That’s the motion that was debated last week in London, at an event hosted by the Spectator and held at the Royal Geographical Society. And guess what — “the 700-strong sell-out audience voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion”!
Excerpt from The Catholic Herald:
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, author Piers Paul Read and Dom Anthony Sutch, former headmaster of Downside, spoke for the motion.
Anime cartoons and their characters are a huge cultic phenomenon, the most popular of all escapist media venues. It is very addictive and very dangerous, to the soul and the mind. I don’t post weird stories, but this blog by Zoe Romanowski from Inside Catholic, along with another, even …
One of the commentators on the relevant CWN article expressed it well: “It’s past time someone said this. Too often ecumenism is taken to mean the weakening of the teachings of the Church and the addition of non-Catholic ritual and beliefs.” A-m-e-n-!
Past time is better than no time — or, “better late than never.” All the scandal that has transpired, and is ongoing, in the name of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue should cease at these words of Cardinal Levada defining its purpose (or “final cause” to you Aristotelians out there): “Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism.”
Our 2010 conference will be held on October 8 and 9 at Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire.
The information currently available is as follows:
Theme: “The Romance of Wisdom”
Cost: $100 for both days (Friday and Saturday). This includes meals. Single days without meals: $40.
Note: This year, Friday and Saturday will both be full days. There will be eight speakers giving presentations in addition to the master of ceremonies, our Prior, Brother Andre Marie.
Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, apostolic nuncio to Japan, has a very perceptive insight into the subversive effects Buddhist doctrine has on the soul of a suffering devotee confronting hopelessness. From Sandro Magister’s latest column: “Why Life is Worth So Little in Prosperous Japan.”
“The Japanese do not have a personal …
[March 5, 2010 - Rome Reports (with hat tip to Rorate Caeli)]
Benedict XVI has formed a commission to investigate if Our Lady truly appeared in Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia.
The commission is part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Cardinal Camillo Ruini will preside over the commission. Ruini is the pope’s former vicar of Rome’s diocese. Ruini goal will be to explain to the pope what’s happening at the sanctuary which has become the third most visited in Europe.
Allegedly, at least 6 people have witnessed the Virgins apparitions there since 1981.
When the enemies of the Church, the enemies of Christianity in general, and those who want to “hold” the Catholic hierarchy’s “feet to the fire” constantly jabber about Pius XII’s supposed complicity in the Nazi murder of Jews, it becomes necessary to defend the truth as well as the honor of the Holy Father. He was, after all, not only innocent of the crime of which he stands accused by an angry mob, but was also proactive in the protection of innocent Jews. That’s history. Catholics have a particular duty to defend the Church’s honor, but even secular historians of the era ought to vindicate Pius XII, if only to protect the integrity of their science.
In changing the traditional Douay-Rheims rendering of Genesis 3:15 from “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” to the Catholic Revised Standard Version translation (based on the King James Bible), “I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel,” the scriptural foundation for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is compromised. So, too, is the traditional doctrine concerning Our Lady’s essential role in salvation history, which has been translated into her more modern title of “Co-redemptrix.”
“The United Nations estimated that 683 Christians fled Mosul between February 20 and February 27. Chaldean Catholic Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona of Mosul estimated that ‘about 400 families’ had left the city’s community of 4,000 Christians.”
This disheartening data comes from an article in Catholic World News. The Iraqi Catholic bishops themselves are bemoaning the situation. But that’s not all they are doing; they are also praying, fasting, and organizing their people to protest peacefully. The facts are not to be denied, and they are not the “spin” of liberal news pundits trying to make a Republican effort look bad.
Bishop John B. McCormack is inviting New Hampshire Catholics to join him on a pilgrimage to Rome and other Italian holy sites from October 15-25 in celebration of the canonization of Blessed Brother André Bessette.
Pope Benedict XVI recently announced that Blessed Brother André will be formally declared a saint at a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square on October 17, 2010.
The pilgrimage will be organized by Canterbury Tours of Bedford, NH. It will also include visits to other Italian holy sites in Rome, Assisi, and Siena.
