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Catholic News Service: ROME (CNS) — The Democratic Party in the United States “risks transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death,’” said U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican’s highest court. Read his interview with Avvenire here:

Brian Kelly :: Sep.30.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Ecumenical News International: Roman Catholics can learn from the 16th-century Protestant reformer Martin Luther, the Vatican’s top official for Christian unity, has said, as Protestant churches in Germany prepare to launch a 10-year series of events leading up to the 500th anniversary in 2017 of the Lutheran Reformation.

In an interview published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Cardinal Walter Kasper encouraged Catholics to read Luther’s commentaries on the Bible, and his “hymns full of spiritual power”, the German Protestant news agency epd reported.

More here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.25.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Eduardo Verástegui, the former Mexican singer and actor who starred in the hit move “Bella,” has recorded a new video asking Hispanic voters in the United States to reject Barack Obama because of his pro-abortion views. Verástegui challenges Latino voters to make abortion issues the centerpiece of their voting decisions. Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.25.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

LONDON, (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an interview, Baroness Mary Helen Warnock has said that people suffering dementia have a duty to commit suicide.Baroness Warnock, called the “philosopher queen”, is regarded as Britain’s leading moral philosopher. She said that she hopes people will soon be “licensed to put others down” who have become a burden on the health care system.

And right now the House of Lords is considering legalizing assisted suicide. Once this is passed, step two will follow: mandatory death sentences for the “useless.” Read more here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.23.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

A hundred priests and ten thousand courageous Catholics march in protest in Hanoi over Communist injustices and the confiscation of Catholic properties during previous regimes.

This is an ongoing story.  There have been many confrontations between thugs and the faithful previous to this current one.  Read about the latest confrontation here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.23.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Having read this article I kept asking myself: What does it all matter if there is salvation outside the Church?

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

This was a very inspiring address.  In it the Holy Father spoke with great eloquence on Christ’s desire to be one with us and how He left us the sacrament of His love in the Holy Eucharist.  In view of the persecution of Catholics in so many parts of the world, the pope stressed, as he has done many times before, that we must love Christ enough to give Him our very lives.  And, he spoke beautifully of the Blessed Mother.

From Zenit: LOURDES, France, SEPT. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The only thing that separates a saint from a sinner is that a saint looks less at himself and more at Christ and his love, says the Pope.

The Pope offered a commentary on the Eucharist on Sunday night at the conclusion of the Eucharistic procession in the prairie at the Marian shrine in Lourdes.

The Holy Father visited Lourdes this weekend to participate in the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions there. He returned to Rome today.

“Let us accept; may you accept to offer yourselves to him who has given us everything, who came not to judge the world, but to save it, accept to recognize in your lives the presence of him who is present here, exposed to our view. Accept to offer him your very lives,” the Pontiff said in his short address.

Benedict XVI noted that some 2,000 years ago Mary accepted “to give everything, to offer her body so as to receive the Body of the Creator.”

“Everything came from Christ, even Mary,” added the Pope. “Everything came through Mary, even Christ.” The full article is here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.15.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Paris, Sep 13, 2008 / 03:46 pm (CNA).- Over 200,000 people gathered at the square surrounding the Les Invalides complex in Paris this morning for Mass with the Pope. In his homily the Holy Father urged his listeners to “shun the worship of idols,” including the idea that man can bring “about the kingdom of eternal joy on earth.” Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.15.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Hanoi, Sep 11, 2008 / 03:08 pm (CNA).- Thousands of Catholics in Hanoi are continuing their peaceful protests asking for the return of their land illegally seized by the Vietnamese government. Worried about the international exposure of their tactics, the police are engaging in a campaign against journalists and foreign media.  Read more here.

