| You're 60% Irish |
 You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!) |
I think this day should be marked in history? Is this a turning point for Australian Catholicism? Have Dominicanus and Indolent Server (by association of course) become “mainstream” overnight?
SYDNEY, Australia, AUG. 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- World Youth Day 2008 has announced the appointment of Father Peter Williams as the director of liturgy for the youth event in Sydney.What was the WYD team thinking??!! All reports to me about this guy have not been positive. (Take for example the state of the Parramatta Cathedral at the moment). Maybe a couple of our Sydney correspondants can comment here.
As director of liturgy, Father Williams is a key member of the organizational team with a central role in the planning and conduct of the welcome Mass, Papal arrival, the evening vigil and the closing Mass.
Currently the dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Parramatta, Sydney, Father Williams has been the executive secretary of the National Liturgical Commission since 2000, and is also the director of liturgy in the Diocese of Parramatta.
Coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher welcomed Father Williams saying that "the director of liturgy is a most important role.
"The eyes of the world will be watching during World Youth Day and I am very confident that the liturgies developed under Father Williams' guidance will be remembered for many years beyond 2008."
The theme of WYD 2008 is "You Shall Receive Power When the Holy Spirit Has Come Upon You; and You Shall Be My Witnesses" (Acts 1:8).
A Vietnamese bishop has told a gathering of 60,000 young people that they have the right to join the Communist Party provided their faith is not threatened. More...
A little kissing is allowed at fundraising dances for Sydney altar servers, says "DJ Father Dan", a Sydney seminarian who is preparing for his ordination as a deacon this weekend.Hmmm. They didn't state otherwise but in the present climate I'll have to assume it's altar servers of both sexes at the dances! Anyway, I hope they are all getting up for morning Mass and don't have to get to the confession box first!
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Mr Penollar preaches disco without the fever, where courtship is strictly controlled.
"As a minimum, hands have to be above the hips - hands aren't allowed to wander. If they do, chaperones will tap them on the shoulder. And if they're kissing for too long, a chaperone will tap them on the shoulder," he said. "You have a real risk of passions rising after the dance and we don't want that to happen."
But the Herald report says that Mr Penollar has relaxed since the early days.
"There was a no-kissing rule at the dance and I would tell the guards they are not doing their jobs if they allowed it to go on, but the parents persuaded me to allow a little bit," he said.
Lady Bracknell: Are your parents living?
Jack (né Ernest) Worthing: I have lost both my parents.
Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
Louis IX was born in 1215 and became King of France at the age of 12. Feeling that he had no nobler title than Christian, he liked to call himself Louis of Poissy, the place where he was baptized. He heard two Masses every day and rose at midnight for Matins and began the day with Prime. In his chapel he originated two pious practices afterwards adopted by the Church – the genuflections at the words Et homo factus est. in the Credo, and at the mention of Christ’s death in the reading of the Passion. He undertook two crusades for the Holy Land dying on the second in 1270 saying “We shall go to Jerusalem”. Collect: O God, who didst remove blessed Louis, Thy confessor, from and earthly throne to the glory of Thy heavenly kingdom; grant, we beseech Thee, through his merits and prayers, that we may be permitted to share in the kingdom of Christ, Thy Son, the King of kings.
Postcommunion: O God, who didst give Thy blessed confessor Louis renown on earth and glory in heaven; do Thou, we beseech Thee, appoint him a defender of Thy Church.
I'm not aware of a single position from any politician to whom this tag is applied advocated on the basis of scripture or an appeal to religious authority. Every position has been argued on the basis of human values, not religious teaching. Yet it is now rare for stories about particular politicians on particular topics not to be embellished with gratuitous adjectives such as "devout Catholic".
A senior journalist from a leading paper today called my office wanting to know whether I had discussed stem cells recently with Pell. As if it were anyone's business; as if such a discussion would somehow discredit any position I might hold; and as if any journalist would dare cast aspersions on conversations between a non-Christian politician and a leader of their faith. The journalist was told that from time to time I did indeed have discussions with the Cardinal; they were always instructive and I wished they were more frequent. Two generations after it was thought sectarianism had finally vanished from public life, this is doubtless evidence that I am the Vatican mole in the Howard Government.
