Making Sense of Benedict’s Jewish Policy – Forward.com

Making Sense of Benedict’s Jewish Policy – Forward.com

John Allen

By this stage, outsiders trying to make sense of Pope Benedict XVI’s approach to Jewish-Catholic relations might be forgiven for wondering if the pontiff suffers from an undiagnosed case of schizophrenia.

After all, this is the pope who made a point of visiting a Cologne synagogue in 2005 on his first foreign trip, and Auschwitz on his second, only later to revive a controversial Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews. More recently, this is the pope who rehabilitated a Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop and who announced that Pope Pius XII (whose alleged “silence” during the Holocaust remains a bone of contention between Jews and Catholics) is a step closer to sainthood, only to visit Rome’s Great Synagogue on January 17 to express his “esteem and affection” for Judaism, and to pledge that the “faces, names, tears and desperation” of Holocaust victims must never be forgotten.

We see that John Allen is as slavishly devoted as ever to the party line, but he is right after all considering Holy Father's ultimate concern in his policy that, "Benedict’s top priority is internal, directed at the inner life of the Catholic Church. His aim is to restore a strong sense of traditional Catholic identity, in order to inoculate the church against infection by radical secularism." However, there are others, in Israel, who view things a little bit differently, like this Jewish paper which views Benedict's maneuvers as essentially hostile. We've seen a lot of negative reaction to Benedict's various changes and some of his public acts which don't bode well for an integralist Catholic viewpoint, like changinig the Good Friday prayers to make the Jews and the traditionalists happy at the same time. The prayer actually called for the conversion of the Jews, and a loud minority were, not suprisingly, unhappy with the prayer and their views were reported far and wide. Fact is, most Jews don't care about Benedict's activities, they don't go to services either. Why don't we spend more time talking to those Jews and get them to come to Mass, permanently!

Vatican Blames Israel for Driving Christians Out of the Area

January 20, 2010

A Vatican synod being convened by Monsignor Nikola Eterovic will address an internal document addressing the plight of the dwindling Christian minority in the rapidly growing Islamic population in the Mideast. 150 bishops are expected to attend the synod which will be held on October 10-24.

The internal Vatican documents pertaining to the meeting place the ongoing Israel-PA (Palestinian Authority) conflict at the heart of regional instability and conflict, adding “radical terrorism” over recent years exploited the conflict towards advancing political Islam in countries including Egypt.

Israel’s “ongoing occupation” is blamed for restricted access to houses of worship in those areas, hampering religious life. In Iraq, the report states all Iraqis became victims but the small and weak Christian population was among the principal victims.

The Vatican believes the solution remains in the hands of “the stronger countries, to settle the conflict between Israel and the PA.

A Vatican statement added “Violence is in the hands of the strong and weak alike, the latter resorting to whatever violence is within reach in order to be free.”

When asked if the Vatican document was referring to yishuvim throughout Yehuda and Shomron and ongoing construction in the eastern capital, Eterovic explained that while the Vatican was not making policy decisions, it does adhere to and accept the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, which in this case, support the Roadmap Plan and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

The bishop added that while many of the 17 million Christians living between Iran and Egypt have fled, the numbers of Christians in the region has grown due to the influx of manual laborers, Christians, in a number of Arab countries, some that had a minimal or no Christian presence prior to their arrival.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

Bishop Pfeifer at the Abortion Clinic in San Angelo

Bishop Michael Pfeifer of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo led a rosary Wednesday to protest abortion outside Abilene’s Planned Parenthood clinic.

Approximately 75 people turned out, some with anti-abortion signs, and formed a prayer semicircle around the facility on North 10th St.

“We’re here to remind people, especially those that come here to Planned Parenthood, about the evil that they perform in the killing of a precious unborn — the taking of human life,” Pfeifer said.

Read further...

New Corpus Christi Bishop is Into Focolare Cult

We were over whispering at the Loggia and people thought we were crazy, we were whispering to ourselves whispering these words like a curse, "the new ordinary of Corpus Christi is into Focolare?" But what Rocco won't tell you, because he can't tell you, is that there is a problematic aspect to the Focolare movement. Most of you who are self-described Traditionalists probably know that Focolare is a movement of masonic proportions rooted in the heretical Sillonist Movement condemned by Notre Charge Apostolique. But this site isn't just for you, we're trying to inform other people, we hope, things that we pick up that the ordinary person in the pew won't see and doesn't realize, actually teaches some things that are contradictory to what the Church teaches. Now before you go on accusing us of setting up a parallel magisterium of our own creation, take the time to find out what Focolare stands for. You don't have to be a fire breathing traditionalist to be upset about a cultic, pentecostal group like Focolare. I wouldn't want my children participating in it and you shouldn't either.


And don't be participating in ad hominem attacks, y'all.

Reference works dealing with the phenomenon of Focolare:

The Pope's Armadas...

Christian Order...

Pope convenes Irish bishops for talks on priestly sex abuse

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has convened Ireland's bishops for a two-day meeting at the Vatican to discuss the ongoing fallout from the priestly sex abuse scandal in the country.

Link to original...

Bishop attacks morals of monks who brew Scotland’s (15%) tipple of choice - Times Online

Bishop attacks morals of monks who brew Scotland’s (15%) tipple of choice - Times Online

A bishop has condemned Buckfast, the fortified wine made by monks and regarded by some as the scourge of Scotland. The Right Rev Bob Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church, accused the Devon-based Benedictine monks of betraying Christian values.

Russia's Health Minister Called for Reduction in Abortions: Population Growth Too Low

By Patrick B. Craine

MOSCOW, Russia, January 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Russia's Health Minister has called for a reduction of abortions in the country as a way of improving its meagre population growth.

"The topic of reducing abortions is definitely on today's agenda,” stated Health Minister Tatyana Golikova on Monday. “This won't solve the birthrate problem 100 percent, but around 20 to 30 percent."

In 2006, then-President Vladimir Putin identified the country's low birth rate as its greatest problem, though he did not draw the connection with the country's abortion rate, which is among the highest in the world. In 2005, in fact, there were more abortions than births in the country. On Monday, Golikova noted that in 2008 there were 1.714 million births and 1.234 million abortions.

Read further....

Mosul Welcomes New Archbishop, Mourns Murders

MOSUL, Iraq, JAN. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Sunday was bittersweet for Mosul Catholics, who celebrated the arrival of their new archbishop while also mourning the murder of one of the faithful.


Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona, whose election as the archbishop of Mosul of the Chaldeans was confirmed Nov. 13 by Benedict XVI, was officially installed in the archeparchy Sunday.

AsiaNews reported that the same day, Saadallah Youssif Jorjis, a 52-year-old Syrian Catholic, a husband and father of two daughters, was shot dead.

The news source, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the "persecution continues in the midst of general indifference."

He asserted that this "ethnic cleansing" currently taking place in Mosul is "very similar to what happened in 2008."

"They want to push Christians to the plain of Nineveh, and the community has lost confidence in the future," the source added.

Jorjis owned a produce shop near his home, and was married to a woman who worked as a nurse.

A few days earlier, on Jan. 12, another grocer, Hikmat Sleiman, 75, was killed by an armed group.

Archbishop Rahho

The 2008 wave of violence claimed the life of the former archbishop of Mosul of the Chaldeans, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho.

He was kidnapped in February of that year outside of a church where he had led the Way of the Cross on a Lenten Friday. During the kidnapping, his three companions were killed.

For days there was no news from the archbishop or his kidnappers. Finally, after a phone call from the assailants, the prelate's body was found March 13 in a shallow grave. He was 65.

The election of Archbishop Nona took place according to the tradition in the Eastern-rite Churches. The synod of bishops of the Chaldean Church made the decision, which was then approved by the Pope.

Sunday's ceremony for Archbishop Nona was attended by several political and Muslim leaders.

Link to original...

Training Anglican Priests in the Immemorial Rite

Yet another one of the benefits of the Anglican Reunion is that these incoming Anglicans are serious about Tradition.

EXTRAORDINARY TRAINING

A couple of Anglican priests have suggested the possibility of a teach-in for Anglican priests in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite; probably in Oxford. I recall one or two enquiries some time ago about this; but I don't recall from whom.

I have done no research on where, how, or when in Oxford this could happen; and so I have no idea what the cost might be. Before I do that, I would like to know if there is any wider interest.

It has been suggested that, properly packaged, it might be able to claim CME grants!

