The Blessed Sacrament: if we only knew the great treasure we have

A new book by my favorite bishop on the Eucharist emphasizes the need to be aware of the great mystery and treasure we have right in front of us, in the tabernacle.  If we only knew, then we would behave properly.


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Vatican City, Oct 8, 2013 / 04:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Athanasius Schneider has recently published his second book on Eucharistic devotion in the hopes that it will foster greater reverence for the sacrament amongst the faithful of his diocese.

“It is necessary to give a good catechism on what the Eucharist is because we have to be aware of it. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman 'if you knew the gift of God,'” the bishop said in a Sept. 27 interview with CNA.  [I believe this to be so.  I can see why people have lost the awe and reverence to the Eucharist because of our pastors dismal failure to catechize the laity after the "new Pentecost" promised by the Council. Not!]

Bishop Schneider, whose most recent book “Corpus Christi - Holy Communion and the Renewal of the Church” was published earlier this year, is the auxiliary bishop of Kazakhstan in Central Asia – a country whose religious population is roughly seventy percent Muslim, and thirty percent Christian.

During the interview, the bishop expressed the great need to be more reverent in the way that the Eucharist is treated, explaining that the aim of both of his books is to increase respect of the Sacrament, especially amongst the faithful in his diocese.

Bishop Schneider distributing Holy Communion...the BEST WAY! (Photo courtesy of Orbis Catholicus Secundus)

“If people only knew the greatness of the Eucharist. We have to stress its greatness in  homilies and in catechism,” he said.  [if priests only knew the great work they do...]

“When I recognize all the richness and deepness and divinity of the Eucharist of the Lamb of God, before whom the angels prostrate themselves in heaven – as we read in the Apocalypse – then I also have this spontaneous, natural desire to prostrate myself when I receive Him.”  [FTW!!!!  But with that we instead do this...click here.]

The bishop voiced his perspective that the Eucharist ought to be received in the mouth only, explaining that the tradition of receiving the Host in one’s hand “never existed in the Church,” and was “was invented by Calvinists in the seventeenth century,” but was not present in the first centuries.  [Communion in the hand is an invention as a statement of disbelief and therefore of disrespect!]

“There was communion received in the hand but in a totally different manner and I explain this in my second book (Corpus Christi).”

Referencing the lack of true devotion present in the attitudes of many in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, Bishop Schneider urged that “only when we try to cure this wound of the Eucharist, only then we will have a real and stable renewal of the Church. A springtime.”


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The "super-dogma" Sacrosanctum Concilium called the Eucharist the "summit and source of christian life".

If that is so, then why we still have liturgical nonsense happening every Sunday and every Fiesta?

Why we still have the circus every Sunday live on TV?

I think we should all watch this.



Take note.

At the 13:56 mark, the great bishop called them "infidels".

So much for ecumenical mushy kumbaya politically correct language, no?

Ha!

And so since we are aware of the Sense of the Sacred, we have this at our Sunday Mass, regularly.

Hit it Fr. Mario!






Check out the batallion of EMHCs.

And the regular Sunday Tambourine Dancers.

Classy!

WE HAVE LOST RESPECT FOR THE HOLY OF HOLIES!

Archbishop Georg Gänswein

Just in case you missed it.

For posterity's sake...

The "teacher" ordaining his "student".  Next to be ordained hopefully, is the guy at the back.  Msgr. Marini. And yeah, the seminarian too!  :)

Very nice shot!

I sure hope he becomes a cardinal soon.

Did you know that he was a former SSPX seminarian?

Liberal West is worried of my favorite cardinal

Why, oh why?...

Just because he wears traditional vestments?

Ha!


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VATICAN CITY (RNS) When some American Catholics worry that the hierarchy is tilting toward the Republican Party, or taking the church back to the 19th century (or earlier), they often point to Cardinal Raymond Burke as Exhibit A.  [Anyone who is not the conventional or in this case, someone who would trifle their "right to be a brat" whining, expect the liberal Democrats to look someone from the Catholic Church....the conservatives that is.  Forget, Cardinal Roger Mahony.  He is a Democrat.  Ha!]

