This was the speech of the Assyrian researcher and activist, Ashur Giwargis. In the international conference about the genocides in the Ottoman Empire against Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians during WW1 - English Translation: Mary Challita
Greek Parliament
19/Sep/2010
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Conference Organizing Committee and participants.
Before presenting my speech, I would like to comment on some statements made my some of the distinguished speakers.
First point, we are simply Assyrians, not Chaldeans neither Syriacs nor Syrians, because Chaldeans are Catholic Assyrians, and Syrians or so-called Syriacs, are Orthodox Assyrians, so, It would be better to say “Assyrians” because it’s our ethnic national identity, and in this case we would be talking about all the Assyrian sects. We can’t say “Arabs and Sunna” because there are Sunni and Shiite Arabs.
Second point, I’ve heard many times mentioning of kurds as a persecuted people, we understand this, but also we should not forget that kurds we re part of the Genocide perpetrators. This is how we should deal with this matter when we talk history, but if you want to politicize the genocide, this would be another case.
Third point, I ask the Assyrian Union in Greece to not be a part of any occasion or joint statement mentioning the term “Kurdistan” because this term is an insult to the Assyrian nation, and I ask our Armenian and Greek brothers to be aware of this, for Assyrians it’s a matter of principles and dignity, it can’t be politically compromised. When we say we are Assyrians this means we are from Assyria, and if the Assyrian highlands and the north of today’s Iraq are “kurdstan”, then where is Assyria ? Did we come from the moon ?
Fourth point, I’ve heard many times “Ethnic Cleansing against Christians”, this is a contradiction, Ethnic cleansing is against ethnicities, but Christianity is a religion, we must chose 1 of 2: “Ethnic cleansing against Assyrian, Arminians, Greeks” or “Religious cleansing against Christians”, but I say we can use the both because the Genocides were religious and ethnic at the same time, and this why I want to talk about the background of the genocides.
Thank you.
We are gathering in this conference as a minimal duty towards our ancestors who sacrificed themselves for our religious and national existence during the darkest of circumstances where human values were lost, thus exposing the political, social, religious, and moral degeneration surrounding the Christians of the East in general and the Greeks, Arminians and Assyrians in particular. I, as an Assyrian participant in this conference, feel comfortable because I am able to express some of my nation’s concerns and torment throughout history before people who very well understand the meaning of humanity because they are the descendants of one of the greatest civilizations which built the foundations of science, politics, and philosophy.
And my speech will be about: The background of the Genocide, Its consequences and the world’s conscience
The Assyrian genocide will be taken as an example in my speech. And I will present first a brief historical narration because I’m more than sure that many of the attendees have no much idea about the historical facts of the Assyrian genocide.
The human history looks like a chain of interrelated episodes, and these episodes are man-made since people decide their fate through victories and defeats which contain abuses against humanity in order to build a collective structure whether be it economic, social, political or cultural, some based on civilized foundation supported by historical and logical rights while others are based on massacres and supported by the power of degeneration and zeal to shed blood for the sake of ideologies created to fight against humanity, and whomever wants to continue in this historic chain in its ugliness and beauty, has to realize the chain of the past so as to learn from it in building the chain of the present, and based on this, he can build the chain of the future … This is very briefly, the rule of nations continuity.
Thus, we can say that the WW1 was based on economical interests, Europe wanted to expand its market after its industrial revolution and Russia wanted to open a new gate through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelle strait.
The massacres of World War I against the Greeks Armenians and Assyrians, did not come from void, but rather it was an ugly link in the chain of human history which must be known to the world and always remembered, because it had cultural and religious backgrounds based on ideology contradictions within a society which was dominated by the Ottomans for hundreds of years.
Since the days of Sultan Osman the 1st in the 14th century, his son Orkhan Ghazi, and Murad the 3rd, Assyrians, Arminians and Greeks were pursued as the Ottomans occupied Constantinople and the Byzantine culture was destroyed and forcibly replaced by Islam, and over centuries the Christians who are the indigenous people of what is today known as Turkey were subjected to oppression, killing and Islamization according to a “legislation by God” as the occupiers believed and still believe.
We used to hear the weak and useless Turkish argument about our collaboration with Russia before the WW1. But history tells us that the Turks themselves were the ones who first allowed foreigners in, through the Treaty of the Capitulations in 1535 between the French King Francis the 1st and Sultan Suleiman the 1st (Suleiman the magnificent); according to this treaty the French enjoyed the right to protect Christians living in the Ottoman territories, this is how a part of the Armenians became Roman Catholics, and a part of the Assyrians became Roman Catholics under the Ottoman starvation policy and the Vatican exploitation, the Catholic Assyrians have been called “Chaldeans” by the Vatican in 1552. Hence, based on this historical fact, the Ottoman Empire is the one who collaborated with the foreigners and consented to their presence in that territory.
After allowing the Roman Catholic missions to enter Assyria and Armenia, the British Anglican missions were also allowed in, then these missions contributed to inciting the Kurds to slaughter the Assyrian people between 1843 – 1847 in order to shatter the independence of the Assyrian mountainous tribes in the south-east of what is today known as “Turkey”, to allow the penetration of these missionaries within the Assyrian society when previously they were incapable of doing that since the five large Assyrian tribes were not subjects of the Ottoman Sultan and these were: Tiari tribe, Tkhouma, Baz, Jeelo and Dez.
Despite all this, the Christians within the Ottoman occupation (Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians) were always considered as the last citizens and when Sultan Selim the 1st brought in the 16th century the Kurdish tribes from Isfahan and settled them in the Assyrian highlands on the Iranian borders to fight the Shiite Safavids, the Ottoman Empire began using these tribes over the centuries in the killing of Assyrians and Armenians because of their religion which forced them to ask for help from their neighbouring Christian countries especially the strongest, Russia, to save them from the Islamic persecution in the region after the Ottomans neglected their pleas repeatedly.
Frederick Engels gave an example of that in one of his letters to Karl Marx when he said: "As long as the Christians continue to be persecuted by the Ottomans, it's certain that they will look up to the Orthodox Church and its leader of 60 million Orthodox whoever he is, as their liberator and protector ".
What affirms Engels's statement is a letter from the Patriarch Mar Rouil Shimon on May 14th, 1868 to the Russian king Michael. In this letter the Patriarch states:"... We are a poor nation, my people have no enough grain to provide themselves with bread ... The Kurds have forcibly taken many of our Churches and convents, they constantly abduct our virgins, brides , and women, forcing them to turn Moslems ... The Turks are worse, they do not protect us, demand military taxes, poll tax, also the Kurds take our money for they consider us as "Zirr Kurr" (slaves - being Christians .. .)... Now, such being our condition, we beseech your mightiness, for the sake of Jesus, His Baptism, and cross. Either to free us from such a state or to procure us a remedy ... May God preserve you, Amin"
This was the religious background of the hatred against Assyrians, but the greatest scandal took place as the Turkish nationalism was introduced to the Ottoman Sultanate in 1908 - 1909, when loud calls from Turkish officials demanded the ethnic cleansing of all nationalities, in order to preserve the Turkish nationality, one of those was Dr. Nazim Manzar, one of Young Turks Movement leaders who had said: “If it wasn’t for foreign diplomatic intervention, we would have unified all nationalities within the Turkish one creating one culture because we want the Turkish component to live on this land without any other”. Indeed, this opportunity presented itself in 1914 when chaos took over and WWI began.
At the beginning of WWI in the summer of 1914, the Kurdish tribes which were settled in Assyria and Armenia and which formed a cavalry force in the Ottoman army known as the “Hamidian Cavalry” named after Sultan Abdulhamid the 2nd, backed by other Turkish battalions they headed to the Assyrian plain villages in the east of what’s today known as “Turkey” as well as the Assyrian villages in Tur Abdin in the south-east and the Salamas plain in western Iran, where they killed thousands, burned cities, towns, villages, ancient monasteries and churches and kidnapped women and girls under the banner of “Jihad”.
On March 05th 1915, the Baku Newspaper reported that 20 Assyrian villages were completely destroyed while the bodies of women and children laid in the streets with marks of daggers and cleavers on them, and on March 15th 1915, the Tbilisi Newspaper described the Kurdish tribes’ attacks lead by Turkish officers as being barbaric, that was a little of what the newspapers had mentioned then, All this was taking place while the Assyrians had not joined the war. But as the massacres continued against them, adding all this religious, national and social degeneration surrounding the indigenous peoples of the Middle East, Assyrians were obliged to seek help from those who shared their religious beliefs as they did not have any other recourse since their killers and looters were either the ruling authorities or their gangs.
The Assyrian Patriarch Mar Binyamin Shimon (who was later martyred) declared that the Assyrians joined the war to Russia’s side in self-defense and for liberation from the Ottoman occupation and oppression. This decision was made during a meeting between the Patriarch and tribal leaders in the Diz area on June 10th 1915.
These facts are an answer to those who claim that Assyrians collaborated with Russians before the massacres, in addition, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Assyrians were massacred also in Tur Abdin area and its surroundings, knowing that they did not have any contact with any foreign state in the first place.
Even after the Assyrian tribesmen were armed, Turkey and its Kurdish recruits did not differentiate between a civilian and a military; genocides were repeated against the Assyrians in the Assyrian highlands known as the Hakkari Mountains, as well as in the vicinity of Urmia. One of the Assyrian death marches is described by the Russian thinker Victor Chklovski who lived through the massacres of 1918, mentioning in his memoirs that after Russia withdrew from the war following the Bolshevik revolution, a convoy of 230.000 Assyrians fled on foot in the summer of 1918 from the city of Urmia for a distance of 800 km towards the Iranian mountains and plains heading to Hamadan in the south where the British were settled, during that journey 85.000 Assyrian women and children were killed due to Turkish and Kurdish and Iranian attacks while 15.000 also on foot were killed as their convoy headed to the north, towards Russia and Georgia.
Thus, after fleeing Urmia and Hakkari, Assyrians were caught in the British trap, as Britain began inciting the Arabs in Iraq against the Assyrians causing the 1933 massacre in occupied Assyria, which claimed the lives of thousands of women, men and children.
The official records such as the Russian, British and even Turkish correspondence, confirm that between 1914 and 1922, Turkey had led its armies which invaded the unarmed Assyrian, Armenian and Greeks’ villages and towns and committed ethnic cleansing whereby about 600.000 Assyrians, the equivalent of two thirds of the Assyrian nation at the time were massacred.
This falls within the definition of "genocide" as adopted by the United Nations in 1948, since it covers ethnic cleansing in accordance with the following specifications of the United Nations:
1-Unjustified Mass murder.
2-Physical and spiritual damage to a group.
3-Mass starvation with the intent of social destruction.
4-Transferring children forcibly to other cultures and societies.
The human and political results of the Genocide against the Assyrian Nation were as follows:
1-Eradication of two-thirds of the Assyrian nation between the years 1915 – 1922.
2-Diseases and epidemics that killed 33.000 Assyrians in British detention centers in Iraq, which the British called "refugee camps".
3-Abduction of thousands of women and children who were taken to the homes of Muslims (Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Iranians).
4-Considering the Assyrians in Iraq as British collaborators when Iraq itself was made in England, noting that King Faisal was a Saudi who was brought by Britain to rule Iraq.
5-Lack of understanding on the part of the Iraqi state regarding the Assyrians’ rights due to its Ottoman culture, which resulted in the massacre of 1933 against the Assyrian people in 6-villages in Occupied Assyria.
7-The exile of a large number of Assyrians to Syria after being accused of creating chaos despite the massacres against them.
8-The demise of the Assyrian language and culture in the Diaspora day after day due to mixing of the Assyrians with foreign cultures.
In addition to other negative effects which contributed significantly to the weakening of the Assyrian presence.
Hence, all the legal pretexts to hinder the recognition of Genocide are void, and the yielding of the international community to a law which was drafted by it, is a moral duty, and since the international community recognized the Genocide against the Jews, as well as in Sudan and Yugoslavia, it can also recognize the Genocide against the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks because the crimes against these peoples are not less than those committed against others whom we have mentioned.
