Pope's Brother Says Liturgical Reforms Were a "Slight Adjustment"

The brother of the Pope is giving prize details from the chronicle of his family from his interview book. In 1953 came the sudden report of the death of their father. 

(kreuz.net, Regensburg) Today the interview book "Mein Bruder, the Pope" of author Micheal Hesemann has arrived. Hesemann began the work in the spring during five sittings with the brother of the Pope, Prelate Georg Ratzinger (87).

In the book the Prelate denied the claim by author Gunther Grass, the SS-Volunteer, met with the Pope in their younger years. Grass is supposed to have invented this.  

Where are these students today?

Prelate Ratzinger described his little brother's love for teddy bears as a child. Both boys fought from time to time, but always quickly reconciled. About the time of his brother as a professor in Tubingen, Prelate Ratzinger said that there were "no turning points".

"It was during this time that his researches were clarified somewhat and systematized." The controversial book "Introduction to Christendom" is supposed to have brought many students from "unreal fantasies" to the right way.  

False Death Notice

In 1953, George and Joseph Ratzinger received a telegram that erroneously reported the death of their father. Both went immediately on a train to Trauenstein. When they arrived, they found their father alive, sitting in front of the house and shining his shoes.

Rigid Liturgy is the Real Problem

As far as liturgy Prelate Ratzinger says that the Pope desires a worthy and correct celebration. That is "in the present day a real problem".

There are many priests who believe they must add things and even change it here and there. He described the the post-Conciliar Liturgical Reform as "a slight adjustment".

The Prelate attacked the mass of his youth as "a Liturgy that was actually a bit rigid". It had supposedly become "much more inviting".

The Prelate hopes that his brother can be spared all of those health problems and still stand before the heavenly tester, "where we all must take our ex-Amens, to the final examination."

Link to kreuz.net...

Italy: Broadcaster Cancels Offensive Television Show

Edit: But it's fun for the whole family.

Because of  concerns about the religious feelings of Catholics the series was removed from the programming schedule.

Milan (www.kath.net/ KNA) In Italy, the state television broadcoaster "Rai uno" has cancelled the continuation of the German TV show "Um Himmels Willen" [ Heaven's Will] because of its offensiveness to Catholics.  In the middle point of the 40 minute television episode there was a blessing of two homosexual men in a church.

The director o the program Mauro Mazza, justified the decision with concerns technical programming, as reported by the Milan news "Corriere della Sera" (Thursday) . In order to bend to the concerns of the Catholic side it had to make an "uncustomary judgment" to cancel the the series.  Anna Paola, the delegate of the opposition Democratic Party reproached the television broadcaster of censorship and called for an investigation.   The German television series with Jutta Speidel and Fritz Wepper in the main roles ran in the midday program of "Rai uno" under the title "A Hurricane in the Cloister". 

Link to original...

Hamburg Auxiliary Bishop: Christians Should Support Building Mosques

Editor: It is this last form of Communism which has given rise to the movement known as Interfaith, which consists of a common-denominator belief that leaves a Jew delighted, a Protestant contented, and a Catholic without an Apostles’ Creed. - Father Leonard Feeney

Auxiliary Bishop Jaschke says: "We Christians support the building of beautiful Mosques" "I find it within the realm of the possible that Christians can make a gift of a new Mosque to Muslims."

Hamburg (kath.net/KNA) The Hamburg Auxiliary Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke discussed the building of new Mosques in Germany. At the same time he called on Christians to support the building of such things symbolically. "I find it within the realm of the possible that Christians can make a gift of a Mosque to Muslims -- as a sign of sympathy, neighborliness and religious solidarity," said the member of the German Bishops Conference for Inter religious Dialog to "Die Welt" in Hamburg on Saturday.

Perhaps it's possible to have a table with a verse from the Bible and the Koran. Perhaps a collection can be taken in the churches to provide financial support for a gift, said the Auxiliary Bishop. "We Christians support the building of beautiful Mosques," said the Auxiliary Bishop. Men must sense that faith has something to do with beauty and culture. Jaschke warned at the same time that the circle of Mosques that come to form a parallel world which is detached from parts of the city. Link to kath.net...

Foiled Bomb Threat: Pope Target?

Edit: Who would do such a thing?

Link, here...

