Patriarch of Moscow Positive About Ecumenical Course with Rome

Moscow Patriarch Kyrill I on "gay marriage": In a consumer society no one wants to relinquish his vice: "On the contrary, vice is legalized and legitimized."

Moscow (kath.net/KNA) The Moscow Patriarch Kyrill I. is expressed himself hopefully for ecumenical collaboration.  The Russian Orthodox Church is in "open dialog with the Roman Catholic Church" and hopes, that this dialog will continue to develop together with the Pope, said the Patriarch in a television interview on Orthodox Easter.

Patriarch Kyrill stressed the positive development already begun under Benedict XVI. He hopes that this trend will continue and deepen with Francis.  The new Pope is "open to social problems and sensitive to social injustice."

Under Benedict XVI. (2005-2013) relations are to have essentially improved between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, because it was decided, to put aside some "extravagant projects", said the Patriarch with a view to an earlier proposed visit to Moscow.  There is a common challenge for both churches.

As for so-called gay marriage, Kyrill I said, in the consumer culture no one wants to give up his vices: "On the contrary, vices will be legalized and legitimized."  All this leads to a "destruction of personality" and to possible economic, financial, political or ecological crises.  The enormous protest in Paris against "gay marriage" had been a "joyous surprise", said the Patriarch.  He had not expected such a powerful, religiously motivated protest.

Link...

The Swiss Guard Swears its Oath on the Fateful 6th of May

The Saddest Memorial for the Fairest
 and Bravest Flower of Swiss  Manhood

Edit: tradition endures through the ages as they stand watch on the ramparts of the Vatican. The Swiss Guards have a long and illustrious battle history, whether it was dying to the man defending the King of France during the French Revolution, fighting to hold Lutheran Landskenechts back long enough for the Pope to escape, or keeping the revolutionary mob from laying hands on Pius IX, they’ve loyally and ever acquitted themselves valiantly in the defense of the Church and the anointed heads of kings. Today, they will swear their oath to a grateful Pope Francis.

 Each year on May 6th, the Swiss Guard commemorates the sacrifice of 147 soldiers who died defending Pope Clement VII during the “Sack of Rome,” in 1527.   Here’s the oath they swear:

"I swear I will faithfully, loyally and honourably serve the Supreme Pontiff Francis and his legitimate successors, and also dedicate myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing if necessary also my life to defend them. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the See is vacant.

Furthermore I promise to the Commanding Captain and my other superiors, respect, fidelity and obedience. This I swear! May God and our Holy Patrons assist me!”

Then one by one the new recruits are called by name. Each one advances alone, and with his left hand he grasps the Guarďs standard, holding high his right hand with three fingers open, as a symbol of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he confirms the oath:

"I, . . ., swear I will observe faithfully, loyally and honourably all that has now been read out to me! May God and his saints assist me!”

  Source... at Vatican Radio.

Pictorial Fragment of Indians in Vatican Painting

Edit: Silvia Poggoli never loses n opportunity to attack the Church. The black legends surrounding the pontificate of Alexander VI is a fairly outworn implement in the arsenal of anti-Catholic propagandists. But this Italian journalist gets her information on the Catholic Church mostly from her contempt for it, and popular television programs. In any case, she manages to find in a very interesting fragment of the Church's artistic patrimony, a worthy cause for her blithe hostility.

[NPR] The painting was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI. Anyone who has followed the TV series The Borgias knows he was the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard who fathered several children and became a symbol of church corruption.

Alexander VI became pope in 1492, only a few months before Columbus made landfall.

Art historian Paolucci is convinced the entire Pinturicchio fresco cycle for the Borgia Apartments inside the Vatican had been completed by the end of 1494.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/05/180860991/long-hidden-vatican-painting-linked-to-native-americans

State Challenges Church's Right to Discipline Immoral Employees

[Columbus Dispatch] The firing of a gay Catholic-school teacher by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus raises competing constitutional questions about religious freedoms and civil liberties, legal experts say.

Carla Hale, who taught physical education at Bishop Watterson High School, has filed complaints with her local teachers union and the city’s Community Relations Commission, saying that her March firing was discriminatory.

