Pope declares the Internet presents great missionary opportunity

The Internet, because of its ability to overcome distances and put people in contact with each other, presents great opportunities for the church and its mission, Pope Benedict XVI told the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Referring to a draft document on the Internet and seminary formation, the Pope told the Congregation that with "necessary discretion for its intelligent and prudent use," the Internet may be of help for both studies and pastoral work of future priests in the various fields within the church.

He stressed that it was important to have adequately trained persons to work in the Internet missionary sector.

Read More:http://www.goddiscussion.com/40663/pope-declares-the-internet-presents-great-missionary-opportunity/

Christianity Experiences the Largest Growth and Islam Too -- 270 Christians are Killed Daily

(New York) For 27 years the International Bulletin of Missionary Research  (News Haven, Connecticut) has published a yearly report about the situation of Christians in the world.  The "Status of Global Mission" - Report offers interesting and astonishing numbers every year of the numerical strength of Christians and other religions.  The strength of the various denominations are also be included.

In the report of 2011 (which deals with the year of 2010) puts the martyrdom of Christians right before your eyes.  The report defines "martyr" Christians, as those "who lose their lives violently for their faith".  The report estimates that in the last ten years (2000-2010), one million Christians were killed.  That involves the death of an average of 270 new martyrs every day.

The report estimates there are 2.306.609.000 Christians in the whole world.  That corresponds to a third of the population, over 33 percent.  This means that a small rise since 2000 (32,7 Percent), but a slight decline since 1900 (34,5 Percent). Of the 2,3 billion Christians there are about 1,5 billion regular church goers with an entirety of about 5.170.000 churches, community centers and gathering spaces. In  1900 there were about 400.000.

The complete number of Christians are divided into six "large church groups".  The largest group is made up of the Catholic Church with  1.160.880.000  Catholics. In second place are the Protestants with 426.450.000 (for example: the national churches of the Lutherans, Calvinists and others)  In third place are the 271.316.000 Orthodox Churches and on fourth are the 87.520.000 Anglicans.  The fifth group is identified by the report as 378.281.000 "independents", who are seperated from the historical denominations and don't belong to any of them.  Then the last group is identified as "marginal Christians" of around 35.539.000, whose christology is doubtful relative to what is in the "published texts" of the "Bible".

In comparison to the 2,3 billion Christians there are around 1,6 billion Muslims, who are divided into various large groups and subgroups; 951 million Hindus; 468 Buddhists; 458 million adherents of Chinese religions and  137 million atheists.

Besides the strong media attention atheists get with the  likes of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, their numbers have declined since the last decade (period of consideration 2000-2010).

Every day there are  270 Christians who are killed because of their faith.  Every year there are, however, 80.000 new Christians to replace them.  More than 31.000 of them are Catholics.  The number of Muslims grows daily at  79.000.  The number of atheists declines about  300 per day, according to the report.

Africa has been awarded with the status of the most "breathtaking Christian growth" in the report, like the Catholic historian George Weigel writes of it, "In 1900 there were around 8,7 Million African Christians (in order, from Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa.) Today there are 475 Million African Christians.Their numbers will reach 670 by 2025.

The yearly report of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research continues with still more numbers.  Accordingly, there were  71 Million Bibles distributed worldwide in 2010. About two billion people listen at least once to Christian radio -- or television. In 2010 there were 7,1 million books published about Christianity.  In 1970 there were 1,8

Globally it is observed, the report continues,  that although Christianity is declining at this point in Western Europe, it is experiencing in other parts of the world a "remarkable" growth, also in Asia, where the announcement of the Gospel in "bitter" terrain is in evidence.  At the same time that there is a measurable growth in Christianity, as the "decline of atheism" which is evaluated in the light of the report against "the radical advance of neo-Atheism" before the Papal visit in England and Scotland which was described as "a doubtful leap forward" for an atheism, whose "hour had gone".

In conclusion there is the data of the Status of Global Mission-Report on the unity of Christians.  In 1900 there were 1600 different Christian denominations.  In 1970 there were 18.800 and in the year of  2010 even 42.000.  The Catholic Church is the most numerous with 1.160.880.000 and their worldwide scope with a the largest world-wide net of Diocese of all Christian denominations, but also all other religions of the world, the only universal Church and universal religion.  Far behind in second place is the Russian Orthodox Church with 100 million believers.  The protestant branch of Christianity falls in a hard to decipher myriad of communities and groups, which range in numbers between a few million to only a dozen or so followers.

