Intemperate Prime Minister Cameron Insults Church

Edit: the retiring Bishop of the Diocese of Motherwell recently expressed some concerns about the Liberty of the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom on December 10th, which was systematically greeted in the press, to include one "Catholic" blog, as an "intemperate rant". here, here, less offensive here, and here.

Considering that the Prime Minister didn't address any of the Bishop's concerns, about whether Catholic educators would be able to teach according to their consciences without losing their jobs, or how the Catholic Church is being steadily driven out of its traditional role in poor relief, adoption services and medical care by an increasingly hostile government, we thought the Bishop's response was rather mild. The Prime Minister, actually just told the Bishop that he'd have to be happy with being able to wear a cross in public, and that he insultingly stated that the Catholic Church and the Bishop should, "get with the program".

What program is that? Violating Catholic teaching to satisfy the increasingly capricious and decadent Government of the United Kingdom?

We just received the exchange from a reader in Scotland, which wasn't cited by any of the anti-Catholic media. She assured me that the press wouldn't be fair about it. So we've edited the Bishops second letter and included the important points omitted by the usual suspects in the press. Interestingly, the Catholic Herald and the Tablet are awol on this it seems.

This is another addition which Elizabeth thought was the most significant thing about the letter to the Prime Minister:

"So far as the Roman Catholic Church, whose Catholic adherents -the largest minority (approx. 6 million) in the UK - the one faith group not provided for in law - is concerned, you are out of your depth. We will take no finger-prodding lectures from anyone or any group devoid of moral competence. I suspect it is only a matter of time before you go one step further and outlaw the teaching of Christian doctrine on sexual morality on the grounds of discrimination."

Here's an excerpt addressing the issues:

You have publicly declared that "the values of Christianity are the values we need"; that Christian values were central to Britain and should be "treasured". Yet at the European Court of Human Rights your government is contesting appeals by Christians in their attempt to reverse UK Tribunal and Court judgments against them. Judgmenets that forbid them from practicing their Christian values and living as their consciences dictate. 

Your reasoning -- "that we are not supporting these cases as we want to defend UK legislation and do not think that the law in this issue should be dictated by Strasbourg" -- is saying in effect that while you claim to be an advocate for "Christian values" to be "treasured" and practiced in our nation that UK judgments against the rights of Christians must nevertheless be upheld at all costs. You vacillate -- ambivalent about the role you wish to perform -- the Disciple of David or Nero! With such a contradiction between your statements and actions on what basis can you expect anyone -- Christian in particular -- to trust or respect you? 

... Which brings me to your regrettable reproach of the Church of England. [He attacked the Church of England for not approving Women Lay-Bishops]  With your customary linguistic aplomb you protested that the Church needed to "get with the program me"; that it needed a "sharp prod" towards the modern world. Disagree with decisions by all means but such graceless comments were indelicate to the point of being offensive. And this from a prime minister belittling the nation's established church. Hardly an example to set for society in general and especially for the youth of this country. 

... You have already started with your indecent haste to rush through the Gay Marriage Bill. Counsel from respected legal experts warn of the damage that redefining marriage will do to Christian religious freedom and the protection of family life, all of which will further undermine Christians freedom of conscience. We face the prospect of teachers being forced to teach against their religious beliefs or face dismissal (your own education minister refused to rule out such a possibility); the likelihood that parents would have no right to withdraw their child from lessons endorsing gay marriage; the probability of public sector workers losing their jobs for not promoting the governments new vision of marriage and careers being rejected for fostering because of their Christian beliefs. This amounts to a serious threat to civil liberties even to the extent of preventing people doing things which are manifestly good for society. 

As Pope Benedict XVI has declared: "Religious freedom is the pinnacle of all other freedoms. It is a sacred and inalienable right. It includes on the individual and collective levels the freedom to follow one's conscience in religious matters." These statements should be uncontested as they are enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In a recent report the UN special rapporteur said: "The state has to respect everyone's freedom of religion or belief as an inalienable -- and thus non-negotiable -- entitlement of human beings." Sadly, under your premiership, this most basic of human rights is no longer being respected in the UK>

Finally, with regard to your demand that the Church "get with the programme" let me remind you that the Christian Church is a fact of history, an incarnation of Christianity. Christ created a Church for all time, not to suit the specific mores of an era. It embraces every nation and culture known to man and has withstood the rise and fall of empires and civilisations for over two millennia -- and all this amazingly without any direction and guidance from you or your peer group. 

Yours,  

Bishop Devine

Weltbild Scandal -- The Bishops Respond

"Lawyer's Whore" For Sale at Weltbild

(Augsburg) The range of Weltbild Publishing Group Ltd., one of the largest book retailers in Germany is in stark contrast to what its owner, the Catholic bishops, should preach. Last year's culmination of decades of public criticism for selling pornographic and esoteric books, and the book trade magazine book report was addressed the hypocrisy recently. Criticism from Catholic media or anxious letter from Catholics regularly remained unanswered. Including our recent issues, that we document here.

Weltbild has an approximate income of 1.6 billion Euros and is not only the largest of booksellers, but as industry insiders report, also the largest of porn distributors. The German book trade will be practically ignored by the Federal Censor for Media Dangerous to Youth. Pornographic print works, even in the most degenerate variants, even so are put on the list as violent youth-endangering media. Therefore, it is possible for retailers like Weltbild to buy and sell fully pornographic material unimpeded.

Our questions have supplied each of the shareholders of the Weltbild: Archbishop Reinhard Marx Joachim (Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, 13.2%), Bishop Felix Genn (diocese of Muenster, 2%), Bishop Wilhelm Schraml (diocese of Passau, 5.7 %), diocesan administrator Provost Dr. William Gegenfurtner (Regensburg Diocese 5.7%), Bishop Stephan Ackermann (Diocese of Trier 4.3%), Bishop Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann (Diocese of Würzburg, 5.7%), Bishop Henry Mussinghoff (diocese of Augsburg 11.7%), Bishop Dr. Konrad Zdarsa (diocese of Augsburg 11.7%), Archbishop Ludwig Schick (Archdiocese of Bamberg 5.7%), Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke (diocese of Eichstätt, 3.4%), Archbishop Cardinal Dr. Robert Zollitsch (Archdiocese of Freiburg 2.7%), Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen (Diocese of Fulda 6.8%), Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck (soldiers pastoral Berlin 4.3%) and as the largest shareholder of the Association of Dioceses Germany (VDD) with 24.2%, whose chairman is Archbishop Zollitsch.

Only from a single Diocese was there a minimalist response. An employee of an episcopal General Vicar announced: "I have forwarded your inquiry to the press office of the German Bishops' Conference." But by the Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference was no answer. Secretary of the Bishops' Conference, Father Hans Langendörfer SJ. The Jesuit himself sits on the board of the publishing group of the Weltbild and is also an executive of the Association of German Dioceses (VDD), which holds 24.2 percent of the world's shares. Because of the problems associated with the publishing group in recent years some dioceses had transferred their shares to the VDD. In the hands of multi-functionary Father Langendörfer the threads come together from around the Weltbild group and make him a key figure. As the Weltbild-scandal a year ago, reached a peak,  Chairman Klaus Donaubauer was forced to resign. The Bishops' Conference said,  in a completely inappropriate overreaction to completely disconnect from the publishing group and gave it the impression that a Christian bookstore is no longer possible today. In fact, since then nothing has happened. A lack of action seems to be the responsibility of Father Langendörfer as the most influential of decision-makers. As the premier owner-representative on the board, it determines the orientation of the Welt group. As secretary of the German Bishops Conference, he impedes critical questions.

