Goodbye Gruel World (Contribution)

Until their doors were closed in 1996, the Irish branch of the Roman Catholic Church sent more than 30,000 "fallen women"--prostitutes, single mothers, social activists, the poor and orphaned--to Dickensian forced-labor camps called Magdalene asylums.

Speaking was not allowed, food consisted of foul gruel; each day was a grind of backbreaking work in the for-profit laundries, uneasy sleep in hard-bed barracks, and punishment under the watch of sadistic Sisters of Mercy.

The unfortunate inmates sometimes lived out their entire lives inside institution walls.

The Magdalene Sisters, director/writer Peter Mullan's heartfelt indictment of this long obscure atrocity, is righteous, but its characters are unnecessarily reductive representatives of Innocence and Evil, with scant interest spent on the gray areas that inform the most awful actions.

The Magdalene Sisters opens with a series of miscalculations that reoccur throughout the film. At a 1964 Dublin wedding, a priest, accompanied by a group of Gaelic musicians, pounds with mounting creepy ecstasy on a drum while Mullan crosscuts to young Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) being raped by her cousin, to shots of crucifixes, and then to pious local menfolk.

As the music climaxes, it fairly well looks like the priest will do the same.

After this blunt hammering of the film's themes, Margaret is sent packing by her never-seen parents to a cold, miserable Magdalene asylum run by queen bitch Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan, easily out-eviling Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched).

We then journey through several overly compressed years in the spiritual charnel house as seen through the eyes of two other victims: Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), a spirited minx, imprisoned for being attractive and looking at boys; and Rose (Dorothy Duffy), damned to the asylum when she conceives a child outside of wedlock.

The film achieves its first, no-caveats fine moment when two of the girls attempt to escape. Eventually, one succeeds, but the other gives in to long term Stockholm syndrome--believing herself to be unable to function in the real world, she turns back to the asylum to finish her life sentence. In-between, the film is a relentless horror-show litany of church-sanctioned awfulness. Whippings, starvation, isolation--nothing is spared in the church's efforts to turn their charges into hopeless, scripture-quoting automatons. (The Vatican has condemned the film.)

How does one add nuance to such a tale of indisputable power abuse? Mullan, a fine, accomplished actor (The Claim, Trainspotting) and promising director, never finds out. With his tendency for over-underlining his scenes and a too sober tone, Mullan also allows the film's events to slide dangerously close to camp.

Two particularly demented nuns round up the girls for an accounting of their sins, which necessitates the girls stripping down to their christening suits.

As the nuns cackle with sadistic Sapphic intent, and the roving camera shows all, you could be excused for thinking you had stumbled in on a midnight Apex screening of Catholic Teen Love Slaves.

Overstatement again undermines things with the appearance of Crispina (Eileen Walsh), who, under Mullan's micromanaged direction, starts out a sweet simpleton but quickly dissolves into a Snake Pit-level wild-eyed and drooling insane person. You'd have to look to Crispin Glover to find a similar level of alienating histrionics.

On the other hand, the incredibly skilled Noone allows her Bernadette a recurring strain of nastiness without betraying her character's core decency. The film's second triumph comes when Bernadette tends to a dying woman who earlier went mad and then betrayed her.

Bernadette mocks the pitiful old woman but spares her a final delicate kiss.

It would have helped if Mullan had explored something beyond blunt (if repressed) sexual power as a motivation for his cruel nuns and pompous clergy.

More importantly, we never learn why the girls' parents are so eagerly complicit in their children's doom.

Still, it isn't so much Mullan's rookie-director gaffes that rob his film of its aggregate power, as it is current events outperforming historic awfulness.

To a degree, many of us have become numbed by the Catholic Church's dumbfounding day-in, day-out support of serial child-rapist priests, its traditional limits on women's rights, and recent anti-gay spew.

And our reaction to this film, like so many other more important things, suffers for it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: BCP)

Cherie in warning to churches over ‘invisible’ women

CHERIE BLAIR has urged the Anglican and Catholic churches to stop “marginalising” women or face terminal decline.

“Today, while women remain marginalised, Christianity cannot flourish. Women and men must be equal partners for 21st century Christianity,” she said.

Her forthright remarks, in a programme she presents tonight on Channel 4, marks an escalation in her campaign to change the culture of the church.

She is one of the most influential lay figures in the church, a position which has been enhanced by her husband’s conversion to Catholicism after he stepped down as prime minister.

Blair points out in the programme that it is women who have traditionally passed religion on to their children. “But when it comes to the public face of Christianity, now women are virtually invisible,” she adds.

“Down the centuries, women have formed the backbone of faith communities,” she says. “Until the churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?”

The Vatican refuses to ordain women priests, while the Anglican Communion has been split by demands for the introduction of female bishops.

Interviewing Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Blair says: “If you actually look at the formal structures of the Catholic church, you don’t see a woman’s face when you see people speaking for the church. Can we change that?”

Blair also met Laura Bush, the wife of the former US president, for the documentary, and punctures the myth that their husbands prayed together before going to war in Iraq. “This never happened, of course,” says the former first lady. She also quashes reports that claimed her husband “thought God told him things”.

In a separate interview for BBC1’s Politics Show today, Blair says women should use the opportunity presented by recession to prove their worth in the workplace. She says crisis-hit businesses were more likely to “take a chance” on recruiting female employees.

“There is an opportunity for women to show how much they can contribute, and be part of the solution, not the problem,” she says.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: TOUK)

Holocaust-denying bishop's apology sparks fresh outrage

An apology from Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson failed to placate the Vatican on Friday which called on him to "unequivocally and publicly" withdraw his comments.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said a letter of apology from Williamson "doesn't seem to have respected the conditions" set by the Vatican on February 4, under which the bishop was to "distance himself absolutely and publicly" from his positions concerning the Holocaust.

In a letter to the Vatican released Thursday, Williamson apologised to those he offended with his remarks but stopped short of withdrawing them.

Outraged religious groups said Williamson had not retracted claims that no Jews perished in the gas chambers.

Leading German religious groups, including the influential Catholic Church, sharply rejected the apology and a prominent Jewish organisation accused him of continuing to hold his controversial views.

"By clearly refusing to retract his malicious lies, Williamson has again made clear that he is convinced anti-Semite and diehard Holocaust-denier, who calls into question the genocide of six million Jewish people," said Charlotte Knobloch, the president of Germany's Central Council of Jews.

"This is a rude, malicious and barbaric insult to all Holocaust victims and their descendants," said Dieter Graumann, vice-president of the Central Council for Jews in Germany.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries meanwhile refused to rule out a possible arrest. "Germany could act within the framework of a European arrest warrant," she said.

European Commissioner for Justice Jacques Barrot echoed her, telling reporters in Brussels that the denial could attract legal action in many EU states.

"I am personally opposed to any form of denial," he said. "It's not acceptable... it's playing with the truth."

