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Mormons Join Boycott of The Golden Compass Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:05 pm (GMT -5) Anti-God message? 'Golden Compass' boycott urged by Mormons and Catholics Link to Original By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 11/30/2007 06:51:22 AM MST The ominous e-mail from his wife's LDS Relief Society in Provo bothered author Brandon Sanderson. "Here's a movie you will want to skip," it said, urging Mormons to stay away from "The Golden Compass," a film due out Dec. 7 based on a novel by Philip Pullman. The e-mail claimed because Pullman is an atheist, he uses his fiction to subtly promote anti-God beliefs. That same urgent warning circulated among LDS groups from Delta to Bountiful and through Utah's Catholic community. "I feel this information about this movie is too important for you not to know about it," Kevin Prusse, principal of Bountiful's Muir Park Elementary School, wrote in an e-mail to parents. Pullman's objective is to "bash Catholicism and promote atheism," said an item in the newsletter of Salt Lake City's Madeleine Choir School. "Pullman represents the new face of atheism: It is aggressive, dogmatic and unrelenting. It is also fueled by crusading hatred of all religions, but most especially the Catholic religion." The ruckus began months ago with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York City. Spokeswoman Kiera McCaffrey said the League understands "the film has removed most of the anti-religion, anti-Christian and specifically anti-Catholic elements. But the problem remains: Kids see the film and like it, then parents will think the trilogy would be a great Christmas gift." In Pullman's books, the oppressive regime is church "authorities," she said. "They kidnap children, murder children, torture children, and perform cruel experiments on children. One character, an ex-nun, says religion is 'nothing but a very convincing mistake.' In the end, the children release into the atmosphere an old, deformed wizened angel who claims to be God. They've rid the world of this oppressive force that is religion." The League urges people to boycott the film, but Provo's Sanderson won't be joining. "I don't care if you go see the movie or not, that's your right," he said. "But I draw the line when you try to stop other people from seeing it or reading the books. The ideas should be available." "Golden Compass," is the first in Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. The books have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, and Pullman clearly has his defenders. The trilogy may be the first fantasy series "founded upon the ideals of the Enlightenment rather than upon tribal and mythic yearnings for kings, gods, and supermen," wrote Laura Miller in a 2005 New Yorker profile. Though Sanderson doesn't agree with Pullman's world view, he admires his writing. "He's created a sincere world in which the cosmology is very different from other fantasies," he said. "There are characters fighting totalitarian religious regimes, angels and figures who claim to be God but whose actions obviously are not seeking the best for mankind. It is brilliant." Coincidentally, the destructive nature of censorship is the theme of Sanderson's playful new book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. It begins with this sentence: "So there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias about to be sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil librarians.'' "I feel that information is power. If you can control information, you can control people," Sanderson said. "In this book, the librarians control what books people read and what they can study. There are actually two more continents in the ocean, but they've kept it all secret. They covered up the true history of the world by controlling the books." That's why Sanderson is such a passionate opponent of boycotts. "I do not believe the correct response to different ideas is to censor or boycott them. This makes it seem like the ideas are a threat to our own ideas. Are your beliefs so weak that they cannot stand to listen to someone offering a different opinion?" he wrote in an essay on his Web site, brandonsanderson.com. "I would find it a shame if people were to boycott and remove my books from schools because I speak of worlds where it's implied that there IS a deity," Sanderson wrote. "My goal would be to let my books and [Pullman]'s books sit on the shelves beside one another, and allow the people who read them to see both opinions and make their own decisions." --- * PEGGY FLETCHER STACK can be contacted at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. _________________ http://ColleenHammond.blogspot.com

