New study on effects of pornography reveals ‘a quiet family killer,’ researcher says

Ars Gratia Artis

ARS GRATIA ARTIS is the motto for MGM studios on it's emblem surrounding the roaring lion at the beginning of it's old movies which I often view on TCM channel. It can be translated literally to mean "Grace is the art of art." Which means that grace (i.e. refinement, intelligence, modesty, subtlety, piety and every other noble thing and good manner) is the greatest expression of human creativity. That movies and every form of art should be up building; entertainment should first of all build character. It should always make the viewer a better person!

Mary, the "gratia plena" (full of grace), is the greatest creation of the eternal Artist. So, even in the deepest sense, in the supernatural sense, ars gratia artis: in Maria. May our contemporary artists all remember Holy Mary, the fullness of grace, holy femeninity, divine direction, the value of virginity and holy motherhood and the God child in their work. Then they will remember and truly serve the genuine good of the people they influence by their works.

I present this as an alternate meaning to the originally intended meaning of "art for art's sake", a concept that emphasizes the autonomous value of art and regards preoccupations with morality, utility, realism and didacticism as irrelevant or inimical to artistic quality. It was the guiding principle of the AESTHETIC MOVEMENT. And it is false! Beauty is essentially related to truth and to humanity. My translation is therefore the more appropriate and should supplant the earlier and anarchic understanding of the arts which ruins the arts themselves in ruining man.

Relax!

If you haven't been poisoned...

If you haven't stopped breathing...

If you aren't bleeding profusely...



...it can wait!

A Lifetime Sermon Program

Given the plethora of readings in the Novus Ordo lectionary there is a dual temptation to the preacher of either avoiding most of the readings altogether or giving in to generic redundancy of religious cliches or scattered preaching without any clear direction, especially over the course of years of preaching.

I suggest the preacher begin by preaching six years on the Gospel texts (beginning in your diaconal year), writing out your homilies and saving them on hard copy (i.e. paper!), creating with them a filing system with one file per Sunday/Holy Day. Use a spiral notebook for daily homilies (noting the date and the liturgical day for each daily entry).

All homilies should be based on the scripture heavily using The Baltimore Catechism and Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma as the catechetical foundation of all your preaching, for clarity and brevity's sake! The number one flaw in all Catholic contemporary instruction is vague verbosity!!!

If you need additional quotes and examples go to The Catechism of the Council of Trent, A Catholic Catechism (John Hardon, S.J.), The Catechism of the Catholic Church, The 1983 Code of Canon Law and the Liturgical Books themselves (especially pre-1962). An annotated Catholic Bible (e.g. Navarra) is also invaluable for a synopsis of the Fathers' commentaries on the scriptures. Saint Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea and his commentaries on the Pauline Corpus, etc. are also very helpful.

Having read and used the above works for over ten years, what I now most often use to get a quick clear meaning of the text is an Italian annotated bible by Archbishop Antonio Martini first published in 1778 of which there are many used editions available from the late 19th century. Mine is an 1896 Napoli edition. There is also a similar work I have seen in Spanish but I do not know the author.

The six initial years of catechetical preaching from the liturgical Gospel texts will give you a solid preaching base which is an invaluable personal resource you may use in all future sermon preparation.

Next, in Advent of your seventh year of preaching (when you have completed the initial six years on the Gospels) begin the four year preaching cycle below. In twelve years you will have systematically preached three times on all the readings of the Mass (including the Psalms and the sanctoral cycle) and an additional time on the three year Sunday cycle (which now makes three times for the Sunday cycle). This four year preaching cycle is thorough and minimizes repetition.


Four Year Sermon Program

Sundays....................................................................Weekdays

I. Gospel...................................................................1st Reading

II. 1st Reading (Old Testament)..................................1st Reading (Year 1)

III. 2nd Reading (Epistle)...........................................1st Reading (Year 2)

IV. Psalm...................................................................Psalm/Sanctoral

Using this method you will focus on one reading in turn at every Mass and go deeper and deeper in your appreciation of the Word of God. You will also be able to use the old homilies as quick preparation for future sermons when the cycle repeats itself, adding new anecdotes and adjusting as necessary. Finally, you might even prayerfully study each of the books of the scripture during the same period that the texts from that book are being read at Mass, for further reflection.

Health Care 101: Contraception is Not Healthy

The real underlying and taboo issue in the present health care debate is contraception!

Contraception should not be provided to anyone by anyone because it is not health care at all but a cover up for sexual immorality. Instead, Natural Family Planning instruction should be provided for every adult citizen and contraception should be against the law along with every type of fornication, adultery, sodomy, prostitution, incest and rape.

Contraception is bad for your health. It is not true medicine because medicine is for the sick and not for the healthy. If one that is healthy should take a remedy the remedy alters the patient's health, i.e. makes him unhealthy. Healthy young people are by nature potentially fertile. To alter the nature of that healthy fertility in any way is to damage the health of that person. And to distort the procreative act with a condom is dirty. The only real solution to irresponsible procreation is chastity and Natural Family Planning. Contraception is not the answer. Abortion is not the answer. Education and self-discipline are the only true solution. No medicine can remedy the need for human responsibility and upright behavior.

What we need is to recognize the limits of science and technology. Nature and morality are the limits of science. It is objective morality which determines the legitimate limits of technology and not technology which determines morality. We need to empower our women and youth with education in virtue and cease to corrupt them with contraceptive poison and dirty devices for immorality. We must promote and defend virginal integrity above all! Natural Family Planning does just that.

The college scene with it's men and women in close quarters to live and to sleep together is a set up for self-destruction. It is the systematic corruption of our youth and therefore of our future families. We make our youth live as if there were no right and wrong and therefore as if God were not. The surest way to eliminate God from the minds and hearts of men and women is to corrupt them with immoral behavior. That is most unhealthy for the individual and for marriage and for the entire society. All stability is thereby undermined. No. Contraception is not helpful or healthy for anyone, it should not be allowed never mind paid for by upright citizens. We do support however public funding of Natural Family Planning for our schools and all health care facilities to help cure our sick nation with the only truly healthy behavior--chaste.

In this regard please read The Nightingale Pledge below, the oath of nurses upon graduation from nursing school, a pledge to promote good health and to do no harm. And at the same link you will find the Hippocratic Oath which is the age old oath for doctors which explicitely forbids any type of abortion (including "the morning after pill" and "Plan B" extra strong abortifacient pills).

http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale/pledge.htm

By far the greatest preventable health problem in America today is sexual immorality of every form which comes from our official and individual rejection of God Jesus Christ. (cf. Romans 1)

Is the Church Open? Is there a Place in Your Church to Light a Candle?

These were the questions from a caller just now to this Newark, New Jesey parish.

The answer to both was yes!

--"We have candles all over the church, wherever you like; and we have perpetual adoration with 24/7 access to the whole church (after hours through the side door by ringing the bell [go to http://www.saintlucy.net/ for more information]).

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEwRlir3ng for a video presentation.

Alas, that such questions should even have to be asked!

Thus is the state of the Church. Thus the state of the world!

Self-Domination

The traditional Christian use of self inflicted physical mortification is not physically much different from or even more uncomfortable than any type of modern physical training for physical self development, dieting, exercise, etc. Who would not instinctively slap himself in order to stay awake at the car wheel! It is simply self discipline in order to be able to better apply oneself.

The purpose of the discipline is the Christian novelty: to serve the Lord! The purpose is God. It is spiritual. And the source is His love. Each man needs to become lord (king) of himself to have the freedom to be useful for God.

It is good to consider this truth on the Solemnity of Christ the King. Every man must rule himself in order to serve God. That is what is meant by Saint Paul's passage on athletics.

Do you not know that those who run in a race, all indeed run, but one receives the prize? So run as to obtain it. And everyone in a contest abstains from all things--and they indeed to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. I, therefore, so run as not without a purpose; I so fight as not beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others I myself should be rejected. 1Cor. 9:24-27

Every man needs to dominate himself. Some do it simply for themselves, others for the world, for glory, etc. We, however, dominate ourselves in the Lord and for the Lord, to stand blameless before Him, our Life; to be a king in Christ the King. And, really, no man can achieve authentic self-domination except by the mercy and the power of Jesus Christ Crucified. He is the only strong Man. His Cross is the source of strength, self-domination in living the Truth in Goodness unto death!

Corporal Mortification

The Italian Journalist Andrea Tornielle, in his new book, Santo Subito, reveals the late Holy Father's habitual use of the cilice to keep him conscious of the Cross . Blessed Mother Teresa also used and promoted the use of the cilice and the discipline. Here we have the most prominent extraordinary persons of our sensual age, revered for their extraordinary holiness and compassion, mortifying the flesh in the traditional Catholic manner under the counsel of their confessors. This makes it clear that the Da Vinci Code mentality needs to reassess its stigma of corporal mortification as some obscurantist practice of an inhuman superstitious occult sect.

http://blog.ilgiornale.it/tornielli/2009/11/21/santo-subito-quel-segreto-di-papa-wojtyla/

http://www.cilice.co.uk/ (cilice catalogue)

A Kernel of Pope Benedict's Encyclicals is in Pascal

"Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ, but we do not know ourselves except through Jesus Christ; we do not know life, death, except through Jesus Christ. Outside of Jesus Christ we do not know what our life is nor what our death is, nor what God is nor what we ourselves are.

"Thus, without the Scriptures, which only have Jesus Christ as their aim, we do not know anything at all, and we do not see anything but obscurity and confusion in the nature of God and in our own nature." Pensees, Edition de Michel Le Guern, 396

And I add (to complete this thought with Benedict's constant emphasis on experience)...

To know Christ one must love Him, and to love Him one must follow Him.

Now compare the Pensees quote above to Caritas in Veritate, 78 "Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understand who he is...'Apart from me [says the Lord] you can do nothing' (Jn 15:5) and...'I am with you always, to the close of the age' (Mt 28:20). Or again from the beginning of the encyclical

Man does not develop through his own powers, nor can development
simply be handed to him. In the course of history, it was often maintained that the creation of institutions was sufficient to guarantee the fulfillment of humanity's right to development. Unfortunately, too much confidence was place in those institutions, as if they were able to deliver the desired objective automatically. In reality, institutions by themselves are not enough, because integral human development is primarily a vocation, and therefore it involves a free assumption of responsibility in solidarity on the part of everyone. Moreover, such development requires a transcendent vision of the person, it needs God: without him, development is either denied, or entrusted exclusively to man, who falls into the trap of thinking he can bring about his own salvation, and ends up promoting a dehumanized form of development. Only through an encounter with God are we able to see in the other something more than just another creature, to recognize the divine image in the other, thus truly coming to discover him or her and to mature in a love that 'becomes concern and car for the other.' (Caritas in Veritate, 11)

World Cinema (Classic and New)

For decades I have been searching almost in vain for ready, easy (and preferably free) access to the greatest films in the world (ideally in the original language [perhaps with optional Spanish or English subtitles]) and I must say that even with the Internet and our present state of "globalization" we in the USA have not progressed at all in this area. Why can't our theaters, our cable companies, our video rentals or our websites provide us with some access to the wealth of cinematographic creations the world over? I envision and long for the day when every home has a dozen foreign equivalents to our Turner Classic Movies channel. It is all too rare for our cable movie channels to show a foreign film.

For example, I should like to watch the two top 2009 Cannes Festival winners:

"Das weisse Band" http://www.dasweisseband.x-verleih.de/ and

"Un Prophete". http://www.un-prophete-lefilm.com/

As far as I can tell they are not available here at all in any venue!!! (Nor are the winners of previous years or of the myriad film festivals every year throughout the world: e.g. the Middle East and the Far East) Why is that? This is not Russia! I suppose even there they have access to great foreign films throughout the country.

If someone could tap this untapped area of the media for us it seems to me that it could easily become the biggest movie industry in the country (given the excellent quality of much of the foreign film industry and given the largely foreign makeup of our own people here). Maybe it's a job for Google: e.g. Googlemovies.com. If that should happen we could all replace the television with the computer and America would broaden its artistic horizon to include the world. Of course, there would have to be some way to warn against (and preferably censor) the ubiquitous pornography on the screen.

In this regard I must say there has been some small progress from Ignatius Press which sells a limited line of fine videos from around the world and EWTN which now has EWTN CINEMA Saturday nights at 8PM. The most recent film I'm seeing there (Part 2 tonight) is "San Giuseppe Moscati": a superb drama of an extraordinary life. http://pisgahview.net/?p=4396

Sedes Sapientiae

The first reading of today's Mass (Wisdom 7:22b-8:1) speaks of the qualities of Wisdom. Mary is the Seat of Wisdom: in her alone among mere mortals you will find every perfect quality of Wisdom, Wisdom is perfectly hers, perhaps this is also why in literature wisdom is personified as She and as a sort of Spouse of God. I would transpose Mary's name in the passage as follows.

"For in [Mary] is the spirit of understanding: holy, one, manifold, subtile, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hindereth, beneficent, gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtile. For [Mary] is more active than all active tings: and reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity. For she is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her. God she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness.

"And being but one, [Mary] can do all things: and remaining in herself the same, she reneweth all things and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls. [Mary] maketh the friends of God and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with [Our Lady]. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it. For after this cometh night, but no evil can overcome [Mary].

[Mary] reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly..."

Show That You Care

A thought for the day.



People don't care what you know until they know that you care.








P.S. This thought comes from a poster I saw this morning in a local hospital which read "People don't care how much we know until we show how much we care."

Marriage Sermon

Marriage Gen. 2:18-24, Jn 2:1-12 (Cana)

"...[A]nd the two become one flesh." (v. 24b) The "one flesh" union is what we celebrate today: the union of a man and a woman, made by the Creator (God), faithful, fruitful and "for good" (permanent).

M. and F., God unites you as you unite to each other in Him, in Jesus Christ our Blessed Lord. It is spiritual. The difference between Church marriage and all other union is the spiritual reality: God unites you, which means you are really united, deeply, from the inside, and from above. (Apparently the same as any romantic union but really this is different, it is true because it is supernatural and not just natural: like the Incarnation [not just man but true God], like the Eucharist [no longer bread but the Flesh and Blood of God], like the baptized believer versus the non-believer, and again like the person in the state of sanctifying grace versus one in mortal sin.) God, in you, makes this different.

You unite sacramentally by Christ who was at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and since then sanctifies every marriage of those who marry in Him. As expressed in the title of Fulton Sheen's book on marriage It Takes Three to Get Married. (There are four relationships in holy marriage: 1) M. (baptized) with Christ, 2) F. (baptized) with Christ, 3) M. and F. with each other, and 4) M. and F. together with Christ.)

This holy union (on earth today) was made by God (from the beginning of creation) for the sincere, transparent relations of the woman and the man, for the complete commitment (giving of self) in persevering union ("getting along;" together, "working [all] things out") and for the continuation and civilizing of the human species (generously accepting the God-given children and undertaking to civilize, i.e. Christianize, them by raising them to follow Christ). Holy marriage is the principle school of mutual respect, forgiveness, self-denial, selfless service and sincere prayer. God willed that this should be the context of the bringing of new life into the world: the openness to which is so essential to the joy, the excitement and, indeed, the sacrifice of married life. (N.B. Love/Life double inseparable meaning of the holy marital act).

We know, though, that in human relations and in the family egotism and sin must constantly be overcome for the reign of Christ's peace; that, as the years pass the love must mature, otherwise it will become sterile and even bad (like bad wine: vinegar), which is spiritually poor, gives no joy, is unpleasant and even harmful.

For love to mature it needs to reach the love of Jesus, it needs to find and accept the Cross, because love needs God!, and He loves us through the Cross (cf. Deus Caritas Est). So, we too are to love Him through the Cross. "And the wine having run short, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'" (Jn.2:3) And Christ gives the best wine (at the end!) Commit yourself, M and N., to Him. Love Christ and love the Cross (and "the Cup") with frequent repentance, (go frequently [monthly] to Confession => forgiveness; e.g. Charlton Heston's testimony to the journalist who, at his golden jubilee asked the secret for his fidelity in Hollywood: "three words: 'I was wrong'" [repentance is the school of forgiveness {receive mercy to give mercy}]), family Mass (receive the mystery of the Redemption) on the Lord's day (even daily); and worthily receive Holy Communion (eat God in the Flesh!) there. Everything depends on Him, on His love, on His forgiveness, He does the miracle of the wine (providing every good thing) for those who have Him in their marriage. Please notice one more significant element here, that Christ does the miracle for marriage because His Mother noticed the need and asked Him to act.

M. and F., have a true devotion to Our Blessed Mother, Mary, she notices the need of the couple at Cana and gets Our Lord to perform the miracle for them. She always obtains from God what is needed for the faithful marriage--the sweetness, the peace, the joy and the selfless love and endless generosity symbolized by the gallons and gallons of the best wine. Pray the daily family Rosary for her constant care for your home.

M. and F., your hearts, your love, your marriage, made by God Himself, becomes, in this way, the fountain of God's life and love in the world, starting with your Christian/Catholic home founded here today in this Church with your blessed vows.

American Anti-Catholic Penchant

Archbishop Timothy Dolan's excellent article on Anti-Catholicism as America's favorite pass time was rejected by The New York Times. The Archbishop posted the censored article on his blog at the archdiocesan website; link below.

http://www.archny.org/news-events/columns-and-blogs/blog---the-gospel-in-the-digital-age/index.cfm?i=14042

Daylight Savings Time's Anti-Christian Bias

Speaking of time...

Have you ever wondered why the time change should be on The Lord's Day and thereby disrupt the Christian observance thereof? Invariably, every year many Christians miss the Sunday observance because of the early Sunday morning time change, which first hits us (at least those of us who are not hooked on American mass media) when we show up late in the Spring and early in the Fall for Sunday worship (and I'm not sure which is more disconcerting).

It would be much fairer to have the time change for Saturday rather than Sunday morning. Even Monday (or any day of the week) would be preferable, i.e. it would be preferable that people be confused on a work day than on the day of worship. Or perhaps a federal holiday might be convenient for the hour changes (when people rest presumably not for worship).

This inconvenient choice for the hour changes is a subtle yet significant instance of the government systematically (whether intended or not) confusing worshipers. It can and therefore should be changed.

Furthermore, this brings up the broader topic of a government's audacity in presuming to change the hour at all. It is not necessary. There are many nations which do not do it. We should rather adapt our schedules (work hours, breaks, vacations, etc.) to the seasons, not our clocks. Politicians should not pretend to have authority over the sun by tinkering with our clocks and even less with our Christian worship.

There is No Time But the Present

"Now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation." --Jesus Christ

That is the urgency of the Gospel. God is calling now, calling you to follow Him! Do not delay.

The truth is that all that exists is now. Now is the only reality. All else is hypothesis. The past is gone and the future is always not yet. The present is profoundly real, and for man, with the capacity to genuinely love, it is glorious. Therefore...

There is no time but the present.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Bills

The Mexican government has just issued a limited edition of it's 200 peso note with the image of the patroness of America you see here.

Viva Mexico Catolico!

Viva la Virgen Maria Santisima de Guadalupe!

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion

I offer here a simple reflection on the present prevailing abuse of "ministers" which confuses the proper nature and function of the priest in the administration of the Sacraments, especially of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is good to consider the nature and role of the priest during this year of the priesthood. Bear in mind that my perspective comes from twenty five years of parish ministry in the northeast (including daily parish Masses during my yearly vacations in sundry parts of the country and the world).

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (emhc's) are not necessary in the parish liturgies of the United States to distribute Holy Communion. It is an artificial necessity produced by

1. needless use of the "cup" at Mass;

2. the ubiquitous communion line (which, along with "communion in the hand," considerably makes the distribution of the host more tedious and time-consuming for the priests and for the communicants [N.B. Kneeling reception at the communion rail is much more expeditious for the priest(s) distributing {because the communicant waits for him} and much more leisurely and devout {much less like "fast food"} for the communicant, who can remain in kneeling prayerful adoration for a few moments as the priest(s) go(es) down the rail.]);

3. the slothful neglect of the priests of the parish who should come out during communion time to help in the distribution when necessary; and

4. the tabernacle too far removed from the sanctuary.


The Catholic logic and true sacramental and sacerdotal perspective is that every parish should regret having to use emhc's and, therefore, use them as little as possible and ever less.

Every emhc should likewise regret having to handle the Most Sacred Host, the touching of which is proper only to the ordained clergy!

And every priest should himself regret and limit, as much as possible, by his sacramental zeal and work, this irregular situation.



Below is the relevant quote from the Vatican on this abuse and the need for immediate correction. The full text of the document is at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/laity/documents/rc_con_interdic_doc_15081997_en.html







Article 8 from the INSTRUCTION ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS REGARDING THE COLLABORATION OF THE NON-ORDAINEDFAITHFUL IN THE SACRED MINISTRY OF PRIEST (LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA, VATICAN CITY 1997)

The Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion



The non-ordained faithful already collaborate with the sacred ministers in diverse pastoral situations since "This wonderful gift of the Eucharist, which is the greatest gift of all, demands that such an important mystery should be increasingly better known and its saving power more fully shared".(95)



Such liturgical service is a response to the objective needs of the faithful especially those of the sick and to those liturgical assemblies in which there are particularly large numbers of the faithful who wish to receive Holy Communion.



§ 1. The canonical discipline concerning extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion must be correctly applied so as to avoid generating confusion. The same discipline establishes that the ordinary minister of Holy Communion is the Bishop, the Priest and the the Deacon.(96)



Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are those instituted as acolytes and the faithful so deputed in accordance with Canon 230, § 3.(97)

A non-ordained member of the faithful, in cases of true necessity, may be deputed by the diocesan bishop, using the appropriate form of blessing for these situation, to act as an extraordinary minister to distribute Holy Communion outside of liturgical celebrations ad actum vel ad tempus or for a more stable period. In exceptional cases or in un foreseen circumstances, the priest presiding at the liturgy may authorize such ad actum.(98)

§ 2. Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present or when those ordained ministers present at a liturgical celebration are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion.(99) They may also exercise this function at eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion. (100)

This function is supplementary and extraordinary (101) and must be exercised in accordance with the norm of law. It is thus useful for the diocesan bishop to issue particular norms concerning extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion which, in complete harmony with the universal law of the Church, should regulate the exercise of this function in his diocese. Such norms should provide, amongst other things, for matters such as the instruction in eucharistic doctrine of those chosen to be extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, the meaning of the service they provide, the rubrics to be observed, the reverence to be shown for such an august Sacrament and instruction concerning the discipline on admission to Holy Communion.



To avoid creating confusion, certain practices are to be avoided and eliminated where such have emerged in particular Churches:



— extraordinary ministers receiving Holy Communion apart from the other faithful as though concelebrants;



— association with the renewal of promises made by priests at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, as well as other categories of faithful who renew religious vows or receive a mandate as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion;



— the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass thus arbitrarily extending the concept of "a great number of the faithful".

(95) Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, Premiss of the Instruction Immensae caritatis (29 January 1973), AAS 65 (1973), p. 264.
(96) Cf. C.I.C., can. 910, § 1; cf. John Paul II, Letter Dominicae coenae (24 February 1980), n. 11; AAS 72 (1980), p. 142.
(97) Cf. C.I.C., can. 910, § 2.
(98) Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Immensae caritatis (29 January 1973), AAS 65 (1973), p. 264, n. 1; Missale Romanum, Appendix: Ritus ad deputandum ministrum S. Communionis ad actum distribuendae; Pontificale Romanum, De institutione lectorum et acolythorum.
(99) Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of The Code of Canon Law, Response (1 June 1998), AAS 80 (1988), p. 1373.
(100) Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Immensae caritatis (29 January 1973), n. 1; AAS 65 (1973), p. 264; Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Instruction Inestimabile donum (3 April 1980), n. 10: AAS 72 (1980), p. 336.
(101) Can. 230, § 2 and § 3 C.I.C., affirms that the liturgical services can be assigned to non-ordained faithful only "ex temporanea deputatione" or for supply.

For more on the topic of liturgical abuses please go to
http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2008/05/liturgical-abuses.html

As you see, the proper perspective here is restrictive and requiring the greatest care to safeguard the exclusivity of the priestly function so as to show the uniqueness of the priestly nature and dignity.

Pope Makes it Easier for Anglicans to Convert

Tue Oct 20 12:31:38 UTC 2009

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters)

- Pope Benedict on Tuesday took a major step to make it easier for disaffected Anglicans who feel their Church has become too liberal to convert to Roman Catholicism.

The move comes after years of discontent in some sectors of the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican community over the ordination of women priests and homosexual bishops.

While both sides stressed the step would not affect dialogue between the two Churches, it was clear it was taken because of the growing number of Anglicans who want to leave their Church.

The Vatican said the Pope had approved a document known as an "Apostolic Constitution" to accept Anglicans who want to join Catholicism, either individually or in groups, while maintaining some of their own traditions.

It marks perhaps the clearest and boldest institutional step by the Vatican to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the fold since King Henry VIII broke with Rome and set himself up at the head of the new Church of England in 1534.

The new structure allows for the appointment of leaders, usually bishops who will come from the ranks of unmarried former Anglican priests, to oversee communities of former Anglicans who become Catholics and recognize the pope as their leader."

In this way, the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church," the Vatican said.

MANY REQUESTS

It said the decision was taken to respond "to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion."

The most prominent recent Anglican convert to Catholicism was former British prime minister Tony Blair, who joined after leaving office in 2007.

The new regulations, due to come into effect soon, will not affect the Catholic Church's ban on its own priests marrying. But they will continue the age-old practice of allowing a married Anglican priest who converts to remain married.

Anglicans will find it easier than before to join the Catholic Church because they will be able to use a standard benchmark of rules and obligations for conversion.

