Still Running Off at the Keyboard

BACKGROUND ON ANOTHER DISSIDENT PRIEST

Yesterday I blogged the links indicating Fr. Vincent Pizzuto has ties to the occult world through his ordination in the Celtic Christian Church. He is not the only one with such questionable ties.

Recall the recent flap over activities at St. Stan's Parish in St. Louis revolving around Fr. Marek Bozek. If you need a refresher, St. Louis Catholic will bring you up to speed on his hosting of a priestly ordination there by a Milingo-affiliated bishop. Recall, too, that he participated in the women's ordinations at the Reformed Synagogue which prompted Archbishop Burke to withdraw cordial relations with the Synagogue's female rabbi.

St. Stan's is a Polish parish. Milingo, a former Roman Catholic Archbishop who served on the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, incurred automatic excommunication when he consecrated four married men as Bishops. The consecration took place at the Imani Temple of George Augustus Stallings.

Those four bishops are named in the Wikipedia entry:

- George Augustus Stallings, Jr., excommunicated priest, and founder of his own Imani Temple African American Catholic Congregation
- Peter Paul Brennan of the African Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of the Americas (who has been consecrated several times)
- Patrick E. Trujillo of the Old Catholic Church in America
- Joseph J. Gouthro of the Catholic Apostolic Church International

In addition, Milingo married Maria Sung, a member of the Sun Myung Moon Unification Church. He had a healing and exorcism ministry in Africa and subsequently in Rome that was quite popular. At the time of the consecration of four bishops, he established his organization Married Priests Now.

According to blogger Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia in a blog titled "Polish Clergy: "Married Priests Now", "Sixty percent of Roman Catholic priests in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland want the right to marry and have families of their own."

Is the Polish clergy active in Married Priests Now, one wonders? In any case, it is interesting to note that the fake ordinations were supported by a Polish priest.

Milingo has ties to the occult world, first of all legitimately through exorcism. Secondly he was supported by the Catholic Charismatics according to the Wikipedia entry linked above at the time the Vatican recalled him to answer for his activities.

But there is more...

The apostolic succession from "The African Orthodox Church" is spelled out at a website dedicated to the various lines of succession in the independent churches. If you look at that website, you can see that Archbishop Vilatte, famous in the occult world, is fourth in this line of succession, and Bishop Peter Paul Brennan is ninth. Brennan is one of the Bishops consecrated by Milingo at St. Stan's.

In response to the question "Are there men of the Curia who are followers of Satan?" Milingo claimed, according to the Wikipedia entry, "Certainly there are priests and bishops. I stop at this level of ecclesiastical hierarchy because I am an archbishop, higher than this I cannot go."

It does look as though Milingo was in a position to know, given his consecration of a bishop of a church who was previously consecrated through the Vilatte succession.

Milingo has recordings of his singing to his credit and has authored several books. He has also given the imprimatur to the book of the supposed sayings of Jesus recorded by Sr. Anna Ali, DOJS.

USF PROFESSOR IS A PRIEST - BUT NOT A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

California Catholic Daily reports:

In a letter printed in the March 21 edition of Catholic San Francisco, Jesuit Father Stephen Privett took author George Weigel to task for saying in a column that Catholicism is “vestigial at best” on Catholic college campuses. In response, Privett said the University of San Francisco, of which he is president, “has a Catholic Studies program; a Catholic focused curriculum in the Theology and Religious Studies Department,” as well as other Catholic-inspired programs and activities.

USF may have all these things, but it also has Vincent Pizzuto, who, besides being assistant professor in the university’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies, is also an ordained priest in the Celtic Christian Church. Pizzuto also serves on the board of directors of the LGBTQ Caucus of the University of San Francisco, which says it was formed in the Fall of 2005 “as a way to promote social justice for LGBTQ people.”

According to the USF web site, “in addition to his teaching, Prof. Pizzuto lectures in local parishes on areas of prayer and spirituality with particular outreach to the gay and lesbian community.”

In a discussion, “Is it Ethical to be Catholic? – Queer Perspectives,” given at Most Holy Redeemer Church in San Francisco in 2006, Pizzuto said that ethical questions have “driven faithful Catholics beyond the confines of the Roman church where they might more faithfully live out their catholic faith elsewhere. And I count myself among them.”

At the USF website you can see a picture of him along with a brief CV.

At the Celtic Christian Church website there are pictures of his ordination ceremony.

