Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Court order allows teachers to observe Good Friday

Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (March 31, 2015) - Public school teachers in Cranston, Rhode Island, will be allowed to observe Good Friday despite objections from the city's school department.

A court order issued Friday says teachers may take the day off as long as they submit a request no later than April 1. The order says the school department can neither discipline teachers for requesting the day off nor deduct their pay.

About 200 teachers contacted their union earlier this month to report that they were being prevented from observing Good Friday. They filed a lawsuit March 16.

Attorney Kevin Daley says the order temporarily allows the teachers to observe Good Friday. He says a full hearing will determine whether the teachers can observe the holiday going forward.

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Friday, March 27, 2015

Cardinal Müller: it would be ‘anti-Catholic’ to let bishops’ conferences decide doctrine

(Catholic Herald) In new interview doctrinal chief Cardinal Müller criticises comments by German bishops' leader Cardinal Marx

The idea that bishops’ conferences can take doctrinal decisions on marriage and the family is “absolutely anti-Catholic”, the Vatican’s doctrinal chief has said.

In an exclusive interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said: “This is an absolutely anti-Catholic idea that does not respect the catholicity of the Church. Episcopal conferences have authority over certain issues, but not a magisterium alongside the Magisterium, without the Pope and without communion with the bishops.”

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also responded to recent remarks by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Marx argued that the German bishops were “not just a subsidiary of Rome” and needed to set their own policies on marriage and the family... (continued)


Link:

Pope Francis greets homeless at Sistine Chapel

Vatican City (AFP) - Dozens of homeless people were on Thursday treated to a private viewing of the Sistine Chapel, complete with a surprise appearance by Pope Francis himself, in the pontiff's latest gesture towards the most vulnerable in society.

Normally one of the hottest tourist tickets in town, the home of Michelangelo's celebrated ceiling frescoes closed its doors early to regular visitors to enable the group of around 150 street-sleepers to be shown around the chapel and adjoining Vatican museums and gardens.

In an unannounced visit, it was the pope himself who welcomed the group to the Sistine Chapel, taking the time to greet each of the visitors.

"This is a house for everyone, this is your home. The doors are always open to all," the Argentinian told them.

"Pray for me, I need the prayers of people like you," he added.

The pontiff had asked that there be no pictures of the meeting.

It was the latest in a string of highly symbolic initiatives sanctioned by Francis, who has made a focus on the plight of the homeless and other marginalised groups one of the defining themes of his papacy.

Last month a homeless man who died on the streets around St Peter's Square was buried in an exclusive cemetery within the Vatican that is usually reserved for senior German clerics.

The pope, who says he wants "a poor Church, for the poor," has had showers for the homeless installed in public toilets just off St Peter's square.

To mark his 78th birthday in December, he ordered the distribution of sleeping bags across Rome and some homeless people have been recruited to hand out copies of the gospels to the faithful attending Sunday audiences at St Peter's.

Link:

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Holy League

From Father Z:
There is a new initiative which you should know about.   My friend Fr. Richard Heilman is involved, as is His Eminence Raymond Leo Card. Burke.

HERE

For more information you can also text keyword EPIC to 84576 (I think that might be only for these USA).

Here is the video.



Links:

New Hampshire Priest Continues the Long Road to Clear His Name

By BRIAN FRAGA

CONCORD, N.H. — Imprisoned for 21 years after his conviction for crimes he adamantly denies he committed, Father Gordon MacRae says he is “cautiously hopeful” that the federal courts will give him a new opportunity to prove his innocence.

“I know that Supreme Court decisions and precedents have made it very difficult for innocent defendants to have a case re-heard at this level. Most people who judge the justice system by TV’s Law and Order don’t understand the steep uphill climb,” Father MacRae told the Register in an email message Tuesday, after his attorneys presented oral arguments on behalf of his habeus corpus appeal at U.S. district court in Concord, N.H.

