I am very grateful to you for publishing the article on Holy Love ministries being condemned by the Bishop of Cleveland, Ohio where they preside and not shying away from the controversy it could cause from Catholics that either don’t understand or willingly choose to disobey the church.  Here in NJ many bus loads are going to the site and their Rosaries are being spread everywhere.  They are advertising the Rosaries they make, “Rosaries of the unborn” on Lifenews.com. The Bishop asked that Catholics do not support financially this organization in a letter he wrote last year. These Rosaries support their organization.  I sent Life News your article and the letter from the Bishop…. 

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Dear CE,

In this, the year of the priest, I want to give special recognition to Monsignor Clark. His daily homilies are so inspiring and to the point. What a great way to start each day.

Thank you Monsignor Clark. Keep up the good work.

Patty Olson
Branson, Missouri

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Dear Mary Kochan,

I have been reading yourself and Dale O’Leary on Transsexuality and really wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your absolutely marvelous and highly courageous defense of Catholic teaching on this subject. It’s no exaggeration to say that when I read transsexual apologies of the sort  thrown at you I felt a distinct icy blast that left me reeling, sick, and unable to think rationally.

You are probably aware that a one man play named  “Jesus, Queen of Heaven”  was recently staged in Glasgow during a so-called gay festival. The author is John Clifford, a father of two children who was married to a feminist writer, (RIP) and who in the last five years had sex change surgery. I have not seen the play. I don’t need to to realise the agenda beneath the title. This has been commented upon on Catholic News Agency, and myself and others have come under fire on Comments from someone called ‘Jo’ who defended the play and has ‘herself’ come centre-stage demanding recognition of PC pronouns and referring to any opposition to transsexuality as bigotry, because I for one will not bow to this kind of distortion. I am not doing very well against this person. I suspect but can’t prove that it is the playwright himself I am dealing with. Jo’s responses are fierce and irrational.

It is hard to respond logically when transsexuality is made out to be the same as having black skin. I have prayed much for light and understanding on this and once again may I express my thanks to you and Dale. I do not have contact email and I’d be very grateful If you could say to Dale how much I have been consoled and how grateful the entire Church should be for such dedicated thinkers and writers as yourselves.

In Christ

Brendan Bradley

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Dear CE Editors,

Thanks to you and the whole CE crew for running the best Catholic general website. There is nothing else quite like Catholic Exchange.

Stephen Pohl

Thank you, everyone, for your kind remarks of appreciation about what we do here at CE. As Stephen noted, it takes a whole crew of people to bring this website to you everyday. It is our privilege to serve our readers – we believe that your time is owned by God and that we must never waste it. Thank you for your prayers and donations that make this website possible.

God bless you as we enter a new liturgical year together,

CE Editors

[Editor's Note: Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.]

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a Mass celebrated by the bishop in my diocese. It was a joyful occasion celebrating black Catholic history in the diocese. During the homily, my bishop spoke out with conviction explaining the U.S. bishops’ support for the current health care reform in debate in both the house and senate. He mentioned the united front of the U.S. Catholic bishops, lead by Cardinal Rigali, endorsing health care reform. He spoke of the virtue of charity and connected it to reforming health care.

As I listened, I was overcome with sadness that the US bishops are extending support to Congresswoman Pelosi’s health care “reform” proposals. Why are they willing to trade the full teaching of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of life, for a crumb of pro-life language – the Pitt-Stupak amendment? How can the US bishops support Pelosi’s health care reform legislation? How can they believe that the Pitt-Stupak amendment will somehow change the spirit, content, and outcome of the legislation?

How do the US bishops know what is in the legislation? No one else does; not even my congressman. How do the bishops define abortion? The Catholic Church defines abortion as the termination of life in the womb after conception. Does the “reform” legislation prohibit federal funding of abortifacient contraception? Does the Pitt-Stupak amendment include abortifacient contraception, the point in pregnancy when most abortions occur, in its definition of abortion? What about in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem cell testing? Will my tax dollars pay for that? What about the rationing of health care? Catholic teaching speaks clearly on that, also. Does the reform legislation prevent that?

I see some pro-life groups rejoicing today over the passage of the Pitt-Stupak amendment. It may be a political victory to some degree; one that is best left to politicians. But this pro-lifer mourns. I believe that my bishops have been manipulated through their worthy desire to be charitable. I predict that their endorsement of Pelosi’s “reform” will backfire terribly on Catholics and all citizens of the United States; most dramatically on the poor. The poor will be exploited, contracepted, rationed and aborted at levels never before seen in this country. I fear the US bishops are falling into the trap; the trap of being used as pawns by the culture of death.

Please, God, let me be wrong!

Ellen Beley, Cary, NC

Dear Ellen,

Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt letter. You have expressed the dismay that so many feel with the latest turn of events. We wonder what difference any language in the bill really can make when the agenda of the other side is so clear: they will use the courts and regulatory means far removed from the people to get what they want, regardless that a majority of Americans identify themselves as pro-life.

You have ended with what we all have to end. We have to pray.

God bless you.

Mary Kochan, Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange

[Editor's Note: Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.]

