Some Missouri Public Schools Offer Bible Courses

Special Update: Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment

If you are NOT a PA resident but know someone who is, please send this to them.

Special Update: Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment

Your action and involvement today is vital to protecting marriage in Pennsylvania.

READ ACTION ITEMS AT END OF MESSAGE. PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY!

In a great show of support, hundreds turned out for the Stand Up For Marriage Rally last Tuesday at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg. Dozens of co-sponsors from the House and Senate attended as well. At current count, there are 89 House co-sponsors and 14 Senate co-sponsors. It was a tremendous kick-off event, but the opposition has swung into action. For example:

Since the Rally:

· Eggs were thrown at the office of one of the co-sponsors.

· Many co-sponsors have been barraged with rude emails and letters that include personal attacks from amendment opponents.

· Activists in support of same-sex marriage have launched a lobbying blitz using untruths and scare tactics to try and weaken support for the Marriage Protection Amendment. They claim their tactics are working.

· Newspaper columnists across the state have been blasting lawmakers who have co-sponsored the Marriage Protection Amendments, and say that those who want to keep marriage as the union of one man and one woman are bigoted hate-mongers.

Now, the Truth:

· Without the Marriage Protection Amendment, Pennsylvania's marriage law could be thrown out in court, and a judge order same-sex marriage legalized in Pennsylvania. It just happened in Maryland last week.

· The Marriage Protection Amendment will prohibit courts from creating counterfeit marriage like "same-sex marriage" or "civil unions" which are marriage in every way - but name. Calling a quartz crystal a diamond may fool some, but it's still not a true diamond.

· The Marriage Protection Amendment won't change anything currently in law in Pennsylvania. Crass opponents are trying to scare senior citizens saying it will take some of their benefits away!?!?! It won't take benefits away from anyone. It just will keep marriage what it has always been, and prevent government (especially judges) from minting counterfeits to marriage in the future.

· If a court legalizes same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania (like one did in Massachusetts) society will undergo a massive restructuring. Terms like father and mother, husband and wife will be stricken from the law (this happened in Ontario, Canada). School curriculum will celebrate same-sex marriages, and describe homosexual relationships in sex education courses (proposed curriculum guidelines in Massachusetts will require 5th graders to be tested on whether they can describe different sexual orientations, and different "types of families. Teaching on these subjects would begin in pre-kindergarten.) Birth certificates will no longer list "mother's name" and "father's name" but instead, "parent A" and "parent B."

Same-sex marriage is about catering to the desires and wants of adults, not the needs or best interest of children.

Marriage as one man and one woman has been the essential foundation of society since the dawn of civilization. Almost every culture, in every part of the world, in every time period from the Stone Age to the present, has recognized this by protecting and honoring the institution of marriage. Marriage is the unique relationship that produces children and provides them with a stable environment of a mom and a dad that will shape and mold the future citizens of every nation. Help protect marriage, children, family and the future of Pennsylvania.

ACTION ITEMS:

· Contact your State Representative and State Senator TODAY. Ask them to co-sponsor the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment. Thank them if they are co-sponsors. Visit the Citizen Action Center at www.pafamily.org to get contact information.

· Write letters-to-the-editor. Refute the name calling and intolerant words of columnists and others who misrepresent the actions and motives of those who support the Marriage Protection Amendment. Newspaper contact information is available at the Citizen Action Center.

· Enlist others to the cause. We need every hand on deck for this battle. Download a petition from www.PA4marriage.org. Distribute it.

· Forward this email to like-minded people. Print this page and distribute it.

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://votervoice.net/target.asp?id=pafi:7800311

Thanks to Patte G. for passing this information on to us

Gospel for Saturday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time

From: Mark 6:30-34

The Apostles Return

[30] The Apostles returned to Jesus, and told Him all that they had done and taught. [31] And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.

First Miracles of the Loaves

[33] Now many saw them going, and knew them, and they ran there on foot from the towns, and got there ahead of them. [34] As He landed He saw a great throng, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.
_________________________

Commentary:

30-31. We can see here the intensity of Jesus' public ministry. Such was His dedication to souls that St. Mark twice mentions that the disciples did not even have time to eat (cf. Mark 3:20). A Christian should be ready to sacrifice his time and even his rest in the service of the Gospel. This attitude of availability will lead us to change our plans whenever the good of souls so requires.

But Jesus also teaches us here to have common sense and not to go to such extremes that we physically cannot cope: "The Lord makes His disciples rest, to show those in charge that people who work or preach cannot do so without breaks" (St. Bede, "In Marci Evangelium Expositio, in loc."). "He who pledges himself to work for Christ should never have a free moment, because to rest is not to do nothing: it is to relax in activities which demand less effort" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 357).

34. Our Lord had planned a period of rest, for Himself and His disciples, from the pressures of the apostolate (Mark 6:31-32). And He has to change His plans because so many people come, eager to hear Him speak. Not only is He not annoyed with them: He feels compassion on seeing their spiritual need. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). They need instruction and our Lord wants to meet this need by preaching to them. "Jesus is moved by hunger and sorrow, but what moves Him most is ignorance" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 109).
________________________

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Group goes to defense of Archbishop Burke

They defend their "shepherd" with their presence and prayers.

A small group of local Catholics calling themselves Defenders of Archbishop Burke attended the 7 a.m. Mass he said at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica Jan. 26...The group’s founder, Bill McKenzie, a member of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Brentwood, met the archbishop for the first time after the Mass when he shook his hand in the back of church. He called the archbishop a "holy, courageous, humble man."

McKenzie founded the group a few weeks ago because he said he thought the festering controversy over St. Stanislaus Kostka situation had generated "violent opposition" toward the archbishop.

Archbishop Burke expressed gratitude to McKenzie’s group. "Their love for the Church is most edifying for me," the archbishop said. "Certainly, they encourage me to give the best possible shepherd’s care to the archdiocese. They devote themselves in a special way to clarifying misinformation and dispelling misunderstandings regarding the Church and especially the archbishop".

"They serve the good of the whole Church by being heralds of the truth and of love of Christ. For all of these reasons, I am deeply grateful to the Defenders of the Archbishop," Archbishop Burke said.

Actually, the "violent opposition" began several months ago...the opposition started within a month or two after Archbishop Burke arrived and increased in intensity over the succeeding months.

As always, prayers for Archbishop Burke and his detractors are in order.

More at the St. Louis Review here...

Feb 12-Card. Avery Dulles to Speak at St Louis Priory

Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, long one of the country’s most noted theologians, will be the main speaker at the St. Louis Abbey Golden Jubilee Celebration Lecture Sunday, Feb. 12.

The cardinal will present "John Paul II and Benedict XVI: Continuity and Contrast." The lecture will begin 3 p.m. in the Kevin Kline Theatre at St. Louis Priory School, 500 S. Mason Road in Creve Coeur.

Admission is free. A reception will follow.

For more information, call (314) 434-0031

After Death Do We Part

by Pete Vere, JCL

Like many people, I was disturbed by news of Michael Schiavo’s recent wedding to his fiancée Jody Centonze. As Gudrun Schultz reported on Life Site News, “Michael Schiavo, who had his disabled wife Terri killed last March by refusing her food and water, was re-married last Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church of Espiritu Santo in Florida. Schiavo married Jodi Centonze. He had two children with her during the years he worked towards achieving Terri’s death.”
. . .
Rather than stand for this scandal, Catholics should write Francis Cardinal Arinze at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and ask for an investigation into this matter. Here is His Eminence’s address:

Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments
Palazzo delle Congregazioni
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00120 CITTÀ DEL VATICANO, Europe

Full article on Catholic Exchange here.

It seems like a worthwhile endeavor to write Cardinal Arinze. Certainly he has plenty to do, but this national scandal does need to be addressed. I still find it impossible to comprehend or believe that this "marriage" occurred in a Catholic parish. It seems like just another example of patients running the asylum...

Something I need to reflect on, daily!

Beyond Death
The judgement will be dreadful for those who knew the way perfectly well, showed it to others or encouraged them to follow it, but would not go along it themselves.

God will judge and condemn them out of their own mouths.
– St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #888

Mar 20-St Joseph's Dinner with Bishop Robert Vasa

Credo is pleased to co-sponsor with the Catholic Central Union the

Annual St. Joseph’s Dinner
on Monday, March 20th 6:30 p.m.
at The Crowne Plaza Hotel
7750 Carondelet Ave
Clayton, MO

Our Speaker:
The Most Reverend Robert F. Vasa D.D., Bishop of Baker Oregon.

The Topic:
"Evaluating and Questioning Safe Environment Programs for Children"

Bishop Vasa was born in Lincoln Nebraska in 1951. He studied at the St Thomas Seminary in Denver Colorado, the Holy Trinity seminary in Dallas Texas where he earned a Master of Divinity and at the Gregorian University in Rome were he earned his J.C.L. On May 22, 1976 he was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln Nebraska Glennon P.Flavin.

The bishop has served in a number of positions in The Diocese of Lincoln including Vicar General.

He was named Bishop of Baker in 1999 by John Paul II.

Bishop Vasa is solidly orthodox and particularly noted for his support of parents rights... Could we expect anything less from a bishop who spent his formative years in the diocese of Lincoln Nebraska under the direction of Bishops Flavin and Bruskewitz?

Join us for a delicious dinner and an enlightening talk at the Crowne Plaza on March 20.

Free inside parking at the 7777 Bonhomme Parking garage. (Take the Orange Level Bridge to the hotel.)

Tear off the coupon below and send it with your check for $20.00 per person payable to Credo of the Catholic Laity
C/O Howard Brandt
4386 Honeydew Lane
St. Louis MO. 63128
Phone (314) 894-0357

===========================================================
Name_______________________________________________________

Address____________________________________________________

Phone______________________email___________________________

My Menu selections are:
Sliced Roast Beef Bordelaise #______
Baked White Fish................. #______
These are served with Garden Salad, appropriate vegetables, dinner roll, beverage and dessert.

Enclosed is my check for $_______to cover ________people
for the Annual St Joseph's Dinner/Bishop Vasa Talk.
============================================================

Cardinal Mahony Petitions SOTUS to Keep Priest Files Private

The petition follows a decision by the California Supreme Court last year that the archdiocese must produce the files, which were subpoenaed three years ago.

"There is no legitimate privilege that shields the evidence we seek," countered Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Brent Ferreira. "Our subpoenas are simply seeking evidence of these crimes, no matter who has it or how it was obtained."
. . .

Bishops Bruskewitz & Corrada on the Future of the Traditional Latin Mass

Bishop Fernando Rifan of the Apostolic Administration of St. John Marie Vianney, Campos, Brazil, said there were four U.S. bishops who allowed their diocesan priests full approval to offer the Classical Roman rite of Mass while delivering the keynote address for an Una Voce America Conference held November 18-20 in Providence, R.I.
. . .
Bishop Rifan specifically cited Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis; Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb.; Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill.; and Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ, of Tyler, Texas, as having been generous in the Ecclesia Dei indult application, as requested and emphasized repeatedly by the late Pope John Paul II.
. . .
Bishop Bruskewitz:

In the Diocese of Lincoln, the Novus Ordo Mass is done with great care and rubrical exactness. And as a result, we don't have large numbers of people, as they do in some other places, who want to frequent the Tridentine rite. For instance, where I lived in Milwaukee, I think that huge numbers who attend Mass in the Tridentine rite are really refugees from liturgical abuses they have found in other areas.

As are many everywhere, it seems...Some are still praying daily that the various liturgical abuses here are addressed and corrected.

Bishop Bruskewitz(continued)...:

I think where the Novus Ordo is done reverently and correctly, and with the proper amount of devotion, and with proper aesthetics, it can serve a wonderful purpose. I think that especially the way this Holy Father offers Holy Mass provides a lot of wonderful and correct inspiration and example for the whole world. I think he recently spoke to the Sistine choir explaining how the Papal Mass must be exemplary because of television.
. . .
The temptation when the Mass is coram populo is that one thinks the personality of the priest has to come through or that somehow or another, a priest is talking to the people when he's addressing God. It's exacerbated because you have some of the prayers to God and then you are talking to the people: "Let us offer each other the sign of peace."

The people get the impression the priest is somehow entertaining them or addressing them, which is a misunderstanding of what is going on.

More here...

Dr Ed Peters on Reconciling "Traditionalists"

Reports are circulating that Pope Benedict XVI is exploring ways to bring the followers of Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (d. 1991) back into full communion with the Catholic Church; in other words, that the pope is doing one of the main things that popes are supposed to do, trying to heal divisions in the Mystical Body of Christ. But this process and its outcome are not completely under the control of Pope Benedict.

What?, you might be asking? What does he mean? His answer is here.

Missouri Bishops Appeal Stem-cell Title Ruling

From the St. Louis Review...(All emphasis is mine):

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s Catholic bishops last week appealed a Cole County Circuit Court judge’s ruling over the language that would appear on a proposed ballot issue protecting embryonic stem-cell research, which the Church condemns as immoral.

In their appeal, the bishops stated that the official ballot title "misleads and deceives the voters of the state of Missouri." The bishops added their support to an appeal filed by the plaintiffs, Missourians Against Human Cloning, which filed the suit on which Judge Byron Kinder ruled.

The ballot title, which is the only information on the proposal voters will see in the voting booth, includes a statement that the proposal bans human cloning.

But those opposing the measure have said the full text of the proposal allows a human cloning procedure known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Using this procedure scientists would create human embryos only to destroy them for biomedical research purposes. This type of research is commonly referred to as "therapeutic cloning."

In their appeal the bishops state: "Despite the fact that the proposed initiative authorizes cloning for biomedical research, the secretary of state’s official ballot title states that the proposed initiative will ‘ban human cloning.’ Consequently, a Missouri voter who wants to ban human cloning for all purposes will be deceived by the official ballot title, which makes no distinction between cloning for research and cloning for reproduction.

"Catholic Missouri voters could unwittingly vote for a ‘ban on human cloning or attempted cloning’ because such would be entirely consistent with the teachings of their faith. Only later would these voters discover that their votes did not support their respect for the sanctity of human life," according to the bishops’ appeal.

By state law the ballot title must accurately summarize the full proposal and not mislead voters.

The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures is backing a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent the legislature from banning embryonic stem-cell research and work. They are petitioning to gain enough signatures to place the issue on the Nov. 7 election.

Church leaders have recommended Catholics decline to sign the nominating petition and vote against the measure if it goes to a vote.

Deception by the agents of evil and death...What is "St Jack" Danforth's position on deceiving the public? His blindness and the blindness of others does not permit them to see clearly.

As we can see, the consequence of sin is sin - Sin begets sin...It becomes a vicious cycle of slavery and spiritual and sometimes bodily death. These people deliberately, with full knowledge, attempt to deceive the public to back their nefarious schemes of human experimentation. Moral depravity infects them all. From the abyss of hell, they have summoned their leader to guide them. we must pray for their immortal souls!

We can pray that Judge Kinder's ruling wil be overturned and that Missouri voters will know exactly what they may be voting on.

