Saturday, August 13, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Church backs Bishop Cruz but Senate probe stalled
INQ7 Interactive, Inc. - Philippines
... into the illegal numbers racket of "jueteng," the man who spurred the probe found support yesterday from the leaders of the country's Roman Catholic Church. ...

Philippine church says only seven denied visas
Expatica - Netherlands
MANILA - A Philippine Catholic Church commission said Friday only seven Filipino delegates to the World Youth Day in Germany were denied visas, contrary to ...

Catholic Church Another scandal
Morocco Times - Casablanca,Morocco
Philip DeFilippo, the secretary's husband, who filed for divorce, accused Monsignor Eugene Clark of having an affair with his wife, Laura DeFilippo, 46. ...

'Solidarity' over church attacks
BBC News - UK
Members of several Protestant churches in County Antrim are taking part in a clean-up operation at a Catholic Church which has been targeted by loyalists. ...

Vocations up as the Church turns to Hollywood for divine ...
Carlow Nationalist - Carlow,Ireland
The news comes as the Catholic Church in America launches a new, Hollywood-inspired vocations poster similar to the eye-catching 'Men in Black' vocations ...


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Friday, August 12, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Mass. lawmakers press Church to open financial books
Reuters - USA
BOSTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A group of Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to force the Catholic Church to open its financial books, an unprecedented step in a ...

Church Group Plans Trip To See Pope At World Youth Day
Tampa Tribune - Tampa,FL,USA
That's a lot of car washes, rummage sales, fundraising 5- K runs and babysitting jobs, but the youth at Resurrection Catholic Church made their goal. ...

Canadian Catholic Priest Defies Church and Defends "Ordination ...
Lifesite - Canada
In an interview with the Osprey News Network the Catholic priest openly defied the teachings of the Catholic Church. "I believe ...

Attacks on church 'must end'
Belfast Telegraph - United Kingdom
A Protestant cleric behind a clean-up campaign at a paint-bombed Catholic Church in Harryville yesterday called on all churches in Ballymena to unite against ...

Gay church gets the boot by New Orleans Catholics
The Advocate - Los Angeles,CA,USA
... Continuing the lease might have created the impression that the Catholic Church is either indifferent to or in support of the teachings of that church, Maestri ...


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Thursday, August 11, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Peru's Catholic church not against mining -groups
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
LIMA, Peru, Aug 10 (Reuters) - An array of human rights groups came out in defense of the Roman Catholic Church in Peru on Wednesday, saying it was not ...

Catholic church attack linked to republican parade
4ni.co.uk - UK
An attack on a Catholic church in Ballymena overnight has been linked with a republican parade in the town on Tuesday. Paint bombs ...

Molester Says Church Shifted Him to Other Parishes
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
... Church lawyers also say that the law unfairly singles out the Catholic Church, and that old insurance policies will not cover the plaintiffs' multimillion ...

McKellen slams Church's stance on Da Vinci Code
Ireland Online - Dublin,Ireland
British actor Ian McKellen has slammed the leaders of the Catholic Church for urging people not to read Dan Brown's controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. ...

Church Leaders Puzzled Over Pro-Peace Vandalism
Iowa Channel.com - Des Moines,IA,USA
... Jerry Ryan, of St. Mary of Nazareth Catholic Church. "I would want to know what is in their mind. We're dealing with sick people.". ...


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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Lawmakers pick fight with Catholic church over financial records
Dateline Alabama - Birmingham,AL,USA
... And in a sign of the shift in influence by the once-powerful Catholic church in a heavily Catholic state, some lawmakers appear more willing to force reforms ...

Failed firebombing probed at Shoreline Catholic church
Seattle Times - United States
... Firearms and Explosives are investigating an attempted firebombing early Sunday morning of St. Mark's Catholic Church in Shoreline. ...

Lawmakers pick fight with Catholic church over financial records
Providence Eyewitness News - RI,USA
... The Roman Catholic Church, as well as Protestant and Orthodox denominations, are opposed to the legislation, saying it would allow the government to intrude on ...

McKELLEN SLAMS CHURCH'S STANCE AGAINST DA VINCI CODE
Contactmusic.com - Burley in Wharfdale,Ilkley,UK
British actor IAN McKELLEN has slammed the leaders of the Catholic Church for urging people not to read DAN BROWN's controversial novel THE DA VINCI CODE. ...

Church not a victim
OregonLive.com - Portland,OR,USA
In her July 31 letter, "Church community victimized," Sara Freeman claims that the Catholic Church is the real victim in the priest sex-abuse lawsuit, and that ...


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Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Would-be fire bomb thrown at Shoreline church
Seattle Times - United States
... Mark's Catholic Church yesterday were greeted with the smell of gasoline, and crime scene tape blocking off two pews and surrounding the broken window. ...

