Father was a good one for corporal punishment and is very frank about it.
Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit: A German Jesuit Priest Called Father Bertram
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Another Heretical Social Justice Conference in Dallas
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Plano, which hosted Joyce Rupp in February, is now hosting a conference on ‘Parish Social Ministry Training,’ on June 11-12 at the parish. The conference will host several speakers, the headliner being Dr. Arturo Chavez of the Mexican American Catholic College. Dr. Chavez is also a member of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a PAC funded by socialist billionaire George Soros and an organization that frequently contradicts the clear doctrine of the Faith and the established authorities of the Church. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good has repeatedly expressed a willingness to “exchange” expanded welfare funding for continuing or expanded access to abortion. Dr. Chavez was also named to a Faith Advisory Council by the Obama Administration.
Read further...
Another such conference, hosted by radio personality Garrison Keillor, was held in Minnesota earlier. It's very hard to see how they are able to hold these things without the approval of the ordinary. The conference in Minnesota wasn't stopped, although Archbishop Nienstedt did "object" to it going on.
Bishop Müller of Augsburg Decries SSPX Ordinations, Again
Regensburg's Bishop attempts to stir the pot on the SSPX's upcoming ordinations in Germany this year on June 26 in Zaitzkofen as announced on their website, here. The local ordinary, Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who undoubtedly has bigger fish to fry, wants to make trouble.
Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller speaks of a "provocation". One such demonstration could do possible damage the reconciliation of the Society of Saint Pius with the Catholic Church.
Zaitzkofen/Regensburg (kath.net/KNA) The traditional Society of Saint Pius propose the 26th of June to ordain three deacons to the Priesthood. The General head Bishop Bernard Fellay will confer the Sacrament by a Mass in the courtyard of the Seminary in the Upper-Pfalz town of Zaitzkofen, as explained by the internet site of the Society. The three candidates are a 62 year old from Sweden, a 37 year old from Czechia and a 28 year old from South Tirol.
The Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller in whose Diocese Zaitzkofen sits, spoke on Monday of a "provocation". One such demonstration may damage the Society of Saint Pius' re-unification with the Catholic Church. At the same time he encourages the Society to forgo ordination till the status of their orders is clarified. Such events should "only be undertaken with the permission and knowledge of the Pope".
Already in the past year, Müller had criticized the then undertaken ordinations. He renews again his claim that it is an act of schism by the Society to ordain priests without the express authorization of the Pope and without the permission of the local Bishop. Whoever refuses to acknowledge the Second Vatican Council or parts thereof, may not have the full Communion of the Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI. had lifted the excommunications of the four Bishops of the Society in January of 2009, including Fellay, in order to initiate a dialogue. Since then there have been talks in the Vatican with the Society to clarify points of contention in Doctrine.
The Society of Saint Pius X, founded in 1969 by Archbishop Lefebvre deny the central Church reforms of the 20th Century. They are not recognized by the Vatican. Unauthorized priestly ordinations by validly ordaiend Bishops are valid according to Catholic Church law even though they lack the permission of the Pope.
Photo: Diocese of Augsburg
The Architect as Totalitarian by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2009
Theodore Dalrymple
[City] Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform. In one sense, he had less excuse for his activities than Pol Pot: for unlike the Cambodian, he possessed great talent, even genius. Unfortunately, he turned his gifts to destructive ends, and it is no coincidence that he willingly served both Stalin and Vichy. Like Pol Pot, he wanted to start from Year Zero: before me, nothing; after me, everything. By their very presence, the raw-concrete-clad rectangular towers that obsessed him canceled out centuries of architecture. Hardly any town or city in Britain (to take just one nation) has not had its composition wrecked by architects and planners inspired by his ideas.
The Architect as Totalitarian by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2009
German Liberal Archbishop Zollitsch Charged in Abuse
This must certainly be payback for stabbing Bishop Mixa of Augsburg in the back, or at least, this is well deserved; it's poetic justice. We certainly hope that the head of the German Bishop's Conference expresses remorse for letting Bishop Mixa go down over an empty accusation of sexual abuse and engaging in what was a number of years ago a normal way of educating students with corporal punishment.
You should also note the comparative kid gloves treatment being meted out to Cardinal Mahony in the United States, owing perhaps to Germany's traditional animus against the Catholic Church which criminals of ++Mahony's mind in Germany give provide them with ammunition.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
[RTE] Germany's top Catholic bishop has been charged with aiding and abetting a known abuser by allowing him to get a new job in a German parish.
Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops' Conference and archbishop of Freiburg, was accused by prosecutors in Freiburg in southwest Germany of permitting a priest accused of child abuse in the 1960s to be reappointed to a parish job in 1987.
However the Church in Freiburg accused the prosecutors and media of 'sensationalism' by talking of charges of 'aiding and abetting sexual abuse' against the 71-year-old archbishop and denied that the appointment was his direct responsibility.
