The First Things blog posts a speech Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.gave in September at an Indianapolis men’s conference for Legatus. The good Bishop is always worth hearing and this speech is quite excellent.
There is an interesting exchange between Fr. George Rutler and Christopher Hitchens which occurred during a Question and Answer segment on May 1st.
FATHER RUTLER: I have met saints. You cannot explain the existence of saints without God. I was nine years chaplain with Mother Teresa [inaudible]. You have called her a whore, a demagogue. She’s in heaven that you don’t believe in, but she’s praying for you. If you do not believe in heaven, that’s why you drink.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Excuse me?
FATHER RUTLER: That’s why you drink. God has offered us happiness, all of us. And you will either die a Catholic or a madman, and I’ll tell you the difference.
One eyewitness stated.
“At the end of the event as he staggered, sweating and red faced, out of the room, he [Hitchens] advanced on Father Rutler in a threatening and physical manner, screaming that this beloved pastor and brilliant scholar whom he had never met was `a child molester and a lazy layabout who never did a day’s work in his life’. His behavior was so frightening that a bodyguard put himself between Hitchens and Father Rutler to protect him. Several of the event organizers then escorted Hitchens to the men’s room and when he emerged he continued his psychotic rant, repeating the same calumnious and baseless screed as before. It was then that Father Rutler, in the most charitable manner, told Hitchens [for the second time] that he will `either die a madman or a Roman Catholic’. … Unless he faces his alcoholism soon, I am betting on the ‘madman’ ending for him.” (4)
Fragments of a cassock worn by Pope John Paul II have been available from vicariatusurbis.org the site for his beautification cause. The relics were available for free (though postage has to be paid), but next to the relic initiative users can click on "Freewill offering for the cause" towards the beautification.
The scheme is run by the Vicariate of Rome, which is promoting sainthood for John Paul. The faithful also receive a “holy card” with a prayer to “obtain graces through the intercession of John Paul II”.
Maybe they use scheme as a non-pejorative term in England, but judging by the rest of the article this doesn’t appear to be the case. Besides why sneer quotes around holy card?
But the scheme has caused disquiet in the Vatican, which is anxious to discourage the veneration of relics, seen as a medieval practice with no place in the modern church. “Wars were fought over the hunt for relics in the Middle Ages,” said Bishop Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s top judicial body.
Funny I guess nobody told the writers of the Catechism that it was only a medieval practice. Besides just who in the Vatican is disquieted? I guess you can just take quotes from Bishop Velasio De Paolis that appeared in a La Stampa article and then just assert whatever the heck you want to.
1674 Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.
Also I wasn’t aware that the medieval ages went all the way back to the earliest days of the Church when relics were taken for St. Polycarp and has been a constant practice throughout the history of the Church including both testaments of the Bible.
�This is not a commercial operation,� said Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the Vicariate. Fragments would be sent to those who did not make a payment as well as to those who did.
The relics on offer are known as ex indumentis, meaning cloth that the late Pope touched. The Vicariate said it had been overwhelmed by requests for the relics, and donations to the beatification website had increased to 1,200 a day from 300 a day when it was launched four months after John Paul�s death. Thousands continue to file every day past the late Pope�s tomb in the crypt of St Peter�s Basilica.
You just got to love the ignorant media coverage of the Church. Also recently Jeff Israely once again did some ignorant coverage for Time in the assertion that Pope John Paul II requested euthanasia and he said that “Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life.” It is quite obvious that one source religion reporters never use when covering the Church is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Dr. Paul Camarata at the SaintCast has an excellent interview with Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk the postulator for Blessed Mother Teresa.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) � Some homeless Minneapolis residents are walking in the pope’s shoes.
That’s after two big boxes from Rome arrived at Sharing and Caring Hands, a homeless mission in downtown Minneapolis. Recently, the Rev. Joseph Johnson, the rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul gave some friends from the Vatican a tour of the facility while they were visiting the Twin Cities.
Sharing and Caring Hands has an on-site shoe room, but director Mary Jo Copeland didn’t know what was in the big boxes when they arrived.
“Father (Johnson) says, ‘That’s from the Pope.’ I said, What do you mean? The Pope,” said Copeland.
She opened them to find several dozen pairs of handmade Italian shoes to give to the poor.
“These are just grand! This is just the best gift. That Pope Benedict, wherever you are, God bless you!” said Copeland.
Johnson said Benedict got the shoes from an Italian shoemaker who asked that they be distributed to the poor.
