"Devout" Astronaut Takes Hosts Into Space

Edit: it shouldn't be hard, even for a space cadet, but the primacy of personal conscience has its way with objective. The article from Catholic Family News is worthwhile.

First of all, Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that “out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches it but what is consecrated.” Thus, he said the sacred vessels of the altar are consecrated for this holy purpose, but also, the priest’s hands are consecrated for touching this Sacrament. And St. Thomas said that it is therefore not lawful for anyone else to touch it, except to save it from desecration. (Summa, III, Q. 82. Art. 3)

This reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, and even for the smallest particles, was incorporated into the traditional Mass — the Old Latin Mass — which contained strict rubrics on this point:

http://www.cfnews.org/page10/page79/day_the_host_dropped.html

[Christian Daily] Astronaut Mike Hopkins, a devout [sic] Catholic, sometimes finds himself praying and also taking Communion inside the Cupola, a small module on the International Space Station (ISS) with seven large bay windows that give a panoramic view of the Earth.

"When you see the Earth from that vantage point and see all the natural beauty that exists, it's hard not to sit there and realize there has to be a higher power that has made this," Hopkins said after his 2013 space mission, as quoted by Catholic SNews Service.

Under a special arrangement with the Church, the astronaut takes six consecrated hosts with him aboard the space module. When broken into pieces, the hosts are enough for a once-a-week Communion for Hopkins on-board the ISS.

http://christiandaily.com/article/catholic-astronauts-still-keep-their-faith-strong-while-in-space/51153.htm

SSPX Disagreements With Vatican II Are No Obstacle

Edit: this is the deal breaker, which was denied to the Society lay time documents were brought to them for signing.

[Rorate Caeli] Abp. Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, spoke to the semi-official daily of the French episcopate, La Croix, on the relations between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X, and among other relevant things said the following:

"The difficulties raised by the SSPX regarding Church-State relations and religious freedom,the practice of ecumenism, and the dialogue with non-Christian religions, of certain aspects of the liturgical reform, and of its concrete application, remain the object of discussion and clarification, Abp. Pozzo [of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei] added, but they are not an obstacle for the canonical and legal recognition of the SSPX."

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/04/main-vatican-ecclesia-dei-official.html?m=1

Statement of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in response to the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia

The priests and deacons of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in England and Wales affirm with the Holy Father, in his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the unchanging teaching of Christ and His Church regarding marriage, the family, and human sexuality.  They renew their pledge to continue to follow the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who acts with great clemency towards sinners, but also with pastoral clarity: ‘Go and sin no more’. (John 8:11)

 

Our members are heartened that the Exhortation calls for a return to the wisdom of Humanae Vitae (82), defence of the ‘inalienable rights’ of the unborn child (83), re-affirmation of the role of parents as the primary educators of their children (84), and warning of an encroaching ‘gender ideology’ (56).  In response to the Holy Father’s call, the Confraternity's members particularly pledge themselves to work for better and more profound marriage preparation and accompaniment, and clearer, unashamed and more positive articulation of the good news of the joy of human love.

At a time when moral relativism has caused such confusion, the Confraternity recognises the need to work with pastoral sensitivity, guided by the consistent principles of Scripture and Tradition, and will help its members to discern wisely how to help individuals hurt by the crisis in marriage and family life of which the Holy Father speaks.  Those in irregular unions are a particular focus of pastoral concern, and need to be brought closer to Christ and his Church.  Confraternity clergy will continue to encourage those in problematic marital circumstances to move forward, by personal discernment in the light of the Gospel, and to deepen their involvement in the life of the Church, without losing sight of the fact that certain situations constitute objective and public states of sin.  The Church's pastors must never neglect the call to repentance, and the need to avoid scandal which would cause the weak to fall, while accompanying their people with kindness and understanding.

http://www.confraternityccb.org.uk/CCCB/News/Entries/2016/4/9_Statement_of_the_Confraternity_of_Catholic_Clergy_in_response_to_the_Apostolic_Exhortation_Amoris_Laetitia.html

We Now Know Who Pope Francis is Voting For in the Next US Presidential Election

 

(Rome) The officially preferred the Vatican political current is to the far left. The recent confirmation delivers the invitation of Senator Bernie Sanders in the Vatican. Sanders is the challenger to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was invited, and he alone of all the presidential candidates by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the actual executive arm of papal policy

The social (istic)  perspective on the world

Arranger in the background is Curia Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. Sanchez Sorondo already threaded the change of course in terms of UN post-Millennium Development Goals and climate change. The prerequisite is that the Vatican gives up its opposition to the neo-Malthusian population policy. A requirement that Pope Francis in September 2013 in an interview with the Roman Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica unofficially announced, and Sanchez Sorondo actively converts into concrete policy coin (see his interview about the alleged link between abortion and climate change ).

