Swedish Father Jailed for Homeschooling

As with a lot of things, a government monopoly is not a good thing.  In this case, the Swedish government doesn't like competition for its educational system and practicing the art of free enterprise is a dastardly crime.

PURCELLVILLE, Va., Dec. 6, 2010 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christer Johansson, the father of 9 year-old Domenic Johansson, and husband of Annie Johansson, was recently jailed by Swedish authorities after taking his son home for a short but "unapproved" overnight visit.

"The Swedish government has created an intolerable situation for this family, and have overreacted to Mr. Johansson taking Domenic home for the overnight visit." said Michael Donnelly, HSLDA staff attorney.   

One and a half years ago Swedish police boarded a plane where the Johanssons were leaving the country for Annie's home country of India. The police had no warrant and did not charge the Johansson's with a crime.  

 Check it here.

H/t: Pewsitter

Mainz Cardinal Criticizes Mass of All Ages

The stupid Traditionalists don't see through the zeitgeist of the "historical relativism" of the immemorial, unchangeable liturgy -- opines the Prelate.

Old Liberal Cardinal Lehman at Lecture in Wurzburg

(kreuz.net)Critics of the post-Conciliar liturgical reform, who are attached to "immemorial, unchangeable forms", do not see through "the historical relativism".

Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz said this on Saturday during a lecture about the liturgical reform at the St. Burkardus-House in Wurzburg.

This was according to the Press Office of the Diocese of Wurzburg.

The occasion of the lecture was the 47th anniversary of the publication of the Conciliar Documents on the Liturgy of "Sancrosanctum Concilium".

The pastoral and liturgical break after the Pastoral Council was termed by Cardinal Lehman as a "great work".

The Pastoral Council is said to have nourished "the meaning of the Liturgy for the life of the Church" -- joked the Cardinal just then.

Then he said, that the Pastoral Council did not issue "a charter to make one's own forms", although that -- with the complete agreement of the Bishop-- is what happened.

The arbitrariness and lawlessness after the Council was supposedly not a goal of the reform.

The Cardinal continued, saying, that it was good, when the divine services brings "our lives" into fullness-- without clarifying what he meant with that.

Then on the other hand he said that one must "altogether" give room for Jesus Christ.


© Bild: POW, Pressebild Bistum Würzburg

Salvation Army Pro-Abortion

Got the following e-mail.  Watch out for the Salvation Army.

Before you drop your hard-earned change in the Salvation Army’s red kettles, make sure you know what you are funding.

The Salvation Army devotes a portion of their website to their positions on various social issues, such as human trafficking, euthanasia and abortion. You can find their position statement page here.

On the issue of abortion: “The Salvation Army recognizes tragic and perplexing circumstances that require difficult decisions regarding a pregnancy. Such decisions should be made only after prayerful and thoughtful consideration, with appropriate involvement of the woman’s family and pastoral, medical and other counsel. A woman in these circumstances needs acceptance, love and compassion.”

While that statement may sound understanding and accepting, it is a far cry from the simple position of, “Our organization opposes all abortions, because we believe each human life is sacred and valued before God.” The Salvation Army’s posted statement is, unfortunately, a fancy way of supporting, at the very least, abortions in the exceptions cases – rape, incest, life of the mother and fetal deformity.  Click here to read our position on why abortion is never the answer.

MH - Catholics and the Salvation Army

H/t: Barb Krallis

"I Think That the Jewish-Western Culture as Such, Doesn't Exist"

 The Green Party of Germany's jokesters boggle the mind:  they are laying the ideological foundations for the planned final solution against Christians.

Cem Özdemir

(kreuz.net) On the 25th of November Dr. Hans Penner  (79) wrote the Turkish President of the 'greens' Comrade in Germany, Özdemir (44).

This was reported on his Website 'orientierung-heute.de'.

Özdemir resigned in 2002 because of a corruption scandal as a member of the German Bundestag.

Penner is from West Prussia, a Professor at the Univerity Sigmaringen in Nutrition and director of the Information Center of the National Scienct Advisor for Nutrition in Karlsruhe.

He put the following question to his Green Comrade:  "Do you think, actually, that Islam can be integrated in the Christian-Western Cutlure, which has brought about in Germany this high standard of living?"

On 3. December the answer came from the  Özdemir-office.  They were published by an intern Leon Schettler:

"In the name of  Cem Özdemir I'm responding to your letter of 25. November 2010 in which you ask, if Islam can be integrated in the Christian-Western Culture" -- began Schettler.