Read further...German original.

insidecatholic.com

Youthful Dissidents Reorganize in Minneapolis

Saturday, February 12, 2011

 

Full of the Vigor of Life

 CCCR's Action Plan for 2011

The Twin Cities-based Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) is building on its successful Synod of the Baptized of last September with a bold and hope-filled action plan for church reform.

The Progressive Catholic Voice is a founding member organization of CCCR, and so the PCV editorial team is happy to share the following message from CCCR. This message was originally published last month on the CCCR website.

 H/t: Stella Borealis

The Priest Makes His Strength from Friendship with Christ

Benedict XVI to the Priestly Society "St. Charles Borromeo":  Jesus wanted a priesthood for maintaining the life of the Church.

Rome (kath.net/as) The importance of the priesthood in the life of the Church and the world is in the middle of the language, with which Pope Beenedict XVI addressed the priests and seminarians of the Missionary Society of St. Charles Borromeo this Saturday on the occasion of their twenty fifth anniversary.

Benedict XVI recalled his long friendship with Don Luigi Giussiani, the founder of the movement, "Communion et Liberation" from whose charisma helped establish the priestly society through the work of Massimo Camisacascas.  The Society testifies to the fruitfulness of Don Giussiani's initiative of charisma.

The priesthood needs constant renewal, in which it finds in the life of Jesus the natural form of its existence, says the Pope, who exclaimed: "The Christian priesthood is not an end in itself".  Much more, it is deliberated through Jesus for the sustainability and the life of the Church.

The glory and joy of the priesthood consists in serving Christ and His mystical body.  it is a "very beautiful and rare calling in the Church" in which the presence of Christ is the participation in  the particular and eternal priesthood of Christ.  The priestly calling "is a sure sign for the reality and the vitality of the Christian society."

"There can be no true and fruitful growth in the Church without true priestly presence which bears and nourishes it", says Benedict XVI, further, that the importance of contemplation and the prayer must be stressed there as a "dialog with the risen Lord".

The Pope undescored the "value of  common life", that isn't just an answer to the urgency of the moment like the priest shortage.  The theological signficance of the community, explained Benedict XVI., as the "expression of Christ's gift, which is the Church".  The communal life is formed by the Apostolic community, which comes from the priest: "no priest, to wit, gives something that is his, rather he allows the other brothers to participate in a sacramental gift that comes directly from Christ."

The communal life brings such a help to expression, "Christ in our midst".  Living together means the necessity to accept its own existing return and above all to recognize the beauty of this path, "the joy of humility, penance and even of talking together, the encounter of forgiveness and support."

"A real community life is not possible without prayer", says Benedict in conclusion. It is necessary to be with Jesus, in order to come to another being:  " That is the heart of mission.  In the society of Christ and the brother, every priest can find the power that is necessary, to accept the other person, with those ever more new words from the love to learn the eternal truths of the faith, for which our present age thirsts."

Read further...

Traditional Masses in The Diocese of Harrisburg

Saint Anthony's Roman Catholic Church
501 East Orange Street
Lancaster, PA 17602
Sung High Mass Every Sunday 1:30 P.M.
717-872-3350
Website http://www.hbglatinmass.com/lancaster/

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Mater Dei Latin Mass Community
Saint Lawrence Chapel
110 State Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Low Mass Every Sunday 8:00 A.M.
Sung High Mass Every Sunday 10:00 A.M.
Daily Mass-Monday,Tuesday, Thursday, Friday-7:30 A.M.
                       Wednesday-7:00 P.M., Saturday-9:00 A.M.
Call for details 717-889-4217
Website http://www.hbglatinmass.com/

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Saint Joseph Parish
2935 Kingston Road
York, PA 17402
Traditional Mass Sunday-Friday 6:00 A.M.
Website http://www.sjy.org/efm

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Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
430 Monastery Road
Elysburg, PA 17824
Sunday 8:00 A.M.
Monday-Friday 7:00 A.M.
Saturday 8:00 A.M.
570-672-2937

Muslim Rebels Burn Down Christian Town

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Archbishop Zycinsky of Lublin 62, RIP

He was a friend of John Paul II, but also a friend of the TLM.  He was a great exponent of dialog with the Orthodox as well.



