1951 Ordination of Joseph Ratzinger to the Priesthood (Pope Benedict XVI)

You can clearly see the young and skinny Father Ratzinger at exactly 4:52-4:55 in the video above.


H/T Canterbury Tales 

Catholic Culture Clash Links -- 12-2-10

Jonah Goldberg at NRO says This Pope Plays It Right. Jonah stated that before his father's passing,  his father stated “We need more rocks in the river” and explained that his father meant that we need more people like Pope Benedict XVI, and things that stand up to the torrent which offer respite from the current.  Goldberg talks about how the media misreported the Pope's condom comments, and badly.  While he is not in full agreement with the Vatican on matters of sexuality Jonah respects the Church's position.  There is a distinction made by the Pope between the bad and the less bad in his comments on the use of condoms.  But, Pope Benedict never states that condoms are acceptable, or good.  Jonah Goldberg explains this distinction, also.

Remember those Andy Griffith propaganda commercials which aired promoting Obamacare before election day?  Well, Andy Griffith has either been duped or he is misleading fellow senior citizens.  Do you want to take a stab at how much taxpayer money was used to air those commercials?  The Obama administration spent a whopping  $3,184,000 of taxpayer money to air those propaganda commercials which has even been found by groups like Factcheck.org to be untruthful.  The Examiner shows us what the documents released to Judicial Watch revealed:

“Mr. Griffith is featured in three Medicare television ads and provided his services to the government at no charge pursuant to a gratuitous services agreement. These three spots, ‘1965,’ ‘Music to My Ears,’ and ‘Cozy Chair,’ [were only aired] in September and October 2010. The production for the three advertisements cost $404,000; the total amount budgeted for the national media placement is $2.78 million, which breaks down per ad to $754,000 (‘1965’), $1,112,000 (‘Music to My Ears’), and $1,390,000 (‘Cozy Chair’).”

In press statements touting the new Griffith advertising program the Obama White House described its purpose: “The Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] will strengthen the health care system for all Americans, but senior citizens in particular stand to benefit from the new law. And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is getting a little help delivering the good news from a well-known TV star: Andy Griffith.”

Factcheck.org says that the advertisements intentionally misinform. In addition, Factcheck.org states that the health care law will in fact result in medicare cuts, and will specifically affect those seniors who have Medicare Advantage Plans.  Besides this law being a total debacle which will result in mega-rationing, this law is now costing the American taxpayers way too much money, and all for lies.

Pope Benedict reaffirms the Church's position on women's ordination. 'In his new book, the Pope states: "The church has 'no authority' to ordain women. The point is not that we are saying we don't want to, but that we can't," he said. This requires obedience by Catholics today, he added.



"This obedience may be arduous in today's situation, but it is important precisely for the church to show that we are not a regime based on arbitrary rule. We cannot do what we want," the pope said.'

The Pope responds to his critics who argued that ordination was restricted to men only because priestesses would have been unthinkable 2,000 years ago by saying: "That is nonsense, since the world was full of priestesses at the time," the pope answered. "All religions had their priestesses, and the astonishing thing was actually that they were absent from the community of Jesus Christ."  He is spot on!! The only  priestesses in existence in those times were pagan.

The Pope is right in stating in his book, that the Church does not discriminate against women.  Just look at how many positions women hold within the Church Today.  'The Pope stated "Women have so eminent a significance that in many respects they shape the image of the church more than men do," he said, noting famous religious figures such as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.' 

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) Visits Perth

Baltimore Priest Who Served in Iraq To Become Bishop of the Archdiocese for U.S. Military Services

On one of the bloodiest days of the Iraq War – April 9, 2004 – Father F. Richard Spencer became the link between this world and the next for many of the mortally wounded.

Insurgents had attacked a large convoy of gas trucks that Good Friday, firing multiple mortar rounds at a United States base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport. Father Spencer, a U.S. Army military chaplain, administered the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and prayed with men and women whose faces wore what he remembered as glazed looks of shock and disbelief.

“In the moment, you do your prayers, then move to the next situation, because it’s continuous chaos,” said Father Spencer, then attached to the Army’s 1st Calvary Division.

“You just offered prayers that they would see the face of God that very day and you trust and hope,” he said. “We had both Iraqis and Americans die. I didn’t know who was Muslim or who was Christian – but they all got a prayer.”

Once Father Spencer and his soldiers made it into a concrete bomb shelter, he stood on a trash can and offered general absolution as the shelling continued.

“It was a life-changing day for me,” he remembered. “Our men and women in uniform are able to face hardships and they’re trained to make good decisions in the midst of chaos. Their resiliency is inspiring.”

Father Spencer is about to expand his service to U.S. military men and women around the world.

In May, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to be the next auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for U.S. Military Services. The 59-year-old Baltimore priest will be installed Sept. 8 during a 2 p.m. liturgy at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Remaining on active duty, the Alabama native will become the first auxiliary bishop for the U.S. military archdiocese able to enter war zones. He will have unprecedented access to military personnel serving in most difficult circumstances.