Fr P; will you take this as an acknowledgement of your very interesting email?
Posted by Fr John Hunwicke SSC, at 10:46

Liverpool Bishop's Ad Limina Visit Might be Interesting

An ad limina visit (Bishops are required to visit the Pope every 5 years) is coming off here pretty soon for UK Bishops and there's some complaining about their performance, something about not doing their jobs. Archbishop Kelly sure has an ugly Cathedral. They paid money for that. Ok, we know that Liverpool has an ugly Cathedral that's really not something you'd expect a church to be. The locals call it the Wigwam. The Clergy is as ugly as the Cathedral and they routinely beat up local priests and laity who ask for the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments. If you want the Catholic Faith, forget it, you should pack up your bags and head for Brompton. Damian Thompson's article on the subject is awesome and we hope that someone Romeside reads the despairing testimony from one of Damian's commenters:

That’s an irony, isn’t it? There was a time when traditional Catholic priests were unwelcome in Protestant areas of Liverpool. Now they’re treated like pariahs by their priestly colleagues, who screamed blue murder when there was a proposal to found one – just one – community celebrating the old liturgy. So it didn’t happen.

America Magazine Gives Campion Award to Archbishop Rowan

Uncle Di has levelled his verbal weapons at the Jesuit publication America to great effect, yet he congratulates America's choice, you might be suprised to find.

"You must go to the place from whence you came, there to remain until ye shall be drawn through the open City of London upon hurdles to the place of execution, be hanged and let down alive, and your privy parts cut off, and your entrails taken out and burnt in your sight; then your head to be cut off and your body divided into four parts, to be disposed of at her Majesty's pleasure."

With those words Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chief Justice dispatched the English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion to his death at Tyburn. The year was 1581. The charge was treason. Campion himself was unruffled by the verdict: "It was not our death that we ever feared. … The only thing we have now to say is, that if our religion do make us traitors, we are worthy to be condemned; but otherwise are, and have been, as good subjects as the Queen ever had."

St. Edmund Campion, martyr, lives on as a model of cheerful, gutsy, devout intelligence disciplined toward the single goal of recovering and rebuilding Catholic churchmanship where it had lain in ruins. I was amused and delighted, therefore, to learn that the Jesuit magazine America announced that it will give its 2009 Campion Award to none other than Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The choice is a chancy one. Many will take offense at the sly malice of the Jesuits in pretending to congratulate the man who, by his elegant unfitness for the job, has done more than any living Christian to bolster the esteem of the Roman Catholic Church in the eyes of his co-religionists.

I emphatically applaud the editors' decision.

Minimal Background Investigations for Perspective UK Catholic School Teachers

The Bishop, once known as a favorite to be the next occupant of Westminster, who favors married priests as well, is all in favor of not invesitigating the backgrounds of those who come into his service. We could think of many reasons for doing this, not least of which is protecting the children in his care.

By Hilary White

LONDON, January 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A member of the English Catholic Bishops conference, and the head of the Catholic Education Service, has denied that there is any Catholic objection to homosexual civil unions. Speaking to The Tablet, Britain’s leading left-liberal Catholic paper, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service, said that he had no objection to homosexuals in civil partnerships working in Catholic schools.

And George Soros is interested in keeping quiet claims regarding Obama's new NAMBLA friendly "safe schools" Czar:

A major left-wing propaganda attack group funded by billionaire George Soros has begun aggressively targeting MassResistance because of our exposure of Kevin Jennings, Obama's "safe-schools" czar and his activities pushing homosexuality on schoolchildren.

Media Matters is headed by David Brock, an ex-conservative writer (and "out" homosexual) who now professes his hatred for conservatism and conservatives. Media Matters has a large staff and millions of dollars per year in funding.

Catholic Relief Services Get Money from Bill Gates

We'd also like to note that Bill Gates Foundation is closely related to Lucis Trust. His charity is part of a subgrouped under an organization formerly known as "Lucifer Trust".

AMGD


On Thursday, January 7, 2010, the following e-mail concerning the "partnership" of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation was sent by the U.S. Coalition for Life to the Most Rev. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CRS, and Thomas Price, CRS Senior Communications Manager: Can you tell me why Catholic Relief Services is in a partnership with two of the world's greatest promoters of abortion and population control? Why the glowing promotion of two of the world's most anti-life foundations? Randy Engel, Director, USCL

The next day, the USCL received a response from Mr. Price which reads in part:
Thank you for your letter of concern on the Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. As an official agency of the Catholic Church, Catholic Relief Services strictly adheres to the teaching of the Catholic Church and the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Our first Guiding Principle states that "all human life is sacred and possesses a dignity that comes directly from our creation and not from any action of our own, …" The Catholic Church often participates in humanitarian initiatives that include a large range of partners — and we do not always agree with everything they stand for. However, the work that is undertaken directly with any of our partners always strictly adheres to Church teaching. We do not provide or promote artificial birth control and would never accept funding from any donor that would compromise the agency's adherence to Catholic teaching. …" Sincerely, Tom Price

THE SIN OF COMISSION AND OF OMISSION

According to the CRS official website (www.crs.org), the Gates Foundation is "guided by the belief that every life has equal value." CRS praises the foundation's work "to help all people lead healthy, productive lives," and "to ensure that all people… have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. …"

In exchange for perpetuating this glorious deception and maintaining a silence on the Gates/Buffett world-wide killing machine, CRS has received in excess of $40 million for global and agricultural development and financial services for the poor from 2003 to 2009. Compared to the billions Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett and his family spend on their true passion – baby killing and. population control – it's a drop in the bucket, of course, but I'm sure they consider their money well spent.

In reviewing the anti-life record of the Gateses and Buffetts, one they have successfully keep out of the public eye, thanks to organizations like CRS, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that "they never met an anti-life, anti-family enterprise that they did not love (and eventually fund)."

A PROFILE OF THE DEATH PEDDLERS

Starting with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation directed by the Gateses and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, father of Howard G. Buffett., here is a sampling of the anti-life organizations and activities it has supported, with a brief commentary on each:

· International Planned Parenthood Federation – $41,876,150 since 1998. Supports a total anti-life agenda world-wide. Organizes massive anti-life initiatives the world over.

· Planned Parenthood Federation of America – $12,984,000 since 1998. Does not include millions for PP abortion centers in Gates' home state of Washington and elsewhere. Performs over 200,000 surgical abortions per year and supports a full anti-life agenda including contraception, sterilization, abortifacients, live human embryo and fetal experimentation, sex education, divorce, fornication, infanticide, homosexuality, eugenics, infanticide, pornography, in vitro fertilization.

· U.N. Fund for Population Activities and Americans for UNFPA – $56,681,272 in 2000. An indirect grant to UNFPA of $2,200,000,000 for "reproductive health" and mass population control programs.

· Pathfinder International – $1,585,000 in 1999, 2009. Among top deadliest abortion providers, trains abortionists, procures abortion and sterilization equipment. Promotes "reproductive options" among adolescents.

· International Projects Assistance Services – Promotes "sexual and reproductive rights."

· Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Urban Reproductive Health Initiative – Pushes population control in Africa and South Asia .

· Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – $9,864,398 (2009-2011). Sponsors world-class population control conferences which push modern fertility control techniques, abortion and sterilization including female condoms, injectable abortifacients, and "menstrual regulation" kits.

· Population Communications International – $3,775,000. Specializes in population control propaganda for mass media.

· Family Health International – Specializes in mass sterilization and abortifacients and "menstrual regulation" kits.

· Family Care International – $14,643,712. Seeks to promote and defend "abortion rights" and mass population control projects.

· Stem Cell and Cloning Research – $400,000 donation for California campaign in favor of state supported programs of human embryonic stem cell research and cloning projects

· EPF: The Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development – $1,598,245. To promote "reproductive health care" around the world. According to the EPF, "in February 2002 it signed up to the "See Change" campaign; an initiative started by Catholics For Free Choice with the objective of changing the status of the Vatican at the United Nations. Following this, the parliamentary groups in Sweden and Spain both held parliamentary hearings on the role of the Vatican City in UN decision-making and its obstruction of progress on reproductive health and rights issues."

As a member of the elite Club of Rome, Bill Gates is dedicated to the war against the proliferation of people, but he has other side interests as well include the promotion of the vice of homosexuality.

In 1989, Microsoft was one of the first companies in the world to offer employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners and to include sexual orientation in its corporate nondiscrimination policy. The company has supported and sponsored pro-gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues activities and programs including GLEAM, an organized employee resource group for homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender employees. As part of its Diversity Initiatives Program, GLEAM partners with Microsoft's executive leadership teams to define and implement corporate diversity initiatives companywide, such as the company's GLBT Pride Month celebration and GLBT-specific diversity training.

In July 2007, Bill Gates used part of his Microsoft fortune to purchase 56.3% of PlanetOut, a homosexual activist publishing company that runs a number of "gay" publications and services and is a major provider of hard core homosexual pornography.

