VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God. The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.
The interview was headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother." Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.
Here's a pretty interesting article about religion in Russia. I can see both sides here. It's frustrating to see Catholics and Protestants treated unfairly by the government and it's official (Russian Orthodox) religion, but I also think that Catholic and Protestant missionaries need to show respect for the Orthodox faith which was persecuted for a hundred years in the region. I think the attempts at "sheep stealing" need to stop immediately as well.
While church attendance in Russia is very low, polls show that Russians are embracing Russian Orthodoxy as part of their identity. In one recent poll, 71 percent of respondents described themselves as Russian Orthodox, up from 59 percent in 2003.
There are a few hundred thousand Roman Catholics in Russia, and the Russian Orthodox Church has had tense relations with the Vatican, accusing Catholic missionaries of trying to convert Russians. The Vatican says it seeks only to reach out to existing Catholics.
The Russian government has often refused visas for foreign Catholic priests, whom the Vatican has sent because there are few Russian ones.
There have been considerable numbers of Protestants in Russia since the second half of the 18th century. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Protestant faiths in the West saw Russia as fertile territory and spent heavily to send missionaries to help the existing worshipers and to convert others.
But the Russian Orthodox Church, which was widely persecuted under Communism, was rebuilding and worried about losing adherents.
Here's an awesome write-up about Pope Benedict from Rush Limbaugh.
I found this fascinating, when he was talking about the concept of freedom here. Let me, ladies and gentlemen, focus on this. He starts by saying, "Some today argue that respect for freedom of the individual makes it wrong to seek truth, including the truth about what is good. In some circles to speak of truth is seen as controversial or divisive, and consequently best kept in the private sphere." What this means is, truth is arrived at in a black-and-white way. Good and bad, good and evil, arrived at in a black-and-white way. The relativists don't want there to be any bad; they don't want there to be any wrong. Therefore, there can't be any good. There just IS. You are free to do whatever you want, and anybody who condemns you is to be called on it. Now, the concept of freedom is not that. That is not what freedom is. Not in terms of our founding and not in terms of the way the pope was speaking about it here, because freedom -- you know, we are all born as young little savages.
Here's a good article about a priest who risks his life every day.
The very public conversion of high-profile Italian journalist Magdi Allam — who was baptized by Pope Benedict in Rome on Saturday — is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated on al-Jazeera TV a while back that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros’s public ministry. More recently, al-Jazeera noted Life TV’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world. Several factors account for the Botros phenomenon.
Shouldn't this be considered a hate crime? I like what Donahue had to say about it though.
Presbyterian Ad Mocks Confession
WTOP, a news radio station in Washington, D.C., is currently playing a commercial that ridicules the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The spot, paid for by a Presbyterian Church in the nation’s capital, mimics a man confessing his sins to a priest. The priest repeats the man’s sins back to him, and with each sin (e.g., having lustful thoughts while viewing lingerie ads and coveting a neighbor’s lawn equipment) a cash register clicks, as if to tally up the sum of each sin. At the end, a voice tells listeners that with the Presbyterian Church, their spiritual journey doesn’t have to be “a guilt trip.” According to station managers, this ad has been aired for two runs a year since 2004.
It is interesting that those who made this spot felt that in order to spur interest in their church, they had to mock a Catholic sacrament. Rather than boasting of a strong faith formation or meaningful religious services, these folks must rely on trivializing attack ads to gin up their declining membership.
It is also troublesome that such an ad is running during Holy Week. This most sacred season is often the time when those with an animus toward the Church level their assaults. We’re used to it. What we are not accustomed to, however, are these assaults coming from our fellow Christians. We hope that in the future, those responsible for this advertisement will choose to highlight Presbyterianism, rather than to belittle Catholicism.
Man, the American media BURIED this story, and I don't know why.
ROME (AP) — A Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq last month has been found dead, the news agency of Italian bishops' conference reported on Thursday.
The SIR news agency says Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead near the Iraqi city of Mosul, where he had been abducted.
"Monsignor Rahho is dead. We have found him lifeless near Mosul," the agency quoted the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, as saying. "The kidnappers had buried him."
Rahho was kidnapped on Feb. 29 soon after he left Mass in Mosul. Three people who had been with him were killed by the kidnappers. Pope Benedict XVI immediately called for his release and said the abduction was an "abominable" act.
The Chaldean church is an Eastern-rite denomination that recognizes the authority of the pope.
Robert Fotheringham, a regional missions official for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, confirmed the three men in the photos were church missionaries.
"We have a history of people doing things like this to us, so we're mortified that our missionaries would do it to someone else," Fotheringham said. "It's beyond embarrassing. It's inexcusable."
He declined to release their names.
The damaged statue seen in one of the photos depicts Manuel Morales, who was the 28-year-old president of Mexico's National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty when he was executed in 1926 for refusing to recognize laws he considered anti-religion. He was among more than two dozen Mexican saints canonized in 2000.
Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.
Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.
It's also reported that George Bush will ask Pope Benedict, "Are you saved?"
Ha! That never gets old...
