Soon-To-Be Bishop Ryan

 DALLAS, Texas, March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — After the local parish priest called the cops, a pregnant mother was threatened with a trespassing charge for attending Mass without wearing a mask.

In a recent interview, Deirdre Hairston told Catholic commentator Dr. Taylor Marshall that she had been at Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic church in Dallas with her husband and one-year-old baby when she was approached by the pastor, Fr. Milton Ryan. She said Ryan told her that if she didn’t put on a mask, he would call the police and have her arrested.

The pastor made good with his threat. After returning from Holy Communion with her baby in her arms, Hairston saw three police officers at the back of the church, where she and her husband had been socially distanced from the rest of the congregation. Having not yet consumed the Host, Hairston knelt down upon returning to her seat, only to be told at once to get up.

Hairston’s husband recorded a woman police officer saying to the young mother, “Ma’am, I’m going to put you in handcuffs if you don’t stand up.”

“Our own government is more lenient [about masks] at this point than our church,” Hairston told Taylor Marshall, “and that’s a problem.”

“You’re more likely to be treated with Christian charity and grace at a Taco Bell than you are at church, unfortunately.”

The young mother also said that Catholics need to “wake up” about the situation in their churches.

She said, “People need to wake up to realize that this is … the state of our church right here, right now, and we need to stand up. The church belongs to us; we are the laity. That priest — the church does not belong to him. We can’t allow these things to happen.”

OUT NAZI! I Wish This Guy Was a Catholic Bishop

 Seven police officers entered a Good Friday church service in Calgary, Alberta with the intent of shutting it down. Pastor Artur Pawlowski would not have it.

The officers stand masked and ready to enforce the closure of the 

worship service during the highest holy days on the Christian calendar.

In response to their entry, Pastor Artur Pawlowski says 

"Please get out, get out of this property immediately get out."

Pawlowski, pastor at evangelical church The Cave of Adullam, 

says again "Get out of this property immediately. Out! 

I don't want—out of this property immediately! I don't want to

 hear a word. Out! Out of this property immediately until you come 

back with a warrant."

Out! Immediately go out!" He says. "And don't come back.

I don't want to talk to you. Not another word. Out of this property."

"Gestapo is not allowed here!" He yells at the officers.

 "Immediately get out!" The officers continue to try to make their p

oint that the service needs to be shut down to comply with 

provincial health orders.

The officers move for the exit, while the lead officer continues to 

try to be heard.

Pastor Pawlowski says "The Gestapo is not allowed here!" 

The officers stand around the front entry way of the church.

Finally the officers consent to leave as Pawlowski shouts "Out, Nazi,"

 and they depart. "Nazis are not welcome here. Out. 

And don't come back without a warrant. Do not come back without a 

warrant, you understand that? You are not welcome here."

"Nazis are not welcome here. Gestapo is not welcome here. 

Do not come back, you Nazi psychopaths."

https://rumble.com/vfcqwx-out-immediately-pastor-shuts-down-attempt-to-end-church-service.html

I Wonder if Besides the Posting, They Pouted and Held Their Breath?

Footage widely shared on social media shows London police interrupting a Good Friday service at a Polish church in London and threatening Christians with fines unless they dispersed.

Metropolitan Police Service officers had interrupted Friday evening’s Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion service at Christ the King Polish Roman Catholic Church in Balham, Wandsworth, for being “unlawful” under current coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

In footage reported by Sky News, one officer, standing at the front of the church, is heard saying: “You are not allowed to meet inside with this many people under law.

“At this moment in time, you need to go home. Failure to comply with this direction to leave and go to your home address ultimately could lead you to be fined £200 or, if you fail to give you details, to being arrested.”

“It’s Good Friday and I appreciate you would like to worship, but it is unlawful,” the officer said.

Police in Wandsworth later confirmed they had investigated the place of worship in response to a “report” of people lining up outside the church.

“Officers attended and found a large number of people inside the church. Some people were not wearing masks and those present were clearly not socially distanced,” the police statement said.

How did the Church respond? They posted something on their website:

The church said all government requirements had been met during the service and criticised the police for having “brutally exceeded their powers by issuing their warrant for no good reason”.

In a statement on its website, the church said: “We were not allowed to finish the celebration. The policemen found our liturgical assembly illegal, ordering everyone to leave our Temple immediately on pain of a £200 fine for each parishioner present or even arrest. The faithful obeyed this order without objection.

“We believe, however, that the police brutally exceeded their powers by issuing their warrant for no good reason, as all government requirements were met.”