The reality though seems to be different, because so far we have not faced any difficulties in considering the Turkish killings as “Genocide” except through illegal political hindrances, since parliaments which are the legislative power are recognizing the Genocide while governments or the executive authorities of a state are always the ones denying it. For example:
In Sweden and following the recognition of the Swedish Parliament that the Turkish organized killings against the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks were Genocides, the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt expressed his regret at the Parliament’s decision and voiced his concern regarding Turkey’s position.
In the United States, the Genocide against our Armenian brothers were used as a campaigning card for Barack Obama, whereby after the U.S. Congress adopted the decision to recognize the Genocide, Obama expressed his rejection and at the same time said that he did not regret using the term “Genocide” during his campaign, as was reported by Agence France Presse on April 25, 2009.
We find much worse situation in Greece as the Greek Parliament has refused recognizing the systematic crimes against Greeks, Armineans and Assyrians, as a Genocide, and I’m really shocked that until now the proposal have been presented 4 times to the Greek parliament and was rejected.
How can we ask others to recognize our genocides, when our own countries are still denying ? what was the feeling of Greece when Sweden recognized it’s people’s genocide before it.
It’s really a shame that this country who gave the basis of democracy is still putting the political interest above the national interest. If denying the Genocides by Turkey is for a political interest, than the dignity of the Greek martyrs is a national interest, and we the second generation of the genocides survivors, should consider Greece as the European key for Genocides recognition. And demonstrations, should take place in Athens in front of the Greek parliament where Assyrian, Greek and Armenians flags will be razed high, because the dignity of the Greek martyrs is our martyrs’ dignity; they all have been martyred for the same reasons, from the same background, and by the same criminals.
Thus, it is clear to us that our journey in the ocean of lies and international plots is long, hence, we have to establish our demands in an unshakable manner, that begins with countries directly concerned with the archived facts of the Genocide beginning with Greece, and other countries such as Russia, France, UK, Germany because these countries’ voice is heard in international forums, and it wouldn't be enough for Turkey to reform its constitution and try to submit to the Copenhagen criteria, to deserve the membership of any international group, be it European Union or any other, because first, Turkey should prove its loyalty to the humanitarian norms, by correcting the mistakes of the past.
The international community's neglect of this issue is like a second Genocide and disrespect for the concepts of humanity, and the most dangerous thing is that this silence is considered as an incitement for more expected Genocides against the weak people in the world, including the Assyrian people whom I present as an example.
And because of the Genocide against the Assyrian nation, also because of the European betrayal in general, and the English betrayal in particular, to the Assyrians, the Assyrian nation is still stateless, and that’s why it’s still facing a new genocide.
The Assyrian people are still living amongst the degenerate factions ruling Iraq, without any protection or international attention whereby more than 500.000 Assyrians migrated from Iraq within seven years since 2003, while only 300.000 had migrated during 35 years of Saddam Hussein’s rule, all this is taking place while the international community is watching and presenting some deadly solutions such as forcing the Assyrian Nation to migrate and flee its historical lands, obliterating its culture and dissolving it within the western societies under the banner of “Saving the Christians of Iraq”.
The same policy which was followed before and during the massacres of WWI, is practiced today against the Assyrians throughout Iraq and particularly under the Kurdish Occupation of Assyria, where the Kurdish tribes use the policy of polite persecution by giving fictitious religious rights while obliterating the national existence of the land and people through the culture of kurdification in the schools of the Kurdish Occupation zone, whereby the Assyrian generations and others are growing up according to the curriculum of Kurdification, in addition to the occupation of Assyrian lands and inventing impossible laws when legitimate owners ask for their lands, also throughout Iraq Islamization and forced displacement have reached an insolent state which confirms that there is a religious and ethnic cleansing against the Assyrians and all this is legislated within the Iraqi constitution which instigates the Islamization of Iraq and the Kurdification of its north while it is void of the equality principle in federalism, even though and according to international laws protecting the indigenous people, the right of equality is the least of what the Assyrians should get, being the indigenous people of Iraq and in danger of extinction.
Our presence here is not just to give long speeches because they have been given already by many scholars worldwide, and our intention is not the revenge, rather than guaranteeing a better future for the current generation of the survivors of the genocides.
Based on the narrative of events and their consequences, and based on the world moral obligation towards humanity, the Assyrian Nation is very interested in historically holding accountable those who committed crimes against humanity during World War I, according to the international legislation that’s why the organizers of this occasion must continue to strongly bind all parties concerned in order to raise our voice together to avoid the repetition of what happened, and in order to intercept the degenerate currents and societies so they would realize that there is no room for committing such crimes against humanity anywhere in the world again.
Thank You Very much for listening …
Link to Assyrian Voice, forum, here.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
New Vatican Bank scandal threatens to erupt | National Catholic Reporter
What's especially interesting, as Paulo Rodari writes, L'Osservatore Romano has a page five book review of Cardinal Bertone and Gotti Tedeschi's book called “Denaro e Paradiso. I cattolici e l’economia globale”. (Money and Paradise. The Catholic and the Global Economy). This book is kind of reminiscent of another book written by a Benedictine Monk and the head of the Puma Company inGermany.
Here's the John Allen article for some of the details:
New Vatican Bank scandal threatens to erupt | National Catholic Reporter
Here's the John Allen article for some of the details:
New Vatican Bank scandal threatens to erupt | National Catholic Reporter
Monday, September 20, 2010
Jewish European Lawyer Warns of Hate Against Christendom
Europe is the most faith deprived region of the world, a cool zone of the gray secularism on the globe, whose own pious fervour has grown damp.
[kreuz.net] The Munster Publicist Felizita Küble published an article in a broadcast in the church-antagonnistic German weekly 'Die Zeit'.
The article was published on 6 August. There she interviewed US Attorney of European Law, Joseph Weiler.
He defended the Cross and warned of hate for Christians.
Weiler is a practicing Jew. he carries the Kippa -- the Jewish head covering.
In his Text he reports that Armenia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, San Marino and Cyprus must come before the chambers of the European Court for human rights.
There the questions will be adjudicated, if crucifixes in Italian classrooms may be hung, because these transgress against the religious neutrality of the State.
The named countries are openly concerned about similar attacks on their own Christian Culture. for that reason they have become parties for the defendant, Italy.
Their joint court attorney is Weiler. He has put -- according to a report in 'Die Zeit' -- "his shoulder impressively to the wheel for the School Cross."
Frau Küble maintains that Europe is the most faith deprived region in the world -- "a cool zone of secularization on the globe, which has otherwise damped its pious fervour."
Christendom is increasingly being pushed on the margins of Europe.
As an example Frau Küble pointed out the example of 'British Airways', who fired a stewardess, because she refused to remove the cross from around her neck, to the discussion of the EU-Constitution, where the fight for the mention of God or Christianity didn't have a chance.
Weiler calls this syndrome "Christophobia" -- as the fearful flight of Europeans from their own Christian roots and imprinting.
Link to kreuz.net...
© Bild: Vainsang, CC
Official Announcement: Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) (Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)
It has come to the attention of the Archdiocese that a group calling itself the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) is planning a 2010 ‘synod’ in the Archdiocese entitled, ‘Claiming Our Place at the Table’.
While the agenda for the proposed synod purports to be an exploration of the role of baptized Catholics within the institutional Church of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, it is not being conducted under the auspices of the Archdiocese, the universal Roman Catholic Church, or any entity or organization affiliated with the Archdiocese or the universal Roman Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese wishes it to be known that the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, the 2010 synod, and individuals endorsing the same, are not agents or entities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis or the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the Archdiocese wishes to lovingly caution those members of the faithful participating in the ‘work/study groups’ and intending to attend the synod of the potential that the issues on which CCCR will seek reform are magisterial teachings of the Church, and are therefore to be believed by divine and catholic faith. The Archdiocese also wishes to remind the faithful of its need to shun any contrary doctrines, and instead to embrace and retain, to safeguard reverently and expound faithfully, the doctrine of faith and morals proposed definitively by the magisterium of the Church.
Official Announcement: Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) (Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)
While the agenda for the proposed synod purports to be an exploration of the role of baptized Catholics within the institutional Church of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, it is not being conducted under the auspices of the Archdiocese, the universal Roman Catholic Church, or any entity or organization affiliated with the Archdiocese or the universal Roman Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese wishes it to be known that the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, the 2010 synod, and individuals endorsing the same, are not agents or entities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis or the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the Archdiocese wishes to lovingly caution those members of the faithful participating in the ‘work/study groups’ and intending to attend the synod of the potential that the issues on which CCCR will seek reform are magisterial teachings of the Church, and are therefore to be believed by divine and catholic faith. The Archdiocese also wishes to remind the faithful of its need to shun any contrary doctrines, and instead to embrace and retain, to safeguard reverently and expound faithfully, the doctrine of faith and morals proposed definitively by the magisterium of the Church.
Official Announcement: Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) (Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Blessed Cardinal Newman and The Jews
The Unbelieving Jews Were Cast Out by God
Bl. John Henry Newman
"Let us pray for the Jewish People, that they will return to the Lord their God, whom they have crucified". From Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman (+1890).
[kreuz.net] Our Lord questioned the Pharisees and spoke to them: Who do you think Christ is? Whose son is he?"
They answered him: "The Son of David."
For the Prophet Isaiah had said before: "A branch will sprout from the root of Jesse".
Jesse was the father of David, of the Kings of the Jews. The "branch" or plant was a visual image of the all holy Maiden.
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root." (Is. 11.1): The flower, that blooms from the stem, is our Lord -- the Son of the holy virgin, Mary.
"And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him" (Is 11.2). At the baptism at the Jordan the Holy Ghost descended upon Him.
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently."
And: "this is the name that they shall call him: the Lord our just one" (Jer. 23, 5-6).
Therefore the Jews said, when they argued whether our Lord and Savior was the Messiah: "Doth not the scripture say: That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem the town where David was? " (John 7: 42)
Homeless Until Today
It was the mission of the Jews, that the revealed Savior, Christ, the Victim and the redeemer of the whole human race, the all-powerful Savior, should be descended from their country and people.
However -- horrible as it is to say -- when He came, they overcame him and condemned Him to death: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11).
As they disowned Him, so he rejected them.
They led Him to death, and he gave them into the power of their enemies, who destroyed their holy city of Jerusalem. they were driven from their land and remain homeless and unsettled even to this day.
Give to the Jews the True Faith
Let us pray for the people of the Jews, that they return to their Lord and God, Whom they have crucified!
You seed of Abraham and Son of David, Adonai and leader of the house of Israel: You appeared to Moses in the burning bush and have given him the Your law on Sinai.
You key of David and scepter of the House of Israel, You open, and no one closes, You close, and no one opens: do not visit at home, O Lord, the sins of the father to the children, be not angry for ever, rather strengthen the poor people, that once stood so high in your eyes and have sunken so low!
Consider not the old priests and learned, the Pharisees and Sadducees, forget Ananias and Caiaphas, Judas and the senseless rabble which first shouted: "Crucify Him!"
Recall Your pity from Your anger! Forget You their stiff necks and hard heartedness, their blindness for things of yesterday, their love of this world and their luxury!
Touch their hearts and give them the true Faith and the spirit of penance!
Have Mercy, O Jesus, on Your own brothers, the countrymen of your Mother, of St. Joseph, Your Apostles, St. Paul, the righteous of the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, Samuel and David!
O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken and do: delay not for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people. (Daniel 9:19) Do not refuse your own desire, O my God, for your name was first established in the city of Jersalem and under Your people.
Another People Took the Place of the Jews
When Our Lord Jesus Christ had been rejected by His own people, the Jews, He denied them, and called another people in their place.
