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[Catholic Caucus] All Seminarians to Learn the Traditional Latin Mass US Archbishop Wants ALL His Seminarians to Learn the Traditional Latin Mass The Benedict XVI Institute published on August 10 an interesting online discussion with priests and laypeople who promote the Traditional Latin Mass in the United States. The most prominent guest was San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone US Archbishop Cordileone Defends Latin Archbishop Cordileone stressed that the Church abolished Latin and introduced the vernacular exactly at the wrong time. Now, more than ever, we need a universal language of the Church because of migration and tourism, he explained. Cordileone...

[Catholic Caucus] McCarrick breaks his silence: ‘I’m not as bad as they paint me’ VICTORIA, Kansas, September 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Ted McCarrick has broken his year-long silence.  Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has granted an interview to a reporter and denied the accusations that have been made against him.  Several men have complained that McCarrick made unwelcome sexual advances to them when they were seminarians, and there have been two “credible allegations” that McCarrick also sexually assaulted two minors, a 16-year-old altar server and an 11-year-old family friend named James Grein. Grein alleges that the cardinal abused him...

Former seminary priest speaks out on homosexual subculture and exposes the Irish McCarrickFollowing the dark revelations of the McCarrick scandal, former seminary formator, Father David Marsden, decided it was time to go public on the real reason he resigned from Maynooth and why he remains deeply concerned about the presence of a powerful gay subculture in the national seminary.Referendum a forbidden topic The year is 2015 and debate in Ireland is dominated by the State’s plan to change the constitution to allow pairs of the same sex to “marry” – with such a blatant assault on God’s plan for marriage...

Episcopal Sodomy: Gay Seminarian Pipeline by Church Militant  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  August 21, 2018    From South America to the US Church Militant has learned that a clandestine pipeline for homosexual seminarians was established in the 1990s and into the early 2000s where active gay men from Colombia, South America were being secretly funneled to U.S. seminaries. Multiple seminarians have been in contact with us and want the entire story of the massive, massive crisis of homosexual predation by the clergy — especially in the seminaries — completely exposed. Church Militant has also confirmed with official sources that various U.S....

(CNA).- Recent allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick include reports that he made sexual advances toward seminarians during his tenure as Bishop of Metuchen and Archbishop of Newark. .... The religious priest who spoke to CNA said when he studied in a seminary in New York, McCarrick, who was then an aide to Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York, would sometimes visit the seminary. The priest said that McCarrick’s reputation was already well established by this time. .... So well-known was McCarrick’s reputation, the priest said, that when McCarrick would accompany Cooke to visit the seminary there was a standing...

PopeWatch: Obvious Posted on Monday, January 8, AD 2018 by Donald R. McClarey Phil Lawler, who has a book out about Pope Francis next month, has a telling anecdote that he relates at Catholic Culture:  How popular is Pope Francis? With the public? With bishops and priests? With young seminarians? Ask different people, and you’ll get different answers. It’s hard to gain an accurate reading.But here’s a remarkably revealing clue, nearly hidden in a feel-good story about an American seminarian, Nick Sentovich, who is a 3rd-year student at the North American College in Rome, “and like all third-year seminarians, he was...

It is a common notion that the number of priests has plummeted in this country. Many speak of the halcyon days when there were four and five priests per parish, and the seminaries were packed. And while some of these memories are accurate, they are drawn from a time in this country that was very brief.The fact is, the number of priests per parish spiked sharply after 1950 and has now leveled back to the levels of 1950 and before.Note the graph at the upper right from the Center for Research in the Apostolate (CARA). It depicts the number of...

In comments to Roman clergy yesterday Pope Francis referred to cases that “happen often” where bishops have accepted “traditionalist” seminarians who were rejected by other dioceses. Because “they presented themselves very well, very devout,” said the pope, the bishops failed to find out information about them, and they were later found to have “psychological and moral problems." Ordaining such seminarians, said the pontiff, is like placing a “mortgage on the Church.” The comments came in a meeting with Roman clergy that, in order to be allowed to flow freely, Pope Francis asked not to be televised. However, Rome’s Zenit News...

A video of a pair of dueling, dancing American priests studying in Rome has gone viral, following in the footsteps of a now-famous Italian nun whose Alicia Keyes-esque voice won her a singing contest and a record contract. The Rev. David Rider, 29, of Hyde Park, New York, and the Rev. John Gibson, 28, of Milwaukee, first shot to Internet fame when they were filmed in April during a fundraiser at the North American College, the elite American seminary up the hill from the Vatican. Rider warmed up the crowd with a lively tap-dance routine, only to be pushed aside...