That's understandable, because love him or loathe him -- and few are on the fence -- Burke's many pronouncements on politics and the culture wars have given both fans and critics plenty of ammunition for their respective views.

Back when he was archbishop of St. Louis in 2004, for instance, Burke touched off a fierce debate by declaring that Catholic politicians such as John Kerry who support abortion rights should be denied Communion. Voters who supported them were in grave peril too, he added.  [Burke knows what he is talking about!  He is a canon lawyer!]

Burke doubled down on those views after Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to a top Vatican job in 2008, saying that under President Obama the Democratic party "risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death'." [Isn't it?] In 2009, Burke fueled another controversy when he said that the late Sen. Edward Kennedy should have been denied a church funeral for his support of abortion rights and gay rights.  [RIGHT!]

"They can't say anything about me that would surprise me," Burke said with a soft laugh when asked in a recent interview about the passionate reactions sparked by his public stands.

"To be honest with you, I'm the sort of person who would be very happy not to have to speak out. I'm not a person who by nature likes to do that. But I believe it's my obligation," [Do most of our priests and bishops know what those words mean?  Or being politically correct or ecumenical to the point of being relative is more important nowadays, huh?] said Burke, who is always affable and remains accessible to the media. "It's a responsibility that's been given to me. I try to do it, though certainly not perfectly."

The 63-year-old prelate -- in his workaday attire of black cassock with red piping and a scarlet sash with matching skullcap -- was speaking in his gilded offices on the upper floors of the 16th century Palazzo della Cancelleria, one of the most famous Renaissance palaces in Rome that now houses the Catholic Church's highest court.

The Apostolic Signatura handles canon law cases from around the world, from marriage annulments to parish closings; since 2008 Burke has effectively served as the chief justice of the church's supreme court. It's a platform that he has used to great effect -- and to the consternation of his critics.

Indeed, when Burke was called to Rome after just four tumultuous years in St. Louis, many suggested that he was getting "kicked upstairs" in order to get him out of the U.S. spotlight. A case of "promuovere per rimuovere," as the Italians say -- to remove through promotion.  [How I wish this happens to one guy!  And he ends up in an obscure Vatican dicastery where he cannot be seen on Tv anymore.  Try guessing.  Ha!]

But if that was the plan, it hasn't worked out so well.

In his four years in Rome, Burke has continued to speak his mind -- he is a favorite on the conservative Catholic speaking circuit in the U.S. -- while also becoming a player in Vatican politics in ways that extend his influence well beyond the occasional rhetorical broadside.

Benedict elevated Burke to cardinal in 2010, giving him a vote in a conclave that would elect the pontiff's successor, [no mention that he can become pope too?  Hmm...] and put him on the Congregation for Bishops, the Vatican body that vets candidates for bishops in the U.S. and around the world. [One name slipped his watch, though.  Ugh!] That gives Burke a key role in shaping the hierarchy for years to come, which he seems to be doing.

Vatican observers saw Burke's hand in the 2011 promotion of Archbishop Charles Chaput, whose conservatism closely tracks Burke's, from Denver to Philadelphia. And they say Burke was key in Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone's recent move to San Francisco.  [Can we all say "Deo gratias!"?]

Blogger Rocco Palmo dubbed Cordileone's promotion the "Bombshell by the Bay" -- Cordileone is an outspoken conservative and leading supporter of California's Prop 8 banning gay marriage, and will now be archbishop of the nation's gay mecca. But he's also a longtime friend of Burke.

No wonder longtime Vaticanista Marco Tosatti anointed Burke as "the'great puppeteer' of American appointees" to the U.S. hierarchy.  [If that is the kind of puppeteer, then heck I will be a puppet!  Strap me up! Ha!]