1) How important is the income of Welt for the German dioceses?

2) Nurses and teachers must be members of the Catholic faith and make her private life according to Catholic principles. Do these principles also apply to the management of the publishing group of Weltbild? 

3) Are you aware that Weltbild is still actively selling pornographic and esoteric literature and advertisements? Are you aware of how high revenues and profits from sales of pornographic and esoteric titles are? 

4) Customers who purchase over weltbild.de and the world eBook reader literature, leave stored data. Do you know whether these data are collected and used for marketing purposes? Customers will have acquired a pornographic or esoteric titles, are other titles suggested of the same genre suggested to them? 

5) Are you familiar with the statement of Monsignor Michael Fuchs, deputy chairman of the Publishing Group GmbH Weltbild,  made to the "Daily Mail" (24 July 2012)? Was it discussed with you? If so,  should it be regarded as official approval for the resumption of the distribution of pornographic literature by the German bishops? 

6) Will the world of German dioceses address data provided by Catholics?

Link to katholisches...

From text by Linus Schneider

Bishop Olmsted to Head Congregation for Religious in Rome

Edit: this decision is already being lamented in certain quarters where it was already reported earlier last week, here, they say he's not going, and here.

(Vatican) The new Secretary of the important Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and for the Society of Apostolic Life, better known as the Congregation for Religious, will be the American Bishop Thomas James Olmsted of Phoenix in Arizona, USA.  The appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. comes immediately before, as La cigüeña de la torre reported.  Msgr Olmsted has made his name as a Traditional, loyal to Rome and militant Bishop.  The 1947 born ++Olmsted became a priest in 1973 and was named as Bishop Coadjutor of Wichita in 1999 by Pope John Paul II.  From 2001, the Diocesan Bishop of this Diocese was called to Phoenix.

Excommunication of a Nun: no false understanding of "freedom of conscience" concerning abortion

In 2010 he excommunicated a Nun, who was attempting to justify abortion as part of an Ethical Commission on unborn children.  Bishop Olmsted then clarified:  "The murder of an unborn child is immoral in any circumstance. The life of an unborn child is exactly as inviolable as that of his mother, no life may be subject to the other."

Since 2011 he established that only see males will serve at the altar in the Cathedral of Phoenix.  With that the Bishop discontinued the practice of female servers.  "Not because of any form of misogyny or hyserical clerical sexism, as some in ignorance of Catholic doctrinal teaching carelessly and hastily have charged,"  said the Bishop.  The service of the altar by young boys and lads has deep reaching roots in Church history, still long before there were seminaries providing a modern style of education for the priesthood, just as the Conciliar Fathers of the Council of Trent desired. [We've been saying this for years, here.] The service of the altar was seen as an "apprenticeship" and introductory step to the priesthood, so the Diocese of Phoenix said on the decision of the Bishop.  Bishop Olmsted belongs to those Bishops, who has already celebrated the Roman Rite in its Extraordinary Form [Immemorial Mass of All Ages].

No Female Servers:  The Service of the Altar is for the Church, the First Step into the Priesthood

Bishop Olmsted follows the American, Msgr. Joseph William Tobin to the office of the Secretary of the Congregation for Religious, who according to Rome, Msgr Tobin was dismissed from the Roman Curia, because of his too "soft" line against the rebellious US Women Religious. The Redemptorist (since 1952), who was the General Superior of the Redemptorists from 1997 to 2009, was call to Rome from where he was Archbishop of Indianapolis in Indiana. His activity in the Roman Curia remained a brief interlude.  Then in 2010 he was called to the Congregation of Religious, where he attempted there after the retirement of Cardinal Franc Rode to take a "soft" line in a tug of war with a progressive, feminist and at times drifting into obscure New Age movements, aging part of American Women Religious.  A position, which was not well-received in Rome and led to his dismissal.

Conflict with Rebellious Esoteric Deistic Feminist Nuns Has Priority

The situation that an American will again be called to an important position for Religious affairs after another American, underscores, that for Rome the resolution of the conflict with the rebellious part of the American Women Religious is a priority coming all the way from the top.

Text: Giuseppi Nardi
Bild: courageouspriest

Link...katholisches...

The First Catholic Church in North America

The fertile region of South Greenland is home to the well-preserved ruins of one of the first Catholic churches on the North American continent - Hvalsey Church.

Long before Columbus ever had the idea of sailing west to try to find a shorter route to India, the Norse settlers from Scandinavia had established themselves in Greenland. The fertile South Greenlandic fjords had attracted Norse settlers from Iceland and many estates and farms had been established in the new country.

Hvalsey Church - more than a thousand years old
Catholicism was spreading its influence throughout Europe and also reached the outer frontier in Greenland, where it established itself in the country in 1000 AD and the first churches were soon erected. Hvalsey Church was probably built in the 14th century, but is the best preserved of the churches in Greenland from that period.

Edit: No doubt, the first Mass was said in Newfoundland long before the 15th Century.

http://www.greenland.com/en/about-greenland/kultur-sjael/historie/vikingetiden/hvalsey-kirkeruin.aspx

Cardinal Marx Doesn't Exclude Women Priests

Reinhard Cardinal Marx

[Pius.info] The Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard  Marx is clearly holding unity with the Zeitgeist as more important than being true to the Faith.  According to a report in KNA the Cardinal said on Wednesday at a talk on the faith at the Maria-Ward-School in Munich, if Jesus can call God "Father", it isn't to be understood sexually.  As to the question if the office of priest is open to women, Marx told the 250 school girls:  "Perhaps it is still not the end of the road, that we walk along together."  He left the question open.

With that Cardinal Marx weighed against the Magisterium of the Church, according to which this is not an open question any more.

Above all, Pope John Paul II, explained in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of May 22, 1994: "Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

The Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith attempted in 1995 to make another clarification, in which the Pope furnished the following question:  "Doubt whether the doctrine, which is contained in the Apostolic Letter 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis' is final, according to which the Church does not have the power to give women priestly ordination, is to be regarded as part of the deposit of faith.

The answer: yes.

This doctrine demands final agreement, because it is based on the written word of God and has been from the beginning to the end defended and declared by the infallible universal and ordinary Magisterium,  (compare.  Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium 25.) .  From this basis the Pope in view of the current situation of his own office, to exhort the brethren (LK 22:32), to assert the same doctrine with a formal declaration, in whose expressed representation, what has always been believed, everywhere and by all the faithful, in so far as it belongs to the deposit of the faith.

Link to piusbruderschaft.de...

Are Nepal's Religion Statistics Falsified? -- 10 Percent instead of 1.4 Percent are Christinan

(Kathmandu) The Christians in the Himalayan State of Nepal are objecting to the government's published religion statistics.  According to the published data of the official census of 2011 given a few days ago by the mountainous Hindu country, which was a Kingdom until 2008, there are 300,000 Christians.  This consists of 1.4 % of the population.  The Federation of National Christians Nepal, FNCN, has objected to these figures, as reported by the news agency Fides. According to FNCN there are more than 2.5 million Christians living in the upper mountainous country.  One in every ten Nepalese is baptized.

