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Vatican II, in its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem), explains that, "The hierarchy should promote the apostolate of the laity, provide it with spiritual principles and support, direct the conduct of this apostolate to the common good of the Church, and attend to the preservation of doctrine and order. Indeed, the lay apostolate admits of different types of relationships with the hierarchy in accordance with the various forms and objects of this apostolate. For in the Church there are many apostolic undertakings which are established by the free choice of the laity and regulated by their...

Cardinal O’Malley celebrates Mass in the Archdiocese of Boston’s Bethany Chapel Watch the Rome Reports video profile.Recently I attended a funeral at which Seán Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, was the main celebrant. He had flown down to Washington to honour the memory of an old friend with whom he had worked for many years on charitable projects, long before he became a bishop. In listening to the cardinal, I was struck not only by his personal humility, but also by the fact that the Mass was celebrated in a mixture of English, Spanish, and Latin. His willingness to...

Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04111607.html LifeSiteNews.com Tuesday November 16, 2004 Pro-Abortion Legislator Outraged over Priest's Direction to Quit Church Choir ANDOVER, Massachusetts, November 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) -St. Augustine's Catholic church in Andover has a choir and state Rep. Barbara L'Italien likes to sing. The pro-abortion politician is a cantor and head of the parish youth choir and has refused to quit when asked by Fr. William Cleary, the new priest. She says she will only leave the volunteer post if she receives the request in writing. While L'Italien has complained to local papers that she is being targeted for being a Democrat,...

Letter Supports Anti-Kerry Bid Over Abortion By PAM BELLUCK Published: October 19, 2004 OSTON, Oct. 18 - A canon lawyer seeking to have Senator John Kerry excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church because of his support for abortion rights said on Monday that he had ammunition in the form of a letter issued at the request of a senior Vatican official. The lawyer, Marc Balestrieri of Los Angeles, who heads a conservative Catholic nonprofit organization called De Fide, also said that, based on the letter, he would now seek to have four other Catholic politicians excommunicated: Senators Edward M. Kennedy...

Kerry said to be excommunicated Los Angeles, Oct. 18 (CWNews.com) - A consultant to the Vatican has said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has incurred the penalty of excommunication from the Catholic Church. The consultant made his statement in a highly unusual letter to Marc Balestrieri, a Los Angeles canon lawyer who formally sued John Kerry in ecclesiastical court for heresy. Balestrieri, who launched his case earlier this year by filing a heresy complaint in Kerry's home archdiocese of Boston, told EWTN's "World Over" program on Friday that he had received an unusual, indirect communication from the Vatican's Congregation for...