Happy Feast of Saint Catherine!

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380)

The 25th child of a wool dyer in northern Italy, St. Catherine started having mystical experiences when she was only 6, seeing guardian angels as clearly as the people they protected. She became a Dominican tertiary when she was 16, and continued to have visions of Christ, Mary, and the saints. St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Schism. In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "A Dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430.

From Catholic.org

Happy Easter!

"This man who had died was now living with a life that was no longer threatened by any death. A new form of life had been inaugurated, a new dimension of creation. The first day, according to the Genesis account, is the day on which creation begins. Now it was the day of creation in a new way, it had become the day of the new creation.

We celebrate the first day. And in so doing we celebrate God the Creator and his creation. Yes, we believe in God, the Creator of heaven and earth. And we celebrate the God who was made man, who suffered, died, was buried and rose again. We celebrate the definitive victory of the Creator and of his creation. We celebrate this day as the origin and the goal of our existence. We celebrate it because now, thanks to the risen Lord, it is definitively established that reason is stronger than unreason, truth stronger than lies, love stronger than death. We celebrate the first day because we know that the black line drawn across creation does not last forever. We celebrate it because we know that those words from the end of the creation account have now been definitively fulfilled: "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Amen."

- Pope Benedict XVI's Easter Vigil 2011 homily

Happy Feast of Saint Bernadette Soubirous!

"I suffer. All my cries of anguish rise to you, my comforter. In your adorable heart I grieve. To your heart I confide my sighs, my anguish, my grief to your grief. My Jesus, sanctify my sufferings by this holy union. Grant that by increasing my love for you, my grief may become lighter and easier to bear." -St. Bernadette, Personal Notes, 1873-1874.

Nebraska bishop: Catholic politicians who support Planned Parenthood should be denied Communion

LINCOLN, Nebraska, April 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Though not “formally excommunicated,” Catholic politicians who support Planned Parenthood or other measures facilitating abortion are “placing themselves outside of the pale of the Church’s doctrine” and should be denied Communion, says Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The bishop told LifeSiteNews that Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, should be seen an enemy of the Catholic Church because “it advocates doctrines, immoral activities which are contrary to ... the teachings of Almighty God.”

In 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz announced that any Catholics in his diocese who persisted as members of Planned Parenthood would be excommunicated automatically. The decision was upheld by the Vatican in 2006.

“Membership in Planned Parenthood [is] incompatible with being a Catholic living a clear adherence to the Catholic faith,” he insisted.

Last week, American Life League (ALL) called for the excommunication of the 62 Catholic congressmen who voted in February against defunding Planned Parenthood. The group pointed out that the Catholic Church has a history of excommunicating those who support its greatest enemies, including supporters of Freemasonry, Nazism, and communism.

Bishop Bruskewitz said the excommunication in his diocese applies to members of the abortion giant, not legislators or others supporting it. He said it “could be” that excommunication is warranted for such legislators, but that that issue has not come up in his diocese. “Individual bishops can only make legislation for their own diocese,” he explained.

The bishop’s comment was backed up by Dr. Edward Peters, a canon lawyer at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and a consultant to the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, who told LifeSiteNews this week that excommunication of politicians supporting Planned Parenthood could only happen if individual bishops or the national conference of bishops institute a specific law or penalty to that effect. Peters said, however, that bishops can act now by denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians under canon 915.

Bishop Bruskewitz himself emphasized that in his diocese those publicly supporting abortion would be denied Communion. “In this diocese, the priests and everyone who distributes Holy Communion would be instructed not to give Holy Communion to such people,” he said.

“We are trying, as we interpret it, to obey the canons of the Catholic Church, which say that someone who is a notorious public sinner shouldn’t be admitted to Holy Communion,” he explained. “That’s simply the case.”

Advocates for abortion or euthanasia are “placing themselves in a position where they are not to receive Holy Communion because they’ve defected from the Church’s faith,” he added.

Regarding excommunication, the bishop said its purpose is “to bring people who are Catholics to realize the error of their ways, and to repent and to return to the correct measure of obedience that’s expected of a disciple of Christ.”

He said it’s inaccurate to suggest excommunication lacks compassion or shuts down dialogue. Dialogue is “important,” he said, but it “must have an exit” and is “not just simply talking interminably.”

Explaining the manifold reasons why Catholics cannot support Planned Parenthood, the bishop said, “It advocates contraception. ... In its origins, from Margaret Sanger, it concentrates on racism. It believes certain races are inferior. It has certainly a eugenic aspect to it – extermination of people who are considered unfit to live, a la Nazis. And of course abortion is an abominable crime. The Second Vatican Council is very clear about that. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion supplier, business, and purveyor, in the United States.”

Was Chief Sitting Bull a Catholic convert?

Was Chief Sitting Bull a Catholic convert? Did he convert William “Buffalo Bill” Cody? I found this article to be very interesting: http://catholiclane.com/was-chief-sitting-bull-a-catholic/

A North Carolina Hermit

Please pray for and support Fr. George Byers, C.P.M. as he begins his new apostolate as a hermit in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I met Fr. Byers in 2008 while he was a chaplain in Lourdes, France. He is building his hermitage from the ground up.

Keep up with him and submit your prayer petitions via his blog: http://holysoulshermitage.wordpress.com/

Eastern Catholicism

There has been some big news recently in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. A few days ago, their bishops elected a new head for their "branch" of Catholicism (their de facto Patriarch), 40 year-old Sviatoslav Shevchuk. I don't use the term "branch" as if it were a division in the negative sense, so I will clarify.

