ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS: PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS
ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION
WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans and the Coming Full Communion of the Church
Anglicans welcome offer from Rome
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound
From Fox News.com
The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility.
Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus in September.
'When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice," Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, "I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart ... a spiritual conversion."
Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment."
"Planned Parenthood's focus is on prevention," wrote Diane Quest, the group's National Media Director. "Nationwide, more than 90% of the health care Planned Parenthood affiliates provide is preventive in nature," explaining that a "core component the organization's mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies."
But Johnson said her bosses told her to change her "priorities" and focus on abortions, which she said made money for the office at a time when the recession has left them hurting.
"For them there's not a lot of money in education," she said. "There's as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion."
Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.
"The majority of the money was going to the facility," she said.
Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.
But she said she got involved with the clinic "to help women and ... [do] the right thing," and the idea of raking in cash seemed to go against what she felt was the mission of the 93-year-old organization.
"Ideally my goal as the facility's director is that your abortion numbers don't increase," because "you're providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.
"But that was not their goal," she said.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood refused to answer questions about Johnson's accusations, but released a statement noting that a district court had issued a temporary restraining order against the former branch director and against the Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group with which Johnson is now affiliated.
"We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary," said spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.
It is unclear what made Planned Parenthood seek the restraining order. Johnson said she did not intend to release any sensitive information about her former patients at the clinic.
A hearing is set for Nov. 10 to determine whether a judge will order an injunction against Johnson and the Coalition for Life, which has led protests outside the clinic and joined her in a prayer vigil there last month.
Johnson hasn't found a job since she quit on Oct. 6, but she said she's enjoying the time off to be with her 3-year-old daughter.
"It's been great just to spend some time at home and get a break," she said.
The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility.Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus in September.
'When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice," Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, "I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart ... a spiritual conversion."
Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment."
"Planned Parenthood's focus is on prevention," wrote Diane Quest, the group's National Media Director. "Nationwide, more than 90% of the health care Planned Parenthood affiliates provide is preventive in nature," explaining that a "core component the organization's mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies."
But Johnson said her bosses told her to change her "priorities" and focus on abortions, which she said made money for the office at a time when the recession has left them hurting.
"For them there's not a lot of money in education," she said. "There's as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion."
Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.
"The majority of the money was going to the facility," she said.
Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.
But she said she got involved with the clinic "to help women and ... [do] the right thing," and the idea of raking in cash seemed to go against what she felt was the mission of the 93-year-old organization.
"Ideally my goal as the facility's director is that your abortion numbers don't increase," because "you're providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.
"But that was not their goal," she said.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood refused to answer questions about Johnson's accusations, but released a statement noting that a district court had issued a temporary restraining order against the former branch director and against the Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group with which Johnson is now affiliated.
"We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary," said spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.
It is unclear what made Planned Parenthood seek the restraining order. Johnson said she did not intend to release any sensitive information about her former patients at the clinic.
A hearing is set for Nov. 10 to determine whether a judge will order an injunction against Johnson and the Coalition for Life, which has led protests outside the clinic and joined her in a prayer vigil there last month.
Johnson hasn't found a job since she quit on Oct. 6, but she said she's enjoying the time off to be with her 3-year-old daughter.
"It's been great just to spend some time at home and get a break," she said.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Stanley Hauerwas on Reformation Sunday
This is an interesting sermon, something for Protestant and Catholic alike.
29 October 1995
by Stanley Hauerwas
Joel 2:23-32 – 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 – Luke 18:9-14
I must begin by telling you that I do not like to preach on Reformation Sunday. Actually I have to put it more strongly than that. I do not like Reformation Sunday, period. I do not understand why it is part of the church year. Reformation Sunday does not name a happy event for the Church Catholic; on the contrary, it names failure. Of course, the church rightly names failure, or at least horror, as part of our church year. We do, after all, go through crucifixion as part of Holy Week. Certainly if the Reformation is to be narrated rightly, it is to be narrated as part of those dark days.
Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in the Protestant tradition want to say that Reformation was a success. But when we make Reformation a success, it only ends up killing us. After all, the very name ‘Protestantism’ is meant to denote a reform movement of protest within the Church Catholic. When Protestantism becomes an end in itself, which it certainly has through the mainstream denominations in America, it becomes anathema. If we no longer have broken hearts at the church’s division, then we cannot help but unfaithfully celebrate Reformation Sunday.
For example, note what the Reformation has done for our reading texts like that which we hear from Luke this morning. We Protestants automatically assume that the Pharisees are the Catholics. They are the self-righteous people who have made Christianity a form of legalistic religion, thereby destroying the free grace of the Gospel. We Protestants are the tax collectors, knowing that we are sinners and that our lives depend upon God’s free grace. And therefore we are better than the Catholics because we know they are sinners. What an odd irony that the Reformation made such readings possible. As Protestants we now take pride in the acknowledgment of our sinfulness in order to distinguish ourselves from Catholics who allegedly believe in works-righteousness.
Unfortunately, the Catholics are right. Christian salvation consists in works. To be saved is to be made holy. To be saved requires our being made part of a people separated from the world so that we can be united in spite of — or perhaps better, because of — the world’s fragmentation and divisions. Unity, after all, is what God has given us through Christ’s death and resurrection. For in that death and resurrection we have been made part of God’s salvation for the world so that the world may know it has been freed from the powers that would compel us to kill one another in the name of false loyalties. All that is about the works necessary to save us.
For example, I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.
The magisterial office — we Protestants often forget — is not a matter of constraining or limiting diversity in the name of unity. The office of the Bishop of Rome is to ensure that when Christians move from Durham, North Carolina to Syracuse, New York, they have some confidence when they go to church that they will be worshiping the same God. Because Catholics have an office of unity, they do not need to restrain the gifts of the Spirit. As I oftentimes point out, it is extraordinary that Catholicism is able to keep the Irish and the Italians in the same church. What an achievement! Perhaps equally amazing is their ability to keep within the same church Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans.
I think Catholics are able to do that because they know that their unity does not depend upon everyone agreeing. Indeed, they can celebrate their disagreements because they understand that our unity is founded upon the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth that makes the Eucharist possible. They do not presume, therefore, that unity requires that we all read Scripture the same way.
This creates a quite different attitude among Catholics about their relation to Christian tradition and the wider world. Protestants look over to Christian tradition and say, ‘How much of this do we have to believe in order to remain identifiably Christian?’ That’s the reason why Protestants are always tempted to rationalism: we think that Christianity is to be identified with sets of beliefs more than with the unity of the Spirit occasioned through sacrament.
Moreover, once Christianity becomes reduced to a matter of belief, as it clearly has for Protestants, we cannot resist questions of whether those beliefs are as true or useful as other beliefs we also entertain. Once such questions are raised, it does not matter what the answer turns out in a given case. As James Edwards observes, “Once religious beliefs start to compete with other beliefs, then religious believers are — and will know themselves to be — mongerers of values. They too are denizens of the mall, selling and shopping and buying along with the rest of us.”
In contrast, Catholics do not begin with the question of “How much do we need to believe?” but with the attitude “Look at all the wonderful stuff we get to believe!” Isn’t it wonderful to know that Mary was immaculately conceived in order to be the faithful servant of God’s new creation in Jesus Christ! She therefore becomes the firstborn of God’s new creation, our mother, the first member of God’s new community we call church. Isn’t it wonderful that God continued to act in the world through the appearances of Mary at Guadalupe! Mary must know something because she seems to always appear to peasants and, in particular, to peasant women who have the ability to see her. Most of us would not have the ability to see Mary because we’d be far too embarrassed by our vision.
