FSSP Superior General to offer Mass at St. Augustine Church in St. Paul

Father John Echert, Pastor of Holy Trinity and St. Augustine churches in So. St. Paul, has invited The Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), the Very Rev. John Berg to offer the 11:30 Traditional Latin Mass at the Church of St. Augustine (408 3rd St. N. in So. St. Paul) on the 27th of November. The Fraternity of St. Peter is an international priestly fraternity established by Pope John Paul II to provide the traditional Mass and Sacraments to Catholics around the world under the provisions established by the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei.

There will be a reception for Father Berg in the church hall immediately after Mass, at which time he will also offer a brief presentation on the general mission of the Fraternity of St. Peter. So please--tell your friends and family members, forward this email to your Catholic contacts, pray for the success of this event, and mark your calendars for the 27th of November.

St Augustine also is the place where that potential Eucharistic miracle occurred a while back.

HT Verso

+ Nienstedt releases 28-page Pastoral Letter focused on Sacred Liturgy of the Mass

The Most Reverend Catholic Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, John C. Nienstedt, has written a 28-page Pastoral Letter titled “Do This in Memory of Me”, that focuses on the “Sacred Liturgy” of the Mass, and the Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion. The pastoral letter will be distributed to all clergy and Catholic worshippers in the Archdiocese’s 12 county area.

Archbishop Nienstedt intentionally timed the publication of his initial pastoral letter to precede the implementation of the Vatican’s new form of the Roman Catholic Mass, scheduled to begin on the weekend of November 27, the start of the Advent season.

A pastoral letter, often simply called a pastoral, is a teaching document dealing with key beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith, explaining how these tenets of the faith, based on Christ’s teachings relate to societal problems or fundamental moral issues. The letter is a reflection based upon the bishop’s pastoral, teaching and Christian guidance responsibility.

details at Arch St. Paul & Minn.

StarTrib Poll: Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment up 48%-43%

St Paul Capitol and Cathedral

A year before they face the issue on the ballot, 48 percent of Minnesotans favor such an amendment while 43 percent oppose it. That falls within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The poll of 807 adults statewide, conducted Nov. 2-3, shows that battle lines will be drawn on clear partisan, generational, educational and geographic fractures.

The poll may reflect some shifting opinions among Minnesota voters. In May of this year, just before the constitutional question was approved by the Legislature, 55 percent of respondents in a Minnesota Poll said they opposed the amendment while 39 percent favored a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Amendment supporter Chuck Darrell, communications director for Minnesota for Marriage, said the early signs of support reflected in the recent Minnesota Poll was good news for his side. He said even though the lead in favor of the amendment is slim, it may reflect even more support.

Darrell said in other states, notably California and Maine, early polling showed marriage amendments failing. But when voters are in the secrecy of their voting booths, he said, they supported the amendments.

"People tend to give the politically correctly answer" on marriage amendment polls, he said.

Star Trib

"We discovered about 30 hymnals containing the Body of Christ" in MN parish

Having attended Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton these past two weeks, you may have heard Fr. Cole or me address a situation that we have been made aware of over the past several weeks. Heartbroken and with tears in their eyes, we have been approached by parishioners with open hymnals. What has caused the tears has been their discovery of the Body of Christ, partially consumed, stuck between the pages of a hymnal. After another incident this past weekend, I invited our NET Team (National Evangelization Team assigned to SEAS) to open and search all of the hymnals. We discovered about 30 hymnals containing the Body of Christ.

At Mass we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. Jesus Christ gives His life—not to be placed within a book—but within our soul. In light of this desecration of the Holy Eucharist, our parish has suffered with Christ. Let’s remember Who we are receiving within the Consecrated Host.

I am sharing with you this sad information to remind us that not everyone respects the gift that Jesus Christ and His Church is giving to us. While we may be brought to tears literally— as have parishioners who have brought me these hymnals—please remember that when we miss Mass, we also risk misleading our children. Our absence at Mass may lead our children to think that Jesus is also absent in our worship.

