HAMMONTON -- The 16th of July is a special day in this predominately Italian town in western Atlantic County.

A tradition started 133 years ago continued here last Wednesday as a solemn procession paid homage to the Blessed Mother during the feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
    
A statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was ushered out of St. Joseph Church on Third Street shortly after 4 p.m., the last of more than a dozen statues wheeled through the streets.

For about three hours, the procession continued on streets surrounding the church.

Joe and Gina Mastazi of Paulsboro have come to feast day for the past 27 years. As in the past, they were easy to spot, clad in their red, white and green outfits.

"Ten years ago, my mother died on the morning of the feast day. The last thing she said to me was to put $10 on the Blessed Mother for me," said Joe Mastazi, who scoped out a nice shady area two blocks down from the church. "It makes it even more important."

Gina remembered coming to the festival as a child with her parents. She recalled enjoying watching the procession go by, something she enjoyed again this year.

"I didn't like the rides too much," Gina said.

Though the crowd for the beginning of the procession was sparse, the festival area quickly filled up around 7 p.m. as hundreds of visitors converged to enjoy the festivities and the 10 p.m. fireworks show.

"It was just unbelievable," said George Campanella, president of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, the group that organizes the weeklong celebration here each July. "Maybe it was the economy, the price of gas. It was just great to have that many people back here. Hopefully, they'll be back here when we have the 134rd celebration next year."

The feast is the longest- running religious celebration of its type in the country. It's a tradition around here and one that the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, the group of 50 men that organizes the celebration, takes pride in keeping alive.

I for one would like to see some Carmel themed rides.

1. Dark Night of the Soul roller coaster.  This could be one of those indoor covered rides like Space Mountain and so totally dark inside.  I could easily imagine a purification of the senses section and to finish the ride you have to love God without any spiritual benefits.  Though the ride could be quite long for most of us.
2. Ascent of Mt. Carmel ride.  You ride to the top of Mt. Carmel with a light guiding you on a happy night where you leave your cares "forgotten among the lilies."
3. The Interior Castle Funhouse.  The seven mansions of the interior castle have quite the potential to offer interesting experiences.  Obviously the the gate by which to enter the Interior Castle Funhouse  is prayer and meditation. The first mansion is full of a thousand preoccupations and you slowly move onward to the last mansion if God has given you the grace to do so.
4. St. Therese Ball.  You enter one of those old American Gladiator steel cage balls where you get kicked, thrown to the ground, left in a corner, or pressed to Jesus' heart.
5. The concessions would obviously be Karmel Candy and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity Chocolate *.

I would certainly invest in such an effort and would be sure to buy St. Simon Stock in it.

* Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity suffered from Addison's disease and as a result could only eat certain things.  One of them was quite a penance to her Carmelite soul in that she often had to sustain herself using chocolate.

"Look at me I have been automatically excommunicated and it is reserved to the Holy See to lift it."

The annoying thing about these faux ordinations is that they are hard to parody when they go to so much effort to parody themselves.

Come on tie-dye stoles?  Plus exactly what part of the ordination ceremony calls for the above rubric?  

The blankets are a pretty tacky detail.  Them seem more fitting to send with your kindergarten kid for nap time.  Seen plenty of pictures of priest being ordained and don't think I ever saw one with them prostrate on a blanket.  

But priestess fashion is not the issue.  I do feel sad for these deluded women and those who support them in their delusion.

The Womenpriests organization says their ordinations are legitimate because Catholic bishops in good standing ordained their first members to become female priests and bishops. Therefore, they argue, the women being ordained can claim apostolic succession, or direct descent from Jesus's apostles.

That reminds me of some news I have for you.  The other day three aliens each from a different race informed me that I had been specifically selected to be the Ruler of Earth and Guardian of our Solar System (take that Al Gore!).  In fact I am now 23rd in line to succeed his Magnificence and Emperor of the Galaxy.  Though there is some dispute on this from some of the other alien races so I can't tell you what aliens selected me. 

"We are not intimidated. We feel so strongly."

Oh you feel strongly?  Excuse me that defeats all of my arguments relying on Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.

I'm feeling such joy, I could rise up," Lee said in an interview after the ceremony. She pointed out that she was wearing a cross from Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics.

No one will be surprised to find that these women don't just reject this one teaching.  Like I said last week - scratch a dissident and you will find someone upset about some area of the Church's teaching on sexual morality.  If women are being called to the priesthood then why is it only dissident women that are being called?  Where are the women being ordained that have a preference for the extraordinary form of the Mass?  Why do they always have a preference for Hippy stoles and not beautifully embroidered ones.  Where are the traditionalist women priestesses who are being called?