First Latin Mass in Lafayette, IN in 40 years. Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:52 pm (GMT -5) Latin Homecoming for Catholic Priest Una Voce Carmel November 30, 2007 Link to original FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Latin Homecoming for Catholic Priest LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov. 30, 2007 – On Sunday, Dec. 9, Roberto Cano is coming home to St. Boniface, the church of his youth. The son of Augusto and Rita Cano and graduate of Central Catholic High School in Lafayette, Roberto is returning as Father Cano, FSSP, ordained to the priesthood in November by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska. But this will be no ordinary homecoming. It will be extraordinary, as in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. When Father Cano ascends the altar of St. Boniface to celebrate a Solemn High Mass on that second Sunday of Advent, the sanctuary will be filled with sights and sounds not seen there, or in any other Catholic church in Lafayette and most of the diocese, for nearly four decades. Currently, this rite of Mass is only offered once a week on Tuesday evenings at St. Mary's in Muncie. Unlike most young men who discern a call to the priesthood and attend a diocesan seminary, Father Cano's vocation led him to Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. This seminary is run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right established by Pope John Paul II in 1988, to provide priests for those Catholics wishing to participate in the traditional liturgy of the Catholic church, as well as other forms of prayer and popular piety, that existed for centuries before the innovations of the 1960s and 70s. Until recently, a special permission, called an indult, had to be granted to a priest by the local bishop before he could celebrate what is commonly referred to as the "Latin" or "Tridentine" Mass in a parish church. This restriction was lifted when Pope Benedict XVI issued the apostolic letter, in the form of 'motu proprio', "Summorum Pontificum" last July, which designated this older form of the Catholic liturgy, parts of which date back to the time of the Apostles, as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, while maintaining the Missal of Pope Paul VI, issued in 1970 and generally said in English, as the ordinary form of Mass celebrated in most parishes. This document also guarantees the right of any layperson to request the extraordinary form of Mass from their parish priest or bishop, and of any priest to celebrate it privately or publicly without explicit permission from their bishop, as long as they are trained to do so. As most priests in the diocese do not yet have the necessary experience with the extraordinary form of Mass, a number of seminarians from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary and the Fraternity's North American headquarters in Scranton, Pennsylvania will travel to Lafayette to act as deacon and sub-deacon for Father Cano's Mass, as well as to help direct the choir, which will perform Gregorian chant and polyphonic music. For those accustomed to attending Mass in English, missals will be available that will provide the prayers of the Mass in both Latin and English. Mass will start at 12:30 p.m. at St. Boniface with a free public reception to follow, the highlight of which will be Father Cano providing his first blessing to all in attendance. "I'm very thankful to Father Timothy Alkire, the pastor of St. Boniface, for his many years of support and inviting me to return to the parish to offer this Solemn Mass." said Father Cano. Members of Una Voce Carmel, a lay organization advocating greater use of the extraordinary form of Mass and other sacraments within the diocese, also will be available. ### Contacts: Michael Hughes Webmaster, Una Voce Carmel (317) 313-1581 info@uvcarmel.org http://www.uvcarmel.org Scott Arbuckle President, Una Voce Carmel (317) 581-0315 president@uvcarmel.org http://www.uvcarmel.org _________________ Pax Christi, Roger

Archbishop Burke approves new oratory for Latin Mass Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:28 pm (GMT -5) http://www.stlouisreview.com/article.php?id=14286 November 30, 2007 Archbishop Burke approves new oratory for Latin Mass by Jean M. Schildz, Review Staff Writer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has announced he is establishing this weekend the Oratory of St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury at the Abbey of St. Mary and St. Louis in Creve Coeur. The oratory will be the new West County home for the regular celebration of the "extraordinary form" of the Mass, commonly known as the traditional or Tridentine Latin Mass. The decree of erection establishing the oratory will take effect the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2. This will be the archdiocese's second such oratory, or nonterritorial parish, that has been set aside for the celebration of the Latin Mass. St. Francis de Sales Oratory was the first, established by Archbishop Burke in 2005. As part of the archbishop's decree, he appointed Benedictine Father Bede Price to the office of rector of the oratory, effective Dec. 2. That day Father Price will celebrate the first traditional Latin Mass at the oratory at 10:30 a.m. The oratory will then celebrate Latin Mass Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and Mondays through Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. The Masses will take place in St. Anselm Parish Centre Chapel on the grounds of St. Louis Abbey, 530 S. Mason Road. The site was chosen in part because it is easily accessible to Catholics residing in West County and surrounding areas. The archbishop in a prepared statement Nov. 27 told the Review, "I am most grateful that I have been able to provide fitting pastoral care for the faithful in the West County and surrounding area, who desire the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy according to the 'extraordinary use.' The celebration of the Sacred Liturgy at the Oratory of St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury, and the pastoral life at the oratory will bring added richness of grace to the life of the Church in the archdiocese." He expressed his deepest gratitude to Abbot Thomas Frerking, OSB, of