To address this situation going forward, please teach by example. Honor the Holy Will of God and the Divine Gift of the Holy Eucharist and make the commitment now to never be absent from the celebration of Sunday Mass again. Regarding each of our liturgical ministries, special instructions are being given to our Extraordinary Ministers of the Holy Eucharist, Ushers and Sacristans to address this heart-wrenching concern.

If you have any questions regarding this message, please feel free to speak to Fr. Cole, Megan Pleviak, our new Director of Worship, or myself.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hastings MN

Photo

"Crucifield ghoul" in Hopkins, MN to protest Marriage Amendment

A lady called the office Thursday to report a home in Minnetonka near Hopkins on Minnetonka Blvd, just west of Hwy 169 (at Chippewa Road) that the Halloween decorations at the home include a "crucified "death's head" ghoul (dressed in modern clothing), and an OutFrontMN campaign sign for the Marriage Protection Amendment campaign.

I drove out and took a few pictures.

In a way, it might be difficult to beat them on the "blasphemy" charge, but since they scream "homophobe" and "hatespeech" at the drop of a hat, why can't we? I'd be willing to go to the Minnetonka City Council meeting to raise the issue.

You know that if it were a Black person or Muhammad on that cross, this would be national news!

And I'm pretty sure that "Chippewa" is a derogatory word to Ojibway/Anishinbe Native Americans.

St. Thomas Univ professor's natural marriage debate audio available online

Both debaters argued the importance of marriage and it’s stabilizing effects on families. Gallagher argued that same-sex marriage would redefine marriage and further erode the institution.

Gallagher’s reasoning stemmed from the belief that children need both a mother and father.

“There is something special about public sexual unions of male and female in which the man and the woman make explicit commitments that are socially supported and not just privately and personally supported to the children they make,” she said. “Children should have have a father as well as a mother,” she said. “Almost not other couple provides that.”

The debaters were asked questions by the audience as well. Among the topics discussed were religious liberty, protections for same-sex couples, and why the Catholic church is invested in the issue in the first place.

Minnesotans will vote on the constitutional amendment in November 2012.

audio at Minnesota Independent

Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" is "sectarian" and not airable according to Twin Cities Public Television

NCReg

Thank you for your email inquiring about the program Catholicism.

After careful review, tpt has declined to air the four-part series "Catholicism", produced by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Picture Show Films.

While the program is very well produced and interesting, it does not meet our long-standing requirement that programs carried by tpt be "non-commercial, non-partisan and non-sectarian".

This standard is applied to all tpt programs: those provided by PBS and those (like the "Catholicism" series) coming from a non-PBS source.

While our programming policy does permit programming about religion and religious issues, the 'non-sectarian' requirement means we generally do not carry programs that express only a single religious point of view, or assert matters of religious faith as fact.  [The pope living in Rome is a matter of religious faith an not fact apparently]

In addition, the stated purpose of the producer (Word on Fire Catholic Ministries) is to "reach millions of people to draw them into or back to the Catholic faith." While tpt recognizes the importance of programming that brings understanding and illumination to matters such as religion, we do not believe the evangelical nature of this series is consistent with our standards.

Thank you again, for your interest in our programming.

Tom Holter
Executive Director, Programming

details at Catholic Hotdish

Univ. St. Thomas Law School to host natural marriage debate Thursday

Maggie Gallagher,  President of The Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and Dale Carpenter, University of Minnesota Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law will present their views on the Same Sex Marriage Amendment at the Murphy Institute's inaugural debate on public policy issues for the 2012 elections.

Reception following in Board of Governor's room.

The Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy is pleased to present a new speaker series at the School of Law that explores both the Catholic positions and some challenging perspectives on major policy issues likely to be the focus of debate in the upcoming 2012 election. Each program will consist of two expert speakers respectfully engaging in one of these hot topics.

