Sister Sara Butler Now Against Womens' Ordination

This is an excerpt from The Journal News. Above all, Catholics cannot believe that women should be ordained because it is not possible (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

Polls generally show that 50 percent to 60 percent of Roman Catholics in the United States believe that women should be eligible for the priesthood.

Sister Sara Butler understands this impulse - because she once felt the same way. In 1978, she headed a task force of the Catholic Theological Society of America that came out in support of female priests.

But as she continued her work as an increasingly prominent theologian, her thinking began to change. Now, in a new book - "The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church" - she attempts to explain the underpinnings of the all-male priesthood to doubters and skeptics who think the way she used to.

"The tradition is traced to the will of Christ, not to decisions made by the church," Butler said last night at St. Joseph's Seminary, where she has taught for four years.

The church's teachings must be better explained, she said, because many Catholics see the all-male priesthood as a symbol of patriarchal power and sexism, and many more who stay silent are probably befuddled.

"Their confidence in the church's teaching authority has been badly eroded," she said.

Several hundred priests, nuns, seminarians and lay visitors greeted Butler with sustained applause, a measure of their respect for her and their approval of the church's position.

Critics of the all-male priesthood were in short supply.

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Cardinal Biffi: Ecumenism Downplays Christ

This is another article I found on Catholic World News:

Excesses of ecumenism and a tendency to downplay the Cross of Christ reflect the spirit of the Antichrist, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi warned Pope Benedict XVI and the leaders of the Roman Curia.

In a meditation preached during the Lenten Retreat for Vatican leaders this week, the outspoken Italian cardinal cited the vision of the Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. “The Antichrist presents himself as a pacifist, ecologist, and ecumenist,” he said.

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A Patron Saint for Dissident Catholics - France's Abbe Pierre

"A Patron Saint for Dissident Catholics - France's Abbe Pierre" is an article from LifeSiteNews detailing the dissent of Abbe Pierre, in regards to homosexuality, women priests, and he even questioned the divinity of Christ Himself. Although he may have been loved by many and voted as France's most popular person, he broke his vows and questioned Christian Truths. He died on January 22, 2007.

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Bad "Catholic" Websites that Catholics Need to Avoid

I have been meaning to create this post for quite some time. I wanted to put together a list of websites that claim to be "Catholic" but should never be supported by Catholics. I am using Catholic Culture's website reviews for some of the information. Please realize that these websites are generally opposed to the truth of the Faith. If you have a link to one of these websites on your blog/website, I strongly ask you to remove it in an effort for us all to promote the complete truth not a "watering down" of the Catholic Faith.

All links below are to the Catholic Culture review of the website; you may have to register (I believe it's free) to see the review by Catholic Culture. I do not want to post an actual link to the website since that is to be avoided.

• 8th Day Center For Justice - promotes liberation theology
• Association for the Rights of Catholics In the Church - errors include saying that promoting women's ordination is not heresy
• Call to Action - Excommunicated organization seeking to completely undermine Church teaching
• Catholic Women's Ordination - promotes women's ordination
• Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) - promotes contraception and abortion
• Dignity USA - undermines Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality
• Future Church - promotes women's ordination
• Georgetown Center for Liturgy - disobedient with the Vatican on the Liturgy
• Jubilee 2000 Our Lady of the Roses - promotes a condemned apparition
• Just for Catholics - created by Joe Mizzi, a fallen away Catholic and former seminarian, to lead Catholics away from the Church
• Leadership Conference of Women Religious - As Catholic Culture states: "The site is filled with antagonism toward the hierarchy and Church teachings, the emphasis on political activism in a secular humanist context, and feminist rhetoric."
• Maryknoll:  Their political activism fits in very well with their espousal of liberation theology. While it is logical that Maryknoll would care about the material needs of those in the countries that they serve, they are forgetting what they were founded for. Instead of bringing the Truth of Christ to the world, they are politicizing the poor.
• National Catholic Reporter - better named the National Catholic Distorter.
• North American Forum on the Catechumenate - Founded by Rev. James Dunning, a dissenter who does not believe the Eucharist is Jesus. The prayer book has dissenting resources.
• Pax Christi USA - Catholic Culture states: "They seem to care more about finding common ground with abortionists and the gay rights lobby than about working for true peace."
• Roses from Heaven - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• These Last Days Ministries - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• We are Church - a dissenting group following the "spirit of Vatican II"
  
• UnhealthyDevotions.com - This website seems at first to be offering information on a Novena to Saint Jude, but actually tries to sway the reader from saying novenas at all!
• ConsecrationVows.com - Website tries to claim that Saint Louis de Montefort's Total Consecration to Mary is essentially selling your soul to the devil 

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Pope Benedict XVI at Ecumenical Vespers Service

Image Source: REUTERS/KNA-Bild/Wolfgang Radtke/Pool

Today, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, ended another day in Germany by attending an ecumenical Vespers service. I hope and pray that there will one day be reunion with protestants and the Orthodox Community. However, I do not EVER want us to have to abandon the smallest of our beliefs to achieve such a thing. The others, I pray, will simply just return to the truth faith and stop believing in heretical ideas. All of us have common ground in our beliefs, but some groups like protestants also believe in heretical ideas like sola-scriptura, sola-fide, consubstantiation, etc.

From Catholic News Agency:

At the conclusion of his fourth day in Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI prayed with members of Germany’s Orthodox and Protestant community. Leading a Vesper service at Regensburg’s Cathedral, the Pontiff told those gathered that they must not loose track of what is central to their dialogue - their common belief in Christ - and that they should bear witness to their common faith “in such a way that it shines forth as the power of love.”

The liturgy, which was punctuated by German hymns, common to all traditions, also included traditional Orthodox chant and a response from leaders of all three Christian groups.

Pope Benedict began his reflection by welcoming the religious leaders and noting that at the heart of the liturgy is the praying of the Psalms, which connects the Christian church with Jewish believers as well.

Benedict next noted the ongoing dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, especially the conversations which are taking place in Germany itself. “I hope and pray that these discussions will be fruitful and that the communion with the living God which unites us, like our own communion in the faith transmitted by the Apostles, will grow in depth and maturity towards that full unity.”

“’So that the world may believe,’” the Pope emphasized, “we must become one: the seriousness of this commitment must spur on our dialogue.”

The Pope then turned to welcome “the various traditions stemming from the Reformation.” While he noted the particular work being done in the attempt to reach a consensus on justification, the Pope also pointed to a problem arising in society at large. “Our modern consciousness, in general, is no longer aware of the fact that we stand as debtors before God and that sin is a reality which can be overcome only by God’s initiative. Behind this weakening of the theme of justification and of the forgiveness of sins is ultimately a weakening of our relation with God. In this sense, our first task will perhaps be to rediscover in a new way the living God present in our lives.”

Turning to the liturgy’s reading from the Gospel of St. John, the Pope noted that what ultimately sets Christians apart is the belief that “Jesus is the Son of God who has come in the flesh.” This, he said, must be the starting point of any dialogue. “In this common confession, and in this common task, there is no division between us. And we pray that this shared foundation will grow ever stronger.”

From this starting point, Benedict continued, we must become witnesses. And not just empty witnesses, but witnesses in love. As the reading points out, he concluded, “’We know and believe the love God has for us’. Yes, man can believe in love. Let us bear witness to our faith in such a way that it shines forth as the power of love, ‘so that the world may believe (Jn 17:21).’”

Image Source: AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle

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