Local Pharmacist’s Firing Linked to Planned Parenthood Pressure

From the St. Louis Review:

Pharmacist Heather Williams of St. Charles was fired from her job at a Target store after Planned Parenthood threatened to boycott the chain because of her employment, according to Americans United for Life.
...
"Under the threat of a Planned Parenthood boycott, the chain decided to cease protecting her right of conscience and terminate her employment," Americans United stated in a news release.
...
Target’s corporate communications department in Minneapolis called the statements made in a news release by Americans United for Life "completely inaccurate and misleading."

Should I recite, or toss, formula prayers?

From time to time we've all received via email or some other method, an invitation to recite or pray a "prayer that never fails"...Sometimes there are items in the vestibule of a church which make similar claims? What do you do with these?

From the "Dear Father" section of the St Louis Review. some sound advice:

Prayer is a good thing, but when you subscribe to these prayers that are guaranteed "to never fail" you are turning prayer into a magical formula bordering on superstition. Such prayers also do not represent the best understanding of just what intercession is all about.

There are two ways we can approach prayer. One is as a communication of love and trust and the other is as a business transaction. If our prayer is authentic, we are opening ourselves to God’s will and trusting Him to answer us. The problem is when we pray these prayers that are guaranteed "never to fail" we are trying to manipulate God.

In that God always answers our prayers in one way or another, there is truth in the claim that authentic prayer is guaranteed "never to fail." God answers all our prayers but sometimes, His answer is "no."

I really question prayers that require publication, strict formulas, mathematics or circulation because it represents an impoverished approach to the spiritual life.

We should never approach prayer as if it is conducting a business transaction with God.

St. Francis de Sales tells us:

"Do not distress yourself about your prayers. It is not always necessary to employ words, even inwardly. It is enough to raise your heart and let it rest in our Lord, to look lovingly upward toward this divine lover of our souls, for between lovers the eyes speak more eloquently than the tongue."

Father Lombardi, a priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Family is associate pastor of St. Wenceslaus Parish in South St. Louis.
==================

Have a question on matters of faith?

Send it to Dear Father, c/o St. Louis Review, 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO 63119, or fax to (314) 792-7534, or e-mail to slreview AT stlouisreview.com.

Feb 14 - Lecture by Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga at SLU

Saint Louis University's Department of Theological Studies presents

11th Annual DeLubac Lecture
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
7:00 pm

Busch Student Center Multipurpose Room 170

Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga

"Challenges of Globalization for the Church in Latin America"

Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, is a Roman Catholic Cardinal and the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He was President of the Latin American Conference of Catholic Bishops (CELAM) from 1995 to 1999. Prior to the April 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, he was mentioned by some in the Press and Media as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.

Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1942. As a boy, he had wide interests that included saxophone-playing and aviation. He entered the religious life and joined the Pious Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians of Don Bosco) in 1961. He taught at Salesian colleges in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, at the Salesian Theological Institue in Guatemala.

He was ordained a priest in 1970 in Guatemala City, and was named Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa in the same year. He was rector for three years at Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University from 1975; he became Archibishop of Tegucigalpa in 1978, and in 2001 Pope John Paul II made him a Cardinal--the first from Honduras.

Cardinal Rodriguez's campaign for human rights and the poor have won widespread praise. In this connection, he served as the Vatican's spokesperson to the International Monetary Fund and the the World Bank on the topic of debt in the developing nations. During the G-8 meeting of major world leaders in 1999, Cardinal Rodriguez teamed up with rock star Bono to present a petition, signed by 17 million people, calling for debt relief—an effort that has subsequently borne fruit. He is the founder of of the Catholic University of Honduras and an ecumenist who has encouraged dialogue between Catholics and Pentecostals in Latin America. He has brokered peace accords with rebels and led rebuilding efforts after natural disaster. He was honored by the Parliament of Central America with the Francisco Morazán Medral.

"Shock" Priest Censured by Bishop DiLorenzo

VIRGINIA BEACH — The Rev. Thomas J. Quinlan Jr. famously loves to jar congregations with bluntly worded homilies, but he went too far when he mentioned the Virgin Mary’s birth canal during a Christmas Eve service – a Catholic bishop has banned him from performing any priestly function in public.

“Your shock content was crude, offensive and disturbing,” particularly to families, youth and visitors, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of the Richmond Diocese told Quinlan in a Jan. 17 letter. The bishop cited a sermon that Quinlan, known as “TQ,” gave at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Virginia Beach.

Link...

Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy Revamps Religious Ed

Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy announced a major shakeup of religious education yesterday that reconfigures the program that produced a generation of lay Catholic leaders, as well as many members of Voice of the Faithful, an activist group that has demanded the bishop's resignation.

One reaps what one sows...the failure to promote authentic Catholic teaching produces such dissenting groups as Voice of the Faithful, and others and weeding these types out of parish RCIA, catechetical and religious education programs may take another generation. It's encouraging, if not miraculous, to see this initiative being taken in Rockville Centre.

Link.

Vision TV Airs "Secret Files of the Inquisition"

Despite the fact that reputable historians have debunked the myths and lengends of the Inquisition, Vision TV airing of it 4 part Docu-drama miniseries "Secret Files of the Inquisition" perpetuates the "black legends"...It begins thus:

It was a reign of terror that would endure for more than 600 years.

At the dawn of the second millennium, the Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme throughout the kingdoms of Europe. But by the 13th century, emerging Christian sects like the Cathars were challenging the Pope's authority. To counter their influence, the Church unleashed a new weapon: the Inquisition.

We should not be too surprised as a new wave of questions, concerns, antipathy, or attacks are forthcoming...

Some scholars say the Inquisition exists to this day, in the form of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican office that was headed until recently by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI.

What we need today is another like Tomas de Torquemada...

You can read VisionTV's "stuff" here.

UN Supports China's Population Program with $27 Million

Joseph D'Agostino, spokesman for the Population Research Institute - the organization which first exposed the horrors of China's coercive population program - commented, "It really shows that some people don't care about human rights."

Mar 3 & 4-Credo of the Catholic Laity Lenten Retreat

Credo of the Catholic Laity will be holding its Lenten Retreat immediately after Ash Wednesday on Friday and Saturday March 3rd & 4th at St.Francis de Sales Oratory located on Ohio Avenue at Gravois.

Our Friday Retreat Master will be Rev. C. Eugene Morris, S.T.L., Director of Worship and Assistant Professor of Sacramental Theology at Kenrick Glennon Seminary.

Father Morris is an experienced Retreat Master who has conducted many retreats. He is often heard on our local Catholic Radio Station WRYT and KHOJ.

Msgr. Henry J. Breier, Secretary to Archbishop Burke, will be the homilist at the Solemn High Mass on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Rev. Karl Lenhardt, Rector of St Francis de Sales Oratory and Vice Provincial of The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in the United States, will conduct the retreat.

We will close the retreat on Saturday with another Solemn High Mass.

Take advantage of the opportunity to make this Lent one of your most efficacious Lenten seasons.

The full schedule for the Retreat is shown below.

Our charge for the retreat is $15.00 per person to cover expenses. If you are able to send a little more please do so in order to assist those who might need help. If you have a problem covering this charge, especially those with large families do not hesitate to ask for help. We want to make this retreat available to as many people as we can.


===========================================================
Name_______________________________________________________

Address____________________________________________________

Phone______________________email___________________________

Enclosed is my check for $_______to cover ________people
for the retreat.
============================================================
Forward this coupon along with your check made payable to Credo of the Catholic Laity to:

Howard Brandt, Credo Treasurer
4386 Honeydew Lane
St. Louis MO. 63128
Phone 314-894-0357
e-mail hbrandt AT i1.net

###

2006 Credo of the Catholic Laity Retreat Agenda
__________________________________________

Friday, March 3rd - Rev. C. Eugene Morris

2:00 p.m. Opening prayer, "Veni Creator" Conference Downstairs
3:00 p.m. Exposition, Benediction, Rosary, and Confession
4:00 p.m. Light Supper Downstairs
5:00 p.m. Conference Downstairs
6:00 p.m. Stations of the Cross and Confession
7:00 p.m. Solemn High Mass

Msgr. Henry J. Breier, Secretary to Archbishop Burke, will be the homilist at this Mass.


Saturday March 4th - Rev..Karl Lenhardt

9:00 a.m. Confession, Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy
9:45 a.m. Conference Downstairs
11:00 a.m. Litany of All Saints, Benediction and Exposition
12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. Conference Downstairs
2:30 p.m. Solemn High Mass
4:00 p.m. Close

There will also be the regular 8:00 a.m. Low Mass on Saturday March 4th

The Spirituality of the Soul

Chapter 5

We have seen that there is an in­telligent and personal God who is the Creator and Ruler of the world. Let us now consider man, for religion means the bond between man and God.

Man is a creature, first of all, with under­standing. Mere matter does not understand, so man is more than matter.

Man is also a creature with free will. He can say yes or no, and no one can force him against his will. Mere matter does not de­termine itself, so man is more than matter.

Man is capable of generalizing, or rising in thought above what his senses perceive. For example, he has ideas of the following things which do not exist in themselves: endlessness, nothing, future, abstract. No one ever saw an abstraction, yet man knows the meaning of abstract. No one ever saw nothing or felt it, or realized it by any of the senses, yet the mind knows what nothing means, has an idea of nothing. Matter cannot abstract and generalize and compare, so again man is more than matter.

There is a power in man which commands his body, forces it to do what he wishes, even forces himself to do what he shrinks from. A man may feel tired, his body may be fatigued, his limbs may be sore and injured, but he can compel his tired body to work on. Mere matter cannot command, so man is more than matter.

Man can originate and compose. The poet gives us lofty ideas, the musician creates mar­vellous harmonies and melodies, the workman invents new devices. Mere matter cannot thus soar aloft and penetrate into the realms of possibility.

As you read these lines, you are doing your own thinking, and as a result you may alter your plan of life. Matter cannot estimate and decide, so man is more than matter.

That power in man which is not matter we call spirit. Man is therefore a spiritual being, made up of matter and spirit. Religion means the bringing of our spirit into right relation with the Creator. Religion has no connec­tion with matter or animals because they can­not comprehend. God made them as they are, and they are incapable of doing otherwise than as determined.

Matter is subject to fixed laws which no power on earth can change; animals are subject to fixed laws, called instinct, which nothing can change. You can teach an animal a few tricks by force of training, but this is merely artificial, like painting wood to re­semble oak. But man is independent; he can do as he likes; he comprehends; he is the only creature who can defy law; he can use his liberty even against his own good. A drunkard, a gambler, a libertine, may know that he is bringing disease and death on him­self, but he may go ahead. Man can even defy God himself. And he does. That makes sin, when a man deliberately does what he knows is wrong.

Religion then means bringing man into har­mony with God, bringing him into God's way of living, bringing him back to what is right. Man has a tendency to be a law unto himself, to do as he likes. But God gave man liberty to serve Him, to do His will. He could have made man like the rest of nature. subject to fixed laws, but He did not. He made him free to give him the opportunity of showing loyalty and allegiance to Him who so wonder­fully made him.

God's law obliges man to direct his life to please God and not to suit himself, and yet we see many people living just to suit them­selves. But is God to be trifled with? We must obey the laws of our country. How about God's laws, which are more sacred? Because God is good and patient and does not punish instantly, it does not follow that man can go on sinning.

For after death, the judgment!

We shall next consider the immortality of the soul.
___________________________________
Adapted from God and Myself, An Inquiry into the True Religion (1917)
by Fr. Martin J. Scott, S.J.

Gospel for Friday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time

Feb 3 - St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr (Optional Memorial)
From: Mark 6:14-29

Opinions About Jesus

[14] King Herod heard of it; for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work with Him." [15] But others said, "It is Elijah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." [16] But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."

John the Baptist Beheaded

[17] For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; because he had married her. [18] For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." [19] And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, [20] for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. [21] But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. [22] For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will grant it." [23] And he said to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom." [24] And she went out, and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptizer." [25] And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptizer on a platter." [26] And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oath and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. [27] And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave him orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in prison, [28] and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. [29] When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
_______________________

Commentary:

14. Following the popular custom, St. Mark called Herod "king", but in strict legal terminology he was only tetrarch, which is the way St. Matthew (14:1) and St. Luke (9:7) describe him, that is, a governor of certain consequence. The Herod referred to here was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great who was king of the Jews at the time of Jesus' birth.

16-29. It is interesting that the extensive account of the death of John the Baptist is inserted here in the Gospel narrative. The reason is St. John the Baptist's special relevance in the history of salvation: he is the Precursor, entrusted with the task of preparing the way for the Messiah. Besides, John the Baptist had a great reputation among the people: they believed him to be a prophet (Mark 11:32); some even thought he was the Messiah (Luke 3:15; John 1:20); and they flocked to him from many places (Mark 1:5). Jesus Himself said: "Among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). Later, the Apostle St. John will speak of him in the Gospel: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John" (John 1:6); but the sacred text points out that, despite this, he was not the light, but rather the witness to the light (John 5:35). We are told here that he was a righteous man and preached to everyone what had to be preached: he had a word for people at large, for publicans, for soldiers (Luke 3:10-14); for Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7-12); for King Herod himself (Mark 6: 18-20). This humble, upright and austere man paid with his life for the witness he bore to Jesus the Messiah (John 1:29 and 36-37).

26. Oaths and promises immoral in content should never be made, and, if made, should never be kept. This is the teaching of the Church, which is summed up in the "St. Pius X Catechism", 383, in the following way: "Are we obliged to keep oaths we have sworn to do unjust and unlawful things? Not only are we not obliged: we sin by making such oaths, for they are prohibited by the Law of God or of the Church.
_______________________

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Pope hints at change of leader for Jesuits

"St Jack" Danforth and the Bullies in the Pulpit

John Danforth Says It's Time the GOP Center Took On The Christian Right

I think he means he wants everyone to take on Christianity in general...

Danforth is no squalling liberal. He is a lifelong Republican. And his own political history shows he is no milquetoast.
. . .
A man of God and the GOP, he is speaking out for moderation -- in religion, politics, science and government.

Moderation as in spreading his distortions on embryonic stell cell research and cloning? The murder of innocent human life? This is a man of God! Which God is that? Unfortunately, he is more than terribly confused and, worse, he's spreading his diseased and reprehensible "ethics" all over the Missouri landscape.

The combative voice of the Southern Baptist Convention and confidant of White House political guru Karl Rove has little use for Danforth, however grand his religious and political pedigrees. He describes the former senator as "what was wrong with the Republican Party and why they were a minority party."

Perhaps he'd rather see all parties becomes parties of death?

One morning last spring, as he walked with his wife, Sally, in Palm Springs, Calif., where they are building a house, his dismay with the Republican Party turned to dissent.

