Archbishop Neinstedt

From The Tenth Crusade:

In another peculiar development coming from Rome, the other day I read about a 'tribunal for bishops in sex abuse cases' and thought to myself, Gee, I hope they don't use this kangaroo court to remove bishops who are opposed to the Roman Mapplethorpe they are building. I mean, they wouldn't sink that low, would they?... (continued)

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• Given the shibboleth coming from Rome, this is no time for sloth.

Related:

• ANOTHER COVER-UP OF GAY ABUSERS
• Archbishop John Nienstedt Resigns after archdiocese charged with coverup
• Archbishop John Nienstedt steps down

Pope Francis’ Climate Change Encyclical Leaked Four Days Early by Italian Magazine

The 192-page document is Pope Francis' first major teaching letter on climate change and its effects on the planet's poor

(Time) Italian Magazine L’Espresso leaked Pope Francis’ hotly anticipated encyclical on climate change on its website on Monday, breaking an embargo on the document set for Thursday.

The 192-page document is Pope Francis’ first major teaching letter on climate change and its effects on the planet’s poor. Hailed by some as the “pope of the poor,” Francis’ linkage of environmental and economic issues puts the Vatican out front on a closely watched topic.

A Vatican official told Bloomberg News that the leak was a “heinous act.”

“An Italian text of a draft of the Pope’s Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ has been published. Please note that it is not the final text, and that the rules of the Embargo remain in place,” read an official statement from the Vatican. “We ask journalists to respect professional standards, which call for waiting for the official publication of the final text.”

Link:

• Pope Francis’ Climate Change Encyclical Leaked Four Days Early by Italian Magazine

Archbishop John Nienstedt Resigns after archdiocese charged with coverup

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, and a deputy bishop resigned Monday after prosecutors there charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest.

The Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation of having "turned a blind eye" to repeated reports of inappropriate behavior by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys. No individual was named in the indictment.

The resignations came just days after Pope Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Francis' decision followed years of criticism that the Vatican had never held bishops accountable for having ignored warnings about abusive priests and simply moved them from parish to parish rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry.

In April, Francis accepted the resignation of U.S. bishop Robert Finn, who had been convicted in a U.S. court of failing to report a suspected child abuser.

The criminal charges against the archdiocese stem from its handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third boy in Wisconsin.

Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to "numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct" by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. The criminal complaint says many people — including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff — reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted.

Link:

• Archbishop John Nienstedt Resigns after archdiocese charged with coverup

Pope calls for agreement on a single date for Christians to celebrate Easter

Francis had invited Bartholomew to present his encyclical on ecology. Zizoulas, one of the greatest Orthodox theologians, will do it in his place. “Mary is much more important than the apostles.” Forcing migrants back in Asia is not an attitude inherent to a continent that “has a mystical treasure-trove”. Similarly, “the fundamentalism found in some parts of Pakistan where Christians were burnt alive for bearing the Gospel is not inherent”.

Rome (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis today proposed that all Christians celebrate Easter at the same time. He did so, noting that “The Catholic Church has been willing since Paul VI to set a date and give up the first solstice after the full moon in March" by which Easter is established.

He must the proposal to find an agreement during a highly ecumenical meditation pronounced in Spanish during the third world retreat for priests, which brought together in the Basilica of St John Lateran about a thousand priest from 90 countries and 5 continents.

With ecumenical goals in mind, the pope said that he had invited the Orthodox ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to present his encyclical on ecology. "We are friends,” he said, “ but he had a commitment, and so sent the Archbishop of Pergamum Zizoulas. This way, the encyclical will be presented by one of the greatest Orthodox theologians.

“Ex oriente lux, former occidente luxsus,” said the pope in relation to Orthodox Christians. "From the Orthodox East and its Asian part comes the light" of spirituality, while the West exports "luxury, hedonism, consumerism," all things that are causing "decadence," said the pontiff. Indeed, he emphasised Asia’s “spiritual reserves,” noting the cultural and pastoral contributions from the Churches in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and others

Citing the fate of migrants in the Indian Ocean faced with refoulement, he warned that forcing back migrants is a “sin”. What is more, this “kind of attitude in a continent that has a mystical treasure-trove is not inherent, it comes from another part. [. . .] Likewise, the fundamentalism found in some parts of Pakistan where Christians were burnt alive for bearing the Gospel is not inherent. [. . .] There are problems, but Asia is a promise, a future, full of spiritual reserves."

The long meeting gave the pope an opportunity to announce that he would travel to Uganda and the Central African Republic in November. Kenya could be added but it is an idea that is only a possibility. In response to a question from an African priest, Francis said that “Africa is generous with the world, but the world is not generous with Africa, because it uses and treats it as a land to be exploited.”

