Vocations to the priesthood are like the canary in the mine, they are the first thing to die in an unhealthy environment.
Read the whole thing from Fr. Ray Blake.
Ross Douthat via the National Catholic Register:
Romney in particular, is a vindication of my premise. Mormonism is the defining American heresy. I think of it as a heresy of Christianity — partly to avoid the debate that Evangelicals have about whether Mormons are Christian or not. Instead, you can say, yes, they are Christian, but it’s a heretical form of Christianity that dissents from the scripturally-based consensus of the early Church.
I quite enjoyed his book “Bad Religion”, but the debate about Mormons being Christians is certainly not just an Evangelical one.
| Question: Wheter the baptism conferred by the community «The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints», called «Mormons» in the vernacular, is valid.Response: Negative.
The Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, in the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved the present Response, decided in the Sessione Ordinaria of this Congregation, and ordered it published. From the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 5 June 2001.
+ Joseph Cardinal RATZINGER Prefect |
Baptism is the sacrament of Christian initiation. Like Islam it is certainly fair to classify Mormonism as a heresy that grew out of the Christian faith and melded other elements. But you might as well classify Muslims as Christians if you are going to have such a loose definition of what constitutes being a Christian. The virtues that many Mormons display is commendable, but it does not turn polytheism into Trinitarian Christianity.
“Ecumenical dialogue is dialogue between Christians. Dialogue with Mormons who represent official LDS teaching is interreligious dialogue.” – Fr. Richard John Newhaus
CHARLOTTE — Mere steps away from the site of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has posted two larger-than-life messages about the sanctity of life, marriage and religious liberty – proclaiming the teaching of the universal Church to the thousands of party delegates, visitors and the national media who will descend on Charlotte starting next week.
The diocese has suspended two banners on property at St. Peter Catholic Church on South Tryon Street: one on St. Peter’s administrative building and another on a large brick wall adjoining the church.
A six-foot by 10-foot banner will hang from St. Peter’s administrative building, stating: “A Message from the Catholic Church: Religious Liberty, The Soul of Democracy.” This building looks out over The Green between South Tryon and College streets.
A six-foot by 27-foot banner will be posted on a large brick wall behind the church, and will read: “A Message from the Catholic Church: Protect the Unborn, Defend Marriage, Safeguard Religious Liberty.”
This wall faces an area designated as The Legacy Village, where Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx will host special guests during the convention to highlight community efforts to support Foxx’s Legacy Projects. Some of the topics that will be discussed in programs there will address children, families, youth employment, civic education, the economy, energy, technology and sustainability.
These very visible banners are meant to provoke dialogue and encourage evangelization, diocesan officials said, during a time when the national spotlight will shine on Charlotte like never before – and where attention will especially be drawn near St. Peter Church, the oldest Catholic church in the diocese and located in the heart of the convention area.
Bishop Peter J. Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte was personally involved in the planning for the banners, along with diocesan Respect Life Director Maggi Nadol, diocesan spokesman David Hains and St. Peter’s pastor, Jesuit Father Pat Earl.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for evangelization,” Bishop Jugis said.
Though likely the dialogue that will occur will involve vandalism. The words of this banner could be used directly during the Democratic convention, just as long as you replace “Protect”, “Defend”, and “Safeguard” with “Attack”
DENVER, COLO., August 24 (CNA) .- Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila has criticized a Denver city councilwoman for withdrawing a proclamation that praised a Catholic-run company, after she learned that the owners filed a religious freedom lawsuit against the federal government.
“Choosing to marginalize the owners of Hercules for their religiosity is an insult to the founding values of our nation,” the Denver archbishop said in an Aug. 23 opinion piece in the Denver Post.
“When religious people are marginalized from the public square all of us lose,” he said. “Religious values (like those of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example) have served as forces for great public good in America. Public shame of the religiously convicted undermines the American ideal.”
His comments come in response to the actions of Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech, who had initially intended to recognized the Denver-based HVAC manufacturer Hercules Industries’ 50th anniversary.
