Vatican Excommunicates Patriotic Chinese Bishops

(Vatikan/Peking) At the request of numerous Chinese Faithful, and above all the Catholic underground Church, the Holy See has published a clarification that the unauthorized newly consecrated, regime-friendly Bishops of the People's Republic of China, as well as the Bishops who consecrated them, are excommunicated with all of the consequences that follow from that.

The explanation comes from the Papal Adviser for Legislative Texts.
The Holy See is pleading with the stricken Bishops:

-to make a public gesture of penitence

-that they do not celebrate Holy Mass or receive Holy Communion

-that they neither receive nor distribute the Sacraments

-that they give up the direction of their Dicoese.

These requirements are the "necessary medicine for healing", to make possible the resettling of the Catholic Church. After the receiving many uncustomary outcries, the Holy See has taken steps with this warning to clarify the confusing situation in the People's Republic of China. The Papal Adviser for Legislative Texts explained the reason for the proceedings as the illegal consecration by the Communist regime's Bishops without a Papal Mandate. Even though the punishment is affecting the relevant parties, there is still the possibility for the ecclesiastical punishments to be withdrawn and return to reconciliation with the Church.

The unauthorized consecrations occurred on 20. November 2010 in Chengde. The explanation was also urgent because of an announcement by the Communist Regime's willingness to conduct more unauthorized Episcopal Consecrations. The complete wording of the explanation was published in Osservatore Romano on the 11th of June 2011 some days before, after which the Chinese Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Msgr Xaver Hon had taken an adverse position to the Holy See and Peking intermixing authority in the Episcopal Consecrations. He encouraged Chinese Bishops to have no fear, that the government proposals will receive a firm rebuttal.

The Papal Adviser clearly explained that the unauthorized Consecration of Bishops, that is to say without the approval of the Pope, represents a profound violation of the Church's Law. It is a "punishable act against Catholic teaching". The Adviser cited as well the Second Vatican Council as well as other Documents, in which he recalled that also concern the question of the Eastern Churches.

The Declaration is in any case very clear that the punishable act will be directed against the consecrated Bishops as well as those who offered the consecration. All those named are fall under the condemnation latae sententiae. This doesn't impose an expressed condemnation at the end of a canonical procedure. The excommunication itself will have happened automatically according to itself.

It is expressly mentioned in the declaration that Church Law (Canon 1324, Paragraph 3) "ameliorates" the circumstances if known (excepting for compulsion, ignorance …). Should such be given, the excommunication will not be automatic. This part of the declaration falls above all upon the Bishops standing in unity with Rome, who have participated in the unauthorized consecrations. Accordingly there were reports surrounding the event, that at least some of them were ordered by the State Police or abducted to force their participation. For that reason the Holy See is allowing some room to allow those participating to make the "necessary penance" and take steps, to deport this outrage from the world.

Each, who falls under Excommunication, "must" refrain from the following things:

1) celebrating Holy Mass or concelebrating or participating in any other liturgical event;

2) giving or receiving the Sacraments and Sacramentals;

3) participating in various functions and tasks of Church direction.

In other words: the bishop who received the unauthorized consecration and the Bishops, who participated in the unauthorized consecration or were present, may neither celebrate Holy Mass, nor dispense Sacraments or receive the same. Additionally the Bishops concerned may not participate in the direction or administration Episcopal office in any way.

Should they do any of the following things, they commit a Sacrilege.

The declaration does not hesitate to make clear that the strictures and punishments are "medicine", part of a healing process of sorrow, penance and return and with that to encourage healing and reconciliation.

Translation from Katholisches...

Link to Asia News...

Western Mass Sacrilege Three Years Running in Vienna

Editor: Fr. Tony Faber, the one who helped Cardinal Schönborn bury a Communist homosexual in the Cathedral graveyard, is at it again. The up and running "Western Theme Mass" is apparently approved from HQ. He made the point that the Cardinal has approved this "Mass".

German Politician Criticizes Turkey's Treatment of Christian Minority

Religious freedom shouldn't just be on paper.

Konstanz (www.kath.net/ idea) The President of the CDU/CSU Factino in the Bundestag, Volker Kauder, effected a criticism of Turkey's relations with its christian minority. The recognition of the Turkish government, that all religions should have their place, must follow from deeds just as before, said Kauder to Konstanz's "Südkurier". According to his observations Turkey is continued unaltered a "politic of pulling Christian roots". Thus, there is no priestly formation allowed.

A one hundred year old Monastery like Mor Gabriel, the spiritual center of the Syriac-Orthodox Church in the area of Tur (Mountain of the Servant of God)in the Southeastern part of Turkey, is having its land put in dispute. "That doesn't work", says Kauder. Religious freedom shouldn't just be on paper. The politician continued that there are few lands in which Islam allows other religions to freely develop. The reason is that cultures imbued with Islam have no meaningful separation between religious community and the State.

The Power of Religion

As to the question why he is insisting on religious freedom, Kauder answered that a politician, for whom the Christian conception of man's image is a model, must involve the concern for human rights as well. As a Christian, says Kauder, he feels a special duty to stand by his fellow Christian brothers and sisters. He was shocked about reports of persecuted Christians who were put in stifling containers because of their faith.

At the same time he wonders at the courage of these people to sacrifice for their faith. As an example Kauder described the Catholic Bishop in the metropolis of Shanghai, Aloysius Jin. The over ninety year old Priest described his painful suffering during the Cultural Revolution's oppressive surveillance. Despite their power, the Chiense government fears the Pope in distant Rome. "That makes me conscious about what power religion can have", said Kauder.

Read original....

Cardinal Cushing Fostered Culture of Modernism

Camelot's Chaplain

Editor: Recently, Phil Lawler came to the fore with his discussion of how Cardinal Cushing originated a proto-exemplar of the seamless garment, which allowed the Kennedies to get votes for being Catholic while yet claiming to support all Americans.  We'd  first heard of this in an article by Dr. Thomas Drolesky, no longer available on Seattle Catholic, which described a radio interview where Cardinal Cushing recommended, when asked if he thought Catholic politians should oppose birth control legalization, that a Catholic politician had a duty to represent his constituency before being true to his Catholic principles.  Of course, this little conceit has been part of the Catholic political scene now for more than fifty years with catastrophic results. Of course, this isn't something that was conjured up out of the blue.  Many others have challenged the blustery Irish Prelate of Boston in the past.  Well, better late than never.  We hope that it begins to rehabilitate Father Leondard Feeney who suffered unjustly at the hands of this incredible chaplain to Camelot, and apologist for birth control.  Lawler's a come lately, but maybe one day he'll arrive to the harvest just in time to get a full day's pay?

The questionable film treatment of Otto Preminger's "The Cardinal" featured a questionable but accurate portrayal of the Civil Rights crusading, Americanist Prelate. 



H/t: Pewsitter.

Pope Declares the Need for Real Ecumenism

From Rorate: Glorious words of the Holy Father:

[T]he Church is Catholic from her first moment, her universality is not the fruit of the successive inclusion of various communities. From the first instant, in fact, the Holy Spirit created her as the Church of all peoples; she embraces the entire world, she transcends all limits of race, class, nation; she breaks down every obstacle and brings all men together in the profession of the One and Triune God. From the beginning, the Church is One, Catholic, and Apostolic: this is her true nature and as such it must be recognized. She is Holy, not thanks to the ability of her members, but because God Himself, with His Spirit, creates, purifies, and sanctifies her always.