The vice-president of the Central Council of German Catholics, Hans Joachim Meyer, also rejected Williamson's explanation, telling the daily Tagesspiegel on Friday it was "in no way satisfactory."

And Rabbi David Rosen, an emissary to the Vatican, said "this is in no way a real apology."

Williamson said in the letter: "Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks."

"If I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them," he said.

The bishop has been at the centre of a raging controversy after saying in comments broadcast by Swedish television last month: "There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies."

Williamson said he believed "200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them by gas chambers."

The comments prompted Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to launch a highly unusual attack on the Vatican, calling on Pope Benedict XVI to clarify his stance on Holocaust-denial, which is illegal in Germany.

The German pope later said that "any denial or minimisation of (the Holocaust), this terrible crime, is intolerable and altogether unacceptable."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was "shocking" and "unacceptable ... that someone in the 21st century can deny the Shoah, the martyrdom of the Jews."

Williamson was among four excommunicated bishops the pope agreed to take back into the Church in January in a bid by the Vatican to heal a split with traditionalist Roman Catholics, who rejected the Church's liberal reforms of the early 1960s.

Argentina last week gave Williamson 10 days to leave the South American nation -- where he lived at a seminary run by the ultra-conservative Saint Pius X Society -- for having "deeply shocked Argentine society, the Jewish people and all of humanity."

Bernard Fellay, the head of the order, told the Swiss newspaper Le Courrier Thursday that the Society would not change its stance on the reforms before holding talks with the Vatican.

"Making recognition of the reforms a prior condition is like putting the cart before the horse," he added.

Fellay said he rather hoped that the Vatican might change its stance on Vatican II, blaming the reforms of the 1960s for "emptying seminaries... and churches."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: AFP)

Clergyman says sorry for hurt, but not words

A renegade Roman Catholic clergyman who believes that the Holocaust was not nearly as bad as history records has had a half-hearted apology for his remarks rejected by the Vatican.

As the fallout from comments by Richard Williamson continued to strain further relations between the Vatican and Israel – even threatening Pope Benedict’s upcoming visit to the Holy Land at one stage – the British-born cleric did little to ease the situation with an apology he posted on a traditionalist Catholic website on Friday.

Mr Williamson, who was excommunicated 20 years ago for rejecting tenets of the Second Vatican Council, which was aimed at modernising the church, and who was finally rehabilitated by the pope in January, said that, if he had known the upset his remarks would cause, he would not have made them.

This, though, did not satisfy the Vatican, which has been embarrassed enough by the affair already. When the pope lifted the excommunication order, he was unaware that, two months earlier, Mr Williamson had made his controversial remarks about the Holocaust in a Swedish TV interview.

In the interview, Mr Williamson, 68, who was forced to return to the United Kingdom last week after being deported from Argentina, disputed the fact that six million Jews had been killed by the Nazis and said that the number was, at most, 300,000. He also said none had died in gas chambers.

After uproar from Jews worldwide, the pope said Mr Williamson must recant his views before he could once again receive communion in the Catholic Church.

In his statement on Friday, Mr Williamson said: “I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the church but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.

“To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said before God, I apologise.”

This, though, was not nearly enough for the pope.

The Rev Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said Mr Williamson “does not seem to respect the conditions” the church set after he had made his comments, and that he needed to “unequivocally and publicly” withdraw those remarks.

By yesterday, however, the bishop seemed in no mood to apologise.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that he had contacted David Irving, a controversial historian who has questioned the accepted history of the Holocaust, asking how to present his views without causing a backlash.

Mr Irving told the newspaper: “He is obviously a very intelligent man who did not realise the danger of talking to the press. He is not a Holocaust denier. Like me, he does not buy the whole package.”

Jews worldwide remained furious over the remarks. Renzo Gattegna, the president of Italy’s Jewish Communities group, described Mr Williamson’s apology as “absolutely ambiguous”.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, described the statement as “not the kind of an apology that would end this matter”.

But the Church has not been the only one on the defensive because of the affair. Last week, Lior Shlein, a popular Israeli comedian, went on Israeli TV in response to comments and ridiculed Jesus and said that Mary was not a virgin.

The Vatican protested to the Israeli government, as did Muslims and Christians in the Middle East. A group of Christian community workers in the Palestinian territories demanded that the pope cancel his visit to Israel, scheduled for the second week in May.

The Vatican was clearly furious about the skit, branding it a “vulgar and offensive act of intolerance towards the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ”.

In the end, Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Israeli prime minister, had to step in to save the day, telling the pope of his “regret, sorrow and disapproval”.

Aside from his internet statement, Mr Williamson has kept a low profile since his return to Britain five days ago, when he was met at Heathrow by police and surrounded by three bodyguards.

He is, however, said to be considering making an appearance at a church in north London that broke away from the mainstream Roman Catholic Church in the 1980s, partly because of the Vatican’s decision to drop the Latin mass.

Aside from his views on the Holocaust, Mr Williamson, who as an “illicit” bishop in the Church cannot perform duties of either a priest or bishop, has some other opinions that many consider odd.

He has claimed, for example, that the United States itself planned the September 11 attacks, that Freemasons are conspiring to undermine the Church, and that “a woman can do a good imitation of handling ideas, but then she will not be thinking properly as a woman”.

In March last year, he described as “authentic” The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document that purports to reveal Jewish plots to achieve world domination. The document is generally considered to be a forgery, penned by anti-Semites in Tsarist Russia.

Mr Williamson, however, denies being anti-Semitic.

“My definition of anti-Semitism is to be against every single Jew purely because he’s a Jew,” he says.

“That’s not at all my case. I once had a Jewish rabbi come and speak to seminarians. Does that sound to you like anti-Semitism?”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: TN)

Anti-Papal Austrian bishops resurrect the Josephite heresy (Contribution)

Heresies are like fashions: wait long enough and an old heterodoxy will become modish again.

The Catholic bishops of Austria have just resurrected Josephism, 219 years after the death of its instigator, Emperor Joseph II, who seized control of the Church, imposing 6,200 religious laws and even dictating the size of candles.

When the Pope recently selected Father Gerhard Maria Wagner as auxiliary bishop of Linz, shock waves ran through the episcopal ranks. Wagner is a doctrinal and liturgical conservative - in shorthand, a Catholic - and that is an automatic disqualification for wearing a mitre in trendy Austria.

The temper of the Austrian hierarchy can be gauged from the example of Bishop Reinhold Stecher who, on his retirement a decade ago, published a letter denouncing the then Pope John Paul II's insistence on clerical celibacy and ban on ordaining priestesses (an infallibly declared doctrine of faith).

What made the bishops so nervous about Father Wagner's appointment was the fact that the Austrian hierarchy is on the verge of a generational handover, with four bishops nearing retirement, and the faded 1960s trendies dread being succeeded by younger, more orthodox prelates.

So the screws were put on Father Wagner, who announced his renunciation of the post he had just accepted. He has since made a statement that his resignation was not voluntary.

