Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted Strikes Again

Bishop Olmsted is well known for his orthodoxy and for his head-on attitude. He is more publicly known for informing Sr. Margaret McBride that she had excommunicated herself (please note the way I worded it. Bishop Olmsted did not excommunicate her, she excommunicated herself). Well, His Eminence is getting praise (and flack) for again being a good Shepherd. And here's the kicker... it'll happen tomorrow!

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (A Meditation)

This wouldn't be a Catholic blog if I didn't at least comment on the Immaculate Conception on this, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Call No Man Father... Part III of III

In the last two posts (post one here, and post two here), I discussed how one cannot look at Matthew 23:9 in a literalistic fashion. I described how the Old Testament used the terms 'condemned' by Christ, how Peter John and Paul all used these terms to refer to their spiritual fatherhood, and how Fundamentalists themselves use the words that are, supposedly, condemned by Christ. In this post, we'll look closer at what the verse is saying as opposed to stating that priests should not be called Father.

Call No Man Father... Part II of III

In the last post I showed how the Old Testament used the words that Fundamentalists believe are absolutely condemned by Christ in Matthew. Peter, John, and Paul continually speak about spiritual father/son and father/child relationships. These Fundamentalists need to read their Bible more often, because these three Apostles use these references often.

Bishop Bode's Prostration and the Holy Father's Prayer

Two very important events occured recently, and even though I posted today, I believe that this is too important to wait on.

Call No Man Father... Part I of III

It seems that there is at least one subject that often comes up when talking with Fundamentalists... why Catholics call their clergy Father when "the Bible clearly says to call no man father". Personally, it seems like a pretty petty argument. If this is one of your main objections, then you're really only worried about semantics and tradition (lower-case t) than actual dogma and matters of faith. Nevertheless, for some people this is a very serious objection, and one that I must deal with. Let's look at the verse itself: "And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9). We'll look at this verse first from a common sense perspective, then from a Biblical point-of-view (what the verse is really saying).

Audacity of Man

One day, I plan on writing a book on this subject, but for now a post will have to do.

Recently, I have noticed a troubling trend within Christianity and Christian theology. Often, people try to shape G-d in such a way that affirms themselves. In this way, Man tries to create G-d in his image, instead of acknowledging that G-d created Man in His image.

More on Anglicanorum Coetibus

It's been a little more than a year (a year and 15 days) since Anglicanorum Coetibus was issued by Pope Benedict XVI. Currently, five Anglican bishops have given their resignation to 'Archbishop' Rowan Williams, and they are are prepared to join the Catholic Church and a new personal ordinariate set up by the Bishops of England and Wales. Pope Benedict XVI will formally establish the ordinariate and name a bishop to lead it in January 2011. A timetable has been laid out, and the three former Anglican bishops who are not retired will be ordained to serve as priests in the new ordinariate. The other two bishops, who are retired, will be ordained by Lent 2011. The bishops of England and Wales have stated that “this will enable them, together with the ordinary and the other former Anglican Bishops, to assist with the preparation and reception of former Anglican clergy and their faithful into full communion with the Catholic Church during Holy Week.”

Archbishop Timothy Dolan.. On a Roll!

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, mentioned just yesterday as one of those chosen to go to Ireland as for the apostolic visitation, has been elected as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He won with 54% (128 votes) of the vote in the third round of voting, as opposed to Bishop Gerald Kicanas- vice president of the USCCB from 2007-2010- who got 46% of the votes (111 votes). Many people were surprised by the fact that Archbishop Dolan's name was missing from the list of newly elevated cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI. I was not (there is already one cardinal for the Archdiocese of New York- pure math says that it wasn't likely), but I would be surprised if Archbishop Dolan isn't named as a cardinal within the next 3-5 years (by that time, Archbishop emeritus Edward Cardinal Egan- located in New York- will be over the voting age of 80).

Apostolic Visitation of Catholic Church in Ireland Begins

In response to sexual abuse in the Church in Ireland, Pope Benedixt XVI has sent three groups of apostolic visitors to survey the Church there. These three groups will be divided as one group visits the four metropolitan archdioceses, another group will visit the houses of religious life, and the last group will visit the Irish seminaries. Their mission is to "directly address the problem of sexual abuse that prompted the Pope's letter to Irish Catholics, along with charges that Irish bishops acted to conceal cases of abuse against disclosure or prosecution". The apostolic visitors are made up of religious sisters, priests, and (notibly) Archbishop Timothy Dolan who will visit the seminaries (St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth; the Pontifical Irish College, Rome; Saint Malachy’s College, Belfast; All Hallows College, Dublin; Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin which will be visited only in regard to its academic programmes). Here is detailed information about the visitation.

