Hurricane Katrina, shortage of priests and displaced 100,000 Catholic

Due to these three principle events the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced today numerous closings.

It must be an administrative nightmare to handle all that turn over.

These churches will all be closed by December 31, 08. It’s always sad to see any church close its doors. I hope that diocese like ours will be able to purchase some of the art work at these wonderful buildings. I really wish we could simply pick up some of these and relocate them to areas which need new buildings.

Heck ours was only built 5 years ago and we’ll need another parish within 5 years.

Good bye faithful servants you served a great purpose. I hope whomever takes you over will put you to a good purpose.

Blessed Sacrament, New Orleans

Epiphany, New Orleans

Immaculate Heart of Mary, New Orleans

Incarnate Word, New Orleans

Our Lady of Good Counsel, New Orleans

Our Lady of Good Harbor, Buras

Our Lady of Lourdes, New Orleans

Prince of Peace, Chalmette

Sacred Heart of Jesus, New Orleans

St. Pedro, St. Bernard

St. Brigid, New Orleans

St. Francis Cabrini, New Orleans

St. Francis DeSales, New Orleans

St. Henry, New Orleans

St. Julian Eymard, New Orleans

St. Lawrence the Martyr, Metairie

St. Louise de Marillac, Arabi

St. Mark, Chalmette

St. Mary, New Orleans

St. Maurice, New Orleans

St. Monica, New Orleans

St. Raphael the Archangel, New Orleans

St. Raymond, New Orleans

St. Robert Bellarmine, Arabi

St. Simon Peter, New Orleans

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Book Review- The courage to be Catholic

Crisis, Reform and the Future of the Churchby George Weigel

Mr. Weigel is a Catholic theologian and a Senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington,D.C. This book was written in 2002 so it’s still very current on the issues facing the church today. The author states that the book is

“For all those who will contribute to the genuinely Catholic reform of the Church in the Unites states. You know who you are. Be not afraid.”

The first 2/3 of the book is devoted to laying the foundation of what happened to the church over the past 35 to 40 years in the aftermath of Vatican II(no it’s not about what’s wrong with that council). He addresses how the role of the priest and the laity were mixed into the vague term of “ministry” and the role of priest as Vatican II teaches “living instruments of Christ the eternal priest”. An added insight is that the idea of the church as the body of Christ was diminished perhaps in church governance. The church is not a denomination defined by the will of its members, but an institution created and its boundaries defined once and for all by the will of Christ.

He address the issue of Humanae Vitae as one of the key points which bishops and Pope Paul VI failed to address what was created an environment that

“was to promote intellectual, moral, and disciplinary disorder in the Catholic Church in the United States.”

As far as I can tell he coined the phrase “Truce of 1968” when Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle took disciplinary action against 19 local priest for joining protests against Humanae Vitae. The Pope apparently feared it would create a schism in the church in America.

The last 1/3 of the book addresses what the author believes are need reforms, some like the seminaries and liturgy are already underway by Pope B16.

The book is an easy read and does provide some good insights for those especially that have come into the church in the past 20 years or so. As well as those who were raised in the church but were not born yet during the 60’s & 70’s. For those of us that have lived through these times, the book will not bring up much that is not already known, but would still be informative if your focus has been focused only on local church issues rather then national or universal ones.

Read Full Post »

Rebuilding the faith and trust in Boston

The center of the child abuse cases in the US was the Boston archdiocese. There are too many links to even attempt to select a few that carry what those Catholics have gone through in that area of the country.

The Boston globe however has an encouraging article on the new generation of Altar boys learning the Latin mass. This is not an easy thing to do, especially in this day an age. The priest in the article however drove home a point I’ve always suspected is true, which is raise the bar and boys will strive to achieve it. I use to be against girl altar servers from a traditionalist view, but now I’m more against them because boys of that age simply don’t want to do things that are perceived as “girl” tasks. Allow girls to serve the N.O. mass and allow the boys to learning Latin and bar the girls from serving will encourage boys to take up the challenge.

