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I just can't keep it in. I know I shouldn't boast but, well, as a Roman Catholic I simply have to. We've won. I mean, we actually have won. The church founded by Christ has become the one and only institution hated by assorted Marxists, maniacs and misanthropes. In the space of a single week, we had the following: The Washington Post ran achingly predictable self-promoter and professional atheist, Richard Dawkins, writing that the Catholic Church was "surely up there among the leaders" as "the greatest force for evil in the world." He described the eucharist as a "cannibal feast"...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict will hold talks with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Nov 21 in their first meeting since a Vatican initiative making it easier for disaffected Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Friday the spiritual leader of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican communion will meet the pope while he is in Rome for a conference at a Rome pontifical university. The meeting will take on great significance because it is their first since the Vatican announced a new structure on Oct 20 to welcome conservative Anglicans who want to...

10 Ways Darwin Got It Wrong This year marks the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birthday and, coincidentally, 150 years since the publication of his book On the Origin of Species. One of the most influential books in modern history, it has helped shape philosophy, biology, sociology and religion in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. But both Darwin's theory and his book are doomed by major flaws. by Mario Seiglie Was Charles Darwin right about his theory? More importantly, how vital is it to find out the correct answer? Unlike other scientific theories, Darwinian evolution touches not only science but...

5 Myths about 7 Books  MARK SHEA Here are the answers to five common arguments Protestants give for rejecting the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament. People don't talk much about the deuterocanon these days. The folks who do are mostly Christians, and they usually fall into two general groupings: Catholics — who usually don't know their Bibles very well and, therefore, don't know much about the deuterocanonical books, and Protestants — who may know their Bibles a bit better, though their Bibles don't have the deuterocanonical books in them anyway, so they don't know anything about them either....

I just returned from Washington, DC. The City is charged with a frenzied war of words and increasing activity, all revolving around the “Health Care Reform” package which Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to get passed quickly. Today, in a rare Saturday session, the “showdown” in the “People’s House” begins. The very term “People’s House” developed in reference to the House of Representatives because it has been perceived as closer to the people then the Senate. The House, until the passage of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution, was the only legislative branch to be elected. Senators were chosen...

Top Stories for Thursday, November 12th, 2009: Here is a choir- loft view of the altar at the Church of St. Agnes, St. Paul, Minn. On November 2, the parish commemorated All Souls Day with a Latin High Mass. The 1,200 Mass participants heard Mozart’s R­equiem sung by the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale, founded by the parish’s Msgr. Richard J. Schuler ( 1920- 2007) in 1956. Bishop- elect Paul Sirba of Duluth, Minn., a “ son of the parish,” concelebrated the Mass with Fr. John Ubel, pastor of St. Agnes. Fr. Ubel served as homilist. Fr. William Baer and...

The director of the Pontifical Pastoral Ministry for Priestly Vocations is affirming that 20 countries have seen an increase in priestly vocations over the past year. Monsignor Francis Bonnici reported this at a conference of English and Welsh Vocations Directors, recently held at the Venerable English College in Rome. He noted that England and Wales were among those that had seen an increase in the number of seminarians, but didn't offer a list of the others. The National Office for Vocations of the bishops' conference of England and Wales reported in September over 40 men commenced seminary formation for the...

Roman Catholic Asks "Do Protestants Believe That True faith = Faith + Works?" John Hendryx Answers Roman Catholic I was recently in an online discussion with a Roman Catholic who made the following assertions: Ultimately, it makes no difference whether you hold that faith + works = justification or faith = justification + works In either case there is no justification apart from good works. According to the reformed view, if you don't have good works, then you don't have the right kind of faith. In other words, according to reformed theology, the equation would be true faith =...

November 7, 2009                                 Saturday of the Thirty-first Week                                 in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 Brothers and sisters:Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus,who risked their necks for my life,to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles;greet also the Church at their house.Greet my beloved Epaenetus,who was the firstfruits in Asia for Christ.Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.Greet Andronicus and Junia,my relatives and my fellow prisoners;they are prominent...

