Fr. Gordon J. MacRae: SNAP Judgements Part I: Catholic Priests Among the Public Ruins

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 24, 2011

The darkest days of the American Catholic priesthood crisis are behind us, but concerns linger for the justice without mercy it unleashed.

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” (Thomas Paine)

In my recent post, “If Night Befalls Your Father,” on These Stone Walls, I wrote of a terrible tragedy in our Church. In the United States alone, some 28 Catholic priests have taken their own lives since priests became a favorite target of Satan and the news media. I wrote that I have personally known five of them, and three others who were murdered.

In 1994, just months before I faced trial, I received a call from a priest asking for help. I had met with him previously and I knew he had been depressed. I also knew his depression had become critical, but he resisted seeking treatment. I’m telling this strange story without his name, of course, but with his permission.

I, too, have lived in darkness, and know its grip on the human soul. On the day this priest asked for help, he had made a decision to end his own life, though I did not know this fact until he met with me. He spent the previous two days planning this out and putting his affairs in order. He decided that using a firearm would guarantee finality. His plan was to hike as far as he could into the Northern New Mexico mountains where he would not be discovered for months or even years, and he would take his own life there. He saw no light at all beyond his dark night of the soul.

Like most priests, however, he did not own a gun. New Mexico law required a waiting period for gun dealers to sell to private citizens, but private sellers were exempt from the law at that time. So my friend scoured the newspaper for a private sale, and found a prospect. An Albuquerque man had a 9mm semi-automatic handgun for sale for $500. My priest-friend arranged to purchase the gun that evening at 6:00 PM. after retrieving the funds from his bank.

So the priest drove to Albuquerque, and on the way to the seller’s address he stopped at the bank. The required $500 was just about the sum total of what he had in his account. The bank had closed for the day so he went to an ATM machine near the bank’s front door. With his mind made up and his plan in place, my friend inserted his card into the ATM to withdraw his funds as he had many times before. This time, however, the machine ate his card, then printed out this message:

“Your card has been retained for an unknown reason. Please consult an account representative during business hours.”

My friend looked incredulously at the printed message. His plan was ruined, and he drove home feeling defeated. The next morning he called the bank. An account representative told him she had no explanation for why the bank’s ATM retained his card. “It shouldn’t have,” she said. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with your card or your account.”

She offered to mail the card back to him immediately.

After hanging up from talking to his bank, he called me and agreed to let me bring him to a center for priests in crisis. He interpreted the incident with his ATM card as a sort of divine intervention, and, in a strange way, it gave him hope.

Clearly, the last two decades have called upon Catholics and the Church to pay some attention to the quality of life for Roman Catholic priests. We are seeing the problems of priests – and especially the sex abuse crisis – with blinders on, addressing them only as personal failures of the priests involved rather than as a systemic failure within the priesthood. This has added to the tragedy, and the Church’s response to date – which includes the draconian policy of zero tolerance – has signaled every priest to keep his problems to himself... (continued...)

Read More Click Here

Link:

• SNAP Judgements Part I: Catholic Priests Among the Public Ruins

Related:

• Fr. Gordon MacRae: Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Habeas Corpus Appeal

Joey Vento dead at 71

By MORGAN ZALOT and ROBERT MORAN, and Philadelphia Inquirer

• 

Geno's Steaks owner Joey Vento has died at 71. (Staff File Photo)

South Philly legend Joey Vento, who opened Geno's Steaks at 9th and Passyunk in 1966, died today of a massive heart attack. Vento was 71.

"We're a little tragic here right now," Vento's nephew Joseph Perno, manager at Geno's, said tonight. "We're doing fine. So far, so good."

Vento was a controversial figure, perhaps known best for signs at his steak shop requiring customers to order in English that prompted a lawsuit in 2006. Geno's Steaks also had a longstanding feud with Pat's King of Steaks, which claims to have invented the cheesesteak in 1933.

Perno, 50, said Vento had come to work this morning. When Perno came in for his night shift, he found out that Vento had suffered a fatal heart attack. "He was here every morning," Perno said. "He was here this morning. He was dedicated to his business and his family."

A longtime friend of the sandwich king, Domenic Chiavaroli, 65, of South Philadelphia, said at Geno's tonight: "I've been coming here since 1967. Joe was a good guy. He always tried to help everybody."

Chiavaroli said Vento was at the shop this morning, as he was every morning before it opened. Chiavaroli talked with Vento about a recent renovation inside the shop.

Vento went home later in the day to Shamong, Burlington County, where Chiavaroli said he had phoned in a bread order around 6 p.m. Vento then told his wife he wasn't feeling well, and went to lie down in his bedroom. His wife found him an hour later. "He wasn't feeling too good . . . an hour or so later his wife found him," Chiavaroli said family members told him.

Link:

• Joey Vento dead at 71

Related:

• Vento Steaks His Claim: Sign Isn't Discriminatory

Franciscans in Tripoli holed up in home as battle rages around them

By Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Church sources who could be contacted said some Catholic leaders remained holed up in Tripoli as the battle for control of the capital raged around them.

