.
Tidings
Selected Catholic news items
This looks as if it might be a worthwhile initiative: Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, which has recently (5-7 August 2010) held a symposium called "Truth Academy", at Arlington Heights (Illinois), in an effort to oppose the Mauve Mafia's lies about the "gay" death-style, er, "lifestyle".
During August 2010 the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales is holding a conference for priests wishing to learn more about how to offer the Traditional Rite. It will be occurring at Somerset's Downside Abbey.
The Peace Bridge, connecting Buffalo (New York State) and Fort Erie (Canada), will have on 26 August - Mother Teresa's centenary - a spectacular display of blue and white lights, the colours of her Missionaries of Charity.
You can't keep that old-time "religion of peace" down. The murderer of Italian-born Turkish bishop Luigi Padovese turns out to have shouted: "Allah Akbar!" and "I killed the Great Satan!" More ecumenical dialogue, anyone?
Bishops Stateside have, apparently, learnt twelve things from the clerical abuse crisis. Here's the Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, explaining (for the Jesuit-run America magazine) why he believes this to be the truth.
The "same-sex marriage" juggernaut has now squashed Portugal flat as well. An Australian news outlet has the story of how the country's President Anibal Cavaco Silva, who calls himself a "Catholic" (don't they all), signed homosexual "weddings" into law.
Lo and behold, the Archdiocese of Washington DC has actually supplied some advice on how Catholics should dress (and, prior to the 1970s, did dress) when preparing to enter the house of God. Hint: lose the Britney Spears look. Possibly even stow the T-shirts elsewhere.
Brendan O'Neill of Britain's Spiked magazine, who since his teens has had no religious belief himself, nevertheless gets it. He realises (even if liberal Catholics don't) that the current orgy of mass-media Catholic-bashing is " informed more by prejudice and illiberalism than by anything resembling a principled secularism."
Harry Truman once, in retirement, said of Richard Nixon: "If he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in". The New York Times seems to operate on much the same basis: lying for Stalin in the 1930s, for Fidel Castro in the 1960s, and now for disgraced Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland over the Father Murphy affair. Anything, anything to destroy the Holy Father ... George Weigel, normally on the progressive wing of Catholic commentary, here defends the Pope.
A pictorial, and aural, record of October 2009's pilgrimage by Australian traditional Catholics, between the two Victorian cities of Ballarat and Bendigo.
Discussions are now occurring between the Society of St Pius X and the Holy See, concerning, in part, the nature of controversial Vatican II texts.
Well, they did try hard for more than 450 years. But now even prominent Church of England representatives are admitting that "the Anglican experiment is over", even as the Traditional Anglican Communion submits fully to Rome.
In the apparent belief that it's 1936 all over again, only better, Spain's homosexual lobby has affronted the Church by releasing a blasphemous calendar, exposing to particular mockery Our Lady of Fatima. Click here if you'd like to send a protest against this squalor.
"I can understand that in certain cases, there is almost no other choice than to practice it [abortion]". These deathless words were uttered by Montreal's Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, who also seems not to have received the memo about his own church prohibiting condoms.
Fernando Lugo, the Paraguayan bishop-turned-president who seems constitutionally unable to realise when he is well off, has created a scandal by admitting to having fathered the son of a sixteen-year-old girl.
Benedict XVI issues a public pronouncement on the Society of St Pius X and his recent decision to remove the excommunications from its four bishops. Would this pronouncement even have been necessary if the mass media were capable of telling the truth about Catholicism?
Could the US Supreme Court's Judge Scalia have any valid reason for opposing so-called "gay marriage"? Nah, of course not. According to Congress's most open homosexual, Barney Frank, Scalia is "that homophobe".
Actually, no. Here is Moscow's Orthodox Patriarchate supporting the Pope on the matter.
New light on a so-called "dark age".
Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior-General of the Society of St Pius X, has distanced himself from the controversial "no gas chambers" remarks made on Swedish television in 2008 by fellow SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson. These, according to Fellay, "do not reflect in any way the position of our society."