Burke was also believed to be one of the instigators of the controversial Vatican crackdown on a major group of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, who Rome viewed as straying too far from orthodoxy and spending too much time on social justice issues.

In the interview, the cardinal acknowledged that he was consulted about the LCWR takeover, but he argued that it was "logical" to seek his input given his long experience in the U.S. church. He also reiterated his view that the Vatican had every right to undertake the investigation, even as he stressed that he was not involved in carrying out the actual overhaul.

Burke said his opinion "is certainly heard" on a range of matters at the highest level of the Vatican, even if his views are not always followed. "I don't have any pretenses about being some powerful figure, no," he added. "But it is heard, and respectfully."

The cardinal also said that many American bishops naturally turn to him as "a friendly contact" in Rome who can advise them "on matters large and small," and that he tries to convey those views to his colleagues in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Yet whatever his success since coming to Rome, Burke's rise hasn't been without its stumbles.

Another of his U.S. proteges, Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri, was found guilty in September of covering up for a priest suspected of child abuse -- the first bishop ever convicted in the long history of the clergy abuse scandal. When asked to comment about Finn at a September meeting with journalists, Burke demurred. "It wouldn't be proper," he said.

Burke is also a leading advocate of a restoration of the church's older rites and traditions, like the Latin Mass, which he argues were heedlessly cast aside in the liberal "euphoria" after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.  [Liberal euphoria, love the term!  Like Hippie Revolution!  No wonder we had "Jesus Christ: Superstar". Aquarius!!!!]

But Burke has been celebrating so many old-style liturgies and donning the most ornate regalia -- long trains of watered silk, velvet gloves and elaborate brocades -- that several Vatican officials said he had been asked to "tone it down a bit."  [Did they ask Archbishop Piero Marini to tone down his theatrical Masses during JP2's time?  Nah.  But when it is something traditional, expect the inculturated maniacs to throw a hissy fit.]

Whether he will is another matter.

"The vestments, everything, are part of a tradition," Burke says in his defense. "We need to understand that and not just discard it and say, well, it was all just an ugly accretion."  [If anything old must be discarded......then away with those nutty old inculturated liturgists!!  Ha!  Cybercrime this dude!]

Burke also got into hot water in 2009 when he taped an interview for anti-abortion activist Randall Terry in which he chided his fellow bishops for not taking a harder line in denying Communion to pro-choice politicians or those who support gay marriage. Those bishops, he said, are "weakening the faith of everyone."  [Saying like it is!  Really love this cardinal!  My predictions of him being a cardinal under Pope Benedict XVI were right, y'all!]

Burke later apologized, but he has continued to press fellow bishops to speak out as strongly as he does. "If the shepherd isn't obedient, the flock easily gives way to confusion and error," he said during a 2010 speech to an anti-abortion group.

For Burke, the risks are too high to remain on the sidelines. Obama's presidency and the advancement of issues like gay marriage and abortion rights have made it imperative for Catholic bishops to speak up, he says, though he realizes that the president is ahead in the polls and could well win. "I don't know what would happen if that would be the case," he said, shaking his head.

But he said he has been encouraged that a growing number of bishops appear to be joining the campaign for religious freedom that has targeted White House policies on contraception coverage, because he believes that Christians in the U.S. could well face direct governmental persecution for their beliefs.

"These are definitive moments and the stakes are as high as you can get," Burke says. "That really pleases me, that more bishops are speaking out on their own."

In the end, that kind of activism by the bishops he helps appoint may be Raymond Burke's true legacy.

***

Well, the critics of Cardinal Burke would certainly be against his fashion style....

Blessing people like this...

Modeling a hat like this....

Dressing up for Mass like this....

Creating new deacons and priests like this....

Hanging with such friends such as these...

and this... (gotta put them in, ha!)

And thinking like...(How deep a scar would this leave on a Mr. Constitutionalist's coconut?)

Ha!  That was me talking.

They would protest if he does his job as a Catholic bishop.  If he speaks only what the Church teaches, the liberals and Modernists would react.

BUT!

