Editor of Remnant defends Homeschooling at Argument of the Month

Our debaters for this month’s Debate will be Michael Matt and Dr. Kevin Ferdinandt

Mr. Matt’s central claim is that the Homeschool movement is “fighting back” in terms of serving both as an important alternate option to Catholic School education and as a safe-guard for depositing Catholic tradition and identity. Dr. Ferdinandt, though sympathetic toward homeschooling, provides a voice of opposition to Mr. Matt’s claim; Dr. Ferdinandt highlights the benefits of Catholic School education, and points out key liabilities of the homeschooling movement.

Link here...

Archbishop Dolan tries to get Youth involved with Indifferentism

Two of New York’s most respected spiritual leaders joined hands on Nov. 5 at Fordham University, calling for an active intra-religious agenda to combat the world’s ills and to strengthen young adults’ engagement with their faiths.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the leader of Archdiocese of New York City, and Arnold M. Eisen, Ph.D., seventh chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, acknowledged a secular crisis that sees generations of faithful teenagers and young adults in America drifting away from the religions of their birth.

Quoting from a United States survey released last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Archbishop Dolan said the Catholic Church is retaining about 68 percent of its members, while the Jewish faith is retaining 76 percent.

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Tom Monaghan doesn't want people to know about his Pro-Abortion Benefactor

Things just keep getting deeper and deeper for him. First he fires Father Fessio SJ, from his position at Ave Maria as Chaplain, then Pizza Magnate Tom Monaghan bans Wanderer reporter from covering a $4 Million investment by pro-abortion "fiscal conservative" Tom Golisano.

See Avewatch here...

Another article by Roman Catholic World...

Episcopalian Bishop Smith of Arizona talks about Pope's offer.

This response by Episcopalian Bishop Smith with commentary from Virtue On Line indicates that Bishop Smith has no leg to stand on when it comes to orthodoxy and is really banking on getting converts to his church based on the moral and doctrinal equivalency he shares with prevailing and declining mores of modern society. The salt has truly lost its savour.

Of all the commentary appearing on blogs and in Anglican cyberspace regarding the Pope's recent offer of a safe harbor to traditionalist Anglicans, none has appeared more inane, muddled and downright inaccurate than that of the Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona.

Here is what he said:

SMITH: I've been waiting a few days to make any comment on the recent invitation from Pope Benedict XVI to disgruntled Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.

VOL: First of all, these Anglicans are hardly "disgruntled". What they are wanting is to be faithful to Scripture, tradition and reason at a time when the Episcopal Church is unfaithful to Scripture, has virtually wiped out all tradition, and is being totally unreasonable over property issues.

SMITH: This current invitation is a bit different in that those going to Rome have been promised that they can maintain their Anglican ways (Prayer book, etc) and even have oversight by former Anglican bishops. Still those priests and bishops will be ruled by the Vatican.

VOL: That's precisely why the Pope set it up this way rather than giving them a Personal Prelature as he did Opus Dei. Anglicans would retain their Anglican identity rather than simply being absorbed like the Borg. It is exactly why they wanted their own bishops and at least one group - the Traditional Anglican Communion - has accepted the offer.

SMITH: The reason dissenting Episcopalians left our church is because they don't like control.

VOL: Nonsense. It has nothing to do with control. Episcopalians left to to go to Rome, the AC-NA and countless other Anglican jurisdictions because they no longer believe TEC upholds the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It has nothing to do with control. And speaking of control, there is no bigger control freak than Katharine Jefferts Schori who has assumed papal like powers in deposing bishops and controlling what bishops do over orthodox parishes that want to leave with their properties. She has said she would sooner sell them to saloon keepers than to faithful Anglicans. Who's controlling who here?

SMITH: I doubt many of them would be anxious to trade in their current relative independence for orders from the Chair of St Peter.

VOL: You have just contradicted yourself, Bishop. You just said that conservatives left because they didn't like control? Now you're saying that they will be trading in their "relative independence" to take "orders from the Chair of St. Peter." Which is it Bishop Smith? You can't have it both ways.