There are film fragments of that Holy Mass.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK484A2HhAE

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0HW1Hm8NAc

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3MCE5N_RPs

(Archbishop Józef Życiński had served Holy Mass in Trident Rite (Lublin, 7. 2. 2010 A.D., The Church of Immaculate Conception at the Stanislav Staszic street).)

H/t: catholic answers for the mass links.

Capitulation Bishop to Take Major Diocese in Wales

Editor:  Thompson at the Tablet has just reported that we're going to get a really poor appointment for Wales. Thompson says it's business as usual, which from our perspective is chaos as usual.  We'll see. Thompson says he's a good pastor, but he looks more like an Old Liberal.  When you accept the assumptions of your enemies, you play by their game.  So,  if you want the kind of guy who's paid to take a fall, this is the kind of hireling you want to put in place.  He recently said that Traditionalism promotes pedophilia.  Of course, if you're guilty of something, redirect people's attention to someone small and relatively defenseless.

Capitulation Bishop Tom Burns

Link to Tablet, here

Cardinal Ravasi: Duet Instead of Duel Against the Cultural Fog: Another Voice Against Multiculturalism

More The idea of multi-clturalism is shattered, said the President of the Pontifical Council on Culture.  The "double sickness of Europe".  by Armin Schwibach

Rome (kath.net/as) Not only the British Prime Minister David Cameron [Sarkozi and Merkel as well], but also the President of the Council for Culture Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi,  has recognized that the idea of multiculturalism as the cohabitation of different cultures in western lands is shattered.

For Ravasi it is necessary that at this point of the dialogue has brought out the "interculturality", that are interacting with "powerful cultural identities". The president of the Council of Culture expressed itself in this way at Castel Gandolfo at the event of the 35th meeting of Bishops who are associated with the Focolare Movement.

At the same time he proposed the possible publication of documents on the side of the Vatican dealing with this theme, according to a report in today's edition of the Milan paper "Corriere della Sera".

Cardinal Ravasi explained that it is necessary to manage a confrontation, which not be described as conflict and is communicated from within values, without each losing its own identity.  Multiculturalism has been a fact since antiquity, it is present to all in the midst of the urban environment.   There are various cultural presences established there,  which in any event  are colliding together in diverse forms leading from fundamentalism.

"Dialogue" is presented that it is a "dia-logue" " and with it a relation between two "logoi".  This means that the goal of interculturalism is not consist in the identification of the building of a single global society.

The attempt of multiculturalism is in the atempt of a "duel" for domination, said the Cardinal.  Against that it is above all necessary today, to form interculturalism as a "duet", by which the two can be strengthened, rather forming the different identities not to be like each other, rather they harmoniously encounter each other.

Cardinal Ravasi warned of a "double sickeness" in Europe.  this is on the one side aggressively approaching ideology of "the sword" , which is not necessarily excluded to the Christian, and on the other side from "cultural syncretism, superficiality, banality, stupidity, depraved morals, colorless and a overbearing cultural fog, which is predominant."

Cardinal Kasper Severely Criticizes Theological Dissidents

Editor: We got earlier statements from the good Cardinal at Enlace Catolico. Here he is again, this time for Vatican Radio and kath.net, saying his piece against these theologians.  It's certainly one of the most striking statements from a Curial official so far, and one of the most surprising.  Here are some excerpts from his interview as translated at kath.net.

As we pointed out last year in September, the Cardinal had admonished Germans to obey the Holy Father.  


"Churches, which have opted for woman's ordination and the recognition of same-sex partnerships, have put themselves for that reason in a very deep crisis"

Rome (kath.net) The Roman Curial Cardinal, Walter Kasper has made a clear denunciation for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" against the Munster "Theological Referendum".  Kath.net has documented the main statements from "Radio Vatikan"  from FAZ-Report on the theme of "We're Coming to the Point".