In terms of the socio-political (abortion, gender ideology)  Sanders represents the same positions as Clinton, and these are far removed from those of the Catholic Church. Where Clinton and Sanders differ most clearly is in the area of ​​social and economic policies. That is thew key to the Vatican's  invitation, while his abortion advocacy is no longer an obstacle under Pope Francis.

Next week Bernie Sanders will fly to Rome, although the decisive phase of the pre-selection battle is taking place  in the US. He is to participate in a meeting of the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The reason for the meeting are the anniversaries of two social encyclicals: 25 years of the encyclical Centesismus annus and 125 years of the encyclical Rerum Novarum .

The 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. published encyclical Rerum Novarum , the first social encyclical of the Church's history and is considered the "mother of all social encyclicals". Centesimus annus was published in 1991 under Pope John Paul II. for  its 100th anniversary, which was a response to the collapse of the communist dictatorship in the Soviet bloc.

Who Pope Francis would have liked as the 45th President of the USA

How the US public sees the relationship between Pope Francis and Bernie Sanders

Sanders is the only one of five official US presidential candidates, who was invited to the Vatican. Who Pope Francis would like to see in person as the 45th President of the United States at the White House, is thus brought to expression in this unveiling. Whether such an open declaration and taking sides is good for the Church, is an entirely different matter.

The preference is of a non-confessional nature. Among the five remaining candidates, there is not a Catholic, only a former Catholic, and that's not Sanders. On the Republican side, the three candidates still in the race: Donald Trump is Presbyterian, Ted Cruz, a Southern Baptist and John Kasich, who was been baptized as a Catholic, is today an Anglicans. Hillary Clinton from the Democrats is Methodist, her challenger Bernie Sanders is a Jew. Sanders would be the first Jewish state and government chief in US history.

Lesbos and the "democratic socialist"

The Vatican meeting will be held on 15-16 April. Details are not yet known. There is no provision, says Vatican Radio that Sanders makes a speech. The meeting is therefore likely to be only the external occasion for a private meeting with Pope Francis. The coincidence between Sanders and the pope is expected to take place on Friday, because on Saturday, Francis will be flying on to the Greek island of Lesbos . Also, in terms of immigration policy, the Catholic Church leader and US Senator from Vermont are among all presidential candidates, the closest.

Sanders describes himself as a " democratic socialist " and a "great supporter of the Pope". In the primary campaign for the Democratic nomination, he moved back to being  favored against Clinton. The race is not yet decided.

To the biggest Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Curia Bishop Sanchez Sorondo explained the Sanders-invitation with the words, "because he shows a real interest in the study of papal documents."  During the election campaign for the most powerful political office in the world that is not enough to justify an obvious partisanship. He had "seen no other candidates who quote the Pope in their election campaign," said Sanchez Sorondo, who comes from Argentina with Pope Francis and is one of the closest confidants of Pope.

Duel Pope - Donald Trump

However, the other candidate, Sanders opponent Clinton, has already tried to avail herself with Pope Francis for their election campaign.

It was, however, a remote duel between Donald Trump, the leading candidate of the Republicans, and the Pope on February 18. The reason was  immigration policy. [He was silent during the Same-sex marriage dispute in Italy.] During his visit to Mexico, Francis had mixed into politics during his visit to the  border fence in the US and  dueled with Trump for the first time in the local election campaign. With the exclusive invitation for Sanders in the Vatican, it is clear in any case that Pope Francis least favors Donald Trump on the popularity scale to Bernie Sanders.

This is clearly too much of political partisanship and too much of the over-emphasis on his person over the Office, which is irritating to high Vatican representatives.

At the Vatican conference alongside other prominent Sanders Links politicians will take part, including the presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia. The latter gave Pope Francis in July 2014, a sickle-and-hammer-cross , which was seen by many Catholics as distasteful, if not blasphemous.

Participants Jeffrey Sachs: climate change and population reduction

For $ 25.90: Francis and Sanders 2016

Among the conference participants next week will also be Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University and as personal adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. His role sounds more meaningful: as Jeffrey Sachs is a leading proponent of the theory of human-inflicted climate change, on which  the current world climate policy is based. He is also a representative of the neo-Malthusian theory, which calls for a radical population reduction. Nevertheless, he managed to with the influence of Sanchez Sorondo, to be appointed by Pope Francis as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. An appointment in the field of "non-negotiable values" (Benedict XVI.) shows that a paradigm shift has occurred.

