Richard Dawkins will be mortified some day, hopefully before his death, to find out that his lunacy was more of a help to the "obscurantism" of Catholicism than a hinderance.
Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI -Times Online
Monday, April 12, 2010
Institute of Christ the King Sisters in St. Louis
At present, Archbishop Carlson is supportive of this initiative begun by soon to be Cardinal Burke. Archbishop Carlson is one of the most intelligent and canny Bishops in the Church today. Some of us thought at one point that all the lights were burnt out in the Vatican and that it was full of venal and shortsighted political creatures, but we're beginning to see that things are beginning to turn around.
BY GREG JONSSON gjonsson@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8253
04/04/2010
Sister Marie of the Love of God inherited a fixer-upper.
The young nun was sent from Italy to St. Louis in September to turn an old convent building at St. Francis de Sales into the American home of her small order, the Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest.
She found herself in a sprawling old building with a warren of rooms on each of three floors, most of it not fit for human habitation. The challenges it presented would be familiar to anyone who's rehabbed a historic home in the city: an outdated electrical system, ancient pipes, clanking old radiators, linoleum glued down over beautiful wood floors.
"People ask me if I need help," said Sister Marie, 31, originally from Paris. "I tell them yes, for 20 years."
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Photo:(Christian Gooden/P-D)
Let's get the Story Straight: Defrocking and Divorce
| Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
The following piece was written by Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder and editor of Ignatius Press, in response to the breaking story about a 1985 letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Bishop John S. Cummins of Oakland.
The so-called "stalled pedophile case", blame for which has been laid at the feet of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, had nothing to do with pedophilia and everything to do with strengthening marriage and the priesthood.
Here's what was happening in 1981 when Bishop Cummins of Oakland first wrote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asking that one of the priests from his diocese of Oakland, be dispensed from his promise of celibacy.
Well first, what was not happening. The letter came a week before Cardinal Ratzinger had even assumed his duties as Prefect of that congregation. This is a very important office of the Roman curia. It handles a variety of cases worldwide, mostly having to do with defending and promoting doctrinal integrity in the Church. There's a lot of work to do, and it takes time for someone to become fully engaged in its activities.
But much more pertinently here: By 1980 the effects of the sexual revolution on marriage and the priesthood had been devastating. In 1965 there had been 59 marriage annulments granted by Rome to American couples. By 2002, there were over 50,000 annulments per year in the U.S. alone. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of priests were asking for dispensation from their promise of celibacy in order to be able to marry.
The Catholic Church holds the marriage vows to be indissoluble. Even an annulment, contrary to a widespread misconception, does not dissolve those vows. It is a declaration that because of some impediment, there never was a valid marriage in the first place.
Priestly ordination is also "indissoluble", in the sense that a validly ordained priest never ceases to be a priest.
And here's the rub. It was literally scandalous in the Church that priests, who had been prepared for eight to ten years for their ordination (which would be permanent, irreversible) and their promise of celibacy (which also has the character of a solemn promise before God), were, in the 1970s, being so easily dispensed from their promise of celibacy.
Married Catholics said to themselves: If a priest, who is so well prepared for his commitment, can so easily be dispensed from it so that he can marry, why can't we be dispensed from our commitment so that we can remarry?
When John Paul II was elevated to the papacy in the Fall of 1978, he immediately changed the policy on priestly dispensations. I don't have the exact dates and numbers at hand, but I remember at the time that many of us were amazed that the hundreds of dispensations per year (and it may have been thousands) under John Paul II's predecessor, Paul VI, suddenly were reduced to almost zero. It was almost impossible to get a dispensation in 1980.
What was John Paul's intent? To restore the integrity of the priesthood and of marriage. These commitments are permanent. A priest may be removed from ministry, but he will not be given a dispensation to marry. Priests are to be made to take their commitments with utmost seriousness. They will be an example to married couples to take theirs seriously also. When a priest makes a promise of celibacy, it's forever; when a couple make vows of marriage, it's forever.
This is the decisive context of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to Bishop Cummins. It is not a smoking gun. It did not mean that Ratzinger was not taking the priest's sins seriously. (He called the accusations "very serious" [gravis momenti].) It meant that he, following the policy of John Paul II, was taking the priesthood and its commitments very seriously.
And again, this entire affair had nothing to do with preventing further abuse by this priest. That had already been done, or should have been done, by the local bishop.
A final, minor but significant point of translation. The translation being used by the media of an important part of Ratzinger's letter is: "your Excellency must not fail to provide the petitioner with as much paternal care as possible". This has been rightly interpreted by some to mean that Ratzinger was saying that the bishop should keep a watchful eye on the priest. The original Latin makes that even clearer: "paterna...cura sequi" which means "to follow with paternal care". We get the word "persecute" from the Latin "per-sequi". "Sequi" is much stronger then "provide".
There is a completely mistaken first premise underlying all this criticism.The premise is that "defrocking" has anything to do with protecting victims and preventing further abuse.
First, the media needs to know that according to Catholic teaching, Holy Orders is a sacrament which leaves an "indelible mark"; in layman's terms, once ordained a priest, a man is always a priest. The reason the word "dispensation" is used in the correspondence is that that is what happens technically: the priest is dispensed from his obligation of celibacy. In a sense, this works in the opposite direction from protection: a restraint is being removed.
Further, as if to prove this point, the priest in question continued to abuse children after he was "defrocked" and had married. QED.
Secondly, nothing at all prevents a bishop from: removing a priest from all ministry; removing his faculties; reporting him to civil authorities. There is no need even to inform Rome about this. The only way (until 2001 or in cases of abuse of Confession) that it need get to Rome is if the priest appeals the bishop's actions.
Thirdly, why was the CDF involved anyway? That was not the congregation that handles abuse cases, except where abuse of Confession has played a role. I believe the CDF was involved in cases of dispensation from celibacy. (Though you would think that should be under the Congregation for Priests.) But, again, dispensation has nothing to do with preventing further abuse. It may appease the sense of justice on the part of victims. But at the same time, It normally takes eight to ten years to become a priest. It's not a club one joins. It is a very serious thing to dispense a priest from celibacy, and there needs to be a careful process to protect innocent priests.