Details

HT Stella Borealis

MNCathConf: Catholic leaders will not be silenced

It is not surprising to see the Star Tribune continue to beat the drum in opposition to the marriage protection amendment that will appear on the November 2012 ballot ("On gay marriage, state is out of step," Oct. 1).

What is troubling is the paper's attack on the Catholic Church's participation in the public debate -- an attack that should concern all Minnesotans as out of step with this country's most cherished traditions of free speech and religious liberty.

The Star Tribune sees in the church the specter of a looming theocracy, but this could not be further from reality. The church only proposes; she imposes nothing.

Legislators and the public are free to accept or reject her witness, and Catholics who participate in the public square are fully conscious that they must make arguments that are persuasive to people of faith and those outside religious communities.

So why are some eager to silence the church's voice?

The church's public witness in helping to shape a public order that is just, protects authentic rights, serves the common good and promotes human flourishing is not in any way different from what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did when he, a Baptist minister and theologian, fought for just laws.

His civil rights advocacy was grounded in biblical conviction, the natural law, and the Declaration of Independence, much like Catholic advocacy today. In his words, "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God."

Would the Star Tribune criticize Dr. King for imposing his religious views on others?

To be clear: There is such a thing as a healthy secularism that guides the respective roles of church and state.

But what animates the Star Tribune and other purveyors of a false secularism is a politically correct rewriting of the First Amendment, in which the newfangled concept of "freedom of worship" is substituted in place of "religious freedom" -- a move that seeks to "protect the public" by enclosing religious people and their evangelical witness within their own walls.

continue at Star Tribune

I've never heard a Catholic Conference proclaim the truth so boldly. 

HT Bliss

Raymond de Souza to offer new series of talks in Winona, MN

This is to invite you and your friends to attend the first talk of the Apologetics program, to be held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral[Winona, MN] on Monday, October 3rd at 7:00 pm.

It is titled, ‘De-Christianization’ and the New Evangelization’

It consists of a factual analysis of the process of de-Christianization of the Western Culture as expounded by Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI in the areas of economy, politics and law, and the corresponding Catholic response: a New Evangelization and Catholic Action.

If you would like to attend it, please ensure that you arrive before 7:00 pm so that it may start and end on time.

It will be followed by three other monthly talks:

November 14th – What is ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’? And WHO decides? Is it the State? The opinion of the majority? The individual choice? The Bible? An analysis of Natural Law aimed to identify the logical criteria to define the difference between good and evil in daily life.

December 12th - The divinity of Jesus Christ - Does it make sense to believe that a Jewish carpenter who lived in an obscure province of the Roman Empire some 2,000 years ago, who preached a message that was largely refused by his own people and who died like a common criminal between two thieves, was God in the flesh?

January 16th – The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist – What is present in the tabernacle? A sacred thing? Or a divine Person? Putting logic at the service of the Faith to investigate the meaning Jesus intended to give to His words, ‘This is my Body’.

 Photo

The Diocese of Winona has begun a dynamic new apologetics program lead by world renowned Catholic apologist Raymond de Souza.  This diocese has been making enormous leaps and bounds in the past year or two.  If you are in the area, these talks will be well worth your time.

MN Public TV blocking Fr. Barron's new "Catholicism" series

UPDATE: I received a direct response from TPT, which I’ve included at the bottom of this post. They’re going to “review” it, so please continue to contact them and show your interest in this series.

---

The highly anticipated and groundbreaking televisions series, Catholicism, is coming to TV screens this Fall – except in the Twin Cities. TPT (Twin Cities Public Television) claims the program isn’t on their broadcast schedule. It’s scheduled on other public television stations nationwide, but why not this market? No one knows. Considering the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has 750,000 members, I find it odd they wouldn’t want to air something so critically acclaimed and relevant to the largest demographic in the region.
Please contact the Twin Cities Public Television programming department at viewerservices@tpt.org and – politely – request they review their decision and bring this culturally important TV series to the people of the Twin Cities.

the rest at Catholic Hotdish

St Thomas U professor writes op-ed supporting natural marriage

Many religions recognize a natural law

Kudos to a recent letter writer who called for a return to first principles in the same-sex marriage debate, and to two others who answered the call. We're not on the same page, but we're closer.