Father MacRae, whose story is told on the These Stone Walls blog, has been incarcerated in the New Hampshire State Prison since his September 1994 conviction on one count of sexual assault and four counts of felonious sexual-assault charges. Now 62, Father MacRae was a parish priest in the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., when the alleged victim accused Father MacRae of molesting him several times when he was a 15-year-old boy in the early 1980s.

In court documents, Father MacRae’s attorneys argue that “newly discovered evidence,” which include allegations that the accuser concocted his story for financial gain, establishes Father MacRae’s “actual innocence.” His lawyers argue that innocence should override any time limits or procedural bars that prevent a new hearing of the case... (continued)


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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Interview with Fr. Faure (soon to be Consecrated by Bishop Williamson)

The following interview with Father Jean-Michel Faure is from

Translated by Michael cruzadoparalaverdad@gmail.com

How about a little history to begin, Father, how did you get to know Tradition and Archbishop Lefebvre?

In 1968, while in Argentina, I visited the Archbishop of Paraná, who told me: "Do you want to defend Tradition? In the Council I defended Tradition together with a brave Bishop, a friend of mine, Archbishop Lefebvre." It was the first time I had heard of Archbishop Lefebvre. I went to look for Archbishop Lefebvre in Switzerland in 1972, and during Holy Week was went I first met him there.

Where were you born? Why were you living in South America?

I was born in Algeria and my family, after the independence, acquired a plot of land in Argentina, close to Paraná. My family was deported from Algeria because the French government seceded power to the militant Moslems that committed horrendous massacres during the course of the process of the independence. My grandparents, parents and uncles worked in agriculture there since 1830.

Returning to the story, how your apostolate in the Society come about?

Archbishop Lefebvre ordained me in 1977 in Econe, and 15 days later I went with him on a trip through the southern United States, Mexico (where the government refused our entry), Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. The Archbishop put me in charge of starting an apostolate in this region. During the first year 2 Argentinian priests helped me and the following year another Spanish priest (of the Society). After this the South American district of the United States was formed as was my position and responsibility and I began to preach retreats as far north as Mexico. The first year there were 12 vocations that were put in the Priory of Buenos Aires that was in a large enough house. Following this, around 1980, the seminary in La Reja (Buenos Aires) was built, where Archbishop Lefebvre put me as rector. I stayed there until 1985, when I was named superior of the District of Mexico. That was when they built the churches in Mexico City and Guadalajara. I looked after the country and its distinct places together with Frs. Calderon, Angles, and Tam. Later I was in France for some years. After all of this I was named as professor of history in the Seminary in Argentina and I was there until the expulsion of Bishop Williamson from Argentina (2009).

Did Archbishop Lefebvre confide in you?

Archbishop Lefebvre gave me free access to his mail and correspondence and he put me in charge of certain records. He had a certain kind of trust for me: in 1977 in Albano he asked me what I thought about consecrations. In this opportunity he confided in me that "they are waiting for me" (the rector in Econe and the professors). They would suggest accepting the New Mass and the Council in order to preserve the Tridentine Mass. They said to him: " now we are confronted with Rome. If we conserve the Mass (Traditional) we must accept the Council." They tried to persuade the Archbishop to retire in a beautiful house in Germany, but he told them that they were free to leave if they wanted to. He got rid of them.

Is it true that Archbishop Lefebvre asked you to accept being consecrated a bishop?

In 1986, while on a visit to Econe, he called me aside after a meal and asked me if I would accept being consecrated a bishop. Knowing what happened, I suppose I must accept.

Then you did not accept?

I told him that it seemed to me that Bishop De Galerreta would be the most adequate.

Can you summarize what happened in 2012?

In that year we were very close to an accord and it failed at the last moment, probably, because of the issue with Bishop Williamson. The deal failed because of that matter and the letter of the three bishops. Both of these caused the deal to fail.

It is said that the key to the ad intra strategy of Bishop Fellay is the backside of the General Chapter. Can you tell us something about this?

The General Chapter was very well prepared by Bishop Fellay and the they (the accordistas) accomplished their objectives. That was when I had understood what Archbishop Lefebvre and his friends felt like in the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Fellay had taken the decision of a policy of getting close to Rome and he had fixed it in order to have the the general support of the Chapter in expelling Bishop Williamson, who was the only one capable of obstructing this policy.

