Hans Küng warns against Wholesale Attack on Church

Kung warns of attacks, but he also advocates a "universal ethics". It's doubtful that his universal ethics will have much if anything to do with the natural law.

Why should he warn against something he's done so much to create? It is supposed plausible deniability.

Vatican critic Hans Küng has warned against "condemning the church and its priests wholesale" over clerical sex abuse and dismissed as nonsense claims that Pope Benedict has been "the worst" pontiff "for centuries".

"It would be a bad generalisation to place the whole clergy and Catholic Church under suspicion," the Roman Catholic priest was quoted as saying in an interview with The European, a Berlin-based online news service, according to an ENI report in Insights.

Mr Küng also said he still agrees with Pope Benedict XVI on some key issues, said the report.

Read further...

Another article, here.

An Incurable Romantic: Jesuit Highwaymen!

Thailand gettaways shouldn't raise an eyebrow for hardworking donors, benefactors and collaborators: a Jesuit is a very complicated and fascinating man who doesn't play by your rules and gender roles. Yet, despite Papal calls for a clearer declaration of their vaunted loyalty to the Church and Her teachings, they make a mockery of the whole thing, no doubt snickering and chortling about all the fools they've duped along the way.

You may have heard about him first at American Papist, or even on Mark Shea's blog. After facing some intense pressure, Mark Shea took his blog entry down. It seems that Mr. Brissett had some staunch defenders, most notably the dying Jesuit Order and a few of his fellow travellers. Now he's a Scholastic.

This Jesuit belongs to the already beleaguered Oregon Province and there's really no way out but to see him as a liability. The Jesuit Province in Oregon had to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy too. Despite their past mismanagement of personnel, that hasn't deterred them from inviting further problems upon themselves. As Bill Donahue correctly maintains, 80% of abuse cases, the kind which has landed Oregon province in so much trouble so far, are homosexual in nature.

But it's not just that Mr. Brissett is homosexual. That would be sufficient grounds to exclude him from the priesthood altogether. Mr. Brissett has been a voice for change in the past as his advocacy for sex in public restrooms and sex with children will testify.

Mr. Brissett has, as a matter of fact, a kind of ministry in Boystown in Chicago working with "at-risk" youth and perhaps the city of Chicago doesn't have a problem with potential pederasts with a love for exotic Thailand working with their children, but surely there must be a lot of people at the New York Times and at Anderson Law Offices who would benefit from Mr. Brissett's activities at some point. They're not interested now, but they just might be interested in the future.

Some people have suggested that Mr. Cormac has turned over a new leaf. We weren't fooled but many pious folks are. This is Cormac's Facebook profile from a few weeks ago, since taken down, which advertises his membership in facebook groups like GayVancouver.net and Out Twin Cities Film.

We're fairly convinced, given the rousing support for Mr. Brissett in Jesuit circles on the Internet and elsewhere that homosexuality isn't just a passing phase; they say they're sorry for the wreckage they've caused when they got caught at abuse, but this is a persistent if pathological problem and it's a problem the management of the Jesuits is abetting by their negligence; and those who support them in any way are collaborators too.

For the time being, we've been told by the Oregon Pronvince and Arrupe House in Chicago that Mr. Brissett is still a Jesuit in good standing.

 

Serbian church replaces Kosovo Bishop

Belgrade - The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has removed Bishop Artemije, accused of financial abuse, as the head of the troubled Kosovo eparchy, Belgrade newspapers said Wednesday.

Artemije was suspended and provisionally replaced by another bishop, Atanasije, already in February. It remains unclear whether the SPC Synod now fired Artemije or sent him into retirement.

The church did not officially clarify by Wednesday morning.

Read further...

Cardinal Pell appointed to Congregation of Bishops: Is this a good thing?

Rorate mentioned Fernández de la Cigoña, who had mentioned this as a possibility on May 3rd, here as mentioned by Rorate Caeli.

Some links and coverage of Cardinal Pell's appointment to the Congregation of Bishops, here
http://te-deum.blogspot.com/2010/05/cardinal-pell-new-prefect-for.html

Damian Thompson hopes Cardinal will provide some good appointments and give more positive direction to the Church in England.

It might be premature to hope that, because Cardinal Pell has done and not done various things that don't provide for much enthusiasm on the part of some:

When he turned a blind eye to Stations of the Forest by Caritas.

When he said,in relation to John Paul II's death and the election of a new Pope that, "Sometimes the Holy Spirit gets it wrong", here.

Recently turned a blind eye to a scandalous "Gay" Mass in Sydney, here.

On the other hand, he:

Made some timely statements about Islam, here.