Weight of Catholic voters - remodeling the church in the United States

In terms of weight (number, organization and money) the German Bishops 'Conference and the US Bishops' Conference, form the two antipodes of this pontificate. The German Bishops' Conference wants Francis to win,  the US wants him to remodeling. His meddling in the US election campaign also has to do with it.

Catholics account for nearly one quarter of the US electorate. If you count the former Catholics (like John Kasich) to even a third. Catholics in the US,  traditionally vote democratic for historical reasons.That changed under the Republican US President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). In the latest polls,  the Catholic electorate showed transitions to being deeply divided. The unilateral papal partisanship that differs strikingly from the position of the US episcopate,  contains all the elements within itself to sharpen this division.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: accidentalsocialist / cleveland.com lookhuman.com (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Finally the Toni-Faber-Fetzen (Rag) is Gone!

God replaced by modernist Pseudo-"Kunst".  Dom of
St. Stephan in Vienna, after the Apostasy

Fast Veils

[Kreuz.net] For about 1000 years the view to the altar during Lend has been shrouded by the "Lenten Veil" (also "Hungertuch")  to signify that sinful man is not worthy to see God. 

Often these Lenten veils narrate the life of Christ, so also the Carinthian Lenten veils of Gurk, Haimburg, St. Stefan am Krappfeld or Maria Bichl, dating from the 15th to 17th centuries.

Religious Illiteracy

These Lenten veils were intended to bring the proportion of the population who could not read  (the illiterate), more powerfully closer to the life of Christ in a kind of poor man's Bible. 

Today, the fast veils would have the task to bring the faith closer to the   religiously illiterate of our time.

Faithless Pseudoart

Instead, the Lenten veils have become a field of artsy agitation for those church officials who are obviously weak in faith.

In this way, the St. Andra Church in Graz   modernist pastor, Fr. Glettler, blighted the high altar with a holey carpet, while in the University of Vienna church the image of God was replaced by an image of the (pagan) Karnikels (Hare) .

2016: Waste in the St. Stephen's Cathedral

The masonic affine and former Red Hawks-socialist Fr. Toni Faber, now Cathedral Priest of St. Stephen in Vienna, has a penchant for self-expression, beliefs, and further, pseudo art.

The perverse Hermann Nitsch counts, along with  the Communist Alfred Hrdlicka as the favorite "artists" of Fr. Faber.

For 2016 Fr. Faber has something "special" devised: a fast veil that has nothing to do with beliefs.

It consists of some drop cloths sewn together by a  Slovene "multimedia artist."

"My top installations express the idea through a bond structure and the phenomena of Networked-being, as part of our people, both in our souls and bodies as psycho-biological process, as spiritual phenomena," wrote Fr. Faber citing the pseudo artist on a plaque in the cathedral - what that has to do with beliefs, can not be seen without an apron and compass.

Thus Fr. Faber recognizes the garbage as "art", he has also appointed a (well-paid) curator (three-quarters bald, braided ponytail and goatee).

Neither "artist" nor curator have been noted by a special closeness to the Church - but maybe that's just the ideal selection criterion for the Church pandering to modernity.

Syrian Army Recaptures al-Qaryatain -- Relics of St. Elian Are Found

Islamists destroy the monastery Mar Elian

(Damascus) The Syrian city of al-Qaryatain is in close proximity to the ancient ruined city of Palmyra. Last weekend it was recaptured by the Syrian army. The city, which before the war had about 18,000 inhabitants, is inhabited by Sunnis and Christians.

The jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) had taken al-Qaryatain early August, 2015. On August 21, was devastated by shelling and a bulldozer, the 1500 year old monastery Mar Elian.  The destruction was recorded by the Islamists as a video and published on the Internet.

As the video shows,  the jihadists broke into the  grave of the eponymous saint Julian of Emesa. The doctor  had suffered martyrdom here in 312.  The monastery was built above his grave. The Islamists wanted demonstratively to destroy the Christian past of the place. The relics of the saint are still in the grave, as noticed by the prior of the monastery, Father Jacques Murad. He had returned on Monday with the Syrian army to the city. The monastic community of al-Qaryatain belongs to the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian.  The Monastery of St. Moses of Abyssinia is on Syrian slope of the Anti-Lebanon.

