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According to media reports, Pope Benedict XVI is continuing his efforts to return some disaffected Catholic traditionalists to the “fold.” In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) were at odds with the papacy on several issues resulting from the council, which both sides viewed as fundamental.  Lefebvre and five others were automatically excommunicated in 1988, when he consecrated four bishops. However, the excommunication of the four surviving bishops was lifted earlier this year as part of the present pope’s outreach to the Traditionalist Catholics. According to the Associated...

Several commemorative events will be held in Augsburg, Germany, over the next two days to celebrate the signing of a landmark ecumenical agreement ten years ago between representatives of the the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Roman Catholic Church. It was on Oct. 31, 1999, that the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), considered one of the most significant agreements since the Reformation, was signed by church officials from the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, which claims to represent 66.7 million of the world's 70.2 million Lutherans. Members of the World Methodist Council later adopted the...

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says it will admit married Anglican priests to the Catholic priesthood case by case. Vatican officials recently announced changes to make it easier for Anglicans to convert, as many conservative Anglicans are disillusioned by their own church's allowing women priests and gay clergy. The new move left some wondering whether Rome would embrace married Anglican priests in large numbers. A Holy See statement Saturday quoted Cardinal William Levada as saying the Vatican would consider accepting married Anglican priests into the Roman Catholic priesthood as it has in the past -- evaluating each case on its...

I donÂ’t recall his source, but Thomist scholar Dr. F. F. Centore used to point out to us that according to Aquinas, women make better saints than men. And back in the early 80s, I recall reading Butler's Lives of the Saints and being struck by just how much female saints outnumber male saints; I believe it is by about two thirds. And one cannot read the Latin Fathers for a reasonable stretch without coming across the notion that the Church is a woman. She is the bride of Christ and the Mother of Christians. As St. Augustine comments on...

Some of our priests, particularly those who are celebrating the modern Roman liturgy ad orientem liturgicum, may be interested to know that finding an altar card for the modern form of the Roman liturgy just got quite a bit easier. Myriad Creative Concepts, in close consultation with a few priests who have used this type of altar card, have just finalized development of just such a thing for the Latin version of the modern Roman liturgy. (The company could also easily produce customized vernacular versions or Latin-vernacular versions at request they also tell me.) Evidently, some priests may wish to...

Featured Term (selected at random):MUSICAM SACRAM Instruction on music in the liturgy of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. An extensive document giving general norms and applying them to every important aspect of liturgical music. Among other provisions there should be choirs, at least one or two properly trained singers especially in churches that cannot have even a small choir. The distinction between solemn, sung, and read Mass is retained; Gregorian chant should be given pride of place; adapting sacred music for regions having a musical tradition of their own requires "a very specialized preparation by experts"; and those instruments which...

Folks, my better known blogging colleague, Carl Olson, has deconstructed the latest attack against the Church by the eminently brilliant scientist, Richard Dawkins, and “comedian” Bill Maher in passing. Olson’s conclusion should be considered by Dawkins et al.: Dawkins seems to have the same obsessive desire for attention and Catholic-bashing as does Maher and John Spong. Here is what I suggest they might consider doing for their next publicity stunt: they should stage a mock "same sex" marriage with Dawkins as the groom and Maher and Spong as the brides. Charles Schumer and Arlen Specter should "officiate"; Shumer can dress...

Madrid, Spain, Oct 31, 2009 / 08:20 am (CNA).- Award-winning director Roland Joffé discussed his upcoming film “There Be Dragons” in a Thursday press conference. The film, set during the brutal Spanish Civil War and based on the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, can teach about love and forgiveness between families and enemies, Joffé said. The film begins with a young journalist, estranged from his military father Manolo, who conducts research on the life of Opus Dei founder and priest St. Josemaria Escriva. He discovers his father was a childhood friend of the future saint, and also uncovers family secrets.The...

Vatican City, Oct 31, 2009 / 12:13 pm (CNA).- In an extensive clarification released on Saturday by the Vatican press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. made clear, on behalf of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Levada, that there is no “celibacy issue” delaying the publication of the Constitution that will establish the context in which Anglicans can be received into the Catholic Church.In a statement released in English –breaking the common use of Italian- Fr. Lombardi explained that “there has been widespread speculation, based on supposedly knowledgeable remarks by an Italian...