Commissioners could decide within a few months whether the diocese violated the city’s ordinance that protects employees from discriminatory treatment for a range
of reasons that include sexual orientation.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/05/05/teachers-firing-raises-questions.html

Bishop of ’s-Hertogenbosch Holland Institutes Latin Mass Parish

S-Hertogenbosch (Kathnews). Pope Benedict XVI. had approved the so-called classical Roman liturgy as the so-called "Extraordinary Form” of the Roman Rite in July 7, 2007 with his Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum”. In the Instruction "Universae Ecclesiae" as the highest law he gave in concrete instructions for the priests and ordinaries.

Dutch Model

Since the liturgical development after the Second Vatican Council, a course points to an act of legislation in the Netherlands, is the classic form as is prescribed in the Liturgical books of 1962, celebrated in various churches of the country. The Bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Msgr Punt, has built his own personal parish for the classical Roman liturgy according to the Motu Proprio earlier this year. The Archbishop of Utrecht, Cardinal Eijck, and the Bishop of Roermond, Msgr Wietz, a church rector assigned for the so-called extraordinary form. There are also different priests in each diocese (especially the younger generation) that implement the Motu Proprio in their parishes.

Sunday Masses in the cathedral town of 's-Hertogenbosch

The Motu Proprio is also implemented in the diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch province of Brabant. So for some time Holy Mass is said according to the Gregorian Tridentine form in the cathedral. Since a Mass has on Sunday in the traditional form in the cathedral has proven difficult to carry out because of other Masses and liturgical celebrations, the bishop of the diocese, Monsignor A. Hurkmans, has now assigned now a facility located in the center of historic and architecturally special church as main church for the classical liturgy in his diocese. It is the Church of St. Catherine (St. Catharienkerk), an octagonal central building, which also has the liturgy was celebrated in the Byzantine Rite. The bishop has decided that as of Sunday, May the 5th, 2013, to hold a weekly Mass in this church in the “Extraordinary Rite". The sung Mass (Missa cantata) is to be celebrated at !:15pm. Two priests and the ex officio of the diocese were appointed by the bishop as celebrant to do so. The diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch is territorially the largest diocese in the Netherlands. Among other things it includes the renowned cities of Nijmegen and Tilburg University.

Photo: Cathedral of 's-Hertogenbosch - Source: nl.wikipedia.org, user Karrow

Bishop Aillet Calls for New “Resistance” Against the Perversion of Marriage

(Paris) The traditional Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne called on the French to continue resolutely in their opposition to the law on the introduction of gay "marriage” .  The bishop stressed the peaceful nature of the "new Resistance" and warned them not to let themselves be “provoked infiltrated extremists and plainclothes police" . "No Parliament has the power to define marriage, which is a divine institution.” said Bishop Aillet. "It is the spiritual weapons which I propose to use in this very month of May" and "God will give the victory.”

Link to katholisches..

Curia: Msgr. Guido Pozzo Appointed to CDF

(Vatican) Pope Francis has named Curial Bishop Guido Pozzo as new Consultor to the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith. Pozzo was the Secretary of the Papal Commission Ecclesia Dei from 2009-2012 which is responsible for the traditional orders, communities and groups and is subject to the CDF. In November 2012 Pope Benedict XVI. named him to Papal Almoner and titular Bishop, an office he will also manage. Msgr. Pozzo came in 1987 as an assistant to the CDF in the Roman Curia.

http://www.katholisches.info/2013/05/03/kurienerzbischof-guido-pozzo-neuer-konsultor-der-glaubenskongregation/

Queen Christina of Savoy to be Beatified

Rom, 3.5.13 (Kipa) For the first time after many years the beatification of a queen is imminent. The Vatican Congregation for the causes of saints will recognize the testimony of a miracle worked by Maria Christina of Savoy (1812-1836) on Friday.

Thus the first hurdle for beatification is passed. The last monarch to be beatified was in 2004, the last Emperor of Austria Karl I. (1887-1922). A Queen had not been raised to the altars during the John Paul II. and Benedict XVI..

Maria Christina was born on 14.November 1812 as the youngest daughter of King Victor Emanuel I. of Sardinia-Piedmont and his Queen Maria Theresia of Austria of Austria-Este in Cagliari in Sardinia.

