St. Stanislaus steps back from unification

BY MICHELE MUNZ

Reconciling with the Archdiocese of St. Louis was pushed further from reach Sunday as a majority of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church members said they opposed a proposed resolution.

In what attorneys called a 'survey," 257 parishioners voted that they "do not agree with the direction the Board is pursuing toward settling the lawsuit," while 185 agreed with the direction of negotiations...

In 2004, former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke demanded that St. Stanislaus conform to the same legal and financial structures of all other parishes, despite having managed its own finances and property since its founding in 1891.

The church's lay board refused, and Burke pulled the church's priests. A year later, the lay board named Rev. Marek Bozek its pastor. Burke declared Bozek excommunicated and stripped the church of its standing as a Roman Catholic parish...

Some parishioners voted against the resolution because they do not want to lose Bozek, while others fear the archdiocese would use the agreement to shutter the church, which is just north of downtown.

Mick Kenney, 61, of St. Louis, and his wife, Nancy Wendover, are among many new members attached to Bozek, who supports gays in the church and ordination of women. The divorced and remarried Catholic couple said they never felt welcome at Mass until coming to St. Stanislaus. Rather than pursuing re-establishment as a Roman Catholic parish, they want the church to continue its less exclusionary stance as an independent Catholic church...

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Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague

During the Civil War, members of New York's 'Fighting 69th' attend a battlefield Mass.

Thieves Attempt to Steal Padre Pio's Relics

From Kathnet via The Eponymous Flower:

Intruders attempted to steal relics of the Italian National Hero Padre Pio (1887-1968) in the dead of night.

Rome (kath.net/KAP) Intruders attempted to steal relics of the Italian National Hero Padre Pio (1887-1968) in the dead of night. The thieves broke into the chapel crypt of the south Italian city of Saint Giovanni Rotundo, according to the Roman daily 'La Republica' (Monday-Edition) which was reported to the local police. There the perpetrators broke through the bulletproof glass, behind which the reliquary of the Capuccin Monk is located.

Among the secured remains of the Saint, who was famous for his crucifixion wounds, there are some hairs, a bandage as well as a pair of gloves.

The body of Padre Pio was put in the sanctuary by star architect Renzo Piano in April of this year and since 2004 the pilgrimage church was open for the Saint, Pio di Pietrelicina, had been reinterred in the Apulian city. Before he was in the laid to rest in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

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Prop. 8 Judge: Pope Hurt Homosexuals

By James Tillman

SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In the 136-page ruling overturning California's ban on "gay marriage," Judge Vaughn Walker cites a document signed by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to show that "religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful" can "harm gays and lesbians."

William May, chairman of Catholics for the Common Good (CCG), told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that it was shocking for a federal court to rule that "Catholic teaching and [that] that of other religions are harmful to anyone."

He also said that Walker's ruling demonstrates how "freedom for religious expression and the private interests and feelings of individuals" are on a collision course.

"Religion has always been seen as a good," he said, but "now it is being seen by an increasing number of people as harmful.”

The document that Judge Walker quoted, entitled "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons," was issued in 2003 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was then prefect.

The ruling quotes the document's statement that "Sacred Scripture condemns homosexual acts 'as a serious depravity.'"

The ruling also quotes the statement that there "are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family," as well other short statements summarizing Catholic theology.

These quotations are offered in support of the ruling's 77th "finding of fact": "Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians."

Walker's ruling has fully 80 findings of fact, which are separated from the "conclusions of law" in which he decides the case. Appellate courts are typically deferential to a lower court's findings of fact, which has lead most commentators to agree that Walker's ruling was specifically written to withstand appeal...

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Tie Dye

Snup's View From the Back Pew

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Jesus' advent gives life-changing hope, Benedict XVI teaches

 

AP Photo

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 8, 2010 / 10:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Before Sunday's Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict XVI taught the importance of leading our lives with trust and hope in the coming of the Lord. This hope, he said, should encourage us to "an intense life, rich with good works."

The courtyard at Castel Gandolfo was filled with faithful and pilgrims, some of whom sung the "Ave Maria" as they waited for the Holy Father to appear on the second story balcony of the Apostolic Palace.

After being met with a burst of cheers, the Pope taught about Jesus' words to the disciples from Sunday's Gospel in which He continued to speak on "the value of the person in the eyes of God and on the uselessness of earthly worries."

This discourse, said the Holy Father, is not about "praise for disengagement.” Rather, he explained, our heart is opened to a hope that enlightens our existence when we listen to Jesus’ “reassuring invitation”: “Do not be afraid, little flock; for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.”