the Abbey of St. Mary and St. Louis, and the monks of the abbey, "who have so generously worked with me in providing for the oratory." Archbishop Burke said Abbot Thomas had generously agreed to erect the oratory at the abbey "for those desiring the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, according to the rites in force in 1962" and to present Father Price for appointment to the office of oratory rector. Noted the archbishop, "The abbey, with the collaboration of the archdiocese, is preparing a most fitting chapel for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy." The abbot told the Review in an interview earlier this fall that his community will offer the Latin Mass as a part of its apostolate while continuing to offer Mass in the ordinary form. The new West County oratory has been placed under the protection of two major Benedictine saints: St. Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604 and a Doctor of the Church, and St. Augustine of Canterbury, who brought Roman Catholicism to England and was the first archbishop of Canterbury. The two saints knew each other; it was St. Gregory who sent St. Augustine out to England as a missionary. Their names were chosen as a way to honor the abbey "because of the ministry entrusted to the English Benedictines," said Father Thomas Keller. The archdiocese's master of ceremonies has been working with the archbishop for several months to find a viable site at which to celebrate the Latin Mass in West County since the departure this past summer of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. The Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem for the past four years had been celebrating the Latin Mass according to the rites in force in 1962 at the Passionist Monastery in Ellisville. Father Keller began caring for the community of 75 to 100 people when the order left. Father Price began assisting Father Keller in October. The community now will be served by the oratory at the abbey. Other monks as they are trained in the traditional Latin rite will later assist Father Price, Father Keller said. Father Price has been on the staff at Priory School for 15 years. He teaches history and theology part time there. He entered the Benedictine community in 1990, and has a master's in history from the University of Oxford, England, and a master's in theology from St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Ind. He will be joining three fellow monks now serving as parish priests: two at St. Anselm and the pastor of St. Ignatius in Concord Hill. Father Price said both he and his Benedictine community "are quite excited to serve this new community in this capacity." The oratory community, though small, is growing, he said, "with lots of little babies. It's a very cozy, family environment." Added the soon-to-be oratory rector, "It's a great honor for all of us that the archbishop is wanting to entrust this to us. He told me when he spoke to me he thinks it is appropriate that the Benedictines do this work because we have a reputation for doing the liturgy well, which was certainly a compliment to the community here." Father Price also thanked Father Karl Lenhardt, rector of St. Francis de Sales Oratory, for his strong support and Father Keller for his tireless help "in keeping this little community together." Father Price noted that the oratory will celebrate the traditional Latin Mass for Christmas Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and a sung High Mass on Christmas Day at 10:30 a.m. Father Lenhardt of St. Francis de Sales is the archdiocese's episcopal vicar for the traditional Latin Mass. He called the establishment of the second oratory providential, as was the oratory of his order, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. The archbishop erected St. Francis de Sales Oratory two years before Pope Benedict XVI published his apostolic letter, "Summorum Pontificum," which allows for greater use of the Tridentine Mass. "The presence of the former discipline of the celebration of the holy Mass and also the liturgy of the other sacraments and devotions is not something that is simply a part of past history, ... preference of taste or aesthetics, but it should be a normal part of the life of the Church." It is the archbishop's as well as the pope's intentions, he said, "to provide not only the necessary, but good pastoral care for all the faithful who wish to experience this continuity in the liturgy of the Church." Father Lenhardt added he was particularly grateful and pleased the oratory was connected to the Benedictines, who he said are renowned for their care of the liturgy. "I have no doubt this beautiful treasure of the Church is in the right hands at the abbey." Teresa and David White and their family of four of Moscow Mills in Lincoln County have been part of the Ellisville Latin Mass community and plan to attend Mass at the new oratory. After the Canons left, said Teresa, "there was a great degree of uncertainty as to what would happen to the availability of the Latin Mass." She was very thankful that the archbishop was "committed in his heart to making available a viable solution to keep and prorogate the Latin Mass in West County." White called the move to the abbey "wonderful in the sense that it gives our little community a permanent home" and visible exposure. It opens the doors for others "to enter into the spirituality of the 1962 Latin missal." Added White, "It's wonderful that he's given us that security, because we didn't have that."