Benedict XVI

Homily (Pentecost)

June 12, 2011

Conservative Anglican Bishops Weighing Against the Crashing Waves

Editor: To mix and match some metaphors, like King Canute,  a tiny band of Bishops are trying to shout against the crashing sea, or to right the sinking ship of the overwhelmingly trendy Anglican Communion in Canada. Isn't this like closing the gate after the cows have escaped? They should put a sign up on the chamber doors as you enter this viper brood,  "abandon all hope ye who enter".

Six conservative bishops have banded together in the hope of influencing the overwhelmingly liberal House of Bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The six have pledged to observe with “gracious restraint” the three-fold moratoria of the Windsor Report.

Although the six have been dubbed “gracious restraint bishops,” there is no official name for their association. Nor is it formally related with a similar American group, Communion Partners.
The group includes three relatively new bishops — the Rt. Revs. Stephen Andrews (Algoma), Michael Hawkins (Saskatchewan) and Fraser Lawton (Athabasca) — and three longtime bishops: William Anderson (Caledonia), Andrew Atagotaaluk (Arctic) and Larry Robertson (Yukon). At the April meeting of the House of Bishops they declared:

“We are pleased to announce the establishment of an association of bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada who are committed to a policy of ‘gracious restraint,’ embodied in observing the three-fold moratoria as enjoined by the Windsor Report. Between ourselves we agree to observe the discipline of the Windsor moratoria until such time as there is clarity in the Communion about the final status of the Anglican Covenant and our mutual obligations.”

Link to story, here...

Al Qaeda Urges Attacks Against "Zionist" Targets Like the Pope

Azzam al-Amriki

[kath.net, Vienna]The security measures for Pentecost were enormous.

There have been no comments from the Italian security authorities and also not from the Vatican about Islamic threats, where the Pope and Italy's Minister Silvio Berlusconi were identified as "easy targets to hit".

In a video message about the political security, the internet site "Stratfor" said on Saturday, that attacks against politicians, business leaders and media representatives who are controlled "by the Zionists".  So, one can strengthen the will of those people who fight for Islam, said the US-American Al Kaeda speaker Azzam al-Amriki. The attacks on such targets would not be difficult, as the most recent examples of the Pope and Berlusconi show.

Al Qaeda said in a video that western leaders are easy targets citing as examples Berlusconi and Pope Benedict XVI. In a 100-minute long video circulated on June 2 by the Al Qaeda media arm “As Sahab”, western leaders are described as easy targets, as they are less difficult to hit. The video message cites, as examples, Pope Benedict XVI, who was knocked down by a Swiss woman during the 2009 Christmas mass and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who suffered face injuries when attacked by Massimo Tartaglia in Milan on December 13 2009

From the blog, Tea and Politics.

Pope Erects Eparchy for Catholics in Exile From Iraq

Editor: this community is growing because the one in Iraq is being brutally destroyed.

Pope erects Chaldean eparchy in Toronto; Archbishop Zora to lead it

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has erected a new Chaldean Catholic eparchy in Toronto and named Archbishop Hanna Zora, who has worked with Catholics in Toronto for nearly 20 years, as its head. The new eparchy, or diocese, will be known as the Eparchy of Mar Addai. In making the announcement, the Vatican said there are 38,000 Chaldean Catholics in Canada. Archbishop Zora, 74, and four priests have been involved in the pastoral care of Toronto-area Catholics, the largest community. On May 28, Chaldean Catholic officials consecrated Good Shepherd Chaldean Church in Toronto. Led by Archbishop Zora, the growing Toronto Chaldean community rented out churches and parish halls to celebrate Mass before the construction of the church in 2001. Masses were held in the parish hall, however, until 2009, when the church was partially consecrated, meaning that Mass could be celebrated in the parish but that an official consecration was still required. Archbishop Zora was born in Batnaia, Iraq, March 15, 1939. He was ordained in 1962 and worked in various Iraqi parishes before being transferred to Iran in 1969.

Link to CNS.

Church of Scotland Continues to Disintegrate and Cooperates Evils of the World

Editor: The Church of Scotland began its downward spiral when it separated from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Revolt. The only place which a congregation of orthodox Christians may meet in unity with other Christians is in the Church of Rome. Strange to say, despite having some of the worst Bishops in the world, Scotland's Catholic Church is now larger than the increasingly moribund Presbyterians. This from Virtue Online:


CHURCH OF SCOTLAND TIGHTENS NOOSE AROUND ITS OWN NECK

by Julian Mann
Special to Virtueonline
June 13, 2011

St George's Tron in Glasgow is a thriving Church of Scotland congregation. It is financially viable, it has young people and it is serving its local community. It is also a church where anyone struggling with homosexual issues would find love, understanding and biblical clarity.

Like the Church of England, its sister church by law established, the Church of Scotland is an aging denomination facing financial and numerical meltdown. In a recent article in the Church of England Newspaper, church statistician Dr Peter Brierley predicted that the Church of Scotland will have halved in numbers by 2015 to 280,000 members, down from 560,000 in 2005.

St George's Tron is bucking the trend. But the decision by the Church of Scotland General Assembly to endorse same-sex relationships, contrary to what St George's believes is the clear teaching of the Holy Scripture, has severely alienated this vibrant church.

Link to original...

"Pride" March in Croatia Put to a Halt by Locals

Editor: A mere 200 showed up, many from out of Croatia, to promote evil. Croatian politicians have shown themselves to be especially cowardly in the wake of Croatia joining the EU. Perhaps EU membership is something Croatia should not have entertained?

While Green Party leader, Aljoša Babic, blames Catholic priests and the Pope's visit on the Croatian people's reaction against a parade of degenerates marching through their city, local news is quick to repeat the Communist slur against Croatia's Blessed Aloysius Stepanic:

[The New Civil Rights MovementLink] Croatia, a deeply devout Roman Catholic country has historically had a nearly symbiotic relationship with with the Church that dates back to its darkest chapter during World War II while under occupation by the German Third Reich. Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, a known collaborator and supporter of the “Ustashe,” a Croatian nationalist movement that served as brutal proxies for the Nazis. Despite his conviction for war crimes in 1946, Stepanac [sic] was beatified by Pope John Paul II, putting him on th p ath to “sainthood” (more on the Ustashe later)

Locals Turned on Marxist Imports

They came to provoke an entire city with their shameless moral depravity. Actually, the locals didn't afford them the opportunity.

[kreuz, Split] Split is a 220,000 population port city in the south of Croatia.

It is supposedly the first march of some 200 leftist homosexually disturbed in the Adriatic city.

Actually, angered citizens put a quick end to the shameless attempt of the sodomites.

The homosexual disorder leads, as is well known, to serious physical and spiritual danger.

 Persons with a homosexual disorder are inclined to violence and alcoholism.

The police had to keep the locals at pay with barriers and tear gas.

About 130 persons who heroically stood up against the homosexual depravity were subsequently arrested by the police.

The scandal: The police knew of the democratic measures of the locals against the leftist interlopers.

Never the less the criminal march was approved.