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Well Bro. Andre Marie:
With your new policy I’m sure my comments will no longer be posted, no matter what they are. In fact, I’m sure that my comments are probably what prompted your new policy. Interestingly enough, many of my comments were not in the “naughty” category, and yet no response to them was ever made.
In any event, your website is no different than any other religious website. You simply can’t deal with any criticism of the Roman Catholic Church in general, or your brand of it in particular. The more educated and literate the comments are the less you like it. In any event, your new rules have only proved what I thought in the first place. Anyone who writes a comment must agree with you. Instead of directly telling individuals you like or don’t like what they have said you come up with the new rules. This is what I expected from religious autocrats. You have proved my point.
I’m sure that in the future I will see nothing but adoring comments telling you how great your website etc. is. I think what really set you off were my comments on Joseph and Mary. Instead of reasoning it out, all you really did was throw doctrine at me. I’m sure you won’t miss me. However, I do want to thank you for proving my point that religion really is a racket. Actually, “racket” applies more to Protestant outfits. The RC Church is more like the Mafia.
Dear Mr. Sifdol,
Had you motivated this new policy, and had I a wish to block your comments from the site wholesale, I would have simply marked your address as that of a spammer. Your comments would automatically go in the trash. That’s not what I did. In fact, I’ve only removed a couple of your comments, like the recent one with a crass scatological reference to Saint Simon Stylites.
I’m not interested in merely “adoring” comments. In fact, as you may notice later today, your rather un-adoring comments have motivated me to write a new article. Think of it as a tribute to civil religious “dialogue.”
I think our new policy is reasonable. And I’m no autocrat. If you call me that again, I’ll block your address from the site. :-)
Fair enough. I am looking forward to reading your new article. I WILL REFRAIN FROM REFERRING TO YOU WITH THE WORD THAT STARTS WITH AN “A” I’m with you completely on Rule #4, but don’t completely agree with the others. However, I will abide by them.
With that said, Rules #1 and #3 are understandable in the light of the fact that you are, after all, a Roman Catholic organization. I will really have to watch myself carefully on Rule #2. There are all too many groups out there that really are “rackets” of the worst type, and in my opinion they deserve to be bashed. But, I will try to control myself. I do apologize for my comment on RC and Mafia. That comment on my part really was not nice.
In any event, thanks for responding and being up front. I will moderate my own comments in the future. I think I know where you stand now. However, I really do think that some of the comments that are posted tend to be on the “adoring” side. They tend to be sincere, and are “sweet” and all that but just don’t say very much. In other words they do little to stimulate the intellect.
Finally, I look forward to a much improved relationship with your website in the future. Thanks again for being up front.
I read your new article. Thanks for being charitable with me. I work under the handicaps of: 1)Being a Freemason, although I have been inactive for many years. 2)Having attended Mormon Primary for many years as a child, and 3)Having a graduate degree in European History. I’ll explain the details later. Thanks again.
Dear Br. Andre,
Perhaps you can turn comments off on certain or many articles so that you do not have to spend a lot of time going over each and every comment. Other blogs have this policy and have closed comments on many of their threads. Of course, I do not know how many comments you get and if it is a manageable amount, but that is just my two cents. You may also save yourself from having to read some probably obscene and disgusting language which the Internet certainly is full of and you will have time for writing some more of your educational material.
Thanks, Philangelus. That’s a great idea.
Hi, Br. Andre,
I love your rules and hope for peaceful dialogs with others on here.
Julie
Dear Brother Andre Marie:
I don’t know how many comments you get either. Reading the many articles you and others write, I don’t see many comments at all. The ones I do see, usually praise the article. Most of the articles are excellent, so I don’t understand the few comments I see which are so lackluster. The articles are intellectually stimulating although they are one-sided pro-Catholic as can be expected.
With the exception of the “New Comments Policy” Rule #4 (with which I totally agree) there is very little if any room for any criticism of the Roman Catholic Church by non-Catholics. If Protestants cannot criticize the Pope (without insulting him) what is left?
Have you ever considered starting a discussion forum where non-Catholics, non-believers, and those of other religions can debate with you and others, and actually receive answers to their comments? Of course there would be rules but they would have to be revised. Please think about this.
Thanks and have a good day.
