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A Tustin woman told police the nearly 5-foot statue taken from Our Lady Queen of Angels turned up in her yard, according to Newport Beach police Lt. Craig Fox.

The statue by Mexican artist Victor Salmones was valued at $30,000, police said.

The woman, who police did not name, told police she noticed it when she came home after being away for the weekend and had some suspicions about it, Fox said. She called police this morning after seeing a photograph of it in a newspaper, Fox said. [article]

After she saw an article she called police? I guess up to that point she just put it off to benevolent five foot bronze sculpture of Mary front lawn droppers.

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) -- A Georgia priest facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women said Friday he plans to visit the Vatican with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.

Roy Bourgeois, 69, a Maryknoll priest and nationally known peace activist, ran afoul of Vatican doctrine by participating in an Aug. 9 ceremony in Lexington, Ky., to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Recent popes have said the Roman Catholic Church cannot ordain women because Christ chose only males as apostles.

"Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?" Bourgeois said in a telephone interview. "As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God." [article]

Well who are you as a priest to set yourself up against the magisterium? Though I guess he must get to look through God's mail since he says these invitations are from God. Vocations are routed through Fr. Bourgeois or at least he gets CC'ed.

Bourgeois said the toughest part of the ordeal was informing his 95-year-old father, a devout Roman Catholic. He said he drove to his family's home in Lutcher, La., near New Orleans, to tell him, and that his father shed tears and then told his family that God had protected Bourgeois before, and would continue to today.

"When he said God will take care of him, I wept," said Bourgeois.

I find this very sad. It is always good to remember the human side of the equation and even though father here is in error, like almost all sin and thus error it is pursued as a good. Sincerity does not protect you from being sincerely wrong and maybe it is more than coincidence that sincerity starts with "sin". Once again we see the use of "devout" by the media as someone who opposes the Church in some fashion.

Canon Lawyer Ed Peters recent posted on this and said "I suspect that a penal decree here will not only impose an excommunication, it will also lay the groundwork for a fairly expeditious dismissal from the clerical state."

If Fr. Bourgeois does get dismissed from the clerical state, at least it will not mean a change of wardrobe for him. Seriously though please pray for him.

Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been threatened with excommunication by the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for his support of women's ordination, according to a letter made public today.

The letter was written by Bourgeois and addressed to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It was distributed via e-mail by Bill Quigley, a New Orleans lawyer who represents Bourgeois.

According to Bourgeois' letter, which is dated Nov. 7, the congregation has given him 30 days to recant his "belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or (he) will be excommunicated."

The letter indicates that Bourgeois received notification from the congregation Oct. 21.

Bourgeois, a priest for 36 years, attended the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Lexingon, Ky., Aug. 9 and preached a homily.

Considering that this story comes from the National Catholic Reporter I don't know how true it is. Though I do hope the CDF has said this and I further hope that Fr. Bourgeois repents. There was about zero chance that the Maryknolls were going to discipline him.

In other news it was one year ago today when an attempted women's ordination ended in several excommunications.

ROSEMONT -- The Rev. Andrew Greeley, the best-selling novelist and newspaper columnist, fractured his skull in a fall Friday. He is in "critical" condition at a suburban hospital, his family and friends report.

How the outspoken priest was hurt is still being pieced together by his family, but hospital workers told them Greeley, 80, snagged his jacket in taxicab door at about 4 p.m. Friday and fell, hitting his head.

"Right now he's critical but stable, very stable," said his niece, Laura Durkin. "Doctors are hopeful and pleased with his progress from last night to today. They're pleased with his current condition." [source]

VATICAN CITY -- Telecommunications technology of the early 21st century has produced a phenomenon known as "phone hell": an audio inferno where callers are tormented either by mechanized voices or human ones with less soul than the machines.

But the opposite exists. It can be found here in a simply furnished second-floor room where multilingual nuns in gray habits answer phones with a sweet-voiced greeting: "Pronto, Vaticano" (Hello, Vatican).

For 50 years, the nuns of the order of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master have operated the Vatican switchboard. They are the gatekeepers of the Holy See.

Hearing the faithful

The sisters field half a million calls a year. They assist the friendly, the loud and the troubled. They help the faithful negotiate a Roman Catholic Church bureaucracy whose instincts tend toward discretion, if not mystery.

