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Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 10: The Church (Part 2) In the previous lesson, we were talking about Peter, and now we want to move into his successors and look at the primacy of the Pope. The purpose of the papacy is to preserve the unity and the solidarity of the Church for all time. You have to have a head; there has to be a point of unity, otherwise we split up. All you have to do is look at any of the groups that have broken from the Church. Immediately, they start splintering into all...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 9: The Church (Part 1) [Class begins with the recitation of the Our Father] We are going to cover one of the most important topics, especially of our day, and that is the topic of ecclesiology. The word ecclesiology means “the study of the Church.” That comes from the Greek word ekklesia. Ekklesia means “an assembly, a gathering, a community” – or the Church. It means a convocation or a meeting of people. When we talk about the Catholic Church, the word Catholic means “universal, complete, whole, total,” or something along those...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 8: Mary (Part 2) At the end of the previous lesson, we were asking the questions about the brothers and sisters of Jesus, Jesus being Our Lady’s firstborn son, and Joseph not having any relations with Our Lady until she had borne a son, and so on. There are a couple of things to understand here. First of all, in Aramaic, which is the spoken form of Hebrew, there are no words for “cousin.” Even today in the Middle East, brothers and sisters are anyone who is a close family relation. You...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 7: Mary (Part 1) [Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Hail Mary.] Now we get to talk about one of my favorite of all topics, and that is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most wonderful lady to ever have lived. It is certainly well known to most people that Catholics foster a deep devotion to our Blessed Lady, but most people do not really understand that devotion very well. To have at least some Marian devotion is part and parcel of every single Catholic. In the...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 6: Jesus Christ – God and Man (Part 2) We were talking about the knowledge of Jesus, or the way that His human mind works, and we said that there was no error or ignorance in Jesus’ human soul due to the hypostatic union. From this, we can see that the knowledge gained from the Beatific Vision is what is called “infused” knowledge. That is, God simply puts the knowledge in our minds without having sense experience to go with it. The spiritual concepts are communicated immediately to the mind by God....

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 5: Jesus Christ – God and Man (Part 1) [The class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Our Father.] Tonight we are going to spend our entire time talking about our Blessed Lord: Who is He, what was His mission, what did He do for us and how. To put it into context, we go back a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about original sin, and we remember that after original sin we no longer know how to act the way we were created...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 4: Creation of the Human Person and Original Sin Let us talk about the soul. The soul is defined as the principle of life in a living being. Are there any other beings with souls? The answer is “yes.” Anything that is alive has a soul. There are three different kinds of souls. There are vegetative souls – that is what a plant has; a plant is alive. There are sensitive souls – that is what animals have. Then there are rational souls – that is what human beings have. You could...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 3: God’s Creation of the World [Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Hail Mary.] Tonight we are going to talk about creation and original sin. Last week when we were talking about God, we said everything that is not God is outside of Him (not outside of Him in the sense that it would be beyond Him, but outside of Him in the sense that it is not God) and anything outside of God was created by God. Creation means “the production of something out of...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 2: The Most Holy Trinity If I do not have you confused enough and wanting to leave, now we are going to get into the really hard stuff. Before we even begin, just a warning that this is the most difficult stuff in theology. We are going to talk now about the Trinity. Again, we begin with ourselves, and we recognize that we have consciousness as human persons. That consciousness gives us awareness of ourselves doing things. We know ourselves, then, as doers of certain actions or certain things. Consciousness also allows...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 1: The Unity of God [The class begins with a welcome by Father Altier and the recitation of the Our Father. Following this, the course syllabus is distributed to all students}. If you have the syllabus now, you will see basically what we will be doing. In the middle are the references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church that will correspond to what we are doing. What we will be doing is not taken directly out of the Catechism, so it is looking at things from a little different perspective. It...

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2006 – It took a personal connection to devote Bob Calvert to supporting America's troops, and now he says there's no turning back. Calvert hosts a weekly radio talk show on Sunday evenings, broadcast mainly by Internet-based Stardust Radio. He said he has completed 20 interviews so far, averaging three or four guests per show. The first show aired Dec. 11, 2005. "No question about it, my daughter enlisting in the Army was the spark for me," said Calvert in a telephone interview near Fort Carson, Colo. "Once I realized she was serious ... and she was...