German Government's Pretexts Against Opus Dei Boy's School Struck Down

Brandenburger enemies of the Church can't oppose an Opus Dei School any longer with false pretexts.

Add caption

(kreuz.net) No luck for the enemies of the Church, those Brandenburger Comrades.

For years they've tried to sabotage the establishment of a Catholic boys preparatory school in Potsdam.

Potsdam is the capital of the Land of Brandenburg.

The president of the Land is the SPD-Comrade, Matthias Platzeck. He rules together with the people, democracy and church hating SED follower party 'Die Linke' [The Left].

Constitutions Stronger than Comrades?

According to a report from the news agency AFP the Constitutional Law has possibly overrule the Comrades against freedom.

Yesterday, the Educational Ministry of Brandenburg was overruled by the Supreme Court of Berlin-Brandenburg.

Education Minister for the Land is the seven time mother, Comrade Martina Münch (49).

Madame Comrade's ministry had fought against the judgment, whereby the application for the license for a boy's school was recently approved.

A parent's initiative which desires the school and is close to Opus Dei, had complained against a decision by the Comrades which denied a building permit.

Now the Ministry Will Need a New Excuse

The Education Ministry denied the application for licensing with a pretext, that a pure school for children can not allegedly substitute for a public school.

Laws related to education in Brandenburg assume that boys and girls are to be educated together.

Actually, the Supreme Court has come to another conclusion.

A boy's preparatory school [Jungengymnasium] is, according to the Constitution which guarantees the freedom of private schools able to be licensed even in the Land of Brandenburg.

Coeducation is not one of the principles governing school buildings.

It is also neither obvious nor assured that raising and educating boys or girls separately will not adversely effect equal opportunities or equal treatment.

If this principle of the proposed school concept is to be ruled against, is up to the Ministry to make a new motion.

Link to kreuz.net....

photo: © billerickson, Flickr, CC

Pope's Man in Austria Criticizes Dissidents and Bishops

Edit: This was the priest in Linz Diocese who was relentlessly hounded by the Liberals and set up by the Viennese Cardinal when he was named as Auxiliary for Linz. He's had the courage to criticize the Bishops in the past. It's too bad there aren't more like him.

The Windischgartner Pastor Gerhard Maria Wagner is critizing the Pastors' Intiative and the Bishops: In my view sometimes money plays too big a role with the Bishops, while courage plays a lesser role, for them to say: "This is the clear teaching of the Church".

Linz (kath.net) The famous Windischgarstner Pastor, Gerhard Maria Wagner, has dismissed the controversial Pastors' Initiative and stressed that it is time to declare the "Church's teaching". "In the case of remarried and divorced, for example, the Church has made clear stipulations, that it is not negotiable. That's actually also true of the other points of the Pastor's Initiative as well." As to the question if one may refuse these people Holy Communion during Mass, explained the Pastor, that it still may not be done. He would like, however, not to put anyone on the pillory. Afterward, he'd like to speak directly to the person. "The remarried and divorced person may be in the Church, but may not receive the Sacrament."

As far as the theme "celibacy" is concerned, Wagner refutes the notion that it comes from the 11th Century. "We've also heard this heresy that celibacy comes from the 11th Century. There is research that show that this goes back to earlier times. The Church could alter it, however, if it wanted. But despite the various problems, which we have in the life form of celibacy, it is a guidepost. We must give witness of a priestly life, where joy is palpable." The pastor of Windischgarsten also clearly stated, that the Priesthood is not a theme to be discussed in the church any longer. "That is a dogmatically formulated fundamental dogma that priestly consecration is not possible for women. We can't do what Jesus never did. He was surrounded by women and demonstrated their importance. But at the Last Supper the basic framework was established counted only the twelve male Apostles participated, and we can't go back on that. Otherwise it is a 2000 year long tradition that only men are consecrated," he insists.

Wagner appealed to the Bishops as well, that this Pastors' Initiative must be addressed with what must be said. He would like to say to Helmut Schüller that he has lost his way, that this act will not "lead to the healing of the Church". "We have already had a Reformation and know what came of that. The "Call to Disobedience" is a real scandal. We have so much good in the Church but are stuck on these same tired themes." The pastor of Windischgarsten is also criticizing the Austrian Bishops. "in my view money plays a bigger role with the Bishops and less so the courage to say: "This is the teaching of the Church. Whoever can't abide by that, must find another faith community." He believes that the Church "will probably have to become smaller", so that it can become more "basic" in order to become "big again". "We need a clear witness that we don't fear the numbers", says Wagner. For people who persist in the Pastors' Initiative, he says, this is a real "fall from faith".