The police even trained for three months to prepare for the neo-fascist event.

Link to Kreuz...

68ers Aren't Going Quietly, They're Cranking it up

Editor: these denizens of plasticine culture brought to you by the stupid sixties laughed at everyone who fought Communism, defended the good values of hearth and home. Now they are old and laughable, but they still despise the things they despised as children, and they haven't grown a bit. Thankfully, their children think as much of their cockeyed religious sentiments as they thought of their parents' sensible ones. Unfortunately, their children will probably treat them worse than they treated their parents; aww, payback's rough.

More sympathy for the devil is coming from various parts, but that's no big thing. Father Z's depiction of these miscreants is actually pretty funny. These Sixty Eighters can't go away fast enough. Who will clean up after them when they've gone? There's a lot of bad art, irremedially uglified and ugly churches, twister games and self-help manuals to hurl into a dumpster after the last of them finally goes to their reward.

Dali Lama Admits He's a Marxist

Usually what we hear from the Dalai Lama is an insistant yet soothing voice for compassion and peace.
So Tsering Namgyal, a journalist based in Minneapolis, was jolted by the Dalai Lama's talk to 150 Chinese students this month at the University of Minnesota. Writing at Religion Dispatches, he says:

Midway through the conversation, His Holiness, much to their surprise, told them "as far as socio-political beliefs are concerned, I consider myself a Marxist ... But not a Leninist," he clarified.

After all, China is constantly pressing to legitimize its takeover of Tibet in world opinion. Meanwhile, the Buddhist spiritual leader is the global symbol of Tibetan opposition and what the opposition considers the obliteration of its independence and religious culture.


Read further, here...

Marriage Defender Hit in Head by Bottle: TFP in Action

"These bully tactics do not even slightly dampen my resolve to continue
promoting the truth about marriage in charity," said TFP volunteer Michael
Shibler.

BY Rebecca Millette

FAIRPORT, New York, June 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Volunteers with the
American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)
were attacked while peacefully demonstrating in support for marriage in
Fairport, New York, on June 2. 

Watch a video of the attack here. PHONE NUMBER POSTED ON YOUTUBE SITE IN
COMMENTS

The group was peacefully holding signs in support of marriage and
distributing flyers titled “10 Reasons Why Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Is
Harmful and Must Be Opposed.” The pamphlet calls on New Yorkers to firmly
and peacefully resist the advance of the gay rights movement.

Young demonstrators were approached by a pro-homosexual man who knocked down
and tore to pieces the group’s thirteen foot long banner, inscribed with
the words “God’s Marriage = 1 Man & 1 Woman.” 

Immediately afterward, the man threatened to destroy the group’s camera.
“I’ll smash your camera,” he said. 

Approaching another TFP volunteer who was holding a sign that read “Honk
for Traditional Marriage,” the man said: “Are you going to give me your
sign, or do I need to rip it up too!?”

During the same demonstration, a passerby in a moving vehicle threw a beer
bottle at TFP volunteer Michael Shibler. The glass bottle hit him on the
forehead, causing it to swell and bleed. Local police are investigating both
incidents.

“These bully tactics do not even slightly dampen my resolve to continue
promoting the truth about marriage in charity. Our cause is noble and we
will win,” said Shibler. 

“Some say that same-sex ‘marriage’ doesn’t harm or affect anybody.
Well, I think my throbbing forehead is a good example of how it does harm
people. Anti-family proponents would like to completely silence my first
amendment right to free speech,” he said. “While demanding tolerance for
what they call ‘diversity,’ they are utterly intolerant of opposing
viewpoints.”

TFP is a Catholic organization rooted in a mission to fighting what they
call the “Culture War” in the front lines, by peacefully defending the
values of tradition, family and private ownership. 

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/traditional-marriage-supporter-hit-on-head-with-beer-bott
le-banner-ripped-t/

SSPX May Receive Recognition from Rome This Month

Editor: Rorate reporting in from Messa in Latino.

H/t AQ.

Film Review: The Tree of Life

Every once in a while, you see a film which is dynamic, powerful, deep and mysterious, so deep in fact, that it fills you with wonder and hope.  If you are patient and prayerful, you don't need a film to understand this, but here's a film which communicates these things and shows an unbelieving world how to pray. As one reviewer puts it, it's the Alpha and the Omega of films.  A testimony to its power, its grace is this review from the Village Voice  This film is so great that people will be talking about it for decades.  It will be far more transformative and influential than Kubrik's Space Odyssey.

[Boxoffice] Free flowing detours into the characters' thoughts, dreams and fantasies, including a prolonged sequence detailing the creation of the universe and earth (complete with Jurassic Park-style dinosaurs) leave no question as to the presence of a central mover whose omnipresent hand guides the actions of all things living and inanimate. More subtle is the film's stylistic bifurcation—surreal, dreamlike sound design and a camera that never stops moving except to call attention to things small and beautiful, and even then only from a vantage no human could hope to share. From a purely technical standpoint, it makes for one of the most audacious aural and visual works of the last half-century, boasting Oscar-caliber work not only from previous collaborators like cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Jack Fisk, but from a virtual army of sound and picture editors whose work here is stunning.

Editor:  The film is a powerful religious allegory, and it's overtly about a troubled family living in the mid-to-late Twentieth Century in the Southern United States with faint hints of the coming social upheaval resolving in very cold and dystopic future.  The tension resolves between the stern father and the whimsical mother as the son and his brothers are growing to manhood and struggling with their Catholic faith. It also is about the eldest son's attempt, played by Sean Penn,  to ask forgiveness, reconcile with his father and grieve for the death of his brother whose death has haunted him, "every day".  Moreover, his greatest desire is to reconcile with God, as he laments. The halting and uncomfortable phone conversation shows Penn's virtuosity as an actor as you are drawn into the story of a man who wants to reconcile the horrors of life, death, his anger at his father, his love for his mother and brother, and the inexorable branches of creation on the tree of life.  It is at this point that the film effortlessly, as if the priest were to finish the Confiteor, where he pronounces his unworthiness before God and man, cotinues with the Gloria, and we are in the springtime of the Penn's childhood, his parent's love for one another, conception, birth and idyllic childhood full of Joy.