Therefore Catholics understand the church’s unity as grounded in reality more determinative than our good feelings for one another. The office of Rome matters. For at least that office is a judgment on the church for our disunity. Surely it is the clear indication of the sin of the Reformation that we Protestants have not been able to resist nationalistic identifications. So we become German Lutherans, American Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans. You are Dutch Calvinist, American Presbyterians, Church of Scotland. I am an American Methodist, which has precious little to do with my sisters and brothers in English Methodism. And so we Protestant Christians go to war killing one another in the name of being American, German, Japanese, and so on.
At least it becomes the sin of Rome when Italian Catholics think they can kill Irish Catholics in the name of being Italian. Such divisions distort the unity of the Gospel found in the Eucharist and, thus, become judgments against the church of Rome. Of course, the Papacy has often been unfaithful and corrupt, but at least Catholics preserved an office God can use to remind us that we have been and may yet prove unfaithful. In contrast, Protestants don’t even know we’re being judged for our disunity.
I realize that this perspective on Reformation Sunday is not the usual perspective. The usual perspective is to tell us what a wonderful thing happened at the Reformation. The Reformation struck a blow for freedom. No longer would we be held in medieval captivity to law and arbitrary authority. The Reformation was the beginning of enlightenment, of progressive civilizations, of democracy, that have come to fruition in this wonderful country called America. What a destructive story.
You can tell the destructive character of that narrative by what it has done to the Jews. The way we Protestants read history, and in particular our Bible, has been nothing but disastrous for the Jews. For we turned the Jews into Catholics by suggesting that the Jews had sunk into legalistic and sacramental religion after the prophets and had therefore become moribund and dead. In order to make Jesus explicable (in order to make Jesus look like Luther — at least the Luther of our democratic projections), we had to make Judaism look like our characterization of Catholicism. Yet Jesus did not free us from Israel; rather, he engrafted us into the promise of Israel so that we might be a people called to the same holiness of the law.
I realize that the suggestion that salvation is to be part of a holy people constituted by the law seems to deny the Reformation principle of justification by faith through grace. I do not believe that to be the case, particularly as Calvin understood that Reformation theme. After all, Calvin (and Luther) assumed that justification by faith through grace is a claim about God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth. So justification by faith through grace is not some general truth about our need for acceptance; but rather justification by faith through grace is a claim about the salvation wrought by God through Jesus to make us a holy people capable of remembering that God’s salvation comes through the Jews. When the church loses that memory, we lose the source of our unity. For unity is finally a matter of memory, of how we tell the story of the Reformation. How can we tell this story of the church truthfully as Protestants and Catholics so that we might look forward to being in union with one another and thus share a common story of our mutual failure?
We know, after all, that the prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled. The portents of heaven, the blood and fire, the darkness of the sun, the bloody moon have come to pass in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now all who call on that name will be saved. We believe that we who stand in the Reformation churches are survivors. But to survive we need to recover the unity that God has given us as survivors. So on this Reformation Sunday long for, pray for, our ability to remember the Reformation – not as a celebratory moment, not as a blow for freedom, but as the sin of the church. Pray for God to heal our disunity, not the disunity simply between Protestant and Catholic, but the disunity in our midst between classes, between races, between nations. Pray that on Reformation Sunday we may as tax collectors confess our sin and ask God to make us a new people joined together in one might prayer that the world may be saved from its divisions.
(Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School.)
29 October 1995by Stanley Hauerwas
Joel 2:23-32 – 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 – Luke 18:9-14
I must begin by telling you that I do not like to preach on Reformation Sunday. Actually I have to put it more strongly than that. I do not like Reformation Sunday, period. I do not understand why it is part of the church year. Reformation Sunday does not name a happy event for the Church Catholic; on the contrary, it names failure. Of course, the church rightly names failure, or at least horror, as part of our church year. We do, after all, go through crucifixion as part of Holy Week. Certainly if the Reformation is to be narrated rightly, it is to be narrated as part of those dark days.
Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in the Protestant tradition want to say that Reformation was a success. But when we make Reformation a success, it only ends up killing us. After all, the very name ‘Protestantism’ is meant to denote a reform movement of protest within the Church Catholic. When Protestantism becomes an end in itself, which it certainly has through the mainstream denominations in America, it becomes anathema. If we no longer have broken hearts at the church’s division, then we cannot help but unfaithfully celebrate Reformation Sunday.
For example, note what the Reformation has done for our reading texts like that which we hear from Luke this morning. We Protestants automatically assume that the Pharisees are the Catholics. They are the self-righteous people who have made Christianity a form of legalistic religion, thereby destroying the free grace of the Gospel. We Protestants are the tax collectors, knowing that we are sinners and that our lives depend upon God’s free grace. And therefore we are better than the Catholics because we know they are sinners. What an odd irony that the Reformation made such readings possible. As Protestants we now take pride in the acknowledgment of our sinfulness in order to distinguish ourselves from Catholics who allegedly believe in works-righteousness.
Unfortunately, the Catholics are right. Christian salvation consists in works. To be saved is to be made holy. To be saved requires our being made part of a people separated from the world so that we can be united in spite of — or perhaps better, because of — the world’s fragmentation and divisions. Unity, after all, is what God has given us through Christ’s death and resurrection. For in that death and resurrection we have been made part of God’s salvation for the world so that the world may know it has been freed from the powers that would compel us to kill one another in the name of false loyalties. All that is about the works necessary to save us.
For example, I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.
The magisterial office — we Protestants often forget — is not a matter of constraining or limiting diversity in the name of unity. The office of the Bishop of Rome is to ensure that when Christians move from Durham, North Carolina to Syracuse, New York, they have some confidence when they go to church that they will be worshiping the same God. Because Catholics have an office of unity, they do not need to restrain the gifts of the Spirit. As I oftentimes point out, it is extraordinary that Catholicism is able to keep the Irish and the Italians in the same church. What an achievement! Perhaps equally amazing is their ability to keep within the same church Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans.
I think Catholics are able to do that because they know that their unity does not depend upon everyone agreeing. Indeed, they can celebrate their disagreements because they understand that our unity is founded upon the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth that makes the Eucharist possible. They do not presume, therefore, that unity requires that we all read Scripture the same way.
This creates a quite different attitude among Catholics about their relation to Christian tradition and the wider world. Protestants look over to Christian tradition and say, ‘How much of this do we have to believe in order to remain identifiably Christian?’ That’s the reason why Protestants are always tempted to rationalism: we think that Christianity is to be identified with sets of beliefs more than with the unity of the Spirit occasioned through sacrament.
Moreover, once Christianity becomes reduced to a matter of belief, as it clearly has for Protestants, we cannot resist questions of whether those beliefs are as true or useful as other beliefs we also entertain. Once such questions are raised, it does not matter what the answer turns out in a given case. As James Edwards observes, “Once religious beliefs start to compete with other beliefs, then religious believers are — and will know themselves to be — mongerers of values. They too are denizens of the mall, selling and shopping and buying along with the rest of us.”
In contrast, Catholics do not begin with the question of “How much do we need to believe?” but with the attitude “Look at all the wonderful stuff we get to believe!” Isn’t it wonderful to know that Mary was immaculately conceived in order to be the faithful servant of God’s new creation in Jesus Christ! She therefore becomes the firstborn of God’s new creation, our mother, the first member of God’s new community we call church. Isn’t it wonderful that God continued to act in the world through the appearances of Mary at Guadalupe! Mary must know something because she seems to always appear to peasants and, in particular, to peasant women who have the ability to see her. Most of us would not have the ability to see Mary because we’d be far too embarrassed by our vision.
