Real Catholic Blog

As we’ve noted before, Pope Benedict XVI endorses new media and digital technology as a vital tool in reaching and teaching people about God, our faith and the Church. Now, he’s taking it a step further. In a recent message, he promoted the 44th World Day of Social Communications, and calls “urgent and unavoidable task for priests and consecrated men and women,” to communicate through this new avenue of reaching people not before available through traditional forms of communication. He practices what he preaches — the Vatican has an excellent YouTube channel and Web site, for example. We would add that lay people have their own responsibility to reach out to those who are not familiar with the Church; or those who are, but who have declined the Lord’s invitation to come home.

Pope Benedict says: Get online, log on and log into the Word of God!

This is a very interesting ritual of Church tradition: According to the Vatican . . .

This morning, for the Memorial of Saint Agnes, two lambs whose wool will be used for the weaving of the sacred pallium, were brought to the Pope. The pallium is a stole of white wool with six black crosses, which is kept in an urn at the Tomb of Saint Peter and conferred by the Pope on June 29th, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, to the new metropolitan archbishops, so as to remember the special communion that binds them to the Apostolic See. The lambs are raised by the sisters of the Roman convent of San Lorenzo and offered to the Pontiff by the Canons Regular of the Lateran on the day of the Memorial of Saint Agnes, the Roman martyr traditionally depicted with a lamb. 

Pope Benedict XVI blesses the lambs for use in the sacred pallium.

Earlier this week, at his general audience, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, received a lot of attention — and admiration — for his talk on the ecumenical movement. His central message during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:

Christians must still strongly rely on the divine gift of unity, because the world needs a common witness and a renewed fidelity to Christ, the Son of God died and rose again for the salvation of man.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the importance of centering one’s life in Christ, the risen Lord, who humbled Himself by His human nature and died for our sins, as a common witness for salvation.

Not exactly, but he does encourage Catholics to use the Internet, responsibly, to spread the Gospel. We’re during our part. Join in our discussion: While the Vatican and many dioceses have sophisticated media operations, as do independent Catholic organizations (think EWTN, Catholic Online) and some orders, what do you think Catholics groups and layity can do better to spread the Truth via new media and technology?

Pope Benedict: Catholics, get online and spread the Truth!

We rarely get commercial here, but, after all, we are part of a retail operation. So, as a reminder, if you like the devotional, spiritual and moral  elucidations of this blog, and would like to give someone or some people a gift that truly reflects the season, please visit RealCatholic.com, our Ave Maria online store, where we can fulfill all of your Catholic and Christian religious goods needs: Bibles, Christian art, books from numerous authors on almost any subject, including those authored by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (or books about them); or books about Church history and saints; or sacred or contemporary music, devotionals, Rosaries, prayer cards, you name it. We offer quality merchandise and competitive prices and ship anywhere in the world.

So, we thank you for letting us take this commercial time out, and hope you have the opportunity to visit us at RealCatholic.com. We hope you have a very Merry and Spirit-filled Christmas.

It’s no secret that marriage — God’s Word — is under assault in America and in many other places around the world. It almost seems as if once a tide starts like that, it’s hard to roll it back. It’s unfortunate, as well, that those who should gladly raise the banner to carry the fight are quick to despair and submit to what seems to be overwhelming “modern norms” — the “dictatorship of relativism” as a wise man (Pope Benedict XVI) put it a few years ago.

Take heart! The Church in New Jersey, Washington state and Washington, D.C. as well as Maine (all per CNA) are taking definitive action to roll back the tide and protect their states from the redefinition of marriage.

Of particular interest is Maine, where citizens there not only are trying to protect marriage preemptively, as about 30 states have done, it has to pull a California and reverse a decision that has legalized homosexual “marriage.” To undertake this task, the Diocese of Portland took up second collections last Sunday so that it could run television ads and other campaign communications to reach the electorate. It is expected that the 140 parishes of the diocese raised between $140,000 – $300,000.

In a disturbing occurrence, two former nuns protested the diocese’s involvement in front of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. They claimed to represent the so-called group “Catholics for Marriage Equality.”

However, Fr. Louis Phillip, retorted that marriage . . . 

“pre-dates government. … Since the beginning of time, marriage has been understood by people of every faith and culture to be the union of a man and a woman.”

The referendum on restoring the definition of marriage in Maine is November 3. The umbrella coalition for the pro-marriage side is Stand for Marriage Maine.

UPDATED 9/14/09

Cardinal John Henry Newman is set to be beatified in the near future now that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, officially has recognized a miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman’s intercession. The approved miracle was the inexplicable cure of a spinal condition suffered by permanent Deacon Jack Sullivan of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Deacon Sulllivan prayed daily for the intercession of Cardinal Newman for the Lord to relieve him of his debilitating ailment and intense pain, which had him hunched over and unable to read and study for his deaconate classes. When he was relieved of his disability, a team of medical doctors found no plausible human medical cure was responsible. 

