Swords and Scallops

This is unacceptable. This will mislead many people. Scandal written all over it.

Via Telegraph:

Two-thirds of Roman Catholic priests in England and Wales believe that the use of condoms could be acceptable.

In a survey of clergy conducted by The Sunday Telegraph, 65 per cent of those questioned said that they thought it morally defensible to use condoms in order to curb the spread of HIV.

A further 43 per cent said that it was time for the Catholic Church to "rethink" its stance on contraception.

The findings, which go against official Church doctrine, follow statements made last weekend by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, that in the fight against Aids "the use of condoms could be construed, in certain situations, as a lesser evil"...

Pray for the Church in England.

I've found a great article on Opus Dei. It's seriously not what Dan Brown's DVC paints it to be.

Via Voice of America:

The image of Opus Dei that filmgoers will see when The DaVinci Code opens May 19th is of a secretive, sinister, sometimes violent organization within the Catholic Church.

The image of Opus Dei that its leaders want the public to see is of Michael Barvick, the Executive Director of the Youth Leadership Foundation, a Washington, D.C. group that helps disadvantaged minority children with academic aid and character development.

He says Opus Dei provides its members -- who call their spiritual activities "The Work" -- with ways to incorporate faith and prayer into their daily lives. "Basically, what ‘The Work’ does is provide that reminder, provide the coaching, those "norms of piety" as they are called, that help us to remember that we have a vocation, to be good men and women, to be imitators of Christ and to try and share that with people around us."...

Via Reuters:

SEOUL (Reuters) - A group of South Korean Roman Catholics left for North Korea on Wednesday, a Church official said, the first such official delegation to visit a country Washington has criticized for suppressing religion.

The visit comes after Pope Benedict installed a second cardinal for South Korea earlier this year. Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk is interested in rebuilding the Church in the communist country and having a priest installed there.

Cheong also heads the Roman Catholic diocese in the capital of North Korea, although it is mostly a symbolic title since there are no practicing Catholic priests in the country.

He has not visited the North but Church officials in Seoul said he was preparing events to mark the 80th anniversary of the Pyongyang diocese in 2007.

The 61-member delegation from the Archdiocese of Seoul will inspect how the more than $10 million it has sent to North Korea for humanitarian aid has been used.

The South Korean delegation will stay in North Korea until Saturday and is being led by the director of the archdiocese's Reconciliation Committee, spokeswoman Ahn Sun-young said by telephone...

Stats from Independent Catholic News:

Poland has a population of 38.2 million, of whom 36.6 million (95.8 percent) are Catholic. There are 45 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 10,114 parishes and 800 pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently, there are 133 bishops, 28,546 priests, 24,826 religious, 1,081 lay members of secular institutes and 14,418 catechists. Minor seminarians number 1,803, and major seminarians 6,427.

A total of 315,698 children and young people attend 1,726 centres of Catholic education, from kindergartens to universities. Other institutions belonging to the Church, or run by priests or religious in Poland include 33 hospitals, 244 clinics, 267 homes for the elderly or disabled, 538 orphanages and nurseries, 1,820 family counselling centres and other pro-life centres, and 1,462 centres for education and social rehabilitation.

It's no big secret that communist China is not a big fan towards the Catholic Church. Actually, they don't look favorably upon organized religion in general. Unfortunately, not much is being done to against this.

Via Catholic Online:

An "underground" bishop in northern China was recently released from an "unusually" long period of detention but is now being closely watched, according to local Catholic sources.

The sources told UCA News that Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, who is not affiliated with the government-approved open church, was returned to his Hebei province, at about 5:15 p.m. on April 19.

Bishop Jia's latest detention since last Nov. 8, according to the sources, was his longest in recent years, since each previous detention usually lasted only a few days. Zhengding is about 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) southwest of Beijing and about 15 kilometers east of Shijiazhuang, Hebei's provincial capital.

A local Catholic who met the 70-year-old prelate after his release told UCA News on April 24 that two officials are stationed at the church and Bishop Jia is under 24-hour surveillance. The bishop, who has suffered from a shoulder problem, now appears to be thinner, the Catholic also said.