Therefore Catholics understand the church’s unity as grounded in reality more determinative than our good feelings for one another. The office of Rome matters. For at least that office is a judgment on the church for our disunity. Surely it is the clear indication of the sin of the Reformation that we Protestants have not been able to resist nationalistic identifications. So we become German Lutherans, American Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans. You are Dutch Calvinist, American Presbyterians, Church of Scotland. I am an American Methodist, which has precious little to do with my sisters and brothers in English Methodism. And so we Protestant Christians go to war killing one another in the name of being American, German, Japanese, and so on.
At least it becomes the sin of Rome when Italian Catholics think they can kill Irish Catholics in the name of being Italian. Such divisions distort the unity of the Gospel found in the Eucharist and, thus, become judgments against the church of Rome. Of course, the Papacy has often been unfaithful and corrupt, but at least Catholics preserved an office God can use to remind us that we have been and may yet prove unfaithful. In contrast, Protestants don’t even know we’re being judged for our disunity.
I realize that this perspective on Reformation Sunday is not the usual perspective. The usual perspective is to tell us what a wonderful thing happened at the Reformation. The Reformation struck a blow for freedom. No longer would we be held in medieval captivity to law and arbitrary authority. The Reformation was the beginning of enlightenment, of progressive civilizations, of democracy, that have come to fruition in this wonderful country called America. What a destructive story.
You can tell the destructive character of that narrative by what it has done to the Jews. The way we Protestants read history, and in particular our Bible, has been nothing but disastrous for the Jews. For we turned the Jews into Catholics by suggesting that the Jews had sunk into legalistic and sacramental religion after the prophets and had therefore become moribund and dead. In order to make Jesus explicable (in order to make Jesus look like Luther — at least the Luther of our democratic projections), we had to make Judaism look like our characterization of Catholicism. Yet Jesus did not free us from Israel; rather, he engrafted us into the promise of Israel so that we might be a people called to the same holiness of the law.
I realize that the suggestion that salvation is to be part of a holy people constituted by the law seems to deny the Reformation principle of justification by faith through grace. I do not believe that to be the case, particularly as Calvin understood that Reformation theme. After all, Calvin (and Luther) assumed that justification by faith through grace is a claim about God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth. So justification by faith through grace is not some general truth about our need for acceptance; but rather justification by faith through grace is a claim about the salvation wrought by God through Jesus to make us a holy people capable of remembering that God’s salvation comes through the Jews. When the church loses that memory, we lose the source of our unity. For unity is finally a matter of memory, of how we tell the story of the Reformation. How can we tell this story of the church truthfully as Protestants and Catholics so that we might look forward to being in union with one another and thus share a common story of our mutual failure?
We know, after all, that the prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled. The portents of heaven, the blood and fire, the darkness of the sun, the bloody moon have come to pass in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now all who call on that name will be saved. We believe that we who stand in the Reformation churches are survivors. But to survive we need to recover the unity that God has given us as survivors. So on this Reformation Sunday long for, pray for, our ability to remember the Reformation – not as a celebratory moment, not as a blow for freedom, but as the sin of the church. Pray for God to heal our disunity, not the disunity simply between Protestant and Catholic, but the disunity in our midst between classes, between races, between nations. Pray that on Reformation Sunday we may as tax collectors confess our sin and ask God to make us a new people joined together in one might prayer that the world may be saved from its divisions.
(Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School.)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
African Cardinal: Why Not a Black Pope?
From Zenit
By Jesús Colina
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is no reason why the Church couldn't have a black Pope, according to a top African cardinal.
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, said this today during a press conference in Rome on the first working day of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
The African cardinal is the relator-general of the three-week synod, which will discuss the situation of the Church on the continent.
Cardinal Turkson was asked if t was possible that the Church could soon have a black Pope. The reporter noted U.S. President Barack Obama as an example from international politics.
"Why not?" the cardinal responded. "If God would wish to see a black man also as Pope, thanks be to God."
Cardinal Turkson also noted that the election of a black Pope is a real possibility, as there are various Africans who are members of the College of Cardinals.
He also noted that when a priest is ordained, it is part of the "package" to be willing to be a bishop, and also a Pope.