Is the Catholic Church rethinking its view of evolution?
Boston Globe - United States
... understanding of evolution conflicts with Catholic beliefs, sparking fears that new tensions may develop between science and the Catholic Church at a time when ...

Bill would force church to disclose its finances
Boston Globe - United States
... to file annual financial reports and a list of real estate holdings with the attorney general's charities division, is opposed by the Catholic Church and major ...

Protesters rally as archbishop leads final Mass in SF
San Jose Mercury News - United States
... ``It's very honorable for San Francisco.''. ``Honorable'' was not a word that everyone who attended used to describe Levada or the modern-day Catholic Church. ...


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Apostle

Sense and Sensibility : The apostle of Mindanao

Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service

MOST of us believe that the evangelization of the Philippines began with the Augustinians and Fr. Andres de Urdaneta, who came with Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1567. However, Fr. Francisco Colin, S.J., in his "Labor Evangelica de los Obreros de la Compania de Jesus en las Islas Filipinas," calls St. Francis Xavier the first stone in the foundation of the Society in the Philippines, stating that the saint came in 1546. He preached in Mindanao (it is believed in Davao) in the months of September, October and November. In the 1890s, rumors persisted that the boulder that served as his altar could be found on the beach of Pundagitan beside the Cabo S. Agustin, which is the reason the inhabitants at one time called it Punta Altar. There's a sense of poetic justice here that after the Jesuits returned in 1859 from their expulsion, they were assigned the Mindanao missions.

In the summer of 1546, a "caracoa" ship with St. Francis on board was traveling from Amboina to Ternate over the curling waves of the Moluccan Sea in danger of being wrecked. There were all sorts of dangers in this area: not merely typhoons but pirates lay in wait for ships. The vessel was making its difficult path between mountains of rough waters and resounding thunder. Harsh shouts from the sailors could be heard at each surge of a wave that threatened to overwhelm them as well as prayers below deck so that the bilge wouldn't go under water. After an arduous day's run, the lookout could not even see the other vessel that came in convoy. Its patron, the merchant Juan Galvan of hairy beard and thinning hair, had drowned in the waters of Ecuador.

From Amboina to Malacca, the ship passed by the south of Mindanao and land was sighted in this horseshoe-shaped cove half enclosed by the bay of Illana. Landing here the saint preached during those 18 days in Malay to a crowd of heretics and converts. These were the difficult and hard journeys of the evangelization missions.

St. Francis is also known as the Apostle of the Indies, having served in Ternate from 1546 to 1547. It was that he was seen sleeping on a cot made of the roots of trees and a pillow of "cabo negro" [a kind of palm leaf made into rope]. Many converts were won after long debates in the language of the place. Tradition tells the miraculous story of the crab that found a crucifix on the bottom of the ocean and clutching it between his claws returned it to St. Francis on the beach at Tamalo.

St. Francis on Jan. 26 1548 wrote from Cochin to the Jesuit mother house in Rome: "I left the city of Moluco (Terrenate) for some islands that are 60 leagues from Moluco that are called the Isles of the Moro; in these isles were many places of Christians and many days had passed that no one (priest) had visited them because they were very isolated from India and because the natives had killed a secular priest who had gone there.

"On those islands, I baptized many creatures that I found to baptize and I remained there for three months. During that time, I visited many Christian settlements that brought me much consolation in the same manner that I brought them consolation.

"These islands are very dangerous because of the many internecine wars. They are savages, lacking books, nor do they know how to read or write and are people who poison those they don't like and in this manner they kill many. It is a rough land, mountainous and very difficult to walk. They lack material sustenance, wheat and wine.

"They do not know meat or any game animals. There are some pigs and there are many wild boars. Many places lack potable water. There is rice in abundance and many trees called "gagueros" (Pastells says these could be buri or coconut trees) that give bread and wine and other trees that from their bark clothes are made.

"There are on these islands a people called Tabaros that are gentiles that the pagans derive all their pleasure from killing them … as well as many Christians. (It seems that there were Christian communities in Mindanao converted by the Portuguese. Pastells, who heavily annotated Fr Francisco Colin's "Labor Evangelica" and whose footnotes are sometimes more interesting than the text, tells us that the Christians in Mindanao were converted by Francisco de Castro, captain of a ship that came from Moluco which then belonged to a certain Galvao. In the fort of Terrenate were women from Mindanao who were Christians, married and had children with Portuguese.)

"One of these islands is subject to earthquakes and the reason is that on this island is a range that continuously spews fire and much ash. There were no hurricanes while I was there… For you to imagine how great are the earthquakes on that land, on the day of San Miguel while I was saying Mass, the earth trembled so horribly that I was afraid that the altar would be knocked down.

"Having visited all the Christian settlements I returned to Moluco where I stayed another three months."

Monday, August 08, 2005

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

Roman Catholic Church ()
News Dominica - Dominica
Since the arrival of Columbus, the Roman Catholic Church has had an important influence on Dominica. The island was named for Sunday ...