Sister Maria Clara, the 55-year-old chief operator, is gentle and bespectacled, her Italian tinged with her native Korean. After 11 years on the switchboard, she sees her job as a blessed calling.

"People ask us: 'So you really work on Christmas? You work on Easter?' " she said. "Of course we do. The church is a mystic body. I feel that we are the heart of the church. And the heart never stops."

Love that.

At least once a day, someone insists on speaking, urgently and directly, with Pope Benedict XVI. The sisters respond with tact and prudence. They never say an outright "No." Instead they try to learn more and see if a priest, the Vatican media room or a church official can help.

"Sometimes they won't be satisfied with even a bishop -- their problem can only be solved by the pope," Sister Maria Grazia said.

Some callers cross the line between tormented and deranged, between lonely and abusive. Most of those calls, however, take place during the midnight shift when a skeleton crew of male operators-- civilians, not priests -- takes over.

The sisters work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. They recognize and tolerate certain regulars. One frequent caller identifies himself as Saint John the Baptist. He's harmless, although he gets touchy if they don't address him as "Saint John."

"He asks me to pray with him, and I do," Sister Maria Clara said earnestly. "Sometimes I have to put him on hold to take other calls. But he waits."

A poster near her desk depicts Don Giacomo Alberione, the founder of the 94-year-old Pious Society of Saint Paul to which the sisters' order belongs. Alberione's image is juxtaposed against telecom towers emitting waves and the word "Evangelism.

Good thing I am not on the Vatican's switchboard. I would be tempted to ask "St. John the Baptist how he managed to dial with his head separated from his body.

Alberione's life work focused on the church's communications activities: books, radio, film, the media. In the 1950s, Pope Pius XII gave him the mission of modernizing the Vatican's phone system.

"And because he was also a visionary when it came to the equality of women, he decided that the sisters should be the ones to staff the switchboard," Mellini said.

The Vatican has accepted modernization; the sisters will get some state-of-the-art pointers soon during a seminar with an outside expert.

But the sisters are determined that some things will never change.

"At least when they call us they don't hear a machine; they hear a voice," Sister Maria Grazia said. "There is always a voice."

article

The other day on Vatican Radio I listened to the Pope's address to the new Canadian Ambassador and have been waiting to see it in print. It starts out with some praise for Canadian culture and then comes to this:

"Nevertheless, profound changes can be noticed today, which are seen in different sectors and at times cause concern to the point of asking ourselves if it does not mean a regression in the understanding of the human being," he said. "These changes mainly concern the areas of defense and the promotion of life and the family based on natural marriage."

"In this context," said the Pope, "I would like to encourage all Canadians to reflect deeply on the path that Christ calls us to follow." That path, he said "is bright and full of truth." Speaking of turning to a culture of life, Benedict XVI said, "I know it is possible and that your country is capable." He said, "A culture of life can nourish anew the personal and social existence of Canada as a whole."

"To help," said the Holy Father, "it seems necessary to redefine the meaning of freedom of expression too often invoked to justify certain excesses." He noted that freedom is often wrongly perceived as an absolute value, disregarding its divine origin and its communal dimension. In such an interpretation of freedom, he suggested, "only the individual can decide and choose the form, characteristics, and ends of life, death, and marriage."

"True freedom," he observed, "is ultimately based on and develops in God." He added: "It is a gift that can be accepted as the seed from which the person and society can grow responsibly and be enriched. The exercise of this freedom implies reference to a natural moral law that is universal, which precedes and unifies all rights and duties. In this perspective, I would like to show my support to all the Canadian Bishops' initiatives in favor of family life and thus of the dignity of the human being."

Hat tip to the excellent InForum blog.

Pope Benedict XVI greets British professor Stephen Hawking during a meeting of scientists, theologians and philosophers at the Vatican today to discuss the origins of the cosmos.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world did not emerge out of chaos; rather it was created intentionally by "the first being," Pope Benedict XVI said.

The Creator also is involved not only with the origins of the universe, but continually sustains the development of life and the world, said the pope during an Oct. 31 audience with 80 participants of a Vatican-sponsored conference on evolution.

Scientists, philosophers and theologians from around the world were attending the Oct. 31-Nov. 4 plenary session on "Scientific Insights Into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life" at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The pope said the topic was timely and has elicited interest worldwide.

