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December 18, 2009                                  Friday of the Third Week of Advent Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Jer 23:5-8 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;As king he shall reign and govern wisely,he shall do what is just and right in the land.In his days Judah shall be saved,Israel shall dwell in security.This is the name they give him:“The LORD our justice.” Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD,when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives,who brought the children of Israel...

Last month's passage of a sweeping ban on federal funding for abortion in the House healthcare bill caught most of Washington by surprise. The Democratic House leadership is closely aligned with the party's pro-abortion rights base, which alleged the ban would roll back abortion access for many women by keeping coverage for the procedure out of federally subsidized healthcare plans. And for abortion rights activists, the central role of the Roman Catholic bishops in pressing House leaders to allow a vote on the ban, known as the Stupak-Pitts amendment—and in helping prod 64 Democratic congressmen to support it—was as galling...

President Obama’s crusade to enact health-care reform legislation is nearing its climactic battle in the US Senate. How should Catholic Americans look upon this legislative struggle? The US bishops have consistently voiced their support for health-care reform, while insisting that the legislation must include some language ensuring against public support for abortion. In the House of Representatives their lobbying had its desired effect, and the “Stupak Amendment” gave the bishops a bill they could support. In the Senate a pro-life amendment was rejected. Still the US bishops’ conference has clung to the bare hope that some acceptable language might be...

The O AntiphonsThe O Antiphons developed from an ancient custom in the Church going back  to the seventh or eighth century. There are seven of these special antiphons, and their texts spring from the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, the Prophetic and Wisdom Books. They are found in the Liturgy of the Hours, or Breviary, which clerics, some religious orders, and some lay people use for daily prayer. The O Antiphons are short prayers recited before and after the Magnificat, the great prayer of Mary used during Vespers, evening prayer, beginning on December 17, seven days before the Vigil of Christmas...

Christmas Novena Hail, and blessed be the hour and momentAt which the Son of God was bornOf a most pure VirginAt a stable at midnight in BethlehemIn the piercing coldAt that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee,To hear my prayers and grant my desires(mention request here). Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother. Day 1    Day 2    Day 3    Day 4    Day 5    Day 6    Day 7    Day 8     Day 9

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A 12th-century scholar has a lesson for today on what makes for fair and equal treatment in law, Benedict XVI says.The Pope proposed today during the general audience the teaching of John of Salisbury, an English theologian and philosopher who served as bishop of Chartres, France, from 1176 until he died in 1180.The Holy Father explained how John taught that "there also exists an objective and immutable truth, whose origin is God, accessible to human reason. This truth regards practical and social actions. This is a natural law, from which human laws and political...

Twelve years ago, the president of the Gilbert Arizona Stake thought that the Gilbert community would be benefited and community relationships strengthened if his stake and the local parish of the Catholic Church could interact and build a bridge of friendship using an interest common to both, music. The first three years of this relationship saw each congregation prepare separate choral numbers and sing at the other's building. After shedding concerns and apprehensions, the choir directors for the parish and the stake combined their efforts to create a joint choir comprised of both faiths. They chose to prepare numbers to...

The late Pope John Paul II is one step closer at getting a spot on the altars, now that Benedict XVI will name him venerable. Benedict XVI is expected to sign the decree Saturday December 19th. When the Pope gives a candidate to the altars, the title "venerable" that means he recognizes that they lived the Christian virtues as heroes. To beatify a candidate, the commission of cardinals and Vatican theologians must certify that God has performed a miracle through his intercession. In the case of John Paul II, just two months after his death, several medical teams have classified...

BISHOP Donal Murray finally resigned today, three weeks after he was criticised for his failure to deal with a paedophile priest. The Bishop told Mass-goers that his resignation “cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered”. “I humbly apologise once again to all who were abused as little children,” he added. The now ex-Bishop of Limerick was heavily criticised by the Murphy Report into clerical sex abuse in Dublin. The investigation named Murray as someone who did not deal properly with suspicions in relation to Fr Tom Naughton, yesterday jailed for abusing a six-year-old altar boy more than...

