Tuesday, June 29, 2004

New Bishops

Gerald Walsh and Dennis Sullivan are new auxiliaries in New York. Theologian Bruno Forte is named an Archbishop in Italy...

Monday, June 28, 2004

The Blind Leading the Blind

Interesting combination, the National Federation for the Blind is meeting in the same hotel where the Christian booksellers are staying...with us here in Atlanta, GA.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Priest Beats Up Would-Be Robbers

Time to "enforce" the Gospel...



From FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Out There - Priest Beats Up Would-Be Robbers:



"Father Matt Foley ran in and grabbed the man's tools, but the crook fought back, and the tussle wandered into the street, then a nearby alley.

'He had threatened me that he had a knife,' Foley told the TV station. 'I had to physically keep his hand away from the knife so I wouldn't be harmed. So I put him basically in a half-nelson and held him to the ground.'



Two men who had gotten free meals at the church were arrested.



Growing up with four brothers and two sisters taught him how to fight, Foley explained, adding that he was ready to risk his life again for the sake of the church's money."

Thursday, June 24, 2004

The Flannery O'Connor - Andalusia Foundation, Inc. Home Page

The Flannery O'Connor - Andalusia Foundation, Inc. Home Page

An Antenna Disquised as a Crucifix?

From Mobile Phone Masts Go Undercover | Science & Technology | Deutsche Welle | 14.06.2004:



"European companies are finding ingenious ways to disguise ugly, but necessary, mobile phone antenna masts. Customers can pick everything from trees to crucifixes.



Those willing to set up mobile phone antenna masts on their property can get good money for their cooperation -- along with grief from their neighbors.



The masts are typically unwanted in neighborhoods, either because of fears that they can damage your health or due to their ugly appearance. There's an answer to that last objection, simply dress the masts up as trees, chimneys, or even crucifixes."

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Part II of Jennifer Ferrara Interview

ZENIT News Agency--The World Seen from Rome:



Q: What role is left for women in the Church if they cannot be priests?



Ferrara: It is not a matter of a role "being left for women" but of women embracing their proper role. There has always been plenty for women to do in the Catholic Church.



Remember, the ordination of women in Protestant communities is a recent development. Before then, women had almost no role to play in those denominations. Protestant churches are starkly masculine.



As a Lutheran, I had no female models of holiness to turn to for comfort and guidance. Though many Protestant denominations ordain women, they do not recognize the importance of the feminine -- mother Church embodied in Mary -- in God's plan for salvation.



I do not see why many Catholics discount the importance of the women religious in the life of the Church as if they were second-class citizens. They are our spiritual mothers.



Protestants have never recognized such a role for women. Moreover, there are also all sorts of lay apostolates, orders and associations women can join.






Jesse Jackson Speaks at the 10:00 A.M. Mass?

I wonder if this was a reaction to the Bishop's strong statement in Denver?



At St. Gertrudes in Chicago...

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Women's Ordination?

From Zenit News Agency - The World Seen From Rome:



"When she was younger, Jennifer Ferrara never would have foreseen the day when she became a sort of apologist for the all-male Catholic priesthood.



But that's what the former Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism has become.



Ferrara, who became Catholic in 1998, recently told her conversion story in 'The Catholic Mystique: Fourteen Women Find Fulfillment in the Catholic Church' (Our Sunday Visitor), which she co-edited with Patricia Sodano Ireland, another former Lutheran pastor.



Ferrara shared with ZENIT how her search for theological justification of women's ordination in Lutheran seminary eventually changed her mind about the priesthood and opened her heart to the Catholic Church. "






Monday, June 21, 2004

Occaision of Sin?

Someone should remind the Salesians about the "avoiding the near occaision of sin"...very troubling and arrogant!



From

DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News:



"About a dozen children circle around the Rev. Frank Klep after Mass on one sun-kissed Sunday. They chirp his name, trying to catch his eye as he begins handing out foil-wrapped candy. He calls them by name, too, beams and hugs some of them.



Few, if any, locals are aware that the friendly priest is a convicted child molester who has admitted abusing one boy and is wanted on more charges back in Australia. In 1998, his religious order placed him here in the South Pacific. Australian police can't touch him now because their country has no extradition treaty with Samoa.



