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July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a "new world order" or a "one-world government." These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion. The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations. Confusion seems to have come from paragraph 67 of the...

One point to make for you, though, is paragraph 67 (the controversial one). The Latin (authoritative) version is not online yet. But there is a huge difference between both the Italian and German versions and the English version. The Italian version says: 67. Di fronte all'inarrestabile crescita dell'interdipendenza mondiale, è fortemente sentita, anche in presenza di una recessione altrettanto mondiale, l'urgenza della riforma sia dell'Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite che dell'architettura economica e finanziaria internazionale, affinché si possa dare reale concretezza al concetto di famiglia di Nazioni. Translation: Faced with the unstoppable growth of global interdependence, it is strongly felt, even...

In Caritas in veritate there is a reference to Humanae vitae. Remember that the Pope is addressing himself ad intra and ad extra, to the Church herself and to the world at large. 15. Two further documents by Paul VI without any direct link to social doctrine — the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (25 July 1968) and the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8 December 1975) — are highly important for delineating the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes. It is therefore helpful to consider these texts too in relation to Populorum Progressio. The Encyclical Humanae Vitae emphasizes...

A senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest is demanding the Prime Minister's Office explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer Stephen Harper was given at Roméo LeBlanc's funeral mass.During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call "the host" into his jacket pocket.In Catholic understanding, the host - once consecrated by a priest for the Eucharist - becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucial that the small wafer be consumed when it is received.Monsignor Brian Henneberry,...

Pope Benedict XVI has sacked two Vatican officials over the readmission of a British Holocaust-denying bishop to the Roman Catholic Church. He also abolished the Vatican department responsible for the lifting of the excommunication of Richard Williamson, who is one of the leaders of the Society of St Pius X. The rehabilitation, in January, threatened to undo decades of work to heal rifts between Catholics and Jews. The German-born Pope was forced to apologise to Jewish leaders and atoned by visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel in May. The incident made Pope Benedict, one of the most admired...

July 9, 2009                                 Thursday of the Fourteenth Week                                 in Ordinary Time                                Saint Augustine Zhao Rong,                             priest and martyr,                                 and his companions, martyrs             Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5 Judah approached Joseph and said: "I beg you, my lord,let your servant speak earnestly to my lord,and do not become angry with your servant,for you are the...

Father Fessio: A New Framework for Social Justice Pope Places Charity and Truth at Heart of Debate By Father Joseph Fessio, SJ NAPLES, Florida, JULY 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has something for everyone in "Caritas in Veritate" -- from praising profit (21) to defending the environment (48). But in these cases, as in all the others, he calls for a discernment and a purification by faith and reason (56) that should temper immoderate and one-sided enthusiasms. Once again, Pope Benedict shows himself to be a theologian of synthesis and fundamental principles. In the titles of his three encyclicals he...

Sirens as watchmen I have sent you , So now America what will you do ?! Prophets , Apostles yet to you ordinary men , Spiritual Sampsons you refuse to call friend , So why should I come now to set you free ?!? , For if you refuse my servants you deny Me ! Your wastefullness of time has come to bear , And now on My threshing floor you are found naked and bare , So tell me what shall be your demise ? Oneness and Unity or your haughty eyes ?! For your heart is what I...

Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a "new world order" or a "one-world government." These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion. The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations. Confusion seems to have come from paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which has some choice...

On the 3rd Encyclical "A Better Future for Everyone Is Possible" VATICAN CITY, JULY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. He reflected on his third encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," which was released Tuesday. * * * Dear brothers and sisters: My new encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," which was officially presented yesterday, was fundamentally inspired in a passage from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, in which the apostle speaks of acting according to truth in charity: "Rather," we have just heard, "living...

Church officials in the Diocese of Metuchen are helping to oversee a church investigation into whether a nun who's being considered for sainthood is the cause of a medical miracle. The probe, the first in the history of the Diocese of Metuchen, involves Mother Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory, who died in 1984 at age 91 and was founder of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. A unidentified married couple in New Jersey whose unborn baby was diagnosed with a genetic disorder is claiming that prayers to McCrory helped their child, who was born far healthier than expected, said...