Plus how comes the "women's ordination movement" doesn't have any seminaries?  They just ordain women without any real preparation. Not everyone who enters a real seminary goes on to discern that they are indeed called to the priesthood, so why it is that these women are infallible?  Besides it is the Church that is part of the discernment process and not just an individual choice no matter how much strongly you feel about it.  The way the "women's ordination movement" has approached the whole thing is more like a show and that they don't really believe what they are doing in the first place.

The women did not pledge obedience or chastity - the promises made by Roman Catholic priests - and one was introduced to the congregation by her daughter; another by her husband.

Well exactly who would they promise obedience to other then themselves.  Would it be the "bishop" from California "ordained" in Germany who "ordained" them in Boston? On a side note I am running out of sneer quote ink for this post.   Whatever happened to having three bishops involved in an ordination as insurance?  I guess one fake bishop is just as invalid as three fake bishops.

Though since this whole thing was done in a Protestant church they should all feel right at home.  If you have decided that you are above the Pope and the bishops in union with him and have thrown out Catholic eccelesiology then congratulations on becoming Protestant.

But the women who participated in the event, along with the several hundred people who spent nearly three hours in the sweltering Church of the Covenant, said they rejected the excommunications and believed that the women had been validly ordained.

Wow I ought to try that some time.  Officer I reject your ticket and I believe I was driving under the speed limit.

Oh well what do I know after all I am only a Newsweek reporter.

The group says the women who are ordained remain loyal members of the church and will act as priests whether they are excommunicated or not.

A cool story via Fr. Longenecker.

A lot of WYD stories have concentrated on it as a Catholic Woodstock, here is a different one.

Priests have set up emergency confessionals as thousands of pilgrims surge on to Randwick Racecourse - sleeping out in a vigil ahead of tomorrow's final mass.

Priests have taken plastic chairs and are sitting on the ground to take the "overwhelming" number of young people looking to confess their sins.

"There's too much. I came at one o'clock and there were so many people here I thought I had to help the other priests," said Father Bernard Speringer, a priest from Austria.

"The sisters had planned (for confession) but they were overwhelmed by so many.

Also not covered are the catechetical session that go on during the day.

Nancy C. Brown posts a copy of the letter Dale Ahlquist wrote to the New Yorker after a recent article tried to call G.K. and anti-Semite and that his fans should not defend against this charge.

Dr. Paul Camarata of the SaintCast podcast has outdid himself in the 100th episode of the SaintCast.

Part Pirates of Penzance with what I think of as a touch of Groucho Marx.

Here is a picture of me with Dr. Paul Camarata taken by Fr. Bill Kessler (the Technopriest). Dr. Paul is the left. This was taken at the Catholic New Media Celebration where I was on a blogging panel with Amy Welborn and Mark Shea that was moderated by Lisa Hendley.

I haven't commented on the whole Professor P.Z. Myers debacle, but I might as well add my two cents.  I am sure that when I was an atheist I would have applauded him for what he is doing because I was just as ignorant as he is, if not more.

"I have to do something," he said in the interview. "I'm not going to just let this disappear. It's just so darned weird that they're demanding that I offer this respect to a symbol that means nothing to me. Something will be done. It won't be gross. It won't be totally tasteless, but yeah, I'll do something that shows this cracker has no power. This cracker is nothing."

This only shows that this shows he has zero understanding of what he is trying to mock.  That he has no familiarity with the concepts involved or even a basic understanding of Christianity and theology.  If he did he would know his little desecration demonstration proves nothing. 

Satan tried to tempt Jesus and his reply from Deuteronomy was "You shall not put the Lord your God to the Test." This is precisely what the professor is attempting.  That Jesus who would not come down off the Cross will in this case do something to prevent his being abused in this manner.   That somehow we can make God appear at will by threatening to do something evil.

So the professor is trying to do some materialist's demonstration that only proves God's love for us if it proves anything at all.  That he loves us so much that he will allow us to abuse him in his sacramental form.  He felt the weight of our sins in the Agony of the Garden and continues to bear the weight of our sins that good may prevail. There is Eucharistic desecration daily as people receive Communion unworthily and even those of us who believe can receive Communion can do it without the preparation Communion deserves.  Yet he allows alls of this and continues to give us graces to bring us out of of spiritual stupor.

As an ex-atheist I can totally understand P.Z. Myers attitude and ignorance and the only outrage he invokes in me is a turn to prayer for him. So I won't be making any death threats, just life-after-death threats in that I am praying for him and hope to see him on day in the Beatific Vision.

