Saturday, July 31, 2010

"Snowshoe Priest" miracle moves U.P. bishop's cause for sainthood

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Following a four-month investigation, the Diocese of Marquette [in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan] has closed its inquiry into an alleged miracle attributed to its first bishop, Servant of God Frederic Baraga, who is known as the “snowshoe priest.” The inquiry now proceeds to the Vatican for further consideration.

The alleged miracle concerns a reputed tumor found on a patient’s liver in various diagnostic tests. The patient, the patient’s family and their parish priest prayed for healing through the intercession of Bishop Baraga. Bishop Baraga’s stole was also placed on the patient’s abdomen, after which the patient’s pain ceased.

An exploratory surgery by doctors found no tumor, according to the diocese.

See more at the site of The Badger Catholic for this article on Servant of God Bishop Baraga and other Cheesehead Catholic Communications

See Stella Borealis posts on Bishop Baraga and his epic journey paddling across Lake Superior to Minnesota in a storm.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Mother Teresa still touching hearts

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Long line of people venerate her relics during Cathedral stop


The line stretched from the Com­munion rail of the Cathedral of St. Paul down the aisle and out the door. Hun­dreds of people were lined up to view and venerate relics of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which were on display for one day at the cathedral July 19.

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Gabriella Wenisch, left, and her mother, Molly Mitch, of St. Edward in Bloomington move in for a closer look at a pair of sandals worn by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta during veneration of this and other relics at the Cathedral of St. Paul July 19. Also on display were a crucifix and rosary, plus a winter coat and mittens worn by Mother Teresa during a visit to Minnesota. VIEW SLIDESHOW
The veneration was scheduled to take place for just one hour, from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by Mass celebrated by Bishop Lee Piché. But it continued after Mass due to the large number of people, some of whom were still waiting in line when the first veneration ended at 7.

Cameras flashed, fingers reached out and tears flowed as men, women and children filed past the display, which included a rosary, crucifix and sandals worn by Mother Teresa, a candidate for sainthood who died Sept. 5, 1997, at age 87.

Pope John Paul II beatified her Oct. 19, 2003.

The relics are making their way around the United States and Canada as part of various events being held to mark the centennial of Mother Teresa’s birth, Aug. 26.

Emotions were visible as people walked the fine line between pausing to soak in the aura of the relics and keeping their feet moving to give others that same opportunity.



For people like Beth Bauer of St. Michael in St. Michael, the relics not only captivated her, but fueled a devotion to Mother Teresa that has lasted her entire adult life.

“I have had a special devotion to Mother Teresa since I was a teenager,” she said. “My dad took me to see Mother Teresa at the Mayo Civic Auditorium in Rochester when I was in high school. It was one of those experiences where I remember everything about the location I was in and where she was as I listened to her speak. Afterwards, she was taking questions in a smaller area in the auditorium.

“That meeting was life-changing, in the sense that, whenever I think about her or think about going to India, I get a wonderful sense of peace and love. I got the same feeling [while at the Cathedral for the veneration] and am so thankful for those blessings.”

Those who went through the long line started by venerating containers with some of Mother Teresa’s blood. Then, they proceeded down the Communion rail to venerate the relics.

Stationed a short distance away was a display with a winter coat and mittens worn by Mother Teresa during a visit to Minnesota.

At the end of the line were Missionaries of Charity Sisters handing out medals, prayer cards and book marks. People also got a chance to write down their prayer intentions in a book that is on its way to the Missionaries’ convent in India.

Today, the order consists of 4,500 sisters including a community in living in south Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood.
Catholic Spirit

Cathedral to host events honoring Blessed Teresa


The Cathedral of St. Paul will host the following events in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

» Thursday, Aug. 26 at 5:15 p.m. Mass in honor of Blessed Teresa followed by eucharistic adoration with meditations from her writings until Benediction at 7 p.m.

» Monday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. Showing of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Mother Teresa” in Hayden Hall, 328 Kellogg Boulevard, St. Paul.

» Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. Showing of “Mother Teresa: The Legacy” in Hayden

Your Great Catholic Minnesota Road Trip: Cathedral of St. Paul, No 1

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With the onset of August, ‘tis the season to stuff the cooler, pack the car and head off on the open road. Whether you’re heading north, east, west or south, it’s worth straying from the beaten path to check out these Minnesota sites with Catholic connections. Be it beautiful, historic or downright quirky, each one will get you and your road mates talking about the centuries-old relationship between the church and our state.

The Cathedral of St. Paul

239 Selby Ave., St. Paul

With its prominent place in the capital city — both on the skyline and in the guidebooks — you might think one could have enough of the Cathedral of St. Paul. Au contraire! This landmark is worth checking out, even if you’ve been here more times than you can count. Recently given the additional designation as the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul, the Cathedral has free 1 p.m. tours on Monday-Friday. Or, if you explore it on your own, keep an eye out for the Founder’s Chapel and baptistry’s stained glass windows with figures from Minnesota’s Catholic history, and don’t miss the stone in the St. Therese chapel from the tower at Rouen where St. Joan of Arc was held during her 1431 trial. Catholic Spirit

Windpipes made with Adult Stem Cells Help Cancer Patients

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from Family Research Council Blog

Italian doctors have announced the use of patients’ own adult stem cells to fabricate new tracheas for two cancer patients. The surgical team was led by Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, has used this technique in prior surgeries, though not for cancer patients. The two patients were a 31-year-old Czech woman with a 6-month-old son, and a 19-year-old British woman. The surgeries took place on July 3 and 13, and both patients are in good condition and have been released from the hospital in Florence just weeks after the surgery. The hospital said that the British woman was speaking after only three or four days.

To grow a new trachea, the doctors started with a donor trachea and removed all of the cells. The cartilage scaffold left after the procedure was then bathed in the patient’s bone marrow adult stem cells prior to transplantation. Over a period of 2-3 months the adult stem cells cover the scaffold with new tissue, grown within the body of the patient. Using the patient’s own adult stem cells removes any problems with tissue rejection. According to Dr. Walter Giovannini, director of the AOU Careggi hospital where the surgeries took place:

“This is a unique solution for a problem that had none, except the death of the patient.”

Dr. Macchiarini told the press conference in Florence that the procedure could in the future be applied to other organs.

“I’m thinking about the larynx or surgeries involving lungs.”

Catholic psychologist trains confessors in growing problem of pornography

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New York archdiocesan clergy among those learning how to help parishioners battle addiction to porn

Priests meet them in the confessional. Clinical therapist and counselor Peter Kleponis meets them in his office — men who are caught up in the epidemic of viewing pornography.

The Archdiocese of New York in June gave priests a unique opportunity to learn from Kleponis.

One man looked at pornography online on his home computer for more than 10 years, always navigating away and erasing his Internet history when he was done, so that his wife wouldn’t know. One day he forgot to, and the images his wife saw so disgusted her that she left him.

Another man worked hard to reach an executive level at his corporation. The stress of the new position and the privacy of his new office combined to coax him into looking at porn at work. He began to spend more and more time doing it until other managers got suspicious. They discovered what he was doing and fired him.

Evidence of epidemic

Kleponis, who specializes in men’s issues, works with men like that all the time — and he wants to teach priests the right way to handle them.

“Every day I talk to people who are struggling with this addiction,” said Kleponis, of the Institute for Marital Healing in West Conshohocken, Pa. “I don’t have any clients struggling with drug addiction or alcohol addiction alone. It’s mainly all pornography.”

He told Our Sunday Visitor he talks to priests around the country, and “this is the No. 1 sin they are hearing from men in the confessional.”

