Philadelphia Chapter

St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church

National Center of the Archconfraternity of St. Philomena
41 E. Baltimore Ave. Lansdowne, Pa.

will open our

ANNUAL FORTY HOURS
EUCHARISTIC DEVOTIONS

On Sunday, April 15
Divine Mercy Sunday

Latin High Mass
(Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) at 1:30 p.m.
followed by a Eucharistic Procession

All are invited!

Evening Prayer and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 7:00 p.m. on    Sun., Mon., and Tues., April 15, 16, 17

The homilist for Evening Prayer will be Rev. Patrick Brannan, S.J.

Reverend Jason V. Kulczynski

from Rorate Caeli

No, it is not a joke appropriate for the date: French public television has indeed released the first minutes of its documentary on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, that will be broadcast tomorrow by the France 3 channel.

The words are in French, but the content is clear enough: the video begins with menacing sounds, here come the dangerous Traditionalists (images of the Chartres Pilgrimage of 2011, an extremely dangerous Mass with a Psycho soundtrack). The Superior of the Institut du Bon Pasteur says what is pretty obvious (“May 1968 is over. Vatican II is over, it’s in the past”). The narrator then describes what the Church was like in the late 1950s before the Council was called (“science has made extraordinary progress, traditional morality is questioned”, “the Church refused to evolve, more and more Christians reject it and leave it in droves”, “the Catholic Church is dying”), but Pope Roncalli arrived in shining armor and opened the gates of the Church.

The battle between “Reformists” and “Traditionalists” ensued, with “the Popes in the middle” (?…). Benedict XVI “seems to favor the Council”, but actually counts on the support of the “obscurantist forces” [sic] – the Traditionalists, of course.

The tone is clear, for the producers of “The Lost War of the Vatican”, the great battle for “reform” has been lost to “the dark side”. Honestly, if the current unending crisis is what the “Progressives”, Modernists and heretics have achieved after they have lost, we cannot even begin to imagine how apocalyptic their “victory” would have looked like…

[Tip: Le Forum Catholique]

from Rorate Caeli

Since the meeting on March 16, 2012, with Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, has urgently been inviting the faithful to redouble their fervor in prayer and their generosity in making sacrifices during these Holy Days of Lent and in the weeks that will follow the solemnity of Easter, that the Divine Will may be done, and it alone, after the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Olives: non mea voluntas, sed tua fiat (Luke 22:42).

The Rosary Crusade that started on Easter 2011 and is scheduled to end on Pentecost 2012 is proving more than ever to be indispensable. This is why the Society of St. Pius X, which wants only the good of the Church and the salvation of souls, turns with confidence to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that she might obtain from her divine Son the lights necessary to know His will clearly and to carry it out courageously.

May the faithful be so kind as to offer one holy communion for this intention. May they make fully their own, in thought and in deed, the prayer that Our Lord asked us to address to our heavenly Father: Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra; hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

Menzingen, March 29, 2012

from CNA

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2012 / 02:14 am (CNA).- At the March 24 “Reason Rally” in Washington, D.C., an estimated 20,000 atheists and agnostics heard author and activist Richard Dawkins encourage mockery of Catholic beliefs and those of other religions.

“Don’t fall for the convention that we’re all ‘too polite’ to talk about religion,” Dawkins said, before urging rally attendees to ridicule Catholics’ faith in the Eucharist.

“Religion makes specific claims about the universe which need to be substantiated, and need to be challenged – and if necessary, need to be ridiculed with contempt,” he told the cheering crowd on the National Mall.

“For example, if they say they’re Catholic: Do you really believe, that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ? Are you seriously telling me you believe that? Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?”

If the answer is yes, Dawkins suggested atheists should show contempt for believers instead of ignoring the issue or feigning respect.

“Mock them,” he told the crowd. “Ridicule them! In public!”

The former Oxford professor and author of “The God Delusion” was among the headliners of Saturday’s rally, which also featured comedian Eddie Izzard, punk rock group Bad Religion, and magician James Randi.

Dawkins called for atheists to identify themselves in public, for the sake of a more openly secular society.

He also claimed that many self-identified Christians are only nominal adherents of their religion, and should be given a chance to disavow beliefs that they may not hold.

“When you meet somebody who claims to be religious, ask them what they really believe,” Dawkins suggested.

“If you meet somebody who says he’s Catholic, for example, say: ‘What do you mean? Do you just mean you were baptized Catholic, because I’m not impressed by that.’”

But those who hold to the doctrines of their faith should be openly ridiculed, Dawkins said.

“I don’t despise religious people; I despise what they stand for,” he explained.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the former professor praised the “truth” and “beauty” of Darwinian evolution, and the ability of the “incredible process” to produce life with the “illusion of design.”

“How is it conceivable,” he wondered, “that the laws of physics should conspire together – without guidance, without direction, without any intelligence – to bring us into the world?”

It was “almost too good to be true,” he rhapsodized, that this “mechanical, automatic, unplanned, unconscious process” should produce human intelligence.

“That’s not just true, it’s beautiful,” he declared to cheers from the crowd of agnostics and atheists.

“It’s beautiful because it’s true,” said Dawkins. “And it’s almost too good to be true.”

Please check Mater Ecclesiae’s site, listed on the right for the schedule of services for the Triduum. These services are very beautiful and devout.

from the National Catholic Register, EWTN News

A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America is an extended essay that will serve as foreword to new addition of his 2008 book Render Unto Caesar.

