Pope: U.S. faces threats to religious freedom of ‘unprecedented gravity’

ROME, Italy, August 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI is warning that the United States is facing threats of “unprecedented gravity” to religious freedom.

In a letter on behalf of the pope to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone observed that “concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom.”

The comments come as the U.S. bishops campaign for religious liberty in the face of attacks such as President Obama’s HHS mandate, which requires employers to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance packages.

The bishops recently concluded their “fortnight for freedom” - two weeks of intensive “prayer, study, catechesis, and public action.” Shortly before launching the event, the bishops had reaffirmed their condemnation of the HHS mandate, nothing that the rule effectively punishes Catholic institutions for operating in the public sphere.

“Those deemed by HHS not to be ‘religious employers’ will be forced by government to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions. This is not only an injustice in itself, but it also undermines the effective proclamation of those teachings to the faithful and to the world,” they wrote....

More here

Dr Edward Peters: The pope on children's names

Dr Peters writes:

No, the pope didn’t “rail” against giving un-Christian names to babies, but he did point out, calmly and correctly, that names are important, and that the choice of a child’s name should not be left to whim or fancy. There is, though—as is so often the case with news stories about the Church—a canonical aspect to this issue.

Read the about it here.

Dr Edward Peters: A good profile essay on almost-Cardinal Burke

Dr Peters writes:

Franz Klein of the Diocese of Lacrosse has a nice spread on Archbishop, and-one-day-shy-of-being-formally Cardinal, Burke in the on-line The Catholic Times (18 Nov. 2010, page 3B). Klein offers a good overview of Burke’s typical day at the Apostolic Signatura, and of the esteem in which he is held by those concerned for the proper coordination of law and theology. The essay even features a few quotes by yours truly. So enjoy!

It's been another good week for the Church: Abp. Dolan elected president of the USCCB, Abp. Burke, among others, elevated to the College of Cardinals. Let's just remember, though, the trials of the Church in places like China, where bishops faithful to the Holy See are being forced to attend on Saturday an episcopal ordination performed in violation of 1983 CIC 1382. Think of it as two strides forward, one shove back. Oremus pro invicem.

Speaking of cardinals, I have updated my list of Cardinal Electors.

Original post here.

It's Official: Raymond *CARDINAL* Burke!!!

Pope names 24 new cardinals

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has named 24 new cardinals, including a large number of Italians, two Americans and prelates for key posts in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The new cardinals include Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly the La Crosse, Wis., bishop who now leads a Vatican court. Burke has been sharply critical of the Democratic Party in the United States for its support of abortion rights.

The pope made the announcement Wednesday, putting his mark on the body that will elect his successor.

Other key posts were Warsaw, Munich, Kinshasa, Quito, Lusaka, Zambia, and Sri Lanka.

Source

Congratulations and prayers to Archbishop Burke!

Read Archbishop Burke's statement on the announcement of the consistory for the creation of Cardinals here

Dr Edward Peters: Musings on the next Consistory

Dr Peters writes:

In the mood for some completely personal musings on an important topic that none of us have the slightest control over?

Okay, how about papal elections?

Setting aside a few variations in their modern structure, Consistories are chiefly important in that new cardinals are formally named thereat, and it's cardinals (under the age of 80) who elect popes. If Benedict XVI wants to impact the direction of the College of Cardinals, my guess is, he will do so at his next opportunity.

See why here.

Satan behind media attacks on the Pope, asserts Italian exorcist

Rome, Italy, Mar 31, 2010 / 11:47 am (CNA).- Noted Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, commented this week that the recent defamatory reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially by the New York Times, was “prompted by the devil.”

Speaking to News Mediaset in Italy, the 85-year-old exorcist noted that the devil is behind “the recent attacks on Pope Benedict XVI regarding some pedophilia cases.”

“There is no doubt about it. Because he is a marvelous Pope and worthy successor to John Paul II, it is clear that the devil wants to ‘grab hold’ of him.”...

Continued here.