The central statistics office has "arbitrarily underestimated the number of Christians, because 300,000 Christians live in the valley of Kathmandu alone", says C.B. Gahatraj, the General Secretary of the FNCN.  The Federation is prepared at any time, to offer the proof for the number of Christians which is eight times higher than what is maintained by the Statistics Office of the government.

The Federation demands that the government correct the numbers.  At the same time it is demanding that the government reinstates the six point agreement between the government and the Christian communities.

Bikash Bista, the acting Director of the State Statistical Offices explained that the citizens had entered their religious affiliation in the census questionnaire. If this entry hasn't been used by many, the blame isn't on the part of the authorities.  The published numbers are the result of the numbers arrived at in the data, says Bista.

Text: Radio Vatikan/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Radio Vatikan

Link to katholisches...

Cardinal Dziwisz, Secretary of John Paul II, "moved" by Mass in Old Rite

(Krakow) Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul II's secretary for many years and since 2005, the Archbishop of the Old Polish capital of Krakow, was present on November 11th at a Holy Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.  The Sacrifice of the Mass in Krakow's Cross Church was celebrated by Father Wojciech Grygiel, the Superior of the Society of St. Peter in Poland.  The event was the tenth anniversary since the Polish Archdiocese regularly celebrated the Mass in the Tridentine Rite by the Society of St. Peter.

After the celebration, Cardinal Dziwisz expressed his gratitude:  "This Rite is very close to me.  It reminds me of my youth and the beginning of my priesthood.  It had moved me very much, to be present at this Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite."

The Cardinal turend to the faithful, for the pastoral care of the Society of St. Peter to bring the Old Rite to expression and thanked them for the beauty of the celebration, to which he addressed not only the older people, who still recognized it from their youth, but not least the young people and students and he recalled that the Roman Right has two forms.

Link katholisches...

"Convert to Islam or Die" -- Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Unleashes Fatwa Against Christians

(Bagdad) On the same day in which the Syrian-Catholic Cathedral was solemnly re-consecrated, the Grand Ayatollah issued a Fatwa against the Christians of Iraq.  The Christians are expected to convert to Islam or are liable to be killed.  The Catholic Cathedral was the scene of a bloody attack on 31 October, 2010.  An Al-Qaeda unit attacked the church, as the Christians there were celebrating Holy Mass. 58 Catholics lost their lives in the attack, among whom were two priests.

The Shi'ite Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Sayid Ahmad al Hassani al Baghdadi announced his call to murder Christians with the Egyptian television broadcaster Al Baghdadia.  Al Baghdadi, which belongs to one of the most radical members of the Islamic Jihad, is calling Christians as polytheists and friends of Zionists.  Al Baghdadi's call to the Christian minority of Iraq reads:  "Convert to Islam or Die".  The women and girls of the Christians "can be legally considered to be wives of Muslims", said the Grand Ayatollah.  Al Baghdadi,  who was born in Nadjaff in Iraq, is one of the "holy cities" of Shi'ite Islam, lives today in Syria and there supports the armed struggle of Islamists.

The Catholics of Bagdad regard the Fatwa as "extremely troubling".  Whatever effect they will have, they should not be underestimated.  Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, of the Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches,  undertook the re-consecration of the Cathedral.  In his sermon he spoke of the murdered Christians in 2010, that the tears and the blood of martyrs are seedlings, which will bring forth new fruit.  Cardinal Sandri held a five day visit to Iraq, in order to strengthen the Christians there during the year of Faith.

Text: Asianews/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Asianews

Catholic Primate of England Offers Requiem for Suicide at Westminster

Ben Barboza, husband of the late Jacintha Saldanha, with
the couple's children Junal, 16, (l.) and Lisha, 14 (r.). @AP

Edit:  if Ordinaries like Archbishop Nichols don't actually follow established rules because they're too cowardly to face a media storm, what's the point of having laws which even the ordinaries themselves don't follow?

A nurse who committed suicide as the result of a phone prank was also Catholic.  She was found hanging in her room on December 7th three days after a prank was played on her by Australian DJs.  It's not known if she was a practicing Catholic, but there will be a scandalous Requiem Mass for her in London to placate the sentimental and soft-hearted.  This will be done at the expense of the Catholic religion.

The man responsible for this scandalous act, Archbishop Nichols, has often been long on sentimentality and short on orthopraxis. In 2009, he appeared at a Hindu Temple in London and received a "blessing", and he still hasn't put the brakes on the notorious Soho Masses.  It must be things like this which have prevented this Prince of the Church from receiving the honor of a Cardinal's hat.

Here's the following citation from the Church's Canon Law which ++Nicholas has most likely perjured himself over when he swore he would uphold it:

CHAPTER II : THOSE TO WHOM CHURCH FUNERALS ARE TO BE ALLOWED OR DENIED

Can. 1183 §1 As far as funeral rites are concerned, catechumens are to be reckoned among Christ's faithful.

§2 Children whose parents had intended to have them baptised but who died before baptism, may be allowed Church funeral rites by the local Ordinary.

§3 Provided their own minister is not available, baptised persons belonging to a non-catholic Church or ecclesial community may, in accordance with the prudent judgement of the local Ordinary, be allowed Church funeral rites, unless it is established that they did not wish this.

Can. 1184 §1 Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following, unless they gave some signs of repentance before death:

1° notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics;[Suicides]

2° those who for anti-christian motives chose that their bodies be cremated;

3° other manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful.

§2 If any doubt occurs, the local Ordinary is to be consulted and his judgement followed.
Can. 1185 Any form of funeral Mass is also to be denied to a person who has been excluded from a Church funeral.

Here's the story from New York Daily News...

New BibleTranslations: Queen James Version

Edit: what began as the trite and self involved, perhaps not worth mentioning in the Boomer Bible, has now entered a new phase in a downward trend to the Dead Sea:

Despite the evolution of societal trends, homosexuality continues to be intensely-debated on moral, spiritual and theological grounds. With the Bible traditionally viewed as a document that condemns the actions associated with same-sex attraction, some anonymous editors have set out to reinterpret scriptures to create a new translation — “The Queen James Bible” — that is favorable to gays and lesbians.

At first glance (and even when you dig beneath the surface), it’s difficult to discern who is behind the publication (the publisher of the book on Amazon is listed as “Queen James”), as there is no organization overtly mentioned on the web site advertising the alternative Bible. That said, the editors, though unnamed, are bold in explaining their intriguing project.


An image of “The Queen James Bible” (Photo Credit: QueenJamesBible.com)
“The Queen James Bible resolves any homophobic interpretations of the Bible, but the Bible is still filled with inequality and even contradiction that we have not addressed,” the web site notes. “No Bible is perfect, including this one. We wanted to make a book filled with the word of God that nobody could use to incorrectly condemn God’s LGBT children, and we succeeded.”

Cont: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/queen-james-bible-now-theres-a-gay-friendly-version-of-scripture/

Secessionist Movement in Trieste Recalls its Place in Habsburg Monarchy

Edit: It looks like the city of Trieste prefers Habsburg Monarchs to the Republican government of Italy. We received this declaration from the e-mail:

On Sunday morning of the 15th of December, before the court, many citizens of Trieste will declare the renunciation their Italian citizenship.

We, the people, want to reestablish full sovereignty for the Free State of Trieste. This movement was born in the serious difficulties faced by the city itself, for its region and for all of Europe. The past annexation was accomplished outside of the legality of civil law, in local as well as international standards: The peace settlement with Italy in 1947 in Paris which was singed and continues in force -- continues to be systematically ignored.

