Good quote from Pius XII

14. Let the lies of the wicked be exposed by His light, let the surly arrogance of the proud be humbled, let the rich be led to justice, generosity and charity, let the poor and wretched take as their model the family of Nazareth, which also earned its bread through daily labor; finally, let those who hold the Government of State be persuaded that there is no more solid social foundation than Christian teaching and the safeguarding of religious liberty.


ANNI SACRI
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII ON A PROGRAM FOR COMBATING ATHEISTIC PROPAGANDA THROUGHOUT THE WORLD MARCH 12, 1950

Catholic Church sold-get out ASAP to Parsishoners!

Church closing stuns parishioners
Worshipers 'floored' by armed escort from buildingSUSAN SILVERS ssilvers@ctpost.comConnecticut Post
BRIDGEPORT — For months, parishioners of Holy Trinity Church prayed they were beating the odds. They held potluck suppers. They hosted bazaars and tag sales.
In short, they raised lots of money — enough, they hoped, to keep their struggling Black Rock parish alive.
But worshipers at what is believed to be the oldest Hungarian Byzantine parish on the East Coast said they were devastated by the announcement last Sunday that the church was closing. But what happened next, they said, was unconscionable.
Moments after the announcement was made, armed guards emerged from the sacristies to escort worshipers from their spiritual home.
When she saw the guards, "I felt like I was in a Communist country," said JoAnn Manzo, one of the startled parishioners.
The church closing was revealed when the Rev. George Malitz, the pastor at Holy Trinity and St. John the Baptist in Trumbull, said at the end of the weekly liturgy that he had two announcements.
The first was routine; the second was a letter from the head of their diocese — Eparchy of Passaic Bishop Andrew Pataki — advising the congregation of the immediate shutdown.
"There was a lot of chaos," said Matthew Boucher, a lifelong parishioner, who immediately got up to retrieve his offering and return those of others. "Two armed guards appeared and escorted us out of the church."
Despite their fund-raising efforts, the few parishioners — some three dozen families were registered with the parish — said they were not surprised about the closing. But they were stunned and horrified by the way the news was broken.
"The 'now' of it just floored us," Boucher said.
Boucher estimated the average age of recent worshipers at the church at between 55 and 60 — many who own houses near the Scofield Avenue building, including many who don't drive.
A woman who answered the phone at the eparchy's office and declined to give her name Thursday said that neither the bishop nor a representative would be available.
"The matter has already been addressed and there's no comment," she said. She then hung up the phone.
Malitz did not return messages left at St. John.
Although they are under the authority of the pope, Byzantine Catholics are among several distinct ethnic divisions in the church, and have their own ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Byzantine Catholics have roots in Eastern European nations, and their liturgy is much like that of Orthodox churches, which don't recognize Rome's authority.
Though the existing sanctuary was erected in 1955, Holy Trinity dates to 1896, when Hungarian immigrants were pouring into the city.
Despite its Hungarian liturgy, however, Holy Trinity attracted some parishioners from other backgrounds who took advantage of its proximity to their homes or enjoyed its unusual character.
"Roman Catholic churches are very big," said Manzo, who worshipped at Holy Trinity for 45 years. "This was more of a family."
Parishioners said they had heard of financial troubles for two years or more. But they said fund-raising went into high gear last March, when Malitz announced there were thousands of dollars worth of bills and insufficient funds to meet them.
Boucher said one congregant promptly wrote out a $5,000 check to cover the bills, but the parishioners were not allowed to see those or any subsequent ones.
Parishioners said their wishes to rein in costs, such as by keeping the heat at 55 degrees, were ignored, and that the eparchy and Malitz rebuffed their efforts to review the financial situation.
"This didn't have to happen," Christopher Gombos of Fairfield, another lifelong parishioner, said of the closing. "It happened because they wanted it to occur, like a show of power."
Parishioners now have to figure out where — or if — they will regularly attend church. Though St. John follows the Eastern liturgy, its background is Slavic, and the worshipers there don't sing the familiar hymns in Hungarian that were a special feature at Holy Trinity.
Manzo has registered at St. Ann's, a traditional Roman Catholic Church in Black Rock, but others may not find new spiritual homes so easily.
Gombos, for one, said his disillusionment with the way the Holy Trinity closing was handled, coupled with the latest reports of priestly sexual misconduct in the Archdiocese of Hartford, has soured him on Rome, and he suggested he may opt to worship with the Orthodox Christian Church.
"I'll never belong to a parish where we don't have any control," he vowed.
Susan Silvers, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6426.



