Pope to rule on cleric dismissal

The Basilian Fathers of Toronto are awaiting a reply from Pope Benedict about whether the Holy Father will grant a former Sudbury cleric his request to be dismissed from the priesthood and from his religious order.

Rev. William Hodgson (Hod) Marshall was released from Kingston Penitentiary in early October after serving part of a two-year sentence. Marshall was convicted in June 2011 in Windsor of 17 counts of sexual assault against 16 children and one woman in Toronto, Windsor, Cambridge and Sudbury. Six of the victims are from Sudbury.

Marshall, 89, ser ved as a priest and educator for 21 years in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. 

He taught at St. Charles College from 1961-70 during which time at least two parents complained to school and Basilian officials that their sons were sexually abused by Marshall.
At the time, St. Charles was an all-boys school, although it is co-ed today.

Marshall was transferred from St. Charles in 1970, returning three years later as principal and serving another five years at the school.

Rev. Timothy Scott, spokesman for the Basilian Fathers, said the head of the order visited Marshall while he was in prison and requested he ask to be dismissed.

Canon or church law enacted in 2002 doesn't give the order the authority to defrock priests, Scott said this week. Only the Vatican does.

As far as Scott knows, Marshall has not yet received a reply to his letter to the Pope, which was written a few months ago.

Whatever the outcome, the Basilian order has made it clear it will provide Marshall with a place to live out his remaining years.

Even if the Pope grants Marshall's request, the order will still give him residence at one of its homes for retired priests.

Marshall hasn't functioned as a priest "in any way, shape or form" for some time, said Scott.

Being dismissed "would be a kind of further sanction" against the wayward priest.

But a London-based lawyer representing several of Marshall's victims in civil lawsuits against him and the Basilian fathers said that is not true.

Rob Talach said Marshall receives a pension for being a priest, is in receipt of Canadian Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits, and may even have a teacher's pension.

Talach questions if the Basilians have a mandate to spend their funds on Marshall.

Remember that Marshall is not alone there. 

Convicted sex offender Father John O'Keefe, out of Ottawa, is likely in the same facility.

Scott said his order is doing what it thinks is best in what is, admittedly, a horrible situation.

Talach said if it weren't for pressure from him to defrock Marshall, the order would not have acted as it has.

At a news conference in Sudbury last week, Talach spoke on behalf of two Sudbury men whom Marshall sexually assaulted and two men sexually assaulted by Rev. Bernard Cloutier, who is serving time in a federal penitentiary for those crimes.

Talach asked the Basilian order and the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, for whom Cloutier worked, to defrock the convicted priests and make funds available so victims could receive psychological counselling and other assistance to repair their lives.

Scott said the Basilians do offer counselling to victims, at least until lawyers get involved in cases.

Talach asked for resources to help his clients, without prejudice, but the vicar general for the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, Rev. Robert Bourgon, said last week it doesn't work that way.

In instances where his diocese has offered help to victims before lawsuits were settled judgments were larger than they would have otherwise been.

In the case of Marshall, whom Scott calls indigent, "it's better for all concerned" if the Basilians take him in.

Old and in very poor health, "if he's on the street, he's going to end up in a hospital bed somewhere. I don't think (that's) in anybody's interest."

Still, Scott said he knows "victims have suffered immensely and I understand how it can gall them that (Marshall) is ... not spending the rest of his life in prison.

"But the sentence was determined by the courts ... we don't have any" say in that, he said.

As painful as these cases are, they date back decades, said Scott. Two more criminal charges against Marshall that haven't been heard yet date back to 1960.

"What you've got is situations 50 years old. Now, these people have carried around this pain, and sadness, even guilt ... for an immense amount of time. It's hard to know what the best thing to do is under the circumstances, other than to say to them, 'You need to tell us how to proceed.' But, thanks be to God, the only cases this father is facing are all ... long, long before I was even in the priesthood."
 
As far as Scott knows, this is the first instance in which the Basilians have asked a priest to seek to be dismissed.

Talach speculated the Basilians are paying Marshall's legal bills.

He accused the order of being more concerned about Marshall being homeless, when that isn't true, than they are about his victims being homeless, "which is a real and pressing danger for some of them."

Nun's 800 year old chants top charts

A series of compositions by Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine abbess who died in 1179, have been released as an album. 

The producer, Guy Sigsworth, has reworked them to create “ambient remixes”. Sigsworth is a classically trained musician known for his work with Madonna, Britney Spears and Seal.

The album, Hildegard, is being released by Decca and industry experts predict it will become a chart success. 

Sigsworth worked with Stevie Wishart, a composer who studied medieval music and has long been fascinated by Hildegard’s compositions. 