The article from California Catholic Daily indicates:

Pizzuto was ordained a Celtic Christian priest in San Francisco in July 2006. He serves as "presider" over the New Skellig community in the Bay Area, which says in its web site, is a "catholic contemplative community of lay people" meeting "in small intimate settings in the homes of its members."

To read more, go to this webpage in the Celtic Christian Church website.

The webpage on Apostolic Succession is enlightening. They trace their succession to the Antiochian-Jacobite Line which includes Joseph Rene Vilatte and Herman Adrian Spruit. They claim a Roman-Old Catholic Line of Succession that includes Arnold Harris Matthew along with Spruit. They also claim a Catholic Apostolic Church in North America line that includes Carlos Duarte Costa. Then there is the United Old Catholic Church line that includes Matthew and Carmel Henry Canfora. These names are all familiar in the occult and independent Catholic world.

When this man teaches religion to the sons and daughters of Catholic parents who are paying a fortune to keep their kids Catholic, what does he teach? Occultism?

Strangely, this ordination has not been given any publicity by USF. Their website doesn't even mention that this professor is a priest. Considering that ordination took place in July 2006, there has been ample time to revise it.

Truth in advertising? You be the judge.

Fr. John Malloy has taken note of this ordination and blogged it.

VOTE FOR OBAMA AND STILL RECEIVE COMMUNION ?

From an article at LifeSite:

June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - With an election in the United States looming, much is being made of the Catholic vote and what is moral for Catholics as they head to the voting booth. Pope Benedict XVI, just prior to his election to the pontificate, addressed the matter in a doctrinal note to the US Bishops Conference.

Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in his capacity as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, intervened in a debate among the US Bishops on the issue of denying communion to pro-abortion politicians in 2004. Simply put, Cardinal Ratzinger said in his letter, titled "Worthiness to receive Holy Communion", that obstinately pro-abortion Catholic politicians, after being duly instructed and warned, "must" be denied Communion.

The article goes on to offer a small loophole in proportionality. For good and compeling reasons a person may vote for a pro-abortion candidate if that candidate:

The key is that in order to vote for a pro-abortion politician and remain in good enough standing with Our Lord to be worthy to receive Him in Holy Communion, one must have "proportionate reasons". But what can be considered proportionate?...

One suggestion offered is that a Catholic may vote for a politician who supports abortion in very limited circumstances (for instance in cases of rape), if the only other viable candidate is one who supports abortion in most or all cases....

As Bishop Rene Henry Gracida, of Corpus Christi Texas, explained in September 2004: "Consider the case of a Catholic voter who must choose between three candidates: Kerry, who is completely for abortion on demand, Bush, who is in favor of very limited abortion, i.e., in favor of greatly restricting abortion and Peroutka, a candidate who is completely against abortion but who is universally recognized as being unelectable. The Catholic can vote for Peroutka, but that will probably only help ensure the election of Kerry. Therefore the Catholic voter has a proportionate reason to vote for Bush, since his vote might help to ensure the defeat of Kerry and might result in the saving of some innocent human lives."

There is more in the article about proportionality, but this gives the drift.

So can a vote for Obama fall into the proportionality argument?

An article at CNSNews presents Obama position on abortion, headlined "Obama Is the Most Pro-Abortion Candidate Ever":

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever.

He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to concede -- as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor -- that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact "persons."

"Persons," of course, are guaranteed equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.

In 2004, U.S. Senate-candidate Obama mischaracterized his opposition to this legislation. Now, as a presidential frontrunner, he should be held accountable for what he actually said and did about the Born Alive Infants Bill.

State and federal versions of this bill became an issue earlier this decade because of "induced labor abortion." This is usually performed on a baby with Down's Syndrome or another problem discovered on the cusp of viability. A doctor medicates the mother to cause premature labor. Babies surviving labor are left untreated to die.

The article goes on to describe Obama's position on this critical bill. Proportionality cannot be applied in the face of such blatant defense of abortion when he opposes a candidate who is pro-life.

HOLY REDEEMER OUT OF GAY PRIDE PARADE

LifeSite reports:

SAN FRANCISCO, June 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The San Francisco Catholic parish that gave the homosexual movement its rainbow flag will have a new surprise in store at the upcoming annual gay pride weekend in San Francisco: they are not coming.

The San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese has asked Most Holy Redeemer Parish in the Castro district not to participate this year and the parish has so far agreed.

