St. Teresa of Avila - Liturgial Abuse (Part Four)

 The liturgical abuse at St. Teresa continues.  Usually, you find one or two but this is the fourth and so we now have liturgical dance taking place during Mass.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship stated in 1994:

Among some peoples, singing is instinctively accompanied by hand-clapping, rhythmic swaying, and dance movements on the part of the participants. Such forms of external expression can have a place in the liturgical actions of these peoples on condition that they are always the expression of true communal prayer of adoration, praise, offering and supplication, and not simply a performance. (Instruction on Inculturation and the Roman Liturgy, 42; italics added)

However, what took place at St. Teresa's on March 10th was a performance.  here are some screen shots...and if you watch the video, it takes place at the one hour and fifty-one minute mark.

+Gregory Supports Pro-Abortion Biden - His Latest Shameful Action

 A group of more than 60 bishops has written to Archbishop Jose Gomez this month, pressing for the U.S. bishops’ conference leadership to suspend discussion of the subject of Eucharistic coherence ahead of the USCCB’s June meeting, despite a recent letter from the Vatican’s doctrinal office counseling the bishops to continue discussing the matter. Discussion on the topic was scheduled in March through the ordinary USCCB procedure for setting meeting agendas.

The letter was signed by several U.S. cardinals, including Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

 

To read the full article, go to:  THE PILLAR 

Archbishop Wilton Gregory Needs to Come Clean

In an interview with the Catholic Standard, Archbishop Wilton Gregory said the following:

Archbishop Gregory: “I was very, very fortunate. I was appointed a bishop as a very young man, probably by today’s standards too young. But one of the great graces that God gave me was my 10 years with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin who was the archbishop, who obviously had suggested to Pope John Paul II that appointing a young auxiliary would be something that he would both want and he would use effectively for the care of the people of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and (he) shaped and formed me. He gave me a great example of equilibrium, of the ability to identify with people. I have said this on more than one occasion, he never lost the common touch.For the first year and a half, I was one of his emcees, and I just marveled at how this man could enter into a parish and within five minutes he was talking to everybody, and people felt close to him. I marveled at his ability to reconcile sometimes very divergent opinions, and to model a level of charity and joy that remained with me (as) a great example.”

So, the question I pose to Bishop Gregory is:  

• Did you know about Cardinal Bernadin's homosexual assaults and behavior?  
• Did you know about the fact that an allegation was made against him in the early 1990s?  
• If you did know, why did you not say anything?

In addition, there are questions about Msgr. Rossi that Archbishop Wilton needs to answer. 

If you get to see the Archbishop, maybe you can ask him the questions?

 

I Am a Social Justice Warrior!

Are you a CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR?   Would you like to be one?  Then you need to take a look at this all important video.

Any update on St. Michael's in Silver Spring?

It seems that a "consultation" took place on Dec. 9th regarding St. Michael's in Silver Spring. This school was one of those under consideration for merging or closing (see my post last Nov. 19, 2009 and January 17, 2010) last school year.

I have not had a chance to see my "contact" over there for a while, but if anyone has any info, please feel free to share: awashingtondccatholic@gmail.com.

Scandal: Wuerl helps to honor pro-gay marriage Mayor

Well, it seems that Cardinal Wuerl will lead the invocation for the new Mayor of Washington DC at his inauguration on January 2, 2011.

Mayor Vincent Gray who is Catholic and says he attends Mass regularly (although we have not been able to determine the parish - although I know some of you out there know), supported same-sex marriages, as well as, other things which go against Church teaching.

For the Cardinal to attend and participate in this, brings scandal by helping to honor a pro-abortion/pro-gay marriage mayor.

However, you should not be shocked at this, as this is pretty typical for the Cardinal. You should recall his attendance at the SOAR Dinner honoring Cokie and Steve Roberts and his attendance at the John Sweeney farewell. Who knows what other events he has attended, since the Catholic Standard does not report on these sorts of events, nor does his PR person issue statements.

BTW, a request for a comment by Ms. Susan Gibbs, the spokesperson for the Archdiocese, was not returned.

You can read it here at the Washington comPost.

Thanks to our colleagues over at Restore DC Catholicism.

BREAKING NEWS - CATHOLIC CHARITIES and HEALTH BENEFITS

According to AP:

The Archdiocese of Washington will change an employee health care policy because of a same-sex marriage law expected to take effect this week in D.C.
Starting on Tuesday, the church will no longer let employees of its Catholic Charities add spouses to their health care coverage.