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Foreign journalists arrested in Tehran crackdown - Times Online

Foreign journalists arrested in Tehran crackdown - Times Online

Mulier Fortis: The CES Caves In On Sex Education

Mulier Fortis: The CES Caves In On Sex Education

Pernicious Maoist influence in Nepal

More news about the usual ineptitude in countries affected by communist governments or influence. The Maoists in Nepal are bent on destroying the country and we can't think of any other way of seeing it than that powers outside of the country wish to erase the national history of a people as an experiment and an imperialistic motivation.

Those who burn the country by fire but talk of New Nepal are traitors. The country can run only on the bases of causes and effects. Politics without ideology has no meaning. In Nepal, so called parties Congress, UML and Maoists have no idea how to run the Nepal. Unless and until we are honest, the country would not get anything whatever you talk on idealistic and improved constitution. None of the parities or leaders was honest to nationality and democracy since 1990 (2047 BS). They thought the movement for democracy was just to rise in power, earn money, loot the country and get more personal facilities. Globally, the state has been constructed in two ways, either by dictating the people or by self motivated participation of people. In the world, some wonderful jobs have been done even by dictating the people. However the time has passed for dictators. Nothing can be obtained by imposition in national politics. The popular movement of 2005 (2063 BS) has been converted to a betrayal. In the name of construction of constitution, Congress, UML, Maoists and Madheshis are committed to demolish all established symbols, identities and beliefs of the nation. Apart to mandate of popular movement, Nepal's existence has been made endangered.

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Archbishop Nienstedt on the new Translations of the Roman Missal

The new translations will emphasize the role of the priest in persona christi and rather than muting the prophetic, priestly and royal imperatives in the prayers which the current 1985 translation does, it will be more close to the original translations of the prayers and the mind of the Church. Rather than watering down, it becomes more declarative, forceful and instructive. Prayers accomplish what they ask, and if they're asking for vague, subjective statements, they lose their significance and power.

One of the principal goals of the Second Vatican Council was to initiate a reform of the Sacred Liturgy.

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Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

The goal of this reform was not a matter of simply revising texts. Even less was it a matter of abandoning the treasured traditions of the past. Rather, at its heart, the liturgical reform of the council was a divinely inspired desire to foster within us, the People of God, a renewed love of the liturgy, the source and summit of our Catholic way of life.

Praying the liturgy

The goal of “active and conscious participation of the faithful” in the liturgy, so central to authentic liturgical reform, is not so much a matter of merely doing more things, but rather of actively internalizing and, in short, praying the liturgy.

Tremendous successes have been made in realizing this crucial goal, while much work remains. The church continues to invite all of her members to make her own liturgical life the source and summit of their lives, as she prays with Christ, in Christ, and through Christ in this service of love that is the liturgy.

In a matter of a few short years to come, the English-speaking church will receive a historic text that marks a special moment in the continuing implementation of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. This text is a new English Roman Missal, more commonly known as the Sacramentary.

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Jihadist Gunman kills American Troops in Fort Hood

Ever eager to be fair minded and get all sides of the story, the New York Times is eager to deflect speculation that this is related to the man's religion and superior loyalties to Islam over those of the country which is his home. There were two interesting and incredible comments in the New York Times article covering this tragedy. Feeling bullied about one's religion is an everyday occurance for a Catholic:

"There is no evidence, however, to suggest the attack was linked to terrorism, he said."

"The New York Times reports that Hasan felt he was harassed because he was a Muslim. CNN said he was being tracked by the federal government because of inflammatory views about suicide bombings expressed on the Internet."

Link to the rest of the New York Times article.

October 1974 Scita Et Scienda: The Dwarfing of Modern Man

This timely essay on Scientism addresses the inabillity of specialists to really think outside of their disciplines and highlights on of the critical tragedies of our education system that most people are for all intents and purposes uneducated and therefore, predisposed to be irreligious.


Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was educated at the Theresianic Academy in Vienna and received his Ph.D. from the University of Budapest. He has taught history at Beaumont College (England), Georgetown University and Chestnut Hill College, was head of the department of history and sociology at St. Peter's College, and taught Japanese at Fordham University. Since 1947 he has devoted himself to writing, traveling, and further studies.


Imprimis Article here...