The visibly moved Prior finds the relics

In the years before the war the repopulation of the convent of St. Elian (Julian) had been successful there. Father Murad had been captured on 21 May 2015 by the Islamists, as they raided the monastery. Only on October 11 of the same year, he managed to escape from the hands of the Islamic State (IS).

Visibly moved and overjoyed Father Murad realized that the relics of the martyr were still present. "They can now be collected and reassembled. Thus, the life of Christians is beginning in the area again," he said as quoted by Fides. "The fact that the relics of Mar Elian are not lost, for me is a great sign: He wants to tell us that he does not want to leave this monastery and this holy ground. We know that the saints are in heaven. We can always call for their intercession. "

Father Murad had made studies in recent years on the relics. This enabled him to immediately identify the mummified remains.

"A great sign of blessing for our whole Church"

On Wednesdays, a priest of the Syrian Catholic archeparchy of Homs and monks of Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian came to  al-Qaryatain to evaluate the status of the destroyed monastery. "They will collect the relics and bring them safely to Homs," said Fr. Murad on Tuesday. "The old sanctuary was razed. The new church and monastery were burned and shelled. We will build the sanctuary and the monastery again. Then the relics of Mar Elian again be returned. By the grace of God new life will flourish around the grave again. This will be a great blessing sign of our whole Church. "

Text: Fides / Giuseppe Nardi

Picture: Youtube (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

"Revolution" Amoris Laetitia: the -- "Pastoral Realignment" of the Church

(Rome) The "pastoral reorientation" of the Church was stressed at the press conference for the presentation of the Apostolic Letter Amoris Laetitia , which summarizes the results of the double Synod on Marriage and Family from 2014 and 2015, the "pastoral reorientation."  There is no lack of disappointed voices  over a "a missed revolution." Is it actually failed or is it sneaked in, albeit subliminally in the new document? One thing is certain: The document allows a variety of interpretations. Some of "The revolution, which really isn't" to "A revolution, but  it does not call itself that." The document contains valuable information about the beauty of marriage and the importance of family. Yet in the current dispute they are not the focus of attention.

What exactly was in the Post-Synodal Exhortation, and what does it communicates to the public, are two different things. For the actual impact is expected, as experience shows, to be more significant in the communicated content. Is there anyone who actually reads a nearly 200-page Vatican document?

Schönborn: "Francis wants a church in which all have their place"

The tenor of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (Archbishop of Vienna) cited press conference expressed in the following sentences: "Francis wants a church, in which all people have space and in which the conscience is of great importance." Tone is the mother of the music, where Cardinal Schönborn's thrust is lodged.  In the first sentence, without further explanation, there are already more than enough explosives included.

His appointment to present the letter in Rome, is not only an acknowledgment by Pope Francis. It is also an attempt to satisfy the most obstreperous German-speaking Church. The spokesman for the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, frankly threatened beforehand that they would act on their own in case of the non-fulfillment of their expectations. This refers to the de facto recognition of divorce and remarriage by giving Communion to remarried divorcees and the acceptance of aberrosexuality. That is already the the de facto situation, and how well the Catholic Church in Germany fits into the political consensus on aberrosexuality, which was demonstrated last April 2nd in the "ecumenical memorial service" for the late former Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. The funeral service for the self-confessed homosexual and Protestant Westerwelle took place in Cologne in a Catholic basilica.

The central message: communion for remarried divorcees "In Certain Cases"

The central message of today's press conference for the presentation of Amoris Laetitia  which was  announced by Cardinal Schönborn, was the fact that the sacraments for divorced and remarried was possible "in certain cases." [Sure, if it's sacrilegious.]

This is sufficient to avert the latent question floating around the schism of the German church, and yet directs the Church to "new pastoral paths".

The German schism threat had overshadowed the final phase of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. It will even be the task of historians to shed light on the relationship between that pressure and its significance on the unexpected resignation of the German pope.  In 2017  the Protestant part of the German area will celebrate 500 years of Reformation. Within a hair's breadth,  the Reformation commemoration would "fittingly"  coincide with a second schism. It might have been the best for the Church. But who wants to accept that responsibility? [Me?] Benedict XVI. did not want it anyway.

