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2012-02-17 L’Osservatore Romano “The Announcement of the Gospel Today, Between 'missio ad gentes' and the New Evangelization” is the theme of the Day of Prayer and Reflection for the College of Cardinals and the new Cardinals on the occasion of the Consistory. This day, called by the Holy Father, began this morning, Friday 17 February, in the New Hall of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican and will conclude this evening after Vespers. The Day began with a celebration of the Terce which was followed by a welcome speech by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo...

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Archbishop and Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan delivered a huge speech in Vatican City Friday morning and will celebrate a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica later. Dolan was selected by Pope Benedict XVI himself to deliver the keynote address to the College of Cardinals. The Cardinals and the 22 Cardinals-to-be are gathered in Vatican City in what is designated as a day of reflection ahead of Saturday's consistory. The hope is that the group will prepare itself spiritually for the elevation ceremony. In St. Peter's Square, the Dolan family entourage, about 50 of them, were easily spotted. Two...

The Vatican Insider has published an online Vatican dictionary. The site promises that you can understand your faith's terms from "A divinis" to "Zucchetto"! However, there are still a few letters not accounted for. J, K, Q, W, X, Y have no words as of this writing. No "juris"? And don't we have lots of "q" words? Not to fear, I've come up with some of the missing letters from the Diocese of Jackson and thereabouts. I even made child-friendly flashcards to go with them! The rhymes are a bit off but I'm not a poet, and I know it....

William Wallace of Scotland's name (center) written in Latin: Edinburgh, Scotland, Jan 13, 2012 / 03:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A 14th-century letter asking Pope Boniface VIII to look favorably upon the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace during his visit to Rome has been returned to Scotland. “This document is an enigma,” said George MacKenzie, head of National Records of Scotland at the unveiling ceremony in Edinburgh on Jan. 12. “It’s a letter from the French king to his officials at the Vatican mentioning Wallace, but we don't know what his business was with the Pope. What we do know is...

ROME, JAN. 13, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The director of the "Church and Sport" section at the Pontifical Council for the Laity admits that the "Tim Tebow phenomenon" has heightened his interest in the NFL playoffs.Legionary of Christ Father Kevin Lixey works in the Roman Curia helping the Church make a contribution to the world of sport, with the aim of promoting a sports culture suitable to the integral development of the individual.ZENIT spoke with Father Lixey about the Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow, after Tebow led his team to an overtime win in last Sunday's playoff game. Those familiar with the NFL...

Cardinals attend mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the Epiphany on Jan. 6, 2012 Vatican City, Jan 10, 2012 / 03:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- When Pope Benedict XVI creates 22 new cardinals next month, he will use a revised and simplified version of the ceremony to avoid any impression that becoming a cardinal is a sacrament.“The creation of new cardinals had to be inserted into a context of prayer, while at the same time avoiding anything that could give rise to the idea of a ‘cardinalatial Sacrament,’" the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff said Jan. 10....

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, a Mormon facing doubts about his conservative credentials, said Saturday he had the endorsement of five former US ambassadors to the Vatican. Romney's campaign unveiled a letter from the ex-envoys hours before a debate in which he was to face off against his rivals, including Catholics Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who have cast him as a weak-kneed moderate. The former ambassadors said they were "united" behind Romney "because of his commitment to and support of the values that we feel are critical in a national leader" and "experience, vision and commitment to the...

Featured Term (selected at random):THEOLOGIAN OF THE PONTIFICAL HOUSEHOLD Until the present title was established by Pope Paul VI, the person was called Master of the Sacred Palace. Originating in the thirteenth century and traditionally a member of the Dominican Order, from Pope Leo X to Pius XI he gave the Imprimatur to books published in Rome. He is now the Theologian of Trust of the Pope, consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, prelate of the Congregation of Rites, and generally consultor of the Commission for Biblical Studies. He belongs to the Pontifical Family and lives...

