Morning Catholic must-reads
Pope Benedict XVI touched on sex education, marriage preparation and child abuse in his address to the Pontifical Council for the Family yesterday (full text).
Irish bishops have promised victims of abuse that they will personally deliver a letter from them to the Pope.
Der Spiegel presents an in-depth investigation of the growing German priestly abuse scandal.
Cardinal Walter Kasper has floated the idea of an “ecumenical catechism” at a gathering of Christian leaders in Rome.
The General Synod of the Church of England is driving Anglo-Catholics to the brink once again, says Andrew Brown, as clergy predict a mass exodus over women bishops.
A Ugandan bishop has urged Catholics not to join the breakaway Catholic Apostolic National Church.
A pioneering priest blogger in Korea says he is heartened by the Pope’s World Communications Day message endorsing blogging.
London Christians are preparing to mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
A replica of the Turin Shroud has gone on display in a parish church in Leeds.
An Evangelical says that Pope John Paul II’s self-mortification holds a lesson for all Christians.
And elephants are apparently exacting revenge on the persecutors of Christians in India.
Morning Catholic must-reads
The Equality Bill continues to provoke debate. Martin Salter MP has apologised for calling the Pope “a bloke in a dress”. E Jane Dickson says that if she were the Pope, she wouldn’t quote Aristotle. Jonathan Chaplin, Jonathan Oliver and Peter Hitchens defend the Pontiff. And the Christian Science Monitor offers an interesting summary of the debate from across the pond.
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has implied that Anglicans accepting the Pope’s offer will not be “truly converted Roman Catholics”.
Church of Scotland ministers are not happy with Pope Benedict’s address to the Scottish bishops.
Jeff Israely of Time says Pope Benedict XVI will bring a tough message to Britain in September.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the SSPX, has said that reaching agreement with the Holy See is not possible “in human terms”.
German Mariologist Manfred Hauke suggests that the alleged messages of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje “contain elements that speak clearly against a supernatural origin of the phenomenon”.
Catholic business executives have honoured the pro-life work of George W Bush, to the irritation of John Gehring of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
The Brazilian landowner accused of ordering the murder of American nun Dorothy Stang is back in jail.
Two American street preachers have been shot and killed by a teenager who apparently opposed their message.
Fr Mauro Gagliardi’s commentary on the Lectionary and Liturgy of the Word in the two forms of the Roman Rite is now available in English.
The official website of the Newman Cause hails the decision of the Bishops of England and Wales to end their ad limina visit with Mass in the church where John Henry Newman was ordained a Catholic priest.
John Allen awards Cardinal George Pell the title of number one “rumour magnet” in the Catholic Church and defends the use of the term “Taliban Catholicism” (to the consternation of Jimmy Akin).
Max Hastings says legalised assisted suicide would be “a path to barbarity“.
On the Commonweal website, Eric Bugyis suggests that calls for “civility” are just a way of closing down debate.
And an atheist preacher has been allowed to stay in office after a court ruled that his views did not differ fundamentally from those of liberal theologians in the Protestant Church of the Netherlands.
Morning Catholic must-reads
Rocco Palmo reports on a growing clerical backlash against Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, sees a “crisis” among religious orders today.
The Vatican is preparing a new document on lay brothers.
Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, a former Anglo-Catholic, assesses the Pope’s outreach to Anglicans (Christian Campbell responds).
Vatican Cardinal Paul Cordes offers a guide to the Pope’s Lenten message (full text of message here).
Pope Benedict has given his blessing to participants in this year’s
Winter Olympics.
The Pontifical Sistine Choir is looking for new singers.
No Hidden Magenta considers the impact of a “bioethics bombshell“.
CNN profiles a Mexican priest on the front line in the drug wars in Ciudad Juarez.
Catholics at Catholic colleges less likely to stray from the Church, a study has found.
Tom Hoopes says recent deaths have left a “Catholic greatness void”.
Blogger Paulinus unveils a cunning plan to thwart the National Secular Society.
Fr Dwight Longenecker has an epiphany while celebrating Mass.
Fr James Martin SJ reveals that he has a knack for guessing Oscar winners.
Michael Sean Winters is revolted by the National Prayer Breakfast.
And Cranmer imagines what an American pope might look like.
Morning Catholic must-reads
The Scottish bishops have arrived in Rome for their ad limina visit (and more photos of the English and Welsh bishops’ ad limina visit have gone online).
The Pope urged priests to hit the books at his general audience yesterday (video here).
He has also encouraged a lay-led pontifical foundation to promote Islamic and Arabic studies.
John Smeaton of SPUC urges the Bishops of England and Wales to repudiate their own Diversity and Equality Guidelines.
Philip Booth of the Institute of Economic Affairs says the Church should shift the focus from “rights” to “freedom”.
The blogger Cranmer says “one must thank God that the King of the Vatican is prepared to ‘interfere’” in British politics.
