News

A 69 year old artist, who was brought up Catholic, was assured of controversy when he decided to display a crucified Santa in his front yard. The Santa represents frivolous consumption with �shop �til you drop� inscribed in Latin over his head.
[Via Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex]

Well I guess at least he had reindeer to help him carry the cross.

In related news: Santa – Blasphemer.

Santa is not a "blasphemous counterfeit" God drawing attention to himself, Victoria’s Warrnambool Catholics said after a Christian pastor slammed Santa Claus as a distraction from the "true God".

The Warrnambool Standard reports that New Life Christian Church Pastor Steve McNeilly yesterday sparked debate and a sack of letters of protest after claiming in a local paper that Santa was a counterfeit God who only confused children and distracted them from the "true God".

"The Santa myth is a blasphemous counterfeit for God that draws the devotion of children to himself," he said.

Late yesterday Mr McNeilly stood by his view that it was important to be honest with children and consistent with Christian beliefs by not supporting the Santa fantasy.

But Fr John Fitzgerald from Warrnambool’s St Joseph’s Catholic Church said Santa had a special place with children and was a good way of teaching children the gift of giving.

"In the Christmas picture Santa is a giver and can teach us the importance to give oneself and our heart to our family," he said.

Father Fitzgerald said it was important to keep Santa separate from the real story of Christmas, however, he noted a connection between Santa and Christ. "Santa is seen to share and give as Christ himself does," he said.

The Sister Servants of the Eternal Word in Birmingham, Alabama who run a retreat house have produced a CD of a collection of Christmas Carols. You can listen to a medley of the songs on their web page and it does sound excellent.

Via Seminarian Dennis Schenkel.

Dec. 7, 2006 (CWNews.com) – The Vatican has confirmed an American bishop’s decision to excommunicate members of the dissident group Call to Action.

Call to Action is “causing damage to the Church of Christ,” wrote Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, in a letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.

In March 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz had announced the excommunication of all Catholics in his diocese who were members of Call to Action or several other dissident groups which he described as “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

The Nebraska chapter of Call to Action appealed the bishop’s decision to the Vatican. In his November 24 letter to Bishop Bruskewitz, Cardinal Re reports that Vatican’s finding that the disciplinary action was “properly taken.”
[Via AMDG]

ROME — Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus thought to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome’s second largest basilica.

The sarcophagus, which dates to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project’s head said this week.

"Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist.

That would be pretty cool if true for the Vatican to have both Peter’s and Paul’s bones.

A reader sent me a related story from a parody blog.

Vatican archaeologists find Apostle Paul’s tomb in Rome
WITH REMAINS, ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND UNOPENED LETTERS FROM PAUL TO ROMANS, CORINTHIANS MARKED: "RETURN TO SENDER, POSTAGE DUE"

A Vatican-endorsed TV news service will attempt to bring to the video age the same style of church-friendly reporting associated with the Zenit News Agency, an on-line project launched in 1998 with ties to Regnum Christi, the lay branch of the Legionaries of Christ.

The new “H2O” broadcast service – named, organizers say, for water as the symbol of life – is intended as a video news source available through the Internet, on cell phones with video capability, as well as through conventional Catholic television networks. The project was formally presented at an Oct. 10-12 world conference of Catholic television providers in Madrid, Spain, convened by the Vatican.

Initially, plans call for “H2O,” with offices in Rome, to produce five daily news items of one and a half to two minutes each: two on the activity of the pope, two on the church in other parts of the world, and one of artistic and cultural interest. Interviews with Catholic newsmakers and, to the extent possible, overviews of new Vatican documents will also be part of the mix.

The news items will be free of charge to Catholic TV networks which choose to broadcast them, and to Internet users. Initially, “H2O” will emphasize delivery on the Internet, attempting to reach the estimated 20 million users of Catholic web sites worldwide.

Organizers say they will try to take a positive approach.

“We won’t go looking for polemics,” said Jesús Colina, a Spaniard who founded and currently serves as director of Zenit, and who has been asked by the Vatican to oversee the new video project.

“That’s my personal style, and it’s what we follow at Zenit,” said Colina, a member of Regnum Christi.