Link to kath.net...

Catholic Pros Are Setting up Conservative Prelate for a Fall

Edit: It wouldn't have anything to do with the conservative agenda of this Prelate, would it, that the usual assortment of pens need release their venom and "concern"?

They are, almost to a woman, usually silent about Liberal prelates and religious establishments. One USCCB representative almost gleefully states that talk of resignation is "premature". They haven't made enough molehills into mountains yet.

Left-wing Jihad against Finn examined by Father Z. .

KANAS CITY, Mo. — Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph released a report that criticized his supervision of a troubled priest, and recommended changes in his policies for addressing sexual misconduct.

Released Aug. 1, the report was commissioned by Bishop Finn, following the arrest of Father Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest, for possession of child pornography. The report summarized the findings of an independent investigation directed by former United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Todd Graves, who oversaw a team of attorneys, former prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials.

The investigators concluded that the diocese’s response was flawed, in part because those seeking to report suspected sexual misconduct were directed to a single administrative office. Further, the report noted that Church officials failed to adhere to diocesan policy for both responding to allegations in a “timely manner” and consulting with the Independent Review Board. The report singled out Bishop Finn for his “[m]isplaced trust in Ratigan’s agreement to comply with restrictions,” once he was placed on administrative leave and ordered to stay away from children.

Read more at National Catholic Register...

Pope Well-Informed About "Crisis" in Austria Says Foreign Minister

Edit Almost no one in the media is talking about the many priests and laity who are obedient in Austria. The Austrian Foreign Minister, Micheal Spindelegger has said that during a private audience, Pope Benedict and he discussed the present "crisis" of the Catholic Church.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA)  Bendict XVI has informed Foreign Minister Micheal Spindelegger about the present crisis of the Catholic Church in the Alpine Republic.  The Pope is very well informed about the situation of the Church in Austria, said Spindelegger after his audience in Rome on Wednesday. One theme was also the reform initiative of priests.  Benedict XVI invited the foreign minister to a quarter hour private meeting after the his weekly general audience.

Schindelegger won't name any details. "I have given my appraisal as an Austrian Catholic and the Pope has given his as Supreme Head of the Catholic Church", said the politician of the Austrian Peoples' Party (ÖVP).  Benedict XVI is very well informed about the Austrian sitiation.

At the end of July a group of clerics under the leadership of the former Archdiocesan Rector Fr. Helmut Schüller have declared their "disobedience" against Rome.  In a clarification the clergymen desire, among other things, that married men as well as women are permitted to be priests.  In the declarations it goes: "The Roman Refusal of long necessary Church reforms and the inactivity of the Bishops allow us, no, compel us, to follow our consciences and take indepdent action."  One must "give a sign" and oppose prohibitions from Rome.

The signators desire that "good willed" faithful must not be refused Eucharist.  These are some remarried and divorced, members of other Christian churches and "case by case" even those who have left the Church.  In addition, these priests want educated laypersons as well as religious instructors to be able to preach and to be able to reduce the number of Masses they are required to celebrate because of the [alleged and manufactured] priest shortage.  Austrian Bishops have condemned this affront. [Even the Bishop of Linz]

Link to original...

Mel Gibson to Make His Maccabees Film

Edit: Not really a shocker for anyone who reads this blog regularly. Mr. Gibson is continuing his creative pilgrimage by making something that will have something for everyone, including his detractors. There is as yet no word about how Protestants will feel about a Deuterocanonical book being the subject of his next religious film.

It will do something no religious film we know of has attempted before. It will be a Religious "Western" with Jewish cowboys as the good guys. A real showdown between good and evil.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a project that will have everybody in Hollywood and beyond talking. I’ve learned that Warner Bros has set up an untitled drama that teams Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on the telling of the heroic story of Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee. Eszterhas will write the script, and I understand that Gibson will collaborate with him. Maccabee teamed with his father and four brothers to lead the Jewish revolt against the Greek-Syrian armies that had conquered Judea in the second century B.C. Gibson has the first option to direct but will definitely produce the film through his Icon Productions banner. It’s understandable why Warner Bros would want to be back in business with Gibson, who was once a high-profile fixture there and who made a fortune for that studio with the Lethal Weapon series and other films.