Then he began, to think:  "I think that the Christian-Western Culture as such does not exist."

It is conceved for Schettler and the aforementioned  Özdemir only as a construct, "to close other groups out" -- concluded Schettler of a possible abuse of a non-existence.

The Religion of Islam is very compatible with German Constitutional Law -- "A fundamentalistic interpretation and call for violence on the other hand, not."

The important question, if the Religion of Islam or German Constitutional Law in any case are only "constructs", did not occur to the intern.

He also did not explain what a "fundamentalist interpretation" is, rather he was busy pulling a fast one on non-existent Christians:

"This is valid also for Christian fundamentalism, because just as citations from the Koran are cited as a call to violence, there could also be similar citations taken from the Bible"  -- joked Schettler.

Because he'd come off so well in his joke, the prankster and his fundamentalist comrades just couldn't resist a closing joke:

"We  [fundamentalistischen] Greens are for religious freedom and civil equality and against fundamentalism of every kind."
 
Read original...kreuz.net...


© Bild: Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Flickr, CC

No SSPX Priests Allowed in Vienna's Cathedral Book Store

The New Book About "Hetzendorf" by Publisher 'Facultas'

Today a book was ordered in Vienna, that didn't just bring the local Archdiocese to snort.  The first drops of sweat are flowing.

(kreuz.net, Wien) This evening Heidemarie Seblatnig presented her new book "Hetzendorf and the Iconoclasim of the Second Half of the 20th Century" in Vienna according to neo-Conservative videosite 'gloria.tv'.

Mrs Seblating has been a university lecturer at the Institute for Architectural Science at Technischen Universität Wien.

 Her book contains selections from nine authors.  Within the most recent iconoclastic attack on the Catholic Church is dealt with, which has raged since the 50s.

 The seminarian Michael Wimmer addressed the Iconoclasm as the rejection of ecclesiastical identity.

The Italian architect Ciro Lomonte asserted in his selection that the forms of expression in modern architecture do not work with Catholic Liturgy.

The aesthetic and institutional back ground of the late historical church building has been dealt with by Viennese Art Historian Inge Scheidl.

Under the provocative title "Altar Lights on the Firewood Crate" the Art Historian Mario Schwarz is also included in the volume.

The German Historian, Publisher and Luther researcher Gerhard Scuder writes about Martin Luther and his one of the causes of modern Iconoclasm.

Other authors are from the German Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang of the Congregation for Liturgy and the new Bavarian Cardinal Walter Brandmüller.

I Had to Wait Outside

Already the pre-history of this relevant and captivating book shows its explosive force.

The books should have been introduced in the Viennese Cathedral book store -- in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral of St. Stephen.

Mrs. Seblatnig had won the Dogmatic Theologian of the Society of Pius X., Father Matthias Gaudron, as a consultant  for the book's presentation
.
Actually, then the Cathedral book store scrubbed the entire book presentation. Because of the Christmas business it basically can't give any more book presentations.

According to 'gloria.tv' the old Liberal Viennese Auxiliary Bishiop Helmut Krätzl is presenting his new hate book against the Church in the Cathedral bookstore.

Mrs Seblating was forced then to give the book presentation in the Schottenstift in the City Center.

Note: Hetzendorf was once the hunting lodge of the Hapsburgs.  It's now being used by a fashion school.

Draft concordat between Byelorussia and Vatican prepared

Minsk, December 6, Interfax - The draft agreement between Byelorussia and Vatican is compiled.

"The document is prepared and we should pray so that it is signed quickly but it is a question of apostolic nunciature," head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Byelorussia Bishop Alexander Kashkevich said.

Catholics is the second in number confession in Byelorussia. For the last 12 years number of Catholic parishes has increased fourfold, and now there are over 430 parishes in the republic.

According to official data, Catholics make 18 percent of believers in the republic.

Read further...

Liam Neeson: Narnia's Aslan the Lion could be Muhammad as well as Christ

C. S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory, in which Aslan the Lion is Christ. Neeson here is simply parroting the politically correct multiculturalist line that any and all "spiritual leaders" must be essentially equivalent. They all must have taught universal benevolence, right? Wrong. Muhammad taught no such thing; rather, he taught that Muslims should be "merciful to one another, but harsh to unbelievers" (Qur'an 48:29). And he taught much more besides that is as opposed to the teaching of Christ as any teaching can possibly be. But Liam Neeson almost certainly doesn't know that. And why should he? Who would have told him, in today's environment?

