Woe to You...Bishops

Did you know that 'Notre Dame' means 'Our Lady' in French? Our Lady, as in The Blessed Virgin Mary, you know... the Mother of God. How ironic that Obama was recognized and honored with a Doctorate of Law at the university which, for many, stands as the epitome of Catholic Education in the USA. AND how ironic (it is no coincidence) that Obama, the most Pro Abortion President in history, would accept such an 'honor' at the University of 'Our Lady'. Remember, Our Lady is the protector of the unborn! She is Ark of Life itself! What a slap in the face to her and to all of Catholicism and unbeknown to them, the world. It is as if the Devil himself had planned the event in order to chip away at the building blocks of the Catholic Church in the USA. Make no mistake, this was a plan or part of the plan to destroy the True Church. In the meantime most Bishops, the 'Princes of The Church' sat and watched. Sure some of them wrote about their disapproval but most DID nothing! Now they have come together... now that it is safe, and have voiced their support for Bishop D'Arcy who stood alone against the onslaught of the Devil himself. This writer has one thing to say about this to the Bishops of the USA...SHAME ON YOU!!! You hypocrites. Where are you when you are needed. You are afraid to get a nosebleed during the fight. You all remind me of those kids in school who 'talk' a good game, but when the time comes to play or fight...you run home, With all due respect to your Office, I believe YOU are the persons Jesus referred to when He spoke 'lukewarmness'! Woe to you!

National Catholic Bishops Back Pro-Life Bishop D'Arcy Over Notre Dame Scandal

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 22, 2009

South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- The nation's Catholic bishops on Monday issued a strong statement supporting Bishop John D’Arcy, who publicly opposed the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor pro-abortion President Barack Obama and allow him to give the college's commencement address.

In March, the northern Indiana Catholic leader said he would not attend the Catholic college's commencement because it invited such a strong abortion advocate and would give him an honorary degree.

"The bishops of the United States express our appreciation and support for our brother bishop, the Most Reverend John D'Arcy," the statement reads.

"We affirm his pastoral concern for Notre Dame University, his solicitude for its Catholic identity, and his loving care for all those the Lord has given him to sanctify, to teach and to shepherd," it adds.

The bishops expressed their appreciation for Bishop D'Arcy during their spring General Assembly, June 17-19, saying they "expressed their solidarity" with his handling of the scandal and noting his "care and concern for the University of Notre Dame," which resides in his diocese.

At the time, Bishop D'Arcy said, "I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith 'in season and out of season' and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions."

"My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life," D'Arcy stated after his decision not to attend the Notre Dame graduation.

The Cardinal Newman Society, which also criticized Notre Dame and gathered more than 367,000 signatures on a petition opposing the commencement address and honor to President Obama, welcomed the bishops’ strong expression of unity.

“Facing criticism by political partisans and secularists, Bishop D’Arcy prayerfully led dozens of his fellow bishops and thousands of Catholics worldwide in confronting the scandal at one of our own Catholic universities,” said Patrick Reilly, president of CNS.

“It is a comfort and a blessing to American Catholics that the bishops’ conference would issue such an extraordinary expression of unity and support," he said.

Last month, The Cardinal Newman Society helped coordinate a spiritual bouquet for Bishop D’Arcy and his 82 brother bishops who publicly stood with him, “in grateful appreciation to the Church’s shepherds who prayerfully provided witness for a strong Catholic identity on Catholic campuses.”

Bishop D’Arcy took several actions to oppose Notre Dame’s scandalous actions. He voiced his strong disapproval, announced his boycott of the commencement exercises, and issued a correction in response to Notre Dame President Fr. Jenkins’ attempts to defend the choice of Obama as speaker and honoree.

Bishop D’Arcy declared that, despite Fr. Jenkins arguments to the contrary, the University of Notre Dame was in direct violation of the 2004 USCCB document “Catholics in Political Life,” which reads, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

Most of the 82 bishops who joined Bishop D’Arcy also took the position that Notre Dame was in violation of “Catholics in Political Life.”

Women's Eggs...For Sale?

NEWS BRIEFS Jun-19-2009

By Catholic News Service

U.S.

State plan to pay for eggs used in research called 'grossly unethical'

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- An official of the New York State Catholic Conference has criticized as "grossly unethical, dangerous and exploitative" a plan that allows state funds to be paid to women who donate their eggs for research purposes. The move was approved June 11 by the Empire State Stem Cell Board, which oversees $600 million in New York taxpayer funds earmarked for stem-cell research. Kathleen Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the conference, which represents the state's bishops in public-policy matters, said the plan "treats women's body parts as commodities." New York is the only state in the nation thus far to decide to pay women for their eggs, she added. The stem-cell board approved payments of up to $10,000 for each retrieval, which Gallagher said surely will be tempting for low-income women who are struggling to support themselves and their families. Yet she noted that the retrieval process can be painful and has been linked to health risks and loss of fertility. "In this economy people are desperate," she said. "Vulnerable women should not be coerced into risking their health and their lives for speculative science with speculative benefits."

