News

A witches’ coven leader has accused the Roman Catholic Church of prejudice after her group was banned from a parish social club.

Sandra Davis, 61, high priestess of the Crystal Cauldron group, booked Our Lady’s club in Stockport, Greater Manchester for a Halloween Ball.

But when she tried to pay she was told the Diocese of Shrewsbury had decided the pagan group could not use it.

A diocese spokesman said the group was not compatible with the club’s “ethos”.
Mrs Davis, of Bridgehall, set up the Crystal Cauldron in Reddish as a pagan meeting place.[reference]

The coven leader was really mad about this, in fact she was really burned up by the whole thing.

Catholics pray to St. Anthony when they’ve lost something, but what if it’s a St. Anthony statue that is lost?

Someone who stole a |4½-foot St. Anthony statue this weekend from a secluded limestone chapel at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay apparently put some labor into the theft.

Police could see where something heavy was dragged on the gravel and wood-chip path from LeMieux Chapel in Cofrin Memorial Arboretum on the UWGB campus. The 12-by-18-foot chapel is unlocked.

Campus police Lt. Keith Rosin said the statue may have been dumped in the woods, but it has not been found.

The theft was discovered Sunday morning, said Joan Jadin, whose family takes care of the chapel, built in about 1925 by stonemason Joseph LeMieux and his brother-in-law, Fabian LaPlant, a carpenter.

It may have been taken on Saturday, the Feast Day of St. Anthony, she said.

Jadin noted the irony that St. Anthony is the Catholic patron saint of lost items.

“Now we’ll be praying for a lost St. Anthony,” she said. “What a sad day. It’s always been a place of comfort.”[reference]

I guess it would be more ironic if a St. Dismas statue was stolen.

Anglican priest Jeffrey Steel and his family have decided to cross the Tiber as he announced yesterday on his blog. Really quite a beautiful post and well worth reading in full. One part that really struck me.

Finally, this leads me to my vocation to the priesthood and the cura animarum. I realise that I do not come to the Church making demands. I come offering my life to Jesus and to the Church as I seek his will for my life. For the time being, I am simply giving up being the teacher and am now becoming the student of Mother Church. What she does with me is in the best interest of her and God’s kingdom. As I said, the family is preparing to move to London in the near future to begin a new life of ministry and service. There will be more details forthcoming as things become confirmed to me.

So give him an welcome and pray for him and his family as they make this transition.

MIAMI – A nun from a downtown church shelter was arrested for allegedly confronting a police officer who was dealing with a homeless man armed with a knife and an ice pick, according to WPLG-Ch. 10.

Sister Margaret Anthony is facing misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice after the Monday incident outside the Missionaries of Charity shelter near NW 17th Street and Seventh Court, the station reported.

Sister Margaret was not jailed, and a court date has not been set, Moss told WFOR-Ch. 4.

As police were trying to diffuse a situation with the homeless man, Sister Margaret got in the way and confronted the officer, a Miami Police spokesman told WPLG.

“The nun refused to stay back. She came through the gate. At one point, she gets right in front of, or right in the middle of, the police officer and this knife-, ice pick-wielding man.” Cmdr. Delrish Moss said.

Moss said police think Sister Margaret was only trying to protect the homeless man, but she “stepped over the boundary” and interfered with the police officer.
Another nun from the shelter refused to comment, telling WPLG: “Everything is with the greater glory of God. There’s nothing else we want to say.”

Hopefully this will all get straightened out.

Via the excellent Catholic Key blog a statement by Jude Hunz the Director of the Human Rights Office for the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph.

Representing the Church

Recently there have been a number of radio advertisements in the Kansas City area paid for by a group called Catholics United. These advertisements thank Senator Claire McCaskill for supporting the economic recovery package in the budget bill and stating that this piece of legislation represents the best in Catholic social teaching. While a number of things can be said in response, three essential points need to be stated.

