Tug of War over Carmelite Monastery Continues

Edit: The Diocese already has a buyer.  Ka-ching... according to KATH.NET.


Zweifall (kath.net) The tug-of-war over the Carmelite monastery in Eifeldorf Zweifall in the Diocese of Aachen comes to a head. Two Nuns, Sister Katharina (46) und Sister Regina (60) still remain there and are resisting the plans of the Diocese to dissolve the monastery, now they can no longer have access to their bank account, as the newspaper "Bild" reported.

The Diocese has a Buyer

The Diocese has, since 2006, imposed an emergency board from the Monastic Association of Carmelites consisting of Sister Hildegard Grimme, the president of the Federation of Carmelites in Germany (Karmelitinnenkloster St. Josef in Auderath in der Eifel)and Sister Josua Maria Bubenikova (Karmelitinnenkloster von der Heiligen Familie in Düren).

Only in the accompaniment of Sister Hildegard, may the two Carmelites get any more money. "That is a degradation that we don't need", said Sister Katharina. "We can't get our money any more, so we can't use it to buy food, and can't pay any more bills," complained Sister Regina.

Both Sisters operate a bakery for hosts and sell about 80,000 hosts per week to over 200 parishes. The payments go into their account. They don't get any financial support either from the Diocese or the Order. After a rescission the property ownership falls to the Diocese, and according to media reports plans a sale. The Cloister Maria Königin [Mary the Queen] has been in existence since 1955 and sits on a height above the village of Zweifall in the Eifel Mountains.

The village people and the Friends Circle of the Cloister are furious: "This is like the Middle Ages," said Josef Ehlen of the Friends Circle. "The Bishop of Aachen wants to let the nuns die of starvation." The temporary solution: "every Sunday in our Holy Mass a collection is made by the people of the village for us. We are very frugal, and we can get by with that for the week", explained the Sisters.

"On the side of the order it is feared that a cloistered life according to the rule was not possible any longer", explained the speaker of the Diocese of Aachen regarding the plans of dissolution to the Hamburger Abendblatt. The Bishop has already filed the dissolution.

The Roman Monastic Congregation confirmed the dissolution in December 2005 and authorized the Diocese to direct it, and on 2007 the Apostolic Signatura, the highest Catholic Court, denied Sister Regina's complaint against the Monastery closure.

Link to original...

New Consistory in November?

Edit: According to sacroprofano blog, there is going to be a new Consistory this November. It will take five Bishops to bring the number of voting Cardinals up to the traditional number of 120. Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval will also retire as Primate of Colombia. He writes:

The Pope has made ​​the decision to create new cardinals during a public consistory in November. It would be the fourth of his pontificate. In the Roman Curia. take it for a fact, despite a possible scenario that places the endowment of "princes of the Church" to early 2012. Pope Benedict XVI's last consistory took place in late November 2007 and 2010.

H/t: apostolic palace.

Moscow Library Erects Memorial to John Paul II

It's about an "extraordinary gesture of the Russian State", said the Catholic Cathedral Rector of Moscow Jozef Zaniewski.

Moscow(kath.net/KNA)For the first time a Russian institution has erected a memorial for Pope John Paul II (1978-2005). In the inner court of the Moscow State Library for foreign literature a statue will be inaugurated on 14. October, says the Catholic Cathedral office in Moscow.

It is about an "extraordinary gesture of the Russian State", said Pastor Jozef Zaniewksi for the Polish media. John Paul II would have wanted to have visited Russia. This unfulfilled wish is enshrined by this memorial. The Moscow Patriarchate had declined a visit then.

The figure was financed according to the library by the Polish company and a company. It shows the former Pontiff of the Catholic Church siting with a book in his hand. The statue was created by a Polish and a Ukranian sculptor.

Link here...

Pastor of Kopfing in Linz, May Stay!

Edit: if you've been following this, you might be surprised. They don't have anything on this priest and from what kath.net says, other Bishops, perhaps even the Holy Father himself, have stepped in to challenge this decision.

