News

Here is a nice article on four new seminarians for the Diocese of Shreveport which includes this piece from the diocesan vocations director.

"Every time I see a spark, I travel and pour some gasoline on it," he said.

He has only held the job for a year, and is the only lay vocations director in the country — a further testimony to the shortage of priests.

Formerly the chief fundraiser for the diocese, Wilcox said this job is even harder.

"I’m not asking people for money anymore," he said. "I’m asking for their children and grandchildren."

A reader sent me this link chock full of photos from Juventutem – JMJ Cologne 2005. I am still waiting for World Middle-Aged Day or perhaps World Misspent-Youth Day. Maybe I will just have to be satisfied by coming up with a parody post along those lines.

Iowa-based Laridian Inc. last week released the iPocketBible for the iPod, which includes the complete text and dramatized audio of the "Holy Bible, New Living Translation." Unlike some other MP3 bibles, it allows users to read, listen, or do both at once, the company’s president said in a statement.
iPocketBible

The iPocketBible includes more than 73 hours audio on five CDs. Narration is provided by Mike Kellogg, host of Moody Broadcasting’s "Music Thru the Night." It costs $49.99 and can be ordered through the Laridian site. [Source]

Well this would be real cool if it included all of the books of the Bible and used a decent translation. For example compare this verse for 2nd Timothy 3:16 which they used as a sample on their site to the RSV.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. -NLT

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. RSV

I would really like to have a written and oral version of the RSV-CE on the iPod, that would be useful. Of course I would also really like a version of the Liturgy of the Hours on the iPod that includes the settings for the hymns. Instead of the four volume set that I use now t would be really convenient if it was set up by each day synched with the feasts. No more going from section to section back and forth and to be able to read for example morning prayer straight through would be nice. Of course once you already have the bible on it, hymns, and the readings for the Office of Readings it could then also be used as a daily or Sunday missal. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to integrate a Bible, Liturgy of the Hours, and Missal all in one. I guess what I want is a really POD iPod.

Even invoking the Eighth Commandment hasn’t helped. When the cabbage-sized roses that Monsignor Eamonn Lyng so lovingly nurtures started disappearing from the bushes outside his church, he posted a sign on the garden wall of Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in downtown La Jolla.

It exhorted: "Thou shalt not steal the roses." Didn’t work. Someone stole the sign. And the roses kept disappearing, too.

Lyng nailed up a second warning. It, too, was ripped down, but left on the ground. He isn’t giving up. "The sign is going back up," he vowed yesterday. [Source]

Rome (AsiaNews) – For the first time ever, Chinese youths from the underground Church will participate in the World Youth Day. Around 100 have managed to reach Cologne to attend the XX WYD. Among them are Catholic students already studying abroad and youths coming directly from the People’s Republic of China. There are priests, sisters and lay people from a number of dioceses: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Fujian and Mongolia interior.

Reaching Cologne has not been easy. In China, the government allows only freedom of worship linked to personnel and structures officially registered with the state Religious Affairs Office and controlled by the Patriotic Association. Believers who do not accept to be controlled by official structures and who practice their faith in structures which are not registered (unofficial, underground) risk punishment for “illegal” actions and “disturbance of public order”.

A youth from Shanghai explains: “The clandestine Church in China is persecuted. But the details of this persecution are little known abroad. For example, few know that the government at all levels (provincial, city, district or village) has drawn up diverse regulations – both secret and public – according to situations which arise.

“One of these stipulates that the police should not issue a passport to a clandestine Catholic without the permission of the religious administration authority.’ Since clandestine Catholics are not down on official lists, it is very difficult for us to go abroad to study, to go on pilgrimage or to attend the World Youth Day.”

The groups present in Cologne were not discouraged: they asked for their passports and visas months ago, using false ID cards and claiming they wished to go abroad for tourism.

WYD organisers are happy with their attendance in Cologne; they started preparing a catechism program specifically for them as soon as they found out about it.

