Recently in Catholic News Category

Sandro Magister writes:

They threw stones, burned homes, and pursued  those fleeing, firing wildly. In the end, nine people were dead. Seven of them have the same last name, Hamid, and belong to the same family clan as Fr. Hussein Younis, a Franciscan. They include two children (in the photo by Saqib Khadim, the coffins). Their only fault is that they were Christian.

It took place in Pakistan, in Gojra, in the province of Faisalabad in eastern Punjab. There are 1.3 million Catholics in all of Pakistan, and the same number of Christians of other denominations, out of a population of 160 million, almost entirely Muslim. But the intolerance against this small, poor, peaceful minority has become a fact of life, exploding at times into bloody aggression.

The latest episode was sparked by an innocent marriage celebration among Christians in Koriyan, a little village near Gojra. It was July 30. Interviewed by Lorenzo Cremonesi for "Corriere della Sera" on August 3, Fr. Younis recounts:

"As is customary, at the end of the ceremony in the church the guests tossed flowers, rice, a few coins as tokens of prosperity, and slips of paper with greetings or prayers written on them. The problem is that some Muslims started to claim that the slips of paper were pages torn out of the Qur'an, an extremely serious offense for Islam and even more serious in these times of fanaticism. Very soon insults and accusations were flying, and then stones. A few homes were set on fire in the afternoon. But the more serious violence exploded on the morning of Saturday, August 1, in Gojra, around the Christian neighborhood.

"Our people counted eight buses full of extremists who had come from outside the area. Unfamiliar faces, people armed to the teeth. Their slogan was that we Christians have the same religion as the American soldiers, and therefore we are enemies, we deserve death. First they threw stones, then they sprayed gasoline, and finally came machine gun fire and bombs. Here around me everything is burned, charred. The death toll could have been much worse if the Christians had not fled immediately. My relatives were not fast enough, and they were burned alive, trapped in the flames."

There has been a lot of conversation this week about the proposed arrangement between the Archdiocese of Boston's Caritas Christi health organization and a secular entity called Centene. The plan is problematic and serious questions are being raised. Philip Lawler has a primer in the June issue of CWR:

Until recently Caritas Christi was unambiguously owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Boston, with the archbishop serving as chairman and the chancellor and vicar general also sitting on the board. But in the early years of the 21st century the agency's troubles drew unwanted attention from a paternalistic state government.

In April 2004, Archbishop Sean O'Malley dismissed the president of Caritas Christi, Dr. Michael Collins. Although no explicit reason was given for the ouster, it was generally understood that the new archbishop was dissatisfied with the doctor's management style. But the first replacement for Dr. Collins, Emmett Murphy, brought no relief; he stepped down hastily after reporters questioned the accuracy of his resume. Next came Dr. Robert Haddad, who was forced out in 2006 amid accusations of sexual harassment of female employees.

Meanwhile, the financial losses were mounting and Caritas Christi was actively seeking a buyer. By 2007, the agency was involved in serious talks with Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic health care system. But those talks trailed off, in part because accountants discovered that Caritas Christi had overstated its revenues by $10 million.

At this point the attorney general of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, announced that she could no longer watch the archdiocesan health care system flounder. Citing her duty to supervise the affairs of non-profit groups, she announced an investigation of Caritas Christi. In March 2008 the attorney general released a highly critical report, and recommended major changes in the agency's governance. She strongly recommended that the Boston archdiocese "relinquish direct and indirect control over strategic, operational, and financial matters, and focus only on moral and ethical issues."

The archdiocese quietly acceded to the proposed reforms. In a sweeping reorganization announced a few weeks later, the archbishop of Boston lost his traditional place as chairman, and the archdiocese was allotted only three seats on the 16-member board. The archdiocese announced that its control over the affairs of Caritas Christi would henceforth be "limited to matters pertaining to Catholic identity, mission, and the implementation of the religious and ethical directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and any transaction that would involve the sale or transfer of the system."