Denounced the so-called "primacy of conscience" which allows female religious to destroy the Church under cover of an alleged vocation, here.

Global Warming skeptic, here.

Middle East synod to help Christians witness in Muslim countries :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Vatican City, May 4, 2010 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During meetings at the Holy See from April 23-24, Middle Eastern patriarchs and Vatican prefects drew up a draft of the working document for the coming Synod. They foresee that the October assembly will strengthen Christians, revive communion between the Churches of the region, and give guidance to Christians on how to evangelize in Muslim-majority countries. This was the third meeting of the pre-synodal council in preparation for the Middle East synod which will be held at the Vatican from October 10-24.

In a May 3 statement describing the proceedings and results of the meetings, the Vatican underscored the two major objectives of the Synod as "to confirm and strengthen Christians in their identity through the Word of God and the Sacraments, and to revive the ecclesial communion between the Churches, so they may be an genuine Christian witness, in contact with other Churches and ecclesial communities.”

Organizers called the assembly "a valuable opportunity to also examine the religious and social situation, to give Christians a clear vision of how to be active witnesses of Christ in the context of Muslim-majority society."

Middle East synod to help Christians witness in Muslim countries :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Bishop Mixa's Successor is on the Way

The ramshackle Bavarian CSU-State Government has already decided who will be the next Bishop in Augsburg and Eichstätt

[Kreuz.net] The Regensburg Princess, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, has a favorite for the office of the Flight-Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg, as reported by the anti-Church Munich 'Abendzeitung' on the 3rd of May.

The Candidate of the Princess is the Prelate Wilhelm Imkamp (58), pilgrimage director at the well-known Swabian Sanctuary Maria Vesperbild in the Diocese of Augsburg.

The article in the 'Abendzeitung' serves to create an atmosphere against his person in order to hinder his naming as Bishop as well.

First a Little Praise for Diversion

"He belongs to the charismatic members of the clergy, not only because he is a fetching man," says the 'Abendzeitung' citing the Princess's comments, as she's still enthusing about the clergyman, "he preaches so clearly and relentlessly."

The "Clear text" preached by the Prelate consists in an excerpt from 'Abendzeitung' in commonplaces such as, that Catholics in Germany are a "persecuted minority", who "must resist".

The 'Abendzeitung' calls the clergyman the "Dandy of the Servants of God". He likes to wear silk shirts and gold rings.

In place of ordinary water he blesses - according to 'Abendzeitung' - Gold water from the Maria Vesperbilder spring, flecked with gold flakes.

Then the 'Abendzeitung' shows its other side.

Worse than Bishop Mixa

For the Bavarian State Government the "stock-conservative" Prelate from the Schwabia is a red cape -- said the paper with its customary objectivity.

The decadent CSU-politicians are concerned that the Prelate will follow in the neoconservative course adopted by the Flight-Bishop Mixa.

"He polarizes and divides" - will be the intoned and well-known litany of blockade.

Alone by his thoughts about Bishop Imkamp, the Chief of the Bavarian State Chancellery, Siegfried Schneider (54) as the angry red in his face glows -- reports 'Abendzeitung': "He is even worse than [Bishop] Mixa."

Schneider was one of those who sang Hosanas, as Minister of Culture, when the Flight-Bishop was installed in October 2005.

The Desired Candidate

CSU-Functionary Schneider identified Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstaett as the desired candidate of the State Government.

He lives according to the motto "humility, obedience and poverty" and could lead "everyone" in Augsburg "back together again".

One candidate the Bavarian State Government would like to emplace, who will block a Catholic successor for Mons. Hanke in Eichstaett there, is the Old Liberal Augsbuger Auxilliary Bishop and Cathedral Dean, Anton Losinger (52).

The 'Abendzeitung' portrays the expected colorless Church bureaucrats as "beloved" and as "intellectuals with extraordinary international contacts."

The Paper also mentions that the former CSU-Chief and Bavarian Ministry Head, Horst Seehofer knew Msgr Walter Mixa already from his time secular priest of Schrobenhausen.

Seehofer could actually imitate this perfectly. At a celebration of the CSU-Eichstätt he even arrived in full episcopal regalia as Mixa-Imitator.

Old Friends

With Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke - the former Abbot of the Benedictine Cloister of Plankstetten - is a close friend, again, according to 'Abendzeitung'.

"When things go especially bad for Seehofer, he submerges in the Cloister with his pal to exercise."

State Chancellor- Boss Siegfried Schneider knows the Eichstätter Bishop from their time together in a fraternity in his present episcopal city.

Mons Hanke was Schneider's freshman class director. He had the task, to bring new members into the fraternity.