"Questions concerning the relationship between science's reading of the world and the reading offered by Christian revelation naturally arise," he said. Popes Pius XII and John Paul II had found there was "no opposition between faith's understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences," he said.

"In order to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have come from nothing into being. It must be created," the pope said.

Via Fr. Blake and American Papist

The film by grassrooots films for CatholicVote.com has been viewed over 2 million times and has been praised by many.

I guess some Protestant groups also liked it so much that they decided to copy it. I received this bit of information

The AFA - American Family Association completely parroted the film and slapped their name on it: compared to the original: www.catholicvote.com. Ironically, the AFA film was produced by Creative Laboratory. Not one "creative" aspect to it, you'll note.

And, it has been brought to my attention that other groups have used (and abused) the film by taking out the Catholic elements and filling in whatever they want more appropos for their denominations. Here is an even more audacious example: http://www.cbasc.com/ (just see their voter's guide video on the homepage).

I find this quite unfortunate that while our goals are the same in this election that they ripped off somebody else s work to one degree or another and passed it off as their own. This seems more like something Joe Biden would do.

Philip Groning's stunning new documentary on the spirituality of Carthusian monks will be on EWTN this wwek.

Sun 10/26/08 9:00 PM ET & 6 PM PT
Thu 10/30/08 2:30 PM ET & 11:30 AM PT

ROME -- Catholic women seeking to become priests denounced the church's ban on female ordination as sexist and unjust, bringing their campaign close to the Vatican on Wednesday during a worldwide gathering of bishops.

The small group of women representing Catholic organizations from around the world marched across the Tiber River close to St. Peter's Square, some wearing signs with the names of prominent women in the early days of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Ordain Women! Ordain Women!" the woman chanted. They later tried to deliver a petition to the Swiss Guards at the Vatican, but nobody came to pick it up.

Aisha Taylor, the executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference in the United States, said the women wanted to call attention to the issue during the synod, a meeting of 253 bishops under way. [article]

Reminds me of the hilarious Envoy Magazine piece that had the names for some future encyclicals including:

Amen Amen Dico Vobis; Nihil Muliebrium Sacerdotum (Read My Lips: No Women Priests) Encyclical asking radical Catholic feminists what part of Pope John Paul the Great's Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (on the reservation of holy orders to men alone) they don't understand.

Rursus Dicam: Nullo Modo (I'll Say It Again: No Way) Encyclical explaining the pope's position on women priests even more plainly.

PRINCETON, NJ, October 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Princeton's Stuart Country Day School, a Catholic school, has disinvited former New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman as the keynote speaker for a women's leadership forum at the request of Bishop John Smith, who warned against the scandal that would be caused by inviting the famously pro-abortion political figure.
Bishop Smith of the Trenton diocese cited the section in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" that condemns abortion and euthanasia as intrinsically evil and insupportable.

"Governor Whitman has made it her position over the years that she is pro-choice, and so supports a position totally contrary to official Catholic teaching," Bishop Smith wrote in a letter addressed to the school's headmistress, Sister Frances de la Chapelle of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Bishop Smith urged the school to reverse the invitation, which "may well mislead your students, parents and faculty to falsely conclude that the Church tolerates the pro-choice position."

The school subsequently cancelled the woman's leadership forum altogether. In a statement concerning the cancellation, Sister de la Chapelle said, "We are saddened that our students, and the wider community, will not be enriched by the lively discussion and critical thinking that surely would have resulted from Governor Whitman's lecture on leadership, values, and the environment."

"I ask that we pray for our Church, Governor Whitman, and ourselves at this time," said the headmistress. [article]

And I might add for the headmistress also that apparently had no problem with a governor who vetoed a partial birth abortion ban. Thank you Bishop John Smith!

In other news Bishop Steinbeck talks about Fr. Farrow who recently came out against the Proposition 8 in California during Mass.

Farrow's comments contradict statements made by the head of the U.S. federal government's genome project, Dr. Francis S. Collins, who points out that studies of identical twins prove that "sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations." Identical twins, who share the same DNA, share a homosexual orientation in only 20 percent of cases, according to Collins.

