Victory for The Cross in Polish Parliament

Edit: It's no wonder that they want to get rid of it, as IrishCafe writes us on twitter, "This cross is the gift from mother of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, priest and martyr murdered by commnist politial police in 1984."
Warsaw

(www.kath.net/ KNA) In a conflict surrounding the crucifix in the Polish Parliament has yielded a victor on the part of those favoring it. As the Chancellery of the Sejm (Lower House)reported this Friday, all four advisory opinions concerning the removal of the crucifix from the assembly hall were found to have no legal ground by the Parliament's President, Ewa Kopacz. A press speaker from the Chancellery told the Catholic News Agency (KNA)that Kobacz will decide the proposal of the anti-clerical "Palikot" movement in the forthcoming week.

The Party, which won ten percent of the votes in the elections in October, demand the banning of the Christian symbol from the assembly hall. The cross behind the speaker's chair infringes against the state's "impartiality" in religious matters. Since the the installation of the cross by two delegates 14 years ago, there has been a "permanent state of lawlessness", it says in the proposal.

The legal experts of the University of Warsaw and Torun, the Catholic University of Lublin and the Polish Academy of Science who were consulted found, that the crucifix neither infringes on the Constitution nor against European law. Roman Wieruszewski of the Academy of Science maintains the cross exercises "no influence". It also constitutes no discrimination, because an initiative for another symbol has not been rejected. Ryszard Piotrowski of the University of Warsaw views the cross as a "source of identity for the Polish Nation."

Ministerial President Donald Tusk showed himself to be pleased about the findings of the panel. He hopes that the political conflict over the cross will come to an end. In a presentation of his government program he had closely associated himself with the cross. Ann appeal of the proposal by "Palikot-movement" is not foreseen.

Besides the "Palikot"- Party there is also the opposition Party of the Social Democrats and the only left State President, Alexander Kwasniewski for the removal of the cross. The Conservative-Liberal Government Coalition and the Right-Conservative Party, Law and Justice, on the other hand, desire that it stays. The "Palikot-movement" has declared that in case of a rejection of their proposal in the constitutional court, and if necessary, they will bring it before the Court of Human Rights in Strassburg.

(C) 2011 KNA Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur GmbH.
Link to kath.net...

International Theology Commission Gets New President

Edit: On December 5, the Holy Father Addressed the International Theological Commission with a call for adequate adherence by theologians to the Church's Magisterium:

Dear friends, our meeting confirms in a significant way how much the Church needs the competent and faithful reflection of theologians on the mystery of the God of Jesus Christ and his Church. Without healthy and vigorous theological reflection the Church runs the risk of not fully expressing the harmony between faith and reason. At the same time, without the faithful living of communion with the Church and adherence to the Magisterium, which is the vital space of its existence, theology would not succeed in giving an adequate reason for the gift of faith.

Now, he's about to name a new President of this Commission to replace Father Morerod, who was named recently as a Diocesan Bishop of Lausanne in Switzerland in November, which necessitated the naming of a new President.

The new president will be a Dominican Serge-Thomas Bonino, O.P.. He is a theology professor from the University of Toulouse in France, a Dominican as the O.P. [Order of Preachers] after his name indicates.

He is a student of student of the students of Jaques Maritain, [who was a close friend of Thomas Merton, Saul Alinsky and Dorothy Day]: Father M.-M. Labourdette, who is the author of a monumental commentary on the whole of the Secunda Pars and Father M.-V. Leroy. As for his emphasis, he favors a historical critical approach to St. Thomas Aquinas vs. a more traditional route, which he is kind enough not to disparage.

We found a link at this blog, diligite iustitium, which linked to a Dutch Thomistic site, from the University of Utrecht.

 Whom do you consider to be your most important teacher in your thomistic education?

 

During my first years of Dominican religious life, I was fortunate to meet two masters in Thomism: Father M.-M. Labourdette, who is the author of a monumental commentary on the whole of the Secunda Pars and Father M.-V. Leroy, who taught dogmatic theology, but who, unfortunately, wrote very little. Both of them were profoundly marked by the friendship and the intellectual influence of ´Jacques´, that is, of Jacques Maritain. They have passed on to me and to my Dominican fellow brothers from Toulouse, the doctrinal and institutional heritage of the venerable Thomistic school of Saint-Maximin. It is, in my view, a great privilege to be able to join in this way a living doctrinal tradition. It is true that the masters of Saint-Maximin - without being hostile to it - were hardly sensitive to the historical approach to the works of Saint Thomas. While working in Fribourg (Switzerland) with Father Jean-Pierre Torrell and Professor Rudi Imbach, whose assistant I had the chance to be for one year, I become more and more convinced of the importance of the application of the historical method to saint Thomas.

Holy Father's Brother Intervenes in Austria

Msgr Ratzinger and the Author

The silent cry of the abortion victims reach God -- but not on the ears of the Catholic Bishops.

by Dr. Josef Preßlmayer


(kreuz.net)Msgr Georg Ratzinger could end the cooperation of the Church in Austria with the mass murder of unborn children.

This was from a talk which took place on Monday on 5. December, in Regensburg with the brother of the Pope.

The Prelate will make his annual visit to see is brother from the 28th of December to the 10th.