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI will visit the White House on April 16 during his first visit to the United States as pontiff.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president and the pope would continue discussions they began during Bush's trip to the Vatican in June 2007 on the importance of faith and reason in reaching shared goals.
Stanzel said the goals include advancing peace throughout the Middle East and other troubled regions, promoting interfaith understanding and strengthening human rights and freedom.
The pope was also expected to address the United Nations, visit ground zero in New York and celebrate Mass in New York and Washington during his April 15-20 trip.
There's a show I watch on EWTN (that Catholic cable channel) called "Life on the Rock."
It's hosted by a priest named Francis Mary Stone. So I turned it on the other night and it opened with this message read by another priest on the show...
Dear Family,
Regretfully, I have a message that does not come without significant pain to both you and me. I have to tell you in all honesty and truth, that I have been personally involved with helping a widow and her struggling family. Over the course of time, the mother and I have grown very close. As a result, I am compelled to take some time off to prayerfully and honestly discern my future.
I am truly sorry of the impact this may have on so many. I am not unaware of the gravity and magnitude of the situation, yet after much wise counsel, it is really something that I must deal with now for the good of all.
With that said, it is best that I deal with it away from EWTN. Therefore, I have asked for and graciously been granted some extended time to prayerfully discern my vocation.
To those who are part of the EWTN family locally, and others throughout the world, especially all those who have supported me so faithfully in my priestly vocation and ministry here on Life on the Rock, I sincerely apologize. I ask for your prayers and understanding during this time that is so very difficult, but yet so very necessary.
Please lift me up in your humble prayers to Jesus through Mary, our Mother, in Grace and Mercy.
Fr Francis Mary, MFVA
Needless to say, I'm speechless. Father Francis was practically the face of EWTN in the last couple of years. I just hope that it works out for him, whichever path he ends up taking.
Here's why you shouldn't get actual news from WorldNetDaily.com.
How old is the world?
Most people would say: "Nobody knows."
But the author of the book frequently described as the greatest history book ever written, said the world was created Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. – making it exactly 6,010 today.
In the 1650s, an Anglican bishop named James Ussher published his "Annals of the World," subtitled, "The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian's Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews." First published in Latin, it consisted of more than 1,600 pages.
The book, now published in English for the first time, is a favorite of homeschoolers and those who take ancient history seriously. It's the history of the world from the Garden of Eden to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Here's another WorldNetDaily hit-piece on the Pope via Walter Williams. Sheesh.
Look, I hate taxes just as much as the next guy. Actually, I hate taxes more than anyone else in this country. Reducing the role and the size of the government is how we eliminate the tax burden. Tax evasion is not. As for Williams, didn't Jesus Himself say, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s" when asked specifically about taxes? (Matthew 22:15-22)
The Pope's encyclical hasn't been pubished yet. I'm assuming this part about tax evasion will be very small and the point he'll try to make will be about the role of social charity for both the individual and government. While I don't think government should play a larger roll than the individual, supporting charity is something that has been a Church teaching since Jesus starting calling his first apostle "Rock."
Also, the article claims that an encyclical is "the most authoritative statement a pope can issue" which isn't even true. The only time the Pope speaks with the authority of Christ through the Church is to clarify or further define challenged doctrine. Something that has only happened a handfull of times in two-thousand years.
I have no idea why Walter William (a man I truly respect) whould jump to such conclusions that Pope Benedict supports a "welfare state" or why he chooses to make judgments about the Catholic Church, which is something he obvioulsy has no clear understand of.
This is why the Catholic Church isn't involved in this silly "Intelligent Design/Creationism/Evolution in schools" debate that is taking place in the southern states.
July 26, 2007 -- Pope Benedict XVI says the theory of evolution is backed by strong scientific proof - but the theory does not answer life's "great philosophical question."
Benedict told 400 priests at a two-hour event that he's puzzled by the current debate in the United States and his native Germany over creationism and evolution.
Debaters wrongly present the two sides "as if they were alternatives that are exclusive - whoever believes in the creator could not believe in evolution, and whoever asserts belief in evolution would have to disbelieve in God," the pontiff said.
"This contrast is an absurdity, because there are many scientific tests in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and enriches our understanding of life and being.
"But the doctrine of evolution does not answer all questions, and it does not answer above all the great philosophical question: From where does everything come?"
A transcript of the Tuesday event was posted in Italian yesterday on the Vatican's Web site.
The speech came at the end of a three-week vacation in the mountains of northern Italy near the Austrian border, where people are worried that global warming will change their way of life.
"We all see that today man can destroy the foundation of his existence, his Earth," Benedict said.
"We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us."
According to this person the reason to establish the S.I.V. was the meeting with an Alien delegation at Muroc Air Field Base in February 1954 in presence of President Dwight Eisenhower and James Francis McIntyre, Bishop of Los Angeles. After the incredible event McIntyre flew to Rome to refer with Pope Pius XII who decided to found the S.I.V with the aim to gather all possible information about Aliens and how they interact with the American Government.