This has to be the first time in the post-Conciliar period, that a Bishop has decided to reverse a decision to dismiss a faithful priest.

Bishop Schwarz is taking back the dismissal of the Linz Pastor, Father Andrej Skoblici.

Linz (kath.net) Andrej Skoblicki is going to remain the Pastor in Kopfing, located in the province of Upper Austria.  The Diocese of Linz just published this information.

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz has published the following message:

The decision, made public on the 18th of September 2011, that Pastoral Administrator, Father Andrej Skoblicki, would be relieved of his duties in the Parish of Kopfing where he was assigned, has produced a very unusual reaction among the people of the Parish.

The most important reason for my decision, namely that there was a significant concern for the future of the Parish Community of Kopfing and that it endangered its unity, was not understood by many of the Faithful. Although I previously had discussions with participants of the various positions as well as the Parish Administrator himself, I have found a certain misunderstanding for my intention, and this showed itself also in the past days by the deep sadness of many in the Church and those tied to the Parish Administrator throughout the world. The original intention, which concerned the responsibility for leadership of the Parish of Kopfing to bring about peace, was not fulfilled the despite many a call for peaceful coexistence.

A further consideration for the planned and hasty decision depended in the interim on another priest. Unfortunately the candidate, who had originally accepted the task to mediate and reconcile the conflict, had recently withdrawn, for reasons that he chose to accept another situation. I have therefore found, that the foreseen dismissal of Father Andrzej Skoblicki for the 6th of October 2011, is withdrawn.

The Parish Administrator has assured me, that in the coming time he wishes renew his work to assure the good will of all of the people concerned. May the Faithful in Kopfing grow in insight and preparation for the future, also to take the good of others seriously, to bear with one another in patience and through steps of reconciliation as well as mutual esteem, give a witness of the call to be Christian.

Dr. Ludwig Schwarz SDB
Bishop of Linz

As KATH.NET has learned, there was a demonstration planned this weekend in front of the Diocesan Chancery. Now Pastor Skoblicki may remain the Pastor of Kopfing. As KATH.NET also learned there had been discussions on the Episcopal level in the back ground, that the planned ouster of Skoblicki by Schwarz was looked upon with open criticized by other Bishops. At last, Andreas Laun, the Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg, had addressed the decision and spoke of an "inner-Church persecution of Christians". [It was a clearly self-destructive decision]

Pastor Andreas Skoblicki himself has shown himself to be happy over this decision along with KATH.NET. "This is naturally a new chance for the Parish of Kopfing, because the whole world is looking at us. I hope, that all the Faithful see this as a new chance." Skoblicki also hopes that all people, who call themselves Christians, will now show what it means to be Christian. "Jesus tells us: Love your enemies. All are waiting on and looking at us, and how we will respond. I would like all to say to all the people again, that a good new beginning is possible. We must forgive one another. This is our only chance. The Lord can heal the Parish in this manner."

Link to kath.net...

Another Chavez Clone Gets "Lumen Christi" Award

Edit: What is a Lumen Christi Award?  It looks like it's something you get for undermining the Catholic Church's teachings.   Here's a list of the recipients.

Serving "the poorest of the poor"

WASHINGTON – Dominican Sister Gabriella Williams, this year’s winner of Catholic Extension’s Lumen Christi Award, sees her work with migrants and other immigrant workers in Southern California as fulfilling part of God’s plan of love for all of humanity. 

“We are all God’s people, brothers and sisters. I support whoever I can because we are part of a big family and all that we do must be centered on God. God is love and I try to live this fact by my example,” she said in a Sept. 20 telephone interview with Catholic News Service. 

“I am just a little part in a big puzzle and when we all live as God wants us to, then his plan of love can become a reality,” she added

»The Catholic Review Online | Catholic headline news, breaking, Archdiocese Baltimore

Clarity and Truth -- the Main Therapy Against Old Liberalism

Father Wolfgang Ockenfels:  The dominant psychologizing tone within the Church , the stilted emotional forms, and the vague double meanings are  becoming a great nuisance  -- and leading to a crisis of ecclesiastical credibility.