Now, let's turn our attention to the anti-life organization, services and research funded with the Warren Buffett billions:

· Buffett money has funded important clinical trials for RU-486, (Mifepristone/Mifeprex), the so-called "abortion pill," putting the lethal drug on the fast track in the U.S. and abroad.

· Two million dollars to Family Health International helped finance mass experimental sterilization programs in third world countries using the dangerous chemical quinacrine hydrochloride. The drug is banned in the U.S. and Canada .

· Population Communications International – Specializes in population control propaganda for mass media.

German Foundation for World Population – Population control programs directed at youth "as agents of change."
International Projects Assistance Services – Promotes sexual and reproductive rights. Buffett gave IPAS $20,000,000 for the manufacturer and distribution of manual abortion suction pumps for use in poor countries.
· Population Council – $3,500,000. One of the oldest population control and abortion research agencies in the United States .

· Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice – $700,000. Recruits and engages churches and clergy in supporting abortion rights.

· NARAL – $1,500,000. A promoter of abortion rights in the United States .

· Catholics for a Free Choice – $485,000. Money used to challenge and undermine Catholic opposition to abortion.

· Center for Reproductive Rights – $737,000. Carries out pro-abortion litigation. Helped strike down Nebraska 's ban on partial-birth abortion/infanticide.

· National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy – $250,000. A pro-abortion group that targets teens.

· Family Health International – $20,000,000. Specializes in mass sterilization and abortifacients and "menstrual regulation" kits and abortion vacuum aspirators.

· Family Care International – Promotes abortion and mass population control projects.

· Pathfinder International – $582,000. Promotes abortion rights and services.

· Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation – Provides millions of dollars for abortion rights groups including many of the above groups.

· Access Project – $496,000. Promotes abortion rights and services.

· GIRE – $485,000. Promotes abortion rights and services in Mexico .

The record is clear – the hands of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are soaked with the innocent blood of millions of unborn children. The only question that remains is "Is the body count high enough for CRS to dump the death peddlers as donors?"

THE TRAGEDY OF CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES

The objective of this mailing is to persuade the American Bishops, especially those who serve on the Board of Directors of CRS, to publicly reject any and all donations from the Gates and Buffett Foundations and any other corporation or government entity that funds and promotes anti-life, anti-family and anti-God programs, services, and research in the United States and abroad. The message is simple - "Just say no"…. to the death peddlers.

As with the scandal-ridden Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholics should withhold all funding of Catholic Relief Services until this blatant injustice is publicly corrected. The CRS National Diocesan Campaign is usually held on the 4th Sunday of Lent. This will give CRS officials time to take action.

Unlike the CCHD, which should be disbanded, CRS, founded in 1943, has a long history of legitimate service to the Church especially in regard to refugee settlement and emergency disaster relief programs. The tragedy is that it has become just another compromised entity of the American Bishops' national bureaucracy which systematically poisons everything it touches. The removal of the Bill and Melinda Gates and Buffett Foundations from the roster of CRS partners/donors list is important, but the problems with CRS run much deeper and are unlikely to be resolved by the liberal, leftist establishment and staff that runs and controls the USCCB.

As things stands now, faithful Catholics need to look elsewhere for legitimate Catholic charities and missions to support.



USCL Action Alert



Please send your letters, e-mails, and faxes asking Archbishop Timothy Dolan to take the lead in severing all CRS, and other USCCB agency ties with the Gates and Buffett Foundations. They are not the only anti-life partners that CRS has teamed up with, but they are the worst.



A list of bishops who serve on the Board of Directors of CRS is provided below. If your bishop is on that list, please make him your top priority. If not, please send your communication to Archbishop Dolan, 1011 First Avenue, New York , NY 10022.



Phone: 212-371-1000.

CRS Board of Directors
Most Rev. Timothy Dolan - Chairman
Archbishop of New York

Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland
Bishop of Savannah

Most Rev. Timothy Broglio
Archbishop of Military Services

Most Rev. Patrick R. Cooney
Bishop of Gaylord

Most Rev. Daniel Flores
Aux. Bishop of Detroit

Most Rev. Martin D. Holley
Aux. Bishop of Washington , D.C.

Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz
Archbishop of Louisville , KY

Most Rev. Denis J. Madden
Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Archbishop Emeritus of Washington , DC

Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan
Archbishop of Santa Fe

Most Rev. George L. Thomas
Bishop of Helena

Most Rev. John Charles Wester
Bishop of Salt Lake City




*The USCL wishes to express its appreciation to LifeSiteNews for their August 1, 2003 article "Buffett Foundation donations, 2001-02."

** For additional information contact Randy Engel, Director, US CL at 724-327-7379 or rvte61@comcast.net.

###
End of Email

Archbishops Wuerl and Burke are favorites for Cardinal: Ying and Yang!

This just in from pewsitter: Surely, we all remember Bishop Wuerl from back in the day, and when he refused to deny Nancy "Lugosi" Pelosi Holy Communion?

[Washington Times]The lingo of horse racing, with words like "handicapping" and "top runners," is being applied to two men: Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court.

Other than the papal throne, the cardinalate is the highest position in the Catholic Church; it is this group of 120 men younger than 80 that elects a new pope.

Cardinals receive the red galero — the distinctive wide-brimmed hat for this office — in a consistory, the gathering in Rome specifically for the purpose of naming these new princes of the Catholic Church. Consistories typically are held every three years on a major Catholic holiday, which is why Vatican watchers are scouring the 2010 calendar for prospective dates.

Archbishop Wuerl, 69, was promoted to the Washington see in 2006. His predecessor, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired as archbishop of Washington shortly after his 75th birthday, according to custom.

But Cardinal McCarrick retains voting rights in the college until his 80th birthday, on July 7. That date will open the way for Archbishop Wuerl to receive a red hat, because the Vatican hardly ever allows two active cardinals from the same archdiocese.

"If there are two American cardinals appointed, I think it'd be Wuerl and Burke," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center. "If there is only one, the race is between Burke and Wuerl.

"The odds are in favor of Wuerl, but the biggest problem is the 120-cardinal limit that [Pope] Benedict [XVI] is keeping to. If the consistory is towards the end of the year," and after July 7, "Wuerl will be a shoo-in. If it's in June, it'll be a close race."

A nod for Archbishops Wuerl and Burke would fit the pope's pattern of naming to the cardinalate a sitting diocesan archbishop along with one of several American archbishops based in Rome.

At the March 24, 2006, consistory, Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley and Archbishop William Levada, prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, were elevated. At the Nov. 24, 2007, consistory, Galveston-Houston Archbishop Daniel DiNardo and Archbishop John P. Foley, pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, were named.

Eight cardinalates have opened since 2007, and 11 more seats are slated to be vacated as a result of retirements in 2010. Retired Detroit Cardinal Joseph Maida, who turns 80 on March 18, and Cardinal McCarrick will be the two Americans leaving the college during 2010.

Washington isn't the only traditional "cardinal see." Other cities whose archbishops are customarily named cardinals, with sitting bishops who are not a members of the college, are New York, Detroit, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

But the fastest-growing Catholic areas in the U.S. are in the South and Southwest, which could encourage Benedict to give a red hat to a bishop from one of these regions. He did so in 2007, when Archbishop DiNardo was named to the college. The DiNardo appointment marked the first time a city had joined the list of cardinal sees since Washington was added in 1967.

"The pope has a good grasp of the demographic shifts within the United States," said Peter Casarella, Catholic studies professor and director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University. "There has been a signal that the Hispanics count. The pope could choose a Hispanic archbishop [as cardinal]."

Although Archbishop Burke, 61, is the second-ranking American at the Vatican after Cardinal Levada, one observer rates his chances at a red hat as very slim.

"I cannot imagine the next consistory not doing Wuerl and [New York Archbishop Timothy] Dolan," said Bill Ditewig, a deacon with the Washington Archdiocese who teaches theology at St. Leo University near Tampa, Fla. "Those two jump off the page."

However, retired New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan turns 78 this year, meaning a Dolan appointment is unlikely until Cardinal Egan turns 80 in 2012. Mr. Ditewig predicts that Atlanta will be another Southern city that the pope will make a cardinal see.

"I certainly think Atlanta Archbishop [Wilton D.] Gregory will make it in at some point," he added. "He has a reputation nationally and internationally as being a very effective bishop." [According to whom?]

The number of American cardinals is 13 — about one-tenth of the College of Cardinals — which may work against more American candidates, Father Reese said.

"There are other parts of the world besides the United States, which is the problem Wuerl faces," he said. "Thirteen U.S. cardinals is an all-time high, and Burke has a job in the Vatican that has traditionally gone to a cardinal. I am rooting for Wuerl. But because Benedict is keeping the number to 120, Wuerl is not necessarily a shoo-in."

