Conversi ad Dominum

2009-08-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Assumption
Now toward the end of the summer season, at a time when fruits are ripe in the gardens and fields, the Church celebrates the most glorious "harvest festival" in the Communion of Saints. Mary, the supremely blessed one among women, Mary, the most precious fruit which has ripened in the fields of God's kingdom, is today taken into the granary of heaven. — Pius Parsch

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated.

Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina in honor of Jupiter.

For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples.

After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived.

On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried.

At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption.

For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God.

Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)

At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven."

In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: "Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth."

All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior.

The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.

The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."

With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God.

Fr. Clifford Stevens in Catholic Heritage

(From Catholic Culture)

(left: Nuestra Señora dela Asuncion, Parroquia de Maragondon, Cavite;
right: Assumption, Bartolome Esteban Murillo)

Saint Tarcisius

2009-08-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

St. Tarcisius
Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the "Holy Mysteries" to those in prison.

On the way, he was stopped by boys his own age who were not Christians but knew him as a playmate and lover of games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something. Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and the small gang of boys, anxious to view the Christian "Mysteries," became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, and it is believed that a fellow Christian drove off the mob and rescued the young acolyte.

The mangled body of Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs, but the boy died on the way from his injuries. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite.

In the fourth century, Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this "boy-martyr of the Eucharist" and says that, like another St. Stephen, he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob rather than give up the Sacred Body to "raging dogs." His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola, in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death.

Tarcisius, one of the patron saints of altar boys, has always been an example of youthful courage and devotion, and his story was one that was told again and again to urge others to a like heroism in suffering for their faith. In the Passion of Pope Stephen, written in the sixth century, Tarcisius is said to be an acolyte of the pope himself and, if so, this explains the great veneration in which he was held and the reason why he was chosen for so difficult a mission.

Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

(From Catholic Culture)

Saint Tarcisius, patron of altar servers, pray for us!

Our Lady of Guadalupe ‘completely beyond' scientific explanation, says researcher

2009-08-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

Phoenix, Ariz., Aug 7, 2009 / 04:10 pm (CNA).- Researcher and physicist Dr. Aldofo Orozco told participants at the International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe that there is no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation.

Dr. Orozco began his talk by confirming that the conservation of the Tilma, the cloak of St. Juan Diego on which Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared 478 years ago, “is completely beyond any scientific explanation.”

“All the cloths similar to the Tilma that have been placed in the salty and humid environment around the Basilica have lasted no more than ten years,” he explained. One painting of the miraculous image, created in 1789, was on display in a church near the basilica where the Tilma was placed. “This painting was made with the best techniques of its time, the copy was beautiful and made with a fabric very similar to that of the Tilma. Also, the image was protected with a glass since it was first placed there.”

However, eight years later, the copy of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was thrown away because the colors were fading and threads were breaking. In contrast, Orozco said, “the original Tilma was exposed for approximately 116 years without any kind of protection, receiving all the infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the tens of thousands of candles near it and exposed to the humid and salty air around the temple.”

Dr. Orozco then discussed the Tilma’s fabric. He noted that “one of the most bizarre characteristics of the cloth is that the back side is rough and coarse, but the front side is ‘as soft as the most pure silk, as noted by painters and scientists in 1666, and confirmed one century later in 1751 by the Mexican painter, Miguel Cabrera.”

Following an analysis of some of the fibers in 1946, it was concluded that the fibers came from the Agave plant, however, noted Dr. Orozco, the researchers couldn’t figure out which of the 175 Agave species the Tilma was made from. Years later, in 1975, “the famous Mexican researcher Ernesto Sodi Pallares said that the species of the agave was Agave popotule Zacc,” Orozco explained, “but we don’t know how he reached this conclusion.”

Before concluding his presentation, Dr. Orozco made mention of two miracles associated with the Tilma.

The first occurred in 1785 when a worker accidentally spilled a 50 percent nitric acid solvent on the right side of the cloth. “Besides any natural explanation, the acid has not destroyed the fabric of the cloth, indeed it has not even destroyed the colored parts of the image,” Orozco said.

The second miracle was the explosion of a bomb near the Tilma in 1921. Dr. Orozco recalled that the explosion broke the marble floor and widows 150 meters from the explosion, but “unexpectedly, neither the Tilma nor the normal glass that protected the Tilma was damaged or broken.” The only damage near it was a brass crucifix that was twisted by the blast.

He continued, “There are no explanations why the shockwave that broke windows 150 meters afar did not destroy the normal glass that protected the image. Some people said that the Son by means of the brass crucifix protected the image of His Mother. The real fact is that we don’t have a natural explanation for this event.”

Dr. Orozco thanked the audience for listening to his presentation and closed by reassuring them that “Our Lady visited Mexico 478 years ago, but she remains there to give Her Love, Her Mercy and Her Care to anyone who needs it, and to bring Her Son, Jesus Christ to everyone who receives Him.”

Forever grateful. . .

2009-08-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

For your love and sacrifices for this nation, we will forever be grateful.

ETERNAL rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace. Amen.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

2009-06-20T03:09:00.001-07:00

EXALTATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, in this tragic hour of the world's history, we entrust and consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart, our only refuge, our hope, our salvation. Have pity on this world, torn by the most terrible conflicts, burning with the fires of hate, victim of its own sins. May your Heart be moved at the sight of so much ruin, pain and sorrow.

We consecrate to your maternal heart our persons, our families, our country--the whole of humanity. Protect and save us!

O Heart of Mary, source of true love, fill our selfish hearts with divine charity and with that true brotherly love without which there can never be peace. Grant that men and nations may understand and fulfill the precept of your Divine Son, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, in order that true peace may be firmly established in the Justice and Truth of Christ.

--Pope Pius XII from the book The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

(EWTN)

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

2009-06-20T02:50:00.000-07:00

An Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

This consecration was written by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.

Most kind Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly kneeling before Thee. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but, to be more surely united with Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them all to Thy most Sacred Heart.

Be Thou King, 0 Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. Grant, 0 Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm;

Give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry; Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation: to it be glory and honor forever. Amen.

(From Catholic Culture)

This year's Solemnity of the Sacred Heart also marks the beginning of the Year for Priests.

See:
Year for Priests (Vatican Website)
Year for Priests (USCCB Website)
The Year for Priests (Catholicculture.com)

Catholics and other Americans ‘overwhelmingly’ favorable towards Pope Benedict XVI

2009-05-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

New Haven, Conn., May 19, 2009 / 08:35 pm (CNA).- Both American Catholics and their non-Catholic countrymen have an “overwhelmingly” favorable view of Pope Benedict XVI, a new poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus says.

About 78 percent of practicing Catholics had a favorable or very favorable view of Pope Benedict. Non-practicing Catholics were only slightly less likely to profess a favorable view. Among all Americans, about 59 percent had a favorable or very favorable view of the pontiff.

The poll was conducted in late March by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion and the Knights of Columbus. It surveyed 2,078 Americans including 521 American Catholics. It claims a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent concerning responses from all Americans and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent for Catholic respondents.

According to the survey results, about 65 percent of Americans in general and 85 percent of Catholic Americans said they had a favorable view of the Catholic Church. Of practicing Catholics, 92 percent had a favorable view of the Church while only 73 percent of non-practicing Catholics did.

The poll reported that about half of Americans said they would like to hear Pope Benedict XVI on issues like abortion and stem cell research, while 57 percent wanted to hear his views on marriage and the family.

Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl A. Anderson, commenting in an column for Zenit news agency, said the positive responses were “a great testament to the Pope’s ability to communicate the Gospel directly to people.”

“It is an unswerving commitment to the truth -- and the ability through his own prayerfulness to introduce people to Jesus Christ -- that has made Benedict XVI a beacon of moral courage whose message the American people and people worldwide respect and wish to hear. We might call it a triumph of truth over television,” he wrote.

Watch. . .

2009-05-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

and be disappointed.

Notre Dame honours a pro-life priest.

Happy Birthday, Holy Father

2009-04-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

(Easter Celebration Photos from Daylife.)

V. Let us pray for N, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. [Ps 40:3]

Our Father. Hail Mary.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant N, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(From Thesaurus Precum Latinarum)

Georgetown students react to White House request to cover Jesus' name

2009-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Washington D.C., Apr 16, 2009 / 05:15 pm (CNA).- Georgetown University’s decision to comply with a White House request to cover up the “IHS” monogram representing Jesus' name at President Obama’s speech on Wednesday is drawing fire from the Cardinal Newman Society and Georgetown students, who are charging the university with “sacrificing” its “Catholic and Jesuit identity.”

Reports surfaced today from attendees at President Obama's speech on the economy that the White House asked Georgetown University to cover up several emblems, including an IHS monogram above the president's head during his speech at the Jesuit university.

Although President Obama focused his speech on his administration’s plans to spur economic growth, some in attendance noticed that the IHS monogram—an early 3rd century abbreviation for the name of Jesus—was covered up for the speech.

CNA attempted to confirm the report with Georgetown officials, but no one available for comment before press time.

However, Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at the university, told CNSNews.com that the covering up of Jesus' name was prompted by “logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event.” According to Bataille, “Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage.”

She said the “signage and symbols” were covered up because “the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross” and that it seemed more “respectful to have them covered” so that viewers wouldn’t see them “out of context.”

Patrick Reilly, the President of the Cardinal Newman Society, reacted to the report by telling CNA that Georgetown’s decision is another “outrageous example of a Catholic university sacrificing principle for prestige.”

He wondered what the White House will request next month at Notre Dame’s commencement and said, “Christians simply cannot hide our faith in a drawer to satisfy an American president who shows no respect for Catholic identity or values.”

Georgetown students were also outraged by the University’s actions.

Paul Courtney, a Catholic Georgetown student and President of the Georgetown College Republicans, was an attendee at the Wednesday speech. He called the move “disheartening” and “sad” that the University would sacrifice its “Catholic and Jesuit identity” by covering the monogram.

Courtney didn’t notice that the symbol was covered, and explained that “one of my professors pointed it out to me afterwards when we were discussing the event.”

Courtney hypothesized that the White House made the request because, “President Obama didn't want any symbols to appear in the photo that might suggest that there's any higher authority than him.”

Last year, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at Georgetown and “none of the stage was shrouded,” added Courtney.

CNA attempted to reach Georgetown’s College Democrats for comment, but they were also not available in time for publication.

Another Catholic student, Dave Gregory, who heads the Knights of Columbus council at Georgetown, said the University has covered up religious imagery for “High Holy Days and non-Catholic religious services” on the “infrequent occasion” that the services are held in Gaston Hall, the site of Obama’s speech.

Gregory told CNA that President Obama's visit was “by no means contingent upon the covering of the IHS,” saying that he strongly doubted that “Obama's staff would have canceled the event.”

Georgetown’s decision to cover up the symbol did not surprise Gregory either, who said he thought it is “a bit shameful that they did so, as Georgetown has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.”

Gregory said he believes that the White House and Georgetown’s administration are just trying to “produce excuses and rationalize their inappropriate decision,” and that he would not be surprised if there is more to the matter than is being shared with the media.

RESURREXIT!

2009-04-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

The "Anastasis" Icon - A Window Into Easter

Easter Vigil at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

Inside the Holy Sepulchre - the Empty Tomb

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

THE EASTER PROCLAMATION

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
join me in asking God for mercy,
that he may give his unworthy minister
grace to sing his Easter praises.

The Lord be with you.: And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.: We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.: It is right to give him thanks and praise.

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!

This is our passover feast,
When Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night,
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slav'ry,
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night,
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

This is night,
when Christians ev'rywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night,
when Jesus broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

Of this night scripture says:
"The night will be as clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed,
when heaven is wedded to earth
and we are reconciled to God!

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night,
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church's solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Icon Acheiropoeta ("Not-made-by-hands")

Peter, Witness of the Resurrection

Easter Mass with the Resurrexit Rite,
Saint Peter's Square 2009

May the grace and joy of the Risen Christ be with you all.

Maligayang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay!

Knights Templar linked to gap in history of Shroud of Turin

2009-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

April 06, 2009

A remarkable article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has traced the Shroud of Turin to the Knights Templar. Historian Barbara Frale reports that the Knights kept the Shroud after the Crusades, and new members venerated (not "worshipped," as the Telegraph headline inaccurately says) the cloth as part of their initiation ceremonies. The Knights Templar-- one of the earliest and most powerful military orders in the Catholic world-- were suppressed in the early 14th century; their history remains riddled with legends and controversies. Among the rumors circulated against the Knights Templar by their enemies was the tale that they worshipped a bearded man. Although that story could be taken as a reference to the image on the Shroud, the image of a face on the cloth did not clearly appear until it was shown by a photographic negative several centuries after the Knights Templar were suppressed.

The history of the Shroud of Turin is also surrounded by both mystery and controversy. The

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

(Source: Catholic Culture)

PCED on Cardinal Rosales' Guidelines for the Use of the 1962 Missal

2009-04-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from the Tablet article via Fr. Z and with his emphasis and comments:

PHILIPPINES
Cardinal accused of disobeying Pope

Robert Mickens
In Rome

THE HEAD of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei commission has reprimanded the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, for setting “unduly restrictive” conditions on use of the Tridentine Mass, [Again… update on the terms! No one really says "Tridentine" anymore.] saying they were “in direct contradiction” to the wishes of Pope Benedict XVI.

“Your ‘Archdiocesan Guidelines’ are simply not acceptable as they stand and I ask you to reconsider them,” said the Ecclesia Dei president, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, in a letter dated 6 March and seen by The Tablet this week. It said “guidelines allowing only a monthly Mass in a chapel of [the] Metropolitan Cathedral” were in violation of the norms established in the motu proprio, “Summorum Pontificum”, issued by the Pope in 2007 for the widespread use of the Tridentine Mass. [Get this…] Cardinal Castrillón said the papal decree was “part of the universal law of the Church” and could not be limited by the “particular law” of a diocesan bishop. [This is the part that the Pope’s enemies in this matter will really hate!] The Archdiocese of Manila ministers to more than 2.8 million Catholics.

“There is simply no legitimate reason why this [Tridentine] Mass cannot and should not be celebrated in any church or chapel of your archdiocese,” Cardinal Castrillón said in his letter to the Archbishop of Manila.

[Read closely…] He insisted that Cardinal Rosales actively promote the implementation of the motu proprio by “helping priests who are desirous to learn how to celebrate” the old rite Mass, which he said only required that the priest be “reasonably competent in Latin”, [which, as WDTPRS has been saying all along, means that the priest can pronounce the words properly. We want more, of course, but that is the minimum. And what is required is sufficiency, the minimum, not expertise.] and that there were faithful [no number set… and the coetus mentioned in the Motu Proprio might be very small indeed.] who wished to assist at its celebration. The Archdiocese of Manila published the Tridentine Mass guidelines on its website last year. But they were quickly removed when supporters of the old rite protested to Rome.

...

Et incarnatus est.

2009-04-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

And the WORD became flesh,
and dwelt among us.

12th century Icon of the Annunciation from Mount Sinai

Facade of the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth

Interior of the Basilica of Annunciation

Lower Church, Basilica of the Annunciation

"Kaire Maria"

Altar at the Grotto of the Annunciation

"Here the Word became Flesh"

Holy Land Cross

(Images from Franciscan Cyberspot: Christian Sancutaries: Nazareth )

In honor of the Incarnation of the Lord

A Prayer to Saint Joseph

2009-04-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

O blessed Joseph, faithful guardian of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
protector of thy chaste spouse, the virgin Mother of God,
I choose thee this day to be my special patron and advocate
and I firmly resolve to honor thee all the days of my life.
Therefore I humbly beseech thee to receive me as thy client,
to instruct me in every doubt,
to comfort me in every affliction,
to obtain for me and for all the knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus,
and finally to defend and protect me at the hour of my death. Amen.

"I know by experience," says St. Teresa of Avila, "that the glorious St. Joseph assists us generally in all necessities. I never asked him for anything which he did not obtain for me."

(EWTN - Prayers)

A tribute for the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, March 19.

Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks ‘Who painted it?’

2009-03-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 27, 2009 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay.

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction.

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”

This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization's founder, a noted eugenicist. The award will be presented at a gala event in Houston, Texas.

Church leader sparks Georgian baby boom

2009-03-29T00:55:00.001-07:00

By Tom Esslemont
BBC News, Tbilisi

The patriarch is revered by many in Georgia

Two years after having one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Georgia is enjoying something of a baby boom, following an intervention from the country's most senior cleric.

At the end of 2007, in a move to reverse the Caucasian country's dwindling birth figures, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, came up with an incentive. He promised to personally baptise any baby born to parents of more than two children.

There was only one catch: the baby had to be born after the initiative was launched.

The results are, in the words of the Georgian Orthodox Church, "a miracle".

Easy decision

The country's birth rate increased by nearly 20% during 2008 - a rate four times faster than the previous year.

Many parents say they took the decision to have another child on the basis of the Patriarch's incentive.

Giorgi and Pati Bluashvili have just had their fourth child. He is a boy called Giviko. He has big blue eyes and a loud laugh. As I try to interview his mother he takes delight at interrupting by babbling away.

Pati says the decision to have another child was an easy one.

The Bluashvili family have taken part in the programme

"There's no doubt in my mind that we had Giviko because of the Patriarch's incentive," she says.

"When he announced that he would baptise any child born to parents with at least two children already we could not resist the opportunity to have another baby. To have a child baptised by the Patriarch is so very special."

Many other parents agree. It is perhaps not surprising in a country where more than 80% of people follow the Orthodox faith.

On a Thursday afternoon, dozens of parents are queuing up outside a registry office in central Tbilisi to put their child's name down for the Patriarchal mass baptism. The ceremonies take place four times a year.

Scribbling down the name of her three-month-old boy, Nino - a young mother - says it is an honour to be contributing to the task of boosting birth rates.

"The Patriarch did a really good thing launching this initiative," she says.

"I am sure that most parents decided to have more babies because of him. If his Holiness baptises your child it means he becomes his or her godfather and that is such an honour."

No surprise

The next baptism is scheduled for early April, when thousands of mums, dads and their children will cram into Tbilisi's biggest church, the Sameba Cathedral. The babies will be briefly dipped into a gigantic inflatable font after receiving a blessing from his Holiness, Ilia II.

Irakli Kadagishvili says the Patriarch's incentive has worked

The Patriarch plays a very influential role in Georgian society. Many see him as the most authoritative figure in their life.

But to Church insiders, the increased birth rates come as no surprise.

