
31 January 2009
30 January 2009
Theatre Production at the College Seminary
The Seminarians of Cardinal Glennon College
Present
An Evening of Theatre
Four One-Act Plays, including mystery, drama and comedy
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Philadelphia
The Tell Tale Heart
The Rising of the Moon
When: Friday, February 20th, 7pm
Saturday, February 21st, 7pm
Sunday, February 22nd, 3pm
Where: Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Auditorium
5200 Glennon Dr.
St. Louis, MO, 63119
Tickets: $7.00/ Adult ticket
$5.00/ Senior or Child (12 and under) ticket
To order tickets in advance, or for any other question, please contact
Patrick Fletcher at (314)792-6406 or by emailing pfletcher@kenrick.edu
Slowing Down the Annulment Mill?

Reporter: Nick Lucchinelli
Benedict was addressing the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments, the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.
Circumstances for granting annulments include refusal by a husband or a wife to have children or the "psychological incapability" of one of the spouses to contract a valid marriage.
The pope says that granting too many annulments on the grounds of "psychological incapacity" risks giving people the pessimistic impression that marriage is almost impossible.
The Vatican's concern largely is directed at the United States, where the annulment approach has been more common among Catholics and where annulments are considered to often be granted too easily.
According to Vatican statistics, the Holy See estimated that about 70 percent of all annulment requests worldwide came from the United States in 2002. In that year, of the 56,000 requests worldwide, 46,000 were granted...
Archbishop Burke Calls It Like He Sees It

Also says Bishops’ Catholic News Service needs to be given "some new direction"
By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent
Apology Letter of Bishop Williamson

Your Eminence
Amidst this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks of mine on Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is properly respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself and to the Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems.
For me, all that matters is the Truth Incarnate, and the interests of His one true Church, through which alone we can save our souls and give eternal glory, in our little way, to Almighty God. So I have only one comment, from the prophet Jonas, I, 12:
Please also accept, and convey to the Holy Father, my sincere personal thanks for the document signed last Wednesday and made public on Saturday. Most humbly I will offer a Mass for both of you.
Sincerely yours in Christ
+Richard Williamson
Written to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos on January 28, 2009.
29 January 2009
Juridical Solution Soon for SSPX?
In fact, Vatican sources have indicated that the full regularization may occur as early as February 2, 2009, the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady and Candlemas, which, if true, would be quite a Christmas present to the Church and especially traditionalist Catholics worldwide! [...] France’s Seminaries to be Over One-Third Traditionalist In fact, specific resistance is most prevalent in the dying churches of France with their bishops and priests. Upon final regularization, Monsignor Barreiro said, “More than one-third of all seminarians in France will be in traditionalist seminaries.” This would include the SSPX, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), the Institute of Good Shepherd and the Institute of Christ the King (ICR) as well as some other lesser known traditionalist priestly groups. “I expect that some structure like a universal Apostolic Administration may be the only solution,” Monsignor Barreiro said, while cautioning that he did not have direct access to the specific details. Several articles this week on the SSPX excommunication annulments contained comments from bishops and George Weigel in a New York Times interview noting that they expected that the Society bishops would need to explicitly adhere in some fashion to the Second Vatican Council. However, Monsignor Barreiro opined that the SSPX’s official request for the lifting of the sanctions would be sufficient as it demonstrates explicit recognition of the authority of the Holy Father and the magisterium of the Church. [...] Vatican II and All the Councils “They won’t be asked to accept the Council,” Monsignor Barreiro said. “There is nothing dogmatic regarding faith and morals in the Council documents,” he emphasized. “Many have elevated the Council as if it were a superdogma, when in truth, it was not dogmatic at all.” In the SSPX’s official request to the Holy See asking for the lifting of the excommunications, Bishop Bernard Fellay wrote the following: “We are ready to write the Creed with our own blood, sign the anti-Modernist oath, the Profession of Faith of Pope Pius IV, we accept and make our own all the Councils up to the First Vatican Council. Yet we can but confess reservations concerning the Second Vatican Council, which intended to a Council “different from the others.” (Addressed by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI) The perspective of Monsignor Barreiro and Bishop Fellay can certainly be read to be consistent with then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1988 Address to the Bishops of Chile: Certainly, there is mentality of narrow views that isolate Vatican II and which has provoked this opposition. There are many accounts of it which give the impression that, from Vatican II onward, everything has been changed, and that what preceded it has no value or, at best, has value only in the light of Vatican II. The Second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the Church, but as an end of Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of superdogma which takes away the importance of all the rest. This idea is made stronger by things that are now happening. That which previously was considered most holy – the form in which the liturgy was handed down – suddenly appears as the most forbidden of all things, the one thing that can safely be prohibited. It is intolerable to criticize decisions which have been taken since the Council; on the other hand, if men make question of ancient rules, or even of the great truths of the Faith – for instance, the corporal virginity of Mary, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the immortality of the soul, etc. – nobody complains or only does so with the greatest moderation. In Pope Benedict’s “Letter to Bishops” accompanying the July 7, 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, while positively affirming that the Traditional Latin Mass had never been abrogated, the Pope wrote the following, which, upon reflection, was an important but overlooked part of the document. Part of this text corresponds very strikingly with the 1988 Chile Bishops document aforementioned: We all know that, in the movement led by Archbishop Lefebvre, fidelity to the old Missal became an external mark of identity; the reasons for the break which arose over this, however, were at a deeper level. Many people who clearly accepted the binding character of the Second Vatican Council, and were faithful to the Pope and the Bishops, nonetheless also desired to recover the form of the sacred liturgy that was dear to them. This occurred above all because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church. [...] Vatican Will Not Demand SSPX Swallow the Council In other words, there will be no demand for the SSPX leadership to accept the “Decree on Social Communication” as an infallible, dogmatic document. And despite the ruminations of certain bishops, cardinals, priests, Cardinal Kasper and even George Weigel, neither will they be asked to accept the Decree on Ecumenism, the Declaration of Religious Liberty, Nostra Aetate or even Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum as dogmatic declarations that can stand alone without reading them in light of Tradition. The Pope made this clear in his December 22, 2005 address. The “hermeneutic of continuity” can not allow the Second Vatican Council to be interpreted any other way other than “in light of Tradition.” And certainly, traditionalists should not overemphasize the degree of binding authority that marks the Council documents. If there is error or imprecision then there can and must be correction. And we now have a pope who is as much as ordering that correction. On what grounds can traditional Catholics object to that? Theological speculation on disputed and unclear points in a spirit of charity and without polemics and rancor will aid future generations in their understanding of Catholic truth. Let us pray that the SSPX theologians, priests and bishops, as well as the Institute of Good Shepherd, Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and Institute of Christ the King, exercise considerable influence in this arena. And if there are points in the Council that cannot be interpreted in light of Tradition then, obviously, they will be exposed and excised. Again, on what grounds could a traditional Catholic possibly object to that? |
Feast of St. Francis de Sales