One responder misunderstands the use of the term "nature" in "natural law." As any physician can tell you, many things occur (infections, functional failure) that violate the nature of the thing affected. It happens in nature that human beings are born without hands, but this violates the proper nature of the human being.

This is how doctors tell the difference between health and disease. Same-sex desires and acts literally make no sense given our embodiment as sexual creatures. The fact that they happen does not make them fitting to our nature, fully understood.

The other responder claims that the fundamental issue is equal rights. The Catholic Church is second to none in championing equal rights. But the recognition of rights must be based on the truth.

Any man who is capable can marry any woman who is capable. The letter writer is not asking for equal rights; he is asking for a redefinition of the nature of marriage, and thus for repudiation of our human nature, properly understood.

This is akin to saying that I have a right to fly, but I want to fly in my car. Calling a car a plane won't make it fly, and neither society nor the state have any reason to get on board.

Star Trib

Huge turnout for St. Thomas at Center for Catholic Studies opening event

Walking around the UST area on the first Tuesday of the school year, passerbys were most likely taken aback by the abnormal amount of people hanging around talking and playing yard games behind a huge house on summit. Little do they know, that huge house is the Center for Catholic Studies, and that large crowd was there for the Fall Kick-Off event for the year.

This year’s kick off event held true to its usual Ice Cream Social theme complete with CS Faculty and Staff. However, Catholic Studies decided to mix it up by adding a substantial food element. Clearly, this was a smart move because Famous Dave’s had nothing on Sitzmann Hall with the amount of people that showed up for some good ol’ BBQ. The attendance at this event was very high in relation to previous years (at least 200) and no one would probably deny that it was a success. To prove this perhaps undeniable statement even further, the event ran out of food. Twice. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, within the first half hour the BBQ and ice cream had run out. And then, when the thin red line of Davanni’s pizza kicked in, the food was again gone within the first 15 minutes.

As passerbys looking at the crowd and perhaps hearing murmers of Catholic theology, an inordinate amount of “Praise Gods”, or just seeing  general air of joy, they may have been asking themselves: I don’t know what that is, but there is something going on.

And in fact, there is something going on. Catholic Studies is providing education, experience, and community for yet another year for so many Catholics and Christians on (and off) campus. If the kick off event is to give any sign as to what this year entails, then UST better brace themselves because the Spirit is moving: Catholic Studies is back.

 St. Thomas U

HT Bliss

Historic Collegeville Bible is finished

And so began a grand and improbable collaboration between a little Benedictine community in Minnesota and a guy then best known for handwriting the ceremonial marriage documents of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. Together they produced the only handwritten and illuminated Bible created in the past 500 years, a total of 1,150 artful pages sparkling with gold leaf and jewel-toned colors.

In a triumphal conclusion, "The St. John's Bible, Amen!," a small show featuring the last pages from the final volume, opens Friday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. On view through Nov. 13, the exhibit features just 18 pages from "Letters and Revelation," in which Jackson's colorful illustrations frame and accentuate graceful lines of biblical text.

St. John's took on the project "because it's what monks do," John Klassen, abbot at St. John's Abbey and University, said at an opening ceremony Thursday. "It was a chance to help ignite the spiritual imagination of people around the world."

Calligrapher Donald Jackson surrounded the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from the Book of Revelation, with symbols of 21st-century life and hardships: tanks, oil rigs, cancer, AIDS and famine.

details at StarTribune

Oil rigs and AIDS?  Yeah, I was hoping for something a bit more appropriate too.  Too bad, this could have been something really exciting even if it did incorporate modern themes.  How does such a fantastic project get so out of touch. 

HT Stella Borealis

Abp. Nienstedt calls proposed HHS Contraception Mandate "A Serious Threat To Religious Freedom"

I fully intended to publish “Part Two” of my commentary on the marvelous experience of World Youth Day in today’s column. I now hope to do so in the next issue.

