Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Body of Apostle Paul FOUND!

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Brace yourselves; the body of the man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament has just been found...
Vatican City, Dec. 06, 2006 (CNA) - Vatican archaeologists say they have conclusive evidence that a Roman tomb, located in St Paul Outside the Walls, the largest church in Rome after St Peter's, belonged to St. Paul.

The tomb has been long-revered by tradition as that of St. Paul; however, archaeologist Giorgio Filippi says that scientific evidence now backs up the evidence of tradition that the tomb belongs to the great Saint of the Early Church.

Filippi said his team had found a Roman sarcophagus "exactly underneath the epigraph Paulo Apostolo Mart (Paul the Apostle and Martyr) at the base of the cathedral's main altar," reported ANSA....

read full story here

Monday, November 27, 2006

Hagia Sophia - Vatican of the East


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: When the pope visits Istanbul this week, keep a close eye on him as he enters the Hagia Sophia -- what used to be the eastern version of the Vatican for the Ecumenical Patriarch. It was taken by Muslims at the end of the middle ages, was made into a mosque, and has been a museum since the 1920s. Any act of faith the pope makes, even crossing himself, while visiting there will be seen by Muslims as a papal claim on the ancient Church for Christianity. Personally, I hope he gives the place a full pontifical blessing! How can Turkey even consider becoming a member of the European Union if it does not allow religious liberty? I say let the pope say mass there if he likes, and then make sure he has police and military protection from the Turkish government if the Islamic-fascists outside decide to riot. If Turkey wants to be part of the Western world, than this is what it means. Freedom of religion is considered a sacred right in the West, if Turkish Muslims don't like it, than they had better get used to it. Otherwise, they can forget about affiliating with Europe, and join the rising Islamic Persian Empire in the middle east. Sadly, I doubt the pope will do anything provocative. This is probably more of a bridge-building mission. I doubt Benedict XVI will do anything to aggravate an already tense situation. It's times like these I long for the provocative days of John Paul II, when the pope thumbed his nose at communism in Poland, and then carried on as if to say "whadda ya gonna do about it!"

By Suna Erdem, Istanbul

The loudest boos, however, are reserved for references to the Pope’s proposed visit to Saint Sophia, the magnificent Byzantine basilica where Mehmed the Conqueror prayed after he took the city for the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It remained as a mosque until the Turkish Government turned it into a museum in the 1920s, to the annoyance of Islamists. If the Pope prays or so much as crosses himself when he enters the vast domed building, he will have staked a claim on the place, the protesters say.

Away from the scene, however, rather than complaining about the visit, secularist columnists have been upbraiding the Government about the mixed messages it has given the Pope and the lost opportunity to show that Turkey, a European Union candidate, is part of the Western world rather than a remote Islamic outpost...

read full story here

Thursday, November 16, 2006

More Protestants Admit Catholics Are Right About Birth-Control

SAN ANTONIO, TX, November 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life trend among conservative Protestants is picking up steam in the US, Newsweek reports. In 1995, David and Suzanne Bortel of San Antonio, Texas developed a website called Quiverfull.com to lend support and encouragement to couples who are totally open to as many children as God gives them. Under the name of Quiverfull, the group encourages its members to reject all forms of birth control and welcome children as "a gift and blessing from our gracious heavenly father."

The name of the group is taken from Psalm 127 of the Bible which says:

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them."

Members of Quiverfull reject not only birth control but also Natural Family Planning, a natural method and one condoned by the Catholic Church as a moral way, under serious circumstances, to avoid conception by abstaining from sexual intercourse during the fertile periods of a woman's monthly cycle.

Quiverfull's beliefs also do not condone any form of artificial conception, such as in-vitro fertilization. Mary Pride, a Quiverfull believer and author of the book, 'The Way Home', says, "You shouldn't be unnatural in going to a fertility clinic or in trying to avoid having children by regulating when to have sex with your husband."

The Quiverfull website is careful to emphasize that family size is not what makes one a Quiverfull believer. It says, "Whether your quiver is large or small, you are welcome." Regarding all children as blessings and leaving fertility in the hands of God is the Quiverfull mission.

