News

Dallas, Apr 25, 2008 / 08:50 pm (CNA).- Yoko Ono, the widow of Beatles singer and songwriter John Lennon, has with several others filed several lawsuits challenging the use and critique of Lennon’s song “Imagine” in the documentary “Expelled.” One lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction that, the film’s producers claim, could remove the film from theaters.

Well if she is responsible for John Lennon can we sue her for his imagine no religion? You know that is really hurtful for us religious types especially when he says it is easy to do. Then he even tries to take away from us believers living in the eternal now by saying only atheists like him are "Living for today." Besides Monks and many in religious life don’t have to imagine no possessions since they have gone beyond that. I bet Yoko is really really glad John Lennon only imagined no possessions instead of actually giving away all of his possessions. But then again it is always easier being a dreamer than actually living the dream.

Sharp-eyed Thomas Peters reports on Hillary Clinton on the day of the PA primary wearing a Madonna bracelet. Though I thought a Madonna bracelet now meant wearing a Red String Kabbalah Bracelet like pop star Madonna.

I do find it highly ironic considering the images on the bracelet like Our Lady of Guadalupe and Blessed Mother Teresa. Considering the saintly dressing down the Clintons got at the National Prayer Breakfast in regards to abortion it is rather strange. I remember Hillary at Mother Teresa’s funeral with her looking like she was extremely bored and like she would rather be anywhere else. Our Lady of Guadalupe has become a pro-life icon and is so prevalent in anti-abortion protests that seeing on such an abortion advocate is rather a stark contrast.

But I guess if you are Hillary Clinton you change the way you talk when speaking among a mostly black audience and where you suspect there are a lot of Catholics you wear a Madonna bracelet.

Three Roman Catholic priests have geared up for global superstardom by signing a £1 million contract with music giant Sony BMG.

Father Eugene O’Hagen, 48, his brother Martin, 45, and their old school friend David Delargy, 44, who all hold parishes in the Northern Ireland diocese of Down and Connor, sealed the deal by the steps of London’s Westminster Cathedral.

The singing trio, known as The Priests, said they would give money they made themselves from the music to charity.

The group have a special exemption in their contract, which allows them to break off from promotional duties to deal with parish work such as presiding over funerals.

The three realised their musical prowess at St MacNissi’s College, Co Antrim, where they were nicknamed Holy Holy Holy due to their shared determination to enter the priesthood.

Fr Eugene, of the Parish of Ballyclare and Ballygowan – Church of the Sacred Heart and and Church of the Holy Family, described the signing as "breathtaking".

Fr Martin, of the Parish of Cushendun – Church of St Patrick (Craigagh), Church of St Mary, The Star of the Sea (Culraney) explained the reason behind the clause which allowed the priests to carry out their parish duties.

He said: "Our work means a great deal to us. We are priests first and foremost. Our work will be at the heart of our plans."

It seems to me judging the business of most priests that their "pastoral rider" on their contract will pretty much keep them from doing an promotional work.

Update: Mulier Fortis has a video of them and they actually sing sacred music and are very talented.

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2008 / 03:12 am (CNA).- The Vatican has approved the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the English convert and theologian who has had immense influence upon English-speaking Catholicism, the Birmingham Mail reports.

I really hope this time the reports are true and that he is indeed beatified later this year.

Here are some great pictures taken at Notre Dame’s Eucharistic Procession.

ATLANTA, GA – April 21, 2008 – During the 42nd World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI stated that, "The new media – telecommunications and Internet in particular – are changing the very face of communication; perhaps this is a valuable opportunity to reshape it!"

Following the encouragement of Pope Benedict, as well as Pope John Paul II before him, the first Catholic New Media Celebration will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22, 2008, the day after the Eucharistic Congress that is conducted annually by the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

"Our motto is come for the Eucharistic Congress, stay for the Catholic New Media Celebration," says Greg Willits, COO of the Star Quest Production Network, the host of the event.

Held at the Georgia International Convention Center, the same venue as the Eucharistic Congress, the Catholic New Media Celebration is a day to Learn, Share, and Explore how New Media can help the Catholic Church in the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II.

Anyone interested in New Media is invited to attend. Registration and admission for both the Eucharistic Congress as well as the Catholic New Media Celebration are free. Participants can register online at http://celebration.sqpn.com

Parishes, dioceses, and other Catholic organizations are encouraged to send their technology representatives to learn more about the technologies that can assist both religious and laypeople in evangelization efforts through the use of technology.