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE CHURCH?

Since the beginning the Devil has been conspiring against God. In Scripture he (the devil) is called the Prince of the Power of the Air (Eph 2:2). Is it any wonder that the 'airwaves' would be negative toward the Truth? Read the article below and you decide.

Off the radar: Pope's teaching ministry finds little echo in media
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- News coverage of Pope Benedict XVI tends to leap from big event to big event, so perhaps it's no surprise that after his Holy Land pilgrimage last month the German pontiff has fallen off the mainstream media radar.

To cite a single but typical example, in the month following the Holy Land trip the New York Times did not report about any of the pope's activities at the Vatican. Even in Italy, coverage of Pope Benedict has fallen off markedly.

The pope is likely to step back into the spotlight when he meets with President Barack Obama and when he issues his encyclical on social justice -- two major events expected in the first half of July.

But then the pope goes on vacation outside of Rome, and re-emerges only at the end of September with a visit to the Czech Republic. He doesn't completely disappear, of course; he continues to give talks and meet with individuals and groups. But the press will take little notice.

The pattern of media attention -- or lack of it -- has led some Vatican officials to privately lament what they see as a paradox of Pope Benedict's pontificate: the pope's primary focus and greatest talent is teaching, they say, but it's the kind of teaching that rarely breaks into the news cycle.

"You don't get soundbites from this pope, and that is a challenge to journalists. Another challenge is that he often speaks a language that presupposes faith," said one senior Vatican official.

One priest complained that controversies generated by such episodes as the rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop have detracted from the pope's newsmaking capability.

"They're not interested in him. I think part of the reason is that there is a prejudice there now," he said.

Whether or not the whole world is watching, the pope takes his day-to-day ministry seriously. As a sampler, here are four recent talks that received little or no coverage in the mainstream media, but which touched on essential themes of his pontificate:

-- God is love, and can be perceived in the created world. On June 7, the pope delivered another mini-lesson on this favorite topic, saying God can be sensed in the macro-universe of galaxies and planets as well as the micro-universe of cells and genetic material.

"God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. He does not live in splendid solitude but is rather an inexhaustible source of life that is ceaselessly given and communicated," he said.

The reason he keeps hammering on this theme? Because he sees the rupture of the human being's relationship with God as the source of countless threats to the moral order in modern society.

-- Reason is open to truth, and Scripture can help lead it to truth. At his general audience June 10, Pope Benedict turned his attention to John Scotus Erigena, an obscure ninth-century Irish theologian and philosopher. The pope said Erigena outlined a process by which scriptural texts help bring "intelligent creatures toward the threshold of divine mystery," so that they can move beyond their own shortcomings "with the simple, free and sweet force of the truth."

Like Pope Benedict, Erigena believed that "true religion and true philosophy coincide," as the pope put it, and that authentic authority and reason can never really disagree, because they are both rooted in divine wisdom.

While the pope's arguments may go over the heads of many of the pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, they are an important part of his effort to convince contemporary society that rational thought is based on objective truth, and that the modern trend toward relativism marks a dangerous path.

-- The influence of secularization, even in the church's liturgy. Celebrating the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ June 11, the pope spoke of "the risk of a creeping secularization even inside the church, which can translate into a formal and empty type of Eucharistic worship." It was the second time he's made that point in recent weeks.

He added that a similar danger lay in "reducing prayer to superficial and hurried moments" in the midst of more mundane affairs.

The pope wants liturgy to be beautiful, but it's not simply a matter of aesthetics; it is beautiful, he says, because it's based on the truth -- the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ.

For the pope, the liturgy is tied deeply to doctrine, and that was seen in an important appointment he made June 16, naming U.S. Dominican Father J. Augustine DiNoia as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Father DiNoia had been undersecretary at the doctrinal congregation; the new head of the worship congregation, Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, was a leading member of the doctrinal congregation.

-- The need for a new global economic model. Addressing the "Centesimus Annus" Foundation June 13, the pope offered a preview of his upcoming social encyclical, saying that "certain economic-financial paradigms that have been dominant in recent years need to be rethought" so that more attention is paid to the rich-poor disparity in the world.

He took up the same theme the next day, saying that a U.N. financial summit in late June should promote a fairer distribution of resources and decision-making power to favor poorer countries.

The pope has repeatedly said the solution to the current global economic crisis will require lifestyle changes and "strategic choices that are sometimes not easy to accept." Given his previous remarks, some expect the encyclical to challenge not only the obvious excesses and abuses of modern capitalism, but its philosophical underpinnings as well.