Neither he nor the church feels an obligation to tell anyone about all that. "

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Dallas News with Another Invetigative Report

In my very limited dealings these days, I do know of one African priest who was sent to a U.S. diocese because he was having serious problems back in Africa. The bishop who knew the full details was not assigning the man to any parish though.



FromDallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News:



"Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children are hiding abroad and working in church ministries, The Dallas Morning News has found.



From Africa to Latin America to Europe to Asia, these priests have started new lives in unsuspecting communities, often with the help of church officials. They are leading parishes, teaching and continuing to work in settings that bring them into contact with children, despite church claims to the contrary. "

Imitating a Life

A brutal review of Bill Clinton's life story in the NY Times...



From The New York Times > Books > Books of The Times: The Pastiche of a Presidency, Imitating a Life, in 957 Pages:



"Unfortunately for the reader, Mr. Clinton's much awaited new autobiography 'My Life' more closely resembles the Atlanta speech, which was so long-winded and tedious that the crowd cheered when he finally reached the words 'In closing . . .'



The book, which weighs in at more than 950 pages, is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull -- the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history."

Saturday, June 19, 2004

In Cincinnati Today

While attending a talk before the one that Amy is giving here today, I saw a man turn green. He was taking away in an ambulance. When I say that he turned green, I'm talking Martian green. The priest was speaking about Hell. The man's color had returned when he was taken away. Truly strange!

Friday, June 18, 2004

Pope to Make Pilgrimage to Lourdes in August

Will stay with the ailing and pray for a miracle.



From ABCNEWS.com : Pope to Stay with Ailing on August Lourdes Trip:



"Pope John Paul will stay overnight at a special residence for ailing pilgrims when he visits the French pilgrimage shrine of Lourdes on August 14-15, according to French Catholic officials.



The pope, 84 and stricken by Parkinson's disease, wants to make the pilgrimage like any of the other ailing pilgrims who go to Lourdes hoping for a cure from waters in a grotto where the Virgin Mary is to have appeared in 1858, they said.



The Polish-born pontiff wants to mark the 150th anniversary of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which states that the mother of Jesus Christ was born free of original sin.



"The pope will come as an ailing person making a pilgrimage to Lourdes ... an ill man among the ill," Bishop Jacques Perrier, head of the local diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes in southwestern France, told journalists this week."

Rosary--A Fashion Hit

I noticed that Dontrell Willis of the Florida Marlins was wearing one around his neck as he pitched Sunday against the Detroit Tigers (a game that Amy and I were at). I mentioned it to her and wondered if it had a devotional aspect to it, turns out it probably doesn't, but it is the time to use this as an evangelization tool not an opportunity to blast the half wits who don't know what it means....



From USATODAY.com - Rosary's second coming:



"Rosary beads as a style statement, not a prayer ritual, are hot with stars. 'It has come back again,' celebrity stylist Charlie Altuna says.



In the mid-1980s, Madonna, who was raised Catholic, raised eyebrows and launched a fashion craze by wearing crucifixes and rosaries with corsets. Eventually, the look became 'cheesy' and faded away, Altuna says.



But, like many '80s trends, rosaries 'are cool again' with celebs. It's highly unlikely, however, that the pope will bless the trend this time around, either. Altuna suggests the new fad has roots in the Britney Spears/Madonna connection. "

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Vatican Moves to Quell New Age

An illustration of how slow the church moves...it has decided that the "new age" movement presents a threat. Problem is that it has taken them so long to recognize this is that most of the proponents of the new age are now in thier old age.



From Vatican moves to quell 'alternatives' - (United Press International):



"A week-long summit at the Vatican is trying to devise a plan to deal with the rise of 'New Age' religions and fads, The Independent reported Wednesday.



The closed-door conference includes priests and lay people from 25 countries, focusing on a Vatican report on New Age sects last year.



Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, one of the authors of the report, said the greatest challenge may be in England and North America 'where the New Age began ... and where it has become such a part of everyday life that we don't notice it.' That makes it harder to attack, he says: 'Where one sees a threat, it's easier to battle it.'"

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Coming in September!

In time for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross!







Because...

God's ways are not ours,

and our plans often are thwarted...

"announcing your plans is a sure way to hear God laugh"





Diocese Threatens Bankruptcy

From Diocese of Tucson weighs bankruptcy | The Arizona Daily Star :



"Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson say Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas is making plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.



