Judge Bars Father From Taking His Jewish Baby To Catholic Church

Joseph Reyes is barred from taking his baby daughter to any church that is not Jewish, under a court order approved Friday.

Wife Says Taking Daughter To Christian Service Will Confuse Child

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A father has been hit with an unusual restraining order: Keep his daughter away from any religion that is not Jewish. After the girl's parents split up, the father went to a Catholic church and had the girl baptized, CBS station WBBM-TV reports.

Joseph Reyes, 35, had his daughter baptized and sent his ex-wife a picture of the ceremony.

Rebecca Reyes says she only learned of her daughter's Baptism when Joseph sent her the picture, and that he sent it out of malice. Joseph Reyes denies this.

"I sent it because Rebecca asked me for pictures," he said.

Rebecca Reyes says dhe wants her daughter raised Jewish, and that her husband pledged to do so, even going so far as to convert to Judaism himself.

"That's not accurate," he responded. "I'm not going to call her a liar, but … at the very least she's mistaken regarding that conversation."

But Rebecca Reyes says it's her estranged husband who made the mistake when he had their daughter baptized. In her petition, she argues that if he's allowed to raise the child in any faith other than Judaism, he will cause their daughter irreparable harm.

"I wouldn't harm my daughter simply to somehow spite my soon (soon)to-be ex-wife," Joseph Reyes said. "That's silly and ridiculous."

Reyes' divorce attorney, Joel Brodsky, said when he first saw the petition for a temporary restraining order against his client, he couldn't believe what he was reading.

"I almost fell off my chair," he said. "I thought maybe we were in Afghanistan and this was the Taliban. This is America. We have a First Amendment right of freedom of religion."

The restraining order asks the judge to bar Joseph from taking his daughter to church. According to the petition, failure to restrain him will "continue to the emotional detriment of the child."

Rebecca and her attorneys declined to go on camera but they did release the following statement: "We stand by our petition. We feel the judge will do whatever is best for the child."

The attorney for Joseph Reyes says he will appeal Friday's order.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Frank Sinatra - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Kitten rides 120km ride in wheel well

A man says a three-month-old kitten apparently hitched a cold, 200-kilometre ride in the wheel well of his SUV.

Marc Lichty left Olympia, Washington, after finishing a day of work on Wednesday. He heard meowing when he stopped at a rest stop along the way home but couldn't see a cat, KPTV-TV reported.

When he reached his home in Tualatin, Oregon, he heard the meowing again and grabbed a flashlight. Sure enough, he says, "the cat was up underneath in the spare tire spot."

Daughter Jenna helped coax the passenger out with a bit of salmon.

Lichty says he can't imagine making that trip at 70mph in this week's subfreezing temperatures.

The family called Olympia businesses in the area where he was working on Wednesday but didn't find the kitten's owner. The animal had no collar or microchip; the Lichtys say they'll keep the kitten.

Photo: OregonLive.com (thanks Lynne!)

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Remembrance, and Maybe Sainthood, for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: December 9, 2009

To a Catholic boy like Tim Dolan, growing up in the heartland when Protestant neighbors still made casual jokes about the “papists” next door, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen rode into town in the 1950s on the new main street of the United States, the television set, like a true-blue American hero.

“He showed the broad American public that the truths of our faith were consonant with the highest values of the society: patriotism, God, family and the struggle against Communism,” said that boy, now known as Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

Archbishop Dolan led a memorial Mass on Wednesday evening at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Bishop Sheen. An auxiliary bishop of the New York Archdiocese from 1951 to 1965, the man whom the Rev. Billy Graham called “the greatest communicator of the 20th century” is buried in a crypt under the cathedral altar, which was open for public viewing before the Mass.

In a way, the event — which attracted Roman Catholic dignitaries, parishioners from across the country and two great-great nieces of the bishop — served unofficially as promotion for a little-noticed campaign to make Bishop Sheen, the first and greatest Catholic televangelist, a saint of the church.