LifeSiteNews contacted the archdiocese after it was reported Tuesday by the California Catholic Daily that Most Holy Redeemer parish would once again participate in San Francisco's Pride Weekend - an event featuring sundry displays of obscenity, replete with floats and marchers celebrating all sorts of alternative sexual lifestyles from same-sex "marriage" to bisexuality to polyamory.

The parish's AIDS Support Group was going to participate officially and had asked parishioners to help them set up a "major Beverage Booth in Civic Center" on Saturday, June 28, the first day of the homosexual festivities.

However, Maurice Healy, Communications Director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, spoke with Archbishop George Niederauer and told LifeSiteNews today that the archdiocese had addressed the situation.

"There is no way we control individual people, but in terms of the parish, yes, we have asked them not to participate as a parish," Healy stated.

LifeSiteNews attempted to reach Most Holy Redeemer's pastor Rev. Stephen Meriwether for comment. Calls, however, were not returned by press time.

The MHR AIDS Support Group, on the other hand, confirmed to LifeSiteNews that they no longer will be involved.

"We're not going to be involved in the parade now this year," said director Robert Pementell.

Read the rest of the article at the website.

BRACING FOR TERRORISM IN VATICAN CITY

The Holy See has has established two new anti-terrorist units and begun closer collaboration with Interpol, the Vatican security chief says.

New Zealand Catholic reports the Vatican has set up two new anti-terrorism units that will work closely with international police experts to prevent possible attacks, the Vatican's director of security announced.

A "rapid intervention group" and an "anti-sabotage department" were recently established as sub-units of the Vatican's gendarme corps, Domenico Giani, corps director, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on June 7.

He said the Vatican also has begun closer collaboration with Interpol, the International crime fighting organisation.

More...

The article indicates a 24/7 command center was established in 2000, necessitating staffing even on Christmas and Easter, I presume; and that Cardinal Tauran has approved Tony Blair's peace organization and offers help.

THE ECUMENICAL RAINFOREST

All Saints’ Episcopal Church will be full to the rafters from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, June 16-20, with children and adults sharing a Rainforest Adventure, exploring ways Jesus teaches his followers to care for creation and each other.

This Vacation Bible School is unique in that it is sponsored in partnership by St. Edmond’s Catholic Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Parish of All Saints’ Episcopal Church and St. George’s Chapel.

“Working in cooperation with our brothers and sisters from St. Edmond’s, All Saints’ and St. George’s has been a true blessing,” says Dianne Deming, parish associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church and Vacation Bible School (VBS) director.

“Combining the gifts and talents of all three churches will provide an enriching environment without precedent for the children of our community.”

Read about it...

What's the message being sent to these children? One church is as good as another. So why do our shepherds get so upset when the 20-somethings decide they like the services better in the Presbyterian church? (See blog below on the Bishop's Conference.) Because the collections are dropping? If you're gonna raise 'em on indifference, ya gotta accept the consequences. The concern is hypocritical.

ANTI-CATHOLICISM ACROSS THE POND

Is Labour becoming the anti-Catholic party? Young Labour's vice chairman, Conor McGinn, thinks so. He has resigned his position, offended by what he saw as the anti-Catholic attitude surrounding the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. This was most stridently articulated by the Labour MEP Mary Honeyball, who asked: "Should devout Catholics such as Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy be allowed on the government front bench in the light of their predilection to favour the Pope's word above the government's?"

McGinn describes Honeyball's language as harking back to the days of Guy Fawkes. "Imagine substituting the words Jew or Muslim for Catholic in Mary Honeyball's comments - there would have been a furious reaction," says McGinn, whose stance resonates with several Catholic Labour MPs.

The words have "a strong whiff of the 17th century about them," agrees Stephen Pound, Labour MP for Ealing. He suggests that if there is no place for Catholics in political parties, then that points towards the creation of a separate party. "This leads to exclusively Muslim, Hindu, Anglican and even atheist parties."

Jim Dobbin, MP for Rochdale and chairman of the all-party pro-life group, has sent a letter to Gordon Brown expressing similar concerns. "There was the attempt by Alan Johnson, when education secretary, to force faith schools to take 25 per cent of non-believers. Then there was the adoption agency legislation to stop discrimination against gays and lesbians which finished up discriminating against the Catholic Church. Catholic adoption agencies are now closing."

He adds: "There are five million Catholics in the country. If the government think they can disregard even a small number of these voters then they are living in cloud cuckoo land."

Continue reading...

