Father Scmidberger Defends the Pope

Father Schmidberger has been very supportive of the Holy Father in the past, as when he thanked Holy Father for the Motu Propio and in some rather public remarks for a regional German paper, he has stepped in again to defend his Pontif for all the world to see.

The Society of Pius X tore down its wall of silence: "Today those who cried the loudest, were those who demanded to be exempt from punishment for sexual abuse of children. Humanist Union belongs to this group."

[Stuttgart, kreuz.net] "The Pope was in no way guilty, therefore he cannot also apolgize.

Explained the German uppter district superior of the Society of St Pius X, Franz Schmidberger to regional newspaper 'Leibziger Volkszeitung.'

Father spoke on the topic of homosexual predators of underage, taboo for many decades in left and anti-church circles.

This "homosexual predation" is for many a welcome cause, in order to diminish the German Pope directly in Germany and discredit the Papacy, determined Fr. Schmidberger.

Humanist Hecklers

Father criticized the advisoress of church-hate, combination 'Humanist Union" and German law minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP):

"Today those who cry loudest, were those who yesterday demanded exemption from punishment for abusing children

To which group the 'Humanist Union' also belongs, to which Mrs. Law Minister Leutheusser Schnarrenberger is counted a member. In the German language there is a word for this: Hypocrisy. The shoe fits!

Father Schmidberger opposes a general criminal suspicion against priests:

"We should be more cautious with this dragging-into-public of sins and guilt. Perhaps one or the other accusation will by closer inspection be proven false."

Sexual Desire contains the Responsibillity of the Child

Fr. Schmidberger sees a complicity in the aberration of society:

"Whoever brings pornographic writings to his person, unnatural scenes on television and dirty pictures on Internet before his eyes, will hardly pereceive any longer, that he is responsible for sexual desire."

The District Superior of explains that the instinct for hunger which is given to men, in order to sustain the individual -- and the sex drive, to propagate human sexuality:

"It is an misuse and deviation of the divine order to decouple man from this purpose, as the hedonistic society does.

Left-Catholic Debauchees Taste the Morning Air

Father Scmidberger states that Anti-Catholic groups and fragments as well as backsliding priests will use the abuse debate in order to implement their own interests:

"The Left-Catholic debauchees taste the morning air.

It is for these people designate that they demand structural changes instead of changing hearts." [Communist watchers, this is familiar stuff]

Beneficial Celibacy

The District Superior said about celibacy, that the priestly unmarried state has given extraordinary fruits for hundreds of years:

"As beneficial as celibacy is, is shown by the persecutions of the Church under the Communists and in the Third Reich:

"Protestant pastors were fearful for their families, Catholics ministers were in this respect free."

Cover instead of Showtrials (Karnevalssitzungen)

The German Bishop's Conference has covered for accused priests, expects Father Scmidberger.

"The Bishops must strengthen the priest's Faith and immediately prevent, for example, frivilous show trials in Churches."

Therefore, the sacrament of confession must take up again its place in the Christian life and in the life of the Church. [!]

"Confession is the most effective measure against sin and sinful impulses."

© picture: Piusbruderschaft.de

Despite The Danube Cardinal's Remarks: Pope Benedict Defends Celibacy

Perhaps good can come of evil. The Cardinal on the Danube has caused a furor on-line while appearing to question the salutory nature of clerical celibacy, and indeed, it's what we've come to expect from him, but while he has stopped short of criticizing celibacy, he's very interested in giving voice to dissident communities in Vienna who ARE opposed to everything the Church teaches and expect that because they have an opinion celebrated by the mass media and entertainment complex, that they deserve to have their views put into effect. Remember when the Cardinal did such and such, like when he tried to blame the orthodox Father Wagner of Linz for the decline in Austrian Church membership?

Truly, our current Pope has ideas that are a sign of contradiction to the consensus; with not a little courage.

Pope Benedict Defends Celibacy

He was speaking at a theological conference before meeting Germany's top bishop for talks about a new crisis over sexual abuse of children.

German Bishop Robert Zollitsch apologised again to victims of abuse by German priests. [This Bishop made some excellent comments on sex abuse.]