The pope spoke again about the homily. “In homilies,” he said, "have pity on the people of God. [. . .] People cannot bear more than eight minutes, then they turn off. They want you to speak to the heart. An idea, an image, a feeling is what a homily must have”. Thus, "it is not a lecture or a lesson in catechesis;" it is "positive, not restrictive language..." (continued)

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• Pope calls for agreement on a single date for Christians to celebrate Easter

Medjugorje Decision Will Take ‘Months’, says Vatican Spokesman

By Edward Pentin

(National Catholic Register) VATICAN CITY — The Vatican downplayed intense speculation that Pope Francis will decide very soon on the authenticity of alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, saying it will most probably take months rather than days or weeks.

In comments to the Register June 11, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said it is “hard to say” when a ruling might be made, but that it’s certainly not likely before the Vatican’s summer break.

He noted that there has not yet been a feria quarta (a monthly meeting of cardinal and bishop members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) on the subject and that he doubted there would be one before the summer break.

“So if you ask me: days, weeks or months? I think it would be safest to say a few months,” Father Lombardi said, and warned against feeding expectations that an announcement is “very imminent...”

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• Medjugorje Decision Will Take ‘Months’, says Vatican Spokesman

Related:

• Medjugorje Restrictions Confirmed by Alleged Visionary Marija Pavlovic
• Vatican Cancels Another Medjugorje Event
• Pope Dismisses 'Visions' as Medjugorje Decision Nears
• Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis
• Days after Medjugorje comment, Pope downplays predictable visions
• Medjugorje "visionary" Vicka flinches while in "ecstasy" (video)
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day" 
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

A “still small voice” that does not fade away

By Father George Rutler

A young city boy on his first camping trip awoke his father at dawn and said, as he gazed out of his tent, “Look, Dad, the sun is rising just like on TV.” Our present generation, of which we are privileged to be a laggard part, does not find it easy to distinguish actuality from artifice. In the background is a reluctance to acknowledge that an impression of reality is not the same as reality itself. This is symptomatic of what Pope Benedict XVI called the “dictatorship of relativism.”

By that he meant the notion absorbed by people bereft of logic, that what one wants something to be, comes to be simply by the wanting. This has immediate and desultory influence on moral conduct. So, like the little boy who thought that the real sun looked like the cartoon sun on television (or, like the nice woman who told me that the altar flowers were so lovely that she though they were artificial), people may reject the concrete facts of nature and posture that their desires are legitimate just because they are desired. A lurid example of this is the redefinition of marriage to make that organic and divine institution nothing more than a fantasy of one’s arrested emotional development, the product of a plebiscite, and the opinion of judges in solemn robes. Polls and parliaments are willing tyrants when the mob consents to be tyrannized by their opinions and decrees.

G.K. Chesterton gently slapped his readers back to reality from egoistic comas when he wrote in his A Short History of England: “To have the right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” So when someone says, “I am free to do what I want with my body,” you may be impelled by charity and justice to reply that he is indeed so free, but if he defies the law of gravity, the pavement quickly will be of a different opinion, and if he says there is no difference between a man and a woman, two shades named Adam and Eve will rise up with mocking smiles.

Those who have long sipped the intoxicating nectar of false perception may hesitate to draw a line between desire and dogma, fabrication and fact. If reality is nothing more than the visible costume of an impression, impressive tyrants will orchestrate that fantasy from their balconies, with rhetoric to mold malleable minds. The long legacy of demagoguery attests that weak points persuade people if the points are shouted loudly enough to overwhelm reason. Opinion polls shout, and network “talking heads” shout, and Internet pundits shout, but then there is a “still small voice” that does not fade away: the long and logical echo of “Fiat Lux” uttered by the real Creator of the real universe.

Link:

• Most Recent Column from Fr. Rutler

Scotch eggs branded junk food and confiscated from children's packed lunches

By Dan Hyde, Consumer Affairs Editor

(Telegraph) They were created almost 300 years ago by Fortnum & Mason as a pocket-sized snack for aristocrats travelling by horse-drawn carriage.

But now the scotch egg has been labelled a junk food and is being removed from children's lunch boxes by schoolteachers.

The traditional dish – a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and coated in breadcrumbs – is seen as too unhealthy to be part of a balanced diet at Cherry Tree Primary School in Colchester.

The school has taken the unusual step of asking teachers to look through pupils' lunch boxes and remove items that are deemed inappropriate.

Along with Peperami sausages, scotch eggs are being confiscating until the end of the day, at which point the teacher replaces the item, adding an explanatory note for parents... (continued)

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• Scotch eggs branded junk food and confiscated from children's packed lunches

House votes to repeal country-of-origin labeling on meat

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry.

The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month, ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries. Both have said they plan to ask the WTO for permission to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on American goods.

The House voted 300-131 to repeal labels that tell consumers what countries the meat is from — for example, "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born, raised and slaughtered in the United States."

The WTO ruled against the labels last year. The Obama administration has already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it's up to Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation from the two countries.

