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Rome, May 13, 2008 / 08:13 pm (CNA).- Fritz Michael Gerlich, a German convert to Catholicism, systematically denounced the Nazi barbarism and Hitler for over 13 years.  After his arrest, he was sent to the concentration camp of Dachau where he was killed. Now, two authors recount his story in the book, “A Journalist Against Hitler.” The rest of this inspiring post is here:

Brian Kelly :: May.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Hong Kong, May. 13, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has expressed doubts that the Chinese government is prepared to allow greater freedom for the Catholic Church.

Since the release of Pope Benedict’s letter to Chinese Catholics last May, “nothing has changed,” Cardinal Zen told the ANSA news service.  More here:

Brian Kelly :: May.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

A new book, The Roman Church and Political Modernity, by ecclesiastical historian, Carlo Fantappié, explores the legal genius of the great anti-modernist pope in his defense of the liberty of the Church and his bringing her up to date as a governing institution both in her internal polity and in relation to the secular powers.

Here is the opening of an excellent book review by Gianpaolo Romanato:

“The study that Carlo Fantappiè, professor of canon law at the University of Urbino, has just released with the publisher Giuffrè – “Chiesa romana e modernità giuridica [The Roman Church and juridical modernity]” – represents a scholarly achievement that does not concern only the students of law, but also historians of the Church and of Christianity.

“In the two volumes of this truly imposing work, of almost 1300 pages, the author demonstrates that the Code of Canon Law mandated by Pius X and promulgated by Benedict XV in 1917 was much more than a technical work of the reorganization and simplification of juridical norms.

“It was in reality a profound reflection on the past, on the present, and on the future of the Church of Rome, and directed to a plan for Church reform within which law was the means, not the end.”

Read full Chiesa News article by Sandro Magister here:

Brian Kelly :: May.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

LifeNews.com: “As the very first line of Steven Mosher’s latest book reads, we have all grown up “on a poisonous diet of overpopulation propaganda.”Mosher’s book, Population Control-Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, is, first and foremost, an answer to the allegation that the human race is inexorably multiplying, hell-bent toward a giant demographic cliff like so many lemmings.”

Read full article here:

Brian Kelly :: May.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Well, there are thirty-five craters on the moon named after Jesuit astronomers.  Maybe those who decide such things can find another hole up there, or somewhere, to name after this star gazing padre. Father Jose Funes does not believe that believing in outer space aliens compromises any Catholic doctrine.  Not only does it compromise the Incarnation being the central event of all creation, not only does it compromise Our Lady’s singular privilege of being “THE” Immaculate Conception, not only does it make Genesis a myth, and original sin “a local problem,” and the Passion of Our Savior less than universal in its redemptive extension, but it makes a mockery of God’s wisdom in creating man in His own image and likeness, creating the soul out of nothing to inform the individual matter thus ennobling  the human body and making man what he is, “a little less than the angels.”

The body was so formed by God to be animated by an intelligent soul. This was not by chance or evolution.  No man ever had a non-rational creature for a parent.  This nonsense is most assuredly heretical.  And what does this do to the Catholic doctrine of the last judgment and the resurrection of the dead and re-creation of the world and the order and purpose of this world and the hierarchy of things? It makes the earth and the human experience and the Incarnation itself a mere sideshow.  Are we going to share heaven with other non-Adamites who have some other kind of body? Will they be glorified monsters with a extra appendages, maybe eyes in the back of their head to get a panoramic view? Or will they be homo-sapiens from another earth-like planet?  Or maybe there’s a mirror galaxy out there with another  me and another you?  Anything is possible when you discard all logic.

Telescopic star gazers are idlers. They achieve nothing good for anyone. At least if they put their eye in a microscope they could something worth while, like find a cure for some disease.  So, how do they justify their vagrant idleness in galaxy surfing?  They give lectures, or hold a media interview where they can expound upon their “idle words” and tickle people’s imaginations.  What a vocation!
Vatican City, May 13, 2008 / 01:59 pm (CNA).- The Director of the Vatican’s Observatory, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, said in an interview with the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, that believing in the possible existence of extraterrestrial  life is not opposed to Catholic doctrine. Full article here:

Brian Kelly :: May.13.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Vatican, May. 12, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Humanae Vitae (doc), the landmark encyclical of Pope Paul VI “became a sign of contradiction” because it upheld the Church’s traditional condemnation of contraception, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) told a Roman audience on May 10.

Full article here:

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CNA STAFF, May 10, 2008 / 04:58 pm (CNA).- A former Jordanian minister has seized upon commentary about the decline of Western power, saying on Arabic-language television that Islam will conquer Rome.  He went on to say that Spain is an Islamic land that should be retaken and that America has begun to realize its “end is near.”

Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: May.12.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Vatican, May. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos has told an Italian magazine that diocesan bishops should show good will in granting requests for the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass under the terms of the motu proprio authorizing wider use of the extraordinary form.

In an interview with Jesus magazine, the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission declined to comment on reports that his office will soon issue a new document clarifying the motu proprio. Any decision on the release of such a document will be made by Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news), the cardinal said.  Read more here.

Brian Kelly :: May.12.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Kansas, May. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has announced that Governor Kathleen Sebelius should not receive Communion because of her support for legal abortion. Read article here.

Brian Kelly :: May.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

The actor, Jim Caviezel, has some words of wisdom that you may like to read in this interview with Lifesite News.

Brian Kelly :: May.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

These were the last words of Ismael Molinero Novillo from his deathbed in a prison of war camp.

“I want nothing of this world.  I belong to God and I live for God. If I die I will be totally God’s in heaven, and if I don’t die, I want to be a priest.  We need saints!”

Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: May.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

And this for a letter-to-the-editor she wrote as a private individual on her own time.

Toledo,OH, May 8, 2008 / 03:01 am (CNA).- An administrator at the University of Toledo has been placed on paid administrative leave after writing a column in a local paper that argued against including homosexuals as “civil rights victims” and characterized homosexuality as a lifestyle choice.  More here.

Brian Kelly :: May.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Vatican City, May 8, 2008 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- In a letter to all of the episcopal conferences of the world to mark the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on May 30, the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, has said that the priestly vocation can only be lived with radical commitment.

The Cardinal also stressed a continuous abandonment to Mary in this inspiring message.  Well worth reading here.

Brian Kelly :: May.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

CWN reports

Warsaw, May. 6, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Roughly one-fourth of the students graduating from Polish high schools this year will make a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Czestochowa, the KAI news agency reports.

About 125,000 students are expected to participate in the 34 different pilgrimages that are being organized by Polish dioceses for recent high-school graduates.

Brian Kelly :: May.07.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

This is a very important visit the success of which we should pray for.

Armenian prelate begins visit to Rome

Vatican, May. 6, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, arrives in Rome today for a visit that will continue through May 9.

The Armenian patriarch– who will be accompanied by 18 bishops and 75 members of the Armenian laity– will be formally greeted by Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) at the regular Wednesday papal audience on May 7. Catholicos Karekin will meet privately with the Pontiff on Friday, May 9.  Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: May.07.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Bo Pelini, head football coach at the University of Nebraska, threw his support behind the fundrais-ing campaign by addressing more than 100 supporters of Catholic radio at an event April 13 in Lincoln.

“Catholic radio is a lot like coaching,” Pelini said. “You reach people in different ways.”

A member of St. Peter Parish in Lincoln, Pelini told the crowd he is “committed” to Catholic radio.  More here.

Brian Kelly :: May.06.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

This news is so disheartening that I am unable to comment.

Associated Press includes this lie in its wimpish and accommodating article:

“While China’s most onerous restrictions on religious activity have been lifted, many of the country’s estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church.”

China’s “most onerous restrictions” on Catholic religious activity have not been lifted; they continue in full force. Restrictions have been lifted for those schismatics who register with the government run Catholic Patriotic Association. In joining the Association one must sign a denial of one’s allegiance to the authority of the pope. Priests and bishops who have not joined are routinely rounded up and incarcerated. Many of them have never been heard from. Many of them are doing hard labor in “reeducation camps.”

You can read the whole page of misinformation here.

Brian Kelly :: May.06.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Naples, May. 5, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Italian media reports confirmed that the blood of St. Januarius liquefied on May 4 in a recurrence of an annual miracle. Read article here

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Rome, May. 5, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Rosary is “not some pious practice relegated to the past,” Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) remarked on May 3. In fact, he observed, “the Rosary is experience what is almost a new springtime.”

The Holy Father led the recitation of the Rosary in the basilica of St. Mary Major on Saturday evening, at the start of the month traditionally dedicated to Marian prayers and pilgrimages. The Pope said that in his mind, “May evenings call up pleasant memories of evening appointments to pay homage to the Virgin Mary.” More here.

Brian Kelly :: May.06.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Mexico City, May. 5, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Mexican priest was beaten to death in his rectory on Friday, May 2.

Father Julio Cesar Mendoza Acuna, who was 33, was found bound and beaten in the bathroom of his rectory in Mexico City. He was taken to a nearby hospital, but doctors were unable to save his life.

Police have not yet established a motive for the crime.

Brian Kelly :: May.06.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off