Stroll by the Capitol building at Little Rock, Arkansas, and you'll come across an unlikely duo: A traditional nativity scene next to an eight-foot "freethinkers" display which features noted freethinkers including Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Thomas Jefferson, among others. The nativity scene has been on display during the holidays for more than 50 years; the freethinkers display was slated to be in place yesterday. For several years, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers had requested that it be allowed to put up a display celebrating the Winter Solstice and freethinkers next to the nativity scene. Arkansas officials denied...

Folks, I stumbled upon this article published by the BBC. I invite you to read it. I won't republish it due to its prurient subject matter, and out of a sense of decorum and respect for Our Lord, His Mother, and his earthly father, Joseph. Read it carefully and then contact this "church" here and let them know what you think. This is what I told Glynn Cardy, the pastor:Dear Reverend Cardy: I've just read a news report published in the BBC website about your billboard distorting the meaning of Christ's virginal conception and mangling the marriage and family life...

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 15, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has made two changes in canon law, regarding marriage for those who have formally renounced the Church, and clarifying the ministry of deacons. The changes came in a statement issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative), called "Omnium in mentem" (In the Mind of All). The document is dated Oct. 26 but was released today. Preparation of the statement began during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and required lengthy consultations with episcopal conferences around the world.The document published today contains five articles modifying Canons 1008, 1009, 1086, 1117 and 1124....

The faithful say she comes in a flash of light amid a swirl of pigeons. Hundreds, if not thousands, have been lining up for hours every night at the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in a Cairo neighborhood just off the Nile. Many of them claim that a mysterious light hovering above the church's domes is an apparition of the Virgin Mary who will bring Christian Copts prosperity and relief in a time of national and religious struggle. The crowds began appearing Thursday evening when a number of residents spotted a flickering light. No one was sure where the illumination was...

Featured Term (selected at random):WITNESS One who can give evidence based on personal and immediate knowledge of a fact, event, or experience. The Christian concept of witness adds to the popular notion the idea of a religious experience to which a believer testifies by his life, words, anc actions, and thus gives inspiration and example to others by his testimony. Implicit in Christian witness is also the element of courage in giving testimony, either because others are not favorably disposed or because they are openly hostile to the message of faith being proposed. All items in this dictionary are from...

For the second time in eight days, a lawsuit was filed against the Benedictine Order at St. John's Abbey accusing it of covering up the sexual abuse of a student at St. John's University 25 years ago. The suit was filed Wednesday in St. Cloud by a "John Doe," who alleges that he was molested by the late Rev. Bruce Wollmering, the Rev. Finnian McDonald and Brother John Kelly. All three also were named in last week's suit. St. John's Abbey has issued a statement pledging to investigate the allegations, adding, "We do not tolerate sexual misconduct in any form."

VATICAN CITY, 17 DEC 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Limerick, Ireland, presented by Bishop Donal Brendan Murray, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

The author Philip Pullman has expressed his disappointment that the second two novels in his fantasy trilogy have not yet made it to the big screenThe author Philip Pullman has spoken of his disappointment over the failure of Hollywood to complete the film trilogy of his series of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials. The actor Sam Elliott, who starred in the 2007 adaptation of the first novel, Northern Lights (the film was called The Golden Compass), said earlier this week that books two and three were not being filmed due to a successful campaign by America's religious right. The Golden...

VATICAN CITY, 17 DEC 2009 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office released the following English-language communique at midday today: "For a number of years the Church has followed with great concern the difficulties caused by the regrettable conduct of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. Many attempts have been made to bring Archbishop Milingo back into communion with the Catholic Church, including the consideration of suitable ways to enable him to exercise the episcopal ministry. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were directly involved in those efforts and both Popes personally followed the case of Archbishop Milingo in a spirit...

You Tube video. Click HERE to view.

Cannot post article per FR posting rules (Gannett). Article can be found here. Well worth the read.

From the First Apology of St. Justin Martyr: We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught,...

December 17, 2009                                 Thursday of the Third Week of Advent     Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Gn 49:2, 8-10 Jacob called his sons and said to them:“Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,listen to Israel, your father. “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise–your hand on the neck of your enemies;the sons of your father shall bow down to you.Judah, like a lion’s whelp,you have grown up on prey, my son.He crouches like a lion recumbent,the king of beasts–who would dare rouse him?The scepter shall never depart from Judah,or the mace from between...