"No sensible man, no follower of Christ will contend that the Catholic Church in Germany has had an acerbic and necessary break.  No one can seriously contend that the teachers and teacheresses of Theology are accorded any especial responsibility.  As one who has been in service for more than thirty years in academia,  I must say clearly, that the Memorandum has disturbed me greatly... because I would have expected more from Theologians, namely, a substantial theological contribution.

I ask myself, how a theologian can speak of the past situation and their difficulties, without mentioning the crisis of faith. Instead of this, the Memorandum remains stuck in a justifiable self-criticism.  Do the undersigned seriously believe that the Church's constitution today is an existential question for people? Is it not the reverse: that the crisis in the Church follows from a crisis of faith?  That is also valid for the horrible cases of sexual abuse.

What the undersigners of the Memorandum want to bring to the Dialog, has already been long known and expressed by other groups ad nauseum.  For that reason I have paid attention as the initial words of the message of freedom in the Gospel demand.  I thought: Yes, that's it.

I asked myself, how can it be that German Catholic theologians are so clearly  closed, that  churches, which are decided for women's ordination and for the recogniztion of same sex partnerships, have for that reason put themselves in a much deeper crisis than the Catholic Church in Germany.

The Celibacy is not just for today a hot iron in the fire.  Actually, I have been preoccupied with it for over forty years with other theologians that Pope and Episcopal College have the duty to assure the unmarried state of the diocesan priesthood.  Clearly, the fact is little known that this assessment has been for a long time in place.  The question has been discussed internationally, exegetically as well as historically some exceptions, that it can't be seriously allowed to review the old arguments.  Not less than three World Conferences of bishops have voted in the meantime with overpowering majorities for the continuance of the unmarried priesthood.  If anyone had wanted another internal Church legal structure, then it would have been appended, that decisions would also have been recognized, that he had preferred another solution himself.

Only a hopeless and futureless and therefore false conservatism can be living, what pastoral structures have previously been  identified artificially with 'viri probati' [married men of good character].  In any event those superficial German priestly communities in the Diocese are also not the final word.

More imagination and a view  beyond one's own teacup could help out tremendously.

The crisis of faith is not only a celibacy crisis, rather it has also led to a crisis of the faithful and the community.  When in Germany the number of regular churchgoers since 1950 has dropped more than two thirds, then that is a sign that has been long nudging and pushing to the real ground, what the priest shortage really means.  I can only propose a radical solution which is set on this "radix", on this root, in place of superficially turning on the parameters of celibacy."

From kath.net...

Suburbanite Phillistine Retires from Education: Monaghan Calls it Quits at Ave Maria

Editor: after making horrible tasting, boring pizza, helping EWTN, building ugly ecclesiastical architecture, hosting frankenstein experiments in his "Catholic" village and building another faux-Catholic educational boondoggle, the Pizza King is calling it quits.

The Village from the Prisoner

Ave Maria University Board of Trustees

Announces Jim Towey as School's Next President

AVE MARIA, Fla. (February 10, 2011) - Ave Maria University's board of trustees announced today that Jim Towey will be the university's next president.  Towey will be responsible for the day-to-day operations as president when his term begins on July 1, 2011.  Thomas S. Monaghan, who currently serves as Chancellor and CEO of AMU will remain Chancellor, but will relinquish the responsibilities of CEO and hence the oversight of the daily operations of the university.

The board of trustees voted on the appointment of Towey at its regularly scheduled meeting earlier this week.  Chairman of the board of trustees, Michael T. O. Timmis, made today's announcement on behalf of the board.  Timmis praised the incredible vision of Monaghan and the solid foundation that he has set in place for AMU.  He also talked about the confidence the board has that Towey is the right person for AMU at this stage of its development.

"This is a huge win for Ave Maria University," Timmis said.  "We retain the vision and experience of our pioneers, while seamlessly handing over the reins to the next generation of leadership.  It is the belief of the Trustees that Jim Towey is the most desirable Catholic university president in America today.  And I am thrilled to announce that he is going to be our president."

Read further....

Second Investigation of Clergy Abuse in Philadelphia

Editor:  Rare abuses which occur within the ranks of the Catholic Church, perpetrated by homosexual leftists and protected by same are blown out of proportion while crimes perpetrated by entertainment figures and politicians are glossed over.  