"Faith is getting stronger," says Irakli Kadagishvili, a spokesman for the Patriarch Foundation, a movement set up to promote the interests of the Church.

"The Patriarch is seen not only as a religious figure, but also as a national authority. When he saw the need to increase the birth rate he only had to provide an incentive. It was the only stimulus most parents needed if they were already thinking about having more children."

The Church is taking the credit for the sudden trend in having babies. But there are other factors to consider, including economic ones.

Who is now creating families? People who five years ago were out of work

Giorgi Vashadze
head of Georgian civil registry

The head of Georgia's civil registry, Giorgi Vashadze, has been monitoring the recent figures.

He tells me that the jump from 48,000 in 2007 to 57,000 in 2008 can, in part, be explained by the Patriarch's incentive, but also by the rise in average household incomes.

"Who is now creating families? People who five years ago were out of work," he says.

"Previously, they had no income. They could not get married. Today they are working. They have salaries. They are maybe not as high as in [other] European countries but they are quite normal for Georgia. So I think this is a major factor."

In a country which early last year boasted of having economic growth rates of 7.9% there is little doubt that economic factors may have played a role in bringing on the baby boom.

But the role of the Church cannot be underestimated in Georgia.

Twenty years ago, just before Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union, the Orthodox religion was all but suppressed in the country.

Now it is more than clear that the faith has never been stronger.

Cameroon Bishops' Statement on AIDS

2009-03-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

"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

[Translation by ZENIT]

British Museum finds relics of 39 saints after 100 years

2009-03-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Discovery made by curator when 12th-century German portable altar was opened for the first time

Maev Kennedy

The Guardian, Tuesday 24 March 2009

(Photos from the NLM)

(Video)

The new medieval gallery at the British Museum is full of beautiful images of saints in ivory, stone, gold and wood - but invisible to visitors, it also holds the bones of 39 real saints, whose discovery came as a shock to their curator.

The relics, packed in tiny bundles of cloth including one scrap of fabric over 1,000 years old, were found when a 12th-century German portable altar was opened for the first time since it came into the British Museum collection in 1902.

It was in for a condition check and cleaning, before going on display in the gallery that opens tomorrow - but to the amazement of James Robinson, curator of medieval antiquities, when it was opened a linen cloth was revealed, and inside it dozens of tiny bundles of cloth, each neatly labelled on little pieces of vellum.

The most precious was the relic of St Benedict, an Italian who in the early 6th century was credited as the father of the western monastic tradition, founding monasteries and establishing guiding principles still followed at many monasteries. The relic was wrapped in cloth that was itself an extraordinary object, a piece of silk from 8th or 9th century Byzantium.

Each Roman Catholic altar-stone is supposed to contain at least one relic of a saint, usually in the form of minute flakes of bone. There was a clue on the back of the museum's altar in a list of names beginning slightly implausibly with John the Baptist, and including saints James, John and Mary Magdalene.

There are many reliquaries in the gallery, in the form of crosses, pendants and rings, including one owned by a saint, the Georgian queen Kethevan who was executed by Shah Abbas in 1624 for refusing to convert to Islam. Almost all have long since lost their contents in the centuries of religious and political upheaval which scattered them from palaces and monasteries and eventually brought them to the British Museum. A relic of bone fragments was discovered almost 30 years ago in a spectacular lifesize head of St Eustace, but the relic was sent back to Basle cathedral in Switzerland which was forced to sell the golden reliquary in 1830.

The newly discovered saints will remain in Bloomsbury. Robinson said they were cared for and rearranged into the 19th century, the date of the most recent piece of fabric, but at some point one was lost as there are 40 engraved names but only 39 saintly bundles.

From Saint Peter’s Square to Harvard Square

2009-03-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Media coverage of papal comments on AIDS in Africa is March madness.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

‘We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”

So notes Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, in response to papal press comments en route to Africa this week.

Benedict XVI said, in response to a French reporter’s question asking him to defend the Church’s position on fighting the spread of AIDS, characterized by the reporter as “frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective”:

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

“The pope is correct,” Green told National Review Online Wednesday, “or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. He stresses that “condoms have been proven to not be effective at the ‘level of population.’”

“There is,” Green adds, “a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

Green added: “I also noticed that the pope said ‘monogamy’ was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than ‘abstinence.’ The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision).”

And while, as Travis Kavulla writes from Kenya today, the international media will ignore all sorts of fascinating new stories about church and civilizational growth in favor of a sexier, albeit way-too-familiar storyline, Green has some encouraging news: The pope is not alone. “More and more AIDS experts are coming to accept the above. The two countries with the worst HIV epidemics, Swaziland and Botswana, have both launched campaigns to discourage multiple and concurrent partners, and to encourage fidelity.”

The pope added during that Q&A, “I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person’s body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.”

We need to, in other words, treat people as people. Reason with them and show them there is a better way to live, respectful of themselves and others. It’s a common-sense message that isn’t madness whether you’re in Africa or dealing with hormonal American teenagers. It’s a hard message to hear over the same-old silly debates, parodies, and dismissals. But it’s one that is based on real life—and that’s acknowledged not just in Saint Peter’s Square but in Harvard Square.

nationalreviewonline

Prominent Ugandan AIDS Activist Thanks Pope for Opposition to Condoms

2009-03-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Says, "when you look at many of these so called AIDS activists, they are simply in it for the money"

By Hilary White

ROME, March 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A prominent Ugandan AIDS activist says that those who are attacking the pope for his stand against the use of condoms in the fight against the disease have "no credibility." In an e-mail sent to LifeSiteNews.com today, Ssempa thanked Pope Benedict for saying that condoms can exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS.

After twenty years as an AIDS prevention activist in Uganda, Martin Ssempa says he has concluded that the real culprit in the spread of the disease "is sexual promiscuity driven by immorality of the heart."

Ssempa, a pastor and government consultant on AIDS prevention, told LifeSiteNews.com, "It is a complete lie for many to say that Uganda has succeeded by a major condom campaign."

Earlier this week, at the start of his trip to Africa, Pope Benedict told reporters that the solution to the AIDS problem is "a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another." Condemnation by the world's media, and the international AIDS and homosexualist organisations, exploded when the pope said, "If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem."

Ssempa told LifeSiteNews.com today that he believes the pope was right. Ssempa has long maintained that this kind of attack on the pope and the Catholic Church's position, that occurs regularly in the press, stems from the hatred and fear in the "AIDS industry" of traditional morality in general and of sexual continence in particular.

"Here in Uganda when AIDS came we did not think it was caused by lack of condoms. No it was the presence of promiscuity. What the Pope is saying is true. It however makes those who are determined to live in a life of promiscuity feel spotlighted," Ssempa said.

Martin Ssempa has spent nearly two decades on the frontline of Uganda's highly successful AIDS prevention program that focuses on encouraging sexual abstinence and fidelity in marriage. "Our successful policy," he said, "always put abstinence and being faithful ahead of any medical products such as condoms and testing."

He questioned the failure of most media outlets to investigate the motives of the international AIDS organisations, saying, "Many of these writers and naysayers, are actually shills in the service of big pharma.

"Many are entangled in lucrative deals to distribute condoms and the more condoms they push out the more money they get. How come no one has ever made a comment on how much money is being made by big pharma out of the whole condom, testing and drug business?

"In fact when you look at many of these so called AIDS activists, they are simply in it for the money," he added.

Uganda's population is mainly Christian, and the message, supported by government-sponsored promotion, that men and women should not engage in extra-marital sex dramatically reduced Uganda's AIDS rate over the last couple decades. Ssempa and other local AIDS activists have frequently decried the interference of US and Europe-based international organizations who reject abstinence and fidelity principles in favor of condoms. This, they say only encourages promiscuity and the spread of the deadly disease. Since the intervention of the international AIDS groups, with their emphasis on condoms and downplaying of abstinence, Uganda's AIDS rate has begun, according to local experts, to "tick back up."

Ssempa co-authored Uganda's successful policy with Dr. Edward Green of Harvard University's Center for Population and Development Studies. Dr. Green told the National Review Online this week that Pope Benedict's assertion that condoms only make the AIDS crisis worse is backed by the research.

"There is," Green said, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded 'Demographic Health Surveys,' between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates."

Ssempa warned that there is no security in using condoms to protect against the AIDS virus. "Those who believe that they can put all their trust in getting a perfect condom in Africa are totally out of sync with the realities of Africa.

"In 2004 August more than 40 million condoms of the Engabu brand were found to be defective and were recalled to be destroyed. This was after a huge public outcry on the condom failures which may have exposed many people to HIV/AIDS in the false hope of security from these latex from China."

Ssempa said that there needs to be a complete rethinking of the reliance on condoms. Citing Dr. Green's work at Harvard, he said, "We must ask the tough question, why does the nations in Africa with the highest condoms correspond with the highest HIV/AIDS? These include Botswana and South Africa who have the first and highest condoms per male, yet their numbers of HIV/AIDS are also the same.

"They are in the top three spots of the nations with the highest HIV/AIDS. On the other hand nations with lower condoms per male per year correspond with lower HIV/AIDS."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031906.html

World Leaders, Condom-Promoting Forces Attack Pope Over Condom AIDS Remarks
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031902.html

Harvard Researcher agrees with Pope on condoms in Africa

2009-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Cambridge, Mass., Mar 21, 2009 / 10:11 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict’s recent brief remark against condoms has caused an uproar in the press, but several prominent scientists dedicated to preventing AIDS are defending the Pope, saying he was correct in his analysis. In an interview with CNA, Dr. Edward Green explained that although condoms should work, in theory, they may be “exacerbating the problem” in Africa.

Benedict XVI’s Tuesday comments on condoms were made as part of his explanation of the Church’s two prong approach to fighting AIDS. At one point in his response the Pontiff stressed that AIDS cannot be overcome by advertising slogans and distributing condoms and argued that they “worsen the problem.” The media responded with an avalanche of over 4,000 articles on the subject, calling Benedict a “threat to public health,” and saying that the Catholic Church should “enter the 21st century.”

Senior Harvard Research Scientist for AIDS Prevention, Dr. Edward Green, who is the author of five books, including “Rethinking AIDS Prevention: Learning from Successes in Developing Countries” discussed his support for Pope Benedict XVI’s comments with CNA.

According to Dr. Green, science is finding that the media is actually on the wrong side of the issue. In fact, Green says that not only do condoms not work, but that they may be “exacerbating the problem” in Africa.

“Theoretically, condoms ought to work,” he explained to CNA, “and theoretically, some condom use ought to be better than no condom use, but that’s theoretically.”

Condom proponents often cite the lack of condom education as the main culprit for higher AIDS rates in Africa but Green disagrees.

After spending 25 years promoting condoms for family planning purposes in Africa, he insists that he’s quite familiar with condom promotion. Yet, he claims that “anyone who worked in family planning knew that if you needed to prevent a pregnancy, say the woman will die, you don’t recommend a condom.”

Green recalls that when the AIDS epidemic hit Africa, the “Industry” began using AIDS as a “dual purpose” marketing strategy to get more funding for condom distribution. This, he claims, effectively took “something that was a 2nd or 3rd grade device for avoiding unwanted pregnancies” and turned it into the “best weapon we [had] against AIDS.”

The accepted wisdom in the scientific community, explained Green, is that condoms lower the HIV infection rate, but after numerous studies, researchers have found the opposite to be true. “We just cannot find an association between more condom use and lower HIV reduction rates” in Africa.

Dr. Green found that part of the elusive reason is a phenomenon known as risk compensation or behavioral disinhibition.

“[Risk compensation] is the idea that if somebody is using a certain technology to reduce risk, a phenomenon actually occurs where people are willing to take on greater risk.” The idea can be related to someone that puts on sun block and is willing to stay out in the sun longer because they have added protection. In this case, however, the greater risk is sexual. Because people are willing take on more risk, they may “disproportionally erase” the benefits of condom use, Green said.

Another factor that contributes to ineffective condom use in Africa, is the phenomenon where condoms may be effective on an “individual level,” but not on a “population level.” Green’s research found that “condoms have been effective” in HIV concentrated areas where high risk activities are already being conducted, such as brothels in countries like Thailand.

Claiming to be a liberal himself, Green asserts that promoting Western “liberal ideology” where, “most Africans are conservative when it comes to sexual behavior,” is quite offensive to them. Citing his new book, “Indigenous Theories and Contagious Disease,” Green described Africans as “very religious by global standards” who are offended by “trucks going around where people are dancing to ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’, tossing out condoms to teenagers and the children of the village.”

Green also noted that there is an ideology called “harm reduction” that is being pushed by many organizations trying to prevent AIDS. The ideology believes that “you can’t change the underlying behavior, that you can’t get people to be faithful, especially Africans,” the HIV specialist explained.

One country, Uganda, recognized these issues and said, “Listen, if you have multiple sex partners, you are going to get AIDS.” What worked in Uganda, a country that has seen a decline by as much as 2/3 in AIDS infections, was that officials realized that even aside from religious and cultural reasons, “no one likes condoms.” Instead of waiting for “American and European advisors to arrive,” Ugandan officials reacted and developed a program that fit their culture; their main message being “stick to one partner or love faithfully.”

However, in 2004, Uganda’s AIDS infection rates began to increase once again, due to an influx of condoms and Western “advice”, Green recalled. Western donors also came to Uganda and said behavioral change doesn’t work and that, “most infections nowadays are among married people.” Green said these claims are “misleading,” pointing out that “married people always have lower HIV infection rates than single or divorced people of the same age group.”

Green’s new book, “AIDS and Ideology,” to be completed in the next few months, will describe the industry in Africa that is “drawing billions of dollars a year promoting condoms, testing, drugs, and treatment of AIDS” and is clearly resistant to the idea that behavioral change is the solution.

Yet the two countries that have the highest infection rate of AIDS in the world, Botswana and Swaziland, have recently launched campaigns to promote fidelity and monogamy, the Harvard researcher said. These countries “have learned the hard way” about the failure of condoms in preventing AIDS, he said, noting that “Botswana has probably had more condom promotion” than any other county on a per capita basis. Green said he had no problem “having condoms as a backup to fidelity-based programs.”

According to Green, the Catholic Church should continue to “do what it is already doing,” avoid “arguing about the diameter of viruses” and cite scientific evidence in connection with scripture and moral theology.

Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI . . .

2009-03-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE 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

Catholic Things

2009-03-09T01:39:00.000-07:00

I found two interesting articles from The Catholic Thing and linked them up here:

Facing East by Brad Miner
Latin Rising by David Bonagura, Jr.

Msgr. Marini on the Liturgy

2009-03-01T03:09:00.000-08:00

The following is an NLM translation of the interview with Msgr. Guido Marini as posted in the Holy See's website:

OFFICE OF THE LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF

INTERVIEW OF MONS. GUIDO MARINI
IN THE PERIODICAL "RADICI CRISTIANE”
N. 42 OF THE MONTH FOR MARCH 2009

Without words before the greatness and beauty of the mystery of God

by Maddalena della Somaglia

The Holy Father seems to have the liturgy as one of the basic themes of his pontificate. You, who follow him so closely, can you confirm this impression?

I would say yes. It is noteworthy that the first volume of the "opera omnia" of the Holy Father, soon to be published in Italian, is that devoted to those writings which have as their object the liturgy. In the preface to that volume, the same Joseph Ratzinger emphasizes this fact, noting that the precedence given to the liturgical writings is not accidental, but desired: in the same way as Vatican II, which first promulgated the Constitution dedicated to the Sacred Liturgy, followed by the great Constitution on the Church. [Lumen Gentium] It is in the liturgy, in fact, where the mystery of the Church is made manifest. It is understandable, then, the reason why the liturgy should be one of the basic themes of the papacy of Benedict XVI: it is in the liturgy that the renewal and reform of the Church begins.

Is there a relationship between the sacred liturgy and art and architecture? Should the call of the Pope to continuity in the liturgy be extended to art and sacred architecture?

There is certainly a vital relationship between the liturgy, sacred art and architecture. In part because sacred art and architecture, as such, must be suitable to the liturgy and its content, which finds expression in its celebration. Sacred art in its many manifestations, lives in connection with the infinite beauty of God and toward God, and should be oriented to His praise and His glory. Between liturgy, art and architecture there cannot be then, contradiction or dialectic. As a consequence, if it is necessary for a theological and historical continuity in the liturgy, this continuity should therefore also be a visible and coherent expression in sacred art and architecture.

Pope Benedict XVI recently said in an address that "society speaks with the clothes that it wears." Do you think this could apply to the liturgy?

In effect, we all speak by the clothes that we wear. Dress is a language, as is every form of external expression. The liturgy also speaks with the clothes it wears, and with all its expressive forms, which are many and rich, ever ancient and ever new. In this sense, "liturgical dress", to stay with the terminology you have used, must always be true, that is, in full harmony with the truth of the mystery celebrated. The external signs have to be in harmonious relation with the mystery of salvation in place in the rite. And, it should never be forgotten that the actual clothing of the liturgy is a clothing of sanctity: it finds expression, in fact, in the holiness of God. We are called to face this holiness, we are called to put on that holiness, realizing the fullness of participation.

In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, you have highlighted the key changes since taking the post of Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations. Could you recall and explain what these mean?

I was just saying that the changes to which you refer are to be understood as a sign of a development in continuity with the recent past, and I remember one in particular: the location of the cross at the centre of the altar. This positioning has the ability to express, also by external sign, proper orientation at the time of the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy, that the celebrant and the assembly do not look upon each other but together turn toward the Lord. Also, the unity of the altar and cross together can better show forth, together with the "banquet" aspect, the sacrificial dimension of the Mass, whose significance is always essential, I would say it springs from it, and therefore, always needs to find a visible expression in the rite.

We have noticed that the Holy Father, for some time now, always gives Holy Communion upon the tongue and kneeling. Does he want this to serve as an example for the whole Church, and an encouragement for the faithful to receive our Lord with greater devotion?

As we know the distribution of Holy Communion in the hand remains still, from a legal point of view, an exception [indult] to the universal law, granted by the Holy See to the bishops conferences who so request it. Every believer, even in the presence of an exception [indult], has the right to choose the way in which they will receive Communion. Benedict XVI, began to distribute Communion on the tongue and kneeling on the occasion of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi last year, in full consonance with the provisions of the current liturgical law, perhaps intending to emphasize a preference for this method. One can imagine the reason for this preference: it shines more light on the truth of the real presence in the Eucharist, it helps the devotion of the faithful, and it indicates more easily the sense of mystery.

The Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" is presented as the most important activity in the papacy of Benedict XVI. What is your opinion?