Full story  here.

Read Full Post »

Chinese Stations of the Cross @ the Vatican

I thought it a stroke of genius to have the stations of the cross performed by Joesph Cardinal Zen of China. The Vatican has a link to the cards them made for this year. It’s in Italian so you’ll have to translate it.

I think this reflects the high priority of the Papacy in praying for those in China and for diplomatic relations with their gov’t.

Read Full Post »

B16 visit to USA Catholic Universities -the coming storm- why should you exist

I expect that there will be much written about the Pope’s coming visit to the US. I think perhaps the media will focus on social issues or comments the pope may make and how such statements might effect Catholic voters in the coming elections. But for Catholics I think perhaps there will be no greater issue then on APril 17, when the Pope will engage the 200 top Catholic school officials from across the country. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pope received the same type of reception as he did at the former Catholic university in Rome la-sapienza university 2 months ago.

In First Things Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote an article entitled “A University of a Particular Kind”. There is in this country two kinds of universities – Secular and Christian. Neither are neutral in their worldview, but since there are so many more secular universities most people receiving that type of education would consider secular to be neutral. It’s not, its existance is hostile to the Christian theos. This does not mean it shouldn’t exist, however the inroads of secular thought into Catholic universities has been significant and clearly harmful to the church. If one believes the Cardinal Newman Society it has recommended 20 of the 235 U.S. Catholic colleges “which most faithfully live their Catholic identity and provide a quality undergraduate education”. In this day and age I amazed its that high.

Catholic universities have been able to give lip service to Catholic parents who believe that their child will receive a “Catholic” higher education. However, whenever the rare bishop is willing to hold the university accountable to that standard, the normal spin or party line if you will goes like this: in seeking truth & academic excellence, placing Catholic teaching or a Catholic environment in higher education would inhibit academic freedom.

If any one would doubt this position, I draw this conclusion from none other then the famous Land O’ Lakes Statement crafted by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh President of Notre Dame University back in 1967. One either hailed this position as a stand for academic freedom or viewed it as a divorce between Catholic education in this country and the Catholic church. IMO the latter is clearly demonstrated.

My biggest issue with Rev. Hesburg and those who support his position is that they disagree with the Catholic church on positions already settle and therefore not open to debate, yet they run their universities directly against those ideals, and they are unwilling to advise the Catholic parents who expect that their young Johnny’s faith will not be undermined, but actually reinforced what was taught in their home.

The Washington Post may prove me wrong about the media not picking up on this one Catholic College Leaders Expect Pope to Deliver Stern Message

Ex-corde-ecclesia written by Pope John Paul II in 1989 will finally be implemented into Catholic universities. Or at least I hope it will.

With every other University it shares that gaudium de veritate, so precious to Saint Augustine, which is that joy of searching for, discovering and communicating truth(2) in every field of knowledge. A Catholic University’s privileged task is “to unite existentially by intellectual effort two orders of reality that too frequently tend to be placed in opposition as though they were antithetical: the search for truth, and the certainty of already knowing the fount of truth”(3).

I don’t expect that the Pope will get anything but lip service. My only hope is that the Pope will place them on notice and advise the general Catholic population that these institutions will be striped of any formal association, and prohibited from claiming any Catholic identity.

As the washington post article stated David Gibson, the author of a Benedict biography, said the pope will ask, “If you’re not going to be an authentically Catholic, orthodox institution, why should you exist?”

Amen.

Read Full Post »

Real-life case of demon possession documented

A Case of Demonic Possession

It seems like there’s a lot of activity going on in New York right now. The individual who observed this excorism is

Richard E. Gallagher, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice in Hawthorne, New York, and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is also on the faculties of the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Institute and a Roman Catholic seminary. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, magna cum laude in Classics, and trained in Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine.

The New Oxford Review has the full article of the case. While there may be natural explanations for this as a believer I know demons exist.