The Lion of Belgium Meets the Jackals

Today, there has been increased criticism of Archbishop Léonard from the Belgian State, rather like the criticism levelled against Fr. Wagner in Linz and one of Holy Father's other appointments in Basque Country Bishop Blasquez in 1995, and more recently in December of 2009.

Sure enough, he's being also criticized by the faculty of Louvain, criticized rather accurately through the years as a center of dissent:

Léonard has beene a controversial figure in Belgium for his critical stands on homosexuality, same-sex marriage and condom use. He has been an outspoken opponent of abortion and euthanasia, both of which are legal in Belgium, and criticised the Catholic universities of Leuven and Louvain for their research into assisted reproduction and embryonic stem cells.

Of course, their allies in the Socialist party were also eager to put in their conerns as well:

The Socialist Party said it “insists that Archbishop Léonard respects democratic decisions taken by the institutions of our country. For the Socialist Party, the rights and duties that people take on democratically take precedence over religious traditions and commandments, without any exception.”

Catholic Culture says this about the demographics of Belgium. We predict the current languishing of the vocations under the leadership of outgoing Cardinal Daneels will become a thing of the past under the new Archbishop's administration.

The nation of 7.8 million is 73% Catholic. It has 3,928 parishes, 6,489 priests, 11,771 sisters, and 201 seminarians. The ratio of seminarians to Catholics makes Belgium one of the world's most "vocation-poor" nations.

Related Articles:

Red Basques Attack Episcopal Pick

Progressive Priests Reject Pope's Pick in Spain

A New Film About Archbishop Lefebvre

English languages site for the upcoming release of the Archbishop Lefebvre film, "A Bishop for the Church."

French Trailer

Communist Government Denies Blowing Up Crucifix in Vietnam, Blocks News Sites

Hanoi, Vietnam, Jan 19, 2010 / 03:59 am (CNA).- Following reports that it destroyed a crucifix and brutalized parishioners, the Vietnamese government has blocked various Catholic news sites from its citizens and claimed that it dismantled the crucifix, rather than blowing it up.

On Jan. 6, an estimated 600-1,000 armed police officers entered the Dong Chiem parish cemetery to protect an engineering unit assigned to destroy the stone crucifix under the pretense that the fixture violated a state mandate that all religious symbols be inside a religious premise. Parishioners begged the police to stop the destruction of the crucifix but were met with tear gas and batons.

Read further...

Movie Legion that Mocks the Faith and Leads to Despair

It's a familiar theme brought to us by the perennial adolescents of hollywood, rebel bad-boy saves the human race inspite of the efforts of all the people with hang-ups who really bring everyone down with morals.

The movie itself is poorly done, and is practically a caricature of the idea that evil can be good. Ayn Rand in one of her rare moments of insight explained that evil is in the world because it can be portrayed as a good. It's along those lines that Hollywood media types have been working for as long as films have been made, to present the outsider, Prometheus, as the savior of mankind. It's a captivating and persuasive theme, but I can't imagine many people seeing this movie, which is really only a remake of flop Prophesy.

Tradition Family and Private Property

Sony offended millions of Americans with its blasphemous film, The Da Vinci Code. Now it is set to do the same with the movie, Legion and that’s why The American TFP is asking its members to protest this latest blasphemy.

Online Petition, here.

Linz Bishop Reacts to Father Wagner's Critique

[Linz kathnet]What is by now a familiar approach to situations like this, the Bishop of Linz, who opposed Father Gerhard's appointment in the first place to become the Auxillary Bishop of the Diocese had this to say about his ecclesiastical subject's remarks about there being an undeclared schism in the Austrian church:

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz refused to become "emotionally inflamed" by Father Wagner: "Onesided incriminations and lump sum suspicions do not help to strengthen unity."

He essentially ignores Father Wagner's criticisms and accuses Father of being opposed to unity, of being unfair and so on, while not actually giving him the benefit of an intelligent response. Clearly, this battle has been brewing beneath the surface since long before Father Wagner was appointed to become Auxilliary Bishop, and Bishop Ludwig is desperately trying to discredit Father Wagner and his all-too-true criticisms of the Austrian Church.

DC Judge Rules against Same Sex Marriage Initiative

Courthouse News Service


(CN) - A judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected same-sex marriage opponents' bid to place an initiative on the ballot that would define marriage as a commitment between a man and a woman.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso ruled that the proposed ballot initiative violates D.C.'s Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Bishop Pates puts the Smackdown on Iowa Newman Center

Bishop Pates has been a gay friendly Bishop in the past, so we're suprised to see him take such a principled stand at this. It's unfortnate that there has to be such a public disagreement on the issue. Perhaps the 100 people objecting to this would be more comfortable in the Episcopalian or Lutheran Church where these sorts of things are celebrated. Perhaps a better policy would be to simply ban the Paulists from the Diocese, close the Newman Center and give it to the SSPX?

[Catholic Culture] Nearly 100 laity are boycotting Mass at an Iowa Newman center after Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines fired a transgendered housekeeper who had quietly offered counseling services and formed a transgendered support group there. Bishop Pates told Susan McIntyre, who was born as Jim Ford, that “your unauthorized representation indicating that you are employed by and operating on behalf of the Newman Center as a counselor or social worker” led to the housekeeper’s firing.

The bishop intervened after Father Joel McNeil, recently assigned to St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Student Center at Drake University, “noticed a piece of paper on a copy machine in the parish office,” according to the Des Moines Register. “On it was a counselor's authorization of hormone therapy for a transgendered person about to undergo a sex change. On a letterhead that included the center's name and address.”

The Register added:

There's a sign out front of the church that identifies it as Catholic, McNeil noted. It's a matter of truth in advertising, he said: Would the parish stick by Catholic teachings or have a set of beliefs that went outside the Catholic tent?

"For a person who sees Christianity as fidelity to what Christ began 2,000 years ago, we can't change that teaching," he said.

Is Everyone at the New York Times a Moron? Celebrating the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

Hmm, perhaps, but you probably become one if you subscribe to the New York Times. We're going to celebrate today's feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and also the teaching authority of the Church and the Magisterium, by ridiculing the Pinchy Sulzberger's artless, unabashedly pro-depravity rag, the New York Times. We also know that the New York Times has an air of infallibility, but how often have they got it wrong, and for good money too? People keep lining up! Extra! Extra! Reading all about it! Step right this way folks! Get your liberalism here, it grows you new stem cells and frees you from the guilt of doing bad to your neighbor! Go away son, you bother me.

When Pope Benedict XVI approved a decree last month that nudged nearer to sainthood his controversial wartime predecessor, Pius XII, he sparked another round of the sort of Jewish-Catholic disputations that have marked his papacy, and even cast doubt on whether his trip to Rome’s main synagogue, set for Sunday, would go on.

This whole bruhaha has all of the earmarkings of a "spontaneous" demonstration in the Soviet Union to celebrate Misha's Birthday in 1979 as part of the Olympic Games being held at Moscow during their ill-fated Afghanistan Invasion.. For those of you who don't know, Misha was the big bear maskot that was part of an attempt to improve the Soviet Union's image in the face of its anti-Jewish pogroms, gulags and invasion of sovereign nations.

Here's what the Catholic Encyclopedia says about the Holy Chair, tracing it back closer to Apostolic times than might be comfortable for most protestant apologists, atheists and other non-believers:

From the earliest times the Church at Rome celebrated on 18 January the memory of the day when the Apostle held his first service with the faithful of the Eternal City. According to Duchesne and de Rossi, the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (Weissenburg manuscript) reads as follows: "XV KL. FEBO. Dedicatio cathedræ sci petri apostoli qua primo Rome petrus apostolus sedit" (fifteenth day before the calends of February, the dedication of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle in which Peter the Apostle first sat at Rome). The Epternach manuscript (Codex Epternacensis) of the same work, says briefly: "cath. petri in roma" (the Chair of Peter in Rome).

Saint Martin Luther King

Lewrockwell.com

A young friend has just sent me the program for the celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday that will take place next week at Kenyon College. The unifying theme is "Martin Luther King, Was He a Twentieth-Century Jesus," a key question that one is led to believe should be answered in the affirmative. The featured speaker for this sacral event is the Black Nationalist professor of law at New York University and "a pioneer in the Critical Race Theory Movement," Derrick Bell, who in all probability will tell the audience what he has been invited to say. What my young disciple did not know when he sent me the announcement is that our college is sponsoring a similar celebration, albeit one without Bell. Our students and faculty are expected to spend all of next Monday attending carefully selected panels dealing with the self-sacrificing goodness of Dr. King and the abjectly racist society he came to redeem. While our chaplain at a recent "holiday luncheon" could not bring herself to mention the Christian savior in a Christmas prayer, lest she offend some unidentified Kwanza celebrant, she and her onetime Christian colleagues are exhausting themselves in preparation for next Monday’s events.