 (kreuz.net)The Pope encountered a "seemingly demoralized and confused" society in his Germany visit. 
He deems it "urgently in need of orientation".


The Domincan, Father Wolfgang Ockenfels (64) explained on the 22nd of September in the midst of Benedict XVIs visit to Germany.

The article appeared in the polemical Berlin weekly 'Junge Freiheit'.

Father Ockenfels is a publicist.  He teaches Christian Social Ethics in the Theological Faculty in Trier.

The Old Liberals turn in Dialogue in a Circle

Father Ockenfels sees clearly: "The Church in Germany is suffering from an anti-Roman virus, they are occupied with tormenting themselves and turn within a circle  in "dialogue".

What is also meager for him is the achievement of the highly celebrated ecumenism:

"Some protestant church leaders increasingly withdraw from addressing bio-ethical questions and distance themselves even from the basic goal of ecumenism itself."

Collective Defamation

Father Ockenfels even sees through the abuse-hoax.

The Catholic Church has been "collectively discredited" through a few "deplorable" individual cases":

"They were, in abuse cases that are chalked up to them alone, put in a kind of vice, that they hardly dare to speak on moral subjects and social teaching any more."

The Dominican fools himself: Over eighty percent of the cases brought into view were not pedophilic, rather homosexual in nature.

Ecumenical Degeneration

Father Ockenfels makes an interesting observation:

"Although the Evangelical communities have the same problems as the Catholics, who have been run through the crossfire by the mass media, have lifted hardly a finger, to reject the anti-Catholic smear campaign."

This state of affairs also looks to him as "not putting a very good light on ecumenical solidarity."

For him, it is much more a sign of ecumenical degeneration.

One doesn't know, where one is

The priest is certain that internal-Church debates have sharpened in the last years.

He hopes that the higher clergy will learn, "to speak in clear text."

Because: "The dominant psychologizing tone within the Church , the stilted emotional forms, and the vague double meanings are; becoming a great nuisance; -- and leading to a crisis of ecclesiastical credibility."

And: "One hardly doesn't know any more in Germany, who one is."

As in politics, one ducks from clear decisions.

Ambiguity is frustrating

In times of crisis many long for clarity and truth, Father analyzed:

"Ambiguity doesn't convince, rather, it disorients and frustrates."

Because: "We live, also socially and politically, in times of decision: Either -- or."

It is not possible to be simultaneously Catholic, Protestant or even Muslim.

Father Ockenfels expects of the Bishops, that they clearly manifest themselves -- "as opposed to all of the opportunists, who always hope for advantages, when they position themselves as anti-Roman."

Learning from Necessity

Financial wealth, institutional strengthening and public privileges can - as the Father insists - not hide, "the spiritual misery that spreads out behind magnificent church facades."

He sees a remedy in the spreading of Church horizons: "The view of the world church exempt from pettiness and selfishness."

Ockenfels Father stressed that the threats are growing worldwide.

From these times of trial and defense of the faith, he hopes that perhaps this necessity, will teach the faithful to pray and again exhorts them to courageous public witness for the Faith.

Link to original...

Linz Bishop Tolerates Dissident Group in Seminary: Calls for His Resignation

Edit: kreuz.net is calling for his resignation, everyone else should too. He claims he didn't know that "Call to Disobedience' was meeting at his own Seminary in a very public meeting with other dissident groups. Meanwhile, he's dismissed a beloved priest for doing nothing more than teaching the Catholic Faith.

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz of Linz

With pious grinning and a brutal fist Msgr Ludwig Schwarz enforcing his church in the "Linz path of error". Whoever doesn't play, will be steamrollered. The clueless neo-Conservatives nod with understanding.

(kreuz.net) "I didn't know anything about a meeting in the Seminary."

The Bishop of Linz, Msgr Ludwig Schwarz coughed this up for the neo-Conservative paid website, 'kath.net'.

