"Islam Wants to Take Away Our Porno Videos"

Debate over Values

Martin Mosebach deals in his book "Der Ultramontane - Alle Wege führen nach Rom" [The Ultramonane -- All Paths Lead to Rome] with the question, among others, where the much prized Western values truly lay.

[kreuz.net] That Frankfurt's writer Martin Mosebach "participates in the claims of the Catholic Faith" and publishes "pointed messages to the Church, State and Society" is well known up till now.

That he has discovered the "Old Mass" and learned to treasure it and also otherwise is not inclined to the modernist inclinations of progressive secular theologians,  has distanced him from the progressive political side,  from the progressive "Catholic" side however it has brought him hate.

Nowhere has a conservative encountered  so clearly, open mistrust from Left Catholics, as he has noticed.

Mosebach has experienced the concept "Ultramontane",  which came from the "lapsed Prussian-Catholic conflict" again: "The Ultramontane lives in the conviction that the society of the homeland that he should have the last word in questions of law and morality."  and "The appearances of Catholics conceal the Ultramontane."  He recognizes therefore the Pope in Rome -- the city ultra montes (beyond the mountain) -- as the final authority.  "Ultramontanism is the refusal of anti-totalitarianism".


The Secularistic "Lehman-Church"

The current Catholic Church in Germany is no longer "ultramontanist", loyally bound to the Pope, it "is  not in a decided manner", it seeks "the Sonderweg (special way), which does not shy from being opposed to Rome."

What does "threat to Western Values" mean?

With the concept "Lehmann-Church" ( named after the Mainz Liberal-Cardinal)  the "degeneration of the Church is  bound to the open world consensus".  One is more transfixed by Islam, not to defend Catholicism, but because of the "threat to Western values".

And:  "The evidence is even now now presented, that 'threats to Western values' are described much more in terms of: "Islam will take away our porno videos".

Japanese Translator: Thomas Aquinas as Bach

Edit: this is probably one of the most genius comments written this year.

Bangkok (kath.net/KNA) Ryosuke Inagaki (84) emeritus Philosophy professor of the University of Kyushu, has completed his translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" into Japanese.  "Thomas' writing is like a piece by Bach, with a rhythm, which lightens the way.  For that reason, once I was into the translation,  it went seemingly fast,"  said Inagaki to the press service of Ucanews on Monday.  He did not find the work as an obligation.

The professor had completed the translation of  20 of the 45 volumes himself and accompanied the project till its completion at the end of September.  The "Summa" of the Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas (from 1225-1274) is counted of the most important theologico-philosophical works of the Middle Ages.

Inagaki, who was himself baptized as a student, learned of the work of Thomas Aquinas, among other things, from a US Officer stationed in Japan after the Second World War.  Later he studied the concept of Thomas' natural law.  As a translation project he pushed through the eleventh volume.

His favorite edition of the "Summa theological" remained according to Ucanews, a 1952 soft cover exemplar for the general US market with the title "My Way of Life".  The title made correct statement that Thomas wanted to make an instruction manual for people "who really wanted to be truly and actually happy", said Inagaki.

There were 15 researchers participating in  the Japanese translation by the agency.  Half of them did not survive to finish the last volume.  The founder of the publishing house, in which the Japanese "Summa" appeared, died two days after the completion of the galley proof of the last volume.  A Latin-German, was begun to 34 volumes of the extant edition in 1933.  It is still not finished.

Link to kath.net...

Gregorian Chorale Makes the Vocations Grow

(Washington) The regular Choir Brothers of the Premonstratensian Abbey of St. Micheal in California have published a new CD with Gregorian Music from the liturgical hours of their community. The Abbey of Silverado in Orange County is biritual and preserves the "Old Mass" as awell as the Novus Ordo according to the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council for Liturgy. The Canons Regular make a special consideration for the special value. Additionally they seek to presever the living content of their own order's special forms. Gregorian and Liturgy has offered a growth of vocations thorugh the years for the abbey. In an ineterview with the Catholic News Agency (CNS) the Premonstratensians have explained why the brothers have taken this particular manner for the spreading of Gregorian Chorale.

It is not so much a musical point of view, which they are seeking after, rather a conscious apostolate for the New Evangelization and the promotion of vocations.

The Abbey has led to numerous voations in its fostering of Gregorian Change and Liturgy.

"The beauty is made through the lifting up of the faithful, in order to build them, so that the Father can be praised in Mass" said Father Ambrose Criste, Noice Master of the Abbbey.

The 13 tracks of “Gregorian Chant: Together on the Way,” includes liturgical texts, hymns, and a litany. The songs were recorded in the St. Michael Abbey chapel, located in Silverado.

Father Chrysostom Baer, the abbey's cantor, said he chose the selected pieces as “the most Catholic things I could get my hands on.”

The selections were originally sung by the Norbertine canons to introduce and complement three performances by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Costa Mesa, Calif.

“We were going to give them some Catholic prayers,” said Fr. Baer, “and hopefully through the beauty of the moment, they would join their hearts to ours.”

The selections sang by the Norbertines at the concert hall in February of last year were then recorded so as to bring the music to a wider audience.

“It's a really excellent vehicle for evangelization,” said Fr. Baer. “I ran into someone just two weeks ago who recognized our habits from one of those concerts, who had more questions and wanted to come visit.”

Fr. Criste noted that their music is so beautiful because chant plays a major role in the Norbertine life. “It's something we do throughout the day, every day,” he said.

The abbey's public mass is chanted four days a week, and every day the Liturgy of the Hours is chanted. The seminarians of the order have choir practice five days a week, “which consists almost entirely of Gregorian chant.”

Fr. Criste said that chant is not just for religious communities. In the parish, “ideally, I would think it should play a daily role,” he reported.

“The (Second) Vatican Council was clear that pride of place goes to Gregorian chant, and that's just following in the tradition of the 20th century, all the way back to Pope St. Pius X.”

While acknowledging that not all parishes can have as wide or difficult a repertoire as can abbeys, he said, “everybody could sing some chant.”

Fr. Baer said the community hopes that its dignified, traditional liturgy “gives people an experience of what we know the Council was asking for in the public celebration of the liturgy.”

St. Michael's Abbey was founded by a group of refugees from a Norbertine abbey in Hungary in the 1950s which was threatened by Soviet control. The community currently numbers 76, including both priests and seminarians.

“God has blessed us immensely with constant vocations,” Fr. Criste said. “Every year we get a handful of young men who want to join our way of life, and given today's culture where they can do anything else that would be more 'exciting', that really says something about the grace of God.”

Norbertines are an order of canons regular also known as Premonstratensians. Though they are based in an abbey, they have pastoral ministry as well.

The primary apostolate of St. Michael's Abbey is its prep school for boys, though it also teaches and ministers at schools and parishes in the Orange and Los Angeles dioceses. Nearly all the public celebrations of Mass in the extraordinary form are celebrated by canons of St. Michael's Abbey.

“Together on the Way” will be St. Michael's fourth CD release. All are part of an effort to get the word out about the community, as they aim to build a new monastery and school to accommodate their vocations boom.
H/t Katholisces Source:Catholic News Agency Buy the LP here: none.

Pope Appoints Una Voce Chairman to Court of Appeal

(Vatican)  The last appointments by Pope Benedict XVI followed on time on the end of the year of 2012 on the 31st of December, concerned two new judges of the Appelations Court of the Vatican State.  The 1987 legal court is a vocational court of appeal for criminal and civil cases.

