Father Zuhlsdorf: "A word to biters of the consecrated hand"

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 2:51 pm

"A friend just phoned to tell me about a discussion on a "trad" forum.

I went there and read for a while.

In this discussion some people were publicly bad mouthing priests who have been celebrating the TLM and denigrating their ministry.

They claim these priests not Catholic enough, not fully or really Catholic. Not Catholic like they are..."

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An Archbishop of Canterbury in retreat

Thursday, July 10, 2008, 06:39 PM GMT [General]

The immense damage done to the Archbishop of Canterbury during Monday night's debate on women priests is still sinking in. Dr Rowan Williams had not intended to speak, but he was so alarmed by the lack of provision for traditionalists in the code of practice that he appealed to Synod members to reject it. They ignored him.

It was as if a Prime Minister, having quietly supported a piece of legislation in the Commons, suddenly lost his nerve, appealed to the House to change its mind, and was then rebuffed. Even Gordon Brown has yet to chalk up that sort of disaster.

Rowan being Rowan, the meaning of his intervention was not immediately clear. But, as Ruth Gledhill noted, a cold chill swept across the chamber as it dawned on people that the Archbishop "now wants the whole thing blown out of the water". Which was not, of course, what happened.

And so Cantuar's leadership is further diminished, just before the start of the Lambeth Conference. Andrew Carey, son of Archbishop Carey, has produced a pretty devastating analysis of Monday night's "train wreck" on the American Anglican website Stand Firm:

"While Dr Williams has often given traditionalists hope that he would back a structural solution to their problems of conscience, he seems to have completely ruled out strong leadership on theological and ecclesial issues. Wearing permanently now, it seems, the persona of the mediator, Dr Williams was seen by Synod trying to have it both ways. 'I am deeply unhappy with any scheme... which ends up structurally humiliating women.' But he was equally unhappy about marginalising traditionalists. He therefore came 'not very comfortably to the conclusion', we needed a 'more rather than less robust form of structural provision'.

"The Archbishop by his thoughtfulness, gravity and seriousness carries great weight and affection in General Synod but he failed to use this credit on Monday night. And as for the House of Bishops in general, the one word you will never hear them using these days is 'collegiality'. The Bishops are pulling in all directions at once. It is no surprise then to see that the Church of England is now synodically led and governed."

If I was a member of the C of E, I'd be sick to death now of the Archbishop's haunted hand-wringing. The word that comes to mind is Amletico - "Hamlet-like", as Pope John XXIII described his tortured successor, Paul VI.

I don't think Rowan Williams wants to be Archbishop of Canterbury any more; indeed, I'm not even sure he wants to be in the Church of England.

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Dance off with the Star Wars stars 2008

• h/t Orthometer

What Donut Are You?

You Are a Glazed Donut

Okay, you know that you're plain - and you're cool with that. You prefer not to let anything distract from your sweetness. Your appeal is understated yet universal. Everyone dig you. And in a pinch, you'll probably get eaten.

What Donut Are You?

• Interesting...

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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‘Anglo-Catholics must now decide’

By the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet
11 July 2008

Bishop Burnham, left, with Fr Raymond Bristow, centre, and Fr Neil Hibbons

So we are to have a code of practice. Traditional Anglo-Catholics must now decide whether to stay in the Church of England in what, for a while, will be a protected colony - where the sacramental ministry of women bishops and priests is neither acknowledged nor received - or to leave.

Leaving isn't quite so easy as it sounds. You don't become a Catholic, for instance, because of what is wrong with another denomination or faith. You become a Catholic because you accept that the Catholic Church is what she says she is and the Catholic faith is what it says it is. In short, some Anglo-Catholics will stay and others will go. It is quite easy to think of unworthy reasons for staying - and there are no doubt one or two unworthy reasons for leaving.

There are also honourable reasons for staying. Like the Anglican clergy who wouldn't swear allegiance to William and Mary at the end of the 17th century and the Catholic clergy who wouldn't swear allegiance to the French Revolutionary government a century later, the "non-jurors" of the present day will soldier on and die out but they will be faithful to what they have believed and history will honour them for their faithfulness.

Recent history teaches us that those who stay on - for instance, in similar circumstances in North American and Scandinavia - are not left alone for long. The pressure of secular culture bears down on them to ensure conformity with secular values.

As for those who choose to go, like in the early 1990s these will include some of the finest Anglican clergy.