It’s no wonder. While reliable statistics on the size of the pornography industry are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence of a massive problem is not.

On July 8, the U.S. House voted to block pornography from government computers after a series of embarrassing incidents in which Securities and Exchange Commission workers were caught spending hours at work looking at pornography. On July 23, the Boston Globe revealed that a child-pornography investigation has exposed offenders in the Pentagon, including the National Security Agency.

As for statistics, the recently released “Pornland” (Beacon Press, $26.95), by Gail Dines, cites market research conducted by Internet providers suggesting that the average age a boy first sees porn is 11; one-third of 13-year-old boys admitted viewing porn; a third of 14- to 16-year-olds had first seen sexual images online when they were 10 or younger.

Kleponis said the reality is even worse. “Any statistics we have are probably gross underestimates of it, because so much of it is unreported. It’s men late at night alone with their computers.”

Confession crackdown

Catholics are paying attention. Kleponis is scheduled to be on EWTN soon to speak about healing from porn and has been booked by several dioceses.

“People are finally saying, ‘Hey, we have to do something about this,’” he said. Those people include bishops.

It all started when the New York archdiocese came looking for help on this issue. Alarmed by the constant mentions of pornography by penitents, priests were clamoring for training. “It was no longer enough to say, ‘You’ve made a great confession. Pray and do better,’” said Kleponis.

He worked with the family life office, the office of Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the priest personnel office and the safe environment office. He conducted mandatory seminars with archdiocesan clergy.

Now, when one of the priests he trained hears from a penitent in the confessional, he can give him specific advice.

Art Bennett, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, Va., can vouch for Kleponis’ approach. In his previous work as a licensed family therapist, he assisted Bishop Paul S. Loverde on his response to the pornography problem. In 2007, the Arlington diocese launched UnityRestored.com and also provided cards for priests to hand out in the confessionals.

“The thing that was most rewarding was seeing how people went and got help because of it,” Bennett told OSV. “People would come in and say, ‘My confessor gave me this card.’”

Bennett said that when priests hear that this is a real addiction, they are relieved. They can tell people how to seek help.

“It’s my hope that other dioceses will also develop programs for this,” Kleponis told OSV. He pointed out that most child molesters start out as pornography users, making his efforts compatible with efforts to protect children.

Emotional wounds

Both Kleponis and Bennett incorporate the wisdom of a bishop’s 2007 pastoral letter into their works. Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., wrote “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart,” which does not just condemn use of pornography, but reaches out to those who use porn and lists ways for them to become reconciled with the Church. Kleponis offers a DVD study guide of the pastoral letter.

In the document, Bishop Finn writes: “While some would say that the opposite of love is hate, [Pope John Paul II] taught that the opposite of love is use. The idea is that if you do not love someone, you will end up using that person.”

This gets to the heart of why pornography is wrong, he wrote. On the one hand, “One may never use another person as an object for one’s own pleasure.” And ultimately, wrote the bishop, “the only proper response to a person is love.”

Patrick Fagan at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., calls pornography “the quiet family killer.”

Fagan consolidated research about the effects of pornography in a paper in December, citing mainstream research to show that pornography is a real, chemical addiction because of the glandular effect it has on the brain.

Kleponis has seen evidence of that. “I’ve worked with guys who were online at work looking at pornography and lost their jobs,” he told OSV. “The addiction is such that even if they know that corporate big brother is watching, they still do it.”

Fagan found that pornography use has a devastating effect on wives once they find out — psychologically, the same effect as marital infidelity. It was cited in more than half of divorces in one study.

In pornography cases, “the biggest wound is the trust wound,” Kleponis said. “The trust is severely damaged. What also happens is that women talk about all the emotions they feel. They feel hurt, they feel betrayed, the feel like they’ve been lied to. But the biggest emotion they feel is foolish. … They feel like they have been made fools for trusting their husband. They feel like they can’t stay with their husbands without people saying, ‘How she could stay with him?’”

Confessional Advice (sidebar)

The Archdiocese of New York recently provided formal training for priests in how to help those who have ongoing problems with pornography. Here are suggestions of what might be helpful to say to a penitent:

  • Thank God for your strength in coming forward and admitting you have a problem. This is the first step in your journey to recovery.
  • You’re not alone. Thousands of men struggle with compulsive pornography use.
  • Do you want to be free from this sin? Are you willing to pay the price?
  • Healing and freedom from this sin is possible, but know that you can’t do it alone.
  • It requires God’s grace, professional help, and support from other men who understand your struggle.
  • Here is a card that will direct you to helpful resources. If you’re serious about overcoming pornography use, I urge you to explore them. (The cards refer penitents to: www.flrl.org/TrueFreedom.htm)
  • Know that God, the Father of Mercy and Love, will provide the grace to overcome this sin.

Peter Kleponis, who trained archdiocesan priests, also recommends the monitoring software at CovenantEyes.com
Our Sunday Visitor

Tip O' the Hat to Tancred at The Eponymous Flower

Fr. Peter Williams, archdiocesan vocations director, says that Eucharistic Adoration is the cause of increased vocations at the St. Paul Seminary

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Minnesota Public Radio
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Father Peter Williams (left), the vocations director at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity at the University of St. Thomas, speaks with St. Paul seminary students John Wehrly and Jake Anderson. St. Paul Seminary is bucking trends. Its enrollment numbers are up, while national numbers suggest a downturn in enrollment. (MPR Photo/Annie Baxter)

View full slideshow (4 total images)

A couple dozen seminarians and nuns bend their heads in prayer during Mass at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. It's on the campus of the University of St. Thomas.

The school has defied national trends for Catholic seminaries with its recent spike in enrollment. Officials say point blank: the economy is not a factor. They cite some distinctly non-economic drivers for the boost, including what one official called "increased Eucharistic adoration."

Father Peter Williams deals with potential seminarians. He says he has fielded the occasional inquiry about priesthood from men battered by the recession. Some lost jobs, some went through bankruptcy. Williams says that can raise some questions about admitting people.

"It's always a difficult place to determine whether a man's call is authentic. You don't want a hint that this is a way out of a troublesome situation he's found himself in," Williams said.

Rather than fleeing financial misfortune, Williams said, many candidates over the past couple years were leaving more lucrative jobs on the table. Among them, 24-year-old Jake Anderson, a second-year seminarian. Anderson studied business and economics in college and went on to work for a consulting firm, but he gave up that job as his spiritual life deepened.

"I really started taking my faith more seriously, and as such my interest and passion for what I thought I always wanted to do, decreased," he said.

Since then, Anderson's received several more job offers that he's spurned. He says he does worry a bit about what will happen to his resume if for some reason he should change his mind about seminary.

But at least Anderson won't suffer too much financially in the meantime. The Catholic Church picks up the tab for his tuition. And while he'll only make about $20,000 a year in his job, the overall shortage of Catholic priests means he's likely guaranteed employment. . . .

Tip O' the Hat to Tancred at The Eponymous Flower

Comment: While the archdiocese does pick up the expense for tuition for seminarians in the St. Paul Seminary, other expenses such as books, parking fees and other expenses that a student might need are the responsibility of the seminarians. There are individuals and organizations in the area that do provide additional financial assistance to some needy seminarians. Perhaps you might assist also.


Why do we kneel at Mass?

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Archbishop John C. Nienstedt in the Catholic Spirit

I enjoy doing school visits when I can celebrate Mass with the school community and visit classrooms besides.

In a recent question-and-answer session, a young student asked me why we kneel at Mass. I responded by saying that we, as human beings, are both body and spirit and that these two elements have a very direct influence on one another.