Ratzinger's Faith Ratzinger's Faith By Dr. Jeff Mirus | October 30, 2009 4:36 PM I've just finished reading Tracey Rowland's Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology Pope Benedict XVI. Rowland is Dean and Associate Professor of Political Philosophy and Continental Theology at the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is also on the editorial board of Communio, the theological journal founded by Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger. She had already written a critically-acclaimed book, Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II, as part of the Oxford University Press Radical Orthodoxy series. The book carries cover blurbs from...

Haunted houses, ghosts, demons—our Western culture can’t seem to get enough of the spirit world. The latest Gallup poll indicates that 42% of Americans believe in demon possession, 37% believe in haunted houses, and 32% believe in ghosts. (Not just Americans are enthralled—40% of the British believe in haunted houses, too.) Though interest in the paranormal is widespread, the majority of people are skeptical. They discount all spirit activity, going so far as to deny the existence of Satan and demons. Atheists stated this view succinctly in a sign they planted next to a manger scene last Christmas at the...

Cited by some U.S. bishops, the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is providing a new wrinkle in the health care debate The debate over health care reform is igniting another, related discussion: What is the proper role of government in the lives of a country's citizens? The Catholic Church endorses no specific political or economic system -- thus bishops and Catholic thinkers are drawing on Catholic social teaching to support sometimes conflicting solutions to find affordable health care for Americans without health insurance, who number 46.3 million according to the U.S. Census Bureau. There's little debate in the Church that some...

The calendar of the Brazilian Book of Common Prayer (LOCb) of the Diocese of Recife - and of the majority of evangelical churches in our country - registers today as the day in which we commemorate the Reformation. This year we celebrate 500 years of the birth of John Calvin, and we're reminded of the fact that the Protestant Reformation of the 16th. Century was one of the most important chapters in the History of the Church, and that october 31st. 1517 was one of the most significant days since Pentecost. The protestant community, ever growing in Latin America owes...

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Building a better marriage By Mary DeTurris Poust Ask any Catholic couple for the secret to their marital success and they're likely to focus on two key things: communication and faith. Without those crucial elements, marriage can quickly become a business partnership rather than the sacramental relationship it is meant to be. The Church tries to ensure, through Pre-Cana programs, that young couples are aware of that reality before they say walk down the aisle to say, "I do." Now the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., is offering a DVD, "When Two Become One: An...

The Healing Power of Exorcism Oct 30th 2009 An Interview with Father Gary Thomas by Paul CiarciaThe day before I spoke with Father Gary Thomas was probably a typical weekday for most priests. For Father Thomas it was a typical weekday as well, except it involved a two hour-long, emotionally and physically draining battle with a horde of demons seeking to claim another person’s soul.“(The demons) operate in packs,” said Father Thomas. “The more powerful ones are over the less powerful ones.”“These demons have put up big fights,” Father Thomas said, recollecting the episode. “I think now we are...

October 31 Spiritual Bouquet: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Phil. 4:4 SAINT QUENTIN Apostle of Amiens, Martyr at Rome Saint Quentin was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various regions of France. Saint Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord’s inheritance. By the force of his words and...

The term "Halloween" comes from the phrase "All Hallows' Eve" which meens the eve of all Saints....

Blasphemy in Spain, When Will the Hate Stop? Written by John Horvat    Thursday, October 29, 2009   According to press reports, homosexual groups in Spain published a calendar that has horrific blasphemies against Our Lady of Fatima and other Marian apparitions. Besides a man that is practically naked alongside Our Lady, the calendar has "images that are based on famous works of sacred art, especially apparitions of the Virgin Mary, but interpreted by transsexuals.� "In the 'Secular Calendar,' informs the BBC Brasil, “each month is represented by a free interpretation of famous scenes of Catholic imagery, such as Our...

October 31, 2009                                 Saturday of the Thirtieth Week                                 in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29 Brothers and sisters:I ask, then, has God rejected his people?  Of course not!For I too am a child of Israel, a descendant of Abraham,of the tribe of Benjamin.God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah,how he pleads with God against Israel? Hence I ask, did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not!But...