I am a long-time Catholic, and it saddens me to see Catholic organizations embracing a party that stands for everything traditional Catholics do not, such as bigotry, oppression of the poor and disabled, a war on human rights, deregulatory policies that have turned this country into a sleazy x-rated sideshow carnival on our airwaves, a disregard for public food and drug safety, disregard for the environment for the sake of industry campaign contributors, all for only one issue: abortion. The Democratic Party has always been a party more aligned with the values of traditional Catholics, so why are Catholic organizations encouraging others to embrace a party that has brought the world nothing but misery?

Name withheld at editor’s discretion.

Dear Reader:

First off, we don’t care about political parties and we aren’t embracing any [Footnote 1]. We care more about what is right than about who is right.

Second, how best to improve conditions for the poor, handle regulations about food, control the airwaves, or any other such “policy issues” are things that Catholics are allowed by Church teaching to disagree on. But abortion isn’t just one policy issue among many — it is murder; it is a Holocaust happening under our noses [Footnote 2]. Our position on it as Catholics is not negotiable — there is only one position on it and we are called by the Church to oppose it and every party, politician, and law that supports it, unequivocally, because failure to do so undermines and will ultimately — if not opposed — result in the destruction of civil society [Footnote 3].

Finally, a political party that favors abortion does not favor the poor for the unborn are the poorest among us, and the unborn of the poor are special targets of the abortion industry [Footnote 4]. It is not against bigotry because it denies the personhood of, and the protection of the law to, a class of human beings based solely upon their state of dependency and their stage of development. And it targets the offspring of minorities for its eugenic agenda of death [Footnote 5]. It does not favor the oppressed for no class of people is more oppressed in this country than the powerless unborn, who are slaughtered at the rate of 1,200,000 per year, 3,288 per day, 137 per hour, 1 every 26 seconds — over 48 million since 1973. It oppresses poor women by supporting funding for forced abortion and sterilization among the inhabitants of Third World countries and oppressing pregnant women in even wealthy countries by colluding in the coercion of them by boyfriends, family members, and even child rapists to kill their babies for convenience or even to cover up crimes.

A political party that favors abortion does not care about the disabled because it wages war against the disabled unborn. It does not care about drug safety because it supports the distribution of the very unsafe RU-486, a chemical cocktail used to cause abortion — which is not only unsafe obviously for unborn human beings, but is also very dangerous to the women who take it with numerous, serious, reported side effects (besides death).

It does not care about human rights because it denies the most fundamental right — the right to life — to millions of Americans [Footnote 6]. It does not care about the human right to due process of law as it allows the unborn to have their home and life taken from them arbitrarily without any legal process [Footnote 7]. It does not care about the right of a person undergoing a medical procedure to have full and complete disclosure of all risks associated with the procedure as it blocks every attempt to give women complete information about the risks and possible consequences to them of abortion and to show them through ultrasounds the visual evidence of the unique humanity of their unborn children. It does not care about the human rights of freedom of conscience and religion of pharmacists who conscientiously object to being forced to be complicit in murder. It does not care about the human rights of parents to guide their underage offspring and seeks to undermine and override parents by obstructing parental consent laws regarding abortion.

Genuine care for the physical environment, if it is to be humane and not idolatrous, must emerge from a recognition that man is the crown of creation and its steward. The historical record bears out that only societies that have reached a certain level of development can afford to be environmentally conscious. Waging war on the unborn causes demographic contraction that shrinks the economy, reducing the resources available to deal with environmental issues. It also destroys the innovation and creativity that unborn humans being carry in their souls — gifts to all of humanity by their Creator — to the point of crushing small skulls and vacuuming out the very brains created to find solutions to the problems we complain about. A determination to destroy human life in the name of the environment could not be further from the Catholic understanding of man and creation.

A political party that favors abortion cannot possibly claim to care about sleaze on the airways because it has a record of obstructing legislation designed to fine purveyors of filth. It also has as one of its most avid supporters Planned Parenthood, which unceasingly targets the children of this country with pornography to sell them on sexual experimentation so that they will “need” the “[anti-]reproductive services” of this murderous company that through duplicity and manipulation sucks tax dollars with a gusto matched only by the rapacity with which it sucks the dismembered bits of unborn children from their mothers’ wombs.

In short, it is a travesty to say that a party that supports abortion is aligned with the values of traditional Catholics and what ought to really sadden you is that so many Catholics, for the sake of party loyalty, have become heartless toward the very least of Jesus’ brothers: the unborn humans awaiting at this moment the horror of unjust execution by the legal — thanks to the Democratic Party — destruction of their precious innocent lives.

**********

Footnote 1: From Living the Gospel of Life (US Bishops November 1998): “[W]e urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest” (34).

Footnote 2: This is clear from the Catechism:

2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth .2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish .God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.2272 Formal co-operation in an abortion constitutes a grave offence. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. ‘A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae‘ ‘by the very commission of the offence’, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Footnote 3: Again from the Catechism:

2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:

‘The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death. The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights.’

Footnote 4: James R. (Ron) Weddington, one of the co-counsels for Roe v. Wade, the famous Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion as a “right” in the United States, wrote to president-elect Bill Clinton in 1992, advocating elimination of the lower class through birth control and abortion:

But you can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I’m, not advocating some sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can’t afford to have babies. There, I’ve said it. It’s what we all know is true, but we only whisper it, because as liberals who believe in individual rights, we view any program which might treat the disadvantaged differently as discriminatory, mean-spirited and… well… so Republican….

