Church Under Attack

Obama-administration apologist admits problem with Catholic voters : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

2011-11-18T20:33:00.000-05:00

Obama-administration apologist admits problem with Catholic voters : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The Anti-God Book by 'God' - Brent Bozell - Townhall Conservative

2011-10-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

Below are a couple of excerpts from Townhall.com columnist Brent Bozell's article reviewing a blasphemous book by David Javerbaum. The excerpts follow:

Those prestigious publishers at Simon and Schuster selected All Saints Day to unleash the book world's latest attempt at mocking Christianity. It's called "The Last Testament, by God."

The author is David Javerbaum, a top writer for 11 years for "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, perhaps America's leading religion-hating TV network. Is it any surprise that the critics love it?

Click the link below to read the entire article:

The Anti-God Book by 'God' - Brent Bozell - Townhall Conservative

Bishop warns Congress: religious freedom eroding : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

2011-10-27T18:39:00.000-04:00

Bishop warns Congress: religious freedom eroding : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Will the Senate Quietly Kill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom? - By Nina Shea - The Corner - National Review Online

2011-10-19T20:48:00.000-04:00

This article appears at “National Review Online”. An excerpt follows:

Religious persecution around the world threatens many minority groups — Egyptian Copts, Pakistani Ahmadiyas, Saudi Ismaili Shiites, Baha’is in Iran, and Chinese Sunni Uighurs, Catholics, and Tibetan Buddhists. Despite the presence of American troops, Iraq is in its seventh year of a “religious cleansing” against its native Christian, Yizidi, and Mandean populations, while its handful of remaining Jews are now desperately trying to flee after being identified by Wikileaks. Those who do not conform to prevailing religious orthodoxies are also targeted individually: For example, in Iran, apostasy charges threaten the life of a Christian pastor. This year, Pakistan’s minister of minorities and the governor of Punjab were separately gunned down for defending those imprisoned under a harsh blasphemy law.
It is this moment that the U.S. Senate has chosen to quietly shut down the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
USCIRF’s mandate was to expire at the end of last month, but it was given a short reprieve through the continuing resolution on the budget. Meanwhile, on September 15, the House of Representatives, in a 391–21 vote, overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2867 to reauthorize USCIRF for two more years. In the Senate, H.R. 2867 was poised to pass under a unanimous consent agreement when a single senator anonymously called it back for undisclosed reasons. If that secret hold is not lifted by November 18, the Senate will not be able to act and USCIRF will go out of existence.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

Will the Senate Quietly Kill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom? - By Nina Shea - The Corner - National Review Online

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Vatican official warns for rising violence against Christians in Europe

2011-09-13T19:32:00.000-04:00

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Vatican official warns for rising violence against Christians in Europe

IRAQ Attack against Kirkuk’s St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church - Asia News

2011-08-15T18:32:00.001-04:00

A bomb exploded at around 1.30 am. No one was killed or injured, but the church was heavily damaged. The incident follows others against Kirkuk Christians in early August.

IRAQ Attack against Kirkuk’s St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church - Asia News

Cardinal Newman Society

2010-09-08T14:14:00.002-04:00

St. Edward’s University Upholds Catholic Identity, Rejects Gay Advocacy Group from Internship Fair
Cardinal Newman Society

FOXNews.com - Praying Outside Clinic Gets Man Disorderly Conduct Charge

2010-08-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

FOXNews.com - Praying Outside Clinic Gets Man Disorderly Conduct Charge

The Right to Free Speech

2009-06-20T23:08:00.004-04:00

It’s Not Free Anymore?

Many of our readers may be familiar with the faith-based website, Catholic Answers. Catholic Answers provides a plethora of information regarding the Catholic faith to both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. During the 2004 election, Mr. Karl Keating, President of Catholic Answers in one of his E-Letters stated that because of Senator John Kerry’s unchanging position on the issue of abortion, he should be denied Holy Communion. The Internal Revenue Service says he should not have said it.

From our point of view, it was Mr. Keating’s right to state his opinion. In giving this opinion, Mr. Keating merely restated the same opinion as many bishops have, that no politician who calls themselves a Catholic should be given Holy Communion if he or she supports abortion or votes for measures that include support for abortion. The teaching of the Church from the time of the Apostles until the present day opposes abortion and that receiving an abortion, encouraging or aiding the procuring of an abortion is a mortal sin. Nowhere did Mr. Keating state or imply that Catholic’s should not vote for Senator Kerry. Whether or not to cast one’s vote for Mr. Kerry was nowhere to be found in the statement. He was merely stating his opinion.

Many of us had already decided for ourselves as to whether or not we would vote for Mr. Kerry. Those decisions were made because of his abortion stance, and because of other pertinent issues related to that election. We voted our consciences… our beliefs… our moral convictions… not because someone told us for whom we should or should not vote.

Except to the Internal Revenue Service. The I.R.S. decided that the statement was grounds for removing the tax-exempt status of “Catholic Answers”. They said the statement was “intervening” in the election. The I.R.S. evidently feels that a statement made against the position of an office seeker’s stance, is the same as telling people whom they should or should not cast their vote. Especially if you are a pro-life, tax-exempt organization with a religious outlook, the I.R.S. feels that you should remain deafeningly silent. So the I.R.S. slapped Catholic Answers with taxes and fines.

On April 3, 2009, Catholic Answers filed suit in federal court against the Internal Revenue Service for violating their right to free speech. You can read a more in-depth article about this at Catholic Answers at this web link:

http://www.catholic.com/appeals/IRS_Appeal.asp

They also have an area there where you can donate to their legal battle if you are so inclined.

Pope Pius XII: Misunderstood and Maligned (Part Two of Two)

2008-12-25T16:38:00.001-05:00

Pope Pius XII: Misunderstood and Maligned (Part Two of Two)

"Pius XII? That is the only human being who has always contradicted me and who has never obeyed me." Adolf Hitler

Bishop Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, was Papal Nuncio in Bavaria from April 1917, and in June 1920, was also Papal Nuncio to the German Weimar Republic. Early in his Nunciate, in a private letter (November 14, 1923) to Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Pacelli denounced the National Socialist (Nazi) Movement as an anti-Catholic and anti-Hebrew threat. He also remarked about Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, Bishop of Munich (von Faulhaber had said at Advent 1933, "Let us not forget that we were saved not by German blood but by the blood of Christ!" Shots were fired through his study window in 1934, and a Nazi mob broke out the windows of his residence in 1938 because of his opposition to Nazism), had condemned persecutions against Bavarian Jews. During the 1920's and 1930's Pacelli succeeded in negotiating concordats with Bavaria, Prussia, and Baden, but, failed in negotiating with Germany. Pacelli was created a cardinal on December 16, 1929, by Pope Pius XI, and then on February 7, 1930, he was appointed as Vatican Secretary of State. Adolph Hitler did not come into power in Germany until January 30, 1933.