In a highly unusual policy for a non-profit organization, the reconstituted Caritas Christi has declined to identify the members of its board of directors. The latest official papers filed with state regulators do not reflect the organizational changes of May 2008. So when Caritas Christi became involved in the controversial bid for the state health care contract, Catholics hoping to influence the agency's policies--or to express their concerns about the moral dimensions of the government contract bid--did not know where to address their concerns.

Just three members of the 16-member board of Caritas Christi have been publicly identified, and none of them has a background that would reassure pro-life activists. Dr. Ralph de la Torre, who as president is an ex officio board member, has been a forceful advocate for an independent hospital system, and the primary force behind the contract bid. James Karam, the chairman of the board, is a businessman whose political sympathies are evident in his generous contributions to liberal Democratic candidates such as Barack Obama. And the only identified cleric on the board, Father J. Bryan Hehir, has been the bête noire of conservative Catholics nationwide since the 1980s, when he emerged as a major architect of the US bishops' pastoral letter on nuclear weaponry and an apologist for the "seamless garment" approach that saw abortion as only one among many critical issues in political campaigns. Father Hehir, Caritas Christi told inquiring Catholics, served on the board as Cardinal O'Malley's representative, to ensure that the health care system protected its Catholic identity. If that message was intended to ease the concerns of pro-life activists, it failed badly.

NO REASSURANCES

In answer to questions from inquiring Catholics, Caritas Christi officials said that the Catholic hospitals would not perform abortions, even if the Commonwealth Family Health Plan (CFHP) won the government contract. Nevertheless, in response to similar questions from the secular press, the joint venture issued a terse statement that the CFHP "will contract with providers, both in and out of the Caritas network, to ensure access to all services required by the authority, including confidential family planning services." How could these two claims be reconciled? No explanation was forthcoming.

Caritas Christi, Centene Corporation, and the Archdiocese of Boston have all refused to disclose exactly how CFHP would respond to patients' requests for abortions. Caritas Christi has assured the public that Catholic hospitals would not perform abortions. Nevertheless the abortions would be performed under the terms of the contract the Catholic agency sought to win.

snip

(closing paragraph)

The government contract will undoubtedly bring a critical infusion of revenue for the Caritas Christi system. The alliance with Centene Corporation in the CFHP may even lead to a successful sale of the troubled Caritas Christi system. But the apparent involvement of Catholic hospitals in a system that provides subsidized abortions--and the steadfast refusal of the Boston archdiocese to explain how that involvement could possibly be justified--is an astonishing setback for the culture of life. And it bears emphasis that this situation did not arise because the state government forced Caritas Christi into a morally untenable position; the Catholic agency deliberately sought to be involved. The Catholic Action League called the development "a significant defeat for the pro-life movement, inflicted not by secular society, but by the Catholic Church in Boston."

There have been updates to this story over the past couple of days - here in the Globe, for example and I'll have more to add to this post in a bit (I have to run out for a while), but just know that if you want a good book-length introduction to how Catholic health systems have gotten into this mess,  a new release from OSV by Leonard J. Nelson from right here in Birmingham (he is a professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University and an affiliated scholar with the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health)  will do the trick: Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Health Care  is a sober, instructive look at the situation.

I'll have more later, including Dr. Nelson's thoughts on the Caritas situation.

Friday is also the day Cardinal Sean updates his blog, so I'd be interested to see if he addresses it there.

Thursday is ridiculous.

Meet with lawyer, sign will, etc., some other stuff.

Give talk to a parish woman's group (agreed to six months ago).

Take Katie to (I hope) get her Learner's Permit (yes, she's 17 and yes, we're late on this, but there have been reasons related mostly to her busy life, but I tell you that I think have 1 1/2 less years of biting my fingernails with worry every time she hits the road has been not a bad thing.) - but now's the time.

Miscellaneous other matters, including getting ready for a bit of travel. More on that as it unfolds. A bit of a surprise travelogue coming.

