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Rorate Caeli lavabo per singulas noctes lectum meum, lacrimis meis stratum meum rigabo Franciscans of the Immaculate - Intervention Commissioner is interested in only one matter: the Traditional Mass From the questionnaire sent by the Commissioner (Monsignor Vito Angelo TODISCO, OFMConv, Apostolic Visitator) designated in the Intervention of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (the Congregation for Religious), it is clear that only one concern is in the mind of Cardinal-Prefect João Braz de Aviz and Secretary Abp. Rodríguez Carballo, OFM: the "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite", both the Traditional Mass and...

(Rome) The unrest has not remained hidden among Traditional Catholics from the Vatican, that has developed from the treatment of the Traditional Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The need to intervene and reassure. However, the justification offered here is hard to believe. . The exemplary Franciscans of the Immaculata, which was canonically erected in 1990, will, by a decree dated the 11th of July be placed under provisional administration by the Congregation of Religious. It was also arranged that all the priests, would celebrate the liturgy according to the New Rite. It is a serious attack against the...

A regional province of the Capuchin religious order that had fought allegations of sexual abuse for decades decided last year to open its files dating to the 19th century to three independent auditors, in what the order claimed to be a first in the long-running Roman Catholic Church abuse scandal in the United States. The auditors’ report, released on Tuesday, found that sexual abuse by friars in the St. Joseph Province of the Capuchin Order was discussed at meetings as far back as 1932, the first year for which minutes of meetings were available. After more than a dozen students...

For eight decades, leaders of a community of Catholic priests and brothers spanning 10 U.S. states acted inadequately in responding to sex abuse allegations and prioritized protecting accused abusers over their victims, concludes an audit released by the group Tuesday. The report, released by a province of Franciscan priests known as Capuchins, could raise questions of how communities of religious, which are not under direct control of bishops, are handling abuse allegations. It also addresses themes many critics of the U.S. church's response to sex abuse have raised since the issue made national headlines in 2002. The report says that...

A long-awaited agreement between the Vatican and Israel appears to be near finality. The two main points revolve around the Church's requests to build two centers in Israel: a church in a section of the Caesaria National Park where a site dedicated to Paul once stood, and the use of a plot on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The structure on Mt. Zion, the highest point of Jerusalem, is known as the Cenacle, where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place, and according to the deal which will be signed in the coming months, it will become open to...

Tripoli, Libya, Aug 23, 2011 / 11:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Libya's conflict rages on between rebel forces and troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, Catholics in the capital city of Tripoli are seeking protection.  “Currently there are three Franciscan friars barricaded in the convent in Tripoli,” a source told the Vatican-based Fides news on Aug. 23. “No one dares to walk in the street because people are shot on sight, even if it is not clear who shoots who.” The fighting in Libya has continued for around six months and is being waged by the rebel Transitional Authority—which is being...

Contrary to flag etiquette, the rainbow flag was hoisted higher than the American flag. The campaign in Binghampton, New York, June 3, had an interesting twist. As we raised the American flag to begin our efforts in favor of traditional marriage, a group of people standing on the opposite side of the street – in front of City Hall – were about to do the same. However, they were not raising old glory. Instead they were hoisting the very symbol of the opposition: a rainbow flag, with the approval of city mayor Matthew Ryan. Breaking with flag etiquette Those in...

What happens when a former US Marine becomes a Franciscan friar and then goes on to found a monastery in the toughest district of Ireland’s toughest city? In 2007, Father Sylvester and a small group of American friars from the Bronx, N.Y., did just that when they arrived in Limerick, Ireland. They left behind their former lives as a teacher, a soldier, a punk-rock singer, and a rapper to transform lives through prayer. The urban district they live in, Moyross – a sea of burned-down and boarded-up houses – is always in the news for the wrong reasons: drugs, shootings,...

Twelve years ago at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, a 17-year-old speedskating prodigy named Kirstin Holum was tapped for future greatness. (snip) The peaceful surrounds of the convent is where Holum, now known as Sister Catherine, devotes her life to religious service as a Franciscan nun. That calling had begun on a trip to Our Lady of Fatima, a holy site in Portugal famed for a series of religious visions that appeared nearly a century ago. It was outside the Fatima basilica where Holum decided that a path of religious dedication, not frozen skating lanes, would be her destiny. (snip)...