On John of Salisbury "We Witness a Worrying Separation Between Reason ... and Liberty" VATICAN CITY, DEC. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in Paul VI Hall. * * * Dear brothers and sisters, Today we will meet the figure of John of Salisbury, who belonged to one of the most important philosophical and theological schools of the Middle Ages, that of the cathedral of Chartres, in France. John, too, like the theologians about whom I've spoken over the past weeks, helps us to understand how faith, in...

Pope Benedict XVI, a man of immense learning in philosophy and theology, has just been quoted as saying that rich nations must assume environmental duties, should shed their "consumerism" and embrace more sober lifestyles: this datelined Vatican City by Reuters. Let's get this straight. We Catholics believe the Pope is infallible on matters of faith and morals but with this caveat: The doctrine of infallibility is a negative i.e. the Pope cannot err on faith and morals. Moreover infallibility does not mean impeccability. The Blessed Virgin, conceived without Original Sin, was and is impeccable but Popes are not. Peter, the...

“We killed Jesus” and “Christians out”, extremists write. Urinating on the door has become an almost daily event. Graffiti are linked to a statement made by an Israeli deputy ministry claiming that the Vatican wants to claim sovereignty on Mount Zion. A further outrage was committed last night against the Franciscan church adjoining the Cenacle on Mount Zion, next to the Room of the Last Supper. Obscene graffiti on the doors leading to the church read “We killed Jesus", "Christians out" (in English and Hebrew) and "F... off", which were adorned with a "Star of David", apparently so as to...

Rome, Italy, Dec 16, 2009 / 02:18 pm (CNA).- “The Pope denounces the ecological crisis but does not belong to the church of Al Gore," wrote Giuliano Ferrara, director of Italian daily Il Foglio, in his editorial column after reading Benedict XVI's message for the World Day of Peace. Ferrara described the papal message as being "of great culture" in its reminder that man must be valued above all other living things. The Pontiff's message underscores the threats to the environment and the necessity of taking decisive action to find long-term, inter-generational solutions to the crises of today. It also...

John L. Allen, Jr., The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday Religion, 2009), 480 pp., $28.00. FORCASTING THE future of religion has a long and tainted history. Too often, futurology merely consists of watching the current trajectory of lines on a graph, and extending them until they reach some sensational conclusion. This was the process that led Mark Twain, a century ago, to predict that the world’s largest religions by 2000 AD would be Roman Catholicism—and Christian Science. But no less troublesome is the enduring belief that religion is simply going to fade away...

They worship in a former Catholic sanctuary, led by a former Catholic priest. And if any congregation in Western New York were to take up Pope Benedict XVI's recent landmark overture to Anglicans, it most likely would be St. Nicholas Anglican Church in West Seneca. The small, "Anglo-Catholic" congregation uses a liturgy that mirrors a traditional Catholic Mass, adheres to a male-only clergy and has parishioners open to the possibility of entering into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. "This would be very typically the type of congregation the pope is targeting," said the Rev. Gene Bagen, rector of...

Featured Term (selected at random):INTUITION The immediate knowledge of something, especially the act of vision by divine or angelic intelligence. Among human beings, the power of insight into the meaning of primary truths, without conscious attention or reasoning. Awareness of truth without mental effort. (Etym. Latin intuitus, a look, view; from intuere, to look at, upon, or toward.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Several GetReligion readers have sent in the URL for a Washington Post story that ran last weekend about the formation of a group for gays, lesbians and, one would assume, bisexuals on the campus of the Catholic University of America. This story is pretty much what you would expect: A love song to a small, courageous band of true believers who are standing up against the establishment. Journalists love that template. You can see this right at the top of the report: Every Wednesday morning, 150 officials at Catholic University receive an email about a gay student’s struggles on campus.There’s...

The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, for example, has just come out publicly with a ringing affirmation of the truth of Catholic teaching about contraception — i.e., that it's a serious sin and no Catholic in good conscience can willfully contracept— this in response to yet another goofball pro-abortion front group which styles itself "Young Catholics for Choice" . . .