Let me add just one more thing and then I will “rest my case.” Instead of being overly sensitive to the comments of non-Catholics and others, an open forum (with rules) might help greatly to show others that you are not a hate group.
Don’t forget that you are still on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group list along with Neo-Nazis and Aryan Supremacy groups. That is the real insult, and not some Protestant saying something to the effect that they don’t believe the Pope is always right etc. etc. Or my saying that I think some saint is nutty.
Otherwise, you will continue to be presented to the public as “Radical” Traditional Catholics, and allow yourselves to be fitted into the category with some semi-literate, animalistic (evolution might be true,) dimwits with tatoos, in and out of prison, who don’t even know the name of the current Pope. Of course I am “bashing” those people. Do they deserve to be presented as misguided people who are really sweet underneath all those tatoos and bulging muscles? Maybe you can’t “bash” them but I can.
On that somewhat unhappy note, reconsider what I have said. Again, you are still on the SPLC list, and I really believe that a forum with non-Catholics, non-believers and others would be beneficial for your cause.
Thanks for your consideration, and again, I rest my case. Thanks.
Mr. Sifdol,
To be transparent with you, I’m less concerned about the comments of non-Catholics than about the comments of Catholics. I don’t expect you to profess every point of the Catholic Faith and show the kind of respect demanded of Catholics to the Church’s leadership. If you express your views in a respectful way, and avoid insulting Our Lady and the saints, there will probably be no problem.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. I get the message which is, if I understand it correctly, that you prefer comments by Catholics. That’s understandable. I believe we started out “talking” to each other around April 2009. It has certainly not been dull. I take my leave, and wish you good luck.
Mr. Sifdol,
You’re welcome. No, you didn’t get the right message. I think it great that non-Catholics post on our web site. It gives us opportunities to explain our faith to you.
Dear Brother Andre Marie:
Thanks. Sounds like an offer I should not refuse, which means I’ll have to keep posting on your web site. I can assure you that in the future I will play by the rules.
With that said, I have a question. I know that Father Francis Talbot (a Jesuit) wrote the definitive biographies on the 17th Century Jesuit Martyrs, Jesuit Fathers Isaac Jogues and Jean Brebeuf. I believe both of these priests are now Saints, along with six others. Quite frankly, if anyone deserves to be a saint these two and the others certainly do. In fact, I have not met any Protestants who don’t admire the Jesuits in the movie “The Mission.” Of course that was in Paraguay in the 18th Century. Most Protestants don’t know much about the Jesuits in French Canada in the 17th Century. There is a novel and a movie about that called “Black Robe” but I don’t think it depicts the lone Jesuit in that film in a very good light.
I guess my point here is that Catholic missionaries were already at work in the New World before the Pilgrim’s landed at Plymouth Rock. By comparison, the Calvinists (in my opinion) failed to missionize the Indians, and in fact sowed discord among them, and prepared the way for future enmity between Native Americans and later pioneers. In fact, my understanding is that the only person the tribes of the U.S. trusted in the 19th Century was another Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Pierre de Smet.
With that long winded comment, can you tell me where I can get a copy of Fr. Talbot’s biography on Saint Jean Brebeuf? I believe it is titled “Saint Among the Hurons.” I know that his biography on Saint Isaac Jogues (”Saint Among Savages”) is available through Ignatius Books, but I still want to read both books.
Thanks for your help, and thanks again for your patience.
Sincerely,Cordially, and Respectfully
Ray Sifdol
Dear Mr. Sifdol,
Those volumes are personal favorites of mine. Father Talbot was an editor at America magazine the same time our founder, Father Feeney, was. They were friends. I don’t know of anybody now publishing Saint Among the Hurons, but I would imagine you can get it used on Amazon.com or someplace like that.
If you can’t find it, let me know. I can lend you ours by USPS mail (as long as you promise to send it back!).
Thanks for your generosity on the loan offer. Also thanks for your prompt reply, because I know you are busy. I really appreciate it. I don’t know why I did not think of this before, but I’m going to try the inter-library loan system before I bother you anymore. But just in case, I’m glad you have it, and you can be sure that if I borrowed it from you I would return it.
Thanks again.
Sincerely, Ray Sifdol
I believe that this policy is quite fair.