Ultimately, this film is about God's love for his children.  One reviewer even suggests it's God's apology for Himself to mankind.   For behind and beyond the scenes of creation depicting scattering stars, the cooling of the primordial earth  and  a masterful cinematic narration of the birth of life which opens a rhythmic movement of powerful forces and terrible forces, as if the act of planting the seed of creation, in the big ban, is like a flower exploding and downy pollen floating through space like a majestic unfurling of unimaginable glory, there is an explanation. Interestingly, like God, the family father is a musician.  This sound track is amazing. No small wonder then that it was booed and cheered at Cannes and other places where it's played.  Despite this, the film has had very strong reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.  As opposed to a science film-strip vision of a cold and Godless universe, we are presented a vision that is Liturgical as the film's music featuring Mozart's Requiem, Transcendent, the patterns depicting creation, life and death are like shadows and miraculous manifestations.  Most importantly, the film is Sacramental, the waters representing purification, healing, the tree reconciliation, all knowledge and the great orb of the sun calling to man's mind the Eucharistic species, burning as if from a monstrance.  The unmistakeable and recurring symbol is the circle as seedling, conception, birth and death, not only as a source of life and hope, but a striking symbol of the Eucharist.  In this sense, the film perfectly captures the symbolic and sacramental nature of creation where God uses signs and wonders, even of a natural kind, to communicate Himself to man, and even as Penn's character as a child repeats his lamentation as if before the throne of God, yet behind a shroud of mystery, almost lost from all hope. but still reaching like St. John of the Cross of St Teresa of Avila,  yearning for understanding the grown man feels that sorrow which Christ once felt in the Garden. This terrible beginning  takes place amid the sadness of personal loss and is symbolized by the main character's  reminiscing on a tree below which becomes a meditation on life and death, hence the beginning of the allegory which arises from the opening citation from Job and a meditation on the tree of life:

"[Wisdom] is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that holdest her fast." (Proverbs 3:13-18)

This director, Terrence Malick, an Assyrian Christian,  is coming from the "Thin Red Line" and as many commentators are quick to point out, owes much to the work of Stanley Kubrik's darkly existential Space Odyssey.  Most critics have made this observation, and surprisingly have failed to see similarities in the lyric and powerful work of Andrei Takarovsky, who also deals with themes of God's manifestation, reconciliation between father and son, and man and creator.  Many Orthodox Christians and Catholics will sense the great Russian spirit in the natural scenes and the polyphony, will feel the charity of God drawing him to a sacramental plane. Here the film even employs the same images of water and underwater fronds waving mysteriously, hypnotically back and forth to the haunting funereal polyphony to create dappled landscapes evoking the scriptures, the mystery of the Divine Liturgy and the Love of God.  Not surprisingly, Mel Gibson had a part in the production of the film which was withdrawn before the project could be complete, but his mark is unmistakeable.

The film begins with the death of the nineteen year old son and the grief of the family and the eldest son played, amazingly, by the older Sean Penn who reflects on the death of his brother in the back ground of a dystopic and cold modernity.  The film effectively interjects phrases from Mozart's Requiem with subtle phrases from Lacrymosa as the child's voice asks God, "where were you".

While the beginning of the film does not try to obscure the unease those who believe in God must have at the suggestion of the size of the cosmos and the depths of time, and the brutality of the natural world as animals attack one another, you can not but feel empathy for even the dinosaurs from the pre-historical treatment of the film, for as one reviewer says of the film, there's a trace  of Grace in the brute force of nature.  Even creation itself has a capacity for purification and holiness.


You won't come from this film feeling like you'd received a death sentence from your Doctor.  You'll come from this film wanting to love your neighbor, those closest to you, especially your enemies who are, after all, more like yourself than you might wish to admit.

Not to spoil the ending but the film ends like Mozart's Requiem Mass, both thematically and musically.

Jesuit Says Western Women Make Terrible Wives

Editor: this is from a Catholic blogger writing about the phenomenon of being single.  She describes an Asian Jesuit who tells her something which takes her aback.

Yes, I'm Entitled

I mentioned on Facebook that I was enjoying Eat, Pray, Love and was staggered by the negative response. Okay, Eat, Pray, Love is not a Catholic book. It even takes three or four swipes at Catholicism. The third section, which I hadn't got to yet, is pornographic. But the passion of the response shocked me. I mean, it's just Elizabeth Gilbert's memoirs. So she sold 5 million copies. I'm envious, too, but not angry about it.*

The most surprising comment came from an American man, a Chinese-American man.

"Fitting for an American princess," he wrote

 Link here...

Bruised for Our Iniquities

Versailles 27 March 1785 – Paris 8 June 1795

"Theologian" Lies About Her Work to Bishops

Editor:  Of course Cardinal Wuerl's all-too mild admonitions of this Nun are accurate.  These power junkies will do anything to maintain their merciless Old Liberal grip on Catholic children and students.

Here's some more back ground on her deeds from Father Z.  And here's another link that will defend her from America.  And finally, here's where the Bishops are urging Catholic schools not to carry her perfidious books from Huffington Post.
By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Fordham University systematic theology professor Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson defended her 2007 book that recently came under harsh criticism from the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine, restating concerns that her work was "thoroughly misunderstood and consistently misrepresented" by the committee.

Her vigorous defense of "Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God" came in a 38-page letter June 1 to committee members, reported National Catholic Reporter. The newspaper said it received a copy of her correspondence from a source not affiliated with the university.

Capuchin Franciscan Father Thomas Weinandy, executive director of the Secretariat for Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service June 8 the doctrine committee was expected to discuss Sister Elizabeth's response when the bishops meet June 15-17 near Seattle in Bellevue, Wash.

Link to Catholic Snooze Service...

The Fountainhead of Satanism

Editor: the road of Libertarianism leads to Rainbow Ronism.

Jun 8, 2011

Joe Carter

Over the past few years, Anton LaVey and his book The Satanic Bible has grown increasingly popular, selling thousands of new copies. His impact has been especially pronounced in our nation’s capital. One U.S. senator has publicly confessed to being a fan of the The Satanic Bible while another calls it his “foundation book.” On the other side of Congress, a representative speaks highly of LaVey and recommends that his staffers read the book.

A leading radio host called LaVey “brilliant” and quotations from the The Satanic Bible can be glimpsed on placards at political rallies. More recently, a respected theologian dared to criticize the founder of the Church of Satan in the pages of a religious and cultural journal and was roundly criticized by dozens of fellow Christians.

Surprisingly little concern, much less outrage, has erupted over this phenomenon. Shouldn’t we be appalled by the ascendancy of this evangelist of anti-Christian philosophy? Shouldn’t we all—especially we Christians—be mobilizing to counter the malevolent force of this man on our culture and politics?

 Link to "First Things"...

Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin Signs off on Same-Sex "Unions"

Editor: Does this mean that more Episcopalians are going to flee this sinking scow and climb aboard the Barque of St. Peter?

[CVBT] “Sacred unions,” such as those between couples of the same sex, will now be able to get the blessing of the Episcopal Church in the Central Valley.

Clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin have been authorized by The Rt. Rev. Chester Talton, bishop of the diocese, to perform blessings of same sex civil marriages, domestic partnerships, and relationships that are lifelong committed relationships as of Sunday, June 12.

The unions need to be “characterized by ‘fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God,'" he says in a letter to clergy.

Link to original..here.

“More likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors”

Editor: Understatement of the decade.  Self-described homosexuals have sure done a number on the Catholic Church.  Let's see what they can do for other sectors of society.

Greater chance homosexual and bisexual students will participate in risky activities, CDC study finds

News release by Centers for Disease Control
June 6, 2011

Students who report being gay, lesbian or bisexual and students who report having sexual contact only with persons of the same sex or both sexes are more likely than heterosexual students and students who report having sexual contact only with the opposite sex to engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual risk behaviors, suicidal behaviors, and violence, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This report should be a wake-up call for families, schools and communities that we need to do a much better job of supporting these young people. Any effort to promote adolescent health and safety must take into account the additional stressors these youth experience because of their sexual orientation, such as stigma, discrimination, and victimization," said Howell Wechsler, Ed.D, M.P.H, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH). "We are very concerned that these students face such dramatic disparities for so many different health risks."

This report represents the first time that the federal government has conducted an analysis of this...