Condoms alone won’t do it. Depo-Provera, Norplant and the new birth control injection being developed in India are not a complete answer…. No, government is also going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions… RU 486 and conventional abortions. Even if we make birth control as ubiquitous as sneakers and junk food, there will still be unplanned pregnancies. There have been about 30 million abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade. Think of all the poverty, crime and misery… and then add 30 million unwanted babies to the scenario… We don’t need more cannon fodder. We don’t need more parishioners. We don’t need more cheap labor. We don’t need more poor babies. (James R. (Ron) Weddington, Letter to President-elect Bill Clinton, January 6, 1992).

Footnote 5: In America today, almost as many African-American children are aborted as are born. A black baby is three times more likely to be murdered in the womb than a white baby. Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent. Twice as many African-Americans have died from abortion than have died from AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, cancer, and heart disease combined. Every three days, more African-Americans are killed by abortion than have been killed by the Ku Klux Klan in its entire history. Planned Parenthood operates the nation’s largest chain of abortion clinics and almost 80 percent of its facilities are located in minority neighborhoods. About 13 percent of American women are black, but they submit to over 35 percent of the abortions (for more on the abortion industry’s genocidal agenda against black Americans visit BlackGenocide.org).

Footnote 6: From Living the Gospel of Life (US Bishops November 1998): “Adopting a consistent ethic of life, the Catholic Church promotes a broad spectrum of issues…. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages of life. But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community” (23).

Footnote 7: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause reads: “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

[Editor's Note: Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.]

March for Life is a sign that the nation is poised for change.

I was born on the eastside of Detroit, Michigan at a time when abortion was illegal, life was protected, kids felt safe and neighborhood families cared for each other. Because of my own security, the decision by the US Supreme Court to legalize abortion January 22, 1973 did not have much of an impact on me at the age of five. Growing up in the home of an Irish Catholic father, a graduate in the field of Social Work from Chicago's Loyola University, and a pious, traditional Lebanese mother, who taught underprivileged children in Detroit's public school system for years, the thought of legalizing the pre-planned murder of innocent children was an idea that I would come to abhor. For thirty-five years the tables have been turned against the safety and love of our American children.

Fortunately, the tide is changing, as is evidenced in responses to surveys about the presidential race, that voters are no longer on the fence. The clear cut lines drawn between the two top Democratic and Republican candidates on the issue of abortion is proof that the abortion issue will affect the way voters vote. The recent show of strength by a hundred thousand pro-life supporters from around the country at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. was proof voters are strongly united against abortion and in favor of change. As one politician reminded us, for young people under the age of 35, the lives of one-third of their generation have been snuffed out.

Is this a legitimate issue of pubic interest on a state or national level?

Let's compare abortion to the other top concerns by those surveyed on the issue of the presidential election. The violence, fear and intimidation of terrorism of our nation by foreign nationals pales compared to the attack launched daily on innocent unborn lives in the womb of the nations' mothers. Is not America as concerned about its future generations of workers, leaders, and businessmen and women as it is about economic instability and unemployment, global warming and environmental pollution, job growth and recession? There is no chance for growth and prosperity, if moral relativism runs awry and a self-focused nation of over-achievers stands idly by while we kill off the next generation of countrymen and women.

The country came together for change as Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical denominations joined congressmen and other politicians to rally the crowds of older teens and college age voters chanting "P-R-O-L-I-F-E, oh, ah, oh, ah!!" Fathers pushing baby strollers, young seminarians and priests in black cassocks walked in step with Nurses for Life and sisters in habits to send the same message: The horror of abortion must end and indeed as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's 100 percent homicide track records were advertised in posters, there shown more than just a ray of hope that the next election may shape the politics of abortion in favor of change. Indeed, a rainbow appeared in the sky over the capitol just after a sprinkling of rain fell around five o'clock in the afternoon. Some took that as a sign for change. The mention by one Jewish religious leader of Pope Benedict's upcoming April visit in New York, brought a roar from the crowd, pointing to his authority to lead the nation's most staunch supporters of life.

Fortunately in Michigan we have won another small battle with the Senate panel's passage of a ban on partial birth abortion. The media may do well to come to grips with the fact that the country is deeply divided on this issue, much like slavery separated father and son, brother and cousin. The show of strength in numbers and unbroken spirit in Washington this week is proof that the pro-life side won't go away until the battles lead to the final victory, and all abortion procedures and drugs are made illegal.

Cecilia Tombelli

__________________

Thank you, Cecilia, for sharing your wonderful personal perspective on the March for Life. Right you are — we are not going away until the victory is won.

Mary Kochan, Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange

Thank you for your message. I am so glad that the news from Rome was of interest to you. Below is my translation of an article which appeared yesterday in the paper. I send it along so that you might have a more authoritative take on events in Rome. The translation is mine and there is no copyright on it so please feel free to do as you wish with it.

The article is an interview with Senator Marcello Pera from, "il Giornale", a national paper. It was in the Thursday, January 17th edition. It is worthwhile mentioning that the Rome university, La Sapienza, at which the Pope was barred from speaking because of a faculty-student protest, was founded in the 14th century by Pope

Boniface VIII.

