Toledo, Jun. 13, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Spanish cardinal has called upon Catholic parents to "use all legitimate means in your power to defend your right to determine the moral education of your children." Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera spoke out in response to the obligatory "Education for Citizenship" classes that will be introduced in some Spanish public schools in the next academic year. He warned that the courses offer "a moral formation that is not determined by parents" and sometimes contradicts the moral teachings of the Church. In a pastoral letter issued for the close of this academic year, Cardinal Cañizares argued that "public authority cannot impose any certain moral code on all people, whether it be supposedly a majority choice, or Catholic, or any other kind." That authority is reserved for parents, he insisted. Addressing himself specifically to administrators of Catholic schools, the cardinal said that they should not accept the "Education for Citizenship" curriculum because it "would go against your mission." Even public schools should not promote the course, he continued, because it would violate "the ideological neutrality they should have." Cardinal Cañizares strongly encouraged citizens to use every means to stop the imposition of the moral-education program, assuring them that "there is still time remaining to change the course of events." Political activism is amply warranted in this case, he added, because parents "are not asking for anything more than they should have." Source: Catholic World News
Saturday, June 14, 2008
MANILA, Philippines - A Catholic bishop on Wednesday said that "freedom of expression" should not be used as an excuse for some churchgoers who continue to ignore a "dress code" inside the church.
Davao archbishop Fernando Capalla said it is foolish to invoke personal freedom in the choice of dress for liturgical functions.
"We have to admit that, while living in society, our personal freedom is limited by the rights of others. And if we want to live in peace and harmony with others we have to observe certain proprieties of behavior," he said in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website.
Capalla said the dress code is a sign of propriety and reminded all Catholics in the archdiocese that liturgical functions require decent and simple attire.
According to him, he issued the reminder not because he took offense felt insulted, but he is simply concerned about order and propriety in human relations.
"This applies to both ministers and the faithful and there are liturgical guidelines to this effect," he said.
"I am only supporting what the home, the school, and social and civic institutions are supposed to be doing on this matter," he added.
Capalla said that in the celebration of the Eucharist, which the Church considers a solemn occasion, churchgoers are required to be in their decent attire.
"Everyone should be able to dress up simply and decently even not elegantly for Mass. (But) to come to Mass in short pants or jogging pants would be out of place and can be very improper and unbecoming (behavior). Short pants are for the person's privacy or sporting occasions, so are the jogging pants. Beach wear and working outfits are not for the solemn and sacred celebration like the Mass," he stressed.
"Sunday best has become a common expression of people who know the value of the Sunday celebration and so those who pride themselves on self-respect choose the best for the Lord. I am not very sure now whether that passage in the Gospel where an invited guest was thrown out because he was not dressed properly, is applicable here. It seems it is," he added. - GMANews.TV
Source
Friday, June 13, 2008
Valencia, Jun. 12, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Spanish financial newspaper La Gaceta de los Negocios reports that the Vatican has given the green light to the beatification of 250 Spaniards martyred in Valencia during Spain's Civil War. The Vatican has not issued any formal announcement.
Valencia's Cardinal Agustin Garcia-Gasco opened the cause in 2004 for 183 priests, 10 religious, and 57 laymen, including a woman who was 9 months pregnant, who was asked her captors to let her give birth to her child so that she could baptize him but sadly her request was denied. In 2001, John Paul II beatified 226 other Valencian martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.
Source: Catholic World News
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Bucharest, June 11, Interfax - Priests of the Romanian Patriarchate come from different regions of the country to join trade unions to protect their own interests from the church management.
In particular, some time ago, 20 priests filed documents to Iasi court for incorporation of the "Holy Virgin Protection" trade union. Later, 35 clerics from Oltenia province declared the official incorporation of the independent "Good Pastor" trade union and their intent to hold a strike action aimed at protecting their rights.
"There is an abyss between the church hierarchy and the priests who serve in churches. We are put under pressure, and have already lost some of our members," priest Nikolay State, vice-president of Good Pastor, said in his interview to the Gyndyl newspaper.
He also said that Oltenian priests were seeking to create their trade union for several years. The main objective of trade union members is to oppose low wages of priests and support their right to make decisions related to their parish without prior approval of the diocese.
Besides, trade union members are seeking for the right to run for any position in administrative bodies without prior consent of their executives.
The Metropolitan of Oltenia, however, warned the priests, who had established the trade union, of their possible defrocking.
"There is the principal incompatibility of priests' servicing and trade union activity, because the priest's mission is to unite people with each other and the God, and any trade union activity involves confrontation and separatism," the official message of the metropolitan reads.
Source: Interfax Religion
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I have also had an opportunity to review Hildengard von Bingen's "Marriage of the Heavens and the Earth". This CD is a collection of Hildengard's best compositions - a true gem to own!After being forgotten for several centuries, Hildegard von Bingen is recognized today as one of the universal minds in Western culture. The abbess at the monastery of Saint-Rupert close to the town of Bingen, Hildegard was a composer, writer, physician and visionary who lived in the 12th century A.D.