RIVER EDGE — A borough resident is on a mission to get saint status for a beloved Detroit priest, who he believes answered prayers to heal his son's cancer.           Ryan Blute holding photo of the Rev. Solanus Casey, whom he prayed to for a cancer cure. Kevin Blute hopes the Vatican will make the Rev. Solanus Casey the first male saint born in the U.S., and     suggested a friend's prayer group name itself after the friar. Blute's teenage son, Ryan, was diagnosed with melanoma in 2007 and has since recovered.  "I feel like I'm in gratitude to him big...

The average number of Filipino women who die yearly due to childbirth and pregnancy complications has doubled in the last four years, but this doesn’t seem to alarm lawmakers who continue to oppose the reproductive health bill, according to health and women’s groups. A study by the international reproductive health research group Guttmacher Institute presented Tuesday showed that 3,500 pregnancy-related deaths were recorded in the Philippines in 2008.... Dr. Junice Melgar, executive director of women’s health organization Likhaan, said pregnancy-related deaths could be prevented if pregnant women, especially those who are from the poorest families and living in the rural...

MANILA - Local governments should come up with their own reproductive health policies to address the growing number of mothers dying from pregnancy-related complications, because the national government is obviously not keen on doing something about it. Aurora Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, a former congresswoman, on Wednesday called on local officials that it’s their constituents who are suffering while Congress sits on the reproductive health (RH) bill. She said it is now time for the local government units (LGUs) to enact ordinances that would take the place of a national RH law. Among the LGUs that have passed ordinances on reproductive...

The Reproductive Health Bill currently being considered by Filipino lawmakers has stirred up significant debate over its potential to promote economic development and improve access to healthcare, particularly reproductive healthcare. But one crucial point has been neglected: the Reproductive Health Bill is essential to remedy egregious violations on Filipino women’s international and national legal rights occurring under restrictive, ideologically driven policies, such as Manila City’s de facto ban on birth control. The Manila City ban on contraception, also known as Executive Order 003, was passed nine years ago by former Mayor Jose “Lito” Atienza to effectively prohibit Manila City women...

Every once in a while a story comes along that not only reinforces the justness of our cause but makes abundantly clear the depravity of the other side. This is the case with a story out today. When the world describes destroying children as a fertility breakthrough, we are in big trouble. [Telegraph] Researchers at the pioneering Northeast England Stem Cell Institute say they have made the breakthrough using stem cells from an embryo. Within 10 years, the scientists say the technique could also be used to allow infertile couples to have children that are genetically their own. It could...

I have unilaterally decided (meaning I didn't ask Matthew and there is nothing he can do to stop me) to add a new feature to the blog. The feature is "Today's Über-Catholic Open Question?" This feature may or may not be repeated. It entirely depends on you and whether your answers are interesting, funny, or foul. Don't let reason or proportion get in your way. Feel free to be more Catholic than the Pope. So, all you Über-Catholics who find fault with 87% percent of everything we write, what is your take on this question. What is the best Über-Catholic...

Father Steven Voss has been given a second chance at life, and he owes it to a fellow priest. Father Voss, parochial vicar at Spirit of Christ Parish in Arvada, underwent a successful kidney transplant April 22 at the University of Colorado Hospital. The kidney donor was Father Matthew Hartley, 31, parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Northglenn. The transplanted kidney may add anywhere from 10 to more than 20 years to the life of Father Voss, 30, who has suffered severe health problems since the age of 1. On April 8, Father Voss was on his way...

What You Need to Know: Subsidiarity The social teaching of the Church is based on the human person as the principle, subject and object of every social organization. Subsidiarity is one of the core principles of this teaching. This principle holds that human affairs are best handled at the lowest possible level, closest to the affected pesons. It is easiest to begin with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which enunciates the prinicple of subsidiarity in the context of man's social nature. When the principle of subsidiarity is ignored, governments often overstep their bounds in managing matters best handled on...