Fresno's Bishop John T. Steinbock responded to Farrow's statements in a press release stating, "Proposition 8 is not about gay or lesbian orientation, or their legal rights. Proposition 8 is a reaffirmation of the nature of marriage. Proposition 8 reaffirms the dignity of the special covenant between one man and one woman which has been the building block of the church and of society since time immemorial."

Bishop Steinbock also defended the Church's right to speak out on political issues. "Some say that the Church has no place in American politics. That is absolutely untrue. The Church never involves itself in telling people to vote for a political candidate or party. But it does have the moral responsibility to speak out strongly on moral issues when these relate to propositions on our ballot," he said.

He added, "The Church has a right and obligation to speak out on issues of faith and morals. This means speaking out on important issues affecting family life and the common good."

In an interview before the mass at which he intended to announce his dissent, Farrow was directly asked by Fresno's ABC affiliate if he was "gay," to which he responded "It's a secondary issue. But yes, I am."

Farrow had apparently cleared out his office in anticipation of the event, and disappeared following the mass. As of Monday, Bishop Steinbeck still had not spoken to Farrow, but asked for prayers for him and all of the diocese's priests, as well as for priestly vocations. [article]

10/5/2008 Fresno, CA, USA (KFSN) -- Father Geoffrey Farrow of the Saint Paul Newman Center in northeast Fresno shocked parishioners Sunday morning when he came out against Proposition 8, an initiative that would eliminate the right for same sex couples to marry in California.

After 23 years as an ordained Catholic Priest, Father Geoffrey Farrow has likely given his final mass. Sunday morning he invited us to hear his message, a message that shocked many parishioners.

11 o'clock mass began as usual Sunday. Father Geoff led parishioners through prayer and communion.

The homily taught of acceptance, love and rejection. But it was his closing remarks that left some parishioners stunned. "What most Catholics hear about being gay or lesbian at their parish is silence,"

Fr. Geoff says after numerous inquiries from parishioners asking for direction on Proposition 8, if passed would ban gay marriage, the Father said he must go against the Bishops recommendation and instead go with what he feels is right.

"In directing the faithful to vote yes on proposition 8, the California Bishops are not only entering the political arena, they are ignoring the advances and insights of neurology, psychology and the very statements by the church itself that homosexual is innate," says Fr. Geoff.

Well I guess he has a thorough understanding of Church teaching as he has on what she has said about homosexuality. That is a lousy understanding. The Church has made no statements about homosexuality being innate. This is a scientific question and one the Church will never weigh in on. The consistent teaching of the Church is that homosexual acts are intrinsically evil.

We sat down with Father Geoff before mass, and he answered the question many are probably wondering... Is he gay? "It's a secondary issue. But yes, I am. And when I was a boy I asked God please make me normal and the prayer never got answered and I realized why. Because God would've made somebody else he wouldn't have made me."

What a surprise that once again a priest who stands up at Mass and talks about homosexuality being acceptable themselves have same-sex attraction. Funny how we never hear an alcoholic priest give a homily about how alcoholism is okay. But this is what happens when society calls a sin acceptable and it makes it harder for those suffering to acknowledge the truth.

Sunday mass ended with about half the congregation giving a standing ovation. Outside parishioners had mixed reaction about the priest's remarks.

Bishop John Steinbock has not yet talked to Father Geoff, but surely that will come soon.

Hat Tip Fr. James Martin S.J.

Via Fr. Joe

Fr. Francis Mary Stone left EWTN and his ministry last year, explaining that he needed time to discern his life direction and vocation. There was a woman in the picture, a widow he had counseled and her family. I suppose, the truth be said, he had already burned his bridges behind him, but that is for him to say (or not) in the days ahead. RIGHT NOW, it appears that he is having to face the cold reality that husbands and fathers have to provide for their families. Continue to pray for him and all involved.

Here is his site and it certainly looks authentic. While it is always sad when a priest falls it is even sadder when they do so and promote organic nutritional drinks "Zrii, the nutritional supplement of those Living Life on the Rock!"

A Rome priest is fighting for his life after being stabbed in the neck and stomach by a deranged man who had just watched the film The Da Vinci Code on television.

