Readers of my blog know well that even though I've never had him or met him, I think Fr. Reggie Foster is an absolute riot. I listen to his program on Vatican Radio and I just laugh out loud. Well, via Zadok, there's a blogger taking his summer Latin course and he gives a great description of the Magister that made me chuckle. I hope to be as good of a teacher as Fr. Foster apparently is!
The leader of Greece's influential Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, has cancer in his large intestine and liver, doctors said Thursday.
Christodoulos, who has helped thaw centuries of tension with the Vatican but is often accused of meddling in domestic politics, has been hospitalized since June 9, and has already undergone intestinal surgery.
...
The 68-year-old Orthodox leader's illness has led to an outpouring of sympathy in a country where 97 percent of the population is baptized Orthodox Christian. Even officials who have criticized him for meddling in state affairs have visited him in the hospital.
Elected Church leader in 1998, Christodoulos received the late Pope John Paul II in 2001 in the first visit by a pontiff to the Orthodox country in nearly 1,300 years.
Christodoulos followed up last year with a historic visit to the Vatican, where he met Pope Benedict XVI.
I would like to respond to the article in your June edition entitled "A Betrothal Proposal" by Michael G. Lawler and Gail S. Risch.
The teaching of the Catholic Church about fornication is clear and unambiguous: it is always objectively a serious sin (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church #1755, #1852, #2353). Couples who live together without marriage do in fact live in sin objectively.
Because the position of the authors is contrary to Church teaching about the intrinsic evil of fornication, I have disassociated the Omaha Archdiocese from the Center for Marriage and Family at Creighton University.
Neither Lawler nor Risch are reliable teachers of Catholic moral theology, and certainly are not spokespeople for the Church regarding human sexuality and sacramental marriage.
I remain sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha
I've looked around and can't find anything else on the Archbishop's response, either in the secular or Catholic press. No doubt this is not the last we'll hear from these two. Congratulations to the Archbishop for speaking out!
Robin Williams has decided that he won’t pay any consequences for ridiculing the Church in public, says The Catholic League. On Monday night’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Williams equated all priests with pedophiles and mocked confession.
Leno invited the actor on to his show to plug his upcoming movie “License to Wed,” in which he plays a Protestant minister who forces a couple to go through marriage preparation courses. However, the experience of portraying a minister didn’t seem to engender any respect for the clergy in him.
Williams pretended to play a game with Jay Leno where a pedophile is hidden under a cup. “Here we go. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Here you go right now. Move ‘em around, move ‘em around. Oh, you found the pedophile.”
Williams then put his hand over his groin, saying, “You have to realize that if you are a Catholic priest, you have retired this. That’s it—no more sex.” Then he took a shot at confession: “But they are going to put you in a small dark box and people are going to tell you the nastiest sexual stuff they have done.”
Bill Donahue was angered by the fact that, “Isaiah Washington lashes out at one gay person in private, and he is banished from ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ Robin Williams lashes out against all priests in public, and he suffers no consequence.”
Pointing out that the actor has calculated the risks of targeting the Church, Donahue quoted an interview with MoviesOnline in which Williams recently said, “‘you can’t poke fun at certain religions,’ but ‘we just made major fun of the Catholic Church but hey, they don’t blow you up.’” Donahue said this makes Williams not just “a bigot and a liar” but also “a coward.”
Yesterday Cardinal Renato Martino's Pontifical Council for Migrants issued a “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road,” aka The Ten Commandments of Driving. Today the newly created Pontifical Council for Transportation jointly with Car-itas has issued a new document Driving the Gospels.
I'll give you one sample to entice you to go over there are read the rest:
Gerald points to a post by Diane on more goings-on in Medjugorje. Apparently Father Cantalamessa was supposed to preach a retreat for priests there next month and he's canceled his appearance. Apparently, the local bishops conference requires preachers from outside the diocese to first request permission from the Ordinary. This was not done in this case. The statement mentions some other interesting things which is the real reason I'm posting this at all. From the press release:
Despite the above mentioned decision, the news of a spiritual retreat for priests directed by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap., Preacher of the Papal Household, to be held in Medjugorje at the beginning of July 2007 appeared on the internet many months ago, yet the organizers of this retreat did not inform the Diocesan Chancery in Mostar according to the norm, prior to the event. In this regard, celebrations of the sacrament of reconciliation are being publicized billing, alongside Fr Cantalamessa, Fr. Jozo Zovko [left]; yet the latter since 2004 has been relieved of all priestly faculties in the territory of the dioceses of Herzegovina (Vrhbosna, 3/2004, pp.293-298).