143 Years of Papal Documents in One Click [Chiesa]

The Vatican has put on the web the records of the Holy See from the past century and a half, including those on the second world war and on Pius XII and the Jews.
by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 27, 2010 – For two days now, all the official records of the Holy See from 1865 to 2007 have been freely available on the internet, in pdf format, on the Vatican website:

Acta Sanctae Sedis, 1865-1908

Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1909-2007

Also available online are the twelve large volumes of the records and documents of the Holy See relative to the period of the second world war, from 1939 to 1945, the collection requested by Paul VI in 1964 and compiled between 1965 and 1981 by the Jesuit historians Pierre Blet, Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider and Robert A. Graham:

Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale

A user's guide here.

News Updates, 3/22

Pope blasts Irish bishops, orders Vatican probe
'You must answer for it before God' and Church tribunals

Ottawa archbishop lays down law on kneeling
Orders all Catholics to conform during Mass

Sheikh incites Muslims to attack Christians in Egypt
Enraged mob attacks Coptic community, hurls rocks

Egyptian police arrest 13 victims of Muslim attack
Being charged with 'illegal religious assembly'

Dr. Death tells Irish patients how to end it all
Australian suicide promoter gives tips to terminally ill

Storm stirred up over Pope's alleged failure on abuse
Ratzinger was never part of 'magic circle' of bishops

Antoni Gaudi's vision left mark on Barcelona
Pope scheduled to consecrate Sagrada Familia this year

Remains of Italian teen believed found in church
Vanished from her home town of Potenza in 1993

Anger over freeing man convicted in bishop murder
Guatemalan human rights groups expresses outrage

Dr Edward Peters: Abps. Dolan and Listecki on Holy Communion for pro-aborts

Dr Peters writes:

Archbishops Dolan of New York and Listecki of Milwaukee recently came under fire for comments they made seeming to express reluctance to withhold holy Communion from Catholic politicians under various conditions. Particularly in open-forum comment boxes (always to be taken with shovel-fulls of salt, those!), there's a lot of sky-is-falling carping against the prelates for shirking their duties, abandoning babies, betraying Pope Benedict, and so on. Hogwash.

Read why here.

Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia." ...

More here.

Lent 2010. Pope Benedict's Ash Wednesday (Chiesa)

His torment is the disappearance of faith. His program is to lead men to God. His preferred instrument is teaching. But the Vatican curia doesn't help him much. And sometimes it harms him...

Continued here

Charity, truth and justice must guide Vatican court, states Pope Benedict

[Marriage Indissoluable]

From Catholic News Agency:

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2010 / 11:21 am (CNA).- The Holy Father addressed members of the Roman Rota, the second highest Vatican court, this morning for the inauguration of the judicial year. In his message, he emphasized the importance of charity, truth and justice in guiding their work, especially as it pertains to upholding the Sacrament of Marriage.

In society today, said the Holy Father, we tend to "contrast justice with charity, almost as if the one excluded the other."

Alluding to a specific example, the Pope explained that "some people maintain that pastoral charity justifies any measures taken towards the declaration of nullity of the marriage bond."

In this case, he maintained, truth "would thus tend to be seen in a functional perspective, adapting itself to the different requirements that arise in each case.”

Pope Benedict XVI told the members of the court that they must uphold the virtue of justice and also be strong, especially "when injustice seems the easiest path to follow, in as much as it involves giving in to the desires and expectations of the parties involved, or to the conditioning of the social environment."

Neither can they neglect charity, he added, because maintaining a "charitable perspective... will help us not to forget that those before us are always people marked by problems and suffering."

And, in the cases of annulment, "whenever there seems to be hope of a successful outcome," said the Pope, they must make every effort to reunite the spouses.

Another important issue regarding justice in annulments, added the Holy Father, involves the avoidance of "pseudo-pastoral demands which place the issue on a merely horizontal plain."

These cases, he said, are typified by the attitude that the importance lies in "satisfying subjective requests in order to achieve a declaration of nullity at any cost, with the aim of overcoming, among other things, the obstacles to receiving the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist."

This, explained Pope Benedict, "would, however, be a false advantage to ease the way towards receiving the Sacraments, at the risk of causing people to live in objective contrast with the truth of their own individual state."

"Both justice and charity require love for truth... (and) without truth, charity slides into sentimentalism. Love becomes an empty shell to be filled arbitrarily. This is the fatal risk of love in a culture without truth."