For on demand video of the Mass click HERE. The video opens with the lead up to the Mass, with lots of panning around the basilica, inside and out.The entrance procession, which begins with the super-Italian cheesy trumpet fanfare and the singing of Tu es Petrus! A fine tradition restored.His Holiness wore a Roman chasuble and a very tall gold miter. A fine tradition restored!The Gregorian chant Introit (too slowly, I think, and there was a stumble but… beh…), and three-fold Kyrie was sung. A fine tradition restored!Brick by brick.During the entrance procession, as His Holiness went by, you could...

Blessed Pope John XXIII, in the Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia of 1962, strongly mandated the study and use of Latin in ecclesiastical studies, theology, the Liturgy, and as a prerequisite for priestly formation. This February, there is to be an International Convention in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of Veterum Sapientia. I can't help thinking that after 50 years we are perhaps finally prepared to take the document of the Blessed Pope seriously. Here is one passage from the standard translation that you can find in various places on the internet: Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting...

Rome will formally announce appointment on New Year's DayFormer Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson, is to be named the Ordinary when the Anglican Ordinariate is erected on January 1, 2012, sources tell VOL. Word seeped out from the Vatican late last week that Steenson -- who left The Episcopal Church in 2007 over TEC's polity - has been tapped for the new post as the Ordinariate gets its first foothold in the United States. The former Episcopal House of Bishops' member has been deeply concerned with the continued fracturing of Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church's insistence on autonomy...

MANHATTAN (CN) - An American expatriate in Bulgaria claims the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Office of International Treasury Control and the Italian government conspired with a host of others to steal more than $1.1 trillion in financial instruments intended to support humanitarian purposes. The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican, Illuminati, the Masons, the "Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission," and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Cardinal John P. Foley holds the Gabriel Award presented to him by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals during the Catholic Media Convention in Pittsburgh June 24. It was the first time the academy presented the Gabriel to honor a lifetime of work in Catholic communications. The cardinal died Sunday. (CNS/Nancy Phelan Wiechec) By Catholic News Service DARBY, Pa. (CNS) -- U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, who spent more than two decades leading the church's social communications council and later worked for the church in the Middle East, died Dec. 11 after a battle with leukemia. The cardinal,...

Q. Why is the Doctrinal Preamble that Cardinal Levada delivered to you on September 14 still surrounded by so much secrecy, both on the part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and by the Society of St. Pius X? What is this silence hiding from the priests and faithful of Tradition? A. This discretion is normal for any important proceeding; it ensures the seriousness of it. It so happens that the Doctrinal Preamble that was delivered to us is a document which can be clarified and modified, as the accompanying note points out. It is not a...

St. Pius X Society superior general Bishop Bernard Fellay Rome, Italy, Nov 29, 2011 / 01:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X says he will inform the Vatican “in the next few days” that they cannot give the doctrinal reassurances required of them to advance reconciliation with the Catholic Church.“It is true that this Doctrinal Preamble cannot receive our endorsement,” said Bishop Bernard Fellay on the society’s website, Nov. 28. However, Bishop Fellay said his understanding is that the document is “not a definite text” and that it “can be clarified and...

eatured Term (selected at random):UNIVERSAL BISHOP Applied to the Pope as having truly episcopal power over the whole Church. He is therefore just as much a universal bishop of the entire Church as he is bishop of his diocese of Rome. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2011 / 05:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, former Archbishop of Boston, and appointed Spanish Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló as the new archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002 as Archbishop of Boston in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, turned 80 on Nov. 4.A Vatican official explained to CNA on Nov. 21 that although the official retirement age for a post such as archpriest is 80, it is customary for cardinals to hold their positions for a longer period of time....

Vatican City (CNA/EWTN News) -- The Vatican’s Secretariat of State plans to take greater control over the publication of documents produced by Vatican agencies. The move follows widespread disquiet within the Roman Curia after last month’s publication from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which advocated the creation of a global financial authority. Veteran Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister wrote Nov. 10 in L’Espresso’s religious affairs website Chiesa that a meeting was convoked Nov. 4 by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to discuss the issue. Magister says that Cardinal Bertone complained he did not know about the document...

ROME – The Vatican said Thursday it would take legal action against Benetton after the Italian fashion label used a photo purportedly showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing a leading imam in a publicity campaign. The Vatican "has instructed its lawyers, in Italy and abroad, to take appropriate action" to prevent the circulation of the image, including in the mass media, it said in a statement. The image offended "not only the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church, but also the sensibilities of believers," the statement added. The picture, used in the company's "Unhate" publicity campaign, showed the pope...