I did the worst thing ever today - something I swore I would never do, something that was never even a temptation before - bought a portable DVD player for the car. With the amount of driving we're about to do, having one adult busy driving and one teenager to deal with two little boys in the back seat...I couldn't even fathom it. So I relented, and I 'm sure they thought God has for some reason given them a new Mommy when I walked in with the box this afternoon.

Of course it will probably break 30 minutes into the first viewing of Star Wars, so that will be that.

So to tide you over - here's some Pope reading. I've got to get my Eschatology post up before this trip - I really loved the book and want to share it with you, as well as write about The Rite. I hope I can get to that Thursday night, as well as an another ruminating (is "ruminous" a word? Should be) post. Non-grief related. I think. Although in the end, it probably will be.

So back to the Pope.

Here's his homily from last Sunday, in Cassino:

(I will say this about that - much of what absorbed me in Eschatology is condensed in this homily.)

In Christ ascended into heaven, man has entered in a new and unheard of way into the intimacy of God; man now finds space in God forever. "Heaven" does not indicate a place beyond the stars but something more bold and sublime: it indicates Christ himself, the divine Person that completely and forever takes on humanity, he in whom God and man are united forever. And we draw near to heaven, indeed, we enter into heaven, to the extent that we draw near to Jesus and enter into communion with him. For this reason, today's Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to a profound communion with Jesus dead and risen, invisibly present in the life of each of us.

Two appointments today:

Msgr. John Barros, priest of the Wilmington diocese, as bishop of Allentown, PA

and

Archdioceses of St. Paul-Minneapolis Vicar General Msgr. Lee Anthony Piché as Auxiliary there.

Fr. Robert Imbelli,a professor of theology at Boston Collegewrites on Obama and Notre Dame in a piece printed by Sandro Magister:

(He begins by analzying the speech, highlighting some aspects not mentioned by many others, and then turns to Judge Noonan's address)

In a generous tribute, President Obama called Notre Dame "a lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition." A fine representative of that Catholic wisdom tradition is Judge John Noonan who gave the Laetare Address, replacing Ambassador Glendon. It is unfortunate that his measured address received hardly any mention in the media accounts, obsessed as they are with celebrity and conflict. But his remarks, brief and respectful, yet pointed, deserve close attention. His was a soft, gentle voice, like the whisper of conscience.

Judge Noonan referred to the development of human moral sensitivity that has led the civilized world to denounce genocide, torture, and slavery as unspeakable moral evils. But he made clear that this moral clarity stemmed from centuries of conflict, experience, suffering insight, and "the light radiating from the Gospel." And he insisted that, though "conscience" was ever to be respected and never to be coerced, not every conscience was equally morally informed and upright.

Significantly, Noonan chose a striking example as illustration: the dispute between President Abraham Lincoln and the former slave, Frederick Douglass. It was Douglass' moral clarity and conviction that helped guide Lincoln's own moral compass to the point where he issued the "Emancipation Proclamation," freeing the slaves in the secessionist states. The implication, subtly but unmistakably put forward, was that, like Lincoln, whom he reveres, President Obama may also come to greater clarity regarding the pressing moral issue of abortion.

A further dimension of Judge Noonan's talk, missed even by those who bothered to advert to his speech, was the silent appeal to John Henry Newman.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in the Irish Times:The first thing the church has to do is to move out of any mode of denial. That was the position for far too long and it is still there.Yes, there was abuse...

The new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, will be installed on Thursday, but what is dominating Catholic news in England and Ireland this week is the release of the final report of the "Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse" in...

This year is the 400th anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci, the great and fascinating Jesuit missionary to China.His home diocese in Italy is planning celebrations in his honor, and the Pope has sent a message:The Pope writes of...

Vatican's getting deeper into Web 2.0:The Vatican is launching iPhone and Facebook applications in an effort to help Catholics, especially younger generations, use new technologies to create a culture of dialogue, respect and friendship. The new applications are part of...

I can't remember.Here's Fr. Jenkins' letter to the Class of '09:May 11, 2009 Dear Members of the Notre Dame Graduating Class of 2009: This Sunday, as you receive your degrees at Commencement, your joy - and that of your families...

