Largest Bell in the World at Cologne Cathedral is Silenced

Largest free swinging bell in the world:  Shortly before the Epiphany Mass the clapper of the 24 ton bell -- The "decke Pitter" is the German Peace Bell.

The Most Famous Spires in Europe

Cologne (kath.net/KAP) Shock in the Cologne Cathedral: The bell known as "Decker Pitter" by the locals is silenced.  On Thursday morning the clapper with a 3.24 Meter diameter and with a weight of 24 tons, the largest free swinging bell in the world, fell.  The cause is still unknown.  Possibly there was some material weakening in the structure connecting the clapper to the bell itself.  No one was injured as the Cathedral Provost said to the Cologne "Express".

For that reason, at least till the repair of the Cologne Bell, the 21 ton St. Stephen's Cathedral bell is the largest free swinging, sounding bell in a church tower.  Its 800 kilogram weight clapper will be replaced by a lighter 200 kilogram clapper.

The deep C of the sound in the Cologne Cathedral should have pealed shortly before the 10 O'Clock hour of the Feast of the "Coming of the Magi" [Epiphany] on Three Kings Day. The approximately one ton clapper fell around 9:30, it is said.  It fell on the floor of the bell room and broke in two.  The Cathedral authority will inform the public, through a report on Cathedral Radio, about the extent of the damages.

Since 1924 "The German Peace Bell"

The Bell was poured in Thuringian Apolda in 1923. It was consecrated on 30 November 1924 as the "German Peace Bell".  The predecessor which was made from melted French rifles in 1873 was removed and melted down to make weapons in 1918.  The "decke Pitter" is struck on high Catholic feasts, and has been rung for the city only after the end of the Second World War and the Reunification of Germany.

The "decke Pitter" has held its record title as the largest free swinging bell till today -- to the annoyance of the citizens of the US City Newport.  There a would be patron financed the pouring of a 30 ton bell in France, which would have left the Peter's Bell in the dust.  In any case there isn't a church tower which is stable enough.

The largest bell in the world overall was probably the "Zar Kolkol" in Moscow poured in 1734.  It weighed 200 tons and is six meters high. It was never struck, because it was severely damaged by a fire at the bell smith.

Kath.net...here.

FSSP Church Consecration in Phoenix

From FE.

God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday.

"The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe," Benedict said on the day Christians mark the Epiphany, the day the Bible says the three kings reached the site where Jesus was born by following a star.

"Contemplating it (the universe) we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God," he said in a sermon to some 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica on the feast day.

While the pope has spoken before about evolution, he has rarely delved back in time to discuss specific concepts such as the Big Bang ...

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The Motley Monk Blog: Even more fallout in response to Bishop Olmsted's ...

,Editor: this guy used to work for the McGovern campaign. He knows whereof he speaks.  One thing's for sure, the CCHD [Catholic Campaign for Human Development] isn't Catholic.

The Motley Monk Blog: Even more fallout in response to Bishop Olmsted's ...: "Previous to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the Archbishop of San Francisco, George Niederauer, announced his intention in Catholic S..."

Former pastor, Daniel L. Monk, found guilty of sexual abuse

NEWARK -- Despite attempts to delay, a 47-year-old former pastor was found guilty Wednesday of having sex with a 16-year-old congregant.

Daniel L. Monk, last known address 1025 Kelly Drive, Hebron, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of two counts of sexual battery, both third-degree felonies, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $21,000 fine for the offenses.

Between June and September, Monk had sex with a 16-year-old girl who was a congregant at Soul's Harbor Pentecostal Church, 12180 Lancaster St., Millersport, at her Hebron residence, Licking County Assistant Prosecutor Dan Huston said.

Monk told police he had counseled the girl before becoming a father figure ...

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Fr. Dwight Longenecker on the founder of Miles Jesu: "The guy gave me the creeps from the start."