On February 10, 2011, a Philadelphia Grand Jury released a report and a presentment following an investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Philadelphia, and that another priest assigned to St. Jerome sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy. 
 
The presentment recommended criminal charges, including for rape and indecent sexual assault, against the three priests, Edward Avery, Charles Engelhardt, and James Brennan; and the teacher, Bernard Shero. The Grand Jury also recommended charging Monsignor William J. Lynn, the Secretary for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

From 1992 until 2004, Msgr. Lynn was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children and for recommending appropriate action to ensure that priests could not reoffend. The Grand Jury found that Msgr. Lynn endangered children, including the victims in these most recent cases, by knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in ministry.

here 

http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/grandJury_clergyAbuse2.html

News Reports Say Cardinal Protected An Abuser

Editor: More dreck from the New York Times.  "Never mind the homosexual side of this, let's get the Catholic Church by continuing to cash in on the abuse-hoax."  Remember, it's all about manufacturing moral panic and diversion.

By STEPHEN CASTLE

[Brussels] Reports in three news media outlets increased the pressure on the cardinal, Adrianus Simonis, the retired archbishop of Utrecht, who testified last month as a witness in a legal action taken by one of almost 2,000 people who have said they were victims of abuse.

The crisis in the Netherlands is another setback for the Roman Catholic Church, which has been struggling with sexual abuse allegations from Ireland and Belgium to the United States.

H/t: Seismo

Twin Cities area priest called 'evil' by man who committed suicide

Editor: Fr. Baer was always a company man, even when the company was poor or less than savory. A seminarian known to the editor once had a spate of enthusiasm and foolishly decided to show the seminary rector, Father Baer, a draft he'd made for something he was excited about.  So Father Baer published the seminarian's building plan for a new seminary on a communal bulletin and attached a note which said, "someone has too much time on their hands".  Whatever you think of someone's ideas, you don't ridicule them in a public forum, especially when they were given in confidence. It's behavior reminiscent of those insecure clerics who have too much authority on their hands. Perhaps Fr. Baer is one of those guys...  But yes, Fr. Baer was always a company man, hailed by some as an improvement.  We were always skeptical of him; a bit too soft.  In any event, St. Paul Seminary is still ordaining males with deep seated homosexual inclinations.  That's really what the problem is here. Fr. Baer is another legacy of the Old Liberal administration of Archbishop Flynn and the ballyhooed Irish Episcopacy which has been the bane of American Catholicism for a century and a half.

By ROSE FRENCH, Star Tribune

Last update: February 9, 2011 - 10:00 PM

EA man who shot himself in front of a Kentucky church posted sex abuse accusations involving Catholic clergy on Facebook just before taking his life and referred to a Twin Cities area priest as an "evil man."
David M. Jarboe Jr., 23, singled out the Rev. William Baer, who was rector of St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul when Jarboe was there for three semesters between 2006-08. Baer, 53, is now pastor at Transfiguration Church in Oakdale.

St. Thomas spokesman Jim Winterer said neither the seminary nor the Twin Cities archdiocese has ever received complaints about Baer.

The Facebook post was removed shortly after Jarboe's body was found in front of an Owensboro, Ky., Catholic church on Thursday. But several Kentucky media outlets have quoted excerpts of Jarboe's post, which criticized the Catholic Church's response to clergy sex abuse.

Jarboe did not accuse any priest by name but wrote that abuse in the church is "real" and that he hoped to "save at least one child from the pain and torment that I had to go through," the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

Winterer confirmed that Baer was named in the note and said the priest was taken aback. Winterer said that Baer is not speaking to the media but that he is "very saddened" by Jarboe's death. Baer left the St. Thomas seminary in spring 2010 after serving there nearly 11 years.

"He does not know what motivated David's criticism," Winterer said. "He had positive conversations with David after he left the seminary."

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Owensboro has launched an investigation into Jarboe's post, according to a diocesan press release. Police are looking into Jarboe's death. The Twin Cities archdiocese and the seminary do not plan to investigate.

When reached by phone in Kentucky on Tuesday, Jarboe's mother, Karen, declined to talk about her son.

