German Protestants apologise for Reformation iconoclasm

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

(The Tablet) The German Protestant Church (EKD) has apologised for the widespread destruction of religious images during the Reformation.

“The Protestant Church rejects the destruction of images. Images have long since become an expression of Protestant piety,” Protestant Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber underlined at a meeting of delegations from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the EKD. The clerics met in Hamburg to discuss the word “image” from the Orthodox and Protestant points of view. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and EKD chairman Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm sent greetings and blessings to the Hamburg meeting.

Destroying image was most common in the immediate aftermath of the Reformation. In the first half of the sixteenth century, statues of the Virgin and the saints, stained-glass windows, organs and any objects associated with miracles and the supernatural were removed from Catholic churches and wayside chapels and in many cases destroyed. Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and southern Germany suffered particularly... (continued)

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• German Protestants apologise for Reformation iconoclasm

Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany

By Melanie Hall, Berlin

(The Telegraph) German soldiers grappled for nine hours with an unusual task: trying to remove a Second World War tank found in the cellar of a villa.

Almost 20 soldiers struggled to remove the tank from a villa on Thursday in a wealthy suburb of Kiel in northern Germany, after police searching the property discovered the tank, a torpedo, an anti-aircraft gun and other weapons in the cellar on Wednesday.

Police raided the home in the town of Heikendorf under instructions from prosecutors, who suspected that the villa's 78-year-old owner held the weaponry illegally under a law controlling the possession of instruments of war.

The army was called in to try to remove the 1943-vintage Panther tank, and struggled for nine hours to tow it out using two modern recovery tanks designed to haul damaged battle tanks off the field.

The soldiers ended up having to build their own wooden ramp in order to free to tank.

Ulrich Burchardi, an army spokesman, described the difficult task of removing the tank without damaging the house as “precision work.”

Prosecutors in Kiel were alerted to the existence of the weapons by the authorities in Berlin, who had previously searched the villa for stolen Nazi art around a month earlier, national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

But Peter Gramsch, lawyer for the villa’s owner, claimed that the tank and the anti-aircraft gun could no longer fire their weapons and were therefore not breaking any law.

He told the newspaper there was even a note from the responsible district office from 2005 stating that the tank had lost its weapons capability.

Mr Gramsch now wants to take legal action against the seizure and also for compensation for his client.

“I assume that the tank was damaged in the process,“ he said... (continued)

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• Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany

Vatican makes 'new generation' cardinal head of key German archdiocese

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican has appointed the archbishop of Berlin, seen by German media as part of a "new generation" of less dogmatic clergy, to take over the Cologne archdiocese, the largest and richest in Germany, it said on Friday.

The move makes Rainer Maria Woelki, who turns 58 next month, one of the most influential Roman Catholic cardinals and is an indication of the type of person Pope Francis wants to see in prominent Church roles.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper called him "the prototype of a new generation of bishops ... not grumpy and dogmatic ... these men speak of mercy and mean it. They're open to people, even their critics, to a point and have a heart for the disadvantaged. Still, they're theologically conservative."

Woelki is a Cologne native and served there for years under his retired predecessor, the staunchly conservative Cardinal Joachim Meisner, before becoming bishop of Berlin in 2011.

When his Berlin appointment was announced, some politicians and Catholics in Berlin said he was too conservative for a city with such a large gay community, pointing to comments he had made that homosexuality was against “the order of creation”.

They also noted that he did his doctorate in theology at a pontifical university in Rome run by the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei.

But Woekli surprised Berliners by saying he respected all people and would gladly meet with gay activists.

A year later, in 2012, he said: "If two homosexuals take responsibility for each other, if they are loyal to each other over the long term, then one should see this in the same way as heterosexual relations."

Berlin's Alliance against Homophobia nominated him for its Respect Prize that year, an honor he politely declined by saying it was normal for a Christian to respect all people so he should not receive an award for it.

In July 2013, the newly elected Pope Francis changed the tone of Vatican comments on homosexuality in comments on the plane returning from a visit to Brazil, saying, "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"

The German Catholic Church is one of the richest in the world and helps fund Vatican activities as well as missionary work in poor countries.

Its financial strength and long history of theologians and leading Church personalities, including the now retired Pope Benedict, give it considerable influence in the Vatican.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of Germany's other powerful archdiocese, Munich, is a member of the pope's group of cardinals working out proposed reforms for the worldwide Church.

Link: 

• Vatican makes 'new generation' cardinal head of key German archdiocese

Germany bans managers from calling or emailing staff after work hours

(IBNLive) Germany's labor ministry has banned managers from calling or emailing staff out of hours except in emergencies. The ministry says the measure is intended to prevent staff from suffering undue stress by being constantly on call.

Daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that the ministry is following the lead of major German companies such as automaker Volkswagen and Deutsche Telekom.

The newspaper cited official guidelines stating that no staff should be penalized for turning off their cellphone or failing to pick up messages after working hours "to prevent self-exploitation."

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• Germany bans managers from calling or emailing staff after work hours

Cardinal Brandmüller's Rebuke to Drifting, Secularist Germans

From Father B. Jerabek's blog:

In the past several months – but particularly in the last couple of weeks – there have been several disturbing items in Church news that should be cause for concern for us all.

On the one hand, there was that questionnaire in preparation for the upcoming Synod on the Family, sent to all bishops of the world but also seeking lay collaboration in its completion. At the time, many took it to be a major shift in Vatican policy (even though, in effect, it was business as usual). And since then, there has been no shortage of agitation, in the media and in the Church: agitation that has as its goal to recast the survey as an indication that the Church is moving in the direction oUf becoming a democratic institution that will bend its teachings and its customs according to the fashions of the age. Sadly, and tragically, there have even been entire groups of bishops who seem to harbor such hopes. More on that in a moment.

On the other hand, there was the recent news of a report sent by the UN to the Vatican concerning its handling of the sexual abuse crises in different parts of the world. The document was problematic on various levels; in particular – and leaving aside the UN’s grandstanding – because it took it upon itself to tell the Catholic Church that it should change its teaching in order to conform with current moral fashions (among elite Western organizations, such as the UN): abortion, homosexual “marriage”, and so forth.