The trigger was the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead Florida woman whose husband wanted to disconnect her from life support. Schiavo's parents fought to keep her alive, backed by prominent Christian conservatives, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

"If you turned on Fox News, you would hear relentless talking heads talking about, 'They're killing Terri!' and 'This is murder!' " Danforth says, recalling the campaign to remove the case from Florida courts that had ruled she should be allowed to die. "I thought, 'This is not what the Republican Party does. The only explanation for it was an effort to appease the Christian right.' "

Opposing the wilful murder of Terria Schiavo by dehydration and starvation at the behest of her "former husband" was an appeasement to the Christian Right? Not that trying to stop murder is the right and moral thing to do...

I recently heard a priest say that what was criminal a generation ago has now become legal in many areas, though it is still entirely demented and immoral. So many seem to have lost the ability to properly distinguish betwwen right and wrong.

Danforth saw the Schiavo case as meshing with the right's opposition to gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.

"I think a marriage is between a man and a woman, but it's beyond me how the whole thing has become so politicized and people have become so energized by it. Because, what difference does it make? How does it constitute a defense of marriage to legislate in this area?"

Is it no wonder his denomination is rotting from within? Having abandoned the moral high ground (if, in fact, he was ever there), he slides into the abyss of darkness and slavery, embracing the culture of death in order to be seen as wise and moderate.

In Missouri, where Danforth won five statewide elections, a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage passed overwhelmingly last year. Yet he believes most people would say no if asked, "Do you believe we should just be nasty and humiliate people and degrade them because of sexual orientation?"

What a politician, twisting facts into lies, virtues into vices, good into evil and vice versa...

"What is the thinking behind saying that we should criminalize research that can prevent Parkinson's or juvenile diabetes?" Danforth asks. "We should criminalize research because we want to save cells in a petri dish that will never be implanted in a uterus and never become people?"

It's criminal because it's immoral - it's wrong...but he just doesn't get it...

I heard a lady on the radio this morning talking about a petition gatherer outside the Wentzville Post Office. He asked the lady to sign a petition to save the lives of the unborn. After she read it, she discovered it was the "Life Saving Cures" stem cell research petition to get it placed on the November ballot. She was livid, having been lied to, as anyone of a sound mind should be.

After the cops arrived, it was discovered that the petition gatherer was an ex felon, brought in from Michigan or some northern state to work for the group seeking to clone and murder persons in the initial stages of development. What a group - and "St. Jack" is the spokesman!

John Danforth and his cronies seeking patents for destroying life are in need of mega-prayers. Needful as well are the people of Missouri! Who, in his right mind, wants the state to permit experimentation that replicates that behavior of the Nazi scientists?

The The Washington Post article is here.

In St Louis, women live contemplative life as Poor Clares

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- It's hard to imagine young women of today choosing a life of enclosure, silence and prayer. But three happy, healthy young women -- all in their 20s -- are now in formation at the Monastery of St. Clare in St. Louis.

More at CNS

Bad Habits: Can We Correct Liturgical Abuse in Religious Communities?

by The Rev. Vincent Capuano, SJ

I have a dilemma and some questions I wish someone would help me with. This article does not attempt to answer questions so much as to pose them. Nonetheless, I will, toward the end of the article, suggest some tentative solutions. Let me explain the situation that I am in and why I set myself to the task of writing this essay.

Good Article at Adoremus

I guess this means it's official...

Other Pontifical Acts
On this Date
The Holy Father:
- Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of Detroit, U.S.A., presented by Thomas J. Gumbleton, upon having reached the age limit.

Let's not forget to pray for him in his retirement!

St. Louis, Dallas churches seek dismissal of sex suit

Attorneys for the St. Louis Archdiocese and the Dallas Diocese said Wednesday that their clients could not be held legally responsible for the actions of a priest accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in here in 1984.

Spokane Diocese offers settlement in abuse case

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane has offered a $45.7 million settlement to 75 people who say they were molested by priests.

Bishop William Skylstad publicly apologized Wednesday to the victims "for the terrible wrongs inflicted on you in the past." He urged Catholics to accept the proposed settlement.

Rebellion Brewing in Belleville?

About half the priests of the Catholic diocese of Belleville descended on a little brick parish hall here Wednesday to talk about mutiny.

The meeting, at St. Barbara Parish Center, followed a similar gathering in December at which the clergymen vented their frustrations with Bishop Edward K. Braxton.

More here...

Gospel for Feb 2, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

From: Luke 2:22-40

The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

[22] And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they (Joseph and Mary) brought Him (Jesus) up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord [23] (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") [24] and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons."

Simeon's Prophecy

[25] Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. [26] And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. [27] And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, [28] he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, [29] "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; [30] for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation [31] which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, [32] a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory to Thy people Israel."

[33] And His father and His mother marvelled at what was said about Him; [34] and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His mother, "Behold this child is set for the fall the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against [35] (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

Anna's Prophecy

[36] And there was a prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Ahser; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, [37] and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day. [38] And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of Him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

The Childhood of Jesus

[39] And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. [40] And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him.
_____________________
Commentary:

22-24. The Holy Family goes up to Jerusalem to fulfill the prescriptions of the Law of Moses--the purification of the mother and the presentation and then redemption or buying back of the first-born. According to Leviticus 12:2-8, a woman who bore a child was unclean. The period of legal impurity ended, in the case of a mother of a male child, after forty days, with a rite of purification. Mary most holy, ever-virgin, was exempt from these precepts of the Law, because she conceived without intercourse, nor did Christ's birth undo the virginal integrity of His Mother. However, she chose to submit herself to the Law, although she was under no obligation to do so.

"Through this example, foolish child, won't you learn to fulfill the holy Law of God, regardless of personal sacrifice?
"Purification! You and I certainly do need purification. Atonement and, more than atonement, Love. Love as a searing iron to cauterize our soul's uncleanness, and as a fire to kindle with divine flames the wretchedness of our hearts" ([St] J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", Fourth Joyful Mystery).

Also, in Exodus 13:2, 12-13 it is indicated that every first-born male belongs to God and must be set apart for the Lord, that is, dedicated to the service of God. However, once divine worship was reserved to the tribe of Levi, first-born who did not belong to that tribe were not dedicated to God's service, and to show that they continued to be God's special property, a rite of redemption was performed.

The Law also laid down that the Israelites should offer in sacrifice some lesser victim--for example, a lamb or, if they were poor, a pair of doves or two pigeons. Our Lord, who "though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), chose to have a poor man's offering made on His behalf.

25-32. Simeon, who is described as a righteous and devout man, obedient to God's will, addresses himself to our Lord as a vassal or loyal servant who, having kept watch all his life in expectation of the coming of his Lord, sees that this moment has "now" come, the moment that explains his whole life. When he takes the Child in his arms, he learns, not through any reasoning process but through a special grace from God, that this Child is the promised Messiah, the Consolation of Israel, the Light of the nations.

Simeon's canticle (verses 29-32) is also a prophecy. It consists of two stanzas: the first (verses 29-30) is an act of thanksgiving to God, filled with profound joy for having seen the Messiah. The second (verses 31-32) is more obviously prophetic and extols the divine blessings which the Messiah is bringing to Israel and to all men. The canticle highlights the fact that Christ brings redemption to all men without exception--something foretold in many Old Testament prophecies (cf. Genesis 22:18; Isaiah 2:6; 42:6; 60:3; Psalm 28:2).

It is easy to realize how extremely happy Simeon was--given that many patriarchs, prophets and kings of Israel had yearned to see the Messiah, yet did not see Him, whereas he now held Him in his arms (cf. Luke 10:24; 1 Peter 1:10).

33. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph marvelled not because they did not know who Christ was; they were in awe at the way God was revealing Him. Once again they teach us to contemplate the mysteries involved in the birth of Christ.

34-35. After Simeon blesses them, the Holy Spirit moves him to further prophecy about the Child's future and His Mother's. His words become clearer in the light of our Lord's life and death.

Jesus came to bring salvation to all men, yet He will be a sign of contradiction because some people will obstinately reject Him--and for this reason He will be their ruin. But for those who accept Him with faith Jesus will be their salvation, freeing them from sin in this life and raising them up to eternal life.

The words Simeon addresses to Mary announce that she will be intimately linked with her Son's redemptive work. The sword indicates that Mary will have a share in her Son's sufferings; hers will be an unspeakable pain which pierces her soul. Our Lord suffered on the cross for our sins, and it is those sins which forge the sword of Mary's pain. Therefore, we have a duty to atone not only to God but also to His Mother, who is our Mother too.

The last words of the prophecy, "that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed", link up with verse 34: uprightness or perversity will be demonstrated by whether one accepts or rejects Christ.

36-38. Anna's testimony is very similar to Simeon's; like him, she too has been awaiting the coming of the Messiah her whole life long, in faithful service of God, and she too is rewarded with the joy of seeing Him. "She spoke of Him," that is, of the Child--praising God in her prayer and exhorting others to believe that this Child is the Messiah.

Thus, the birth of Christ was revealed by three kinds of witnesses in three different ways--first, by the shepherds, after the angel's announcement; second, by the Magi, who were guided by a star; third, by Simeon and Anna, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

All who, like Simeon and Anna, persevere in piety and in the service of God, no matter how insignificant their lives seem in men's eyes, become instruments the Holy Spirit uses to make Christ known to other. In His plan of redemption God avails of these simple souls to do much good to all mankind.

39. Before their return to Nazareth, St. Matthew tells us (2:13-23), the Holy Family fled to Egypt where they stayed for some time.

40. "Our Lord Jesus Christ as a child, that is, as one clothed in the fragility of human nature, had to grow and become stronger but as the eternal Word of God He had no need to become stronger or to grow. Hence He is rightly described as full of wisdom and grace" (St. Bede, "In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, in loc.").
____________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Cardinal Newman Society Campaign Against Offensive “Monologues” Achieves Results

MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, United States, February 1, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Five Catholic universities have stated they will not permit the Vagina Monologues to be presented on campus, and four more say the play won’t appear, after a campaign by the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) to stop performances of the offensive production on Catholic campuses.

More

Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Candlemas Day

Tomorrow Evening, 7 p.m. At St. Francis de Sales Oratory
Blessing of the candles, Procession and High Mass.

What is this festival?
T is the festival on which the Church venerates the humility and obedience of Mary who, though not subject to the law of Moses, which required purification and presentation in the temple, yet subjected herself to it. From this comes the name Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. It is also called Candlemas, because before Mass on this day the candles used in divine service are blessed and carried in procession.


Why are the candles blessed on this day and carried in procession?
In remembrance of the presentation of Jesus to His Heavenly Father on this day, when the aged Simeon called Him: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of the people of Israel, (Luke II. 32.) and to remind us that, like the five wise virgins, we should go to meet Christ with the light of faith and good works.

With what intention are candles blessed?
With the intention of obtaining from God by their pious use and the prayers of those who devoutly carry them, health of body and soul; that our hearts, through the doctrine of Jesus and the grace of the Holy Ghost, may be interiorly enlightened; and that the fire of the love of God may be kindled in our hearts, purify them from all remains of sin, and make us partakers in the joyous light of heaven, which will never be extinguished.

From The Church's Year by Rev. Leonard Goffine

*** Special Notice ***
Women for Faith & Family has an excellent page devoted to this special feast (Presentation of the Lord) here.

From the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
120. Until 1969, the ancient feast of the presentation of Our Lord, which is of Oriental origin, was known in the West as the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, and closed the Christmas season, forty days after the Lord's birth. This feast has for long been associated with many popular devotional exercises.

NBC at it again...

SPECIAL ALERT! NBC to mock the Crucifixion of Christ
NBC, fresh from giving us the anti-Christian The Book of Daniel , has decided to hit back at the Christian community by presenting an episode of Will and Grace which mocks the crucifixion of Christ.

On the April 13 edition of NBC's Will and Grace , Britney Spears will appear as a Christian conservative sidekick to Sean Hayes' homosexual character, Jack, who hosts his own talk show.

Jack's fictional network, Out TV, is bought by a Christian TV network, leading to Spears contributing a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's." To further denigrate Christianity, NBC chose to air it the night before Good Friday.

Click Here to read the Associated Press article.

NBC does not treat Jews, Muslims or other religions with such disrespect. Yet the network demonstrates a deep of hostility toward followers of Christ.

More Here

Catholic Culture: Liberal Diplomacy and the Church

An excerpt:

Let the diplomacy begin.

The MC [Magisterium of the Church] states its case regarding the dignity of the human person both as an individual and vis-à-vis his participation in human relationships. MC clearly states that its teachings on these matters have been carefully considered, and that on the issues of contraception, abortion, and homosexuality there is no wiggle room, and therefore these issues must be set aside, to be excluded from future debate. ALCM [American Liberal Catholic Movement] makes indignant noise. The presence of the Pope makes them nervous. They want to be unspeakably rude to him, as they are frequently behind his back, but just can’t bring themselves to do it.

USCCB encourages further openness in dialogue, explaining that if everybody doesn’t get to have “their say”, the emotional consequences could be disastrous. The USCCB offers the idea that perhaps pro-abortion politicians might still be permitted to receive communion, thereby allowing the administering official to avoid the embarrassment of denying communion to a pillar of the community. MC says that it remains committed to examining the issue, and that bishops should make responsible decisions on a case-by-case basis. USCCB feels that it has made an incredible triumph in diplomacy. They have already made the decision that public heretics should be allowed to receive communion. MC is feeling that its position at the table has been undercut to a certain extent, and feels that maybe it isn’t getting the support from USCCB that it had expected.

Good read...

Vatican Cardinal: "We are realizing the worst prophecies of aging and demographic implosion"

Looking to move to Washington DC? Pro-life office space available right now....

Are you a conservative political group looking for affordable office space right in the heart of Washington DC? If so, call me; I may have what you are looking for.

The Culture of Life Foundation holds the lease on an entire floor of a small K Street office building (we are only a few blocks from the White House), and we have an immediate opening. One office is available right now and the cost is quite affordable; $750 per month including utilities and high-speed internet access. The office that is opening up is perfect for one person, but can also fit two.

You will join five other like-minded groups that work on a variety of issues but mostly social conservative issues (life and family).

This office is a perfect way for your group to put your toe into the Washington DC policy scene.

If you are interested, please call me at 202-289-2500.

Best regards,
Austin Ruse
President
Culture of Life Foundation
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute

Spreading the word...

Deacon Fournier Disassociates With TCR

Attached is my public statement concerning my decision to disassociate from Traditional Catholic Reflections and Reports (http://www.tcrnews2.com) over its decision to call for the impeachment of the President and certain members of his cabinet today.
. . .
Sadly, this recent decision of Traditional Catholic Reflections and Reports, without having any discussion with its regular contributors, to endorse the impeachment of the President and his cabinet, has caused me great distress. As of last week, I was still listed as a contributing editor of TCR on the masthead. A decision to disband the group of contributing editors, for various reasons, was made only last weekend. Thus, I understand that you had no strict obligation to consult with me or any other party who formerly held that position. However, in the public eye I am still associated with TCR’s editorial opinions and decisions.

I had quit reading TCR a few years ago...Good for Deacon Fournier.