On 21 January 2009, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops) announced the lifting of the latae sententiae excommunication sentences passed in 1988 on four bishops of the Society of St Pius X, all ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre.
The Mexico City policy, which prohibited America from federally funding pro-abort organisations, has now been junked by new "caring", "sharing" Barack Hussein Obama.
As Luxembourg prepares to go down the same road as Belgium and Holland by legalising euthanasia (to which the country's Grand Duke remains implacably opposed), the Pope has restated Catholic opposition to all forms of assisted suicide.
One of Paris's oldest and most distinguished churches, St Germain l'Auxerrois, is now home to a weekly Traditional Latin Mass. Even the Motu-Proprio-unfriendly Paris Archbishop, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, has now offered it.
Yep, another "religion of peace". This time it's Hinduism, in the Indian state of Orissa, seeking to extirpate every sign of Christianity locally.
According to one French source, a drafted Ecclesia Dei Commission document "would recognise the good faith and ecclesial sense" of the Society of St Pius X. We shall see.
"Hope"! "Change"! No hope or change as far as the unborn are concerned (except change for the worse) from "Christian" Barack Hussein Obama, who is taking great pains to cram his administration with the most pro-abort and pro-death apparatchiks he can find.
The man who did more than any other British Prime Minister to encourage sodomy, and the terrorising of Catholic adoption agencies by pro-homosexual agendas, is now, purportedly, a sincere convert to Catholicism. And we have a Brooklyn bridge we'd like to sell you while we're at it.
As if to prove the nonexistence of any philosophical distinctions between "conservative" Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his purported Liberal opponents, this analysis discusses his attempts to silence pro-life legislators and his admission of pro-abort Morgenthaler to the Order of Canada.
In the grand philosophical tradition of Australia's own Peter Singer, British liberal harridan Baroness Mary Warnock wants to kill off demented people who are "wasting the resources of the National Health Service". (Heaven forbid that anyone should be allowed to question the National Health Service, the home of Harold Shipman and unnumbered abortionists ...)
Believe it or not, some bishops in America are actually insisting on basic Catholic doctrine, and accordingly 26 of them have now denounced the pro-abort antics of "Catholic" House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Benedict XVI, at Lourdes, has spoken of the wider use of the 1962 Missal which last year's Summorum Pontificum encouraged.
Fr Glen Tattersall, who says the Latin Mass at the church of St Aloysius in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, is spiritual director and adviser to Juventutem Australia. Here he recounts the role of traditional Catholics in World Youth Day and its attendant ceremonies.
Veteran Nepalese Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, is now (as of 17 August) his country's Prime Minister. He will allegedly "treat all people, irrespective of religion, alike. " Yeah, right, just as every other communist has always done ...
At last, after 19 years, traditional Catholics in the Vancouver archdiocese have been blessed with their own church devoted exclusively to the Old Rite.
Che-Guevara-loving Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa wants pro-abort language inserted into the new Constitution. The country's bishops are having none of it. Meanwhile pro-government forces are cheerfully desecrating the Sacred Host.
"Homophobia": it's one of those all-purpose epithets these days, like "racist" or "fascist". Now it's being levelled (by Western drug companies and their "foreign aid" stooges) at Janet Musuveni, wife of Uganda's president, who has the audacity to believe that prevention might limit AIDS's spread.
An address by the Holy Father to the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, marking the fortieth anniversary of this prophetic encyclical.
Abortionist Henry Morgentaler was recently appointed to the Order of Canada, the highest civilian rank in that country. A petition is now being circulated urging that the Canadian Governor-General (Michaelle Jean) and "Conservative" Prime Minister (Stephen Harper) revoke this award. More information here.
With the same zeal that inspired the Cristeros in their struggle against a murderous government in the 1920s, Mexico's Catholics are now protesting against the United Nations and its pro-abortion, genocidal agenda.