The Austrian Bishops' Conference then issued an egregious pastoral letter that amounted to collective defiance of the Holy See.

Regarding episcopal appointments it stated that "before the Holy Father takes the final decision, reliable and thoroughly tested basic information must be provided on which he can rely".

That is barely coded language for a right of veto on appointments - as exercised historically by Joseph II.

The bishops want to eliminate any candidate with a whiff of orthodoxy about him or - horror of horrors - a penchant for the Latin Tridentine Mass.

The pastoral said: "This can ensure that bishops are appointed who are not 'against' but 'for' a local church." What is that supposed to mean?

So outrageous was the blatant defiance expressed in this pastoral letter and so profound the shock it is beginning to provoke among Catholics around the world for its impertinence towards the Pope that some of the bishops are beginning to backtrack and criticise the proceedings against Father Wagner.

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz of Linz has been summoned to Rome and the Linz Priests' Circle has said that forcing Wagner's withdrawal showed how anti-Roman forces and forces from outside the Church are rebelling against the Pope's God-given authority.

The bishops' concern to protect the modern liturgy is understandable: of Austria's 5.6 million Catholics, it now attracts a magnificent 13 per cent to Mass on Sundays.

The mindset betrayed by the pastoral was schismatic: a return to the Josephite concept of a self-contained Austrian Church, on the Gallican model.

It is difficult to regard the Austrian hierarchy as in full communion with Rome, in the light of its conduct.

Austria, like so many other countries, needs a complete change of personnel among its bishops.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: TTUK)

Pope Benedict’s prayer intention for March

Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for March is: “That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world”.

His mission intention is: “That, in the light of the Letter addressed to them by Pope Benedict XVI, the bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the Popular Republic of China may commit themselves to being the sign and instrument of unity, communion and peace”.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: DFWC)

Israeli Sacrilege Angers Muslims, Christians

Muslim and Christian leaders across the occupied Palestinian lands are shocked with repeated Israeli insults of the prophets and religious sanctities.

"I don't really know when Jews will start to respect the religious sensitivities of non-Jews," the Chief religious judge of Palestine, Dr. Taysir Tamimi, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, February 28.

"It is very shocking and very telling that Jewish religious leaders in Israel and abroad have not condemned these blasphemous acts."

Israeli media shocked millions of Muslims and Christians last week by mocking Jesus, his mother Mary and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).

A TV comedy skit, hosted by Israeli comedian Lior Shlein, last week depicted Jesus as being "too fat" to have walked on water and that May was not virgin.

The insult came after the host angered million of Muslims when he pointed to one of his shoes, saying "This is Muhammad."

"Muslims throughout the world have been shocked by the evil campaign waged against Islam and the Prophet (PBUH) and abuse of this shameful campaign against the sanctities with insults addressed against the Prophet and a religion followed by more than 1.5 billion Muslims," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

"This shameful conduct came a few days after broadcasting insulting rhetoric against Prophet Jesus and his virgin mother, Mary, peace be upon them."

Wicked, blasphemous

Salim Kubti, a lawyer representing Christian courts in Israel, said he was considering a libel suit against Channel-10, which hosted the comedy show.

"Such remarks go beyond satire and dark humor," he told IOL.

"These are serious utterances insulting the sensibilities of every Christian and anyone who possesses values and mutual respect for other religions.

"It's clear that Shlein is a failure and as a result is looking for any way to improve his ratings, and he is jumping on a sensitive issue."

The Vatican labeled the Israeli show "a vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ."

Some Christian leaders and clergymen even Pope Benedict XVI to postpone or cancel his planned visit to Israel, scheduled to take place in May.

The outcry forced outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to apologize for Pope Benedict XVI, saying the comedy segment didn't represent Israel's views.

IOL has contacted some Jewish leaders for comment, but they refused to talk.

Muslim leaders also denounced the Israeli TV show, calling it "wicked and blasphemous."

"We believe in freedom of expression, but we don't believe in freedom of vulgarity and blasphemy," Ikrema Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), said in the weekly Friday sermon.

"You can't insult and offend people under the pretext of freedom of expression."

He said the "apparent acquiescence" of the Israeli government to these vulgarities reflected "malice and ill-will" toward Muslims, calling on Muslims worldwide to send an "unmistakable warning" to Israel to refrain from insulting religious symbols.

Israel has a long history of showing disrespect to Muslim and Christian faiths.

In 1948, the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish groups systematically destroyed hundreds of mosques in Palestine in an effort to obliterate the country's Arab-Islamic identity.

Mosques left intact, such as the Beir al Saba'a Mosque, were converted into bars or brothels. Others were simply left to fall into disrepair.

Shortly after the 1967 Middle East war, the chief rabbi of the Israeli army, Shlomo Gorin, urged the military to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, "once and for all".

In January 1984, armed Jewish extremists, led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim, the Jewish settler movement, attempted to dynamite and destroy Al-Aqsa mosque.

Jewish insults of Muslim and Christian symbols became more common and audacious in recent years.

Nearly ten years ago, a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union drew an offensive image depicting Prophet Muhammad as a pig writing the Qur'an.

In 2006, a Jewish couple walked into the Basilica of Annunciation Church in the Arab town of Nazareth in Israel, carrying 19 gas canisters, bottles of turpentine and kerosene, 64 firecrackers and 25 rocket-shaped fireworks.

The couple placed the fireworks and the gas canisters in a corner then poured kerosene on them, causing a fire.

Moreover, Yeshiva (Talmudic school) students have been spitting on Christian clergymen in Al-Quds and breaking their crucifixes.

Some other fanatical Jews don't hesitate to refer to Jesus as "Hitler of Bethlehem."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: ION)

Theolgian Warns of Bleak Future for Catholic Church Under Pope Benedict

Leading progressive theologian Hans Kueng has said the Catholic Church increasingly threatenes to deteriorate into a sect under Pope Benedict XVI, prompting protests from the Vatican.

In an interview with German news agency DPA on Saturday, Feb 28, Hans Kueng defended earlier remarks to a French newspaper in which he said that Pope Benedict had lost a great deal of credibility and that the Catholic Church was floundering under him.

An emeritus professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Tuebingen in southern Germany, Kueng said he was "very sad" over the direction that the current church leadership was taking.

Kueng, whose authority to teach Catholic theology was rescinded by the Vatican over his criticism of papal authority, said he was still optimistic after meeting Pope Benedict XVI four years ago.

"I was hoping that he Pope Benedict would show himself as reforming, ecumenical and open for the future. But this hope has been bitterly disappointed," Swiss-born Kueng said.

Vatican rejects criticism

Benedict XVI, formerly cardinal Josef Ratzinger, strained relations with the Protestant churches because of his lack of willingness to engage in ecumenical dialogue. Neither did the pope's dialogue with Islam amount to more than lip service, Kueng said.