Men who want to become priests and come from an Anglican background will study together with Catholic seminarians even if they are destined to eventually administer to former Anglicans.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, told a news conference in London that he did not see the Vatican move as "an act of aggression" or vote of no confidence, but part of a routine relationship between the two churches.

Both Vatican and Anglican officials stressed that both churches would continue dialogue aimed at eventual reunion."

This is not a comment on the life of the Anglican Communion. This is a response to people who came forward," said Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Vatican and Anglican officials were coy when asked about the number of potential converts."

We will have to wait and see how many people put their hands up and say they are interested," said Nichols, describing the pope's response as "courageous and generous."

Tradititional Bishops Appointed to the Congregatio Pro Episcopis

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2009 / 05:06 pm (CNA).

- Former Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond Burke has been appointed to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, it was announced last Saturday.

The congregation is responsible for giving recommendations to the Pope on who should be a candidate to serve as a Catholic bishop. The 61-year-old prelate could have a significant impact on the composition of the future leadership of the Catholic Church, since the appointment lasts for five years and can be renewed until he turns 80.

Archbishop Burke is also prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which is often called the “Vatican's Supreme Court.”

Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Archbishop of Philadelphia and also a former Archbishop of St. Louis, is another member of the Congregation of Bishops. A total of five Americans have been members of the office.

Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was also appointed to the Congregation of Bishops this past Saturday.

Christianity is Essential for Civilization

"The civilization of the world is Christian civilization; the more frankly Christian it is, so much is it more true, more lasting and more productive of precious fruit; the more it withdraws from the Christian ideal, so much the feebler is it, to the great detriment of society... (The Judgement of the Nations, Dawson p. 97)

"...Without justice the state is nothing but organized robbery and the law of nations nothing but the law of the destruction of the weak." (Ibid., p. 100)

Why We Prefer the Traditional Mass

Here is the second half of the homily delivered by Bishop Fernando Rifan at the ushering in of the Year of the Priesthood on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 19 June 2009, Saint Jean Baptiste, New York City, in which he explains the reasons traditionalists love and prefer the traditional form of the Mass.

...But the most important demonstration of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Holy Eucharist. “Jesus . . . having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end." (John 13:1)

Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the companion of our exile, by His real presence: “Come to Me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” (Matthew 11:28) He is our friend, our brother, our Father, our consolation in our life.

Jesus in Holy Communion is the food of our souls and, by this food, we live in Him and He in us: “He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:57) So, in the Holy Communion, we enter into the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And this Sacred Heart is open, like we pray in the Preface of this Mass, “ut apértum Cor divínæ largitátis sacrárium, torréntes nobis fúnderet miseratiónis et grátiæ, et quod amóre nostri flagráre numquam déstitit, piis esset réquies et pœnítentibus patéret salútis refúgium” (“from His opened Heart, the sacred Treasury of divine bounty, streams of mercy and grace might pour out upon us; a resting place of peace for the devout and a refuge of salvation to the penitent”).

And more! Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is a Victim perpetually offered for us. This is the miracle of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He renews continually in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, although unbloody, the same offering which He made on Calvary.

In the Holy Sacrifice, Jesus is both priest and victim, offering Himself by the hands of His ministers.

Because of all that, the Eucharist is something so great, so magnificent, so wonderful that it is worth the highest respect, the greatest sense of the sacred, the best demonstration of our worship and adoration.

As Pope John Paul II said in his Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Eucharist is something so great that it cannot be made the object of ambiguities, liberties, creativities, adaptations, reductions and instrumentalizations.1

Because of all that, we conserve the traditional liturgical form of the Holy Mass.

And let us put the question: Why do we love, preserve, conserve and prefer the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the so called Traditional Mass?

Would it be only because we are nostalgic or sentimentally attached to the past forms of the liturgy? Would it be because we deny the power of the Pope to modify and promulgate liturgical law? Would it be because we consider the new Mass, Paul VI’s Mass, invalid, heterodox, sinful, sacrilegious or not Catholic? Not at all! We are Catholic, of course.

It is not for these bad and mistaken reasons, but for a question of better and more precise expression of our Faith in the Eurcharistic dogmas: for safety; for protection against abuse; for the good of the whole Church, for contribution to the liturgical crisis’ reform; for wealth and solemnity of rites; for better precision and rigidity of rubrics, giving no space to manipulations as complained the Pope John Paul II; for the sense of sacredness; for the greater wealth and precision of the prayers’ formulas; for reverence, for personal and ritual humility; for elevation and nobility of ceremonies; for respect, beauty, good taste, piety, sacred language, tradition and legitimate right recognized by the Church’s Supreme Authority, and in perfect communion with the Holy Father, that is, with the Church. We love the old form of the Roman Rite, as a treasure of the Catholic Liturgy.

My dear brethren, how we are happy being Catholics! Every day, in our Church, it is Christmas, because Jesus born on the altar. Every day in our Church it is Good Friday, because Jesus renews his passion on the altar. Every day it is Easter, because Jesus, in the altar, is alive, resurrected, as He is in Heaven. Really, we are very rich!

St. Augustine said: God, even being almighty, the most powerful, cannot or could not give more; even being the wisest, did not know how to give more; even being (the) richest, did not have more to give than Himself in the Eucharist.

As the Eucharist is the summit and the center of the Church, and the greatest demonstration of the love of God, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, present in the Eucharist, must be the summit, the center of our lives forever. Amen.

-------------------
1. “The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, No. 10). “It must be lamented that, especially in the years following the post-conciliar liturgical reform, as a result of a misguided sense of creativity and adaptation there have been a number of abuses which have been a source of suffering for many.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, No. 52). “The mystery of the Eucharist­ . . . does not allow for reduction or exploitation.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, No. 61 (emphasis in original)).

Jesus intuitus eum, dilexit eum...

"Jesus, looking at him, loved him." Mk 10:21 (28th Sunday Ordinary Time: B)

God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. He "calls thee by thy name." He sees thee, and understands thee, as He made thee. He knows what is in thee, all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions and likings, thy strength and they weakness. He views thee in thy day of rejoicing, and thy day of sorrow. He sympathizes in thy hopes and thy temptations. he interests Himself in all thy anxieties and remembrances, all the very hairs of thy head and the cubits of thy stature. He compasses thee round and bears thee in His arms; He takes thee up and sets thee down. He notes thy very countenance, whether smiling or in tears, whether healthful or sickly. He looks tenderly upon thy hands and thy feet; He hearest thy voice, the beating of thy heart, and thy very breathing. Thou dost not love thyself better than He loves thee. Thou canst not shrink from pain more that He dislikes thy bearing it; and if He puts it on thee, it is as thou wilt put it on thyself, if thou art wise, for a grater good afterwards. Thou art not only His creature (though for the very sparrows He has a care, and pitied the "much cattle" of Nineveh), thou art man redeemed and sanctified, His adopted son, favoured with a portion of that glory and blessedness which flows from Him everlastingly unto the Only-begotten. Thou art chosen to be His, even above thy fellows who dwell in the East and South. Thou wast one of those for whom Christ offered up His last prayer, and sealed it with His precious blood. What a thought is this, a thought almost too great for our faith! Scarce can we refrain from acting Sarah's part, when we bring it before us, so as to "laugh" from amazement and perplexity. What is man, what are we, what am I, that the Son of God should be so mindful of me? What am I, that He should have raised me from almost a devil's nature to that of an Angel's? that He should have changed my soul's original constitution, new-made me, who from my youth up have been a transgressor, and should Himself dwell personally in this very heart of mine, making me His temple? What am I, that God the Holy Ghost should enter into me, and draw up my thoughts heavenward "with plaints unutterable?"

These are the meditations which come upon the Christian to console him, while he is with Christ upon the holy mount. And, when he descends to his daily duties, they are still his inward strength, though he is not allowed to tell the vision to those around him. They make his countenance to shone, make him cheerful, collected, serene, and firm in the midst of all temptation, persecution, or bereavement. And with such thoughts before us, how base and miserable does the world appear in all its pursuits and doctrines! How truly miserable does it seem to seek good from the creature; to covet station, wealth, or credit; to chose for ourselves, in fancy, this or that mode of life; to affect the manners and fashions of the great; to spend our time in follies; to be discontented, quarrelsome, jealous or envious, censorious or resentful; fond of unprofitable talk, and eager for the news of the day; busy about public matter which concern us not; hot in the cause of this or that interest or party; or set upon gain; or devoted to the increase of barren knowledge! And at the end of our days, when flesh and heart fail, what will be our consolation, though we have maker ourselves rich, or have serve an office, or been the first man among our equals, or have depressed a rival, or managed things our own way, or have settled splendidly, or have been intimate with the great, or have fared sumptuously, or have gained a name! Say, even if we obtain that which last longest, a place in history, yet, after all, what ashes shall we have eaten for bread! And, in that awful hour, when death is in sight, will He, whose eye is now so loving towards us, and whose had falls on us so gently, will He acknowledge us any more? or, if He still speaks, will His voice have any power to stir us? rather will it not repel us, as it did Judas, by the very tenderness with which it would invite us to Him?

Newman, "A Particular Providence as Revealed in the Gospel" from Parochial and Plains Sermons, pp. 562-564

Heterosexual Monogamy

"...[F]rom the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female'... (Mk. 10:2-16)

This cosmological reference to Genesis (from last Sunday's novus ordo Mass [27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, B]) is Christ's own proof for the condemnation of divorce (and the adultery implicit therein), which is also a striking and timely condemnation of the immorality of man with man and woman with woman.

Why are sexual sins wrong? How do we know they are wrong? Because they go against the way God made marriage "from the beginning of creation!:" the union of one man and one woman, exclusive and permanent and for children.

Marriage is the only proper context for human genital contact. God made it so! It is no human invention! Marriage is the wonderful creation of God, it is the school of self donation, the best sign of His holy love. God is love, that is why sex must be holy!

Benefits of Frequent Confession

In Gospel of the '62 Mass of today (18th Sunday after Pentecost) Christ forgives the sins of the lame man.

In Mystici Corporis, 88 Pope Pius XII countered the error of those who discouraged the practice of frequent confession and highlighted the benefits of devotional confessions.

The same result follows from the opinions of those who assert that little importance should be given to the frequent confession of venial sins. Far more important, they say, is that general confession which the Spouse of Christ, surrounded by her children in the Lord, makes each day by the mouth of the priest as he approaches the altar of God. As you well know, Venerable Brethren, it is true that venial sins may be expiated in many ways which are to be highly commended. But to ensure more rapid progress day by day in the path of virtue, We will that the pious practice of frequent confession, which was introduced into the Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, should be earnestly advocated.

By it

[1] genuine self-knowledge is increased,

[2] Christian humility grows,

[3] bad habits are corrected,

[4] spiritual neglect and tepidity are resisted,

[5] the conscience is purified,

[5] the will strengthened,

[6] a salutary self-control is attained, and

[7] grace is increased in virtue of the Sacrament itself.

Let those, therefore, among the younger clergy who make light of or lessen esteem for frequent confession realize that what they are doing is alien to the Spirit of Christ and disastrous for the Mystical Body of our Savior.

Ratzinger's Rejected Thesis Finally Published, With New Preface

Here is an article, bringing us up to date on the publishing of the Opera Omnia of Josef Ratzinger, which includes Pope Benedict's preface to the second published volume of the collected works. It comes from Sandro Magister at http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/?eng=y

A Newly Published Work by Ratzinger the Theologian. From 54 Years Ago, But Always Relevant

It is his doctoral thesis on Saint Bonaventure and the theology of history. With the backdrop of the Joachim of Fiore''s vision of a new and completely "spiritual" Church. The complete text of the preface written recently by the pope by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 18, 2009 – The publication in German of Joseph Ratzinger's "opera omnia" is moving forward fast. The first of the sixteen volumes planned came out less than a year ago. The second was presented to its author on Sunday, September 13, at Castel Gandolfo (see photo). A third will come out in November.

Interest in the first volume – properly speaking, the eleventh volume in the general outline – was increased by the author's desire to republish first his writings on the liturgy, which in the preface he calls "the central activity of my life."The interest of this second volume lies, instead, in the fact that it finally brings to the printing press a text by Ratzinger that until now had never been published in its entirety: the thesis that he presented in 1955 in order to be allowed teach theology in the German universities.After his first studies on Saint Augustine, it was suggested to the young theologian Ratzinger that he research the most Augustinian of the medieval theologians, the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and in particular his ideas concerning divine revelation and the theology of history.

Ratzinger dug deep in his research. And he discovered that in Bonaventure, there is a strong connection with the vision of Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan who had prophesied the imminent advent of a third age after those of the Father and the Son, an age of the Spirit, with a renewed and entirely "spiritual" Church, poor, reconciled with Greeks and Jews, in a world restored to peace.

One of the examiners, professor Michael Schmaus, didn't like the thesis. But Ratzinger avoided rejection by representing only the second part of his text, which had not received any objections. In later years, he resolved to produce a new and updated publication of the entire thesis, but was unable to do so. As cardinal, he resolved to work on it in his retirement. But then he was elected pope, and the project was inevitably scrapped.

Republished now in its original and complete version, the thesis seems to have been superseded here and there by later studies. Ratzinger realizes that. But he maintains that "the question of the essence of Revelation, which is the theme of the book, still has urgency today, perhaps even more so than in the past."

In reading his preface to this second volume of the "opera omnia" – reproduced further below – it can be grasped that Benedict XVI still sees as relevant the challenge that Bonaventure had to confront as superior general of the Franciscan order: the "dramatic tension between the 'realists', who wanted to make use of the legacy of Saint Francis according to the concrete possibilities of the life of the order as it had been handed down, and the 'spiritualists', who instead focused on the radical novelty of a new historical period.

"Henri De Lubac, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, dedicated an imposing two-volume essay to what he called "the intellectual posterity of Joachim of Fiore."In the judgment of De Lubac, Joachim's vision – the friar "endowed with prophetic spirit" whom Dante placed in Paradise – has spanned the centuries and continues to influence a large portion of today's culture, including Catholic culture: a culture that dreams of "a new Church in which love must replace the law."The exact opposite of that "Caritas in Veritate" which provides the title for Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, and informs his entire magisterium.

__________

Preface to the second volume of my writings

by Joseph Ratzinger

After the publication of my writings on the liturgy, there now follows in the general edition of my works a book with the theological studies on the great Franciscan and doctor of the Church Bonaventure Fidanza. From the beginning, it was evident that this work would also contain my studies on the holy doctor's concept of Revelation, conducted from 1953-1955 together with the interpretation of his theology of history, but unpublished before now.In order to complete this work, the manuscript needed to be revised and corrected according to modern editorial standards, something that I did not feel capable of doing. Professor Marianne Schlosser, who has an extensive knowledge of medieval theology and of the works of Saint Bonaventure in particular, graciously offered to undertake this necessary and certainly not easy work. For this I must thank her from the bottom of my heart. Discussing the project, we immediately agreed that no attempt should be made to revise the book's content and bring the research up to date. More than half a century after the writing of the text, in practice this would have meant writing a new book. Moreover, I wanted this to be an "historical" edition, which would offer in its original condition a text elaborated a long time ago, leaving to research the possibility of finding value in it still today. The editorial work is the subject of the introduction by Professor Schlosser, who together with her coworkers has invested a great deal of time and effort in the production of an historical edition of the text, confiding in the fact that theologically and historically, it was worthwhile to make it available to all in its entirety. In the second part of the book, "The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure" is presented again as it was published in 1959. The essays that follow it are taken, with few exceptions, from the study of the interpretation of Revelation and of the theology of history. In some cases, they have been adapted to make them self-contained texts, with slight modifications according to the context.I had to give up temporarily the idea of updating the manuscript and presenting it as a book for the public, as well as the project of a scholarly commentary on the "Hexameron," because the work of being an expert adviser at the council and the requirements of my teaching position were so demanding as to make medieval research unthinkable. In the postconciliar period, the changed theological situation and the new situation in the German university absorbed me so completely that I delayed the work on Bonaventure until after my retirement. In the meantime, the Lord has led me along a different path, so the book is now being published in its present form. I hope that others will take on the task of commenting on the "Hexameron."

At first, the presentation of the theme of this work might seem surprising, and in fact it is. After my thesis on the conception of the Church in Saint Augustine, my teacher Gottlieb Söhngen suggested to me that I dedicate myself to the Middle Ages, and in particular to the figure of Saint Bonaventure, who was the most significant representative of the Augustinian movement in medieval theology.As for the content, I had to face the second important question addressed by fundamental theology, meaning the theme of Revelation. At that time, in particular because of the famous work by Oscar Cullmann "Christus und die Zeit [Christ and time] (Zürich, 1946), the theme of salvation history, especially its relationship with the metaphysical, had become the focal point of theological interest. If neo-Scholastic theology essentially understood Revelation as the divine transmission of mysteries, which remain inaccessible to the human mind, today Revelation is considered as God's manifestation of himself in an historical action, and salvation history is seen as a central element of Revelation. My task was to try to discover how Bonaventure understood Revelation, and if for him there was anything like an idea of "salvation history."

It was a difficult task. Medieval theology does not provide any treatises "de Revelatione," on Revelation, as is the case with modern theology. Moreover, I immediately demonstrated that medieval theology also does not have any term for expressing, from the perspective of content, our modern concept of Revelation. The word "revelatio," which is common in neo-Scholastic and medieval theology, does not mean, as has been demonstrated, the same thing in medieval and modern theology. For this reason, I had to seek the answers to my framing of the problem in other forms of language and thought, and even modify this framing with respect to my first approach of Bonaventure's works. In the first place, difficult research had to be done on his language. I had to set aside our concepts in order to understand what Bonaventure meant by Revelation. In any case, it has been demonstrated that the conceptual content of Revelation was adapted to a great number of concepts: "revelatio," "manifestatio," "doctrina," "fides," and so forth. Only a vision of the entire scope of these concepts and their usage brings an understanding of the idea of Revelation in Bonaventure.

The fact that medieval theology had no concept of "salvation history" in the current sense of the term was clear from the beginning. Nonetheless, two indications demonstrate that the problem of revelation as an historical journey was present in Bonaventure.In the first place, Revelation was was presented as the dual figure of the Old and New Testament, which posed the question of the harmony between the unity of truth and the diversity of historical mediation, raised since the patristic era and then addressed again by the medieval theologians.

To this classic form of the problem of the relationship between history and truth, which Bonaventure shared with the theology of his time and addressed in his own way, he also adds the novelty of his historical point of view, in which history, which is the unfolding of the divine work, becomes a dramatic challenge.Joachim of Fiore (died 1202) had taught about a Trinitarian rhythm in history. The age of the Father (Old Testament) and the age of the Son (New Testament, Church) had to be followed by an age of the Holy Spirit, in which observance of the Sermon on the Mount would produce a spirit of poverty, reconciliation between Greeks and Latins, reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and a time of peace. Through a combination of symbolic numbers, the erudite abbot had predicted the beginning of a new age in 1260. Around 1240, the Franciscan movement ran across these writings, which had an electric effect on many: had this age not begun, perhaps, with Saint Francis of Assisi? For this reason, a dramatic tension was created within the Order between the "realists," who wanted to make use of the legacy of Saint Francis according to the concrete possibilities of the life of the Order as it had been handed down, and the "spiritualists," who instead focused on the radical novelty of a new historical period.

As minister general of the Order, Bonaventure had to confront the enormous challenge of this tension, which for him was not an academic question, but a concrete problem of his post as the seventh successor of Saint Francis. In this sense, history was suddenly tangible as reality, and as such had to be faced with real action and theological reflection. In my studies, I tried to explain the manner in which Bonaventure approached this challenge and made the connection between salvation history and Revelation.I had not read the text since 1962. So it was exciting for me to reread it after such a long time. It is clear that the framing of the problem and the language of the book were influenced by the situation in the 1950's. Especially in the case of linguistic studies, the technical means that we have now did not exist. For this reason, the work has its limits, and it is evidently influenced by the historical period in which it was conceived. Nonetheless, in rereading it I got the impression that its answers are well-founded, although it has been superseded in many of its details, and that it still has something to say today. Above all I realized that the question of the essence of Revelation and the fact of posing it again, which is the theme of the book, still have urgency today, perhaps even more so than in the past.At the end of this preface, I would like to thank, in addition to Professor Schlosser, the bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who by founding the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI has made the publication of this work possible, and actively followed the editing of my writings. I also thank the collaborators of the Institute, Professor Rudolf Voderholzer, Christian Schaller, Franz-Xaver Heibl, and Gabriel Weiten. Last but not least I thank the publishing house Herder, which worked on the publication of this book with its characteristic accuracy.

I dedicate the work to my brother Georg for his eighty-fifth birthday, thankful for a lifelong communion of thought and activity.Rome, solemnity of the Ascension of Christ, 2009.

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The summaries of the first three volumes of the "opera omnia" by Joseph Ratzinger," on the website of the publisher Herder:

> Theologie der Liturgie [Theology of the liturgy]

> Offenbarungsverständnis und Geschichtstheologie Bonaventuras [Concept of revelation and theology of history in Bonaventure]

> Zeichen unter den Völkern. Schriften zur Ekklesiologie und Ökumene [Sign among the peoples. Essays on ecclesiology and ecumenism]

ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE

Incipit Sancti Rosarii recitatio



Per signum (†) Sanctae Crucis, de inimicis (†) nostris, libera nos (†), Deus noster. In nómine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



Spiritus Sanctus invocatur:


Antiphona. Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.
V. Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur.
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae.



Oremus. DEUS, qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti: da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius semper consolatione gaudere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.




Actus contritionis: O mi Domine Iesu, verus Deus et Homo verus, Creator, Pater et Redemptor meus, in qui credo et spero et quem super omnia diligo: me poenitet ex toto corde propter peccata mea quia Tu Deus bonus es ac me poenis inferni punire potes, et Tua gratia adiuvante emendationem in futuris polliceor. Amen.




Formula Rosarium offerendi: Domine Deus noster, dirige et educ omnes nostras cogitationes, verba, affectus, opera et desideria ad maiorem Tuum honorem et gloriam. Et Te, Virgo beatissima, a Filio Tuo largire ut attente ac devote hanc coronam Sanctissimi Tui Rosarii recitemus, quam pro Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae atque nostris necessitatibus tam spiritualibus quam temporalibus offerimus, necnon et pro bono vivorum et suffragio defunctorum gratulationis Tuae ac maioris nostrae obligationis.

Maria, Mater gratiae, Mater misericordiae: Tu nos ab hoste protege et hora mortis suscipe.

V. Dignare me laudare Te, Virgo sacrata.
R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.


Mysteria hodie contemplanda gaudiosa – luminosa – dolorosa – gloriosa sunt.

Post enuntiationem omni mysterii Pater, decies Ave et Gloria Patri dicuntur.

In fine singuli mysterii: O mi Iesu, peccata nostra dimitte nobis, ab igne inferni defende nos; perduc in coelum onmium animas, eorum imprimis qui maxime misericordia Tua indigent.




Gaudii Mysteria
I. Incarnatio Verbi Dei ex Spiritu Sancto in sinu Virginis Mariae.
II. Visitatio Beatae Mariae Virginis ad Elisabeth.
III. Nativitas Filii Dei in Bethlehem Iuda.
IV. Purificatio Beatae Mariae Virginis et Presentatio Pueri in Templo.
V. Inventio Pueri in Templo in medio Legis doctorum.

Lucis Mysteria
I. Baptisma Iesu Christi a Ioanne praecursore apud Iordanem.
II. Miraculum ad nuptias in Cana Galilaeae.
III. Proclamatio Regni Dei et invitatio ad conversionem.
IV. Transfiguratio Iesu Christi super montem Thabor.
V. Institutio Sanctissimae Eucharistiae Sacrificii et Sacramenti.

Doloris Mysteria
I. Oratio Iesu Christi in horto Gethsemani super monten Olivarum.
II. Flagellatio Iesu Christi ad columnam.
III. Coronatio spinarum.
IV. Sanctae Crucis baiulatio.
V. Divini Salvatoris nostri crucifixio, mors et sepultura.

Gloriae Mysteria
I. Resurrectio Iesu Christi a mortuis.
II. Ascensio Iesu Christi in coelos.
III. Missio Spiritus Sancti Paraclyti as Apostolos.
IV. Gloriosa Beatae Mariae Virginis in coelum Assumptio.
V. Coronatio Beatae Mariae Virginis Regina coelorum in terris.


Gratiarum actio: Gratias innumeras agimus Tibi, Augusta Principissa, propter omnia beneficia a munificentissima manu Tua accepimus: dignare, Domina nostra, nos sub Tua protectione et refugio semper conservare, ad quem dicimus Tibi:


Antiphona. Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Deus cujus Unigénitus per vitam, mortem et resurrectiónem suam nobis salútis aeternae praemia comparávit: concéde, quaesumus; ut, haec mystéria sacratíssimo beátae Mariae Virginis Rosário recoléntes, et imitémur quod cóntinent, et quod promíttunt, assequámur. Per eúndem Christum Dóminum nostrum. R. Amen.