A lot of parents don’t know how to talk with their kids about God. This week and next, we will look at some responses to the big questions kids are asking. These questions are, by the way, real ones taken from a recent poll by Dorling-Kindersley. They are as ancient as humanity and as current as today’s headlines. But most important, they are questions to which God has given us answers—answers it is our solemn duty as parents to know and understand for the sake of both our children and ourselves.Does God exist?Yes.If God made us who created God? No...

MILWAUKEE, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, has responded to a campaign by "Young Catholics for Choice" to promote use of contraception and abortion among Catholic youth. Using media advertising the group is, says the Archbishop-Designate, "attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard Church teaching regarding contraception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing." However, "Nothing could be further from the truth." "While people can call themselves whatever they want, it is my duty as a bishop to state clearly and unequivocally that by professing and disseminating...

December 16, 2009                               Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Is 45:6b-8, 18, 21b-25 I am the LORD, there is no other;I form the light, and create the darkness,I make well-being and create woe;I, the LORD, do all these things.Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;let justice also spring up!I, the LORD, have created this. For thus says the LORD,The creator of the heavens,who is God,The designer and maker of the earthwho established it,Not creating it...

Recently a Pew poll demonstrated how many Americans mix faiths. But how long will there be faiths to mix in America? 'Faiths' here means bodies of believers, gathered in communities such as congregations. Has the United States begun to follow the overall pattern of decline in membership, attendance, activity, support, and visibility that is so patent in, say, Western Europe? Forty years ago it was hard to find a seat at mass in Ireland or Quebec. Today it is harder to find mass-goers in countless parish churches. Now in America 'Distance Early Warning' signals of decline almost across the board...

Bishop Kevin Farrell Dallas, Texas, Dec 14, 2009 / 07:22 pm (CNA).- As Christmas quickly approaches, the Diocese of Dallas has launched a campaign to bring lapsed Catholics back into the Church. One part of the outreach involves bus ads with the message: “Catholics come home for Christmas.”“When I travel around the diocese, I have so many people tell me that their wife or husband or parents or kids have abandoned their church or faith,” Bishop Kevin Farrell explained to the Dallas Morning News on Sunday. “They're always asking me what we can do about it.”The recent bus ads are...

Denver, Colo., Dec 15, 2009 / 05:16 pm (CNA).- This morning the Vatican published a Motu Proprio from Pope Benedict called “Omnium in Mentem”  and dated October 26. According to J.D. Flynn, a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Denver, the new document clarifies the nature of a deacon's orders and the impact of defections from Catholicism on the validity of a marriage.“Omnium in Mentum,” roughly translated as “Everything in Mind,” deals with two unrelated topics, a fact that caused Flynn to observe that it's probably easier to publish one Motu Propio than two. Writing in an explanatory note for...

Martin Luther's Freedom of a Christian (1520) was one of the defining documents of the Protestant Reformation, and it remains one of the classic tracts of the Protestant tradition still today.9 Written on the eve of his excommunication from the Church, this was Luther's last ecumenical gesture toward Rome before making his incendiary exit. Much of the tract was written with a quiet gentility and piety that belied the heated polemics of the day and Luther's own ample perils of body and soul. Luther dedicated the tract to Pope Leo X, adorning it with a robust preface addressed to the...

“…Over the past month there has been a great deal of discussion about the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment in the House health care reform bill. Unfortunately, much of this discussion has been driven by misinformation about what our amendment does and does not do. I would like to set the record straight: Our amendment maintains current law, which says that there should be no federal financing for abortion.

“…Over the past month there has been a great deal of discussion about the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment in the House health care reform bill. Unfortunately, much of this discussion has been driven by misinformation about what our amendment does and does not do. I would like to set the record straight: Our amendment maintains current law, which says that there should be no federal financing for abortion.