Read further, at California Catholic Daily...

Another Abbot From Modernist Monastery Accused of Homosexual Predation

Scum Floats to the Top Here

Editor: [Collegeville] Back up at the GM of Catholic Education, more paint is falling from the mask that hides the evil of the Modernist Abbey that has dared to call itself Catholic for more than fifty years. Today, it's nothing more than a getaway for a large population of bachelor social workers who like to go antiquing and enjoy what Downtown Minneapolis has to offer. This fish has been dead at the head for along time. These Marxist and Modernist implants have been doing a lot of damage. They've destroyed the architectural integrity of the Romanesque Architecture of the Abbey, kept vandals posing as artists working for years, produced ugly music, destroyed their philosophy program and turned out over three generations of what Collegeville's own Father Virgil Micheal once called, ironically, "moral parasites". What more proof do you need? In the past, one of the homosexual enabler Abbot Kelly's predecessors was a vicious predator who "inspected" his Novices in the nude before he took advantage of them. Now it's the late Abbot Timothy Kelly  being accused of abuse by one of his former altar boys.

Just keep moving folks, nothing going on here, just a bunch of modernists who feed off of donations based on old time hucksterism. This is like one of those strange films where you find out that respected authority figures and even friends are in on it.  One of the Monks, Patrick Wall, surprisingly and gratefully, admits that Kelly was not receptive to the victims; no small wonder.

Since June 22, 2001, Abbot Kelly serves as the President of the American-Cassinese Congregation, a federation of twenty Benedictine monasteries.

He passed away last year on October 7th, but here is a rundown of his "career". 

Is it any wonder why no one wants to join Modernist Benedictines or why their houses are dying?  All the government funding and free advertising couldn't put this Humpty Dumpty together again.  No one wants that kind of cold sterile life, as cold and sterile as the sci-fi monstrosity of their Abbey Church.

Link to Pine Curtain...

Only Beauty Will Save Us

[Chiesa] ROME, June 6, 2011 – This July, Benedict XVI will again meet with artists, a few hundred of them from all over the world, less than two years after the previous encounter in the Sistine Chapel (see photo).

That art, together with the saints and before reason, is "the greatest apologia for the Christian faith" is a thesis that Benedict XVI has supported on a number of occasions.

For him, beauty is "the most attractive and fascinating way to come to encounter and love God."

Read further, here...

H/t: Stella Borealis

Homosexual Irish Presidential Hopeful Promotes Pederasty

Editor:  After saying that a distinction should be drawn between pederasty and pedophilia, the older homosexual frontrunner for Irish president, David Norris, said that he could see an older, more mature man lovingly guiding a young man in the things of the world. 

On the one hand, you have tacit or explicit, in the case of the aspirant president here, for pederasty, that is, homosexual activity between two males where one is older and presumably mature while the other is younger and legally minor, and on the other hand, you have the same people in different contexts and discussions decrying alleged abuses in the Catholic Church. Pederasty and homosexuality go hand in hand and it's how a lot of homosexuals were confused about the issue themselves as boys. What you have here is an increasingly mainstream politician attempting to legitimize deviant behavior that often involves children and adolescents.

Surely, it's not just Hilary White at LifeSiteNews.com who sees the obvious hypocrisy?

But it's not just in radical circles where this sort of thing is being promoted, it's in the Democratic National Committee in the USA and other progressive parties -- are there any other-- in Europe at large, there sinister voices gathering who are advocating the lowering of the age of consent and the decriminalizing of sexual contact between adults and children or adolescents, like Germany's Green Party, for example.

Milan Gets New Archbishop -- Cathedra of St. Ambrose

Editor: There will be no decision till the end of June, probably.  This was originally predicted from a report by 'Il Giorno' at kreuz.net.  The favorite candidate might be refusing this honor, but the Holy Father may want him in this position very badly. At least the favorite is a friend of Tradition.



(Mailand)For more than a year the naming of the expected Archbishop of Milan has been expected.  This holds not only for Italy, but throughout the world.  The Archbishopric of Milan is the largest Diocese in the World.  The Cathedra which was that of the Church Father St. Ambrose, has brought several Popes in the Twentieth Century.  Because of the Ambrosian Rite, still in use in the north Italian metropolis, it gives the Archdiocese a special position in the Church.

Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice is the Favorite

The serving Archbishop Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi since 2002, has already passed the age limit two years ago.  Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Cardinal to remain in office.  Since then, the successor carousel has turned.  At the same time two Cardinals are held as favorites for the prestigious See: Cardinal Angelo Scola,  born 1941, the Patriarch of Venice with a very strong relationship with Pope Benedict XVI.  Scola is closely associated with the society of Communion and Liberation (CL) founded by Father Giussiani. He immediately put the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum in effect by establishing it at a church near the Grand Canal, which was entrusted to the Society of St. Peter.  In the past year the Cardinal celebrated Holy Mass in the Old Rite himself during his visit to the church.

Cardinal Gianfraco Ravasi, born 1942.  He's been an Exegete since 2007 of the Papal Council of Rites and since 2010 a Cardinal, and was himself brought into play as successor in Milan.  Both come from Lombardy and the names of both were part of a fiver-proposal sent to the Nuncio for Italy this Spring and submitted to the Holy See.

What is remaining are three names proposed.  One such is included by the Pope with the same or other names.  He can select from them, but also may chose not to.  In the proposal of three, which is only presented to the Congregation of Bishops, is missing Cardinal Ravasi.  Although in Milan the Corriere della Sera is last but not least, advocated for Msgr Ravasi, his naming is becoming more increasingly unlikely, the more it becomes evident that the Pope does not seem to show himself ready to build a balanced Roman curia.

The Diocese of Several Popes

 The Episcopal Congregation has put forth the names of three qualified candidates: in the first place is Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Vencice, follwed by Msgr Francesco Lambiasi, Bishop of Rimni and Msgr Aldo Giordano, standing observer of the Holy See in the Council of Europe.  On Thursday 9 June the Congregation of Bishops will evaluate the three remaining proposed three and make a recommendation to the Pope.

Msgr Giuseppe Bertello, the Apostolic Nuncio for Italy directed three different interviews, with which he received the opinions of Bishops, Priests and Laity from Milan and Lombardy.  At the last inquiry in the past weeks were effecting the aforementioned fiver proposal, which included Cardinal Ravasi and Msgr Pietro Parolin, Apostolic Nuncio for Venezuela.  The last mentioned appear in any case, will not appear in the three proposed which the Congregation will evaluate.

According to canon law there is nothing that says the Pope is bound in his decision.  Even the Congregation can propose other names to the Pope. Recently in the last days there were even new members named to the Congregation, which might set a different accent. These are Cardinal Mauro Piacenza and the emeritus Bishop Lorenzo Chiarinelli.

Cardinal Scola is therefore the favorite for the Diocese of St. Ambrose. Before his appointment the Patriarchate of Venice he was Bishop of Grosseto, Rector of the Lateran University and the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's valued collaborator in the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.

Bishop Lambiasi has been the spiritual assistant of Catholic Action Italy.  Msgr Giordano, who is still not a Bishop, belongs to the Papal Diplomatic Staff.  he has already been on a three list last year for the Archdiocese of Turin.  At that time the Pope decided finally for the Bishop of Vicenza Msgr Cesare Nosiglia.