Read further...
Archbishop Zollitsch, of course, for those who do not know has been explicitly hostile to Tradition, so his inevitable resignation won't be a sad thing, it won't be a bad thing, here at the Remnant by Michael Matt,
Never mind that the head of the German Bishops Conference, Bishop Zollitsch, recently told Meinhard Schmidt-Degenhard in an interview on German television that the death of Jesus Christ was not a redemptive act of God to liberate human beings from the bondage of sin. “Christ did not die,” argued the bishop “for the sins of the people as if God had provided a sacrificial offering, like a scapegoat.” No, Jesus offered only “solidarity” with the poor and suffering.
And here we all thought Christ was the sacrificial lamb, crucified on the altar of the Cross in order to redeem sinful men and reopen the gates of Heaven! What were we thinking?
Well, at least the bishop didn’t question the number of victims of the Holocaust or anything serious like that. Sure, back in February of 2008, he did claim that priestly celibacy should be voluntary and is not “theologically necessary”; and it’s true that he is in favor of homosexual civil unions; but the really important thing is that Bishop Zollitsch is in “full communion with Rome”. Right?
Of course, some of ++Zollitsch's concerns took place over problems with SSPX ordinations which were happening last year. One wonders if he won't be too preoccupied to take issue about them again this year; more later.
Catholic Bishop Murdered Thursday in Turkey
The Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia was stabbed to death by his driver named at this point as, A Murat. The man has a history of mental illness.
It is the most recent of many attacks in Turkey on Christians and this attack comes two days before Holy Father's visit to Turkish occupied Cyprus, which the Turkish government invaded in 1974.
Related links, Tornielli, here,
Background on the Turkish Invasion of 1974, here.
It is the most recent of many attacks in Turkey on Christians and this attack comes two days before Holy Father's visit to Turkish occupied Cyprus, which the Turkish government invaded in 1974.
Related links, Tornielli, here,
In 2007, a Roman Catholic priest in the western city of Izmir, Adriano Franchini, was stabbed and slightly wounded in the stomach by a 19-year-old man after Sunday Mass. The man was arrested.
The same year, a group of men entered a Bible-publishing house in the central Anatolian city of Malatya and killed three Christians, including a German national. The five alleged killers are now standing trial for murder.
The killings – in which the victims were tied up and had their throats slit – drew international condemnation and added to Western concerns about whether Turkey can protect its religious minorities.
In 2006, amid widespread anger in Islamic countries over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a 16-year-old boy shot dead a Catholic priest, Father Andrea Santoro, as he prayed in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. The boy was convicted of murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
In a 2006 telephone interview with The Associated Press, following another knife attack that injured another priest, Padovese expressed concern over the safety of Catholics priests in Turkey.
"The climate has changed," he said. "It is the Catholic priests that are being targeted."
Background on the Turkish Invasion of 1974, here.
Prosecutor says insufficient evidence found to charge LA cardinal in clergy abuse scandal
Turning Cardinal Mahony over to the secular arm for punishment would solve so many problems.
They'd at least be better off charging him with heresy and letting him fend for himself on Social Security after they suspend him.
Of course, the California legal system stumbled and fell when it came to prosecuting Michael Jackson as well, who may not have been as prolific as Cardinal Mahony, but certainly acted with about as much impunity. At least mediaeval justice obtained a conviction against Gilles de Rais.
By GILLIAN FLACCUS , Associated Press
Last update: June 2, 2010 - 5:14 PM
"LOS ANGELES - An eight-year investigation into how the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles handled clergy abuse cases suggests "the possibility of criminal culpability" by members of the archdiocese leadership, but investigators don't have enough evidence to file charges, a lead prosecutor wrote in a memo provided Wednesday.
The investigation of alleged sex abuse by priests remains active, but a criminal conspiracy case against archdiocese officials was "more and more remote" because of the passage of time, Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman said in the May 26 memo.
Investigators have insufficient evidence to fill in a timeline stretching over 20 years and are hampered by the statute of limitations, wrote Hodgman, who did not name any church leaders by name in the sections of the three-page memo that were not redacted.
The district attorney's office subpoenaed documents from the archdiocese and hoped to use the material to build more cases, but the effort was stymied by reluctant victims and insufficient evidence to corroborate what was in the documents, the memo said. The memo was released in response to questions about District Attorney Steve Cooley's handling of the priest abuse investigation, which began in 2002. Cooley is in the final week of a campaign to become the Republican nominee for California attorney general.
Cardinal Roger Mahony has come under fire for his handling of several abusive priests during his tenure in the Los Angeles archdiocese and agreed to pay $660 million in 2007 to more than 500 alleged clergy abuse victims.
A federal grand jury is also probing the archdiocese's handling of the scandal and has subpoenaed a former Los Angeles priest convicted of child molestation and a monsignor who served as vicar for clergy under Mahony. Mahony's attorney Michael Hennigan has said the cardinal was not a target of the investigation. Hennigan did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.