Obviously, whenever we pray we use our whole body, because we know that is the best way to engage our hearts fully. When we stand or kneel, bow or genuflect, we are expressing in action what we mean to say from our heart. Kneeling expresses adoration, humility and willing service.

Deeper meaning

The more I have thought about it, however, the more I realized there was much more to add to this answer.

Kneeling is not a common gesture in our society. People stand up for what they believe and they stand in the presence of dignitaries. We leap to our feet with joy at a touchdown of the Vikings or the presence of a loved one.

But kneeling is a much more meaningful and intimate gesture. A man takes to his knee when proposing to his future wife. We kneel in the presence of overwhelming mystery. We kneel to adore, and to ask for mercy, to offer humble reverence to our God.

The rubric for kneeling at Mass is found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM 2003), 43:

“The faithful should stand from the beginning of the Entrance chant, or while the priest approaches the altar, until the end of the Collect; for the Alleluia chant before the Gospel; while the Gospel itself is proclaimed; during the Profession of Faith and the Prayer of the Faithful; from the invitation, “Orate, fratres” (Pray, brethren), before the prayer over the offerings until the end of Mass, except at the places indicated below.

“. . . In the dioceses of the United States of America, they should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason. Those who do not kneel ought to make a profound bow when the priest genuflects after the consecration. The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise.”

It should be noted that the universal GIRM states the faithful should kneel during the consecration from the first epiclesis to the memorial acclamation, but the U.S. bishops have requested and received permission for Catholics in the U.S. to kneel from the Sanctus until the Amen. They have done this because they believe that this gesture has important pastoral significance for U.S. Catholics in their reverence for the Eucharist.

Some context and history

As can be seen from the GIRM, the fundamental posture of the liturgy is standing. Standing is the natural gesture of respect toward authority — even today we stand when someone enters the room.

This is why the assembly stands when the celebrant enters and exits the church. Indeed, we know that standing is the normal posture for prayer we received from our Jewish ancestors and was common for early Christian prayer as well.

Standing is considered in the tradition to be the sign of the resurrection, as St. Basil the Great says in his treatise on the Holy Spirit: “We pray standing, on the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or ‘standing again’; Greek ‘anastasis’) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to ‘seek those things which are above,’ but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect …” (Chapter 27).

It is this connection to the Resurrection which can still be found in rubrics which say that during the Easter season certain prayers, like litanies, are said standing and not kneeling.

Kneeling, however, is also an ancient posture of prayer. It seems that kneeling, both in the Christian and the Jewish tradition, was the posture used in especially intense periods of prayer and repentance.

Thus, Solomon dedicating the very first Temple to the Lord, prayed “kneeling down in the presence of all the multitude of Israel, and lifting up his hands towards Heaven” (2 Chronicles 6:13; cf. 1 Kings 8:54).

St. Stephen is described before his martyrdom in intense prayer: “falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice” (Acts 7:59). St. Peter prayed kneeling when he asked God to raise Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:40).

We see that the Lord himself prayed kneeling at the most intense moment of his agony in the Garden: “kneeling down, he prayed” (Luke 22:41).

The Book of Revelation describes the faithful kneeling even in heaven, when the 24 elders “fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne.”

At the most intense moments of prayer and adoration it is a natural gesture to fall to one’s knees.

The liturgy originally saw kneeling mainly as a penitential prayer, which is why the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) forbade penitents to kneel on Sundays and during the Easter season.

However, the meaning of this gesture developed in the tradition of our church so that little by little the gesture lost its exclusively penitential connotation. During the Middle Ages, in order to emphasize the reverence due to the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, kneeling took the additional meaning of profound respect and adoration that is prevalent today.

Lost reverence


We live in a society that has in many ways has lost reverence for things which are holy and sacred. We approach God in a way that is casual, almost as if he is on the same level as us. This lack of reverence can really reflect a lack of humility. It is a lack of recognition of who God is and who I am, and how I need to come before God with humility and reverence.

Humility is not a prized virtue in our society which often focuses on putting one’s self at the center of life, rather than God. Christianity, on the other hand, has always prized humility as the way to heaven, in imitation of Christ who humbled himself to come among us as human in order to restore us to communion with God.

As St. Paul made clear in Philippians 2:5-8: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

It is for this reason, Christ’s humility, that he is exalted above heaven and earth by the Father. And as St. Paul says, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10).

Here we find two important pastoral reasons why the U.S. bishops have required that all Catholics kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer from the Sanctus until the conclusion of the great Amen.

First is the desire to emphasize the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We stand when we pray, except at those moments which are most sacred to us, those moments when Christ’s presence is most near. Then, in reverential adoration, we kneel before the Lord of the universe, even as the priest genuflects after the words of consecration.

Second, we live in a society in which people almost never kneel, all the more reason to keep this gesture of humility in our worship before God.

When we kneel we remind ourselves that we are not God and we are not in charge; rather, we are only creatures before our Lord who loves us so much that he comes to us as food to sustain our spiritual lives.

Yes, there is a lot behind the question of why we kneel at Mass. It is good to know why we do so.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Did Pope Benedict XVI Drop the Ball on the Clerical Sexual Abuse Issue?

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Judging from many of the press reports we’ve seen since March, the Holy Father was negligent when it came to the handling of the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. However, the public record shows something completely different. In fact, as Cardinal and prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he did more than anyone previously to prevent the problem.

Matthew Bunson, editor of The Catholic Answer magazine, has recently co-authored the Our Sunday Visitor book “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal.” He argues that Pope Benedict’s real record is quite different from what the average Catholic in the pews is hearing from most of the news coverage.

“The average Catholic in the pews is confused,” said Bunson. “They’re hearing these accusations, suggestions and implications about the Holy Father – that he was somehow negligent as Archbishop in Munich, that he failed in his duties as head of the CDF, and that as Pope he has done very little to help bring an end to this problem in the Church – and they’re not sure if those accusations are true.”

“It’s become abundantly obvious to anyone who does extensive research, that for a very long time, the Church leadership in the U.S. and elsewhere was not aware of the scale and depth of the problem,” added Bunson. “Very few cases found their way to the CDF. They were handled by different departments, depending upon their nature. The Congregation for the Clergy handled a lot of them; the Rota – one of the courts of the Church – handled some of them. The Apostolic Signatura, which is the Supreme Court of the Church handled others.”

“As the situation grew more significant and the cases increased in number, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as prefect for the CDF, became aware of the problem facing the Church around the world,” said Bunson. “Cardinal Ratzinger became convinced of the need for a centralization in the Vatican’s handling of these cases. The decree, issued in 2001, effectively moved all of the cases to the authority under the jurisdiction of the CDF.”

“From that point on, we can see that Cardinal Ratzinger became one of the world’s leading experts, if not the one person in the Church, who understood more profoundly what was going on,” continued Bunson. “He used to hold a Friday summary meeting where these cases were discussed. He came to refer to them as his ‘Friday penance.’”

“How aware he was, and committed he was, in dealing with the problem was revealed by his use of the term ‘filth’ when referring to abusive priests in his now famous 2005 Stations of the Cross, when he substituted for the ailing Pope John Paul II,” said Bunson. “We can see this process of understanding deepen and deepen in Cardinal Ratzinger, so that by the time he was elected, he became one of the great champions for reform in the Church, tying it to his wider program of spiritual renewal for the Church and the whole of western civilization. This is a very important matter to him and has been for a very long time.”