 Link to read further...

Auxiliary Bishop Responds to Sacrilegious Mass

Auxiliary Bishop Christopher James Coyne (53) von Indianapolis
© Pressefoto

Edit:   This blog entry which we found on the controversial German website kreuz.net, contains an interesting report.  It consists of an Auxiliary Bishop responding to what for many Catholics is the mind numbing reality, banality and carnality of the modern Liturgy.   He did have a discussion with the priest.  At least he's admitting there's a problem, but perhaps he'd be better advised to address some of the root causes of the problem as well.  He also has a real aversion to being angry.  Perhaps Bishops need to start getting angry about these things, lest people start to become convinced that they're not all that concerned about it.

This morning I attended Mass rather than concelebrated [Concelebration is such a drag.]M ass.  Earlier in the week I was unable to find a Saturday morning Mass anywhere in the area so I was pretty much going to have to miss Mass today.  But late last night on the internet I found a church abut a half an hour away that had an 8:00 AM Mass.  This was doubly good for me because I wanted to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation if the priest had time after Mass since it and been a few weeks since my last confession.  But it was a little late to make any arrangement for concelebration. [Ugh.]

I left around 7:15 AM and got there in plenty of time to spend some time preparing for Mass and, hopefully, the Sacrament of Reconciliation. [Might as well say, Penance] When Mass began, the priest, a guy about my age, came out and said, "Hello," [to the empty pews] and then proceeded with the Mass. The only problem was he had forgotten the Sign of the Cross. Well, maybe he was just a little distracted. I think we did the penetential rite but I'm not sure. There was no "Gloria" so I was beginning to think we weren't going to be celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration since it hadn't been mentioned yet but eventually we got there when he "prayed" a spontaneous opening prayer that did mention the Transfiguration.

Things kind of went downhill from there.  I'll spare you the details. I will say I'm pretty sure it was still a valid Mass even though he changed the words [proper form, matter and intention] of the Eucharistic institution - a lot, not just a few.  There is a theological practice of the Church called "Ecclesia supplet" ("the Church provides") where if a priest inadvertently forgets some of the words of the ritual form or changes them, the "Church" recognizes the good faith of those gathered and their right to valid celebration of the sacraments and provides sacramental validity in the case of a human error or priestly malpractice.  [But this was deliberate changing of the words] This is done for the sake of the people of God and not as an excuse for the sloppy or 'creative' celebration of the priest or bishop.  Even though the priest went way over the the line in terms of his 'creativity' this morning, I think the intention of those us who came to Mass was to celebrate the Eucharist as the Church intends and so it was.

Link to blog, here...

Bishop Fellay: The SSPX Will Not Recognize the Second Vatican Council

Edit: things are coming along. It should be obvious to most observers that the SSPX has been far more obedient to the Holy Father than most of the German Bishops.

There was a similar report on kathnet, but it seems to have disappeared.

Deutsche Bischöfe üben Druck auf den Papst aus:  The German Bishops are Pressuring the Pope


France.  The Society of St. Pius X will not recognize the Second Vatican Council.  Bishop Bernard Fellay said this at a brief address in the Northwest French city of Saint-Malo.  Msgr Fellay insists that the Faith would not be set in play. The Bishop criticized namely, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg and Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg.  Both are said to have intrigued against the Priestly ordinations of the Society.  Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos is supposed to have said by telephone, that the Society can have permission for the ordinations, if they ask for them.  In another telephone conversation Cardinal Castrillon said that the German Bishops are putting pressure on the Pope.


Link to kreuz, blurb...

Austrian Schoolmarm Makes Prep-School Boys Dress Like Girls

Edit: This may be fodder for a future lawsuit.

Austria.  at the end of classes a female teacher at a Viennese Gymnasium [College Prep-School] desired that the boys make a report to find and switch to girl's clothing.  This was reported in the Austrian street magazine 'Krone'.  The female teacher wanted to show that one can change his sexuality.  An eleven year old boy said that he was "so enchanted" to wear his sister's clothes.  On the way to school several boys were ridiculed on public transportation.

