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One for the Brick by Brick file.I had a note from a friend in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, where the great Bishop Robert Finn presides.At St. Andrew the Apostle on the north side of KC, Fr. Vince Rogers has installed a new brand new Communion rail!My friend wrote: He has installed altar rails in most of not all of the parishes in which he has served over the past 15-20 years.He noted in his homily this morning, “So, why do I do this everywhere I go? It started when I was a seminarian at the NAC. Mother Teresa...

Because, he says, unrepentant public sinners could slip in among the faithful, and he does not want to back up their hypocrisy. The case of Catholic politicians who support abortion. ROME, May 9, 2013 – There is one particular in the Masses celebrated by Pope Francis that raises questions that have so far gone unanswered. At the moment of communion, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio does not administer it himself, but allows others to give the consecrated host to the faithful. He sits down and waits for the distribution of the sacrament to be completed. The exceptions are very few. At...

I generally like one question at a time, but this was so… bizzare that it needs more attention.From a reader: This weekend, Father was having a series of talks during his Masses which spanned about fifteen minutes, and so he was late for one at another Church.The parish sister started the Mass with the full (including greeting) introductory rites and Liturgy of the Word.Father arrived at the offertory and then Mass continued as normal.This is a common, though not weekly, practice. [?!?]1) Is it still Mass?2) Does it satisfy the obligation of the faithful (and myself) to attend Sunday Mass?3) Is...

Vatican may prohibit female alter (sic) service By Michaels, Amanda Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2003Updated: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 11:09   Only nine years after the Vatican gave women permission to serve beside their male counterparts at the altar, a new proposal threatens to force them back into the crowd. On Sept. 23, the Italian Catholic monthly, "Jesus," released advanced text of an article featuring excerpts from a draft document, or directive, written by the Vatican congregations for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and for the Doctrine of the Faith. Distributed on June 5, the document was an expansion on the papal...

Dear Editor. I know and appreciate Sen. Tim Johnson’s position on guns and the Second Amendment. I would ask him to ask the progressive liberals he is in contact with who are antigun and anti second amendment why is it the progressive liberals acquire guns, then kill [movie goers] and children in schools'? Why are no conservative NRA members involved in mass shootings? Ft Hood Shooter: Reg­istered Democrat and Muslim. Columbine Shooters: Too young to vote … both families were Registered Democrats and progressive liberals. Virginia Tech shooter: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff. Registered Democrat....

>There have been some rumblings amongst traditionalist Catholics that Pope Francis is going to turn out to be a liturgical liberal. Apparently a few extremists are worried that Pope Benedict’s encouragement of the Latin Mass and his bringing back some of the older styles of clerical dress and papal customs are going to be thrown out in favor of happy clappy masses, clowns, balloons and big puppets.Everyone should stop and take a deep breath and get a sense of priorities. I am myself, on the more traditionalist side of the liturgy wars. I dislike anodyne, sentimental church music, a game...

Featured Term (selected at random):LATIN Originally the Italic dialect of ancient Rome. It was the ordinary language of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, and Latin translations of the Bible were made as early as the second century. The liturgy was also celebrated in Latin (along with Coptic, Greek, and Ethiopic) since apostolic times. Latin gradually became the official language of the Western Church, and from the time of Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220) was used extensively in theological writing. A historic change took place at the Second Vatican Council, which declared that "the use of the Latin language...

Featured Term (selected at random):ALTAR CARDS Printed or manuscript cards placed on the altar and facing the priest during Mass. They were to help the memory of the celebrant when it was inconvenient to use the Missal. Three cards, center and two sides, were commonly used, though only one was prescribed. Still in use in some places, they are no longer required by the rubrics. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

L.A. Catholic's latest post on a The Tidings article reports on the "Missa Gaia"The print edition of the October 27 issue of The Tidings (the online edition is not posted on that paper's site, but you can click on this post's title tomorrow and presumably it will be) carries an article, "LMU Forum draws prominent environmentalists."The article is about this year's Bellarmine Forum, Oct. 29-Nov. 3, at Loyola Marymount U. in L.A. The theme is, "Earth to You: Do Something Now." The invitees include Bobby Kennedy Jr., Jean-Michel Cousteau and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), for whom the...

Featured Term (selected at random):RUBRICS Originally red titles of law announcements. They are the directive precepts or liturgical provisions found in the Missal, including the Sacramentary and lectionary, and in the ritual, to guide bishops, priests, or deacons in the Eucharistic liturgy, the administration of sacraments and sacramentals, and the preaching of the Word of God. Rubrics are printed in red and are either obligatory or merely directive, as the context makes amply clear. (Etym. Latin rubrica, red earth; title of law written in red; hence law instruction.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic...