It's worth noting that when Bruce Baird, Steven Fielding and Barnaby Joyce invoked their Christian consciences to oppose the Government's immigration bill, there were no calls to keep religion out of politics. Media outrage is confined to expressions of the church's moral teaching, not its social gospel in what is, at the very least, a chronically politically correct double standard.
Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of the mother of our Blessed Lord and Saviour during the war by consecrating it to the Immaculate Heart. In 1944 he decreed that we should celebrate this feast on the octave day of the Assumption.
Breaking news from the SMH website:The fourth Test was abandoned today and awarded to England after Pakistan forfeited the match when they stayed in their dressing room following a row over ball-tampering, a joint statement said.Update: A summary in lawman's terms and the BBC's report.
Pakistan refused to return to the field after tea on day four at The Oval after Darrell Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove had earlier imposed a five-run penalty against them for ball-tampering and changed the ball.
When Pakistan did later take to the field, the umpires did not appear, leading to extensive negotiations that ended with the abandonment several hours later.
England wins the four-Test series 3-0.
Continue reading...
Many mainstream Protestant churches are, to one degree or another, post-Christian. If they no longer seem disposed to converting the unbelieving to Christ, they can at least convert them to the boggiest of soft-left political cliches. In this world, if Jesus were alive today he’d most likely be a gay Anglican vicar in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally-friendly car with an “Arms Are For Hugging” sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams.Yet, if the purpose of the modern church is to be a cutting-edge political pacesetter, it’s Islam that’s doing the better job. It’s easy to look at gold-toothed Punjabi yobs in northern England or Algerian pseudo-rappers in French suburbs and think, oh well, their Muslim identity is clearly pretty residual. But that’s to apply westernized notions of piety. Today the mosque is a meetinghouse, and throughout the west what it meets to discuss is, even when not explicitly jihadist, always political. The mosque or madrassah is not the place to go for spiritual contemplation so much as political motivation. The Muslim identity of those French rioters or English jailbirds may seem spiritually vestigial but it’s politically potent. So, even as a political project, the mainstream Protestant churches are a bust. Pre-modern Islam beats post-modern Christianity.
There was another, broader question asked regarding the four main issues examined in the survey: "Would any of the following have the potential to shift your vote at the next federal election?"On the level of funding that different parties or candidates commit to pregnancy support services, 27 per cent said yes. On the stances parties take to the so-called abortion pill RU486 and whether it should be legalised, 35 per cent said yes. On the stance of parties or candidates on embryonic stem cell research, 41 per cent said yes. On the matter of "legalisation of cloning of human embryos for research", 48 per cent said yes....
If you look at the names of many of the supports of loossening the legislation they spring to mind as MPs already committed to retire at the next election or members that have little hope of retaining their seat in the Senate anyway. Boy that makes me mad!
XIWANZI, China, AUG. 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A bishop, a priest and some 90 Catholic faithful of the underground Church have been arrested in China, says a U.S.-based watchdog group.Our Catholic Parliamentarians also get a gig in today's CNA bulliten.
Bishop Yao Liang, 82, the underground Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Xiwanzi, in Hebei Province, was arrested by Chinese authorities July 30, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
AsiaNews reported that the Religious Affairs Bureau invited the prelate to Zhangjiakou to "discuss the restitution of some properties belonging to the Church" at which time he was detained. He is now being held in Zhangjiakou City.
Father Li Huisheng, 33, an underground priest in the Diocese of Xiwanzi, was arrested Aug. 1.
According to AsiaNews, Father Li was tortured and then released at night.
As a result of this violence, reports AsiaNews, more than 90 faithful demonstrated in front of the police station. They were charged by police, beaten and forced to disperse.
The public security bureau then mobilized some 500 police between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., Aug. 2, and attacked the Catholic community in Zhangjiakou, Zhangbei County, arresting some 90 underground Catholic faithful.
They again arrested Father Li, who had returned to his church, and 90 other people.
During the raid, two males were injured and required emergency hospital care, and one woman had a miscarriage.
According to AsiaNews, a pilgrimage to Mount Muozi in Inner Mongolia was behind the police operation. For more than a century the diocese had organized the event, but this year the Religious Affairs Bureau and the police banned it.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation reported that about 70 of those arrested have now been released.