According to your judgement, what should be the conditions required to make a deal with Rome?

Archbishop Lefebvre told us that while there were no real changes in Rome a deal would be impossible, because these people were not loyal, and one cannot intend to change one's superiors. It is the cat that chases the mouse and not the mouse that chases the cat. A deal would be equal to handing over oneself to the modernists, and consequently, it must be absolutely refused. It is impossible. We must wait for God's intervention.

Can you tell us what you think the visits of evaluation of various modernist prelates to the Seminaries of the Society? Is it true that once Archbishop Lefebvre received some prelates? What is the difference now?

It dealt with exceptional visits during which Cardinal Gagnon never had the possibility of defending the Council, while on the other hand now it deals with the first steps of a reintegration (of the Society) into the conciliar church.

What do you think about an eventual unilateral recognition on the part of Rome to the Society?

It is a trick.

Between the 2006 chapter and the crisis started in 2012 certain changes are observed and attitudes of the authorities of the Society Of St. Pius x in respect to Rome? What is the reason for this change?

It is the decision of this appears to be reintegrated into the conciliar church. Since 1994 or 1995 there were some context with GREC that were significant steps towards a reconciliation, like what had been seen with the ambassador Perol (represents tatie of France in Italy) who is the inventor of the lifting of the excommunications (2009) and the Motu Proprio (2007). That must have had another relative act of recognizing the Council.

What would Archbishop Lefebvre do in the current situation?

He would follow in the line that he indicated to us after the consecrations, doing away completely with the possibility of a deal.

If in the future you were invited to go to Rome and speak with the pope would you go? What would you say?

First, I would consult with all of my friends in the resistance. I would go with Bishop Williamson and the other excellent priests that accept the combat of the resistance with much valor. And I would keep all of our friends well-informed with all transparency.

Bishop Fellay has said that the Society is in agreement with 95% of the Second Vatican Council. What do you think of this?

Archbishop Lefebvre answered that all of the Council is invaded by a subjectivist spirit that is not Catholic.

Is Francis, being an effective devastation of the Church and objective destroyer of the Faith, a true pope?

In my opinion, it cannot be said that Francis is worse than Paul VI, who was who put the Church on the wrong course, and so we must conserve the attitude that was the same of Archbishop Lefebvre, a prudential attitude that excluded sedevacantism. Archbishop Lefebvre always refused to ordain a seminarian that was sedevacantist. And that was the policy in the SSPX until his death. So don't let it be said that the Archbishop did this or said that.

What is the state of the process of your expulsion from the Society?

The last news that I had heard was by chance a second warning in an email. After tomorrow, therefore, the Society of St. Pius X will again have 4 bishops! They better throw me out quickly. Deo gratias!

This decision of consecrating a bishop must've been thought about and meditated during much time. Just like Archbishop Lefebvre, you, Bishop Williamson and the priests of the resistance have not wanted to collaborate in the destruction of the Church. It is for conserving the faith intact that they have persecuted you all, condemning you all and calumniating you all many times. Your episcopal consecration could run the risk of resulting in an alleged excommunication. What were the principal reasons for bringing about this consecration?

The main reason is that that we cannot leave the resistance without bishops. Just like Archbishop Lefebvre said, Catholic bishops are indispensable for the conservation of the true doctrine and faith and the sacraments.

Archbishop Lefebvre thought of you in the consecration of bishop and now Bishop Williamson is finalizing this wish. What will be your main concern?

Maintaining the strength of the work of Archbishop Lefebvre and the way that he had went, without deviating too much to the right or to the left.

Where will your place of residence be?

In France where we have been thinking about opening a seminary close to the Dominicans of Avrille.

Would you like to say any words to the priests and faithful that are still under the structure of the society but that are not satisfied with the liberal ways in the last years?

That they return to read into meditate upon the texts of their founder.

Can you explain to us the essential of your coat of arms?