If the diocese follows through on what its attorneys say is 'the only viable' way to financially resolve pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, it will be the first U.S. Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy. Under bankruptcy protection, local Catholic parishioners would be in the unprecedented position of being part of a church whose purse strings are monitored by the courts.



Chapter 11 falls under the federal bankruptcy code and is a way for insolvent corporations and others to reorganize debt. Kicanas predicted Tuesday that filing for Chapter 11 could allow the operations of the diocese and its 74 parishes to carry on normally while it makes a plan to pay costs related to the abuse claims.



He compared the scenario to the way United Airlines has continued to fly its planes since filing for bankruptcy protection in December 2002.



Major business decisions would need the approval of bankruptcy court. "

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Blackout Hits Major Web Sites

From Blackout hits major Web sites | CNET News.com:



"A domain name outage Tuesday morning left many popular Web sites such as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft.com and Apple.com temporarily inaccessible, according to a Web research company.



For just more than two hours--from 5:30 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. PDT--many of the world's most popular sites suffered from widespread outages, according to Keynote Systems, which compiles statistics related to Web surfing. On a typical day, the top 40 sites measured by Keynote rarely dip below 99 percent availability. On Tuesday, however, Keynote saw availability drop to 81 percent. "

Acts of Inquisition Symposium Released

From The Vatican Information Service:



"In public opinion," writes the Pope, "the image of the Inquisition represents in some way the symbol of this counter-witness and scandal. In what measure is this image faithful to reality? Before asking for forgiveness, it is necessary to know exactly what are the facts and to recognize the shortcomings with respect to the evangelical needs in appropriate cases. This is why the Committee referred to historians whose scientific competence is universally recognized."



John Paul II recalls that on March 12, 2000, a Day of Forgiveness was celebrated and forgiveness was asked "for the errors committed in the service of the truth when unethical methods were used." This petition for forgiveness "is also valid for the drama related to the Inquisition as well as the wounds that are its consequence. ... This volume," he concludes, "is written in the spirit of this petition for forgiveness."



Cardinal Cottier indicated that the fact that the volume has been published so late is not due "to opposition to its publication. I would like to make that clear. The delay is due to a series of health problems."



Referring to the symposium, in which thirty speakers and experts from Italy, France, Portugal, Malta, England, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, the United States and Canada participated, Prof. Borromeo said they discussed "the events that led to the Inquisition in the 13th century, the activity in the main places in which heresy flourished (especially France and Italy) and its procedures. When dealing with the modern history of this institution," added Borromeo, "the reports were divided into two categories. One was predominantly geographic (Spain and Portugal with their respective imperial colonies; Italy, with special reference to the Congregation of the Holy Office, the Netherlands and England). The other was mainly thematic: (the repression of the heresies with Jewish and Islamic tendencies, Protestantism and witchcraft were discussed, as well as the battle against circulating prohibited literary and scientific books and Bibles in the vernacular and the historical context in which the abolition of courts took place)."



The acts of the symposium, said Borromeo, "are a point of reference for studies on the Inquisition; in the first place, for the scientific rigor of the reports, exempt from controversy or an apologetic nature which is typical of recent historiography; in the second place, for the richness of the information laid out which allows us to look at many places so widespread among non-specialists (the use of torture and the death penalty were not as frequent as once believed); in the third place, due to the amplitude of the volume, it is a reason to hope that intellectual debate on the theme is sparked and that there is stimulus for new research."

Monday, June 14, 2004

Pope Stayed in Nursing Home While in Switzerland

From Fr. Terry Morgan:



Lost in the recent media crush of D-Day’s sixtieth anniversary celebrations, and the week-long mourning of President Ronald Reagan, was a “minor detail” about Pope John Paul’s accommodations for his single night in Bern, Switzerland. Ordinarily, when the Pope visits a foreign country, he stays at the (appropriately ample) residence of his representative to that nation, his “Nuncio.” For days, sometimes weeks, the Nuncio’s staff spiffs up the guest suite, prepares the official dining room (ample in its own right), and, in general, makes sure that the place is suitable for the Vicar of Christ on Earth.



On this particular visit, though, the Vicar of Christ spent the night in a local nursing home. This change in venue wasn’t due to the Pope’s Parkinson’s Disease or any of his other ailments. And at John Paul’s express command, Vatican media representatives had no special statement for the news outlets of the world.