Furthermore, the German-born pope severely damaged relations with members of the Jewish faith by revoking the excommunication of Richard Williamson, a Holocaust-denying bishop of an arch-conservative Catholic group.

"Pope Benedict XVI seriously angered many faithful Catholics and suffered a severe loss of his credibility. This is sad," Kueng said.

The pope should state that the revoking Williamson's excommunication without conditions has not been justified, Kueng demanded.

Kueng's remarks have prompted fierce criticism by the Vatican.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals at the Vatican rejected Kueng's criticism, calling it "bitter" and "hurtful" and said it didn't promote the unity of the Church.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: DW)

Pope will demean other religions to prove Christianity’s ‘superiority’ (Contribution)

So it's all the fault of the Pope's satraps.

"Vatican advisers blamed for Pope's woes," I was informed by one headline.

"A self-imposed cone (sic) of silence surrounds Benedict."

And now poor old Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, the solitary German who found himself manning an anti-aircraft gun at the end of the Second World War ("briefly" and "unwillingly", I know) has had some "harsh words" for his advisers because – according to the Vatican – he "had no idea of Bishop Williamson's views before lifting an excommunication order against him last month".

Williamson, I should add, is the disgusting British-born prelate of the Society of Saint Pius X who has said that "not a single Jew died in a gas chamber" in the Second World War.

This Cambridge-educated priest says he is prepared to "re-examine" the historical evidence of the Holocaust – but, needless to say, declines to visit Auschwitz.

Unsurprisingly, the Vatican has rejected Williamson's mealy-mouthed apology to those who suffered "injustice" at Nazi hands.

Now a lot of folk will go along with the line that the Holy Father is so stupid – so utterly out of touch with Planet Earth and all its Catholic children, so "cut off from the real world" (here I quote a Vatican "insider") – that he has no idea how disastrously his actions are received. Hmmm. Well, I wonder.

For was this not the same Pope who actually visited Auschwitz and – to the understandable outrage of Jewish dignitaries who were present – blamed a Nazi "gang" for the Jewish Holocaust?

Before this infallible pronouncement, an awful lot of people thought that the Nazi German nation was to blame for Auschwitz, but old Joseph apparently thought it was a mafia clique in Berlin that murdered six million European Jews.

And – here we go again – was this not the same ex-Cardinal Ratzinger (anti-divorce, anti-gay and anti-aircraft, as I always remind myself) who delivered a lecture at Regensburg in 2006 in which he quoted from a Byzantine text which characterised the Prophet Mohamed as evil and inhuman?

Chancellor Merkel, it was, who called up the old boy to point out that pardoning Williamson gave the impression that Holocaust denial was "permissible".

The last time a German Chancellor took so serious an interest in the words of the Holy Father, of course, was more than 60 years earlier when A Hitler Esq profoundly hoped that Pope Pius XII would abide by Williamson's line on the Holocaust.

That particular pope's silence is well expressed in the sinister black statue of His Holiness in St Peter's Basilica, a bespectacled cadaver that so shocked a Muslim friend of mine that she took 36 photos of the thing "because he looked so evil".

Well, there you go. But I bring all this up today because of a remarkable article by Ralph Coury, professor of history at Fairfield University, Connecticut, which appeared in the latest issue of the Institute of Race Relations' journal Race and Class.

The redoubtable professor has combed his way through Benedict's Regensburg peroration, in which the Holy Father quotes the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus as telling a visitor to "show me just what Mohamed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and human". God, the good Paleologus told his interlocutor, "is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body".

Coury's detailed critique of Benedict's mistakes – his apparent belief, for example, that there is a doctrine of jihad in the Koran – is compelling, but he has also unearthed some revealing interviews in which Ratzinger/Benedict reveals a lot more than he should have done about his own bias against Islam.

"There is a very marked subordination of woman to man," he says of Islam in 1996.

"There is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society ... above all, Islam doesn't make any sort of concessions to enculturation (sic). Islam is Arab (sic), and anyone who becomes Islamic takes on this form of life."

In Regensberg, Benedict went on to say that Christianity took on "its historically decisive character in Europe" despite "its origins and some significant developments (sic) in the East".

These few significant "developments" presumably include a Jew called Jesus and his birthplace in Bethlehem - which is at least 1,000km from Rome – along with the misadventures of numerous disciples in the Middle East, until Saint Paul headed off to Macedonia and the whole shebang mercifully became a "Western" or "occidental" religion.

Benedict's remarks on the theological significance of Israel on Roman Catholics have themselves been a little odd. "If it has significance for you, it must have significance for us," he told a Jewish leader before he was pope.

"One would think that such a small people couldn't really be important," he said of the Jews in 1993.

"But I believe there is something special about this people and that the great decisions of world history are almost always connected to them somehow."

This is not very comforting.

But Coury has also traced some very disturbing decisions by Benedict; his post-papal demotion, for example, of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, his distancing himself from the pro-Palestinian Angelo Cardinal Sidaro, John XXIII's secretary of state and a friend of Michel Sabbah, the Palestinian Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; not to mention Benedict's private audience (originally kept secret) with the increasingly weird Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci – whose crackpot statements included the assertion that "Islam breeds hatred" and that Muslims "breed like rats".

The details of this extraordinary papal audience with the late Ms Fallaci have never (unsurprisingly) been disclosed.

And what do I make of all this?

Well, I don't think the Pope is as innocent as he seems, nor so ill-advised. He sees Christianity as a superior, "Western" religion and is prepared to demean other religions to prove it.

I think he knows exactly what he is doing.

I think he knows what he is saying.

I used to think he was a silly old German.

Now I am beginning to suspect he might be a very nasty piece of work.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: BT)

Beatification cause for Oblates’ founder takes a step

An Italian nun who founded a religious order may be one step closer to beatification as the Catholic Church investigates her possible intervention in the remarkable recovery of a young Campbell boy who nearly drowned five years ago.

A Canonical Investigation is underway in the Diocese of Youngstown after Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., heeded the request of Father Luca M. DeRosa, postulator for the Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of the Venerable Servant of God, Mother Maria Teresa Casini, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Oblates’ only headquarters in the United States is in Hubbard, Ohio, where they operate a priests’ retirement facility and a preschool/kindergarten program.

The order also serves in Italy, Brazil, India and West Africa.

The case for Mother Maria Teresa Casini’s sainthood began 57 years ago in Frascati, Italy, which was her birthplace. She was first deemed a Servant of God, and then declared Venerable in 1998.

"Venerable" is the Church’s way of saying Mother Maria Teresa was an exceptional woman in terms of her morals and actions, so prayers and intercessions to her are encouraged, explained Oblate Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Joyce Candidi. Sister Joyce is director of the diocesan Office of Vowed Religious.

Teresa Casini was born in 1864 into a wealthy family. Her father was a devout Catholic; her mother, a Russian socialite. In her autobiography, she recalled her childhood awareness of God and how she would ponder His greatness alone in her room while her family hosted parties. Her love of prayer and concern for the poor were nurtured by her father, who died when she was nine. After his death, when her mother resumed her social life, Teresa would often accompany her, although the parties and dinners did not make her happy.