The Evangelist followed with these words " He came unto his own and his own received him not." (Jo 1: 11-13) but to the others: "But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
That is to say: all men, who believe in Him, from whatever race or country they come, He made into his children, He gave to them the grace and the promise of Heaven.
He warned the Jews, since the time of grace had lapsed for them.
"I say to you," he said to them, "the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to another people, and shall be given to a people yielding the fruits thereof." (Matt 21:43)
For that reason St. Paul was agitated, His great Apostle, to rend his shirt, when he saw that the Jews would not obey, that they "contradicted and blasphemed" (Acts 18:6) and said:
"Your blood will come on your heads! I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles."
This Goes for the Protestants As with the Jews
As God had disowned the Jews, His own people, so will He reject every other people, who reject Him.
For so said St. Paul the same: "If some from the branch (Rom 11:17-21) - that means the Jews -- be broken, and thou, being a wild olive, art ingrafted in them, and art made partaker of the root, and of the fatness of the olive tree, Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then: The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps he also spare not thee."
This misfortune has come to our own land -- England.
God had blessed it for nearly one thousand years and called it. But it left off, lost the Faith and was expelled from the Church.
Let us pray for the reunion of the peoples with the Faith and the Church of Christ!
From "Meditations and Prayers" of John Henry Newman, third edition, München, Kösel, 1952.
Foreign, verminous, dirty, poor and ignorant
Editor: A Communist's take on the press coverage of the Pope's visit. They must be getting their marching orders from the Central Committee to defend the Catholic Church, because there are quite a few Communist publication airing sympathetic pieces about the Catholic Church.
by Liam Mac Uaid,
Saturday’s issue of The Guardian wasn’t exactly a souvenir edition for the pope’s imminent visit to England but it had several articles on Catholicism.
Under the headline “The Vatican is a nest of devils” Sinead O’Connor was given two pages to share her views on religion. Page 17 had a report on child abuse by clergy in Belgium. Ben Goldacre devoted his Bad Science feature to the recent discovery that the official Catholic position is against the use of condoms and page 11 was given over to a feature headlined “Atheists, activists and apathy await pope”.
There has been a gap in the market for a paper with scarifying stories about the Whore of Babylon since Ian Paisley was obliged to close down the Protestant Telegraph in 1982. It looks like “the world’s leading liberal voice” has decided to fill it. Channel 4 has spotted the niche too. Peter Tatchell is presenting a documentary on the general malignity of Catholicism and by the purest chance there’s a feature on the Belgian abuse cases on its news show tomorrow night.
Here’s my theory.
Read further...
by Liam Mac Uaid,
Saturday’s issue of The Guardian wasn’t exactly a souvenir edition for the pope’s imminent visit to England but it had several articles on Catholicism.
Under the headline “The Vatican is a nest of devils” Sinead O’Connor was given two pages to share her views on religion. Page 17 had a report on child abuse by clergy in Belgium. Ben Goldacre devoted his Bad Science feature to the recent discovery that the official Catholic position is against the use of condoms and page 11 was given over to a feature headlined “Atheists, activists and apathy await pope”.
There has been a gap in the market for a paper with scarifying stories about the Whore of Babylon since Ian Paisley was obliged to close down the Protestant Telegraph in 1982. It looks like “the world’s leading liberal voice” has decided to fill it. Channel 4 has spotted the niche too. Peter Tatchell is presenting a documentary on the general malignity of Catholicism and by the purest chance there’s a feature on the Belgian abuse cases on its news show tomorrow night.
Here’s my theory.
Read further...
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Celibacy is not the Ballast of History
Editor: Archbishop Marx got his head handed to him when he attempted to destroy the career and reputation of the Abbot of the Traditional Monastery of Ettal. Now the embattled Archbishop offers some hopeful words more in line with his the original assessment of the man as a conservative.
Germany. [kreuz.net] the first half year of this year was the worst time of his life. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich confessed this during an interview with the regional newspaper 'Munnich Merkur'. The Archbishop had been advised like a forensic expert "in a bitter decision" during the abuse hysteria. [When he tried to railroad the Abbot and Prior of Ettal on charges of Sex Abuse] At the same time he held it absurd, that it's always promoted: "now the priesthood must introduce women and celibacy must be abolished." That is superficial and will go nowhere. Celibacy is no "superfluous ballast of history" and must be rediscovered like a priceless treasure.
Original, kreuz.net...
Germany. [kreuz.net] the first half year of this year was the worst time of his life. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich confessed this during an interview with the regional newspaper 'Munnich Merkur'. The Archbishop had been advised like a forensic expert "in a bitter decision" during the abuse hysteria. [When he tried to railroad the Abbot and Prior of Ettal on charges of Sex Abuse] At the same time he held it absurd, that it's always promoted: "now the priesthood must introduce women and celibacy must be abolished." That is superficial and will go nowhere. Celibacy is no "superfluous ballast of history" and must be rediscovered like a priceless treasure.
Original, kreuz.net...
Unknown Suspects Steal Baby Jesus in Würzburg
Editor: He who sews abuse scandals reaps irreparable damage to Europe's cultural patrimony.
Wurzburg [merkur-online.de] They came at the light of day and took the Jesus Child with them: From a baroque Church in Sulzfeld unknown thieves took a Jesus-figure and an angel's head with golden wings.
The police in Würzburg on Saturday claim that they had any evidence, at first, of the suspect. Only the time of the crime is clear: both figures were already taken from the open church on Thursday.
From the original, merkur-online.de...
photo:© dpa
Wurzburg [merkur-online.de] They came at the light of day and took the Jesus Child with them: From a baroque Church in Sulzfeld unknown thieves took a Jesus-figure and an angel's head with golden wings.
The police in Würzburg on Saturday claim that they had any evidence, at first, of the suspect. Only the time of the crime is clear: both figures were already taken from the open church on Thursday.
From the original, merkur-online.de...
photo:© dpa
Pope Speaks on Spot St. Thomas More Condemned
Until last night, no Pope had set foot in Westminster Abbey, even though it was doing Roman Catholic coronations for 500 years before Henry VIII had other ideas.
No Pope had set foot in the Palace of Westminster either, let alone addressed its occupants.
So yesterday was a day of profound historic importance here at the very heart of the British state.
And yet, it was the street cleaning department of Westminster City Council which threatened to steal the headlines.
Read further...
No Pope had set foot in the Palace of Westminster either, let alone addressed its occupants.
So yesterday was a day of profound historic importance here at the very heart of the British state.
And yet, it was the street cleaning department of Westminster City Council which threatened to steal the headlines.
Read further...
Anne Muggeridge, RIP
By Patrick B. Craine
TORONTO, Ontario, September 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life movement lost a fearless defender of human life this week as revered Canadian Catholic writer Anne Roche Muggeridge passed away in her 75th year on Tuesday after a decade struggle with an advanced Alzheimer’s-like illness.
Wife of the late John Muggeridge and daughter-in-law of famed journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge, she is remembered by countless admirers as a fierce and unyielding proponent of the pro-life cause and Catholic orthodoxy.
Muggeridge wrote numerous articles, but is most known for her two books, The Gates of Hell (1975) and The Desolate City (1986, revised 1990).
“She was a wonderful mother to us and she was a valiant defender of the Catholic faith,” said her son, John Muggeridge, Jr. “She brought a lot of people to the Catholic Church and she inspired a lot in their faith.”
Read further...
TORONTO, Ontario, September 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life movement lost a fearless defender of human life this week as revered Canadian Catholic writer Anne Roche Muggeridge passed away in her 75th year on Tuesday after a decade struggle with an advanced Alzheimer’s-like illness.
Wife of the late John Muggeridge and daughter-in-law of famed journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge, she is remembered by countless admirers as a fierce and unyielding proponent of the pro-life cause and Catholic orthodoxy.
Muggeridge wrote numerous articles, but is most known for her two books, The Gates of Hell (1975) and The Desolate City (1986, revised 1990).
“She was a wonderful mother to us and she was a valiant defender of the Catholic faith,” said her son, John Muggeridge, Jr. “She brought a lot of people to the Catholic Church and she inspired a lot in their faith.”
Read further...
Friday, September 17, 2010
New Jesuit-Provincial Stefan Kiechle Bets Against Rome
Editor: He had previously this week offered to pay out settlements to compensate victims. He had also, as Novice Master, spoken of the pernicious homosexual culture in seminaries.
And he maintains: Appointments in the Church Hierarchy are reminiscent almost of "corruption" -- Almost half of Catholics are today continuously closed off from the Sacraments.
The new Provincial of the German Jesuits, P. Stefan Kiechle SJ, spoke this week for the abolition of celibacy. Kiechle spoke this Wednesday in the auspices of the "Cardinal-Höffner-Circle" Catholic CDU-member for the release of married men for the priesthood and for the consideration also of the ordination of women. Along these lines, Kiechle criticized the practice of appointments in the hierarchy of the Church. They are arranged by connections and are almost reminiscent of "corruption".
Kiechle speaks for another contact of the Church with the theme of mercy. He references the praxis of the Eastern Church, which has a conservative doctrine and in which it never the less has married priests. "That works", he insists. Surely, the abolition of celibacy will not solve all problems. Kiechle took over the administration of the Jesuit Province on the first of September.
The provincial speaks of a massive crisis in the Church, which is partly the result of a quantitative and qualitative shortage of priests. This crisis will not be solved first through the awareness of abuse cases. Firstly, the priest shortage hits "throughout". The Jesuit was concerned about the "selection, education and formation" of priests. Many clerics today are hardly in a position to take a leading role.
With a view on the ordering of officeholders throughout the Church there is "much about connections" said Kiechle. Some in Germany are interested in knowing someone in Rome, who has influence, or is eager to have dinner in Rome for personal favors. Such were the normal course of appointments, which pass for objectivity, "often evasive". The Provincial says this is dangerous: "In other contexts, one would speak of corruption."
The Superior continued, saying, the Catholic Church should establish centers. In the first place, there is a "reduction to core business", belonging to the "orderly and qualitative" Liturgy and Catechesis; these may also may influence good moods. Further accents must be "with quality" in the formation of schools and religious instruction. What the Church sows with the children, will remain.
Further accents must be mercifulness toward and usefulness of the disenfranchised and people on the edge. "That is the core business of the Church", he said. Almost half of the Catholics today are forbidden from approaching the Sacraments, intoned Kiechele, referring to the existence of cohabiting couples or remarried and divorced people. [More people in Germany seem to be aware of the Church's teaching in these matters.]
The Jesuit Provincial's remarks concerned the 40 participants in the conference for a controversial discussion. Before Kiechle, the leader of the Circle, Family Secretatry Herman Kues (CDU), called those concerns to mind. Cardinal Höffner stood for the opening of the Catholic Church to the modern world," said Kues. Those were the fundamental concerns for Höffner (1906-87), who was for many years the Archbishop of Cologne and the President of the German Bishops Conference, as well as the gathering of the Höffner Circle.
Original article...kath.net...here.
And he maintains: Appointments in the Church Hierarchy are reminiscent almost of "corruption" -- Almost half of Catholics are today continuously closed off from the Sacraments.
The new Provincial of the German Jesuits, P. Stefan Kiechle SJ, spoke this week for the abolition of celibacy. Kiechle spoke this Wednesday in the auspices of the "Cardinal-Höffner-Circle" Catholic CDU-member for the release of married men for the priesthood and for the consideration also of the ordination of women. Along these lines, Kiechle criticized the practice of appointments in the hierarchy of the Church. They are arranged by connections and are almost reminiscent of "corruption".
Kiechle speaks for another contact of the Church with the theme of mercy. He references the praxis of the Eastern Church, which has a conservative doctrine and in which it never the less has married priests. "That works", he insists. Surely, the abolition of celibacy will not solve all problems. Kiechle took over the administration of the Jesuit Province on the first of September.
The provincial speaks of a massive crisis in the Church, which is partly the result of a quantitative and qualitative shortage of priests. This crisis will not be solved first through the awareness of abuse cases. Firstly, the priest shortage hits "throughout". The Jesuit was concerned about the "selection, education and formation" of priests. Many clerics today are hardly in a position to take a leading role.