The new judges are Msgr. Egidio Tumarturi and RicardinlTurrini-Vita. Msgr Tumarturi was already a judge of the Sacra Rota Romana and member of the Diciplinne commission of the Vatican State.  In his later capacity he was the in charge of internal affairs into the allegations of mismanagement which has been entrusted to the then Secretary of the Govnorate of Vatican City, Ajrchibhosp Carlo Maria Vignano, who had now been raised Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. Allegation and investigations were made public by the documentable the then chamberlain of the Pope, Paolo Gabriele

The second new judge Riccardo Turrini Vita. The 51 year old Italian lawyer was from 1987 worked as a judge for civil matters in a district court first, then at the Supreme Court in Rome. From 1994 he worked in the Justice Department from 2002 to 2010 as head of the penitentiary system. In 2010 he was named general manager of the personnel department of the Justice Ministry. He represented the Italian government to Euro Europe, in charge of criminal and penal matters UN bodies and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This past 22nd November it was Pope Benedict XVI. received in audience (picture), as in Rome, the Conference of Directors of prison administrations of Europe met.

Turrini Vita is Magistral Knights of Malta, Commander of Gregoriusorden and board member of the tradition associated Association Una Voce (Section Italy), whereupon the Vatikanist Sandro Magister pointed. Una Voce works worldwide for the maintenance and propagation of the Tridentine rite. Turrini Vita was already in an earlier term chairman of the Italian section.

Una Voce Italia was one of the promoters of the 1st International pilgrimage tradition, on the 3rd November 2012 found its conclusion with a Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in St. Peter's Basilica. The pilgrimage was in gratitude for the grant of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI. place five years ago.
Link original...

Homo-Soho Mass is Over in UK

Here's from Damian Thompson it's a big story. Remember when we reported about this, that archbishop Muller as going to fix this? But guess what? It's to be replaced by a TLM. Here it is:

A big story has just broken on the Catholic Herald website:
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has announced that Masses in Soho organised for people with same-sex attraction are to end.
He also revealed that the church where the Masses took place will be given to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
The fortnightly “Soho Masses” at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street were established by the diocese almost six years ago. They were intended to be “particularly welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, their parents, friends and families”.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/damianthompson/

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re is (not) dead -- Dishonorable Role in the Case of Bishop Krenn and Msgr. Wagner?

(Rome)   The father of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops, who had reached the age of 104 has died.  Pope Benedict XVI. has extended to the Cardinal and his family his condolences.  Matteo Re was the eldest of the the older members of the College of Cardinals.  He first saw the light of the world in 1908 in the Italian province of Brescia.

Because of his father's great age of the father, it was assumed that the Pope's consolation note was meant for the Cardinal's death, who celebrates his 79th birthday on January 30th of 2013.

From 2000 to 2010, he was part of the important Dicastry for the naming of Bishops in the so-called Old World.  At the Consistorium of 2001 he was raised to Cardinal by John Paul II.  Til then Re was a Curial Bishop from 1989 as a substitute to the Vatican Secretary of State.  His career was introduced in 1987 with his appointment as Secretary of the Bishops' Congregation.

For ten years Cardinal Re had significant influence in episcopal appointments in the "old" Christian nations.  At the age of 76 years on the end of the second five year time of office, he was replaced by the French Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet,  who was much closer to Ratzinger's way of thinking.

In Austria, Catholics who are true to Rome are stubbornly of the opinion that Cardinal Re played a dishonorable role in the resignation of Bishop Kurt Krenn of St. Pölten, as much as he played in the rejection of Auxiliary Bishop Gerhard Maria Wagner in Linz.  In both cases it was after a smear campaign inspired by the media, that progressive parts of the Church exerted massive pressure on the persons concerned, to reduce the exercise of the episcopal offices for the sake of internal ecclesiastical peace.  While part of the clergy campaigned in conjunction, the other Bishops refused solidarity to those attacked.

The Italian Cardinal Gioanni Battista Re was born in the 30th of January 1934, in Borno like his father.  in 1957, he received his priestly ordination in his home diocese of Brescia.  There is also only one vacant place remaining, which which would be vacant in a conclave.

Link to katholisches...

Bishop Fellay Addresses 2012

Edit: it is primarily the enemies of the Church, the Jews, the Masons the secularists who are opposed to the reconciliation with the SSPX as well as the most ardent advocates of Vatican II.

"The situation is not desperate, no, it's not the same as before. There is some hope." - Bishop Fellay

Graz Professor Demands Death Penalty for Pope

Graz (kath.net) Richard Parncutt, professor of Systematic Musicology at the University of Graz, recently called for the death of Pope Benedict on the official University home page a few days ago.  He  finds the Pope responsible for the deaths of millions of AIDS victims in the future.  After complaints the text was removed.  According to the "Kurier" the Dean of the Psychology Faculty, Helmut Konrad, as responded recently and distanced himself from the text. "Inhuman expressions have been directly removed.  Personal views, which are not in conjunction with scientific work, will not be tolerated on the University website."

Parncutt did not directly explain his inhumane comments and has at present has made a prepared statement to all who feel themselves to be insulted by the text.   His proposal had been completely inappropriate.  After the Christmas break,  Parncutt will be invited to a discussion with the University administration.  Disciplinary steps will follow.  The Professor has also asked for the execution of those who deny global warming.

Link to kath.net...

German Trappists Continue Traditional Restoration of Their Community

In 1963 Eberhard Vollberg was born in Frankfurt.  In December of 1986 he entered the Trappist Monastery of Mariawald.  He received the monastic name of Josef and studied theology and philosophy at the Austrian Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz near Vienna.  In June of 2006, he was ordained a priest and in November of the same year selected to be Abbot by the abbey's chapter. Under his leadership Mariawald undertook the task, in connection with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum to use the traditional liturgical books.

Four years after this return to Tradition Paix Liturgique held an interview with Abbot Josef about this decision and its effect on the spiritual life of the Abbey.  The interview was in Brief 31 of the German edition of Pax Liturgique.

1) Could you say a few words about your Cloister, its history, its surroundings and its place in the Catholic world of Germany?

The Trappist Cloister of Mariawald is on the edge of the Eifel National Park, a distance of about 50 km south west of Cologne, a lonely place on the heights, surrounded by meadows and woods.  Its history began about the end of the 15th century with the growing interest in an miraculous painting, a Pieta.  In 1486 the Cistercians came here, in 1511 the Cloister church was consecrated.  The confusion of the French Revolution, just as much as the Kulturkampf and the Nazi-terror led to a gradualy dissolution and destruction, but the Mariawalder Cloister always restored itself like new.

Mariawald is the only Trappist Cloister in Germany.  The Trappists are monks of the renewal movement of the Cistercians in the 17th century, named after the Cloister of La Trappe.  The shortening of the order "OCSO" stands for Ordo Cisterciensium Strictoris Observantiae -- Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance.

In the Catholic wold of Germany Mariawald has lately taken a special place since the reform of 2008/09.  By a priviledge of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI., the Abbey looked to the books of the liturgy in the Rite according to the books which were in use by the Cistercians in 1963.  Mariawald is following the Holy Father's wish when he was Prefect and since then, to protect against the amnesia toward the spiritual roots and the everywhere encroaching self-destruction of the heritage of a more than 1,500 year old tradition.  The way of Mariawald  is so far understood as service to the sanctity of the Church and Christians in the world.