What followed was a very weak response from the Holy See. At first, there was an assurance given that the Vatican would very carefully study the document. But that first response was crucial. It rather took the impact out of any subsequent response – especially since the Vatican’s later condemnation of certain aspects of the document was not all that forcefully put.

So there was the UN telling the Church what to do and how to believe; OK, that’s nuts, but they are outside the Church and everyone has an opinion. But inside the Church, there has been, as I said above, no shortage of confusion either. As I have reported on several occasions here, some of Pope Francis’ words and deeds have given the impression – to some people – that suddenly everything is up for grabs: everything can be re-thought and re-invented – even things that were always understood as unchanging, such as the indissolubility of marriage. And this has emboldened all kinds of people whose voices, under previous Pontificates, were gradually being drowned out. They are rising up again. And there are even bishops in their number. Almost all the bishops in Germany, it seems. Almost all the bishops in Switzerland. Not a few in France. Etc. Confusion among bishops, confusion among priests, confusion among religious, confusion among laypeople.

Reflecting upon all of this, I was glad to see a fairly brief article (in Italian) that reports recent discourses of two different German bishops – one a Cardinal, and one a Cardinal-to-be. These men of the Church insist upon basic truths that we must never forget, and they also insist upon clarity in teaching. At a time like this, we need clear teaching. That is why I have recently begun to post excerpts on the indissolubility of marriage. That is why I have been talking about the domestic church. That is why I will also be posting on other themes in the near future that we all need to review.

The Catholic faith is not subject to the changing winds of the age, much less those of only a certain part of the world. It was given to us by Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Church is not a democracy nor can it ever be. Yes, there are some matters where the opinion of groups and individuals can and should have an effect. But there are also some areas (such as dogma and doctrine) where that approach is simply not possible, if we would be faithful to our Lord. This article, then, which I have translated and pasted below, is helpful in clarifying things. Please do give it a read. Its author is Matteo Matzuzzi, and it was originally published in the daily Il Foglio on February 15th.

CARDINAL BRANDMÜLLER’S REBUKE
TO DRIFTING, SECULARIST GERMANS

Clash of Powers:

“Neither human nature, nor the Commandments,
nor the Gospel have an expiration date”

The secularist majorities that would like to recreate the Catholic Church’s moral teaching – in response to which Il Foglio successfully launched an appeal to Pope Francis for a counter-offensive of ideas and pastoral action – have found strong support among the ranks of some bishops’ conferences. Such as that of Germany, for example, now ready to make its voice heard (as the outgoing president, Msgr. Robert Zollitsch, had promised): namely, that “Humanae Vitae only creates confusion” among the faithful, and that “Catholic teaching is no longer adequate to the times” – so the young Bishop of Trier, Msgr. Ackermann, said a week ago.

Against this last affirmation, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, also German, has inveighed: “Ethical teaching can be modified only to the extent that man’s nature changes”; moreover, “the Church’s ethics originate in the nature of man – a physical-spiritual nature”. Thus explained the Cardinal, in an interview with Armin Schwibach, published by the Catholic news agency Kath.net. And to those who speak of the need to bring the Church’s moral teaching up to date with new realities that were unknown until a few years ago, Brandmüller recalls that “neither human nature, nor the Commandments, nor the Gospel have an expiration date”.

Therefore, those who claim these things find themselves “in contradiction with the Word of God”. This happens because “a certain imprecision and haziness of language on the part of Church representatives is repeatedly observed. Clearness and precision are lacking. One hears things of which it is impossible to approve or disapprove, thus each person can draw from them whatever he finds most agreeable. But it is urgent and important that Church pronouncements be founded upon clear concepts”, adds the President-Emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.

“What is needed is courage to articulate the truth, even against current fashion – a courage that whoever speaks in the name of the Church must possess, if he does not want to fall short of his vocation”... (continued)

Click here to read more at Father Jerabek's blog

Link:

• Church vs. World: Clash of Powers

Related:

• The Vatican Survey
• Card. Brandmüller blasts some German bishops
• La strigliata del card. Brandmüller ai tedeschi ondivaghi e secolaristi
• Der Mut, entgegen dem allgemeinen Trend die Wahrheit zu verkünden

Pope Francis leads pep rally at Vatican, meets with Merkel

Associated Press/Gregorio Borgia - Pope Francis arrives to meets with faithful of the ecclesiastic movements on the occasion of a Pentecost vigil in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

By FRANCES D'EMILIO | Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis toured St. Peter's Square to greet tens of thousands of people attending a rally of prayer, music and speeches Saturday, and he embraced the brother of a Pakistani politician who was assassinated in his country after calling for greater religious freedom for Christians there.

Earlier in the day, the pope met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made a brief visit to Rome, mindful of the importance of Christian voters back home during the election she faces in September. She joined the pope in expressing concern about the many victims of Europe's economic crisis.

Francis, who is Argentine, has picked up on campaigns by the two previous popes, the Polish John Paul II and German Benedict XVI, to reinvigorate what the Catholic church sees as flagging religious enthusiasm on a continent with Christian roots, including dwindling number of churchgoers in much of Western Europe.

The vast cobblestone square outside St. Peter's Basilica is traditionally the boundary for pontiffs greeting the faithful at outdoor Vatican gatherings, but Pope Francis keeps stretching the boundaries.

Riding in an open-topped white jeep, Francis zipped through the square to greet the faithful who had been waiting for hours for his arrival at the evening rally designed to encourage Catholics to strengthen their faith. The Vatican estimated the crowd at 200,000.

Waving cheerfully and sometimes blowing kisses to the cheering crowd, Francis kept going in his pope mobile past the edge of the square and halfway down the Rome boulevard that leads from the Vatican to the Tiber River before turning back. The route took him past cafes, souvenir shops and a hotel popular with pilgrims.

Francis also embraced Paul Bhatti, a speaker at the rally. His brother Shahbaz, a Pakistani government minister, was assassinated in 2011 after urging reform of a blasphemy law in Pakistan that had targeted Christians.