Hildegard von Bingen s music is undoubtedly her most inspiring legacy. She is considered one of the leading composers of the Middle Ages. One of her works, the Ordo Virtutum, has been called the first form, and possibly the origin, of opera. She composed seventy-seven more songs mostly for her monastery. Only a few decades ago, this incredible treasure was rediscovered and presented to a larger audience.
Jade Music is proud to release Marriage of the Heavens and the Earth, an album by Catherine Braslavsky and Joseph Rowe that contains some of von Bingen s best known compositions.
For more than 15 years, Catherine Braslavsky has been playing Hildegard von Bingen s music. Herself a composer and Greogorian chant enthusiast, she also studied Indian, Judeo-Spanish and harmonic chant. She is currently also pursuing her research on ancient music. Soloist, musical director, and teacher, she has performed all over Europe, the United States and Japan. With Joseph Rowe, she recorded six albums that explore contemporary sacred music, and sacred music of Europe, and the Mediterranean.
Although it is stereo-typically identified as a silent film, "Into Great Silence" features a variety of sounds, including beautiful Gregorian Chant. I have already watched the film three times, and I whole-heatedly recommend the soundtrack for "Into Great Silence". Tracks include "Matins", "Pentecost Matins", "Corpus Christi", "Salve Regina", and others!Click here to preview some of the songs.
I was recently given the opportunity to review Olivier Messiaen's "Never Before Released" CD. Featuring "La Mort Du Nombre", "Offrande Au Saint Sacrement", and twelve other tracks, I enjoyed listening to this CD, even though it certainly was not my favorite soundtrack of piano. If you enjoy piano music, you should appreciate adding this CD to your collection.Jade Music, the specialty arm of Milan Records, is proud to commemorate Olivier Messiaen s 100th birthday with the album entitled Never Before Released. Messiaen was born in the French town of Avignon into a literary family and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11.
He would become a leading composer and organist of his time, traveling the globe and performing in major concert venues. In 1949, Messiaen s Turangalîla-Symphonie was performed for the first time in the United States and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. He drew his inspiration from very diverse influences such as Japanese music, Greek and Hindu sources and Roman Catholicism.
The album Never Before Released regroups works from three different sources. Some songs were unpublished and kept only in Messiaen s archives Offrande au Saint Sacrement, Prélude pour Orgue, Chant dans le style Mozart, Quatre Inédits pour Piano et Onde Martenot, and Prélude pour Piano. Some songs were published but never available to the public Monodie, Pièce pour le Tombeau de Dukas, Pièce pour Piano et Quatuor à cordes, and Chant des Déportés. Finally, some songs were published but are no longer available on CD La Mort du Nombre, and Le Merle Noir.
This exceptional recording includes, among others, performances by his wife, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, the BBC Choir and Orchestra, Guy Deplus, and is a tribute to a major figure of 20th century contemporary music
Moscow, June 9, Interfax - A complete holy communion between Orthodox believers and Catholics is very unlikely, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations, Archbishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, said in an interview with the newspaper Soyuznoye Veche of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliamentary Assembly.
"I think we should not expect the complete unity of Orthodox and Catholic rites. The division occurred almost 1,000 years ago and it can hardly be repaired," he said.
The archbishop said he does not think the differences between Orthodox believers and Catholics will evaporate in the third millennium.
At the same time, certain theological differences do not hamper cooperation and possible joint protection of common values, he said.
"We will not unite but we can learn to be allies and partners. We should not be rivals, we should be Christians who may differ in certain theological intricacies but have practically the same ideas about morals and social values," he said.
Source: Interfax Religion
Pope Paul VI has been called a prophet for his intuitions expressed in the 1968 encyclical, Humanae vitae, about what would happen to society if contraception ever became widely used. But a “prophecy” is much more than just a prediction: it is really a view of reality and an assessment of what happens when the right order of things is snubbed. All the Old Testament prophets told the people of Israel, in unambiguous terms, that they had turned their backs on the Lord’s covenant (God’s view of reality) and that the consequences would be dire if they persevered in that apostasy. Succeeding generations of scholars, who saw the fulfillment of the prophets’ words, then scrupulously wrote their prophecies down for posterity—lest anyone forget them!
Brother priests, faithful to the Magisterium, in a certain sense, we are the true prophets of our modern times when we teach God’s view of reality to our world. Or rather, we are the scribes who echo the teachings of our great papal prophets for the benefit of our flocks. Let us make sure our people know what the Prophet, Paul VI, said in Humanae vitae forty years ago so that their marriages, and their souls, will not perish.