Sex abuse settlement, the pope's visit and ecumenism: Cardin Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:23 pm (GMT -5) Sex abuse settlement, the pope's visit and ecumenism: Cardinal Mahony speaks with NCR By John L Allen Jr All Things Catholic National Catholic Reporter Friday, November 30, 2007 http://ncrcafe.org/node/1475 Los Angeles is the capital of the world's entertainment industry, and since 1985 the Catholic church there has been led by a figure seemingly made for Tinseltown: Cardinal Roger Mahony, 71, perhaps the most media-savvy American bishop (among other things, Mahony is an Internet adept) and something of a cultural celebrity in his own right. The latest confirmation came earlier this month with the publication of a novel, billed as "reality fiction," by American Catholic writer Robert Blair Kaiser titled Cardinal Mahony. In the novel, the Los Angeles prelate is kidnapped by a group of liberation theologians from Latin America, put on trial in Mexico (after being spirited away in his own helicopter), and converted to the need for sweeping reform. The fictional Mahony apparently ends up leading American Catholics in demanding what the book's publisher describes as "citizenship in their church." We need your help. John L. Allen's column, All Things Catholic, is made available to you -- at no charge -- by the National Catholic Reporter. We ask that you consider making a financial donation to help support NCR in this endeavor. Please make a donation now to the Friends of NCR campaign. Online donations can be made Donate Online Or donations can be sent to National Catholic Reporter, 115 E. Armour Blvd. Kansas City, MO 64111 USA. Please make checks payable to NCR If you prefer, you can print a form for submitting your donation by check or credit card. Print a Form We appreciate your help. You make a difference! National Catholic Reporter is a nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible in the United States. I bumped into Mahony in the Vatican's Synod Hall on Nov. 23, waiting for a meeting of the College of Cardinals with the pope. He said he had read most of the novel during his flight to Rome; asked for a reaction, he simply laughed. As is often the case with celebrities these days, Mahony is also dogged by his share of controversy. Recently, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles concluded what will almost certainly be the largest single settlement related to the American sexual abuse crisis -- a $660 million payout, shared by the archdiocese, most religious orders sued in California (with the exception of the Salesians), and insurance carriers. That amount reflects not only the size and wealth of the archdiocese, but also a 2002 California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits against private organizations whose personnel abused children. The settlement closes some 500 claims at roughly $1 million each. The process of collecting more than 700 signatures to finalize the settlement was completed in mid-November. On Monday, Nov. 26, Mahony sat down in Rome for an interview with NCR to discuss the settlement, the legacy of the sexual abuse crisis, Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the United States in April 2008, and the consistory itself. The full text of that interview is available in the Special Documents section of NCRonline.org [3]. The following are excerpts. I also filed daily reports during the consistory, which can be found here: http://ncrcafe.org/blog/2682 [4] NCR: You've just concluded a $660 million settlement in Los Angeles designed to end your litigation related to the sexual abuse crisis. Do you feel a sense of relief? Mahony: I don't look at it that way. Having met with dozens and dozens of victims, over 70 so far, I believe the closure of this is important for them. I didn't realize how much more they'd been through, even by filing lawsuits. They had to fill out claimant questionnaires and say all kinds of things about their personal lives. Their attorneys asked them to do videos of their experience. They've had to bare their souls, which for many of them reopened the past. Most of them see the settlement as the last time they'll have to go through all this. Secondly, they see the settlement, as I do, as a ratification that they were harmed. This is a