Left In Ruins After Only 22 Years

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

The Maid of Orleans

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

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

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

Divine Mercy Statue In Kansas

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

More Than 57 Sauce

Heinz ad pushes gay marriage and family, features homosexuals kissing
Read about it (here). Hat Tip to Karen Hall at Some Have Hats (here)

Legion Of Christ, Ordains 56 New Transitional Deacons

Nuncio ordains 34 legionaries to Diaconate
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org): When one puts Christ at the center of his life, he thinks and speaks of nothing other than him and his Kingdom, the apostolic nuncio to Italy told 34 candidates to the diaconate of the Legionaries of Christ. Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello said this Sunday before ordaining the deacons in a liturgy held at the Center of Higher Studies of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome.

The diaconate is the first of three ranks in the ordained ministry, and the last step for seminarians before being ordained to the priesthood. "Jesus must be the center of our thoughts, the argument of our speech, and the model of our life," said Archbishop Bertello.

"If we truly have this contact with our Lord, we will think of nothing other than his Kingdom, we will speak of nothing other than him and his Kingdom, and we will make our life an apostolate, giving ourselves totally to God. "I am sure that each one of you has in his heart a spirit, a missionary ardor that is proper to your congregation." Ranging in age from 29 to 35, the deacons hail from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Spain, the United States, France, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. An additional 15 Legionaries were ordained over the past few weeks in Mexico, the United States and Germany.

Six more will be ordained in Medellin, Colombia; Milan, Italy and Dublin, Ireland. In total, 56 Legionaries will be ordained to the diaconate during this period.

Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the approval of the constitutions of the Legionaries of Christ. The congregation, founded in 1941 by Father Marcial Maciel, has 760 priests and over 2,500 seminarians.

Link (here)

Arch-Bishop Wilton Gregory Of Atlanta Presides Over A Large Miracle Composed Of 30,000 Parts

Eucharist Congress in Atlanta breaks record with 30,000 participants

Atlanta, Jun 23, 2008 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- The Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta was packed Saturday as about 30,000 Roman Catholics gathered for the second and final day of the 13th Eucharistic Congress of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The two days of teaching, preaching, music and worship were a hallmark event for the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the 750,000 Catholics who attend its 100 missions and churches. The theme of this year's event, which brought together converts, cradle Catholics, scholars and clergy, was, "I Am the Living Bread." On the issues facing the Catholic Church and all faiths in America, Helen M. Alvare said, "A big challenge is the marriage and family crisis —- not just because it's internal, but it's also external to the United States. It has what I call tentacles.”"Without a solid marriage and family culture, society really is in big trouble," said Alvare, an associate professor at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va. "And particularly among the poor and among immigrants, their marriage and family life is falling apart at a faster rate than people with more money."It's not just a sex issue. It's not a 'This is where you follow Catholic doctrine' issue. It's more, are you going to be able to fulfill the meaning and purpose of your life, which is loving care for other persons who are given to you? And are we going to be able to build a strong society, not just for Catholics, but for the whole country?"The Archdiocese of Atlanta’s annual Eucharistic Congress has been held around the Feast of Corpus Christi for the last 13 years. Archbishop-emeritus John F. Donoghue began the event in 1995 to encourage Eucharistic Adoration in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. At present, over 600 volunteers make the Eucharistic Congress possible. The event opened with a procession joined by children of the Archdiocese who received their First Communion dressed in white dresses and suits.Tom Peterson, president of the non-profit organization Catholics Come Home, said, "The biggest problem facing the Church, and Christianity in general, is the world doesn't think we need God. We have become too smart for our own britches.”"We believe with our intellect and our money, we can do what we want. We are happy. We are wealthy, and we don't need God. Isn't that the same as the original sin of Adam and Eve, where through our pride we become our own gods?" Peterson asked. "I think it's very important that not only Catholics, but the larger Christian community as a whole, focus on becoming more humble, praying for humility and praying to know and do God's will," he said. "We don't know what we're missing." So many people are starving for Jesus in their life. They just don't know they're starving for it. They've been deceived. The world has gotten in their face, and it's distracted them. But they know they're not happy down deep. As St. Augustine said: 'Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.'"This year's event included a Healing Mass, the Revive Young Adult Track, as well as tracks for the Deaf, Hispanics, Vietnamese, Kids and Teens. The General Track included as speakers Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Atlanta and former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Most Reverend William George Curlin, founder of the Mount Carmel House for homeless women; Steve Ray, convert and author of "St. John's Gospel", "Upon This Rock", & "Crossing the Tiber"; Dr. Helen M. Alvaré, pro-life advocate, author and former pro-life Secretariat of the USCCB; and Matthew Kelly, speaker and best-selling Catholic author. The two days of teaching, preaching, music and Masses have become a hallmark celebration for the Archdiocese of Atlanta. It has grown from slightly more than 1,000 attendees at the first congress in 1996 to a meeting that includes programs in multiple languages, which reflects the rapid growth and diversification of Catholics in Georgia. The archdiocese has grown from 311,000 in 2000 to an estimated 750,000.The congress draws Catholics from Georgia and neighboring states.