I do not know whether it is the most important but it certainly is an important document. It is not only so because it is a very significant step towards a reconciliation within the Church, not only because it expresses the desire to arrive at a mutual enrichment between the two forms of the Roman Rite, the ordinary and extraordinary, but also because it is the precise indication, in law and liturgy, of that theological continuity which the Holy Father has presented as the only correct hermeneutic for reading and understanding of the life of the Church and, especially, of Vatican II.

What in his view the importance of silence in the liturgy and the life of the Church?

It is of fundamental importance. Silence is necessary for the life of man, because man lives in both words and silences. Silence is all the more necessary to the life of the believer who finds there a unique moment of their experience of the mystery of God. The life of the Church and the Church's liturgy cannot be exempt from this need. Here the silence speaks of listening carefully to the Lord, to His presence and His word, and, together these express the attitude of adoration. Adoration, a necessary dimension of the liturgical action, expresses the human inability to speak words, being "speechless" before the greatness of God's mystery and beauty of His love.

The celebration of the liturgy is made up of texts, singing, music, gestures and also of silence and silences. If these were lacking or were not sufficiently emphasized, the liturgy would not be complete and would be deprived of an irreplaceable dimension of its nature.

Nowadays you hear, during the liturgical celebrations, very diverse music. What music do you think is most suitable to accompany the liturgy?

As the Holy Father Benedict XVI reminds us, and along with him the recent and past tradition of the Church, the liturgy has its own music and that is Gregorian chant, and as such, it constitutes the permanent criterion for liturgical music. As well, a permanent criterion is also the great polyphony of Catholic renaissance, which finds its highest expression in Palestrina.

Beside these irreplaceable forms of liturgical music we find many manifestations of popular song, which are very important and necessary: so long as they adhere to that permanent criterion by which song and music have a right of citizenship within the liturgy, to the extent that they spring from prayer and lead to prayer, thus allowing genuine participation in the mystery celebrated.

Diocese of Scranton

2009-02-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

OFFICIAL NOTICE
Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion

The Eucharist is the source and summit of all Christian life. It is the sacrament of salvation, the Body and Blood of Christ offered for us on Calvary and received by us, the People of God. Regarding the Holy Eucharist, St. Paul says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27).

The law of the Church requires each Catholic, before receiving Holy Communion, to make a careful examination of conscience, using the teachings of the Church as the examining criteria. After this private examination, each Catholic is able to determine whether he or she is prepared to receive the sacrament. Canon 916 of the Code of Canon Law states:

A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.

The above mentioned preparation is private, as the state of each Catholic’s soul is known to him or her alone. However, there are instances when a Catholic’s unworthiness to receive Holy Communion will be determined by the Church because of a person’s public conduct. This determination does not depend upon the private examination of conscience but results rather from a Catholic’s public and persistent actions in opposition to the moral law as taught by the Church. In these cases, the Church forbids members to receive the sacrament. Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states:

Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.

In recent years, the Holy See has declared that those who are unworthy to receive Holy Communion if they are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” include persons directly involved in lawmaking bodies. These have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life.[1] Pope John Paul II also addressed this matter when he wrote, “The judgment of one’s state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is a question of examining one’s conscience. However, in case of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved. The Code of Canon Law refers to this situation of a manifest lack of proper moral disposition when it states that those who ‘obstinately persist in manifest grave sin’ are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion.”[2]

In 2004, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) instructed the Bishops of the United States as follows:

Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

This denial, the Cardinal noted in the same instruction, “is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy of Communion passing judgment on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.”[3]

Therefore, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, Bishop of Scranton, reminds all ministers of Holy Communion, ordinary and extraordinary, that:

To administer the Sacred Body and Blood of the Lord is a serious duty which they have received from the Church, and no one having accepted this responsibility has the right to ignore the Church’s law in this regard;

Those whose unworthiness to receive Holy Communion is known publicly to the Church must be refused Holy Communion in order to prevent sacrilege and to prevent the Catholic in question from committing further grave sin through unworthy reception.

James B. Earley

Chancellor

[1] Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, 4, 2002

[2] On the Eucharist, 37, 2003

[3] Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s memo Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, 6

Catholic survivors attribute ‘miracle on the Hudson’ to God’s mercy

2009-02-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

By Katie Moore

Charlotte, N.C., Feb 27, 2009 / 04:09 am (CNA).- "The odds were against us but God was with us," said Fred Berretta, a survivor of US Airways Flight 1549 that crash landed in the Hudson River Jan. 15. He was flying home that day from a business trip in New York when the plane struck a flock of birds, causing both engines to fail.

"We had a phenomenal flight crew, but God was our air traffic controller," he said.

Berretta, one of several Charlotte-area Catholics aboard the flight, is a parishioner at St. Matthew Church.

All 155 people aboard the flight survived the emergency landing.

Berretta said he believes it is "a testimony to God’s mercy."

"I believe it was miraculous that all the things came together that allowed us to survive," said Berretta, himself a pilot.

Just hours after the crash, he was asked in an interview with a national television network if he was a religious man. His answer was honest, "I try to be."

"Quite a long time ago I had a conversion type of experience back to the Catholic faith," Berretta said in an interview with The Catholic News & Herald.

He had been away from the Catholic faith since childhood, but began attending Mass again on a weekly basis during his mid-20s.

"When I look back on that part of my life, I can say that I was trying, trying but struggling to live the Catholic faith more fully," he said.

More recently, however, Berretta had experienced a deeper draw to devotional prayer.

In the weeks leading up to the plane crash, he began praying the Rosary on a daily basis.

And the day before the crash he had prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

"That was a prayer that I hadn’t said in a long time," said Berretta, as he recalled reading about a message that Jesus gave to St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun who said she had a vision of Jesus in which he asked for devotions to divine mercy.

"I remember reading in that little booklet that Jesus said to Sister Faustina that the 3 p.m. hour is the hour of mercy, and whatever you ask of the Father in virtue of my passion during this hour will be granted.

"It sort of hit me as we were going into the water that it was in the 3 o’clock hour. So I asked God to be merciful to us and I said a few Hail Marys and I reconciled myself to the fact that I might not live through it," he said.

In the aftermath of the crash, Berretta said he has been "giving a lot of thought to the power of those prayers."

"When you go through an experience like this — if you have faith — you feel a profound sense of gratitude.

"I try to be very thoughtful of how fortunate I am and we all are," Berretta said. "I feel that almost obligates me to do something … to share that."

Fellow survivor Victor Warnement came away from the experience with a similar sentiment.

"You don’t go through an experience like this without thinking, ‘How do I give more?’" he said.

Warnement, a parishioner at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, believes he and the other passengers aboard Flight 1549 were part of a miracle.

"If you look at statistics, this doesn’t happen," he said. "It’s as if we were delivered back on the wings of angels."

Printed with permission from The Catholic News & Herald, newspaper for the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Press Chided for Putting Words in Vatican Mouth

2009-02-23T06:49:00.001-08:00

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican spokesman requested journalists to refrain from attributing positions to the Holy See that it has not taken.

A note published Saturday by the Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See's press office, claims that "it is not rare that the media attribute to the 'Vatican' -- by which they mean the Holy See -- comments and points of view that cannot automatically be attributed to it."

He explained: "The Holy See, in fact, when it intends to authoritatively express itself uses the proper means and suitable ways -- communiqués, notes, declarations. Every other pronouncement does not have the same value."

Father Lombardi concluded: "Even recently, there have been inopportune attributions.

"The Holy See, in its representative organs, shows respect for civil authorities, which in their legitimate autonomy have the right and the duty to provide for the common good."

Pope highlights primacy of Church of Rome, asks for prayers

2009-02-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Vatican City, Feb 22, 2009 / 11:57 am (CNA).- Before reciting the Angelus at noon today, Pope Benedict XVI explained that today, February 22, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. He asked the tens of thousands of pilgrims to pray that he is able to bring unity to the Church and “faithfully accomplish the task Divine Providence has placed upon him as Successor to the Apostle Peter.”

The Holy Father began his remarks, delivered from the window of his study overlooking St. Peter’s Square, with a brief commentary on Sunday’s Gospel about the episode of the paralytic whom Jesus forgave and healed. This Gospel, the Pontiff said, “shows that not only did Jesus have the power to heal a sick body, but that he also had the power to forgive sins.”

“Physical healing is a sign of the spiritual healing his forgiveness produces,” the Pope continued. “In effect, sin is a sort of paralysis of the spirit from which only the power of God’s merciful love can free us, allowing us to get up and restart our journey on the path of goodness.”

Turning to the day's feast, Pope Benedict XVI explained, “The Chair of Peter symbolizes the authority of the Bishop of Rome, [who is] called to fulfill a special service for the People of God as a whole.”

“Right after the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul the Church of Rome was acknowledged as having a primatial role among Catholics, a role attested to as early as the 2nd century by Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Irenaeus of Lyons,” the Holy Father added. The Second Vatican Council, the Pope added, underscored the unique role of providing unity to the diversity of rites within the Church as well as the authority of the Bishop of Rome.

The Pontiff concluded with a prayer asking Mary to help Christians “begin Lent in the right state of mind, which starts Wednesday with its Ash ritual.” The Pope will receive ashes during an afternoon Mass that will be held in the Roman Basilica of Saint Sabina.

After the Marian prayer, Pope Benedict XVI greeted the English-speaking pilgrims present in the square: “I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims gathered for this Angelus. In today’s liturgy, we witness Jesus healing the paralytic lowered to him through the roof because of a large crowd. This passage reminds us that the Lord has power to forgive sins, and that nothing stands in the way of his mercy when we seek him with pure and contrite hearts. Let us never hesitate to ask his pardon, especially through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that we may become better instruments of his love for others. God bless you all.”

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Moises Andrade, S.Th.D., S.L.L. 1948-2009

2009-02-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

From prodeoetpatria, we post here the sad news about the passing of one of the eminent liturgists of the Philippines (who also regularly celebrates the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form):

It is with great sadness that I share the news the passing of Rt. Rev. Monsignor Moises Andrade, STL at 4:30am after suffering a massive stroke last Thursday afternoon. Condolences to the family and close friends of our beloved spiritual father and adviser, Msgr. Andrade.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli: in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

---

Let us pray that the Lord may welcome Him into His glory as His "good and faithful servant."

12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation

2009-02-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

TORONTO, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 12-year-old "Lia" of Toronto has become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition. Despite discouragement and outright opposition, Lia's presentation was so well done that she reportedly won the contest she was told she would be disqualified from, due to the "controversial" message of her speech.

The speech is available in its entirety on Youtube, where it has been viewed over 100,000 times and sparked a heated discussion. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR1wUqvJS4&feature=chann...)

"What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die?" begins the charismatic seventh-grader in a practice recording of the speech posted on Youtube. "What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you, you could do nothing about it?

"Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation. Someone is choosing without even knowing them whether they are going to live or die. That someone is their mother. And that choice is abortion."

Lia, speaking easily and with sunny enthusiasm, fires off answers to several common objections in the brief speech.

"Why do we think that just because a fetus can't talk or do what we do, it isn't a human being yet?" She asks. "Some babies are born after only five months. Is this baby not human?

"We would never say that. Yet abortions are performed on 5-month-old fetuses all the time. Or do we only call them humans if they're wanted?

"Think about the child's rights, that were never given to it. No matter what rights the mother has, it doesn't mean we can deny the rights of the fetus," she said. "We must remember that with our rights and our choices come responsibilities, and we can't take someone else's rights away to avoid our responsibilities."

Lia's mother says that the topic was of her own choosing, and that she was determined not to back down, even after teachers told her it was "too mature" and "too controversial."

"She was also told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition," Lia's mother wrote in the email to the Moral Outcry blog. "Initially, I tried helping her find other topics to speak on, but, in the end, she was adamant. She just felt she wanted to continue with the topic of abortion. So she forfeited her chance to compete in order to speak on something she was passionate about."

The mother told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the girl's homeroom teacher was supportive of Lia's speech even though she was pro-choice. "After helping Lia do the speech she said, 'It really got me thinking,'" the mom noted.

At the schoolwide competition, the mom said one pro-choice teacher on the judge's panel "didn't even want to hear" the speech, and stepped down from the panel before Lia began. After the speech, which Lia's family said was well-received by both students and teachers, the judges initially told Lia she had indeed been disqualified. But controversy among the judges eventually led to a reversal, and Lia's family learned the next day that the panel agreed the girl deserved to win the competition.

"There was a big stink about it, and we volunteered to step down ... but her teacher said 'No, she won fair and square, so she'll keep going on," said her mom. Lia is expected to present her speech at a regional competition tomorrow night, representing her school.

When asked what inspired Lia to pursue the topic so adamantly, her mother said it was "a little mystery."

While the family espouses pro-life Christian values, "it's not like we're out every weekend picketing," she said. "It was just something really deep in her heart, and she just felt really passionate about it." She added: "I kind of snicker when I see people on the Youtube video [comment box] saying 'Oh, her mother forced her to do this' - I'm like, 'No, I'm on the other end, trying to make her pick another topic!'

"But she was just really passionate about it, and she has her research on it," said the mother. "I really believe it's just something that God put in her heart."

FSSP: Appeal for Novena for the Pope Feb. 14 - 22

2009-02-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

A message from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter - www.fssp.com

Many of the faithful are aware of the opposition which the Holy Father has faced in his efforts to reconcile the Society of Pius X. The current pressure from the media and others seems to not only threaten Pope Benedict’s work with SSPX. It also seems as though some would like to see it work as a means to undermine his very teaching and governing authority for his pontificate.

Given these oppositions which the Holy Father faces; given the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter's particular role in working as a bridge for those who have grown apart from the Church in the last forty years; finally, given that we hold St. Peter as our patron and have a particular attachment to his successor, the Fraterniy of St. Peter has asked all of its the members to offer increased prayers at this time for strength for Pope Benedict XVI.

A good number of priests and seminarians have contacted the General House to ask if the Fraternity could have particular prayers offered for this intention. All the members of the Fraternity are being asked to offer the following novena beginning on February 14 and concluding on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. All the faithful in the Apostolates are encouraged to join in these prayers and that the Masses on that Sunday (Quinquagesima) would be offered for this intention as well.

Novena for the Pope:

Pater Noster, 3 Ave Maria, Gloria Patri		Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory be.
V. Orémus pro Pontífice nostro Benedícto. R. Dóminus consérvet eum, et vivíficet eum, et beátum fáciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in ánimam inimicórum eius.		V: Let us pray for our Pope Benedict. R: May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.
V. Tu es Petrus. R. Et super hanc petram ædificábo Ecclésiam meam.		V. Thou art Peter, R. And upon this Rock, I will build My Church.
Orémus. Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, miserére fámulo tuo Pontífici nostro Benedícto : et dírige eum secúndum tuam cleméntiam in viam salútis ætérnæ : ut, te donánte, tibi plácita cúpiat, et tota virtúte perfíciat. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. R. Amen.		Let us Pray, Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon your servant, Benedict, our Sovereign Pontiff, and guide him in your goodness on the way of eternal salvation; so that, with the prompting of your grace, he may desire what pleases you and accomplish it with all his strength. Through Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.
Mater Ecclésiæ, ora pro nobis. Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis.		V. Mother of the Church. R. Pray for us V. St. Peter. R. Pray for us

Russian Orthodox elect Metropolitan Kirill as new patriarch

2009-01-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

Moscow, Jan 27, 2009 / 05:21 pm (CNA).- Meeting in Moscow today, the Russian Orthodox Church has elected Metropolitan Kirill as its new patriarch. Patriarch-elect Kirill’s election is being hailed as a boon for those seeking to buttress Orthodoxy against a spreading secularism.

According to the Associated Press, Metropolitan Kirill received 508 of the 700 votes cast. Prior to today’s election, Metropolitan Kirill was the most well-known candidate, having served as the head of the External Affairs Office for the Moscow patriarchate. Since the death of Patriarch Alexy II on December 5, 2008, he has functioned as the Patriarchal Locum Tenens or interim head of the church.

Father Joaquín Alliende, president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), remarked on the differences between an ecclesiastical election and a secular election. Although the election of the new patriarch was conducted according to democratic principles, he explained, it was not merely a matter of obtaining a majority but rather of "listening to the blowing of the Holy Spirit and seeking to discern the will of God, the Lord of history."

Fr. Alliende also mentioned that ACN has enjoyed "fruitful contacts" with Patriarch-elect Kirill since 1992 and that he expects the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue to improve under Kirill. This intensified dialogue will enable the two churches to “together tackle the challenges of the present time that all Christians face," Fr. Alliende said.

Patriarch-elect Kirill will be installed on Sunday as the successor to Moscow Patriarch Alexy II, who is credited with a revival of the Orthodox Church in Russia and abroad.

The Russian Orthodox Church has 100 million adherents in Russia and several million more around the world.

Gesture With Lefebvrists Is No Change for Church

2009-01-27T03:07:00.000-08:00

Daily: Dedication to Vatican II and Dialogue With Jews Are Untouched

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is unwavering in his commitment to apply the Second Vatican Council, and lifting the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops in no way changes that, affirmed the Vatican's semi-official newspaper.

An article in L'Osservatore Romano laments an "invention of the press," pointing to some of the commotion that has surrounded Saturday's announcement that four bishops ordained by Marcel Lefebvre and belonging to the Society of St. Pius X had their excommunication lifted.

The leaders of the society contest parts of the Second Vatican Council.

Causing a further uproar, a November interview with one of the four prelates who has been reinstated, Bishop Richard Williamson, re-aired just days ago in which the bishop expressed his view that historical evidence denies the gassing of 6 million Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Hence, certain critics consider the lifting of his excommunication as an affront to Jewish-Catholic dialogue.

Vatican Radio, however, already clarified that his statements are a matter of "personal positions that cannot be shared and that do not affect in any way the pontifical magisterium and the positions of the Church solemnly declared on various occasions."

Regarding Vatican II, L'Osservatore Romano noted how the Pope's own comments from last weekend prove his continued adherence to it.

The Holy Father on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the convocation of the council, called the convocation a "providential decision," noting that Pope John XXIII was sure it was an inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, the Vatican daily contended, the lifting of the excommunication of the Lefebvrist bishops is an act that comes in the framework of the council's spirit.

Heart of the issue

Carlo Di Cicco, author of the article and subdirector of L'Osservatore Romano, affirmed: "The reform of the council has not been totally applied, but it is already so consolidated in the Catholic Church that it cannot go into crisis with a magnanimous gesture of mercy -- inspired, moreover, in the new style of Church promoted by the council that prefers the medicine of mercy to that of condemnation.

