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Bravo to Mr. Michael Hirsh for his short, well articulated poke at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here is an excerpt:

Founded in 1981, the SPLC’s Intelligence Project notes that hate groups in the United States number 888 (which, if you subtract 222 equals 666!). By the SPLC’s Intelligence Project’s own description the number of hate groups has grown at a rate of 48% since the year 2000. In other words, the SPLC is not only ridiculous, they are incompetent too.

Among the many hate groups declared to be so by the omniscient SPLC’s Intelligence Project are Roman Catholics who participate in the Latin Mass. So the largest Christian denomination in the world is a “hate group” for what, you ask? The answer is, for a prayer in the Good Friday services that includes a request for Divine Intervention in the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity. Nothing says “hate” quite like “I want to spend eternity in heaven with you.”

That last sentence is one I wish I had written.

newseditor :: Mar.25.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

FRIBOURG, Switzerland (MARCH 24, 2008) – The Fraternity of St. Peter is happy to announce the following ordination information:

Ordinations to the Deaconate:
Saturday, May 31, 2008. Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation of Divine Worship, will ordain 7 men to the diaconate.

Ordinations to the Holy Priesthood:
Saturday, June 28, 2008 (Vigil of Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul). Franc Cardinal Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, will ordain 4 men to the priesthood.

About the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter:
Established in 1988 by Pope John Paul II, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is an international society of Catholic priests entrusted with the preservation and administration of the Catholic Church’s ancient Latin liturgical traditions. Over 120 seminarians are preparing for the priesthood in the Fraternity’s two seminaries in Bavaria, Germany and Denton, Nebraska.

newseditor :: Mar.25.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

From The Christian Post:

“Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies - I can’t use any other word - about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev said, according to an Interfax article posted Friday.

“To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist,” he stated.

newseditor :: Mar.25.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

This is a footnote to my earlier piece on Mr. Allam’s conversion. In a moving profession of Faith in which he traces his path to baptism, the new convert says how he will hold his head up high in the face of the renewed death sentence imposed upon him for his apostasy from Islam. After proclaiming that he will be “standing upright and with the interior solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith,” Allam praises the Holy Father:

And I will be more so after the courageous and historical gesture of the Pope, who, as soon has he knew of my desire, immediately agreed to personally impart the Christian sacraments of initiation to me. His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims, abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear. The fear of not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims.  [Full article]

newseditor :: Mar.24.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

For all those lately expressing their outrage at the Catholic Church for one reason or another, Mr. John Robson proposes a radical course of action:

If you reject Christianity, don’t join the church

Who would have thought it? Without actually mandating change in a religion you don’t intend to join, you can not join it anyway. That way, the folks who want to join it can join it, and not the new thing you would impose on them. Amazing.

newseditor :: Mar.24.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Rabbi Walter Homolka, is executive director of the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, Germany, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of “accepting” “anti-Semitic tendencies.” The comments were published on Good Friday and pertained to the new prayer for the conversion of the Jews inserted into the 1962 Roman Missal.

The Rabbi accused the Church of historic wrongdoing against the Jewish people — including in Nazi Germany — and further stated that:

He [Pope Benedict] indicates that he believes that the path to salvation, even for Jews, can only go through Jesus, the savior. This opens the floodgates for the conversion of Jews. The Internet is already full of comments by conservative, right-wing Catholics who say: “Wonderful, now we finally have the signal to convert the Jews.” This kind of signal has an extremely provocative effect on anti-Semitic groups. The Catholic Church does not have its anti-Semitic tendencies under control. [Full Article]

In related news, Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said that “inter-religious dialogue has suffered an enormous setback” because of the new Good Friday prayer. “As long as the Catholic Church, that is to say Pope Benedict, does not return to the previous wording, I assume that there will not be any further dialogue in the form that we were able to have in the past.”

Like the Spiegel article cited above, the Reuters piece in which these statements were quoted also appeared on Good Friday.

“I would have assumed that this German pope, of all people, had got to know first hand the ostracizing of Jewry,” she said. “I could not have imagined that this same German pope could now impose such phrases upon his church.”