As Vatican Secretary of State, Pacelli made 42 speeches, and 40 of those were speeches that were in opposition to National Socialism. On April 29, 1935 four years BEFORE the war started, with an audience of 250,000 in attendance at Lourdes, France, Pacelli in a speech said that the Nazis “are in reality only miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of social revolution, whether they are guided by a false concept of the world and of life, or whether they are possessed by the superstition of a race and blood cult.” [1] Speeches Pacelli made in addition to private remarks and notes of protest sent to Berlin in his capacity as Vatican Secretary of State, earned Pacelli a reputation among the Nazis as an enemy of National Socialism. Pacelli recognized Hitler for what he was. So much so, that when a Sister asked Pacelli if there was not some good in Hitler, Pacelli said, “This man is completely carried away; everything he says and writes has the mark of his egocentrism; this man is capable of trampling on corpses and eliminating anything that is an obstacle. I cannot understand how there are so many people in Germany who do not understand him, and cannot draw conclusions from what he says or writes. Has any of them even read his horrifying ‘Mein Kampf’?” But, his most scathing denunciation of National Socialism was in Mit Brennender Sorge (With Burning Sorrow), addressed to the German bishops. Although this carried the signature of Pope Pius XI, Pacelli advised and worked with the Pope on this, and Pacelli wrote large sections of it himself. The main point was to urge German Catholics not to abandon their faith for the paganism of Hitler's German National Church. Yet, Pacelli and Pope Pius XI did not fail to attack the racism that was a fundamental mainstay of National Socialism, “Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, a particular form of State, or the repositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the worldly community... whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God.”

When Pope Pius XI died, the German and Italian fascists were not happy at the prospect of Pacelli being elected Pope, even though he had been the German Nuncio. They recognized him as an enemy of fascism, and indeed, there are some indications that Hitler may have tried to influence the outcome of the papal election in order to prevent Pacelli from being the successor. Hardly the reaction one would expect if Hitler deemed Pacelli as being favorable to National Socialism. Upon his election as Pope, the Berlin newspaper, Morgenpost said “The election of cardinal Pacelli is not accepted with favor in Germany because he was always opposed to Nazism and practically determined the policies of the Vatican under his predecessor.’ ” [2] The Nazis then used what they consider most vile to say against Pope Pius XI at his death, and also against the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pacelli. The Das Reich said, “Pius XI was a half-Jew, for his mother was a Dutch Jewess; but Cardinal Pacelli is a full Jew.” Once elected Pope, Pius XII spoke directly about the issue of anti-Semitism. "It is impossible," he said, "for a Catholic to be an anti-Semite; spiritually all of us are Semites". [3]

In his first encyclical as Pope Pius XII, (Summi Pontificatus - On the Unity of Human Society - October 20, 1939) the pope made reference to the war specifically in several paragraphs (see paragraphs 23, 24, 30-32, 51, 60-61, 69-73, 77-78, and 107-108) and once again, the Nazi leadership was not happy with what was said. In Christmas addresses in December 1941 and again in December 1942, though not calling the Nazi government nor leadership by name, Pope Pius XII once again, condemned actions against any people because of race or blood. The people of that era understood who he meant, including the Nazis, and editorials in The New York Times praised Pope Pius XII as the “lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe”. So-called historians, writers, and many of the general public will insist that this wasn't a significant address, yet, the Allies considered it significant enough to reproduce and drop hundreds of thousands of copies of it over Germany. Also understanding who Pope Pius XII meant was the various Jewish organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia, who lauded Pope Pius XII for his address, and included their approvals in editorials of their respective journals.

The Reich Central Security Office of the Nazis did an analysis of Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address, and in it they said, “It is true, the Pope does not refer to the National Socialists in Germany by name, but his speech is one long attack on everything we stand for…. God, he says, regards all peoples and races as worthy of the same consideration. Here he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews.... That this speech is directed exclusively against the New Order in Europe as seen in National Socialism is clear in the Papal statement that mankind owes a debt to "all who during the war have lost their Fatherland and who, although personally blameless have, simply on account of their nationality and origin, been killed or reduced to utter destitution." Here he is virtually accusing the German people of injustice towards the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.”

The bravery of the Holland Catholics in opposing their Nazi oppressors is without question. The bishops of Holland protested publicly, and the people of Holland paid dearly for it. Holland had the highest percentage of Jews (79%) murdered by the Nazis than any other nation in Europe. Over 110,000 Jewish men, women, and children from Holland lost their lives, including a notable Jewish convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite Sister, Edith Stein, and the priest who delivered the letters to the Catholic bishops, Titus Brandsma. The results of what happened to the Dutch was a most agonizing lesson for Pope Pius XII. In a letter to the Berlin bishop, Konrad von Preysing, Pope Pius wrote , “We leave it to the [local] bishops to weigh the circumstances in deciding whether or not to exercise restraint, ad maiora mala vitanda [to avoid greater evil]. This would be advisable if the danger of retaliatory and coercive measures would be imminent in cases of public statements of the bishop. Here lies one of the reasons We Ourselves restrict Our public statements. The experience We had in 1942 with documents which We released for distribution to the faithful gives justification, as far as We can see, for Our attitude.”

Pope Pius was not the only one who learned a lesson about restraint. The International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches in Geneva never made any statements that might obstruct their work or increase the sufferings of the victims (Jews, Slavs, Christian clergy, gypsies, homosexuals, and Communists) by retaliatory measures for any public statements. Yet Pope Pius XII found it extremely frustrating, even heartbreaking to use restraint. He told Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), “We would like to utter words of fire against such actions; and the only thing restraining Us from speaking is the fear of making the plight of the victims worse”.