Featured Term (selected at random):SOCIAL SIN The sinfulness of society into which a person is born. Its premise is that modern socialization and collectivization have immersed everyone in other people's values and moral actions to an unprecedented degree. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Because of the good progress of the last few years with the SSPX, His Holiness has now taken the next, logical step. Pope Benedict has now implemented what he said he would do concerning the ad hoc Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei".  He has fused it into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making the Prefect of the CDF, ex officio, the Commission’s President and retaining the office of a Secretary and giving it also staff. The Pope did this by means of a new Motu Proprio, Ecclesiae unitatem, signed on the anniversary of the establishment of the PCED...

The news that the Vatican is now making official inquiries into Catholic nuns in America and whether they are adhering to church doctrine obscures a very important history about nuns in this country.For nearly three centuries, Catholic nuns have worked heroically, unselfishly, tirelessly, against all odds, to make this great country what it is today. The US economy would not have come so far through the centuries without the help of American nuns.You rarely see the American history of Catholic nuns reported in the media.  A bit of journalistic astigmatism, reductio ad absurdum.But a new exhibit touring museums throughout America...

L’Osservatore Romano of 8 July has a few articles pertaining to the new encyclical. Here is one of them. Some folks helped to ferret out the corresponding English. These bullet points were offered to help a reading of the encyclical. Call them… call them…. "encycli-bites".

Today the much-anticipated social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Love) was released, after being delayed for a year due to the global economic crisis. The encyclical includes several passages of great interest to those involved in the pro-life movement. The most pertinent and striking passages dealing with the life issues are reproduced below. To read the complete encyclical click here.

July 8, 2009                                     Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week                                    in Ordinary Time     Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egyptand the people cried to Pharaoh for bread,Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Josephand do whatever he told them.When the famine had spread throughout the land,Joseph opened all the cities that had grainand rationed it to the Egyptians,since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain,for famine had gripped the whole world. The sons...

Inside the Vatican, Today The New Encyclical July 8th, 2009 by Dr. Robert Moynihan "Greed is good " —Gordon Gekko, the name of an unscrupulous Wall Street financier who is the main character in the film Wall Street , 1987."When those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends, instruments that are good in themselves can be transformed into harmful ones. But it is man’s darkened reason that produces these consequences… " — Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate ("Love in Truth "), 2007.A New Christian Humanism and Social Justice? The "age of greed" is over. It ended today.A...

Caritatis in Veritate: papal encyclical calls for new moral approach to global economy Jul. 7, 2009 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has released the text of Caritatis in Veritate, the long-awaited social encyclical in which Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) calls for "a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise" and a global economic system that values the common good above private profits. Explaining the title of the encyclical, Pope Benedict writes that the social teachings of the Catholic Church offer a means of appraising the secular world, judging social and economic systems against a clear moral standard. The guiding...

The revenge of Justice and Peace (or so they may think). By George Weigel In the often unpredictable world of the Vatican, it was as certain as anything could be in mid-1990 that there would be a 1991 papal encyclical to commemorate the centenary of Rerum Novarum — the 1891 letter of Leo XIII that is rightly regarded as the Magna Carta of modern Catholic social doctrine. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which imagines itself the curial keeper of the flame of authentic Catholic social teaching, prepared a draft, which was duly sent to Pope John Paul II...

Search engine giant Google is apparently disallowing advertisements for abortion businesses in several nations, some of which prohibit abortions and some of which don't. The rational behind the Google decision remained unclear, which abortion advocates are blasting, LifeNews reports. Pro-abortion activist Lori Adelman corresponded with a staff member at Google who confirmed the denial of abortion advertising.