"The revocation that has provoked so much alarm does not conclude a sorrowful situation like that of the Lefebvrist schism.

"With it, the Pope removes pretexts for infinite polemics, directly confronting the authentic problem: the full acceptance of the magisterium, obviously including Vatican II."

The author went on to affirm that the Church "renewed by the council is not a different Church, but the same Church of Christ, founded on the apostles, guaranteed by the successor of Peter and therefore, living part of tradition."

L'Osservatore Romano further denounced any accusations that the Pope "is not convinced of the path of ecumenism and dialogue with the Jews." It recalled that the Church's most authoritative document on this dialogue, "Nostra Aetate," deplores any type of anti-Semitism.

And, Di Cicco observed, "The revocation of the excommunication does not yet mean full communion. The path of reconciliation with the traditionalists is a collegial option already known by the Church of Rome and not a sudden, improvised gesture from Benedict XVI."

Obama reigns, the Unborn dies

2009-01-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

Obama praises Roe decision on anniversary
January 23, 2009

(CWN) President Barack Obama yesterday praised Roe v. Wade, the 1973 US Supreme Court decision that struck down laws protecting unborn human life in all 50 states. The full text of his statement follows.

On the 36th anniversary of I>Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.
While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.
On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere

Obama to reverse Mexico City Policy today
January 23, 2009

(CWN) President Barack Obama will sign an executive order today reversing the Mexico City Policy instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Despite widespread media predictions, President Obama did not reverse the Mexico City Policy yesterday, the anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. President Bill Clinton had rescinded the policy on January 22, 1993; President George W. Bush had restored the policy on January 22, 2001.

Cardinal Francis George noted in a recent letter to the president, “The Mexico City Policy, first established in 1984, has wrongly been attacked as a restriction on foreign aid for family planning. In fact, it has not reduced such aid at all, but has ensured that family planning funds are not diverted to organizations dedicated to performing and promoting abortions instead of reducing them. Once the clear line between family planning and abortion is erased, the idea of using family planning to reduce abortions becomes meaningless, and abortion tends to replace contraception as the means for reducing family size. A shift toward promoting abortion in developing nations would also increase distrust of the United States in these nations, whose values and culture often reject abortion, at a time when we need their trust and respect.”

Click to view site for the Saint Michael Prayer Campaign for the Conversion of Abortionists

Church reply to reproductive health bill: facts, fallacies

2009-01-17T23:18:00.000-08:00

Church reply to reproductive health bill: facts, fallacies

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:18:00 08/16/2008

IN THE INTEREST OF FAIR PLAY, WE ARE RUNNING TWO ARTICLES THAT HOLD views opposite of the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008.

The articles featured today are in response to the two articles written by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the reproductive health bill, and printed in this section on Aug. 3.

Lagman’s first article highlighted the main features of the measure, while his second noted the campaign to discredit it. He claimed that the bill was not anti-life and that it would not interfere with family life, legalize abortion, promote contraceptive mentality and impose a two-child policy.

Lagman also claimed that Humanae Vitae was not an infallible doctrine.

Besides the articles of the head of the Legal Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and of a former senator, Talk of the Town received responses from Catholic groups and individuals countering Lagman’s views.

The responses came from Fr. Virgilio Delfin of the Diocese of Malaybalay, Pet Palma Dureza of Quezon City, Maria Concepcion S. Noche of the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines, Jose Fernandez of the Family Life Apostolate of St. John the Baptist Parish in Taytay, Rizal, and Minyong Ordoñez, a retired chair of the Paris-based Publicis Communications Group.

Talk of the Town also received an e-mail from Felix Libreto, a professor at the UP Open University, and a position paper of 26 economists from the University of the Philippines supporting the bill.

Because of limited space, this section cannot print all the reactions to Lagman’s articles.

* * *

Reckless and irresponsible

By Jo Imbong

REP. EDCEL LAGMAN, THE PRINCIPAL AUTHOR OF THE proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 asserts, among others, that the bill is neither antilife nor antifamily, that contraceptives are not life-threatening and that the bill does not impose a two-child policy.

Prolife? To value human life is to respect and protect life in all its seasons. “Human life begins at fertilization.” (Records of the Constitutional Commission, Vol. IV, Sept. 18, 1986, pp. 761, 801) hence, “the State shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” (Constitution, Article II, Section 12). Lagman said in a House hearing that the bill would protect human life “from implantation.”

By that token, the zygote not yet in the mother’s womb is not protected. Pills and the IUD hinder implantation of the embryo in the uterus, thereby precipitating the embryo’s destruction. That is abortion. And yet, “every child ... needs appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

Not life-threatening? Records are rife of perforation of the uterus and serious pelvic infections in women with IUDs that public midwives have refused to extract. The Mayo Foundation found that oral contraceptives are associated with an increase risk of breast cancer. DepoProvera increases a woman’s risk for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Oral contraceptives containing cyproterone increase risk of deep venous blood clots.

Levonorgestrel is banned in this country as the Bureau of Food and Drugs found it to be abortifacient. Life-threatening ectopic pregnancies occur in mothers long after undergoing tubal ligation, particularly those sterilized before age 30.

Contraceptives as essential medicines? Contraceptives do not treat any medical condition. Fertility is not a disease. It attests to health! The bill targets “the poor, needy and marginalized.” This is most unkind to them whose real needs are jobs, skills, education, lucrative opportunities, nutrition, and essential medicines for anemia, tuberculosis, infections and childhood diseases.

Remember, every citizen has the right to health (Art. II, Sec.15), hence, the State has a duty to protect the citizens against dangerous substances (Constitution, Art. XVI, Sec.9), and protect women in their maternal function (Art. XIII,Sec. 14).

Family friendly? The “encouragement” to have two children is manipulation both brazen and subtle. It can set the stage for a stronger application of the recommendation through legislative amendments. Spouses have a basic, original, intrinsic and inviolable right “to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood” (Art. XV, Sec. 3 [1]). This includes their right to progeny.

The bill mocks parents with fine and imprisonment in refusing to expose their children to mandatory “age-appropriate” reproductive health education starting Grade 5 outside the loving confines of home and family.

Vulnerable and malleable, our children will be taught “adolescent reproductive health” and “the full range of information on family planning methods, services and facilities” for six years. This is child abuse of the highest order. And yet, “every child has the right to be brought up in an atmosphere of morality and rectitude for the enrichment and strengthening of his character.” (Child and Youth Welfare Code)

The ... care and nurtur[ance] of the child reside first in the parents (Article II, Sec. 12, Constitution), whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder. (Brantley v. Surles, 718 F. 2d. 1354,1358-59) The State did not create the family, and “the child is not a creature of the State.” (Pierce vs. Society of Sisters, 268, U.S. 510, 535.) That is the law of nature, and no human institution has authority to amend it.

Quality of life? The bill wants to “uplift the quality of life of the people.” Population control started in 1976 “to increase the share of each Filipino in the fruits of economic progress.” In other words -- to eliminate poverty. Has it?

The General Appropriations Act of 2008 earmarks an enormous amount for “family planning and reproductive health services,” including contraceptives. For the Department of Health it is P3.19 billion; for Popcom -- P386.5 million, quite apart from funds for other agencies of government and local government units for the same programs. Add $2.4 million from the United Nations Population Fund for population and development and reproductive health for 2008, plus $2.2 million for 2009.

Today’s average family has three children compared with seven in the ’70s. But the billions of pesos spent have not reduced poverty or benefited the poor.

If Congress passes this bill, it wagers the future of the country. Citizens have a right to resist misplaced and irresponsible exercise of authority because the good of the people is the supreme law. Salus populi est suprema lex.

The path of irresponsible legislation is a dreadful path: If an act is made legal, it will be perceived as moral. If an act is perceived as moral, it will become a norm. If it is observed by all as a norm, then it is too late. By then, you will have changed the culture. That is not simply reckless. It is the ultimate breach of public trust.

(Jo Imbong, a lawyer, is the executive secretary of the Legal office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and consultant to the CBCP Episcoal Commission on Family and Life.)

* * *

No place for the RH bill in our law

By Francisco S. Tatad

THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH bill in the House of Representatives is being presented as a health bill and an antipoverty bill at the same time. It is neither. It is not what its authors say it is; it is everything they say it is not. It is an ideological attack on human life, the family, and our social and cultural values.

The bill rests on a flawed premise; it is unnecessary, unconstitutional, oppressive of religious belief and destructive of public morals and family values. Its enactment into law will only deepen the already frightening ignorance about the real issues. It should be rejected.

1. Flawed premise
Our population growth rate (National Statistics Office) is 2.04 percent, total fertility rate (TFR) is 3.02. The CIA World Factbook has lower figures -- growth rate, 1.728 percent; TFR, 3.00.

Our population density is 277 per square km. GDP per capita (PPP) is $3,400. Fifty other countries have a much lower density, yet their per capita is also much lower. Thirty-six countries are more densely populated, yet their GDP per capita is also much higher. Are the few then always richer, the many always poorer? Not at all.

Our median age is 23 years. In 139 other countries it is as high as 45.5 years (Monaco). This means a Filipino has more productive years ahead of him than his counterpart in the rich countries where the graying and dying population is no longer being replaced because of negative birth rates.

Our long-term future is bright, because of a vibrant and dynamic population.

2. Unnecessary
Women who say they should be free to contracept (regardless of what the moral law or science says) are not being prevented from doing so, as witness the 50-percent contraceptive prevalence rate. It is a free market. But as we are not a welfare state, taxpayers have no duty to provide the contraceptives to try and cure pregnancy, which is not a disease.

The State’s duty is to protect women from real diseases. At least 80 women die every day from heart diseases, 63 from vascular diseases, 51 from cancer, 45 from pneumonia, 23 from tuberculosis, 22 from diabetes; 16 from lower chronic respiratory diseases. Why are our lawmakers not demanding free medicines and services for all those afflicted?

Indeed, maternal death could be brought down to zero just by providing adequate basic and emergency obstetrics-care facilities and skilled medical services to women. The local officials of Gattaran, Cagayan and Sorsogon City have shown this. Why do our lawmakers insist on stuffing our women with contraceptives and abortifacients instead?

In 2005, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization concluded that oral contraceptives cause breast, liver and cervical cancer. Shouldn’t our lawmakers demand that contraceptives be banned or at least labeled as “cancer-causing,” or “dangerous to women’s health”? Why do they want them classified as “essential medicines” instead?

3. Unconstitutional
a.) The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Yet the bill seems to assume we are a centrally planned economy or a totalitarian State, which controls the private lives of its citizens. Truth is, there are certain activities of man as man where the individual is completely autonomous from the State.

Just as the State may not tell a politician or a journalist how or when to think, write or speak, it may not enter the bedroom and tell married couples how or when to practice marital love.

b.) Article II, Section 12 of the Constitution says: “The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character shall receive the support of the Government.”

The use of “sanctity” makes State obedience to God’s laws not only a solemn teaching of the Church, but also an express constitutional mandate. Now, when the State binds itself to “equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception,” it necessarily binds itself not to do anything to prevent even one married woman from conceiving. A state-funded contraceptive program is an abomination.

4. Oppressive of religious belief

The bill seeks to tell the Catholic majority not to listen to the Church and to listen to anti-Catholic politicians instead. It seeks to establish a program which Catholic taxpayers will fund in order to attack a doctrine of their faith. Is there a worse despotism? Would the same people do the same thing to the followers of Islam or some politically active religious pressure group?

The pro-RH lobby claims surveys have shown that most Catholic women want to use contraception, regardless of what the Church says about it. It is a desperate attempt to show that right or wrong can now be reduced to what you like or dislike. The truth is never the result of surveys. Contraception is wrong not because the Church has banned it; the Church has banned it because it is wrong. No amount of surveys can change that.

5. Destructive of public morals

The bill seeks to impose a hedonistic sex-oriented lifestyle that aims to reduce the conjugal act to a mere exchange of physical sensations between two individuals and marriage to a purely contraceptive partnership.

Not only is it hedonistic, it is above all eugenicist. It seeks to eliminate the poor and the “socially unfit.” While it neither mandates a two-child family nor legalizes abortion, it prepares the ground for both.

In 1974, the US National Security Study Memorandum 200, titled “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests,” launched the two-child family as a global population policy to be achieved by 2000. But “no country has reduced its population growth without resorting to abortion,” said that document.

Now you know what’s next, and where it’s all coming from.

(Former Sen. Francisco S. Tatad represents the Asia-Pacific on the Governing Boards of the International Right to Life Federation, Cincinnati, Ohio and the World Youth Alliance, New York, NY. Comments to http://franciscotatad.blogspot.com)

Gaza pastor: 'We cry and nobody hears us'

2009-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Gaza pastor: 'We cry and nobody hears us'

By Judith Sudilovsky, Catholic News Service (via NCR)

Published:

January 5, 2009

JERUSALEM
The pastor of the Catholic parish in Gaza City described Gaza as "drowning in blood" as hospitals overflowed with patients.

In a message to participants in a special Mass for peace at St. Stephen Church in Jerusalem Jan. 4, Msgr. Manuel Musallam, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, wrote: "What you see on television cannot be compared to what is happening. The word love is choking in my throat. ... We are living like animals in Gaza. We cry and nobody hears us. I am asking God for mercy and pray that the light of Christianity continues to shine in Gaza."

Church leaders from the Holy Land attended the Mass at St. Stephen's while local and international Christians gathered elsewhere in Israel and the West Bank to pray for a halt to the violence in Gaza. When Israel began its military operation in Gaza in late December, the heads of Christian churches in the Holy Land called for Jan. 4 to be a day of prayer for peace.

At St. Stephen's, retired Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem said the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip means death for both sides.

"What is happening now is death for Palestinians as well as Israelis," Patriarch Sabbah said at the Mass. "What is happening in Gaza has made us all come to pray and join in a prayer that says stop the massacre. We are calling to God to look at Gaza and see what is happening there and to all of us."

Peace only can come through justice, not war, he said.

"We are looking at ourselves and we are not doing our best. Israel should stop this and will stop, but then after this destruction there will be more destruction," he said.

He called on Palestinians to realize that the only way to regain their freedom and independence is through nonviolent means.

Earlier in the day at St. Catherine Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, Christians attended a special Mass.

"This is genocide," said Bethlehem resident Adel Sahouri, 70, who attended the Mass. "Israel is so strong and has all the weapons the world can afford. What does Hamas have? Just rockets, nothing."

Israel launched a ground attack in Gaza Jan. 3 after several days of airstrikes to stop the Palestinian militant group Hamas from launching rockets into Israel. Since the start of the airstrikes Dec. 27, at least four Israelis and more than 500 Palestinians, including 100 civilians, have been killed.

Israel says that during the past year Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Gaza have fired more than 3,000 rockets, missiles and mortars at civilian targets in the southern Negev region of Israel.

In a center pew of St. Catherine's, Victor Zoughbi knelt in prayer.

He told Catholic News Service after Mass he was praying "not just for the people in Gaza but also for those in Tel Aviv. Every (Israeli) soldier going into Gaza now has a mother who is sitting glued to the television with her heart in her throat. He who truly has God in his heart loves everybody."

Zoughbi said he did not understand the purpose of Hamas' rockets, given their inaccuracy, and he emphasized the fact that there is only one Palestinian government headed by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. In June 2007, Hamas split with Abbas' Fatah movement and took control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas' government still controls the West Bank.

"What are we fighting over -- for a piece of land? Take the land. In the end the land will swallow us all," he said, noting that, given the situation, he was not able to speak so freely with many of his friends and acquaintances lest his loyalty be called into question.

After the Mass in Bethlehem more than 50 worshippers -- carrying a flower wreath, placards calling for peace, a black mourning flag and a Palestinian flag -- processed around Manger Square reciting Psalm 50, traditionally said at funerals.

"What is going on is war and I am praying to stop it. I am not waiting for people to hear (my prayer); I am waiting for God and, whatever God's plan is, we will follow," said Rosemarie Nasser, 55. "No one understands that God has his own time. So many times in our lives God uses the bad for good."

Most Holy Name of Jesus

2009-01-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2: 9-11, NAB

Happy Epiphany!

2009-01-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

Holy Theotokos

2009-01-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

Alma Redemptoris Mater

MOTHER of Christ, hear thou thy people's cry
Star of the deep and Portal of the sky!
Mother of Him who thee made from nothing made.
Sinking we strive and call to thee for aid:
Oh, by what joy which Gabriel brought to thee,
Thou Virgin first and last, let us thy mercy see.

From Christmas Eve until the Purification

V. After childbirth thou didst remain a virgin.
R. Intercede for us, O Mother of God.

Let us pray
O God, who, by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary, hast bestowed upon mankind the reward of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may experience her intercession, through whom we have been made worthy to receive the author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Amen.

(Thesaurus Precum Latinarum)

A Blessed Christmas

2008-12-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2: 6-7

Bethlehem

Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City:

Christmas is about Christ, not gifts, cardinal reminds Catholics

2008-12-15T06:16:00.001-08:00

Guatemala City, Dec 12, 2008 / 08:00 pm (CNA).-

The Archbishop of Guatemala, Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno, called on the faithful in that country not to reduce Christmas to the mere “exchanging of gifts” and to keep in mind that “Christ must be the irreplaceable and only focus of our Christmas celebrations.”

In his pastoral exhortation for Advent and Christmas, the archbishop stated, “It is not possible to reduce it to an occasion for extraordinary purchases, to the exchanging of gifts, to a children’s festivity or a simple excuse for profane celebrations.”

He called on Christians to “see the time of Advent as a spiritual journey towards Christmas and to not allow it to be swallowed up by the consumerist atmosphere of the age.”

The cardinal said nativity scenes should be turned into “small domestic altars, places of payer, reflection and great spiritual content.” He also encouraged Guatemalans to be austere in their celebrations for Christmas, in “imitation of Christ, who was born, lived and died in poverty.” “A good Christian must never fall into the claws of a consumerist society.”

“To consider superfluous material things as necessary and to acquire them at any cost is a new form of slavery,” he added.

“May all of us find in this celebration another reason to be consistent with our faith in our personal, family and social lives,” the cardinal stated.

Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of a Person)

2008-12-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

An Instruction from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on ethical issues arising from biomedical research, provides guidance on how to respect human life and human procreation in our heavily scientific age.

See USCCB page.

"No estoy yo aquí que soy tu Madre?"

2008-12-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Mystical Rose,
make intercession for the holy Church,
protect the Sovereign Pontiff,
help all those who invoke thee in their necessities,
and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary
and Mother of the true God,
obtain for us from thy most holy Son
the grace of keeping our faith,
sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life,
burning charity
and the precious gift of final perseverance.
Amen.