… Kniech withdrew the proposed proclamation before its passage, saying she hoped to avoid a “partisan food fight” in an election year.
Archbishop Aquila said the resolution’s withdrawal is “unsurprising” but “disappointing.”
“By all appearances, Kniech discovered that Hercules had religious convictions, and she sought distance,” he said. [Source]
It is hard not to laugh at this story about a Catholic Cathedral. Not only over the subject but the english translation of the story. Though the security concerns are no laughing matter.
The St Theresa’s Catholic Cathedral Church, Nsukka, Enugu State, has barred women from wearing big headgears and carrying hand bags to Sunday service. Rev. Fr. Uche Obodoechina, the Cathedral Administrator, who announced this during Sunday service in Nsukka, said that the ban takes effect from Sept. 9.
Obodoechina said the measure was being introduced to ensure the security of worshippers. According to him, the big headgears, in most cases, made the identification of persons during Sunday service difficult.
He said the headgears (popularly called canopy) turn to a ‘barricade’ when many women putting on big head gears stay on a roll during service.
“Please, in view of the present security challenges, the church has urged women to stop coming to Sunday service with big headgears and bags to enable security men know when bomb will be smuggled into the church. The church has directed security men at the church gate to seize big head ears and bags from Sept. 9. This measure is aimed towards enhancing the security of the faithful during Sunday mass.”
What they need is a more collapsible hat. I saw a video today demonstrating what you can do if your hat can cause difficulty when getting into a car.
Father Gerald O’Reilly, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago prayed the rosary among several homosexual activists who were picketing a Chick-fil-A restaurant. This video shows their level of tolerance.
Matt C. Abbott asked Father Richard Perozich of the Diocese of San Diego to comment on what transpired with Father O’Reilly.
- Tolerance for a Christian is an expression of love that holds a person to one’s heart when that person is doing evil, praying that love will conquer and free the doer from the evil that dominates him.
- Tolerance according to current practice is a stepping stone begged by a minority of the majority that the latter accept the people where they are in their behavior, and not to call it evil. The second step is acceptance of the evil behavior. Step three is celebration of the evil behavior as good and normal, and even superior to what a Christian knows to be good. Step four is domination and oppression of all who disagree with the behavior.
- For us Christians, prayer to the Trinity is necessary to expel any evil from a person. After that, evil must be explicitly called what it in fact is: evil. The Christian who prophecies in the name of Jesus can expect then to suffer hate and loss of freedom, power, possessions, and prestige for the opposition to evil, sometimes even to the loss of the Christian’s life in order to save himself and those who are overcome by evil.
I am tempted to go all Mark Shea “on the thing that use to be conservatism”.
I started noticing a bunch of links to a video of Anderson Cooper taking on Debbie Wasserman Schultz and some claims towards Gov. Romney. There was a lot of excitement over Anderson Cooper disputing her.
Finally seeing the video myself I can almost weep. I wish that Debbie Wasserman Schultz was right in her allegations. The short summary is that she was claiming that it was Romney who was driving the language on abortion in the GOP plank. That despite Romney’s abortion exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother that he was the force behind the plank which does not mention such exceptions.
How conservatives can see this video as a victory of any kind I just don’t see.
“Debbie Wasserman Schultz is lying about the fact that our candidate doesn’t support intrinsic evils when in fact he does! It is so much worse for her to lie about it than for our candidate to support intrinsic evils. Yeah team.”
The other day I had posted on progressive Catholics straining gnats while swallowing camels, and the same is true about those who call themselves pro-life while swallowing the camels of exceptions to direct abortion.