The reaction of the Catholic public corresponds to farflung circles not to the will of the Holy Father;  all too often the reform is dismissed as reactionary and therefore rejected.  On the other side Mariawald is also accompanied by joyful agreement and gratitude, as among others to those faithful who come to the Sunday High Mass and shown by the significant inquiries after guest retreats.  Also mentionable is also the tolerance and respect of certain friendly neighboring relationships of various communities, some of which have honored  and revered the holy image of Mariawald --- a relationship which is unfortunately the exception up until now.

2)  Could you explain your motivations, to address the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" of 2008 and choose the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite for you Cloister?  How as the situation before?  Has your community suffered in the post-Conciliar crisis?

Fruits following on the Second Vatican Council  were not recognizable:  The Community had became significantly smaller.  Between 1965 and 2011 there were many departures and among the vocations, older men and only two vocations of younger, who proved their worth.  For that reason there was the desire, in stead of the anthorpocentric tendencies of the new orientation, to turn again to put God back in the center.  Just like a tree, which can only live from the power of its roots, so may the monk -- and not only him! -- fill in the wisdom of hundreds of years as a treasure, of himself and the Church again with youthful power.

It is still noticed that the Liturgy Mariawald is not completely identical with the Roman Rite, but has some particularities in its calendar, in the Liturgy of the Holy Mass and especially in the Office.

3) How has the choice changed your religious life?  What are the practical alterations in the Breviary, the Prayers of the Office, the Music education and Liturgical celebration and the Mass service?

The reform has made the spiritual lives of the monks more remarkable and strenuous.  The new "old" Liturgy has to be learned; the singing of Gregorian chant is an art, which requires special schooling; the care of the Latin as the required language of cultus requires eagerness to learn and industry; the prayers of the Breviary is a demand of more time, and the beginning of the hours at night at 3am really needs a preparedness to self denial.  All of the effort finds its own reward  in the experience of the threatened loss of wealth.

The altar service must also be learned, the visitors to the liturgy also must learn. The Latin liturgy versus deum instead of versus populum offers another and truly also deeper way of participatio actuosa.  Similarly, Communion on the tongue leads to the possibility of a conscious awe.  By the way, the Holy Father gives Holy Communion on the tongue according to the Novus Ordo -- and gives an example of his desired "Reform of the Reform".

4) What is the impact this has had on the lives of your community? On the relationship between the monks, on the spiritual life?

Forty years with the reformed liturgy has made a reorientation of course difficult, especially for the older brothers. Initial tensions have subsided, however, the situation has calmed down. The opening for the unabridged tradition, the intensification of the spiritual life, as we fervently hope, has born fruit, not least because of new vocations. This impatience is misplaced. To speak with the image of a friend of the monastery: The Company of the reform of Mariawald is like trying to turn an ocean liner traveling at full speed by 180 °. Both will not succeed immediately. Also Mariawald needs time - and the prayer of many.

5) What  stock can you take from this choice from today's perspective? You have shown an effect on vocations? How many monks have you today, how many were there in 2008?

If you're ask for an appraisal of this decision: I'd do it again - despite a number of  and somtimes subtle difficulties.

There were and are many candidates for admission to Mariawald, since the reform there have been about 40 to 50. But with the specific requirements of the strict rule almost all will leave. This reflects the general social phenomenon of our times. The escape from a lifelong relationship is reflected, too, in all the unmarried people cohabitating and the growing number of divorces. The inability to commit has probably burdened all orders and is not specific to our reform path.

In 2008 twelve monks were part of the convent, and of them, two have died in the meantime. Today, there are thus ten, including a brother who has recently taken perpetual vows - they're still showing the willingness to bond - and a newly recorded novice. Later this year, a postulant will be included, and there are two or three others seriously interested. Not to mention there are three external monks belonging to the monastery to Mariawald.

6) Do you get visited by priests from dioceses and other religious communities, who have the desire to discover the extraordinary form or to learn it?

Inquiries from priests to learn the celebration of the Usus Antiquior from us, are still coming, however, at first they were more common. With its limited manpower Mariawald can not afford this training.

7) It is obvious that at parish level, the "Reform of the Reform" of Benedict XVI, who wants to encourage more kneeling Communion, Gregorian Kyriale, Eucharistic Prayer in Latin, celebration to the East, altar crucifix, etc., is spreading slowly. Do you observe a Motu Proprio effect in your Trappist community?

A positive response to the request of the Holy Father, to bring tradition in the Novus Ordo is not visible. Rather, there is, as it seems a rigid denial and continued discrimination against the Holy Father and a clear disregard of such statements as the Council for Liturgy. Obedience and humility don't seem to be ideals.

In our monastic community, to respond briefly to your last question, in the course of the reform efforts, there is, if not an unconditional love of all tradition, acceptance has still grown. They really do love them, wanting no longer to do without them.

Link to source...

The Benedictines of Nursia Have Made an Album

(Rome)  The traditional Benedictines of the Cloister of Nursia in central Italy have published a "Christmas Gift" Hymns and Antiphons of the Gregorian Chorale.  The Monks, who have lived just a bit more than twelve years together in the Benedictine Cloister in the home town of the founder of the order, Benedict of Nursia in 480, have made an album with Gregorian music on it.  The 21 pieces may be ordered on the internet site of the Cloister in MP3 and downloaded.  The Prior of the Cloister, Dom Cassiano Folsom OSB, describes it as a "little sign of thanks" for the help of benefactors and friends of the monastic community, which is subject to the Papal Commission Ecclesia Dei.  It was not done like a studio production, but in excerpts of the monks during the liturgical celebrations in the Cloister.

The Benedictines of Nursia celebrate exclusively the Immemorial Mass of All Ages [Which they consistently describe as "extraordinary Form"].  They are also entrusted to other Mass locations in Nursia and beyond in the "Old Rite".

1. Hymnus, Audi Benigne Conditor Nostras

2. Antiphon , Ecce Nunc Tempus Acceptabile

3. Hymnus , Lustris Sex Qui Iam Peractis

4. Antiphon , Scriptum Est Enim

5. Antiphon , Angelus Autem Domini

6. Antiphon , Et Ecce Terræmotus

7. Antiphon , Erat Autem

8. Antiphon , Præ Timore Autem Eius

9. Antiphon , Respondens Autem Angelus

10. Hymnus , Aurora Lucis Rutilat

11. Antiphon , In Illa Die

12. Antiphon , Iucundare filia Sion exsulta

13. Antiphon , Ecce Dominus Noster

14. Antiphon , O Sapientia

15. Hymnus , Conditor Alme Siderum

16. Antiphon , O Admirable Commercio

17. Antiphon , Hodie Cælesti Sponso

18. Hymnus , Æterne Rerum Conditor

19. Hymnus , O Lux Beata Trinitas

Source: Katholisches...

And now for the Sister Act Liturgy!

Edit: Vienna's infamous Cathedral Rector is the one with the rainbow chasuble.




H/t: Rorate Caeli.

Canonization of John Paul II in October of 2013?

Warsaw (kath.net/KNA)  In Poland there is speculation about a coming canonization of Pope John Paul II (1978-2005).  The Polish Catholic News Agency KAI reported  on a possible date in October of 2013 this Thursday.  The source for the unconfirmed information is not named.

In order for the canonization to come, Pope Benedict XVI. must recognize another intercession, it says. It must follow after the beatification of 1 May 2011.  On the 16th of October 2013 will be the 35th anniversary of Karol Wojtyla's election as head of the Catholic Church.

