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Weapons of Mass. Destruction The Massachusetts legislature is pulling out all the stops to recapture its title as the most liberal state in the union on marriage. Yesterday, the Bay State Senate voted to repeal a 95-year-old law that former Gov. MITT ROMNEY enforced to prevent out-of-state homosexuals from "marrying." (Thanks Mitt!!!! He's a GOOD GUY!) To justify the move, the Senate pointed to a report commissioned by the state that claimed non-resident "marriages" would bring in an estimated $110 million. As groups like FRC have argued, money can't undo the damage done to society by the state's campaign to...

Rome, Jul. 4, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) is considering changes in the Mass, according to an Italian publication. The weekly Panorama reports that the Holy Father has asked the Congregation for Divine Worship to study the possibility of changes that would include using Latin in the Eucharistic Prayer and moving the Sign of Peace to the Offertory. Note: CWN has not been able to confirm the accuracy of the Panorama report. The New Liturgical Movement web site, which brought the Italian report to the attention of English-speaking readers, cautioned that the Panorama report should be...

ROME, JULY 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university. Q: Recently at our local national shrine I was visiting the Blessed Sacrament when a young priest whom I had never seen before began to set up for Mass. I sat down to wait, really happy to be there for this surprise Mass; it was 10 p.m. The priest "said" the whole Mass silently. At first I was confused. I'd never seen this before. It actually was quite beautiful nonetheless, and he did speak once, to invite us to...

Guys, I have never posted an article or comment before. However, today at Mass the celebrant added an interesting phrase to the Eucharistic Prayer. I hope to get some opinions on this matter. So, in the part of the prayer that reads: Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with {Benedict} our Pope, {name of local bishop}, our bishop, and all the clergy. The celebrant added something to the effect of "all the clergy, even the Jewish and muslim clergy". Now, I was tending to my infant daughter, so I didn't quite hear everything...

When William Shakespeare wrote his ironic verse about hanging the lawyers, he hadn’t met the likes of Rep. James Fagan (D-Mass). Had he heard what State Rep. Fagan had to say for himself regarding how he would defend people accused of raping children, The Bard would have considered hanging far too kind a way to end a malicious and hateful existence. Fagan rose to debate a bill that would have imposed long mandatory sentences on anyone convicted of raping children in The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Fagan showed the world how Democrats are the party of compassion. He spoke out on...

“John and Mary Catholic have a right to have prayer texts that are clear and understandable,” Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, said at this month’s meeting of the U.S. bishops. As he has done many times before, His Excellency was speaking out against a proposed English translation from Latin of the prayers of the Roman Mass. The translation would replace the current one in use in English-speaking parishes – a translation its defenders praise as clear, understandable, and “proclaimable.” Certainly, the current translation of the Mass is all these things, but it is much more besides. The translation is...

Issue: What are the biblical origins of the Mass and the New Testament priesthood? Is the Mass really a sacrifice, or is it merely symbolic?Response: The biblical origins of the Mass and the New Testament priesthood are rooted in the Old Testament. Both the Old and New Testaments provide clear evidence that the Mass is a true sacrifice, offered by a priest, and the Victim is the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.      God stated three times that the Passover sacrifice would be “an ordinance for ever,” not for a temporary period, such as until the Messiah...

The prolific author writes in the pages of Newsweek (to which he is a regular contributor) of how he thinks Pope Benedict XVI is working to implement the "reform of the reform": Is Pope Benedict XVI determined to restore the Latin mass that many Roman Catholics thought had been consigned to the dustbin of history? The answer, in short, is both yes and no. But neither the "yes" nor the "no" quite fits the conventional speculations in several recent media reports following off-the-cuff remarks to a small Catholic association in Great Britain by a Vatican official. In unraveling this, it...

Latin Days Are Here Again? Pope Benedict wants to revive the Latin mass in Roman Catholic worship. But what exactly does that mean? George Weigel Newsweek Web Exclusive Updated: 11:19 AM ET Jun 19, 2008 Is Pope Benedict XVI determined to restore the Latin mass that many Roman Catholics thought had been consigned to the dustbin of history? The answer, in short, is both yes and no. But neither the "yes" nor the "no" quite fits the conventional speculations in several recent media reports following off-the-cuff remarks to a small Catholic association in Great Britain by a Vatican official. In...