The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the Church should examine celibacy and priests' training. [Yes, perhaps we should examine celibacy and learn how it has been the discipline of the Church for many centuries for good reasons.]

'Honesty needed'

Europe's Catholic paedophile scandal now affects institutions in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.

The Vatican has also admitted married clergy who converted from the Anglican faith
In Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn wrote in a diocesan magazine that "the issue of priest training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution" needed to be addressed.

But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is "the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the 'Lord's business', an expression of giving oneself to God and to others".

Read whole article...

Discontent with Pope's Visit to England from "many" Anglicans

Surely, Scotland's Bishops aren't too happy about hosting Benedict. They're too busy doing everything but ensuring that their sheep know the Catholic Faith. Just what is it that they are enthused about besides banal liturgy and uninspiring leadership? Even the Anglicans aren't that hostile and Sky News is at a loss to drum up the kind of hostility John Paul II experienced from the Church of Scotland in 1982.

Are there really Anglicans who have taken the time out of their days being discontented with the Pope's visit? We don't think so.

There is discontent in some parts [Please name them] of the Anglican Church about Pope Benedict XVI’s visit later this year.

Many see the Pope as exploiting the invitation as an opportunity to sleight the history of the Church of England, which split from Rome in the 16th century.

Perhaps this would be the most sensible action of the Pope, at a time when the Church of England seems to be in difficulty. Last year, Benedict coaxed discontented Anglicans to quit and come over to his Roman Catholic denomination, which was regarded by some to be rude, at worse, and impolite, at best.

[chop]

In 1982 some members of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly railed against John Paul as the “Anti-Christ”. Will there be demonstrations at the gates of Balmoral in September?

Probably not.

Nor is there likely to be much protest from Anglicans, who will probably be prayerful; just as the Archbishop of Canterbury always seems to be – no matter what happens.

Read the entire article...

True Environmentalists Are Pro-Life, Says Pope

Affirms Ecology Issue Should Be Set in Larger Framework

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 11, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says efforts to protect the environment cannot be opposed to human life and safeguarding the dignity of the person.

The Pope took up this theme today when he delivered his traditional New Year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.

The Holy Father's address for 2010 centered on the issue of respect for creation and the environment, the same theme he highlighted in his Jan. 1 World Day of Peace message.

He noted not humanity in this new year "continues to be marked by the dramatic crisis of the global economy and consequently a serious and widespread social instability."

The "deeper causes" of this situation, the Pontiff contended, "are to be found in a current self-centered and materialistic way of thinking which fails to acknowledge the limitations inherent in every creature."

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Pope Benedict's Message of Peace

On January 1, 2010, the Church commemorates the 43rd World Day of Peace. "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation" is the theme of Pope Benedict's message for the day.

In his message for the 1st World Day of Peace, Pope Paul VI wrote, “We address Ourself to all men of good will to exhort them to celebrate ‘The Day of Peace,’ throughout the world, on the first day of the year, January 1, 1968. It is Our desire that then, every year, this commemoration be repeated as a hope and as a promise, at the beginning of the calendar which measures and outlines the path of human life in time, that Peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses Catholic teaching on peace and just war in its treatment of the Fifth Commandment. Between 1914 and 1968, five popes wrote 21 encyclicals on peace. Since 1968, papal teaching on peace has primarily been expressed in the messages for the World Day of Peace.

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Another Critique of Liberation Theology

Not so Liberating: The Twilight of Liberation Theology

by Dr. Samuel Gregg Tue, Dec 29, 2009, 02:02 PM

It went almost unnoticed, but on December 5th, Benedict XVI articulated one of the most stinging rebukes that has ever been made by a pope of a particular theological school. Addressing a group of Brazilian bishops, Benedict followed some mild comments about Catholic education with some very sharp and deeply critical remarks about liberation theology and its effects upon the Catholic Church.

Apart from stressing how certain liberation theologians drew heavily upon Marxist concepts, the pope also described these ideas as “deceitful.” This is very strong language for a pope. But Benedict then underscored the damage that liberation theology did to the Catholic Church. “The more or less visible consequences,” he told the bishops, “of that approach - characterised by rebellion, division, dissent, offence and anarchy - still linger today, producing great suffering and a serious loss of vital energies in your diocesan communities.”