The same source added that the bishop has some "freedom" within the church compound where he celebrates Mass every morning and meets laypeople, but the two officials follow him whenever he goes outside to visit Catholic families...

Thank God for people like Bishop Jia to keep the faith alive without compromises, even when faced with persecution.

PRC Chinese President Hu Jintao met with President Bush just recently. The issue of the persecution of the Falun Gong cult group was brought up when a protester shouted to President Bush, "Stop him from killing. Stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong." President Bush chose to apologize for the interruption, unfortunately.

Recently, the media has been buzzing over the report that the Vatican will be releasing a document regarding the use of Condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV, which I have blogged on earlier. However, I'm puzzled as to why things are getting so distorted. The initial reports were simply that the Vatican would be releasing a document. There was no indication that there would be a change in teaching on condom use, yet some news organizations are jumping the gun and overanalyzing in stating that the Vatican is or might be changing policy.

Don't be surprised if nothing changes. As far as I've been taught, the Church has ALWAYS taught that the use of condoms is wrong.

The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). (CCC 2399)

[edit]Update: Thanks CatholicAnswers! According to the Pontifical Council for Health and Pastoral Care, the Church's position on condom use will not change!

So, I've noticed I've been getting a few views per day, even some profile views, but no comments to date. Someone drop a message, even a quick hi would be great! You don't even have to be a blogger member to leave a message, so feel free to respond any time.

Two church closings within the last 24 hours. St. Mary Church in Port Arthur, Texas and St. Augustine Church of Rochester, New York have closed. The churches were 103 and 110 years old, respectively. Both are closing due to declining attendance, but St. Mary's was damaged by Hurricane Rita.

Via IrishExaminer:

Parishioners at Katie Holmes' old church in her native Toledo, Ohio are begging the actress to baptise her newborn baby in a proper Catholic church.

The 'Batman forever' star has become a devout Scientologist since meeting and falling in love with Tom Cruise and former family friends fear she'll turn her back on her religious roots and opt to bring up her child under the doctrines of her new faith.

But parishioners at Christ The King in Toledo are urging Holmes to think of her parents, see sense and return to her hometown to baptise baby Suri, who was born on Tuesday.


Kathleen Jensen, a long time friend of the Holmes family, says: "I can't imagine what her parents are going through right now. She really needs to get that baby baptised in the Catholic church."

And Becky Gillsdorf, who attended an all-girls school with Holmes, tells US tabloid National Enquirer: "She's (Holmes) lost everything. Cruise is a couch-jumping lunatic, and she is under his spell."

Ironically, like Holmes, Cruise was brought up a Catholic and once considered becoming a Catholic priest before he discovered Scientology.

Hopefully Holmes and Cruise will bring their child with them back to the Church.

Via Reuters:

The Vatican will soon publish a statement on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, an issue highlighted by a call from a leading cardinal to ease its ban on them, a Catholic Church official said.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, declined to reveal the contents of the document in an interview published in Sunday's la Repubblica newspaper, but said Pope Benedict had asked his department to study the issue.

The former archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who was standard bearer for a moderate minority in the conclave that elected the Pope last year, called for a reform in an interview published in Italy on Friday.

The Vatican opposes condoms as a form of contraception, but several cardinals have said in recent years that using them is a lesser evil if the alternative is infection with AIDS.

"This is a very difficult and delicate subject that requires prudence," said Mexican-born Barragan.

"My department is studying this closely with scientists and theologians expressly assigned to draft a document that will be issued soon," he said.

Let's pray for the best.

Via The Houston Chronicle:

Despite the Vatican's opposition to condoms, a senior cardinal said in comments published Friday that condoms were the "lesser evil" when considering the scourge of AIDS.

"We must do everything to fight AIDS," said Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired archbishop of Milan, in Italy's L'Espresso newsweekly. "Certainly, the use of condoms can constitute in certain situations a lesser evil."

This guy was once considered an alternative to then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Scary.

Via Catholic News Service:

The Taiwanese ambassador to the Vatican was so impressed with seeing "an inner peace and happiness" in the Catholics he met while living and working in Rome that he decided to convert to Catholicism.

His reasons:

He said he found "a very special thing" in these people, something unusual that piqued his curiosity; he sensed they almost all possessed "a kind of peace, inner peace, happiness, and that really touched me."