First, no private organization – even if it has the word ‘Catholic’ in its name – represents the Catholic Church. The bishop of the diocese is the only official teacher, guardian, and interpreter of the Catholic tradition (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church # 888, 894, 895, 1560,, Code of Canon Law 375.1, 392.1, 393, 394.1, 394.2) While the bishop may appoint others, i.e. priests, deacons, lay people, to work and act on behalf of the Church, the task of authentically transmitting the deposit of Faith belongs to the bishops of the Church. Thus, while there are many well intentioned groups with the term ‘Catholic’ in their name, none of them represents the Catholic Church in any official capacity.

Second, this specific organization – Catholics United – is a clearly partisan organization that heavily supports the Democratic Party. A glance on their website shows endorsements for President Obama, his selection of Kathleen Sebelius as director of Health and Human Services, and support for the University of Notre Dame in its decision to honor the president with an honorary doctorate at its commencement ceremony. While every Catholic has the right to join whatever political party they choose (cf. Compendium of Social Doctrine #573), a person does not have the right to equate their own personal opinion as the official position of the Catholic Church (cf. Compendium of Social Doctrine #574 ). The Church cannot endorse particular candidates for public office, nor can she align itself with one particular political party over another. The Gospel transcends the political order while at the same time intersecting with it along the way.

Finally, while there are some aspects of the economic recovery package in the budget that are in accord with Catholic social teaching, notably the preferential option for the poor and the concern for the common good, there are also troubling aspects of the stimulus package that do not reflect Catholic social teaching. While the Church acknowledges the rightful role of the state in the life of society and the economy, there is also a concern for the principle of subsidiarity that becomes threatened with excessive government intervention. What is more, there are family planning provisions within the stimulus package that promote abortion and contraception, which clearly violate the inviolable life and dignity of the human person, which is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching.

The Church does not seek to take a position on every piece of legislation that passes through our various organs of government. To do so would blur the line that distinguishes the work of the Church and the work of the state. The Church does hold up the perennial values and principles of the Gospel and her magisterium that impact the moral life of society in political legislation. She also has the obligation to instruct the faithful on what constitutes authentic Catholic teaching and practice. These rights belong to her alone, not to private organizations who falsely claim to represent the Church.

Little Rock – Authorities have identified the soldier killed in Monday’s double-shooting outside a U.S Army recruitment office in west Little Rock.

According to Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper, 23-year-old William Long of Conway died shortly after being transported to a Little Rock hospital.

Police say the incident occurred around 10:15 a.m. at a U.S. Army Navy Career Center inside the Ashley Square Shopping Center at 9112 North Rodney Parham Road. According to Lt. Terry Hastings with the Little Rock Police Department, two enlisted soldiers standing outside the office were hit when a suspect drove up in a black SUV and began shooting.

At a briefing Monday afternoon, Little Rock police chief Stuart Thomas identified the suspect as Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, of Little Rock. Thomas says Muhammad also goes by the name Carlos Bledsoe.

Hastings identified the second wounded soldier as Quinton Ezeagwula, age unknown. He remains at a local hospital in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.

So far the President has said “” and the Attorney General has sent 0 Marshals to protect recruiting stations and issued a statement that said “”. The Huffington Post managed to have an article condemning right-wing political violence, but somehow this story escaped their attention. Amazing they were able to have the prudence to realize that in this case the man was probably acting alone and this was a local matter. Somehow the same circumstance in regards to the murder of the Dr. Tiller garnered another response.

As a former Navy recruiter this story hits home a bit. Though I only got my tires slashed and treated like crap by some in Washington state who hated the military.

at the 2009 Cannonball Awards. And the winning blogs are winners in my opinion.

What I like about the Cannonball Awards is that it brings out the Groucho in me. Got to love an award where my blog is not even allowed to be voted for. So to paraphrase Groucho “i would not join any award that would have someone like me for a nominee”

I don’t know that it’s much different. That’s part of what led to my conversion is the first time we [he and Callista] went to St. Peter’s together. It’s St. Peter’s. I mean, you stand there and you think, this is where St. Peter was crucified. This is where Paul preached. You think to yourself, two thousand years ago the apostles set out to create a worldwide movement by witnessing to the historic truth they had experienced. And there it is. The last time we were there we were allowed to walk in the papal gardens and you get this sense that is almost mystical.

