Contact: Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, 630-546-4439, AmericansForTruth@gmail.com
CHICAGO, Aug. 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- Americans For Truth About Homosexuality President Peter LaBarbera today urged conservative pundit Ann Coulter to reconsider her appearance at "Homocon," a September event for the homosexual Republican group GOProud.
LaBarbera said:
As a fan of Ann Coulter, it pains me to see her cave in to political correctness and lend credibility to the phony homosexual "conservatives" over at GOProud. Worse, Coulter is sending a dangerous message to young Americans that homosexuality is OK. (It's actually a sin.) Fully half of GOProud's top 10 federal priorities center on using the Government to advance homosexuality, including:
#4 - "Repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" -- Homosexualizing the military is reckless, especially in wartime. GOProud claims to defend "individual rights," but what about the privacy rights of normal soldiers who don't want to bunk and shower with men who lust after other men? Moreover, if DADT is repealed, the military will become a massive government bureaucracy for pro-homosexual "diversity" -- subjecting millions of tradition-minded servicemen to Orwellian, same-sex propaganda to enforce its new lavender crusade. (Chaplains: beware.)
# 7 - "Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment." Coulter must know that America might be just one Supreme Court justice away from legalizing oxymoronic homosexual "marriage" -- which would undermine religious freedom in every state in the nation. A Federal Marriage Amendment could be the only way to stop this Roe v. Wade-like disaster. And since when did state-enforced homosexual "marriage" -- with its corrosive effect on liberty and linkage to Homosexuality Promotion in schools -- become "conservative"?
GOProud is non-committal on ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act), which would federalize workers' "rights" based on homosexuality and gender confusion. A truly conservative organization would fight this federal power grab -- and GLBT lawyers' dream legislation -- tooth and nail. Ann, are you aware that these days it's Christians like Julea Ward and Matt Barber who defend biblical truth -- not "gays" -- who are victims of corporate discrimination?
One must ask Coulter, who professes Christianity:
· Would you speak at an event for "Republicans For Responsible Porn Use," or "Republicans for Higher Taxes," or Republicans for Choice [Abortion] -- if such groups took legitimately conservative positions on other issues like gun rights?
· Does God condemn only Democratic "men who lie with a male as one who lies with a woman" -- while giving Republican sodomists a pass?
Homosexual practice may be hip in New York City, but objectively it is always wrong and unnatural, and often unhealthy. Thankfully it's also changeable, as proved by thousands of ex-gay men and ex-lesbians. Ann: why don't you speak instead at a conference for former homosexuals? It's not PC, but it would be far more consistent with your conservative principles than celebrating GOProud -- which works directly against the Republican Party's pro-family and pro-marriage platform.
Please reconsider and nix your GOProud talk -- in the name of true conservatism.
Link to original...
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Cardinal Burke Says No To Eucharistic Monsters and Serviettes
The soon-to-be Cardinal has taken the occasion of the Pope's apparent blessing of Altar Girls, and L'Osservatore Romano's to make it known that none of this non-sense will be tolerated at the TLM. One wonders whether there will be women readers, however?
Just remember that today's disobedience and abuse become tomorrow's concessions as was the case with everything from the altar nave, Mass said versus populum, insistence upon the vernacular, Communion in the hand, altar girls and women readers.
Link to Hermeneutic of Continuity, here.
To Raffaele, here
And Rorate Caeli, here.
One wonders, however, shall we dance?
Liturgical "Dancers" courtesy this blog, here.
Just remember that today's disobedience and abuse become tomorrow's concessions as was the case with everything from the altar nave, Mass said versus populum, insistence upon the vernacular, Communion in the hand, altar girls and women readers.
Link to Hermeneutic of Continuity, here.
To Raffaele, here
And Rorate Caeli, here.
One wonders, however, shall we dance?
Liturgical "Dancers" courtesy this blog, here.
Farmer's Mass in New Prague, Minnesota
Editor: Farmers have been going to Mass on Sunday for centuries, without the benefit of mechanization, modern communications or modernism. Farmers, at least Catholic ones, also abstained from work on Sundays. It was a time to meet with family, neighbors and go to Mass and Vespers toward the end of the day.
Read further...
Farmers and others in the New Prague area whose schedules make it difficult for them to attend Sunday morning Masses now have a new option: an 8:15 Saturday night Mass at St. Scholastica in Heidelberg.
For several years, Father Elgar Bockenfeld celebrated a late Saturday Mass at St. John the Evangelist in Union Hill. But after Father Bockenfeld’s death in January, it was discontinued.
About 250 people regularly attended the Mass. Some came from as far as 30 miles away.
Read further...
Damian Thompson Attacks Papal Trip Organizers...on Twitter
He's been very critical of the goings on for awhile and is even attacking the organizers on Twitter. It's just nice that someone with a serious soap box is taking these people to task and holding them accountable because it seems that almost no one else is. He writes:
This is sure to appeal to his artistic non-Catholic friends. It's about time someone took a bite out of artistic mediocrity, even if it were only from the province of artistic competence.
But he's asking another, more important question, why should religion be left to people who don't care enough about it to be competent at it. Most of them who are in charge, whether in the UK or elsewhere, couldn't tell you the 10 Commandments or the Precepts of the Church. Could it be that the last half century of ecclesiastical malaise has left us with a diet of mostly dull porridge?
Many people object more to being infantilised more than they object to being told they are sinners, it seems.
It's been a long lament for those of us on the outside of the power structure who have to endure what's passed on to us. Many of us have made temporary and indefinite measures by finding the Sacraments as much as possible as they were before the Conciliar malaise.
Is this high level of incompetence intentionally meant to drive more people out of the Catholic Church in England than have been in the past years? Here's a bit of what he's talking about with some really cool urban beats and the usual Mass brunch fare some of you may be familiar with:
Link to Papal Visit, here.
At least the production values were solid. That's a jamming soulful piano in that track.
You can hear the mediocrity and incompetence, at least some of it, here at a Catholic Radio Station opened just for the purpose. As a foretaste of this, the organizers plans to cover a group of youth who'll sit outside the Pope's temporary residence all night and sing him lullabies, not that there's anything wrong with that. He also promises to sing the praises of Catholic Charities. You can bet that they will be covering some liturgical abuses, as well as Father Freddy Fraggles...
.@thepapalvisit It's your fault for putting out tacky stuff that no one with any taste could like. You make Catholics look like prats.
This is sure to appeal to his artistic non-Catholic friends. It's about time someone took a bite out of artistic mediocrity, even if it were only from the province of artistic competence.
But he's asking another, more important question, why should religion be left to people who don't care enough about it to be competent at it. Most of them who are in charge, whether in the UK or elsewhere, couldn't tell you the 10 Commandments or the Precepts of the Church. Could it be that the last half century of ecclesiastical malaise has left us with a diet of mostly dull porridge?
.@thepapalvisit And what about that awful, error-strewn booklet with its computer game-style cover? Non-Catholics were cringing.
Many people object more to being infantilised more than they object to being told they are sinners, it seems.
@thepapalvisit You can't even write a literate tweet! Yet Mass-goers pay your wages.
It's been a long lament for those of us on the outside of the power structure who have to endure what's passed on to us. Many of us have made temporary and indefinite measures by finding the Sacraments as much as possible as they were before the Conciliar malaise.
Is this high level of incompetence intentionally meant to drive more people out of the Catholic Church in England than have been in the past years? Here's a bit of what he's talking about with some really cool urban beats and the usual Mass brunch fare some of you may be familiar with:
Link to Papal Visit, here.
At least the production values were solid. That's a jamming soulful piano in that track.
Papal visit CD: musical atrocities that make the Birdie Song sound like Mozart
[Telegraph Blog] Despite everything I’ve written about the incompetence of its organisers, I firmly believe that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain needs to be a success. Time is running out. The sad trendies of Eccleston Square have done enough damage without them handing their critics fresh ammunition at this late stage. My heart sank when I saw that the papal visit team had released two tracks from the official “Pilgrim Journey” CD that comes with the (expensive) tickets for papal events. But nothing could have prepared me for the awful reality.
I’ve just played “Urban Pilgrim (Reprise)” by Alessandro Cherin and “Deus Tuus Deus Meus” by Fr Gerard Bradley to my colleagues in the Telegraph newsroom. And they’re keeling over in embarrassment. “Urban Pilgrim” is described by a friend as “the stuff they play on planes when they switch off your in-flight…
You can hear the mediocrity and incompetence, at least some of it, here at a Catholic Radio Station opened just for the purpose. As a foretaste of this, the organizers plans to cover a group of youth who'll sit outside the Pope's temporary residence all night and sing him lullabies, not that there's anything wrong with that. He also promises to sing the praises of Catholic Charities. You can bet that they will be covering some liturgical abuses, as well as Father Freddy Fraggles...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Old Mass -- And Many Chicaneries: SSPX Numbers in Germany
Three years after 'Summuorum Pontificum' the German traditionalists are still outdistanced by the Society of Saint Pius X which is by far the best.
[kreuz.net] In Germany there are 133 locations, at which the Old Mass is celebrated. The website 'paixliturgique.at' reported on the numbers, which have been published by the organization 'Pro Missa Tridentina'.
58 locations are only celebrated during the week -- without Sundays. That is 43 percent of all the official listed possibilities for participating in the Old Liturgy.
On a further 26 locations celebrate -- therefore 19.5 Percent - have the Old Mass from time to time on one Sunday or not regularly on every Sunday.
A further 19 Mass locations -- 14 Percent -- have merely a Sunday Mas sin the Old Rite. These will be celebrated on times that are not appropriate for families.
Such times are after 9 O'Clock in the mornings or in the afternoons.
The number of the locations, where the Mass is celebrated every Sunday, weekly and on family-friendly times are limited to thirty of the total 133 Mass locations. That is around 22.5%.
The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X has fifty Mass locations.
On 43 Mass locations, there are regular Sunday and workday Masses.
In the past the German Bishops were happy with the expectant excitement of the believers are expected, in order to impede permission to the Old Mass.
Actually, the experience after 'Summorum Pontificum' has shown that this has been a bogeyman.
For this reason 'paixliturgique.at' has tried to encourage Senior Bishops, to finally implement 'Summorum Pontificum'.
The Organization recalled a survey of the Institute 'Harris Interactive' from February 2010, whereupon it indicated a great potential for the Faithful, who are interested in the Old Liturgy:
"44 Percent of regular church-goers of the Ordinary Form were in fact willing to visit the traditional Mass at least once in the Month."