We won't know Till the End of June Who +Tettamanzi's Successor Will be

This is the first time in a century that the naming of a new Archdiocese of MIlan, one of the most important Diocese of the world, has gone according to orderly election process in place for most of the other Diocese. At the last a naming  will always happen  directly through the Pope without the intercession of the Congregation of Bishops and their procedures.

On the 9th of June the last evaluation of the candidates will take place.  A few days later Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, will submit a recommendation to  Pope Benedict XVI.  The name of the new Archbishop of Milan will be be made foreseeably known at the end of the month.

(Sacri Palazzi/Giuseppe Nardi, Bild: Sacri Palazzi)

Link to original...

In Croatia, pope to pray at the tomb of martyred Cardinal Stepinac

Editor: There is a Marxist professor out there who claims to know that Blessed Aloysius Stepanic was a Nazi collaborator, repeating the Marxist propaganda he absorbed when he went to Yugoslavia as a boy.  First of all, comparing someone to Nazis is a really tired old slur.  Who knows what kinds of compromising interrelations went on there, but it's a strong indicator of one's political affiliations, especially Marxist ones, when they repeat certain lies.   




In Croatia, pope to pray at the tomb of martyred Cardinal Stepinac

H/t: Pewsitter

Jealousy

Editor: Some people complain needlessly about another's morally indifferent actions, assuming upon themselves a raiment of judge, in some respects laughably committing the same crimes they've accused others of doing.

So, I heard you're a little bit Rock N' Roll.

[New Advent] Jealousy is here taken to be synonymous with envy. It is defined to be a sorrow which one entertains at another's well-being because of a view that one's own excellence is in consequence lessened. Its distinctive malice comes from the opposition it implies to the supreme virtue of charity. The law of love constrains us to rejoice rather than to be distressed at the good fortune of our neighbour. Besides, such an attitude is a direct contradiction of the spirit of solidarity which ought to characterize the human race and, especially, the members of the Christian community. The envious man tortures himself without cause, morbidly holding as he does, the success of another to constitute an evil for himself. The sin, in so far as it defies the great precept of charity, is in general grievous, although on account of the trifling matter involved, as well as because of the lack of deliberation, it is often reputed to be venial. Jealousy is most evil when one repines at another's spiritual good. It is then said to be a sin against the Holy Ghost. It is likewise called a capital sin because of the other vices it begets. Among its progeny St. Thomas (II-II:36) enumerates hatred, detraction, rejoicing over the misfortunes of one's fellow, and whispering. Regret at another's success is not always jealousy. The motive has to be scrutinized. If, for instance, I feel sorrow at the news of another's promotion or rise to wealth, either because I know that he does not deserve his accession of good fortune, or because I have founded reason to fear he will use it to injure me or others, my attitude, provided that there is no excess in my sentiment, is entirely rational. Then, too, it may happen that I do not, properly speaking, begrudge my neighbour his happier condition, but simply am grieved that I have not imitated him. Thus if the subject-matter be praiseworthy, I shall be not jealous but rather laudably emulous.

Original link for photo...

Church Latin Was Never the Everyday Language of the People

Editor: If you're queezy about the tone of the article from the Kreuz.net, just look at the arguments and conclusions from Father Lang. He's right you know.

At Least the New Massbook will Orient Itself on the Sacral Latin Language

The backwoods Council discovered the national languages exactly at the moment, when these were increasingly losing their significance after the end of Nationalism and National Socialism.

(kreuz.net, Vatikan) In every form of religion there is a sacral language -- Sanskrit in Hinduism, Pali in Buddhism or Koran-Arabic in Islam.

This was explained by German Oratorian, Father Uwe Michael Lang, this 30. May on the neo-Conservative snooze site, 'Zenit'.

Father Lang is a collaborator of the Roman Liturgical Congregation.

There are No Stable People's Languages

In Christian services there were -- says Father Lang -- in the course of history a variety of languages in use:

-Greek in the Byzantine Tradition,

-The language of the old oriental like Syriach, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic and Ethiopian,

-Church Slavonic.

-Ltain of the Roman and successors in the Western Rites.

Father Lang stresses that the increasingly stylized forms of speech were established. They differ from the common language:

"Often this division follows a linguistic development in the common language, which does not occur in the Liturgical language because of its sacred character."

Church Latin has been from start to finish -- probably also because of its regression to older Latin speech forms -- differentiated from daily Latin speech.

The Romans did not speak in the style of the canons or the Mass prayers -- Father Long stresses:

"As soon as Greek was displaced in the Roman Liturgy by Latin, a significantly stylized language was used, which serve in the service and which would have been very difficult for the average late antique Christian in Rome to understand."

Father Lang also pointed out that the Latin Liturgy would not have been understood by the Catholic Goths, Celts, Iberians and Punic peoples:

"All the same -- thanks to the foresight of the Church of rome and the unifying power of the Papacy -- Latin was the only Liturgical Language of Christendom, and consequently the foundation of Western culture."


The Council Fathers Limped Behind the Times

At this point Father Lang made a noteworthy about face.

Actually he had still shown that the Church Latin at no time part of the common language and generally understood.

Actually now he speaks of a growing "Gap between the Liturgical Lating and the people's language with the development of the national cultures and languages in Europe."

This -- which in any case existed during the entire history of the Church -- situation has "not promoted" supposedly "the active participation of the Faithful in the Liturgy".

For that reason the Pastoral Council desired to promote the use of the mother language -- said the priest.

The council Fathers had not intended that Latin would be displaced by the National languages -- Father Lang said as he attempted to rescue the long discredited honor of the Pastoral Council:

"The linguistic splintering of the Catholic Liturgy was so widely advanced that many Faithful these days can hardly recite any other prayers than an "Our Father" together --- he lamented.

In reality, the back woods Council had discovered National Languages exactly at the moment as these were just increasingly losing their importance after the end of Nationalism and National Socialism in the wake of US-Hegemony.

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Pravda Isn't Really Conservative: Cossacks Show Anger About Gay Parade in Moscow

Editor: It wasn't so long ago that some people were saying, "hey, hey, hey, look at Pravda now". We remained skeptical with good reason. It wasn't just the weird ads, but the legacy of Pravda. Here, we have Pravda lamenting the fact that the West will continue to perceive Russia as "homophobic". Aww, that's too bad Pravda...

The Communist party used to be opposed to homosexuality, and Pravda's editorial desk probably is too, but they want to present a new, more democratic, kinder, cuddlier Soviet Bear.

[Pravda.ru] Just like before, the gay pride parade in Moscow was ruined. It goes without saying that the West will harshly condemn the "homophobic" Russia for violating the rights of homosexual individuals. There will be a share of truth in those accusations, albeit only a share. The rights of the LGBT community in Russia get violated indeed, but only when activists attempt to display their homosexuality publicly and provocatively. Let's just face it - holding the gay march near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a challenge to the society.

Read the entire article, here...

Rainbow Stalin from, here.