Hodgman's memo only refers to the church hierarchy. It does not name Mahony as a subject of its investigation.
Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said he had not seen the memo. Still, any suggestion of criminal wrongdoing by Mahony or others in the church leadership was false, he said. "Our documents and actions have been scrutinized for nearly 10 years by judges and investigators, and numerous archdiocesan officials have spent hundreds of hours answering questions under oath," he said. "While Cardinal Mahony has said that mistakes were made in dealing with individual cases of abuse in past decades, no facts have established that these mistakes were anything other than mistakes," Tamberg said.
Prosecutors have won convictions against six priests since 2002 and were forced to dismiss 11 cases in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court found a law that extended the statute of limitations in some sex abuse cases was unconstitutional. Investigators are currently pursuing a case against another priest, the memo said.
Clergy abuse victims reacted angrily to Hodgman's findings and accused Cooley of not doing enough to crack down on the archdiocese and Mahony.
"We know church officials and church lawyers are extremely shrewd. Still, it's boggling that Cooley can't find a single member of the hundreds of the Los Angeles archdiocesan staff who can be charged," Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. said in a prepared statement.
Mahony, 74, will retire next year. His replacement, Archbishop Jose Gomez, was welcomed to the archdiocese in a special Mass last week and will serve alongside Mahony until his retirement."
Link to original...
Further Signs of Impending Demise for American Monasticism
It's a brief reprieve as one failed monastery goes to a failing monastery. The decline of liberal Catholic Monasteries is probably irreversible and in a decade or so, a very modern Monastery will go the way of the dodo. If the materialists are correct, then Monastic life is just one more organism which has seen its time come and gone. Perhaps it's more likely that the nuns, most of whom accept that thesis themselves, are simply participating in the demise of their own religious houses?
Sisterhood ends where it began for 2 merging nuns
By PATRICK CONDON (AP)
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — Sister Mary David Olheiser and Sister Helenette Baltes professed their vows together in 1936 as two of the 21 new sisters to join the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict that year. At the time, their central Minnesota Roman Catholic monastery was overflowing with youth and energy.
Sixty-two years later, the classmates and old friends are together again. St. Benedict is taking St. Bede back into its fold. The smaller group is facing demographic realities by closing its Wisconsin monastery and moving 29 remaining sisters back to Minnesota.
"It's just a blessing," said Helenette, 94, of her reunion with the 92-year-old Mary David.
It also reflects the massive changes in the lives of nuns in their lifetimes, as once-flourishing orders merge or close. A 2009 Georgetown University study for the National Religious Vocation Conference found the median age in Catholic women's orders to be in the mid 70s, and that 34 percent of religious women's orders surveyed had no new candidates for the sisterhood. About half of those orders with new candidates had at most one or two in the pipeline.
Fordham University, Fordham Observer - Fordham Faculty Wins Equal Benefits After Four-Year Fight
Fordham University, Fordham Observer - Fordham Faculty Wins Equal Benefits After Four-Year Fight
Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé has worked at Fordham University for 23 years as a professor of Spanish and comparative literature and is the chair of department of modern languages and literature. In those 23 years, his partner was not afforded the same benefits as the spouses of Cruz-Malavé’s heterosexual colleagues. But on April 30, the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, approved benefits that will provide Cruz-Malave’s partner with health insurance.
“For the first time... at Fordham I will be able to seek comfort in the fact that my partner of 33 years, now my spouse, will have guaranteed health insurance,” said Cruz-Malavé. Cruz-Malavé and his spouse are legally married in the state of Massachusetts.
Faculty members fought for four years to extend equal benefits for every member of the faculty, regardless of sexual orientation. Previously, legally domiciled adults (LDAs) were not recognized in the faculty’s benefits package. This means that same-sex marriages and partnerships, including relationships between two men, two women, or between an unmarried man and woman, were not afforded the same benefits as marriages between heterosexual individuals. LDA benefits also extend to faculty members who may be responsible for caring for an elderly parent or another dependent adult in their household.
The benefits package will be based on the model the University of San Francisco uses. The benefits include health care, access to Fordham facilities and tuition redemption. Each member of the faculty will be allowed to claim one individual for their LDA benefits. There are two classes of LDA benefits: one for domestic partners, the other for dependent adults. Each class includes various requirements and validation, but as Patrick Hornbeck, an asst. professor of theology and a member of the committee on salary and benefits, said, “It’s equality. Every member [of the faculty] gets the option.”
On the day McShane announced that LDA benefits were approved, those attending the meeting offered a standing ovation. Elizabeth Cooper, associate professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, said, “I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for taking this wonderful step. There are now people who are considering to work for Fordham, people considering to study at Fordham, who had not done so before. His mission is to improve the vegetation of this wonderful school and he took a very significant step in doing that.”
