without an equal and sufficient cause, the right to life bestowed by God alone. Life is a gift which we have from God, not from man. This right cannot be taken away by means of a human law. It ought to be protected and assured by human law.

The constant magnitude of this crime against humanity is staggering. We must never get used to it. In the United States there are 4000 abortions every day. Compare that to the tragedy of September 11, or to any other war, or even to the genocidal Holocaust of six million Jews and many others under the Nazi regime.

The count of abortions over the 36 years, since its legalization in January, 1973, is beyond 50 million human lives. These are just the reported abortions. There are more. There are many, many more worldwide. But keep reflecting on 4000 killings a day of innocent babies. Recently someone told me the number of abortions had gone down. I don’t believe it, but if you wish, you can think of 3500 killings a day or even 3000 per day.

Thousands of human lives every day: If we keep saying this – first of all – some people will get very upset with us. They will want us to stop. They may quote other statistics about the tragedies of poverty and war. We must truly share their horror at these things too. However, in the end the measure of our society is in how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst. The unifying thread is “the value of human life and the dignity of the human person.”

4000 abortions each day in the United States. This is the tally of the enemy. Are we in a war? Absolutely. Are we winning? Are we even battling to win? Or do we consider this someone else’s war?

We can hardly know how many human embryos have been destroyed in pursuing in vitro fertilization, and other experimentation, or through abortifacient contraceptives. Our President has just signed a law providing government funding – your tax money and mine – for the funding of these human embryonic stem cell experiments. Are we at war? Absolutely. Are we winning? Missouri lost a valiant battle to constitutionally outlaw human cloning and human embryonic stem cell research. We haven’t given up, but it requires a constant effort. We won many people over through good instruction in the truth. We were outspent 30 to 1.

Assisted Suicide is now legal in Oregon and Washington State. There are more efforts underway and polls, sadly, show a steady decline in the numbers of people opposing such referenda. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that matters concerning the regulation of medicine and other health issues are up to the states. Several state supreme courts have already ruled that assisted suicide would not be unconstitutional. Are we at war? Absolutely. Are we winning? Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that people are losing their sense of the moral evil of assisted suicide. But we cannot give up.

The fight for life is a constant warfare. Those who vied for the leadership of our country last November offered Americans a clear choice in this regard. The President is keeping his promises – one by one. We are getting what we chose. Is the war over? Never. Is the battle over? We must not give up. Remember: we already know the final outcome. The battle now is about our readiness to remain faithful – our readiness to suffer while we peacefully, legally, and prayerfully seek the victory of life.

We must defend life, but also build.
In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, on the Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II said that we must oppose the culture of death, and he said we must construct a civilization of life and love. So, we must defend the right to life, but even beyond that we must take action for the promotion of what is good. We must build a civilization that proclaims the Gospel of Life.

Occasionally we still hear an elected official speak of his or her personal opposition to abortion, while they support the legal right to an abortion. We should be very clear: Such a person places him or herself completely OUTSIDE the moral framework, the moral imperative of Evangelium Vitae and other Church teaching on these issues. They are NEITHER defending human life against the forces of death, NOR or they taking steps to build a culture of life. They have abandoned their place in the citizenship of the Church. Quite simply they have become warriors for death rather than life.

Such a person who makes a public stand – and acts directly – in defense of the right to kill - endangers their eternal salvation. If you and I support such a person who has so flatly told us of their intentions to protect a fraudulent Right to Death, a Right to an Abortion, we make ourselves participants in their attack on life. We risk our salvation, and we better change. Why? – because Bishop Finn is going to condemn you? No, I must say what the Church says, but I will not finally judge any human soul.

I know Catholics in our country are looking to their bishops for leadership in this. Four out of five letters I receive on these issues urges me to do more, not less. I was not able to attend the installation of Archbishop Timothy Dolan in New York this week, but I watched part of the Mass on EWTN. I heard the homily and saw how well the new Archbishop was received. But there was one place in the homily that was particularly dramatic. When Archbishop Dolan mentioned the defense of human life, all St. Patrick Cathedral thundered with spontaneous applause and rose to its feet. At no other spot in the homily did any such thing happen.

Please note: This is NOT partisan politics on the part of bishops or their flock. This is zeal for life, pure and powerful. This is care for truth, and attention to the salvation of souls. It cannot and must not be neglected, even if it means we might get scolded at times by those who want us to speak less. We bishops should note it carefully – how our people are starving for more leadership – more unanimity – more courage in this regard.

Every believer is called to be a warrior for righteousness – a soldier in support of human life. Are we at War? It is clear we are, and we will each stand before Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life.

Dr. Scott Hahn makes an interesting observation about a well known passage from Matthew’s Gospel. St. Peter is entrusted with the leadership of the Church; he is handed the “keys” to the Kingdom. “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18). Hahn points out that it is not just the work of the Church to hold strong against the powers of hell. Rather: in the battle, the Church must beat upon the gates of hell. We must not give up until those sorry gates fall off their hinges and the victory of Jesus Christ is made full and complete and final. Bishops are called to teach, lead and sanctify. These are not defensive postures – but elements of a powerful offensive designed to promote and extend the Kingdom of God.

It is not enough for us to defend against the assaults of Satan. It is not enough for us even to defend innocent human life. Of course, if we fail to do this, we fail in our most urgent task. But by good deeds of love and charity, we must build this active culture of life that is ready and capable of turning back hell itself. If we won’t put the abortionist out of business we are pitiable souls. If we don’t enact laws and work tirelessly to change human hearts so that life is forever reverenced and protected, we have not fought the good fight which is our charge as the Church Militant. As warriors we must first beat back the enemy. But then let us not forget that we are warriors for the victory of life!

How do we arm ourselves for what is first and foremost a supernatural war?
First: Unless we are living in God’s life we should not go near this battle. I don’t care if you are the strongest and most brilliant and clever person on the planet. The devil – as he has shown over and over again – will turn you inside out. If you are not fortified by the sacraments – frequent confession and worthy Holy Communion – you cannot succeed in an ultimately supernatural battle. We must live – no longer ourselves – but Christ in us. Be always in the state of grace.

Pray. Be a prayer warrior. One modern day saint said when you are going out to try to change someone’s heart determine to make your effort 80 % prayer and 20% words or actions. Prayer defeats the devil. Prayer aligns us with Christ. Pray for the abortionist. Pray for the legislator. Pray for the mother (and father and other family members). Pray for the child in the womb. Pray for yourself and allow God to guide you. Pray that you will be a warrior of faithfulness and love and mercy. Remember that God often chooses the foolish to shame those who are clever.

Use the symbols and instruments of our devotion. Arm yourself with the rosary. Protect yourself with the scapular or a blessed medal. Ask for a blessing as a sign of unity in the Church in what we do: unity with the Holy Father, with your bishop, with your pastor. What I am supposed to do as bishop (teach and lead, and sanctify) I must, in turn, delegate in proper measure to my pastors. They, in turn, need you as soldiers.

Don’t worry very much about numbers. If you read the accounts of the Old Testament battles, over and over again God used a tiny misfit army to overthrow a legion 1000 times its size. In this way it is so much clearer that God is fighting the battle. We are only His instruments.

What will happen to us if we take up this war in faithfulness?
Do you really want to know? You will be hated by some powerful people. You may be rejected by those whose approval you most desire. You will be loved and supported by some and this will be a wonderful encouragement. You will be misunderstood by many – and this can be very painful. After you have suffered a little in your battle, some will tell you that you have done nothing – or that you have done it the wrong way.

Yes, if you push – others will “push back.” We should always be very careful to obey the law. But, regardless, some will threaten you with legal action, and law suits cost money and you may suffer that difficult hardship. In the end, dear friends, if we err let it be on the side of life. Life! 4000 human lives a day!

What if I suffer greatly trying to change this tragic trajectory – through prayerful, legal, peaceful means? It is in God’s hands, and you and I are warriors for the victory of life. The stakes in terms of human life are high. The stakes in terms of human souls are even higher.

A final word
There is much more we might say, and I know that today’s many presentations will be of great value to you all. Years ago I first heard Dr. Janet Smith teach so eloquently about the dangers of contraception: to our souls, on marriages, on our culture, as a preamble to abortion and as a degrading stain on human love. I am so pleased she has joined us to teach this truth so much at the foundation of the sad culture of discarded life and love.

I wish to thank Adrienne Doring and Ron Kelsey who, with much assistance from so many of you, coordinated this event. To my brother and co-worker Archbishop Joseph Naumann, whose leadership in pro-life is so well known throughout our country, I express my thanks and admiration.

May the Peace of the Risen Lord Jesus – the glory of His Easter triumph– the hope and promise of undying love and the power of Life sustain you all in your high calling as Warriors for the Victory of life.

Vatican Plans To Investigate US Catholic Nuns

2009-04-17T23:12:00.001-04:00

Vatican probes nuns over church teaching

Thu, 16 Apr 2009

Vatican plans to investigate US Catholic nuns to ensure they are promoting Church teachings on homosexuality and the all-male priesthood.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) said it was informed of the "doctrinal assessment" in a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog. The Vatican launches the probe saying the sisters have not addressed matters of concern -- homosexuality, salvation and the priesthood, which the Vatican says is reserved for men.

Vatican officials have asked the American sisters to "report on the initiatives taken or planned" to promote the church's teachings on the exclusively male character of the priesthood, the primacy of the Catholic Church over other Christian denominations, and the "problem of homosexuality." The doctrinal investigation comes three months after another Vatican-ordered study of "the quality of life" in 400 women's religious congregations in the US.

That study was prompted by the dramatic decline in the number of American women entering religious orders over the past several decades. Between 1945 and 2000, the number of religious sisters in the US dropped 54 percent, from 122,159 to 79,876, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. That number has continued to drop since 2000.

Link (here)

Pro Abortion Vs. Pro Life

2009-04-14T21:43:00.001-04:00

The Chicago-based Thomas More Society filed civil Hate Crime charges in an Amended Complaint against an abortion clinic proprietor and ally in federal district court in Rockford, Illinois as part of an ongoing court battle.

Rockford resident Keith A. Sterkeson physically threatened and then attacked Eric Nelson and Kevin Rilott while calling Nelson, “A ******, a ******. You are a worthless degenerate ******. Oh, you are a ******! You are a degenerate and empty skull, thinking Jesus is going to save you. You’re a ******. Your mother was a ******.”

View the video (here). CAUTION: The video should not be viewed by children and is offensive in the language that is used, so if you are easily shocked, please do not view the video.

Link (here)

St. Kolbe Radio: Radio Niepokalanow

2009-03-27T12:02:00.004-04:00

Radio good for dancing and praying

Artur Stelmasiak

Radio Niepokalanow celebrates its 70th anniversary. The radio, created by St Maximilian before the war, has numerous listeners today and a team of dedicated journalists who have continued the work of the holy Franciscan. Over 70 years ago (8 December 1938) St Maximilian Maria Kolbe uttered the first words on the air in a test programme. Thus Radio Niepokalanow (RN) became the first Catholic radio in Poland. Although the plans of the Franciscan broadcasting station were destroyed by the Second World War and then the long years of communism the idea of St Maximilian was restored successfully in independent Poland and nowadays the 70 year old radio experiences its second youth. ‘We are trying to make a radio that is good both for dancing and for praying. And I think we have succeeded’, says Fr Marek Wodka, deputy programme director of Radio Niepokalanow.

Live broadcast from the monastery

The inhabitants of the vicinity of Warsaw had to wait over 50 years to hear again the voice, ‘You are listening to Radio Niepokalanow, 102.7 FM’. ‘However, many things have changed since that time. The station has been granted a wider range and today it broadcasts between Lodz and Warsaw and Plock and Radom and in the city of Lodz on 98.6FM’, Katarzyna Bodych, programme director of the Radio informs. ‘But this is not the end. In the near future we want to be heard in central Poland and to the south of Lodz towards Czestochowa’, she adds. The Radio has been strongly promoting its on-line version www.radioniepokalanow.pl, thanks to which the radio can be heard all over the world. The new web page and a system of film cameras in the Niepokalanow monastery are almost completed. ‘Thanks to that one can watch what is going on in the radio studio, the basilica or the monastery. Of course, with the exception of the enclosure’, says Izabela Andryszczyk from the RN promotion office. Thus the radio wants to reach to the listeners and potential viewers who want to listen and see what is happening in Niepokalanow.