In 1832 she was married to King Ferdinand II. of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and moved to the palace in Naples. She was honored by her subjects for her humility and piety. 15 days after the birth of her first son the Queen died on 31. January 1836.

The cause for the "Queen of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" was opened more than 150 years ago on 9. July 1859. Pius XII. (1939-1958) had recognized the Queen for the heroic virtue of her life in 1937. In the following decades the process made no further progress. The blessed, however, became honored as a saint in the region of her kingdom.

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints will additionally recognize the Italian mystic Maria Bolognesi's miracle. The Polish religious foundress Maria Teresa of St. Joseph (1885-1946) and of the Italian religious founder Gioacchino Rossello i Ferra will be affirmed in his heroic virtue for a life worthy of veneration.

(kipa/cic/gs)

Father Stefano Maria Manelli is 80 -- Successful History of the Franciscans of the Immaculata: Traditional and Missionary

Edit: you mean you can be Franciscan and still have magnificent and beautiful Liturgy?

Father Stefano Maria Manelli 80 - History of the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception: altrituell and missionary

(Rome) On the 1st of May Father Stefano Maria Manelli, the Superior General and founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI) turned 80.

As the year gathered together yesterday,  members of the Order founded by Father Manelli and organizations associated with the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Frigento Campania gathered in southern Italy, where the mother house of  the male religious branch is located. The brothers and sisters thanked and asked the Lord in prayer through the intercession of Mary Immaculate for their religious father.

The religious family founded by Father Stefano Maria is one of the success stories traditionally associated in the Catholic Church and represents a most remarkable success story. The Franciscans of the Immaculate have adopted the traditional rite five years ago after a long journey of preparation. International orders will be maintained the entire liturgy in the Tridentine rite. They keep the Franciscan-Marian spirit with their evangelical radicalism including poverty, which Pope Francis supports, but - and this is something special - in the Old Rite. Unlike other traditional communities  the Franciscans of the Immaculate are engaged in traditional missionary work. The Great Commission is a constitutive element of their charism; they go out of their cloisters, seek direct contact with the people who are on the front line in the defense of non-negotiable values and use their apostolate in the modern media and means of communication.

Father Stefano Maria marked by Padre Pio of Pietrelcina and Father Maximilian Kolbe

Its founder, Father Stefano Maria Manelli, was born on 1 May 1933, in what was then Fiume, Italy, and today is the Croatian town of Rijeka on the upper Adriatic. He was the sixth of 21 children. His parents, the servants of God Settimio Manelli and Licia Gualandris, have had their beatification process begun on 20 December 2010. The spiritual leader of the family was the holy Capuchin, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. From him, the young Stefano received his first Holy Communion in 1938.

The family had moved into the southern Italian province of Apulia, where Padre Pio lived.  Stefano was visited from the 8th December 1945 at the age of 12 years, the minor seminary of Cupertino. He entered the Friars Minor, and took simple vows on 4 October 1949, which on 27 May 1954 was followed by solemn perpetual vows.

On 30 October 1955 he was consecrated at Christ the King, a particularly precious feast to him as a priest.

Dissertation on the Immaculate Conception - Back to the Franciscan Sources

1960 PhD Father Stefano received his doctorate at the Seraphicum, the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Rome, with a thesis on the Immaculate Conception. The work explains the choice of his community's name.  He then followed by teaching Patristics and Mariology at the convent's seminaries at the Archdiocesan Seminary of Benevento and the Institute of Religious Sciences of Avellino. From 1982-1988 Father Stefano Maria was twice provincial of the Order of Friars Minor of the Province of Naples.

Around 1965 began a gradual rediscovery and long observation of the Franciscan sources and the writings of the Holy Father Maximilian Kolbe for him.

The call of the Second Vatican Council, to return to the sources of religious renewal and adjust the proclamation of faith to the changed circumstances of the time, knew Father Stefano Maria as reputation in the footsteps of the Founder Francis of Assisi completely Franciscan life after the example of Saint Maximilian Kolbe to lead the John Paul II as "St. Francis of the 20th Century "called.

In 1970 the new Franciscan-Marian Journey - 1990 Order of founding

On 24 December 1969  Father Stefano Maria and his brother, Father Gabriele Maria Pellettieri asked the Superior General of the Friars Minor for the permission to lead a renewed, more rigorous Franciscan life, which was tied into the foundation . A Franciscan-Marian manner of life they called the "Marian traces of Franciscan life." The result was in the first Marian House in August 1970 at the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Avellino Frigento.