Multiple faculty members cited opposition by Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York State, as the reason McShane refused to approved LDA benefits prior to the April 30 faculty senate meeting. It was speculated that Dolan did not agree that domestic partnerships should receive the same rights as traditional marriages.
However, Dolan was quoted in a Sept. 20, 2009 issue of New York Magazine in support of equal health benefits for all people. This raised the question of whether the waiting period prior to approval was the result of moral or financial debate.
Andrew Clark, associate professor of French and comparative literature and chair of the committee on salary and benefits for the faculty senate, said that McShane announced that he had informed Dolan of his decision, and McShane was willing to put LDA benefits in place for all faculty members.
“I’m very happy. I think we’re finally treating our community as a whole, and it means good things for Fordham,” Clark said. “The response of the faculty senate and the people in audience was one of joy and thanks and relief.”
Hornbeck said, “It’s a moment where we feel a lot of relief and joy and great deal of peace for an issue the faculty has been fighting for so long... It’s a remarkable sign of what the Fordham community can do when it puts its mind to doing important things for justice.”
There was unanimous faculty senate vote to extend LDA benefits in 2006. On Dec. 4, 2009, the faculty senate met with McShane to discuss LDA benefits with a presentation by Cooper.
Clark said, “[McShane] agreed to hear out our presentations, but he demanded that it be listening only and that he wouldn’t take questions or make a response.” The salary and benefits committee, in charge of creating the salary and benefits package for all faculty members in the University, decided to refuse to begin annual negotiations until LDA benefits were approved.
Prior to the approval of LDA benefits, Clark said, “We have refused to do any salary and benefits negotiations that don’t include LDA benefits. The University can’t fully function without a budget.”
“The benefits money is the faculty’s money. It comes out of our pot. The University can vote to give us a larger pot, but we always had the authority to divide the pot as we want. That’s why we decided to make the decision through salary and benefits because there was no movement anywhere else so we figured since we have the authority we would like to include LDA benefits into that,” Clark said.
Faculty members heard rumors the week prior to the LDA approval announcement. Hornbeck said, “It just happened that the day I learned that LDA benefits might happen was the day that my partner started his new job at Columbia. He had been job searching and the lack of benefits was a real concern for us. The fact that he took up a new position eased our immediate needs, but the campaign for LDA benefits was broader than that. It was about the principle that if we are all part of the Fordham family, all Fordham families deserve equal treatment.”
It will take a few months before LDA benefits are put into action. The companies that provide insurance coverage to the University must rewrite their packages, and Fordham must rewrite their statutes to extend the language beyond spouses to include LDAs. There’s an open enrollment in the fall, when Clark and Hornbeck said they would like to have the benefits in place. Clark said, “We hope to have the LDA benefits in place by Jan. 1, 2011, at the latest.”
“It’s very real. [A faculty member may] have a partner and they’ve been paying $1,600 out of pocket, and, now, they won’t be, and that’s huge,” Clark said. “The general feeling is one of happiness and great relief and a sense of peace at the University.”
Hornbeck said, “Walking into campus on Monday, I felt a sense of calm and welcome that I hadn’t quite felt in the same way before. I had previously had a nagging sense that spoke of inequality; this decision has gone a long way toward rectifying that... It puts us in a league of Jesuit institutions that say that social justice is not incompatible with Catholic identity.”
Cooper said, “I used to be embarrassed when people asked me does Fordham have LDA benefits, or partner benefits, and I would have to say we didn’t... I’m just so proud to say we do.”
Cruz-Malavé said, “It’s been a struggle, but what has been most rewarding and touching for me has been the way in which in these long five years so many of our colleagues and students have made our cause their cause and have insisted that there cannot be a Fordham that is fair, equitable and moral if LGBT colleagues and their families are not treated with equal dignity.”
Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé has worked at Fordham University for 23 years as a professor of Spanish and comparative literature and is the chair of department of modern languages and literature. In those 23 years, his partner was not afforded the same benefits as the spouses of Cruz-Malavé’s heterosexual colleagues. But on April 30, the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, approved benefits that will provide Cruz-Malave’s partner with health insurance.
“For the first time... at Fordham I will be able to seek comfort in the fact that my partner of 33 years, now my spouse, will have guaranteed health insurance,” said Cruz-Malavé. Cruz-Malavé and his spouse are legally married in the state of Massachusetts.
Faculty members fought for four years to extend equal benefits for every member of the faculty, regardless of sexual orientation. Previously, legally domiciled adults (LDAs) were not recognized in the faculty’s benefits package. This means that same-sex marriages and partnerships, including relationships between two men, two women, or between an unmarried man and woman, were not afforded the same benefits as marriages between heterosexual individuals. LDA benefits also extend to faculty members who may be responsible for caring for an elderly parent or another dependent adult in their household.