public acknowledgment that they were harmed. Even though the language of the settlement may not use the terms "fault" and "no fault," it is a ratification, an acknowledgement by the church, that you were harmed. While money doesn't resolve the past, it is an acknowledgement, and I think that's very important for them. There are those who charge that you spent $660 million to save yourself the personal embarrassment of sitting in the witness box during a jury trial. How do you respond to that? First of all, I respond with a very big smile. Part of our strategy, and our settlement judge knew this all along, is that the only way to get insurance companies to settle is if it would cost them more not to settle. The only way that can happen is to get a verdict from a jury. Therefore, we purposefully chose cases with huge coverage amounts and went to the court, more than a year ago, and got them set for trial. People say we're afraid of a trial? We're the ones who got the cases set for trial. We wanted them set for trial. It was that date approaching that broke things loose. In fact, the day we had the formal presentation of the settlement in court -- Monday, July 16 -- was the date the first trial was to start. A week before that, the insurance guys wanted no part of this [settlement]. The judge met with them all and said, 'Well, if you don't want to participate and you want to go to trial next Monday, I would suggest you go home and get ready for trial. There's no sense sitting around here.' The judge dismissed them and left the courtroom. They didn't leave. The bailiff came back later and told the judge, 'You know those guys you sent home? They're all still here.' He let them sit for an hour or two. In the end, they blinked. Secondly, with respect to me testifying, 95 percent of the cases occurred before I came, and I would have very little to say. In fact, the first case concerned a fellow who was ill when I arrived and died within my first year. I wouldn't be able to tell them anything about it. Actually, I was looking forward to it, because I was going to use the opportunity to explain what we've done to make sure this doesn't happen again. I had no problem with testifying. As matter of church law, alienation of property requires approval of the Holy See. Specifically, it goes to the Congregation for Clergy, and, for settlements related to sexual abuse, also Secretariat of State. What has your experience been in dealing with the Vatican? They've been extremely supportive. Of our total settlement, we've only needed to get permission to alienate $200 million. [The rest of the $660 million will come from insurance companies, religious orders, and internal borrowing.] I've just come from a meeting in the Congregation for Clergy to discuss it. Would you say the Vatican has been on a learning curve? Some [in the Vatican] get it, and some don't. I would say that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Clergy people get it. Perhaps it's because those two offices have been on the front lines of the crisis -- the CDF for the doctrinal and disciplinary issues, and Clergy for the money? That's right. Cardinal Hummes particularly has been extremely helpful. [Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes is Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.] Cardinal Rodé also has been very helpful. [Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé is Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, popularly known as the Congregation for Religious.] He gave us the key principle this past May. He said the religious institutes must bear full responsibility for their members, and the dioceses for their members. He said that's the only formula that's going to work, and that's the formula we've been following. Some of the other folks, in some of the other offices, the ones from whom we had the most skepticism, are now happily retired! Shifting gears, what do you think the importance of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States next April will be? It will be the first time the American people see him a bit more up-close. Of course, it will depend in part on what he has to say. What message will you be looking for? I would hope that he would recognize the vitality of the church in the United States, particularly the vitality