Congressional Letter Calls on NIH to Address Abortion, Depression Link

There is a dearth of information about the effects of abortion on women. Abortion advocates are against gathering any scientific data that might cast abortion in a negative light. We report today on yet another call in the US House to initiate a longitudinal study that will explore abortion and depression. This is certainly a reasonable proposal.

A recent letter from a House subcommittee to the National Institutes of Health reveals a new strategy in the fight to get the scientific community to address the question of abortion and depression. The letter presents the findings of a recent study out of New Zealand recently reported in Culture & Cosmos that shows a strong link between abortion and poor mental health and asks the director of the NIH to address the study's findings with US research.

2006 Catholic Blog Awards - are now open for nomination!

The Rules
1. All Blogs nominated must be primarily Catholic in nature.
2. Please do not nominate someone repeatedly for the same category.
3. Please also restrict nominations to one person per category.
4. It is possible to vote for a blog in more than one category.
5. For a Blog to be nominated for the "Best New Blog" Category it must have been created since last years' awards.
6. For a blog to be nominated, it must have been active since last year's awards. Blogs that have been active in the past year but have now closed are eligibile to be nominated
7. I have requested that your name and email address be submitted on the form. I will keep this information confidential. If your name or e-mail address is missing, your nomination will not be accepted. Thanks and happy nominating!!!

Nominating will end on Friday, February 3, 2006 at 3:00 PM CST

Link

Kentucky diocese agrees to one of largest settlements in sex abuse cases

LOUISVILLE, KY.

A judge approved a settlement of up to $85 million Tuesday between sexual abuse victims and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, one of the largest deals the church has reached with American parishioners who were molested by clergy.

The settlement covers 361 victims who claim they were abused over a period of 50 years by priests in a diocese that once included 57 counties across a large swath of Kentucky. Special Judge John Potter said a desire by the Covington Diocese to make reparations to the victims contributed to the settlement.

"Contrary to what might be the case in other dioceses, the court believes that this professed desire is genuine and played a significant role in the diocese's decision," Potter wrote in his 15-page ruling.

More...

Suspicions confirmed...World not coming to an end...

Each local area Journal has its own editorial staff person(s) to separate the "wheat from the chaff" (so to speak ) with respect to local news items...This gem comes from the Oakville-Mehlville Journal:

Catholics cutting back

ARCHBISHOP BURKE, STICK to religious issues, not finances. Well educated, unbiased parishioners in St. Louis are capable of being good stewards of their own parish assets. Without more laity control and input, we're forced to reduce contributions. Other than paying for specific parish services and making donations to individual charities, we'll not continue to give you the opportunity to spend our cash and you can bank on that.

Sounds like a really proud, congregationalist to me...And I'll bet it's an empty threat as well. It just seems to me that most people who have this kind of attitude probably would not be contributing to the Archdiocese anyway...

But then...further on...:

Judge not…..

I AM AMAZED almost weekly by the Town Talk callers who show their abysmal ignorance about the Catholic church's beliefs, teachings, history and government and offer commentary and advice upon all things Catholic. My suggestion is those sterling Christians consider Matthew 7:1-5 before engaging to correct the presumed shortcomings of others.

Two in One Day?....

...It's more than amazing. I did look outside to see if there were any signs of an alien invasion or the end of the world...

Defending Burke

Archbishop Burke is a courageous shepherd who is challenging St. Louis Catholics to be obedient to the tenets of the Catholic Church. On every important issue, he speaks the truth in humble simplicity. I support him each day with prayers in the hope this St. Stanislaus controversy will be resolved. Listen to him.

Two links from the Post, both of which include favorable comments regarding Archbishop Burke. I'm not certain but this may be a "first"...I wonder if the reason might be that these are from the Chesterfield edition of the Post?

Sometimes a Blind Squirrel Can Find an Acorn

I'm surprised that this even made it into the Post Dispatch.

Rules and traditions

Any good family has rules and traditions. Some rules help the family run smoother. Other rules are for the protection of the children and to help them grow. Some children decide they don't like the rules and aren't going to follow them. Eventually they may even choose to move out rather than comply.

The Catholic Church operates as the family of God. Archbishop Raymond Burke, as the good father, has informed the members of St. Stanislaus over and over again what the rules are. He did not excommunicate the members of St. Stanislaus. They chose to excommunicate themselves. They have chosen on their own to no longer be members of the Roman Catholic Church and start their own church, thus becoming one of the 30,000 Protestant sects.

Archbishop Burke is saddened and so am I to lose these brothers and sisters. It is about obedience, not money, and always has been.

Jean O'Brien
Kirkwood

Great letter!

God Called Him to the Priesthood and He Answered

Today in the Post there is a very short article of a priest of 42 years, Fr Ferdinand J. Wesloh, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace in House Springs.

"I'm not afraid to walk down the street with my priest's collar on, unlike some people," Wesloh said. "I'm living the life I know I'm supposed to live as a spiritual man."
. . .
Wesloh said he became a priest partly due to the example set by other priests and the encouragement from his parents, but ultimately because he felt a calling from God.

And he responded to God's call by saying yes.

Pray that more men open their hearts and minds to the call of our Lord. And pray for those whom He has chosen and who have responded by dedicating their lives to the service of our Lord and His Church.

Latin returning to Mass

More and more Catholics are longing for Latin, the language of scholars, Gregorian chant and the Mass.

Some say it's all part of the general trend back to the classics of Western civilization. All the Rev. Franklyn McAfee knows is that when he announced earlier this month he was starting up free Latin classes on Saturday mornings at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, more than 70 parishioners packed the first session.

One parishioner, former federal Judge Robert Bork, a recent convert to Catholicism, got there early to ensure himself a seat in front of Marion Smedberg, a Latin instructor from Reston.
. . .
"People want to connect with the richness of the tradition of the church. But many priests are not well-versed enough to celebrate a Mass in Latin, and it takes a lot of work to introduce Latin to people."

Continued here...

Good and Evil

"Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is com­forted, and thou art tormented."-Luke 16:25

The words of my text, brethren, point to a fact which has at all times been a trial and a perplexity to man. For Jesus, in the parable of the Rich Man, tells us how Abraham, speaking to that lost soul, says: "Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and like­wise Lazarus evil things." Now, this is our perplexing trial - those who live in evil, before our eyes, receive the good things of life - the wealth, and comfort, and ease of mind and body; and likewise the good and patient servants of God receive the evil things of life - poverty, sickness, distress.

Malefactors and evildoers still live among us, selfish and hard­handed as of old, and nevertheless clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day, and at the end borne in splendour to the grave; while Lazarus is still the outcast, despite his long-suffering and resignation to his lot; still refused the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table; still a beggar in life, and laid, at the end, in a pauper's grave. Or rather, as if to perplex us more, there is no such exact division of evil to the good, and good to the evil - this might be its own explanation; but there is what seems an absolute want of all order or rule in the division of goods and ills; those seeking to do good being here in good and there in evil plight, the evil doers being now rewarded and now punished.

It is a confusion that we seek in vain to arrange to our satisfaction. Our temptation is to give up all idea of there being a just Providence at all, and to set down this medley to the haphazard action of fate, or "luck," as we call it. And all the stronger does this temptation grow when in our own lives we see that the same confusion exists - our best and holiest years being often most full of trials, and our unfaithful and ungenerous, and even sinful years being, perhaps, our happiest and most prosperous.

I appeal to you, dear friends, has not this been your own sore trial? Has not the Tempter shown you, at times, the kingdoms of the world, and the lives of men, and the stretch of your own years, and said: "See this confusion of goods and ills; see these wicked lifted up, these holy ones cast down; see your own sinfulness prospering and your justice come to nothing: fall down and adore Fortune, Fate, Luck, or whatever you choose to call me, but cease to believe in a Providence that is nowhere evident on earth, or in a God that gives His good gifts and His punishments without justice, heedless of merit or demerit"?

I say, has not the Tempter sometimes whispered to you thus his horrible interpretation of the difficulty? and ought you not to listen gladly now to God's interpreta­tion, to the answer His Holy Spirit has given to this perplexing question? Let us then, for a few moments, strive to understand the answer of the Scripture, that we may strengthen our faith against all such attacks, and out of the very reasons of the Enemy make firm our loving trust in the Providence of God.

Dear brethren, you may have remarked that there are many things in the material world around us that appear to be in confusion and without any order or arrangement from some points of view, while from other positions they are seen to be symmetrical and even beautiful. You may have been in a forest, perhaps, where, when you are walking in one direction, tho trees are irregular, and planted, it would seem, without any reference to one another; but turn right or left and you will see that they stand in absolutely perfect lines, with long straight alleys between them, down which the eye ranges with delight. Or look at a stained glass window next time your in a church which has one. Seen from outside, what could be more confused, and even unsightly, than the lines upon the glass? But seen from inside all is harmonious in form and colour.

So is it with the confusion we have been wondering at in the moral world - the con­fusion in the distribution of good and evil. Looked at from man's standpoint, there seems no unravel­ing its perplexities, it shows no sign of care or Providence; but seen at the point from which God sees it - seen from the point where His Holy Spirit, not the Tempter, shows it to us, the confusion and perplexity vanish, and all is order and law, and beauty and love. That point, brethren, where out of seeming chance and injustice Providence and justice appear, is the Day of Judgment, when God will justify His ways to man.

Then the good shall be finally separated from the evil, and the sheep from the goats; then all the good shall be re­warded with good unmixed with ill, and the wicked punished with ill unmixed with good; and the confusion and perplexity of this wor1d's fates and fortunes shall then be resolved finally and simply into Heaven and Hell. This is what the Wise Man means when he writes: "God will judge the wicked man and the just man: then will be the time for everything." As much as to say, this is not the time to look at things, nor this the place. Now, and here, everything looks dis­ordered; but wait till the Judgment Day, and then will be the time to see things as God sees them, and as He wishes us to see them for ever: "then," but not until then, "will be the time for everything."

It is a thought familiar to you that this life is but a time of passage, of travelling on, unrestingly, towards a place of final biding. We read of those who in the rigors of northern latitudes are tempted to rest on their way through the snow and frost, although they know that to rest thus is certain death. And we feel, too, the terrible strength of our temptation in the journey of life to sit down and take our ease here, even at the peril of our eternal salvation. Well, now, we see that God has Himself made it hard for us so to rest. Everything around us is most unlike what we should expect in a place of rest. There is con­fusion and disorder, and pain and very great un­certainty. There is on earth no place where the soul can say to itself, Here take thy rest.

For the sunny spots, like the shifting gleams on the mountain side, move away just as we have reached them; and even if we enjoy their brightness and warmth for a moment, we have the sad certainty that the shadow of the cloud must quickly be upon us. I say God has, in allowing this confused and ever-varying distribution of the lights and shadows of life, almost obliged us to look from this to some other state where our longing for order and rest shall be satisfied. He has refused us a resting place, that He may almost force us to push on toward the "lasting city," where we shall rest in peace, or, as the Psalmist puts it, "where the saints shall be joyful in their beds." See, brethren, how the Providence of God appears exactly where we least expected to see it manifest - in that very confusion and disorder of good and evil which was our trial, and which tempted us to disbelieve in any Divine government at all.

We see, now, the hand of God in this economy of confusion, and recognize that the true unriddling of the universe is in the fact that God's day is yet to come, and that we must wait and watch for its coming. For then, and not till then, "His fan shall be in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor, and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." Then, and not till then, shall He separate both the just from the unjust, and the good things of His bounty from the evil things of His justice; and He shall then say to those on His right hand: Come, you blessed, to the kingdom of joy unmixed with sorrow; and to those upon His left: Depart, you accursed, to the place of unmitigated pain.

Dear brethren, I have said that we are forced, in a way, to look for some such final order and discrimination. What we see around us obliges us to this. Do we not see that this universe, amid apparent confusion, is, even in its minutest action, governed by law and beautified by order? Study it, in any of its parts, and you at once come to law; know it, and you at once come to love it, and this despite much that seems at first dis­ordered and unlovely. Look up to the skies at night, and remember that the confusion of those myriad stars unravels itself to the astronomer, and resolves itself into most perfect law. Look at the tiniest flower of the field. You have, perhaps, seen it a thousand times; but now take it up, examine its little leaves, its exquisite delicacy of form and color, and say do you not now love a beauty that you thought commonplace before?

Listen to that lark singing up there in the sky. You have been hearing that song, perhaps, for hours; but listen to it now. Do you find no joy, unfelt before, in that outpouring melody - some meaning lying beneath what at first seemed mean­ingless? I say that it is impossible to go into any part of nature and not to find law and beauty there waiting for us. And can it be that man, God's most perfect work, is the sole excep­tion? Can it be that in his lot alone there is no revelation of its law, but only final confusion? no unfolding of its beauty, but only utter shapeless­ness? no interpretation of its meaning, but only a riddle to the end?

No, surely not; this would be to put man lower than all creation, whereas he is higher. There is, indeed, no explanation of our chequered lot given to us here; but let us wait­ - we shall know it there. Thus let us answer the Tempter, and turn this vision of confusion against him who forces it upon our sight, by making it a vision of hope, a reminder that, like the seeming medley of the Universe, the disorder of man's lot will disappear before a wider knowledge and a purer love. "I have said in my heart: God will judge the wicked man, and the just man, and then will be the time for everything."

And, dear brethren, how foolish it is for us to think that we can, in our short space of a few years, take in the full measure of God's designs. He dwells in Eternity; He works in Eternity; His designs are from Eternity to Eternity; and man, in his moment of time, thinks he ought to see and understand all! Would even human com­mon sense brook such folly? Would a legislator allow his law code to be judged by one short clause? Would a painter allow his picture to be condemned before it was half completed? Surely, then, it were wise of us to wait until we know God's ordinance as a whole before we presume to criticise it, and until we see the completion of His design before we pronounce upon its proportion or its beauty.

Let us, as St. Augustine says, not narrow God's judgments into the little circuit of our experience, but rather expand ourselves into His eternity, where alone His full justice and beauty can be seen. And let us be further mindful that it is the privilege of the powerful to take their time. Precipitation is a sign of weakness. The weak seize upon the day, the hour, the moment, which is favorable: missing that, they lose their only chance of success. And so, as that precious moment hurries by, they must hurry to catch it. But to the strong man any moment, be it soon or late, is propitious. He can therefore wait, and bide his time in perfect independence. Far more truly, then, can it be said of the Almighty that He need not hurry, that He can afford to wait. His day will come when He chooses: we cannot hurry it by our impatience. And His day will be the day of judgment, the day of justice, of final reward, and of final punishment.

We know, moreover that not only are the goods and ills of life distributed in seemingly haphazard confusion among the faithful and the unfaithful children of men, but they are also mixed in their nature; nothing, save sin, being absolutely ill, and nothing, save the will of God, being abso­lutely good. Sickness, and sorrow, and death may be converted by patience and resignation from evils into blessings; while health, and life, and prosperity may, by an ill use of them, become very real and very terrible evils. But in the end the day will come when good things shall be given to men which no ill use can turn to evil, and woes which no patience can alleviate or turn from being utterly and eternally evil. Of these three states the Psalmist sings: "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine, full of mixture; but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink."