© Bild: birmingham_lms_rep, CC
Metropolitan Filaret: It's Time to Take a Step Toward Unity
By Jesús Colina
VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The time is now for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to take a step toward unity, and for Benedict XVI and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow to meet, says the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus. Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Sluck said this Tuesday at the international conference held in Rome on "The Poor Are the Precious Treasure of the Church: Orthodox and Catholics Together on the Path of Charity."
During the conference, which was promoted by the Sant'Egidio Community, participants reflected on the reception of the most frail in our societies, the testimony of the Fathers of the Church, and the challenges dictated by new social problems. According to Metropolitan Filaret, the time has come to take decisive steps toward unity, reported the country's Catholic news service.
The Orthodox leader added that both Churches seek to establish full unity, and stressed that he has come to this conclusion based on the fraternal dialogue and the meetings that they have held with representatives of the Catholic Church.
If Benedict XVI and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia were to meet, it would be a first for the two pastors of Rome and Moscow.
http://www.zenit.org/article-29172?l=english
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The time is now for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to take a step toward unity, and for Benedict XVI and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow to meet, says the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus. Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Sluck said this Tuesday at the international conference held in Rome on "The Poor Are the Precious Treasure of the Church: Orthodox and Catholics Together on the Path of Charity."
During the conference, which was promoted by the Sant'Egidio Community, participants reflected on the reception of the most frail in our societies, the testimony of the Fathers of the Church, and the challenges dictated by new social problems. According to Metropolitan Filaret, the time has come to take decisive steps toward unity, reported the country's Catholic news service.
The Orthodox leader added that both Churches seek to establish full unity, and stressed that he has come to this conclusion based on the fraternal dialogue and the meetings that they have held with representatives of the Catholic Church.
If Benedict XVI and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia were to meet, it would be a first for the two pastors of Rome and Moscow.
http://www.zenit.org/article-29172?l=english
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Cardinal of Mexico: Homosexual Perversion is Evil
The Homosexual-perversion has a much to do with marriage as the human bowel movment has to do with making Wurst.
[kreuz.net] Since March the city of Mexico has treated the unnatural homosexual paring as a normal, healthy marriage.
Against this unjust state privileging of a beloved perverse act has caused the civil government of President Felipe Calderon to complain.
Indeed the highest court in the land of Mexico denied the complaint.
The homosexual-judge refused, that the unjust-privilege of a socially useless perverse minority has contradicted the Mexican Constitution.
The fertilization is supposedly "not a fundamental aspect of marriage" -- maintains the Judge.
The Politicians Want to Destroy their Land
Norberto Cardinal Rivera (69) of Mexico City criticized the judgement on Sunday.
"The Church can not stop pointing to this as evil" -- declared the Cardinal.
For: homo-parings are only fake marriages.
The homo-pervsion is an "immoral confusion" -- asserted the Cardinal.
The politicians are dealing with marriage and family "as if they were depended upon, to destroy them and with them, the Nation."
The homosexual-perversion is against the plan of God and nature of marriage, "which Jesus has raised to a Sacrament" -- insists the Cardinal.
Simultaneously he emphasized, that the Catholic must respect the law and the homo-perverse may not be discriminated against.
That does not warrant, "the support for false laws".
Original, here...
[kreuz.net] Since March the city of Mexico has treated the unnatural homosexual paring as a normal, healthy marriage.
Against this unjust state privileging of a beloved perverse act has caused the civil government of President Felipe Calderon to complain.
Indeed the highest court in the land of Mexico denied the complaint.
The homosexual-judge refused, that the unjust-privilege of a socially useless perverse minority has contradicted the Mexican Constitution.
The fertilization is supposedly "not a fundamental aspect of marriage" -- maintains the Judge.
The Politicians Want to Destroy their Land
Norberto Cardinal Rivera (69) of Mexico City criticized the judgement on Sunday.
"The Church can not stop pointing to this as evil" -- declared the Cardinal.
For: homo-parings are only fake marriages.
The homo-pervsion is an "immoral confusion" -- asserted the Cardinal.
The politicians are dealing with marriage and family "as if they were depended upon, to destroy them and with them, the Nation."
The homosexual-perversion is against the plan of God and nature of marriage, "which Jesus has raised to a Sacrament" -- insists the Cardinal.
Simultaneously he emphasized, that the Catholic must respect the law and the homo-perverse may not be discriminated against.
That does not warrant, "the support for false laws".
Original, here...
France: Only the Catholic Monasteries Grow
The old liberals command of the Church is increasingly without reservation. But the boring mush they produce doesn't attract anyone any more.
[kreuz.net] "The Cloister, which young people today are drawn to, is something which the most traditional societies offer."
Trappist, Father Guillaume Jedrzejczak explained on July 2nd, for an article appearing in the Catholic daily 'La Croix'.
Father Jedrzejczak is the former Abbot of the French Trappist Abbey Mont-des-Cats.
In figures of numbers of entrants the traditionalist Abbey of Fontgambault in Central France is at the head of French Bedictine Cloisters.
The leading Trappist Abbey is the Cloister Sept-Fons in the Central French Auvergne.
Benedictine Nun Cloisters are like Pradines in Central France and the Cloister of Saint Marie de Maumont in Western Frane.
Also some French Carmelite Cloisters have regular growth.
Pre-Conciliar Carmelites
In the year 2009 French Cloisters received 50 Novice Males and 95 Novice Females.
The departures are in comparison to the decadent Council years, significantly lower. There are in any event also fewer entrants.
It is becoming increasingly prevalent, that Cloisters must be closed, because there are no more new growth.
Actually, simultaneously there is a growing interest in stays in the guest houses of the Cloister.
In certain regions of France it is so large, that the Cloisters are not in a position, to find places for all of the guests.
"Mostly young women come in search of peace of mind" -- explained Sister Marie-Chantal, who cares for the guests at the Cloister of the Servants of the Visitation of Voiron in the Diocese of Grenoble:
"They exclaim, not to have the faith and don't want to pray. They are not so much looking for someone as something."
The Cloister can accommodate a maximum of five female guests during the year.
Original, kreuznet, here...
I have Learned, What Joy Lies in Fidelity
The famous actor Antonio Banderas, despite the temptations, wants to remain true to his wife Melanie Griffith, he's been married to her for 14 years, for Hollywood a "half eternity."
Hollywood (kath.net)
The famous actor Antonio Banderas would like to remain true to, despite the temptations, to his wife Frau Melanie Griffith, as the "World" has reports. Banderas, who celebrates his 50th birthday, is since 14 years married to one woman, for Holywood-relationships a "half eternity". "I am no player", exclaimed Banderas, who also admits, that in hard film business, the temptation is lurking. The actor has already made films with Angelina Joli ("Original Sin"), Catherine Zeta-Jones ("Zoro") but also with "Madonna" ("Evita"). "If one makes a film, one meets incredible people. They are interesting and wonderful, physically wonderful. But I have learnt what pleasure there is in fidelity. I have nowhere else to go there. I love my wife", said Banderas in an interview.
The actor stayed by her, as Melanie Griffith struggled for a year with alcohol and addiction to medication. Naturally he also met her in front of the camera, in the romantic comedy, "Two Much" (1996). Banderas comes from an an Malaga in Andalusia and has a 13 year old daughter with her.
Link to original, kath.net...
Hollywood (kath.net)
The famous actor Antonio Banderas would like to remain true to, despite the temptations, to his wife Frau Melanie Griffith, as the "World" has reports. Banderas, who celebrates his 50th birthday, is since 14 years married to one woman, for Holywood-relationships a "half eternity". "I am no player", exclaimed Banderas, who also admits, that in hard film business, the temptation is lurking. The actor has already made films with Angelina Joli ("Original Sin"), Catherine Zeta-Jones ("Zoro") but also with "Madonna" ("Evita"). "If one makes a film, one meets incredible people. They are interesting and wonderful, physically wonderful. But I have learnt what pleasure there is in fidelity. I have nowhere else to go there. I love my wife", said Banderas in an interview.
The actor stayed by her, as Melanie Griffith struggled for a year with alcohol and addiction to medication. Naturally he also met her in front of the camera, in the romantic comedy, "Two Much" (1996). Banderas comes from an an Malaga in Andalusia and has a 13 year old daughter with her.
Link to original, kath.net...
Abuse Case Against Vatican Dismissed
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Three men who sought to hold the Vatican liable in an American court for sexual abuses by Roman Catholic priests in a Kentucky diocese are abandoning the case.
Lawyers looked to question Pope Benedict XVI under oath but had to leap the high legal hurdle of the Vatican's sovereign immunity status in the U.S. But plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville to dismiss their claims.
Their attorney, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican's immunity and failure to turn up new plaintiffs to add to the lawsuit who haven't yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case.
Read further...
Lawyers looked to question Pope Benedict XVI under oath but had to leap the high legal hurdle of the Vatican's sovereign immunity status in the U.S. But plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville to dismiss their claims.
Their attorney, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican's immunity and failure to turn up new plaintiffs to add to the lawsuit who haven't yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case.
Read further...
Young Americans More Religious than Boomers
(Reuters Life!) - Younger Americans, between the ages of 36 to 50, are more likely to be loyal to religion than Baby Boomers, according to new research.
In a study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Philip Schwadel, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said this was true even though they were less likely than previous generations to have been brought up with a religion.
He said the trend "is good news for those who worry about declining religious adherence."
Read further...
In a study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Philip Schwadel, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said this was true even though they were less likely than previous generations to have been brought up with a religion.
He said the trend "is good news for those who worry about declining religious adherence."
Read further...
Thousands Rally in Warsaw to Remove Cross
Thousands rally in Warsaw to demand cross be moved
By VANESSA GERA (AP) – 8/10/10
WARSAW, Poland — Thousands of people held a midnight rally in Poland's capital to demand that a wooden cross erected in memory of the late President Lech Kaczynski be moved from in front of the presidential palace.
The cross was erected after Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in Russia in April, and has become a site of mourning for a small group of elderly supporters of the late leader and his brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of a conservative pro-Catholic party who made an unsuccessful run for the presidency this summer.
It has also become a source of friction with their political rivals.
Those at the rally late Monday said they want the cross moved to a nearby church, arguing that it has no place in front of the presidential palace of a nation constitutionally defined as secular.
Read further...