Abortion is Not Health Care November 6th, 2009 by Joseph Meaney Bumper stickers with the message "Abortion is Not Health Care" have started appearing around the country. They could also say infanticide and euthanasia are not health care.Our first child, Therese Marie, was born on September 29th the Feast of the Archangels. While in the hospital I met the mother of a child born prematurely and who had to be treated in the neo-natal intensive care unit. That baby was fortunate to arrive in the USA and not Great Britain.Sarah Capewell’s boy Jayden came prematurely at 21 weeks and 5...

Gambling 1137. Why does not your Church condemn gambling and lotteries as sinful and immoral? Because they are not sinful and immoral in themselves. They can be made the occasion of sin, as when a passion for gambling leads a man to spend money which is not his own, or which is necessary for the upkeep of wife or children, or to pay his lawful debts. But if one can honestly afford it, he is free to invest in lotteries, or to indulge in the amusement of a wager, unless he is violating a law of the state. 1138. Does...

Unexpected Joy Icon of the Mother of God Unexpected Joy Temple of the Holy Trinity in Listy Unexpected Joy Icon of the Mother of God The icon is written in commemoration of the following event: one sinner, as he was on his way to commit a sin, said a prayer for his success to the Mother of God. In response she, in anger, pointed at the immediately opened wounds on the hands and feet of the Divine Child sitting on her lap, and explained to the sinner that every time when someone falls into sin, the wounds begin to torment...

Part Three:  The Will of God Christian Morality Table of Contents     In order to reach heaven, we must have the grace of God. Beyond what we have when we enter this world, we need divine grace in order to reach everlasting life in the world to come. The main source of this grace is the sacraments, beginning with Baptism. And the most important of the sacraments to keep us spiritually alive and well is the Holy Eucharist.But the sacraments alone are not enough. We must cooperate with the graces we receive. God keeps giving us constant illuminations of the mind...

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.” - Psalm 33: 12 On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights fined the Italian government for having crucifixes in its schools. It’s yet another example of oversize, secular bureaucracies pitted against the most natural forms of agreement, in this case the nation. The European Court of Human Rights ordered that the government pay 5,000 Euro ($7,390) to Soile Lautsi, a mother of two who claimed that public schools in her northern Italian town refused eight years ago to remove...

St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church of Louisville, Ky., offers so much in terms of historical significance, an orthodox faith community, and sheer physical beauty. My friend Sue said it best, shortly after my husband, Ken, and I moved to the parish: “This is the center of all things Catholic.” The parish is one of the oldest in the Louisville Archdiocese. Located east of downtown in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood, it was founded in 1853 by Bishop Martin John Spalding to help nearby St. Boniface parish serve its overflowing German-immigrant population.The bishop named the church in honor of his...

A priest in the Diocese of Scranton has been removed as administrator of three Throop parishes after he inadvertently displayed four photos of what a diocese spokesman called "minimally attired adult males" before the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Bridget's Church on Oct. 25. The Rev. Edward P. Lyman was using his personal computer to project an informational DVD about the diocesan Annual Appeal fundraiser when he accidentally showed the "inappropriate personal photographs" that were stored on his computer, according to a diocesan statement read at the Throop Masses on Sunday. Diocese spokesman William Genello said the photos were not...

Tell Belmont Abbey College: "I'm proud of you!" Help this faithful college resist the culture of death by signing an instant e-card:"I’m proud of you!" Notre Dame betrayed its Catholic identity, but Belmont Abbey College stayed faithful and now needs our urgent prayers and encouragement. Please let me explain:  This small liberal arts college in North Carolina with 1,600 students is holding firm to its Catholic identity by refusing to pay for abortion, contraception and sterilization in its healthcare plan. As a result, this brave college is now facing persecution.  In fact, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)...