In the sensual is the lamb of apocalypse and Alpha and the Omega the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world announced by Isaiah. The hearts are symbols of the Vendeé martyrs and the revolution and the flor de lis is the emblem of Catholic France. The motto, ipsa cónteret (she will crush you) is taken from the Vulgate, Genesis 3, 15 where God promises the victory of the Virgin Mary against the dragon.

Is there anything more you would like to add?

We conserve Faith, Hope, and Charity. There is nothing to doubt and we must beg of God and Our Lady that we are maintained in these virtues.

Father, we greatly thank God, His Most Holy Mother, and Saint Joseph protector of the Church for this great grace. We ask of God that he may protect and conserve you. We thank you for having accepted this tremendous position and Bishop Williamson for consecrating you as one of the successors of the Apostles. Deo Gratias!

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Related:

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Cardinal Dolan leads NYC St. Patrick’s Parade as first-ever gay activist group joins

By Kirsten Andersen 

NEW YORK, March 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan led Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Tuesday as grand marshal, despite backlash from faithful Catholics unhappy with the organizers’ decision to allow an openly homosexual activist group to march in the event.

“I’m as radiant as the sun, so thanks be to God for the honor and the joy,” said Cardinal Dolan on Tuesday morning, as he led 250,000 marchers down Fifth Avenue – including a delegation from “Out @ NBC Universal,” a group of gay activists who work for NBC, the network that televises the parade.

Catholic commentator Michael Voris and his team from ChurchMilitant.TV were present at the parade and were able to question Dolan on his decision during a press scrum. “Your Eminence, do you have anything to say to the loyal Catholics who find what you’re doing here a great scandal to the faith?” Voris asked.

“No, come on in. We’d love to have you,” Dolan replied.

Voris reports that he and his cameraman were then removed from the press scrum, providing video of an official telling them to leave, and then calling police over to escort them out of the area.


Both the parade’s organizers and Cardinal Dolan drew criticism from faithful Catholics last year by approving Out@NBC Universal’s request to march in this year’s parade, under a banner that makes reference to their homosexuality.  The controversial decision prompted the Catholic League and at least one Catholic school to pull out of the parade, while nearly 5,000 people signed a petition urging Cardinal Dolan to withdraw from the event as a show of support for Catholic teaching forbidding homosexual behavior.


New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan responds to a question about his decision to serve as grand marshal at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. ChurchMilitant.tv
But the cardinal refused to back down, expressing support for the group’s inclusion.  “I have no trouble with the decision at all,” Cardinal Dolan said at a press conference announcing his appointment as grand marshal. “I think the decision is a wise one.”

Meanwhile, the parade’s organizers further upset rank-and-file Catholics by refusing to let a pro-life group march, saying they didn’t want to risk taking attention away from the gay group.

“That won’t be happening,” parade committee vice chairman John Lahey said of the pro-life group’s request to march. “What we want to do is keep 2015 focused on the gesture of goodwill we made towards the gay community with the inclusion of OUT@NBCUniversal.”

For the second year in a row, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to attend, saying that despite all the controversy, the organizers behind the celebration of Ireland’s patron saint haven’t done enough to make the event gay-friendly.

According to the mayor, while he saw the inclusion of a single homosexual group as “progress,” he won’t participate in the parade until it is “open to [homosexual groups] who would like to participate who don't happen to work for NBC."

"Having only one delegation associated with one company that allows members of the LGBT community is, obviously, a pretty narrow concession," said de Blasio, after marching in the gay-oriented “St. Pat's for All” parade in Queens on Sunday. "We'd like to see something that's more inclusive."

"I will not be marching [in Tuesday’s parade], but I look forward to progress in the future," de Blasio stated, at an unrelated press conference the following day. "I do think the first step was taken this year and I'm hopeful that soon there'll be others taken."

It seems likely that de Blasio’s hopes will be realized.  While at least one homosexual group was turned away from participating in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, organizers were quick to note that it was simply a matter of the available slots having been filled prior to the group’s application to march, and said homosexual groups were “welcome” to apply for slots in 2016’s parade.