But this Pope – who in his vigorous younger days bounded up steps and with great gusto encouraged the masses, especially the youth of the world, with his constant, “Be not afraid!” – brought his message to his peers, not by his speech or his energy, but by simply being at their side.



I suspect that John Paul’s “overnighters” in Nuncios’ residences are things of the past, now that he has discovered new out-of-town quarters and new out-of-town friends with whom to spend the night.



Is he giving up? Hardly. He is simply giving in to God’s special gifts to him at this special time of his life. Most of us would look on the Pope’s impediments – of speech, mobility, even breathing – as roadblocks to ministry, roadblocks to life. But John Paul sees these facts of life as gifts, given to him in his twilight, so that he can continue to empty himself and minister to us in ways that no “healthy” younger man could.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Today's Destination

From Detroit Tigers News:



The Tigers haven't won five straight since Damion Easley was the starting second baseman in July 2002, but it won't be an easy streak to match. Florida's Dontrelle Willis enters his first start against the Tigers with a 1.35 ERA in his last three starts. Two starts again, he had perfect game going against Cincinnati until Sean Casey's two-out single in the seventh.



The Tigers have run out of former Marlins to start, but they counter with arguably the hottest pitcher in their rotation at the moment. The day Willis threatened to toss a perfect game, Jason Johnson tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings against Kansas City. He followed that with eight innings and three runs allowed against the Braves on Tuesday.




Saturday, June 12, 2004


me Posted by Hello

Virgin Mary Statues Disappearing in MN

or stolen?



From Wave of Virgin Mary statue thefts hits central Minnesota:



"Joe Fautsch was mowing his lawn when he came around a corner and expected to see the Virgin Mary.



The Holy Mother wasn't there.



``I don't think she walked away by herself,'' Fautsch said. ``Who would take her?''



He found out last week that his Virgin Mary statue was one of four that have been stolen in this central Minnesota town within the past few weeks, Investigator Ben Theisen said. They can be worth up to $400, he said.



Fautsch's statue had stood on his lawn for about five years. He estimated the cost at $125."

Friday, June 11, 2004

Refuge of Sinners


The Image of Mary and Jesus that I pray before every day. Posted by Hello

Coming in September 2004!


Because you want to know

how to apply Jesus' command to:

"take up your cross"

and to follow Him!
 Posted by Hello

Good Point...

From Catholics giving governor a pass on abortion? | The San Diego Union-Tribune:



"In January 2003, Sacramento Roman Catholic Bishop William Wiegand publicly chastised then-Gov. Gray Davis for supporting abortion rights while professing to be a Catholic.



Wiegand delivered a homily saying the Democrat and any other Catholic who 'thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error' and 'puts his or her soul at risk.' He recommended that Davis refrain from taking Communion.



In recent months, a variety of conservative Catholic groups have launched a campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who favors abortion rights. Some bishops have criticized Kerry and other Catholic politicians who support such rights, saying they should be denied Communion.



Yet the Sacramento bishop and other conservative Catholics have steered clear of publicly attacking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, perhaps the nation's most prominent Republican Catholic who favors abortion rights. "

Gun-Wielding Fake Priests Kill Three

Dressed as Orthodox priests...



From Yahoo! News - Gun-Wielding Fake Priests Kill Three:



"Two gunmen dressed as priests killed three men and wounded two others in a gangland shootout in the Bulgarian capital, police said Friday.



Assassins wearing the dark robes of orthodox priests gunned down a man linked to organized crime and two other men at a shopping center cafe in an affluent Sofia suburb and then fled, a police spokesman said.

'It was a shootout between criminal drug gangs,' the spokesman said, adding the assailants were still at large.

Police said one of the dead men was a close ally of a leading organized crime figure in Sofia and that the two other men killed alongside him appeared to be his bodyguards. "

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Pope Declares Year of the Eucharist

From ZENIT News Agency--The World Seen from Rome:



"On the feast of Corpus Christ, John Paul II announced a 'Year of the Eucharist' that the Catholic Church will observe from October 2004 to October 2005.



At the Mass he presided over today in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Pope explained that the Year of the Eucharist will begin with the International Eucharistic Congress, Oct. 10-17, in Guadalajara, Mexico.



The year 'will end with the next ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in the Vatican from October 2-29, 2005, and whose theme will be 'The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church,'' the Holy Father added. "

AMEN, American Evangelization Network

Check it out at AMEN, American Evangelization Network,Catholic Directory:



Portal,Service,Christian Sites and Catholic Links,Pages about God,Jesus,faith,religion,Angel,angels,Bible,catholics,Church,

theology,christianity,Virgin Mary

Democracy in Iraq?