After committing herself to religious life, she founded the Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious order that began as a cloister but grew into service, all in the name of increasing priestly vocations and sanctifying the clergy. She created schools for "The Little Friends of Jesus," which were pre-seminary institutions. She started the League of Priests, which she said was requested of her by Jesus to offer reparations for those priests who do not fulfill or appreciate their vocations.

Today, the League of Priests is formed at the diocesan level, and members meet for prayer and fellowship four times per year.

"Of all her virtues, what really struck me was her obedience ... to God’s will," Sister Joyce said.

The event that is being investigated as a miracle was accompanied by a number of coincidences.

Late on the evening of June 25, 2003, one Oblate sister was sleeping at the order’s novitiate house rather than the convent. The telephone number to the novitiate is the first Oblate listing in phone books, Sister Joyce noted. That was the number that Jacob Sebest’s father called to tell the sisters of the boy’s accident and ask some of them to meet his family at a hospital emergency room. Jacob was 3-years old at the time and enrolled in the Oblates’ preschool, Sister Joyce said.

When Sister Teresina Rosa, general superior of the local Oblates, was told of the phone call, she first prayed in their chapel, and then left with another sister for the hospital. Some priests also had gathered there with nervous family members. Sister Teresina said she suggested they pray the Rosary to the intercession of Mary and Mother Maria Teresa Casini.

Jacob was placed in an induced coma because of swelling in his brain, Sister Joyce said. Doctors told the family that if Jacob survived the first 48 hours, they should not expect him to be the same boy he was before the accident, she added.

The rest of the Oblate sisters were told of Jacob’s condition the following morning. "We’d better pray and pray hard that the Lord would spare this boy," Sister Teresina recalled telling them.

Thus, they prayed together at morning Mass. Two sisters who went to visit the family at the hospital took with them one of Mother Maria Teresa Casini’s holy cards to leave in Jacob’s hospital room.

Jacob’s mother made copies of the card, which included a prayer, and priests helped to distribute them at parishes in Campbell, Lake Milton and Hubbard, Sister Teresina said.

Common prayer by a large number of people is a key point in the Church’s investigation of miraculous events, Sister Joyce said.

The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that year fell on June 27, and it’s an important feast day for the Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While they prayed for Jacob during Mass, his father left a simple telephone message at the sisters’ house. Please call back, he said. His voice sounded flat and serious, and the sisters didn’t know what to expect, Sister Teresina said. That was when they learned that Jacob had been moving his arms and legs on his own. After he was brought out of the coma, he was able to eat solid food and, within three days, was sent home with no permanent injuries or effects. "He went from intensive care to well. There was no in-between," Sister Teresina said.

The Oblate sisters believed that Mother Maria Teresa had interceded as asked, but Sister Teresina told them not to get too excited. She first wanted to hear the opinions of Jacob’s doctor, a Muslim by faith.

The doctor told her he has had a great deal of experience with these types of cases, but he could not explain Jacob’s rapid, complete recovery. He must have had help from above, the doctor told Sister Teresina, and he agreed to offer his testimony.

From that point, the case for beatification began to be built. With help from Jacob’s mother, the Oblates got permission for Jacob’s clinical file to be released and sent to Church officials in Rome, Sister Teresina said. Everyone who was exposed to the event, including medical staff, was invited to talk about their experiences. Twenty-four persons agreed to be interviewed. Their testimony also was sent to Rome, Sister Teresina said.

Some time passed before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints told Bishop Murry in 2007 to begin an investigation. Bishop Murry appointed a diocesan Ad Hoc Tribunal, with Msgr. Michael Cariglio, judicial vicar of the diocesan Tribunal (and pastor of Youngstown Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish), as judge delegate and Dr. Robert Cuttica, permanent deacon at Youngstown St. Christine Parish, as medical expert.

No one knows for sure how long the review process will last. Sister Joyce finds it interesting that Bishop Murry and Msgr. Cariglio have proposed making their presentation to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on April 3. They didn’t realize that is the day that Mother Maria Teresa Casini died in 1937. If she is beatified, the Church will assign a feast day for her. Feast days usually are the dates on which holy people entered eternal life, Sister Joyce said.

The Church must verify another miracle if Mother Maria Teresa Casini is to ascend to sainthood.

Regardless of the outcome, Sister Joyce and Sister Teresina believe Jacob’s experience is of great value. "It becomes part of the history of our congregation [and] it’s a tool to encourage people," Sister Teresina said.

"Have faith in the intercession of the saints of our Church," Sister Joyce said. "They are our friends." The event also is a reminder to her that "God is so present around all of us. Sometimes we just don’t see."

If beatification is granted, Sister Joyce would like to make one more appeal to the Church. Unlike canonization, which must take place in Rome, beatification rites can occur where the blessed person lived or where the miracle took place. She would lobby for the event to take place in the Diocese of Youngstown, she said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CNA)

Lent reminds us that Christian life is a relentless battle, says Mexican cardinal

The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass at the archdiocesan Cathedral and said, “Lent reminds us that the Christian life is a relentless battle in which we must use the weapons of prayer, fasting and penance.”

As he distributed the ashes, he explained, “Lent is not mere ritualism, but rather a time of reflection and conversion.”

Conversion, the cardinal said, “is a spiritual battle that involves the entire person “against sin, and ultimately, against Satan.”

Cardinal Rivera also called on Mexicans to fight against “every kind of selfishness and hatred.” “Dying to oneself to live in God is the aesthetic path that all the disciples of Jesus are called to take with humility and patience, with generosity and perseverance.”

Likewise, he invited the faithful to translate “concrete gestures towards one’s neighbor” into love, especially towards the poor and those in need.

Christians should respond to evil in the world not with vengeance or hatred, or by “fleeing towards a false spiritualism,” but rather “by opposing evil with good, lies with the truth, hatred with love,” he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CNA)

Pope blames idolatry of money for economic crisis

Meeting with pastors and clergy of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI discussed the economic crisis, the liturgy and evangelization.

Naming the idolatry of money as a major shortcoming of the economic order, he warned that large-scale reform cannot be achieved without individual reform and conversion.

Pope Benedict said that the Church has the duty to present a reasonable and well-argued criticism of the errors that have led to the current economic crisis.

This duty is part of the Church’s mission and must be exercised firmly and courageously, avoiding both moralism and obscurity.

He referred to his forthcoming social encyclical and presented a synthetic, two-level overview of the economic crisis.

Pope Benedict considered the macroeconomic aspects and the shortcomings of a system founded on selfishness and the “idolatry of money.”

These flaws cast a shadow over man’s reason and will and lead him into the ways of error, he explained to the Roman clergy. Thus, the Church must make her voice heard to show the path of true reason illuminated by faith, which is also the path of self-sacrifice and concern for the needy, he said.