Quoting from the Encyclical Spe Salvi, he added that the Gospel is not merely a communication but “makes things happen and is life-changing.”

“The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life."

He pointed to the example of Abraham, described in the Letter to the Hebrews as one who goes out with "a hopeful heart." Not knowing where he is going, he is "trusting only in God" and His promise of land and numerous descendants.”

Through the three parables in the Gospel, the Pope continued, Jesus illustrates to us how the expectation of his coming, "the blessed hope," should lead us "even further to an intense life, rich with good works."

His invitation to sell our possessions and to give alms to prepare the way to heaven, explained Benedict XVI, is an invitation to “use things without selfishness, thirst for possession or dominance, but according to the logic of God, the logic of the attention to others, the logic of love..."

He concluded by remembering several saints who laid down their lives, whose feast days fall this week. He recalled Sunday's feast of the founder of the Dominicans, St. Dominic of Guzman, whose order "carries out the mission of instructing society on the truth of faith, preparing themselves with study and prayer."

He also named 3rd century deacon and martyr St. Lawrence whose feast is to be celebrated on Aug. 10 and Claretian founder, St. Clare of Assisi (Aug. 11). Before beginning the Marian prayer, he drew attention to two 20th century martyrs, both killed at Auschwitz: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast days fall on Aug. 9  and Aug. 14, respectively.

Both of them, he said, "lived through the dark time of the Second World War, without ever losing sight of (their) hope, the God of life and love."

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Nazareth Priest (left) on Pilgrimage

Catholic Answers Bans New Threads About Michael Voris ("The Vortex") of Real Catholic TV

Update August 10th: The Vortex: Freedom of Speech (new video that responds to recent events)
Update August 10th: Catholic Answers Removes Ban

August 10th "The Vortex: Freedom of Speech":

Michael Voris: "So why is it that so many faithful Catholic media outlets pay so little attention to the politics and corruption and rotten things happening inside the Church? That's a fair question, and it's one that everyone needs to think about it.

Could it be that many of these media types in the faithful camp are somewhat hamstrung, they have their hands tied, and are unable to say what really needs to be talked about? Could it be that they enjoy friendly relations with various powerful people in the Church and don't want those relationships damaged?..." (continued in video)

---

Original August 7th post:

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=482182

Saw this at the Catholic Caveman blog:

"Volpius Leonius said...
This video was so powerful any discussion of Michael Voris is now banned from Catholic Answers."

 "Vir Speluncae Catholicus said...
VL,
He's banned from them!!?? Amazingly enough... so am I!"

Michael Voris:

Background:

Emmy Award-Winning Broadcaster Leads Catholic Media Company

FERNDALE, Mich. (March 31, 2008) – It was The Da Vinci Code that triggered Michael Voris’ “road to Damascus” moment. A devout, knowledgeable Catholic with more than twenty years of television broadcasting experience, Voris planned to produce a one-hour TV program to refute the distortions and outright lies about Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church that were being disseminated by the novel and the movie. Very quickly Voris realized that the challenges facing the Catholic Church in the United States were much larger and more pernicious than a single blockbuster, and so he planned something much more ambitious than a single TV special.

Financed by a substantial withdrawal from his own retirement fund, and with the help of generous volunteers, Voris built a television studio in Ferndale, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He christened his new venture—St. Michael’s Media—placing the new company under the protection of the captain of the angels who drove Lucifer from Heaven. As for the television program, Voris chose a name as uncompromising as the great archangel—“The One True Faith.” The program began airing in the Detroit area in September 2006.

Voris knew exactly what he wanted “The One True Faith” to be; a straight-talking, informative, unabashedly orthodox program presented in an appealing, occasionally humorous way. Protestant televangelists had mastered this format years ago, but Voris knew that his experience in secular broadcasting could provide a production level that could compete with most mainstream talk shows.

Voris’ approach worked. Fervent Catholics, lukewarm Catholics, and lapsed Catholics tuned in to watch Voris tackle the tough questions about Catholic doctrine, Church history, and the Catholic viewpoint on contemporary issues. Accolades from laity and clergy started pouring in, and Voris and his team were delighted to learn that non-Catholics were watching the show, too. In less than two years St. Michael’s Media has expended into markets from New York to California, from Ontario to the Philippines.