-------
There have been at least 3 black popes in the history of the Catholic Church:
Pope St. Victor - Elected in 189 AD. He was deacon when he became Pope, a rarity then and now. He established a set date for the celebration of Easter yearly. He died a martyr for the faith in 199.
Pope St. Militiades - Reigned as Pope from 311 - 314. He signed the emperor Constantine’s famous Edict of Milan in 313, ending the persecutions, and making Christianity the established religion of the empire. He was considered an excellent Pope, "a son of peace and father of Christians" according to St. Augustine.
Pope St. Gelasius - Reigned from 492 -496. Born in Rome, he was renowned for his holiness, kindness and scholarship. He saved Rome from famine, composed a book of hymns for church use, was renowned for his concern for the poor and clarified church teaching on the Eucharist.
By Jesús ColinaVATICAN CITY, OCT. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is no reason why the Church couldn't have a black Pope, according to a top African cardinal.
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, said this today during a press conference in Rome on the first working day of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
The African cardinal is the relator-general of the three-week synod, which will discuss the situation of the Church on the continent.
Cardinal Turkson was asked if t was possible that the Church could soon have a black Pope. The reporter noted U.S. President Barack Obama as an example from international politics.
"Why not?" the cardinal responded. "If God would wish to see a black man also as Pope, thanks be to God."
Cardinal Turkson also noted that the election of a black Pope is a real possibility, as there are various Africans who are members of the College of Cardinals.
He also noted that when a priest is ordained, it is part of the "package" to be willing to be a bishop, and also a Pope.
-------
There have been at least 3 black popes in the history of the Catholic Church:
Pope St. Victor - Elected in 189 AD. He was deacon when he became Pope, a rarity then and now. He established a set date for the celebration of Easter yearly. He died a martyr for the faith in 199.
Pope St. Militiades - Reigned as Pope from 311 - 314. He signed the emperor Constantine’s famous Edict of Milan in 313, ending the persecutions, and making Christianity the established religion of the empire. He was considered an excellent Pope, "a son of peace and father of Christians" according to St. Augustine.
Pope St. Gelasius - Reigned from 492 -496. Born in Rome, he was renowned for his holiness, kindness and scholarship. He saved Rome from famine, composed a book of hymns for church use, was renowned for his concern for the poor and clarified church teaching on the Eucharist.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Pope to Youth: Christ Wants to Make You Happy
From Zenit
Encourages Them to Have Open Hearts
STARA BOLESLAV, Czech Republic, SEPT. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is telling youth that Christ wants to make them happy, and that his voice is not difficult to hear for those who have their hearts open.
The Pope reflected on Christ's call today when he spoke with young people gathered on the third and last day of his visit to the Czech Republic.
"As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you," he said. "He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity.
"The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice."
The Holy Father reflected on the Lord's specific call for each person, and he urged them to holiness in their vocations.
"Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey," he said. "Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!"
"And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life," the Pontiff continued, "do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: Be attentive and open to Jesus's call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people."
"The Church in every country," he reflected, "including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world."
Encourages Them to Have Open HeartsSTARA BOLESLAV, Czech Republic, SEPT. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is telling youth that Christ wants to make them happy, and that his voice is not difficult to hear for those who have their hearts open.
The Pope reflected on Christ's call today when he spoke with young people gathered on the third and last day of his visit to the Czech Republic.
"As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you," he said. "He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity.
"The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice."
The Holy Father reflected on the Lord's specific call for each person, and he urged them to holiness in their vocations.
"Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey," he said. "Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!"
"And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life," the Pontiff continued, "do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: Be attentive and open to Jesus's call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people."