Catholic Charities, which provides services such as substance abuse treatment programs and shelters, employees some 850 people. Church spokeswoman Susan Gibbs says currently about 10 percent of those employees have their spouses covered by their health care plan. Catholic Charities sent a letter to employees Monday about the changes. Without them the church could have had to extend coverage to an employee's same-sex spouse.

A bill allowing same-sex marriage is expected to become law in the city on Wednesday.

Pro-Life Speaker Tonight - Support Haiti

Remember, this Friday at the Fr. Rosensteel Council (7:30pm) Knights of Columbus, Randall Terry will be speaking. They are located at 9707 Rosensteel Avenue Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 (just off of Forest Glen Road -- near the Forest Glen Metro).

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Disaster in Haiti

Give to one of the many reputable charities such as Food for the Poor, the International Red Cross, and Catholic Relief Services.

Follow-up on St. Catherine's

Well, I was able to get a hold my normal source and confirm that St. Catherine Laboure will be open for another year. Congratulations!

It seems that there have been a number of donors, combined with the effort by the Archdiocese to keep this school open for the large number of Hispanic children who attend.

Got to love it...

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League tells it like it is in their Dec. 15, 2009 press release:

The Congress is now officially on record approving a bill that tells mothers in Washington, D.C. that if they decide to take their baby to term, and elect to send their child to a private school—just like the one that President Obama and his wife have chosen for their own children—they can do it on their own dime: the successful voucher scholarship program that 1,700 poor kids were enrolled in is now dead. But if these same mothers decide to abort their babies, the same government will rush to pay their bills.

Most of those affected are black. The bill will soon be signed into law by America’s first black president. Is there anyone so stupid not to understand what is going on?

You got to love it.

St.Jude and St.Catherine

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend either meeting last night. I had, as they say, a previous dinner engagement.

By now, the parishioners will basically know how much they wil need to raise, how long they have to do it, and all of the other deadlines.

I will be asking my sources about the meetings. However, if anyone would like to write and share their take on the meeting, please feel free to do so at awashingtondccatholic@gmail.com.

Let me know who the representative from the Archdiocese was and what was his/her "solution" to the matter.

I look foward to hearing from you and will post information from my sources over the next few days.

Time to Shut Down CCHD!

Well folks, the CCHD collection is next week. And you know what to do: DON'T GIVE.

The Catholic Standard has a number of articles on organizations which help the those who are less fortunately. The Archdiocese has circulated fliers and letters.

You would think that after the ACORN scandal and the latest scandal involving three additional organizations, they would have learned. Nope.

You can tell the radical leftists in the Church are running scared. They are pushing for support of CCHD. I guess they are worried that this will dry up one more source for the Alinsky style organziations.

Why does the Catholic Church give to secular organizations, who further their own non-Catholic agendas?

I have been talking about this for over a year. Click here if you wish to see all of my posts.

So, whether you drop a flier in the basket protesting this collection, or even an acorn, that is okay.

The best way is not to give.

However, take that money you would have dropped in the basket and give it to a pro-life organization. Anyone that will uphold our Catholic beliefs.

Open Letter to the Fr. Fisher - Director of Priest Personnel

Note: A few months ago, I was contacted by a parishioner from a parish, which will not go named at this time. The parishioner informed me about a situation in his/her parish and asked if I would write about it. After contacting other parishioners from that parish and doing a bit of investigating, I decided that the story was true and would assist them.

I sent this note a few weeks ago to Fr. Fisher, the Director of Priest Personnel. I did receive a reply and forwarded it to the parishioners. After some thought, they have asked me to publish the letter.

At this point, the pastor and parish will not be named.

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I am writing this letter to you on behalf of a number of parishioners of a particular parish in the Archdiocese of Washington. They have contacted me over the course of the last few months, because they do not know what else they can do to get your attention on this matter.

One of your parishes is slowly dying - spiritually, as well as, financially. It is not due to financial misconduct or some sort of sexual abuse. It is something much simpler and basic. It is because of the lack of pastoral interaction from the pastor. They rarely see him, especially at events which involve the school, unless there is an official from the diocese present. Anyone who in the slightest way disagrees with him, is either berated or shunned. In doing a bit of research, he has done this at his previous assignments. Some have even written to me that they have been told that the priests in this parish are too busy to make sick calls.

Each week, these parishioners tell me that they either learn or hear of another parishioner has left or is thinking seriously of leaving. Some of these people have been parishioners for ten, fifteen or twenty or more years. No, they are not leaving the Catholic church, they are simply leaving that particular parish.