Rejection of birth control is a growing trend among many denominations of Protestants. Many Protestants who previously espoused birth control methods, are becoming more and more alarmed by the contraceptive mentality that has overtaken the country. In today's society, sex and procreation of children are commonly viewed as two separate components of marriage. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is very convicted and outspoken on the subject. He says, "If a couple sees children as an imposition, as something to be vaccinated against, like an illness, that betrays a deeply erroneous understanding of marriage and children."

read full story here

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

St. Louis Archbishop Becomes Major Leader In U.S. Catholic Church

By Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH


BALTIMORE — St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke took center stage during debate on two controversial topics Tuesday as the nation's Roman Catholic bishops met in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting.

Burke, who is trained as a canon, or church, lawyer, submitted 10 amendments to two proposed documents, more than any other bishop except former St. Louis and current Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali, who submitted 15.

During the debate on preparing to receive Holy Communion, Burke was adamant that the bishops address an issue he's dealt with in the last few years.

In early 2004, Burke said he would deny Communion to Sen. John Kerry, who was running for the U.S. presidency and who supports abortion rights.


Burke said there was "a clear presence of scandal" in situations involving Catholic politicians who repeatedly legislate contrary to church teaching and yet receive Holy Communion. Many bishops spoke in support of Burke's words. The document was approved overwhelmingly, 201-24, with two abstentions.

The other document was a set of new guidelines for bishops interested in ministry to gay Catholics. It also was approved by a huge margin, 194-37, with one abstention.

During debate before the vote, Burke asked that a national, Vatican-approved group called Courage, which counsels gay Catholics to lead chaste lives, be added to the text as an example of an organization doing the kind of work spoken of in the guidelines. He mentioned that the Courage annual meeting was held this summer in St. Louis and said he'd met with "members and priests who serve as directors and advisers, and it confirmed my view that they are filled with hope and joy, assisting one another in leading a chaste life."

read full story here

Younger Nuns Are Getting Back Into The Habit

By TRACY SCHMIDT, LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN

For the iPod generation, it doesn't get more radical than wearing a veil. The hijab worn by traditional Muslim women might have people talking, but it's the wimple that really turns heads. And in the U.S. today, the nuns most likely to wear that headdress are the ones young enough to have a playlist.

Over the past five years, Roman Catholic communities around the country have experienced a curious phenomenon: more women, most in their 20s and 30s, are trying on that veil. Convents in Nashville, Tenn.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and New York City all admitted at least 15 entrants over the past year and fielded hundreds of inquiries. One convent is hurriedly raising funds for a new building to house the inflow, and at another a rush of new blood has lowered the median age of its 225 sisters to 36. Catholic centers at universities, including Illinois and Texas A&M, report growing numbers of women entering discernment, or the official period of considering a vocation. Career women seeking more meaning in their lives and empty-nest moms are also finding their way to convent doors.

This is a welcome turnabout for the church. As opportunities opened for women in the 1960s and '70s, fewer of them viewed the asceticism and confinements of religious life as a tempting career choice. Since 1965, the number of Catholic nuns in the U.S. has declined from 179,954 to just 67,773, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The average age of nuns today is 69. But over the past decade or so, expressing their religious beliefs openly has become hip for many young people, a trend intensified among Catholic women by the charismatic appeal of Pope John Paul II's youth rallies and his interpretation of modern feminism as a way for women to express Christian values...

read full story here
Related Stories...

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Quotes On Liturgy: from the Man who was Ratzinger

"I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is, to a large extent, due to the disintegration of the liturgy." (Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977)

"I am of the opinon ... that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It's impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent." (Salt of the Earth, 1997)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Top Catholic & Orthodox Clerics Discuss End To 1,000 Year Schism

Top Roman Catholic and Orthodox clerics declared Monday the time has come to heal the rifts between the two churches and to seek unity.

Sixty top Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox clerics gathered for a week in Belgrade, Serbia, to renew theological dialogue this week, after talks broke off six years ago.

"East and West have been estranged from each other since the 11th century," said Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas, according to The Associated Press. The schism of 1054 created the two churches of Rome and Constantinople - now Istanbul, Turkey.

"It is time to recover the ancient unity,” he reportedly said, adding that, because of the new political reality in Europe, East and West must now also meet on the political level...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is truly great news. Let's hope and pray something substantial comes out of it this time. The Church needs unity, and the Eastern Orthodox are the most likely candidates for a reasonable reunification in the near future -- mainly because their beliefs and sacraments are virtually the same as ours. Satan's strategy has always been to divide and conquer, and one reason why Islam has had such success over the last millennium is precisely because of the division between eastern and western Christianity.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Wear Your Mantilla with Pride!