Read further...Jihad Watch.

H/t: Pewsitter.

Is the Navy Discriminating Against Catholics?

Editor: sure looks like it.

[Rorate Caeli] As our readers now know, there are 11 holy priests saying TLMs either weekly or monthly for the relief of the enrolled souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. One of those priests -- who says the Traditional Mass for the Society every Friday -- is an American military chaplain.

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Solzhenitsyn's Books Were Christian Says Widow

Moscow, December 2, Interfax - Widow of the world famous Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn is convinced that all books of her husband were Christian.

"I think that all books by Alexander Isayevich are books of a Christian writer though he never tells about his faith and doesn't push or pull anyone to it," she said in her interview published by the Foma magazine in December.

However, according to Natalya Solzhenitsyna, the writer has never considered religion and faith "compulsory for every person."

"He put it straight that a believer can be disgusting and an atheist can be a man of good morals, even a righteous person, ("but nevertheless there is no supreme light for him," he added). But while we are alive no one stands still," Solzhenitsyna explained the writer's position.

Origina. article, at Inter-fax here.

What Does Your Church Offer? Hegelianism?

A bishop's answer: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=8447 In a lengthy interview with the Sacramento News & Review, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento discusses women's ordination, contraception, homoesexuality, the abuse scandal, and other issues. Asked a more general question-- "How would [the unchurched] benefit if they joined your faith and attended your services?"-- he replied: I believe that participating in a faith community, and in the charitable works of a faith community, helps us to really discover our own humanity. In our society, we place a great deal of value on freedom. And the Church understands freedom as going out of one's self toward God and toward others.

Whether that's the divine other or "God"—or whether that experience is mediated by our reaching out to one of our brothers or sisters in need
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

PETA Airs "Pope Condom" Ad

Never miss a headline seems to be the motto at PETA and Pope Benedict's recent remarks about condoms are no exception.

Pope Benedict XVI said people with HIV/AIDS might use condoms as an act of moral responsibility to avoid the spread the deadly infection. His comment was widely misunderstood as a chink in the Catholic Church's teaching against the use of artificial birth control. It's not.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/12/puppies-kittens-pope-peta/1
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Islamic Conference Advocates Anti-Blasphemy Laws Worldwide

Madrid, Spain, Dec 3, 2010 / 03:58 pm (CNA).- The Organization of the Islamic Conference has sponsored a draft resolution at the United Nations that would condemn the "defamation of religion" and create a global "anti-blasphemy law." The draft resolution was presented by Pakistan in the name of the Islamic conference, which holds a majority of the seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council, according to the Spanish daily ABC. The Muslim organization hopes to secure passage of the resolution by the U.N. General Assembly.

However, the resolution has been met with widespread rejection, especially for its condemnation of the criticism of radical Islam by the media. The United States and European countries have warned that a resolution of this kind constitutes an attack on freedom of expression and could lead to greater persecution of religious minorities.  Experts say "defamation" can only be liable to legal sanction when it involves persons and not concepts or feelings.

http://m.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=21536
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The indifference of the Belgian Church

The indifference of the Belgian Church

Copts United - Muslims Torch Christian Homes in Egypt

(AINA) -- Coptic Christians in the Upper Egyptian village of el-Nowahed, Abu-Tesht, in Qena Province, were victims of an attack by a Muslim mob of nearly one thousand on Monday, November 15. The attack started at nearly 10:00 pm on Monday evening and lasted until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The large mob of Muslims from el-Nowahed and the surrounding villages besieged and waged an attack against Coptic homes amidst cries of "Allah is the greatest" and other Islamic Jihadist slogans. They threw fireballs, gasoline and stones at Coptic homes and detonated Butane Gas cylinders. Christian-owned homes were looted and shops were broken into, plundered and burned. There were no reported casualties.

The attack resulted in the burning of twenty-two Coptic-owned homes (video), two commercial shops, a bakery, as well as livestock. The sound of automatic weapons fired in the air was heard, to terrorize and intimidate the Copts, according to Ra'fat Samir, who heads the Luxor branch of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights.

Copts United - Muslims Torch Christian Homes in Egypt

Memorial Mass for Father John Hardon SJ

 Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, Joseph Perry
 and Bishop Moses Anderson, SSE are saying a mass in memorial of Father John Hardon SJ, one of the greatest of priests at St. John Cantius.  Hope to see more of this great stuff.