With a view on the ordering of officeholders throughout the Church there is "much about connections" said Kiechle. Some in Germany are interested in knowing someone in Rome, who has influence, or is eager to have dinner in Rome for personal favors. Such were the normal course of appointments, which pass for objectivity, "often evasive". The Provincial says this is dangerous: "In other contexts, one would speak of corruption."
The Superior continued, saying, the Catholic Church should establish centers. In the first place, there is a "reduction to core business", belonging to the "orderly and qualitative" Liturgy and Catechesis; these may also may influence good moods. Further accents must be "with quality" in the formation of schools and religious instruction. What the Church sows with the children, will remain.
Further accents must be mercifulness toward and usefulness of the disenfranchised and people on the edge. "That is the core business of the Church", he said. Almost half of the Catholics today are forbidden from approaching the Sacraments, intoned Kiechele, referring to the existence of cohabiting couples or remarried and divorced people. [More people in Germany seem to be aware of the Church's teaching in these matters.]
The Jesuit Provincial's remarks concerned the 40 participants in the conference for a controversial discussion. Before Kiechle, the leader of the Circle, Family Secretatry Herman Kues (CDU), called those concerns to mind. Cardinal Höffner stood for the opening of the Catholic Church to the modern world," said Kues. Those were the fundamental concerns for Höffner (1906-87), who was for many years the Archbishop of Cologne and the President of the German Bishops Conference, as well as the gathering of the Höffner Circle.
Original article...kath.net...here.
Pope Admits Church Wasn't Vigilant Enough
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE, SEPT. 16, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Church was not sufficiently vigilant or sufficiently quick in responding to the problem of sexual abusers among clergy, Benedict XVI says.
The Pope made this affirmation today en route to Scotland for the first leg of his four-day trip to the United Kingdom. As is customary, he gave a press conference to a group of journalists on the flight with him.
Speaking of the sexual abuse scandal, he affirmed: "First of all I must say that these revelations were a shock to me, a great sadness; it is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible. At the moment of ordination, the priest, prepared for years for this moment, says 'yes' to Christ to be his voice, his mouth, his hands. [...] How a man who has done and said this can then fall into this perversion is difficult to understand.
Read further...
The Pope made this affirmation today en route to Scotland for the first leg of his four-day trip to the United Kingdom. As is customary, he gave a press conference to a group of journalists on the flight with him.
Speaking of the sexual abuse scandal, he affirmed: "First of all I must say that these revelations were a shock to me, a great sadness; it is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible. At the moment of ordination, the priest, prepared for years for this moment, says 'yes' to Christ to be his voice, his mouth, his hands. [...] How a man who has done and said this can then fall into this perversion is difficult to understand.
Read further...
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Bishop Fellay: If Bonifatius Had Followed the Spirit of Vatican II, There Would be No Catholics in Germany
Pius Believers are Unfortunately Not Anglicans
The Superior General of the Society of Pius X made the point: If Saint Bonifatius had followed the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, there wouldn't be any Catholics in Germany.
[kreuz.net, Fulda] On the past Sunday 1500 Traditionalists made a Pilgrimage to the grave of St. Bonifatius (+754) in Fulda.
It is the seventh national pilgrimage of the German District of the Society has undertaken to the tomb of the Saint.
The Pontifical Office was celebrated on Sunday by the General Superior of the Society of Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay.
He consecrated the entire German District and the whole Society to the Mother of God.
An article on the website 'Piusbruderschaft.de' complained that the Fulda Cathedral was closed to the Pilgrims.
The courtesy of the Bishops in Germany has failed.
Better Protestant than Catholic
In his sermon Msgr Fellay declared: "We are Catholics, we want to simply remain that way."
Today one makes the Society an object of reproach to show itself as Catholic. Therefore that is the reason why you were refused at the church.
The Old Liberal Bishop of Tarves and Lourdes in Southern France, Msgr Jacques Perrier (73), let Anglicans in the Church, the Society of Pius X, however, not.
For that reason he declared to the Society of Pius X: "You insist that you're Catholic"
Bishop Fellay concluded upon this, that the Society could celebrate in the Church, if they denied they were Catholic:
"A complete confusion. This contradiction is everywhere, the situation not simple. Confusion on all sides".
Critic of the Spirit of the Pastoral Council
The Society lives in the truth of that which the Church has always done -- says Msgr Fellay.
"If St. Bonifatius had followed the Spirit of the Second Vatican Council, there would be no Catholics in Germany."
Currently, they are abolishing the Church. They are dissolving it:
"She disappears in a religiosity without boarders, where one has now expressed, the modern Catholics are more protestantic than the Protestants."
In German, his talk at Fulda:
The Superior General of the Society of Pius X made the point: If Saint Bonifatius had followed the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, there wouldn't be any Catholics in Germany.
[kreuz.net, Fulda] On the past Sunday 1500 Traditionalists made a Pilgrimage to the grave of St. Bonifatius (+754) in Fulda.
It is the seventh national pilgrimage of the German District of the Society has undertaken to the tomb of the Saint.
The Pontifical Office was celebrated on Sunday by the General Superior of the Society of Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay.
He consecrated the entire German District and the whole Society to the Mother of God.
An article on the website 'Piusbruderschaft.de' complained that the Fulda Cathedral was closed to the Pilgrims.
The courtesy of the Bishops in Germany has failed.
Better Protestant than Catholic
In his sermon Msgr Fellay declared: "We are Catholics, we want to simply remain that way."
Today one makes the Society an object of reproach to show itself as Catholic. Therefore that is the reason why you were refused at the church.
The Old Liberal Bishop of Tarves and Lourdes in Southern France, Msgr Jacques Perrier (73), let Anglicans in the Church, the Society of Pius X, however, not.
For that reason he declared to the Society of Pius X: "You insist that you're Catholic"
Bishop Fellay concluded upon this, that the Society could celebrate in the Church, if they denied they were Catholic:
"A complete confusion. This contradiction is everywhere, the situation not simple. Confusion on all sides".
Critic of the Spirit of the Pastoral Council
The Society lives in the truth of that which the Church has always done -- says Msgr Fellay.
"If St. Bonifatius had followed the Spirit of the Second Vatican Council, there would be no Catholics in Germany."
Currently, they are abolishing the Church. They are dissolving it:
"She disappears in a religiosity without boarders, where one has now expressed, the modern Catholics are more protestantic than the Protestants."
In German, his talk at Fulda:
Three Year Odyssey in Bonn: At Most the Old Mass in Cologne is Tolerated
The Neo-Conservative, muzzled, Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne is probably a Pap-idolater but no friend of the old Mass. He doesn't care much for the numerous Traditionalists in his Diocese.
[kreuz.net, Bonn] For more than three years already, a group of Traditionalists in the south of the 320,000 population city of Bonn have been fighting for Old Mass.
This Odyssey has been recounted by Friederike Weigmann on the website 'summuorum-pontificum.de'.
Frau Weigmann speaks of a "blocked wall" against the old Literugy of the Church, which the engaged laity can hardly break through.
Bonn belongs to the Archdiocese of Cologne. The current Cardinal Joachim Meisner appears as an enemy of the Old Mass, although he appears at them and has ordained priests using it.
In Bonn there is only one Old Mass every fourteen days, which happens at 5 O'clock.
Bonn needs no Old Mass
Already on 17th November 2007 eighteen Traditionalists from southern Bonn approached Cardinal Meisner for an Old Mass.
They form today the 'Society for the Promotion of Summorum Pontificum Bonn e.V.'.
Shortly before Christmas in 2007 the request bit the dust. There is in the "Cologne Church" -- what is meant is the giant Archdiocese of Cologne -- already at four locations which have a regular Old Mass -- according to the Archdiocese.
In Bonn the qualifications for one regular Sunday Mass according to the so-called guidelines of the German Bishops Conference are not fulfilled -- decreed the Archdiocese.
In the same time frame the Archdiocese advertised a calendar of events of countless Carnival Masses in local Dialect.
The Cry For Help That Was Run in Circles
On December 29th 2007 'The Association for the Promotion of Summorum Pontificum in Bonn' descried its situation in distant Germany for Traditionalists to 'Pro Sancta Ecclesia'.
There the Traditionalists received further requests, which had likewise requested an Old Mass in Bonn.
Furthermore, the Society sent "the rejected request to Pro Sancta Ecclesia' to the Papal commission 'Ecclesia Dei"
Local Negotiations
On the 19th of December 2008 the Society spoke with a priest in the south of Bonn, Father John Nampiaparambil. He was newly established in his office.
The minister engaged in more discussions in the priests council, than he should have.
In summer 2009 he was surprised with an alleged sabbatical year in India.
After a reorganization came the new Pastor, Fr. Josey Thamarassery.
In this June the Society spoke also with him.
There he was also informed, that the number of those interested in the Old Mass had grown in the last three years.
Actually Fr. Thamarassery wanted to be informed over the applicants.
On the 20th of June he put off an invitation to a unique and privately organized gathering him reference to other obligations.
Another discussion date is not presently forthcoming.
Link to Orginal...kreuz.net...
© Bild: birmingham_lms_rep, CC
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The BBC thinks the Pope has a ‘Nazi past’ | CatholicHerald.co.uk
BBC's just mad that he wasn't in the Communist Party.
The BBC thinks the Pope has a ‘Nazi past’ | CatholicHerald.co.uk
Benedictine Monk Embraces Capitalism in New Book
Editor: Another weirdo who is a disciple of Karl Rahner SJ.
The Benedictine Monk writes in his newest book that Jesus wanted money for his talks -- a supposition which in any case lacks biblical support.
Munich (kath.net) P. Anselm Grün, the famous Benedictine Monk and spiritual writer, has represented in his latest book "God, Money and Conscience -- Monk and Manager in Discussion" seemingly crazy theses about "Jesus and Money". So he says, without biblical proof, that Jesus is supposed to have had charged money for his talks.
"Jesus had a purse", he said a few days ago at a book signing in Munich. That God and Money, Church and Commerce are not contradictory, is what Grun and Puma-Director Jochen Zeitz want to show in their new book.
From original at kath.net...
Benedict Besieged
Interview With Author of "Attack on Ratzinger"
ROME, SEPT. 14, 2010 (Zenit.org).- From Regensburg to the sexual abuse crisis, the international press has hammered away at Benedict XVI since the beginning of his pontificate.
That is the topic of "Attacco a Ratzinger: accuse scandali, profezie e complotti contro Benedetto XVI" (Attack on Ratzinger: scandalous accusations, prophecies and plots against Benedict XVI), written by noted Vatican watchers Paolo Rodari and Andrea Tornielli (published in Italian by Piemme).
Rodari writes for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, and Tornielli writes for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
Link to Zenit Interview...
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Cardinal: Vatican Names Dogs in Place of Bishops
The Vatican has recognized men who've been the Communist regime's Bishops for years. In public, the supposed warming of relations to fat cats was bought in Peking. The faithful will pay the bill.
[kreuz.net, Hong Kong] The Emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Cardinal Zen, has openly criticized the communist-friendly China-politic of the Vatican's Congregation of Missions on 'AsiaNews'.
The text is a copy of an article by a Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, where the Cardinal draws a question mark about the middleman between the Communists and the Congregation of Missions.
The Vatican in the Service of the Church's Enemies
Cardinal Zen said that he was a sinner at the beginning of his article: "But I would add to my many sins -- if I were like a dog who did not bark when the time was right for it."
The Prince of the Church insists that he will speak out against the aims of the Vatican and the Chinese Communists.
But for all that will awake the impression, that it is not so and their purpose has been discovered.
Then the Cardinal demystified the mythos of the Chinese communists' mutually recognized Bishops.
These proceedings will serve the aims of the Communist party.
A Dog on the Leash
Cardinal Zen says that the Bishops of the official state "Patriotic Union" are "slaves, or, even worse; as dogs on a leash".