...to go with Julia Duin's article of a few days ago..A 16-year old girl reflects on her baby brother's "brief, holy life"(thanks to commenter Cheri for pointing it out.)...

Today's that kind of day. I need to go sit in a government waiting area for a while. I'll be back this afternoon - I hope. I'm sure the government waiting area doesn't have wi-fi. I mean, when I went...

The schedule:10.00 - Holy Mass celebrated at the Amman International Stadium Recitation of the Regina Cæli at the Amman International Stadium 12.45 - Luncheon with Patriarchs, Bishops and Papal Entourage at the Latin Vicariate of Amman 17.30 - Visit to...

On Saturday, the Pope attended and preached at Vespers in the Greek-Melkite Cathedral of Saint-George in Amman. Here's the video (90 minutes long - the good chanting starts at about  30 minutes in. So ancient, simple, rich and organic. ) ...

Today's schedule, via Benedict in Israel Blog:07.15 - Private Mass in the Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature of Amman, Jordan 09.15 - Visit to the ancient Basilica of the Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo 10.30 - Blessing of the...

By Jody Bottum. A longer version of this will appear in the next, soon-to-be appearing issue of First Things. This preview is in The Weekly Standard:It's not about politics, he says - it's about culture:Meanwhile, in the offices of the...

Three links for you, none a scoop - but it's interesting to toss them all in one post.First, Archbishop Wuerl's interview with Melinda HennebergerNext, Archbishop Burke's speech at the Catholic Prayer Breakfast today.Finally, Archbishop Dolan is interviewed by Maria Anastasia...

Beautiful new ad from Catholic Vote - the second "Imagine the Potential" ad. The first, as you recall, focused on the image of an unborn child, imagining the potential and promise of that child growing up to be the first...

There's an argument brewing down in a comments box concerning Notre Dame's honoring of Obama and French President Nicoloas Sarkozy being made a canon of St. John Lateran, as is a tradition for French leaders.But as to the "more Catholic...

Today at the GA, Pope Benedict spoke of St. John Damascene.He quoted heavily from the saint's writings, focusing on John's opposition to iconoclasm:Damascene wrote: "In other times, God had never been represented in an image, being incorporeal and without a...

Another day, another episcopal homily. This one, via Peter Nixon, is the text of today's homily from  the new Bishop of Oakland, Bishop Cordileone at his installation Mass. He begins and ends by quoting Pope Benedict, and in the middle,...

Bishop Wenski's homily at the Mass of Reparation has been posted. It's reproduced here as well. Today's Mass is offered in reparation for the sins and transgressions committed against the dignity and sacredness of human life in our world today....

Russ Shaw blogs over at OSV:This is apology aversion in everyday life. Refusal to admit mistakes in matters of public significance is more sinister and equally common.Consider all those journalists and think tank talking heads who helped sell America on...

Mary DeTurris Poust makes an excellent point at the OSV blog:During last night's 100-day press conference, when President Obama was asked about methods of torture used to interrogate suspected terrorists, he eloquently referred back to Winston Churchill, saying that when...

Catholic News Service has just tweeted...twittered...that John T. Noonan will be speaking at Notre Dame's graduation "in lieu" of awarding a medal...(Noonan was awarded the Laetare Medal in 1984)From the Notre Dame Press Office:Judge John T. Noonan Jr., the 1984...

As I mentioned a few days ago, we went in '07. This blog has a great, thorough report, with lots of nice photos, of this year's event:...

Today at the General Audience, the Pope spoke of St. Germanus.There's a Zenit translation here, but I find it stilted, so I'm going to quote from Theresa Benedetta's translation at PRF instead:Germanus was Patriarch of Constantinople during a portion of...

The Boston Globe on the the miracle being attributed to Cardinal Newman's intercession: Lying in a hospital bed after surgery on his spine, unable to walk and in agonizing pain, Jack Sullivan propped himself up on elbows and prayed.Not to...