As we approach the end of 2009, the religious and moral outlook in Britain remains bleak. God continues to be very largely ignored by Government and people. Year after year, legislation pours out of Parliament but never, it seems, is it considered remotely possible that God may have declared his mind on some aspect of whatever area of human conduct is being further regulated. Or if it is abundantly clear that God has spoken – declaring, for instance, that homosexual behaviour is abominable – his revelation must be steadfastly ignored and the nation directed to conform to the norms of...

Vatican City, Dec 15, 2009 / 02:02 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI made his message for World Day for Peace public on Tuesday morning in preparation for its observation on January 1, 2010. In his message, he calls for global solidarity in action to provide for the world's needs and to protect the environment. However, the Holy Father also stresses that we must be continually aware of the value of people over and above all other living things. An attitude of "global solidarity" is essential in shaping our efforts to protect creation through a better internationally-coordinated management of the earth's...

Monday December 14, 2009 Author Calls on US Bishops to Reform Catholic News Service (CNS) - Part 2 Many parishes "force feed" subscriptions to the diocesan newspaper upon their parishioners See Part 1  Commentary By Louie VerrecchioWASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - CNS' cavalier attitude toward orthodoxy is not confined to its recent treatment of the life issue alone. Some other examples, just to name a few:In 2005, CNS issued a glowing review of the movie "Brokeback Mountain" and rated the homosexual propaganda piece as suitable for a "limited adult audience." Following the backlash of outraged readers, CNS eventually changed...

Old Soviet Joke: A new Politburo member is going through his new office drawers and finds two envelopes addressed to him. One envelope says, "Open me when you have your first major crisis." Some weeks later, tractor production drops sharply, the New Politburo member is blamed, and he's in deep trouble. He remembers the envelope, opens it, and reads, "Blame the current crisis on me, your predecessor." He does so, and his job is spared. However, there remains the second envelope, which reads, "Open me when you have your second major crisis."   Sometime later, a tractor factory in...

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center: ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in...

Featured Term (selected at random):PENALTY, PENITENTIAL A penance imposed by ecclesiastical law or superior for some wrongdoing, as a substitute for the full penalty deserved. It may be a canonical admonition or the recitation of certain prayers, and represents an indulgence motivated by mercy. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

KEVIN Rudd's decision to take holy communion at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in Sydney has sparked debate within the Catholic Church because he is a practising Anglican. The controversy mirrors a debate nearly a decade ago when Jeff Kennett complained he was sent a letter by Cardinal George Pell instructing him not to take communion at the state funeral of prominent Catholic B.A. Santamaria, despite the then Victorian premier's own shift to Catholicism. The Australian has confirmed that the chaplain and sisters at the chapel were caught unawares by the Prime Minister's visit on Sunday. They were concerned that...

Bishop-elect William Medley Owensboro, Ky., Dec 15, 2009 / 11:08 am (CNA).- Fr. William F. Medley of St. Bernadette's Parish in the Archdiocese of Louisville was nominated on Tuesday by the Holy Father to be the new bishop of the Diocese of Owensboro in western Kentucky.  He will succeed Bishop John J. McRaith, who resigned in January of 2009.According a biography on the Diocese of Owensboro's website, in the previous 27 years of his priesthood, bishop-elect Medley served as parish priest in a number of parishes in the Louisville and Bardstown areas and was also the Diocesan Director of...

When Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89, retires—and he's expected to in the next year or so—there will be no Protestant left on the highest court in the land. Will President Obama be pressured to appoint one? Popular opinion once held that even one Catholic was too many on the court. Today there are six. But would anyone even notice if Obama appointed a seventh to replace Stevens? Once upon a time, there was an outright religious litmus test for Supreme Court appointees. Today religion is almost irrelevant in appointing new justices. All of which raises a question: Are...

We suspect that this is another indication of a more hopeful future for the American episcopacy — at the very least it belongs in the did-I-read-that-correctly category: Recently, two bishops in two separate dioceses prevented brother bishops from making public appearances on Catholic property in their dioceses. Yes, you read that correctly. A lone bishop banning a brother bishop is a rarity in this day and age. Frankly, it just isn't done. For two of them to take such similar courses of action is inconceivable. Thomas Gumbleton, retired auxiliary bishop of Detroit, was slated to speak in the Diocese...