Not only prayer

The main studio is located in the so-called old western part of the monastery. ‘This building was erected before the war at the initiative of St Maximilian’, Katarzyna Bodych says. Currently, there are 24 people working in the radio. And in the opinion of its director they are the biggest success of the radio. ‘There is nobody that does not fit in with the team. These are really carefully matched people who enjoy working here’, Bodych thinks. The employees are also responsible for the unique atmosphere of the Franciscan radio. We have managed to create a very family, friendly atmosphere. And this atmosphere radiates on the radio waves. ‘Surely, our listeners like us for doing that’, stresses Fr Wodka.

You can experience the family atmosphere during a short visit to the radio studio. In the opinion of journalist Malwina Szymanska those who want to serve other people will find their way here. ‘Since if you want to do this job you should enjoy talking and meeting people. Every journalist should have a heart for people’, Szymanska says.

We look for good sensational news

The programme format is so prepared that everyone can find something for himself/herself. In the programme broadcast all day there is some time for prayer (e.g. daily Mass at 11.00 a.m., broadcast from the basilica) and for entertainment, journalism and good music. ‘Prayer and religious journalism will always be important elements of our programme but we want to meet other spheres of life. Man does not only live on prayer. And therefore, a Catholic radio should propose both reliable news and good entertainment’ Fr Wodka stresses.

An average listener to Radio Niepokalanow is at the age of 40-60. ‘We are glad that our listeners have been involved in social activities but on the other hand we try to win younger generation’, the Franciscan friar says. Therefore, the format has included more programmes for children and young people. One can find almost all radio forms in our offer. ‘We have not got only cabarets and radio plays’, the programme director explains. Journalists’ concern is to present good news from the region. ‘But we do not pick holes in the news. We do not want to kick anyone. We try to find positive sensational news, i.e. simply good news’, adds Izabela Andryszczyk.

Man is most important

Katarzyna Bodych says about herself that she is a local dinosaur. Since she has been working in the editorial board for long. She remembers very well the beginnings of the reactivated Radio Niepokalanow when she was proposed to work here in the middle 1990s. There have been various difficulties. The radio has tried to follow the technological novelties. ‘In the epoch of common computerisation things change so quickly that you do not even know what a modern radio should look like. There is even a certain temptation that like in other radio stations the work is done by computers instead of people. But we do not want that. It would be an insincere approach towards our listeners. Since people are most important to us, those who sit in the studio and those who listen to us in the solitude of their homes’, Katarzyna Bodych stresses.

Day in Radio Niepokalanow

6.30 -11 – Morning with Radio Niepokalanow, focused on national and regional news, press review and infotrafic (news for drivers). The programmes are interwoven with dynamic music.

Between 11 and 16 – Religious programmes. It begins with Mass broadcast from the basilica in Niepokalanow. There are also local self-government, cultural, religious-historical programmes and peaceful music.

Between 16 and 20 – Information-journalistic programmes; reports from the region of Mazowsze and from Lodz, Vatican Radio and cultural programmes.

20 – Evening programmes begin. Vatican Radio, the rosary prayed by the brothers from Niepokalanow, and after the Appeal of Jasna Gora there are various discussions and debates, live broadcast from the studio.

"Niedziela" 1/2009

Link (here)

Not A "Family Guy"

2009-03-26T13:16:00.001-04:00

Fox's 'Family Guy' goes too far; file a complaint with the FCC

File an official complaint with the FCC against the FOX network and your local FOX affiliate station.

March 25, 2009

Dear A Catholic Man reader,

On March 8, Fox network aired Family Guy, a perverted and sickening program, into the homes of millions of Americans. This episode was rated TV-14 DLSV by FOX, meaning that in the network's opinion it was appropriate for 14-year olds. It aired during prime-time.

The content of this program was so explicit that I can't even begin to describe it here.

Click here to watch these scenes or read our detailed review. WARNING: These scenes taken from the Fox program Family Guy are highly offensive.

Even more offensive is Fox's view of Christianity. At a "straight" meeting, the speaker talks to gays about Jesus and tells them, "He [Jesus] hates many people, but none more than homosexuals." Incidentally, Pepsico helped sponsor this program (BoycottPepsico.com.

You really cannot get the full effect of the show's portrayal of Christianity without watching the video or reading our review. You will hear the tone and sarcasm very clearly.

The FCC has a duty to enforce the law and fine Fox for this sickening violation of broadcast decency standards. In addition, your local FOX network affiliate did not have to air this episode. Obviously, they do not care about your local community standards.

Take Action!

Newt Gingrich: A Catholic Man

2009-03-08T14:09:00.004-04:00

Gingrich to Convert

By Tom McFeely

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

The news: The architect of the 1990s “Republican Revolution” plans to convert to Catholicism.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Times article:

“At a moment when the role of religious fundamentalism in the party is a central question for reformers, Newt Gingrich, rather than making any kind of case for a new enlightenment, has in fact gone to great lengths to placate Christian conservatives. The family-values crowd has never completely embraced Newt, probably because he has been married three times, most recently to a former Hill staff member, Callista Bisek. In 2006, though, Gingrich wrote a book called “Rediscovering God in America” — part of a new canon of work he has done reaffirming the role of religion in public life. The following year, he went on radio with the evangelical minister James Dobson to apologize for having been unfaithful to his second wife. A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich said he will soon convert to Catholicism, his wife’s faith.”

Update: This post has been updated with a photo, taken by Register Senior Writer Tim Drake, of Gingrich attending Pope Benedict XVI’s address last April at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Says Tim, “I recall wondering to myself at the time, ‘Is Newt Catholic, or is he converting, or is he simply interested in hearing the Pope?’”

Link (here)

Improve Yourself With

2009-03-02T07:51:00.000-05:00

Weekly Catechism Programs
Kindergarten through Adult Education

When it comes to the religious education, the spiritual formation, and the moral guidance of our Catholic Youth, CatechismClass.com set out to provide not just a digital road map, but a veritable itinerary for a cyberspace Journey to the Heavenly Father.

CatechismClass.com provides a trustworthy and highly integrated religious education program:

K through 12, Adult Education, RCIA

Lectionary driven

Catechism based

Authentic, orthodox Catholic

Fifty two weeks a year

Weekly online lessons

Comprehensive Catholic catechesis

CatechismClass.com also provides:

Built in accountability

Freedom to work at home

Constantly updated links

Student-centered material

Maximum flexibility for whole families and individual members

Most efficient and effective way to meet everyone’s Catholic responsibilities

A parent or pastor could accept participation in this program as fulfillment of their Canonical and conscientious responsibility for the (orthodox) Catholic rearing of young people.

Saint Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T21:44:00.003-05:00

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice.

Link (here) to the full article

Read about St. Valentine (here)

"Temple Police"

2009-02-13T07:58:00.003-05:00

He said the diocese was challenged by the ageing of its priests, most of whom would be eligible for retirement by 2014, leaving only six priests out of the full complement of 40.

The 65-year-old said the investigation had been going for two years, but a decision had not yet been made.

"The ultimate outcome is I'd be sacked and have to stand down,"

he said.

"Or they would ask me to resign or operate in another diocese ... at this stage, I don't know."

Bishop Morris, who has held the Toowoomba post for 16 years, said the church couldn't stifle debate and that's what the letter was promoting. "I will continue to fight for what I believe is the truth," he said.

"And I will continue to fight to be able to ask questions."

Bishop Morris said there was a group of very conservative Catholics dubbed the "temple police" who traveled around parishes dobbing in priests who didn't toe the line. "There are plenty of temple police around at the moment," he said.

"They're not a large majority - they believe in their conservative views and if they don't agree with something, they'll write to Rome."

Link (here) to the full story

Rest In Peace: Monsignor Patrick J. Trainor

2009-02-11T22:00:00.004-05:00

This holy man was my Pastor and I was his alter boy.

JMJ Joe

Monsignor Patrick J. Trainor
October 22, 1917 - February 07, 2009

TRAINOR, Monsignor Patrick, age 91, Pastor Emeritus of St. John Vianney Parish, St. Pete Beach, went home to the Lord Saturday, February 7, 2009, at his residence attended by those who loved and cared for him. Born in the Bronx, New York at an early age following his father's death, the family returned to Ireland. Monsignor Trainor was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of St. Augustine, June 18, 1944 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Cavan Co., Ireland. He came to Florida in 1945 and served parishes in Jacksonville, Gainesville and Coral Gables, where he also taught school for five years, before his arrival December 1, 1953 at St. John Vianney Parish, St. Pete Beach, to serve as pastor. He held that office until his retirement in 1989. At the request of Bishop Joseph Hurley, Pope John XXIII granted his being named a Monsignor and in 1988 at the request of Bishop W. Thomas Larkin he was elevated to Monsignor Protonotary Apostolic (P.A.) by Pope John Paul II. Monsignor Trainor's love, support and enthusiasm for Catholic education is evidenced in the growth and excellence of St. John Vianney Catholic School and those elementary schools in Pinellas County he watched being built. He assisted Archbishop Hurley in building St. Petersburg Catholic High School in 1957, then known as Bishop Barry High School. In 1998 the Monsignor Patrick Trainor Media Center at St. Petersburg Catholic High School was dedicated to him for his commitment and many contributions. He loyally served the diocese in other positions: Chairman of the Board of Catholic Charities, Judge of the Tribunal, Consultor and Episcopal Vicar for Pinellas Deaneries. Surviving him are his sister, Sister Mary Winifrede Trainor, age 93, sister-in-law Mrs. Rita Trainor, his cousin, Monsignor Edward Mulligan and two nieces, Rosaland O'Brien and Nuala Diffley, 2 nephews, Edward and Kevin Trainor , 6 great nephews and 4 great nieces. The Reception of Monsignor Trainor's body and visitation will be Thursday, February 12, 2009 from 3:30PM to 7:15PM at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, 445 82nd Ave, St. Pete Beach with evening prayer service at 7:30PM. Funeral Mass will be Friday, February 13th at 11:00AM at the church. Interment to follow at Calvary Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to St. John Vianney Catholic School. Brett Funeral Home & Cremation Services.

Link (here)

Rest In Peace: Piotr Stanczak, Polish Catholic Martyr Was Beheaded By Taliban

2009-02-10T08:52:00.006-05:00

Pakistani Taliban Release Tape Of Murder Of Pole

Before he was killed, Stanczak was seen on the tape appealing to the Polish government not to send troops to Afghanistan. Pakistani Taliban militants released a video tape on Sunday of them beheading a Polish geologist whom they said killed him because Pakistan's government refused to release Taliban prisoners.

Watch beheading (here)

The Islamist militants said on Saturday they had executed the Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, who they kidnapped in September, because the government had refused to free 60 captured militants before Friday's deadline.

A tape was delivered to the office of a Reuters reporter in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan showing two masked men cutting off Stanczak's head.

Before he was killed, Stanczak was seen on the tape appealing to the Polish government not to send troops to Afghanistan.

He also urged Poland to severe ties with Pakistan, which he said had made no effort to secure his release, said a Reuters reporter who saw the tape.

Assaults on foreign aid workers, company employees and diplomats have increased in Pakistan over the past year, especially in areas near the border with Afghanistan, where government forces are battling the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A Taliban spokesman, identified only as Mohammed, said earlier the militants would only give up Stanczak's body if the government freed captured militants and stopped attacking them.

"We will not hand over the dead body if the government does not accept our demands," the Taliban spokesman said by telephone.

"Our demands are the same: the release of our 60 men and an end to military operations."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday said his government had received unofficial confirmation the 42-year-old hostage was dead.

Stanczak was kidnapped on Sept. 28 while visiting one of his company's sites near Attock city, about 65 km (40 miles) west of the capital, Islamabad.

Gunmen shot dead his Pakistani driver, bodyguard and translator before abducting him.

An American heading the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in southwestern province of Baluchistan, was taken last week and his driver was shot dead.

Two Chinese telecommunication engineers, two Afghan diplomats and an Iranian diplomat were kidnapped in northwest Pakistan, though one of the Chinese later escaped.

A militants on the tape released on Sunday said other foreign hostages including the Chinese engineer would also be killed if the government did not meet Taliban demands.

Link (here)

2009-02-04T09:21:00.002-05:00

It would be a good time to pray for the Legionaires of Christ and members of Regnum Christi

The 99 For The One

2009-02-04T01:00:00.006-05:00

"If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost."
Matthew Chapter 18:12-14

With the Parable of the Lost Sheep in mind.

Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.

"If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily (Pope Benedict's photo has been altered by Photoshop in an unfavorable manner) Tageszeitung.

"That would not be a scandal, a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years," he said. Pope Benedict is 81.

Meanwhile, a senior Vatican official acknowledged the Vatican administration may have made "management errors" with the decision to lift excommunication against four bishops, including Richard Williamson, whose comments sparked the controversy.