ANOTHER ONE FILED

PEORIA, IL -- A family from Normal filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Catholic Diocese of Peoria for allegedly sexually abusing their son.

The ward family says their son was sexually abused twice by Montsignor Thomas Maloney in 1995 and 1996.

The victim, now in his twenties, reported the incident to the Normal Police Department in January 2007.

Read it here...

ORLANDO BISHOP'S CONFERENCE

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the agenda of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Orlando starting today. Two items are on the agenda

1. New translations for the Roman Missal

2. Recent surveys of Catholic attitude toward their faith.

Orlando's Bishop Wenski seems to think "Secularism is a growing concern that requires a pastoral response from the bishops and the priests. Catholics' collective identity has been weakened by Americanization and heightened individualism." There is no mention of the weakening caused by the Bishop's response to the sexual abuse scandal. Head---sand...

ARCHBISHOP BURKE'S LITTLE PROBLEM

It looks as though Archbishop Burke has more than an ordination of women in a Synagogue to keep him busy. Once the women are ordained, they want to "priest" and they are doing it in his diocese, though not at a Catholic church.

Check out the home page of The Catholic Action Network for Social Justice, where you will find "Women Led-Prayer". They offered a "liturgy" on May 24th at The Center for Theology and Social Analysis on Newstead street. Links are provided as well for other "liturgies" performed by this group.

There is also an announcement for glbt Catholics titled "Catholic, Open and Affirming" Curriculum."

Also don't miss the announcement for Call to Action. Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong was a presenter.

And then there was the "Lay Synod". (I'm not even asking...!)

When you've finished with that webpage, move on over to the announcement here about the latest ordinations that took place on November 11th in St. Louis. The Justice for Women in the Catholic Church (JWCC) works with the Women's Ordination Conference.

St. Louis Catholic reports:

10 June 2008
Decree on Sr. Louise Lears Forthcoming

Saint Louis Catholic has learned that Sister Louise Lears, SC has been served with a decree by His Grace, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, on or about yesterday.

I do not yet have the contents of this decree, but it appears that Sr. Lears will be leaving St. Louis. An email from a person friendly to Sr. Lears' cause indicates that she plans to move to Baltimore and will assist her mother there. The communication also indicates that Sr. Lears intends to publish a response to the decree once it becomes public.

Sr. Lears is a member of the "Pastoral Team" at St. Cronan Parish, and had previously appeared before the Archbishop on January 15, 2008, pursuant to a canonical admonition and summons to answer the charges of rejection of a truth of faith under canon 750, and of causing grave scandal. As reported here and elsewhere, she was involved in the Advent Vespers protest with Rabbi Susan Talve, and has been linked to support of women's ordination. She is also involved with the ponderously-named Center for Theology and Social Analysis, which, among other things, is now hosting the infamous "Women-led Liturgies" of the "Catholic" Action Network.

I don't envy Archbishop Burke his job! It's easier to be a wife and mother.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

IT BOGGLES THE MIND !

This man is part of the magisterium responsible for the transmission of the faith in this generation! His statement (see bolding below) leaves one open-mouthed in horror.

Certainly all people are equal in God's eyes on the day they are born. God loves sinners. God calls all men to Himself. Violence in the name of God is horrendous. But to claim that the Catholic religion is nothing more than an equal religion with all others...??? And we wonder why churches are closing and people are walking away from the faith! As though the sexual abuse scandal is not enough to discourage Catholics, and more must be done.

The Vatican has given warning that the West's efforts at inter-faith dialogue must not be “held hostage" by Islam and are in danger of becoming "obsessed" with it at the expense of other religions.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said that the Church “has to have regard for all religions". He said that the council had this week discussed new guidelines for inter-faith dialogue.

“What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit," he told the Catholic website Terrasanta.net. "Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion."

Pope Benedict XVI has convened an unprecedented Catholic-Muslim forum for October. He has also sought to make amends for his controversial speech at Regensburg University two years ago, when he appeared to suggest that Islam was irrational and inherently violent. He later visited Turkey and prayed at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul alongside the local imam.

However, asked if there was a sense that Islam must not "monopolise" inter-faith dialogue Cardinal Tauran replied: "Yes, people are obsessed by Islam. For example I'm going to India next month and I want to give this message that all religions are equal. Sometimes there are priorities because of particular situations, but we mustn't get the impression there are first-class religions and second-class religions". (bolding mine)

Read it for yourself!