This prayer was approved and enriched with an indulgence of five hundred days by Pope Pius X at all audience held on August, 1908, and was included in the official edition of approved indulgenced prayers (1950).

Raccolta number 389, 500 days Indulgence, Pope Saint Pius X audience, August 15, 1908.

Am I not here, who am your Mother?

- Our Lady to San Juan Diego

Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Patroness of the Philippines,
Protectress of the Unborn,
pray for us!

Saint Juan Diego,
pray for us!

O Mary conceived without sin. . .

2008-12-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

Note: This post is, as usual, late. But it's never to late to honor the Holy Mother in her Immaculate Conception which the entire Church celebrated as a Solemnity five days ago. The Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the Philippines and December 8 is a Holy Day of Obligation in the entire archipelago.

The Immaculate Conception, Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO;

1767-69; oil on canvas; Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Immaculate Conception; Bartolomeo MURILLO;
1678; oil on canvas; Museo del Prado

Inmaculada Concepción (La Colosal) (Immaculate Conception),
oil on canvas, 436 x 297 cm.

On March 31, 1876 Pius IX authorized the following antiphon, versicle and prayer in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prayer below is the collect for the feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8)

Ant. Haec est virga in qua nec nodus originalis, nec cortex actualis culpae fuit.	Ant. This is the rod in which there was neither knot of original sin, nor rind of actual guilt.
V. In conceptione tua, O Virgo, immaculata fuisti. R. Ora pro nobis Patrem, cuius Filium peperisti.	V. In thy conception, O Virgin, thou wast immaculate. R. Pray for us to the Father, whose Son thou didst bring forth.
DEUS, qui per immaculatam Virginis Conceptionem dignum Filio tuo habitaculum praeparasti, quaesumus, ut qui ex morte eiusdem Filii tui praevisa eam ab omni labe praeservasti, nos quoque mundos, eius intercessione, ad te pervenire concedas. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.	O GOD, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst make ready a fitting habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee that Thou who didst keep her clean from all stain by the precious death of the same Thy Son, foreseen by Thee, mayest grant unto us in like manner to be made clean through her intercession and so attain to Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the Raccolta #410. (S. C. Ind. Dec. 14, 1889; S. P., March 15, 1934).

From the Thesaurus

A Season (not just a Day) to Celebrate

2008-12-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

Especially in the Philippines, Christmas is so highly anticipated to the extent that people start singing Christmas melodies and decorating their homes as early as September (the first of the '-ber' months). Sadly, the wonderful season of preparation (Advent) is oftentimes ignored. More than that, after December 25, which is Christmas Day, people start exclaiming "Napakabilis ng Pasko" (Christmas came too fast) or "Napakatagal pinaghandaan, iisang araw lang naman" (We prepared so long for Christmas, but it is just celebrated for one day)

Read the article "On the 18th day of Christmas?" by Patricia Coll Freeman at Catholic Anchor wherein she discusses that Christmas is an entire season, not just a day to celebrate.

With the patience of love

2008-12-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

From Fr. Z's blog, WDTPRS:

Liturgy between innovation and tradition

With the patience of love

By [Rev. Fr.] Nicola Bux

A new liturgical movement is rising that looks to the liturgies of Benedict XVI; instructions prepared by experts are not enough, what is needed are exemplary liturgies that allow an encounter with God.

Only intentionally shallow spirits could fail to notice it. It is a new beginning that comes from the core of liturgy just like last century’s liturgical movement that reached its peak with the council.

Liturgy as the place of the encounter with the living God, neither a show to render religion interesting nor a museum of grandiose ritual forms. The people of God celebrates the new rite with respect and solemnity, but remains disoriented by the contradictions of the two extremes. Liturgy gets back to being an ecclesial action, not of specialists and liturgical committees, but of fathers and teachers who – thanks to their knowledge of sources - saw western liturgy as the result of a historical development and eastern liturgy as a reflection of the eternal one. They opposed the falsification of liturgy and through their knowledge of history they showed us the several forms of its itinerary. The Holy Father picks up their legacy and renders it fruitful. He fulfilled their wish that both the ancient and the new form could coexist side by side as is already with the Ambrosian and the Eastern liturgies.

Let’s trust him: he brings patiently the wisdom of Catholic imagination into the life of today’s Church. He understands well how innovation is not hostile to tradition but is part of it as the lymph of the Holy Spirit. He is neither a “conservative” nor an innovator, but a missionary “humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord”. In the book “Jesus of Nazareth” he stresses the “sympathy” for the Israelites Jesus demonstrates – unlike in the other Gospels – in the Gospel of Luke:

“It seems to me particularly meaningful – he observes – the way he concludes the story of the new wine and the old and fresh wine skins. In Mark we read: “no one pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wine skins." (Mk 2,22). In Matthew, 9,17, the text is similar. Luke hands down the same conversation, but he adds at the end: And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’"(5,39) – an addition that could perhaps be interpreted as an expression of sympathy for those who wanted to stick with the “old wine” (pp 216-217)”.

Couldn’t this parable be applied to the debate between usus antiquior and usus novus of the Mass that followed the Motu proprio?

Christian liturgy, like the Christian event itself (“avvenimento Cristiano”), is not something we make.. A word like actualization has given birth to the idea that we had the power to replicate it, to create the right conditions for it to happen, to organize it, as if we were the creators of what we affirm to believe. As a matter of fact it is Jesus Christ who makes the sacred liturgy with the Holy Spirit. Our role is to follow, give room to his work. The method within everyone’s reach is to watch what happens – they used to say to “assistere” – that is ad-stare, to stand before his presence; it means to adhere to Something that precedes us, to follow what he does in our midst, always capable of turning upside down the idea that (culto) worship (liturgy) is something we make . Liturgy is sacred because it is one Thing that comes from Heaven.

We would like to help the comprehension and the worthy celebration of the Liturgy as the possibility of the encounter with the reality of God and the source of man’s morality, (to help) understand its degradations as a symptom of spiritual emptiness, to show the path to a restoration of its spirit in the perspective of the unity of the Catholic and Apostolic faith, and to promote a serious debate and an educational itinerary by following the thought and the example of the Pope to allow a restart of the liturgical movement. We need to aim to the spirit of the liturgy as the worshiping of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, and as a pedagogy to enter the mystery and be transformed by it in morality and holiness. It’s an invitation to those who do not believe but desire truth, because nobody goes untouched by the doubt that perhaps Someone else exists to dedicate time to! On this “perhaps” – which liturgy does not unveil completely, and that’s why it is necessary to preserve the sense of mystery and sacred – it will be possible to enable the communication between believers and non-believers or differently believing?

From the "Island Envoy"

2008-12-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

Pick up the Ball and Run!

by Most Reverend Archbishop Thomas Gullickson

Taking a Stance on the increasing Sentiment in favor of a
Reform of the Liturgical Reform

Recently I happened across what I presume was a sports shoe commercial for television but of a very surreal sort built around a rugby theme. In the video the ball comes crashing through the front window of a restaurant and the next thing you know the men from the restaurant in business suits are joining in the game on the streets of the busy city outside. The video resembles as much urban warfare as it does a sport. I know rugby has become a genuine “thing” for boys and young men, replacing for our day and time the quest for the “red badge of courage” once to be gained in a forgotten type of warfare that was far from all-out for the civilian population but oftentimes mortal for the flower of a nation’s youth. In watching the video, the thought came to me that much of what goes on in the area of vernacular liturgy, its planning and celebration is not without parallels to the sport of rugby and its ethos. The incongruity of this thought is as shocking to me as watching the video “rugby” chase over cars, down alleys and onward through a bustling business district of town. The ethos of Divine Worship should be another.

Since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum the calls for a genuine reform of that liturgical reform which we have netted over the past forty years have become more insistent but likewise more eloquent and credible as proponents clarify their positions and line up behind the Holy Father. The contrast to the at times rugby-like status quo presented by the Pope’s gentle hand and his balanced words, notably during his recent visit to France, has led me to draw my little parallel between what has been touted as a reform according to the mind of the Second Vatican Council but which many times over the years and even yet today rather seems to resemble rugby rules for picking up the ball and running with it, that is, if you dare. The liturgical renewal which many of us have experienced in many parts of the Western World is unfortunately tinged with an inclination on the part of the priest celebrants to protagonism and no small amount of bravado being shown by others (let’s point our fingers at some of the pop choirs, musicians and dancers, leaving aside people with feminist and other agendas who also occasionally attempt to highjack what we were taught was the work of all God’s people).

I do not believe I am alone in having witnessed attempts by individuals or groups to steal center stage or at least run as far as they can with the “ball” without being tackled. Today’s Catholic youth and a goodly number of folk on the brink of or even immersed in middle age have known only this situation where what was cautiously and wisely decreed by Sacrosanctum Concilium has been bowled over by the “cavalry charge” initiated by enthusiasts who saw their chance to take the high ground. The fundamental appreciation which the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had for the need to set forth the liturgical reforms begun by Pope St. Pius X and Pope Pius XII seems to have been lost in the shuffle or huddle.

The recent announcement of the intention of the Bishop of Tulsa, Oklahoma to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in English but ad Orientem on the First Sunday of Advent and on Christmas is clearly motivated by a commendable desire on the part of the bishop to reestablish the continuity of the reform within the tradition, one of the hallmarks of the reform as intended and decreed by the Second Vatican Council. The publication in an Italian liturgical “blog” recently of a very eloquent page taken from a publication penned in 2001 by our present Holy Father dealing with being Christian in the new millennium has given new urgency to my own sense of obligation to take a stand in this “game”. For some strange reason, not wishing to challenge anyone’s good will, it seems evident that vernacular liturgy as celebrated today is not only too open to abuse, but is seemingly distant from what the Council Fathers intended and what could have been accomplished since then if everyone had held to their words of instruction and direction.

Were we (priests and people) ill-advised by the liturgical experts to stop praying in the same direction and start facing each other across the table? We know now that the nearly absolute banishment of Latin from our musical repertoire was an impoverishment, a form of iconoclasm, not dissimilar to that which whitewashed and stripped once pretty little churches of their countless votive offerings: sometimes leaving behind barren places where formerly one had felt at home with God, the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints. Could we not then also have been ill-advised in accepting something without precedent in our history (remember that the advice came from the same people and who evidently didn’t sufficiently understand the history of divine worship or care enough about what the Council Fathers had prescribed)? The negative consequences of this personalizing of worship (face to face) are patent. They place unreal expectations on the priest celebrant who as often as not instead of leading us in prayer seems obliged to seek engagement or even eye contact with the people before or around him.

Sacrosanctum Concilium N. 23 laid down the following principle among others for renewal: “Finally, there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them, and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.” Even in the best celebrations of the reformed liturgy today, one would be hard pressed to show any urgency for celebrating across the altar table as “genuinely and certainly” being required for the good of the Church. Organic growth too is hard to plot in what so many people have experienced as rupture.

When N. 33 of the same conciliar decree urges that the sacred liturgy be instructive it does so reminding us that “… the sacred liturgy is principally the worship of the divine majesty…” The above cited page from Cardinal Ratzinger from 2001 rightly emphasizes that it is of the utmost importance that we reacquire respect for the liturgy and once again recognize that it is not open to manipulation; it is not placed at our discretion to be planned and presented as our talents allow. The present Holy Father called in this article for the reestablishment in a clear and organic way of the connections with past history.

I cannot help but think that the multiplication of celebrations according to the usus antiquior since Summorum Pontificum will be of aid in helping us back to the tradition. A full restoration of things as they were before Sacrosanctum Concilium, however, denies the wholesome analysis and the longing of saintly past Popes and an historic ecumenical council. Pope St. Pius X was right to come to the defense of Gregorian Chant and Pope Pius XII gifted us with a renewal of the Sacred Triduum to reflect the sublime mysteries celebrated therein. Both Popes’ interventions brought genuine change to the liturgy in an atmosphere of profound respect for the sacredness of the words and gestures they were modifying. It was undoubtedly the intention of the Second Vatican Council to set forth this same sort of cautious and organic reform. But, as I say, one has the impression that rugby rules were often applied and more than one stalwart decided to pick up the ball and run for it.

The article I read on the decision of the Bishop of Tulsa contains two great quotes from Bishop Slattery: “I hope that this common posture of the Church at prayer will help you to experience the transcendent truth of the Mass in a new and timeless way… “I pray that this restored practice will help us understand that at Mass we participate in the authentic worship which Christ offers to His Father by being ‘obedient unto death’ (Philippians 2:8)”. A modest wish on my part would be that many more chief shepherds would soon be setting a similar example.

The attraction held by the usus antiquior for young people in particular ought to give pause for thought. The explanation for this phenomenon could be as simple as recalling the God experience of the Prophet Elijah on Mount Sinai: he went to the opening of the cave and covered his face with his cloak at the tiny whispering sound of God passing by. God was not to be found in the storm or tempest. Much of what is propagated as youth liturgy today must certainly be judged at odds with Sacrosanctum Concilium N. 34: “The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity. They should be short, clear, and free from useless repetitions.” Though my life as a child was much quieter and free of external stimulation than is that of my nieces and nephews, I still found respite even as a preschooler in the big, quiet church of Sunday morning, where if it wasn’t High Mass, the silence might be broken only by an organ prelude, by another subdued organ piece during Communion and by the antiphons sung by a single voice from the choir loft on high. The genius of the past and its attraction for people of today comes from being able to perceive the Mass as gift, as withdrawn from the ambit of my discretion or caprice, as something of God, something sacred. Pope Benedict XVI speaks with urgency of our need to reawaken an interior sense of the sacred.

We have something altogether priceless in the renewed liturgical calendar and in the bounty of the lectionary with its three year cycle for Sundays and Solemnities. The introduction of the vernacular to worship certainly responded to an almost desperate hunger outside of the Latin world at least, if not universally within the Church. I would like to believe that the Bishop of Tulsa is on to something when he very simply and humbly moves to reestablish a single orientation for prayer in his cathedral this Advent and Christmas. May his attempt succeed to rescue the Mass from those who would beat it down with personal inventions or change the rules of the game to those of aggression! There’s a time and a place for rugby and not all of us are hearty enough to play such a game.

Head of Russian Orthodox church dies

2008-12-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, has died at the age of 79.

Telegraph.co.uk - He died at his residence outside Moscow although here was no immediate word on the cause of death.

Patriarch Alexy II was an establishment figure who restored the authority of the church after decades of Soviet repression.

Born Alexei Ridiger, Alexy II made his ecclesiastical career at a time when the church was controlled by Soviet authorities before forging an alliance with the new Russian state under presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.

The patriarch was an impressive character with a benign expression and moral authority among millions of Russian believers but his personality was always locked in by the deeply hierarchical nature of his role.

Alexy II took stances on foreign policy issues that often matched the Kremlin line, criticising Nato strikes against Yugoslavia, the US-led war in Iraq and defending the rights of ethnic-Russians in the former Soviet Union.

But his role in the international arena was marked above all by wariness of Catholics, whom he accused of "proselytism," and he refused repeatedly to meet Roman Catholic pope John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI.

The main reason for the row was a property dispute between the Catholic and Orthodox churches in Ukraine, where the Greek Catholic church, which was banned by Stalin and dispossessed, took back hundreds of parishes from the Orthodox church at the beginning of the 1990s.

The creation of four Catholic dioceses in Russia also created suspicion among Orthodox leaders. Several rounds of negotiations between Catholic and Orthodox officials failed to smooth differences.

He was also, however, a unifying Orthodox figure who helped engineer a union with a branch of the Russian Orthodox church that separated from Moscow-based church authorities after the 1917 Soviet revolution.

Ridiger was born on February 23, 1929 in then independent Estonia, the son of an Orthodox priest. He worked in two cathedrals after Estonia became part of the Soviet Union and entered a religious seminary under Stalin.

He married but then divorced in order to become a monk in 1961 during the anti-religion campaigns launched by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. He was soon promoted to become an Orthodox bishop.

Ridiger had a successful career under Leonid Brezhnev at a time when the Orthodox church was effectively controlled by the KGB and dissident priests were thrown into jail.

The future patriarch conformed and rose rapidly through church ranks, becoming number two in the influential external affairs section of the patriarchate.

Despite his ties with the Communist establishment, he made some efforts to curb Soviet repression, including keeping a famous convent in Estonia open despite the threat of closure.

He became patriarch in 1990, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union.

At the time, Ridiger was seen as more in touch with the reforms to the Soviet system being undertaken by Mikhail Gorbachev than another candidate, metropolitan Filaret, considered even closer to the Communist regime.

The new patriarch remained prudent after the fall of the Communist system, ruling out investigations against church officials accused of links to the Soviet secret services.

In close collaboration with Yeltsin Putin, Alexy II used his close relations with the authorities to rebuild the influence of the Orthodox church.

Seminaries were restored, churches were rebuilt and church finances were greatly boosted by income from customs duties granted by the Russian government during the 1990s.

The lavish Christ the Saviour cathedral in central Moscow, which was destroyed under Stalin and replaced by an open-air swimming pool, was rebuilt in full splendour during Alexy II's patriarchate.

Religion gained influence in schools, prisons, hospitals and the armed services.

Within the church, Alexy II was never an innovative leader and opposed himself to liberal policies but he also rejected deeply anti-Semitic and nationalistic currents in religious thinking.

The patriarch died at a time when the Russian Orthodox church had not yet determined its preferred status, as an institution closely allied with political authorities or a church more in tune with the Russian people.

Dominican rite aims to shine from the ‘dark ages’

2008-11-28T07:31:00.000-08:00

Dominican rite aims to shine from the ‘dark ages’

By Patricia Coll Freeman

Anchorage, Nov 23, 2008 / 02:56 pm (CNA).- Beginning December 6, ethereal chant, incense and perhaps even an ostrich-feathered liturgical fan will waft through Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska as the archdiocese prepares for the ancient Dominican rite Mass that will be celebrated in Latin every first Saturday of the month at noon.

The Catholic Anchor reports that the successful emergence of the Dominican rite locally is keeping the tradition alive, and perhaps fueling organic development of the liturgy into the future.

By early 2009, the Anchorage Archdiocese is also hoping to provide regular celebrations of the Tridentine Latin Mass, which was the standard Roman Catholic liturgy before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

A question of rites

Within the universal Catholic Church, there are 22 different rites, such as the Roman, Byzantine and Coptic, that incorporate different traditions into the Mass.