At last the 'Abendblatt' said that the papal secretary Prelate Georg Gänswein also has ambitions for the See of Augsburg.

Patriarch Kirill Laments Population Implosion

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has called upon the faithful to have more children in order to repopulate their vast nation.

“What's the good of having economy, if our nation is sick?” said Patriarch Kirill. “How will we reclaim these boundless spaces, vast lands, not only in European part of Russia, but in Siberia as well?”

Heartened by news that Russia’s birthrate has increased, he added, “We hope this tendency will be stable and our people rather than strangers with alien culture and alien faith will inhabit our vast lands inherited from God and our hardworking forefathers and this greatest treasure-- our land-- will be cultivated by descendants of those who merged it to the great Russian state.”

Link to Catholic Culture..."

Double Bombing Leaves 1 Dead, 120 Injured: Pope Laments Islamic Hatred in Iraq

VATICAN CITY, MAY 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI expressed his condolences for the attack on Christian university students in Iraq over the weekend in a telegram sent to Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul.

The telegram, which was signed by the Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, stated that the Holy Father was "profoundly saddened by the tragic loss of life and for the injuries" that were caused by the Sunday bombing, reported Vatican Radio.

Fides news agency reported today that two bombs hit three buses filled with Christian students en route to the University of Mosul. The blasts left at least one passenger dead, and some 120 injured. Three students are in serious condition, and one student is in a coma.

Read Further...

Cardinal Kasper honored by Jewish Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Walter Kasper was honored last week by the American Jewish Committee for his "extraordinary" achievements in interreligious affairs.

The president of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, as well as the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was given the prestigious Isaiah Interreligious Award at the end of the committee's annual meeting, which was held Wednesday through Friday.

A committee communiqué reported Friday that the award was given in acknowledgement of the cardinal's "longstanding commitment to Jewish-Catholic dialogue and leadership in advancing understanding between the two faiths."

Read further...

Catholic Churches on Sale, Cheap

Wall Street Journal

The recent wave of accusations that the Catholic Church has mishandled sexual-abuse cases is giving new momentum to state efforts to extend the time frame for alleged victims of childhood abuse to sue the church.

Legislatures in a handful of states, including Connecticut, Arizona, New York and Michigan, as well as the territory of Guam, are considering lengthening or eliminating their statutes of limitations in sex-abuse cases. On Monday, the Florida legislature voted to abolish its time limitations in any new cases filed. The church has been lobbying against such measures, which typically apply to all sexual-abuse cases, not just those involving the church.

The state efforts to extend the time period in which people can sue for harm were begun before the latest string of allegations against the church. These include allegations against church leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, of failing to quickly defrock priests in Wisconsin, Oakland, Calif., and pockets of Europe, despite knowledge or warnings that the priests had sexually abused children.

The Vatican has denied wrongdoing in instances in which it has been accused of failing to act expeditiously in disciplining priests. It has acknowledged abuse and offered apologies for incidents of sexual abuse by priests. The pope recently ordered a delegation to investigate abuse in Irish dioceses.

Read further...

Capuchin Leader on Vocations: "You find Happiness as Part of a Mission"

When asked to reflect on the theme of the 100th anniversary of the Capuchin Franciscans' presence in the western United States - to create a culture of vocation awareness - the head of the worldwide religious community thought a moment before responding in Italian to an interpreter, fellow Capuchin Father Charles Serignat


"Yes, this is a huge challenge, of course, in a place like Los Angeles that is more and more secularized, where people are more and more concentrating on their own individual needs. And so a pursuit of happiness is seen in terms of satisfying one's own individual desires," said Father Mauro Johri, minister general of the Capuchins during an interview at St. Lawrence of Brindisi Parish in Watts. "Whereas if you're walking about raising vocational awareness, this means that you come to see that there isn't only your life, there are others as well around you.

"And so it's a question of presenting an alternative, and the alternative is that you are invited to take part in a plan that goes beyond just yourself, which involves other people," he continued. "You find happiness by being part of a mission, which is at the service of other people. That helps you to develop and to find your own fulfillment and happiness. So I think the big challenge is to help people to discover what does it mean to love. What is love all about?"

Read further...

Homosexual Policeman Arrests Man For Saying Sodomy is a Sin

[Daily Mail UK]The Rev Arthur Bentley-Taylor, 68, vicar of the Emmanuel evangelical church where Mr Mcalpine worships, said:

‘As far as I am concerned, this is about free speech. If we arrested everybody who said something we found offensive, everyone would be in prison.’

Read more...

Psychiatrist also gets short shrift for appealing his sacking for refusing to give sex therapy to gay couples, "christians have no special rights."

Read here...