All religions are equal in the Cardinal's eyes?????? Does he understand even the basics of the Catholic faith?????

ARE THE BACKGROUND CHECKS WORKING ?

The bishops have implemented their policies which they would like us to believe will prevent the sort of disgrace we laity have been living with from ever happening again. They would like us to get back to trusting our bishops as though nothing ever happened. But can we?

TOLEDO -- Lucas County Sheriff's deputies have found a sex offender who's been "missing" for quite some time. They say he's been working at a Toledo parish and school -- for years.

Five years ago, 60-year-old William Werner was a sex offender looking for work. He found it at as a part-time cleaner at St. Joan of Arc Parish.

Parish representatives have told deputies Werner did a good job at the church and also helped clean the school. The Catholic Diocese of Toledo says when the parish hired Werner, no one knew of his past.

It wasn't until last week, when officers in California checked on Werner's whereabouts, that the parish discovered he had committed sex crimes against a 13-year-old girl. He was convicted in 1989, released 10 years later and then came to Toledo.

Read the rest...

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S.N.A.P. Says Yakima Catholic Diocese Is Not Doing Enough to Make Amends for Past Abuse

Posted: June 10, 2008 07:55 PM
Video Gallery

Catholic Diocese of Yakima Asked to "Speak Up"
1:31

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests delivered a letter to the Yakima Catholic Diocese Tuesday afternoon, accusing the church of covering up abuse by former clergy members.

The letter was addressed to the Diocese's Bishop Carlos Sevilla.

Read it here...

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World Net Daily reports:

A Catholic priest has been sentenced to three years of probation after he pleaded no contest to groping an undercover male sheriff deputy at a nude beach in California.

Authorities said Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, was hiding in bushes near a trail leading to the beach at Pirate's Cove, where they discovered him masturbating.

When a male deputy approached Cuevas, the priest reached out and touched the agent's genitals, investigators said.

Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, associate pastor at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Nipomo, has been on administrative leave from his parish while the church investigates the incident, the San Luis Obispo County website reports.

Here's the story...

* * * * *

SignOnSanDiego.com reports:

LA JOLLA – A retired Roman Catholic bishop who questions whether the church's celibacy rules have played a role in sexual abuse by priests will speak in San Diego, defying church leaders.

Retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney, Australia, was asked by San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and several other U.S. bishops – and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony – to stay away.

He is banned from speaking on church property in several dioceses while on a tour sponsored by a lay Catholic group, Voice of the Faithful.

At 6:30 tonight, he will speak at the Faculty Club at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla. His talk is not sponsored by the university.

Robinson, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child, was a lawyer in church courts and co-chairman of a committee investigating abuse of children by Australian clergy in the 1990s.

Then he broke ranks, retired and wrote a book taking on the church's response to the crisis.

He criticizes the governance of the present and previous popes, and claims that the obligation of celibacy must be put on the table for discussion. He has been chastised by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, who claim there are "doctrinal difficulties".

Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, says his ideas have been around but the fact that a bishop is saying it makes it a crowd draw.

I personally do not think the scandal will dissipate until the total extent of it has been exposed, including the homosexuality that exists within the priesthood that does not involve minors, but may involve two priests, and the entire picture of homosexuality and sexual abuse that has taken place within the religious orders. We are not out of the woods yet--not by a long shot--and the bishops are still actively covering up, perhaps to save their own skin.

OBAMA'S CATHOLIC ADVISORY COUNCIL DISSOLVED ?

New York, Jun 10, 2008 / 05:25 pm (CNA).- Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has apparently dissolved his Catholic National Advisory Council. According to the latest information obtained by CNA, evidence of the committee’s continued existence remains elusive.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said in a June 9 press release that there is no mention of the advisory council on the Obama website and Obama’s National Catholic Outreach Coordinator has not responded to Catholic League inquiries about the council.

In recent months two Catholic advisors to Obama have been the subject of controversy. One of Obama’s Catholic advisers, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, was recently rebuked by Archbishop of Kansas City Joseph Naumann because of her pro-abortion views and asked by the archbishop not to present herself for Holy Communion.

Continue reading...

DEATH IN THE FAMILY

I've just received word that commenter Steve Dalton's father has recently died. Please say a prayer for him and his family.

THE NEW MEANING OF "CONVERSION" - CHURCH TO MOSQUE

A reader sent in this story from the UK Telegraph:

Churches in Belgium are to be turned into mosques as Christian congregations decline while Muslims demand more places to worship.