Link (here)

The Impact Of Christ

'Catholicism is not a philosophy, neither is it a theology, but it is a meeting with a person. So the moment you meet Jesus Christ, your life can change radically. That is when I started to look at everything differently.'

Have I caught your attention? This is a quote from a modern day Mary Magdalene, Alessandra Borghese modern vestige of Italian Royality, history, wealth and power. I think you will find this article facinating as well as encouraging.

Enjoy!

Alessandra Borghese: the prodigal daughter
13/06/2008
European aristocrat, Princess Alessandra Borghese, talks to Peter Stanford about her well-documented return to Catholicism. The reformed rake is a familiar figure in the religious canon from the parable of the prodigal son onwards. Princess Alessandra Borghese, 44-year-old scion of one of the grandest of Italian noble families, famous for its popes, cardinals and glorious villa and park in the centre of Rome, may never quite have been a rake, but otherwise neatly fits the mould. In the 1990s, she was one of those European aristocrats whose names we came to know only because they were forever appearing in glossy magazines, attending all the right grand weddings and openings. She even published an A-to-Z guide to good manners with her great friend, the German Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, better known in the society pages as the 'punk princess' or 'Princess TNT'. Alessandra Borghese's personal wealth - her mother, Countess Fabrizia Citterio, was one of the heirs to the San Pellegrino water fortune- funded her very own cultural centre in Rome, and she married into more money in the form Greek shipping tycoon, Constantine Niarcose. All of which feels a million miles away from the slight, guarded woman sitting opposite me, sipping an espresso in a London café, her clothes simple, her face without a hint of make-up, and her conversation all about God. In 1999, she recalls, looking me straight in the eye, she had a meeting. 'Catholicism is not a philosophy, neither is it a theology, but it is a meeting with a person. So the moment you meet Jesus Christ, your life can change radically. That is when I started to look at everything differently.' Borghese has since that meeting, become Italy's best-known born-again Catholic. Her 2004 book, With New Eyes, the story of her return to the fold, was a bestseller in her home country and over much of Catholic Europe. She has followed it with four other equally successful, equally personal, devotional works, including In The Footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger, her first outing in English, published this month. As we talk, I find myself more than once referring to her conversion, but, as she points out, that is not the right word for she was raised Catholic. "I was brought up to know that my family had given a very important pope to the church, Paul V [at the start of the seventeenth century], so important that his name is written on the façade of Saint Peter's Basilica itself, along with our coat of arms.' As she quotes the Latin inscription, she raises the little finger of her left hand to show me the same crest on the small ring she is wearing. 'But for me growing up, that was all history.