Updates

I've made a few changes to the blog.
1.If you look to the left and low, you'll see a few different pages. These are different articles or papers that I've written in regards to Catholicism.
2. At the very bottom of the blog is a list of topics covered in the blog. For ease, just click the topic and the posts that dealt with that topic will appear.
3. To clean things up, I have only let the first paragraph or so be displayed on the main page. To read more, just click "Read more >>". Sometimes they're hard to find, but just look for it.

I'm always open to ways to make the blog look nicer, navigate easier, and look cleaner.

As always,
brett.adams@vikings.berry.edu

Sagrada Familia- Minor Basilica

When I was in Barcelona this past spring, I made sure to stop by the Sagrada Familia. It is a beautiful church, dressed with tons of symbolism, statues, and other wonderful Catholic architecture. It began its construction in 1882, and has an anticipated completion date of 2026 (the centennial of the architect's death).

Capital Punishment- The Real Catholic View

I stumbled across this article about capital punishment. While talking to a friend about capital punishment, she was rather confused about the Church's stance on it. She seemed to be under the opinion that the Catholic Church condemned capital punishment. Well, here's the real Catholic view:

New Cardinals Announced; Two from US

Here's a list of the newly named (10/20/2010) Cardinals:

The Final Battle (well, at least for now)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Midterms are finally over! It's been a long and difficult semester, but G-d has seen me through it.

Now, let's finish this:

Welcome to the World of Anti-Catholicism 3 of 4

Two things before I begin:
1. Sorry for the long time between posts. I haven't been feeling my best, and I've been pretty busy. Dealing with the illogic, lies, and basic stupidity of Fundamentalists is taxing.
2. This series of posts shows something lying under the surface. If you Google these questions, you will find the exact same list, or one very similar to it. You see, one Fundamentalist writes it, and without checking the facts another Fundamentalist simply pastes it to their website. It goes on and on, a lie believed and perpetuated by people. They never check to see if it's correct, and most of the time they don't even read it (as shown in the many misspellings).

Welcome to the World of Anti-Catholicism 2 of 4

Here I am again.

Welcome to the World of Anti-Catholicism Part 1 of 4

I found this on an anti-Catholic blog. I'll refute each one individually in a moment, but I wanted to point something out first. As you look, you will notice the blatant lies and 'misinformation' of each one. Anti-Catholics, you see, really have no leg to stand on so they are forced to lie. They attack beliefs that don't exist, like the ones shown below. There are other things that deserve mentioning as well:

What's in a Name?

A reader asked me why & where I came up with Ship of St.Peter as my blog's title. Well, originally, I wanted Barque of St.Peter to be the name. However, I wasn't sure of the proper name (I came across Bark and Barque... not knowing at the time that both are correct though Barque is the more traditional). So, I chose Ship of St.Peter because it still got the idea across, the idea that the Pope is steering my Ship as captain, and that ship is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Update

Well, in my last post I spoke of a woman who was filled with hatred for Catholics and at the same time had no logical argument against the Church. Well, she has now forbidden comments on her blog (except for members... ergo no one that disagrees with her). How did all of this start? Because she got angry at me for not posting all of her comments on my blog. Sounds like hypocrisy to me.

Anyway, I was only one of the few people that actually read her blog, so it's not like she has a lot of viewership to lose. Please continue to pray for her.

The Perpetual Problem of the Perpetual Virgin

I never enjoyed the issue of whether Mary had children or not. When I was Protestant, I hated asking it, and as a Catholic I hate answering it. The reason is a result of the fact that it requires someone to think. This is going to be a long and hard post. I suggest only reading it when you don't have other distractions and when you have the time to dedicate to reading it and thinking about it.
Let's start with the objections often raised by (most, because some believe in the Perpetual Virginity) Protestants, and then we'll work on the proof of the Ever-Virgin:

The Mother of All Problems: The Mother of God

This is going to be a very short post, because this should be an easy dogma:
The correct term is Theotokos (Greek), and more literally means "God-bearer" or "the one who gives birth to God". By no means was this a latter defined dogma, as it was defined in 431 by the Council of Ephesus (read the documents here), and it is the first "Marian Dogma". The fight began because of the teachings of Nestorius (the Patriarch of Constantinople). Nestorianism, the doctrine of Nestorius, emphasized the disunity between Christ's human and divine natures. These teachings had brought Nestorius into conflict with the Church and church leaders, such as Cyril (Patriarch of Alexandria). Interestinly, Nestorius requested the council, hoping to prove his orthodoxy; but in the end his teachings were condemned as heresy. The council met at the Church of Mary.

Is the Assumption an assumption?