Part Two:  Channels of Grace The Eucharist Table of Contents     The Holy Eucharist is unique among the sacraments. Even the variety of names by which it is called emphasizes the central position which it occupies in Catholic Christianity. It is the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord’s Supper, the Holy of Holies, the Table of the Lord, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacrifice of the Mass, Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, Viaticum, and the Real Presence – to mention only a few of the titles by which the Church has identified this central Mystery of Faith. Yet among...

Following their exchange in July, author Moyra Doorly and Aidan Nichols discuss the merits of post-Vatican II liturgical reform Dear Fr Aidan, In your kind reply to my first letter you made the point that I was drawing "unnecessarily sharp" contrasts between a theology of "propitiation and supplication" on one hand, and teachings on the "fruits of Communion" on the other. But what I was trying to demonstrate is that the pre-Conciliar sources give ample teaching on both, whereas the documents of Vatican II ignore the theology of propitiation and supplication. Now, to me this represents a doctrinal discontinuity of...

US bishops conference mounts late drive against 'unacceptable' health-care reform October 29, 2009 The US bishops' conference is mounting a late drive to secure passage of a pro-life amendment to the health-care reform bill. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking pastors all across the country to include an insert in their weekly bulletins, urging parishioners to call their Congressional representatives and encourage a vote for a pro-life amendment. The USCCB's pro-life office has indicated that it will press bishops to promote the dissemination of these bulletin inserts. The insert exhorts parishioners to act immediately. "Congressional votes may...

All Hallows' Eve Issue: Is the celebration of Halloween a pagan feast? May a Catholic celebrate Halloween in good conscience? What is the history of this popular American holiday?Response: We celebrate Halloween on the evening before All Saints Day. The word itself is a shortened form of "All Hallows’ Eve," which quite literally means "the eve of All Saints." From the earliest days of the Feast of All Saints (mid 700s A.D.), Catholics observed October 31 as the vigil of this November 1 celebration. This feast commemorates the lives of Christians who lived exemplary lives of faith. Pope Sixtus IV...

Most Learned President, Father Joseph McShane, Esteemed Members of the Board of Trustees and Beloved Brothers of the Society of Jesus, Most Learned Professors and Students, Your Eminences and Graces, Distinguished Guests, Beloved children and people of God, Introduction: The Ecumenical Imperative It is with sincere gratitude that we accept this invaluable honor of being received into the doctoral college of this esteemed Jesuit school. We welcome this privilege as a recognition of the sacred ministry of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, an Apostolic institution with a history spanning seventeen centuries, throughout retaining its See in Constantinople. Yet, our Church is no...

"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad." Your All Holiness, in the name of Christ our Savior, I welcome you to the University Church, this historic house of prayer that has stood at the center of the University's campus and mission since it was built by our founder, Archbishop John Hughes, in 1844. Your All Holiness, your Eminences, your Graces and your Excellencies, Mr. Tognino, members of the Board of Trustees, the faculty, the administration and student body of the University, and faithful and devoted members of the Orthodox Christian communities of America,...

....the dates which were “Christianized” and now host Christian “Holy-Days” were originally utilized for “Pre-Christian” (“Pagan”) celebrations. This process reflects the wisdom of the Church and a missionary approach. She has “baptized” them, recognizing the seeds of what was good within them. By immersing them in the beauty of the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the fullness of truth and the source of all goodness, she transforms them into vehicles for transforming culture. The Church is His Body. She is meant to be the home of the whole human race. As the early fathers were fond of proclaiming, the Church is...

Prejudice against the Catholic Church is a national pastime, as a few recent examples in the pages of the New York Times can attest. It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people," while John Higham described it as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history." "The anti-Semitism of the left," is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic "the last acceptable prejudice."...

Pierluigi Molla was only 5 when his mother died. But he had absorbed enough of her saintly character to make a mark on his life. Canonized in 2004, St. Gianna Beretta Molla refused to have an abortion and gave her life instead to save that of her fourth child, Gianna Emanuela. Her heroic example led to her being named a patron saint of the unborn, and she has a growing, devoted following worldwide; reports of miracles and graces granted through her intercession continue to this day. Register correspondent Edward Pentin spoke recently with Pierluigi, her first child. A business...