But, in the meantime, there has arisen a very serious threat to the religious freedom of all religious institutions, especially our Catholic health care programs and Catholic social services, a threat posed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Under HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (a Catholic), the department is imposing a “preventative services” mandate requiring all private health plans — including ones administered by the church and its agents — to provide coverage for surgical sterilizations, prescription contraceptives approved by the FDA, and “education and counseling” for “all women of reproductive capacity.”

Unfortunately, this is the logical result of a seismic change in this administration’s approach to religious groups involved in providing social services to, among others, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the immigrant.

It began when President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton started using the term “freedom of worship” as distinct from what we have always known as “freedom of religion.”

Under the concept of “freedom of worship,” church agencies are restricted to hiring employees only from their own denomination and providing services for clients only from their own denomination.

continue at The Catholic Spirit 

HT Bliss

MN Courage chapter leader writes Op-Ed on Same-Sex Attraction

Father Jim Livingston who is in charge of the local chapter of Courage, penned this well-done op-ed on same-sex attraction that was published yesterday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I am glad for Ron Bates that he was able to overcome the guilt and shame that burdened him for years and find that God loves him. ("I tried for years to pray away the gay. It didn't work," Sept. 1).

But while I respect Bates' personal experience, I respectfully disagree with his conclusions about same-sex attraction and traditional marriage.

I am the lead chaplain for the local Courage/Faith in Action group. Courage/FIA is a confidential support group for people who have same-sex attraction and who want to practice the virtue of chastity as understood by the Catholic Church.

As a confessor and confidant to many men and women who have homosexual attractions, I can say that people are not limited to the choices Bates offers.

The plain truth is that people with same-sex attractions experience them differently.

For some, those desires are deeply rooted and long-lasting, while others experience them as symptoms of something else: loneliness, lack of confidence or frustrated childhood bonding with same-sex parents or peers, just to begin the list.

In other words, some people really do find developmental and environmental roots to their same-sex attractions. And yes, some find release from them through therapy or through the mysterious grace of a spiritual awakening.

Bates was not able to pray away his same-sex attraction, but some people actually do. And others, while unable to avoid homosexual temptations, still live lives of chastity and virtue by the grace of God and with the help of good friends.

Marriage to a woman did not work for Bates, but for this you don't redefine marriage. And especially for this you don't tattoo a "GLBT" label onto teenagers who may be simply confused about their life choices. It took Bates 54 years to find his life direction after an imprudent start.

By the same logic, many young people could be trapped for years with a mistaken gay or lesbian identity, goaded on by our disintegrating, sexually untethered culture.

Like it or not, heterosexual behavior is rooted in human nature and the universal moral law. Both the body and the Bible witness to this truth in their own ways.

Traditional marriage is rooted in this ancient if inconvenient truth, and it can't be scolded or legislated away by one misguided generation. History is not and never will be on the side of gay marriage.

continue at StarTrib 

HT Bliss

Glitter flies at Minnesota State Fair over marriage amendment

Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

Four people showered the Minnesota for Marriage booth with the shiny stuff as they passed overhead on the Sky Glider ride about 5 p.m., protesting what group organizer Nick Espinosa said was preferential treatment by Fair officials. Espinosa's group said the Fair declined registration attempts by the gay-marriage-rights group Minnesotans United for All Families.

Both sides have descended on the Fair to stake sides on a 2012 constitutional amendment proposal to define marriage as an institution between a man and a woman.

"Where's our booth? Equality for all!" shouted the unidentified people in a video posted on YouTube.

Espinosa, whose group claims previously throwing glitter on presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, said the Fair initially declined registration attempts by both Minnesota for Marriage and Minnesotans United for All Families. That changed just after the Fair opened when Minnesota for Marriage announced that it had a spot.

Espinosa said the release came as a "shock."