Note that the comments of both of these critics take a patent falsehood for granted, namely, that the Catholic Church is responsible for Hitler and the atrocities of his Third Reich. This is a baseless smear so thoroughly refuted that it beggars belief the idea can be put forth by educated people. This appears to be an instance of repeating a lie often enough until everyone believes it.

newseditor :: Mar.24.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

“I see no reason to apologize for what God says, that homosexuality is a sin, I will not apologize. I did not say anything false. I did not say anything malicious or hateful.”

By John-Henry Westen

OKLAHOMA CITY, March 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Oklahoma House Representative Sally Kern is standing firm in her convictions on the immorality and danger of the homosexual lifestyle, despite some 30,000 emails condemning her, many of which included hateful rhetoric and some death threats.  The most hard-hitting portions of a speech she gave to a Republican club on the subject of homosexual activism in America were posted online by a homosexual activist group.

Some 300 activists rallied against Kern at the State Capital Tuesday. In comments to AP, however, she stood firm against the criticisms, stating that she was not engaging in hate speech. “I see no reason to apologize for what God says, that homosexuality is a sin,” she told AP. “I will not apologize. I did not say anything false. I did not say anything malicious or hateful.” Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Mar.24.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

From The Australian, we learn that “Pope Benedict XVI has risked a renewed rift with the Muslim world by baptising a converted Muslim born journalist who describes Islam as intrinsically violent and characterised by ‘hate and intolerance’ rather than ‘love and respect for others’.”

The baptism took place at the Easter vigil at St. Peter’s on Saturday night and was kept a secret until an hour before the ceremony.

By taking such interest in a high-profile conversion, it appears that the Holy Father is teaching us that the Church is interested in saving souls even when it may cost in terms of violent counteraction or diplomatic losses. This is the ultimate way to combat jihad, the “Saint Francis solution”: converting them.

Excerpts:

However, in a combative article for Corriere della Sera, the Italian paper of which he is a deputy editor, Mr Allam - who has lived in Italy most of his adult life and has a Catholic wife - said his soul had been “liberated from the obscurantism of an ideology which legitimises lies and dissimulation, violent death, which induces both murder and suicide, and blind submission to tyranny”.

Instead he had “seen the light” and joined “the authentic religion of Truth, Life and Liberty”. He added: “Beyond the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent in a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam.”

Mr Allam, who was educated at a Salesian Catholic school in Egypt and and previously described himself as a “not very devout” Muslim, was one of seven adults baptised during the Easter vigil, which is traditionally used for adult conversion ceremonies.

He said that by baptising him publicly the Pope had “sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted, who are condemned to death for apostasy”. [Full story]

newseditor :: Mar.24.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

On behalf of all the religious and staff at Saint Benedict Center, I wish you and your families a holy, grace-filled Triduum and a blessed Easter Sunday. All friends and benefactors will be in our prayers during these most holy days of the Christian calendar.

Please tune in again on Easter Monday.

Brother Andre Marie :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

In light of the inordinate amount of media attention given to the new Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews, I would like to reveal a great secret. As we are constantly reminded, the new prayer in the 1962 Missal will be prayed by only a tiny minority of Catholics. But the new rite (1970), prayed by the vast majority of practicing Catholics, offers the following prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday:

“May Israel recognize in you her longed-for Christ (Israel in te Christum spei suae agnoscat), and may the whole earth be filled with the knowledge of your glory.”

This prayer is taken from the office of Vespers, not the Mass. So it is not recited by (or even with) most of the laity. However, the Pope, nearly all Latin Rite Bishops, and most priests, monks, and nuns bound to praying the Divine Office, will offer this prayer — under pain of sin! The same prayer is repeated on the evenings of the third and fifth Sundays of the Easter season.

For more examples of new-rite prayers for the conversion of the Jewish people, see: Father Brian Harrison on the New Good Friday Prayer.

newseditor :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Gorbachev, a convert?  Why has he hidden it?  Where does he attend Mass?  What does he mean by “[arriving] at the Church” through St. Francis of Assisi?

“It was through St. Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb,” he told reporters. The former Soviet leader spent about 30 minutes in prayer at the grotto in Assisi.

Here’s the article posted on CWN.