The German threat of schism

 Press Conference led by Cardinal Schönborn  at the Vatican

The pressure in the boiler is vented on the present day.  But are the problems really solved? As it stands, neither the practical and certainly not the theological. For half a century the world church is under a baleful protestantizing German influence. There coresponds then that there is an internal logic that there are also Germans who oppose this influence. The election of Benedict XVI. should, for this logic, complete the countermovement. It was a task, ultimately, that he could not cope  with despite the effort. The "practical" success through the schism threat cemented the commencement of the "Rheinische Alliance"  and its influence on the overall alignment of the universal Church in 1963. Has Rome been blackmailed? This can not be formulated so drastically. Things are a lot more complex and interwoven. There is  the risk of conditioning in any case.

Theologically in the past two years, since Pope Francis newly set the new course and gave a free pass to the "German train", considerable effort has been expended by the defenders of ecclesiastical marriage and morality of the traditional to deepen the understanding of marriage sacrament and related indissolubility. This will bear rich fruit.

As much as Pope Francis has given room since his election, to the new progressive "alliance" on the Rhine and Danube,  and opened the door, he can not be said to be in lockstep  with the German episcopate. The papal sympathies for Cardinal Walter Kasper are known and real. They secured the former bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart as the late unexpected "comeback". After all, he is likely to have been the "masterpiece" of the German cardinal, the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Francis has less sympathy for the mighty man of the German Church, for the Munich Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx. This is probably do e ti the different characters involved. This explains the closeness between the Pope and the Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Schönborn.

The Schönborn interview: "Love more important than norms"

A native of an  ancient family, Dominican Schoenborn is also a representative of the German-speaking world, but in his skilful, diplomatic way, is much closer to the Pope. In order to understand the intricacies of the "message",it is noted in an interview that Schönborn already have a press conference to the Roman press  for his  own press agency Kathpress. The interview and press conference shall be read as a unit.

In the interview, the programmatic statement was:

"Firstly it is not the norms that are important, but in the first place is the focus on the love."

That was the "special logic" that was behind the entire papal letter.

What Vienna has "long practiced", was "fully accepted" by the Pope

Schönborn also gave his interpretation of the letter in the  interview. He sees in Amoris Laetitia  confirmation what "in Vienna has been lived as pastoral practice for over 15 years." What Vienna has long practicing, had been "fully accepted" by the Pope. That applies to obedience and German unilateralism.

The letter, says Schönborn, should actually be prefixed by the phrase "Love and do what you will."  The Vienna archbishop strove not only to explain this nowadays easily misunderstood sentence of St. Augustine. A certain misunderstanding seems intended. Schönborn repeated in other words, the concise thesis "Love is Love", which he had already expressed at the Synod of Bishops, 2014.

Schönborns disassembly: Is there an objectively irregular situation?

In particular, the cardinal warned against rash judgments about so-called "regular" or "irregular" situations. In the papal document the word "irregular" had almost always been written in quotes, which is "especially important". Schönborn said:

"Whether someone is in a regular or irregular situation, is first of all only an external view of the situation."

This is therefore, for the Archbishop of Vienna, not an objective state.  "The inside view of the situation of marriages and families is that we all have to face difficulties and  all are in need of God's mercy"

Schönborn: "Liberating and soothing message"

"No couple and no family" are therefore likely to say: "We are the ordinary and you are the messy" That was for him, a "liberating and beneficial" message "because it is in reality even so," said Schoenborn,  "Liberating" for whom and what?

The post-synodal letter includes 190 pages. One should "not hastily" read it, commended the Pope today.  Nevertheless, the number of 1.3 billion Catholics who read it will be completely manageable.

By now the race is on, to make the search, according to which the document can meet their own positions or to monopolize it. For decades, it was also analogous to the factions of the Protestant Synod parliaments, even in the Catholic Church one speaks of "conservative", "progressive", "traditionalists", "modernists" or "moderates". It's a distorted perspective, because that's not in the Catholic Church.  Anyway, that is not what it should not be about. There should be no question thy one faction triumphs over another, but to learn the truth revealed by God. And that is what all factions are committed to when we assume ourselves to be Catholic. Again, it should be at least that.

Methodology of the imprecise wording

Is the result of the Synod as outlandish as they had expected it? Ultimately, yes.  It did, as several high church officials, including Curial Archbishop Georg Gänswein, assured, not come to a startling break. Yet one can clearly deduce the fracture on closer inspection of the details. Therein lies the confirmation of expectations. The changes, the "revolution", the "revolutionary change" (words of Cardinal Kasper) happens when it happens, subtle in  inaccurate word sausage formulations. In this respect therefore, there is nothing new under the sun. The method used already on the Second Vatican Council, to dissolve the clarity in the obscurity of the wording, will be continued. The Jesuit Karl Rahner, whose Jesuit brother is the reigning pope, found t language methodology  as downright brilliant because it ultimately always allowed whatever reading or interpretation was wanted.