Most of them are not motivated in the least by gender issues but by a keenness to pursue Catholic unity and truth.

For them, the decision of the Church of England to proceed to the ordination of women bishops without providing adequately for traditionalists renders the claims of the Church of England to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church shaky or simply untenable.

Codes of practice are shifting sands. The sacramental life of the Church must be built on rock.

How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made for our inclusion has been turned down flat?

How could we trust a code of practice when those who are offering it include those who have done most to undermine and seek to revoke the code of practice in force for these last 14 years?

The synodical process for traditional Anglo-Catholics is over. Some will try to draw new lines in the sand. But what the General Synod of the Church of England demonstrated on 7/7 (2008) is that, as on 11/11 (1992), it has decided that it is unilaterally competent to alter Holy Order. At one stage in the late 1990s it even had a go at changing the Creed. Here at work is a democratic Magisterium which at York this week showed that it values the advice of archbishops and bishops' prolocutors less than it does the outcome of a show of hands.

What we must humbly ask for now is for magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understands our longing for unity, and from the hierarchy of England and Wales. Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us.

Meanwhile we retreat into the wilderness and watch and pray.

Andrew Burnham is Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Canterbury and Provincial Episcopal Visitor

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Facebook: Resistance is Futile

• Mortifications courtesy of Facebook

Iran's Photoshopped Missile Launch

From Little Green Footballs:

Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 6:13:47 pm PST

At least one of the photographs released today by Iran and published by an unquestioning Western media has been Photoshopped:

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"OK, I've Calmed Down"

"Ever since Rome in her wisdom finally recognized the disaster which was old ICEL, restructured it, and formed the Vox Clara Commission, I have been waiting with fervent hope for the a good translation of the Novus Ordo. Face it, the translation that we have now bites. Not only is it's language pedestrian, lacking in linguistic beauty, and hardly spiritually uplifting, it is really a paraphrase. Reams and megabytes have been spilled about what has been ideologically mistranslated and just plain left out of in the current translation. Finally, it seemed that we would be able to celebrate a Mass that lives up to the Latin original. But, someone has slammed on the brakes. And from the comments of the bishops at last month's meeting, it is because certain bishops think that we priests are too inept to handle dependent clauses and the laity too dim to understand words not regularly used on TV. I also suspect that there is something deeper going on. The liturgical establishment does not, to say the least, like the direction Rome is taking the liturgy and is doing everything in its power to obstruct the liturgical restoration. This seems to be only more step in an organized campaign..."

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• OK, I've Calmed Down

Church of England bishop will lead Anglicans to Rome

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Bishops plan conversion to Rome

Sunday, July 6, 2008, 10:11 AM GMT [General]

The Sunday Telegraph carries the news that senior Church of England bishops have met the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to discuss the apocalyptic crisis in Anglicanism and the prospect of converting to Roman Catholicism.

I'm glad that Jonathan Wynne-Jones has respected the anonymity of the bishops in question. We at the Catholic Herald have known for some time about these historic negotiations. I pray that they succeed.

What one of the bishops has made clear to us is that they are worried that the liberal English Catholic hierarchy will throw a spanner in the works. Yet I infer from Jonathan's report that the most liberal of all the bishops, Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, is apparently prepared to countenance Anglican converts retaining some elements of their tradition. Has he had his arm twisted?

The attitude of Pope Benedict is crucial. He is very well aware that, in the years 1992 to 1994, the Bishops of England and Wales put pressure on Cardinal Hume to resist any concessions to Anglicans wishing to convert en masse.

The Pope's closest advisers are not in a mood to allow the bishops the same freedom this time. They are already cross at the poor English response to the Motu Proprio liberating the Latin liturgy - and have conveyed their displeasure to the relevant bishops in no uncertain terms.

It's no surprise that the Anglican bishops are talking to the CDF, where the former Cardinal Ratzinger always lent a sympathetic ear to potential converts - and also expressed his appreciation of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. His warm personality, his intellect and his programme of liturgical renewal are tremendous incentives for traditionalists to take the plunge.

If there is a deal between Rome and the departing Anglican bishops, what might it look like? I'm working on an article for the Herald on that subject: I think one key to understanding the situation is a grasp of the possibilities opened up by the Motu Proprio, which the English bishops have ignored at their peril. But, however extensive the Vatican's concessions, we are still talking about Anglicans becoming Roman Catholics. There is no half-way house between Canterbury and Rome, as more and more Anglo-Catholics are now aware.