Angela Mason, the commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, disagrees.
Lisa Fullam of Commonweal takes issue with Pope Benedict’s comments about dissent.
The BBC’s director-general has discussed coverage of Pope’s visit at the Vatican amid criticism from senior clergy.
A British GP who sent her daughter to Spain for an abortion at 31 weeks has been struck off the medical register.
Boston archdiocese has launched a new website to promote Confession this Lent.
Proceedings against the Canadian bishop on child porn charges will continue in April.
A court in Hong Kong has dismissed a challenge to an education bill which the Church fears will undermine the Catholic school system.
Eric Sammons offers a guide to the 23 sui juris churches that make up the Catholic Church.
Son Rise Morning Show alerts us to a film about priests that we’ll want to miss.
Catholic.net is sponsoring a contest, awarding a free trip to Rome or the Holy Land to a lucky priest.
And Opinionated Catholics wonders if a future pope will have to rule on the morality of using robots on the battlefield.
What kind of Christian is your smartphone?
A short while ago on Twitter, I mentioned that our office was discussing whether the iPhone is Catholic and the BlackBerry Protestant. It generated an impressive debate (search for @lukecoppen here to see it) . A consensus seems to be emerging:
The Windows Mobile is Protestant:
The BlackBerry is Anglo-Catholic:
The iPhone is Catholic:
And the iPad (though it’s not actually a smartphone) is Orthodox:
Today’s Catholic must-reads
The Pope’s comments on Britain’s equality laws have inspired a deluge of comment from Jonathan Sacks, Andrew Pierce, Brendan O’Neill, Christopher Howse, Frances Gibb, David Blackburn, the Guardian, Catherine Pepinster, Martin Salter and Simon Jenkins.
In other news, Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, has had a private audience with the Pope to discuss the September visit to Britain and given a speech at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
Business schools are hiring monks to teach morality to students.
Ann Widdecombe MP has urged Britons to abide by the Ten Commandments.
Heavy sedation of patients prevents them from having “good death”, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has said.
The new Russian Orthodox Patriarch has said he and Pope Benedict agree on many contemporary issues, Interfax reports.
And Catholic Coffee Drinkers blog highlights the rise of Christian cage-fighting.
Morning Catholic must-reads
Andrew Brown says Pope Benedict’s speech to the English and Welsh bishops yesterday “raised every residual Protestant hackle in the country” (Pope’s full address here, Archbishop Nichols’s address here, Fr Z’s fisk of Pope’s speech here, ad limina photos here, video report here).
More than 800 people have signed a petition to “Make the Pope Pay” for his visit to Britain.
The new English translation of the Mass is likely to be introduced in parishes in Advent 2011.
Pope Benedict’s full address to the Roman Rota is finally available in English.
The Catholic bishops of France have said that a ban on full face veils will lead to more persecution of Christians in Muslim countries.
Jesus broke “all PR rules”, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has said during his visit to America.
John Allen ponders two new documents that add to the debate about Pius XII’s wartime actions.
The hard-working NCR reporter also analyses the Italian bishops’ liberal stance on immigration.
And Commonweal talks to Diana Fritz Cates about St Thomas Aquinas and the emotions.
Morning Catholic must-reads
Love is “the badge of the Christian“, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Angelus address yesterday (video here).
The Pope also called on businesses around the world to stem the flow of job losses.
SSPX members have attacked an FSSP church in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Bishop Richard Williamson is continuing to deny the Holocaust.
The reconstruction of Haiti needs to be based on human rights and the principle of subsidiarity, the Holy See’s representative at the UN has said.
The Catholic News Service now has a reporter on the ground in Haiti who will be filing reports all this week.
A Catholic woman is refusing to pay her licence fee over the BBC’s support for abortion.
Almost three quarters of British people support assisted suicide for the terminally ill, according to a BBC poll.
Quality not quantity is the key to Catholic education, Cardinal Seán Brady has told Vatican Radio (audio).
Fr Richard Duffield of the Birmingham Oratory has met Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston to discuss Newman’s Cause.
Susan Boyle says she is dreaming of singing for the Pope when he visits Scotland on the first leg of his visit to Britain in September.
The Knights of Columbus are delivering 100,000 prayer books to US armed services personnel.
No Hidden Magenta wonders if Peter Singer and the Catholic Church can end global poverty together.
Fr Dwight Longenecker “shoots at his hunting buddies” with a critique of traditionalism.
And Father Z considers whether to buy the National Catholic Reporter.
Morning Catholic must-reads
Pope Benedict dedicated his general audience to St Francis of Assisi yesterday (full text here, video here).
The second part of Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth is likely to be the Pope’s last book.
Jeffrey Tucker says Apple’s new iPad could be a boon to sacred music.
And more than 5,000 priests have gathered in the Philippines to mark the Year for Priests.