"The Church in every country," he reflected, "including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Most clerical abuse not pedophilia, but homosexual abuse of adolescents
Taken from the Guardian and Catholic Cultural News
Vatican official: Most clerical abuse not pedophilia, but homosexual abuse of adolescents
September 29, 2009
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, has defended Catholic efforts to remove abusers from the ranks of the clergy following an attack by Porteous Wood, international representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
“The many thousands of victims of abuse deserve the international community to hold the Vatican to account, something it has been unwilling to do, so far,” said Wood. “Both states and children's organisations must unite to pressurise the Vatican to open its files, change its procedures worldwide, and report suspected abusers to civil authorities.”
Archbishop Tomasi responded, “As the Catholic Church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it.”
Archbishop Tomasi added that the majority of clerical abuse should not be characterized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia, or homosexual attraction to adolescents. “Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17,” he said.
Vatican official: Most clerical abuse not pedophilia, but homosexual abuse of adolescentsSeptember 29, 2009
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, has defended Catholic efforts to remove abusers from the ranks of the clergy following an attack by Porteous Wood, international representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
“The many thousands of victims of abuse deserve the international community to hold the Vatican to account, something it has been unwilling to do, so far,” said Wood. “Both states and children's organisations must unite to pressurise the Vatican to open its files, change its procedures worldwide, and report suspected abusers to civil authorities.”
Archbishop Tomasi responded, “As the Catholic Church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it.”
Archbishop Tomasi added that the majority of clerical abuse should not be characterized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia, or homosexual attraction to adolescents. “Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17,” he said.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Benedict XVI Recommends Spiritual Direction
From Zenit
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Everyone -- priests, religious, laypeople -- and especially youth, should have a spiritual director to help them in the Christian life, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this today when he reflected on Symeon the New Theologian during the general audience held in Paul VI Hall.
The Holy Father mentioned how important spiritual direction was in the life of the 11th century monk, and affirmed that the invitation to seek guidance in the spiritual life "continues to be valid for all."
The Bishop of Rome encouraged especially young people, but also priests, consecrated persons and laypeople"to take recourse to the counsels of a good spiritual father."
He mentioned that a spiritual guide should help to grow in knowledge of oneself and lead a person "to union with the Lord, so that one's life is increasingly conformed to the Gospel."
"We always need a guide, dialogue, to go to the Lord," Benedict XVI affirmed. "We cannot do it with our reflections alone. And this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this guide."
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Everyone -- priests, religious, laypeople -- and especially youth, should have a spiritual director to help them in the Christian life, says Benedict XVI.The Pope affirmed this today when he reflected on Symeon the New Theologian during the general audience held in Paul VI Hall.
The Holy Father mentioned how important spiritual direction was in the life of the 11th century monk, and affirmed that the invitation to seek guidance in the spiritual life "continues to be valid for all."
The Bishop of Rome encouraged especially young people, but also priests, consecrated persons and laypeople"to take recourse to the counsels of a good spiritual father."
He mentioned that a spiritual guide should help to grow in knowledge of oneself and lead a person "to union with the Lord, so that one's life is increasingly conformed to the Gospel."
"We always need a guide, dialogue, to go to the Lord," Benedict XVI affirmed. "We cannot do it with our reflections alone. And this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this guide."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Daily Mass Proposed Changes
Cardinal Says Pope Isn't "Undoing" Vatican II
From Zenit
Denies Media Rumors About Reversal Documents
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's closest collaborator is denying media rumors that the Pontiff is working to gradually "undo" the changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state, stated this in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano published Thursday.
He addressed the debate surrounding false rumors in the Italian media about supposed documents that would reverse changes in the Church since Vatican II, especially regarding the liturgy.
The cardinal asserted that in order to understand the Holy Father's intentions and actions, it is necessary to consider his personal history, one that included involvement "as a genuine protagonist" in the Conciliar Church.
These other rumors about "presumed documents of reversal are pure inventions," he stated.
The cardinal highlighted some applications of the Second Vatican Council that the Pope has "promoted constantly with intelligence and depth of thought."
In particular, he noted the Pontiff's collaboration in "the most comprehensive relationship" with the Orthodox and Eastern Churches and the dialogue with Judaism and Islam.
