Rep. Stupak prepared to strike down healthcare reform over abortion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

It's amazing that the only sacrament Liberals have, abortion, will be used to defeat their quest for the philosopher's stone with which they desire to put in the crown of their welfare state, Socialized Medicine. We know Stupak would vote for the Bill if it didn't have Abortion funding in it, because he's a good liberal, but now, in a fit of strangest and sudden loyalty to a principle of love, he is standing fast against the massive perfidy of liberalism.

Rep. Stupak prepared to strike down healthcare reform over abortion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Santo Subito, Questions about the late Pope's Legacy

John Paul II's sainthood has now been pushed back to October, but it's still going to happen, apparently. It seems fitting to discuss the impending Sainthood of the first Polish Pope in the background of the latest allegations against his favorite order, The Legionaires of Christ and their founderMaciel. The photo shows him with a panama hat and civilian clothes. I know that traditionally Mexico's anti-clerical government wouldn't allow priests to wear clerical attire in public, but priests who appear in public out of uniform always raise our suspicions. (You get the impression that they are actors who've exited the stage and have taken off the persona with their makeup.)

There has been some attempt in the PR area to excuse the late Pope's apparent incapacity to deal effectively with the tidal wave of child abuse which happened on his watch, by pointing at his life under Communist governments. It's true that Communists did then and still do persecute Catholic leaders and the Church as a whole on this basis, but we'd like to think that JPII could have been more proactive in dealing with these monsters, even if they are just one small part of the degeneracy of our civilization at large. See, many of us have a strong sensation that our late Pope didn't do all he could to fight the spirit of the age, and succumbed to it more than he fought it.

Ultimately, the Maciel scandal will no-doubt hang heavily on the impending canonization of this long-lived Pope. We'd like to think that the Church will do whatever is true, whatever public opinion happens to be.

Latin Mass in Anchorage starting This Saturday

Unfortunate that it's on Saturday. Not conducive to normal parish life, but it's a beginning after all.

CatholicAnchor.org

Beginning Saturday, March 6, 7:30 p.m., Holy Family Cathedral will regularly celebrate the extraordinary form of the Mass, more commonly known as the Tridentine Mass. The Saturday evening Mass will be a vigil Mass which will fulfill the Sunday obligation for Mass.

The Tridentine rite – which is said in Latin – was the standard Roman Catholic liturgy before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In his July 2007 apostolic letter, Pope Benedict XVI reasserted its wider usage.

Young men interested in serving at the Mass should contact Father Vincent Kelber at 276-3455.

Rutger's University is Training Abortion Clinic Escorts

It's not a good thing.

NLG Clinic Defense Project: Clinic Escort Training Clinic Escort

Training Monday, March 8th, 6:15-7:30pm. Room 105. Representatives from the Philadelphia Womens Center will conduct a training in clinic escorting; providing women in need of abortion an escort through anti-abortion protests and observing protesters to ensure they follow the law. Participants in the training will have an opportunity to join the NLG's Clinic Defense Project.Publish Date:02/23/2010Copyright: Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyRutgers School of Law – Camden, 217 North Fifth Street, Camden, NJ 08102 856-225-6375

https://camlaw.rutgers.edu/webapps/rulawnews/publish.php?item_id=722

Muslim Groups, Anti-Catholic Groups at Midwestern "Catholic" Girl's University

Can Heretics, Infidels and Reprobates share the same Campus?

Saint Catherine's University has long had a reputation for promoting non-Catholic agendas. It hosts socialist Alinskyite programs that promote abortion and birth control and homosexuality like, MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group), or check out their facebook organizing group aligning themselves boldly with Planned Parenthood and NARAL. It also has pro-homosexualist groups. Now, in an efffort to be extremely all-inclusive of everything but actual Catholicism, they're hosting an Islamic Group whose goal is to promote and explain Islam and extend "peace". Since Islam admittedly spreads peace by the sword, I wonder if they'll attack the Homosexual groups and individuals on campus?

