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 EASTER WEEKDAYSee DAILY LITURGY |
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| TUESDAY vol. 10, no. 72 April 13, 1999 |
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  Please continue your prayers for those embroiled in the bitter intensified war in the Balkans on both sides, especially the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of hate and deception
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Today, in honor of the Feast of Pope Saint Martin I who died in 655, we present the Opening Prayer for the Mass commemorating this martyred Sovereign Pontiff.
Merciful God, our Father, neither hardship, pain, nor the threat of death could weaken the faith of St. Martin. Through our faith, give us courage to endure whatever sufferings the world may inflict upon us.
 
Monthly Message for MARCH 25th 
Dear children! I call you to prayer with the heart. In a special way, little children, I call you to pray for conversion of sinners, for those who pierce my heart and the heart of my Son Jesus with the sword of hatred and daily blasphemies. Let us pray, little children, for all those who do not desire to come to know the love of God, even though they are in the Church. Let us pray that they convert, so that the Church may resurrect in love. Only with love and prayer, little children, can you live this time which is given to you for conversion. Place God in the first place, then the risen Jesus will become your friend. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE
 hoping and praying... 
To review past articles in textonly format, click on Archives.
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  Scandal slithers into the Vatican and coils in defiance with the election of Pope Alexander VI If things weren't bad enough during the reigns of Pope Innocent VIII or his predecessor Pope Sixtus IV they would really take a tailspin during the eleven year pontificate of Pope Alexander VI, the Borgia Pope who was accused of being a ruthless poltician and enforcer and discarded the moral laws of the Church in favor of a wanton life of lust and debauchery, not something one would associate with the successor of Peter. In the first of several installments on this pivotal pope, we examine the early years of Rodrigo de Borgia and how he rose to the cardinalate marked by nepotism and simony all the way to his election on August 11, 1492. For the one-hundredth installment titled Pope Alexander VI: The lust for power and prestige , click on THE HISTORY OF THE MASS AND HOLY MOTHER CHURCH.
On this date in 1534 Saint Thomas More who had succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Chancellor of England, refused to take a loyalty oath to King Henry VIII for he maintained rightly that he owed his allegiance to a king much higher than him - the King of Kings - Jesus Christ. For pertinent events that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
 They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".
"How different our lives would become if we would take an hour a day not to think about the attributes of God and the moral law, but to make the love of God and the love of neighbor experientially present in our own heart and soul! Man does not want to be with God as much as God wants to be with man. This is the secret of meditation. Try it and be happy."
 "You are either for Me, totally abandoned to Me, your God, or, you are against Me. There is no middle road." Those words from Our Lord were imparted on Good Friday on April 1, 1994 in Message #476 to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart in which Jesus reminds us of the importance of the day and why He suffered and died for us and calls on us to stand up and be counted. He prefaces this with His Message on Monday of Holy Week with the same theme, urging all His children not to be deceived by those who would lead us astray. For Messages #475 and #476, click on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..."
Though we have completed the 100 Lessons/Meditations of THE HIDDEN WAY previously carried on Tuesdays, you may now acquire your own copy of the just-released book THE HIDDEN WAY which contains all 100. To find out how, click on Book
 WORLDWIDENEWS & VIEWS Catholic World News Service and Noticias Eclesiales Church News
Faith and Reason call for a need to negotiate in Kosovo Pope asserts as the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations in hopes of a breakthrough  While the secular media continue to ignore the Vatican's intrinsic efforts to obtain a peaceful settlement in Kosovo, Catholic World News has documented how much the Holy Father has been involved in bringing all parties to the table. While the secular media flails for sources, CWN points to the fact that the Holy See remains the only entity with open diplomatic relations with all countries involved in the Balkans war. For more, click on Vatican persistency and consistency
  The bitter fued between Croat and Serb escalated over Easter when Auxiliary Bishop Djuro
Gasparovic of Djakovo-Srijem, Croatia was detained at the border after ministering to Croatian Catholics in Serbia for the weekend. Meanwhile in Rome L'Osservatore Romano blamed Serbia for a nationalistic sense of superiority in which the enemy is portrayed as anyone who offers a different culture and religion. The paper warned that this kind of ideology is dangerous and this Nazi-type mentality could spread to other nations in Europe; it is a "cancer" that must be stopped. They also called for Slobodan Milosevic to resign. For more, click on Serbian ideology.
  After a year of controversy, the Polish government has come to a solution regarding the demonstrators on both sides of the controversy over the temporary crosses outside Auschwitz and cleverly made the announcement to appease the Jews just before the Jewish observance of Holocaust Memorial Day today. The Polish parliament voted to establish protective zones where no one could demonstrate and nothing could be constructed around eight former interment death camps in the country where countless Jews, Catholics and others were murdered by the Nazis. Besides the Jewish holiday, the Polish government is also sensitive to the Holy Father's pending visit early this summer in returning to where a papal cross had been erected. The Polish bishops strongly advocate maintaining the Pope's cross while removing the others. For more, click on solidarity solution.
  The fruits of evangelization in Vietnam are bearing themselves with the announcement that the conversion rate in the central region of Vietnam among the tribal people known as Montagnards has increased tremendously. It is an excellent example of how the laity is assisting in the work of evangelization for the area has only three priests but they have trained the Montagnards well, for the latter has been responsible for more conversions among their peoples with 250 native catechists preaching in 120 villages in the lower regions of Kontum. For more, click on miracles among Montagnards .
For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site at the
CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales Both CWN and NE are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.
This was the heresy Pope Saint Martin I condemned and which brought retaliation against him and his ultimate martyrdom by the Byzantine emperor Theodore Calliopas. Monothelitism held that Jesus had only one will, the divine which thus denied the humanity of Christ. This is not to be confused with Monotheism which denied the Holy Trinity in stating there was only One Person in God. Martin called the Lateran Council in an effort to call back the Monophysites to the Church who had held that Christ only one nature, His divinity totally engulfing His humanity. This had been condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and Martin was hoping for reconciliation. But in an effort to call them back, the heresy of Monothelitism arose. This infuriated Calliopas and he retaliated by forcefully taking Martin prisoner. It would be twenty-five years after Pope St. Martin's death when the Sixth Ecumenical Council - the Third Council of Constantinople would officially and in finality condemn Monothelitism once and for all. For much more on this, we recommend clicking on New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia Encyclopedia on Monothelitism.
(sources: 1999 Catholic Almanac, Our Sunday Visitor, Publishers; My Catholic Faith, My Mission House; Catholic Encyclopedia, Thomas Nelson Publishers).
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In today's editorial we catch up on a plethora of issues and strive to clarify some misconceptions some readers might have gleaned from Friday's editorial The Warning could be our final warning! and other stories that have appeared in the DAILY CATHOLIC. We reiterate that this was not our prediction, but a gathering of facts whose syllogism points to it. But there were a few of the pieces of the puzzle not in place and today we try to clarify those pieces and wonder if some of those pieces have already been put into place by the Almighty without our realization. For today's commentary entitled It's called common sense which isn't too common these days!, click on 