Here, in the cup which God pours out to man, the Royal Pro­phet shows us there are three kinds of wine- the pure and strong (merum), the mixed (mixtum), and the dregs (faex). The pure wine is the wine of gladness without sorrow which He will pour out for His Saints in Heaven; the dregs He will give in bitterness unmixed, and all the sinners of the earth shall drink. The mixed - wherein the wine of gladness and the bitter dregs of sorrow are mingled together - is the draught He presents to all, saints and sinners, in this life. Let us, then, when we taste in its sweetness the bitterness of its dregs, remember that the pure wine is yet to be presented to us, if we be faithful, and the dregs, if we be unfaithful. And let us remember, too, that we have no right to expect unmixed joy here; that such belongs to a future day; and, moreover, that no evil is given to us here by God but He has tempered it with good, and given us the power to taste that sweetness even in our bitterest affliction.

Surely, brethren, thoughts such as these should go far towards removing the temptation of the Evil One to doubt of the Providence of God. Surely, from the point to which the Holy Spirit has led us, we can see an order in the disorder of life, and in its confusion the evidence of a great and eternal plan. And, 0 sinner, think not any longer to find a guilty comfort in the fact that your fellow-sinners still go free and walk in pleasant ways. Be rather all the more terrified at this, now that it reminds you of the day to come, the day of final separation, and of justice without mercy.

Now, what is the practical outcome of such thoughts? You know we must not be mere philo­sophers: we must be practical Christians. Philo­sophers speculate and argue and lay down maxims and establish theories; but Christians seek to do, not merely to think, what is right. Philosophers may hold wise opinions, but Christians do wise actions. For it is not men's views that will be judged, but men's works. And so let us come to a practical conclusion. And the first very practical outcome of our contemplation of the Providence of God is this: that we can now afford to despise everything that ends with time, and that we now value only what lasts on into eternity. We have now no real hope or fear, except for what may save or ruin us on the Judgment Day.

For see how lightly we ought to think of those goods of earth, which are of so little value that the wicked share them with the just. Since God gives them indifferently to His friends and to His enemies, surely He can lay little store by them. How rightly indignant, then, He will be if we value them as much as His precious gifts to come, which are reserved for the just alone; if we mis­take, as St. Augustine says, the solace of the cap­tives for the joy of the children. And the same holy doctor reminds us that God has given to the wicked the riches and honors of this life, lest these should be overvalued by the just.

And only think for a moment. Think of the chosen people of God, the cherished people of the Jews. Look at the map of the world: see the little corner of Asia into which they were hemmed; while the Pagan Empires of the East and West held the rest of the known world. See our own poor, faithful land of Ireland: the chosen people of the Christian Church are in a little remote island washed by a lonely sea; their history is one of short glories and long trials; their name is a name of pity to the world. And proud, imperial peoples, whose hands are grasping, whose hearts are corrupt, whose faith is broken, are victorious in every clime, prosperous, educated, wealthy, and in honor. Ah, how empty, then, is all that pros­perity: how little God must value it when it is thus He gives it! How little we shall long for it, or pine over its loss, if only we hold it at the price He has set on it; and surely He knows best.

And you, dear brethren, to whom I love most to speak, you who are the special joy and crown of a Christian priest; you faithful poor, to you this lesson comes home, oh, how touchingly! How sad it were for you to lay great store by riches that you can never possess, or even by the comfort and modest independence that your hard lot prevents many of you from ever hoping to attain. How sad your humble homes would be if you were to think that real happiness dwelt only under lofty roofs, and within shapely walls, but never in the thatched cabins of the poor. Surely for you these are good tidings of great joy, that God, who knows the true value of things, ranks poverty before wealth, and has given, in this life, the lowly lot mostly to those whom He has elected for His own, and the high stations of the world very often to those who are His enemies.

Try, my dear friends, to see life thus, and you will not sadden your already sad estate by fruitless longing for what you will never have - for what, if you had it, would not make you truly happy. In your Father's Kingdom there are many mansions; into those mansions from out your huts of clay you will gladly enter, provided only that you set your hearts there, while you are suffering here. I do not ask you to put from you that longing for riches and rest so natural to the heart of man, and planted there by God. But, with the Apostle, I ask you to turn that longing to true riches, not false ones; to true and lasting homes, not crumbling ones of earth; to a rest that will know no disturb­ance, and not to the troubled and spectre-haunted repose of sinners in this world.

But the lesson is for all - both for the rich and the poor. For the poor, as we have seen, that they should not think too much of the evils that oppress them, or of the goods they are deprived of; for the rich, that, accepting thankfully from God the bounties of His hand, they should not set their hearts upon them, seeing that God gives them to those who are His enemies, and to whom He owes, even now, His direst vengeance. Riches, which make this life seem so happy at times, have their own distress and difficulty. If taken at more than their proper value, if looked at as real goods, as an end in life, as a final and supreme satisfaction, they become the heaviest of God's curses, and the most awful of His punishments here on earth, since they render penance so hard, and shut out with their deceptive veil the terrors of Eternity. Look to the end, then: at the gate of Eternity the rich and the poor, the strong and the ailing, the prosperous and the broken, will shortly (oh, how shortly!) meet.

What the past has been in regard to the goods and ills of life will matter little then and there; but it will be of awful moment what the past has to show of resignation to God's appointments, of conformity with God's will, of longing and striving for this - God's day. "Then will be the time for everything" - for everything that seemed good and pleasant, for everything that seemed evil and grievous. For then God will judge the just and the unjust, not according to their happiness or misery, but according to their works; and many that received good things in this life shall then enter into torments, and many that received evil things in this life shall enter into comfort and rest.
_________________
Adapted from...Sermons 1877-1887
by Fr Arthur Ryan
President of St. Patrick's College
Thurles, Ireland

St. Patrick's College, in 1992, ceased to be a Seminary.

Gospel for Wednesday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time

From: Mark 6:1-6

No Prophet Is Honored In His Own Country

[1] He (Jesus) went away from there and came to His own country; and His disciples followed Him. [2] And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard Him were astonished saying, "Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to Him? What mighty works are wrought by His hands! [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judah and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him. [4] And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." [5] And He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them. [6] And He marvelled because of their unbelief.
_______________________

Commentary:

1-3. Jesus is here described by His occupation and by the fact that He is the son of Mary. Does this indicate that St. Joseph is dead already? We do not know, but it is likely. In any event, the description is worth underlining: in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke we are told of the virginal conception of Jesus. St. Mark's Gospel does not deal with our Lord's infancy, but there may be an allusion here to His virginal conception and birth, in His being described as "the son of Mary."

"Joseph, caring for the Child as he had been commanded, made Jesus a craftsman, transmitting his own professional skill to him. So the neighbors of Nazareth will call Jesus both "faber" and "fabri filius": the craftsman and the son of the craftsman" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 55). This message of the Gospel reminds us that our vocation to work is not marginal to God's plans.

"The truth that by means of work man participates in the activity of God Himself, his Creator, was 'given particular prominence by Jesus Christ'--the Jesus at whom many of His first listeners in Nazareth 'were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to Him?... Is not this the carpenter?'" (Mark 6:23). For Jesus not only proclaimed but first and foremost fulfilled by His deeds the 'Gospel', the word of eternal Wisdom, that had been entrusted to Him. Therefore this was also 'the gospel of work', because 'He who proclaimed it was Himself a man of work', a craftsman like Joseph of Nazareth (cf. Matthew 13:55). And if we do not find in His words a special command to work--but rather on one occasion a prohibition against too much anxiety about work and life--(Matthew 6:25-34)--at the same time the eloquence of the life of Christ is unequivocal: He belongs to the `working world', He has appreciation and respect for human work. It can indeed be said the 'He looks with love upon human work' and the different forms that it takes, seeing in each one of these forms a particular facet of man's likeness with God, the Creator and Father" (John Paul II, "Laborem Exercens", 26).

St. Mark mentions by name a number of brothers of Jesus, and refers in general to His sisters. But the word "brother" does not necessarily mean son of the same parents. It can also indicate other degrees of relationship--cousins, nephews, etc. Thus in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14 and 16 Lot is called the brother of Abraham (translated as "kinsman" in RSV), whereas we know that he was Abraham's nephew, the son of Abraham's brother Haran. The same is true of Laban, who is called the brother of Jacob (Genesis 29:15) although he was his mother's brother (Genesis 29:15); there are other instances: cf. 1 Chronicles 23:21-22, etc. This confusion is due to the poverty of Hebrew and Aramaic language: in the absence of distinct terms, the same word, brother, is used to designate different degrees of relationship.

From other Gospel passages we know that James and Joses, who are mentioned here, were sons of Mary of Clophas (John 19:25). We know less about Judas and Simon: it seems that they are the Apostles Simon the Cananaean (Matthew 10:4) and Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16), the author of the Catholic Epistle, in which he describes himself as "brother" of James. In any event, although James, Simon and Judas are referred to as brothers of Jesus, it is nowhere said they were "sons of Mary"--which would have been the natural thing if they had been our Lord's brothers in the strict sense. Jesus always appears as an only son: to the people of Nazareth, He is "the son of Mary" (Matthew 13:55). When He was dying Jesus entrusted His mother to St. John (cf. John 19:26-27), which shows that Mary had no other children. To this is added the constant belief of the Church, which regards Mary as the ever-virgin: "a perfect virgin before, while, and forever after she gave birth" (Paul IV, "Cum Quorumdam").

5-6. Jesus worked no miracles here: not because He was unable to do so, but as punishment for the unbelief of the townspeople. God wants man to use the grace offered him, so that, by cooperating with grace, he become disposed to receive further graces. As St. Augustine neatly puts it, "He who made you without your own self, will not justify you without yourself" ("Sermon" 169).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

If it's too good to be true....

Saint Pius X Fraternity seeks to regularize its canonical status and outlines detailed plan

SSPX Reconciliation in the Works?

See the updates at Rorate Caeli

Dom Bettinelli has some info here and here.

May our Lord bless the efforts of those who seek to repair this rift and bring all into full communion with Holy Mother Church.

A Local Parish Bulletin Notice for Jan 29

The following notices appeared in this Catholic Parish bulletin (PDF file) this past Sunday - the first:

Save This Date! Friendship and Justice Fundraiser:
As American As Apple Pie is a play about being a gay youth and being a parent of a lesbian daughter or gay son. It is a production of That Uppity Theatre Company featuring local writers and actors. It will be held at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish Hall, Sunday, March 5, 2006, 3:00 PM.

Tickets sales begin February 5th. For information call Marge O’Gorman, FSM.

And this one:

Pride St. Louis cordially invites you to the 9th Annual Open House, the kick-off of Pridefest 2006, Friday, 3 February: VIP Reception - 6:30 -7:30p - Announcements - 7:30 - 8:30p - Dance - 8:30 - 10:00p - Appetizers -Beverages-Silent Auction - Millennium Hotel’s Grand Ballroom, 200 South 4th Street, 314-24-9500. Info: 314-772-8888 or via the web at www.pridestl.org

That Uppity Theatre Company website was down/unavailable today, however Google's cache had this about the play As American As Apple Pie:

Copyright West End Word Vol. 33, No. 20, May 19-25, 2004
By Kara Beightel

Defining the newest project by That Uppity Theatre Company proves difficult to do. It’s not a play in the traditional sense, nor is it a collection of monologues. Even those involved with the production hesitate to label it.

“It’s going to be an experience unlike a typical play. I mean, how often do you get apple pie with a play?” says Joan Lipkin, artistic director for Uppity. She says she considers it as more of an event than a play, “a gathering of communities,” as she puts it.

But the full name for the event comes the closest to describing it — As American as Apple Pie: GLBT Youth and PFLAG Parents Act Out: A Happening Featuring Performance, Conversation and Apple Pie. The production, running May 22 and 23 at the Contemporary Art Museum, consists of a combination of pieces put together and performed by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual members of Growing American Youth and the Metro St. Louis Chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

The happening is unprecedented in St. Louis. As far as Lipkin can recall, it is the first original theater project involving gay youth and it is definitely the first to combine the perspectives of parents and gay teenagers — the age span of the dozen members is 50 years, the youngest being a 14-year-old lesbian who came out last year.

The piece is executive produced by Lipkin, but she says it has been developed through an unusual process of collaboration. The material was created by the participants based on topics of their own choosing. Lipkin and Sarah Shimchick, a graduate student from Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work, then worked with one or more of the teenagers to dramaturge individual pieces. Andrew Schneider, a GAY participant and sophomore at the Webster University Theatre Conservatory, co-directed some of the pieces.

The pieces cover a wide variety of subjects, spanning from various forms of harassment experienced by the teens to the pride and respect the PFLAG parents have in their children.

All of the GLBT youth involved have been harassed in one way or another, Lipkin says. The common experience ended up being a section of the event, while others are more lighthearted, such as a look at gay media icons.
“One kid thought that if he was gay, he had to act like Jack from Will & Grace,” Lipkin says. “He acted like that until one day he just stopped and said, ‘Wait a minute, I’m a computer nerd. I like sports. This isn’t me.’”

Audience members, she says, will be both familiar and surprised with what they see and hear. “We played with the format of how it’s presented. You can expect the unexpected, but not feel uncomfortable,” she adds cryptically.

The production was not an easy one to put together, combining the experiences of two very different perspectives. But it was something Lipkin felt was crucial to the production and to the GLBT community.

“Both groups do extremely important work from different angles,” Lipkin says. Lipkin contacted PFLAG and GAY in September 2003 after creating “The Louie Project,” an ensemble for gay men in the St. Louis area. Earlier this year, the groups began working on Apple Pie.

“I happen to believe that virtually anyone can make interesting art by asking interesting questions and then finding an aesthetic framework for that expression,” Lipkin says.

Using that idea as a foundation for Apple Pie, Lipkin enlisted all of the 12 participants to help write the script based on their own experiences.
“One of the gifts we’re offering is the gift of vulnerability,” says PFLAG parent and Apple Pie participant Anne Kelsey. “These are our stories.”

Lipkin used a wide variety of techniques to draw the stories out of both groups.
“A lot of times, I’d ask, ‘What’s on your mind?’ and we’d go from there,” Lipkin says. Other sessions, particularly with the GLBT kids, involved story circles and timed writing sessions, which Lipkin says helped avoid the “English paper syndrome.” “The language for the stage is different than language for the page. I wanted to make sure they sounded like themselves.”

Although the participants wrote their own experiences into the script, they don’t necessarily play themselves — or even caricatures of themselves — in the performance. Several of the events proved difficult to portray as oneself, so other members of GAY or PFLAG stepped in to “play the part.”

“Some of the issues the kids raised were important enough to be in the show, but they weren’t comfortable doing themselves because they were too autobiographical, so we massaged the material to fit another person,” Lipkin says, citing pieces about HIV and self-mutilation as examples. “What’s important is that all the stories are true and all the feelings are real. It doesn’t matter whose story is whose.”