This will be an opportunity for him to report to the Pope, that the Austrian Diocese collaborate with the "abominable crime of abortion"(Gaudium et spes, 61).

It do this with the openly deadly counsel of 'Aktion Leben', which  employ the  final solution deadline and are massively supported by the Bishops materially and financially.

Even Prelate Gänswein will be present

Prelate Ratzinger will also talk with the Papal Secretary, Prelate George Gänswein.  I have also sent my information about the scandal.

From this, the Holy Father will learn that this is a petition from "Catholics who are pro-life in stead of pro-choice" with exhaustive documentation.

The Infamous Law

The 'Aktion Leben  Österreich' is supporting the final solution deadline in contradiction to Catholic teaching.

This allows the slaughter of children up to the   14th week of life.

If it is suspected that a child is handicapped or if the mother has valid health reason or when she is not 14 years old, then the child can be murdered..


John Paul II. demanded Resistance

 In his Encyclical 'Evangelium Vitae', 73, Pope John Paul II († 2005) called for resistance against the final solution deadline:

Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. From the very beginnings of the Church, the apostolic preaching reminded Christians of their duty to obey legitimately constituted public authorities (cf. Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-14), but at the same time it firmly warned that "we must obey God rather than men"(Acts 5:29).

 Austria's 'Aktion Leben' recommends the the killing pill RU 486. They refer to the child slaughterhouse of abortionist Christian Fiala in Salzburg or they point to the Fleischmarkt slaughterhouse in Vienna in the following words: "In Vienna, it's known, there is a butcher who can do the job." The Diocese supports these consultants for these slaughterhouses with ten thousand euros every year.

'Aktion Leben' insults abortion victims

'Aktion Leben' challenges the scientifically known and noted in the "Documented Patient Brochure" that there are physical and psychological effects of abortion

This spearhead of Catholic child murder ridicules the mothers, who must suffer an abortion, with the supposition on their website, that such effects are the "fabrications of radical groups".

These business fronts for Satan discredit  themselves.

Otherwise, they don't even fulfill the criteria which are required for pregnancy conflict counselors.  

Fasting For 100 Tagen

After the return of Prelate Ratzinger from Rome I will visit him again.

Then I will learn which measures the Holy Father will take, so that the Church will no longer be soiled by the blood of unborn children.

I am certtain that I can then break my prayer fast in front of Vienna's Nunciature. At the present moment I have gone from 71 to 49 kilos after 100 days.

 The Collaboration Must Cease

I also ask for more prayers and if possible fasting, that this butchery and collaboration of the Church with these hired executioners can be ended.

I do this in the name of the name of the children martyred in their mother's wombs.

This silent cry goes to God's ear, but not to the ear of the Catholic bishops.


The Church is deceiving mothers of abortion

The murder of the unborn is euphemized by the Vienna church paper, 'Der Sontag'.

They wrote on 13. September 2009: "A goal for the introduction of the deadline ruling was to give pregnant women in an emergency a medically safe way to abort."

Such formulations cloud the truly criminal character of such an act.

The Church is opening the gates of Hell to those mothers who choose abortion.


Three Million Victims

In Austria there are 84,000 abortions conducted every year.

That amounts to over three million unborn children lost to abortion in thirty six years.

Through this our land and all of Europe will be handed over to Islam by way of this Auschwitz ramp of multi-million baby-selection according to the criteria of usefulness.

Please support the Pope-petition at 'kath-prolife.at', if you still haven't done so.

The author has been a school psychologist and is also a Clinical Psychologist. He is the curator of the "1st European Pro-Life Museum“ lebensschutzmuseum.at.

Christopher Hitchens is Dead

Edit: Christopher Hitchens was a Marxist who made a career of pulling the wool over the eyes of self-styled conservative Republicans.  Get ready for sickening eulogists by "conservatives" who wish to praise him for his alleged brilliance and fairness.

While Hitchens enjoyed attacking people for having heroes with ideologies he didn't agree with, or attacking the idea that there was a God and the people who believed in Him, he came close to worshiping figures who espoused the Marxist ideology and were capable of committing heinous acts of cowardice himself.  Here he is praising his murderous hero, Che Guevara in a way that can only be described as hagiography.

Archdiocese Claims No Miracle at St. Augustine's

Miraculous Host at Lanciano

Edit: a few months ago in July it was alleged that it might be possible that a Host which was consecrated at the celebration of an English liturgy by the parish of St. Augustine's assistant pastor, Father Grabner, might be a real Eucharistic miracle.  Such miracles, scoffing in the media and contempt from journalists and politicians notwithstanding, happen. Father Echert, the parish's pastor, said that he'd never seen anything like it in his thirty years of experience.  The Host fragment, which had been sitting in water but didn't dissolve as is usually the case, was sent to the University for "tests" as is usual in cases like this.

The Anti-Clerical journalist from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, cited another such occurrence which took place in Dallas, but he didn't cite any examples which were proven true and are the subject not only of immense popular devotion, but great literature and beautiful art.   One such miracle takes place regularly every year on the same day, usually, in San Jenaro, Italy on the feast of St. Januarius or at Lanciano.