A new e-book by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia examines the role of religious faith in American public life and contemporary pressures on religious liberty.

“Our national leadership in 2012 seems deaf to matters of religious freedom abroad and unreceptive, or frankly hostile, to religious engagement in public affairs here at home,” Archbishop Chaput writes in A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America.

The book was released March 27 through the Random House publishing division Doubleday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia reported.

The book is an extended essay that contends that a new and authentically Catholic activism is urgent “as the mistakes and ambiguities of the past half century of American Catholic experience come to harvest.”

Some of these mistakes came because American Catholics “really wanted to fit in and wanted to kind of minimize the teachings of the Church that might be in conflict with the broader culture,” Archbishop Chaput said on the March 23 broadcast of The Dom Giordano Program on CBS Radio Philadelphia.

“I think that effort to fit in kept us quiet, and it fully undermined even Catholics’ belief and knowledge. It also compromised our ability to speak clearly about the truth.”

The new book is “very small” and will serve as a new forward to his 2008 book Render Unto Caesar, a new edition of which will be released this summer.

The book was drafted in the fall of 2011. The Philadelphia Archdiocese said the book is “even timelier now” in light of the controversy over the Health and Human Services mandate requiring almost all private health-care plans to cover sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs.

Archbishop Chaput has criticized the mandate as “coercive and deeply troubling for the rights of conscience.”

The archbishop served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2003 to 2007. Besides Render Unto Caesar, he is also the author of Living the Catholic Faith: Rediscovering the Basics.

Thanks to the graciousness of Fr. Jason Kulczynski, this year’s LLA Annual Solemn High Mass will be held at St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church, the National Center of the Archconfraternity of St. Philomena, located at 41 E. Baltimore Avenue, Lansdowne, Pa. The Mass will be on Saturday, June 30, at 7:00 p.m., and will fulfill our Sunday obligation. For more information about St. Philomena, please check www.stphilomenapa.org.

We hope to see you there.

I wanted to let the LLA Local Chapter know about a Mission that will be held at Holy Saviour Parish in Norristown, Pa.

http://www.holysaviour.com/

There will be a parish Mission on March 12th, 13th, and 14th, with the Mission preacher Canon Matthew Talarico of the Institute of Christ the King. There are more details on the Holy Saviour website. If you click the Weekly Bulletin, you will see all pertinent information.

There will be Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 9 a.m. on the days of the mission. I hope the members find this information of value.

Sincerely,

Claire Cavoto, Norristown Pa.

Lenten Ember Day First Friday TLM, March 2nd, A.D. 2012 will be offered by Fr. Gerald Carey, Pastor of St. Paul Parish, at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 (T) 215-947-3500 at 7 p.m., preceded by Confessions at 6:30 p.m.

Lenten Ember Day First Saturday TLM, March 3rd, A.D. 2012 will be offered by Fr. Dominick Finn, O.S.F.S., at 9:15 a.m. preceded by confessions at 8:45 a.m., also at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish. (We hope to resume First Sat TLM’s at 9 a.m., pending changes to the future schedule of Fr. Finn.)

Thank you for publicizing these Lenten Ember Day First Friday and First Saturday TLM’s.

Mark Matthews,
Advisory Council

Just a quick note before the weekend about this story today on Chiesa: The ancient rite reappears in Lourdes.

The story relates to the appointment of Mgr. Brouwet to the French diocese of Lourdes:

Following the “personal” appointment of Bishop Francis Moraglia as patriarch of Venice, Benedict XVI has hit a similar shot with the Church of France.

He did so last Saturday, February 11, the feast of the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes, when he appointed the new bishop of the diocese in which the famous Marian shrine stands, that of Tarbes and Lourdes. Pope Joseph Ratzinger has called to this post Nicolas Brouwet, who will turn 50 next August 31, since April of 2008 the auxiliary bishop of Nanterre, the diocese in which he was born and was ordained a priest in 1992.

The story continues:

The choice of Brouwet, like that of Moraglia, did not go through the scrutiny of the cardinals and bishops of the relevant congregation in one of their regular Thursday meetings. Both will take possession of their respective dioceses on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.

Bishop Brouwet, however, although he is young, is recognized as having a liturgical sensibility that is particularly faithful to tradition. Last December 25, he celebrated Christmas Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, according to the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum.” He has also participated in the traditionalist pilgrimages from Paris to Chartres on Pentecost. His stance on moral issues is also in keeping with tradition.

This does not mean that Brouwet is a traditionalist tout court; it is enough to see his official photos in clerical dress to understand this. He belongs instead to that generation of young priests who, like pope Ratzinger, consider the traditionalist world – very lively in France even in its non-Lefebvrist component – more as a resource than as a problem, unlike the progressive old guard of the episcopate, less and less influential…

Lourdes is not a cardinal diocese, but with its famous Marian shrine it is like the spiritual heart of France. It is there, in fact, that the plenary assembly of French bishops regularly meets. Not to mention the international dimension of the diocese. Faithful, seminarians, priests, bishops and cardinals from around the world arrive there. Some problems of an administrative nature that have been seen recently in the diocese have been monitored with special attention by the Holy See as well.

For all these reasons, it is even more significant that Benedict XVI has entrusted the diocese of Lourdes to a young bishop with well-defined characteristics like Brouwet.

Read the entire story on Chiesa.