By VANESSA GERA (AP) – 8/10/10
WARSAW, Poland — Thousands of people held a midnight rally in Poland's capital to demand that a wooden cross erected in memory of the late President Lech Kaczynski be moved from in front of the presidential palace.
The cross was erected after Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in Russia in April, and has become a site of mourning for a small group of elderly supporters of the late leader and his brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of a conservative pro-Catholic party who made an unsuccessful run for the presidency this summer.
It has also become a source of friction with their political rivals.
Those at the rally late Monday said they want the cross moved to a nearby church, arguing that it has no place in front of the presidential palace of a nation constitutionally defined as secular.
Read further...
Monday, August 9, 2010
North Korea Warned after Artillery Barrage
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea denounced a barrage of artillery fired by North Korea into the sea as a grave provocation Tuesday and warned that it would deal sternly with any further such acts.
North Korea fired about 110 rounds Monday near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, shortly after Seoul ended five-day naval drills staged in response to the March sinking of its Cheonan warship. North Korea has been blamed for the vessel's destruction, which killed 46 sailors.
Link to MSNBC, here...
North Korea fired about 110 rounds Monday near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, shortly after Seoul ended five-day naval drills staged in response to the March sinking of its Cheonan warship. North Korea has been blamed for the vessel's destruction, which killed 46 sailors.
Link to MSNBC, here...
Thieves Attempt to Steal Padre Pio's Relics
Intruders attempted to steal relics of the Italian National Hero Padre Pio (1887-1968) in the dead of night.
Rome (kath.net/KAP) Intruders attempted to steal relics of the Italian National Hero Padre Pio (1887-1968) in the dead of night. The thieves broke into the chapel crypt of the south Italian city of Saint Giovanni Rotundo, according to the Roman daily 'La Republica' (Monday-Edition) which was reported to the local police. There the perpetrators broke through the bulletproof glass, behind which the reliquary of the Capuchin Monk is located.
Among the secured remains of the Saint, who was famous for his crucifixion wounds, there are some hairs, a bandage as well as a pair of gloves.
The body of Padre Pio was put in the sanctuary by star architect Renzo Piano in April of this year and since 2004 the pilgrimage church was open for the Saint, Pio di Pietrelicina, had been reinterred in the Apulian city. Before he was in the laid to rest in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
From kathnet...
Hosts are Desercrated in Carbondale, Pennsylvania Parish
The article says Satanists, but no one knows for sure, or at least there's no indication of what it is. While Satanists do steal relics, it's unclear that this is the case here.
Read the rest of article at Breaking News...
Parishioners at St. Rose of Lima parish in Carbondale, Pennsylvania are in shock after learning that someone broke into their church for the sole purpose of stealing a ciborium full of consecrated hosts.
WNEP-TV is reporting that the incident occurred sometime during the evening of Aug. 4 when a thief entered the church through an open window. Monsignor David Tressler, pastor of the parish, said the only thing stolen was the most precious item in the church - the Blessed Sacrament.
“What has been taken is the Blessed Sacrament, which is our Holy Communion, which is the the source and summit of who we are , the body and blood of Christ,” Tressler told WNEP.
Read the rest of article at Breaking News...
Nashville Priest May Face Canonical Discipline for Heretical Video
Nashville priest may face canonical discipline over heretical video
A priest of the Nashville diocese may be facing canonical discipline after putting out a video on the front of his parish website this week denouncing the Pope and various Church teachings such as those against divorce, contraception, women's ordination, and the married priesthood, reports Patrick B. Craine, LifeSiteNews.com.
The video, titled 'The State of our Church', is staged as an interview of the priest, Fr. Joseph Patrick Breen, by one of his parishioners at St. Edward's Catholic Church. It appears to be an attempt at reaching out to fallen-away Catholics. The video was picked up Thursday by the blog Creative Minority Report.
"That's the way we are, and that's where the people are," Fr. Breen explained when asked by LifeSiteNews why he released the video. "You gotta get the bishops to, the Pope to listen to the people - the voice, you might say, of the Spirit - and you see so many people, I do, that quit going to church because there's no response to the necessary changes that should be made."
Read further...
A priest of the Nashville diocese may be facing canonical discipline after putting out a video on the front of his parish website this week denouncing the Pope and various Church teachings such as those against divorce, contraception, women's ordination, and the married priesthood, reports Patrick B. Craine, LifeSiteNews.com.
The video, titled 'The State of our Church', is staged as an interview of the priest, Fr. Joseph Patrick Breen, by one of his parishioners at St. Edward's Catholic Church. It appears to be an attempt at reaching out to fallen-away Catholics. The video was picked up Thursday by the blog Creative Minority Report.
"That's the way we are, and that's where the people are," Fr. Breen explained when asked by LifeSiteNews why he released the video. "You gotta get the bishops to, the Pope to listen to the people - the voice, you might say, of the Spirit - and you see so many people, I do, that quit going to church because there's no response to the necessary changes that should be made."
Read further...
Old Liberal Pastoral Theologian Wants Old Mass
Pastoral theology is in the scope of academically unilluminating old liberal Theology, intellectually settled on the lower depths. This was recemtly attested to by a faculty member at Fulda.
[kreuz.net] In the past June the old liberal, Fulda Theologian, Prelate Richard Hartman, once again coughed in disapproval of the Church.
Prelate Hartman is the director of the Conference of German Speaking Catholic Pastoral theologians.
His recently published website text bears the baroque title: "Roll backwards or break from the future -- post-pentecostal observations. Commentary on the situation in Germany."
Very familiar Argument Structure
As expected the Prelate began with the media staged abuse-hysteria.
This will now "afford a new opportunity" for the Bishops.
As for the reasons for the abuse was attributed -- truly --- to the unity of the perpetrators and the "loss of values of the enlightened 68ers" said the Prelate angrily.
The idea, that the bishops finally have recognized their responsibility and "have taken the steering wheel in hand", has made the Pastoral theologian acidic.
For the Bishops attempted "to keep the herd pure with the menace of certain taboos and commandments" -- as he demonized and continued with the following construction:
"The greater the taboos the greater the danger of the darkening of the culture of dishonesty."
What the Prelate doesn't see: with very similar arguments the naked 68ers have labored decades long for a legalization of child abuse.
Preaching with Back to the People?
Now Father Hartmann throws Bishop of Limburg, Msgr Bischop Franz-Peter Tebarttz van Elst in the pan, who had preached at this years Fulda Bonifacius Pilgrimage.
In his Chancellery speech he had -- not surprising for a Sermon -- encouraged the faithful, to look for the good in the Church.
For the German masochism of Prelate Hartman this was the wrong antidote:
"Shepherds, who speak to their flock from a podium and preach these, I have not seen-- besides in the Church --" he bloviated.
Interestingly Prelate Hartman teaches Preaching, where the student is discouraged from doing, what he had criticized in Msgr Tebartz van Elst.
But perhaps the Prelate is acting here as a pastoral-theological advocate for preaching with the back to the people.
Not toward the Flock
Eventually, he showed himself to be heading in this direction. He sees three places, which "cause a departure for the future".
The first: "I see shepherds on the lead of the flock (surely in the view of Christ), where they should not be leaving, rather progressing on new ways and leading the flock to good pasture."
This vision of the Prelate fulfills itself -- unless he hadn't noticed? -- on the in the exemplary way of the celebrating of the Old Mass.
"Therefore not against the flock, rather at the lead" -- said Fr. Hartman with this expression.
Then the pastoral theologian longs for shepherds, who travel "behind the flock", in order to gather up the slow or dreamy.
Why not?
Finally, Prelate Hartman wishes for shepherds "in the midst of the flock", sometimes to one, sometimes turning to the other, with good intentions to them and their opinion in order urge them on in very close contact with them.
That also doesn't sound bad. Prelate Hartmann must also be wary that he doesn't recommend to others what he himself doesn't practice.
According to these nice poetical points come inevitably the same old liberal litanies, whose keen recitation has already led the Protestants and Anglicans in the abyss.
On priestly formation the Prelate plays "strict" against "fruitful".
He naturally encourages the abolition of celibacy, married priests, the abolition of ecclesiastical sexual morals and an old liberal liturgy, which has been in place for a long time.
Finally he pats himself on the shoulder: His old liberal speech is "more important and more far sighted than shibboleths and a return to the prisons of earlier centuries" -- he maintains.
You'd better be careful, dear Prof. Doctor Hartman. The Gospels also belong to the category of "earlier centuries".
Link to original...
[kreuz.net] In the past June the old liberal, Fulda Theologian, Prelate Richard Hartman, once again coughed in disapproval of the Church.
Prelate Hartman is the director of the Conference of German Speaking Catholic Pastoral theologians.
His recently published website text bears the baroque title: "Roll backwards or break from the future -- post-pentecostal observations. Commentary on the situation in Germany."
Very familiar Argument Structure
As expected the Prelate began with the media staged abuse-hysteria.
This will now "afford a new opportunity" for the Bishops.
As for the reasons for the abuse was attributed -- truly --- to the unity of the perpetrators and the "loss of values of the enlightened 68ers" said the Prelate angrily.
The idea, that the bishops finally have recognized their responsibility and "have taken the steering wheel in hand", has made the Pastoral theologian acidic.
For the Bishops attempted "to keep the herd pure with the menace of certain taboos and commandments" -- as he demonized and continued with the following construction:
"The greater the taboos the greater the danger of the darkening of the culture of dishonesty."
What the Prelate doesn't see: with very similar arguments the naked 68ers have labored decades long for a legalization of child abuse.
Preaching with Back to the People?
Now Father Hartmann throws Bishop of Limburg, Msgr Bischop Franz-Peter Tebarttz van Elst in the pan, who had preached at this years Fulda Bonifacius Pilgrimage.
In his Chancellery speech he had -- not surprising for a Sermon -- encouraged the faithful, to look for the good in the Church.
For the German masochism of Prelate Hartman this was the wrong antidote:
"Shepherds, who speak to their flock from a podium and preach these, I have not seen-- besides in the Church --" he bloviated.
Interestingly Prelate Hartman teaches Preaching, where the student is discouraged from doing, what he had criticized in Msgr Tebartz van Elst.
But perhaps the Prelate is acting here as a pastoral-theological advocate for preaching with the back to the people.
Not toward the Flock
Eventually, he showed himself to be heading in this direction. He sees three places, which "cause a departure for the future".
The first: "I see shepherds on the lead of the flock (surely in the view of Christ), where they should not be leaving, rather progressing on new ways and leading the flock to good pasture."
