An obvious headline with a funny typo, compliments of the Western Catholic Reporter
John Schultz: October 2006 Archives
FIFA have revealed that more than half of the players treated on the pitch during this summer's World Cup were not actually injured.The world body's chief medical officer, Professor Jiri Dvorak, presented his findings to the FIFA referees committee today and they showed a cheating culture at the highest level of the game.
According to Professor Dvorak, there were too many players feigning injury in Germany, with tactical reasons presented as the most likely cause of their action. ...full from ESPN
New Auxiliary Bishop for Birmingham...Bishop Kenney added: "Since I was a boy at St Philip's I have associated Newman with Birmingham rather than with Oxford. Among the first seriou music I remember listening to was The Dream of Gerontius. Whenever I hear it now, it is associated with the Town Hall in Birmingham. I sincerely hope and pray for the beatification and canonization of Cardinal Newman." ...full
If you want to hear a masterpiece of classical music that is truly Catholic listen to Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. It's the story of a soul passing from death on earth to eternity, and it's magnificent. And if you can find the live recording with Jon Vickers singing Gerontius, you'll be hearing one of the greatest oratorio recordings of all time.
U.S. lay ministers may not cleanse Communion vessels, Pope Benedict says By Nancy Frazier O'Brien 10/24/2006Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – At the direction of Pope Benedict XVI, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion will no longer be permitted to assist in the purification of the sacred vessels at Masses in the United States.In an Oct. 23 letter, Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked his fellow bishops to inform all pastors of the change, which was prompted by a letter from Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
The U.S. bishops had asked the Vatican to extend an indult – or church permission – in effect since 2002 allowing extraordinary ministers of holy Communion to help cleanse the Communion cups and plates when there were not enough priests or deacons to do so.
Bishop Skylstad, who heads the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., said Cardinal Arinze asked Pope Benedict about the matter during a June 9 audience, "and received a response in the negative." ...full
Bishops to vote on new directory, norms for liturgical musicBy Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News ServiceWASHINGTON (CNS) -- To ensure that the hymns used at Mass are "doctrinally correct" and based on Scripture and liturgical texts, the U.S. bishops will debate and vote on a new directory for music and the liturgy at their Nov. 13-16 meeting in Baltimore.
Each bishops' conference around the world was directed to draw up such a directory within five years after the 2001 Vatican instruction "Liturgiam Authenticam" ("The Authentic Liturgy"). Within another three years, the bishops' Committee on the Liturgy is to propose a common repertoire of liturgical songs for all Latin-rite Masses celebrated in the United States.
The directory is intended to serve "not so much as a list of approved and unapproved songs as a process by which bishops might regulate the quality of the text of songs composed for use in the liturgy," said Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, in an introduction to the document.
If approved by two-thirds of the bishops, the directory and norms would be sent to the Vatican for its assent.
The draft document says the U.S. church "has been greatly blessed both by a hymnody drawn from a number of great traditions and by the contributions of composers and lyricists of liturgical songs over the past 40 years of the liturgical reform."
"Composers are urged to continue to seek ways in which liturgical song can grow organically from the tradition that the voice of the church might sing the ancient hymn with new conviction in our own day and age," the directory adds.
But there have been "certain challenges" in the use of liturgical songs, the document says. "While works of poetic art should not be judged in the same way as catechetical texts, liturgical songs can benefit from certain doctrinal judgments."
A set of norms to be considered along with the directory says each diocesan bishop is responsible for approving liturgical songs in his diocese, assisted by the directory, the bishops' Secretariat for the Liturgy and a local review committee of theologians, liturgists and musicians.
Without naming any specific hymns, the directory cites several examples of "tendencies which may compromise an individual song's doctrinal integrity":
-- Any "statements about the faith which are untrue."
-- Compromising the doctrine of the Trinity by "consistent replacement of masculine pronominal references to the three divine persons."
-- Any "emphasis on the work of the members of the church" that fails to recognize "the doctrine of grace and our complete dependence on the grace of God to accomplish anything."
-- Efforts to eliminate "archaic language" that "alter the meaning and essential theological structure of a venerable liturgical song."
In addition, any repertoire of liturgical songs "should reflect a balanced approach to Catholic theological elements," the draft document says.
Citing "Liturgiam Authenticam," the directory also says that the number of songs available for use in Catholic worship "must be relatively fixed."