Majority rule, but no separation of Church and State...



From Outside View
Christians Begin Exodus From Iraq - Insight on the News - World
:



"The long-predicted exodus of Christians from Iraq has begun.



Facing a June 30 deadline for transfer of power, a temporary constitution that reads, in Article 7, that Islam is the 'Official Religion of the State,' and the most recent humiliation for the community -- the failure to receive even one position on the Executive Council and only one ministry post, the Ministry of Emigration -- the Christians of Iraq are voting with their feet.



'On a recent night the church had to spend more time on filling out baptismal forms needed for leaving the country than they did on the [worship] service,' says Amir, a deacon at a local church who does not want his full name published. 'We have been flooded with parishioners desperate to leave the country, and as they cannot get an exit permit without a baptismal certificate from the church we have been swamped with requests. ... In recent days nearly 400 families as far as we can tell have filled out baptismal forms to leave the country. Our community is being decimated.' "

The Inquisition

Vatican report due out next week...



From Catholic World News : Vatican to release study on Inquisition:



"The Vatican will soon publish a study on the Inquisition, containing the proceedings of an international conference held in Rome in 1998.



The Vatican has scheduled a press conference for June 15, at which three cardinals will speak about the new study. Cardinal Roger Etchegary was involved because the original conference on the Inquisition, held in October 1998, was organized by the committee to prepare for the Jubilee Year 2000, which he chaired. Cardinal Georges Cottier, the theological of the pontifical household, presided over the conference. And Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican archivist, has custody over the records that remain from the work of the Inquisition. "

Fact, Fiction, and The Da Vinci Code by Darrell L. Bock

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Fact, Fiction, and The Da Vinci Code by Darrell L. Bock:





"Underscoring this impression to be more than a novel, the author claims his work is thoroughly researched and has characters of high credibility pour forth the novel's ideas. In fact, Dan Brown has said on his web site that he wanted these issues discussed because the theories he sets forth have been espoused for some time.



Many writers have obliged him on the matter of discussion and have challenged his claims. These include my Breaking the Da Vinci Code as well as books by Amy Wellborn (De-Coding Da Vinci), Richard Abanes (The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code), James Garlow with Peter Jones (Cracking Da Vinci's Code), and Carl Olson with Sandra Miesel (The Da Vinci Hoax). "

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas' Online Blog

Read Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas online journal of Ad Limina visit to Vatican...

Russ Shaw Tells it Like it Is...

From An Open Letter to the American Bishops:



Some of you may recall that I was press secretary of your bishops’ conference from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. Those also were difficult times, and one reason was that the bishops of those days made things worse by usually refusing to admit the fact. Most of them were likable, decent men, yet they were overly fond of a form of euphoric rhetoric that I eventually came to think of as “happy talk.”



Faced with theologians who challenged Church doctrine, defecting priests, ferocious feminist nuns, growing religious illiteracy, and countless other troubles, many of those bishops chose to see such things as the growing pains of renewal. On the whole, they insisted, we were on the right track; everything would turn out for the best. Pope John XXIII’s words about “prophets of doom” profoundly shaped their thinking, mostly for the worse.



Looking back, I can’t help wondering whether the bishops of that era took the same resolutely upbeat view of priestly sex abuse. In any event, we now know that prophets of doom are sometimes right. And although the abuse scandal has pretty much driven euphoria from your own repertoire, something just as bad may be taking its place. I mean the suggestion that you may soon be able to put this nasty episode behind you and return to business as usual. If that’s the conventional wisdom in Denver, the crisis of American Catholicism will become even worse, even more destructive, than it already is. Business as usual isn’t the answer.




Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Pope Supports Tough Stance on Anti-life Politicians

From Rocky Mountain News: Religion:



"Archbishop Charles Chaput said Monday that Pope John Paul II and Vatican officials are 'positive and very supportive' of how the archdiocese is approaching the controversy over faith, Communion and politics.



Chaput returned late Sunday from his visit to Rome, in which he shared issues affecting the Denver archdiocese. His comments were via e-mail, while en route to a weeklong retreat in Estes Park with archdiocesan priests."