LITANIAE LAVRETANAE BEATAE MARIAE VIRGINIS
Adprobatae a Sixto PP V cum bulla Reddituri 11 iulii A.Dni. 1587

Kyrie eleison
Christe eleison
Kyrie eleison
Christe, audi nos
Christe, exaudi nos
Pater de coelis, Deus, miserere nobis
Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus, miserere nobis
Spiritus Sancte, Deus, miserere nobis
Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, miserere nobis
Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis
Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis
Sancta Virgo virginum, ora pro nobis
Mater Christi, ora pro nobis
Mater Ecclesiae, ora pro nobis
Mater Divinae Gratiae, ora pro nobis
Mater purissima, ora pro nobis
Mater castissima, ora pro nobis
Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis
Mater intemerata, ora pro nobis
Mater immaculata, ora pro nobis
Mater amabilis, ora pro nobis
Mater admirabilis, ora pro nobis
Mater boni consilii, ora pro nobis
Mater Creatoris, ora pro nobis
Mater Salvatoris, ora pro nobis
Virgo prudentissima, ora pro nobis
Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis
Virgo praedicanda, ora pro nobis
Virgo potens, ora pro nobis
Virgo clemens, ora pro nobis
Virgo fidelis, ora pro nobis
Speculum iustitiae, ora pro nobis
Sedes sapientiae, ora pro nobis
Causa nostrae laetitiae, ora pro nobis
Vas spirituale, ora pro nobis
Vas honorabile, ora pro nobis
Vas insigne devotionis, ora pro nobis
Rosa Mystica, ora pro nobis
Turris davidica, ora pro nobis
Turris eburnea, ora pro nobis
Domus aurea, ora pro nobis
Foederis arca, ora pro nobis
Ianua Caeli, ora pro nobis
Stella matutina, ora pro nobis
Salus infirmorum, ora pro nobis
Refugium peccatorum, ora pro nobis
Consolatrix afflictorum, ora pro nobis
Auxilium christianorum, ora pro nobis
Regina angelorum, ora pro nobis
Regina patriarcharum, ora pro nobis
Regina prophetarum, ora pro nobis
Regina apostolorum, ora pro nobis
Regina martyrum, ora pro nobis
Regina confessorum, ora pro nobis
Regina virginum, ora pro nobis
Regina sanctorum omnium, ora pro nobis
Regina sine labe originale concepta, ora pro nobis
Regina in caelum assumpta, ora pro nobis
Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii, ora pro nobis
Regina familiae, ora pro nobis
Regina pacis, ora pro nobis
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis, Domine
Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, exaudi nos, Domine
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis

Antiphona. Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix: nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necesitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta.

V. Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Concede nos, fámulos tuos quaésumus Dómine Deus, perpetua mentis et córporis sanitáte gaudére, et gloriósa beatae Maríae semper Vírginis intercessione, a praesenti liberári tristitia, et aeterna pérfrui laetitia. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. R. Amen.


Ad Sanctum Ioseph Leonis PP XIII precatio pro mense octobris: Ad Te, beate Ioseph, in tribulatione nostra confugimus, atque, implorato Sponsae tuae sanctissimae auxilio, patrocinium quoque tuum fidenter exposcimus. Per eam, quaesumus quae te cum immaculata Virgine Dei Genetrice coniunxit, caritatem, perque paternum, quo Puerum Iesum amplexus es, amorem, supplices deprecamur, ut ad hereditatem, quam Iesus Christus acquisivit Sanguine suo, benignus respicias, ac necessitatibus nostris tua virtute et ope succurras. Tuere, o Custos providentissime divinae Familiae, Iesu Christi subolem electam; prohibe a nobis, amantissime Pater, omnem errorum ac corruptelarum luem; propitius nobis, sospitator noster fortissime, in hoc cum potestate tenebrarum certamine e caelo adesto; et sicut olim Puerum Iesum e summo eripuisti vitae discrimine, ita nunc Ecclesiam sanctam Dei ab hostilibus insidiis atque ab omni adversitate defende: nosque singulos perpetuo tege patrocinio, ut ad tui exemplar et ope tua suffulti, sancte vivere, pie emori, sempiternamque in caelis beatitudinem assequi possimus. R. Amen.


Ad mentem Romani Pontificis precamur ut omnes indulgentias Sanctissimo Beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario concessas consequamur: Pater, Ave, Credo.


Et fidelium animae, per misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace. Amen.

V. Nos, cum prole pia.
R. Benedicat Virgo Maria.

Et sic Rosarium terminatur.





HIMNO AL ROSARIO EN ESPAÑOL

Viva María, viva el Rosario,
viva Santo Domingo, que lo ha fundado.


El demonio a la oreja
te está diciendo:
no reces el Rosario
sigue durmiendo.


Viva María, viva el Rosario,
viva Santo Domingo, que lo ha fundado.

Quien quiera bendiciones,
paz y alegría,
rezar debe el Rosario
todos los días.

Viva María, viva el Rosario,
viva Santo Domingo que lo ha fundado.

Los dieces del Rosario
son la escalera
para subir al cielo
las almas buenas.

Viva María, viva el Rosario,
viva Santo Domingo que lo ha fundado.

Devoto de María:
si gracias quieres
rezarás el Rosario
y nunca peques.

Viva María, viva el Rosario,
iva Santo Domingo que lo ha fundado.

El Rosario a María
todos debemos
rezarle cada día
para ir al cielo.

Viva María, viva el Rosario,
viva Santo Domingo que lo ha fundado.

Vatican Radio in Latin

Going through the German Catholic News this morning I came across the weekly Vatican Radio News in Latin!


http://www.radiovaticana.org/tedesco/nuntii_latini.htm

To listen, in the above link, click the audio icon under the caption "Hier zum Nachhören das Audio-file:"

Apparently it has been going since 2006. The icon for it appears on their German page but not on their English language page. Shouldn't it be an icon on their home page and on every national page! Isn't Latin, after all, the Vatican's official language? Why should it be hidden as if an embarrassment? Publish it wide and broad! Be proud of your Latin heritage. Romanitas! Vivat Romanitatem!

Theology of the Body Given Approval: Nihil Obstat!

Letter of Support for Christopher West
Signed by Cardinal Rigali, Bishop Rhoades

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, SEPT. 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the letter that was sent Aug. 10 by Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Harrisburg, to Christopher West, founder and director of the Theology of the Body Institute.

* * *

Support for Christopher West from Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop Kevin Rhoades

Cardinal Justin Rigali, as Chairman of the Episcopal Advisory Board for the Theology of the Body Institute and as local ordinary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia where the Institute is located, and Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Christopher West's local ordinary in the Diocese of Harrisburg, have stated that they are pleased to express strong support for the important work of the Theology of the Body Institute and, in particular, that of Christopher West.

We are convinced that John Paul II's Theology of the Body is a treasure for the Church, indeed a gift of the Holy Spirit for our time. Yet, its scholarly language needs to be "translated" into more accessible categories if the average person is to benefit from it. To do this is the specific mission of the Theology of the Body Institute, and we believe that Christopher West, the Institute's popular lecturer and spokesman, has been given a particular charism to carry out this mission. With great skill as a presenter, with keen insight as a thinker, and with profound reverence for the mystery of human sexuality, he has been able to reach thousands in our sexually wounded culture with the Gospel of salvation in Christ.

In light of recent discussions, we are happy to state our full confidence in Christopher, who continues to show great responsibility and openness in listening carefully to various observations and reflections on his work and in taking them into account. He and the Theology of the Body Institute are in communication with us, their local ordinaries. They work with our episcopal blessing. In our view their programs, courses, and materials reflect strong fidelity to the teaching of the Church and to the thought of Pope John Paul II. As such, we consider them of superb value for promoting the New Evangelization.

We sincerely hope that Christopher will continue his much needed work in the Church. He does so with our enthusiastic encouragement. It is also or hope that more and more men and women -- priests, deacons, religious and laity alike -- will avail themselves of the valuable training and resources offered by the Theology of the Body Institute.

August 10, 2009

Cardinal Justin Rigali

Archbishop of Philadelphia

Most Reverend Kevin C. Rhoades

Bishop of Harrisburg

Benedicto XVI es el Papa de toda la historia de la Iglesia con la más brillante y numerosa bibliografía personal. Su riqueza conceptual es fascinante.

Estas son las palabras con las que Joaquín Navarro-Valls caracteriza el Pontificado del Papa Benedicto XVI en la sigiente entrevista dada por "El Mundo".

Irene Hdez. Velasco (Enviada especial) Cernobbio
Actualizado lunes 21/09/2009 09:46 horas
Sin duda el representante del Vaticano más famoso durante el Pontificado de Juan Pablo II, a excepción del propio Papa, ha sido este español de 72 años que estudió Medicina y acabó ejerciendo de periodista.
Al fin y al cabo, desde 1984 hasta 2006, Joaquín Navarro-Valls fue director de la oficina de prensa de la Santa Sede, convirtiéndose en el primer laico y el primer no italiano en ocupar ese puesto. Durante 15 meses, y hasta su dimisión en julio de 2006, también trabajó a las órdenes de Benedicto XVI.
Pregunta.- Durante los 22 años que fue portavoz de Juan Pablo II, ¿escribió un diario?
Respuesta.- Un diario propiamente dicho no, pero tomé notas. En mi ordenador debo de tener unas 600 páginas de apuntes.
P.- ¿Y no se plantea publicarlas?
R.- Hace un año y medio un agente estadounidense me ofreció un millón y medio de dólares por escribir ese libro. El problema en parte es que he aceptado en estos años una serie de compromisos profesionales que me absorben. Tendría que dejar todo eso y pasarme un año y medio encerrado en mi habitación para escribir ese libro. Para mí sería un imperativo moral hacerlo, porque Juan Pablo II era muy querido pero no del todo conocido.
P.- ¿Qué cree que se desconoce de Juan Pablo II?
R.- Pienso que no se conoce suficientemente a la persona, su carácter. Por ejemplo, tenía un grandísimo sentido del humor. Incluso cuando había que tratar problemas dramáticos no perdía su visión positiva.
P.- Usted ha estado casi dos años con Benedicto XVI, hasta 2006. El suyo es un Pontificado polémico...
R.- Benedicto XVI es el Papa de toda la historia de la Iglesia con la más brillante y numerosa bibliografía personal. Su riqueza conceptual es fascinante. Y pienso que la gente también fuera del ámbito católico es consciente de ello.
P.- Se dice que es frío
R.- Yo diría lo contrario. Su forma de conmoverse más frecuente de lo que se cree no es reaccionar pasionalmente frente a las cosas.
P.- ¿Cuales son los elementos más originales de su Pontificado?
R.- Su confianza en la racionalidad de las personas, en su capacidad de buscar la verdad.
P.- ¿Qué grandes obstáculos está encontrando Ratzinger?
R.- Me parece que lo anunció él mismo pocos días antes de ser elegido Pontífice: la dictadura del relativismo.
P.- Si tuviera que señalar sólo uno, ¿cuál ha sido el mayor logro de Juan Pablo II?
R.- Lo digo con palabras suyas: «El punto central y nuestra responsabilidad es mantener el carácter trascendental de la persona humana, que se puede convertir fácilmente en objeto». Y ese logro le fue reconocido en Naciones Unidas, en los suburbios de Calcuta, en un leprosario en Guinea Bissau o en cualquier lugar a donde fue.
P.- ¿Que les diría a los que, a la luz de su oposición al preservativo, la eutanasia o los matrimonios homosexuales, consideran que la Iglesia es una institución obsoleta?
R.- Diría que la Iglesia está proponiendo, con optimismo y tenacidad, que el ser humano no es algo sino alguien; no es una cosa sino una persona. Está enseñando a humanizar la sexualidad, a dar sentido al dolor y a la alegría. Está dando horizontes humanos al ser humano.
P.- ¿Hay algún error en sus 22 años como responsable de comunicación del Vaticano del que aún se arrepienta?
R.- No me corresponde a mí valorar mi propio trabajo. Normalmente no vuelvo a aquellos años para analizar hipótesis sino para profundizar en el significado de los hechos vividos. Muchas veces, entonces, tuve la sensación de vivir la Historia mientras se estaba haciendo. Fueron unos años bellísimos, extraordinarios
P.- "Santo subito", gritaba la gente tras la muerte de Juan Pablo II. ¿Cuánto cree que falta para que sea elevado a lo altares?
R.- Desde el punto de vista estrictamente técnico, podría estar todo listo antes de que acabe el año. Los dos pasos que quedan, técnicamente hablando, son el decreto de virtudes y la declaración del milagro, del que se le atribuyen varios, uno especialmente claro. A partir de ahí, todo depende del Santo Padre.

A Plea For Public Decency

Not infrequently in New York City, especially in certain neighborhoods, one is confronted with homosexual romance in public places. That is an open assault on public decency, and it must be addressed.

The public display of homosexual affection is in itself lewd conduct and therefore intolerable in, because harmful to, civil society. What is posing as freedom of expression and "gay" "rights" is the public promotion of lewdness. This type of lewdness is no one's right but an open affront to basic decency, it ought not be tolerated.

Public Prefers Traditional Churches, Even on the Stage

Last Monday's Tosca opening night at the Met demonstrates the public preference for tradition as the audience booed the starkly modern and dark new production, replacing the magnificent and time honored Zeffirelli sets. Even in opera people prefer churches to look like churches, and they prefer their heroines to be pious. Piety and tradition are fundamental human values that should be revered and promoted in the arts as in life.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/53875,news,new-york-metropolitan-opera-tosca-opens-to-violent-boos-audience-usa

Another Prince of the Church Boldly Promotes True Adoration

Pope Benedict follows the universal norm and immemorial custom of distributing Holy Communion to the faithful directly on the tongue as they kneel in adoration.

Cardinal Canizares, the Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship has emphasized the significance of this gesture as the expression of the Holy Father's will.

Now, yet another Cardinal (Peru's Cipriani) joins the growing chorus of the hierarchy who, in perfect harmony with the Benedictine Reform of the Reform, boldly promote the traditional way to approach Holy Communion.

See the CNA article below.

Cardinal says Communion received kneeling and on the tongue is most reverent

Priestly Optimism

The Reform of the Reform is happening right now! We are witnesses of it and participators in the transformation, and it is marvelous!

I have another thought on the significance of the obstacles we are experiencing in the exercise of the priesthood. There is nothing that pains me more than my apparent ineffectiveness, or at least limited effectiveness, in the ministry. Christ wills it so! as I do my part to remedy my defects and to produce abundant fruit of holiness in myself and others, using the God-given means of prayer, penance, the sacramental life, spiritual direction. My glory, then, is there, in the apparent failure: the Cross!

We are not promoted for our fidelity (and even opposed for it) because God wants us to see that the Reform of the Church comes from on high (i.e. from Christ Himself through His Vicar on earth), clearly showing that it is His doing, not ours! I see Summorum Pontificum as a parallel to Humanae Vitae, it is Christ directly guiding the Church and the world through the single hand of the Vicar of Christ, in the face of almost universal opposition. But our Lord is a Warrior, and He does not lose battles.

Therefore there is absolutely nothing to fear. My position or deposition is not my concern. That is a matter for my King to determine at his good pleasure. I just have to serve Him with absolute loyalty (which always includes my penitence).

Saint Mary's Shrine

Here is an exterior shot of my beloved home parish.

Viva La Riforma!

The Raleigh, North Carolina diocese seems to be ahead of the curve in the "Reform of the Reform". Last week the pastor of a prominent parish announced that Bishop Burbidge has requested that the distribution of Holy Communion with the common cup be stopped, along with the hand shake at the kiss of peace (and that therefore both practices would be heretofore discontinued in that parish). Bravo Bishop Burbidge!

Also, on Sunday, 30 August last there was a Solemn High Traditional Mass offered at Saint Mary's Shrine in Wilmington (the first of the monthly 7PM, last Sunday of the month Traditional Masses to be offered there) at the insistence of the bishop, with his vicar general, Monsignor David Brockman, assisting, and all to the apparent chagrin of the heterodox pastor Fr. Kus. Get a glimpse here of the glorious Mass of the ages in that worthy temple of my youth.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WilmTLM#play/uploads

Couple this with the the fact of the Bishop's routine acceptance of the Traditional Mass (which, at the request of the faithful, he has had in his own Cathedral for well over a year) and his promotion of excellent seminary formation. Just notice, for instance, his almost exclusive use of Saint Charles Borromeo (all but replacing the previously heavily used and notoriously unorthodox and immoral Theological College, Washington D.C. and Saint Mary's, Baltimore). Indicative of this diocesan shift back to the Catholic faith is the vocations office photo on the diocesan home web-page (above), with all the seminarians in cassocks!

http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/how/vocations/priest.aspx

Obviously Burbidge is one of the bishops who are attempting to adopt the mind and heart of our chief shepherd on earth, Pope Benedict XVI, in episcopal obedience to Christ, in this most necessary saving of pride in the Catholic patrimony. This much needed new movement toward loving and safeguarding and promoting the Catholic cultural patrimony as a service to Christ, to the Church and to the world shall be called the Benedictine reform of the reform, during which we are all thrilled to live!

The next step is for the bishop himself to publicly offer the traditional Mass. Maybe he is prepared to do so, after the Holy Father himself should do it! That reminds me, when will His Holiness finally grace the world again with a Solemn High Papal Mass!!! He did have the Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship offer the traditional Mass in the Papal Cathedral recently. That would surely inspire not a few of the Burbidges of the world to consider doing the same.

Optimism for the New Millenium

Here is my response to a discouraged priest regarding the present state of the Church.

Yes, we (too, like the liberals) are aging, but not without effect! Our generation of priests (the seminarians of the 90's) are at the head of the curve for the reform of the reform.

We can boast that we have begun the movement to cherish and promote the entire Catholic liturgical patrimony. It is only to get much better, for the following reasons.

1) We are under the most traditional Pope since VCII.

2) The US episcopate is the most "Roman" it has been in our lifetime, and that is to get significantly better, with nearly one-third of the ordinaries (88 bishops) to retire (and be replaced) over the next five years.

3) The amount of traditional seminarians is higher than ever, and ever growing!

Given this increasing traditional climate in the Church, greater than we could have ever anticipated even ten years ago, we have good reason to be optimistic regarding our future ministry, in zealously promoting all things Catholic, even as we gradually draw closer to the grave (and suffer our own and each other's personal defects on the way). And after death, the Judgment, in which Christ will set all things right.

Our passing, though humble, shall be a glorious one, which will have a lasting effect for the salvation of souls, if we only cling to Christ! Porro unum est necessarium! (Lk. 10:42)

Traditional Bishops

Those bishops who openly support and defend traditional Catholicism today are on the ascent, and they should be.

Given the liturgical atmosphere set by Pope Benedict and the new leadership of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (e.g. normative kneeling for communion and only directly on the tongue, distributed ordinarily only by ordained clergy, and greater use of Latin Masses and Gregorian Chant, beginning in the cathedrals of the world), those bishops who follow the Church on this are simply showing themselves to be obedient servants of the Church under her living Magisterium and liturgical discipline, as guided by the Holy Spirit and decided by the Pope.

The world needs courageous bishops imbued with Romanitas!

Viva il Papa Benedetto e la riforma della riforma!

Bertone Defends the Hermeneutic of Continuity

Here is an article from the Spanish site of CNA (Catholic News Agency) Aciprensa of a L'Osservatore Romano interview in which Cardinal Bertone explains and defends the vision and activity of Pope Benedict promoting the Catholic liturgical heritage in absolute fidelity and continuity. So far I only find it in Spanish. The full interview is scheduled to be published in Sunday's L'Osservatore Romano.

El Secretario de Estado Vaticano, Cardenal Tarcisio Bertone, señaló que las "elucubraciones y susurros sobre presuntos documentos de retroceso" en cuanto a la reforma de la Iglesia, en continuidad con la Tradición y el Magisterio iniciada con el Concilio Vaticano II, "son puras invenciones según un cliché estandarizado y vuelto a proponer de manera obstinada" por algunos.
Así lo indicó el Purpurado vaticano en una entrevista concedida a L'Osservatore Romano al ser preguntado por "algunas reservas" o "temores" de algunos que consideran que el Papa Benedicto XVI estaría yendo "contra" el Concilio Vaticano II, cuando la realidad demuestra todo lo contrario.
"Para entender –explicó el Cardenal– las intenciones de acción del gobierno de Benedicto XVI es necesario referirse a su historia personal –una experiencia variada que le ha permitido atravesar la Iglesia conciliar como verdadero protagonista– y, una vez elegido Papa, al discurso de inauguración de su pontificado, al de la Curia romana el 22 de diciembre de 2005 y a los actos precisos por él queridos y firmados (y en cada momento pacientemente explicados)".
Seguidamente el Secretario de Estado cita algunas "instancias del Concilio Vaticano II promovidas constantemente por el Papa con inteligencia y profundidad de pensamiento: la relación más comprensiva con las Iglesias ortodoxas y orientales, el diálogo con el judaísmo y con el Islam, que con recíproca atracción, ha suscitado respuestas y profundizaciones nunca antes vistas, purificando la memoria y abriéndose a las riquezas del otro".
Tras resaltar la buena relación que tiene el Papa con los obispos, el Cardenal Bertone señaló que "en cuanto a la reforma de la Iglesia –que es sobre todo una cuestión de interioridad y de santidad– Benedicto XVI nos ha llamado a la fuente de la Palabra de Dios, a la ley evangélica y al corazón de la vida de la Iglesia: Jesús, el Señor conocido, amado, adorado e imitado"."Con el volumen de Jesús de Nazaret y con el segundo que está preparando, el Papa nos hace un gran don y nos recuerda su voluntad de 'hacer de Cristo el corazón del mundo'", añadió.
Luego de explicar que en su pontificado, Benedicto XVI hasta el momento ha hecho más de 70 nombramientos, el Cardenal Bertone advierte que, en los medios seculares, está como "establecida la costumbre de imputar al Papa –o como se dice, sobre todo en Italia, al Vaticano– la responsabilidad de todo lo que sucede en la Iglesia o lo que declara cualquier miembro de las Iglesias locales, instituciones o grupos eclesiales. Esto no es correcto".
"Benedicto XVI es un modelo de amor a Cristo y la Iglesia, la persona que es Pastor universal, la guía en la vía de la verdad y la santidad, indicando a todos la medida alta de la fidelidad a Cristo y la ley evangélica", añadió.
Lo que es justo, explicó el Cardenal Bertone, "para una correcta información, es atribuir a cada uno (unicuique suum) la propia responsabilidad por los hechos y las palabras, sobre todo cuando estas contradicen patentemente las enseñanzas y el ejemplo del Papa".
"La imputabilidad es personal, y este criterio vale para todos, incluso en la Iglesia. Pero sobre todo el modo de informar y juzgar depende de las buenas intenciones y del amor por la verdad de los periodistas y los medios", explicó el Secretario de Estado.

Best Spanish Bible

Someone today asked me which is the best Spanish translation of the Bible (Catholic, of course).

Answer: The Nacar/Colunga which is published by BAC (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos).

Tulsa's Bishop Slattery Explains Mass

Here is the full newspaper article (mentioned in the previous post) from the Tulsa website.

Liturgy
Revival of ancient rite brings multiple advantages, some misperceptions
By Bishop Edward J. Slattery

Because the Mass is so necessary and fundamental to our Catholic experience, the liturgy is a constant topic in our conversation. That is why when we get together, we so often reflect upon the prayers and readings, discuss the homily, and -- likely as not -- argue about the music. The critical element in these conversations is an understanding that we Catholics worship the way we do because of what the Mass is: Christ’s sacrifice, offered under the sacramental signs of bread and wine.

If our conversation about the Mass is going to “make any sense,” then we have to grasp this essential truth: At Mass Christ joins us to Himself as He offers Himself in sacrifice to the Father for the world’s redemption. We can offer ourselves like this in Him because we have become members of His Body by Baptism. We also want to remember that all of the faithful offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice as members of Christ’s body. It’s incorrect to think that only the priest offers Mass. All the faithful share in the offering, even though the priest has a unique role. He stands “in the person of Christ,” the historic Head of the Mystical Body, so that at Mass, it is the whole body of Christ -- Head and members together that make the offering.

Facing the same direction

From ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass, since the people prayed, standing or kneeling, in the place which visibly represented Our Lord’s Body, while the priest at the altar stood at the head as the Head. We formed the whole Christ -- Head and members -- both sacramentally by Baptism and visibly by our position and posture. Just as importantly, everyone -- celebrant and congregation -- faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ’s unique, unrepeatable and acceptable Sacrifice. When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and the people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in the expectation that when Christ returns, He will return “from the east.” At Mass, the Church keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called ad orientem, which simply means “toward the east.”

Multiple advantages

Having the priest and people celebrate Mass ad orientem was the liturgical norm for nearly 18 centuries. There must have been solid reasons for the Church to have held on to this posture for so long. And indeed there were!

First of all, the Catholic liturgy has always maintained a marvelous adherence to the Apostolic Tradition. We see the Mass, indeed the whole liturgical expression of the Church’s life, as something which we have received from the Apostles and which we in turn are expected to hand on intact. (1 Corinthians 11:23)

Secondly, the Church held on to this single eastward position because of the sublime way it reveals the nature of the Mass. Even someone unfamiliar with the Mass who reflected upon the celebrant and the faithful being oriented in the same direction would recognize that the priest stands at the head of the people, sharing in one and the same action, which was -- he would note with a moment’s longer reflection -- an act of worship.

An innovation with unforeseen consequences

In the past 40 years, however, this shared orientation was lost; now the priest and the people have become accustomed to facing in opposite directions. The priest faces the people while the people face the priest, even though the Eucharistic Prayer is directed to the Father and not to the people.

This innovation was introduced after the Vatican Council, partly to help the people understand the liturgical action of the Mass by allowing them to see what was going on, and partly as an accommodation to contemporary culture where people who exercise authority are expected to face directly the people they serve, like a teacher sitting behind her desk. Unfortunately this change had a number of unforeseen and largely negative effects.

First of all, it was a serious rupture with the Church’s ancient tradition.

Secondly, it can give the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God.

Thirdly, it places an inordinate importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of liturgical stage.