Professor Dariusz Kowalczyk of the Papal University of the Gregorian in Rome has told Polish broadcaster TVP, that it is "very probable" that the canonization will take place in October for the conclusion of the "Year of Faith".  The broadcaster speculates on the date of 20 October 2013.  In Poland, there is great eagerness for a quick canonization of Pope John Paul II.  Initially, the country's media had expected it for 2015 at the earliest.

The canonization process of John Paul II has been the shortest of modern Church history.  The Vatican is testing currently several reports of unexplained healings, which are attributed to the intercession of John Paul II.  The postulator of the canonization, Slawomir Oder, said in May that in three of the four cases had first attempted medicinal examination.  Preliminary to the beatification process, the healing of a French nun in June of 2005 was recognized as a miracle.

The canonization is a solemn declaration by the Pope about the exemplary Christian life of a person and over his final acceptance by God.  After the canonization, which will be completed during a solemn liturgy, the person concerned will be honored worldwide.

Link to source, kath.net...

Bonn: Man Refuses Islam, so They Cut His Tongue

Bonn (kath.net)  The Criminal Police of Bonn are searching for two suspected Islamists, who have cut the tongue of a young Indian. According to statements of Indian students two men threatened him on Christmas Eve,  that they would cut out his tongue if he didn't convert to Islam.  The student didn't react to this, whereupon the two men struck him down and wounded him, according to police reports, on the tongue.  The "Welt" reported this.  The reports of the 24 year old guest student have been rated by police as believable, said police spokesman Harry Kolbe, because of the physical description of the and the course of the crime, police are not ruling out that there is a "political back ground" and that the perpetrators come "from an islamic spectrum".  The victim in the mean time has been released from the hospital, but stands because of his police questioning "still very strongly under the influence of the crime".

Bonn is considered, as reported by "Welt", as one of the main cities of the Islamist scene, since is happened  just two and a half weeks since the bomb attack on Bonn's main train station was just thwarted, the Attorney General suspects "connections in radical-islamic circles".

Link to kath.net...

Pope's Brother: Benedict XVI Still Feels Fresh

Regensburg (kath.net/KNA)  Pope Benedict XVI. is in good health and "relatively fresh" according to his brother Msgr Georg Ratzinger.  Bayrischen Rundfunk (BR) said the earlier leader of the "Regensburg Cathedral Circle" in an interview on Christmas, that the Pope is in good health.  "My brother is still relatively fresh, he is holding up in work and that -- I believe -- already helps to stay fresh and not mentally damed up."  The limitations of age are bearable for the Pope.  Pope Benedict XVI has difficulties with mobility, but in age everything is "a bit more difficult".

Georg Ratzinger, who himself will be 89 years old on the 15th of January, will celebrate Christmas with the Monastery Chapter in St. John's in Regensburg.   On the 28th of December he will be traveling back to Rome he says.  He has already picked out a gift for his brother.  Among several CDs is a selection of the H Sharp Mass of Johann Sebastian Bach, which the Pope wanted.  The gifts can't measure up in the midst of the Christmas festivities.  "He has everything what he needs and to attend to rarities -- that doesn't go at my age any more and real rarities are also too expensive", says Ratzinger.

The evenings on the end of December and the beginning of January, which Georg Ratzinger spends with his brother in the Vatican, are not very impressive, says the one time Cathedral Kapellmeister.  Thus the learned church musician plays the piano for the closes circle of Papal colleagues, among whom two are cloistered nuns, and the secretary sings Christmas songs.  Cookies and punch are brought along too.

Link to kath.net...

SSPX Wins Libel Case Against Bavarian Newspaper

Edit: this is from the SSPX District page, which is a kind of Christmas present from the German government:

The era of slander against the Society of St. Pius X is coming slowly to an end.

Often there are and have been journalists, who in the newspapers or other media disseminate downright  tall tales about the Society.

The most recent case was on the 25th of October in the Mittelbayerischen Zeitung.  There an author by the name of Fritz Winter presumed to make hair raising assertions about the Society.

The Society went with these articles to the Court of Appeals in Nurenburg and received justice.

Conclusions of the Court of Appeals in Nurenburg from 21 December 20012 [Excerpt]

I.  As far as the appeal  by the applicant the conclusion of the Regensburg court of the 23rd of November has been amended.

II.  The adverse party will be condemned in the manner of an injunction, immediately in the first part of the "Mittelbayrischen Zeitung" with the same font as the editorial:

"The evil brothers" is printed on October 25th, 2012 without insertions and deletions reprints the following reply:

Replies

In the commentary "the Evil Brothers"  by Fritz Winter on the 25th of October, 2012, there were several untrue assertions of fact:

1. "The Society of St. Pius X is ... in its heart, an organization hostile to the Constitution."

It's true that the Government upon the proposal of the Representative Volker Beck among other things, had directed (Bundestag Printed Paper 17/3334): "According to the Constitution of the Government there is in relation to the Society of St. Piux X  no ... evidence for a constitutionally hostile activity."

2.  "They [The Society]  Promotes a "Catholic Theocracy".

It's true, that the Society does not promote a "Catholic Theocracy".

3. "They [The Society] oppress the rights of women."

It's true, that the Society neither oppresses women, nor their rights.


4.  "A serious distancing of all members [The Society] from Williamson and from anti-Semitic inclinations is not evident."

It's true, that the entire Society, represented by a majority through their General Superior and German District Superior as through the Rectors of the Priestly Seminary in Zaitzkofen, repeatedly and clearly has distanced itself from Bishop Williamson, whereby his  henceforth consequent expulsion goes beyond a mere distancing.  Similarly the Society has distanced itself from every form of anti-Semitism.

[The damages ordered and their justification follow here.]

Signed,

Huprich

Judge to the Court of Appeals

This court decision of the Higher Regional Court, Nuremberg is a major victory for the Catholic tradition, because he slanders against the SSPX by anti-clerical circles put a stop.>

Council: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn Rejects Extreme Interpretations

Edit: the kinds of hermeneutics and developments that would allow you to give a funeral to a Communist pornographer?

Vienna (kath.net/KAP)  Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has turned against extreme positions in the estimation of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In an interview with "Kathpress" and the media of the Archdiocese of Vienna the Cardinal has rejected all previous interpretations, where in the Council radically breaks with Tradition.

This determination is directed at those are only more fixed on novelties and reject Tradition, while the others demand a return to Tradition and reject the reforms of the Council.

Pope Benedict XVI. has warned against both versions and proposed a "hermeneutic of continuity". It is an organic development, says Schönborn. The Council has not been a break, actually it has been a "true doctrinal development" in the Catholic Church, for instance in relation to religious freedom, the Episcopal office or relations to non-Christian religions.

That in the wake of a Council that there are tensions and discussions about its correct interpretation, is nothing new in any case, says Schönborn. So it took about 300 years for example till the Church could prevail the doctrine of the Council of Nicea (325). From the earliest Councils till the Second Vatican Council, there have always been divisions or tendencies in the wake of Episcopal gatherings.

It is a very urgent task, says the Cardinal, that at least the central texts of the Vatican Council would have been reread, where for many it would probably be the first reading.

Admittedly there are still urgent tasks, which Pope Benedict XVI. also portends with the three volumes of his Jesus books. "It is completely decided on the question of the discipleship of Christ," stressed the Cardinal also with a view on the "Year of Faith".

A Christendom, "in which a vague love of God is somewhere on the horizon of lit and not the concrete visible living form of Jesus Christ with his invitation to follow" will sooner or later lose its ability to attract. A vague general religiosity is not able, "to gather people and imprint a society."