It is the method that revolutionaries, who lack  the majority or the armies, wish to impose its will directly and quickly. It is even more the technique of pseudo-revolutionaries who do have radical ideas, but where the final drive is missing, in openly professing the Revolution. The popular theology, whose representative Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was, and his rejection of the armed struggle of his confreres  for Marxist liberation theology offers several approaches to understanding this pontificate.

Utterly irritating, though it was mentioned only in passing, is the largely uncritical "yes, to sex education", pronounced by Pope Francis. Given the experience of school sex education and government "education campaigns", given that the gender ideology wants school sex education to put their stamp on a massive scale, given the appropriate "curricula" of Baden-Württemberg, Vienna or Bavaria, to name just a few, it's a  wonder just what "reality" the  Pope and his ghostwriter have in mind on this issue.

Where the "pastoral reorganization" leads, is in the stars

Where the "pastoral reorientation," will lead the church in Western Europe, is completely in the stars. One thing is certain: The German church tax system persists with its downsides, which represent a disproportionately bad influence on the whole Church.  At least that is likely to be for some prelates a relief which may, -in case of doubt-  be more important than the battle for "liberal" openings.

If at the end the question: Was it worth it that Pope Francis made  marriage and family the subject of a Synod of Bishops in 2013 to replace the post-synodal letter Familiaris Consortio from 1981? If the chronology of the previous three years could be seen in fast motion, the impression remains ambivalent. On one hand, a quarrel was picked and it was carried out by Francis into the Universal Church who gave undue latitude unnecessarily to the intolerant German church. How many shards there will yet be to  picked up can not yet be judged. At the same time, the double Synod when it was conceived as a revolution - and with some evidence - become the starter. The Church speaks less than ever with a unitary voice. The pontificate of Francis promotes discord. The real inner renewal of the Church is not  undergoing any real impetus. It must continue to wait.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: MiL

Cologne: Questions of an "Ecumenical Funeral Service" for a Homosexual Protestant in a Catholic Church

Ecumenical Funeral Service for Guido Westerwelle in a Catholic
Church

(Berlin) The "ecumenical memorial service" for the Protestant and professing homosexual, former German Vice Chancellor, Guido Westerwelle, in a Catholic basilica in Cologne raises fundamental questions that go beyond this particular case. What is a church? Why was it built? What is its purpose? Is the church, regardless of denomination, only a service provider whose services one can be taken at will and introduced to an personalized design?  Did religious leaders abuse the death of Westerwelle for de facto recognition of homosexuality by the Catholic Church? The abusive use of churches is not an isolated case, but tends to increase.

"Holy Ground": The Church as sacred

The church is the house of God. It has its origins in the encounter of God with Moses in the burning bush.This was the first direct revelation of God to mankind since the expulsion from paradise. God said to Moses:

"Do not come near! Take off your sandals; because the place where you are standing is holy ground."

The place where God is present, where the Holy Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, is holy ground, and God requires of man a corresponding attitude. To underline this holiness, God called to Moses, take off your shoes.

The Church invites the believer to personal prayer and especially to attend the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. This devotion of the Savior sacrificed on the altar is offered, meant as a help and consolation of the faithful. A church should therefore, as well  the Second Vatican Council says, be beautiful and be suitable for prayer and the sacred act.

Another purpose is not provided. That is, a church may be used for anything else than for visualization, containment and worship of God.

Increasing misuse

Nevertheless, Catholic churches  are being increasingly diverted. The range of promotions ranging from art and photography exhibitions to film locations for films, of Agapes with food and drink, up to real charity food or feeding the poor, and even a game room for a dubious youth ministry. To say nothing of debating by a certain Catholic "reform group." Added to this there are increasingly, "ecumenical" events. What they all have in common is that they have nothing to do with the actual purpose of the church. The church is transformed into a kind of multi-purpose hall, although there are enough other premises, usually already at the nearby parish hall or community center.[!]

The reasons can be speculated. Is it the result of a dwindling faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? Or is the inappropriate attempt to fill the emptying churches by "attractions"?

Church as a service provider for "beautiful" celebrations

Slopping over from  the Protestant side, this which has even seeped into the Catholic area with an incorrect understanding of the Church and the sacraments. The faithful are not many and they don't want to say anything. Since men love feasts, and the beautiful, to break out of the everyday, one recalls the church. Not without reason it offers - yet the idea itself is available to those who are far from the faith  - the most beautiful festivals in one's life. The importance of these festivals is no longer understood by post-Christian man perhaps, but festivals still please him.