There have been quite a number of pertinent articles such as the one below and it was hard to choose which to translate — this one I guess interested me the most because these words are pronounced by an atheist (which seems such a harsh word for a man as kind as Marcello

Pera) who is a well-known political figure in Europe, and who is highly esteemed in universities around the world for his learning.

Marcello Pera, apart from being a member of the Italian Senate, is a philosopher and professor. These are some of the places where he has been a visiting professor (Visiting Fellow): Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1984; The Van Leer Foundation, Gerusalemme, 1987; Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge in Massachusetts, 1990; Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics, 1995-96.

Best wishes,

Mrs. Catherine Zeppa Di Matteo

The Insult to Ratzinger?  The Left's Vendetta by Alessandro M.  Caprettini

"What am I waiting for now?  That this anti-religious push from the left becomes a boomerang — that on Sunday at the Angelus in St.  Peter's square there will be immense crowds…  everyone of us should be there.  It would be the best response to not having allowed the Pope to speak."

Marcello Pera, past president of the Italian Senate, did not digest well the forced cancellation of Pope Benedict's scheduled address at Rome's university, La Sapienza, inaugurating the new academic year, [...] a renunciation imposed on him by a group of faculty members who seemed more like mean-spirited grade school teachers rather than university professors; and then there was the government's embarrassed "silence" adding insult to injury.  But from his office in the Palazzo Giustiniani Pera asks himself once again [...] what moves the political right should make now that the last [illusion] has disappeared and it is open war between the secularists and the defenders of Christian tradition in Europe.

"I have been saying this for a long time: that that which polarizes the left and the right, after the death of communism, is now secularism.  And so what if they laughed at me when I said so then, but now the proof is on the table: the 'Manifesto' of the Italian left has now become about 'anti-religion'.  And Benedict XVI has become the catalyzing force of their protest.

President Pera, meanwhile though, can you tell me what the incident at La Sapienza University seems like to you?

"It is an outrageous insult to the Pope, it is a huge, unprecedented diplomatic fiasco that Italy bowed to the violence of these secularists [...] and it is a mortal blow for Italian universities.  Oh sure, [...] they attempt now to minimize, blunt the blow, and to back-track, but there are people with a huge responsibility for what happened.  It would have changed everything if Prodi [Prime Minister] or Amato or Mussi had taken a stand and distinguished themselves as not lending support to that anti-papal protest against the Pope's right to speak.  Instead, those 67 [faculty members] were counting on the government's silence in order to break down the door.  And they did it.

Do you have an idea of what is behind that silence?  Why did Prodi and company not intervene?

"I believe that… it was in order to take revenge.  Revenge for the way they had to back down on PACS and DICO [PACS and DICO were two projects for introducing laws permitting same-sex marriage and for granting married status in a legal form to co-habitating couples], and on the question of assisted fertilization [and embryonic research] and for the criticism which came from the Vatican about the degrading state of Rome.  You know what I suspect?  Actually, it's a certainty.  And I will say even more: someone wanted to show the rest of Europe that Italy is better than everyone else because it can even shut up a Pope!  And that's more than Zapatero has accomplished…"

Do you really think that the rest of Europe cares much?

"The ideology of the left, which now replaces communism, is built on two pillars: Europeanism and secularism.  It is upon these two elements that many have anchored themselves, those who for years and years believed in the Marxist ideology and now look for any substitute capable of keeping their faith alive.  And they are not even concerned that their choices are paradoxical: Togliatti [founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party] was not a secularist and the number one enemy of Communism was precisely the Europe of De Gasperi, Schuman and Adenauer [the founding fathers of the European Community, post-WWII].

Are you talking about today's Europe which refuses to acknowledge its Christian roots?

"Yes, I'm talking about the Europe which refuses to acknowledge itself, which bows to Islamic fundamentalism and censures Buttiglione [European Member of Parliament] because he distinguishes between morality and rights; I'm talking about the Europe which refused to defend the Pope after the Regensburg speech, about a Europe which considers it a "right" and a "conquest" to be able to offend Christian traditions; about a Europe which no longer has even the courage to say "Merry Christmas" [instead of a more secular "happy holidays"].  The ex-communists are Europeanists because they love this Europe.  And they are secularists because they want to destroy European traditions.  The true master of secularism is Pope Benedict XVI.  He has a political sensitivity much more profound than many of Europe's leaders.  He is so secular that he even proffered a secularistic challenge: what does secularism mean?  what values does secularism represent?  And because they didn't know how to answer these questions they didn't let him speak [at La Sapienza], and so the speech he was supposed to have given was read aloud in his absence during the ceremony.  And it was fantastic; it was a masterpiece of doctrine and culture!

[...]

Can the [political and diplomatic] damage be fixed?

"I see that the diplomatic departments of the Italian Republic and the Secretary of State are already at work, but that which has happened is a multiple catastrophe –international, political, institutional and cultural — which is not fixable.  Only people can do that, beginning with the Angelus [in St. Peter's] this coming Sunday and then by staying close to the Pope and to the Church.

Well, don't you think that the political right could do something?

"It would have to find a strategy for combating the forces which are against Christianity and develop a serious debate.  What is it that makes us different from the left?  One or two percentage points, more or less, with regard to taxes?  the infrastructure?  [...].  We are in need of leaders who are capable of introducing something substantially new and who have a strategic vision.  Instead, right-wing politics seem little interested in these subjects [European and Christian-Judeo identity, tradition and culture].  They only mouth them or tack them on to the tail-end of their agendas with the risk that in response to secularism on the left, they will fall into a form of clericalism which would be imposed by others from the outside [because of their own empty convictions]. This vacuum today is filled by Pope Benedict XVI or by newspapers like "il Foglio".  People know and understand this and that's why I'm convinced that on Sunday in St.  Peter's square there will be an awful lot of people."

[End translation.]

PS: forgive me for taking yet more of your time, but there is another thing which I think really needs telling and it is this: Padre Livio, the founder of Radio Maria, the most popular national Catholic radio station (well, after radio Vaticana, it's the ONLY national Catholic radio) and which is cherished by millions of Italians and for which two Popes made known their profound gratitude, has called all listeners to fast today on bread and water for the holy Father and for all priests.

Radio Maria promotes fasting on bread and water every Wednesday and Friday for the intentions of the Blessed Virgin — so, for us it is not such an extraordinary sacrifice since we're used to this regime (but a pizza is kept hot and ready for when the clock strikes midnight!) and people do it most willingly, so profound is their devotion to Mary. But today a special fast was called for the Pope and I'm quite sure that many people, more than normal and even non-Catholics, participated in the fast today. And so I thought this was something really important about the Church in Italy, about the Catholic faith here.

It's a piece of information that would not likely get to the USA–and yet it is so significant I think.

Well, once again, best wishes,

Mrs. Catherine Zeppa Di Matteo

__________________________

Dear Mrs. Di Matteo,

I am sure our readers will be very interested in this. Thank you for going to the trouble to make this translation available to Catholic Exchange.  It does indeed seem that our Holy Father is markedly bringing to the attention of Europeans the stark realities of the choices they face. God bless and protect him. We knew he was God's man for the job – but wow! he is amazing.

Blessings,

Mary Kochan, Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange

This small news item appeared yesterday on Catholic Exchange:

"'Pope Cancels Trip in Rome Over Security' –Source: Telegraph"

I don't know what further coverage it was given in America but it caused an explosive situation here in Italy like nothing I've ever seen before. And I write because I do believe that it is very important for Catholics around the world to know what is happening in Rome–but I especially care that my fellow Americans know!

It was a great blow for all Italians, Catholic and non-Catholic alike that Pope Benedict was forced to cancel his talk at the Roman university, La Sapienza. So, Cardinal Ruini has called all the faithful to fill St. Peter's square for the Angelus on Sunday (12:00pm Italy time) and it seems that all of Italy is mobilizing so as to partecipate one way or another in this call for a show of love and support for the Pope.

Without a doubt, the call to fill St. Peter's square is also meant to be a crushing sign for the many priests and bishops in Italy who have been openly defying the Pope since–well, I was about to say since the motu proprio and then I thought, no, since the speech at Regensburg, but it's even before that–it's been ever since he became Pope. I certainly wish to underline that this is not an issue which concerns only the faithful in Italy (goodness no! and it becomes clearer and clearer to me that whatever happens in Italy is always pertinent to the universal Church and to faithful across the globe).

I invite everyone who can to tune in–I don't know if EWTN or other US Catholic networks have a habit of presenting the Sunday Angelus from Rome. I hope so! But if they don't I would invite them to be there for this Angelus. It has already been announced that even many well known atheists will come in support of the Pope. One of them, the newspaper editor, Vittorio Feltri, declared today that he would suspend his atheism for a day, however much it might cost him, and go to St. Peter's with his Baptismal certificate in hand–to show that though he professes atheism, the Baptismal certificate still means everything to him.

Much of the government will be present. Various regional government heads have already announced that they will be there–and I have a feeling that Ruini's call went well beyond the borders of Italy and that people will be coming from other countries as well.

I hope American Catholics will be able to tune-in to what promises to be a magnificent family get-together in support of our much loved Father!

Best wishes,

Mrs. Catherine Zeppa Di Matteo

_____________________

Dear Mrs. Di Matteo

Thank you so very much for your email giving us an at-the-scene understanding of what the situation in Rome is like.  Coverage here has been scant due to focus on our election primaries, so your news is very welcome and I will be sure to share this with our readers.

Blessings,

Mary Kochan, Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange

Your Dec. 8th Catholic Exchange article was really right on target from a European standpoint and I was so delighted and so surprised to hear things from an American Catholic as I have heard them here in Europe!  I appreciate how nearly impossible it is for us Americans in America to understand or imagine what WWII really was — that is, the impact it had on lives and destinies beyond our borders.  But to see it from over here, after years of being a part of this European fabric — speaking the language and being immersed in its history and culture — I see just how much we do not comprehend, and couldn't comprehend even if we wanted to.  As a Catholic American in Europe, the view of history is breathtaking but it is also profoundly chilling, especially the view of WWII, which is still a very vivid issue here.  Because it is far from being over yet.

You know, something amazing happened with the election of a German Pope (and that it happened to be Ratzinger and not just any German!).  In the hours following his election there was suddenly a feeling that Germany had accomplished something like redemption or expiation: the nation that had given hospitality to Nazism would now be able to arise from the ashes of its moral debauchery through that portion of Germany which had remained holy and faithful.  I am tempted to paraphrase St.  Paul: if Germany sinned on account of one man, Hitler, then on account of another man, Ratzinger, Germany will be redeemed (it is also most interesting to note that Ratzinger (German), and Hitler (Austrian), were born within a few miles of each other on opposite sides of the same river Inn).  And this brings to mind an alarming piece which appeared in one of the newspaper magazines last week and which was written by the esteemed journalist, vaticanist and close friend of the Pope, Renato Farina, who writes for several mainstream papers and magazines and is often a key guest on talk shows.  This is what he said in an open letter to the readers of the news magazine Tempi:

I would like to speak to you about a person whom I care very much about.  I am writing this in the pages of Tempi because I know you, the reader, will understand me better than most [Tempi is conservative and Catholic].  I am afraid that they will try to eliminate this person.

And I think not just morally but also physically.  No one has ever dared to say the things that he has said.  And not only are the wicked against him but now even [...] those who are considered good and decent are against him.

This man's name is Joseph Ratzinger.  [...] I invite you to consider him for a moment devoid of his white vestment, of his pontifical authority and of the solemn air of the Vatican.  Today he is defenseless and abandoned by everyone.  They are counting his bones.  He is truly the 'Alter Christus', the [poor] servant about whom the Gospel speaks, the one prophesized by Isaiah.

Sadly I must say that there are bishops who are now openly defying the Pope (regarding the Motu Proprio restoring the Tridentine Mass) together with many priests and this is a real shock for the faithful here in Italy.  It is one thing to experience defiant priests in the USA, it is altogether another thing to see this happening right at the Holy Father's table, to witness this disobedience here is to see the Pope humiliated by his most cherished sons — and in public.

I've seen a lot since living over here, and as a Catholic and as an American I've had to re-think many things.  I would wholeheartedly subscribe to your premise of America being like a "chosen" country.

The refrain from "America the Beautiful" comes to mind, "America, America, God shed his grace on thee."  He did indeed, but clearly so that America might embody God's grace and be grace for all the suffering world: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…." God surely inscribed these words on our very hearts — as our holy calling.  As for our participation in war and specifically in the war over here in Europe, America really was the hand of a merciful God.  You have to see it from over here, and hear the stories of the people who remember everything as if it were yesterday.  There've been lots of documentaries and plenty of war films, but all together they don't tell even half the story.  Now, saying this, I don't mean to exonerate the many times we fell short of behaving like a chosen country.

But yes, I would say that we are a chosen country — perhaps much like the Roman Empire was a chosen country at the time of Israel's subjugation.  Did Rome have any idea that it had been chosen for such a divine purpose and that it would have such a holy vocation afterwards and for all times? In any event I think this sense of being chosen should produce in us more humility and healthy fear more than pride.  If we are to glory in our "chosen-ness", then let us be sure that it means to glory in the Cross.

A chosen country or a chosen people never has an easy lot (the Jews have everything to teach us in this respect).  And that reminds me of something St.  Paul says (and so appropriately in Hebrews!  — 12:5), "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

But then there is Mary!  And she is the soothing balm on the wounds of God's discipline.  This too, I think it can be said, is the purpose of so many apparitions — in those other chosen nations. For not only Italy but all of Europe was chosen.  And this has been made manifestly clear considering the amazing number of heavenly interventions through so many apparitions not only of the Blessed Virgin but of Jesus himself, and of so many saints and angels that they cannot be counted.  And then what we often fail to consider is that wherever Jesus is, wherever there is his supreme holiness, there is also Satan, the enemy of God, the enemy of the Son, the enemy of Christ the Church.

Logically, Satan has always concentrated his efforts around the Pope, and in and throughout the Vatican and therefore throughout Italy, and thus throughout Europe.  Europe is Satan's chief battle ground and he has always been mercilessly assiduous in his attention and torments — and especially in the last century.  I find it so interesting to consider how the 12 (original) countries of the European Union could perfectly represent the 12 apostles huddled all about the tiny state of Vatican City, our Church! our Lord!  And I think it might be of interest to spend a word here on the origin of the present-day European flag.  Forgive me if you know the story already but not even many Europeans know it and so it is natural for me to think that it could not be known in America.  A Europe-wide contest was held for the design of a flag to represent the newly established European Union (I don't remember the year but it was shortly after the war).  101 designs arrived from around the world.  And it is worthy of note that the commission jury chief was Jewish and so the choice of the final design did not hinge on Catholic factors.

The winning design was the flag as it is known today: twelve stars in a circle on a blue field, which originally was a lighter blue.  The design had been created by one who was devoted to the Blessed Virgin and who happened to be reading the story of the Miraculous Medal at the time the contest was announced.  The idea for the twelve stars in a circle came straight from the Blessed Virgin as she appears on the Miraculous Medal and the blue of the field was the blue associated with Mary.  Naturally, this was revealed only long after the contest had been concluded.  And a strange thing about this story is that a question came up about the number of stars because it was pointed out that as the Union would grow more stars would have to be added.  Instead the commission decided that no new stars would be added to the flag and that the number twelve would remain like a symbol which in the Jewish and Christian faith indicates perfection and of wisdom (the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles, etc.).

Then last but not least, there is this very curious coincidence: for purely bureaucratic reasons it happened that the date for making the flag official fell on a December 8th, feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Getting back to World War II, I feel it must be looked at from the point of view of our Catholic faith in order to understand it correctly (as much as possible) — and in order for us Catholic Americans to be more conscientious about our responsibilities and duties within the Church and before God — and you are so right to consider the events of the war bearing in mind all that transpired at Fatima.  You might be also interested then to consider the apparition in Rome to a certain Bruno Cornacchiola who was on his way to kill Pope Pius XII when he was met instead by the Holy Virgin.  Just to read that man's story before the apparition is a quick study of the evil which persecutes the Church in Europe and within her very walls.  In the event you may have some scruples about it, I wish to point out that the Church recognizes this apparition which, however, has never received official status and only on account of a bureaucratic problem: it is the Bishop of the diocese who must first give his approval before it can come before the Pope — and the problem is that the bishop of Rome is the Pope.  Well, it is a problem that has gotten resolved in typical ecclesial fashion: the Church has never said anything against it.  And then it has had many 'guardian angels' among the Vatican prelates… and Popes. [The story of the apparition is found here, but you must scroll very far down the page to locate it. The date of the post is June 15, 2006.]

In any event, throughout the whole story of WWII there are more coincidences than you can shake a stick at.  And a whole other reality comes forward in a picture that is more stupefyingly beautiful and frightening than all the natural and man-made wonders of the world put together.  But it doesn't end there: it's like pulling a thread which you think is only an inch or two long and then to your dismay you see the whole hem coming undone the more you pull.  If you don't have much time though, don't pull too much on the thread otherwise you'll find yourself all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Then before finally brining this to an end — with my apologies for the length of it–I thought you might appreciate this notice from the daily newspaper feature "The Saint of the Day" which appeared on July 8th in the newspaper, il Giornale.

Today is the feast day of the Blessed Virgin of Kazan, Patroness of all Russia.  Her icon was regarded as miraculous especially for blind people which, once healed, would make a gift of emeralds to the Blessed Virgin.

In fact, the 'oklad' (the gold and silver plate which covered the surface of the icon leaving only the faces of the Virgin and Jesus exposed) was paved with these precious gems.  It was discovered in 1579, the year in which a terrible fire destroyed the city of Kazan.  The Madonna appeared several times to a ten year old girl indicating the place where the sacred image had gotten lost in the fire.  Thus the icon was found underneath the rubble of a burned-down house, and since then it became the very symbol of Russia itself; and the victory over the Swedes and even more so, the victory over Napoleon was attributed to this Virgin's intercession.  In 1917, the last official act of Tsar Nicolas II was to consecrate the entire Russian Empire to the Holy Mother of Kazan.  But it was too late.  A few days later he was arrested together with the rest of his family and was brutally murdered on orders of Trotsky.  The icon itself got swallowed up in the Bolshevik revolution, but re-emerged, without its precious 'oklad' in 1965 at an antique dealer's shop in New York City.  The Russians in exile were able to scrape together the immense sum of its sale price and so purchased it.  It was kept in a bomb-proof shelter in Fatima, Portugal (on account of the prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima regarding Russia).

Pope John Paul II collected the icon in Fatima during one of his visits there, and after the fall of the Soviet regime, in the year 2004, Pope John Paul restored the icon to Russia.  On August 28th of that year, Orthodox feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Vergine (the Assumption), in a great and solemn ceremony, the Patriarch, Alexis II was presented with the holy icon.  It was placed in the restored Cathedral of the Dormition (Assumption) at the Kremlin.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas!

Catherine W.  Zeppa Di Matteo

PS.  and one last thing — the homily of Cardinal Ivan Diaz which he gave at Lourdes on Saturday Dec.  8th during the Mass celebrating the beginning of the Jubilee Year commemorating the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes.

This comes from L'Osservatore Romano – 11 December 2007:

"The Marian Apparitions: Saving Man from Sin"

The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes, as in other marian apparitions, "are about the perpetual battle [...] between the forces of good and the forces of evil, which began at the beginning of the story of mankind and will proceed until the end".

This is what Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of Propaganda Fidei, said during the homily of the Mass celebrated last Saturday (Dec.  8th) at Lourdes. [He] was there as the Papal envoy inaugurating the Jubilee Year marking the150th anniversary of the apparitions.  With still greater emphasis the Cardinal added, "this battle is even more fierce today than in Bernadette's time.  The world today is terribly entangled in the spiral of relativism which wants to create a world without God; of a relativism which erodes the permanent and immutable values of the Gospel; and of a [pervasive] religious indifference which remains unmoved before the greatly superior things of God and the Church." And again: "This battle is taking innumerable victims within our families and among our young people." The Cardinal then recalled what Cardinal Wojtyla said just a few months before becoming Pope: "We are facing today the greatest battle that humanity has ever confronted.  I think the Christian community has not fully understood this yet.  We are facing today the final battle between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel." These are words, said Cardinal Dias, which thirty years later resound prophetically, and which in any event were first pronounced years earlier in Marian apparitions: "Together with the spiritual ruin of certain countries, there will be a weakening of the faith, difficulties within the Church and an increase in the activity of the anti-Christ with his attempts to replace God in the lives of men." But precisely for this reason, added the Cardinal, "A Mother descended from Heaven, worried for her children who live immersed in sin and far from Christ."

In the great underground basilica of St. Pius X are thousands of attentive pilgrims who have travelled from countries all over the world to be in Lourdes for the solemn occasion of the opening celebration of the anniversary of "those apparitions — warned Dias — which are precisely a Marian incursion in the history of the world, and which mark the decisive entrance of the Virgin into the thick of battle between her and Satan as described in Genesis and in the Apocalypse." For this reason the Cardinal invited the faithful to not let down their guard, "at Lourdes as in the rest of the world.  The Madonna is weaving a net with those who are devoted to her and who are her spiritual children which will be launched in a strong offensive against the forces of the Evil One and so prepare the final victory of her divine Son, Jesus Christ".  Thus she, "calls us this very day to enter her legions and so fight the forces of evil." The weapons to use are "the [continuing] conversion of our hearts, a great devotion towards the holy Eucharist, the daily recitation of the Rosary, constant prayer without hypocrisy and the acceptance [and offering of our personal] suffering for the salvation of the world".

"The final victory" — concluded Cardinal Dias in his homily – "will be God's.  And Mary will fight at the head of the army of her children against the enemy forces of Satan, crushing the head of the serpent." At the end of the celebration of the Mass, Cardinal Dias guided the long procession which, entering the Sanctuary from the gate of St.  Michel, physically marked the beginning of the Jubilee Year of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.

Example: today's "Does Marriage Have a Future?" by Terry Mattingly. He is listed on the bottom of his editorial as an "Orthodox Christian."

Just a few months ago, I read an editorial about youth pastors, written by a Protestant. What kind of Catholic site asks Protestants to help Catholics become more Catholic?! This is a serious question and I would like a serious answer, please.

Jennifer Sikora

Dear Ms. Sikora,

Thank you for expressing your concern so forthrightly. We at CE understand that Catholics are looking for trustworthy internet content and we want to keep your confidence. Every couple of months some reader will ask why we use non-Catholic writers, so I am happy to address that with you.

 I suppose it would be logical to limit our editorial material to only Catholic writers. But would that be wise? Would it serve our readers well? And most importantly, as you mentioned, would that be the bet way to help our fellow Catholics to be good Catholics?

The goal of this website is to assist in the new evangelization by heeding the call of the Vatican to permeate the culture and media with the Gospel. This is why our tagline is: Your Life. Your Faith. Your World.

Terry Mattingly, to use your example, helps Catholics understand what is going on around the country when it comes to religion. Although he is an Orthodox Christian, his column is carried in a number of secular papers. We think that we lay Catholics can be better at spreading the Gospel to our neighbors and co-workers if we know something about what is going on in the world around us and especially with regard to religious matters.

Orthodox Christians are certainly not Protestants; they are members of apostolic churches. However we do use some Protestant columnists. They are not writing on Catholic theology, nor are they writing anything contrary to Church teaching. We feature them when we think they have something of interest and value to share with our readers.

God bless you,

Mrs. Mary Kochan
Senior Editor
CatholicExchange.com

I am a recent graduate of Belmont Abbey College, and currently a resident of Charleston, SC. I am writing to thank Catholic Exchange for posting the article "‘Investing in Peace' with Cluster Bombs" by Fr. Richard Vandewater.

It is far too seldom that Americans, especially Catholics, hear about the suffering of their brothers in the Faith in the Holy Land. The vast majority of churchmen, politicians and news media outlets openly endorse what amounts to a blind support for the State of Israel at any cost. This in turn results in the unfounded notion that somehow the unlimited financial support of this political entity is a moral obligation that binds all Christians.

I hope that Fr. Vandewater's article is the beginning of a shift of allegiance from the State of Israel to the Christians suffering at the hands of Israel and Arab countries alike. This is an important message for American Catholics, and all Americans for that matter.

I thank Catholic Exchange again for posting the article, and let us continue to pray for peace in the Holy Land, the true peace which comes from Christ alone.

In Christ,
Renaurd West

Dear Mr. West,

Thank you for writing. We are increasingly concerned about the suffering of our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and are looking for strong material such as that submitted by Fr. Vandewater to increase awareness of the issue.

CE does not have a position regarding the political aspects of the US relationship with Israel or other countries in the Middle East. We are however, actively seeking to make available to our readers a spectrum of views on the subject and we are glad that our readers are responding favorably to the presentation of varied perspectives.

We appreciate your feedback and support and we add our voices to yours in calling on all Catholics to be mindful of and to pray for our suffering brethren in that troubled area of the world.

God bless you,
The Editors of Catholic Exchange

Dear Catholic Exchange,

"In Hell, people have lost the use of the intellect as much as all the other gifts God gave them" ("Eternal Life!", Words of Encouragement, May 25).

Thank you for reminding me of God the Father. I am easily so self absorbed, distracted, and insensitive to the gifts I have (and have squandered in the last 50 odd years) that I compartmentalize and diminish Life Eternal with the Father at best into "religion." So easily I assume salvation in my stupor rather than working or living it out in "fear and trembling." Life is so short, and yet this conversion is what it's all about.

Terry

Terry,

Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad to hear that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in your life!

Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
CatholicExchange.com