The benefits package will be based on the model the University of San Francisco uses. The benefits include health care, access to Fordham facilities and tuition redemption. Each member of the faculty will be allowed to claim one individual for their LDA benefits. There are two classes of LDA benefits: one for domestic partners, the other for dependent adults. Each class includes various requirements and validation, but as Patrick Hornbeck, an asst. professor of theology and a member of the committee on salary and benefits, said, “It’s equality. Every member [of the faculty] gets the option.”
On the day McShane announced that LDA benefits were approved, those attending the meeting offered a standing ovation. Elizabeth Cooper, associate professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, said, “I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for taking this wonderful step. There are now people who are considering to work for Fordham, people considering to study at Fordham, who had not done so before. His mission is to improve the vegetation of this wonderful school and he took a very significant step in doing that.”
Multiple faculty members cited opposition by Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York State, as the reason McShane refused to approved LDA benefits prior to the April 30 faculty senate meeting. It was speculated that Dolan did not agree that domestic partnerships should receive the same rights as traditional marriages.
However, Dolan was quoted in a Sept. 20, 2009 issue of New York Magazine in support of equal health benefits for all people. This raised the question of whether the waiting period prior to approval was the result of moral or financial debate.
Andrew Clark, associate professor of French and comparative literature and chair of the committee on salary and benefits for the faculty senate, said that McShane announced that he had informed Dolan of his decision, and McShane was willing to put LDA benefits in place for all faculty members.
“I’m very happy. I think we’re finally treating our community as a whole, and it means good things for Fordham,” Clark said. “The response of the faculty senate and the people in audience was one of joy and thanks and relief.”
Hornbeck said, “It’s a moment where we feel a lot of relief and joy and great deal of peace for an issue the faculty has been fighting for so long... It’s a remarkable sign of what the Fordham community can do when it puts its mind to doing important things for justice.”
There was unanimous faculty senate vote to extend LDA benefits in 2006. On Dec. 4, 2009, the faculty senate met with McShane to discuss LDA benefits with a presentation by Cooper.
Clark said, “[McShane] agreed to hear out our presentations, but he demanded that it be listening only and that he wouldn’t take questions or make a response.” The salary and benefits committee, in charge of creating the salary and benefits package for all faculty members in the University, decided to refuse to begin annual negotiations until LDA benefits were approved.
Prior to the approval of LDA benefits, Clark said, “We have refused to do any salary and benefits negotiations that don’t include LDA benefits. The University can’t fully function without a budget.”
“The benefits money is the faculty’s money. It comes out of our pot. The University can vote to give us a larger pot, but we always had the authority to divide the pot as we want. That’s why we decided to make the decision through salary and benefits because there was no movement anywhere else so we figured since we have the authority we would like to include LDA benefits into that,” Clark said.
Faculty members heard rumors the week prior to the LDA approval announcement. Hornbeck said, “It just happened that the day I learned that LDA benefits might happen was the day that my partner started his new job at Columbia. He had been job searching and the lack of benefits was a real concern for us. The fact that he took up a new position eased our immediate needs, but the campaign for LDA benefits was broader than that. It was about the principle that if we are all part of the Fordham family, all Fordham families deserve equal treatment.”
It will take a few months before LDA benefits are put into action. The companies that provide insurance coverage to the University must rewrite their packages, and Fordham must rewrite their statutes to extend the language beyond spouses to include LDAs. There’s an open enrollment in the fall, when Clark and Hornbeck said they would like to have the benefits in place. Clark said, “We hope to have the LDA benefits in place by Jan. 1, 2011, at the latest.”
“It’s very real. [A faculty member may] have a partner and they’ve been paying $1,600 out of pocket, and, now, they won’t be, and that’s huge,” Clark said. “The general feeling is one of happiness and great relief and a sense of peace at the University.”
Hornbeck said, “Walking into campus on Monday, I felt a sense of calm and welcome that I hadn’t quite felt in the same way before. I had previously had a nagging sense that spoke of inequality; this decision has gone a long way toward rectifying that... It puts us in a league of Jesuit institutions that say that social justice is not incompatible with Catholic identity.”
Cooper said, “I used to be embarrassed when people asked me does Fordham have LDA benefits, or partner benefits, and I would have to say we didn’t... I’m just so proud to say we do.”
Cruz-Malavé said, “It’s been a struggle, but what has been most rewarding and touching for me has been the way in which in these long five years so many of our colleagues and students have made our cause their cause and have insisted that there cannot be a Fordham that is fair, equitable and moral if LGBT colleagues and their families are not treated with equal dignity.”
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
10 Other Nations Back up Italy on Crucifix Ruling: More Orthodox Cooperation
Catholic and Orthodox Join in Alliance
STRASBOURG, France, JUNE 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The "crucifix trial" in the European Court of Human Rights has given rise to an unprecedented intervention of 10 member States as third parties.