One of the recommendations of Vatican II was that priests be formed in the arts: “During their philosophical and theological studies, clerics are to be taught about the history and development of sacred art, and about the sound principles governing the production of its works. In consequence they will be able to appreciate and preserve the Church’s venerable monuments, and be in a position to aid, by good advice, artists who are engaged in producing works of art” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 129). This is not a bad idea, considering that priests are the caretakers of the Church’s artistic patrimony. Each pastor...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In his first months as rector of Theological College in Washington, Father Phillip J. Brown has been confronting a problem that the national diocesan seminary for the U.S. Catholic Church "has not had for a long time" -- it is bursting at the seams. Enrollment is maxed out for the 2011-12 academic year at 90 seminarians. Five of those seminarians are back in their dioceses this year gaining pastoral experience, but a Sulpician seminarian and five priests from other countries also live there, bringing the total number of residents to 91 plus faculty members. "If I had...

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 28, 2011 / 01:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged the new class of seminarians at the Pontifical North American College in Rome to be unafraid to carry the cross of Christ.“Dear Seminarians, do not be afraid to take up the challenge in today’s Gospel to give your lives completely to Christ,” he told the new students during his Sunday Angelus address on Aug. 28 at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence 15 miles to the south of Rome.“Indeed, may all of us be generous in our commitment to him, carrying our cross with...

The long, dark night of the vocation shortage appears to be coming to an end... at least in some dioceses. Take Kansas City, for example. In 1994, it had one seminarian; the next year, none. But now...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world sees the public side of Pope Benedict XVI generally at big ceremonial events in Rome or on foreign travels, when he's under the glare of the media. But over the last three years, the "real Benedict" has emerged most fully in a series of semiprivate encounters with an audience he feels at home with -- groups of priests. In the northern Italian city of Bressanone in early August, the 81-year-old pope engaged in what has become a summer tradition: a question-and-answer session with the region's diocesan and religious priests. The dialogue ran the gamut...

In the background the 'steamer' Varagan is preparing to leave the Stronsay pier at 8.10am. This morning the seminarian Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, in calm seas and good standing, left Papa Stronsay to catch it. They are on their way to London to prepare their travel documents for the seminary. Br. Magdala Maria, F.SS.R., Br. Jean Marie, F.SS.R., Br. Yousef Marie, F.SS.R., Br. Martin Mary, F.SS.R., Br. Ivan Maria, F.SS.R. We are very happy to announce that at the end of August they will be received by the Society of Saint Peter's seminary [FSSP], in Denton, Nebraska. Prayer...

You think you know what factors pose a barrier to religious vocations? Think again. A group met in Chicago last month to discuss an emerging and growing barrier to vocations — financial debt, particularly that acquired from student loans. The Chicago-based Institute on Religious Life organized — and the Arlington, Va.-based Fraser Family Foundation sponsored — a diverse gathering of grant-makers, college presidents and vocation directors at Marytown Feb. 20-22 to examine the growing problem. As most religious orders will not accept someone with debt, it places many vocations in jeopardy. Brother Matthew Ball of the Franciscans of the Immaculate...

San Antonio, TX, Aug 22, 2007 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of San Antonio has many things to be thankful for, but on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, Archbishop Jose Gomez was able to give it one more reason to express gratitude, a new dormitory for the seminary. Present for the dedication of the new building were Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, bishops, priests, seminarians, and the laity. Speaking of how Christians are called to believe in the Gospel, love and live entirely for God, and have missionary hearts as Mary did, Archbishop Gomez dedicated the new...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A powerful sense of devotion overtook Michael Burbeck in a medieval church in the small Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. The way he describes it, he was praying in the lofty, 125-foot-high sanctuary of St. Vitus Roman Catholic Church, when he looked up at a life-size crucifix and was overwhelmed by a sense of peace and belonging. He realized he would commit the rest of his life to Jesus. "It was like the classic movie scene: Guy sees girl across the room, knows she's the one," Burbeck said. "I had this moment when I realized that (Jesus)...

Metro Atlanta's Roman Catholic churches are keeping their pulpits filled better than many regions of the country.Across the nation there is a shortage of priests, but the Archdiocese of Atlanta's 95 churches and missions have 262 priests and more than 50 seminarians in training. RELATED: • More Atlanta news "We have one of the strongest vocational programs in the country," said Father Luke Ballman, the director of vocations.About 600 Serrans, lay Catholics dedicated to supporting and educating those choosing church vocations, are in Atlanta this weekend for a national conference.Serra clubs across the country raise money for scholarships, organize prayer...

Carolina State Symbols: Tar Heels, Palmettos -- and Seminarians Further evidencing the rise of the Southern states as American Catholicism's boomtown, Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston will ordain six new priests tomorrow night -- the largest crop for South Carolina's lone diocese (Catholic pop. 176,000) since 1956. Due to the large number of candidates, the ordination Mass is being held in a convention center in the state capital of Columbia. In May, the historic local church (founded in 1820) welcomed 22 new permanent deacons; since 1990, its Catholic presence has more than doubled, now comprising 4% of the general...