Category: Catholicism

Pope Benedict Resigns!

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We live in rare times. Pope Benedict has just announced that he will be stepping down as Pope on February 28th. In the 2,000 year history of the Church there have only been three other Popes who have done this. Here is the text of his announcement to the Cardinals:

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer. 

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013 

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

“They did not kill him”

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One of the major points of divergence between Islam and Christianity is that, in addition to denying Jesus’ divinity, Islam asserts that Jesus did not die on the cross. We find this assertion in Surah 4 of the Qur’an:

Just in case you don’t read Arabic(!), here is the English translation:

[They said] “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah”… [But] they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them… Rather, Allah raised him to Himself… – Surah 4:157-158, Sahih International

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The iMissal

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Yesterday morning I came across the following video:

That’s right…an iPad lectern! And, I checked, this thing is a real product available for purchase!

At lunch, as I walked to a nearby sandwich store, I got to thinking about whether or not I thought an iPad-based parish would be a good move or not. There would be some clear advantages to having an electronic Missal and an electronic Lectionary:

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Wise words for newlyweds

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Last month I wrote a post talking about the large number of my friends who got engaged or married in December. In the article I asked my married friends to write in the Comments, giving their advice for my newly-engaged and newly-married friends.

flowers

Many thanks to all of you who responded to my request and shared with us lessons learned. Here are some my favourite quotations…

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Pope Posting

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One of the reasons I began this blog was in response to repeated Papal exhortations for Catholics to engage the digital world. There were other reasons why I started which I have mentioned before, but that was definitely one of them.

At the end of last month, Pope Benedict issued a document for World Communications Day. I have posted the document in its entirety below, underlining the parts which I thought were really important.

I think it should be required reading for all Catholics who have a Facebook account…

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Contraception and Abortion

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I have rather mixed feelings about Michael Voris. Many times he’s often spot on with his criticism, but I often find him unhelpfully aggressive and combative. Since we’ve just had the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade, I thought I’d post this video of his where he talks about the relationship between contraception and abortion:

Here’s the document that Mr. Voris quotes:

“In some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception… for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail“
– 1992 Casey vs. Planned Parenthood

The link between contraception and abortion is undeniable.

Total Apostasy

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When speaking to non-Catholic Christians, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Muslims, the discussion will often turn to “The Great Apostasy”. All these groups believe, to varying degrees, that there was a massive departure from “real” Christianity in  the Early Church and the Faith was lost.

Fortunately, a little knowledge of Scripture and Early Church history can rebut this assertion and this should be in the arsenal of every Catholic. With this in mind, I’d invite you to go and read the fantastic post by Brantly Millegan over at “Young, Evangelical and Catholic”:

Great Apostasy

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