"I observe the debate with great concern. There were misunderstandings and management errors in the Curia," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is in charge of the Vatican department that deals with Jewish relations.

"The Pope wanted to open the debate because he wanted unity inside and outside,"

the German cardinal told Vatican Radio.

He also noted that "these bishops are still suspended."

An international uproar followed the decision to rehabilitate Williamson, an English bishop who has dismissed as "lies" historical evidence that six million Jews were gassed by the Nazis during World War II. Jews and Catholics alike have produced widespread criticism.

"A pardon that tastes of poison," wrote Franco Garelli, an expert in religious history, in Italy's daily La Stampa Monday.

"The trouble caused by this complicated affair is evident not only outside the Church but within it," wrote the academic, who spoke of the "profound discomfort stirred up by the lifting of the excommunication in numerous Catholic circles."

Back in Germany, high-ranking Catholic officials said the pope risked losing vital support.

"There is obviously a loss of confidence" in the pope and "rehabilitating a denier is always a bad idea," the bishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt on Monday.

The bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Furst, meanwhile spoke of his "uncertainty, incomprehension and deception" in the national Bild.

In France, home to Europe's largest Jewish population, chief rabbi Gilles Bernheim denounced Williamson's remarks as "despicable" in an interview with Le Monde.

Williamson claimed that only between 200,000 and 300,000 Jews died before and during World War II, and none in the gas chambers.

French government spokesman Luc Chatel called Williamson's remarks "unacceptable, abject and intolerable."

Vienna's cardinal and archbishop, Christoph Schoenborn, on Sunday lashed out at the decision to bring Williamson back into the fold, saying that "he who denies the Holocaust cannot be rehabilitated within the Church."

Belgian daily La Libre Belgique slammed the Vatican's "blindness" and "deafness," drawing links between Williamson and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Apparently no one can make the Iranian president and his henchman see reason" when they deny the "truth" of the Holocaust, and it is the same with the "bishop recently anointed by the highest authority of the Catholic Church," it said.

For the pope, the "blunder is extraordinary, especially given that his willingness for a dialogue with Judaism is indisputable," said French daily Liberation.

Link (here)

A New Bishop And Hurricane Katrina

2009-02-03T07:51:00.004-05:00

Cleric whose Katrina comment caused stir promoted

VATICAN CITY (AP) — An Austrian pastor who has been quoted as calling Hurricane Katrina God's punishment for sin in New Orleans is being promoted to the rank if bishop.

The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI has tapped the Rev. Gerhard Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria. It made no mention of the reported remarks about Hurricane Katrina.

Wagner has served since 1988 as pastor of a church in the Austrian town of Windischgarsten and received a doctorate in theology from the prestigious Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, the Vatican said.

In 2005, Wagner was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying that he was convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier that year was "divine retribution" for New Orleans' tolerance of homosexuals and laid-back sexual attitudes.

Kath.Net, a Catholic news agency in Austria, released in 2005 excerpts of what it said were comments Wagner made in a parish newsletter in Linz about Katrina.

It said the newsletter quoted Wagner as saying that Katrina destroyed not only nightclubs and brothels in New Orleans, but also abortion clinics.

"The conditions of immorality in this city are indescribable," Wagner was quoted as saying.

Link (here)

Lets Support Father Z !!!

2009-01-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

ALERT! Help WDTPRS in the 2008 Weblog Awards - VOTING IS OPEN!

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULA — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 2:17 pm

Once again WDTPRS needs your help.

Our little project here is a finalist for the 2008 Weblog Awards.

The voting is now open.

I am told we can vote every day, but only once within a 24 hour period.

So vote early and every day until the polls close on 13 January.

Only once in a 24 hour period.

Here is the page for finalists.

Give WDTPRS your help! Ask your friends.

If you are a blogger, consider asking your readers to give us some support.

Keep a Catholic blog on top of the heap this year in the Religious Blog category. We have a good chance of that.

Stand, Kneel and Sit

2009-01-02T08:10:00.003-05:00

From Roman Catholic Blog.

An excerpt.

Now I've heard the line about how "we're the people of the Resurrection" and its not necessary to "engage in antiquated postures" blah blah blah. I heard it in seminary twenty years ago, and I've heard it from parish priests trying to tow the party line today. It's all bunk.

Link (here)

The Beasts Legalize Crucifixion

2008-12-31T13:40:00.007-05:00

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion. Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad.

Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas. While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism.

Link (here)

The painting is Golgotha, The Crucifixion of Christ by Ilya Repin, 1869

Prefect Of Divine Worship, Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Had This To Say

2008-12-17T22:52:00.003-05:00

What does it mean to receive communion in the mouth? What does it mean to kneel before the Most Holy Sacrament? What dies it mean to kneel during the consecration at Mass?

It means adoration, it means recognizing the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; it means respect and an attitude of faith of a man who prostrates before God because he knows that everything comes from Him, and we feel speechless, dumbfounded, before the wondrousness, his goodness, and his mercy.

That is why it is not the same to place the hand, and to receive communion in any fashion, than doing it in a respectful way; it is not the same to receive communion kneeling or standing up, because all these signs indicate a profound meaning. What we have to grasp is that profound attitude of the man who prostrates himself before God, and that is what the Pope wants.

Link (here) to Rorate Caeli

Rev. Dwight Longenecker On The Anti-Catholic Catholics

2008-11-30T00:10:00.003-05:00

Does this mean that anti-Catholicism is dead? I fear not. While the old-fashioned Protestant variety is dying out, a new and equally virulent form is rising up.... One example is from people who actually call themselves Catholics. The dissenting Catholics in our church have, for the most part, worn a friendly face.

They couch their disobedience in polite terminology. They "respectfully disagree with the Holy Father," or "they are listening carefully to the teaching of the Church, but they are also listening carefully to their own consciences."

This deceitful dissent will soon die out: As the radical Catholics see their own agendas withering for lack of interest, and as they observe the increasing youth and influence of the faithful Catholics, their true colors will be revealed. If they have not done so already, those dissenting Catholics will remove themselves from the Church. Their failure will focus in anger, their frustration will surface as rage, and they will move from being dissenting Catholics to outspoken critics of the Church.
Link (here)

Rev. Dwight Longenecker writes from Greenville, South Carolina where he is Chaplain to St Joseph's Catholic School. Read his website and daily blog at www.dwightlongenecker.com..

Only 50 Years Ago

2008-11-26T15:09:00.003-05:00

A Quebec priest in the 1950s taking Holy Communion to the sick,
escorted by an alter boy with a bell.
Notice the little girl kneeling as the Procession passes.

From
Fr. Ray Blake
(here)

Muslims Converting To The Catholic Faith

2008-11-22T20:04:00.003-05:00

Lost in Conversion?

By Christopher Deliso

When Kosovo’s Albanians celebrated the major Muslim holiday of Bajram, at the end of September, more than a few worshippers were conspicuous for their absence.

A trickle of media articles over the past few months have dealt with the issue of religion in Kosovo from a relatively unreported angle: the curious phenomenon of conversion. Apparently, Albanians in this Muslim-majority statelet have been increasingly ‘returning’ to the Catholic religion, which their ancestors had forsaken centuries ago.

This story is interesting and relevant in its own right, but has become particularly revealing in light of the way it has been developed in the media, something that raises another set of issues. Whereas early reports of a new trend towards conversion mentioned the fact that Albanians had been Christians before the Ottomans arrived in the 14th century, and converted thereafter, only recently have reports begun adding an element of victimology to the narrative.

For example, a Sept. 28 Reuters report that took the pulse of recently reborn Catholics in Kosovo claimed that ‘…the majority of ethnic Albanians were forcibly converted to Islam, mostly through the imposition of high taxes on Catholics, when the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans.’ This almost seems to imply that other Christians were threatened with taxation by the Turks, but did not convert. It also ignores that in several places at different times, Christians seeking to convert were actually prevented from doing so because the Ottomans prudently sought they would lose a local tax base for relatively little in return.

Reuters’ description of ‘forcible conversion’ as something to be equated with desire for social advancement is a strange one.

The real things that were forcible for the Ottomans were the forced kidnappings of young Christian men and women for the janissary corps and harems of Constantinople. Although there were far worse things to be suffered than paying high taxes by remaining Christian under the Turks, these were left out.

In backwards hinterlands of the empire, as in Kosovo and Bosnia, the local Muslim lords were known for being especially pernicious towards those who did not desert their religion.

Although this disparity led to simmering resentments which had long-term influence, as pointed out by former NSA officer John Schindler in the Bosnian context, the article does not consider how inter-ethnic problems in Kosovo today might perhaps have roots in this phenomenon. Schindler notes that it was particularly in border hinterlands of the empire such as Bosnia and Kosovo that the rule of the Turks and converted local lords allegiant to them was especially vicious. The Orthodox Christian Serbs clung to their religion- and suffered under the rule of those who found it expedient to change their own. Understanding the context of local opinions today requires an appreciation of this former relationship.

Within the Albanian community itself, how is the conversion issue playing out?

The Kosovars interviewed by Reuters tended to take the ‘crypto-Christian’ route, by which they claimed that their forefathers only pretended to be Muslims:

“…for centuries, many remembered their Christian roots and lived as what they call ‘Catholics in hiding.’ Some, nearly a century after the Ottomans left the Balkans, now see the chance to reveal their true beliefs.”

The timing is indeed quite impeccable. Yet the experiences of this reporter indicate perhaps another motivation at work. In April, our team visited precisely the same church in Klina where the Reuters piece starts off at with the Sopi family (perhaps related to the famous, deceased Albanian bishop of that name?) However, speaking informally with young Albanians outside the church, a very different concept emerged. As one 20-year-old student put it: “we know that the West does not like Muslims and is against Islam. It is better for us to be Christians again.”

In Pristina, inside a small Catholic church, the caretaker informed us that some 21 people had come in the previous three months to re-embrace the faith; more were expected to emerge. As the Reuters article points out, a large Catholic cathedral is being built here, much to the displeasure of Muslim leaders. The article quotes the head of the Kosovo Islamic community, Mufti Naim Ternava, who is opposed to the building of the new cathedral at the heart of Pristina, as criticizing rural church-building as well: “…no human brain can understand how a church should be build in the middle of 13 Muslim villages,” he said.

Supporters of Kosovar Catholicism inevitably point to Mother Teresa, born in nearby Skopje, who has became the symbol of Albanian Christianity far and wide,

a cultural process that has brought criticism from Muslim groups in Albania itself. Recent examples of some of these animosities are discussed in my book The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West (Praeger Security International, 2007), in which I maintain that, in Kosovo the end of the nationalist question (i.e., with the achievement of statehood) is the beginning of the religious one.

After Kosovo’s Albanian leaders declared independence on February 17, some explained the Arab world’s failure to recognize this decree as a sort of revenge. Kosovo had taken so much money and aid from them, but in the end had turned its back on Islam.

Link (here) to the full article.

Agressive, Disruptive And Apocalyptic

2008-11-17T23:55:00.002-05:00

Cardinal Stafford criticizes Obama as ‘aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic’

Cardinal James Stafford / President-elect Barack Obama

Washington DC, Nov 17, 2008 / 02:27 pm (CNA).- Cardinal James Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, delivered a lecture on Thursday saying

that the future under President-elect Obama will echo Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. Criticizing Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,” he went on to speak about a decline in respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the values of marriage and human dignity.

Delivered at the Catholic University of America, the cardinal’s lecture was titled “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul,” the student university paper The Tower reports. Hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, his words focused upon Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, whose fortieth anniversary is marked this year. Commenting on the results of the recent presidential election,

Cardinal Stafford said on Election Day “America suffered a cultural earthquake.” The cardinal argued that President-elect Obama had campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform” and predicted that the near future would be a time of trial.

“If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” he said, contrasting the year of Humane Vitae’s promulgation with this election year. “For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Cardinal Stafford told his audience.

Catholics who weep the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” should try to identify with Jesus, who during his agony in the garden was “sick because of love.” The cardinal attributed America’s decline to the Supreme Court’s decisions such as the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide.

“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic,” Cardinal Stafford commented, according to The Tower. His theological remarks centered upon man’s relationship with God and man’s place in society. “Man is a sacred element of secular life,” he said, arguing that therefore

“man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”

Cardinal Stafford also touched on the state of the family, saying that the truest reflection of the relationship between the believer and God is the relationship between husband and wife, and that contraceptive use does not fit within that relationship.