They would not react if they see...

The Precious Blood placed in a wine goblet and pitcher to look like Kool-Aid from our favorite GULP Liturgical Abuser, who thankfully is not archbishop of Los Angeles anymore, Roger Cardinal Mahony...

They would not react if the bishop is dressed up for and offers Mass like this...

or hangs out with guys like these...

Yes the dang Masons were acting like they were co-consecrating.

and happily called to the altar.....with a female EMHC masking as a priestess...Ha!


DO WE HEAR ANYONE OF THOSE LIBERALS REACTING?

Nah....

Silence means "Yes"

The new archbishop of San Francisco in the Philippines

back in 2009 for the Feast of our Lady of Peñafrancia.

Cardinal subito!

Breaking News: A TLM friendly archbishop of San Francisco!!!

(Vatican Radio) BREAKING NEWS: Pope Benedict XVI has nominated Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, until now Bishop of Oakland, as the new Archbishop of San Francisco. Archbishop Cordileone succeeds Archbishop George Niederauer, whose resignation upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

New Venerable Servants of God!

Two great bishops are moving closer to their elevation to the honors of the Altar!

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Vatican City, (VIS) - Today, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:....

- Servant of God Fulton Sheen, American archbishop, and former bishop of Rochester (1895-1979).

- Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, Spanish prelate of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1914-1994).


Read more about this great news here.

Liturgical Abuse leads to loss of Faith

From the Catholic Herald

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A weakening of faith in God, a rise in selfishness and a drop in the number of people going to Mass can be traced to liturgical abuse or Masses that are not reverent, two Vatican cardinals and a consultant have said.

US Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s supreme court, said: “If we err by thinking we are the centre of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith.” [And who is the usual culprit for liturgical abuse, for making the Mass like a variety show?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Priests who think the Mass is an occasion for them to be the center of attention.]

Cardinal Burke and Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, spoke yesterday at a book launch in Rome.

The book, published only in Italian, was written by Fr Nicola Bux, who serves as a consultant to the congregations for the doctrine of the faith and for saints’ causes and to the office in charge of papal liturgies.

The English translation of Fr Bux’s book title would be, How to Go to Mass and Not Lose Your Faith.

Cardinal Burke told those gathered for the book presentation that he agreed with Fr Bux that “liturgical abuses lead to serious damage to the faith of Catholics”.

Unfortunately, he said, too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant when, in fact, they are “serious abuses”.  [The question remains the same:  "What will Church do to discipline liturgical abusers, and I am not just talking about clerics, but religious "nuns who have their own Magisterium" and even lay people.  Heck, I even see photos of altar servers on Facebook donning the chasuble and stole and posing with their hands raised in blessing as if it is only child's play!  One even commented that he is just "modeling" the vestments?  Who the hell is he fooling?  The vestments are reserved for the ordained!  They are not mere garbs you can don to a costume party!  What do we do with these abusers?  Have you known a liturgical abuser, especially those you see on national TV like Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite, Fr. Archie Guiriba, who you doubt if he is still a priest or still a Catholic, an Fr. Anton Pascual, to name a few, getting disciplined or sanctioned for their continuous violation of liturgical laws?  NADA!]

Cardinal Cañizares said that while the book’s title is provocative, it demonstrates a belief he shares. “Participating in the Eucharist can make us weaken or lose our faith if we do not enter into it properly,” and if the liturgy is not celebrated according to the Church’s norms, he said.  [And liturgists in Manila doubt why people go to Mass wearing clothing as if they are going to a party.  And we doubt why people enter the church before Mass as if they are going to a social gathering?  Because people have been taught to treat the Mass this way, by the very priests whom they look up to, by the priest's example, encouraging people to clap as if they are in an Evangelical revivalist gathering, asking people to greet one another before they start the Mass as if they came for a Woodstock concert!]