The idea for a video version of Zenit’s text-based news service, which is offered daily to some 240,000 subscribers on five continents, was the brainchild of Monsignor Enrique Planas y Como of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Planas asked Colina to oversee the project.

Though “H2O” carries the formal backing of the Vatican, and the Vatican Television Center will provide some content, Colina told NCR that “H2O” will be independent and financially self-sustaining. Assuming that funding can be found, organizers intend to provide a couple of “trial run” packages in January, with the full service to debut in March.

The news items are to be released in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German, though Colina told NCR these plans are subject to review based on market interest. Colina said he’d also like to broadcast in Arabic, but those plans are more tentative.

Colina told NCR Nov. 14 that while content can be produced by anyone, “H2O” intends to take advantage of Zenit’s existing network of contributors and correspondents around the world.

H20? Sounds like a odd choice for a name, but I guess something like popeTube wouldn’t be much better. Perhaps trueTube. Regardless it will be nice to finally get video from the Vatican.

I received an email from Mike and Diana Silva who have started up a Catholic sacred music internet broadcast.

Sacred choral music in the Catholic tradition. Gregorian chant, polyphony and other music growing out of the Western and Eastern traditions of faith. Commercial-free!

Yes not only is it commercial free it is 100 percent Haugen and Daas free also.

You can listen to it at www.choraltreasure.org and www.live365.com/stations/vocideltesoro

The Catholic Channel on Sirius satellite radio started broadcasting today. One of the weekdays shows they have is The Catholic Guy with Lino Ruli who had previously won back-to-back Emmy awards as Program Host on "Generation Cross". Lino is a pretty funny guy who once interviewed me for his radio show on Relevant Radio.

Tomorrow Dec, 5th at 5:00 PM EST I will once again be interviewed by Lino for about 20 minutes. So if you have Sirius radio tune in to Channel 159 if you are so interested. They also have a free trial to listen online.

You can check out the rest of The Catholic Channel’s lineup here which includes Ask the Cardinal with Edward Cardinal Egan.

Lviv, Dec. 1, 2006 (CWNews.com) – An archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has denounced the ordination of 2 priests and 7 deacons for the schismatic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), and the participation of a Ukrainian priest in the Warsaw ceremony.

Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four bishops illicitly ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebre in 1988, presided at the ordinations, with Father Vasyl Kovpak, the head of the SSPX in Ukraine, taking part. Most of the people attending the ordinations were Ukrainian traditionalists.

Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of Lviv said that the ordination of priests to serve in Ukraine was a "criminal" act, since Bishop Williamson ignored the authority of the Roman and Byzantine Catholic bishops of the region. Archbishop Vozniak, who heads the Byzantine Church in Lviv, stressed that none of the priests ordained by Williamson would have permission to serve Ukrainian Catholic parishes.

The Lviv archdiocese complained bitterly about the presence of Lefebvrite priests in the city, saying that the traditionalist clerics were causing confusion and division among the faithful. The archdiocese was particularly critical of Father Kovpak, saying that "he deceives the church by declaring that he is a Greek [Byzantine] Catholic priest," while supporting a group that uses the old Latin liturgy exclusively, eschewing the Byzantine tradition, and does not maintain allegiance to the Holy See. Officials of the Lviv archdiocese said that Father Kovpak could face excommunication from the Byzantine Catholic Church.

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York is investigating whether students cheated on the final exam for a class focusing on ethics.

The 33-second clip, posted on the YouTube website, outraged a teachers’ union, which called for it to be taken down. It was filmed at St Illtyd’s Roman Catholic High School in Rumney, Cardiff.

The footage referred to the teacher’s name in the title “getting smashed by a Bible”.

A book was thrown at her, hitting her on the back of the head, as she opened a classroom door in front of a rowdy group of schoolchildren.

NUT Cymru spokesman Rhys Williams said: “We are very pleased that it has been taken off so promptly.

“We trust that we will have no more repeats of such a distressing incident. Teachers’ jobs are stressful enough without this unwanted addition thanks to modern technology.”

The female teacher, who was unaware the filming had taken place, was said to be distressed at its appearance.

St Illtyd’s headteacher Mike Worthington said: “An incident occurred in May 2005 involving a group of Year 11 pupils who have since left our school.