Over the years, the two brothers grew more and more  inspired by the ideal of evangelical radicalism. This increase, the special charism, the consolidation of a particular manner of life, and others opposing trends in parts of the Mother house led the Order, after 20 years on 22 June 1990, to the establishment of a separate order. The Church's recognition of diocesan right was professed in a corresponding decision by Pope John Paul II, through the Archbishop of Benevento, Monsignor Carlo Minchiatti. On 1 January 1998 the recognition of the Order was established by papal law. A special feature has been added to the three traditional religious vows poverty, chastity and obedience, a fourth vow, the unconditional consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God.

On 1 November 1982 Father Stefano Maria and Father Gabriele Maria, founded the first community of Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate in Novaliches, Philippines. The female branch, which was passed in its inception phase was led by Father Gabriele Maria Pellettieri, lives according to the same Franciscan-Marian ideal of the brothers. Today there are more than 50 branches of the Franciscan Sisters on all continents. The Order has more than 350 sisters.

In 2006  the youngest of the family followed with the Order of Poor Clares, a contemplative branch of the Immaculate Conception, which includes today four cloistered convents with more than 40 sisters.

Franciscans and Franciscan The Lay Association of the Immaculate Conception

8 September 1990 there followed alongside the male and female religious branch, the establishment of a lay association, the Mission of the Immaculate Mediatrix (MIM). The laity living the religious ideals in their respective state and various stages of Consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God (Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception with consecration, Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception with a private vow as Franciscan Tertiaries of the Immaculate Conception).

2008, the General Chapter undertooktook the decision to return as a community to the traditional form of the Roman Rite rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI.  in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and returned to the Church.

Monastery in Kitzbühel - In the German areas living life connected to  a religious tradition is no easier

In the German-speaking world, a monastery of the Franciscans of the Immactulate, was founded in 2002 in Kitzbühel in Tyrol. The then Archbishop of Salzburg, Georg Eder, gave the Order the abandoned Capuchin convent.

Not all of the young religious received the same favorable reception. Being connected to a religious tradition is not so easy for the Franciscans in the areas where German is spoken. Two other monasteries  founded were thwarted by the resistance of the local churches.

The Franciscans of the Immaculate showed interest in 2007 in taking over  the Franciscan monastery of San Candido, South Tyrol, which was rejected by the then Bishop of Bolzano-Bressanone, the Capuchin Wilhelm Egger.  Since 2012, the monastery has remained empty.

In 2010 the Capuchin monastery on the Ried im Innkreis dissolved their last monastery in Upper Austria. Again, the Franciscans of the Immaculate were interested in the takeover of the monastery. "These and other rumors are their concern," the newspaper of the Diocese of Linz immediately wrote. Because of internal resistance in the Church, the order was denied even this branch. In contrast to San Candido, the monastery in Ried is at least not yet empty. In 2012 it was purchased by an Indian Carmelites. Other members of the order were established in Kerala in 1831 by the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, are also Indian

The Franciscans of the Immaculate are now represented on all five continents. The order counts all together, some 650 members of religious orders have stirred an increase in vocations. They promote the Tridentine Rite and go to the street and around the world as missionaries.

Since 23 June 1990  Father Stefano Maria Manelli has been Minister General of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, whose Generalate is in Rome.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Franciscans of the Immaculate / Vocazione religiosa

Trans: Tancred

Link to kath.net...

Religious Leaders Demand the Release of Syrian Bishops

Edit: earlier it was reported from many different sources that two Bishops who were kidnapped in Syria were to be released.  It turns out that they are still in captivity, and increasingly, the reports of this tragedy have aroused even the major news media.

[charismanews] Religious leaders from around the world have stepped up their pleas for the safe return of two Syrian bishops who were kidnapped April 22 by armed men as they were driving near the war-torn city of Aleppo.

The kidnappers, who have not been identified, abducted Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahim, both of Aleppo, while they were undertaking a “humanitarian mission” to help Syria’s Christian minority, according to Syrian Christian expatriates in the U.S.