One is hidden behind the other

In the middle of September the media concern sponsored "Pastor's Initiative" met openly and officially at the Linz Seminary.

The media sects 'We Are Church', 'Lay Initiative' as well as 'Priests without Parishes' [Priester Ohne Amt] were participating.

The Linz Bishop is supposed to have no idea this was going on.

One needs not wonder too much: already for a long time the Linz Judasbishop was able to pull the leg of the neo-Conservatives with an "I-know-nothing-tactic".

In reality he is responsible for what happened in his Seminary.

Msgr Schwarz is hiding behind the Old Liberal Seminary leadership that  was appointed by him.

Correspondingly the abuse which goes on at the seminary facility will also go unavenged.


He Can be Brutal to Catholics


Initially on the 18th of September, Bishop Schwarz demonstrated that he can steamroller a Catholic clergyman with brutality and graceless hardness.

Against the desire of the Pastoral Advisory Board, the Parish Community and the youth in the village, Msgr Schwarz dismissed the successful and beloved priest, Andrzej Skoblicki.

The Judas Bishop has no problem against Old Liberal priests who publicly repudiate the ancient tradition of celibacy.

They may continue in the scandal-Diocese of Linz with his blessing as if nothing were the matter.


Link ...

Link to photo, here...

Bishop Schwarz's photo: © Pressefoto Bistum Linz

Turkish Schools Describe Christians as Traitors in High-School Textbook

According to a Report from the newspaper "Radikal" [Monday] Christians were described in a Turkish high-school textbook as traitors to the country.

Istanbul (kath.net/KNA)Representatives of the Syrian-Orthodox Christians in Turkey have criticized a portrayal of their faith communities in a state schoolbook. According to a report from the newspaper "Radikal" [Monday], the Christians were described as traitors to the country in a high-school textbook, as they were supposed to have left Turkey to the West "to become political and religious tools of those countries". Representatives of the Syrian-Orthodox Christians complained in the report, that the antagonism which exists against the Christian minority will be deepened still further.

In past decades many Syrian-Orthodox Christians have fled their homeland in south east Anatolia, because have been caught in a war between the Turkish state and the Kurdish PKK Rebels. Most of these emigrants settled in Germany and in Switzerland. In recent times some have returned to their old villages in the area of the ancient Monastery of Mor Gabriel in the Province of Mardin in south eastern Turkey.

Link to original...

Jawdrop: Pope Calls German Bishops "Good Shepherds"

Edit: why he expects them to act any different than they have during the past, or even during his visit is hard to say. No conclusions are being drawn, however. It is to be assumed that this story is true since it was reported by his trip organizer. There's no word as to whether the Pope was being sarcastic or not.

"Pope Benedict XVI expressly praised the German Bishops Conference. In a spontaneous, emotional speech after a common luncheon the Pope said that the German Bishops were >>good shepherds<<, said the General Coordinator of the trip, Father Hans Langendorfer, on Sunday for journalists in Freiburg. Game over. Papst lobt deutsche Bischöfe als „gute Hirten“ correspondingly the Pope said >>I go back home with the feeling that we belong together and that I can rely on you.<<" Link to original...

Trust equation...

Pope Recomends the Study of Temporanious and Fashionable Theories

Germany.  The world is rationalistic and scientific today, even if it is also "often falsely scientific".  Pope Benedict XVI. said this in a free discussion for seminarians in the Freiburg's seminary.  The Holy Father encouraged the seminarians to study: "Naturally in twenty years, there will be completely different philosophical theories in fashion than today:  even when I think, what was so important to us then,  how all of those most modern fashions are all but forgotten nowadays."  It is apparently, "not for nothing, never the less, to learn these, "because there is also more lasting knowledge therein."  Apparently, one learns how "mainly to evaluate, follow along -- and follow along critically."

Link, here...

New President of Zambia Promises to Follow the Ten Commandments

Edit: What usually happens to secular leaders who are devoted Catholics?