Late Aug. 22, three Franciscan friars were barricaded in their home in a Tripoli neighborhood, where there was heavy fighting, the source told Fides, news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

"No one dares to walk in the street because people are shot on sight, even if it is not clear who shoots whom. Of course, it is dangerous for civilians to leave the house," said the church source, who requested anonymity.

"Currently, the phone lines are cut and we cannot contact the friars," the source said, but the last thing the friars said was that they could not leave the house because of the shooting nearby.

The situation of the Catholic community in Benghazi is better and calmer, Fides reported Aug. 23. The church continues its pastoral activities and "there have not been particular difficulties encountered with the new authorities," the source said.

Earlier Aug. 22, a source told Fides that the situation on the streets was "a disaster."

"We do not know how the situation is evolving because leaving the house means risking one's life," said the source, who asked to remain unnamed for security reasons.

The rebels have been fighting to wrest power from dictator Moammar Gadhafi for about six months. They launched their offensive on the capital the night of Aug. 19.

"Many fear a bloodbath," the source said. "While part of the population has left town, many of those who have remained are in the situation 'wait and see.'"

On Aug. 22, the head of Libya's rebel forces, claiming they had taken the capital, said dictator Moammar Gadhafi had tried to scare people by saying that Islamic extremists were part of the rebel movement.

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil called on all Libyans to respect the lives of others and urged the rebels to show they world that Libya is a country of "religiously moderate" people.

"Moammar Gadhafi will be remembered and his period of rule through the acts that he committed against the rebels and the world," he said.

"But God has chosen that Gadhafi's end should be at the hands of these youths, so that they can join the Arab Spring that is going around the Arab nations. And now I say with all transparency that the era of Gadhafi is over," he said.

In February, a Franciscan priest who has worked in Libya for seven years told Catholic News Service that Christians were afraid Islamic fundamentalists would take over the country if Gadhafi fell. He said that, under Gadhafi, Christians had been protected.

Libya is a Muslim country, with Christianity restricted mostly to enclaves of foreign workers, many of whom were evacuated earlier this year.

• Link

h/t to Marion

Jerry Leiber of songwriting team Leiber and Stoller dies at 78

The Searchers' cover of this Clovers' song.

(Los Angeles Times) Jerry Leiber, who with his songwriting partner Mike Stoller created a songbook that infused the rock 'n' roll scene of the 1950s and early '60s with energy and mischievous humor, has died. He was 78.

Leiber, the words half of the duo, died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of cardiopulmonary failure, said Randy Poe, president of the songwriters’ publishing company.

Their career went to a higher level when Elvis Presley took "Hound Dog" – which they wrote for Big Mama Thornton four years earlier – and turned it into a gigantic hit. Leiber was extremely irritated by the changes that Presley made to the original lyrics. "To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is about," he said in 2009. "The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis' version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting out of what seemed to be a capricious change of lyrics." - Rolling Stone

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Leiber and his lifelong writing partner, Stoller, wrote hits that included Elvis Presley's rat-a-tat-tat rendition of "Hound Dog" in 1956 and Peggy Lee's 1969 recording of the jaded "Is That All There Is?"

But they may be best remembered for the ebullient, impudent hits written for the Clovers ("Love Potion No. 9"), the Drifters ("Ruby Baby"), the Cheers ("Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots"), the Robins ("Smokey Joe's Cafe," "Riot in Cell Block No. 9") and, especially, a Robins' spinoff group that Leiber and Stoller helped create, the Coasters ("Searchin'," "Yakety Yak," "Poison Ivy," "Charlie Brown," "Down in Mexico," "Little Egypt").

As Leiber-Stoller biographer Robert Graham wrote, the Coasters' songs "were arguably the most enduring and hands-down funniest records of the rock ‘n' roll era."

With their sassy lyrics and playful melodies, the songs liberated American teenagers to enjoy their youth and poke fun at their elders.

"They corrupted us with pleasure," critic and author John Lahr wrote of the songwriters in the introduction to Graham's "Baby, That Was Rock & Roll: The Legendary Leiber and Stoller" (1978). "Dancing and laughing, we came of age to their songs."

Dozens of other artists have recorded Leiber and Stoller songs: the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Edith Piaf, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and more. The songwriters' most oft-recorded tune is the laid-back, bluesy "Kansas City," which has been sung by such performers as Little Willie Littlefield in 1952 (as "KC Lovin'"), Wilbert Harrison, whose 1959 hit with it is probably the best-known, and Paul McCartney in the late 1980s.

Hounddog, Big Mama Thornton, original lyrics

In 1995, a musical based on Leiber and Stoller songs, "Smokey Joe's Cafe," opened on Broadway and ran for more than 2,000 performances.

• Link

When attending Mass becomes an occasion of sin

By Matt C. Abbott at Renew America:

From Jim Baltrinic (slightly edited):

'This post consists of excerpts from a letter I wrote to the pastor of a Catholic parish about a certain incident that occurred at his church. I have omitted all references as to the church's location. The church is semi-circular in design, and we were sitting in the last pew near the center isle, which afforded us a clear view of almost the entire congregation. I started my letter with a compliment as to how nice the newly-remodeled church looked. I then ask the pastor to please consider the following hypothetical situation.