Eyewitnesses said that Marco Luzi, 25, asked to see Father Canio Canistri, 68, parish priest at the church of Santa Marcella in the San Saba district on the Aventine Hill, and then attacked him with a knife hidden in a cloth. An elderly parishioner who came to the priest's aid is also in serious condition.

A Peruvian childminder and a policeman were also injured as the assailant fled through a nearby park. Police said Mr Luzi, a former medical student with a history of psychiatric problems, had admitted watching the film version of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code on television the night before the frenzied assault.

At his flat nearby, where he lived with his mother Paola, investigators found material on the Apocalypse and the anti-Christ, and the telephone number of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

There was also a large reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which is at the heart of the mystery in The Da Vinci Code, with a note pointing to one of the disciples reading: "This is the hand in which a knife is hidden".

and

AN elderly Sydney priest who disarmed an intruder says he thought it was either "me or him" when he confronted the man in the church presbytery.

Father John Mello, 72, was stabbed in the arm while taking a knife from a robber less than half his age at St Kevin's Catholic Church at Dee Why, on Sydney's northern beaches.

The priest was having dinner and reading the paper about 7.20pm (AEST) yesterday when he heard something and disturbed the intruder, aged between 25-30.

Fr Mello said when he confronted the man, wearing a balaclava and armed with a knife about 25 to 30cm long, he was "vividly conscious" he could be "horizontal in one second", and acted automatically to disarm his attacker.

URBANA, Ill. (AP) A Catholic priest on the University of Illinois campus has been charged with selling cocaine from his church office and rectory.

The Reverend Christopher Layden pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of delivery of less than 1 gram of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church and one count of possession with intent to deliver 1 to 15 grams of cocaine near a church.

The 33-year-old was arrested Wednesday at St. John's Catholic Newman Center after investigators found 3 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia while searching his home and office. His bond was set at $50,000.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria says it has suspended Layden.

It is sad when a priest succumbs to substance abuse, but dealing? There has to be a Newman Center joke in here somewhere.

Melbourne, Aug 30 (ANI): A catholic priest, who claims that his back yard full of cannabis plants is a gift from God, has been placed under constant surveillance by police.

Father Cyril Papudov, of Petrich, Bulgaria, has been arrested seven times but police have never caught him actually cultivating the crop.

He insists that the cannabis seeded by itself and is part of God's gift of nature and nothing to do with him.

"There has been a great deal of suspicion over the years about what is going on with these plants," Daily Telegraph quoted police, as saying.

"He is a man of the cloth and so a lot of people don't want to think badly of him but frankly if someone has a huge crop of cannabis in their back garden it's highly unlikely they are just sitting there admiring its horticultural properties," the police added.

Several readers sent me in the following story.

ROME -- An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.

The "Miss Sister 2008" contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

"Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. "This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible."

Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site will have a month to "vote for the nun they consider a model."

Nuns will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."

Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the Web site is started.

The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.

"It's an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God," the group's president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy's ANSA news agency on Sunday.

I wonder if they will have a pantsuit competition or is that reserved for American nun beauty contests (what a scary image)? This though is such a bad idea on so many levels. If you think bit nuns are being "marginalized in ecclesiastical life" why in the world would you marginalize them further. This story is getting coverage because everyone immediately realizes how silly this is. How about a spiritual beauty contest? "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." Though trying to book God to be a judge at a spiritual beauty contest is rather difficult and he is the only one fully qualified.

The contest is now canceled.

After having no power since Thursday afternoon because of Tropical Storm Fay I am finally online again. I must say I much prefer Fay Wray to TS Fay, but there was a typhoon heading to Hong Kong and I wonder if their is a name connection there.

Though I did get a lot of reading done. I was able to finish Tim Power's Earthquake Weather which is the third book in his Fault line series. I really do enjoy all of his novels for not just going the route of an alternate history, but a hidden history in our own time line. Declare is my favorite of his novels, but I enjoy all of them.

Next up I read Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book by Walker Percy. I finally got around to reading his books and so far I am hooked. I certainly loved his wry humor and this book and such an accurate dissection of society. I especially loved this bit "... though for every Mother Teresa, there seem be be 1,800 nutty American nuns, female Clint Eastwoods who have it in for men and are out to get the Pope."