Today, even some of liberation theology’s most outspoken advocates freely admit that it has collapsed, including in Latin America. Once considered avant-garde, it is now generally confined to clergy and laity of a certain age who wield ever-decreasing influence within the Church. Nonetheless, Benedict XVI clearly believes it’s worth underscoring just how much harm it inflicted upon the Catholic Church.

For a start, there’s little question that liberation theology was a disaster for Catholic evangelization. There’s a saying in Latin America which sums this up: “The Church opted for the poor, and the poor opted for the Pentecostals.”

In short, while many Catholic clergy were preaching class-war, many of those on whose behalf the war was presumably being waged decided that they weren’t so interested in Marx or listening to a language of hate. They simply wanted to learn about Jesus Christ and his love for all people (regardless of economic status). They found this in many evangelical communities.

A second major impact was upon the formation of Catholic clergy in parts of Latin America. Instead of being immersed in the fullness of the Catholic faith’s intellectual richness, many Catholic seminarians in the 1970s and 1980s read Marx’s Das Capital and refused to peruse such “bourgeois” literature such Augustine’s City of God or Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

Again, this undermined the Church’s ability to witness to Christ in Latin America, not least because some clergy reduced Christ to the status of a heroic-but-less-than-divine urban guerrilla and weren’t especially interested in explaining Catholicism’s tenets to their flocks.

Then there has been the effect upon the Church’s ability to engage the new Latin American economic world which emerged as the region opened itself to markets in the 1990s. Certainly much of this liberalization was poorly executed and marred by corruption. Nonetheless, as the Economist recently reported, countries like Brazil - once liberation theology’s epicenter - are emerging as global economic players and taking millions out of poverty in the process. The smartest thing that Brazil’s left-wing President Lula da Silva ever did was to not dismantle most of his predecessor’s economic reforms.

Unfortunately, one legacy of liberation theology is some Catholic clergy’s inability to relate to people working in the business world. Ironically, business executives are far more likely to be practicing their Catholicism than many other Latin Americans. Yet liberation theology has left a residue of distrust of business leaders among some Catholic clergy - and vice-versa. Distrust is no basis for engagement, let alone evangelization.

The good news is that the Church in Latin America is more than halfway along the road to recovery. Anyone who talks to younger priests and seminarians in Latin America today quickly learns that they have absorbed the devastating critiques of liberation theology produced by the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the 1980s. If anything, they tend to regard liberation theologians such as the ex-priest Leonardo Boff as heretical irrelevancies.

Indeed figures such as Boff must be dismayed that the Catholic Church has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of populist-leftists such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. As Michael Novak observed in Will it Liberate? (1986), liberation theologians were notoriously vague when it came to practical policy proposals. But if any group embodies the liberationists’ economic agenda, it is surely the populist-left who are currently providing us with case studies of how to drive economies into the ground faster than you can say “Fidel Castro.”

As time passes, liberation theology is well on its way to being consigned to the long list of Christian heterodoxies, ranging from Arianism to Hans-Küngism. But as Benedict XVI understands, ideas matter - including incoherent and destructive ideas such as liberation theology. Until the Catholic Church addresses the legacy of this defunct ideology - to give liberation theology its proper designation - its ability to speak to the Latin America of the future will be greatly impaired.

Dr. Samuel Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded (University Press of America, 2001) and On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society (Lexington Books, 2003).

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Degenerate Pop Star Wants Pope to Resign

Pop Stars, Liberals, Marxists have all kinds of prescriptions for other people, never mind that their own lives are a disaster that was the case with Karl Marx and it's certainly the case for this woman. What she's really objecting to here is the moral authority of the Church to which she claims to belong and have a say in.

Doesn't she have something more important to wring her hands about, like the literally untold evils of socialism, personal license and immorality, the decline of the family, or the deplorable plight of the average South African since Apartheid?