After 20 years in radio, Bishop Sheen scored a hit with his first weekly TV show, “Life is Worth Living,” on the DuMont network. The program drew tens of millions of viewers on Tuesday nights from 1951 to 1957, though it appeared opposite giants of early television like Lucille Ball and Milton Berle (who once quipped that the bishop was pretty good for a guy who “uses old material”).

In those broadcasts, and a similar show syndicated from 1961 to 1968, the bishop, an Illinois farmer’s son who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Marxism, used a polished extemporaneous style to comment on topics of the day, whether movies, Broadway plays or international politics. Among his most famous half-hour commentaries was a 1953 denunciation of Joseph Stalin.

“When he came upon the scene, there was still wavering doubt about whether Catholics were truly American,” said John L. Allen Jr., an author of books about Catholicism and senior correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper. “Sheen clinched the deal with the general public, showing that you could be completely Catholic and completely American.”

Some scholars credit the popularity of his broadcast with making possible the 1960 election of the country’s first and only Catholic president, John F. Kennedy.

Unlike the other famous Catholic broadcaster of the 20th century, the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, who blended harsh attacks on President Franklin D. Roosevelt with anti-Semitism, Bishop Sheen combined his vigorous anti-Communism with an almost equally strong anti-racist message that placed him well ahead of the curve as an advocate for civil rights in the 1950s. In 1967, he also became a vocal opponent of the war in Vietnam.

For Archbishop Dolan, 59, who grew up in suburban St. Louis, the unabashed Catholicism of the red cape and crucifix worn by Bishop Sheen during all his broadcasts — though risky in its time — proved that the core beliefs of a Catholic “could be expressed by a person who was well-educated, down to earth and not threatening in the least,” he said.

Bishop Sheen’s great crossover appeal was made evident one night when the future archbishop’s father walked in the door and recounted what had just happened while he was taking out the garbage.

“We had a neighbor named Norm who used to always kid my dad about being Catholic,” Archbishop Dolan said in an interview on Tuesday. “And one evening he meets my dad at the curb and says: ‘Bob, I was watching that bishop of yours. Sheen. He’s not a bad guy. He makes a lot of sense.’ ”

The neighbor’s gibes were never particularly mean-spirited, and Bob Dolan was not a particularly observant Catholic. But the father’s response to the neighbor’s comment was memorable. “He came into the house, beaming, bursting with pride,” the archbishop said. “ ‘You’ll never guess what Norm just said,’ he tells us all.”

Since 2002, the effort to canonize Bishop Sheen has been led by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., where the Sheen family raised their four sons and where Bishop Sheen was ordained in 1919.

The Rev. Andrew Apostoli, a Franciscan friar who is gathering evidence of miracles attributed to Bishop Sheen’s intercession since his death in 1979, said the bishop had been designated by the Vatican as a “Servant of God,” the first step toward sainthood.

Two months ago, Father Apostoli said, evidence of two miracles, including affidavits signed by doctors and witnesses to medical recoveries “unexplainable by science,” were submitted to the Vatican for verification. If accepted, the bishop would be beatified, or made a “Blessed Person,” and after verification of a third miracle, made a saint.

It is customary, he said, for the bishops in the places where saints are born to seek the return of their remains. In Bishop Sheen’s case, that would mean removal from the crypt at St. Patrick’s and reburial at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.

Really? he was asked.

“Well, yes, but it is a very sensitive point, so I don’t want to say anything further about that,” Father Apostoli said.

Archbishop Dolan said he knew about the custom. “Bishop Jenky is a good friend of mine, and I appreciate that he would dream that someday the remains of Bishop Sheen would be returned to Peoria,” he said. “He even kids me about it: ‘You know, Tim, when he becomes a saint, we’re going to try and get him.’ ”

He paused. “But, you know, Bishop Sheen only spent a few years in Peoria.”

He paused again, as if searching for words. “And he loved New York.”

Bishop Jenky, who attended Wednesday’s Mass, could not be reached for comment.

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.