The Pastoral decision of 23 August 2001 regarding leaders of spiritual retreats and conferences was reaffirmed and expressly emphasized by the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, Msgr. Ratko Perić [right]in his discourse and invitation given during the Chapter elections on 16 April this year at Humac, where he was officially invited to preside at Holy Mass. On that occasion the Diocesan bishop mentioned the following regarding Medjugorje:
“The pastoral obstinacy of the pastors and other associates of Medjugorje is quite evident on the ‘Medjugorje’ internet site which bears the title ‘Marian Shrine’. ‘Medjugorje’ is neither a diocesan nor national or international shrine. This status must be acknowledged while the events remain as they stand.
The obstinacy of the pastors and other associates of Medjugorje is also evident in the their disregard for the circular letter of the Chancery of 2001, which states that priests coming from beyond the areas where the Croatian language is spoken are not to be invited without the express and written permission of the Diocesan Chancery.
The obstinacy of the pastors and other associates of Medjugorje is evident in that a member of your Province, Fr. Jozo Zovko, who has no priestly faculties and who is forbidden from celebrating any priestly functions in this diocese, has been invited this year to preside at the Way of the Cross in Medjugorje and has been in this regard presented as available for confessions”.
The discourse was published in its entirety at the beginning of May this year in the diocesan pastoral monthly (Crkva na kamenu, 5/2007, pp. 33-35).
After exchanging various letters between the Diocesan Chancery and the Parish Rectory of Medjugorje, the pastor of Medjugorje Fr. Ivan Sesar notified the bishop in his letter dated 13 June 2007 that: “Upon my insistence due to the shortness of time, I asked P. Cantalamessa to send his acknowledgment of receipt of my letter by fax, which he did in the meantime. He accepts my apology and regrets that due to the newly arisen circumstances he cannot come, since in principle he never does public appearances without the permission of the local Ordinary”.
Bishop Perić and Fr. Cantalamessa exchanged letters on 13 June. Fr. Cantalamessa informed the bishop that he wrote a letter to Fr. Sesar on 8 June. Fr. Cantalamessa wrote in his letter to the bishop on 13 June: “My principle is not to preach, especially not to the clergy, without the permission of the local bishop”.
St. Romuald was probably born about the year 950. His father Sergius belong to the Onesti family, Dukes of Ravenna, Italy. When he was twenty he witnessed his father kill a relative in a duel over property. This awakened in him the value of life and our relationship with God and its importance.
He entered the abbey of St. Apolinare in Ravenna. After 3 years he sought a more solitary and ascetical life. Under the direction of a hermit named Marinus he made great spiritual progress. His example influenced his father who entered the monastery and lived most of the rest of his life at San Severo near Ravenna.
Meanwhile Romuald began founding monasteries all over Europe. He focused on the contemplative aspect of religious life and emphasized silence, fasting and solitude.
Fr. Tim Finigan posted his homily for this weekend and I think he provides ample fodder for reflection on our own concept of parish:
It is worth reflecting on this in relation to our own work in the parish. People often say to me that the parish is a good one and I like people to say this: it brings a sense of, I think, legitimate pride – I am aware that there are many things that we could do much better.
But the other day, I was being interviewed for a programme to be broadcast on EWTN and the interviewer spoke of the parish and asked about its “success.” I think it was a light given by the Holy Spirit which prompted me immediately to say that I will only know whether the parish has been a success at the last judgement when our Lord will show me how many parishioners have been saved.
Our “success” or “failure” as a parish is not measured by how we feel or how much money we raise or how many activities we can arrange. The true success of all our endeavours in the Church will be measured by how many of us are saved and go to heaven. A consequence of this view of “success” in a parish is that all our activities should be directed towards this final end.
I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people—-the best people, the most enlightened people—-do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.
Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.
There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday—-these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs. They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. I certainly don't want to talk anybody out of them, as I don't want to talk anybody out of a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from the dead. But the reason I don't want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that I can't talk anybody out of them. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith.
Rorate Caeli is reporting some information about the pope's forthcoming letter to China:
-It will be released in the format of a simple "Letter", named "Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Bishops, the clergy, and the faithful of the Church in China" (even though there have been several encyclicals sent to specific nations in the History of Pontifical Documents, that has not been the use in recent pontificates, and the names "Encyclical" and "Apostolic Letter" will not be used);
-Its original draft was apparently written in Italian;
-The Italian version will have 28 pages;
-The letter will be published in Chinese and Italian, as well as in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and French
-The text includes a historical retrospective of the past five decades of Catholic events in China, including a reference to two past encyclicals.