Even as Moscow celebrates a holiday with anti-Catholic undertones and as Orthodox Patriarch Kirill promotes a special role for Russia’s “traditional religions” of which Catholicism is not one, the Catholic archbishopric in Moscow and the Catholic bishopric in Novosibirsk have launched websites to promote Catholicism in Russia. Last Friday, Paul Pezzi, the Catholic archbishop in Moscow, announced the start of a website for his see at www.cathmos.ru, a site that he said would allow Russians to “find out about the structure and news of the archdiocese, acquaint themselves with official documents, and learn the addresses of Catholic parishes” in Russia....

Rome, Italy, Nov 6, 2009 / 02:58 pm (CNA).- Speaking to Vatican Radio on Tuesday, Cardinal Franc Rode shed more light on the reasons behind the ongoing apostolic visitation of female U.S. religious orders, saying that a “secularist mentality” and a “feminist spirit” evident in the communities were among the factors leading to the visitation.The apostolic visitation was launched earlier this year with the stated aim of helping strengthen religious communities in the U.S., which are suffering from a sharp decline in vocations.In his Tuesday interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Rode said “some criticism arrived from United States and...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the way Catholics and Muslims are treated in the upcoming film, “2012”:When we got word recently that the movie “2012” depicts the Vatican being blown up, along with the famous statue from Rio, Christ the Redeemer, we were unmoved. Why? Because this occurs during the end of the world in a massive destruction. This kind of sensationalism, we reasoned, is standard fare for director Roland Emmerich: he is the guru of the “blow ‘em up” genre of movies. But now we’ve learned that while Catholics get theirs, Muslims are spared. Out of fear,...

A priest in the Diocese of Scranton has been removed as administrator of three Throop parishes after he inadvertently displayed four photos of what a diocese spokesman called "minimally attired adult males" before the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Bridget's Church on Oct. 25. The Rev. Edward P. Lyman was using his personal computer to project an informational DVD about the diocesan Annual Appeal fundraiser when he accidentally showed the "inappropriate personal photographs" that were stored on his computer, according to a diocesan statement read at the Throop Masses on Sunday. Diocese spokesman William Genello said the photos were not...

Rodé: "Feminism" Drove Visitation Following up on his Tuesday clarification concerning the Apostolic Visitation of US womens' communities, the Vatican's Religious Czar amplified his thought-process on the evaluation yesterday in an interview with Vatican Radio. Shown above greeting sisters of a more traditional stripe on a March visit to an Italian seminary specializing in the "extraordinary form" of the Roman rite, Cardinal Franc Rodé's significant points were summarized by The Tablet's Rome correspondent, Robert Mickens, in a dispatch e.mailed around earlier today: The official that initiated the Vatican's investigation of women religious in the United States admitted this week...

Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller in the 1973 film The Exorcist (CNS Photo) An American exorcist has said the film The Exorcist led people to believe wrongly that the devil could "come and zap them" when in fact the devil is afraid of the power of Jesus inside them. Mgr John Esseff, retired exorcist of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, told an audience of 400 students at Bowling Green State University, Ohio that the power of Jesus within them was "enormous". He said: "The devil is afraid of you - if you would just awaken to who...

A senior west of Ireland bishop has strongly appealed to Catholics intending to travel to Knock next month to stay away from a predicted apparition of the Virgin Mary on December 5. Speaking yesterday in Ennis, Co Clare, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said he would not like to see a large number of people going to Knock on that day expecting "strange visions". The bishop was responding to the announcement by Dublin self-styled visionaries Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson that Our Lady will appear on Saturday, December 5, at 3pm. Bishop Walsh is the first member of...

Emily's List spends millions of dollars supporting the campaigns of pro-abortion rights women. They advocate for complete and unrestricted access to abortion. EMILY's List boasts that they are the largest political action committee (PAC) with more than 100,000 members. Since its founding in 1985, EMILY's List has raised over $240 million and claims to have helped elect 80 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 15 to the U.S. Senate, and nine women Governors to state houses. Pro-abortion women candidates benefit greatly when landing an endorsement from Emily's List. For the 2007-2008 election cycle, Emily's List raised $43 million to...