Link (here)

Blue is for Purity

2008-11-16T21:07:00.005-05:00

In Catholic religious art the color blue, not white, is symbolic of purity. The white wedding gown originated in the nineteenth century in imitation of Queen Victoria who wore white for her wedding to Prince Albert. The blue that brides were instructed to wear “something borrowed, something blue” on the wedding day was in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is so often pictured with a blue mantle signifying her virginal purity. The French, even though they have long forgotten why, honor Our Lady in their familiar exclamation, Sacré Bleu, which traditionally was a plea for protection under her blue mantle.

by Brian Kelly

Link (here)

The Catholic Faith and Higher Education, "Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity"

2008-11-01T22:39:00.003-04:00

All of St. Thomas Aquinas' work-all of his natural philosophy and theology-aims ultimately at understanding and revering the God-head, Three-in-One. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the last things a student studies at Thomas Aquinas College.

Pope John Paul II reminds us in his encyclical Fides et Ratio that "The Church has been justified in consistently proposing St. Thomas as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology." His Holiness concludes that encyclical by invoking the life and example of the Blessed Virgin as a "true parable," illuminating the relation between faith and reason.

"For between the vocation of the Blessed Virgin and the vocation of true philosophy there is a deep harmony." It is therefore particularly fitting that the Chapel of Thomas Aquinas College be both Trinitarian and Marian.

To honor Mary with the name "Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity" is to honor her as the perfect daughter, spouse, and mother. A religious congregation founded under this title (the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity) explains it succinctly: She is the perfect daughter of the Father through the redemptive Incarnation and passion of the Son; she is the spouse of the Holy Spirit through the will of the Father and continues to be the most perfect of all mystical spouses; she is the most perfect mother of the Word through the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, she is the most perfect creation of the Father through the Son.At Thomas Aquinas College, young men and women engage with their teachers in the pursuit of Christian Wisdom, prior to commencing their life's work. The College is, therefore, focused inward upon that common life of mind and spirit which has as its center the academic quadrangle. Continuity is fundamental to that common life-continuity with the intellectual and spiritual heritage of our civilization.

The student at Thomas Aquinas College claims his inheritance from the inside by reading, analyzing and discussing the works which both produced that civilization and were produced by it. The architecture of the campus, and particularly that of the buildings on the academic quadrangle, reflects this continuity with the whole of western, Christian civilization. Not only do the buildings harmonize with each other, they spring from the architectural traditions of that civilization.

The Chapel, in particular, draws upon the California Missions as well as many of the great Romanesque churches of Christendom. It provides, therefore, an appropriate setting for the spiritual and sacramental life of the College. In its tower, three great bells are hung to ring out the Angelus each day. At the top of the tower gleams a golden cross, a sign to all of the sacred place that lies below. The dome, rising above the crossing of the transept and the nave, symbolizes continuity with the Mother Church, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Link to St. Thomas Aquinas College and Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel

The Modern Face Of Heresy

2008-10-30T08:03:00.005-04:00

Church row escalates as priest denies Jesus was God

THE controversy surrounding one of Australia's most radical Catholic churches, St Mary's South Brisbane, has escalated into a wider debate over bedrock Christian beliefs.

On the line for parishioners of St Mary's and several other parishes in Queensland and NSW are fundamental church doctrines such as who can celebrate Mass, whether Jesus Christ was God, whether Mary had as many as six children, the bodily Resurrection, and the need for sacramental celebrations for same-sex marriages.

In a booklet being sold for $20, a NSW priest, Peter Dresser of Coonamble in the Diocese of Bathurst, insists Jesus was not God and did not think he was God. The booklet is on sale at two Brisbane parishes: St Mary's and the Wooloowin/Windsor/Kalinga Parish of outspoken Brisbane priest Richard Pascoe.

In God is Big. Real Big! Father Dresser -- who prefers to be known as Peter -- says: "This whole matter regarding Jesus being God ... not only does violence to my own intelligence, but must be a sticking point for millions of people trying to make some kind of sense of the Christian religion ... No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that."

Father Dresser said he found his own rural flock "very conservative" and admitted that many of them found his theology difficult to accept. He said he had rethought his approach after taking an interest in science. "I'm delighted they're opening up the debate at St Mary's," he said.

In his book, Father Dresser claims Mary had as many as six children, Joseph was the father of Jesus and the bodily Resurrection is not to be taken literally.

Sydney lecturer in church history, Anthony Robbie, said Father Dresser's claims defied all scriptural evidence.

"What a breathtaking know-all, to claim he knows the mind of Christ contrary to scripture and tradition. His words rob Christianity entirely of its meaning and purpose," Father Robbie said.

"The Council of Nicaea settled the question that Christ was God in 325, so he is 1700 years out of date. The rest is a regurgitation of every discredited 19th-century liberal Protestant German cliche in the book."

Recently, the priests at St Mary's -- Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick -- also canvassed the idea of Catholics celebrating the Eucharist in their homes, without a priest.

A discussion paper handed to parishioners by Father Kennedy and written by Charles Kelliher said the lack of priests in the 21st century should prompt the faithful to look back to the first 200 years of the church, before the priesthood and the church hierarchy came into existence.

"Like the house church of the first 200 years, it is the community of believers who can concelebrate and bring about the presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration. Let us embark on the journey as a community of believers in the modern day house church.

"The community of believers would call forth one of its members to preside at this memorial service. This person could be either man or woman, married or single ... with no special designation except being chosen or called forth to leadership by the community."

The director of adult education in the Archdiocese of Sydney, Opus Dei priest John Flader, said the earliest celebrants of the Eucharist were called presbyters, a Greek word meaning elders, but they had been appointed by the laying-on of hands by a bishop, and there was no evidence that women took such roles. "Even as early as around 100AD, Pope Clement I wrote to the church in Corinth setting out the authority of Rome over the local church, including the presbyters," Father Flader said. "Suggesting that lay people gather in homes today and pick someone to celebrate the Eucharist is absurd. It would never be valid."

St Mary's has continued with Eucharistic prayers celebrated by the congregation with women leading much of the mass. Recent preachers have included "community jester" and activist Tony Robertson.

While some argue that St Mary's should be closed, some priests say this would drive the teachers who attend the church towards informal services at home, which could influence the children they teach. "They say they regard themselves as Catholic so it would be better to ensure they conform to the Church's teachings and practice. These are not optional," said one.

Link (here)

Photo is of St. Mary's in Brisbane

Read Fr. Z's frank commentary on the subject (here)

Interview With Film Star Eduardo Verastegui About His McCain Endorsement

2008-10-28T07:29:00.002-04:00

By Anita Crane

October 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Eduardo Verastegui, producer and lead actor of the 2007 American film Bella, met with Senator John McCain on October 17 in Miami, where they discussed the human rights at stake in this presidential election. Now Verastegui is using his star power – and more – to help McCain and Governor Sarah Palin win the votes of Latinos.

Verastegui said, “I am endorsing Sen. McCain for president because of his commitments to end abortion, protect traditional marriage and fix immigration law."

On Gov. Palin’s leadership, he said, “I love her. She’s a great role model for women.”

Verastegui has spoken at several McCain-Palin rallies. In Miami, the capital of Latin America and the first U.S. city where Verastegui lived, he campaigned for John McCain with McCain’s Senate allies Joe Lieberman and Mel Martinez, as well as Florida’s former governor, Jeb Bush and Governor Charlie Crist.

Verastegui said, “There I was, just an actor from Hollywood, not even a politician.

“I said more than 45 million babies have been killed by abortion in America and more than 200,000 Latino babies are killed by abortion each year. I told everyone that we need to put an end to this and, when I finished, I went to John McCain and I said, ‘Senator, thank you for your commitment to life. I’d like to give you something.’ I gave him a Miraculous Medal blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and he was amazing. He said, ‘Thank you so much! Look what I have here in my pocket.’ Then Sen. McCain took a medal out of his pocket that he carries everywhere and it was a Blessed Mother Teresa medal. He said, ‘Eduardo, now I am going to keep both.’

Verastegui also gave McCain’s wife, Cindy, a Miraculous Medal. He said, “I was touched when I found out that the McCains adopted one of their daughters from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India. There is nothing more beautiful than to give children homes with families who will love them. I hope that one day that I can do the same.”

Verastegui gives out Miraculous Medals because, as a practicing Catholic, he believes the Blessed Mother promised Saint Catherine Labouré that “all who wear it will receive great graces.”

As Americans prepare to vote, many think their country is in crisis and Verastegui agrees. Therefore, he said, “It would be a disaster if Senator Barack Obama is elected president.”

Verastegui believes that unless Americans elect a president who will defend fundamental human rights, no one can expect a sound economy, health care or national security, including immigration reform.

“Obama speaks about ‘change,’ but what change are we talking about?” he asked. “Fidel Castro spoke about change in Cuba. Hugo Chavez talks about change in Venezuela. A lot of other charismatic dictators promised change, but look what happened to their countries.”

Verastegui explained, “Obama’s change agenda is very, very dangerous. This is a historic moment. Whoever wins the presidential election will affect this country and the world for decades.

“Obama doesn’t represent the values of our Latino community. He has never done anything for us. He doesn’t know who we are.”

Referring to his filmmaking partners Alejandro Monteverde and Leo Severino, Verastegui said, “Alejandro, Leo and I can make hundreds movies like Bella and they will save many babies, but it’s never going to be as powerful as a president nominating judges who observe constitutional law.” McCain is committed to nominating constructionist judges, and Verastegui emphasized that “we are just one Supreme Court justice away from overturning Roe v. Wade.”

However, Verastegui warned that Obama threatens to codify the Roe v. Wade decision by signing the proposed Freedom of Choice Act, which would strip Americans of their right to protect innocent human lives, even from the savagery of partial-birth abortion. In a partial birth abortion the abortionist pulls a baby from his mother’s womb, stabs his skull and vacuums out his brains.

Verastegui is also pleased that McCain supports the protection of traditional marriage through state amendments legally defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Obama, on the other hand, told LGBT activists, “But my job, as president, is going to be to make sure that the legal rights that have consequences, on a day-to-day basis, for loving same-sex couples all across the country, that those rights are recognized and enforced by my White House and by my Justice Department.” Obama wants to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act and this implies that he intends to override the traditional marriage laws passed by numerous states.

On immigration, Verastegui tells voters that McCain took a big risk in Congress for Latinos while Obama abandoned them. Due to popular demand, McCain revised his reform policy. His presidential proposal includes security for U.S. citizens and innovations that would allow migrant workers to legally enter America according to market demands for their skills. Knowing the concerns of Latinos, Verastegui said, “McCain told me that he will reform the law so that it upholds human dignity of all immigrants and protects their families.”

Verastegui concluded, “The right to life is the most important thing to me, so I want to do whatever I can to support the best candidates. That’s why I support McCain-Palin.”

Eduardo Verastegui produced videos about Obama’s policies in English and Spanish. They are online at http://www.ObamaMustSee.com and http://www.DuraRealidad.com.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, "No Intrinsic Evil Can Ever Be Supported In Any Way"

2008-10-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.

We bishops of Pennsylvania quoted from the late Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful and I quote him again here: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 38).

Link (here) to Cardinal Justin Rigali's full article.

McCain Surges Ahead By 20% Among Catholic Voters

2008-10-24T12:29:00.003-04:00

McCain has also gone from an 11-point deﬁcit to a 9-point lead among Catholics, with only days remaining before the November 4 election.
Link (here)

Catholic Monarchy Still Means Something

2008-10-24T07:58:00.001-04:00

Open letter asks King of Spain not to sign decree allowing aborted babies to be ground up

Madrid, Oct 7, 2008 / 06:35 am (CNA).-

Father Joan Manuel Serra, a priest of the Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, has asked King Juan Carlos of Spain not to sign a royal decree that would modify mortuary policies and would make it legal to use “baby crushing machines” that would be used on the remains of babies aborted up to the seventh month of pregnancy in abortion clinics.

In an open letter, Father Serra recalled that current policy “obliges abortion ‘clinics’ to consider the remains of an abortion as cadavers, when they are human remains ‘of a sufficient entity,’ that is, at eleven or twelve weeks of pregnancy, and transfer them to a cemetery for their posterior dignified incineration or burial.”

However, after the scandal of the Ginemedex Clinic, where it was discovered that blenders were being used to cover up illegal late-term abortions, the government, “with the supposed support of the main opposition party,” has proposed changing the norms for mortuaries “so that the ‘remains’ of an abortion not be considered ‘human remains of sufficient entity’ until after the 28^th week of gestation,” that is, nearly the seventh month of pregnancy.