These have taken place with a "reciprocal attraction," Cardinal Bertone noted, and have "inspired answers and deeper reflections as never before recorded, purifying memory" and building openness.
He also underlined Benedict XVI's "direct and fraternal, as well as paternal, relationship with all the members of the episcopal college, in the 'ad limina visits' and in the other numerous occasions of contact."
The prelate recalled the Pope's engagement in the Synods of Bishops, through various interventions and reflections.
He added, "Nor should we forget the direct contact established with the heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia with whom he has reinstated periodic audience meetings."
True change
As regards the "reform of the Church," the cardinal affirmed "that it is above all a question of interiority and holiness."
For this reason, he said, the Pontiff concentrates on recalling "the source of the Word of God, the evangelical law and the heart of the life of the Church: Jesus, the known, loved, adored and imitated Lord."
This is the reason he is currently working on the second volume of his book "Jesus of Nazareth," the prelate explained.
The cardinal noted that the Holy Father has in his pontificate made 70 appointments of superiors in the different dicasteries, not counting bishops and nuncios in the world.
As well, the prelate affirmed, he will soon announce "important appointments," in which "the new Churches" will be represented. "Africa has already offered and will offer excellent candidates," he said.
Cardinal Bertone warned against the error of attributing to the Pope all the problems the Church is experiencing in the world and all the statements of his representatives.
He reminded journalists, "Correct information calls for attributing to each one ('unicuique suum') his own responsibility for deeds and words, especially when the latter openly contradict the teachings and examples of the Pope."
Denies Media Rumors About Reversal DocumentsVATICAN CITY, AUG. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's closest collaborator is denying media rumors that the Pontiff is working to gradually "undo" the changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state, stated this in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano published Thursday.
He addressed the debate surrounding false rumors in the Italian media about supposed documents that would reverse changes in the Church since Vatican II, especially regarding the liturgy.
The cardinal asserted that in order to understand the Holy Father's intentions and actions, it is necessary to consider his personal history, one that included involvement "as a genuine protagonist" in the Conciliar Church.
These other rumors about "presumed documents of reversal are pure inventions," he stated.
The cardinal highlighted some applications of the Second Vatican Council that the Pope has "promoted constantly with intelligence and depth of thought."
In particular, he noted the Pontiff's collaboration in "the most comprehensive relationship" with the Orthodox and Eastern Churches and the dialogue with Judaism and Islam.
These have taken place with a "reciprocal attraction," Cardinal Bertone noted, and have "inspired answers and deeper reflections as never before recorded, purifying memory" and building openness.
He also underlined Benedict XVI's "direct and fraternal, as well as paternal, relationship with all the members of the episcopal college, in the 'ad limina visits' and in the other numerous occasions of contact."
The prelate recalled the Pope's engagement in the Synods of Bishops, through various interventions and reflections.
He added, "Nor should we forget the direct contact established with the heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia with whom he has reinstated periodic audience meetings."
True change
As regards the "reform of the Church," the cardinal affirmed "that it is above all a question of interiority and holiness."
For this reason, he said, the Pontiff concentrates on recalling "the source of the Word of God, the evangelical law and the heart of the life of the Church: Jesus, the known, loved, adored and imitated Lord."
This is the reason he is currently working on the second volume of his book "Jesus of Nazareth," the prelate explained.
The cardinal noted that the Holy Father has in his pontificate made 70 appointments of superiors in the different dicasteries, not counting bishops and nuncios in the world.
As well, the prelate affirmed, he will soon announce "important appointments," in which "the new Churches" will be represented. "Africa has already offered and will offer excellent candidates," he said.
Cardinal Bertone warned against the error of attributing to the Pope all the problems the Church is experiencing in the world and all the statements of his representatives.
He reminded journalists, "Correct information calls for attributing to each one ('unicuique suum') his own responsibility for deeds and words, especially when the latter openly contradict the teachings and examples of the Pope."
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