The moment that finally convinced me [to convert] was when Benedict XVI came here [to the United States] and Callista in the church choir sang for him at the vespers service and all the bishops in the country were there. As a spouse, I got to sit in the upper church and I very briefly saw [Benedict] and I was just struck with how happy he was and how fundamentally different he was from the news media’s portrait of him. This guy’s not a Rottweiler. He’s a very loving, engaged, happy person.

I’d first seen Pope John Paul II when he came to the U.S. when Carter was president and I was a freshman congressman. And I [later] met him as Speaker.

The other sense is that the church has had two of its most powerful popes back to back, in their intellectual ability to engage the secular world on behalf of Christ. And the weight of all that, and going with [Callista] to church every Sunday to the Basilica [in Washington, D.C.], a magnificent church with a wonderful mass. In that sense I felt differently a long time ago, which is why I converted.

And part of me is inherently medieval. I resonate to Gothic churches and the sense of the cross in a way that is really pre-modern.
…The whole effort to create a ruthless, amoral, situational ethics culture has probably driven me toward a more overt Christianity. I’ll give you an example. As a college student at Emory when the Supreme Court ruled that school prayer was unconstitutional [in 1963] after 170 years of American history, I didn’t notice it. As a graduate student at Tulane I probably would have said it’s a good decision.

I’ve now had an additional 40 years to think about it. And I think about the world of my grandchildren. I don’t think American children are healthier, safer, and better off today than they were in 1963. So I have actually become more conservative in response to the failure of the liberal ethos to solve problems.[reference]

Houston, Jun 9, 2008 / 05:45 pm (CNA).- Ann Ball, a prolific author who wrote lives of the saints alongside Catholic cookbooks, died of a heart attack shortly before midnight on Sunday, her family announced in an email.

Though a schoolteacher for many years, she later took over the operation of a security company. Following a regular workday, she would dedicate time to writing, penning several books on the saints and Catholic heritage and traditions.

Commenting on her industriousness, the president of Our Sunday Visitor, Greg Erlandson, told CNA that, “I was always surprised how she was able to run a private investigation office and still find time to write so many books that spiritually edified so many people.”

In a short autobiography at Catholic Authors, the grandmother of eight wrote that curiosity about the saints led her into the Church and her career as a Catholic writer. She was especially interested in the life of Blessed Miguel Pro, the Jesuit priest and Mexican martyr.

“I find it horrifying that so few Americans realize the persecutions of the church that were right next door less than a lifetime ago. I find it equally sad that so few of our American Hispanic Catholics don’t know about their own heroes,” she wrote.

She reported that her son, Sam, tells people “My mom is the only person I know who can write a cookbook one year and follow it up the next year with The Catholic Book of the Dead!”

Ann Ball once wrote me about how she liked that I had chose Blessed Miquel Pro as my blog patron. Her book on him is quite excellent. May she rest in peace.

Sometimes religious types try to broaden their views in order to be loved and respected by nonbelievers.

Don’t try this. You only give them more reason to disregard you.

Take what happened to Smith College’s chaplains: Their nondogmatic and pro-diversity stance was so persuasive, the school fired them in the name of nondogmatism and diversity.

Smith once employed chaplains who serve Catholics, Protestants and Jews, reports The Weekly Standard. No more.

“Our student body has become increasingly diverse in every way, including religiously, and we belive students would be better served by moving away from the emphasis on these three faith groups and moving toward broader support for the full range of religious belief and practice on campus.”

These chaplains were already doing the diversity thing, “supporting groups from the Radical Catholic Feminists of Smith to the Hillel Foundation to the Association of Smith Pagans and Al Iman.”[reference]