Earlier in the day, Merkel spoke privately for 45 minutes with the pope at the Apostolic Palace.

Her Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters in Germany, and the chat and photo opportunity could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent.

For its part, the Vatican is eager for allies in its campaign to anchor European societies more solidly in their heritage of Christian roots. The church also seeks support on behalf of Christians who face persecution in the world.

The suffering of Europeans caught in the continent's grip of joblessness and other economic woes also dominated the pope's concerns. On Thursday, Francis blasted what he called a "cult of money" in a global financial system that ends up tyrannizing, not helping, the world's poor.

"It's not just an economic crisis," but an existential problem depressing morale, Francis told the rally. "It's a deep crisis. We just cannot worry about ourselves ... close ourselves in a sense of helplessness."

The pontiff urged people to help the needy, especially on the margins of societies.

Merkel, asked by reporters about the pope's scathing criticism of the global financial system, said they spoke about regulation of financial markets.

"The regulation of the financial markets is our central problem, our central task," Merkel said. "We are moving ahead, but we are not yet where we want to be, where we could say that a derailment of the guard rails of social market won't happen again."

Merkel added: "It ought to be like this: The economy is there to serve the people. In the last few years, this hasn't been the case at all everywhere."

Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and especially Greece have seen governments concentrate on debt reduction while slashing state spending. With growth stymied, unemployment, especially among young people, has soared. Businesses, many of them family-run in southern Europe, have failed as bank lending dried up.

The chancellor said the pope had stressed the world needs a strong and just Europe.

Merkel is campaigning for re-election in September's general election. Half of Germany's population is Catholic. In Bavaria there is a strong conservative and Catholic tradition.

According to a Vatican statement, Francis and Merkel also discussed "safeguarding human rights, the persecutions faced by Christians" and religious freedom.

"I see continuity in the missionary aspect, in becoming aware of the importance of Christianity for our Christian roots," said Merkel, adding that the "simple and touching words" of Francis, who was elected pontiff two months ago, are already reaching people.

Link:

• Pope leads pep rally at Vatican, meets with Merkel

German home-schooling family fights to stay in US

By Doug McKelway
 
(FoxNews.com) While the White House and many lawmakers push to grant legal status to immigrants who crossed the border illegally, the Romeike family thought they followed the rules -- but now face deportation.

They are devout Catholics who emigrated from Germany in 2008 to home school their six children in Tennessee. As Uwe Romeike told Fox News, it is illegal to do that in Germany.

"We don't have the freedom to home school our children in Germany," Romeike told Fox News.

The U.S. granted the Romeikes political asylum, but in 2010 the Justice Department intervened, ruling that home-schooling could not be used as grounds to seek citizenship.

The department has ordered the Romeikes be deported. "Now it means same thing as in Germany," Uwe Romeike said with a chuckle.

The family is appealing the ruling. Their case set for April 23 before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The Home School Legal Defense Association will represent them. It sees their denial of asylum as a fundamental threat to freedom. "In this particular case there is an equivalency between human rights standards and our constitutional rights. If our government takes the position that home-schooling is not a human right for the Romeike case to give them the basis of asylum, then it may not be a constitutional right for them as well," said Michael Farris of the HSLDA.

Immigration experts differ as to whether the Romeike's situation meets the criteria for asylum here.

David Abraham, a professor at the University of Miami Law School, said: "Germany, a democratic country, has chosen not to permit home schooling as one of the options. Germans have a chance to change that through their legislature. In the meantime, it doesn't exist and it is not persecution."

But Thomas Dupree, a Bush administration Justice Department lawyer disagrees. "The administration has a wide variety of options at their disposal that range from granting asylum to deferring any kind of action to remove these people," he said.

A petition on the White House website to grant the family permanent legal status has garnered over 100,000 signatures -- a threshold that typically triggers comment from the administration.  A recording on that website tells visitors, "If a petition gets enough signatures White House staff will review it, ensure it's sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response."

Home-schoolers in Germany face not just fines, but the potential removal of children from their parents' custody. That is a level of punishment the Romeikes say rises to persecution.

• German home-schooling family fights to stay in US

German pilot in WWII spared an American B-17 pilot over Germany only to reunite 40 years later and become fishing buddies

(War History Online) The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

“My God, this is a nightmare,” the co-pilot said.

“He’s going to destroy us,” the pilot agreed.

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.

The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.
But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer “Pinky” Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn’t pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry recorded during World War II. Years later, Brown would track down his would-be executioner for a reunion that reduced both men to tears.

Living by the code

People love to hear war stories about great generals or crack troops such as Seal Team 6, the Navy unit that killed Osama bin Laden. But there is another side of war that’s seldom explored: Why do some soldiers risk their lives to save their enemies and, in some cases, develop a deep bond with them that outlives war?
And are such acts of chivalry obsolete in an age of drone strikes and terrorism?

Charles Brown was on his first combat mission during World War II when he met an enemy unlike any other.

Those are the kinds of questions Brown’s story raises. His encounter with the German fighter pilot is beautifully told in a New York Times best-selling book, “A Higher Call.” The book explains how that aerial encounter reverberated in both men’s lives for more than 50 years.

“The war left them in turmoil,” says Adam Makos, who wrote the book with Larry Alexander. “When they found each other, they found peace.”

Their story is extraordinary, but it’s not unique. Union and Confederate troops risked their lives to aid one another during the Civil War. British and German troops gathered for post-war reunions; some even vacationed together after World War II. One renowned American general traveled back to Vietnam to meet the man who almost wiped out his battalion, and the two men hugged and prayed together.

What is this bond that surfaces between enemies during and after battle?

It’s called the warrior’s code, say soldiers and military scholars. It’s shaped cultures as diverse as the Vikings, the Samurai, the Romans and Native Americans, says Shannon E. French, author of “Code of the Warrior.”

The code is designed to protect the victor, as well as the vanquished, French says.

“People think of the rules of war primarily as a way to protect innocent civilians from being victims of atrocities,” she says. “In a much more profound sense, the rules are there to protect the people doing the actual fighting.”

