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I had the high blessing of being present when the Dominicans of the Eastern Province of the U.S. offered their first Missa Cantata according to their proper Dominican Rite at their parish in NYC, St. Vincent Ferrer. Fr. Austin Dominic Litke, O.P. offered the Mass on the traditional feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, with the assistance of layman servers and Dominican friars from the Dominican House of Studies in DC, who chanted the propers of the Mass. Father Litke and the servers process up the high altar. The celebrant's Confiteor - notice the difference in the position of the...

San Francisco, Calif., Feb 19, 2011 / 01:04 pm (CNA).- One of the fastest growing orders of women religious in the United States is expanding to California where the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, took over administration of a Sacramento Catholic school this school year.Perhaps more significantly, the Dominican Sisters have outgrown the motherhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich., and are planning to build two new houses of formation in California and in Texas. Each would hold about 100. The order’s lifestyle intrigued Oprah Winfrey, who featured the sisters twice on her show in 2010. As a result...

The School of The Dominican Teaching Sisters of Fanjeaux (France) have received 10 Novices on the 4th of August. The congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Fajeaux was founded in 1975 as a group of 19 Sisters in the Mother House in Tolouse which they left, to remain true to the traditional Liturgy and to the fundamental constitutions. Today, 35 years later. the "School Sisters of the Dominicans of the Holy Name of Jesus at Fanjeaux" are circa 180 sisters. They operate eight schools. The Mother house is located in the vicinity of Prouille (in Southwest France) where in 1208...

NORFOLK -- They wake each morning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and chant it again before they go to sleep. They pray the rosary, spend time in contemplative prayer and gather each Sunday to discuss the Gospel. In almost every way they are like the members of other chapters of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, except they are incarcerated. The chapter, located at Norfolk State Prison, has about 35 members, 17 of whom have made their final profession in the Dominican order. It is the only Dominican chapter in a prison. Ruth Raichle, the Catholic chaplain...

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said. The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests. Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to...

Some of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Denver, Colo., Jun 7, 2009 / 02:19 pm (CNA).- “No matter how much I gave away, it was never enough.”  With these words, Kelsey Wicks, 26, described her calling to religious life.  Although she had been studying at the Augustine Institute in Denver, Colorado and working as a campus minister, she always felt called to something more.  Now, Wicks is preparing to enter the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia on August 10, pursuing a vocation that she describes as “a beautiful challenge.”The idea of a vocational crisis has been a concern...

The Galileo affair: history or heroic hagiography? by Thomas Schirrmacher Summary The 17th century controversy between Galileo and the Vatican is examined. Fifteen theses are advanced, with supporting evidence, to show that the Galileo affair cannot serve as an argument for any position on the relation of religion and science. Contrary to legend, both Galileo and the Copernican system were well regarded by church officials. Galileo was the victim of his own arrogance, the envy of his colleagues and the politics of Pope Urban VIII. He was not accused of criticising the Bible, but disobeying a papal decree...

Washington Nationals President Stan Kasten vowed that the franchise would "get to the bottom" of the developments that apparently have left the team with a prospect it doesn't really know. A Web site reported Wednesday morning that Esmailyn Gonzalez, the highly touted Dominican shortstop prospect who was given a $1.4 million signing bonus by the Nationals when they signed him in 2006, is actually four years older than he told the team and has an entirely different name. According to that SI.com report, Gonzalez (who the Nationals list as being 19 years old) is actually Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, and...

Anchorage, Nov 23, 2008 / 02:56 pm (CNA).- Beginning December 6, ethereal chant, incense and perhaps even an ostrich-feathered liturgical fan will waft through Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska as the archdiocese prepares for the ancient Dominican rite Mass that will be celebrated in Latin every first Saturday of the month at noon. The Catholic Anchor reports that the successful emergence of the Dominican rite locally is keeping the tradition alive, and perhaps fueling organic development of the liturgy into the future. By early 2009, the Anchorage Archdiocese is also hoping to provide regular celebrations of the Tridentine Latin...

Sick Passengers Lead To Emergency Landing At FLL FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ― A flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada made an emergency landing at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after eight passengers complained of being sick. Airport spokesman Greg Meyer says Air Transat flight 477 was quarantined on the runway after it landed late Tuesday until officials from the Centers for Disease Control determined the sick passengers weren't suffering from any airborne illness.

As I mentioned previously, this past Saturday I was able to attend an ordination of seven Dominican friars to the transitional diaconate. The Mass was held in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here in DC, and was celebrated by Archbishop Emeritus of Louisville, Thomas Kelly, O.P. Here is a picture of the seven newly-ordained deacons (vested in gold). Here is a photo of the ordination Mass taken by a professional photographer: And here is a Flickr set of 20 more pictures of the event which capture it well. (Just to...

LAWRENCE - Police arrested a Methuen woman for punching her 12-year-old daughter several times in the face while they were inside a Laundromat on Broadway. Police were called to the facility Sunday afternoon by another woman who told police "no child deserved to be beaten like that," the police report said.

