Pope Benedict XVI talked about the primacy intended by Jesus and recognized by the apostles. He said a spontaneous prayer so that “entrusted to poor human beings, the primacy may be always exercised in its original sense as desired by the Lord, that it may be recognized by our brothers not yet in full communion with us.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City agreed to pay more than $60,000 to a man who accused a former Mid-Missouri priest of sexual abuse. The settlement stems from an accusation against John Degnan, 81, who retired in 2001 [after 40 years of service].This isn't really news as Clohessy seems to criticize every diocese and every bishop.
The settlement was reached in October but only publicly disclosed last week by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], a victims’ advocacy group. National Director David Clohessy of St. Louis criticized the diocese for not sharing the agreement with parishioners.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a sex abuse lawsuit against the Vatican can move forward with its claim that the Holy See bears responsibility for a priest who was transferred from city to city even though he was known to be a molester.Another self-indulgent, publicity-seeking, activist judge?
[Wolf] BLITZER: So just explain. You think that you could live with -- you could support civil unions between gays and lesbians, but you wouldn't like them to get formally married, is that right?
MCCARRICK: Yes. I think -- I think basically the ideal would be that everybody was -- was able to enter a union with a man and a woman and bring children into the world and have the wonderful relationship of man and wife that is so mutually supportive and is really so much part of our society and what keeps our society together. That's the ideal.
If you can't meet that ideal, if there are people who for one reason or another just cannot do that or feel they cannot do that, then in order to protect their right to take care of each other, in order to take care of their right to have visitation in a hospital or something like that, I think that you could allow, not the ideal, but you could allow for that for a civil union.
But if you begin to fool around with the whole -- the whole nature of marriage, then you're doing something which effects the whole culture and denigrates what is so important for us. Marriage is the basic foundation of our family structure. And if we lose that, then I think we become a society that's in real trouble.
Letter to the Church of LaodiceaThe Navarre Bible commentary on these passages states, in part:
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[14] And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: [15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou were cold, or hot.
[Note on 14] "The Amen,"... that is, the true one, the Truth itself; the Word and Son of God. The beginning-- that is, the principle, the source, and the efficient cause of the whole creation.
[16] But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.
14. Laodicea was a city on the border of Phrygia, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) south-west of Philadelphia. It is also mentioned by St Paul when he suggests to the Colossians that they exchange his letter to them for the one he sent the Laodiceans (cf. Col 4:16).Perhaps, it's time for the good cardinal to go into seclusion for prayer and reflection and stay away from cameras and microphones. This way, he can avoid speaking in ways which are either contrary to that which the Church professes or, at best, so 'nuanced' as to be worthless, 'lukewarm' platitudes of ambiguity.
15-16. The prosperity Laodicea enjoyed may have contributed to the laxity and lukewarmness the church is accused of here (Israel tended to take the same direction when living was easy: the people would become forgetful of Yahweh and adopt an easy-going lifestyle: cf., e.g., Deut 31:20; 32:15; Hos 13:6; Jer 5:7).
The presence of hot springs close to the city explains the language used in this passage, which amounts to a severe indictment of lukewarmness. It shows God's repugnance for mediocrity and bourgeois living. As observed by Cassian, one of the founders of Western monasticism, lukewarmness is something that needs to be nipped in the bud: "No one should attribute his going astray to any sudden collapse, but rather [...] to his having moved away from virtue little by little, through prolonged mental laziness. That is the way bad habits gain round without one's even noticing it, and eventually lead to a sudden collapse. 'Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall' (Prov 16:18). The same thing happens with a house: it collapses one fine day due to some ancient defect in its foundation or long neglect by the occupiers" ("Collationes", VI, 17).
Spiritual lukewarmness and mediocrity are very closely related: neither is the route Christian life should take.
As Monsignor Escriva puts it, "'In medio virtus'.... Virtue is to be found in the middle, so the saying goes, warning us against extremism. But do not make the mistake of turning that advice into a euphemism to disguise your own comfort, calculation, lukewarmness, easygoingness, lack of idealism and mediocrity.
"Oh, I wish I could see him again, if only for five minutes."Someone asked her later for just what five minutes of the boy's life she would like to have him, supposing her prayer could come true. That was a difficult choice for her to make, as the boy was twenty-four years old. Would she like to see him in his sweet babyhood? Would it be the time when he started off to school? Would she like to see him again as he won honors at graduation? Perhaps she would like to see him going bravely into battle.