The Bishops of the regime named by the Vatican are according to him "modern false prophets". They travel -- says Cardinal Zen -- happily on the imperial caravan of the independent church and call out from time to time, "Long live the Pope".
Then the Communist government supervises the state Bishops. These will only hear and obey.
They must depart from meetings, without knowing, where the journey begins.
They were invited to meetings, without knowing the subject.
They must hold speeches, without having seen the text beforehand.
The methods of persecution have improved.
Today the victims are invited to dinner, city tours and awards.
One is certain, however, to respect their freedom of conscience.
But Cardinal Zen knows, that the promises of Communists mean nothing.
For according to the left, "Lies are a legitimate means, to reach your goal".
Fifty Thousand Catechisms for Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - 80 thousand children and young people this year will study the catechism in about 200 parishes of the archdiocese of former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.
In September, with the resumption of the school year, parishes also reopened their courses, with the fundamental contribution of 5 thousand catechists, youth volunteers, enthusiastic and full of experience, who teach the basics of Christianity and human education.
The parish of Quang Dong held an inaugural Mass on the opening day (photo) of catechism classes for 442 children. Also the parishes of Binh An Ha, Binh Thai, Nam Hai, Binh Minh and Binh Xuyen are preparing to begin the first day of instruction.
Read further...
In September, with the resumption of the school year, parishes also reopened their courses, with the fundamental contribution of 5 thousand catechists, youth volunteers, enthusiastic and full of experience, who teach the basics of Christianity and human education.
The parish of Quang Dong held an inaugural Mass on the opening day (photo) of catechism classes for 442 children. Also the parishes of Binh An Ha, Binh Thai, Nam Hai, Binh Minh and Binh Xuyen are preparing to begin the first day of instruction.
Read further...
Fallen to the Russian Schismatics: Former Benedictine Becomes Orthodox
Editor: Somehow, more blame belongs to the Benedictine Hermits of Switzerland than this poor, celebrated intellectual hermit. He's a lot more interesting than Thomas Merton, however, why don't Catholic publishing houses do more to celebrate men of his type, instead of men who are embarrassingly irreligious darlings of the literati class?
First he was a Benedictine. Then he lived twenty years as a hermit in Tessin. Now he has left the barque of Peter.
First he was a Benedictine. Then he lived twenty years as a hermit in Tessin. Now he has left the barque of Peter.
[kreuz.net] The famous Benedictine Hermit and spiritual writer, Peter Gabriel Bunge, has fallen to the Russian Schismatics.
This is according to the weblog 'prevoslavie.ru'
Bugne studied first of all at the Rhenish Fredrich-Wihelms-Unviersitaet in Bonn. He is working ffor a doctorate there with his work on Second Maccabees.
Then he entred the bi-ritual Belgian Benedictine Cloister Chevetogne.
For twenty years he belonged to the byzantine-slavic Rite.
With the permission of his superior he's lived since nineteen eighty as a Hermit in the area of the Community Capriasca in the vicinity of Lugano in the South Swiss Canton of Tessin.
He amed his cell "Hermitage of Santa Croce". There he celebrated the Mass at first in the Ambrosian Rite.
Then, after a few years, he changed to the Byzantine Rite.
As Hermit he was up to his apostasy under the old liberal Benedictine Cloister of Monks in Central Switzerland.
According to reports from Father Antoine Lambrechts from Chevtogne -- in an reader entry for the Blog 'eirenikon.wordpress.com' -- Bunge has been Orthodox in life and belief for the last fifteen years.
Bunge has secured for himself an international reputation as a spiritual writer.
He publishes books and countless articles in scholarly magazines.
His formal renunciation of the Church occurred on 27th August - on the eve of the Orthodox feast of 28 August celebrating the Assumption -- in the vigil of the Moscow Church Icon of the Mother of God, "Joy of All the Bereaved".
The church is located in the Bolschaja Ordynka street.
The presbyters present at his apostacy were Moscow Patriarch, Metroplitan Hilarion Alfayev von Volkolamsk and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (76) of Diokleia -- a former Anglican.
Bunge belongs now to the Russian Schismatics.
Metropolitan Hilarion said to him: "You were a Catholic, but deep in your heart you were Orthodox. Today, on the vigil you have become orthodox and have closed your long spiritual journey in a natural way."
Hilarion wished Bunge well in his apostasy and gave him an Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of all Bereaved".
German Protestant Church Faces Vocations Crisis
Editor: But wait, the Evangelical "churches" in Germany haven't had clerical celibacy, and have Pastoresses. Surely they can't be having a vocations crisis.... Their preoccupation with "social justice" is certainly part of the problem, but a wry lone comment was made on the page which points to the utterly man-centered orientation of protestantism, which is its downfall:
The Protestant Church has secondary growth concerns: The number of students for Evangelical Theology is in decline since the beginning of the nineties.
[Die Zeit: Online] 10-15 years it will still go well, then however, Germany will be threatened by a shortage of ministers, fear the Union of Evangelical Pastors and Pastoresses. The number of young men, who want to be Pastor, has been declining for years: 1992 still had 8500 young people studying for the ministry, at the present there are only 2300, said Union President Klaus Weber. From 2020 on the Pastor-boom will fall into silence.
Not only is the number of candidates sinking, but simultaneously the number of members of the Evangelical church as well. These were estimated by 2030 to be a quarter of what they are today, said Weber. For this reason Pastor's positions are being closed. Already is a Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Pastor responsible for a dozen communities. The all-important personal contact is broken down. The church relies more on volunteers to hold its divine services.
Simultaneously, the requests of the Pastor grow, says Weber. In order to manage the requests, the ministers must be put in center points. These are for him as before the carefully prepared accompaniment of people in the turning points of their lives, like baptism, confirmation and marriage. "There is no other occupation, in which the doors of homes are so open."
Weber criticized also, he missed the engagement, to find a new way to people. It is also hard not to recognize, that in the country churches there is much effort to invest in the construction of financially sustainable structures.
From the 20th to 22nd September more than four hundred Theologians will meet for German Pastoress and Paster-day. The Germany-wide largest theological professional congress stands beneath the motto "The Evangelical Church and the Social Question".
Link to original, Zeit.
"When liberal Protestantism demands religious reverence for the man Jesus, it is disgusting and shocking. They cannot themselves believe that the respect in which Jesus is held by the people and which they have made use of in such an unprotestant manner, can be maintained for any length of time after the nimbus of divinity has been destroyed, and they may reflect on the insufficiency of the momentary subterfuge. The Protestant principle in its last consequences, disposes of all kinds of dogmatic authority in a remorseless manner, and its supporters must, whether they like it or not, dispense with the authority of Christ."
The Protestant Church has secondary growth concerns: The number of students for Evangelical Theology is in decline since the beginning of the nineties.
[Die Zeit: Online] 10-15 years it will still go well, then however, Germany will be threatened by a shortage of ministers, fear the Union of Evangelical Pastors and Pastoresses. The number of young men, who want to be Pastor, has been declining for years: 1992 still had 8500 young people studying for the ministry, at the present there are only 2300, said Union President Klaus Weber. From 2020 on the Pastor-boom will fall into silence.
Not only is the number of candidates sinking, but simultaneously the number of members of the Evangelical church as well. These were estimated by 2030 to be a quarter of what they are today, said Weber. For this reason Pastor's positions are being closed. Already is a Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Pastor responsible for a dozen communities. The all-important personal contact is broken down. The church relies more on volunteers to hold its divine services.
Simultaneously, the requests of the Pastor grow, says Weber. In order to manage the requests, the ministers must be put in center points. These are for him as before the carefully prepared accompaniment of people in the turning points of their lives, like baptism, confirmation and marriage. "There is no other occupation, in which the doors of homes are so open."
Weber criticized also, he missed the engagement, to find a new way to people. It is also hard not to recognize, that in the country churches there is much effort to invest in the construction of financially sustainable structures.
From the 20th to 22nd September more than four hundred Theologians will meet for German Pastoress and Paster-day. The Germany-wide largest theological professional congress stands beneath the motto "The Evangelical Church and the Social Question".
Link to original, Zeit.
Russians Pilgrims Walking from Irkutsk to Jerusalem
14 September 2010, 17:27
Pilgrims going from Irkutsk to Jerusalem on foot covered about 3,000 km
Petropavlovsk, September 14, Interfax – Two residents of Irkutsk, who are carrying out a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on foot, arrived in Petropavlovsk in northern Kazakhstan, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Irkutsk Cossacks captain Vladimir Bragintsev, former policeman, now pensioner, started for a long journey on May 8 in Siberia, novice of St. Michael the Archangel Monastery Alexander Serebrennikov jointed him a little bit later. For more than four months pilgrims walked about 3,000 kilometers, visited Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk and other Russian cities and towns.
The pilgrims are going to walk to Jerusalem and worship Christian shrines.
The pilgrims have ordinary tourist set in their rucksacks – a tent, sleeping bags, a pot, matches, food supplies and a medicine box. They buy food on the way taking money from the banking card.
The pilgrims often sleep in the wood in their tent, but sometimes strangers give them a warm reception.
Bragintsev believes his trip to Jerusalem will take him not less that four years, but on his way he dreams of visiting Solovki and Valaam to pray for his relatives killed at World War II.
Link to Interfaxreligion...
Pilgrims going from Irkutsk to Jerusalem on foot covered about 3,000 km
Petropavlovsk, September 14, Interfax – Two residents of Irkutsk, who are carrying out a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on foot, arrived in Petropavlovsk in northern Kazakhstan, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Irkutsk Cossacks captain Vladimir Bragintsev, former policeman, now pensioner, started for a long journey on May 8 in Siberia, novice of St. Michael the Archangel Monastery Alexander Serebrennikov jointed him a little bit later. For more than four months pilgrims walked about 3,000 kilometers, visited Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk and other Russian cities and towns.
The pilgrims are going to walk to Jerusalem and worship Christian shrines.
The pilgrims have ordinary tourist set in their rucksacks – a tent, sleeping bags, a pot, matches, food supplies and a medicine box. They buy food on the way taking money from the banking card.
The pilgrims often sleep in the wood in their tent, but sometimes strangers give them a warm reception.
Bragintsev believes his trip to Jerusalem will take him not less that four years, but on his way he dreams of visiting Solovki and Valaam to pray for his relatives killed at World War II.
Link to Interfaxreligion...
Monday, September 13, 2010
Cardinal Kasper Admonishes Germans to Obey Holy Father
[Vatican] Germans must have more respect for "their" Pope, hear [obey] and try to understand him. With these words Walter Cardinal Kasper admonished his countrymen from Bishops to Theologians, from Priests to simple believers. In an interview with the German weekly Focus he noted, that abroad "many shake their heads about the manner and fashion, with which Germans handle the Pope from their own homeland."
A few days before the begin of the State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Great Britain and his Pastoral trip to Scotland and England the German Curia Cardinal warned of an "aggressive atheism" in Great Britain. He criticized also that the British Airways employee was "discriminated" against, because she wore a cross. One employee had been forced to remove the cross, which she wore on a chain around her neck.
The Pope will, upon his visit in Scotland and England on an ecumenical level to bring about "heavy dialog" with the Anglicans, says the Cardinal. The Beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman "will be no setback" for Ecumenism, said the Cardinal with conviction. He reviewed the Church's opposition to women's ordination with the observation: The Protestants 'don't have celibacy, but women pastors. Are you telling me they have it better?"
Link to original at Katholisches...
Parents organizations urge to bar sexual minorities' march in Petersburg
St. Petersburg, September 13, Interfax – Representatives of parent organizations ask authorities to ban gay pride parade planned by sex minorities for September 16-25 in Petersburg.
"They failed to conquer Moscow and hold a gay pride there and like fascists in 1941 they have focused all their effort on the city on the Neva. Today as before a blue division is moving to the "Northern capital", but it is not a "blue-blood" Aryan race," Russia's Council of Parents and Association of Parent Committees and Communities told the country's authorities in their open letter.