In view of recent news reports (such as this one) about Anglo-Catholics in England being prepared to submit to Rome, the Holy Father (while in Sydney for World Youth Day) declared himself to be "praying so that there are no more schisms and fractures" in the once-respected Anglican communion, now beyond repair.
The extra miracle which was necessary for Fr Damien (beatified in 1995) to become a saint has now been recognised by the Vatican.
It's official: Benedict XVI wants communicants at papal Masses to receive the Eucharist while kneeling, as was the standard practice at all liturgies up till 40-odd years ago.
The Transalpine Redemptorists, a traditionalist group based in the Orkney Islands, have now had all canonical impediments lifted from them.
Damien Thompson, of the London Spectator, on the internecine feuds within Britain's faithful, where the episcopate is largely contemptuous of the Pope and of the Latin Mass.
Who would have thought it? A US bishop speaking truth to power? But Bishop William Murphy of Long Island has indeed done the decent thing, reproving New York State Governor David Paterson for his efforts on behalf of same-sex "marriages".
Not only will every English and Welsh parish have access to the Old Rite, but every seminary in England and Wales will be required to teach it. The Vatican's Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos admits that the Novus Ordo has given rise to "many, many, many abuses." London's Daily Telegraph reports.
In 2008 it is exactly 150 years since the Marian apparitions to St Bernadette at Lourdes. During September, Benedict XVI will visit this place of pilgrimage.
As part of the Holy Father's apostolic journey to America, the Vatican's website reproduces here his address to the faithful at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York.
The Transalpine Redemptorist community based at Papa Stronsay, on the Orkney Islands near Scotland, has proclaimed its decision to "obey with submission" the Pope's call for the new Good Friday prayer, even as the Society of St Pius X has announced its intention to stay with the old 1962 prayer.
Leo Darroch, Executive President of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce traditionalist organisation, discusses here the motu proprio and the recent changes to the Good Friday prayer pro Judeis.
Faced with anti-Catholic protests by student and professorial rabble who clearly derived their "knowledge" of Church history from Richard Dawkins, the Holy Father cancelled his planned visit to La Sapienza University in Rome, though he did provide a copy of his planned speech. The university was founded by Boniface VIII in the early fourteenth century.
In Britain's Catholic Herald, Dr Alcuin Reid discusses the new cri de coeur by former papal Master of Ceremonies Piero Marini, "an act of filial homage by Marini to his mentor, [Vatican II grey eminence Annibale] Bugnini."
Cardinal George Pell, of Sydney, discusses his concerns about certain radical proponents of global warming.
Three traditional parishes of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland have requested full communion with the Holy See.
A warning to mischievous bishops and to anyone else who would try and thwart Summorum Pontificum's implementation: Sri Lanka's Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith lays down the law in tough, fierce language.
After so many months of delay, disappointment, and false rumour, Benedict XVI's motu proprio has been released. Click here for a website specifically devoted to commentary and news items concerning the document. Click here for a feature article by Dr Alcuin Reid, familiar to Oriens readers. Click here for a PDF document giving twenty questions about the motu proprio, and their answers.
Martin Mosebach, the German traditional Catholic author best known for his book The Heresy of Formlessness, has just won his country's most prestigious literary award: the Georg Buechner Prize.
A review in Britain's longest-established Catholic magazine, The Tablet, of the present Pontiff's recently published tome Jesus of Nazareth: from the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration.
Some good news on the pro-life front, for a change, after so much bad news (Portugal, Mexico). Former Nicaraguan leftist dictator Daniel Ortega, of Sandinista 1980s ill-fame, recently supported the banning of abortion in his country. This ban went ahead by a parliamentary margin of 52-0.
The Holy Father's sermons for Holy Week and the days of Easter, as supplied by that indefatigable Italian journalist Sandro Magister.
"Nothing of Justice demands that God raise up a new group of saints and heroes and geniuses to fix everything as a matter of course." A powerful meditation on the nature of Satan and of the Church Suffering.