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Frank Sinatra - White Christmas

RaymondArroyo

Today would have been Francis Albert Sinatra's 94th birthday. Not a day goes by when I don't hear that voice--and smile. Buon Compleanno!

Author Calls on US Bishops to Reform Catholic News Service (CNS)

Says powerful USCCB news agency rebuked by Archbishop Burke for good reason

Commentary By Louie Verrecchio

WASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Christian faithful had ready access to reliable media sources that consistently address important issues truthfully and completely while also communicating the authentic doctrine of the faith so dependably that the information provided could be received with complete confidence?

The Second Vatican Council thought so.

In the Decree on the Media of Social Communications, Inter Mirifica, the Council Fathers spoke of the "inherent right of the Church to have at its disposal media as necessary or useful for the instruction of Christians, and all its efforts for the welfare of souls." (cf IM 3)

Along with this right, the Catholic media has the duty "to instill a fully Christian spirit into readers," (cf IM 14) and for this purpose the Council Fathers envisioned, "A truly Catholic press with the clear purpose of forming, supporting and advancing public opinion in accord with natural law and Catholic teaching and precepts." (ibid.)

Enter Catholic News Service (CNS) - an agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that was created more than forty years before the Council specifically for the purpose of carrying out this very mission.

Today, CNS is the largest news organization of its kind; generating news items and editorial pieces that are reprinted in more than 200 publications worldwide. In fact, Catholics from New York, NY to Sydney, Australia read content provided by CNS every week in their official diocesan newspaper.

Mission accomplished, right? Well, not exactly.

Catholic News Service has long been viewed with a suspicious eye by "conservative" Catholic groups, but any perception that this wariness is confined to some traditionalist fringe, however, was officially put to rest earlier this year.

By January 2009, CNS' failure to consistently apply reliably Catholic editorial standards had become so problematic that Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican, was moved to take the extraordinarily bold step of criticizing CNS from Rome.

"The bishops need to look at our Catholic News Service; they need to review their coverage of [the Church's moral and social teachings] and give some new direction," he said.

The problems at CNS, which has been under the directorship of Editor-in-Chief Tony Spence since 2004, are well illustrated by the case of Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec.

In the months leading up to the recent U.S. Presidential election, Kmiec - a Catholic - not only campaigned for Barack Obama, he became the self-appointed spokesperson for moral relativists everywhere by publically insisting that Obama's radically pro-abortion agenda fits comfortably within authentic Catholic social doctrine.

Naturally, Kmiec's views drew the criticism of a number of American bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput who said that Kmiec had "done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue."

Following the election, Kmiec cemented his place as the Obama Administration's chief Catholic apologist; rankling the pro-life community by applauding the nomination of pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services and offering praise for the President's decision to overturn the "Mexico City Policy" thereby forcing American taxpayers to fund overseas abortions.

In July 2009, the President Obama rewarded Kmiec for his faithfulness with a diplomatic appointment; he is now the Ambassador to Malta.

Based on this brief snapshot alone it is painfully obvious that Kmiec's agenda is the antithesis of the Council's vision for a media intent on "advancing public opinion in accord with Catholic teaching and precepts." (IM14)

How then can anyone explain why Catholic News Service - an organ of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - would grant Kmiec's opinions a de facto Imprimatur by syndicating his columns for distribution to Catholic publications all over the world?

To be fair; everyone makes mistakes in judgment. Good will or the lack thereof, however, is easily discernable by examining the way in which one amends their ways, or does not, after being called to account; as in the case of Archbishop Burke's stunning rebuke of CNS.

In April 2009, Tony Spence left little room for doubt in the matter when he decided to publish a Kmiec column that hailed the National Institute of Health's newly proposed guidelines for Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research as "ethically sensitive" and a move "in a noticeably more Catholic-friendly direction."

This CNS sanctioned apologia on the Obama Administration's assault on human life was so out of bounds that Cardinal Justin Rigali, who chairs the USCCB's Pro-Life Committee, was moved to refute Kmiec's falsehoods point-by-point in a column of his own, ultimately evaluating Kmiec's CNS piece by saying, "The truth is opposite."