Well, great leadership again reigns supreme!! Now some are contemplating going to the schismatic Orthodox. While they are Apostolic, they are not under the lawlful authority given by Christ to His Church. Like Protestants, the Orthodox want to do things their way, cast of all restraints. Read Paul's letters to Titus and Timothy, Not the biblical model. Yet, thanks to our hierachy, many feel they have no choice. Having attended a Byzantine Church, don't blame them for wanting to avoid going down to the local Latin Rite fiasco. Pope Bendict XVI, where are you? Let us stop being concillatory to the liberals! Come out swinging in the mold of Leo the Great or Athansius.

Jesuits are NOT loyal to the Pope or the RCC

For those Fundy's living in the alternate world of Jack Chick, here is one for you. Jesuits have been the thorne in the side and openly rebellious of, the Catholic Church for some years, contrary to the imaginations of Chick ,et al. They are open, heretical rebels, not the secret foot soldiers of the Church. They need, as a group, to be disbanded and some, defrocked. I know though that Chick-ians will find some convoluted logic to it as most have no lives anyway, why live in the real world when their alternate universe of Gnosticism is more fulfilling-



Jesuit University throws support to gay organizations
Jesuit University says support to gay organizations is “the Catholic thing” to do
Santa Clara, Calif, Nov. 04, 2005 - An official from the Jesuit-run Santa Clara University in California told Catholic News Agency that hosting a two-day long conference, on how to promote opportunities for gays and lesbians at Catholic colleges is “the Catholic” way to act as opposed to highlighting the intrinsic immorality of homosexual acts.
As the Vatican prepares a document reiterating its stance, particularly against homosexuality in seminaries, the aim of the conference entitled “Out There” was to highlight scholarships and student affairs being created to cater specifically to gays and lesbians at Catholic institutions.
The conference brought together representatives from the Universities of Georgetown, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga, Fordham, DePaul, La Salle, Marquette and Emory, as well as Boston College, and College of the Holy Cross. Out of the plus 40 Catholic universities represented, thirteen were Jesuit institutions like Santa Clara.
Some 150 attendees were invited to choose from workshops like, "Curriculum and Same-Sex Marriage in a Jesuit University" and "Can I Be Gay and Catholic?"
The dean’s office and Santa Clara’s campus ministry helped finance the event, which was organized largely by English professor Linda Garber.
The Bay Area Reporter, a local gay & lesbian publication, celebrated the event reporting:
“Queers and Catholics converged upon Santa Clara University over the weekend for a watershed conference, marking the first-ever large-scale LGBT event at the Jesuit University.”
Keynote speaker Mark Jordan, a theologian from Emory University and self proclaimed gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter the conference served a purpose that was more than academic.
"This conference was a discovery for a lot of people, first of all in how many of us [LGBT and LGBT-friendly Catholics] there are," Jordan said.
"But to see that people have been improvising solutions, and have the chance to come together and compare improvisations was important," he added.
Jordan acknowledged that the religion is exclusive of gays and lesbians in many ways, and in particular that the Catholic Church’s newly chosen Pope is alienating to many.
"[Choosing Ratzinger as pope] is a catastrophe. I felt kicked in the stomach," he said.
“But that doesn't mean that LGBT people can't be Catholic, even if the institution does not formally welcome them,” Jordan said.
"The Catholic tradition is bigger than the church, it's bigger than the boundaries of the institution, and has more to offer to queer people than just a place in the institution," Jordan said.
"So if the institution alienates us, we take the tradition with us outside the institution," he said.
Jordan believes Catholic authorities likely won't change church doctrine to be fully inclusive of LGBT people for several hundred years, so contemporary queers should instead focus on "horizontal" change – working at the level of Catholic people instead of butting heads with the hierarchy.
Lisa Millora, who is the University’s Assistant Dean for Student Life and one of the co-organizers of the event, told CNA that, although the coincidental timing of the new Vatican document wasn’t planned, “it is important.”
She said that the overall importance of the conference was that it dealt with what she called, “an invisible minority, who face an oppression and tension different than racial minorities,” for example.
Primarily, the job of her office, she said, “is to remove any obstacles to a student’s education.”
As a Jesuit University in the Catholic tradition, she added, “We need to pay attention to social injustices, no matter how uncomfortable they are for us.”
Joseph Winter, a professor at Loyola, said that his school is seen as very progressive, and even offers housing to LGBT couples.
At Saint Louis, there is not much proactive administrative support but neither is there opposition, said Ken Haller, a professor and pediatrician.
Haller, the former president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, said he is often asked whether he is still a Catholic.
"I answer 'yes,'" he said. "I'm a pediatrician, and being gay and being Catholic both call me to that job, to see the person in need and serve that person."
Santa Clara University describes itself as “a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university” located in California's Silicon Valley, which offers its 8,213 students “rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees.” As California's oldest higher-education institution “it demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.”