Fr Daniel Johnson (who has just died, aged 77) served as priest at Huntingdon Beach in southern California. There, he proved a doughty and seemingly tireless fighter for the Latin Mass's splendours. An obituary from The Los Angeles Times.
Odorado Focherini, born a century ago this year at Carpi (northern Italy), was a Catholic journalist who died in a German concentration camp. Until the Nazis arrested him, he managed to rescue 105 Jews and to obtain for them safety in Switzerland. Currently he is a candidate for beatification.
An altarpiece constructed in Spain by 85 craftsmen, and weighing 16 US tons, now occupies a place of honour in the basilica of San Juan Capistrano, California. The Los Angeles Times has the story.
An interview with the President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, who clarifies what schism is and is not; quotes St Jerome on schism; and mentions recent negotiations between the Vatican and the Society of St Pius X. The original Italian-language text can be found here.
The Bishop of Cheyenne (Wyoming) has now told a lesbian couple that they cannot receive Communion while they remain in, and while they openly defend, their public sin.
Founded in the 1960s, the Neocatechumenal Way is a lay organisation (20,000 communities throughout the world, particularly active in the Middle East) that has been under increasing official scrutiny during recent years. Now both the Pope and, a few days later, bishops in the Holy Land have issued courteous but firm warnings to it. Celebrated Italian religious journalist Sandro Magister discusses the subject.
Released by the Vatican on 12 March 2007, Sacramentum Caritatis is the Holy Father's exhortation following the Eucharistic Synod of October 2005. Sections 42, 61 and 62 are of particular note as regards the liturgy. Further information about the document, supplied by The Sydney Morning Herald and dealing specially with liturgical matters, can be found here. Sandro Magister's discussion of the document is here.
The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, has explicitly condemned homosexual behaviour in his country's armed forces.
The Portuguese Parliament has now approved pro-abortion legislation, which now awaits only the signature of Prime Minister Socrates.
He used to run gigantically successful designer-clothing and music production operations in – of all unlikely places for religious conversion – Las Vegas. Now, though, Iranian-born Fred Nassiri wants to become a Franciscan, and give up all his worldly goods for the poor.
Basing his utterances upon the teachings of Russian theologian V. S. Solovyov (1853-1900), Cardinal Giacomo Biffi of Bologna has argued (at the Lenten retreat which Benedict XVI is attending) that "the Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist, and ecumenist."
So far, information from secret police files indicates that Poles resisted Communist terror much better than East Germans, for instance, did. But this Chicago Tribune article – dealing with a heroic priest whom the regime tortured – shows that in the wake of the Wielgus scandal, evidence of betrayal is disturbingly present.
So the Catholic Church has banned Masonic membership for Catholics ever since the eighteenth century? Ban, schman! This Italian priest is utterly unembarrassed about joining a Lodge and boasting of it.
Alabama's Southern Poverty Law Center, ever more desperate in its search for "hate speech" to sniff out, has now found it in (would you believe) traditional Catholicism.
Melbourne's Eureka Street magazine comments on the wider possible implications of the ostensibly imminent Motu Proprio liberating use of the traditional Latin Mass.
Carmelite friar Fr Reginald Foster, appointed Papal Latinist in 1969, tells Britain's Daily Telegraph: "I'm not optimistic about Latin. The young priests and bishops are not studying it." Still, he has recently launched a new Latin Academy.
Piergiorgio Welby, the Italian poet and advocate of euthanasia who died in December 2006, has been forbidden a funeral according to the rites of the Catholic Church.
In July 2006 Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior-General of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), requested a million rosaries, that he might present these to the Pope for the freedom of the traditional Latin Mass everywhere. Instead of a million rosaries, there were 2.5 million.
Museum director: "perhaps St-Martin-in-the-Fields has been a sacred site for far, far, far longer than we previously thought."
On one of the sorest points of the New Mass – the use by the priest of the words "for all" at the consecration – Rome at last acts. The relevant document can be found here.
Return
to Oriens contents page