"The problem arises when the essence itself of marriage becomes more or less obscured," stated the Holy Father, adding that the "examination of the conjugal bond in existential, personalist and relational terms must never be undertaken at the expense of indissolubility, an essential property which in Christian marriage has, with unity, a special firmness by virtue of the Sacrament."

"Marriage enjoys the favor of the law," concluded Benedict XVI, "Therefore, whenever there is doubt, a marriage must be held to be valid until the contrary is proven, otherwise we run the serious risk of remaining without an objective point of reference for pronouncements of nullity, transforming all conjugal difficulties into a symptom of a failed union whose essential nucleus of justice - the indissoluble bond - is thus effectively denied."

Benedict XVI: Marriage is indissoluable

CWR Round-Table: Caritas in Veritate - Web Exclusive

From The Catholic World Report:

When Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released on July 7, it sparked world-wide discussion and commentary. Catholic World Report asked a group of leading Catholic intellectuals to reflect on the encyclical, its place in the larger body of Catholic social teaching, and Pope Benedict's vision of a well-ordered and just society.

J. Brian Benestad, Francis J. Beckwith, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Richard Garnett, Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul Kengor, George Neumayr, Joseph Pearce, Tracey Rowland, Father James V. Schall, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico share their thoughts on Caritas in Veritate...

Continued here.

Pope Benedict XVI declares a "Year for Priests," June 19, 2009-June 19, 2010

Dear Lord, we pray that the Blessed Mother wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry. We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words, "Do whatever He tells you" (Jn 2:5).

May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary's most chaste spouse. May the Blessed Mother's own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross. May your priests be holy, filled with the fire of your love seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls. Amen.

St. John Vianney, pray for us.

For more information, please visit CatholicCulture here.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, The Overseer of Justice

From Inside the Vatican by Andrew Rabel, reporting from Rome:

Pope Benedict XVI one year ago ago called an American, Archbishop Raymond Burke, to head the Apostolic Signatura, the office which oversees the correct administration of justice in the Church. Here, after one year at his post, Burke discusses his work in Rome, but also the controversial shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe he established in Wisconsin, and President Obama's speech at Notre Dame...

Editor's note: Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, recently invited Andrew Rabel, Australian ITV correspondent, to a friendly lunch nearby his offices at the Palazzo della Cancelleria (photo). Never to be outdone, Andrew always carries his dictaphone with him. So the former archbishop of St Louis, with his typical graciousness, consented to an interview, despite the noise in the crowded restaurant. It is the second interview ITV has conducted with His Excellency in less than a year.

This wonderful interview can be read at Inside the Vatican here. Enjoy!

Dr Edward Peters: If Robert McElvaine hasn't violated Canon 1369, who has?

Dr Peters writes:

About a year ago, WaPo made room for Joe "the-bishops-be-damned" Feuerherd's rant against the American episcopate for its articulation of pro-life ethics in politics.

I said then that Feueherd's contempt must not be allowed to go unchecked. The US bishops let the insults pass. But now, Feuerherdian contempt has been taken to a new level by Robert McElvaine.

Read why I believe that McElvaine’s column in the Washington Post has violated Canon 1369, and why I am calling for a canonical penal process to be undertaken against him, here:

Dr Edward Peters: The Pewsitter Petition on Canon 915

Pewsitter.com has published an on-line petition by which Catholics may call upon bishops to withhold holy Communion from Catholic political figures who gravely disregard Church teaching on certain fundamental life issues. The petition invokes canon law in support of some of its propositions. I know nothing about the organization behind the petition, but I feel confident in commenting on its canonical aspects.

Dr Peters' analysis can be read here.

Pope has chosen Archbishop Timothy Dolan for New York

Rome, Italy, Feb 13, 2009 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The eagerly anticipated appointment of the new Archbishop of New York appears to be just around the corner. The well-connected Italian journalist Paolo Rodari, who writes for Il Reformista, is reporting that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee will soon be announced as the new head of the most important U.S. diocese....

Dr Edward Peters Canon Law Blog Updates

In the Light of the Law looks at what kind of charism a criminal (or a sociopath) can bequeath here...

And George Weigel calls for immediate Vatican intervention in the Legion. Read about it here.

Dr Edward Peters: Rome must take control of the Legion crisis