Fr. Philip Powell, OP posts on the latest action by the Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) regarding Fr. Roger Haight, S.J. I unfortunately think Fr. Powell is right about what will be the reaction by the progressives and he will be cast as the latest theologian-martyr to suffer at the hands of the CDF. Somehow progressives don’t have a problem with a theologian that undermines the divinity of Christ.
“I was in the church shortly after midday to pray and I heard the baby crying,” said Father Thomas Rein, the parish priest of Peter and Paul Church in the village of Poettmes.
“We prepared the crib in the pre-Christmas period so children could lay fresh straw in it and ponder on the meaning of Jesus and Lo! There really was a Jesus-child in it!”
Fearing the newborn might develop hypothermia Father Rein covered him with the small red carpet that is usually used to kneel on during services and took him inside his house beside the church. It was there that he called an ambulance. The child, called Peter by the nurses after the church where he was found, remains at the Neuberger Paediatric Clinic. He is making good progress.
Church members are praying for Peter and his mother, who was found by police to be a 38-year-old local Romanian woman. She said that she left her baby in the manger in the hopes that someone could take better care of him.
Father Rein expressed his sympathy and concern for the mother. “A newborn child such as this is always a beautiful thing. But of course there lies behind that the great need of this woman,” he said. “She must be in some kind of difficult situation. The story has really moved the hearts of the people deeply.”
“We stand ready to help,” he said. “But it is also important that we first of all leave the mother in peace, so that she can make up her mind about the child. [article]
The Synod of Bishops on the Bible heard an unusual suggestion Tuesday morning when a Hong Kong observer asked Pope Benedict to start up his own daily blog on Scripture.
Agnes Kam Leng Lam, president of the Catholic Biblical Association of Hong Kong, said people need to experience Scripture in small but significant doses.
“To put it in a nutshell, I’d like to suggest to you Holy Father to start a multi-language blog to shepherd today’s world by scriptural verses, daily verses,” she said on the synod floor. The pope’s blog should include simple reflections that relate Scripture to real-life situations, she said.
Lam included advice that’s probably good for any blogger: “Remember, brief texts, Holy Father, and plentiful images, and this will be very attractive to the young generation and to today’s people.”
The talk apparently provoked a positive reaction and some laughter, but the pope, who was presiding over the Oct. 5-26 assembly, didn’t say whether he’d be blogging anytime soon.
[Via American Papist]
Please Holy Father, I want my Pope Blog! I want my daily minimum recommended requirement of B16! Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God, and blogger.
All I know is I want so much to be on the Pope’s blogroll!
Now Pontifications is already take up by a couple of bloggers so what would be the name of the Pope’s blog?
Denzingers would have to start compiling official papal blog posts.
Now what type of syndication would the blog use? RSS 2.0 or ATOM and Eve?
What Content Management System (CMS) would he use. Now Movable Type could be appropriate since the first thing printed on a movable type press was the Bible. Though a scripture blog might use WordPress or WordOfGodPress.
Commenting, now that is another story. Probablly not a good idea unless they can incorporate automatic excommunication for trolls in the commenting template. Or maybe a CAPCHA where you have to answer correctly basic questions on the faith to submit the comment. Though that might keep out many graduates of Catholics schools. Maybe a CAPCHA with felt banner images for them.
The pope could ask for donations to Peter’s Pence safely and securely via PaPal..
Now what platform would his blog be run on? I guess he would need White Hat Linux (or is that Linus after our 2nd Pope) instead of:.
Though he might need to run a disclaimer that only blog posts that defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church are infallible. Otherwise he is speaking ex blogthedra.
This is why I have not been supportive of Campaign for Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Fr. Philip Powell, OP gives us a glimpse of his conversion story as he went from reader of occult books and expert Tarot card reader to Catholic priest. Like many who came from an occult background into the Church he laments about the Earth worship and pantheism present in too many religious orders (like this one which a reader recently sent me a link to.). Quite an interesting conversion story.
Adam of the Theotokis Podcast has posted the first part of the interview that he had with me.
You can listen to the episode here or subscribe to his fine podcast.
Priests at the London Oratory have
called for prayers of reparation after a consecrated Host was allegedly
stolen during High Mass and desecrated by an atheist professor in
America.
Several priests have celebrated Masses of reparation this week
responding to a video posted on the internet of a young man taking the
Host and later placing it next to a condom, claiming he was holding it
“hostage” inside the prophylactic until the Pope changed his policy on
contraception in light of Africa’s Aids epidemic.
An evening of reparation with Mass and Adoration with prayers, litanies
and silent meditation is planned for next Wednesday. Oratorians have
also called on the faithful to make personal acts of reparation this
week and next “for all the outrages against the Blessed Sacrament
around the world”.