The law was initially written at the behest of northern U.S. ranchers who compete with the Canadian cattle industry. It also was backed by consumer advocates who say it helps shoppers know where their food comes from. Supporters have called on the U.S. government to negotiate with Canada and Mexico to find labels acceptable to all countries.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said repeal would be premature, adding, "Our people deserve a right to know where their food is produced and where it comes from..." (continued)

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• House votes to repeal country-of-origin labeling on meat

Vatican Cancels Another Medjugorje Event

by Christine Niles

(Church Militant) The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has once again stepped in and canceled another Medjugorje event.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the CDF, prohibited a parish in Sestola, Italy from holding a prayer meeting scheduled for June 21 where Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, one of the Medjugorje seers, was to offer her testimony and possibly have a vision. Vicka has attended the same event over the past two years and reportedly had visions during her time there.

Last year, Mueller had to remind two Italian dioceses they could not sponsor events for Medjugorje visionaries. In March, in light of a scheduled conference with Ivan Dragicevic at a parish in St. Louis, Missouri, Archbishop Robert Carlson issued the following statement:

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

And just last month, another scheduled event with Ivan Dragicevic in Padua was called off after Müller intervened.

It was in response to a speaking tour by Dragicevic in 2013 that the CDF issued a letter to be sent to every American diocese forbidding the faithful to participate in any events where "the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted." The letter also reaffirmed the findings of the 1991 Yugoslavian Bishops' Conference, which concluded that "it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations" at Medjugorje.

So far, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued letters forbidding Medjugorje-themed events in the United States, Italy and Spain.

For our FAQ on Medjugorje, visit our resource page.

Watch Michael Voris' presentation on Medjugorje here.

Link:

• Vatican Cancels Another Medjugorje Event

Related:

• Medjugorje Restrictions Confirmed by Alleged Visionary Marija Pavlovic
• Pope Dismisses 'Visions' as Medjugorje Decision Nears
• Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis
• Days after Medjugorje comment, Pope downplays predictable visions
• Medjugorje "visionary" Vicka flinches while in "ecstasy" (video)
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day" 
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

Pope Dismisses 'Visions' as Medjugorje Decision Nears

From the Associated Press via ABC News:

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis gave a hint Tuesday about his take on the reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Medjugorje shrine in southern Bosnia, dismissing a reliance on regular visions of the Madonna as mere "novelty-seeking" for the faithful.

Francis spoke during his morning homily, three days after making a day trip to Sarajevo. En route home, Francis told reporters the Vatican would soon decide whether to formally recognize the Medjugorje phenomenon as authentic.

In his homily, Francis dismissed those "who always need novelty in their Christian identity" and say: "But where are the visionaries who tell us today about 'The letter that the Madonna will send tomorrow at 4 p.m.?'"

"This isn't Christian identity," he said. "God's last word is called Jesus and nothing more."

The Medjugorje apparition has been disputed since 1981, when six youths said they had regularly seen visions of the Virgin there. Unlike Fatima in Portugal or Lourdes in France, the Vatican has been cautious about calling the sightings authentic. Neither Rome nor the local diocese has approved Medjugorje as an official shrine site and the Vatican has told dioceses not to organize official pilgrimages there.

That hasn't stopped the remote village 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Sarajevo from thriving from the financial boost brought by more than 30 million faithful who have visited since 1981.

The local church itself has cast doubt on the sightings, in part because one of the visionaries says the apparitions have continued regularly for over a quarter century.

In 2010, then-Pope Benedict XVI formed an international commission to study the Medjugorje phenomenon. On Saturday, Francis said commission's report had been taken up by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, although the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said it hadn't yet been discussed.

Lombardi acknowledged that Francis was probably referring to Medjugorje in his homily but he stressed that his brief mention was not the Vatican's final word. Francis' off-the-cuff comments "are not an official pronouncement that gives a wide-ranging and articulated doctrinal or pastor indications," he said.

Link:

• Pope Dismisses Madonna 'Visions' as Shrine Decision Nears

Related:

• Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis
• Days after Medjugorje comment, Pope downplays predictable visions
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day" 
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you

By Domenico Agasso Jr.

(La Stampa)  At this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House, Francis urged faithful not to turn to those “who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4’o’clock this afternoon”, because “this identity is not Christian”. He urged against “watering down” the Christians identity so that is becomes a “soft” religion. He stressed that another risk which the testimony of those faithful to Jesus faces, is the worldliness of those who “broaden their minds” so much that they let everything in.

The Pope took the words of St. Paul to the Corinthian about the identity of Jesus’ disciples, as his cue for today’s homily.  It is true, he said, that “in order to reach this Christian identity”, God “made us go on a long journey through history” before he sent his Son. “In our lives, we must also go on a long journey in order to make our Christian identity strong” and so that we may bear “witness” to it.

“It is true, there is sin” he said, “and sin makes us fall, but we have the strength of the Lord to get up and go forth with our identity. But I would also say that sin is part of our identity: we are sinners, but sinners with faith in Jesus Christ. And it is not just a faith of knowledge, no. It is a faith that is a gift of God and entered us through God. It is God himself who confirms us in Christ. And he has anointed us, he has placed the seal on us, he has given an earnest penny, the seal of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It is God who give us this gift of identity.”