of parish life. I hope he'll talk about lay involvement, lay leadership, and lay ministry -- as a plus, a real plus … (laughs) as opposed to that document from the eight dicasteries! [The reference is to a 1997 Vatican document issued by eight Vatican offices raising concerns about lay ministry.] I hope he acknowledges that this is where the church is growing, and that we're going in the right direction. I maintain that this is why we're not Italy or France or someplace else, because we've been able to do that. John Paul II acknowledged that all the time, so I hope Benedict will emphasize that. I think it's also important to acknowledge the faith of our people, especially during the six or seven years of this crisis. Our people have remained so faith-filled. They realize that the church is not about perpetrators of sexual abuse, it's about Jesus Christ and his abiding presence with the church. That's the core. It's not about us people along the way or various segments of history, it's the presence of Christ. I've been in awe of the faith of our people, the way that they've rallied around their priests and been so supportive of their priests in the parishes. … I think the Holy Spirit does that for us. Do you think Benedict XVI will have to address the sexual abuse crisis? Oh, absolutely. I think it's a unique opportunity for him to do that. He's got to. He cannot avoid that. Where he does it, I'm not sure. I would hope he says something in both his homilies to large gatherings of the Catholic faithful, not just the meeting of the bishops. That isn't going to be helpful. I think he needs to say something in the public arena to our people. I think he needs to make it clear that he understands. I must say, I think he does [understand]. He was most helpful at the CDF in getting things changed that we needed changed. So, I'm hoping that in those two arenas, he'll say something. [Benedict XVI is expected to celebrate public Masses in Nationals Stadium in Washington, D.C., and Yankee Stadium in New York.] You took part in the business meeting of the College of Cardinals with the pope, devoted largely to the issue of Christian unity. Did you hear anything new? I thought that Cardinal Kasper's report was a good overview of where we are. … He pointed out where the obstacles and challenges remain. What I found fascinating was that the cardinals were all into this topic. I think at first some thought that Kasper would gave his report, then there'd be a comment or two, and then there would be other issues. Actually, basically the whole day, even the evening, was all on this. As I listen to both ecumenical experts and bishops, it seems that a gradual shift has been taking shape away from focusing primarily on theological dialogue, toward more practical cooperation on socio-cultural concerns. Does that seem right? Absolutely. Just to give you one vivid example in the archdiocese, in the inner city we have a large Central American parish, St. Thomas the Apostle. Right next to it is Santa Sophia, the Los Angeles cathedral for the Greek Orthodox. Recently we had an arson fire at St. Thomas the Apostle, and it was closed for almost a year. The fire was on Friday night, and the next Sunday I went to celebrate Mass in the parking lot with the parishioners. You know who was there? The [Orthodox] pastor from next door, along with the Greek Orthodox Archbishop from San Francisco, who came down for the Mass. They loaned their facilities to the parish. It was just phenomenal. I joked with the archbishop, saying, 'If you and I wanted, we could just declare unity and let the folks in Istanbul and Rome figure it out. We could deal with them later!' The fact is, we do so much together on so many fronts. How did you find the pope? I found him very alert. As usual, the way he can sum up everything at the end of a session is just incredible. He listens, he's obviously taking notes. At the end of the morning and evening sessions, he gave a few points that captured the discussion well. He didn't announce any new ecumenical initiative? No. There were some suggestions from cardinals that perhaps we need another summit. You mean like the inter-religious summits in Assisi under John Paul II, this time for other Christian bodies? Yes, but nobody really thought we're ready for that at this point.