On the Hugh Hewitt show the other day one of the callers called in quite upset about Romney’s exceptions for abortion. Mr. Hewitt waived this aside as a ‘prudential decision” since the country is not onboard with anti-abortion stance that excludes these exceptions. I have heard others defend these exceptions “as a step in the right direction.” First off it certainly is a prudential question on the part of voters to limit evil to choose one candidate over the other because there stance is less evil. For Gov. Romney is is not a prudential decision but formal cooperation with evil. The support of murdering the innocent because of the circumstances they are conceived in come down ultimately to the same arguments pro-abortion advocates use. Once circumstances are part of the equation the exception grows. Just like how “life of the mother” has been broadened way beyond cases involving double effect. Once you allow for exceptions to direct abortion you undercut the defense of life and weaken the intellectual arguments behind it.
That we keep having presidential nominees who are either full pro-abortion or pro-abortion by exceptions is such a tragedy. The so-called pro-life GOP since Roe v. Wade keep nominating people who are at odds with the plank and we are suppose to shut up and put up with it because they are not nearly as pro-abortion as the other guy. Something has to change within the pro-life community and to shut down pro-abortion in some cases politicians in the primary process. Those that support intrinsic evils of any form simply should not be supported, yet the pro-life movement has provided cover for these candidates. We let things go until the nomination is made and then reason we have no other choice but to pick a lesser evil. We have become so use to compromising on this for an election that we have forgotten to revolt during the initial process.
So how do we get ourselves out of this rut? First off while more and more Americans are calling themselves pro-life it is often not a pro-life conviction with a morally consistent understanding. No exception for rape and incest seem a hard teaching and one that has been shied away from in the public square. This view is branded as extremist and refuting this has not been much of a priority. When Gov. Romney was on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo there was no question about Romney’s support of intrinsic evil for supporting the murder for those condemned for the crime of their father. A rather softball interview that allowed punch-card answers by the governor. The pro-life question was answered by “I will appoint a strict constructionist” with the robotic tone of somebody programmed to say the same thing over again in response to input A.
I would certainly like to be charitable in accepting the Gov. Romney did have some form of conversion towards the pro-life cause that wasn’t just politically motivated. Living though in Florida where we had Charlie Crist who was pro-abortion, than announced he was pro-life before his Governor run, and now back to pro-abortion and recently endorsing President Obama. It makes it harder to believe a pro-life conversion when he supports IVF and has advocated for unlimited IVF insurance. He would allow for the use of experimentation with embryos resulting from IVF. This is another area where the pro-life cause is severely weakened and the amount of persons killed due to IVF is an area hardly mentioned as it is usually seen as a Catholic thing instead of something foundational to the pro-life movement. Gov. Romney will likely not touch the subject since some of his own grandchildren are the result of IVF. So even if he had some pro-life conversion he can not be called pro-life. St. Teresa wrote “You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.” You can’t be half a pro-lifer either. To the extent you support direct abortion you are not pro-life. As long as we pretend otherwise we are fooling ourselves.
Though I feel quite the hypocrite writing in such terms myself. President Obama must be defeated. I almost wish that I lived in some heavily Democratic state where I could feel satisfied in voting for a Don Quixote candidate and I could tilt at the voting booth. I didn’t vote in the primaries because there was no candidate I could endorse with my vote. I was drawn towards Sen Santorum but his “me too on torture” eliminated that. Yet here I am contemplating pulling the lever for Romney on election day not for fooling myself about Gov. Romney being an ardent pro-lifer, but in knowing the evil of the Obama administration in its ardent attacks on life and on religious freedom. But I can’t be happy about such a choice and I won’t be jumping up and down with a Romney win like “Yeah I limited evil!”
RIMINI, ITALY, August 22 (CNA/EWTN News) .- Rock ‘n’ roll is innately religious and expresses a desire for the infinite, according to one of Ireland’s leading music journalists.
“This music is generated in the heart of man and is therefore fundamentally of the religious need, which is the fundamental original need of man; to know who made him, who he is, where he is bound,” said John Waters in an Aug. 21 interview with CNA.
Waters is the creator of a new exhibition entitled “Three chords and a longing for the truth; rock ‘n’ roll as a seeking for the infinite.” The display is proving to be hugely popular at the 33rd Rimini Meeting, an international gathering organized by the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.