When it comes to forms of the Mass, “often we think of the Masses as ‘pre-Vatican II’ and ‘post-Vatican II,’ and it was more complicated than that,” said Father Vincent Kelber — a Dominican priest at Holy Family Cathedral, where he is preparing to celebrate the Dominican rite.

In 1570, the Council of Trent codified the Tridentine Mass as “the Mass for all time,” he explained. It then served as the main form of the Mass for the Latin Church until the Second Vatican Council.

The Council of Trent, however, allowed for the celebration of those rites which, at the time, had been in existence for at least 200 years, Father Kelber said.

That meant the Dominican order and others like the Carthusians, Cistercians and Carmelites could continue celebrating their own rites, alongside the principal Tridentine Mass.

Father Kelber explained that by the 1200s, it was clear that the Dominicans needed a common liturgical expression for the order’s many priests who preached and celebrated Mass in varied communities across Europe. Thus, the Dominican rite was established.

While the Tridentine Mass is sometimes criticized for being antiquated, it is actually pretty new compared to the medieval Dominican rite, noted Father Kelber. The Tridentine is really “the beginning of the modern era,” he said.

At Vatican II, the Tridentine Mass was replaced by the “Novus Ordo” or “new Ordinary of the Mass” as the principal form of the Mass. In that form, which most Catholics are accustomed to today, prayers are said in the local language.

Ancient is new again

Those familiar with the Tridentine Mass will find similarities in the Dominican rite. Both are celebrated in Latin, which for centuries was the sacred liturgical language of the Catholic Church, Father Kelber said.

Additionally, in both the Tridentine and Dominican rites, priests face the same direction as the congregation — toward the altar.

The point is to be “oriented towards the one God,” said Father Kelber. The Eucharist is always central, he added.

Priests also wear special vestments in the Dominican rite, but since the Dominicans “pre-date lace,” explained Father Kelber, they are not as ornate as those in the Tridentine rite.

Catholics may also notice that the Dominican rite contains many signs of reverence, such as bowing, Father Kelber explained.

A penitential prayer, which the priest leads at the start of the Mass, is said before he enters into the sanctuary, “the holy of holies,” Father Kelber said. Also, communicants receive Communion kneeling.

“Every movement in the Mass is purposeful and prayerful; it is embodied worship,” he said.

‘Rite’ for the times

While Vatican II ushered in many needed changes, the continued use of the Dominican rite helped provide stability amid the flux.

“We realize now and Pope Benedict realizes that some of the changes of the Second Vatican Council were good, but some of them were too fast, some weren’t explained, some were poorly implemented and some weren’t according to the documents,” Father Kelber said.

The ancient Masses “helped people to cope,” he added.

As part of the patrimony of the church, the ancient Mass is worth preserving, Father Kelber continued.

“It’s okay to have this kind of diversity,” he said.

Father Kelber said it is especially important to appreciate the “ethos” of a pre-reformation tradition, such as that of the Dominicans.

“There is a lot that the medieval times can offer,” he said. “They weren’t in the dark ages at all. They lived a life that we can see today is something worth emulating in many ways, because it was before the busy-ness of the modern world. They knew what contemplation was, they knew what silence was, and we don’t.”

An ancient rite blooms

In the 1980s interest in the Dominican rite grew among the young friars of the Dominicans’ Western Province, said Father Kelber. Interest “bloomed again in a new way” with friars, such as Father Kelber, who were ordained in the late 1990s and early 21-century.

With no formal training on how to celebrate the ancient Mass, Father Kelber said he read about the Mass and worked with other priests familiar with it.

“Preservation work is personal,” he said. “It has to be handed-down. It can’t be just gotten out of a book.”

Now, given the growing interest in the Dominican rite, the Western and Eastern Provinces of the Dominican order are planning instructive conferences for its friars. The first takes place August 2009 at St. Albert’s priory in Oakland.

Here in Anchorage, with permission from his provincial director and Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz, Father Kelber has been perfecting his practice of the Dominican rite on his days off.

“There are people all over the United States and the world excited about the old rite — excited about Gregorian chant,” he said. “It’s not just one person here saying ‘Well, I miss the old days.’ It’s not just something looking back, but something looking forward and a gift for these crazy times.”

Printed with permission from the Catholic Anchor, newspaper from the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska.

Standing up for the Gospel of Life

2008-11-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

Standing up for the Gospel of Life

CBCP Pastoral Statement on Reproductive Health Bill

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative power of God (CCC 2258). The Church carries out the mandate of the Lord to go and proclaim to all the nations the Gospel of Life. The protection and preservation of human life and the preservation of the integrity of the procreative act of parents are important elements of our mission from the Lord. It is our fidelity to the Gospel of Life and our pastoral charity for the poor that leads us your pastors to make this moral stand regarding Reproductive Health Bill 5043 that is the object of deliberation in Congress.

The Bill makes a number of good points. Some of the issues that it includes under reproductive health care, for instance, are the kind of things no humane institution would have any reason to oppose—maternal, infant and child health and nutrition, promotion of breastfeeding, adolescent and youth health, elimination of violence against women, etc.; but the Bill as it stands now contains fatal flaws which if not corrected will make the Bill unacceptable. It is our collective discernment that the Bill in its present form poses a serious threat to life of infants in the womb. It is a source of danger for the stability of the family. It places the dignity of womanhood at great risk.

The Church has always concerned itself with the poor. It has innumerable institutions and programs meant to help the poor. Our objection to this Bill is precisely due to our concern that in the long run this Bill will not uplift the poor. “The increase or decrease of population growth does not by itself spell development or underdevelopment”. (CBCP Statement, July 10, 1990)

Even as we recognize the right of the government to enact laws, we also reiterate that there must be no separation between God and Man. We appeal to our legislators to state in the Bill in clear categorical terms that human life from the moment of conception is sacred. We appeal to our legislators to insure that the Bill recognize, preserve and safeguard freedom of conscience and religion. The Bill must inspire parents not only to be responsible but to be heroic in their God-given and State-recognized duty of parenting. Without these conditions, the Bill if enacted into law will separate our nation from Almighty God.

Sacredness of Life from Conception. The current version of the Bill does not define clearly when the protection of life begins. Although it mentions that abortion is a crime it does not state explicitly that human life is to be protected upon conception as stated in the Constitution. This ambiguity can provide a loophole for contraceptives that prevent the implantation of the fertilized ovum. The prevention of implantation of the fertilized ovum is abortion. We cannot prevent overt abortions by doing hidden abortions. It is a fallacy to think that abortions can be prevented by promoting contraception. Contraception is intrinsically evil (CCC 2370, Humanae Vitae, 14).

Even in the case of doubt as to the precise moment of the beginning of human life, the mere probability that the fertilized ovum is already a human life renders it imperative that it be accorded the rights of a human person, the most basic of which is the right to life (Evangelium Vitae, #60; cfr. Declaration on Procured Abortion, Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, November 18, 1974). When there is doubt whether a human life is involved, it is immoral to kill it. This is not just specifically Catholic Church teaching but simply natural law ethics.

Freedom of Conscience. By mandating only one Reproductive Health Education Curriculum for public and private schools, the Bill could violate the consciences of educators who refuse to teach forms of family planning that violate their religious traditions. This provision also could violate the rights of parents to determine the education of their children if the proposed curriculum would contradict their religious beliefs.

The Bill mandates that employers should ensure the provision of an adequate quantity of reproductive health care services, supplies and devices for their employees. This provision could be a violation of the conscience of employers who do not wish to provide artificial means of contraception to their employees because of religious reasons.

The Bill’s provision that penalizes malicious disinformation against the intention and provisions of the Bill (without defining what malicious disinformation is) could restrict freedom of speech by discouraging legitimate dissent and hinder our mandate to teach morality according to our Catholic faith. The Bill does not mention any consultation with religious groups or churches which could be interpreted to mean that religious and moral beliefs of citizens are not significant factors in the formation of policies and programs involving reproductive health.

Heroic Parenting. Family health goes beyond a demographic target because it is principally about health and human rights. Gender equality and women empowerment are central elements of family health and family development. Since human resource is the principal asset of every country, effective family health care services must be given primacy to ensure the birth and care of healthy children and to promote responsible and heroic parenting. Respect for, protection and fulfillment of family health rights seek to promote not only the rights and welfare of adult individuals and couples but those of adolescents’ and children’s as well.

We admonish those who are promoting the Bill to consider these matters. It is the duty of every Catholic faithful to form and conform their consciences to the moral teaching of the Church. We call for a more widespread dialogue on this Bill.

As your Pastors we speak to you in the name of the Lord: Choose life and preserve it. Stand up for the Gospel of Life!

May Mary, Mother of Life, who carried in her womb Life Himself, guide us to the Truth of Life.

For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

+ANGEL LAGDAMEO, DD
Archbishop of Jaro
President, CBCP
November 14, 2008

Note: Emphasis mine.

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (November 9)

2008-11-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

The Altar above the Confessio

The Pope's Cathedra

The Central Nave

The Facade

Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio

As a rebellious teenager, I thought the Catholic church should stop wasting its money on expensive churches. We ought to sell them all and buy food for the poor, I argued.

Funny thing. Jesus, who cared much for the poor, did not have this attitude. As an adolescent he yearned to spend time in Herod’s sumptuous Temple (Luke 2). As an adult, he defended its integrity against the moneychangers (John 2). Francis of Assisi, who gave away all his possessions, begged for money to buy materials to restore ruined churches which he rebuilt with his own hands.

Why this high regard for church buildings? Ezekiel 47 gives us one important reason. Because the liturgical worship that goes on inside, most especially the Eucharist, is the “source and summit” of our entire Christian life.

The world is a dusty, tiring place that often beats us down. The Church building is a haven, a quiet refuge, a place to encounter God. Here we drink deeply of the life-giving waters of word and sacrament that revive our drooping spirits (Psalm 23). The grace that flows from the altar bears us back into the world, changed, and able to change others, bringing healing and bearing fruit.

Saint Paul, in I Corinthians 3, gives us another reason to honor Churches. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, concluded from this passage that if we Christians are the Church, we should call our places of worship “steeple-houses.” To call buildings “churches” obscures the fact that we are the Church.

The Judeo-Christian Tradition see it differently. The Church building is a mirror that, held up before us, reminds us of who we are. The world tells us that we are consumers, employees and voters, and flashes a constant stream of icons at us every day to remind us of this. The Church building is an icon that reminds us of our deepest identity. As we gather for Sunday worship, we who were scattered by diverse loyalties, professions, and life-styles, are now united as the Body of Christ and dwelling place of the Spirit.

How does a person enter the Church? Through the cleansing waters of baptism. Maybe that’s why there are holy water fonts at the doors of most Catholic churches. Maybe those statues of saints are there to remind us that we are “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the family of God” (Ephesians 2:19f).

So what about all the expensive treasures of architecture, painting, sculpture, and stained glass? Sell them all and use the proceeds to by food for the poor? What then would the poor have?

In Texas, we have a homestead law that seeks to guarantee that no matter what financial misfortunes might befall people, they will not lose their homes. The loss of one’s home is a loss of one’s dignity. Our churches, from the local chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica, belong not to the hierarchy, but to the whole family. They’ve been given to us by the hard work and contributions of our forebears to remind us of our dignity as sons and daughters of the living God.

The Lateran Basilica, whose dedication we celebrate every November, was donated to the Church by Constantine soon after he legalized Christianity in 313AD. Ever since it has been, as the official cathedral of the Pope, the mother church of all Christendom, the cathedral of the world.

It is there that the most powerful pope of the middle ages, Innocent III, had a dream of a magnificent church breaking apart only to be shored up by a poor man in a beggars robe. Soon afterwards, a group of beggars from Assisi arrived, led by a man named Francis, asking for his approval for their lifestyle and work. Prepared by his dream, he recognized the hand of God, and encouraged a movement that renewed the Church.

As we meditate on this feast, let us allow zeal for his house to consume us as it did Jesus and Francis, that we may embrace the task of purification, renewal and rebuilding given us by the Council that met in another great Roman basilica some forty years ago.

Inetresting News

2008-11-07T18:05:00.001-08:00

There are some very interesting news articles from Zenit (as always) today. Check this links:

THE FACTS OF WHEN HUMAN LIFE BEGINS
Interview with Maureen Condic of the Westchester Institute

INDIA PRELATES SAY THEY'RE PROUD OF THEIR FLOCKS
Laud Strength of Faith in Midst of Persecution

ALL HALLOW'S DAY; ONLY THE BEST FOR HIM
Saints' Race Shows Reason to Celebrate

CALIFORNIA CELEBRATES MARRIAGE DEFINITION VOTE
Arizona and Florida Join in Banning Gay Marriage

The Sacred Liturgy: The Neglected Foundation to Building the Culture of Life

2008-11-07T17:39:00.001-08:00

From The New Liturgical Movement blog:

The Sacred Liturgy: The Neglected Foundation to Building the Culture of Life

by Deborah Morlani

Many Mass-Going Catholics Support the Culture of Death

A recent survey from October 2008, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and completed by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, found that 79% of Catholics who regularly attend Mass are supportive of abortion to some degree, varying from all cases to at least certain cases; this despite the Catholic teaching that the intentional killing of an unborn child by abortion is always evil and that there are no exceptions to this. What these surveys reveal is a fact that many faithful Catholics are already only too aware: that many of their fellow Catholics do not conform to Church teaching and support the culture of death to some degree, be it through contracepting, sterilization, abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, IVF, or so on. In looking at the results of these polls, not to mention years of personal experience, the question that comes to mind is this: how can Catholics who are going to Mass every week be living and thinking in such contrast to God's moral laws, as taught by the magisterium of the Church? The pro-life message is certainly “out there” and not unknown, so where is the deficiency that allows such a situation to exist and what can we do to address it? To answer these questions we need to consider the root of the problem and the font of Catholic life.

The Liturgy Is the Source and Summit From Which All Else Flows

The Church teaches us that the sacred liturgy is the centre, or font, from which all else flows within the Church; it refers to it as her source and summit. (Sacrosanctum Concilium para. 10) It is this tenet which allowed Pope Benedict XVI, while still a Cardinal, to note that “the Church stands and falls with the liturgy” for when one understands and accepts the central place which the liturgy holds within the life of the Church and her faithful, this clearly follows and should hopefully help us to appreciate the foundational place and importance of the liturgy in a variety of questions.

Returning to the question at hand then, it would not seem a stretch to suggest that an implication of this very centrality is that the culture of life itself also stands and falls with the liturgy. Why, we shall look at momentarily, but given our understanding that the liturgy is the summit from whence all else flows, and given the consideration of the impoverished, or "falling", state of the liturgy in so many parishes, it should perhaps come as little surprise that there would be a coinciding “falling” of the culture of life – to use the image of Ratzinger.

Putting Our Own House In Order: A More Serious Look at the the Liturgy by the Catholic Pro-life Movement

I would propose, particularly to those actively involved within the pro-life movement (of which all Catholics, clergy, laity, and religious, should consider themselves involved to some extent), that the sacred liturgy needs to be looked at much more seriously as a significant foundation and tool for beginning to build the culture of life among fellow Catholics. Pro-life homilies, pro-life prayer intentions and social activism generally are all important let’s be clear, but they don't address the deeper, foundational problem that lay at the root of this issue; namely, the lack of a sense of God that exists not only within our culture, but even within our parishes. Before we can ever hope to bring about a conversion of the culture to a culture of life – and we are speaking, not merely of the changing of laws, but ultimately of the need for conversion -- we must first put our own house in order. If we understand and accept the teaching of the Church as regards the central importance of the liturgy and its relationship to doctrine, then surely we must neither ignore the fact that deficiencies there will lead to deficiencies elsewhere, nor that it is also an important place to begin to assert the solution.

The Necessity of God-Centred Liturgies: Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi (The law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of living.)

In Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II taught that the root cause of the culture of death is a loss of the sense of God and, in the same vein, one will note that Pope Benedict XVI has been working quite intently to bring back the sense of transcendence and God-centredness within our liturgies; in short, to bring back a sense of God. So it is that a consistent theme emerges and also a consistent recognition of a problem within our churches today. The Holy Father knows well that if God is obscured within the sacred liturgy – the very place that is not only the source and summit of the Church, but also the heart, soul and primary point of contact for the faithful -- then it is likely to follow that God will be absent or obscured in the lives of the faithful as well. Consequently, this lack of sense of the Divine can lead to living a humanistic or self-centred existence which further leads to a lost sense of the sacredness of man; without a Creator, man becomes a mere organism in the vast universe of organisms that can be manipulated and used for any kind of fantasy by anyone who is stronger or more powerful.

It is well known that many parishes today have become more centred upon themselves as a community than being clearly centred upon God – what Ratzinger has called the “self-enclosed circle”. Many parishes are not following the authorized liturgical texts and rubrics -- often out of a misguided sense of "pastoral" creativity, or even simply out of ignorance. Nor do they sufficiently consider (let alone express) those elements which lend a sense of transcendence to the worship of God, particularly as expressed through the medium of beauty. To some these might seem rather unimportant surface considerations, but they are not. The sacred liturgy and doctrine are intertwined and the experiential dimension of the liturgy is a profound moment for catechesis and conversion. Accordingly, when there is problematic approach to the liturgy, and when unauthorized innovations are introduced, there can be a deficiency as well as a coinciding distortion of Catholic belief passed on to the faithful, and further a loss in the power of the liturgy to move the human heart and mind towards God.

By contrast, the sacred liturgy, when celebrated well and focused on God, is where the building of the culture of life begins for within the liturgy one experiences and encounters the perfection of the culture of life from the giver of life Himself, God our Creator. It is through this deep encounter with God in the liturgy that we witness and learn a perfect love that is self-giving and self-sacrificing; from that flows the possibility of conversion of heart and the reciprocal love for God in giving of our lives to Him and His Church just as Christ gave His life for us, a sacrificial reality which is perpetuated upon our altars at every Mass. From that love for God and desire to serve Him naturally flows an ability to better move outside of ourselves and love our neighbour, seeing their lives as inherently of value. Therefore, if we are to build a culture of life within our parishes and serve as leaven for our culture, the sacred liturgy must be oriented to God in all things, both interiorly and exteriorly. The liturgy must be celebrated in accord with the authorized texts and rubrics so that we might avoid obscuring Catholic doctrine or falling into a subjectivist mentality. The ceremonies must be reverent and beautiful, speaking to the worship of the Lord and the sacredness of what occurs, moving and focusing us accordingly. Finally, there should be liturgical catechesis for the faithful to help them to understand the greater meaning, focus and sacrificial reality of the Mass, emphasizing its primary end as the worship of God through the sacrifice of the Cross, including through postures and gestures, signs and symbols.