In 1970-'71 and taken up again partly in 1981 there took place a scientific investigation by the most illustrious scientist Prof. Odoardo Linoli, eminent Professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy. He was assisted by Prof. Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena. The analyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs.

With such examples of real Eucharistic miracles the laity was understandably excited in many ways less inspired individuals would not.  It should also be understood that the expectation of this miracle does not mitigate the other real miracle which occurs at every Mass in the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ where the priest has the correct matter, form and intention to do as the Church does.

At present the Diocesan Communications Director insists that there isn't anything miraculous taking place with this Host.  Since when is he credible?  Dennis McGrath has not been the most credible of witnesses to the Catholic Faith in years past.  Usually, when he gets cornered by the facts, he accuses people of attacking the Bishop or being mean. It's not out of the realm of the plausible to ask for a second opinion when someone has proven themselves not to be credible in the past?  Dennis McGrath has a very bad reputation when it comes to credibility and defending the sex education Virtus program, was not one of his best moments.  So why not ask someone else to look into it, provided the evidence hasn't been disposed of?

In any event, we did  suggest in our own report that this alleged miracle also might be a case of serratia marcescens, a bacterium which gives a red color to bread when it's stored in contact with moisture. Apart from not crediting this blog for making the observation when the story first appeared in the Pioneer Press with a distored fish eye lense shot of Father Echert, the reporter shows himself to be glib and disrespectful, blasphemous really. Journalist Nick Ferraro tweets blasphemously:

OMG! Archdiocese says Communion host turned blood-red due to virus, not act of God http://www.twincities.com/ci_19546770 

 Obviously the Archdiocese has to deal with journalists,. but it would be nice to have a Diocesan representative who was less timid and more convinced of his Catholic Faith.   Most journalists are generally hostile to and completely ignorant of the Catholic Faith.  Why not disarm them by challenging their knowledge and correcting them when they're wrong?  No, Dennis McGrath frequently misses the kinds of details even a sensible Catholic of average intelligence would notice.  Regardless as to whether the journalist knows the difference between fungi, virii or the correct spelling of the word "Host", this journalist appears to be completely unconcerned about insulting Catholics and he won't be punished.  It would be nice to have someone confront these journalists.  Even Our Lord asked the man who slapped him why he did it.

Even leftist journalist Nick Coleman, assuming it's the same man, chimed in on the comments section for the Pioneer Press article with a sneering comment.  A real Catholic mouthpiece with some Catholic background would be better able to confront such jeering with an effective defense of the Faith.

 Still, no matter how politically correct you happen to be, it's always open season on Catholics and what we believe.  How is it such politically correct individuals feel themselves emboldened to insult Catholics with impunity?  Why are they so eager to jump at the chance to treat us with such hateful regard?  There is a miracle in this, actually.

The Apostles met with the same jeering on their way to violent deaths and so too did many Catholics throughout the history of the Church, and so it is right up to the present day.   Despite the fact that these individuals, like Nick Coleman for example, bend over backwards to defend Muslims, atheists, exhibitionists and just about anyone with a vulgar opinion, those same individuals don't think twice about attacking Catholicism.  They defend them especially when they are treated with even the appearance of disrespect.

Still, it's a beautiful thing to think that miracles might happen here in our midst, that supernatural events beyond the explanation of the scoffers and those who revile us.   But whether or not this prodigy is miraculous or not, the continuing miracle is the reaction of the mob in the comments and out there on the street, who hold it to be their right to treat Catholics in ways no one would dare to treat other minorities.   Even other Catholics think it's ok to laugh derisively at those of us who believe in the possibility of miracles.

The real miracle is that after centuries of persecution and contempt that Catholics are still singled out for insults of this kind on the part of the Anti-Clerical media and their masters.  It has often been remarked that not only is it a testimony to the power of the Faith, but a fulfillment of Christ's promise:

If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you.
If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him who sent me.

Strange Group from Wisconsin Continues to Attack Church

Edit: We'd reported on Issacson, an attorney who went into a tirade about Catholic witch hunters hasn't toned down or apologized.  What's interesting is the cult-like group that the she is defending. As Badger Catholic finds, an attorney's legal brief on behalf of her client who's filing bankruptcy has stepped up her self-destructive rhetoric.  Her client is a man of Indian ancestry who claims to be Jewish and leads a demi-religious organization with followers.  There are some complaints from former members of his "group" of cult-like behavior and abuse.  The Yehud-Monosson USA organization, also known as SIST, claims to be formed for educational purposes.  

“Dr. Avraham Cohen” was pictured on the Web site of Yeshivat Rambam and identified as “a neurosurgeon” that has pledged a half million dollars to the institution.
However, according to an affidavit filed in a Wisconsin lawsuit the man in the photo is actually R.C. Samanta Roy.
“I have known him for some time and recognize him in the picture,” states a member of the Shawano city commission in the affidavit.

According to a special report by a local news station, Channel 7, the group maintains a reclusive compound in Shawana Wisconsin where they've purchased many businesses in the town.  .

Bishop Fellay is Hopeful Rome Will Reconsider

The Society asks Rome not to ignore the obvious problems any more.  Actually there is no cause for optimism.