Fundy's stop talking- and start attacking: Thanks Chick

(Pics of TLM-not same church)


Many have wondered just when they would act on the Chick-inspired fanatasies and act, doing the same things they accuse the RCC of:

Church-service assaultAssailants disrupt 11 a.m. Mass at Annunciation of the Lord, breaking altar; felony charges filed

By Ronnie Thomas DAILY Staff Writerrthomas@decaturdaily.com · 340-2438

What would seem to be among the safest places in America came under attack Sunday morning at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church on Spring Avenue Southwest.
Val Loughman
Emily Loughman
Adam Turgeon
Lisa Wagner

Hartselle residents face first-degree criminal mischief charges

After communion at the 11 a.m. Mass, a man and woman came forward, screaming.
Then, to the shock and horror of the Rev. Joe Culotta and his congregation, the man turned over the cherished century-old marble altar. It tumbled down the steps and smashed onto the floor, ripping up carpet in front of the first-row pews.

Men from the congregation subdued five people and held them for Decatur police. Detective Todd Walker said no one was injured.

Officers arrested Val Eugene Loughman, 20; his wife, Emily Beth Loughman, 21; Adam Joseph Turgeon, 27; and Lisa Marie Wagner, 26, all of Hartselle. Walker said that "another girl with them was not charged."

He said the four lived together at 1004 Mitweed St. Police charged them with first-degree criminal mischief, a Class C felony, and they were in the Morgan County Jail on Sunday night, each held in lieu of $750 bond.

Walker said Wagner moved to Hartselle from Connecticut and Turgeon from New Hampshire.
John and Jeanne Morris and her mother, 88-year-old Maxine Steele, saw the events unfold up close.

"We were in the front-row pew, on the left side facing the altar. The two people who caused the commotion sat on the right side," Jeanne Morris said. "A mother and her two small children, probably 3 and 5 years old, sat between us."

Arrived late


Morris said the two strangers came in late, about 11:40 a.m. Morris said as she looked at them, she wondered about their dress.

"It was shocking to me. He had on dark pants and a dark blue shirt with scribbling on the front," Morris said. "He had long dark hair that fell past his shoulders, so dark it appeared as if it might have been dyed.

"He reminded me of someone from the 1960s, a pot-smoking hippie. He was about 6 feet tall and very thin."

Morris said the woman wore bluejean shorts and "crazy tights with big black diamonds all over them, like the Joker in a deck of cards, and a T-shirt."

But Morris recalled at one point thinking how wonderful it was that they were there.
"I thought they probably were on vacation or maybe from out of town and didn't know what time Mass started," she said. "They came in right before communion."

Morris said the man and woman leaped from their seats and went to the front and stood near Father Culotta.

"They were screaming something about Catholics worshipping idols and other things. I was so stunned, I didn't hear it all," she said. "The man then went behind the altar and pushed it over. If it had not been so heavy and had not gone straight down the steps, someone would have been hurt, probably those little children sitting near us."

Morris said a stoutly built parishioner who appeared to have had military or police training charged up from behind the man and put his fingers in the loop of his jeans.

"He grabbed the man's hair with his other hand and wrapped it around his hand, subduing him," she said. "My husband grabbed the girl, who had started to run away, in a bear hug."
Morris said three other people were at the back and that it soon became evident they were together.

Meanwhile, Jan Gile of Decatur was in the covered gathering place out front of the sanctuary.
"Those of us there could hear noise and knew that something was wrong," she said. "I looked up and saw people going toward the altar. I thought maybe someone might be attacking the pastor."

Gile said she soon had a general idea of what was happening and called the police.

"The men of the church brought the five people out to one of the benches outside," she said. "Members of the church gathered around them and began talking to them. I could not hear the conversations, but it appeared to be civil talk."