A good discussion on this NETTV (Diocese of Brooklyn) program  between George Weigel, Grant Gallicho of Commonweal, and Elizabeth Scalia of The Anchoress  and First Things: The subject ended up being more about Obama and the abortion issue in general,...

Elizabeth Lev is an art historian living in Rome, which means, almost by default, that she also has been known to lead tours in Rome - our family was blessed to experience that. Her mom is also Mary Ann Glendon....

I just wanted to highlight the Pope in Abruzzo post, in case you missed it - do read the Pope's prayer. It's beautiful and comforting, no matter what earthquake you have recently suffered....

Has long-time commenter RP wrapped it up and tied it tight, or does he drop it?To grasp, as Glendon is doing here, for the moral high ground in opposition to a pro-abortion-rights president even as she has most recently been...

Here's a CNS report on a follow up to the "religious landscape" survey of a while back, focusing on why people change faiths. For this story, natural emphasis on the Catholics: The reasons cited most often by those who have...

They're working on it: The following statement from Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, is in response to the decision by Mary Ann Glendon to decline acceptance of the University's Laetare Medal:"We are, of...

Over at the NCRegister, Father Raymond de Souza has produced a lengthy post about Mary Ann Glendon's decision - putting in the historical context of examining past honors and platforms given to others, including Mario Cuomo and Patrick Moynihan as...

Thanks to a reader who pointed out this FAQ from the European Organization for Nuclear Research on the "science" In Angels and Demons:Does CERN own an X-33 spaceplane?Unfortunately not. As I added in the comments, years ago, I was giving a...

I'm going to run out of headlines for this series soon - I'm highlighting various evanglization efforts taken on by Catholics. Those posts can be found here, for the most part, if I've been efficient in my tagging.When some people...

Pope Benedict will be visiting Israel next week - there will be much news and reaction, we can be sure. One of the better spots to keep track of it all will be Chris Blosser's Pope Benedict in Israel &...

Pope Benedict canonized 5 people today:-- Blessed Arcangelo Tadini, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth.-- Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, Italian abbot and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin...

Marcel LeJeune of AggieCatholics has alerted me to the fact that Catholics Come Home is now allowing their videos to be embedded. They produce fantastic videos that have apparently had a profound affect in areas in which they have been...

First, from an interview the NYPost did with Archbishop Dolan, addressing issues raised here and other places: But Dolan acknowledged he did not speak out against Notre Dame when President George W. Bush received the same invitation in 2001, despite...

In which we begin, I'm sure, a month or so of AngelDemonBlogging...why not join in the fun?..or not.All right. Before I begin, I want to lay out some ground rules. Hopes. Dreams.I am not new to the Dan Brown universe...

More in our "Corporal Works of Mercy" file - remember, this is something I do regularly, using this space to alert you to smaller-scale works of mercy around the globe - even if a small percentage of those of you...

Tom Peters, the American Papist, reports that Bishop Conlon of Steubenville is exhorting those in his diocese to pay more attention to Friday penance and abstinence .From the bishop's letter on the matter, dated late last month:Next to Sunday, Friday...

Via our friend at the Catholic Key:Debate lasted only a few minutes Tuesday, apparently because most of the 65 representatives had made up their minds. All except Ed Vigil.The freshman Democrat from Fort Garland sat still as the House's electronic...

Bishop D'Arcy responds to Father Jenkins - this is on the Diocesan website, here:April 21, 2009 My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Recently, Father John Jenkins, CSC, in a letter of response to Bishop Olmsted of the Diocese of...

I do love it when my readers to my work for me. As in...construct blog posts for me. Win!I am head of the evangelization team at St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, MD. Our efforts are mostly geared towards non-practicing...

When you talk to folks about evangelization, one of the topics that comes up, usually within 17 seconds, is that of "small groups."Veterans of post-Vatican II church "programs" might recall the ebbing and receding popularity of "small faith communities" over...