Bishop Bernard Fellay

(kreuz,net) In the next days the Society of St. Pius X will give it's answer to the Vatican about the dogmatic Preamble.

This is what Vaticanist, Andrea Tornielli said on 'vaticaninsider.com'.

The answer contains a counter proposal.

This will state that the Society can not recognize the Pastoral Council in positions related to ecumenism, religious freedom and collegiality.


The Request of the Vatican

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the General Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, discussed the negotiations with the Holy See.

It was an occasion to address the problem with the dogmatic Preamble.  It lay in the condition that the Council must "be accepted".

But it may be criticized.

Rome has moved a bit

Msgr. Fellay has found also "interesting" statements in the Preamble.

This is so the Society recognizes, that some points, which make difficulties with the Council, are understood only in the light of continuous, enduring Tradition and the teaching office.

More still: Every interpretation of doubtful Conciliar texts, which contradict the Church's teaching office, must be discarded.

This is what the Society has always said -- maintains Msgr. Fellay.

The problem:  The Vatican's practice is in contradiction to this principle.

"They say, everything, what was done in the Council is good, that corresponds to Tradition, ecumenism and religious freedom" -- continued the Bishop.

The Problem is Not the Society


With respect to the discrepancy with the principle and its practice, Msgr Fellay identified that it is the "greatest of problems".

He also insists that the Society and the Vatican do not understand the terms "Tradition" and "teaching office" in the same way.

At the same time he praised the Preamble as "a gesture on the side of Rome".  This gesture surprised him.

Because the doctrinal talks themselves had clearly shown both sides not to be united.

Actually, despite this clear disunity, Rome asked for the acceptance of the Council.

The Society answered: "We can't do it".

Msgr Fellay's proposal:  The Vatican should "try to understand that the Society is not the problem, rather there is a problem in the Church."

The Church is Disintegrating


Msgr Fellay still has great hope that Rome will reconsider.

At the same time he recognizes the magnitude of the collapse.

As an example he described a congregation of sisters, which was once widespread in France.

In the meantime the community has three nuns between the ages of thirty and forty years of age, and in the ages of forty and fifty another three sisters.

About two hundred sisters are over seventy years old.

In the age group between twenty and fifty the number is only one less than in the age group over  100.

 Msgr. Fellay's conclusion:  "The Church is laying in death.  She is disappearing.  She has to wake up."

Link to kreuz.net...

At Least it Doesn't Look Catholic

Edit: You'd never know the video below was actually a Catholic Abbey Church of the Benedictine Order.  Apparently the "Prey, Tell Blog" says it is.  Yet, only a discerning eye could tell the difference between this:

And this:



H/t: Stella Borealis

Colombian Church Says No to Homosexual Adoption

Edit: they're going to freak out now.

Colombia's Catholic Church and the country's Inspector General on Tuesday strongly criticized a court decision to allow a gay U.S. journalist to adopt two Colombian boys, suggesting he may become attracted to them.
In an interview with newspaper El Tiempo, leading Colombian bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba said the new father has a "disorder of sexual identity" which will affect his relationship with his children.
When asked about Mr Burr's suitability as a father the bishop said, "I do not know him and I am not accusing him of anything, but one thing is clear and that is that he has homosexual tendencies and he is going to receive a boy of 10-years-old and an adolescent of 13, and between them there won't be a father-son relationship." He continued, "He will receive two children at an age when they may be attractive to him, which could be a temptation."
Cordoba, who is also a graduated psychologist, insisted that homosexuality was universally considered by mental health professionals to be a "disorder of sexual identity". In fact homosexuality was removed as a disorder from the DSM -- the Diagnostic and Statisical Manuel, considered the psychiatric world's 'bible' -- in 1994.

Link to original...

Pope Names Member of Giordano Bruno Society to Pontifical Council

Wolf

Why couldn't he have just named Adolf Hitler?

An unbelievable scandal: Wolf Joachim Singer is the meber of an aggressive, atheist group, which considers believers to be pigs. Actually, in the Vatican he gets an appointment for that.

(kreuz.net, Vatikan) On Saturday Pope Benedict XVI appointed the German Wolf Joachim Singer (68) as an advisor to the Pontifical Council on Culture.

Singer is a Neuroscientist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Neuroscience in Frankfurt am Main.

Is he working on dementia patients in the Vatican?

The President of the Pontifical Council on Culture is Curial Cardinal Gianfranco Ravas (69) who suffers from dementia.

The scandal of the new appointment: Singer belongs to the advisory board of the atheist society 'Giordano Bruno Foundation'.

He is a determined opponent of the idea that man has free will. [Like a Calvinist]

It is the Archenemy of the Church and of Humanity

The 'Giordano Bruno Foundation' has presumptuously assigned itself the mission of "Evolutionary Humanism" as a goal.

This consists among other things in a ruthless defamation of the Church.

Because: According to the foundation, religion has "influenced the cultural evolution of humanity in an adverse manner." In 2009 they aired a bus campaign with the defamatory slogan: "There is (with almost certain probability) no God."

They promote the murder of children.


The leader of this band is the church-hating underwear prophet Micheal Schnidt-Salomon.

Even the heretical Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg described him in 2009 as a "spiritual assassin who has described the faithful as stuffed pigs and promotes the murder of children."