'A priest enters the confessional for the usual Saturday morning or afternoon confession time. During this time a young man enters the confessional. 'Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.' From the sound of the voice on the other side of the screen, the priest surmises that the person is a teenager or young adult. The confession continues: 'It was a week since my last confession. I'm guilty of many lustful thoughts, and I looked at some very immodestly dressed women more times than I should have.'

'The priest asks, 'Were these impure thoughts related to these women you looked at'?

''Yes,' replies the young man.

'The priest: 'Why did you continue to look at them? Why didn't you go someplace else, away from them?'

''I couldn't,' said the young man. 'They were in front of me and I was kind of hemmed in by the crowd.'

'The priest: 'Why were you in such a place to begin with? Do you remember that we are to avoid places that may be an occasion of sin?'

'The young man answers, "Yes, Father, I know that, but I had to be there.'

'The priest, somewhat puzzled, then asks: 'Why did you have to be there, and where were you: at the beach; at a sporting event?'

''No, Father,' said the young man, 'I was at your noon Mass last Sunday, and two scantily-dressed girls were sitting in the pew right in front of me, along with their parents. I couldn't move because my parents were on either side of me.'

'While I said that the above story was hypothetical, in reality it is not. The Mass in question took place this past July at a prominent Catholic parish in a town my wife and I were visiting. It was the main Mass of the day and the church was quite full.

'The young man in the confessional could have been any one of the many young men in the church. The two 'scantily clad' girls were real and were sitting about six pews in front of us with their parents.

'From the area where we were sitting, we observed, in addition to the two girls mentioned above, approximately a dozen very immodestly dressed women, with the majority of these being young girls in their teens and early twenties. Bare backs and shoulders, low-cut tops, strapless sun suits, short shorts, mini-skirts and tight-fitting tops were plainly visible.

'Two years ago, at a parish in northern Virginia, we experienced an almost identical incident at Sunday Mass. We were sitting in our pew when a home-schooling family came in and took a place several pews ahead of us. They had two sons around age 10 and three younger daughters. A few minutes later, two young girls, of about the same age and manner of dress as the two described above, came in and sat in the pew directly in front of this family. However, in this case, the parents quickly recognized the spiritual danger these two improperly dressed girls posed for their children, and they immediately got up and moved to another part of the church.

'It is a sad state of affairs when going to Sunday Mass becomes an occasion of sin. I could go on with more such examples, but I think what I have said is sufficient. What we find more lamentable is the fact that, in many cases, such young girls are in the company of their parents. What does this tell us? Simply this: When it comes to modesty in dress, most parents don't have a clue as to what is right.

'Coincidentally, several days later, as I was about half-way through the composition of my letter to the pastor, my wife saw a notice in the bulletin about appropriate dress in church. The notice was good, especially the part about adults giving good example for young children. It did, however, have two shortcomings which are common to such notices. Many times a bulletin notice can be overlooked, and secondly, the notice called for wearing 'appropriate attire.'

'The problem, as I pointed out above, is that most Catholics have a very poor understanding of what 'appropriate attire' means. When it comes to knowing what is or isn't modest, they have no idea. This is because the Church has been silent on this subject for over 40 years.

'At the beginning of summer there should be a strong sermon on this issue with a clear explanation as to what constitutes 'appropriate attire.' This should be followed up with at least a verbal reminder given once a month from the pulpit. Putting an occasional notice in the bulletin just doesn't do it. It should also be emphasized that the standards for modesty apply to everyday dress, not just in church on Sunday. Mention should also be made about the way many parents dress their little girls in skimpy outfits, thus accustoming them to immodesty at a very early age.

'In regard to this particular topic, I feel I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the disgraceful display of immodesty exhibited by brides and their bridal parties at most Catholic weddings today. At a wedding we recently attended, the comment was made that the bride and bridal party looked more like the Playboy Review than an occasion of Holy Matrimony.

'Let me close with the following thought. Someone once asked the mother of St. Maria Goretti how she was able to raise such a [holy] child. She replied, 'By teaching her the virtue of modesty.' How many Maria Goretti's are parishes and Catholic schools producing today?'

• Link

'Machine Gun Preacher' Movie Poster Sparks Mixed Reactions

(Christian Post) A movie poster for a biopic about a drug dealer who converted to Christianity has some critics raising eyebrows for its depiction of actor Gerard Butler toting a machine gun in one hand while shielding a small child with the other.

"I know it’s based on a true story, but, I’m sorry folks, because this poster makes me want to run the other way, fast," wrote the author of indieWIRE's "Shadow and Act" blog.

"By the looks of that tiny swathe of space between the gun and the boy, this is clearly a man who knows what children need," wrote Mallika Rao at The Huffington Post. "Great job, 'Machine Gun Preacher' team! Nothing says 'Hope is the greatest weapon of all' like your tagline."

Others, however, insist the poster, released this week by Relativity Media, might actually attract viewers to the film.

"I understand your point of view," wrote one commenter on The Huffington Post article. "For me the experience was different. The poster inspired me even more to see the movie."

