Clemency for the Pope's Butler

Rome (kath.net/as)  Pope Benedict XVI has offered clemency for his former butler, Paolo Gabriele and released him from punishment.  The Pope imparted this to him during a visit to Gabriele's cell.

It was approached as fatherly gesture to a person, who had familiar contact with the Pope daily for several years, says a note from the Secretary of State.

Gabriele may not work any longer in the Vatican.  He also may not continue living in his home.  The Holy See however trusts in the honorability of his rethinking and is seeing to it that he is offered the possibility to take up again living in peace together with his family.

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck Criticizes Pope Benedict's Concept of Family

(Essen) In January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI defended the family at the new year's reception for the Diplomatic Corp in the Vatican.  This questioning poses a threat "for human worth and the future of humanity", said the Pope.

The special protection of marriage and family was also the Leitmotiv of the papal visit to Spain (From the 8th of July to the 9th 2009) of the 5th World Meeting of Families there.  In Valencia the Pope said, the defense of family values is "the best way, in order to go against widely spread hedonism, who reduces the relationship between people to banality, and robs their authentic virtues and beauty."

In an interview with KNA, Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, criticized those who defend the traditional family yesterday:  "The earlier roles , where the husband is employed and the woman principally cares for the children doesn't exist any more.  To want to hold onto it, would be in fact social romanticism.  The educational possibilities of women and their involvement in the work process have fundamentally altered the family picture." In the interview the Bishop adopted the anti-family and anti-child positions of the business lobby, according to which the woman must be employed around the clock as a force for the economy.  Msgr Overbeck promotes the complete care of children out of house.  He did not plead only for the building of nurseries for under three year olds, but he requiests nurseries, which could also receive children at night.

Bishop Overbeck expressed himself as an economic lobbyist and also adopted the typical scheme of argument which attacks the family out of interests in profit:  "Surely there are certain areas for a labort shortage, which can be avoided by the building of more nurseries.  But on the other side it is good for a political answer to new challenges for the family.  Many women want both, to be mothers and pursue a job. I understand that."  In one statement Overbeck conveyed himself so far such as only economic lobbyists and those in public policy say, that to one a woman is in view of the "labor shortage" buttoned down,  further that mother, not only bears her children, but would like to care for them and raise them herself, is not realizable any longer.  Finally,  man will be reduced to a mere consumer, who lives to work, in order to consume.

Link to katholisches...

Apologetics Cruisers

Edit: is there a rule against taking some form of recreation even during Lent?  In a time when most Catholics don't  fast during Lent, much less avoid meat, this newfound Jansenism on the part of some borders on the hypocritical.   For what could be worse? Supporting abortion, sodomy, the distribution of condoms and Marxist schemes using the Catholic name, or going on a cruise during Lent with Father Z?

Surely, some of these effete newly austere navel gazers have the purest motives when they attack Michael Voris and FatherZ for holding a Lenten Retreat aboard a ship bound for the Caribean islands.

Critics of this retreat would do well to take a close look at what they're objecting to.  A retreat can be a  a beautiful place, even a kind of hothouse, with good food and companions, where a man can withdraw, retreat, from the rigors of his life to take stock, still his heart and listen for God's voice.

Most retreat facilities fall nothing short of luxurious and might be accused of providing a vision of heaven and are comparable to an above average to luxurious hotel.  After all, what is a cruise ship but a hotel on the water?  Even the more austere retreat houses are far from uncomfortable, but not all of us are Carthusians, or meant to be.

Certainly, the J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative creation of the last refuge of the Noldor in Middle Earth at Rivendell has been compared to a retreat, a place to rest and refresh the soul.  It is nothing short of glorious and luxurious.

Indeed, there are few things more peaceful than sailing along the water, watching a magnificent sunset and hearing the sound of the waves and the birds after having heard a moving and thoughtful Conference by the skillful retreat director.

Any way, the Catholic Church's own puritanical Jacobins are up in arms all over the place and the usual suspects are making themselves heard.  Some of the most vocal critics have been on "apologetics" cruises themselves, which were quite expensive and frankly decadent, upwards of 10,000 dollars.  

The cost of going on a Father Z and Michael Voris cruise is $1,000-$2,000,  which is rather Spartan in comparison.

Karl Keating himself has been kind and wise enough to see how this current blogger frenzy might bleed over into his own Catholic cruise interests, which one of the most vocal critics of Voris forgets he benefits from.

Errors of Translation in the Pope's Book on Childhood Narrative of Jesus --- One Error Makes (Sadly) Three

(Rome) "The childhood narrative" by Pope Benedict XVI., of the the third volume of his three volume work Jesus of Nazareth has found itself in the most various lands on the first place of the best seller lists    as the most purchased book.  The Vaticanist Sandro Magister has drawn attention to the translation errors which have appeared in the Italian, Spanish and French editions.  Pope Benedict XVI has published his work in his native German.  The various texts are translated from the original German.  Magister noticed the translation errors, where he found them on page 136,  as the exact same error appeared in the other editions.

Benedict XVI. introduced in the German issue (page 124), that the epithet used for Jesus, Nazarean, which is also heard as "nezer" appears in "the middle of Joschua 11:1".  There it says in the Holy Scripture, "From the root of Isaiah grows a shoot (nezer)."  The Pope continued:  "Yes, we may understand with much justification, that Mathew heard the word "shoot" (nezer) and identified Jesus is indicated as the Nazarean in the fulfillment of the promise, that God would grow a new branch on the immortal stump of Isaiah,  on which the spirit of God would lay.