Recovering the Sacred

Even before his election as the successor to St. Peter, Pope Benedict has been urging us to draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship and, for that reason, I have restored the venerable ad orientem position [of the bishop] when he celebrates Mass at the Cathedral. This change ought not to be misconstrued as the Bishop “turning his back on the faithful,” as if I am being inconsiderate or hostile. Such an interpretation misses the point that by facing in the same direction, the posture of the celebrant and the congregation makes explicit the fact that we journey together to God. Priest and people are on this pilgrimage together. It would also be a mistaken notion to look at the recovery of this ancient tradition as a mere “turning back of the clock.” Pope Benedict has spoken repeatedly of the importance of celebrating Mass ad orientem, but his intention is not to encourage celebrants to become “liturgical antiquarians.” Rather, His Holiness wants us to discover what underlies this ancient tradition and made it viable for so many centuries, namely, the Church’s understanding that the worship of the Mass is primarily and essentially the worship which Christ offers to His Father.

Editor’s note: This column, which is Bishop Slattery’s column for the September issue of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, has been distributed through Catholic communities worldwide, especially those interested in liturgy. On the web site, What Does the Prayer Really Say, (wdtprs.com/blog/) a posting of the ad orientem column has received many comments, and there also is a critique of a National Catholic Register story about Bishop Slattery’s decision to celebrate his Masses at the Cathedral ad orientem. The column also is distributed by Catholic News Service.
For information on the Diocese of Tulsa Liturgical Institute, e-mail liturgicalinstitute@dioceseoftulsa.org

Bishop Ad Orientem

Tulsa Bishop Explains Why He 'Faces East' at the Mass
8/20/2009 Zenit News Agency (http://www.zenit.org/)

From ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass.

'When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and the people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in the expectation that when Christ returns, he will return 'from the east.'

TULSA, Oklahoma (Zenit.org) - The bishop of Tulsa explains his decision to celebrate Mass at the diocesan cathedral "ad orientem" -- facing east -- as an effort to recapture a "more authentic" Catholic worship.

Bishop Edward Slattery affirmed this in an article featured in the September edition of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, titled "Ad Orientem: Revival of Ancient Rite Brings Multiple Advantages, Some Misperceptions." In a discussion about liturgy, the prelate said, it is necessary to grasp this "essential" truth: "At Mass, Christ joins us to himself as he offers himself in sacrifice to the Father for the world's redemption." He reminded his readers that "all of the faithful offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice as members of Christ's body" through baptism. The priest has a unique role in this offering, the bishop affirmed, to stand "in the person of Christ, the historic Head of the Mystical Body, so that, at Mass, it is the whole body of Christ -- Head and members together that make the offering." Bishop Slattery explained that "from ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass." As well, he added, "everyone -- celebrant and congregation -- faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ's unique, unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice."

The prelate continued: "When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and the people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in the expectation that when Christ returns, he will return 'from the east.' "At Mass, the Church keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called 'ad orientem,' which simply means 'toward the east.'" This traditional posture lasted for nearly 18 centuries in the Church, he noted, as something that was handed on from the time of the Apostles.

Journey Together

The bishop observed that this single eastward position "reveals the nature of the Mass" as an act of worship shared by the priest and the congregation. However, he said, this "shared orientation was lost" as the priest and people became accustomed to facing opposite directions.

Bishop Slattery explained, "This innovation was introduced after the Vatican Council, partly to help the people understand the liturgical action of the Mass by allowing them to see what was going on, and partly as an accommodation to contemporary culture where people who exercise authority are expected to face directly the people they serve, like a teacher sitting behind her desk." Unfortunately, he added, this change had some "unforeseen and largely negative effects."

Not only was it a "serious rupture with the Church’s ancient tradition," the prelate asserted, but it also "can give the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God." He stated that it also "places an inordinate importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of liturgical stage." The bishop noted Benedict XVI's appeal to "draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship." He continued, "For that reason, I have restored the venerable 'ad orientem' position when I celebrate Mass at the cathedral."

This gesture, he stated, is not one of rudeness or hostility toward the faithful, nor an attempt to "turn back the clock." Rather, Bishop Slattery affirmed, it represents the fact that "we journey together to God." As well, he continued, it is an attempt to respond to the Pope's invitation to "discover what underlies this ancient tradition and made it viable for so many centuries, namely, the Church's understanding that the worship of the Mass is primarily and essentially the worship which Christ offers to his Father."

They Receive in Themselves the Fitting Recompense of Their Perversity

Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans says that homosexuality is a punishment for the idolatry (false worship) of the non-believers and that that perversity is punished in the flesh (as we see clinically in the article below).



Here is the relevant text from the Apostle to the Nations.



"Therefore God has given them up in the lustful desires of their heart to uncleanness, so that they dishonor their bodies among themselves--they who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen.



"For this cause God has given them up to shameful lusts; for their women have exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature, and in like manner the men also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men doing shameless things and receiving in themselves the fitting recompense of their perversity...those who practise such things are deserving of death. And not only do they do these things, but they applaud others doing them." (Romans 1:24-28, 32b)



This puts Kathleen Melonakos' work in perspective (it explains the why of the physical corruption and of the immorality [the denial of the one true God] and the cover up which tries to deny them).

Homosexuality is Bad For Your Health: Mortal Sin Means Mortal Danger

Why Isn't Homosexuality Considered A Disorder On The Basis Of Its Medical Consequences?
By Kathleen Melonakos, M.A., R.N.

I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties at Stanford University Medical Center, where I saw some of the damage homosexuals do to their bodies with some of their sexual practices. As a result of that eye-opening experience, I much admire the work of NARTH in the research and treatment of homosexuality.

I have long been concerned about the serious medical consequences which result from the gay-affirming attitudes that predominate in the San Francisco Bay Area. For example, I knew personally a prominent dermatologist, a dentist, an engineer, and a hairdresser that died in their mid-forties of infectious diseases related to their homosexual behavior patterns. I know of many others that have died young as a result of living a gay lifestyle.

The co-author of my own medical reference book, Saunders Pocket Reference for Nurses,[i] was the head of the surgery department at Stanford. She related case histories of homosexuals needing emergency surgery due to "fisting," "playing with toys," (inserting objects into the rectum) and other bizarre acts. I am certain--in light of my clinical experience, and since doing considerable amount of studying about it since that time--that homosexuality is neither normal nor benign; rather, it is a lethal behavioral addiction as Dr. Jeffrey Satinover outlines in his book, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth.[ii]

As far as I know, there is no other group of people in the United States that dies of infectious diseases in their mid-forties except practicing homosexuals. This, to me, is tragic, when we know that homosexuality can be prevented, in many cases, or substantially healed in adulthood when there is sufficient motivation and help.

I now live in Delaware and work in conjunction with the Delaware Family Foundation to inform the public about homosexual issues. We are debating gay activists who want to add "sexual discrimination" to our anti-discrimination code. In trying to make the case that homosexuality is not healthy and should not be encouraged, we come up against the fact that neither the American Psychiatric Association, nor the American Psychological Association recognize it as a disorder. Our opponents say we are using "scare tactics."

Dr. Satinover brilliantly laid out in his book, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth the solid, irrefutable evidence that there are lethal consequences of engaging in the defining features of male homosexuality--that is, promiscuity and anal intercourse.

It doesn't take someone trained in medicine to recognize that, as Brian Camenker of the Parent Right's Coalition said on national TV, "A lifetime of anal sex does not do great things for the body." Brian also said, "As troubling as that statement sounds, there is no logical argument against it." Thus, even lay people recognize what should be obvious, especially to those trained in medicine, and who know the basic facts about homosexuality. It seems to me that medical professionals should be more aware and concerned about the consequences of habitually engaging in promiscuous anal intercourse, and other oral-anal practices of active homosexuals.[iiia]

The risk of anal cancer soars for those engaging in anal intercourse. According to one report, it rises by an astounding 4000%, and doubles again for those who are HIV positive.[iiib]
Can anyone refute that anal intercourse tears the rectal lining of the receptive partner, regardless of whether a condom is worn, and the subsequent contact with fecal matter leads to a host of diseases?

Diseases to which active homosexuals are vulnerable can be classified as follows:
Classical sexually transmitted diseases (gonorrhea, infections with Chlamydia trachomatis, syphilis, herpes simplex infections, genital warts, pubic lice, scabies); enteric diseases (infections with Shigella species, Campylobacter jejuni, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, ["gay bowel disease"], Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and cytomegalovirus); trauma (related to and/or resulting in fecal incontinence, hemorroids, anal fissure, foreign bodies lodged in the rectum, rectosigmoid tears, allergic proctitis, penile edema, chemical sinusitis, inhaled nitrite burns, and sexual assault of the male patient); and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).[iv]

Can anyone refute that increased morbidity and mortality is an unavoidable result of male-with-male sex--not to mention the increased rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, suicide and other maladies that so often accompany a homosexual lifestyle?[v] People with this whole cluster of behavior patterns are somehow "normal"?

My primary question is: why isn't homosexuality considered a disorder on the basis of its medical consequences alone? Dr. Satinover and others have made a solid case for why homosexuality parallels alcoholism as an unhealthy addiction. It should have a parallel diagnosis.
There is a lot of literature, including on the NARTH website, discussing the 1973 removal of homosexuality as a diagnosis. The arguments against the change in diagnosis seem to center around "societal standards," moral relativism, "subjective distress" of the client, and whether or not there is any objective standard for "psychological" normalcy (for instance, the debate between Joseph Nicolosi and Dr. Michael Wertheimer in A Clash In Worldviews: An Interview with Dr. Michael Wertheimer).

While these considerations are important, it seems like we can set aside, for the moment, the debate on whether homosexuality should be classified as a developmental disorder. Very simply, it seems, an objective person just looking at homosexuality's lifestyle consequences would have to classify it as some kind of pathology. Does it or does it not lead to a dramatically shortened lifespan? Studies say it does, some by as much as 40%; the Cameron study being only one of many other studies that suggest this.[vi]

Taken together, these studies establish that homosexuality is more deadly than smoking, alcoholism, or drug addiction. However, it appears that far too few physicians or other professionals are making arguments in favor of homosexuality as a diagnosis based on its adverse health consequences.

While doing research into the history of the 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from the diagnostic manual of disorders, I have been shocked to find out the specious reasoning upon which the decision was based, and that qualified physicians have allowed the decision to stand.
On Feb. 5, 2002, I corresponded by e-mail with Dr. Robert Spitzer of the APA and asked him to send me references for the position papers and studies upon which his committee based its decision to remove the diagnosis. He told me to read Ron Bayer's book,[vii] the "closest thing to a position paper" (American Journal of Psychiatry,130:11, 1207-1216), and he said, "There was no specific list of references, but what was influential too was the Evelyn Hooker Rorshach study and the Eli Robins community study."[viii]

I have read many of the criticisms of the Hooker study--how respondents were specifically selected rather than at random, and other methodological limitations.[ix] Dr. Charles Socarides, who was also on the Task Force on Nomenclature, informs us also that Spitzer was influenced by the Kinsey Report, which was recognized as early as 1976 by "social progressives" like Prof. Paul Robinson of Stanford as "a pathetic manifestation of Kinsey's philosophical naivete.. a mechanical contrivance, which...bore little relation to reality,"[x] and since has been discredited by the work of Judith Reisman and others.

It is clear that Dr. Socarides was right when he said that the decision to remove homosexuality as a diagnosis "involved the out-of-hand and peremptory disregard and dismissal not only of hundreds of psychiatric and psychoanalytic research papers and reports, but other serious studies by groups of psychiatrists, psychologists and educators over the past seventy years..."[xi]

It appears even more obvious that the Task Force on Nomenclature cavalierly ignored (and the APA's continue to ignore!) the substantial and unambiguous evidence that homosexuality involves a life-threatening behavior with an addictive component which has serious health implications.[xii]

That the APA's have escaped accountability for their lack of scientific and professional integrity is especially incredible since the advent of the AIDS epidemic. There are currently an estimated 900,000 people in the United States that are infected with the HIV virus, or 1 in 300 Americans. Though there has been a decrease in AIDS deaths per year due to drug therapy, (which costs an average of $12,000 per patient per year) the rate of new infections per year has remained the same, at 40,000, despite the twenty year "safe-sex" campaign.[xiii]

These facts demonstrate the failure of current policies in containing the AIDS epidemic. While drug therapy will briefly extend the life of these patients, AIDS remains the fifth leading cause of death among those aged 25-44, and 60% of new cases are contracted by men who have sex with men.[xiv] According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), homosexual men are a thousand times more likely to contract AIDS than the general heterosexual population[xv]
Dr. Satinover has said in an interview with NARTH:

"A recent article in a psychiatric publication informed us that 30% of all 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of thirty. You would think that the objective, ethical approach would be: let's use anything that works to try to take these people out of their posture of risk. If it means getting them to wear condoms fine. If it means getting them to give up anal intercourse, fine. If it means getting them to give up homosexuality, fine. But that last intervention is the one intervention that it absolutely taboo.

"There is no doubt that a cold, statistical analysis of this epidemic would lead you to believe that this attitude of political correctness is killing a substantial proportion of these people. I think there is an element of denial, in the psychological sense, of what gay-related illnesses really mean."[xvi]

It seems to me that the APA's should be aggressively pressed to recognize the facts about the morbidity and mortality directly attributed to homosexuality, or be exposed for the recklessly irresponsible "guardians of the public health" they have become, at least on this issue.
When will doctors and other health care workers demand that officers in the American Psychiatric Association respond to the clear evidence in the following: Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth: the mortality rates listed in their own "APA's Practical Guidelines for Treating Patients with HIV/AIDS";[xvii] and other important reports, such as the Monograph put out by the Institute of Sexual Health, Health Implications of Homosexuality?[xviii]

Lest we think that APA officers justify their neglect of medical consequences of homosexuality on the basis that sexual orientation cannot be changed, we note that Robert Spitzer acknowledged in his original 1973 position paper on Nomenclature that "modern methods of treatment enable a significant proportion of homosexuals who wish to change their sexual orientation to do so."[xix]

He has now confirmed the fact that sexual orientation can be changed with his recent study.[xx] We know that changing sexual orientation only became "impossible" in the nineties, as part of a political strategy by gay activists.[xxi]

Spitzer and his allies' rationale for removing homosexuality as a diagnosis in 1973 was that to be considered a psychiatric disorder,

"it must either regularly cause subjective distress, or regularly be associated with some generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning....Clearly homosexuality per se does not meet the requirements for a psychiatric disorder, since, as noted above, many are quite satisfied with their sexual orientation and demonstrate no generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning." (Spitzer, et.al, p. 1215).

The Task Force's reasoning fails for several reasons. First, even if we grant the validity of their stated criteria (which is questionable), the fact that many homosexuals "are satisfied with their sexual orientation," fails to take into account the large number of homosexuals who are not satisfied with their sexual orientation and who do experience "subjective distress and generalized impairment in social functioning." The removal of the diagnosis is not just unfair, but cruel to those who would seek treatment for their condition.

Secondly, there are unambiguous reasons to think that homosexuality per se does cause "generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning." If in fact it is a lethal addiction, and the many studies documenting the behavior patterns of homosexuals are correct (that show compulsive patterns of promiscuity, anonymous sex, sex for money, sex in public places, sex with minors, concomitant drug and alcohol abuse, depression, suicide), for the APA to argue that these features do not constitute an "impairment of social effectiveness or functioning," stretches the boundaries of plausibility. To argue that early death does not constitute an "impairment of social effectiveness or functioning" is absurd.

The APA claims its mission is "to promote a bio-psycho-social approach to understanding and caring for patients, in all aspects of health care, including illness prevention" (APA's Stategic Goals Statement). Thus the APA violates its own goals then when it ignores evidence that homosexuality can in many cases be prevented, and denies reorientation therapy to those who want it.

A careful reading of the articles opposing reorientation therapy reveals their authors' rationale that they find such therapy to be "oppressive" to those who do not want therapy.[xxii]
What if this logic was applied to any other lethal illness? What if doctors said, "We refuse to treat cancer (or, say, alcoholism) because we only achieve a 50% cure rate--and many people who don't want to be cured find it oppressive that we do cure the others?" Why wouldn't the lawsuits for malpractice be filed?

We know that Ronald Gold of the Gay Activist's Alliance, an openly gay man, was a member of the committee to remove homosexuality as a diagnosis in 1973. We know that gay activists were disrupting meetings, threatening doctors, and using other strong-arm tactics to get their way at that time.[xxiii]

We also know that homosexual activists like Dr. Richard Isay in the APA have pressed for resolutions to punish therapists for practicing reorientation therapy, and that threats of lawsuits appear to be the main reason the APA has not implemented his proposals.[xxiv]

We know homosexual advocates in the APA continue to suppress debate about Spitzer's new study documenting that sexual orientation can be changed (and to suppress debate about other supporting studies).[xxv] We also know that active homosexuals such as Clinton Anderson at the American Psychological Association refuse to permit NARTH to engage in open debate or announce NARTH meetings in APA publications simply because he disagrees with the premises upon which reorientation therapy is based.[xxvi]

For these reasons, I do not think it is far-fetched to use the analogy that the "drunks are running the rehab center," in reference to the APA's--at least as far as homosexuality is concerned. Active homosexuals can hardly be objective about an addictive behavior they engage in themselves. In light of the medical evidence, it seems that the Galenic dictum, "physician heal thyself," should apply, as it did it in the past, as Dr. Satinover suggests.[xxvii]

It seems to me the situation in this country will only get worse until the APA is held directly responsible for what is arguably their criminal negligence. In failing to reckon with serious medical consequences of the homosexual behavior pattern, they are harming our whole society, and especially the upcoming generation.

The recent decision by the American Academy of Pediatrics to endorse gay adoptions is yet another disturbing example of how the decision to "normalize" homosexuality by the APA has had a broad ripple effect. Health professionals especially, should heed Dean Byrd's outcry on the NARTH web site that it is time that the American people "insist on truth, not politics, from all of our professional organizations."

What will it take to insist on truth? Lawsuits? Protests? In my opinion, doctors and other health professionals must exert pressure, or share culpability.

What if every person reading this article sent a copy of it to the president of the American Psychiatric Association and asked for a response? Reasoned debate is the least that psychiatrists owe our society--especially those whose lives and loved ones are at risk.
The following is relevant contact information If interested in contacting these organizations, remember that our aim is to open up a principled, civil debate:

American Psychiatric Association
President, Richard Harding, M.D.mailto:M.D.RHarding@Richmed.medpark.sc.edu
President-Elect, Paul Appelbaum, M.D.appelbap@ummhc.org
Or: American Psychiatric Association1400 K Street N.W., Washington, DC 20005(888) 357-7924 -- FAX 202-682-6850 -- apa@psych.org

[i] Melonakos, Kathleen, Saunders Pocket Reference for Nurses, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1990, (2nd ed)., with Sheryl Michelson, , 1995.

[ii] Satinover, Jeffrey, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, Hamewith/Baker Books, 1996.

[iiia] For an eye-opening survey of the medical studies and journal reports describing the unhygienic and disease-producing practices of homosexuals, see http://www.cprmd.org, "Homosexual Myths--Male Homosexuals are Healthy and Have Normal Sex Lives."

[iiib] Fenger, C. "Anal Neoplasia and Its Precursors: Facts and Controversies," Seminars in Diagnostic Pathology 8, no. 3, August 1991, pp.190-201; Daling, J.R. et al., "Sexual Practices, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Incidence of Anal Cancer," New England Journal of Medicine 317, no.16, 15 October 1987, pp. 973-77; Holly, E.A. et al., "Anal Cancer Incidence: Genital Warts, Anal Fissure or Fistula, Hemorrhoids, and Smoking," Journal of the National Cancer Institute 81, no. 22, November 1989, pp. 1726-31; Daling, J.R. et.al, "Correlates of Homosexual Behavior and the Incidence of Anal Cancer," Journal of the American Medical Association 247, no.14, 9 April 1982, pp. 1988-90; Cooper, H.S., Patchefsky, A.S. and Marks, G., "Cloacogenic Carcinoma of the Anorectum in Homosexual Men: An Observation of Four Cases"; Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 22, no. 8, 1979, pp. 557-58. Also see Between the Lines, Michigan's statewide gay newspaper, reporting on the risk of anal cancer for men who have sex with men, http://www.afa.net/homosexual_agenda/ha031901.asp

[iv] W.E. Owen Jr., "Medical Problems of the Homosexual Adolescent," Journal of Adolescent Health Care6, No.4, July 1985, pp. 278-85.

[v] See O'Leary, Dale, "Recent Studies on Homosexuality and Mental Health," http://www.narth.com/docs/recent.html. O'Leary gives a summary of health findings and references for specific studies.

[vi] Mr. Trey Kern, President of the Citizen's for Parent Rights, in Pasadena, Maryland has collected an impressive amount data on studies documenting the diminished lifespan of active homosexuals. See www.cprmd.org, "Homosexual Myths: Homosexuals Live Long Lives, Fact Sheet. Studies include: (G. Tardieu, 1858; M. Hirschfield, 1914, Kinsey, 1930's, 1940's; Mattachine Society, 1950's: Berger, 1960's, Kinsey Institute, 1969; Spada Report 1978; M. Mendola, 1979; Cameron, Playfair, Wellum, 1994; Hogg, R.S., et. al, International Journal of Epidemiology, 1997; Cameron, P, Cameron, K, Playfair, WL., Psychological Reports, 1998.

[vii] Bayer, R. Homosexuality and American Psychiatry, Princeton University Press, 1987. Mr. Bayer chronicled the story of how homosexuality was removed as a diagnosis. It confirms that the APA did not officially investigate or study the issue thoroughly before it gave formal approval of the deletion of homosexuality from the DSMII.

[viii] Personal e-mail correspondence with Dr. Spitzer, Feb. 5, 2002.

[ix] Socarides, Charles, W., "Sexual Politics and Scientific Logic: The Issue of Homosexuality," The Journal of Psychohistory, 10:3, 1992, p. 309 Dr. Socarides explains that a task force within the APA itself concluded in 1973 that Hooker's study was full of methodological errors, and did not warrant her conclusions. See also, Joseph Nicolosi, "Clash of Worldviews: Interview with Michael Wertheimer", http://www.narth.com/.

[x] Socarides, p. 324.

[xi].Socarides, p. 315

[xii] Spitzer, R.L, et. al, in "Symposium: Should Homosexuality Be in the APA Nomenclature?" American Journal of Psychiatry, 130:11, 1973 make no mention whatsoever of any health implications of homosexuality. Also, I asked Dr. Spitzer in an e-mail correspondence April 4, 2001, whether there was any chance the APA might change its policy in light of evidence that sexual orientation can be changed and the negative impact of homosexual practices upon lifespan. He acknowledged nothing about shortened lifespan, but gave a one-sentence reply that said there was no possibility that APA would change its policy on homosexuality at that time.

[xiii] "APA's Practical Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with HIV/AIDS," Epidemiology, Clinical Features Influencing Treatment, sections, www.psych.org/aids/

[xiv] Ibid, Anti-Viral Treatment section.

[xv] The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of HIV/AIDS, January, 1992, p. 9.

[xvi] Satinover, Jeffrey, "Reflections: Interview with NARTH," Feb. 5, 2001, http:www.narth.com/docs/satinover.html.

[xvii] See American Psychiatric Association website, www.psych.org/aids/, or obtain bound copy of report available from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 1-800-368-5777, or http://www.appi.org/.

[xviii] Monograph is available from The Institute of Sexual Health, P.O.Box 162306, Austin, TX 78716, ph (512) 328-6268, fax (ph) 538-6269.

[xix] Spitzer, R.L, et. al, "Symposium: Should Homosexuality Be in the APA Nomenclature?" p.1215.

[xx] Spitzer, R.L, "Two Hundred Subjects Who Claim to Have Changed Their Sexual Orientation from Homosexual to Heterosexual," presentation made at the American Psychiatric Association, May 9th, 2001, in New Orleans, available from NYS Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, 10032, phone (212) 543-5524.

[xxi] Rev. Dr. Earle Fox, former president of the chapter of Exodus Intl. whose members picketed the 2000 APA convention to protest the denial of therapy to those who want it (which resulted in Dr. Robert Spitzer's 2001 study on reorientation therapy), tells in "Homosexuality Wrongly a Civil Right," Delaware State News, January 13, 2002, how no one was disputing that sexual orientation could be changed until gay activists, Kirk and Madsen, in After the Ball: How America will Conquer It's Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90's, Doubleday, 1989, outlined their plan to convince America gays were "born that way," and "beyond the realm of moral choice," p. 189.

[xxii] For an extensive survey of the articles promoting the view opposing reorientation therapy, see Diamond, Eugene, et.al, Homosexuality and Hope, the results of a two-year study, published by the Catholic Medical Association, p. 14, obtainable at P.O. Box 757, Pewaukee, WI, 53072 or http://www.cathmed.org/ . Some of the articles quoted are Davison, G., 1982; Gittings, 1973; Begelman, 1975, 1977; Murphy 1992; Sleek 1997; Silverstein, 1972; Smith, 1988. See also, "Psychiatrists Reject Therapy to Alter Gays: Efforts aimed at Turning Homosexuals into Heterosexuals are Harmful, Professional Board Declares, Even for Those Not Being Treated," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1998.

[xxiii] Socarides, p. 310. See also, Satinover, p. 31-40.

[xxiv] See Satinover, p. 36,180-182, and Stern, Mark, E, "The Battle Against the A.P.A. Resolution", www.narth.com, Interviews/Testimonies.

[xxv] Rev. Dr. Earle Fox, Delaware State News, Jan. 13, 2002.

[xxvi] NARTH Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, Dec. 2001, Letter from Clinton W. Anderson to Drs. Nicolosi and Byrd, p. 16.

[xxvii] Satinover, p. 47.
Copyright © NARTH. All Rights Reserved. Leadership U.

Youth Prayer to Christ Jesus

Here is a poetic prayer which I just found on the first page of an traditional Italian devotional (La Guida, Milano 1949). It captures very well the generous Christian disposition which Pope Benedict in his most recent encyclical proposes for every man. Here is my translation. The picture is of the mountains of the land of my paternal ancestors.