Philip Heylen, Antwerp's deputy mayor, has called on the city to "break the taboo" over the many empty and unused churches.

"It's a looming issue yet it seems impossible to have a debate about this," he said. "Churches were built as places of worship and they should not be used as shopping malls. We've had a positive response from members of the Muslim community, which is open to the idea of converting them."

Antwerp has 36 mosques but many are located in old buildings that are too small or lack emergency exits. Meanwhile, the building of new mosques is sensitive in terms of planning.

When the people follow the example of the church, no one should act surprised!

CLEVELAND PARISH OPPOSES CLOSING

The Plain Dealer reports:

A prominent downtown church is fighting to stay alive in a planned massive diocesan reorganization, saying an anonymous angel has pledged $2 million to save St. Peter Catholic Church.

St. Peter appears to be the first parish to declare its opposition to plans by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese to close or merge nearly 50 churches in response to population shifts to the suburbs. ...

On Sunday...officials at St. Peter -- at East 17th Street and Superior Avenue -- announced they would oppose a recommendation that it merge with St. John Cathedral. The church said an anonymous donor has agreed to give $2 million to wipe out a $355,000 debt to the diocese and demolish and turn into a green space a closed school next to the church. The gift also would be used to expand St. Peter's ministries, which include support of a women's shelter and a Cleveland elementary school.

The congregation grew 10 percent last year to 356 households, said Robert Zack, a parish council member at St. Peter and a church representative to its regional group. The church, which took in about $2,600 in collections on June 1, has a high rate of giving and attendance, he said.

"Fundamentally, we feel we have a vibrant community that is financially solvent," Zack said.

He said Monday that the church was told the diocese could not accept the gift, which is contingent on St. Peter remaining open. Diocesan spokesman Robert Tayek said that to propose the gift would be "inappropriate" and outside the established procedures of the regionalization process.

In other words, the "regionalization process" isn't really about money or vibrant parishes? So what is it about?

Personally I'm sitting back and watching. We'll see what develops. Which faction in the local church wins. What the parishes look like when this process is finished. And whether or not I can find a parish that looks to be serving Christ. If I can find such a parish--one that is not serving the institution and the bishops--I might consider joining and contributing there. MIGHT. In the meantime, I'll just keep my refugee status.

CHEMO THIS MORNING

means that I'm late getting to the blog.

HERESY ON THE RIGHT

If you haven't had enough of bizarre stories of visions and locutions from me yet, I've got one that tops most of them.

The Thuc consecrations...

SEVENTH LINEAGE_____

The second complex lineage case is that of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin, a brother of Ngo Dinh Diem Jean Baptiste, the first President of the Republic of Viet Nam, who was murdered in November 1963.

In the mid-1970s, while living in exile in Italy, the lonely, depressed and impoverished Msgr. Ngo was befriended by Rev. Maurice Revaz, a Swiss priest who, at that time, was teaching canon law at the traditionalist seminary of the Sacerdotal Society of St. Pius X which Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus Marcel Lefebvre has established in Ecône, Switzerland.

Throughout the 1970s many traditionalist clergy and laity in Europe and America were expressing impatience over Msgr. Lefebvre's then reluctance to consecrate traditionalist bishops.

Canon Revaz, for his part, had even become convinced that the real Pope Paul VI was being held prisoner in a Vatican dungeon, with an imposter playing his rôle as Pope.

Around 1976 Canon Revaz heard there was a lay group near Seville, Spain, that was also convinced that Paul VI either was a prisoner in the Vatican or was being kept in a drugged state in order to manipulate him. Canon Revaz began corresponding with its two leaders, Clemente Dominguez Gómez and Manuel Alonso Corral, both of whom for several years had been saying that they were receiving visions of Our Lord and Our Lady.

Canon Revaz, after a trip to Rome and an unsuccessful attempt to find, and liberate, the imprisoned and/or drugged Pope Paul VI, left the Ecône seminary permanently, and went to Spain along with two companions, an Irish woman visionary who claimed to be receiving mesages from the incarcerated and/or drugged Pope, and a German nun, Sr. Cherubina, who for some time had been working at the SSPX seminary.

Canon Revaz had gotten to know Msgr. Ngo, both from making many visits to Rome, where the exiled Archbishop had been living since 1963, and from a trip that Msgr. Ngo had once made to the seminary in Ecône. Revaz convinced the Archbishop to go to Spain and to consecrate priests and bishops for the Dominguez/Alonso group.