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter" and other classics of American letters, left more than a literary legacy. His daughter Rose, a convert to Catholicism, founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who have provided free care to poor cancer patients for more than 100 years. Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, had a deeply happy and loving marriage but were separated in death. Nathaniel Hawthorne was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Mass., the town where the Hawthorne family had lived for some years. The widowed Sophia Hawthorne and the couple's three children moved to...

MIAMI -- Cigar aficionados beware: Those handmade Montecristos, Cohibas and Romeo y Julietas aren't necessarily premium smokes. Law-enforcement and cigar industry officials say counterfeiters are marketing millions of dollars in fake upscale cigars, some even pretending to be authentic Cubans that are illegal to sell in the United States. A crackdown uncovered several major counterfeit operations, including one in Miami that resulted in the seizure of more than $20 million in fake stogies, labels and packaging.

Need to get some reviews from anybody who might be familiar with Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville (Baltimore), Maryland. (http://www.mountdesales.org/index.htm) We are considering sending our daughter there, as there are really no good (i.e., orthodox) Catholic High Schools in the Archdiocese of Washington. But before doing so, I'd like to see if there is any dirt (good, bad, or ugly) on that school. So anybody familiar with that school and care to provide any feedback? Appreciate it!

The Dominican Republic and most of Central America just agreed to CAFTA with the USA. Their debts are massive and they are unable to pay them. Their electricity is off for 8 to 10 hours a day. Conditions are even terrible for the well to do. The President of the Dominican requests help from a rich country. President Chavez of Venesuela, is offering discounts on oil to any Carribean country as long as they use socialist measures in their country and teach the children socialism. Even with the discounts their nations will continue in a downward spiral to abject poverty...

Dominican Father J. Kauchak Sees an Outpouring of Help PONCHATOULA, Louisiana, SEPT. 8, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Thirty miles northwest of New Orleans, St. Joseph's Parish has swelled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Dominican Father Justin Kauchak, who normally leads a parish of 1,500 families, now is trying to serve the needs of an extra 500 families who are homeless and jobless after last week's hurricane left New Orleans flooded. "Besides a lot of prayers for the displaced and for those ministering to them, our immediate needs include adequate housing, clothing and jobs, money for gas, uniforms for the kids...

The belief that children best learn the truth when they are surrounded by beauty is what, eight years ago, inspired a Congregation of Dominican teaching sisters to accept a 16th century chateau in ruins on the condition that they turn it into a school. In taking on the restoration of the ancient chateau of the lords of Kernabat, in Celtic Brittany, the Dominicans of the Holy Name of Jesus were living the words of Pope St. Pius X, written nearly 100 years before to the superiors of the Congregation. They had written to ask counsel, whether to flee an anti-Catholic...

US Olympic Volleyball Team, ranked number one in the world, upset by until now winless Dominican Republic

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Caribbean floods left 3,300 dead, missing Jun. 5, 2004. 08:51 AM PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The toll of dead and missing from floods that ravaged parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic was set at more than 3,300 on Friday as aid workers reached the most remote areas. In Haiti, the official death toll was at 1,191 and the number of missing at 1,484. The figures on the Dominican side of the border were 395 dead and 274 missing. That brought the overall toll to at least 3,344 from flooding caused by days of rains that unleashed torrents of water...

Dominican, Haiti Floods Kill at Least 360 2 hours, 51 minutes ago By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer JIMANI, Dominican Republic - The caskets of dozens of children lined this town's streets after floods swept away whole villages and sent desperate families into the darkness and mud in a frantic search for loved ones. At least 360 were dead and hundreds missing. Trucks dumped more than 100 bodies into a mass grave outside of Jimani, a town of about 10,000 on the Haitian border, on Tuesday. Sobbing families, meanwhile, waited for the tiny caskets of their children to be buried...

Dominican Took Stowaway Flight to Miami in Wheel Well of Jet Mar 5, 2004 The Associated Press MIAMI (AP) - A stowaway from the Dominican Republic was discovered emerging from the wheel well of a commercial passenger jet Friday after it landed at Miami International Airport, officials said. The migrant, whose name was not released, was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection for processing for repatriation, immigration officials said. He was not injured. A ramp employee notified customs workers after seeing the man climb out of the right wheel well of the American Airlines flight from Santo Domingo,...

An important but little-noticed Federal lawsuit is scheduled to go to court in February. Nearly six years four agents of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Narcotics Investigation(BNI) filed a civil rights complaint in the US DIstrict Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleged that "certain persons in the State Department and the CIA" had obstructed an investigation of the Dominican narcotics cartel, which controlledmuch of the trade in cocaine and heroin along the eastern seaboard. There is also evidence that the Dominican narcotics cartel may have indirectly financed the terrorist network that carried out the first World Trade...

For two days across the treacherous Mona Passage, Enerolisa Paredes prayed, clasped the wooden slab beneath her until her fingers went numb and kept her eyes tightly shut until the canoe-like vessel packed with other Dominicans finally made landfall. But the most intimidating part of the harrowing journey came as a shivering Paredes hid beneath the thick brush that grows along Puerto Rico's western coast, barely breathing, for fear that U.S. Border Patrol agents searching nearby would find her. "I could see them and hear their footsteps," said Paredes, 26. "There was a cow that kept stepping all over me....