Wishart enlisted female singers to perform the works and set the ancient texts to music. She said: “Hildegard’s songs have a kind of universality. She is fantastic to sing and just an extraordinary composer who wrote over 70 songs. I have not studied a contemporary composer who has songs with such incredible range.” 
 
Earlier this month, Hildegard was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI for her “life of holiness and virtue” and for bringing “a woman’s insight to the mysteries of faith”. 


Born in 1098 to a noble German family, Hildegard began seeing religious visions as a young girl and entered a convent at the age of eight. She wrote poems, theological texts and songs, the latter collectively known as the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. 


Her music has been recorded before but but this is the first time it has been produced with such a modern twist. 


Geoffrey Norris, the Telegraph’s classical music critic, said: “It might not be to purists’ taste, but the disc evokes a hypnotic atmosphere. I have a funny feeling that this disc could become a hit.” 


Decca has high hopes for the recording. 

A spokesman for the label said: “Hildegard isn’t just a straightforward medieval recording. These samples have been reworked to create stunning, ambient remixes.”

Vatican counsels patience for traditionalists

The Vatican is again opening the door to a group of breakaway traditionalist Catholics, saying patience, perseverance and trust are necessary to end a quarter-century of schism.
 

The Vatican said in a statement Saturday that it understands the Society of St. Pius X needs more time to consider its offer to bring the group back under the pope’s wing.

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the society in 1969, opposed to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. 

Pope Benedict XVI has spent the better part of his pontificate trying to reconcile with the group, fearing the spread of a parallel, arch-conservative church.

Three years of negotiations, however, stalled over the society’s refusal to accept a core set of doctrinal principles.

This week the society expelled its Holocaust-denying bishop.

Vatican meeting of world's bishops urges intensified outreach to Muslims

The world's Catholic bishops have called for intensified outreach to Muslims, saying dialogue is difficult but must continue.
 
The bishops had been meeting at the Vatican for three weeks to chart the church's future amid desertions of the faithful in much of once-staunchly Christian Europe and the West. 

The bishops made 58 proposals to Pope Benedict XVI to encourage a "new evangelization" to attract new faithful and woo back Catholics who have left.

The church's relations with Islam have been a constant theme in the speeches delivered by some of the 262 prelates gathered, with some even openly speaking about the possibility of Muslim conversions.

But attacks on Christians in largely Muslim countries have also been a concern, and the bishops proposed a standing commission to press for religious liberty.

Editorial: Evangelization requires bishops’ self-examination

On Oct. 6, 262 bishops gathered in Rome for the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to discuss "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith." 

One of the gathering's primary concerns, particularly for those leaders of churches in the prosperous North, is how to reach out to disaffected Catholics.

That same day, half a world away in Bethesda, Md., researchers for the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life were telling a gathering of religion writers that two new markers had been reached in the religion landscape in the United States: For the first time since the organization had begun surveying about such matters, the country was no longer majority Protestant, and one in five American adults now claimed no religious affiliation.

Though Catholicism showed no significant drop in overall membership -- thanks in large part to the influx of immigrants -- we also know that Catholics in the United States have been exiting the church in recent years by the millions, the younger ones before they reach age 18.

For years now "the new evangelization" has been lurking about in search of its own identity, more aspirant than actual in its determination to be relevant and "new." The awkwardness that surrounds discussion of the elusive term was captured in a wire service story depicting the setting and content of the synod's opening address, delivered by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington.

The church must reach out to former members, showing them both the relevance of the faith "without losing its rootedness in the great living faith tradition of the church," Wuerl said. 

He was speaking in Latin to a gathering of celibate male clerics. He lamented that too many Catholics don't know basic prayers and teachings and don't understand why it's important to go to Mass and confession. His solution: reach out to them and teach them the contents of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Perhaps that's a plan. 

But it sounds, instead, as if the analysis and proposed solution are as lifeless and lacking in blood and imagination as the church from which so many are exiting. The new evangelization will remain a stilted and cerebral exercise unless those most invested in its success are willing to take risks.

Too much of what we hear of "the new evangelization" is a one-way proposition. It's saying, "We have the answers, we know what these poor, lost souls need." By rushing in with answers, we may be missing the questions.

The Pew study made clear that the unaffiliated are not angry at organized religion; they just don't want anything more to do with it. Most "nones" believe in God and many call themselves spiritual. At the synod, Filipino Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila noted: "The seemingly indifferent and aimless societies of our time are earnestly looking for God." 

Is it possible that "nones" can teach us something about God? Or at least can we learn something from listening to their questions? The church's challenge is not to supply answers but to accompany people on their spiritual quests.

There were hints around the synod that some realize what needs to be done. Tagle said that for the church to be a place where people meet God, it needs to learn three things from the example of Jesus: humility, respect for others, and "the power of silence." 