We, the people, we are the citizens of the Free Territorium of Free Trieste and intend, therefore to live legally in a state of individual and collective well being.

The Free Territorium of Trieste is, is by definition, multicultural and multi-lingual and understands its historical and geographical place in Middle Europe.

We are establishing ourselves for the Internationalization of the economy of our region and, the impulse of our place for many years in the Habsburg Monarchy, we advocate our continuation and the broadening of the mental openness of our population for other languages and cultures.

The free harbor of Trieste, the most important motor for our economy, can not be excluded or prepared for the settlement of real investments, without producing the previous legality.

So soon as these will be returned, we want to make good the progressive progress of innovation, to promote the foreseeable industrial developments and the settlement which today's reputation of stagnation of technology and is born according to the preservation of the environment. Trieste has suffered through the complicity of all administrations, which in the past decades have been a caused a nuisance in our area, and its hinterland are today under morbid debts of a no longer bearable environmental strain.

It hasn't bypassed us, how the Italian State counteracted a concourse and are in the clear, that whose causes do not lay in Trieste and that whose consequences are detected in Trieste's part is to be seen traces by reason of its progressively illegal status of the current administrative power.

By reason of this gripping economic decline the current administration is above all not in a position, for our existential important reforms -- to accomplish it as an attenuation of the tax burden.

While Europe puzzles over the causes and the solutions of the current crisis, our movement aims then to improve the quality of life in our region palpably, to closely oversee the conduct of human rights conventions and to implement the rights of self-determination of the people in fact.

"Free Trieste" represents the living interests of the overpowering majority of the population in their tributary areas and asserts therefore, the political, legal, economic and tax rules of the Peace Agreement in effect its legal path. Thus, on that it follows the reestablishment of its legality is our highest objective.

We, the people, want therefore, want to reestablish the complete sovereignty of the Free State of Trieste.
info@volontaritrieste.eu

6 January: George Ganswein Will Be Personally Consecrated a Bishop by the Pope

Edit:  the Pope's secretary has been given a new post, Prefect of the Papal Household in addition to his current one.  He will be an Archbishop.

Pope Benedict XVI. will have a full program over the days of Christmas: From the Christmas Mass over "Urbi et orbi" to Episcopal consecration and baptism.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA) Pope Benedict XVI. will personally lead the Vatican celebrations on Christmas and the New Year.  As the Vatican explains on Tuesday, the Pope will celebrate the Midnight Mass at 10pm to celebrate the birth of Christ.  On Christmas day he will also personally give the traditional blessing >>Urbi et Orbi<< in the main loggia of St. Peters Cathedral.  Then he will deliver his Christmas message as well.  On Silvester evening Benedict will hold an evening prayer with the >>Te Deum<<  to close the year at St. Peter's Cathedral.  In the morning of the new year, he will celebrate Holy Mass.

On January 6th, the feast of the >>Epiphany<<, the Pope will celebrate Mass before mid-day and consecrate several Vatican priests as Bishops.  Among them is his longtime secretary George Ganswein, who will function in the future as the Prefect of the Papal House.  On January 13th, at the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, where the Pope will give several children the sacrament of baptism in the Sixtine Chapel.

Link to kath.net...

Cardinal Lehmann Thanks Gays For "Stopping" Kreuz.net

Edit: The following translation and title sort of speaks for itself.  Not only does this seem to spell the end for Kreuz.net, at least in its past incarnation, but it may spell the end for the pro-Roman and conservative Network of Catholic Priests, which will have to find a new spokesman now that Father Jolie has been severely and publicly humiliated for his association with kreuz.net.  Network of Catholic Priests has probably embarrassed Germany's Old Liberal elites on everything from Church-tax, to its steadfast refusal to obey the Vatican's call for revising the Missal according to its guidelines.

Another priest from the Diocese of Aachen is trying to disassociate himself from kreuz.net as well.

It's also the case that nobody at this anti-Catholic newspaper cares about freedom of speech in present day National Socialist Germany.

The Bishop of Mainz, Karl Lehman is happy that "kreuz.net" is offline,  however defends himself from a wholesale condemnation of the Church.  At the same time there is substantial evidence that they have more with the agitation site that they will avow: in the criticism  there is a Pastor from the Diocese of Aachen.

Karl Cardinal Lehman has to soil himself in the internet sewer kreuz.net. The intonation of the tirade can amplify itself well, as the homophobic vocabulary of the site has recalled terms like "Gommorrhists" and "gay perverts" which were still comparatively moderate as the site goes.

But since the beginning of December, kreuz.net is no more.   And for this Bishop Lehmann thanked then --  the gays!  That a German Bishop has dared this, is signifies something unparalleled.   In Sunday's published edition of Glaube und Leben [Faith and Life] of the Church newspaper of the Diocese of Mainz, Lehmann wrote:  "It is shameful for the Church that it was at first the initiative of the Bruno-Gmünder Verlag [Publisher of pornography]  and the interest of the Federal Crimes Office together with open debate prepared the way for the unholy goings on."  The Church has not done this with its own means.  "For that reason why all thank, who have contributed clarification, even though they are not friends of the Church."

It is still indeed not decided yet, so long as the Public Prosecuting Attorney have still not been able to determine the operators, and self-described insiders of the recent departure of the site tell of a new appearance on the internet.  But Cardinal Lehmann, 76, has not yet breathed deeply over the preliminary end of the "damaging intrigue".   Why the German Bishops' Conference, who he led till 2008, did not support the proposal "Stoppt kreuz.net" of Homo-Pornographer Bruno Gmunder, was something that Lehmann was silent about. This initiative had inflamed media interest and fanned the police investigation.

Lehmann Criticized the General Suspicion Against the Church

Instead the Cardinal accuses the anti-Kreuz.net activists of turning the Church into a scapegoat.  Because kreuz.net characterized itself as Catholic, several informants, authors and if possible, site administrators came from the clergy, even from the Roman side which has raised the suspicion of some critics of the Church.  Lehmann only criticized this: The opportunity has "been exhausted in an all encompassing criticism of the Church. The deplorable behavior was only less equal than a large swamp. The whole Church is dilapidated..."  In contrast, on the one hand, Lehmann defends calls for the Church to an "examination of conscience of itself at all levels". [Only on his own Old Liberal terms]

And he defended his own actions against a Pastor of his Diocese,  to whom he extended clemency, even though the Bishops' Conference had demanded administrative legal steps against collaborators of the incitement site.  He has given the defendant the benefit of he doubt, wrote Lehmann.  Yet where  is the doubt, if, as he himself says, "that he had participated in the monstrousness, generally in the organization, which had instigated such a hate campaign."?  The Pastor [Father Hendrick Jolie] had lied to him and to the public about his journalistic activities, and only confessed after he could not refute the allegations.  It might have been part of the arrangements with Diocesan authorities that he withdraw from his anti-reformist Catholic Priest Network (KNP).  His post as speaker would no longer be exercised in any case.

The Network now has only two speakers in Germany.  One of them is [Father] Guido Rodheudt, pastor of Herzogenrath, Diocese of Aachen.  He argues in written submissions, denying any complicity with kreuz.net.  However, he acknowledges that he has read the site regularly.  In an interview not yet broadcast by WDR he said, with kreuz.net it was "like a dunghill, which is next to a trash heap in which there are still some edible tomatoes that have really lost something there."  When looking for a tomato in a manure pile, one is worse off.