Ernst Junger: Anarch und Katholik

Alle wegen fuhrt nach Rom. bei Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Egyptian Security Arrests Several Christians for Praying At Home

Egypt (AINA) -- On October 24, 2009 Egyptian State Security arrested a Christian Copt in the village of Deir Samalout, Samalout, Minia province, for praying "without a license." He was held in prison for two days before being released on "compassionate grounds." Maurice Salama Sharkawy, 37 years old, had invited Pastor Elia Shafik, to conduct the sacrament of the 'Anointing of the Sick' for his sick father, who had suffered a stroke. State Security broke into his house while the prayers were ongoing, handcuffed Maurice, put him into a police car and took him to a police station for interrogation.

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This offer was 400 years in the making

A brief overview of English History and the Relations of the English Church with Rome with surprising and accurate conclusions by Cardinal Kasper. The prayer for Christian Unity Week was actually begun in 1908.


Fr Michael Rear says that new provisions for the reception of Anglicans should not surprise those who are familiar with English history

Cardinal Kasper addressed the Anglican bishops at Lambeth, pointing out the difficulty this presents. " In several contexts, bishops are not in communion with other bishops; in some instances, Anglican provinces are no longer in full communion with each other." How can the Catholic Church maintain a dialogue for organic unity with an Anglican Communion so divided in itself? The ARCIC conversations were inevitably downgraded to cooperation and friendship, but are still most important for all that, and more so now when relations are under strain.

For there are very large numbers of Anglicans, like the allegedly 400,000 Anglicans of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and others no longer in communion with their diocesan bishops, who have separate "episcopal visitors". Many of these have earnestly requested Rome to complete the ARCIC process with them. This put Rome on the spot. Cardinal Kasper referred to the dilemma at the Lambeth Conference in 2008.

Read entire article...

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has strongly defended Pope Benedict XVI's decision to extend a hand to Anglicans wishing to enter communion with Rome but maintain their identity.

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Uganda Witch Doctors Banned from Advertising on Radio in Uganda

Ugandan witch-doctors have used radio up to now to advertise their healing powers. However, this could soon be a thing of the past. The government's ethics minister, James Buturo, has said that radio stations are contravening the 1957 Witchcraft Act and "...are promoting witchcraft-related activities to the detriment of Uganda's integrity".

Witchcraft remains a major problem in Uganda and the government is keen to stamp out its promotion in the country. Radio, with its huge audiences, is key to its plans.

Link...

Scotish Gay Rights Activists Sentenced for Pederasty

EDINBURGH, Scotland, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An influential gay rights activist and youth group leader, and another homosexualist activist, have been jailed for life for their involvement in the largest pedophile ring ever uncovered in Scotland.

James Rennie, one time co-coordinator of the homosexual rights group LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Youth Scotland and a former teacher, and Neil Strachan, the former secretary of a Celtic boys club and campaigner on homosexual issues, were convicted in May on charges including sex attacks on children, conspiring to abuse children, and possessing and distributing child pornography.

Rennie and Strachan were the ringleaders of the pedophile network which was uncovered in 2007 after an intensive police investigation, codenamed Operation Algebra.

The investigation led to the arrest of six other men besides Rennie and Strachan, and to the seizure of over 125,000 images and videos of child abuse.

Rennie, 38, was convicted of 14 offenses, including molesting a young boy who was left occasionally under his care by friends over a period of more than four years, beginning when the child was three months old. Rennie was sentenced to life with a minimum of 13 years behind bars.

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Grow up Canada keep the Monarchy

[Toronto Star] It has been argued that Canada will only grow up when it gets rid of the monarchy. I would turn his edict around: accepting the existing constitutional arrangements with respect to our head of state is a mark of growing up.

Even if you believe, as I do not, that a non-monarchical republican head of state would serve Canada better, think of the constitutional turmoil the country would have to go through to make this change.


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Former Bishop Fernando Lugo dismisses Commanders admid Coup fears

CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo on Wednesday ordered the replacement of top military commanders, a day after publicly dismissing rumors circulating the capital about a military coup.

The announcement came from the armed forces themselves, not the president's office.

In his capacity as commander-in-chief, Lugo named replacements for the heads of the army, air force and navy, according to a statement from the armed forces.