In 2007 Voris began hosting a conservative Catholic radio talk show, “News and Views Weekly.” Like “The One True Faith,” the radio show discusses contemporary issues from a Catholic point of view. Every broadcast is smart, entertaining, and when it comes to the hard questions, Voris and his correspondents never pull their punches.

In addition to radio and television, St. Michael’s Media has produced an apologetics series and a three-part DVD series titled “Where Did The Bible Come From?”—all endorsed by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis.

When he isn’t in the studio, Voris is on the road. In parishes, at conferences, at retreat centers—wherever Catholics meet—Voris has become a sought-after speaker. On topics that range from the origins of the Bible, to the facts behind the decline of the Catholic Church in the West over the last 50 years, to the spiritual warfare that rages within every soul, Voris delivers a dynamic presentation that gives Catholics the facts, the inspiration, and the courage to face the challenges of living the faith in a society that is indifferent if not openly hostile to religion.

Shortly after his election Pope Benedict XVI called for “a New Evangelization” that would use new tools and new methods to bring the Gospel to the whole world. St. Michael’s Media has responded to that call.

To schedule an interview with Michael Voris please contact Ashley Walker at 678-990-9032.

• Emmy Award-Winning Broadcaster Leads Catholic Media Company

And another post from their blog:

• More Catholic Than the Pope?

RealCatholicTV.com

RealCatholicTV's Youtube Channel

"This parish is in Nebraska."

• New Assignment

Medjugorje: I. Introduction and Outline

The Long Suffering Writer, a former believer in the Medjugorje phenomena who is now a skeptic, is writing a seven part series on the subject.  Part 1:

"...(c) Fallacies. One of the main things that sticks out to me when discussing this issue or following such discussions is the fallacies I see being committed by people from both sides. Speaking as a Medjugorje sceptic, the most common fallacies I see from Medjugorje believers include ad hominem attacks (especially on the Bishop of Mostar), red herrings or smokescreens, appeals to emotion, straw men, and personal anecdotes as an argument in itself rather than in support of an argument (ie. “I know a friend who was converted at Medjugorje, and therefore I know it is true and you should acknowledge it too”). You will see many such examples in this paper. [ie] The proper way to respond to the Bishop of Mostar’s charges as found in his work, The Truth About Medjugorje, is not to say he is biased, impious, or operates from nefarious motives. The proper way to respond to his charges is to respond blow by blow to his objections..."

Read Part I

Medjugorje I - Introduction and Outline
Medjugorje II - Weak Objections Against Authenticity
Medjugorje III - Weak Objections For Authenticity
Medjugorje IV - Obedience and Disobedience
Medjugorje V - Other Arguments, Clues, and Problems Pointing Against Authenticity
Medjugorje VI - Satan's Motives
Medjugorje VII - God's Motives

h/t Chonak

Z-Chat Open

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Nashville Priest May Face Canonical Discipline Over Heretical Video

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, August 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A priest of the Nashville diocese may be facing canonical discipline after putting out a video on the front of his parish website this week denouncing the Pope and various Church teachings such as those against divorce, contraception, women's ordination, and the married priesthood.

The video, titled 'The State of our Church', is staged as an interview of the priest, Fr. Joseph Patrick Breen, by one of his parishioners at St. Edward's Catholic Church. It appears to be an attempt at reaching out to fallen-away Catholics. The video was picked up Thursday by the blog Creative Minority Report.

"That's the way we are, and that's where the people are," Fr. Breen explained when asked by LifeSiteNews why he released the video. "You gotta get the bishops to, the Pope to listen to the people - the voice, you might say, of the Spirit - and you see so many people, I do, that quit going to church because there's no response to the necessary changes that should be made."

Rick Musacchio, director of communications for the Diocese of Nashville told LSN Thursday that Bishop David Choby became aware of the video on Tuesday and "considers it a very serious matter." "He's in the process of developing a response in light of the canonical disciplines of the Church, and is in the process of arranging a meeting with Fr. Breen to address the matter," Musacchio explained...

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• Nashville Priest May Face Canonical Discipline Over Heretical Video

Britain's Got Talent - Andrew Johnston

h/t to John Paul Sonnen

• Why We Love Sacred Music in Latin

Pope Benedict wanted to be a librarian

Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI wanted to become a librarian 13 years ago but his request to quit the Vatican high office was rejected. 

By Simon Caldwell 

His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, declined his request to spend his last years as the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and as a librarian of the Vatican Library, according to the incumbent librarian and archivist Cardinal Raffaele Farina..

At the time the future Pope Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s doctrinal enforcer.

But he found his job “burdensome” and wanted to retire to academic study of ancient documents for the rest of his life.