There are reports, from sources very hostile to Msgr. Ngo, that Canon Revaz and his companions persuaded Msgr. Ngo to perform the ordinations and consecrations by convincing him that a bi-locating Pope Paul VI (the real, imprisoned, one, not the imposter) had appeared in Spain and approved the idea.

At any event, within days of the ordinations and the consecrations that Msgr. Ngo performed in Spain, the Vatican announced publicly that Archbishop Ngo had been automatically excommunicated for attempting to consecrate bishops without a Papal mandate. Msgr. Ngo, however, quickly expressed regret for his actions in Spain and sought forgiveness from the Vatican. The excommunication was then lifted.

The Dominguez/Alonso group, however, went on without him. Its newly made bishops within weeks started ordaining priests and consecrating bishops and, at the death of Paul VI in 1978, they declared themselves the Holy Palmarian Church (the "Iglesia Una, Santa, Católica, Apostólica y Palmariana").

But, right after the lifting of his excommunication, Archbishop Ngo was again back to consecrating independent bishops. This time, the consecrations were for a wide variety of groups, including sedevacantists loosely grouped under the name Tridentine Latin Rite Church.

Finally, some years before his death, Msgr. Ngo agreed also to perform consecrations for a wide assortment of splinter groups, some of them not even Roman Catholic.

Excommunicated a second time for these later consecrations, Msgr. Ngo moved to Rochester, NY, where for a few years he lived with an independent bishop (who had been consecrated by one of those bishops whom Msgr. Ngo had earlier consecrated for the Tridentine Latin Rite Church).

While he was living in upstate New York, Msgr. Ngo was invited to New York City to attend a conference of exiled Vietnamese. While there, he was persuaded to join (some say, was kidnapped by) some emigré Vietnamese who were living in a monastery in Missouri and were loyal to the Vatican. Shortly after arriving there, Msgr. Ngo died. Upon his death, the Vatican released a statement saying that he had recently asked for, and had received, John Paul II's forgiveness.

Msgr. Ngo's lineage includes the broadest conceivable spectrum of theologies likely ever to be held by men all claiming to possess valid "Catholic" priestly and episcopal orders that are derived from a single prelate alive in their lifetimes. The spectrum ranges from the head of a French Satanist sect all the way to the strictest of Traditional Roman Catholics.

The priests and bishops resulting from the activities of this one Roman Catholic bishop are listed at the website. The list is long.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

ONE EXORCISM PER DAY

Hundreds of Germans, tortured by inner voices, are looking for priests to help free them from what they believe to be the grip of the Devil.

Up to one person per day undergoes a full scale exorcism, a priest estimates, according to the Times Online. "Over the past year alone I have received requests from around 350 people who think they are possessed by an evil spirit," says Fr Joerg Mueller, who heads a group of priests, doctors and therapists to deal with the problem.

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BISHOP HILARION SAYS NO UNION POSSIBLE

A complete holy communion between Orthodox believers and Catholics is very unlikely, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations, Archbishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, said in an interview with the newspaper Soyuznoye Veche of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliamentary Assembly. ...

"We will not unite but we can learn to be allies and partners. We should not be rivals, we should be Christians who may differ in certain theological intricacies but have practically the same ideas about morals and social values," he said.

Here's the story.

PFLEGER IS COMING BACK

The South Side parish of St. Sabina exploded with shouts of joy and a standing ovation Sunday morning at the news firebrand Catholic pastor Rev. Michael Pfleger would be returning June 16.

Cardinal Francis George temporarily removed the outspoken priest from his parish last week following comments Pfleger made about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Pfleger had said Clinton believed she was entitled to the Democratic nomination because she is white. Pfleger is white, while most of his parishioners are African-American.

At a three-hour Sunday mass filled with songs and dancing, pastoral associate Kimberly Lymore read a letter from Pfleger in which the priest wrote, "This has been a very painful time for me personally and for our church family."

"Let this time be a teaching moment for us to hear the Lord, to grow closer to him and become even stronger to build a kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven," Pfleger wrote.

Read it here.

SEEKING QUALITY CATHOLIC ART

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

So the old saw went, and now the Church is seeking admission in the form of positive treatment from the art world:

The Holy See is seeking fresh talent. Could Damien Hirst be the new Michelangelo?...

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a campaign for a new era of religious art to rival the works of the Medicis. As religious themes become increasing influential among contemporary artists, the Holy See, which governs the Catholic Church, is searching for rich patrons to sponsor works in new houses of worship designed by cutting-edge architects.