From Fr. Longenecker's blog:

http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/2011/01/miles-jesu-founder-dismissed.html

I'm pleased to report that the founder of Miles Jesu has been dismissed for 'totally unacceptable behavior'. I got to know the members of Miles Jesu when I lived in England. American Steve Ryan was the leader of the community of celibate, consecrated laymen. Steve is an intelligent, devoted and spiritual man who lived a very sacrificial life in service of the church. The guys at Miles Jesu organized the annual Path to Rome conference in London at which various converts to the Catholic Church were invited to speak. At a couple of the conferences the founder, Fr. Alfonso Duran turned up with his retinue. I have to say that the guy gave me the creeps from the start. My impression was of a sinister, power hungry leader of a cult.

However, this was simply my personal, subjective impression, and always wishing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and not liking to accuse anyone of being a Catholic Darth Vader, I kept my opinions to myself. Nevertheless, I was not surprised a few years later to discover that Miles Jesu was under investigation, that my friend Steve Ryan had left the organization, nor that he was being persecuted and having false allegations made against him by those members who remained loyal.

The case is too much like the problems of the Legionairies and Fr. Marcel Marciel. Anyone associated with this kind of religious behavior will recognize that it is not only a problem with Catholicism. There are fundamentalist, Evangelical colleges, churches and other organizations that operate with the same cult-like mentality--demanding total loyalty and black listing and ostracizing those who criticize or leave the little fortress of faith. The problem is complex and is not only the blame of the domineering cult leader. Those who belong to such groups collude with the leadership, and a sick symbiosis of the dominator and those who wish to be dominated develops. Often those who follow such leaders desire the security and absolute certainty that comes with membership and the totally unacceptable demands for loyalty and mindless obedience that are part of the system.

The same problem can exist within marriages, families, parishes, schools and workplaces in a less extreme form. Anyone who demands total, unquestioned loyalty and anyone who wishes to submit themselves to such a regime or relationship is living out a frighteningly immature and irresponsible reaction to life's challenge. Such systems, wherever they occur, breed infantilism--not the proper child-like trust of the saint--but a diabolical counterfeit that controls and oppresses (and even more sickly) desires to be controlled and oppressed. Saints are not made in this way. All that results from such a life is spiritual, social and psychological abuse of a profound nature which produces not saints, but sad and stunted souls.

Finally, we should understand that those who are involved in this sick relationship are more often sick than evil. The dominator really thinks he is doing God's will and is simply exerting the necessary discipline to produce saints. The dominated really thinks he is doing God's will by living out a life of sacrifice and total obedience. Most often the great growth of such organizations, their ability to raise funds and attract followers and their undoubted good works make them difficult to criticize. Their deception operates at many different levels to both themselves and outside observers. Either way, sick or evil, such religious behavior has to be exposed and rooted out.

King of Rome and Jerusalem Bears Gifts to Poor Children

Rome, Jan 5 (DPA) Pope Benedict XVI Wednesday visited a Rome hospital where he distributed gifts to children on the eve of the Catholic Feast of the Epiphany. Dozens of children - some held in the arms of their parents - waved yellow-and-white Vatican flags to greet the 83-year-old pontiff as he arrived at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic. Some of the patients of the hospital's paediatric centre sang a hymn for the pontiff who, thanking them, offered prayers that they may be cured of their illnesses.
Read further, here...

Feliz Dia De Los Reyes: Happy Feast of the Kings

Update:  Check out a video in English, here.

Editor:  Happy to be a Catholic on the Feast of Kings, the Epiphany, celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord in a Spanish way.

H/t: Moises

Father Reese SJ wants More Lay Involvement in Church

Editor:  Better be careful Father Reese.  You guys engage in a lot of special pleading here.  We thought Jesuits were supposed to be logical.  These radicals are all about "lay leadership" until the laity starts asking for more authoritative statements against homosexuals in the priesthood and the occasional Latin Mass to be said.  One thing you can say about NCR and Jesuits in general is that they are respecters of persons, even if they have no respect for the truth. Father Reese should join the Episcopagans, we understand that they have lots of openings.  It is indeed comical how leftist clergy becomes the caricature of the shrill old-school Msgr when the laity acts like Catholics.

Panelists at a recent Woodstock forum in Philadelphia urged lay Catholics to grab the reins and set the course for the church’s future.

“We are becoming a do-it-yourself church” for the laity, said Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, one of three senior fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington who spoke at “The Future of the Church: A Woodstock Forum on Sources of Hope,” held at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia Dec. 5.