H/t: Stella Borealis.

Patriarch Lubomyr Husar on his possible successor

Джерело публікації: risu.org.ua

 [Religious Information Service of Ukraine] "My peers are pensioners. To transfer patriarchal power to any of them would be futile. Our church has a synodal structure that must search not for a person with extraordinary talents but for the leader of this community. The archbishop, father, and head of our church is the head of the synod. In our tradition, especially in the restored tradition, the synod is the governing body that sets the tone of the church’s life. I am sure that our bishops will look for a man who will plan for the future, who will continue the work that has already begun, because through the synod, we all take part in the life of our church," Patriarch Lubomyr Husar said in an interview on Thursday.

Read further...

Джерело публікації: risu.org.ua

Habbemus Abbatem -- Heiligenkreuz Elects New Abbot P. Maximilian Heim

Editor: mentioned earlier because of the large number of vocations literally storming the place.

What is perhaps the most famous Monastery in the German speaking world has a new Abbot, P. Maximilian Heim, Professor for Fundamental Theology and member of the increasing Schülerkreis von Joseph Ratzinger.

P. Maximilian Heim is the new Abbot of Abbey Heiligenkreuz as kath.net has learned. Heim is the Professor for Fundamental Theology at the Phil.-Theol University of Benedict XVI. Heiligenkreuz and also a member of the Schülerkreis von Joseph Ratzinger.

P. Maximilian was born in Kronach [Bavaria] in 1961. He completed his degree in theology at Augsburg and in Abbey Heiligenkreuz. There he entered the Monastery in 1983. In 1988 he was delegated in the founding of a new Monastery in the Ruhr region. In 1996 he was called back to Heiligenkreuz and took over the office of Master of Novices and Cantors.

In 1998 to 2002 he concluded his Doctorate with Bernhard Korner at the Institute for Moral Theology and Dogmatics at the University of Graz, and in 2004 presented the dissertation theme on the Theology and Teaching of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger at the University of Holy Cross in Vienna. 2007 saw his following appointment as the full Professor of Fundmantal Theology and Dogmatics [Ecclesiology] in the Phil-Theol institute of Benedict XVI in Holy Cross. In September of 2004 he was made the prior in the recently established [1989] Priory of Stiepel in Bochum. In 2009 P. Maximilian was invited to participate in the growing Schülerkreis von Joseph Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI. On 10. February 2011, he was chosen as the new Abbot of Heiligenkreuz. With the selection of the new Abbot, the approved Catholic course is assured for the coming years.

Link to kreuz.net...

Video of leading a youth pilgrimage to Bocum, here. It's in German, but there are a lot of pictures.

Will the Pope Allow King Juan Carlos to Sign the Abortion Law?

Apparently, there are reports that the King of Spain is being given permission by the Pope to sign this thing into law. This will be very interesting, indeed. In any event, so far, this is only one person, Alfonso Ussia, saying that this is what happened. It would be hard to believe indeed if the Pope were to have said this.

It also brings to mind article by Dr. Thomas Drolesky about Cardinal Cushing of Boston, who once told a radio audience when he was interviewed about how a Catholic politician should vote about allowing contraception to be sold in his district, that the politician has to represent his constituency before he is true to his Catholic Faith, so the Church teachings need to take a back seat to Americanism.

This is a strikingly similar pattern.

A google translation from Christinidad reads:

Little presaged in the early hours of Saturday, the information would be heard in the last moments of "Tears in The Rain", the film program and discussion of Juan Manuel de Prada on Intereconomía TV, that deals with the always hot Friday dilemma between monarchy and republic.

He had shown the film My Street (1960), Edgar Neville, and along with the show's hosts, Prada and Maria Carcaba, had discussed the issue with Miguel Ayuso, Professor of Constitutional Law, Dalmacio Black, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Peter González-Trevijano, rector of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and Alfonso Ussía writer.

In the final minutes a point was raised of different moral issues that may arise in a Constitutional Monarchy in the case of Catholic kings. The most famous were those of Henry of Luxembourg (which in 2008 refused to sanction the legalization of euthanasia), Baudouin (who in 1990 refused to enact the law on abortion) or Don Juan Carlos (who passed twice, in 1985 and 2010).