Ecuador's President Slain like the Lamb

LUSAKA (AFP) - Zambia's new President Michael Sata, the first elected Catholic head of state and a devout believer, said Sunday his government would follow the tenets of the 10 Biblical Commandments.

"This government will be governed on the 10 Commandments. Thou shall not steal, do unto others as you would like them to do unto you," Sata told parishioners at a church in Lusaka's upscale Rhodes Park district.

"For the first time this country has a Catholic president and our government will support the church," Sata said, recalling that the nation was predominantly Catholic.

Link to article...

Linz Bishop Will Reap the Bitter Harvest of the People's Anger

The Bishop of Linz has waltzed the beloved Pastor of Kopfing out of town. Now, the Catholic people's soul has been brought to a boil.

(kreuz.net) On the 18th of September Bishop Ludwig Schwarz (71) of Linz has dismissed beloeved Pastoral Administrator of Kopfing Andrzej Skoblicki (47) from his duties.

Because the clergyman directed a blooming parish, he was a thorn in the side of the anti-Church media bosses.

The People see through the Propaganda Journalism

The ally of the Bishops in the media lynching of Fr. Skoblicki was the anti-Church regional news Oberösterreichische Nachrichten’. [Upper Austrian News Service]

It sent an anonymous reporter to Kopfing last Sunday, who made and illegal photo and to acquire more propaganda material against Fr. Skoblicki.

He did not get to hear what he wanted to hear.

"I find it schocking what was done to Pastor Skoblicki!" -- the aper had to quote some of the faithful.

Or: "It woulda been better if they wrote what the truth is!" -- so the anger of thep people vented itself.

The Scandal Sheet Found no Scandal

The smear sheet took great pains to find someone who would throw some dirt on the clergyman.

It cited anonymously and deceitfully a supposed "Christoph M." in the article.

The Kopfingers stand so much behind their pastor that the regional paper had to offer this begrudging concession:

"The majority of the faithful, who gathered in front of the church after Mass, were sympathetic to the divine from Poland."

Fr. Skoblicki takes the Gospel seriously.

The Grand Nazi-Coalition

Fr. Skoblicki's "withdrawal" is even a humiliation for his mentor, Senior Pastor Alois Heinzl (89).

In an interview for the video website 'gloria.tv' he revealed what was behind the bond between the media bosses the Old Liberal Bishop and the enemies of the Pastor.

The village of Kopfing is an old Nazi Nest with a fine old tradition of aborting priests of Tradition.

The media tried to demonize this sermon. It was about Jesus, obedient even unto death:




Link to kreuz.net...

Austrian Bishop Exorcizes Abortuary

Austria [kreuz.net] The Austrian pro-Life Movement 'Human Life International' purchased a former abortion clinic in the heights of Hohenems in the middle of May. It's in a city with a population of 15,000 in Vorarlberg. This was reported by the website 'gloria.tv' last Thursday. On the 14th of September, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Bishop Elmar Fischer of Feldkirch celebrated a Mass of reparation in the former abortuary. Moreover, he also prayed the Great Exorcism as well.

Link to kreuz....

This Bishop also teaches that homosexuals can be healed.

In Germany Where Everyone is Pope

The Great Protestant Cooling

Edit: This comment from Matussek is interesting given the Holy Father's statement that "the agnostic who still longs for the truth, and suffer in sin but long for a pure heart are closer to the Kingdom of God than those whose church life is routine and who regard the Church merely as an institution without letting their hearts be touched by Faith."



The Pope wants a new Catholic departure. Even in his German homeland where everyone is known as Pope.

(kreuz.net) "I have been drawn to various Academies and Schools and bookstores in the past week for my book >>The Catholic Adventure<< and was surprised by the strong polarization." Matthias Matussek, German journalist wrote this for the most recent edition of the bitterly anti-Catholic German boulevard magazine 'Spiegel'. [It's like Time] The magazine was founded after the Second World War by a former Nazi Journalist and Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht. Matusseks article appeared under the title: "Rock in the Storm -- Why Catholicism can't be Protestant." Formless Play-Along Catholicism
http://kreuz.net/article.13936.html
He did not else in his book than describe as "painful recollections of a Catholic childhood and life as a reporter, which these were rooted in" -- explained the journalist.