Announced this morning:Syracuse:Bishop Robert Cunningham is being moved from Ogdensburg to Syracuse.The new archbishop of St. Louis, replacing Archbishop Burke, is Bishop Carlson of Saginaw.And...St. Louis is Tweeting. Twittering. Whatever....

Deal Hudson has a piece on Andrew McNabb over at Inside Catholic - I am anxious to get my hands on Andrew's new short story collection: Such a writer is the 40-year-old Andrew McNabb, whose first book of short stories...

This article in the NYTimes is either poorly written, edited, or both.Of course it includes the requisite news flash that the Archbishop will not be changing any Catholic teaching soon. But it's the paragraphs in the middle that quite confused...

Continuing the theme...Via Fr. Dwight Longenecker (for those of you who don't know now-Catholic (married)  priest after a journey through Bob Jones U, Anglican priesthood...and an excellent writer. Michael worked with him on a couple of books at OSV) -...

There's a lot going on today, April 19:It's the 14th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombingIt's the 4th anniversary of Pope Benedict's election to the papacy.(Go here for reports from this - well the old - blog  - liveblogging, reactions....

On Friday afternoon, the NIH released draft guidelines for federally-funded embryo-destructive research. Backstory:  The Bush administration had limited such research to a few already-existent cell lines - a decision some hailed as a good compromise, and others - like me...

Here and there, a few bishops blog.One of the pioneers, as most already know, is Cardinal Seán O'Malley of BostonBishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg has had a blog for a few months.Not a blog, but a reader sends news...

Catholic News reports: But Father Basil Clark, who watched the show on television at his home in Broxburn,Scotland, was not surprised. He has seen the situation unfold many times before, having regularly accompanied Boyle, 47, on the annual Legion of...

(Photo source and credit: REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (ITALY RELIGION))I'd invite you take a look at some of the other photos from this gathering today - I was a little worried because the Pope seemed really tired last weekend, but he...

This is rather amazing - via Fr. Z - Bishop Wenski of Orlando (not a raging "conservative" by any means) is presiding at a "Mass of Reparation" in the Cathedral:As Catholics we are aware of the many shortcomings and transgressions...

As you may have heard, President Obama gave a speech on economics earlier this week at Georgetown University.As you also may have heard, adjustments to the setting were made for the speech.Julia Duin of the Washington Times explored the mystery:When...

In which we begin a series - hopefully I'll post on it every other day - on evangelization projects, endeavors and outreaches by Catholics.I have written quite a bit about evangelization on this blog (well, the other blogs.) over the...

Jack Smith of the Catholic Key (the KC Archdiocese newspaper which uses its blog to great effect, expanding and exploring stories), explains the source of the CDF's...issues with the *leadership* of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious. There are many...

Some of you newshounds might remember a terrible accident that occurred on Good Friday in the Pittsburgh area when a retired priest accidentally ran his car into a group of parishioners leaving Mass. Several were injured, one woman died.An account...

"This is about Him and about Her""This is all about Jesus and his Bride, the Church."The text is here - from the Archdiocesan website - but is very slow loading. So I think it's there, although I can't be sure....

The National Catholic Reporter has posted a story about a coming doctrinal investigation of the Leadership Council of Women Religious.Many of you already know about a visitation - similar to that of US seminaries - of houses of religious women....

(Photo credit: AP, Frank Franklin, pool)Did you watch Vespers last night? It was clear that after he finished his homily, (the text is here)  Archbishop Dolan was quite moved by the whole moment. God bless him.(Kathryn Jean Lopez has a...

Well, I might as well jump in.Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be installed tomorrow as the new Archbishop of New York. It's going to be an exciting, fascinating time -  you might say beginning of an era - he's only 59,...

This is one of those random posts in which I toss out something that has been rumbling about in my head for a while. A question more than an assertion. People - well, let's limit this to Catholics - are...

The Pope's message:From the depths of my heart, I wish all of you a blessed Easter. To quote Saint Augustine, "Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra - the resurrection of the Lord is our hope" (Sermon 261:1). With these words, the great...