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Sympathetic Film of Opus Dei's Founder: "He who Loves is Free"

British film director, Joffe, who makes claims to be politically neutral in his portrayal of Opus Dei will nevertheless make a sympathetic portrayal of the founder and organization of Opus Dei. The director is not known for historical accuracy or political neutrality in "The Mission" which was decidedly a kind of homage to liberation theology at the time it was made when Communists in Central America were attempting to wrest control of the government of El Salvador and successfully took control of Nicaragua which became a source of oppression for the Miskito Indians and openly attempted to destabilize other countries in the region as well.

Although his depiction of a selfish liberal journalist in "The Killing Fields" was interesting, it might be hard to watch this film as it will portray St. Josemaria Escriva's controversial relationship with a young Jewish girl whom he advises not to become Catholic so as not to upset her parents.

Yet the subtitle is interesting, "who loves is free", might indicate a more promising and truthful portrayal than we might have expected. It will be ready for release next fall.

LONDON (Reuters) – If Opus Dei had a rough ride in the blockbuster movie based on Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," it looks set for an altogether more sympathetic portrayal in another film that deals with the Catholic organization

British director Roland Joffe, renowned for Oscar-nominated "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission," is making "There Be Dragons," a film set during the Spanish Civil War that focuses in part on the life of Opus Dei founder Jose Maria Escriva.

Principal photography is complete, and Joffe is now in the editing room aiming to have the movie, which stars Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, ready for theatres by autumn next year.

Joffe originally intended to turn down a project which, owing to its religious theme and Opus Dei's controversial profile, promises to draw closer scrutiny than the average film.

In The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei was cast as a secretive cult that resorted to murder to defend a fictional, 2,000-year-old Catholic cover-up. It has also been criticized by church liberals suspicious of its power and reach and by estranged members telling of coercion and corporal mortification.

But when he saw a video of Escriva addressing a large crowd, Joffe changed his mind.

The priest, who was made a saint in 2002, was asked by a Jewish girl if she should convert to Catholicism. Knowing it would upset her parents, Escriva told her that she should not.

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Undaunted Dominican Communist Nun Ceases Her "Minisrty"

Nun decides to suspend activism for abortion rights after a rebuke by her order

Wed 04 Nov 2009 By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter

For decades, Sister Donna Quinn has championed [sic] the rights of women to use contraception, seek ordination and end unwanted pregnancies. The Dominican nun has picketed for abortion rights in Washington, petitioned the pope for a female archbishop and escorted women into abortion clinics.But as the Vatican turns up scrutiny of the nation's nuns and U.S. Roman Catholic bishops refuse to support universal health care if it covers abortion, Quinn has put her crusade on hold. "I want to be clear that this is my decision," she said in a statement Tuesday, saying she would suspend her role as a peacekeeper outside the ACU Health Clinic in Hinsdale. "Respect for women's moral agency is of critical importance to me, and I look forward to continuing to dialogue with our congregation on these matters as a way of informing my actions as well as educating the community."On Tuesday, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican order announced that Quinn had been reprimanded for escorting patients into a Hinsdale clinic that provides abortions."After investigating the allegation, congregation leaders have informed Sister Donna that her actions are in violation of her profession," Sister Patricia Mulcahey, head of the Sinsinawa Dominicans, said in a statement. "They regret that her actions have created controversy."Quinn said the order's announcement only served to stir more controversy. A private meeting to discuss her position had been set for later this month, she said. "I am disappointed that the process agreed upon was circumvented," she said. "As a peacekeeper, my goal is to enable women to enter a reproductive health clinic in dignity and without fear of being physically assaulted. ... I am very worried that the publicity around my presence will lead to violations of every woman's right to privacy and expose them to further violence." [Crocodile tears]The sudden rebuke highlights the tension in America's women's religious communities, now targeted by two sweeping Vatican investigations. Quinn's activism was no secret. But in years past, Dominican leaders have come to her defense.The primary example was in 1984 when the Vatican instructed religious orders to dismiss nuns who refused to retract their claim that Catholics held a range of opinions on abortion rights. Instead, the leaders talked to Vatican officials and resolved the issue with no ousters of nuns. But that was a different era, said Sister Beth Rindler, co-coordinator of the National Coalition of American Nuns, a group of nuns who push for women's ordination, gay rights, abortion rights and an end to war. [Like one of those Japanese Marines found still fighting WW2 on a desert island, she's still fighting those old battles from the 60s. She probably hasn't received real orders from her KGB handlers in years] "We're standing with her very much. We consider her one of our prophets," said Rindler, a Franciscan Sister of the Poor. "She's standing with women who she believes can make good moral decisions."But Mary-Louise Kurey, director of the Chicago archdiocese's Respect Life Office, said Quinn's efforts to shield women from abortion opponents at clinics pose harm. "I feel really sad because these are individuals who are trying to help women and those actions are profoundly misguided," Kurey said.Quinn showed no signs of changing her ways Tuesday."I take this opportunity to urge those demonstrating against women who are patients at the Hinsdale Clinic, whom I have seen emotionally as well as physically threaten women, to cease those activities," she said. "I would never have had to serve as a peacekeeper had not they created a war against women.". mbrachear@tribune.com