"You don't harass them" Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:04 am (GMT -5) "You don't harass them" Pastor who had pro-life parishioner arrested takes different approach when it comes to homosexuals California Catholic Daily November 30, 2007 http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=12c10d41-4fd0-4975-a297-acb387633d83 Q: What do pro-life activist Ross Foti and the homosexual-friendly Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco have in common? A: Fr. Anthony E. McGuire. McGuire is the pastor at St. Matthew's parish in San Mateo who told Foti to cover signs of aborted babies he displayed on his truck and who recently had Foti arrested when he attended Mass at St. Matthew's. (McGuire had banned him from the parish.) But McGuire was also the pastor who, according to a recent book, made Most Holy Redeemer parish in the Castro gay friendly in the early '80s. In his short biography as director of the United States Bishops Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, McGuire wrote that as a priest of the San Francisco archdiocese, "I pastored a parish with a large gay community and helped the community respond to an AIDS crisis in a resourceful, creative and spiritual way." This parish was Most Holy Redeemer, which, led by the Rev. Anthony McGuire, said the Sept. 17, 1987 New York Times, "raised funds for and rented space at low cost to the Coming Home Hospice, which houses 15 AIDS patients," among other things. According to the recently published Gays and Grays: The Story of the Inclusion of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish by Jesuit Fr. Donal Godfrey, San Francisco's former archbishop, John Quinn, sent McGuire to Most Holy Redeemer in 1982 to minister to the area's homosexuals. Quinn "chose a man who turned out to be especially suited to the new sociological profile of the parish. Under Father Anthony McGuire -- 'Fr. Tony' -- the parish was reborn." (Godfrey's quotes are from excerpts published in an Aug. 28 posting on the web site "A Shepherd's Voice.") Godfrey notes how the Rev. Jim Mitsulki of the homosexual Metropolitan Community Church said that, during McGuire's time at the parish, there was "a certain revolving-door factor operating between their respective congregations. Some attended services at both churches… Sometimes parishioners from Most Holy Redeemer went to MCC for same-sex weddings they could not hold at MHR." Regarding these "married" homosexual couples, Godfrey quotes McGuire: "Well the question in my mind was, the people who make a conscientious decision to live together as a gay couple, and then they come to communion, just like people who make a similar decision on birth control, you don't harass them. You respect their decision. The next step was, 'Can a clearly gay couple take on open ministries in the church?' Like if a gay couple apply for ordination, that would clearly be an obex [obex is Latin term meaning "hindrance"]. What about Eucharistic Ministers? I thought maybe I should consult [Archbishop Quinn], but then we already had them!" Godfrey notes McGuire's "marvelous sense of humor" – as when in the homily at his final Mass of Thanksgiving in the parish, McGuire "deadpanned that when he first arrived in the parish, he just thought 'Hail Holy Queen' was a good entrance hymn!" Then there was the AA Halloween party in the church hall, where everyone (unannounced to McGuire) was in "either in drag or wearing practically nothing!" Godfrey writes that the next day, a woman who, "in [McGuire's] words, was 'the second most uptight parishioner,' called and was furious. She berated him over the impropriety of such goings-on on church property. 'It was like Sodom and Gomorrah!' she thundered. To which McGuire answered meekly, with his mischievous humor, 'Well, maybe Sodom'." McGuire told California Catholic Daily that he does not think "anything our church teaches says we should be anti-homosexuals. We take each person on their journey to God and help them along the way." When asked whether he agreed that homosexual acts are sinful, McGuire replied, "I accept the teaching of the Church, but I also accept individual people who are trying to come closer to the Lord, to help them along the way." Asked whether, in accepting the teaching of the Church, he affirmed that homosexual acts are sinful, McGuire said, "I accept the fact that, yeah, homosexual acts are essentially disordered, is the way that the Church explains it."

Making the Church matter in Quebec Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:18 am (GMT -5) nationalpost.com Making the Church matter in Quebec Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post Published: Thursday, November 29, 2007 Last week Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City, made front-page news across the country with his open letter asking forgiveness for the sins of the past. Yesterday in this space, my colleague George Jonas devoted his column to that apology. And in Quebec, the Cardinal's intervention dominated the news. The open letter of last week caps a year for Cardinal Ouellet in which something extraordinary has become ordinary again. The Archbishop of Quebec is once again a public figure of consequence. For some time now, the bishops of Quebec have been at the margins of public life. Often they were not even offered the courtesy of being denounced; they were simply ignored. Which was altogether strange, because in the last several decades the local Catholic bishop has emerged in a variety of situations as the most prominent, if not singular, public religious voice. In the English-speaking world, the archbishops of Westminster (London), New York, Sydney and Toronto have assumed that mantle, a rather startling turn of events in cities where not so long ago Catholics were considered second-class citizens. In places as different as the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, Hong