GAY member and Apple Pie participant Dan Rea says that stepping in was natural for the GLBT youth.

“There were many stories that are very personal, but we’re all friends here and we all share in the experience,” Rea says.

Even though he and many other GAY members are bogged down with finishing school (Rea is a senior at Parkway South High School and planning on attending the University of Kansas in the fall), the production is something they needed to see through, despite the heavy workload.

“It hasn’t been easy, especially with keeping up with my senior year at school,” Rea says. “It’s been exciting, a little nerve-wracking, but generally it’s been a positive, good experience.”

But the workload didn’t just fall on the kids; the PFLAG parents had their own share of work and both groups were at the mercy of Lipkin, who ran separate creative sessions for both groups. Keeping the groups separate was important to Lipkin, who theorized that the presence of parents would inhibit the teens’ creativity and vice versa. At press time, the two groups had not yet rehearsed together, although all parties have read the entire script.

According to PFLAG Chapter President and Apple Pie participant Dean Rosen, Lipkin was very demanding in her role as producer for the event, although he insists that she was demanding in a nice way.

“She was very adept at getting us to write about moments in our lives. She made us dig deep,” he says, offering as an example the painstaking moment when she asked the parents to write about their own prom experiences and sexual awakenings, a subject the parents had difficulty with simply because “we didn’t want to go there.”

It was perhaps moments like these that made finding PFLAG volunteers difficult — Rosen was only able to scrounge up three mothers and himself to participate in Apple Pie — although Rosen feels it might have to do with the difficulties each parent has faced with having a GLBT child, including facing the fact that staying out of the spotlight isn’t the right way to bring about change for the GLBT community.

While Rosen tried to convince his now 25-year-old son to lay low and not draw attention to himself in high school, Rosen’s son tried to make himself as visibly gay to the public as possible, even taking a same-sex date to the prom, an event that appears in Apple Pie.

“He wanted to change the world by being visible,” Rosen says. “After a while, it made sense to me that you needed to be visible. He got more respect for being himself.”

Gaining respect for the GLBT community is a key mission for GAY, PFLAG and the Apple Pie project. All three groups hope the production will result in heightened understanding of and support for GLBT youths.

As the PFLAG St. Louis Chapter president since 1999, Rosen says he feels that Lipkin’s work with “The Louie Project,” in which his son sang a song about a PFLAG mom, and Apple Pie wholly embraces one of the missions of PFLAG — to educate the public about GLBT youth, in this case through the telling of experiences.

“Telling stories is transforming for the teller and the listener,” Rosen says. “I’m thrilled to be a part of such a phenomenal process.”

“The whole reason we’re doing As American as Apple Pie is because there are a lot of dangerous and unfortunate sentiments circulating right now that are trivializing the rights of GLBT people,” Lipkin says. “This piece is made to reframe that these youths and families of youths are as American as apple pie and to help people see the humanity of the other.

“They’re kids. They’re gay kids, but they’re kids.”

Lipkin also hopes that Apple Pie will inspire other groups to create other theatrical opportunities for the GLBT youth community. Because, despite the fact that the labor-intensive production received funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the event will never happen again, at least not in its current inception.

“Sometimes in St. Louis, people wait to see a show or play to see what a friend says about it. This will never be back in this configuration because some of these kids are graduating and going away to college,” Lipkin says.

That Uppity Theatre Company has set up an information hotline for As American as Apple Pie at 995-4600. Show times are at 7:30 p.m. May 22 and 3:30 p.m. May 23. Both performances are at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd.

For more information about That Uppity Theatre Company, please e-mail us at Director@UppityCo.com

All materials on this Web site are copyright
That Uppity Theatre Company © 1996-2005

The Conference of Catholic Lesbians lists the following as Lesbian & Gay-Friendly Parishes in the St. Louis Area:
St. Cronan's, St. Margaret of Scotland --St. Louis

The infamous St. Bernadette Parish in Severn, Maryland lists the following Gay Friendly Parishes in the St Louis Area:

St. Cronan - St. Louis
Holy Family - St. Louis
Holy Innocents - St. Louis
St. Margaret of Scotland - St. Louis
St. Pius V - St. Louis

Posted as a Public Service...

Bishop Braxton resolute in moving priest

Parishioners fail to persuade bishop

East St. Louis parishioners are preparing to say goodbye to their spiritual leader of the past 30 years after Bishop Edward K. Braxton rejected petitions for the Rev. James Voelker to remain at St. Joseph.

Voelker, 62, will be reassigned in the Belleville Diocese before his parish merges with three others -- St. Patrick, St. Philip, St. John Francis Regis -- to form St. Augustine of Hippo in March. The Rev. Carroll Mizicko, a Franciscan who lives in East St. Louis, was named pastor of the church.

Parishioners had rallied behind Voelker and asked Braxton to let their pastor serve in the new parish, possibly as an associate pastor to Mizicko. Braxton sent a letter in response that said the priest shortage in the diocese required Voelker be reassigned to "a parish that urgently needs a priest." Braxton could not be reached for further comment.

Schiavo-Centonze Marriage At Risk

Some Catholics are calling it premeditated murder.

Many are calling for the removal of St. Petersburg Diocese Bishop Robert N. Lynch for allowing the ceremony to occur in the diocese. It could be the latest scandal in the Catholic church---at least in the Diocese of St. Petersburg.
. . .
In order for the marriage to be valid, the Rev. Robert J. Schneider, pastor of Espiritu Santo Catholic Church, should have taken steps to contact Pope Benedict and had the impediment of crimen dispensed. If he did not do so, he authorized an invalid union which was further exacerbated by sanctioning of church officials.

The church is part of the Diocese of St. Petersburg of which the Most Robert N. Lynch is bishop. Although Lynch was Terri's bishop, he stood by silent while she was forcibly starved to death----after she struggled to declare that she wanted to live. Bishop Lynch issued a statement directly at odds with church teaching that food and water is basic sustenance and cannot be withheld by private choice.

Just days before Terri died last March 31, Lynch left the country. However, he left a statement posted on the Diocese website before Easter in which he didn't seem particularly concerned about the death decree issued and that it was against the official position of the Vatican and the Pope. Lynch's position was contrary to the official Vatican position. Bishop Lynch's position was also directly contrary to "the teaching of the Pope" who had written that food and water is not extraordinary support for life and that it cannot morally be withheld from a dying or incapacitated person.

Scandals would not be new to the St. Petersburg Diocese or to Bishop Robert Lynch. The Diocese has spent more than $1 million in recent years to settle sexual abuse claims. Lynch told the public that all sexual abuse claims have been covered by insurance underwriters or the diocese's insurance reserves.

Bishop Lynch has remained in office after disclosure that the diocese paid $100,000 to a former aide who claimed Lynch had sexually harassed him.
. . .
Despite being Terri's bishop, Lynch never made an appeal for her life and in fact, issued a statement asking the public and Catholics not to castigate Greer for his death position, virtually endorsing Greer's decision to end Terri's life.
http://www.dioceseofstpete.org/news.php?NID=9
June Maxam 1-29-06
© 2005 North Country Gazette

The entire article can be read here...

Sweeping anti-abortion laws proposed

Legislators in at least five states are proposing bold anti-abortion measures as the Bush administration reshapes the U.S. Supreme Court, a report said.
With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman's right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman's life is in danger, Stateline.org reported.

More...

Senate Confirms Alito to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON - Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. became the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, confirmed with the most partisan victory in modern history after a fierce battle over the future direction of the high court.

The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito — a former federal appellate judge, U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration from New Jersey — as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on the court.

Yahoo News!

Gay Seminar Upsets Parents: Governor's School's seminar called 'The New Gay Teenager'

RALEIGH — Parents of a student who attended a taxpayer-funded summer educational institute are upset that the program included, without their prior knowledge, a seminar that promoted homosexuality.

Jim and Beverly Burrows say their son returned home from last year’s Governor’s School “confused” about homosexuality as a result of the seminar, and that they have had to seek family counseling.

“We feel that this was totally inappropriate for the students who were 15, 16, and 17 years old,” the Burrowses wrote to officials at the State Departament of Public Instruction. “We feel that our rights as parents have been violated by this program.”

Rights? In this 'new' age where the people are to accept every form of sexual deviance as a good, the State wishes to abolish rights and replace them with warped obligations. The State, influenced by those who are agent provocateurs of the devil himself, wishes that we embrace evil as good.

The Burrowses also said the two staff members who led the seminar were both homosexuals who encouraged the students to remain active in promoting the issue. They said both instructors encouraged students to start gay and lesbian clubs at their schools after the students returned to their homes. The Burrowses also alleged that students were “taught in their classes to question and not believe what they had been taught by their parents all these years.” They said their son was told that the Bible was not true, was filled with inconsistencies, and did not apply to society today.

Separation of Church and State? Not applicable...Homosexuality is good, hedonism is good, sexual deviance is good, immorality is good...Parents, virtues, religion, the Bible are all bad...Apparently there is nothing of a sexual nature that is bad, except that which concerns or includes chastity.

And all of this at taxpayers' expense...

“Regardless of gender of person and partner, if an early sexual contact is not abusive or coercive, then it likely has a positive impact on adolescent and adult sexual arousal, pleasure, satisfaction, and acceptance of various sexual behaviors for self and others,” Savin-Williams wrote."

These people are sick and demented...and they hold positions of influence...And this is in North Carolina. It is expected from the states of Massachusetts and Kalifornia and others...May God have mercy on us!

Papal Message for Lent 2006

VATICAN CITY, JAN 31, 2006 (VIS) - Made public today was The Message of Benedict XVI for Lent 2006. The text, dated September 29, 2005, has as its title a verse taken from the Gospel of St. Mark: "Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity." The full English-language version of the document is given below:

"Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.

"Even in the 'valley of darkness' of which the Psalmist speaks, while the tempter prompts us to despair or to place a vain hope in the work of our own hands, God is there to guard us and sustain us. Yes, even today the Lord hears the cry of the multitudes longing for joy, peace, and love. As in every age, they feel abandoned. Yet, even in the desolation of misery, loneliness, violence and hunger that indiscriminately afflict children, adults, and the elderly, God does not allow darkness to prevail.

"In fact, in the words of my beloved Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, there is a 'divine limit imposed upon evil,' namely, mercy. It is with these thoughts in mind that I have chosen as my theme for this Message the Gospel text: 'Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity.'

"In this light, I would like to pause and reflect upon an issue much debated today: the question of development. Even now, the compassionate 'gaze' of Christ continues to fall upon individuals and peoples. He watches them, knowing that the divine 'plan' includes their call to salvation. Jesus knows the perils that put this plan at risk, and He is moved with pity for the crowds. He chooses to defend them from the wolves even at the cost of His own life. The gaze of Jesus embraces individuals and multitudes, and He brings them all before the Father, offering Himself as a sacrifice of expiation.

"Enlightened by this Paschal truth, the Church knows that if we are to promote development in its fullness, our own 'gaze' upon mankind has to be measured against that of Christ. In fact, it is quite impossible to separate the response to people's material and social needs from the fulfillment of the profound desires of their hearts. This has to be emphasized all the more in today's rapidly changing world, in which our responsibility towards the poor emerges with ever greater clarity and urgency. My venerable predecessor, Pope Paul VI, accurately described the scandal of underdevelopment as an outrage against humanity. In this sense, in the Encyclical 'Populorum Progressio,' he denounced 'the lack of material necessities for those who are without the minimum essential for life, the moral deficiencies of those who are mutilated by selfishness' and 'oppressive social structures, whether due to the abuses of ownership or to the abuses of power, to the exploitation of workers or to unjust transactions.'

"As the antidote to such evil, Paul VI suggested not only 'increased esteem for the dignity of others, the turning towards the spirit of poverty, cooperation for the common good, the will and desire for peace,' but also 'the acknowledgement by man of supreme values, and of God, their source and their finality'

"In this vein, the Pope went on to propose that, finally and above all, there is 'faith, a gift of God accepted by the good will of man, and unity in the charity of Christ.' Thus, the 'gaze' of Christ upon the crowd impels us to affirm the true content of this 'complete humanism' that, according to Paul VI, consists in the 'fully-rounded development of the whole man and of all men.' For this reason, the primary contribution that the Church offers to the development of mankind and peoples does not consist merely in material means or technical solutions. Rather, it involves the proclamation of the truth of Christ, Who educates consciences and teaches the authentic dignity of the person and of work; it means the promotion of a culture that truly responds to all the questions of humanity.

"In the face of the terrible challenge of poverty afflicting so much of the world's population, indifference and self-centered isolation stand in stark contrast to the 'gaze' of Christ. Fasting and almsgiving, which, together with prayer, the Church proposes in a special way during the Lenten Season, are suitable means for us to become conformed to this 'gaze.' The examples of the saints and the long history of the Church's missionary activity provide invaluable indications of the most effective ways to support development.

"Even in this era of global interdependence, it is clear that no economic, social, or political project can replace that gift of self to another through which charity is expressed. Those who act according to the logic of the Gospel live the faith as friendship with God Incarnate and, like Him, bear the burden of the material and spiritual needs of their neighbors. They see it as an inexhaustible mystery, worthy of infinite care and attention. They know that he who does not give God gives too little; as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta frequently observed, the worst poverty is not to know Christ. Therefore, we must help others to find God in the merciful face of Christ. Without this perspective, civilization lacks a solid foundation.

"Thanks to men and women obedient to the Holy Spirit, many forms of charitable work intended to promote development have arisen in the Church: hospitals, universities, professional formation schools, and small businesses. Such initiatives demonstrate the genuine humanitarian concern of those moved by the Gospel message, far in advance of other forms of social welfare. These charitable activities point out the way to achieve a globalization that is focused upon the true good of mankind and, hence, the path towards authentic peace.

"Moved like Jesus with compassion for the crowds, the Church today considers it her duty to ask political leaders and those with economic and financial power to promote development based on respect for the dignity of every man and woman. An important litmus test for the success of their efforts is religious liberty, understood not simply as the freedom to proclaim and celebrate Christ, but also the opportunity to contribute to the building of a world enlivened by charity. These efforts have to include a recognition of the central role of authentic religious values in responding to man's deepest concerns, and in supplying the ethical motivation for his personal and social responsibilities. These are the criteria by which Christians should assess the political programs of their leaders.

"We cannot ignore the fact that many mistakes have been made in the course of history by those who claimed to be disciples of Jesus. Very often, when having to address grave problems, they have thought that they should first improve this world and only afterwards turn their minds to the next. The temptation was to believe that, in the face of urgent needs, the first imperative was to change external structures. The consequence, for some, was that Christianity became a kind of moralism, 'believing' was replaced with 'doing.' Rightly, therefore, my Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory, observed: 'The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-science of well-being. In our heavily secularized world, a gradual secularization of salvation has taken place, so that people strive for the good of man, but man who is truncated.We know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation.'