“This is true whether one is speaking of the Ordinary or Extraordinary form of the one Roman rite,” the cardinal said. [Oh yes, there are abuses.  Anyone will always find a way to twist the norm.  Is there one country in this planet that does not have any violator of even the simplest law or regulation?  There will always be violations.  I have heard stories of how some priests in the past, obviously celebrating the EF Mass, offer it in lighting speed, not even mouthing the prayers, and obviously reading the prayers with just their eyes.  But obviously, there are more liturgical abuses in the OF Mass than the EF.  And that is the truth!]

Cardinal Cañizares said that at a time when so many people are living as if God did not exist, they need a true Eucharistic celebration to remind them that only God is to be adored and that true meaning in human life comes only from the fact that Jesus gave his life to save the world.  [Now it is the Reverend Showman who wants to be adored, clapped and praised for making the Mass more entertaining and more relevant.   Relevant?  Being at Calvary once again is not relevant?  Geez.]

Fr Bux said that too many modern Catholics think the Mass is something that the priest and the congregation do together when, in fact, it is something that Jesus does.  [Have you ever heard priests and nuns and some lay leaders say that it is the people who are gathered that makes the Mass?  I tell you folks, you do not need to go to an investigation to know that that is plain stupid and even downright heretical!  One priest, alone, can confect the Mass.  Get it!]

“If you go to a Mass in one place and then go to Mass in another, you will not find the same Mass. This means that it is not the Mass of the Catholic Church, which people have a right to, but it is just the Mass of this parish or that priest,” he said. [That is why Mass was said in one universal language before, Latin!  Now it is even hard for me to attend Mass if I am in a different place.  I can understand other dialects but Ilocano is hard for me.  And I had been to too many Ilocano speaking places and I cannot even find one Sunday Mass where it is celebrated in either Filipino or English!  You know what I understand?  Amen.]

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After all has been written...

So, what then is Liturgy?

Ha!

Even if we have a so called "great liturgist" living among us, it makes you wonder why liturgical abuse even flourished, why you even hear and read the works of his students encouraging to go against the Pope and his liturgical reform and why he is not even censured?

Why a sitting cardinal archbishop would foolishly sign a document openly challenging the Pope's Motu Propio?

We need a liturgical disciplining center.

I think I'll name it Azkaban.

Nice name, eh?

One of my fave cardinals takes possession of his titular parish

From Rome Reports:

More about Bishop Schneider and the Syllabus of Errors

I guess the entire blogosphere has been abuzz with the talk delivered by famed Dominius Est author, Bishop Athanasius Schneider about the needed Syllabus of wrongful interpretation of Vatican II.

Now Matt Abott of Renew America posted a follow up interview of the great bishop.

The bishop was gracious enough to answer his call.

You can read more about the interview by clicking here.

I will lift very great quotes from the talk of the Bishop later...

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PS:  I am blogging on the road.  Slooowwww....

A nice video for theologians of St. Vincent, MST, etc.

And this is what Michael Voris referred to as the speech of Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Remember that he was the bishop who wrote the beautiful book, Dominus Est, which basically trumped any illogical and antiquarian reasoning to justify the sacrilegious Communion in the Hand [shudder].  I have a copy of that book thanks to my dear friend and brother Knight, Jay Balza of Veritatem Facientes in Caritate who gave it as a gift, the last time we saw each other.

Bishop Schneider says:

There is the need for a new Syllabus, this time directed not so much against the errors coming from outside of the Church, but against the errors circulated within the Church by supporters of the thesis of discontinuity and rupture, with its doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral application.


Such a Syllabus should consist of two parts: the part that points out the errors, and the positive part with proposals for clarification, completion, and doctrinal clarification.

To read the entire speech of the great bishop, click here.

There is a Pinoy liturgical expert somewhere in the mountains who will surely be grumpy when this Syllabus ever comes out!

And I am sure that most theologians in a school somewhere in Katipunan, in Aurora Boulevard and Tandang Sora and in Zamboanga City would be ranting like hell about this.  Why?  These thelogians are so proud of themselves, they act as if they are the popes of their own church!  Omniscient and arrogant dissenters!