The church is degraded in this perspective, to be a mere service provider for special celebrations and family gatherings. A service provider is ordered and  everything is directed  the way one wants things for himself. Therefore, children are not baptized as soon as possible after birth, so that they can become children of God through the sacrament of baptism. Baptism takes place only when a big party is organized and it best fits the schedule of all the invitees. So it goes with confirmations, to the  wedding and then to the funeral. In confession and anointing of the sick, there is nothing (obvious) to celebrate, which is why it is not by chance that these two sacraments find dwindling attention.

Progression to "ecumenical worship"

So in these special occasions  every kind of person rolls into the Church, who hardly knows the most basic rules of conduct. Many pastors have to be bothered with special needs, because a service provider is  supposed to respond flexibly to the needs of the clientele. At least that is what some  "customers" expect.

The power is inclined in this context to the "ecumenical." What spiritual benefits are there with "ecumenical" worship? The Eucharist is  understood fundamentally differently  between Catholics and Protestants. With this understanding the church is inseparable from its purpose, which is why all church buildings were built and what they are used for. With "ecumenical" church services, things are forced together which do not match and do not belong together. The previously open issues are simply glossed over, and this happens at the expense of the divinely revealed Eucharistic understanding.

Thus also the spiritual benefits and even more the healing effectiveness remain questionable. So why bother?

Concrete example: the "funeral" for Guido Westerwelle

Thus the specific example, because it took place before the eyes of all and thus acts to form opinions. On March 18, a prominent federal politician, Guido Westerwelle died. An incurable disease wrested his life from him at only 54 years old. Westerwelle was born in 1961. He came from a respected, Protestant  family of lawyers. Both parents were (since 1947 from a part of North Rhine-Westphalia) from the part of the land which became Protestant in 1538 in the former "provisional seat of government" of Bonn. Westerwelle himself was also a lawyer.

After "turning" of a government of SPD / FDP government to a CDU / CSU / FDP government, he was in 1983 the first National President of the Young Liberals , the new youth wing of the FDP. He rose to the Federal Executive and in 1994 FDP General Secretary, 1996 Bundestag, 2001 FDP President, 2006 Party Chairman and opposition leader and 2009, finally, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. He had only held it for a short while in 2013   when the FDP crashed after its soaring and not make it a place into office in the Bundestag.

Recognized homosexual

His homosexuality was only rumored about  early on. Westerwelle was "outed" however, relatively late. It happened in  2004 during Angela Merkel's 50th birthday. Westerwelle took his male partner with him to participate. His picture made the headline made ​​on July 21, in the newspaper. Another guest of the birthday celebration was Cardinal Karl Lehmann, then President of the German Bishops' Conference. There were times when a Catholic bishop would have stood in protest against such an ostentatious displays of homosexuality and gone. Lehmann remained in what could be interpreted as an indirect approval.

2010 went Westerwelle for a "partnering" according to the Civil Partnership Act. The law of the red-green reign recognizes homosexual relationships and gives them a legal framework. Westerwelle was at that time Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, for which his homosexuality was given wide media publicity. His manner of life is to be seen next to other public figures, as the most effective advertising for homosexuality.

"Funeral" in a Catholic Church

Although Westerwelle was Protestant, an ecumenical memorial service was held on April 2nd and in the Catholic Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Cologne. Why an ecumenical memorial service? Why in a Catholic church? Is Church the same church, just because they are so named? It was one of "ecumenical" confusion and relativism of the Catholic Church  in which this understanding was abetted.

But there are many more questions: Is the liturgy for the dead or the living? As is known, the deceased was a member of the Evangelical Church in Rhineland , a Prussian Union Church, in which both Lutherans and Calvinists are included. For whom was the celebration organized?  So the fact that the highest dignitaries of the Republic and therefore besides Catholics, Protestants would be present among the alleged participants?

And why on the one hand in a Catholic church when a Protestant pastor officiated the "funeral"?Because it was Prelate Karl Jüsten, director of the Catholic Office of the German bishops in Berlin who gave the homily, who knew Westerwelle since "early youth"? That sounds too modest, especially compared with the appearance of a de facto recognition of homosexuality by the Catholic Church, which was mediated on April 2 by prelate Jüsten and through the municipality. The personal youthful friendship especially has nothing to do with the liturgy. Jüsten left in his homily that which was essential in view of the strong media presence, not to resonate the slightest hint of criticism of Westerwelle's homosexuality. But on the contrary. He turned explicitly to Westerwelle's "man". This sat in the front pew next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Homosexuality is through Guido Westerwelle, given high recognition,  also beyond death, in the official minutes of the Federal Republic of Germany and is not only accepted as "self-evident", but poignantly prominent.