“The Good Friday meditations was the first real occasion he had to speak about this in a prayerful way,” said Bunson. “It set the pattern for how he has approached discussing this in public ever since his election, some weeks later. He has not handled this as a public relations problem, but sees that any meaningful substantive reform of the Church must be tied with a genuine, authentic spiritual renewal. We can have all kinds of laws in place, but this crisis is not going to be dealt with effectively and permanently unless we have all of us Catholics working together to make the Church as strong as she can be.”

“It’s safe to say that the Catholic Church is, today, the safest environment for children than any other institution in the U.S.,” said Bunson. “So much so, that the Catholic Church is a role model for other institutions dealing with the same exact problem.” Tim Drake, National Catholic Register

First Things "Students of Faith Survey" of U.S. Catholic Colleges and Universities

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In the Fall of 2010, for the first time ever, First Things will release its own college rankings and guide. As many of you will know from experience, picking the right college is a difficult and trying process, especially for parents and students concerned not only with academic quality but with spiritual and religious formation.

Among the many college guides and rankings, none offers students and parents adequate insight into how schools stack up in relation to matters of faith, religious practice, religious and political bias in the classroom, support for religious groups, and the relations of faith to the actual currents in contemporary student life. Most of them touch on religion, but not at the depth religiously committed parents and students need.

In preparing this issue, First Things has been conducting ground-breaking research, and now we’re asking our readers for your insights. The Students of Faith Survey, for current students and recent graduates, will help us polish our research on the religious currents in academia today.

If you’re a member of the classes of 2010 to 2013, please fill out the form. If not, please send the link to to your college age children, acquaintances, recent grads, and children of your friends. If you are a college minister, chaplain, or have any organizational relation to college students and recent graduates, we’d be grateful if you would pass this message on to them and encourage them to participate. If you have a website, we’d be grateful if you’d post the link and encourage your readers to fill out the survey.

The more responses we get, and the wider the diversity of students and schools represented, the more helpful will be the information we can provide. Help us learn about what it is really like in academia for students of faith, so that we can help future classes of college students work through one of the most important decisions in their lives.

At the risk of sounding like one of those annoying radio ads, please fill out the Students of Faith Survey. First Things


Did Pope Benedict XVI Drop the Ball?

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Judging from many of the press reports we’ve seen since March, the Holy Father was negligent when it came to the handling of the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. However, the public record shows something completely different. In fact, as Cardinal and prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he did more than anyone previously to prevent the problem.

Matthew Bunson, editor of The Catholic Answer magazine, has recently co-authored the Our Sunday Visitor book “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal.” He argues that Pope Benedict’s real record is quite different from what the average Catholic in the pews is hearing from most of the news coverage.

“The average Catholic in the pews is confused,” said Bunson. “They’re hearing these accusations, suggestions and implications about the Holy Father – that he was somehow negligent as Archbishop in Munich, that he failed in his duties as head of the CDF, and that as Pope he has done very little to help bring an end to this problem in the Church – and they’re not sure if those accusations are true.”

“It’s become abundantly obvious to anyone who does extensive research, that for a very long time, the Church leadership in the U.S. and elsewhere was not aware of the scale and depth of the problem,” added Bunson. “Very few cases found their way to the CDF. They were handled by different departments, depending upon their nature. The Congregation for the Clergy handled a lot of them; the Rota – one of the courts of the Church – handled some of them. The Apostolic Signatura, which is the Supreme Court of the Church handled others.”

“As the situation grew more significant and the cases increased in number, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as prefect for the CDF, became aware of the problem facing the Church around the world,” said Bunson. “Cardinal Ratzinger became convinced of the need for a centralization in the Vatican’s handling of these cases. The decree, issued in 2001, effectively moved all of the cases to the authority under the jurisdiction of the CDF.”

“From that point on, we can see that Cardinal Ratzinger became one of the world’s leading experts, if not the one person in the Church, who understood more profoundly what was going on,” continued Bunson. “He used to hold a Friday summary meeting where these cases were discussed. He came to refer to them as his ‘Friday penance.’”

“How aware he was, and committed he was, in dealing with the problem was revealed by his use of the term ‘filth’ when referring to abusive priests in his now famous 2005 Stations of the Cross, when he substituted for the ailing Pope John Paul II,” said Bunson. “We can see this process of understanding deepen and deepen in Cardinal Ratzinger, so that by the time he was elected, he became one of the great champions for reform in the Church, tying it to his wider program of spiritual renewal for the Church and the whole of western civilization. This is a very important matter to him and has been for a very long time.”

“The Good Friday meditations was the first real occasion he had to speak about this in a prayerful way,” said Bunson. “It set the pattern for how he has approached discussing this in public ever since his election, some weeks later. He has not handled this as a public relations problem, but sees that any meaningful substantive reform of the Church must be tied with a genuine, authentic spiritual renewal. We can have all kinds of laws in place, but this crisis is not going to be dealt with effectively and permanently unless we have all of us Catholics working together to make the Church as strong as she can be.”

“It’s safe to say that the Catholic Church is, today, the safest environment for children than any other institution in the U.S.,” said Bunson. “So much so, that the Catholic Church is a role model for other institutions dealing with the same exact problem.” Tim Drake, National Catholic Register

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Mark Your Calendar! NOM Marriage Tour Comes to Minnesota!: Weds July 28, Noon - 1:00 p.m. - State Capitol

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The NOM (National Organization For Marriage) Marriage Tour 2010: One Man, One Woman is coming to Minnesota!

Mark your calendar now. The NOM Marriage Tour will be in Minnesota for three days next week, starting Wednesday (7/28) in St. Paul, Thursday (7/29) in St. Cloud, and Friday (7/30) in Rochester. Please make an effort to join us at one of the three rallies!

This year is a pivotal year for the future of marriage in Minnesota. Already, the Defense of Marriage Act is under attack in the courts, several candidates for governor have announced their support for same-sex marriage, and if we don’t stand up today, it could soon be too late.

OutFront Minnesota, a homosexual group, has scheduled a rally of their own inside the capitol rotunda between 12 and 12:30. http://www.outfront.org/3daysofaction

They also plan rallies in St. Cloud and Rochester on the 29th and the 30th. Saint Cloud's homosexual rally will take place at Wilson Park from 7pm-8:30pm on Thursday, July 29. Rochester will also hold a rally on the next day, but the details have not been finalized

National Organization for Marriage rallies in Albany, NY and Providence, RI, (both state capitols) were met with aggressive opposition by homosexual protestors. It is likely that there will be a confrontation for this Minnesota event too.

It would be good if as many of us as possible could attend these Minnesota rallies.



St. Paul Rally
Wednesday, July 28 at 12pm (noon)
Minnesota State Capitol
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155
Click here for directions.
RSVP on Facebook.

St. Cloud Rally
Thursday, July 29 at 12pm (noon)
Granite City Baptist Church
1425 Country Road 134
St. Cloud, Minnesota 56303
Click here for directions.
RSVP on Facebook.

Rochester Rally
Friday, July 30 at 12pm (noon)
New Life Worship Center
6301 34th Avenue NW
Rochester, Minnesota 55901
Click here for directions.
RSVP on Facebook.

Joining me in speaking at all three events will be Chuck Darrell, Communications Director for the Minnesota Family Council. Chuck has been heavily involved in the effort to pass a constitutional amendment that would protect marriage in Minnesota, and will share some of the latest developments in that effort. The three events will also bring together pastors and other local leaders who will urge attendees to make a difference for marriage, starting in your own communities. Together, we will outline the urgency of the threat to marriage in Minnesota this year, and the potential impact we will have if we join together and make our voices heard.