• Bishops Plan Conversion to Rome
• Anglican bishops in secret Vatican summit

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED) on the SSPX

By Brian Mershon via Father Z.:

"Msgr. Camille Perl, Vice President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED) has recently responded with a letter dated May 23, 2008, to questions I invoked regarding the official canonical status of the Society of St. Pius X and those Catholics who attend their chapels to fulfill their Sunday obligation..."

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Anglican bishops in secret Vatican summit

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Senior Church of England bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials to discuss the crisis in the Anglican communion over gays and women bishops.

RII SCHROER

Feeling the strain: Tension rises in York, where the General Synod will tomorrow debate whether to let women become bishops

They met senior advisers of the Pope in an attempt to build closer ties with the Roman Catholic Church, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was not told of the talks and the disclosure will be a fresh blow to his efforts to prevent a major split in the Church of England.

In highly confidential discussions, a group of conservative bishops expressed their dismay at the liberal direction of the Church of England and their fear for its future.

They met members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican's departments, the successor to the medieval Inquisition, which enforces doctrine and was headed by Pope Benedict XVI before his election.

The names of the bishops are known to The Sunday Telegraph, but they have asked for anonymity because the talks are of such a sensitive and potentially explosive nature.

The disclosure comes on the eve of a critical vote as members of the General Synod – the Church's parliament – prepare to decide whether to allow women to be bishops without giving concessions to staunch opponents.

Up to 600 clergy gave warning in a letter to Dr Williams that they may leave the Church unless they receive a legal right to havens within the Church free of women bishops.

In separate developments, three diocesan bishops wrote to the archbishop supporting the threat and two other bishops have said they are preparing to leave the Church. The letter from the Bishops of Chichester, Blackburn and Europe – seen by The Sunday Telegraph – argues that traditionalist clergy will not be able to "maintain an honoured place" in the Church without sufficient legislation.

"Clearly the ordination of women as bishops would divide the Church of England even more fundamentally than the ordination of women as priests," it says.

"This issue is one which touches all members of the Church of England and not just those with synodical voting rights. In the light of this we are convinced that some form of separate identities will be required to enable the holders of mutually incompatible convictions about the faith and order of the Church to remain in as high a degree of continuing fellowship as possible."

However, while the letter shows that there is deep disquiet in the most senior ranks of the Church, the meetings with Rome will be of far greater concern to Dr Williams.

One bishop involved in the talks, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was left with no option. "The Church of England is becoming more and more like the American Church. Those of us who hold to traditional orthodoxy are very concerned about the direction it seems to be moving in."

The Anglican communion has been arguing over homosexuality since the American Church made Gene Robinson the first openly gay bishop and issued rites for same-sex unions. Conservatives are concerned that gay blessing services are being conducted in Britain and last month this newspaper revealed that a “wedding” ceremony was held for two gay priests. The issue of homosexual priests is likely to feature strongly at this month’s Lambeth Conference of worldwide Anglican bishops.

Now the Church of England is poised to endorse women bishops — a move that will seriously damage its relations with the Roman Catholic Church and could force hundreds of clergy to defect to Rome.

"These are the presenting issues that have made talks necessary, but our concerns go much deeper than these rows to issues of basic doctrine," the bishop said. "I have to be loyal to the parishes in my diocese and to the Gospel and that’s why I felt I had to do something.W"

Another bishop said: "The internal pressure of the Anglican communion has pushed us apart and we’re committed to greater unity with Rome. There can be no future for Christianity in Europe without Rome."

The Pope’s enthusiasm for bringing traditional Anglicans into the fold was shown in 2003 when as Cardinal he sent greetings to a group of conservative churchmen meeting in Texas in protest at the election of Bishop Robinson. The Pope and Dr Williams enjoy a strong relationship, which they are keen to maintain.

However, a former aide to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that the dialogue with the Anglican bishops only started after the crisis in the Anglican communion worsened. "It is obvious things are starting to fall apart and Rome wants to be able to help if it can," he said.

The Rt Rev Kieran Conry, the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, said: "A number of Church of England bishops are looking at the options open to them should things go wrong at the Lambeth Conference. Some are hoping for accommodation with the Catholic Church, but yet maintaining their Anglican identity."