Sunday, June 17, 2007 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Jesus must have taken educational psychology since he is demonstrating two great tenets of education in the Gospel reading for this Sunday. First, he is demonstrating. That's always better than lecturing. Researches estimate that we retain about 5% of lectures but more than 50% from demonstrations. Jesus knows how to play the odds. Second, he is using compare and contrast to make his point. Any good teacher knows the value of higher order thinking rather than just basic factual recall.
Priests and deacons have a great opportunity this weekend. Typically it's not p.c. or even wise to compare ourselves with others in the department of morality. It often leads to pride and rationalization. But some serious reflection this week can lead parishioners to categorize themselves and examine their attitudes toward others. Two questions can accomplish this: Am I more like the Pharisee or the woman? How would I have judged the sinful woman?
Perhaps you could share a story of your own where you realized the unfathomable mercy of God. Frankly, the gratitude I feel in my heart for God is all the more genuine because of the sins I've committed... O happy fault! Telling the whole story from the first reading might help. Chances are the congregation may not know the story of David and Bathsheba. Considering our culture of uninterrupted sex and violence, it may help people who otherwise see the Bible as useless to realize that it's quite relevant. You might consider using Nathan's tactic: tell a story that closely mirrors David's and get everyone outraged, then drop the bomb!
Of course the ever-famous Galatians 2:20 is always in season. In these stories, who was really allowing Christ to live in them? Then to ourselves: is it still "we" who live? In my own prayer this week, I plan to reflect on one way I can allow Christ to live in me that he's not already. Imagine if every local Catholic community did the same!
These are just some passing thoughts as I prepare myself for this weekend. Teachers who are still in school may consider using David and Bathsheba in class this week, having the students write stories that are analogous to theirs with a contemporary twist. You could also set up a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the Pharisee and the woman from the Gospel. Finally, students might be encouraged to recall and retell other Bible stories having to do with forgiveness and mercy. What a way to demonstrate some serious end-of-the-year Bible trivia!
And Jesus said unto them, "And whom do you say that I am?"
They replied,
"You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.”
"You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.”
"You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming roughness’ in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.”
“You are my Oppressed One, my soul's shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”
In his post this week, Cardinal O'Malley included his homily for the ordination of three new Jesuit priests last week. I didn't read every word, but I really enjoyed the sections I did read. A few highlights...
Commenting on the prophecy from Isaiah that Jesus himself read when he returned to the synagogue in Nazareth:
Jesus Himself selected this same test for his first sermon, which unfortunately ended in disaster. I find great comfort in this because my first sermon ended in disasters. I was to preach for the first time in a prison in Pennsylvania. I was quite nervous and sought guidance in my books on homiletics in the monastery library. The book said, “Speak into the horizons of your audience.” I had an inspiration. I decided to talk on the theme of great escapes in the Bible — Daniel in the Lion’s Den, the 3 lads in the fiery furnace, St. Peter in chains, Paul escaping over the walls of Damascus in a lasher. I had their wrap attention. The disaster came that night when six prisoners escaped, no doubt wafted up by my ecclesiastical oratory. They almost threw Jesus over the cliff at Nazareth after His first sermon. I felt as though something untold was going to be done to me, and that my first sermon would be my last. It was not my last sermon nor my most memorable. A few years later, I was preaching at the St. Matthew’s Cathedral on the Argentine Independence Day during the so-called dirty war. A General in a spiffy white uniform seated next to the ambassador took exception to my preaching—(I was quoting a Papal Document on human rights)—shouted something unpleasant and the entire congregation stampeded out of the Cathedral. I was having visions of my next assignment in Papua New Guinea. Cardinal Baum was so concerned that he left instructions that when Father Sean was going to preach, be sure to take up the collection before the Gospel.
On the second reading:
In the second lesson Paul says, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. The accent has to be on Christ. It is not about us. We are His messengers. He is the message —His Gospel, His Church.
In the past, the Catholic Church was often persecuted for what we taught about God, Trinity, Virgin Birth, Hypostatic Union, today those who attack the Church do so for what we teach about the dignity of the human person, the Gospel of Life, the sacredness of Marriage, which is the sanctuary of life, the importance of real freedom based on truth, the origin and destiny of man. As Jesuit priests, you will have a unique opportunity to present a new apologetic of the new evangelization to a world that is increasingly individualistic, cynical and secularized.
