Pope Pius XII, John Paul II Declared Venerable

The following is an excerpt. My comments are in brackets. Emphasis is in bold.

Image Source: A/P

In a dramatic move, after long hesitation, Pope Benedict XVI has signed a decree declaring Pope Pius XII -- the Pope who led the Church during the Second World War and has been repeatedly accused by many Jewish and progressive Catholic groups of not doing enough to help the Jews during the Nazi persecution -- as "venerable," the first major step on the road toward canonization as a Catholic saint.

In the same decree, Benedict has declared Pope John Paul II, known for his friendship with the Jewish people and his dramatic visits to the synagogue of Rome in 1986 and to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2000, as also worthy to be called "venerable" in the Church.

Benedict's decree, published today in connection with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, recognizes the "heroic virtues" of the two Popes, paving the way for their beatification and canonization, which can come with the approval of first one, then a second miracle attributed to their intercession.

Also approved were the martyrdom of the Polish priest Fr Popielusko and a miracle attributed to Mary McKillop (Australia).

Pius XII, the Pope who led the Church during the Second World War (he was Pope from 1939 to 1958), and John Paul II (Pope from 1978 to 2005) are now officially to be called "Venerable" (meaning able to be venerated), because Benedict XVI has confirmed that their lives displayed "heroic virtues," that they were heroes because of their remarkable virtue.

This is particularly dramatic with regard to Pius, because he has been accused, not only of not being a hero, but even of being evil, of being "Hitler's Pope." (A book under that title was published several years ago by British author John Cornwell, who later retracted much of what he had written.) The attacks on Pius seem to have given Benedict pause. Not because he believed their truth, but because he knew that many did believe they were true, and would be scandalized if Pius was declared "Venerable" without clarifying that the charges against him were false. This explains why the documentation to sign the Pius XII decree was given to Pope almost two years ago, and not signed until now.

Many Vatican observers had noted that Benedict was taking his time before signing the decree. Senior Vatican officials told me that he was waiting until Jewish and progressive Catholic groups themselves recognized that the charges of anti-Semitism raised against Pius XII were without foundation. And this is what has occurred.

Over the past several years, due in large measure to the work of committed Catholic and Jewish scholars and activists ranging from Sr. Margherita Marchione, an American Catholic nun, to Gary Krupp, an American Jewish businessman, clear evidence that Pius XII worked heroically "behind the scenes" to save nearly 1 million Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps has now been discovered and published. (We have printed much of this in the pages on Inside the Vatican magazine.) In fact, this evidence even suggests that Pius XII did more to help victims of the persecution than virtually any other single person in Europe during the war years, making his denigration all the more unjust. And because an increasing number of scholars have come to conclude that the charges raised against Pius XII were a calmny, the opinion about Pius in the world's Jewish community has slowly been transformed from an absolutely negative one to a far more positive one.

"I received a call from Rome just now to inform me that the Holy Father proclaimed Pius XII as venerable," Krupp emailed to me this morning. "Congratulations to all of you for the hard work over the years to right a terrible wrong perpetrated by the historical revisionists."

Similar Posts / Relevant Reading:

1. War and remembrance: Vatican highlights Pope Pius XII's peace efforts
   
2. Encyclicals of Pope Pius XII 
3. Strong defense of Pius XII by Cardinal Bertone 
4. 50th Anniversary of Pius XII's Death 
   
5. Pope Pius XII Condemned Nazism & the Holocaust
6. Funeral of Pope Pius XII
7. The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis

Read more >>

Society of Jesus Christ the Priest

June 1, 2012 Update: The Society of St. Pius X website features good news regarding this order bringing Tradition back to a Madison-based parish.

Original Article: The following is excerpted from the Wisconsin State Journal. My comments are in brackets. Emphasis is in bold.

As mentioned in both Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities and The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns, traditional religious orders and not liberal ones are seeing growth.

Please also remember to consult a copy of St. Stephen's Handbook for Altar Servers while reading this article. This article relates appropriately to my article on the History and Graces Received from Altar Serving.

Image Source: Andy Manis via Wisconsin State Journal

SAUK CITY -- At a recent Mass at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, the Rev. John Blewett urged parishioners to emulate their savior and stand firm on matters of church doctrine.


"Jesus does not back down," he said.

The same could be said for Blewett and his fellow members of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, a religious group based in Spain. Beginning in 2006, Bishop Robert Morlino invited priests from the society to serve in the Madison Catholic Diocese, and in the ensuing years, they have thrilled some and dismayed others with their staunch Catholicism and tough-love approach.

Five of them now lead a five-parish cluster in the Sauk City area, with three more priests from the society expected this fall. They have brought considerable change in the way the parishes approach worship services.

The priests no longer let girls be altar servers, and they have dispensed with the common Catholic practice of using trained lay people to assist with Communion [this practice is inherently sinful and should be universally abolished]. They have greatly increased opportunities for confession - some complain they nose around too much - and added many Masses celebrated only in Latin, which some parishioners find divine and others alienating.