Bearers of the Heavenly Jerusalem: Vatican II and Developement in Church Architecture

Adoremus Bulletin

By Denis McNamara

When I give presentations in parishes or teach in the classroom, I am often asked many intelligent questions by students, building committee members, architects, pastors, and parishioners. These questions have given me great insight into the needs and desires of the People of God. The questions that follow are among those most frequently asked, and shorter summary answers are provided here for the reader's convenience.

Didn't the Second Vatican Council do away with traditional, beautiful churches? What about "noble simplicity"?The documents of the Second Vatican Council relating to art and architecture are in complete continuity with the Church's great tradition, even as they set certain guidelines for the liturgical renewal. The document on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, asked that sacred art be composed of "signs and symbols of heavenly realities" that were meant to be expressive of "God's boundless beauty" (SC 122). It also asked that all sacred arts be "in accordance with faith, piety, and cherished traditional laws" (SC 122). It is interesting to note that the Council never used the phrase "noble simplicity" to refer to liturgical art and architecture. It actually asked that churches strive for "noble beauty" (SC 124). The term "noble simplicity" was mentioned in the Council's documents in relation to the rites (SC 34). So, beauty is in fact the goal of new church architecture, according to the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

http://sacredheartchariton.blogspot.com/

Another Bombing in Mosul aimed at Christians

(CNN) - At least one person was killed and 80 others wounded in a double bombing near the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, according to police.

A parked car bomb and a roadside bomb detonated in quick succession in Kokjali, east of Mosul, striking buses transporting mostly Christian university students. Minorities in Iraq, especially in the north of the country, including Christians, have been frequently targeted by militant groups.

Although the overall levels of violence across the country have dropped drastically compared to the height of the sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, official figures showed an increase in civilian casualties last month. At least 274 civilians were killed in April compared to 216 in March and 211 in February, according to Interior Ministry figures. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/02/1-dead-80-wounded-in-iraq-bombings/

For picture of the injured youth, please click here: http://www.ishtartv.com/viewarticle,28901.html

Jesuit Tutor of Castro Dies

MIAMI (CNS)—He taught Fidel Castro. And then his former student forced him to leave Cuba.But Jesuit Father Amando Llorente—who at one point conceived of creating a religious order of sheepherders—gathered his sheep once more in exile, re-establishing the Agrupacion Catolica Universitaria in Miami.He spent the rest of his priestly ministry "forming Catholics for the church," as he put it, in a paraphrase of Cuban patriot Jose Marti's line that "whoever would build a homeland must build up men."

http://www.americancatholic.org/news/report.aspx?id=2540

Archbishop Warns of "Civil Unrest" in Wake of UK Court Ruling against Christian Counselor

By Peter J. Smith

LONDON, April 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The clash between Christians and the state has intensified, with a UK court now having upheld the dismissal of a Christian psychologist who refused to give advice on sexual intimacy to homosexual couples - a decision the former Canterbury Archbishop Lord Carey has denounced as a prelude to “civil unrest” between Christians and the secular government.

Gary McFarlane, 48, a Bristol solicitor, father of two, and evangelical Christian, had worked part-time as a psychological counselor with Relate for five years, during which time he even gave advice to homosexual couples working out basic relationship problems. However, he was sacked from his job in 2008 when he qualified as a psychosexual counselor, because he said he could not give advice in homosexual intimacy as this violated his conscience and beliefs.

McFarlane tried without success to challenge Relate’s decision to fire him at an employment tribunal, arguing that they should have accommodated his religious views. He then appealed to the UK Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the tribunal’s ruling.

However, Lord Justice John Laws denied McFarlane’s request in a strident ruling that argued the law had no responsibility to protect the individual’s expression of conscience or religious belief.

Laws made clear that the court did not view legislation protecting individual conscience as justifiable, calling it an irrational position that “is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary."


Read further...Lifesite...

Undermining the Catholic Church - latimes.com

This is wondrous strange, a pro-Catholic Op-Ed piece in a socialist mouthpiece.

Undermining the Catholic Church - latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

Three Anglican Bishops coming to Rome

n a move likely to raise tensions between the two Churches, a group of Church of England bishops met last week with advisers of Pope Benedict XVI to set in motion steps that would allow priests to convert to Catholicism en masse.

They are set to resign their orders in opposition to the introduction of women bishops and to lead an exodus of Anglican clerics to the Catholic Church despite Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, urging them not to leave.

It would be the first time for nearly 20 years that large numbers of priests have crossed from the Church of England to Rome, and comes only weeks ahead of a crucial General Synod debate on making women bishops.

Read further...