That is for many -- even within the Church -- a scandal.

For Matussek it's the consequence of a "great protestant cooling off" in the last decade:

"In Germany, the formless play-along Catholicism is carried on by pastoral theologians and community representatives, who push the priest into the second rank."

The Lackluster of Religion

Matussek isn't surprised that the German Bundestag President Norbert Lammert recently proposed "that married seniors should be made priests."

In place of a theology degree, an administrator's career is enough.

"The smallest child still understands that one genuflects before the Blessed Sacrament and crosses himself when he enters the Church" -- Matussek said, quoting a resigned Pastor.


Sacral Refreshment

In this dulling within the Pope is attempting careful restoration.

As an example Matussek described the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum".

With that, the Pope wanted to bring the music, the reverence, the gestures and the holiness of the Old Mass back into the mirror:

"We suddenly see how much sense it makes that the priest faces the Blessed Sacrament with the whole community, instead of facing us like a TV moderator."

Mattusek mentioned the "otherwise not religious" reporter Amo Widmann of the 'Berliner Zeitung", who visited an Old Mass in Berlin and wrote after:

"This isn't a place that revolves around the faithful, and the Mass isn't a meeting place, it is a divine service."

For that makes it clear to Matussek: The Mass lends a "sacral refreshment".

Battle of the Trivialization of the Sacraments

Matussek described intiatives to provide Liturgical Supper for everyone: "But that didn't mean real ecumenism, but a trivialization of the Sacraments."

Pope Benedict is protecting Communion against the new indifference: "He is also proceeding with offering Communion on the tongue."

It doesn't surprise Matussek that controversy rages around the Pope.

In the reportage about him there are "condemnations, disingenuousness and even flat out disinformation in every discussion" -- he said quoting Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Because the Pope desires a new departure.

In his coverage he chucked about this mission: "Even in his German homeland, where everyone is known as a Pope."

Link to original...

Islamic Group Favors Abolishing Swiss Cross and Flag

Edit: the poll on the paper website shows that ninety two percent are against this proposal.

The Swiss Cross should be abolished. This is being demanded by the Immigrant Association Secondos Plus. "The Swiss Flag has nothing to do with today's, multicultural Switzerland any more." Do you understand?

The Swiss Cross should be abolished. This is being demanded by the Immigrant Association Secondos Plus. "The Swiss Flag has nothing to do with today's, multicultural Switzerland any more," said Petrusic its representative.

The Cross has a Christian back ground. The Christian origins of Switzerland validates that it is respected, "only the separation of Church and State is also valid with regard to this flag", insisted a representative of Secondos Plus. "It is a given, therefore, that we have great religious and cultural diversity in Switzerland."

A new symbol is needed, with which everyone can identify with and not just Christians. As a new flag the former flag of the Helvetian Republic would work. This was officially introduced in 1799 and consisted of the colors of green, red and yellow and horizontally striped.

It had a resemblance to the current flag of Ghana and Bolivia. "The color of red and yellow stand for the original Cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Green for the Revolution", says Petrusic. In addition, all foreigners would have the ability to vote from as soon as they reach their 20th year. "The Helvetian Flag stands for a progressive Switzerland that's open to the world."

In the beginning of October Secondos Plus is planing an action, in order to launch a flag debate. "This is completely unacceptable", said the Aargauer SVP- National representative Sylvia Flückiger to the proposals of Secondos. "There is nothing that should disturb us about the Swiss flag. As their next move, they will have to get past our Federal Constitution." Socialist Party National representative Margret Kiener Nellen: "I would leave the Swiss flag like it is." She otherwise would like to engage this in a different way, "that all people will be treated with worth and the same rights."

Original, at Aargauer...

H/t: here...