This vision of the Prelate fulfills itself -- unless he hadn't noticed? -- on the in the exemplary way of the celebrating of the Old Mass.
"Therefore not against the flock, rather at the lead" -- said Fr. Hartman with this expression.
Then the pastoral theologian longs for shepherds, who travel "behind the flock", in order to gather up the slow or dreamy.
Why not?
Finally, Prelate Hartman wishes for shepherds "in the midst of the flock", sometimes to one, sometimes turning to the other, with good intentions to them and their opinion in order urge them on in very close contact with them.
That also doesn't sound bad. Prelate Hartmann must also be wary that he doesn't recommend to others what he himself doesn't practice.
According to these nice poetical points come inevitably the same old liberal litanies, whose keen recitation has already led the Protestants and Anglicans in the abyss.
On priestly formation the Prelate plays "strict" against "fruitful".
He naturally encourages the abolition of celibacy, married priests, the abolition of ecclesiastical sexual morals and an old liberal liturgy, which has been in place for a long time.
Finally he pats himself on the shoulder: His old liberal speech is "more important and more far sighted than shibboleths and a return to the prisons of earlier centuries" -- he maintains.
You'd better be careful, dear Prof. Doctor Hartman. The Gospels also belong to the category of "earlier centuries".
Link to original...
We're Putting CatholicCulture.org on the Fidelity to Catholicism Watch List
Here's what the dudes at CatholicCulture.org are saying about RealCatholicTV and the Emmy Award winning Journalist at the Vortex.
Link to article, here.
h/t: Doc Kopp
RealCatholicTV » Visit this site http://www.realcatholictv.com
Description
RealCatholicTV was formed in early 2008 by lay Catholics with extensive experience in commercial broadcast television.
The website offers Catholic programming including, daily news, daily political commentary, daily features on saints and history as well as regular episodes on morality, movie reviews, entertainment, apologetics, and much more.
RealCatholicTV is particularly concerned with the inroads of secularism into the Church, and users should be aware that a great many of the programs attempt to expose ecclesiastical shortcomings, with considerable criticism of Church leaders.
The site provides content through a video player that allows users to view, send, and download content regardless of their computing platform with no plug-ins required. All viewers have free access to home page content – daily news and commentary (current events and politics) from the Catholic perspective, messages directly from Catholic bishops to the faithful, program previews, and more.
RealCatholicTV.com opened with the support of various bishops in the U.S., though as its programming has become increasingly critical of the Church, some bishops have withdrawn their support.
The site provides a good deal of material for free, but the $10.00 a month membership charge is well worth it for the extra programming that is available.
Review Ratings what do these ratings mean?
First Evaluated: 11/19/2008; Last Updated: 08/04/2010
1. Fidelity: Caution
2. Resources: Excellent
3. Useability: Excellent
Strengths
* Catholic News Roundup Resources
* The Vortex Resources
* Catholic Saints Resources
* This Day in History Resources
* Shepherds' Voice Resources
* Premium Membership ($10.00 per month) includes: Inroads, the Cost of Abortion, Catholic Critic, God's Green Earth, Moral Compass, St. Michael's Basic Training, The Other View, Prayer Kids and One True Faith Resources
* Forum Resources
Weaknesses
* Fidelity: Extreme antipathy to the liturgy of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite Example(s)
* Fidelity: Over-simplification of Church problems. Example(s)
* Fidelity: Lack of spiritual prudence Example(s)
Categories
Not Yet Categorized
More Information
RealCatholicTV.com
248-545-5716
contact@RealCatholicTV.com
NB: All reviews are current as of the Evaluation or Update Date cited above. If you notice that a review contains information that is no longer accurate, please contact us and we will be happy to amend our review.
Link to article, here.
h/t: Doc Kopp
Jay's Analysis: Democratic Operative Busted Smearing Rand Paul at Fancy Farm
August 9, 2010 by jay008 6 Comments
UPDATE Below.
By: Jay
The Kentucky Fancy Farm Picnic is decadent and depraved as well, apparently. Well, at least the Democratic operatives who parade with the most inane and over-the-top smear tactics are. In one of the most important and closely watched races in the country, my friends and I attended the famous Fancy Farm debate and ousted this Democratic operative:
Read further...
UPDATE Below.
By: Jay
The Kentucky Fancy Farm Picnic is decadent and depraved as well, apparently. Well, at least the Democratic operatives who parade with the most inane and over-the-top smear tactics are. In one of the most important and closely watched races in the country, my friends and I attended the famous Fancy Farm debate and ousted this Democratic operative:
Read further...
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Vatican Library Restoration Complete
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In late July, a young woman was removing books from shelves in the Vatican Library and vacuuming the dust off of them, one by one.Scholars have not had access to the library's 1.6 million books, hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, or its coin and medal collections since 2007, when the absolute-silence rule in the library's reading rooms was replaced with the ruckus of jackhammers, drills and cement mixers.
But, as promised three years ago, the Vatican Library will open its doors Sept. 20, sparkling clean and stronger than ever.
Vatican engineers had noticed the library's floor was sagging. Even after moving most of the books, building inspectors were not convinced it was safe, so the Vatican closed the library after giving scholars only a few months' notice.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1003193.htm
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
FBI Shows Links Between Obama, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers and Liberation Theology
A Ridiculed Bishop Strikes Back: More Fallout From "Loveparade"
A well known Austrian Auxiliary bishop is not prepared to take the unjustifiable pummeling of the media bosses: Loveparade is not a "harmless celebration" -- If God "punishes", He does this with the intention to bring men around, God punishes out of love.
[kreuz.net, Salzburg] This Friday the Auxiliary Bishop Andreas Laun of Salzburg wrote a careful article about the Massacre-Loveparade in Duisburg.
The text appeared in the neo-Conservative Linz commercial website 'kath.net'.
The in the meantime suspended, so-called Loveparade was the biggest alcohol, drug and sex event of Western Europe.
Msgr Laun stated from the start, that no one is in the position, to directly order God's punishment for a sin.
There is not a single person who can condemn the dead and point to that as God's punishment.
Quite independently from the sympathy with the victims the Bishop wrote about the "repellent image" of the horrific event.
God is not and Indifferent God
The Auxiliary Bishop emphasized the truism that God punishes sins -- and really "with the intention to bring people to repentance, God punishes out of love!"
"Can one believe in a punishing God? Contradiction: <
Would not a God without this indifference be an <
The Auxiliary Bishop described Hell not as the punishment of God, rather as the self-alienation of the sinner from eternal Holiness.
The Media Bosses Damn
The original short text of the article will bring the Auxiliary Bishop to the gallows:
"Loveparade is not a 'harmless celebration' -- if God 'punished', he did this with the intention, to bring people to penance -- God punishes out of love!"
This was seized upon by the Austrian News Agency 'APA' and even mentioned in the evening news of 'Austrian Television'.
The German regional daily 'Hamburger Morgenpost' ridiculed the Auxiliary Bishop with the paltry title: "Bishop Ridicules Victims of Loveparade".
The Bishop Strikes Back
Yesterday evening Msgr Laun published a second article on the theme for 'kath.net'.
He criticized the "scandal monger journalism" for his description.
His text asks "for a fair and precise reader not to be misled."
Msgr Laun is "disappointed", that the public dialogue will not take place: "why, my ladies and gentlemen, could and would you not believe me, what I describe precisely?"
The Auxiliary Bishop renewed with exclamation points:
"I am also not convinced, that we men do not have the right, to pass over other men a just judgement, that belongs only to God!"
Msgr Laun underscored that he may not judge and has not done it. Really he will be condemned -- for the claims, that he is supposed to have expressed.
Thereby he does not believe his "dear critics", "that you really believe, that I think, what you have ascribed to me."
The Auxiliary Bishop then recalls, that every religion believes in a God, "who is also a judge of people."
In conclusion he emphasizes again, that he has not assumed this office which is God's alone.
Related article: Loveparade Ends in Tears
Original article, here.
Tea at Trianon: Now on Kindle and In Paperback
Madame Royale, a novel about the turbulent life of Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse, is now available as an ebook from Amazon and also in softcover. The period which follows the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, called by historians "the Bourbon restoration" (1814-1830), was outwardly one of rest and peace for France. Yet beneath the surface, the forces of revolution were engaged in a ruthless duel for power with those of the reaction. At the center of the drama one woman, consumed by a quest for love and restoration, must struggle to survive amid deception and betrayal. A tale of murder, mystery and secret romance, the novel searches the conflicted heart of the orphaned princess who from childhood had been called "Madame Royale." To quote from the back cover of the second edition:
They say that the greatest story in History is the Truth and in Madame Royale, Elena Maria Vidal certainly proves that’s the case. The sights, sounds and smells of 19th-century Europe are all brilliantly captured in this immaculately researched and exquisite novel, which recalls the great writers and memoirists of the 1800's. It is an unforgettable portrait of a royal life torn between religion, politics, revolution, mystery, heartache and intrigue and Madame Royale is a fantastic tribute to one of Europe’s most tragic, but courageous princesses.
- Gareth Russell, author of The Audacity of Ideas and Popular
Tea at Trianon: Now on Kindle and In Paperback
Saturday, August 7, 2010
I Still Hear the Shots Today
"I came on Easter Sunday 1945 to a death camp of Tito, in which I went hungry thanks to the desire of the Communists. My 16 year old brother was shot and buried in a mass grave which they had dug themselves beforehand with 212 others of Danube-Swabian, German descent . [...] I still hear the shots today, those shots with which my brother was executed. It has always been with me. I was six years old then.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg in an Interview with the German 'Bildzeitung'
Link to original...
Photo Credit: Here.
Nina Hagen Spouts Off: From Hinduism to A Kind of Christianity
Editor: Nina and Anne Rice should compare notes.
Homosexual Ideologues and Abortion Promoters are Not Christians
[Kreuz.net] Germany. God loves the Homosexual. This was according to rock star and Protestant Nina Hagen for a Homosexual Magazine. The Sodomy is "just as holy" as a similar act by Christians, and whoever condemns Homosexuality, are "not Christians": "That is fascistic thinking" -- she exclaimed. The singer wanted to be baptized Protestant and not Catholic, because the Protestants are "more liberal". Frau Hagen thinks child murder is OK, she said, because the mother must decide herself.