See more at American Papist.

Earlier this week I was sent a story about and Anglican priestess with gnostic tendencies and for homosexual acts who was giving a conference on "centering prayer" at St. Olaf's in Minneapolis. I didn't post on it since I figured Archbishop Niestedt would take care of the problem. Faithful Rebel reports that this is indeed what has now happened and the class is being moved to an Episcopal church.

BOSTON--When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck would seek comfort in the churches to satisfy his spiritual needs and remind him of childhood Sundays spent at Holy Trinity in his hometown of Bloomington, Ill.

Even after moving back to the United States last Christmas to play Major League Soccer--a dream of his, but just one of them--Hilgenbrinck felt the pull of his religion.

"I felt called to something greater," Hilgenbrinck said. "At one time I thought that call might be professional soccer. In the past few years, I found my soul is hungry for something else.

"I discerned, through prayer, that it was calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not want this call to pass me by."
Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

"It's not that I'm ready to leave soccer. I still have a great passion for the game," he said in a telephone interview. "I wouldn't leave the game for just any other job. I'm moving on for the Lord. I want to do the will of the Lord, I want to do what he wants for me, not what I want to do for myself."

There is a new site  with a group blog that will feature Danille Bean, Rachel Balducci, Lisa Hendey, Rebecca Teti, and Arwen Mosher so with that line up promises to be quite worthwhile.

Family life is hard work, and those of us who strive to live Catholic family lives can face unique challenges. As we help each other along the way, we hope that our magazine and blog will affirm something that is already written on every mother's heart: That motherhood is a privilege. That family life is a joy. And that though being a wife and mother is likely to be the single most challenging thing any of us ever do, it is also likely to be the single most important thing any of us ever do as well. We invite you to pray, laugh, cry, and share the good and the bad right along with us. We hope that you will join us as we work toward building a Christ-centered community where we can encourage and support one another in the joyful, challenging, important work of Catholic living

The blog of Family Life International New Zealand called Semper Vita is also fairly new and concerns philosophical musings on life, sexuality, marriage and family

LAKELAND, Fla. - Todd Bentley believes God acts through him to cure cancer, heal the deaf and raise the dead.

So do hundreds of thousands of people who have visited his raucous revival meeting, now in its third month and broadcast nightly from a huge tent in the middle of Florida.

The 32-year-old Canadian, tattooed to the fingers and neck, puts a palm to the forehead of the sick, desperate and faithful. Bentley yells "Bam!" they collapse and he proclaims them cured. Attendees dance in the aisles, shout to Heaven, laugh, shake violently and cry.

If Christians are going to follow the Food Network as a lead than I least propose that we have:

• Iron Theologian.  Each week two theologians face off in the debate arena to determine whose theology reigns supreme or more accurately whose theology more illuminates the supreme being.
• 30 Minute Catechesis: Each week the host Viva Christo Rey goes through the Catechism.  Viva is talented at presenting the faith in bite size chunks.
• Grape Expectations: Reviews of sacramental wine are presented each week.
• License to Grill: Hosted by St. Lawrence.
• $40 a Day: A show about how to actually run a parish when parishioners only throw a buck in the collection box.

At St. Louis Catholic.

At St. Louis Catholic.

While the media was all over Tim Russert's Catholic faith it has become a media black hole concerning Catholic convert Tony Snow.

A poll conducted by social networking website MySpace has branded the Catholic Church "out of touch" with young people, just ahead of its World Youth Day event in Sydney.

Of course what most of these poll indicate is that people think that the Church is out of touch with the morality of the modern culture, that it is not an echo chamber for current societal ethics. The only thing the Church needs to be in touch with is the Holy Spirit.

Though a poll such as this also points out the work the Church has to do in evangelization since this wrong perception needs to be addressed to be able to spread the Gospel.  But no poll ever asks if people are out of touch with the Catholic Church.

The Church often gets the rap that all it talks about is sex and that it is fixated on the issue, when the truth is that it is her distracter that are hung up on this.  The protesters at World Youth Day are not wearing shirts attacking the Church for its teaching on helping the poor.  No protest signs against loving your neighbor.  There is no "1, 2, 3, 4, we don't want saints no more." No all of the protests are about sex in on form or another.  Whether it is passing out condoms or homosexual ranting against the Pope calling him a homophobe the topic is always sex. Scratch a dissenter and you will always find someone upset about something in the Church's teaching on sexual morality.