Tell us what you saw and heard at the Vigil and today.As promised, we returned to Casa Maria for the Vigil. I am telling you that the music there is just what the doctor ordered - simply, reverent, mostly unaccompanied...

The Pope's homily from tonight: Saint Mark tells us in his Gospel that as the disciples came down from the Mount of the Transfiguration, they were discussing among themselves what "rising from the dead" could mean (cf. Mk 9:10). A...

(I'll be adding to this throughout the day...just getting the post started...) Good Samaritan Parish, Ellijay, GeorgiaManhattan(Photo source and credit)Baghdad, Iraq(Photo source and credit)...

The Pope's Address at the end of the Via Crucis:Dear Brothers and Sisters, At the end of his dramatic Passion narrative, the Evangelist Saint Mark tells us: "The centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last,...

On Good Friday, the Pope does not preach at the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion. That job falls to the Preacher of the Pontifical Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa.  Here is the text, which begins by discussing the centrality of the...

And now the homily for the Mass of the Lord's Supper:(Here's your catechesis on Eucharist for your catechumens and candidates, confirmation candidates...yourself. Myself.)He begins by discussing some aspects of the Roman Canon, and continues:There is another aspect of the institution...

Last night, I journeyed out west - to Tuscaloosa, for the first time. Accompanied by my trusty assistants (because their assistant had a play rehearsal), we hopped on 459, then 20 and made our way to a place called Mugshots...

Father John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, explained the university's decision to the Board of Trustees by saying that the 2004 USCCB document Catholics in Public Life only applies to Catholics:The 2004 document was clearly adopted by the Bishops as...

At today's General Audience, Pope Benedict offered a succinct and beautiful catechesis on Holy Week. The official text is not online, but Theresa Benedetta, dependable unofficial translator to the Holy See, is on it: In the afternoon Mass, called 'in...

Could I honestly be any lamer? Well, you get the message. Reports say that about 150,000 new Catholics will be entering the Church in the US this year.  That's good, and thank God, but honestly, it's not a huge, huge...

I love doing this, and haven't done it for a quite a while: simply going through the news photo sites and grabbing images from Palm Sunday around the world.Let's go....(Oh, and remember to add your..."What Did You See and Hear"...

Yesterday, Pope Benedict presided at the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. This Mass has another particular focus: youth. It is a "World Youth Day" of sorts, in which, this year, the WYD cross was passed on from Australia...

Here's the SoulWow! site...from the Diocese of Brooklyn (among others), which is really jumping on this whole technology thing of late......

John Allen interviews Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O'Brien about the Legionaries of Christ:Are you encouraged by the Vatican's decision to launch an apostolic visitation?I certainly am. I think it settles a lot of people's concerns that nothing was going to be...

Yesterday, a prayer rally sponsored by Notre Dame Response (a student group) was held on the campus of Notre Dame to protest President Obama's commencement speech and honorary degree.The NDObserver student newspaper covered it. An estimated 400 people were there...

Just as we end a week over on this side of the Atlantic during which a couple of bishops have made notes about the tone of commentary among some Catholics, and another gets in a dig, rather direct for an...

I heard the Pope went to Africa couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what happened, but I think it involved condoms and people who wanted to use them, but then got mad at the Pope for not letting...

Over in Rome there's a meeting going on of a commission on the Church in China:The commission that meets today in the Vatican till Thursday includes some 30 people, superiors and members of the Secretariat of State of the Holy...

Thanks to Clayton Emmer in the comments (Clayton blogs here at "Weight of Glory") who alerts us to the CNS article noting that the Holy Cross superior general has written to President Obama:The head of the Holy Cross religious order...

Inside Catholic reports on the latest regarding Kansas Governor Sebelius:The bishops of Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia, confirmed publicly they would uphold the declaration of her ordinary, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, stating that Governor Sebelius should not present...

I am on the road, and writing on a strange computer with annoying monitor resolution that I can't seem to fix, so I'll just gather up a few links here. I hope tonight, I'll be able to pull some coherent...

