The saddest part of this story, however, is that Mr. Wallis seems to have no friends who were willing to speak the truth to him about this. His parents, for example, accommodated his desire by providing the family home as a safe environment for his assignation with the prostitute. And, oh yes, the Anglican nun who runs the hospice where Mr. Wallis lives, Sister Frances Dominica, supported him in his decision. “It is not our job to make moral decisions for our guests,� says Sister Frances. “We came to the conclusion that it was our duty of care to support Nick emotionally and to help ensure his physical safety.�

A word to Sister Frances: Real nuns don’t run brothels.

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For 2,500 euros ($3,169), Pilgrim Gil will make the journey in your place -- and send you a certificate stamped along the way to prove he walked your every step.

Carlos Gil, 42, who owns a small computer company, took up this medieval practice four years ago when he suddenly "felt an urge to walk to Fatima" and said charging each client was simply a way to keep doing what he loves.

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This week's Catholic Carnival is up at Alabama Improper.

(The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

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This week's Catholic Carnival is up at CowPi Journal.

(The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

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If a theme emerges from these various entries, it has got to be that Christians can live extraordinary lives in the midst of the world. From the Maximilian Kolbe and the Nazi's to Religious freedom and Kneeling in Orange County, all that we are trying to do is live our faith.

Note: These links will all open up in their own browser window and this page will remain open in the background.

Religious Freedom at Home and Abroad is discussed at Roft Raft. US Legislation and Muslim beliefs are among many of the parts of an essential, but sometimes forgotten, element of Christianity.

Is anybody in the The Ongoing Drama at St. Mary's by the Sea acting in Christian Charity? (from Kicking Over My Traces).

The The Economics of Life are discussed by the Part Time Pundit. The fight against the valuation of human life is the next big Pro-Life challenge. Because when you start applying values to life, some people will inevitably come up short.

Our friends at Living Catholicism comments on Quality of Life & The Age of Materialism. Do we really know what "quality of life" is?

DeoOmnisGloria.com investigates and clarifies the background for the Mormon beliefs in regards to polygamy in Mormons and Polygamy: Do the Latter Day Saints believe in Plural Marriage?

Peter got it, Judas didn't. Take a look at The Heart of Forgiveness (from Our Word and Welcome to It) to hear a perspective on Pentecost, Peter and forgiveness.

The Perfect Work of A Single Note is discussed. How do we pray, what is our motivation? Does the perfect prayer require a perfect soul?

A trinity of three word, titles: Unity, Forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit; ONE SPIRIT, ONE LORD, ONE GOD; from Heart, Mind and Strength.

Adoro Te Devote is just sick and tired of others who feel compelled to talk about what should only be happening to between and husband and wife in their marital bed. Because, after all, Sex and Marriage are Sacred.

The Secrets of Self-improvement are revealed by our Penitent Blogger.

Lastly, we can thank Toward Contemplation for providing the Pope's thoughts while visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps during is recent visit to Germany in The valley of the shadow of death.

Here is an interesting take on the whole Kneeling/Mortal Sin controversy in Orange County, CA

The story in question is about a parish in the Diocese of Orange where the new priest has--among other things--forbidden people to kneel following the Agnus Dei, and a huge controversy has erupted.

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This week's Catholic Carnival is up at Living Catholicism.

(The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

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This weeks Catholic Carnival is up at Musings from a Catholic Bookstore

(The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

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I wonder what Cardinal Arnize would think about mass at my parish?

2 May 2006

The Most Reverend William Skylstad Bishop of Spokane President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Prot. n. 499/06/L

Your Excellency,

With reference to the conversation between yourself, the Vice President and General Secretary of the Conference of Bishops of which you are President, together with me and other Superiors and Officials when you kindly visited our Congregation on 27 April 2006, I wish to recall the following:

The Instruction Liturgiam authenticam is the latest document of the Holy See which guides translations from the original-language liturgical texts into the various modern languages in the Latin Church. Both this Congregation and the Bishops’ Conferences are bound to follow its directives. This Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is therefore not competent to grant the recognitio for translations that do not conform to the directives of Liturgiam authenticam. If, however, there are difficulties regarding the translation of a particular part of a text, then this Congregation is always open to dialogue in view of some mutually agreeable solution, still keeping in mind, however, that Liturgiam authenticam remains the guiding norm.