“We regret that the rights of the faithful have been wronged on such an important Day for every believer and that our worship had been profaned. We informed the superiors of the Polish Catholic Mission in England and Wales about this incident. We asked the police authorities to explain the incident, and we are waiting for their response,” church administrators said.

They added that all other scheduled Easter services would go ahead, and asked parishioners “to pray that such situations will not be repeated”.

A Bishop Who Has a Hard Time Defining "Sin"

 The recent Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, restating the Church’s teaching on the sinful nature of homosexual acts, and thus the impossibility of an ordained minister of the Church legitimately conferring a blessing upon the union of two homosexuals, should have evoked expressions of gratitude from all the bishops of the Church. Many face continuous pressure from various quarters to abandon the Church’s doctrine and practice concerning homosexuality. Instead, a number of bishops, primarily in Western Europe but also in America, have strongly criticized and indicated their disagreement, and even disgust, with the Responsum.

Bishop Bonny

Perhaps the most vehement public rejection was issued by the Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny. In the Flemish-language De Standaard (cited in English here and here) he wrote:

• “I feel ashamed for my Church. I mainly feel intellectual and moral incomprehension.”

• “I want to apologize to all for whom this is painful and incomprehensible.”

• “Intellectually, this does not even reach the level of high school. These kind[s] of arguments, the logic, you see right through it. These days, you don’t convince anyone that way.”

• “Sin is one of the most difficult theological and moral categories to define, and one of the last to pin on people and their way of living."

He'd Make a Decent Unitarian...He's Got the Logic Skills

 

Rome Newsroom, Mar 31, 2021 / 07:00 am MT (CNA).- A Catholic diocese in Italy has described a priest’s refusal to bless palms on Sunday because of the Vatican’s rejection of blessings for same-sex unions as “reprehensible.”

The Diocese of Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato said that the matter was being addressed according to Church norms.

Fr. Giulio Mignani, a priest in the north-western Italian diocese, made headlines after he refused to bless palm branches at a Palm Sunday Mass in protest of the Vatican’s document clarifying that the Catholic Church does not have the power to bless same-sex unions.

The document, a “responsum ad dubium,” was issued with Pope Francis’ approval by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on March 15. The CDF explained its reasoning in a note and accompanying commentary.

The 50-year-old Mignani, pastor of Santa Caterina Parish in Bonassola, said during his homily March 28, “if I can’t bless same-sex couples, then I won’t bless palms and olive branches either,” according to local newspaper La Nazione.

Open the Borders!

 Oaxaca, Mexico, Mar 8, 2021 / 11:41 am MT (CNA).- A group of feminists taking part in a women’s rights march in Oaxaca City on Sunday attacked Ss. Cosmas and Damian parish, as well as other buildings, both public and private.

As part of the protests organized in Mexico for International Women's Day, masked women armed with stout sticks broke open the outer doors of Ss. Cosmas and Damian March 7, smashed the windows of the inner doors, gained entry and stormed inside to tag the interior with graffiti, destroy glass cases, windows, pews, and a confessional.

A statue of Saint Jude was also destroyed, and one of the pews was damaged and thrown out onto the street.

As they passed through the city, they also damaged the Oaxaca Cathedral, the state Ministry of Health, and other private and public buildings.

According to the Mexican news agency Quadratín, the women were protesting commonplace sexual harassment, rapes, killings, and disappeared women, and called for "an end to femicide and transfemicide."

American Soon-to-Be Saint, Father Kapaun

 Denver Newsroom, Mar 5, 2021 / 05:27 pm MT (CNA).- Department of Defense investigators have identified the remains of U.S. Army chaplain and Servant of God Fr. Emil Kapaun among the unknown Korean War soldiers buried in a Hawaiian cemetery, much to the surprise and joy of the priest’s relatives and devotees in his home state of Kansas.

 

The priest had been a chaplain during the Second World War and became known for his service in the Korean War with the U.S. Army's Eighth Cavalry regiment. After he was taken prisoner, he served and ministered to other soldiers in a prison camp, where he died May 23, 1951.
 
The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has determined that the priest’s remains were among unidentified soldiers buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, the Wichita diocese said March 4. Many soldiers’ remains had been moved there from North Korea in the 1950s and again in the 1990s.

 In 1993, Kapaun was named a “Servant of God,” the first step on the way to being declared a saint. To be declared “venerable” is the second step in the canonization process. A key meeting regarding his case had been scheduled at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in March 2020, but that meeting was postponed due to the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in Italy.