HARTFORD -- Advocates for children who say they were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport reacted with cautious optimism Monday to the state Supreme Court's refusal to reconsider its earlier ruling ordering the diocese to release hundreds of documents detailing decades of alleged abuse by priests. The Supreme Court issued the brief decision without comment. "We are inching closer to Connecticut citizens and Catholics fully learning the truth," said David Clohessy, director of the Chicago-based SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Question: I was wondering how we as Protestants reject the doctrine of Apostolic Succession? Obviously, through Church history, this doctrine seems to be strongly affirmed, but when the Reformation took place, this doctrine was not continued along with other doctrines. Why not? I guess I am wondering what are the biblical mandates supporting Apostolic Succession and what are the biblical mandates and logic that reject Apostolic Succession? Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.Answer: When you say "through Church history, this doctrine [apostolic succession] seems to be strongly affirmed" you are correct because it certainly has been accepted...

Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical -- Caritas in Veritate -- arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It's not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church's social teaching, "Love in Truth" will be a work of lasting significance.   Those who dig through the document to see whether it leans left or right will be disappointed: There is something here for everybody. For the Left, anxious to set the scene for President Barack Obama's meeting with Benedict in a few days, there are plenty of...

Featured Term (selected at random):DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL General term in mystical theology to identify every form of purification through which God leads persons whom he is calling to a high degree of sanctity. It is called "night" to distinguish a person's normal spiritual condition of seeing, although dimly, by the light of faith; whereas in mystical purification a person is deprived of much of this light. There is a "groping in the night." It is called a "dark" night to emphasize the intensity of withdrawal of God's illuminating grace. The purpose of such purification is to cleanse the...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Christian call to love one another and to work for justice requires the active participation in the political process, Pope Benedict XVI said in his new encyclical. "To desire the common good and strive toward it is a requirement of justice and charity," the pope said in his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"). The encyclical, published July 7, said God's love for all his creatures must be mirrored in the way they love and care for one another, engaging in acts of charity and solidarity with respect for the truth that every human...

The Pope has called for the world economy to be restructured in line with the principles of "love, truth and charity" in a new encyclical issued today. He urges the reformation of the United Nations and economic institutions to address the global economic crisis, which he links to relativism, globalisation and the abuse of modern technologies. The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, interpreted variously throughout the document as charity or love in truth, is Pope Benedict XVI's third but his first on social issues. It is timed to coincide with the G8 in Italy and is intended to bring objective moral...

Excerpt...17. A vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible answer. Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility. The “types of messianism which give promises but create illusions”[38] always build their case on a denial of the transcendent dimension of development, in the conviction that it lies entirely at their disposal. This false security becomes a weakness, because it involves reducing man to subservience, to a mere means for development, while the humility of those who accept a vocation is transformed...

July 7, 2009                                     Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week                                 in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 32:23-33 In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took his two wives,with the two maidservants and his eleven children,and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.After he had taken them across the streamand had brought over all his possessions,Jacob was left there alone.Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.When the man saw that he could not prevail over him,he struck...

Monday July 6, 2009 Obama Complains that Fears over Abortion Agenda "Not Based on Anything I've Said or Done" By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a meeting with several members of the Catholic media Thursday, President Obama insisted that pro-life Catholics' fears over the new administration's abortion agenda was "not based on anything I've said or done." The president also said he embraces the so-called "seamless garment" moral theory of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, which he said he feels has been "buried under the abortion debate" in recent decades.The president called for the...

The percentage of Hispanic Catholics in America has dropped, while the proportion of born-again Hispanics has increased, a new survey by the Barna Group found. Over the past 15 years, the proportion of Hispanics in America that is aligned with the Catholic Church has fallen by 25 percent. By comparison, the proportion of born-again Christians for this ethnic group has increased by 17 percent. “You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic Church,” commented George Barna, whose company conducted the research. “While many Hispanic immigrants come to the United States with ties to Catholicism, the...

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Offering brochures on pro-life alternatives to abortion may appear a safe enough act, but for one Arizona sidewalk counselor, the message of "no thanks" instead came through a drawn handgun allegedly held by a man determined that his girlfriend would get an abortion. Local Phoenix station 3TV reported that a pro-life woman was offering literature on abortion alternatives to a man who had taken his girlfriend to the Planned Parenthood facility near Seventh and Campbell avenues, when suddenly the man pulled out a pistol, pointed the weapon at the woman for a few...