Kong, Kenya and Zimbabwe, Catholic bishops have taken a central role in public debates. Yet in Quebec, the Catholic voice has been muted. In January, then Parti Quebecois leader Andre Boisclair called for the removal of the crucifix that hangs in the National Assembly. The usual script calls for various religious groups to object meekly, and then for the crucifix to be moved to a heritage room in some obscure wing of the building. Cardinal Ouellet tried a different line, opposed the proposal vigorously and won the argument. This month, Boisclair resigned from the National Assembly. The crucifix is still there. Then Cardinal Ouellet opposed the provincial government's plan to remove religious instruction from the public schools and to replace it with a survey course of world religions. Long accustomed to the Church in Quebec adjusting itself to ever-increasing secularization, the Cardinal's robust objections at least sparked a debate. His boldest intervention came before Quebec's "reasonable accommodations" commission in October. Observing that "secular fundamentalists" had dominated Quebec life since the Quiet Revolution, he argued that this was a historical rupture: "Quebec society has rested for 400 years on two pillars: French culture and the Catholic religion, which form the base that enables it to integrate other elements of its current pluralist identity." "A people whose identity has been strongly configured for centuries by the Catholic faith cannot from one day to the next (a few decades are short in the life of a people) empty itself of substance without resulting in serious consequences at all levels," Ouellet argued. "We must relearn that respect for religion which has shaped the identity of the people and respect for all religions without yielding to pressure from the secular fundamentalists who clamour for the exclusion of religion from public life." Similar things are said routinely by Catholic leaders in Munich, Madrid and Milan, but the reaction from the "secular fundamentalists" in Montreal was fierce. So fierce, indeed, that it could not have been the substance alone of Cardinal Ouellet's remarks which provoked such a response; it was the very fact that he was making them. This bishop had forgotten his place. His appearance before the commission was styled as a call for a return to the Dark Ages, which in Quebec does not mean the first millennium, but the 1950s -- la Grande Noirceur, the "great darkness" of the Duplessis era. Hence the open letter of last week. Cardinal Ouellet's request for forgiveness was a way of saying that he did not defend what should not be defended in the Church's past. His argument is that Quebec culture has been shaped by the Catholic faith, for good or ill. That he believes that it is for the good does not mean he is blind to the ill. The public emergence of Cardinal Ouellet and the visceral reactions against his interventions are themselves part of the same identity crisis which has generated the debate over reasonable accommodations. Since the Quiet Revolution, it has been accepted that to be a modern Quebecer meant relegating -- often with disdain -- religion to the purely private sphere. When a few Muslims declined to live as deracinated secularists, the whole province was plunged into the current melodrama. Similarly, the emergence of the Cardinal is something both novel, and to many, threatening. By no means should Cardinal Ouellet's influence be overstated. He is almost always playing defence. But the fact that he is even on the ice, refusing to be confined to the penalty box, is remarkable, and welcome. _________________ http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Pope's New Encyclical on Hope Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:04 am (GMT -5) Link to Original ENCYCLICAL LETTER SPE SALVI OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN HOPE Introduction 1. "SPE SALVI facti sumus"—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, "redemption"—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here? Faith is Hope 2. Before turning our attention to these timely questions, we must listen a little more closely to the Bible's testimony on hope. "Hope", in fact, is a key word in Biblical faith—so much so that in several passages the words "faith" and "hope" seem interchangeable. Thus the Letter to the Hebrews closely links the "fullness of faith" (10:22) to "the confession of our hope without wavering" (10:23). Likewise, when the First Letter of Peter exhorts Christians to be always ready to give an answer concerning the logos—the meaning and the reason—of their hope (cf. 3:15), "hope" is equivalent to "faith". We see how decisively the self-understanding of the early Christians was shaped by their having received the gift of a trustworthy hope, when we compare the Christian life with life prior to faith, or with the situation of the followers of other religions. Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were "without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). Of course he knew they had had gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths. Notwithstanding their gods, they were "without God" and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future. In nihil ab nihilo quam cito recidimus (How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing): 1 so says an epitaph of that period. In this phrase we see in no uncertain terms the point Paul was making. In the same vein he says to the Thessalonians: you must not "grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Th 4:13). Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only "good news"—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only "informative" but "performative". That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life. _________________ http://ColleenHammond.blogspot.com

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