Schmidt-Salomon also agitated the hate-demonstrations against the September visit of Benedict XVI in Berlin.

The new advisor denies free will

Singer himself considers himself to be a "leading Neuroscientist".

In any case he denies the fre will of men and along with that his own culpability.

In 2004 Singer wrote an article in the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' an article with the following title: 

"Interconnections bind us securely: we should cease from talking about freedom." In November 2008 he told the German weekly "Zeit" [Time]:

"We have imagined all of our religious systems." Roman observers are puzzled over the question just what the Pope or Cardinal Ravasi can learn from this odd duck.

  Link to original...

"Catholic" Bishop Steps in to Help Lesbian "Parents"

Never Trust the Powder Blue Cleric

Edit: With Bishops like this, who needs a Church? Will the Bishop be appalled too when the School teaches the what the Church teaches about the evils of sodomy and about how the boy's two mommies are leading wicked lives of shame and degradation in need of amendment and redemption?

The Australian has reported that the illicit couple won't be accepting the Bishop's offer. It's understandable as they're probably not as confused on the issue of propriety and Catholic teaching as the Bishop obviously is.
Story was covered here too.

MATT PEACOCK: A Catholic school in Broken Hill is the centre of a storm after a student was rejected because she has two mums.

The mothers say the principal of the Sacred Heart School told them their same-sex relationship was the reason for the rejection. However, a bishop has now intervened to overturn the decision.

HAGAR COHEN: The acting head of the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese, Bishop Kevin Manning, has told the ABC in Broken Hill that he is appalled by the school's decision and a place has now been extended to the girl.

Read further, here...

Belgium Terror Attack Involves Religiously Significant Locale

Edit: there are a few things left out of the official news sources which would escape most of your secular journalists about the recent event in Belgium where a Moroccan man murdered four and wounded many more. As one correspondent, TA, says, the massacre occurred on  Place Saint-Lambert in Liège.

 Saint Lambert was an 8th century Bishop who was martyred in Liège because of his defense of marital fidelity. That type of medieval attitude, celebrated by naming a street after Lambert, is deeply offensive to immigrants like Amrani from societies which allow polygamy, so ultimately, yes, the Catholic Church must be held responsible.

If only Belgium were more post-Christian, perhaps men like Amari wouldn't be driven to such desperate deeds in search of a way to express their frustration from dealing with an intolerant and all-too-Christian Belgium.

One thing that is certain is that no matter how much tolerance is shown on behalf of these frustrated minorities, that they'll never be happy till they've achieved that objective of Dar-El-Islam.  It will be enjoyable to watch the press downplay the ethnicity and the fact that the perpetrator somehow managed to obtain several hand grenades.

Sex Abuse: Medievalism and Secrecy Runs Rampant in Hockey

Edit: it must have something to do with the institutional structure of the religion of Hockey.  Its medieval secrecy, homosexual subculture must have something to do with the way that these children are preyed upon by  homosexuals.

Are we really expected to believe that this problem could be any worse in Hockey than it is in football?  As with Judaism, there really needs to be more government oversight and regulation of these sports teams and religions.

Sheldon Kennedy urged American lawmakers to "empower" anyone who suspects children are being sexually abused to speak up in an impassioned plea to a congressional hearing delving into the Penn State college football scandal.
Pedophiles count on the fact that most people have trouble believing trusted adults in their fields — coaches, teachers, priests — would ever abuse children, Kennedy told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.
"Senators, you need to give all adults working with youth and all parents the tools to recognize and respond to abuse when it first arises," he said in prepared remarks.

Link to ... 

Abuse Scandal Rocks Jewish World

Edit: so far the only major network to pick this up has been CBS, but a local Jewish publication, Haredi, has picked it up.


Surely, this will be spun somehow to become a story about sex-abuse in the Catholic Church.  If only there weren't so much shame, greed and medieval secrecy in Judaism, I'm sure these things wouldn't happen.  Perhaps there should be some serious government oversight of Jewish institutions?


This has been a substantial problem in the Orthodox community, but it doesn't get a lot of media coverage.  


There hasn't been a lot of media coverage about homosexual predators in UK Islamic circles either.


And, of course, when atheists aren't running abortion clinics, they're turning girls' orphanages into brothels.  

[Haredi] It happened for a very long time: Eighty-five men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community are suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 of the community's children and teenagers.
Many, including the victims' parents, allegedly knew about it but chose to keep silent – until one of the community organizations decided to reveal the horrible secret and went to the police.

Clearing the Air

Sexual abuse: Report to police or rabbi?  / Sammy Hudes US Orthodox groups clarify stance after saying child's sexual abuse should be reported to rabbi, who would then decide if police should be notified Full story

The affair was reported by the New York Post on Sunday. The New York police are still unsure when the abuse began, but it clearly stretched over several years. Several years of suffering, trauma and perhaps the worst thing of all – a conspiracy of silence aimed at preventing humiliation and shame, all at the expense of the helpless children.
An initiative called Kol Tzedek (“voice of justice") decided to expose the dreadful acts, and as the months went by more and more men were arrested. The organization members located children who fell victim to the abuse and convinced them to complain.

Read Further...

