Roman Catholic Blog

"Sister" Carol Keehan - Grade 3 Cancer on the body politic of Holy Mother Church

Cancer can be classified into three different grades, per www.differencebetween.com.

Grade 1 is when cancer cells look alike like normal cells. In other words these are a slow growing cell which doesn’t show much symptoms of a cancer infection. A cancer infection if identified in this stage can be cured. This is also termed as early stage.

Grade 2 is when cancer cells start to appear different from normal cells. These are fast growing cells and are in the growing stage. If proper treatment is given at this stage, the disease can be cured. A cancer if unidentified in grade 2 could be termed as a stage where hope of curing is less or rare. A complete cure if guaranteed is only during the initial stages.

Grade 3 is when cancer cells are found to be immensely growing and is in the final stages of growth. This is when, the patient feels the pain in the parts of the body where cancer cell are grown. The pain will be severe and uncontrollable.

I see Sister Keehan as a Grade 3 cancer on the body politic of Holy Mother Church.

          "What Did CHA's Carol Keehan Know and When Did She Know It?

Register news analysis: As threats to religious liberty escalate, critics say it’s time to establish who truly speaks for the Church in the United States.

BY JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND, National Catholic Register

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Feb. 10 confirmed that his administration was offering an “accommodation” to religious groups opposed to a controversial federal rule requiring private health plans to provide contraception and abortion services.

As reported in the media, church-affiliated employers would not have to directly cover those services; instead, their insurance plans would cover them.

The announcement prompted an expression of gratitude from Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, and a polite, but wary response from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said they needed to study the proposed modification.

That evening, the bishops’ conference formally rejected the president’s “accommodation” as essentially meaningless.

For the rest of the weekend, amid a blur of news headlines and talking heads that offered conflicting judgments, the faithful in the pews struggled to determine what, if anything, had changed regarding the administration’s policy.

The contrasting responses from the CHA leader and the USCCB have left Catholics and the general public confused about who speaks for the Church on a matter of grave institutional concern and whether the Obama administration exploited a lack of clarity about that matter.

The dueling positions have fueled questions about the basis of Sister Carol’s endorsement: USCCB officials and health-care experts have since confirmed that the government has not issued any binding regulations that legally override the controversial contraception mandate finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 20.

Subsequent media coverage and interviews suggest that while the White House cleared its talking points with Sister Carol in advance of the president’s public address, the USCCB had been excluded from the administration’s deliberations.

..................................................

Who Speaks for the Church?

The confusion and possible institutional damage generated by Sister Carol’s public endorsement have led some Catholic experts in the health-care field to demand an accounting.

“On the basis of what information and what authority did she issue this endorsement? It’s embarrassing from a policy standpoint,” noted Paul Danello, an expert on civil and canon law issues in Catholic health care, who has received calls from Catholic hospitals worried about the implications of the HHS final rule.

“If the CHA board hasn’t authorized this, if she has no mandate from the USCCB, and if there are no legally binding documents, she is operating without any legal, governance or regulatory basis. That is a hell of a situation for a Roman Catholic nun that heads the Catholic Health Association to be in.”

.....

“It’s the right hand fighting against the left hand,” he said. “Who is speaking for the Church here? The Church needs to get its house in order.”"

For the full story please see:http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/what-did-catholic-health-associations-sister-carol-know-and-when-did-she-kn/

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Heart of a Lion?

Hat tip to Diane at the "Te Deum Ladamus" Blog.

(http://te-deum.blogspot.com/2009/03/bishop-salvatore-joseph-cordileone.html)

Bishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone named Bishop of Oakland.

The Pope has named San Diego auxiliary bishop, Salvatore Joseph Cordileone to the Oakland, California diocese which recently became vacant when Archbishop Allen Vigneron was installed in Detroit a few months back.

The 52 year old has been an auxiliary bishop since 2002 for San Diego.

Diane opines that:

He is a canonist who worked in the curia at the Apostolic Signatura which is friend, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke now heads.

He is vocally pro-life, pro-family, and pro-marriage (in the Catholic sense)

He is strongly supportive of the traditional Latin Mass, celebrating the Requiem in EF for a priest who died in the diocese.

Related Links:

Pope Names Bishop for Oakland, CA (AP)

"Lion Heart" Meets "Space Egg" (Whispers in the Loggia)

Regrettably, he does not arrive in time to deal with the millions, tens of millions, hundreds on millions - specifically the $190,000,000.00 spent on the new Cathedral of Christ the Light by Archbishop Vigneron.