Lord Jesus, make my conscience to be straight like the great fir tree which shoots itself toward the sky.

That my generosity be like the spring, which gives and never empties.

That my soul have the purity of the torrents which are born from the stainless snows.

That my will be like the granite without faults.

That, through all the trails of the alps, my youth have You alone for the companion of its continuous ascent.

That the Cross which stands along-side the road be for me like the meeting of a friend.

And forever so!

Baptizing Sociology

One of Pope Benedict's central themes is man's essential need for God. This theme is unpacked regarding the present economic crisis and international world political and cultural scene. Here is a quote that summarizes the source of the present post-enlightenment problem: the attempt to exclude God from the world.

"The humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism" Caritas in Veritate, 78

Cardinal Bertone Presents the Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate"

The Vatican website has published the 28 July 2009 address to the Italian Senate of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., the Vatican Secretary of State. It is, to date, the clearest and profoundest presentation of the anthropological roots of the encyclical from a man who very well understands the mind of the Magisterium. Here is the link for the Spanish translation since I do not yet find the English.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/card-bertone/2009/documents/rc_seg-st_20090728_visita-senato_sp.html

Does anyone know of any world masters in the thought of Benedict? Where can one find an expert in these avant guard ideas which are coming out of the Magisterium? I would love to find someone in some university in a German speaking land (or elsewhere) who in a year or two could teach me the world vision of Pope Benedict XVI, sort of how Cardinal Bertone presents him, with clarity and full intellectual force and complete allegiance.

Generous Gratitude

A bumper sticker in the diner parking lot yesterday read:

"Faith has two parts: one is patience and the other is gratitude."

Somewhat hyperbolic but both are certainly essential to mature Christian faith.

This is what the Holy Father is getting at in his encyclical on the economy, Caritas in Veritate. The source of the solution to the world crisis is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Every man and woman needs to accept and experience the love of Christ. Each one needs Him and having Him each will have the largess to correspond with personal responsibility and generosity to the Lord's call to goodness and truth, and thus conquer the prevailing atmosphere of greed which suffocates the human person. Yes, indeed, faith must include patience and gratitude. Jesus is meek and humble of heart. All must learn from Him, from His company, from His friendship. As the saying goes, you can tell a man by his friends. If Christ is your friend you will be patient and grateful and the patience and gratitude will spread!

Brief Synopsis of Caritas in Veritate

I would summarize the new encyclical with one quote of our Lord from the encyclical indicating man's essential need for God (78):

"Apart from me you can do nothing." (Jn 15:5)

Man needs Christ in order to know the one true God (to see God in the face) and thereby know his own true identity as the image and likeness of God and to know his purpose of perfection in the world and to have the desire and the strength to pursue it authentically. For the economy to be right man must be right because all the essential economic actions are acts of men in correspondence with the acts of God.

We human beings must be grateful to God who has given us every good thing and principally our own human greatness, and our gratitude to Him is the greatest and only true ultimate motive of responsibility for our own actions and relationships with God and in marriage and in the family and with others and with the environment and with all peoples and among nations and even in matters of money and commerce and investment and security. The center of man's gratitude and responsibility to God is manifested in willful obedience and dependence on His mighty hand: i.e. the moral life and the interior life. Because...

"A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism." (78)

I'll quote from the end of the sixth chapter of the encyclical, on the limits of technology, which illustrates the need that the men of our age have for a personal relationship with God, and that it is only the personal holiness of individual men and women that will make our world a just world.

"76 One aspect of the contemporary technological mindset is the tendency to consider the problems and emotions of the interior life from a purely psychological point of view, even to the point of neurological reductionism. In this way man's interiority is emptied of its meaning and gradually our awareness of the human soul's ontological depths, as probed by the saints, is lost. The question of development is closely bound up with our understanding of the human soul, insofar as we often reduce the self to the psyche and confuse the soul's heath with emotional well-being. These over-simplifications stem from a profound failure to understand the spiritual life, and they obscure the fact that the development of individuals and peoples depends partly on the resolution of problems of a spiritual nature. Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a 'unity of body and soul,' (Gaudium et Spes, 14) born of God's creative love and destined for eternal life. The human being develops when he grows in the spirit, when his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator. When he is far away from God, man is unsettled and ill at ease. Social and psychological alienation and the many neuroses that afflict affluent societies are attributable in part to spiritual factors. A prosperous society, highly developed in material terms but weighing heavily on the soul, is not of itself conducive to authentic development. The new forms of slavery to drugs and the lack of hope into which so many people fall can be explained not only in sociological and psychological terms but also in essentially spiritual terms. The emptiness in which the soul feels abandoned, despite the availability of countless therapies for body and psyche, leads to suffering. There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people's spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul.

"77 The supremacy of technology tends to prevent people from recognizing anything that cannot be explained in terms of matter alone. Yet everyone experiences the many immaterial and spiritual dimensions of life. Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it [e.g. Helen Keller's quantum leap insight to understanding: "w-a-t-e-r"]. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. We should never cease to marvel at these things. In all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul experiences something 'over and above,' which seems very much like a gift that we receive, or a height to which we are raised. The development of individuals and peoples is likewise located on a height, if we consider the spiritual dimension that must be present if such development is to be authentic. It requires new eyes and a new heart, capable of rising above a materialistic vision of human events, capable of glimpsing in development the 'beyond' that technology cannot give. By following this path, it is possible to pursue the integral human development that takes its direction from the driving force of charity in truth [i.e. from God Himself]."

Our present worldwide economic crisis is a crisis of saints!

Guadalupe's Most Worthy Altar

Two Tuesdays ago I landed in Mexico city and went straight to the Antigua Basilica de Guadalupe (the original Basilica) to find a worthy altar at Tepeyac to offer the Holy Sacrifice usus antiquor (with my own pocket Missal of course). To my great surprise and delight the sacristan was happy to set me up immediately to offer the Mass and he even provided his only roman vestment for it (which had been used by San Rafael Guizar y Valencia of Veracruz). Since the vestment was red I offered a votive Mass of Blessed Miguel Pro.

The Mass was on the precious altar of the Capilla del Sagrario, which you can barely see in the picture (it was the best picture I could find on the Internet, if any of my friends can find a better one please send it for me to post: the choir, the grill, the silver altar rail, the gilded altar and silver tabernacle were all magnificent).

The whole basilica is undergoing a complete restoration (apparently to it's original traditional glory) of which this side chapel is a splendid example.

Luis Alberto Rosales Herrera is the most accommodating sacristan. He can be reached (in Spanish only) at alberto_rosher@yahoo.com.mx or alberto_rosher@hotmail.com.

Fessio's Assessment of New Encyclical

A New Framework for Social Justice

By Father Joseph Fessio, SJ

7/9/2009

'Pope Benedict has changed the whole framework of the debate on 'the social question.'

NAPLES, Florida (Zenit) - Benedict XVI has something for everyone in "Caritas in Veritate" -- from praising profit (21) to defending the environment (48). But in these cases, as in all the others, he calls for a discernment and a purification by faith and reason (56) that should temper immoderate and one-sided enthusiasms.

Once again, Pope Benedict shows himself to be a theologian of synthesis and fundamental principles. In the titles of his three encyclicals he has used only five nouns: God, Love, Hope, Salvation, and Truth -- the most fundamental of realities. And in the opening greeting of this encyclical he succinctly describes the contents: "on integral human development in charity and truth."

Note that from this very greeting Pope Benedict has changed the whole framework of the debate on "the social question." This was expected to be -- and is -- his encyclical on "social justice." And indeed "justice" and "rights" find their proper place in a larger synthesis. But the priority is established from the outset, the foundation is laid, with "charity" and "truth." "Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine" (2). "Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power" (5).

Another fundamental principle, and a central theme of this pontificate, is the continuity of the Church and her teaching. Surprisingly, the central ecclesiastical text from the past is Pope Paul VI's "Populorum Progressio," and Pope Benedict makes it clear that we do not have "two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: On the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new" (12). This principle of continuity was expressed centrally in Benedict's first address as Pope on April 20, 2005, and again to the Roman curial cardinals on Dec. 22 of that year.

Within this fundamental material context of charity and truth, and the fundamental formal context of the continuity of the Church's teaching, Pope Benedict situates the centerpiece of the Church's social teaching: "integral human development." And by "integral" he means "it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man" (18, quoting Paul VI). Among the important dimensions of this wholeness, he notes that integral human development must be open to the transcendent (11: "authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension. Without the perspective of eternal life, human progress in this world is denied breathing-space.") and it must be open to life (28: "Openness to life is at the center of true development").

The inclusiveness of this integration is emphatically and perhaps surprisingly exemplified in paragraph 39. There, the Pope states that the "logic of the market and the logic of the state," i.e., free economic exchange with political oversight and restraint, are not enough to secure human flourishing. There must also be "solidarity in relations between citizens, participation and adherence, actions of gratuitousness" or, as he says in summary, "increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion." Pope Benedict insists on a "third economic factor" in addition to the market and the state: gratuitousness.

Here is a radiant example of the fundamental, synthetic, and discerning character of Pope Benedict's formulation of the Church's social teaching, one which for me is worth the whole encyclical for its clarity, depth, and common sense: "If there is lack of respect for the right to life and a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational system and laws do not help them to respect themselves" (51).

There are times when one is especially proud of the blessing of the Catholic faith. This is one of them.

* * * Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio is the editor of Ignatius Press and theologian in residence at Ave Maria University. Father Fessio is also a former student of Joseph Ratzinger and belongs to Ratzinger's "Schülerkreis."

New Encyclical Out July 7

"Caritas in Veritate" to Cover Social Themes

VATICAN CITY, JULY 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's new encyclical, titled "Caritas in Veritate," will be released Tuesday, the Vatican announced.

The Vatican press office confirmed today that the Pope's first social encyclical, which is expected to offer an analysis of the current economic crisis, will be presented at a press conference in the late morning July 7. The text will then be released to the public at midday, local time.

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will present the encyclical at the press conference.

The Vatican also noted that Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, will speak, as will Stefano Zamagni, professor of political economy at the University of Bologna, Italy and consultor of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The encyclical's release is one day before the Group of Eight will begin an international summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

The Holy Father signed the encyclical Monday, the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. That same day, before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square, Benedict XVI explained that the encyclical is a reflection on the conditions necessary for "integral development." He added that it returns to social themes found in "Populorum Progressio," written by Pope Paul VI in 1967.

He explained that it "aims to go deeper in certain aspects of the integral development of our age, in the light of charity in truth."

"I entrust to your prayer this new contribution that the Church offers to humanity in its commitment to sustainable progress, in full respect of human dignity and the real needs everyone has," Benedict XVI said.

"Caritas in Veritate" is the first social encyclical to be written in almost two decades. Pope John Paul II penned "Centesimus Annus" in 1991, a century after Pope Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum."

The encyclical will be released in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.

Homosexualism Defined

Homosexualism is the promotion, acceptance or tacit approval of homosexuality.

It has become a prevailing ideology.

Call it homosexualism.

Name it!

Christians must name it and Christians must roundly condemn it as do Saint Paul (cf. Romans chapter 1 and Pope Benedict, cf. CDF letter on the pastoral care of persons with homosexual tendencies http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html ).

To name this error is an act of love for the salvation of souls--especially for those embroiled in the resultant immorality and godlessness: caritas in veritate (cf. Ephesians 4:5 referenced by His Holiness in his homily for the close of the Pauline Year 28 June 2009 and in his Catholic University of America Address 17 April 2008: "We observe today a timidity in the face of the category of the good and an aimless pursuit of novelty parading as the realization of freedom. We witness an assumption that every experience is of equal worth and a reluctance to admit imperfection and mistakes. And particularly disturbing is the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of 'risk', bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love. How might Christian educators respond? These harmful developments point to the particular urgency of what we might call 'intellectual charity'. This aspect of charity calls the educator to recognize that the profound responsibility to lead the young to truth is nothing less than an act of love. Indeed, the dignity of education lies in fostering the true perfection and happiness of those to be educated. In practice, 'intellectual charity' upholds the essential unity of knowledge against the fragmentation which ensues when reason is detached from the pursuit of truth. It guides the young towards the deep satisfaction of exercising freedom in relation to truth, and it strives to articulate the relationship between faith and all aspects of family and civic life".)

To remain silent is a lack of love.

Catholic education is an act of love!

Jackson's Apostasy, McMahon and Fawcett's Catholicism

Thursday, June 25, 2009

www.extremecatholic.blogspot.com

McMahon, Fawcett, and Jackson

It's confirmed again, that celebrities die in threes. Who could have imagined that these three are forever linked by the date of their death as Mother Teresa and Princess Di are?

[My (Plinthos) comment to that is who was Ed McMahon? and Mother Teresa and Princess Diana did not die on the same day!]

Let's take a moment to remember them as children of God and pray for their souls. [Indeed!]

On local television news tonight, it's all about Michael Jackson. So far no one mentioned that he converted to the Muslim faith, or that he leaves behind three children.

Both Ed McMahon and Farah Fawcett were Catholics and received the sacraments prior to their deaths.

Priest Teaching Catechism: More Important than Preaching

Being the first week of the sacerdotal year I thought it would be good to provide Saint Anthony Mary Claret's most practical catechetical method which I translate from volume two of El Colegial o Seminarista Teorica y Practicamente Instruido, 1861 (pp. 513-518).




Section V. On what a priest should teach.

Chapter IV. On the catechism.

The priest has the obligation to instruct the faithful in christian doctrine, in the mysteries which they should believe, in the precepts which they should keep, in the Sacraments which they should receive and in the prayers which they should pray; how they are to remove themselves from evil and do the good, and how they are to live in the holy fear and love of God.


The Bishops shall take care that children be punctually taught the fundamentals of the faith or catechism; the obedience that they owe God and their parents; and, if necessary, they shall require that they be taught, with ecclesial censures and no impeding privileges. by the persons to whom it pertains in all of the parishes, at least on sundays and other feast days. (Council of Trent, session XXIV, chapter 4 de Ref.).


And the sacred Congregation, by the decree of 5 august of the year 1732, says: Each pastor shall teach the elements of christian doctrine to the boys and girls of his parish, placing them separately the boys from the girls, as it is done in Rome and in other places.


The same sacred Congregation declared on 5 august 1774 that the explanation of doctrine could not be interrupted on even one feast day of the year in any parish, not even at vintage time, even if there should be no more than one person in attendance in the temple.


Benedict XIV says: May the priest pastors know that they have two principle obligations: one is that they are to preach to the people on feast days, and the other is that on the same feast days they are to instruct the children and the ignorant adults in the christian doctrine.


Saint Charles Borromeo with the greatest severity would order that the pastors preach to the people in the morning at the mass and to the children in the afternoon, ringing the bell for them to come.


The obligation to preach to the people and to catechize the children and the ignorant binds sub gravi.


Benedict XIV orders that the pastors be helped in this work of catechizing by those initiated in tonsure and those that aspire to the priesthood, the Bishops refusing final ordination to those who should present themselves lax or reticent in this matter; and for this reason care shall be taken that they know the catechism well, because sometimes they do not know it, and in that case they will poorly know how to teach it. Nemo dat quod non habet.


The above mentioned Pontiff also asks and demands that in addition to the pastors, priests and ordained (including all aspirants to the priesthood), who should teach the christian doctrine to the boys and girls, fathers and mothers of families, teachers and the brothers of the confraternities also teach it.


The priest pastors should know that the Catechism is more necessary than preaching, for the latter becomes almost useless when the listener is ignorant of the Catechism.


The Catechism is of two types: for children and for adults.





Article 1. On the catechism for children.



The main defect in catechesis is too much talking; thus the catechist should speak little, he should ask the question and the child should respond: if he errs he shall make another child correct him, and thus they will ensure that all shall be attentive.


The children are only alert when they speak and when they are told illustrating examples; and so, before finishing the catechism some analogy to the material or to their age or customs shall be told to them.


The catechist should have method; otherwise he shall progress very little. The method which we have hitherto seen to give the best results is the one which we are going to give here, which rests on these points:


1. If there is only one catechist and many students, he shall have them placed, standing or seated, in the form of a half moon or semi-circle and the catechist shall place himself in the middle, in such a way that with one glance he can see them all.


2. If there are two or more catechists the students shall be divided, because the fewer each catechist has the more progress will be made, because all can exercise themselves more.


3. If there are few catechists and many students, they can use the more advanced students to teach the groups of the beginners, and after they have taught a while the respective classes shall be placed.


4. Before beginning the catechism, and placed as indicated, the catechist and students all make the sign of the cross with pause and devotion; and after they pray three Hail Mary's to most holy Mary, and an Our Father and Hail Mary to the guardian Angels.


5. One begins according to the little book of catechism of the diocese with the first question; he asks the question to one whom he knows knows it, and if he does not know it the catechist will help him word by word. He will ask the same question to others. Sometimes it turns out well that one same thing be said by all together and at the same time, and after to ask it one by one; and one shall not pass to the second question until the first is known well.


6. When the first question is known well one passes to the second; when the second is known it is joined to the first and both are repeated; then one passes to the third, and when it is known it is joined to the preceding ones and they are repeated, and one continues thus.


7. The first day that one should return to the catechism, before asking one shall begin by reviewing these same question, then one shall ask the others that follow.


8. When the children know some questions they are placed in front of the class, and both, two by two, ask each other and respond reciprocally.


9. Two lines may also be formed, one facing the other, and the first (student) in one line asks the first (student) of the other line, and the latter responds and asks the second of the other line.


10. When the children know the letter of the Catechism, the catechist shall vary the wording and ask the same things to see if the children understand them.


11. He shall also add some questions to it, but this shall not be done until the little book is known well. That is how they become used to discussing.


12. Before concluding a small talk of few minutes is given according to their capacity, in clear and simple terms, and it shall have five parts: The 1st shall be the proposition, which shall serve as an introduction; 2nd an exposition; 3rd an example or case; 4th a moral, and 5th a resolution.



Article 2. On the catechism for adults


The catechism is not just to be taught to children but also to adults; and experience shows that more fruit is had with the catechism or doctrinal points than with sermons.

To give the catechism for adults the catechist should be wise and experienced, and he should observe much method.

In each instruction or talk he shall observe the following: 1st he shall make the introduction, the exposition of the matter, and the division; these three will form the exordium of the doctrinal talk.

Next he follows with the explanation of the precept, sacrament or mystery.

Then he goes to the moral. And finally he responds to the objections (difficulties or excuses) which the lax or those who are a little timid might presumably make. Regarding the introduction, it shall be made from the preceding instruction or talk, synthesizing it: this is very useful for the catechist, who needs not work too hard, and it greatly serves the listener, because it refreshes the ideas of the previous instruction and makes him more firm in them, correcting if he did not well understand something, and those who were absent shall know the material that was covered and what will be covered.

Then the matter shall be expounded, and shall be divided, and thus one shall speak with more clarity, it shall be better understood and better remembered; he shall explain the material, he shall prove the doctrine by authorities, but that they not be many nor long, with reasons, with likenesses and comparisons, and with some small example or story taken from sacred Scripture or from some author or commentator.

Later the moral lesson shall be brought up, the remedies shall be shown, the means, the difficulties shall be solved and the excuses shall disappear.

With all the rest as it may be seen in the authors of the catalogue. (Here Saint Claret is referring to his list of books that each priest should own in each branch of theology, etc. pp. 398-408. I shall provide that list (in Spanish) in a future blog.)

Alter Christus

In the first Wednesday Audience during the sacerdotal year yesterday, the Holy Father indicated that, because of Christ (the source and purpose of the priesthood), the essential duty of the priest is to be in intimate communion with God. He must be holy, that is the first "work" of the priest. Here are a few relevant passages.

Alter Christus, the priest is profoundly united to the Word of the Father, who in incarnating himself, has taken the form of a slave, has made himself a slave (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). The priest is a slave of Christ in the sense that his existence, ontologically configured to Christ, takes on an essentially relational character: He is in Christ, through Christ, and with Christ at the service of man. Precisely because he belongs to Christ, the priest is radically at the service of all people: He is the minister of their salvation, of their happiness, of their authentic liberation -- maturing, in this progressive taking up of the will of Christ, in prayer, in this "remaining heart to heart" with him. This is therefore the essential condition of all proclamation, which implies participation in the sacramental offering of the Eucharist and docile obedience to the Church.

The holy Curé d'Ars often repeated with tears in his eyes: "What a frightening thing to be a priest!" And he added: "How we ought to pity a priest who celebrates Mass as if he were engaged in something routine. How wretched is a priest without interior life!"

May this Year of the Priest bring all priests to identify themselves totally with Jesus, crucified and risen, so that in imitation of St. John the Baptist, we are willing to "decrease" so that he increases; so that, following the example of the Curé d'Ars, they constantly and deeply understand the responsibility of their mission, which is sign and presence of the infinite mercy of God. Let us entrust to the Virgin, Mother of the Church, this Year for Priests just begun and all the priests of the world.

Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

God the Son, redeemer of the world,

God the Holy Spirit,

Holy Trinity, one God,

Heart of Mary, Pray for us.

Heart of Mary, after God’s own Heart,

Heart of Mary, in union with the Heart of Jesus,

Heart of Mary, the vessel of the Holy Spirit,

Heart of Mary, shrine of the Trinity,

Heart of Mary, home of the Word,

Heart of Mary, immaculate in your creation,

Heart of Mary, flooded with grace,

Heart of Mary, blessed of all hearts,

Heart of Mary, Throne of glory,

Heart of Mary, Abyss of humbleness,

Heart of Mary, Victim of love,

Heart of Mary, nailed to the cross,

Heart of Mary, comfort of the sad,

Heart of Mary, refuge of the sinner,

Heart of Mary, hope of the dying,

Heart of Mary, seat of mercy,

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

L: Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of heart.

A: Conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus.

Let us pray:

O most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, has made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Spiritual Communion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

(of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

O Mary give me your heart, so beautiful, so pure so Immaculate, so full of love and tenderness, that I may receive Jesus in the Bread of Life, love Him as you love Him and serve Him in the destressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.

Papal Letter to Priests for the Opening of the Sacerdotal Year

Having just read the Letter I have one major reflection.

His Holiness' Letter to open the Sacerdotal Year is a panegyric on the Cure D'Ars and at the same time an exaltation of the unique dignity and duties of the ministerial priesthood.

One example of the grandeur of the priesthood is the idea which I first heard at a First Mass reception by Father John Hardon, that "were it not for the Catholic Priesthood Jesus Christ would not be on earth today". That is the idea conveyed in the Holy Father's Letter quoting the following text of the patron saint of parish priests:

"Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put Him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest. And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the priest. ... After God, the priest is everything! ... Only in heaven will he fully realise what he is".

How shall we call it? Clear clerical identity coupled with selfless service and humble obedience to the Lord in the Church and in Her sacred rituals.

The place in which the reality of the sublime dignity and duties of the priest are best expressed and exercised are in the exalted and most solemn rites of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Ritual. So it is most appropriate that here in New York City we should begin this sacerdotal year with a solemn high pontifical Mass of this feast of the Sacred Heart in the extraordinary form of the Mass. Saint Jean Baptiste, 74th and Lexington, 7PM.

Brain Fuel

"Brain Fuel" read the sticker on the bananas this morning. Clever, though a bit misplaced and exaggerated, I thought.

Over breakfast, I considered that the sticker would be much more appropriately placed on the Word of God and on the Magisterium of the Church, recalling the words of the Lord:

"Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God". (Matt. 4:4)

Pope Gives Insight Into Next Encyclical

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 14, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI said Saturday that his next encyclical, which "will soon be published," will outline the work Christians must do in order to bring about "truly free" human coexistence.

The Pope spoke of his third encyclical on Saturday when he received in audience members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation.

The encyclical is expected to be called "Veritas in Caritate," and it is thought that it will be published June 29, feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

"As you know, my encyclical on the vast theme of economics and labor will soon be published," the Holy Father told the Centesimus Annus group.

"It will highlight what, for us Christians, are the objectives to be pursued and the values to be promoted and tirelessly defended, with the purpose of realizing a truly free and solidary human coexistence," he explained.

The Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation was founded by Pope John Paul II in 1993. It is a lay foundation that aims to promote the social doctrine of the Church in professional and business sectors.

This will be Benedict XVI's third encyclical. His first, on charity, was published in 2005, and his second, on hope, was published in 2007.

A Return to Latin

A few years ago I was experiencing some resistance in promoting Latin in the liturgy. The opposition demanded "Are we returning to Latin?" This was my answer.

Yes, we are returning to Latin.

Our Catholic religion and our Liturgy is a series of returns.

We return to the Cross.

We return to Jesus.

We return to confession.

We return to communion.

We return to prayer.

We return over and over to begin again. In the words of Saint Escriva, holiness consists in beginning again.

Everything new in human life is a renewal, an attempt at perfection which always includes an attempt to return to Paradise, to the original innocence. One turns into a saint, by returning, beginning again, going ever deeper, communicating (especially in receiving Holy Communion), always better, with the Lord--in His language (there was no English on Calvary!), in the language of our Holy Mother Church. Wouldn't it be nice to learn Her language, to get out of my smallness and embrace the whole world, with the intention of exercising a Catholic heart--immense--without borders of land, of race, of language, or of time, in every place forever. Our religion is thus because our God is thus--a boundless Heart: Cor Jesu. Of course, God's language is ultimately one, Love. He loves us in every language and we can express our love for Him in countless tongues and even without tongues. Nevertheless, we have a precious patrimony and efficacious instrument in right worship in the languages of the Cross, one of which is Latin.

P.S. On the same token I seek to embrace the Greek and Aramaic Catholic Masses while recognizing that our Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church is Latin.