From kath.net...

Don Siro Cisilino, Guardian of the Immemorial Mass Through Trials and Bans

(Venice) Today it is hardly imaginable any more, what the climate was,  even a few years earlier it considerably more rough. Individual priests who would held to the old Mass were those who were hard pressed by the Diocesan church leadership. One of them was the priest Don Siro Cisilino, for whom it is to be thanked, that the celebration of Holy Mass in the "Old Rite" was never broken in Venice. A short portrait should portray his way. A few months before his election as Pope the then Patriarch of Venice, Albino Cardinal Luciani, forbid in 1978, with a hard line, against the celebration of the "Old Rite" in the city and in his entire Diocese.

The famous "city on the water" had a priest, Don Siro Cisilino, despite the 1965 intervening Liturgical revisions and the following Liturgical reform a few years later, held fast to the Tridentine Rite. The priest and musicologist born in Pantianicco near Udine in Friuli, worked as a pastor in lagoon city. There he wed the beautiful, 1718 classical style overlain on the previous medieval structure of the church of St. Simeon Piccolo. The church is consecrated to the Apostles Simeon and Thaddeus. In order to distinguish it from a nearby parish church, which is consecrated to the Prophet Simeon, it is called the parish church of San Simmeone Grande and the church on the canal is called San Simeone Piccolo. The oldest evidence for both churches traces the back to the 10th century.

Abrupt Liturgical Change: 1965 Introduction of the Vernacular, 1969 New Missal


As with the abrupt celebration of the Mass in the vernacular on March 7th, 1965,  Don Siro did not alter his practice.  He celebrated from then on in Latin according to the Missal of 1962.  The priest had already previously foreseen a radical change with inner disquiet and great sensitivity to the various small liturgical novelties.

As with the first Sunday of Advent in 1969 according to the 1965 translated Missal of 1962 a far deep ranging attack followed and a completely new Missal was introduced, Don Siro refused it.  He did not allow himself through any inducements or threats to celebrate the New Rite.

Exodus and Patience in the Catacombs

The changing times broke on Don Siro Cisilino.  The priest had to leave his church on the Canal Grande because of his refusal.  He took advantage of the Franciscans of the city for a right of sanctuary,  in order to celebrate outside of Mass times, in the truest sense of the word, to be able to celebrate the Old Rite in peace.

As in 1976 the case of Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X he founded "exploded" and the "Traditionalists" were persecuted like sectarians, the Franciscans revoked the guest friendship they offered.  Although Don Siro neither knew Archbishop Lefebvre nor had any contacts to this community, he became a victim of an over eager obedience.  He became too "hot" for the Franciscans.

The priest found a new guest friendship with the Benedictines on the island of San Giorgio near the Palace of the Doge.  In the crypt, which he was allotted by the monks, the Mass of Pius V survived in a certain way in the catacombs.  The Benedictines of San Giorgio were changed to the Novus Ordo, yet continued to celebrate in Latin and preserved the Gregorian chant.  This situation gave them understanding for the homeless priest, to whom they gave asylum.

Ways of Providence and the Return to San Simeone Piccolo

By a fortunate consequence, friends of Don Siro's spoke without hesitation of divine providence, when the famous church musician Carlo Durighello, took part in the humble feast, which was held in July 1977 for the 50th Priestly Jubilee of Don Siro. Durighello had received permission from the Curia,  to use the church, closed since the time of Don Siro's forced departure, for a church music concert.  With great expense, Durighello undertook the necessary renovations.

It was the first time through  this that the church musician and the musicologist met for the first time, and it came that Durighello invited Don Siiro to return again back to his old church.  After the first Mass celebration in August of 1977, the traditional priest was installed permanently on his Mass location at the Canal Grande.  The return meant also a departure from the catacombs of San Giorgio and new visibility for the Old Rite.  Under the general climate of that time, a daring step, which Don Siro did not take lightly.  He suspected new difficulties to come.

Soon word got around, that after years in the city without an available Mass in the "Old Rite" was celebrated.  The number of the faithful, who streamed to San Simeone, was ever greater.

Albino Cardinal Luciani, who later became Pope John Paul I, Forbid the Old Mass

The peace did not last long.  Only a few months later the storm broke.  The then Patriarch of Venice, Albino Cardinal Luciani declared in a document that "the celebration of the ancient Mass in the Church of San Simeone Piccolo and in the area of the whole Diocese, is to be categorically forbidden,"  it said in a private message and without the participation of the faithful.  That was the only notification.

In the official Diocesan paper (Rivista diocesana del Patriarcato di Venezia, edition April-May 1978, P 167)  the curia renewed its proclamation:  "The Patriarch previously forbid that in San Simeone Piccolo -- as has been against the protest of the current pastor, the Vicar and other faithful in the render-vous of the movement Una Voce -- that  the so-called Mass of St. Pius X is celebrated."  At least the ban, that the Old Rite may not be celebrated in the entire Diocese any longer, had fallen away.  Don Siro had to leave San Simeone Piccolo for a second time, but was able at least to return to celebrating Holy Mass on the island of San Giorgio with the Benedictines.

Early Death of John Paul I., Saved the Celebration on Canal Grande

After the death of Pope Paul VI. the Patriarch of Venice became elected the new Pope John Paul I on the 26th of August 1978.  His early death with only a pontificate lasting 33 days was such that the Patriarchal throne as well as the Cathedra of Peter in Rome became vacant.  This double vacancy allowed that the celebration of the Old Mass in San Simeone Piccolo could quietly continue.  Don Siro celebrated Holy Mass in the Tridentine Rite till the end of 1984 in the beautiful church on the Canal Grande right across from the train station of the city.  Becoming very sick, not the least because of his hard struggles of the previous 20 years, he returned to his home in Friauli, where he died on March 4th, 1987.

Liturgical Struggles From Death and Beyond

Even in death the Liturgical peace would be refused him.  The dead priest had never celebrated the Novus Ordo a single time in his entire life.  His wish and desire was to be buried in the traditional Rite. Prepared by past experience, his friends made the Curia of Udine aware of this on many occasions.  But still the former Archbishop of Udine, Msgr Alfredo Battisti, celebrated, without hesitating to violate the last will of the departed, the New Rite and versus populum, which Don Siro had steadfastly avoided his entire life.

Don Siro had never let the thread of the celebration of the Mass in the "Old Rite" in Venice ever break. The Holy Mass in the Tridentine Rite could also continue after his departure, in San Simeone Piccolo, where there were found other priests, who followed the example of Don Siro.  In this way, the classical Rite could continue in Venice uninterruptedly till the year of 2007, as Pope Benedict XVI rehabilitated the "Mass of All Times" with the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" and called it from the catacombs, to which it had been banned.

Don Siro is the Bridge Builder till Summorum Pontifical

Paolo Zolli, early departed Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Venice and Companion described the accomplishment of Don Siro with the words:  "In the harsh times of adversity courageous men are needed, who will carry the torch on further, till God grants better times."  In the implementation of Motu Proprio,  the former Patriarch, Angelo Cardinal Scola, erected the church of San Simeone Piccolo as a personal parish in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, which has been entrusted to Father Konrad zu Löwenstein of the Fraternity of St. Peter.

Link to original...

San Francisco Will Observe Feast of the Lord's Circumcision

San Francisco (kath.net/CWN/jg)
The first of January is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Archdiocese of San Francisco for Catholics. In the past years the Archdiocese had dispensed Catholics from the obligation when the feast falls on another day besides Sunday.