The Bishop of Beverley, the Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett said: “In the tragic circumstances that the Church of England takes decisions which make it impossible to walk with it anymore we would want to understand more where we are in relation to wider Catholic Christendom.

“Anglo-Catholics have always had a particular concern for re-union with the Holy See. No matter what might happen Anglo-Catholics will continue to be at the forefront of that dialogue and explanation.”

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, used his Synod address yesterday to attack members of the "breakaway" Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans — accusing them of "ungracious" behaviour.

Lambeth Palace declined to comment.

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Pope guarantees the authentic faith that comes from above, Spanish cardinal says

Toledo, Jul 5, 2008 / 01:14 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, said this week that the authentic faith Catholics should live out “comes from on high solely through divine revelation” and is “guaranteed by the successor of Peter.”

During his homily for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, the cardinal explained that the faith of Catholics should not be based on the “doctrines, teachings or theories that people in the world have, including some theologians.”

The faith, he said, “comes from on high solely through divine revelation and is guaranteed by the successor of Peter, so that we can live more deeply the mystery of unity” and fearlessly “proclaim hope for all mankind.”

He said his prayers were that Catholics would be “strengthened by the faith, that faith that can only be lived out with Peter, in unbreakable unity with the successors of Peter and the Apostles.”

The cardinal also encouraged Catholics to live the Pauline Year centered in Christ and proclaim the Gospel “to all people,” to revive the “missionary sense and the sense of the Church.”

The Pauline Year should be one of “prayer for the Holy Father, that his intentions and desires may be fulfilled, which are always of mercy, grace, peace and reconciliation for the whole world, in order to show that God, who is love, is with us, and that we have discovered Him in his human face, which is that of His Son Jesus Christ, come in the flesh through the work of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”

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Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah

Parents outraged: 'If Muslims were asked to go to church
on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'

Posted: July 04, 2008
6:15 pm Eastern

Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.

Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights.

"This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail...

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Benedict XVI to Read Genesis on TV

Kicks off Bible Marathon Before Synod

ROME, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will kick off a Bible-reading marathon organized in the lead up to October's synod on the word of God.

On Oct. 5, the Pope will be broadcast reading the first chapter of Genesis on Italy's RAI television station. The reading will take about an hour. He will be followed by some 1,200 other readers, who over the course of six days and six nights, will read the Bible in various languages.

The Pontiff's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will conclude the marathon Oct. 10, reading the last chapter of Revelation.

It is still not confirmed if Benedict XVI's reading will be live or pre-recorded.

''I think the fundamental element that convinced Benedict XVI to take part in the television program was the fact that he will not be commenting but simply giving a pure reading of the text, a pure announcement of the word,'' Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told the ANSA news agency.

The monsignor added that the Pope's participation in the project is ''an appeal to the Catholic Church to go back to studying and deepening its knowledge of the holy Scriptures, to find again that base element and point of departure."

Readers will come from all walks of life, and will include members of various creeds.

Rome's chief rabbi will follow the Pope, reading in Hebrew. The beginning of St John's Gospel will be read in Greek.

Islam readers are also welcome in the project, organizers said, even though the Bible is not a sacred book for them.

The XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church" is scheduled to take place in the Vatican from Oct. 5 to 26.

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Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

• Flying colors

Happy 4th of July Independence Day!

Why Have Kids When You Can Have Monkeys?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

filed under: kid

Women are adopting what's being called "monkids:" Monkeys raised as kids.

Empty nesters are filling the void of a childless house by adopting baby monkeys as child surrogates. Currently, there are an estimated 15,000 monkeys who live in homes and are treated exactly like small children by their adoptive "parents." They sit in high chairs, have their diapers changed, wear baby clothes and even have their own rooms. ABC Primetime's latest "Outsider" series profiles Lori Johnson, a mother of six who adopted a monkey when her last kid left home. "I was really depressed, and I wanted something that was going to take over for my kids," Lori says.

Lori dresses her simian daughter named Jesse in homemade fussy dresses, feeds her in a high chair and takes her along everywhere she goes, including trips to the local fast food drive-thru. Although Lori says Jesse acts more human than monkey, she did have Jesse's teeth removed as a precaution. We're guessing animal rights activists are not invited over for dinner at the Johnson house.

This is crazy, right? Or is it no different than putting a sweater on a dog? Or declawing the beloved family cat?