Featured Term (selected at random):CHRISTIAN LAW The revealed precepts of the New Testament. There is a sense in which the Christian dispensation superseded the laws of earlier revelation, since the ceremonial and judicial practices of the Israelites have ceased to be binding on the followers of Christ. Also the moral code of pre-Christian Judaism has been greatly elevated. But all of this, as Christ was careful to explain, does not mean that he came to "abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear,...

[snip] When [Christopher Wenthe became a priest], he didn't sell his scattergun, his bow or his fishing rods. Nor, in his ever-more-detailed studies of the Bible and the church, did he find conflict between his evolving life as a man of God, and his past -- and current -- life as a hunter. And killer. "It comes down to, 'Is it moral or not' to hunt? If it weren't, I wouldn't do it," he said. "To be honest, I haven't given it much thought. But I believe hunting is moral. We have a long tradition as Catholics and an extensive...

The billion-dollar organization already receives over $300 million in taxpayer money, and stands to strike it rich if nothing is changed in the current health care legislation. So this week the nation’s biggest abortion provider sent out an urgent message to counter the growing opposition by Catholics to taxpayer-funded abortion contained in the current health care bills.  The Catholic Bishops sprung into action late last week, announcing their strong opposition to the current health care legislation because the bills include taxpayer support for abortion and fail to provide a conscience clause for doctors. The Bishops have asked all Catholics to...

GANDEACTEUA (Gandeacteüa, Gandeaktena, Gandeaktewa, Gandiaktua, Ganneaktena), Catherine, an Erie belonging to the Cat nation, responsible for the founding of the Saint-François-Xavier mission at Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine (moved in 1717 to Caughnawaga); d. 1673 at the mission. In the autumn of 1654 the Mohawks completely razed Gentaienton, a Cat village, and before the end of the year they had annihilated this people of Iroquois stock, which had been established on the south shore of Lake Erie. Gandeacteua and her mother were carried off as slaves to the Oneida village of Ganouaroharé. The story is told that she soon won everyone’s heart. Towards 1656...

ROME, NOV. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Thousands in Italy are mourning the death of a wife and mother of five, the founder of the Cenacles of Prayer, who is considered a modern mystic. Six Italian bishops and more than 100 priests celebrated the funeral of Natuzza Evolo on Tuesday in Calabria. Some 30,000 mourners came to pay their respects. "For us she is already a saint, as she is in paradise," said Bishop Luigi Renzo of Mileto in his homily. According to the testimony of numerous persons who went to ask her for her prayers and advice, bleeding wounds would appear...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Priest’s new book challenges men to learn ‘true manhood’ by following Christ Fr. Larry Richards San Francisco, Calif., Nov 6, 2009 / 06:17 am (CNA).- Pennsylvania Catholic priest Fr. Larry Richards, aiming to clear up “gender confusion” and to challenge men to pursue holiness, has released a new book titled “Be A Man: Become the Man God Created You to Be.”In the book, Fr. Richards recounts his own efforts to learn “true manhood” and shares inspiring stories from men he has counseled and served in his decades as a priest, a press release from Ignatius Press says.He encourages...

Saint John Fischer: Catholic Hero Amid Softness Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira    Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Saint John Fischer was a martyr, cardinal and bishop of Rochester, England. Henry VIII ordered him beheaded out of hatred for both the Catholic faith and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in the sixteenth century.He was entirely isolated due to the general apostasy of the Catholic Church in England. We can draw parallels with the apostasies caused by modernism since history repeats itself. A great process of apathy, lukewarmness and indifference always prepares the Catholic masses for the greatest of...

On Thursday Afternoon, November 5, 2009, 12 pro-lifers were arrested inside or outside in the hall at Nancy Pelosi's office at #235 Cannon office building. They entered, with two complete copies of the bill - all 2,000 pages (4,000) - and proceeded to rip it up, page by page, and strew it on the floor...

Time for me to leave FR.