A good turnout is important at each of these events, as the media has begun paying close attention to the Summer for Marriage Tour stops. Please contact your friends and neighbors, urging them to join you at one of these Minnesota rallies. Use Facebook or other social networks to spread the word. You can even RSVP online (click here), or just show up at noon to stand for marriage!

If at all possible, I hope you’ll take a long lunch hour and join us in St. Paul, St. Cloud, or Rochester next week. Come on out for an inspiring hour, hearing from terrific speakers, meeting up with old friends from marriage battles of years past. . . . and making some new friends as well!

Vatican "removes" safety net from parish survival

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Message

Lost amid the hubbub over the Vatican's new rules on dealing with sex abuse that were released 10 days ago was another pronouncement that could have a profound local impact.

The ruling, so overlooked that it wasn't even translated into English until early this week, said that a bishop can close any parish, regardless of its financial stability or the size of its membership, if he believes that the decision is best for the diocese as a whole.

The announcement could cause some Twin Cities Roman Catholics to lose sleep. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is in the process of preparing a new strategic plan -- basically, a downsizing -- that Archbishop John Nienstedt has made clear will involve closing some churches and merging others.

From the outset of the process in February 2009, it has been assumed that the closings would involve churches with sagging memberships and declining revenues. While it's still likely that those parishes will make up most of the closings, it's no longer a given that healthy ones will be spared.

The Vatican ruling was in response to a strategic plan implemented by the Archdiocese of Boston that included closing 10 parishes that were economically viable. The 10 appealed the order to the Vatican, which upheld the decision.

The strategic plan for Twin Cities parishes will be announced Oct. 16-17. Star Tribune


The Catholic ‘Siskel & Ebert’: New TV Program Reviews Films From the Faith Perspective

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Message 07/23/2010
NET-TV

REVIEWING DUO. David DiCerto (l) and Steven Greydanus (r)

Think of David DiCerto and Steven Greydanus as the Catholic “Siskel & Ebert.” They won’t mind. When DiCerto first pitched the idea for “Reel Faith,” a weekly Catholic movie-review program, to New York’s NET-TV, that’s exactly how he described it.

“As a Catholic film critic, I always felt movie review shows like ‘Siskel & Ebert,’ while entertaining, were missing something: the most important thing,” says DiCerto, the show’s creator and co-host. “[They] rarely made mention of how the film commented on the world.”

There’s no arguing that films both reflect and influence culture. Even during a recession, people continue to attend movies. Box office receipts for 2009 show that $1.42 billion in tickets were sold — the highest total gross in five years.

“Movies are much more than entertainment; in the words of Pope John Paul II, they are ‘communicators of culture and values’ — both good and bad,” DiCerto says. “I felt it was imperative that Catholics have a voice they can trust, one that is fair-minded but faithful, one that would address the moral as well as the artistic dimensions of movies so that moviegoers can make informed judgments about what films are appropriate for them and their families.”

‘Film Reviews You Can Have Faith In’
That’s what viewers get with each half-hour episode of “Reel Faith,” which is also available online. It pairs former U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Film and Broadcasting film critic DiCerto with National Catholic Register film critic Steven D. Greydanus, as well as a regular segment by Father Robert Lauder, who takes a look at classic films from the Vatican’s “45 Great Films List.” The show’s tagline sums it up: “Film reviews you can have faith in.”

“Most other movie-review shows don’t address the religious aspect of films,” notes Byron Johnson, brand manager for NET-TV. “They give a film five stars, yet it’s a film you would never want your children to see. Many of these shows have no moral compass or a compass that relates to what Catholics believe.”

In that sense, “Reel Faith” offers something that isn’t being offered anywhere else.

“I realized that there really wasn’t anything like it, at least not in a TV format,” says DiCerto.

The show is styled much after “Siskel & Ebert.” DiCerto and Greydanus utilize the interior of a Brooklyn movie theater for the show’s filming, sitting in the theater’s signature red seats to view clips from two or three films and discuss the films from their perspective and the perspective of the Church.

The Voice of the Church
“The conversational tone of TV gives us the opportunity to pepper our conversation with relevant points from Church documents, such as the documents of the Second Vatican Council,” says Greydanus.

“We try to incorporate discussion on what the Church has to say about topics that a movie might deal with, whether that be human sexuality, family relations, bioethics or free will,” adds DiCerto. “Of course, we also provide any concerned parent with a moral assessment of any problematic content, including violence, foul language, profanity and sexual content.”

But that doesn’t mean ignoring films that might be considered offensive.

“We see our mission as commenting on problematic films as well as recommending films we like,” says Greydanus. “We don’t want to shy away from a film just because it has problematic content.”

“The Church needs to be in the thick of things, making its voice heard and providing guidance on both the positive and the negative things projected onto movie screens,” explains DiCerto. “It is essential that we provide Catholics with the information to enable them to clearly articulate why they consider a movie offensive.”

For example, in a recent episode of “Reel Faith,” DiCerto and Greydanus reviewed the films Inception, Despicable Me and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. They compared director Christopher Nolan’s Inception to a Greek tragedy, pointing out that the film contains tremendous action violence as well as the problematic theme of main characters who are trying to sabotage a person’s free will and violating the dignity of the human person.

New Evangelization Television
NET-TV launched in 1988 as The Prayer Channel. In 2008, it was rebranded as New Evangelization Television (see related story). It’s available in New York City on the Cablevision and Time-Warner cable networks, as well as streaming online at NetNY.net. The signal is available in at least 1.8 million homes throughout New York City. In addition, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 people around the world watch the network’s online content each day.

The network’s lineup includes the daily news program “Currents,” the Emmy-nominated “Mysteries of the Church,” children’s programming, daily Mass from the Cathedral of St. James, and much more.

“Reel Faith” is wrapping up its initial 12-week run. If successful, its creators hope it will continue for another 12 weeks and longer.

“Six months ago we weren’t even considering doing this kind of show,” notes Johnson. “It’s doing pretty well. It helps that both of the hosts are already known and have their own blogs and websites where they can talk up the show.”

Both DiCerto and Greydanus are hopeful that NET might pick up the show more permanently.

“I am convinced that there is a vital need for a show like ‘Reel Faith’ so that Catholic viewers have an alternative resource to mainstream secular reviews,” says DiCerto.

DiCerto referenced Pope John Paul II’s 1995 World Communications Day Message, where the Holy Father reminded the Catholic media of its responsibility to educate the faithful, singling out film literacy as vital to the mission of the Church.

Adds DiCerto, “What we’re trying to do is no different than what Archbishop Fulton Sheen did: Use popular media to evangelize and spread the Gospel message.” National Catholic Register


Have Stem Cells Become Passé?

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Fr. Thomas Berg, Executive Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person.
An update on stem cell research June 15, 2010

I last wrote an update on stem cell research in December. On that occasion I explained that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had announced the approval of thirteen new lines of human embryonic stem cells for use in NIH-funded research under the new NIH Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research published in July of 2009.

What has been happening in stem cell science over the past six months to a year?

For the better part of the past two years, scientific attention has focused on comparing the traits and capabilities of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with the putative “gold standard” human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Unlike hESCs, which are obtained by destroying live embryos, iPSCs are made directly from adult cells—such as skin cells—by adding a small number of factors to these cells in the laboratory. These factors remodel the mature cells and convert them into stem cells that are functionally identical to stem cells obtained from embryos. No human eggs are required and no human embryos are generated or destroyed in the process.