Morris said she was never so proud of Culotta.
'Call the police'

"He was seated when it started, then he rose. Of course, he was shocked, and his eyes widened," she said. "I knew what that altar meant to him. Then he calmly turned and said, 'Call the police.' "
She said after order was restored, he talked calmly to the people.
"We had a lot of elderly people there," she said. "A woman behind me was sobbing uncontrollably, and crying out loud. I know upset how the father (Culotta) was, but it didn't show."

Newspaper article


Morris said Culotta told the congregation that "this may have something to do with the article in the newspaper Saturday."

DAILY Religion writer Melanie B. Smith wrote a story titled "Honoring the Saints."

But if that were the case, Morris said, she doesn't believe they read the whole article.
DAILY Photo by John GodbeyA replacement altar stands in the sanctuary of Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church in Decatur on Sunday night. The altar replaces a century-old marble altar that a man pushed over during Sunday’s 11 a.m. Mass. The marble altar tumbled down the steps and smashed onto the floor, damaging a portion of the carpet, foreground. "If they had, they would have seen that we do not worship saints," she said.

"I will give an analogy. It's the same thing as having pictures of your father and mother. You look at them and remember what kind of people they are. It's the same way for Catholics in regard to saints. It's a remembrance. They died for their faith."

Culotta said the choir was closing the communion song when the attack began.

"We take a moment to be still and be quiet. When I opened my eyes, I noticed a man and woman sitting in the front pew I didn't recognize," he said. "Ten or 15 seconds later, they came up to the platform of the sanctuary, saying 'This is idolatry, you are worshipping false ideas, and these are end times.' He went in the back of the altar and pushed it over. It was unreal."

Culotta said the man's action is like someone going into your home and taking one of your most prized possessions and smashing it.

"We just had communion at this altar," the pastor said. "They defiled what's sacred to us. It was made from the original altar at St. Ann (the predecessor church downtown). Children were scared, and people were crying."

But Culotta said the congregation "prayed for those who had just done this. We asked the Lord to be forgiving and to help us to make sense of why something so senseless happens."
He said that after the incident, the church dedicated the month of October to the Virgin Mary and sought her intercession, that "we can all live as brothers and sisters."

Culotta said the sanctuary was in such disarray that Spanish-speaking worshippers, meeting at 1 p.m., had to congregate in the gathering place, where members brought a substitute altar.
'Sad occasion'

"After the police came, I had all of the parishioners tidying up, and I have never received so many hugs in my life as today," Culotta said. "We had all shared in this hurt. It's great to have good from it. We will be stronger after this. But this was a very sad occasion."

Culotta would not allow media to take photographs of the shattered altar, which had been moved in pieces to a storage area.

"Photos would glorify violence," he said.

Church member Don Kyle, who is mayor of Decatur, said he believes a lot of people "get a lot of misinformation about the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations. And some form of frustration shows up from time to time, and you never know the circumstances.

"You just can't explain how people think sometimes. But this certainly doesn't appear to be a rational act."

Kyle added, "We are a pretty hardy bunch, and I don't believe this will impact us at all in a negative way."

Member Annette Lincoln said when she heard about what had happened, she was glad she went to the 8 a.m. Mass.

"At first, I was scared and I was like 'How could these people do this, and is it going to happen somewhere else?' Then I got mad and wished I had been there. I could have thrown my purse."

Copyright 2005 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved.
AP contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
-->SEE ALSO:


UPDATE 8/21/06+++++

Chick fan site:
http://www.arcticbeacon.blogspot.com/

Welcome

I welcome you to my initial blog launch and invite you back again.

In short, I am a Bible believing orthodox Catholic . Some things I despise:

Democrats
Republicans
Neo-Conservatives
Fundamentalists (I do salute your adherence to stricter interpretations then that of "higher criticisms)
An Anti-Catohlics in General (those who are willfully ignorant)

Things I am for:

Limted. Constitutional Govt
The Constitution Party
Prayer
Scripture Reading
History
Archeology
Good, clean Fun (that leaves many Fundys out)
Common Sense

Though from time to time, as noted, I may allow for comments, this is one of the few posts I will allow for. I am not close minded, I am just tired of hearing the opionions of others, hence my own blog.

I also flat out reject teh so-called "faith" of John Roberts, Kerry, Alito, etc/ More on that another time!

Favorite contemporary singer- David MacDonald "Life is the only Choice"