In my experience, some (perhaps even most?) Roman Catholics don't even know of the existence of other Catholic Churches, which vary from Roman Catholicism in liturgy and popular piety but are still in communion with the Pope and Roman Catholics. I certainly knew nothing about them until an Eastern Catholic friend enlightened me in 2005. Hopefully this blog post will provide some exposure for those who haven't experienced the traditions of the various Eastern Churches.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are autonomous, self-governing (in Latin, sui iuris) particular churches in full communion with the Bishop of Rome - the Pope. Together with the Roman/Latin Church, they compose the worldwide, universal Catholic Church. They preserve some centuries-old eastern liturgical, devotional and theological traditions and emphases.

The term Eastern Catholic Churches refers to 21 of the 22 autonomous particular Churches in communion with the Bishop of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church is the 22rd Church. The Eastern Churches follow five main Eastern traditions: Alexandrian, Antiochian, Armenian, Byzantine and Chaldean. They retain their ceremonies, traditions, laws, and customs which date back to the Apostles, while at the same time preserving the necessary communion with the Bishop of Rome. While they are self-governing, they all recognize the central role of the Bishop of Rome within the College of Bishops and his infallibility on those occasions when speaking ex cathedra.

After the Great Schism in 1054 which split the Churches in the East (now known as the Eastern Orthodox) from the Roman Catholic Church, some Eastern Churches chose to regain communion with the Pope and thus have become the Eastern Catholic Churches. Some have never broken communion, some were separated only geographically for a period of time, and others re-joined the Church much later. The diagram below shows the historical foundations of the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches, which all have their various traditions and liturgies. Most traditions are associated with the Byzantine Rite, while over the centuries the various Western rites have been unified into a single Roman/Latin Rite as we know it today:

While the Popes haven't interfered with the liturgies of the East, they have always shown their respect for Eastern traditions. For example, Venerable Pope Pius XII opens his Encyclical on the Roman liturgy, "Mediator Dei," with the comment: "If in this encyclical letter We treat chiefly of the Latin liturgy, it is not because We esteem less highly the venerable liturgies of the Eastern Church, whose ancient and honorable ritual traditions are just as dear to Us. The reason lies rather in a special situation prevailing in the Western Church, of sufficient importance, it would seem, to require this exercise of Our authority."

One of the most widespread Eastern Liturgies is the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, composed by Saint John Chrysostom in the late 300's A.D. Popes John XXIII and John Paul II have publicly celebrated the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom - with Pope John XXIII using the Papal Tiara as the bishop's crown. When Christians debate about worship in the "early Church," this liturgy really is from the early Church, and many might be surprised to witness how ornate it really is:

In this recent video, the new Patriarch is "enthroned" as the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The ceremonies date back to the earliest traditions of Christianity:

The Eastern Catholic Churches are represented in the Holy See and the Roman Curia through the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, which is made up of a Cardinal Prefect (who directs and represents it with the help of a Secretary) and 27 Cardinals, one Archbishop and 4 Bishops, designated by the Pope.

Historically, Eastern Catholic Churches were located in Eastern Europe, the Asian Middle East, Northern Africa and India, but due to migration they are now also in Western Europe, the Americas and Oceania where eparchies have been established alongside the Latin dioceses. These days, it is easy to find an Eastern Catholic Church, and their Masses (called The Divine Liturgy) fulfills any Catholic's Sunday obligation.

Eastern Catholic Churches can be considered to be the "counterparts" to the Eastern Orthodox Churches who have remained divided from Rome since the Great Schism in 1054. For example, there is a Ukrainian Catholic Church and a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the former maintaining communion with Rome.

When speaking in a recent interview about Ukrainian Catholic martyrs, the new Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop commented on the necessity of communion with Rome: "Our Martyrs were martyrs for unity with the Holy Father."

Eastern Catholic Churches make up a small percentage of the membership in the Catholic Church when compared to the Latin Rite, which has over one billion members. The largest sui juris church is the Byzantine Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with 4.3 million members and the second largest is the Syriac Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at 3.9 million members.

In a way, this plurality of Catholic Churches shows the authenticity of the Catholic Church's teachings. Sent by Christ himself, the Apostles went to various parts of the world to "baptize all nations" and spread the Faith which they learned directly from Christ. Understandably, the practice of this Faith was manifested in different traditions and ceremonies throughout present-day Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean regions with little communication between them, but the liturgies and ceremonies are strikingly similar. To this day, all of the Churches teach Seven Sacraments, Transubstantiation in the Eucharist, an ordained Priesthood, an all-male Priesthood, reverence for Mary (the Theotokos or "God-Bearer" in Greek), sacramental confession to a priest, etc. How can we doubt that these teachings came from Christ himself when they are present in every Eastern and Western Church and tradition before the Protestant split?

Much more could be said about how the Liturgy professes the Faith, but a great place to start is with Pope Benedict XVI's book The Spirit of the Liturgy, especially Part 4, Chapter 1.

"Mnohaya Lita," ("Many Years") to Archbishop Shevchuk!

Visit Lourdes, and Pray to Saint Bernadette!

Jesuit Father James Martin gives a great summary of the importance of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette:

A Great Upcoming Movie about the Faith in Mexico