“Your majesty, we are reaching levels of inhumanity that are completely inadmissible and that are putting the very foundation of our society at risk,” Father Serra said. “If we do not protect the right to life of all,” even those who are weakest, we are laying “the foundations of a very violent society that will end up destroying itself.”

Father Serra told King Juan Carlos that if the current policy is kept in place, “of properly burying or incinerating the human remains of abortions during the first few weeks, at least we would be giving a humane message to society. This will make many people think again about the value of human life from the moment of conception.”

Link (here)

Archbishop Chaput On "Little Muders"

2008-10-20T07:53:00.005-04:00

In an address delivered to the Witherspoon Institute on October 17, in Denver Colorado Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has made an historic political address. His newly famous "Little Murders" speech is resetting the Catholic social agenda in America. I have pulled together some of the highlights.

Speaking for myself, I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than

40 million unborn children killed by abortion

and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates.......... Arguments advanced in favor of Senator Obama are new. They've been around, in one form or another, for more than 25 years.

All of them seek to ''get beyond'' abortion, or economically reduce the number of abortions, or create a better society where abortion won't be necessary. All of them involve a misuse of the seamless garment imagery in Catholic social teaching. And all of them, in practice, seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues.

This is a great sadness. As Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have

''no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood.

.......Meanwhile, the basic human rights violation at the heart of abortion - the intentional destruction of an innocent, developing human life - is wordsmithed away as a terrible crime that just can't be fixed by the law. I don't believe that. I think that argument is a fraud. And I don't think any serious believer can accept that argument without damaging his or her credibility.

We still have more than a million abortions a year, and we can't blame them all on Republican social policies. After all, it was a Democratic president, not a Republican, who vetoed the partial birth abortion ban - twice.

The truth is that for some Catholics, the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause. It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about.

It interferes with their natural political alliances. And because the homicides involved in abortion are ''little murders'' - the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives - it's easy to look the other way.

The abortion lobby has fought every compromise and every legal restriction on abortion, every step of the way. Apparently they believe in their convictions more than some of us Catholics believe in ours. And I think that's an indictment of an entire generation of American Catholic leadership.

Link (here)

"In Love, Nothing Must Be Held Back."

2008-10-17T01:08:00.001-04:00

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

(here)

Academic Priests Can Forget Ordinary Ministry

2008-10-15T00:53:00.002-04:00

Too many priests are missing out on ordinary ministry, cardinal warns

Vatican City, Oct 13, 2008
(CNA).- The prefect for the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, warned this week that many priests dedicated to teaching forget or abandon ordinary ministry, in which the Word of God should be at the center.
Link (here) to the full article

Democrats Are Loosing The Catholic Battle

2008-10-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

A Fight Among Catholics Over Which Party Best Reflects Church Teachings

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

As the Roman Catholic Church observes its annual “respect life” Sunday in this heated presidential election season, the unusually pitched competition for Catholic voters is setting off a round of skirmishes over how to apply the church’s teachings not only on abortion but also on the war in Iraq, immigration and racism.

In a departure from previous elections, Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are waging a fight within the church, arguing that the Democratic Party better reflects the full spectrum of church teachings.

It is a contest for credibility among observant Catholics, with each faction describing itself as a defender of “life.” The two sides disagree over how to address the “intrinsic evil” of abortion.

The escalating efforts by more-liberal Catholics are provoking a vigorous backlash from some bishops and the right.

In Scranton, Pa., every Catholic attending Mass this weekend will hear a special homily about the election next month: Bishop Joseph Martino has ordered every priest in the diocese to read a letter warning that voting for a supporter of abortion rights amounts to endorsing “homicide.”

Read the full piece in the NY Times (here) .

Priests For Life (here)

Destructive Influence Of A Certain Modern Culture

2008-10-05T11:11:00.005-04:00

Pope decries godless nature of modern societies

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

WriterSun Oct 5, 6:54 AM ET

Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

"Surely they tried, I mean the Holy See tried but obviously they could not make agreement," Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen told AP Television News as he entered the basilica.

"Maybe the Holy See welcomes someone that they (the Chinese) would not allow," he said, adding that China might try to send a bishop who is not acceptable to the Holy See.

Chinese bishops have not been allowed to travel to similar meetings in the past.

Ties between the Vatican and China's communist government have long been strained. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. In recent years, some of those bishops have received the Vatican's tacit approval.

Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science. A rabbi will address the conference on Monday in what is believed to be the first time a Jew has participated in such a meeting.

Link (here)

2008-10-04T16:36:00.001-04:00

Read and down load the PDF (here)

The Culture Of Death: The Politics Of Death

2008-10-03T10:06:00.002-04:00

Vatican officials seldom single out political leaders who differ with the Church on issues like abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research. But now that the Vatican’s highest court is led by an American, the former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, we can expect things to get more explicit in Vatican City — at least when when it comes to U.S. politics.

Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” He then attacked two of the party’s most high profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

He said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.”

Pelosi drew U.S. bishops’ scorn for saying in a television interview last month that the Church itself had long debated when human life begins. Biden is a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights and analysts have said he could help woo wavering Catholics into Obama’s fold. Both argue that they cannot impose their religious views on others.

Burke said pro-life Democrats were “rare” and that it saddened him that the party that helped “our immigrant parents and grandparents” prosper in America had changed so much over the years.

Burke made headlines as archbishop of St. Louis for his public attacks on public figures who strayed from Catholic teaching. He suggested during the 2004 presidential campaign that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic, should be denied communion because of his views on abortion. Several bishops said at the time they would not give him communion and the media staked out churches where he attended Mass to see if he received it.

“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a letter in 2004 to American bishops restating the Church position that a priest must refuse to distribute communion to a Catholic politician who supported abortion rights. But Burke lamented that the letter was never distributed.

Burke’s criticism isn’t limited to Democrats. Last year, he accused singer Sheryl Crow of being “a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives” for defending a woman’s right to have an abortion and for being a proponent of stem cell research. He resigned as head of a children’s medical charity that featured the singer for a benefit concert.

Pope Benedict has been encouraging Catholic bishops to speak out more openly on public policy issues to make the Church’s voice heard. Any bets on when we’ll hear from Burke next?

Link (here)

Holy Smoke The Playing Field Is Being Leveled

2008-09-26T19:47:00.006-04:00

A few nights ago I (Damian Thompson) joined a group of Catholic bloggers in a pub in Victoria. They included the world-famous Fr Z from America, Fr Tim Finigan and Mac McLernon ("Mulier Fortis"). We felt like a group of East European dissidents swapping samizdat literature in the 1970s.

There are liberal Catholic bloggers out there, but it is persecuted traditionalists who have seized control of cyberspace in the English-speaking world, with disastrous results for the secretive Futurechurch project.

Link (here) to Damian Thompson's great piece

Link (here) to Fr. Z's post on the same subject

Mother Theresa And Pope John Paul II "The Great"

2008-09-26T17:37:00.002-04:00

Saint Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within..

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

Hat Tip to Karen Hall at Some Have Hats (here) and Some Wear Clerics (here)

Archbishop Gregory Of Atlanta Praises Legionaries

2008-09-18T08:09:00.008-04:00

Mission Network Receives Honored Guest
By Trish Bailey

September 5, 2008. Atlanta, Georgia. On Thursday, September 4, the Mission Network headquarters in Atlanta opened its doors to receive Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who came to dedicate the altar of the chapel, leave the Blessed Sacrament to the tabernacle, and visit the team in our new offices. His visit brought inspiration and encouragement to the staff, and confirmed our sense of unity with the archdiocese.

The visit began with Mass at 10:00 a.m. Archbishop Gregory presided, with four Legionary priests and one diocesan priest concelebrating: Fr Scott Reilly, Fr Emilio Diaz-Torre, Fr Eamonn Shelly, Fr David Daly, and Fr John Howren of St Brendan’s parish in Cumming, Georgia. Legionary deacon Jacob DuMont also served during the Mass

During his homily, Archbishop Gregory commented on the first reading from Corinthians 3:18-23, saying that for all of us in the Church, the principle of unity and the focal point of our mission is always Christ.

“Christ is the center. Everything else is peripheral,” he said.

The dedication of the altar took place after the homily. Archbishop Gregory poured sacred chrism on the bare altar in the shape of three crosses, and then took a towel and carefully rubbed the oil into the surface of the wood. After the altar was dressed and prepared, the Mass continued in an atmosphere of fervent prayer.

Just before communion, Deacon Jacob DuMont carefully placed the consecrated host in the tabernacle to stay.

After Mass, Archbishop Gregory stopped for a photo with the entire staff outside and then took a tour of the offices. With his characteristic good humor and warmth, he teased the staff about their “new digs in the corporate world” and thanked them sincerely for their work.

The tour was followed by a 15-minute presentation about Mission Network, which coordinates a wide range of national apostolate programs serving children, youth, families, and vocations. The presentation also touched on the Regnum Christi Movement’s work in the field of education and mass media, and showed how our various programs and initiatives respond to the archdiocese’s mission objectives. After the presentation, Archbishop Gregory addressed the team with words of fatherly kindness, saying that the Legionaries and Regnum Christi members are a blessing in the archdiocese.

After saying with smile, “I wish you wild success,” he concluded: “I want you to know that your archbishop is pleased with you.”

For the team, these words were an encouragement to keep building up programs that serve the local church in the Atlanta and New York territories. The entire staff is extremely grateful to Archbishop Gregory for the inspiring visit, for his fatherly support, and for the lasting gift that he left us in the Blessed Sacrament.

Link (here).

The Politics And Emotion Of Abortion

2008-09-08T01:00:00.001-04:00

Sarah Palin – the Post-Abortion Trig-ger?

Sept 5, 2008

Staten Island, NY – Kevin Burke, co-founder of the post-abortion healing ministry Rachel’s Vineyard, said today that anger directed at Sarah Palin and her family may stem from the repressed grief and pain of those who have had or been involved in an abortion.

“When someone publicly opposes abortion, this rejection can strike at a deeply repressed wound in the woman who has had an abortion or the man who has encouraged a woman to abort,” said Mr. Burke. “We at Rachel’s Vineyard know from our work with thousands of women and men that profound feelings of guilt and shame accompany abortion. The words or even just the presence of someone who believes abortion to be wrong can cause that repressed guilt and shame to erupt in anger.”

“The venomous response to Governor Palin’s family is probably heightened by the Palins’ dual rejection of abortion – first, in the case of their Down syndrome son, Trig, and then in the case of their daughter Bristol’s pregnancy,” added Mr. Burke. “Rather than lash out, though, I would encourage those burdened by the guilt of abortion to travel the road of reconciliation and healing. Anger toward others will not bring peace; compassion and forgiveness will.”

Link (here)

Like Judith Beheading Holofernes

2008-09-04T12:15:00.005-04:00

Palin delivers star-turning performance at RNC

By TOM RAUM and LIZ SIDOT

An excerpt.

Largely unknown outside her home state, Palin told the convention: "I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," she said, speaking of her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, with a population of about 6,500.

"When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too," she said.

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Read a Catholic lady's insight on Sarah Palin from Karen Hall (here)

Communist

2008-09-04T12:00:00.004-04:00

Thank you Some Have Hats' Karen Hall for this "hat tip", Obama the Marxist

The Other Side of Change: Obama and Saul Alinsky
by Mary Jo Anderson
At Inside Catholic

An excerpt.

Much has been written about Obama's career as a "community organizer," a benign term that was actually the brainchild of Marxist agitator Saul Alinsky, whose writings Obama studied and who founded an organization in Chicago for which Obama worked. Alinsky earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1930 and went to work in the state penitentiary. He came to believe that the "social milieu," not personal behavior, was responsible for the plight of the inmates -- and therefore, a changed society would eliminate aberrant behavior. In

1939, Alinsky created his Industrial Areas Foundation, a grassroots agitation organization that found its power in collectivizing working-class poor and idealistic radicals.

Alinsky is well-known for his second book, Rules for Radicals, which begins with praise for Lucifer, a rebel who achieved his own kingdom. The book stressed that activists must be "people committed to change." (Sound familiar?) He taught his agitators to avoid the "useless self-indulgence" of despising their own middle-class roots, instead exploiting the contempt they feel: "If we are to build power for change, the power and the people are in the big middle class majority."

2008-08-29T01:00:00.001-04:00

Catholics Come Home

Catholic Schools

2008-08-28T08:48:00.000-04:00

We Want Authentic Catholic Schools that Help Form Saints

By Bishop Robert W. Finn
Kansas City-St. Joseph

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption, our schools begin to open. Students all over the diocese get their back packs together, some put on uniforms, and everyone begins getting up a bit earlier and ready for school. The studies, sports teams, and school clubs will soon be in full gear. The new year begins and our Catholic schools remain a big part of it: for many generations - and for thousands of students.