Another commenter sought to correct apparent misconceptions about the nature of the film: "I daresay that most of the children this man has rescued would argue that seeing Sam Childers wielding an assault rifle in their defense does give them hope. It certainly would be a lot more hopeful life living at his orphanage than the short, brutal existence they would be guaranteed at the hands of the LRA..."

Read More

Hungry FDA Official Orders Massive Pot Pie Recall

Official: Scottish men are the manliest

(Scottish Daily Record) Scots men have been named the manliest in the world in a survey, with our English neighbours trailing badly in third place.

Voters were impressed by Scotland's rugged landscape and its status as the birthplace of Rob Roy and William Wallace, as well as modern-day macho men such as Sean Connery, Gordon Ramsay and Gerard Butler.

We topped the poll with 26 per cent of the vote, followed by Australia (16), England (15), Russia (14) and Finland (seven). Americans got two per cent of the vote.

Researchers polled 1835 people by email. The survey was carried out for male grooming firm The Bluebeards Revenge.

h/t the scotsman

• Official: Scottish men are the manliest

Phoenix diocese cathedral won't allow girl altar servers

by Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic

Girls no longer will be allowed as altar servers during Mass at the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, SS. Simon and Jude.

The Rev. John Lankeit, rector of the cathedral, said he made the decision in hopes of promoting the priesthood for males and other religious vocations, such as becoming a nun, for females...

"It is a shame on how the church continues to abuse the females," said Bob Lutz of Phoenix, a Catholic with three grown daughters. "Church attendance is shrinking now, and this adds more fuel to the fire on how females are treated as second-class citizens."

Carole Bartholomeuax of Phoenix, who attended St. Joan of Arc parish, said girls outnumbered boys as altar servers there.

"I believe Mary Magdalene set the example for women to be altar servers. I am so sorry to hear of this going backwards," she said, adding that she still loves her church, "warts and all."
But Michael Clancy, who heads the diocesan men's group, said girls never were supposed to be allowed to serve, based on his understanding of the rules of the Mass...

Read More

• Phoenix diocese cathedral won't allow girl altar servers

Related:

• UPDATE : Conference for Women’s Ordination Freaks Out Over Phoenix Altar Boy Decision
• Altar Girls?
• Altar girls and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass - Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei States They Are Not Permitted
• Lay Eucharistic ministers not entitled to position, Archbishop Burke clarifies
• Some Catholics Fear Girls Are Scaring Boys Away

Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy

Father Gordon MacRae

By Ryan A. MacDonald

Two persons, a New Hampshire attorney and a former television news producer, have attested under oath that in 2000 Bishop McCormack told them of his belief that Father MacRae is innocent of the claims for which he is in prison, then demanded secrecy, saying, "None of this can ever leave this room..."

Now here we are some nine years and over two billion dollars later, and the failures of our spiritual leaders are now compounded by a failure of mercy, a failure to live courageously the mandate of the Gospel of Mercy. In a defensive missive to Rome, Bishop McCormack wrote that he and the diocese would risk public ridicule if they helped Father Gordon MacRae. So be it. If bishops and priests are so prepared to abandon their own, what hope is there in the Church for any of us? (continued...)

Read More

h/t to  Bishop Rene Henry Gracida

Link:

• To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy

Related:

• Fr. Gordon MacRae: Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Habeas Corpus Appeal
• Trial by Therapists - by Ryan A. MacDonald
• These Stone Walls

Real Catholic TV's Official Response to Catholic News Agency Article

Watch Video Here: http://www.realcatholictv.com/response/

Hello Everyone.

From over here in Madrid in the midst of World Youth Day coverage .. we unfortunately have to issue this response to an article that was published by Catholic News Agency last week.

There are really two different stories here so we will address them separately.

First .. the official status of St. Michael’s Media as a 501(c) 3. The article called into question our official standing as a non-profit with the State of Michigan. It reported that according to the state .. St. Michael’s Media is not in good standing. That is true.

What the article did not make clear is that this is the case because St. Michael’s Media has not filed the annual reports that were supposed to be filed. That is entirely my fault. I have oversight to do that. I did not do that. The reason is simply because I did not know that had to be done.

Again totally my fault.

When St. Michael’s Media was established back in 2006 .. we had a short term helper who was handling all the paperwork issues with the state. When that worker left .. I did a poor job and allowed things to get sloppy. We are now in the process of getting our records up to date and will file the appropriate back records.

The State of Michigan website that addresses these sorts of issues clearly states that when the paperwork is corrected .. the company is re-established in good standing as though nothing had gone wrong. There is a small $5 fine to have to pay for each back annual report and we will of course pay that along with filing the reports and bringing St. Michael’s Media up to speed.

Again .. totally my fault and I accept the responsibility. I am working to fix the situation which was caused by me, and I will have it all done in as short a time as possible.

Secondly .. regarding the issue of Simon Rafe and his online writings in question, which he has since taken down. I spoke with Simon at some length on a couple of occasions here from Madrid when this was first brought to my attention.

He was immediately forthright and admitted they were his and that they were very inappropriate. He said he should not have written and published them. He expressed his great sorrow. He has in fact issued a very specific apology on the web on his own with no prompting from anyone.

http://proverbs-27-17.blogspot.com/2011/08/explanation.html

In speaking with Simon, I have no doubt whatsoever about the sincerity of his apology nor his realization that what he did was wrong both personally and professionally.

