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A few hours from now I will board an airplane bound for France. On Pentecost weekend, we will be walking the grand Pilgrimage of Notre Dame de Chretiente from Paris to Chartres, France. I ask readers to please keep Gerry Matatics, Chris Ferrara, Fr. McDonald, myself and 50 fellow Americans in your prayers as we undertake this journey and the difficult 3-day, 70-mile walking Pilgrimage across France. I will certainly remember all the readers and friends of this apostolate in my prayers during this time. I also ask readers to be patient as our next issue may be delayed by...

Visitors to the noon Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity Church in Boston's South End might be forgiven for thinking time travel is possible. Women and girls wear mantillas -- a lightweight lace -- to cover their heads. Only men are allowed in the sanctuary, the area hard by the altar. The priest faces east, just as the worshipers do, so for much of the service only his back is visible as he quietly mouths ancient prayers in Latin. When the time comes for the homily, the priest climbs the steps into a pulpit -- rarely seen in Catholic churches today...

(PRWEB) May 15, 2004--The Latin Liturgy Association will hold its biennial Convention from Friday evening, June 25 through Sunday afternoon, June 27 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Keynote talk will be given by Mr. James Likoudis entitled “The Latin Liturgy: Quo Vadis?” The weekend will include a Vatican II Rite Latin High Mass, a Tridentine Rite Solemn Pontifical Mass, Solemn Vespers in Latin, and nine stimulating talks and workshops. Other talks will include topics such as “Gregorian Chant: Music for the Few or the Many” by Dr. Lucy Carroll, “An Illustrated Introduction to the Dominican Rite” by Rev. Father Dennis Duvelius,...

Fr. John A. Minkler WATERVLIET Father John A. Minkler, died Sunday, February 15, 2004. Father Minkler was born in Troy, N.Y. and attended Sacred Heart Elementary School and graduated from Catholic Central High School. He attended Mater Christi Seminary in Albany for his minor seminary (A.A.) and the University Seminary in Ottawa, Canada for his major seminary. (B.A., B.Th. University of Ottawa and B.Ph., S.T.B., St. Paul University, Ottawa). Father was ordained a priest on May 13, 1972 by the Most Reverend Edwin B. Broderick at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Albany, N.Y. Post-ordination degrees in theology from the...

Minkler's friend left with questions Associate offers new insight to priest found dead By John Allen WNYT-TV Updated: 11:08 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2004Feb. 18 - There is new insight into Rev. John Minkler, the Catholic priest found dead in his Watervliet home on Sunday. Minkler has been linked to a 1995 letter to Cardinal John O'Connor alleging Bishop Howard Hubbard had sexual relations with two priests in the diocese. Rev. Charles San Fratello worked with Minkler for 20 years. San Fratello is a chaplain at the Stratton VA Medical Center where Minkler was his boss and associate. He says...

Message drew sister to priest Watervliet -- Call prompted discovery of cleric who died amid Hubbard controversy By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer First published: Saturday, February 21, 2004 Before he died, a priest embroiled in the controversy surrounding Bishop Howard Hubbard arranged for his sister to find him, according to a police report obtained by the Times Union. Patricia Minkler told Watervliet police that she went to the 2319 Seventh St. home of her brother, the Rev. John Minkler, on Sunday after getting a call from another Catholic priest. She found her brother on the kitchen floor, face-down on a...

The Sacred Heart Traditional Choir yesterday launched its first CD, entitled Resurexit, at the Sacred Heart Church. The launch was led by Fr Allan Ventor and blessing of the CD was performed by Archbishop Tsherrig. Molly Guy, who is the Choir’s musical director and co-producer of the CD along with Simeon L Sandiford, presented copies of the CD to Ventor and Tsherrig. The choir, which has been in existence for over 50 years, is one of the few church choirs which maintain the tradition of singing the traditional Latin Mass and other Latin polyphonic hymns. Fittingly, the Latin title meaning...

CHESAPEAKE — Common sense would suggest it’s only an ever-dwindling band of nostalgic, silver-haired Catholics who come to St. Benedict Chapel to hear the Rev. Damian A. Abbaticchio lead services in the dead language of Latin. Yet Sunday mornings find youthful faces throughout the church. A steady trickle of newcomers in their 20s, 30s and early 40s has boosted St. Benedict’s membership to about 200, leading it to add a second Sunday service and expand its building. The chapel had about 80 members when it was founded in 1992. Many of the young newcomers were restless Catholics who have found...

Without Arnold Rothstein, the 1919 White Sox may have been known as a championship team, instead of as the team that threw the World Series. Author David Pietrusza tells a fascinating story in "Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series" (Carroll & Graf, $27). We are taken to the seedy New York underworld from where Rothstein financed gamblers who bribed eight White Sox players to throw the World Series to Cincinnati. The Reds won the series, then a best-of-nine format, in eight games. "Rothstein made lots of money betting on underdogs...