Several recent side-by side comparison studies of both hES cells and iPS cells have been conducted to evaluate which types of stem cells might be best suited to which tissue-generating tasks. The most recent research has brought to light two potential hurdles for the use of iPS cells. On the one hand, because iPS cells are derived from adult—which is to say, fully determined—cells, they often “remember” their cell-type of origin and revert back to it. Another recent study suggested that iPS cells may actually have an entire series of genetic switches turned “off” and that this might explain why they sometimes fail to robustly generate more specific types of tissues.

Since 2007, there has been steady progress in using iPS cells as models for the study of diseases. iPS cells derived from both animals and human adults have been isolated which bear the phenotypes (structural characteristics) found in several diseases including Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes and Sickle Cell Anemia. Because these lines of cells exhibit disease-specific phenotypes, researchers are able to study disease mechanisms, and use them for drug screening.

Another important inroad in iPS research has been continued confirmation by independent teams of scientists that the reprogramming of adult cells can be accomplished without having recourse to viruses as vehicles for transporting the reprogramming agents into the cells. Rather than having to manipulate the genome itself by inserting viruses into the cells to be reprogrammed—hazardous to humans—researchers have identified ways to turn on the pluripotency genes in those cells simply by manipulating the chemical environment of the culture surrounding the cells. In 2009, researchers were also able to reduce the number of reprogramming factors necessary for accomplishing the task down to only one from the original four used by Dr. Yamanaka in 2007.

Yet, the biggest stem cell news seems to be that stem cells have largely disappeared from the news. Two factors have contributed to the dearth of headline grabbing stem cell news of late. Despite advances summarized above, the most recent progress is cloaked in such technical complexity that, understandably, journalists have been unusually challenged to make the news accessible to the average reader.

The second factor, more notably, is that stem cell fervor has waned and public frustration over the lack of tangible progress in stem cell science is growing.

To be sure, criticism of the lack of progress in the translation of stem cell research to therapies has arisen from surprising sources. In March of 2009 Dr. Bernadine Healy, director of the National Institutes of Health under the first Bush adminstration, wrote in her U.S. News & World Report column that "embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes, are obsolete." An editorial last January in Investor’s Business Daily angrily criticized California’s Proposition 71. This was the 2004 State law which allotted $6 billion of California taxpayer money to primarily embryo-destructive stem cell research over the next decade, an initiative that rode a tremendous wave of hyped advocacy for embryonic stem cell research. “Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research,” wrote the editors, “there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress.” Writing earlier this month in the Los Angeles Times, one science reporter felt it was time to offer her own mea culpa: don’t blame the scientists for hyping the potential of hESC research; blame us, the reporters.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Opera for Dummies (on Thursday)

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Also posted on the Our Word blog

Mitchell Hadley has been pestering me for over a year to contribute to the Our Word blog but I couldn’t think of anything that would come up to the high standards of the accomplished bloggers here. I have a blog, Stella Borealis, but it’s a Catholic news blog and while it has some worth, it doesn’t require that I bare my soul on a daily or weekly basis or expose my unorthodox lifestyle and idiosyncrasies to the world at large. Most of my soul baring and pontificating happens on other people’s blogs, internet news forums, and letters to the editor pages.

Mostly, I’m a dabbler. I’ve done lots of things, few of them really well. I have a long list of things that I should do at least once (getting my ticket punched before I depart this vale of tears), and now and then I do something about shortening the list. Going to an opera is one of those things

I used to listen to the Texaco radio broadcasts of the Met, not really understanding, but appreciating the marvelous sounds that came through the plastic speakers of my cheap radio. My best friend in high school was somewhat knowledgeable about opera because his dad, a firemen for the city and a regular guy, was a real opera fan and owned many vinyl disks. I thought to self, “Self, you too should go to an opera some day. They’re not just for rich people anymore.”

Back when I was at the U of MN I would note with approval when a dozen or so semis pulled up behind Northrup Auditorium, chock full of scenery, costumes and instruments for the annual springtime appearance of the Met, bringing a half dozen works of their just closed season to the upper midwest. People from hundreds of miles around would plan their annual vacations for those always sold out performances. The closest I ever got to attending one was peeking through a crack in one of the double doors, though. Actually, the closest I actually did get to any high culture was attending a movie showing of a performance by Nureyev and Fonteyn of the ballet, Les Corsaire, in a small town in Massachusetts when I was stationed there when I was in the Army.

Over time I have attended lots of theater performances and even some modern dance. I actually surprised myself by joining a Gregorian Chant schola a few years ago (They haven’t thrown me out). But I had never been to an opera. Then I read that the Met was recording their performances digitally and showing them live around the country on movie screens And during the Summer, they have encore performances of their more popular events.

I didn’t bite until a few weeks ago. Somehow I saw a reference to the encore presentations and decided to check the schedule. La Boheme was being shown in St. Louis Park on a night where I had no excuses. I’d heard of it, of course but knew virtually nothing about it. I read a few synopses on the internet and I liked the fact that it didn’t have very many characters. If it was going to be in Italian, I would need to be able to recognize who was who. I checked with Mitchell to see if I would need to have my tuxedo taken out a goodly number of inches. He assured me that opera and going to Mass were pretty much the same, couture-wise, these days: Come as you are.

[How many of you remember impromptu “Come as you are –right now!- parties” from the 50s? They were all the rage for a while. That was a time when all the men wore fedoras and people dressed up to go to the barber shop or the corner grocery store. It was revealing and amusing if people would dare show up at a house party wearing clothing they wore (or didn’t wear) behind locked doors. For better or worse, the beatniks and the hippies changed all that for us.]

On the appointed evening I drove out to the enormous megaplex, near Hwys 394 and 100. I suppose there were 75 or so of us there on that gorgeous Summer evening. Fortunately, the fellow sitting next to me (munching popcorn) was a real fan, of probably the same vintage as me, had been to the Met many times. He gave me a few tips and answered a few novice questions.

Well, Tuffy, it sure didn’t sound like Gregorian Chant, generally slow, low and controlled.

But with helpful subtitles and camera close-ups, it didn’t take me long before I was fully enraptured by the performances.

The 2008 Met performance (Conductor: Nicola Luisotti; Production: Franco Zeffirelli; Angela Gheorghiu, Ainhoa Arteta, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, Quinn Kelsey, Oren Gradus, Paul Plishka) was easy to follow, very enjoyable, surprisingly (to me) amusing at times, and at other times the performances were tearfully thrilling. I had forgotten that both Shakespeare and Mozart were not above using a little slapstick humor in their theatrical works to keep the attention of the peanut gallery in the cheap seats in the back. If this is opera, I‘ll need to see some more.

One of the great things about these digital performances is that there are no “cheap seats.” With the close-up camera, everything seem to be performed as if I was the only person watching. I would love to have seen Beverly Sills in a digital performance like this. She had an incredible ability to perform and personally communicate (and enjoy herself), all at the same time.

I’m kind of a geeky guy, logistically speaking. (One of my favorite books is “The Logistical History of the U.S. Army in World War II). I particularly enjoyed it when the camera would show a bit of the set changes between the acts and even of the camera that was on a rail below the performers that could follow their movements. In just a few seconds it showed how enormously complex it is to put on an opera of this size at the Met. The control room for the stage manager must be like that of a NASA shuttle launching or the NBC Nightly News. Occasional views of the audience confirmed that Mitchell is right, even there were a few casually dressed fans.

The second act, a street and tavern scene, must have had 400 performers on the stage, all exquisitely costumed, in motion, yet not being able to move very far, somewhat like you would see at times on the Midway at the Minnesota State Fair. Except carny barkers don’t sing like that. Although I must admit I am greatly amused and entertained by the carny talkers’ calls and cracks to get the rubes to part with some of their hard earned cash. It reminded me also of some of the beautiful street scenes from the movie, Oliver!.

