• 
  
  

• Featured Article

  

• Images from Gallery

  Get the Flash Player to see the slideshow.

• Member's Area

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org
• Archive
  
  Subscribe
  
  Merchandise
  
  

  

  

By Sandro Magister
11/27/2007

Chiesa

Because the kind of dialogue he wants is completely different… The pope is asking Islam to make the same journey that the Catholic Church made under pressure from the Enlightenment. Love of God and neighbor must be realized in the full acceptance of religious freedom

ROMA (Chiesa) - The letter from the 138 Muslims addressed last month to Benedict XVI and to the heads of the other Christian churches received a spectacular collective reply in a message signed by 300 scholars and published in “The New York Times” on November 18.

The message originated in the Divinity School of Yale University, specifically through the initiative of its dean, Harold W. Attridge, a professor of New Testament exegesis.

The signatories belong mainly to the Protestant confessions, of both “evangelical” and “liberal” strains, and include such a celebrity as the theologian Harvey Cox. But the list of the 300 also includes a Catholic bishop, Camillo Ballin, the apostolic vicar in Kuwait. Other Catholics include the Islamologist John Esposito of Georgetown University and the theologians Donald Senior, a Passionist, and Thomas P. Rausch, a Jesuit from Loyola Marymount University. Read more

 By Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — There is no “conclusive evidence” to back up allegations that crucifixes sold in the gift shop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and other religious goods stores were made in Chinese sweatshops, the Archdiocese of New York said in a Nov. 21 statement.

“The gift shop still does not know that these claims are true,” the statement said.

“In fact, it would have been virtually impossible to verify the facts,” it said, since Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, called a news conference “without any attempt whatsoever to contact either the gift shop or the company that imports the items … to raise his concerns and investigate their truthfulness.”

At the Nov. 20 news conference on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Kernaghan released a 74-page report alleging that crucifixes sold at the Catholic cathedral, Trinity Episcopal Church in New York and stores belonging to the Association for Christian Retail were produced at the Junxingye Metal and Plastic Products Factory in Dongguan in southern China.

St. Patrick’s and Trinity removed the crucifixes from their shelves pending an investigation. Read more

One of the many things that I find interesting in the Bible is the Parables, stories of which Christ had chosen to relay his message to his people. I find them unique because it is in their utmost simplicity that we find the universality of his message embedded in these stories. They speak of everyday occurrence in our life but with a well-chosen theme and interesting plot that resonates with all kinds of people and situations regardless of time. They are a source of an inexhaustible wisdom for the lessons we can learn from them are as many as the number of reflections we can do. If we really think about it, they are, after all, stories made by no other than Christ, the Divine author, who is the Word upon which the salvation of mankind rests. There is no other stories like so.

However the unfortunate fate of every common thing  in the hands of human weakness is its decline to an almost non-significance by which all that is universal seemingly suffers from due to the tendency of our minds to be constantly craving for something new, to be shocked, to be taken by surprise. Unless the story is that which we haven’t heard before we will continue to go by the impression that there is nothing more to learn from it. But the parables, they are always worth the time to go back to as we go about our life’s journey as if they are always new because only then we can perceive the freshness of his message- that, by the way, has always been there hidden by our own complacency.  I say, how blessed are we to have these stories to guide us as we go through our life. 

Luke 11:5-13 tells us of the Parable of a friend in need.

He said to them, “Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’ and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’? I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs. “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Read more

DETROIT (CNS) — Detroit-area Chaldean Catholics expressed pride that Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly, 80, is the first Chaldean patriarch in history to be in the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church. About 150 Chaldeans from the Detroit area traveled to Rome for the Nov. 24 consistory. “I see it, first, as an appreciation of the service he is rendering in Iraq, but also a recognition of all the people of Iraq, and especially the Christians of Iraq,” said Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Southfield-based Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, prior to leaving for Rome. “The Christians of Iraq are struggling to keep their faith, and even though he will have no right to vote (in papal elections because he is 80 years old), this is still a great honor for him and all Chaldeans,” Bishop Ibrahim added. The Michigan eparchy is the diocese for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern United States; they number approximately 100,000 and most of them live in southeastern Michigan. Chaldean Catholics in the western U.S. are in the Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego, headed by Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo.

In the symbolic language of the ancient creeds, the mode of existence of the risen Lord is described as “sitting at the right hand of God”, that is, as a sharing in God’s royal power over history, a power that is real even when it is hidden.  The exalted Christ is not, therefore, deprived of his relation to the world but rather transcends the world and is thereby related to it in a new way. 

 ”Heaven” means participation in this new mode of Christ’s existence and, accordingly, the completion of what began for us with Baptism.  For that reason, heaven cannot be assigned a spatial location, whether within or without the space of our world, nor can it be separated from the cosmos as just a “state”.  It is rather that power over the world that befits the new “space” of the body of Christ, the communion of saints.  Heaven will be complete only when all members of the Lord’s body are assembled there. 

The fullness of the body of Christ includes the “resurrection of the flesh”; it is called the parousia because then the now only-just-begun presence of Christ will be complete and will include all who are to be saved and, with them, the whole universe.  Hence heaven will manifest itself in two historical stages: the exaltation of the Lord is the source of a new oneness of God and man and therefore of heaven; the perfecting of the body of Christ to the pleroma of the “whole Christ” brings it to its real cosmic perfection. 

