At two points in the Melkite Akathist service, the priest incenses the congregation and the icon of the Theotokos, while the congregation sing the Kontakion of the Annunciation (Tone 8):
Triumphant Leader, to you belongs our prize of victory!
And since you saved us from adversity, we offer you our thanks: we are your people, O Mother of God!
So, as you have that invincible power, continue to deliver us from danger, that we may cry out to you: Hail, O Virgin and Bride ever pure!
Scranton's bishop Joseph Martino has been doing a great job lately of communicating the Catholic faith in public in spite of opposition, instructing Catholic institutions and public officials, and through them, the faithful at large. He's shown a commitment to prevent Church events from being used to honor reprehensible politicians. He's reminded a Catholic college to show its commitment to Catholic moral teaching and distance itself from any endorsement of immorality. He's taught politicians publicly about such as the injustice of government tolerance for abortion, let alone subsidy of it, and
When I read the Bishop's letter to the misguided Senator Bob Casey Jr., whose voting record is not worthy of the Casey name, I noticed that Bp. Martino is the holder of an earned doctorate in Church history. Now that's not a common accomplishment among bishops. The most prominent bishop I know of with a similar background is the estimable George Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, who made his studies at Oxford.
We certainly need more such bishops like these: able to stand against the fashions of the moment and teach Christian doctrine. Perhaps we can start looking for bishops among other priests with a background in Church history, and with reason: men with enough interest in Church history to study it in depth are likely to have particular qualities of temperament that the Church needs, such as an admiration for sacred tradition. That is an important quality in this time, when Pope Benedict wants to promote a correct understanding of the Second Vatican Council as a development in continuity with the preceding 1962 years of Church life, and not a breach from it.
Furthermore, bishops with a knowledge of past relations between society, the state, and the teaching Church can have a realistic understanding about what is possible and what is not: that pleasing everyone and leaving problems unattended is not the pathway to peace.
After several weeks of bad publicity surrounding the Vatican, it's good to see that Pope Benedict dealt with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Gomorrah) in just the right way. As America's most powerful pro-abortion bad-Catholic politician, she went to Italy to get an award from some secular group and a photo op with His Holiness.
Pelosi particularly needed some instruction after she misrepresented Catholic teaching on abortion in a Meet the Fawning Press interview last year.
With the help of some advance briefing by American pro-lifers, the Vatican let her come, meet the Pope, get some instruction on her duty to defend life, and leave with no photo.
Perfect.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday told U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life "at all stages of its development."
Pelosi is the first top Democrat to meet with Benedict since the election of Barack Obama, who won a majority of the American Catholic vote despite differences with the Vatican on abortion.
The Vatican released the pope's remarks to Pelosi, saying Benedict spoke of the church's teaching "on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death." That is an expression often used by the pope when expressing opposition to abortion.
Benedict said all Catholics -- especially legislators, jurists and political leaders -- should work to create "a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."
In an e-mail issued by her office, Pelosi did not mention the allusion to abortion.
She said it was with "great joy" that she and her husband, Paul, met with Benedict.
"In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church's leadership in fighting poverty, hunger and global warming, as well as the Holy Father's dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel," she said.
The 15-minute meeting was closed to reporters and photographers. The two met in a small room off a Vatican auditorium after the pope's weekly public audience.
The Vatican said it was not issuing a photo of the meeting -- as it usually does when the pope meets world leaders -- saying the encounter was private. The statement said the pope "briefly greeted" Pelosi and did not mention any other subject they may have discussed.
A number of the bishops in the United States have questioned Pelosi's stance on abortion, particularly her theological defense of her support for abortion rights.
It's a steel cage canon-law death match! It's Vere versus the Peters team! Well, maybe not.
Since a new set of Maciel revelations emerged this week, several thoughtful proposals have appeared on how the priests of the Legion of Christ can purify their community and recover.
Canon law professor Ed Peters calls for an investigation, an "apostolic visitation" -- imposed by Rome if the Legion doesn't ask for it -- and suggests that the community could dissolve itself and make a new founding.
Our Pete Vere, JCL, said in a CNA interview and in an interview with the Legion-affiliated Zenit news service that good priests in the Legion can reform it, acknowledge the truth about Fr. Maciel, and "return to being a vibrant part of the Catholic Church."
The distinguished philosopher Germain Grisez offers advice to his friends in the Legion: the present institute and its current leadership cannot salvage the community, restore trust, and preserve the good that this community has built. The Church knows that membership in a religious institute is not an absolute, Grisez argues, and a misplaced loyalty to the Legion organization or to its current superiors may be a failure to do one's duty for the Church.
So far, I think that the argument is with those who urge a clean refounding. The reputation of the Legion is utterly ruined; the revelations of a repressive "corporate culture" make it look like a cult -- formation manuals, some of which have been leaked to the Internet, regulated behavior, even down to the details of how members are to butter their rolls -- and yet there are so many good men in LC and good men and women in Regnum Christi who love our Lord Jesus Christ and want to serve Him in His Church, and who deserve to do so without the burden of shame that their founder's corruption currently places on them.