"It is amazing how much new media – such as podcasting, blogs, and other technologies – have helped people grow in their faith and grow closer to God," says Willits, who with his wife Jennifer created the popular "That Catholic Show" video series and also co-hosts the award-winning Rosary Army Catholic Podcast. "We want the Catholic New Media Celebration to be exactly that – a celebration of this technology for the people who use it, as well as for those who create it."

The Catholic New Media Celebration is a festive, educational, and spiritual one-day event to help all Catholics live out the "great relaunching" of evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. In the spirit of the Holy Father’s writings regarding the New Evangelization, the CNMC is a day of sharing the latest technologies and techniques used to creatively and effectively invite others to grow in the Catholic faith through new and modern ways, not only in parishes and dioceses, but throughout the whole world.

New media includes podcasts and online video, games and software, websites and blogs, mobile technology and all things interactive. The Catholic New Media Celebration is a gathering of today’s new media producers within the Catholic Church, as well as of those who simply enjoy and have a desire to learn more about new media content, to grow as a community in an effort to more effectively create and share powerful and unique content for the benefit of the universal Catholic Church.

The event is hosted by the Star Quest Production Network. SQPN (www.SQPN.com) produces on-demand audio and video programs, also known as podcasts, and offers a portal for a select number of affiliated Catholic podcasters that share the vision and media strategy of SQPN.

Contact: SQPN
http://www.sqpn.com GA, USA
Greg Willits, President +1.206.984.1899
Keywords: SQPN, New Media, Podcast
Category: Catholic resources

How absolutely wonderful.

The Pope is going to make a personal visit to Cardinal Avery Dulles in his bedroom while in Dunwoody seminary. It was not on his schedule. Cardinal Dulles is too ill to attend any of the events but no one deserves a private visit more.

Dulles, who is 89, is one of the great converts and theologians of the 20th century and gave his final annual McGinley lecture at Fordham on April 1. When I met him last April, he was still able to walk with a cane. Now, he is wheelchair bound.

The Pope’s homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a wonderful meditation of the Gothic architecture of the Cathedral itself, the constant call to conversion, and the striving for unity in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. His speaking on stained glass windows as a metaphor offers deeper reflection on a subject reflected on before by many others before. It just plain amazes me how his speeches and homilies are always fresh and so connected to circumstances at hand.

A fairly good article called U.N. loves the pope, and it shows starts off rather odd.

The Catholic Church may be declining in numbers in the United States, but it seems to have the broad and enthusiastic support of U.N. employees and affiliates.

Good thing they have editors to correct something like that … oh wait. Considering that the Catholic population in the U.S. has never declined and while there is a portion that leave the Church every year there is also a steady influx of new Church member via converts or immigration.

The Pope’s speech at the U.N. itself concentrated mainly on human rights in the true understanding of the term and covered a lot of ground. He addressed the false opposition between science and ethics, human dignity, rights of the person and the origin of rights, religious freedom, and the roles of countries in protecting these rights along with the role of the UN in this. These are some of the highlights from my own first reading.

…origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history.

…The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security.

…Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal. The Universal Declaration, rather, has reinforced the conviction that respect for human rights is principally rooted in unchanging justice, on which the binding force of international proclamations is also based.

This aspect is often overlooked when the attempt is made to deprive rights of their true function in the name of a narrowly utilitarian perspective. Since rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from human interaction, it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples.

I found the above paragraph to be a perfect expression of how so many things have become rights while actual rights given to us by God are downplayed or eliminated. These modern rights are indeed seen as legalities that can be created by legislative bodies. The new view of rights is what is given to us by the Government instead of by God and the natural law is usurped via the vote.

The Pope calls the United Nations back to a proper understanding of the Universal Declaration and to stop efforts to reinterpret it according to special interests and away from protecting human dignity.

Most of the headlines have rightly seen the Pope’s speech in the context of human rights. I found this story laughably bad "Pope says unilateral acts undermine U.N. " with the starting focus being that this speech was directed at President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. This is the template the media wanted from the beginning for the Pope’s speech so it is no surprise that they would try to interpret it in that light.

Papal coverage always elicits some fun when reporters not familiar with it report on it.

At 7:16 this morning on Good Morning America, Dan Harris reported on the upcoming Papal Mass from Nationals Park in Washington. “This is a brand new ballpark opened just two and a half weeks ago and this morning it’s been transformed into a giant outdoor church. Behind me, in the outfield, there is a 75-foot-high altar.”

I guess this is a picture of the Pope looking up at that 75 foot altar.