Kapaun was born in Pilsen, Kansas in 1916. He came of age during the Great Depression. He was ordained a priest in 1940 and began ministry as a parish priest in his hometown.
 
During World War II Kapaun would offer the sacraments at the nearby Harrington Army Air Field until he became a full-time army chaplain in 1944. He was stationed in India and Burma for the duration of the war. There, he ministered to soldiers and served his unit with a selfless attitude.
 
He also gained a reputation for courage. After Kapaun’s jeep had been damaged, he would often ride his bicycle to meet soldiers even at the front lines. He would follow the sound of gunshots to find them.
 
After World War II ended, Kapaun studied history and education at the Catholic University of America. He returned home for a brief time as pastor of his boyhood parish and served at several other parishes. In 1948, the United States issued a call for military chaplains to return to service. Kapaun responded. He was then sent to Texas, Washington, and Japan before deployment to Korea.
 
During the Battle of Unsan in November 1950, Kapaun worked tirelessly to comfort the suffering and retrieve the wounded from the battlefield. One of the soldiers he retrieved was a wounded Chinese soldier, who helped him negotiate a surrender after he was surrounded by enemy troops. Kapaun was taken captive as a prisoner of war.
 
Even then, he helped others. Kapaun carried a wounded American prisoner who could not walk some 30 miles to a prison camp, though the soldier weighed 20 pounds more than the priest. The man could have been killed by enemy soldiers if he could not keep up with the march.
 
The priest was taken to prison camp number five in Pyoktong, a bombed-out village that served as a detainment center. The soldiers at the camp were severely mistreated and suffered from malnourishment, dysentery, and a lack of warm clothing to counter an extremely cold winter. Kapaun would do all he could for the soldiers. He would wash their soiled clothes, retrieve fresh water, and attend to their wounds.
 
The priest helped his fellow prisoners solve problems and keep up morale. He would stay up at night to write letters home on behalf of wounded soldiers. Many returned prisoners of war said his efforts helped them to survive in a harsh winter. For those who did not survive, the priest helped to bury their corpses.
 
Fr. Kapaun would celebrate the sacraments for his fellow prisoners, hear their confessions, and say Mass. On Easter Sunday 1951, about two months before his death, he held a sunrise service for prisoners.
 
When he developed pneumonia and a blood clot in his leg, the chaplain was denied medical treatment, which led to his death.
 
For his bravery at Unsan, Kapaun was posthumously bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor in a 2013 ceremony under President Barack Obama. The medal is the United States’ highest military award for bravery.

Typos Can Be Funny

 

Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic...What's the Difference?

 CNA Staff, Feb 26, 2021 / 04:00 am MT (CNA).- The president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference said on Thursday that he would continue to give Holy Communion to Protestants who ask for it.

Bishop Georg Bätzing told journalists at a press conference on Feb. 25 that it was necessary to respect the “personal decision of conscience” of those seeking to receive Communion.

Bishop Batzing

CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that Bätzing was responding to a question about a controversial proposal for a “Eucharistic meal fellowship” between Catholics and Protestants.

The proposal was made by the Ecumenical Study Group of Protestant and Catholic Theologians (known by its German initials, ÖAK) in a 2019 document entitled “Together at the Lord’s Table.”

OAK arrives for another meeting

The ÖAK adopted the text under the co-chairmanship of Bätzing and the retired Lutheran Bishop Martin Hein. 

Asked how he would respond if a Protestant came to him seeking the Eucharist, he told reporters: “I have no problems with it and I see myself in line with papal documents.”

The 59-year-old bishop added that this was already a “practice” in Germany “every Sunday” and that priests in his Diocese of Limburg would not face negative consequences if a case were reported to him.

He underlined that one should not “simply invite everyone.” But while a general invitation to receive the Eucharist was not permitted, he said it was important to show “respect for the personal decision of conscience of the individual” seeking Communion.

“I do not deny Holy Communion to a Protestant if he asks for it,” he said.

The ÖAK was established in 1946 to strengthen ecumenical ties. It is independent of both the German Catholic bishops’ conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), an organization representing 20 Protestant groups. But the ÖAK informs both bodies about its deliberations.

The ÖAK document raised concerns at the Vatican, prompting an intervention by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in September 2020.

In a four-page critique and letter to Bätzing, the doctrinal congregation emphasized that significant differences in understanding of the Eucharist and ministry remained between Protestants and Catholics.