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Rabbi Schneier of New York Says Tridentine Mass a Liabillity

The famous Rabbi made the following statement to "Radio Vatican" concerning the visit of Pope Benedict to the Synagogue: "I personally don't have to read any books about the Holocaust: I am the evidence."

[Kathnet] Rabbi Arthur Schneier stood in his East Park Synagogue in New York and welcomed Pope Benedict there in 2008 during his USA trip. Upon the coming visit of the Pope he is contacted and participates in an interview with Radio Vatican about some problematic issues of the catholic-roman Dialogue:

"The Tridentine Mass is a real liability. [It's amazing how insensitive the Rabbi is to the beliefs of others] We live today in a global world and must co-exist as religions -- therefore one needs respect for another. And Jesus was finally, a Jew. That was and is still ever a liability. And that is the question in tandem with Pope Pius XII. I believe, the best solution would here be, once again to basically go through the archives. The the Church is eternal, would it make any difference to wait a few more years!" [He's referring to the desire of Israeli Authorities to have access to Vatican archives, here.]

He goes on to take exception with the reconciliation with the SSPX and Bishop Williamson who he falsely accuses of denying the Holocaust, and says he doesn't need to read any books on it, because he lived it and then goes on to praise Pope Benedict for his historic, first ever for a Pope, visit to a Synagogue in the United States.

There's no way the world media would tolerate these kinds of impertinent prescriptions, inaccuracies and mendacities if the Shoa were on the other foot. Surely, if the Rabbi is evidence of the "Shoa", perhaps there is truth in what Bishop Williamson said after all.

"Latent Schism" and "silent Church division" in the Diocese of Linz

The Pastor of Windischgarstner has criticized the Diocese of Linz in an unsual way: And a disapproving hand wonders from far beyond our boarders about the grievance in Linz. [Father Wagner really does identify some serious problems which are not particular to Linz, but run throughout the Church.]

Christoph Hurnaus

[Kathnet] The Priest of Windischgarstner Gerhard Maria Wagner has worked the grievances in the Diocese Linz with open reflections into the programme guide of the festival for ancient music in a Vienna Concert Hall. "Yes, in the Catholic Church the powder is burning," declared the Pastor and said, that he is not the "divider" rather that he is only at the point of conflict. "Finally, it isn't because of me, rather about an inner-Church controversy, in which I had actually become embroiled."

To the apparent peace in the Diocese Wagner opined: "Problems are in plain view, solutions will be delayed (...). Actually the Church is silent and covers the body that lay in Her own cellar. And beneath a reproving hand marvels from far over our boarders over grievances in the Diocese of Linz."

The pastor is critical about the growing number of pastoral assistants, "who question the teaching authority of the Church and do not earnestly accept the moral teachings of the Catholic Church" This all leads to a "latent schism" and to a "silent Church division". Many priests and lay assistants would effect "revolution against Pope and Church".

Furthermore "vagus priests, like for example, a well-known university teacher, who is hardly active in ministry, have the say in the Diocese." For Wagner the pastoral assistant has become established in a "Parallelklerus", that in the final analysis "directly undermines the Priestly authority", because it is not clear, "Why anyone should still be a priest, when things really went so simply." Wagner also criticized that in many Parishes in the Diocese of Linz how the norms for the correct practice of the liturgy aren't followed.

Protestant Studies Fathers and Becomes Byzantine Catholic

We found this article at Medjugorje Central at Spirit Daily.

Sees Byzantine church a “perfect marriage” of Eastern traditions and unity with pope

By PATRICIA COLL FREEMAN

Catholicanchor.org

A former Lutheran pastor from Northern Michigan now heads St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage.

On Oct. 31, Father James Barrand, 52, succeeded just-retired pastor Father Mike Hornick at the little, dome-topped church, where an ancient Catholic liturgy is celebrated everyday. Father Barrand is quick to explain that he got to the icon and incense-filled church with the help of ancient guides — the Early Church Fathers — who chanted the same Divine Praises in the first centuries of the church as he does now.


FOLLOWING THE FATHERS

While a Protestant seminarian, Father Barrand had been fascinated by the Catholic Church.

“I had been exploring it all the way through seminary,” he told the Anchor.

Father James Barrand celebrates the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage on Dec. 30. At right, Father Barrand stands along side the screen of icons, in front of the sanctuary of the church. His concentration was the study of the Fathers of the Church, the influential theologians and writers of the first centuries after Jesus Christ. They include St. Augustine, St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. John Chrysostom.

As with many Protestant denominations, Father Barrand explained, Lutherans think they must “restore” the church to “its pristine shape before the corruption – as they saw it – of the Middle Ages. So they very much encourage people to go back to the Fathers. So I did.”

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A New Lion for Belgium

Since we first reported this occurence last week from Kreuz.net, Archbishop Leonard is confirmed today since last week's happy rumour that he is to be the new "conservative" Archbishop of Belgium. The Valdosta Blog identifies this as a Seismic Shift.

Hilary White identifies another problem associated with his conservativity will leave him vulnerable to attack along the lines of a homosexual agenda:

Indeed, [Archbishop] Léonard has already fallen foul of the homosexualist activist machinery. In 2008 some homosexualist activist groups in Belgium tried to have him charged under the 2003 anti-discrimination act after the bishop commented that homosexuality is a psycho-social disorder.

While the silent war against the altar goes on in fair Austria against a lone priest, things are at least looking good for the country of Belgium. We like his name and anticipate quite a battle.

UK Schools Must Teach Homosexuality is "Normal" and "Harmless"

LONDON, January 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.K. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is wooing the vote of British homosexuals by stating that his party (the third largest party in the U.K.) would legislate that all faith schools in the UK would be legally obliged to teach their students that homosexuality is normal and without any risk to physical or mental health.

In an interview with the gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, Clegg outlined a number of proposals to advance '"gay rights" in the UK, including forcing all schools, including faith-based schools, to implement anti-homophobia bullying policies and to teach that homosexuality is "normal and harmless."

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Rabbi calls Israel's Treatment "Outrageous"

Haaretz

Israel's behavior toward the Vatican over the past 15 years has been "outrageous," one of the figures behind the 1994 establishment of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Vatican City told Haaretz last week. "Any [other] country would have threatened to withdraw its ambassador long ago over Israel's failure to honor agreements," Rabbi David Rosen said.

Rosen is to attend the meeting scheduled in Rome today between Pope Benedict XVI and a delegation from Israel's Chief Rabbinate, which is taking place at a time of crisis in the Vatican's relations with Israel and with Jewish leaders.

Rosen, a British-born former chief rabbi of Ireland who is the international director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, said the Vatican agreed to diplomatic relations with Israel after Jerusalem pledged to recognize the legal status of Catholic institutions in Israel and exempt Vatican property in Israel from taxes. The process was to take two years, he said.
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"Fifteen years later, the state has not ratified an agreement recognizing the church's legal status," Rosen said. He said the Vatican wants its internal hierarchy recognized by Israeli law, which at present treats each Catholic church as a separate nonprofit organization.

Israeli bureaucrats wore down the Vatican by negotiating every tax clause separately instead of granting a general concession, as expected by the Vatican, Rosen said. He called claims that the Vatican wants Israel to cede territory to it "falsehoods" propagated by "xenophobes."

Last month Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon discussed the legal issues in Rome with Vatican officials. He later said the talks "broke down" and that there was a "crisis" in relations.

Meanwhile, some Israeli politicians and Jewish leaders were angered by the Pope's proclamation last month that Pope Pius XII is eligible for for beatification, despite evidence that he may have turned a blind eye to the Holocaust.

"Most people don't know that almost every current problem in Vatican-Jewish relations began not with Pope Benedict, but with his predecessor Pope John Paul II, who is now seen as a saint by Jews," Rosen said.

Link to original...