Early this year a book dealing with Catholic tradition and liturgy was prominently and favorably reviewed in the leading German language newspapers. The American observer may be surprised to learn that the work reviewed is neither a summons to ongoing revolution nor a product of clerical academia singing the praises of the status quo. His astonishment would increase when he ascertains that Haeresie der Formlosigkeit makes the most succinct and cogent argument for the traditional Roman rite yet to appear in any language. And this work is the achievement of a novelist, a profound thinker ­ and a "Traditionalist" Catholic!

Mon. Oct. 13 "Gibson's Gospels: History, Hollywood, and the Bible" by Paula Fredriksen, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture, Boston University, Wege Auditorium, Thompson Chemistry [Williams College, Williamstown, MA], 7 PM

Last April, Sister Mary Boys was one of a handful of religious scholars who read an early script of Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion," about the last hours of the life of Jesus Christ. On Thursday night, she told a standing-room-only crowd at the College of Saint Rose that Gibson's movie ignores both the Biblical teachings of the Gospels and the rulings of the Vatican. Before a crowd of more than 150 Jews and Christians, she described Gibson as a person who had no interest in listening to scholars who spent their life studying the Bible. "It's not understanding,"...

Here comes the season of big, and never has it looked so gargantuan, with American publishers releasing enough books to warrant an item in the Guinness Book of World Records. No fewer than 150,000 new books will claim a publication date of 2003. Only five years ago, the average annual output was closer to 50,000. It's enough to make a book review editor weep. The task of culling the books and selecting those we think merit interest is the hardest thing we do: For every book we review, 99 others will have passed through our hands.

The track season is winding down, and soon the sound and fury of this unusually exciting season (thanks, Funny Cide) will fade into memory. Fans here in the area will trudge through a Capital Region winter drawing nourishment from sunny recollections of mimosas in the clubhouse, adventurous hats and the all-too rare trifecta score. The Spa City will once again revert ownership to the full-time residents and Skidmore students, as the dedicated day-trippers and summering city folk return to their own routines.

THE NICENE CREED, recited by the world's more than two billion Christians every Sunday, declares that Jesus Christ "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." More than anything else, these ten words are the theme of "The Passion," Mel Gibson's new movie. Although not scheduled to be released to theaters until Ash Wednesday, "The Passion" generated this spring more discussion than any film in recent memory: endless op-eds, press releases, debates, and denunciations--all about a movie, in Aramaic and Latin, that none of the commentators had seen. Perhaps in response to all this publicity, both negative and...

The Jewish people did not kill Jesus, despite what Mel Gibson's new movie might suggest. Civic and religious leaders conspired to crucify him. Still, the lie, until recently taught as truth by the church, that all Jewish people are Christ killers lingers on. Some fear Gibson might give it new life. The popular actor is writing, producing, directing and paying for a movie, The Passion, that tells the story of the death of Jesus. Critics, who have yet to see the script, fear that Gibson might resort to badly skewed sources and imply that Jewish people killed the Christian Messiah,...

While the changes might seem minor, the first revisions the Vatican has made to the mass since 1975 will affect every Roman Catholic who walks forward for communion. Before they take the bread and wine, they'll have to bow, as a sign of reverence for the Eucharist, the bread and wine Roman Catholics believe becomes the actual body and blood of Christ during the mass. Catholics also must be quieter during the mass, sitting meditatively in silence before it begins, after the homily, and after they receive communion instead of chatting with neighbors, or whispering to the kids.

NPR just reported on the fake ossuary of St. James in Toronto--but with a spin that it had been purported to the ossuary "of a brother of Jesus"--thus putting their rather non-orthodox spin on things (i.e., questioning the Virgin Birth, etc.) Nice work again from our government's radio network. NPR--an affront not only to all Christians but to all Americans.

The appointment of Boston's new archbishop is imminent, according to knowledgeable church officials, who said that Bishop Richard G. Lennon knows he is about to be replaced and the archdiocese has already identified at least three sites that may be used for the announcement. In interviews last week, church officials said they believe that Pope John Paul II's choice to head the most troubled of American archdioceses is likely to be made public this month, with this Tuesday the earliest possible date. And some church officials privy to internal discussions said they now believe that -- even if the decision...

Catholic school enrollment has boomed in Middle Tennessee and is rising all over the Southeast, bucking a national trend. The number of Catholic school students in the United States has dropped by more than 95,000 between 1997 and 2003. In the past year, for example, the Chicago Archdiocese closed five parochial elementary schools, just a year after it closed 14 others. And locally, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville has opened four new schools, with a fifth, St. John Vianney, set to open in Gallatin this fall. Yet in the Southeast, including Tennessee, enrollment has grown by nearly 13,000 students,...