Apart from that, more evidence has emerged that [Father] Rodheudt had more to do with the hate site than he now knows or wants to admit.  An activists from "Stoppt kreuz.net" says [Father] Rodheudt has a much more combative temperament than his colleagues in Mainz.  But yet he who decidedly expresses himself in interviews on the theme of the faith, yet has only read kreuz.net and never written there.

WDR asked Rodheudt about an internet link between kreuz.net and the website of the NKP (Network of Catholic Priests).  Such links are based as part of a partnership: kreuz.net demanded that if they put their advertising banner on the hate site, that in return they link to kreuz.net.

But the NKP didn't just put up a single link to its page.  It even put up a live ticker, which means that the headlines of new posts of the anonymous users in question, were sent from the hate site to the site of the NKP.   On the equally devout Catholic site gloria.tv, there is an interview with Guido Rodheudt where the live ticker from kreuz.net is still active.  It was already in January of 2009 that NKP told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that this live feed had stopped.  A colleague had asked his "dear brethren" to delete this connection.  He referred to the intervention of two professors who had complained about the "corrosive anti-Church venom of kreuz.net".

The NKP spokesman wrote:  "Dear Brother, thank you for your input, we will address those concerns and take down the news ticker from our homage!."  Until that day, there were titles up like "Jacob made a threesome", "The Holocaust ideology downplays the abortion of children" and "Pope John Paul II -- The Antichrist?"  Scores of these messages ran on the Priest Network page, while kreuz.net was then already in the sites of the media.

Guido Rodheudt says the Priest Network had deleted the link itself.  The site had changed and the style and content of kreuz.net had become unbearable. But the network had already long been cooperating with a "dunghill":  One only needs to look at posts from 2007, which put through titles like "Sodomistic Fornication", the "Homo Concubinage" and "The Homo-Ideological Manipulation."  That was obviously unsustainable for [Father] Guido Rodheudt.

In November 2007, the contribution of a Holocaust denier, contained the following sentence, "Even apparent inconsistencies are forced upon citizens as truths of faith -- whether in connection with gas chambers, Jews allegedly turned into bars of soap or with the actual numbers of casualties." And this stood right next to a banner of the Church Music Association, Sinfonia Sacra.  As he was and is the chairman of this organization, [Father] Guido Rodheudt, was just a priest looking for tomatoes in a manure pile.

Link to Süddeutsche...

Mass Setting for the Transference of the House of Loreto

[Pius.info, Germany] On the 10th of December the Church celebrates the transference of the House of Loreto.   Pius.info has found the Mass setting:

According to God's resolve the Holy Home of Mary in Nazareth, in which she herself was born in and in which she received the message of the Archangel Gabriel of the Son of God becoming man, was transferred, so that destruction would not befall it.

Born by an angel's hand, it came on the 10th of May in 1291 to Tersato near Rijeka in Dalmatia, where it remained three years and seven months.  On the 10th of December 1294 it was brought by the service of an angel of God in the area of what is today,  Loreto. The tradition of the miracle of the transfer of the Holy House is testified by old documents, by investigations of the past as also through such in more recent and the most recent time, through the statements of Saints and mystically gifted persons and through the prolific miracles which have happened there.

Many Popes have spoken in favor of Loreto, not a few of them have visited Loreto.  The feast of Mary's birth (8 September) is celebrated yearly as its main festival, and the feast of the moving of the Holy House is celebrated on the 10th of December. --

The Mass text addresses the great Holiness of this place (Introitus etc.),  including the birth of the Most Holy Virgin (Reading), on the Incarnation of God (Evangelium) and on the miraculous moving of the Holy House to the former Land of the Popes, the Church State.


Link to Mass settings for the Feast...

Excitement Surrounds Weeping Madonna in Argentina

Buenos Aires (KNA) In the Argentinian city of Salto Grande there is concern about an excitement over bloody years of a Marian Statue. As the newsspaper "La Capital" reports, a biochemical test demonstrates a 99.6% certainty that it is blood. A few days earlier a local caretaker at the hospital had noticed the flow of blood during a visit to the chapel and notified the Catholic priest of the facility.

The Archbishop of Rosario, Jose Luis Mollaghan, announced in a cautious statement the "surprising" outcome. "At this point we do not have certainty", he said and warned against premature conclusions. The phenomenon will be studied further.

(C) 2012 KNA Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur GmbH. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Sex Abuse is a Bigger Problem With Protestants? You don't say?

Edit: just found this excerpt from Leonard Alt who commented on it and we think he raises an excellent point about the abuse hoax which keeps getting swept under the rug, enjoy and please reuse this information the next time you're confronted by people who still mistakenly think this is primarily a Catholic problem:

I apologize to my Protestant friends who do get it; this is not for you.This is for the few Protestants who don’t know the facts and then  make unfair cheap shots at the Catholic Church.

ROGER ASKED A GOOD QUESTION: IF the Catholic Church was the REAL CHURCH... Why do they PERMIT... Priests & Bishops.... TO MOLEST CHILDREN...?

LENNY ASKS A GOOD QUESTION AS WELL:  If the Protestant Churches were the REAL CHURCH…Why do they PERMIT…Protestant ministers & deacons TO MOLEST CHILDREN… and then criticize Catholics when Protestants have a larger problem in their own churches? 

Three insurance companies in the United States that provide liability coverage for 165,000 Protestant churches revealed data to the Associated Press that they typically receive 260 reports every year of children being sexually abused by Protestant clergy or other staff.

If these and the Catholic statistics are accurate, then on average, there are 32 more sex abuse cases per year in the Protestant church. As Father Jonathan stated in his news story, “The mainstream media has all but ignored the recent Associated Press report (April 30,2010 Karen Stephenson).

I have to admit I was surprised at a few of my Protestant friends who still wanted to stand in judgment of the Catholic Church even after they learned there was a bigger problem in Protestant Christianity.  They are acting like modern day Pharisees pointing out the sin of others while not acknowledging their own.
“The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, , “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous –or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithe on my whole income” (Lk 18:11-12).

The Evangelicals were busy confessing the sin of Catholics rather than their own sin.   But why do they do it when Jesus spoke against this?  The answer is simple; they were using it as a negative recruiting tool to get people out of the Catholic Church and into the Evangelical Churches.  In fact one Baptist minister said they wanted to gobble up all the Catholics they could get because of the scandal.   I am sure this worked to some degree more or less, but what happens when these people find out there is an even bigger problem in Evangelical Churches.

Even the mighty Jewish talk show host Michael Savage got on the band wagon and lambasted the Church for all those scandals.  It wasn’t long after that and one of Michael’s, Jewish rabbis was picked up in a sting operation where he was caught on tape soliciting underage girls.   This seemed to quiet Michael down a bit.

Roger and others will no longer be using pedophilia as a negative recruiting tool.  They will be too busy explaining to people in their own churches why they got out bad information and why their churches are having such a big problem.

And furthermore there is a problem in the secular schools that could be a hundred times larger then in Christianity and I can substantiate this statement.

Cardinal Meisner Accuses His Diocesan Council of Misrepresenting the Faith

Cardinal Meisner criticized his own Diocesan Council for statements on the dialog process, "who have distorted the teaching of the Catholic Church or actually contradicted it".   Disreputable demands for allowing Communion to remarried divorced and ordained women priests.