 

Archbishop Vigneron's predecessor, Bishop Cummins (who was Bishop of Oakland from 1977-2003)  said the $8 million it would cost to seismically retrofit old St. Frances De Sales Cathedral was too much... Here it is pictured in 1965 after it was "gutted" for the new liturgy.

 

Here it is in 1980...

 

While swaddled in neo-modernist claptrap, it's Gothic bones could not be hid.

What Mahoney did to old St. Vibiana, Cummins did to old St. Frances de Sales - albeit with the help of an earthquake.

Noetheless - good luck to the new Bishop of Oakland - Salvatore Joseph Cordileone.

Food For Thought...

See also: What Could Be Scarier Than Halloween? Two Orange County Pastors Donating To Obama

A Good First Step: Archbishop Chaput Corrects Senator Biden On Abortion

Here's the link: Archbishop Chaput Corrects Senator Biden on Abortion

My thoughts:

This is good, but the fundamental problem is with Catholics thinking that remaining within a political party that supports abortion as a civil right and attempting to dismiss this fact by pointing to conservative support for things like specific wars (or war in general) or the death penalty neutralizes the scandal involved in belonging to such a group is a moral option.

When will Church leaders tell Catholics that it's as wrong to belong to organizations that support the culture of death, most notably through support for the legal option to kill preborn babies, as it is to belong to a Masonic lodge?

And when will so-called Catholic politicians who support legal abortion be told, without equivocation, by all bishops (including the Holy Father) that, by supporting the culture of death, these so-called Catholic politicians are not in union with Rome, may not receive Holy Communion, and will be excommunicated if they persist in supporting legal abortion?

Any thoughts?

See also: Can Catholics Support Obama?

Divine Copyright?

I read with great pleasure at the Rorate Coeli blog that the Tridentine Redemptorists have come back to Rome.

See: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/

My late mother, having had wonderful experiences of Redemptorist missions at her local parish as a girl, was particularly devoted to St. Gerard Majella, CSSR.

If you go to to the formerly termed "Transalpine Redemptorist" website, see:

http://papastronsay.blogspot.com/2008/07/no-more-servants-but-sons-gal-iv7.html

You will read the following:

"Our new name has been worked out in consultation with the Holy See but, as with all things of this nature, we can only say that the name will be absolutely finalised when the community's statutes are approved. This is normal proceedure.

Our new name, the name which we will use exclusively
from 2 August will be:

SONS OF THE MOST HOLY REDEEMER
Filii Sanctissimi Redemptoris

The siglum will be the Latin initials for 'Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer':

F. SS. R."

Until you read farther down:

For those who did not know: The reason we need to change our name is that the Redemptorist Fathers claim exclusive rights to the title: "Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer;" the initials or siglum, "C.SS.R." and the nickname "Redemptorist". ( Our nickname will be chosen later.)

Wow. I didn't realize that religious orders owned, in a legal sense, their orders' names.

Nonetheless - This is a great and good thing, that these men have returned to the fold of Rome, we need them!

St. Gerard Majella - Pray for us.

Ex-Papal Liturgist, Archbishop Piero Marini: Liturgical Renewal "Irreversible"

Christ Healing The Blind Bartimeus by Carl Heinrich Bloch

Here's the link: Vatican official calls liturgical renewal 'irreversible path'

Here's a section of the article:

Liturgical renewal launched by the Second Vatican Council is an "irreversible path" and has not been affected by Pope Benedict XVI's concession on wider use of the Tridentine rite, a Vatican official said.

"The pope's decision has so far not produced any change in the celebrative practice of our ecclesial communities. His gesture was only one of service to unity," Archbishop Piero Marini, who arranged papal liturgies for more than 20 years, said in an interview April 25 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"Therefore let's look ahead and let's continue with enthusiasm the path undertaken by the council," he said.

Late last year Archbishop Marini was named to head the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

The archbishop remains involved in international liturgical issues, and he said a revision of the committee's statutes is giving it wider authority over eucharistic congresses at the national and regional level, too.

Asked if Pope Benedict's relaxation of restrictions on the use of the pre-Vatican II liturgy signaled a halt to the liturgical reform movement, Archbishop Marini said that was clearly not the pope's aim.

The pope's decree "does not intend to introduce modifications on the current Roman Missal or express a negative judgment on the liturgical reform desired by the council," he said.