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Restoration of Latin for all the sacramental formulae?

From Panorama via NLM:

"BENEDICT CHANGES THE MASS - THE STUDY OF THE NEW LITURGY ASSIGNED TO THE CONGREGATION FOR WORSHIP

The rite of the Mass could change. According to some indiscretions, Benedict XVI has charged the Congregation for Divine Worship to study some modifications in the liturgy. In particular, the Pope is said to have the intention to restore Latin for the formula for the Eucharistic consecration within the Mass in the "vernacular language", i.e. the one celebrated in the different national languages. The same could happen to the formulae of Baptism, Confirmation, Confession and of the other sacraments. In addition, the exchange of peace among the faithful during the Mass, which today takes place prior to the distribution of the Eucharist, could be anticipated (as in the Ambrosian rite) to the offertory so as not to disturb the recollection that precedes Communion.

These would be changes which would be added to the changes in the liturgy and regarding sacred vestments which the Pope, together with his Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, has made in recent months, to recover ancient traditions: the restoration of the crucifix at the center of the altar, the distribution of Communion to the faithful in the mouth while kneeling, the recovery of the pastoral staff of Pius IX (the ferula), the changing of the style of pallium (the strip of white wool with red crosses worn by the Pope), the restoration of the papal throne used in the Consistory and the celebration of Mass with the back to the assembly, as happened in January in the Sistine Chapel.

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Tradition means the whole of Catholic life, not just liturgy (WDTPRS)

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:44 pm

A story from the Catholic Herald, the best of the UKs Catholic papers to which you should subscribe if you don’t already, has a very interesting story.

Oxford’s martyrs to be honoured with a plaque
By Ed West
4 July 2008

Last year’s Latin Mass Society pilgrimage honours the four martyrs

Four Catholic martyrs executed during the reign of Elizabeth I are to be commemorated with a plaque at the place of their death.

The four men – George Nichols, Richard Yaxley, Thomas Belson and Humphrey Prichard – will be remembered during a pilgrimage to the city held in October, when the Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham will unveil the memorial.

The men died on July 5 1589 in Holywell Street, site of the 16th century town gallows.

Nichols and Yaxley were priests trained at Douai College in Rheims at a time when re-entering England after taking holy orders overseas was a capital office.

Nichols gained fame as the priest smuggled into Oxford Castle to reconcile highwayman Harcourt Taverner with the Church the night before his execution. Belson was a layman from a local Catholic land-owning family who had refused to conform. The family had moved from Oxfordshire to avoid intolerant magistrates after his father Augustine Belson had been fined for non-attendance at Anglican services, and their home, Ixhill Lodge, was a refuge for priests. Thomas Belson, his third son, was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1585 for "conveying intelligence" for a Catholic priest, but had been released after five months on condition he be "banished from the realm". He had studied at the independent and relatively tolerant Oriel College under the Spanish Protestant Antonio del Corro, one of the earliest advocates of religious freedom.

The last to die, Welshman Prichard, had worked for 12 years as a servant at the Catherine Wheel, a Catholic-run inn on the corner of Broad Street and Magdalen Street that was a refuge for priests. The landlady of the inn was jailed for life.

Catholicism was on the increase in the city during the late 1580s at the peak of the Elizabethan state’s paranoia about the old religion, less than a year after the Spanish Armada had been defeated. Nichols was known to have returned many to Catholicism in the city, making him a high priority for the authorities.

It was in the Catherine Wheel that the four men were captured on the night of May 18 1589. The authorities arrived at midnight and, after arresting Prichard when he unbolted the door, apprehended the other three after vestments were found on the premises.

All four were taken by horseback to Bridewell Prison in London, where they were tortured and interrogated by Elizabeth’s spy chief Sir Francis Walsingham. Nichols was placed in a rat-filled dungeon while Yaxley was put on the rack, and both priests were hanged from their hands for up to five hours to make them betray their associates, although it is recorded that they maintained their silence.

The four men received much sympathy from the Oxford population during the investigation and trial. A graduate of Magdalen College was so inspired by their courage that he walked alongside the prisoners all the way to London, and was punished for reporting their ill-treatment along the way by being consigned to the notorious lunatic asylum Bedlam. [Sounds like my seminary experience…]

All four men were condemned to death for the crime of returning to England after receiving foreign ordination in the case of Nichols and Yaxley, and for assisting priests for Belson and Prichard. All were brought back to Oxford to be executed. _The priests, guilty of treason, were hanged, drawn and quartered, while the laymen, guilty of a felony, were only hanged.