The Vatican issued a statement on Friday saying the pope felt "outrage, betrayal and shame" over the scandal and would write to the Irish people about sexual abuse.

But O'Connor, who once inflamed Catholic sensibilities by ripping up a picture of Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul on live television, said in a letter published in a British newspaper earlier on Friday that the pope had remained silent on child abuse for too long.

"I demand the Pope stand down for his contemptible silence on the matter and his acts of non-co-operation with the inquiry," O'Connor wrote in a letter to the Independent newspaper, published ahead of a meeting between Irish church leaders and the pope at the Vatican.

"Popes have had no problem voicing their opinions when we wanted contraception or divorce," O'Connor said. "No problem criticizing 'The Da Vinci Code'. No problem criticizing Naomi Campbell for wearing a bejeweled cross.

"Yet when it comes to the evils done by pedophiles dressed as priests they are silent. It is grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. They stand for nothing now but evil." [But, People like Pee Wee Herman are your people, not the Pope's]

The Church in the overwhelmingly Catholic country has been rocked by two reports this year on abuse. The Murphy Commission Report issued on November 26 found it had "obsessively" hidden child abuse from 1975 to 2004.

O'Connor, whose 1990 song "Nothing Compares 2 U" was a number one hit across the world, caused uproar in Ireland when a breakaway Catholic group ordained her a priest at a ceremony staged in Lourdes 10 years ago.

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Moral and Mental Pollution frmthe Media "Harden Hearts and Darken Minds": Pope Benedict

ROME, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While the world's leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to talk about the problem of "climate change," Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the problem of moral pollution through the media. Speaking on Monday at an annual ceremony near Rome's Spanish Steps for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the pope said that pollution of society's moral environment is as dangerous to the human person as pollution of the natural environment.

The pontiff said, "Hearts harden and thoughts darken" with a daily diet of the news media in which "evil is recounted, repeated, amplified, accustoming us to the most horrible things, making us become insensitive and, in some way, intoxicating us, because the negative is not fully disposed of and accumulates day after day."


http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09120902.html

Pope Benedict Warns of the Dangers of Liberation Theology

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2009 / 11:42 am (CNA).- In a meeting with a group of Brazilian bishops on Saturday, the Holy Father warned of the dangers of Marxist liberation theology and noted its grave consequences for ecclesial communities.

During the ad limina visit, the Pope recalled that “last August marked 25 years since the Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on certain aspects of liberation theology. The document "highlights the danger involved in the uncritical absorption, by certain theologians, of theses and methodologies that come from Marxism."

The Pope warned that the “more or less visible” scars of Marxist liberation theology, such as “rebellion, division, dissent, offenses, anarchy, are still being felt, causing great suffering and a grave loss of dynamic strength in your diocesan communities.”

For this reason, he exhorted all those who in some way feel attracted or affected by “certain deceitful principles of liberation theology” to re-visit the instruction and be open to the light that it can shed on the subject.

Benedict XVI also recalled that “the supreme rule of faith of the Church in effect arises from the unity that the Spirit established between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church, in such reciprocity that they cannot subsist independently of each other,” as John Paul II explained in his encyclical “Fides et Ratio.”

The Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” was published on August 6, 1984, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Its purpose was to focus the attention of pastors, theologians and all the faithful on the deviations of certain forms of liberation theology that are dangerous for the faith and for the Christian life and that are based on Marxist thought.

It warned that the grave ideological deviations of Marxist liberation theology inevitably lead to the betrayal of the cause of the poor and that a Marxist analysis of reality leads to the acceptance of positions that are incompatible with the Christian vision of man

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Irish Theologian Calls for Irish Bishops' Resignation

In addition to the opportunistic, traitorous as a Scythian and very liberal Archbishop Martin of Dublin, a different and much more credible voice speaks out asking for the Mitres of named Irish Bishops, in contrast to the Peace and Justice Bishop of Dublin, he speaks about the spiritual dimension of this outrage and the malfeasance of the Bishops who aided and abetted it.

A prominent Irish theologian who is former student of Pope Benedict’s has called on those Irish bishops who are named in the Murphy report on clerical abuse in the Dublin diocese “to resign immediately from their current pastoral positions”.

