Friday, March 2, 2007

Archbishop Forte Says Discovery Is False

From Zenit:

"In fact, the thesis launched is that if Jesus is buried there with his family, then the resurrection would be no more than an invention of his disciples," he noted.

The archbishop continued: "However, leaving to one side the inconsistency of the archaeological proof, which has been utterly contested by Israeli archaeologists, the factual event of Jesus' resurrection is rigorously documented in the New Testament by the five accounts of the apparitions: four of the Gospels and St. Paul's."

"All critical studies in these two centuries have shown that in the profound truth of the accounts of the apparitions there is non-debatable historicity," he said.

A historical encounter Archbishop Forte said: "There is a vacuum between Good Friday, when the disciples abandoned Jesus, and Easter Sunday, when they became witnesses of the Risen One, with a drive and courage that impelled them to proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth, even to giving their lives for him.

"What happened? The profane historian cannot explain it. The Gospels imply it: There was an encounter that changed their lives. "And this encounter, recounted in the passages of the apparitions, is characterized by an essential fact: The initiative is not from the disciples, but from him who is alive, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles states."

"This means that it isn't something that happens in the disciples but something that happens to them," said Archbishop Forte.

"Beginning with this fact," he said, "in the course of history Christ has been proclaimed with a drive that has involved geniuses of thought, not visionaries, from Augustine of Hippo to Thomas Aquinas, down to Teresa of Calcutta, to give three examples."

Finally, Archbishop Forte asked:
"Why is the media so interested in keeping Jesus in its sights?"

"Obviously because, in the depths of the West's culture, and not just of the West, Jesus is such a decisive and important point of reference, that everything that affects him affects us."

Antichrist is a Pacifist, Ecologist and Ecumenist

From Cardinal Biffi's preaching to Pope Benedict XVI on Soloviev's A Short Story on the Antichrist. The interesting thing is that what makes this the teaching of the anti-Christ versus the true Christ is the absence of Christ, the God man. For Soloviev the antichrist was not God made man, but rather a man who attempted to be god--who co-ops the message of Christ minus of course Christ. So it isn't that a true follower of Christ is a warmonger, destroyer of nature or hater of those who are different--not at all, but the follower of Christ, worships Him and inspired by the truth is all of the above but in a different way than the egoist whose true aim isn't the truth but a lie.
I think we all readily see that this has come to pass in a way that Soloviev's day (pre-1900) was only at its conception. One could add to this list, because it is in Soloviev's work that the antichrist is also a builder of community and tolerance (except for Christ as the Son of God). Much to reflect upon in this message.

Bishop on Nancy Pelosi

It's "Categorically Impossible" to be Catholic and Hold Abortion is "Just a Choice"

From Lifesite:

"It is categorically impossible for the same person to state that he or she believes simultaneously both what the Catholic Church teaches and that abortion is just a choice," says Bishop Robert Vasa in a column released today by the Catholic Sentinel, the diocesan newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland and the Diocese of Baker.

Although Vasa, the Bishop of Baker, did not mention her by name, he was referring in his column to Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi specifically, and to all politicians of a similar ilk in general. "Some months ago a prominent Catholic public person," says Vasa, "described as faithful to the church, was asked if being pro-choice or pro-abortion was an issue which conflicted with the Catholic Faith."

He goes on to quote verbatim what Nancy Pelosi stated in a highly publicized interview with Newsweek in October last year. "To me it isn't even a question. God has given us a free will. We're all responsible for our actions. If you don't want an abortion, you don't believe in it, [then] don't have one. But don't tell somebody else what they can do in terms of honoring their responsibilities."

Thursday, March 1, 2007

RIP: Brother Placid Stuckenschneider OSB


You may not recognize the name, but if you are Catholic, you know the artist that he was--there is no American Catholic, whose art dominated the post-Vatican II church more (in the U.S.) than Brother Placid's...

From St. John's Abbey:

Brother Placid began full time work at the Liturgical Press around 1965 as its primary illustrator. He designed layout and jackets for dozens of books, and produced hundreds of illustrations. His work appeared in the Bible and Liturgy Bulletin for 41 years. He spent 1970 on assignment in Puerto Rico while continuing to work for Liturgical Press by mail. Brother Placid employed a wide variety of media that included pen and wash, collage, watercolor, welded metal, wooden sculpture and photography.

After the Second Vatican Council, he accepted invitations from many parishes in the Upper Midwest to serve as a liturgical consultant. Parishes were renovating church sanctuaries and their furnishings. For eleven years he also provided art once a month for the diocesan newspaper, The St. Cloud Visitor.

Besides his time at Layton School of Art, Brother Placid also studied at the University of Notre Dame, the Blackhawk Mountain School of Art in Colorado, and the Sagrada Art Studio in Albuquerque. In 1974, at the Instituto San Miquel de Allende in Guanajusto, Mexico, he created depictions of St. Francis of Rome and St. Augustine of Hippo for chapels on the lower level of the Abbey Church.

Some of Brother Placid's more visible works include "The Four Evangelists," a metal sculpture on the façade of Liturgical Press, and the road signs on old Highway 52 that formerly greeted visitors to the university, prep school, and abbey.

Tortured Priest's Tenacity Exposes Betrayal in Church

From the Star Tribune:

Eighteen months ago, the Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, heard a startling report on the radio.

Communist-era files thought to have been destroyed years ago had in fact been preserved, the report said. They chronicled obsessive efforts by the SB, the regime's despised security police, to intimidate or compromise Roman Catholic clergy who were lending moral support to the Solidarity trade union movement.

One of the thickest files, according to the radio report, was Zaleski's.

Four days later, the priest went to the Institute of National Remembrance and asked to see his file. It was 500 pages long, and included a videotape of a 1985 torture session during which a gang of SB goons used cigarettes to tattoo a Solidarity "V" on Zaleski's chest. The SB apparently used the tape as a training tool.

Despite warnings from the church to let the matter rest, Zaleski continued to dig into the files. The result is a book to be published this week that will identify 39 clergymen in the Krakow archdiocese, including five bishops, who served as SB informants or collaborators.