Monday, February 20, 2012

Blogfast

Now that I blog much anyway, but I'm going to out of the blogosphere (including facebook and twitter) from now thru Lent. May it be a season of deeper prayer for all.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Why Whitney Houston Died - according to Bill O'Reilly


A parishioner commented before the evening Mass today that she was watching Houston's funeral and it was "awful". I guess that it was probably all that a Catholic funeral would not have been. And we have had three funerals in as many days so our parishioners should know a thing or two about Catholic funerals.



I think we need to be warning our youth about the dangers of the celebrity lifestyle. Yes, pray for her soul, but certainly not hold her up as any kind of example.

In our local Mining Journal, I found that this column by Bill O'Reilly seemed to sum it up for me.

"Occupy" protesters don't get arrested, but pro-life HHS pray-ers do.



President Obama's bid to attack religious liberty with the HHS Mandate is galvanizing Christians to prayer and peaceful protest. No, it's not about contraception, it's about religious liberty. But it is, actually, about contraception, and at last the sleeping giant of the Church(es) has awoken to the issue.

LifeNews.com carries the report. Is there a law against praying outside the White House? It seems that the reason for the arrest is their vocal declarations of disobedience to the law in the Name of the higher law of God.

Two American Women to be Canonized

At this morning's Consistory of Cardinals, the Holy Father announced that

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha who was born in 1656 at Ossernenon (today Auriesville, USA) and who died at Sault (Canada) April 17, 1680,

and Sister Maria Anna Cope (in the world: Barbara), a professed religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis in Syracuse (New York, USA), and known as Mother Marianne of Molokai, who was born in Heppenheim (Germania) January 23, 1838, and who died at Molokai (USA) August 9, 1918

be canonised on Sunday October 21, 2012.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Baptism of Logan Michael Tregembo


Congratulations to Sarah and Dan Tregembo on the baptism last Sunday of their little son Logan Michael. The baptism was celebrated according to the Extaordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist Issue Statement on President Obama’s So-Called Compromise


 
Ann Arbor, MI - In response to President Obama’s remarks regarding the final rule for individual and group health plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Mother Mary Assumpta Long, O.P., the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist released the following statement:
 

Regarding the so-called compromise by President Obama on the Department of Health and Human Services rule for “preventative” services that mandate coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception for their employees, the mandate still compromises religious, economic, and political liberty.

Despite the assurances by President Obama that separating the premiums paid by religious institutions to insurance companies somehow protects the religious liberty of Catholic and other religious institutions, the bottom line is these institutions will still have to pay the insurance company that is mandated to provide these services for free to any employee who wants these services.  It is insulting for President Obama and his administration to suggest the so-called compromise “should be net cost neutral.” It is simply impossible to ensure that the insurance companies will not pass on those costs to the organizations and individuals who conscientiously object to their insurance policies covering abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception. In short, not only does the Administration not comprehend Catholic moral reasoning and the full-meaning of the principle of religious liberty, it does not even understand the basic economics of health-care insurance. The fact that Planned Parenthood has so quickly expressed satisfaction with these arrangements only confirms that nothing has changed in substance.

As the Second Vatican Council declared in paragraph four of its Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae:
“religious communities rightfully claim freedom in order that they may govern themselves according to their own norms, honor the Supreme Being in public worship, assist their members in the practice of the religious life, strengthen them by instruction, and promote institutions in which they may join together for the purpose of ordering their own lives in accordance with their religious principles.”

Moreover, as citizens of the United States we are guaranteed by the Constitution the right to fully and vibrantly live our Catholic faith according to the teachings of the Church.  We as Catholics demand that our institutions not be required to formally or materially cooperate in acts that the Church has always taught to be intrinsically evil.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist plead with God to protect the ability for all Americans to freely exercise their religious liberty.  The Dominican Sisters of Mary will offer up daily prayers with the intention that this unjust mandate be overturned, and we will do so until it is overturned.”

 
The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist is a Roman Catholic community of women religious based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our primary apostolate is the education and formation of young people. We remain open to engaging the modern culture with new forms of evangelization in order to preach the Gospel and teach the Truth.  In 15 years, the Sisters have grown to over 100 in 14 years, the average age is 28 and the average age of the women who enter is 21. Sisters represent most of the States across the U.S., various Provinces in Canada, and countries in Europe and Asia.