They have explained to me that they have written to the Archdiocese, as well as, Archbishop Wuerl but to no avail. They have attempted to meet with you and the Archbishop, but to no avail. One even went so far as to confront the Archbishop at a public event on this matter, asking to meet, giving a business card but has not heard anything.

They are asking you to please do something before more people leave the parish. They see the parish slowly dying.

Isn't there anything that can be done about a pastor who is does not seem to care about his parish? Would you want someone on your staff who behaved in this manner? Is it not the Archbishop's duty to ensure that parishioners are properly lead? If you do not realize it by now, the parish I am talking about is located on (location deleted).

They have asked me to obtain a response from you for them.

Keep Fr. Joe in your Prayers

Periodically, I go and visit the links that I post on this site.

Not too long ago, I went to Fr. Joe's Blog. He had not posted for a while and his posting of the 9th, shows that he has some health issues.

Although I do not know him, please keep him in your prayers.

Catholic Standard Weekly Update

It is that time of the week for the review of My Catholic Standard, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.

Our cover story deals with the confirmation of 78 teenagers and adults at St. Andrew Kim Parish in Olney. Congratulations to all.

Our Page 3 story covers an overview of how Catholic schools are planning to deal with the H1N1 flu. One way is to ensure that all schools put homework assignments and self study assignments on line. There are still schools which seem to resist this easy and basic step.

On the same page as the Bishop of Rockville Centre NY calling for healthcare for illegal immigrants, there is a CNS story about Bishop Martino of Scranton. The headline (from CNS) seems to imply that the bishop resigned due to the fact that he threatened to deny Communion to VP Biden during the last election. If yes, then it is a sad commentary on the Church when CNS seems to revel in this fact.

Page 6 brings us a request for assistance with BOAST.

Page 11 brings us a half page advertisement on the 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting, which focuses on strengthening the pro-life movement but on Page 12 we see the Standard announce the SOAR dinner to honor pro-abortion and pro-homosexual marriage Cokie and Steve Roberts. Really guys, have you no shame.

We have a story of Fr. Leo Patalinghug who beats Bobby Flay in a “Throwdown.” If you don’t know what it is, check out the Food Network on cable television.

Elizabeth Ann Seton celebrates 50 years. Fr. Daly discusses the death of a friend. And there is a story about how humor is a necessary part of a healthy spiritual life.

The Standard remembers Sarah Forbes, wife of Deacon Rodney Forbes, who was remembered for sowing over 700 stoles for area deacons. Prayers to her and her family members.

There is still no story on the Archbishop’s honoring of John Sweeney. We also have no story on the fact that three of the DC Council members are Catholic and voting to recognize gay marriage. I guess there was not enough space in the Catholic Standard this week.

Archbishop Burke Speaks

Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke is the Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis and Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. This article is adapted from remarks he delivered at InsideCatholic's 14th Annual Partnership Dinner, on September 18, 2009.

Regarding the faith and political life, there has developed in our nation the false notion that the Christian or any person of faith, in order to be a true American citizen, must bracket his faith life from his political life. According to such a notion, one ends up with Christians, for example, who claim personally to be faithful members of the Church and, therefore, to hold to the demands of the natural moral law, while they sustain and support the right to violate the moral law in its most fundamental tenets. We find self-professed Catholics, for example, who sustain and support the right of a woman to procure the death of the infant in her womb, or the right of two persons of the same sex to the recognition which the State gives to a man and a woman who have entered into marriage. It is not possible to be a practicing Catholic and to conduct oneself politically in this manner.
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To ignore the fact that Catholics in public life, for example, who persistently violate the moral law regarding the inviolability of innocent human life or the integrity of the marital union, lead many into confusion or even error regarding the most fundamental teachings of the moral law, in fact, contributes to the confusion and error, redounding to the gravest harm to our brothers and sisters, and, therefore, to the whole nation. The perennial discipline of the Church, for that reason among other reasons, has prohibited the giving of Holy Communion and the granting of a Church funeral to those who persist, after admonition, in the grave violation of the moral law (Code of Canon Law, cann. 915; and 1184, § 1, 3º).
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One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "tyranny of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society. Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities.

To all of the bishops, priests, deacons and religious in this Archdiocese, please listen. Be strong and stand up to those who continue to call themselves Catholics and yet, flaunt our teachings. Do not follow the Cardinal McCarrick and Archbishop Wuerl Doctrine. It has not worked for 30 years.

Shouldn't We Ensure that Social Security is okay?