Diogenes Sounds off on Highly Placed Clerical Homosexuals

Diogenes sounds off again about the issue of homosexuals in the priesthood and in this case, the episcopate. He notes the way one of Bishop of Antigonish Raymond Lahey's defenders, Archbishop James Weisgerber, who objects that Bishop Lahey shouldn't be tried in the court of "public opinion", is not being honest with us. This dodge sounds suspiciously familiar. It is an attempt to appeal to good-natured fair play all around. Bishop Weisberger thinks it's just about a man's sexual "preference", one which he doesn't seem to think will produce an "affective maturity" contrary to canon law.

We'll try to add to what Diogenes has suggested by saying that one might detect a heterodox and dangerous (depending on his place in the hierarchy) individual when he attempts to drag out platitudinous emotional appeals to fair conduct, which don't stand well in the face of existing canon law. A canon law which they disingenuously attempt to sidestep and ignore with the predictable results we've seen thus far that go hand in hand with heterodoxy, declining parish enrollments, embarrassing criminal cases, divestment and a "vocations crisis".

Diogenes also points out that Homosexuals are not to be put in positions of authority as rectors of Seminaries. It's a good rule because no one normal will want to deal with an emotionally immature and obsessive man with an "affective" disorder. Is it any wonder that the crop of clerical homosexuals has procured for us such a ramshackle Church in America?

Anglicans Snub Lesbian Bishop’s Ordination :: EDGE Boston

Anglicans Snub Lesbian Bishop’s Ordination :: EDGE Boston

English and Irish Anglican bishops are refusing to attend the ordination of one of a Lutheran fellow cleric in Stockholm--because she is a lesbian.

Eva Brunne is slated to be ordained as the Church of Sweden’s new Stockholm bishop, reported English language Swedish news site The Local on Nov. 4

Relations between the Church of Sweden and the Anglican church have been strained since the Church of Sweden approved new church policy that officially grants gay and lesbian couples the right to enjoy church blessings.

The new policy originated in June with a petition from the governing board of the Church of Sweden, and was approved by the Lutheran Synod on Oct. 22, with a majority 176 votes out of the 249 voting members. The vote took place just three days after the thirtieth anniversary of the removal of homosexuality from the list of pathologies in Sweden.

The decision also follows in the wake of marriage equality being granted to gay and lesbian Swedish families by the Swedish government. The new law took effect last May.

Swedish GLBT leader Åsa Regnér, who heads the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, said of the vote, "The Synod’s decision takes a stance in favor of an inclusive view of people. Regardless of whether one is religious or not, this affects the entire social climate and the view of people’s equal value."

Pastors opposed to performing marriages for same-sex couples may opt out of performing the blessing.

The Lutheran church had come under pressure by the Church of England not to approve the measure, with a letter from two Church of England bishops warning that granting equal marriage status to faithful gay and lesbian families might lead to "an impairment of the relationships between the churches."

The Local quoted Bishop Alan Harper of Armagh, Northern Ireland, as saying, "The Anglican Church has a moratorium right now concerning the ordination of bishops who live together with someone of the same sex."

The article noted that the ordination was announced less than a month after marriage equality became legal in Sweden last May. Brunne’s lfie partner is also a cleric; Gunilla Lindén is a pastor in the Church of Sweden.

The article noted that other churches had declined to send clerics to the ordination, set to take place Nov. 8, including the churches of Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, and Lithuania, but that the event would be attended by clerics from the churches of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and the Phillippines.


Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.