The attention of your Bishops’ Conference was also recalled to the fact that Liturgiam authenticam was issued at the directive of the Holy Father at the time, Pope John Paul II, to guide new translations as well as the revision of all translations done in the last forty years, to bring them into greater fidelity to the original-language official liturgical texts. For this reason it is not acceptable to maintain that people have become accustomed to a certain translation for the past thirty or forty years, and therefore that it is pastorally advisable to make no changes. Where there are good and strong reasons for a change, as has been determined by this Dicastery in regard to the entire translation of the Missale Romanum as well as other important texts, then the revised text should make the needed changes. The attitudes of Bishops and Priests will certainly influence the acceptance of the texts by the lay faithful as well.

Requesting Your Excellency to share these reflections with the Bishops of your Conference I assure you of the continued collaboration of this Congregation and express my religious esteem,

Devotedly yours in Christ,

+Francis Card. Arinze

Prefect, Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

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This week's Catholic Carnival is up at A Penitent Blogger.

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Here are (2) more entries in the Pro-Abortion Blog, abortionclinicdays.

So is this what pro-abortions believers are thinking, or is what they want people to think they're thinking?

The other amazing thing is that she said, "I am the last in my crowd to have an abortion. Now it is 100%." Many of you will see this as a sign of depravity among college students. But the remarkable thing is that all those friends had been open about their experience and were willing to share their experience to help out a friend. She felt taken care of, connected, and what I can only describe as NORMAL. This is amazing for how rare it is. But the truth is that abortion, like having a baby, losing a parent, having sex for the first time, getting married, etc. is a rite of passage. Not everyone will do all of those things, but it is one of the milestones in life that people go through so why not talk about it openly? We are all in agreement that it is better to prevent a pregnancy, but when that fails, having some honest friends is a really good thing.

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the other day i talked to a woman who was determined to have an abortion that very day. our state has a mandatory delay built in so she had already waited a certain number of hours, had to hear a speech read to her by a doctor, but she was in a big hurry to just get it over with. those words "just get it over with" always make me a little cautious with patients because sometimes it means that they have thought it over very carefully before arriving at the clinic and talked to the people who they think can help them make a wise decision. but sometimes it just means that they don't want to think about it, just do it. it is part of my responsibility as a counselor to determine which it is for any woman i happen to be talking to so that women do not end up regretting their choice. in this woman's case, i was very reluctant to be the one to sign off on her because i felt that she was moving too quickly.

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Truly the Lord cannot be outdone in generosity. I experienced this in preparing today's Catholic Blog carnival. As the posts came in, I was edified by the devotion to Our Lady expressed by the writers. I hope this Carnival is a helpful addition to your May devotion to Our Lady.

It appears that the Chinese government is responding to Pope Benedict XVI's recent efforts to support Catholics in that country by ordaining a few of their own priests.

The Holy Father learned the news with deep displeasure, since an action which is so important as an episcopal consecration is for the life of the Church, was performed in both cases without respect for the requirements of communion with the Pope.

We are facing, therefore, a grave wound to the unity of the Church, for which, as is known, there are foreseen severe canonical penalties (cf. canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law).

...

We are, therefore, witnessing a grave violation of religious liberty, even though an attempt was made under false pretexts to present the two episcopal ordinations as necessary acts to provide pastors for vacant diocese.

The Holy See follows with attention the tormented journey of the Catholic Church in China and, quite aware of certain distinctive dimensions of such a journey, was thinking and hoping that similar deplorable episodes would have belongs by now to the past.

Click Here to Open the Web Page with the Complete Text of the Article

As father of a of a bunch of kids, I do admit to getting frustrated when priest indulge themselves with a 25 minute homily or a 85 minute mass. I mean, is it reasonable to expect a bunch of kids to sit still for that long?

This priest (in his blog) tries addresses this issue, albeit tangentially , in the following:

But let me say this to anyone who is distracted: If you’re distracted at Mass, it’s not the baby’s fault— it’s not the parent’s fault. It’s your fault!

We do our best; yes, it’s considerate to turn our phones to silent; but we can’t turn off babies!

But, if you want Mass without these things? Don’t come! Only when this church is empty of people will that happen!