St Augustine's Abbey Ecclesiastical Treasures Saved

Recusant chalice

Recusant chalice

© Dominic Winter /catholicnews.org.uk

The following press release from the English and Welsh Catholic Communications Network was published today:
The Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith, and the Abbot of Farnborough Abbey, the Rt Rev Dom Cuthbert Brogan OSB, are delighted to announce that through a private treaty sale a number of key historic items from the former Benedictine Abbey at Ramsgate in Kent are to remain in Catholic hands. The majority will return to the church of St. Augustine in Ramsgate, the magnificent Grade I church which Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) designed and built next to his own house, The Grange. Pugin designed and fitted out the church in every detail and the items returning to St. Augustine’s church complement the rich collections already there. Equally, the items acquired by Farnborough Abbey complement the Abbey’s important collections of sacred silver.

The Archbishop of Southwark and the Abbot of Farnborough would particularly like to thank Abbot Paulinus Greenwood, Abbot of the Benedictine Community formerly based in Ramsgate, and auctioneers Dominic Winter for their full cooperation and support in facilitating this happy outcome.

Amongst the historic items returning to St. Augustine’s is a beautiful monstrance of around 1850 which is very similar to one which Pugin designed for his other famous church, St. Gile’s, Cheadle, and a watercolour sketch by Pugin of the interior of St. Augustine’s, Ramsgate. This sketch was a preparatory study for a large drawing which Pugin sent for display at the Royal Academy in 1849. The monks at Benedictine Farnborough Abbey have acquired an important silver recusant chalice dating from 1633. English recusant silver of this early period is extremely rare due to the prohibition on Catholic worship following the Reformation. This chalice is engraved with scenes from the Passion of Christ. It was given to the monks at Ramsgate in the nineteenth century by a member of the Hales family, who were recusants. It had been in the Hale family for generations.

The sale of contents from Ramsgate Abbey came about because of the Ramsgate monks’ recent move to smaller premises at Chilworth in Surrey and on account of their need to raise sufficient funds to continue their work and mission. The Archdiocese of Southwark took back responsibility for St. Augustine’s church from the monks in 2010 and has instigated a major programme of repair with generous grant support from English Heritage. An appeal was launched last November in the River Room at the House of Lords, a room also designed by AWN Pugin. The parish priest, Fr Marcus Holden, has established a Friends of St. Augustine’s and patrons of the appeal include the broadcaster, Alistair Stewart, and the architectural writer, Clive Aslet. With the new acquisitions added to the existing collection, the Friends are planning to put on an exhibition.

Father Marcus Holden, said, “We have a major programme to bring St. Augustine’s back to as it was in Pugin’s day and the acquisition of these items contributes in a significant way to what we are seeking to achieve here in Ramsgate. Pugin decided to build this church here because St. Augustine had landed nearby in 597AD. We want St. Augustine’s to become a fitting place to commemorate both the towering achievements of Pugin and the coming of Christianity to England which captivated him. As we recall Pugin’s bicentenary on March 1st we will be celebrating not only an iconic national architect but a central figure of the Catholic revival”.

Nathan Winter of Dominic Winter Book Auctions said, “We are delighted to have been of assistance to the Archdiocese of Southwark in the retention of a number of key historic objects from St. Augustine’s Abbey in Ramsgate and to know that they will feature in the important restoration project now underway at the wonderful Pugin church there, widely regarded as one of the architect’s greatest achievements”.

The Abbot of Farnborough said, “Dominic Winter Book Auctions, the auctioneers, are to be commended for their professionalism and patience in negotiating this sale and for their sensitivity to the concerns of the wider Catholic community. All sacred vessels are important. The recusant chalice communicates with a particular eloquence the hardships suffered by Catholics in what are described in the inscription on the chalice as ‘cruel times’. We are relieved that this chalice will remain in appropriate hands.”

A couple of other photographs can be seen at the Conference's flickr page.

For more information about the controversy caused by the auction, see Fr Ray Blake's blog . While these articles have been saved, Fr Blake asks: But What is Lost?

Saturday, February 11, 2012

"Center for the Protection of Children" Symposium, Munich

Sandro Magister reports on the opening day of an international symposium entitled "Toward healing and renewal" organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University, with the participation of other Vatican authorities and representatives of 110 episcopal conferences and more than 30 religious orders.

The objective of the symposium was to move from juridical norms to widespread practice, ensuring the implementation throughout the world of measures to bring about healing and renewal, even where the scandal has not yet exploded.

An Irish victim, Marie Collins (pictured above), recalls the abuse she experienced at age 13 and how it affected her life, and her faith in the Church in the light of the covering up of the abuse she reported.
Those fingers that would abuse my gody were the next morning offering me the Sacred Host.
Marie's testimony can be read here. It's not pleasant!

