Overheard in the Sacristy

The Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to begin an Apostolic Visitation “in order to look into the quality of the life” of women religious in the United States.

Catholic Michael Steele takes over leadership of RNC

Washington DC, Jan 30, 2009 / 07:29 pm (CNA).- The Republican National Committee has chosen Michael Steele, a devout Catholic who is well-known for his charisma and strong work ethic, as its new chairman.

Steele, who previously served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland, is the first black chairman of the Republican Party. He was selected after six rounds of voting with 91 votes out of a possible 168. Steele beat out Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary of state, and Saul Anuzis, Michigan GOP chairman, to win the chairmanship.

Some Republicans questioned Steele’s conservative credentials during the campaigning for the chairmanship because of his past association with Christie Todd Whitman’s Republican Leadership Council (RLC). Many conservatives within the Party ridiculed the RLC’s  ”big tent” philosophy, which they say attempted to bring pro-abortion candidates onto the Republican ticket.

Deal Hudson, a Catholic political commentator, explained that he first became convinced of Steele’s pro-life convictions by a 2003 meeting he invited Steele to with the U.S. Catholic bishops’ executive committee.

According to Hudson, Steele spoke “very directly, but diplomatically, to the bishops about their need to promote the pro-life cause with greater vigor.  He talked about his disappointment with their leadership and its consequences among the African-American community.  When he finished talking there was a powerful silence in the room.”

Steele’s pro-life credentials were even further verified by his 2006 Senate run in Maryland, Hudson said.

The new chairman was in good spirits Friday as he accepted the top post of the Republican National Committee. “It’s time for something completely different, and we’re gonna bring it to them,” he said, according to FOX News. “Get ready, baby. It’s time to turn it on.”

“People like Mike,” former Governor of Maryland Robert Ehrlich Jr. told the Baltimore Sun. “He’s really charismatic. He’s a really solid person. He’s a solid family guy.”

Michael Steele’s Catholic roots include attending Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C. and then, in 1981, entering the seminary to study for the Augustinian Friars at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

After completing the pre-novitiate period, Steele entered the novitiate for the Augustinians in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Six months later, he decided to pursue a career in law.

“Michael was a very bright, articulate man who I would say gave himself very sincerely to the whole process of discernment,” Fr. Francis J. Doyle, who was Steele’s novice master and spiritual director, told the Baltimore Sun.

Priests stage fashion show

The latest fashions among the clergy were on display in Devon as local priests swapped pulpits for the catwalk.

Clergy Catwalk Show at Westpoint, showing off the cloths form the cloth is – Reverend Wiz Slater, curate at St Michael’s CofE Stoke Gifford Photo: SWNS

The ecclesiastical event was a showcase of the latest designs of religious gowns in various colours, patterns, shapes and textures.

Several priests acted as ‘models’ to strut the cat walk in front of hundreds of clergy at the exhibition .

One model, The Rev James Hutchings, said: “I’ve done nothing like this before. It has certainly caused lots of laughs in the parish.

“My children thought it was hilarious. They probably won’t ask me back. My pirouette was terrible.”

Designers featured in the show including J Wippell Ltd, of Exeter, Juliet Hemingway and Shinglers of Sutton.

Ms Hemingway, who has designed vestments for George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, told the Express and Echo: “Women clergy have brought a fresh look to garments.

“They are not as willing to put up with dirty, worn-out robes. I think this has rubbed off on male clergy.”

Reverend Hilary Dawson, Church of England curate in the Netherexe Mission Community, near Exeter, modelled various designs. She told the newspaper she had bought four stoles from Juliet Hemingway.

“My stoles say something about my faith, the place in which I am serving and, most of all, point to the gospel of Christ,” she said. “My green stole, for example, reflects the water and hills of my new home and parishes.”

Vatican Insider Projects Speedy SSPX Resolution

January 28, 2009, Rome, Italy—In his first interview subsequent to the Society of St. Pius X’s (SSPX) official statement to the good news, Superior General Bishop Bernard Fellay said that he believed in the infallibility of the Church and that he was “confident” that the Society would “reach a true solution” in its doctrinal discussions with the Holy See.

In fact, Vatican sources have indicated that the full regularization may occur as early as February 2, 2009, the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady and Candlemas, which, if true, would be quite a Christmas present to the Church and especially traditionalist Catholics worldwide!…

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI smiles at a growling lion cub held by an acrobat of the Medrano Circus during the pontiff’s general audience, in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/L’Osservatore Romano, HO)

The winged lion is the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist. This symbol comes from St. Mark’s description of John the Baptist’s voice “crying out in the wilderness” upon hearing the Word of God (Mark 1:3). His voice is said to have sounded like that of a roaring lion. This lion symbolism also appears in a vision of the Prophet Ezekiel where four winged creatures represent the four evangelists (Ezekiel 1:10).