The Italian edition reads: "[...], that God will give a new shoot from the stump of Isaiah, ..."

"From the stump of Isaiah?", asked Magister.  Isaiah, the Father of David, from whose line Jesus was born.  In the few lines previously it reads in the German original and the Italian translation correctly: "The special on this promise that Isaiah hearkens back to the progenitor of David.  From the apparently dying stump, God is letting a new shoot to grow."  In the original Joshia (Jes) and Isaiah (Genitive Isais) is self-evidently used correctly.  In Italian Joshua is Isaia and Isai Jesse.  The similarities serve to make them  interchangeable.  And actually the names are used interchangeably in the Italian edition at this point.

The Italian translation and product was by Ingrid Stampa, the former house keeper of the Pope, from 1991 to 2005 during his time as Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.  It is upon her that the same errors in the French and the Spanish edition are traced, as Magister suspects.  That one and the same error appears in the three different translations is "statically more than improbable", says the Vaticanist.

In the French edition, as it appears in the Publisher Flammarion,  reads that the translation is "from the German" and was accomplished by Mother Marie des Anges Cayeux of the Dominican Order, of Lazzarist Father Jean Landousies and by Msgr. Jean-Marie Speich.  The Spanish translation was done by Augustinian Friar Fernando del Rio.

In the French edition the erroneous statement "de la souche morte d'Isaie" (correctly it reads: de Jesse).  In the Spanish edition the statement is also false, 'del tronco muerto de Isaias" (Instead of correctly as "de Jese")

Already the genetive Isais could have led to the erroneous translation in the German original.  Clearly the translator used the Spanish and French editions also next to the German original also the erroneous Italian translation of Ingrid Stampa and already had tripled one, small, but not unnatural error.

Stampas translation, on the other hand, did not undermine the other editions in English, Polish and Portuguese, in which the German original was carried over correspondingly.

Link to katholisches...

Faithful Catholic Priest Sues Anti-Kreuz.net Campaigner David Berger for Libel

The Kreuz.net Saga Continues

Edit: David Berger was a theology professor who also taught in the Diocese of Cologne until he was finally fired over his appearances in indecent clothing on an immoral dating website.  David Berger has since been campaigning to get kreuz.net removed from the internet.  This time he's stepped on a legal land mine.

(Herzogenrath)  After intensive evaluation by several attorneys, Dr. Guido Rodheudt, a speaker for the faithful to Rome, Priesternetwerks (Priest Network) has filed a complaint with the District Attorney of Aachen on December 12th, 2012, against Dr. David Berger for abuse, defamation and libel.  The object of the complaint were his statements in an interview which were published in the Aachener Zeitung December 15th, 2012, last Saturday.

"I believe he distanced himself so clearly from kreuz.net, because it could have otherwise become dangerous for him. A few months previously, he had not distanced himself and for a long time he used the page as a willing instrument, in order to bring his ideology to the people.  An approval of the site is the same thing as a collaboration on the other hand."

When the Aachner Zeitung pointed out that the District Attorney assigned from Berlin was not proceeding against Pastor Rodheudt, Berger said:

"Rodheudt has a close connection with Jolie, who has always had a connection with kreuz.net.  It's interesting that the homepage posted a Rodheudt organized Liturgical event in Herzogenrah a few hours before it went offline.  I am therefore convinced, that there kreuz.net was discussed and that it was a signal to those responsible that the arch was under strain."

The legal case against Dr. Berger became necessary after after the vulgarity of diverse allegations now by many in the local media from him, were inflicted by his statements in the interview and rendered serious damage to Pastor Rodheudt's reputation as a priest. Pastor Rodheudt sees himself as the victim of a campaign that Dr. Berger is directing in his own interest, because he, as a practicing homosexual and therefore as someone who is openly against the moral standards of the Catholic Church, does not hold any official position in the Church anymore.

"But I am not directly or indirectly causally responsible for the professional demise of Dr. Berger, nor are the Christian moral laws, which he has failed at toward myself, despite the fact that I represent as a Catholic priest," says Pastor Rodheudt. Pastor Rodheudt is exposed as a representative of the Catholic Church a proxy war, the Dr. Berger against the Catholic Church as a whole leads because they have "discriminated against" him from his point of view in that it does not adopt his morals. In this context, David Berger does not hesitate to put innocent people under suspicion in public, without having facts to prove this.

Link to original....

A majority of Russians Favor Stricter Laws Against Blasphemy

Moskau (kath.net/KNA) A majority of the Russian affirmed greater severity for blasphemy laws. As the independent research institute Lewada revealed on Monday, 49 percent agree that the defamation of religious sentiments should be an act punishable by law. 34 Percent are against.

The defamation of religious feelings have been in force in Russia only as an ordinance violation till now. A partisan bill will provide in the future for three years imprisonment. additionally the damage of Church spaces will be punished with five years in prison. The Parliament will rule over it in January. The initiators point to the increase in the defilement of faith communities and damage against religious sites.

There was outrage in Russia above all concerning the protest of "Pussy Riot" in the largest Orthodox Church in Moscow last February. Two of the participants were charged under "hooliganism out of religious hate" to two years confinement and a third musician was sentenced to probation. For this punishable act there is a possible 7 year sentence.

According to the poll 74 percent if Russians recognize themselves as Orthodox Christians. That is 6 percent lower than 2009. The number of Muslims climbed between the three years from 4 to 7 percent. Catholics have shown themselves at 1 percent, therefore somewhat more than three years before. Atheists remained unchanged at 5 percent. A further 10 percent described themselves as without confession.

http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=39346

Intemperate Prime Minister Cameron Insults Church

Edit: the retiring Bishop of the Diocese of Motherwell recently expressed some concerns about the Liberty of the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom on December 10th, which was systematically greeted in the press, to include one "Catholic" blog, as an "intemperate rant". here, here, less offensive here, and here.