Pope Benedict XVI Leads by Example

The Pope has consistently written of and witnessed to the importance of both interior and exterior dimensions which orient the sacred liturgy toward God. He has led by example in directing how certain exterior forms contribute to a God-centered liturgy, such as through the “Benedictine altar arrangement” with a central Crucifix; his celebration of Mass ad orientem in the Sistine Chapel; the use of beautiful sacred music and vestments within the liturgy; and finally, by re-introducing kneeling for Holy Communion in his own liturgies. Moreover, the Holy Father has emphasized the importance of interiorly directing our minds and hearts toward God through mystagogical catechesis (meaning the teaching of the mysteries of the Faith) so that we can more fully know God through beauty and the sacred mysteries experienced in the liturgy and further be drawn into a more profound encounter with the Divine which can lead to a deeper conversion.

In Conclusion

To conclude, let us recall the teaching of the Church about the centrality of the liturgy and how all flows from it. Let us also follow the example of the Holy Father in addressing any crisis among Catholics first in looking at the liturgy and never neglecting it as a central part of the solution. Indeed, everything that happens within the sacred liturgy matters and all that is done to lead the faithful closer to God will ultimately work toward building the culture of life, which will necessarily come through, not simply legal means, but conversion of heart and mind to God.

Postscript: Addressing Some Common Objections

As a postscript, it would seem important to address a few common objections that arise whenever there is an attempt to assert the central importance of the liturgy in all its forms and aspects.

One objection is summarized by the sentiment that "all that really matters at Mass is that Our Lord is present in the Eucharist. These other matters are ultimately not of significant importance. They are simply nice-to-have’s or just a matter of taste.” This is a common objection that often comes up from many Catholics, and even some priests, when attempting to explain the importance of the sacred liturgy as though validity, sacramentality or Eucharistic piety is all that is of concern. Obviously they are of concern, but this view is not in accord with the Church's teaching and is based on what Ratzinger has called “abstract sacramental theology” and “reductionism”. Everything in the liturgy matters which is why the Church regulates it accordingly. In that regard, our focus cannot merely be upon validity or receiving and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, it must be deeper, and it must take more serious consideration of the Mass in all its aspects and dimensions and the implication of those aspects and dimensions. The teaching of the Church and the teaching of our Holy Father speak contrary to such an assertion.

A second objection is the suggestion that the liturgy really doesn't affect whether or not Catholics follow the Church's teachings on contraception, abortion, and so forth. This also does not follow, for if, as the Church teaches, the sacred liturgy is the source and the summit, the font, from which everything else flows, this clearly has the implication that what flows from the liturgy will also likely be manifest in the Catholic faithful who are present, for good or for ill. How could it have such importance and influence and not have such effects?

Another objection might be the suggestion that doctrinal catechesis through study, preaching and such methods is far more important in the building the culture of life than what goes on in the sacred liturgy, but this fails to consider some basic realities. First, liturgy and doctrine are inseparable; what goes on in the liturgy is catechetical in itself. It is an experiential form of catechesis, and accordingly, very powerful. Second, the liturgy is the first and primary source of catechesis as it is a living experience of the Catholic faith that draws one into an encounter with God. It is there that most Catholics come into the most prolonged and profound contact with their faith and it is through this means that they are most impacted and potentially moved, making them accordingly more disposed to receive more intellectual forms of catechesis. "By its nature, the liturgy can be pedagogically effective in helping the faithful to enter more deeply into the mystery being celebrated. That is why, in the Church's most ancient tradition, the process of Christian formation always had an experiential character."(Sacramentum Caritatis, para. 64)

A final objection might be that good liturgy doesn't guarantee that a Catholic will be pro-life and poor liturgy doesn't mean that a Catholic won't be pro-life. Of course this is true in point of fact, but while it may not be an absolute guarantee, and while exceptions can surely always be found, it does not change the fact of the central importance of the liturgy in Catholic life and faith, nor does it change the teaching of the Church on this matter.

Conversi ad Dominum

2008-11-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

This blog is named "Conversi ad Dominum" for nothing. Of course, first and foremost, the reason is my continuing struggle as a Catholic Christian to "turn towards the Lord" every aspect of my life and journey towards Him. Also, this blog posts certain aspects on Catholic culture, Pro-Life alerts, etc. - to show that our daily life should be turned and tuned towards the Lord, if we consider ourselves as his creatures and servants.

Also, as a Catholic who loves the liturgy and sees it as a vital part of Christian life, I support the "reform of the reform" movement in Catholic liturgy. I see the necessity of interpreting the documents and instrcutions of the popes, especially Pope Benedict XVI, happily reigning, the Second Vatican Council and the authentic Magisterium of the Church in the light of the hermeneutics of continuity especially with regards to the liturgy. While, I rejoice with the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum clarifying that the 1962 Missal of Pope John XXIII (or the Traditional Latin Mass) was never abrogated and considering the celebration according to pre-conciliar editions of the Missal (Roman Ritual, etc) as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, I am convinced, that since the Missal of Pope Paul VI (revised by Pope John Paul II) is the Ordinary Form of the same Roman Rite, the tradition of "lex orandi, lex credendi" (the rule of praying of the rule of beloef) should be better observed by the celebration of Masses faithful to the rubrics laid down by the competent authority and when there are some 'vagueness' in the instructions, the long-standing liturgical tradition of the Church (represented by the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) is the best guide.

Both the rubrics of the modern Pauline Order of the Mass and the liturgical tradition represented by EF form, 'features' the 'ad orientem' posture wherein, the priest and the assembly of the faithful faces the "east" - the direction of the "Rising Sun", symbol of Jesus and his second coming either by facing the geographical east, or when it is not possible, the "liturgical East" - the apse with the icon of Christ of, as explained by the Pope Benedict XVI while still a cardinal - to the cross, symbol of the Christ Crucified and Risen.

It is my goal, for my personal reading and hopefully for the readers of this blog, if there are any, to link articles from various internet resources that will give us some light in this licit and wonderful liturgical tradition.

All Saints and the Faithful Departed

2008-11-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Note: This post, though late, is in honor of All Saints and as testimony of love and prayers for the all the faithful departed especially those who are dear to us.

Eastern Icons of All Saints

The Litany of Saints

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.	Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of heaven, God the Son, Redeemer of the world, God the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, one God,	have mercy on us. have mercy on us. have mercy on us. have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Holy Mother of God, Holy Virgin of virgins, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, All you Holy Angels and Archangels, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, All you Holy Patriarchs and Prophets,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. James, St. John, St. Thomas, St. James, St. Philip, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, St. Simon, St. Jude, St. Matthias, St. Barnabas, St. Luke, St. Mark, All you holy Apostles and Evangelists, All you holy Disciples of the Lord, All you holy Innocents,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, Sts. Fabian and Sebastian, Sts. John and Paul, Sts. Cosmos and Damian, All you holy Martyrs,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
St. Sylvester, St. Gregory, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, All you holy Bishops and Confessors, All you holy Doctors,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
St. Anthony, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, All you holy Priests and Levites, All you holy Monks and Hermits,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
St. Mary Magdalene, St. Agatha, St. Lucy, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Anastasia, St. Catherine, St. Clare, All you holy Virgins and Widows, All you holy Saints of God,	pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us. pray for us.
Lord, be merciful, From all evil, From all sin, From your wrath, From a sudden and unprovided death, From the snares of the devil, From anger, hatred, and all ill-will, From the spirit of uncleanness, From lightning and tempest, From the scourge of earthquake, From plague, famine, and war, From everlasting death,	Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people.
By the mystery of your holy Incarnation, By your Coming, By your Birth, By your Baptism and holy fasting, By your Cross and Passion, By your Death and Burial, By your holy Resurrection, By your wonderful Ascension, By the coming of the Holy Spirit, On the day of judgment,	Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people. Lord, save your people.
Be merciful to us sinners,	Lord, hear our prayer.
That you will spare us, That you will pardon us, That it may please you to bring us to true penance, Guide and protect your holy Church, Preserve in holy religion the Pope, and all those in holy Orders, Humble the enemies of holy Church, Give peace and unity to the whole Christian people, Bring back to the unity of the Church all those who are straying, and bring all unbelievers to the light of the Gospel, Strengthen and preserve us in your holy service, Raise our minds to desire the things of heaven, Reward all our benefactors with eternal blessings, Deliver our souls from eternal damnation, and the souls of our brethren, relatives, and benefactors, Give and preserve the fruits of the earth, Grant eternal rest to all the faithful departed, That it may please You to hear and heed us, Jesus, Son of the Living God,	Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer. Lord, hear our prayer.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,	Spare us, O Lord! Graciously hear us, O Lord! Have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us, Lord Jesus, hear our prayer. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.	Christ, graciously hear us Lord Jesus, hear our prayer. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.

Image by the Prayer Warriors of the Holy Souls

This prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours is graced with a partial indulgence for souls in purgatory.

REQUIEM aeternam dona ei (eis), Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei (eis). Requiescat (-ant) in pace. Amen.

ETERNAL rest grant unto him/her (them), O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him/her (them). May he/she (they) rest in peace. Amen.

Saint Jude Thaddeus

2008-11-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Note: I know. It is more than a week late after the Feast of Saint Jude Thaddeus (with Saint Simon, both Apostles, October 28). But still, better late than never, so I am posting some pictures of this beloved saint of mine to honor him.

From the Patrons Saints Index:

Who Is St. Jude?

Probably no saint, after the Blessed Mother, has drawn such enthusiastic followers down through the centuries as St. Jude Thaddeus. He was one of the chosen 12 Apostles; his brother was James the Less. Not too much is actually recorded about his life: it seems his big popularity began after his death.

Through history, legend and tradition, however, we can construct some detailsconcerning this powerful intercessor and close friend of the Divine Master. St. Jude comes from the line of David and is a cousin of Jesus Christ. The Jewish people, proud of their lineage, kept exact records of their ancestors, and we see that St. Jude's father, Cleophas, was the brother of St. Joseph. St. Jude's mother, Mary of Cleophas, was a cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary: their mothers were sisters.

In the Gospel, Mary of Cleophas is identified as the "sister" who has the courage to stand beneath the Cross of Christ along with the Virgin Mary and St. John. In the Hebrew language, the word "sister" was often used to include the cousins.

St. Jude's Epistle

The Fathers of the Church; such men as St. Ambrose, St. Bernard, St. Jerome and others, gave us more insight into this great man's character by their commentaries on the Epistle of St. Jude. St. Jerome in his work, applies the name "zealot" to St. Jude. St. Bernard of Clairvaux tells us that St. Jude was courageous because of his virginal purity and the courage he used to protect it.

St. Jude most probable came from farming people, for the tribe of Juda from which he came was of that occupation. After he became an Apostle, he always manifested an intense interest in the salvation of the Gentiles. So at the Last Supper, when Christ said, "yet a little while and the world no longer sees me. But you shall se me, for I live and you shall live;" (John 14, 19) it was St. Jude who then exclaimed, "Lord, how is it that You are to manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" St. Jude was asking in effect, how Christ's message was to be made known to the Gentiles.

After the Ascension of Christ, St. Jude headed for his beloved people--the Gentiles. Many stories come down to us: his miraculous cure of King Abagaro, ruler of Edessa, a city in Mesopotamia...while in Persia with St. Simon, he effected an unexpected peace for King Varardach--and won over the king and his entire court to the Catholic faith.

Death of St. Jude

For many more years, St. Jude made missionary journeys, preaching, dispensing the Sacraments throughout Mesopotamia, Armenia, and even southern Russia.

One day an enraged pagan mob fell upon the gentle and good man, and bludgeoned him to death. That is one reason why St. Jude is today pictured holding a club--in memory of his martyrdom. The bodies of St. Jude and St. Simon have laid in St. Peter's in Rome for many centuries. St. Jude was a tireless worker--he tried--he dared to try the impossible; and he was successful. Steadfastly pure in body and soul, Jude gave of himself not only in life but in death as well.

I try my best to at least visit Saint Jude Thaddeus Parish in nearby Trece Martires City during the Feast of their patron saint (titular solemnity in their case). I'm not claiming for any miracle-recognition but my mother was sick before and was not able to sleep in the night without medication for almost forty nights but was healed, thanks to Saint Jude to whom she made a novena. Here is the huge image of the saint in the parish church:

St. Jude, glorious apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many. But the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of difficult and desperate cases. Pray for me who am so miserable. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded to you to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly -- (here make your request) -- and that I may praise God with you and all the elect throughout all eternity.

I promise you, 0 blessed JUDE, to be ever mindful of this great favor. I will honor you as my special and powerful patron and encourage devotion to you.

St. Jude, pray for us and for all who honor and invoke your aid.

O glorious apostle, SAINT JUDE THADDEUS, true relative of Jesus and Mary, I salute you through the most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Through this Heart I praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed upon you. Humbly prostrate before you, I implore you through this Heart to look down upon me with compassion. Oh, despise not my poor prayer; let not my trust be confounded! To you God has granted the privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases. Oh, come to my aid that I may praise the mercies of God! All my life I will be grateful to you and will be your faithful client until I can thank you in heaven. Amen.

On Blogging

2008-10-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Fr. Guy Sylvester's posted his "Bye!" post in Shouts in the Piazza. I have been following his blog for some time especially for his posts on heraldry and the liturgy.

His last post made me think of how I myself 'blog'. Why do I blog? is the question. Do I consider myself a "Catholic blogger"? If yes, do my posts reflect the Church's mission: evangelization in whatever way? Or do I belong to those "Catholic blogs" who keep seeing the faults of Church leaders or what is what is wrong with the Church in my opinion, etc.? Does my blog gives off "more heat than light"?

I am not as busy as Fr. Sylvester except from being a student, some service to the Church (which includes managing a blog for both our Parish and our parish Antioch Community / Youth Ministry) however, at some point, I thought of stopping this blog because I don't think anybody follows of reads this. I only add a few interesting news and images for myself as well as maintaining a list of my favorite blogs.

Blogging indeed is another medium for Catholics to express their opinions but being Catholics, should it also, first and foremost be a medium to spread the Gospel, of light rather than heat?

God bless us all!

Mass Could End With More Than "Go in Peace"

2008-10-16T05:06:00.000-07:00

Holy See Approves 3 Alternative Closing Messages

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See has approved three alternatives to "Ite, missa est," the final words said by the priest at Mass.Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, today notified the participants in the synod of bishops on the word of God about the new alternatives. The final message is currently rendered in English: "The Mass is ended, go in peace."

Benedict XVI has approved the alternatives, which were requested at the 2005 synod on the Eucharist to express the missionary spirit that should follow from the celebration of Mass.

According to Cardinal Arinze, the Pope had asked for suggestions to be presented. The congregation received 72, from which they prepared nine proposals. The Holy Father has chosen three.

The alternatives are in the revised third "editio typica" of the Roman Missal, which was printed last week, the cardinal said.

The alternatives are:

--"Ite ad Evangelium Domini nuntiandum"
--"Ite in pace, glorificando vita vestra Dominum"
--"Ite in pace" with "alleluia, alleluia" added during Easter season.

In English, these could be rendered along the lines of "go to announce the Gospel of the Lord"; "go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your lives"; and simply, "go in peace (alleluia, alleluia)."

The original Latin final message, "Ite, missa est," has not been modified.

Eucharistic compendium

Cardinal Arinze also announced that a Eucharistic compendium, also suggested by the '05 synod on the Eucharist, is nearly finished.

The book will define Eucharistic doctrine, benediction, Eucharistic holy hours, adoration, and prayers before and after Mass, he explained.

The cardinal further said that the Holy See, at the request of the Pope and the 2005 synod, is studying the most adequate moment during the Mass for the sign of peace.

The Holy Father indicated that episcopal conferences should consider two options: either before the "Agnus Dei" or after the Prayers of the Faithful. Each bishops' conference is to respond by the end of October, though there is a three-week grace period for late responses. The proposals will then be presented to the Holy Father, who will make a decision on the matter.

Finally, Cardinal Arinze announced that his congregation is preparing a volume with thematic materials for homily, with the aim of assisting and supporting priests throughout the world with their preaching.

A Blogging Benedict XVI?

2008-10-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Chinese Laywoman Makes Proposal at Synod

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- One of the auditors at the world Synod of Bishops has suggested that Benedict XVI opens a blog to explain the word of God in an attractive way.

The proposal was made today by Agnes Lam, president of the Catholic Biblical Association of Hong Kong.

Among her suggestions to promote the word of God so that the faithful can come to know Christ, she included the blog proposal, bringing smiles from many of the bishops.

She invited "the Holy Father to open a multi-language blog to shepherd today's world: [a] daily scriptural verse with [a] simple reflection, brief text and plentiful images."

Lam also suggested other means for spreading knowledge of the Bible.

Above all, she recommended simple methods of meditation in a complex world. As examples, she suggested reciting verses of the Bible and lectio divina.

"Reading the Bible is like eating," Lam said, "a homemade soup prepared with love and time is delicious, while fast food is tasteless."

The glory continues

2008-10-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

The papal throne used by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI for the Mass for Pope Pius XII.

Orbis Catholicvs (from where I got these images) comments:

Change is in the air, friends, and this time change is good!

Anybody in the Rome network under forty just loves to hear these words: "Come era richiesto per l'occasione dal protocollo!"

And here we have it again, the papal throne. Those who yesterday watched the Papal Mass noticed a bit of a change and here it is.

Many of us last saw this old papal treasure in the Lateran Palace museum - with the arms of Pius X on it. But Benedict brought it back and now you can see the new stemma (coat-of-arms) of the current Pontiff, now gloriously reigning.

Thank you, Msgr. Guido, and friends and long may you reign, Holy Father!

La Naval de Manila

2008-10-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of visiting the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary (La Naval de Manila) or commonly called Santo Domingo Church yesterday during the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary and the fifth day of the La Naval novena. (This year, the feast of the La Naval falls on October 12.) The sanctuary arrangement is astounding. The music during the 6:15 celebration of the Holy Mass (which I attended) is wonderful and awe-inspiring especially the "Despedida a la Virgen".

The following are some pictures from various online sources.

Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii, ora pro nobis!

"Benedictine" Altar Arrangement in the Archdiocese of Ozamis (Philippines)

2008-09-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

I found these interesting photos from the website of the Archdiocese of Ozamis in Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines. They are images from the Dedication of their Cathedral last April 10, 2008. Particularly interesting is their use of the "Benedictine" altar arrangement (there are only six candles although the Archbishop is celebrating); they kept the (possibly) original high altar (which is far more traditional and better than the new) and the position of the cathedra; and the deposition of relics in the altar.