Venezuela's Chavez WANTS Exorcism

January 15, 2010

By Martin Barillas  

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela asked the newly installed Vatican diplomatic representative to undertake an "exorcism" of the nunciature, the office occupied by a predecessor who the Venezuelan described as a "sadist and rapist." Even so, Chavez welcomed papal nuncio Pietro Parolin during an official meeting with political leaders and diplomats on January 15 . Describing himself as a "Catholic", Chavez said it was "very lamentable" that the Vatican embassy had sheltered Nixon Moreno – a 34-year-old political opponent who was given political asylum there from March 2007 until March 2009. Moreno is charged with homicide and sexual assault in Venezuela and is currently taking refuge in Peru. Moreno has denied the charged and has said that he is the victim of political persecution. Chavez said that his "'revolution' is profoundly Christian," and that is "Bolivarian revolution" is ready for "good relations" with the Catholic Church even while it will not stand pat in the face of criticism on the part of local church hierarchs. "Believe me, we are hoping to have good relations with the Vatican," averred Chavez, "but we are not prepared to be quiet in the face of the intromission on the part of a group of bishops which has submitted to Venezuela bourgeois bastards." Chavez made these remarks in reference to the Catholic Church and the Vatican's ambassador during a formal meeting with Venezuela's political leaders and foreign ambassadors wherein he he gave an accounting of his government's activities in 2009. Among the other recent acts by Chavez was to devalue Venezuela's currency and send soldiers to seize businesses engaged in price gouging.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1669031

Pope Benedict to Schönborn: Be careful about Medjugorje

By Richard Chonak on January 15, 2010 1:05 PM | 5 Comments
From the Italian web site Petrus (my translation):

Rumors from the "Sacri Palazzi": the Pontiff calls Cardinal Schönborn into line: "More prudence about Medjugorje". The cardinal traveled there December 31.


VATICAN CITY - The Pope did not welcome the end-of-year visit to Medjugorje by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna and his former student at university. According to word filtering out from the "Sacri Palazzi" (there has been no official statement on the subject), Benedict XVI has personally communicated with the Austrian cardinal, receiving him in audience a few days after the arguments sparked by the journey of the prominent prelate to the small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina in which six alleged seers have claimed to see the Madonna since the 1980s. The Bishop of Mostar (the diocese in which Medjugorje is located), Monsignor Ratko Peric -- steadily convinced, like his predecessor, that the Virgin is absolutely not appearing in the village -- lamented in an official note that he had not been warned by Schönborn in advance of his arrival. The Archbishop of Vienna, for his part, after having prayed and said Mass at Medjugorje on December 31, also expressed his favorable judgment on what is said to have happened there, and had one of the six alleged seers who claim to see and speak with the "Gospa" accompany him. Then, as the Holy See has not yet expressed itself on the apparitions and many Cardinals and Bishops have shown their skepticism on the authenticity of the apparitions, Benedict XVI has therefore asked Schönborn for more prudence in statements relative to Medjugorje (the destination, this year, of millions of pilgrims), so that his presence there, as a member of the College of Cardinals, not be exploited by anyone to "authenticate" phenomena which the Holy See intends to monitor and analyze, besides the ordinary way, with an ad hoc Commission to whose guidance Cardinal Camillo Ruini will reportedly be called. The most recent Prince of the Church to express his own perplexity on the Medjugorje apparitions (in an interview in these pages) was the Cardinal José Saraiva Martins.

Link to article...

The Holy See's Diplomatic Net. Latest Acquisition: Russia

Over half a century, the pope's ambassadors in the world have doubled. Bilateral diplomatic relations have tripled. Failing to answer the summons are China, Saudi Arabia, and a few other states. The double game of Vietnam: while it is negotiating with the Vatican, it is assailing Catholics

by Sandro Magister



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Lasallian Catholic High School In Minneapolis Invites Anti-Gay Lutherans to Use Space

THEN

The religious society of lay brothers, known as the Lasallians, founded by Jean Baptiste de la Salle in 1680, was famous for its approach to education. Not too far from the place where Father Hennepin discovered the massive Saint Anthony Falls, is Nicolette Island where a centenarian Catholic Highschool dwindles into post-modern obscurity and scandal. In the French tradition of the area of Minneapolis, the school of DeLaSalle was founded in 1900. It was once a place of education for 1654 boys just after the Vatican Council, but it has since decayed into a modern, co-educational body of a bit over 600 students, many of whom are not confessionally Catholics. It's also not clear that the school has a strong attachment to the Catholic Church and there are more than a few indicators that this once vibrant Catholic, Lasallian, institution which was once a matrix of vocations, soldiers and leaders for the Church and the United States, has fallen adrift of its mission and is now confused.



NOW

We say "confused" because the school administration has chosen to invite a small community of protestants, namely three pastors devoted to what is described as the "Lutheran Tradition" and an ecclesial body known as the Lutheran Congregation for Mission in Christ (LCMC) which, despite splitting from the 4.2 Million strong Evangelical Lutheran Church this year in November over the issue of homosexuality, still ordains women. We've seen what diversity has done for the school and for the Church throughout the world, especially in the western world.

The current team is using the facilities at DeLaSalle for weekly 5pm services, which might be relatively innocuous if short lived, since they must be growing their ministry till they can afford to buy a larger church space once their pastorate grows; but the presence of a female minister will no doubt, raise the oft demanded but impossible notion of women priests, despite the group's laudible opposition to homosexuality. Additionally, we expect that there is relatively little difference in their religious services and the Catholic ones held there, for there might be more than a little confusion as the Novus Ordo Mass instituted by Paul VI in 1970 has a lot of similarities to the Lutheran service both in music and in liturgy.

If it's not confusing enough that LCMC which has as we pointed out above, split off from the ELCA recently over the issue of homosexuality, are still separated from the Catholic Church and the Missouri Synod Lutherans, neither of whom ordain women but still differ about a great many other things. Even with these explanations, which should be self-evident, it remains unclear how the offer to permit this Lutheran splinter group to use Catholic facilities, will not create confusion and be a cause of scandal, or whether they will be even using the school chapel. They are helping to give the impression that the Catholic Faith, which our ancestors fought hard to preserve, doesn't matter so much and can be dispensed with out of misplaced amity and false unity. Will these Lutherans freeze to death if they have to hold their heretical services elsewhere? Or will De La Salle have to close if they can't charge the rent they will presumably receive from the LCMC for the use of their chapel. (We'd hate to think this was free)



Surely, the three man Lutheran pastoral team, which includes one woman, must understand matters of principle since they themselves are part of an organization that split with the ELCA over homosexuality.

Chuck Colson Takes Media To Task in Its Poor Coverage of Copts' Plight

The most recent Egyptian assault took place in in the ancient city of Nag Hammadi – a gunman opened fire on a crowd of worshipers leaving Midnight Mass. Seven Coptic Christians were killed, and at least six more were wounded. The shooting was said to be in retaliation for an alleged (emphasis Colson’s) sexual assault by a Christian man against a Muslim girl in November, which was followed by five days of looting and burning of Copt homes and businesses.

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RFI - Police arrest three in Coptic shooting

RFI - Police arrest three in Coptic shooting

Cancer risks and double standards

ProWomanProLife

Lorne Gunter has a column about the abortion/breast cancer thing Andrea mentioned earlier. Personally, I’m not all that excited. I find that being afraid of getting breast cancer is not exactly a stellar reason to choose not to abort a pregnancy, and besides, it’s not right to scare people with risks that appear to be (if I understood correctly) fairly small. But there is a but. Two, actually.

One: If there is a reasonably good reason to believe that a procedure might increase certain risks (cancer, depression, etc.) and/or have undesirable side effects, it simply is wrong not to mention those risks and side effects and make sure the patient understands them before performing the procedure. If relevant information is suppressed, the choice can’t be free.

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Democratic Candidate for Senate in Massachusetts says No Catholics in ER

BOSTON, Massachusetts, January 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a local radio interview Thursday, the Democrat candidate for Massachusetts' special U.S. senate election, Martha Coakley, said that those who object to participating in abortion and contraception, "probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room."

Coakley was responding to WBSM radio host Ken Pittman as he questioned her on her views about the role of conscience rights for health care workers.

Pittman asked, "Would you pass a health care bill that had [provisions protecting] conscientious objector[s] towards certain procedures including abortion?"

Coakley said she opposed an amendment filed by Republican candidate and state senator Scott Brown in a Massachusetts measure to protect the right of health care workers' not to distribute emergency contraception against their religious beliefs.

Read article at Lifesite...

Priest [ess] may be first female bishop

The Pope is coming to Scottland just in time to scoop up some Traditionalists from Church of Scottland. COS is about to get more irrelevant then it already is.

The Holy Father defends this long disused practice, here.

Dr Peden is among three candidates being considered for the bishop's post
A Scottish Anglican priest will learn later if she is to become Britain's first female bishop.

The Reverend Canon Dr Alison Peden, 57, is on a shortlist of three for the role of Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The two other candidates are the Very Reverend Dr Gregor Duncan, 59, and the Venerable Dr John Applegate, 53.

An electoral synod, made up of clergy and lay church members from the Diocese, will decide on Saturday.

The decision will be taken after all three candidates have met members of the electoral synod.

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American Bishops Ask Obama to Grant Hatians Temporary Citizenship

The magnanimity of the American Bishops offers yet another opportunity to expand the welfare state even beyond the boarders of our country.