Link to the original...Kreuz.net
Image stolen from: mymusicislost.blogspot.com
People are Drawn to St. Peter's: Most Popular Spot
Europe's Largest Tourist Destination -- Not to Worship
[Kreuz.net] Vatican.St. Peter's Cathedral is the most beloved "Free Tourist Destination" in Europe. This is according to the Hotel Value Site 'Tripadvisor' in the Italian daily 'Corriere della Sera'. In the second and third position are supposedly the Museum in the Nazi Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Volcano Etna in Sicily.
Photograph: from an interesting travelogue, here.
Rock Star Abbot Doesn't Believe in Pope Benedict or Bishop Mixa
[Radio Vatikan]The Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, Notker Wolf, warns of a slanted view of the Church. He said this to a group of mass servers from his Bavarian homeland on Tuesday from the Benedictine Center of Saint Anselmo.
"What has bothered me the whole time: everything depends on the Pope and Mixa -- I don't believe either in the Pope or in Mixa, rather Jesus Christ, and that is final! That the Church is human, let us not be mistaken -- it was always thus. And we are indeed only human. But I believe, it is completely important that we see: We believe in the Church and we believe in Jesus Christ! And the Pope is just in the Church is -- but he's also a man at the head. He can't do everything..."
Abbot Notker advised that Catholics should not nurture an illusory, withdrawn image of the Church. Notker is also famous a Rock Musician and Bestselling Author: "We always want a Church beyond the clouds, almost without body and soul."
Even today the Church is capable of giving the seeking person a footing, says Abbot Notker. He pointed to the headline of a newspaper, that showed the memorial service for the victims of the Duisberger Love-Parade: "There is the Chancellor, Merkel, the President (Wulff), the President of the Parliament (Lammert)-- and where are they standing? In the Church! Who really has the time or the power in the main, to show a sign of hope in this mad emergency. This is our Faith, that is our Church! I don't believe that anyone in the Mayor's office of Duisburg has received much mercy... rather the people have found mercy from God. And not just anywhere from God, but in an absolutely concrete way in the Church!
This is the man responsible for giving shelter and temporary residence to Francisco Schulte, here.
Link to original...
Photo credit: Idle Speculations.
Slander Against Conservative Lutheran Pastor by Local Mag Backfires
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, August 6, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rev. Tom Brock is a senior pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis who recently became the center of a controversy after his personal struggles with same-sex attraction were made public. Earlier in June, an undercover journalist with the Minnesota-based homosexual publication “Lavender” infiltrated and exposed Brock's attendance at a local chapter of Courage, a Catholic-run, prayer-based support group for men struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions.
Brock, 57 years old and a virgin by his own admission, says that he has never engaged in homosexual behavior. A two-week investigation by his church, a member of the conservative Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, confirmed that no evidence exists to the contrary.
“Lavender” admitted they did the story to discredit Brock, who has been outspoken in his defense of traditional marriage and who has criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for allowing individuals in active homosexual relationships to serve as clergy.
Brock returned to his pulpit at Hope Lutheran Church last Sunday for the first time since he was put on administrative leave while the church’s task force conducted its inquiry. He was welcomed back with a standing ovation.
Read further...
Brock, 57 years old and a virgin by his own admission, says that he has never engaged in homosexual behavior. A two-week investigation by his church, a member of the conservative Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, confirmed that no evidence exists to the contrary.
“Lavender” admitted they did the story to discredit Brock, who has been outspoken in his defense of traditional marriage and who has criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for allowing individuals in active homosexual relationships to serve as clergy.
Brock returned to his pulpit at Hope Lutheran Church last Sunday for the first time since he was put on administrative leave while the church’s task force conducted its inquiry. He was welcomed back with a standing ovation.
Read further...
Alaska Catholic Church Used for Episcopal Ordination of Woman Bishop
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's office announced Aug. 4 that Bishop-elect Mark Andrew Lattime of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska has received the required number of consents from bishops with jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees to his ordination and consecration.
Lattime, 43, was elected April 10 as eighth bishop of Alaska on the fourth ballot from an initial slate of five candidates. He received 42 votes of 70 cast in the lay order and 14 of 25 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 36 in the lay order and 14 in the clergy order.
His ordination and consecration is set for Sept. 4 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Anchorage. The presiding bishop will officiate.
Read further...
Lattime, 43, was elected April 10 as eighth bishop of Alaska on the fourth ballot from an initial slate of five candidates. He received 42 votes of 70 cast in the lay order and 14 of 25 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 36 in the lay order and 14 in the clergy order.
His ordination and consecration is set for Sept. 4 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Anchorage. The presiding bishop will officiate.
Read further...
Thiberville Revolt Covered by the Economist
IN THE small world of traditional French Catholicism, everybody knows about Abbé Francis Michel. For the past 23 years this small, stubborn figure in his well-worn soutane has been responsible for the cure of souls in the village of Thiberville in Normandy. The locals like his conservative style, even though his Latin services would not suit all French churchgoers. The village’s 12th-century church, and the 13 other places of worship under his care, are kept in good repair by his supporters. (These days, some priests in rural France must cope with as many as 30 churches.)
Since the start of the year Abbé Francis has been at war with the region’s bishop—in church terms, a liberal—who has been trying to close the parish and move him to other duties. Uproar ensued in January when the bishop came to mass and tried to give the priest his marching orders. Most villagers followed Abbé Francis as he strode off to another church and celebrated in the old-fashioned way. He has made two appeals to Rome, both rejected on technicalities; a third is pending.
To Father Francis’s admirers Thiberville is a pinpoint of light against a sombre background: the near-collapse of Catholicism in some of its heartlands. In the diocese of Evreux, Christianity has been part of the fabric of life for 15 centuries. Of its 600,000 inhabitants, about 400,000 might call themselves, at least loosely, Catholic. But the number of priests under the age of 70 is a mere 39, and only seven of those are under 40. That is just a bit worse than average in a country that, as recently as the 1950s, boasted 40,000 active priests; in a few years, the number under 65 will be a tenth of that. This suggests a body that is not so much shrinking as dying.
Read further...
Since the start of the year Abbé Francis has been at war with the region’s bishop—in church terms, a liberal—who has been trying to close the parish and move him to other duties. Uproar ensued in January when the bishop came to mass and tried to give the priest his marching orders. Most villagers followed Abbé Francis as he strode off to another church and celebrated in the old-fashioned way. He has made two appeals to Rome, both rejected on technicalities; a third is pending.
To Father Francis’s admirers Thiberville is a pinpoint of light against a sombre background: the near-collapse of Catholicism in some of its heartlands. In the diocese of Evreux, Christianity has been part of the fabric of life for 15 centuries. Of its 600,000 inhabitants, about 400,000 might call themselves, at least loosely, Catholic. But the number of priests under the age of 70 is a mere 39, and only seven of those are under 40. That is just a bit worse than average in a country that, as recently as the 1950s, boasted 40,000 active priests; in a few years, the number under 65 will be a tenth of that. This suggests a body that is not so much shrinking as dying.
Read further...
Friday, August 6, 2010
Vanity Fair Blames Pope for Hitchen's Cancer
Just kidding, actually, they've only said that he's a villain and not a criminal.
Here are the details.
While you're reading, take a listen to Mahler's Titan Symphony in its third funeral march. This familiar and whimsical tune should have a pertinent resonance.
Here are the details.
While you're reading, take a listen to Mahler's Titan Symphony in its third funeral march. This familiar and whimsical tune should have a pertinent resonance.
Christopher Hitchens Thinks Che Guevarra is GREAT: New Book by Cuban Exile
Editor:
A lot of you probably think Che Guevarra was the equal of the legend that surrounds him, others of your probably think Christopher Hitchens is a rational and honest broker, able to deal successfully with various pious frauds and other hucksters, but we'd bet that you probably didn't know that Christopher Hitchens, as irrational as the most pentecostal theist, worships at the altar of St. Che.
Christopher Hitchens may think God is not great, but Che Guevara is his hero. Not surprising that this enfant terrible and supposed former Trotskeyite should embrace a murdering Argentinian Bolschevik who thought of himself as Stalin II, but it should be a surprise to those conservatives who are swooned by the tones of Hitchen's posh accent and dithering, cancerous sneer.
Liberals idolize Che Guevara, the Argentinian n'er-do-well who hacked and murdered his way through the 60s and became an inspiration for Radicals of all kinds, whether clerical radicals destroying Churches, or schoolmarms engaged in dismantling the American education system, they all adored "Che" and sported his image and myth for all to see.
The Cuban-American who wrote this book has reason to hate Che, and his experience with Communism should give us reason to despise it as much as he does, for it aims to do here in the United States and elsewhere, precisely what it accomplished in Cuba at the hands of Che, the Soviet Union and their cronies.
And yet useful idiots from Johnny Depp to Christopher Hitchens hold him as a hero.
Read further...
A lot of you probably think Che Guevarra was the equal of the legend that surrounds him, others of your probably think Christopher Hitchens is a rational and honest broker, able to deal successfully with various pious frauds and other hucksters, but we'd bet that you probably didn't know that Christopher Hitchens, as irrational as the most pentecostal theist, worships at the altar of St. Che.
Christopher Hitchens may think God is not great, but Che Guevara is his hero. Not surprising that this enfant terrible and supposed former Trotskeyite should embrace a murdering Argentinian Bolschevik who thought of himself as Stalin II, but it should be a surprise to those conservatives who are swooned by the tones of Hitchen's posh accent and dithering, cancerous sneer.
Liberals idolize Che Guevara, the Argentinian n'er-do-well who hacked and murdered his way through the 60s and became an inspiration for Radicals of all kinds, whether clerical radicals destroying Churches, or schoolmarms engaged in dismantling the American education system, they all adored "Che" and sported his image and myth for all to see.
The Cuban-American who wrote this book has reason to hate Che, and his experience with Communism should give us reason to despise it as much as he does, for it aims to do here in the United States and elsewhere, precisely what it accomplished in Cuba at the hands of Che, the Soviet Union and their cronies.
And yet useful idiots from Johnny Depp to Christopher Hitchens hold him as a hero.
Review by David Forsmark of the book, 'Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him', By Humberto Fontova
Time magazine recently made the ludicrous decision to exclude President George W. Bush from its list of the "world’s 100 most influential people. Adding to the insult was the inclusion of such figures as Sacha Baron Cohen and America Ferrara, whom even fans of their characters -- Borat and Ugly Betty, respectively -- probably would not recognize in their real life personas.