I didn't participate in it.' She was, she says, 'very conformist' as a young woman. 'I couldn't care less about praying, about the Church, I had to be emancipated.' Her distaste for such a notion is immediately apparent but is revealed in full later, when the question of women priests -banned by Catholicism - comes up. 'If you're Catholic and want to be a woman priest,' she protests, 'join the Anglicans or the Protestants. Why do you want to change the Catholic tradition according to your point of view? If you look at Holy Mary, you see that her grandeur was not because she did anything, but because she was able to stand behind something bigger.' It is not a position that sits easily with contemporary secular norms, but Borghese has a rather aristocratic disdain for conventional wisdom

. Her attachment to traditional Catholic values is as fierce as it is unapologetic. On the evening of our meeting, she is due to address an audience at the Brompton Oratory, bastion of the unreformed approach to the faith in London. Her own successful career, as an author, has nothing to do with female emancipation, she insists. 'Sometimes you should try to make a step back, not forward, and you can be very useful to a bigger scheme. I know its difficult because we live in a society where we are all pushed to be in front, to be visible. If you don't appear, you don't exist. You have to be seen, be successful, be good looking, be cool. But it just isn't true.' There is, arguably, an autobiographical reference to her own younger days in there. Was there a particular trigger for her return to Catholicism? The same date she quotes for it was also, I point out, the year when her husband died, reportedly of a cocaine overdose. 'No, it was not because of that. I wouldn't relate it to that.' Up to now fluent, she suddenly gets flustered. 'No, no'. She pauses. 'My reasons were more banal. That is why I wanted to write it. Because it can happen to anyone.' When With New Eyes first appeared, she recalls, she was overwhelmed by letters from people who had had similar experiences of drawing closer to God. Or who wanted that to happen. 'I think they felt encouraged because I was such an inappropriate person for this to happen to. But that is what made me so appropriate.' It is a telling point, and, in making it, her confidence returns quickly. But what gives Borghese's new book its particular charm is that, for all her protestations of being ordinary, she clearly retains a privileged entrée in church circles. As In The Footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger demonstrates. It is a kind of voyage around the Holy Father. Or, to be more particular, a voyage around his native Bavaria, in the company of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis whose 500-room Schloss St Emmeram is located there. 'To call it a house,' Borghese admits, 'might provoke a smile'. The two princesses travel to various sites associated with the young Pope Benedict, meet his brother, also a priest, and end up, as the book's climax, being summoned for a private audience with the Pontiff as he makes his first visit to his homeland since his election in 2005.

'Gloria and I,' Borghese writes, 'had intended to mix with the crowds and wait for the Pope anonymously. However, Providence arranged things otherwise. The mayor, whom we had met only a few weeks previously, invited us to sit in seats that had been reserved for him…Entirely unexpectedly, [the Pope] also paused to greet us. I enthusiastically told him how much I had been struck by the beauty of his land. Kind as always, he nodded and thanked me'.

Sometimes, we have a tendency to see rulers - be they kings, presidents, prime ministers or popes - in terms of their policies rather than simply as individuals. With her unique access to man who, since his election, has not given interviews, how, I wonder, would Borghese describe the private Benedict XVI? 'He's very polite. He makes me feel immediately comfortable and important to him. He looks into my eyes and asks me how I feel, how things are going, with a sweet politeness. And then he is a simple and straightforward person. Maybe a little bit shy.' Her focus on his roots in Bavaria inevitably raises the question about Benedict's attitude, as a young man, to the Nazi party. For, as she points out, Markel am Inn, where he was born in 1927, lies just across the river from Braunau am Inn where, 38 years earlier, Adolf Hitler, had entered this world. 'There is nothing to defend the Pope's reputation about,' she protests. 'People have tried to find hidden things, relationships with Nazis, but there is nothing. He was a young boy. He was a soldier. He did his job. He did what every other young boy would have done then. And then he became a priest. There is nothing to be discovered. No scandal.' Her expression makes plain there nothing more to discuss. What, I can't help asking, do her old friends, from her pre-1999 days, think of her now in her role as arch-Catholic? 'Of course, they think I am strange. People look at me in a weird way, but others respect me. It is life. It doesn't worry me. Because the great thing when you rediscover faith is that you don't feel alone anymore. And so you are stronger.' The inference is that she felt alone before that rediscovery. 'No, its not that I felt alone, rather that, even though I had everything, something was missing.' In the Borghese family tree there is a line that leads back, some say, to Saint Catherine of Siena, the fourteenth century mystic. She was, like many saints of the church, someone who turned her back on worldly goods in order to follow God. Is such a renunciation something Borghese has contemplated? She laughs at the comparison. 'I am a million kilometers away from being such a saint. But everybody has his or her own big or little mission.' Hers, she makes clear, is simply to write, to be, as she puts it, 'a witness to the possibility in our age of rediscovering faith'. In her quieter moments, she works as a volunteer helper at the French Marian shrine of Lourdes - an experience that she has made into a book, just out in Italy and already, she tells me, another bestseller. And,