Considering that the Prime Minister didn't address any of the Bishop's concerns, about whether Catholic educators would be able to teach according to their consciences without losing their jobs, or how the Catholic Church is being steadily driven out of its traditional role in poor relief, adoption services and medical care by an increasingly hostile government, we thought the Bishop's response was rather mild. The Prime Minister, actually just told the Bishop that he'd have to be happy with being able to wear a cross in public, and that he insultingly stated that the Catholic Church and the Bishop should, "get with the program".

What program is that? Violating Catholic teaching to satisfy the increasingly capricious and decadent Government of the United Kingdom?

We just received the exchange from a reader in Scotland, which wasn't cited by any of the anti-Catholic media. She assured me that the press wouldn't be fair about it. So we've edited the Bishops second letter and included the important points omitted by the usual suspects in the press. Interestingly, the Catholic Herald and the Tablet are awol on this it seems.

This is another addition which Elizabeth thought was the most significant thing about the letter to the Prime Minister:

"So far as the Roman Catholic Church, whose Catholic adherents -the largest minority (approx. 6 million) in the UK - the one faith group not provided for in law - is concerned, you are out of your depth. We will take no finger-prodding lectures from anyone or any group devoid of moral competence. I suspect it is only a matter of time before you go one step further and outlaw the teaching of Christian doctrine on sexual morality on the grounds of discrimination."

Here's an excerpt addressing the issues:

You have publicly declared that "the values of Christianity are the values we need"; that Christian values were central to Britain and should be "treasured". Yet at the European Court of Human Rights your government is contesting appeals by Christians in their attempt to reverse UK Tribunal and Court judgments against them. Judgmenets that forbid them from practicing their Christian values and living as their consciences dictate. 

Your reasoning -- "that we are not supporting these cases as we want to defend UK legislation and do not think that the law in this issue should be dictated by Strasbourg" -- is saying in effect that while you claim to be an advocate for "Christian values" to be "treasured" and practiced in our nation that UK judgments against the rights of Christians must nevertheless be upheld at all costs. You vacillate -- ambivalent about the role you wish to perform -- the Disciple of David or Nero! With such a contradiction between your statements and actions on what basis can you expect anyone -- Christian in particular -- to trust or respect you? 

... Which brings me to your regrettable reproach of the Church of England. [He attacked the Church of England for not approving Women Lay-Bishops]  With your customary linguistic aplomb you protested that the Church needed to "get with the program me"; that it needed a "sharp prod" towards the modern world. Disagree with decisions by all means but such graceless comments were indelicate to the point of being offensive. And this from a prime minister belittling the nation's established church. Hardly an example to set for society in general and especially for the youth of this country. 

... You have already started with your indecent haste to rush through the Gay Marriage Bill. Counsel from respected legal experts warn of the damage that redefining marriage will do to Christian religious freedom and the protection of family life, all of which will further undermine Christians freedom of conscience. We face the prospect of teachers being forced to teach against their religious beliefs or face dismissal (your own education minister refused to rule out such a possibility); the likelihood that parents would have no right to withdraw their child from lessons endorsing gay marriage; the probability of public sector workers losing their jobs for not promoting the governments new vision of marriage and careers being rejected for fostering because of their Christian beliefs. This amounts to a serious threat to civil liberties even to the extent of preventing people doing things which are manifestly good for society. 

As Pope Benedict XVI has declared: "Religious freedom is the pinnacle of all other freedoms. It is a sacred and inalienable right. It includes on the individual and collective levels the freedom to follow one's conscience in religious matters." These statements should be uncontested as they are enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In a recent report the UN special rapporteur said: "The state has to respect everyone's freedom of religion or belief as an inalienable -- and thus non-negotiable -- entitlement of human beings." Sadly, under your premiership, this most basic of human rights is no longer being respected in the UK>

Finally, with regard to your demand that the Church "get with the programme" let me remind you that the Christian Church is a fact of history, an incarnation of Christianity. Christ created a Church for all time, not to suit the specific mores of an era. It embraces every nation and culture known to man and has withstood the rise and fall of empires and civilisations for over two millennia -- and all this amazingly without any direction and guidance from you or your peer group. 

Yours,  

Bishop Devine

Weltbild Scandal -- The Bishops Respond

"Lawyer's Whore" For Sale at Weltbild

(Augsburg) The range of Weltbild Publishing Group Ltd., one of the largest book retailers in Germany is in stark contrast to what its owner, the Catholic bishops, should preach. Last year's culmination of decades of public criticism for selling pornographic and esoteric books, and the book trade magazine book report was addressed the hypocrisy recently. Criticism from Catholic media or anxious letter from Catholics regularly remained unanswered. Including our recent issues, that we document here.

Weltbild has an approximate income of 1.6 billion Euros and is not only the largest of booksellers, but as industry insiders report, also the largest of porn distributors. The German book trade will be practically ignored by the Federal Censor for Media Dangerous to Youth. Pornographic print works, even in the most degenerate variants, even so are put on the list as violent youth-endangering media. Therefore, it is possible for retailers like Weltbild to buy and sell fully pornographic material unimpeded.