QUEBEC CITY, JUNE 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).- If Catholics really understood the meaning of Sunday Mass, they wouldn't miss it, Cardinal Josef Tomko said at the opening of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress. Cardinal Tomko, the Pope's special envoy for the event, presided Sunday at the opening mass of the weeklong congress in Quebec. He will also preside at the closing Mass on June 22, during which Benedict XVI will address the participants live via satellite. Some 11,000 pilgrims, 50 cardinals and more than 100 bishops have gathered for the inaugural Mass of the congress titled, "The Eucharist, the Gift of...

Who needs DisneyWorld when you've got a showdown on translations? By the looks of it, yesterday's Orlando debate and vote on the proposed revision of the Proper of Seasons packed even more of a punch than expected. NCR's John Allen relays: [O]nly seven bishops out of 250 Latin Rite prelates in the United States even bothered to propose amendments to the text, a clear sign that most felt the handwriting was on the wall. Like it or not, many concluded, Rome has made clear that the new translations must be closer to the Latin, both in structure and word...

The traditional Latin Mass – effectively banned by Rome for 40 years – is to be reintroduced into every Roman Catholic parish in England and Wales, the senior Vatican cardinal in charge of Latin liturgy said at a press conference in London today. In addition, all seminaries will be required to teach trainee priests how to say the old Mass so that they can celebrate it in all parishes. Catholic congregations throughout the world will receive special instruction on how to appreciate the old services, formerly known as the Tridentine Rite.

One of nature's enduring enigmas is making an appearance once again, bringing a sibilant drone to the towns of Cape Cod, as it has every 17 years with startling regularity. Insects known as periodical cicadas are emerging from underground haunts for a final hurrah - a nearly monthlong orgy of come-hither songs, mating, and laying eggs - before dying and leaving their progeny behind to begin anew the curious and highly unusual 17-year growth period. Residents are bracing themselves. "We're thinking about moving to Boston to live with my daughter!" joked Jeanne Duchemin, of Mashpee, who recalls the inundation of...

CHICAGO – Two off-duty Chicago police officers disarmed and arrested a man allegedly carrying a loaded handgun as he waited in line to receive communion Sunday morning in a South Side church. Aurora resident David Kucia, 57, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon after parishioners spotted him with a black handgun in his waistband at the 11 a.m. mass at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, 653 W. 37th St. Churchgoers alerted off-duty Deputy Chief James Keating. Keating and Sgt. Joseph Kipka escorted Kucia outside the church after learning he was not a law-enforcement officer. Kucia allegedly told...

Monday August 25 to Friday, August 29, 2008 - Extraordinary Form of the Mass - 1962 Missale Romanum - "The Most Beautiful Thing this Side of Heaven" The "Workshop for Laity" in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass will provide an in-depth examination and spiritual meditation on the Traditional Latin Mass through the presentation of lectures and tutorials. Participants will also have opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration to extend the worship of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Devotion to Our Blessed Lady will be fostered by the recitation of the Holy Rosary in Latin. Additionally, sacramental Confession will be offered...

Athol Republican begins race against Donelan Recorder Staff View all comments (14) Published: Thursday, June 05, 2008 Republican Robert E. Parks of Athol has formally announced his candidacy to challenge Democratic incumbent Christopher Donelan's re-election bid to the Second Franklin District seat in the state House of Representatives. The 49-year-old former graphics designer at the Fox television network in California, and a former producer and production manager at Athol-Orange Community Television, abandoned an effort to circulate nomination papers in 2006, saying he didn't have enough time to gather the 150 signatures needed. But Parks, a Boston native who moved to...

Issue: What are the biblical origins of the Mass and the New Testament priesthood? Is the Mass really a sacrifice, or is it merely symbolic?Response: The biblical origins of the Mass and the New Testament priesthood are rooted in the Old Testament. Both the Old and New Testaments provide clear evidence that the Mass is a true sacrifice, offered by a priest, and the Victim is the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.      God stated three times that the Passover sacrifice would be “an ordinance for ever,” not for a temporary period, such as until the Messiah...

Ignazio Ingrao, religion journalist of the Italian weekly Panorama, has the following aticle in this weeks Panorama (NLM translation): Good-bye Happening Masses - The Pope Limits Concelebrations No more Happening Masses: the Pope wants to put a brake on large concelebrations with hundreds of priests, often far from the altar, as we are now accustomed in the World Youth Days and papal travels. Benedict XVI has entrusted to the Congregation for Divine Worship the task of preparing, if necessary, an instruction. The concelebrations will be limited to specific circumstances and with a reduced number of priests around the altar....