P.S.S. There is great irony in Latin-America's neglect of Latin. This whole discussion was had in Spanish with Latinos. I have translated it for this article for the benefit of my readers.

Consolatio Christi

From the epistle of today's Mass we read: sicut socii passionum estis, sic eritis et consolationis. (2 Cor. 1:7) As you are partakers of the sufferings, so will you also be of the comfort.

Holiness is a state of being, a position, being with, namely, that of grace, of sanctifying grace. It is the position of being with God, God calling you, working on you, God giving you interior life, wisdom, strength and enthusiasm, He purifying you, sending you out to bear fruit. It is all about Him with you, in you, active in you, in His great mercy (Pater misericordiarum v.3), and you at peace with that, Him, with His good company, purified, well-disposed, "a gusto", comfortable! Holiness is liking Him, liking being with God and liking His work in you! Like the cat at one of my first Friday communion calls.

An elderly man (92 year old American Indian) to whom I take Holy Communion once a month has a cat which, this past Friday after I administered the Sacrament, very graciously lept onto the coffee table, let his owner affectionately scratch its head and most serenely lied down on the table licking its back and calmly waving just the tip of its tail up and down in an expression of complete contentment in the good care and fine presence of the owner and the priest. That cat provides an illustration of interior communion with God.

Communion with Christ is confidence in Him which gives complete contentment and profound peace in the soul.

Brazilian Prince Killed on Air France Flight 447

The first question to be asked when an airplane "disappears" (i.e. is destroyed) is were there any great people on the flight? Andrew Cusack's blog provided this piece of the puzzle: the heir-presumptive to the Imperial throne of Brazil was killed with that flight.

The next question, after finding about all of the dignitaries that died on the flight, is, did anyone hate them? Who were their greatest enemies? Can a flight be destroyed on purpose? Could the enemies of those passengers have destroyed the plane? Planes do not typically disappear these days, even over the Atlantic, especially with princes aboard. The present-day lack of investigative journalism is alarming!

Please pray for the repose of the soul of

Dom PEDRO LUÍS MARIA JOSÉ MIGUEL RAFAEL GABRIEL GONZAGA de ORLÉANS-BRAGANÇA e LIGNE

Prince of the Imperial House of Brazil

Son of H.I.H. Prince Antônio of Orléans-Braganza & H.H. Princess Christine of Ligne

Born 12 January 1983 in Rio de Janeiro.

Died 1 June 2009, on Air France Flight 447.

Until his early death, heir-presumptive to the Imperial throne of Brazil.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Requiescat in pace.

Amen.

Official Perversion

On Monday President Obama declared June 2009 to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. Every upright citizen of this nation and of every nation condemns this action and the false anthropology and the gross immorality which it represents and promotes.

There is no just pride to be had in any immoral inclination or activity. At the root of the president's declaration is the denial of the fundamental truth about the human person, created by God as male and female, and the responsibility of chastity inherent to that truth. Ultimately it is a denial of God.

Homosexualism is the rape of God. (cf. Genesis 19:5ff)

Homosexualism is the shameful punishment of God for the people who reject Jesus Christ, the one true God. (cf. Romans 1:18-32)

June is rather the Month of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Whose mercy we need to invoke especially now in the face of this new insult to every human male and every human female, especially insulting the perfect Man, Jesus Christ and the perfect woman, the most blessed and ever Virgin Mary.

Immaculate Conception, patroness of the USA, pray for our moral and spiritual recovery.

New Encyclical Coming 29 June 2009

Caritas in veritate, the eagerly awaited social encyclical of Pope Benedict, is presently being translated and is to be issued on the Solemnity of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 29 June 2009, just a few weeks away!

Solus Cum Sola

Solus cum sola non dicunt 'Ave'.

That is the moral lesson of the Padre Alberto scandal. Do not pray alone with a woman alone.

He said that her most attractive feature is her prayer life! The dictum is that a man alone with a woman alone do not just pray the Hail Mary. His case is one more tragic proof of the wisdom of that age old Catholic wisdom, and this: "Entre santa y santo paredes de cal y canto." (Teresa de Avila), viz. that distance is the best and only sure remedy for concupiscience: i.e. fuga.

All of this reminds me of the simple wisdom of an elderly Felician nun who told me in my first year of college seminary over twenty years ago: "Women and money, stay away from them!"

The Institution of Infidelity

What can we say about Episcopalianism, a community which enthusiastically accepts and promotes the Catholic failures to their clerical ranks, representing various degrees of sexual immorality and perversion (e.g. the unfaithful Padre Alberto, the perverse homosexualist ex-governor McGreevey, etc.) except that the Catholic Church is the One Holy Church of Jesus Christ and everything opposed to Her is the church of Satan, or, if you prefer, The Institution of Infidelity.

If the unrepentant unfaithful Catholics are welcome there then it is the "community" of the unfaithful. What a distinction! Small wonder. Their religion was founded on the murderous adulteries of their first "pope" Henry VIII. It is also no wonder that hundreds of thousands of the members of the worldwide Anglican communion are seeking entry into the Catholic Church to escape that dissolute institution in which the Sodomists have officially taken over. Their honest members come to us as our dishonest members go to them! Deo gratias!

The Heart of Sunday and the Light of the Week

"A Sunday without Mass...is not a true Sunday: in fact it lacks Sunday's heart and thus also the light for the week." (Benedict XVI Q&A audience with children, 30 May 2009)

It is good to remeber this truth: the vital nature of the Lord's Day and the centrality of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to that day. Without the Mass the Sunday is dead and the week is dark! Everyone needs the Mass because everyone needs Christ. Christ gives man, every man, his proper meaning as man, i.e. imago Dei.

Doctors Condemn Condoms

» 05/08/2009 12:45
PHILIPPINES
Catholic Doctors in Asia: condoms do not stop the spread of HIV
by Santosh Digal
Thailand promotes use of condoms and registers 570 thousand cases of HIV infections compared to 9 thousand in the Philippines. Doctors denounce pressures from members of parliament to promote family planning methods. Yesterday the European Parliament rejected an amendment to condemn the pope for his views on condoms.

Manila (AsiaNews) – Condoms are inefficient in the fight against Aids says the Catholic Doctors association, nurses and health care workers in Asia (ACIM-Asia), who also denounce family planning methods through the use of condoms.

Yolly Eileen Gamutam, head of ACIM-Asia, is categorical: “Condoms are highly dangerous”. The woman points to the example of Thailand where the widespread promotion and use of condoms has failed. By the end-2003, Thailand registered the highest percentage of HIV/AIDS cases with 570,000 adults and children living with HIV as compared to 9,000 in the Philippines. There were 58,000 AIDS related deaths in 2003 for Thailand while only 500 are recorded in the Philippines.

Gamutam underlines how “this only shows that the condom use program in Thailand is not effective”. And adds: “Even if all brothels were required to have supplies of condoms, and if they were available in all supermarkets, bars, restaurants, and other public gathering places still it would not deter the widespread of HIV/AIDS”. Quoting Benedict XVI, the doctors recall that abstinence and conjugal faithfulness are the most effective methods in combating the disease.

Members of ACIM-Asia are also accusing a parliamentary Committee, dedicated to promote birth control policies, of exercising undue pressure on the government to guarantee funding. Supported by European Parliament members, their Filipino colleagues are asking that the budget for family planning measures is increased from 180 million to 2 billion Pesos (more that 30 million Euros).

And last but not least, yesterday the European Parliament rejected – with 253 no votes, 199 yes and 61 abstentions – an amendment to condemn the pope for his views on condoms. It had been put forward by two members of the Liberal Democrats group, to “firmly condemn” Benedict XVI’s affirmations on the use of condoms in fighting AIDS, during his recent trip to Africa.

The First Saturday Devotion

As I Googled "First Saturday Devotion" this morning I came across this informative, brief and link-filled article on Wikipedia. I include the article of the Devotion with the index of links.

First Saturday Devotions

The First Saturdays Devotion is a Roman Catholic practice which, according to the visionaries, has been recommended by the Virgin Mary in several visitations, notably Our Lady of Fátima. Catholics honour the Virgin on Saturdays because they believe that as the Mother of Jesus Christ she must have suffered a great deal and had much faith on Holy Saturday, before the Resurrection on Easter. Devotees of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against her Immaculate Heart.

Statue depicting Our Lady of Fátima.

Any Catholic can practice the First Saturdays, alone or in a group. On the first Saturday of five successive months, one goes to confession, attends Saturday Mass and receives Holy Communion. Then the Rosary is recited. Then for at least fifteen minutes afterwards one should meditate on the Rosary's mysteries. During Communion one is considered to be visiting Jesus Christ, who, according to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, is physically present in the Eucharist.

The activities of the Five First Saturdays devotion are different from the same devotions on other days in that all should be done with the intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives.
Sister Lúcia, the only Fátima visionary to survive into adulthood reported that the Blessed Mother came to her in her convent at Pontevedra, Spain with the following statement:

Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.

The First Saturdays devotion had already been an established custom in the Catholic Church. On July 1, 1905, Pope Pius X approved and granted indulgences for the practice of the First Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of the Immaculate Conception. This practice greatly resembled the reported request of Mary at the Pontevedra apparitions.

A series of articles onRoman CatholicMariology
General articlesOverview of Mariology • Veneration of the Blessed Virgin • History of Mariology • Mariology of the saints • Mariology of the popes • Encyclicals & Apostolic Letters •
Marian Movements & Societies
DevotionsRosary and Scapular • Immaculate Heart • Seven Joys • Seven Sorrows • First
Saturdays • Acts of Reparation
Dogmas and Doctrines Mother of God • Perpetual virginity • Immaculate Conception • Assumption • Mother of the Church • Mediatrix • Co-Redemptrix
Expressions of devotionArt • Music • Architecture Key Marian apparitions(approved or worthy of belief)Guadalupe • Miraculous Medal •La Salette • Lourdes • Pontmain • Laus • Banneux • Beauraing • Fátima • Akita

A First 100 Days of Great Hope

Here is an article from Inside the Vatican on the new prospects for Catholic Orthodox re-unification. Is the Pope who has reconciled the traditionalists within the Church now about to reconcile the traditionalist Christian Orthodox? It would be most appropriate during these final months of the Pauline Year.



Will Kirill and Benedict Meet?

Just about 100 days ago, on January 27, Russian Orthodox Church leaders chose a new Patriarch to succeed the later Patriarch Alexi II, who had died on December 5, 2008. His name: Kirill. What has Kirill done since his election, and what are the prospects for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI?

By Dr. Robert Moynihan

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2009 — The new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, 62, has met Pope Benedict XVI, who turned 82 a few days ago, three times already — but that was before Kirill became Patriarch.

Now, after nearly 100 days in office, Vatican observers are sensing that Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict may meet again — and that such a meeting will be a major step on the way to the long-hoped-for reunion of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which have been divided for nearly 1,000 years, since 1054. But where and when could such a meeting be held?

Kirill is an imposing figure, with a grey-flecked beard and sonorous voice. And he has important friends. When he was enthroned Alexi’s successor in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the church was filled with celebrities and political leaders, and the first person to receive communion from him was... President Dmitry Medvedev’s wife, Svetlana.

Patriarch Kirill took charge of the Russian Orthodox Church with an enthronement service in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Russia, Sunday, February 1, 2009. He is the first leader of the world's largest Orthodox church to take office after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet era, the officially atheist Communist government treated the devout like moral lepers, imprisoning tens of thousands of clerics of all creeds. Now the Orthodox Church “has become a serious power in society,” former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told The Associated Press in March.

Kirill met most recently with Pope Benedict XVI a year and a half ago, on December 7, 2007, privately at the Vatican. The Vatican did not release any details about the meeting, but an interview with Metropolitan Kirill was published late in the afternoon by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The meeting with the Pope was "very positive and very beautiful," Kirill said at the time. "On our agenda there are many important themes such as the promotion of basic values."But great obstacles still remain to a closer collaboration between the two Churches, not to speak of full reunion.

Indeed, Metropolitan Kirill's December 2007 meeting with the Pope came just four days after Russia's Interfax news agency quoted him as saying that the four Roman Catholic dioceses John Paul II established in Russia in 2002 should be downgraded again to their prior status of "apostolic administrations."

"We shall never recognize them and will always dispute the presence of ordinary Catholic dioceses in the territory of Russia and consider it a challenge to our common idea" of Church organization, Interfax quoted Kirill as saying.

Kirill said then that when the Orthodox or the Catholics have communities outside their traditional homelands, a bishop should be in charge of their pastoral care, but that bishop should be an administrator, not the head of a normal diocese erected on a territory already assigned to another bishop. (Russia’s Catholic community numbers an estimated 600,000 people in a country of 144 million where about 80% of the people identify themselves as Orthodox.)

Still, Kirill added that regular contact between Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials was "essential" for promoting the growing understanding of the other needed to resolve the tensions and the theological differences that keep Catholics and Orthodox apart.

And there has been regular contact since Benedict's election as Pope in April, 2005, and especially since Kirill's election as Patriarch in January, as representatives of the Holy See and representatives of the Russian and other Orthodox Churches have met many times in many different venues.

One milestone occurred in the fall of 2007, when Roman Catholic and Orthodox theologians, after a week of meetings in Ravenna, Italy, drafted a joint document that acknowledges in a certain sense the primacy of the Pope. The 46-paragraph “Ravenna Document” (text below), envisages a reunified Church in which the Pope could be the most senior patriarch among the various Orthodox churches. Another milestone also occurred in 2007, on June 16, when Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting Greek Orthodox leader, Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, that he hoped the Catholic and Orthodox Churches could be united, despite centuries of painful division, and discussed how Catholics and Orthodox could work together on social, moral and bioethical issues, including opposition to same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research.Chrysostomos had offered to play the role of mediator to try to arrange a groundbreaking meeting between the Pope and the then-Patriarch of Moscow, Alexi II.

In a speech to the archbishop after their private session, Benedict said he held “firm hope” of uniting the two Churches. Despite “centuries-old divisions, diverging roads and despite the hard work of closing painful wounds, the Lord has never ceased to guide our steps on the path toward unity and reconciliation,” Benedict told Chrysostomos.

Chrysostomos then told reporters that the chief problem was a "lack of communication" between the Pope and the Patriarch. He said he would pursue his offer to help organize a possible meeting when he met with Alexi in Moscow in mid-2007.

Chrysostomos believed Benedict’s background as a theologian with a good grasp of Orthodox theology would help the process of reuniting the two churches, but he failed to broker a meeting between Benedict and Alexi II. Now, four years into Benedicts's pontificate and nearly 100 days into Kirill's patriarchate, nearly all Vatican observers agree that, as Pope John Paul II was driven by the desire to end the scourge of atheist Communism, so Pope Benedict XVI still hopes passionately to see the restoration of a unified Church.

And the path toward achieving that vision passes by way of Kirill.

Benedict's hopes for reunion stem from his religious conviction that Christians should present a united witness to the world, but also from his pragmatic judgment that the increasingly relativistic and "anti-life" West needs the spiritual and moral support of the Orthodox world to overcome a secular mindset which has begun to penetrate into the western Church herself.

This explains why Benedict has, since the moment Kirill was elected, made numerous gestures toward him of welcome and appreciation.

Benedict XVI publicly expressed his joy at Kirill's January 27 election at a general audience the next day in Rome, saying, "I invoke upon him the light of the Holy Spirit for a generous service to the Russian Orthodox Church, entrusting him to the special protection of the Mother of God."

In a telegram sent to the newly-elected Patriarch, the Pope wrote: "May the Almighty bless your efforts to maintain communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue. I assure Your Holiness of my spiritual closeness and of the Catholic Church's commitment to co-operate with the Russian Orthodox Church for an ever clearer witness of the truth of the Christian message and to the values which alone can sustain today's world along the way of peace, justice and loving care of the marginalised."

The Catholic Archbishop in Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, called the election "very positive news" and said that it promised "continuity and recognition of the work of the former patriarch, Alexi II."

The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted that Kirill was "a Patriarch with whom we have maintained fraternal relations for many years, and who met the Holy Father immediately following his election in April 2005, and again in the months of May 2006 and December 2007."

The Council statement continued: "We trust we will be able to continue together down the path of mutual understanding we have already begun. We do not, of course, wish to lose sight of the difficulties that still remain, but we are ready and willing to co-operate in the social and cultural fields in order to bear witness to Christian values while, nonetheless, not forgetting that the ultimate aim of dialogue is the realisation of the testament of Jesus Christ our Lord: the full communion of all His disciples."

Kirill the "John Paul II" of the Russian Church? Who is Patriarch Kirill?

He is relatively young — at age 62, he is 20 years younger than Pope Benedict is, and nearly the same age, 58, as Pope John Paul II was when he was elected Pope in 1978.

And Kirill is energetic. For years he has hosted his own weekly television program "Words of a Pastor." He has traveled widely around the world. and he is willing to take risks to preach the Gospel (he recently agreed to speak to Russian young people in a sports stadium, something previous Patriarchs would have found unthinkable).

He is also open to new ways of doing things. This winter, while he was acting Patriarch, he went to a rock concert in Kiev and delivered a homily to tens of thousands of young people. "Today Church and society are in fact one and the same thing," a spokesman for Kirill later explained. "Our Church believers go to discos and rock-concerts, and if there's a chance to give some Church tinge to such youth meetings, if young people are glad to hear a few words from a priest, why doesn't he go there and say these few words? The example of the Patriarch will surely inspire bishops, priests and laymen. When we speak about mission, we mean that we will go and preach, not that people will come to us. We mean that priests should come out from their churches, officials of Church departments should step out of their organizations. We should go and meet people, even at the so-called youth hangouts, even if it's not usual to see a man in cassock there," the Russian Church official said.

And Kirill is evidently a capable administrator. He has gathered around himself a "team" of well-trained and capable younger clerics and laymen to help him implement his vision for the Russian Church and nation, including the man he has chosen to take the post he himself held as head of the External Relations Department of the Patriarchate, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev (now promoted to archbishop).

On March 31, the news agency Interfax reported that the Holy Synod, the group of seven leading Russian Orthodox archbishops who form the highest ruling council of the Russian Orthodox Church, had named Bishop Hilarion as External Church Relations chief "unanimously."

The agency reported that several other young clerics who are close to Kirill were promoted:

(1) Archpriest Nikolay Balashov was named Patriarchate Secretary for relations with other Orthodox Churches;

(2) Priest Georgy Ryabyh was named acting secretary for liaison between the Church and public, and both were appointed deputy chairmen of the Department for External Church Relations;

(3) Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, a former deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, was appointed Patriarchate Secretary for the Church's institutions abroad;

(4) Priest Antony Ilyin was put in charge of the Church's relations with European international organizations; and

(5) Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a 41-year-old, gravel-voiced cleric close to Kirill, was appointed to be the first head of a new Department for Relations between the Church and Society set up within the Church's administrative structure.
On April 22, a further promotion was announced:

(6) Fr. Igor Vyzhanov, 38, secretary for Inter-Christian relations in the Department for External Church Relations, the Patriarchate official responsible for relations with non-Orthodox confessions, was ordained an Archpriest by Patriarch Kirill personally during a Divine Liturgy in Moscow. The promotions of Hilarion, Mark and Chaplin, all relatively young men in their early 40s, are perhaps the most significant of these first appointments during Kirill's first 100 days.

What has happened to these three "rising stars" is not without precedent. At the beginning of his own clerical career, Patriarch Kirill was the personal secretary to Metropolitan Nikodim (1929-1978) of Leningrad and Novgorod. Metropolitan Nikodim had encouraged Kirill to become a priest and was a very important figure in Kirill's early life. Nikodim was himself a very rapidly rising star. He had become the head of the Church's Department of External Relations at the very young age of 30.

Nikodim, who many consider a saint, persuaded the Soviet government to allow the Russian
Orthodox Church at have contacts with the world churches.

From this, the Soviet government was able to create an appearance of freedom of religion in the USSR, while the Church in turn received a little breathing room in which to exist.

Nikodim was also allowed to mentor and advance within the Church certain very bright and talented young men. These young men, such as Kirill, Juvelany, and Alexi, later became the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Tragically, on September 5, 1978, Metropolitan Nikodim died of a heart attack at the age of 48 in the presence of Pope John Paul I.

A decade later, on November 13, 1989, Kirill was appointed to be head of the External Relations Department and a permanent member of the Holy Synod. Kirill was 42 at the time — the same age as Hilarion today.Like his mentor Nikodim, Kirill created in his department a small group of very talented and bright young men — the best of the best. These men advanced to key positions within the External Relations Department. They are now Bishop Hilarion, Bishop Mark, and Father Vsevolod. They are all extremely talented, hard-working, and articulate.

Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that in the first session of the Holy Synod since the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill, these three have been given key positions in the Moscow Patriarchate.

In this regard, it appears that the former functions of the External Relations Department may have been divided in three parts. The part relating to the interface with the Russian government and civil society has been given to Father Vsevolod, the supervision of foreign parishes to Bishop Mark, and the general functions of the department and the key permanent seat in the Holy Synod to Bishop Hilarion.

Among Catholic observers of the Russian Orthodox Church, all of these appointments are regarded as "good news" because of the deep faith, learning and openness of these men.

Bishop Hilarion was the first person to propose an alliance between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches — an idea that has been subsequently echoed by many in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

He is also active in the culture field, as an accomplished pianist and composer of sacred music.

Bishop Hilarion's monumental Passion According to St. Matthew, first performed in Moscow and Rome in March 2007, was recently performed (on April 8) by the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir in St. Stephen's Basilica, the most famous Catholic church in Budapest. A capacity crowd of more than 2,000 attended and the basilica was not able to accommodate all that came. The concert was broadcast live by "Radio Maria." Among the guests of honor were Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest, the apostolic nuncio to Hungary (Archbishop Juliusz Janusz), Archabbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma (Asztrik Varszegi), and the prior of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany (Dr. Korzensky Richard).

Before the concert, Cardinal Erdo welcomed the crowd. He stated, "Today's event is not just another musical event but a sign of genuine and long-awaited collaboration between our Churches. I wholeheartedly congratulate Bishop Hilarion on his appointment to the high and responsible post of Chairman of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. I sincerely hope that our cooperation, rooted in his tenure as head of the Hungarian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, will continue in his new capacity."

Father Vsevolod, though the living embodiment of "toughness," has been a very positive influence in the dialogue between the Russian Orthdoox and the Catholic Church in the Russian Federation. Father Vsevolod was also one of the very few non-Catholic Church officials to come to the defense of the Pope in the recent worldwide "condom controversy" which erupted during the Pope's March trip to Africa.

Bishop Mark, a deeply spiritual man, who has lived and worked in Jerusalem, has traveled several times to Italy and to the Vatican, and is also a very positive influence.
That a Catholic can appreciate these men does not mean that the three will not be zealous defenders of Orthodoxy, but it does mean that they are reasonable men open to dialogue. And for this reason, they can count on our prayers in the great responsibilities that they are assuming.

Arguably, today Kirill is one of the 10 or 20 most influential men in Russia, one of the key countries in the world, and his relative youth means that he will likely be an important factor in national decisions for years to come.

Kirill now heads of a Church with more than 100 million adherents — larger than the Anglican Church — including millions of Russian Orthodox living abroad, which gives the Russian

Orthodox Church a "global" aspect.

Statistically, the Russian Orthodox Church is the second most numerous Christian Church after the Roman Catholic Church itself.

But statistics are less important here than suffering and faith. The Russian Orthodox Church is a Church that suffered greatly under Soviet rule. Now it has "re-emerged from the catacombs" following the dissolution 18 years ago of the USSR (1991) to take on an ever-greater role in post-Soviet Russia.

Russia's powerful Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and its President, Dmitry Medvedev, both attend church on feast days. Other Slavic leaders, like Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, do so as well.

So it a time of hope for Russian Orthodoxy — despite the enormous challenges the faith confronts in Russia, which has become highly secularized. Kirill evidently hopes it will be a "Orthodox Moment" for his country, and his Church.

Collaboration with Catholics

Following the new Patriarch's enthronement on February 1, Benedict sent a second message, reiterating the importance of collaboration in seeking Christian unity.

The Pope recalled his meetings with the new Patriarch in Kirill's previous role as the president of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Pope characterized these encounters as full of "good will" and recalled Kirill's role in "forging a new relationship between our Churches, a relationship based on friendship, mutual acceptance and sincere dialogue in facing the difficulties of our common journey."

On March 8 in Moscow, Kirill showed the type of spirit he is bringing to his pastoral task.

He warned his hearers during a Sunday sermon not to trust some radical Orthodox fighters for the "purity" of faith, whose motto is "Orthodoxy or Death!" "When we meet a man who claims to be fighting for the purity of Orthodoxy, but in his eyes is lit the fire of anger, someone ready to shake the foundations of Church life to defend orthodoxy, if we do not find love and find anger, this is the first sign of that we have a wolf in sheep's clothing," the Patriarch said in his Sunday sermon at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. "In the eyes of these people you will not find love; they shine with the fire of pride. The most important criterion for evaluating any Church leader — from a Patriarch to a simple layman — is 'love' because 'where there is love, there is Christ.'"

On April 8, Kirill wrote to Benedict, expressing his condolences over the loss of life in an earthquake in Italy's Abruzzo region and said he was praying for the peace of the victims' souls.

"I am conveying my most profound condolences over the loss of hundreds of lives in the earthquake in Abruzzo,"Kirill wrote to Benedict. "Sharing the grief of the families and relatives of those who have fallen victim to the natural disaster, we remember the Gospel saying: 'God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.'" The message was published on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate. (According to reports, 207 people were killed in the earthquake, 15 remain unaccounted for, and 178 people were injured, of whom 100 seriously.)