"For a while, of course, you'll only get bit parts!"
St. Joachim and St. AnneWe believe that the Cabinet debate will be as early as tomorrow and that Costello, Abbott and Howard all share the same personal view that the ban should continue and the Lackhart Review dismissed as flawed. But Howard is known to be very weak on stem cells and the small 'l' liberals have big heads at the moment after ensuring the Government's Immigration Bill would be defeated.The Prime Minister has told a joint partyroom meeting that he will allow a conscience vote on stem cell research, if a bill on the topic reaches a vote in Parliament.
The Liberal and National parties have debated whether to allow the extension of stem cell research to therapeutic cloning.
About a dozen MPs spoke about the issue during the meeting.
John Howard says the matter will be debated again by the Coalition next month, and he will allow experts to be made available if MPs want more information on the topic.
Mr Howard told the party room that if a vote does reach Parliament, he cannot impose a Government view on such an issue.
But it is not clear if it will come to that.
The Democrats are putting forward a private member's bill on stem cell research but it may not reach a vote.
Former health minister Kay Patterson says the debate within the Coalition has been considered and courteous and she is inclined to support changes to allow therapeutic cloning under strict controls.
"I think it's very important, people have strongly held views both sides, other people are wavering and need more time to look and discuss the issue with their colleagues and scientists and with other people, it's a very difficult issue, it's not easy yes and no or right and wrong answers," she said.
Labor's Tony Burke says he would be comfortable with a conscience vote but he does not support extending the use of stem cell research.
"My position will be the same that I took in the New South Wales State Parliament," he said.
"I'm on what's regarded generally as the conservative side of that debate that puts me in a minority in my own party but that's what I believe and the party gives me the opportunity to express that."
THERAPEUTIC cloning has emerged as the next threat to Howard Government unity amid mounting partyroom pressure for a conscience debate on the ban.
West Australian backbencher and doctor Mal Washer yesterday called the cabinet-imposed ban undemocratic.
Former health minister Kay Patterson asked whether opponents would change their tune if cloning delivered a cure to a disease that threatened their own lives or their children's.
Therapeutic cloning - also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer - involves implanting the nucleus of a human cell into a human egg after its nucleus has been removed and allowing the cell to grow into an embryo so cells can be used for research.
A parliamentary conscience debate in 2002 that set guidelines for stem cell research banned SCNT.
But a committee led by former judge John Lockhart recommended late last year the ban be overturned.
Cabinet decided in June not to act on the recommendation.
We'll watch this one closely. We don't have a President with right of veto!
Moon landing tape lost
The United States Government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing.
Armstrong's famous space walk, seen by millions of viewers on July 20, 1969, is among transmissions that NASA has failed to turn up in a year of searching, spokesman Grey Hautaloma says.
"We haven't seen them for quite a while. We've been looking for over a year and they haven't turned up," Mr Hautaloma said.
The tapes also contain data about the health of the astronauts and the condition of the spacecraft.
Mr Hautaloma says some 700 boxes of transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing. More...
"As far as I can see, it doesn't do anything for me!"My Readers Poll closed today and the results are in. You can see click on view results here to see for yourself.
Only about 30-odd people filled them out which is interesting in itself as going by my counter an average of 70 people visit everyday. Thanks to those who did fill in!
Male/Female
64% are male and 36% percent female. As I mentioned before this may be because I have a rather liturgical focus and if I’m going on generalities, many Catholic women don’t have a specific love or understanding for the technicalities of the liturgy. For instance, many probably don’t know the reasons for a deep bow over a genuflection. Or when one bows and one turns towards the centre of the altar to bow. Real technical stuff like that! Or it could just be that ladies don’t tend to read blogs.
Age
68% of you are under 35 years of age which 42% being under 25. (Interesting to know if the females are in the 18-25 bracket…) So most of you are around my own age.
Most of you read INDOLENT SERVER because you are interested in knowing what young Catholics get up to. (Nice!) And the second largest group are of people that know me! (Wonder what that says about me…??)
Mass Preference
Very interesting is the fact that more of you prefer a Novus Ordo Mass ad orientem than the Tridentine Rite, which of course I attend on a Sunday and when I can. In the style of The New Liturgical Movement, a massive 76% of you are fans of Mass facing liturgical East. Only one is charismatic and I know who that is.