St. Catherine's does have a Latin Club, however, as far as can be told, there's not actually a Catholic group, indeed, it's hard to say if there's any Catholicism there at all.

Nebraska Bishops, inlcuding Bruskewitz, Want to Extort Money from Taxpayers too

It's one thing to use your moral authority to exhort people to help care for people down on their luck, even if they break the law and come here illegally, but it's another thing entirely to use that influence to encourage lawmakers to pass laws to help extort the money from taxpayers and crow about how charitable you're being, and ironically, how uncharitable others are being who oppose your designs. Maybe these Bishops don't get it, but government isn't a solution.

Again, perhaps if Bishops were as concerned about real justice, real charities and doing their jobs, which is saving souls, perhaps more people might be moved to act charitably?

In any event, Bishops like Gumbleton and Wuerl advocate for this non-sense, so it's surprising to see apparently conservative Bishops engage in this shakedown routine as well.

LINCOLN — Nebraska's Catholic bishops are turning up the heat on Gov. Dave Heineman to reverse his opposition to government-funded prenatal care for low-income, illegal immigrants.

In a letter Wednesday to the governor, Omaha Archbishop George Lucas, Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and Grand Island Bishop Thomas Dendinger expressed their “high level of concern and disappointment” with Heineman's position.

“This is an important and urgent pro-life matter,” the letter stated. “Denying prenatal coverage care in these circumstances of family poverty is an affront to human dignity and pro-life principles.”

Read further...

Peers Vote to Lift Ban on Gay Marriages in Churches

Knowing how litigious homosexuals are, this is likely to involve some lawsuits against the Catholic Church, like the one already threatening the last Catholic adoption agency in England, here.

[BBC] Peers have voted to lift the ban on same sex couples holding civil partnership ceremonies inside churches.

The House of Lords agreed an amendment to the Equality Bill which would allow, but not compel, religious organisations to host the occasions.

Gay rights campaigners celebrated the change, but opponents said it could be impractical and undermine marriage.

Peers voted by a majority of 74 in favour of the amendment, which was not backed by the government.

Read further...

English Bishops Veering Away from Big Government

Perhaps there are many Bishops presently for who want to spend more time engaging in wealth confiscation as an abettor of liberal government, but they're increasingly departing from their liberal orthodoxy and getting some old orthodoxy. Perhaps they are going to become more concerned about saving souls as they are about promoting the same old Labour policies and extolling the mythical "common good"?

Perhaps they are starting to realize that collorating with Liberal governments don't serve their stated mission to save souls very well?

The Bishops Have NOT backed the Tories Yet -- but they are beginning to talk sense.

[The Telegraph] The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales unveiled their pre-election briefing today and it’s a vast improvement on their traditional “let’s-throw-money-at-social-problems-and-you-know-which-party-that-means-voting-for” approach.

Choosing the Common Good questions the myth – yes, it uses the word “myth” – that the state can solve all our problems. In that respect it’s a big advance on 2004’s Taxation for the Common Good, a hymn to the public sector that could have been (and maybe was) dictated by Downing Street.

There are paragraphs that resonate with David Cameron’s “bottom-up” philosophy of community initiatives. Also, though this is not mentioned, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, who has the education portfolio, has given his blessing to the free schools initiative (rather to the alarm of doctrinaire Lefty Oona Stannard, head of the “Catholic” Education Service).

Read further...

Jesuit President of Loyola Marymount Resigns

More shakeups with the Jesuits. It seems that someone is listening and growing concerned with the flagrant abuses and integrity gaps. There are still quite a few more to go, but don't let anyone tell you that your righteous concerns don't matter.

Jesuit Fr. Robert B. Lawton announced on Monday he will be stepping down as president of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles when the current academic year ends. Fr. Lawton has led the school since May 1999. During his tenure, he allowed pro-abortion commencement speakers, dissident theologians, and approved policies giving insurance coverage to the “registered domestic partners” of school employees, as well as offering school workers “enhanced contraceptive coverage.”

Read further...

The Vitriolic Defenders of CCHD

The defenders of CCHD are exactly what CCHD is accused of being.