Prichard, the last to die, was the only one allowed to speak at the execution, declaring in a brief dialogue with a Protestant minister: "I believe all that the Holy Roman Church believes, and what I cannot explain by mouth, I am ready and prepared to explain and testify to you at the cost of my blood." The priests’ heads were placed on the castle wall and their bodies on the city walls.

Within a year the story of their deaths had become a bestseller across Catholic Europe, with eyewitness reports published in Antwerp and translated into Spanish, French and Italian.

The four men were among 85 martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987, and among 70 Catholic martyrs associated with Oxford.

The plaque cost just over £2,600 and is being organised by the St Catherine’s Trust charity. It records how the four men "were executed for their Catholic faith" and will be unveiled on Saturday, October 25 by Bishop William Kenny, auxiliary bishop of Birmingham. The pilgrimage is organised by the Latin Mass Society and begins with a Solemn High Mass at Blackfriars at 11 am and ends with Benediction.

The Latin Mass Society has held a pilgrimage to Oxford since 2005, the procession following the route taken by the martyrs on their route from Bocardo prison to the gallows, which are marked by mock gallows.

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Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:15 PM on 01st July 2008

A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

Tayside Police's new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community.

The choice of image on the Tayside Police cards - a black dog sitting in a police officer's hat - has now been raised with Chief Constable John Vine.

Tayside Police caused uproar in the Muslim community after they released this advertisement featuring police puppy Rebel sitting in a hat

The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert.

Dundee councillor Mohammed Asif said: 'My concern was that it's not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards.

'It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities.

'They (the police) should have understood. Since then, the police have explained that it was an oversight on their part, and that if they'd seen it was going to cause upset they wouldn't have done it.'

Councillor Asif, who is a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, said that the force had a diversity adviser and was generally very aware of such issues.

He raised the matter with Mr Vine at a meeting of the board.

Tayside Police Chief Constable John Vine said the advert was not intended to cause any offence

The chief constable said he was unaware of the concerns and that the force had not sought to cause any upset but added he would look into the matter.

Councillor Asif said: 'People who have shops just won't put up the postcard. But the police have said to me that it was simply an oversight and they did not seek to offend or upset.'

Cards featuring police dog-in-training Rebel have been distributed to communities throughout the area to advertise the single number point of contact for non-emergency calls to the police.

Rebel has proved a popular recruit for Tayside Police after coming through the very first Lothian and Borders Police dog-breeding programme in February.

One of seven German Shepherd pups born in early December, he has now completed his course of inoculations, and is free to venture out onto the streets of Tayside.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit.

'His incredible world-wide popularity - he has attracted record visitor numbers to our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number.

'We did not seek advice from the force's diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.'

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Transalpine Redemptorists Reconciled

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Canonical Good Standing

1 July, 2008
Feast of the Precious Blood

My dear friends,

I am happy to inform you that last June 18th, before Cardinal Castrillon and the members of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in Rome, I humbly petitioned the Holy See on my own behalf and on behalf of the monastery council for our priestly suspensions to be lifted.

On June 26th I received word that the Holy See had granted our petition. All canonical censures have been lifted.

Our community now truly rejoices in undisputed and peaceful posession of Communion with the Holy See because our priests are now in canonical good standing.

We are very grateful to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for issuing, last July, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum which called us to come into undisputed and peaceful Communion with him.

Now we have that undisputed communion! It is a pearl of great price; a treasure hidden in the field; a sweetness that cannot be imagined by those who have not tasted it or who have not known it, now for many years. Its value cannot be fully expressed in earthly language and therefore we hope that all traditional priests who have not yet done so, will answer Pope Benedict's call to enjoy the grace of peaceful and undisputed communion with him. Believe us, the price to pay is nothing; even all the angry voices that have shouted against us and calumniated us are as nothing when weighed in the scales against undisputed communion with the Vicar of Christ; others have died for it; what are raucous voices?