The Pope also focused on small-scale economics, advising that large-scale reforms cannot be achieved unless individuals reform their ways. If there are no just people, there can be no justice he said.

He invited people to intensify their efforts for the conversion of hearts. This involves parishes not just being active in their local community but also being open to all humanity.

Pope Benedict said the evangelization of those who have moved away from the faith requires personal witness from individuals who live for others. Such witness must be associated with the Word because the Word reveals that the faith is not a philosophy or a utopia but a truth that becomes life.

He declared the need for priests who are capable of speaking to modern man with the simplicity of truth to show that God is not distant but active in the lives of all men.

Addressing the topic of the liturgy, the Pope compared it to a school in which one may learn the art of being human and where one may experience familiarity with Christ.

He said the Eucharist in particular must be lived as a sign and seed of charity.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CNA)

Drogheda to get statue to Mother Martin

Plans are afoot to erect a statue in Drogheda to Mother Mary Martin, the founder of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.

A committee has been formed to plan the monument to the nun who made a pioneering and far-reaching impact on bringing improved healthcare to many countries.

If the statue goes ahead, she will be the town's first well-known woman to be honoured in sculpture.

Former mayor Frank Godfrey said the intention of the committee is to proceed with commissioning an artist and finding an appropriate location for the statue.

“Mother Mary made an outstanding contribution to Drogheda and to the world,” he remarked. “Drogheda was blessed to have her, she set up the hospital in the 1950s and she was loved by the people of the town”.

“Given the current state of our health services, she could teach the minister for health a thing or two,” he added.

Mr Godfrey said that the pioneering nun “gave so much to this town and the world, it's only right that she be recognised for all the good she did”.

The ex-mayor was one of the main driving forces behind the erection of statues in recent years to commemorate two of the town’s sports heroes, Olympic boxer Tony 'Sox' Byrne and handball champion Joey Maher.

Mother Martin’s order was said to be 'delighted' at the prospect of their founder being honoured with a statue and Mr Godfrey said he hoped to win support for the project from Drogheda Borough Council and friends of the Lourdes Hospital which she founded.

He said West Street would be an ideal location for a statue to Mother Martin but somewhere in the vicinity of the hospital would also be appropriate.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CIN)

Feast of St David

March 1 is the feast day of St. David, a sixth-century monk and bishop who became the patron saint of Wales.

His diocese is traditionally believed to have been at Mynyw, where he had his monastery, now known as St. David's.

He was a talented orator, renowned for his sermons, and he is usually shown being inspired by the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove on his shoulder, and standing on a hill, preaching.

March 1 is the unofficial day of Welsh independence, so in solidarity with all of our Welsh friends, we will wear a leek in our hat and a daffodil on our lapel in honor of Dewi Sant.

You may remember that the trouble that Pistol encountered when he mocked Fluellen's leek in the last act of Shakespeare's Henry V.

It is the symbol of Henry's Welsh heritage, noted with pride by Fluellen in Act IV:

FLUELLEN
Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day.

HENRY V
I wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN
All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty too!

Cymru am byth!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: Ionarts)

Bishop encourages Welsh politicians to mark St David's Day

The Bishop of St Davids, the Rt Rev Wyn Evans, is sending a message to Welsh politicians urging them to mark St David's Day this Sunday.

The message is being delivered by pilgrims who will set off from St Davids Cathedral in Pembrokeshire on Saturday morning and head to the Senedd, home of the Welsh National Assembly in Cardiff Bay.

On their way to Cardiff, the pilgrims will join a civic service at St Mary’s Church in Swansea with the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt Rev John Davies.

In his message to politicians, Bishop Evans pointed to the example set by St David to inspire Wales in the midst of recession.

“It is a particular pleasure and a privilege for me to extend my greetings and best wishes to the Senedd on St David’s Day 2009 both on behalf of the Diocese of St Davids and St Davids Cathedral and, for the first time as bishop, on my own behalf. I sincerely hope that Dewi’s example in his discipline and perseverance will inspire us in contemporary Wales to cope in these times of recession,” he said.

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, will preach at the Wales National St David’s Day service in Cardiff on Sunday. His sermon on St David and national identity will be heard the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, politicians and representatives of other religions.

The Archbishop and the pilgrims from St Davids will join the St David’s Day Parade through Cardiff on Sunday.

Churches across Wales will hold services to celebrate St David, the Patron Saint of Wales. In St Davids Cathedral, Bishop Evans will preach the morning service, before blessing the city at the City Cross in the afternoon.

There will be a procession to the shrine of St David and an “exposition” of the relics at 6pm.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CT)

Cardinal says many began Lenten journey when economic crisis began

In his annual Lenten message, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told Catholics that the country's economic downturn has caused many people to already experience the season of Lent.

"Lent actually began in 2007 for thousands of families all across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and we have been in a long and protracted season of Lent ever since," he said in the message, released Feb. 25.

The cardinal said the Lenten journey has already been a long one because of an economy that continues to spiral downward "day after day, with millions of jobs being eliminated, with people unable to make their house payments, thus losing their homes, and with so many fearful of what tomorrow might bring."

He urged Catholics to embrace the current hardships and to offer prayers and sacrifices for those impacted by the economic crisis.

Cardinal Mahony said he intends to pray each day of Lent for different groups of people impacted by today's economy -- such as those who are out of work, families who have lost homes, parents who struggle to make ends meet for their children, those who have lost health insurance and retirees whose pensions have been reduced.

He said the Lenten season was a time to "reflect more deeply into our lives with God, to reorder our personal priorities according to the Gospel, and to live out increased personal sacrifice in our daily living."

In previous years, "when life and our financial security were far more predictable," the cardinal noted, Lent was a limited time of special sacrifices before life went back to normal after Easter.

"But now we have a new reality," he said. "We aren't choosing our sacrifices this year; they have chosen us. And they aren't just for six weeks; they have been our burden for over 75 weeks now with no sign of relief in sight."

Cardinal Mahony said he personally planned to use the time of Lent to embrace "the new wearisome burdens, difficulties and unexpected hardships that have confronted me on my journey of life and faith."

"I can't pretend that these difficult burdens aren't there; nor can I try to somehow sneak around them and move on," he said. "What I must do is recognize them, embrace them, realize I can't carry them alone and 'make sacred' all that surrounds me."

He said the Ash Wednesday words "repent and believe in the Gospel" -- used during the administration of ashes -- have profound meaning.

The call to repentance, he said, "means putting aside my pride and my spirit of self-sufficiency, and realizing that the only life-giving path forward is to embrace humbly what surrounds me -- knowing ever more deeply that God is far more present to me in the midst of helplessness and weakness than when there are fewer challenges."

He said the admonition to "believe in the Gospel," means Catholics should listen to the Gospel messages during Lent and also realize they are walking with Jesus as he "embraces opposition, rejection and seeming abandonment."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: CNS)

(Posting 14,200 since 15/12/2006)

Wagner´s rails against church sceptics in new sermons

Ultra-conservative priest Gerhard Maria Wagner hit the headlines with statements labelling Harry Potter "a work of Satanism" and homosexuality as "curable".