Abuse of the Church

The decision to hold the funeral of a gay Protestant in a Catholic church, although there is no shortage of Protestant churches, sounds at best,  that the secular criteria were more important than religious and spiritual. In the worst case it should involve a scandal in the highest church circles considering the public de facto acceptance and promotion of homosexuality   in the Catholic Church. Whether one way or the other, no one seems to have noticed the contradiction between Westerwelle's homosexuality and the Catholic Church, in any case no one disturbed. Not even the Catholic Church representatives.

Numerous media had already converted the death and funeral as a promotional tool for homosexuality. The CDU politician and father Lothar Späth, who died on the same day, was devoted significantly less space  by the media in their coverage.

The "ecumenical memorial service" for Guido Westerwelle has become the obvious example of the abuse of a Catholic church and the liturgy as a service. Westerwelle was practicing homosexual and lived as such, in the state of serious sin, and he was a Protestant. He connected very little with the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith.

What kind of healing effectiveness an "ecumenical memorial service" have? She has a Requiem. If one wanted to send the means of grace to the dead, should he be in purgatory, then this would be possible by a Holy Mass. They are also facing as intention also a non-Catholics. But that does not seem to have been desired. Which brings us back to the question already asked, according to what criteria was the celebration aligned oriented, how was it aligned.

Was the Catholic Church just the "beautiful" scenery for a "beautiful" ceremony? Should the high politics of West German "consensus" be demonstrated? Is the church only as a stooge of the government, as an expression of the Enlightenment and Protestant state church?  Has the Catholic faith's shrinkage gone so far that external aspects are more important than spiritual? In other words, that a call can be sincerely traced from the government district?

The language of canon law

The Code of Canon Law provides important clues and binding:

Can. 1205 - Sacred places are those which are designated for worship or burial of the faithful by dedication or blessing, as the liturgical books prescribe it.

Can. 1210 Only those things which serve the exercise or promotion of worship, piety, or religion are permitted in a sacred place; anything not consonant with the holiness of the place is forbidden. In an individual case, however, the ordinary can permit other uses which are not contrary to the holiness of the place.

Can. 1211 Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books.

Can. 1214 By the term church is understood a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship.

It may therefore be that everything that has happened on April 2nd in Cologne's Holy Apostles Basilica, is done in accordance with the German bishops. Nevertheless, questions remain. Was that appropriate and correct? And above all: what benefits does it have for salvation?

The "ecumenical memorial service" for Guido Westerwelle is just an example, however, establishes a public example of an abusive church use, a dubious understanding of sacred space, the sacraments and necessity for salvation. A study of the issues raised and a rediscovery and recovery of the space of ​​worship, as Pope Benedict XVI. had demanded, is needed.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: FFH / AFP TV (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Kim Kardashian Wistfully Comments on Her Eternal Future

Edit: this is truly pathetic, but probably (and tragically) true. It reminds us of what a hoary Jesuit of great antiquity once told us retreatants, "If you want to know the failures of the world, look in the newspaper." As an Armenian Christian, she must have some presentiment of these words.

UK: Record Numbers Attend Immemorial Mass in UK During Easter Triduum

Edit: in light of various complaints based on unsubstantiated data by the usual professional mourners for the Church's demise ™, you know who you are, there is some really positive news coming out of the UK that Easter services for the Triduum have enjoyed record numbers!  Mr. Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society was quoted in the Catholic Herald, which unfortunately insists upon prosaically calling the Immemorial Mass of All Ages, the "Extraordinary Form":

[Catholic Herald] Across Britain more than 200 older form Masses were celebrated over Holy Week. These included Easter Sunday Masses at both Norwich and Portsmouth cathedrals.

LMS said attendance in key parishes such as Warrington and Preston were up by at least 20 per cent from last year.

Joseph Shaw, chairman of LMS, said: “”We are delighted at the number of Easter Triduum services celebrated in the Extraordinary Form this year.”

Shaw added: “The growing numbers present at Extraordinary Form celebrations of the Easter vigil this year underline the continual growth we are experiencing all over the country in attendance at the Traditional Mass.”