"It is this integral salvation that Lent puts before us, pointing towards the victory of Christ over every evil that oppresses us. In turning to the Divine Master, in being converted to Him, in experiencing His mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we will discover a 'gaze' that searches us profoundly and gives new life to the crowds and to each one of us. It restores trust to those who do not succumb to skepticism, opening up before them the perspective of eternal beatitude. Throughout history, even when hate seems to prevail, the luminous testimony of His love is never lacking. To Mary, 'the living fount of hope,' we entrust our Lenten journey, so that she may lead us to her Son. I commend to her in particular the multitudes who suffer poverty and cry out for help, support, and understanding. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you a special Apostolic Blessing."
MESS/LENT 2006/... VIS 060131 (1440)

Gospel for Jan 31, Memorial: St. John Bosco, Priest

From: Mark 5:21-43

Jairus' Daughter is Restored to Life.
The Curing of the Woman With a Hemorrhage

[21] And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him; and He was beside the sea. [22] Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing Him, he fell at His feet, [23] and besought Him, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live." [24] And He went with him.

And a great crowd followed Him and thronged about Him. [25] And there was a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, [26] and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. [27] She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. [28] For she said, "If I touch even His garments, I shall be made well." [29] And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. [30] And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone forth from Him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, "Who touched My garments?" [31] And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing around You, and yet You say, `Who touched Me?'" [32] And He looked around to see who had done it. [33] But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth. [34] and He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

[35] While He was speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" [36] But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." [37] And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. [38] When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, He saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly. [39] And when He had entered, He said to them, "Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." [40] And they laughed at Him. But He put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with Him, and went in where the child was. [41] Taking her by the hand He said to her, "Talitha cumi"; which means, "Little girl, I say to you arise." [42] And immediately the girl got up and walked; for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement. [43] And He strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
_________________________

Commentary:

21-43. Both Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood give us an example of faith in Christ's omnipotence, for only a miracle can cure Jairus' daughter, who is on her death-bed, and heal this lady, who has done everything humanly possible to get better. Similarly, the Christian should always expect God to help him overcome the obstacles in the way of his sanctification. Normally, God's help comes to us in an unspectacular way, but we should not doubt that, if it is necessary for our salvation, God will again work miracles. However, we should bear in mind that what the Lord expects of us is that we should every day fulfill His will.

22. At the head of each synagogue was the archisynagogist, whose function it was to organize the meetings of the synagogue on Sabbaths and holy days, to lead the prayer and hymns and to indicate who should explain the Sacred Scripture. He was assisted in his task by a council and also had an aide who looked after the material side of things.

25. This woman suffered from an illness which implied legal impurity (Leviticus 14:25ff). Medical attention had failed to cure her; on the contrary, as the Gospel puts it so realistically, she was worse than ever. In addition to her physical suffering--which had gone on for twelve years--she suffered the shame of feeling unclean according to the Law. The Jews not only regarded a woman in this position as being impure: everything she touched became unclean as well. Therefore, in order not to be noticed by the people, the woman came up to Jesus from behind and, out of delicacy, touched only His garment. Her faith is enriched by her _expression of humility: she is conscious of being unworthy to touch our Lord. "She touched the hem of His garment, she approached Him in a spirit of faith, she believed, and she realized that she was cured [...]. So we too, if we wish to be saved, should reach out in faith to touch the garment of Christ" (St. Ambrose, "Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam", VI, 56 and 58).

30. In all that crowd pressing around Him only this woman actually touched Jesus--and she touched Him not only with her hand but with the faith she bore in her heart. St. Augustine comments: "She touches Him, the people crowd Him. Is her touching not a sign of her belief?" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 26, 3). We need contact with Jesus. We have been given no other means under Heaven by which to be saved (cf. Acts 4:12). When we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we obtain this physical contact through the sacramental species. We too need to enliven our faith if these encounters with our Lord are to redound to our salvation (cf. Matthew 13:58).

37. Jesus did not want more than these three Apostles to be present: three was the number of witnesses laid down by the Law (Deuteronomy 19:15). "For Jesus, being humble, never acted in an ostentatious way (Theophilactus, "Enarratio In Evangelium Marci, in loc."). Besides these were the three disciples closest to Jesus: later, only they will be with Him at the Transfiguration (cf. 9:2) and at His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. 14:33).

39. Jesus' words are in contrast with those of the ruler's servants; they say: "Your daughter is dead"; whereas He says: "She is not dead but sleeping". "To men's eyes she was dead, she could not be awoken; in God's eyes she was sleeping, for her soul was alive and was subject to God's power, and her body was resting, awaiting the Resurrection. Hence the custom which arose among Christians of referring to the dead, whom we know will rise again, as those who are asleep" (St. Bede, "In Marci Evangelium Expositio, in loc."). What Jesus says shows us that, for God, death is only a kind of sleep, for He can awaken anyone from the dead whenever He wishes. The same happens with the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus says: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him out of sleep." And, when the disciples think that it is ordinary sleep He is referring to, our Lord tells them plainly: "Lazarus is dead" (cf. John 11:11ff).

40-42. Like all the Gospel miracles the raising of the daughter of Jairus demonstrates Christ's divinity. Only God can work miracles; sometimes He does them in a direct way, sometimes by using created things as a medium. The exclusively divine character of miracles--especially the miracle of raising the dead--is noticed in the Old Testament: "The Lord wills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1 Samuel 2:6), because He has "power over life and death" (Wisdom 16:13). And also in the Old Testament God uses men to raise the dead to life: the prophet Elijah revives the son of the widow of Sarepta by "crying to the Lord" (cf. 1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha prevails on Him to raise the son of the Shunammite (2 Kings 4:33).

In the same way, in the New Testament the Apostles do not act by their own power but by that of Jesus to whom they first offer fervent prayer: Peter restores to life a Christian woman of Joppa named Tabitha (Acts 9:36ff); and Paul, in Troas, brings Eutychus back to life after he falls from a high window (Acts 20:7ff). Jesus does not refer to any superior power; His authority is sovereign: all He has to do is give the order and the daughter of Jairus is brought back to life; this shows that He is God.
_______________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Contrite Cardinal George Offers Answers

Somberly, in a voice tempered by pain and contrition, Cardinal Francis George for more than an hour Saturday afternoon answered questions from reporters for the first time about the Rev. Daniel McCormack, a Chicago priest who was charged last week with sexually abusing two boys.

“The sins of priests and bishops destroy the church,” George said quietly, his eyes cast down at the podium standing between him and phalanx of reporters at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago’s Pastoral Center on East Superior. “That is what we’re seeing.”

More...

Inquisition was a mistake but legally justified, claims Vatican official

The Rev Joseph Di Noia, the Under-secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, admits in a television series starting tonight that the use of torture and public burnings were "mistakes".

But the American-born cleric argues that these methods of suppressing heresy were explicable in the context of the times, when people believed passionately in heaven and hell.

More here...

The Difference between Teachers and Educators

Some may have seen this before...Received via email this morning.

===========
According to a news report, a certain private school in Markham, OH was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom.

That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Several memos were posted about this - all having no effect. Finally the Principal decided that something had to be done.

She called all the girls to the bathroom & met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls just how hard it the mirrors were to clean.

Following his instructions, the maintenance man took out a long-handled squeegee, solemnly dipped it in the nearest toilet bowl, and scrubbed at the mirror.

There was complete silence in the room.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.


There are Teachers... and then there are Educators.

Italian Cardinal Condemns EU Resolution on Homosexuals

ROME, January 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Italian prelate, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope’s Vicar for Rome, yesterday condemned a recent resolution passed by the European Union on homosexuals and same-sex “marriage,” calling the measure “profoundly wrong and full of negative consequences,” according to a Catholic Universe report.

Read more at LifeSiteNews

Jimmy Akin on Heaven, Hell, And . . . Anti-Purgatory?

Man signs voter registration as 'God'

READING, Pa. (AP) - One registered Republican won't be able to vote in the next election unless he appears at a Berks County Elections Board to explain the signature on his registration form. The man is registered as Paul S. Sewell, but his form is signed "God."

Sewell, 40, said he will be happy to explain. As the owner of a bail enforcement agency, he finds fugitives, he said. "Whenever I go to arrest somebody, they say, 'Oh, God, give me another chance. Oh, God, let me go. I'll turn myself in tomorrow,'" Sewell said.

Source

Vatican may have found late pope's 'miracle'

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- The Vatican may have found the "miracle" they need to put the late Pope John Paul II one step closer to sainthood -- the medically inexplicable healing of a French nun with the same Parkinson's disease that afflicted him. . .Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Catholic Church official in charge of promoting the cause to declare the late pope a saint of the Church,...said the "relatively young" nun, whom he said he could not identify for now, was inexplicably cured of Parkinson's after praying to John Paul after his death last April 2.

Reasons abound for pro-life movement’s lack of minorities

When reading the article be prepared for the onslaught of the term "anti-abortion" rather than "pro-life". Besides the headline, the term "pro-life" was used a total of 4 times - and these were from the quotes of individuals.

Yet Ron Harris, Post Dispatch Washington Correspondent, (or the Post, itself), showing it's true pro-death stance, uses the term "anti-abortion" some 14 times. Not once did I see the term "anti-life".

"For many African-Americans, the pro-life movement is perceived as a white, Republican, conservative movement," said the Rev. John Ensor, who heads the minority outreach effort Heartbeat from his office in Boston. "And that group is on the wrong side of the civil rights movement."

As if the other party is on the "right" side of the civil rights movement?

There may be something of value in the article here. It is, to be sure, a good example of an article with a largely pro-death, anti-life slant.

My Response to Comments from "Tommy Bach"?

Once again, a particular individual has left comments that undoubtedly need to be addressed clearly and fairly. For what it is worth, the first comment (dated Jan 26) was listed with an address from Wittenberg University in Springfield Ohio, an Evangelical Lutheran School.

Not surprisingly, "the university was created by a group of pastors who broke with the German church and created the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio. They believed that the English language was a way to foster the inclusiveness of the new American nation." (Source, Wittenberg, Founding)

The second comment (dated Jan 28) originated from a source in St Louis, some distance from Springfield Ohio...There are two possibilities: 1) Tommy came to St Louis for the weekend and posted from here, or 2) someone in St. Louis has decided to post using Tommy's name...For those who are inclined to engage in such practices, you should be aware that each comment includes the IP Address of the source computer.

Anyway, on with the comments/questions. Since Prodigal Son did not respond to the comment (my suggestion), I felt that this latest "episode" needed to be addressed to clear up any questions raised, especially by the 2nd comment...

----- 1st Comment -----

Please do not cloud my comments with Anonymous. I put my name on my comments for a reason, so that you may adress me directly. Even so, if you know the other to be irrational and false, why do you fuel eachother? You each attack instead of work for understanding.

Having said that i have more questions.

In regard to the word excommunication, it seems that it is just a tool the church uses to blackmail the layity. How can man deprive someone of God’s saving grace? Not even Hitler was excommunicated. Is the church telling me that the actions of the board members of St. Stanislaus were/are worse then the actions of Hitler? Or was Hitler not excommunicated because he had nothing that the church wanted?

Tommy Bach | Email | Homepage | 01.26.06 - 4:07 pm | #

------------------------------------

It is fallacious to suggest that excommunication is a tool to "blackmail" the laity. Such a suggestion demonstrates a fundamental error in using sound reasoning. So then, what is "excommunication"?

Excommunication is an ecclesiastical censure by which one is more or less excluded from communion with the faithful. It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with formal solemnities on persons notoriously obstinate to reconciliation.

Two basic forms of excommunication are legislated by the Code of Canon Law, namely inflicted penalties (ferendae sententiae) and automatic penalties (latae sententiae).

In the first type, a penalty does not bind until after it has been imposed on the guilty party. In the second type, the excommunication is incurred by the very commission of the offense, if the law or precept expressly determines this (Canon 1314).

Most excommunications are of the second type. Among others identified by the new Code are the following:

"An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs automatic excommunication" (Canon 1364).
"A person who throws away the consecrated species or takes them or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose incurs an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See" (Canon 1367).
"A confessor who directly violates the seal of confession incurs an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See" (Canon 1388).
"A person who procures a successful abortion incurs an automatic excommunication" (Canon 1398).

There are three principal effects of this penalty, so that an excommunicated person is forbidden:

* to have any ministerial participation in celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice or in any other ceremonies whatsoever of public worship
* to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals and to receive the sacraments
* to discharge any ecclesiastical offices, ministries or functions whatsoever, or to place acts of governance" (Canon 1331).

From Fr. John Hardon's Pocket Catholic Dictionary

"How can man deprive someone of God’s saving grace?" Man deprives himself of this grace everyday. We can see the very first instance of man doing this in the Garden of Eden...And millenia later, man continues to reject God, His laws, His vicars on earth, his parents, his superiors and so by continuing to engage is disobedience and actions contrary to God's will, he incurs a loss of the life of God's grace.

The attempt to inject Hitler into the discussion will not be addressed, at least by me, since it is so absurdly ridiculous.


----- 2nd Comment -----

why have my comments been ignored? Doesn't someone get payed to respond? Where does the money come from that those who run the site get payed with? Isn't it the same money we (the faithful) donate at church each sunday? We (the same faithful) supply for your livelyhood. You work for God but that does not mean you my lord that fact over those who work, to make money, to GIVE to you. If you are occupied with other taskes, then tell who payes you that your service as an insulting fire fueling blog author is a waste of time. Help some one. The reason that I do donate is so people in a possision to help have the resorces to help. What do I see in the news and on t.v.? No where do i see oppurtunities to help or support our fellow men and women but rather Archbishop Burke's pride crusade and how much damage it has done to my faith in you.

Tommy Bach | Email | Homepage | 01.28.06 - 5:15 pm | #

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This comment is vaguely reminiscent of past comments. The insination that there is some sort of financial tie to the Archdiocese is misleading and suggests something which is not quite true. I cannot state for the record that there is not a financial tie to the Archdiocese for, indeed, there is one. I admit that I do contribute to the Archdiocesan Collections and to particular apostolates within the Archdiocese. So the fact that money changes hands - from my hand to others within the Archdiocese - demonstrates, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is a financial tie between me and the Archdiocese. By a certain stretch, then, one might conclude a tie between my blog and the Archdiocese, but that would be quite a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...

And, if I recall correctly, similar statements were made by "PolishSTL" (and others) both here and at another site - but then, I would need to verify these to be certain.

Now to the questions, insinuations, and other comments:

1. Regarding the delay in the response, one of the questions has been answered above.

2. Does someone get paid to answer questions? Yes! By the St Stanislaus Board of Directors! And since I haven't been paid yet, I reluctant to respond.

All joking aside, there is no payment of any kind received. As a matter of fact, it costs money and time to do this...Perhaps, if charity can prevail in my heart, God may bestow His blessings on part of the work and on those who help.

3. Any money used to pay for the costs associated for the site comes from my pocket, through the generosity of God. No monetary donations of any kind have ever been sought. The only donations that I willingly seek and accept are articles and stories related in same way to the Catholic Church, Christianity, the promotion and defense of the Faith, etc.