It is bizarre theater indeed when an American Cardinal must directly refute the errors in a piece that was syndicated, published and propagated by the news service owned by the very Bishops' Conference to which he belongs, and this just months after the leadership of said news service was put on notice by a powerful Vatican prelate.

Can any reasonable observer view this series of events and fail to conclude that Tony Spence has made a conscious decision to throw down the gauntlet, and is now daring the USCCB to hold him and CNS to accountability?

* Part II to follow on Monday

Louie Verrecchio is the author of Harvesting the Fruit of Vatican II; an international faith formation tool endorsed by George Cardinal Pell that explores the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

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Shatner Palin

Women and veils for church revisited

'It's a Climategate Christmas!', brought to you by Minnesotans for Global Warming?

by Javimendo

Just in time for the holidays! Those snowed-in boys of Minnesotans for Global Warming have been hard at work cooking up their “It’s A Climate Gate Christmas” holiday bonus album featuring songs like “We wish you some Global Warming.” (Okay, there isn’t really an album but you can see the spoof ad for the spoof album on Youtube.)

Why are they doing this? Founder Elmer Beauregard writes: “Minnesota is a very politically correct place, and making fun of Global Warming is about the most politically incorrect thing there is. Which is weird because it’s freezing here most of time.” You can check out their Facebook group here. And they also have a Carbon Debit Program, whereby “for every dollar donated we pledge to drive a giant SUV one mile, to help offset the offsets”.

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Cathy's Christmas Dream (click)

Do they know it's christmas

Bing Crosby - The Little Drummer Boy

Sting - Gabriel's Message

Sting - I Saw Three Ships

Dean Martin - Let it Snow!

Shocker polls: That Sarah Palin-Barack Obama gap melts to 1 point

First, el jefe. Facing double-digit unemployment, rising spending, deficits and Afghan war casualties plus a keystone but stalled healthcare reform effort that caused a rare Sunday presidential visit to Capitol Hill, Obama recently fell below 50% job approval for the first time.

Then, last week's deft dance of rhetoric over sending reinforcements to Afghanistan but, on the other foot, bringing them home quickly maybe gave him a brief boost. That, however, collapsed with equal rapidity.

Obama's new Gallup Poll job approval number is 47%. Last month it was 53%.

Regular Ticket readers will recall how in this space in late November we pointed out that Obama's closely watched job approval slide was coinciding with Palin's little-noticed rise in favorability. And it appeared they might cross somewhere in the 40s.

Well, ex-Sen. Obama, meet ex-Gov. Palin.

The new CNN/Opinion Research Poll shows Palin now at 46% favorable. [A previous version of this post said that, at 46%, Palin was “just one point below her fellow basketball fan." The CNN/Opinion Research Poll did not ask respondents about Obama.]

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Palestrina - Missa Brevis - Sanctus et Benedictus

MEDJUGORJE, THE COMMUNISTS AND THE BISHOP

http://www.marcocorvaglia.com/medjugorje-en/medjugorje-the-communists-and-the-bishop.html

Father Emil Kapaun: Leads camp prisoners in quiet acts of defiance

BY ROY WENZL

The Wichita Eagle

"No sincere prayer is ever wasted." -Father Emil Kapaun

At sunrise on Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951, Father Emil Kapaun startled POWs by donning his purple priest’s stole and openly carrying a Catholic prayer missal, borrowed from Ralph Nardella.

He had talked atheist guards into letting him hold an Easter service, a favor they soon regretted.

No one there would ever forget this day. The most moving sight the POWs ever saw.

At sunrise, 80 officers — bearded, dirty and covered with lice — followed Kapaun up a little rise, to the cold steps of a bombed-out church. They gathered in a circle around him. Kapaun held a crude crucifix made from broken sticks. He looked thin and filthy; except for the black eye patch, he looked to Walt Mayo like one of the ragged apostles.