The great Doctor of Charity's feast is celebrated today. Remember that there will be a Solemn High Mass this evening at 6:30pm at St. Francis de Sales Oratory. Because he is a principal patron of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the faithful who assist at Mass are able to obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.
More Sheep Coming Back to the Fold?
More Papal moves towards unity
A Personal Prelature for the Traditional Anglican Communion?
28 January 2009
Prayer Request

27 January 2009
Statement of SSPX General Superior Bishop Fellay Regarding the Bishop Williamson Interview

The mission of the priestly society is the distribution and restoration of authentic Catholic teaching and how it is laid down in dogmas. For that we are well known worldwide, accepted and appreciated.
We see with great concern how the infringement of this order adds heavy damage by a member of our religious fraternity. We apologize to the Holy Father and all persons of good will for the annoyance evoked through it.
At the same time we must be clear that these remarks in no manner represent the views of our fraternity. Therefore I prohibit Bishop Williamson until further notice from speaking in public on political or historic questions.
The proposed accusations against our fraternity serve obviously to discredit our mission. We will not allow that, but rather continue to announce the Catholic teaching and to administer the sacraments in their venerable form.
Menzingen, the 27th of January 2009
+Bishop Bernard Fellay
General Superior
An Interesting Question--

Demographic Winter: "Schools will be turned into nursing homes. Playgrounds will become graveyards."