The USCCB has decided that the first of January may be foregone as a holy day of obligation. It is the Feast of the Circumcision on the old calendar. If this feast falls on a Saturday or a Monday, then it will be celebrated on Sunday. The Archdiocese is following this regulation and is annulling the dispensation. The first of January 2013 is a Tuesday.

Since 4. October 2012 the Archdiocese of San Francisco has a new Shepherd the former Bishop of Oakland, Salvatore Cordileone.

Bishop Williamson Openly Declares Himself

Edit: this just appeared on the Facebook group of "St. Pius X Fathers Pfeifer and Chazal on Facebook" with a picture of Bishop Williamson who appears to be now openly leading a rebellion he hopes to catch.

Ten priests of the resistance with Bishop Williamson at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Boston, Kentucky. Perhaps 10 more could have attended if not obligated to remain in their place by their pastoral duties. Many SSPX priests are in communication with the resistance, and undoubtedly more will join the resistance if things continue to worsen inside "Opus Fellay."

Announcement here:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?x3n67kw11x0t0ab

Stop the Spread of Christianity in the Universities: Directive of Central Committee of China's Communist Party

(Beijing), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has issued a secret directive to the authorities to take action against the growing spread of Christianity in the universities. This was announced by the human rights group China Aid, which also published the leaked document.

The Central Committee referred in its directive to in the evangelization of the universities as "deliberate infiltration" by the United States with the intent to weaken the growth of the People's Republic of China. The Central Committee has recommended to the authorities to dismiss or exclude, among other professors and students "involved illegal Christian activities".

The document confirms what was assumed in Christian circles for some time that the main thrust against Christianity comes directly from the most senior level of the regime. It shows that the Communist regime in spite of the change at the top in the near future is not willing to relax its relationship to Christianity.

The Central Committee statement is dated the 15th May 2011 and is marked "Document 18". It was written in collaboration between different ministries, including those for education, public safety, national security and foreign affairs. Also collaborating are the Department of Religious Affairs and the Labour Front.

The document, of which there are only 8330 copies, has been distributed by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council of Higher party, state and government agencies and the Army and the People's Republic of China was never published.

It reads in part: "With the rapid economic and social development of China and the solid growth of overall national strength [...] hostile foreign forces have intensified the exploitation of religion to infiltrate China and advance their political conspiracy, westernizing and dividing China" It continues: "Foreign forces in the universities have the key objective to infiltrate through religion, particularly of Christianity." Vatican Insider/Giuseppe Nardi Bild: Wikicommons

New Traditional Benedictine Cloister Founded on Sardinia

(Rome)  On the Mediterranean island of Sardinia there is a new traditional cloister of eremitical Benedictines.  Ten years ago a group of faithful bid the Bishop of Tempio-Ampurias, to have the Holy Mass in the Tridentine Rite.  Bishop Paolo Atzei, a Franciscan, denied the request with a letter of November 1st, 2002:  "I will never be the Bishop [...], who will lead back to what you and perhaps others in the area hope, to a pre-Conciliar return.  Still I will allow that others in the Diocese celebrate according to the Missal! [of 1962, note]  In 2004 Msgr. Atzei was named as Archbishop of Sassari by Pope John Paul II.

In 2004 They Formed an Old Ritual Community of Benedictine Spirituality

Eight years ago some faithful began the traditional group under the spiritual direction of a priest of the Ecclesia Dei Community, a common life in the spirit of Benedictine Monasticism and the "Old Rite".  The Classical form of the Roman Rite was in the mean time, thanks to the Motu Propr. "Summorum Pontificum" of Pope Benedict XVI. the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite was freed, however they had no location, and not from any lack of resistance in the Diocese.

2012 Has Begun With the Monastery

After several years of living in a private home and in the midst of the world, they wish to have their own monastery.  They found a place of retreat and a piece of land which could be acquired in a remote location.  In 2011 Father Konrad zu Lowenstein of the Fraternity of St. Peter blessed the property.  2012 has begun with the construction of the monastery.  The cell block is now largely complete. In 2013, the church and the cloisters will be built.

The community has so far not come directly to the public, nor has the exact location of the monastery building site been announced.   As Messa in Latino reported, the community asks for discretion, as they fear that in the light of their experience with the diocesan church leadership, that repression and a media witch hunt would necessarily bring unrest to the spiritual life of the group.  This reluctance has been criticized in part as secrecy.  Nevertheless, the community has firmly resolved in this.

The canonical status of the community is not resolved at the diocesan level, this was partly because of the secrecy so far that they have made no such request.  As yet, contacts with the Pontifical Commission of Ecclesia Dei could not be ascertained.  Nevertheless, the group pushes forward with the monastery and has asked for assistance.  Those who want further information may do so via the e-mail eremitani@hotmail.it.  Information is also likely to be obtained via Messa in Latino or Father Konrad zu   Lowenstein FSSP.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: Messa in Latino

Many Catholic Youth in Europe Tend to Abstinence

Genf (kathnews/CF)  Youth from the ages of 15 in Israel are far less sexually active than those of the same age in Europe.  The Jewish State showed in a comparable study on this subject that included 35 countries, was among the last places, namely 32.  The international questionnaire was commissioned in connection with the World Health Organization.  From the study, which was led in Israel by Doctor Yossi Harel Fisch and Dr. Iron Buneil of Bar-Ilan University, it says that compared to the youth of 1998, today's youth have become more conservative:  Of the 874 Jewish boys and girls 18,5% said that they had had sexual intercourse.  14 years ago they were still 27%.  The highest early age to have sexual intercourse -- according to this international Report -- were the youth of Greenland:  there it showed that 59.8% had already experienced sexual intercourse at 15.  In addition the 2nd place and 3rd places were also northern European countries:  Denmark (37.7%, Sweden (31.6%), even including Austria (31.6%) -- with England in 5th place with 31 %.

The Highest Abstinence Rate in Years: in two Catholic Countries

After the lower "Sex-numbers" come after Israel, the Ukraine (18%), Poland (15.7%) and Slovakia (12.7%).   With that indicates two Catholic countries (Poland, Slovakia) have the highest abstinence levels among their boys and girls -- or to put it another way:  the lowest sex quotas.  -- Not to forget the religiously stamped Ukraine.  Already, in the past two years the results of this international report was similar:  even then Slovakia and Poland showed the highest levels of abstinence.  The youth in Germany belonged according to a report in 2010 among the most "abstinent" countries (it sits in the lowest area, respectively the 11th from the last place: directly after Portugal).

Back to Israel and the most recent study.   The director of the Department for the Prevention of Psychosocial Damage in the Education Ministry, Hilla Segal, explained to the site "Ynet":  "We have become attentive that parents and teachers in Israel are increasingly showing a more conservative mind."  The expert continued:  "Sex in early ages leaves emotional and psychic damage.  It is increasingly clear that youth in these ages are often under pressure to engage in sexual relationships and  this harms them later."

From kath.new....

Mass of All Ages in Northern Germany

Kiel/Hamburg (kath.news).  Since the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" of Pope Benedict XVI. the "Old Masss" have been done quite a bit.   St. Mary the Queen in Bad Schwartau was already the first parish in the Archdiocese of Hamburg to have an additional service in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in 2007.  It was followed by St. Joseph in Lubeck, St. Bonifatius in Kronshagen near Kiel as well as St. Joseph and St. Bruder Konrad in Hamburg.  Kiel and Hamburg are among the most recent Mass locations which will their anniversaries this coming January.