He has already taken steps to address the personal aspects of this. Professionally .. the owners of the website domain realcatholictv.com have determined that for the foreseeable future, Simon’s duties will be curtailed to only those that involve technical and administrative duties. He will not be hosting any new productions. This is also true with regard to any functions he performs for St. Michael’s Media.

Now with regard to some background points on the article itself and some interesting points NOT addressed.

First .. what was NOT stated is that the 501 (c) 3 status of St. Michael’s Media is in no way compromised.

501c3 is a designation awarded by the US federal government, the IRS .. NOT the state of Michigan.

There are two things at play here. The status of the business in state of Michigan and secondly the 501c3 status awarded by the IRS.

While I let the state side of the paperwork go, the IRS paper work is up to date and the 501c3 status has never been a question.

And furthermore .. with regard to not filling out paperwork with the state .. or being behind .. there is now information on various blogs which make the claim that Catholic News Agency or its affiliate is 4 years behind on its own filings.

We are not reporting this because .. frankly .. we don’t care. Businesses fall behind on paperwork for hundreds of reasons everyday. We don’t think its an issue. It doesn’t have anything to do with the salvation of souls – so again, we don’t care.

http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/08/catholic-news-agency-had-no-idea-it.html

I have communicated to management at CNA that I think it was unfair to publish the story when they did. The reporter called me here in Madrid Spain during a very hectic time of production for us .. sprung a series of questions on me of which I was incapable of answering at that moment .... agreed with me that I needed time to get to the bottom of things .. and then published an article.

We think that was unfair and portrayed us in a bad light.

During my conversations with the Catholic News Agency it has been revealed to us that they get all kinds of secret anonymous stories about either me or our work .. all trying to depict me or our work in a very bad light. The same is true with this story .. it came through an anonymous source.

The owners of the website realcatholictv dot com are aware that because of some of what we talk about in various programs .. we have developed enemies in the Church.

Sad as that it .. it is the reality. If the person who knew about these problems did not come to us first privately as a brother in Christ to point them out .. but went instead as an anonymous source to the Catholic media .. to gin up an air of suspicion about the efforts of St. Michael’s Media as well as the website realcatholictv.com .. then perhaps CNA should be investigating THAT instead.

Anyone who has spent anytime in the world of Church politics knows that there are some people who can be absolutely immoral in the way that they deal with others. Jealousies .. turf wars ..

financial fights .. personality clashes .. lies .. vicious personal attacks .. thanks to original sin and personal sin .. all of these unfortunately mar the Body of Christ.

We are very aware that there are many people in the Church who have it out for us. We aren’t playing victim .. merely stating the reality that we confront almost daily and has now been confirmed for us by the Catholic News Agency.

In that respect we are not unlike many other groups on the web who are also maligned .. often by members of the clergy in Canada for example, who smear good and faithful Catholics with terms like “Taliban Catholics.”

We have it on good information that this is what was behind the issuance of a press release on the part of the WYD committee and USCCB that realcatholictv dot com had not been “APPROVED”. Of course nowhere in that press release was it mentioned that being APPROVED is not necessary. That was a smoke screen charge to make us look bad.

Nowhere did it mention that there are dozens of other groups that are here in Madrid who are also NOT APPROVED. They were active in passing out loads of flyers and information promoting their own events and causes. We even collected a few of them as they were handed to us. Here they are.

In one marvelous example of what OFFICIALLY APPROVED means or doesn’t mean .. a fantastic young pro-life group from Ireland that had received no official approval had a high ranking prelate publically address them.

In the mayhem and chaos of World Youth Day .. official approval means absolutely next to nothing on the ground. We find the Press Release issuance singling us out beyond ridiculous.

We spoke to around a thousand young people at our two No Bull in Madrid talks that were fabulously received. You can check them out for yourselves right on line. We’ve included the links. We even had a notable archbishop sit in on of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLrvpsMhvE .... Part1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a05Mxbdxs84 ... Part2

So bottom line .. yes I failed to file the paperwork for the state of Michigan as I should have. Now that the owners are aware of Simon’s very inappropriate writings .. the necessary steps have been taken to assure our integrity as well as helping Simon .. a dual duty we feel we have.

Nonetheless .. we are grateful that this has come to light so that we could address them. We consider this constant stream of anonymous charges as despicable and highly uncharitable.

Not filing paperwork in a timely fashion hardly constitutes a headline during world youth day.

Even prominent bloggers who would not count themselves as supporters of ours, share this opinion.

If the genesis behind this anonymous source .. which we heavily suspect .. is someone with an axe to grind about reports we have done on lack of leadership .. or watered down catechesis or the questionable financial and theological positions of the Social Justice club inside the Church .. or any of a hundred other problems which need to be addressed and not ignored or covered up .. if the goal is to intimidate or malign us .. then thank you for finally showing your fangs. At least now .. many others can see what we have seen for some time now.