It is crucial “to remain faithful to this Christian identity and to let the Holy Spirit – which is a guarantee, a seal in our hearts – help us move forward in our lives.”

Christians are not he kind of people that follow “a philosophy”, he warned. We are “anointed” with “the seal of the Holy Spirit”. “It is a beautiful identity,” he underlined, “which can be seen through testimony. Hence Jesus speaks to us about testimony as the language of our Christian identity.” And this despite the fact that our Christian identity “is tempted due to the fact that we are sinners: temptations will always come our way” and our identity “can be weakened or lost”.

The Pope warned against taking certain dangerous paths: “Firstly, moving away from testimony and toward ideas, watering down our testimonies. ‘Yes, I am Christian. Christianity is a nice idea. I pray to God.” It is this way that we move away from Christ who is concrete – because Christian identity is concrete, we read this in the Beatitudes and this concreteness is also found in Matthew 25: Christian identity is concrete – to a religion that is a bit soft, along the same lines as Gnosticism. Scandal lies behind this. This Christian identity is scandalous. And the temptation is: ‘No, no, no scandal”.

“The cross is a scandal,” Francis explained, and so there are those who seek God “with these slightly ethereal Christian spiritualties”, modern gnostics”. Then, Francis warned, there are always those “who constantly need Christian identity to be renewed”, “forgetting that they were chosen, anointed,” that “they have the seal of the Holy Spirit” and they go in search of seers, asking: 'Where are the seers who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4’o’clock this afternoon?' And their lives depend on this. This identity is not Christian. God’s final word is “Jesus” and nothing else.”

Another way to backtrack on our Christian identity, is worldliness: “Broadening our minds to fit everything in. ‘Yes, we are Christians, but this is ok…’Not only morally but also humanly. Worldliness is human. This is how salt loses its taste. And we see Christian communities and Christians call themselves Christians, when they are unable or do not know how to bear witness to Jesus Christ. And so they gradually lose their identity and this worldly nominalism we see everyday. In the history of salvation, God, with the Father’s patience, has brought us from ambiguity to certainty, to the concreteness of the incarnation and redeeming death of his Son. This is our identity.”

St. Paul, he concluded, praises the Son of God who “was made man and died out of obedience,” “this is identity and that is testimony”; it is a grace that “we must ask the Lord for: that he may always grant us this gift of an identity which does not try to adapt to things” to the point of “losing the taste of the salt”, becoming insipid.

Link:

• Pope Francis:  Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you

Related:

• Medjugorje Restrictions Confirmed by Alleged Visionary Marija Pavlovic
• Pope Dismisses 'Visions' as Medjugorje Decision Nears
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis
• Days after Medjugorje comment, Pope downplays predictable visions
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day" 
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

US Woman to Marry Swiss Guard in Rome; Pope Tells Them ‘Have a Lot of Children’

How a Novena and God’s Providence Led to the Blessed Meeting — and Engagement

By EMILY BRANDENBURG

(National Catholic Register) Huntington Beach, Calif. — She was 29 years old with a dream to see Italy before she turned 30.

So Miranda Emde convinced her mother, Martha, to go with her, and off they went. In October 2013, they toured Rome, Milan, Venice and Assisi for three weeks. But Miranda fell in love with Rome. She went to Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica every day while she was there — and she didn’t want to leave.

The day before they were to return home to California, Miranda had an idea. “I’m single still. What if I could live here [in Rome] for six months and do something for the Vatican?”

She and her mom asked around, but ended up wasting a few hours without finding out how to get a job at the Holy See. At that point, Miranda wanted to give up. “I said, ‘Let’s just go back to the hotel.’ My mom said, ‘No we are getting the information before we leave. We are going to walk by St. Anne’s Gate. Talk to the Swiss Guard who is there.”

When “she feels strongly about something, you just listen to her,” Miranda said of her mom. Father Angelo Sebastian, who aids orphanages in his native India and is a friend of Miranda and her family, describes her as “St. Martha” who prays several Rosaries a day and is a “very faithful and holy woman.”

“So I’m like, ‘Okay.’ As I’m just looking over, I see Jonathan,” Miranda recalled. So she went over to Jonathan Binaghi, a Vatican Swiss Guard, introduced herself, and asked, “I’m visiting Rome and curious about opportunities at the Vatican in marketing and communications.”

They only talked a few minutes, as he was busy talking with other people as part of his duties. But he was extremely helpful and gave her contact information of several individuals who could help her with her job search.

“I could tell he wanted to talk more. Towards the end, he said, ‘I get off work at 8. Can you meet for dinner?’ And I turned him down. I said, ‘Sorry, we have to be up so early [for our flight.]’ He wrote down his contact information.”

The helpful Swiss Guard made quite the impression on her. “We felt a spark [and] observing him in those couple minutes, I picked up something different — how he handled people,” she recalled.  “He’s so kind — very kind and dignified. His presence is just not what you see all the time.”