The bishops’ Syrian Orthodox driver was killed in the attack.

Since 2011, more than 70,000 Syrians have died in fighting in the bloody civil war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to oust Assad’s strong-arm regime.

Link to charismanews.com...

Cardinal: Christians Have a Tragic Lack of Knowledge About Islam

(Kah.net) Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola: "In Europe and the USA there is a very significant indifference about Islam. We are, in the truest sense of the word, ignorant. If we ask the average Christian about Islam, we get tragic answers." This is what Milan's Angelo Cardinal Scola said according to Radio Vatican. In a society becoming increasingly more international and in the growing religious diversity, Christians need a fundamental understanding of Islam. Scola sees the metropolitan See of Milan also as "a bridge, it is an opportunity, to meet the East and to understand, upon entering in an inter religious dialog.

Bishop Huonder: Pope "More Conservative than Many Think"

In an interview with the Swiss Sunday Times of 21 April, 2013, Chur Bishop Vitus Huonder: "The new Pope brings  a fundamental faith, which indisputably brings some reforms, which some here expect.  We ought not assign to him the problems we have in Europe.  I believe he is more conservative than many think."

Link to katholisches...

Pentagon: Christians Are Enemies of the People

Edit: Christians who prosylitize are enemies of the proletariat. Of course this is a slight exaggeration. Breitbart reports:

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.
(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.”

He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/05/01/Breaking-Pentagon-Confirms-Will-Court-Martial-Soldiers-Who-Share-Christian-Faith

Vatican Asks Archbishop of San Juan to Step Down. He Refuses.

Edit: along with the more high-profile case of a priest being excommunicated in Brazil for apparently supporting aberrosexuality, there is another, the Archbishop of San Juan in Puerto Rico, who has been asked to step down by the Vatican.  He refuses to do so.  It’s interesting there’s been on attention put on this yet.  There have been accusations against the Dominican Archbishop since 2011. Here’s the portion as it was reported by the Latin Times.

San Juan de Puerto Rico's archbishop has been asked twice by the Vatican to step down from the head of the diocese in at least two occasions, local newspaper Vocero reports. 

Roberto González Nieves answered in February to allegations made against him in the Vatican, especially the remarks signed by cardinal Marc Ouellet and his secretary, Lorenzo Baldisseri, in a meeting in Rome in December of last year. 

"In such meeting, I was told I had to leave the diocese in San Juan and take another position within the Catholic church. The unfairness, prosecution, difamation can never be sources for the renounce of a bishop, or its fair cause. I want to make it clear that I would never leave the diocese of San Juan when there is no legitimate reason," he worte in a letter dated of Febrary 20.

Link to Latin Times…

Photo..

Dissident Priest is on Sabbatical to Anglican Monastery for Year: Discipline?

Edit: since attacking the Church during the campaign on behalf of marriage which was promoted heavily by the Diocese, involving the prayer, expense and personal time by many in the Diocese, Father Bob Pierson O.S.B. had taken it upon himself to challenge traditional Church teaching and attack that campaign.


Father Pierson is a monk at the decaying Monastery of St. John's in Collegeville Minnesota who has done a lot of things he will one day have to answer for.


He has also been known for other offenses in the past, for example,  he resigned from his job as Campus Minister at Saint John's University when Pope Benedict announced new norms (which are generally ignored in most places) about formation for priests in the seminary, that they may not have deep seated problems with respect to homosexuality.

In the last year, he also hosted a naked retreat which would involve "touching". At the time, we felt that  it was the surfacing of one of the previous Abbot's methods of instruction for his novices, whom he insisted on interviewing in the nude.

Then, Pierson seems to have gotten himself banned from speaking in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where the Archbishop told him not to speak any longer in his jurisdiction, as a result of attacking the Archbishop's defense of marriage initiative.  That didn't stop Father Pierson from continuing to speak in other parts of the United Stats, and to use his Facebook page to promote his anti-Catholic agenda.

Now, Father Bob Pierson's Facebook page is down and he's on sabbatical for a year at an Anglican Monastery called Holy Cross in West Park, New York.  We hope that he decides not to return after his "sabbatical" and hope that his stay in Holy Cross becomes permanent, barring a dramatic road to Damascus of some kind for this persecutor of Christians.  It would be nice if it were more obvious that this was some part of a disciplinary action on the part of someone.  There's no indication it is, but hopefully, Pierson will follow through with his occasional threat and find the more doctrinally suitable, if unsound, Anglican communion his permanent home from now on.