The Anglican Patrimony, Part II

First the Prayer Book. Despite the amount of dated rhetoric that one typically finds in Catholic circles regarding Anglicanism, any superficial perusal of the 1662 Prayer Book or one of its predecessors (e.g. the 1549 Book) or one of its pre-conciliar progeny (e.g. the 1928 American Book) will quickly surprise us with how Catholic it is. A history lesson is in order here. Catholics will typically say that Anglicanism began when Henry VIII led the English Church into open schism with Rome. That is only partially the case. While it is true that Protestants tried to use the schism to their advantage, the only thing Henry did to the Church in England was to declare himself the head of it and dissolve the monasteries. The rest of the Church’s medieval edifice, so to speak, was kept intact. Under the latter part of Henry’s rule, Lutherans and those who preached against mandatory clerical celibacy and monastic vows were often forced into exile or burned at the stake; those who preached against transubstantiation were tied, drawn, and quartered. The Latin liturgy remained officially unchanged for the most part (except that the Pope was no longer prayer for) and the iconoclasm which was to blaze under Bloody Bess (Elizabeth I) was officially discouraged except in a few rare instances. Things were so bad for the Protestant cause in England at the time that one Protestant remarked, “the King has gotten rid of the Pope, but not the popery.” Nevertheless, Archbishop Cranmer, who had come to power only by making the customary oath of allegiance to the Holy See, was able to implement two slight changes in the official liturgy. Three years before Henry’s death in 1547, Cranmer cum permissu regis published an English exhortation to prayer and an English litany to be used in processions.

Unfortunately, because the exhortation was novel, it was not included later in the Prayer Book. The litany, however, which was based on that used during Rogation day processions, was essentially the same as its medieval predecessor, except that the invocations of the saints at the beginning were significantly curtailed, although not altogether eliminated. In the first Prayer Book of 1549 the invocations were completely scrapped and in this truncated form the litany has endured as a standard feature of any Prayer Book.

All of this changed when Edward VI, the boy king, came to the throne. Cranmer, by now a full-fledged heresiarch, could at last openly implement his hellish and foul agenda against the old, medieval religion in an attempt to turn England into another Geneva, but the old devil proceeded craftily. He knew he could not impose upon the English people a new religion at once, for the peasantry and a significant portion of the nobility still held to the faith of their fathers. So he went about changing the faith of his countrymen gradually. The first major step was the first all-English Prayer Book in 1549, a glorious gem of English prose. In it, Cranmer and his minions translated, edited, and simplified the medieval Latin liturgy (primarily the Sarum Use to be more precise) with which they had all grown up. As with all of its later descendants, the 1549 Book includes the entire Anglican liturgy (except the Ordinal) and from it all future versions of the Prayer Book derive, chiefly the 1662 Book and the various colonial Prayer Books.

In my next installment, I shall consider the 1549 Prayer Book in some detail and take this history up until the death of Cranmer in 1556.

Part I is, here.

What the new Missal translations ought to sound like...

As my continued series on the Anglican Patrimony is still being written, I thought some of my readers might care to read and hear aloud what glories neo-Cramnerian prose can do to the traditional liturgy. This morning, I received an email from a professor friend of mine at Ave Maria University who wanted me to translate an old prayer from the Rituale for the blessing of a soldier first going off to war (originally, as is clear from the wording of the prayer, off to one of the Crusades) into the idiom of the BCP. For those of you who read Latin, I include it also:

Deus, cunctorum in te sperantium protector, adesto supplicationibu nostris, et concede huic famulo tuo qui sincero corde gladio se primo nititur praecingere militari, ut in omnibus galea tuae virtutis sit protectus: et sicut David et Iudith contra gentis suae hostis fortitudinis potentiam victoriam tribuisti, ita tuo auxilio munitus contra hostium suorum saevitiam victor ubique existat, et ad sanctae ecclesiae tutelam proficiat; per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

O God, the guardian of all them that put their trust in thee, mercifully accept our prayers and grant that this thy servant, who with heart unfeigned striveth to gird himself with a sword of battle for the very first, may in all things be protected by the helmet of thy might; and, as Thou of old didst grant the victory unto David and Judith against the face of the enemies of their race, so, defended by thine aid, may he arise in all places the victor against the rage of his foes and advance the safeguard of thy holy church, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

All of us literati must bemoan that the Pauline Missal is not now being translated into this sort of English, for if we are going to pray in English, it should (of course!) be this English, as I'll make clear in a future post. But we can hope and pray that when the Novus Ordo turns 80 (in Advent 2049) maybe translations like this will be mandated for Latin Rite parishes everywhere. A noble cause for which to pray, fast, and do penance!