Tagle said, "Confronted with the sorrows, doubts and uncertainties of people, she cannot pretend to give easy solutions. In Jesus, silence becomes the way of attentive listening, compassion and prayer. It is the way to truth."

Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, whose diocese was shattered by the sexual abuse crisis, spoke of the resulting "great disorientation that leads to forms of distrust of teachings and values that are essential for the followers of Christ." 

Regaining trust requires more than steps forced by an outraged public. 

Dunn acknowledged the call for a change in church structures and advocated, in addition, the need for "a profound change of mentality, attitude and heart in our ways of working with laypeople."

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, the Philippines, made an equally strong plea for change. "Evangelization has been hurt and continues to be impeded by the arrogance of its messengers," Villegas said, adding, "When pride seeps into the heart of the church, the Gospel proclamation is harmed."

Some readers will question this editorial, asking why we dwell so much on the bishops. Last issue, after all, we editorialized on being the people of God and finding power in our baptism. We're not walking back from that viewpoint, but we also have to acknowledge that the bishops continue to hold the reins. We have to address these criticisms to them because they have yet to make the laity an integral part of their planning.

The new evangelization, at its heart, asks laypeople to go deep inside and examine their most essential instincts, their yearnings for a connection with the God of life. 

It also requires some deep interior digging on the part of the bishops themselves -- the kind of sacramental examination they'd like to see flower again among the faithful. 

Providing a model of that kind of work might be a good place to restart the discussion of the new evangelization.

New app helps people read whole catechism during Year of Faith

The catechism is a daunting looking book, and according to the developer of a new service, which streams extracts from the catechism through a daily email feed; this is why so many people never read it.  

Now, however, and through the service, Read the Catechism in a Year, people are being sent bite size portions of the catechism each day, and if they read them, by the end of the Year of Faith, they will have read the whole catechism.

The Year of Faith marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, but also the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

In the encyclical letter for the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Catholics to read the Catechism and use it as a tool to reach a, “systematic knowledge of the content of faith.”

Matthew Warner from the US, together with a small team, developed the free application, which delivers easily readable segments of the Catechism to the reader’s inbox every morning. 

“We are currently at over 70,000 people subscribed and still growing,” Matthew Warner, head of FlockNote, a social media service, told ciNews.

Mr Warner calls himself a digital dad with a mission to share and educate others about the ups and downs of social media.  He developed FlockNote to helps parishes and dioceses communicate with their communities.

His free service, Read the Catechism in a Year, delivers five to ten paragraphs of the catechism via email to a subscriber each day.  

Although the Year of Faith is well underway, people can sign up at any stage, and the service will continue daily from there.  

They can also click a link that will give them the days they have missed.

“The catechism is broken down into 410 days (since the Year of Faith goes longer than a calendar year). Each day has 5-10 paragraphs depending on how long they are and with a practical attempt not to cut off a day in the middle of a complete thought,” he said.

“People like to consume information in small, digestible bites,” said Mr Warner. “And the reason I think so many people never end up reading the whole Catechism is because it's a fairly daunting task to take on all at once. So we make it easy. You get a small amount of it e-mailed to you each day that you can read in 5-10 minutes.  Do that little bit each day, and after the Year of Faith, you'll have read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

The service has spread mainly by word of mouth, and according to Warner, about 1,000 new subscribers are signing on each day.  

To sign up for the free e-mail service, see www.Flocknote.com/catechism.

Boris Johnson pledges financial support for London Gay Pride

Christian Concern has criticised Boris Johnson's pledge to give £500,000 towards London's Gay Pride event.

According to the Evening Standard, the cash will be distributed in the form of grants to community groups bidding to run the event.

The Mayor has also offered Trafalgar Square for use during the event free of charge.

He has stepped in to help the event after it ran into financial difficulties.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern is unhappy that taxpayers' money has been spent on the Pride events.

"The Mayor of London is throwing public money at an event which does not have the backing of a large section of the public," she said. "I hope those Londoners who disagree with Mr Johnson will let him know."
 
Mr Johnson has defended support for the event, saying it was a "key event" in London's cultural calendar.

London church leaders commit to getting fit

Church leaders in south-west London have committed themselves to adopting a healthier lifestyle.

The group of 10 leaders were shocked into taking action after a New York Times article reported higher rates of obesity, hypertension and depression among church leaders.

The 'Vicar's Vitality' campaign was launched by YMCA London South West with the aim of giving local church leaders easy access to fitness facilities.

The YMCA conducted its own research ahead of the campaign launch, with some alarming results.

In its survey of church leaders in the area, 70 per cent were found to have some form of medical condition that has required attention.

Nearly half said they consume alcohol up to five times a week but nearly 75% also said they were motivated to exercise at least for a couple of hours a week.

