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It is not possible, I believe, for us not to be edified by the example of Joseph, the foster father of our Lord, in how blindly he trusted in the will of God. He takes Mary as his wife under what were very unusual circumstances to say the least; he moves his family here, there and everywhere based on nothing more tangible than messages received by angels in dreams; and he does it all without expressing a single word of doubt or concern. We don’t know if that meant he had no doubts and concerns; we only know that he...

Your Priestly Pugilist is back! Please check out the redisigned blog and let me know what you think.

Today, few people are aware of the fact that the Pope has his own particular rite of Mass. Special ceremonies and liturgical customs are present at solemn papal liturgies which are not found in the ordinary rites of the Roman Church. The reason for these special ceremonies lies in the identity of the Bishop of Rome himself: besides being the principal hierarch of the Latin Church (thus, until recently bearing the title Patriarch of the West), the Pope is the Father and Head of the Universal Church. Symbolic of this universal headship is the presence at solemn papal functions of...

There is a scene in the classic John Wayne / Maureen O'Hara film The Quiet Man. In this scene at the end of the movie, the local protestant minister in a mostly Catholic town, the Rev. Playfair, is in danger of being re-assigned to a someplace else because his congregation is so small. He doesn't want to leave because he dearly loves the town of Innisfree. The Rev. Playfair's Bishop is visiting Innisfree to assess the situation. The local Catholic priest, Father Peter Lonergan (played by Ward Bond) is sympathetic to Rev. Playfair's predicament. So Fr. Lonergan gathers all the...

I recently learned that there is a Byzantine Catholic Church about a mile from my new house, St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic Church. So my family went there this morning. This was my second time to attend the Divine Liturgy in the Catholic Church. The first time was a Melkite parish. To be honest, it can be a bit intimidating at first. Everything is a little different. Early in the liturgy I realized that there would be no way for me to follow the books so I did my best and tried to participate by watching and listening....

In a three part post some ways down the page, in which I touched on some liturgical matters, I had mentioned one particular experience wherein I had hosted as concelebrant a Roman Catholic priest for a funeral, and how he had struggled to reconcile himself with the uncomfortable fact that the principles upon which his own ritual Church reformed their liturgy do not govern the liturgical life of the universal Catholic Church. It's an easy enough mistake to make, what with the Latin Church sui iuris being the largest of all the Churches in Catholicism, with many -- if not...

The Very Rev. Gerald N. Dino, a Binghamton native, will be installed as bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Van Nuys on Thursdayin Phoenix, Ariz., where the 13-state diocese is headquartered.Dino, who grew up in the Downs Avenue area of the First Ward and graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1958, was appointed to the position late last year by Pope Benedict XVI. Dino’s home parish was Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church on Clinton Street in Binghamton.Dino will become the only Broome County native to ascend to the office of bishop, Broome County Historian Gerald Smith said after...

Nine-year-old Alice Lambertsen blows out a candle on the tetrapod after noon vespers on Pure Monday (Feb. 4) at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage. Pure Monday marks the beginning of the Great Fast for Byzantine Catholics ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Catholic Anchor) - The great main dome at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage is the only one of its kind in the world. Built in 1996, the dome contains thousands of tiny holes that allow light to radiates out in unique patterns. The design so distinct it has an official patent. Light radiating...

From the VIS under "Pontifical Acts" - Reorganised the Greek-Catholic Slovak Church, making in a "sui iuris" Metropolitan Church and adopting the following provisions: - Elevating the eparchy of Presov for Catholics of Byzantine rite (Catholics 137,203, priests 259, permanent deacons 1, religious 111) to the status of metropolitan see and promoting Bishop Jan Babjak S.J. of Presov to the office of metropolitan archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Hazin nad Chirochou, Slovakia in 1953, he was ordained a priest in 1978 and consecrated a bishop in 2003. - Elevating the apostolic exarchate of Kosice for Catholics of Byzantine...

Bishop Pataki of Passaic Retires at 80 PASSAIC, New Jersey, DEC. 7, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appointed Bishop William Skurla of the Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys, California, to lead the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic.Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced Thursday that the Pope accepted the resignation of 80-year-old Bishop Andrew Pataki of Passaic for reasons of age.Father Gerald Dino, 67, of the Passaic Eparchy and pastor of St. George Parish, Linden, New Jersey, will succeed Bishop Skurla in Van Nuys.Bishop Skurla, 51, will be installed Jan. 29 at the Cathedral of St. Michael the...