On the Mendicant Orders "The Proposal of a 'Lay Sanctity' Won Many People" VATICAN CITY, JAN. 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, At the beginning of the new year, we look at the history of Christianity, to see how a history develops and how it can be renewed. In it we can see that it is the saints, guided by the light of God, who are the genuine reformers of the life of the Church and of...

They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks. After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God. For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them. The sight of six men in...

Turn up the sound and groove.

Formal fiddleback chasubles and modest Franciscan sandals come together in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The video is put to beautiful music from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, our sister order. The music was recorded in Italy and is a fine example of the high quality of their music which, combined with the friars in Italy, are playing a major part in spearheading the reform of liturgical music in Italy.

In Memoriam: Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI (1923-2007)THE EARLY YEARSBorn Martin Kalvelage on April 9, 1923, Bro. Francis Mary was raised in San Francisco, California. During World War II he served with the armed forces as a pilot in the Pacific theatre of operations. Such initial training prepared his natural propensities for the gift of grace: discipline, fidelity, hard working and above all a deep sense of purpose. The angelic doctor St. Thomas confirms that grace is built upon nature. A humorous account Bro. Francis used to tell his confreres that served as one of the factors for him to...

The thin stream of blood extended the length of the sidewalk running by the Catholic monastery's front door, trickled around the corner and ended midway down the block. The friars who live inside assumed a gunshot victim had collapsed. There, the monks gathered one night last summer and prayed, as residents of 13th Avenue in Newark's West Ward looked on. Two months later, the friars showed up in religious garb at a fu neral for another young area gunshot victim, and they again drew stares. Last autumn, the friars learned that people liked having them in the neighborhood. A man...

Sainthood sought for slain 16th-century Ga. missionaries By RUSS BYNUMAssociated Press Writer SAVANNAH, Ga. - The report took 23 years to compile, with each of its nearly 500 pages individually notarized to ensure authenticity, before the Rev. Conrad Harkins carried it across the Atlantic Ocean in a box sealed by the Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Harkins arrived at the Vatican with the package in late March. After 410 years, five Spanish missionaries slain by Guale Indians on what's now the Georgia coast were on the path to possible sainthood. The documents delivered by Harkins make up the official case urging...

Rome (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of faithful in the Xian diocese, along with their friends and relatives, protested in the streets of the city yesterday to call for justice against a group of “thugs” who, on the night of November 23, brutally attacked 16 nuns of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sacred Heart Missionaries. These nuns have been admitted to hospital: one has lost her eyesight and another is also in serious condition. The nuns were attempting to prevent the demolition of a school that belongs to the diocese but that city authorities sold to a commercial company. The nuns had...

I took this right off the Jihad Watch website. Mr. Spencer received it from a reader. Pax Christi involvement... From a Jihad Watch reader: "I am rather upset this wonderful morning in NYC. I arrived this morning at a Catholic retreat sponsored by Pax Christi at the NYU Catholic Center. The retreat was titled "Peacemaking Beyond Ourselves, Beyond Our Borders with Francis and Claire." It was led by Kevin Queally, TOR. The day was to focus on St. Francis, his outreach to others, including a Muslim Sultan during the Crusades. As I proceed to look at the literature handed out,...

LOUIS IX Also known asLouis Capet Memorial25 AugustProfileKing for 44 years, being crowned at age 12; his mother ruled as regent until he reached 22. Founded monasteries, built leper hospitals, and collected relics. Married at age 19, and father of eleven. Franciscan tertiary. Led two Crusades and died on one. Born25 April 1214 at Poissy, FranceDied25 August 1270 at Tunis, AlgeriaCanonized1297 Name Meaningfamous warrior Patronagearchdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri, barbers, builders, button makers, construction workers, Crusaders, death of children, difficult marriages, distillers, embroiderers, French monarchs, grooms, haberdashers, hairdressers, hair stylists, kings, masons, needle workers, parenthood, parents of large families, prisoners, sculptors, sick people, soldiers, stone masons, stonecutters, tertiariesRepresentationcrown of thorns; king holding a cross king...

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands - She'd been a spiritual wanderer for 20 years, studying century-old teachings of a Russian philosopher, seeking tranquility in Zen and Hinduism. For Charlene Kehoe, Catholicism was a relic of a past she thought she'd left far behind. Her bond with the Catholic Church of her youth had frayed to little more than a seasonal reflex - one token visit at Christmas that was more social than religious. And even that one service could be a sharp reminder of why she'd left. ''I was so disgusted, I think I walked out after Communion,'' Kehoe said...