Richard James, chief executive of YMCA London South West, said “The New York Times article concerned us. And looking at our local church leaders we discovered that of the 100 on our database, seven had been signed off for long term sickness in recent years and months. We took this further with some local research and found that while they were not necessarily living the healthiest of lifestyles, the motivation was there to do so. From that basis, we wanted to ensure that their enthusiasm for exercise and a healthy lifestyle wasn’t wasted and they had the capacity and support to do just that."

Lesley Charlton, Minister at the United Reform Church in Kingston, has taken up the scheme.

“I am grateful to God for the joy exercise gives me and during the most demanding times in my ministry work, I have been kept sane by prayer and exercise," she said. "I love the YMCA for a range of reasons but top of the list is that the money I pay for classes is used for Kingdom causes.”
 
Congregations can even refer their church leaders to the scheme if they are worried about their health.

Mr James continues: “The Church and its leaders support our community in so many ways and we hope that this scheme goes towards solving that quandary of ‘who supports those who support us’. We want church congregations to know that if they’re concerned over the health and well-being of their church leader they can recommend this scheme and equally church leaders can refer each other.”

Misreading of Vatican II dampened missionary zeal, theologian says

On the subject of the Second Vatican Council, Ralph Martin is nothing if not an enthusiast.

The theologian, who teaches at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and served as an official expert at the October 2012 world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization, said the "wonderful things" that came out of Vatican II include an "emphasis on the active role of laypeople, the universal call to holiness, the rediscovery of Christian unity and ecumenism, (and) the desire to affirm whatever we can positively about modern culture."

But in at least one crucial area, Martin said, the council's expectations have been gravely disappointed.

Vatican II had as one of its central purposes to "make the church more effective in proclaiming the Gospel to the modern world," he said, yet it ushered in a "remarkable decline in the missionary orders that traditionally have carried out evangelization," along with a "tremendous decline" in observance by Catholics in historically Christian countries.

Martin attributed the loss of Catholic missionary zeal to a widespread misunderstanding of some of Vatican II's most distinctive teachings. As he argues in a new book ("Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization"), many Catholics were confused by the council's laudable emphasis on ecumenism and interreligious dialogue into thinking that "maybe it doesn't matter anymore whether people are Christians or not."

The theologian said that many Catholics today have adopted an attitude of "practical universalism," which Martin described as a belief that "broad and wide is the way that leads to heaven, and almost everybody is going that way; but narrow is the gate the leads to hell, and hardly anybody's going that way."

"The problem with this," Martin said, "is it's just the opposite of what Jesus himself tells us" in Matthew 7:14: "How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few."

At first glance, Vatican II may seem to have taught something inconsistent with Jesus' words, since the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ("Lumen Gentium") states that it is possible for people to be saved without hearing the Gospel. Many Catholics have taken this as a license for complacency about evangelization, Martin said: "They make this huge leap from possibility to probability to (presuming) almost everybody" will be saved.

But Martin noted that the council document carefully qualifies its own reassuring message, specifying three conditions for the salvation of non-Christians: "inculpable ignorance, that it's not their own fault that they haven't heard the Gospel"; that "they are seriously seeking God, they want to know who he is and what his will is"; and that "they are living according to the light of their conscience assisted by grace."

The same document warns of the deceptions of the "Evil One" and the danger of "final despair" for those who live without God; and it reaffirms the importance of church missions and of Jesus' command to "preach the Gospel to every creature."

Rectifying misunderstandings in this area is crucial, Martin suggested, not only for reviving efforts to convert non-Catholics, but for the specific goal of the new evangelization: persuading those already baptized and fallen away to take their faith seriously again.

"In our own culture, especially now with the collapse of Christendom, the collapse of Christian culture, many people are just being swept away with secular culture," Martin said, "and are drifting toward the disintegration of human relationships and marriage and family life ... and then the possibility of eternal separation from God."

Evangelization is "not just about enriching people's lives, it's not just about making people happier on this earth," he said. "It's really about the difference between heaven and hell."

Voter scorecard informs Latinos about religious freedom threats

A group that works to offer a Catholic voice in the public square has released a new guide to inform Spanish-speaking voters of religious liberty concerns in the presidential election.

“Our Christianity – our religious fervor – is a huge part of our lives,” said Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, director of Hispanic Outreach for the Catholic Association.

She told CNA on Oct. 24 that Hispanic voters need to realize that the current administration “has been aggressive” towards religion, conscience and the Church.

Religion is “intrinsically” part of the Hispanic way of life, she said, and “it’s too central to our culture to give that up.”

Christie is currently using a “grassroots system” that reaches out through local parishes, pro-life groups and religious freedom rallies to distribute Spanish voter guides in the key battleground state of Florida.

The voter guide scores presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on seven key religious freedom issues, including conscience rights, abortion, religion in the public square, houses of worship and international religious freedom.