recently, she stood as a candidate for the Italian Senate, on the list of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats. 'But there was no hope of being elected,' she stresses. ' It is a tiny party, though if the electoral rules had been different. I could have won a seat.' We are just moving on to her political ambitions - she is charmingly but firmly refusing to be drawn on what she thinks of Silvio Berlusconi -

when we are joined by Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and her daughter. They are in London too and there are plans to visit Christie's. 'I think we have finished,' Borghese says. Her voice goes up at the end, as if asking a question, but her intention is clear. I slip in a final question. When she looks back to her 'other life' in the 1990s, does she have any regrets? 'No,' she fires back immediately, 'because I haven't lost anything. I am a much freer person. Much more open to the world, so I see that time as a sort of preparation. I don't want to change what has happened. I want to change what I am living now.'

On The Faith Of Tim Russert

TIM RUSSERT, 1950–2008
God, Politics and the Making of a Joyful Warrior

There were crosses above the Russert kids' beds, a portrait of Jesus and his Sacred Heart on the wall and a statue of the Blessed Virgin in the backyard; in May, the month of Mary, the family lit a candle every day. There was no meat on Fridays, and if someone lost something, Mrs. Russert prayed to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of lost things. On Good Friday they re-enacted the Stations of the Cross. ("I remember, in seventh grade, kneeling in church from noon to three as a form of sacrifice," Russert recalled in his memoir, "Big Russ & Me." "It wasn't easy.") In second grade came first communion and the perils of the confessional. The priest's face was hidden by a screen, and Russert did his homework even then. "We always prepared for confession by thinking of various sins we might have committed," he recalled, "such as being mean to your sister or the always available wildcard sin of 'impure thoughts'." The rhythms and rituals of the church—communion, confession, absolution, catechism—were not exotic to Russert; they were givens, part of the air he breathed.

Link (here)

The First Known Catholic Church Is Discovered, Validating The Gospel Of Luke

Jordan archaeologists unearth 'world's first church'
June 10/08
Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed what they claim is the world's first church, dating back almost 2,000 years, The Jordan Times reported on Tuesday. "We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," the head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said. He said it was uncovered under Saint George's Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

"We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians -- the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ," Husan said. These Christians, who are described in a mosaic as "the 70 beloved by God and Divine," are said to have fled persecution in Jerusalem and founded churches in northern Jordan, Husan added. He cited historical sources which suggest they both lived and practised religious rituals in the underground church and only left it after Christianity was embraced by Roman rulers.

The bishop deputy of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, Archimandrite Nektarious, described the discovery as an "important milestone for Christians all around the world." Researchers recovered pottery dating back to between the 3rd and 7th centuries, which they say suggests these first Christians and their followers lived in the area until late Roman rule. Inside the cave there are several stone seats which are believed to have been for the clergy and a circular shaped area, thought to be the apse. There is also a deep tunnel which is believed to have led to a water source, the archaeologist added. Rihab is home to a total of 30 churches and Jesus and the Virgin Mary are believed to have passed through the area, Husan said.