We publicly thank all those souls who have prayed for us over the last months; some of you have truly stormed heaven for us. You have kept us afloat. We are deeply grateful. Especially we thank that priest who was unknown to us, until June 16th when he wrote in fraternal support. Where did he come from? Why us? But he told us of the number of Masses, Offices, prayers and sacrifices he had personally said for us; he had also enlisted the prayers of contemplatives and Third Order societies and had a great number of people fervently praying for us with an abundance of prayers. We were amazed! Thank you Father! Thank you also to that brave person who, so kindly wrote to us to say that if he said any more prayers for us he would be floating! What wonderful people! Thank you!

Looking to the future, the next stage will be to have our community canonically erected. So please, dear friends, keep praying for us, there will be many crosses to bear; but they will be yokes sweetened by the grace of these last days.

We assure you all of our very best wishes.
Your devoted servant,

Fr. Michael Mary, C.SS.R.
Vicar General

Posted by Transalpine Redemptorists at 17:19

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Paul's Message Is for Today, Says Pontiff

Looks at 3 Fundamental Elements in Apostle's Teaching

ROME, JUNE 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- St. Paul is not a mere historical figure, but someone who has a message for us today, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this at the solemn inauguration of the Pauline Jubilee Year, which began with Saturday evening's vespers, held at St. Paul's Outside the Walls. The jubilee runs through June 29, 2009.

"We have come together not to reflect on a past history, irrevocably surpassed. Paul wants to speak with us today," the Holy Father said in his homily. "That is why I wanted to convoke this special 'Pauline year': to listen to him and to drink from him, as our teacher, in the faith and truth, in which are rooted the reasons for unity among the disciples of Christ.

"We are gathered, therefore, to question ourselves about the great apostle of the Gentiles. Not only do we ask ourselves, 'Who was Paul?' Above all, we ask ourselves 'Who is Paul?' 'What is he saying to me?'"

The Pontiff then proposed three texts from Pauline letters to look at Paul's "inner physiognomy […] that which is specific about his character."

Beloved by Christ

The first passage cited by the Pope was Paul's profession of faith in the Letter to the Galatians: "I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me."

"All that Paul does starts from this center," the Holy Father explained. "His faith is the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a totally personal way; it is awareness of the fact that Christ faced death not for something anonymous, but for love of him, of Paul, and that, risen, Christ still loves him, has given himself for him.

"His faith is having been captured by the love of Jesus Christ, a love that affects him in his innermost being and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an option about God or the world. His faith is the impact of the love of God on his heart. So, this faith itself is love of Jesus Christ."

This faith and love, the Bishop of Rome continued, were linked to truth.

"The truth was too great for [Paul] to be ready to sacrifice it in view of an external success," he said. "The truth he had experienced in his encounter with the Risen One merited for him struggle, persecution and suffering. However, what motivated him in the depth of his being was being loved by Jesus Christ and the desire to transmit this love to others. Paul was someone able to love, and all his work and suffering is explained from this center."

With this foundation, the Holy Father suggested, it is easy to understand the concepts in the Pauline proclamation. He used as an example one of Paul's key words, freedom.

"The experience of being loved to the end by Christ opened [Paul's] eyes about truth and the path of human existence; that experience embraced everything," he said. "Paul was free as a man loved by God that, in virtue of God, was able to love together with him. This love is now the 'law' of his life and, precisely thus, was the freedom of his life. He speaks and acts, moved by the responsibility of love; he is free, and given that he is one who loves, he lives totally in the responsibility of this love and does not take freedom as a pretext for pleasure and egoism."

Identified with Church

Benedict XVI offered as a second text Paul's conviction about Christ being identified with the Church, a conviction that arose from his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

The Holy Father recalled how Paul responded to the voice that asked him, "Why do you persecute me?" with the question, "Who are you, Lord?"

"And he received the reply: 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.' By persecuting the Church," the Pope said, "Paul was persecuting Jesus himself. 'You are persecuting me.'"

He explained: "Jesus identifies himself with the Church in a single subject. In this exclamation of the Risen One -- which transformed Saul's life -- is contained the whole doctrine of the Church as Body of Christ. […] The Church is not an association that wishes to promote a certain cause. It is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ. […] He is personally present in the Church. 'Head and Body' form a single subject, said Augustine.

"So Christ becomes one spirit with his own, one subject in the new world of the resurrection. In all this, the Eucharistic mystery is visualized, in which Christ constantly gives his Body and makes of us one Body."

The Pontiff said that now, Paul and Christ address us with the question, "'How were you able to lacerate my Body?' Before the face of Christ, this question becomes at the same time an urgent appeal: Bring us together again from all our divisions. Make this again a reality today: There is only one bread; therefore, we, despite being many, are only one body."