Our questions have supplied each of the shareholders of the Weltbild: Archbishop Reinhard Marx Joachim (Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, 13.2%), Bishop Felix Genn (diocese of Muenster, 2%), Bishop Wilhelm Schraml (diocese of Passau, 5.7 %), diocesan administrator Provost Dr. William Gegenfurtner (Regensburg Diocese 5.7%), Bishop Stephan Ackermann (Diocese of Trier 4.3%), Bishop Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann (Diocese of Würzburg, 5.7%), Bishop Henry Mussinghoff (diocese of Augsburg 11.7%), Bishop Dr. Konrad Zdarsa (diocese of Augsburg 11.7%), Archbishop Ludwig Schick (Archdiocese of Bamberg 5.7%), Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke (diocese of Eichstätt, 3.4%), Archbishop Cardinal Dr. Robert Zollitsch (Archdiocese of Freiburg 2.7%), Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen (Diocese of Fulda 6.8%), Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck (soldiers pastoral Berlin 4.3%) and as the largest shareholder of the Association of Dioceses Germany (VDD) with 24.2%, whose chairman is Archbishop Zollitsch.

Only from a single Diocese was there a minimalist response. An employee of an episcopal General Vicar announced: "I have forwarded your inquiry to the press office of the German Bishops' Conference." But by the Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference was no answer. Secretary of the Bishops' Conference, Father Hans Langendörfer SJ. The Jesuit himself sits on the board of the publishing group of the Weltbild and is also an executive of the Association of German Dioceses (VDD), which holds 24.2 percent of the world's shares. Because of the problems associated with the publishing group in recent years some dioceses had transferred their shares to the VDD. In the hands of multi-functionary Father Langendörfer the threads come together from around the Weltbild group and make him a key figure. As the Weltbild-scandal a year ago, reached a peak,  Chairman Klaus Donaubauer was forced to resign. The Bishops' Conference said,  in a completely inappropriate overreaction to completely disconnect from the publishing group and gave it the impression that a Christian bookstore is no longer possible today. In fact, since then nothing has happened. A lack of action seems to be the responsibility of Father Langendörfer as the most influential of decision-makers. As the premier owner-representative on the board, it determines the orientation of the Welt group. As secretary of the German Bishops Conference, he impedes critical questions.

1) How important is the income of Welt for the German dioceses?

2) Nurses and teachers must be members of the Catholic faith and make her private life according to Catholic principles. Do these principles also apply to the management of the publishing group of Weltbild? 

3) Are you aware that Weltbild is still actively selling pornographic and esoteric literature and advertisements? Are you aware of how high revenues and profits from sales of pornographic and esoteric titles are? 

4) Customers who purchase over weltbild.de and the world eBook reader literature, leave stored data. Do you know whether these data are collected and used for marketing purposes? Customers will have acquired a pornographic or esoteric titles, are other titles suggested of the same genre suggested to them? 

5) Are you familiar with the statement of Monsignor Michael Fuchs, deputy chairman of the Publishing Group GmbH Weltbild,  made to the "Daily Mail" (24 July 2012)? Was it discussed with you? If so,  should it be regarded as official approval for the resumption of the distribution of pornographic literature by the German bishops? 

6) Will the world of German dioceses address data provided by Catholics?

Link to katholisches...

From text by Linus Schneider

Bishop Olmsted to Head Congregation for Religious in Rome

Edit: this decision is already being lamented in certain quarters where it was already reported earlier last week, here, they say he's not going, and here.

(Vatican) The new Secretary of the important Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and for the Society of Apostolic Life, better known as the Congregation for Religious, will be the American Bishop Thomas James Olmsted of Phoenix in Arizona, USA.  The appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. comes immediately before, as La cigüeña de la torre reported.  Msgr Olmsted has made his name as a Traditional, loyal to Rome and militant Bishop.  The 1947 born ++Olmsted became a priest in 1973 and was named as Bishop Coadjutor of Wichita in 1999 by Pope John Paul II.  From 2001, the Diocesan Bishop of this Diocese was called to Phoenix.

Excommunication of a Nun: no false understanding of "freedom of conscience" concerning abortion

In 2010 he excommunicated a Nun, who was attempting to justify abortion as part of an Ethical Commission on unborn children.  Bishop Olmsted then clarified:  "The murder of an unborn child is immoral in any circumstance. The life of an unborn child is exactly as inviolable as that of his mother, no life may be subject to the other."

Since 2011 he established that only see males will serve at the altar in the Cathedral of Phoenix.  With that the Bishop discontinued the practice of female servers.  "Not because of any form of misogyny or hyserical clerical sexism, as some in ignorance of Catholic doctrinal teaching carelessly and hastily have charged,"  said the Bishop.  The service of the altar by young boys and lads has deep reaching roots in Church history, still long before there were seminaries providing a modern style of education for the priesthood, just as the Conciliar Fathers of the Council of Trent desired. [We've been saying this for years, here.] The service of the altar was seen as an "apprenticeship" and introductory step to the priesthood, so the Diocese of Phoenix said on the decision of the Bishop.  Bishop Olmsted belongs to those Bishops, who has already celebrated the Roman Rite in its Extraordinary Form [Immemorial Mass of All Ages].

No Female Servers:  The Service of the Altar is for the Church, the First Step into the Priesthood

Bishop Olmsted follows the American, Msgr. Joseph William Tobin to the office of the Secretary of the Congregation for Religious, who according to Rome, Msgr Tobin was dismissed from the Roman Curia, because of his too "soft" line against the rebellious US Women Religious. The Redemptorist (since 1952), who was the General Superior of the Redemptorists from 1997 to 2009, was call to Rome from where he was Archbishop of Indianapolis in Indiana. His activity in the Roman Curia remained a brief interlude.  Then in 2010 he was called to the Congregation of Religious, where he attempted there after the retirement of Cardinal Franc Rode to take a "soft" line in a tug of war with a progressive, feminist and at times drifting into obscure New Age movements, aging part of American Women Religious.  A position, which was not well-received in Rome and led to his dismissal.