Our Lady of Lourdes - Day of Prayer for the Sick

 
He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail. (Pope Benedict, Message for World Day of the Sick 2012)

With parishioners from St Simon Stock parish, South Ashford, Oct. 2007

Friday, February 10, 2012

US Bishops say again to Obama: "No!"


I learn from Diane at Te Deum Laudamus that the US Bishops have issued a powerful statement rejecting President Obama's HHS "compromise". He really must have some dumb CINO's in his Administration who think the bishops can be fobbed off so easily. The Bishops' complete statement is as follows (emphases as per the original):

February 10, 2012

Regulatory changes limited and unclear

Rescission of mandate only complete solution

Continue urging passage of Respect for Rights of Conscience Act

WASHINGTON – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued the following statement:

The Catholic bishops have long supported access to life-affirming healthcare for all, and the conscience rights of everyone involved in the complex process of providing that healthcare. That is why we raised two serious objections to the "preventive services" regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August 2011.

First, we objected to the rule forcing private health plans — nationwide, by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen—to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. All the other mandated "preventive services" prevent disease, and pregnancy is not a disease. Moreover, forcing plans to cover abortifacients violates existing federal conscience laws. Therefore, we called for the rescission of the mandate altogether.

Second, we explained that the mandate would impose a burden of unprecedented reach and severity on the consciences of those who consider such "services" immoral: insurers forced to write policies including this coverage; employers and schools forced to sponsor and subsidize the coverage; and individual employees and students forced to pay premiums for the coverage. We therefore urged HHS, if it insisted on keeping the mandate, to provide a conscience exemption for all of these stakeholders—not just the extremely small subset of "religious employers" that HHS proposed to exempt initially.

Today, the President has done two things.

First, he has decided to retain HHS's nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients. This is both unsupported in the law and remains a grave moral concern. We cannot fail to reiterate this, even as so many would focus exclusively on the question of religious liberty.

Second, the President has announced some changes in how that mandate will be administered, which is still unclear in its details. As far as we can tell at this point, the change appears to have the following basic contours:

·It would still mandate that all insurers must include coverage for the objectionable services in all the policies they would write. At this point, it would appear that self-insuring religious employers, and religious insurance companies, are not exempt from this mandate.

·It would allow non-profit, religious employers to declare that they do not offer such coverage. But the employee and insurer may separately agree to add that coverage. The employee would not have to pay any additional amount to obtain this coverage, and the coverage would be provided as a part of the employer's policy, not as a separate rider.

·Finally, we are told that the one-year extension on the effective date (from August 1, 2012 to August 1, 2013) is available to any non-profit religious employer who desires it, without any government application or approval process.

These changes require careful moral analysis, and moreover, appear subject to some measure of change. But we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection for key stakeholders—for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals—is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer's plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns.

We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance. Some information we have is in writing and some is oral. We will, of course, continue to press for the greatest conscience protection we can secure from the Executive Branch. But stepping away from the particulars, we note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services. [emphasis added]

We will therefore continue—with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency—our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government. For example, we renew our call on Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. And we renew our call to the Catholic faithful, and to all our fellow Americans, to join together in this effort to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all.
See Te Deum Laudamus for further comments. The Bishops are to be commended for their swift and emphatic rejection of this "compromise". Let us keep them all in our prayers that they may be guided to teach not with a spirit of timidity, but with one of power and love and sound judgement. (2 Tim. 1:7)

Lazy Cow syndrome. Is this funny, or is it funny? (It's certainly not PC)


If you cannot cope with satire, you had better not watch it. (H/T Damian Thompson)

The HHS compromise will not wash

As this amusing poster illustrates. The Church's institutions will still pay for insurance that covers the immoral practices of contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. Is it not equally dictatorial of the Government to demand that insurance companies provide these services free of charge? No insurance company provides anything "free". It has to be paid for. And what about the ordinary Catholic or other employer with conscientious objections to buying insurance for his/her employees that cover these services? How is his/her religious liberty respected? It will be interesting to learn the bishops' considered view on this "compromise". H/T: Fr Jeff Lorig.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

New blog by young English school student

Brad Jacobs, a year 10 student (i.e. age 14/15) from St Helens, Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire (NOT Lancashire), has launched a new blog entitled Corpus Christi Catholic. He hopes to be a priest one day. Let's pray that God might be calling him.

Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of Holy Communion

Eminent canonist Dr Ed. Peters writes:
As a canon lawyer, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion as the just consequence of her public actions; as her fellow Catholic, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion to bring home to her and to the wider faith community the gravity of her conduct and the need to avoid such conduct altogether or, that failing, at least to repent of it. Quickly.
See his coherent explanation at his In the Light of the Law blog.

Bishop Baraga's Heroic Virtues Approved

Bishop Sample, still in Rome at the conclusion of his ad limina visit, has this morning posted on his facebook page:
Well...............? The news we have all been waiting for these days. I spent the day taking care of business in Rome that was interrupted by the snow. I was having lunch with Cardinal Raymond Burke when the phone call came to me from our Postulator for Bishop Baraga's Cause. The Cardinals and Archbishops who are members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints met today and gave a POSITIVE vote on Bishop Baraga's heroic virtue! This means this will now go to the Holy Father who will declare his heroic virtue and give him the title "Venerable"! A HUGE step in the Cause for his beatification. Now if the miracle is approved, we could have a beatification before too long. Thank you for your prayers and sacrifices. It is customary in the Church to celebrate great news with a solemn "Te Deum". Enjoy the attached YouTube recording from Westminster Cathedral as we celebrate this wonderful news. May God be praised!

Pastor gets political and supports Green Bay's Bishop Rickens

Pastor Ryan Kibbe of Life Church has written this blog in which he explicitly supports the Bishop Rickens (and, by impliction, all the Catholic bishops). Silence shows complicty, he says.

Six Things Everyone Should Know about the HHS Mandate

The USCCB continues its campaign against the HHS Mandate that forces religious employers and institutions to purchase services that go against their religion. Here is the text that can be found at the USCCB website:

1. The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals. These institutions are vital to the mission of the Church, but HHS does not deem them "religious employers" worthy of conscience protection, because they do not "serve primarily persons who share the[ir] religious tenets." HHS denies these organizations religious freedom precisely because their purpose is to serve the common good of society—a purpose that government should encourage, not punish.

2. The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral. Under the mandate, the government forces religious insurers to write policies that violate their beliefs; forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs; and forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs.

3. The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. Though commonly called the "contraceptive mandate," HHS's mandate also forces employers to sponsor and subsidize coverage of sterilization. And, by including all drugs approved by the FDA for use as contraceptives, the HHS mandate includes drugs that can induce abortion, such as "Ella," a close cousin of the abortion pill RU-486.

4. Catholics of all political persuasions are unified in their opposition to the mandate. Catholics who have long supported this Administration and its healthcare policies have publicly criticized HHS's decision, including columnists E.J. Dionne, Mark Shields, and Michael Sean Winters; college presidents Father John Jenkins and Arturo Chavez; and Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

5. Many other religious and secular people and groups have spoken out strongly against the mandate. Many recognize this as an assault on the broader principle of religious liberty, even if they disagree with the Church on the underlying moral question. For example, Protestant Christian, Orthodox Christian, and Orthodox Jewish groups--none of which oppose contraception--have issued statements against the decision. The Washington Post, USA Today, N.Y. Daily News, Detroit News, and other secular outlets, columnists, and bloggers have editorialized against it.

6. The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates. HHS chose the narrowest state-level religious exemption as the model for its own. That exemption was drafted by the ACLU and exists in only 3 states (New York, California, Oregon). Even without a religious exemption, religious employers can already avoid the contraceptive mandates in 28 states by self-insuring their prescription drug coverage, dropping that coverage altogether, or opting for regulation under a federal law (ERISA) that pre-empts state law. The HHS mandate closes off all these avenues of relief.
Which is why it is important the everyone contacts their senators and representatives and petitions the White House about this matter.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Bishop of Miami celebrates Candlemas in the Extraordinary Form


Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop of Miami, celebrated Candlemas (The Purification of Our Lady or Presentation of the Lord) on February 2nd in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. I feel that this is the only form of the feast's celebration that really brings to light (no pun intended) the splendour and significance of this feast as the Virgin Mary bears her divine Son, the Light of the World, into the temple forty days after His birth.
Nearly 75 priests and seminarians took part in the liturgy, as well as the assembled congregation. The Archbishop's homily is here and the diocese's report on the Mass is here.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

South African Bishops commemorate 15 years of legalized abortion


The following letter was written by the Catholic Bishops of South Africa. The Archbishop of Cape Town, Archbishop Stephen Breslin, directed that it be read at all Masses last Sunday.
Fifteen years have passed since abortion on demand was legalized in South Africa. Since then it is estimated that over one million unborn children were denied the most fundamental of rights, the right to life. We remember those one million babies.  Those aborted fifteen years ago would now be in grade 9 or 10, bringing joy to their families and planning their own futures. Those whose lives were ‘terminated’ ten years ago would now be playing on the streets of our towns and villages in the evenings and singing and praying with us in our churches on Sunday. We regret that those children of God were denied the right to be born into God’s world and to enrich it with their own unique gifts and talents.  We will never fully realize what we have missed because the law says “abortion is fine”.