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is blessed with Catholic schools from early childhood through university. The mission and goals of our schools overlap in a variety of ways with the educational targets of the public schools. But there is something more that must define our schools.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his visit last spring to the United States met with Catholic educators from all over the country in Washington, D.C. He challenged the leaders of our schools to make "Catholic identity" something more than the numbers of Catholic students or even the particular excellence of certain fields of study.

Catholic identity, the Holy Father said, "demands and inspires much more: namely that each and every aspect of your learning communities reverberates within the ecclesial life of faith." Our schools must be defined by a unique culture of faith, hope and charity.

Catholic identity certainly starts with sound, authentic presentations of the teaching of the Church. This is that "without which" we would not be providing helpful formation in the tradition and life of the Church. Living and life-giving Christian Faith is also necessary: faith in God the Holy Trinity, and faithful participation in the life of the Church. Our students should know the sacraments, not only from having studied them in coursework. They must live them, and practice them as the foundation stones for their Catholic lives.

Pope Benedict, himself a university professor for many years, had a special challenge for the leaders of our Catholic universities. Acknowledging the importance of academic freedom, the Pope insisted that appeals to academic freedom "to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission." This is the very core of the challenge extended to Catholic universities in the document "Ex Corde Ecclesia" which - some years ago - called all teachers of Theology to seek the "mandatum" or license of the local bishop to teach.

Schools sponsored activities and organizations, as well, must reflect the meaning and dignity of the human person. Secular or spiritual in focus, such opportunities must be totally consonant with the life of authentic faith and help the student in his or her healthy and holy development.

Catholic schools exist for a supernatural purpose. They are not only about measurable outcomes, or even helping students learn essential facts and marketable skills that prepare them for employment. They are about the formation of men and women in all aspects of life and living. Each student must be what God intends him or her to be. They must be helped toward their eternal salvation. It would seem to go without saying that "salvation" is discussed and taught in Catholic schools, but education in our schools must lead to the development of men and women who live virtue, understand better the mystery and meaning of life, and who will be set on a path which acknowledges the mystery of the Cross and has heaven as its ultimate goal.

Catholic schools must be based on a Catholic anthropology, that is, an authentic vision of what a person is and what his or her eternal destiny entails. We are not made ultimately for material success or sexual gratification, or just any kind of relationship. Rather, we are made for life-long faithful commitments that appropriately express our gender, our vocation and utilize our talents generously. Because we are called to holiness we must be helped to see how our daily work can be sanctified and sanctifying. Our moral life must take precedent over personal satisfaction or partisan political tendencies. The transcendent and unchanging truth of the value of human life must animate our convictions and guide all our decisions.

Catholic schools are a catalyst for growth in communion. We are more than individuals. The building block of society is the family which has the primary responsibility for the formation of children, and which must be safeguarded for the good of all society. We are beings - social and interactive by nature - who are incorporated through Baptism into a community of believers. We must be helped to see the differences and complementarity by which we actively make up the Church. We are meant to contribute; to give of ourselves as a response to the love and life we have received - first from God, and also from others. Obedience to God's law and cooperation for the good of the whole are necessary in any society. In the Catholic community our giving has a supernatural motive and is infused with Christian faith, hope and charity. Service toward others and a strong sense of mission and apostolate marks us as members of an apostolic Church which has been entrusted with the message of the Gospel for all to hear.

In our schools we pray. We need to pray. Prayer is a response to our sense of God's presence with us always, our readiness to be intercessors for one another, and the realization that we are persons constantly in need of God's light and grace. God is first, and when we put Him first, all the other good things find their proper place. We worship him in the community of the Church and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the font and highest expression of our life.

I pray that in our schools - from early childhood to university - we will be forming saints. Through obedience to the Holy Spirit, and His light entrusted to the Apostles, may our students begin to be more like Jesus Christ to the glory of the heavenly Father.

As we celebrate Mary's Assumption into heaven, let us entrust ourselves, our students and teachers - the whole mission and work of our schools - to her maternal love. Link (here)

Divine Mercy Continues

2008-08-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

Polish Father Michal Sopocko, Sister Faustina Kowalska's confessor and spiritual director, and principal promoter of the revelations the nun received on Divine Mercy, will be beatified Sept. 28 in Poland. Father Sopocko (1888-1975) also founded the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus.

Link (here)

The Great Push Back

2008-08-22T01:00:00.001-04:00

Strife at St Mary's over "Buddha" statue

Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby is considering whether the controversial St Mary's parish at South Brisbane "is in communion with the Catholic Church" after a parishioner protested to the Vatican over a Buddha-like statue.

A member of St Mary's South Brisbane Church told The Courier-Mail that it was understood Archbishop John Bathersby was weighing up the future of the church, after complaints were forwarded from the Vatican. "A very right wing parishioner came and was offended by some of the artwork in the church, including some indigenous art, and an image of a praying monk which they mistook as a Buddha,""That person took photos and sent them to Rome and Rome wrote to the bishop." However, the statue - which was about 1 metre tall - had since been taken out of the church by a disgruntled person and smashed. the parishioner said.

Parish priest Fr Peter Kennedy, who has headed St Mary's for nearly 28 years, said he was unable to comment until he had heard further from Archbishop Bathersby. In a written statement, Archbishop Bathersby confirmed he had received communiques from the Vatican about St Mary's and that they included complaints about an alleged Buddhist statue in the church's sanctuary and unorthodox masses being conducted. He said that since speaking with Fr Kennedy, he had received many letters from parishioners concerned that the church might be closed. He had responded by saying "the key question is whether St Mary's is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church or not." This was something he had previously raised with the church's community and "nothing has really changed since then". In 2004, claims that incorrect language was being used during baptism were upheld and hundreds of baptisms conducted at St Mary's were ruled invalid by Archbishop Bathersby.
Link (here)

SOURCE

Future of St Mary's South Brisbane Church in doubt (Courier-Mail, 20/8/08)

LINKS

St Mary's parish, South Brisbane

Buddha in South Brisbane Church (Letter, AD2000, July 2008)

If Mass Were An EPCOT Parade

2008-08-19T21:45:00.002-04:00

Thank you Fr. Ray Blake, this Mass is the one at the Los Angeles religious education conference, presided by Cardinal Roger Mahoney, view the video (here)

Miracle Freezer Baby From Galilee

2008-08-18T10:05:00.004-04:00

Premature baby 'comes back to life'

Aug. 18, 2008

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

A premature baby who was pronounced dead "came back to life" Sunday after five hours in Nahariya Hospital.The baby girl, who was in a cooler at the hospital, suddenly showed signs of life and was being treated in the premature baby unit. Doctors estimated that the cooler brought the fetus "back to life."

The mother, 26, from a Western Galilee village, was in the fifth month of her pregnancy when she underwent a series of tests, during which it was discovered that she was suffering from internal bleeding and that the embryo had ceased to show signs of life.

The woman underwent an abortion and the baby, weighing 610 grams, was extracted from her womb without a pulse, hospital officials said. A senior doctor pronounced the baby dead and she was transferred to the cooler.

Five hours later, the woman's husband came to the hospital to take what he thought was his dead baby girl for burial. When the baby was taken out of the cooler, she began to breathe.

The premature baby was then taken to the intensive care ward, where doctors were attempting to save her life.

Link (here)

Photo is of the Jeddin Fortress, Western Galilee, Israel

Update on the miracle baby (here) "Miracle morgue freezer baby dies again"

English Priest Comments On The Return Of The Traditional Latin Mass

2008-08-12T19:35:00.002-04:00

An old priest comments:
“so many of the ardent became lukewarm, many lapsed”

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:51 am

South Ashford Priest has guided me to a comment on the blog of the always interesting Fr. Ray Blake at St. Mary Magdalen in Brighton:

As a priest in my 83rd year I have to make a confession. I implemented the Pauline reforms without understanding or sensitivity. I did it relying on the advice and coercion of my bishop and diocesan authorities. As I did it I witnessed the hurt and pain of many of the devout, so many of the ardent became lukewarm, many lapsed. I thought I acted rightly but in my 59 years of priesthood I recognize that that which we hoped for has not come to pass.

I do welcome a careful reappraisal and assessment of what has been done since my ordination, especially by the younger clergy. In order to do that they must learn something of the spirituality that brought men of my generation in vast numbers to the seminary.

In short I welcome this Merton initiative.

Incidentally, in the solitude of my retirement, since last September, I have relearned the Mass of my youth, it brings me great consolation. It is the Mass I have not celebrated out of obedience since 1970.

Fr P O’Rourke

I cannot say adequately how deeply impressed I am by this priest’s comment.

Thank you Fr. Z and Fr. Ray Blake.
JMJ
J.F.

More Than A Gesture

2008-08-10T15:31:00.005-04:00

Five U.S. soldiers join pilgrimage march to Polish shrine in goodwill gesture

Warsaw, Aug 6, 2008 / 09:07 pm (CNA).- Five U.S. soldiers embarked on a 10-day, 180 mile-long march to Poland’s Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa with hundreds of camouflaged soldiers from various nations on Tuesday. The shrine contains the icon of the Black Madonna, the creation of which tradition attributes to St. Luke. The 300-year old pilgrimage has deep religious and patriotic significance in Poland and is expected to end before August 15, the Feast of the Assumption. Many miracles have been attributed to the Black Madonna, which was brought to the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa in 1384. During a 1655 siege, 70 monks and 180 supporters held off nearly 4,000 soldiers from the Protestant Swedish army, in a reputed miracle that inspired Poles to repel the invaders. Before beginning the pilgrimage, soldiers attended an early morning Mass at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army where a priest blessed them with holy water and then exhorted them to set a moral example during the march. The purpose of the U.S. contingent’s participation in the pilgrimage, the Associated Press says, is to show solidarity with Poland, an ally in Iraq and Afghanistan. Master Sgt. Roman Waldron, a 37-year-old soldier from Springfield, Illinois, told the Associated Press the event is a chance “to come together and share a little bit, and hopefully develop closer bonds with foreign militaries in a non-combat type setting.” Sgt. 1st Class Evan Young, from Rock Island, Illinois, said “Originally when I was given the opportunity I thought it would be kind of a neat way to see Poland, but then I started doing research on the Black Madonna and the siege and I thought it's part of a much bigger thing.” "It's pretty neat to be taking part in this, and help improve relations with Poland and other countries that are here," said Young, who grew up Episcopalian. Only one of the five U.S. soldiers involved in the pilgrimage is Catholic.
Link (here)
Painting: King Sigismund III Vasa kneeling before the Black Madonna of Czestochowa

An Interesting Catholic Blog

2008-08-04T21:32:00.003-04:00

My Life After, The Passion of the Christ (here)

Left In Ruins After Only 22 Years

2008-07-31T12:57:00.001-04:00

THE DERELICT MOUNT ST MARY’S-THE FAMINE CHURCH OF LEEDS EXPLORE. (here)

The Maid of Orleans

2008-07-27T09:29:00.006-04:00

The Maids Armor
" ...With this army Jeanne was sent. The King had caused armor to be made for her..."(1)
The Duc d'Alencon, Trial of Nullification
Some excerpts.

...When she felt herself wounded, she was afraid, and wept; but she was soon comforted, as she said. Some of the soldiers seeing her severely wounded wished to "charm " her; but she would not, saying: "I would rather die than do a thing which I know to be a sin; I know well that I must die one day, but I know not when, nor in what manner, nor on what day; if my wound may be healed without sin, I shall be glad enough to be cured." Oil of olive and lard were applied to the wound. After the dressing, she confessed herself to me, weeping and lamenting...

Fr Jean Pasquerel, Trial of Nullification
Read the full article on Joan of Arc from Le Fleur de Lys too entitled, The Maids Armor.
More of St. Joan of Arc (here) and (here)
Joan of Arc's, Companion's - in - Arms
The Maid of Heaven resource (here)

Codex Sinaiticus

2008-07-22T01:00:00.002-04:00

1,600-year-old version of Bible goes online
Technology brings one of oldest cultural artifacts accessible to everyone
By Dave Graham
BERLIN - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week. From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide.

High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on www.codex-sinaiticus.net as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.

Ulrich Johannes Schneider, director of Leipzig University Library, which holds part of the manuscript, said the publication of the Codex online would allow anyone to study a work of "fundamental" importance to Christians. "A manuscript is going onto the net which is like nothing else online to date," Schneider said. "It's also an enrichment of the virtual world — and a bit of a change from YouTube."