But Wagner is infamous for hitting out on many other subjects, as Austrian magazine "profil" reveals in its current edition.

Speaking about Baptism and the decrease of the Catholic church’s influence in Austria, Wagner told believers at the Catholic church in Windischgarsten: "If the church isn’t that important anymore, why is a child brought into the church to be baptised? Why don’t people take their children somewhere else?"

In another sermon, Wagner warned: "I would like to make you aware today that many more people than you actually think have made a deal with the devil, with Satan."

Speaking about the increasing number of people leaving the church, Wagner said: "I ask myself: What’s the matter with those who talk badly about the church, those who have left it? Those who moan when speaking about Catholic Austria?

"They make use of Catholic holidays, and that’s something I am protesting against. If someone doesn’t want to have anything to do with the church, he should go to work on such holidays."

Earlier this week, private Upper Austrian radio station "Life Radio" reported the Windischgarsten council would formally make Wagner an honorary citizen of the town.

People’s Party (ÖVP) Mayor Norbert Vögerl has already confirmed the report, saying he approves of the initiative.

A few weeks ago, Wagner asked Pope Benedict XVI to withdraw his nomination of him as new auxiliary bishop of the Linz diocese after coming under heavy pressure because of several controversial statements.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: AT)

Miami Archdiocese Sponsors Concert by Gay Men’s Chorus

Yet another of the Miami Archdiocese's parishes is flaunting its disregard for orthodox Christian moral teaching by hosting a concert this evening by the Miami Gay Men's Chorus.

The concert (titled Serenade), the Chorus's debut performance of 2009, is being held at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Miami Beach on Friday, February 27.

LifeSiteNews contacted both the parish and the Archdiocese of Miami's Communications Office; no official comment was forthcoming as of press time.

This is not the first time an institution under the auspices of the Archdiocese has given a platform to the Miami Gay Men's Chorus.

In May of 2008, Holy Cross Hospital (in Fort Lauderdale) co-sponsored a senior-citizens talent show with the Chorus.

Catholic teaching clearly distinguishes homosexuality from the so-called "gay lifestyle". The former is considered a psychological disorder, the latter promotes freely chosen sexual behavior that is considered seriously sinful by the Church.

The Miami Archdiocese is said to be no stranger to scandal and wide-spread theological dissent.

Two of the Archdiocese's parishes, Saint Anthony and Saint Maurice, are listed as "Gay-Friendly" in a directory published by the Conference of Catholic Lesbians (CCL).

LifeSiteNews has previously reported on theological dissent sponsored by the Archdiocese's two universities. Just this past Monday, February 24, Saint Thomas University's School of Theology Ministry featured a guest-lecture by "ecospiritualist" Sr. Miriam Therese MacGillis, a Dominican nun who promotes goddess-worship.

In 2007, LifeSiteNews reported Barry University's granting a theology award to another notorious goddess-worshipping feminist Dominican nun, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson.

Both universities are also categorized as "Gay-Friendly" by the CCL.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: LSN)

Defection and sacking rocks Catholic Church in Australia

The Catholic Church in Australia is reeling from the announced defection of the young woman who played the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, during the stations of the cross performance during World Youth Day (WYD) in Sydney, in July last year.

She has defected to the Pentecostal Hillsong Church in north-west Sydney.

This comes hard on the heels of the defiant stand against his sacking taken by 71 year-old Father Peter Kennedy at St Mary’s RC Church, South Brisbane.

Father Peter had allowed women to preach from the altar; blessed gay couples; denied the virgin birth; openly declared that the Church was dysfunctional.

The Church sacked him last week, but over a thousand people turned up at St Mary's with banners to support him on Sunday.

His replacement has been announced, but Father Peter won’t go. Father Peter said the priest sent to replace him was ‘a scab’.

A major stand-off, fraught with the likelihood of unlimited bad publicity now confronts the church.

The young woman who played the role of Mary is Marina Dickson, 27. The whole point of the church running WYD in Sydney was to address the rapidly declining interest in Catholicism among Australian youth, especially those attending the many Catholic schools.

Marina Dickson's defection flies in the face of that purpose. It also speaks to the lightweight nature of religious commitment among younger Australians who still experiment with religion, when she said, naively, that the Hillsong Church was about ‘lifestyle, not just somewhere to go on Sunday’.

Australia’s Cardinal George Pell was reduced to saying that ‘at least she is not leaving Jesus Christ.’ But that may only be a matter of time, as the Hillsong Church has a significant turnover of young people. They soon find the entertainment value of religion has its limits, especially when pressure is put on them to tithe.

As to Father Peter’s plight, a letter writer to the Sydney Morning Herald on 20 February, William Lloyd, said it all: “If the sacked priest had been a holocaust-denier or a paedophile, he would still have his job.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: NSS)

Cardinal Mahony's Effort to Block Iraq War Veteran's Sexual Abuse Claim

In 2002, with the Catholic Church molestation scandal erupting around him, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony took to the media to make an announcement: “We want every single thing out, open and dealt with, period,” he insisted.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese then spent the better part of a year stonewalling the release of church personnel files – which, when finally liberated, revealed the identities of the abusers and those who aided them.

Nearly seven years later, things haven’t changed much. A new chapter to the sex abuse scandal has recently opened, and once again the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is doing its best to close it.

In this case, the alleged victim is an Iraq war veteran.

In documents obtained by L.A. City Beat, a man identified as “John TH Doe” says he was 16 years old when a priest in his L.A.-area Catholic high school sexually abused him. For years he said nothing. At the age of 22, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he has served continuously since 1993, flying countless, dangerous combat missions in the Iraqi theater.

After years of silence, while still serving in Iraq, John TH Doe is now ready for his day in court.

There’s a chance, however, that day could never come.

Last week, as lawyers for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to downplay news that Cardinal Mahony had come under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office for his role in dealing with pedophilic priests, those same lawyers were taking an unprecedented step – quietly pushing a legal challenge in Los Angeles County superior court that would seek to deny John TH Doe, and potentially other California servicemen and women who were molested by members of the church, their chance at justice.

The case begins in 2002 when, in response to a public outcry over widespread allegations of child molestation in the Catholic Church, the California legislature opened a civil window that allowed victims of sexual abuse to file suit against their abusers, no matter when the alleged abuse occurred, or when the statute of limitations for the crime should have expired.

That window closed in 2003, but for members of the military serving in active duty during that time who missed the deadline, there was hope in a little known law: the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act of 1940. SCRA suspends statutes of limitation where men and women in active military duty are concerned.

“The period of a service member’s military service,” the law states, “may not be included in computing any period limited by law, regulation, or order for the bringing of any action or proceeding in court.”