So, instead, here’s some practical advice. You’re at Mass, and there’s a noise; Don’t look: don’t think about it; just go right back to praying. I guarantee you’ll forget about it.

Check out a list of the best blog entries of the week over at Living Catholicism in the Catholic Carnival.

(The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

(BTW, Our interview with Scott Hahn is mentioned!)

Mercator.net has an interview posted with Ramesh Ponnuru about his latest book, "The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life".

(Our thanks to the Curt Jester for turning us onto this link.)

Some Highlights:

Let's imagine someone who takes the view that the human embryo is a living human being with rights, but that women have a right to control their own bodies that justifies their ability to abort that embryo. You would expect that person to oppose embryo-destructive research since no woman's body is involved in that question. But almost nobody actually takes that view. They support abortion because they do not believe embryonic and foetal lives have moral worth, not because they place a high value on women's bodily autonomy. Indeed, they think that it's an issue of women's bodily autonomy because they have already decided that the foetus does not have the same right to life that you and I do.

...

A five-year-old has the same right to life that a six-year-old does. To make that argument, I don't need to invoke any religious authority: I just need to be able to explain why the five-year-old and the six-year-old do not differ in any way that could rationally justify recognizing the right to life of one but not the other. I argue, in the book, that human beings in the embryonic stage of development don't differ from five and six-year-olds in any way that could justify their killing. (Neither do people in a persistent vegetative state.) That argument doesn't depend on religious premises either.

You can click here to read this thoughtful interview.

This from Father John Wauck's "the Da Vinci Code and Opus Dei" weblog:

Yesterday, walking around Rome, I came across the Church of St.Pantaleone, which is between Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori on one of the busiest streets in town, the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Work is being done on the facade, and the scaffolding is covered with a scrim which reproduces the look of the church’s facade and includes paid advertising. You’ll never guess what was being advertised.

• to read the blog entry
• see the photograph
• read a a great quote from Raniero Cantalamessa, the Capuchin priest who is the pope’s preacher.

The dynamism of our faith is apparent in these posts: An event 2 millenia ago on a hill in Calvary is informing our thoughts and actions today. Whether it be political (Abu Graib, Moussaoui), personal (Married Lutheran pastor becomes Catholic Priest), Literary (Da Vinci Code and St. Mary Magdelene) or spiritual (Holy Week), the Church Militant has an abundance of thoughtful soldiers.

Welcome to the website of Universal Call-the podcast that discusses the Universal call to Holiness. We are proud to host the Catholic Carnival this first week of Easter. The experience of hosting a "Catholic Carnival" has been very satisfying. If you haven't done one before, I highly recommend it.

Because our liturgical calendar plays such a significant part of our living faith this last week, I have organized the posts (largely) by their holy day application: Note: These links will all open up in their own browser window and this page will remain open in the background.

Lent

A very real perspective on Lent from Looking back to Lent and forward to Divine Mercy. Once again the wisdom of the Church is displayed by the timeliness of Divine Mercy Sunday (from AdoroTeDevote).

Holy Week

Our young pilgrim, on his journey to examine his vocation, shares his holy week with Bishop David Allen Zubik in Holy Week with the Bishop (from To Jesus through Mary.)

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday: the Prayer that We Should have Said discusses the application of our faith, not just at Mass, not just applied to 'Churchy' things, but applied to our day-to-day activities (from Herb Ely).

Good Friday

"We need not be afraid" says A Penitent Blogger in the post Identified through suffering.

An account of a blogger's participation in the "Way of the Cross" through downtown Chicago. Making Christ's Love Visible is a description of the procession (from Integrity).

Saturday Vigil

This post, Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia!, is a celebration of the ongoing conversion of souls that is most clearly displayed at the Easter vigil (from A Catholic Life).

The soccer mom supplies an eyewitness and personal account of her husband's confirmation in At the Easter Vigil (from Ramblings of a GOP Soccer Mom).

Easter

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? "With that cry, we can now know there's an Easter dawn that can follow such choking despair". This post-abortion blog draws a parallel between the Death and Resurrection of Christ and the pain of abortion (from After Abortion).

We have (2) thought provoking Easter poems in this weeks carnival: CHRISTIANS, TO THE PASCHAL VICTIM and Christus Triumphans (from Heart, Mind and Strength and The Blog from the Core, respectively).

