church

Two Pastoral Letters

Posted October 19th, 2009 by Mark Romer
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Here are links to two pastoral letters that I want to study soon. The first is from my own bishop, J. Terry Steib of Memphis, TN: Living our Catholicism: That Our Joy May Be Complete.

The second is from Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa: Ecclesia Semper Reformanda (The Church is Always in Need of Renewal)

Now THAT is a Statement Worthy of a Catholic Bishop

Posted October 28th, 2008 by Mark Romer
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Bishop Joseph Martino of the Scranton, PA Diocese issued this pastoral letter to his flock regarding the primacy of abortion as an issue facing voters:

Pastoral Letter on Respecting Life

No equivocation or wishy-washiness here. Bishop Martino makes it quite clear that some issues are far more important than others.

Quote:
Another argument goes like this: “As wrong as abortion is, I don’t think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide - the gravest injustice a society can tolerate - in the name of “social justice.”

Bishop Martino then backed this up when he unexpectedly dropped in on a political forum being held in one of his parishes. He particularly took issue with the fact that the forum was discussing a statement by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and was not including discussion of his pastoral letter.

Bishop stresses abortion view at political forum

Quote:
Martino, who arrived while the panelists were stating their viewpoints, took issue with the USCCB statement, which was handed out to everyone at the meeting, and also that his letter was not mentioned once at the forum. “No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,” said Martino. “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.” “The only relevant document ... is my letter,” he said. “There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable.”

That's leadership, people.

As We Enter Into the Joyous Season of Lent

Posted February 6th, 2008 by Mark Romer
in

Quote:

Lord, we begin our service in Christ’s army with this holy fast.
We shall be fighting spiritual evils,
so we must arm ourselves with bodily discipline.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

From the Office of Readings for Ash Wednesday as presented on Universalis.com.

Epiphany Trip

Posted January 7th, 2008 by Mark Romer
in

For the second year in a row, the Holy Rosary choir took a trip from Memphis to Dyersburg, to Holy Angels Church. We put on a small Epiphany concert, then proceeded to sing Vespers. The concert was a subset of the prelude program we did for the Christmas Midnight Mass at Holy Rosary. Vespers was, well, Vespers. If you don't know what Vespers is, it's enough for now to say that it is the evening prayer prescribed in the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily recitation of psalms, scripture readings and meditations that all Catholics should, at least, be familiar with.  read more »

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