Remember when I said the communist collaborator bishop story was a SHAM?
we'll here's more evidence which borders on proof:
LETTER FROM THE POPE TO POLISH ARCHBISHOP WIELGUS
VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter from Benedict XVI to Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, emeritus of Warsaw, Poland. The text bears the date of February 12.
The Holy Father thanks the archbishop "for the trust with which you opened your soul before me, showing the anguished suffering of you heart throughout your life as a priest and bishop, until the moment of your resignation from the office of archbishop of Warsaw.
"In recent times I have participated in you sufferings and wish to assure you of my spiritual closeness and fraternal understanding.
"As for the past, I am fully aware of the exceptional circumstances in which you had to undertake your service, when the communist regime in Poland used all possible means to suffocate the freedom of citizens, and particularly of the clergy.
"As rector of the University of Lublin and as bishop of Plock you gave proof of your great piety, and of your profound love for Jesus Christ and for the Church.
"When, one month ago, you presented your resignation in the awareness that the situation that had arisen made it impossible for you to begin your episcopal service with the indispensable degree of authority, I clearly saw in this act a profound sensitivity for the good of the Church of Warsaw and of Poland, as well as your own humility and detachment from office.
"I would like, first of all, to encourage you to maintain faith and serenity of heart. I express the desire that you may resume your activity at the service of Christ, in whatever way proves possible, so that your vast and profound knowledge and priestly piety may be used for the good of the beloved Church in Poland.
"The episcopal mission, today as in the past, is marked by suffering. May Our Lord never cease to support you with His grace. Help will also come from the friendship of brother bishops and of the people who have known and respected you."
BXVI-LETTER/.../WIELGUS
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
So Much for Ecumenism!
This from John Allen in Rome:
Rome rabbi applauds Anti Defamation League for boycotting Catholic-Jewish relations event over French cardinal who converted from Judaism to Catholicism
By boycotting a 2005 event featuring French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the former archbishop of Paris who is a convert from Judaism, Jewish leaders showed “we don’t have to renounce our dignity,” the Chief Rabbi of Rome told a national convention of the Anti-Defamation League on Friday.
Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni of Rome said that both he and Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, declined to take part in a Rome celebration of Nostra Aetate, the document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) which set a new path for Catholic/Jewish relations, because Lustiger was featured on the program.
Lustiger, the son of Jewish immigrants to France from Poland, converted to Catholicism at the age of 15. (His given name at birth was “Aaron.”) Lustiger’s mother died at Auschwitz. Given that background, Lustiger has long been seen by the Vatican as a bridge to the Jewish community, and he is a veteran of Catholic/Jewish relations.
Rome rabbi applauds Anti Defamation League for boycotting Catholic-Jewish relations event over French cardinal who converted from Judaism to Catholicism
By boycotting a 2005 event featuring French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the former archbishop of Paris who is a convert from Judaism, Jewish leaders showed “we don’t have to renounce our dignity,” the Chief Rabbi of Rome told a national convention of the Anti-Defamation League on Friday.
Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni of Rome said that both he and Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, declined to take part in a Rome celebration of Nostra Aetate, the document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) which set a new path for Catholic/Jewish relations, because Lustiger was featured on the program.
Lustiger, the son of Jewish immigrants to France from Poland, converted to Catholicism at the age of 15. (His given name at birth was “Aaron.”) Lustiger’s mother died at Auschwitz. Given that background, Lustiger has long been seen by the Vatican as a bridge to the Jewish community, and he is a veteran of Catholic/Jewish relations.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Ratzinger Memo: Membership in Masons is Mortal Sin and Such May not Receive Communion
Membership in the Masons And More on the Office of Readings
ROME, FEB. 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? -- T.N., Howard City, Michigan
A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed.
The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict." An interdict is an ecclesiastical penalty that deprives the person of the right to celebrate or receive the sacraments but is less harsh than excommunication.
This text greatly simplified the former code which had specifically mentioned the Masons. This change led some Masons to think that the Church no longer banned Catholics from being Masons, since, among other things, in many countries membership at a lodge was merely social and had nothing to do with plotting against the Church.
In order to clarify the issue the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a declaration on Nov. 26, 1983, shortly before the present Code of Canon Law came into effect. This declaration, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, states:
"It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church's decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.
"This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.
"Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
"It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).
"In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation."