Cremation 1134. Why does the Catholic Church forbid cremation? It was a pagan practice which Christians avoided from the very beginning. In the third century we find Christian writers, such as Minucius Felix, warning Christians against imitating the practice, and bidding them retain the custom of earth burial. In comparatively recent times Atheists and irreligious materialists have reintroduced it in order to destroy Christian belief and to impress in an imaginative way the doctrine that all is over at death. This, in itself, would be enough to justify the Church in her refusal to accept a practice credited with such...

MORE THAN one in ten Britons don't know which famous landmark Guy Fawkes failed to blow up. A staggering 13 per cent of people could not identify the Houses of Parliament as the target of the infamous Gunpowder Plot. Three per cent of clueless participants even named the London Eye as Fawkes' target - even though it was erected almost 400 years later - a figure that, shockingly, rises to eight per cent among London residents. One in 20 thought the religious conspirator - who was captured in a cellar beneath the House of Lords on 5 November, 1605 with...

November 6, 2009                                     Friday of the Thirty-first Week                                 in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 15:14-21 I myself am convinced about you, my brothers and sisters,that you yourselves are full of goodness,filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you,because of the grace given me by Godto be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentilesin performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God,so that the...

Part Two:  Channels of Grace Marriage Table of Contents     Marriage is not of human origin. It was instituted by God, as described in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis.But when Christ came into the world He elevated the natural institution to the level of a sacrament. He wished to provide not only individuals with the means they need, as persons, to reach eternal life: He also wanted to give grace to His followers as social beings. Marriage is the foundation of the family, which is the bedrock of human society.In the Church’s own language, the sacrament of Marriage...

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” – Mary worshipping God in Luke 1:46–47 Mary was simply a very godly young woman who loved the Lord and trusted in Him despite great risk to her own reputation. She repeatedly appears as a devout woman who loved God and was a loving mother to Jesus. Contrary to some aberrant teaching, she did not remain a virgin, but mothered other sons such as James and Jude, who visited Jesus with Mary during His ministry (Matthew 12:46; Mark 3:31–35; Luke 8:19–21) and later became pastors who penned...

The South African Catholic blog Signum has an article reporting that TAC in UK accepts "Ordinariate" At the 2009 Assembly of the Traditional Anglican Communion UK, the following resolution was passed:That this Assembly, representing the Traditional Anglican Communion in Great Britain, offers its joyful thanks to Pope Benedict XVI for his forthcoming Apostolic Constitution allowing the corporate reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See, and requests the Primate and College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion to take the steps necessary to implement this Constitution.The Assembly also suggests Bishop Robert Mercer as a possible candidate for Ordinary. I hear...

Sr. Verónica Berzosa Madrid, Spain, Nov 5, 2009 / 01:51 pm (CNA).- A 43 year-old prioresses has revolutionized an old Poor Clares convent in Spain, turning it onto a magnet for dozens of young professional women.Sister Veronica joined the Poor Clares Convent of the Ascension founded in 1604 in Lerma (Spain) at at time when it was going through a vocations crisis.  It was January 22, 1984, and Marijose Berzosa - Sr. Veronica's name prior to entering the convent - decided, at age 18, to leave behind a career in medicine, friends, nightlife and baketball."Nobody understood me. There were...

Writings of the Fathers of the Church  Alexander of Alexandria (Saint)   - Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius Alexander of Lycopolis   - Of the Manicheans Ambrose (340-397) (Saint) (Doctor)   - On the Christian Faith (De fide)   - On the Holy Spirit   - On the Mysteries   - On Repentance   - On the Duties of the Clergy   - Concerning Virgins   - Concerning Widows   - On the Death of Satyrus   - Memorial of Symmachus   - Sermon against Auxentius   - Letters Aphrahat/Aphraates (c. 280-367)   - Demonstrations Archelaus   - Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes Aristides the Philosopher   - The Apology Arnobius   - Against the Heathen Athanasius (Saint) (Doctor)   - Against the Heathen   - On the Incarnation...