Why Wear the Veil?

In ancient traditions dating back even thousands of years, the “veil” represented purity and modesty in many religions and cultures. A veil, or head covering, is both a symbol and a mystical sacrifice that invites the woman wearing it to ascend the ladder of sanctity.

When a woman covers her head in the Catholic Church it symbolises her dignity and humility before God, not men. It is no surprise women of today have so easily abandoned the tradition of the chapel veil (head covering) when the two greatest meanings of the veil are purity and humility.

The woman who covers her head in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is reminding herself that she must be humble before God. As with all outward gestures, if it is practised enough it filters down into the heart and is translated into actions that speak volumes. The “veil” covers what the Lord calls, in Holy Scripture, “the glory of the woman”, her hair. Covering her hair is a gesture the woman makes spiritually to “show” God she recognises her beauty is less than His and His Glory is far above hers.

In doing this she is reminded that virtues cannot grow in the soul without a great measure of humility. So she wears the veil to please God and remind herself to practice virtue more ardently.

There is no other piece of clothing a woman may wear to serve this function. The veil symbolically motivates the woman to “bow” her head in prayer, to lower her eyes before the great and mysterious beauty and power of God in the Blessed Sacrament. By the bowing of her head and lowering of her eyes, she is more able to worship God in the interior chapel of her heart and soul.

The veil or head covering a woman wears gives a beautiful sense of dignity to a woman. When she wears it, she identifies herself with God’s greatest creation, the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God. There was none on earth that loved and loves the Lord Jesus more than the Blessed Virgin Mary. In her love, her humility breathed forth like sweet scented incense before God. The veil she wore symbolised her purity, modesty and of course her profound humility and submission before and to God Almighty.

Those women who love Jesus must come to realise the imitation of His Mother in wearing a chapel veil (head covering) and in other virtues is a small sacrifice to make in order to grow in spiritual understanding of purity, humility and love.

The covering of a woman’s head in Church is a striking reminder of modesty, something old but lost in the society of today. Modesty and purity walk hand in hand.

When a woman veils her head she is shielding her heart to be wooed by the love of God in the Blessed Sacrament. This is a mystical ‘country’ that only the Eternal Father may enter. Her veil is like the lighted lamps of the virgins waiting for the Bridegroom, an indication that she is prepared to receive Him at a moment’s notice; an aureole of her spiritual love for the Bridegroom. Wearing the veil is an act of love of God.

Why should a woman wear a head covering or veil in church? Not to be praised, not to go along, not for tradition’s sake, not to stand out in the crowd, not because you say or I say or anybody says…But because she loves our Eucharistic Lord Jesus and it is another small sacrifice she may offer for her soul’s sake and for the sake of many souls who have no one to offer for them. Amen.

(Sr Patricia Therese, OPB)

Marylike Standards of Modesty in Dress

  1. Marylike is modesty without compromise, “like Mary”, Christ’s Mother.
  2. Marylike dresses have sleeves extending at least to the elbows (because of impossible market conditions quarter-length sleeves may be tolerated temporarily) and skirts reaching below the knees, even when seated.
  3. Marylike dresses require full coverage for the bodice, chest, shoulders and back, except for a cut-out about the neck not exceeding two inches below the neckline in front and in back, and a corresponding two inches on the shoulders.
  4. Marylike dresses do not admit as modest coverage transparent fabrics – laces, nets, organdy, nylons, etc. – unless sufficient backing is added. However, their moderate use as trimmings is acceptable.
  5. Marylike dresses avoid the improper use of flesh-coloured fabrics.
  6. Marylike dresses conceal rather than reveal the figure of the wearer; they do not emphasise, unduly, parts of the body.
  7. Marylike dresses provide full coverage, even after jacket, cape or stole are removed.

Marylike clothing is designed (as is inherent in the very definition) to clothe the body, not to reveal it. These guidelines, therefore, automatically exclude such fashions as tight sweaters and skirts, sheer blouses and sleeveless dresses. Note that, contrary to the vogue of the last fifty years, men’s attire is not appropriate for women and girls who emulate the modesty and purity of Our Blessed Mother in their dress and demeanour.