We sincerely wish all these people .. and we are NOT talking about the Catholic News Agency ..

who consider themselves our enemies .. who constantly blather on about charity and tolerance and dialog would follow their own advice.

If they have a problem with us .. and again .. we’re aren’t talking about the CAN .. they should confront us like a man .. not some sniveling school girls who resort to tattle tales and smear campaigns.

We pray for unity in the Church. But unity cannot come at the sacrifice of the truth.

GOD Bless you.

Link:

• Real Catholic TV's Official Response to CNA Article

Related:

• Catholic News Agency's Smear Campaign on Michael Voris and Real Catholic TV
• The Catholic News Agency Failed to File Annual Reports?
• Michael Voris: Madrid and London
• Michael Voris - No Bull In Madrid Number 1 (UPDATED)
• Real Catholic TV
• No Bull in Madrid
  

Ave Maria - Perry Como

General Superior of the SSPX Called to Rome

From The Eponymous Flower:

Edit: the following has been translated from the Society Website of Germany and he requests prayers. This was previously reported by Mundabor.

The General Superior and his two assistants, Father Niklaus Pfluger and Father Alain-Marc Nely have been invited to a special meeting in Rome on 14. September 2011.

 This is according to Father Franz Schmidberger of Germany in the forward to his next newsletter.

Here it is:

"Exactly in this sense we ask you to raise your prayers to heaven for the 14th of September. On this day, on the Feast of the Holy Cross, Msgr Fellay, our honorable General Superior, has been ordered to an audience by Cardinal Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in regard to the outcome of the two year doctrinal talks between the Holy See and the Priestly Society."

It is noteworthy that not only the General Superior, but the General Counsel of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X has been ordered to Rome: The General Counsel consists of the General Superior and his assistants...

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St. John of Avila to be proclaimed Doctor of the Church

by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

"Here’s an interesting bit of news made by Pope Benedict in Spain:

Announcement of the Holy Father

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With great joy, here in this Cathedral Church of Santa María La Real de la Almudena, I announce to the People of God that, having acceded to the desire expressed by Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, together with the members of the Spanish episcopate and other Archbishops and Bishops from throughout the world, as well as many of the lay faithful, I will shortly declare Saint John of Avila a Doctor of the universal Church..."

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• St. John of Avila to be proclaimed Doctor of the Church 

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Prayers for a personal and a larger, ecclesial intention

by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have in the past asked you for the support of prayers for personal intentions.  I still have a couple very heavy intentions for which I would still ask your prayers.

However, I also suggest that you spend some time both praying and fasting if possible for another, important intention – call it intention X – which could have an impact on the larger Church.   Perhaps we might all keep this going until, say, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September (which is coincidentally the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum going into force, a happy day).  You might has the help of the guardian angels of everyone involved.

I am sorry about not being forthcoming with lots of details, but I think it is better to reduce discussion to how we can support intention X with lots of prayers.  God will know what intention X is in this instance.
In your charity.

Pope to Seminarians: Open Your Souls to the Light of the Lord

"Configure your lives to the mystery of the cross of the Lord.  Don't let yourselves be intimidated by an environment that pretends to exclude God and in which power, possession, and pleasure are often the criteria by which people judge their lives."

"It could be that some will speak ill of you," he recognized, "as usually happens to those who challenge others to live according to higher standards, or challenge the idols before which many of them fall prostrate."

"And thus it will be that your lives, deeply rooted in Christ, will strongly attract those who seek God, truth, and justice."  - Pope Benedict XVI

Do not pass by those who suffer, Pope exhorts WYD crowd

(Catholic Culture) After praying the Stations of the Cross at World Youth Day on Friday evening, August 19, Pope Benedict XVI told the young participants to “be sure not to pass by on the other side in the face of human suffering, for it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion.”

“Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own shoulders the sufferings of the world,” the Pope said, “in the certainty that God is not distant or far removed from man and his troubles.”

The meditations for the Stations of the Cross were written by the Little Sisters of the Cross, who work with the poor, and the theme had been helping those who are in need. The Pope encouraged the WYD congregation to reflect on how Christ offered himself for us, and to follow that example of sacrifice for those in need.

Pope Benedict also called attention to the treasures of Spanish religious art that had been used during the Stations of the Cross, noting that “faith and art combine so as to penetrate our heart and summon us to conversion.” At its best art strengthens devotion, he said, as “beauty places itself at its service and is able to depict the mysteries of our salvation in such a way as to move us profoundly and transform our hearts, as Saint Teresa of Jesus herself experienced while contemplating an image of the wounded Christ.”

Source(s): 

• The Pope's speech: the meaning of the Way of the Cross (Vatican Radio)

Link

Communion in the Hand

h/t to Fr. Ray Blake

Related:

• Michael Voris - No Bull In Madrid Number 1 (UPDATED)
• Real Catholic TV
• No Bull in Madrid 
• Auxiliary Bishop Says Communion In the Hand is a Calvinist Novelty

Archbishop Chaput: New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC Not ‘Trustworthy’ on Religion

By Michael W. Chapman

(CNSNews.com) – The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and MSNBC do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith,” said Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, Charles Chaput, at the Catholic World Youth Day ongoing this week in Madrid, Spain.