Dr Vincent Twomey, who is professor emeritus of moral theology at Maynooth, writes in a letter published in today’s Irish Times that “at the very least, it would seem, all were guilty of negligence – some, such as Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick, whose behaviour was described as ‘inexcusable’, more than others."

He adds, "But all were deemed guilty of inaction, of failing to listen to their conscience, as Mary Raftery put it on radio and television.”

Speaking to The Universe today, Dr Twomey said that the spiritual damage that had been done to the victims by the priests who abused them, and the damage done by the apparent inaction of the bishops, was "now being exacerbated by the bishops' failure to stand down and take repsonsibility".

The theologian underlines in his letter to the Irish Times that “the longer they delay in doing so, the greater the damage they will do to all faithful Catholics, and in particular to the survivors of abuse who are still paying the price for the sins of their priests and bishops”.

Dr Twomey is a member of the Pope Benedict’s Schülerkreis, an annual conference of the Pope’s graduate students who meet the pontiff every year to discuss theological issues.

In his letter, Dr Twomey writes that his “instinct is to defend the Church from unfounded attacks. But the revelations of the Murphy report are something else."

He adds, "The actions, or rather for the most part, the inactions of the bishops named there are simply indefensible.”

Yesterday, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin called on bishops and priests criticised in the Murphy report into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in his diocese between 1975 and 2004 to admit their mistakes and resign.

Five serving bishops who were auxiliary bishops in Dublin over the period of time investigated by Judge Yvonne Murphy’s Commission were criticised in the report, which was published last Thursday.

In what was seen as a response to a statement made by Bishop Donal Murray at the weekend saying his decision about whether to stay on as a bishop would be guided by the faithful of Limerick where he now serves, Archbishop Martin said he would be writing to all the auxiliary bishops who served in Dublin and who are named in the Dublin diocesan report to say that their responses to the report were a matter for the Catholics of the Archdiocese.

Dr Martin said he would need to be confident his priests could stand over their statements.

He added that what they did and did not do failed people in Dublin and they owed them a response. Everyone should stand up and take responsibility for what they did, he said.

Bishop Murray was an auxiliary bishop of the Dublin Diocese from 1982 to 1996.

Pressure has mounted on Bishop Murray to resign after the report branded his failure to investigate complaints against Fr Tom Naughton when later allegations were made as “inexcusable”.

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And in a related story, we have another who should resign to a very austere Monastery (if there are any left) who is guilty of the same inaction and indifference as the Irish Bishops, Cardinal Egan. At least he's out of the game and can't do any more damage.

Holy Father Meets with Artists in the Vatican: You are the Custodians of Beauty

Holy Father met with hundreds of artists in the Vatican today in the Sistine Chapel. Here is his address in full.

Link here..

Sandro Magister's article here...

Pope: Church exists to evangelize the whole World

VATICAN CITY, (VIS) - World Mission Day, which falls on the
third Sunday of October, provided the theme for the Pope's remarks before praying the Angelus on Sunday.

The Holy Father told the thousands of faithful gathered at noon in St. Peter's Square that World Mission Sunday represented, "for all ecclesial communities and for each Christian, a powerful call to commit themselves to announcing and bearing witness to the Gospel to everyone, especially to people who do not yet know it".

"It is the light of the Gospel that guides peoples on their journey and leads them towards the realisation of the one great family, in justice and peace, under the paternity of the one good and merciful God", he said. "The Church exists to announce this message of hope to all humankind which in our time 'has experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself'".

On World Mission Sunday "the Universal Church places the spotlight on her own missionary vocation. Guided by the Holy Spirit she knows she is called to continue the work of Jesus Himself, announcing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is 'righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit".

"This Kingdom is already present in the world as a force for love, freedom,solidarity, and respect for the dignity of all mankind; and the ecclesial community feels in its heart the urgent need to work so the sovereignty of Christ may be fully achieved".

Benedict XVI then went on to mention "the missionaries - priests,religious and lay volunteers - who consecrate their lives to taking the Gospel into the world, facing discomforts and difficulties, sometimes even full-on persecutions.