Supporters say the priests have brought richness to the faith and much-needed discipline to followers who too often water down church teachings.

"They tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear," said Kay Ringelstetter, a St. Aloysius member who calls the changes beautiful. "We see their love for Jesus Christ and the joy in everything they do, and we desire it."

Others are upset over what they consider a hard-line approach that leaves little room for shades of difference. [Catholicism is a HARD religion.  It is not an easy-approach to religion and people must stop watering-down the Faith]

"You get the impression they only want to be a shepherd for the people who agree with them," said Troy Jacobson, who left St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie last year over his disappointment with the priests. "It's almost like they've restricted access to God."

Critics contend that scores of parishioners have left, but others disagree and say new members have filled any voids. The Rev. Jared Hood, a society priest and the administrator of the five-parish cluster, said membership numbers were not available.

Morlino said any time parishes change priests, some upheaval is inevitable. He said the priests follow a different course from many in the diocese, but that diversity is good and everything the priests do falls within the accepted practices of the church.

"They are not in any sense renegades," he said.

Special designation

Societies are a special designation within the Catholic Church. They are groups of lay people, consecrated women and priests who live in common and come together around a specific mission, such as aiding the sick. The mission of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest is to increase the number of boys entering the priesthood [and having male-only altar servers has proven to do so!].

"If we can manage to get the young people to fall in love with Jesus Christ, then they will not but want to be like him and to share his life and mission," wrote the society's founder, the Rev. Alfonso Galvez, in a 1994 book on the society's formation.

The Catholic Church officially recognized the society in 1980. It is based in Murcia, Spain, but has members from other countries, including the U.S.

Hood, a New Jersey native, said the society has 25 priests, 13 consecrated women, two laymen and 12 seminarians studying for the priesthood. This puts it on the small side as far as societies go, he said.

In his book, Galvez, now 77, criticizes the quality of priest training, saying seminaries often fail to instill obedience and genuine Catholic values. This is indicative of a post-Vatican II church in the 1960s that "found herself invaded by liberal Protestant theology and by various currents of Marxist ideology," he wrote.

Many good candidates for priesthood have been turned off by the lack of demanding training, exacerbating the priest shortage and forcing bishops to either go without priests or accept anybody who walks through the door, according to Galvez. "That explains why young men of weak spirit, incapable, effeminate and - why not say so? - even homosexuals have been admitted to seminaries," he wrote.

In 1991, Galvez founded a middle and high school, currently in Murcia, to provide young people with "a total formation based in Catholic values and tradition," according to the school's Web site. Plans are in the works to move the school next year from Murcia to Sauk City, where it would reopen as a middle school.

'Very hard-working'

The relationship between the society and the Madison diocese dates to the spring of 2006 when representatives from the society visited several U.S. dioceses to gauge interest in their priests serving here.

"Very simply, Bishop Morlino was the most inviting," Hood said. The only other place in the U.S. where priests from the society serve is the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey, where there are four.

Morlino, who has sought to increase the number of young men from the Madison area going into the seminary, said he "could see from the very first moment they were holy, happy and very hard-working. I was very receptive to them."

Because societies are not connected to any one Catholic diocese, their seminarians can be ordained into the priesthood by any willing bishop. That's how Morlino came to ordain three society priests July 31 in Madison.

The Society of Jesus Christ the Priest seems to hew to a theologically traditionalist line that is in favor today and indirectly encouraged by the Vatican through a renewed emphasis on Latin Masses, said the Rev. Steven Avella, a history professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee and a Catholic priest.

"Priestly formation in general today seems to be harkening back to older models of clerical identity," Avella said. At some seminaries, for instance, the educational environment is exclusively male and seminarians and lay women don't mix, he said. Still, removing girls as altar servers is "unusual" in the U.S., he said.

Hiring foreign priests, however, is not uncommon - many U.S. dioceses are recruiting from "priest-rich" areas such as the Philippines and Nigeria to address a shortage, Avella said. Even if there were no priest shortage, Morlino said he would want the society priests here.

"There is no watering down, no ambiguity, just straight," he said of their Catholicism.

Making changes

Removing girls as altar servers was one of the initial changes the priests made. (The Vatican began allowing female servers in 1994.) Hood said that if the society is to succeed in encouraging more young men to enter the seminary, it must give boys as much time around priests as possible. Girls can distract and intimidate boys, he said.

Read more >>

"No Shades Between Valid and Invalid" - Bishop Williamson

I wanted to share these words from the recent issue of Dinoscopus - an email newsletter with the thoughts/writings of Bishop Richard Williamson. Emphasized items are underlined:

Now it is true that any one sacrament administered in real life will have been either valid or invalid. There are no more shades between valid and invalid than there are between pregnant and not pregnant. But if we consider the Conciliar sacraments being all the time administered throughout the Newchurch as a whole, we can only say some are valid, some are invalid, but they have all been placed on a slide towards invalidity by the Conciliar Rites' total thrust to replace the religion of God with the religion of man. That is why the Newchurch is on its way to disappearing altogether, and why the Society of St. Pius X can in no way allow itself to be absorbed into it.