Fifty years on: time to revisit and reform the Second Vatican Catastrophe

Benedict XVI grows in stature as his reign progresses. To the momentous achievement of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, freeing the Tridentine Mass, he has now added the sagacious and just lifting of the excommunications imposed on the four bishops of the Society of St Pius X.

Although there was widespread scepticism about the validity of those censures, their lifting removes a roadblock to the restoration of the Church after the damage wrought by the Second Vatican Catastrophe. Not everyone is happy about the pardoning of the bishops. The staff of The Tablet are rumoured to be on suicide watch, while the malign spirit of those who, without any conscious irony, denominate themselves “liberals” was well illustrated by Gianni Gennari, an Italian journalist.

Gennari is a laicized priest, now married. Fighting back tears, he responded to news of the lifting of the excommunications: “It is a tragedy, the complete debacle of the Church!… I am disappointed, stunned, scandalised… In this case there is no place for the mercy of Christ”… Of course not. The Modernists have always excluded from any kind of mercy those faithful Catholics who adhere unreservedly to the Deposit of Faith. Anything that reduces the likes of Gennari to tears has to be good news.

Over the past few days, some blinkeredly optimistic souls have been trying – without much real hope – to persuade Catholics to “celebrate” the 50th anniversary of the announcement of the Second Vatican Council. This was the great “renewal”, when the Holy Ghost inspired the Church to aggiornamento, or modernisation. What form has that Renewal taken?

In England and Wales in 1964, at the end of the Council, there were 137,673 Catholic baptisms; in 2003 the figure was 56,180. In 1964 there were 45,592 Catholic marriages, in 2003 there were 11,013. Mass attendance has fallen by 40 per cent. In “Holy” Ireland, only 48 per cent of so-called Catholics go to Mass. In France, there were 35,000 priests in 1980; today there are fewer than 19,000. Renewal?

In the United States, in 1965, there were 1,575 priestly ordinations; in 2002 there were 450 – a 350 per cent decline. In 1965 there were 49,000 seminarians, in 2002 just 4,700. Today 15 per cent of US parishes are without priests. Only 25 per cent of America’s nominal Catholics attend Mass. Worse still is the erosion of faith among those who ludicrously describe themselves as Catholics. Among US Catholics aged 18-44 (the children of Vatican II) as many as 70 per cent say they believe the Eucharist is merely a “symbolic reminder” of Christ.

To describe this unprecedented collapse of the Church as “renewal” is insane; to attribute it to the operation of the Holy Ghost is blasphemous. The Catholic Church is in the same position as an alcoholic: until it admits to the problem, no cure is possible. The problem is Vatican II.

Pope Benedict himself has expressed reservations about at least one Council document. The only remotely celebratory response to the Council’s 50th anniversary would be to appoint a commission of orthodox theologians to scrutinise all of Vatican II’s documents and correct their errors. It is time to revisit and reform this council that has brought forth such poisonous fruits.

Fr. Zulhsdorf has an astute observation by a young priest. Visit WDTPRS? for his entire message with Fr. Z’s commentary.

…I realized this weekend that while I have been rediscovering the tradition, I have lost touch with the old Mass. Do not confuse this “old Mass” with the Traditional Latin Mass which for me is an ageless timeless discovery. The “old Mass” to which I refer is the Mass of my youth. It is the Mass of pianos and guitars, the Mass of loquacious commentators and “greet the people around you.” It is the Mass of audience participation and interior dullness. It is the Mass of primping cantresses and now-dated pop styled music about us. It is the Mass of candy jar ciboria and pewter chalices handled by an excessive number of extraneous ministers (who must process in and out of course).

It hit me after the first Mass Sunday morning that, as a child born in the 70’s, all of this has become terribly old and tired and compared to the timeless tradition of the Church and is just worn out…

In 1942, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the “Car-Pitts”.

Awesome! I was informed that angels have recently been seen at the Altar during the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.

“And he saith to him: Amen, amen I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” — John 1:51

What will the SSPX have to do?
“Vatican II is not a dogma of Faith,” Roman sources say

In her article on six questions related to the Decree which remitted the sanction of excommunication of the four bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), the Vatican correspondent for French newspaper La Croix (the Catholic-owned daily), Isabelle de Gaulmyn includes some well-known facts.

However, there is some new information in the text, which we present below.

1. Possible news conference by Cardinal Castrillón:

“This week, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, which is in charge of this reintegration, should explain it [the future possibilities] publicly to the press.”

2. Letter of Cardinal Bertone. Regarding the question on whether this “reintegration encompasses an acknowledgment of the teachings of Vatican II”, De Gaulmyn reveals that the decree was the object of a letter sent by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, to Curial authorities:

“This is the whole problem. The decree published on Saturday does not speak of Vatican II, but it evokes indirectly the ‘problem posed at the origin’. Not more than, according to our information, the letter sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the authorities of the Curia, in which he makes this gesture known.”