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

He served valiantly in Vietnam, but adamantly, loudly, and persistently opposed the war in Iraq. David Donadio’s eulogy of his family’s friend is a tribute worth reading. Odom was truly one of a kind. He told the truth in whatever circumstances and whatever the consequences. His knowledge of political as well as military history was second to none. And his knowledge was not only from good teachers and books, he knew war personally, in all its horror,  from his experience in Vietnam.  In this great General’s mind, the U.S. never should have invaded Iraq. No one could gainsay his arguments proving the error of our president’s action, and the continuing fallacy of a failed enterprise that targeted a bogus enemy. He courageously titled one of his best articles: “Victory Is Not An Option.” “The president” he said, “has let (the Iraq war) proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued. He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies.” It hardly made the news when this distinguished retired officer and expert analyst, who headed our nation’s National Security Agency under Reagan, passed away on May 30th, 2008, in his summer home in Vermont. Only a few months before his death he gave a blistering critique before the U.S. Senate calling for an immediate pullout of our troops lest any more die for nothing in a region that loathes the hypocrisy of our democratic hubris as it easily perceives the real intentions of the self-righteous agenda of the American imperium. More related articles can be found here. And here.

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

Phil Lawler at CWN exposes the hypocrisy and duplicity, never mind illogic, of this double standard.  The “I will not impose my view” career politician has replaced the ideal that was true statesmanship.  Of course, that cowardly amoralism seems only to apply to the abortion issue.  Most people who elect these gutless excuses for leaders don’t want their taxes raised, but their representatives impose their own view and do so anyway, even after they’ve promised not to in their campaigns.   Read his cogent commentary here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

This time it was four sisters from Mother Theresa’s order, the Missionary Sisters of Charity. They were not physically harmed, but they were verbally assaulted by a mob at a train station, falsely accused of “forced conversions and kidnapping” and handed over to the police, who detained them as if they were criminals. In Orissa state twenty-five Christians have been killed recently, and tens of thousands have had to flee their homes for their lives. Scores of Churches, convents, nurseries, orphanages, and even homes of Catholics have been burnt to the ground with impunity. Even the refugee camps set up to shelter the homeless proved too dangerous. Some Hindu terrorists had managed to gain employment in some of these places as cooks. In one, the water supply was poisoned. Rumors spread that even the food might be lethal. In Orissa the mobs justified their violence by accusing the Christians of murdering some Hindu leaders when the crime was actually the work of a rival Communist sect. But, the real reason for the hatred, is that lower caste Hindus, who are poor and abandoned are taken in by religious sisters and given the care that only Christians are willing to do. Even if the religious do not directly try to convert them, their charity speaks the truth of the one true religion.

There is no question that extreme prudence is needed in anti-Christian countries, where laws are passed (as in 94% Hindu India) against prosyletizing. Although Catholic leaders in China are daily persecuted, imprisoned, and often sent to labor camps, there is no law at this time against making converts. The Church in China is growing exponentially, despite (I should say even because of) the persecution. In India there is a different situation. It is the Hindu extremists who go out and enforce the laws themselves, often acting as judge, jury, and executioners. The more valiant Catholics are forced to keep silence, rather than lie, when they are accused of covertly making converts. Nevertheless, it is one thing to be silent; it is another to give in to the unjust law and apologize to the anti-Catholic oppressors. Such, to me (and it’s easy for me to say it from a comfortable place), is a contradiction of the Gospel mandate: “Teach all nations.” Not every missioner can be a Francis Xavier, whose miraculous powers gave his enemies much to fear. Today, there are no such saints. So I find the following quote unfortunate, erroneous, concessionary, disturbing, and defeatist, but par for the course in this age of “diabolical disorientation”:

[Cardinal Osvaldo Gracias] stresses that he knew “Mother Teresa personally, and I was also involved with her mission, and I can vouch for the fact that never has any baby or anyone been converted by the Missionaries of Charity, either in the remotest rural area or in any part of the world”. Oh really! Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

CWN reports: At last, with a statement published in the September 5 issue of Catholic San Francisco, Archbishop Niederauer ended his silence. Acknowledging the confusion caused by the Speaker’s public remarks, he said that after some reflection he had concluded that “it is my responsibility as archbishop to discern and decide, prayerfully, how best to approach this question as it may arise in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.” Full article here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Catholiconline: “I am glad to be part of the rich history of persecution of the Catholic Church in India.” Father Thomas Chellan.  Read his story here.

Brian Kelly :: Sep.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off