Bishop Schneider is an inspiration of this blog and the GULP!

Some Pinoy bishops would not want you to hear this...

include here also Pinoy liturgists, theologians and some Jesuits, but most of the Jesuits I think...I think...

Vincentians and CICM too?

Cardinal Ranjith receives his cardinatial galero

That is one BIIIG galero!

Thanks to my good friend and fellow Catholic blogger Jay Balza of Veritatem Facientes in Caritate for the tip.

My favorite Cardinals who just got their red birettas

Need I name them and write why?

Duh!

P.S.:  Told yah no Filipinos will be named this year.

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani

Born: October 29, 1890
Died: August 3, 1979

Read what he has to say back then, during the Second Vatican Council.

Click here to read it in the EWTN archives.

Pope calls ALL CATHOLICS for Pro-life vigil

Thanks to Mam Marilou for the heads up!

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VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 30, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is calling on all Catholics to join in a Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, to be celebrated in local parishes and dioceses Nov. 27. [No word yet from the CBCP if the Catholic Parishes in the Philippines would join!  So far the Archdiocese of Lipa is the only one to organize a vigil.]

The Pope will celebrate the vigil in St. Peter's Basilica on the eve of the First Sunday of Advent, and is requesting "all diocesan bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements," a communiqué from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reported.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Pontifical Council for the Family collaborated in creating an outline for the vigil, and the U.S. bishops' conference is developing resources for the parishes.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas, chairman of the episcopal conference's pro-life committee, highlighted the "unprecedented" nature of this request from the Pontiff. [True indeed!  The Pope is feeling the wrath of the devil against life!  And the "rights" advocates are against this!  They call it "pro-birth".  Well, you may call them "pro-sex without responsibility"!]

In a statement written for Respect Life Month, which begins Friday, the prelate said, "I heartily encourage all Catholics, whether at home or traveling over the Thanksgiving holidays, to take part in this special prayer." (In the United States this year, the First Sunday of Advent is the Sunday after Thanksgiving.)

He noted that the purpose "according to the Holy See is to 'thank the Lord for his total self-giving to the world and for his Incarnation which gave every human life its real worth and dignity,' and to 'invoke the Lord's protection over every human being called into existence.'"[All stages of life!  From natural birth to natural death...and everything in between!  Sometimes, I can't help but remember how those who bark mad against the pro-life movement are the ones who are guilty of mistreating other people:  verbally abusive, unfair wages...you know, typical capitalist mentality.  "Don't care what happens to my workers or their families.  As long as I earn money!...  Ooops, TMI.]

The statement also provided a reflection on the theme of this Respect Life Month, which is: "The Measure of Love Is to Love Without Measure."

"With over 1 million innocent children dying from abortion each year, the plague of abortion remains embedded in our culture," Cardinal DiNardo stated. [Anybody care to talk about this from the Rabid Harlots?]


He observed that "in many areas of public policy, the rift continues to widen between the moral principles expressed by a majority of Americans and the actions of government."

The prelate explained: "For example, Americans oppose public funding of abortion by wide margins, with 67% opposing federal funding of abortion in health care in one recent poll."  [I am not much into the numbers game...but...]

"In early 2009, Catholics and others sent over 33 million postcards, and countless e-mails and letters to members of Congress, urging them to 'retain laws against federal funding and promotion of abortion.'

"Yet in March of this year, Congress passed a health care reform law that allows for federal funding of abortion in some programs and could pressure millions of Americans to help subsidize other people's abortions through their health care premiums."

"Defenseless human life is also placed at risk today in the name of science, when researchers seek to destroy human life at its embryonic stage for stem cell research -- and demand the use of all Americans' tax dollars to support this agenda," the cardinal stated.  [When adult stem cell research yielded more promising results than embryonic stem cell research!  Why are they so hungry to murder those embryos, or let's put it bluntly "HUMAN LIFE IN ITS EARLIEST STAGES"!]