German Journalist: "The Church is Caught in a Modern Trap"

The Church gropes in the Modern Trap

Edit: Matussek has suggested that the church tax, which is levied in Germany and managed by the government, is going away. It's been suggested in certain other quarters that this last vestige of confessional Europe has been used as a medium for the auto-destruction of the Church in Germany. We've tried to keep our intrusions on Matussek's blunt and awesome observations to a minimum.

Matthias Matussek

After the Council the Church was placed increasingly in the hands of Liturgical dilettantes and fussy hobby-thinkers, who presented themselves as an Avantgarde organized against volksreligion and Tradition.

(kreuz.net) Pope Benedict XVI knows "that the form of the Una Sancta [One Holy} with its Dogmas and Traditions must be protected against the hobbyists."

Matthias Matussek wrote this in the recent edition of the bitterly anti-Church German boulevard magazine 'Spiegel' [basically, it's Germany's Time Magazine]

The magazine was founded after the Second World War by a former Nazi journalist and a Lieutenant of the Wehrmach.

Matussek's article appeared under the title: "Rock in the storm -- why Catholicism could not be Protestant."

The Pope has to be a Rock Now More than Ever


For Matussek the Pope has to be a successor of Peter now more than ever -- "the rock, on which the Church was once founded."

Because: "He is not only responsible for the 1.2 Billion Catholics, but also for the Tradition, which Chesterton once called >>the Democracy of the Dead<<. Tradition may not be betrayed on behalf of the tiny, German parish, which constitutes no more than two percent of the World Church.

Not a Reformer, but a Resistance Fighter

Benedict XVI, for Matussek, didn't come to Germany as a reformer, rather as a "great figure of contradiction".

"The Catastrophe, which has to do with us, is the memory loss of Catholics."

Matussek traced the problem to the time following the Second Vatican Council.

Then the Church was placed "increasingly in the hands of dilettante Liturgists and fussy hobby-thinkers, who presented themselves as an Avantgarde organized against volksreligion and Tradition.

Already in 1968 Pope Paul VI wept over the "weighty and complex disruption, which no one had expected after the Council." [Not entirely so, Msgr Bandas returned from the Council in abject despair and did his best to prepare for what he foresaw.]


Discussion instead of Holiness

Matussek brought the problem to a point: "The Church has been caught in the modern trap."

He defined the modern trap as: "Much head, little heart." [Which brings to mind Mozart's comment that, "Protestantism is all in the head"]

One has lost the feeling for Holiness and Grace: "In place of that, discussions take place."

Link to kreuz.net...

Photo: © Melanie Feuerbacher, Wikipedia, CC

Pius Society to Meet Near Rome to Discuss Preamble

Edit: what's interesting to us is the location they chose. They chose a place close to Rome, they didn't chose Switzerland or Menzigen.

In zwei Wochen verhandelt die Bruderschaft

Italy. [kreuz.net] On the 7th and 8th of October the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X will meet in the Italian District office in Albano near Rome, to have discussions about the negotiations with Rome. This was reported by 'dici.org' on Friday. The Superiors were will be secluded from the public to discuss the Dogmatic Preamble they received from the Congregation of the Faith.

From kreuz.net...


Dici...

Related:

This Victory of SSPX isn't a Rome Defeat...

Pope Vigil: Archbishop Zollitsch Organizes Event Promoting Homosexuality

Edit: As if to justify the Pope's words about "Overhanging structures", Archbishop Zollitsch steps in to provide evidence for it.

(kreuz.net) Freiburger organizers tried to abuse the Vigil Celebration before the morning Papal Mass for their Old Liberal purposes.

Youth were posed apparently explosive Church-related questions at the Freiburg Mass area where they were gathered.

Balloons and Suggestive Questions

Every youth received a red and a green balloon in his pilgrimage package.

Before the balloons were deployed, however, rhythm exercises were done, to bring those present into order and in agreement.

Finally the moderators posed the following questions of the evening:

- Do you find celibacy meaningful for today?

- Shouldn't the Pope be elected by the people of the Church?