Fourthly, there are definitely cased of priests who have been falsely accused. Especially the American media ought to be sensitive to the principle that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Civil law requires that to be done in a court of law. A bishop can, and in many cases, should take action against a priest before there is any canonical trial.
Finally, let's compare this to the difference between a criminal and a civil trial. Criminal trials can be expedited, but even then in all but the most grievous cases, a criminal defendant is a free man until convicted. In the case of priests, the "punishment" of removal from ministry can be applied immediately by a bishop even before there is any canonical trial, which is like a civil trial. How long do civil trials take in this country. I know of trials that have dragged out for more than seven years.
If Ratzinger took part in "stall[ing]" a "pedophile case", the worst one can say is that he wanted care taken in a canonical trial. And, let's not forget, this wasn't "punishment" at all from the priest's point of view. He had "asked" to be dispensed.
Link to original...
The following piece was written by Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder and editor of Ignatius Press, in response to the breaking story about a 1985 letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Bishop John S. Cummins of Oakland.
The so-called "stalled pedophile case", blame for which has been laid at the feet of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, had nothing to do with pedophilia and everything to do with strengthening marriage and the priesthood.
Here's what was happening in 1981 when Bishop Cummins of Oakland first wrote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asking that one of the priests from his diocese of Oakland, be dispensed from his promise of celibacy.
Well first, what was not happening. The letter came a week before Cardinal Ratzinger had even assumed his duties as Prefect of that congregation. This is a very important office of the Roman curia. It handles a variety of cases worldwide, mostly having to do with defending and promoting doctrinal integrity in the Church. There's a lot of work to do, and it takes time for someone to become fully engaged in its activities.
But much more pertinently here: By 1980 the effects of the sexual revolution on marriage and the priesthood had been devastating. In 1965 there had been 59 marriage annulments granted by Rome to American couples. By 2002, there were over 50,000 annulments per year in the U.S. alone. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of priests were asking for dispensation from their promise of celibacy in order to be able to marry.
The Catholic Church holds the marriage vows to be indissoluble. Even an annulment, contrary to a widespread misconception, does not dissolve those vows. It is a declaration that because of some impediment, there never was a valid marriage in the first place.
Priestly ordination is also "indissoluble", in the sense that a validly ordained priest never ceases to be a priest.
And here's the rub. It was literally scandalous in the Church that priests, who had been prepared for eight to ten years for their ordination (which would be permanent, irreversible) and their promise of celibacy (which also has the character of a solemn promise before God), were, in the 1970s, being so easily dispensed from their promise of celibacy.
Married Catholics said to themselves: If a priest, who is so well prepared for his commitment, can so easily be dispensed from it so that he can marry, why can't we be dispensed from our commitment so that we can remarry?
When John Paul II was elevated to the papacy in the Fall of 1978, he immediately changed the policy on priestly dispensations. I don't have the exact dates and numbers at hand, but I remember at the time that many of us were amazed that the hundreds of dispensations per year (and it may have been thousands) under John Paul II's predecessor, Paul VI, suddenly were reduced to almost zero. It was almost impossible to get a dispensation in 1980.
What was John Paul's intent? To restore the integrity of the priesthood and of marriage. These commitments are permanent. A priest may be removed from ministry, but he will not be given a dispensation to marry. Priests are to be made to take their commitments with utmost seriousness. They will be an example to married couples to take theirs seriously also. When a priest makes a promise of celibacy, it's forever; when a couple make vows of marriage, it's forever.
This is the decisive context of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to Bishop Cummins. It is not a smoking gun. It did not mean that Ratzinger was not taking the priest's sins seriously. (He called the accusations "very serious" [gravis momenti].) It meant that he, following the policy of John Paul II, was taking the priesthood and its commitments very seriously.
And again, this entire affair had nothing to do with preventing further abuse by this priest. That had already been done, or should have been done, by the local bishop.
A final, minor but significant point of translation. The translation being used by the media of an important part of Ratzinger's letter is: "your Excellency must not fail to provide the petitioner with as much paternal care as possible". This has been rightly interpreted by some to mean that Ratzinger was saying that the bishop should keep a watchful eye on the priest. The original Latin makes that even clearer: "paterna...cura sequi" which means "to follow with paternal care". We get the word "persecute" from the Latin "per-sequi". "Sequi" is much stronger then "provide".
There is a completely mistaken first premise underlying all this criticism.The premise is that "defrocking" has anything to do with protecting victims and preventing further abuse.
First, the media needs to know that according to Catholic teaching, Holy Orders is a sacrament which leaves an "indelible mark"; in layman's terms, once ordained a priest, a man is always a priest. The reason the word "dispensation" is used in the correspondence is that that is what happens technically: the priest is dispensed from his obligation of celibacy. In a sense, this works in the opposite direction from protection: a restraint is being removed.
Further, as if to prove this point, the priest in question continued to abuse children after he was "defrocked" and had married. QED.
Secondly, nothing at all prevents a bishop from: removing a priest from all ministry; removing his faculties; reporting him to civil authorities. There is no need even to inform Rome about this. The only way (until 2001 or in cases of abuse of Confession) that it need get to Rome is if the priest appeals the bishop's actions.
Thirdly, why was the CDF involved anyway? That was not the congregation that handles abuse cases, except where abuse of Confession has played a role. I believe the CDF was involved in cases of dispensation from celibacy. (Though you would think that should be under the Congregation for Priests.) But, again, dispensation has nothing to do with preventing further abuse. It may appease the sense of justice on the part of victims. But at the same time, It normally takes eight to ten years to become a priest. It's not a club one joins. It is a very serious thing to dispense a priest from celibacy, and there needs to be a careful process to protect innocent priests.
Fourthly, there are definitely cased of priests who have been falsely accused. Especially the American media ought to be sensitive to the principle that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Civil law requires that to be done in a court of law. A bishop can, and in many cases, should take action against a priest before there is any canonical trial.