Your witness of a holy life will be an important part of the task of inviting people to discover Christ in the Catholic Church.
Christ is the Bridegroom, never the widower. He does not exist separate from the Church. And like John the Baptist, like the Apostles, you are called to be friends of the Bridegroom —who will lead others to the wedding feast.
Some of my newly-ordained friends can use this for prayer:
Today in your ordination you become priests of the suffering servant. The more you penetrate the metaphor, the more you will understand your own vocation as priests and as victim.
Another Jesuit gem:
Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and thus enter into His glory?
That is a phrase that must speak to you as sons of St. Ignatius. Ad majorem Dei Gloriam. In his constitutions he composed for the society. Ignatius repeats this formula 376 times. And here Jesus speaks about the glory that can come only through the Cross. The Cross of discipleship is our path to attain the greater glory of God. You are called to give greater glory, to seek ever to do more. As Cardinal Avery Dulles put it speaking of the Jesuits’ obligation to strive for the greater glory of God: “What we have done and are presently doing is never enough.” And this from an eminent Jesuit scholar who had authored scores of books and who has an airport names after him.
Two thoughts from the last section:
Once I was invited to preach in an old Gothic Church with a magnificent pulpit that was like a crow’s nest it was so high. I mounted the pulpit without a nose bleed, but I was shaken up to read the inscription that was on the pulpit for the priest’s eyes only—Domine, volumus Jesum videre. The words of the Greeks to Philip—”Sir, we would see Jesus.” I was shaken up, because I realized it is true. The people want to see Jesus. They need to see Jesus in your pastoral love, in your ministry, your breaking open Christ’s Word, your prayerfulness, your purity, your obedience, your simplicity of life style, your love for the Church.
...
When I was Bishop in the West Indies, I read the P.R. newspapers every day. In those days, the Jesuits had a vocation ad in one of the Papers that fascinated me. It was truly stunning. The photograph was borrowed from the film, The Mission—actually, it was the same one used to advertise the movie. It depicted a Jesuit priest nailed to a cross, being thrown upside down over Guaza Falls, the huge waterfalls on the Paraguayan Border. Underneath them was a rather banal invitation to consider becoming a Jesuit and provided a telephone number to call. I remember seeing the ad and saying, “Why don’t the Capuchins think of things like that?”
The back cover of the latest America magazine sports your recent vocational material. The ad pictures a trim young Jesuit priest with a full head of hair and good teeth wearing a navy blue Reebock running jersey. And the caption is, “What’s in your heart?” The telephone exchange is (212), so it is a New York number. There is nothing wrong with the America approach, but I rather prefer the Puerto Rican ad myself—there is no doubt about what is in the heart of a crucified Jesuit going over the waterfall headfirst. It is a great metaphor for our days.
I don't have much interest in this myself. From AsiaNews:
The Great Wall Of China could be chosen as one of the 7 new wonders of the world. Together with the Coliseum in Rome and Machu Picchu in Peru it is among the chief contenders in the vote, which ends July 6th.
The massive poll to decide on the “the new seven wonders of the world” enters its final month with votes already cast by more than 50 million people world wide via text messages and e mail. Also in the top 10 are Greece's Acropolis, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island, Brazil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer, the Taj Mahal and Jordan's Petra.The Great Pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, are assured of keeping their status in addition to the new seven after Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to compete. The winners will be announced on July 7 in Lisbon, (Portugal).
...
The “competition” begun in 1999, with almost 200 nominations coming in from around the world. The list of candidates was narrowed down to 21 by the start of last year. Since organisers started a tour to each site last September, the competition has been heating up.
Tia Viering, campaign spokeswoman, comments “It's the first ever global vote”, on “something which interests everyone”. At the moment, most of the voting is coming from Latin America and Asia, via internet, while Americans and Europeans have the lowest participation so far.But the organisers are confident the campaign will draw more attention in the US and Europe in the final phase, with an increase in hits on the internet site, http://www.new7wonders.com.
Peter Meade, one of Cardinal O'Malley's top lay advisors, wrote an editorial published in the Boston Herald supporting same-sex marriage. Dr. Peters weighs in:
Boston politicos Peter & Rosanne Meade woke up one summer morning, saw the sun shining brightly, and concluded that God must have changed his mind about the travesty called "homosexual marriage". The Meades think that because the world did not come to an end when Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, those ignorant Bible-thumpers were wrong about the consequences for societies that continually invent new ways to flout, well, just about everything.