Modernist Monastery to Hire Layman for University President?

Edit: The Benedictines were the tutors of Europe once upon a time. Now it looks like that chapter is closing on yet another Benedictine Monastery which has lost its way in middle America.  Earlier this fall, the Modernist Monastery cut its relationship with its University. 

They've already cut their ties with the University.  Will they change up what they've done in the past and hire a Catholic president at Collegeville?  Part of the reason is certainly the decline in their population due to lack of replacements and death.

COLLEGEVILLE — St. John’s University has hired a search firm to help find its next president, and for the first time the pool of candidates could include someone who isn’t a member of the monastery.

Academic Search Inc. will assist in the search to find the successor to the Rev. Robert Koopmann, who is retiring. The goal is to have Koopmann’s replacement selected by March; that person will start their job next summer.

Koopmann became president of St. John’s University in July 2009, replacing interim President Dan Whalen, who stepped in when Brother Dietrich Reinhart unexpectedly announced his retirement due to health reasons.

Link to St. Cloud Times...

If Only They Let Them be Priests

Edit:  if only the Baptists allowed women to be priests and get married, maybe this wouldn't have happened.  

But seriously, one blogger, Opinionated Catholic, asks the question as to what institution runs the Camp.  None of the stories out there on the search engines identified the name of the Camp which took advantage of this woman's services.  

Anyway, there are four Bible Camps in Louisiana and they all look like they're run by the Baptists.  Who else does that sort of thing anyway? 

Interestingly, in all of this discussion which is frankly prurient, one other feature which is lost is the role being played in all of this by feminism.  Isn't it part of a self-actualized, mature woman to seek out pleasure wherever she can find it?  It's a common constant of feminist novels that the woman flaunts social conventions and mores, isn't it?

Who are we to judge a woman who was just following her bliss, eating, laughing and loving or all of those other things?  The boy seems to have gotten something out of it, right?

At present, mercifully, the perpetrator is being charged with fourteen criminal charges:

Heather Daughdrill, age 28, apparently taught more than the Bible at Summer Bible School Camp.  She is accused of initiating a relationship and having sex with a thirteen-year-old boy, who attended the religious retreat. 

After camp concluded, she reportedly continued seeing the thirteen year old between June and October, according to a press release by the sheriff’s department in Calcasieu Parish.

Link to article... 

Pope Advocates Coops in Uncertain Times

New Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway

Edit: Norway is heavily dependent upon German Catholics for support. God help them. Why don't they just ask for the Cathedral the Lutheran Church in Norway stole? The Norwegians don't even really use it any more do they?



Trondheim (kathnews) As Ansgar-Werk reports the Bonifacius work in connection with the Northern Bishops Conference have recently proposed a new project for the new construction of a Catholic Cathedral in Trondheim. "The structural condition o fthe old Church is not safe and not able to be renovated, and the old church is too small for the growing community in Trondheim, so we've decided to build a new one," says the Apostolic Administrator of the Prelature and Oslo's Bishop, Bernt Eidsvig. The Bishops from Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finnland and Denmark have met at the invitation of the Bonifatius work and the Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker in Paderborn.

Msgr Eidsvig would like the completion of the church in 2014 to commemorate the thousand year anniversary of the baptism of St. Olaf († 1030). From 1015 to 1028 Olav II Haraldsson became King of Norway, Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae. For the planned project, the costs are expected to be 9.5 Million Euros. "The Prelature of Trondheim with about 9.300 Catholics can not pay for the building of the Cathedral alone. They need help from Germany", clarified Msgr Georg Austen, general Secretary of the Bonifacius work, and assured his support. The Catholic Christians in the area of Trondheim make up about 1.3 percent of the population in an extreme diaspora.

In north European lands, the number of Catholics is estimated between 0,2 to 3 percent so that the costs for the building and the support of churches, chapels and community homes themselves can hardly be born. "Much which is existentially necessary for the Churches in our countries are necessary wouldn't be possible without help from Germany", stressed Stockholm's Bishop, Anders Arborelius. Arborelius is the president of the Northern Bishops Conference and Grand Prior of the Commandery of Sweden of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

In 2010 the Bonifacius work received a further 2.1 Million Euros from Catholics in Northern Europe. So that with German Help Works, this will support 13 building projects as well as projects for children and youth. Important projects are among other things the Newman Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, which was recognized as the first Catholic University in Sweden after the so-called Reformation, by the State and the building of a Contemplative Cloister in Trondheim-Tiller, Tauntra and Munkeby (Norwegen).

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Father Schmidberger Addresses Assisi Meetings and Relativism

Fatal Result. The scandalous Assisi event of Pope John Paul II has been understood by Catholics in a way: "For each to make sanctify it according to his own fashion".

(kreuz.net) Vocations must be formed holistically.

Only in this way can the faithful receive a holistic vision of the Christian life, where private, familial, professional and social life be put together "as from one mold".

Father Franz Schmidberger(65) - mathematician and Superior of the German District of the Society of Saint Pius X said to newsportal 'kathnews.de' on 7. December.

The practical disappearance of vocations in the Conciliar Church, he continued, has led to the situation that there is hardly any more possibility "for a joyful, faithful youth, for Christian families for parishes erected with a missionary spirit or for the return to working to bring souls to penitence."