(Italian journalist Luca) Scantamburlo has written extensively about an interview conducted between Cristoforo Barbato and an unnamed Vatican Jesuit priest who has confidentially disclosed inside information about a clandestine meeting in 1954 at California’s Muroc Air Force Base (later named Edwards AFB) involving President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Los Angeles Bishop James Francis McIntyre and an extraterrestrial delegation.
Everyone knows about the Edwards AFB meeting, but I never knew that and L.A. Bishop was present.
Here's a column by Ron Paul from a couple of years ago right after John Paul II death.
Click the link to read the whole thing.
Good luck in the debates tonight Dr. Paul!!!!
"Just two years ago conservatives were busy scolding the Pope for his refusal to back our invasion of Iraq. One conservative media favorite even made the sickening suggestion that the Pope was the enemy of the United States because he would not support our aggression in the Middle East. The Pontiff would not ignore the inherent contradiction in being pro-life and pro-war, nor distort just war doctrine to endorse attacking a nation that clearly posed no threat to America – and conservatives resented it. September 11th did not change everything, and the Pope understood that killing is still killing. The hypocritical pro-war conservatives lauding him today have very short memories."
"Historically, religion always represented a threat to government because it competes for the loyalties of the people. In modern America, however, most religious institutions abandoned their independence long ago, and now serve as cheerleaders for state policies like social services, faith-based welfare, and military aggression in the name of democracy. Few American churches challenge state actions at all, provided their tax-exempt status is maintained. This is why Washington politicians ostensibly celebrate religion – it no longer threatens their supremacy. Government has co-opted religion and family as the primary organizing principle of our society. The federal government is boss, and everybody knows it. But no politician will ever produce even a tiny fraction of the legacy left by Pope John Paul II."
Here's a nice, civil interview. I wouldn't expect it to get heated since Dawkins (author of "The God Delusion") is pretty soft-spoken and O'Reilly only loses his cool if he's interviewing a crazy person. My only complaint is that they only talked for a few minutes.
...and that means "you know who" will be showing up. Here's what that witch Shirley Phelps-Roper had to say about the victims:
“The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants,” Phelps-Roper said. “You don’t need to look any further for evidence those people are in hell.”
...and here's what she had to say about the killer:
“He is in hell,” Phelps-Roper said. “But he was also fulfilling the word of God.”
You know that song "I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!" I just don't think that they're singing it at the Westboro Baptist church.
South Park was pretty good last night with spoofs on the Da Vinci Code and William Donahue. I suppose you have to be Catholic to understand the humor of Donahue taking the Pope's hat and having him thrown in jail, but trust me, it's hilarious.
Quote from Donahue: "I have no idea why ‘South Park’ creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker caricature me as a heartless thug. In any event, I stand convicted and have no defense. Now I have to get back to business—I hear someone just took some liberties with the Easter Bunny."
Bill, anyone who's seen you on TV knows why South Park would portray you as a "heartless thug."
Here's an interesting read from a Nebraskan priest who was Rome when John Paul II passed away. Why am I posting this? He's the priest who will be performing my wedding this fall!
The implosion of the world wide Anglican communion continues do to the antics of the Episcopal church in America. Fortunately, not all hope is lost for the denomination. This is totally interesting to dorks like me :)
The Archbishop also revealed that professional wrestling is predetermined. Not really, but it's good to see that some people are addressing the global problem of anti-Semitism, which is clearly on the rise through Europe.
Here's a look at the Mormon practice of post-death baptism.
"So Benedict looks set to join his predecessor John Paul and a centuries-long list of popes Mormons have baptized -- despite the fact that he, back when he was the Vatican's top doctrinal authority, ruled that Mormon baptisms were not even Christian."
I don't know too much about the LDS, but at the end of this article there's a very brief summary of why they baptise the dead. Give it a look.
After watching Fortenberry, I left it on EWTN. Life on the Rock came on next and they started the show with a clip of Student Union at UNL with Father Matya of the campus Newman Center leading a prayer. Then they started talking about how great UNL's Newman Center is. They're right by the way.
And just FYI, EWTN is a global network. That means programming across the globe. And here they are showing stuff from UNL. Pretty cool.
So I'm flipping through the channels and as I went past EWTN I saw Scott Hahn on the TV. Now, none of you have the slightest clue as to who Scott Hahn is, but know this: I only have on rule to live by and that is if Scott Hahn is on my television I stop everything and watch.
Anyhow, I say to myself, "That dork talking to Scott Hahn looks a heckofalot like Jeff Fortenberry." And sure enough, it WAS Jeff Fortenberry. Plastic hair and all. I watched him talk to Dr. Hahn and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He actually sounded like he knew what he talking about! Like I said, none of you know who in the world Scott Hahn is, but let me put it this way: Compared to Dr. Scott Hahn, EVERYONE ELSE in the world is a complete idiot. He has an IQ of something like 645.
I watched a little more and found out that Fortenberry has a Master's in Theology at Franciscan University of all places. Very cool. I'm not sure why he's wasting that in politics, but I guess I'm going to have to actually vote for the guy next time.
Here's another crazy fundamentalist site "proving" that the earth is stationary. Yes, folks, the sun rotates the earth. And you can only find the proof on our great blog at themeofasence.com.