Cologne (kath.net/pek)  The "positive view on many successes of the dialog process, which our Diocesan Council has undertaken,  has been significantly overshadowed in any case by statements which have distorted or even contradicted Catholic teaching."  This is what Cologne's Joachim Cardinal Meisner said in a now published statement on his Diocesan Council of September 8, 2012 on the dialog process.

Kath.net documented the statement of the Archbishop as follows from our translation:

The purpose of the dialog process of the Diocesan Council to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cologne has been published.  As Archbishop I am thankful for the serious efforts, that are behind these suggestions and proposals will become visible.  Some proposals are helpful for pastoral care, for the work in councils and societies.  The particular stress of social responsibility of the laity and their societies has spoken to my heart.

Also if the collaboration of our lay Christians in pastoral care is indispensable and surely also in various places can still be more intensive, but there is however a retreat in lay engagements in the inner-Church space which is a great error.   That the Diocesan Council has expressly intervened for the protection of work free Sundays and decisively engaged for the maintenance of Catholic grade schools, I heartily regard.  The faithful in the areas of pastoral care may and could not be released from the responsibility.


With great interest, I perceive also that is on the way of the work looked critically at our bodies in the association and the general pastoral care. The "session Catholicism" really requires a critical and honest reflection: What is beneficial? Which is a hindrance? What can be improved?

With its clear statement on the protection of the disabled and the unborn Diocesan clearly indicates what we must ultimately be measured, including particularly the laity involvement.

This positive view of the many ideas of the dialogue process, which has resulted in our Diocese is, however, considerably darkened by statements distorting the teaching of the Catholic Church or even contradicting it. Thus, Eucharistic Communion presupposes full communion and requires a life that corresponds to the Catholic faith. The statements on marriage are blurred here and ignore their unique significance for human coexistence. This is very unfortunate.

That the Diocesan Council has addressed the issue of celibacy thusly, I've actually expected this, because it thoroughly corresponds to today's mainstream. Only this expression of opinion contributes nothing to the question of priestly vocation. The Diocesan Council remains here only discouraged and stuck to the too familiar mainstream in its published opinion. I regret this and this would have expected statements independent of the mainstream.

To the priesthood, the doctrine of the Church is completely unique. In his Apostolic Letter of 22 May 1994 Pope John Paul II declares: "So therefore, any doubt about the important matter related to the divine constitution of the Church itself is eliminated, I declare by virtue of my office, to strengthen the brethren, that the Church has no authority whatsoever to raise Women to the priesthood, and that all the faithful of the Church finally have to abide by this decision." Suggestions and demands that are inconsistent with this final decision will result in ecclesiastical error, and will not lead to any positive results. Quite the contrary! You confuse and paralyze the forces in the effective use of the Church for the evangelization so urgently needed in this society.

+ Joachim Kardinal Meisner Erzbischof von Köln

Link to kath.net...

New Appointment to Replace ++Muller of Regesburg

Edit: and so ends the speculation that the Pope's Secretary, Msgr Ganswein would be getting a See.

Passau/Regensburg (kath.net/KNA)  Rudolf Voderholzer (53), should be named as new Bishop of Regensburg says a report on Thursday. "Passauer Neuer Presse" reported on Wednesday under a statment from "very well informed Church circles".   The Diocese hosted a press conference at 12 o'clock for an extraordinary press conference with Diocesan Administrator Wilhelm Gegenfurtner.

Voderholzer is a student of Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller,  who has directed the Diocese of Regensburg since the beginning of July and was called as Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.  The Munich born man's primary occupation is as a theology professor at the University of Trier.  Otherwise he's been given an assignment by ++Muller to lead the Regensburg Institute of Pope Benedict XVI., which is republishing he work of [Pope] Joseph Ratzinger.

Link to kath.net...

Neo-Cardinal Patriach Al Rahi Celebrates the Maronite Rite in the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome

(Vatican)  The 77th Patriarch of the Maronite Church united with Rome, Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Al Rayhi, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass on 26th of November in St. Peter's Cathedral after his elevation to Cardinal.  It was a Liturgy of Thanksgiving in the Maronite Rite fur the dignity which was received two days before, which was imparted by Pope Benedict XVI.  The Cardinal spoke during his sermon not only about his "responsibility" for the 1.6 million Maronites in Lebanon, but also for the 13 million Christians in the Arabic world of the Near East.  The Maronite Patriarch is currently the only representative of the Near East in the College of Cardinals.  Cardinal Al Rahi stressed his resolve to continue the "Moslem-Christian dialog in the Near East".

"Responsibility for the 13 Million Christians in the Arab World"

Three of the six newly made Cardinals on the 24th of November came from lands with significant Moslem populations.  "We Christians of the Near East have an unbroken tradition, which goes directly back to Our Lord Jesus Christ.  A rich fullness, which is our contribution to the world Church.  We are also rich in a mutual exchange of experience in the coexistence with Moslems", said the Patriarch.

Six of the NeoCardinals Come from Lands With Significant Muslim Populations

Cardinal Al Rahi sees the desire of the Pope in his Cardinal choices, "to give new impetus to the New Evangelization in the Near East".  The Near East is, as Benedict XVI in his Lebanon trip stressed, "A land chosen by God, because it is on this land that the revealed His saving Mystery".  That is a priceless treasure, which the Christians of the Near East have preserved, but also a mission, to make this treasure living and visible and to share with others.

The Near East has seen the cross, but also the resurrection, Pentecost and the persistence of the Church, said the Cardinal.  Pope Benedict XVI. has said that this is should be "a land of peacee, not a land of wars and conflicts".

The Near East "A Land of Peace, not of War"

Around 1,500 Maronites and other Arab Christians had found a place around the Maornite Patriarch and Cardinal to celebrate Holy Mass in the St. Peter's Cathedral.

Link to Katholisches...

Archbishop Luigi Negri, Appointed by Pope as Tradition Friendly of Ferrara

(Vatican)  Msgr Luigi Negri (71) is one of the most striking Italian Bishops was named by Pope Benedict XVI as the new Archbishop of Ferrara.  The Pope is very close to the Bishop.  His profession as Bishop of San Marino and Montefeltro was one of the last official acts of Pope John Paul II.   A much greater connection to the combative Bishop is shown by Pope Benedict XVI.  In the last year the head of the Church visited the small Diocese, which also includes the resting place of Saint Marino, in a pastoral visit. A particular sign  of approval is Msgr. Negri's holds a disposition of an unabbreviated message and the necessity of a confident Church.  For this reason Pope Benedict appointed him, about which the Italian Bishops' Conference did nothing, because of this personally in the Bishops'  Synod in October in Rome.   Then followed his elevation to Archbishop.

Hertofore Bishop of San Marino, now Archbishop of Ferrara.

Archbishop Negri was born in 1941 in Milan.  There he visited the  Gymnasium for the Humanities,  where he met Don Luigi Giussiani and entered this student movement.  From 1965 to 1967 he was the first president in the Archdiocese of Milan. Msgr Negri graduated from the Catholic University of Milan and was then the assistant of the renowned neo-Thomist Professor Gustavo Bontadini in the Seminary and was ordained in June of 1972 by the former  Archbishop of Milan, Gioanni Cardinal Colombo.