"My thoughts go out to, among others, Fr. Ruggero Ruvoletto, a 'fidei donum' priest killed recently in Brazil, and to Fr. Michael Sinnot, a religious kidnapped a few days ago in the Philippines. And how can we not think of what is emerging from the Synod of Bishops for Africa in terms of extreme sacrifice and love for Christ and for His Church?"

The Pope then thanked the Pontifical Missionary Works for their service "in encouraging and educating missionaries". And he concluded: "I invite all Christians to make a gesture of material and spiritual support to help the young Churches in the poorest countries".
- - -

Deacon Keith Fournier asks that you join with us and help in this vital mission by sending this article to your family, friends, and neighbors and adding our link (www.catholic.org) to your own website, blog or social network. Let us broadcast, we are PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC!

Link here...

The Church reaches out to modern Art

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Once made in heaven, the marriage between art and the church has long been on the skids. "We are a bit like estranged relatives; there has been a divorce," said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Much of contemporary art walked away from art's traditional vocation of representing the intangible and the mysterious, as well as pointing the way toward the greater meaning of life and what is good and beautiful, he said during a Vatican press conference Nov. 5. And the church has spent the past century "very often contenting itself with imitating models from the past," rarely asking itself whether there were religious "styles that could be an expression of modern times," he added. In an effort to "renew friendship and dialogue between the church and artists and to spark new opportunities for collaboration," he said, Pope Benedict XVI will be meeting more than 250 artists from around the world Nov. 21 inside one of the world's most stunning artistic treasures: the Sistine Chapel. Latest news briefs from Catholic News Service Posted: 11/13/2009

A ‘Different Benedict is Here’: Benedict XVI and the New Missionary Age

In a subject dear to our hearts, the Holy Father is speaking about the Benedictine reform at the heart of his Papacy. Taking his cue from the great Benedictine House of Cluny, he traces its missionary importance as a great reforming movement aimed at carrying out the Great Commission.

It can and should be taken as a kind of manifesto and a call to men to consider an apostolic life in the Benedictine order energized by the great spirit of its founder at Nursia in the fifth Century.

This article by Deacon Keith Fournier understands that call and might serve to orient us prayerfully to pray for monks to lead us, as they always have, to lives of greater sanctity and Christian Hope.


The voices of those who wanted to place him in a terminological box have receded. This is a prophetic Pope with an inspired and historic mission that has only just begun.





Pope Benedict, like his namesake St. Benedict, has a vision for the Evangelization of Europe and the West. A 'different Benedict' is here and a new missionary age has begun.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - History shows that the earliest days of a Papacy often send a signal for the watchful observer. We are told by some to pay attention to the name chosen by the new Pope and the content of their first messages. I vividly recall the first days of our current Pope’s service to the Church and the world. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger chose the name Benedict. One of the young priests who commentated on this choice during the televised coverage of those extraordinary days noted that the new Pope had visited Subiaco before all the events even began. Subiaco is the home of the Benedictine monastic movement. It symbolizes the Christianization of Europe during the First Millennium.

Saint Benedict was born around the year 480 in Umbria, Italy. He is the father of Western Monasticism and co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). As a young man, Benedict fled a decadent and declining Rome for further studies and deep prayer and reflection. He gave his life entirely to God as a son of the united Catholic Church. He traveled to Subiaco. That cave became his dwelling, the place where he communed deeply with God. It is now a shrine called "Sacro Speco" (The Holy Cave). It is still a sanctuary for pilgrims, including Pope Benedict XVI, who visited that very same place of prayer right before his election to the Chair of Peter.

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The new flowering of Cluny, auf Deutsch.

Pope Condemns Halloween

[Mail Online UK] The Vatican today slammed Halloween as 'anti-Christian' and 'dangerous' for its links to the occult.

The October 31st ritual falls before the deeply significant Roman Catholic holy day of All Saints this Sunday.

The Pope's condemnation follows on from similar criticism from Catholic bishops in Spain who earlier this week urged parents not to let their children dress up as ghosts and goblins.

Read more


And a related story here by Mathew Hay Brown.