Meanwhile, a number of Catholics disillusioned by the organizers’ actions offered an alternative event on Tuesday at Church of the Holy Innocents, not far from the festivities on Fifth Avenue.

Proudly on display was the Children First Foundation’s “Choose Life” banner – the same one that was rejected by parade organizers.  The event, dubbed the “St. Patrick’s Day Lenten Pilgrimage,” included four Masses, the opportunity for Confession, and a prayer vigil for unborn children.

Link:

Monday, March 16, 2015

A big fat surprise for dietary dogma


...Poor Dad. He gave up all his favourite foods for nothing. It turns out that for most people, the cholesterol in the food you eat has little or no connection to the cholesterol in your blood, or to heart disease either. “There’s never been a single study that showed higher egg consumption is related to higher risk of heart disease,” Walter Willett, a nutrition scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, told New York Magazine recently.

Last month, in an epic climbdown, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advice Committee, whose guidelines influence millions of people, finally dropped its recommendation to restrict cholesterol. “Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption,” it said. So go ahead – eat all the eggs you want.
Just about everything we thought we knew about the evils of cholesterol and fats has turned out to be wrong. The doctors, the nutritionists, the dietitians, the heart societies, the experts at Health Canada, the food pyramid that hung on the wall in school – the entire health and medical establishment, in fact, have been perpetuating a big fat fraud.

It gets worse. Obviously, if you cut down on one food, you have to replace it with something else. Over the past 30 years, we’ve replaced “bad” foods like red meat, milk, eggs and butter with grains, pasta, starchy vegetables and refined carbohydrates laced with sugar. These foods turn out to be even worse. They’re the reason that rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are soaring. In other words, the diet advice we’ve been force-fed all our lives has actually made us fatter and sicker.

Virtually all the increase in calories in the past 30 years has come from carbohydrate foods. Meanwhile, we’ve cut fat intake by 25 per cent. We gave up eggs and butter and switched to lean meat – and got fatter. “Americans have been the subjects of a vast, uncontrolled diet experiment with disastrous consequences,” Nina Teicholz wrote last month in the New York Times... (continued)


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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Obedience and Parrhesia



I remember being told of one of the Welsh bishops being with the rest of the Bishop's Conference at the English College, they all went out to dinner in small groups but left him in the College alone, they were side-lining him. One of my friends, then a student, now long since ordained, felt so sorry for him, he gathered a small group of his fellows and took him out for a drink. Clergy, even Bishops can be unpleasant, just like little children in their excluding of someone with whom they disagree, especially if they are being called to obedience in Christ and to a more rigorous path.

Cardinal Burke since his sacking from the Signatura has apparently lost his smallish salary but more significantly his office and secretarial help but I suspect the thing that really hurts isn't that, or the public humiliation in front of the whole Church but it is the realisation that former friends and colleagues are no longer that friendly, and others just ignore you. Being 'excluded' is my idea of hell... (continued)


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Saturday, March 14, 2015

Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson


Text:

MEMORANDUM

TO: Priests and Deacons of the Archdiocese of St. Louis
      Members of the Curia

FROM: Archbishop Robert J. Carlson

DATE:  March 3, 2015

RE:  Medjugorje Events

I have received a request from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to remind everyone that they are not to participate in events that promote the so-called visionaries of Medjugorje and in particular Mr. Ivan Dragicevic.  Please make this information available to the Lay Faithful.

There was an event scheduled for March 18th which has now been cancelled.  No other such events should be scheduled.

If you have any questions, please contact the Office of the Archbishop.  Thank you for your assistance.

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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Fr. Gordon MacRae: Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Habeas Corpus Appeal



By Ryan A. MacDonald

His 1994 trial has been called a perversion of justice.

I have the honor of assisting to maintain a page for wrongly imprisoned priest, Father Gordon MacRae, at the professional social network LinkedIn. I hope you will visit it. The page has well over 1,000 followers which is somewhat unusual for LinkedIn. Many are Catholic priests throughout the world. About once a month or so, however, I receive in my inbox a message from a Catholic reader with an inquiry. The question is often the same: “I’m hearing of this story for the first time. Why is this injustice not shouted from the rooftops?”