President Obama is given a failing grade for his policies, including the federal mandate that requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and abortion drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences.  Romney is given an “A+” for his actions and pledges to uphold religious freedom.

Growing up largely in Mexico with parents from Cuba, Christie said that most Hispanics in the U.S. “have left their countries because of a lack of freedom” in the economic, political or religious realms.

It is important for the Latino community to realize that persecution can happen in the U.S. too, she said, pointing to the contraception mandate as an “assault on one of our basic rights.”

Despite controversy over the mandate, Obama holds a strong lead among Latino voters in recent polls. Christie said this is due not to a lack of values but to “a lack of information and a lack of education” within the Hispanic community about threats to religious freedom.

She urged Hispanic voters to listen to the message of the Church and to be careful about the ideas presented by the mainstream media, which do not share a Catholic outlook and are not always accurate on religious freedom issues that affect Catholics.

The Church has made tremendous efforts to raise awareness about the critical issue of religious liberty, Christie said.

Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at the Catholic Association, explained that the decision to publish a Spanish version of the voter guide sprung from the overwhelming success of the English version, which was released on Oct. 4.

More than 1 million copies of the English voter guide were requested for distribution, many in swing states, she said, and the association began receiving requests for a Spanish version as well.

McGuire sees the Spanish voter guide as an opportunity to reach an important demographic in the presidential election.

She explained that “the majority of Spanish speakers in this country are Catholic and deserve to know how the candidates measure up.”

The current admiration has been “deceptive” about the impact that its policies will have on religious freedom in America, she said.

“It’s hard for English speakers to navigate it all,” she observed, let alone those for whom English is a second language.

“I truly believe that Hispanic Catholics are the future in many ways of the Church in America,” McGuire said, pointing to the growing Latino population within the Church.

Therefore, she said, it is “hugely important” for these Catholics to understand the threats facing the Church in this country.

The voter guide is now available in both English and Spanish on the Catholic Association’s website and has attracted significant media attention.

While the Catholic Church “does not tell people how to vote,” McGuire said, it is important for the faithful to maintain a well-formed conscience.

She encouraged voters to look beyond jobs and the economy to consider “what is right and wrong on a fundamental level” and how each candidate will respond to these basic issues.

“I think that message will resonate with Hispanic Catholics,” she said.

Catholics United urges 'gay marriage' surrender

The group Catholics United, which until now has avoided directly contradicting Catholic teaching in its defense of Democratic political causes, has now denounced Catholic efforts to defend traditional marriage as a “far right-wing” social issue.
 
The shift comes in an Oct. 18 statement criticizing Catholic donations to organizations that support marriage and oppose its redefinition to include same-sex couples. 

Catholics United called for a halt financial support for “anti-marriage equality ballot initiatives” in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington, states where the issue is on the November ballot.

Catholics United Executive Director James Salt said advocacy against “civil same-sex marriage laws” has the effect of “pushing younger generations of Catholics out of the Church.”

“Younger Catholics don’t want our faith known for its involvement in divisive culture wars, we want our faith known for serving the poor and marginalized,” he argued.

Catholics United’s Oct. 18 statement cites a report by Equally Blessed, a coalition of four dissenting Catholic groups: Call to Action, Dignity USA, Fortunate Families and New Ways Ministry. 

The report criticizes the $6.25 million that the fraternal order the Knights of Columbus has made since 2005 to defend marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

The founders of New Ways Ministry, Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent, have run into the highest profile trouble of any of the members in the coalition.

In 1999, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that because of “errors and ambiguities” in their approach, Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent were permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual individuals.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said in a Feb. 2010 statement that New Ways Ministry’s “lack of adherence” to Church teaching on the morality of homosexual acts was the “central issue” in the censure of its founders and continues to be its “crucial defect.”

While Catholics United criticized only the Knights of Columbus for “anti-marriage equality spending,” the Equally Blessed report also blamed the Vatican for opposing homosexual political causes.

The Equally Blessed report also criticized Knights’ support for the pro-life movement. It said the fraternal organization contributes to what it calls “far-right anti-abortion groups”: Americans United for Life, the Susan B. Anthony List and the pregnancy center network Birthright USA.

The political fight over the definition of marriage has resulted in harassment and intimidation of traditional marriage supporters. 

Some supporters of traditional marriage, including Catholics, have lost their jobs because of activist pressure. 

Businesses and non-profits which do not want to recognize same-sex relationships have been the target of lawsuits and legal action.

In some states that recognize same-sex unions, Catholic adoption agencies have been forced to close because they could not in good conscience place children with same-sex couples.

In Washington state, the “gay marriage” ballot measure has attracted the support of wealthy donors like Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated $2.5 million to the campaign.

The known donors to Catholics United also support “gay marriage.”