Marylike standards of dress are a guide to help instil in the hearts and souls of our youth a “sense of Christian modesty”, that beautiful fruit and flower of holy purity, the awareness of one’s integrity as a Child of God. A young woman who follows these guidelines, and who looks up to Our Lady as her ideal and model in all things, will have no problem with modesty in dress. She will never be an occasion of sin or source of embarrassment or shame to others. On the contrary, she will realise in herself the prayer of so many young women who have taken Our Lady for their model and mother: “May all who see me, see thee, O Mary!”

[Taken from the Latin Mass Society's November 2003 Newsletter.]
source

Related Stories...

Monday, August 28, 2006

CBS ADMITS: Public School Sex-Abuse and Cover-Up Dwarfs Catholic Church Scandal

Any institution that has allowed children to be harmed by predators deserves to be taken to task for it. No institution should get a pass. And no profession should get a pass. Not preachers, not priests — not even teachers.

Especially not teachers. And yet …

Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.

Hofstra University researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church.

“[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?” she said. “The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a “Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up” and by asking “Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?”

No, they didn’t. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.

As the National Catholic Register’s reporter Wayne Laugesen points out, the federal report said 422,000 California public-school students would be victims before graduation — a number that dwarfs the state’s entire Catholic-school enrollment of 143,000.

Yet, during the first half of 2002, the 61 largest newspapers in California ran nearly 2,000 stories about sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, mostly concerning past allegations. During the same period, those newspapers ran four stories about the federal government’s discovery of the much larger — and ongoing — abuse scandal in public schools....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: A few opinion columnists are starting to see the light on this one, and their big media keepers are finally letting them speak freely on the subject. Catholic pundits have been warning about this anti-Catholic media bias for years, but their warnings have fallen on deaf ears, until now. The sex-abuse cover-up scandal in the public schools has just gotten too big. It's become the "elephant in the living room" that nobody wants to talk about, but it can no longer be ignored.

As I pointed out in a previous story, the problem in the Catholic Church was not pedophilia, but rather homosexual abuse of teenagers. This fact was also neglected by the mainstream media. Likewise, when we take into consideration the non-pedophilia cases of sex-abuse in the public schools the number of cases rises exponentially. As I've said on many occasions. The Catholic sex-abuse scandal of 2003 was not reflective of a Church problem, but rather a cultural problem. Western culture is decadent and corrupted by sexual deviancy. Sexual predators naturally gravitate toward positions that put them in close contact with their prey, and give them some level of authority over them. Naturally, the position of a priest would be desirable to a sexual predator, but the position of public school teacher would be far more accessible.

Monday, July 17, 2006

How Western Christianity Failed Lebanon

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: As I pointed out in a previous story, Lebanon is the last bastion of Christianity in the middle east. A little over a thousand years ago, Christianity was the dominant religion around the whole Mediterranean, which included the areas we now call Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. That all changed with the rise of Islam, and now Christianity has been reduced to a tiny minority in all of these countries, with the exception of Lebanon. But today Lebanese Christians are not free. They’ve been controlled and manipulated by the tyrannical hand of Iran through a militant terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. So tight is Hezbollah’s grip on the Lebanese government that government officials are afraid to speak anything ill about Hezbollah, Syria or Iran. The Lebanese government is held hostage to the will of radical Islam, while Lebanese Christians can only watch in horror as their country now feels the wrath of Israel in its provoked war on Hezbollah. As I cited in a previous entry...

The priest, who works for ACN’s French branch, said that out of Lebanon’s entire population of some 4.4 million, about 3.5 million are Lebanese by birth, half of which are Christians. He added that, due to emigration, the Lebanese diaspora totals some 16 million, about 80 percent of which are Christians....

read full story here

That is a lot of Christians! To think that if just half of them were to return to Lebanon, Christianity would dominate the Lebanese landscape by a super-majority. Lebanon could potentially serve as a viable launching point for Christian evangelism into the entire middle-east. Indeed, it could have served in such a role for the last 30 years, and that’s the sad part. Though Christianity is already so well established in Lebanon, it’s evangelistic outreach is virtually zero. Why is that?

For starters, Christians in Lebanon are ill-equipped. They’re struggling to keep Lebanon from becoming an Islamic state, and that’s hard to do when the majority of its Christian population has been leaving the country for the last 30 years. Sadly, the trend for Christians in the middle east has always been to pack up and bail out. That’s been going on for over a thousand years. Honestly, who can blame them? Life is so much better for Christians in Europe and North America. Who would want to battle for the heart and soul of a tiny middle eastern state like Lebanon when such a better life can be easily acquired in the West. Why would anyone want to engage in a struggle like that when no other Christians in the world are going to help you anyway. Therein lies the tragedy. Christians in the West are aloof to the needs of Christians in the middle east. In fact, most western Christians don’t even know that such a sizable Christian population even exists in the middle east.