Then the authoritarian leader of Belarussia came onto the stage. Just a few days ago, on April 26, Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, joining the "club" of Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and other heads of state who have recently paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI, came to the Vatican.

Before a April 27, 2009 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the Belarusian president (Alexander Lukashenko) said he was going to present the Pope with a number of questions from the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Kirill.

Talking to the Pope, he also expressed hope that Benedict XVI would come to Belarus. The Belarusian leader seems to want to play a role in organizing the meeting of the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Moscow (the "third Rome").

If Lukashenko’s proposal is accepted, Belarus will play an important role as a conciliator and a peacemaker. In this sense, Lukashenko is improving Belarus’ image on an international level and doing a favor for Kirill who seems interested in meeting the Pope yet a fourth time — this time, as Patriarch.

Kirill's vision seems to have "Europe-wide" scope. Just yesterday, on April 29, an Interfax report cited the acting representative of the Moscow Patriarchate at the European International Organizations Archpriest Antony Ilyin, as saying that the Russian Orthodox Church believes it is "crucial" for the Russian Church “to introduce problems of Christian values on the agenda of the next European Parliament.”And today comes the news from Moscow that the consecration of a Russian Orthodox church of Great Martyr Saint Catherine being built in Rome on the hillside above St. Peter's Basilica, under the direction of a committee headed by Kirill, has been set for three weeks from now: May 24.

It is not clear whether Kirill himself will come to Rome for the consecration.

==============

A medieval Catholic prophecy states that the Eastern and Western Churches will indeed one day unite again.

And, in this prophecy — which admittedly has no authority from any religious or scientific perspective — the Cistercian Abbot Joachim of Fiore, writing sometime before his death in 1202, "foresaw" that the reunion would come about through the efforts of an extraordinary Pope. (The prophecy is cited in Edward Connor, Prophecy for Today, Tan Books, Rockford, Illinois, 1984, pp. 31-32).

Here is the text from more than 800 years ago (about 150 years after the East-West schism began).

"A remarkable Pope will be seated on the pontifical throne, under special protection of the angels. Holy and full of gentleness, he shall undo all wrong, he shall recover the states of the Church, and reunite the exiled temporal powers. As the sole Pastor, he shall reunite the Eastern to the Western Church… This holy Pope shall be both pastor and reformer. Through him the East and West shall be in everlasting concord. The city of Babylon shall then be the head and guide of the world. Rome, weakened in temporal power, shall forever preserve her spiritual dominion, and shall enjoy great peace…"

God is Visible

"There Is a Certain Visibility of God in the World"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 29, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in St. Peter's Square, part of a catechetical series he is giving about great writers of the Church in the Middle Ages.


* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

The patriarch Germanus of Constantinople, of whom I would like to speak today, does not belong to the most characteristic figures of the Eastern Christian world, and yet, his name appears with a certain solemnity in the list of the great defenders of sacred images, compiled in the Second Council of Nicaea, the 7th ecumenical council (787).The Greek Church celebrates his feast in the liturgy of May 12. He had a significant role in the complex history of the fight for images, during the so-called iconoclast crisis: He knew how to effectively resist pressure from an iconoclast emperor, that is, an adversary of icons, such as was Leo III.

During Germanus' time as patriarch (715-730), Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, suffered a very dangerous besiegement from the Saracens. On that occasion (717-718), a solemn procession was organized in the city with the showing of the image of the Mother of God, the Theotokos, and a relic of the holy cross, to invoke from on high the defense of the city. In fact, Constantinople was liberated from the besiegement. The adversaries decided to permanently let go of the idea of establishing their capital in the city that was the symbol of the Christian empire, and the appreciation for divine help was extremely great among the people.

Patriarch Germanus, after that event, became convinced that the intervention of God should be considered evident approval of the piety shown by the people toward the holy icons. Of an entirely different opinion, on the other hand, was Emperor Leo III, who precisely that year (717), was enthroned as the indisputable emperor in the capital, in which he would reign until 741. After the liberation of Constantinople and after a series of further victories, the Christian emperor began to show ever more openly the conviction that the consolidation of the empire should begin precisely with a reordering of the manifestations of the faith, with particular reference to the risk of idolatry, which according to his opinion, the people were exposed to due to an excessive devotion to icons.

Nothing was gained by Patriarch Germanus' references to the tradition of the Church and the efficacy of certain images, which were unanimously recognized as "miraculous." The emperor became more and more staunch in the application of his restoration project, which included the elimination of icons. And when, on Jan. 7, 730, during a public meeting he openly took a position against devotion to images, Germanus did not want in any way to yield to the will of the emperor on questions that he considered determinant for the Orthodox faith, to which, according to him, belongs precisely the devotion to and love for images. As a result of that, Germanus found himself obligated to turn in his resignation as patriarch and to condemn himself to exile in a monastery where he died forgotten by everyone. His name came to light again precisely in the Second Council of Nicaea (787), when the Orthodox Fathers decided in favor of icons, recognizing the merits of Germanus.

Patriarch Germanus gave much attention to the liturgical celebrations, and for a certain time, he was also considered the one who began the feast of Akathist. As is known, Akathist is an ancient and famous hymn which arose in the Byzantine circle and was dedicated to the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Despite the fact that from the theological point of view, Germanus cannot be classified as a great thinker, some of his works had a certain echo above all because of certain of his intuitions regarding Mariology. From him, in fact, we have various homilies about Marian themes and some of them have profoundly marked the piety of entire generations of faithful, as much in the East as in the West. His splendid homilies on the Presentation of Mary in the temple are still-living testimonies of the non-written tradition of the Christian Churches. Generations of nuns and monks, and members of countless institutes of consecrated life, continue finding even today precious treasures of spirituality in these texts.

Some Marian texts from Germanus that are part of his homilies pronounced on SS. Deiparae dormitionem, corresponding to our feast of the assumption, still create awe. Among these texts, Pope Pius XII used one that he set as a pearl in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1950), with which he declared the dogma of faith, the assumption of Mary. Pope Pius XII cited this text in that constitution, presenting it as one of the arguments in favor of the permanent faith of the Church in the corporal assumption of Mary into heaven. Germanus wrote: "Could it ever happen, most holy Mother of God, that heaven and earth feel honored by your presence, and you, with your departure, would leave man deprived of your protection? No. It is impossible to think of such a thing. In fact when you were in the world you did not feel that the things of heaven were foreign, in the same way, after having emigrated from this world, you have not felt removed from the possibility of communicating in spirit with men. … In fact you have not abandoned those to whom you have guaranteed salvation … indeed your spirit lives eternally, nor has your flesh suffered the corruption of the tomb. "You, oh Mother, are close to everyone and protect everyone, and even though our eyes cannot see you, we completely know, oh One on high, that you live in the midst of all of us and that you make yourself present in the most varied of ways … You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life.

"In fact it was impossible that that which had been converted into the vase of God and the living temple of the most holy divinity of the Only Begotten would be enclosed in the sepulcher of the dead. Again we believe with certainty that you continue walking with us" (PG 98, coll. 344B-346B, passim).

It has been said that for the Byzantines, the decorum of the rhetorical form in preaching, and even more in hymns or poetic compositions that they call tropari, is as important in the liturgical celebration as the beauty of the sacred building in which the celebration takes place. Patriarch Germanus was recognized, in this tradition, as one of those who has contributed much to keeping alive this conviction, that is, that the beauty of the word, of the language and the beauty of the building and the music should coincide.

I cite, to conclude, the inspired words with which Germanus described the Church at the beginning of this small work of art: "The Church is the temple of God, sacred space, house of prayer, convocation of the people, body of Christ … It is heaven on earth, where the transcendent God dwells as in his house and walks [about] in her, but it is also the fulfilled image (antitype) of the Crucifixion, of the tomb and of the Resurrection. The Church is the house of God in which the life-giving mystical sacrifice is celebrated, at the same time the most intimate part of the sanctuary and the holy grotto. Within her is found those true and authentic precious pearls that are the divine dogmas of the teaching offered directly by the Lord to his disciples" (PG 98, coll. 384B-385A).

At the end remains this question: What does this saint have to tell us today, [being] chronologically and also culturally very far from us? I think substantially three things. The first: There is a certain visibility of God in the world, in the Church, which we should learn to perceive. God has created man in his image, but this image has been covered in so much filth from sin that consequently God is almost not seen anymore in it. Thus the Son of God became true man, perfect image of God: In Christ we can thus contemplate the face of God and learn ourselves to be true men, true images of God. Christ invites us to imitate him, to come to be similar to him, so that in each man the face of God, the image of God, again shines through. In truth, God had prohibited in the Ten Commandments making images of God, but this was caused by the temptations to idolatry that believers could be exposed to in the context of paganism. Nevertheless, when God became visible in Christ through the incarnation, it became legitimate to reproduce the face of Christ. Holy images teach us to see God in the form of the face of Christ. After the incarnation of the Son of God, it has therefore become possible to see God in the images of Christ and also in the face of the saints, in the face of all men in whom the holiness of God shines.

The second [lesson] is the beauty and dignity of the liturgy. To celebrate the liturgy in the awareness of the presence of God, with this dignity and beauty that allows one to see a bit of his splendor, is the task of every Christian formed in his faith.

The third [lesson] is to love the Church. Precisely concerning the Church, we men are inclined to see above all its sins, the negative; but with the help of faith, which makes us capable of seeing authentically, we can also, today and always, rediscover in her the divine beauty. It is in Church where God makes himself present, offers himself in the holy Eucharist and remains present for adoration. In the Church, God speaks with us, in the Church, "God walks with us," as St. Germanus says. In the Church, we receive the forgiveness of God and we learn to forgive.

Let us pray to God so that he teaches us to see in the Church his presence, his beauty, to see his presence in the world, and that he helps us also to be transparent for his light.

[Translation by ZENIT]


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on the early Christian writers of East and West, we turn to Saint Germanus, Bishop and Patriarch of Constantinople, whose feast day is celebrated in the Greek Church on 12 May. In 717, while Constantinople was under siege by Saracen armies, Germanus led a procession with the venerated image of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, and relics of the Holy Cross. The siege was lifted, convincing him that God had responded to the people’s devotion. Some time later however, Emperor Leo III initiated his campaign against the use of sacred images, judging them to be a source of idolatry. When Germanus opposed the Emperor publicly in 730 he was forced to retire in exile to a monastery, where he later died. His memory was not forgotten, and in the Second Council of Nicea, which restored devotion to sacred images, his name was honoured. The writings of Germanus, steeped in an ardent love of the Church and devotion to the Mother of God, have had a wide influence on the piety of the faithful both of the East and the West. He promoted a solemn and beautiful Liturgy and is also known for his insights in Mariology. In homilies on the Presentation and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Germanus extols her virtue and her mission. A text which sees the source of her bodily incorruption in her virginal maternity was included by Pope Pius XII in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. I pray that through the intercession of Saint Germanus we may all be renewed in our love of the Church and devotion to the Mother of God.
I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors from England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Canada and the United States. Upon all of you I cordially invoke the Lord’s Easter blessings of joy and peace!

"We Must Change Our Concept of Realism"

Eagerly awaiting the Holy Father's new encyclical I offer a quote from his opening address for the recent Synod of Bishops on "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church" last October. In it he compares the infallible and foundational power of God's Word to the limits and weakness of human words and promises, evident in the collapsing banking systems.

"...At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord speaks to us about the two possible foundations for building the house of one's life: sand and rock. He who builds on sand only builds on visible and tangible things, on success, on career, on money. Apparently these are the true realities. But all this one day will vanish. We can see this now with the fall of two large banks: this money disappears, it is nothing. And thus all things, which seem to be the true realities we can count on, are only realities of a secondary order. Who builds his life on these realities, on matter, on success, on appearances, builds upon sand. Only the Word of God is the foundation of all reality, it is as stable as the heavens and more than the heavens, it is reality. Therefore, we must change our concept of realism. The realist is the who recognizes the Word of God, in this apparently weak reality, as the foundation of all things. Realist is he who builds his life on this foundation, which is permanent."

Shifted Trends

In the past priests were ordained to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, with the greatest care and seriousness, to God for men.

Today priests are ordained to toy with the liturgy and to allow toying with it by others.

Those who are vigilant for the Catholic moral, doctrinal and liturgical Tradition are weeded out, excluded, not part of "the club" in most dioceses and religious orders. The clowns and the immoral are promoted while the serious and the "straight" are systematically rejected.

But "the battle is the Lord's"! He has given us Pope Benedict XVI and the Holy Father has given us the new prefect of the CDW to set the liturgy and the Church right again, according to the mind of God.

Priests Can Refuse Communion on the Hands and Require Kneeling to Receive

Below is an article in which the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship says that priests can and should follow the universal norm of the Church of requiring that communicants kneel and receive directly on the tongue while kneeling. Very interesting! This is evidently the Holy Father's wish too!

May the bishops, priests and seminaries of the world take note!!!

There is something new going on and it is very traditional!

Our liturgists need now to get with the times; the Benedict era is underway!

The article comes from the current issue of the Adoremus Bulletin.

CDW Prefect on Kneeling for Holy Communion

An interview with Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW), appeared in the February edition of the Italian magazine 30 Giorni (30 Days), in which the cardinal responded to several questions on liturgy. Following are excerpts from the interview, in which he strongly endorses Pope Benedict's practice of administering Communion on the tongue to people who are kneeling.

30 Giorni: What are, beyond those which we already talked about, the issues you will have to address in carrying out this new mission?

Cardinal Canizares: To help the Church to follow completely what the Second Vatican Council has indicated in the Constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium. To help to understand fully what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about the liturgy. To take to heart what the Holy Father--when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger--has written about the question, especially in the beautiful book The Spirit of the Liturgy. To take to heart how the Holy Father--assisted by the office for liturgical celebrations headed by Monsignor Guido Marini--celebrates the liturgy. The papal liturgies in fact have always been, and still are, exemplary for the whole Catholic world.

30 Giorni: In an interview granted in Spain [in the journal La Razon] you have praised the pope's decision to distribute the Eucharist, in the liturgies which he celebrates, only kneeling and only in the mouth. Are there changes to be expected in this regard in universal discipline of the Church?

Cardinal Canizares: As is known, the current universal discipline of the Church requires that as a norm Communion is distributed into the mouth of the faithful. Then there is an indult that allows, at the request of episcopates, to distribute Communion on the palm of the hand also. This is worth remembering. The pope, then, to give greater prominence to the due reverence with which we must approach the Body of Christ, wished that the faithful who receive Communion from his hands do so on their knees. This seemed to be a beautiful and edifying initiative of the Bishop of Rome. The present norms do not require anyone to do the same. But neither do they prevent it.

Great Christians

In his last Wednesday audience the Holy Father reiterated the purpose of this series of audiences on the great persons of our history:

"Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"The Church lives in people (nelle persone) and whoever wants to get to know the Church, to understand its mystery, must consider the people who have lived and who continue to live its message, its mystery. It is for this reason that I have spoken in the Wednesday catecheses of people from whom we can learn what the Church is. We started with the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church and have slowly arrived to the eighth century, the period of Charlemagne."

Above is the warrior statue of Charlemagne, the plaza of Notre Dame, Paris, the great eigth century defender and promoter of Christian culture.

Primate of England Joined Pope Benedict Condemning Condoms

Here is news which I first found in Italian from il Riformista and now in English at clericalwhispers.blogspot.com.
This prominent prelate joins the front line of the culture war. May God bless the See of Saint Thomas a Becket!
Also see his interview with the bbc on abortion advertising: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7992482.stm


Saturday, April 11, 2009
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols defends Pope's stance on condoms

The new Archbishop of Westminster defended the Pope's stance on condoms and Aids and called for sexuality to be "humanised".

But he dodged the issue of whether the Church should advocate condom use as a health measure when one party in a marriage has aids or HIV.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who will be installed at Westminster Roman Catholic cathedral in May, refused to comment on whether he would advise a faithful married couple to use condoms if one of them had Aids.

Instead, he argued that Pope Benedict XVI had been misrepresented in his recent comments and that his aim had been to defend African women.

The Pope was greeted by a chorus of international condemnation after he told journalists during his recent visit to Africa that the rate of Aids and HIV infection on the continent was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

The Holy See did not dispute the Pope said this, but later altered the "official" record to indicate that what he had intended to say was that condoms "risk" aggravating the problems.

Archbishop Nichols, a conservative who, at 63, has a potential 27 years at Westminster, is likely at some stage to have no option but to state his position on an issue where the Catholic Church's official stance appears increasingly untenable.

Many Catholic and non-Catholic Christians have no issue with the Church's stance on life issues generally, supporting its oppostion to euthanasia, abortion and promiscuity. But the Church's refusal even to consider sanctioning condom use as a health measure in countries where Aids is rampant is being condemned at the highest levels of scientific and intellectual debate in the West as ill-informed, unscientific and inhumane.

Archbishop Nichols, asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the Pope's statement that condoms can make Aids worse, said: "I am not sure that's exactly what he said at all. What he actually talked about was the need to humanise sexuality. And I think to some extent he was speaking up in protection of African women. And I think we face the same challenge."

Urging Catholics to protest against plans to liberalise television advertising for condoms and abortion advice services, he said: "The adverts at present on television for contraception actually are demeaning of young people. They depict two people having sex on a street corner and some more just in a drunken orgy, and that is not a fair representation of young people today. We really need to do an awful lot to raise expectations of each other and to humanise sexuality, to use the Holy Father's phrase."

Asked whether he would suggest condom use to a married faithful catholic couple who came to him for advice where one of them had Aids, he said: "Well obviously that's a very sensitive point and obviously there are different views on that."

Asked what his own view was, he insisted: "No, no, that's not what this public debate is about."

He continued by arguing that he wanted to pursue the point about humanising sexuality.

"We really do have to raise people's expectatins about themselves. Today is Good Friday. What do we celebrate today? We celebrate this enormous gift of God's love to us, which teaches us how much dignity we have, and we have to encourage as a society people to live off their best instincts, their best generosity and not constantly be portraying our society as degraded and in need of elastoplast all the time."

Canizares Revives the Communion Rail and Kneeling for Communion and on the Tongue in Cathedral

The universal norm of receiving communion kneeling ("Fideles communicant genuflexi vel stantes, prout Conferentia Episcoporum statuerit..."[Insitutio Generalis Missalis Romani, 160] ) at the communion rail and directly on the tongue by the priest is gradually being reinstituted. First by the Pope and now in Toledo, the primatial see of Spain, by the Prefect of Worship himself, the preferential option for more profound reverence is prevailing! May the ordinaries and cathedrals of the world take note, follow suit! See my translation below of the article from www.abc.es.

Canizares recovers kneeling communion, "just like the Pope does it"

EP/Toledo Friday, 10 April 2009

The Cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Antonio Canizares, announced yesterday, during the Holy Mass of the Lord's Supper, that beginning yesterday evening those who wished to receive communion could do so kneeling at the kneeler "to communicate with respect and as the Pope does it".

Canizares told the faithful present at the mass that it is necessary to "greatly guard, much more, the moment of communion, therefore this evening and from this evening on in the cathedral church the communion kneeler is put out as the Pope does, as the Pope wishes, who is the one who indicates to the rest of the Church what we should do".

From another angle, he urged "in a pressing way to deepen the renovation and transformation of our society and of our history which has so much to do with the eucharist, primordial and substantial transformation, and foretaste of a new and renewed world".

"We need to renovate the sense of eucharistic adoration in the priests, in the seminarians, in the consecrated persons, in the entire christian people".

As he pointed out, "we need to deepen in eucharistic adoration, and such deepening will be possible only through a greater knowledge of the mystery in complete fidelity to the tradition and increasing the liturgical life inside our communities".

For Canizares, "from participation in the eucharist, from proper eucharistic celebration, our church will turn out fortified for the new evangelization of which the entire world is so urgently in need". For all of that, he said, "we must intensify a true and profound, nothing superficial, eucharistic and liturgical formation in our diocese".

The cardinal explained that "the renovation of the world will not come about without eucharistic renovation and without the renovation of the liturgy, and for that we must greater guard the celebrations, the silence, the proclamation of and listening to the word,our kneeling, the way to communicate, the way to be in church (el templo), the singing (el canto), and the zeal and participation in the parishes of adoration".

Extraordinary Mass at Saint John Lateran

The new prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship will offer a Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form tommorrow at the Papal Cathedral in Rome. Here is the announcement which I got from the Rinascimento Sacro blog.

Hopefully all the cathedrals of the world will also get on board with this newest and authentic liturgical reform: the Mass of Pope John XXIII, the only Mass of the Second Vatican Council.

If they should like to do that they will most certainly have to change, dissolve, or at least radically reeducate and catechize many of their "liturgical committees" which have wholly neglected this form of the Mass for too long.


Martedì 21 Aprile 2009 alle ore 10.00

Basilica Papale S. Giovanni in Laterano
Roma

PONTIFICALE NELLA FORMA STRAORDINARIA

Celebra Sua Em. Rev.ma il Signor
ANTONIO Cardinale di S.R.C. CANIZARES LLOVERA
Prefetto della S. Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti

Actual Divine Mercy

Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, is a particular expression of God's magnanimity for us through the Petrine Office.

Divine Mercy is the day (the octave day of Easter) instituted by Pope John Paul II at the beginning of the new millenium under the aegis of Christ's mercy (as Christ Himself had requested in His revelations to Saint Faustina, the first saint to be canonized in the new millenium). Furthermore, it was Saturday evening (2 April 2005), just after the Vigil Mass of Divine Mercy Sunday that that great servant of God died. The Servant of God John Paul II died on the first Saturday of the month and on the Feast of Divine Mercy.

Now, today, 19 April 2009, is the forth anniversary of the prodigious election of Ratzinger, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, to the chair of Peter, which he fills so well with the vigilance of the Good Shepherd, warding off the wolves who constantly attack and destroy the flock of Christ, and with the shepherd's staff that also gently and strategically draws the sheep into the one fold of Catholicity.

Bless God Who in His infinite mercy continues to lead the Church and the world with the leadership and teaching of this most able and necessary Cooperator Veritatis.

The good Lord shows us today, by this Divine Mercy "coincidence" of the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI that the Petrine Office in every age is a grand manifestation of His merciful love, not least in our own day. Deo Gratias pro Papa Benedicto!

test post

This is a map of Europe:



Here are some steps:

Easter Prayer

May I grow ever more devoted to You, the Only Living and True God, Jesus Christ, Conquerer of sin and death. Amen.

The Vesting Priest!

The deacon's bench blog just posted this new and most excellent priesthood video.

Check it out! Pass it on!

http://brooklynpriests.org/

Taboo on Sexual Immorality

In this morning's newspaper there is an article on sex education in the public schools which is prohibited by the Catholic schools because of the explicit and amoral nature of the secular presentation and the impossibility of a meaningful discussion of right and wrong given the exclusion of God.

Adjacent that article is the report of a 33 year old live-in "boyfriend" killing his cohabiting 33 year old "girlfriend." Can't anyone see the evil of concubinage of which domestic homicide is one of the most recurring crimes? Sexual molestation is also most frequent in these experimental and most unstable types of homes. A useful study would be to compare the incidents of domestic homicide and domestic sexual abuse in "living-together" homes versus stable homes with a man and woman in a legitimate life-long marriage having and raising their own children.

The taboo on fornication is no taboo but really necessary for healthy youth, healthy marriages, healthy families in healthy homes to create a healthy society. How can something which was so universally condemned by our ancestors suddenly be deemed acceptable especially as we see and suffer the deadly social consequences (not to mention the hygienic and emotional, the personal, consequences)?

America needs to reject sexual immorality in all its forms in order to be "the land of the free." Christ and His chastity are necessary for true freedom. Because anyone who sins is a slave to sin. But anyone who loves God does so with the love and mercy of Christ with purity of life.

What the Pope Really Said

Cameroon Bishops' Statement on AIDS

"The Holy Father Has Put Man at the Center of His Concern"

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon, MARCH 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the statement of the episcopal conference of Cameroon on the negative media response to Benedict XVI comments on the role of condoms in the fight against AIDS.

* * *After the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Cameroon, a certain press echoed the supposed unease created by the Holy Father's statements on the use of condoms and on HIV/AIDS. This press continues to label the Pope's position on the use of condoms as irresponsible, and leads one to understand that his statements on this subject had a negative effect and affected his visit to Cameroon negatively. Conscious of the consequences that such misinformation could cause, the national bishops' conference of Cameroon, through the voice of its president, Archbishop Simon-Victor Tonyé Bakot, specifies the following:

When the Pope was on the plane that would bring him to Cameroon, he granted a press interview on board the plane itself. This interview was limited to six questions, of which the fifth was the controversy posed by the journalist of France 2, Philippe Visseyrias: "Holiness, among the many evils that afflict Africa, in particular is the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church on the way to fight against it is often considered unrealistic and ineffective. Will you address this subject during your trip?"

Here is the Holy Father's complete answer:

"I would say the contrary. I think that the most efficient reality, the most present at the front of the struggle against AIDS, is precisely the Catholic Church, with her movements, with her various organizations. I am thinking of the Sant'Egidio Community that does so much, visibly and also invisibly, for the struggle against AIDS, of the Camilliani, of all the sisters who are at the disposition of the sick.

"I would say that this problem of AIDS can't be overcome only with publicity slogans. If there is not the soul, if the Africans are not helped, the scourge can't be resolved with the distribution of condoms: on the contrary, there is a risk of increasing the problem. The solution can only be found in a double commitment: first, a humanization of sexuality, that is, a spiritual and human renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another; and second, a true friendship, also and above all for those who suffer, the willingness -- even with sacrifice and self-denial -- to be with the suffering. And these are the factors that help and that lead to visible progress.