The salvation of the individual is complete and entire only when the salvation of the universe and of all the elect has been accomplished, because the redeemed are not just near one another in heaven.  On the contrary, bybeing with one another as the one Christ, they are heaven.  When this has come to pass, all creation will become “song”, a self-forgetful shedding of the bounds of being into the whole and, at the same time, the entrance of the whole into its proper sphere, joy, in which all question will be answered and satisfied.

From: Eschatologie - Tod und ewiges Leben, pp. 192ff

12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.
13 This will be a time for you to bear testimony.
14 Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer;
15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death;
17 you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.
18 But not a hair of your head will perish.
19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

11/27/2007 | Vatican Information Service

“all true disciples of Christ aspire to just one thing: sharing His passion without seeking any reward…Not the search for power and success but the humble giving of self for the good of the Church must characterize our every gesture and word…True Christian greatness, in fact, does not consist of domination but of service.” Pope Benedict XVI

VATICAN CITY (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica this morning, Benedict XVI celebrated his second Ordinary Public Consistory, during which he created 23 new cardinals.

Following the opening liturgical greeting, the Holy Father read the formula of creation and solemnly proclaimed the names of the new cardinals. The first of them, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, then thanked the Pope in the name of all the others.

After a Gospel reading, the Holy Father pronounced his homily.

The College of Cardinals, he said, recreates “the ancient ‘presbyterium’ of the bishop of Rome, the members of which, while carrying out their pastoral and liturgical functions in the various Churches, ensured [the Pope] did not lack their precious collaboration in carrying out the duties associated with his universal apostolic ministry.

“Times have changed,” Pope Benedict added, “and the great family of Christ’s disciples has today spread to every continent, … it speaks almost every language of the world and its members include people from all cultures. The diversity of the members of the College of Cardinals, in terms of both geographical and cultural background, serves to underline this providential growth, at the same time highlighting the changing pastoral requirements to which the Pope is called to respond.” Read more

Unless you strive after virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.

– St. Theresa of Avila

December 22, 2007

Calling all Filipino residents of Sussex County, the United Fil-Am Society of New Jersey (UNIFAS NJ) will be celebrating their 6th Christmas celebration on December 22 at Crystal Springs Resort.  Pre-registration is required so please contact me ahead of time for details of the event and registration.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The 23 new cardinals went home with numbered, limited-edition copies of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a gift from Pope Benedict XVI. The new cardinals’ Italian version of the 2005 compendium is covered with red silk and bears the gold-embossed seal of the pope. In addition to the 14 works of art Pope John Paul II chose to decorate the original compendium, the cardinals’ volumes have another 49 photographs and eight full-color miniatures applied to the pages by hand. Printed on special paper, the edition was published by the Italian art publisher FMR. The 23 volumes given away by the pope are among the 2,950 printed by FMR.

← Previous Page — Next Page →

• 

• 	Enter your search terms
  	Web katoliko.org Submit search form

• Categories

  Select Category Announcement    Events Book Discussion Contributors    Br. Vince J. Celeste    Kay Vardeleon    Manny Amador    Raison d’être Laughs of Faith News & Current Events Quotes & Excerpts    Catechism    Fulton J. Sheen    G.K. Chesterton    Pope Benedict XVI       Co-Workers of the Truth       General Audience    The Church Fathers    The Wisdom of the Saints Saint of The Day Today’s Gospel Uncategorized

• Recent Posts

  • Mark 6: 34 - 44
  • St. Elizebeth Ann Seton
  • Matthew 4: 12 - 17, 23 - 25
  • St. Augustine
  • Co-Workers of the Truth 12/31
  • John 1: 1 - 18
  • St. Augustine
  • Luke 2:36-40
  • St. Pope Leo the Great
  • Co-Workers of the Truth 12/29
  • Luke 2: 22 - 35
  • St. Ephraem the Syrian
  • John 20: 1 - 8
  • St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Matthew 10:17-22

• Recent Comments

  • reynor on A Position Paper Against HB 5043
  • reynor on It’s Time to Kill Bill 5043
  • gdallaire1 on St. Gemma Galgani
  • Typhoon Frank ravages the Philippines. Iloilo needs your help | BYAHILO Ito ang Trip ko! on Task Force Noah for Typhoon Frank Victims
  • Case Dismissed for the Filipino Priest | katoliko on Piscataway priest charged with criminal sexual conduct

• Filipino Catholic Communities

  • Family of Faith Community, NJ
  • Filipino Apostolate of South Jersey
  • Filipino Catholic Community - Vienna
  • Filipino Ministry Council, TX
  • Filipino Ministry of Northern Virginia
  • Greater Rockford Fil-Am Cath. Com.
  • Misang Bayan, UT
  • The Filipino Ministry of Los Angeles
  • Ugnayan, NYC
  • UNIFAS NJ

• The Filipino Faithful

  • Catechism for Filipino Catholics
  • Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo
  • Pedro Calungsod
  • St. Lorenzo Ruiz
•