Finally, let's compare this to the difference between a criminal and a civil trial. Criminal trials can be expedited, but even then in all but the most grievous cases, a criminal defendant is a free man until convicted. In the case of priests, the "punishment" of removal from ministry can be applied immediately by a bishop even before there is any canonical trial, which is like a civil trial. How long do civil trials take in this country. I know of trials that have dragged out for more than seven years.
If Ratzinger took part in "stall[ing]" a "pedophile case", the worst one can say is that he wanted care taken in a canonical trial. And, let's not forget, this wasn't "punishment" at all from the priest's point of view. He had "asked" to be dispensed.
Link to original...
Thank you for your interest in the Catholic Church
It might even be interesting if they asked Whoopi Goldberg, she always says something that is useful to conservatives.
Thank you for your interest in the Catholic Church
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Thank you for your interest in the Catholic Church
Posted using ShareThis
Everyone has an opinion about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals and Pope Benedict XVI.
Ah, you’ve noticed.
Roseanne Barr thinks perhaps Catholic parents who take their children to church ought to lose custody of them.
A U.N. judge, Geoffrey Robertson, thinks the Pope should be detained in Britain later this year and then tried in an international court.
Rosie O’Donnell thinks the Catholic Church is almost like Jonestown.
Maureen Dowd is so apoplectic she lent her column to her “conservative” and “devout” Catholic brother Kevin who doesn’t know that laymen aren’t allowed to “perform the sacraments”.
Sally Quinn declares this to be a Watergate moment and Pope Benedict XVI is Nixon.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Feast of St. Leo the Great: a Greek Hymn to Papal Supremacy
The Following is an excerpt from the Inimitable Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year on the Feast of Leo the Great who turned back the barbarian Huns at the gates of Rome.
Leo the First, a Tuscan by birth, governed the Church at the period when Attila, the king of the Huns, surnamed the Scourge of God, was invading Italy. Attila pillaged and burned the city of Aquieleia, which he took after a three years' siege. This done, he rushed on Rome like a wild firebrand. He had reached the place where the Mincio joins the Po, and was on the point of ordering his troops to pass the river, when he was met by Leo, who was moved with compassion at the misfortunes that were threatening Italy. Sush was his superhuman eloquence, that he induced Attila to retrace his steps. When asked by his people how it was that, contrary to his custom he had yielded such ready obedience to the demands of the Roman Pontiff, the king answered, that he beheld, whilst Leo was speaking, a personage clad in priestly robes, who stood near, with a naked sword in his hand, and threatened him with death unless he obeyed the Pontiff., Whereupon he returned to Pannonia.
The Greek Church, in her Menaea, has an office in honour of St. Leo: we take from it the following stanzas. As they were composed before the Schism, they show us that the ancient Church of Constinatinople believed the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and that it is not the Latins that have changed the faith. The Greeks keep the Feast of St. Leo on February 18.
O happy Pontiff ! glorious Leo ! thous has been made companion of the faithful priests and martyrs: for thou wast most invincible in battle, and immovable as a tower and fortress of religion. Thou didst proclaim, with most perfect orthodoxy and wisdom, the unspeakable generation of Christ.
O ruler of orthodoxy, teacher of religion and holiness, light of the whole earth, divinely insired glory of true believers, wise Leo ! thou enlightenest all men by thy teachings, O harp of the Holy Ghost !
Heir of the See of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, thou didst prexside over the Church: thou hadst his spirit, and wast inflamed with zeal for the faith.
Beaming with most bright light, thou, O holy Leo, didst admirably preach the ineffable and divine incarnation, teaching the two natures, and the two wills of the Incarnate God.
Resplendent with the knowledge of divine truths, thou didst scatter on all sides the brightness of orthodoxy, and dispel the darkness of heresy. Departing this life, thou, O blessed one ! now dwellest in the light that knows no setting.
O inspired minister of God's mysteries thou didst admirably preach that Christ is the Only Son and Lord, begotten of the Father before all ages, born for us of the Virgin, and dwelling on earth like unto us.
Seated with glory upon the throne of the pontificate, thou didest stop the mouths of lions, and madest to shine upon thy flock the light of the knowledge of God, by proclaiming the divine dogma of the adorable Trinity. therefore has thou been glorified as a holy Pontiff initiated in the grace of God.
Thou, as a dazzling sun, didst rise in the West and wisely dispel the error of Eutyches, who mingled and confused the two natures, and that of Nestorius, who divided them as though they were two Persons. Thou taughtest us to adore one Christ in two natures, inseparably, interchangeably, unconfusedly united.
Inspired of God, thou didst appear to the people of God as another Moses, showing them the commandments of religion written, as it were, on tables. Thou didst explain in the assembly of the venerable masters: 'Praise, O ye priests ! and bless, and extol Christ for ever.'
Now, O priest of Christ ! thou art brightly decked with crown of beauty. As a faithful priest, thou has put on justice. Pray unceasingly for thy flock, now that thou has entered into the admirable joy of the Paradise of delights.
Thou, O most blessed Leo ! has worthily entered the abode where are the seats and throne and ranks of patriarch : thou hast entered as a true patriarch, all resplendent with faith and grace. Therefore do we all celebrate thy name for ever.
Vietnam and the Vatican: Realpolitik
The following document was found in the archives of the East German Stasi (Intelligence Service) after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It may be perused on pages 45-52 of the book "Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's Cold War against the Catholic Church," by John Koehler.
At the time of the conversation, North and South Vietnam had recently signed a peace treaty in Paris. However, the Vietnamese Communists continued their offensive in the South. With the full support of Pope Paul VI, Richard Nixon continued removing American troops from the threatres of combat.
Department X Berlin March 29, 1973
Log No. X/ 980/73
Translation from the Russian.
TOP SECRET!
Information from the Security Organs of the People's Republic of Poland.
Stenographic transcript of negotiations between the Paul VI and the Foreign Minister of South Vietnam, Tran Van Lam.