Miranda remembers walking away and joking with her mom, “Oh, I think I just fell in love! What are the chances?” (continued)

Read More at the National Catholic Register (click here)

Link:

• US Woman to Marry Swiss Guard in Rome; Pope Tells Them ‘Have a Lot of Children’  

Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis

Pope Francis waves to the crowd as he arrives to celebrate a Mass at the Kosevo stadium, in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Saturday, June 6, 2015. Pope Francis urged Bosnia's Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics to put the "deep wounds" of their past behind them and work together for a peaceful future as he arrived in Sarajevo on Saturday for a one-day visit to encourage reconciliation following the devastating three-way war of the 1990s. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - The Vatican is close to making a ruling on the alleged apparitions of the Madonna in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje, one of the most controversial cases in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis said on Saturday.

Six children first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in the once obscure town in 1981. It has since become a major pilgrimage site, giving many a new sense of spirituality and locals a steady source of much-needed revenue.

Many others, however, believe the alleged apparitions are a hoax.

While flying back to Rome from his visit to Sarajevo, the pope was asked about the status of a Vatican investigation into the alleged apparitions, which have divided the Catholic Church.

"We are about to make decisions and then they will be communicated," he said, adding that he recently received a long study by a Vatican commission and that the case was now before the Holy See's doctrinal department, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In recent years, the town has experienced a building boom of hotels and shops catering to pilgrims.

Some of the alleged visionaries, now adults, say they still experience apparitions every day and that the Madonna has told them secrets.

The Church has so far been cautious, saying dioceses should not organize official pilgrimages to the town. But many parish groups are among the more than a million visitors a year to the site.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Alan Crosby)

UPDATE IV: (June 9, 2015) At this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House:

Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you

Francis warned, there are always those “who constantly need Christian identity to be renewed”, “forgetting that they were chosen, anointed,” that “they have the seal of the Holy Spirit” and they go in search of seers, asking: 'Where are the seers who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4’o’clock this afternoon?' And their lives depend on this. This identity is not Christian. God’s final word is “Jesus” and nothing else.”

UPDATE III:

The Vatican's English translation:

Pope Francis:

In regard to the issue of Medjugorje, Pope Benedict XVI at the time convened a committee presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini; there were other Cardinals, theologians and specialists on the committee as well. They did an investigation and Cardinal Ruini came to me and gave me the study they did, after many years of labour, I don’t know, maybe three of four years, more or less. They did a fine job, a fine job indeed. Cardinal Müller (Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) told me that he would be having a feria quarta (a meeting dedicated to this specific question) at the right time; I think it was done on the last Wednesday of the month. But I am not sure… We are close to coming to a decision. And then the results will be communicated. For the moment, all that is being done is to give guidelines to the bishops, but along the lines that will be taken. Thank you!

UPDATE II:

Richard Chonak's translation:

Now that I’ve seen a video clip (alas, only partial) and some other reporters’ versions of the Pope’s words, here’s a more detailed rendition:

“On the problem of Medjugorje, Pope Benedict XVI, in his time, set up a commission, presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini. There were other cardinals, theologians, specialists, who made a study. Ruini came to me and presented the study, which took three or four years; they did a good job. Cardinal Gerhard Müller told me he would be doing a ‘feria quarta’ at that time: I think it took place the last Wednesday of the month, but I’m not sure. But we’re ready to make decisions, and then they’ll be stated. Only a few directives are being given to bishops about the direction we’re taking.”

UPDATE:

From ANDREA TORNIELLI at La Stampa:

There is a big interest surrounding the phenomenon of the Medjugorje apparitions. What can you tells us about this? 

“When Benedict XVI was Pope, he set up a commission on Medjugorje that was headed by Cardinal Ruini and composed of other cardinals and theologians. They prepared a study and Ruini delivered it to me after a few years of work. They did a good job. Cardinal Müller (Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ed.) told me that he was going to hold a dicastery meeting on this; I think it was held on the last Wednesday of the month. We are about to take some decisions and these will then be communicated. For now, bishops are just being given some indications.” - Pope Francis

Catholic News Agency's translation (Elise Harris and Alan Holdren):

Pope Francis: The problem of Medjugorje … Benedict XVI in his time created a commission presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini and there were other cardinals and theologians, specialists. They made a study and Cardinal Ruini came to me and consigned the study to me after many years. I don’t know, three or four years, more or less. They did good work, good work … and Cardinal Mueller told me that he would do a “feria quarta,” in these times, eh. (Editor’s note: “feria quarta” is a once-a-month meeting in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during which current cases are examined) I believe that it has been done the last Wednesday of last month, but I’m not sure. But, we’re at this point of making decisions … and then they will be announced… but only some guidelines will be given to bishops on the lines they will take.