I do think there is something we need for all World Youth Days.  A massive incinerator at the entrance points.  That way people can grab all them condoms being given out and anti-Catholic tracts and immediately dispose of them.  Let our enemies waste their money so that they will have less of it.

A reader sent me a link to an ESPN video on the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in Atlanta and like all in their order do great work.  The Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer blog provides the background and the video.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne were founded in 1900 by Rose Hawthorne, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famed nineteenth-century American novelist.  After her conversion to Catholicism, Rose dedicated herself to caring for incurable cancer patients on Manhattan's Lower East Side.  Upon establishing her Dominican congregation, Rose took the name Mother Alphonsa, and for over two decades she worked tirelessly for her sisters and her patients.  Rose's remarkable life story bears constant repetition.  Her cause for canonization has been introduced and is moving forward.

Eighty years after her death, Rose's spiritual daughters continue to live her charism in convents and nursing homes around the country.  As a sign of their vigor and zeal, they recently opened a new home in Kenya. 

John Allen Jr. reports on the appointment of Jesuit Fr. Luis Ladaria, a Spaniard, as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  He uses the term he coined "affirmative orthodoxy" in regards to Ladaria.   Which he previously described as "I mean a tenacious defense of the core elements of classic Catholic doctrine, but presented in a relentlessly positive key. "

I found one of the nice little testimonials on Fr. Ladaria stick out.

"He is also very human. He laughs a lot, and is very gracious with the women who clean our offices etc."

And he smiles at children.  Though I am all for describing people working at the CDF in a human way instead of as breeds of dogs.

In my mail I got a "breaking news alert" from the National Catholic Reporter.  You know it has to be pretty silly when they get in high dudgeon on something concerning the Church.  In covering The archdiocese of St. Louis and the attempted ordination of women let us see what upsets them.

The archdiocese of St. Louis authorized the video recording of a Catholic women's ordination ceremony that took place in a synagogue last November. It then used the video, along with photographs apparently taken from the video, as evidence to punish a Catholic nun who attended the liturgy, according to several people familiar with the case.

Sister of Charity Louise Lears was forced out of all church ministerial roles and banned from receiving sacraments within the archdiocese by an edict of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke announced June 26.     

You mean the archdiocese actually videotaped a "ordination" ceremony proudly advertised and announced before hand?  A faux ceremony that now entitles those who directly participate with auto excommunication. An excommunication reserved to the Holy See to remit. A ceremony where those in his diocese flagrantly disobeyed their archbishop and the Church.  Yeah the archdiocese would have no reason to want to know who was attending this.  Then they dared to actually punish a nun who was causing scandal and was disobedient by being there.  Imagine that.

I also have to laugh at the word "edict" which is what liberals call any Church document they disagree with.  It was actually a decree of extra-judicial adjudication.

However, several people familiar with the documents, prepared by the archdiocese that made up the case against her, strongly criticized what they called the "surveillance" video-taping.

One of the confidential archdiocesan documents, according to knowledgeable sources, was an affidavit giving permission to an individual to attend the ceremony in order to record it. The record of the ceremony is contained on two electronic discs in Lears' file.

So surveillance is now videotaping a ceremony open to the public.

"It was a surveillance video. That's exactly what it was," said Sean Collins, a co-pastoral associate of Lears at St. Cronan Parish until he resigned July 2nd, in part, he said, to speak about what he says has been a grave injustice taken against Lears.

"What disturbs me even more is that the video taping was premeditated," he said, referring to the affidavit authorizing it by the archdiocese.  Collins did not see the document firsthand, but referred to others who had seen it.

Premeditated?  Well I guess in that context everything we do is premeditated.  I guess also that it wouldn't be "disturbing" if the archdiocese had someone tape it at the very last minute to avoid premeditation.  Sadly progressives crack me up when they see the grave injustice of punishing someone who is not faithful and is totally disobedient to her bishop.  For them the problem is not that they do not at least give religious submission of intellect and will as per Vatican II to what has been infallibly defined by the ordinary Magisterium.  Oh no it is the archdiocese's fault for videotaping them in their extreme disobedience.

The article also wonders why Sr. Lears was "singled" out when the reality is that he bishop had previously issued a summons and canonical admonition and she failed to appear to defend herself.  She was also part of a pastoral team of a St. Cronan parish whereas the other religious that attended were part of religious orders directly and not working for the archdiocese.

Videotaping will send women back to the bad old days of secret ordinations on riverboats. Oh the shame.

Travis Boddreaux has developed an examination of conscience for the iPhone. If you have one check it out here and leave any comments here.