Effectively this tells me to keep posting what I have been...
Although there is proof of belief in the assumption in the writings of the early Church Fathers and in various liturgies it was only in the 18th Century that Benedict XIV declared it a truth that no one was permitted to doubt. That first Vatican Council was adjourned before this item was reached on the agenda as it had yet to be defined as dogma until Pius XII proclaimed solemnly that “the blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, at the close of her earthly career was taken up into heaven, body and soul”. Intriot: Apoc. 12. 1. A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve starts. Ps. Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because He hath done wonderful things.
Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who hast taken up the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of Thy Son, with the body and soul into heavenly glory: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may always, intent on higher things, deserve to be partakers of her glory.
Offertory: Gen 3.15. I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and her Seed.
Communion: Luke 1. 48-48. All generations shall call me blessed, because He that is mighty hath done great things to me.
Sancta María. Ora pro nobis.
Sancta Dei Génitrix. Ora pro nobis.
Sancta Virgo vírginum. Ora pro nobis.
"When will he be able to genuflect again?"Introit: Ps. 54. 17, 18, 20, 23. When I cried to the Lord He heard my voice, from them that draw near to me; and He humbled them, who is before all ages, and remains for ever: cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Ps. Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me and hear me.
Gradual: Ps. 16. 8, 2. Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of Thy eye: protest me under the shadow of Thy wings. Let my judgement come forth from Thy countenance: let Thy eyes behold the things that are equitable.
Gospel: Luke 18. 9-14. (The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee)
Postcommunion: Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that Thy gracious help may never be lacking to us whose strength Thou ceasest not to renew with Thy divine sacraments.
BUENOS AIRES, August 11 (CNA)A group of 30 feminists led a march to the Catholic University of La Plata on Tuesday attacking it’s rector for offering to adopt a baby who was saved from abortion last week.
The march was the latest chapter in the case of a mentally handicapped woman who became pregnant supposedly through rape and whose parents asked the courts to allow her to obtain an abortion. After lower courts ruled against them, the Supreme Court of the ! Buenos Aires province granted the parents’ request. During the court hearings, several individuals offered to adopt the baby, including the rector of the Catholic University of La Plata, Ricardo de la Torre, who spoke out in defense of both the life of the baby and the mother.
The 30 feminists met on Tuesday at the Cathedral in La Plata and marched toward the university campus, where they shouted insults at the rector, distributed pamphlets and even painted graffiti on buildings used by the Department of Law. Fences were later put up around the Cathedral and its rectory in order to keep them from painting graffiti there as well.
A large group of students staged a counter protest by praying the rosary, Emilio Nazar Kasbo, a La Plata lawyer told CNA.
Pamphlets distributed by the women echoed the pro-abortion slogans made popular by pro-abortion forces in the US, such as, “Get your rosaries off our ovaries.” Although the leaflets listed a number of organizations as participants in the protest, only some 30 activists participated in the march.
“These people are intent on imposing their ideas or combating those of other people by force or through fear,” Nazar said. “All this was on display at the campus, where in addition (to their vocal protests) they committed the crime of damaging private property by painting graffiti on the walls of the university.”
Writers who call themselves atheists have often surprised me by their reasons for not believing in God. In the long history of humanity, of course, their unbelief is an anomaly, a distinctly minority position. Even Clarence Darrow once said that he certainly did not believe in the Jewish or Christian God, but any damn fool knows there is a force and an intelligence that has shaped the universe we live in. But a few others, oddly, do not even believe that much.
I remember once reading a book about atheism by an atheist, who after considerable study of the situation in the United States wrote that (I forget the exact number) something like 70 percent of those who call themselves atheists do actually believe in a force or energy or ordering intelligence within the natural order. If that is what “God” is, they believe in God. They say “atheist,” it seems, to distinguish themselves from being Christians or Jews. More...
And here is a pic of my room taken at exactly the same time. (Before you comment, my room is in the centre. To the left is the cubby house and to the right the rest of the shed.)