“It is the first time China’s clandestine Church manages to participate in the WYD,” said one of the group leaders. “We want to exploit this occasion to get to know better our peers who live our same faith, to feel part of the universal Church and perhaps even to try to meet the Pope.” [Source]

Interesting. I wonder if Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to this for what appears to be increasing signs of possible warming of relations between China and the Vatican. Though there is certainly a long way to go before "patriotic Catholic churches" can in reality not be in schism. Hopefully also there won’t be reprimands for these Chinese youth when they return.

NEW ORLEANS A church that serves gay, bisexual and transgendered members has been kicked out of its temporary home by the Archdiocese of New Orleans because the church supports gay marriage.

The Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans had a 12-month lease within the Project Lazarus complex, a facility owned by the archdiocese that provides hospice services to AIDS patients, many of whom are gay. But after three months, the archdiocese terminated the lease.

The Reverend Dexter Brecht, the church’s leader, says they believe homosexuality is one of the sexualities created by God. He says that contradicts Roman Catholic teachings that say homosexuality is bad.

The archdiocese’s spokesman confirmed that doctrinal differences with the Metropolitan Community Church triggered the eviction. The Reverend William Maestri (MAY’-stree) says after learning of the church’s teachings, which also blesses gay unions, the archdiocese had to act.

He says continuing the lease might create the impression that the Catholic church is either indifferent or in support of Metropolitan Community Church’s teachings.

Brecht says the lease allowed the archdiocese to terminate the agreement on 90 days notice and the church is now looking for a permanent home. [Source]

A 33-foot, 8,400-pound statue of the Blessed Virgin is coming to town.

The three-story stainless steel sculpture, called the Our Lady of the Millennium statue, will be on display at SS Peter and Paul Church, at 36 N. Ellsworth Ave. in Naperville, from Sunday to Aug. 21.

Delaware artist Charles Cooper Parks tried to capture the religious figure’s reverence and faith that inspires the many people who view it, said the organizers of the statue’s arrival at SS Peter and Paul.

Carl Demma of Oak Lawn and his wife, Frances, commissioned the statue. He sold his business to have the statue designed and shipped it to St. Louis in January 1999 to have visiting Pope John Paul II bless it. On Mother’s Day 1999, Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago blessed it at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Since then, the statue has toured 170 parishes. [Source]

You never know what to expect when you read "three-story stainless steel sculpture," so it is nice to be pleasantly surprised.

GLENWOOD — Pam Gardner is disturbed to the point of distraction every time a bell rings.

Gardner’s property backs up to Mother of Good Shepherd Monastery, where the monks ring a pair of bells five times a day as a call to prayer. Residents of the rural area west of DeLand complain that the bells ring incessantly and so loudly that their windows rattle.

"This has really affected our lives," said Gardner, who lives on Ben Franklin Drive. "When I hear the call to prayer, I pray for those bells to stop."

Gardner is one of 31 residents who showed up at a Glenwood Civic Association meeting Monday to try to find a way to silence the bells.

The controversy began when three monks moved their monastery from Peaks Island, Maine, to an 11-acre tract at 2075 Mercers Fernery Road in June 2004. Two bells, one of which weighs 4,000 pounds, are rung at 8 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Volusia County code-enforcement officers cited the monastery for running a religious establishment in a residential neighborhood. The monks stopped ringing the bells and hired an attorney, who convinced county officials that federal law required them to allow the monastery in the neighborhood. The bells resumed in December.

Residents who live near the monastery complain that the bells toll anywhere from 60 to 300 peals each ringing. Ross Kasparek knows precisely because he keeps a list posted in his garage counting the number of rings.

"If I blow my horn or play loud music, there’s an ordinance to stop me," said Kasparek, who lives across the street from the monastery. "But they are really obstinate; they won’t stop."

Some residents said they look forward to the bell ringing.

Shirley Ann Sodaro, who lives on Trinidad Street, said she finds the bells "pleasant."

"I can’t imagine why they’re making such a big deal about this," she said. [Source]

People always cry at weddings, but Father Brian Kane hopes they’ll be tears of happiness when he celebrates the wedding Mass today for Erik Zlomke and Sarah Hoffman.
Father Brian Kane, left, a chaplain in the Army National Guard, will officiate at Sgt. Eric Zlomke’s wedding Saturday, July 16, 2005. The two will report for active duty on Sunday to go to Iraq, where Zlomke will act as Kane’s assistant and bodyguard. (Eric Gregory)

On Sunday, both Kane and Zlomke will report for duty with the Army National Guard in preparation for deployment to Iraq.