The four prophecies of Humanae vitae are clear, but also stubborn, views of reality. They are unequivocally countercultural. Paul VI said that if a society accepted contraception as a way of life (like all economically developed societies have), then several consequences would inevitably result:
* First, contraception would lead to conjugal infidelity. Not hard to see this one right? When you separate babies from the marital act there is nothing binding that act to, well, marriage. Fornication (pre-marital) and adultery (extra-marital) have thus skyrocketed with the massive practice of contraception.
* Second, Pope Paul predicted that contraceptive practice would lead to a “general lowering of morality.” Hmm, let’s see if this one was right: “normal” youthful entertainments in our society today include that despicable MTV channel, hooking up, salacious reality TV shows, heavy metal music, wicca and the New Age, drugs and ubiquitous internet porn. In Janet Smith’s famous words: has anyone noticed a “general lowering of morality” lately?
* Third, Paul VI said that contraception would lead men to cease respecting women in their totality and would cause them to treat women as “mere instruments of selfish enjoyment” rather than as cherished partners. Clearly, this prophecy has been vindicated many times over by pornography alone, the most lucrative business in the modern world. That entire industry is singularly dedicated to the “selfish enjoyment” of men.
* Finally, the Holy Father said that massive acceptance of contraception by couples would lead to a massive imposition of contraception by unscrupulous governments. He predicted, in other words, that contraception would pass from a “lifestyle choice” to a weapon of mass destruction, and how dreadfully his prophecy has been vindicated by population control and coercive sterilization programs, fertility reduction quotas and the promotion of abortion literally everywhere in the world.
Should the blame for all these terrible evils of our modern times be laid at the feet of contraception? Well, yes—at least largely so. That’s the truth that we, as priests, must absolutely get clear so that we can hand this on to our people. Contraception’s destruction of the integrity of the marital act—as unitive and procreative—has dire consequences for society and for souls. Contraception is a rejection of God’s view of reality. It is a wedge driven into the most intimate sphere of communion known to man outside of the Holy Mass. It is a degrading poison that withers life and love both in marriage and in society. No wonder everything goes wrong when contraception shows up.
The Prophet has warned us. Now it’s our turn to warn our people. Brothers, their very souls are at stake!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Maternal Deaths Down In Nicaragua Once Abortion Is Eliminated
Unsuspecting pro-life cultures are regularly assaulted by the “logic” of the international abortion promoters who push their anti-life agenda into every culture that will cave in to the pressure. Their main argument goes roughly like this: “When abortion is not legal, women have abortions anyway but in unsafe conditions and back-alley clinics with untrained people who injure and kill them. All this death and injury is totally unnecessary and we could just solve the problem overnight by legalizing abortion to make it safe and keep all these poor women from dying.”
That’s the main argument which, in one form or another, is repeated ad nauseam by the abortion lobby to sympathetic healthcare providers, social workers, government leaders and the media. It can be an effective argument for legalized abortion because people are generally more willing to sacrifice the rights of the unseen child for the immediate perceived needs of the suffering woman. However, that argument is a ruse. Abortion doesn’t work the way they say it does. In reality, legalized abortion, besides killing babies, creates a climate of disrespect for women’s health that leads to a greater number of maternal deaths. Let’s take another look at the most fascinating and heroic case study in the abortion wars that our modern age has seen: Nicaragua.
That marvelous little pro-life country in Central America is a good example of what happens when a country chooses a culture of life. Remember that Nicaragua made abortion completely illegal in 2006 and then reaffirmed that prohibition in 2007. The overall positive results for Nicaraguan women have been just amazing. The abortion promoters screamed that making abortion illegal would cause women to die in droves because of more back-alley abortions, but that didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite is true—fewer women are dying now! A recent publication by Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health noted that the overall maternal mortality rate decreased by 58% in the year that abortion has been made totally illegal. There were 21 maternal deaths for 2007 compared to 50 maternal deaths the year before. This is a stunning reversal!
The lie that women will die from back-alley, “unsafe,” abortions is nothing but a scare tactic to coerce pro-life cultures into compliance with abortion. The truth is that abortion-free cultures have a greater respect for women and babies and are not subject to that degrading pall of killing that lies over the medical profession. In the case of Nicaragua, their rejection of abortion in 2006/2007 coincided—not surprisingly—with a greater provision of basic pre-natal services for pregnant women and accompaniment in childbirth which is what led to the surprising turn-around in the maternal death rate. Even aside from legal protection of babies, pro-life cultures just protect women better, it’s that simple.
We don’t have to listen to the liars who tell us that legalized abortion is “safe.” Women are much safer in countries where abortion is not legal. Abortion enthusiasts were never able to use the maternal death argument in abortion-free Ireland which has the lowest rate of maternal deaths in the world. They are also confounded by pro-life cultures like Poland that restricted abortion in 1993 and has seen a phenomenal increase in maternal wellbeing ever since.
The abortion promoters tell us that certain abortions are unsafe. They’re half right. Actually, all abortions are unsafe. The numbers don’t lie.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