Iran's secret talks with Iraqi militants spark fears of proxy war Harry de Quetteville (Filed: 19/03/2006) Iran held secret talks with Shia militant leaders from Iraq and Lebanon only days before the country's nuclear negotiators threatened America with "harm and pain", independent sources in Teheran have revealed. The Iraqi firebrand cleric, Moqtadr al-Sadr and the chief of the armed Shia group Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, held separate consultations with leading officials in Teheran. Al-Sadr commands thousands of fighters in Iraq, with the power to destabilise further the country and target British and American troops, while Hizbollah's missile-wielding fighters are...

US warns over Iran talks tactic President Ahmadinejad had rejected previous US requests for talks The White House has expressed scepticism over an offer by Iran to hold talks with the US on Iraq. US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said he was concerned it could be simply "a device" to divert pressure from Tehran's nuclear ambitions. He said the US had suggested a dialogue last year but had received no response. Iran's apparent enthusiasm now - days before the UN Security Council meets to discuss its nuclear programme - has raised suspicions, correspondents say. The US ambassador to Iraq,...

SACRAMENTO — A frenetic last-minute attempt to place a massive public works bond on the June ballot failed late Wednesday, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a key legislative defeat in his bid for re-election. The collapse of negotiations over the bond measure came just hours before an administrative deadline to place measures on the primary election ballot. "We ran out of time," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said, after the Senate passed an urgency bill appropriating $1 billion for levee repairs from the state's reserve fund. A partial deal had appeared possible just hours earlier after legislative leaders from both...

Hamas stands firm in talks with Russia By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 04/03/2006) An attempt by Russia to persuade Hamas to recognise Israel's right to exist and to give up its armed struggle against the Jewish state has failed. The talks between the radical Islamic group and the Russians were the first Hamas had held with any member of the international community since it swept to power in the Palestinian territories six weeks ago. Khaled Meshaal and the Hamas delegation in Moscow But the Kremlin failed to win any concessions from the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for...

Last update - 01:05 27/02/2006 Hamas lawmakers say will not recognize Israel, hold talks By Haaretz Service and agencies SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan - Two Hamas lawmakers on Sunday dismissed any future peace talks with Israel, calling past negotiations "a failed experiment" and said Arab nations had rejected U.S. pressure to force the militant Palestinian movement to moderate. Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Saeed Syiam made the comments during a gathering of Arab parliamentarians on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. Speaking to The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference, Zahar asserted that Hamas' recent upset victory in...

Posted: 21-02-2006 , 15:42 GMT The Iranian delegation which arrived in Moscow to discuss Iran's nuclear program has reportedly left without having achieving many concrete results. However, the two sides did agree on the principles of a "common formula" for the Russian plan to allow Iran to enrich uranium on its soil. The proposal, set forth by Moscow, would ensure greater oversight of Iran's controversial nuclear program in an effort to ease international tension surrounding it. "The negotiations were positive and constructive -- we talked about the principles of a common formula and reached an agreement on those principles," head...

Iran-EU talks' message worries Israel Herb Keinon and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 21, 2006 Israeli officials expressed "disappointment" Monday that the EU was holding talks in Brussels with Iran's foreign minister, saying this was the time to disengage from the Iranians, not enter into a dialogue with them. According to the officials, the visit by the Iranian foreign minister to Brussels, as well as a visit by an Iranian delegation to Russia to discuss Moscow's proposal that Russia enrich uranium for Iran, was meant to buy Teheran more time. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet on...

King of Nepal calls for talks on democracy (Filed: 20/02/2006) Nepal's King Gyanendra made his first formal approach to the country's estranged political parties yesterday, urging them to join talks and try to put democracy back on track a year after he seized absolute power and fired the government. "We, therefore, call on all willing political parties to come forth to fully activate, at the earliest, the stalled democratic process in the greater interest of the nation," King Gyanendra said in a national democracy day statement. The king also urged anti-monarchy Maoist rebels to shun violence and rejoin the mainstream....

EU hosts last-ditch talks on Iran Western powers suspect Iran's nuclear ambitions are not peaceful The EU is set to hold last-minute talks with Iran - at Tehran's request - to try to resolve a stand-off over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Iran requested the meeting with envoys from Britain, France and Germany. Foreign ministers from the EU-3 will also discuss the issue at separate talks in London with their counterparts from the US, Russia and China. On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog is due to hold urgent talks and could refer Iran to the UN Security Council. The EU and...