Canning Victims Rub their Hands in Anticipation


Edit:  In England, those public schools had better watch out.  We understand that there are quite a few people in English society who received some really rough treatment in Public Schools.

Germany.  The Benedictine Abbey of ettal has paid some 700,000 Euros to a former Student, who was the alleged victim of psychological and physical violence.  This was reported by the German 'Katholische Nachricthtenagenntur'.  It was clear in the report that this horrendous sum will do the Monastery "damage".  It is completely unclear for which abuse the Monastery is paying.

Link to kreuz.net...

Korean Catholics Object to Irish Gay Bar in New York

He said many among the large number of Korean-American Christians in Queens felt similarly but feared that if they spoke out they would be demonized by a liberal majority. 

[New York Times] Molly Blooms, a Victorian-accented Irish bar in Sunnyside, Queens, recently raffled off a free same-sex wedding reception, with a three-hour open bar, a D.J., a photographer and a horse-drawn gilded carriage to deliver the winning couple to the festivities. The bar’s owner thought the idea would be good for business and for the largely working-class and immigrant neighborhood.

Follow @NYTMetro for New York breaking news and headlines.

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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

The owner of Molly Blooms, Ciaran Staunton, a heterosexual, said he wanted to support same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue.

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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Larry Yang, the Korean-American owner of a hardware store next door to the bar, said he opposed its promotion of same-sex marriage.

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Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Janice Velten, left, and Patrice Pfirman, a couple for 24 years, won the Molly Blooms raffle. They plan to hold their wedding reception there in October. 

But some in the community disagreed.

Neighbors said they would boycott the bar. Bloggers posted reports of past health violations there. Larry Yang, the Korean-American owner of a hardware store next door, said he resented such a public promotion of same-sex marriage. He said many among the large number of Korean-American Christians in Queens felt similarly but feared that if they spoke out they would be demonized by a liberal majority.
“If that horse-drawn carriage rides by my store, I will make sure my kids do not see it,” Mr. Yang, 45, said. “I am worried about what kind of message gay marriage is sending.”

Link to read further..

Catholic Schools Produce Apostasy

Franfurt School Sage, Theodore Adorno

 Edit: Speaking of Micheal Voris' indictment of Catholic formal and informal instruction, there's another report confirming what most people already know that Catholic institutions do not produce Catholics.  Since this situation is so pervasive, it becomes laughable to view it as anything but intentional and planned.

The Report says,

graduates even less likely to believe in moral absolutes, to respect the authority of the Catholic Church, to believe in the infallibily of Scripture or to condemn premarital sex.

 There's no surprise there when you take into account the influence on American education has been entrusted to a pack of refugees from Germany with their neo-Marxist  efforts at demoralization as described by Yuri Bezmonov.

A group of people have come to dominate American education, and despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible solutions in order to defend themselves, their family and their country.  Demoralization takes from fifteen to twenty years to demoralize a nation.  Marxist-Leninist Ideology has  been pumped into the soft heads of three generations of students without being challenged.

Now we are stuck with these people as they are in positions of power.  To get rid of these people you need another twenty years to educate common sense people to act in favor of American society.

Linking to Dallas, here.

Mission of RC-TV? Nulla Salus Extra Ecclesiam

Edit:  This is really what's at the heart of a few professional Catholics' denunciations of Voris.  There's nothing substantial there.  It's this Dogma that the world and the Devil hate so much.

Germany: Over 85 Percent of German Catholics are Dead Letter

Now here comes the Old Liberal prescription:  More homosexual depravity, divorce, birth control and ecumenism as well as married priests will bring people into the Church in droves.

(kreuz.net) 87.4 of those German Catholics freed by the Pastoral Council, don't practice their religion.

This comes from statistics compiled on the website of the German Bishops' Conference.

The data collected is from 2010.

 The Diocese of Erfurt is in the Lead

The most Catholic areas in Germany are in the former areas of Communist East Germany.

The reason for this exceptional situation is probably due to the fact that the Church there had been free of the Conciliar decadence, the capitalistic excess and the ecclesiastical sexual insanity.

Otherwise the Church in the old DDR was shut off from politics.  They had to stick by-- for good or evil --  their basic job description.