The congregation's judgment, therefore, was not so much based on whether the Masons as such or any specific group of Masons effectively plot against the Church today. This does not deny that some Masonic groups have historically combated the Church nor that even today, in some countries or at certain levels, the lodge remains at the forefront of those who oppose the Church's freedom of action.
Rather, the Vatican congregation above all stressed the incompatibility of some Masonic principles with those of the Catholic Church.
This incompatibility resides in some aspects of Masonic ritual, but more importantly in elements regarding the question of truth.
In its effort to bring together people of different provenances, Masonry requires that its members adhere to a minimal belief in a supreme architect of the universe and leave aside all other pretensions of truth, even revealed truth.
It is thus basically a relativistic doctrine, and no Catholic, nor indeed any convinced Christian, may ever adhere to a group that would require him, even as a mere intellectual exercise, to renounce the affirmation of such truths as Christ's divinity and the Trinitarian nature of God.
Of course, for many people active in Masonic lodges, the conversations and activities are more social in nature and rarely veer toward the realm of philosophical speculation. A Catholic, however, cannot ignore the fundamental principles behind an organization, no matter how innocuous its activities appear to be.
ROME, FEB. 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? -- T.N., Howard City, Michigan
A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed.
The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict." An interdict is an ecclesiastical penalty that deprives the person of the right to celebrate or receive the sacraments but is less harsh than excommunication.
This text greatly simplified the former code which had specifically mentioned the Masons. This change led some Masons to think that the Church no longer banned Catholics from being Masons, since, among other things, in many countries membership at a lodge was merely social and had nothing to do with plotting against the Church.
In order to clarify the issue the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a declaration on Nov. 26, 1983, shortly before the present Code of Canon Law came into effect. This declaration, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, states:
"It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church's decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.
"This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.
"Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
"It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).
"In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation."
The congregation's judgment, therefore, was not so much based on whether the Masons as such or any specific group of Masons effectively plot against the Church today. This does not deny that some Masonic groups have historically combated the Church nor that even today, in some countries or at certain levels, the lodge remains at the forefront of those who oppose the Church's freedom of action.
Rather, the Vatican congregation above all stressed the incompatibility of some Masonic principles with those of the Catholic Church.
This incompatibility resides in some aspects of Masonic ritual, but more importantly in elements regarding the question of truth.
In its effort to bring together people of different provenances, Masonry requires that its members adhere to a minimal belief in a supreme architect of the universe and leave aside all other pretensions of truth, even revealed truth.
It is thus basically a relativistic doctrine, and no Catholic, nor indeed any convinced Christian, may ever adhere to a group that would require him, even as a mere intellectual exercise, to renounce the affirmation of such truths as Christ's divinity and the Trinitarian nature of God.
Of course, for many people active in Masonic lodges, the conversations and activities are more social in nature and rarely veer toward the realm of philosophical speculation. A Catholic, however, cannot ignore the fundamental principles behind an organization, no matter how innocuous its activities appear to be.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Look at that Poor Little Girl
This is the photo which accompanies the Telegraph story on how the Catholic Church will now be forced to permit homosexual adoption or get out of the adoption business. While the point is to present a beautiful girl with homosexual 'parents', the image may backfire. On seeing the photo, and the girl's expression I immediately felt for the girl in her plight, for her lack of a mother, and was motivated to take action to fight for the rights of these poor children to have a mother AND a father.
On Handing Over Communion to Pro-Choice Politicians
This comment from Catholic World News' Diogenes is priceless:
Bishops ought to think carefully before handing over Holy Communion to “manifest grave sinners,” like civil authorities who publicly promote contraception, abortion and same sex marriage. (Can. 915). Jesus was surely referring to the “chief priests” when He said to Pilate “he who handed me over to you is guilty of the greater sin” (Jn.18:35; 19:11).
Friday, January 19, 2007
My predictions for 2007
That the Holy Father will give a universal indult for the Traditional Mass and will do something else which will result in the defacto schism becoming formal.
Monday, January 15, 2007
I think the Archbishop Communist collaboration story in Poland is a SHAM
Colleagues in Poland have informed me the Wielgus was a conservative and the proposed successor is a liberal. Moreover, the records compilation was done by anti-Catholic communist bigots who would have liked nothing more than to defame with corrupt records. Now the records are being pointed to by the same old communists and their new anti-Catholic collaborators.
Here's the best round-up I've found so far on the topic by Sandro Magister in Rome.
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