I've been giving public lectures on the problem of global aging for the past 7 years or so, and my audiences are always shocked and dumbfounded as I explain how the West's ever expanding population of old people (due, thank God, to the ever-improving capabilities of bio-medical science), while a good thing in itself, will soon become a prime target for the forced-euthanasia crowd as the decline in birth rates among women of child-bearing age throughout the West (as well as major non-Western countries like Japan and Russia) forces an ever-shrinking number of younger, working citizens to shoulder the economic burden of paying for the retirement benefits consumed by the ever-expanding population of retired, old folks.
This is a lethal combination that will, I am certain, begin playing itself out with horrifying consequences in the next 10, 15, 20 years. Perhaps sooner. It's hard to predict. What I do know for sure, though, is that the West has marinating for decades now in the bloody serum of legal abortion, and it breathes the toxic atmosphere of ubiquitous pornography and contraception. What would have been unthinkable to Americans a mere 50 years ago (gay marriage, a billion-dollar abortion industry, the rise of euthanasia, etc.) has become commonplace andincreasingly unremarkable in this generation.
Where are we headed?
I've been saying for years now what is being reported yet again in this article. What is now known as the “right to die movement” is steadily morphing into what will soon become the “oblicagtion to die movement.”
The politics of “young versus old” is rising, slowly but surely, and we will live to see its pernicious effects. Soon enough we will begin to see how the demographic winter results in an intergenerational struggle. The younger people, who have lived their entire lives learning from the media and our culture as a whole that other people are only useful or valuable insofar as they do one or more of a few things: give sexual pleasure, provide entertainment, make money, or produce some kind of product or service.
So, barring some miracle, I believe that the next step in the evolution of the West's enmeshment in the culture of death — forced euthansia, cloning human beings for body parts, etc. — will begin to take shape when enough people who have no belief in God and no regard for the value of human life begin to realize what “demographic winter” means for them financially.
26 January 2009
It's Some Crazy World We Live in...
Pelosi says birth control will help economy
Japanese workers urged: go home and multiply
Bad economy spurs egg and sperm sales
Obama Stimulus Plan to Pour Millions of Taxpayer Funds into Contraception, Abortion
Christian Europe dies, contracepted to death and overrun by non-Christian immigrant populations. Governments from France to Russia pay citizens to have babies. Yet the contraception regime continues to reign unchallenged.
Japan, another industrialized nation, sees its population decline and urges its citizens to have babies. Yet the contraception regime continues to reign unchallenged.
The U.S. has a stable birth rate, and the vast majority of its immigrant population is Christian. Yet the current administration and congress want to promote abortions at home and abroad, fund coercive family size limitation policies, and fund the contraception regime that is destroying it, and all the other industrialized nations. The contraception regime continues to reign unchallenged.
Why? The official reasons are all scams: global warming is a fraud; the notion that key resources are scarce is a fraud; the notion that contraception and fewer children are better for the health of marriages is a fraud; the notion that women will be free from "male domination" by embracing sexual immorality is a fraud.
Lies. The official reasons are lies. And who is the father of lies?
So again, why is the contraception regime pushed on us?
25 January 2009
The Shepherd Pope
How Dare They Criticize the Chosen One?

![]() | A senior Vatican official on Saturday attacked US President Barack Obama for "arrogance" for overturning a ban on state funding for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas. It is "the arrogance of someone who believes they are right, in signing a decree which will open the door to abortion and thus to the destruction of human life," Archbishop Rino Fisichella was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily. Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, one of a number of so-called pontifical academies which are formed by or under the direction of the Holy See. "What is important is to know how to listen... without locking oneself into ideological visions with the arrogance of a person who, having the power, thinks they can decide on life and death," he added. Obama signed the executive order cancelling the eight-year-old restrictions on Friday, the third full day of his presidency. The so-called "global gag rule" cut off US funding to overseas family planning clinics which provide any abortion services whatsoever, from the operation itself to counselling, referrals or post-abortion services. "If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path towards disappointment will have been very short," Fisichella said. "I do not believe that those who voted for him took into consideration ethical themes, which were astutely left aside during the election debate. The majority of the American population does not take the same position as the president and his team," he added. [...] |
24 January 2009
"So as to achieve shortly a full and satisfactory solution of the problem": SSPX Excommunications Lifted--UPDATED