"We think that's preferential treatment, and we are pushing, advocating for equality," said Espinosa, of Minneapolis.

Both groups initially called to get a booth and were told none was available. But apparently only Minnesota for Marriage registered for a booth in the event one opened up.

Read the rest here. That last paragraph is an important clarification -- both groups called about a booth, were told none were available, and one of the groups registered in the event a booth opened up... and a booth did open up.

Anti- Marriage Amendment op-ed targeting Catholic voters in MN

Born in rural Minnesota and raised on a dairy farm, I grew up in a devout Catholic family.

While attending St. John's Prep School in Collegeville, I confessed to a priest that I was attracted to another boy who slept across from me. The priest responded that if I ever acted on that, I would go to hell.

As a sincere Catholic teen, I did not act on my attraction but started a harmful journey of self-loathing and personal destruction. I didn't know what "homosexual" or "gay" were, but I understand "queer" and thought it was evil and perverted.

I did not date girls in high school and dated only a couple in college. One of them became a good friend, so I did what all the rest in my family had done: I got married, the summer after graduating from college. I loved all my nieces and nephews and wanted to become a teacher and a father.

With a major in elementary education from St. Cloud State and later a master's as a reading specialist, I taught successfully for 40 years in public education in several Minnesota towns. My marriage never worked.

The sexuality was mostly repulsive, and that was communicated indirectly to my ex-wife. That is the most unfair part. She was one of the innocent victims in the masquerade of "I'm straight."

For years and years, I would prostrate myself on the floor and ask God to change me. Maybe if I just pray more, fast more, do more "works of charity," the male attraction will go away.

After more than 30 years of trying to "burn" the evil out of me, I finally came out at age fifty four. God finally broke through to my heart of hearts and said, "I love you just as you are. You are praying for healing, but you are not sick!"

Our God does not change. God is God always. And God was with me always. After all the self-hatred and foibles of life, God was still there waiting for me.

At that moment, the shame and guilt I had felt for years left -- once and for always. If Pope Benedict had been standing right there to tell me I was "disordered," I would have said to him, "You are wrong. God made me and loves me just as I am."

continue at Star Tribune


This is the same argument you will get at many Catholic colleges actually.  Don't forget Daniel Maguire,
a Marquette professor, has been advocating for gay marriage inside and outside the Church in Minnesota and spoke in Minneapolis last October.  Catholics are being lead astray by wolves, tenured wolves.

I haven't been posting all the news but there's are boat loads of money being shipped into Minnesota to break marriage.  It would seem that getting a Midwestern state to pass gay marriage could be a striking point then for the rest of the country.  Iowa doesn't really count since the activist judges got the boot for their hijinks.

One nice thing about the homosexual act getting shoved in everyone's faces is that the Church finally has an effective way to minister to those with same sex attraction with compassionate and effective pastoral care(even amongst Her own clergy).  It's no longer seen as a "just don't do that" thing.  The human experience can be complex and bludgeoning with hell isn't always the most effective way to change or heal a heart (don't get me wrong, it certainly can be effective in certain circumstances - but not all).

That said, he's blaming traditional marriage and the Church for his decision to leave his wife and children...  Let's all say a prayer for this guy.

HT Bliss

Minnesota for Marriage

The debate over the definition of marriage has unfolded across America and at the federal level for the past several years, and is the subject of the proposed amendment on the November 2012 ballot to preserve marriage in Minnesota.

But what is the debate really about, how does it affect society and what is at stake in the outcome of the amendment vote?

Many people mistakenly believe that proposals to allow so-called “same-sex” marriage are about allowing a new, different and separate form of marriage to coexist alongside traditional man/woman marriage. They envision it as a different expression of the same marriage institution they have always known.

However, that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the legal issues involved in the debate, and with the proposed constitutional amendment in Minnesota.

Learn more at Minnesota for Marriage

Cardinal Burke speaks on books at Loome Booksellers in Stillwater, MN

Cardinal Burke visited Loome's back on January 3, 2011.