Father Martin SJ "Comes Out" Swinging at Homophobia

Editor: It's not clear whether the author of Crabby Roads is on board with the Catholic Church's position on homosexuality. He seems to understand the problem, but then, looking back over his shoulder as he leaves the city, he occasionally praises the architects of the disaster and wingdes when they are exposed. His recent post on the Ugandan Martyrs is very good and right on. We didn't know that they were murdered by the King because they refused the King's homosexual advances. It's truly a tribute to the spirit of Sodom, the vindictiveness that individuals disturbed with homosexuality, engage in insults, threats and even violence to promote their depravities as normal.

Like many of God's most beautiful creations, the Martyrs of Uganda were brutally slaughtered by vicious men.

The following essay is an interesting piece in that line. Once again, the editor of America Magazine breezily insults people who write letters to him complaining about the homosexuality rife within the Jesuit order, no doubt, they're sincere if not good at expressing themselves in writing. We know that Father Martin is a homosexual enabler. Only a homosexual enabler portrays the need for "homophobia awareness" month, and we'd ask Father, what's crazier, someone who is angry and wounded enough by the crimes of the Jesuit order to write halting letters, or someone who fundamentally disagrees with the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality, but chooses to continue calling himself a Catholic, even drawing a salary from that Church, writing for a highly funded, glossy nationally circulated magazine that frequently betrays the Catholic Church as it has done at least since the twenties?

Who's crazier and more contemptible, you, or the "crazies"?

Gays and the Church: Two Stories from Today
Posted at: Friday, June 03, 2011 01:36:24 PM
Author: James Martin, S.J.

You won’t be surprised to discover that we get all kinds of crazy letters here. And I don’t mean simply letters that seem odd or strange, or even letters that I don't fully understand—I mean crazy. As a Jesuit friend told me last night, “No nut like a religious nut.” One fellow sends me (regularly) a packet of folded-up colored paper with instructions on how this can be used to communicate with angels. Another correspondent mails pages and pages of tiny, mostly illegible, scrawl covering every inch of several pages, with Gospel passages underlined three times. So one learns to discount the nuttier letters. And one learns to accept more easily criticism from "non-nutty" people as well, even when it's delivered with sarcasm and invective. One's skin gets thicker, I think.

On the other hand, some letters tend to stick out. This morning I was opening up yesterday’s mail and noticed an envelope without a return address (never a good sign). Inside was a copy of an Of Many Things column I had written about the beatification of John Paul II. In the article I mentioned that Blessed John Paul had, at one point in his papacy, removed Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the superior general of the Jesuits, from his post in 1981, a move that dismayed many Jesuits. The letter-writer had highlighted those few sentences in bright yellow. Next to it was a Post-it that read, in full: “But Jimmy, so many Jesuits were screaming fags that something had to be done, you know, to clean the filth out of the clergy.”

Not the pleasantest thing to read in the morning. And who knows whether this person is a subscriber or not. (He, or she, seems a bit cowardly though: the lack of a return address demonstrated a lack of resolve.) Odds are, though, if he's reading the print version of the magazine, he’s probably Catholic, and even if he's not a subscriber is likely reading it in a parish or a library. (We don’t sell on newsstands.) And he knew enough to quote Pope Benedict XVI on the “filth” in the church-- referring to pedophiles not gays, but no matter.

Homophobia is still out there, no matter how much we would wish to think of ourselves as an enligtented culture, and exists in our church. Thus, the need for June as “LGBT month,” as just proclaimed by President Obama.

Link to original... before Martin changes it.

Archbishop Finn Removes Dissident from Parish: Other Bishops, not so Good

Editor: Archbishop John Neinstedt, the neo-Conservative prelate of Minneapolis, removed his problem priest and put him someplace else. Cardinal George removed the problem, got scared, and put it back. Archbishop Finn just removed the problem. Father Tegeder has been a dissident in the Archdiocese, opposing its policies and openly challenging the Archbishop's authority. Apparently, his predecessor, the homosexual enabling Father Tibesar, will be retiring, happily, on the Archdiocesan dime. We'd earlier reported that Father Tegeder was being removed from his parish, that's true, he's also being reassigned somewhere else. Heaven forbid if Father Tegeder were to want to say the Traditional Latin Mass, he might be put on restriction and quarantined from any contact with the laity at all. As it is, "peace and justice" and campaigning for homosexuality in one way or another, will get you reassigned to a new parish more suited to your strangeness. Father Tegeder is being reassigned to a much more liberal parish, where scarcely a Catholic doctrine or discipline is heard or obeyed.

Bishop Robert Finn has removed a priest from his duties as pastor of Christ the King parish in Kansas City and from all other public ministry, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced tonight.

In a statement released at 7:48 p.m., the diocese said that its review board, which is charged with assessing sexual abuse allegations against priests, had received “credible reports alleging sexual misconduct with minors by Father Michael Tierney in the early 1970s and 1980s.”

One person making a complaint recently met with the review board, the diocese said.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/02/2922317/catholic-bishop-removes-priest.html

Catholic Colleges Lose Exempt Status Because Not Catholic Enough

Editor: Never thought of this before. Whoever thought this up is brilliant and there doesn't seem to be any downside to it. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

The conflict between some Roman Catholic colleges and adjunct professors seeking collective bargaining rights is intensifying.

Last week, the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that adjuncts at St. Xavier University were entitled to vote on a union, and that the university lacked enough of a religious character to be exempt from provisions of federal labor law.

The ruling is the second this year in which an NLRB regional office has rejected the claims of Roman Catholic colleges that they can prevent adjunct unions. In both the dispute at St. Xavier and one at Manhattan College,officials of the NLRB reviewed the ties of Catholic orders to the colleges and found that the institutions were largely secular.

Adjuncts 2, Catholic Colleges 0 - Inside Higher Ed

Parish Administratress "Apologizes" For Church's Treatment of Sodomy

Editor: The Sisters of St. Joseph Crandolet are representative of one of the most rotted out derelict fetid corpses of religious life in the world, or ever. What's a woman doing running things anyway?  The way the Church has treated them?  How about the way they treat each other?

“For the way the Church has treated them”
Pastoral coordinator at Palm Springs parish apologizes to homosexuals

A woman religious who serves as pastoral coordinator at the largest Catholic parish in Palm Springs has apologized for the way some Church leaders have treated homosexuals, comparing them to the Japanese unjustly interred during World War II and African-Americans in the Deep South before the civil rights movement.

Sister Diane Smith, a member of the sisters of Saint Joseph Carondolet, is pastoral coordinator at St. Theresa Parish in Palm Springs. Pastoral coordinators, appointed by the bishop, administer parishes when no priest to available to serve as pastor. It is a means by which some bishops deal with the priest shortage.

Sr. Smith’s apology was published in the Sunday, May 29, parish bulletin. Sr. Smith referenced an email she had received from a woman, presumably Catholic, who had made making amends to homosexuals “for the way the Church has treated them” one of her goals in life. “I have been deeply touched that so many of our gay and lesbian community have stayed in the church as active participants not only at worship but in the many ministries here at St. Theresa,” wrote Sr. Smith. “I, too, would like to apologize on behalf of the Church. For anyone who has been hurt by a member of Church leadership I also apologize.”

H/t AQ, read further at, California Catholic Daily...

Photo from kreuz.net...