Vatican February 22, 1973.
Pope: I greet you Mr. Minister. May God bless you.
L: I thank Your Holiness. I have the honor to deliver a letter and greetings from our President, Mr. Van Thieu.
Pope: That is very kind of him. We are very thankful to President Thieu that he also thought of us. We must thank the merciful God that he has given us hope in these hours.
L: Your Holiness, we are very worried. WE feel ourselves as betrayed and abandoned. So many of our young people have perished for nothing.
Pope: Only God knows the value of self-sacrifice and not a single sacrifice offered to God will have been in vain.
L: Our people noe are experiencing hours of suffering. We became an object of barter in the hands of the great powers, and we believed that the United States was our friend.
Pope: This they are, Mr. Minister. When we can maintain the peace, then your sacrifices will not have been in vain. Please believe us...
L: For us this war has not yet ended.
Pope: Mr. Minister, you surely mean the struggle for a free and peaceful development of your wonderful people. Should that be so, then we share your fears and those of President Van Thieu. The important factor is to put an end to this fratricidal war, a war not only between the children of one and the same God, but of one and the same homeland as well.
L: But we are still fighting.
Pope: We know about that. We pray often to God that He spare the people who are so dear to our hearts, of further sacrifices and pain.
L: Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu instructed me to thenk Your Holiness for the help which during all these years You have provided us either direct through the Papal Throne, or through representatives of various Catholic organizations.
Pope: We thank you. We wanted to do more, but unfortunately we are also dependant on the generousity of others.
L: Our Government entertains the hope that, in these difficult hours, it will not also be abandoned by the Catholic Church.
Pope: Our heart beats for you. We will never abandon you, but as you know, Our voice does not always find resonance.
L: However, in spite of all this, the diplomacy of the Papal Throne favors the agreement between the United States and the Government of Hanoi.
Pope: Yes, that is true. Inv arious circumastances, we gave you to understand that all the firing must cease. Those on the other side were your foes, but at the same time also your brothers. We told the same thing to Mr. Xuan Thuy [of North Vietnam].
L: We felt very disappointed, and it was for us a great surprise, when we heard that Your Holiness wished to receive this Communist.
Pope: We always receive all. This house is the House of God.
L: But they are the enemy of the Church and the enemy of all religions. They are the enemy of humanity.
Pope: We have nothing in common with their ideology, but we worry over the question of peace and the discontinuation of firing.
L: In our country we have almost one million of refugees from North Vietnam. In many cases they are Catholics and clergymen, who fled to us to escape Communist persecution.
Pope: This is well known to us. God values the good that you have done. Who knows, perhaps today's happenings are the days of God's mercifulness. Please believe us, believe us, that most importantly is the ceasefire.
L: But we already no longer feel safe from new Communist attacks.
Pope: Mr. Minister, God's mercifulness is unending. I beg you not to forget that times have changed.
L: Our Catholic Bishops also are full of fear and are worried.
Pope: We know that, Mr. Minister. But, look, it is necessary that one must trust in God in whose hands one must place one's self of his own free will.
L: But I am talking about politics, not Theology.
Pope: Yes, indeed. The Will of God shows itself in all spheres.
L: But we cannot simply give in to the Communists who occupy our Catholic soil.
Pope; We have provided you with help in every possible way. And despite that, we must jointly think about God's Will and bow to it even when it seems to us that things are not going well for us.
L: Does that mean that the Papal Throne will also forsake us?
Pope: What are you saying, Mr. Minister! We have already pulled together all of our resources in order to participate in the reconstruction of your glorious country.
L: But still, the help is for those from the North.
Pope: In your case the Papal Throne does not divide people according to borders. For us they are all children of a heavenly Father.
L: We are a people fighting for freedom.
Pope: That makes us very happy, Mr. Minister. WE wish to believe that it will help in freeing the political prisoners which are in your hands.
L: When it comes to that question, we have the best of intentions. However, the opponent has no political prisoners of ours since almost all were murdered.
Pope: A fratricidal war is the most horrible of all wars. Somebody has to make the beginning.
L: In a few days in Paris, I shall see the good will of our foe.
Pope: Mr. Minister, if you do all that depends on you, you will achieve peace and God's blessings.
L: But we are threatened by Communism.
Pope: According to your opinion, you have exactly the possibility to push ahead in with the question of neutralization of Vietnam, first in a divided then in a united Vietnam.
L: By the Communists? No!
Pope: We mean that such a process will be carried out by the sons of the Vietnamese people.
L: However, Your Holiness, we are of the opinion, that the decision on this question is, at this point, not even close.
Pope: The developments of the events will be shown. God will decide.
L: Before I travel to Paris, I wish to beg Your Holiness to excercise your great authority to influence Washington not to allow any Communist agreession against my country or the neighboring States.
Pope: Our staff maintains a steady contact with the staff of Richard Nixon. We believe that we have already used these means available to us.
L: Allow me to remark that you have already used these means in favor of our opponents.
Pope: For peace, Mr. Minister. Be so kind and relay to President Van Thieu our heartfelt best wishes and assure him of our fatherly understanding for the all of the Vietnamese people and for your State in the South.
L: I thank Your Holiness.
Pope: And we wish to also add out Apostolic Blessing for all those in Vietnam who expect justice, freedom, and a free dissemination of the truth.
L: I thank Your Holiness.
Article courtesy of Brendan D. King
At the time of the conversation, North and South Vietnam had recently signed a peace treaty in Paris. However, the Vietnamese Communists continued their offensive in the South. With the full support of Pope Paul VI, Richard Nixon continued removing American troops from the threatres of combat.
Department X Berlin March 29, 1973
Log No. X/ 980/73
Translation from the Russian.
TOP SECRET!
Information from the Security Organs of the People's Republic of Poland.
Stenographic transcript of negotiations between the Paul VI and the Foreign Minister of South Vietnam, Tran Van Lam.
Vatican February 22, 1973.
Pope: I greet you Mr. Minister. May God bless you.
L: I thank Your Holiness. I have the honor to deliver a letter and greetings from our President, Mr. Van Thieu.