Links:

• Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions"
• Francis: The world’s powerful talk about peace and then sell weapons under the counter
• Pope talks Medjugorje, coming encyclical on return from Bosnia 
• Drawing closer to a decision on Medjugorje?
• IN-FLIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FROM SARAJEVO TO ROME

Related:

• Medjugorje Restrictions Confirmed by Alleged Visionary Marija Pavlovic
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Medjugorje - Clerics and Faithful Not Permitted to Take Credibility of "Apparitions" for Granted (CDF)
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje
• Medjugorje and Authority
• Medjugorje Madness with Michael Voris & E. Michael Jones
• Medjugorje (EWTN)
• Pope Meets Head of Medjugorje Commission  
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day"
• Medjugorje "visionary" Vicka flinches while in "ecstasy" (video)
• Our Lady of Medjugorje?: Very Serious Counter-Signs - By Father Jay Scott Newman
• What is Happening at Medjugorje?
• Medjugorje Commission to Present Final Report by End of 2012
• Medjugorje : "The pope wants a decisive conclusion made" - Father Salvatore Perrella, CDF Expert
• Medjugorje Commission Priest: Christian Who Bases His Faith in Apparitions is Not a Christian Adult, It's Not Mature

Head Liturgist In Charge Of Music For Pope Francis' Philadelphia Mass Resigns Over Dispute With Archbishop

 

Religion News Service  |  By David Gibson
 
(RNS) The head of liturgical music for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who was also to play a key role orchestrating the huge outdoor Mass concluding Pope Francis’ trip to the U.S. in September, is resigning his post over long-standing differences with Archbishop Charles Chaput.

John Romeri, who has headed the archdiocesan liturgical music office for five years, said that he will resign effective June 30 because “there are simply irreconcilable differences” with Chaput over the role and style of music at Mass.

Romeri did not respond to requests for comment, and it was unclear whether he would still play a role in preparations for the papal visit.

A spokesman for Chaput, Kenneth Gavin, said in an email that he could not comment on personnel matters and “there are no additional updates.” But he said that the archdiocese “will be prepared for the visit of the Holy Father on all fronts, including music for the Mass on the Parkway.”

The Ben Franklin Parkway, which runs through Philadelphia, will be closed to accommodate the more than 1 million pilgrims expected to attend the Sept. 27 papal Mass. It is part of what officials say will be the largest series of public events in the city’s history.

In his resignation announcement, which he buried in a list of liturgy news last month, Romeri indicated that he and Chaput had clashed almost from the time Chaput was appointed to Philadelphia in 2011, a year after Romeri arrived.

Romeri wrote that these “several years of discontent” on Chaput’s part culminated with the music Romeri arranged this April for Holy Week and Easter. The approach, he said, “was not well received by the archbishop.”

“While at this point, I am not sure just what my next musical adventure looks like, it is absolutely the right thing for me to leave this present situation,” Romeri wrote. He said he would remain as music director for Philadelphia’s Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul through the summer.

The resignation quickly sparked an intense online debate in the beehive world of Catholic liturgists, where even the smallest tweak to a rubric can become a source of extended discussion.

But it also has a wider resonance because Romeri is vice chair of the two committees organizing the music and rites for various events during the Philadelphia leg of the Sept. 22-27 papal visit.

Francis is to visit Washington, D.C., first, then New York. He is scheduled to end the trip by spending two days in Philadelphia to close the church’s World Meeting of Families.

“A change like this ahead of the papal visit must be causing a mini-meltdown in the Archdiocese,” Nathan Chase wrote in a post at a well-known Catholic liturgy blog, Pray Tell.

A clash over liturgy so close to such a major papal event, and one in which the liturgy plays such a central role, could complicate what is already a huge undertaking for the Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Vatican.

But such hurdles are hardly unprecedented.

Papal visits are tremendously complex, stressful and expensive projects for the dioceses hosting the pope. There is intense jockeying among bishops to try to host the pontiff, and much maneuvering within a host diocese over where the pope will visit and who will get to meet him — and how each papal event will be organized.

Then everything must be run through a committee, and approved by the Vatican. The process almost guarantees arguments, especially over liturgies, which are often flashpoints for internal church battles.

Outdoor papal Masses also tend to be huge events that must communicate a sacred rite in broad strokes to a diverse assemblage. So the music and design often have a popular, modern style that can irk liturgical traditionalists.

Many speculated that this difference in liturgical tastes might have contributed to the falling out between Chaput and his music director.

Romeri is said to have more of a “high church” sensibility in liturgy than Chaput, who has expressed a preference for the newer Mass in English and simpler styles of worship.

While Chaput is often described as a doctrinal and cultural conservative, in the Catholic Church, that does not necessarily equate with liturgical traditionalism, which is its own distinct — and proud — brand.

Link:

• Head Liturgist In Charge Of Music For Pope Francis' Philadelphia Mass Resigns Over Dispute With Archbishop

St. Paul archdiocese charged over handling of abuse claims

By AMY FORLITI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Criminal charges were filed Friday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for its handling of a priest who molested children, with a prosecutor saying church leaders "turned a blind eye" to problems with the priest.

Ramsey County prosecutors charged the archdiocese as a corporation with six gross misdemeanor counts alleging that it failed to protect children. No individual church leaders were charged.