But that’s not the first time Time has included essentially fictional characters on a similar list. In its list of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century, under "Heroes and Icons", the magazine’s editors included the fictional creation known as Che Guevara.
Wait, you argue, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was a real person. True enough, as the thousands of his murdered victims would attest. However, as journalist Humberto Fontova shows in Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, Time magazine didn't come close to including the real Che Guevara on its list.
The Che portrayed by Ariel Dorfman on Time’s list was a concoction whom the magazine helped to invent in the 1950s and '60s. In fact, almost nothing in Dorfman’s 1999 wallowing in messianic hero worship in the century list article is true.
Basically, everything most people think they know about Che Guevara is wrong. Okay, maybe not everything, since Frontpage readers at least, who have seen Fontova’s work, are likely to include "bloodthirsty, Communist thug" in their description. But most of the details are wrong, as the story perpetuated by The New York Times, CBS News and Time are drawn from propaganda put out by the Castro organization, much of it made up from whole cloth — including everything Time said about him in its century-end profile.
In fact, Dorfman’s gushy ode to his vicious hero serves as a perfect outline for the myths of Che and the dose of reality Fontova deals to each of them.
Time: "(T)he story of the obscure Argentine doctor who abandoned his profession and his native land to pursue the emancipation of the poor…"
Fontova: There is no proof that Guevara ever actually earned a medical degree, much less had a profession to abandon. As we will see later, Guevara’s only effective military campaign was against poor campesinos in the Cuban countryside.
Time: "After a guerrilla campaign in which Guevara displayed such outrageous bravery and skill that he was named commandante, the insurgents entered Havana and launched what was to become the first and only victorious socialist revolution in the Americas."
Fontova: Che had a particular talent for being nowhere around when any skirmish broke out. In fact, many of the pitched battles trumpeted in The New York Times and other MSM outlets of the time never took place. In one battle that the NYT proclaimed deaths of over a thousand, Fontova writes convincingly that total casualties on both sides probably numbered around five. Talk about creative math.
Fontova shows that Che was responsible for more deaths of non-communist anti-Batista fighters than of soldiers fighting for the regime — most of whom were bribed to flee. After the revolution, Che oversaw not only the executions of tens of thousands of innocents, but he also was in charge of forcibly collectivizing thousands of small farms. In fact, Che Guevara conducted the longest counter-revolutionary campaign in the Americas, with a brutal 6-year war against Cuban peasant farmers.
Time: "Che the moral guru proclaiming that a New Man, no ego and all ferocious love for the other, had to be forcibly created out of the ruins of the old one."
Fontova: When mothers or wives came to plead for the life of their loved one, he would show his "ferocious love for the other" by picking up the phone and ordering that man or boy’s immediate execution in front of the sobbing woman.
As Fontova points out, the 14,000 executions by firing squad and other Cuban deaths attributed to the Castroites are dwarfed by the numbers killed by Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot, but, as a percentage of the population, the Cuban communists are right up there with the other moral gurus who were also trying to create a "New Man."
Time: "Che the romantic mysteriously leaving the revolution to continue…, the struggle against oppression and tyranny."
Fontova: Che was run out of Cuba by Castro who tired of the competing cult of personality, and was a spectacular failure in Africa and South America where he rallied no one to his cause and was ignored-- or mocked—by guerillas on the ground there.
Time: "His execution in Vallegrande at the age of 39 only enhanced Guevara's mythical stature. That Christ-like figure laid out on a bed of death with his uncanny eyes almost about to open; those fearless last words ('Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man') somebody invented or reported;"
Fontova: "Invented," indeed. The only place Che’s defiant last words appear are in Cuban accounts. Every eyewitness tells a different tale — of a Che Guevara trying to ingratiate himself to every guard, officer or CIA agent at the scene, spinning the notion constantly that he would be "worth more alive."
But radical Duke professor Dorfman is not the only purveyor of the Che Guevara myth that Fontova deconstructs. Herbert Matthews of the New York Times was among the useful idiots who most helped Castro come to power.
As Fontova puts it, this was not a battle in the Cuban countryside or the streets of Havana but a PR war won on the pages of the mainstream press in Washington and New York.
Fontova also spends a fair amount of time discrediting New Yorker writer Jon Lee Anderson’s hagiography, Che: A Revolutionary Life, which was hailed for its "balance" in the mainstream media and widely considered the ultimate Che biography. Probably all you need to know about this 814 page book is that Anderson writes "I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed an innocent." Fontova points out that Anderson spends 200 pages on Che’s largely fictional guerilla campaign to oust Batista, but deals with his 5-year slaughter of the farmers in one dismissive sentence.
Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him also takes on an ironic tone similar to Peter Schweizer’s Do As I Say, when dealing with fawning American Che worshipers who help keep his glowering face on tee shirts and coffee mugs everywhere.
Guitar hero Carlos Santana provides comic relief with spaced out statements that "Che was all about peace and love, man," or his loopy comment that Che was the first person to allow women in Cuba's casinos. Of course, Che mainly closed the casinos, persecuted anyone who listened to rock and roll — much less performed it —and his big contribution to feminism was granting women equal access to face firing squads.
There was never any excuse for the media to get it wrong. As Fontova points out in the book’s opening, Che came to the UN and shouted his love of executions from the podium in a speech as subtle as Hugo Chavez’s recent visit. That earned him a party at Bobo Rockefeller’s place in an early example of what Tom Wolfe would later call Radical Chic.
Today’s liberals outraged that there is a place in Cuba today where the US holds genocidal thugs, who are not read their Miranda rights. Meanwhile they continue to not only glorify a murderer from four decades ago, but the regime he co-founded where people are still tortured for decades for speaking their minds-- if not put up against a wall so covered in gore that its original color is no longer discernable.
Che a hero? No, he was a monster, a foul beast. To the ash heap of history he goes. Deservedly.
Read further...
Catholic League calls author Anne Rice's rejection of Christianity a 'tragedy' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
Editor: Bill Donahue must see things pretty simplistically, overly simplistically, perhaps. It has to be pretty hard to be on the sidelines writing pious, gnostic fairy tales about your half-hearted connection to a fading religion when Twilight sales are just bumpin'. Now that she's taken off the shackles of Catholic pretense, perhaps she can go back to writing the sexually charged, Gothic stuff of adolescent fantasy which made her the famous renovator of the Vampire legendarium in the first place.
It remains unclear what she will do now that she's shed her Catholic aura, but we wonder with Diogenes, what will become of the battle for greatest Christian author of history now that the only two contenders are Shakespeare and Dante?
Catholic League calls author Anne Rice's rejection of Christianity a 'tragedy' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
It remains unclear what she will do now that she's shed her Catholic aura, but we wonder with Diogenes, what will become of the battle for greatest Christian author of history now that the only two contenders are Shakespeare and Dante?
Catholic League calls author Anne Rice's rejection of Christianity a 'tragedy' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Another Chaldean Christian Abducted in Iraq
Kirkuk – A group of armed men abducted a Chaldean Christian man last night in Kirkuk. Local sources told AsiaNews that Yonan (Jonas ) Daniel Mammo, 50, was closing his office in the Almas neighbourhood when three armed individuals got out of a BMW and took him.
Mammo is married and has two daughters. He is not a rich man but works at an exchange control office. After he was abducted, he called his wife by phone, saying that he had been taken. Since then, there have been no news from him. Many believe he was kidnapped for ransom.
Mgr Louis Sako (pictured), Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, has contacted other religious leaders in the city and the government. Violence against Christians in particular and the population in general are becoming increasingly frequent across the country as a result of a power vacuum. Four months since parliamentary election, Iraq's political parties have not yet been able to form a government. "The country is in the dark," a source told AsiaNews, "and in such a situation groups of plunderers and criminals get stronger more and more."
Last week, a Turkmen colonel and his son were killed downtown. "For Iraqi Christians," the source said, "bearing witness means martyrdom".
Source: Asia News
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=37414&t=Iraq%3A+++Another+Christian+abducted+in+Kirkuk
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Mammo is married and has two daughters. He is not a rich man but works at an exchange control office. After he was abducted, he called his wife by phone, saying that he had been taken. Since then, there have been no news from him. Many believe he was kidnapped for ransom.
Mgr Louis Sako (pictured), Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, has contacted other religious leaders in the city and the government. Violence against Christians in particular and the population in general are becoming increasingly frequent across the country as a result of a power vacuum. Four months since parliamentary election, Iraq's political parties have not yet been able to form a government. "The country is in the dark," a source told AsiaNews, "and in such a situation groups of plunderers and criminals get stronger more and more."
Last week, a Turkmen colonel and his son were killed downtown. "For Iraqi Christians," the source said, "bearing witness means martyrdom".
Source: Asia News
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=37414&t=Iraq%3A+++Another+Christian+abducted+in+Kirkuk
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Couple Loves Motorcycles and Catholicism
BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (CNS) -- You may see them riding their motorcycles at March for Life rallies, motorcycle rallies, Knights of Columbus and Girl Scout meetings. They look like bikers, but their goal is far different.
"We're not a motorcycle gang, we're a motorcycle ministry," said Hank Stanco, Oklahoma state coordinator of the Catholic Cross Bearers Motorcycle Ministry.
Although Christian motorcycle ministries have been around for a long time, most chapters of the national Christian Motorcyclists Association are connected with Protestant or nondenominational churches. The Catholic version of this evangelical ministry is new.
Read futher at CNS...
"We're not a motorcycle gang, we're a motorcycle ministry," said Hank Stanco, Oklahoma state coordinator of the Catholic Cross Bearers Motorcycle Ministry.
Although Christian motorcycle ministries have been around for a long time, most chapters of the national Christian Motorcyclists Association are connected with Protestant or nondenominational churches. The Catholic version of this evangelical ministry is new.
Read futher at CNS...
Jewish Donors Help Catholic Schools in Boston
Richard J. Henken, a Boston real estate company executive, grew up in a conservative Jewish family on the south side of Newton. He attends services on the Jewish High Holy Days and considers his religion an important aspect of his identity.
Tweet 1 person Tweeted thisSubmit to DiggdiggsdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis He also gives $25,000 to $30,000 a year to Catholic schools. He serves as an officer on the board of the Catholic Schools Foundation, which raises millions each year to help send children from low-income families to Catholic schools.
“When I started telling my friends I had joined the board, I got a couple of funny looks,’’ he said. “But whoever it is that wants to step up and provide a nurturing environment for at-risk youth based on Judeo-Christian values, I’m with you all the way.’’