PORTSMOUTH � Due to a decree this past summer by Pope Benedict XVI, Latin Masses may now be performed if a group of parishioners within a particular church requests it. Before the decree, permission from the local bishop had to be obtained before a Latin Mass could be performed in his diocese.
Michael Kerper, pastor of Immaculate Conception in Portsmouth, celebrated the Latin Mass at the church on Sunday according to the 1962 Roman Missal. The 1962 Missal is the standard low Mass in Latin that was sanctioned by Pope John Paul in 1962, and it became a common template for traditional Latin Masses.
It was the first time in 40 years that the traditional Latin Mass has been offered anywhere on the New Hampshire Seacoast. Approximately 400 parishioners attended, about half of the church’s communicant capacity.
“Father Kerper did a wonderful job,” parishioner Bill St. Laurent said. “It went beautifully. He had never done a traditional Mass in Latin, but he purchased a copy of the 1962 Roman Missal and worked hard for six or seven weeks learning the Latin.”
St. Laurent is president of the New Hampshire chapter of Una Voce, an international federation of associations that have been seeking to reinstate Latin Masses across the world.
Anita Seedner of York, Maine, who attends St. Christopher Parish in York, said people have “lost a sense of what it means to be a Catholic,” because the prayers were “watered down” when they were translated from Latin to English.
Still others believe that the incorporation of Latin Masses could create a sense of “us and them” � those who believe the traditional Mass to be more deeply rooted in the traditions of the Catholic Church, and those who believe that understanding the meaning of the words is essential to the Mass experience.
For supporters of the Latin Mass, it comes down to choice.
“The Latin Mass isn’t replacing the English Mass; it is just giving people an option,” St. Laurent said.
One of the better articles I have seen on the extraordinary form of Mass. Though I had to laugh at the term "communicant capacity" to describe seating capacity in the church. Though I think there is such thing as communicant capacity in that the Eucharist gives grace depending upon the capacity of the communicant.
Godzdogz has some great pictures of the clothing of novices in Cambridge.
Roman Catholic by Choice has a couple of excellent stories from the Atlanta Diocese’s Georgia Bulletin that don’t appear online.
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory wilt not attend an awards luncheon after the Red Mass because of the presence of pro-abortion former Governor Roy Barnes. Statement here.
The other is a letter from a 16 year old who attends both the ordinary and the extraordinary form of the Mass and responds to a previous article in the Georgia bulletin.
Sen. John Kerry’s speech at the Catholic University of America has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.
From a Lifesite article:
Nakas however, explained that a Kerry lecture at CUA would not be a contradiction to the USCCB policy. "Unfortunately, some people are misinterpreting the bishops’ statement on Catholic politicians. We verified with the bishops themselves that the intent of the statement was to refuse a platform to speakers who would be invited to speak on those specific issues for which they hold positions that are at variance with the fundamental moral teachings of the Catholic Church (emphasis in original email).
Nakas continued, "This means, for example, that we would be violating the letter and the intent of the bishops’ statement were we to invite Sen. Kerry to speak on abortion. However, we would not be violating the letter and the spirit of the bishops’ statement were we to permit the College Democrats to invite Sen. Kerry to speak on the environment or the Iraq war."
The Tower had previously reported that Kerry was invited to specifically address the issues of the environment and the Iraq war.
Now what the bishop’s document Catholics in Political Life said was:
The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.
*emphasis in the original statement.
While the bishops statement can be certainly interpreted in a vague manner the idea that someone can speak on a subject as long as it isn’t one of the fundamental moral principles they violate is rather compartmented. They wouldn’t invite a member of the KKK even if they were an expert on the environment. Or a speaker that supported genocide that was an expert in another subject. This is just part of the attitude where a politician’s 100 percent voting record for abortion and against other life issues is not perceived as all that bad in the first place.
The Kerry lecture would not have been held as an officially school sponsored event. While the administration had to approve the speaker choice, the cost of the event would have been paid by the College Democrats who were to organize and host the lecture. However, funding for the political group comes, at least in part, from a student activity fee that all CUA students are required to pay each year.
The "it is not an officially sponsored school event" dodge is becoming more and more frequently used. This is the educrats version of "plausible deniability."
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP has some quite worthwhile suggestions considering Kids These Days: What they don’t want from the Church. He takes his own experience working at the University of Dallas of what works for them. Judging by suggestions they are valid for pretty much everybody.