Chaput, the former Archbishop of Denver, made his remarks in an address on religious freedom to a group of more than 10,000 young pilgrims in Madrid on Wednesday. As initially reported in First Things, Chaput told the audience that, “In the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only against Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers.”
“And with relatively few exceptions,” he said, “the mass media tend to cover these disputed issues with a combination of ignorance, laziness, and bias against traditional Christian belief.”

The Archbishop continued: “We make a very serious mistake if we rely on media like the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC for reliable news about religion. These news media simply don’t provide trustworthy information about religious faith -- and sometimes they can’t provide it, either because of limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices.”

“These are secular operations focused on making a profit,” he said.  “They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth.”

Archbishop Chaput noted that the media gave a lot of coverage to the so-called “Arab Spring,” involving civil unrest in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. “But very little of that coverage has mentioned that the turmoil in Muslim countries has also created a very dangerous situation for Christians and other religious minorities across North Africa and the Middle East,” he said.  “In Egypt, angry mobs have attacked Christian churches and monasteries, burning them to the ground and murdering the people inside.”

In addition, he said there has been widespread anti-Christian violence in Iraq, Syria, and Tunisia, but little news coverage of this in the U.S. media, adding that it is illegal to wear a crucifix or own a Bible in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, said the Archbishop, in Pakistan, “Christians face frequent discrimination, slander, beatings and even murder.”

Archbishop Chaput also warned that it is dangerous for democracy to force religion out of the public square.

“Forcing religious faith out of a nation’s public square and out of a country’s public debates does not serve democracy,” said the Archbishop.  “It doesn’t serve real tolerance or pluralism. What it does do is impose a kind of unofficial state atheism. To put it another way, if we ban Christian Churches or other religious communities from taking an active role in our nation’s civic life, we’re really just enforcing a new kind of state-sponsored intolerance -- a religion without God.”

Archbishop Chaput was named by Pope Benedict XVI to head the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, starting on Sept. 8, 2011.

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2011 Cannonball Catholic Blog Awards Nominations

Click Here to Nominate Your Favorite Blogs

• oh yeah, I forgot to mention...

Catholic News Agency's Smear Campaign on Michael Voris and Real Catholic TV - UPDATE

Update: Real Catholic TV's Official Response to Catholic News Agency Article

Update: Michael Voris - No Bull In Madrid Number 1 -- the video of Mr. Voris' World Youth Day speech at this link should play now.

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By Carol at The Tenth Crusade:

The Catholic News Agency has fallen to a new low. They're now trying to dig up dirt to run smear campaigns on Catholics who have had enough of the counterfeit church they've been raising in the US for the last forty years.

I guess the National Catholic Reporter thugs were busy trying to ridicule Fr. Z?

If you read the thread of comments - and I would encourage you to leave one there - it didn't exactly have the outcome they had hoped for....

*snip*

The concept of confronting theologians with errors so that Catholic children will be taught the authentic faith and led to resist temptation is some kind of vice to them. Trying to take a person down who is protecting children from error is virtue.

This is the same thing the Bernadin crowd has been doing to us for decades. Asking to have our religion taught to us and our children results in character assassinations and thuggery.

You know what?

Knock yourselves out. We're all going to keep going. Our children deserve to have their religion taught them them and by the Christ, they will. Go bleep yourselves.

Oh, and by the way - no bull in Madrid was sold out...

Read the whole thing

And you might be surprised, considering his past criticism of Michael Voris, to read the following from Mark Shea:

"....personally, I don’t think any of this stuff is a big deal and don’t think there is anything sinister at work here. I disagree with Voris on certain points and think that his My-Way-or-the-Highway presentation leaves much to be desired, but I don’t for a moment think him a dishonest man. As somebody who has an anti-charism of organization and who is cocooned in administrative chaos whenever I have to organize anything more complex than a trip to the zoo with my grand-daughter, I can easily believe that Voris simply lost track of whatever paperwork you have to do to make a non-profit stay on the books of the State of Michigan. If you find that incredible, then you’ve never worked in an organization founded by a guy with a specific charism (say, speaking and making videos) who delegates all the administrative stuff to somebody else and assumes it’s all being taken care of. I’ve seen such organizations (although “organization” is a strong word in such situations) and the barely contained chaos they often foster. Indeed, a standing joke I’ve loved for years is, “I don’t believe in organized religion. I’m Catholic.” It’s really pretty common with little non-profits and signifies nothing beyond, “We’re a young organization and we’re not quite sure what we are doing bureaucratically.”

For that reason, I’m also quite certain that, once Voris is back from Europe and they get caught up on the paperwork, Real Catholic TV will do whatever it is you do to make sure that their donors get the refund or tax exemption or whatever it is that is supposed to happen to make it all right. I don’t envy them the bureaucratic headache they face, and I don’t for one moment think they were trying to do anything wrong. It looks to me like a blunder, nothing more. So I don’t think there’s much of a story here beyond “Paperwork gets messed up.” I hope that it will give them a bit more empathy with the bureaucrats in chanceries they often denounce for similar disorganized blundering, but I don’t plan on losing sleep over this screwup or going all high dudgeony on them. Voris is a better man than me in that he has at least mastered the mysterious process of founding a non-profit, something that still leaves me in slack-jawed confusion and bewilderment. Give him a break.