Ready to suffer

Finally, Benedict XVI offered as a third citation one of St. Paul's last exhortations, written from prison where he was facing death: "Endure with me sufferings for the Gospel."

"The task of proclamation and the call to suffering for Christ are inseparably together," the Pope affirmed. "The call to be teacher of the Gentiles is at the same time and intrinsically a call to suffering in communion with Christ, who has redeemed us through his passion.

"In a world in which lying is powerful, truth is paid for with suffering. He who wishes to avoid suffering, to keep it far from himself, will have pushed away life itself and its grandeur. […] There is no love without suffering, without the suffering of denying ourselves, of the transformation and purification of the 'I' for true freedom.

"Wherever there is nothing worth suffering for, life itself also loses its value. The Eucharist -- center of our Christian being -- is based on the sacrifice of Jesus for us; it was born from the suffering of the love that found its culmination on the cross. We live from this love that gives itself. This gives us the courage and strength to suffer with Christ and for him, thus knowing that precisely in this way our life becomes great, mature and true."

It was Paul's suffering that make him "credible as teacher of truth," the Holy Father proposed.

And he concluded with a prayer: "At this hour in which we thank the Lord for having called Paul, making him the light of the Gentiles and teacher of us all, we pray: Give us also today the testimony of the Resurrection, touched by your love, and [make us] able to carry the light of the Gospel in our time. St. Paul, pray for us. Amen."

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Theft at archbishop's home nets Catholic treasures

While the archbishop was in Rome, "irreplaceable" crosses and rings were taken from his quarters.

By ANTHONY LONETREE, Star Tribune

An overnight burglary at the St. Paul residence of new Archbishop John Nienstedt netted the thief or thieves the gem- and precious-metal-laden rings and crosses worn by bishops throughout the 150-year-plus history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, a church official said Monday.

"These things are historically and reverentially irreplaceable," said Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the archdiocese. "They're beyond value."

Believed to be missing, as well, are rosaries and a small safe. "It's like a historical treasure trove, if you will," McGrath said.

The burglary came on a weekend that was set to be a glorious one for Nienstedt, who was in Rome for a welcoming ceremony featuring Pope Benedict.

According to St. Paul police, the break-in occurred at the residence at 226 Summit Av. between 1:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Saturday. Whoever broke in climbed onto a first-floor roof and broke into a second-story window, police spokesman Peter Panos said.

About a week earlier, Nienstedt had set out for Rome with a group of about 100 church officials and worshipers, many of them acquaintances from his years as the bishop of the New Ulm Diocese, McGrath said.

On Sunday, they were witnesses to a ceremony in which Nienstedt received from the pope a pallium -- a garment presented to all archbishops. "It is an important event," McGrath said.

Along with Nienstedt's "former faithful from New Ulm," the archbishop then was to embark for Ulm, Germany, on a trip that had been delayed by his selection to his new post, McGrath said.

Early Monday, Panos, the police spokesman, said that it appeared that the stolen items might consist of a camera and personal jewelry, "but they're not sure," he added. But by afternoon, McGrath reported first the addition of the safe, then the rosaries and finally, after a church official reached Nienstedt overseas, the rings and pectoral crosses.

McGrath said there is no evidence that the burglary had political overtures against Nienstedt, whose orthodox style has been controversial with some Catholics in the archdiocese. The intruders were clearly bent on burglary, he said, adding that it appears that there were at least two people working in tandem and that they were familiar with the residence.

"These guys were pros," he said. "The glass they broke through is, like, three or four inches thick. They couldn't get through without a sledgehammer. They executed a well-thought-out plan. They knew exactly where to go in his bedroom."

Panos said that police, too, believe that more than one person might be involved. The weight of the safe alone, he said, suggests that teamwork was required.

McGrath, who said he did not know if the stolen items were insured, said he couldn't imagine someone wearing them. The crosses, for example, "are on a gold chain, very ornate," and drape over the chest, he said.

"I don't think 50 Cent would wear it," he said, referring to the rap star.

Looking back, McGrath said he could not think of another such incident in the archdiocese's history.

"It takes a lot of gall to rob an archbishop" across the street from the Cathedral of St. Paul, he said.

• Theft at archbishop's home nets Catholic treasures
• May their hands grow from the ground when they are dead