The Beginning: A heretical definition of the Mass

Father continued to speak about the Society's critique of the New Mass.

He cited the first edition of the Mass book in 1969:

"The Lord's Supper or the Mass is the holy gathering together or the meeting of thep people of God, who come together under the presiding of a priest, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord. For that reason the physical meeting of the Holy Church in an brilliant mass makes valid Christ's promise. >>Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be among them.<< (Mt 18, 20)"

The clergyman pointed out that in this representation "all elements" of the Sacrifice of the Mass fall short, which are set out in the 22nd Session of the Council of Trent in 1562.

The Liturgy on the Drawing Board Remains

Father Schmidberger admitted that this heretical Mass definition was "somewhat improved" a year later.

But: "The defined thing itself, namely the Liturgy elaborated on the drawing board remained the same. A one meal fellowship being presided over by a the Priest. Almost nothing was mentioned about adoring God and atoning for sins. On the other hand the SSPX insists that the Holy Mass is the unbloody renewal of the bloody Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

This is so that people in todays pleasure society can be brought to holiness, to the supernatural and Sanctifying Grace, to self-donation and to be led to serve.

The Old Mass Remains the Mass of all Things

The celebration of the Old Mass -- says Father Schmidberger -- has won ground "not spectacularly, but respectably" after the Motu Proprio:

"If the Bishops weren't giving their resistance to it, it would be much more broadly
diffused."

The Old Mass remains the measure for every Liturgy, "which is the perfect Liturgical expression of Catholic Dogma."

Above all there must be a "overthrowing of the (un)Spirit of the Council":

"The poison must be forced out of the mystical body of the Lord."

A Great Scandal

Concerning the subject of interreligion, Father Schmidberger recalled the Assisi Meeting of 1986:

"That was a great scandal for the entire Church, an offense against the first Commandment of God and against the first article of our Creed."

Above all this had put the "spirit of relativism" in the head to a considerable degree: "For each to make sanctify it according to his own fashion, say the people".

For Father Schmidberger it is "inexplicable how such a false step could be dedicated by a silver jubilee."

The Pope has attempted to address critics of the meeting by pushing the meeting "more to a cultural appearance".

Still the central problem with that is not put to the side for Father Schmidberger.

It consists in the "exclusion of the question of reality and the darkening of the reality that Christ is the only savior of the human person and the only true Prince of Peace in this world."

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Photo: © Piusbruderschaft.de

Traditional Benedictine Society in Italy: Concelebration

Edit: it's not possible to "concelebrate" in the Immemorial Rite of All Ages, but the local Bishop is concerned about that of all things. It appears as though there is conflict in the community. It's not clear whether this is being perceived from the outside by the Bishop or whether this actually exists in the manner of Protocol 1411 more than a decade ago when a few irresponsible and dishonest seminarians wrote a letter slandering the Fraternity of St. Peter and asking to say the Novus Ordo. This precipitated the dissmisal of the superior and the insistence that FSSP priests be permitted to say the New Mass.

This unfortunate maneuver was widely regarded as proof by others that Rome couldn't be trusted to keep its word.

Now apparently, the local ordinary here is interested in bringing a similar degree of Liturgical uniformity on the newly founded Benedictine Monastery of the Immaculate.

The following is a letter addressed to the local ordinary of Albenga-Imperia and addresses the points as to why these Benedictines won't be saying the New Mass, and how they have the canonical right not to do so.

To His Excellency,
Monsignor Mario OLIVERI
Bishop of Albenga-Imperia

Excellency and Dear Monsignor,

Thank you with all my heart for having phoned me yesterday and for having told me very simply your thought about the problem of concelebrations that divides our communauty. Our conversation suggested me a few thoughts of which I would like to open my heart to your Excellency.
[…]
Strictly looking at the Code of Canon Law, canon #902 lets to hear that the general rule in the Holy Church is the individual celebration of the mass and that the concelebration is only allowed (sacerdotes Eucharistiam concelebrare possunt), that the concelebration is even sometimes forbidden and that, in all the cases, freedom stands for each priest to celebrate individually. So it would be unjust to put a strain on each priest and on each community for not concelebrating.

If our community built itself around the exclusively traditional rite, it was therefore its right and moreover Church admitted it as such through its Constitutions. After having attentively read those Constitutions, my former professor at the University of Law of the Opus Dei, Antoni Bishop Stankiewicz, presently dean of the Roman Rota, gave me in June 2006 a full confirmation of it.The Proper Law (lex propria) of the diverse Institutes is not a territorial law, leading to think for example that the traditional rite of the mass is an obligation only inside the abbey. The comment of the Code by the University of Salamanca on the contrary explains, about the Can. #13, that “some laws affect directly people whom they are intended to, not because of their link with a territory, but for a motive that touch them more personally, so that these laws follow the people who are subjected to them everywhere they go”. So our proper law obliges us, even outside the monastery.

It is obvious that this Community choice, canonised by the Church, is based on a conviction of faith, that hierarchy did not always include and even less accepted. Linked “collectively” to ecclesiastic institutions in crisis, the bishops, too often impregnated with the mind of the world and with its ideologies, were only paralysing the supernatural life in souls. After forty years of such a regime, its dramatic consequences have spread out sadly under our eyes. And those who among the bishops admit the above and deplore it, do not always succeed in reacting with the necessary means and vigour.