Pope: That is very kind of him. We are very thankful to President Thieu that he also thought of us. We must thank the merciful God that he has given us hope in these hours.
L: Your Holiness, we are very worried. WE feel ourselves as betrayed and abandoned. So many of our young people have perished for nothing.
Pope: Only God knows the value of self-sacrifice and not a single sacrifice offered to God will have been in vain.
L: Our people noe are experiencing hours of suffering. We became an object of barter in the hands of the great powers, and we believed that the United States was our friend.
Pope: This they are, Mr. Minister. When we can maintain the peace, then your sacrifices will not have been in vain. Please believe us...
L: For us this war has not yet ended.
Pope: Mr. Minister, you surely mean the struggle for a free and peaceful development of your wonderful people. Should that be so, then we share your fears and those of President Van Thieu. The important factor is to put an end to this fratricidal war, a war not only between the children of one and the same God, but of one and the same homeland as well.
L: But we are still fighting.
Pope: We know about that. We pray often to God that He spare the people who are so dear to our hearts, of further sacrifices and pain.
L: Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu instructed me to thenk Your Holiness for the help which during all these years You have provided us either direct through the Papal Throne, or through representatives of various Catholic organizations.
Pope: We thank you. We wanted to do more, but unfortunately we are also dependant on the generousity of others.
L: Our Government entertains the hope that, in these difficult hours, it will not also be abandoned by the Catholic Church.
Pope: Our heart beats for you. We will never abandon you, but as you know, Our voice does not always find resonance.
L: However, in spite of all this, the diplomacy of the Papal Throne favors the agreement between the United States and the Government of Hanoi.
Pope: Yes, that is true. Inv arious circumastances, we gave you to understand that all the firing must cease. Those on the other side were your foes, but at the same time also your brothers. We told the same thing to Mr. Xuan Thuy [of North Vietnam].
L: We felt very disappointed, and it was for us a great surprise, when we heard that Your Holiness wished to receive this Communist.
Pope: We always receive all. This house is the House of God.
L: But they are the enemy of the Church and the enemy of all religions. They are the enemy of humanity.
Pope: We have nothing in common with their ideology, but we worry over the question of peace and the discontinuation of firing.
L: In our country we have almost one million of refugees from North Vietnam. In many cases they are Catholics and clergymen, who fled to us to escape Communist persecution.
Pope: This is well known to us. God values the good that you have done. Who knows, perhaps today's happenings are the days of God's mercifulness. Please believe us, believe us, that most importantly is the ceasefire.
L: But we already no longer feel safe from new Communist attacks.
Pope: Mr. Minister, God's mercifulness is unending. I beg you not to forget that times have changed.
L: Our Catholic Bishops also are full of fear and are worried.
Pope: We know that, Mr. Minister. But, look, it is necessary that one must trust in God in whose hands one must place one's self of his own free will.
L: But I am talking about politics, not Theology.
Pope: Yes, indeed. The Will of God shows itself in all spheres.
L: But we cannot simply give in to the Communists who occupy our Catholic soil.
Pope; We have provided you with help in every possible way. And despite that, we must jointly think about God's Will and bow to it even when it seems to us that things are not going well for us.
L: Does that mean that the Papal Throne will also forsake us?
Pope: What are you saying, Mr. Minister! We have already pulled together all of our resources in order to participate in the reconstruction of your glorious country.
L: But still, the help is for those from the North.
Pope: In your case the Papal Throne does not divide people according to borders. For us they are all children of a heavenly Father.
L: We are a people fighting for freedom.
Pope: That makes us very happy, Mr. Minister. WE wish to believe that it will help in freeing the political prisoners which are in your hands.
L: When it comes to that question, we have the best of intentions. However, the opponent has no political prisoners of ours since almost all were murdered.
Pope: A fratricidal war is the most horrible of all wars. Somebody has to make the beginning.
L: In a few days in Paris, I shall see the good will of our foe.
Pope: Mr. Minister, if you do all that depends on you, you will achieve peace and God's blessings.
L: But we are threatened by Communism.
Pope: According to your opinion, you have exactly the possibility to push ahead in with the question of neutralization of Vietnam, first in a divided then in a united Vietnam.
L: By the Communists? No!
Pope: We mean that such a process will be carried out by the sons of the Vietnamese people.
L: However, Your Holiness, we are of the opinion, that the decision on this question is, at this point, not even close.
Pope: The developments of the events will be shown. God will decide.
L: Before I travel to Paris, I wish to beg Your Holiness to excercise your great authority to influence Washington not to allow any Communist agreession against my country or the neighboring States.
Pope: Our staff maintains a steady contact with the staff of Richard Nixon. We believe that we have already used these means available to us.
L: Allow me to remark that you have already used these means in favor of our opponents.
Pope: For peace, Mr. Minister. Be so kind and relay to President Van Thieu our heartfelt best wishes and assure him of our fatherly understanding for the all of the Vietnamese people and for your State in the South.
L: I thank Your Holiness.
Pope: And we wish to also add out Apostolic Blessing for all those in Vietnam who expect justice, freedom, and a free dissemination of the truth.
L: I thank Your Holiness.
Article courtesy of Brendan D. King
Saturday, April 10, 2010
NCEA Conference with Garrison Keillor is Over
And Keillor was permitted to speak and allowed to give the impression that Catholic doctrine is as mutable as Keillor's choice of spouses, religion and locale.
Given Keillor's own Episcopalian religious affiliation, we don't understand why he insists on speaking on behalf of an organization he openly and shamelessly despises? Does this mean that he, in the parlance of the character assassins at NPR and the NYTs, support the "Nazi" Pope and his secrecy and medieval ism?
Perhaps it has something to do with the money and those city-slicker ways he learned when he got booted from New York City for being too boring and came crawling back to the little pond in flyover land.
What's really strange in Lake Woebegone is how the Communications Director will spin this, despite the 200k plus salary he receives to dither in his office and offer "no-comment" to journalists covering important stories.