The next day I read Life of Christ by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. I had previously started it, but I read the last 600 pages of it throughout the day. This is certainly a great book along the lines of Frank Sheed's To Know Christ Jesus and The Lord by Romano Guardini where the story of Jesus via the four Gospels is told along with insights by the author. Pope Benedict's great book Jesus of Nazareth is also along these lines, but is more technical than a general retelling like the other books. If you have ever watched Archbishop Sheen's television show you will know some of the themes the he uses in the book, but mostly this is an excellent synthesis of Jesus' life. I received a copy of this book from Image publishing since it is the fiftieth anniversary of it's release. I had been meaning to getting around to reading this book since I have read many of his other books and am glad to have had the opportunity to read much of it in one day since it is really a classic. Highly recommended.

After that I read The Final Bow: A Novel by Alan David Justice. Happy Catholic had previously recommended a book this author podcast in full called The Communion of the Saint which was an enjoyable story in an Anglican storyline. The author is also an Anglican. The Final Bow is an earlier book that he wrote that is no longer in print, but I picked it up on Amazon used for less than a buck. I wanted to get this book since it tells the story of St. Genesius the actor who was reportedly martyred in Rome during the Emperor Diocletian. He is the patron saint of actors as well as jesters. Very little is known of this saint and so the author had a lot of leeway in telling the story. I really did enjoy the story which does a good job of giving the historical background of the persecutions by Diocletian of what turned out be be the last of these types of persecutions. The writing is solid along good characterization and of course when writing on a martyr you know how it is going to end. My only caveats were that an explanation of the Trinity by one character lapses into the heresy of modalism and the other is that while some martyrs are mentioned it seems popes like St. Marcellinus are not mentioned at all with no mention of the papacy, though not surprising coming from an Anglican writer. Still though an enjoyable read.

I am though really glad to have electricity and internet connectivity back. I was able to tweet my status one from a restaurant that had free wireless, but mostly I forcibly fasted from the internet and survived. I am also really thankful for LED book lights since they are really great for night reading for long periods of time without using a lot of battery power. My first instinct when a hurricane approaches to make sure I have batteries for my book light just in case.

Zhengding (AsiaNews) - More than a thousand underground Catholics defied police controls to meet in a church in Wuqiu (Hebei) to celebrate mass on the feast day of the Assumption of Mary with their bishop, Julius Jia Zhiguo, who has been under house arrest and police surveillance around the clock. Sources told AsiaNews however that the bishop is isolated and that priests and seminarians cannot see him in person. Monsignor Jia is bishop of the underground diocese of Zhengding (Hebei), which has more than 110,000 Catholics with 80 priests and more than 90 nuns.

For the Olympics public security officers warned Catholics in the diocese not to celebrate the feast in Wuqiu cathedral. Prelates and priests were placed instead under house arrest.

Mgr Jia Zhiguo himself has been under police surveillance around the clock since April. The police even build a small house in front of the bishop's residence just to monitor him.

The solemnity of the Assumption is a major Catholic celebration in China. At least a thousand faithful peacefully flocked to the church in Wuqiu in defiance of police order.

The bishop's residence is located just beside the place of worship.

To avoid conflict and other problems, the public security officers monitoring the cathedral allowed the large crowd to go in. The officers did not follow them into the church but maintained order in the courtyard.

The bishop was thus able to celebrate mass with the faithful.

Sources in Zhengding told AsiaNews that the bishop remains in isolation and cannot see or meet his seminarians or priests.

Jennifer M. Hasselberger's who was the bishop's delegate for canonical affairs of the Diocese of Fargo, N.D., will join the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as chancellor for canonical affairs on Aug. 18. There was some comments about this and a supposed connection between her and Rent-a-Priest. A reader sent me the following info.

The topic of my JCL thesis (licentiate in canon law) was movements of validly ordained Roman Catholic priests who had left ministry with the Catholic Church and were attempting to offer sacramental ministry outside of the structures of the church. I wrote the thesis at a time when penal law was an increasingly important process, and the argument was that formal canonical action needed to be taken against these men, many of whom simply walked away from active ministry without ever having been formally suspended, etc.

In the process of researching this topic, I sought information from the organization 'Rent A Priest'. They later requested (I think from my university) a copy of my thesis and have used selective quotations as a justification for their cause.