The charges stem from the archdiocese's handling of the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul who was eventually sent to prison for molesting two boys. Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to "numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct" by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015.

"It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused, but it is the archdiocese as well," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said. He said the archdiocese "time and time again turned a blind eye" to what was going on with Wehmeyer.

A spokesman for the archdiocese didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on the charges.

The six counts are punishable by a fine of a few thousand dollars. Choi said the charges are important in holding the archdiocese accountable.

Asked whether any individuals might be charged, Choi would only say that the county's investigation was ongoing.

Attorneys who sued the archdiocese on behalf of clergy-abuse victims have alleged that church officials waited too long between when they confronted Wehmeyer in 2012 and when they informed police, which they say gave Wehmeyer time to destroy evidence.

Wehmeyer later pleaded guilty to molesting two brothers and is serving five years in prison. Another prosecution, including an alleged teenage victim in western Wisconsin, is still pending.

The St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese has been under fire since a former church official went public in 2013, with concerns about how local church leaders handled abuse cases. The scandal generated several new reports to police.

The Ramsey County charges came after a 20-month investigation that Choi said confirmed many allegations reported by local media, but also uncovered new information.

"The facts that we have gathered cannot be ignored, they cannot be dismissed and are frankly appalling," Choi said.

The archdiocese announced a settlement last fall in a lawsuit that claimed it created a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest. The settlement includes new measures to keep children safe and undisclosed financial terms.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has said the archdiocese was cooperating with law enforcement, victims and their attorneys to hold those responsible accountable and to help heal those who've been hurt.

Criminal charges against a diocese are rare. But in 2011, a grand jury indicted Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri on a misdemeanor charge of failing to report suspected child abuse. Finn was convicted in 2012, and he resigned this past April.

The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, settled a criminal case in 2002 just before the state attorney general was about to present the charges to a grand jury. Bishops there, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cincinnati, Ohio, struck deals in 2002 and 2003 with prosecutors to avoid charges related to their response to abuse cases.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is home to about 825,000 Catholics and encompasses nearly 190 parishes in 12 counties.

Link:

• St. Paul archdiocese charged over handling of abuse claims

Sen. Rand Paul Speaks Out Against the PATRIOT Act - May 31, 2015

Belfast bakery discriminated by refusing gay cake order, court rules

By Ian Graham

BELFAST (Reuters) - A Northern Ireland bakery owned by devout Christians who refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan was found guilty of discrimination in Belfast on Tuesday and fined.

The case has become heavily politicized in Northern Ireland with members of the province's largest political party, the Democratic Unionist Party, proposing the introduction of a Conscience Clause Bill to allow the withholding of services on grounds of religious belief.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a member of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, welcomed the judgment as "a good result for equality".

Gay rights activist Gareth Lee took Ashers Baking Company in Belfast to court in a civil action after it canceled his order for a cake with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage" on it. The case was funded by the British province's Equality Commission.

The firm initially accepted the order but later contacted Lee to cancel it and refund his money. Lee told a court hearing over three days in March that the bakery's refusal made him feel "unworthy" and "a lesser person".

Speaking outside the court just before the judgment on Tuesday, bakery owner Daniel McArthur said: "We happily serve everyone but we cannot promote a cause that goes against what the Bible says about marriage."

In her judgment, District Judge Isobel Brownlie said that while the defendants had a right to religious beliefs "they are limited as to how they manifest them".

For it to be otherwise "would be to allow religious belief to dictate what the law is," she added.

The court found that Ashers had discriminated against Lee on the grounds of his sexual orientation as well as his political beliefs and ordered the bakery to pay £500 ($776).

Link:

• Belfast bakery discriminated by refusing gay cake order, court rules

Bishop: Catholics Should Abstain from Yoga

By SBrinkmann

(Women of Grace) The recently retired Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, sent a letter to our ministry in which he advised Catholics to steer clear of yoga because of its basis in Hinduism and to take up other methods of exercise that don’t place the faith in unnecessary danger.

Even though many people claim to use yoga as an exercise regime, Bishop Bruskewitz warns that yoga’s background is much more complicated than that because it has “the intention to strengthen and expand human consciousness and the rational and mind level of the person who engages in Yoga.”

He correctly points out that yoga originated in, and is an important part of, various forms of the Hindu religion which is, in the Catholic perspective, “a pagan religion based on heathen beliefs and false doctrine of revelation involving such things as transmigration of souls, and so forth..." (continued)

Read More at Women of Grace

Link:

• Bishop: Catholics Should Abstain from Yoga

Related:

• Yoga? It's too Hindu for church: Priest bans exercise class because it's 'not Catholic'
• Catholics and the dangers of New Age movement

Jim Harbaugh's Missionary Pilgrimage

By Steve Schrader, Detroit Free Press

And why is Jim Harbaugh tweeting from Peru? Is he doing a satellite Michigan football camp there, too?

No, he's on his annual missionary pilgrimage to help the Santisimo Sacramento Catholic parish in the village of Piura, a poverty-stricken town 600 miles north of Lima.