Easter Greetings from around the world! is a compelling post that includes the Easter greeting cards from several notables. I found these fascinating. (from Pondering the Word).

Jay shares a pithy and moving St. Thomas Aquinas reflection in God has Saved Us (Or, Happy Easter) (from Living Catholicism).

The dynamics between humanity and Christ change after the Resurrection. This insightful reflection by Father Stephanos is entitled For Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord. I especially appreciate his post tiles as they manifest the preeminence of the liturgical calendar for this time of year (from One Monk of the Order of Saint Benedict).

OK, OK! I am Glad that Jesus died for me. I will not be stuck on the Good Friday side of the Cross! (From CowPi Journal).

Easter Monday

Another gem by Father Stephanos, once again using the liturgical calender for his blog entry title: For Easter Monday (from One Monk of the Order of Saint Benedict).

"Believe it deeply. Proclaim it boldly. And fear no lie." Persistent lies vs. the Power of Truth (from A Penitent Blogger).

Of course, with the movie release looming, we need to have a post on the Da Vinci Code:

Father John Wauck shares some thoughts about St. Mary Magdelene in Kneeling Before the Bones of Mary Magdalen, or "Been There, Done That" (BTW, he is the next guest for the Universal Call podcast which will be posted on 4/20.) (From Da Vinci Code and Opus Dei).

Lastly, in contrast to the earlier posts about the celebration of the Easter season, we have some posts that deal with the more wordly aspects of living our faith:

Any post that starts with "Ecclesial movements (e.g. Communion and Liberation, Focolare) are not essentially something complicated or an extra burden on the Christian life. Instead, for their members and those whom they touch, they are the rediscovery of the power of the Gospel." has got to be good. Christianity as a School in the Mission of Christ (from Deep Furrows).

Great information for anybody interested in the Death Penalty Debate: Should Moussaoui Die? (from ProfessorBainbridge.com).

Interesting take an the anti-america sentiment in international news. I wonder if they are seeing a lot more Abu Ghraib news overseas than we are in the States? Why is Abu Ghraib a cover story again, but not Darfur? (From the Atlantic Review).

Lutheran Minister becomes Catholic Priest - Frustrated with the ever-increasing liberalism in his denomination, he converts to Catholicism. (From DeoOmnisGloria.com).

Even through this post is pretty old, I don't remember seeing it on a previous carnival. I read this back when it was first posted and was engrossed with the question raised: Parish vs. Movements? (Why Movements At All?) What about the idea that everything we need to live a good holy life is at our parish? Why do we need more than that? But there is no denying that people can become holier as a result of these movements (from Integrity).

That's it for this week......thanks for stopping by!

The Catholic Carnival is now posted over at the "CowPi Journal" Blog. The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

You can click here to read the Catholic Carnival.

The Catholic Carnival is now posted over at the "Living Catholicism" Blog. The Catholic Carnival, for those who are not familiar with it, is a collection of the best blog posts from Catholic-centric blogs.)

Many of the Carnival posts this week explore our Lenten journey toward God, so I thought it was an appropriate theme. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

I think this will be the last time I post on this subject. (It's no longer under the radar.)

"It is apparent that there are some who wish to compel Catholic Charities to place children with couples whose life choices run contrary to the values and beliefs of Catholic Charities and many other non-profit child placing agencies. This demand is imprudent and wrong."

Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa is publishing in his diocesan paper the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic a series of articles calling people to a more faithful application of the Church’s norms on liturgy. After the last Synod of Bishops His Excellency has asked clergy, liturgists and musicians to review Sacrosanctum Concilium.

This blogger (abortinclinicdays) writes that her job in helping women to the abortion table is a helpful and important public service.

(Please don't mistake this post as supporting, in any way, a pro-abortion agenda. Hopefully, it goes without saying that Universal Call thinks that abortion is an abomination.)

This entry is about the new South Dakota law. Take a look at the comments section for some real passionate perspectives on an issue that we usually only get from fellow pro-lifers.

Here is an example of one of the comments:

The moral I draw from this article is that it's probably best to have an abortion as soon as you know that you're pregnant because if you attempt to continue the pregnancy and something goes wrong you're going to get tossed in prison and any actual, real, living children you have will be left without a mother. Ah, pro-life politics at work again.