It may not happen too soon, but these Archdiocesan offices really need to get the Todd Tambergs (Communications Director for Los Angeles) and Dennis McGraths into retirement.
Why is it that because it's religion based, that you can be incompetent, evil and lascivious but still make a lot of money? Even if you get caught at the above, you can always cry on camera and elicit sympathy from your supporters like Jim Baker did before he went to prison.
Check out the list of speakers. It's a practical guarantee that if you looked up their writings you'd find all manner of heresy, and these are people who are running Catholic education. No wonder Catholics don't know their Faith...
Given Keillor's own Episcopalian religious affiliation, we don't understand why he insists on speaking on behalf of an organization he openly and shamelessly despises? Does this mean that he, in the parlance of the character assassins at NPR and the NYTs, support the "Nazi" Pope and his secrecy and medieval ism?
Perhaps it has something to do with the money and those city-slicker ways he learned when he got booted from New York City for being too boring and came crawling back to the little pond in flyover land.
What's really strange in Lake Woebegone is how the Communications Director will spin this, despite the 200k plus salary he receives to dither in his office and offer "no-comment" to journalists covering important stories.
It may not happen too soon, but these Archdiocesan offices really need to get the Todd Tambergs (Communications Director for Los Angeles) and Dennis McGraths into retirement.
Why is it that because it's religion based, that you can be incompetent, evil and lascivious but still make a lot of money? Even if you get caught at the above, you can always cry on camera and elicit sympathy from your supporters like Jim Baker did before he went to prison.
Check out the list of speakers. It's a practical guarantee that if you looked up their writings you'd find all manner of heresy, and these are people who are running Catholic education. No wonder Catholics don't know their Faith...
The Two Campaigns are Alike: as one Egg to Another
When Joseph Goebbels plotted his abuse campaign against the church, the bishops at that time did not drop to their knees.
By Hubert Hecker.
(kreuz.net) In the years 1936/37 Reich propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels († 1945) battled -- national-socialist-morality criminal cases against the church with enormous press campaigns.
Goebbels - a lapsed catholic and a notorious adulterer - pursued several goals. Thus he presumed "thousands and thousands and thousands of church sex offenders".
With this lie he wanted to drive a wedge between the Clergy and Laity. The believers should be estranged from their hierarchy.
The numbers of those leaving the Church went up promptly in the years 1937 and 1938.
The withdrawing were however mainly Nazi Party members and marginal Catholics.
The Catholic people did not let themselves be impressed by the lies of the Anti-Catholic propaganda Minister.
The believers gathered only more closely around their priests and bishops and participated more intensively in their slandered Church.
Bishops: Truth instead of Cringing
The German bishops did not put their heads into the sand. They met the propaganda of the Goebbels media with courage and referred to the small number of misdemeanours in the church:
In the diocese Paderborn from 9.380 priests and religious and in 1937 six persons had been condemned.
From the 14,300 religious persons in the Diocese of Münster, seven persons had been punished.
Eight condemnations came from the Archdiocese of Munich's 11,250 secular priests and religious-- nearly always because of homosexuals' misdemeanours.
A Forerunner of "We are Church"
The Goebbels' press fight tried to pull in the Pope into the invented "moral swamp of the Roman church“ as well, in order to undermine the confidence of Catholics in their Roman Shepherds.
A sect around the magazine "the Rome-free Catholic" - a forerunner of the today's Anti-Church group of sects `We are Church' - grumbled on 16 June 1936:
"Thus the joint responsibility for the exposed monstrosity rests completely on Rome."
The magazine 'Rome-Free Catholic' was close to at that time the Nazi friendly Old-Catholic Church in the German Reich.
The Nazi Daily `West Deutscher Beobachter' headlined on 3 July 1936 "Vatican circles wrap themselves in silence“.
This tactical assumption is gladly repeated at present by media swarm.
The Mortally Hated Church
The German bishops did not go to its knees before the coordinated Nazi press.
The citizen of Berlin bishop Konrad von Preysing († 1950) wrote in his Pastoral Address on 7 May 1937:
"This very loud press front wants to strike the mortally despised church to destruction."
"One wants to declare the reputation of the Pope and the German bishops for Christianity and freedom of conscience in our German Fatherland."
"The Church's enemies use the morality of legal cases against priests and religious", in order to undermine the authority of the Pope and his words.
Only before - in March 1937 - Pope Pius XI had two months in the encyclical "Mit Brennender Sorge" frontally attacked the ideology of National Socialism.
Naturally the Nazis hated Celibacy Too
The German press coordinated by the National Socialists was made to represent the obscenities, much discussed by Goebbels, as "symptoms of the unnatural system" of the Church.
Goebbels' fight was directed - similarly as today - particularly against celibacy.
It was put together with "the Catholic bourgeois morality " as reactionary and outdated way of life.
Goebbels trumped up rare misdemeanours of individual clergyman, in order to provoke a general demoralization in the Clergy - as if he would never again be "in this frightening and infuriating extent able to determine the entire cultural history of mankind."
The Church Becomes Triumphant
The Bishops did not let Nazi propaganda sit idly. Thus Msgr von Preysing said clearly in his Pastoral Address:
„The Church's enemies use indecent assaults on Catholic clergyman in order to approach their goal: to exterminate the public believers of Christianity in Germany, unrestrainedly, without consideration for truth, justice and freedom of conscience."
In the conclusion he explained his Pastoral Letter:
"My Dear Children! Do not let yourself be confused in the faith or in the eternal mission of the Church."
"The Church of Christ will also victoriously overcome decline, error and vice in its own ranks as in the past."
"You will also triumph powerfully over the great droves and the more powerful the attacking opponent - the gates of hell will not be overcome by them. “
© used picture: Zyada,
Link to original...
Friday, April 9, 2010
USCCB Urges Nuclear Disarmament
Cardinal George is fascinated by destined to fail liberal foreign and domestic policy goals. It's not so much that the Bishops are playing a political role, it's not even that they are incompetent to play such a role, for political issues are well within the competency of a Bishop. Yet when socialist-style national Bishops Conferences speak out on various issues, it's almost entirely guaranteed to illicit a suspiciously pre-masticated and slavish adherence to the liberal social agendas of the day.