- Are you personally behind the personal morals of the Vatican?

Participating youth reported that the questions were provocative and anti-Roman. They gave the impression of cheap propaganda against the Pope.


Red Balloons for the Homosexuals

The organizers also asked: Do you have anything against lived homosexuality?

Thereafter many youth showed the red balloon.

The moderators commented: "We see a majority of red balloons! I think lived homosexuality is in order."

The responsibility for this scandalous pre-show is Archbishop Robert Zollitsch.

He has promised himself during this Papal visit, that at the next consistorium he will be named a Cardinal.

Link to here...

Photo credit, here...

Pope: In Germany 'There is an Overhang of Structures Against the Spirit'

Edit: this is one of the clearest criticisms directed against the "professional Catholics" of the Official Church we've ever heard. It actually echoes Mathias Mattusek's comments earlier today wherein he suggested the end of the Church tax in Germany as a radical solution. It would certainly put a dent in many of the Old Liberal structures which constantly work against real reform and the work of the Gospel in Germany.

Benedict XVI. directed criticism against lay societies in his speech to the [very anti-Catholic lay board] Central Committee of German Catholics!  The actual crisis in the Church in the Western world is a crisis of Faith.

Freiburg (kath.net) At the meeting with the "Central Committee of German Catholics" Pope Benedict XVI expressed himself very critically over the situation in society and the Church in Germany:  "For years the so-called 'Exposure Programs' have been giving developmental assistance",  said the Pope.  "Those responsible in politics, business and Church life have participated in the concrete daily life for a certain time in Africa, Asia or Latin America.  They put themselves in the life situations of these people, in order to see the world with their own eyes and to learn to act in solidarity."

"Let us imagine that such an exposure-program were established here in Germany.  Experts from distance lands would sally forth to live a week with an average German family.  They would be amazed here, e.g., by the standard of living, the order and the efficiency.  But they would also be confronted also with much poverty through an unaccustomed glance:  poverty, that touches on human relations, and poverty in the religious area."

Benedict XVI. has diagnosed an "overhang of structures projected against the Spirit:  I will add: the actual crisis in the Church in the Western world is a crisis of Faith. If we don't find a real renewal of the Faith, any structural reforms will be ineffective."

Without naming the "dialog process" in the German Church, the Pope stressed the necessity to seek new ways for evangelization, where friendships are lived and also deepened in the regular common prayer before God. There are people, woh in our workplace and in the embrace of our family and circle of acquaintances who talk about these small experiences of the faith and form a new closeness to the Church in society.  To them it is shown more clearly that all this nourishment and live permits, the concrete friendship together and with the Lord.  The binding which takes place in the powerful current of the Eucharist remains important, because separated from Christ we can accomplish nothing [John 15,5]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord enlighten us on our way, to be lights to the world together and show our fellow man the way to the source, where their deepest longing for life may be fulfilled."

Link to kath.net...

Vatican Speaker Downplays Father Luther's "Rehabilitation"

This comment from EKD President Nikolaus Schneider is "a bit exaggerated", said Lombardi this Saturday for journalists in Freiburg.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA) Vatican speaker Federico Lombardi [SJ] has admonished the interpretation, which suggested a >>de facto<< rehabilitation of Martin Luther by Pope Benedict XVI. This suggestion is >>a bit exaggerated<<, said Lombardi on Saturday for journalists in Freiburg. The Advisory President of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Nikolaus Schneider, had [also on FaithWorld] described the words of the Pope at an ecumenical meeting in Erfurt subsequently as >>a de facto rehabilitation<<.

Lombardi said, Benedict XVI. has underlined the >>depth of faith<< of the reformers. For the Pope, the visit to the place where Luther lived and believed, had been very significant. The Head of the Catholic Church had desired this meeting with representatives of the Evangelical Church right in Erfurt, because >>the divine questions of Luther were a central point of the entire trip<<, said the speaker.

Link to kath.net...

Additionally,

He also said the Faith can not be negotiated, here...