“The doctrinal differences are still so important that they currently rule out reciprocal participation in the Lord’s Supper and the Eucharist,” it said.

“The document cannot therefore serve as a guide for an individual decision of conscience about approaching the Eucharist.” 

Devoted Catholic Joe Biden's SHHS Nominee

 Washington D.C., Feb 24, 2021 / 03:28 pm MT (CNA).- President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services declined at a hearing Wednesday to state if he would support any theoretical type of restriction on abortion. 

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) questioned California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Committee on Finance. Daines said he had “serious concerns” with Becerra’s “radical views” on abortion, and noted that many Montanans, as well as national pro-life groups, had voiced their opposition to their nomination.

In an effort to give Becerra a chance to “push back” against this view, Daines asked him if he could “name one abortion restriction that you might support.” 

“I have tried to make sure that I am abiding by the law, because whether it’s a particular restriction, or whether it’s the whole idea of abortion, whether we agree or not, we have to come to some conclusion,” said Becerra.

Washington D.C., Feb 24, 2021 / 02:24 pm MT (CNA).- On Wednesday, President Biden’s health secretary nominee explained his support of coercive contraceptive and abortion coverage mandates against Catholic nuns, claiming he had never “sued any nuns.”

“I have never sued any nuns. I have taken on the federal government, but I have never sued any affiliation of nuns,” said Xavier Becerra—currently California’s attorney general—before members of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, at his confirmation hearing to be the next health secretary.

While Becerra has not directly filed lawsuits against Catholic nuns in his time as California attorney general, two different orders of Catholic nuns have claimed religious freedom violations by government mandates that he supported in his official capacity.

In 2017, Becerra sued the Trump administration over its religious and moral exemptions granted to groups affected by the HHS contraceptive mandate. These objecting groups included the Little Sisters of the Poor, who fought the mandate for years in court.

Joe Biden is a "Devote Catholic". And I am the Queen of Romania

 President Biden signed an executive order Thursday afternoon reversing the Mexico City policy, permitting U.S. aid money once again to fund groups that provide or promote abortion around the globe.

The policy was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in an effort to ensure that taxpayers were not required to indirectly fund abortion procedures performed in other countries. The policy has been undone via executive order by every subsequent Democratic administration and reinstated by each Republican one.

The Trump administration expanded the policy to include not only family planning funds distributed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development but also all foreign-health assistance provided by government agencies, including the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and the Defense Department. That expanded policy, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” increased the amount of U.S. funding covered by the abortion prohibition from about $600 million to nearly $9 billion.

Abortion advocates and interest groups in the U.S. oppose the Mexico City policy; Planned Parenthood, for instance, has labeled it a “global gag rule.” During the presidential primary, the Biden campaign promised that his administration would undo the policy and permit U.S. aid money to fund abortions. 

Noted Theologian Joe Biden

But according to public-opinion polls, most Americans don’t want the U.S. to fund abortions in other countries. A new poll out yesterday from Marist and the Knights of Columbus found that more than three-quarters of Americans oppose using U.S. aid money to fund abortions overseas. The same survey shows that voters in Biden’s own party disagree with him on this issue: A slight majority of Democrats said they do not want the U.S. funding global abortions, and nearly two-thirds of self-described pro-choice Americans agreed. Eighty-five percent of independent voters, meanwhile, said they oppose U.S. funding of overseas abortions.

“These pro-abortion executive orders from President Biden shock the conscience,” Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said in a statement shortly after Biden signed today’s executive orders. “Our government shouldn’t be funding abortions at home, let alone overseas. Unity is important at times like these, but waging a culture war is only going to deepen divides and hurt innocent victims. Human dignity matters — President Biden should rethink this move.”

Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.), who founded and chairs the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, said in a statement that Biden’s pro-abortion orders show “a complete lack of respect for the sanctity of human life.”

“These actions will enrich Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry at the taxpayers’ expense, while endangering the most vulnerable,” Daines added. “The United States should not be promoting a radical abortion agenda throughout the world, we should be leading the fight to protect the unborn and all life.”

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) also criticized Biden’s move. “Killing unborn children isn’t health care, and violating the rights of conscience of millions of Americans by using taxpayer money to help promote abortions isn’t freedom of choice,” McCarthy said in part of his statement. “The Biden Administration’s so-called ‘unity’ agenda continues to fail the American people. These one-sided orders are another move by the current administration to appease the liberal activists and neglect the most basic moral and fundamental principles of our nation’s founding.”