The German leader is the Diocese of Erfurt of allm things.   This is where the Apostate Martin Luther entered the Augustinian Order in 1505.

In the Diocese the number of practicing Catholics soars to an underwhelming  21.4 percent.

In Gorlitz and Dresden-Meissen 20.7 percent of Catholics take part in their ecclesiastical life.

In the West: Regensburg Leads

In West Germany the Diocese of Regensburg has the highest number of practicing Catholicsin the West  at 19.9 percent.

This Diocese serves as a natural victim so that the anti-Church meia bosses, in order to alienate the Faithful there from the Church by way of a media campaign.

In second place is the Diocese of  Eichstätt with 18.6 percent.

Then comes Fulda (16.9), Würzburg (16.0), Augsburg (15.9) und Passau (15.1).

The sad light of dusk is falling on the Diocese of Essen (9.5), Aachen (9.7) und Hildesheim (9.9).

Not much better are the Diocese of  Hamburg (10.3), Cologne (10.5) und Mainz (10.7).

Link to original...kreuz.net...

Archbishop Zollitsch Says Protestants are "Church"

Dressed for Disobedience

Edit: Archbishop Zollitsch has already been challenged by the Papal Nuncio, but he's angling in the German anti-Catholic media for an agenda not unlike the one at work in Austria. His latest howler would confuse the utterly decadent and dying Protestant Communion in Germany, with the Catholic one, only because they think they're "Church". 

The President of the German Bishops' Conference has vomited yet another of his sacrilegious theses regarding the reception of Communion for divorced.  He denies that there is a divide in German Catholicism.

(kreuz.net, Freiburg) "Benedict XVI is not the hardliner he is often presented as being" [Ain't that the truth.]

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said this in Freiburg for an interview with the German newspaper 'Die Welt'.

Understanding for the Satanic Sleaze



Those who are against the Papal visit, the narcissistic human dreck of the Godless and the Gommorrhists have a "right to demonstrate" according to the Archbishop. He even hopes that the Satanic sleaze will respect "the person of the Pope". Among the personages will be found, for example, the fallen Catholic and homosexually disturbed David Berger, who denounced Benedict XVI in the past with his wild tirades.

Apostates Generally Deny the Division

The schismatic Archbishop denied any "evidence" for a schism in Germany.

There is "a Catholic bandwidth on many questions in positions that are at odds."

Yes, but that's apparently not a question of schism. The Archbishop only sees "various perspectives, and that's justifiable, and also self-evident".

Dogmatic Smoke Grenade

When Benedict XVI visits the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt, where the Apostate Martin Luther lived, Msgr Zollitsch hopes for a a mandate with the Protestants, "to work out some of the things which still divide us".

As he has recalled already in the 'Augsburger Allgemeine" news, Pope John Paul II. encouraged Germany, regarding the reconsideration of alleged commonalities on the doctrine of Justification in 1980.  

What is Church?

The Archbishop is acknowledging protestants, in contradiction to the clarification of the CDF 'Dominus Jesus' of August 2000, as "Church".

The Evangelical Church understands itself as Church -- so says Msgr Zollitsch. He respects that and doesn't want to fight about concepts.

At the same time the question wasn't spared, "who is it that belongs to this 'Church' that understands themselves in this way".

The Catholic Creed explains the belief that there is only one Church.  

The Serious Solution is Turning Away from Divorce

The giving of Communion to the divorced is a "pastoral" consideration for the Archbishop.

He draws from that that there will be no concrete explanation from the Papal Visit. There is still "some analysis which has to take place. We are working on it."

Msgr Zollitsch wants to clarify the question "not shoving it to Saint-Nevers-Day, but we need the right amount of time, in order to seriously consider it."

Link kreuz.net...

Turkey: Reopening of Orthodox Seminary at Constantinople Soon

Edit: The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports, on the other hand, that it won't because the Patriarchate refuses to compromise on "various formulas in the Constitution".  

 Metropolitan Lambrinidnidis has been named the new Abbot of the Trinity Monastery on Princes' Island.

Constantinople (kath.net/KAP) In Constantinople the expectations are increasing that the Orthodox Seminary and the Theological University on the Princes' Island of Chalki will be opened soon.  This is the sense in with which the naming of the Metropolitan of Bursa, Elpidophoros Lambrinidis, as new Abbot of Trinity Monastery, is being interpreted.  +Lambridnidis will take over the direction of the Seminary and the University.