Well, of course it's not an assumption, but based upon Scripture and common sense. First, of course, some historical background:
The Assumption, also known as the Dormition of the Theotokos in the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, was first defined as dogma on November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (however, it was a belief long before this infallible definition). It was a feast day, however, long before 1950 (about 1600 years earlier) and there are writings about it as late as the 4th century.

Immaculate "Misconception"

A friend of mine and I were talking about Christmas, and we (obviously) fell upon the Incarnation. My Protestant friend, however, called it the the Immaculate Conception. I decided to tackle the 'misconception' behind the Immaculata (The Immaculate One) in today's post. First a little housekeeping: The Immaculate Conception was defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus on 8 December 1854 (the universal feast of the IC was first established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV). The statement of note here is

"We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."

Peter... Like a Rock

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18 Douay-Rheims).

Anglicans... Homeward Bound

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) has voted to join with the See of St. Peter through the guidelines of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution created by Pope Benedict XVI (the Complementary Norms can be found here). Support for the Ordinariate was unanimous in the House of Clergy and received 25 of 30 votes from lay delegates (two members opposing the proposal and three abstaining). The Catholic News Agency has more information if you're interested.

Right now, the Catholic Church has approximately 1.166 billion children. I think that when the statistics come out in a few years, the numbers will have risen once again as a result of this beautiful constitution. The Anglican Church just can't stay above water. Rowan Williams is losing power, and the ACCC isn't the first to vote to join the Catholic Church.

Friday Review

So, a few minor things have happened lately that aren't large enough to really discuss in depth, but are interesting nevertheless.

The Pope and the Tridentine Mass

The news has been going around for a while (about 5 days or so) that Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Tridentine Mass (Extraordinary Form of the Mass) privately. While this rumor has been circulating for a years, this is the first time a bishop has gone on record in affirmation (as far as I know). Bishop Bernard Fellay, The head of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), made this claim at a gathering in Brazil this month (you can read the article here, and a translation of it here). He also stated that one reason the Holy Father celebrates the Extraordinary Form in private and not in public is because an unnamed Italian bishop had threatened to resign.

Revised Church Law on Sexual Abuse

The Vatican just released new norms in dealing with cases of sexual abuse.

It's important to emphasis a word in the title... revised.
Previous to the American sexual abuse crises, the Vatican already had norms for dealing with cases of sexual abuse. Were they lacking? Sure. After all, they hadn't been updated for about a century and many things had changed between that time (World Wars, Vatican II, etc.). A new set of norms was released in 2001 by Pope John Paul II, which you can read here (for more information on the American sexual abuse crises, I would point to John J. Allen, Jr.'s book All the Pope's Men. While Mr. Allen is in no way conservative or orthodox, he often ticks off the readers of National "Catholic" Reporter, so I'd say he's middle ground. Either way, he gives some excellent information that is worth reading). Those norms were in dealing with the American sexual abuse crises.

You're the Best Player Our Team's Got!

I've often used this phrase when playing a game against my brothers or sister or my mom or dad. It comes from the fact that they are so horrible, they are actually helping my team by playing against me. Well, I can also say the same to the Anglican Church.

Pope Benedict XVI's Reform

Here's the thing... I think people aren't looking at the big picture. A lot of people get all up in arms and get quite angry when Pope Benedict XVI does something small in regards to the liturgy, such as asking people to kneel when receiving Communion from the Pope. Also take for example Pope Benedict allowing, not forcing, parishes and bishops to more widely use the Tridentine Mass.

You know you're beaten when you start the insults.

I learned long ago how to tell when I had won. It didn't matter what it was (an argument, a video game, a sports game), the reaction was always the same. In the like manner, people could always tell when they had gotten the better of me (and I could tell it myself, which made it all the more frustrating). This key to knowing when you've won is when the person/opponent starts to hurl the insults. Those insults might be directed at the winner (you're just too stupid to understand), at the video game (my weapons suck, you got the better guns), at the sports equipment (my bat's too old, these shoes aren't great), or whatever else the person can think of. My younger brother is especially adept at this, as he really starts the childish insults and the "not-my-faults" when he's really losing.
Well, the same has happened to a group of priests that have prayed at an abortion clinic. You can read the article here, and it's a good read.

I like this bishop.

I like this bishop. He understands the indult to allow people to receive communion in the hand. The bishop makes a great point that no one is out to show irreverence to the Eucharist. I think it's important to always be charitable with people. When discussing with someone about receiving on the tongue, it's important to remember that not only are they not intending to be irreverent, but they also have the Vatican's indult on their side.
This bishop is very charitable, but very firm in his resolve to educate his flock about Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

Intolerance in the name of 'tolerance'?

Yeah, it happens all the time. People, the "open minded" and the "all accepting" to be specific, seem to try and find people being intolerant. In this case, a Baptist preacher was arrested for saying that homosexual acts are a sin. Dale Mcalpine says that he stated to someone and to a gay police officer that he believed that the act of homosexuality is a sin. He says that once he climbed up a latter and began preaching, he did not mention homosexuality. He is charged with speaking abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to the Public Order Act 1986. Mcalpine has preached outdoors for years, but has never been in trouble with the law before. You can find a newspaper article about it here.

The Holy See's Decision on the Legionaries of Christ

The Legionaries of Christ have supported their founder, Father Marcial Maciel, for years as accusations were brought against him of sexual abuse. He was accused of sexual abuse of seminarians, and it was later discovered that Fr. Maciel fathered a child. Up to that point, the Legionaries of Christ and their lay organization Regnum Christi defended their founder against what they thought was another liberal attack on the Church.

Defense of Benedict XVI

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Benedict XVI has been under attack since the day he became Pope. I support the Pope and so does this great video.
I think that it's important to remember that after President Obama was elected, liberals were crying out how everyone should support the President, whether they agreed with him or not. And yet these same people don't support their Pope, whether they agree with him or not. I love hypocritical liberals!

New English Translation gets the Vatican okay!!!

Mr. Edward Pentin reports that the Vatican has given approval for the new English translation of the Roman Missal. Also, here is Pope Benedict's address to Vox Clara.

Knights of Columbus Stand Up Again!

The Knights of Columbus, which I am a proud Knight of, delivered more than 1,000 wheelchairs to Haitians who lost their mobility in the earthquake. Says Supreme Knight Carl Anderson "Though time has dimmed the memory of the tragic earthquake in Haiti for many who live elsewhere, the physical suffering of those injured in the earthquake and here in Port au Prince continues in a very real way. We are grateful for the opportunity to give the gift of mobility to those who need it most, and who otherwise would be condemned to lives of isolation and hopelessness."

His Eminence Norman Francis McFarland

The Most Reverend Norman McFarland has died. You can read about him here. This bishop fought for immigrants, the unborn, and can be rightly called a model bishop.

Please pray for the repose of his soul.

Changes to the Diocese Landscape

The landscape of bishops and archbishops in America is changing, and I hope/think it's for the better.

Two recent cases come to mind:

Why those that Claim the Church can't survive are confused.

There are a lot of people saying that the Church is going to fall, the Catholic Church can't handle this sexual abuse crises, and that the Catholic Church is going to die.

Vatican II... Good, Bad, or Misunderstood? Part 3 of 3

This will be a rather short post. Most of what was misunderstood about Vatican II resulted in what was bad about Vatican II. Mostly, what is misunderstood about Vatican II is what it actually is. Vatican II is part of Church history. A lot of people like to talk about pre- and post-Vatican II. While this works well when discussing matters related to Vatican II, such as this series, it creates the idea of two separate Churches. This is a false idea, as it is One Church. The Catholic Church before Vatican II is the same church as after Vatican II. Things change, to be sure, practices are different. But it is the same Church established by Christ. This is what often angers me the most about a lot of liberal Catholics. They complain that the Church that Christ founded is now gone when the Vatican tries to bring some conservative traditions back to the Church. What they're saying, implicitly, is that the Church that Christ founded did not exist pre-Vatican II. It's often ridiculous assertions like this that show that most liberal Catholics don't understand what the Catholic Church is all about, a Church that the gates of hell would/will not prevail against.

Vatican II... Good, Bad, or Misunderstood? Part 2 of 3

Well, I've returned from my 2 week vacation, and I've missed a lot of news to blog about, such as Dr. Rowan Williams's ludicrous comments. I hope to get to those, but it'll have to wait until after this little series.
Anyway, on to the bad of Vatican II...

Vatican II... Good, Bad, or Misunderstood? Part 1 of 3

I won't be able to post for the next two weeks because I'll be touring Europe. I'm going to London, Venice, Rome (Easter Mass with Pope Benedict XVI), Paris, Versailles, Dublin, and one or two other places.

Medjugorje... Evil Hoax or Salvation of the Church?

The Catholic Church has set up an official commission to investigate Medjugorje. The commission is headed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the presidency of Cardinal Camillo Ruini.

First Post

This is my first post, and I'm excited about it. I got tired of not having a forum in which to speak (even if no one's listening). I started posting little things on facebook, but I finally decided to try blogging.

My goal for this blog is discussion of religious ideas (specifically Catholicism), one of the three things you aren't supposed to talk about at the kitchen table (the other two are politics and sex). I hope these to be thought provoking, interesting, and easy to read. I don't like to 'pontificate', though, and I would love feedback.

I plan on posting once a week, sometimes taking a break on holidays when my access to the internet is limited.



G-d bless, and I hope you enjoy it...