Selected translations will be available in English and German for those not conversant in ancient Greek, he added. Dating from around 350, the document is believed by experts to be the oldest known copy of the Bible, along with the Codex Vaticanus, another ancient version of the Bible, Schneider said.

The vellum manuscript came to Europe piece by piece from Saint Catherine's Monastery by Mount Sinai after German biblical scholar Konstantin von Tischendorf found a number of folios there in 1844. He was allowed to take some to Leipzig. Tischendorf returned to the monastery in 1859 with Russian backing and acquired the biggest section of the Bible for his imperial sponsors. It remained in St. Petersburg until the Soviet Union sold it to the British Museum in 1933. "The first section was clearly a gift to Tischendorf, but that's not so clear in the case of the second portion. The monks all signed a contract at the time, but the rumor persists that they were given a raw deal," said Schneider. "And there is probably some truth to this." Subsequent discoveries meant that the original Codex, missing roughly half the Old Testament, is now housed at four locations in Europe and the Middle East.

The project, launched in cooperation with the Russian National Library, the British Library and Saint Catherine's Monastery, also details the condition of the Bible, believed to have been written by early Christians in Egypt.

"I think it's just fantastic that thanks to technology we can now make the oldest cultural artifacts — ones that were once so precious you couldn't show them to anyone — accessible to everyone, in really high quality," said Schneider.

Link (here)

Photo is of the Codex Sinaiticus: Rev 2: 20 (here)

"Yet I hold this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, who teaches and misleads my servants to play the harlot and to eat food sacrificed to idols." Rev. 2: 20

More Than A Trip Down Under

2008-07-20T01:00:00.001-04:00

World's largest confessional staged in Sydney
July 20, 2008
By Pauline Askin
SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins.

With some 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims attending WYD from July 15-20 the Church is staging the world's largest confessional, with more than 1,000 priests at anyone time hearing sins and dispensing penance at 250 locations.

"The notion in Sydney was to decentralise the celebration of reconciliation (confession). The groups received reconciliation in over 250 locations throughout greater Sydney," said Monsigneur Marc Caron, the man in charge of the mass confessional. With pilgrims from more than 170 nations, confessionals had to be organised not just geographically but also according to different languages, Caron told Reuters. "Some of the locations are from concert halls downtown to function halls to schools and churches. Those are assigned by language, the French have so many venues, we have a Norwegian venue, a Korean and so many Chinese venues," he said.

Organisers have tried to be attentive to the sensitivity of confession and ensure pilgrims do not overhear each other's sins. "Whilst we don't have sound proof venues, they are padded dividers between stalls and they are in locations where there is so much going on and background noise," said Caron.

"I've been to each of the locations and I think people's privacy is perfectly assured." Confessions are being heard for up to six hours a day. In order to avoid overloading the priests hearing confessions they are allotted a break every 90 minutes. Up to 4,000 priests are attending World Youth Day in one capacity or another and will lend an ear to hearing confessions.

"At any one time there could easily be 1,000 priests hearing confession," Caron said. "We're not keeping track of the numbers (of sinners), but at the main venue in Darling Harbour Convention Centre it's very steady all the time."

Caron said even if he knew he wouldn't be able to divulge the top 10 sins being confessed by young pilgrims. The Catholic Church hopes World Youth Day, the brainchild of the late Pope John Paul II, will revitalise the world's young Catholics.

Link (here)

Cardinal Pell And The Holy Father At World Youth Day

2008-07-19T01:00:00.000-04:00

Divine Mercy Statue In Kansas

2008-07-17T01:00:00.002-04:00

Christ Statue Is 25 Feet Tall, Weighs 4 Tons
July 11, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- If you travel along Interstate 35 in the Northland, a big statue of Jesus may have caught your eye. The statue sits on Church Road at the entrance to some rental properties. Like many people, Tony Brandolino said he's been wondering what was the story with the statue. "First of all, I thought there was an accident here, and you know how sometimes they put crosses, and thought, 'That's a very nice memorial. Although extremely large,'" Brandolino told KMBC's Martin Augustine. The statue is 25 feet tall and weighs 4 tons. The owner of the statue said it was posted along the interstate to draw some attention. It's been there since May. The owner said the statue will be moved to a new location in a few weeks.

Watch this video to see Jesus as the Divine Mercy (here), statue of Jesus 25 feet high evangelizing drivers on the interstate highway system.

Benedicto! Benedicto!

2008-07-15T08:19:00.006-04:00

Welcome to the papal moshpit
Linda Morris

Religious Affairs Writer

and Josephine Tovey

July 14, 2008
"IT'S amazing … I felt lifted. He's like Jesus Christ on Earth," said Liba Vazquez, 17. It was worth waiting two hours in the cold for a glimpse of the Pope, she said. Her brother Amadeo said:

"Just seeing the Pope is something." Scores of pilgrims and cheering onlookers braved chilly conditions to catch a glimpse of the Pope's arrival and then lined the motorcade route from Richmond RAAF base all the way to his retreat at Kenthurst.

Maggie Llovet, a Spanish pilgrim who came with her Australian hosts, the Vazquez family from Glenhaven, was among 200 who gathered at the air base entrance. As the Pope was driven past she said pilgrims shouted "Long live the Pope" in different languages. "There was lots of singing, and big loud cheers. This is going to be a great experience," she said. The public were kept well away from the Pope, with the perimeter of the air base patrolled by Defence Force personnel, but they lined the fences and climbed trees for best vantage. When the jet touched down on time just before 3pm the public road outside the base turned into a car park. After a brief stay at the tarmac, the Pope's motorcade, which included three ambulances, was given a police escort to the Kenthurst Study Centre, a retreat run by Opus Dei, where he will recuperate over the next three days from his 23-hour flight from Rome, the longest foreign trip of his papacy. He begins his formal tour on Thursday.

His arrival drew solemn prayers and jubilant cheers from more pilgrims, and one group of onlooking neighbours raised a few stubbies. About 400 people gathered opposite the Study Centre in Pitt Town Road, with most people lucky enough to get a glimpse of the man himself, waving and smiling, as he whizzed down the winding street, accompanied by motorcycles and hovering helicopters.

Gerard Van Ommen Kloeke and his family were quietly murmuring the rosary behind police barricades on the side of the crowded street. The Canadian-born father of four, who lives in Sydney with his Australian wife, had seen the previous Pope at World Youth Day 1993 in Denver. "I wanted to give them [his children] the chance to experience that same excitment for themselves," he said. Mr Van Ommen Kloeke said he planned to hold up his youngest child as the pontiff cruised past, hoping she might be a "Pope magnet" and attract a wave.

When the motorcade finally passed there was no time for quiet reflection. The crowd burst to life, largely thanks to a cohort of about 50 teenage pilgrims from Spain, who erupted into cheers and began chasing the car down the street, chanting "Benedicto! Benedicto!"

Australian pilgrims could only look on and clap as the mood quickly changed into a football-fever style atmosphere. Police, who had been holding the public behind barricades, had no choice but to let the revelling crowds spill on to the streets to sing and dance and wave their World Youth Day flags. But it would not have been a proper start to the Pope's visit without some cynical Sydney-siders looking on. A group of neighbours gathered at the house opposite the Opus Dei retreat, making their way through a case of beer as they enjoyed their prime position.

"We're the welcoming party," said one man, raising his drink to the crowd. "Yeah, I'm thinking of converting," another yelled.

In Parramatta, Sydney's Maronite Christians turned out in force to welcome the leader of their branch of Catholicism. Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, along with about 100 other Maronite bishops and priests, presided over a Mass at Parramatta Stadium. The 20,000 strong crowd was made up of mostly Lebanese-Australian families, who had turned out for a rare glimpse of their spiritual leader, who many described as "our Pope". Bernadette Bousrama, one of the young volunteers at the event, had attended several other events over the previous week with the Patriarch. "It's been deadset amazing," she said. The Pope comes to a small outpost of Catholicism.

There are 5.12 million Catholics in Australia, comprising 25.8 per cent of the population.

But a dwindling number - less than 14 per cent - now regularly attend Mass. Pope Benedict XVI is largely a mystery to most Australians, says the papal biographer Paul Collins. "I think Australians are likely to see an old style European gentleman, an old style European intellectual," he said. "He showed in Cologne and the US he is able to relate to large crowds and take on some populist role, but that is not his natural style. He showed in the United States he had a good understanding of pluralistic democracy, which his predecessors lacked. "He will have difficulty with the Australian character, our understated way of operating and our slightly ironic way of existence. It could be unfortunate if he reads that as a lack of religiosity,

I simply do not buy the notion that Australians are a secular lot of materialistic slobs.
We are not like Americans, who are ostentatiously religious, so we could be easy to misread."

Link (here)

Cappa Magna

2008-07-15T01:00:00.001-04:00

Is it just me?
Gerald Warner
Gerald Warner is an author, broadcaster, columnist and polemical commentator who writes about politics, religion, history, culture and society in general. If it is an exaggeration to say that he believes the world has gone to the dogs, it is only a slight hyperbole.
Cappaphobia: mental disorder afflicting progressive Catholics

July 10, 2008
The stress of modern life is generating new kinds of mental illness, sometimes taking the form of irrational fear of certain objects. The latest example is an obscure disorder called cappaphobia. It is caused by cappa magna choralis and chiefly targets the elderly, many of whom may already be suffering from dementia. I first came across this clinical condition when shown a samizdat publication issued by a beleaguered group of progressive Catholics from an address in King Street Cloisters, which atmospherically evokes a huddled catacomb.

A letter to the editor began: "Seeing Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos vested in a cappa magna in Westminster Cathedral was a chilling experience."

An accompanying photograph, without even the health warning "May contain some flash vestments", illustrated the offending garment, a long train of scarlet moire silk being worn by Cardinal Castrillon at the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in Westminster Cathedral on June 14. The acute allergic reaction this vesture produces among cappaphobics should not be underestimated.

The cappa magna, a ceremonial cloak for cardinals and bishops, was first regularised in 1464. In 1952 Pius XII, in a misguided fit of radicalism, shortened the cardinalitial cappa from six yards to three.

That moment marked the beginning of the Church's downward trajectory. In 1969 Paul VI, in an orgy of vandalism reminiscent of the burning of patents of nobility in the French National Assembly in 1789, abolished the winter ermine hood on the cappa, along with the cardinals' galero hat, the red tabarro cape, buckled shoes and just about everything that compensated for the sacrifices Catholicism imposes on the faithful.

Now Benedict XVI, by resuming the ornamental half-sleeves on his soutane outlawed by Paul VI, has effectively signalled the repeal of the drabby sumptuary laws of 1969. This places cappaphobes at high risk of exposure.

Perhaps, on the lines of the pollen count warnings, there should be a cappa count. Jerusalem should be avoided, since the Latin Patriarch uniquely retains the ermined cappa. World Youth Day is likewise off limits since it is hosted by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell, who flaunted a six-yard cappa at the last gathering. Rome might seem safe, since Paul VI forbade the cappa within the Eternal City.

Rumour has it, however, that Pope Benedict has commissioned a 30-piece set of baroque vestments modelled on those of Leo X, which could be equally traumatic.

A letter from another cappaphobe the following week, in the same publication, observed: "It would be interesting to know if the silk cappa magna worn by the cardinal could be sold for the poor in accordance with Jesus' instruction." There is a slight error in exegesis here. Jesus said, "The poor you have always with you"; the apostle who raised the bolshie question about selling the expensive balm with which Our Lord was being anointed was Judas Iscariot.

Link (here)

Legion of Christ University In New York In Planning Stages

2008-07-14T01:00:00.004-04:00

Legion of Christ withdraws New Castle seminary plan

By Elizabeth Ganga

The Journal News
NEW CASTLE - The Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Roman Catholic order with a worldwide network of schools and universities, has withdrawn an application dating to 1995 for a seminary for 465 students, faculty and staff on Armonk Road. The letter to the town of New Castle announcing the withdrawal of the special permit application did not state the reason for abandoning the long-standing plans but said the order reserves the right to submit a new application in the future.

In the meantime the Legion of Christ, as it is also known, is pressing ahead with an application filed last year to expand the activities permitted on its property, which hosts retreats and marriage preparation classes.