As you know, Archbishop Wuerl has thrown his zucchetto into the health care debate by having an on-line "newspaper" publish his editorial on the subject.

Now, I know that I have been critical of him, but as an American and as the leader of Roman Catholic Church in Washington DC/Maryland, he has a right to do so. I would never, ever, take that away from him. Just as I would not take away David Catania's right to talk about homosexual marriage. He has the right to speak on it and advocate it, even though his is wrong.

However, we have problems brewing more and more with Social Security. You can read about it here. In fact, I found it interesting that

In 1940 there were 160 workers supporting each person on Social Security. By 2006 this number had fallen to 3.3 workers per pensioner. By 2034, there will be only 2.1 workers for each person collecting a government retirement check. (Source)

Now, some of you will say "but those people have paid into that." That is true, but what they have really done is get a promisary note -- they may not get their money back -- since there is no "lock box" or real trust fund. It is just a bunch of IOU's.

Don't you think that we should ensure that Social Security, which so many people rely upon, should be a priority to fix? Should not the Archbishop call for fixing Social Security and against any health care reform? Should not the Archbishop call for a fixing of Medicare and Medicaid first?

I think that we should fix what we have, before attempting socialized medicine.
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I am calling on all Catholics, to request that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) be shut down. Not certain what I mean or why, then read this.

Educating Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians - A Failed Doctrine

Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Wuerl and many other members of the hierarchy (esp. those in the Archdiocese of Washington), take a "let's educate pro-abortion Catholic politicians because they will change."

For the last two years, I have argued, that this method does not work and not only encourages them to continue but encourages others. Why does it encourage others, because they know that they can continue to receive communion, be honored by their priests, and receive a Catholic funeral Mass.

Fr. Landry of Fall River MA, writes:

Last week, our editorial argued that one of the most important lessons pastors of the Church in the United States need to draw from the history of interactions with Senator Ted Kennedy on the sanctity of human life is that a strategy of conscience-education-alone with “personally opposed, publicly pro-choice” Catholic politicians hasn’t worked. The attempt to engage, teach and help persuade such politicians to conversion didn’t succeed with Senator Kennedy and it hasn’t succeeded yet with other pro-choice Catholic legislators. To say that it hasn’t succeeded, however, is really not strong enough. It’s possible, after all, to fail a test with a grade of 59; in such a case a student would be able to take some solace that, while there are some areas in need of improvement, he was close to minimal success. If a student fails a test with close to a zero, on the other hand, he obviously needs to make some radical changes if he ever hopes to succeed. And that is closer to the candid assessment that leaders of the Church need to make relative to the education-alone strategy during the past few decades. Let us take an honest look at the numbers. When we survey the long list of pro-choice Catholic politicians from both parties — Kennedy, Kerry, Giuliani, Schwarzenegger, Daschle, Dodd, Durban, Leahy, Mikulski, Pelosi, Delahunt, Capuano, Markey, McGovern, Meehan, Granholm, Sebelius, Pataki, Richardson, Cellucci, Cuomo, and Biden to name just a handful — is it possible to say that the strategy has worked with any of them? Over the last three and a half decades, can we point to even one success story?

Read more about it here.

Hat Tip to LifeSiteNews.Com.

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Because of the continuing scandal at ACORN, I am asking all my readers and Catholic bloggers to once again to call for the shutting down of CCHD. Once shut down, reform it, so that money goes only to Catholic organizations that are faithful to the Church, not to organizations that may go against the teachings of the Church. The only way that Archbishop Wuerl and the members of the USCCB will get the message is if we stop funding them.

Archbishop Wuerl and Healthcare

In an Op Ed Piece in Politics Daily (Health Care Reform a Moral, Imperative, But Must Cover Immigrants, Too), Archbishop Wuerl has decided to jump into the health care debate. He does in a left of center, on-line publication.

I have a couple of bones to pick with him and this article.

1. The current health care system does not cover only a few. It covers a majority of the people.
2. If health care is a basic human right, then what are the basic responsibilities of humans to the system? This is a question I keep meaning to ask everyone who says this. Does it mean we should not eat at McDonald's? Does it mean we should not have any alcohol? Does it mean we should not eat BBQ pork ribs? No one ever explains it, and neither does the Archbishop.
3. What does universal health care mean? Does it mean free eyeglasses every two years? Does it mean kidney transplants for one and all? Are you telling me that health care is not universal right now? You mean you cannot get health care anywhere? Could have fooled me.
4. Well, once again, the Archbishop leaves out the word "illegal" when he discusses immigration. Why? Because he refuses to state that those who are here illegally should be arrested and deported.