One contributor at NCR spent a few paragraphs trying to exonerate the CCHD and the US Catholic Bishops and their staffs. He accused those concerned with CCHDs activities of engaging in an "unchristian witchhunt". Of course, Winters can't really address the reality of these claims, because he agrees with the anti-Catholic agenda himself and instead, vents his fury.

We thought we'd take a minute to look at him. We know he's a proponent of homosexual priests, here. He was happy when Obama came to Notre Dame to speak, here. George Weigel gave him the "McBrien Prize", which apparently, isn't a good thing, here

Link to CATHnews...

NCR says Pope's Liturgist Won't Rule out Communion on the Toungue becoming Normative

In his interview with NCR, the Pope's liturgist will not rule out that communion on the toungue and kneeling won't become normative. Although some might despair on this point, the impetus is definitely heading in this direction, and we could well see, to the chagrin of many liturgists, that these practices, including the use of Latin and the Immemorial Mass may become more commonplace and sought after than their current unsatisfactory liturgical faire.

Marini told NCR, however, that Benedict’s style is to “propose” these practices so that they may be slowly “welcomed” into the life of the church, rather than imposing them by authority.

“It’s the style of the current pope to move forward not by imposing things, but proposing them. The idea is that, slowly, all this may be welcomed, considering the true significance that certain decisions and certain orientations may have,” Marini said.

Marini did not rule out, however, that such practices might be made binding at some future point.

“Whether sometime down the line, in the future, what the pope is presenting should become more of a disciplinary norm [for the whole church], we don’t know and can’t say,” he said.

Pelosi Again Denies [lies] Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill: I Talked With the Bishops

Lifenews

Pelosi Again Denies Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill: I Talked With the Bishops

More Disturbing News about the CCHD

What's really disturbing about this is that they've been doing this since the CCHD was founded and seem more concerned about being caught than actually doing something to put a stop to this.

Would it be too much to abolish the USCCB while we're abolishing the CCHD?

by Deal W. Hudson   

2/02/10

More startling evidence has been unearthed about the Catholic Campaign for Human development that shows a disturbing pattern of cooperation between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and groups that advocate abortion and same-sex marriage.

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7604&Itemid=48

Some Disturbing News About Catholic Youth

March 2, 2010

There has been some disturbing news of late regarding young Catholics and their moral formation.  First, 65% of Catholic young adults (18-29) believe that homosexual sex is either a moral good (!!) or morally meaningless.   This is contrary to what the Church teaches on this subject.  Look, if you want to believe gay sex is a good thing, fine, but that's not the Roman Catholic viewpoint, and actively engaging in such acts has always been viewed as a serious sin.   So, these 'millenial' Catholics are conflating a serious sin with something morally good or ambivalent.  This is a failure of formation, pure and simple.  While the culture, influenced by a wealthy and highly effective lobby, has been shouting to the rooftops that homosexual activities are natural, normal, and even chic, the Church obviously has not gotten it's 2000 year teaching through to most young people.   There are good signs however – these millenials are opposed to abortion and adultery.  But not opposed to premarital sex.  This brings me to the second, more concerning article – Catholic female college students, enrolled in nominally Catholic colleges, are far more promiscuous than students enrolled at non-religious colleges, and waaay more so than those enrolled at evangelical colleges that take their faith very seriously.  This is like a punch to the gut, but it confirms what we've heard before.   Catholic colleges, with a very few exceptions, are no longer places that support, defend, and strengthen the faith of its students, but have become wordly to an extent that they actively destroy the faith of those who enter under their rooves.   It's important to note that this study was not conducted by an organization that may have an agenda, but by researchers at Mississippi State.  The most damning statement of the study's authors: "our findings might instead suggest that not all religiously affiliated colleges and universities constitute 'moral communities."  What does this mean?  While Catholic colleges may call themselves Catholic, that is nothing more than a name, and those colleges do not constitute a moral center, or a center of the faith.  There are exceptions, Wyoming Catholic College, Franciscan in Steubenville, Benedictine College in KS, even the University of Dallas still has a fairly vibrant Catholic ethos, despite Milam Joseph's worst efforts.  But at all of the really famous Catholic colleges – DePaul, Loyola, Xavier, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and many, many others – the Catholic faith is either an occasional appendage worn to attract donations, or has been shoved into a dusty closet never to be thought of, let alone talked about.  Such is the fruit of the dreadful 'Land O' Lakes conference.'  A vibrant system of faithful colleges was turned, intentionally, into a set of CINO institutions.  All in the name of pride and prestige.  Oh, and 80% of Catholic college students think contraception is A-OK, which may come from the universities, or their parents.  Kinda hard to tell at this point.