“I have known Father Spencer well for many years, first in my capacity as archbishop for the military and now as Archbishop of Baltimore,” Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said. “We are proud the Holy Father has chosen him, one of our own, to continue serving our brave and generous women and men in the military.”

Bishop-designate Spencer is humbled by the appointment. He believes his experiences in the Baltimore archdiocese, as a pastor of St. Peter the Apostle in Oakland, associate pastor and director of the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, have given him invaluable pastoral experience.

“I will listen that I may serve” will be his motto – borrowed from the late Archbishop William D. Borders, a World War II Army chaplain and one of Bishop-designate Spencer’s spiritual mentors. He prays he can live up to it.


Heart For Service

When Bishop-designate Spencer’s parents migrated from Wisconsin to Alabama in the 1940s, they faced discrimination because of their Catholic faith. They were only allowed to live on one street – “Canon,” which had originally been named “Catholic Street.”


“I remember playing baseball in a friend’s yard and his mother coming out the back door and informing me that I could not stay and play because I was Catholic and would be a bad influence,” he recalled.

With a heart for service, he transcended those religious barriers. He was an altar boy and an Eagle Scout. At Jacksonville (Ala.) State University, Bishop-designate Spencer earned a degree in law enforcement and served in Kappa Sigma, the social service fraternity.

“All those experiences were stepping stones toward the expression of service found in ministry and the religious life,” he said.

Commissioned an Army officer in 1973, he went on active duty a year later. For eight years, he served as a military police officer.

In 1980, Bishop-designate Spencer traded in his military uniform for a Franciscan habit. Having always been interested in social justice, he became a religious brother with the Order of Friars Minor.

In his first year as a Franciscan brother, Bishop-designate Spencer ministered in New York with Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.

“I washed dishes at the soup kitchen side-by-side with her,” he said.

Bishop-designate Spencer, who later ministered as a counselor in prisons near Boston, acknowledged that it was highly unusual for a former military man to be so closely connected with the Catholic Worker Movement, recognized for its strong anti-war and pro-peace activism. His fellow Franciscans gave the young brother a nickname: “Captain.”

“We would sit around at nighttime on the floor and (the Catholic Workers) would run the printing presses of their newsletter,” the bishop-designate remembered. “We had wonderful conversations – challenging, enlightening and encouraging.”

It was his service as a brother that inspired him to become a parish priest. Bishop-designate Spencer turned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, a Catholic community he had known while stationed at Fort Meade. Conversations with Archbishop Borders convinced him that he was meant for the priesthood, and he entered St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park.

“Archbishop Borders was so gentle in his ways,” he said. He was able to balance a life of activity with contemplation.”

Father Spencer was ordained May 14, 1988. 

CONTINUED

Cleveland Catholics Defy Bishop and Risk Excommunication

 
Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese wants to meet with the priest and lay leaders of a breakaway congregation to try to bring them back into the fold, a spokesman for the diocese said Monday.
 
The diocese was reacting to an unauthorized Mass celebrated Sunday by the Rev. Robert Marrone and about 350 communicants in leased commercial space they set up as a church, independent of the diocese.


 Diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said Lennon "has an obligation, as shepherd of the diocese, to try and reach out to these folks in the hopes of keeping them in communion with the church."

Leaders of the new Community of St. Peter, facing possible excommunication for disobeying the bishop, have stressed that they still consider themselves practicing Roman Catholics, but disagree with the diocese over the closing of their church, St. Peter, in downtown Cleveland.

When Lennon, carrying out a diocese-wide downsizing plan, announced in March 2009 that he was mothballing the 151-year-old building on the corner of Superior Avenue and East 17th Street, members of the congregation began considering other options to stay together.  CONTINUED

This is bizarre. Is ensuring that parish members are able to stay and worship together by starting a new parish without the permission of the Cleveland Diocese and the Bishop worth risking being excommunicated from the Church?  Do they deserve to be excommunicated? Should the Rev. Robert Marrone be held more responsible for spreading scandal than the parishoners? These parishoners seem misguided IMO.  The priest and the parishoners are causing scandal and it must be stopped.

The Reuters Deception -- Hide Religion of Persons Who Murdered Priest's Family

Jihad Watch points out that Reuters displays unethical journalism in refusing to name the murderers religion- Islam. In Nigeria, Muslims with machetes killed a priest's family and burned the Church. Reuters makes a point to ensure that you have knowledge when a Muslim is a victim but goes way out of its way to hide the reality when "peaceful" Muslims hurt or kill person/persons. Reuters need to simply do their job -- report the news, report the facts. But, it is crystal clear that Reuters and other MSM outlets have a Pro-Muslim and Anti-Christian bias. It is so sad that his family was murdered, and so brutally. I will be keeping both the Nigerian priest and the souls of his family members who were murdered in my prayers.