I would agree with him that health care costs too much. It is because of lawsuits, the waste and mismanagement and fraud of Medicare and Medicaid and the cost of taking care of those who are here illegally.

The same people who gave us the current health care system are the same people who want to give us this. Who do you think one of the key sponsors of the HMO laws wasy? Teddy Kennedy.

The Archbishop has much more to worry about in his diocese than jumping into this. He has VOTF meeting in his parishes, he has parishes which are pro-homosexual marriage, school enrollment is dropping with the possibility of closings in January/February, he has schools and Catholic organizations within the diocese honoring those who are pro-abortion and pro-homosexual lifestyle. He refuses to take a stand against Catholic politicians who go against the Church. In fact, he himself goes about honoring union leaders who support abortion and homosexual marriage.

He thinks that he can save Catholic health care. Maybe get it more money. He is sadly mistaken. Once you have made a deal with the devil, you can never get out of it.

We need a new Archbishop or Cardinal for this Archdiocese.

Hat Tip to The Deacon's Bench for this.
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Because of the continuing scandal at ACORN, I am asking all my readers and Catholic bloggers to once again to call for the shutting down of CCHD. Once shut down, reform it, so that money goes only to Catholic organizations that are faithful to the Church, not to organizations that may go against the teachings of the Church. The only way that Archbishop Wuerl and the members of the USCCB will get the message is if we stop funding them.

Catholic Standard - The Weekly Update

Sorry about this being so late, but I thought that the story of the Archbishop honoring John Sweeney(AFL-CIO President) would be a more important story, esp. since he (Sweeney) supports same sex marriage, abortion as part of health care, etc. Oh, did not see it, scroll down a bit.

So, here is your weekly update...

Well, it is time for a review of this week’s Catholic Standard, and it is a filled with so much stuff, I don’t know where to begin. So, let’s just dive right into it…

The main story, with a special insert, are the new Catholic School Policies. The Standard only puts the policies in a Q & A format. You really need to read them to get a full understanding. They are available on the Archdiocese website. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to compare the draft with the final, to see what was changed. Hopefully, I will be able to do it soon.

Speaking of education, we have a new religious education program for teaching the faith. This is under the direction of Mr. Harry Dudley. I look forward to hearing and seeing the results of this program.

We have a story on the Kennedy funeral. There has been so much written on this – was it the right thing or wrong thing to do -- I will not even begin to comment.

There is a nice story on the new Our Lady Star of the Sea Church at Solomons. The new church will hold between 700 and 800 parishioners. The original only 275.

We see a couple of pages on the fight over marriage in DC. I would recommend that instead of calling it “traditional marriage,” I would call it the fight over “true marriage.” I have to applaud the Archbishop on this one.

There is a one pager on the shooting of a new film regarding St. Josemarie Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei.

The back page is a continuation of the story of the newly ordained Fr. Andrew Morkunas. He is an inspiration for all of us.

Now, since it is a Labor Day issue, there are a number of stories, as expected on this topic.

“A Retired Worker Reflects on Labor Day 2009.” Personally, it is a pretty poor article if you ask me. But what is important is what it leaves out. The author of the article is Bob Stewart. Now that may not ring a bell, but Mr. Steward is the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) Chapter President and serves out of Holy Trinity. I mean, it is on the VOTF website and Holy Trinity website. (See below.)

Notice how conspicuously it is missing from his bio on page 11 of the Standard? I wonder why the Standard, which is the voice of the Archdiocese, given an opportunity to a dissident leader, someone who is looking to radically change the Roman Catholic Church? I mean, it is on the VOTF and Holy Trinity website but Either Mr. Zimmerman looked the other way or did not do his homework.


Well, on Page 12 we see a small article the SOAR (Support Our Aging Religious) Benefit Dinner in November. This is a “Special to the Standard” piece, which means that it was either written by the Communications Office or that someone told the paper to include it.

As the readers of this blog know, in August I pointed out that SOAR is honoring two pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, etc. Within a few weeks, Msgr. Ensler of the Archdiocese was no longer the chair of the group. However, attempts to reach SOAR for a comment on why they would do it, were not replied to.

The most important point is: Why would the Catholic Standard advertise an event which helps to honor two people who are opposed to Catholic teaching?

Remember, as always, if you don't get the Standard, pick one up in your parish. Remember, they are required to carry it (and pay for it) -- whether they like it or not.