Similarly, I just don’t see the big issue with Simon Rafe, whose background is in English, Creative Writing, and that whole side of the artistic world using his creative gifts to write fan fiction or create a D&D game with “adult themes.” One routinely reads novels, plays and short stories by great Catholic writers (Chaucer, Shakespeare, O’Connor, or such great science fiction writers as Michael Flynn and Gene Wolfe) in which all sorts of “adult situations” are portrayed and no mature Catholic would object. The Bard alone is full of rape, incest, adultery, cannibalism, sorcery and murder, not to mention routine bawdiness that has gotten laughs for centuries..."

Read More

Links:

• Real Catholic TV's Official Response to Catholic News Agency Article
• Catholic News Agency's Smear Campaign on Voris and RealCatholicTV
• In Defense of Michael Voris and Simon Rafe

Related:

• Michael Voris - No Bull In Madrid Number 1 (UPDATED)
• Communion in the Hand
• Real Catholic TV
• No Bull in Madrid

Michael Voris - No Bull In Madrid Number 1

UPDATED (it appears that RCTV removed the original and re-uploaded it, so it should play again now):

Islam Overtaking Catholicism in France

by Soeren Kern

Islamic mosques are being built more often in France than Roman Catholic churches, and there now are more practising Muslims in the country than practising Catholics.

Nearly 150 new mosques currently are under construction in France, home to the biggest Muslim community in Europe. The mosque-building projects are at various stages of completion, according to Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of the Muslim Council of France (CFCM), who provided the data in an August 2 interview with the French radio station RTL.

The total number of mosques in France has already doubled to more than 2,000 during just the past ten years, according to a research report "Constructing Mosques: The Governance of Islam in France and the Netherlands." France's most prominent Muslim leader, Dalil Boubakeur, who is rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, recently called for the number of mosques in the country to be doubled again – to 4,000 – to meet growing demand.

By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches, many of which are destined to become mosques, according to research conducted by La Croix, a Roman Catholic daily newspaper based in Paris.

Although 64% of the French population (or 41.6 million of France's 65 million inhabitants) identifies itself as Roman Catholic, only 4.5% (or 1.9 million) of those actually are practising Catholics, according to the French Institute of Public Opinion (or Ifop, as it is usually called).

By way of comparison, 75% (or 4.5 million) of the estimated 6 million mostly ethnic North African and sub-Saharan Muslims in France identify themselves as "believers" and 41% (or 2.5 million) say they are "practising" Muslims, according to an in-depth research report on Islam in France published by Ifop on August 1. The report also says that more than 70% of the Muslims in France say they will be observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 2011.

Taken together, the research data provides empirical evidence that Islam is well on its way to overtaking Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion in France...

Read More

How Do You Do! How Do You Do!

icanhascheezburger

Catholic Maryland governor rejects bishop’s exhortation not to support gay ‘marriage’

by Jeremy Kryn

BALTIMORE, MD, August 17, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Edwin O’Brien, the archbishop of Baltimore, isn’t happy with the Catholic governor of Maryland’s decision to sponsor homosexual “marriage” legislation, but the governor has said that he has no intention of backing down.

A July letter from Archbishop Edwin O’Brien to Governor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, and an August 4 written response by the governor, were both posted on the governor’s blog last Tuesday.
In his original letter Archbishop O’Brien challenged Governor O’Malley to act in line with his faith and not to support homosexual “marriage,” suggesting that the governor was acting out of “mere political expediency.”

“Preserving the central role of the natural family unit has always been — and should continue to be — the reason why our government recognizes marriage as existing between one man and one woman,” he said.

O’Brien suggested that the July passage of similar legislation in New York has intensified pressure on O’Malley to lend his “active support to legislation to redefine marriage.” But he said that it was “especially hard to fathom” O’Malley supporting homosexual “marriage” legislation, given that “our requests last year for you to sponsor legislation to repeal the death penalty and support students in Catholic and other non-public schools were unheeded.”

The governor responded to O’Brien’s letter in a letter of his own, saying that he agrees with many of the Church’s beliefs, but not on the issue of homosexuality.

“I do not presume, nor would I ever presume as governor, to question or infringe upon your freedom to define, to preach about and to administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church,” O’Malley said. “But on the public issue of granting equal civil marital rights to same-sex couples, you and I disagree.”

“When shortcomings in our laws bring about a result that is unjust, I have a public obligation to try to change that injustice,” said the governor.

“I have concluded that discriminating against individuals based on their sexual orientation in the context of civil marital rights is unjust. I have also concluded that treating the children of families headed by same-sex couples with lesser protections under the law than the children of families headed by heterosexual parents, is also unjust.”

As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, O’Malley announced the passage of homosexual “marriage” as a legislative priority on July 15 at a meeting for the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City, Utah. A bill to legalize homosexual “marriage” passed the Maryland State Senate in March, but it failed to win passage in the House of Delegates. O’Malley had promised to sign the bill if it had been approved by the House.

• Link