It's suspicious because many of these policies can be demonstrated to be deleterious to the health of the host nation, and it's especially poisonous to the credibility of Catholic institutions ultimately, because it is very clear that the Bishops aren't really responding from their own beliefs, (although many of them by virtue of their education hold such poisonous beliefs) but from an agenda established independent of the Catholic Church.
To put it another way, the USCCB is an organ with no authority, claiming to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church in a country, and yet it consistently works against the interests of both its host country and the Catholic Church.
Whoever is pulling the strings at the USCCB does not have the best interests of the Catholic Church at heart.
Read the article...
It's suspicious because many of these policies can be demonstrated to be deleterious to the health of the host nation, and it's especially poisonous to the credibility of Catholic institutions ultimately, because it is very clear that the Bishops aren't really responding from their own beliefs, (although many of them by virtue of their education hold such poisonous beliefs) but from an agenda established independent of the Catholic Church.
To put it another way, the USCCB is an organ with no authority, claiming to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church in a country, and yet it consistently works against the interests of both its host country and the Catholic Church.
Whoever is pulling the strings at the USCCB does not have the best interests of the Catholic Church at heart.
WASHINGTON—"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) welcomes the signing of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and the Russian Federation," said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, President of the USCCB, in an April 8 letter to President Barack Obama.
“The horribly destructive capacity of nuclear arms makes them disproportionate and indiscriminate weapons that endanger human life and dignity like no other armaments. Their use as a weapon of war is rejected in Church teaching based on just war norms,” Cardinal George wrote. The cardinal cited teaching from both the U.S. bishops and Pope Benedict XVI calling for a world without nuclear weapons.
“Based on a moral imperative to rid the world of nuclear weapons,” Cardinal George said, “the Conference of Bishops will be a steadfast supporter of strong and bipartisan action on the new START Treaty as an important and essential step toward a nuclear-weapons-free future.”
Read the article...
NYTs is Dying and Not even a Church Scandal Can Help
This isn't the first time the New York Times has lied about something or done poor research. Their assertions were based on a computer translation of a correspondence between +Weakland and Cardinal Bertone. Don't they have enough money to hire a translator? Their first mistake was in receiving the story from a 2nd rate Law Firm from the Midwest, but this isn't the first time they've been caught in a lie.
Will people still be willing to view NYTs as a credible news source?
Link to Father Z...
Will people still be willing to view NYTs as a credible news source?
Link to Father Z...
Pflegerizing Catholicism
By Michelle Malkin
Read further...
h/t: HA
So much that you need to know about the Catholic Church’s social-policy problems can be summed up in one word: Chicago. On race, abortion, guns, immigration, and “community organizing,” Catholic Church officials in the Windy City have forged unholy alliances with radical left-wingers and enablers who undermine the faith — and the faithful.
Exhibit A: the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice and one of its most notorious priests, the Rev. Michael Pfleger. This week, Chicago cardinal Francis George — who also is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — presided over a gala ceremony honoring Pfleger with a “lifetime-achievement award” for his “service in pursuit of dismantling racism, injustice, and inequalities on behalf of African Americans and all people of color.”
Read further...
h/t: HA
A return of Penal Times in England?
The amusingly named Guardian has printed an article which suggests in tones of hope and glee, that the Holy Father might be arrested when he comes to England.
There hasn't been this much talk about arresting a Pontiff since the days of Joe Garibaldi and Napoleon Bonaparte who had himself arrested Pius VII and imprisoned him with the expectation that he would agree to Napoleon's subjugation of the Church. Upon refusing to submit to Napoleon's demands, occasionally, it was purported, Napoleon would threaten and physically beat the Pontiff. After failing to get Bl Pius IX in their clutches during the wars Italian Unification 1848-1870, the forces of evil have concocted another trick by creating a media frenzy throughout the world by appealing to people's natural sense of the sacredness and innocence of children, and attempting to portray the Catholic Church as responsible for the corruption of the same.
The irony of all of this shouldn't be lost on anyone familiar with such propaganda campaigns of the past, calculated to produce the destruction of an institution. French revolutionaries produced pornographic cartoon drawings of Marie Antoinette to obtain the downfall of her family and husband; strangely, the anger of the mob didn't turn against her tormentors, it turned against her.
It's taken many years to rehabilitate the memory of this woman and expose the lies which were told about her to perpetrate a political evil, and it may be that the Catholic Church will once again enjoy the same persecuted status It once enjoyed in England after Henry VIII, in France after Robespierre or in Russia after Lenin.
We fully expect that if Pope Benedict isn't arrested, the various governments will use this event as a pretext to confiscate church lands, supervise priests and bishops and even persecute individual Catholics whom they dislike for any number of arbitrary reasons.
The dictatorship of relativism is upon us, and we don't expect the forces of evil to triumph in destroying the Papacy.
There hasn't been this much talk about arresting a Pontiff since the days of Joe Garibaldi and Napoleon Bonaparte who had himself arrested Pius VII and imprisoned him with the expectation that he would agree to Napoleon's subjugation of the Church. Upon refusing to submit to Napoleon's demands, occasionally, it was purported, Napoleon would threaten and physically beat the Pontiff. After failing to get Bl Pius IX in their clutches during the wars Italian Unification 1848-1870, the forces of evil have concocted another trick by creating a media frenzy throughout the world by appealing to people's natural sense of the sacredness and innocence of children, and attempting to portray the Catholic Church as responsible for the corruption of the same.
The irony of all of this shouldn't be lost on anyone familiar with such propaganda campaigns of the past, calculated to produce the destruction of an institution. French revolutionaries produced pornographic cartoon drawings of Marie Antoinette to obtain the downfall of her family and husband; strangely, the anger of the mob didn't turn against her tormentors, it turned against her.