4. Aren't Sunday collections used to pay for this and for my salary? You can't be serious?

5. If you find some things on the blog a little too "hot" for you, maybe there is a reason for that? Perhaps, rather than attack the messenger, you might wish to take a closer look at the message? Sometimes our Lord places before us things which we see negatively or things which we might find repulsive. If one has a will conformed to the will of God, one will see these things in a different light.

6. If you consider the blog a waste of your time, I am a bit perplexed then why you would spend so much time going over it?

7. You state that you see little or nothing on TV or in the news of the Church's attempts to aid those in need...Why do you look there? Do you expect to receive the truth or good news from the media? Have you called any of the various agencies of the Archdiocese to find out what they are doing or what you can do to help or assist?

8. You speak ill of Archbishop Burke when you state publicly that he is engaged in his own "pride crusade"...At the very minimum, this is a rash judgment on your part...The assertion is false and attempts to perpetuate false claims such as this are wrong.

I hope this short response will be satisfactory for the time being. I apologize that I can't spend more time on it at the present but I will try to help if I can when I am not so pressed with other matters.

The Keys of Forgiveness: The Loving Power of the Successor of Peter

Saint Peter’s Basilica turns 500 years old. Art historian Timothy Verdon explains the message conveyed by the stones and images of the Rome of the popes

by Sandro Magister

Gospel for Monday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time

From: Mark 5:1-20

The Gerasene Demoniac

[1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. [2] And when He (Jesus) had come out of the boat, there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, [3] who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; [4] for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. [5] Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones. [6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped Him; [7] and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me." [8] For He had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" [9] And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." [10] And he begged Him eagerly not to send them out of the country. [11] Now a great herd of swine is feeding there on the hillside; [12] and they begged Him, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them." [13] So, He gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. [14] The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came to see Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. [16] And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood. [18] And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him. [19] But He refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you." [20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marvelled.
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Commentary:

1-20. The inhabitants of Gerasa were mostly pagans, as one can gather from the fact that there was such a huge herd of swine there (which must have belonged to a number of different people). Jews were forbidden to raise pigs or eat pork (Leviticus 11:7).

This miracle emphasizes, once more, the existence of the devil and his influence over men's lives: if God permits it, the devil can harm not only humans but also animals. When Christ allows the demons to enter the swine, the malice of the demons becomes obvious: they are tormented at not being able to do men harm and therefore they ask Christ to let them, at least, inflict themselves on animals. This He does, in order to show that they would have the same effect on men as they have on these swine, if God did not prevent them.

Clearly it was not Jesus' intention to punish the owners of the swine by the loss of the herd: since they were pagans that were not subject to the precepts of the Jewish law. Rather, the death of the swine is visible proof that the demon has gone out of the possessed man.

Jesus permitted the loss of some material goods because these were of infinitely less value than the spiritual good involved in the cure of the possessed man.

15-20. Notice the different attitudes to Jesus Christ: the Gerasenes beg Him to go away; the man freed from the devil wants to stay with Him and follow Him. The inhabitants of Gerasa have had our Lord near them, they have seen His divine powers, but they are very self-centered: all they can think about is the material damage they have suffered through the loss of the herd; they do not realize the marvel Jesus has worked. Christ has invited them and offered them His grace but they do not respond: they reject Him. The man who has been cured wants to follow Jesus with the rest of His disciples but our Lord refuses; instead He gives him a task which shows Christ's unlimited compassion for all men, even for those who reject Him: the man is to stay in Gerasa and proclaim to the whole neighborhood what the Lord has done for him. Perhaps they will think again and realize who He is who has visited them, and escape from the sins their greed has led them to commit. These two attitudes are to be found whenever Christ passes by--as are Jesus' mercy and continuous offer of grace: our Lord does not want the death of the sinner but rather that he should turn from his way and live. (cf. Ezekiel 18:23).

20. The "Decapolis" or "country of the ten cities", among the more famous of which are Damascus, Philadelphia, Scythopolis, Gadara, Pella and Gerasa. The region was located to the east of the lake of Gennesaret and was inhabited mainly by pagans of Greek and Syrian origin. This territory came under the Roman governor of Syria.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Alter Christus - "Sancti Estote"

Meditations for Priests

Our monthly recollections must provide us with thoughts and reflections that spur us on to renewed fervor and gen­erosity. One rich mine of such considerations is Pius Xl's Encyclical on the Catholic Priesthood (1935). All papal encyclicals are most valuable sources of sure doctrine and authoritative guidance; but this one is of paramount im­portance for us. If Pius XI could write, a little before his death, that he considered this encyclical as "the most important document of his Pontificate", we should treasure it up as a precious legacy, and revert now and then to its salutary lessons. Let us do so in this and in the next few recollections...

Today we shall dwell on the main idea of the whole encyclical, developed at length in its opening pages: the necessity of holiness in the priest because of his sublime dignity.

DIGNITY OF THE PRIESTHOOD

"Sic nos existimet homo ut ministros Christi et dispen­satores mysteriorum Dei." These telling words of St Paul open for us an endless vista on the dignity of the priest. He is chosen by Christ to be His representative and instrument, to act in His name and by His power, to continue the work of His Redemption by administering the Sacraments which He has instituted, by bringing to individual souls the graces He merited for them on the Cross.

See the priest's power over the real Body of Christ: 'Hoc est corpus meum'; over Christ's Mystical Body: from the baptismal font to the 'In paradisum deducant te . . . ' in the pulpit, at the Communion-rails, and - most strikingly - ­in the confessional: "Ego te absolvo. . . ". Truly then the priest is an alter Christus !

And for this sublime mission the priest is set apart, con­secrated by holy Church: that, in her name, he may give to God the supreme cult of adoration, praise and expiation, by the holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by assiduous participa­tion in her liturgical prayer; that he may intercede with God for all her children, those yet outside her fold too, to obtain for them graces of salvation and sanctification...Truly, again, like Christ, a mediator between God and man!

* Such is the priest's dignity, such is my dignity. Do I live in the habitual consciousness of this?

First, in a profound sense of gratitude and happiness. What greater gift, what nobler vocation could God have given me ?

When­ever I think of my priesthood, the "Magnificat" ought to well up from my heart; and it should be my answer to all temptations of discouragement, of weariness, of dissatis­faction.

Secondly, in a spirit of sincere humility. Pride may easily come to men of high position in the world; but to a priest, who has a sense of realities, his sublime elevation can only evoke proportionately deep feelings of humility. Let me never forget from what abyss of unworthiness God's mercy has raised me on high: "De stercore erigens pau­perem."

Thirdly, in a never-relaxed solicitude to avoid in my conduct anything unworthy of so high a call: "Non inferamus crimen gloriae nostrae", and to spread, at all times and in all places, "the good odor of Christ" whose ambassador I am.

CORRESPONDING NEED OF HOLINESS

"So holy an office demands holiness of life in him who holds it." This is the theme which Pius XI develops and stresses as the obvious corollary of the dignity of the priest­hood. Testimonies from Scripture, the Fathers, St Thomas, Canon Law and the Ritual, all echo God's injunction to the chosen tribe of Priests and Levites: "sancti estote".

Those ideas are familiar to us from the dawn of one's priesthood. They stimulated us to fervor then. Do they now? In the course of time have we not come to look upon them as a mere theoretical ideal, which no doubt still commands our assent but is now quite beyond the practical scope of our daily life? ...

Many causes may bring this about: discouragement at the difficulties of sustained fervor; the growing pressure of external works to the detriment of our interior life; contamination by the world's spirit of false freedom; a falling off in piety, which saps our loftier aspirations and sets us coldly calculating the extent of our strict obligations...

Whatever the cause, alas for the priest who loses sight of the holiness required of him and gets embedded in the rut of spiritual mediocrity! What an anomaly and a tragedy: he­ does not show forth the Christ whom he represents; he shares the sacerdotal powers of Christ but not the feelings of His Sacred Heart; the dispenser, the almoner, of God's graces, he himself is sadly deficient in them; a preacher of divine truths, by his life at variance with his teaching he "pulls down with one hand what he builds up with the other"; light of the world and salt of the earth by vocation, in reality no vivifying power radiates from his person, perhaps he is a deterrent rather than a help to the faith of his flock...

May such priests be stirred to renewed fervor: "Admoneo te ut resuscites gratiam Dei quae in te est per impositionem manuum... "
* How do I stand in my desire and pursuit of holiness?

Am I sincerely bent upon it and striving earnestly after it, renewing my determination every night in my examen of conscience?

Do I pray every day, explicitly, for priestly holiness? And do I ask the laity to pray for all priest and religious?

Do I reflect seriously at times, in meditations and spiritual readings, on my strict obligation to tend to perfection?

Do I keep up courage and confidence, even in the midst of my weakness, by the intimate conviction of God's special graces for His chosen ones: "Fidelis Deus per quem vocati estis"?

Do I seek for holiness at its source, in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who so longs to communicate His sacerdotal sanctity to His priest: "I" (cf. John 17:6-19) ?

"You are the salt of the earth":
Woe to the salt if it become insipid. . .
"You are the light of the world. . .
So let your light shine that men...may glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 5:13-16)
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Adapted from Alter Christus, Meditations for Priests by F.X. L'Hoir, S.J. (1958)
Meditation 2.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood.

Abortion rights groups say battle being lost

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - In Wichita, Kansas, abortion rights supporters held a "chili for choice" fund-raising dinner. In Pierre, South Dakota, they plotted strategy in the "Back Alley" meeting hall. And in Minneapolis, volunteers led women past protesters into an abortion clinic.
. . .
So on Thursday they paid $25 a head to eat chili in Wichita, Kansas. On Sunday they showed a film and talked about strategy in Pierre, South Dakota. And every Saturday, they escort women into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minneapolis.

"It's a mystery to me how we've elected such right-wing lawmakers who are trying to keep government off our backs, but apparently don't mind putting government in our bedrooms," said Thelma Underberg, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota. "I think it is time to get active and push the pendulum back the other way."

Article here...

Who’s a heretic or an apostate, and what’s a schism?

St Louis Review
January 27, 2006
Who’s a heretic or an apostate, and what’s a schism?
by Father Joseph L. Parisi
--------------------------------

‘Dear Father’

I have heard the terms "heresy," "apostasy" and "schism" used in describing people and beliefs not in agreement with our Catholic faith, but I suspect that those terms are often used incorrectly. What are their proper definitions?

Answers here...

Pope Benedict XVI: No Love, No Consecrated Life

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).

Love is the only key to understanding a life given completely to God, said Benedict XVI on the eve of the World Day of Consecrated Life. . .(Continued)...

If you have neglected becoming a member...

...of The Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas... as recommended back in April of 2004, the society is still accepting members...

You can sign up here.

Tim Drake Writes about "Excommunication in St. Louis"

What first began as a parish property dispute in northwest St. Louis has led to excommunication for the six members of the board of directors of the civil corporation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish and the diocesan priest whom they hired. In a column written in the December 16 issue of the archdiocesan newspaper, St. Louis Review, Archbishop Raymond Burke declared that the board and the suspended priest were in schism and therefore incurred the penalty of excommunication.

Tim Drake is the author of Young and Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow’s Church (Sophia Institute Press, 2004). He serves as staff writer with the National Catholic Register and Faith and Family Magazine. He writes from Saint Cloud, Minnesota.

(This article originally appeared in the National Catholic Register.)

The complete article is here...

Gospel for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Mark 1:21-28

Jesus in the Synagogue of Capernaum

[21] And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. [22] And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. [23] And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; [24] and he cried out, "What have You to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of God." [25] But Jesus rebuked him saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" [26] And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. [27] And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching! With authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." [28] And at once His fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
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Commentary:

21. "Synagogue" means meeting, assembly, community. It was--and is--used by the Jews to describe the place where they met to hear the Scriptures read, and to pray. Synagogues seem to have originated in the social gatherings of the Jews during their exile in Babylon, but this phenomenon did not spread until much later. In our Lord's time there were synagogues, in Palestine, in every city and town of any importance; and, outside Palestine, wherever the Jewish community was large enough. The synagogue consisted mainly of a rectangular room built in such a way that those attending were facing Jerusalem when seated. There was a rostrum or pulpit from which Sacred Scripture was read and explained.

22. Here we can see how Jesus showed His authority to teach. Even when He took Scripture as His basis--as in the Sermon on the Mount--He was different from other teachers, for He spoke in His own name: "But I say to you" (Matthew 7:28-29). Our Lord speaks about the mysteries of God, and about human relationships; He teaches in a simple and authoritative way because He speaks of what He knows and testifies to what He has seen (John 3:11). The scribes also taught the people, St. Bede comments, about what is written in Moses and the prophets; but Jesus preached to them as God and Lord of Moses himself (St. Bede, "In Marci Evangelium Expositio"). Moreover, first He does and then He preaches (Acts 1:1)--not like the scribes who teach and do not do (Matthew 23:1-5).

23-26. The Gospels give us many accounts of miraculous cures, among the most outstanding of which are those of people possessed by the devil. Victory over the unclean spirit, as the devil is usually described, is a clear sign that God's salvation has come: by overcoming the Evil One, Jesus shows that He is the Messiah, the Savior, more powerful than the demons: "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out" (John 12:31). Throughout the Gospel we see many accounts of this continuous and successful struggle of our Lord against the devil.

As time goes on the devil's opposition to Jesus becomes ever clearer; in the wilderness it is hidden and subtle; it is noticeable and violent in the case of possessed people; and radical and total during the Passion, the devil's "hour and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53). And Jesus' victory also becomes ever clearer, until He triumphs completely by rising from the dead.

The devil is called unclean, St. John Chrysostom says, because of his impiety and withdrawal from God. In some ways he does recognize Christ's holiness, but this knowledge is not accompanied by charity. In addition to the historical fact of this cure, we can also see, in this possessed man, those sinners who must be converted to God and freed from the slavery to sin and the devil. They may have to struggle for a long time but victory will come: the Evil One is powerless against Christ (cf. note on Matthew 12:22-24).

27. The same authority that Jesus showed in His teaching (1:22) is now to be seen in His actions. His will is His command: He has no need of long prayers or incantations. Jesus' words and actions already have a divine power which provokes wonder and fear in those who hear and see Him.

Jesus continues to impress people in this way (Mark 2:12; 5:20-42; 7:37; 15:39; Luke 19:48; John 7:46). Jesus of Nazareth is the long-awaited Savior. He knows this Himself and He lets it be known by His actions and by His words; according to the gospel accounts (Mark 1:38-39; 2:10-11; 4:39) there is complete continuity and consistency between what He says and He does. As Vatican II teaches ("Dei Verbum", 2) Revelation is realized by deeds and words intimately connected with each other: the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them; the deeds confirm the teaching. In this way Jesus progressively reveals the mystery of His Person: first the people sense His exceptional authority; later on, the Apostles, enlightened by God's grace, recognize the deepest source of this authority: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.