Cardinal Eijik: the Flemish Bishops Must be Stopped

While a muzzle seems to have been imposed in Rome, Cardinal Eijk of Utrecht spoke out today and called for the Flemish bishops to stop their intention to introduce gay blessings.

(Rome) When the Flemish bishops presented a liturgy for gay couples a week ago, which is in obvious contradiction to the Church's teaching on homosexuality and to the recent guidelines of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Santa Marta apparently gave the order to remain silent on the matter. No one in the Roman Curia has spoken out since then, which can be interpreted as "submissive silence." Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands, spoke today. Since the Flemish are also ethnically Dutch, Cardinal Eijk is the hjighest-ranking, closest neighbour to the Flemish bishops of Belgium, who have gone astray. Today, La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (NBQ) exclusively published the statement by the Dutch cardinal. The headline was chosen by the Catholic online daily newspaper.

Francis Calls Old Catholics to Reconciliation

Pope Francis wants that Catholics and Old Catholics should approach each other more. However, the differences in terms of the Magisterium and ethical issues are difficult to overcome.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA) Pope Francis wants that Catholics and Old Catholics should approach each other more. At a meeting with bishops of the Union of Utrecht on Thursday in the Vatican, he admitted, the differences in the Magisterium and ethical issues are difficult to overcome. In the past, both sides had committed "serious sins and human failings." They require mutual forgiveness and a way of reconciliation, "an encounter towards friendship, from friendship towards brotherhood, from brotherhood towards unity."

Catholic and Old Catholic Church could, according to the Pope's words, work together to overcome the spiritual crisis that has befallen the individual and European societies. But they would have to set an example together a credible witness of the Gospel.

The delegation of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht is led by the Bishop of Utrecht Joris Vercammen. He described the theological differences between Catholics and Old Catholics in his address to the Pope, according to the transcript as "intra-Catholic problems". The Old Catholic Church recognizes the unique position of the Pope, "in the whole Church". But they believe that the Bishop of Rome would have had an even higher moral authority, had he included in the Synodality the bishops, those who represent their respective local Catholic churches, said Vercammen. The papacy yet plays an "extremely important" role in ecumenical development.

The Old Catholic churches were established with the exception of the long-standing Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, after the First Vatican Council (1870). The main points of conflict were the dogmas of papal infallibility and the primacy of his jurisdiction over all bishops. (C) 2014 Catholic News Agency KNA GmbH. All rights reserved.

Link to Katholisches...

Trans: Tancred



AMGD

Muslims Attack in Utrecht: "We Will Kill You Christians"

12.08.2014 | 16:33 |   ( The Press )

The Hague . A Catholic seminary student from Colombia has been threatened and spat upon in Utrecht by radical Muslims: Brother Jaider Chantré Sanchez who upon just leaving  church on the weekend, while walking alone through the park when two Muslims began to pursue him, cursing and spitting . They are supposed to have shouted, "We will  kill all of you Christians." 

"I was so scared. It is the first time something like  that's happened to me,"    Chantré Sannchez recently explained in the newspaper "De Telegraaf ". "I was told in Colombia, the Netherlands is a tolerant country. But this does not seem to be so," continued the student, who was able to escape. The attacker had apparently been traveling to an anti-Israel demonstration.  Yet Sanchez believes he has an explanation as to why they had become so aggressive, however, with this explanation: "I wore a T-shirt with the logo Nasrani. This is used by the IS-terrorist group in Iraq to mark houses of Christians. Many Christians wear those shirts now in solidarity with their fellow Muslims in Iraq. The logo must have seemed to the two Muslims like a red flag."

Heated social climate

The incident causing quite a stir. "When you are wearing a T-shirt and are threatened, anyway, that is unacceptable," said Hans Zuijdwijck, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Utrecht. The incident shows how heated the social atmosphere is in the Netherlands. So it was in The Hague in the recent days demonstrations, where fans of the IS-terrorists, who murder and pillage in Iraq, as they shouted slogans such as "Death to all Jews". As citizens marched in a counterdemonstration, they were attacked by the Islamists.(Htz)

("Die Presse", print edition, 13/08/2014)

Translated: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to ...

AMGD

Cardinal Eijk Sends Warning to Liturgical Vandals in Holland

Correction:  the person committing these abuses was not actually a priest, but a layman.   It was he/she who was giving the homilies and inviting the laity to pray the Canon of the Mass.

Utrecht (Katolische Nachrichchten) Cardinal Wim Eijk, the Archbishop of Utrecht wrote a letter to all priests, deacons and laymen in pastoral ministry in his Archdiocese which addressed the observance of liturgical norms.  The occasion involved a pastoral assistant [a layman] who had grossly violated the liturgical norms in the Archdiocese of Utrecht a few weeks ago which he committed during Holy Mass in the homily and in prayers in the Canon [Eucharistic Prayer]. The pastoral assistant was subsequently punished by the Archbishop and removed from Missio Canonica [faculties to act as a priest].  Meanwhile, the Cardinal has put him back in office, following his public apology for liturgical abuses and explained his understanding of the importance of keeping the liturgical norms in the future.

Archbishop Announces Canonical Penalties


In his letter, Cardinal Eijk endeavors "to promote general order of the entire Church and therefore to press for the osservance of all ecclesiastical laws" to the canonical obligation of Bishops (can. 392 § 2).  He calls on all pastoral personnel, "to know and observe carefully", the liturgical norms.  He admonished all  "If in the future, unexpectedly, that the current norms for the Sacred Eucharist are violated, then I will not hesitate to impose canonical sentences, and also the withdrawl of Missio Canoninica [faculties] will not be ruled out.

The Archbishop stresses that penalties will be issued to those committing liturgical abuses all the way up to dismissal from the canonical state and lists the proper prcedures in canon law he will undertake in courts trying perpetrators.

Among the abuses he identifies are lay homilies, or attempts to encourage the laity to pray aloud the parts of the Eucharistic prayer.  The Archbishop stresses that these prayers are meant to be said by the priest alone.

He urges that Catholics have a right to object to liturgical abuses and make them known without any acrimony on the part of Diocesan officials.

The letter continues to urge Catholic laity to report liturgical abuses as they occur also to the Roman authorities.

Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith 
Piazza del S. Uffcio, 11 
I-00193 Roma 

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sakramtenordnung 
Piazza Pio XII, 10 
I-00193 Roma .

Link to kathnews...

H/t: Fr. Gero Weishaupt