More Media Bias: the Oslo Killer

As near as I can make out, the media's efforts to associate the Oslo killer with right-wing Christians started with news stories that the killer wrote on right wing Christian email discussion lists. That seems to be the only item I've seen so far that could be used by a biased media to smear Christians.

In any event, the man is a product of living in a secular society.

As the name Timothy McVeigh has been coming up again, note that McVeigh was not a Christian. He had been raised Catholic, but he renounced Catholicism and became an agnostic. He went on the record as saying that "Science is my religion." Like the Oslo killer, McVeigh was also a product of a modern secular mindset.

New SSPX Chapel in Kentucky

Source

In Walton, KY the Society of St. Pius X has a new chapel. Under the patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption, the new 11,000 square foot neo-Gothic church with its privileged altar will be the spiritual home to about 150 souls.

What is Assumption’s mission? "To offer sacraments, to teach, preach, and give retreats," said the pastor, Fr. Adam Purdy. He said "people look for Mass as a sign of faith. A Mass celebrated in the old rite is more sacred, deeper, and rich."

Hymn to Ethelreda

Ethelreda [+ AD 660] was queen to Egfrid, King of the East Angles. The Venerable Bede records that “Although she lived with (Egfird) for twelve years, she preserved the glory of her virginity…the miraculous preservation of her body from corruption in the tomb is evidence that she had remained untainted by bodily intercourse.”

After a year in the convent of Abbess Ebba, at Coludesbyrig (Coldingham), she was made Abbess in the district of Ely. There she built a convent, where for seven years she was “the virgin mother of many virgins vowed to God and displayed the pattern of a heavenly life in word and deed.” Ethelreda wore only woolen garments, washed in cold water, ate one meal a day, and was constant in prayer. In the presence of her community she prophesied the plague that was to cause not only her own death, but the number of those at the convent who would also die. Sixteen years after Ethelreda’s burial the successor abbess decided to move her predecessor’s remains to the crypt church; when the coffin was opened, it was discovered to be “free from decay as if she had died and been buried that very day.”

Other wonders were attributed to Ethelereda, and Bede thought it fitting to insert into his History an elegiac hymn in praise of virginity in honor of this queen and bride of Christ.

Hymn to Ethelreda
All-guiding Trinity, guide my design.
Battles were Virgil’s theme; let peace be mine,
Chanting in lieu of Helen’s wantonness
Divine compassion, to redeem and bless,
Entering a virgin’s womb, God’s gate to earth.
Fair maid, who gav’st the whole world’s Parent birth,
God gave thee grace. And by that grace empowered
How many virgin blossoms since have flowered!
In fiery torment stood chaste Agatha
Joyful to death; so stood Eulalia.
Kindled with love, Thecla with virgin breast
Laughed at wild beasts; so was Euphemia blest.
More strong than steel, Agnes disdained its thrust;
Nor did Cecilia’s strength betray her trust.
Our age at length in triumphs such as these
Partakes through ETHELREDA’S victories.
Queenly by birth, an earthly crown she wore
Right nobly; but a heavenly pleased her more.
Scorning the marriage bed, a virgin wife
Twelve years she reigned, then sought a cloistered life.
Unspotted to her heavenly spouse she came,
Virgin in soul, her virgin robe and frame,
When sixteen winters they had lain entombed,
Xrist willed it, still fresh and unconsumed.
Yea, from their touch Eve’s Tempter flees dismayed,
Zealous for evil, vanquished by a maid.

Ah bride of Christ, bright fame on earth is thine.
More bright in Heaven thy bridal torches shine.
Exultant hymns proclaim in glad accord:
No power henceforth may part thee from thy Lord.

The gloss reads, “The following version reproduces the alphabetic acrostic with which Bede adorns his tale...it does not attempt to imitate his elaborate device of repetitive half-lines, which makes the hymn remarkable for ingenuity than for any claim to poetic excellence.”