In a letter President Barack Obama on January 15, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked the White House to designate the country of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

“It is clear that Haiti merits an immediate designation of TPS after suffering the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, one of the worst in Haitian history,” Cardinal George said in the letter.

TPS permits nationals of a designated nation living in the United States to reside here legally and qualify for work authorization. TPS designation is based upon determination that armed conflict, political unrest, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions exist in a nation and that the return of that country’s nationals would further destabilize the nation and potentially bring harm to those returned.

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Catholic Dissenters Define "Catholic" Education

At least they're dying out at a prodigious rate, but Gnosticism, like Modernism of old, is as old as the pyramids.

Catholic Educators who Aren't Catholic

In an editorial eulogizing the late Mary Daly, the Boston Globe lets the cat out of the bag. Daly “came to describe herself as a ‘radical lesbian feminist’ and a ‘post-Christian,’” the Globe notes. How, then, did she justify her position in the theology department at Boston College: a nominally Catholic school? The Globe has its answer:

Daly was one of many scholars who, through their efforts to use their positions at Catholic universities to pull the church leftward, tacitly acknowledged its central role in the lives of the faithful, and its vast influence in society at large.

Exactly. Like all too many of her colleagues in Catholic theological circles, Daly used her academic post not to build up the faith but to tear it down—or, to be more accurate, to exploit it for other purposes. At a time when St. Josemaria Escriva was urging his followers in Opus Dei to turn the ordinary work of the secular world to the purposes of the Church (that is, their sanctification), leftist professors were encouraging students to turn the work of the Church to the purposes of the secular world (that is, their politicization). The Globe editorial puts it differently, but the message is recognizably the same:

Daly was in the thick of a vibrant debate within the Catholic world over how to respond to the social changes of the era.

In academic life, Daly and her allies had ample opportunity to influence the world: to “pull the Church leftward.” They not only trained the next generation in their classrooms, but by controlling the levers of academic power they determined who would be given the appropriate credentials—the PhDs—to teach the following generations as well.

For years, a fifth column has been active in Catholic academic circles. By the 1970s, the damage they had done was evident enough to a few perceptive Catholic scholars, who began founding a new generation of Catholic colleges and universities explicitly devoted to the teaching magisterium of the Church. But at established schools like Boston College, Notre Dame, and Georgetown, the subversion continues.

The influence of these “post-Catholic” scholars extends beyond academic life, too. The Boston Globe is not ordinarily interested in theology; the editorial tribute to Mary Daly was obviously written by someone who had drunk deeply from those intellectual streams. (Notice the awkward use of the adjective "vibrant," a dead giveaway that the author is a liberal Catholic.) Nancy Pelosi can cite professors at Catholic schools to justify her political stands.

The treason of Catholic scholars is not news. What is new, in the Globe editorial, is the candid acknowledgement that some Catholic theologians are motivated not by a different vision for the good of the Church, but by a cynical desire to exploit the Church for the sake of their favored social causes. They acknowledge the Church as a potential force for social change, not as the Bride of Christ, the Mater et Magistra. They are opportunists, not Catholic theologians.

Still, rest assured that they will continue cashing their paychecks, and miseducating our children, for as long as we afford them the opportunities.

Link to Catholic Culture...

Holy Father Reasserts Petrine Office: Addresses SSPX

You might say this is triumphalistic and you might say it's medieval, but it's still the successor of St. Peter, speaking after all these years with the same voice that Saints like St. Thomas More hearkened unto, even unto death.

VATICAN CITY, 15 JAN 2010 (VIS) - Participants in the annual plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the president of which is Cardinal William Joseph Levada, were received this morning by the Holy Father. In his address to them he highlighted the fact that their dicastery "participates in the ministry of unity" which is primarily entrusted to the Pope through his "commitment to doctrinal fidelity.

"Unity", he added, "is first and foremost unity of faith, upheld by the sacred tradition of which Peter's Successor is the primary custodian and defender. ... This is an indispensable service upon which depends the effectiveness of the Church's evangelising activity unto the end of time.

"The Bishop of Rome", the Pope explained, "must constantly proclaim that ... Jesus is Lord". The Roman Pontiff's "potestas docendi" requires "obedience to the faith, so that the Truth that is Christ may continue to shine forth in all its grandeur, ... and that there may be a single flock gathered around a single Shepherd".

The goal of a shared witness of faith among all Christians "represents, then, a priority for the Church in all periods of history. ... In this spirit, I trust particularly in your dicastery's commitment to overcoming the doctrinal problems that still persist in achieving the full communion of the Society of St. Pius X with the Church".

Benedict XVI then went on to thank the members of the congregation for their efforts towards "the full integration of groups and individuals of former Anglican faithful into the life of the Catholic Church, in accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus'. The faithful adherence of these groups to the truth received from Christ and presented in the Magisterium of the Church is in no way contrary to the ecumenical movement", he said, "rather, it reveals the ultimate aim thereof, which is the realisation of the full and visible communion of the disciples of the Lord".

The Pope then turned his attention to the Instruction "Dignitas Personae" concerning certain bioethical questions, which was published by the congregation in 2008. "It represents", he said, "a new milestone in the announcement of the Gospel, in full continuity with the Instruction 'Donum vitae' published by the dicastery in 1987. In such delicate and pressing questions as those that concern procreation and the new therapeutic advances involving the manipulation of the embryo and the human genetic patrimony, ... the Magisterium of the Church seeks to offer its own contribution to the formation of consciences, not only the consciences of believers but of everyone who seeks the truth and is willing to listen to arguments that arise not only from the faith, but also from reason itself".

"Christian faith also makes its truthful contribution in the field of ethics and philosophy, not supplying prefabricated solutions to real problems such as biomedical research and experimentation, put presenting moral standpoints within which human reason can seek and find appropriate solutions", said the Pope.

And he went on: "There are, in fact, certain aspects of Christian revelation that throw light on the problems of bioethics. ... These aspects, inscribed in the heart of man, are also understandable in rational terms as elements of natural moral law, and may find acceptance even among people who do not recognise themselves in the Christian faith".

"Rooted in human nature and accessible to all creatures possessing reason, natural moral law constitutes the foundation for opening a dialogue with all men and women who seek the truth and, more generally, with civil and secular society", said Pope Benedict. And he concluded: "This law, inscribed in the heart of all human beings, touches an essential aspect of legal theory and appeals to legislators' consciences and sense of responsibility".

h/t Doc Frey

Cheeky Pink Girl: Latin Mass Funeral - Part I (Or Why the SSPX [explitive])

Link to the original article, while it lasts.

We'd like to address a sociological reality which most people have experienced with their families and/or who love someone or is loved by someone who is what is commonly referred to as the "Traditional" Catholic. We noted a Catholic Blogger called, "Cheeky Pink Girl" who seems like the kind of girl who lives on the periphery of an SSPX Community and possibly even has a few relatives who belong to it. She herself is fairly conservative, probably fairly pious, goes to communion on Sundays, every Sunday, and regularly goes to confession. In short, she's the kind of person we tend to respect and look up to as an example, even if she "participates" at the Novus Ordo and doesn't wear a veil. She's one of us, right?

And yet, perhaps under the pernicious influence of folks (neo-cons) like Mark Shea, Michael Mazza or Scott Hahn, she thinks the SSPX is a cult and moreover, thinks it is somehow harmful, although she is at some pains to identify just what it is about the SSPX that is harmful. We think it is presumption on her part to make these kinds of rash judgements she's making about the SSPX and a woman who appeared at an approved Diocesan, Latin Mass, with a head covering, sat in the back row and didn't "participate" in her mother's funeral. Unfortunately, this blogger erroneously believes that the SSPX is in schism:

Instead, what I think is sad is that she believes she's bigger and more right that the Body of Christ, which is represented by the Holy Church. It's sad that at her own mother's funeral, she believes that schismatic rupture [Wow! How about love thy neighbor, or your relative?] provides a (loving?/prideful?/necessary?) [How about loving her in return instead of judging her motivations on the basis of a false principle?] testimony to the gospel of Christ, not to mention the Christian fruits of humility and obedience. Throw in patience, too.

Perhaps the blogger is unaware of the fact that we're allowed to attend SSPX chapels and even give them financial support according to Ecclesia Dei Commission and Cardinal Hoyos and that the SSPX is NOT in Schism?

As an anecdote to illuminate the story a bit, we hope, this author was once afrighted of the behaviors he saw in chapels and the kinds of people he met there. Unfortunately, some people are broken and shattered by life's woes and not everyone is "well-adjusted" or even wholesome or undivided in their loyalties. Many of us are not as single-minded as we'd like to be, and some Catholics are scoundrels, or mad as in crazy, but that is certainly NOT something we'd say about the Society of Saint Pius X or the majority of the people who attend their chapels. Most of them are sane, well adjusted, kindly people who are terribly devout and sincere. Perhaps those of you who are afrighted by the sartorial conservatism of the chapel-goers should get to know them better before hosting a bitter fire of angry and contempt inside for them?