Well, my month's vacation from blogging was a lot longer than expected. During the interval, one of the parishes of which I am pastor celebrated it's centennial. Here is the speech I gave at the banquet:           First, I want to thank all of you for being here today. I want to particularly thank my brother priests who were able to take time out of their busy schedules to be here, especially on a Sunday; and I’m aware of how difficult it was for some of them to arrange to be here. Most importantly I wish to thank Bishop Andrew, not...

Byzantine chant of the marching angelic hosts - Basileus Choir - Jassy - Romania Click link to hear: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2kyX5jTD3JM

10:56 AM 9/12/2007 - The attack on our country on September 11th six years ago is probably one of those events that will always remain transfixed in our minds -- we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when it happened. I was on retreat at the time with the other priests of our eparchy; and, when I returned to my parish in East Brunswick at the end of the week, I had to wrestle with how I was going to address this, since we had a number of families in the parish which were directly...

Also in Conyers: Outside: Inside: Mother of God Catholic Church, Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite. The parish is located on the property formerly known, back in the 80's, as the site of the purported visions of Nancy Fowler, long since gone, I think, to Florida. (If you were Catholic in the Southeast in the 90's you knew all about the Conyers apparitions and maybe even went there. The greatest volume of negative mail I received in my days as a Florida Catholic columnist was in response to a 2-parter I did on Conyers, when it was all still going on. I visited the...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 4, 2007 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, the Holy Father received prelates from the International Episcopal Conference of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit. The conference is based in Belgrade and brings together Catholics of Latin and Byzantine rite from Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia and Kosovo. The Pope greeted the bishops recalling how they "come from different countries that have different ethnic groups, cultures and languages," but how nonetheless their "ecclesial communities are united by the same faith in the Risen Christ handed down to us by the Apostles." "The...

AURORA— Since the time of the apostles, it has been the constant teaching of the Church that prayers, offerings and good deeds can help the departed. St. John Chrysostom said of the departed souls, “Let us assist them according to our power. Let us think of some advantage for them, small though it be, but let us assist them. How and in what way? By praying for them, by asking others to pray for them, and by constantly giving (alms) to the poor in their behalf!” Most readers of The Observer are familiar with the traditions of the Western Catholic...

Some readers intimated that I had perhaps read too much into Canons 209-210 by suggesting that it implied supporting one's local parish (see Jan. 16). Although the expression "particular church" usually means "diocese" in canonical terms, most Catholics support their local church through their parish. Likewise, according to Canon 107, Catholics, unlike most Protestants, generally acquire their pastor through place of residence (technically domicile or quasi-domicile) as canon law presumes laws to be territorial. Even when, as frequently happens in the United States, a Catholic registers and worships in a parish different from his or her territorial parish, this latter...

Christ, having been lifted up from the earth has drawn all men to Himself. Rising from the dead He sent His life-giving Spirit upon His disciples and through Him has established His Body which is the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation. Sitting at the right hand of the Father, He is continually active in the world that He might lead men to the Church and through it join them to Himself and that He might make them partakers of His glorious life by nourishing them with His own Body and Blood. [Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the...

What happened to the 50 tons of gold, silver and sacred treasures looted from Herod's Temple following the Roman legionnaires' sack of Jerusalem on Tisha b'Av in the year 70 CE? The Arch of Titus in Rome, erected shortly after the death of Titus who reigned as emperor from 79 to 81, clearly depicts Roman soldiers bearing on their shoulders the golden candelabrum, silver trumpets and bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence which the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus carted back to Rome as trophies of war. Between 75 CE and the early 5th century, the treasure...

Manuel II Paleologus reigned as emperor of Byzantium from 1391, the year in which he is believed to have composed the text from which the Pope quoted last week, until his death in 1425. A brief overview of his experience of Islam: 1390: Manuel is sent as a hostage to the court of Sultan Bayezid I. As his writings demonstrate, he reads widely in Muslim texts and engages in repeated debates with Muslim scholars. He is also forced to participate in an attack on his own people, the siege of Philadelphia, which eliminated the last Byzantine settlement in Anatolia. 1394-1402:...

This past Monday it was Sept. 11 in Bavaria too, but you never would have known it if you'd been following Pope Benedict XVI's homecoming visit to his native region. The German pontiff stuck to his itinerary and prepared texts, staying mum on Islamic terrorism even as the fifth anniversary of 9/11 dominated headlines and discussions around the world. Aides said Benedict prayed privately for the victims of the attacks, noting that it is rare for popes to speak out on foreign trips about news events not related to the country being visited. But some reporters grumbled unfavorable comparisons with...