His Holiness Benedict XVI - paternally sensitive to the spiritual unease manifested by the interested party due to the sanction of excommunication and faithful in the effort expressed by them in the aforementioned letter of not sparing any effort to deepen the necessary discussions with the Authority of the Holy See in the still open matters, so as to achieve shortly a full and satisfactory solution of the problem posed in the origin - decided to reconsider the canonical situation of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta, arisen with their episcopal consecration.
With this act, it is desires to consolidate the reciprocal relations of confidence and to intensify and grant stability to the relationship of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X with this Apostolic See. This gift of peace, at the end of the Christmas celebrations, wishes also to be a sign to promote unity in the charity of the universal Church and to try to end the scandal of division.
It is hoped that this step be followed by the prompt accomplishment of full communion with the Church of the entire Fraternity of Saint Pius X, thus testifying true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope with the proof of visible unity.
Based in the faculty expressly granted to me by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, in virtue of the present Decree, I remit to Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta the censure of latae sententiae excommunication declared by this Congregation on July 1, 1988, while I declare deprived of any juridical effect, from the present date, the Decree emanated at that date.
Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
Con lettera del 15 dicembre 2008 indirizzata a Sua Em.za il Sig. Cardinale Dario Castrillón Hoyos, Presidente della Pontificia Commissione Ecclesia Dei, Mons. Bernard Fellay, anche a nome degli altri tre Vescovi consacrati il giorno 30 giugno 1988, sollecitava nuovamente la rimozione della scomunica latae sententiae formalmente dichiarata con Decreto del Prefetto di questa Congregazione per i Vescovi in data 1° luglio 1988. Nella menzionata lettera, Mons. Fellay afferma, tra l'altro: "Siamo sempre fermamente determinati nella volontà di rimanere cattolici e di mettere tutte le nostre forze al servizio della Chiesa di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo, che è la Chiesa cattolica romana. Noi accettiamo i suoi insegnamenti con animo filiale. Noi crediamo fermamente al Primato di Pietro e alle sue prerogative, e per questo ci fa tanto soffrire l'attuale situazione".
Sua Santità Benedetto XVI - paternamente sensibile al disagio spirituale manifestato dagli interessati a causa della sanzione di scomunica e fiducioso nell'impegno da loro espresso nella citata lettera di non risparmiare alcuno sforzo per approfondire nei necessari colloqui con le Autorità della Santa Sede le questioni ancora aperte, così da poter giungere presto a una piena e soddisfacente soluzione del problema posto in origine - ha deciso di riconsiderare la situazione canonica dei Vescovi Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson e Alfonso de Galarreta sorta con la loro consacrazione episcopale.
Con questo atto si desidera consolidare le reciproche relazioni di fiducia e intensificare e dare stabilità ai rapporti della Fraternità San Pio X con questa Sede Apostolica. Questo dono di pace, al termine delle celebrazioni natalizie, vuol essere anche un segno per promuovere l'unità nella carità della Chiesa universale e arrivare a togliere lo scandalo della divisione.
Si auspica che questo passo sia seguito dalla sollecita realizzazione della piena comunione con la Chiesa di tutta la Fraternità San Pio X, testimoniando così vera fedeltà e vero riconoscimento del Magistero e dell'autorità del Papa con la prova dell'unità visibile.
In base alle facoltà espressamente concessemi dal Santo Padre Benedetto XVI, in virtù del presente Decreto, rimetto ai Vescovi Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson e Alfonso de Galarreta la censura di scomunica latae sententiaedichiarata da questa Congregazione il 1° luglio 1988, mentre dichiaro privo di effetti giuridici, a partire dall'odierna data, il Decreto a quel tempo emanato.
Roma, dalla Congregazione per i Vescovi, 21 gennaio 2009.
Card. Giovanni Battista Re
Prefetto della Congregazione per i Vescovi
The following is a statement from SSPX General Superior Bishop Bernard Fellay:
The excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.
We express our filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this gesture which, beyond the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, will benefit the whole Church. Our Society wishes to be always more able to help the pope to remedy the unprecedented crisis which presently shakes the Catholic world, and which Pope John Paul II had designated as a state of “silent apostasy.”
Besides our gratitude towards the Holy Father and towards all those who helped him to make this courageous act, we are pleased that the decree of January 21 considers as necessary “talks” with the Holy See, talks which will enable the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to explain the fundamental doctrinal reasons which it believes to be at the origin of the present difficulties of the Church.
In this new atmosphere, we have the firm hope to obtain soon the recognition of the rights of Catholic Tradition.
Menzingen, January 24, 2009
+Bernard Fellay
23 January 2009
Radio Spot for the Mass of St. Francis de Sales at the Oratory January 29 at 6:30

Link here.
I Don't Get This
by Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON (CNS) — As part of its continuing nationwide campaign to cut poverty in half by 2020, Catholic Charities USA is ramping up efforts to help people understand the ties between poverty and racism.
The Alexandria, Va.-based agency is utilizing the Internet, prayer and a study guide to help Catholics open meaningful discussions on how better to address the needs of the poor, especially in minority communities, and take action to reduce the incidence of poverty locally.
Precious Blood Father Clarence Williams, senior director of racial equality and diversity initiatives at Catholic Charities USA, said Catholics must begin to understand the depth of poverty and take significant steps to alleviate it across racial lines.
Big Doings Tomorrow
All of the Maturity You Expect from the Socialist Left

Stealing an Election is Hard, Part 3

From the AP comes a tiny bit of welcome news for representative government:
Court rejects Franken bid to stop recount lawsuit
By PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press - Friday, January 23, 2009
A three-judge panel has refused Democrat Al Franken's request to block a lawsuit over the Minnesota Senate recount outcome.
Franken came out on top of Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes in the recount. But Coleman is contesting the result.
The dismissal means the trial on Coleman's lawsuit starts Monday.
Coleman argues that the recount process was flawed. He says votes were double-counted in some precincts and that more absentee ballots should be admitted.