"I would have him as he was one day when he ran in from the yard to ask foregiveness for being naughty. He was so small and so sad. He was perspiring and crying at the same time. The tears and perspiration made streaks down his muddy face. And he fairly flew into my arms, so hard that it hurt me."To that mother the most memorable moments in the life of her son were those when he came to ask her forgiveness, those few moments when he realized that he had hurt the feelings of his loving mother by his disobedience.
"There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentance." St. Luke, 15:7.With that thought in mind we would like to consider the Confiteor of the Mass. It is a general confession of sins made by both priest and people. Humbly, publicly, contritely we admit in the sight and hearing of all that we have sinned. The Confiteor is divided into two clearly distinct parts:
"through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."Then all continue:
"Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, blessed Michael the archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, all the saints, and thee, Father, to pray to the Lord our God for me."In the past Franciscans added the name of St. Francis. The Dominicans added St. Dominic; The Benedictines added St. Benedict.
A. Mary is "the Mother of Mercy" and "Refuge of Sinners."3. Praying the Confiteor the priest bows down profoundly to express with his body the sorrow of his soul. Bowing also helps the soul to humble itself. He joins his hands to show recollection of mind and devotion. The priest strikes his breast three times. In the breast is the heart, seat and source of all good and all evil. The three-fold striking of the breast shows the intensity, the sincerity, and the force of his contrition. It also shows sorrow for three kinds of sin - in thought, word, and deed.
B. St. Michael is the chief of the heavenly spirits.
C. St. John the Baptist was the forerunner of our Lord.
D. Saints Peter and Paul were the leaders of the early Church. They are usually linked together.
"May Almighty God be merciful to you, and, forgiving you your sins, bring you to life everlasting. Amen."5. Then the servers bow down and recite the Confiteor in the name of the people. When they finish, they remain bowed, as the priest prays over them and the congregation:
"May Almighty God be merciful to you, and, forgiving you your sins, bring you to life everlasting. Amen.6. I suggest that all of you join with the servers in saying the Confiteor, that you repeat the words at least silently, that you strike your breast, that you sign yourself with the cross, as the priest prays for forgiveness for all.
"May the Almighty and merciful Lord, grant you pardon, absolution, and remission of your sins. Amen."
Stories of liturgical and musical malpractice abound. Where Catholics gather to lament the state of the Church, the game of choice is "Can you top this?"An excerpt from Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus...
It can be very funny, in a sad sort of way. The malpractice is evident not only in liturgical and musical antics but also in the bare ruined choirs of churches stripped to the austere specifications of "worship spaces " designed to facilitate the community's encounter with itself.
Encounter with the Other is a decidedly secondary consideration, if it is considered at all.
The tabernacle of the Real Presence is moved either somewhere off to the side or into a closet-sized space down a side corridor, as though to pose a challenge to those really determined to engage in eucharistic adoration.
Not for nothing are the church renovations of recent decades sometimes referred to as wreckovations. All this is painfully true, and there will no doubt be cause for legitimate complaint far into the future. . . .
A Missouri man spoke publicly for the first time Thursday about the alleged sexual abuse he suffered while attending All Saints Catholic School in St. Peters.The victim is said to have told his parents of the alleged fondling incident after returning home from being with the priest attending a movie at a drive-in.
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The alleged victim has filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke.
The complaint states Fr. Louis Kertz sexually abused him in 1981. Kertz died of cancer in 1985. He was 62.
[The victim] said his mother sought out another priest, Fr. Don Wester. The man said his mother explained what her son had revealed to her and the priest said her son was not the first to accuse Kertz of abuse.The family believes that the priest did not do enough to address the issue. It seems to me that the parents didn't either.
A 25-year-old woman filed suit Tuesday in Superior Court in Orange County, Calif., alleging that a St. Louis County man sexually abused, molested and raped her in 1998, before he became the music director at St. Louis Community College at Meramec.Stukenholtz works in St Louis for the Community College system. He denied the accusations and said that he was unaware of any allegations against him while he was at Mater Dei.
Larry Stukenholtz is accused of abusing the girl, then 17, while he was the choir director at Mater Dei High School, a Catholic school in Santa Ana, Calif.
At a news conference on the edge of campus Tuesday, Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, asked the college to suspend Stukenholtz and to reach out to the people who have come in close contact with him. Dorris said the Catholic Church was concealing information about wrongdoing.GUILTY - until proven innocent...SNAP's solution always appears to be the "Shoot first, ask questions later approach." Does SNAP take as much interest in the numerous sexual abuse cases occurring in the public school sector or in Protestant churches, or is it's interest merely in the Catholic realm.