The code is designed to prevent soldiers from becoming monsters. Butchering civilians, torturing prisoners, desecrating the enemies’ bodies — are all battlefield behaviors that erode a soldier’s humanity, French says.
The code is ancient as civilization itself. In Homer’s epic poem, “The Iliad,” the Greek hero Achilles breaks the code when his thirst for vengeance leads him to desecrate the body of his slain foe, the Trojan hero Hector.

“There is something worse than death, and one of those things is to completely lose your humanity.”Most warrior cultures share one belief, French says:

The code is still needed today, French says.

Thousands of U.S. soldiers returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. Some have seen, and have done, things that are unfathomable.

A study of Vietnam veterans showed that those who felt as if they had participated in dishonorable behavior during the war or saw the Vietnamese as subhuman experienced more post-traumatic stress disorder, French says.

Drone warfare represents a new threat to soldiers’ humanity, French says.

The Pentagon recently announced it would award a new Distinguished Warfare Medal to soldiers who operate drones and launch cyberattacks. The medal would rank above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, two medals earned in combat.

At least 17,000 people have signed an online petition protesting the medal. The petition says awarding medals to soldiers who wage war via remote control was an “injustice” to those who risked their lives in combat.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended the new medal at a February news conference.
“I’ve seen firsthand how modern tools, like remotely piloted platforms and cybersystems, have changed the way wars are fought,” Panetta says. “And they’ve given our men and women the ability to engage the enemy and change the course of battle, even from afar.”

Still, critics ask, is there any honor in killing an enemy by remote control?

French isn’t so sure.

“If [I'm] in the field risking and taking a life, there’s a sense that I’m putting skin in the game,” she says. “I’m taking a risk so it feels more honorable. Someone who kills at a distance — it can make them doubt. Am I truly honorable?”

The German pilot who took mercy

Revenge, not honor, is what drove 2nd Lt. Franz Stigler to jump into his fighter that chilly December day in 1943.

Stigler wasn’t just any fighter pilot. He was an ace. One more kill and he would win The Knight’s Cross, German’s highest award for valor.

Yet Stigler was driven by something deeper than glory. His older brother, August, was a fellow Luftwaffe pilot who had been killed earlier in the war. American pilots had killed Stigler’s comrades and were bombing his country’s cities.

Stigler was standing near his fighter on a German airbase when he heard a bomber’s engine. Looking up, he saw a B-17 flying so low it looked like it was going to land. As the bomber disappeared behind some trees, Stigler tossed his cigarette aside, saluted a ground crewman and took off in pursuit.

As Stigler’s fighter rose to meet the bomber, he decided to attack it from behind. He climbed behind the sputtering bomber, squinted into his gun sight and placed his hand on the trigger. He was about to fire when he hesitated. Stigler was baffled. No one in the bomber fired at him.

He looked closer at the tail gunner. He was still, his white fleece collar soaked with blood. Stigler craned his neck to examine the rest of the bomber. Its skin had been peeled away by shells, its guns knocked out. He could see men huddled inside the plane tending the wounds of other crewmen.

Then he nudged his plane alongside the bomber’s wings and locked eyes with the pilot whose eyes were wide with shock and horror.

Franz Stigler wondered for years what happened to the American pilot he encountered in combat.

Stigler pressed his hand over the rosary he kept in his flight jacket. He eased his index finger off the trigger. He couldn’t shoot. It would be murder.

Stigler wasn’t just motivated by vengeance that day. He also lived by a code. He could trace his family’s ancestry to knights in 16th century Europe. He had once studied to be a priest.

A German pilot who spared the enemy, though, risked death in Nazi Germany. If someone reported him, he would be executed.

Yet Stigler could also hear the voice of his commanding officer, who once told him:

“You follow the rules of war for you — not your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity...”

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• German pilot in WWII spared an American B-17 pilot over Germany only to reunite 40 years later and become fishing buddies

Monsignor Georg Ganswein to Become Bishop?

From Catholic Church Conservation:

REGENSBURG. Who will be the new Bishop of Regensburg? Who takes up the space deserted following Gerhard Ludwig Müller's appointment as prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? The guessing game is in progress. "I would also like to know," confessed merrily recently the chairman of the Bavarian bishops' conference in Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, on the sidelines of a reception in Schleissheim Castle .

Only the Pope knows what will happen next. Nevertheless, there is vigorous speculation.

Rumour most gorgeous: Papal Secretary George Gänswein who Benedict XVI reportedly wishes to get out of the firing line in the Vatileaks affair will move to Regensburg. It's not the first time that a church leader removes a man out from his restricted surroundings to a new position. John Paul II appointed his secretary to be the Cardinal of Krakow.

If the worst happens: Gänswein would not be a tame bishop. Charm and good looks meet in "Don Giorgio" with a sharp intellect and eloquence...

Link:

• Rumour most gorgeous: Gänswein to become bishop

Catholic News Roundup: German Bishops' Porn Publisher Corrects the Media: "It's Erotica."

Today's Edition of Catholic News Roundup! DOMA Repeal hits the Senate ... "Occupy the Vatican" attacks Canadian cathedral during Mass ... German Bishops' porn publisher corrects the media; "It's erotica."

• "The proposed law would essentially allow the federal government to issue the same benefits to homosexual couples that truly married couples receive for the sake of bringing children into the world."

• "Bishop Cordileone of Oakland, Chairman of the USCCB's Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, says the law violates justice and basic human rights because it 'transforms marriage from a child-centered to an adult-centered status to the detriment of children."

• Devil in the DNA: A USCCB staff member's article that says homosexuality originates with Satan is being pulled from publication...

• The SSPX is squashing any rumors regarding their answer to the Vatican's offer of reunion made in September...

• It's not porn.   It's erotica.  So says the German media company recently exposed in the media as completely owned by the country's Catholic bishops.   And they're serious...