Conflict with Rebellious Esoteric Deistic Feminist Nuns Has Priority

The situation that an American will again be called to an important position for Religious affairs after another American, underscores, that for Rome the resolution of the conflict with the rebellious part of the American Women Religious is a priority coming all the way from the top.

Text: Giuseppi Nardi
Bild: courageouspriest

Link...katholisches...

The First Catholic Church in North America

The fertile region of South Greenland is home to the well-preserved ruins of one of the first Catholic churches on the North American continent - Hvalsey Church.

Long before Columbus ever had the idea of sailing west to try to find a shorter route to India, the Norse settlers from Scandinavia had established themselves in Greenland. The fertile South Greenlandic fjords had attracted Norse settlers from Iceland and many estates and farms had been established in the new country.

Hvalsey Church - more than a thousand years old
Catholicism was spreading its influence throughout Europe and also reached the outer frontier in Greenland, where it established itself in the country in 1000 AD and the first churches were soon erected. Hvalsey Church was probably built in the 14th century, but is the best preserved of the churches in Greenland from that period.

Edit: No doubt, the first Mass was said in Newfoundland long before the 15th Century.

http://www.greenland.com/en/about-greenland/kultur-sjael/historie/vikingetiden/hvalsey-kirkeruin.aspx

Cardinal Marx Doesn't Exclude Women Priests

Reinhard Cardinal Marx

[Pius.info] The Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard  Marx is clearly holding unity with the Zeitgeist as more important than being true to the Faith.  According to a report in KNA the Cardinal said on Wednesday at a talk on the faith at the Maria-Ward-School in Munich, if Jesus can call God "Father", it isn't to be understood sexually.  As to the question if the office of priest is open to women, Marx told the 250 school girls:  "Perhaps it is still not the end of the road, that we walk along together."  He left the question open.

With that Cardinal Marx weighed against the Magisterium of the Church, according to which this is not an open question any more.

Above all, Pope John Paul II, explained in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of May 22, 1994: "Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

The Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith attempted in 1995 to make another clarification, in which the Pope furnished the following question:  "Doubt whether the doctrine, which is contained in the Apostolic Letter 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis' is final, according to which the Church does not have the power to give women priestly ordination, is to be regarded as part of the deposit of faith.

The answer: yes.

This doctrine demands final agreement, because it is based on the written word of God and has been from the beginning to the end defended and declared by the infallible universal and ordinary Magisterium,  (compare.  Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium 25.) .  From this basis the Pope in view of the current situation of his own office, to exhort the brethren (LK 22:32), to assert the same doctrine with a formal declaration, in whose expressed representation, what has always been believed, everywhere and by all the faithful, in so far as it belongs to the deposit of the faith.

Link to piusbruderschaft.de...

Are Nepal's Religion Statistics Falsified? -- 10 Percent instead of 1.4 Percent are Christinan

(Kathmandu) The Christians in the Himalayan State of Nepal are objecting to the government's published religion statistics.  According to the published data of the official census of 2011 given a few days ago by the mountainous Hindu country, which was a Kingdom until 2008, there are 300,000 Christians.  This consists of 1.4 % of the population.  The Federation of National Christians Nepal, FNCN, has objected to these figures, as reported by the news agency Fides. According to FNCN there are more than 2.5 million Christians living in the upper mountainous country.  One in every ten Nepalese is baptized.

The central statistics office has "arbitrarily underestimated the number of Christians, because 300,000 Christians live in the valley of Kathmandu alone", says C.B. Gahatraj, the General Secretary of the FNCN.  The Federation is prepared at any time, to offer the proof for the number of Christians which is eight times higher than what is maintained by the Statistics Office of the government.

The Federation demands that the government correct the numbers.  At the same time it is demanding that the government reinstates the six point agreement between the government and the Christian communities.

Bikash Bista, the acting Director of the State Statistical Offices explained that the citizens had entered their religious affiliation in the census questionnaire. If this entry hasn't been used by many, the blame isn't on the part of the authorities.  The published numbers are the result of the numbers arrived at in the data, says Bista.

Text: Radio Vatikan/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Radio Vatikan

Link to katholisches...

Cardinal Dziwisz, Secretary of John Paul II, "moved" by Mass in Old Rite

(Krakow) Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul II's secretary for many years and since 2005, the Archbishop of the Old Polish capital of Krakow, was present on November 11th at a Holy Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.  The Sacrifice of the Mass in Krakow's Cross Church was celebrated by Father Wojciech Grygiel, the Superior of the Society of St. Peter in Poland.  The event was the tenth anniversary since the Polish Archdiocese regularly celebrated the Mass in the Tridentine Rite by the Society of St. Peter.

After the celebration, Cardinal Dziwisz expressed his gratitude:  "This Rite is very close to me.  It reminds me of my youth and the beginning of my priesthood.  It had moved me very much, to be present at this Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite."

The Cardinal turend to the faithful, for the pastoral care of the Society of St. Peter to bring the Old Rite to expression and thanked them for the beauty of the celebration, to which he addressed not only the older people, who still recognized it from their youth, but not least the young people and students and he recalled that the Roman Right has two forms.

Link katholisches...

