Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, blasted Spain’s abortion laws during a July 20 lecture in Madrid. Referring to the 47 million surgicial abortions that take place annually, Cardinal Cañizares called abortion “something unprecedented in the history of humanity.” Emphasizing the penalty of “immediate excommunication,” the cardinal added, “This practice is a crime, the killing of a human life, an innocent, weak and defenseless human being. Is there any other greater atrocity?”
Abortion is a “very grave” problem, he said, and humanity needs to be aware that the greatest crisis we are suffering is the “47 million legal abortions” that, according to the World Organization of Health, take place each year. “This is something unprecedented in the history of humanity,” the cardinal noted.
Regarding the question of the excommunication of health care workers who perform abortions, Cardinal Canizares reminded that there is such a thing as “immediate excommunication.” “This practice is a crime, the killing of a human life, an innocent, weak and defenseless human being. Is there any other greater atrocity?” he asked.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Vatican newspaper praises French Protestant John Calvin
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Vatican newspaper Friday praised influential French Protestant John Calvin, a critic of the Roman Catholic Church, hailing him an "extraordinary" figure. The Osservatore Romano, on the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth, said it recognised the theologian as a Christian who had a major impact on European life.
"Considering the strength of arguments against him, we think it necessary to point out that Calvin is a Christian," the daily paper said of the man who played a major role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The paper ranked Calvin alongside 18th century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau for his influence on modern European life. The pair were the "only two men who influenced some Europeans to change course and were strong enough to lead them in a new direction," it wrote. The "mark left by the reformer was deep," the Osservatore Romano continued, praising Calvinism as a "ingenious creation" which resisted "all the changes or revolutions of modern life."
Calvin, who lived in the 16th century, broke with the Roman Catholic Church and became one of its most ardent critics and helped the Reformation to take root across Europe. He was a contemporary of the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. Calvin's major work is The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) which advocates a strict form of Protestantism.
"Considering the strength of arguments against him, we think it necessary to point out that Calvin is a Christian," the daily paper said of the man who played a major role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The paper ranked Calvin alongside 18th century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau for his influence on modern European life. The pair were the "only two men who influenced some Europeans to change course and were strong enough to lead them in a new direction," it wrote. The "mark left by the reformer was deep," the Osservatore Romano continued, praising Calvinism as a "ingenious creation" which resisted "all the changes or revolutions of modern life."
Calvin, who lived in the 16th century, broke with the Roman Catholic Church and became one of its most ardent critics and helped the Reformation to take root across Europe. He was a contemporary of the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. Calvin's major work is The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) which advocates a strict form of Protestantism.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pope alone will make final decision on Pius XII cause, Fr. Lombardi states
Vatican City, Jun 22, 2009 / 10:35 am (CNA).- Comments made last week by the priest charged with heading up Pope Pius XII's cause for beatification have caused the Vatican's press director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, to issue a statement refuting the idea that the Church is holding back the process because of Jewish concerns.
Fr. Peter Gumpel S.J., the priest leading Pius XII's beatification process, said at a conference in Rome last week that Pope Benedict XVI was "impressed" by concerns that Jewish relations could be marred by a declaration of the World War II era Pope as a Servant of God.
According to ANSA, Fr. Gumpel said that Jewish leaders had told Benedict XVI recently that "relations between the Catholic church and Jews would be definitively and permanently compromised" by moving forward with Pius' cause.
Fr. Peter Gumpel S.J., the priest leading Pius XII's beatification process, said at a conference in Rome last week that Pope Benedict XVI was "impressed" by concerns that Jewish relations could be marred by a declaration of the World War II era Pope as a Servant of God.
According to ANSA, Fr. Gumpel said that Jewish leaders had told Benedict XVI recently that "relations between the Catholic church and Jews would be definitively and permanently compromised" by moving forward with Pius' cause.
Fr. Lombardi reacted quickly to the comments by emphasizing that “the signing of decrees concerning causes of beatification is the exclusive prerogative of the Pope, who must be left completely free in his evaluations and decisions.”
The director of the Vatican press office also warned against interference in the Pope's decision making process, saying, "If the Pope believes that study and reflection upon the cause of Pius XII are to be further prolonged, his position must be respected without unjustified and inappropriate interventions."
Accusations have been made that Pope Pius XII did not do enough to save Jews who were being killed and persecuted by the Nazis. Despite evidence to the contrary, some Jews and historians claim that the late Pope was silent in the face of the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders have asked that Pope Benedict open the Vatican's secret archives from the time period of Pius XII before any move is made on the late Pontiff's cause. Archivists responded by saying that it will take more time to catalog the 16 million documents from Pius' pontificate.
The director of the Vatican press office also warned against interference in the Pope's decision making process, saying, "If the Pope believes that study and reflection upon the cause of Pius XII are to be further prolonged, his position must be respected without unjustified and inappropriate interventions."