Link (here)

A nice follow up to the story (here)

The Holy Father Is Penetrating The Culture

Publishing industry warms to Benedict
Published: June 7, 2008 at 10:05 PM
VATICAN CITY, June 7 (UPI) -- The success of the first volume of Pope Benedict XVI's life of Christ in Italy has a religious publisher eyeing the pontiff's backlist. "Jesus of Nazareth" was the eighth-best-selling book in Italy last year, The Telegraph reports.

Catholics have also snapped up Benedict's two encyclicals, buying 3 million copies of "God Is Love" and "Saved by Hope." In Britain, the pope shares a publisher with J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. Long before he became pope, Joseph Ratzinger was a prominent theologian and the author of 132 books and articles.

Now, the Vatican publishing operation is working with Helder, the biggest European Catholic publishing house, to reprint his early writing. "There is a rich and extraordinary catalogue and today's readers are looking at it with growing interest," the Rev. Giuseppe Costa, a Vatican official, said. "In the pope there is a strong point of reference, both for religion and culture." The pope hopes to complete the second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth" this summer, the report said.

Link (here)

A Picture Of Our "Vicar Of Christ"

New Documentary On The Catholic Origins Of "The Birth Of Freedom"

How is freedom born?
The American founders said that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights—that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They called this a self-evident truth. Eighty-seven years later, Abraham Lincoln reaffirmed this idea on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg.

And in 1963 these same words echoed from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as Martin Luther King, Jr. urged America to fulfill the promise of its founding. But humans are separated by enormous differences in talent and circumstance. Why would anyone believe that all men are created equal? That all should be free?

That all deserve a voice in choosing their leaders? Why would any nation consider this a self-evident truth? For the millions around the world who have never tasted liberty, the question cries for an answer.

Official site (here)

Video trailer (here)

Deceit, Dissent And Dogma: All For One And One For All

Rod Dreher: Why McKinney priest's ouster matters
May 16, 2008
Rod Dreher of Dallas is an editorial columnist.

His e-mail address is rdreher@dallas news.com.
The abrupt resignation of the Rev. Art Mallinson from St. Michael's Roman Catholic parish in McKinney after only two weeks on the job was right and proper. By involving himself in a lewd online discussion group for homosexual priests, Father Mallinson severely damaged his ability to serve as pastor of that or any parish.

One media report described the now-defunct St. Sebastian's Angels Web site as a "support group" for gay priests. That innocuous description is entirely misleading. The site, which boasted more than 50 priests as members, featured pornographic imagery and photographs of naked men. It contained extensive, profanity-laced discussions of sexual fantasies and adventures. A South African bishop ( Bishop Reginald Cawcutt ) once posted a message that said he looked forward to the death of Pope John Paul II and shared his desire to poison Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI.

The group's members complained often about celibacy, and featured members bragged about how they had no intention of keeping their priestly pants buttoned. Roman Catholic Faithful, a conservative activist group, began monitoring the site in 1999 and made its findings public in 2000, after getting nowhere in quietly asking bishops to deal with the problem. Two Dallas priests were exposed as members. One, Father Cliff Garner, eventually left the priesthood. Father Mallinson, the other, remained at his post in Lancaster, until his recent reassignment to McKinney. According to the Dallas diocese, Father Mallinson told church officials he quit St. Sebastian's Angels in 2001, after porn began to be posted on the site. The diocese, which is investigating the matter, has been misinformed, to put it charitably. The information RCF made public in 2000 was taken from the site in 1999. The priest also told diocesan officials that the site intended to help gay priests live celibate lives. That's demonstrably false. Stephen Brady of RCF gave me an e-mail Father Mallinson sent to his online comrades, talking about how, under an assumed name, he arranged to meet a gay man in a coffee shop following an online chat. No one knows what happened next, but it is difficult to believe Father's intentions were innocent. Mr. Brady can provide Bishop Kevin Farrell all the information he needs to evaluate the St. Sebastian Angels' true nature, if the new Dallas bishop cares to investigate. Father Mallinson posted his photograph on the site, which ran it under the caption: "But! But! He looks so harmless!" Well, wasn't he? After all, there have been no allegations that he ever abused minors or even violated his vow of celibacy. And the Web site has been defunct for years. But it's not harmless.