The sound also was unbelievably pure. How those performers can fill the cavernous Metropolitan Opera House, unamplified, I don’t understand. Of course, they would have had very expensive boom microphones for the digital performance recording.

I once attended a performance of Peter, Paul and Mary in the Albert Hall in London (Army leave time), about 1967 or so. It’s probably comparable in size to the Met Opera House. The sound was great. We had good seats, probably in the front third of the huge theater. Then the sound failed for maybe ten seconds. We could just barely hear them while they continued to sing; and then the sound came back on, uninterrupted for the rest of the performance.

On a personal level, I totally approve of the casting of this performance. I didn’t see too many men with 28” waists. Very good for my morale! Another reason to like opera!

Here are the rest of the performances for few last weeks of the Summer Encore Season. (Turondot and Carmen, and if you want to go to Canada for that performance, Madama Butterfly). Go and enjoy yourself if you haven’t seen an opera before.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Unexpected Surge of Christian Values in Canada

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It's been 42 years since all but a few of Canada's Catholic bishops signed off on the Winnipeg Statement, a document telling Canadian Catholics that Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, confirming the Church's ban on the used of contraceptives to prevent birth, could be ignored if their consciences told them that birth control was OK. Canada's relationship with the Vatican has been steadily deteriorating ever since then.

But, a few weeks ago, Pope Benedict appointed the very orthodox Cardinal Marc Ouelette of Quebec as head of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican. It will be his recommendation that goes to the Pope when their are eipscopal vacancies.

And now this:


Is String of Victories a Sign of Things to Come?


INTERVENTIONISTS? A Quebec judge ruled recently that a Catholic high school in Montreal could opt out of a government "Ethics and Religious Culture" curriculum. Quebec Premier Jean Charest, in foreground, promised to appeal a ruling. And in Ontario, the Liberal government, led by Premier Dalton McGuinty, left, withdrew a controversial sex education curriculum after outcries from religious leaders. Both cases are being seen as evidence of a restoration of Christian values in Canada.

MONTREAL — Loyola High School of Montreal waited for a year for a judgment on its case against the Quebec government, but it was worth the wait.

Judge Gerard Dugre of the Quebec Superior Court ruled on June 18 that the provincial government was violating both procedural justice and Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedom in insisting the Catholic school teach the government’s new “Ethics and Religious Culture” curriculum, a move the judge labeled “totalitarian.”

That’s not the only good news for religious Canadians. In Ontario, a Catholic- and evangelical-led public uproar forced the provincial government to withdraw a new sex education curriculum on April 22.

And in Western Canada, two university student groups have reversed earlier decisions to muzzle pro-life clubs and in one case even granted $700 in funding that had been withheld.

Said the president of the conservative Canadian Centre for Policy Studies in Ottawa, Joseph Ben Ami, “For the first time in two generations, Canadians are openly talking about their religious values.”

The Loyola decision is only the most recent affirmation of those values. Judge Dugre called the “obligation imposed on Loyola to teach the ethics and religious culture course in a lay fashion assumes a totalitarian character essentially equivalent to Galileo’s being ordered by the Inquisition to deny the Copernican universe.”

Loyola’s president, Jesuit Father Rob Brennan, said he was “pleased” at the judgment but cautioned against “seeing it as a Loyola victory or a government defeat. … Loyola is proud to work alongside the government in promoting excellence for the students of Quebec.”

The “Ethics and Religious Culture” program was designed to fill a presumed void created when the government replaced the province’s Catholic and Protestant schools with a single secular system in 2000. Its goals are to teach respect for others and “promote the common good.”

“But how can you teach respect for others and not allow a Catholic school to be Catholic?” asks Douglas Farrow, a McGill University religious studies professor who testified as an expert witness in the trial a year ago. “The question before the court was, ‘Can the government require Catholics to not be Catholics?’”

Loyola believes in the common good as strongly as the government, insisted Father Brennan.

“But Loyola also holds,” Farrow told the Register, “that the ultimate good is God. Pursuit of the common good requires knowledge of God.”


Abortionist Called a ‘Hero’

The “Ethics and Religious Culture” curriculum, on the other hand, maintains a “relativistic, agnostic and secularist” understanding of both morality and religion, said Farrow. It never treats the actual content of religion as worth considering, but concentrates on religious “culture,” i.e., external practices such as Christmas, rituals and clothing.

All religions are assigned equal value, notes Farrow, and civil-rights leaders such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are held up to be as equally admirable as Canada’s pioneer abortionist Henry Morgentaler.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest has promised to appeal the ruling, but Ministry of Education spokesman Cedrick Beauregard told the Register that the question of whether to appeal was still being considered. “Other than that, we cannot comment on the case,” he said.

Next door, in Ontario, the Liberal government, led by Premier Dalton McGuinty, did a complete about-face within the space of four days in March on its new, much-touted sex education curriculum.

The program would have introduced the subject of homosexuality in third grade, masturbation in sixth and oral sex and anal sex in seventh. Jan Bentham, coordinator of religious and family life education in the Ottawa Catholic schools, said the Catholic boards were indeed consulted, but they had made the Ministry of Education “aware there would be some content we would not be delivering in Catholic schools.”

Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast urged parents to contact the government, predicting the government would back down if the new curriculum was met with “a firestorm of protest.”

He said sexuality ought to be taught within the family.

“I believe one of the most important things for children in learning about family life and sexuality issues is to have it in the context of a warm family that explains things to them and helps them to deal with that,” he said, adding that, “I think parents are the first teachers of faith and moral issues to children.”

And evangelical Protestant leader Charles McVety led a parents’ revolt to keep the content from the public school system too. McGuinty quickly withdrew the curriculum for further consultation.

In Alberta, the newly elected board of the University of Calgary student society decided to reverse a 2009 decision of the society to suspend the campus pro-life club. Club president Alanna Campbell commented that the club is “happy that the student society has finally demonstrated a commitment to quality and intellectual freedom.”

The club attracted the parent society’s sanction by annually sponsoring the Genocide Awareness Project, an open-air display of different genocidal or racism-inspired mass murders, including abortion.

She interpreted the change of heart as a response to the attack on the club from another source: the University of Calgary administration. “It seems to me the executive of the student society is willing to fight for the right of students against the university,” she said. The same display had prompted the administration of the university to find Campbell and five other club members guilty of “nonacademic misconduct.” But all are appealing the ruling, she told the Register.


On Campus

Meanwhile, in British Columbia, the newly elected student council at the University of Victoria has likewise reversed rulings by its predecessors to withhold funding and finally to suspend the pro-life club for a year.

As well as paying $719 in club grants withheld since 2008, the board removed several amendments to the society’s anti-harassment policies made by the outgoing board designed to ban pro-life advocacy from the campus.

This move was prompted by the election of a new slate of student politicians who believe in free speech, but also by a lawsuit launched by the Youth Protecting Youth club with the support of the British Columbia Liberties Association.

“This is a great victory for YPY,” said club president Anastasia Pearse. “We interpret the [University of Victoria Student Society’s] concessions as an admission of wrongdoing, and we’re happy with the new direction it’s taking.”

While the board explained its action in terms of avoiding a costly lawsuit, several returning members and several new ones have expressed strong support for free speech and been critical of the previous sanctions against Youth Protecting Youth. Student Society treasurer Kelsey Hannan told the Register he was “personally pro-choice” but also saw free speech as a fundamental principle that made Canada “the peaceful country that it is.”

The abortion issue, he said, could not be ignored, least of all on a university campus: “My moral philosophy class spent a week on it. There is a deep debate in this country about it.”

