News

The 2008 Catholic blog awards are accepting nominations in a variety of categories:until Feb 29th.

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Gerald has a post on Cardinal Schoenborn’s cause for the International Theological Institute with photos and information on a fundraising effort for a new campus.

Marcel LeJeune has seen the new move Human Experience by Grassroots Film and has a glowing review of this powerful film.

Here are some new blog announcements:

Not Strictly Spiritual

Meus Questus

This weeks Catholic Carnival.

This Respect Life video is from the New York State Catholic Conference to combat the extreme new law there.

could get married

A meal and a drink in Croatia may not cost you anything except for maybe a few Hail Mary’s after a parish opened up a "prayer café" in an effort to bring youths back to church.

Catholic News Service reports Salesian Fr Damir Stojic thought up the scheme to keep the kids from going to other cafés after church and come together for a meal after Eucharist.

" In the Acts of the Apostles, it says the disciples used to come together for a meal after the Eucharist, so we’re following a biblical ideal," Fr Stojic said.

"A lot of kids used to head for neighbouring cafes after Mass here. We came up with this scheme for persuading them to hang out at the church instead."

The Jedno (Sail) cafe opened recently in a parish hall adjoining Zagreb’s Holy Spirit Church and attracts many of the students and young people attending the regular Sunday youth Mass.

"Student helpers thought up the idea of paying with prayers. We have encouraged parents to donate food and drink for the café," he said.

"Jedno could be seen as continuing a tradition since most Salesian parishes worldwide ran cafes at their churches."

Prices at Jedno vary from three Our Fathers for a standard cup of coffee to a more expensive Coca-Cola (five Hail Marys and a Glory Be), while a cappuccino costs four Our Fathers.

His post continues with advice on a number of subjects common to the confessional.

Great idea, but what happens when inflation sets in. I can imagine people complaining in later years "I remember when a cappuccino cost just four Our Fathers and now you have to whip out a mystery of the Rosary and five Glory Be’s."

Manassas, VA – Belmont Abbey College in
North Carolina has amended the health insurance plan provided by its
carrier to remove coverage for abortions, voluntary sterilizations and
contraception.  The provisions allowing these practices were
recently discovered. and the college moved quickly to rectify the
situation.  The college has since been faced with complaints
from a few employees to state and federal agencies, but remains
undaunted.

President William Thierfelder said, As a Roman Catholic institution,
Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize
medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic
Church.  There was no other course of action possible if we
were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a
Catholic college.

According to Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) president Patrick J. Reilly,
Belmont Abbey is a faithful Catholic college, and this action
reinforces it.  We applaud the steadfastness of President
Thierfelder and Abbot Placid Solari, the college chancellor, in keeping
fidelity to Catholic teachings a clear priority of the institution.

Reilly noted that the college was undaunted by complaints filed by a
few personnel with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
and the North Carolina Department of Insurance.  He said, We
hope that these few disgruntled employees will be rebuffed in their
efforts to use the power of government to intervene in a matter of
faith.

I have heard good things about Belmont Abbey and it is no surprise that
his is where Patrick Madrid has chosen to setup his Envoy Institute.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has
put Sister Lucia, the last of three shepherd children who claimed to
have seen the Virgin Mary during apparitions in 1917 in Fatima, on a
fast-track to possible sainthood, the Vatican said Wednesday.

The customary waiting period before beginning the process that can lead
to sainthood is five years after a person’s death.

The case of Sister Lucia, who died in 2005 at age 97, was granted the
same waiver as was given in the cases of Mother Teresa and Pope John
Paul II.

The Vatican said Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, who is prefect of the
Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, made the announcement
during a Wednesday evening Mass at the cathedral in Coimbra, Portugal,
marking the third anniversary of Lucia’s death.

 A reader sent me more on the
story I posted on earlier this
week about the action of my bishop.

 A scheduled performance of
“Magdalene,” a traveling one-woman play about the often controversial
Catholic saint Mary Magdalene, was banned from St. Augustine Catholic
Church this week after a University of Florida student appealed to the
bishop of the diocese.

According to a statement published in St. Augustine’s weekly bulletin,
Bishop Victor Galeone decided to cancel the performance on the grounds
that portions of the script “call into question the Church’s position
on two sacraments.” Hosting the play in a Catholic setting, Galeone
said, “would be a counter-witness to important Church teaching.”

Galeone’s decision came days after an 18-year-old member of St.
Augustine’s parish, Jonathan Knox, submitted a letter outlining his
concerns about the church-sponsored performance, which was being
promoted as a theatrical representation of Jesus’ life through
Magdalene’s eyes.

“I found excerpts online that really disturbed me,” Knox said,
specifically pointing to the show’s final scene, when, according to his
research, the actress lifts bread and wine to mimic the sacrament of
Eucharist performed only by ordained Catholic priests.

Knox said he interpreted the scene as an attack on the current Catholic
stance against ordaining women as priests.

“From this scene alone, I fear scandal will be brought about and a
great mockery will be performed against Christ in the Eucharist and
against the priesthood,” Knox wrote in his letter to Galeone.

… In response, Galeone banned the performance from St. Augustine’s
and
all other local Catholic facilities, but left it up to organizers to
decide whether they wanted to reschedule the performance at a different
location.
Much like recent depictions of Magdalene in novels such as “The Da
Vinci Code,” Knox said the script also alludes to a romantic
relationship between Magdalene and Jesus.