"The sheer number of such liturgical songs has militated against the establishment of a common repertoire," it says. "Cultural forces which prize novelty and innovation can sometimes drive a competitive commercial climate which seeks to satisfy a desire for constant change.
"While this dynamic has often benefited the church and her liturgy, it also seems desirable that a certain stable core of liturgical songs might well serve as an exemplary and stabilizing factor," the directory adds.
"People sometimes give their priests some slack when it comes to things like having a temper or drinking. What really makes them angry is if you take money from the donations they've given and spend it on gambling & carousing. People don't forgive when you spend their hard earned money, given in faith, on living the high life."
As for the story: looks like there are now two fewer bad apples in the orchard.
Remember: Religion. Of. Peace.
Islamist Holiday Video Calls for Jihad and Slaughter of "Crusaders"This ten-minute video titled "Rise Up," was posted on Islamist websites on October 22, 2006, and was described as "a gift for 'Eid Al-Fitr." Produced by an individual identified as "Abu Osama" (whose real identity is unknown), it calls on the Muslims to wage jihad against the "Crusaders." A caption in the film explains that Abu Osama produced the film on the occasion of the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq. ...full article from MEMRI
From the WashTimes:
An Episcopal congregation in Woodbridge whose members were unhappy with liberal trends in the Episcopal Church suddenly dissolved itself last week, leaving the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia with a $420,000 bill from the property's mortgage.
The members of Christ Our Lord Episcopal Church, a mission congregation founded in 1992, has since reconstituted under the Anglican Diocese of North Kigezi in Uganda as Christ Our Lord Anglican Church. It is the third mission to leave the diocese because of the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson as the world's first openly homosexual bishop, but the first to abandon its property. ...full
It's doubtful there will be a negative financial impact since land in Northern VA is getting harder and harder to come by. The diocese could sell the land for a tidy profit if they so choose.
Too bad the congregation couldn't make the big leap back to Rome. Because - how much more of a leap would that be, when you get down to the brass tacks of Scripture & Tradition?
The story comes from Texas after all.
Baptists renounce speaking in tongues
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Trustees at a Baptist seminary have put it in writing: They will not tolerate any promotion of speaking in tongues on their campus.
The 36-1 vote Tuesday came nearly two months after the Rev. Dwight McKissic of Arlington, Texas, said during a chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that he sometimes speaks in tongues while praying.
Mr. McKissic, a new trustee at the Fort Worth school, cast the lone dissenting vote on the resolution.
It states: "Southwestern will not knowingly endorse in any way, advertise or commend the conclusions of the contemporary charismatic movement including private prayer language. Neither will Southwestern knowingly employ professors or administrators who promote such practices." ...full
I'm sure this will be on the evening news tonite, between carjackings.
Pope set to bring back Latin Mass that divided the Church By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent THE Pope is taking steps to revive the ancient tradition of the Latin Tridentine Mass in Catholic churches worldwide, according to sources in Rome.Pope Benedict XVI is understood to have signed a universal indult — or permission — for priests to celebrate again the Mass used throughout the Church for nearly 1,500 years. The indult could be published in the next few weeks, sources told The Times. ...more
UN Security Council to Investigate Page Program of the US Congress
Speaker Hastert Cancels Page Program, Triples Funding for Intern Program
Gas Prices Drop To Under $45 A Barrell On Concerns Americans Are Sitting At Home Watching Cable News For The Very Latest On Page Scandal Firestorm
Evangelicals Declare Scandal Marks The Coming of Armageddon - Begin "Duck & Cover" Drills At Homeschools
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh to Head Page Program Probe
Democrats on Secret October Surprise Committee Uncork Champagne, Dance
Prime Minister Of France Cancels US Trip Citing "The Stench of Immorality"
Yes. These are all fake. Except the one about Louis Freeh.
Update - Looks like Louis Freeh isn't going to investigate. But it was seriously talked about.
Conspiracies Abound In the Middle East Press
The MEMRI Report
By STEVEN STALINSKY
October 4, 2006
Controversies in the Middle East are surrounded by conspiracy theories that proliferate in the region's press. Recent conspiracies have involved the identity of the person behind the cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the genocide in Darfur, and the true perpetrators of terrorist attacks worldwide.
The latest Middle East conspiracy was hatched September 12, following Pope Benedict XVI's contentious speech in Germany on Islam. Influential Middle East press and broadcast outlets and prominent figures claimed that America, Jews, Zionists, and/or Israel were really behind his comments.
... Full article