Neo-Thomist, Student of Catholic Social Teacher, Promoter of the Old Rite

In the society of Communion and Liberation of Don Giussiani Msgr. Negri was responsible above all for the area of school and formation.  His special point of attention lay in what was then the Catholic Social Teaching.  At the Catholic University of Milan he taught History, Philosophy and Introduction to Theology.  He is the author of numerous specialist works above all about the magisterium of Pope John Paul II.  Since 2010 he has been a collaborator of the Catholic internet publication La Bussola Quotidiana (The Daily Compass) and president of the Fondazione International Gioanni Paolo II per il Magistero Sociale della Chiesa (International Foundation of John Paul II for the Social Teaching of the Church), whose honorery committee includes Professor Nikolaos Lokowicz and Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes from the German speaking areas, and till his death, the [Emperor] Otto Habsburg.  The scientific committee includes  numerous others like Bologna's Archbishop Carlo Cardinal Cafarra, the Secretary of the Pope, Msgr George Ganswein, Karl Habsburg, Professor Waldsstein, malcom Cardinal Ranjith and the biographer of John Paul II., George Weigel.

Prominent, Militant Representative of the Catholic Subject

The Episcopal consecration received by Msgr. Negri by Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi, the former Archbishop of Milan.  He follows now for a second time his predecessor Msgr. Rabitti, who was Bishop of San Marino from 1995 to 2004 and then became Archbishop of Ferrara in 2012.
suffagrens
The chief shepherd of Ferrara bears the title of Archbishop, the Diocese is yet a small metropolitan district, and thus has no suffragren.  This particularity goes back to the time of the Church State.  Ferrara belonged in late antiquity to the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and was added to the Kingdom of the Lombards in 774.  From 1589 to 1859 it answered directly to the Papal Legation of the Church State.

Link to katholisches...

Kreuz.net Off Line Since Sunday: Anti-Catholic Forces Gloat

You Can't Stop Kreuz.net.

Edit:  basically, kreuz.net is being systematically attacked in the German press, and Der Kommissar is searching high and low for the shadowy figures behind Europe's largest Catholic website. Notably, the Nazi-founded Spiegel and other anti-Catholic organs of disinformation like this one, Die Zeit are eager to report an arrest.

The following article is significantly misleading.  It's poor.  It doesn't explain the bizarre alliance between homosexuals who distribute pornography, or the Green Party politician who has promoted sex with children and the German Bishops, but it stops slightly short of gloating.

Also in the Hunt for Kreuz.net is David Berger, who the German internet site has exposed over the years, much to the chagrin of not a few people.  David Berger is probably most famous for slandering the Pope, accusing him of being a homosexual.

Here's the translation:

The pseudo-Christian website kreuz.net is off the net.  It may be a success for the activists who have been proceeding against the homophobia and racism of the site. 

The agitating website kreuz.net is offline.  The previous domain is no longer unavailable since Sunday afternoon. 

The coordinator of the initiative Stoppt Kreuz.net, David Berger, sees this as a reaction incidental to definite public pressure.  He told the Cologne Stadt-Anzeiger that there are thre conceivable possibilities for this, that the site is now offline:  the operators are going under cover for a few weeks and hope to build a media storm, they are planning a change of server, or they are planing a completely new structure under a new name. 

Following the articles related to the deceased actor Dirk Bach, which showed the clear disposition of homophobia, the campaigne of Bruno Gmunder Verlags have offered an award of 15,000 Euro for juristically usable information about the figures behind the site.  In the meantime there are at least half a dozen names suspects being investigated and given to the Attorney General in Berlin.  It has also engaged the Attorney General in Vienna for popular incitement (Volksverhetzung). 

Inhuman Propaganda

Those who are responsible for kreuz.net have not been revealed yet.  The German Catholic Church has renewed its statement distancing themselves.  As Spiegel recently reported, there are in any case at least two dozen authors with an ecclesiastical back ground active on the site, among them priests, church employees and at least one religion instructor. 

The site has been suspected for a long time by Church authorities, as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitutional observes the site. As the Suddeutsche.de reports the President of Protection of the Constitution, Heinz Fromm,  wrote in response to Volker Beck:  "In so far as the articles as well as the commentary from this internet presence is significantly known for its Homophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Semetic expressions, necessitates an extremely aggressive statement." 

Several entries are not covered by the fundamental right of freedom of speech, and cross into the territory of criminal law.  "Inhuman propaganda"has been distributed.  In addition, it presents "evidence for efforts against free democratic fundamental order" , it said in the document. 

Link to source...

Props to Cathcon for its description of Kreuz.net as "The Terminator".

Cardinal Scola Doubles the Number of Exorcists in the Archdiocese of Milan

(Mailand) "The Devil? He appears rarely in Milan, but sometimes still", writes the the Vaticanist Paolo Rodari about the city of St. Ambrosius and Charles Borromeo.  The number of people, who day for day use the Archdiocesan clergy offices, because they think, that they have been possessed by the devil or concerned about a person close to them, are steadily rising.

The requests are so numerous, that the Archbishop Angelo Cardinal Scola is adding the College of Exorcists in the Archdiocese and doubling their number through new appointments.  In the mean time the largest Diocese in the world doesn't have 6 exorcists, but 12 exorcists.

"As the inquiries show, the desire has doubled also,"  says Msgr. Angelo Mascheroni, Auxiliary Bishop of Milan and the one responsible as Director of College of Exorcists since 1995.  "There are so many questions, that we had to establish a telephone bank as the first point of contact."  This first telephone contact number gives information, offers the initial information and views the incoming questions according to various criteria, above all according to the principle of location, to spare the sufferer from a long journey.

How does the Devil show himself?, asks Rodari.  "I always ask fundamentally, if the affected person had visited sorcerers to whom they may have paid money to before they turned to us.  I also ask if they have been to a specialist, who can sometimes diagnose a psychic problem.  Finally,  it is also concerned with protect the relatives, where sometimes the parents, siblings or children can persist, that the devil is in play.'  The highest mission of the Exorcist is to be attentive and give consolation, where they are most concerned with experiences of broken people, who curse their neighbors.  It is appropriate to treat all with objectivity and to redirect to give these people notably the right view on reality, above all also the security, that the Lord is always greater and more powerful than the Devil.  The truly diabolical appearances are very rare in my experience."

Who turns to an exorcist? "The young and the old, men and women, people of various levels of education from those with the most elementary educations to academics.  Most call relatives near them, for the children and the youth, the parents.  They report that their son or their daughter rebels, and will not go to school any longer, takes drugs.  In the great majority of the cases there is no possession.  It involves natural generational conflicts much more in the development of youth.  It doesn't have to do with the actual calls for help, where the youth and the parents learn correct ways of interacting, in order to master a period of transition common to al.  It is therefore important to ask the seven questions, in order then to help notably, by recognizing real demonic appearances.  Msgr Lorenzo Longoni, a famous Exorcist says, that in his life he's only conducted one real Exorcism."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Museovirasto.fi

Link...

SSPX Has Productive Meeting Discussing Vatican II With Diocesan Clergy

Meeting in Diocesan Seminary

[Pius.info] The Society of St. Pius X in Germany offered regular places at priest conferences for Pastors and Chaplains for Diocesan pastoral care.

Last Monday the most recent meeting in Zaitzkofen in the Seminary of the Heart of Jesus ended.

13 Diocesan priests, who are friendly to the Society, had taken part.

"It was a meeting in an atmosphere with many enthusiastic discussions and a very lively, brotherly interaction,"  said Fr. Franz Schmidberger.  "We are very solicitous for contact with Diocesan priests," also stressed the District Superior of Germany, who had travelled from Stuttgart for the meeting himself.