Link to photo...

Old Liberal Archbishop Advocates Same-Sex "Blessings" and Deaconesses

Edit: in most accounts of this, the homoheresy are being buried in the way this is hitting the US media.  They always seem to miss something.  Cadinal Zollitsch is a habitual enabler of aberrosexualism.

Also, Cardinal Kasper is in the same boat. And there’s some suspiciously sub-par reporting from the commerce bloggers at Patheos, which doesn’t even mention +Zollitsch’s full statement.

(Freiburg im Breisgau) Always the same talk of reform, forever old issues, meaningless language. At the end of  the Freiburg Diocesan Assembly  which met from Thursday to Sunday, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch has announced plans to implement the 300 delegate approved recommendations for developed proposals for church reform. 300 "Christians and experts" from the Archdiocese had worked in groups, such as "Church must change”  to a "changing society” and continuing “to be close to Christ and the people" -  such is the motto of the Diocesan Assembly.  The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference is quoted to say: "Nothing is forgotten or lost. I am responsible for ensuring that the issues remain on the table ".

Among other things, Archbishop Zollitsch wants to make a strong proposal for a "specific diaconal ministry for women". He was doing this "on the basis of the teaching of the Catholic Church." Another point concerns the admission requirements of remarried divorcees to receive the Holy Eucharist. "I am concerned without putting the indissolubility of marriage in question, to take the women and men affected seriously.” [We’d think that has been done already by the Church historically speaking] The Archdiocese of Freiburg is therefore considering a so-called pastoral "handout" to "encourage companionship" for all parishes issue that could officially authorize example remarried to Eucharistic reception under the condition that those concerned acknowledge in conversations with pastors expressed that their first marriage was not terminated lightly. Furthermore, a new form of blessing should be given for a second marriage.

Other reform proposals that Archbishop Zollitsch  would check and implement where possible, relate to Blessing Celebrations for same-sex couples and the possibility that women may preach in Sunday services.

Text: Martha Weinzl
Image: Wikicommons

Link to Katholisches...

Spain: 22 Priests Ordained in Madrid

(Madrid) The 27th of April was a day of rejoicing for Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid. He  consecrated 22 deacons to the priesthood in the Almudena Cathedral in Spain’s capital city. This is more than in previous years. They all have a solid university education and have an average age of 29 years.

18 new priests come from the seminary of the Archdiocese, two from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Neocatechumenal Way, and two of the Congregation of  Servi Trinitatis.

"On average, there are 15-18 new priests to be ordained, this year 22.  We are very happy, “ said Fr Fausto Calvo from the archbishop's seminary. In Spain currently there are 1,278 seminarians preparing for the priesthood. Which is 2.3 percent more than last year.

This increase is seen in the Church of Spain to be in direct connection with the World Youth Day 2011 with Pope Benedict XVI.,   as  Jose Angel Saiz Meneses, Bishop of Terrassa, insists. "World Youth Day is among many young people a convenient and great breeding ground for vocations that need to be confirmed after the first sign of interest. The growth and clarification of genuine vocations takes time, but the World Youth Days are for many a first hearing, “ said the Bishop of Terrassa.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La cigüeña de la torre

Edit: it is what it is.

Pope Francis Uses the Pius IX Ferula Again After the Scorzelli-Staff

(Vatican) Francis Pope used the Pope Pius IX Ferula reintroduced by Pope Benedict XVI during the first weeks of his pontificate.

From the 7th April, the day of his inauguration as Bishop of Rome and taking possession of the Lateran basilica, he used on the other hand, the modern sheperhd’s crook which was commissioned in 1965 by Pope Paul VI. from the artist Lello Scorzelli. The Scorzelli staff in silver has a highly stylized cross, including corpus, and was used by John Paul II during his pontificate as a bishop's crosier.

Every bishop and abbot carries a crosier, which expresses his authority and responsibility to the flock entrusted to him, underlining that he is subordinate to the Pope. The Pope is the only Bishop who uses a cross staff, which brings his supreme authority as leader of the Church of Christ, underlining that the Pope is not under anyone.