B. David Kennedy Protodeacon, Eparchy of Toronto The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in the Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum) mention in No.17 that "the holy council wishes the institution of the permanent diaconate to be restored where it has fallen into disuse, in order that the ancient discipline of the Sacrament of Orders may flourish once more in the Eastern Churches." Just as the diaconate in the Latin Rite prior to Vatican II had become little more than a transitional step to the presbyterate, so in the Eastern Catholic Churches a diaconate which could be...

The small group of Eastern-rite Catholics who gather each week in Sacred Heart Parish’s former church building in Wasilla now belong to a bona fide church community of their own. Blessed Theodore Romzha Byzantine Catholic Mission was established Feb. 16 by Byzantine Catholic Bishop Most Reverend William Skurla. The new "mission" — a precursor to a parish — is associated with the only Byzantine Catholic parish in Alaska: St. Nicholas of Myra in Anchorage, founded in 1958.So, what is a Byzantine Catholic?The Catholic Church contains 23 rites, or liturgical expressions. The vast majority of people who call themselves Catholic...

Much of my teenage years were spent in the San Fernando Valley of California, at that time (the mid-70s) a religious and cultural wasteland. Apart from the outlets described in that article, another appeared; I discovered the Eastern Rites of the Church, and the Orthodox Churches. My father, Guy, first stimulated my interest in this area, as in so many others. His tales of valiant Christians maintaining their faith and traditions under Muslim and Communist domination fired the imagination. My freshman year at Daniel Murphy High School (during our last year in Hollywood, before the move north to suburbia)...

Byzantine Lent & Easter The 10 weeks before Easter are called the Triodion, or the Three Odes because during that time no more than 3 odes are sung at the Canon of Matins. It includes the Time Before Lent, or Prophonisimon, the 40 days of Lent, and the Holy and Great Week. 2 weeks before Lent are called the Prophonisimon, or Herald of Lent. They prepare us for the proper mood of penance and self-denial. They include the Week of the Pharisee and Publican and the Week of the Prodigal Son. The 2 weeks before Lent is Meat-Fare Week during...

In this war freedom should come first not after! In New Hampshire the Motto is Live free or Die! I don't need Bush spying on law abiding americans and taking our freedoms. Anyone who surrenders a square inch of freedom to the government in the name of saftey is a traitor and should be treated like one! Let the Bush Fashists all drop dead! Filthy Commys! LET FREEDOM RING!

Byzantine underground city and cistern unearthed in Talas Tuesday, January 3, 2006 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News An underground city and cistern dating to the Byzantine era have been discovered at the foot of Mt. Ali in the Talas district of Kayseri. Talas Mayor Rýfat Yýldrým said archaeologists have so far unearthed 300 meters of the underground city and that the cistern is estimated to be 60 meters in length and 5 meters wide. Noting that they had initiated excavations following reports of the existence of a city and cistern, Yýldýrým said: “We have unearthed parts of the underground city...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Every Christmas, my thoughts turn to my friend Raymond Levesque. Along with our friends Dan, Jan, and Suzanne, Raymond and I have a long-standing conversation about “the gifts that are not under the tree.” This expression goes back to an article that appeared one December in New Covenant. While the magazine is no longer in print, during its run, New Covenant offered a fresh orthodox perspective on Catholic spirituality. Struggling to Discover a Catholic Identity Raymond and I first met through our local Latin Mass community. I was a teenager who had been catechized during the late seventies and early...

During this time of Phillip's Fast we celebrate the feasts of saints about whom we know a lot more than we do about Nicholas of Myra; saints whose service to the Church seems to have been far more outstanding than his: for example, the Apostle Phillip, after whom we have named this Little Lent, and his brother Andrew, about whom we read in the Gospels; or St. John of Damascus and St. Ambrose of Milan, whose theological writings helped to form and guide the early Church. And yet, their feast days are not celebrated with nearly as much solemnity as...

It is generally known, that, since Vatican II, much has changed in the Catholic Church with regard to this veneration of the Host (whic means "sacrificial gift" in Latin). Most of the forms of reverence I have described [such as kneeling for Communion] have disappeared. The liturgical reformers succeeded in convincing the faithful that reverence for the Host, worship of the Host as the real physical appearance of Jesus Christ, has been unknown in the Church of the Apostles and their early successors. This veneration of the Host was medieval, they said. The word "medieval" has an even more pejorative...