Links:

• Real Catholic TV
• Real Catholic TV Facebook Page

Related:

• Catholic Journal (Archdiocese of Boston - The Pilot) Withdraws Column that Suggests Devil Responsible for Homosexuality
• USCCB staff member retracts column linking Satan to origins of homosexuality
• Father George David Byers: Update on burning at the stake the German bishops responsible for this hell of porn

Update on burning at the stake the German bishops responsible for this hell of porn

By Father George David Byers

The second headline in lifesitenews is this: German bishops’ company: It’s not porn, just ‘erotica,’ so we’re suing the ‘slanderers’

Of course, their “erotica” is not the commentary on “eros” by Pope Benedict XVI. Instead, the German bishops think that whatever is meant “merely” to privately physically sexually excite someone is not porn. I guess exposing others to a grave temptation against chastity is no longer a grave sin. But it is. It doesn’t take much for the likes of, say, King David viewing Bathsheba. What about the rest of humanity? 2,500 titles of “erotica.” Uh-huh.

Well, I have nothing to lose if I’m sued by these pornographers. You see, I have nothing. I sleep in a corner of a loft of a barn quite open to the elements. I don’t own the hermitage that is only being built at the moment. So, sue me! That would make for a great case. I want it to be heard in the Paul VI Audience Hall right behind the Holy Office. I know the Vatican Gardens really well. I have some places already picked out where burning pornographers at the stake would be most appropriate. I’ll counter sue. I happen to have great friends at the Roman Rota and the Apostolic Signatura… and up on the terzo piano of the Apostolic Palace. Go ahead. Do your worst!

From an email:

Having trouble logging in to leave a comment for the post about the bishops from Deutschland. Only wanted to say that I do not know what you and other faithful men must go thru when you learn of such betrayal. For myself, the struggle against uncharitableness is great, great indeed. The hatred within seems insurmountable, in a blasphemous sort of way. Especially when the truth holds that the Atlantic doesn’t seperate such filth. Heading out with a rosary for all those who ever received the gift of Holy Orders. What more can be done?

The Lord rejoices to bless you for your prayer for us poor priests and bishops! That is exactly what can be done. The more the better.

I’ve often thought that there are many who go to purgatory because it is just so very difficult to face such things as this. We must never become bitter, looking to ourselves for strength. Rather, we must look to our Lord, and rejoice that He went to greet fully eleven of the twelve apostles He had chosen... (continued)

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• Update on burning at the stake the German bishops responsible for this hell of porn

A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Against "End of Life Care" - (Germany, 1941)

Sermon Delivered by Bishop Clemens August Count of Galen
August 3, 1941

[The following is from the book, Cardinal von Galen, by Rev. Heinrich Portmann, translated by R.L. Sedgwick, 1957, pp. 239-246.]

The Third Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Lambert's on August 3rd, 1941, in which the Bishop attacks the Nazi practice of euthanasia and condemns the ‘mercy killings’ taking place in his own diocese.

My Beloved Brethren,

In today's Gospel we read of an unusual event: Our Saviour weeps. Yes, the Son of God sheds tears. Whoever weeps must be either in physical or mental anguish. At that time Jesus was not yet in bodily pain and yet here were tears. What depth of torment He must have felt in His heart and Soul, if He, the bravest of men, was reduced to tears. Why is He weeping? He is lamenting over Jerusalem, the holy city He loved so tenderly, the capital of His race. He is weeping over her inhabitants, over His own compatriots because they cannot foresee the judgment that is to overtake them, the punishment which His divine prescience and justice have pronounced. ‘Ah, if thou too couldst understand, above all in this day that is granted thee, the ways that can bring thee peace!’ Why did the people of Jerusalem not know it? Jesus had given them the reason a short time before. ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often have I been ready to gather thy children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings; and thou didst refuse it! I your God and your King wished it, but you would have none of Me. . . .’ This is the reason for the tears of Jesus, for the tears of God. . . . Tears for the misrule, the injustice and man's willful refusal of Him and the resulting evils, which, in His divine omniscience, He foresees and which in His justice He must decree. . . . It is a fearful thing when man sets his will against the will of God, and it is because of this that Our Lord is lamenting over Jerusalem.

My faithful brethren! In the pastoral letter drawn up by the German Hierarchy on the 26th of June at Fulda and appointed to be read in all the churches of Germany on July 6th, it is expressly stated: ‘According to Catholic doctrine, there are doubtless commandments which are not binding when obedience to them requires too great a sacrifice, but there are sacred obligations of conscience from which no one can release us and which we must fulfil even at the price of death itself. At no time, and under no circumstances whatsoever, may a man, except in war and in lawful defence, take the life of an innocent person.’

When this pastoral was read on July 6th I took the opportunity of adding this exposition:

For the past several months it has been reported that, on instructions from Berlin, patients who have been suffering for a long time from apparently incurable diseases have been forcibly removed from homes and clinics. Their relatives are later informed that the patient has died, that the body has been cremated and that the ashes may be claimed. There is little doubt that these numerous cases of unexpected death in the case of the insane are not natural, but often deliberately caused, and result from the belief that it is lawful to take away life which is unworthy of being lived.

This ghastly doctrine tries to justify the murder of blameless men and would seek to give legal sanction to the forcible killing of invalids, cripples, the incurable and the incapacitated. I have discovered that the practice here in Westphalia is to compile lists of such patients who are to be removed elsewhere as ‘unproductive citizens,’ and after a period of time put to death. This very week, the first group of these patients has been sent from the clinic of Marienthal, near Münster.

Paragraph 21 of the Code of Penal Law is still valid. It states that anyone who deliberately kills a man by a premeditated act will be executed as a murderer. It is in order to protect the murderers of these poor invalids—members of our own families—against this legal punishment, that the patients who are to be killed are transferred from their domicile to some distant institution. Some sort of disease is then given as the cause of death, but as cremation immediately follows it is impossible for either their families or the regular police to ascertain whether death was from natural causes.

I am assured that at the Ministry of the Interior and at the Ministry of Health, no attempt is made to hide the fact that a great number of the insane have already been deliberately killed and that many more will follow.

Article 139 of the Penal Code expressly lays down that anyone who knows from a reliable source of any plot against the life of a man and who does not inform the proper authorities or the intended victim, will be punished. . . .