The European Centre for Law and Justice, which was also authorized to become a third party in the court hearing regarding the legitimacy of displaying crucifixes in Italian schools, reported today that ten other States will have this amicus curiae status in the "Lautsi vs. Italy" case.
This case was referred to the Grand Chamber when the Italian government appealed a decision issued by the Second Section of the court last November, which spoke against the presence of the crucifix in classrooms.
These States, all of which are supporting Italy in the desire to overturn last November's decision, include: Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, San-Marino, Romania, and The Russian Federation.
Read further...
STRASBOURG, France, JUNE 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The "crucifix trial" in the European Court of Human Rights has given rise to an unprecedented intervention of 10 member States as third parties.
The European Centre for Law and Justice, which was also authorized to become a third party in the court hearing regarding the legitimacy of displaying crucifixes in Italian schools, reported today that ten other States will have this amicus curiae status in the "Lautsi vs. Italy" case.
This case was referred to the Grand Chamber when the Italian government appealed a decision issued by the Second Section of the court last November, which spoke against the presence of the crucifix in classrooms.
These States, all of which are supporting Italy in the desire to overturn last November's decision, include: Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, San-Marino, Romania, and The Russian Federation.
Read further...
Liberal Archbishop of Freiburg Investigated for Sex Abuse Claims
Prosecutors say they are investigating the leader of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops on suspicion of aiding and abetting the sexual abuse of children.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg is suspected of allowing the re-appointment of a priest accused of child abuse in 1987.
Archbishop Zollitsch was in charge of personnel in Freiburg at the time.
The archdiocese rejected the charge, accusing prosecutors and the media of "sensationalism".
Read further..,
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg is suspected of allowing the re-appointment of a priest accused of child abuse in 1987.
Archbishop Zollitsch was in charge of personnel in Freiburg at the time.
The archdiocese rejected the charge, accusing prosecutors and the media of "sensationalism".
Read further..,
Pink Slip from Rome: for Cardinal Schönborn
Pope Benedict should let the Vienna Archbishop, Cardinal Schönborn, in on his renewed astonishment.
[Kreuz.net] Benedict XVI has written the Archbishop of Vienna a letter.
The report is from Vaticanist, Andrew Tornielli on his BLOG, referring to the Italian paper, 'Il Foglio'.
The reason for the letter from Rome is the most recent attack of Cardinal Schönborn against his fellow Bishop, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Sodano.
The Vienese Cardinal had implicated him in an attempt to frustrate an investigation, which in was launched in the year 1995 against the then Vienese Cardinal Archbishop Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër (+2003).
In the most recent letter the Pope should express his astonishment at the declarations Cardinal Schönborn was to have expressed. This brought about a giant media uproar.
Tornielli wrote: "According to what I could say from experience, the letter was the second written because of the criticism against Cardinal Sodano, that the Pope had sent the Archbishop of Vienna, his friend and student."
And: "A first letter should have should have addressed the Medjugorje trip six months ago, and above all the explanations of Cardinal Schonborn once in Medjugorje.
Reader "Marco N' commented: "This 'fidgety', ubiquitous, inopportune in all of his inopportune comments and lover of orgiastic Homo-Painting should have earned a well-deserved telegram from the Pope."
Original article, here...
Cardinal Schonborn also missed a meeting with the Congregation of the Faith today with fifteen Cardinals three Archbishops and two Bishops. It's not considered a mark of trust and the local media are at a loss to explain the Cardinal's absence, except by pointing out that he has to attend a lecture given Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor (78) on the theme "Leben wir in einem säkularen Zeitalter?"
[Kreuz.net] Benedict XVI has written the Archbishop of Vienna a letter.
The report is from Vaticanist, Andrew Tornielli on his BLOG, referring to the Italian paper, 'Il Foglio'.
The reason for the letter from Rome is the most recent attack of Cardinal Schönborn against his fellow Bishop, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Sodano.
The Vienese Cardinal had implicated him in an attempt to frustrate an investigation, which in was launched in the year 1995 against the then Vienese Cardinal Archbishop Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër (+2003).
In the most recent letter the Pope should express his astonishment at the declarations Cardinal Schönborn was to have expressed. This brought about a giant media uproar.
Tornielli wrote: "According to what I could say from experience, the letter was the second written because of the criticism against Cardinal Sodano, that the Pope had sent the Archbishop of Vienna, his friend and student."
And: "A first letter should have should have addressed the Medjugorje trip six months ago, and above all the explanations of Cardinal Schonborn once in Medjugorje.
Reader "Marco N' commented: "This 'fidgety', ubiquitous, inopportune in all of his inopportune comments and lover of orgiastic Homo-Painting should have earned a well-deserved telegram from the Pope."
Original article, here...
Cardinal Schonborn also missed a meeting with the Congregation of the Faith today with fifteen Cardinals three Archbishops and two Bishops. It's not considered a mark of trust and the local media are at a loss to explain the Cardinal's absence, except by pointing out that he has to attend a lecture given Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor (78) on the theme "Leben wir in einem säkularen Zeitalter?"