PEORIA - About 1,100 Catholics at St. Mary's Cathedral on Sunday had to be given instruction in how to take Communion. "Tilt your head back," said J. Michael Thompson, director of the choir which would sing at that morning's Byzantine liturgy. "Don't stick out your tongue. And don't try to say 'Amen' or you might choke." The procedure for taking Communion is part of the Byzantine liturgy, foreign to most of the Roman Catholics of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria who were at the cathedral for one of the events being held on the final day of the diocese's "Solemn...

An interesting Newsweek story this week – that references CT Blog among its sources – claims scoring a point against what it paints as a “questionable” Bush administration portrayal of Abu Azzam. In short, the authors of the article, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball claim the Administration’s leaders aggrandized the real importance of the killed al Qaida commander basing their conclusion on a number of non-identified U.S. counter-terrorism officials and a report posted by our colleague Evan Kohlman on the blog. The “charge” by Newsweek is about the hierarchy of the man. Was he or was he not the “number...

CAESAREA, Israel -- Israeli archaeologists on Monday unveiled a Byzantine mosaic that had been buried under sand dunes for 50 years, along with a newly discovered, highly rare table dating from the same era. The so-called mosaic "carpet" measuring 16 meters (53 feet) by 14.5 meters, was uncovered in the Israeli coastal resort of Caesarea and has been dated by archaeologists to the fifth and sixth centuries. Bordered by a frieze of running animals, including lions, panthers, wild boars, antelope, elephant, dog and bull, interspersed with fruit trees, remains of the floor were first found during military exercises in 1950....

I’m sure all of us have been profoundly effected by the news -- you’d have to be a cold-hearted person indeed not to be. But at the risk of sounding callous, such events do present us with a fascinating kind of laboratory of human behavior. If anything, it certainly testifies to how different people can be. Watching television you can see two people facing the same dire circumstances -- they’ve lost their homes, their jobs, everything they have -- and one person reacts with anger and despair while the other reacts with gratitude for whatever help is given him and...

When I personally think of the word “catechism” I immediately associate it with a sister asking me prepared questions about God. All of us have probably gone through this routine because, until the last 20-30 years not much changed in our church from the days of St. Josephat and that was 500 hundred years ago. The History Actually it is more or less the same in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1566, St Charles Borromeo, at the wish of the Council of Trent, published a Catholic Catechism. This was divided into four sections – faith, sacraments, the Commandments and prayer....

A Novena of Fasting and Prayers This may be appropriate when keeping a fasting novena before the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, Mother of God Prayer of Consecration In union with all mankind, in communion with the entire Church, and with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, we address to you O Father, this supplication especially for our country, through the heart and the hands of the Virgin Mary. Father, send your Holy Spirit, so that each one of us might become an instrument of your peace, From hunger and war, deliver us! From nuclear war, from incalculable...

Solidarity among Christians must go beyond national boundaries, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) said as he met on June 23 with representatives of groups involved with aid to the Eastern churches. The Holy Father met with 70 people from ROACO (Reunion of Organizations for Aid to the Oriental Churches)in the Clementine Hall of the apostolic palace. ROACO is holding its annual meeting at the Vatican this week. From the beginning of Christianity, needy communities of believers have enjoyed the support of their wealthier brethren, the Pope observed. At a time when individualism and consumerism are so powerful, he continued,...

ORDINATION OF MARRIED MENIN THE EASTERN CHURCH MARRIAGE FEAST AT CANA ...Giant steps forward in the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward recognizing and honoring the practice of a married clergy in the Eastern Churches occurred in the decade of the 90's. Two documents, in particular, are significant for the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia in the United States, namely the promulgation of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches by John Paul II on Oct. 18, 1990 and the promulgation of the Particular Law for the Metropolia of Pittsburgh in 1999. (20) The crucial statement in the Eastern Code...

ROME, MAY 3, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Q: I would like to know the present teaching of the Church, with documentary evidence, on fixing relics of the saints at the altar of Holy Mass. -- K.S., Nagapattinam, India A: The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 302, contains the following statement: "The practice of placing relics of Saints, even those not Martyrs, under the altar to be dedicated is fittingly retained. Care should be taken, however, to ensure the authenticity of such relics." This statement summarizes the...