Italian clothes company Benetton backed down and pulled a photo montage showing the pope a leading imam from its new global ad campaign on Wednesday after the Vatican issued a stern condemnation. The company, which is no stranger to controversy over its advertising campaigns, said it was "sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful." The statement came shortly after the Vatican expressed "the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father." Benetton's poster showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips Egypt's Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam...

A leading pioneer in the use of adult stem cells to treat life-threatening diseases is calling the Vatican “a very powerful and supportive ally to helping advance this technology.� Dr. Robert J.Hariri, founder and chief executive officer of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics is a U.S. neurosurgeon and trauma specialist recognized for his discovery of pluripotent stem cells (cells that can differentiate to become nearly any cell of the body) from placenta. Dr. Hariri spoke to Vatican Radio after delivering a speech on his research on adult stem cells in the treatment of autoimmune diseases at a three day Vatican sponsored conference...

 The long-awaited introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal on November 27, the First Sunday of Advent, offers the Church in the Anglophere an opportunity to reflect on the riches of the liturgy, its biblical vocabulary, and its virtually inexhaustible storehouse of images. Much of that vocabulary, and a great many of those images, were lost under the “dynamic equivalence” theory of translation; they have now been restored under the “formal equivalence” method of translating. Over the next years and decades, the Catholic Church will be reminded of just what a treasure-house of wonders the liturgy is.At the...

ROME, ITALY, November 4 (CNA/EWTN News) - The Jewish New Yorker who has made it his life's work to clear the name of Pope Pius XII of being anti-Semitic believes the wartime pontiff actually went undercover to save the lives of Jews in Rome. Gary Krupp came across the evidence in a letter from a Jewish woman whose family was rescued thanks to direct Vatican intervention. "It is an unusual letter, written by a woman who is alive today in northern Italy, who said she was with her mother, her uncle, and a few other relatives in an audience with...

ROME, November 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a move that came as a shock to Vatican observers last week, the Irish government abruptly announced the closure of its embassy to the Holy See. While the official word from both the Vatican and the Irish coalition government is that the move was not meant as a diplomatic slight, there is wide agreement among pro-life leaders that the move is a deliberate diplomatic insult and an attempt to move Ireland away from its traditional Catholic roots, which undergird the country’s strong pro-life laws.The government claimed that the decision was made for financial...

October 29, 2011 Washington, DC The Plight of Churches in the Middle East The “Arab Spring” is unleashing forces that are having a devastating effect on the Christian communities of the Middle East. Our Churches in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine report disturbing developments such as destruction of churches and massacres of innocent civilians that cause us grave concern. Many of our church leaders are calling Christians and all people of good will to stand in solidarity with the members of these ancient indigenous communities. In unity with them and each other, we the members of the North American...

“The Church dies in Europe,” headlines Tygodnik Powszechny on the occasion of Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany starting September 22. Statistics published by the German episcopate tell it all: in 2010 over 180,000 Germans left the Church while only 170,000 were baptised. Also, the number of vocations has been dwindling: in 2009, 120 candidates entered the seminary; a year later there were just 79 of them. Similar trends are observed in countries like Spain or Ireland, once considered Europe’s Catholic vanguard. “Less churchgoers, less vocations, less support for the Christian ethic, less Vatican authority”, writes the Polish Catholic journal, noting...

A new survey shows 34 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, say they have no religion. Even more significant is that one-third of those, about 11 million people, are Irish Americans. The survey by professors at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, does not explain why Irish Catholics are by far the highest number of people who are losing their religion every year in America. We can only surmise the reasons for this, but I have some definite ideas. Think church sex scandals. Let's look at the timeline first. The number of non-religious or "Nones" has nearly doubled between...

Biretta tips to Fr. Blake and to Sancte Pater who lead me to this story at The Irish Catholic and elsewhere. Government proposal to break the seal of confession is without precedent Thu, 14/07/2011 – 15:34The Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children are all indicating that a proposed new law will require priests to break the seal of confession if someone confesses to them the crime of paedophilia. This would make us the one and only country in the Western world to have such a law. Even Revolutionary France in the days of its worst violence...