I’m not sure I have an answer to that question. On March 17, Saint Patrick’s Day, at 10 A.M., Chief Judge Joseph LaPlante is slated to hear oral arguments in the Habeas Corpus appeal filed on behalf of Father MacRae in U.S. District Court in Concord, NH. I do not know what to expect, and it may be some time before a decision is published as a result of this hearing.

I cannot help but recall a pointed quote from Dorothy Rabinowitz, who has published three major articles about the trial of Father MacRae in The Wall Street Journal:
“Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents.” (Dorothy Rabinowitz: “The Trials of Father MacRae,” wsj.com, May 10, 2013)
As with other such milestones in this case, the hearing itself may generate some notice from those who are not yet familiar with this travesty of justice. So I thought, at this juncture, that the best service I could perform in the interest of truth and justice would be to present something with the most basic information about this story.

You could effortlessly take part in this. I have composed below a few paragraphs about why Father Gordon MacRae is right now mid-way through his 21st year of unjust imprisonment. This is followed by a number of links that we feel best capture the truth of this case.

I therefore ask that readers of These Stone Walls will share a link to this post with everyone you can. If you share it with your contacts, and post it on Facebook and other social media, ask your connections to re-share it. If you do this, I am sure I will hear from many other Catholics, and others with an interest in justice, asking how this story ever eluded them.. (continued)


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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Utah officers say mysterious voice called them to rescue baby trapped inside car



(Fox News) Four police officers rushing to an overturned car in an icy Utah river say they all heard the same thing: a mysterious female voice calling out “Help,” from inside the vehicle.

But the driver of the car was dead and her 18-month-old daughter, while still alive, couldn’t have been the speaker.

It was a mystery that continues to haunt the officers – and may never be explained.

Officer Jared Warner of the Spanish Fork Police Department was one of the first who came to the rescue of tiny Lily Groesback, who was strapped in a seat in the back of her mother’s car, which was precariously hanging upside down in 40-degree water... (continued)

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Monday, March 9, 2015

City of San Fran. tells archbishop his school reform is discriminatory: considering legal action

By Lisa Bourne

SAN FRANCISCO, March 6, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors says the archbishop’s effort to ensure the city’s Catholic schools uphold their faith is discriminatory, and one member of the board says the city is considering legal action.

At the same time, a reported 80 percent of teachers in the archdiocese’s four Catholic high schools have sent a petition to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that accuses him of fostering “mistrust and fear.”

“We believe the recently proposed handbook language is harmful to our community and creates an atmosphere of mistrust and fear,” the letter said. “We believe our schools should be places of inquiry and the free exchange of ideas where all feel welcome and affirmed.”

Organizers report that 355 teachers from Sacred Heart Catholic Prep, Serra High School, Archbishop Riordan, and Marin Catholic have signed the petition, according to CBS San Francisco.

The archdiocese announced plans in early February to add language from the Catechism of the Catholic Church spelling out Church teaching on sexual morality into faculty handbooks for the purpose of clarifying the long-standing expectation that Catholic school teachers uphold Church teaching and not publicly contradict it. Three new clauses clarifying the same were also proposed for teacher contracts in the four archdiocesan high schools... (continued)


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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Four Catholic Journals Indulge in Doctrinal Solipsism

From Thomistica:

Emeritus Pope Benedict the XVI, in a letter to the Cardinal McCarrick in 2004 when he was merely His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger and prefect of the CDF, made it very clear that the death penalty was not an intrinsic evil and ought not be depicted as one. Indeed, he made clear that regarding the death penalty, questions of war and peace, and so on, laymen had a just claim to exercise their prudential judgment and that disagreement among Catholics on such issues ought not be compared to dissent on matters such as abortion and euthanasia.The letter of then-Cardinal Ratzinger may be found here.  To quote it:

"Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

One can understand how these points seem not to matter, however, in a doctrinal climate in which what matters is rhetorical posturing to catch progressive winds rather than doctrinal rectitude.  The journals take a general prudential inflection of the Church and, with an impatient spasm of imprudence, describe the penalty as an evil in itself--"abhorrent".  The seeming willingness of some in the Church to entertain any change that may be marketed as "progressive" is certainly a factor in the development of such an attitude. The market for mutationist views of doctrinal development--for the proposition that the Church can absolutely contradict what it has solemnly proclaimed as true, whether about contraception, or abortion, or capital punishment--is a growing market in the antinomian first world... (continued)


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Friday, March 6, 2015

Blogger Threatened With Lawsuit: "Church Militant TV... became my rescuers"

From Vox Cantoris:
"Michael Voris, Christine Niles and the staff at Church Militant TV stepped in and through the grace of God, the intercession of Our Lady and the courage given them by St. Michael the Archangel, became my rescuers. The journalistic professionalism and their devotion to the truth was a great consolation for my wife and myself as was the charity and compassion for the situation. Michael Voris put his resources at my disposal, whatever was needed in terms of getting the word out there, to help me and my wife from losing our home and facing bankruptcy in order to fight this frivolous and vexatious action, was offered. We were suddenly not alone in this fight. Our Lady has sent us a Catholic militant!"  (continued)

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

National Catholic Reporter, National Catholic Register, America, Our Sunday Visitor Unite to End Capital Punishment


"We, the editors of four Catholic journals — America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter and Our Sunday Visitor — urge the readers of our diverse publications and the whole U.S. Catholic community and all people of faith to stand with us and say, “Capital punishment must end...”


Related:

Cardinal Egan, retired NY archbishop, dies at age 82

(Associated Press) Roman Catholic Cardinal Edward Egan, the former archbishop of New York, has died. He was 82.

The Archdiocese of New York says Egan died Thursday afternoon at a New York hospital. The cause of death was cardiac arrest.

Pope John Paul II had appointed Egan as leader of the archdiocese in 2000 to succeed the late Cardinal John O'Connor.

Egan was archbishop during the Sept. 11 terror attacks during which he anointed the dead at a lower Manhattan hospital and presided over many funerals for victims.

He was a scholar of church law and spoke Latin fluently. John Paul chose him to help with the massive job of reviewing a revised canon law code for the global church.

A native of Illinois, Egan retired as New York archbishop in 2009.

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Latin Mass to be offered to mark reinterment of Richard III

(Catholic Herald)  A Requiem Mass in the traditional Latin form is to be offered at a Catholic church in Lancashire to mark the reinterment of King Richard III, which will take place on the same day at Leicester’s Anglican cathedral.

The mortal remains of Richard III, who died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before the Reformation, will be reinterred in the cathedral on March 26, in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and an invited congregation.

The Requiem Mass for the repose of Richard III’s soul will be held on the same day St Catherine’s Church, in Leyland, Lancashire, at 7.30pm. It will be a Sung High Latin Mass with singers from the Laeta Cantoribus Choir, “in the style and manner of (Richard III’s) day”.

“The idea is that it will be closer to what he might have experienced in his own lifetime, as a pre-reformation Catholic,” said parish priest Fr Simon Henry.

After the service, refreshments will be served, also in keeping with what King Richard might have expected in his lifetime.

“The food afterwards will make at least a nod in the direction of the 15th century, or at least to his Yorkshire connections,” said Fr Henry. “Though wild boar sausages are a little difficult to come by!”
The skeleton of Richard III was found under a car park in Leicester in 2012. In the days before the reinterment service at Leicester Cathedral, the coffin will be taken to Leicester University and Bosworth Field, where the king was was killed in battle.

Following the Leicester Cathedral service, Richard III’s body will lie “in repose” for three days before being reinterred.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster will be part of the week-long run of events to mark the reinterment.

The cardinal will preach at a service of compline on the day the king’s remains are received into the cathedral and will celebrate a Requiem Mass the next day at a nearby Catholic parish.
Dominican friars will also sing vespers at the cathedral in the run-up to the reinterment and Fr David Rocks OP, parish priest, will preach at a lunchtime Eucharist.

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