Jumping Without A Chute

SHOCK! NYT Gets It Wrong (Again)

From CWN: A front-page story in today's New York Times announces that Pope Benedict XVI ( endorsed Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union. If accurate, that story would show a complete reversal of the Pontiff's position. But is it entirely accurate?

After meeting briefly with the Pope at the airport outside Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters about the Pope's new position. According to Erdogan, as quoted by the Times: "He said, ‘You know we don’t have a political role, but we wish for Turkey’s entry into the EU.'"

Notice: The announcement came from the Turkish premier. The Pope himself made no public statement on the topic. In fact, Benedict XVI has not spoken on that subject since his election to the papacy in April 2005.

The Pope's last public comments on Turkey's aspirations for EU membership were made in September 2004, when he was speaking not as Roman Pontiff but as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. At that time, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro he remarked that Turkey's Islamic culture put the country "in permanent contrast to Europe." To date, he explained, the European Union has been composed of nations that share a common Christian cultural background. Expanding the EU to include Turkey, he said, "would mean a loss of richness, the disappearance of the cultural for the benefit of the economic."

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Joke of the Week

What's the difference between Bono and God?

God doesn't think he's Bono.

What's the difference between Bono and God?

God doesn't think he's Bono.

Pray For Our Holy Father

As he visits Turkey.  He is venturing into the lion's den.

Tweaking of the new blog

Resulted in my having to delete it and start over. The new link is here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sola Scriptura

(H/T to Darth Infallible, an occassional author here whose voice and wit are dearly missed)

Michael Schiavo Just Won't Shut Up

and continues to indict himself morally, story here. The man becomes more twisted and evil with each passing day.

Roma Locuta Causa Fini Or In Other Words To Milingo, Anathema Sit!

From CNS

Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials, meeting to review the status of married priests, reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy and said its importance should be highlighted among priests and seminarians.

At the same time, the participants examined the possibility of the return to active ministry of some priests who may have left the priesthood to marry but who now meet certain conditions, a Vatican statement said.

The pope presided over the three-hour meeting of more than 20 heads of Vatican congregations and councils Nov. 16.

"The value of the choice of priestly celibacy according to the Catholic tradition was reaffirmed, and the need for solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminarians and for those already ordained," a brief Vatican statement said.

The Vatican encounter was triggered by the case of Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who recently was excommunicated after he ordained four married men as bishops without papal permission.

The Vatican statement, issued a few hours after the meeting, made no mention of Archbishop Milingo. It said the participants were given updated information on requests by priests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy and on the possibility of readmission for priests who "meet the conditions foreseen by the church."

In recent years, the Vatican has approved the return to active ministry for some priests who left to marry in civil ceremonies, but who later divorced or were widowed and petitioned for readmission. Such readmissions follow a long process and require an expression of repentance from the petitioner, according to Vatican officials.

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Why Did This Take So Long?

Newark Star-Ledger

BALTIMORE -- American Catholic bishops will vote today on a document that urges lay Catholics not to receive Communion if they reject church teachings on birth control, abortion and the divinity of Jesus.

Bishops say the document reiterates long-held church doctrine on who should receive Communion. That question gained newfound attention when John Kerry, a Catholic, ran for president in 2004. Some bishops said they would deny Kerry Communion because he said he disagreed with church teachings against abortion.

The 19-page document applies to all lay people, not just politicians. If approved today as expected at the bishops' annual fall meeting, it could resonate in a country where polls indicate the vast majority of married Catholic couples use birth control and where most Catholics believe abortion should be legal.

Written at the request of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers two years ago, it is one of several papers on sensitive issues being voted on at the bishops' meeting. The 300 bishops present also are expected to vote on documents explaining church teaching against contraception, and on guidelines for bishops to minister to gay people, who are referred to in that document as "persons with a homosexual inclination."

The Communion document, titled "Happy Are Those Who Are Called To His Supper: On Preparing To Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist," does not tell priests or bishops to reject people at the altar rail just because of unorthodox beliefs.

Instead, it calls on lay Catholics to determine beforehand whether they are properly disposed to receive the sacrament.

Communion is the heart of the Catholic Mass, a sacred rite by which Catholics experience Jesus. Catholicism teaches that priests can consecrate bread and wine to become the actual body and blood of Jesus. Unworthy receipt of Communion is viewed in the Catholic Church as a grave sin.

Bishops interviewed said the purpose of the document is to inspire people to take Communion more seriously.

"The intent of the document is to get people to come to Communion, not to keep them from Communion," said Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Commission on Doctrine, which wrote the document. "It's a challenge now to Catholics to have a certain consistency in their lives."

Bishops have worried that too many Catholics view Communion as a private act when theologically it is a public one meant to unite believers.

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The meo-centric clergy and "it's all about us" laity will probably reject this out of hand and progressive Bishops will probably ignore this as they do everything else with which they don't agree.

Meeting To Discuss Married Priests And Impact Of Milingo Actions

Pope Benedict XVI has called a meeting Thursday with top Vatican officials to discuss lifting the celibacy requirement for priests seeking to marry or who have already married.

Benedict called the summit to examine the implications of the "disobedience" of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the Zambian prelate excommunicated in September for installing four married American men as bishops, the Vatican said Monday.

The Vatican stressed the meeting would not open a general discussion of the celibacy requirement but would only examine requests for dispensation made by priests wishing to marry and requests for readmission made by clergy who had married in recent years.

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