A priest is more than a dispenser of sacraments and manager of a parish. He is a spiritual leader to his flock. Nobody can expect priests or pastors, rabbis or imams to be perfect. But with ordination comes spiritual and moral authority. People look to a priest for leadership.

Father Mallinson obviously never intended his participation in that nest of vipers to become public. But it did, and that bell cannot be unrung. His parishioners have a right to know why he got involved with the group and stuck with it despite the relentless sleaze. They have a right to hear from him whether he's truly repented and what his real beliefs are about Catholic teaching on celibacy and sexuality. People might be willing to forgive a regrettable lapse of judgment if that's all this was. But they need to hear from the priest, who can't begin to restore his moral authority until he clears this up. We will no doubt hear that Father Mallinson has been the victim of gay-bashing. Nonsense. If a heterosexual Catholic priest had joined a clandestine online group of straight clerics who trafficked in lewd sexual stories, denounced celibacy, cursed the Pope and posted pornographic images of women, Catholics would be just as alarmed. There are certainly gay priests who abide by their vows. But this is about McKinney Catholics' right to a priest with integrity. "That catty, vicious site was, alas, not a place where priests took off their collars to hang out," a priest wrote me this week. "It was a place into which they dragged their collars and soiled them in the filth."
Father Mallinson should come clean.
Link (here)

Paganism's Ugly Head

Abandoned IVF twins
HOSPITAL workers were left stunned after a couple reportedly abandoned IVF twin girls immediately after giving birth because they weren't boys. The couple of Indian heritage but who are British citizens living in Birmingham told medical staff directly after the Caesarean section delivery they weren't going to accept the girls as they were the "wrong sex". The Sun reported. The husband even reportedly asked staff at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton how soon his wife would be fit enough to fly to India to have renewed fertility treatment in an attempt to have boys to carry on the family name.

The couple had undergone IVF treatment in India because with the mother aged 59 and the father a 72-year-old they were deemed too old to undergo the procedure in Britain. The Sun quotes a source at the hospital as saying: “Everyone is utterly appalled. How could any parent do this? “This is Britain in the 21st century.“But they just weren’t prepared to raise these two beautiful girls.”

Female babies are often abandoned and sometimes left for dead or killed in India by traditional families who only value male offspring. Following the discharge of the mother, who ignored medical advice that she should rest in hospital, the babies have been transferred to another hospital in Birmingham where they have received no visitors. British authorities have told The Sun they are investigating the matter.

Link to Fr. Ray Blakes's St. Mary Madalene blog post entitled Abandoned IVF twins (here)

Dawn Eden Has Exposed SATC For What It Really Is

Sex and the Kiddies

By Dawn Eden

Published 6/3/2008 12:07:59 AM
For a few months when I was nine years old, in 1978, my pride and joy was inside a large cardboard box that had originally held a pair of sexy knee-high tan leather boots belonging to my divorced mom. Within was my collection of Charlie's Angels bubblegum cards, separated into rubber-banded sets so I could easily locate duplicates with which to trade, usually in hope of the prized Farrah cards. Farrahs were the rarest because they were discontinued after the first season, when Mrs. Fawcett-Majors departed the show. It wasn't that I was a fan of the TV show; in fact, I hardly ever watched it. What I liked were the images of the show's stars, especially the close-ups that offered their physical stats on the back. My body was beginning to sprout curves, and I hoped against hope that one day I could be beautiful like the Angels, or at least pretty enough to model. One thing holding me back in that department was height. Models, I knew, were tall, and none of the women in my family made it up to five-and-a-half feet. The Cheryl Ladd card gave me encouragement; it said the blue-eyed blonde was just 5-foot-4, my mom's height. I had blue eyes and blonde hair, and my dad used to tell me that after my braces were off I would have a shot at being Miss America.

