In Some Parts of Russia, Classes on Orthodoxy Mandatory

From Asia News Italy:

The teaching of the Orthodox religion has now become mandatory in the high
schools of four provinces of what once was the atheist Soviet state. In July
Moscow’s Spiritual Academy approved “Basics of Orthodox Culture”, a course soon
to be taught in the provinces of Belgorod, Kaluga, Brjansk and Smolensk. By
2010, the Moscow Patriarchate should have trained some 10,000 religious
teachers. In 11 other provinces, religion will be taught but won’t be
mandatory.
These developments reflect the Russian Orthodox Church’s plan to have
religion taught across the country. By contrast, government officials are
planning a more general course on the “History of World Religions” so as to not
offend the country’s religious minorities.
Aleksij II, patriarch of Moscow
and All Russia, is convinced that “pupils should know the history of their
culture, and this is the goal of ‘Basics of Orthodox Culture’.” He also believes
that this is true for other religions as well.

German Theologian Shares Insights into Pope's Student Gatherings

From Reuters:

But Father Stephan Horn, a German theologian organizing the pope's meeting with 39 former students, said that reflected a misunderstanding of how the so-called "student circle" works and what the Catholic Church teaches about evolution.

"We've never drawn any conclusions in our student circle," he told Reuters by telephone from Rome. "This is an open exchange of ideas that does not aim for a conclusion.

"It has nothing to do with creationism," he added, referring to a fundamentalist Protestant view that God created the world in six days as described in the Book of Genesis. "Catholic theology does not endorse creationist views."

Gas Prices Expected to be Close to $2 by Election Day

This isn't the USA Today headline...they say by "Thanksgiving", but being the cynic that I am, I told a someone at work at the beginning of the Summer when gas was well over $3 a gallon that don't worry it'll be below $2 by election day...and now lo and behold its in the news...

From USA Today:

Gasoline prices are falling fast and could keep dropping for months.
"The only place they have to go is down," says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). "We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving."

Travel organization AAA foresees prices 10 cents a gallon lower by the end of next week. It reported a nationwide average of $2.84 Tuesday, the lowest since April 20.

Now here are a few questions:

Has the unrest in the Middle East ended?
Is Iraq no longer a threat?
Oil pipeline in Alaska fixed?
Threat of Hurricanes in the Gulf over?
People no longer driving?

Of course the answer to all is no...if anything the news in the Middle East gets worst by the day.

The Mighty Marlins

Given that I am one of only twelve loyal Florida Marlin fans and that the hijinx of Jeffrey Loria this year just about caused me to cave in--having barely survived the similar stunt by original owner trash mogul Wayne H. (I've hated the Dolphins ever since he bought them)--this is the team that no matter who owns them, no matter how lousy the fan support, or lack of stadium, or selling off the team--you just can't kill them.

They truly are the "mighty Marlins" like the fish that nearly killed the old man in The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway--how about the convergence of "Ernesto" losing steam over Cuba (think Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea) and the rise of the Marlins to just 1 1/5 games out of the wild card lead?

Two World Series crowns, while one team in this neck of the woods has gone over a 100 years and is still blaming some poor guy for going after a foul ball as the goat who caused thier team to lose to the Mighty Marlins--wake up folks!

New Program of Priestly Formation Released

The document is here.

From Catholic Online:

The new version, reflecting the bishops' recent response to the scandal of clergy sexual abuse of minors, says explicitly for the first time that no
seminary applicant is to be accepted if he has been involved in sexual abuse of
minors.

It also incorporates stricter norms, adopted by the bishops in 1999, on
evaluating an application for seminary admission from someone who previously
left or was dismissed from a seminary or a formation program for religious life.

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

From the Office of Readings (St. Bede):

As forerunner of our Lord’s birth, preaching and death, the blessed John showed in his struggle a goodness worthy of the sight of heaven. In the words of Scripture: Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality. We justly commemorate the day of his birth with a joyful celebration, a day which he himself made festive for us through his suffering and which he adorned with the crimson splendour of his own blood. We do rightly revere his memory with joyful hearts, for he stamped with the seal of martyrdom the testimony which he delivered on behalf of our Lord.

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: I am the truth? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.

Pius XII Attempted Long Distant Exorcism of Hitler

According to Vatican Exorcist, from Mosnews.com:

Secret Vatican documents recently released say that wartime pontiff Pope Pius XII attempted a “long distance” exorcism of Hitler which failed to have any effect. “It’s very rare that praying and attempting to carry out an exorcism from distance works. Of course you can pray for someone from a distance but in this case it would not have any effect,” Father Amorth said.

The Vatican’s chief exorcist claims that one of the key requirements for an exorcism is to be present in front of the possessed person and that person also has to be consenting and willing. “Therefore trying to carry out an exorcism on someone who is not present, or consenting and willing would prove very difficult,” he said.

Mepkin Abbot Dies

I met him once and spoke to him briefly, interestingly not in South Carolina but California at the LA Congress in Anaheim a few years ago.

From The State:

The Rev. Francis Kline, the abbot of Mepkin Abbey and an influencial
spiritual force in the life of South Carolina, died Sunday after a three-year
battle with cancer. He was 57.
A Juilliard-trained organist, Father Francis was the longtime leader of the Trappist monastic community founded on the Cooper River at Moncks Corner in 1949. But the cerebral, soft-spoken monk was much more to those who claimed him as wise counselor and reverent friend.
“He was someone that just had a remarkable level of personal grace in the way he handled himself,” Gov. Mark Sanford said. “He was able to have this incredibly deep well of spirituality and the ability to look deeply at ideas of faith, and then this
ability to care what was happening in the world around him.”

Founder of the Community of St. John Dies

Remained a Dominican even after he founded a flourishing order that is truly one of the bright spots in the New Springtime of the Church. Very holy man, and allowing for the judgment of the Church, no doubt a future saint.

From the Community of St. John:

Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, o.p., founder of the Community of Saint
John, died peacefully on Saturday morning August 26, 2006, at the priory of
Saint Jodard (France). He was being taken care of there since his stroke on July
20. He was going to be 94 years old on September 8.Until the funeral day, the
brothers and sisters keep vigil around him in the brother's chapel in Saint
Jodard. The vigil is opened to all who wish to participate.The funeral mass will
be celebrated on Saturday September 2 at 10:30 am at the Cathedral of Lyons. It
will be presided by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyons.In the
afternoon, Father Marie-Dominique will be buried in the cimetery of Rimont, in
the intimacy of the Family of Saint John (brothers, sisters and oblates).In
thanksgiving for all they have received through him, the memebrs of the Family
of Saint John entrust him to the prayer of all.

Feast of St. Augustine--Fr. Groeschel's Comments

From Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Site:

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Augustine. Ordinarily, yesterday, the 27th, we would have celebrated the feast of his mother, Saint Monica (she got
eclipsed by the Sunday this year). Both of these days are of very special
importance to me because my own thinking in life has been very much shaped by
Saint Augustine and his great writings. When I was a seminarian long ago I used
to spend an hour every afternoon reading Saint Augustine and other fathers of
the church. As some of you know, I wrote a book called Augustine: The Confessions & the City of God (Crossroad Spiritual Legacy Series) , which is a popular introduction to Saint Augustine for people who are not philosophers or theologians.
When I try to analyze why this great man appeals so much to me, I realize it is because in many respects he thinks like a modern person. He is the holy psychologist. Without knowing what the word psychologist meant, I started to read him when I was fourteen years old and recognized that he was talking about things that I had experienced. His great line, “You have made us for yourself, Oh God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” is still today tremendously
meaningful to me in life.
Most laypeople are unaware of it, but the thinking of Pope Benedict XVI is very much rooted in Saint Augustine and his great disciple, Saint Bonaventure. If you want to understand Pope Benedict XVI, you need to be familiar with the ideas of Saint Augustine and particularly his conviction of the importance of religious experience in order for us to believe and grow in the Christian life. That’s putting it in a nutshell.
Another interesting thing for all of us Franciscans and our friends is that the first
friars and Saint Francis would have been familiar with Saint Augustine. In
western Christianity during the end of the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, Saint
Augustine was the preeminent theologian. Such figures as Saint Thomas Aquinas,
who was so important in the second part of the Middle Ages, had not been born
yet. When Saint Francis went to church on Sunday, the preaching he heard was
based very much on Saint Augustine; so, the ideas of Saint Augustine are very
much reflected in the writings and life of Saint Francis.
You may find it very helpful to get to know this man. If you are not familiar with him, my little book introducing him might be very helpful to you. Along with Saint
Francis and Saint Clare, he has been a very important friend in my life.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR

Rumors: Arch. Myers to Detroit?

From The Star Ledger:

Once Pope Benedict returns to Vatican City from a trip to his native Germany next month, he faces important decisions that will affect millions of Catholics: how to fill archbishop vacancies in Detroit and Baltimore, where archbishops traditionally become cardinals.

New Jersey's Catholics have good reason to follow his decisions: Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, the highest-ranked Catholic clergyman in the state since 2001, is rumored to be the favorite for Detroit's opening.

Microwaved Image of Mary on Cell Phone

In Florida, available on e-bay?

From the Gainesville Sun:

Jan Zuccarell sees the image burned on the screen of the cell phone as a sign from God.
Her son, Ben Zuccarell, sees the image as a cash cow, and wants to sell the phone on eBay.
Whatever its significance, mother and child agree that the plastic bubble on the cell phone screen looks just like the Virgin Mary, and say they want to share it with the world.
"It'll give you goosebumps," said Ben Zuccarell, 45. "No. It'll give your goosebumps goosebumps."
Earlier this week Jan's great-granddaughter and Ben's grand-niece, Rachel Casiano, who's almost 2, somehow managed to place her mother's cell phone - along with her own sneakers - into the family's microwave and press "start."

Warning! Do not try this with your phone...

Latest Stem Cell Research Still at Odds with Church Teaching

From Deseretnews.com:

A Vatican official on Saturday criticized a new method of making stem cells that does not require the destruction of embryos, calling it a "manipulation" that did not address the church's ethical concerns.
Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, the Vatican's top official on bioethical questions, said in an interview with Vatican Radio that the method of making stem cells devised by scientists at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Alameda, Calif., remains an in-vitro form of reproduction, which the church opposes.
"That, from a point of view that is not only Catholic, but from a point of view of bioethic reasons, is a negative factor," said Sgreccia, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life.
Church teaching holds that in-vitro fertilization is morally wrong because it replaces the conjugal union between husband and wife and often results in the destruction of embryos. Artificial insemination for married couples is allowable if it "facilitates" the sex act but does not replace it. The church condemns all forms of experimentation on human embryos.

Pope Focuses on SS. Augustine and Monica

Monica's feast is today, Augustine's is tomorrow.

From Asia News Italy:

The pope presented Monica, a Christian from Tagaste (modern-day Tunisia), who, after the death of her husband, “dedicated herself, with courage, to the care of her three sons, including Augustine who initially caused her to suffer because of his somewhat rebellious temperament. As Augustine himself would say, his mother delivered him twice; the second time called for a long spiritual labour, made of prayer and tears but finally crowned with the joy of seeing him entirely in the service of Christ.” The comparison with current reality is clear: “How many difficulties there are today too in family ties, and how many mothers are anguished because their sons take wrong roads! Monica, a wise woman and firm in her faith, invites them not to get discouraged but to persevere in their mission as spouses and mothers, keeping their faith in God firm and holding onto prayer with perseverance.” While Benedict XVI described these situations, the silence and tacit participation of many women in the public expressed their agreement.

But the life of St Augustine, who became bishop of Hippo after a chaotic youth, is also of comfort. “All his existence was an impassioned search for truth,” said the pope. “At the end, not without prolonged interior torment, he discovered in Christ the ultimate and full meaning of his own life and of the entire history of mankind. In his adolescence, drawn to earthly beauty, ‘he threw himself’ into it – as he himself admits (cfr Confess.10:27-38) – in an egotistical and possessive manner, with behaviour that caused his pious mother no mean sorrow. But by following a tiring path, also thanks to her prayers, Augustine increasingly opened up to the fullness of truth and love, to the point of his onversion, which took place in Milan under the guidance of the bishop, St Ambrose. He thus would remain as a model of the journey towards God, supreme Truth and greatest Good. ‘Late have I loved you,’ he wrote in his renowned book of Confessions, “O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!

And behold, you were within me and I was outside… You were with me, and I was not with you… You called, and cried out to me and broke open my deafness; you shone forth upon me and you scattered my blindness’ (ibid).May St Augustine obtain the gift of a sincere and profound encounter with Christ for all those youth who, thirsting for happiness, seek it by travelling down wrong roads and get lost in dead ends.”

“St Monica and St Augustine invite us to turn to Mary, seat of wisdom, with faith. To her, we entrust Christian parents who, like Monica, accompany by example and prayer their children’s journey. To the Virgin, Mother of God, we commend youth so that, like Augustine, they will lean ever more towards the fullness of Truth and Love that is Christ: He alone can quench the profound desires of the human heart.”

Hurricane Ernesto Threatens Gulf Coast of Florida

After Cuba...

Sun-Sentinel

Bishop in China Released from Prison

After ten years...from Monsters and Critics:

Bishop An Shuxin was freed on Friday but remains under police surveillance in his diocese of Baoding, in the northern province of Hebei, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.

An, 57, who was arrested in May 1996, has government permission to resume his religious work, the Stamford, Connecticut-based foundation which promotes the Roman Catholic Church in China, said.

Foundation president Joseph Kung welcomed the release as a 'good sign' but said six more bishops remain in Chinese prisons.

'All other underground bishops are under surveillance, or are under house arrest, or are hiding,' Kung said in the statement.

On Anniversary of Katrina, Ernesto Heads Toward Gulf

Could be strong Category 3 by Wednesday...

On a more trivial note, who even remembers that Katrina hit just north of Miami Beach, FL last year before it made its way toward Biloxi?

From Breitbart.com:

Max Mayfield, the National Hurricane Center director, said it was too early to say whether the storm would hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from last year's Hurricane Katrina.

"It's too early to pinpoint one specific location but I think message is, especially to the folks that are in temporary housing, these 115,000 families mostly in the FEMA trailers, they need to watch this carefully," Mayfield told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "We've got some time. We don't want people to get too excited about this, but they certainly need to be watching it."

Urban Meyer Joins Don Shula as Coach of Briscoe Hawks

Who knew...

Marlin Briscoe Hawks Homepage

Pope Makes Unannounced Pilgrimage

To Shrine, from Catholic World News:

The Holy Father made the unannounced trip on Tuesday afternoon, leaving his summer residence with small police escort and making the 10-mile trip by car to Nemi, where the Santissimo Crocifisso (Most Holy Cross) shrine is located.

The Pope was accompanied by his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, and a few members of his staff, the I Media news agency reports. After praying before the Blessed Sacrament, they joined the Mercedarian priests who administer the shrine for Vespers.

Later the Pope visited the Mercedarian monastery. His stay in Nemi was about two hours.

Catholicism--Now I Get It!

Great review in The Catholic Standard, here is a snippet:

“Catholicism: Now I Get It!” by Havertown native Claire Furia Smith, captures it all. From the maroon jumpers and knee socks of St. Louis school in Yeadon to religion class at Archbishop Carroll High School, this is the story of a girl’s journey from mythical Catholicism to the real thing.

“Everyone hears the same old myths,” Smith said. “That the Church is anti-science, and all these other simplistic mottos about our beliefs.”

A graduate of Yale with a master’s in journalism from Columbia, the 37-year-old Smith was raised Catholic but admits her practice of the faith was lacking.
“Even though I always went to church on Sundays, the rest of what I did was the bare minimum,” she said. “Prayer was something I did when someone got sick. I wasn’t fasting except what was required in Lent. It was the bare minimum. It was exactly what people make fun of Catholics for.”

It wasn’t until she reached young adulthood and was questioned about her beliefs by agnostic and non-denominational friends that she realized how little she understood Catholicism.