This from Bettnet.com. There is a link in his blog entry to an article in the Boston Globe about this. This has been hot for awhile and it looks to heat up even more...

A commenter on a previous post alerted me to this story. It wasn�t three Boston Catholic Charities board members who resigned over the decision by Massachusetts� bishops to seek an exemption to a state law requiring they participate in gay adoptions. Actually it was seven members who resigned.

As a follow-up to an earlier post about the Bible and Bankruptcy, here is a podcast from the same author on the same subject:

(Hint, its all about the preservation of the family unit.)

You can click here to go to the Debt Podcast "Is bankruptcy immoral?" podcast.

You can click here to go the home page of the Debt Podcast.

This from Barbara Nicolosi's blog, The Church of the Masses:

Further, we absolutely do not need to see the film to talk about Jesus. No more than we need to see porn to talk about human sexuality. Or to read Mein Kempf to decide whether we can have an opinion about gassing Jews. Besides, it would be dignifying a really inane story. Da Vinci Code is so ridiculous in its premises, that it is giving it a false gravity to even take it seriously enough so as to argue about it. ["And tomorrow, the Christians will be offering a hermenutic of moral praxis as can be gleaned from next week's episode of WWF Smackdown. Ahem."] Yeah, let's all find a starting point for dialogue in the notion that a secret coterie of albino monks has been mythmaking about Jesus' Divinity for 2,000 years. No, you go first.

Here is an interesting post about the biblical perspective on bankruptcy (from the New York Bankruptcy and Consumer Law Blog).

The Old Testament model can therefore be legitimately applied to modern day bankruptcy laws. The principle is that, while taken seriously, debt can be canceled to achieve some higher purpose�such as the preservation of the family unit.

The Bible makes it clear that people are generally expected to pay their debts. Leviticus 25:39. No one will�or should�advance any argument against this general proposition.

Within the areas of economic justice and stability, the Old Testament is replete with examples of compassionate treatment of the poor, and with preservation of the family unit. These goals were superior to the material concerns of repayment of debt.

Thanks to Jay over at the Debt Podcast for recommending this article.

Jimmy Akin will be posting a series on Genesis 1.

A majority of women in Britain want the abortion laws to be tightened to make it harder, or impossible, for them to terminate a pregnancy.

Click here to read the complete text of the UK Guardian Article

Thanks to Open Book for this link.

Click here to read the complete post which contains many, many links

Thanks to Open Book for this link.

She writes:

"I acknowledge my Pro-Life stance and I accept that not everyone in this country agrees with me, but the use of this drug cannot possibly be defended. I would oppose the use of this drug even if I were Pro-Choice (as do others).

For crying in a bucket, when the Chairman of the Company that manufactures the drug says:

'RU 486 is not at all easy to use. In fact it is much more complex to use than the technique of vacuum extraction. True, no anaesthetic is required but a woman who wants to end her pregnancy has to 'live' with her abortion for at least a week using this technique. It's an appalling psychological ordeal.' ----Edouard Sakiz, Chairman of Roussel Uclaf (The French Company developed and manufactures the RU486 drug in France) in 1989."

Click here to read the whole post

Thanks to the Curt Jester for this link

...This was not how I was supposed to become a mother for the first time. I was supposed to be married to a wonderful man who would love to be a father. We were supposed to be a happy family living in a nice house in the burbs. It didn't happen that way. Instead I was a 21 year old, black, college drop-out, with bad credit...

...Planned Parenthood has it wrong because they think that women are getting pregnant because they don't have access to contraception. In the overwhelmingly vast majority of cases this is false...

...Both young men and woman are not being taught morals and values that are needed to govern their sex life. Parents are partly to blame because they think because their kids are getting sex ed in school that the work is being done for them. Teachers are supposed to teach our kids the facts and parents are supposed to teach them what to do with those facts...

...There needs to be a culture that believes that the males role in raising children is just as important as the mothers...I have heard too many women say that they can raise their children alone without any help from anyone as if its a badge of honor...by advocating the idea that children really only need one parent, we are allowing men to abdicate their roles in the raising of children. We haven't empowered ourselves, we have crippled ourselves under an enormous weight that we should not have to bear alone ...The father should be there taking equal responsibility even if he is no longer in the home...

Click Here to Read the Whole Essay