But it was when he took the floor and launched Alfonso Ussía's informative bombshell of the night: "The king went to see the Pope and ten days ago, the Pope said, 'you meet your obligation. Their duty is to obey the Constitution' The King personally went to see the Pope to request some relief."

Link to intercommunia, here

Christianidad, here.

ReligionenLibertad.com, here.

H/t: fisheaters

Yes, Another Deceptive New York Times Story

Once again, Pinch Sulzberger's often inaccurate, thoroughly discredited, leftists scandal rag steps in to try and keep the flames of the abuse-hoax alive.

Andrew Madden is one of a relatively new breed of Irish celebrities who would just as soon be less well known. He was among the first people in Ireland to go public about being sexually abused by Catholic clergy — one of those who set off the intense bout of soul-searching that has racked the country lately. When I met Madden last fall in Dublin, the early rumbles of the collapse of Ireland’s economy were shaking the country, and throughout much of a pub lunch he talked about the failures of the government and the banks. It was only later, once we were driving around his old neighborhood, past the pebbledash house where he grew up and where his parents still live, that he began to talk about his childhood. As we sat in his car in front of Christ the King Church, where he spent much of his youth as an altar boy and a choir member, he outlined the four years of torment he suffered in the late 1970s at the hands of the Rev. Ivan Payne, one of the infamous serial sex offenders among the Irish Catholic clergy whose stories have transfixed the country over the past year and a half.

Read further...

H/t: wrigleys

Funery Music for a Catholic Queen

We should probably be doing stuff all week. Read about it, here.

The tragedy at hand cemented the perfidy both past and present of the Tudors and paved the way for Oliver Cromwell and the murderous entrance of atheism in politics. Kings were no longer profound, sacral figures, they were a target for revolutionary ire, and this alchemetical recipe led to the murderous excesses of the French Revolution. You can actually see it all unfold as each new century shows man being more inhumane to man, more efficiently and often legally.

h/t: gpm at AQ

Turkey Dispossesses Syrian Orthodox Monastery

Catholic and Evangelical Churches are distraught at the judgment on Cloister Mor Gabriel

Hannover/Bonn (kath.net/idea)Their great concern about the current persecution of the Syrian-Orthodox Church in Turkish has brought the leading representatives of the largest churches in Germany to a common expression.

The reason is the conflict for the property rights for the Cloister of Mor Gabriel in Tur Abdin [Mountain of the Servants of God] in the south east of the country. The recent judgment of the Court of Cassation in Ankara made against the more than 1600 year old Cloister, was explained by the president of the German Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch [Freiburg], and the EKD- Advisory President, Minister Nikolaus Schneider [Dusseldorf] in a public press conference on 9. February in Bonn and Hannover. The court had annulled a previous judgment that the property rights belong to the Cloister and have alienated most of the property of the Cloister to the State.

The Monastery of Mor Gabriel, founded in 397 is the most important Syrian Orthodox Cloister in Turkey. After the interventions of Schneider and Zollitsch were ignored, the Court of Cassation ruled that it is its position is legitimized by valid documentation, which in the lower court were admitted as evidence of property ownership. Now it is feared that the walls will be torn down which overlap the Cloister, and protect against land stealing and grazing. Additionally there is the danger that the baseless allegations against the church's superior, Archbishop Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas and the president of the Cloister Kuryakos Ergun, they had appropriated Turkish State property, which has may still have more punishable consequences.

Schneider and Zollitsch support the goal of the Cloister, to speak against the most recent judgment against the Monastery. They said this: "We expect a solution from the Turkish government, which correspond to the rule of law, which must be filled by all candidates for entrance into the European Union. We ask the German government to employ stringent measures against the Turkish Government so that religious freedom for churches and Christians will be protected and the foundations of their existence may not be further destroyed by the state."

Over 95 percent of the 72 million inhabitants of Turkey are Muslims. From the estimated 120.000 Christians there are about 4.000 belonging to Evangelical Communities. From Tur Abdin in the past ten years there are more than 300.000 Syrian Orthodox church members who have fled to Europe, because the experience of persecution, murder and pressure from Turks and Kurds.

Video available here with photos of the Monastery.

Original at kath.net...