Click on the link above the watch and hear the Prayers by the Eastern Churches at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

For the past several years I have witnessed an ongoing crisis of identity within the Roman Catholic Church, which is evident even on the campus of Franciscan University. Often reduced to the battle between "Conservatives" versus "Progressives" or "Traditionalists" versus "Charismatics," the issues involved are multifaceted and complex. I have tried to make my own contribution to this debate, with varying degrees of success. Now I'd like to address it from a new perspective, i.e. as a kind of outsider, for that is indeed what I have become. I am an Eastern Christian. While gladly submitting to the authority of...

ROME, MARCH 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A new course on Catholicism is being noticed not on account of its subject matter, but rather because of some non-traditional students -- Lutheran pastors. "Learn Catholicism in Rome" is an initiative of the Melantone Center, a Protestant institution of ecumenical studies in Rome, and supported by the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy. The course gathered 16 men and women pastors of German-speaking Lutheran churches in Rome, through next Wednesday, to learn more about the Catholic Church as well as the city itself and its function as an ecumenical center. "We want to make it...

You and your fascist co-horts will all be sorry when the Bush* administration is charged with stealing this election. His administration and this website is nothing more then propaganda for a fascist regime. We are watching you, and we will be there when you slip up and your face down on the ground because you slipped on your own Nazi style propaganda. John Kerry won this election and you know it! Everyone knows it!

Holy Wisdom Byzantine Catholic Church had a promising beginning when it opened in the Succasunna section of Roxbury in the 1970s: The modest building was the only Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic parish for 38 miles. Worshippers from coal and steel mining towns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with roots in Eastern Europe joined Holy Wisdom to practice their religion, which follows the principles of Roman Catholicism and the customs of the Eastern Orthodox church. In recent years, membership has declined. Holy Wisdom's congregants, like Byzantine Catholics elsewhere in New Jersey, have joined Roman Catholic churches that are closer to home. Decreasing...

Turkey Policies on Minorities Spark Debate Fri Dec 3, 1:50 PM ET Middle East - AP By JAMES C. HELICKE, Associated Press Writer ISTANBUL, Turkey - A furor in Turkey ignited by the title of a Christian spiritual leader on a U.S. embassy invitation has underscored concerns about the largely Muslim country's treatment of minorities two weeks before the European Union (news - web sites) decides whether to open membership talks with Ankara. The problem revolved around the status of the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, a Turkish citizen and ethnic Greek. He is...

Mon, Sep 16 2002 12:39 AM AEST Ancient warrior grave unearthed in Lebanese port Archaeologists have unearthed several Bronze Age graves, including that of an ancient warrior interred with his axe, in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. Excavation team director Claude Doumet Serhal said the excavations are "among the most important archaeological projects in Lebanon as they are taking place in the centre of the city of modern Sidon." He also said the warrior's grave dated back to the Middle Bronze Age, around the second millennium BC, and included an unusually well preserved bronze duck-bill axe with a...

The Christian Church was born in the Holy Land, what we call the Middle East today. As it spread, the Church took on the ways of the nations which accepted it. In this country, most Christian churches are 'western' because their roots are in western Europe, and their ways reflect the culture of the German, Irish or Italian immigrants who founded them. Some American churches, were started by people from Eastern Europe or the Middle East. They still keep the ways of the Holy Land (Jerusalem, where Christ founded His Church; Antioch, where the name Christian was first used; Damascus,...

The words "Byzantine" and "Greek" in the past have been used to describe the Eastern Catholic Churches, which consist of seventeen churches with roots in particular countries, all in full communion with the Pope. The largest ones found in America are the Ruthenian (Eastern European), Melkite (many countries of the Middle East), Maronite (Lebannon), Ukrainian (Russia), and Coptic (Egyptian) churches. Eastern rite liturgies are characterized by sung liturgies, elaborate vestments, small congregations, and varied ethnic customs, reflecting the traditions of the different countries of the rite. The Eastern churches draw their membership mainly from their home countries, with a small...

MUSIC REVIEW | MASTERS OF THE PSALTIC ART Byzantine Chant, Rich Challenge to Its Gregorian Counterpart By ALLAN KOZINN Published: April 20, 2004 Most New Yorkers, conditioned as we are to the modes and key systems of Western European music, know the sound of Byzantine chant more by reputation than by direct acquaintance. We hear it indirectly, through the Russian Orthodox sacred music that in recent years has found a concert following, or in the music of the contemporary English composer John Tavener. A curious listener could also pop into a Greek Orthodox church to hear it in its natural...