Some decades ago the argument from authority was often invoked as we answered some question about the faith. It was often considered sufficient merely invoke the existence of a rule. And thus, to my nagging question, “Why should I have to go to mass?” my parents would often answer, “Because it’s a rule!” Other variations of the answer would be, “Because the Church says so,” or, “Because it’s in the Ten Commandments.”Never mind that there might actually be reasons that there was a rule, or a commandment. It was considered enough in those old days simply to say, “It is...

Occupy LA Sues Over Mass DetentionsA lawsuit was filed by Occupy protesters whose demonstration at City Hall last year was broken up by police By Jason Kandel | Saturday, Dec 22, 2012 | Updated 9:02 PM PST Occupy Los Angeles demonstrators are suing the city for what they said was an unlawful “shock and awe” attack on their civil rights when 1,400 police officers swept nearly 300 demonstrators from City Hall grounds more than a year ago. **SNIP** Five people are suing in a class action lawsuit that represents 292 people detained by officers in the raid. Court documents said...

NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. (WKTV) - Abraham Dickan, 79, of Utica, was angry with the employees at AT&T in New York Mills - anger that he had shown them many times before, but never in the way he did on Thursday, May 27. Shortly before 1 p.m. on that Thursday afternoon, Dickan walked into the cellular phone store on Commercial Drive, with a .357 magnum in his hand, and a list in his pocket containing the six names of the AT&T store employees to which he was holding such deep anger, and planned to kill as a result. "The suspect...

If we do not get anything out of the Mass or very little because we are blocking the benefits or Divine Grace by our head and our heart. BLOCKING WITH OUR HEAD: We block ourselves from receiving Grace derived from the Holy Mass due to our head. Some main reasons: we get distracted or preoccupied; we find fault in priestly celebrant, crying babies, Mass order, readings, and other people talking or disrespectful in Mass, and so on; we do not know the details of the Mass and their implications; we do not know why we celebrate Mass; we cannot hear...

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Deputies in Wisconsin are responding to reports of a shooting near a major mall in suburban Milwaukee. WISN-TV reports a mass shooting has taken place near the Brookfield Square Mall. A spokeswoman for a local hospital says it has received four patients from the shooting, none critical, and expects three more. A woman who answered the phone at the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department on Sunday told The Associated Press that deputies are looking for an active shooter.

“The white man was a good shot and the bullet from his Winchester passed through the body of Yaholar.” This simple sentence, describing Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s great-grandfather, John Crawford, may finally put a bullet not simply in the long dead corpse of Native American Louis Yaholar, but also of Warren’s supposed family mythology. It comes from a turn-of-the-20th-century news story uncovered by William Jacobi at Legal Insurrection, who explains the genealogical connection between this random incident of White-on-Native-American violence and Warren’s campaign: // But, while Warren thinks she has found a safe place in her family lore,...

The Cult to Stop Gun Rights Violence (CSGV) is all giddy this morning by an article in Mother Jones regarding mass shootings. Note that they are very specific about mass shootings instead of mass killings because it would derail their whole argument. It is the typical drivel we are used to read from such rags, but what really ticked me was More broadly, attempts by armed civilians to stop shooting rampages are rare—and successful ones even rarer. And one wonders why is that civilian attempts to stop mass shooters are rare. Maybe because Mass shootings are also rare? And because...

Bioterrorism and All Hazards Emergency Preparedness Illinois 9/14/2012 Region VII Hazards Emergency Preparedness Committee Presents In The Midst of Chaos Printable brochure http://www.regionviiems.com/forms/Midst%20of%20Chaos%20Flyer.pdf

Featured Term (selected at random):MISSALE ROMANUM Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI promulgating the new Roman Missal. The most significant features of this new missal are the addition of three new canons for the Mass, and the modification of the ritual. However, in each canon the Pope decreed that there be the same formula of consecration as follows: "We want the words to be pronounced thus: over the bread, "Accipite et manducate ex hoc omnes; Hoc est enim corpus meum, quod pro vobis tradetur'; and over the chalice, 'Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti, qui pro...

Lately, the music director at our church has been “tickling the ivories” during the Consecration. While at the piano, in the front of church (naturally), he has been playing tunes, based on hymms for sure, on the piano during the entire Consecration (with a well timed pause during the elevation). It’s not irreverent, but it does sound like “lounge music“. [As the non-liturgical instrument, the piano, nearly always does.] I find it annoying, and keep wondering when Tony Bennett comes on stage (I’m kidding, of course). [Put a brandy snifter with a dollar bill on the piano next time...