Patriarch Bartholomaios I  held an Agape after a feastday Liturgy at Holy Mary's in Souda where he had a short meeting with Minister President Recep T. Erdogan on August 31st.  It was there that the government chief announced the return of the real-estate taken away in 1936 related to Christian "pious Establishments".

At the Agape the Patriarch said, that he is to have expressed his "contentment, his happiness and his gratitude", but also, that the non-Muslim minorities "are in expectation of important steps".  Erdogan is said to have answered:  "This is only the beginning".

If Turkey is a just state, it must proceed in the realm of justice and "not illegality",  insisted the Ecumenical Patriarch and made an indirect comment, that isn't just to "please" the non-Muslim minorities, but rather it is an amends for a serious injustice.

Erdogan's new disposition in respect to Chalki was already in August of the year before expressed by the past government chief Bülent Arinc in Constantinople at a dinner with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the members of the Christian "pious Establishments".  Arinc stressed many times that no one in Turkey should ever feel themselves to be a second class citizen. "For me personally and so long as I am the chosen representative of the government, that  there will be education available at the the reopened Seminary," said Arinc at that time.  Actually the Constitutional Courts have narrowly closed the legal conditions for the possible opening.  He hopes still that the reopening of the Seminary and the University might be realized in the conditions of the existing laws "without substantial exceptions" ,  says the serving government chief.

The Seminary on the Island of Heybeliada/Chalki is in the Marmara Sea near Constantinople, and has been closed since 1971.  Because the Ecumenical Patriarchate can't educated its own clergy any more, the personnel situation which has lasted for over 1,700 years is becoming more and more precarious.

Link to kath.net...

Berlin's Archbishop Understands Car Burners' Pain

"These acts are a cry for help: When people burn altar-tables, then it's a protest and an expression of their hopelessness.'

(kreuz.net) Besides the so-called Neonazis or a Traditionalist, you can be anything in Nazi-mad Germany.

Even car burners.

In an interview with the "Swabian Times" for the 3rd of September, Archbishop Rainer Woelki of Berlin found sympathetic words even for these last mentioned. Their acts are "a cry for help", answered the all-understanding one to the question, if whether the waves of leftist car burning in Berlin bode a new kind of terrorism. He continued: "when people burn cars, it is a protest and even an expression of their helplessness."  

So much understanding for the non-believing

  The Archbishop says he has developed, after only a week, a "deep understanding for the spiritual life of the overburdened, unbelieving people of the city of Berlin". He invites the motorists of the city, to consider the Bishops' words:  

"We should go and ask ourselves sincerely in our hearts, if we were not overly quick in our harsh judgment of those hopless people, who cried out to us for help with their bbq lighters. How could we assume, they are simple criminals?

Let us ask the Lord for forgiveness!“

It was even a nice Protest

Archbishop Woelki's may not sit well with many of Berlin's motorists. The faithful Catholics of Berlin, however, are deeply grateful for his words. Because in the same sense that Msgr Woelki has certain understanding for this even, he would understand how those horrible altar-tables in Berlin churches could be ignited.

That would be a wonderful sight in the light of the coming Papal visit, to express "hopelessness", which burdens the modern Liturgy in Germany.

Every burned up altar-table would be a real cry for help for the faithful people, who can't go into the Church any more, to have to endure the self-satisfied Conciliar comic, who has planted himself in the place of the Holy of Hollies. [Many NO spaces have a "Presider's Chair" where the Eucharistic Lord should be.]


 Link to kreuz.net...

Neo-Conservative Bishop Makes Old Rite Priest Cathedral Rector

Editor: this man may have some say in who the next Bishop will be.  It's also a strong indicator for Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst who's not been always the most traditional friendly of Bishops.

Germany, Limburg.  Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has named Fr. Gereon Rehberg (55) as the new Cathedral Rector in the Cathedral Chapter.  This has just been reported by the Limburg Diocesan homepage.  The new Cathedral Rector has been since the Feast of the Assumption also the new Cathedral Pastor.  He is also the director of the Pastoral Area of Limburg.  He's been celebrating the Wednesday Mass in the Old Mass for years in Wiesbaden.

Link to kreuz...