He asked the Pope if he could step down from his role when he turned 70 on April 16, 1997, a move which would have permanently removed him from Vatican politics and from the eyes of the world...

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A Deeper Look at the Many Evangelicals Turning Catholic

 From the National Catholic Register's Matthew Warner:

"According to a 2009 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, four people leave the Catholic Church for every one person that joins it. Keep in mind that this stat doesn’t count those born into Catholicism as “joining” it. However, it’s still a sad statistic. But we shouldn’t be misled by it.

There are also studies that show Catholicism has a higher rate of retention than all other religious groups. In other words, when people convert to Catholicism, they don’t do so because they didn’t like where they were and just wanted to try something new. Their conversion is deliberate and intentional and they generally stick with it. On the other hand, when people leave the Church, they generally drift around a bit from one denomination to another.  This says a lot. The Catholic convert is actually experiencing real, lasting conversion. Those leaving the Church seem to be lost and searching souls that most likely had no idea what they were leaving in the first place.

I’ve long noticed, as have many others, a kind of trend as well. It’s not so much from “Evangelicals” converting to Catholicism necessarily. It’s that of intellectuals converting to Catholicism. And that’s not to say these intellectuals were strictly intellectual. But I mean it to say that they took their reasons for believing very seriously.  We only have to look back a few generations to find Chesterton, Merton, Newman, etc. as part of the same trend.

In my own experience, I’ve seen that more people who convert to Catholicism do so on account of their reason. Whereas those that leave the Church do so based on some emotion or negative experience associated with the Church.

When I ask an evangelical why they left the Church. The answer is almost always an emotion. Something made them feel a certain way. Or they just didn’t like the way something was done in Catholicism. Or it didn’t suit their lifestyle. Or some other experience made them feel nice..."

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Animated History of Poland

Happy 80th Birthday, Dr. Neil Armstrong

 

From Lunar Pioneer

 

Dr. Neil Armstrong, first to set foot on another world, celebrates his 80th birthday, August 5, 2010. More than half his lifetime has passed since he guided the Apollo 11 lunar module down to the ancient volcanic plains near the Equator, in the southwestern Mare Tranquillitatis, July 20, 1969.

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The Devil

h/t to Cleansing Fire

Quote

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.".. John Adams --October 11, 1798

Pope Benedict XVI Photos

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Reuters Pictures


Getty Images


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AP Photo


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Getty Images


Reuters Pictures

A Polish pilgrim waves the national flag as Pope Benedict XVI leads his Angelus prayer from the balcony of his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome.

 
 Reuters Pictures

What might have been

By Diogenes

(Catholic Culture) For years it’s been a simple decision for Catholic-bashers in the broadcast media. You want someone who will appear on TV wearing a Roman collar and say nasty things about the Pope? Father Richard McBrien is your go-to guy.

 

But alas the years pass. None of us is getting any younger. Certainly not McBrien, whose weekly columns—published by Catholic newspapers that show an interest in questioning the Catholic faith—have taken on an increasingly plaintive tone. First he published a list of his favorite bishops, mourning that few of them had wielded as much influence as he might have liked. Now he has taken the next step, offering a list of auxiliary bishops who were appointed during the halcyon days of the “Jadot era,” but never rose from the ranks of the auxiliaries to head their own dioceses.

 

“Jadot bishops,” for the benefit of those too young to recall the era, are those American prelates who were appointed during the 1970s, when the late Archbishop Jean Jadot was apostolic delegate to the US. The Jadot bishops were overwhelmingly liberal, and the American Church is still reeling under their influence.
But from McBrien’s perspective, that influence should have been much greater. He lists the auxiliary bishops appointed in the 1970s who are now deceased, retired, or at least barred by advancing age from further advancement: Rosazza of Hartford, Murphy of Baltimore, Gumbleton and Schoenherr of Detroit, Morneau of Green Bay, Wirz of Madison, Sklba of Milwaukee, Wcela of Rockville.

It’s sobering to think that these bishops—all friends of dissenters, all ready to question the Catholic tradition—might have been promoted to head their own dioceses. On the other hand, it’s a relief to recognize they weren’t, and they won’t be. Now as the sun sets on the Jadot era—and the day approaches when Richard McBrien is no longer churning out his anti-Roman propaganda—we can all think of what might have been.
And if that’s the best that McBrien can do today—to think of what might have been—the future looks brighter every minute...

• What might have been

Jesus and Noah

1901: Ride on the Tramcar through Belfast