New Auxiliaries for Philadephia

From the Vatican Information Service:



The Holy Father appointed:



- Msgr. Joseph Robert Cistone, vicar of the diocese of Philadelphia, U.S.A., as auxiliary bishop of same diocese (area 5,652, population 3,861,648, Catholics 1,494,883, priests 1,083, permanent deacons 212, religious 569), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in 1949 in Philadelphia and was ordained a priest in 1975.



- Msgr. Joseph Patrick McFadden, pastor of St. Joseph in Downingtown, U.S.A., as auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia, U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in 1947 in Philadelphia, U.S.A. and was ordained a priest in 1981.




Monday, June 7, 2004

BEA Session I Attended #2

On pitching a book to a publisher, or the public:









Key thing to remember, "You are on a mission!"

BEA Session I Attended #1

On creating a buzz about your book. Since many authors visit this site, here is a book by one of the presenters:







Update on Arizona's Defiant Priests

In the piece it mentions all but two have removed their names, but only one is being punished? Perhaps the other is the religious brother?



From Bishop Olmsted Suspends Priest for Refusing to Remove Name from Gay Document:



"Following Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted's April order that nine priests and one religious brother remove their names from a document by an activist organization for homosexual clergy, all have complied except for Fr. Andre Boulanger. Last week bishop Olmsted suspended Fr. Boulanger from priestly ministry.



The document, No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, stated 'Homosexuality is not a sickness, not a choice, and not a sin. We affirm that GLBT persons are distinctive, holy, and precious gifts to all who struggle to become the family of God.'



Within two weeks of bishop Olmsted's order, eight of the ten had removed their names; last week, the ninth, but Fr. Boulanger defiantly persisted in his stand.



A suspension means a priest may not celebrate Mass, preach or hear confessions. Olmsted told Fr. Boulanger his suspension stands 'until such time as I have assurance from you that you do indeed believe and teach what the Church teaches about the call to holiness for homosexual persons,' according to an Arizona Republic article."

Sunday, June 6, 2004

Lessons for Life from Father Groeschel

There Are No Accidents: In All Things Trust in God

Pope Offering His Life to God Till the End

From The Tallahassee Democrat:

"'It's wonderful to be able to offer oneself until the end for the cause of the Kingdom of God,' he told the rally, describing that as his testimony after nearly 60 years as a priest.



The 84-year-old John Paul has Parkinson's disease and crippling hip and knee ailments, but he has repeatedly brushed aside suggestions that he step down."

Thursday, June 3, 2004

Negative Take on Pope's Health

From the Fort Wayne New Sentinel:



Returning Wednesday from a 12-day trip to the Vatican, Bishop John D'Arcy acknowledged he noticed a difference in the health of Pope John Paul II since he had last seen him in 1998.

For the bishop, this fourth trip to the Holy City was one marked with realism and emotion.



"I said to myself, 'That's probably the last time I'll see him alive,"' D'Arcy said. "It was emotional. But I'm just glad my time as bishop overlapped with him."



D'Arcy, bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, made the "ad limina" visit, as is expected of bishops every five years, health permitting. No visits were taken during 2000.



For D'Arcy, this trip wasn't like the others.




Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Rainbow Sash Movement Praise Cardinal, not George but Mahony

I think there is a concerted effort on the part of some to drive the hierarchy apart.



From Rainbow Sash Movement - Gay Catholic Activists:



"Pentecost is a time to celebrate the Universality of the Church, and it's Gospel Message of inclusiveness. I was very saddened by the response of Cardinal Francis George in Chicago. He used the Eucharist as a tool of discipline. He chose not to welcome us into his Cathedral, and went as far as to deny us the Holy Eucharist.



However, others like Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Bishop Hart of Rochester, NY, and Archbishop Harry Flynn welcomed those who wore the Rainbow Sash to their Cathedral. We thank these bishops for supporting the Teaching of Church in a pastorial manner."

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

New Bishop of Patterson, NJ

From The Vatican Information Service:



The Holy Father appointed Bishop Arthur Joseph Serratelli, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Newark, U.S.A., as bishop of Paterson (area 3,143, population 1,110,607, Catholics 415,082, priests 396, permanent deacons 174, religious 1,042), U.S.A. He succeeds Bishop Frank Joseph Rodimer whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

Perfect Father's Day Gift

For the man who doesn't even like to read...



Spiritual Workout of a Former Saint