Tax forms show that the Tides Foundation, whose 2009 newsletter describes itself as “a leading funder of LGBT work,” has given at least $35,000 to the group since 2007. 

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose president praised President Obama’s endorsement of redefining marriage in May, has given at least $32,500. 

The AFL-CIO has given $5,000 to the group, whose contributions and grants in 2011 totaled about $470,000.

Catholics United also has connections to the White House.

Visitor records from the White House show that the Catholics United leadership has visited it several times, sometimes as part of a large group of faith-based representatives and sometimes for small meetings.

The records show Salt and Catholics United founder Christopher Korzen in September 2010 had a small  meeting with Patrick Gaspard. At the time, Gaspard was  the Obama administration’s Director of the Office of Political Affairs. He is now the Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee.

On Feb. 10, 2012, Catholics United communications director Chris Pumpelly attended a White House meeting with Joshua DuBois, special assistant to President Barack Obama and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

White House officials at the meeting discussed the intended accommodations to address concerns about the Health and Human Services contraception and sterilization coverage mandate, meeting attendee Kristen Day told CNA in June.

Alexia Kelley, former head of Catholics United ally Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, also attended the meeting. She is presently director for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The leadership of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good itself has several connections with the Obama campaign. 

Board member Stephen Schneck, director of Catholic University of America’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, is also a member of the group Catholics for Obama.

Catholic analyst reacts to Obama campaign's new 'anti-woman' ad

A nonpartisan political analyst says Obama’s new ad featuring a young woman describing her “first time” voting for the president in terms similar to losing her virginity is “nothing short of demeaning  and sexist” towards women.
 
“As a woman, I am horribly offended by this ad,” Kara Mone of CatholicVote.org told CNA Oct. 26.

In the ad, 26 year-old actress and writer Lena Dunham, tells the camera that, “Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy – someone who really cares about and understands women.”

“A guy who cares about whether or not you get health insurance, specifically whether you get birth control,” Dunham added.

The political advertisement, featuring Dunham likening her “first time” voting for President Obama to her first sexual encounter has received just over 275,000 views on YouTube, with nearly 9,000 “dislikes” and roughly 6,600 “likes.”

Mone said the ad is “anti-woman” because it sends the message that female voters are essentially “reducible” to their reproductive organs.

“Mr. Obama has constantly reminded young women during this campaign that all we need to be concerned with is sex, birth control and abortion on demand,” she said.

Dunham closes the video saying, “My first time voting was amazing. It was this line in the sand. Before I was a girl, now I was a woman.”

The ad, which has only been released online, has received mixed reviews in the video’s comments section, with some calling it “clever” and others referring to the ad as “creepy.”

Mone said that for Dunham “to suggest that voting for Obama is what made her a woman” is “a slap in the face to women,” especially those who “have worked hard to become what they are today through hard work, dedication and sacrifice.”

The Obama for America campaign did not respond to requests for comment from CNA by publication time.

Papa, you've gone too far!

There is widespread unrest throughout the Roman Catholic Church. It relates to the manner in which authority is exercised.

Popes in the past have been known to overstep the limits of their authority. 

Pope Urban II (1089) imposed perpetual, unredeemable slavery on the wives of priests. 

Pope Innocent III (1215) declared the English Magna Carta null and void, and excommunicated all those who would observe it. 

Pope Innocent VIII (1484) sanctioned the torture and burning of witches by endorsing the infamous Hammer of Witches. 

Pope Alexander VI (1493) authorised the King of Spain to enslave any natives of the Americas who were at war with Christian powers. 

They all acted in the spirit of Pope Boniface VIII, who in his bull Unam Sanctam (1302), had affirmed the authority of the pope as the heir of Peter and Vicar of Christ over all human authorities, spiritual and temporal . . . The papacy in our time is again overstepping its limits and should be stopped, say the prominent scholars.

It is the main point of the 'JUBILEE DECLARATION', a document released on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 2012. It can be read, in various languages, on www.churchauthority.org

The 52 theologians who sponsor the Declaration are mostly professors who lecture at 38 universities in 11 countries. They include well-known scholars such as Hans Küng, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Ursula King and Erik Jurgens, one-time deputy speaker in the upper house of the Dutch Parliament. 

Their academic credentials can be accessed from: http://www.churchauthority.org/sponsors1.asp

The blueprint for reform of authority presented in the JUBILEE DECLARATION can be summarised as follows: The Pope's authority should be reduced to within its limits. Bishops Conferences should enjoy more autonomy. 

The Central Synod of Bishops should play a more prominent role in affairs of the universal Church. 

Lay people should have real decision making power in pastoral councils. 

And also: the appointment of bishops and cardinals should not be monopolised by the papal curia in Rome.