THE FOCUS OF THE PRIESTHOOD

06/21/2009 12:38
VATICAN
Pope: a life of prayer and charity like Padre Pio, against activism and secularisation
Benedict XVI visits San Giovanni Rotondo and proposes the characteristics of the Saint from Pietrelcina to capuchin monks, Padre Pio spiritual groups and all faithful. The Pope prays before the body of the saint.

San Giovanni Rotondo (AsiaNews) – “Simplicity”, humility and having been “seized by Christ”, the characteristics of Padre Pio, part of the inheritance he left his brother capuchins, the prayer groups inspired by him and all Christians, to combat secularism and activism: this was the pope's message during his pastoral visit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Graces, in San Giovanni Rotondo, the final resting place of the bodily remains of Padre Pio, who was canonized in 2002. At the beginning of the Year for Priests, Benedict XVI has launched another model for all priests showing to all the example of the friar from Pietrelcina: "A simple man of humble origins, 'seized by Christ' (Phil 3:12) ... to make of him an elected instrument of the perennial power of his Cross: the power of love for souls, forgiveness and reconciliation, spiritual fatherhood, effective solidarity with the suffering. The stigmata, that marked his body, closely united him to the Crucified and Risen Christ ".

From the Vatican, the pontiff travelled by plane to the sanctuary. Before the Eucharist, together with hundreds of thousands of faithful from all over the world, the Pope paused for a few minutes in the crypt which houses the body of the saint, lighting two lamps in memory of his visit.

In his homily, Benedict XVI reflected on the Gospel of the day, which recounts the miracle of the clamed storm (Mk 4, 35-41). “The solemn gesture of calming the stormy sea is clearly a sign of the lordship of Christ over the negative powers and it induces us to think of His divinity: "Who is He – ask the disciples in wonder - that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mk 4.41). Their faith is not yet steadfast, it is taking shape, is a mixture of fear and trust; rather Jesus trusting abandonment to the Father is full and pure. This is why He sleeps during the storm, completely safe in the arms of God - but there will come a time when Jesus will feel anxiety and fear: When His time comes, He shall feel upon himself the whole weight of the sins of humanity, as a massive swell that is about to fall upon Him. Oh yes, that shall be a terrible storm, not a cosmic one, but a spiritual one. It will be Evil’s last, extreme assault against the Son of God….. In that hour, Jesus was on the one hand entirely One with the Father, fully given over to him – on the other, as in solidarity with sinners, He was separated and He felt abandoned”.

Padre Pio too, said the pope, lived these “storms” together with Christ. “Remaining united to Jesus, - explains Benedict XVI - he always had his sights on the depths of the human drama, and this was why he offered his many sufferings, why he was able to spend himself in the care for and relief of the sick - a privileged sign of God's mercy, of his kingdom which is coming, indeed, which is already in the world, a sign of the victory of love and life over sin and death. Guide souls and relieving suffering: thus we can sum up the mission of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: as the servant of God, Pope Paul VI said of him". “Padre Pio –he added - drew on the path of holiness by his own testimony, showing by example the "track" that leads to it: prayer and charity”. Benedict XVI recalls the intensity with which Padre Pio celebrated mass and how the hospital founded by him “the House for the Relief of Suffering”, is the fruit of his close bond with the Sacred Heart of Christ.

And speaking to the friars, the spiritual groups linked to Padre Pio and all those listening, he affirmed: “The risks of activism and secularization are always present, so my visit was also meant to confirm fidelity to the mission inherited from your beloved Father. Many of you, religious and laity, are so taken by the full duties required by the service to pilgrims, or the sick in the hospital, you run the risk of neglecting the real need: to listen to Christ to do the will of God. When you see that you are close to running this risk, look to Padre Pio: In his example, his sufferings, and invoke his intercession, because it obtains from the Lord the light and strength that you need to continue his mission soaked by love for God and fraternal charity”.

After the Mass, Benedict XVI led the Angelus prayer, recalling the devotion that Padre Pio had to the Madonna. "All his life - he said - and his apostolate took place under the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin and by the power of her intercession. Even the House for the Relief of Suffering he considered to be the work of Mary, 'Health of the sick'. "

"To the intercession of Our Lady and St Pio of Pietrelcina - he added - I would like to entrust the Special Year for Priests, which I opened last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it be a privileged opportunity to highlight the value of the mission and holiness of priests to serve the Church and humanity in the third millennium! "

Before beginning the Marian prayer, the pontiff briefly recalled the UN World Day for Refugees, held yesterday: "There are many people who seek refuge in other countries fleeing from situations of war, persecution and natural disasters, and hosting them poses many difficulties, but is nevertheless necessary. God grant that, with the commitment of everyone, we do as much as possible to remove the causes of such a sad phenomenon. "