Cross posted at http://veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/ Posted by tantumergo
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The Jesuits get a New Provincial in Germany

A new man will step in to replace Fr. Stefan Dartman by the order of the Father General in Rome, Fr Adolfo Nicolás. He is Fr. Kiechle and works, in addition to being the head of the Manheim Jesuit Community, with troubled youth at the outreach organization "Open Door", here. His non-confrontational psychological approach to discernment and life's troubles no-doubt raises eyebrows, in one of the books he's authored, but looks essentially like a popular explanation of the Spiritual Exercises, here.

You might also think that this new assignment is the result of the abusive Jesuits at the German Prep-School and an unwanted resignation on the part of the current Provincial, but it's really routine to change Provincials every six years, so there's nothing untoward there.

You might also think that Father Kiechle, who looks like a layman and a liberal, seems to have a handle one of the things that really hobles the Catholic Church's German levites. Despite appearances to the contrary and his social work with youth in a social services organization and being a Jesuit, he has made some, if they are true, astonishing claims about the social climate in religious communities where cliques of homosexuals dominate, cf here:

A year ago, Stefan Kiechle, SJ, a novice master in Nuremberg (Germany), disclosed his experience on this point. In several German seminaries and within several orders 'homosexual hierarchies' exist, he said, which like all coteries that shun the light of the day work subversively and make others in the community dependent on them.

The document available is in pdf, above, and if it is accurate and true, would point to the new Jesuit provincial being a different, more responsible and accountable Jesuit.

Source from Radio Vatikan...

Japan bishops relaunch feudal lord beatification case

Japan bishops relaunch feudal lord beatification case

Battle lines in the liturgy wars | National Catholic Reporter

Battle lines in the liturgy wars | National Catholic Reporter

The one who's absent in this mention of "liturgy wars" by Tom Roberts at NCR is Fr. Virgil Michel OSB. He was a monk from what is now the fastest disintegrating monastery in the world, whose metastasizing (cancer causing) and energetic presence in education, economics, liturgy and philosophy during the 20s until his death in 1938 had tremendous consequences which we still experience today every time we enter what can be described as a Gathering Space or Catholic Community, with an altar-nave and worship completely unrecognizable to most of history's Catholics.

What's never discussed in this line is the historical nature of this catastrophe and some of the players, like Liturgist Dom Beauduin. His American counterpart, Michel, whose own reforming tendencies sought to remedy something he alleged was lacking in Catholic doctrine for which both monks were willing to violate Church law regarding the celebration of the Mass. Fr. Michel utilized "dialogue Mass" formats to encourage active participation, and he did this knowing full well it was illicit, but his cause was more important, that of realizing the social dimensions of the Mass for social-justice.

The Mass became a backdrop for Michel's polemicism in favor of Marxist causes, but more importantly, his interest in turning the Mass into an expression of an unprecedented or lost social justice dimension. Not only did Michel favor wealth confiscation and nationalization, but he believed in disobeying rubrics and committed mortal sins. It's a mortal sin to deliberately confect an illicit sacrament, which he cynically did. Some may try to argue culpability and want to excuse Michel for his "social justice" concerns, but this boarders on credulity when Michel's real concern is revealed. Like Judas, he really coveted the money of others and hated any form of inequality, as he said, writing in Commonweal just before his death,

"What blasphemy! As if there were anything really Christian about our modern capitalism."