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Sunday, August 07, 2005

Sick Wife

Moments : Who can we turn to?

Fr. Jerry M. Orbos, SVD
Inquirer News Service

THE STORY is told about a very sick wife who requested her husband to call a veterinarian. "Why a veterinarian, not a doctor?" the husband asked. "That's because I work like a horse, I eat like a dog and I live with a pig," was the wife's reply.

* * *

In today's Gospel (Mt. 14, 22-33) Jesus teaches us to turn to prayer as He himself did whenever He was under pressure by the crowd. Prayer, solitude and silence can help us find our bearings and strength, especially when we are already "low bat" and in need of recharging. More so, we need to turn to God in prayer when we are tossed about by waves that threaten our very lives. It is precisely at such times that we need to turn to God in prayer. Who do you turn to, what do you turn to when problems overwhelm you?

* * *

When you walk through a storm, where do you seek refuge? Some stay put, and some fly away (literally, to another country!). Flight does not solve the problem. One may seek refuge in drugs, alcohol and other worldly pleasures, but the problem is just postponed and may even be compounded. One can take flight from the noise and the burdens of this world, but he cannot lessen the raging turmoil within. One can gather a thousand lieutenants, advisers, PR handlers to fix the problem, but they can only do so much. At the end of the day, the only road one must take is the road that leads to God's heart, and the way to walk it is through one's knees, alone.

* * *

So much noise, debates and media blitz around us these days. If only we listen to God in prayer, there will not be so many liars in our midst. But because of the waves buffeting us, we have, like Peter, taken off our eyes from the Lord, from the truth; instead, we have focused on cover-ups, maneuverings, manipulations, half-truths and even blatant lies. Given this situation, we all will sink. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us; and, if this is not possible, banish the liars and manipulators from our midst. Our boat is sinking, and we are overloaded with noisy cheaters and liars. Time to throw them out into the sea, don't you think so?

* * *

"Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." How consoling to hear these words of Jesus, especially these days when there's so much turmoil in our midst. It is a consoling thought to know that God is at the controls and that truth will prevail, although one is disheartened at times that the liars and the cheats seem to be getting the upper hand, and appear to be getting away with their evil designs. I believe in truth, and I believe in the triumph of truth and goodness. But it is not enough to believe. We all must work for the truth. Trust that God is on the side of truth. Believe in the truth. Work for the truth.

* * *

When I find myself sinking in work and pressures during the day, I also often find myself reaching out to God by looking up and saying, "Boy, oh Boy!" "Boy" for me is "Because Of You." Try it, sing it. When you get so engrossed in your daily work and concerns, look up and say, "Because of you, Lord." Then you realize that the reason for all that you are doing is He, and you get to see the big picture again. Suddenly, feelings of self-importance and overly concerns disappear, and one is lifted up again from the clutches of personal agenda, time-tables, and what-have-you's. "Because Of You." Yes, sing it. Pray it. It works!

* * *

As the song goes, "I remember the boy, but I don't remember the feelings anymore." It is not enough to remember the "boy" (Because of you). One must also remember the "feeling." It is good to be reminded why we are doing what we are doing, but, we must recapture the original feelings when we first started out. Through time though, we may not forget who we are and what we started out to do; we can lose "that loving feeling" because we have become so pragmatic, practical and, yes, normal. Where do we get in touch with the "original" in us? Not in talking or debating, not in the malls, not in the streets, not in our war rooms, but in the silence of our hearts, in humble prayer.

* * *

My prayer is that as we go through life, as we go through this national crisis we are facing now, we all will fix our eyes on Jesus, and not on the waves threatening to overwhelm us. We also must stretch forth our hands unto Him so that He can save us. Above all, we must not lose courage; we must not be afraid. And yes, we must believe and keep on believing that the wind will die down.

* * *

Raul Roco has gone home to the Father. Mission accomplished. He could have been the president of our land. Would things have been different? Only God can tell. Let his passing away be a reminder for all that life is short, that we carry nothing with us when we go, and that we must continue pursuing and doing our mission. What matters in the end is that we loved, we loved at all. Dios mabalos Noy!

* * *

A moment with the Lord:

Lord, when we are buffeted by waves and we start to sink, help us to turn to you in prayer, penance and good deeds. Amen.

Google Alert - Catholic church

Google Alert for: Catholic church

St. Peter's Catholic Church ministry has new name
Baxter Bulletin - Baxter,AR,USA
For 27 years, St. Peter's Catholic Church family ministry has provided help for the needy in the Mountain Home area. Recently, the ...

Hispanic Festival
Nashua Telegraph - Nashua,NH,USA
... Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Catholic Church will hold its annual Middle Eastern Festival, the Mahrajan, from 1-7 pm Sunday, Aug. 14. ...


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