The theme was Vatican II and its consequences.  The lecturers were the faculty of the Seminary of Herz Jesu.

The Germany District  had brought a priest, to take care of contacts with the Diocesan priests, Fr. Robert Schmitt. (See photo)

He was also present at the meetings and showed himself very pleased over the spirited interest of the priests in the Tradition of the Catholic Church.

Priests involved in pastoral care in the Diocese are heartily invited to get in touch with him.

pater.schmitt@pius.info

Link to pius.info....

Dissident Fr. Helmut Schüller Loses Title of Monsignor

Zivilpriester Helmut Schüller darf keine
Soutane mit violetter Paspelierung mehr tragen.
© Catholic Church (England and Wales), CC BY-NC-SA

Disobedience Initiative

Politics in the Conciliar Church:  doctoring with various honorary titles in stead of dealing with problems.

(kreuz.net) The leader of the Austrian "Ungehorsams-Initiative" and the Viennese Pastor Helmut Schuller has lost his papal honorary title "Monsignore".

This was something lamented by the Austrian media bosses who've been carrying water for him.

That his title will be removed from him will be imparted to him shortly.

Secular Priest Without Monsignor Soutaine?

The apostle of disobedience received the title for his activity for the alleged poor relief organization 'Caritas'.

The title "Chaplain to his Holiness" allowed the secular priest Schuller, to wear the soutane with the violette pipping.

The Reason? Three Guesses

Through the removal of the title, Fr. Schuller will not have his "fundamentals shaken".

An explicit reason for the removal has not been provided.

Now he will clarify the situation in the Vatican.

He Returns the Title Himself

The Holy See has only acquiesced to the desire of Fr. Schuler himself.

He explained himself in December 2010 about the title of Monsignor:

"I will send the decree back.  I will write therefore that I don't need the title any longer and: thanks for the appointment."

Link to kreuz.net....

New Spingtime: Dominicans to Give up Oldest Cloister in German Speaking Area

Edit: The closings are continuing.  Rorate Caeli just reported about the closing of the Monastery of St. Bernard in Switzerland.

(Friesach) The Dominican Order is giving its oldest lasting Cloister in the German speaking area.  The Dominican Cloister of Friesach in Kaertnen will be sold, as the Order Provincial told the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung.  Negotiations with the city of Friesach are already in process.  The city administration is considering the use of the Cloister facility as a senior home or a youth center.  A sale is not in question due to reasons of cost.   For the Nicholas Church, the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt has expressed interest, as the General Vicar Engelbert Guggenberger has stated.

A transfer of the Cloister property has been under discussion within the Order for years.  Already in 2006 the Provincial headquarters has reached a conclusion.  Today there are still two friars living in the Cloister.  The superlatives do not appear to have stopped the order.  Cloister Freisach is the oldest settlement of the Dominican Order in the German speaking area, as the Cloister church of St. Nicholas built in 1251 is the longest in use in Kaernten.

Already in the year 1217, only two years after the founding of the Order in France had still not taken place, but at the same time had come from the recently freed from heretical Albiginsians in Toulouse came the first Dominicans to Friesach,  with which formed the seed of the new community in the German speaking lands during the lifetime of St. Dominic Guzman himself (+1221). At its highest point there were 100 brothers in the Cloister. Then the Cloister went into decline, and there were times of spiritual deforestation of the Enlightenment.  They escaped the reforms of Emperor Joseph II. Through that time the Cloister lived through the French Revolutionary Spirit at the beginning of the 19th century in its decline.  In 1858 because of a lack of growth it had to be sold to Dominican Sisters of the Tirolean city of Lienz.  Through the recovery of the Order the Dominicans through the initiative of the Apostolic Nuncio Andreas Cardinal Fruhwirth, himself a Dominican, moved back to the Cloister in order to live again.  112 years later there is a second closing facing them.

Link to Katholisches...

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Dominikaner.org

"Silent Heroes" -- Museum for the Crimes and Victims of Communism in Bratislava

(Bratislava) In Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, in what was once the old Pressburg,   the Museum of the Crimes and Victims of Communism was opened.  It follows in important part of the "puzzle of remembrance", which several cities of the former East Bloc include.

The museum project can be approached as Slovakia deals with its recent past.  The old Communist cadres and their late adepts are still active also after 23 years since the end of their power.  The museum project was publicly proposed  by Silent Heroes an organization of former political prisoners and in 2010 by a forum of Christian societies.  The project was supported by the Slovakian Minister Iveta Radicova.  The Christian Democrat stood for parliamentary elections in March of 2012.  She wanted the museum to be built even by the government, in order to lend it a formal and visible status.  In the election, the center-left parties won and the museum had to stand on its own feet without government funding.

Christians Keep Alive the Memory of the Real Crimes of Socialism


On 16 November, the symbolic date which is reminiscent for the Slovaks of the non-violent "revolution" of 1989, marked the "temporary" opening of the museum. The official opening is planned for March 2013. The premises for the museum were provided by the University of Health and Work, whose Rector Vladimir Krčméry, a nephew of Silvester Krčméry, was one of the leading figures of the underground church during the Communist dictatorship where work could only be done under the most difficult conditions in secret, in "silence".

Rector Krčméry presented the museum which supports the vast attic of the building is available, which formerly housed the nursing school where the Blessed Sister Zdenka Scheling had been trained. Schelingová was entered into the long line of those who fell victim to Communism.

"We will endeavor to get a bigger space, but until then we will make the best possible use of the space available to us," said museum director Frantisek Neupauer, who is also chairman of the Association Silent Heroes. Neupauer was already an employee of the Slovak Institute of National Remembrance. Neupauer is constantly on tour for his museum collection. At the end of an interview the journalist of Czech Radio even gets out his wallet and gives Neupauer a donation.

The Museum is Concerned with the Communist Coup of 1948 to the End of the East Bloc of 1989

In the museum the period is represented by the communist coup in 1948 until the collapse of the communist dictatorship in 1989.  It focuses on the personal stories of many "Silent Heroes" who served the resistance to the dictatorship. It looks way through the city leading to the sites of oppression. In the archive of the Association Silent Heroes the cases of 70,000 "silent" victims are documented, whose names are hardly known today, "but which were characterized by their human greatness because of their sense of justice and the totalitarian regime they resisted. Each of them has helped that we have returned to democracy," said Neupauer. The medium-term goal of the museum is to document and totalitarian regimes outside Europe such as Cambodia.

In showcases, original pieces are seen, which were made by political prisoners in detention. For example, a puppet of the Good Soldier Svejk was made by prisoners in the uranium mines in northern Bohemia from wood chips and bread. The Federation of Former Political Prisoners, whose chairman Anton Srholec support the museum project with great commitment represents, more objects.

New Left-wing Government  won't give a cent for Museums, because there are "already quite a lot" of Museums

There is quite a different sound coming from the new left-wing government. Culture Minister Marek Maďarič, a former Communist, which occurs today in the Communist successor SMER stated already that the new government will notgive the museum "a penny" because in Slovakia "already are a lot of museums."

The memory of the Communist dictatorship and its perpetrators is not wanted by the new government. The attempt to cover up the suffering of decades, oppose the club Silent Heroes and the federal government of former political prisoners. They have left the Catholic tradition, where memory is more important than an abstract desire to be "emancipated" constantly from something. Each according to the requirements of his own past, where emancipation will be mere forgetfulness and coverup.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: muzeumkomunizmu.sk

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