When arrested and bidden by the prefect of Rome to give up his the Church’s treasure, Laurence showed him a crowd of beggars, saying that their priceless gift of faith made them the true treasure of the Church, because they changed the alms bestowed on them into everlasting riches. He was slowly roasted to death on a grid-iron on August 10th, 258. He must have had a great sense of humour saying to his executioner: “Turn me over now, that side is done.”
Collect: Grant us, we pray Thee, almighty God, to quench the flames of our vices; even as Thou gavest blessed Laurence grace to overcome his fiery torments.
Alleluia: Alleluia Alleluia. The Levite Laurence wrought a good work, who by the sign of the cross gave sight to the blind. Alleluia.
Communion: John 12. 26. If any man minister to Me, let him follow Me: and where I am, there also shall My minister be.
Sancte Laurénti. Ora Pro Nobis.
"Now sit in the back and get a good shot of me as I come down the aisle."
Bl. Mary McKillop
Fr. Julian Tenison Woods (now there is a cassock!)I nearly went through the whole day without mentioning Bl. Mary McKillop. It’s her feast day today for those of us in Australia. She is the only person in Australia’s history close to being canonised. I’d find some readings or something but the only Novus Ordo missal I have lying around was printed prior to her beatification.
If you Google you’ll be sure to find more stuff but I can’t find anything really good without a decent search (New Advent has nothing). In short (from my memory) Mary founded the Sisters of St. Joseph prior to the turn of last century with the help of Fr. Julian Tension Woods with the intention of them being an educational order. Mary was excommunicated by the local bishop before being re-instated.
How things have changed in the order! Here is the Sisters' website. Like the rest they have turned, let's say, weird. And another lot here. You can play "spot the habit"!
FORMER Test batsman Dean Jones has been sacked from his job as a TV commentator, after referring to South Africa's Muslim batsman, Hashim Amla, as a "terrorist".
Jones, who admitted making the comment and apologised, was on a commentary team covering the second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo.
According to a statement issued by Cricket South Africa, viewers heard Jones say, "the terrorist has got another wicket" when Amla took the catch that dismissed Kumar Sangakkara.
Amla is a devout Muslim who wears a beard for religious reasons and has successfully negotiated with the South Africa team's main sponsor, SA Breweries, not to wear the Castle Lager logo on his playing and practice gear.
"We take the strongest exception to this comment, and we will lodge an official complaint with the host broadcaster, Ten Sports, that employs him," CSA chief executive Gerald Majola was quoted as saying.
"We will be asking for his immediate suspension and a full apology."
The match is being broadcast live in South Africa, which has a significant Muslim community.
"The switchboards of both CSA and SuperSport, that takes a feed of the broadcast to South African audiences, have been jammed with calls from some very angry people," Majola was quoted as saying.
"I'm gone, I'm on the 1am flight," Jones told reporters in Colombo where he issued a statement apologising for his comment.
I can’t find it in the online pages of The Australian but it’s there in the printed version: Critical mass targets Pell on condoms is the title. I will type out some of it for you.
CARDINAL George Pell was repeatedly criticised during mass yesterday in Redfern for saying that handling out syringes and condoms was not the way to help the Aboriginal community.
The Archbishop of Sydney made the comments to The Weekend Australian in support of the parish’s conservative clergy, now at loggerheads with their turbulent congregation with its strong liberal Catholic tradition.
Liberal Catholic tradition??? An oxymoron? Please!
"Aren't you supposed to have those prayers memorized?"FORMER world boxing champion Anthony Mundine is set to run for Parliament as an independent at the state election in March.
"The Man" will contest the inner-city seat of Marrickville, which is held by Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt, rated the most popular minister in the Iemma Government.
Mundine's move from the boxing ring to the political stage has been motivated by fury within Redfern's Aboriginal community over the establishment of a cultural and training centre in memory of Pemulwuy, the legendary Aboriginal warrior of the early 19th century.
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Mundine is expected to announce his protest candidacy at a public meeting on Thursday night. The Bishop of Gippsland, John McIntyre, who served as Redfern's priest for years before moving to Victoria, will be there to support him.
This is the second day for the liturgical year that the Transfiguration is commemorated with the first being the Second Sunday in Lent. Pope Callistus III extended this feast to the whole Church in 1457 to commemorate the stemming of the tide of the Mohammedan invasion in the Battle of Belgrade.