The University of Victoria Women’s Centre, a staunch critic of Youth Protecting Youth, has not responded to a request for comment.


Anti-Interventionism

The Centre for Policy Studies’ Ben Ami says the common thread linking these events is the resurgence of the belief in individual freedom and responsibility: “These all show a reaction against the interventionist doctrine that governments know best and should intervene in what people are thinking or saying, and that is whether it is provincial government or the government of a university student society. But there is no government in North America more interventionist than Quebec’s.” National Catholic Register

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Once Upon A Time, When Poor Immigrant Catholics Contributed to the Support of their Church. . .

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. . .they were able to construct a chapel within the St. Joseph Orphanage in Superior, Wisc. that looked like this:




Thanks and a Tip o' the Hat to Matt at The Badger Catholic. See the story and the other images HERE.

Fargo Area Churches Connect to the Past with their Relics

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You don't need to go to Rome to find relics to aid in your spiritual meditation
. Fargo will do!

The Apostle Paul wrote more of the Bible’s New Testament than anyone else, and a piece of him is resting in north Fargo.

The Apostle Paul wrote more of The Bible’s New Testament than anyone else, and a piece of him is resting in north Fargo.

In the altar at the Newman Center in north Fargo is a bone fragment believed to be from the body of Paul. It’s a relic, an item of religious significance.

And it’s not the only one in Fargo-Moorhead.

Among the numerous relics in the metro area are some that can be traced back to saints who lived hundreds of years ago, one believed to be a piece of a great philosopher and even the bone fragment of a pope.

It might be easy for people to consider the Catholic practice – though the veneration of remains is not limited to Catholicism – of keeping a piece of a dead saint’s body to be kind of morbid.

But the Rev. Paul Duchshere, pastor of Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church, believes it’s not any stranger than wanting a late grandmother’s glasses or carrying around a lock of a girlfriend’s hair.

“In our viewpoint, the saints are our family members,” he says, referring to them as “brothers and sisters” in God’s family.

The Very Rev. Luke Meyer, chancellor of the Diocese of Fargo, says relics remind the faithful that “what happened in (the saints’) hearts and minds can happen in our hearts and minds, and that’s their purpose.”

“These people are alive with Christ in heaven forever, and their bones are not mere remains but historic shrines of God’s work in the world,” Meyer says.

Not all relics are created equal, and they’re not all body parts. Pieces of wood believed to be from the cross of Jesus, clothing worn by saints and items that martyrs owned or used are some of the examples of what can become a relic.

Controversy accompanies some of these relics. The authenticity of numerous relics has been disputed. And, though the sale of relics is prohibited by Church law, items advertised as relics can be purchased on Internet sites such as eBay.

The practice of venerating – or regarding with respect – the remains of saints can be traced back to the tombs of the dead in ancient Rome, says Msgr. Gregory Schlesselmann, rector of Cardinal Muench Seminary in Fargo. He says it’s a practice adapted by Christians.

Christians built churches over the tombs of martyrs. And as they discovered relics in those tombs, they would want them to be as close as possible to the altar, Schlesselmann says. Sometimes the tombs themselves would serve as the altars. Eventually fragments of, or sometimes the entire, bodies would be placed under the tops of the altars.

That basic tradition continues today as many Catholic churches have a relic of a saint – often a bone fragment – housed within their own altars.

The following is a selection of relics found the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church

In the marble altar at the new Sts. Anne and Joachim Church in south Fargo is a small area containing numerous bone fragments of saints behind grate-like doors. Each tiny fragment is housed in its own casing, with a window so that the object can be seen.

  • Relic: bone fragments of Sts. Anne and Joachim

    The altar of the church houses what is believed to be bone fragments of the church’s patron saints.

    Though not mentioned in Scripture, tradition holds St. Anne and St. Joachim to be the grandparents of Jesus and the parents of Mary.

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Thomas Aquinas

    You can’t study the history of western philosophy without reading this brilliant, 13th-century Christian thinker pretty early on. New Advent, an online Catholic encyclopedia, says, “Since the days of Aristotle, probably no one man has exercised such a powerful influence on the thinking world as did St. Thomas.”

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Josephine Bakhita

    This Sudanese saint is the patron saint of the Sudanese community that meets at the church.

  • Relic: St. Anthony of Padua

    Often invoked for help in finding lost articles, St. Anthony of Padua was canonized a year after his death in 1231. He was a zealous fighter of heresy and has been called “Malleus hereticorum” or “Hammer of the Heretics.”

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Gemma Galgani

    This Catholic mystic born in Italy in 1878 is said to have received the stigmata, or the wounds of Jesus, on her own body.

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Maria Goretti

    St. Maria Goretti is reputed to have been killed by a would-be rapist to whom she refused to submit. As she laid dying, tradition holds that she forgave her attacker.

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

    She is the first native-born American to be canonized by the Catholic Church, according to the Catholic Online website.

St. Paul’s Newman ­Center at North Dakota State University

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Paul the Apostle

    In the altar at the Newman Center is what is believed to be a fragment of bone from the most prolific writer in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul.

    The altar is in the chapel, which was built after the devastating 1957 Fargo tornado. The relic is located under a stone and cannot be seen.

Fargo Diocese archive

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. Frances Xavier ­Cabrini

    She’s the patroness of immigrants and was canonized as a saint in 1946, becoming the first American citizen to achieve that status.

Fargo Diocese archive and Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church

The Fargo Diocese archive and Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church each have relics of Pope Pius X and St. Vincent de Paul.

  • Relic: Bone fragment of Pope St. Pius X

    Born in Italy in 1835, Pope Pius X was the most recent pope to be canonized. Meyer says, Pius X was known to be “very humble” and was a “farm kid” from Italy whom no one would have thought would have become a successor to the papacy.

    Meyer, the diocese chancellor, also showed a certificate of documentation that accompanies this relic. The fragment itself is housed in a small case surrounded by an ornate setting that has the appearance of marble.

  • Relic: St. Vincent de Paul

    The namesake of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul served the poor his entire life. St. Vincent lived from 1581 to 1660 and was known as “The Apostle of Charity” and “Father of the Poor.”

Office of the Rev. James Cheney

  • Relic: bone fragment of St. John the Baptist

    In the office of the Rev. James Cheney, pastor at St. Paul’s Newman Center, is a fragment of bone from what is believed to be the body of John the Baptist. Cheney says this saint has “helped me a lot in my priesthood.”


St. Benedict’s Catholic Church

St. Benedict’s Catholic Church near Horace has the skull of its first priest on display next to the altar of Mary, behind a pane of glass.

Joyce Rheault, director of pastoral care at St. Benedict’s, says it’s her understanding that the Rev. Alphanse Bernier was buried under the church. But when that area was excavated so a basement could be put in, the skull was enshrined in the wall.

At one time, the skull was covered in Sheetrock, Rheault says. But it has since been uncovered.

The piece is not considered a relic as Bernier is not a canonized saint.

Famous relics

  • The Precious Blood of Bruges – This relic is reputed to be a drop of the blood of Jesus. It is held in Bruges, Belgium.
  • Veronica’s Veil – Housed in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, this cloth was supposed to have been used to wipe the face of Jesus soon before his death. It is believed to have retained the print of the face of Jesus.
  • The Holy Nails in the iron crown of Lombardy – This crown at the Cathedral of Monza near Milan, Italy, is believed by some to contain the nails used in the crucifixion of Jesus.
  • Bones of St. Peter – Remains believed to be those of the Apostle Peter are buried under the high altar at St. Peter’s Basilica. Fargo In-Forum