Recently I attended a Catholic service in a church, and a diocese, which shall remain nameless. This is not because there is anything scandalous to report, but because I’m about to compare it to a 1970s department store. Then, after Vatican II, its interior was modernised. But we’re not talking savage reordering here: just the usual wall-to-wall carpeting of the sanctuary, removal of the altar rails and – unforgivably, not least because it makes a nonsense of the high altar – the removal of the tabernacle to… somewhere. Sometimes you walk into a modern Catholic church and think: this is...

New York City, N.Y., Oct 30, 2009 / 11:14 am (CNA).- The New York Times declined to publish an op-ed presented by the Archbishop of New York, Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, in which he made the point that the “Gray Lady” has been reporting stories with a strong anti-Catholic bias. In his new blog on the archdiocese’s website, Archbishop Dolan explains that his article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed, but the Times declined to publish it. In the blog version, Archbishop Dolan says that next to baseball, “sadly, America...

One of the hardest things Ed Donaghy has ever done was leave his ministry as a Catholic priest. For months, he agonized over his conflicting desires to have a family and serve as a priest in the Sacramento Diocese. In the end, Donaghy felt he had no choice. The priest, who served in Woodland, told his bishop he had to leave. That was four decades ago. "It would have been wonderful to be married and be a priest," said Donaghy, 73, now retired as an insurance agent. "I loved the work and would have continued." Donaghy is one of more...

VATICAN CITY — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, will meet Pope Benedict XVI on November 21, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed Friday. Lombardi told AFP that Rowan's visit to the Vatican was "already planned" before the Vatican's October 20 announcement of a structure for welcoming Anglican converts into the Roman Catholic Church. Williams will be on hand for celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Willebrands, a Dutch cardinal who was a pioneer in Catholic ecumenism and who died in 2006. The Vatican announced last week that Pope Benedict XVI has...

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new coalition of Catholic pro-life organizations is calling for a massive reform of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and urging Catholics to boycott the upcoming November collection.The CCHD is the domestic social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and focuses on supporting groups that work in community organizing.  They have been accused over many years of supporting radical left-wing groups who advocate a distorted un-Catholic view of social justice.  The organization primarily raises funds through an annual nationwide parish collection, this year scheduled for November 22nd.Scandal...

Billings Catholic Schools recently paid off a $400,000 debt to the Diocese in Great Falls owed since at least 2002, school system officials said Wednesday at the annual State of the Schools address. The debt was paid off near the end of the 2008-09 budget, allowing the school system to operate debt-free for the first time in nearly a decade and go into this school year looking at where the money usually reserved to pay off interest charges can be spent. "We can now start to strategically think, 'What's ahead of us?' " said Rita Turley, chairwoman of the Billings...

As the saying goes: “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” But taxes you can avoid and evade; death — not so. Therefore, the only logical response to death is to embrace it…or at least accept it. After all, it’s not like we have a choice.While traveling back from dropping off a son for college in Oregon last week, we attended Mass in Missoula, MT at St. Francis Xavier church. During the prayers of intercession, one prayer caught my attention: “For all who have died, for all who are going to die and for all who are afraid to...

ALL SAINTS & ALL SOULS We are approaching the end of the liturgical year which will culminate with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. At this feast we celebrate what we read in Scripture, that God will be all in all. As we move toward this feast during this month of November, as a church we focus on the four last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. The thought of death may bring discomfort to non believers who are healthy, wealthy, and wise in our own estimation. It can mean the loss of power, prestige, and possessions...

A few years ago I was told that at the ceremony of induction of the vicar of one of the local Anglican churches, the Bible which was handed to him had embossed on its front cover the emblem of the Freemasons, the square and compasses. It subsequently came to light that nearly all the male members of his Parochial Church Council were "on the square", and his predecessor as vicar had been a Mason as well. This is not a "low", or Evangelical, church, but very firmly in the Anglo Catholic tradition, where a number of clergy and lay people...