That’s not to say that western Christians don’t have their mind on the middle east. They most certainly do. In fact, American Evangelicals pour literally millions of dollars into middle eastern projects every year. The only problem is, it’s not to help middle eastern Christians. The dollars they generously donate are designated for Jews not Christians. Specifically Israeli Jews; everything from immigration assistance, to rebuilding the ancient Jewish Temple. Yes, western Christians (especially American Christians) are generous to their support of middle eastern interests -- it’s just that they're not Christian interests.

The phenomenon is called dispensationalism, and it’s a facet of Evangelical Christianity that relates to a common belief about the end-times. In a nutshell, dispensational beliefs center around the notion that the Christian Church and the Kingdom of God (New Israel) have absolutely nothing in common. Many Evangelicals believe the Church is nothing more than an aberration -- a 2,000 year pause in God’s time table. God’s real concern, according to dispensationalists, is reviving the old Kingdom of David (Land of Israel) in which the modern (secular) State of Israel plays an important role. They believe God intends to bring all the Jews back to the Land of Israel, destroy the Islamic ‘Dome of the Rock’ in Jerusalem, and rebuilt the ancient Jewish Temple to reinstitute the Jewish priesthood and animal sacrifices again. Only after these events occur, so say the dispensationalists, will Jesus Christ be able to return at his Second Coming. Consequently, many Evangelicals believe it is their religious duty to give money, prayers and political support to Jews within the modern State of Israel. These donations finance the return of Jews from all over the world -- particularly the old Soviet Union. They’ve also given millions to the Jewish ‘Temple Project’ which aims to set up the old Jewish priesthood and rebuild the Temple over (or near) the site of the ‘Dome of the Rock.’ Their political support of Israel is unwavering, which includes the belief that Israel should annex the disputed territories of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights for the purpose of restoring the territory of the old Davidic Kingdom. This type of Evangelical support of Jewish causes (some more radical than others) has been going on for at least 30 years now. This is the primary focus of donations to the Holy Land coming from western Christians.

Meanwhile Christians in the middle east go forgotten. Though once sizable in Palestine 50 years ago, they’ve now been reduced to a mere handful. The same goes for all regions of the middle east -- except Lebanon. In Lebanon the Christian population is still sizable enough to do something, and make a difference, if only they were properly equipped with Evangelistic materials and motivation by enthusiastic missionaries. In Lebanon, Christians could operate in relative freedom, working toward winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Jews in that volatile region. With the conversion of more middle easterners to Christianity, much of the violence in that region can end. Jesus Christ is the solution here; not war, not diplomacy, and certianly not compromise with Islam. Arabs will have little desire to kill Jews when the God they worship is a Jew -- Jesus Christ. Jews in Israel will have little to fear from Arabs bearing bibles and rosaries seeking pilgrimage to one of Christianity’s holy sites. With the conversion of Arabs to the Christian faith, radical Islam will gradually loose ground. All of this could become reality, with Lebanon as the launching point, if only western Christians (particularly American Christians) would start supporting it. If for no other reason, you would think American Christians would consider this for their own benefit after 9/11/2001. The truly sad part is that all of this could have been happening in the decades leading up to this century, but alas, it didn’t happen that way.

The lure of dispensationalism is strong for Evangelicals. It’s hard to support your Christian brethren in a place like Lebanon, when it’s much more inviting to hasten the return of Christ by importing as many Jews as you can to Israel, and then rebuild a Temple that’s sat in ruins for 2,000 years. Even if it means that doing so will probably inflame the Muslim world and ignite yet another global jihad.

When the bombs stop falling, and Lebanon is finally liberated from the evil hand of Hezbollah, (regardless if this ignites World War III), what will western Christians do? Will American Evangelicals finally wake up and smell the coffee? Will they finally realize that while they’ve been fantasizing about hastening the return of Christ, their donated money has been squandered on Jewish dreams that have no hope of becoming reality, or bringing peace to a region that needs it so badly? Will they finally realize that their money, prayers and political support will be better spent on Christians trying to evangelize the middle east? Will they turn their attention toward rebuilding Lebanon and equipping Christians there for the missionary work ahead? Maybe it’s time western Christians think about doing what Christ told us to do, “go make disciples of all men,” instead of trying to fulfill man’s interpretation of God’s end-time prophecies.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Is the Tridentine Mass A Key to Christian Unity?