He noted that "in a recent poll commissioned by the Catholic bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, 57% of respondents favored funding only stem cell research avenues that do not harm the donor, using stem cells from cord blood, placentas, and other 'adult' tissues."

"Only 21% favor funding all stem cell research, including research that requires killing embryonic human beings," the prelate added.

"Yet the current administration issued guidelines last year to fund human embryonic stem cell research, and some in Congress are preparing legislation to ensure continued funding despite a federal court's finding that these guidelines may violate the law," he warned.

Cardinal DiNardo affirmed, "Becoming a voice for the child in the womb, and for the embryonic human being at risk of becoming a mere object of research, and for the neglected sick and elderly is one of many ways we can teach our fellow citizens that 'The Measure of Love is to Love Without Measure.'"

***

Ironic and funny how the POTUS descended from black slave immigrants...victims of oppression and discrimination, defenseless and voiceless, is not fighting to KILL and MURDER the defenseless and voiceless.

And it is only a matter of time before it comes to our shores.

Educate your families about contraception and abortion.  Learn the truth!

Nobody benefits from these measures except the pharmaceutical companies...the politicians who inked a deal with the devil...and perverts who want to have sex without responsibilities!

Anybody care to call this choice and human rights?  That is some LIBERTY you have there!

Congratulate Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke

After the Holy Father declared that he will elevate Archbishop Burke to the cardinalate.

Visit Congratulate Burke.com to send your greetings to one of my favorite Catholic prelates along with Archbishop Ranjith of Colombo.

Pope to be?

I think this applies to Pinoy bishops as well

Imagine, Archbishop Burke and Archbishop Wuerl will be at the consistory that would create them as cardinals.

Burke is against giving Communion to pro-abort Catholic politicians while Wuerl states this: "Our primary job is to teach and try to convince people. The tradition in our country has not been in the direction of refusing Communion, and I think it's served us well."

You think he really deserves to wear the crimson vestments that symbolize his willingness to die for the Faith?

For PR maybe...

Cardinal Van Thuan beatification process

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are not entitled to position!

From EWTN News.com

***

The rights of girls and Catholic lay faithful to carry out certain roles on the altar are not prescribed as "rights" within the Church, according to the Church's top legal authority, Archbishop Raymond Burke. The statement came in a clarification he wrote about the consequences of the reintroduction of the Latin Rite Mass by Pope Benedict.

The Catholic Church of Germany recently printed a commentary on the application of Benedict XVI's 2007 motu proprio, "Summorum Pontificum," which made Pope St. Pius V's Latin Rite Mass more widely available. In the preface of the volume, printed for the third anniversary of the motu proprio, Archbishop Raymond Burke clarified some confusion about the legislation's practical use.

Archbishop Burke is the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, which is often described as the supreme court of the Catholic Church.

According to Vatican Radio, the archbishop explained in the preface that due to the motu proprio's papal origins, it is not just an act of legislation brought about as a "favor" to a specific group for the celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Mass in Latin, but one that applies to the entire Church. [Does someone from the Office of the Archbishop of Manila or of the CBCP Commission on the Liturgy hearing this?  I think they do.  It's hard to for people playing dumb and mute to hear and speak, eh?]

Archbishop Burke wrote, "it is about a law whose finality is the protection and promotion of the life of all the mystical body of Christ and the maximum expression of this life, that is to say, the Sacred Liturgy." [Excellently put!  See how the cardinal-to-be plays it out with the promotion of life and the Sacred Liturgy?  In the US, sometimes those who are of the kumbaya church are the ones who are so pro-altar girls, pro-liturgical inculturation, pro-women's ordination, pro-married clergy, pro-contraceptive, pro-abortion...]

It implies an obligation of the Church "to preserve liturgical tradition and maintain the legitimate celebration of both forms of the Roman Rite, that preceding the Second Vatican Council and that which followed it," he said. [Both forms are valid!  Get it?]