"Because of this, I would say that this, our double effort to renew man interiorly, to give spiritual and human strength for correct behavior with regard to one's body and that of another, and this capacity to suffer with those who suffer, to remain present in situations of trial. It seems to me that this is the correct answer, and the Church does this and thus offers a very great and important contribution. We thank all those who do this."

The bishops of Cameroon are astonished by what the journalists retained from this very complete statement of the Pope, focused only on opposition to condoms, concealing the whole action of the Church in the fight against AIDS and the care of the sick. They are astonished above all that the press attempts to make people believe that there is unease in Cameroonian opinion on the Holy Father's visit, as a consequence of his statements.

The Cameroonian episcopate underlines very strongly that Cameroonians welcomed Pope Benedict XVI with joy and enthusiasm, thus confirming their legendary hospitality. But by this, it does not deny the reality of AIDS, or its devastating effect on families in Cameroon. The Holy Father has put man at the center of his concern and has reminded us of the teachings of Christ and of the Church.

The Catholic Church's commitment to persons living with the AIDS virus, the support of infected and affected persons, are priorities for the Catholic Church. The support of persons and families as well as the teaching of the Church allow each one to appreciate himself in his dignity as adoptive child of God. This dignity obliges one to look at others and at the world in another way. Instead of seeking his own interest, the Church proposes to man everlasting values. The Catholic Church everywhere is committed daily in the fight against AIDS. In this connection, she has created structures adapted for the reception, control and treatment of HIV infected persons. This assistance is at the same time moral, psychological, nutritional, medical and spiritual. Herein lies the Holy Father's first message on AIDS.

Together with this multifaceted and constant action, the Church, as moral force, has the imperative duty to remind Christians that all disordered sexual practice outside of marriage is dangerous and favors the spread of AIDS. This is why she preaches abstinence for single people and fidelity within the couple. It is her duty. She cannot subtract herself from it. Herein lies the Holy Father's second message. Consequently, the bishops of Cameroon lament that the Western media have clearly forgotten other essential aspects of the Holy Father's African message on poverty, reconciliation, justice and peace. This is very serious, knowing the number of dead that other sickness cause in Africa, and on which there is no true publicity; knowing the number of dead that fratricidal fights cause in Africa due to injustice and poverty.

With the Pope, the bishops of Cameroon remind all Christians and all Cameroonians:

1) That sexual relations have as their first end the procreation desired by God himself at the beginning of creation. Marriage between a man and a woman is the ideal framework willed by God for this procreation.

2) That the Catholic Church does not reject AIDS patients and in no way encourages the spread of the sickness as certain media lead one to believe. She is and will always be active in the multifaceted fight against the sickness.

The bishops of Cameroon

Condoms Can't Be Right

Great media criticism has been erupting over the Holy Father's 17 March statement that condoms cannot solve but rather contribute to the AIDS problem. In light of Pope Benedict's statement and the ensuing controversy I was very surprised to find The Catholic Advocate (with a Catholic News Service article) speculating about "the specific question of whether, in certain circumstances, condom use was morally licit in AIDS prevention..." which the article claims the Pope did not address and that that question "...is under study by Vatican theologians." (The Catholic Advocate 25 March 2009)



The implication is that condom use might be permissible. That position has always been categorically condemned by Sacred Scripture, by the Tradition of the Church and by the Magisterium. Condom use is intrinsically immoral in that it separates the two intrinsic meanings of the marital act (procreative and unitive). Condom use will never be permissible as long as it directly impedes the proper giving over and the proper receiving of the sperm into the vagina, which is the ultimate material purpose of the conjugal act. Any altering of that life giving aspect of the act is a mortal sin and a form of adultery, the improper use of the sexual power. cf. Genesis 38:8, Humanae Vitae 14, The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2362-2367. As recently as the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2006) Pope Benedict reiterated this constant and unchangeable teaching of God: "The conjugal act has a twofold meaning: unitive (the mutual self-giving of the spouses) and procreative (an openness to the transmission of life). No one may break the inseparable connection which God has established between these two meanings of the conjugal act by excluding one or the other of them." (Compendium 496)



Rather, it is precisely the type of sexual immorality represented by condom use (typically used for fornication, adultery and sodomy) that causes and fosters sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. The diseases are symptoms of the sexual sins that cause them. The behavior needs to change, first of all. The only clean sex is the holy act of marriage. All else is dirty and necessarily kills (the soul and the body, cf. Proverbs 5:3-6). That is the truth and no "Vatican theologian" authorized by Pope Benedict is studying any loopholes to that.



For the Archdiocese of Newark official newspaper to misrepresent these fundamental Catholic truths in reprinting an article twisting the Holy Father's statement is at best sloppy and devious and betrays an ignorance and or opposition to the ordinary Magisterium of the Catholic Church in her consistent moral teaching. I suggest that the paper consult the Archbishop John Joseph Myers on how to rectify this doctrinal error published by his newspaper. And for the future I would recommend that the Catholic Advocate stop getting its news from CNS which apparently composed the heretical article. A heretical news agency should not even go by the name Catholic. I would recommend the Catholic News Agency (CNA) http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/ as a reliable and really Catholic news source.

Retreat 2009

L'Abbaye Saint-Joseph de Clairval of Flavigny, France was the place for my annual retreat this year (16th-21st March). It was five full days of The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola preached by priests of the historic monastery of that quaint medieval town which overlooks the pastoral French countryside. We retreatants ate with the monks and joined in their gregorian chants of the office and Mass. In addition, the monks facilitated my daily Traditional Mass, with first class vestments in their relic chapel. It would be no exagerration to say that this was the best retreat of my life (at least one a year for the past 25 years) given it's depth, rhythm, personal direction, silence and liturgical beauty and piety.

The priests of Flavigny run dozens of retreats for men each year, in French and in English. However, none of the English retreats are at the monastery. I highly recommend that all men get in touch with these monks who are, in my estimation, the perfect implementation of what the Second Vatican Council actually said regarding the liturgy (e.g. the sung office in Latin, the promotion of gregorian chant, the permission to use the vernacular [the monks use the vernacular for the readings at their Novus Ordo masses]).

I came to know of the monastery through an excellent monthly newsletter (on the lives of holy modern Catholics) which they send worldwide and my parents and I have received in our home for decades.

For the full 2009 retreat schedule or to contact go to http://www.clairval.com/retraites.en.php
You will also find their newsletter through their home web-page.

Benedict's Defence

At the Mass of His installation as Pope, Benedict XVI promised that he would not run away from the wolves which attack Christ's sheep. Now, with his letter to the bishops, chiding them for detraction and calling them to conversion, he is directly taking on the wolves. Not that all of the bishops are wolves, but most of them are more like sheep than shepherds! They cow before every heretical and immoral lobby or propaganda of the worldly powers. Thank God that our chief shepherd is not tainted with the sheepish spirit. We can affectionately say "Thank Christ for our German Shepherd. "

"[His brother] hated [Joseph] so much that they would not even greet him." (Gen. 37, the first reading the Mass of Friday of the Second week of Lent) The one loved most by Israel, his father, is most hated and rejected by his brothers. Here we have an echo of what the Holy Father has experienced in his reconciling the Lefebvrists. "At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them--in this case the Pope--he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint." (10 March 2009 Address to all Bishops). The Holy Father's fatherly love and mercy for the outsiders cannot be tolerated by those who are the first to criticize and question the authority of Papal excommunications. Now they reject even Papal lifting of excommunications. Some people will never be pleased!

These days of Lent the first readings of the daily Mass emphasis great old testament confessors of the faith who exposed and even gave their lives for love of God and His people, victim souls that fearlessly offered themselves to God in sincerity and truth, and God saves His people through them. They are the ones who over the ages exemplified true human freedom, that true human freedom is not freedom from authority and license to do whatever you want but rather the capacity to master self and to be for God. Christ, therefore, is the icon of human freedom. Christ on the cross is the icon of human freedom of which the old testament witnesses (marturia) were a reflection.

--Esther exposes her life and reputation and thereby saves the Jews of Persia from genocide.
--Jeremiah the prophet is condemned and martyred by his own Jewish people for exposing the sins of the Jews and condemning those sins.
--Joseph is rejected and condemned by his brothers and is thereby enabled to save the whole world from famine, including his own people.

We could add the countless Christian witnesses to Christ's saving mission and to them the present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI is valiantly reconciling the divisions in the Church in order to reconcile the divisions in humanity, to thereby reconcile man with God. As he said "[I]f the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always) the Church's real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small. That the quiet gesture of extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet halfway the brother who 'has something against you' (cf. Mt 5:23ff.) and to seek reconciliation? Should not civil society also try to forestall forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents--to the extent possible--in the great currents shaping social life, and thus avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for the whole?...Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?" For this 'arduous' undertaking the Holy Father himself is unjustly treated as if he were an enemy of unity.

Pope Benedict is hereby joining himself to the great company of witnesses who make present Christ on the Cross. They give themselves for God to humanity (which is not worthy of them) so that every man may live--be saved--by the hand of God and His faithful witnesses in Christ.

Homosexualist Indoctrination

Last 4th of November marked a great victory for common sense in America and the promotion of basic decency in California's Proposition 8 referendum law which passed, we are told, because of the Hispanic and the black vote, with the Hispanic vote being the strongest.

I propose that one reason for minorities' support of that law, perhaps the main reason, is that immigrants and minorities, who have less access to our "enlightened" atheistic a purportedly amoral schools (especially higher education) have not yet been fully deprogrammed with the homosexualist brainwashing to which America is presently heavily subject. They still have common sense! Thank God! And thank the Catholic Church, the greatest proponent of common sense and the moral life, the Body of Christ!

Carpooling Etiquette

"Start carpooling by inviting one person to ride with you."


Here are some helpful tips (from "The Star Ledger" of New Jersey, 10 February 2009) on starting and keeping a carpool. I think the main benefit of carpooling is people helping each other. Some people have the custom of making the sign of the cross and saying a short prayer as they begin and end any car drive. Praying the Rosary can be very effective on longer rides. It is most appropriate to invite the others to a routine of prayer or to let them know of your own.

Sharing a ride can cut stress and gas bill

by Prue Salasky (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)

Everyone knows the economic and environmental reasons to carpool. It saves gas, which saves money, though the drop in price at the pump may have reduced that incentive. It also saves on greenhouse-gas emissions, and importantly for this region's congested roads, it cuts down on the number of vehicles on the road.

I areas where there are HOV lanes, it allows for a quicker commute.

Another, often overlooked, reason to carpool is that it can provide a low-stress commute for passengers--if it doesn't, then you should change carpool [manners or] partners.

Start slowly. Don't be overambitious in how rapidly you get a system started. Start by inviting one person to ride with you. If that works out, you could add more. If you think the idea of "carpooling" would be a turnoff to the independent-minded, then simply ask for a ride when your car's in the shop/getting an oil change, and offer to return the favor. That way no one feels tied to an arrangement that may not be suitable. If it works, then it can lead to a regular arrangement. Start by alternating rides once a week. If that works and schedules allow, gradually increase the number of days and number of passenger.

Be flexible. Consider the possibility even if you don't live in the same neighborhood, or if your workdays don't mesh exactly. By making small adjustments to your routine, it can become a viable new habit.

It's fine to be committed to the idea of ride-sharing, but treat it as a goal, not as a written-in-stone agreement. If one person wants to do all the driving or always be the passenger, consider that as an option and work out a payment agreement. Be prepared to add a little time to your compute if you have to drive out of your way for pickup or drop-off. Be open to sharing any errand time during the day.

Be considerate. Communicate clearly and be punctual. Don't play loud music. Find a car temperature that's acceptable to all. It is accepted etiquette to not open or close the windows, and not touch the radio--riding with a friend or colleague doesn't have to be so rigid, but these make fair guidelines for starters.

Inform your workplace. This has a twofold purpose. It alerts others to the existence of your arrangement and gives them an opportunity to approach you for ride-sharing, or for the company to set up a formal arrangements when more than a handful of people are interested. It also lets colleagues know that your time frame may be different or less flexible on particular days. If you work for a large employer or if your route/work schedule is likely shared by several others, consider a ride-share program.

Finally, if there is one available, sign up with your local commuting agency for help organizing shared rides.

The Image of the Merciful Jesus

The Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday (10 April 2009) and finishes on the Saturday of the Octave of Easter, just before the Divine Mercy Sunday (the Octave day Sunday of Easter). By way of reflection to get in the mood for the promotion of the Novena and the Feast we provide a few quotes from the Diary of Saint Faustina regarding the divine mercy image.


Jesus said:

"Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: 'Jesus, I trust in You.' I desire that the image be venerated, first in your chapel, and throughout the world. (47)

"I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I myself will defend it as My own glory. (48)

"My image already is in your soul. I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. (49)

"[This image] is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. (742)

"By means of this image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it." (570)

apologia benedicti

Here is His Holiness' response to his detractors in the episcopacy. Bravo Benedicte!


Thursday, March 12, 2009


LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
concerning the remission of the excommunication
of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre

Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry!

The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and was difficult to view positively in the light of the issues and tasks facing the Church today. Even though many Bishops and members of the faithful were disposed in principle to take a positive view of the Pope’s concern for reconciliation, the question remained whether such a gesture was fitting in view of the genuinely urgent demands of the life of faith in our time. Some groups, on the other hand, openly accused the Pope of wanting to turn back the clock to before the Council: as a result, an avalanche of protests was unleashed, whose bitterness laid bare wounds deeper than those of the present moment. I therefore feel obliged to offer you, dear Brothers, a word of clarification, which ought to help you understand the concerns which led me and the competent offices of the Holy See to take this step. In this way I hope to contribute to peace in the Church.

An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came on top of the remission of the excommunication. The discreet gesture of mercy towards four Bishops ordained validly but not legitimately suddenly appeared as something completely different: as the repudiation of reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and thus as the reversal of what the Council had laid down in this regard to guide the Church’s path. A gesture of reconciliation with an ecclesial group engaged in a process of separation thus turned into its very antithesis: an apparent step backwards with regard to all the steps of reconciliation between Christians and Jews taken since the Council – steps which my own work as a theologian had sought from the beginning to take part in and support. That this overlapping of two opposed processes took place and momentarily upset peace between Christians and Jews, as well as peace within the Church, is something which I can only deeply deplore. I have been told that consulting the information available on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news. I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility. Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust which – as in the days of Pope John Paul II – has also existed throughout my pontificate and, thank God, continues to exist.

Another mistake, which I deeply regret, is the fact that the extent and limits of the provision of 21 January 2009 were not clearly and adequately explained at the moment of its publication. The excommunication affects individuals, not institutions. An episcopal ordination lacking a pontifical mandate raises the danger of a schism, since it jeopardizes the unity of the College of Bishops with the Pope. Consequently the Church must react by employing her most severe punishment – excommunication – with the aim of calling those thus punished to repent and to return to unity. Twenty years after the ordinations, this goal has sadly not yet been attained. The remission of the excommunication has the same aim as that of the punishment: namely, to invite the four Bishops once more to return. This gesture was possible once the interested parties had expressed their recognition in principle of the Pope and his authority as Pastor, albeit with some reservations in the area of obedience to his doctrinal authority and to the authority of the Council. Here I return to the distinction between individuals and institutions. The remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline: the individuals were freed from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. This disciplinary level needs to be distinguished from the doctrinal level. The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.

In light of this situation, it is my intention henceforth to join the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" – the body which has been competent since 1988 for those communities and persons who, coming from the Society of Saint Pius X or from similar groups, wish to return to full communion with the Pope – to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Popes. The collegial bodies with which the Congregation studies questions which arise (especially the ordinary Wednesday meeting of Cardinals and the annual or biennial Plenary Session) ensure the involvement of the Prefects of the different Roman Congregations and representatives from the world’s Bishops in the process of decision-making. The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.

I hope, dear Brothers, that this serves to clarify the positive significance and also the limits of the provision of 21 January 2009. But the question still remains: Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority? Aren’t other things perhaps more important? Of course there are more important and urgent matters. I believe that I set forth clearly the priorities of my pontificate in the addresses which I gave at its beginning. Everything that I said then continues unchanged as my plan of action. The first priority for the Successor of Peter was laid down by the Lord in the Upper Room in the clearest of terms: "You… strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22:32). Peter himself formulated this priority anew in his first Letter: "Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3:15). In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses "to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects.

Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity, their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility of their talk of God. Hence the effort to promote a common witness by Christians to their faith – ecumenism – is part of the supreme priority. Added to this is the need for all those who believe in God to join in seeking peace, to attempt to draw closer to one another, and to journey together, even with their differing images of God, towards the source of Light – this is interreligious dialogue. Whoever proclaims that God is Love "to the end" has to bear witness to love: in loving devotion to the suffering, in the rejection of hatred and enmity – this is the social dimension of the Christian faith, of which I spoke in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

So if the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always) the Church’s real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small. That the quiet gesture of extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet half-way the brother who "has something against you" (cf. Mt 5:23ff.) and to seek reconciliation? Should not civil society also try to forestall forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents – to the extent possible – in the great currents shaping social life, and thus avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for the whole? I myself saw, in the years after 1988, how the return of communities which had been separated from Rome changed their interior attitudes; I saw how returning to the bigger and broader Church enabled them to move beyond one-sided positions and broke down rigidity so that positive energies could emerge for the whole. Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church? I think for example of the 491 priests. We cannot know how mixed their motives may be. All the same, I do not think that they would have chosen the priesthood if, alongside various distorted and unhealthy elements, they did not have a love for Christ and a desire to proclaim him and, with him, the living God. Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?

Certainly, for some time now, and once again on this specific occasion, we have heard from some representatives of that community many unpleasant things – arrogance and presumptuousness, an obsession with one-sided positions, etc. Yet to tell the truth, I must add that I have also received a number of touching testimonials of gratitude which clearly showed an openness of heart. But should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas? And should we not admit that some unpleasant things have also emerged in Church circles? At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the Pope – he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint.

Dear Brothers, during the days when I first had the idea of writing this letter, by chance, during a visit to the Roman Seminary, I had to interpret and comment on Galatians 5:13-15. I was surprised at the directness with which that passage speaks to us about the present moment: "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another." I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this "biting and devouring" also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians? That at the very least we are threatened by the same temptations? That we must always learn anew the proper use of freedom? And that we must always learn anew the supreme priority, which is love? The day I spoke about this at the Major Seminary, the feast of Our Lady of Trust was being celebrated in Rome. And so it is: Mary teaches us trust. She leads us to her Son, in whom all of us can put our trust. He will be our guide – even in turbulent times. And so I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many Bishops who have lately offered me touching tokens of trust and affection, and above all assured me of their prayers. My thanks also go to all the faithful who in these days have given me testimony of their constant fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter. May the Lord protect all of us and guide our steps along the way of peace. This is the prayer that rises up instinctively from my heart at the beginning of this Lent, a liturgical season particularly suited to interior purification, one which invites all of us to look with renewed hope to the light which awaits us at Easter.

With a special Apostolic Blessing, I remain
Yours in the Lord,

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

From the Vatican, 10 March 2009
posted by New Catholic at 10:58 AM

Ignatian Spiritual Exercises with Taditional Mass

Here is a retreat in Italy. The only problem is that it appears to be co-ed.

Brescia: Esercizi Ignaziani e liturgia EF sulle rive del Lago d'Iseo
Don Morselli ci segnala che sono aperte le iscrizioni per un occasione di crescita spirituale da non perdere.
Dal 3 all'8 Agosto 2009presso l'Oasi Beata CapitanioConvento delle Suore di Maria BambinaLovere(Brescia)ESERCIZI SPIRITUALI DI SANT'IGNAZIO DI LOYOLApredicati dal Rev.Sig. ALFREDO MORSELLI
Gli Esercizi seguiranno l'autentica tradizione ignaziana e saranno strettamente legati alla celebrazione della liturgia quotidiana nella forma straordinaria.
I posti sono limitati. Il costo è di euro 270,00 euro comprensivo di vitto, pernotto e sostegno del Predicatore. Per iscriversi o avere maggiori informazioni rivolgersi al Sig. Luca Ghirardi tel. +39 328 1298771 - luca_ghirardi@virgilio.it
***
A chi servono gli esercizi
Una prima risposta, un po’ troppo frettolosa, potrebbe essere: “A tutti!”. In realtà, però, gli esercizi spirituali di sant’Ignazio manifestano una finalità specifica ed esercitano una loro precisa funzione all’interno della vita della Chiesa.Nel testo dei suoi Esercizi spirituali sant’Ignazio ne ha spiegato la finalità dicendo:
“Con questo termine «esercizi spirituali» si intende ogni modo di esaminare la coscienza, meditare, contemplare, pregare vocalmente e mentalmente, e altre attività spirituali, come si dirà più avanti. Infatti, come il passeggiare, il camminare e il correre sono esercizi corporali, così tutti i modi di preparare e disporre l'anima a liberarsi da tutti gli affetti disordinati e, una volta che se ne è liberata, a cercare e trovare la volontà divina nell'organizzazione della propria vita per la salvezza dell'anima, si chiamano esercizi spirituali” [ES 1].Vediamo ora di spiegare alcuni punti di questo testo perché non passino inosservati.Sant’Ignazio usa un’espressione che non si deve qui trascurare: “ogni modo” [todo modo]. Tale espressione ritorna ben due volte nel testo citato e rivela che la prospettiva ignaziana sulla preghiera non è esclusiva bensì inclusiva, nel senso che non esclude l’uno o l’altro tipo di preghiera o di esercizio ma li contempla tutti, sottoponendoli poi ad una valutazione sulla loro efficacia nel “cercare e trovare la volontà divina” [para buscar y hallar la voluntad divina].La dimensione della concretezza è indicata molto bene nel testo ignaziano citato poiché si dice: “nell’organizzazione della propria vita” [en la disposición de su vida]. L’organizzazione concerne le disposizioni concrete delle cose che ci appartengono.Cercare e trovare la volontà di Dio nel concreto della propria vita è quindi la finalità ultima del percorso ignaziano.Con questa luce si può ritenere che gli esercizi spirituali sono particolarmente adatti alle persone che desiderano riconsiderare la loro esistenza alla luce della Parola di Dio per orientare tutte o alcune delle loro attività ad un maggiore servizio di Dio e della sua Chiesa. L’esperienza del discernimento degli spiriti e della chiamata di Dio nel concreto della propria esistenza costituisce l’elemento discriminante del buon rendimento di questa profonda esperienza spirituale personale.Fermandoci ora in particolare sul mese ignaziano, cioè sull’itinerario completo degli esercizi di sant’Ignazio. Si può dire che il mese sia utile alle persone che cercano la loro vocazione e il loro ruolo nella Chiesa e nella società, ma anche per coloro che l’hanno già trovato, come ad esempio i sacerdoti, i seminaristi e le religiose, i quali hanno già uno stato di vita acquisito ma desiderano perfezionarlo e rinnovare il loro rapporto con Dio e con gli altri.Ecco alcune finalità del mese ignaziano per i seminaristi, i sacerdoti e le religiose: *fare una profonda esperienza di Dio e della sua rivelazione, rivivendo la sequela di Cristo.*rivisitare le motivazioni della propria vocazione, in vista di un loro irrobustimento.*esplicitare la propria spiritualità personale, per un maggiore servizio alla Chiesa e agli altri.*acquisire una metodologia per la preghiera personale nella vita quotidiana.*interiorizzare e personalizzare i contenuti acquisiti negli studi, filosofici e teologici.*vivere un’esperienza di accompagnamento spirituale personale, per poi saper accompagnare altri.Oggi, per lo più, il mese ignaziano è svolto con una apertura alle diverse vocazioni. Vi partecipano molti laici, sia in ricerca della loro vocazione sia per perfezionarsi nello stato di vita che hanno già assunto, a servizio di Dio e dell’umanità.Svolto bene, il mese d’esercizi ignaziani dà alla persona che prega una maggiore conoscenza di sé alla luce della Rivelazione divina, porta ad un chiarimento del proprio ruolo nella Chiesa e ad una crescita nel servizio di Dio e dei fratelli.Fonte Gesuiti.it

Catholicism and Economics

There will be a conference in Long Island on Catholicsm and Economics. Here is the advertisement for it.

Three Way Debate Set for April

From our friends at The Society For Distributism comes this great announcement:

Garden City, NY, USA.

A conference hosted and sponsored by the Nassau Community College for Catholic Studies in Long Island, New York, is confirmed for April 4th, 2009 at the College Center Building.

The debate will present and contrast the Capitalist, Socialist, and Distributist positions in economics.

The Conference, Catholicism and Economics, will present and compare the intellectual arguments about the compatibility of Catholicism with, respectively, democratic socialism, democratic capitalism, and distributism.

Thomas Storck will speak for the distributist position.

Dr. Charles Clark will be the speaker on democratic socialism.

Michael Novak will be the main speaker for the democratic capitalist position.

From 11:30am until 12:30pm there will be a luncheon for all in attendance (speakers and audience) including sandwiches, salads, cake, coffee/tea/cold beverages. Following lunch, there will be a brief tribute to the recently deceased Catholic scholars, Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., and Msgr. Michael Wrenn.

The debate will begin at 1pm with a half hour presentation by each participant. Subsequently, there will be an opportunity for the participants to respond critically to one another, with a brief summary statement made by each main speaker. Dr. Stephen M. Krason, President of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, will close the event with a short reflection on the conference from the perspective of Heinrich Pesch and Solidarism. The event will conclude by 4:30pm.

Thomas Storck is an author, a member of the Editorial Board of the Chesterton Review and of The Society for Distributism.

Dr. Charles M.A. Clark is a Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance, Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John's University, Jamaica, Queens, New York.

Michael Novak is the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute of Washington, D.C.

Stephen M. Krason is Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.

All conference attendees must register.

In order to register for the conference, contact:

Nassau Community College Office of Life Long Learning

One Education Drive

Garden City, New York, 11530

516-572-7472.