However, my thesis was not in any way an endorsement of married or suspended clergy exercising ministry. The statement that is generating so much interest is one that is simply a canonical truth- once validly ordained, a priest never loses the grace of ordination. Therefore, in emergency situations, even a laicized priest retains the right to administer the sacraments.

In my thesis I was very critical of organizations like the Rent A Priests, who take that principle of law (which is meant to protect the right of the faithful to have access to the sacraments, especially in danger of death situations), and use it in an attempt to justify their ministry. I argued that their stated position that a priest-shortage, or the possibility of a closed parish, makes their return to ministry (outside of the Catholic Church) legitimate (a closed parish equaling an emergency situation), is a willful misinterpretation of the letter and spirit of the law. I went on to say that only some of the sacraments that they offer are valid, as others (like marriage) are only valid when they are offered by someone with the faculties and permission of the local ordinary.

The Rent A Priests have had that quotation on their website for years, and I have never attempted to have it removed largely because the wisdom of many dioceses has been that we only look bad when trying to take them on. It has never been a problem for me, and I am certain that there would be no issue if the people who are so upset would read the thesis rather then the Rent a Priest website. They should consider their source!

When it comes to Rent-a-Priest it is the rule of thumb that they are willing to lie and take things out of context to justify their work.

ORANGE PARK, FL -- After Robert Powell hit the Florida Lottery jackpot last month and took home more than $6 million, he thought of his church.

And he offered to drop his tithe, around $600,000, in the collection plate of First Baptist Orange Park.

But the church and Pastor David Tarkington politely declined and told Powell they will not accept the lottery winnings.

Hey Mr. Powell have you considered crossing the Tiber? Donations from lottery money, hey we're down with that (with the caveat expressed in CCC 2413).

The Catholic Diocese of Dallas warned parishioners Monday that a man appears to be posing as a bishop and charging up to $200 to perform illegitimate sacraments at Dallas area hotels.

At least four people have called local parishes during the past month after becoming suspicious of a man who claimed to be a Mexican bishop and charged $100 to $200 to perform the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Communion.

Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas said the Archbishop of Acapulco, Mexico reported that a man named Martin Davila Gandara may be operating in the Dallas area.

Law and Order or other shows

Congratulations to Greg and Jennifer of the Rosary Army apostolate and podcast since they will be hosting a three hour show five days a week on Sirius Radio in September.  Good decision Sirius.  I have long been a fan of their show and got to briefly meet Greg at the Catholic New Media Celebration in Atlanta. The show will be called "The Catholics Next Door." Though secularists might think this sounds like a Wes Craven film.

Carson Weber let me know that there is a new blog to support RCIA team members called simply "The Blog That's All About R.C.I.A." Looks quite solid. 

When Jean at Catholic Fire emailed me today that her blog had been marked as spam I didn't realize how widespread this was.  The Anchoress reports that the same thing has happened to Happy Catholic, Deacons Bench, and the Paragraph Farmer.  So it looks like there is some effort to take down some of my favorite blogs on blogspot.  The blogs still show up, but the authors are locked out from updating and must file a report with Google to get someone to look at their blog first which takes a while. It does make me glad that I host my own blog instead of being at the whim of Google.

Not long ago there was a concerted effort to take down pro-Hillary blogs likely from Obama supporters and this has also been happening to other conservative blogs.

I was always rather dubious of the Flag Blog button at the top of blogspot blogs and was a reply to the spammers who poison everything. Though in this case Google treats you as guilty until proven innocent.  Some bloggers who suffered this problem moved to wordpress.com.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Update: Nice to find out that this was just a glitch that happened throughout blogspot blogs. Sometimes it is too easy to jump to conclusions.

Thomas Peters posts that Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit is hosting a special one-day conference to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae on September 20th.

Speakers include internationally-known theologians Dr. Janet Smith and Dr. Michael Waldstein. Most Rev. Robert Carlson of Saginaw will be the Mass celebrant and homilist.

I've attached the official press release as a word file. For convenience, I've also posted these materials online in a blog post. The official website is here. They are already accepting online registrations.