"Convert to Islam or Die" -- Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Unleashes Fatwa Against Christians

(Bagdad) On the same day in which the Syrian-Catholic Cathedral was solemnly re-consecrated, the Grand Ayatollah issued a Fatwa against the Christians of Iraq.  The Christians are expected to convert to Islam or are liable to be killed.  The Catholic Cathedral was the scene of a bloody attack on 31 October, 2010.  An Al-Qaeda unit attacked the church, as the Christians there were celebrating Holy Mass. 58 Catholics lost their lives in the attack, among whom were two priests.

The Shi'ite Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Sayid Ahmad al Hassani al Baghdadi announced his call to murder Christians with the Egyptian television broadcaster Al Baghdadia.  Al Baghdadi, which belongs to one of the most radical members of the Islamic Jihad, is calling Christians as polytheists and friends of Zionists.  Al Baghdadi's call to the Christian minority of Iraq reads:  "Convert to Islam or Die".  The women and girls of the Christians "can be legally considered to be wives of Muslims", said the Grand Ayatollah.  Al Baghdadi,  who was born in Nadjaff in Iraq, is one of the "holy cities" of Shi'ite Islam, lives today in Syria and there supports the armed struggle of Islamists.

The Catholics of Bagdad regard the Fatwa as "extremely troubling".  Whatever effect they will have, they should not be underestimated.  Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, of the Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches,  undertook the re-consecration of the Cathedral.  In his sermon he spoke of the murdered Christians in 2010, that the tears and the blood of martyrs are seedlings, which will bring forth new fruit.  Cardinal Sandri held a five day visit to Iraq, in order to strengthen the Christians there during the year of Faith.

Text: Asianews/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Asianews

Catholic Primate of England Offers Requiem for Suicide at Westminster

Ben Barboza, husband of the late Jacintha Saldanha, with
the couple's children Junal, 16, (l.) and Lisha, 14 (r.). @AP

Edit:  if Ordinaries like Archbishop Nichols don't actually follow established rules because they're too cowardly to face a media storm, what's the point of having laws which even the ordinaries themselves don't follow?

A nurse who committed suicide as the result of a phone prank was also Catholic.  She was found hanging in her room on December 7th three days after a prank was played on her by Australian DJs.  It's not known if she was a practicing Catholic, but there will be a scandalous Requiem Mass for her in London to placate the sentimental and soft-hearted.  This will be done at the expense of the Catholic religion.

The man responsible for this scandalous act, Archbishop Nichols, has often been long on sentimentality and short on orthopraxis. In 2009, he appeared at a Hindu Temple in London and received a "blessing", and he still hasn't put the brakes on the notorious Soho Masses.  It must be things like this which have prevented this Prince of the Church from receiving the honor of a Cardinal's hat.

Here's the following citation from the Church's Canon Law which ++Nicholas has most likely perjured himself over when he swore he would uphold it:

CHAPTER II : THOSE TO WHOM CHURCH FUNERALS ARE TO BE ALLOWED OR DENIED

Can. 1183 §1 As far as funeral rites are concerned, catechumens are to be reckoned among Christ's faithful.

§2 Children whose parents had intended to have them baptised but who died before baptism, may be allowed Church funeral rites by the local Ordinary.

§3 Provided their own minister is not available, baptised persons belonging to a non-catholic Church or ecclesial community may, in accordance with the prudent judgement of the local Ordinary, be allowed Church funeral rites, unless it is established that they did not wish this.

Can. 1184 §1 Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following, unless they gave some signs of repentance before death:

1° notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics;[Suicides]

2° those who for anti-christian motives chose that their bodies be cremated;

3° other manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful.

§2 If any doubt occurs, the local Ordinary is to be consulted and his judgement followed.
Can. 1185 Any form of funeral Mass is also to be denied to a person who has been excluded from a Church funeral.

Here's the story from New York Daily News...

New BibleTranslations: Queen James Version

Edit: what began as the trite and self involved, perhaps not worth mentioning in the Boomer Bible, has now entered a new phase in a downward trend to the Dead Sea:

Despite the evolution of societal trends, homosexuality continues to be intensely-debated on moral, spiritual and theological grounds. With the Bible traditionally viewed as a document that condemns the actions associated with same-sex attraction, some anonymous editors have set out to reinterpret scriptures to create a new translation — “The Queen James Bible” — that is favorable to gays and lesbians.

At first glance (and even when you dig beneath the surface), it’s difficult to discern who is behind the publication (the publisher of the book on Amazon is listed as “Queen James”), as there is no organization overtly mentioned on the web site advertising the alternative Bible. That said, the editors, though unnamed, are bold in explaining their intriguing project.


An image of “The Queen James Bible” (Photo Credit: QueenJamesBible.com)
“The Queen James Bible resolves any homophobic interpretations of the Bible, but the Bible is still filled with inequality and even contradiction that we have not addressed,” the web site notes. “No Bible is perfect, including this one. We wanted to make a book filled with the word of God that nobody could use to incorrectly condemn God’s LGBT children, and we succeeded.”

Cont: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/queen-james-bible-now-theres-a-gay-friendly-version-of-scripture/

Secessionist Movement in Trieste Recalls its Place in Habsburg Monarchy

Edit: It looks like the city of Trieste prefers Habsburg Monarchs to the Republican government of Italy. We received this declaration from the e-mail:

On Sunday morning of the 15th of December, before the court, many citizens of Trieste will declare the renunciation their Italian citizenship.

We, the people, want to reestablish full sovereignty for the Free State of Trieste. This movement was born in the serious difficulties faced by the city itself, for its region and for all of Europe. The past annexation was accomplished outside of the legality of civil law, in local as well as international standards: The peace settlement with Italy in 1947 in Paris which was singed and continues in force -- continues to be systematically ignored.