“The media always present rock ‘n’ roll simply as some kind of extravaganza of sensation and noise and stardom and narcissism and ego mania. But we are saying that within this shell of superficiality there is a hard core of fundamental content which is really the cry of man expressed in a modern idiom.”
Beyond the 800,000 visitors to this year’s Rimini Meeting, Waters wanted to offer his hi-tech, interactive exhibition to one person in particular – Pope Benedict XVI.
“When he was elected in 2005, all the hostile journalists dug back through all of his articles and speeches and tried to find things that would discredit him,” Waters said, recalling how the media finally unearthed a 1996 article in which Cardinal Ratzinger had opined, in the words of Waters, that “rock ‘n’ roll only appeals to the lower emotions of man and was therefore dangerous.”
Waters believes that Pope Benedict “is right in a certain sense,” that our modern culture only wants rock ‘n’ roll to be about “exaggerated sexuality, self-indulgence and narcissism.”
But he also wanted to show the pontiff a deeper reality.
“I wanted in a way to take the Pope by the elbow and lead him into this music and say, ‘come, there’s more, look at these artists, look at Bob Dylan, listen to what he is saying, listen to Leonard Cohen, listen to U2, see the sincerity of these people with the great questions that face man. And don’t be taken in by the exterior, by the noise, by the sensation, by the headlines.'” [Source]
Even as a headbanger myself you really have to do a pretty selective cherry-pick to say “Rock ‘n’ roll is innately religious and expresses a desire for the infinite.” More accurately this is true of the human person and it sees it’s expression in music as in other activities.
The Secret Life of John Paul II
Lino Zani was born and raised in the Italian Alps and acted as a guide and ski instructor. And avid adventurer and mountain climber he relates his first contact with Blessed John Paul II when he comes to vacation in the secluded mountain lodge owned by his parents. This meeting led to a lifetime friendship for hime and his family with the Pope.
It confirms many stories I have read about the Pope concerning his personalism and the way he talked to people as individuals and with undivided attention. A phenomenal memory helped him remember people he had met shortly years earlier. When he first meets the Pope and acts as a guide he writes about the Pope’s intense prayer life which he combined with being an active outdoorsman.
The books details the many encounters he has with the Pope and a historic theme that provides a theme to these encounters. An old cross that marks the remembrance of the dead in this mountains from battles that occurred in WWI provides an intriguing link to both the history of this area and to the life of the Pope’s father. The history of these battles provides a backdrop that is built on in their interactions and becomes something more than just history. The story of this weathered cross and how it gets replaced with a memorial in cooperation with the Pope and a seeming connection with the 3rd secret of Fatima provides some interesting reading. The connection with Fatima seems like a real possibility and not some wild-eye projection at making connections where there are none.
This book as told through the authors eyes provides both a story of his life, but something of the holiness of Blessed John Paul II. Lino Zani was not always the most faithful Catholic and a bit of a woman-chaser and he makes no excuses for this and relates how the Pope chastised him over this flaw. Yet it was a flaw he finally did overcome. There is certainly plenty of interest here which includes the authors attempts at placing Papal blessed crosses on mountaintops across the world. There are also some fun stories involving the Pope and the people that travelled with him including one involving the President of Italy at the time.
Here we see two iterations of Elias Garcia Martinez’ Ecce Homo: the original painted nearly 100 years ago in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza, Spain, and the pitifully botched restoration done over the original by some random yo they hired because she had an art degree from Frank’s College of Knowledge.
Zaragoza city councilor Juan Maria Ojeda had this to say about the situation:
“I think she had good intentions. Next week she will meet with a repairer and explain what kind of materials she used. If we can’t fix it, we will probably cover the wall with a photo of the painting.”
No doubt she will be getting calls from Catholic Churches all over the place and will be hired on by one of the groups of wreckovators where before and afters such as this are the goal.
Via I Fixed That