When I was informed of the intention to remove patients from Marienthal for the purpose of putting them to death I addressed the following registered letter on July 29th to the Public Prosecutor, the Tribunal of Münster, as well as to the Head of the Münster Police:

‘I have been informed this week that a considerable number of patients from the provincial clinic of Marienthal are to be transferred as citizens alleged to be "unproductive" to the institution of Richenberg, there to be executed immediately; and that according to general opinion, this has already been carried out in the case of other patients who have been removed in like manner. Since this sort of procedure is not only contrary to moral law, both divine and natural, but is also punishable by death, according to Article 211 of the Penal Code, it is my bounden obligation in accordance with Article 139 of the same Code to inform the authorities thereof. Therefore I demand at once protection for my fellow countrymen who are threatened in this way, and from those who purpose to transfer and kill them, and I further demand to be informed of your decision.’

I have received no news up till now of any steps taken by these authorities. On July 26th I had already written and dispatched a strongly worded protest to the Provincial Administration of Westphalia which is responsible for the clinics to which these patients have been entrusted for care and treatment. My efforts were of no avail. The first batch of innocent folk have left Marienthal under sentence of death, and I am informed that no less than eight hundred cases from the institution of Waestein have now gone. And so we must await the news that these wretched defenceless patients will sooner or later lose their lives. Why? Not because they have committed crimes worthy of death, not because they have attacked guardians or nurses as to cause the latter to defend themselves with violence which would be both legitimate and even in certain cases necessary, like killing an armed enemy soldier in a righteous war.

No, these are not the reasons why these unfortunate patients are to be put to death. It is simply because that according to some doctor, or because of the decision of some committee, they have no longer a right to live because they are ‘unproductive citizens’. The opinion is that since they can no longer make money, they are obsolete machines, comparable with some old cow that can no longer give milk or some horse that has gone lame. What is the lot of unproductive machines and cattle? They are destroyed. I have no intention of stretching this comparison further. The case here is not one of machines or cattle which exist to serve men and furnish them with plenty. They may be legitimately done away with when they can no longer fulfil their function. Here we are dealing with human beings, with our neighbours, brothers and sisters, the poor and invalids . . . unproductive—perhaps! But have they, therefore, lost the right to live? Have you or I the right to exist only because we are ‘productive’? If the principle is established that unproductive human beings may be killed, then God help all those invalids who, in order to produce wealth, have given their all and sacrificed their strength of body. If all unproductive people may thus be violently eliminated, then woe betide our brave soldiers who return home, wounded, maimed or sick.

Once admit the right to kill unproductive persons . . . then none of us can be sure of his life. We shall be at the mercy of any committee that can put a man on the list of unproductives. There will be no police protection, no court to avenge the murder and inflict punishment upon the murderer. Who can have confidence in any doctor? He has but to certify his patients as unproductive and he receives the command to kill. If this dreadful doctrine is permitted and practised it is impossible to conjure up the degradation to which it will lead. Suspicion and distrust will be sown within the family itself. A curse on men and on the German people if we break the holy commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ which was given us by God on Mount Sinai with thunder and lightning, and which God our Maker imprinted on the human conscience from the beginning of time! Woe to us German people if we not only licence this heinous offence but allow it to be committed with impunity!

I will now give you a concrete example of what is taking place here. A fifty-five-year-old peasant from a country parish near Münster—I could give you his name—has been cared for in the clinic of Marienthal for some years suffering from some mental derangement. He was not hopelessly mad, in fact he could receive visitors and was always pleased to see his family. About a fortnight ago he had a visit from his wife and a soldier son who was home on leave from the front. The latter was devoted to his sick father. Their parting was sad, for they might not see each other again as the lad might fall in battle. As it happens this son will never set eyes on his father again because he is on the list of the ‘unproductives’. A member of the family who was sent to see the father at Marienthal was refused admission and was informed that the patient had been taken away on the orders of the Council of Ministers of National Defence. His whereabouts was unknown. The family would receive official notification in due course. What will this notice contain? Will it be like all the others, namely that the man is dead and that the ashes of his body will be sent on the receipt of so much money to defray expenses? And so the son who is now risking his life at the front for his German compatriots will never again see his father. These are the true facts and the names of all those concerned are available.

‘Thou shalt not kill.’ God engraved this commandment on the souls of men long before any penal code laid down punishment for murder, long before any court prosecuted and avenged homicide. Cain, who killed his brother Abel, was a murderer long before courts or states came into existence, and plagued by his conscience he confessed, ‘Guilt like mine is too great to find forgiveness . . . and I shall wander over the earth, a fugitive; anyone I meet will slay me.’

Because of His love for us God has engraved these commandments in our hearts and has made them manifest to us. They express the need of our nature created by God. They are the unchangeable and fundamental truths of our social life grounded on reason, well pleasing to God, healthful and sacred. God, Our Father, wishes by these precepts to gather us, His children, about Him as a hen shelters her brood under her wings. If we are obedient to His commands, then we are protected and preserved against the destruction with which we are menaced, just as the chicks beneath the wings of the mother. ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often have I been ready to gather thy children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings; and thou didst refuse it!’

Does history again repeat itself here in Germany, in our land of Westphalia, in our city of Münster? Where in Germany and where, here, is obedience to the precepts of God? The eighth commandment requires ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour’. How often do we see this commandment publicly and shamelessly broken? In the seventh commandment we read, ‘Thou shalt not steal’. But who can say that property is safe when our brethren, monks and nuns, are forcibly and violently despoiled of their convents, and who now protects property if it is illegally sequestered and not given back?

The sixth commandment tells us, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. Consider the instructions and assurances laid down on the question of free love and child-bearing outside the marital law in the notorious open letter of Rudolf Hess, who has since vanished, which appeared in the Press. In this respect look at the immorality and indecency everywhere in Münster today. Our young people have little respect for the propriety of dress today. Thus is modesty, the custodian of purity, destroyed, and the way for adultery lies open.

How do we observe the fourth commandment which enjoins obedience and respect to parents and superiors? Parental authority is at a low ebb and is constantly being enfeebled by the demands made upon youth against the wishes of the parents. How can real respect and conscientious obedience to the authority of the State be maintained, to say nothing of the Divine commandments, if one is fighting against the one and only true God and His Faith?