The law was designed to allow members of the military to serve without having legal woes in their civilian lives cloud their ability to fight, and to protect their legal rights should they be unable to return home for a court date.

But there’s a small loophole in the law, one the archdiocese is trying to exploit. It allows the court to use its discretion to ignore the law and throw out SCRA cases it deems meritless. And that’s exactly what lawyers for the Archdiocese are asking Judge Emilie H. Elias to do.

“Plaintiff in this case is not someone who was drafted or a guardsman or reservist called to active duty,” lawyers for the diocese argue in their court filings. “He is not entitled to have the SCRA ‘liberally constructed’ in his favor.”

In other words, the archdiocese says, because John TH Doe volunteered to serve his country and fight in Iraq, instead of being drafted, the protections of the SCRA shouldn’t apply.

“Our client was abused as a child,” says Vince Finaldi, John TH Doe’s attorney, at the Newport Beach-based law firm Manly & Stewart. “He didn’t file earlier because he was serving this nation. If the court is going to exercise discretion, it should be in favor of those ravaged by priests in California and throughout the United States.”

Calls to Lee Potts, the Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman lawyer representing the archdiocese, went unanswered.

So far, there’s just one other SCRA case, in San Diego.

There, “John Roe 65,” a career military man, has told the court he was stationed in Guam during the 2003 sexual abuse filing period; in his remote location, he had no idea a window for a lawsuit existed. He filed suit under the SCRA in 2008, two years after he got out of the military.

The Catholic Diocese of San Diego is fighting that case, too.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: IBC)

Reconciling Science, Religion

Over the next several months, the Vatican will sponsor academic conferences dedicated to the work of biologist Charles Darwin and astronomer Galileo Galilei, two thinkers whose ideas have posed revolutionary challenges to religious belief.

Featuring distinguished international panels of scientists and theologians, these events are the latest efforts by the Catholic Church under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI to affirm that Christian faith and modern science are not at odds, but entirely compatible.

Yet some critics inside and outside the Church insist that such gestures do not satisfy the Vatican's duty to admit its historical role as an obstacle to scientific progress.

Unlike some conservative Protestant churches, which have rejected Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection as contradicting the biblical account of creation, the Catholic Church has a record of guarded tolerance of Darwin's ideas.

Pope Pius XII permitted "research and discussions . . . with regard to the doctrine of evolution" in 1950, nearly a century after Darwin's theory was published; and John Paul II recognized evolution as "more than a hypothesis" nearly half a century later.

The church has won praise from scientists and religious believers in various traditions.

"The ongoing and vigorous engagement of the Catholic Church with evolutionary theory reflects, in my opinion, a fluid and dynamic pathway that combines a profound sense of continuity with its historical past and a living and open, experiential response to . . . the discoveries of science," said Robert J. Russell, founder of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif.

Russell, a physicist and minister in the United Church of Christ, will be one of the speakers next month at a Vatican-sponsored conference marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin's book, "The Origin of Species."

In recent years, however, with the growing prominence of "creationism" and "intelligent design" as alternative explanations for the existence of humanity and the universe, Catholics have increasingly voiced doubts about Darwin's acceptability.

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, a friend and former student of Pope Benedict's, provoked controversy with a 2005 article arguing that "neo-Darwinian dogma" is not "compatible with Christian faith" and insisting that the "human intellect can readily discern purpose and design in the natural world."

That the cardinal published his article with the encouragement and assistance of proponents of intelligent design gave the impression that a high church official was endorsing ideas that most scholars reject as unscientific.

Schoenborn has since attempted to clarify his position, insisting that he rejects not the theory of evolution, but arguments that use Darwin's ideas to disprove the existence of a creator-God.

The Rev. Marc Leclerc made the same distinction recently in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's newspaper. "Evolution and creation do not present the least opposition between them," he wrote, "on the contrary, they reveal themselves as entirely complementary."

Leclerc, lead organizer of the upcoming Darwin conference, said last year that no proponents of creationism or intelligent design had been invited to the event.

Yet the Vatican's embrace of Darwin remains a qualified one. The conference is "not, even minimally, a 'celebration' in honor of the English scientist," Leclerc said. "It is simply a matter of taking stock of the event that has forever marked the history of science and has influenced how we understand our own humanity."

By contrast, an official Vatican statement recently declared that the "Church desires to honor the figure of Galileo, innovator of genius and son of the church."

Those words introduced a series of Vatican-sponsored or -supported events to take place this year, which the United Nations has designated as the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo.

One of the most prominent of these events will be a May conference in Florence, Italy, devoted to the astronomer's conflicts with the Vatican, which silenced and imprisoned him for teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun.

The Church has been trying for centuries to put this embarrassing episode behind it. In 1981, John Paul II established a commission to reevaluate the case, and in 1992 he concluded that Galileo had fallen victim to a "tragic mutual incomprehension." That misunderstanding, the pope said, had given rise to a "myth" that the Church opposed free scientific inquiry.

John Paul's statement failed to satisfy prominent critics, including the Rev. George V. Coyne, former head of the Vatican Observatory, who has called for a fuller recognition that church authorities unfairly prevented Galileo from pursuing his research.

In January 2008, Pope Benedict canceled an appearance at a Rome university after faculty members and students protested his presence as an offense to the "secularity of science and of culture," citing words from a 1990 lecture in which he seemed to justify Galileo's condemnation.

Vatican officials are clearly hoping that this year's observances will clarify once and for all that the church now regards Galileo as not only a great scientist but an exemplary Catholic. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, has even spoken in terms that evoke sainthood, suggesting that Galileo "could become for some the ideal patron for a dialogue between science and faith."

Yet there is at least one honor for which Galileo will have to wait a little longer. Plans to put up a statue of the astronomer in the Vatican gardens this year have been "suspended," Ravasi said, voicing hopes that the money would be spent instead for educational projects on the "relationship between science and religion."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: WP)

Catholic priest numbers increase

The number of priests in the Catholic Church around the world is slowly rising, the Vatican says.

The Holy See presented a statistical yearbook to Pope Benedict XVI, showing an increase of several hundred priests a year since 2000.

Thanks to large increases in Africa and Asia, the number of Catholic priests rose from 405,178 in 2000 to 408,024 in 2007, the report said.

In the previous two decades, the number of priests dropped markedly.

Stable congregation

Numbers in Africa had risen by 27.6% and in Asia by 21%, the report said.

The figures were "a continuing trend of moderate growth in the number of priests in the world which began in 2000 after over two decades of disappointing results", it added.

The percentage of Catholics worldwide remains stable, at about 17.3% of the global population, the report found. Some 1.147 billion people around the world identified themselves as Catholic, it said.

Worldwide, the number of candidates for the priesthood increased by just under half a percentage point, despite small declines in figures for Europe and North and South America.

The Catholic Church has recently been rocked by several scandals involving sexual abuse carried out by priests, which has prompted a crackdown on standards for potential priests.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: RCNG)