The USCCB Committee on doctrine has issued a statement on Reiki - a not uncommon offering at various Catholic retreat centers and other places. It's a pdf document, but if you're interested, go to the trouble of opening it up...

Tom Peters at American Papist has posted the text of a letter that Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix sent to Fr. Jenkins of Notre Dame. Strong stuff....

I want to pull a comment from below and use it to focus discussion:Although Kevin Jones's argument was a devil advocate's argument, I think it holds up. Barak Obama is OUR president. He is my president, he is your president....

The Vatican has posted the Pope's itinerary for his visit to the Holy Land in May. It's in Italian at this moment (I'll post an English link later when the VIS notice comes out) - but here it is. Update: ...

I keep asking for a reasoned, principled defense of President Obama's role as commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient at Notre Dame, but it's just not happening yet. Unless I've missed it, which is thoroughly possible.The best I can find...

Here you go:(I am on the run - not able to comment right now.)March 24, 2009 On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating...

A wrap-up of sorts. I was trying to wait to see if Bishop D'Arcy had a statement today, but nothing yet, so here goes.(Update: John Norton at OSV reports that D'Arcy's statement will come Tuesday morning.)I didn't do a massive...

As I noted below, Dr. Mary Ann Glendon will be the very deserving recipient of this year's Laetare Medal, presented by the University of Notre Dame:Established at Notre Dame in 1883, the Laetare Medal was conceived as an American counterpart...

A new Bishop of Oakland has been named - it is Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, Auxiliary of San Diego, moving from southern to northern California. ...

(Note to self: Movable Type's auto-save is not functional unless you have actually saved the post first. Let's try this again. And not accidentally close the browser this time.)So today was Laetare Sunday. How did your parish celebrate? And what...

Give it to me.(Update: And while I really do appreciate the discussion so far...I was serious. Supporters of the choice...tell me why it's a good choice.)Here's an arguments against, from the comments box:My heart is breaking at this invitation and...

Pope Benedict XVI's homily today at Mass with religious in Angola:(That single sentence, bolded below, struck me. It is the opposite of making idols of what is not God. Making God subject to us.) As we have just heard, the...

This is a thought problem, not a theological or canonical statement.A thought problem. Thinking through things in light of theology, ecclesiology and history.The Catholic Church's process and grounds for excommunication comes up with regularity, mostly in relation to ordinations and...

As we continue to be bored with the bleating of the ideological and misinformed (because it's one thing to disagree with another person, including the Pope, but it's another thing altogether to just be silly about it), the Pope just...

Yesterday, Pope Benedict began his journey to Africa, for a visit to two countries: Cameroon and Angola. The visit continues until Monday. The journey is going to be busy but a relatively quiet one - that it, not marked by...

Much has been made, since the remission of the SSPX episcopal excommunications, of the Vatican's communications issues.In fact I have made much of it myself. (Check this post, in which I run down some problems from the past as well.)There's...

Or at least before I attempt lengthy posts on Benedict XVI and Vatican II.Because I'd discover that Edward T.  Oakes, SJ had done the heavy lifting over there: I sincerely hope that Benedict's frank examination will lead to a similar...

All right, let's get back to Pope Benedict. Back to the letter he penned to the world's bishops about this SSPX business, reminding them that no, he's not turning back Vatican II, and everyone needs to just calm down, forget...

I'm just going to go through the letter and offer some reflections.Even though many Bishops and members of the faithful were disposed in principle to take a positive view of the Pope's concern for reconciliation, the question remained whether such...

Today, the Vatican released a text of a letter written by the Pope to the world's bishops - the text was leaked yesterday, but here's the official text from the Vatican website.  Why did the Pope write a letter? Simply...

This Second Sunday of Lent - Putting Abraham to the test, If God is for us, who can be against...the Transfiguration...At the Mass I attended, the homily focused on the Transfiguration, and the importance of listening to Jesus, as God...