As a matter of fact, Pope Pius XII was strongly urged by the bishops of Poland and other occupied countries to use restraint, as with each word from the Vatican, the oppression and persecutions intensified. Archbishop Sapjeha (Krakow) was sent messages from Pope Pius XII by way of a chaplain of a Maltese relief train. The Archbishop immediately threw all the messages in the fire, saying that if ever a copy fell into the hands of the Gestapo, they would kill all Polish priests. Also, a Jewish couple from Berlin who had been held in concentration camps and helped by Pius XII to escape to Spain said, “None of us wanted the Pope to take an open stand. We were all fugitives, and fugitives do not wish to be pointed at. The Gestapo would have become more excited and would have intensified its inquisitions. If the Pope had protested, Rome would have become the center of attention. It was better that the Pope said nothing. We all shared this opinion at the time, and this is still our conviction today.”

So, Pope Pius XII, keeping in mind the necessity of restraint, continued to wage his resistance to the Nazis by working stealthily behind the scenes. He encouraged and instructed bishops, priests, religious, and the laity to work to save Jewish lives whenever and wherever possible. When the Germans occupied Italy, Pope Pius XII worked to ensure the safety of the Italian Jews. In fact, 80% of the Italian Jews were saved, as opposed to the rest of occupied Europe losing 80% of its Jews. When the Nazis first occupied Rome, there were 9,500 Jews, yet when the order was given to round them up, only 1,259 were found. The rest had found safety by Pius' orders at 155 churches, convents, and monasteries around Rome, as well as in the Vatican. The Pope's Palatine Guards went from 300 to 4,000, the additional guards all having the invaluable Vatican City passport. Of these 4,000 “guards”, about 400 were Jews, with 240 hidden in the Vatican itself.

Pope Pius XII began his work to save the Jews of Europe early, as early as when the war broke out in September 1939. When anti-Semitic legislation was passed in Italy, Professor Guido Mendes, a renowned lung specialist who was also a Jew, lost his position. In April 1939, he received an invitation to meet with the Pope in a private audience. Professor Mendes said, "Pope Pius XII ... offered to help me leave Italy and gain admittance to any country I chose," he told the Jerusalem Post in 1965. "When I mentioned Palestine, the Pope promised to intervene with the British authorities and secure a certificate of immigration. Montini (later Paul VI) dealt with the matter, and as a result my entire family arrived in Palestine in 1939."

Pope Pius XII also continued an emigration program established by Pope Pius XI, which helped Jews gain admittance to Brazil. From 1939 to 1941, 3,000 Jews reached the safety of South America through the direct intervention of Pius XII.

The Pope's actions regarding the Jews and Brazil was only the beginning. Between 1939 and 1944, Pius XII supplied passports, money, tickets and letters of recommendation to foreign governments so Jewish refugees could receive visas. Through Pius' efforts, another 4,000-6,000 Jews reached safety. Word of the Holy See's work to rescue European Jews found its way to the United States. On January 2, 1940, the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees and Overseas Needs in Chicago sent the Pope a contribution of $125,000 toward the Vatican's efforts to save "all those persecuted because of religion or race."

When 500 Jewish refugees who had tried to escape to Palestine by boat, were refused entry in every port they tried, they were captured by an Italian patrol boat. They were imprisoned on Italian controlled island of Rhodes until they could be turned over to the Germans. When Pope Pius XII found out about their situation, he contacted the Italian authorities, won the release of the refugees and oversaw their transfer to a hastily erected settlement camp in southern Calabria. Pinchas Lapide (Pinchas E. Lapide, author of Three Popes and the Jews was born in Canada and served during World War II with the 178th Transport Company of the 8th British Army. Later he emigrated to Israel, where he entered government service. He was deputy editor of the Government Press Bureau in the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, and was later appointed Israel's consul to Milan.) of the 178th Transport Company of the 8th British Army recalled: "That is where we found most of them, sound and thankful, on December 23, 1943, the day after our Palestinian unit landed at Taranto."

A few days later, Lapide and the 178th were met at Ferramonti-Tarsia near Cosenza by 3,200 Jews, the entire population of another settlement camp operated by the Vatican. The residents were refugees from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, who had been saved by Pius XII's intervention. Their camp was under the protection of two papal emissaries who had set up a kosher kitchen for the residents and established a school for the children.

These are just a few examples of Pope Pius XII's efforts to save Jewish lives in occupied Europe, and to prove that his efforts were truly catholic (universal), when the Nazis were pursuing Palmiro Togliatti, Pietro Nenni and Giuseppe Saragat, all leaders of the Italian Communist and Socialist parties, Pius XII hid these men in the basement of the Basilica of St. John Lateran—the Pope's own cathedral.

The record of the Pope's words and actions during the war The Acts and Documents of the Holy See Relative to World War II fills ten volumes. Perhaps some of those who are so willing to write such anti-Pius XII lies, are so willing to read and believe them, should actually try reading these ten volumes and learn what actually took place instead of creating their own versions of events to suit their own whims.

When countless others worked to save Jewish lives from the Nazi death machine, they did so silently. No one, not Oscar Schindler, Corrie ten Boom, Raoul Wallenberg, nor others who worked to save Jewish lives, stood on a soap box denouncing Nazi atrocities, nor did they spit on these murderers they found so repulsive. To have done so, would have meant an end to what they could do to save lives. Yet, people who should know better, even people who were survivors or descended from survivors, have forgotten or have not bothered to look at and learn from the truth!

So, you may ask...why didn't Pope Pius XII himself, make known to the world, what he did, and how and why he did it? Why? Because he was at peace with God, and his conscience was clear before God. He knew what efforts he had made on behalf of those suffering in Europe, and when one is at peace with God, no explanation to man is necessary.

Below are some of the statements of appreciation for the efforts Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church made by various figures who lived during those horrible years we call World War 2:

"Allow us to ask the great honor of being able to thank personally His Holiness for the generosity he has shown us when we were persecuted during the terrible period of Nazi Fascism." -Petition of 20, 000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe to Pius XII, Summer 1945

"In the most difficult hours which we Jews of Romania have passed through, the generous assistance of the Holy See...was decisive and A, salutary. It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the: warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the Supreme Pontiff, who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews, sufferings which had been pointed out to him by you. after, your visit to Transnistria. The Jews of Romania will never forget facts of historic importance." -Chief Rabbi Alexander Saffran of Bucharest, Romania, to Msgr. Andrea Cassulo, papal nuncio to Romania, April 7, 1944

"The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which. form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world." -Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Palestine, February 28, 1945

" When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace." -Golda Meir in a cable to the Vatican expressing condolences. at the death of Pius XII, 1958

"The Church and the papacy have saved Jews as much and insofar as they could Christians. Six million of my co-religionists have been murdered by the Nazis... but there would have been many more victims had it not been for the efficacious intervention of Pius XII." -Dr. Raphael Cantoni, a leader in Italy's Jewish Assistance Committee

"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the case of truth: but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Catholic Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration, because the Catholic Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess, that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly." -Albert Einstein in Time magazine, December 1940

References:
[1] Robert Graham, S.J., ed., Pius XII and the Holocaust (New Rochelle, New York: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 1988), 106.
[2] Joseph Lichten, “A Question of Moral Judgment: Pius XII and the Jews,” in Graham, 107.
[3] Pinchas E. Lapide, The Last Three Popes and the Jews, p. 118.