...

Meanwhile, as to just how far down the slide is this or that priest, or even the Newchurch as a whole, I will apply the great principle of St. Augustine: "In things certain, unity; in things doubtful, liberty; in all things, charity". And within the framework of certainties such as, within the Newchurch neither already nothing, nor everything still, is Catholic, I mean to extend to my fellow-Catholics the same liberty to judge of things uncertain as I hope they will extend to me. Mother of God, obtain the rescue of the Church !

Read more >>

December 2009 Christvs Regnat Issue

St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association would like to announce the publication of the December 2009 CHRISTVS REGNAT, which includes articles on the following topics:

• Introduction to the Report to the Holy Father on the Second Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum
  
• The Irish Liturgical Calendar
• Report on Masses for the Year For Priests
• and more....
  

Read more >>

Blog Technology Updated

Hello, faithful readers of A Catholic Life. We have just updated the image system on the blog, so many posts use "lightbox" now, which allows you to view high-res versions of the images on the blog without redirecting to another page.

Here is an example, simply click on the image to bring up the high-resolution version. Hit escape, click on the border, or click on the "X" to close the floating image.


If you ever need help redesigning your blog or website, feel free to contact me, MJTA, at mjtanton+fromACL@gmail.com.

Image source: aiwaz.net/panopticon

Read more >>

Internet Explorer Viewers: Please Switch to Internet Explorer 8

Blog Readers:

A Catholic Life is undergoing a slight modification in its functionality, which will allow the incorporation of light box technology to photos. With this updated technology, you will have the ability to view the full-sized images of the blog on the page by simply clicking on the photo. The elegant transition and increased usability is made possible by a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page.

However, this technology has shown an incompatibility with prior versions of Internet Explorer. If you are a viewer of this blog and use Internet Explorer as your web browser, please switch to the new and improved Internet Explorer 8. You can download this FREE Upgrade from Microsoft.

Read more >>

O Antiphons: Sung by Edinburgh Gregorian Chant Schola

Host: Edinburgh Gregorian Chant Schola
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 5:45pm
Location: St Mary's RC Cathedral
Street: Broughton Street
City/Town: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The Schola's principal Vespers for December sees the singing of Vespers during the "Great" Ferias leading up to Christmas. The keynote of each of these seven days is the "O Antiphon", sung at the Magnificat, which addresses Our Lord under various titles. They evoke the yearning of Isaiah, for the saviour to come.

The 17th of December invoked God as "Wisdom" (Sapientia): "O Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of the most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence."

The hymn "O come, O come, Emmanuel" (in Latin, Veni Emmanuel) is a lyrical paraphrase of these Antiphons. The Vespers are sung in Gregorian Chant, with Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament following immediately thereafter after. Vespers will also be sung on Sundays the 13th and 17th in Broxburn and Glasgow. For further information, see the blog of the Edinburgh Schola

For more information on and to listen to the O Antiphons, please view my article on the O Antiphons.

Read more >>

First Thursday of the Month: Plenary Indulgence Available

For the faithful, a plenary indulgence can be obtained on the opening and closing days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.

To obtain the indulgence the faithful must attend Mass in an oratory or Church and offer prayers to "Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to his heart."
The conditions for the faithful for earning a plenary indulgence are to have gone to confession and prayed for the intentions of the Pope.

Source: Zenit

Read more >>

Another Russian Orthodox Cathedral Built in Thailand

Moscow, November 24, Interfax - The building of Russian Orthodox Cathedral of All Saints in the city of Pattaya (Thailand) is finished.

The church has been built in eight months for donations of believers. The consecration of the church will take place under the celebrating of decade of Orthodoxy in Thailand on December 20 this year.

As it was told, the another church in Thailand of the Ascension of Our Lord will be build on Samuy island. The local arrival has already made a decision to buy the ground area which is located on the mountain slope near the sea.

There is also a wish to open the Russian cultural centre and a school at an Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on the Pkhuket island in Thailand.

Recently Russian Church has received the state registration in the country.

Image Source: Enthronement of Patriarch Krill in February 2009

Read more >>

Christ the King Parish, Sarasota, Florida

This past April 2009, the New Liturgical Movement commented on the Dedication of Christ the King Church in Sarasota, Florida (FSSP). The above image is from the New Liturgical Movement.

The following are the Mass times for this apostolate, and worthy of mention, during Mass times, you can watch the Mass using the Streaming Video Link from the website of the Christ the King Church in Sarasota.

Have any of you been there in person?

Mass Times:

Sunday: 8:30 am and 10:30 am
Mon - Sat: 9:00 am
Tues & Fri: also 6:30 pm

Confessions:

Sunday: 30 min before Mass
Mon - Fri: 8:15
Sat: after the 9:00 am Mass

Read more >>