The play is by an anonymous author and is
now going to show at The United Church of Gainesville instead.

Denver, Jan 29, 2008 (CNA).- At a press
conference today on the Popes Lenten Message, Cardinal Paul Josef
Cordes offered his support for Archbishop Charles Chaputs recent stand
against a potential Colorado law. The bill would eradicate Catholic
Charities ability to ensure its employees follow Catholic beliefs when
working on state funded projects.

Last week, Chaput objected to a proposed measure before the Colorado
legislature which would bar charitable agencies that receive state
funding from discrimination on the basis of religion in personnel
policies. Chaput argued that such a measure would compromise the
Catholic identity of church-run charities, and that he would rather see
those charities stop delivering services rather than comply.

This is not idle talk, Chaput added. I am very serious.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, this morning in Rome,
Cardinal Cordes expressed support for Chaputs position. In response to
a reporters question, Cordes stated: This bishop is doing the right
thing.

The president of the papal charity Cor Unum continued, saying,
Theologically, charitable activity and the good deeds of the faithful
are always connected to the proclamation of the Word. Jesus performed
his works because he was moved by mercy, but also to proclaim the
gospel. Service is always tied to testimony to the Word of God, and no
one must break this connection.

This points to a great contemporary problem. Thanks to the generosity
of many donors, the charitable agencies of the church are able to do
their work. But this carries a risk that the spirit of a Catholic
agency can become secularized, doing only what the donor has in view.

I hadn’t heard that Archbishop Chaput had said this.  Once
again it proves what a great bishop he is and in this instance is
following the footsteps of Cardinal O’Connor who threatened much the
same thing in response to interference.  Cardinal O’Connor won
out against the city and let us pray the same for Archbishop Chaput.

New evidence has been compiled by
marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of
brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more
disturbingly, on its own kind.
     
Film taken of gangs of dolphins repeatedly ramming baby porpoises,
tossing them in the air and pursuing them to the death has solved a
long-term mystery of what causes the death of so many of these harmless
mammals – but has left animal experts baffled as to the motive.

Another mystery is that the animal ‘murders’ have only been reported in
two parts of the world – along Scotland’s East Coast and in America off
the beaches of Virginia, where even more alarmingly, the victims were
scores of the dolphins’ own young. 

Surely it is because Planned
Parenthood has opened up new chapters for Dolphins off of Virginia and
Scotland.
  Never mind the fact that the U.S. Military were originally
blamed for this.

Dolphins need a spiritual awakening and I
would recommend my book The Porpoise Driven Life.

Fr. Powell writes:

My senior/grad theology seminar here at
the Univ of Dallas is called Postmetaphysical
theologies.  The class has a blogsite called suppl(e)mental.

A major part of the students grades hangs on doing theology in
public.  My goal here is to
acquaint these budding Catholic theologians with the weirdnesses of
reading, writing, and writing
about Christian theology for an audience outside the academy.

The theologies we will be covering in the seminar are decidedly
non-Catholic, sometimes downright
(though never explicitly) anti-Catholic, and represent some of the best
contemporary theology out
there.  My goal here is to introduce my very, very orthodox
theologians-to-be to the veritable
circus of theological methods, vocabularies, personalities, and schools
that push and pull the
faith of the Church in both creative and destructive directions.

I see myself as something of a Professor of Defense Against the Dark
Arts.

The site is here.

Majorie Cambell posts that 

There’s a new kid in town . . . opening
in
San Francisco on March 7, 2008:  the Cinema Vita Film
Festival.   “The Cinema Vita Film Festival has been
established to encourage young, emerging filmmakers and to showcase
movies about contemporary issues concerning the meaning and value of
life. Coordinated by the San Francisco Archdiocesan Office of Public
Policy, the Oakland Diocesan Respect Life Ministry, Marriage for Life,
and Ignatius Press, the festival is based on the recognition that art,
especially the medium of film, shapes the popular imagination and has a
tremendous influence on culture.

You can find details here.

In other news there will be a Catholic
Writers’ Conference Online from May 2-9 this year.  For those
interested in this online conference you can find details here.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The heart of
a revered 19th century Argentine friar and patriot was stolen from an
urn in the Franciscan monastery where it was kept for years as a
religious relic, a church official said.

Whoever scooped up friar Mamerto Esquiu’s heart on Tuesday left the urn
it was stored in behind, said Jorge Martinez, head of the San Francisco
monastery in the northwestern province of Catamarca.

“The theft was carried out because of the heart — nothing else was
stolen,” he told local reporters. “It’s very sad.”

Witnesses reported seeing a bearded man run from the monastery around
the time the heart went missing, but no one had been arrested, the
Catamarca daily El Ancasti said.

Tuesday’s theft marks the second time since 1990 that the friar’s heart
was mysteriously spirited away, the newspaper said.

Born in Catamarca in 1826, Esquiu entered the monastery at a young age
and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1848. He gave stirring speeches
supporting Argentine unity and its 1853 constitution, becoming a famed
religious leader and patriot.

Esquiu died in 1883. When his body was exhumed for an autopsy shortly
thereafter, church authorities said his heart showed no signs of
decomposition. It was removed and given to the monastery where he had
begun his religious studies.

Esquiu’s body is entombed at a cathedral in the neighboring province of
Cordoba.

Vatican authorities in recent years began to consider Esquiu for
possible beatification, a step toward sainthood in the Roman Catholic
Church.