Archbishop Burke pointed out that the Holy Father himself explained that for the communion of the Church in the past and the future, "universally accepted uses of uninterrupted apostolic tradition" must be observed.

This, he he pointed out should be done "not only to avoid errors, but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, so that the law of the prayer of the Church might correspond to her law of faith." [Lex orandi, lex credendi.  You see the how some people express their faith with how they pray.  I am not implying anything.  Just an advice on how to do a "quick diagnosis".]

The American archbishop went on to point out that certain elements may need to be clarified in this regard. For example, he wrote, among the "rights" of the baptized, assistance by "persons of the feminine sex" at the altar is not included. [This has already been clarified yet the abuse continues!  And Communion in the Hand is one such thing!  Sign the petition to Stop it!] Additionally, serving as a lector or as an extraordinary distribution of communion is not a right of the laity, he noted. [The laity does not have the right!  No one does except the ordained!  That is the purpose of clerical ordination.  Liturgists often confuse this in the name of active participation which obviously the Council Fathers of Vatican II had something very different in mind!]

As such, out of respect for the integrity of the liturgical discipline within the Roman Missal of 1962, these more modern modifications are not observed in the extraordinary form. [I remember an event where a priest threw a nutty after people refuse to receive Holy Communion in the hand (ugh!) during a TLM (ugh! ugh! ugh!).  I mean...come on!]

This clarification comes just a week after L'Osservatore Romano writer Lucetta Scaraffia published an article on the altar server pilgrimage to the Vatican which drew thousands of boys and girls alike. She drew some attention as she proposed that the introduction of girls into the position of serving at the altar "meant the end of every attribution of impurity to their sex ... it meant a different attention to the liturgy and an approach to the faith in bringing it near to their very hearts." [See how feminists see a shimmer of light and they call it a supernova.  Ugh!]

Archbishop Burke clarified, however, that the reality of the matter is that neither the presence of girls at the altar, nor the participation of lay faithful "belong to the fundamental rights of the baptized." [Amen to that!]


***

You might wonder what are the rights of the baptized?  Let us quote the Catholic Encyclopedia:

This sacrament is the door of the Church of Christ [Hey Mormons and Manalo followers!  It's not you we are talking about!  So stop hijacking our Mother Church's name!] and the entrance into a new life. We are reborn from the state of slaves of sin into the freedom of the Sons of God. Baptism incorporates us with Christ's mystical body and makes us partakers of all the privileges flowing from the redemptive act of the Church's Divine Founder. We shall now outline the principal effects of baptism. [I summarized them into bullet points.]

1. 
   

   The remission of all sin, original and actual

2. 
   

   Remission of temporal punishment

3. 
   

   Infusion of supernatural grace, gifts, and virtues

4. 
   

   Conferral of the right to special graces

5. 
   

   Impression of a character on the soul

 See that?  Nothing in there says: "After you get baptized, you can be the priest's alter ego at the altar or you can play "I-am-almost-a-priest" game."

Oops!  Before I go any further, I am sure the creative liturgists who soooo love active participation would quote this:

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:


1273 Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character that consecrates them for Christian religious worship.⁸³ The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity.⁸⁴

And how about that active participation thing that they always trumpet?  Let us then consult Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II, the Bible of liturgical creativities and inculturation:

28. In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy. [Minister or layman...Hmmm.  Isn't that obvious?  If you are not a layman, then you are a minister and vice versa!  Don't have to be a rocket scientist there, eh?  So that means, each has his own duty to perform according to the nature of his office!  So does that mean that laymen can be minsters at Mass, or did Vatican II encourage it?  Let us continue.]

30. To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.  [Sooooo!!!! Active participation of the people (meaning the laity) is limited to " means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes".  Nothing there says about altar girls, a battalion of EMHCs...  See how we were duped.  You always get the answer of "Vatican 2 says it so!"  Oh really?  Where?]

Soon...he will be holding a red tuft-less biretta!

Docu on Archbishop Sheen goes to the silver screen