The western Tridentine Mass and the eastern Divine Liturgy side-by-side


Will classical liturgy aid reunion with Eastern Orthodox?

"Similarly, it must not be forgotten that from the beginning the Churches of the East have had a treasury from which the Western Church has drawn extensively in liturgical practice, spiritual tradition, and law" — Unitatis Redintegratio, November 21, 1964.

Is it truly feasible that the "freeing of the classical Roman rite of liturgy" is a small part of the Pope's overall plan for paving the way for the reuniting of the Latin Church with the separated Churches of the East?

Bishop Fernando Rifan, who heads up the Apostolic Administration of St. John Mary Vianney in Campos, Brazil, said he believed a further liberalization of the liturgical rite of Pope St. Pius V would aid ecumenical relations with the East.

"I really think that the Traditional Latin Mass widely and freely available would be, among many other good reasons, a great benefit in the field of the true ecumenism with the Orthodox," he said. "This would be primarily because the Traditional Liturgy is much more similar to the Oriental [Eastern] rites in the aspect of the sacred, veneration, and beauty."

Bishop Rifan and his priestly society achieved full canonical recognition and regularization with the Church on January 18, 2002.

It is hoped by many traditionalists and the Holy See that the positive example of this group of priests, which offers all the sacraments exclusively according to the ancient rites, will serve as a model for other traditionalist priestly societies such as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), to potentially reach full regularization with the Church.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, a notably obedient son of the Church, particularly with applying Pope John Paul II's request in Ecclesia Dei Adflicta to be "wide and generous" in allowing the Classical Roman liturgy for those Catholics who desire it, agrees with Bishop Rifan's assessment, but with a nuance.

"I wouldn't think that the Holy Father would be doing this simply as a strategy [for ecumenical relations with the Orthodox], but I do think it will be an effect of a restoration or in the 'reform of the reform' of the liturgy," Archbishop Burke said.

"It seems to me for the Eastern rites, and for those of the Orthodox Churches, the reform of the liturgy after the council and the concrete expression is so stripped of the transcendent, of the sacral elements, it is difficult for them to recognize its relationship with their Eucharistic Liturgies," he said.

Archbishop Burke agreed that the Eastern Churches would most likely identify more readily with the Classical Roman rite of liturgy, and its similarities with their own Divine Liturgies, than the Novus Ordo liturgy.

"It would be easier for them to see the unity, the oneness in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, by a rite of the Mass, just limiting ourselves now to talking about the Holy Mass, that it was richer in those dimensions — the elements of the transcendent — the symbols of the transcendent element of Christ — Christ in action in the Mass — the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary," Archbishop Burke said....

read full story here

Monday, June 26, 2006

Pope John Paul II Was Jewish


The Pope was Jewish says historian

A MANCHESTER historian has claimed that Pope John Paul II was Jewish.

Yaakov Wise says his study into the the maternal ancestry of Karol Josez Wojtyla (John Paul II's real name) has revealed startling conclusions.

Mr Wise, a researcher in orthodox Jewish history and philosophy, said the late Pope's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all probably Jewish and came from a small town not far from Krakow.

The Pope was a priest and cardinal archbishop in the Polish city before his election to the papacy.

Mr Wise said: "According to orthodox Judaism, a person's Jewish identity is passed down through the maternal line. I saw a photograph of the Pope's mother and I showed it to people who didn't know who she was...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Somehow I'm not surprised by this. It is now common knowledge that Karol Wojtyla fell in love with a Jewish woman prior to enrolling in the seminary. Had she not been taken away by the Nazis, it is very probable that Wojtyla would have married and had children with her. Sadly, she was taken away, and Wojtyla's sadness over this eventually led him to the priesthood, where he would find comfort in serving God. This makes a lot of sense to me. The man's mother was Jewish (which officially makes him Jewish), and she died when he was very young. Then he fell in love with a woman just like his mom. I find it interesting that Pope John Paul II (Wojtyla), during his 27 year papacy, fostered within the Church a revived devotion to Mary -- a Jewish mother.

Jewish popes are nothing new to the Catholic Church. We know the first ten popes were Jewish (especially St. Peter), and it is speculated that many more popes were Jewish as well...