In an attempt to "lead by example", the Pontifical Council for Culture is now setting up a committee to find "world-famous" contemporary artists it can commission to produce new religious and spiritual works.

These will be shown during next year's Venice Biennale, which the Vatican will attend for the first time and which it once dismissed as a "debacle" that demonstrated "the breakdown of art in modern times". One UK-based benefactor, who wants to remain anonymous, has already been found to sponsor this project.

"We are trying to get a dialogue up and running between the church and contemporary art – particularly artists at the highest level," said Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.


Read it here.

It's a move that makes sense. The Church has long been a patron of the arts, but has stepped away from patronage of modern art. Artists, who starve without benefactors, tend to paint what makes benefactors smile. In recent years those benefactors have been smiling at disparagement of the Church.

Yet through the centuries it is the arts that have helped to preserve the Church, especially in times when the common man was illiterate. Pictures, in stained class and paint on canvass, was the catechism of the populace. When priests and even popes failed to carry the message forward, the art of previous generations preserved it for us. Consider the story told by Michaelangelo's Pieta for an example of what I mean. God, after all, gave us the artistic ability for a reason. I have long thought the reason is that this is an important means for knowing Him.

And so patronage of contemporary art in support of the message of Christ is a step toward reinforcing what we have, over what we lack, provided the artists commissioned love the Church.

May God grant that this new effort will be successful.

FROM THE EMAILBOX

Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)

Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 23 | Friday, June 06, 2008

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www.hli.org

Maternal Deaths Down In Nicaragua Once Abortion Is Eliminated

Unsuspecting pro-life cultures are regularly assaulted by the "logic" of the international abortion promoters who push their anti-life agenda into every culture that will cave in to the pressure. Their main argument goes roughly like this: "When abortion is not legal, women have abortions anyway but in unsafe conditions and back-alley clinics with untrained people who injure and kill them. All this death and injury is totally unnecessary and we could just solve the problem overnight by legalizing abortion to make it safe and keep all these poor women from dying."

That's the main argument which, in one form or another, is repeated ad nauseam by the abortion lobby to sympathetic healthcare providers, social workers, government leaders and the media. It can be an effective argument for legalized abortion because people are generally more willing to sacrifice the rights of the unseen child for the immediate perceived needs of the suffering woman. However, that argument is a ruse. Abortion doesn't work the way they say it does. In reality, legalized abortion, besides killing babies, creates a climate of disrespect for women's health that leads to a greater number of maternal deaths. Let's take another look at the most fascinating and heroic case study in the abortion wars that our modern age has seen: Nicaragua.

That marvelous little pro-life country in Central America is a good example of what happens when a country chooses a culture of life. Remember that Nicaragua made abortion completely illegal in 2006 and then reaffirmed that prohibition in 2007. The overall positive results for Nicaraguan women have been just amazing. The abortion promoters screamed that making abortion illegal would cause women to die in droves because of more back-alley abortions, but that didn't happen. In fact, the opposite is true - fewer women are dying now! A recent publication by Nicaragua's Ministry of Health noted that the overall maternal mortality rate decreased by 58% in the year that abortion has been made totally illegal. There were 21 maternal deaths for 2007 compared to 50 maternal deaths the year before. This is a stunning reversal!

The lie that women will die from back-alley, "unsafe," abortions is nothing but a scare tactic to coerce pro-life cultures into compliance with abortion. The truth is that abortion-free cultures have a greater respect for women and babies and are not subject to that degrading pall of killing that lies over the medical profession. In the case of Nicaragua, their rejection of abortion in 2006/2007 coincided - not surprisingly - with a greater provision of basic pre-natal services for pregnant women and accompaniment in childbirth which is what led to the surprising turn-around in the maternal death rate. Even aside from legal protection of babies, pro-life cultures just protect women better, it's that simple.

We don't have to listen to the liars who tell us that legalized abortion is "safe." Women are much safer in countries where abortion is not legal. Abortion enthusiasts were never able to use the maternal death argument in abortion-free Ireland which has the lowest rate of maternal deaths in the world. They are also confounded by pro-life cultures like Poland that restricted abortion in 1993 and has seen a phenomenal increase in maternal wellbeing ever since.

The abortion promoters tell us that certain abortions are unsafe. They're half right. Actually, all abortions are unsafe. The numbers don't lie.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International