Read further...
Tweet 1 person Tweeted thisSubmit to DiggdiggsdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis He also gives $25,000 to $30,000 a year to Catholic schools. He serves as an officer on the board of the Catholic Schools Foundation, which raises millions each year to help send children from low-income families to Catholic schools.
“When I started telling my friends I had joined the board, I got a couple of funny looks,’’ he said. “But whoever it is that wants to step up and provide a nurturing environment for at-risk youth based on Judeo-Christian values, I’m with you all the way.’’
Read further...
Supreme Knight renews consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe: And Insults Her
Despite these pious assertions, the Knights of Columbus is still a gutless and facile organization devoted not to the truths of the Catholic Faith, but to values completely alien and hostile to it.
Unfortunately, many Catholics will continue paying, praying and obeying.
Supreme Knight renews consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
Unfortunately, many Catholics will continue paying, praying and obeying.
On Faithful Citizenship, the Supreme Knight noted that “the vast majority of Knights of Columbus activity is directed toward matters of faith, charity and family life. We are not a political organization, and partisan politics is expressly prohibited by the Constitution and laws of the Order.”
“Our members include people of many political persuasions, and our goal is unity in faith and fraternity, whatever our political differences might be,” Anderson said. However, he explained that “we do, however, take positions on a limited number of key issues that we believe are fundamental to faithful Catholic citizens and involve matters that must transcend partisan politics.”
“Our guides in this area are two of the great documents of the Second Vatican Council: 'Gaudium et Spes,' which addressed the role of the Church in the modern world, and 'Dignitatis Humanae,' its teaching on religious freedom and the fundamental dignity of the human person.” [This is shorthand for not getting rid of members of the Knights who are Freemasons, Pro-Abortion or other brands of Unfaithful Catholic. On the contrary, the Knights will throw out those who are Pro-Life.]
Supreme Knight renews consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
Christopher Hitchens: I'm sorry that I probably won't live to see the death of 'elderly criminal' Benedict XVI
A man who spent his carreer criticizing people he believed were evil, and yet denying the existence of the Good whle offering uncritical praise for the murderers like Che Guevarra, this naive and inveterate [former?] Trotskeyite is dying.
He has a reputation for intellectual honesty, truly a testimony to the inestimable gullibillity of the Democratic masses.
Christopher Hitchens: I'm sorry that I probably won't live to see the death of 'elderly criminal' Benedict XVI
He has a reputation for intellectual honesty, truly a testimony to the inestimable gullibillity of the Democratic masses.
Vanity Fair have sent me a preview of Christopher Hitchens’s very unpleasant piece about his cancer – unpleasant not just because Hitchens describes in detail the invasion of his body by a monstrous tumour, but also because it contains a despicable slur against the Pope. (And Henry Kissinger, but I don’t care about that.)
He writes: “Will I really not live long enough … to read – if not indeed write – the obituaries of elderly criminals like Henry Kissinger and Joseph Ratzinger?”
This should scarcely need saying, but Pope Benedict XVI is not a criminal: neither Hitchens nor anyone else has produced evidence that he covered up the crimes of paedophile priests. On the contrary, he sought to tighten up canonical procedures against sex abusers. There were plenty of cover-ups; it’s just that the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith didn’t organise them and, indeed, fought battles with some of those prelates who did.
Christopher Hitchens: I'm sorry that I probably won't live to see the death of 'elderly criminal' Benedict XVI
Two Hitchens, one Good and the Other a Trotskeyite
Drawn like a vulture to the scene of an accident, I've noticed a certain confluence between newly converted conservatives from Trotskeyism. This is an article about Peter Hitchens, though, the brother of our apparent former Trotskeyite, or "Trot" as they're called with some derision by the ascendant Communist Party faithful.
Understandably, both men are deeply religious, although one of them conceals this beneath a sneer and gavoling anti-clerical invective laden approach at England's leftist Guardian. Both Hitchens, although they are inveterate battlers against everyone they regard as immoral, and occasionally each other, and disagree about God, both hate the "clap-happy" pablum of the contemporary worship service available in all denominations for the disedification of many. Well, here's the article. We're going to write more about Christopher Hitchens, whom we feel has a lot more loyalty to Internatiional Socialism than his newfound conservatism indicates.
Read further, here.
H/T: to Royal Cello at Royal World.
Understandably, both men are deeply religious, although one of them conceals this beneath a sneer and gavoling anti-clerical invective laden approach at England's leftist Guardian. Both Hitchens, although they are inveterate battlers against everyone they regard as immoral, and occasionally each other, and disagree about God, both hate the "clap-happy" pablum of the contemporary worship service available in all denominations for the disedification of many. Well, here's the article. We're going to write more about Christopher Hitchens, whom we feel has a lot more loyalty to Internatiional Socialism than his newfound conservatism indicates.
Hitchens Brothers’ Rift Starts With Religion
By MARK OPPENHEIMER
Published: July 30, 2010
Permalink Oxford, England
Chatting at a coffee shop in his hometown, Peter Hitchens is disinclined to talk about his older brother, Christopher, the famously combative journalist.
In May, Peter published the American edition of “The Rage Against God,” a pro-Christian tract meant to counter his brother’s 2007 book, the popular atheist manifesto “God Is Not Great”; last month, Christopher announced that he was starting treatment for esophageal cancer.
The two brothers have never been close, and in fact are well known to dislike each other. But Peter is obviously sad when asked about his brother’s illness, and one can imagine that, if he had known what was to come, he might have kept his sword in its scabbard.
But that is not in the Hitchens nature. Christopher is known in England, in his adopted United States and beyond as a mercurial provocateur — once a Trotskyite, now a supporter of the Iraq war, always an atheist, author of a derisive book attacking Mother Teresa — while Peter’s fame is concentrated in England. But his own books, journalism and television commentary, all very conservative, show the same frank ruthlessness, and the same ability to attract enemies. For two sons of a respectable officer in the Royal Navy, they are not very good boys.
Christopher has moved somewhat to the political right in the last few years, thus aligning the brothers’ views a bit. But they still are far apart on religion, and that is what “The Rage Against God” is about. Peter got the idea for the book after a public debate with his brother about theism, in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2008.
“I do not think that either of us engaged properly with the other on that occasion,” Mr. Hitchens writes. Afterward, he resolved to hold no more such debates, fearing that they could only lead to enmity and further estrangement. “I am 58. He is 60. We do not necessarily have time for another brothers’ war.” (Christopher is now 61.)
Read further, here.
H/T: to Royal Cello at Royal World.
Bedtime for Democracy: Court Strikes Down Prop-8
The ruling Judge Vaughan Walkeris a Reagan and Bush appointed gay judge who was noted in the past for "impartiality". Now, he's ready to shed the illusion of impartiality to back the cause of moral relativism and strike a blow against the arbitrary whims of Democracy here.
Read further...
A federal judge shot down California's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday, ruling it unconstitutional.
"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license," U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled.
"Indeed the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples."
Read further...
15th Annual Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of the North American Martyrs: September 22-25, 2010
Brother Andre Marie wrote the following letter in support of the fifteenth annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of the North American Martyrs. Pilgrimage is something which has become a much more popular devotion in past years as we continue our work of restoration:
Palmer — a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land, palm branches in hand.
Alms — money or goods given as an act of charity.
* * * * * * *
Dear Friend,
You might call it “alms for palms”.
For as long as Christians have been making pilgrimage, they have known that no one in the Church goes it alone — ever.
Some go by giving. Others give by going.
Every pilgrim who returns palm in hand, knows he has gone hand in hand with those who have supported him by prayers and alms.
Whether from home or highway, everyone can participate in the annual Pilgrimage for Restoration.
Link to Pilgrimmage for Restoration, here.
Photo: Pilgrimmage Ratzinger Forum
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
NEA Orders Members to Read Communist Handbook
The National Education Association (NEA) is the premier teachers union group in the country.
As such it is instructive to learn the sort of reading material that the biggest of all teachers unions tells its own members to study so that they can more adequately represent teachers in America today. A look at the NEA website reveals a shocking recommendation to its members.
The union that represents the teachers that we send our children to every school day suggests that its members read the communist-like manifesto of famed left-wing agitator Saul Alinsky. That's right, the NEA wants its members, America's teachers, to become programmed by the ideas and policy prescriptions in a communist manifesto. And while making the recommendation, the NEA also absent-mindedly seems to forget that Alinsky was an avowed socialist that wanted to remake America from a representative democracy into a communist state.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/2010/08/national-education-association-orders-members-to-read-communist-guide-book.html
H/t: pewsitter
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
As such it is instructive to learn the sort of reading material that the biggest of all teachers unions tells its own members to study so that they can more adequately represent teachers in America today. A look at the NEA website reveals a shocking recommendation to its members.
The union that represents the teachers that we send our children to every school day suggests that its members read the communist-like manifesto of famed left-wing agitator Saul Alinsky. That's right, the NEA wants its members, America's teachers, to become programmed by the ideas and policy prescriptions in a communist manifesto. And while making the recommendation, the NEA also absent-mindedly seems to forget that Alinsky was an avowed socialist that wanted to remake America from a representative democracy into a communist state.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/2010/08/national-education-association-orders-members-to-read-communist-guide-book.html
H/t: pewsitter
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Relics of John the Baptist Found in Bulgaria
3 August 2010 Last updated at 04:20 ET Help Bone fragments of St John the Baptist appear to have been found on Sveti Ivan Island near Bulgaria's southern Black Sea.
He is considered one of the most important figures in Christianity.
Further tests are still to be carried out on the fragments, which were discovered late last month.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports.
Link, here...
He is considered one of the most important figures in Christianity.
Further tests are still to be carried out on the fragments, which were discovered late last month.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports.
Link, here...
Methodist Twitter Communion, Cancelled
It is with a deep sense of disappointment that I have to announce that Twitter Communion on August 14th will be cancelled and will be replaced by an alternative form of prayer.
Whilst I have not been absolutely forbidden to perform the Communion on Twitter, British Methodist Church authorities have strongly urged me to cancel it. The main reason for this, they say, is that it comes at difficult time, because the whole issue of performing services like Twitter Communion over the Internet is being re-examined by the Methodist Church. Holding a Twitter Communion before an official conversation has taken place could delay or even jeopardise the tentative steps the Church is taking in this direction.