With a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training,

However, it would be difficult to disprove. In the end either one believes that there are malevolent forces or not and no evidence one way or the other will likely change ones view.

Read Full Post »

Blood tribute of the diocese of Mosul

Asia news reports on the murder of yet another Iraqi martyr this time it was Archbishop Rahho. May he pray for us all in heaven and especially for his war torn country. The spiritual work of mercy- ransoming of captives needs to move up to the top 5 on B16 list of things to promote globally. As I say awhile back The lost art of mercy is now alien to western civilization. For all our Christians(Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant) nows the time to step and embrace the cross. That’s the message of the Gospel, not the “purpose-driven” or “Oprah driven” life.

Read Full Post »

The problems of taking money from the state

In the United states the church doesn’t nor is it permitted to take funds from the state in support of primary education. This has served the church well in the 20th century and hurt it at least initially in the 18 & 19th centuries.

In England Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue made an impassioned plea to allow for the most shocking of ideas. His point in the article here UK Catholic Bishop Before Parliament for Insisting on Crucifixes in Every Classroom

“Every school has a philosophy. And a philosophy which puts God at the centre and morality as objective, is no less powerful than that which says God is irrelevant and morality is up to the individual choice.”

The Labour Party MP for Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman came out with what I would have to say is a classic

It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. But as soon as there is a more doctrinaire attitude questions have to be asked.

MP Fiona McTaggart said she found it “surprising” that the document bans the various fundraising activities such as the Red Nose day, and Amnesty International, in which children were encouraged to support anti-family and pro-abortion organizations and activities. She also objected to the instruction to remove materials from school libraries that “contain polemic against religion in general” such as the works of Karl Marx and French nihilist philosopher Albert Camus.

Well with England at a staggering fertility replacement rate of 1.7, I doubt she’ll have to worry about such issue in 30 years with their approaching Demographic Winter

The state needs to recognize that if the church doesn’t take up the education then the state will have to spend a substantial increase in funding to operate more state run schools. And the church needs to recognize that the money taken in from the state comes at far to high a price to lose one’s faith. Thankfully, Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue is following the tradition of St. John Fisher rather the the first bishop to handle money Judas. I wish him well, but I think it easier to with draw from the secular state in toto, rather then dance with it half way.

Read Full Post »

Population implosion rather then explosion

Thomas Malthus back in 1798 came up with the theory
I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, That food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. These two laws, ever since we have had any knowledge of mankind, appear to have been fixed laws of our nature, and, as we have not hitherto seen any alteration in them, we have no right to conclude that they will ever cease to be what they now are, without an immediate act of power in that Being who first arranged the system of the universe, and for the advantage of his creatures, still executes, according to fixed laws, all its various operations.
…
Assuming then my postulata as granted, I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Essay on the Principle of Population -Chapter 1.
Paul Ehrlich has taken up this theory into modern times. He published a book entitled the Population Bomb in 1968 and when his predictions failed he “updated” his theory in 1990 with the Population Explosion.

Today IMO more rational minds are at work.

A new documentary film called Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family deals with the indicators that not only are we not going to undergo a population explosion, but there are strong trends that many cultures will radically decrease or possibly die out.The Heritage Foundation has the director of this film on media player here.

The world population increased from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion by 1999, a doubling that occurred over 40 years. The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest projections imply that population growth will continue into the 21st century, although more slowly. The world population is projected to grow from 6 billion in 1999 to 9 billion by 2042, an increase of 50 percent that will require 43 years.

Total Fertility Rate projected in 2045
Belgium-1.69;France-1.75;Germany-1.67;Ireland-1.72;Italy-1.65;Luxembourg-1.71;Netherlands-1.70; Norway-1.71;Poland-1.65;Portugal-1.67;Russia-1.66;Spain-1.65;Sweden-1.70;

Switzerland-1.67;United Kingdom-1.70

To put it mildly – Europe is dying. The only industrialized nation on earth reaching the breakeven replacement value of 2.1 is the USA. We will reach 9 billion people in the world by 2050. But by 2100 it may well drop to 4.9 billion

Bishop Thomas Doran wrote last year Reaping the Whirlwind of Abortion .