Jay Dunlap, a spokesman for the Legion, also did not give a detailed reason for the withdrawal of the seminary application. He said the order wanted to focus on the retreat center. The property was developed for that use and is well suited to it, he said. "It seems, at this point, more practical to be focusing on the retreat center uses," Dunlap said. He said he was not aware of any longer-term plans. The Zoning Board of Appeals, which had jurisdiction over the special permit, had given the Legion a July 1 deadline to begin moving the seminary application along or abandon it because the approval process had been suspended since April 2006. "The application had, we thought, become very stale," said David Levine, the former chairman of the Zoning Board. Neighbors, who have long opposed the seminary plans and complained in the past that the retreat center was used more than the current permit allows, said they were thrilled the seminary application was withdrawn. "From the start, we thought this was an untenable proposal," said Sharon Greene, a neighbor who has long followed its twists through the town approval process. Steve Krongard, another neighbor on Tripp Street, said he was concerned the expansion would have dramatically changed the neighborhood. "It's a very quiet street," he said. "It's a very dark street. At night you can see the stars." But even with the withdrawal of the larger proposal, the town still needs to look hard at the application for expanded events to understand exactly how the property will be used, Greene said. "I just think it needs to be brought out in the open what they're doing there," she said.

The Legion bought the property at 773 Armonk Road in 1994 from the Unification Church. It was previously owned by the Sisters of the Cenacle and before that by theater producer and songwriter Billy Rose.

A permit for a seminary for up to 100 students was granted in 1994 and the next year the Legion applied for the expanded seminary for 465 students and staff on the 98-acre property. In 1998, the Legion was granted a permit for retreats limiting the number of visitors and events, intended to be in place until the seminary was up and running. But for years the Legion has only intermittently pursued the seminary application, at one point substituting a plan for a center to train missionary women that was later withdrawn. The existing buildings - the old mansion, living quarters built by the sisters and a chapel - total about 70,000 square feet of space. The seminary plan would have added about 315,000 square feet in a dormitory, recreation building, classrooms and other buildings.

Next door in Mount Pleasant, the Legion has plans to build a university for 2,000 students and faculty on 165 acres

that is moving through approvals after hearings earlier this year on its environmental impact.

Link (here)

Photo is of Father Álvaro Corcuera, L.C.,

"Rest In Peace" Tony Snow

2008-07-13T01:00:00.005-04:00

Tony Snow Dead at 53, A Tribute to a Catholic Journalist
7/12/2008
Catholic Online (http://www.catholic.org/)
"It’s trendy to reject religious reflection as a grave offense against decency. That’s not only cowardly. That’s false. Faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul. So don’t leave home without either one."
CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) –

Tony Snow, whose Catholic faith, superb communication skills, and work ethic propelled him to prominence in the world of media, journalism and communications, has died after his courageous battle with colon cancer. Honored by the Catholic University of America in May of 2007,

Tony Snow gave the crowd which gathered for the 118th Annual Commencement Address: "Reason, Faith, and Vocation" much to ponder. The title summed up his efforts to integrate his faith, his commitment to marriage and family, his political and policy convictions and a career of communications. It was also characteristically blunt and practical while rising at times to the level of inspired insight.

That was Tony Snow’s gift of communications. He used it throughout a career which was accompanied by earning the respect of his peers, even if they disagreed with his positions. Robert Anthony “Tony” Snow was born on June 1, 1955. He earned a bachelors degree in philosophy and taught in Kenya before deciding on a career as a journalist. He married his beloved wife, Jill Ellen Walker in 1987 and they have three children, Robbie, Kendell and Christie. Probably known most nationally for the last assignment of a memorable journalistic career, his brief stint as White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow has been a fixture in “conservative” politics and policy circles for many years. He was a very popular syndicated columnist, an editor, one of the most popular personalities on the Fox television network, where he anchored “Fox News Sunday” and a radio host.

His career spanned thirty years. The President of the United States, George Bush, released statement on Snow’s death in which he said: "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our dear friend, Tony Snow. The Snow family has lost a beloved husband and father. And America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character."

As tributes to this fine man pour in from all over the world, Catholic Online offers our prayers to his family and our deepest condolences on their loss. Tony Snow’s heroism in fighting cancer was another sign of the character which informed his stellar career as well as his commitment to family. In his address to the graduates of Catholic University he spoke these words: “Heed the counsel of your elders, including your parents. I guarantee you, they have made some howling mistakes if, like me, they were in college in the ’70s and ’80s. They probably haven’t owned up to them, but they might now, because they want to protect you. You see, they know that you are leaving the nest. And now that you’re leaving the nest, predators soon will begin to circle. "Some are going to try to take your money, but the really clever ones are going to tempt you to throw your life away. They’ll appeal to your pride and vanity – or worse, to your moral ambition. After all, there’s nothing more subversive than the offer to become a saint. So think things through. "Be patient. If somebody tries to give you a hard sell, you know they’re peddling snake oil; don’t buy it. If something’s not worth pondering, it is certainly not worth doing. And if your gut tells you something’s fishy, trust your gut. "You know, hucksters perform an unintended service. Like everybody here, I’m sure you’ve all been conned. I am such a sucker that I get conned all the time. What happens is they make you look in the mirror and assess honestly the person on the other side. "Now all of us love to delude ourselves, making excuses. But you know, the more we resist being honest and doing an honest evaluation, the sillier we behave. If you don’t believe it, think of any swinger you have ever seen in your life. Socrates was right: Know thyself. But see, there’s more. Once you’ve gotten past the mirror phase, then things begin to get really interesting. You begin to confront the truly overwhelming question: Why am I here? And that begins to open up the whole universe, because it impels you to think like the child staring out at the starry night: “Who put the lights in the sky? Who put me here? Why?” And pretty soon you are thinking about God.

Don’t shrink from pondering God’s role in the universe or Christ’s. You see, it’s trendy to reject religious reflection as a grave offense against decency. That’s not only cowardly. That’s false. Faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul. So don’t leave home without either one. ...

Think not only of what it means to love but what it means to be loved. I have a lot of experience with that. Since the news that I have cancer again, I have heard from thousands and thousands of people and I have been the subject of untold prayers. I’m telling you right now: You’re young [and you feel] bullet-proof and invincible. [But] never underestimate the power of other people’s love and prayer. They have incredible power. It’s as if I’ve been carried on the shoulders of an entire army. And they had made me weightless. The soldiers in the army just wanted to do a nice thing for somebody. As I mentioned, a lot of people — everybody out here — wants to do that same thing.” The manner and the message showed the mettle of the man. In that address he also spoke of his sincere faith:

“When it comes to faith, I’ve taken my own journey. You will have to take your own. But here’s what I know. Faith is as natural as the air we breathe. Religion is not an opiate, just the opposite. It is the introduction to the ultimate extreme sport. There is nothing that you can imagine that God cannot trump. As Paul said “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

And once you realize that there is something greater than you out there, and then you have to decide, “Do I acknowledge it and do I act upon it?” You have to at some point surrender yourself. And there is nothing worthwhile in your life that will not at some point require an act of submission.” We join our prayers to those of his family, friends and colleagues the world over: “Eternal Rest grant unto him Oh Lord, and may his soul and the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen”

Link (here)

Tony Snow joins CNN (here)

Michelle Malkin on the death of Tony Snow (here)

Great Words On Marriage From A Priest

2008-07-10T07:49:00.004-04:00

An Ideal Husband
By MAUREEN DOWD
July 6, 2008

An excerpt.

Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., has spent his celibate life — including nine years as a missionary in India — mulling connubial bliss. His decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some “mostly common sense” advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness. “Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married.” For 40 years, he has been giving a lecture — “Whom Not to Marry” — to high school seniors, mostly girls because they’re more interested. “It’s important to do it before they fall seriously in love, because then it will be too late,” he explains. “Infatuation trumps judgment.”

I asked him to summarize his talk:

“Never marry a man who has no friends,” he starts. “This usually means that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands. I am always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no friends. Since, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, ‘Iron shapes iron and friend shapes friend,’ what are his friends like?

What do your friends and family members think of him? Sometimes, your friends can’t render an impartial judgment because they are envious that you are beating them in the race to the altar." Envy beclouds judgment.

“Does he use money responsibly? Is he stingy? Most marriages that founder do so because of money — she’s thrifty, he’s on his 10th credit card.

“Steer clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands counter to yours. It’s good to have a doormat in the home, but not if it’s your husband."

“Is he overly attached to his mother and her mythical apron strings? When he wants to make a decision, say, about where you should go on your honeymoon, he doesn’t consult you, he consults his mother." (I’ve known cases where the mother accompanies the couple on their honeymoon!)

“Does he have a sense of humor? That covers a multitude of sins. My mother was once asked how she managed to live harmoniously with three men — my father, brother and me. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was: ‘You simply operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.’ My father fell about laughing."

“A therapist friend insists that ‘more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.’ The strong, silent type can be charming but ultimately destructive.

That world-class misogynist, Paul of Tarsus, got it right when he said, ‘In all your dealings with one another, speak the truth to one another in love that you may grow up.’

“Don’t marry a problem character thinking you will change him. He’s a heavy drinker, or some other kind of addict, but if he marries a good woman, he’ll settle down.

People are the same after marriage as before, only more so." “Take a good, unsentimental look at his family — you’ll learn a lot about him and his attitude towards women." Kay made a monstrous mistake marrying Michael Corleone! Is there a history of divorce in the family? An atmosphere of racism, sexism or prejudice in his home?

Are his goals and deepest beliefs worthy and similar to yours? I remember counseling a pious Catholic woman that it might not be prudent to marry a pious Muslim, whose attitude about women was very different. Love trumped prudence; the annulment process was instigated by her six months later. “Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic. One would have to pray that the fundamentalist doesn’t open the Bible and hit the page in which Abraham is willing to obey God and slit his son’s throat."

“Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to be envious of you, to be secretive?

“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”

Link (here)

Priest Martyred In Nepal, By Hindu's

2008-07-08T04:00:00.000-04:00

Hindu terrorists kill Catholic priest
The Nepal Defence Army, which seeks Hinduism restored as Nepal's state religion, claimed it killed a Catholic priest.

July 05, 2008

by Asia News
An obscure local group called Nepal Defence Army, which wants Hinduism restored as the state religion, has claimed responsibility for killing an Indian priest. Johnson Moyalan was murdered Monday inside the Don Bosco mission in Nepal’s Sirsia town, about 15 km from the India-Nepal border. A group of four to five people forced their way inside the mission early morning, locked up the assistant priest and shot Moylan dead.

The Don Bosco group of Roman Catholic priests said he had been shot twice, in the stomach and chest. And the attackers left pamphlets at the spot that said the Nepal Defence Army was responsible for the killing. The Hindu group claims it is training suicide squads to restore Hinduism as the state religion.

The last rites of 60-year-old Moyalan will be held in the Bandel Church of India’s West Bengal state, the order said. Moyalan’s murder inside the mission created ripples with the Vatican too taking note of the slaying of its priest. Hailing from Ollur village of Kerala in India, Moyalan had entered the service of the Roman Catholic church when he was only 19. After serving in Bangalore and Hyderabad cities in India, he came to Nepal in 1996. Four years later, his order opened a mission in Sirsia to work for the uplift of Santhals and other underprivileged members of the Hindu community regarded as low-castes. It opened a primary school of which the priest served as principal. According to reports, the school had been receiving extortion calls from underground armed groups active in the turbulent Terai plains. This is the first killing of a Christian priest in Nepal. Before the pro-democracy movement in 1990, the church had to contend with deep distrust by the government when preaching and conversions were a punishable offence. Though the former Hindu kingdom of Nepal has eased religious curbs since then, some of the churches in south Nepal came under Maoist attack during the communist insurgency for not meeting the insurgents’ demands for money. Last year, Nepal’s parliament declared the country a secular state, a proclamation hailed by the religious minorities. However, the security situation in south Nepal has begun to worsen after the April election, with armed groups becoming active again.

Link (here)

Weigel The Realist

2008-07-07T04:00:00.002-04:00

The Christian realist
By Harrison Scott Key

July 1, 2008
Clearly, there’s a theme to today’s posts, about literature, the West, the classics, and reading. At City Journal, Bruce Thornton reviews Against the Grain: Christianity and Democracy, War and Peace, by George Weigel, where the author “gives Christian answers to the West’s most pressing questions.” Weigel is also the author of The Cube and the Cathedral, which you may’ve heard of.

Read the full post (here)

The Star Of The Passion In New Movie

2008-07-07T04:00:00.001-04:00

Prisoner Remake
1 July 2008
BOSSES at ITV confirmed last night that Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel will star in the network's remake of 1960s classic cult thriller, The Prisoner, slated to premiere in 2009. American actor Caviezel, who appeared in The Passion of the Christ, will take the role of Number Six, while McKellen will appear as Number Two. The original Prisoner show was filmed in Portmeirion, in North Wales - but ITV was not confirming where the new series will be shot.

Link (here)