Daring Proposal -- for the 50th Anniversary of V2

The Italian philosopher Enrico Maria Radaelli, a disciple of the author of Iota unum, Romano Amerio, proposes that on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council the pope should be asked respectfully to perform the “only act that could reconcile the teaching and doctrine given by the Church before and after that disastrous assembly. This unique, heroic and very humble act would be to bring close to the supernatural fire of dogma those doctrines that are regarded as wrong by Traditionalist Catholics, and also those doctrines that are opposed to them: what must burn will burn, and what must shine brightly will shine. We have more than three years ahead of us from now until 2015. We must use them as well as possible.” For in order to rebuild the Church, he adds, “the ecumenical council, Vatican II, must be read through the lens of Tradition with the blazing boldness of dogma.” That is why he hopes that “this anniversary might be for the highest Throne the best occasion to restore the divine munus docendi (the magisterial commission) in its fullness.”

What Professor Radaelli demands is in keeping with the profound hopes of the Society of St. Pius X. It is necessary that this council be judged in the light of dogma, this council that claimed to be simply pastoral but very quickly presented itself as a dogmatically pastoral council, demanding in fact the obedience due to dogmas. For, in reality, Vatican II conveys dogmas that do not speak their name. Dogmas that are not defined but expect to be followed with docility.

- Fr. Alain Lorans

Over 300 Austrian Priests Join "Call to Disobedience"

Source

Looks like I got out of Austria just in time -- lightning might be striking there soon...

From the article:

The Call to Disobedience document cites "the Roman refusal of a long-overdue Church reform and the inaction of bishops." Priests who support the document pledge:

* to pray for Church reform at every liturgy, since "in the presence of God there is freedom of speech"

COMMENT: If your speech offends God, He will not remain present.

* not to deny the Holy Eucharist to "believers of good will," including non-Catholic Christians and those who have remarried outside the Church

COMMENT: How can someone be a believer of good will when he denies the Catholic Faith and laws?

* to avoid offering Mass more than once on Sundays and holy days and to avoid making use of visiting priests--instead holding a "self-designed" Liturgy of the Word

COMMENT: Absent a priest, there is no Mass. There is no substitute. When there is a shortage of priests, those that remain must offer Mass more than once a day.

* to describe such a Liturgy of the Word with the distribution of Holy Communion as a "priestless Eucharistic celebration"; "thus we fulfill the Sunday obligation in a time of priest shortage"

COMMENT: We do not fulfill the Sunday obligation with a cheap substitute. If one cannot legitimately make it to a real Mass -- e.g. great distance, illness -- then he is excused from the obligation.

* to "ignore" canonical norms that restrict the preaching of the homily to clergy

COMMENT: Let's "ignore" homilies preached by anyone except clergy.

* to oppose parish mergers, insisting instead that each parish have its own individual leader, "whether man or woman"

COMMENT: Parish mergers are caused by a shortage of priests. The proper remedy for this is to nurture priestly vocations, not promote shabby substitutes.

* to "use every opportunity to speak out openly in favor of the admission of the married and of women to the priesthood"

COMMENT: You and the rest of the Protestants. Choose now who you will serve; as for me and my household, we serve the Lord.

Franciscan Sisters in Atlanta

Two Franciscan Sisters from the Convent of Christ the King in Kansas City, MO are visiting the Atlanta chapel of the SSPX this week. This Sisters are helping with the chapel's summer girls' camp this week.

Sister Francis Marie and Sister Marie Louise

Say a prayer for a successful camp this week!

Secretariat of State Refuses to Follow Papal Directive

Source: Vatican Insider - La Stampa

The wishes of Pope Benedict XVI are being thwarted by some of his own subordinates, observed Bp. Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX.

Bp. Fellay said that "when the Pope wants to do good he is hindered, prevented." His Excellency cited the example of a German Trappist monastery that sought papal permission to return to the liturgy and rules that were in force before Vatican II. The Pope signed a letter giving his permission, but the letter was deliberately withheld by an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State. "We know exactly who" sidetracked the letter, the SSPX leader said.

Eventually a friendly prelate hand-delivered the papal permission to the Trappist monastery, Bp. Fellay reported. But the fact remains, he said, that "to bring the news of the Pope's decision they bypassed the Secretariat of State."