London Oratory to dedicate side chapel to Cardinal Newman
By Anna Arco
22 January 2010
[The Catholic Herald] The London Oratory has announced that it will dedicate one of its chapels to Cardinal John Henry Newman to coincide with his beatification.
This is among the first chapels to be dedicated to the convert cardinal who is due to be beatified in September.
The Fathers of the London Oratory hope to have the chapel finished in time for the beatification. The news was announced at Mass last week. A copy of a 1881 famous portrait by the renowned pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, will hang in the chapel. The chapel itself will take the place of the Cavalry chapel on the left side of the nave facing the altar, behind the statue of St Peter and next to the Lady Chapel.
John Henry Newman founded the first Oratory in Britain in Birmingham in 1849. Britain's other two Oratories, in London and in Oxford, were founded from Birmingham. Fr Wilfrid Faber, another convert from Anglicanism, who had joined the new Birmingham Oratory, eventually established the London Oratory in 1849.
Newman's Cause was opened in 1958 and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared him Venerable in 1991. The next step in the process required a miracle. Jack Sullivan, a deacon in Massachusetts, prayed for Cardinal Newman's intercession while suffering from a debilitating spinal disorder and was inexplicably cured in 2001.
Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle in July last year, declaring the beatification imminent. It is likely to be the high point of the Pope's visit to Britain in September and Vatican watchers believe he will himself perform the beatification, departing from norms he set for beatifications in 2005.
Link to original.. Catholic Herald...
22 January 2010
[The Catholic Herald] The London Oratory has announced that it will dedicate one of its chapels to Cardinal John Henry Newman to coincide with his beatification.
This is among the first chapels to be dedicated to the convert cardinal who is due to be beatified in September.
The Fathers of the London Oratory hope to have the chapel finished in time for the beatification. The news was announced at Mass last week. A copy of a 1881 famous portrait by the renowned pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, will hang in the chapel. The chapel itself will take the place of the Cavalry chapel on the left side of the nave facing the altar, behind the statue of St Peter and next to the Lady Chapel.
John Henry Newman founded the first Oratory in Britain in Birmingham in 1849. Britain's other two Oratories, in London and in Oxford, were founded from Birmingham. Fr Wilfrid Faber, another convert from Anglicanism, who had joined the new Birmingham Oratory, eventually established the London Oratory in 1849.
Newman's Cause was opened in 1958 and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared him Venerable in 1991. The next step in the process required a miracle. Jack Sullivan, a deacon in Massachusetts, prayed for Cardinal Newman's intercession while suffering from a debilitating spinal disorder and was inexplicably cured in 2001.
Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle in July last year, declaring the beatification imminent. It is likely to be the high point of the Pope's visit to Britain in September and Vatican watchers believe he will himself perform the beatification, departing from norms he set for beatifications in 2005.
Link to original.. Catholic Herald...
Russia Wants to Make Abortion Illegal
Russia was one of the first countries to legalize abortion and may be one of the first modern countries to repeal it.
[Reuters] Analysts say reducing Russia's high abortion rate -- one of the world's highest -- could be one of the keys to saving the country from a demographic disaster.
Russia registered 1.2 million abortions and 1.7 million births last year, according to the Health Ministry.
Since the fall almost 20 years ago of the Soviet Union, which encouraged new births with prizes and money, Russia's population has steadily dropped. It shrunk by more than 12 million between 1992 and 2008.
Read further...
[Reuters] Analysts say reducing Russia's high abortion rate -- one of the world's highest -- could be one of the keys to saving the country from a demographic disaster.
Russia registered 1.2 million abortions and 1.7 million births last year, according to the Health Ministry.
Since the fall almost 20 years ago of the Soviet Union, which encouraged new births with prizes and money, Russia's population has steadily dropped. It shrunk by more than 12 million between 1992 and 2008.
Read further...
Cypriot Bishop is Unhappy with the Pope's Visit
Bishop of Limmosol Cyprus is ignoring his Archbishop's warnings by criticizing the Pope's visit and calling the Pope a "heretic". It's hard to believe that he wouldn't be aware of what his ordinary said in this regard, but he says he's unaware of this warning and insists that he is not outside of the Church.
NCR frequently gets things wrong and misquotes people while imposing their own strange perspectives on others. It may be true that Bishop Athanasios believes that the Pope is a heretic, he says as much, but he's not actually opposed to reaching out. He never said, "I am opposed to the Pope because he's reaching out to us." He actually said that he's not opposed to dialoguing with the Pope, but only putting him in the position of a student to learn Orthodoxy.
Here's what the Bishop actually said:
He was also scandalized by the Pope's half-million-dollar bulletproof car. Oh well.
Cf. Voices from Russia, here.