  • Pope Zephyrin (199-217)
  • Pope Siricus (384-399)
  • Pope Hormidas (514-523)
  • Pope Analdet II (1130-1138)
  • Pope Callistus III (1455-1458)
  • Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)
  • Pope Pius III (1503)
  • Pope Leo X (1513-1521)
  • Pope Clement VII (1523-1534)
  • Pope Paul III (1534-1549)
  • Pope St. Pius V (1566-1572)
  • Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585)
  • Pope Pius XI (1922-1939)
  • Pope Pius XII (1939-1958)
  • Pope John XXIII (1958-1963)
  • Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
  • Pope John Paul II (1978-2005)

Monday, May 22, 2006

Vatican Calls American Liturgy "Defective" -- Demands Reform

Vatican prods US bishops on liturgical translations

In a letter to the president of the US bishops' conference, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship has strongly underlined the importance of proper translations for liturgical texts.

Cardinal Francis Arinze warned Bishop William Skylstad that his office could not approve new translations unless they conform to the principles set forth in Liturgiam Authenticam, the Vatican instruction of March 2001. The cardinal also said that existing texts must be brought into conformity with Liturgiam Authenticam, and the US bishops will not receive permission to continue using defective texts...

source

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Though my knowledge of Latin is minimal, even I can tell there is a substantial difference between the original Latin text of the modern mass, and the English counterpart. This exists in many places, and I've always felt that something was lost in the English translation we currently use today. I'll give you just one small example. During Mass, when the priest says to the congregation "The Lord be with you," the response of the congregation is "And also with you." However, this response is NOT what it says in the actual Latin text. The official Latin response is "Et cum spiritu tuo," which is more accurately translated into English as "And with your spirit." The argument of the English mass translators is that the response "And also with you," is a more dynamic translation that supposedly captures the meaning of the original Latin text more accurately, even though it's not technically an accurate translation of the proper liturgical response. A lot of people buy into this argument, but I'm not one of them. Catholic Americans are not stupid. They are perfectly capable of understanding that when the text says "And with your spirit" it is a reciprocation of the priest's blessing "The Lord be with you." DUH! The American English translators have no need to 'dumb it down' for us. In doing so they effectively cut out a mystical element of the liturgy, which elevates the mind up into spiritual thinking, and they insult our intelligence.

The prodding letter from Cardinal Arinze to Bishop Skylstad was a response to an argument the American Bishops were using in an attempt to keep the current defective liturgy, even though the Vatican had instructed them to reform it five years ago. The gist of their argument was that Catholic Americans have been using the defective liturgy for so long, that it would be too hard on them to change it now. What a crock! The Vatican's polite response from Cardinal Arinze spelled it out plain an clear. It essentially said the current English translation is "defective." There is no excuse for that. Now fix it!

It will be interesting to see how long it takes while the U.S. bishops drag their feet on this one.

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Church To Sue Ron Howard and Dan Brown?

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Can you say "libel?" Can you say "slander?" Some Church officials are calling for a massive lawsuit against Dan Brown for his fictional book "The Di Vinci Code." The fictional novel implies that some of its background information is factual, and therein lies the basis of a potential lawsuit. Much of this background material accuses the Catholic Church, and Opus Dei, of a massive cover-up involving murder, genocide, and conspiracy to commit crimes against persons and people. In addition, this same background material implies that Christianity itself is a lie, and that Jesus Christ was anything but the the Son of God. The same are calling for a similar suit against Ron Howard for failing to provide a disclaimer on his film by the same name, which is based on Brown's novel. Surly, if the subject of the novel was Microsoft, instead of the Catholic Church, there would be legal hell to pay. Maybe it's an idea who's time has come. Perhaps it's time Christians start flexing a little legal muscle. This following story will elaborate...

Cardinal urges legal action against Da Vinci Code

In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code", a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."

Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.

"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.

"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.

"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.

A transcript of the documentary, due to be screened in Rome later this month just before the release of the film version of the best-selling book at the Cannes Film Festival, was made available to Reuters.

The book, written by Dan Brown, has sold more than 40 million copies.

The novel is an international murder mystery centered on attempts to uncover a secret about the life of Christ that a clandestine society has tried to protect for centuries.

The central tenet of the book is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children.

BLASPHEMY

"Those who blaspheme Christ and get away with it are exploiting the Christian readiness to forgive and to love even those who insult us. There are some other religions which if you insult their founder they will not be just talking. They will make it painfully clear to you," Arinze said.