We think this is a fairly common sort of occurance, even among "Traditional" Catholics, a sociological phenomenon related to being around human beings, especially those people who are part of a movement of dissent from an established ecclesial norm and it's really nothing to get too afeared of, unless you might, perhaps, fail in your Easter Duty and don't go to confession...

Having said that, this blogger, "Cheeky Pink", talks about a funeral where a woman sits in the back and doesn't "participate" and presumes to judge the person's state of mind and seems to say that she is herself "presuming" to judge the Church when she doesn't go up to communion at her sister's funeral Mass.

Funerals are emotional things and it might be hard to make a rational case to this individual blogger about the legitimate aspiration of the woman (presumeably a relative) who sits in the back and doesn't "participate".

Actually, if this blogger knew anything about participation, she'd know that to participating in Holy Mass does not necessarily equate to dancing, holding hands or going up to embarrass themselves by giving a eulogy.

It's not just that this blogger agrees with the "reforms" of Vatican II, or the various deviations from sound liturgical practice that took place in its wake, it's that she despises what Catholicism was before the council, and what it is today.

Now, we shouldn't be too hasty to participate in the same pharisaism as the blogger does when she criticizies the veiled woman (most likely a relative), quietly praying in the back of the church and grieving at her mother's funeral. But in many of these cases, what we feel is the issue is a kind of angry reaction based on not possessing something that another person has, whether that's integrity, piety, modesty or what not. Seeems that liberal women, the kind who don't wear veils at Mass out of a spirit of rebellion (we're not talking about women who do so either out of ignorance or for other reasons we don't understand), or people in general who aren't as observant a Catholic as another, might be "put out" by shows of piety and even the kind of shunning behavior we see here.

We think we detect the vice of jealousy. It's the kind of jealousy which Joseph suffered at the hands of his brothers when he was thrown into the bottom, of a well, and it's the kind of intolerance for diversity which breeds hate. Our response to all of this should simply be, "what are you doing next Sunday, want to come to an SSPX Mass?". We should renew the invitation too even when we're put off and make a firm resolution to get our relatives, conservative or liberal, to come to the Immemorial Mass of Ages and participate in the Sacrament of Penance.

Talk About Your Dodos

Talk about your Dodos: Even Wallstreet Journal Knows Dissident Catholicism is a Dead End

Sometimes the stench from dead bodies grows so strong that you have to admit that something's wrong; even the leftist organs of information pick up the story, long after people like Father Z. or most of the curia have been talking about it for more than a decade now.

Dissident Catholicism has been long relied upon by the media for quite awhile, but they're a tough act to follow, literally; they have no intellectual heirs (unless you're talking about John Allen) In the days of yore, liberal journalistas could always rely upon an articulate traitor to speak condescendingly about "medievalism" and "outmoded beliefs" or wheel out such jargon words as "Jansenism" to make the lives of the harried local Cardinal of New York or Libson difficult.

Nowadays such voices are becoming increasingly hard to find. Some of them have, no doubt succumbed to complications related to AIDS, others have simply keeled over, and others, like the Zombies of a George Romero film, continue to shamble their way behind the microphones of journalists eager for that tired old dissident story. Increasingly, they have to rely on alleged polls that indicate that most Catholics believe women should be priests. We hope it was a scientific poll.

Well, now the Wall Street Journal, owned by Papal Knight Rupert Murdock, is telling the sad tale: but they're putting a brave face on it all the same. Perhaps there's some lamentation admid occasional attempts at gallows mirth, but the female journalist at Wall isn't entirely at a loss. She seems confident that since most Catholics are dissident anyhow, that perhaps Catholicism is a "dead letter" after all and that like characters from Elenor Rigby, laughable Catholic clergy who don't really believe in Catholicism are becoming unnecessary.

h/t to pewsitter, our inspiration.

Pope addresses Israeli and Palestinian impasse :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Since they are trying to complain about Pius XII and Holocaust revisionism, perhaps it's time to take them to task for the seizing of Palestinian lands and the treatment the Palestinians have, of course, received.

Pope addresses Israeli and Palestinian impasse :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Why is Vatican paper reviewing Avatar, the Simpsons?

Why is Vatican paper reviewing Avatar, the Simpsons?



Osservatore Romano's review was a little strident and petulant, but we expect that from OR, but it was right on for a change. Avatar really is a pantheistic, goofy Gnostic film that cobbles together anarchic influences from film and literature with an eye to ecology and social "justice" like the Mission, Emerald Forest, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars and a few other films we can't think of right now.

The unfortunate thing about this from our point of view is that the one dimension that could have made this film a far deeper one were almost entirely left out. In CS Lewis'science fiction series, That Hideous Strength, creatures rather like those of the planet Pandora are threatened by diabolical forces from Earth who hope to subjugate their world for the sake of scientific imperialism.

The worst thing about this film, in our opinion, will be the large number of people who will swallow it whole and internalize its erroneous lessons sight unseen; that is to say, unconsciously. Dealing with people like that, ruled by emotions and failing to appreciate the delicate power relationships between peoples and elites will no-doubt provide more fodder for further class warfare and the homogenalization of human excellence.

Thank you, Hollyweird.

Of course, most of the reviewers of the review want to talk about how the Vatican wants to spiff up its periodicals image and make it more relevant. We think it's wise of them to be conversant in the popular culture, but why join your enemies and oppressors? Attack them in print we say!

Cardinal Levada to Bless New Chapel of the Northern American FSSP Seminary

Cardinal Levada to Bless New Chapel of the Northern American FSSP Seminary

Another Social Worker Saying the Faith Doesn't Matter

Psst, he's from Notre Dame...

Forget Crucifixes: Catholic Identity Hinges on Catholic Social Teaching
By: Cesar J. Baldelomar
http://www.cesarjb.org/

In his article “Benedict’s ongoing battle against secularism,” John L. Allen claims that European secular attacks on Catholicism led to Pope Benedict XVI’s recent controversial decisions to allow the Society of St. Pius X and conservative Anglicans into the Catholic fold.

Allen points to a recent court ruling as evidence that Europe has become overly secular. The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasburg, “issued its ruling in response to a petition from an Italian woman named Soile Lautsi, who lives near Padua and who claimed that having crucifixes in the public school classrooms attended by her two children violates the church/state separation provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court agreed, awarding Lautsi 5,000 euros (roughly $7,400) in damages.”

Link...

Bill Donahue Swinging at Hollywood's Latest

HOLLYWOOD GOES APOCALYPTIC
January 14, 2010


Catholic League president Bill Donohue looks at Hollywood’s treatment of the apocalypse in “The Book of Eli” and “Legion”; the former opens January 15, and the latter a week later:

By all accounts, “The Book of Eli” puts a positive spin on Christianity. The lead character, Eli, is played by Denzel Washington. Following a nuclear war which destroyed all copies of the Bible, save for the one in his possession, Eli is determined to get the last copy on the planet to a place directed by God; previous religious conflict destroyed all copies of the Torah and Koran. To be successful, Eli must keep the Bible away from a reigning tyrant who is hell bent on getting his hands on it so he can twist biblical teachings to suit his interests.

By all accounts, “Legion” puts a negative spin on Christianity. It features Michael the Archangel crashing down from the heavens to save the unborn child of a Virgin Mary-like character, a waitress who is anything but virginal. Indeed, actress Adrianne Palicki plays such a loose character that she said in an interview, “Who didn’t I have sex with in the movie?” No matter, the film suggests God is the father of her Jesus-like messiah child. The entire story takes place on Christmas eve.

Both movies are violent, and both scripts seize on the apocalypse. But that’s where the similarities end. It is telling that Sony is responsible for the film that is not exactly Christian-friendly (Warner Bros. is releasing “The Book of Eli”). Sony, of course, gave us “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” so it knows how to tweak Christian sensibilities. It is so fitting that “Legion,” which promises to be an abortion of a movie, is opening on January 22, the 37th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision.

Link to original...

Virginians Rebel against Obamacare

insideCatholic

Three Virginia Catholics are leading the resistance against the encroaching power of the Obama White House.
As reported in the Washington Post, legislation has been introduced to curb federal power over health insurance, interstate commerce, and gun regulation. Three of the leaders behind this effort are pro-life Catholics: Robert G. Marshall, a delegate to the Virginia legislature; Attorney General-Elect Ken Cuccinelli; and Gov. Robert McDonnell. (It's something of a historical irony that Catholics have risen to such prominence in a state which sought to exclude the Catholic faith at its founding.)

Read further....