IT'S WELL KNOWN that innovation is the lifeblood of the Massachusetts economy. At every period of stagnation or decline over the past 400 years, someone's bright ideas have turned the tide. Too little valued, however, is the central role played by minorities and women in helping Massachusetts thrive. This morning, the state's political, business, and civic leaders will spotlight the contribution of a diverse workforce to the region's success, and challenge each other to do more. Much more. A 2006 report by the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative found that of 64 game-changing innovations in Massachusetts - from wiping out...

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday, crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a pledge to support the students. Earlier this year, Patrick said he was considering ways to offer illegal immigrants in-state rates, such as issuing a regulation, adding that it would be "the right thing to do." The governor declined to comment yesterday, but an administration source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Patrick decided that there were "significant...

In a private conversation before the release of the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum," a leading personality of U.K. Catholicism predicted that the reinstatement of the Traditional Latin Mass would grant again such an abundant flow of graces that it would even effect the restoration of society on sound Christian principles. While that outcome remains to be seen, the release of the motu proprio has certainly sparked a series of controversies and debates — especially in Italy, the heart of Catholicism, and that goes a long way in showing how sensitive the issue is among faithful and non-faithful alike. The...

A group of antitax activists launched a campaign over the weekend to abolish the state income tax, setting the stage for a contentious public battle if the measure is added to the ballot this fall. After pushing a similar initiative that almost passed six years ago, a group called the Committee for Small Government is back for another round, asking voters to end the income tax and save the average taxpayer $3,600 a year. The group, led by libertarian Carla Howell, is almost certain to gather the 11,000 signatures needed to put a question on the November ballot. To say...

DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- A new gambling study shows some Massachusetts residents who have not supported casinos in the past may be changing their minds. "Fifty-seven percent of Massachusetts residents still favor two or more resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. That number is actually four percent higher than when we last did this poll in September," said Dr. Clyde Barrow, a public policy analyst at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The study was funded by a real estate development firm with land interests in the proposed Palmer and New Bedford casino sites. The research showed that as the state's deficit...

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.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Liturgical renewal launched by the Second Vatican Council is an "irreversible path" and has not been affected by Pope Benedict XVI's concession on wider use of the Tridentine rite, a Vatican official said. "The pope's decision has so far not produced any change in the celebrative practice of our ecclesial communities. His gesture was only one of service to unity," Archbishop Piero Marini, who arranged papal liturgies for more than 20 years, said in an interview April 25 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "Therefore let's look ahead and let's continue with enthusiasm the path undertaken...

It is rare that I find good news in the The Tablet (aka the bitter pill). They do however try to make the worst of a a good situation. The Tablet reports that Peruvian Cardinal Cardinal Luis Cipriani Thorne has banned communion in the hand in his diocese.[Cue sinister music] Opus Dei Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne told Petrus: "I maintain that the best way to administer Communion is on the tongue, so much so that in my diocese I have forbidden the host in the hand."[/Cue sinister music] The cardinal, who is Archbishop of Lima and a member of...

Declaration On Relations with Rome Made In Honour of Our Lady of Good Counsel April 2008 We hold firmly with all our heart and with all our mind to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, to the eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth. We refuse on the other hand, and have always refused, to follow the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies, which became clearly manifest during the Second Vatican Council, and after the Council, in reforms which issued from it. That is why, without any rebellion,...

There is an interesting development in the matter of Summorum Pontificum and the use of the vernacular in celebrations of the TLM. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei reponded to a questions proposed concerning Art. 6. The questions were: "Can readings be given in the vernacular in the context of the Liturgy?  Does Article 6 uphold the practice of duplicating the readings reading them in the context of the Liturgy in Latin, then before a homily in the vernacular, or does it allow them to be read from the Altar in the vernacular?Also, can local editions of the Missal that refer...

Twice-divorced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani took Communion at a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict on Saturday, breaching rules that bar those who remarry outside the Church from doing so. As he left New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral with his third wife, Judith, the failed presidential candidate confirmed to Reuters that he took Communion from a priest. Asked if he was uncomfortable with having broken the Church ban on the divorced and remarried taking Communion, Giuliani said, "No." The Church does not recognize divorce and teaches that divorced Catholics are still married to their earlier partner unless the...

The Pope used the structure of the great Cathedral as a symbolic framework for addressing the interior meaning of the Christian vocation and mission.