“Close observation of the film and of the facts seems to suggest that
this is not an elaborate hoax, but depicts something that really
occurred,” said the e-mail asking people to make acts of reparation. It
also asked people to pray for “the conversion of the culprits, that
they will answer God’s call to repentance and open their hearts to
receive His forgiveness”.
The incident took place during the Oratory’s High Mass on July 13 and
was posted on the internet soon after. It said: “The Catholic Church
forfeits all rights to respect for its ludicrous beliefs, including
‘transubstantiation’, while its anti-condom campaign in Africa results
in tens of thousands of deaths.”
What only tens of thousands of deaths?
The claim is usually “millions of deaths” so this guy needs
to get on the same page with the other raving lunatics. Now raving
lunatics might seem rather uncharitable, but I think it is a charitable
interpretation of such an understanding that the Church’s opposition to
condoms is what causes deaths from AIDS.
They have to believe that the Pope has the
power to stop people from using condoms while at the same time having
no power to deter people from having sex outside of marriage.
That people will be willing to commit the grave sin of
adultery/fornication but then their conscience stops them from using a
condom because they heard the Pope was against it. Yeah this
is impeccable logic. So I guess we need to write the pope and to tell
him to use the same
powers he has concerning condoms and do it with other areas of Church
teaching.
By this logic safe driving is when a
reckless driver has an airbag. It is not behavior that
matters, but having protection for bad behavior.
They also never explain how a couple
actually following Church teaching and only have relations in the
context of marriage would ever need a condom to protect them from STDs.
So I guess instead of getting upset by people not being
faithful to Church teaching if they are really worried about deaths
from STDs they should be upset that people aren’t following Church
teaching if they are going to be consistent.
They also don’t feel responsible for
people who used condoms and then received AIDS anyway. They
would never drink some liquid that had a 80 to 90 percent of not
killing you, yet somehow recommending a condom with failure rates like
that is acceptable. Liberals will go crazy about .000001
percent of something in the water supply, but condom failures are
acceptable.
The putting together of the Eucharist and
the condom is sign and anti-sign. Jesus is the way the truth
and the life, and the condom is the symbol against life. Life
to be prevented and a symbol to the cult of pleasure without
consequences. The condom is a separation and a barrier, while
Jesus became man to remove all separation and barriers between God and
us.
At least we now know who supplied the host
to P.Z. Myers so that we can also add our prayers for him.
Front Royal, Va, Aug 3, 2008 / 01:37 pm
(CNA).- In this weekly email newsletter, President of Human Life
International, Father Thomas J. Euteneuer, shared a letter he received
that caused him “to shed tears of gratitude.” The author, a
former priest who had protested Humanae Vitae in 1968, had written to
tell Fr. Euteneuer about his conversion from dissident priest to his
acceptance of the controversial and prophetic encyclical.
The writer of the letter had decided to sign HLI’s “Humanae Vitae
Pledge,” promising loyalty to the teachings of the Catholic Church,
obedience to the teachings of Humanae Vitae, and “to embrace God’s
precious gift of life.”
“There is for me a special significance in signing this Pledge, and
[it] will give me a peace of mind and heart that I have not experienced
since 1968. In 1968 I was a young Franciscan priest studying in the
Graduate School of Religious Education at Catholic University,” the man
wrote.
The writer knew many who signed the document in protest of Humanae
Vitae such as Fr. Charles Curran, Fr. Dan Maguire, and Fr. Robert
Faricy, S.J. “Since they, as well as many other professors and graduate
students were signing the Protest Document, I went along and did so
also.”
“In 1975 for personal reasons not related to any doubts or questions
about the Faith, or the Church, or the Religious Life…I requested and
obtained…a dispensation from Pope Paul VI returning me to the Lay
State. Later, I was married in the Church and raised my two children in
the Faith….I have had many conversations with my Pastor and with his
assistant (who is my spiritual director) about my days as a Franciscan
Priest, and have been active in many of our parish’s lay apostolate and
ministries.”
“But I have always regretted having signed the Protest Document against
Pope Paul’s teaching in 1968, and having learned a few years ago that
Fr. Faricy had publicly repudiated signing the Protest, I had wished
that I, too, could repudiate in some official way, having signed the
Protest….And so your ‘Pledge’ document offers me an opportunity to
correct my mistake, and find healing – and telling you about all this
helps me to feel that my repudiation of the Protest is now known and
accepted in a kind of semi-official sort of way by an ‘authority’ in
the Church.”
“And thank you for reading this, thereby humoring an old man, who
despite everything else, knows that he is a ‘priest forever, according
to the Order of Melchizedek.'”
Fr. Euteneuer explains that this conversion story demonstrates that:
“in Christ’s Kingdom it is never too late, even after forty years, to
fully embrace the Truth. All of us make mistakes and all of us sin, but
He gives us all a chance to be reconciled with Him and turn our sorrow
into joy.”