If stats about the population say anything it’s that as a global society we have to protect the family(economically, spiritually, and legally). Abortion, contraception, divorce, the rise of cohabitation, families putting off procreation to pursue careers & euthanasia are going to place such a strain on those currently under 10 years of age, when they grow up and face a Europe with 1/3 the population over age 65 and when they die Europe’s population will be cut in half.

The USA while it is projected to hold replacement values, it has as a culture that supports all the factors that place pressure in lowering the fertility rate. The culture of death. Immigration won’t stop the decline.

Russia has started a program of paying couples to have children Can Russia Reverse its Demographic Crisis?

In May 2006, family allowances were doubled for the first child and multiplied by four for the second child. A one-time payment of 250,000 rubles ($9,700) will also be deposited in a special account after a second child is born, but will be released only when the child is three and its use is limited to expenses that will primarily benefit the child, such as tuition or mortgage payments.

The problem is it hasn’t worked at least not yet.

The Vatican has for decades not only decried the methods of human self-annihilation, but implored for support of the family.FAMILY, MARRIAGE AND “DE FACTO” UNIONS, and CHARTER OF THE RIGHTS OF THE FAMILY&FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO

The church is slow to adapt in many areas which is a strength and weakness, but because of its’ unwavering position against abortion, contraception, divorce and euthanasia has been the rock against humanity seeking to destroy itself.

Global mass migration, cloning as a way to stave off replacement rates, euthanasia to reduce the tax burden on the young. I don’t envy the young in their forced choices from flawed decisions of the baby boomers and gen-x er’s. Reaping the whirlwind indeed.

Updated: First Things also has a great article on it as well. The barren Left

Unlike the Black Death of the Middle Ages, which filled up the graveyards of the continent, the new epidemic of voluntary infertility empties out the maternity wards. And it is not the result of bacteria that infect our bodies but rather anti-natal thoughts that invade our minds. These are reinforced by an economic system that puts a premium on expanding the workforce at the expense of maternity, as well as a political system that weakens families, putting those with children at a financial disadvantage that is both unjust and shortsighted. The peoples of Europe, along with those of every other developed nation and many as yet underdeveloped, for some time now have been refusing to provide for the future in the most fundamental way—by providing the next generation…As a result, the current population of 728 million will plunge to only 557 million by the year 2050, a drop similar in magnitude to that occurring during the Black Death. At that point, Europe will be losing three to four million people a year. Three out of four Europeans will have disappeared by the end of the twenty-first century, when the population will number only 207 million. By then the population decline will be irreversible, with the surviving Europeans averaging more than sixty years of age.

Read Full Post »

The Pope can’t lift excommunication on Luther

This is driving me nuts. I have read in several places where Pope Benedict XVI is having discussion on writting a document on Luther and lifting the excommunication edit on Luther. The London Times has a rumor article on the Pope issuing on in the fall.

Here at least is someone that went to the wizard and received a functioning brain and dispels the rumor.

Here is another link to what the current pope thought on the topic 20 some years ago. It’s well worth the read. Ratzinger on Luther – Communio 11: Fall, 1984

I expect some favorable points made on Luther by the Pope this summer or fall, but those who think the excommunication on Luther would be lifted are grossly misinformed or have grossly been mislead in religious education, especially in the area of papal authority.

You see the church (including the Pope) has no authority over the dead. Judgement does indeed come from God, so the Pope does not have any authority to lift the sentence against Luther, nor would such a gesture be fruitful. It’s moot- he’s dead and God has judged him [for good or for ill]. I hesitate in using the word “has” with respect to God since this is performed in eternity, but hopefully my point is understood.

Read Full Post »