Amazing. One would think that after the multicultural musical mayhem that occurred yesterday at National's Stadium, that your average 'catholic' progressive would be basking in the glow of this liturgical train wreck for weeks. Not so. Some progressives are equally upset about the mass. There are so many things that one could be upset about when it comes that liturgy that it would be the work of days to try and list them. Leave it to the Associated Press and their cadre of perpetual dissenters to uncover one I hadn't even thought of. The AP is upset that there were...

Just outside of the Metro station, around 7:30 pm. People are already filing in. Even Mother Teresa's nuns had to go through security. It was so great to see the Maronite priests there! I also met 1 Maronite lay woman and a nun who is also Maronite. The Holy Father in the Popemobile. The Pope processes in at the beginning of Mass. The Pope incenses the altar during the Offertory. The priests and deacons distributing Communion on the field were escorted with someone holding an umbrella - a modern spin on an ancient practice. Catholic blogger Dawn Eden, at left,...

Raymond Arroyo, commenting on the odd choices for some of the music in the liturgy at Nationals Stadium, after listening to an absolutely awful conga version of an offertory hymn (including bongos and a kettle drum) just said that "the music in this liturgy, is out of character for papal masses of late. The music has a sort of amazon flavor to it!" Funny and sad. Update: That mass, musically speaking, was one of the oddest things I have ever seen. It was so multicultural that it ceased to have any culture whatsoever! There were so many different bad songs...

NEW YORK - American Catholics said in a new survey they were pleased with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, ahead of his first visit to the U.S. since he was elected. The study also found intense interest in faith among some young people. Yet, few parishioners overall said they go to confession, and most believed they could be good Roman Catholics without going to Mass. The poll, released Sunday, was commissioned by the nation's bishops and conducted in February by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, head of the...

In a three part post some ways down the page, in which I touched on some liturgical matters, I had mentioned one particular experience wherein I had hosted as concelebrant a Roman Catholic priest for a funeral, and how he had struggled to reconcile himself with the uncomfortable fact that the principles upon which his own ritual Church reformed their liturgy do not govern the liturgical life of the universal Catholic Church. It's an easy enough mistake to make, what with the Latin Church sui iuris being the largest of all the Churches in Catholicism, with many -- if not...

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Mourners remembered William F. Buckley Jr. at an April 4 memorial Mass as a man of deep faith and unfailing confidence in the Catholic Church who brought people to believe in God and inspired vocations to the priesthood. "His tongue was the pen of a ready writer" and his "words were strong enough to help crack the walls of an evil empire," according to Father George W. Rutler, principal celebrant and homilist at the memorial Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. "His categories were not right and left but right and wrong," Father Rutler...

I guess it was only a matter of time, but Archbishop Marini has written a book. And why not? When you've been in power for a long time, and some new upstart boss comes along and replaces you just like that, there's only one thing to do: vent your spleen in a juicy, tell-all book designed to embarrass all the enemies you made on the way up, particularly the boss who just replaced you, so that they all go skulking around thinking to themselves, "Well, I guess he showed us." Of course, that's all in your imagination, since your new...

The Tridentine Mass from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama - LIVE TOMORROW MORNING, 6 April 2008 8 a.m. ET; 5 a.m. PT

It says Mass cards with printed signatures are being sold in some shops, with Catholics believing the cost is the offering for the Mass. Instead, it is claimed most of the money goes to the shop and distributor, with very little going to the church. Bishop O'Reilly from Longford said it was a massive industry and the lack of accountability undermined public confidence in missionary work. He said missionary orders were concerned people were buying these Mass cards thinking the money was going to support charity work in the third world. In the past, people bought an unsigned card and...

The Mass is celebrated publicly about 176 times each week at Notre Dame when the University is in session, says Father Richard Warner, CSC, the director of campus ministry. Different Masses meet different spiritual needs. Congregants may pray together in English, Spanish or Latin and choose from a sampler box of musical styles and aesthetic surroundings. All of these Masses are celebrated according to the reformed Roman Missal of Pope Paul VI introduced in 1970. All except one, that is. At 8 a.m. on October 14, some 100 people gathered with Father Thomas Blantz, CSC, in the Saint Charles Borromeo...

In 1941, a German bomb destroyed the chamber in which Britain’s House of Commons had met for almost a century. Afterward, several members of Parliament suggested that the old Gothic-style chamber with choir-style stalls facing one another should be replaced by a more modern chamber, with seats fanned out in a semicircle, like the legislatures of France and America. Winston Churchill opposed the modernization, arguing before the House of Commons that "first we shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." Similarly, the material elements of the Mass—such as the altar with its linens, candles and flowers, the priest’s...