.- Bishop Jose Gea Escolano, who retired from the Spanish Diocese of Mondonedo-Ferrol and is currently a missionary in Peru explained this week that one of his most frequent tasks is hearing confessions each Sunday for “five to six hours...although on some days it has been 10.” Bishop Gea, 80, recently marked his fourth year as a missionary in the Peruvian Diocese of Carabayllo, where he was sent after retiring from his diocese in Spain, which he served as bishop for 18 years. He said he hopes to remain working “until the Lord wishes” as a missionary in Peru, “where...

Featured Term (selected at random):PASCENDI Encyclical letter of Pope St. Pius X condemning Modernism. Its full title is Pascendi Dominici Gregis, published September 8, 1907. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield announced this summer that 19 Catholic Churches are closing leaving many fighting to keep their places of worship open or looking for another church. We found local Catholic churches that are not part of the Roman Catholic diocese but are Catholic and run their church democratically. Laurie Costello, member of National Catholic Church, says, "We came from the Roman Catholic Church and we just weren't happy with the way things ran." Laurie Costello and her family changed churches 5 years ago when the Springfield Diocese closed the Roman Catholic school she grew up in....

VULGAR CATHOLIC HALLOWEEN COSTUMES October 29, 2009Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on this season’s Halloween costumes:There are costumes depicting Jesus, priests, nuns, ministers, rabbis and imams, and most of them are innocuous. But there are two costumes that are vulgar, and, as usual, they are designed to offend Catholics: a priest with an erection and a pregnant nun, often sold as a pair. Some immigrant groups are upset about an illegal alien costume, but even those who are complaining don’t say it is vulgar. A mere depiction of Muhammad in a Danish cartoon that was anything but vulgar...

"...the most important issue which must be addressed is lost in the charged rhetoric over all of this "justice talk". That is the glaring fact that many who use the “Social Justice” arguments in this debate also support the intrinsically evil and utterly indefensible inclusion of abortion as a “health care service” in all of the current proposals for health care reform. Abortion is the intentional killing of children - our first neighbors - in the first home of the whole human race. Medical science confirms what the Natural Law has already revealed to all of us, that little boy...

October 30, 2009                                     Friday of the Thirtieth Week                                    in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 9:1-5 Brothers and sisters:I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie;my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witnessthat I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christfor the sake of my own people,my kindred according to the flesh. They are children of Israel;theirs the adoption, the glory,...

Part Two:  Channels of Grace Confirmation Table of Contents     “If there was ever a time when the Sacrament of Confirmation needed to be explained carefully, that time is now. All too many members of the Church neglect it altogether; and those who have received it or who plan to receive it, see it as something minor in their lives. There is need, then, for instruction on the nature, power, and dignity of this sacrament. Far from being neglected or received in a mere perfunctory way, Confirmation must be restored to the reverence and devotion it deserves.” These words introduced The...

Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. It's easy to forget sometimes that being a child of God, having the privilege of calling God our Father is itself a gift -- that you and I have no personal claims, no right to be called a "child of God" apart from the grace that comes to us in our Lord Jesus Christ.  The fact that you and I have been made sons and daughters of our heavenly Father is pure gift.  As it says in...

October 29, 2009The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article. The Times declined to publish it. I thought you might be interested in reading it. FOUL BALL!By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan Archbishop of New York   October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!   Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism.             It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a...

<p>All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.</p>

Wow! This is big news. For months the bishops have been threatening to oppose the healthcare legislation as long as it included abortion funding. But I didn't expect this. Wonderful news. Catholic.org reports: An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to...

Here we go again! Nuns Having Fun calender for 2010 will be available for shipment in July. And in case you missed last years offering:

This past Monday I reported that the USCCB Department of Communications is listed as a "principal partner" on the "So We Might See" Web site. So We Might See is a coalition of religious groups that is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to investigate "hate speech."   Since the page on the organization's Web site displaying the petition also contained specific allegations that Rush Limbaugh incited violence against two Mexican men in 2006, I reported that the USCCB was also supporting an investigation of Limbaugh.   Helen Osman, Secretary of Communications for the USCCB, responded to my article in...