It's something Harbaugh has done since 2009. Last year's eight-day trip was documented by Comcast Sports Network Bay Area for an hourlong special: "Peruball: Jim Harbaugh in South America."

"You can pretty much help someone from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed," Harbaugh told Comcast then. "It's beyond rewarding; it's a chance to do something..."

 

Links:

• Where is Jim Harbaugh now? Peru (photos)
• Jim Harbaugh tweets deflate-gate joke from Peru

Vatican recognizes state of Palestine in new treaty

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty.
The treaty, which was finalized Wednesday but still has to be signed, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.

The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes an official diplomatic recognition.

"Yes, it's a recognition that the state exists," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to visit Pope Francis on Saturday before the canonization of two new saints from the Holy Land a day later.

The Vatican has been referring unofficially to the state of Palestine for at least a year.

During Pope Francis' 2014 visit to the Holy Land, the Vatican's official program referred to Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine." In the Vatican's latest yearbook, the Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See is listed as representing "Palestine (state of)."

The Vatican's foreign minister, Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, acknowledged the change in status, given that the treaty was initially inked with the PLO and is now being finalized with the "state of Palestine." But he said the shift was simply in line with the Holy See's position.

Link:

• Vatican recognizes state of Palestine in new treaty

Sunset on Mars

(Jet Propulsion Laboratory) NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

This was the first sunset observed in color by Curiosity. The image comes from the left-eye camera of the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam)...

Link:

• Sunset in Mars' Gale Crater

Why owning a cat could damage your SIGHT: Exposure 'to felines increases risk of glaucoma' - but having a dog guards against the disease

• People diagnosed with glaucoma found to have 'significantly higher levels' of an allergic antibody to cats and cockroaches 
• Raise possibility the immune system plays a role in the eye disease 
• Second-leading cause of blindness globally and is caused by a build-up of pressure in the eyeball, triggering damage to the optic nerve or retina 

By LIZZIE PARRY

(Daily Mail) Owning a cat can increase a person's risk of developing the eye disease glaucoma, experts have warned.

In contrast, however, having a pet dog could protect against the disease, which can cause blindness.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, discovered those people diagnosed with glaucoma had 'significantly higher levels' of immunoglobulin E.

This is a type of allergic antibody produced by the body in response to cats and cockroaches.

Levels of the allergic antibody are elevated in those people who suffer hay fever and asthma.

Researchers said their findings raise the possibility that the immune system plays a role in glaucoma.

The condition is the second-leading cause of blindness across the world.

Often affecting both eyes, it develops when fluid, which is constantly produced by the eye, cannot drain properly and pressure builds up in the eyeball.

The pressure can cause damage to the optic nerve - which connects the eye to the brain - and the nerve fibres from the retina.

As part of the study, experts examined data from 1,678 people, aged in their 50s and 60s.

Each volunteer underwent an allergy test for dust mites, cats, dogs, cockroaches and rodents, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Around five per cent of those taking part were diagnosed as having the eye disease.

Of those, 14.3 per cent had significantly higher levels of immunoglobulin E, to cats and 19.1 per cent to cockroaches.

That was compared with 10 per cent in non-glaucoma patients.

Levels associated with dogs were elevated in just six per cent of glaucoma patients, compared with nine per cent of those without the eye disease.

The report stated: 'Participants with glaucoma had significantly higher odds of sensitisation to the cockroach and cat allergens compared to those without glaucoma.'

The authors suggest that the difference in cat and cockroach allergens and those of dogs may have different effects because dogs spend more time outdoors.

The study was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

Link:

• Why owning a cat could damage your SIGHT: Exposure 'to felines increases risk of glaucoma' - but having a dog guards against the disease

Pope Francis met the Harlem Globetrotters and it was magical

 L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP

From Avery Stone at USA Today:

On Wednesday, Pope Francis met the Harlem Globetrotters in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The team named the Pope an honorary Globetrotter, and even gave him his own jersey.

The players also taught the 78-year-old to spin a basketball. All in all, it was a magical interaction.

Link:

• Pope Francis met the Harlem Globetrotters and it was magical

Conan: The 2016 Presidential Race Movie

Abp. Marcel Lefevbre, St. Athanasius Of Our Time???

Related:

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• Again about validity of absolutions by SSPX priests
• QUAERITUR: validity of SSPX marriage
• ASK FATHER: Valid absolution from Orthodox priest, but not from SSPX priest?
• Lou Verrechio's Latest
• On the SSPX
• Archbishop Müller on the SSPX and His Controversial Writings
• Pope's Brother Says SSPX Issues and Vatican Leaks Troubled Pope Benedict XVI
• Interview with Fr. Faure (soon to be Consecrated by Bishop Williamson) 
• Confirmed: Bishop Williamson is set to be expelled from the SSPX by Bishop Fellay
• Bishop Fellay’s “Conditions”
• Cardinal Burke Urges Catholics to Pray for the Reconciliation of the SSPX