We, the people, we are the citizens of the Free Territorium of Free Trieste and intend, therefore to live legally in a state of individual and collective well being.

The Free Territorium of Trieste is, is by definition, multicultural and multi-lingual and understands its historical and geographical place in Middle Europe.

We are establishing ourselves for the Internationalization of the economy of our region and, the impulse of our place for many years in the Habsburg Monarchy, we advocate our continuation and the broadening of the mental openness of our population for other languages and cultures.

The free harbor of Trieste, the most important motor for our economy, can not be excluded or prepared for the settlement of real investments, without producing the previous legality.

So soon as these will be returned, we want to make good the progressive progress of innovation, to promote the foreseeable industrial developments and the settlement which today's reputation of stagnation of technology and is born according to the preservation of the environment. Trieste has suffered through the complicity of all administrations, which in the past decades have been a caused a nuisance in our area, and its hinterland are today under morbid debts of a no longer bearable environmental strain.

It hasn't bypassed us, how the Italian State counteracted a concourse and are in the clear, that whose causes do not lay in Trieste and that whose consequences are detected in Trieste's part is to be seen traces by reason of its progressively illegal status of the current administrative power.

By reason of this gripping economic decline the current administration is above all not in a position, for our existential important reforms -- to accomplish it as an attenuation of the tax burden.

While Europe puzzles over the causes and the solutions of the current crisis, our movement aims then to improve the quality of life in our region palpably, to closely oversee the conduct of human rights conventions and to implement the rights of self-determination of the people in fact.

"Free Trieste" represents the living interests of the overpowering majority of the population in their tributary areas and asserts therefore, the political, legal, economic and tax rules of the Peace Agreement in effect its legal path. Thus, on that it follows the reestablishment of its legality is our highest objective.

We, the people, want therefore, want to reestablish the complete sovereignty of the Free State of Trieste.
info@volontaritrieste.eu

6 January: George Ganswein Will Be Personally Consecrated a Bishop by the Pope

Edit:  the Pope's secretary has been given a new post, Prefect of the Papal Household in addition to his current one.  He will be an Archbishop.

Pope Benedict XVI. will have a full program over the days of Christmas: From the Christmas Mass over "Urbi et orbi" to Episcopal consecration and baptism.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA) Pope Benedict XVI. will personally lead the Vatican celebrations on Christmas and the New Year.  As the Vatican explains on Tuesday, the Pope will celebrate the Midnight Mass at 10pm to celebrate the birth of Christ.  On Christmas day he will also personally give the traditional blessing >>Urbi et Orbi<< in the main loggia of St. Peters Cathedral.  Then he will deliver his Christmas message as well.  On Silvester evening Benedict will hold an evening prayer with the >>Te Deum<<  to close the year at St. Peter's Cathedral.  In the morning of the new year, he will celebrate Holy Mass.

On January 6th, the feast of the >>Epiphany<<, the Pope will celebrate Mass before mid-day and consecrate several Vatican priests as Bishops.  Among them is his longtime secretary George Ganswein, who will function in the future as the Prefect of the Papal House.  On January 13th, at the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, where the Pope will give several children the sacrament of baptism in the Sixtine Chapel.

Link to kath.net...

Cardinal Lehmann Thanks Gays For "Stopping" Kreuz.net

Edit: The following translation and title sort of speaks for itself.  Not only does this seem to spell the end for Kreuz.net, at least in its past incarnation, but it may spell the end for the pro-Roman and conservative Network of Catholic Priests, which will have to find a new spokesman now that Father Jolie has been severely and publicly humiliated for his association with kreuz.net.  Network of Catholic Priests has probably embarrassed Germany's Old Liberal elites on everything from Church-tax, to its steadfast refusal to obey the Vatican's call for revising the Missal according to its guidelines.

Another priest from the Diocese of Aachen is trying to disassociate himself from kreuz.net as well.

It's also the case that nobody at this anti-Catholic newspaper cares about freedom of speech in present day National Socialist Germany.

The Bishop of Mainz, Karl Lehman is happy that "kreuz.net" is offline,  however defends himself from a wholesale condemnation of the Church.  At the same time there is substantial evidence that they have more with the agitation site that they will avow: in the criticism  there is a Pastor from the Diocese of Aachen.

Karl Cardinal Lehman has to soil himself in the internet sewer kreuz.net. The intonation of the tirade can amplify itself well, as the homophobic vocabulary of the site has recalled terms like "Gommorrhists" and "gay perverts" which were still comparatively moderate as the site goes.

But since the beginning of December, kreuz.net is no more.   And for this Bishop Lehmann thanked then --  the gays!  That a German Bishop has dared this, is signifies something unparalleled.   In Sunday's published edition of Glaube und Leben [Faith and Life] of the Church newspaper of the Diocese of Mainz, Lehmann wrote:  "It is shameful for the Church that it was at first the initiative of the Bruno-Gmünder Verlag [Publisher of pornography]  and the interest of the Federal Crimes Office together with open debate prepared the way for the unholy goings on."  The Church has not done this with its own means.  "For that reason why all thank, who have contributed clarification, even though they are not friends of the Church."

It is still indeed not decided yet, so long as the Public Prosecuting Attorney have still not been able to determine the operators, and self-described insiders of the recent departure of the site tell of a new appearance on the internet.  But Cardinal Lehmann, 76, has not yet breathed deeply over the preliminary end of the "damaging intrigue".   Why the German Bishops' Conference, who he led till 2008, did not support the proposal "Stoppt kreuz.net" of Homo-Pornographer Bruno Gmunder, was something that Lehmann was silent about. This initiative had inflamed media interest and fanned the police investigation.