When Karl Keating started Catholic Answers in the mid 1980s, he wasn’t setting out to create a new Catholic apostolate with an international outreach. He just wanted to hide behind a name. What started as a simple response to an anti-Catholic tract twenty-one years ago has blossomed into the largest Catholic apologetics and evangelization organization in North America. — By Tim Drake, Envoy Magazine (www.envoymagazine.com), 2001 — At the time, Keating was working behind a desk as a general civil lawyer. After Mass one Sunday morning he discovered an anti-Catholic flyer had been placed on the windshields of all the...

Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning, so Sunday is reserved as the “Lord’s Day,� the day to remember the Resurrection and to offer our praise and worship. Sunday is the Christian “Sabbath,� a shift from the Jewish Sabbath that runs from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. God gave us the Third Commandment as a solemn obligation, not a suggestion or an option: “Keep holy the Sabbath day (Ex 20:8-11; Dt 5:12-15) (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Numbers 2174 – 2178).Regular Sunday worship dates back to the first generation...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican technicians entered the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in the dead of night, drilled a small hole in the tomb under the main altar and extracted fragments of what was inside. The results were a closely held secret for more than two years. Pope Benedict XVI announced June 28 that tests performed on bone fragments from the tomb demonstrate they could be the remains of the Apostle Paul, because carbon-14 tests concluded the bones belonged to a human being who lived between the first and second century. Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo,...

Traditional Holy Mass Propers † FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARIA ZACHARIAH † Missa Exáudi, Dómine, vocem qua clamávi ad te ( "....The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?...." ) 5 July 2009 Anno Dómini "....whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us.I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired.It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action.The greatest action that can be on earth. It...

Featured Term (selected at random):SPECIES Appearances, especially those of bread and wine, after the Eucharistic consecration. The term "species" is used by the Council of Trent (Denzinger 1652) to identify the accidents, i.e., the size, weight, color, resistance, tase, and odor of bread, which remain exactly the same after transubstantiation. They are not mere appearances as though these physical properties were unreal. But they are appearances because after the consecration they lack any substance that underlies them or in which they inhere. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with...

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee that is considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation's capital. Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee's action "effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment," which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the...

RECIFE, Brazil, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the metropolitan archbishop of Olinda and Recife. The pope appointed Bishop Fernando Antonio Saburido as his successor. Pro-life activists around the world are very familiar with Archbishop Cardoso for his heroic defense of the unborn despite criticism he received even from Archbishop Salvatore (Rino) Fisichella, the President of Pontifical Academy for Life. The acceptance of his resignation at this time has raised many questions; however, there is no evidence to indicate that it was undertaken as...

No Matter What, He Always "Acts Like a Priest" University President Speaks on Divine Providence By Father David M. O'Connell, CM WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- I wanted to be a priest for as long as I can remember. I think it was my pastor's visits to my dying grandmother, in particular, that first attracted me. He was so kind to her and so gentle. He brought her holy Communion and what we called then the sacrament of "extreme unction" during her final illness. The whole aura surrounding his visits, the mysterious sound of the Latin prayers, and the...

July 6, 2009                                     Monday of the Fourteenth Week                                 in Ordinary Time     Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 28:10-22a Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran.When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set,he stopped there for the night.Taking one of the stones at the shrine, he put it under his headand lay down to sleep at that spot.Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground,with its top reaching to the heavens;and God's messengers were...

Many Catholics just don’t know what to say when someone asks them whether they are saved. As Catholics, we're vaguely familiar with "saved" language. We don't usually ask someone, "Are you saved?" and when someone asks us this question, we often stutter and fumble for an answer. So how should we answer: "Are you saved?" Constantly. We are constantly being saved by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because salvation is dynamic, ongoing. It's a past, present, and future reality. Let me explain. Salvation is a past reality: We have been saved by the death of...