History

World War II
Catholic
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Pope
Catholic Blogs

Pope Pius XII: Misunderstood and Maligned (Part One of Two)

2008-12-25T16:35:00.001-05:00

Pope Pius XII: Misunderstood and Maligned (Part One of Two)

Perhaps no other pontiff of the 20th century has been the subject of more intentional misinformation, slander, and calumny than Venerable Pope Pius XII, who faithfully served Our God and His Church as the Vicar of Christ from March 12, 1939 until his death on October 9, 1958. As he took the Chair of Peter at the beginning of World War 2, there have been more attempts at discrediting him and his pontificate for his actions during that war, by more Catholic hating and Catholic Church hating radical “journalists”, revisionist “historians”, so-called intellectuals, and self-proclaimed “scholars” than any other prominent figure from that war. The only person from the World War 2 era who is more vilified and treated with more contempt and total disdain than Pope Pius XII, is Adolph Hitler! This virulent attempt at defaming Pope Pius XII, has become a propaganda industry that would make the likes of Joseph Goebbels proud!

The most atrocious and bigoted of tags attached to this Venerable Pontiff, is “Hitler's Pope”. The preponderance of evidence available to even the most dim of history students would overwhelmingly support the fact that Pope Pius XII was anything and everything BUT “Hitler's Pope”! How anyone could ignore the evidence that shows Pope Pius XII was not only NOT “Hitler's Pope”, but, that indeed, his was the ONLY voice in occupied Europe that stood against Hitler and Nazi Germany, not only during the war, but, before the war as well when he was then Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli! Indeed, the only European voices to try to warn the world about Hitler and Nazi Germany before the war was the then Cardinal Pacelli and Winston Churchill!

The only way anyone could come to the incorrect conclusion that Pope Pius XII supported and condoned the actions of Hitler and his murderous henchmen, is to ignore the evidence and create their own version of events, as regards the time leading up to, and throughout the war itself! The most amazing and shocking part of this whole calumnious event, is the number of Catholics who will read such virulent vitriol and take it as absolute fact without ever making any effort to find out for themselves! One would hope that people would not make their opinions based solely on the last book they have read, and certainly not make their opinions based on one book alone! Alas, in todays world, people are too lazy to attempt to find out for themselves, they want everything in an instant, so let me try to help out, and highlight just a few of the more interesting FACTS regarding Pope Pius XII during World War 2, and not any of the myopic and bigoted speculation about what he allegedly did or didn't do.

Let us begin with a few absolute truths. At the time of Hitler's rise to power, the Catholic Church and the world was already faced with the atheistic evil of Communism, in the Soviet Union. The Church was well aware of the ongoing persecutions of Christians within the Soviet Union itself, especially under the brutality of such leaders as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, so the Church would not be fooled by, nor led into complacency by National Socialism. The Church fully recognized the inherent danger and evil in Adolph Hitler, and indeed, the future Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli saw him for who and what he was, and could not comprehend why the German people were so willingly and eagerly beguiled by this murderous butcher. The Sister who was Pope Pius XII's assistant, quoted him as saying when he was still Cardinal Pacelli, "This man is completely carried away; everything he says and writes has the mark of his egocentrism; this man is capable of trampling on corpses and eliminating anything that is an obstacle. I cannot understand how there are so many people in Germany who do not understand him, and cannot draw conclusions from what he says or writes. Has any of them even read his horrifying ‘Mein Kampf’?"

Now, let's take a look at the man who actually precipitated the plethora of books and opinions that have been anti-Pope Pius XII and anti-Catholic Church, especially during the period of World War 2. That man, is one Rolf Hochhuth, who wrote a 1963 drama “Der Stellvertreter, Ein christliches Trauerspiel” (The Deputy, a Christian tragedy), that was critical of Pope Pius XII's role against Nazism during World War 2. Though far from factual, many aspects of this play were taken as fact by many people (perhaps the same sort of non-thinking types that failed to note “The DaVinci Code” is a work of fiction), and was also opposed by many people appalled at the slander aimed at Pope Pius XII. Mr. Hochhuth is a friend of David Irving, who calls himself a “self-taught historian”, and is a well known holocaust denier, who has been barred from entering many countries (Mr. Irving denied that Nazi's systematically exterminated Jews,that the Diary of Anne Frank was mostly a forgery compiled by her surviving father, and called Auschwitz a fabrication), Mr, Hochhuth defended Irving being called a holocaust denier in 2005, and called the charges “idiotic” and Irving “an honourable man”. Indeed, Mr. Hochhuth, who himself belonged to the Hitler Youth, wrote his next work, “Soldiers, Necrology On Geneva” where he criticized the allied bombing campaigns and Winston Churchill as a war criminal. And people took this man's work as “fact”.

The next work, was a book by John Cornwell, “Hitler's Pope”, in which the author, used research from Vatican documents, and essentially used what suited him to prove his case against Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church, and totally disregarded the rest. He did an excellent job of pure conjecture, historical revisionism, and discarding factual information from both those documents and the testimonies from people who lived and survived during that terrible time, to support his claim that Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church was indifferent to the suffering of the Jewish people imprisoned by Hitler and his henchmen. Indeed, he accuses Pope Pius XII of being anti-Semitic, and accuses the Catholic Church of fomenting a climate of Antisemitism in Germany, and throughout Europe. How can anyone still take his work seriously, when this man, who calls himself Catholic, has written books indicative of being anti-Catholic, and anti-Church, even in an interview on one of his books, he calls Pope John Paul II (who was still alive at the time) “a profoundly reactionary Pope”, and “truly a great pope; but he is also a human pope who has lived beyond his moment”. Cornwell has shown a penchant for ignoring the whole of the information available to him in the documents he “researched”, and only using excerpts to prove his malignant thesis. Any author worthy of the name should have done a better job of utilizing his research and not so blatantly and arrogantly ignored the full context of quoted documents, and only quoted parts of statements to prove his story. If he had in fact, quoted the entire sections he did quote, the entirety of what is in those documents would have proved that Pope Pius XII did not support National Socialism in Germany, and that he did what he could to oppose Hitler before and during the war, and that he did what he could to save Jewish lives in Europe.