"2 Years of the Old Mass in Kiel" opened the event announcement on the website Alte Messe im Norden.  The opening of the celebration will be with a Holy Mass with the closing Blessing of the Three Kings (Epiphany) in the Usus Antioquior on the 5th of January in St. Bonifatius.  After Holy Mass, there is a luncheon planned where all present are invited.  Father Bernward Deneke (FSSP),  who arrives as celebrant, will give a lecture in the afternoon on "The Virtue of Fortitude".  His departure will include the Feast on January 6th with an Holy Mass, also according to the Vetus Ordo.

Only a week later, there will be the next anniversary event: "1 Year of the Old Mass in Hamburg-Osdorf",  is how the invitation reads on the 'Alte-Messe-Homepage' in the events column.  On the 13th of January 2013, the Feast of the Holy Family, a Levitical High Mass will take place in the church of St. Bruder Konrad.  At its conclusion there is an invitation to meeting after with coffee and cakes.  According to the official Diocesan Newspaper of Hamburg of the 15th of December 2011, Archbishop Dr. Werner Thissen has arranged the Sunday and Feast Day celebration of Holy Mass in the extraordinary form as an additional Mass offering in St. Bruder Konrad.

From Kathnews...

The Catholic Church is Losing its Status as National Church in Liechtenstein

Vaduz (kath.net/KNA)  The separation of Church and State in the Principality of Liechtenstein has taken another step.  In the Parliament of Vaduz 19 of the 25 representatives voted for the new law on religious association, as the Swiss media reported on Friday.

The law is the central element of the new organization of the relationship between State and Church.  Additionally there are constitutional revisions with the Catholic Church losing its special position as the National Church, as well as the concordat with the Holy See.

The Constitutional alteration will be put in effect in 2013 before the newly elected parliament.  Passing a fundamental law requires two further proceedings as well as pass with a two thirds majority.

In the new law regarding the recognition of religious societies, the Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church will be included. Over 75 percent of the 36,000 inhabitants are Catholic;  50 years ago it was still 90 percent.

The Archdiocese of Vaduz, which includes the entire territory of the small country, was established in 1997 by the Vatican.  A law from 1870 served as a legal precedent.

In the second reading the Parliament decided to establish the religious declaration at 14 years of age; in Switzerland it is set at 16.  It was additionally decided to restrict obligatory religious instruction in school to the primary school.

The recognized national religious communities will be financed by a mandated tax.  Those obligated to pay the tax can determine to which community his portion of tax will flow.

The government of Liechtenstein has stated that the prescribed religious communities shall receive 2 percent of the wealth and tax income of the nation and the community.  This corresponds roughly to less than three million euros per year.

The Concordat as applied to the property rights will be divided at the community level.  The Principality and the Vatican have already united on the level of negotiations.  Originally the signing of the agreement was planned for 12 December.  For "reasons of a deadline" they will probably not take place till the beginning of January 2013, it is said.

Link to kath.net...

Belgian Socialists: Euthanasia for Minors Also

Brussels (kath.net/KNA)  Belgian Socialists want to expand active assistance in dying for minors.  Media reports (tuesday) will apply to youth and children, who "have the maturity and the soundness of judgment, to understand all of the consequences",  can be entitled to undergo euthanasia.  Additionally, there may be a statement of understanding by the parents,  as it says in a drafted bill of the Socialist Party of President Elio Di Rupo.

The Flemish Christian Democrats stress that this is not a proposal of the government.  There are six parties participating in the government.  The proposal originated from Senator Philippe Mahoux, who is according to Belgian media, the "father" of the current assisted death law.

Active assistance in death has been permitted in certain circumstances in Belgium for ten years.  According to valid law a terminally sick patient in full possession of his mental faculties must express the desire to die "voluntarily, considered and repeatedly".  There must also be no hope for improvement.  The illness must make the continued existence for the patient "physically or psychologically unbearable".

Link to kath.net..

Clemency for the Pope's Butler

Rome (kath.net/as)  Pope Benedict XVI has offered clemency for his former butler, Paolo Gabriele and released him from punishment.  The Pope imparted this to him during a visit to Gabriele's cell.

It was approached as fatherly gesture to a person, who had familiar contact with the Pope daily for several years, says a note from the Secretary of State.

Gabriele may not work any longer in the Vatican.  He also may not continue living in his home.  The Holy See however trusts in the honorability of his rethinking and is seeing to it that he is offered the possibility to take up again living in peace together with his family.

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck Criticizes Pope Benedict's Concept of Family

(Essen) In January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI defended the family at the new year's reception for the Diplomatic Corp in the Vatican.  This questioning poses a threat "for human worth and the future of humanity", said the Pope.

The special protection of marriage and family was also the Leitmotiv of the papal visit to Spain (From the 8th of July to the 9th 2009) of the 5th World Meeting of Families there.  In Valencia the Pope said, the defense of family values is "the best way, in order to go against widely spread hedonism, who reduces the relationship between people to banality, and robs their authentic virtues and beauty."

In an interview with KNA, Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, criticized those who defend the traditional family yesterday:  "The earlier roles , where the husband is employed and the woman principally cares for the children doesn't exist any more.  To want to hold onto it, would be in fact social romanticism.  The educational possibilities of women and their involvement in the work process have fundamentally altered the family picture." In the interview the Bishop adopted the anti-family and anti-child positions of the business lobby, according to which the woman must be employed around the clock as a force for the economy.  Msgr Overbeck promotes the complete care of children out of house.  He did not plead only for the building of nurseries for under three year olds, but he requiests nurseries, which could also receive children at night.

Bishop Overbeck expressed himself as an economic lobbyist and also adopted the typical scheme of argument which attacks the family out of interests in profit:  "Surely there are certain areas for a labort shortage, which can be avoided by the building of more nurseries.  But on the other side it is good for a political answer to new challenges for the family.  Many women want both, to be mothers and pursue a job. I understand that."  In one statement Overbeck conveyed himself so far such as only economic lobbyists and those in public policy say, that to one a woman is in view of the "labor shortage" buttoned down,  further that mother, not only bears her children, but would like to care for them and raise them herself, is not realizable any longer.  Finally,  man will be reduced to a mere consumer, who lives to work, in order to consume.

Link to katholisches...

Apologetics Cruisers

Edit: is there a rule against taking some form of recreation even during Lent?  In a time when most Catholics don't  fast during Lent, much less avoid meat, this newfound Jansenism on the part of some borders on the hypocritical.   For what could be worse? Supporting abortion, sodomy, the distribution of condoms and Marxist schemes using the Catholic name, or going on a cruise during Lent with Father Z?

Surely, some of these effete newly austere navel gazers have the purest motives when they attack Michael Voris and FatherZ for holding a Lenten Retreat aboard a ship bound for the Caribean islands.

Critics of this retreat would do well to take a close look at what they're objecting to.  A retreat can be a  a beautiful place, even a kind of hothouse, with good food and companions, where a man can withdraw, retreat, from the rigors of his life to take stock, still his heart and listen for God's voice.

Most retreat facilities fall nothing short of luxurious and might be accused of providing a vision of heaven and are comparable to an above average to luxurious hotel.  After all, what is a cruise ship but a hotel on the water?  Even the more austere retreat houses are far from uncomfortable, but not all of us are Carthusians, or meant to be.

Certainly, the J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative creation of the last refuge of the Noldor in Middle Earth at Rivendell has been compared to a retreat, a place to rest and refresh the soul.  It is nothing short of glorious and luxurious.