But a pretty sunrise over Boston Harbor is not, in the slightest, a sign that God approves of what the chronically bizarre government of Massachusetts does in regard to "homosexual marriage", or anything else for that matter. Not at all.
The Meades need to read their Bible---no, not the parts about the earth opening up and swallowing sinners or raging floods wiping away the evil, as instructive as those passages might be---but rather, the places where Holy Writ reminds us that, in his wisdom, God lets the sun shine on the good and the bad alike, and that weeds will grow up alongside the wheat until, that is, the Day of Harvest, when the wheat will be gathered into barns, and the weeds torn out and burned.
But the Meades' opinion column, as bad as it is (consider here provisions such as 1983 CIC 225, 227, and 747), provokes a deeper problem for the Church in Boston: Peter Meade is co-chair of the commission advising Cdl. O'Malley about the complex and crucial issue of parish-closings in the archdiocese.
Now, if one cannot think clearly about something as simple, and as obvious, and as anciently and universally honored as the fact that marriage is a "covenant by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life" (1983 CIC 1055), then how can he or she can be taken seriously as an advisor to ecclesiastical leaders on any topic requiring the exercise of prudent judgment?
By their own words, the Meades have proclaimed themselves unfit to hold a position of influence in any particular Church, let alone one as prominent as Boston. If he won't resign, Peter Meade should be removed from the cardinal's advisory commission.
The Massachusetts Bishops have released a statement on yesterday's vote by the legislature rejecting the marriage amendment:
Ignoring the will of more than 170,000 people who signed the marriage petition and blocking the people from exercising their right to vote is tragic.
In the Commonwealth, our state laws provide for the process whereby the citizens have a right to vote on a constitutional amendment.
However, the leadership of the Democratic Party refuses to allow citizens and elected officials to vote their conscience on social issues. Their ideological positions undermine the common good.
Today, the common good has been sacrificed by the extreme individualism that subordinates what is best for children, families and society.
It is obvious from the unprecedented amount of pressure that was put upon elected officials that opponents of the amendment believed that the voters of the Commonwealth would have voted in favor of the traditional definition of marriage. The pressure tactics were engineered to insure that the will of the people would not prevail.
The question for those elected officials who opposed allowing the marriage amendment to be voted on by the people is: do we live in a country where people are free to vote their conscience or are we controlled by what is viewed as politically correct and by powerful special interest groups?
We extend our sincere appreciation to those members of the legislature who stood firm in their support to allow the people an opportunity to exercise their right to vote on the marriage amendment.
Perhaps in the future legislators will have the courage to let the people vote on an issue so important to the future of families.
Via Mike Aquilina... a Patristic melody (to the tune of “Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious”):
Superchristological and Homoousiosis Even though the sound of them is something quite atrocious You can always count on them to anathemize your Gnosis Superchristological and Homoousiosis
Um diddle diddle um diddle ay Um diddle diddle um diddle ay
Now Origen and Arius were quite a clever pair. Immutable divinity make Logos out of air. But then one day Saint Nicholas gave Arius a slap– and told them if they can’t recant, they ought to shut their trap!
On his way out the door, the departing rector of St. John's Seminary sent a pair of blistering letters to church officials, alleging that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is endangering the future training of priests by letting theological liberals move in next door.
The Rev. John A. Farren, a conservative and occasionally controversial Dominican friar, warned in the letters last month that the "doctrinal integrity" of St. John's is at risk because of increased proximity to two Jesuit-run Catholic institutions, Boston College and Weston Jesuit School of Theology, which are expected to move into buildings currently held by the seminary.
Farren did not cite specific issues, saying only that Weston Jesuit employs "self-professed gays or lesbians" as faculty members and that several faculty members there have been questioned by the Vatican.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield issued an appeal today to the thief or thieves who robbed Bishop Timothy M. McDonnell of a large gold cross and other personal items in a break-in this week.
McDonnell wants the items back, as they have sentimental value, according to diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont.
"Obviously, there's an expense involved, but it's a sentimental loss more than anything," Dupont said.
"It would bring the bishop such joy if these items could find their way back to him," Dupont said.
Police, meanwhile, continue to investigate the theft, which occurred at the bishop's Elliot Street residence sometime through the night Monday or early Tuesday morning.
Police believe the break-in may have occurred at 3 a.m. Tuesday, when the burglary alarm sounded. A search of the house at that time, however, turned up nothing missing, and McDonnell went back to sleep.
It was only on waking for the day on Tuesday that McDonnell noticed the items missing.