Although this is a report from the secular press, it highlights the very real costs to the people of Ireland, especially the priests who daily have to defend the what, at times, is almost impossible to defend. Having reported extensively on this over the past weeks, this will probably be the last time we shall post on this subject.The time now is for healing.From: The Irish Times Angry, isolated, paranoid and ageing, many of Ireland’s ‘ordinary’ Catholic priests feel failed and abandoned by the church hierarchy. But where were the ‘good priests’ when they were needed? THE VOICEMAIL was succinct....

Last week Enda Kenny spoke of his determination to ban the seal of confession,now a member of his Fine Gail party is calling for the cancellation of the International Eucharistic Congress due to be held in Dublin in 2012.  Even worse the proposal to cancel the Eucharistic Congress first came from a dissenting group of Catholic priests,the Association of Catholic Priests.The Guardian reports:Senator Cáit Keane said the Eucharistic Congress,which is scheduled to be held in the capital’s Phoenix Park in June,to be put off in the light of the row over the Vatican‘s attitude to clerical child sex abuse inquiries in the...

L’Osservatore Romano has published an article criticizing New York’s new mandatory sex education program. “The new course is part of an initiative launched by Mayor Bloomberg to improve the lives of black and Latino teenagers, saving them from a misery to which they seem destined,” writes Lucetta Scaraffia. “Once again, we see the repetition of a model already tried by many other countries: the State decides to include compulsory sexual education in schools, and the Catholic Church opposes it, earning the image of an obscurantist force, cruel because of it indifference to the consequences its refusal could have among young...

THE FIRST annual general meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests was told last night that if people had a vote on such matters church leaders would be swept out of office. If Irish Catholics had a democratic way of reflecting their feelings “church leaders would suffer a defeat as cataclysmic as that administered to Fianna Fáil in the recent general election”, Fr Kevin Hegarty said. What was needed was a church which would open its doors to “married priests and women priests”. It would benefit from secular insights like, for example, on human intimacy and democracy, he said. It...

Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN) – A respected former Catholic bishop in Ireland is calling for an end to clerical celibacy in the wake of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the church worldwide, and says he finds it "heartbreaking" that some prospective priests turn away from the calling because of the celibacy rule. In his recently published book, "A Troubled See, Memoirs of a Derry Bishop," Dr. Edward Daly said that allowing clergymen to marry would ease many of the church's problems. There needs to be a place in the modern Catholic church for a married priesthood, said Daly,...

Relations between the Vatican and Ireland deteriorated sharply as the Holy See appeared to ignore a commission looking into complaints of physical and sexual abuse of children by Irish priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. One cable from earlier this year says the Vatican was angered by the way the Murphy Commission -- which was looking into the how complaints of abuse had been handled by the Church and Irish government -- sidestepped normal diplomatic channels. The commission had written directly to the Vatican to seek information and requested a meeting with the Vatican's representative in Ireland....

DUBLIN -- A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police - a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests. The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits...

DUBLIN -- The Vatican encouraged Catholic bishops not to tell police about suspected pedophile priests and flouted Irish law, Ireland's lawmakers declared Wednesday in an unprecedented denunciation of the Holy See's influence in this predominantly Catholic country. The government and all opposition parties unanimously backed a motion accusing the Vatican of sabotaging the Irish bishops' 1996 decision to begin reporting suspected cases of child abuse to police. "This is not Rome. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011, a republic of laws," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers. In a direct challenge to the Vatican, Kenny denounced what he called...

DUBLIN -- The Vatican encouraged Catholic bishops not to tell police about suspected pedophile priests and flouted Irish law, Ireland's lawmakers declared Wednesday in an unprecedented denunciation of the Holy See's influence in this predominantly Catholic country. The government and all opposition parties unanimously backed a motion accusing the Vatican of sabotaging the Irish bishops' 1996 decision to begin reporting suspected cases of child abuse to police. "This is not Rome. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011, a republic of laws," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers. In a direct challenge to the Vatican, Kenny denounced what he called...