The Declaration ends with this appeal: "The exercise of authority in the Catholic Church should emulate the standards of openness, accountability and democracy achieved in modern society. Leadership should be seen to be honest and credible; inspired by humility and service; breathing concern for people rather than preoccupation with rules and discipline; radiating a Christ who makes us free; and listening to Christ's Spirit who speaks and acts through each and every person."

The text of the 520-word JUBILEE DECLARATION, with the names of the academic sponsors, can be found on the opening page: http://www.churchauthority.org/index.asp

Visitors to the site can attach their own signature. 

Contact details are provided.

Church and state collide in Ukraine

The separation of church and state is sometimes not as simple as it sounds, particularly in a country as religious as Ukraine.

And despite calls from church leaders for congregations to stay out of upcoming elections, such a scenario seems unlikely.

Recent polls conducted by the Razumkov sociological center indicate about 71 percent of Ukrainians are religious, with almost 52 percent associated with the Orthodox Church and about 11 percent Greek Catholic. 

Both churches have recently issued statements forbidding clergy to campaign for any candidates.

The statement issued by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church read, "The church must unite people with different political views, therefore political slogans must stay outside of the church walls." 

The Greek Catholic Church has taken a similar position. "A priest has no right to praise anyone but God," the church said in its own statement.

Convent tends to aging nuns

Construction on the real retirement community – Mercy Auburn Senior Community, a complex of 60 affordable senior apartments for the public – began a few weeks ago just down the hill from the cluster of Spanish colonial buildings making up the Sisters of Mercy convent and retreat center in Auburn.

But these days, the mother house of the largest order in the Sacramento area is a de facto senior community, as well. Of the 64 Sisters of Mercy in the Sacramento Diocese, 25 have returned to live out their days at the Auburn convent. Their average age is in their early 70s.

The convent, founded more than 150 years ago, clearly wasn't intended as retirement housing: In the late 1950s and early 1960s, its dormitories were bursting with young women sent over from Ireland to take their vows.

"We had such an overflow that women coming into religious life were hanging out the windows," said Sister Eileen O'Connor, 76, who entered the convent at 18.

Over time, the Auburn convent has slowly aged its way into becoming a residence for older women who have devoted their lives to the church. With the aging of America's Roman Catholic religious orders, mother houses in every corner of the country have become unintentional retirement homes for nuns.

Demographics drive the trend – primarily, a decades-long drought of young people interested in joining, as the typical older nuns did, at 18.

The average age of American nuns is 74, according to the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, which represents 80 percent of American orders, while the average age of new sisters making permanent vows is 39.

According to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), there were almost 180,000 Roman Catholic sisters in the United States in 1965. 

Today's number is one-third of that.

"Rumors of our demise are exaggerated, but it's also true there will be a huge demographic shift in the next 10 to 20 years," said Sister Christine Schenk, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph and executive director of Ohio-based FutureChurch, a progressive church advocacy group.

"A lot of our work is to assure that we leave a legacy that continues. We have a lot of women leading as lay ministers, and sisters paved the way for them."

Aging population of nuns

Sister Mary Padilla, who entered the Auburn convent in 1947, remembers its vast front steps filled with sisters, both young and old, posing for a photograph.

"We were pretty much isolated by ourselves," said Padilla, 85, who retired in 2000 from teaching but continues volunteering, counseling prisoners at the Sacramento County jail. 

"The cows would come moo at us. It was a time for rules and regulations. There were rules for everything. You were informed in obedience, and you never questioned."

The reasons that church experts give for the decline in orders' membership numbers amount to a quick outline of a half-century of change in American society and modern Catholicism.

As women began entering the workforce in larger numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, they took on many of the roles that many nuns traditionally performed in American life: Sisters of Mercy, for example, are called to teach, nurse and work with the poor.

"Years ago, there were not options for women other than motherhood or religious life," said Sister Janice Bader, executive director of the National Religious Retirement Office. "Mothers were stay-at-home mothers. Women attracted to something of service outside the home didn't have a lot of options."

CARA research shows that before 1960, about 23 percent of young Catholic women gave serious consideration to religious vocation, as opposed to 8 percent today.

The 1960s swept in calls for openness across society – including the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, which modernized the church and religious orders.

By late 1966, many of Auburn's Sisters of Mercy began wearing modest street clothes rather than habits.

Sisters moved out of convents, many living in small apartments. They earned advanced degrees, and they became theologically more progressive.

As Padilla said: "Bended knee, give thanks to Vatican II. That's why we are today free and independent adult women."

About half of American nuns re-evaluated their calling, leaving the convent for secular life. 

And numbers began to drop.

Some experts suggest that the huge numbers of women entering religious orders halfway through the 20th century really amounted to a statistical aberration.

"It was unprecedented in church history," Schenk said. "And it set up an expectation that could not be sustainable."