At the heart of this is a refusal to obey, coupled with the adulation of the laity with which he attempted to instill a false sense of liberty. It's no wonder that the religious community to which Michel belonged is rapidly dying of old age and irrelevance.

This attempt address a contemporary gap in the Church's teaching by something that had been lost was Michel's mania, and it's the battle cry of every reformer who wishes to raise an injustice real or imagined to the level of infallibility, to the point where the agenda overrides obedience. Fr. Virgil Michel sought to make the liturgy more relevant to modern people, and in so doing, he broke the rules and it is this pattern which remains today. Rules are broken for the higher agenda of a more democratic and socially aware Church, which simultaneously vitiates the importance of personal sin in favor of corporate sin. Father Virgil Michel set the stage for many of the abuses which came about in the Second Vatican Council, and Fr. Godfrey Diekman continued his mission.

As described by the late Benedictine Fr. Godfrey Diekmann of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., one of 55 international liturgists who helped write the document, “It was a Magna Carta of the laity.” [Or is it really ecclesiastical liberals flattering unrepentant human nature?]

It might be reasonable to presume that with the world’s bishops and the pope signing off on liturgical reform, all would be set for the foreseeable future. But the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, a solemn pronouncement of the council, was also a political document. Its implications went far beyond what prayers people would say and when they would stand and kneel, or what motions a priest would make during the ritual.

The further-reaching implications had to do with ecclesiology, what kind of church we were becoming. It was clear in 1963 to then-Fr. Joseph Ratzinger what was at stake with the newly affirmed document. In what appear approving tones, Ratzinger wrote of the “decentralization of liturgical decision-making.”

Suprisingly, Diekman felt things had gone too far, [and they had] but it's difficult to view his concern, since the results could have been foreseen, as they were, by men contemporary to himself and Fr. Michel who resisted their efforts at making an egalitarian and more participatory Mass, he writes according to Tom Roberts,

Yet it must be noted that even Diekmann, as early as 1993, voiced concern that “in the liturgical movement, we have lost the sense of mystery, of the sacred.” While rejecting such “false props” as Latin, he said that the prior 30 years had seen an overemphasis on God as immanent and loving, creating at times a “feel-good” religion. He recommended restoration of “kneeling, genuflecting, bowing or even lying prostrate on the floor” as gestures that express “making ourselves small before God.” [Even his concerns take the infantilistic language and imagery of the post-conciliar ICEL translations, and the sentimental folk music.]

Priestly celibacy is not the cause of sexual abuse, reaffirm German bishops :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Priestly celibacy is not the cause of sexual abuse, reaffirm German bishops :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Fordham University Hosts the Immemorial Mass: Aftermath

It's easy to see that there was a lot of hostillity to this happening, and it's not hard to see why the staff wouldn't want this Liturgy celebrated on their property. Think of all the explaining faux Jesuits will be forced to do to stave off the obvious curiosity such an event has inspired?

The Solemn Traditional Mass returned to Fordham University this afternoon in appropriately splendid form. Music, vestments and ceremonial were, as expected, first rate. This liturgy was celebrated at the request of students and the sizable congregation of visitors and students (miraculous in the normal context of "campus ministry") evidenced the high level of interest. Fordham University has performed a valuable service - if the Traditional Mass can be celebrated there it should encourage efforts at other universities. We are aware of 4 insitutions of higher learning within the "tri-state area" - 2 "Catholic", 2 very well-known secular - where efforts to organize Traditional services so far have enountered the adamant opposition of the relveant Catholic chaplaincies. Perhaps the success at Fordham will inspire a renewed initiative to help them change their minds....

Information on the celebrants and musicians can be found on this blog here:

http://hughofcluny.blogspot.com/2010/02/fordham-jesuits-ill-offer-solemn-mass.html

Link to original...

Catholic Bishops Urged to Take Collection for Pro-Life Work After Abortion Dustup

Catholic Bishops Urged to Take Collection for Pro-Life Work After Abortion Dustup