The first three commandments have long counted for nothing in the public life of Germany and here also in Münster . . .. The Sabbath is desecrated; Holy Days of Obligation are secularized and no longer observed in the service of God. His name is made fun of, dishonoured and all too frequently blasphemed. As for the first commandment, ‘Thou shalt not have strange gods before me’, instead of the One, True, Eternal God, men have created at the dictates of their whim, their own gods to adore Nature, the State, the Nation or the Race. In the words of St. Paul, for many their god is their belly, their ease, to which all is sacrificed down to conscience and honour for the gratification of the carnal senses, for wealth and ambition. Then we are not surprised that they should claim divine privileges and seek to make themselves overlords of life and death.

‘And as He drew near, and caught sight of the city, He wept over it, and said: "Ah, if thou too couldst understand, above all in this day that is granted thee, the ways that can bring thee peace! As it is, they are hidden from thy sight. The days will come upon thee when thy enemies will fence thee round about, and encircle thee, and press thee hard on every side, and bring down in ruin both thee and thy children that are in thee, not leaving one stone of thee upon another; and all because thou didst not recognize the time of My visiting thee."’

Jesus saw only the walls and towers of the city of Jerusalem with His human eye, but with His divine prescience He saw far beyond and into the inmost heart of the city and its inhabitants. He saw its wicked obstinacy, terrible, sinful and cruel. Man, a transitory creature, was opposing his mean will to the Will of God. That is the reason why Jesus wept for this fearful sin and its inevitable punishment. God is not mocked.

Christians of Münster! Did the Son of God in His omniscience see only Jerusalem and its people? Did He weep only on their behalf? Is God the protector and Father of the Jews only? Is Israel alone in rejecting His divine truth? Are they the only people to throw off the laws of God and plunge headlong to ruin? Did not Jesus, Who sees everything, behold also our German people, our land of Westphalia and the Lower Rhine, and our city of Münster? Has He not also wept for us? For a thousand years He has instructed us and our forbears in the Faith. He has led us by His law. He has nourished us with His grace and has gathered us to Him as the hen does her brood beneath its wings. Has the all-knowing Son of God seen that in our own time He would have to pronounce on us that same dread sentence? ‘Not leaving one stone of thee upon another; and all because thou didst not recognize the time of My visiting thee.’ That would indeed be a terrible sentence.

My dearly Beloved, I trust that it is not too late. It is time that we realized today what alone can bring us peace, what alone can save us and avert the divine wrath. We must openly, and without reserve, admit our Catholicism. We must show by our actions that we will live our lives by obeying God's commandments. Our motto must be: Death rather than sin. By pious prayer and penance we can bring down upon us all, our city and our beloved German land, His grace and forgiveness.

But those who persist in inciting the anger of God, who revile our Faith, who hate His commandments, who associate with those who alienate our young men from their religion, who rob and drive out our monks and nuns, who condemn to death our innocent brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings, we shun absolutely so as to remain undefiled by their blasphemous way of life, which would lay us open to that just punishment which God must and will inflict upon all those who, like the thankless Jerusalem, oppose their wishes to those of God.

O my God, grant to us all now on this very day, before it is too late, a true realization of the things that are for peace. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, oppressed even unto tears by the blindness and sins of men, help us by Thy grace to seek always what is pleasing to Thee and reject what is displeasing, so that we may dwell in Thy Love and find rest in our souls. Amen.

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Hitler's top secret stealth bomber

Posted on June 26, 2009, 1:32 PM | Brian Saint-Paul

(Inside Catholic) Surprising to most, the U.S. military's space-age B-2 Spirit was not the world's first stealth bomber. That honor belongs to the Horton 2-29, an experimental jet created by Nazi Germany at the tail end of World War II. However, because it was never in wide use during the conflict, the 2-29's stealth capabilities were never given much of a test. That is, until now.

Researchers hired by National Geographic studied the last remaining 2-29 in existence -- locked away in a U.S. government hangar -- and built a replica. They then tested the plane's resistance to the kinds of radar active during the Second World War.

Radar tests on the replica show that the plane's radical, smooth design would indeed have given it a significant advantage against radar, according to Tom Dobrenz, a Northrop Grumman expert in stealth, or "low observable," technology, who led the Horten replica project.

In short: The Horten 2-29 looks to have been the world's first stealth fighter.

Here's a brief video of the researchers at work. Fascinating stuff. We can marvel at the genius of the German design, while being grateful that it came too late to help the Nazis.

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Vatican planned to move to Portugal if Nazis captured wartime Pope

Secret plans were drawn up by the Vatican to elect a new Pope and flee to a friendly country should Hitler have carried out his threat to kidnap the wartime Pontiff, it was claimed yesterday.

By Nick Squires in Rome and Simon Caldwell
Last Updated: 3:25AM BST 22 Apr 2009

Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately, paving the way for a successor, according to documents in the Vatican's Secret Archives.

The bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country – probably neutral Portugal – where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff.

That Hitler considered kidnapping the Pope has been documented before, but this is the first time that details have emerged of the Vatican's strategy should the Nazis carry out the plan.

"Pius said 'if they want to arrest me they will have to drag me from the Vatican'," said Peter Gumpel, the German Jesuit priest who is in charge of researching whether Pius should be made a saint, and therefore has access to secret Vatican archives.

Pius, who was Pope throughout the war, told his advisers "the person who would leave the under these conditions would not be Pius XII but Eugenio Pacelli" – his name before he was elected Pontiff – thus giving permission for a new Pope to be elected.

"It would have been disastrous if the Church had been left without an authoritative leader," said Father Gumpel.

"Pius wouldn't leave voluntarily. He had been invited repeatedly to go to Portugal or Spain or the United States but he felt he could not leave his diocese under these severe and tragic circumstances." Vatican documents, which still remain secret, are believed to show that Pius was aware of a plan formulated by Hitler in July 1943 to occupy the Vatican and arrest him and his senior cardinals...