Its authors note that in fact "an open, legalized and effective promotion of vice and depravity" will take place in the city for ten days and this time will be enough "to ruin souls of thousands children and teens." They point out that many "international sodomite organizations, notorious gays and lesbians" have already backed up the festival.
"We are not ready to tolerate preachers of filth and perversion in our country as they have always been considered shameful in Russia. People who live with this passion should not bring their spiritual illness out in the streets of our cities and infect our children with it," the
letter reads.
Link to original...
"They failed to conquer Moscow and hold a gay pride there and like fascists in 1941 they have focused all their effort on the city on the Neva. Today as before a blue division is moving to the "Northern capital", but it is not a "blue-blood" Aryan race," Russia's Council of Parents and Association of Parent Committees and Communities told the country's authorities in their open letter.
Its authors note that in fact "an open, legalized and effective promotion of vice and depravity" will take place in the city for ten days and this time will be enough "to ruin souls of thousands children and teens." They point out that many "international sodomite organizations, notorious gays and lesbians" have already backed up the festival.
"We are not ready to tolerate preachers of filth and perversion in our country as they have always been considered shameful in Russia. People who live with this passion should not bring their spiritual illness out in the streets of our cities and infect our children with it," the
letter reads.
Link to original...
Tradition vs. Liberal -- Aliance between Catholic and Orthodox Church, In Order to Give Europe Back Its Soul
[London/Rome] A few days from the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland and England, the "Number two" in the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Direcoter of the "Foreign Office" of the Moscow Patriarchate, will make his visit to Great Britain.
On the 9th of September he will meet [has already met] in Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Anglican Communion. In a certain way "he makes straight the way of the Pope", as the Pope's meeting on the 17th of September is described by Vaticanist Sandro Magister in the Weekly L'Espresso.
Full text of the address, here.
The Vatican itself boasts prelates who raise their noses, when they are confronted with terms like "conservative" and "progressive". Not seldom one hears from them that such pigeonholes are "an old thing", which are "outdated". "I think contrarily, that the destinction is legitimate and before and now useful for both Churches to compare their main directions," writes Paolo Rodari, the Vaticanist of the daily Il Foglio and author of the recently released book "Attack Against Ratzinger, Recriminations and Scandals, Prophesies and Conspiracies Against Benedict XVI."
Metropolitan Hilarion correspondingly, gave a speech with the Anglican Primate at the concluding meeting of the Nicea Club in London, where he made an actual appraisal of Christndom in outspoken Ratzingerian mannerisms.
"All of the present forms of Christendom could be put roughly under two principle groups: in Traditional and Liberal. The difference today lies not so much between Orthodox and Catholic or between Catholics and Protestants, rather between Traditionalists and Liberals.
"Some Christian leaders, for example, say to us that the marriage between a man and a woman is no longer the only possibility when it comes to forming a family: there are other models and the Church must become "inclusive" in so far as the standards of alternative forms of relationship are recognized and how these are officially blessed.
Some attempt to overrule that human life is no longer an absolute value and that it may be ended at will in the mother's womb. From the traditional Christians, then, the progressive expects, therefore, beneath such expectations of modernity, that he reassess his own standpoint."
The Metropolitan recalled then, that it is a principle priority for the Russian Orthodox Church, a commitment to order the eternal validity of the spiritual and moral values of Christendom. It is always, says Metropolitan Hilarion, the common will of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church, "to form an alliance in Europe, to defend the traditional values of Christendom and give Europe back its soul", against relativism and against secularism.
Article translated from katholisches.net...
Also an account of the Nicea Discussion at Virtue Online...
Pope Set to Beatify Cardinal Newman
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI will break his own rule this weekend when he beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman, the renowned 19th Century Anglican convert who greatly influenced the Roman Catholic Church.
Newman remains a complicated figure within the Anglican church he abandoned, and the pope's glorification [um, wrong word] of him during a state visit to Britain could unleash new tensions between churches already divided over issues like the ordination of women and gay bishops.
Benedict will move Newman a step closer to possible sainthood when he presides over his beatification Sept. 19, the main reason for his four-day trip. It's the first time Benedict will celebrate a beatification; under his own rules popes don't beatify, only canonize.
For the German-born, by-the-book professor, such an exception to his own rule is significant. It's a calculated gesture that underscores Benedict's view that Newman is a crucial model for all Christians at a time when Christianity is on the wane in an increasingly secularized Europe.
Read further...
Newman remains a complicated figure within the Anglican church he abandoned, and the pope's glorification [um, wrong word] of him during a state visit to Britain could unleash new tensions between churches already divided over issues like the ordination of women and gay bishops.
Benedict will move Newman a step closer to possible sainthood when he presides over his beatification Sept. 19, the main reason for his four-day trip. It's the first time Benedict will celebrate a beatification; under his own rules popes don't beatify, only canonize.
For the German-born, by-the-book professor, such an exception to his own rule is significant. It's a calculated gesture that underscores Benedict's view that Newman is a crucial model for all Christians at a time when Christianity is on the wane in an increasingly secularized Europe.
Read further...
Church takes action on sexual abuse
You can vote on what you think should be done with Cardinal Daneels. So far, most think he should be excommunicated.
Church takes action on sexual abuse
Church takes action on sexual abuse
The Bishop is Neither Manager Nor Bureaucrat!
Benedict XVI. on the Shepherd's Responsibilities of the Successors of the Apostles -- by Armin Schwibach/ Rome
Rome[kath.net/as] The Bishop is not a pure manager, he is not a bureaucrat or a simple moderator and organizer of the life of the diocese. Much more, he must be a "father, brother and friend" and be on the "Christian and human path", who knows he has to create, "an atmosphere of trust, acceptance, sympathy, but also uprightness and justice".
With these words Pope Benedict XVI. addressed a second group of newly ordained Bishops this morning, who participated in a course organized by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
In his speak the Pope adumbrated a proper life program, that has validity for every Bishop. For that he went to some "enlightening" words of St. Thomas Aquinas. "Authority" and "Love" as "caritas" are says Thomas the fundamental requirements for a Bishop, which is also defined in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen Gentium". The Council explains: "A bishop, since he is sent by the Father to govern his family, must keep before his eyes the example of the Good Shepherd, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister,(comp. Mt 20,28; Mk 10,45) and to lay down his life for his sheep (comp. Joh 10,11).
Taken from among men and compassed with weakness, he can have compassion for them, who are in ignorance and error (comp. Hebr 5,1-2). He should not refuse to hear his subordinates, who he cares for like true sons and be exhorted work eagerly with them. For he will give an account for your souls before God (comp. Hebr 13,17), should you observe through prayer, preaching and cared for him with any kind of charitable work, the same for any, who are still not of the same flock and are yet really commended by the Lord.
That he is as the Apostle Paul the most sinful, he is ready, to preach the Gospel to all (comp. Röm 1,14-15) and encourage his faithful to missionary zeal. (Lumen Gentium, 27)
The assignment of Bishops, according to the admonitions of Benedict VI., may never be understood within a mentality, in which efficiency an effectiveness are understood as the the center points. The attention of the Bishops may not valid in the first line to consider "what is to be done"; it is much more necessary, "to always keep the ontological dimension, which stands on the basis of the functional dimension."
So the office of the Bishop is located "within a deep perspective of faith and not simply in a human, administrative or sociologically certain perspective".
Read original...
Rome[kath.net/as] The Bishop is not a pure manager, he is not a bureaucrat or a simple moderator and organizer of the life of the diocese. Much more, he must be a "father, brother and friend" and be on the "Christian and human path", who knows he has to create, "an atmosphere of trust, acceptance, sympathy, but also uprightness and justice".
With these words Pope Benedict XVI. addressed a second group of newly ordained Bishops this morning, who participated in a course organized by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
In his speak the Pope adumbrated a proper life program, that has validity for every Bishop. For that he went to some "enlightening" words of St. Thomas Aquinas. "Authority" and "Love" as "caritas" are says Thomas the fundamental requirements for a Bishop, which is also defined in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen Gentium". The Council explains: "A bishop, since he is sent by the Father to govern his family, must keep before his eyes the example of the Good Shepherd, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister,(comp. Mt 20,28; Mk 10,45) and to lay down his life for his sheep (comp. Joh 10,11).
Taken from among men and compassed with weakness, he can have compassion for them, who are in ignorance and error (comp. Hebr 5,1-2). He should not refuse to hear his subordinates, who he cares for like true sons and be exhorted work eagerly with them. For he will give an account for your souls before God (comp. Hebr 13,17), should you observe through prayer, preaching and cared for him with any kind of charitable work, the same for any, who are still not of the same flock and are yet really commended by the Lord.
That he is as the Apostle Paul the most sinful, he is ready, to preach the Gospel to all (comp. Röm 1,14-15) and encourage his faithful to missionary zeal. (Lumen Gentium, 27)
The assignment of Bishops, according to the admonitions of Benedict VI., may never be understood within a mentality, in which efficiency an effectiveness are understood as the the center points. The attention of the Bishops may not valid in the first line to consider "what is to be done"; it is much more necessary, "to always keep the ontological dimension, which stands on the basis of the functional dimension."
So the office of the Bishop is located "within a deep perspective of faith and not simply in a human, administrative or sociologically certain perspective".
Read original...
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Burka-Ban: German Archbishop Schick Sees Good Grounds For It
"Focus" -- poll shows that there are 61 percent of Germans for Burka-Ban
Munich [kath.net/KAP] The Archbishop of Bamberg, Ludwig Schick, sees good grounds for a burka ban in Germany. The reason for this interview on "Focus" was related to the news magazine's recent published polls, which shows that 61 percent of Germans are for a burka ban. If it were legally punishable to wear a burka, this must be put in the balance "between the basic rights of religious freedom and other basic rights, like for example the equality of man and woman, the right for education or the right of public assembly", said ++Schick to the news magazine.
The news magazine had made the poll at the pollster TNS Emnid in contract, to select a sample of one thousand and one representative sample of adults. Consequently, sixty one percent were for a ban against full body covering in Germany. 36 Percent were against such a ruling, as the news magazine "Focus" reported. Party members of the CDU/CSU were 75 percent in favor and the FDP members were 73 percent for. The SPD-affiliated voters were 61 percent for, the Greens were 53 percent and the Left-voters were 45 percent for the measure.
Link to original...
Munich [kath.net/KAP] The Archbishop of Bamberg, Ludwig Schick, sees good grounds for a burka ban in Germany. The reason for this interview on "Focus" was related to the news magazine's recent published polls, which shows that 61 percent of Germans are for a burka ban. If it were legally punishable to wear a burka, this must be put in the balance "between the basic rights of religious freedom and other basic rights, like for example the equality of man and woman, the right for education or the right of public assembly", said ++Schick to the news magazine.
The news magazine had made the poll at the pollster TNS Emnid in contract, to select a sample of one thousand and one representative sample of adults. Consequently, sixty one percent were for a ban against full body covering in Germany. 36 Percent were against such a ruling, as the news magazine "Focus" reported. Party members of the CDU/CSU were 75 percent in favor and the FDP members were 73 percent for. The SPD-affiliated voters were 61 percent for, the Greens were 53 percent and the Left-voters were 45 percent for the measure.
Link to original...
Saint Paul Archdiocese's New CEO Gets Co-CEO
Sept. 11--The new CEO of Catholic Charities in the Twin Cities has an aggressive cancer that will limit his ability to lead the organization, the agency announced Friday.
Paul Martodam, 60, who began work Jan. 1, will be joined by Robert Spinner as co-CEO while the social service agency begins a national search for a replacement. Spinner is former president of Allina Health Systems and was interim CEO before Martodam was hired.
Martodam told the board and staff early last week that he has stage IV esophageal cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. The cancer was detected in mid-August, and he has begun radiation treatment, with chemotherapy to start soon, his family said in a CaringBridge website set up Aug. 27.