They also have a number of articles about the Holy Father including some regarding the changes in the Liturgy and Mass celebrated ad orientem (though in the vernacular).

High Schoolers Facing East

2008-09-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

(Standing on My Head blog of Rev. Fr. Dwight Longenecker)

Six high school boys stayed after Thursday's daily Mass at St Joseph's Catholic School:

"Father, why didn't you celebrate Mass facing East today?"

"I'm doing so on two days of the week, and on the other two the usual way. Do you like the Mass when I celebrate facing East?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It feels more holy. It's older right? But you're not really facing East here."

"There's something called 'liturgical East.' It's when the priest faces what used to be the East 'cause all the churches were built to face the rising sun, which was a symbol of the resurrection and also because Jesus would return to Jerusalem, which was in the East."

"Like Muslims facing Mecca."

"Sort of, but I'm not going to start wearing a turban"

"You could wear your biretta more often."

"Shall I?"

"I like Mass when you face East because it feels like you are offering the Mass for us more."

"I just like stuff that's more traditional."

"I think it feels more, well, manly. Do you know what I mean. Is that dumb?"

"That's interesting. No, I don't think it's dumb, but I have to think about why it might be true."

"I think it's good because I was thinking more about God and not you, and when you elevated the host it was like Jesus floating there. It was more mysterious. It was cool."

"Would you like me to continue saying Mass facing with you to the Lord?"

"Yes please."

"You don't feel slighted because I have turned my back to you? You sure I haven't hurt your feelings?"

Laughter all around. "You're not that good looking anyway Father."

"OK, why don't you all go to lunch now?"

Trad Drawings

2008-09-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

I kept this small index card with some drawings: an altar for a 'reform of the reform' celebration of the Mass in the OF, a papal tiara, a miter, the Pope vested, and more. Being traditional and liturgical for a couple of minutes being bored in class. . . Haha. .

The Cross Scorned and Revered

2008-09-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

A History of the Feast of the Exaltation

By Elizabeth Lev

ROME, SEPT. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- What a difference a couple of decades makes! After years of lawsuits demanding that crucifixes be taken down from public places and the banalization of the cross as a fashion accessory or body art, it’s no wonder that the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross leaves many people scratching their heads.

The history of the true cross is a long and convoluted one, starting with a shoot from the tree of mercy in Eden, passing through King Solomon’s bridge to Jerusalem, to the selection of this aged piece of wood for Christ’s crucifixion.

Tradition has it that after the crucifixion the cross was hidden.

The cross of Christ was rediscovered by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326 at the age of 80. Her indomitable spirit, as well as her extraordinary adventures, took their most delightful literary form in Evelyn Waugh’s little book “Helena.”

Part of the cross stayed in Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was dedicated on Sept. 14, 335. This date would become the feast of the Exaltation, a word that means “raising aloft.”

The remainder seems to have traveled all over the world. Fragments were sent to Constantine’s new churches in Constantinople, while another piece was housed in the Church of the Holy Cross here in Rome, built by St. Helena on her own land.

The devotion to the cross spread so rapidly that before the end of the fourth century the hymn "Flecte genu lignumque Crucis venerabile adora" had been written, and St. John Chrysostom tells us that fragments of the cross were being venerated all over the world.

A king humbled

Oddly enough, however, the Exaltation of the Cross does not only celebrate the rediscovery of the true cross; it also commemorates an event in one of the most turbulent moments of early Christian history.

In 615 A.D. on the cusp of the rise of Islam, the Persian army was sweeping through the Mediterranean. King Chosroes of Persia, while leaving the tomb of Christ intact, took the fragment of the cross that Helena had left there.

Setting himself up as god, King Chosroes built a throne in a tall tower where he sat with the cross to his right, calling himself “the father.”

The Byzantine emperor Heraclius challenged Chosroes to single combat to retrieve the cross. Victorious, Heraclius bore the jeweled reliquary back to Jerusalem. He had planned to bring the relic through the same city gate Christ had entered before his crucifixion, but the stones fell and blocked his passage.

Told that Christ had passed through this gate in humility on a donkey only to suffer death, King Heraclius stripped himself of crown, jewels and shoes, and in his simple tunic took the reliquary upon his shoulders. On Sept. 14, 630, the cross was restored to Jerusalem as an example of humility for all people.

This epic captured the imagination of numerous artists, particularly in the Renaissance, when art dedicated itself to recounting only the greatest of stories.

Antoniazzo Romano portrayed the event with the jewel-like colors of an illuminated manuscript in the apse of the Church of the Holy Cross, while Piero della Francesca, working in the more remote center of Arezzo from 1452 to 1463, rendered the majesty of this story in one of the most important fresco cycles of the 15th century.

Bearer of peace

In the Franciscan Basilica of San Francesco, Piero tells the story simply and with a minimum of decorative detail, but with powerful monumentality. In one of the earliest night scenes in Italian art -- "Dream of Constantine" -- the emperor sleeps in his tent and dreams of the cross on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. A dramatically foreshortened angel erupts into the space along with Piero’s lipid light to represent the miracle of Constantine’s conversion.

Piero’s "Exaltation of the Cross," despite the loss of the figure of Heraclius, expresses the peace, calm and order brought with the restoration of the cross -- an appropriate message during his age of constant war.

These images reflect the dignity shown to the cross by artists, citizens and rulers alike.

Over the years, the cross has been attacked by more than would-be gods and thieves. Voltaire taught the world to mock the cross when in "The Philosophical Dictionary" he wrote under the heading of Superstition, “Are those pieces of the true cross, which would suffice to build a hundred-gun ship -- are the many relics acknowledged to be false -- are the many false miracles -- so many monuments of an enlightened piety?”

In answer to the scientific age, a group of Jesuits in Belgium, the Bollandists, were formed in the 17th century. They study the evidence relating to miracles, relics and lives of the saints. They cite a study that weighed and measured all the known relics and found that the extant pieces do not make up a single cross.

This feast, so often overlooked, has long served the Christian community to remember that the means of our redemption should be brought into the light of our word, lives and hearts at all times, and that we should reflect upon it with the same courage, humility and determination as Jesus showed during his passion.

In today’s world, where pop culture derides the cross, and politicians deny the cross, this feast rallies Christians to exalt in Christ’s heroic sacrifice, and not to be embarrassed by it.

* * *

Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University’s Italian campus. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.

Symposium Finds "Stunning" Facts About Pius XII

2008-09-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Pope Says He Hopes Truth Can Be Made Known

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says he hopes the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII this year will offer an occasion to get to the historical truth about him, overcoming prejudices that hide the facts.

The German Pontiff said this today when he spoke to an interreligious foundation that organized a symposium this week to study the life of Pius XII (1876-1958).

The Pope's address to the Pave the Way Foundation and its president, Gary Krupp, thanked the group for aiming to analyze "without bias the events of history and [concern] yourselves only with seeking the truth."

"So much has been written and said of [Pius XII] during these last five decades and not all of the genuine facets of his diverse pastoral activity have been examined in a just light," the Holy Father noted. "The aim of your symposium has been precisely to address some of these deficiencies, conducting a careful and documented examination of many of his interventions, especially those in favor of the Jews who in those years were being targeted all over Europe, in accordance with the criminal plan of those who wanted to eliminate them from the face of the earth.

"When one draws close to this noble Pope, free from ideological prejudices, in addition to being struck by his lofty spiritual and human character one is also captivated by the example of his life and the extraordinary richness of his teaching. One can also come to appreciate the human wisdom and pastoral intensity which guided him in his long years of ministry, especially in providing organized assistance to the Jewish people."

Benedict XVI said the Pave the Way symposium offers the public forum the possibility of knowing better what Pius XII achieved for Jews persecuted by the Nazi and fascist regimes.

Courageous and paternal

The symposium gathered and presented a large amount of documented material, supported by authoritative testimonies.

"In the proceedings of your convention," the Holy Father noted, "you have also drawn attention to [Pius XII's] many interventions, made secretly and silently, precisely because, given the concrete situation of that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews. This courageous and paternal dedication was recognized and appreciated during and after the terrible world conflict by Jewish communities and individuals who showed their gratitude for what the Pope had done for them."

"It is my great hope that this year, which marks the 50th anniversary of my venerated predecessor's death, will provide the opportunity to promote in-depth studies of various aspects of his life and his works in order to come to know the historical truth, overcoming every remaining prejudice," the Pontiff concluded.

Direct contradiction

Krupp, himself a Jew, told ZENIT that the results of the symposium were significant. He said that the Pave the Way Foundation feared that misinformation about Pius XII will "never go away" even when the Vatican Archives for the war years are opened.

"We discovered that many messages and orders were verbal and encrypted and since archival researchers seem to believe that if it wasn't written it didn't happen, that any lack of discovered documents would only spawn accusations of intentional document destruction," he said. "This is why we sought out those who are eye witnesses to papal intervention."

In his address to the Pope today, Krupp explained why the foundation took on the project of investigating Pius XII.

"Pave the Way has identified the papacy of Pope Pius XII as a source of friction and misunderstanding," he said. "Accordingly, we have undertaken an independent investigation to identify significant documents and to video-record eye witness testimony. I wish to report to you that results of this investigation [are] stunning, and directly contradict the negative perception of the Pope's wartime activities."

"This year," he continued, "for Catholics, Oct. 9, 2008, will be the commemoration the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII. For Jews that date is also significant as it is our holiest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement. May this providential date usher in a new effort to correct the historical record and bring to light the truth of this papacy."

The Dawning of Redemption

2008-09-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

Images from vaious sources

Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!

Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;
Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!

Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;
Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!

Mary the temple, Christ the temple's Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored!

Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the mother, Christ the mother's Son
By all things blest while endless ages run. Amen.

(taken from Mother of All Peoples)

Happy Birthday, dear Mother!

Bishops Respond to House Speaker Pelosi

2008-09-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

(Catholic Exchange) Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, have issued the following statement:

In the course of a “Meet the Press” interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.” (No. 2271)

In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church teaches that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.

More information on the Church’s teaching on this issue can be found in our brochure “The Catholic Church is a Pro-Life Church”.

**********

A Statement by the Most Reverend Michael J. Sheridan Regarding the Evil of Procured Abortion

Colorado Springs, CO - Tuesday, August 26, 2008

In light of recent confusing statements by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggesting that Catholic teaching allows for procured abortion in certain circumstances, it is important for all Catholics to understand the teaching of the Church regarding abortion.

From the first century the Church has taught that abortion is gravely immoral. “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2271, quoting Didache 2, 2). The procuring of an abortion is always and in all circumstances intrinsically evil. (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2271). It is murder of the most vulnerable and innocent human beings. Speaker Pelosi’s outrageous attempt to present what she considers the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding abortion is simply wrong and should be disregarded by every faithful Catholic.

All other rights are useless if one is denied the right to live. Our founding fathers recognized this when they enumerated life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable human rights. They also recognized that these three rights are not equal in importance. Pursuing happiness means little if one is a slave. And freedom means nothing to someone who has been denied the right to life.

Pope John Paul II echoed these sentiments when he wrote “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights . . . belong to human nature and are inherent in the person . . . from the moment of conception until death.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2273, quoting CDF, Donum vitae III).

The teachings of the Church on abortion are consistent and unambiguous, and it is very disturbing to hear someone who claims to be a Catholic distort these teachings and sow seeds of confusion among the faithful by attempting to relativize the right to life.

There can be no compromise on this issue. “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2272). “Those who are excommunicated . . . and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” (Code of Canon Law 915).

Those Catholics who take a public stance in opposition to this most fundamental moral teaching of the Church place themselves outside full communion with the Church, and they should not present themselves for the reception of Holy Communion.Most Reverend Michael J. Sheridan
Bishop of Colorado Springs

*******

ON THE SEPARATION OF SENSE AND STATE: A CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN COLORADO

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the “separation of Church and state.” But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest, not as a “political” issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.

Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said the following:

I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.”

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue “for a long time,” she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery’s Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here’s how Connery concludes his study:“The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion.”

Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:”Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or “ensouled.” But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today’s religious alibis for abortion and a so-called “right to choose” are nothing more than that — alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they’re famous or not — fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the “separation of Church and state” does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it’s always important to know what our faith actually teaches.

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver

+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

Also, see USCCB site in the lnks.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

2008-08-28T00:07:00.001-07:00

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

- Saint Augustine

Saint Monica (August 27) and Saint Augustine (Today, Auguist 28).

Saint Agustine Parish, Mendez, Cavite

Holy Cross Parish, Tanza, Cavite

Lord, renew in your Church the spirit you gave Saint Augustine. Filled with this spirit, may we thirst for you alone as the fountain of wisdom and seek you as the source of eternal love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

US Bishops: Pelosi Got Church Teaching Wrong

2008-08-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

House Speaker Misrepresents Catholic Understanding of Life

WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 26, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The chairmen of the U.S. bishops' Committees on Pro-Life Activities and Doctrine affirmed that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi misrepresented Church teaching on abortion during an interview on national TV.

Pelosi was asked on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" on Sunday to comment on when life begins. She responded saying that as a Catholic, she had studied the issue for "a long time" and that "the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition."

Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U. Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William Lori, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, said her answer "misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion."

They noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law."

And the prelates explained: "In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church's moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

"These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church teaches that from the time of conception -- fertilization -- each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life."

For the record

Other bishops also released statements clarifying Church teaching.

Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., noted that bishops are entrusted with the responsibility to interpret and teach Catholic doctrine.

"We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops," he said in a statement. "Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record. […]

"From the beginning, the Catholic Church has respected the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death."

And from Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop James Conley addressed an online letter to their faithful, titled "On the Separation of Sense and State: a Clarification for the People of the Church in Northern Colorado."

The letter affirms: "Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or 'ensouled.'

"But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong."

Cardinal Edward Egan released a statement this morning saying he was "shocked to learn" of Pelosi's remarks. He said her statements were "misinformed."

The cardinal affirmed that the unborn have "an inalienable right to live, a right that the speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons."

"Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being 'chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason," he added, "should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."

--- --- ---

On the Net:

Statement of Denver bishops: www.zenit.org/article-23469?l=english

Statement of Archbishop Wuerl: www.zenit.org/article-23470?l=english

Statement of Cardinal Egan: www.zenit.org/article-23476?l=english

Another Chinese Bishop Arrested

2008-08-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, AUG. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Shortly before the spectacular closing ceremonies of the Olympics, Chinese authorities arrested another bishop.

Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, who had already been under house arrest with 24-hour surveillance, was taken away by police Sunday. His current location has not been disclosed.

According to AsiaNews, the bishop had celebrated Sunday Mass in the cathedral earlier that morning. At about 10 a.m., he was taken away by four police officers.

One priest told the news agency, "After the Olympics, everything is back to the way it was before in China."

Bishop Jia, 73, has already spent 15 years in prison, from 1963 to 1978. Since 1989, he has been under strict police monitoring. His arrest on Sunday marks the 12th time he has been detained by police.

In a message regarding the Olympics from Hong Kong's Coadjutor Bishop John Tong Hon, he listed six more prelates (besides Bishop Jia) who are missing or under arrest. He characterized these seven bishops as just "a few" of the "prominent cases."

Conversi ad Dominum

Saint Tarcisius

Our Lady of Guadalupe ‘completely beyond' scientific explanation, says researcher

Forever grateful. . .

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

An Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Catholics and other Americans ‘overwhelmingly’ favorable towards Pope Benedict XVI

Watch. . .

Happy Birthday, Holy Father

Georgetown students react to White House request to cover Jesus' name

RESURREXIT!

Knights Templar linked to gap in history of Shroud of Turin

April 06, 2009

PCED on Cardinal Rosales' Guidelines for the Use of the 1962 Missal

Et incarnatus est.

A Prayer to Saint Joseph

Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks ‘Who painted it?’

Church leader sparks Georgian baby boom

Cameroon Bishops' Statement on AIDS

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

British Museum finds relics of 39 saints after 100 years

From Saint Peter’s Square to Harvard Square

Prominent Ugandan AIDS Activist Thanks Pope for Opposition to Condoms

Says, "when you look at many of these so called AIDS activists, they are simply in it for the money"

Harvard Researcher agrees with Pope on condoms in Africa

Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI . . .

Catholic Things

Msgr. Marini on the Liturgy

Diocese of Scranton

Catholic survivors attribute ‘miracle on the Hudson’ to God’s mercy

Press Chided for Putting Words in Vatican Mouth

Pope highlights primacy of Church of Rome, asks for prayers

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Moises Andrade, S.Th.D., S.L.L. 1948-2009

12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation

FSSP: Appeal for Novena for the Pope Feb. 14 - 22

Russian Orthodox elect Metropolitan Kirill as new patriarch

Gesture With Lefebvrists Is No Change for Church

Obama reigns, the Unborn dies

Obama praises Roe decision on anniversaryJanuary 23, 2009

Obama to reverse Mexico City Policy todayJanuary 23, 2009

Church reply to reproductive health bill: facts, fallacies

Gaza pastor: 'We cry and nobody hears us'

Gaza pastor: 'We cry and nobody hears us'

Most Holy Name of Jesus

Happy Epiphany!

Holy Theotokos

A Blessed Christmas

Christmas is about Christ, not gifts, cardinal reminds Catholics

Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of a Person)

"No estoy yo aquí que soy tu Madre?"

O Mary conceived without sin. . .

A Season (not just a Day) to Celebrate

With the patience of love

From the "Island Envoy"

Pick up the Ball and Run!

Head of Russian Orthodox church dies

Dominican rite aims to shine from the ‘dark ages’

Standing up for the Gospel of Life

Standing up for the Gospel of Life

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (November 9)

Inetresting News

The Sacred Liturgy: The Neglected Foundation to Building the Culture of Life

The Sacred Liturgy: The Neglected Foundation to Building the Culture of Life

Conversi ad Dominum

All Saints and the Faithful Departed

Saint Jude Thaddeus

Who Is St. Jude?

St. Jude's Epistle

Death of St. Jude

On Blogging

Mass Could End With More Than "Go in Peace"

Holy See Approves 3 Alternative Closing Messages

A Blogging Benedict XVI?

The glory continues

La Naval de Manila

"Benedictine" Altar Arrangement in the Archdiocese of Ozamis (Philippines)

High Schoolers Facing East

Trad Drawings

The Cross Scorned and Revered

Obama praises Roe decision on anniversary
January 23, 2009

Obama to reverse Mexico City Policy today
January 23, 2009