He said the decree, which reached out to disaffected Catholics, should be seen as an effort to maintain unity in the church.

Archbishop Marini said his own experience in organizing papal liturgies in more than 100 countries has convinced him that the liturgical reform movement has brought overwhelmingly positive results.

"Everywhere, the liturgy desired by the council was celebrated with lively participation and enthusiasm. Everyone understood the liturgy as proper to the local church and at the same time as an expression of the universal church," he said.

Those liturgies also demonstrated that liturgical reform has solid theological foundations, he said.

"Therefore this is an irreversible path," he said.

Liturgical celebration cannot be separated from the life of the church, the archbishop said, and this means "the church of today, not the church of yesterday or of tomorrow."

At the same time, Archbishop Marini said celebrating the liturgy according to Vatican II is not an easy thing. It takes patience, perseverance and pastoral charity, he said.

One particular issue that has emerged during papal trips, he said, is the fact that some Masses are now attended by hundreds of thousands of the faithful. That raises practical considerations like the number of concelebrants, the distribution of Communion and the level of personal participation, he said.

Pope Benedict has already asked for reconsideration of the role of concelebrants, and Archbishop Marini said it makes sense to look at the question through a serious study and with eventual pastoral-liturgical guidelines.

My thoughts:

We'll see, Archbishop Marini. I suspect you're wrong, though. I certainly think it's wrong to claim that Summorum Pontificum was only issued in an effort to preserve unity and avoid schism. How does the allowance of a right Archbishop Marini clearly views as old and outdated alongside the Ordo Missae promulgated by Pope Paul VI signify a movement that preserves liturgical unity?

It's clear that the archbishop is not in agreement with Pope Benedict XVI with respect to the liturgy. That is probably why he's known as ex-papal liturgist, Archbishop Piero Marini.

Any thoughts?

Report: Pope Benedict XVI Considering Ways To Cleanse The Priesthood

Here is the link: Pope Celebrates Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, Prays for Healing From Church Sex Scandal

Here is the key quote:

A top Vatican official now says the Roman Catholic Church is weighing a further change to clean up the clergy: revising church law so predators could be more easily removed.

"It's possible," said Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican office that reviews abuse claims against priests worldwide.

"There are some things under consideration that I'm not able to say," Levada told reporters Friday, in a meeting at Time magazine's offices. A Vatican spokesman stressed Saturday that no immediate changes are planned.

It is the latest signal during Benedict's first papal visit to America that he is intent on purifying the priesthood as he affirms traditional Catholic practices and teaching.

My thoughts: Working to prevent men with homosexual tendencies from receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders or entering religious life would be a great start!

See also: Bill Maher Makes Excuses For Michael Jackson, But Attacks The Catholic Church [Language Warning]

Text Of Pope Benedict XVI's Speech To Bishops

Text Of Pope Benedict XVI's Speech To Bishops (after the jump)...

You Decide: Has "The Cafeteria Is Closed" Blog Reopened The Cafeteria Over The Issue Of Legal Recognition For Homosexual Unions?

Tab Hunter & Roddy McDowall have their cake and sausage, and eat it too.

The Cafeteria is Closed blog has a post which appears to promote the legal recognition of homosexual unions and accept notions about the nature of homosexual activity that have caused some controversy. There are currently over 400 comments on the post.

Here's the link: Homosexuality

After the jump, I will respond to what I read in Gerald's post and in some of the comments. Some of what I say, I will have said before, but I went through and edited things, updated links, and made an effort to tighten what is intended to be a fairly thorough response to the thoughts expressed by Gerald and others commenting at The Cafeteria is Closed blog.

Although the response is lengthy, it isn't just an articulation of my unsupported opinions, hence the links and the length.

One of the reasons error is so widespread in society is that it takes effort to come to know the truth, and refuting errors can involve writing a whole book-length response to properly refute errors that can be rattled off in a few sentences. Many people aren't interested in the work entailed in learning the truth or refuting error, and this is especially so when the errors appeal to them because of an attachment to sin.

I'm not suggesting those things of Gerald, but I do contend that Gerald has sort of gone off the deep end on this issue.

My response to Gerald is after the jump. Please add your comments at the end.

The American Life League Welcomes Pope Benedict XVI

Here's the link to the advertisement welcoming Pope Benedict XVI: The American Life League Welcomes Pope Benedict XVI

Any thoughts?