We find it quite baffling, that so many deem it necessary and of utmost importance to lay the charges of indifference and culpability at the feet of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church, yet are deafeningly silent at the same lack of public statements on the Jewish plight from other institutions, such as the International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches. Little if anything is ever mentioned of the fact that the allies were informed of, and yet refused to believe the stories of atrocities against the Jewish people during World War 2.

It is to say the least, quite amazing how so many can be critical of the actions of Pope Pius XII from the safety of their own freedom. They fail, and fail miserably, to take into account that while they can be “armchair quarterbacks” in the safety they enjoy today, Pope Pius XII did not have that luxury of freedom. Pope Pius XII was in Vatican City, in Rome, and Italy which was under the domination of Benito Mussolini, Hitler's ally in the Axis alliance, and when Mussolini was ousted, Rome was then under the control of Germany. In order to preserve the lives of the Jews and the Catholics held in the Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe, it was necessary and prudent for Pope Pius XII to do what he could, as he could, without going on a verbal assault against the Nazi's, for he realized that to do so, would result in the Nazi's intensifying their persecutions against those whom they held.

It is also even more baffling, as to how so many are so willing and so able to totally disregard all statements from survivors of the holocaust, their families, the contemporaries of Pope Pius XII within the Church, the contemporary leaders of the Allies, newspaper accounts of the period, and historical records that implicitly and completely prove without any doubt whatsoever that Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, was anything, and everything but silent and uncaring!

What these people do show, is a radical leftist leaning in their assessment of Pope Pius XII. For beginning in 1946, the Communists, especially in Communist Czechoslovakia, called Pope Pius XII a "Hitler Stooge". Communist propagandists systematically accused Catholics and other "reactionary" groups of collaborating with Hitler. Bishops were hauled into mock show trials, and for years, western leftists followed the Soviet lead in denigrating Pope Pius XII. Evidently, they are still hard at work on it today, and show those of us not blinded by a veil of lies and half-truths, what their true agenda is, and with whom their hearts truly lie.

Coming in Part Two: What Pope Pius XII Said and Did During World War 2

History
World War II
Catholic
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Pope
Catholic Blogs

KGB smear campaign against Pius XII exposed

2007-01-30T02:30:00.000-05:00

The Vatican's Secretary of State has presented a spirited defence of Pope Pius XII's role during World War II in protecting Jews as a former KGB spy reveals a deliberate super-secret Soviet plan to smear the Pope as an anti-Semitic Nazi sympathiser.

Catholic News Agency reports that in a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII "as a cold hearted Nazi sympathiser".

In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a "super-secret" plan, codenamed "Seat-12", for destroying the Vatican's moral authority in Western Europe, writes Pacepa.

Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB's main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. "Dead men cannot defend themselves" was the KGB's latest slogan.

The KGB used the fact that Archbishop Pacelli had served as the papal nuncio in Munich and Berlin when the Nazis were beginning their bid for power against him.

"The KGB wanted to depict him as an anti-Semite who had encouraged Hitler's Holocaust," says Pacepa.

Using documents provided by Pacepa, the KGB used these documents to produce a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy.

It eventually saw the stage in Germany in 1963, under the title The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy. It proposed that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. The German director claimed to have 40 pages of documentation attached to the script that would support the thesis of the play.

The play ran in New York in 1964 and was translated into 20 languages. The play then led to a flurry of books and articles, some accusing and some defending the Pontiff.

Pacepa says the truth has finally begun to emerge with the canonisation process of Pius XII, which was opened by John Paul II.

Meanwhile, Catholic News Agency reports that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, speaking at a Rome book launch, strongly defended Pope Pius XII's wartime actions and said he had coordinated church efforts that saved the lives of many Jews.

He said the Catholic Church as an institution played a part in this effort, working under Pope Pius and following his directives. The church aided all during World War II, but specifically sought to defend and save persecuted Jews, he said.

"They were to be helped in any way possible. This is the premise on which every action of the Pope and his aides was founded, as is demonstrated by the existing documentation," Cardinal Bertone said.

Lisa Palmieri-Billig, the Rome representative of the American Jewish Committee, also spoke at the book presentation. She said there was no question that the Vatican had helped save the lives of Jews, sometimes hiding them inside the Vatican itself.

She noted Pope Pius' strongly worded Christmas appeal in 1942 on behalf of those persecuted by the Nazi regime on the basis of nationality or race.

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Church News & Current Events-Weekly Summary

2007-01-10T23:08:00.000-05:00

Giving pause to the pregnant

The Government's decision to fund pregnancy counselling with input from Catholic agencies is controversial, writes Elisabeth Wynhausen.

THOUGH their opinions could not be more divergent on an issue of supreme importance to both of them, Devora Lieberman, the national president of Family Planning Australia, says she can't help feeling sorry for Health Minister Tony Abbott.

"It's a difficult position for the minister. He's a devout Catholic who as health minister ... funds 70,000 to 90,000 abortions a year," says Lieberman.

Though Abbott, for his part, has said he will not let his convictions interfere with the job, the health minister has hardly made a secret of his burning desire to reduce the number of abortions in Australia.

To read further on this important issue click here.

*******************

Vatican, Polish bishops reflect on crisis

The Church in Poland has demonstrated the courage and fidelity needed to overcome the crisis caused by the forced resignation of Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, according to the Vatican Secretary of State.

To read further please click here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

The Neocatechumenal Way-In Disobedience?

2007-01-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

Those Who Are Resisting Benedict XVI

The disobedience of the Neocatechumenals. The black legends of the conclave. The translation boycott. Three different ways of opposing the new pope.

The first words of Benedict XVI’s first encyclical letter, almost the motto of his papacy, are "Deus Caritas Est," God is love.

But not everyone in the upper levels of the Church is full of love and solidarity for this new pope. Resistance to his guidance is tenacious and widespread, and in some places it is on the rise. And almost all the resistance shields itself behind the protection of anonymity.