The U.S. Catholic hierarchy today is fearful and defensive, a far cry from the collaborative, pastorally transformed hierarchy that emerged during and after the Second Vatican Council, said Dolores R. Leckey, former longtime head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Laity, Family, Women and Youth, and a noted writer on spirituality.

Read further at NCR...

New Prefect of the Congregation for Consecrated Life: Old Liberal

 Editor: expect that the Visitation of Women Religious ongoing in the United States to be toothless, unless there is an intervention by Pope Benedict forcing his man's hand.

Erzbischof João Bráz de Aviz
© Cristina Gallo/Agência Senado

The Church in Brazil is on its last legs.  Actually, now a Brazilian bankruptcy is on the way that will also drive Rome into bankruptcy. 

(kreuz.net)  Pope Benedict XVI. has named a new Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz (63) of Brasilia to be the new Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.  This was on the Vatican Press site.

At the same time, the Pope accepted the resignation of the current Prefect, the Slovenian Franc Cardinal Rode (76),  who had already reported to the Italian media the intended change at the beginning of the Dicastry.

The new Curial Bishop is himself not a religious.  He was in ordained in 1972 in November for the Diocese of Apucarana in south east Brazil.

More Diocese Driven into the Abyss

 Msgr Aviz saw the light of the world  in the southern Brazilian town of Mafra.  He studied Old Liberal Theology in Brazil and Rome.

On 6. April 1994 John Paul II named him as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Vitoria.

Four years later he was asked by the Pope to become Bishop of Ponta Grossa.

In July 2002 he was named by John Paul II as Bishop of Maringa and at the end of January became the Archbishop of Brasilia.

In the last year the Old Liberal Archbishop organized the 'Eucharistic Congress' in Brazil.

Enemy of the Old Mass

The newly named is a declared enemy of the Immemorial Mass of All Ages.  He has never supported its celebration in his Archdiocese.

The Traditionalists will be immediately persecuted under his regime.

The present Traditional Mass in Brasilia is celebrated with much resistance by the Archdiocese.

The emeritus auxiliary Bishop of Brasilia, Msgr João Evangelista Martins Terra SJ (85) has put his private chapel as the disposal of the Traditionalists.

Mons. Bráz de Aviz is also close to the Sillonist, Neocatechumenate organization.

Read original, auf Deutsch...

Una Voce Philippines

Website Revamp

Cardinal Enters With Clown On

He found the right words for the kids:  "It's like we're dead, tired, lame ducks, when we don't have the Holy Spirit".

(kreuz.net) Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne preached with a clown puppet in his right hand.

The reason for this was the opening of the 52nd Star Singer Event.  In the Cathedral of Cologne there were  3000 Star Singers from the whole Archdiocese of Cologne.

The Cardinal arrived around 11.00 for the excited children.

For the address he used a clown puppet.

He showed the children first how the puppet is sleepy and powerless  "She's really down, but there's no life in her. "

Then the Cardinal shoved his hand in the puppet in order to get her to stand up.

With that he explained:  "We are dead, tired, lame ducks, if we don't have the Holy Ghost."

The motto for this year's event was "Children Show Strength".

"I wish you to have steady footing, strong legs in this cold and ice,"  said the Archbishop:  "stand up and bring people the blessing."

In the next days Star Singer will collect for children in need in their 546 communities.

In the last year in the Archdiocese of Cologne 2,58 Million Euro was collected all-together.

Throughout Germany about a half-million children participate in this event.

Saffron terror leader to be booked for Samjhauta blast

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency probing the blast on Samjhauta Express in February 2007 looks set to book militant Hindutva leader Aseemanand. It has identified Aseemanand as the key plotter of the attack that killed 68 people, majority of them Pakistani citizens returning home after visiting their kin in India.

Sources in the agency, which was brought in after investigations by Haryana Police reached a dead-end, told TOI that Aseemanand planned the blast to avenge the series of terror attacks by Islamist terror groups.

"The role of Hindu extremists behind the blast has become clear. The probe agency found that Aseemanand was one of the plotters. The group had done it under their 'Bomb-for-Bomb' plan which was hatched in the Dangs district of Gujarat," said sources in the NIA.


