This gesture follows a similar move of the Moscow Patriarchate, which last December published a book with texts from Benedict XVI regarding European culture.
Now, the Italian-language book with addresses by the Russian Orthodox patriarch, titled "Liberta e Responsabilita alla Ricerca dell'Armonia" (Liberty and Responsibility in the Search of Harmony) will be officially presented on Monday at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.
Reproducing records from the Inquisition's activities -- records held in the formerly secret archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- the series hopes to shed light on how the Roman Inquisition really worked and to dispel age-old biases.
http://www.uscatholic.org/news/2010/05/inquisition-and-index-vatican-records-shed-light-dark-legend
Isreal's Rabbinate to meet Sunday to discuss holy site taxes and avoid scandal.
A leading Austrian bishop has called on the Church to drop its celibacy requirement for priests.
Bishop Paul Iby of Eisenstadt told Die Presse newspaper that it should be up to priests to decide whether they want to live a celibate life, and that he would welcome it if married men could be ordained, said an AP report in the Herald Sun.
"It should be at the discretion of every priest whether to live in voluntary celibacy or in a family," Die Presse quoted Bishop Iby as saying.
He also said that eventually the ordination of women should be considered.
The average age of the men who will be ordained in June is 37, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. More than half are between the ages of 25 and 34, and 11 of them are age 65 or older.
The center conducted a national survey of ordinands for the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI issued a resounding call for reform in the Catholic church, saying, “How much filth there is in the church, and even among those ... in the priesthood.” This was widely interpreted as a reference to the sex- abuse scandal affecting the church's standing in North America and other parts of the world. However, the Pope’s exhortation was, in reality, directed more widely to the phenomenon of modernism that is poisoning the church at its core.
The sex abuse scandal involving priests is just the tip of the ice-burg - the visible part that has come to light. The real culprits of moral destruction are those in-house modernists who, since Vatican II, have encouraged sexual deviants to infiltrate the church and who, with the bishops’ approval, are still disseminating their modernist lies within various Catholic seminaries, schools and chancery offices.
While the bishops today lash out at the pedophiles - about 90% of which are actually homosexuals - they continue to harbor those in-name-only “Catholics” who are advancing a false spirit of Vatican II. Make no mistake - bishops would still be protecting pedaphiles had the sex abuse scandal not come to light through the pope’s hard determination and through world wide public scrutiny.
[Minneapolis Star] The lawyer who last month sued the Vatican and Pope Benedict for their handling of sexual abuse allegations within the church turned his attention Monday to a case that involves one of the state's most prestigious private schools.
Attorney Jeff Anderson, in a lawsuit filed in Hennepin County, said officials at Breck School committed fraud by hiring teacher Bill Jacobs in 1973, knowing he had a history of molesting boys and was considered a danger to children.
Jacobs sexually abused a 13-year-old Breck student in 1974, according to Anderson. Even after the boy and his father brought their allegations to the school's headmaster, John Littleford, Jacobs remained on the faculty through the school year. The suit maintains that Littleford "begged'' the boy and his father to remain quiet about the matter.
A Catholic priest in Goa, who saved his three young parishioners from drowning, died of a massive heart attack May 9 during the rescue in rough seas.
Father Thomas Remedios Fernandes, 37, assistant parish priest of Church of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Nuvem village, came to Galgibaga beach 28 kilometers south of the state capital Panaji as part of a 63-member picnic party.
During the afternoon, Father Fernandes was alerted by cries for help from the youths - two girls and a boy aged between 17 and 19. The priest helped two reach the shore but as he dragged the third victim, he collapsed in shallow waters, his companions said.
Meanwhile, what Weitzel-O'Neill termed "faux Catholic schools" are springing up, led by those who have been in the Catholic home-schooling movement. She showed the home page to a website for a Pope John Paul II Academy in a suburban section of the Archdiocese of Washington, which has no connection with the archdiocese, despite entreaties by archdiocesan officials that the school seek some sort of connection. "They're teaching the Catholic faith, but they're not approved by any bishop," she added.
Father Gabriele Amorth said people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron. He added that the assault on Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas Eve by a mentally unstable woman and the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the Anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See."The Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences," said Father Amorth, 85, who has been the Holy See's chief exorcist for 25 years.
He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, or even appear to be sympathetic. At times he makes fun of me. But I'm a man who is happy in his work." While there was "resistance and mistrust" towards the concept of exorcism among some Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI has no such doubts, Father Amorth said. "His Holiness believes wholeheartedly in the practice of exorcism. He has encouraged and praised our work," he added. The evil influence of Satan was evident in the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy, with "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus and bishops who are linked to the demon," Father Amorth said.
