Author: John Schultz

The Richard DeLong “Prayer of Saint Francis” – it’s a lyrical 20th century piece. Challenging for the choir, but some interesting colors in the harmony.

It is a devil of a job but someone has to do it. Applications are invited for exorcism training at the Vatican’s Rome university, the Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum. The 10-week course includes sessions in exorcism rites, how to talk to the Devil, the tricks he uses to fight back and signs of the occult hidden in rock music and video games. more…

I was up in the middle of the night listening to five or six barred owls and their territorial call (click here to listen). One was very close to the house, the others were farther down the street. They were getting fresh for about half an hour.

My editorial provided in the brackets.
Married [former] priests call on pope to end celibacy rule

WIESBADEN, GERMANY – Some 80 Catholic former priests ended a four-day meeting in Germany Monday by issuing an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an end to Rome’s nine-century-old policy that forbids priests to marry.
“We want the practice of the married priest in the Eastern Church to be implemented in the Western Catholic Church,” said conference spokesman Heinz-Juergen Vogels.
[And we also want to have our cake and eat it too! We want Christmas in July! And we want a pony!]

The irony shouldn’t escape anyone. If one’s vocation is abandoned, one shouldn’t petition Rome to make disciplinary changes – as if that was the problem in the first place. There are plenty of former priests who are living quiet, holy lives in support of the dogmas of the Church and the disciplines of each vocation.

I’m sure most Catholic Light readers are all in favor of the Vatican reviewing American seminaries. While looking for “evidence of homosexuality” sounds outrageous to some, the Church needs an educational system that is capable of preparing men for life-long celibacy and fidelity to the Church.
A side benefit: you probably won’t hear any show tunes at Catholic seminaries any time soon. That’s what I call progress.