Indeed, there are few things more peaceful than sailing along the water, watching a magnificent sunset and hearing the sound of the waves and the birds after having heard a moving and thoughtful Conference by the skillful retreat director.

Any way, the Catholic Church's own puritanical Jacobins are up in arms all over the place and the usual suspects are making themselves heard.  Some of the most vocal critics have been on "apologetics" cruises themselves, which were quite expensive and frankly decadent, upwards of 10,000 dollars.  

The cost of going on a Father Z and Michael Voris cruise is $1,000-$2,000,  which is rather Spartan in comparison.

Karl Keating himself has been kind and wise enough to see how this current blogger frenzy might bleed over into his own Catholic cruise interests, which one of the most vocal critics of Voris forgets he benefits from.

Errors of Translation in the Pope's Book on Childhood Narrative of Jesus --- One Error Makes (Sadly) Three

(Rome) "The childhood narrative" by Pope Benedict XVI., of the the third volume of his three volume work Jesus of Nazareth has found itself in the most various lands on the first place of the best seller lists    as the most purchased book.  The Vaticanist Sandro Magister has drawn attention to the translation errors which have appeared in the Italian, Spanish and French editions.  Pope Benedict XVI has published his work in his native German.  The various texts are translated from the original German.  Magister noticed the translation errors, where he found them on page 136,  as the exact same error appeared in the other editions.

Benedict XVI. introduced in the German issue (page 124), that the epithet used for Jesus, Nazarean, which is also heard as "nezer" appears in "the middle of Joschua 11:1".  There it says in the Holy Scripture, "From the root of Isaiah grows a shoot (nezer)."  The Pope continued:  "Yes, we may understand with much justification, that Mathew heard the word "shoot" (nezer) and identified Jesus is indicated as the Nazarean in the fulfillment of the promise, that God would grow a new branch on the immortal stump of Isaiah,  on which the spirit of God would lay.

The Italian edition reads: "[...], that God will give a new shoot from the stump of Isaiah, ..."

"From the stump of Isaiah?", asked Magister.  Isaiah, the Father of David, from whose line Jesus was born.  In the few lines previously it reads in the German original and the Italian translation correctly: "The special on this promise that Isaiah hearkens back to the progenitor of David.  From the apparently dying stump, God is letting a new shoot to grow."  In the original Joshia (Jes) and Isaiah (Genitive Isais) is self-evidently used correctly.  In Italian Joshua is Isaia and Isai Jesse.  The similarities serve to make them  interchangeable.  And actually the names are used interchangeably in the Italian edition at this point.

The Italian translation and product was by Ingrid Stampa, the former house keeper of the Pope, from 1991 to 2005 during his time as Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.  It is upon her that the same errors in the French and the Spanish edition are traced, as Magister suspects.  That one and the same error appears in the three different translations is "statically more than improbable", says the Vaticanist.

In the French edition, as it appears in the Publisher Flammarion,  reads that the translation is "from the German" and was accomplished by Mother Marie des Anges Cayeux of the Dominican Order, of Lazzarist Father Jean Landousies and by Msgr. Jean-Marie Speich.  The Spanish translation was done by Augustinian Friar Fernando del Rio.

In the French edition the erroneous statement "de la souche morte d'Isaie" (correctly it reads: de Jesse).  In the Spanish edition the statement is also false, 'del tronco muerto de Isaias" (Instead of correctly as "de Jese")

Already the genetive Isais could have led to the erroneous translation in the German original.  Clearly the translator used the Spanish and French editions also next to the German original also the erroneous Italian translation of Ingrid Stampa and already had tripled one, small, but not unnatural error.

Stampas translation, on the other hand, did not undermine the other editions in English, Polish and Portuguese, in which the German original was carried over correspondingly.

Link to katholisches...

Faithful Catholic Priest Sues Anti-Kreuz.net Campaigner David Berger for Libel

The Kreuz.net Saga Continues

Edit: David Berger was a theology professor who also taught in the Diocese of Cologne until he was finally fired over his appearances in indecent clothing on an immoral dating website.  David Berger has since been campaigning to get kreuz.net removed from the internet.  This time he's stepped on a legal land mine.

(Herzogenrath)  After intensive evaluation by several attorneys, Dr. Guido Rodheudt, a speaker for the faithful to Rome, Priesternetwerks (Priest Network) has filed a complaint with the District Attorney of Aachen on December 12th, 2012, against Dr. David Berger for abuse, defamation and libel.  The object of the complaint were his statements in an interview which were published in the Aachener Zeitung December 15th, 2012, last Saturday.

"I believe he distanced himself so clearly from kreuz.net, because it could have otherwise become dangerous for him. A few months previously, he had not distanced himself and for a long time he used the page as a willing instrument, in order to bring his ideology to the people.  An approval of the site is the same thing as a collaboration on the other hand."

When the Aachner Zeitung pointed out that the District Attorney assigned from Berlin was not proceeding against Pastor Rodheudt, Berger said:

"Rodheudt has a close connection with Jolie, who has always had a connection with kreuz.net.  It's interesting that the homepage posted a Rodheudt organized Liturgical event in Herzogenrah a few hours before it went offline.  I am therefore convinced, that there kreuz.net was discussed and that it was a signal to those responsible that the arch was under strain."

The legal case against Dr. Berger became necessary after after the vulgarity of diverse allegations now by many in the local media from him, were inflicted by his statements in the interview and rendered serious damage to Pastor Rodheudt's reputation as a priest. Pastor Rodheudt sees himself as the victim of a campaign that Dr. Berger is directing in his own interest, because he, as a practicing homosexual and therefore as someone who is openly against the moral standards of the Catholic Church, does not hold any official position in the Church anymore.

"But I am not directly or indirectly causally responsible for the professional demise of Dr. Berger, nor are the Christian moral laws, which he has failed at toward myself, despite the fact that I represent as a Catholic priest," says Pastor Rodheudt. Pastor Rodheudt is exposed as a representative of the Catholic Church a proxy war, the Dr. Berger against the Catholic Church as a whole leads because they have "discriminated against" him from his point of view in that it does not adopt his morals. In this context, David Berger does not hesitate to put innocent people under suspicion in public, without having facts to prove this.

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A majority of Russians Favor Stricter Laws Against Blasphemy

Moskau (kath.net/KNA) A majority of the Russian affirmed greater severity for blasphemy laws. As the independent research institute Lewada revealed on Monday, 49 percent agree that the defamation of religious sentiments should be an act punishable by law. 34 Percent are against.

The defamation of religious feelings have been in force in Russia only as an ordinance violation till now. A partisan bill will provide in the future for three years imprisonment. additionally the damage of Church spaces will be punished with five years in prison. The Parliament will rule over it in January. The initiators point to the increase in the defilement of faith communities and damage against religious sites.

There was outrage in Russia above all concerning the protest of "Pussy Riot" in the largest Orthodox Church in Moscow last February. Two of the participants were charged under "hooliganism out of religious hate" to two years confinement and a third musician was sentenced to probation. For this punishable act there is a possible 7 year sentence.

According to the poll 74 percent if Russians recognize themselves as Orthodox Christians. That is 6 percent lower than 2009. The number of Muslims climbed between the three years from 4 to 7 percent. Catholics have shown themselves at 1 percent, therefore somewhat more than three years before. Atheists remained unchanged at 5 percent. A further 10 percent described themselves as without confession.

http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=39346