News

EWTN’s Vatican bureau chief Joan Lewis is blogging the Apostolic Journey of Pope Benedict from Turkey. Her entry today has lots of background on the Pope’s visit to Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

This appears to be EWTN’s first attempt at blogging and they really need to use some standard blogging software. Her entry today simply replaced her entry from yesterday and for something EWTN calls a "A Daily Blog" this is a rather odd format. This must be Mission Impossible blogging software – your entry will self destruct in 24 hours. Please fix this EWTN and add an RSS link to what might become an excellent blog.

Pope Benedict XVI, left, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I appear at a balcony of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to bless the faithful, respectively in Latin and Greek, after attending together the Divine Liturgy in the nearby Church of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. Benedict XVI and Bartholomew later signed a joint agreement. The pope is on the third day of his four-day visit to Turkey. (AP Photo/Eric Cabanis, Pool)

Mark Shea will be speaking in Sunrise, Fl

December 4-6 Speaking at All Saints Catholic Church, 10900 W Oakland Park Blvd, Sunrise Florida. Topics: 101 Reasons Not to Be Catholic, Where are You With God? Contact: Sebastian Hazelton. Phone: 954-742-2666.

So if you are in the Ft. Lauderdale area check it out. If it was a bit closer I would have liked to go myself.

WASHINGTON (November 27, 2006)—No one knows what she really looked like, yet the Blessed Virgin Mary stands among the most popular artistic subjects in history. In every medium, with every imaginable material, in tiny personal images and gigantic mosaics, artists have depicted her the world over.

Picturing Mary, a stunning new high-definition documentary to debut next month on public television, explores how images of the Virgin reflect numerous traditions, devotional practices and cultures. The one-hour program leads viewers on a pictorial journey through history from the earliest times to the present day and presents a stunning array of art from twelve locations in eight different countries.

Picturing Mary is a joint effort of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC) and New York public television station Thirteen/WNET. The documentary follows[KS1] their previous collaboration on the 2001 Emmy award-winning The Face: Jesus In Art. The documentary is narrated by actress Jane Seymour and features quotations read by actor James Keach.

“This program is a Christmas gift from the Catholic Communication Campaign to TV viewers,” says CCC Director of Production Ellen McCloskey. “In fact, many stations will present it on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Like The Face: Jesus in Art, Picturing Mary will become a perennial television favorite during the Advent and Christmas seasons.”

Almost all of the artworks featured in Picturing Mary were filmed in situ, that is, in the original settings where they were intended to be viewed hundreds of years ago. Settings include the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, Italy, home of one of the greatest paintings of the Venetian Renaissance,Titian’s 22-foot-high “Assumption.”

Other settings include Bruges, Belgium, where Jan van Eyck used what was then a new medium – oil painting – to astonishing effect on full size pictures of Mary.

The documentary also highlights Rembrandt van Rijn’s work in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, where he created hundreds of etchings, prints and drawings to establish himself as the greatest illustrator of Scripture ever. Devoted to realism, Rembrandt depicts Mary in “Death of the Virgin” not as the lovely maiden traditionally pictured, but as a sick old woman.

The use of the latest widescreen high definition technology enables startlingly beautiful pictures from far away places, including Mexico City, site of the magnificent Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe; and Lake Tana, in Ethiopia, where Christians under siege took refuge in the 16th century.

Picturing Mary allows viewers up-close virtual visits to some of the world’s greatest masterpieces. At the Vatican, for example, the filmmakers capture Michelangelo’s exquisite Pieta from behind the glass shield that has protected it since the early 1970’s.

Below is the text of a Catholic League ad that appeared on today’s op-ed page in the New York Times:

The Vatican is so anxious about the Pope’s safety during his trip to Turkey this week that it has vetoed use of the traditional "Popemobile".

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI will travel in an armour-plated car, with several similar vehicles used as decoys, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman, said.

Officials have also drawn up contingency plans for him to wear a bulletproof vest beneath his papal vestments as Turkish authorities mount a huge security operation including rooftop snipers, special forces, helicopters and navy speedboats.
[Via American Papist]

Bulletproof vest? Shouldn’t that be bulletproof vestments?

Ankara. The Turkish special services arrested a group of extremists who had prepared an attack against the head of the Papal Council for Encouraging of Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper, RIA Novosti reports citing Sabah. The attack should take place during the future visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey. The material based upon special services’ claims doesn’t point out details about the identity and nationality of the arrested.

Effort launched to help get needed Catholic Bibles, books, and religious goods to active duty U.S. Military personnel around the world.

Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, the largest online Catholic retailer in the U.S, has established a “gift registry” service for military chaplains and military personnel.

Additionally, in cooperation with Catholics in the Military, www.catholicmil.org, Aquinas and More Catholic Goods has established the “Send a Bible to a Soldier” program.

Military chaplains continue to request many hundreds of items that are urgently needed and Aquinas and More Catholic Goods is asking generous supporters of our troops to visit this link on our website: Aquinas and More SoldierRegistry and make a donation toward this important cause.

To date this effort has produced very positive results and has sent many hundreds of items to our dedicated military chaplains – most are currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Please help us to help meet the spiritual needs of our military personnel who so courageously give of themselves.

Via Vivivicat

Folks, I don’t know what you’ve been experiencing, but at least twice in the last 10 days I have received two unrequested e-mail communications from an AOL address containing releases and pronunciamientos from Emmanuel Milingo, the schismatic and apostate archbishop who got married in a mass wedding officiated by Sun Myung Moon a few years back, and now heads an agitprop organization pushing for the reinstatement of laicized priests.

This morning I deleted a comment from the same person responding to my post on the issue, entitled, Milingo lacks standing to question priestly celibacy, or anything else for that matter. The comment was an exact copy of the latest unrequested e-mail.

I have seen the same response in the comment section of some other blogs. Now advocating a married priesthood is one thing. Attempting to ordain your own bishops and being excommunicated is another. But generating spam and blog comment spam is quite another. We should bring back the ecclesial penalty of anathema sit to punish ecclesial spammers.

A reader sent me a nice article on Blessed Miquel Pro and his influence on both Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.