New First Coast Catholic bishop known to champion social justice issues | jacksonville.com

Editor: Social Justice = Wealth Redistribution. He's frequently harassed legislators on behalf of creeping socialism. And of course, he's a brown skinned Spanish speaker, and the paper is proud to cite other Latinos saying, "it's great to have one of our own in there". If the tables were turned, you'd probably be reading about it in Stormfront.

Evangelization for Estevez will also mean continuing to champion the church's social justice issues in Tallahassee, a role he excelled at as auxiliary bishop of Miami, said Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference.
The bishop has routinely met with legislators, written policy papers and delivered speeches opposing the death penalty and abortion, McCarron said. He has also advocated for the rights of the disabled and immigrants.
"I will be doing even more of that than before," Estevez said. "My agenda will include seeking the good for all, especially those who are most vulnerable."
That's where Estevez's ethnicity inspires his ministry.

New First Coast Catholic bishop known to champion social justice issues | jacksonville.com

Hibernian Society Accused of Fraud

A staff member is being investigated for defrauding one of New Zealand's oldest friendly societies, allegedly taking up to $1 million over a decade.

The Serious Fraud Office said yesterday it was working with Wellington police to investigate allegations of employee fraud at Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society, whose headquarters are in Dixon St, Wellington.

SFO chief executive Adam Feeley said that, after initial investigations, it appeared a single staff member had been committing fraud over an extended period.

Link to read further...

Russia to Pass Strict Anti-Abortion Law

Editor: Liberalism has been weighed in Russia and found wanting.



H/t: Pete Frey

Anglican Church in Canada Will Honor Sodomitical "Blessings"

Editor: Hopefully, Anglicans who are dissatisfied with this state of affairs will be welcomed heartily, but at least in Canada, we fear they are not.

The blessing of civil marriages between same-sex couples can now take place in the Anglican diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

A resolution giving priests and parishes the option to bless same-sex unions was approved, by a majority vote, at the 143rd synod of the diocese on May 27 in Halifax.

Parishes and clergy are free to opt out of blessing same-sex unions, the diocesan bishop, Sue Moxley, told Anglican Journal. Interviewed via e-mail, Bishop Moxley added that parishes will need “to decide where they want to be with a pastoral response” on the issue

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Soviet-style Jesuit Reads Bad Poetry at "Catholic" School

Editor: Here's a puff piece in the Washington Post that not only fawns over Jesuit Ernesto Cardenal, it describes his Marxist struggle as one "struggling against injustice". The poor do not need such spokesmen. Calling the murderous Marxist uprising "a beautiful Revolution", the decayed Jesuit spoke to what looks like a crowd of tens at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Even if the administration of this Jesuit school lacks the Faith, there are a few remaining who have it:

Cardenal’s appearances in the United States to promote his latest work were greeted with hostility among some conservative Catholics. Thousands of protest letters spurred by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, known by the acronym TFP, were sent to officials at Xavier University in Ohio and Loyola.

“Inviting Fr. Cardenal to speak at a Catholic university is like welcoming a wolf into a hen house,” John Ritchie, TFP’s student action director, wrote in an e-mail. “It’s a scandal that Xavier University and Loyola University (Maryland) hosted this man. His radical Marxist views are not only flawed, but also detrimental to the faith and incompatible with the teaching of the Church.”

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Chief Director of L'Osseratore Romano: healed by the Intercession of Pius X

"For that reason I foster a profound veneration for him" -- Chief Director Giovanni Maria Vian was close to death at the age of two from diphtheria.

Vatikan (kath.net/CNS) The Chief Director of L'Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Viari, recalled how he called upon the intercession of Pope Pius X when he suffered a life threatening diphtheria infection. "For that reason I foster a deep veneration for him", said Vian in an interview with "Il Consultante Re".

In 1954 Vian lay sick with a diagnosis as a twelve year old boy with life threatening diphtheria. On the eve of the canonization of Pius X by Pius XII, a Spanish priest, who was a friend of Vian's father suggested that the family might ask for the veneration of Pope Pius X. The family already felt closely connected to the Treviso born Pope in the same neighborhood that the family came from. After the priest celebrated Mass on the tomb of St. Pius X, "I was healed", said Vian.

Link to original kath.net...

Father Stravinskas Dismisses Homeschooling

Editor: We've always thought that Father Stravinskas was too liberal. If you'll look at the poll taken at Our Sunday Visitor, you'll see that the support for homeschooling seems enormous, over seventy one percent of those responding at this point. Here's a report:

[Deliberations of the Senechal] In an apparent override of Natural law, common sense, and the Magisterium of the Church, Our Sunday Visitor has published an interview with the formerly respectable and orthodox Priest, Fr. Peter Stravinskas. After this article however, I will never again apply the glorious label of orthodoxy to this cleric.

In this interview, which includes unsupportable claims, unidentified references to "The Church Fathers", and flat-out falsehoods, Fr. Stravinskas attempts to portray parents who choose to homeschool their children as "psychologically unhealthy", "anti-clerical", and, to top it all off "a church within a church".

I very much wonder where Father has gotten this information, has he actually taken the time to get to know any of these "elitist" homeschooling families, or is he just towing the line of the (FAILED) Catholic educational system? Having spent large amounts of time among both homeschooled students, and products of Catholic education, I must insist on the exact opposite of Father's surmise. In the company of homeschooled students, I have almost invariably found a honest quest for truth, the capacity for articulate discussion, and indeed, keen insights.

Read further, here.

Political voice, social activist Thomas Roeser dies at 82 - Chicago Sun-Times

Editor: He was a voice in the wilderness calling attention to a crisis among the decadent Benedictines at his alma mater.

Political voice, social activist Thomas Roeser dies at 82 - Chicago Sun-Times

Malta : votes ‘yes’ to divorce in referendum

TheStar Malta votes ‘yes’ to divorce in referendum

Sex Abuse Rocks Lutheran Church in Germany

Editor: Last year, the world's first female Lutheran Bishop, Maria Jepsen, was forced to resign under suspicion that she had covered up abuse. The case received almost no coverage in the English speaking press at all

North Elba Lutheran Church struggles with accusations of covering up a serious case of sexual abuse.


Ahrensburg (kath.net/idea) In connection with the most serious case of sexual abuse in the North Elba Church, Heidi Emse the former Provost is defending herself against accusations that she had covered it up. She became aware of occurrences in the Church Community of Ahrensburg near Hamburg in 1999. From the seventies to the eighties, former Pastor Gert-Dietrich Kohl (73) had admitted to committing the crime in the meantime against 22 children and adolescents, among whom were three of his five stepsons. The crimes have passed the statute of limitations.

The president of the North Elba Church, Bishop Gerhard Ulrich (Schleswig)conceded a lapse in supervision, actually the church leadership followed the direction of their consultants, to introduce disciplinary action against Emse. This will now make certain that things will in no way be veiled. In retrospect they are viewing this solely as negligence, that the procedure had not been properly documented. They had been informed by the church office by telephone in 1999 about the suspicion before her time in office about the child abuse. Kohl was then reassigned. She's explained that it was dealt with administratively. A year later she learned that he was working in juvenile law enforcement. Thereupon she applied to the church office. Then Kohl was put on early retirement. Taking this into consideration, the Ahrensburger Church Board had expressed confusion about the decision of the Church leadership being directed against Emse. This could have been done with greater clarity.

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