TODAY'S YOUNG GIRLS have their own dreamgirls -- the ladies of Sex and the City. Glamorous protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, is just 5-foot-4, though her character's signature Manolo heels seem to raise her into the stratosphere.Although SATC in its original HBO incarnation abounded in profanity and exposed flesh, for the past four years a "cleaned-up" version has aired in syndication, gaining an audience of girls too young to legally drink its protagonists' beloved Cosmopolitans.

The fact that Parker and her co-stars are old enough to be their mothers doesn't quell teens' enthusiasm for the show. If anything, it seems to give the Sex characters' actions an imprimatur, fulfilling the sort of elder-stateswoman role that Betty Friedan fulfilled for baby-boom feminists. "It's my favorite show! I love it," gushes 15-year-old Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus in this month's Vanity Fair -- the same issue in which she caused an uproar with her backless photo session. Her SATC obsession helps explain why she was "embarrassed" at the reaction to a shoot she had thought was "artistic." After all, Samantha Jones, the show's most "sexually liberated" character, played by Kim Cattrall, posed nude, and if glamorous, self-assured Samantha could do it, why couldn't she at least show some skin?As her love of SATC made headlines, Cyrus's flacks went into damage-control mode, claiming she was referring to the syndicated version. "The show she watches is completely sanitized," a source told People.WELL, YES AND NO. The syndicated show is indeed missing many of the original's profanities and its X-rated sex talk. But no one would confuse it with Anne of Green Gables.

While the four-letter words are gone, the acts for which they stand remain, replaced with dubbed "clean" dialogue. The gals' "f---" buddies become "sex buddies." Samantha's war cry, "You gotta f--- me" is replaced with the so-much-better "You gotta bang me." When the syndicated episodes debuted, Kristin Davis, who plays Charlotte, observed, "[Watching the new version], I was sitting there trying to figure out what they left out!"

One of the most talked-about scenes in the SATC film that opened last Friday is a thinly veiled satire on how the TV show has attained an under-18 audience without losing its X-rated themes. The four female stars are sitting around the brunch table at their favorite restaurant, where they usually dish salacious bedroom stories, only now Charlotte's 3-year-old daughter is present as well, working on a coloring book.When Miranda brings up their favorite topic, Charlotte urges her to watch her language around the child. Carrie saves the day by suggesting they substitute the word "coloring" for "sex."

Read Dawn Edens full article at The American Spectator (here)

Dawn Edens blog is entitled The Dawn Patrol

Not A Good Idea, It Is Not A Game, It's A Portal To Hell

'OUIJA BOARD' TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE ON BIG SCREEN
Michael Bay is working on a film based on the supernatural Hasbro game
By CHARLENE CHENG, Contributing Writer

5/30/2008

THE SKINNY: In a throwback to my 7th grade slumber parties, equal opportunity film-adapter Michael Bay is planning to dust off the old OUIJA BOARD and base a feature film on it. Michael Bay and David Berenbaum's Platinum Dunes is on board to produce, along with Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, and OUIJA maker Hasbro. The project is set up at Universal, where Hasbro has a six-year strategic partnership. The film will be a supernatural adventure centering around the popular game. Having been around for centuries, OUIJA-type boards have been sold since the late 1800s. In the game, players' fingers are placed on a small piece that mysteriously moves to letters and numbers in order to spell out answers to questions asked by the participants. The board has been produced by Hasbro's Parker Brothers since 1966, scaring millions worldwide ever since.

Link (here)

Further articles on the subject

The Colorado Catholic Herald's, CHRISTIAN OR NEW AGE, PT. VII Ouija Boards and Tarot Cards

Spero News', Vatican exorcist Amorth speaks on Satan's smoke

More on Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the Vaticans Chief exorcist

(here) , (here) and (here)