Officials issue rebuttal of report priests were told to keep quiet about abuse and hits back at criticism by Irish PM The Vatican has issued a tough rebuttal of a report claiming it told priests in Ireland to keep quiet about sexual abuse and described criticism by the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, as "unfounded". The Vatican sought to dismantle, point by point, claims made by the report, ordered by the Irish government and released in July, which prompted Kenny to condemn the Vatican as riddled with "dysfunction, disconnection and elitism". In the ensuing row, the Vatican took the highly...

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny made a speech condemning the Holy See in which he said that the 'rape and torture of children were downplayed or managed, to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and reputation.' He furiously denounced what he called 'the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism - and the narcissism - that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.'

The Vatican recalled its ambassador to Ireland in July after Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the Holy See of obstructing investigations into sexual abuse by priests. Gilmore said he did not expect the Vatican now to close its mission in Dublin. "The fact that we have chosen to close our mission in the Vatican and to have it serviced from Dublin doesn't necessarily mean that we won't have a Papal Nuncio here," he said.

Catholic Ireland's stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday. The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church's handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy. Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy in the Vatican. "This is really bad...

Speaking on a Vatican proposal to restructure world finance, a Cardinal declared, "We should not be afraid to propose ideas even if they might destabilize pre-existing balances of power that prevail over the weakest." And does this include the position enjoyed by the Vatican as well? Or is this yet another example of the "don't do as I do, do as I say" mentality that prevails among globalist elites? Before calling for the redistribution of global wealth, shouldn't an institution calling for such divest itself of its ostentatious finery that, despite having a certain beauty, wasn't necessarily part of the...

Seven years since the American hierarchy last made its required Quinquennial Visit to the Holy See, the bench's first ad limina of B16's pontificate began earlier today -- three days ahead of schedule -- as the Pope received 13 prelates of New England's Region I in private audience. While Benedict will meet with each of the bishops over the next week, this morning's Apartment-bound group was led by the area's top cleric, Boston's Cardinal Séan O'Malley OFM Cap., joined by his five active auxiliaries. Likewise on the Opening Day audience slate were Bishops George Coleman of Fall River, Salvatore...

When Mr Obama was handed unequivocal evidence in the autumn of 2009 that Iran was building a second nuclear enrichment facility at Qom, he preferred to take a soft approach. The inevitable new round of sanctions was implemented, but no meaningful action was taken to curtail Iran’s obsession with developing nuclear weapons. As we know from the 1930s, appeasement achieves little when it comes to confronting a determined foe for whom the normal laws of international conduct do not apply. And next week, the full extent of Iran’s duplicity will be laid bare, with the publication of the latest International...

Adding a spiritual dimension to the incoherent war on capitalism rapidly spreading across Europe and America, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, an official Vatican body, last week published a sweeping scholarly tome calling for the end of capitalism, individualism, free markets, and national sovereignty. Sound far-fetched? Consider what the proposal would entail. Under the Council's proposal, the fiscal and monetary authorities of all nations of the world, as well as that of all financial institutions both public and private, are to be gradually subjugated under a supranational public authority with universal jurisdiction. This is to be financed by...

By demanding that the worst excesses of global capitalism be reined in, the Holy See echoed the message of protesters encamped outside St Paul's Cathedral in London, the indignados of Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US. In a forthright statement, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace called for an end to rampant speculation, the redistribution of wealth, greater ethics and the establishment of a "central world bank" to which national banks would have to cede power. Such an authority would have "universal jurisdiction" over governments' economic strategies. Existing financial situations such as the World...

Who'd a thunk that the path to popularity among liberals was so easy. Hey, the Church hasn't exactly been asked to sign everyone's yearbook recently. The Church hasn't been in the cool crowd for decades and doesn't get invited to the cool parties. But suddenly the cool crowd that for so long mocked the Church is now macking the Church. Big time. They've developed a newfound respect for the deep thinking of the Vatican. It's kinda' like that moment in the movies when the geeky girl loses the glasses and pops open a few buttons and everyone all of a...

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a "global public authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. A major document from the Vatican's Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn. The 18-page document, "Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority," was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures...

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn... more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/idUS264245887020111024

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn. “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which...