This appeared to be a reference to protests by Muslims around the world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Last month, another broadside against "The Da Vinci Code" was launched by Archbishop Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year.

Amato urged a boycott of the film and Arinze, like his fellow cardinal, also blasted the credibility of the book.

"'The Da Vinci Code' presents (Christianity) wrongly ... any film produced on the basis of that book is already in error from the word go, no matter how interesting it might appear," Arinze said.

Catholic group Opus Dei has told Sony Pictures that putting a disclaimer on the movie stressing it is a work of fiction would be a welcome show of respect toward the Church...

read full story here

Monday, March 27, 2006

Pope Says; Christianity is a Relationship, not an Ideology

Rome, Mar. 27 (CWNews.com) - Christianity is not an ideology, but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) told parishioners at a church in the eastern section of Rome on March 26...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This one should please the Evangelicals out there. It's something that most practicing Catholics already know. Catholicism is the epitome of that relationship with Jesus Christ.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Europe To Fall To Islam By 2050

As I've said in this blog before, western civilization has only one hope of survival -- traditional Christian values! That's because traditional Christian values includes belief in larger traditional families, the rejection of abortion, and shunning of artificial birth control. Because western civilization has largely rejected traditional Christianity, these values have fallen by the wayside, and as a result materialism has prevailed. It's an undisputed fact that materialism results in smaller families, more abortions and widespread use of artificial birth control. Demographically this reduces the number of Christians, Jews and Secularists in western society -- making plenty of room for Muslims to move in and take over.

To all proud European and American Liberals out there, I've got some advice: You better make sure the few kids you have brush up on Arabic, because it won't be long before they'll be needing it. It might be a good idea to invest in the burka market too, as it won't be long before it skyrockets in the western fashion industry...

European Mullah Claims Islam Will Win

Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

"We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims.

"Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes," Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries are producing 3.5 children.

"By 2050, 30 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim."

He claimed that "our way of thinking... will prove more powerful than yours." He loosely defined "western thinking" as formed by the values held by leaders of western or non-islamic nations. Its "materialism, egoism and wildness" has altered Christianity, he claimed....

read full story here

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Rabbi Calls "Hitler's Pope" A Righteous Man


Rabbi Says Pius XII Deserves "Righteous" Title
David Dalin Makes Case in "Myth of Hitler's Pope"


ROME, JAN. 17, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A U.S. rabbi says that the title "Righteous among the Nations" should be conferred on Pope Pius XII for his efforts to defend the Jews during World War II.

Rabbi David Dalin, a professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University in Florida, makes his case in his book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope," published by Regnery.

The work shows that, in the course of history, many popes defended and protected the Jews from accusations and persecutions. It also recounts many incidents which show how Pius XII saved Jews from Nazi persecution.

Rabbi Dalin quotes authoritative studies by Jewish authors, such as Pinchas Lapide's "Rome and the Jews" and "Pius XII and the Jews," written in 1963 by Joseph Lichten, a member of the Anti-Defamation League.

The rabbi also quotes Hungarian historian Jeno Levai who, in the face of accusations of silence against Pius XII, wrote "Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy: Pope Pius XII Did Not Remain Silent. Reports, Documents and Records from Church and State Archives," published in English in 1968. Robert M.W. Kempner, the deputy U.S. counsel during the Nuremberg trials, wrote the introduction to that book...

read full story here

As I pointed out in a recent editorial below, we are living in a time of historical revisionism. For years people have been taught to believe that Pope Pius XII assisted Hitler (through silence) in the Holocaust. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the historical records tell the story in full. Pope Pius XII actually worked to save the Jewish people from the Holocaust. Those who have been led to believe otherwise are victims of propaganda, which has been spread to defame the Catholic Church, and divert some blame for the Holocaust away from Hitler and Nazi Germany. The propaganda against Pope Pius XII is specifically designed to make the papacy look bad, and Hitler look not so bad. When Jews subscribe to it, it victimizes them twice, because not only does it shift blame away from the regime that tried to destroy them, but it also causes them to think badly of one of the men who tried to help them. It's time the truth be told, and I applaud Rabbi Dalin for taking up the cause. Pope Pius XII will be canonized as a Saint one day, and when he is, the primary reason for his canonization will be the aid and comfort he gave to nearly 1 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.