The only open and avowed resistance is that of the Neocatechumenal Way, which has opposed a papal directive issued last December, which struck at one of the movement’s cornerstones.

The Way, founded and directed by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, both Spanish, is today the most vigorous of the new Catholic movements that emerged during the last half century. It is present in 900 dioceses on all the inhabited continents, and boasts the strength of a million followers in over 20,000 communities, with 3,000 priests and 5,000 religious. It has an international network of 63 "Redemptoris Mater" seminaries, which are thriving with new vocations, in contrast with the vacuum in many diocesan seminaries.

One of the factors in its numeric expansion is the elevated number of children that its families bring into the world, running to ten, twelve, or even more. Each year, scores of these families go on mission into faraway countries. Last January 12, 200 of these families departed all at once from Rome, with the personal blessing of Benedict XVI, who met them in a Nervi Hall that was crowded and pulsing with enthusiasm. Some of the families were going to Patagonia or Japan, but some others were going into the most dechristianized areas of Europe: France, Holland, the former East Germany.

With such a legacy of success, it is natural that the Neocatechumenals receive the support of a large number of bishops and cardinals. Two of these patrons – cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Vatican congregation for the propagation of the faith, and cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington – were at their side in Nervi Hall on January 12. But criticisms have also rained down upon the Neocatechumenals over the years, especially against their carving out a separate place for themselves in the Church, with their own secret catechism, their own rituals, and their own parallel hierarchy. But these criticisms were always overruled by the unconditional support given to them by John Paul II.

But that’s no longer the case with pope Ratzinger. There is one thing about the Neocatechumenals that the pope does not accept, and which touches the heart of Christian life: the unusual way in which they celebrate the Mass (1).

In effect, the Mass that every one of the 20,000 communities of the Way celebrates each Saturday evening – separately from the parishes and the other sister communities – follows the dictates of its founder Kiko Argüello much more closely than it does the liturgical canons that are universally valid for the Catholic Church.

Instead of the altar in the apse, at the center of the hall is a large square dinner table, around which the Neocatechumenals receive communion in a seated position.

Instead of hosts, a large loaf of unleavened wheat bread, made with two-thirds white flour and one-third whole wheat flour, is divided and eaten. The bread, which is baked for a quarter of an hour, is prepared according to very detailed guidelines established by Kiko.

The wine is drunk from cups, also in a sitting position.

The homily is replaced by spontaneous comments from those present, before and after the readings from the Gospel, the letters of Saint Paul, and the Old Testament.

Benedict XVI has ordered that all of this come to an end. He did this through a letter delivered in mid-December to the three main leaders of the Way: Kiko, Carmen, and the Italian priest Mario Pezzi. The letter was signed by cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican congregation for the liturgy, but from its very first lines it clearly states that these are "the decisions of the Holy Father." Six unambiguous commands follow.

For example, regarding communion, the exact dispositions of the letter are these:

"On the manner of receiving Holy Communion, a period of transition (not exceeding two years) is granted to the Neocatechumenal Way to pass from the widespread manner of receiving Holy Communion in its communities (seated, with a cloth-covered table placed at the center of the church instead of the dedicated altar in the sanctuary) to the normal way in which the entire Church receives Holy Communion. This means that the Neocatechumenal Way must begin to adopt the manner of distributing the Body and Blood of Christ that is provided in the liturgical books." (2)

But instead of simply obeying, the Neocatechumenals disobeyed while asserting that they were perfectly obedient.

When Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli first gave the news of the pope’s directions, the official spokesman and director of the Way in the United States, Giuseppe Gennarini, protested that in reality these orders amounted to an approval (3).

When on December 27 www.chiesa published Arinze’s letter in its entirety, Gennarini called the very authenticity of this letter into question. He added that "this does not change its nature of a confidential and internal instrumentum laboris (working instrument)," devoid of any normative force. He restated that the only valid norm is "the confirmation by the Holy Father of the liturgical praxis of the Way." And by way of proof he cited the blessing that the pope would bestow a few days later upon the Neocatechumenal families leaving on mission, during the audience of January 12 (4).

The audience did, in fact, take place. And so did the blessing. But there was also a second, ringing summons to obedience from Benedict XVI:

"Recently the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments imparted to you, in my name, some norms concerning the Eucharistic celebration, after the trial period that had been granted by the servant of God John Paul II. I am certain that these norms, which draw upon the provisions of the liturgical books approved by the Church, will meet with attentive compliance from you." (5)

There was no comment from the directors of the Way after this second call from the pope. But word was given to the 20,000 communities to continue as before.

To read further please click here.

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-11/14/2006

2006-11-14T18:40:00.000-05:00

Bishops: U.S. must help end Iraqi Violence

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged national policymakers Monday to leave behind the campaign season's "shrill and shallow debate" over Iraq and help end sectarian violence, so that citizens of the war-torn nation can find peace.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Politics Source of Conflict Between East and West, Not Religion

Though the Pope is visiting Turkey at the invitation of the president, Erdogan added: “The status of the Pope is twofold. One is political, and the other religious. With regard to his political identity, our president will meet him, while our head of religious affairs will host him as a religious leader. As for me, I will attend the NATO summit in Riga. This is not a reactionary attitude. I cannot cancel the NATO summit simply because the Pope is coming. The world continues to turn and we have to perform our duties.”

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Vatican Encourages N. Korea Denuclearization

The Vatican is encouraging negotiations to obtain the "denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula, Pope Benedict XVI said Monday.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Vatican Official Blasts Human Trafficking

Human trafficking, including women forced to become prostitutes or minors forced to do child labor, is worse now than the trade in African slaves of past centuries, a top Vatican official said Tuesday.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Vatican Official: Immigrants Must Follow Local Laws, Including Bans On Veils

Immigrants must follow local laws, including bans on veils covering the face, a Vatican cardinal said Tuesday, referring to debates in Europe about Muslim women and integration.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Vatican Official Criticizes U.S. Border Fence Plan

A top Vatican official called the Bush administration's plans for hundreds of miles of new security fences on the United States-Mexico border "inhuman."

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Anglican, Catholic Bishops Meet In England

Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales have begun their first joint meeting.The 2-day conference includes discussion of some of the issues dividing the two churches, including the ordination of women, ordination of gays and the Anglican rejection of clerical celibacy, The Times of London reported.