Taken were two watches, a ring and a pectoral cross, a type of crucifix suspended on a long chain the bishop wears during formal ceremonies. It signifies his rank in the church, and McDonnell has had it since he was ordained a priest on June 1, 1963.
Dupont said the back of the cross is inscribed with his initials and that date. He had it hung on a chain when he was ordained a bishop on Dec. 12, 2001.
"It's not just a symbol of his office, but a reminder of his ordination," Dupont said.
One of the watches was a gift from his parents, both now dead.
"These are items that could be replaced, but you could never replace the sentimental value he has for them," Dupont said.
Police Capt. Robert A. Cheetham said detectives are working on the case today.
The thief or thieves may have a difficult time selling the cross, as it is distinctive and has been widely publicized as belonging to McDonnell since the break-in.
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley has invited Pope Benedict XVI to come to Boston next year, saying a visit to the city that was at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal would send a positive message to Catholics.
O'Malley said he is hopeful that the pope will accept the invitation because 2008 is both the bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston and because Benedict is already expected to come to the country to visit the United Nations.
"Given everything Boston has been through, having the Holy Father come, I think, would be a great joy and a sense of affirmation to us as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of our church," O'Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, said in re sponse to a question from the Globe. "I've invited him, and I'm hoping that he will come to Boston."
A pope has visited Boston, the fourth largest diocese in the United States with an estimated 2 million Catholics, only once: John Paul II came to Boston in 1979, and celebrated Mass for more than 400,000 rain-soaked people on Boston Common.
The Vatican has not yet announced a date for the UN visit, but has confirmed that Benedict intends to visit the UN, and speculation has focused on next year for the trip. Benedict already has several competing invitations from American and Canadian bishops, and is likely to get more as the visit, his first North American visit as pontiff, approaches.
Boston presents symbolic opportunities and risks for the pontiff, given that the sexual abuse crisis erupted here in 2002, and the archdiocese has been struggling to repair its reputation and its finances ever since.
New Musician/ Funeral Policy in the Diocese of Providence. Via Christus Vincit:
For a little over 20 years, organists in the Diocese of Providence have collected their fee for funerals independently from the undertaker, and sometimes the family of the deceased.
Effective July 1, 2007, that will change. Per order Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, the new policy will be that the undertaker cuts one check to the parish for everything, including music, and the parish cuts the check for the musician. This new policy has only one con - the fact that I have to now wait till payday instead of getting the funeral check the day of the funeral. I can get used to that. Compared to the many pros in this new policy, the one con is nothing. The bishop's reasoning for the new policy is impeccable.
The reason for the new policy is so that parishes (namely musicians and especially pastors) can gain control over the music played at parish funerals, thus taking the "big head" off the undertaker who feels that since he's paying the musician directly that he's "bought" the musician and now owns him/her until the funeral Mass is over, and giving the pastor the opportunity to exercise his responsibility in liturgy (a responsibility the pastor actually has had all along, but now doesn't feel so intimidated). In the case of quite a few, you'll find some pastors who could give a rat's behind about the quality of music used at funerals - you know, the ones who think "pastoral" means "give'em what they want". In the case of a few more around here, I think some more pastors will put their two cents in, as will more musicians.
As one who plays funerals quite regularly when I'm not in school, I personally haven't had too many problems with pushy undertakers. However, they often send in "requests from the family" which are usually just requests from the undertakers themselves. But I'm all about solving problems and if this takes care of some issues then I'm all for it! Bishop Tobin... twice in one week.
Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart has confirmed plans for a new $12-million Catholic high school in Kingston that would introduce a new policy requiring at least 75 percent of the students be Catholic.
St. Aloysius Catholic College, set to open in 2009, would be the first school to operate with the new 75-percent policy, which he said, would ensure a "very strong Catholic ethos and vision" in the schools.
The archbishop said about 40 percent of the current student population in Tasmanian Catholic schools is not Catholic.
The new policy will require an exemption under Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Act, which the State Government will consider later this year. It would be slowly rolled out across the state.
The new school will also meet the growing demand for Catholic education in the region. Other Catholic high schools have either had to turn students away or squeeze them in, taking in students beyond their usual capacity.
"The establishment of this new Catholic College, which will be an extension of the existing St Aloysius Primary School, will be a wonderful opportunity to provide Catholic Education at the secondary level to the growing number of students who live in the Kingborough area," Archbishop Doyle said in a statement.
The new co-ed school will be a “green building” built on church-owned vacant land. It will operate with solar power and have efficient water use.
St. Aloysius Catholic College will be able to accommodate 360 students and have a strong emphasis on performing arts.