When the legislation was being discussed those in favour of it said it would save some mothers from the dangers of what has become known as “back-street abortions”. We question if this has in fact been the case. On almost every electricity pole along the streets of our cities and towns there are advertisements for ‘safe and painless’ abortions. They are outside the Head Office of the Department of Health in Pretoria and on the boundary walls of our schools. If the advertising is so public and so widespread, then the demand for those” back-street abortions” must be high.

The position of the Catholic Church on abortion is clear and unambiguous .Just because the law says it is legal does not make it morally right. Each unborn child is created by God, “knit together in (its) mother’s womb” (Ps139.13) .That unborn child is a human being with a human life that must be protected. He or she has a right to life, a right that must be respected by the mother and protected by the state.

Another right that must be respected by the state and its agents is that of conscientious objection. Those who believe that abortion is morally wrong have a right to refuse to participate in the medical procedures.

All of us, parents, teachers, members of the Church, must understand what a young girl is going through when she realizes she is pregnant. She needs our love, our support, our understanding and sometimes our forgiveness. We in the Church are committed to helping unmarried pregnant girls and couples tempted to take the abortion route in whatever way we can. We will never condemn, just as Jesus refused to condemn (John8.11)

As we remember the many children who have been aborted since February 1997, we also remember the mothers of these children. Just as we do not condemn a pregnant young girl, we do not condemn her if she made the mistake of procuring an abortion. Only she knows how much she has suffered as a result. She needs help and healing. We invite her to come and speak to one of our priests or counselors so that we can be part of reconciling her to God and bringing about healing.

Archbishop Buti  Tlhagale, OMI,
On behalf of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference
30th January 2012

The Gay Mass Scandal in London



Like my friend Father Ray Blake, I was sent a link to this video and hesitated before publishing it. I do not want to unnecessarily scandalise my readers. I think particularly of some of my younger readers. But Father Blake and Father Finigan, who has also published it, are priests whose judgement I respect highly and trust implicitly. They have published it, and so do I.

"God", not "Lord", and prayers that the Church may change teachings she cannot change. References to the "season of Pride" as if a liturgical season rather than a one-day secular rally. This is a clear politicization of the Mass and must come to an end.

A correspondent has also sent me a link to the following video which he made, interviewing one of the prominent parishioners, who openly advocates homosexual relationships.



The interviewee is in fact Martin Pendergast, who entered into a civil partnership with Julian Filochowski, former head of the English and Welsh Bishops major overseas aid charity CAFOD (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, mentioned elsewhere in this blog here). Father Finigan refers to the Pendergast/Filochowski union at his blog. Pendergast wrote in The Guardian on April 28, 2009:
Marriage is a variable and culturally conditioned social institution with no inherent religious inspiration, but subsequently clothed with meaning by various faiths. In many cultures it was rooted more in property contracts or ways of social engineering through annexing others into extended family networks.
which tells you all you need to know about his understanding of Christian marriage and how it is totally at odds with the Church's understanding.

A worrying claim by Mr Pendergast is that the Vatican is aware of these Masses and seems to think fit not to intervene. The teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality and chastity is contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church ##2357-2359:
Chastity and homosexuality

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
Pendergast clearly equates homosexual unions with marriage. He says that those who enter into such unions are prayed for at these Masses and on their anniversaries. He distinguishes between celibacy and chastity in the homosexual, as if one in a homosexual union is not called to live in the celibate state. This is contrary to Church teaching. One thing is clear: if you are a "liberal" in the terms described by the interviewee, you do not hold the Catholic faith.

Belated Baptism Congratulations

To Austin James Michael Hooker and his parents and family. Austin was baptized in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on January 8.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Candlemas Extaordinary Form Mass at St Anthony, Gwinn

We had a good attendance. Thanks to Matthew, a regular attendee at EF Masses, who did the chanting solo. Thanks to servers who did a good job. The weather permitted a brief excursion out of the church for the procession. And thanks to one of our parishioners for the photos.

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