Read more by clicking here.

Catholic News & Current Events-11/13/2006

2006-11-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials will hold a meeting to discuss requests for lifting the celibacy requirement made by priests seeking to marry or who have already married, the Vatican said Monday.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Appalled by a report that 800 million people in the world today are undernourished and that a great many people die from hunger every year, Pope Benedict XVI has called for a radical change – a "conversion" – in "the model of global development."

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pope Benedict XVI received a delegation from the Marmara Foundation last week, when the group was in Rome to attend meetings organized by the Turkish and Italian foreign ministries to mark the 150th anniversary of Turkish-Italian relations.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At a national meeting starting today in Baltimore, the bishops are expected to make changes that adjust to their new circumstances. They plan to channel resources away from broad social pronouncements and focus more on defining Catholicism for an often-uninvolved flock.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The head of Poland’s Church has apologised to a leading Catholic priest after publicly comparing him to a communist police spy for investigating former clergy agents.

Read more by clicking here.

Catholic News & Current Events-10/31/2006

2006-10-31T06:20:00.000-05:00

Vatican delegate addresses UN on religious freedom

The Vatican's permanent observer at the UN made a plea for recognition of religious freedom. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Nicaraguan lawmakers approve abortion ban

Nicaragua's parliament has approved legislation banning nearly all abortions. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Brazilian cardinal to head Congregation for Clergy?

Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, Brazil, may soon be named by Pope Benedict XVI as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-10/17/2006

2006-10-17T23:02:00.000-04:00

Counter-terrorism measures need to protect human rights: Holy See

Effective counter-terrorism measures should serve not sacrifice the protection of human rights, the Holy See representative told the United Nations this week. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Spanish court strips diocese of $40 million inheritance

A Spanish court has ordered an archdiocese in northern Spain to hand over a $A40 million inheritance from two rich, childless widows. Read further by clicking here.

********************

The scientific case for Catholic sexual ethics

The Catholic Church has taken more heat over its teachings about sex than any other topic. You may be surprised then to learn that modern science is on the Church’s side. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Challenges of Christian Converts From Islam

Converts from Islam to Christianity pose a challenge for governments to ensure freedom of religion -- and their witness is also a challenge to the Church itself. Read further by clicking here.

********************

New York priests back Cardinal Egan

The Priest's Council of the Archdiocese of New York met for two hours yesterday with Cardinal Edward Egan to discuss with him a highly critical, anonymous letter. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Faith Schools Required to Admit Pupils from Wider Community

Under legislation being put forward by the Government on Tuesday, new faith schools in England will be required to admit at least 25 per cent of pupils from the wider community. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Worldwide Christian Community Shocked as Priest Beheaded in Iraq

The Christian community has been dismayed to learn that the beheaded and dismembered body of Father Boulos Iskander, 59, a Syrian Orthodox priest, was found in a suburb of Mosul, Iraq, last week. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-10/15/2006

2006-10-15T22:39:00.000-04:00

Indian Dalits in mass conversion to Buddhism and Christianity

In a protest against anti-conversion laws introduced by several Indian states, over 9,000 Indigenous Dalits were received into the Buddhist and Catholic faiths in mass ceremonies in the central city of Nagpur over the weekend. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Stay faithful, Nicole Kidman hints at husband

In Rome at the weekend for the world premiere of her latest movie, Catholic film star Nicole Kidman told reporters that she has "pretty strict ideas about sexual fidelity". Read further by clicking here.

********************

Muslim scholars engage Benedict in dialogue

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars from around the world have delivered an unprecedented open letter to Pope Benedict pointing out errors in his Regensburg speech. Read further by clicking here.

Point of View

I am tired of the Muslim Clerics and their demands that the Pope apologise for merely speaking the Truth! If the Islamic Clerics find the truth so abhorrent no wonder there are so many be-headings. I have yet to see Pope Benedict or my fellow Catholics become violent.

Islam cannot say that their religion is a 'religion of peace' when they be-head anyone who has a different point of view!

As for Aljazeera they should win the Joseph Goebells award for the best propoganda which bears NO semblence of the truth! When will these Mulsim Clerics actually have the backbone to stand for the truth and condemn acts of terrorism? I wont hold my breath!

********************

Spring of the Latin rite

The freeing up of the old rite is likely to have a powerful impact on Australian Catholicism and on the broader culture, although it's unlikely to be noticeable immediately. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News and Current Events 10/13/2006

2006-10-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

Pope Benedict XVI is set to revive the Latin version of the Roman Catholic Mass, issuing a papal decree that could restore traditional forms of worship that fell out of favor 40 years ago, according to an Italian news report.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Thousands of people, many of them expectant mothers, are expected to descend this weekend on St. Lucy's Roman Catholic Church for the Feast of St. Gerard, a colorful, spiritual 107-year-old tradition that starts tonight.

St. Gerard is widely revered by Catholics as a protector of aspiring and expectant mothers.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Pope Benedict reminded Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that the Vatican strongly defends the traditional family and ethics in scientific research when they held their first official talks on Friday.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

The Catholic Church and the Church of England have found themselves on opposite sides of the fence on the debate over Government proposals to offer cohabiting couples the same rights as married ones.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Cardinal Peter Erdo, president of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences in Europe (CCEE), pointed to some cardinal changes in religious life in Russia.

In his interview to Svet Evangelia, a Catholic newspaper in Russia, he said that along with a discussion (at the recent CCEE assembly in St. Petersburg - IF) on problems very important for all Europe, some Western bishops discovered a new reality. It is the rapidly developing Catholic Church in Russia, overcrowded churches, a living faith and sincere devotion.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars and chief muftis from numerous countries have accepted Pope Benedict XVI’s apology for his remarks on Islam, the editor of a Muslim journal said today.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Pope Benedict XVI held talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in a strictly private meeting here Friday.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Pope Benedict XVI has said that he would “be a strong, constant voice against anti-Semitism,” during a private audience with Jewish American leaders on Thursday in Rome.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

The Vatican is preparing to publish Pope Benedict XVI's biggest book to date: "Complete Teachings, Vol. I."

But the pope's writings are also finding their way into more bite-sized volumes that are enjoying unusual popular success, according to the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

The (Missouri) bishops clarified the Church’s teachings: Opposition to Amendment 2 does not mean opposition to moral methods of scientific research and therapies. "We support the aggressive pursuit of stem-cell research which respects the moral law and has genuine promise," they wrote.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

Mexican Bishop Rafael Guízar y Valencia was known as "the bishop of the poor," selling his bishop's cross and ring and ministering to the needy during a time of persecution around the Mexican Revolution.

