Real Catholic Blog

It’s been an eventful year and we feel blessed to have taken part in it with you. Thank you for joining with us as we’ve explored various aspects of the Faith and the culture. We very much look forward to 2011 and a more active, more involved, much improved RealCatholicBlog.com. We hope you join us. 

This year has been an important one for the Church. For example, Pope Benedict XVI was extraordinarily active over the last 12 months (Kevin Clarke/Zenit.org/Catholic.net): Five foreign trips, including a ground breaking one to England to beatify Cardinal Newman (Fr. Richard J. Shiefen/CatholicInsight.com), the Year of the Priest and the canonization of several saints (NewsAhead.com) were only a few of the visible accomplishments. He continues to right the direction of the Church, speak out against evil, and rejuvenate the flock. 

Year-ends allow us to reflect and ponder, and look forward with renewed vigor. It’s good for all of us to take some time off and recharge and renew. Whether you are one to make resolutions or not, it is important to refocus and approach our lives with a new vigor. That includes our spiritual lives, which requires consistent introspection.

From Brother John, myself and the team at RealCatholicBlog and RealCatholic.com, our online Catholic book an merchandise store, have a blessed, safe, healthy, prosperous and joyful New Year. Until we return shortly after the New Year, we leave you with this commentary on the meaning of the Christmas season and how to act upon it: The Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God Among Us. It is important that not only do we renew ourselves through Mass and the sacraments this New Year, but to bring others with us. We are called to God’s Grace but also, as Jesus tells us, to be a reflection of Him and win souls to him for their salvation.

Please view this video from Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com (no connection), who is at his most eloquent:

Cooperate with His Grace To be restored to the heights of Heavenly Communion with our infant savior  . . . is the quintessential gift. …

Pope Benedict XVI elevated two Americans to Cardinal this week, including Archbishop Raymond Burke. This is good news. Archbishop Burke has been at the forefront of defending the faith from those within the Church who would water it down to the point of meaninglessness. In 2004, as Archbishop of St. Louis, he warned Catholic politicians, such as Senator John Kerry, who defend abortion, to refrain from receiving Holy Eucharist. While angering many, including a host of his brother bishops, he spoke the truth and defended Church teaching. In recent years, he has headed the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, which is the Vatican equivilant of the Supreme Court (see Greg Burke’s LiveShots blog at FoxNews.com). Upon his elevation, he said in part:

I am deeply humbled and honored by the announcement that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI intends to name me to the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church at the Consistory which he has convoked for this coming November 20th. Having received the news of the Holy Father’s intention, I express my deepest gratitude to His Holiness for the great confidence which he has placed in me, and I renew my commitment to serve Him, as Shepherd of the universal Church, in total fidelity and with all my being.

Pope Benedict appointed 24 cardinals in all, 20 of whom are under 80 years of age. Only those under 80 can participate in a papal conclave. The other American is Archbishop Donald Wuerl, of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Extensive comments by both Americans can be found at the Catholic News Agency.

Here’s a report from the Vatican on Pope Benedict’s Angelus message on the Feast of the Assumption (Catholic Encylopedia). I like to tell people who doubt the Assumption something I heard during a homily a few years ago. It seems that Chamber of Commerce types, local governments and tourism boosters during the era of the Church’s early years (yes, they had them then, too) always were eager to proclaim sights related to saints in their cities and villages. This attracted pilgrims who spent money there. It was good for the local economy.

They would, at the slightest bit of evidence, or at the best guess of evidence (or legend), market sites related to significant figures of the Church: this saint ate here, this saint preached here, that saint died over there. So, there is ample reason to suspect that if the Blessed Mother was not assumed body and soul into Heaven, there would be some landmark, somewhere, marking the spot of her death or burial. There is none. Hmmm.

Also, it is important to know that, as Catholics, we believe Mary, in her complete human body, was assumed into Heaven, because as the Mother of Christ, just as she brought Him into the earthly world with a soul uncorrupted by original sin, so, too, her body left this world uncorrupted.

Pope Benedict XVI calls believers to entrust themselves to Mary, who “assumed into heaven, has not abandoned her mission of intercession and salvation.”

Here’s a report from CNN on the Shroud of Turin. Even the reporter seems to be enlightened (see video below). Of course there are skeptics, but more and more are coming to believe. (It’s amazing how some people either purposely ignore the evidence or are truly ignorant of it and base their denials on old, outdated assertions.) The report was in advance of Pope Benedict’s visit last month and below that is a video of his adoration of the Shroud. We’ll have more about his visit soon. 

If a reporter can see the light . . . then hope truly is on the rise. 

Pope Benedict XVI praying before the Shroud of Turin. The Church believes the Shroud is a holy article to kindle faith. But many believe in a more definitive declaration.

Deacon Keith Fournier is one of my favorites in all the clergy. He used to publish a column in The Catholic Virginian, the diocesan paper for the Diocese of Richmond, Va. He stopped writing for it and I lost track of him. Then, one day, he appeared at a church I attend for daily Mass (not my parish). As it turns out, he had moved to Richmond from the eastern part of the diocese for a year or two while commuting to Washington, D.C., to finish his Ph.D. those months were a blessing. His departure, a blow. But I learned I could continue to follow him through Catholic Online, one of the, if not the, best Web site for Catholic news and editorial comment.