The cross of the rod is also a symbol of the vocation to follow Christ to self-sacrifice. Until 1965, or rather until the end of the Council, the Popes bore the traditional gold, corpus loose ferula with the lamb as a sign of the highest power of governance and thus their rule, which is subject to no secular ruler. Paul VI. resulted in the completion of the Council, a modern cross bar which aligns with the ferula, but because of the artistic design chosen by Scorzelli approaches the crook of other bishops.

On Tuesday the Pope again made use of the Ferula Pope Pius IX., he confirmed - as announced - he wants to use alternately the traditional and the modern cross-staff.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Screenshot CTV / Messa in Latino Trans: Tancred

Back to Calvinist Communion in the Hand at Papal Masses -- Priest’s choice?

(Rome) After several of Pope Francis' celebrated solemn high Masses, it is obvious that the canonical “extraordinary form” of Communion in the hand is being practiced again in a big way in papal Masses. And according to the personal discretion of every priest.

Pope Benedict XVI. had only given Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue to the faithful shortly after he became Pope (except Despite some cases like the Queen of Spain). Through the rediscovery of traditional practice, the reverence for the Eucharist should be strengthened to counteract deformation by the erroneous understanding in the minds of believers of a mere meal with common bread consumption.

Newly appointed in 2007, the papal master of ceremonies, Guido Marini said in June 2008, in an interview with the Osservatore Romano he explained that in future papal Masses, Communion on the tongue will prevail in a kneeling posture. This now no longer seems to be the case.

Canon law has always prescribed that Communion is received kneeling on the tongue as the actual form of Communion reception. With the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council, the bishops' conferences were granted the right to allow additional and valid exemption of forms for their area of ​​responsibility. From the exception, however, was a rule that made the actual exception to the rule immediately. In Germany, First Communion is almost everywhere taught everywhere since the 70s exclusively Communion in the hand. Of Communion on the tongue or even kneeling Communion in this large-scale re-education program in fact there is no more talk.

During dozens of scheduled Papal Masses, priests were instructed under Pope Benedict XVI. from 2008 to give the consecrated host only on the tongue. With few exceptions, the traditional practice was quickly put into effect again.

Since the inauguration of Pope Francis any uniformity has been lost. The Pope gives the deacons Communion, while it is received kneeling on the tongue. As the head of the Church, however, he gives no Communion to the faithful, as Pope Benedict XVI's example is minimized. Of the scheduled priests a large number only give Communion on the tongue. However, just as many priests give again Communion in the hand according to the Pre-Benedictine exception, when a communicant holds out their hands. A general practice, they know from most the parishes to which they were only taught by priests. Instructions for the priests as under Benedict XVI. is apparently no more. The form of Communion by the priest seems to be merely a option.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Screenshot CTV 28.04.2013 Translation: Tancred

China: Bishop Aloyisius Jin Luxian

Shanghai (AsiaNews) - Msgr. Aloyisius Jin Luxian, official bishop of Shanghai died today at 2.46 pm local time. The prelate, one of the most important personalities of the Chinese Church, was 97 years old and had been ill for a long time. In recent months he had been hospitalized and no one was allowed to visit him.

A highly controversial personality, often accused of being "too patriotic" and friendly with the regime, Msgr. Jin, who was a Jesuit, contributed to the development of the Church in a decisive way. Several years ago he was reconciled with the Pope and the Holy See considered him the "auxiliary" bishop of Shanghai. The ordinary bishop was Msgr. Joseph Fan Zhongliang, who is also very old and sick.

The diocese of Shanghai has not yet set a date for the funeral. According to AsiaNews sources the government has been long preparing for such a ceremony, especially from the point of view of who should preside. For the Holy See, in fact, the liturgy by right should be celebrated by Msgr. Thaddeus Ma Daqin, ordained on July 7. But after having decided to leave the Patriotic Association, Bishop Ma was put in solitary confinement in Sheshan seminary. According to unconfirmed reports in recent days Msgr. Ma has been removed from the diocese, perhaps to impede his participation in Msgr. Jin's funeral.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Msgr.-Aloysius-Jin-Luxian,-official-bishop-of-Shanghai,-has-died-27775.html