Interestingly, a recent CARA study shows that younger, newer nuns – average age 32 – express a desire for a return to tradition, structure and obedience.

"Younger people today are saying they want more structure," said Sister Michelle Gorman, 60, who was the sole novice arriving from Ireland in 1971 to enter the Auburn convent. She now lives in Omaha as part of the leadership team of the Sisters of Mercy's West Midwest Community, which stretches from Detroit to California.

"When I entered, it was on the cusp of not as much structure. People were leaving, so now we try to help people discern their calling. It's not about having enough bodies to work in the schools or hospitals. Consequently, there will be fewer people, but they will stay for the right reasons."

A 'model for the world'

About 150 sisters from the West Midwest Community, one of five Sisters of Mercy regions in America, have died since the community was formed in 2008, Gorman said. 

The Auburn mother house has lost two sisters in the past year. One was 76, the other 95.

At the convent, just as at any comfortable retirement residence, separate rooms are set aside for arts and crafts, computer use and working out on treadmills and stationary bikes. A notice for chair exercise class is tacked to a hallway bulletin board.

"See you there!" the notice instructs residents.

And sure enough, midway through a cool, sunny morning in the foothills, a seated older woman raises and lowers her arms in the convent's solarium while a volunteer cheerfully issues instructions.

Turn left down the hallway, and there's the infirmary – the skilled nursing center, complete with a set of doors that can be locked to protect dementia patients given to wandering. Here, 10 aging sisters receive round-the-clock nursing care.

Another 15 nuns live in private rooms just upstairs from the infirmary, whose patients are mostly in their 80s. The order's oldest Auburn resident is 90.

In return for their decades of service to the church, the order cares for their old-age needs at the convent.

"We want to model for the world how to grow old gracefully and how to take care of elderly people," said Gorman. "We want our sisters to go up and enjoy the place and not wait until they're ill and have to go straight to skilled nursing. We want them to know that their life is more than their ministry and good work."

Padilla, for one, plans to return to Auburn only when she isn't healthy enough to continue her jail ministry. She lives for now at the Holy Spirit convent in Land Park.

But Sister Margaret Walsh, now 83, returned to Auburn from Redding in 2000 when she retired from teaching. Along with O'Connor, she volunteers as a spiritual director for church members seeking guidance.

"We don't retire as long as we're physically able," she said.

O'Connor returned three weeks ago from Sacramento, because most of her ministry's clients are in Auburn.

"I've been up and down, but my heart has always been here at the convent," she said. "This is where we were born into religious life."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/27/4942079/convent-tends-to-aging-nunsmany.html#storylink=cpy

Pope Intentions For November 2012

General Intention: Ministers of the Gospel. 

That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord. 

Missionary Intention: Pilgrim Church. 

That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.

Solemnity Of All Saints

The Solemnity of All Saints

This Solemnity or feast of All Saints Day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in heaven, while the next day, All Souls' Day, commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven. 

Both feasts are influenced by the Celtic winter feast of Samhain, as reflected in the customs of Hallowe'en. 

Of Eastern origin

The Solemnity of All Souls is probably of Eastern origin. In the early centuries Christians celebrated the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the early fourth century, following the persecution of Diocletian, martyrs became so many that a separate day could not be assigned to each and the Church assigned a common day for all, celebrated in the East on the first Sunday after Pentecost: there are homilies for this feast by St Ephrem the Syrian (373) and St John Chrysostom (407).

Development in Rome 

In the West the Byzantine emperor Phocas (602-610) handed over to Pope Boniface IV (608-615) the Pantheon in Rome, originally built as a temple to all the Roman gods. On 13 May 610, Pope Boniface dedicated it as a church to St Mary and all the martyrs. But the anniversary was fixed for 1st November by Pope Gregory III (731-741) who consecrated a chapel to all the saints in St Peter's Basilica.

In Ireland and England

The 9th century Irish Martyrology of Aengus (828-833) has a feast for All Saints on 1 November. The feast became known in England and Ireland as All Hallows, from which we get Hallowe'en (the evening before All Hallows). It also took on some of the characteristics of the Celtic feast of Samhain. See Féile na Samhna: an bhunchiall.

Who is included?

The scope of the feast includes all those officially recognised as saints, those whose cause for canonisation has not yet been completed, like Matt Talbot, the Irish Martyrs, Cardinal Newman and Pope John XXIII. But it also includes those whose holy lives were known only to their family, friends or religious communities. Chapter V of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium of Vatican II is entitled "The Call to Holiness" and insists that the "all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love" (LG 40).

Prayer For The Deceased

Our Father….

Hail Mary….

Glory Be….

Eternal light shine upon them, and may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us (x3)

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us (x3)

Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel: 

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -by the Divine Power of God -cast into Hell, Satan and all the Evil Spirits,who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen