This Is Still Just Rumor But . . .

Catholic World News is reporting that B16 has approved the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education barring the ordination of homosexuals.

EXCERPTS:

The new document– which was prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education, in response to a request made by the late Pope John Paul II in 1994– will be published soon. It will take the form of an "Instruction," signed by the prefect and secretary of the Congregation: Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and Archbishop Michael Miller.

The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.

Priests who have already been ordained, if they suffer from homosexual impulses, are strongly urged to renew their dedication to chastity, and a manner of life appropriate to the priesthood.

Informed sources in Rome indicate that the Instruction probably will be made public after the Synod of Bishops, which meets in Rome from October 2 through 23.

GET THE STORY.
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed.)

One thing I’d be careful about with the story: It says that John XXIII approved a policy to the same effect and that it remains in force. This appears to be inaccurate. There was such a policy approved for religious priests (as opposed to diocesan ones) during John XXIII’s reign, but (a) it was  not a policy for all priests and (b) it may well not be in effect at this point due to changes in Church law, which has been extensively renovated since that time.

This is a minor point, though, and should not detract from the heartening newsrumor that B16 has given his approval to the document.

We May Have Just Dodged A Bullet

EXCERPTS:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A university student from Egypt was ordered held without bond after prosecutors said they found a pilot’s uniform, chart of Memphis International Airport and a DVD titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act" in his apartment.

Maawad, who is in the United States illegally, told the judge during a hearing Thursday that he is studying science and economics at the University of Memphis.

"My school is everything. I stay in this country for seven years; I stay for the school," he said.

Maawad had ordered $3,000 in aviation materials, including DVDs titled "Ups and Downs of Takeoffs and Landings," "Airplane Talk," "Mental Math for Pilots" and "Mastering GPS Flying," FBI agent Thad Gulczynski testified.

The company reported Maawad to authorities when he didn’t pay for $2,500 of merchandise it had delivered, Gulczynski said.

GET THE STORY.

Two Ceremonies?

A reader writes:

A friend of mine is getting married and his fiance wants very much to have a protestant marriage ceremony (she herself is mildly protestant and her father is a minister in a protestant denomination). Can my friend and his fiance have a Catholic wedding ceremony IN ADDITION TO the protestant one?

No, canon law specifically prohibits this:

Canon 1127 §3.

It is forbidden to have another religious
celebration of the same marriage to give or renew matrimonial consent before or
after the canonical celebration according to the norm of §1 [i.e., the Catholic wedding]. Likewise, there is
not to be a religious celebration in which the Catholic who is assisting and a
non-Catholic minister together, using their own rites, ask for the consent of
the parties.

The parties therefore need to decide whether they want to have a Catholic wedding OR obtain a dispensation from form so that they can have a Protestant wedding. They can’t do both.

This is not to say that ministers from both religious communities can’t play a role in the wedding. If they have a Catholic wedding the then Protstant minister can be invited to participate and visa versa. The Norms for Ecumenism provide:

157. With the previous authorisation of the local Ordinary, and if invited to do so, a Catholic priest or deacon may attend or participate in some way in the celebration of mixed marriages, in situations where the dispensation from canonical form has been granted. In these cases, there may be only one ceremony in which the presiding person receives the marriage vows. At the invitation of this celebrant, the Catholic priest or deacon may offer other appropriate prayers, read from the Scriptures, give a brief exhortation and bless the couple.

158. Upon request of the couple, the local Ordinary may permit the Catholic priest to invite the minister of the party of the other Church or ecclesial Community to participate in the celebration of the marriage, to read from the Scriptures, give a brief exhortation and bless the couple.

Dressed To Kill

EXCERPTS:

An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.

Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.

When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.

"It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday.

"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt."

"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.

"I’ve been firefighting for over 35 years and I’ve never come across anything like this," he said.

GET THE STORY.

Don’t Smile!

German authorities have decided to wipe the grins off the faces of passport applicants:

"Germans were ordered Thursday to stay serious when having their photographs taken for new passports, wiping away any grins, smirks or smiles so that biometric scanners can pick up their facial features.

"Interior Minister Otto Schily ordered passport authorities to only accept pictures taken from the front showing the ‘most neutral facial expression possible,’ starting Nov. 1.

"Facial recognition systems match key features on the holder’s face and work best when the face has a neutral expression with the mouth closed.

"’A broad smile, however nice it may be, is therefore unacceptable,’ the Interior Ministry said in a statement."

GET THE STORY.

English-speaking photographers have long ordered their subjects to say "Cheese!" before snapping the shot, presumably because saying that word widens the mouth and thus encourages a grin. I wonder what the command to German passport applicants now should be when having their mug shots taken.

This Illusion Is Not Here

And now . . . !

The AMAZING DISAPPEARING OPTICAL ILLUSION!

Keep your eyes fixed on the Plus Sign in the center of the illusion.

You will see a green dot that ISN’T THERE sweeping around the circle of pink dots.

Then you will see the pink dots that ARE THERE totally . . . DISAPPEAR!

Do it right and you can get them ALL to disappear!

GET STARTED STARING!

YEE-HAW!

NOTE FOR THE COLORBLIND: Your mileage may vary. Sorry. 🙁

The Embryonic Shoah

In the pro-life movement, we’ve heard the figures that some 45 million children have been murdered by abortion in the United States since Roe v. Wade was legalized in 1973. But what about children murdered by the various embryonic manipulation that has occurred since test-tube tinkering started in the late-1970s? (Trivia side note: Did you know that the first test-tube baby was born on the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of Humanae Vitae?  Humanae Vitae was released on July 25, 1968; the first test-tube child was born on July 25, 1978.)

A study by researchers at Yale University found that some 85 percent of cultured embryos do not survive to birth. In-vitro fertilization specialists recently boasted that over a million children have been born due to IVF technology. If both the Yale study and the IVF specialists figures are correct, this means that as many as 6.7 million children have been murdered through embryonic research:

"A new study has confirmed that beyond all the loss of life that happens when in vitro fertilization embryos are frozen for storage and unfrozen for use, there is massive loss of life even after embryos are transferred into their mother’s wombs.

"Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that 85 percent of embryos transferred during IVF fail to live till birth.

"IVF specialists boasted last year that over a million children have been born due to IVF (see here: http://www.ivf.com/overview.html). However, with the results of the Yale study indicating that 85% of embryos transferred do not survive till birth, one can calculate that for a million children to have been born using IVF over 6.7 other children died in the process.

"Published in the August issue of Fertility and Sterility, the Yale study reviewed seven years of U.S. statistics from all the fertility clinics that report data on reproductive techniques. Director of the Yale Fertility Center, Pasquale Patrizio, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences led the project.

"Said Patrizio, ‘Something in nature has decided that these implanted embryos are not viable.’"

GET THE STORY.

Six million children and counting means that the embryonic manipulation of modern science has placed the death toll in the abortion holocaust at over fifty million. God, have pity on us.

Speaking At A Protestant Chapel

A reader writes:

I am a fauclty member at a private college associated with a Protestant church.  I’m a convert to the Catholic Church.

There is a chapel service two days a week here and the opportunity has come up for me to speak at this service.  Am I allowed to speak at a service like this? 

Yes. Canon law does not prevent you from speaking if you are invited to do so.

If so is what are my obligations with regard to what I reveal to the assembled people?

You must not say anything contrary to the Catholic faith. Within that constraint, you should seek to deliver the kind of talk that your hosts expect. (E.g., if you are asked to speak on a particular topic or Scripture passage, you should do so.)

In addition, to the extent you can (without endangering your ability to make a living, for example) you should seek to introduce them to aspects of the truth (the Catholic faith) that they may not have considered. This may involve revealing the fact that you are a Catholic or it may not.

If you perceive that the topic you are asked to speak on could draw you into areas that would be problematic (e.g., if you couldn’t talk about the topic without getting into a subject that would cause you to lose your job) then you could ask for a different topic, a different day (i.e., one with a different planned topic), or simply decline the invitation to speak.

That’s about the best I can do with the limited information at hand (I don’t know, for example, whether people at the college would freak out upon learning that you are Catholic and demand your resignation or firing; that’s been known to happen at some Protestant schools, even when the administration is initially supportive of Catholic faculty members). The bottom line is: Do what good you can and be prudent as you do so.

Or as Our Lord put it: "Be wise as serpents and  innocent as doves" (Matt. 10:16).