Read more...

Alex Jones a False Flag?

Link to Ignis Ardens where the suggestion was made by a poster citing a French source, here.

Pope John Paul II Closer to Sainthood, Though Sex Abuse Critics Disagree

Vatican experts have attributed a miraculous healing to the intercession of the late Pope John Paul II, a ruling that appears to push the beloved Polish pontiff a crucial step closer to sainthood even as criticisms of his lengthy reign have mounted since his death in 2005.

A leading Vatican-watcher, Andrea Tornielli of the Italian daily Il Giornale, reported this week that medical and theological experts with the Vatican congregation charged with overseeing the canonization process have affirmed that a French nun was cured of Parkinson's disease -- an affliction similar to the one that claimed John Paul's life -- and there was no medical explanation.

The experts at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints determined that the cure was a miracle and resulted from the nun's prayers for the intercession of John Paul. Cardinals and bishops on the committee are to meet in mid-January to vote on the report from the experts before sending it to Pope Benedict XVI for final approval, and no delay is expected. Church policy decrees that two verified miracles are required before someone's sainthood is formally confirmed.

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Consecration for Liberal Bishop of Basel Will be Possibly Postponed

Editor: some may recall the Bishop designate's controversial ideas.  Too bad it won't be an indefinite postponement.  Not only is there a disaster in his coming, but he's a disaster too, read here.

On the Ursen Cathedral in Solothurn, where Felix Gmür is to be consecrated Bishop, has been the subject of an arson attack. 

Basel (kath.net/KAP)  The consecration of the new Basel Diocesan Bishop Felix Gmür may have to be postponed.  The reason for this is arson on the baroque St. Ursen Cathedral in Solothurn, the seat of the Bishops of Basel.

A 61 year old "Church hater" Andreas Z had put two gasoline cans near the high altar, poured them out and ignited them.  The fire department brought the fire quickly under control, in any case there is substantial damage.  Carbon will be a great part of the interiors damage.

Cathedral Rector Paul Rutz appeared very affected by the attack for his interview with the online edition of the Swiss daily "Blick", above all, because in eleven days the Episcopal Consecration is to take place.  "It looks bad", says Rutz.

The problem is not only the carbon particles all over the Cathedral, rather the film of oil, which must have settled over everything, said Rutz: "What is not clear:  the organ is not going to be playable for the 16th of January."  That is in any case not necessary for the Episcopal Consecration.  "If they decide in any case on Solothun, they can order a mobile organ," said the Cathedral Rector.


In case the Episcopal Ordination is not to take place in Solothurn, the Cathedral will have to be closed to the public for some time.  One would in this case want to do a complete cleaning and not only the traces of the arson attack, said Rutz.  The damages run from about 600.000 Franks (480.000 Euro).

Currently there is still an investigation in progress, which involve the possibility of using other churches for the Episcopal Consecration, says Rutz:  "They must be big enough, have enough parking preparted, the infrastructure must be convenient as well."  The decision where the Consecration will take place will be made by Thursday.

Gmür steps in to replace his successor Cardinal Kurt Koch, who has been since July an "Ecumenical Minister" in the Vatican.

Read further, here...in German orginal...

Enrollment numbers down at SAN ANTONIO religious schools

Enrollment numbers down at SAN ANTONIO religious schools

Christmas tells us Jesus is still present on earth, Pope says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Christmas tells us Jesus is still present on earth, Pope says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Latin Catholic Church Closes Syrian Church's Opens

After serving parishioners for more than 120 years, St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne held its final Mass on Dec. 26.


The church, located at 317 Avenue E, will now serve the Syriac Catholic Church community.

The Syriac Catholic Church uses the West Syrian liturgical Rite as opposed to the Roman liturgical Rite.

Read further...

H/t: Tom at AQ

Where's the Media? L.A. Att'y Declares Many Abuse Accusations Against Catholic Priests Are 'Entirely False': It Bears Repeating

Where's the Media? L.A. Att'y Declares Many Abuse Accusations Against Catholic Priests Are 'Entirely False'