Free Republic

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said Cardinal Alfons Stickler, who died Dec. 12 at the age of 97, used his "gifts of mind and heart" to serve the church. The Austrian, who was the world's oldest living cardinal, died in Rome. The cause of death was not announced. Pope Benedict was scheduled to celebrate his funeral Mass Dec. 14 in St. Peter's Basilica. In a telegram of condolence to the cardinal's surviving brother and three sisters, Pope Benedict spoke of the cardinal's "many years of sincere and industrious collaboration with the Holy See," particularly his years as prefect...

HOUSTON — The stepfather of a 2-year-old girl lost control and beat her to death because she wouldn't say "please" and "yes sir," an attorney for the girl's mother said Wednesday. A body found last month in Galveston Bay is believed to be that of the little girl, Riley Ann Sawyers, though DNA tests are pending. Her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, and stepfather, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, were arrested Saturday. According to court documents, Trenor, 19, told police she and her husband killed the girl in July and hid her body in a shed before dumping it in the bay....

The Attractiveness of the Tridentine Massby Alfons Cardinal Stickler Cardinal Alfons Stickler, retired prefect of the Vatican Archives and Library, is normally reticent. Not so during his trip to the New York area in May. Speaking at a conference co-sponsored by Fr. John Perricon's ChistiFideles and Howard Walsh's Keep the Faith, the Cardinal scored Catholics within the fold who have undermined the Church—and in the final third of his speech made clear his view that the "Mass of the post-Conciliar liturgical commission" was a betrayal of the Council fathers. The robust 84-year-old Austrian scholar, a Salesian who served as peritus...