Read further...
Paul Martodam, 60, who began work Jan. 1, will be joined by Robert Spinner as co-CEO while the social service agency begins a national search for a replacement. Spinner is former president of Allina Health Systems and was interim CEO before Martodam was hired.
Martodam told the board and staff early last week that he has stage IV esophageal cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. The cancer was detected in mid-August, and he has begun radiation treatment, with chemotherapy to start soon, his family said in a CaringBridge website set up Aug. 27.
Read further...
Italian Priest Encourages Having Babies to Fight Islam
[NYDaily News] A prominent Catholic priest wants European Christians to fight off Islam with a unique weapon: babies.
Father Piero Gheddo, an Italian missionary priest, said Wednesday he believes a declining birth rate among Europeans combined with a rising tide of Muslim immigrants could mean that Islam will soon dominate Europe.
"Certainly from a demographic point of view, as it is clear to everyone that Italians are decreasing by 120,000 or 130,000 persons a year because of abortion and broken families; while among the more than 200,000 legal immigrants a year in Italy, more than half are Muslims and Muslim families, which have a much higher level of growth," he said, according to Rome's Catholic news service Zenit News Agency.
Read further...
Father Piero Gheddo, an Italian missionary priest, said Wednesday he believes a declining birth rate among Europeans combined with a rising tide of Muslim immigrants could mean that Islam will soon dominate Europe.
"Certainly from a demographic point of view, as it is clear to everyone that Italians are decreasing by 120,000 or 130,000 persons a year because of abortion and broken families; while among the more than 200,000 legal immigrants a year in Italy, more than half are Muslims and Muslim families, which have a much higher level of growth," he said, according to Rome's Catholic news service Zenit News Agency.
Read further...
Old Mass: New Swiss Archbishop Helps Out in Germany
The new generation of priests and young Catholics become independent of the decaying Old Liberal ideology.
[kreuz.net, Herzogenrath] Beginning this December in the City of Herzogenrath -- by Aachen in west Germany -- a Conference on the Liturgy will take place. This has been organized by the website Liturgische-Tagung.de. They give detailed information about the program and the background of the Conference.
The Congress will be carried by several Traditional Societies.
Among them are the 'Initiativekreise' of Cologne and Hamburg as well as the Lay Society, 'Una Voce'.
Other attendees are the 'Netzwerk katholiscer Priestr' [Network of Catholic Priests] and the youth movement 'Generation Benedikt'.
A highpoint of the Conference is a Pontifical Mass in the Old Rite with [newly appointed and beleaguered] Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur in Switzerland. It will take place on December 2nd at four o'clock.
A further Pontifical Mass in the Old Rite will be celebrated by Cologne will be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus, Klaus Dick, on the 4th of December at ten o'clock.
Top Participants
The lecturers in appearance are all highly esteemed professors.
Subregent Tomas Stübinger von Eichstätt will speak about the duties and responsibilities of the pastor in the clerical profession.
The Freiburg Liturgist, Deacon Helmut Hoping, will lecture about "the restoration of the understanding of the Eucharistic Celebration as Sacrifice of the Mass."
A special guest will be the famous Norwegian convert Erik Mørstad.
He will have an essay on the them of "High priest Melchizedech and the High Priest Jesus Christ -- the Mystery of the Victim in the common writings of the Old and New Testaments."
The Conservative Anglican Bishop of Fulham in Great Britain, John C. Broadhurst, speaks about the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' as "Way to Rome".
Also there will be a discussion round table with the Bishops of various Christian Confessions.
Further lecturers are also the German Philosopher Robert Spaemann, Father Sven Leo Conrad of the Society of St. Peter and the Dutch Canon Lawyer, Father Gero P. Weishaupt.
Link to original...
Anglican priests tell parishes they are taking path to Rome | CatholicHerald.co.uk
[Catholic Herald] Two traditionalist Anglican clerics have announced they are to be received into the Catholic Church.
Giles Pinnock, the vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin in Kenton, north London, told parishioners on Saturday that he was leaving the Church of England for the Catholic Church, while Robin Farrow told parishioners at St Peter’s in West Blatchington, East Sussex, in his Sunday homily that he was converting to Catholicism.
Fr Pinnock said: “The particular decision to leave this parish has been harder than the joyful decision to be received into the Catholic Church – although the two are of necessity connected, and as the Lord tells us in today’s Gospel, we must be willing to change fundamentally the context and the detail of our lives if we are truly to be His disciples.
Anglican priests tell parishes they are taking path to Rome | CatholicHerald.co.uk
Giles Pinnock, the vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin in Kenton, north London, told parishioners on Saturday that he was leaving the Church of England for the Catholic Church, while Robin Farrow told parishioners at St Peter’s in West Blatchington, East Sussex, in his Sunday homily that he was converting to Catholicism.
Fr Pinnock said: “The particular decision to leave this parish has been harder than the joyful decision to be received into the Catholic Church – although the two are of necessity connected, and as the Lord tells us in today’s Gospel, we must be willing to change fundamentally the context and the detail of our lives if we are truly to be His disciples.
Anglican priests tell parishes they are taking path to Rome | CatholicHerald.co.uk
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A Mother of Four Must Go to Jail For Non-Participation at School Event
The comments beneath this article point out that the treatment of non-Christians, such as Muslims, is unequal when it comes to similar objections from parents. Muslims who object to their daughters participating in school events like swimming and sex education are not held to the same rule of law as Christians.
Original kath.net, here...
Salzkotten [kath.net/idea] A Russian-German Christian must go to to jail, because she kept one of her children from a School event and had not paid the outstanding fee for it.
The mother of four children was brought from Salzkotten by Paderborn to the Bielfield Correctional Facility. They will remain five days in incarceration. One of her children did not participate in a theater even of the Catholic Liborius Grade School.This was, in any case, compulsory.
The parents founded their negative attitude toward the performance because of their beliefs. [The play apparently deals with sexual "enlightenment" or education] The participation is not compatible with her religious convictions. Already in a previous performance the parents had written the District Attorney's Office to explain their stance: The payment of a fee expected by you would challenge our personal convictions.
"For this reason our incarceration will not move us to pay a fee, of which we are, in so far as it applies to German law, not guilty." Most recently the cases where parents from the region have for reasons of avoiding school and non-payment of fees have been incarcerated have increased.
The effected children all go to the same school. First at the beginning of August a Father of twelve children was arrested for a total of forty days.
Original kath.net, here...
Friday, September 10, 2010
Public movement asks to crown the Kremlin Spasskaya Tower with double-headed eagle
Moscow, September 10, Interfax - Participants of the Vozvrascheniye (Return) public movement turned to the Russian President with the request to take away a five-point star from the Kremlin Spasskaya Tower and to set up a double-headed eagle there.
"We're convinced that now after returning an icon of the Savior, it is necessary to erect a double-headed eagle - state emblem of new Russia - to the Spasskaya Tower," activists said in their address conveyed to Interfax-Religion on Friday.
They remind that on October 24 it will be exactly 75 years since the day when a double-headed eagle was thrown down from the Spasskaya Tower where it had been located from mid 17th century.
Read further...
"We're convinced that now after returning an icon of the Savior, it is necessary to erect a double-headed eagle - state emblem of new Russia - to the Spasskaya Tower," activists said in their address conveyed to Interfax-Religion on Friday.
They remind that on October 24 it will be exactly 75 years since the day when a double-headed eagle was thrown down from the Spasskaya Tower where it had been located from mid 17th century.
Read further...
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Cardinal Nichols Has a Place You Can Go
Still more reason to suspect the motivation behind allowing the "Gay Mass". To be sure, after listening to these candid interviews of the "gays" attending this Liturgy, Arcibishop Nichols would probably be just as defensive of it. It looks a lot more like tacit approval and hypocrisy than it does, Christian Charity.
Active homosexuals in the video would be welcome in the Church of England or the Old Catholics. It's not clear why they don't find a home there, but as long as prelates like Cardinal Pell in Australia, indeed, prelates all over the world, accomondate this stuff, they're not doing much for their credibility.
Surely, no one is surprised that Cardinal Nichols has a "gay Mass".
Read further...
Active homosexuals in the video would be welcome in the Church of England or the Old Catholics. It's not clear why they don't find a home there, but as long as prelates like Cardinal Pell in Australia, indeed, prelates all over the world, accomondate this stuff, they're not doing much for their credibility.
Surely, no one is surprised that Cardinal Nichols has a "gay Mass".
[BBC]As Britain prepares for a visit from the Pope, there is opposition from some gay people who believe the Roman Catholic church is intolerant of their sexuality. But in one London church homosexuals are attending a "gay Mass" with the blessing of senior clergy
Paul Brown had not been to church since his mother's funeral in 2002. Now he is back in the pews, courtesy of a Mass for lesbian and gay Catholics which is the only one of its kind in the UK.
"I searched for a Mass with a positive message about things you should do, not someone telling me all the things I shouldn't do," he says.
Paul, who sports a black leather biker's jacket, is one of a number who have transformed the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in London's West End.
They sing hymns at the top of their voices. Many are aged under 30. Some have dyed hair. Suddenly, Catholicism seems be all the rage in this part of central London.
Read further...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
New Tradition-Friendly Bishop Reopens A Seminary Closed for 10 Years
[Paris] Msgr Marc Aillet, the current General Vicar of the traditional friendly French Diocese of Toulon, was made by Pope Benedict the Bishop of the Diocese of Bayonne. He is a member of St. Martins-Community founded by Cardinal Siri, in which the Holy Mass of Paul VI is celebrated in latin, versus Deum. The Bishop wrote an article about the use and meaning of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and endeavored to promote the Tridentine Mass also the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in his Diocese.
Even after the first two years in office, it was possible for him to re-open his Seminary which had been previously closed due to a lack of candidates which now has five candidates. The first seminarians of the re-opened seminary will begin their studies in the next few days. Other candidates will begin simultaneously the preparatory year of spiritual direction for priests, which was the tradition in seminaries.
On the official Internet site of the Diocese it says, that the education and instruction in a Seminary "the door is open to the great tradition of the Church through the discovery of the Second Vatican Council in conformity with a "hermeneutic of renewal in the continuity of the individual subject-Church", especially through a foundation of theological instruction and a real exploration of the treasures of the Roman Liturgy".
When the seminary was closed 10 years ago thanks to a shortage of candidates, the then rector spoke of a "chance", to force the Church, "to break new ground". "That would be precisely like, if a Company had regarded it as a chance, if upon inspecting his ledger discovered that he had to file bankruptcy," said Internet site Messa in Latino.
And still more: "With the change of Bishops the admission is renewed: "The progressives empty the seminaries, the Traditionalists are filling them. Both in relatively short time. All is not lost, when we are given good Bishops."
Translated original, here...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Lenin's monument presented to Ukrainian Greek-Catholics
Novosibirsk, September 1, Interfax - Uzhgorod City Council conveyed a monument to the October Revolution leader to a Greek-Catholic parish free of charge.
It will be recast and turned into a monument to Greek-Catholic bishop of the 18th century Andrey Bachinsky, who transferred diocesan residence and seminary to Uzhgorod and set up a big library there. His monument will be installed at Uzhgorod Cathedral Square, the Sibirskaya Katolicheskaya Gazeta (Siberian Catholic Paper) reported.
Earlier, the same incident took place in the town of Sambor, the Lvov Region. Statue of Mother Ukraine was made of Lenin's bronze figure. The new monument was set on the same base at the town ...
Link to original...Interfax
It will be recast and turned into a monument to Greek-Catholic bishop of the 18th century Andrey Bachinsky, who transferred diocesan residence and seminary to Uzhgorod and set up a big library there. His monument will be installed at Uzhgorod Cathedral Square, the Sibirskaya Katolicheskaya Gazeta (Siberian Catholic Paper) reported.
Earlier, the same incident took place in the town of Sambor, the Lvov Region. Statue of Mother Ukraine was made of Lenin's bronze figure. The new monument was set on the same base at the town ...