Brian Kelly :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Moscow, Mar 19, 2008 / 11:59 pm (CNA).- Disappointment and questions have followed the cancellation of a meeting between Moscow’s new Catholic bishop and the Patriarch of Moscow, AsiaNews reports.

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, the new archbishop of the Moscow-based Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow, on Wednesday was to meet with Alexy II, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.  The patriarchate itself announced the postponement of the meeting. Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

By PAUL SCHEMM

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a “new Crusade” against Islam and warned of a “severe” reaction to European publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that insulted many Muslims.

Bin Laden’s new audiotape message raised concerns al-Qaida was plotting new attacks in Europe. Some experts said bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border area, may be unable to organize an attack himself and instead is trying to fan anger and inspire his supporters to violence.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said bin Laden’s accusation that the pope has played a role in a worldwide campaign against Islam is “baseless.” Lombardi said the pope on several occasions has criticized the cartoons, first published in several European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February. Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Denver, Mar 20, 2008 / 02:02 am (CNA).- The former state director of the Colorado Abstinence Education Program has attacked the media coverage of a recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) study about sexually transmitted diseases in teenage girls as “scientifically flawed, medically inaccurate and politically skewed.”

She also criticized the CDC study itself for following a scientifically unsound model.

In an opinion piece in the March 19 edition of the Rocky Mountain News, Carla Adams, former director of Colorado’s federally-funded abstinence program, wrote that Planned Parenthood, Yahoo News, and “national experts” used the release of a CDC report to “create a propaganda war” blaming abstinence education for the increase in STDs. Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

The spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry responds to the call for peace issued yesterday by Benedict XVI: no tolerance for criminals. To AsiaNews, the Tibetan prime minister expresses gratitude and appreciation for the words of the pontiff. Full story at Asia News.

newseditor :: Mar.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Rome, Mar. 19, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The official Vatican newspaper has offered high praise for a film on the Katyn massacre.

The Oscar-nominated film, entitled simply Katyn, is a story based on the historical realities of 1940, when Soviet troops killed thousands of Polish military officers and intellectuals. When the mass graves were discovered in the Katyn forest, the Communist regime made the claim that Nazi troops had committed the atrocity. That claim was never accepted by many Poles– including director Andrzej Wajda, whose father was among the Katyn victims.

L’Osservatore Romano, saluting the Polish director for his tenacity in pursuing the story, said that Katyn carries a powerful message about the ultimate victory of truth over lies.

If you are interested in reading more about Katyn, here is a page with  articles in English and Polish:

http://www.katyn.org.au/

newseditor :: Mar.19.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Or, so says Reuters News Service. They have it that the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is going to author the note. Here’s the article by Reuters.

Brian Kelly :: Mar.18.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

This 2003 interview of the Vatican News Agency, Zenit, with author/historian, Bradley Birzer, is worth a read for fans of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Read.

Brian Kelly :: Mar.18.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Yes, the games must go on.  Just look the other way.  Run, jump, swim, play ping-pong, and go for the gold. The U.S. State Department is paving the way in whitewashing the ongoing atrocities of the People’s Republic of China by removing the Communist regime from its worst offender list in “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007.” Of course, the PRC has long been honored by our government with a “most favored nation” trade status.  McDonalds, Walmart, and Coca-Cola are all doing well on account of it.  Read Zenit’s “Spotlight on China” article here.

Brian Kelly :: Mar.18.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Mumbai, Mar 18, 2008 / 05:14 am (CNA).- A Hindu radical group on Saturday attacked two Catholic nuns and three teenage girls in a western Indian village as they prepared to hold a women’s educational program, UCA News reports.

Sister Merciana Tuscano, one of the Carmelite nuns attacked, told UCA News that radical Hindu men and women attacked the nuns and girls in the village of Sanghoti in the state of Maharashtra. The mob shouted at the nuns, accusing them of “converting tribal people to Christianity.” According to Sister Tuscano, the mob “told us to leave the village at once and never to come back or else they would break our legs.”

The Catholic group was in Sanghoti, a village about 75 miles south of Mumbai, to conduct programs for tribal women. The group’s activities include running adult literacy classes, encouraging self-help groups, and popularizing the government’s AIDS program. Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: Mar.18.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off