Free Republic

Friend sent me this. Pretty awesome video. Totally frivolous posting.

Erbil, Iraq, Oct 28, 2014 / 02:01 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Bombs are falling and the sound of the explosion is sending shock and fear into the hearts of the people. Amid the sound of crying and frenzied activity, people pack up what belongings they can carry and make off into the night. In the midst of it all, on the night of Aug. 6, stands Martin Baani, a 24-year-old seminarian. It’s dawning on him that this is Karamlesh’s last stand. For 1,800 years, Christianity has had a home in the hearts and minds of the people...

I have in the past posted about the medical/health situation of a seminarian for the Diocese of Raleigh, Philip Johnson. He has received some bad news about the tumor in his brain. He has written about this on his blog his blog Caritate non ficta. You can read his update there. "My MRI on Tuesday showed that my tumor continues to grow at a steady rate, so the doctors at NIH have stopped the treatment. There are no other trials at NIH that would be beneficial to me, so I will no longer be able to be treated there. The...

The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge is requesting prayers for one of our seminarians, Philip Johnson. Philip just completed his first year of Pre-Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Philip served two years in the Navy, having been granted a discharge in 2009 when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Prior to this diagnosis, Philip believed God was calling him to the Priesthood. “I discussed the possibility of entering the Diocese of Raleigh’s formation program with Bishop Burbidge in 2006 before I went on active duty to fulfill my...

The trade of the week is not a multimillion-dollar transfer of Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldo, but the move from the New England Revs to the Roman Catholic Church by Chase Hilgenbrinck. He has just given up his place on the New England roster to enter a six-year apprenticeship to become a priest. His soccer salary, a reported $36,000 a season, would not interest the gifted Brazilians who expect to earn that in a day. However, once Hilgenbrinck's story was out on The Associated Press wire on Monday, it was rapidly headlined from Latin America to Asia, Europe to the South...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10485440 A Kiwi priest has died a hero after sacrificing his life for a 7-year-old boy drowning off the coast of New Caledonia. Jeremy Gray, 29, was walking in shallow water with the boy while on a New Year's church picnic celebration, when the pair fell into a hole in a coastal reef at Yate, near Noumea. Neither of them saw the hole because the water was muddied by the recent rainy season floods. They were trapped by the swirling seas. Gray managed to push the boy out of the deep water and back into the shallows and, despite being...

Home Parish: Boston. Where did you grow up? Radom, Poland and San Diego, Calif. Seminary: St. John’s Seminary. High School: UC High. College: University of California, San Diego; Jagiellonian University, Poland. Hobbies: Computers, miniatures, disk golf, role-playing, reading. When was the first time you thought of priesthood? The idea has been in the back of my mind since childhood. But then I began serious consideration during my master's program in Krakow. What were major Catholic activities you participated in prior to the seminary? A vocational retreat in San Diego. I was also present during the current pope's Mass in Krakow...

The Rev. Ed Cipot at his Holy Child parish on Staten Island, where he watched the Mets’ playoff games. Ed Cipot was eating and drinking his way through the New York Mets 1977 Christmas party at a restaurant in Shea Stadium when a priest began walking toward him from across the room. Mr. Cipot immediately wondered what he had done wrong. Instead, the priest, the Rev. Joseph C. DiSpenza, simply asked, “You’re a Catholic, aren’t you?”As a matter of fact, that was true. As a matter of consequence, Mr. Cipot’s Roman Catholicism seemed not particularly relevant, at least to him....

…… began to consider priesthood and religious life from the standpoint of a successful business career which provided everything I was supposed to have and which I found unfulfilling. …… have wanted to be a priest since I was five years old (I am now forty-seven!). …… have thought about the priesthood since my Confirmation retreat at 13. . . . have studied and traveled through Europe for a year. . . . have a sister who will graduate law school the day before I get ordained a priest (my only sibling). …… that I wanted to be a priest...

With strong faith, seminarian stood up to Castro and was expelled from Cuba Cuban-born Enrique Corona, a diocesan seminarian, most likely has never heard of Richard Stockton, one of the America's Founding Fathers. Although separated by 230 years of history, both men have this in common - each of them put his own freedom on the line, enduring a prison sentence for having gathered up the courage to put pen to paper in voice of freedom.   At the dawn of the American Revolution, Stockton, a New Jerseyan, made the brave decision to sign the Declaration of Independence - an act...

Msgr. James McDonald is known to his fellow priests as the “vocations pastor.” He was appointed rector of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception earlier this year and presented his first candidates for ordination June 10 at the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.’s St. Agnes Cathedral. Msgr. McDonald, 64, has never taught in a seminary and holds no advanced degrees in theology. But Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy said he tapped the long-time pastor because Msgr. McDonald holds “a doctorate in priesthood,” and is “an extraordinary mentor and leader of the men,” as demonstrated by his tireless recruitment of vocations....

Rick Ryan was once the drummer for a "glam" metal band called Hatrik. Now, many years later, he is a devout Catholic, aspiring priest and an effective sidewalk counselor in Chicago. Rick has had his hand in the saving of babies from abortion, one of whom I featured in a previous column. More recently, an abortion-seeking couple that Rick had counseled and brought to The Women's Center came to have their picture taken with him — with their baby! When sidewalk counseling, Rick brings out a large wooden plaque of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Interestingly, the couple's baby was born...

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary: At the Heart of Archdiocesan LifeIntroductionIn coming to the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I was especially happy that the archdiocese has its own college seminary, Cardinal Glennon College, and its own theological seminary, Kenrick School of Theology. Both seminaries are located in the same building at 5200 Glennon Drive in the City of Shrewsbury and are commonly called by one name: Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. At one time, the two seminaries were housed in two separate buildings, not too distant from each other, but Archbishop John L. May decided to locate both seminary programs at what was then the college...

ROME, MAY 1, 2005 (Zenit.org).- When news of the white smoke over the Sistine Chapel reached our community, I went immediately, with many of my brother religious, to St. Peter's Square. As we got off the train near the Vatican a woman came running up to us from behind saying, "Padre, habemus papam! Habemus papam!" This is my fourth year studying in Rome and this past month has definitely been the highlight. I will never forget those moments praying the rosary underneath the window of John Paul the Great when he passed away, and with equal emotion, I will forever...

Appeared in The Catholic Virginian February 4, 2002Frank ParaterMost people in our diocese never heard of Frank Parater. If you were around in the late Sixties, you might recall that the diocese sponsored a camp named for him in Caroline County called Camp Parater. On Oct. 25, 2001, I received a letter from Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints authorizing me , with a “ nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) to initiate a process for the “Cause of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God, Frank Parater, Seminarian.”...