Our attachment to the traditional rite is a wedding of faith and love that, in the image of the conjugal union, obliges us to an exclusive fidelity. It supposes and shows a theology and a pastoral that cannot match with a liturgy which turn the back on The Lord for the dialogue and “the being together”.

Cardinal Ratzinger had already noted (in La mia vita, ed. San Paolo, Roma, 1997) the “very grievous damage inflicted on the faith by the liturgical reform”. The denunciation and unmasking of the modernist taboo of being “in conformity with the spirit of the Council” is gradually opening people’s minds, allowing increasing numbers of thelogians and of the clergy to recognize publicly the deficiencies and the doctrinal ambiguity of N.O.M. And, as noted by John-Paul II, in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n ° 10, “The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate any lessening or any ambiguity”.

Such is the drama which saw a traditional reaction: while wishing to conserve the Ecclesiastical hierarchy wanted by our Lord, it refuses to make friends with a ritual in which, although valid and lawful, it does not admit the authentic expression of faith without ambiguity. Cardinal Ratzinger was entirely aware of this when he wrote in his autobiography: “I am persuaded that the crisis of the Church which we are living today is widely based on the disintegration of liturgy”. Is not this the fundamental reason for which the pope himself desires to reform the liturgical reform bringing it back into line with the traditional Mass?

It is true that this serious fault of the current liturgy, even when it is celebrated with the necessary dignity, is not always and easily observable to theological minds because the language of liturgy is not that of doctrine. The latter handles interior concepts, the former exterior signs. Doctrine speaks intelligence, whereas liturgy speaks to the whole human being, body and soul. Liturgy, said Péguy, is “stretched-out” theology. If liturgy is the work of the faith of our Fathers, it is as a result not only its expression but also its guardian. Anything which shocks the traditional liturgical sensibility is, to say the least, to be considered dubious. To give one example: the altars where the priest has his back to the tabernacle are an affront to the traditional liturgical instinct. I know of only one bishop — and this honour goes to you, Monsignor — who has requested his priests to remove this table from in front of the altar. [Liturgical direction indeed means that the worship which we return is first for honour and glory of God and not autocelebration of the assembly which, has talks oblige, require to move the crucifix on the quoting; in the centre, he would be too embarrassing.] This sacred liturgy which has been handed down to us, part of the 2000 year-old tradition of the Church, is Opus Dei and not opus hominum, a liturgy, as Cardinal Ratzinger writes, coming from God and not something “manufactured”.

The traditional mentality, while admitting the canonical validity and legality of N.O.M., does not find in such a liturgy the plenary expression of its faith. Such is the deep reason of its distance in relation to that liturgy and of its instinctive refusal to use it. The concelebration, at Mass, which is neither a legal obligation nor a theological necessity, would not shock the traditional mentality as such. In our epoch, when people feel “together”, concelebration certainly expresses a fraternal link between priests which is a sign of ecclesial communion. What casts down the traditional mentality is more the rite than concelebration as such. If one must concelebrate, then one much prefers the older and traditional manner of doing it, with deacon, sub-deacon, acolytes etc., expressive of a “hierarchical” communion more in accordance with a sane ecclesiology than is the “egalitarian” communion which arose with the liturgical reform and which bears the heavy imprint of the democratic mentality of our day.

Dom Gérard, our founder, as Dom Guéranger by liturgical idea, wrote in one of his many works on this subject : “The Church, Wife and mystical Body of Christ, is the most manifold, most structured society, most organised into a hierarchy which exists: of the summit up to the base, everything carries in her the footprint of a sacred hierarchy emanated from its exhilarating centre. This celestial Church composed of angels and elected representatives whom our primitive painters represented the wide open eyes, reached hands and lined up by order around the Lamb, since the big Seraphs up to souls of the Purgatory which go up to set up among the countless choruses, it is it which is our true fatherland and while seeing it beginning to take shape under our eyes, we trains as eternity.” (La Sainte Liturgie, éd. Sainte-Madeleine, p. 59-60, Le Barroux, 1982.)

Please excuse, Monsignor, the frankness of the above comments which to be sure call for further nuances. My chief motive in writting this letter has been the desire for complete openness vis-à-vis your Excellency. I trust that any possible and legitimate differences of opinion, will not cast a shadow on our future collaboration, and that you will grant me a place in your diocese where, in union with the Pope, yourself and all the episcopal collegiate, I can help, through my filial obedience, prayer and example, in your apostolate. If for the time being you cannot provide a place where I can settle, alone or with one or two confrères, perhaps at least you could give me your agreement in principle to receive me in your dicocese? We could then look together for some practical solution, with the help of several of your diocesan priests who have shown great willingness to have a monastic presence and witness in their vicinity. I would never be abble to thank you enough for allowing me to pursue my Benedictine vocation in reacquired peace.

Let me end, Excellency and dear Monsignor, by expressing once again my filial and respectful good wishes, in Jesus and Mary.

Fr. Jehan, O.S.B.

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