A growing number of Latinos are redefining themselves through Islam, attracted by a devoutness, simiplicity and way of treating women that they prefer to the machismo culture they were raised in.
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The ringing of bells. Latin wafting high into the church rafters. Women's heads draped in lace.
There is a solemn aura to 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at Saint Mary Mother of God, a D.C. parish on Fifth Street NW where hundreds of Catholics who long for ancient ritual gather each week to celebrate what is among the most traditional and complex of Roman Catholic rites: the Tridentine Mass.
The sounds are few and particular. Latin is the language of prayer, and the only ones who speak it during the service are the nearly inaudible priest and the Gregorian Chant Choir that performs on the third Sunday of each month. Robed altar servers -- there are as many as 10 -- ring bells several times during the hour-long service. Pews creak and shoes shuffle as some 400 people kneel and stand, kneel and stand. . .
ANN ARBOR, MI – Today, the Thomas More Law Center, a national, public interest law firm, filed an urgent motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking a stay of Federal District Court Judge Gordon Thompson’s May 3 order to the City of San Diego to remove the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial cross within 90 days or face fines of $5,000 per day. Unless the Ninth Circuit stays this court order, the City will be forced to remove the cross by August 1.
...[the] new law makes it a felony if a person, or an organization, including abortion clinics, omit to inform the authorities if someone they know is a sexual offender, or if they help that person hide from the authorities.Planned Parenthood was exposed in covering cases of statutory rape back in 2002 by Life Dynamics, Inc.
... the measure does permit embryonic stem cell research -- a process anti-abortion groups believe ends human life at its earliest stages.Not only do Pro-life (anti-abortion) groups believe that it ends human life but this is a FACT confirmed by biological science - Facts which many refuse to accept.
VATICAN CITY, JUN 6, 2006 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for the Family, founded 25 years ago by John Paul II with the Motu Proprio "Familia a Deo Instituta," and presided by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, today published a document entitled: "Family and Human Procreation."
The text, according to an explanatory note written by Fr. Abelardo Lobato O.P., consultor of the pontifical council, "is destined to be an object of study, both for its doctrine and in its pastoral application." The document opens with "an introduction to the theme of the relationship between ... the family and procreation."
Jun. 06 (CWNews.com) - The Pontifical Council for the Family has issued a new major document entitled Family and Human Procreation, explaining Church teaching on a range of controversial issues including abortion, contraception, homosexuality, genetic manipulation, and divorce.
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The document argues that "responsible procreation" always occurs within the context of marriage and family life. It decries the growing acceptance of single-parent households and homosexual unions, and in particular the demands for government recognition of same-sex "marriage" and the right of homosexuals to adopt children.
Like Catholic priests everywhere, Bishop Peter Hickman dons a white tunic each Sunday to celebrate Mass in a sanctuary laden with incense and crosses.If marriage promotes growth, then multiple marriages must promote a superabundance of growth...
"Marriage promotes growth," says Hickman, 50, who has fathered five children, been married three times and divorced twice. "People who've never been married have a hard time knowing themselves."
The church he has pastored for more than 20 years, St. Matthew in Orange, operates much like any other Catholic church, and offers what appear to be the same sacraments. Yet it ordains female, married and openly gay priests, recognizes divorce, accepts birth control and premarital sex, blesses same-sex unions and, most important, rejects the authority of the pope.It's a bit of a stretch - in fact, beyond belief - to claim that his church "operates much like any other Catholic church" - in actuality, it operates more like any other lost protestant denomination which engages in similar practices. It has no valid sacraments, save perhaps Baptism, and this is, no doubt, questionable.
"We dream of a Catholic Church that's open to everyone," Hickman said in a recent Sunday sermon. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, he said, "betrays the Gospel they are called to preach. We pray they will be delivered from the demonic hold they have been caught up in."It's as if the poor man really doesn't understand - the Church IS open to everyone - everyone who wishes to follow Christ.
"Our Catholic identity is very important to us," Hickman says, "but the Catholic Church no longer has a monopoly on sacraments." Speaking to his congregation, Hickman goes even further, saying the Roman church hierarchy has betrayed the Gospel.Twice in the article we read about this betrayal. The LA Times must be trying to get that point across to the readers. But I digress.