Now, nearly 70 years after his death, Guízar y Valencia is set to receive the highest honor in the Catholic Church: He's to be canonized Sunday into sainthood by Pope Benedict XVI. He'll become the first official Catholic saint ever to have visited San Antonio.

Read more by clicking here.

* * * * * * *

An Indiana nun once banished from her congregation by a bishop will be proclaimed a saint tomorrow, providing a model of virtuous life to America's Roman Catholics.

Read more by clicking here.

Catholic News & Current Events-10/11/2006

2006-10-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

Benedict expected to restore availability of Latin Mass

The Pope is expected to issue a "motu proprio", a legal issued on his own initiative, that will address the concerns of "various traditionalists". Read further by clicking here.

********************

"Ice" isn't cool, Catholic youth worker warns

Over 73,000 mostly young Australians are already dependent on cheap, widely available "ice" or crystal methamphetamine. Read further by clicking here.

********************

More young Christian women abducted, raped in Iraq

Young Christian women are among the preferred targets of Iraq's growing abduction problem. Read further by clicking here.

********************

IRAN: DIPLOMATS TOLD POPE BENEDICT XVI WANTS 'WAR' WITH ISLAM

Several speakers at a conference hosted by Iran's foreign ministry have claimed Pope Benedict XVI wants a "war" against Muslims and that documents exist proving he had once supported Adolf Hitler's Nazi policies. Read further by clicking here.

NOTE: The Muslims fail to recognize, or are in a constant state of denial regarding the fact that there is more violence and war involving Muslim against Muslim, than Christian against Muslim all over the world. Besides, Iran has to try to stir up the Iranian people in order to draw attention away from the arrest there of a reformation cleric, who does not believe that religion has no place being involved in politics.

********************

Church backs legal rights for parents who live in sin

The Church of England yesterday backed proposals to give millions of unmarried couples who are "living in sin" similar legal rights to their married counterparts. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-10/10/2006

2006-10-10T23:48:00.000-04:00

Bishops say proposed cloning laws are contempt for life

Australia's bishops say that open slather on human embryo research is not the way forward. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Disarmament, not armaments: Vatican on North Korea

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, says the Holy See is in favour "not of armaments, but of disarmament and peace". Read further by clicking here.

********************

Australian Fears of ritual killing over Christian conversion

A Bangladeshi-born recent immigrant is under police guard following the killing of the man's wife in what some sources fear was a ritual killing over plans by the couple's daughter to convert to Christianity. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Vatican Museums open spectacular archeological find

The Vatican Museums will open a new section of the Roman necropolis on October 12, promising visitors a "little Pompei" at the site on the Via Triumphalis. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Canadian bishops urged to preach on sin, Confession

Pope Benedict XVI cited the "loss of a sense of sin" in modern society. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Women's group dismisses Ms magazine abortion roster

Ms. magazine, which recently publicized a listing of women who announced that they had procured an abortion. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Two Catholics arrested for blasphemy against the Qur’an

James Masih and Buta Masih, both 70, are accused of burning some pages of the Qur’an. The two illiterate men are jailed despite the lack of witnesses. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-10/6/2006

2006-10-07T00:49:00.000-04:00

Pope warns theologians against serving public opinion

Pope Benedict XVI warned theologians against serving "the dictatorship of common opinion. Read further by clicking here.

********************

UN "sleepwalking" on disarmament Says Vatican

The Vatican envoy at the UN has accused the international body of "sleepwalking" on the issue of nuclear disarmament. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Over 350 Indians of all castes convert to Christianity

Around 350 Hindus coming from all social castes converted to Christianity. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Spanish bishop says dialogue not possible with extremists

Two European bishops have drawn a line in the sand over Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict's controversial Regensburg remarks. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Clergy warned male God may promote violence

2006-10-04T04:49:00.000-04:00

CHURCH of England leaders have warned that calling God "He" encourages men to beat their wives, a British newspaper has reported.

The Daily Mail said churchgoers had been told to think twice before referring to God as "He" or "Lord" because of dangers it could lead to domestic violence.

New guidelines for bishops and priests reportedly warn the clergy to reconsider the language they use in sermons and ensure the hymns they sing don't foster the oppression of women.

The guidelines, entitled Responding to Domestic Abuse, advised that Biblical violence "in combination with uncritical use of masculine imagery, can validate overbearing and ultimately violent patterns of behaviour", The Daily Mail said.

Plymouth vicar Rod Thomas, a spokesman for the evangelical Reform movement, said according to The Bible, God had female and male characteristics, but it was not inhibited about referring to God as male.

"There is a danger that this document has veered too much towards political correctness," he told the paper.

********************

*Point of View*

The Anglican Church has gone from the truly ridiculous to the bizarre in their latest attempt to de-god God. Unfortunately to the minds that be or in this case the mindless in their attempt to make God more relevant and 'mainstream' they have instead succeeded in making themselves look totally idiotic.

Let us hope that with this latest bit of religious nonsence that more Anglicans will leave this lukewarm religion and return to their roots which lay within the embrace of the Catholic Church.

God has no need of 'spin' doctors so He can appeal to the masses or to the overtly feminist agenda, which is the KEY element in this nonsensical piece of political correctness.

Where will this silliness end? Will Jesus find himself a transgender lest another segment of society feels themselves marginalized?

The Church of England has truly become a very irreverent irreligious barmy army of political correctness!

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News

Catholic News & Current Events-10/3/2006

2006-10-04T01:38:00.000-04:00

British prelates angered by BBC attack on Pope

Church officials in Great Britain have sharply criticized a BBC program on clerical abuse. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Russian prelate disputes role of Ecumenical Patriarch

The Russian Orthodox Church has lodged a serious objection to the notion that the Patriarch of Constantinople is the worldwide leader of the Orthodox faith. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Turkish hijackers trying to stop papal visit

Hijacking marks a new stage in attempts to stop papal visit to Turkey. Turkish papers today report al-Qaeda’s death threats against any Muslim who dares meeting Benedict XVI. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Limbo under threat from Vatican theologians

Rome reports indicate that the Holy See's International Theological Commission is examining the notion of limbo. Read further by clicking here.

********************

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Catholic News