Kane will be going as a chaplain and Zlomke will be his assistant, which means he’ll act as Kane’s bodyguard because military chaplains don’t carry weapons. Kane, who holds the rank of captain, and Zlomke, a sergeant, will both be assigned to the 67th Area Support Group which will ship off to Iraq later this year.

As chaplain, Kane will minister to the spiritual needs of the troops at a base but also will perform Masses, hear confessions, provide counseling and other religious services to men in the field.

"Wherever he goes I’ll be with him," Zlomke said. "There’s definitely danger, especially when we’re traveling. My main job will be to be sure that he makes it from point A to point B safely."

Zlomke, who joined the Army Guard three and a half years ago, has served a tour of duty as a medic in Bosnia. Kane was commissioned as a chaplain in March 2003 and had two summers of training at Fort Jackson, S.C.

Zlomke, 27, was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln but was unsure of his career plans when he decided to join the guard. "It was a way to see a few things," he said.

As a medic in Bosnia, he discovered he had an aptitude for working with the sick and injured. Now he’s studying nursing while his fiancee has one more semester to finish her degree in business administration.

They’ve been a couple for three years, and had planned to get married after one of them had graduated. But when Zlomke got his deployment orders a month ago, "we talked about it and we both felt it would be a good thing for both of us if we were married" before he left, he said. They’ve only been officially engaged for three weeks.

They both attend St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, also known as the Newman Center, the Catholic student ministry where Kane has been assistant pastor. Since Zlomke and Kane will be almost constant companions in the Army, it was only fitting that he perform the ceremony.

"It will be a pretty small wedding," Zlomke said. "Just mainly our family. When I get back from Iraq we’ll renew our vows and it’ll be more of a big affair."

When he became a priest five years ago, Kane had no thoughts of joining the military, but while on the staff of the Newman Center he met many guard members who told him about the lack of Catholic chaplains, so he felt the call to serve. [Source]

I got to go on a cruise for my honeymoon. Unfortunately it was on an aircraft carrier without my wife and deployed to the Indian Ocean during the Iranian hostage crisis.

ROME, JULY 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Edith Stein, the Carmelite saint and co-patroness of Europe, could be a very engaging figure for some of the 800,000 expected to attend World Youth Day next month in Germany.

That is the opinion of Father Luis Aróstegui Gamboa, superior general of the Discalced Carmelites. "The search for Truth of Edith Stein — Teresa Benedicta of the Cross — could be a stimulus for young people who will go to Cologne, where she lived in the Carmel," he told ZENIT.

"Edith Stein is a very different figure from Thérèse of Lisieux, also a Carmelite saint, who enthused young people at Paris’ World Youth Day," Father Aróstegui said.

"In the same way," he added, "I think that there are some young people, perhaps not all, who might be attracted by Stein’s figure, as she is modern and her biography is very interesting in the best sense of the term: Jewish, German, seeker, who lost her faith and found it."

The Carmelite religious died in Auschwitz in August 1942.

Into contemplation

"She accepted her death in the concentration camp as communion with the cross of Christ, for her people and for peace in the world," said the superior general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. "This is impressive."

"Edith Stein was a person who was very committed to her faith and an exceptional personality; she was called to give lectures and classes when this was unusual, and she defended woman’s rights and dignity," he said.

"This faith and fidelity, but at the same time reflection with freedom and responsibility, might be very attractive to young people," Father Aróstegui added.

He continued: "Moreover, her continuity of life when she entered the Cologne Carmel is also very interesting, as it was not a rejection of the intellectual life but, on the contrary, an entering more intensely into contemplation, which isn’t inaction. In fact, her superiors asked her to continue with her intellectual work and she did so, in union with the Church and the needs of the world.

"Above all, the fact that she was a seeker and integrated values in her life and thought, and her profundity in the faith are very good for the world of young people who will meet in her native Germany." [Source]