It was never my intention to be controversial much less confrontational. The whole point of Twitter Communion was to offer the Christians around the world the opportunity to step beyond their differences, to meet in fellowship and love and to celebrate the common-union we all share through Christ’s body and blood.
Read further...
Whilst I have not been absolutely forbidden to perform the Communion on Twitter, British Methodist Church authorities have strongly urged me to cancel it. The main reason for this, they say, is that it comes at difficult time, because the whole issue of performing services like Twitter Communion over the Internet is being re-examined by the Methodist Church. Holding a Twitter Communion before an official conversation has taken place could delay or even jeopardise the tentative steps the Church is taking in this direction.
It was never my intention to be controversial much less confrontational. The whole point of Twitter Communion was to offer the Christians around the world the opportunity to step beyond their differences, to meet in fellowship and love and to celebrate the common-union we all share through Christ’s body and blood.
Read further...
Orthodox Leaders on Homosexuality
With the release of a declaration on homosexuality and the inherent dignity of gay men and lesbians, by more than 100 Orthodox rabbis, educators and mental health professionals in the United States and Israel, a segment of the Orthodox community is now in full agreement with the Roman Catholic Church. The statement, without using the exact phrasing of the Church, supports hating the sin while loving the sinner. I am filled with both dread and hope by this recent development.
The declaration fills me with hope because it publicly states what most of the signers have privately believed for some time. By collectively stepping into the light and staking a claim for what is experienced as a fairly radical approach by most people in the Orthodox community, the men and women who signed this "statement of principles on the place of homosexuals in the Orthodox community" have responded with tremendous courage.
They have also responded with incredible integrity. The statement is bounded by en entirely normative i.e. Orthodox understanding of homosexuality and the limitations imposed on any gay person who actually expresses their sexuality in any way.
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/windowsanddoors/2010/08/orthodox-leaders-on-homosexual.html#ixzz0vZWOmD4D
The declaration fills me with hope because it publicly states what most of the signers have privately believed for some time. By collectively stepping into the light and staking a claim for what is experienced as a fairly radical approach by most people in the Orthodox community, the men and women who signed this "statement of principles on the place of homosexuals in the Orthodox community" have responded with tremendous courage.
They have also responded with incredible integrity. The statement is bounded by en entirely normative i.e. Orthodox understanding of homosexuality and the limitations imposed on any gay person who actually expresses their sexuality in any way.
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/windowsanddoors/2010/08/orthodox-leaders-on-homosexual.html#ixzz0vZWOmD4D
The Cross and the State: Poland in Plane Crash Wake
[Wall Street Journal] Many Poles hoped that April plane crash of the Polish presidential jet would shock the nation enough to bridge the divide between conservative and liberal camps. But it’s only added fuel to the already heated debate about whose values should prevail.
Today’s demonstration and controversy about the removal of the cross erected in front of the presidential palace as a memorial to those who died in the tragedy shows Poland is once again divided into “true Poles” — those pledging their allegiance to the core of Poland’s Catholic Church — and all others, exposing deep rifts about the role of the Catholic church and its relationship with the Polish state.
The “true” Poles won their battle on Tuesday when, gathered in their hundreds, they prevented the relocation of the memorial.
Read further...
Today’s demonstration and controversy about the removal of the cross erected in front of the presidential palace as a memorial to those who died in the tragedy shows Poland is once again divided into “true Poles” — those pledging their allegiance to the core of Poland’s Catholic Church — and all others, exposing deep rifts about the role of the Catholic church and its relationship with the Polish state.
The “true” Poles won their battle on Tuesday when, gathered in their hundreds, they prevented the relocation of the memorial.
Read further...
No Priestly Ordination for Men Who Are Deeply Affected Homosexuals
Kathnet got some of the highlights but did not mention that the Pöltner Bishop favors the use of condoms in cases where one of the partners in a marriage suffers from AIDS. The following article also doesn't mention the Bishop's faint criticism of Cardinal Schönborn, of whom he was respectful and whom he believes has good intentions, but gives too much to the critics of the Church in the sex abuse crisis, according to Kreuz.net, who commented on the same interview.
The original, here...
St. Pöltner Bishop Klaus Küng warns of the abuse with abuse. Authenticity in pastoral care and in Church life as the way for a new beginning. Homosexual networks are a danger.
Vienna (kath.net)
More authenticity in the pastoral care and in Church life are, according to the view of the St. Pöltner Diocesan Bishop, Klaus Küng, the right way for a new beginning for the Church, "where the joy of belief is audible, there is also the ability to be appealing", said the Bishop in an interview with the daily "Der Standard".
The discussions about the abuse cases in Austria, Bishop Küng views critically. "We live in a very highly sexualized society; eroticized masses, hardly any films without sexualized content. That is an aspect which is too little discussed in society -- also when abuse naturally has a very complex cause," he said to "Standard".
At the same time, warns Küng, is the abuse of the abuse. It will attempt to push everything on the Church, and the Church is very much inclined to take a lot of guilt on itself. Abuse is, however, not a problem of the Church alone. Others around intend, that they could use the abuse debate to put the Church under pressure, in order to provide a way for reform. Efforts of this kind would come from within the Church.
Bishop Küng supports the measures agreed upon by the Austrian Bishop's Conference for the prevention of sexual abuse in Church institutions. The Institution of the Victim's Representative under the direction of the former Steyrian State District Attorney, Frau Klasnic and respects the Commission. I have to consider, however, that every additional position for the handling of the cases, lengthens the process. We have already in every Diocese an Ombudsman and that is sufficient. Every case doesn't require five commissions."
Bishop Küng is cautious about damages for the victims of Church abuse. Firstly, the perpetrator should answer the costs. Küng sees the question in the big picture: "we may not now raise our hand and say, we'll pay everything. With that we see other countries, like Germany, are under pressure", he said to the "Standard".
Church Goes on the Offensive to the People
Especially when the current situation is painful to overcome, he's an optimist, says Küng. It has always been the case in Church history that these dramatic situations have taken place, which have turned out for the good. Bishop Küng says: "But then there is at once in the midst of these great difficulties the bearing of fruit."
The Church must go on the offensive for the people, said the Bishop to "Standard". A great example was Pope John Paul II. "He had a way to energize that reached the whole world", said Küng. The evanglization isn't only a mission to lead people to the Church. Bishop Küng: "It's more important that everyone feels responsible to Christ himself."
Why should young people be engaged in the Church, when these are characterized by "impure sexual morals, nontransparent structures, withdrawing social image, inequality of the sexes", asked the Standard editor. Precisely because the young desire an awareness of why we are really here, answered Bishop Küng. "The question of God is also for the young people the central question of life", he said in his own words. The Standard editor did not address the answer, but stuck to the theme of sexual morality. The Catholic Church holds its teachings on condoms as "Iron clad". How should an enlightened person of today understand this? Young people are thoroughly captured by what true love leads to, said the St. Poltner Bishop. Also as in regards the condom ban the position of the Church is reduced to the AIDS issue, actually it is daily engaged in a great battle against AIDS. Bishop Küng said: "At present 50 percent of all AIDS assistance comes through the Catholic Church."
Even by celibacy the Standard editor sees the Church's "refusal to reform". For Bishop Küng celibacy is a sensible preparation for priestly ordination. "There is no stronger sign for God and for the love of the Church than the conscious sacrifice of marriage and family", he said.
Especially those who are from youth deeply affected by homosexuality, may not be ordained as priests, answered Küng to a corresponding question from "Standard". Homosexual networks are a threat for a Cloister or a Diocese, because "one attracts the other". Then there exists in a place a certain atmosphere, which becomes an attractive place for homosexual candidates, said Küng. Then, only a radical solution is possible. "If I become aware, that such a situation has the upper hand in a seminary or a cloister, I can only lock it up", said the Bishop.
The original, here...
St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park sees increase in number of prospective new priests
“More heeding the call to priesthood at Menlo Park seminary” reads the headline in an Aug. 1 story published by the San Mateo County Times. The story is about St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, where priests are trained for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Fresno, Monterey, Oakland, Orange, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Stockton, as well as for dioceses in Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
“From a young age, Juan Alejo has aspired to live a priest's life,” reported the Times. “‘Since I was a kid, I heard this call,’ said Alejo. Now the 35-year-old, who is heeding that summons by attending St. Patrick's Seminary & University in Menlo Park, is among a growing number of men flocking to seminaries in recent years to become Roman Catholic priests.”
The growth in the number of seminarians, said the newspaper, has prompted St. Patrick’s “to plan for a major campus expansion that could cost up to $50 million.”
Read further at California Catholic Daily...
“From a young age, Juan Alejo has aspired to live a priest's life,” reported the Times. “‘Since I was a kid, I heard this call,’ said Alejo. Now the 35-year-old, who is heeding that summons by attending St. Patrick's Seminary & University in Menlo Park, is among a growing number of men flocking to seminaries in recent years to become Roman Catholic priests.”
The growth in the number of seminarians, said the newspaper, has prompted St. Patrick’s “to plan for a major campus expansion that could cost up to $50 million.”
Read further at California Catholic Daily...
An Open Letter in Support of Pope Benedict's Visit
Here's an open letter, prompted by what Father Blake of Brighton feels is a lack of enthusiasm for the Papal visit. He's advocating a Confraternity of Priests to do something about it, here:
h/t: kathnet.com
We, priests of England and Wales, wish to express our joy at the forthcoming visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Britain.
We welcome the many wise things the Holy Father said to us through our Bishops on their ad limina visit earlier this year which are of particular significance to the health of the Church in England and Wales, such as "the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice" and the need "to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, who guides the whole Church into the truth, gathers her into unity and inspires her with missionary zeal".
More than ever, with the proximity of the Papal visit and anxious for its success we recognise especially the need "to draw on the considerable gifts of the lay faithful in England and Wales". Concerned for the Church's mission we to see a great need in England and Wales to ensure "that they [not only the lay faithful but we priests] are equipped to hand on the faith to new generations comprehensively, accurately, and with a keen awareness that in so doing they are playing their part in the Church’s mission". We also acknowledge the importance within our national context of what His Holiness said about the Magisterium, "In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free."
We wish to thank His Holiness for encouraging our Bishops to hold up to us "an example of dedication to prayer, pastoral sensitivity towards the needs of his flock, and passion for preaching the Gospel", and also for urging them encourage the faithful "to avoid any temptation to view the clergy as mere functionaries but rather to rejoice in the gift of priestly ministry".
h/t: kathnet.com
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