Today, he unleashes a heartfelt editorial of optimism and grace on the very real possibility of the first steps toward the end of the Anglican split with the Church. News first arose of this in October (see our comment here) and continued for a while, then seemed to disappear. But now, there is actual movement toward establishing an Anglican ordinariate in America. Australia may follow very soon, as well.

Of course, Episcopals have moved into the Church here and there for a while. In August, 10 Episcopal nuns and a priest took steps to come into full communion with the Church. But with the release by Cardinal William Levada, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Pope Benedict XVI of the historic Anglicanorum Coetibus, (Latin for “concerning groups of Anglicans”) last November, the stage is set for some 400,000 Anglicans to come into full communion with the Church.

As Deacon Fournier suggests, this has upset some traditional Catholics. It shouldn’t. He, as I, are pleased the Holy Spirit is working through the successor of Peter, Pope Benedict, to reunify the Holy Catholic Church. As the Deacon writes, a Church recovering from the scars of disunity can do so much to arrest the cultural and moral decline of the world. With Pope Benedict and many earnest leaders of the Eastern Orthodox Church in dialogue, we must pray for that schism to be repaired as well. 

As for the concerns of some, as long as the new ordinariate — which would be a rite within the universal Church, as certain Eastern rites are — accepts the teachings of the Church’s orthodoxy, there should be no cause for concern. The new Anglican rite would be structured like the Maronite or Maronite, which have patriarchs in Lebanon, but parishes all over the world as Lebanese emigrate, and which are loyal to Rome. Going to a Mass there, for example, fulfills one’s Sunday obligation.

Read Deacon Fournier’s editorial (”More Anglicans say Yes to Full Communion: The Restoration of the Church“) of hope and praise for the wonders of the Holy Spirit and the good it is working through those whose heartfelt desire is to come home to the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Let us know what you think.

One of the most under reported international stories is the continued persecution of Christians in the Middle East and in other Muslim countries as well as their continued persecution in communist countries. Sunday, following his Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out about this horrendous violation of human and religious rights, and individual freedom.

Pope Benedict expressed his special concern over the recent killings of Christians in Mosul, Iraq. The targeted killings in a once thriving Christian community that got along with their Muslim neighbors is especially disturbing.

Pope Benedict XVI today poetically explained the Ritual of Ash Wednesday Ashes at his general audience. He also firmly explained conversion and how Lent is a time to discipline oneself to convert. Believing is one thing. Acting it out is another, a true conversion away from the evil of moral relativism.

This is a great message to begin the holiest of seasons, Lent. The discipline it asks for prepares us for the greatest love of all, our Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice — his death on a cross — and Resurrection for our salvation. It’s a message that prepares us to make Lent a season that truly draws us closer to Him.

The Holy Father said:

Conversion is to go against the flow, where the “flow” is a lifestyle that is superficial, incoherent and illusory, which often drags us in, dominates us and makes us slaves of evil or at least prisoners of moral mediocrity.

Pope Benedict asks us to convert ourselves during Lent. Doing so makes us “A precious dust for God.”

This was the real controversy of the weekend: Henry Knox, an appointee to President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said Pope Benedict XVI a is “hurting people in the name of Jesus” because he upholds Catholic teaching against birth control, pre-marital sex and homosexuality. It prompted a segment featuring Thomas Peters and Brent Bozell on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show Friday night. 

According to an April article at CNS.com, Knox is:

a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament’s teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong —which is found in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans — “is not true.”

(He) has also said that Obama’s decision to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inauguration “tainted” the ceremony and that Pope Benedict XVI is a “discredited leader.”

Knox (is) a professed gay Christian who is director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights group. …

Here’s the video from CNS.com of Knox’s more recent comment lie about the Pope. When confronted with the Truth, he sticks to his slander. It’s time President Obama, who claims to want friendly relations with the Vatican and Catholics, put an end to appointing people such as Knox to his administration. It’s another example of how leftists use the power of government to try to shut down and shut up people, through discrediting them, people who have a different point of view.

Hint, Mr. Knox: The Pope isn’t interested in your politically intolerant governance. He’s perpetuating the Truth of God. You might not agree, but your tactics won’t work.

Another radical leftist, homosexual activist in the Obama administration: Henry Knox takes every chance he gets to disparage Pope Benedict for upholding the Truth.

This just in from Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org:

BREAKING: CatholicVoteAction.org blogger Thomas Peters will appear on Hannity on the FOX News Channel tonight at 9 PM EST. He will discuss the anti-Catholic attacks on Pope Benedict XVI made by Henry Knox, who serves on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. TUNE IN TONIGHT!

If you have never seen, read or heard Thomas Peters, do yourself a favor. He’s very well accomplished at a very young age, bright, articulate and witty — and sharp as a nearly forged sabre. He’s the founder of incredibly popular American Papist Blog. Be sure to watch or record this interview.

Today, at his Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict XVI commented on today’s Epistle reading at Mass, in First Corinthians, where Saint Paul illustrates the Church as one body with many parts, and Christ as its head. It is through “the sacraments, the Word of God, charisms and ministries that the Church continues the presence of the Risen Lord in history.” Monday marks the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Pope Benedict reiterates the imporance of the sacraments, The Word of God and ministries in continuing the presence of the Lord in the current age.