Lehmann Criticized the General Suspicion Against the Church

Instead the Cardinal accuses the anti-Kreuz.net activists of turning the Church into a scapegoat.  Because kreuz.net characterized itself as Catholic, several informants, authors and if possible, site administrators came from the clergy, even from the Roman side which has raised the suspicion of some critics of the Church.  Lehmann only criticized this: The opportunity has "been exhausted in an all encompassing criticism of the Church. The deplorable behavior was only less equal than a large swamp. The whole Church is dilapidated..."  In contrast, on the one hand, Lehmann defends calls for the Church to an "examination of conscience of itself at all levels". [Only on his own Old Liberal terms]

And he defended his own actions against a Pastor of his Diocese,  to whom he extended clemency, even though the Bishops' Conference had demanded administrative legal steps against collaborators of the incitement site.  He has given the defendant the benefit of he doubt, wrote Lehmann.  Yet where  is the doubt, if, as he himself says, "that he had participated in the monstrousness, generally in the organization, which had instigated such a hate campaign."?  The Pastor [Father Hendrick Jolie] had lied to him and to the public about his journalistic activities, and only confessed after he could not refute the allegations.  It might have been part of the arrangements with Diocesan authorities that he withdraw from his anti-reformist Catholic Priest Network (KNP).  His post as speaker would no longer be exercised in any case.

The Network now has only two speakers in Germany.  One of them is [Father] Guido Rodheudt, pastor of Herzogenrath, Diocese of Aachen.  He argues in written submissions, denying any complicity with kreuz.net.  However, he acknowledges that he has read the site regularly.  In an interview not yet broadcast by WDR he said, with kreuz.net it was "like a dunghill, which is next to a trash heap in which there are still some edible tomatoes that have really lost something there."  When looking for a tomato in a manure pile, one is worse off.

Apart from that, more evidence has emerged that [Father] Rodheudt had more to do with the hate site than he now knows or wants to admit.  An activists from "Stoppt kreuz.net" says [Father] Rodheudt has a much more combative temperament than his colleagues in Mainz.  But yet he who decidedly expresses himself in interviews on the theme of the faith, yet has only read kreuz.net and never written there.

WDR asked Rodheudt about an internet link between kreuz.net and the website of the NKP (Network of Catholic Priests).  Such links are based as part of a partnership: kreuz.net demanded that if they put their advertising banner on the hate site, that in return they link to kreuz.net.

But the NKP didn't just put up a single link to its page.  It even put up a live ticker, which means that the headlines of new posts of the anonymous users in question, were sent from the hate site to the site of the NKP.   On the equally devout Catholic site gloria.tv, there is an interview with Guido Rodheudt where the live ticker from kreuz.net is still active.  It was already in January of 2009 that NKP told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that this live feed had stopped.  A colleague had asked his "dear brethren" to delete this connection.  He referred to the intervention of two professors who had complained about the "corrosive anti-Church venom of kreuz.net".

The NKP spokesman wrote:  "Dear Brother, thank you for your input, we will address those concerns and take down the news ticker from our homage!."  Until that day, there were titles up like "Jacob made a threesome", "The Holocaust ideology downplays the abortion of children" and "Pope John Paul II -- The Antichrist?"  Scores of these messages ran on the Priest Network page, while kreuz.net was then already in the sites of the media.

Guido Rodheudt says the Priest Network had deleted the link itself.  The site had changed and the style and content of kreuz.net had become unbearable. But the network had already long been cooperating with a "dunghill":  One only needs to look at posts from 2007, which put through titles like "Sodomistic Fornication", the "Homo Concubinage" and "The Homo-Ideological Manipulation."  That was obviously unsustainable for [Father] Guido Rodheudt.

In November 2007, the contribution of a Holocaust denier, contained the following sentence, "Even apparent inconsistencies are forced upon citizens as truths of faith -- whether in connection with gas chambers, Jews allegedly turned into bars of soap or with the actual numbers of casualties." And this stood right next to a banner of the Church Music Association, Sinfonia Sacra.  As he was and is the chairman of this organization, [Father] Guido Rodheudt, was just a priest looking for tomatoes in a manure pile.

Link to Süddeutsche...

Mass Setting for the Transference of the House of Loreto

[Pius.info, Germany] On the 10th of December the Church celebrates the transference of the House of Loreto.   Pius.info has found the Mass setting:

According to God's resolve the Holy Home of Mary in Nazareth, in which she herself was born in and in which she received the message of the Archangel Gabriel of the Son of God becoming man, was transferred, so that destruction would not befall it.

Born by an angel's hand, it came on the 10th of May in 1291 to Tersato near Rijeka in Dalmatia, where it remained three years and seven months.  On the 10th of December 1294 it was brought by the service of an angel of God in the area of what is today,  Loreto. The tradition of the miracle of the transfer of the Holy House is testified by old documents, by investigations of the past as also through such in more recent and the most recent time, through the statements of Saints and mystically gifted persons and through the prolific miracles which have happened there.

Many Popes have spoken in favor of Loreto, not a few of them have visited Loreto.  The feast of Mary's birth (8 September) is celebrated yearly as its main festival, and the feast of the moving of the Holy House is celebrated on the 10th of December. --

The Mass text addresses the great Holiness of this place (Introitus etc.),  including the birth of the Most Holy Virgin (Reading), on the Incarnation of God (Evangelium) and on the miraculous moving of the Holy House to the former Land of the Popes, the Church State.


Link to Mass settings for the Feast...