He said he tried to uncover the reason for their happiness and he discovered it was "because they have Christ in their hearts and they live following the example of Christ."

This is absolutely wonderful news. Other than the Philippines and East Timor, Asian countries have not been to keen to adopt Catholicism. Hopefully we'll see more of Asia cross the Tiber.

I'm a little concerned however, since PRC China wants the Vatican to have nothing to do with Taiwan. Hopefully, Pope Benedict XVI will be able to pay them a visit, and it'll change thier minds. We'll just have to pray.

The sex abuse lawsuits are hitting them pretty hard. In fact, a report came out stating that sex abuse related charges have cost the Boston Archdiocese at least $151 Million. Also, the worst is not yet over:

To date the Church has settled claims with more than 650 victims, but at least 200 more are working their way through legal channels, according to Mitchell Garabedian, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

Yes, sexual abuse is wrong. Yes, someone should be punished. But is the Archdiocese to be held accountable for abuses done by a single priest? Or are people just out for money?

I found this article on the Pope interesting. From the intro:

Before he was elected Pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known by such critical epithets as "God's rottweiler".

One year on, not only has he not bitten, he has barely even barked.

Indeed, Pope Benedict, a quiet, professorial type who was elected on April 19, 2005, has shown the world the gentle side of the man who was the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer for nearly a quarter of a century.

"People expected this stern schoolmaster who was going to wag his finger at you and hit your knuckles with a ruler," said Jesuit Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

"They had a very negative image of him and have been surprised by the smiling, pastoral personality with the fluffy white hair who could be quite charming."

Hopefully we'll see more good things to come.

Happy Easter to everyone! He is risen!

This is the Pope's first Easter celebration at the Vatican. Also, it's his 79th birthday!

Photo Credit: AP
Read the Article Here

Via Chicago Tribune:

On Easter Sunday, two huge video screens will project praise hymns in this Catholic church as the rock 'n' roll choir leads the celebration of Jesus' resurrection. The priest will consecrate the Eucharist from a lowered altar that brings him closer to his people. Flowering dogwood branches will encircle the church's baptismal font, now an immersion pool in the center aisle surrounded by four gurgling fountains.

Holy Family Catholic Parish Community in Inverness is marking its own rebirth this weekend, opening a $1.4 million renovated sanctuary to its 12,000 parishioners that embraces many elements of the Protestant evangelical movement.

The changes might seem unusual to old-school Catholics. They have raised eyebrows among more orthodox leaders in the archdiocese. But the pastor and parishioners say they are carving the model for the future American Catholic Church.

In contrast to many other Catholic churches where attendance has dropped, Holy Family Parish is booming, even winning back Catholics who were attending Willow Creek, the nondenominational megachurch 3 miles away. Holy Family, with more than 3,700 families, is one of the largest congregations in the archdiocese.

The secret to the 22-year-old church's success has been replicating what growing churches are doing, but in a Catholic way. The result is an innovative congregation that bills itself as "an evangelical church in the Roman Catholic tradition."...

The article also mentions that the original plan for the renovation was to exclude having kneelers, in order to emulate Protestant churches! Thankfully, the archdiocese didn't let this happen.

Honestly, I'd rather stick with tradition and avoid the electric guitars and big plasma screens. We go to church for God, not because we want some emotional high.

(Click Here to read the original story)

Via LifeNews:

A Northern Kentucky University professor who destroyed a pro-life display against abortion and encouraged her students to vandalize it as well is defending her actions. Dr. Sally Jacobsen, a British literature professor, called the display "silly" and said her free speech rights allowed her and others to trash the display...

Your rights end where another person's rights begin. Free speech should not be used as an excuse to vandalize.

Not only is tommorow, April 16, 2006 Easter Sunday, but the 79th birthday of reigning Pope Benedict XVI. He was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on April 16, 1927 in Bavaria, Germany. Interestingly enough, that day was a Holy Saturday just like today.

(Image "borrowed" from The Closed Cafeteria)

Happy Birthday Pope Benedict XVI!

This is my first post on this blog. I call it Swords and Scallops after the symbols of St. James the Greater. More to come, so be sure to keep a blessed Holy Week!