3. So, what about Vatican II? At least for the moment there does not seem to be any desire from those responsible for the discussions on the Vatican side to demand from the SSPX the express acceptance of one specific Council (the Second Vatican Council or, for instance, the First Lyon Council), since they may all be implictly included in more generic expressions. In the words of De Gaulmyn:

“The refusal of the teachings of the Council is the true cause of the rupture of the Integrists. For the constitution of the Institute of the Good Shepherd [IBP] by former members of the Fraternity, in 2006, its members explicitly vowed ‘to have a positive attitude of study and communication with the Apostolic See, avoiding all controversy, (…) regarding certain points taught by the Second Vatican Council or regarding subsequent reforms of the liturgy and of the law, and which seem to us hardly reconcilable with Tradition.’

“Nothing of the sort this time, according to our sources: ‘Vatican II is not a dogma of faith’, they say. From the moment in which the bishops and priests of the Fraternity recognize the Church, and the Magisterium of the Pope, that will suffice as an implicit acknowledgment.”

* News to some

“…Based in the faculty expressly granted to me by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, in virtue of the present Decree, I remit of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta the censure of latae sententiae excommunication declared by this Congregation on July 1, 1988, while I declare deprived of any juridical effect, from the present date, the Decree emanated at that time. Rome, from the Congregation for Bishops, January 21, 2009.”

Card. Giovanni Battista Re
Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops

Read entire Decree here at Rorate Caeli

– Padmé Amidala in “Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith”

Ceremony purges White House of evil spirits

by Jim L. Cunningham, DC Progressive Examiner

On Monday I witnessed, firsthand, the Saging of the White House. The White House is now free of any evil spirits that may have still been lingering from the Bush/Cheney Administration. And, I have to admit – I feel a little bit better myself.

On Monday, January 19th at 6:00 pm, hundreds gathered at Dupont Circle for this frivolous, yet remarkable, ceremony. A shaman was there to perform the ceremony. Rabbi Sharon Klein delivered the invocation. Together with organizer, Kate Clinton, they took on the gargantuan task of cleansing the White House of evil spirits.

“Our purpose here tonight is to celebrate the end of the Bush regime with the saging of the White House”, bellowed Kate Clinton, kicking off the event before a crowd of about 2000 people. Kate Clinton had explained on the Rachael Maddow show last week that the idea arose out of a trip Bush made to Machu Picchu two years ago. After Bush spent time dancing with the natives there, a shaman was called in to “sage” the area and, thereby, cleanse it of evil.

Our purpose here tonight is to celebrate the end of the Bush regime with the saging of the White House”

Saging is a process by which bundles of Sage herb are ignited and left to smolder. This creates a thick, pleasant-smelling, blue smoke which, according to Wiccan tradition, has a cleansing effect, thus removing the area of unwanted energy.

Clinton explained that security prevented them from infiltrating (my words, not hers) the White House to perform the ceremony on site. Therefore, it necessarily had to be performed from elsewhere and Dupont Circle was chosen because, according to Clinton, it’s the gay center of Washington DC.

Just before the ceremony Clinton fired up the crowd by introducing a mock chant like Catholics do during mass. She would chant/sing distasteful parts of the Bush legacy and the crowd would sing back, “Na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey. Goooobyyyye!”

“Signing statements!” she would shout, and the crowd would answer, “Na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey. Goooobyyyye!”

“Guantanamo Bay!” The crowd would answer, “Na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey. Goooobyyyye!”

“Anti-gay Constitutional Amendments!”

“Na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey. Goooobyyyye!”

“Intelligent Design!” (The crowd laughed.)

“Na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey. Goooobyyyye!”

This went on for about ten minutes before we got right down to the business at hand and the shaman took the stage and lit sage on stage which, when combined with that already smoldering in the crowd, made for the most aromatic political gathering I’ve ever attended. Approximately one in every twenty people held a bundle of smoldering sage which created a cool effect in the crowd, like a sea of lighters during a power ballad at a heavy metal concert – and the smoke rolled over the heads of all in attendance and filled our noses.

When that was nearly done, Clinton lit a heap of sweet grass to invite the positive spirits in and invited everyone in the crowd to introduce themselves to the strangers around them, hug, and make peace. Then we sang and danced. It was beautiful. And cleansing.

No one is certain whether the event occurred in close enough proximity to the White House to have any effect. But if the mindset and spirit of the crowd can have the effect of amplifying the cleansing effects of sage, I’m absolutely certain it was a success. The people in attendance couldn’t have been more into the moment. The crowd radiated so much positive energy, I’m not sure the sage was even necessary. We sent the Bush Administration packing, and the evil spirits along with them