It's taken many years to rehabilitate the memory of this woman and expose the lies which were told about her to perpetrate a political evil, and it may be that the Catholic Church will once again enjoy the same persecuted status It once enjoyed in England after Henry VIII, in France after Robespierre or in Russia after Lenin.
We fully expect that if Pope Benedict isn't arrested, the various governments will use this event as a pretext to confiscate church lands, supervise priests and bishops and even persecute individual Catholics whom they dislike for any number of arbitrary reasons.
The dictatorship of relativism is upon us, and we don't expect the forces of evil to triumph in destroying the Papacy.
Dying Left Coast Paper Lashes out at Vatican in its Death Agony: Op Ed
THE DETONATIONS occur with all the regularity of bombs going off in downtown Baghdad: the Church of Rome — the church of pomp, hierarchy, and authority — is imploding. The damage already sustained qualifies as catastrophic. There is more to come.
For Catholics, Easter this year was a joyless occasion. [For him perhaps, but for many, it certainly was. Chalk this comment up to spite] Rather than celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, anguished pastors lamented the continued disintegration of the institution to which they have devoted their lives. In the pews, their dwindling flocks listened with a combination of sadness, dismay, and disgust.
The crisis touched off in 2002 by the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston has now gone global. The Holy See’s obtuse response, combining self-denial with self-pity — it’s all the fault of a gossip-mongering media apparently — has shredded the last vestiges of Vatican credibility. [Wishful thinking. But what about media credibility, what about your credibility?] Simply put, what Rome says no longer matters. The bishops — those of this country in the vanguard — have already squandered any claim to trust. The pope himself now seems hell-bent on forfeiting what remains of his authority. If Wall Street rules applied, the Catholic Church would today be filing for Chapter 11 protection while fending off an Anglican takeover bid — depending on your point of view, a delicious or ironic prospect. Yet this moment of painful mortification holds great potential for clarification and renewal. The collapse of Christendom — the concept of a secular order based on Christian precepts — is now fully complete. So too is the triumph of modernity. No encyclical handed down from on high will reverse that verdict. We ourselves must deal with the consequences.
Link to original..
Extradition of Priest could Take Years: Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — Extraditing a Roman Catholic priest from his native India to face charges of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota could take several years, the prosecutor in the case said Thursday.
Roseau County Attorney Lisa Hanson said federal officials told her the extradition of Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul could last four or five years if he's uncooperative. A formal extradition request was filed with the Department of Justice last fall, she said.
"I'm told the process is very slow and convoluted," Hanson said. "If he decides to fight it, we could be looking at a very long process."
Link to original...
photo: AP
Abbot Gabriel and Sister Maria Cordata, RIP
Two of the founding members of the Saint Benedict Center passed away auspiciously and peacefully in the days before Easter:
Abbot Gabriel passed away on Saturday, March 27, 2010, Sister Maria Cordata on March 30.
They were preceeded in death by the saintly and learned Brother Francis Maluf, the Ghassanid, who led the Slaves of Richmond Richmond for many years.
Although we have lost great teachers, mentors and spiritual benefactors, we must labor on in their apparent absence till we too are called to our particular judgements.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Koch Defends Papacy: "He who is without sin cast the first stone"
believe the continuing attacks by the media on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI have become manifestations of anti-Catholicism. The procession of articles on the same events are, in my opinion, no longer intended to inform, but simply to castigate.
The sexual molestation of children, principally boys, is horrendous. This is agreed to by everyone, Catholics, the Church itself, as well as non-Catholics and the media. The pope has on a number of occasions on behalf of the Church admitted fault and asked for forgiveness. For example, The New York Times reported on April 18, 2008, that the pope "came face to face with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church Thursday, holding a surprise meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area.... 'No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,' the Pope said in his homily. 'It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.'"
On March 20, 2010, the Times reported that in his eight page pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, the pope wrote, "You have suffered grievously, and I am truly sorry ... Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated."
The pope also "criticized Ireland's bishops for 'grave errors of judgment and failures of leadership.'"
The primary explanation for the abuse that happened - not to excuse the retention of priests in positions that enabled them to continue to harm children - was the belief that the priests could be cured by psychotherapy, a theory now long discarded by the medical profession. Regrettably, it is also likely that years ago the abuse of children was not taken as seriously as today. Thank God we've progressed on that issue.
Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice. The reason, I believe, for the constant assaults is that there are many in the media, and some Catholics as well as many in the public, who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to gay sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs and opposition to civil divorce. My good friend, John Cardinal O'Connor, once said, "The Church is not a salad bar, from which to pick and choose what pleases you." The Church has the right to demand fulfillment of all of its religious obligations by its parishioners, and indeed a right to espouse its beliefs generally.
Read further...
The sexual molestation of children, principally boys, is horrendous. This is agreed to by everyone, Catholics, the Church itself, as well as non-Catholics and the media. The pope has on a number of occasions on behalf of the Church admitted fault and asked for forgiveness. For example, The New York Times reported on April 18, 2008, that the pope "came face to face with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church Thursday, holding a surprise meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area.... 'No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,' the Pope said in his homily. 'It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.'"
On March 20, 2010, the Times reported that in his eight page pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, the pope wrote, "You have suffered grievously, and I am truly sorry ... Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated."
The pope also "criticized Ireland's bishops for 'grave errors of judgment and failures of leadership.'"
The primary explanation for the abuse that happened - not to excuse the retention of priests in positions that enabled them to continue to harm children - was the belief that the priests could be cured by psychotherapy, a theory now long discarded by the medical profession. Regrettably, it is also likely that years ago the abuse of children was not taken as seriously as today. Thank God we've progressed on that issue.
Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice. The reason, I believe, for the constant assaults is that there are many in the media, and some Catholics as well as many in the public, who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to gay sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs and opposition to civil divorce. My good friend, John Cardinal O'Connor, once said, "The Church is not a salad bar, from which to pick and choose what pleases you." The Church has the right to demand fulfillment of all of its religious obligations by its parishioners, and indeed a right to espouse its beliefs generally.
Read further...
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