NCR frequently gets things wrong and misquotes people while imposing their own strange perspectives on others. It may be true that Bishop Athanasios believes that the Pope is a heretic, he says as much, but he's not actually opposed to reaching out. He never said, "I am opposed to the Pope because he's reaching out to us." He actually said that he's not opposed to dialoguing with the Pope, but only putting him in the position of a student to learn Orthodoxy.
One of the most prominent and vocal opponents is the Bishop of Limassol, Athanasios, who, in an interview a few days ago, called the Pope a “heretic” because of his willingness to reach out to the Orthodox. Bishop Athanasios was once tipped to become head of the Cypriot Orthodox church.
Here's what the Bishop actually said:
It can, if we do it properly and base it on the right presuppositions. Unfortunately, as it is carried out today, it does not produce results, and that is why they have carried on discussions for so many years without coming to any conclusions.
Frankly, and above all, I disagree with the coming of the Pope to Cyprus, and I say with my whole soul that the Pope is a heretic, he is not a bishop, he is not an Orthodox Christian, and this is what the Holy Fathers say. If I am wrong, I am ready to be corrected, but based on the Holy Fathers, not based on the mindset of globalisation. Just because I disagree does not mean that I am being disorderly and am outside the Church [as some have claimed].
The Pope always speaks in a formal manner, he says things which are customary [to his position], as he will say now that he will come to Cyprus, but he will do nothing of essence, because he is not the leader of the Church, but a political person, who cannot come into conflict with the political establishment and system. Did the Pope ever speak up for the Orthodox Church? … However, I am not going back [to a distant past]. The reasons I am reacting today are purely theological. When I was consecrated a bishop, I pledged to preserve the Orthodox Faith.
He was also scandalized by the Pope's half-million-dollar bulletproof car. Oh well.
Cf. Voices from Russia, here.
Sioux City Archdiocese Explains Firing of Atheist Teacher
[EWTN] On Tuesday, the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Sioux City, Kristie Arlt, defended the decision to release a diocesan teacher who made statements supporting atheism. In an interview with EWTN, Arlt explained the reasons behind her dismissal saying that parents send their children to Catholic schools with the expectations that they will be under the instruction of teachers who believe in God.
Arlt said that Abby Nurre, was fired from her position as an eighth-grade math teacher at St. Edmond Catholic School “due to the fact that she stated that she did not believe in God.” Arlt explained that all diocesan teachers are required by contract to uphold the teachings of Catholic faith, regardless of what subject they teach.
Nurre, who was hired last summer, participated in a Facebook poll in August that asked if she believed in God, miracles or heaven. She responded “no,” and her response was posted on her Facebook page, reported the Des Moines Register. While Nurre later testified that her Facebook page was accessible only to designated friends and not to students, Arlt told CNA that several children from the school were aware of the Facebook post and alerted faculty members to it.
Link to EWTN...
Arlt said that Abby Nurre, was fired from her position as an eighth-grade math teacher at St. Edmond Catholic School “due to the fact that she stated that she did not believe in God.” Arlt explained that all diocesan teachers are required by contract to uphold the teachings of Catholic faith, regardless of what subject they teach.
Nurre, who was hired last summer, participated in a Facebook poll in August that asked if she believed in God, miracles or heaven. She responded “no,” and her response was posted on her Facebook page, reported the Des Moines Register. While Nurre later testified that her Facebook page was accessible only to designated friends and not to students, Arlt told CNA that several children from the school were aware of the Facebook post and alerted faculty members to it.
Link to EWTN...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Why Lutherans are Leaving the ELCA
After a number of ill-advised course deviations over the years, those at the helm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have piloted the denomination into a deadly collision with the same iceberg that has caused other Christian bodies to fracture and sink. For many, the Churchwide Assembly votes in August 2009 — to affirm same-sex unions and lower the sexual standards of clergy — will go down in history as the defining moment of impact.
But the real danger in hitting an iceberg is that only a small portion of it can be seen above the surface. The greater problem is what lies underneath and cannot easily be seen.
Read further...
But the real danger in hitting an iceberg is that only a small portion of it can be seen above the surface. The greater problem is what lies underneath and cannot easily be seen.
Read further...
The Soufflé of the Spirit at Clermont, France: Pentecost
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At the Diocese of Clermont, where once Pope Urban II preached to a multitude and inspired the Nation of France to take up the Cross and march in defense of the Holy Land, there's something different and strange afoot.
What is happening here is an event that was foretold in the work of the Sillon, and Eric Sagnier.
Related articles:
Here, at traditio.org, condemnation of Sillon by New Advent, here.
If you study the condemnation of the Sillon, you'll see certain features which are redolent of the kinds of displays we see below in the name of the principles the Sillon promotes.
Stealth Deaconesses?
The fourth back is the one we're referring to.
Bizarre Rites of a New Religion?
Forbidden Liturgical Dancing?
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