A prophet is not respected in his own Country and when it came to Pope Paul VI, a prophet is not much respected in his own Church.  Today is the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae and sadly every prediction that Pope Paul VI made have come true. We hear so many people today who say they have a prophetic voice and they are almost always the same ones who have ignored the prophetic voice of the Church.  The real prophets always preached a message that was out-of-touch with the society, which was why they had to preach it in the first place.  An easy general test for false prophets is if you do not have to change anything to conform to their message then they are a false prophet.  The false prophets of today have the same message that the false prophets in Ahab's day did, that is to tell him "everything is going fine."  The false prophets of today see the breakdown of marriage, family, and the treatment of women and then demand that have more of the same that lead to the problems in the first place.  The hubris of false prophets prevents them from being embarrased that all the predictions they made on wide availibility of contraception were not only incorrect, but exactly contrary to what they said.  Every child a wanted child has turned into every child is wanted by an abortionist.

Mary Eberstadt has written a great essay in First Things the Vindication of Humanae Vitae which goes through the predictions and concequences and uses secular sources to back this up.  A real worthwhile read.

Marcel LeJeune has commented on the above article with some good commenary.

In addition Joseph Bottum adds his own thoughts.

Jimmy Akin argues that P.Z. Myers must be fired for multiple reasons. He makes a good case especially in regards the universities' code of conduct.

I do wonder if a Catholic was the one to obtain a host for him whether they fall under Canon 1367 or if this canon pertains to only the person who directly carries out the sacrilege and not anyone who intentionally helped it to happen.

St. Louis Catholic gave a heads up to this news earlier today and now has the story.

The St. Louis Archdiocese filed suit today against the St. Stanislaus Kostka church in an attempt to regain control of the former Polish parish.

Six parishioners, including three recent board members, joined the archdiocese in the suit. They are asking a St. Louis judge to void any changes to the St. Stanislaus' bylaws since 2001 and give the archbishop the authority to appoint a pastor and board there.

Last month, the St. Stanislaus board voted 4-3 to dissolve itself and allow parishioners to elect a new board at its annual meeting in August. Eight St. Stanislaus board members had been declared excommunicated by Archbishop Raymond Burke.

According to the archdiocese, the three board members who lost that vote - Bernice Krauze, Stanley Rozanski, and Robert Zabielski - were secretly reconciled with the Roman Catholic church last month in a meeting with Burke before Pope Benedict XVI re-assigned him to a new position at the Vatican. 

Since one board member had previously reconciled with the Church that now makes four to do so since they wre excommunicated.  This is surely the true end of an excommunication anyway - the Church's version of tough love.

The group says the women who are ordained remain loyal members of the church and will act as priests whether they are excommunicated or not.

A cool story via Fr. Longenecker.

Nancy C. Brown posts a copy of the letter Dale Ahlquist wrote to the New Yorker after a recent article tried to call G.K. and anti-Semite and that his fans should not defend against this charge.

BOSTON--When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck would seek comfort in the churches to satisfy his spiritual needs and remind him of childhood Sundays spent at Holy Trinity in his hometown of Bloomington, Ill.

Even after moving back to the United States last Christmas to play Major League Soccer--a dream of his, but just one of them--Hilgenbrinck felt the pull of his religion.

"I felt called to something greater," Hilgenbrinck said. "At one time I thought that call might be professional soccer. In the past few years, I found my soul is hungry for something else.

"I discerned, through prayer, that it was calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not want this call to pass me by."
Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

"It's not that I'm ready to leave soccer. I still have a great passion for the game," he said in a telephone interview. "I wouldn't leave the game for just any other job. I'm moving on for the Lord. I want to do the will of the Lord, I want to do what he wants for me, not what I want to do for myself."

LAKELAND, Fla. - Todd Bentley believes God acts through him to cure cancer, heal the deaf and raise the dead.

So do hundreds of thousands of people who have visited his raucous revival meeting, now in its third month and broadcast nightly from a huge tent in the middle of Florida.

The 32-year-old Canadian, tattooed to the fingers and neck, puts a palm to the forehead of the sick, desperate and faithful. Bentley yells "Bam!" they collapse and he proclaims them cured. Attendees dance in the aisles, shout to Heaven, laugh, shake violently and cry.

If Christians are going to follow the Food Network as a lead than I least propose that we have:

• Iron Theologian.  Each week two theologians face off in the debate arena to determine whose theology reigns supreme or more accurately whose theology more illuminates the supreme being.
• 30 Minute Catechesis: Each wee