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Obama in Berlin

U.S. Catholics top list of contributors to Peter's Pence

Bishops’ conferences drop to second place

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2008 / 06:02 pm (CNA).- The Council of Cardinals that studies the Vatican's organizational and economic matters announced this Wednesday that the income generated worldwide by the collection known as the Peter's Pence placed U.S. Catholics way at the top of the list, distantly followed by Italy.

During 2007, the Peter's Pence reported an income of $79,837,843 U.S. dollars; most of which was used for the Pope's charitable initiatives in favor of the poorest countries or regions affected by natural disasters.

The most generous Catholic communities were the U.S. with $18.7 million dollars, followed by Italy at $8.6 million, Germany with $4 million and Spain at $2.7 million.

The Holy See also received an individual contribution from an anonymous donor for $14.3 million dollars.

The most generous bishops’ conference in support of the Holy See was that of the German Bishops, who contributed $9.3 million. The German bishops were followed by the USCCB at $8.3 million and then the Italian Bishops, who gave $5.5 million. Surprisingly, the Bishops of South Korea, where Catholics represent slightly more than 10% of the population, ranked 7th with $681,542 dollars.

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Home and Abroad, a Uniformed Ministry

Preparing for his fourth deployment as a military chaplain, the Rev. John Paul Echert III combines two lifelong passions.

By Nick Ferraro
Pioneer Press

Article Last Updated: 04/20/2008 11:51:08 PM CDT

Within minutes of the concluding rite, the Rev. John Paul Echert III shed his vestment, exposing his battle dress uniform underneath. He said his farewells to several parishioners who attended Sunday's 7 a.m. Mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church in South St. Paul and went out the side door.

He was in a hurry, because by 9 a.m., he had to begin celebrating Mass in the chapel at the 133rd Air Lift Wing, adjacent to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, something he has done for local Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard units for 21 years.

"It can be quite the balancing act," Echert, a lieutenant colonel, said of his civilian and military ministry work.

There will be no letting up for Echert, who on Tuesday will be deployed to serve a monthlong stint as a military chaplain at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the main hospital for wounded U.S. and allied force troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Echert said his deployment — his fourth overseas — will be hands on, meaning he will help offload the stretchers as they arrive on a bus from Ramstein Air Base; he will be among the first to speak to the wounded troops; and he'll follow up with them daily through the duration of their stay, which is typically a week or two, before they are flown to the U.S. or elsewhere for further care.

A former active-duty Air Force member, Echert, 50, considers his military chaplaincy — at the home base and overseas — a call within a call.

"I do it, first of all, to be able to serve as a priest to men and women in uniform," he said. "Having been first enlisted and now an officer in the Air Force, I've always felt a special bond with military people. I see their integrity, I see their willingness to sacrifice."

CHILDHOOD LOVES

Echert had two main interests growing up in southwest Minneapolis: the priesthood and the Air Force.

At his request, his mother took him on a visit to a local monastery when he was 5 years old. Meanwhile, his father served in World War II and the Korean War as an engine mechanic on B-29 bombers, including the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

"I always wanted to be a priest," he said, "and at the same time, I was studying my father's old B-29 aircraft manuals."

After graduating from Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park in 1975, he enlisted in the Air Force at 18 and was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., where he trained for four years in communications and electronics. He said a yearlong military mission on a remote mountaintop in Turkey made him realize he was ready to pursue the priesthood.

He spent the next eight years studying in the seminary at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul and at the St. Paul Seminary.

His two worlds came together for the first time, he said, while he was working as an assistant with active-duty Air Force chaplains during summer breaks. Shortly after being ordained in 1987, he began serving as an Air Force Reserve chaplain with the 934th Air Lift Wing on the base that adjoins MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport, while also serving as a priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Roseville.

In 1990, he was assigned to the faculty of the University of St. Thomas, where he spent the next 15 years teaching Scripture. He became the Catholic chaplain for the Air National Guard unit in 2000.

St. Augustine Church always has been one of the largest Latin Mass communities in Minnesota, with about 500 people attending the 11:30 a.m. Tridentine Mass, a Roman Catholic liturgy that dates to the 1500s and is celebrated in a limited number of parishes with Vatican approval.

So, when the church needed someone to run it in 2005, Echert — one of a handful of priests in the state who is fluent in Latin — accepted Archbishop Harry Flynn's invitation. Echert also took on pastoral duties at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in South St. Paul.

Echert said his parish ministry prepares him for military deployment.

"We, as priests, do deal with death and suffering and spirituality on an ongoing basis in the civilian world. It's just more intense in the military than we find in the parish," he said.

DUAL ROLES

Echert has been on three deployments since Sept. 11, 2001, including a month in desert tents in Kuwait in 2001 and four months in Qatar in 2002 leading up to the Iraq war. Last year, he spent a month at Landstuhl Hospital.

He said he saw very little self-pity among the veterans at Landstuhl.

"The thing that I found incredible is, the more severe the injury to the wounded warriors — and that's what we call them — often the less they thought about themselves," he said. "They were more likely to be feeling guilt that they had been taken out of the battlefield, or they were grieving the loss of one or more of their comrades who had died in whatever caused them their injuries, and some of these injuries included loss of limbs."

Once home, Echert makes the transition smooth for local airmen dealing with life's troubles before and after deployment, said Col. Greg Haase, the unit's commander.

"We need that trusted agent, if you will, for our social well-being," Haase said. "And he provides that for the nurturing of the soul and the nurturing of the heart, nurturing of the mind, because there's a lot to accept after you leave and come back."

BRIGHT OUTLOOK

Just before the 9 a.m. Mass was to start in the chapel, Echert saw an airman jogging, trying hard not to be tardy. "You're not late if you beat me to the doors," Echert, who serves Mass on the base once a month, said to the smiling airman.

After Mass, which was attended by about 40 service members and some of their families, Master Sgt. Brenda Jacob said it's not uncommon for Echert to use humor to help start a conversation.

"We're really blessed to have Father Echert," said Jacob, who plays the organ in the chapel. "He's a very busy person, but he always seems to come through. When you request something from him or need to talk with him, he's always there."

Nick Ferraro can be reached at 651-228-2173.

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Hat tip to Swissmiss