$17 billion of the Massachusetts state government budget comes from other taxes and other government fees. 61% of state government funding comes from other taxes and other government fees. Taxes and fees like these: * 5% Sales Tax * Business and Corporate Taxes * Death Taxes (Estate Taxes) * Gasoline Taxes * Turnpike, Bridge, and Tunnel Tolls * Motor Vehicle Registration and License Fees * Beer, Wine, and Liquor Taxes * Cigarette Taxes * Cable TV Taxes * Electricity Taxes * Internet Taxes * Long-distance Telephone Taxes * Water and Sewer Assessments * Professional Licensure Fees * Fishing, Hunting, and...

In the very first post of this year (08:25 PM 2/1/2008 -- at the bottom of the page [refers to my blog]), I did my best to shock you with a story about a Vatican official from Pakistan and a bishop from Kazakhstan who had colluded to criticize Communion in the Hand, and suggest a return to the previous practice. The Vatican Official, Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige, secretary and heir-apparent to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has recently given an interview to Bruno Volpe for Petrus: Il quotidiano on-line sul Pontificato di Benedetto...

What's wrong with big Papal Masses? [Back when John Paul II made his second visit to our country (I forget the year off the top of my head -- and blogs are done off the top of one's head), I was invited to concelebrate the "stadium Mass" at the Meadowlands with the Holy Father, along with every other priest in the region who had been ordained recently. I declined, not out of any disrespect for the Holy Father, but out of respect for the Blessed Eucharist. Before entering the seminary, I attended his Mass on the Mall in Washington, and...

I've come across a real gem (or, rather, a friend of mine came across it and alerted me to it): a letter from 2003, written by then Cardinal Ratzinger, in answer to a letter requesting wider permission throughout the Latin Church for the use of the Missal of John XXIII. Dear Dr. Barth ! My heartfelt thanks for your letter of April 6, which I didn't have time to answer until now. You're asking me to lobby for a wider permission of the old Roman Rite. As you well know, I am very open to such requests, as my efforts...

Robert Blair Kaiser, the East Valley Tribune informs readers, was once "a young journalist covering the heady and historic Vatican Council II in Rome for Time magazine." It appears that the "the Phoenix journalist and Jesuit-educated Catholic" is still lost in the Sixties, having written eleven books, "including four that deal with a call for church reform in the spirit of that council." His latest is a novel titled Cardinal Mahoney that depicts the Archbishop of Los Angeles being kidnapped by liberation theologians (I'm not making this stuff up; Kaiser is), and taken to a "southern Mexican jungle compound": In...

US Study finds Catholics who attend Mass are less likely to divorce Washington DC, Feb 14, 2008 / 01:55 pm (CNA).- A poll commissioned by the USCCB Subcommittee on Marriage and the Family Life and conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has found that Catholics who attend Mass frequently are less likely to get divorced and are more likely to have large families, reports Lifesite News. Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the chairman of the subcommittee summarized the poll’s findings, "Not surprisingly, the study paints a mixed picture. It gives us reasons to be grateful and hopeful. It...

(IsraelNN.com) A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Hizbullah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car-bomb attack in Damascus on Tuesday, was in the midst of planning major terrorist attacks in moderate Arab countries when he was killed. Al-Watan reports that American intelligence had learned that Mughniyeh arrived in Damascus three days earlier with instructions from, and in coordination with, the Iranians. His objective was to meet with Hizbullah leaders and coordinate a mass attack, for which he was to receive help from Syrian intelligence. The American involvement in the killing is explained as being in retaliation for a...

ROME, FEB. 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.Q: I am an extraordinary minister of holy Communion. I am not an instituted acolyte. In December we had training in the new procedures for purifying and cleaning chalices, ciboria and other vessels used in Communion. We have been told that there have been more changes and we are to receive new training. Can you provide any information on recent changes? -- F.C., Little Egg Harbor, New JerseyA: The changes probably referred to a letter from the Holy See which...

Well, it was like cutting off an arm, but I've finally mustered the gumption to archive all the posts from 2007 (check them out below) and decided to post something for the "new" year (even though it's not so new anymore). And to honor the occasion, I'd thought I light off a few fireworks. Try flashing this at your next Liturgy Planning meeting (it's from Catholic World News): Vatican, Feb. 1, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship has called for reconsideration of the practice of Communion in the hand. In the preface to a new...