Beatification is the step that precedes canonization. The candidate for sainthood can be beatified in his diocese.

From RomeReports.com/YouTube.com:

Cardinal John Henry Newman was an Anglican presbyter who converted to Catholicism in 1845. He was one of the most important figures of the Oxford movement that advocated for the Church of England’s return to its Catholic roots.

One of his biggest admirers is Benedict XVI, who during his years in the seminary, studied Newman’s life and writings.

The date for Cardinal Newman’s beatification is undecided, but may be celebrated next year in Rome or London, the cardinal’s place of birth.

From Catholic News Agency Television/YouTube.com:

Cardinal Newman, an English convert to Catholicism, tried to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome. As a seminarian, Pope Benedict XVI studied Cardinal Newman’s life and writings. Now he will beatify him, probably in early 2010.

From RomeReports.com/YouTube.com

An American Deacon, Jack Sullivan, sought Cardinal Newman’s intercession for the healing of a serious spinal ailment that would have kept him from finishing his deaconate classed and eventual ordination. 

I found this doing some research on something else, and if this isn’t the world turned upside down, I don’t know what is: A year or so prior to the controversy over Notre Dame conferring an honorary doctorate to pro-abortion President Barack Obama, and allowing him to speak at its commencement, a university in Rome tried to keep Pope Benedict XVI from speaking there! Unbelievable! Maybe it’s a translation thing, but the definition of tolerance has one strange meaning in Italian. 

From CatholicNewsAgency.com/YouTube.

Let’s get this straight: One college protested the Holy Father’s appearance because of his teachings, while one welcomed with open arms a president who contradicts them?

In 1995, Jeb Bush,the former Florida governor and the younger brother offormer president, George W. Bush, converted to the Faith from the Episcopal Church, and has been a steadfast and public defender of the Faith ever since. Because of he and his brother are very close, and the former president’s close relationship with many Catholic lay and clerical leaders, as well as his clear defense of life and marriage, many have suggested the possibility that he may become the next high-profile American public figure to convert (see Newt Gingrich). But it’s not likely.

At Communion and Liberation’s annual Rimini Meeting last week, Jeb Bush said his brother is “pretty comfortable with his Methodist faith.” Despite that, during his presidency, it was clear that the former president has a true affection for Catholicism. He took time out to attend both Pope John Paul II’s funeral as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s investiture Mass. He and Pope Benedict had a visibly warm relationship as was seen during the Holy Father’s unforgettable White House reception. Who knows? Perhaps one day. After all, faith is a journey. For some, it takes a bit longer.

As for Jeb Bush, he described his conversion this way, from Catholic Online via The Deacons Bench blog:

Bush said what primarily attracted him to the faith were the “sacraments of the Catholic Church, the timeless nature of the message of the Catholic Church, and the fact that the Catholic Church believes in and acts on absolute truth as its foundational principles and doesn’t move with modern times as my former religion did.”

A former Episcopalian who was received into the Church in 1995, Bush said, “In the United States many people think that to keep your faith, you need to put it into a safety deposit box if you’re an elected official until you finish your service as a public servant, and then you can go and get it back. I never thought that was appropriate.”

That’s a great testimony to the everlasting Truth of the Faith as well as the necessity to live that Truth and Faith in your life, no matter as a public official or a private citizen.

Bishop Joseph Martino, Bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, has asked for and received retirement status from Pope Benedict XVI. The diocese now is under the administration of Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, until a successor is named.

We hope and pray for Bishop Martino’s health, that he may be restored to the zeal he has had in defending the Word against the dictatorship of relativism. He has been one of the leading defenders of the Faith and its teachings in an increasingly secular world.

Deacon Keith Fournier has a beautiful tribute to Bishop Martino at Catholic Online. An excerpt:

I also thought of the painful defense St. Paul was forced to give of his own apostolic office in his second letter to the Corinthians (See, 2 Cor. Chapters 10 – 13). It has happened many times in our 2000 year history. Good Bishops like Bishop Joseph Martino sometimes suffer the effects that can accompany “bearing the burden” of their exercise of their apostolic office and have to take a different role in caring for the flock. He is now doing just that with the kind of fidelity, dignity and extraordinary courage he has always shown. However, he is obviously tired,in fact exhausted, from the burden of his office.

Not only do we need to pray for Bishop Martino, but that all Bishops and priests will find the zeal to bring the Word into all homes, to all people. Still more, we need to pray that the Holy Spirit raises up legions of holy men to the priesthood to help lead our society into a culture of life and Biblical values through the Truth and Light.