GUEST LIST November 5 Fr. Thomas Euteneuer Exorcism Ask Fr. Thomas Euteneuer a question Fr. Thomas Euteneuer BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer became president of Human Life International in December of 2000. Human Life International is the worldÂ’s largest pro-life organization with affiliate offices and associates in seventy-five countries around the world. In five years of service to this unique mission Fr. Euteneuer has traveled more than 500,000 miles as a pro-life missionary and visited more than forty countries. Fr. Euteneuer was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1962, the fourth of seven children born to Joseph and Marian Euteneuer....

The film, The 13th Day, distributed in North America by Ignatius Press, continues to earn rave reviews from viewers. Sr. Helena Burns, FSP, who authors the "Hell Burns" blog, writes: This is a triumph of a film. And I don’t think I’ve ever used that word for a film before. “The 13th Day” was screened here at the 1st Annual John Paul II Film Festival in Miami: http://www.jp2filmfestival.com/. British producer Natasha Howes (birthday: May 13, feast of Our Lady of Fatima) was present. I was prepared not to like this film, and very apprehensive about not liking it because...

Last night, by a comfortable margin of 53-47%, the citizens of Maine became the 31st state to vote down gay marriage (as has every single state that has given its citizens a chance to vote on the issue). Not surprisingly, the mainstream liberal press is beside itself with frustration, especially because it drives yet another nail in the "inevitability" and "wrong side of history" arguments we are often fed. As I wrote on National Review this morning, Maine voted for traditional marriage "despite it being a liberal state, despite a 2-1 funding disadvantage, despite aggressive legal action against traditional-marriage...

Pope Benedict XVI (C) arrives to lead a mass to commemorate cardinals and bishops who died this year, in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican November 5, 2009. Vatican City, Nov 5, 2009 / 11:17 am (CNA).- This morning, Pope Benedict celebrated a Mass for the souls of the cardinals and bishops who have died over the past year.  In his homily, the Holy Father described death as “an enigma charged with anxiety,” and noted the importance of faith, hope and mercy in times “of human sadness and distress.”The Mass, which is a traditional November occurrence, was concelebrated by members...

Christ, Lunatic or God? If reason alone were all we had to establish the existence and essence of God, we might feel curiously dissatisfied. If God is a Supreme Spirit, omnipotent and of total benevolence, the origin and end of us all, why does He not speak and re-assure us? The Christian claim is that, in fact, God has spoken to mankind first in the prophets of the Old Testament and last of all through His Son made man. The historical existence of Christ is what we are now concerned with and also with His claim to be the Son...

Featured Term (selected at random):MIGNE PATROLOGIA The most comprehensive editions of the Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical writers in existence. Jacques Paul Migne (1800-75) had been a parish priest in Orléans, France, until 1844, when he began publishing the corpus of Latin authors up to Innocent III (217 volumes, 1844-55). Then followed the Greek writers to A.D. 1439 (162 volumes, with Latin translation, 1857-66). The two collections, Patrologia Latina (P.L.) and Patrologia Graeca (P.G.), although lacking the critical perfection of modern scholarship, are still a standard source for reference and quotation. All items in this dictionary are from Fr....

In case you needed an excuse to have a couple of cold ones, burn stuff and light fireworks, look no further. November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. On November 5, 1605, England held a celebration for the opening of Parliament. Guy Fawkes tried to spark a revolution by blowing up the building – and the royal family along with it – in what is known as the Gunpowder Plot (PDF) . The plot was foiled when one of Fawkes's co-conspirators sent a letter to a friend telling the friend to stay away from Parliament that night. The letter was intercepted...

Abandoning the diplomatic language typical of ecumenical pronouncements, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, chaired by Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh, has issued a candid critique of the 2007 “Ravenna document,” a modest milestone in Catholic-Orthodox ecumenical relations. The Ravenna document, while not purporting to be the Church’s official teaching, was issued by the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, chaired by Cardinal Walter Kasper and Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon. A month after the document was issued, Cardinal Kasper told other cardinals...