Link to original...Interfax
International Congress And Exposition of the Holy Shroud, Lima, Peru
(Lima, Peru) In the Capital of Lima there will be a Sindonological Congress on the Shroud of Turin, one of the most important relics in Christendom. The scholar participants are to present a series of new studies, with which they will prove the authenticity of the Relic as the burial shroud of Christ. The Congress was organized by the Study Center for Sindonology (Study of the Shroud of Turin) at Turin.
Bruno Barberis, director of the Turin Study Center explained, that researchers from the entire world are finding more and more evidence to support the authenticity of the burial cloth. There is probably about 1:1000, that it is a human body wounded inside the burial cloth, and that we're not dealing with Jesus of Nazareth.
The Congress worked in collaboration with the Centre of Catholic Studies in Lima and the Acción Universitaria of the University of Lima.
The Itlian researchers explained, that the Radiocarbon C-14 test of 1988 through was from damage, which the burial cloth had suffered in fire in 1534, which falsified and led to a "rejuvenation". The finding gave a period of existence between 1260 and 1390. With that, the Shroud was considered to be a medieval forgery. Up to this point, a forgery by a human agency has not been demonstrated.
"The fabric samples for the procedure of C14-analysis were culled both from dust and pollen infected places. In addition this sector is not representative of the entire shroud. There must be more tests of pieces taken from other sectors," said Barberis.
The Burial Shroud shows the full standing impression of a body about 1,75 Meters tall, bearded man with clear traces of torture. the wounding on his head, on hands and feet as well as the puncture wound near the heart describe the account of the Gospel about the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus of Nazareth. Meanwhile it remains generally recognized, that the illustration of the body can not have been painted by a human hand. The evidence of the man would point to the use of negative photography which hadn't been discovered till 1898.
The discovery of coin stampings from the 1st Century, aD antique coins put over the eyes of the man according to burial customs leaves scientists convinced, that the burial shroud is probably older, than what was indicated by the radio carbon analysis. The impressions formed of the coins on the impression have been identified as coins, which were minted under Pontius Pilate, at the time of the Roman Occupation of Judea and would fall at the time of Jesus' execution.
Israeli Researchers have discovered in 1999 by experiments on the burial shroud, 58 types of pollen and have also identified around 30 plant impressions, that are exclusively found in the Near East.
At the University of Lima a copy of the Shroud in its original size can be observed, which as part of an exhibit over the Shroud of Turin and the actual state of research. The original will be held in its original shrine in the Cathedral of Turin.
More information is available at www.sabanasanta.info.
The Original story is here....katolisches.net
John Paul II Earns Mention In Jewish Museum
By Hugh J. McNichol
BALTIMORE, Maryland, SEPT. 3, 2010 (Zenit.org).- An exhibit that opened this week at the Jewish Museum of Maryland explores the development of Pope John Paul II's personal, spiritual and pastoral link with the Jewish people, from his earliest boyhood experiences in Wadowice, Poland, until his final days as Pope.
The exhibition, titled “A Blessing to One Another,” invites visitors to experience the people, events and social influences that formed Karol Wojtyła's ideas and beliefs, which he ultimately shared with the world as John Paul II. The exhibit opened Thursday and continues through Dec. 26.
Cardinal William Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore, who has been involved with the project from its earliest days, emphasized to ZENIT that the exhibition is "a marvelous experience of the faith of both the Jewish and Catholic peoples. In the exhibit, one can truly experience John Paul’s closeness to the Jewish people as both brothers in our monotheistic faith and the first respondents to the Word of God."
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BALTIMORE, Maryland, SEPT. 3, 2010 (Zenit.org).- An exhibit that opened this week at the Jewish Museum of Maryland explores the development of Pope John Paul II's personal, spiritual and pastoral link with the Jewish people, from his earliest boyhood experiences in Wadowice, Poland, until his final days as Pope.
The exhibition, titled “A Blessing to One Another,” invites visitors to experience the people, events and social influences that formed Karol Wojtyła's ideas and beliefs, which he ultimately shared with the world as John Paul II. The exhibit opened Thursday and continues through Dec. 26.
Cardinal William Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore, who has been involved with the project from its earliest days, emphasized to ZENIT that the exhibition is "a marvelous experience of the faith of both the Jewish and Catholic peoples. In the exhibit, one can truly experience John Paul’s closeness to the Jewish people as both brothers in our monotheistic faith and the first respondents to the Word of God."
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GalliaWatch: "Allah Akbar" on the Lyons Cathedral!
A "conservative" Priest creates an interesting display.
GalliaWatch: "Allah Akbar" on the Lyons Cathedral!
GalliaWatch: "Allah Akbar" on the Lyons Cathedral!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Motu Proprio Coming? The News Is Not Official but Deserves Confirmation
Editor: This just in from Mr. Bruno Volpe, a very credible source indeed with some background. Obviously, considering the recent talks from Cardinal Koch, this may have difficulties, but this is the feast of St. Pius X and an opportune time for a leak of this kind of cautious good news.
Link to Bruno Volpe's site...
[Translation by Google Translate] Motu Proprio coming? The news is not official and deserves confirmation. The news is not official and deserves confirmation. In traditional talk of a motu proprio by Pope Benedict XVI would think to unlock the stalemate in talks with the doctrinal Society of Saint Pius X. In traditional talk of a motu proprio by Pope Benedict XVI Would think to unlock the stalemate in talks with the Society of Saint Pius X. doctrinal The solution could be the promulgation of a papal motu proprio that relieves the fraternity from an explicit acceptance of Vatican II and acceptance of new entry, with full restoration in communion with Rome. The Solution Could Be the promulgation of a papal motu proprio That Relieves the fraternity from an explicit acceptance of Vatican II and acceptance of new entry, with full restoration to communion with Rome. In return, the traditionalists should explicitly accept the Catechism of John Paul II in 1992 and this would be the greatest obstacle. In return, the traditionalists Should Explicitly accept the Catechism of John Paul II in 1992 and this Would be the greatest obstacle. Broad sectors within traditional feel with reason, this thoroughly modern catechism and contrary to orthodox Catholic values and therefore the negotiations could get stuck on that. Broad Sectors Within traditional feel, with reason, this Catechism and Thoroughly Modern Contrary to orthodox Catholic values and the Negotiations Therefore Could get stuck on that. We'll see, but by papal there will be decided, quite wisely, to unblock the situation of the traditionalists of the fraternity who have given so far shown great devotion to the Pope and the Catholic Church. We'll see, But There Will Be Decided by papal, quite wisely, to unblock the situation of the traditionalists of the fraternity Who Have Given So Far shown great devotion to the Pope and the Catholic Church.
Link to Bruno Volpe's site...
The Vatican Council and the 'Ratzinger Schülerkreis': Archbishop Koch Says Vatican II Magna Carta
Editor: The Magna Carta wasn't a positive thing. It was actually condemned by the Church, but before embarking on his attempts to explain the continuity of the past with the hope of the future in a more precise and definitive explanation of the Vatican Council 40 years later, it seems that the vision of this Pope will be upon reigning in the excesses of the Revolution and Reforming the Reform. The last two points of his second lecture were the most disturbing, referring to a liturgy of the religion of man (hints of Augustus Comte) and the last which implies Teilhardianism and all of that Cosmic Christ stuff.
Despite the current discussions between the Society of Pius X and Rome, it looks like for the foreseeable future, that Pope Benedict will stick to his Hermeneutic of Continuity. Does this mean that it is possible that the SSPX will be allowed to critique this point of view and still be fully reconciled?
It is encouraging that Archbishop Koch didn't stray from the course set for him by Pope Benedict. Unlike his predecessor, he doesn't appear to have an agenda all of his own making, he's Pope Benedict's man.
Accordingly, just now, we've discovered that Bruno Volpe has confirmed the Motu Proprio.
Link to original...
Despite the current discussions between the Society of Pius X and Rome, it looks like for the foreseeable future, that Pope Benedict will stick to his Hermeneutic of Continuity. Does this mean that it is possible that the SSPX will be allowed to critique this point of view and still be fully reconciled?
It is encouraging that Archbishop Koch didn't stray from the course set for him by Pope Benedict. Unlike his predecessor, he doesn't appear to have an agenda all of his own making, he's Pope Benedict's man.
Accordingly, just now, we've discovered that Bruno Volpe has confirmed the Motu Proprio.
The priority of the Hermeneutic of Continuity -- Archbishop Koch and his reflections in Castel Gandolfo -- by Dr. Armin Schibach/ Rome
Rome (kath.net/as) The current year's meeting of the "Ratzinger Schülerkreis'
" in Castel Gandolfo was a reflection over the Second Vatican Council and devoted to its interpretation. "True to Tradition, open to the future": with these words the main speaker, Archbishop Kurt Koch, began the meeting, that the "most correct interpretation of the Council as a whole, that even in the third century it remains "the Magna Carta of the Church".
According to the Vatican times "L'Osservatore Romano" (edition from the 1st of September 2010) the President of the Papal Council Promoting the Unity of Christian his impressions together with his summation. The Congress of the Schülerkreis with Pope Benedict XVI. he descried as a "concrete, lively and positive experience".
In his first speech Koch presented in a reflection on the manner of reading and interpretation of the Second Vatican council and relegated that to a priority for a "hermeneutic of continuity". This problematic is taken up then in a second lecture and developed further. Then Koch had above all enlarged upon the Constitution on Liturgy "Sacrosanctum Concilium", in order to show in a concrete way, how the Hermeneutic of Reform can be realized.
The Papal Advisor for the Promotion of Christian Unity worked at the order of the Pope.
Both lectures were then followed by an hour of discussion. Therefor, it became clear, for Archbishop Koch to further encompass the spiritual dimension of the Christan life in all of its aspects. The concrete character of the discussions were very useful for the work of each of the participants, which were affirmed by the warm words of the Pope, as Koch began on the 30th of August with a private audience: "We have spoken about my new ecumenical efforts, that the Papal Adviser for the Promotion of Christian Unity is no reality unto itself, rather a mission of the Pope's, in order to see, how dialogue can be developed for the future".
The meaning of the "Hermeneutic of the Reform"
In the center of the first lectures "stand the Second Vatican Council between Tradition and Renewal", so Koch proceeded. He put the themes in seven points: 1. A history of the reception and the erroneous reception; 2. Hermeneutic of the Reform in a fundamental continuity; 3. Break with Tradition of the Council; return to sources and "Aggiornamento"; [There's a debate between the ressourcement and more liberal exponents, neither of which are satisfactory from a Traditionalist POV] 4. Criteria of a Hermeneutic of the Reform (complete interpretation of the Council texts, unity of Dogmatic and Pastoral; no separation between "spirit and letter"); 5. Catholic breadth and fullness; 6. The heritage of the Council in relevant challenges; 7. Ecclesiastical Reform of the spiritual mission.
The Liturgy -- Center point of the Hermeneutic of the Council
The second lecture concentrated itself on the theme of the "post-Conciliar liturgical reform between continuity and discontinuity". As Archbishop Koch made clear, he explained them withal in eight individual themes. Flowing from the declaration, that the liturgy is the center of the Conciliar Hermeneutic, these are discussed in the following eight points: 1. Phenomenology and Theology of the Liturgy; 2. The Liturgy in its organic development (with the principle of "participatio actuosa" of all believers in the liturgy and with the principle of an easier comprehension and simplicity of the rites); 3. Light and shadows in the post-Conciliar liturgy; 4. The protection of the great heritage of the liturgy; 5 The necessary Reform of the Reform, which must be based on the primacy of Christology; 6 The unity of the New Testament culture and the New Testament liturgy; 7 The Christian liturgy and the religion of man [Religionen der Menschheit] 8. The Cosmic Dimension of the Liturgy.
The renewal of the Paschal Mystery is then the last topic, which was discussed before the final remarks on the object for consideration.
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