From Badger Catholic, here., and Facebook Group about Father, here.

New Auxiliary Bishop in Münster

Editor: another clerics averse pastor for the Diocese that gave us the +Clemens von Galen and Joseph Pieper.


Today Pope Benedict XVI has elevated the Münster Cathedral Chapter to Auxiliary Bishop.

(kreuz.net, Münster)  The Diocese of Münster has published the naming of Stefan Zekorn as Auxiliary Bishop.

Msgr Zekorn assumed the assignment from Msgr Franz-Josef Overbeck, who has been Bishop of Essen since 2009.

 The new Auxiliary Bishop was brought to the light of the world on 3. October 1959.

 On 8. October 1984 he received priestly ordination in Rome by Cardinal Joachim Meisner.

Then he was released for his study in the Doctorate.

In 1985 he was made chaplain of Warendorf St. Larentius.

Two years later he became the private secretary and chaplain of the old Liberal Bishop Reinhard Letterman.  At the same time he was Cathedral Vicar of St. Paul's Cathedral and employed at the Episcopal Office in Münster.

By  1992Msgr Zekorn was Formation Director in the Borromaeum at Münster and Master of Ceremonies in the St. Paul Cathedral.

In 2006 the Bishop named him the Pastor at the Marian Shrine of Kevelaer in the same year also the non-resident Cathedral Chapter in Münster.





Link to kreuz.net...

David Berger -- Will Homosexual be Fired as Religion Instructor?

The homosexual theologian has been fulminating for days against the teaching of the Church and is also attempting to justify his "homosexual-life" -- A speaker for the Archdiocese offers that matter at this point being arranged "is still in process".


Cologne (kath.net)  Will the contentious Cologne theologian David Berger leave his job as Catholic religion instructure, after he has been outed for months now as a practicing homosexual and having lived a double life for years?  In the Archdiocese of Cologne at this time a kath.net inquiry has been informed, "the entire matter at point being arranged "is still in process", exlained a speaker to kath,.net.

Berger has been publishing for some days his obscure theses to the media.  A very unfounded thesis for example was told to "Spiegel":  "It must be made known that a large number of Catholic priests and seminarians in Europe and the United States are homosexually inclined."  Berger is to this date still the religion teacher and German teacher at Ville-Gymnasium in Efstadt.

Kath.net then offers the Catechism and several citations from Holy Scripture: [Genesis 19, 1-29, Romans 1,24-27; 1 Corinthians 6,10; 1 Timothy 1,10]  They repudiate the natural law, because the propagation of life is closed to such a sex act.  They do not have a true and affective sexual maturity.  They are not in any case to be sanctioned.


Original, kath.net...

Who Killed The New York Times?

Perhaps we have some bias, we'd like to think all the irrational attacks against the Catholic Church, and the support Pinch Sulzberger, the paper's editor, gave to the ACLU shill, Jeff Anderson when he leaked his Wisconsin case to the press to exploit the moral gap left in the institutional Catholic Church by liberal Prelates and their verminous offspring, here, here, here, here, and so on.

No doubt, there's an overarching agenda of Cultural Marxism present at the paper which, while it has attempted to steadily erode the cultural and social framework of the United States and its institutions, is garnering a deserved reputation of unfairness, even unkindness to the truth.

Who Killed The New York Times?

H/t Andy G.

Swiss Pass Tougher Immigration Law

The ruling against new Minarets was greeted in the world press with horror and the almost universal cry of a return to Hitler and "fascist" from the editorial page of every newspaper in the world.  Now the UDC has voted for the deportation of foreign criminals and that same press is up in arms again, although there is still much talk about the guilt of white victims, it cites the issue from Daoudal blog, here:

The Swiss people approved, by a majority of votes (52.9%) in a majority of cantons (20 out of 26), the UDC's proposition on the automatic expulsion of foreign criminals. 

Here's an analysis at Gallia Watch, here.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich has further cemented his contact with Hispanic voters by his own conciliatory approach to immigration, and Catholicism. [He converted to Catholicism recently]

But other politicians aren't so conciliatory.  It's a real problem, especially in dealing with the Muslims as one Austrian politician here vehemently declares:

Napoleon on Jesus Christ

There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity..." So says Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of France.
Napoleon expressed the following thoughts while he was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There, the conqueror of civilized Europe had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. He called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count declined to respond. Napoleon countered:

Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this is was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Also check out on the relationship between Napoleon and Pius VII.

H/t: Frank A