Accusations have been made that Pope Pius XII did not do enough to save Jews who were being killed and persecuted by the Nazis. Despite evidence to the contrary, some Jews and historians claim that the late Pope was silent in the face of the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders have asked that Pope Benedict open the Vatican's secret archives from the time period of Pius XII before any move is made on the late Pontiff's cause. Archivists responded by saying that it will take more time to catalog the 16 million documents from Pius' pontificate.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Abstinence of Meat on Fridays
Most Catholics think that Vatican II did away with the requirement of not eating meat on any Friday of the year. Most think it is now just Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent that we cannot eat meat.
This is what the new Code of Canon Law brought out in 1983 says about the matter:
Canon 1251
"Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday."
Canon Law still requires that Catholics not eat meat on Fridays!
Of course, most Episcopal Conferences have determined that, instead of abstaining from meat, Catholics may perform an act of penance of their choosing. But, do you ever remember to abstain from a particular food or do some other penance on Fridays? And, at any rate, the main rule is still to abstain from meat on Fridays.
It's very interesting to note that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (the United States' Episcopal Conference) is currently debating whether to rescind the determination and require all Catholics to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. The Bishops are considering that a return to meatless Fridays for all Catholics would be of benefit because:
This is what the new Code of Canon Law brought out in 1983 says about the matter:
Canon 1251
"Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday."
Canon Law still requires that Catholics not eat meat on Fridays!
Of course, most Episcopal Conferences have determined that, instead of abstaining from meat, Catholics may perform an act of penance of their choosing. But, do you ever remember to abstain from a particular food or do some other penance on Fridays? And, at any rate, the main rule is still to abstain from meat on Fridays.
It's very interesting to note that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (the United States' Episcopal Conference) is currently debating whether to rescind the determination and require all Catholics to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. The Bishops are considering that a return to meatless Fridays for all Catholics would be of benefit because:
- It is an expression of one's Catholicity; and
- In reparation for the grave sin of abortion.
'Anti-Liturgical Heresy' by Dom Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes (1805-1875)
Since the liturgical reform had for one of its principal aims the abolition of actions and formulas of mystical signification, it is a logical consequence that its authors had to vindicate the use of the vernacular in divine worship. This is in the eyes of sectarians a most important item. Cult is no secret matter. The people, they say, must understand what they sing. Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the hearts of all the enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit.
The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people. At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches. The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door. Apart form the sermons; he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass. Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn’t hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning.
We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace.
The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people. At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches. The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door. Apart form the sermons; he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass. Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn’t hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning.
We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Chairman of The Conference of The German Bishops denies Christ's Redemption!
“According to the chairman of the Catholic bishops' conference of Germany, the death of Jesus Christ was not a redemptive act of God to liberate human beings from the bondage of sin and open the gates of heaven. The Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, known for his liberal views, publicly denied the fundamental Christian dogma of the sacrificial nature of Christ's death in a recent interview with a German television station. Zollitsch said that Christ "did not die for the sins of the people as if God had provided a sacrificial offering, like a scapegoat."
For the full original article, click the link below-
Friday, April 24, 2009
What does God know about loneliness?
Courtesy of Servant of God 'Archbishop'Fulton J. Sheen
In this age of psychiatry, there are two or three conclusions that our world is drawn which are false. One is that we never have a tension. Certainly we have tensions, we must have them! We've got body & spirit, and they go in opposite directions; we have two different landing fields. Certain tensions are normal, if we didn't have them we would be abnormal. And then...we're lonseome! Sure...there's a metaphysical loneliness, perfection is not here, this is not our home! I've got soemthing that I want in my heart that nothing on this Earth can satisfy...and nothing can satisfy you either. And we know it very well.
So what's this...what's the cause of this loneliness? What are we looking for? Well, we say we're looking for God...yes! And I know what you will answer..."What does God know about loneliness?" Now that's a good question...that's a good question. What does he know about loneliness?
Does he know anything about the loneliness, for example, of a babe in Judea, who has no better home than just straw? Does God know anything about the loneliness of a mother who has to gather up a child, in order to escape a dictator, and fly halfway across Africa? Does God know anything about the loneliss of a man who's born on the wrong side of the tracks...who was isolated socially from people, simply because his hands are callous from common labor...and is denied decent society.
Sure, does God know anything about that kind of loneliness, for example in which one is expelled from a city, disowned by one's own people. Does he know anything about the loneliness of being deserted by friends? Does he even know anything about the loneliness, of feeling doubts, doubts even about religion, doubts even to when cries out, "Why hast thou abandoned me?" Does God know anything about these things? Yes, those are good questions.
Now suppose there was a figure that came into all of this loneliness...and so immersed himself in it, that he would not immunize himself from it, that he would not cut himself off from it. Would for example be the only one on the battlefield that was whole, and not help any of the wounded? And so if there was a figure that came into this world of ours, and refused to isolate himself from loneliness, and felt it so much that blood poured out from his body...felt loneliness so much, that as if all the robberies of the world were thrust into his hands, as if he himself were guilty...and felt all loathsome carnality so much, that his flesh was hanging from him like purple rags.
Suppose someone came into this world, and went into all this loneliness, took it all! And was not overcome by it, but conquered it all!
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