Kapaun began speaking, and his voice caught; he said he didn’t have the equipment to give them a proper Mass. But then he held up his ciborium, the tiny gold container that before his capture had held communion hosts he had placed on tongues of soldiers.

He opened Nardella’s prayer missal, and as he began to recite from it, the Christians among them realized what a risk he was now taking. He was beginning not from the Easter promise of rebirth but from the dark brutality of Good Friday.

As the guards glared, Kapaun read the Stations of the Cross, describing Christ’s condemnation, torture and death. Captives who had been mocked and tormented and beaten listened as Kapaun spoke of Christ being mocked and tormented and beaten.

Tears flowed.

Kapaun held up a rosary. He asked the non-Catholics to let the Catholics indulge for a bit; they knelt as he said the rosary, recited the glorious mysteries of Christ rising, ascending, defying death for all time...

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St Jerome in the Desert

Joachim Patenier

c. 1520
Oil on wood, 78 x 137 cm
Musée du Louvre, Pari

Israel, Vatican to hold talks over Church property

(AFP) JERUSALEM — A top Israeli official was headed to the Vatican on Wednesday for a new round of talks on long-standing disputes over Church property in the Holy Land and other issues that have marred ties.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will head an Israeli delegation at the plenary meeting of the joint economic commission starting Thursday, according to a ministry statement, which sounded an upbeat note despite the continuing, deep-rooted disagreements.

The negotiations "are in their final stages after reaching significant understandings in recent months," mainly on issues of taxation and the legal status of Vatican personnel, it said.

But senior officials told AFP that, despite much agreement between the two sides, differences remain over the status of more than 100 Church properties in Israel, occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In the case of six sites in Jerusalem and the Galilee area, Israel rejects demands that the Church be granted full control of its property, and wishes to maintain a right to expropriate sections of the sites for future public infrastructure works.

"We will insist on our right to expropriate" Vatican property in case the need arises, the statement said.

A senior official involved in the talks said "the disagreement is over the future of the land surrounding the sites and what the state could do with them... The state wants to be allowed to use it for infrastructure work."

The most contentious property is the Cenacle, which Christians believe to be the site of the Last Supper and which is located on the second floor of the ancient Mount Zion building that houses King David's tomb.

"Everything that has to do with Jerusalem and Mount Zion will remain under full Israeli sovereignty. The issue is not on the table," the official said.

Another source of discord is the status of the Hospice of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which cares for Palestinians with severe physical and mental handicaps.

Israeli developers have long been interested in the sprawling site, which sits on prime real estate just outside the Christian quarter walls of the Old City.

Under a bilateral agreement signed in 1993, which marked a historic rapprochement between Israel and the Vatican, a joint commission was set up to resolve the financial and real estate issues, notably in territory occupied by the Jewish state after 1967.

Negotiations have sputtered ever since they resumed in 2004 after a 10-year hiatus.

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Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway...

What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky?

If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday.

Speculation was increasing today that the display was the result of an embarrassing failed test launch of a jinxed new Russian missile.

The Bulava missile was test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea early on Wednesday but failed at the third stage, say newspapers in Moscow today...

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Northern Minnesota deer hunters say they caught Bigfoot on camera

The Bemidji Pioneer reported this week that two hunters near there say they captured a Bigfoot in photographs in the woods. Biology experts aren't so sure.

In the story, Tim Kedrowski told Pioneer Editor Molly Miron that he and his sons, Peter and Casey, got a photo of a Bigfoot-like creature on a game trail camera set up on their hunting land north of Remer, Minn.

Kedrowski told Miron that photo frame was clicked at 7:20 p.m. Oct. 24, a rainy night in Remer. They checked with neighbors and other hunters who might have been in the area and they all said the image isn't them, he told Miron. Kedrowski told the Pioneer he considered possibilities from a bear to a bow hunter in a fuzzy suit. But the arm and hand couldn’t be a bear’s, Kedrowksi said. The upright gait doesn't match a bear, either, he said...

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