WORLDWIDE
NEWS & VIEWS
with a Catholic slant
HEADLINES:
After 20 year restoration, Sistine Chapel is finally complete just in time for Jubilee 2000
It took four times as long to restore the paintings Michelangelo created on the ceilings and walls of the Sistine Chapel nearly a half a millennium ago. But the glories of the great masters are now complete and look better than ever, just in time for the hordes of pilgrims and tourists who will pour into the Sistine Chapel to see these wondrous paintings depicting creation, the Last Judgment and scenes from the Old and New Testament. For more, click on Completion of Sistine Chapel.
No coincidence the twelve stars in European Union flag reflect the twelve stars of Mary as is revealed by devout Catholic who designed flag
We all know Our Lady has asked protection of all of Europe and most Catholic Europeans have called on her intercession, but now we learn that the European Union Flag designed in 1950 was inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Rue de Bac for the twelve stars on a blue shield represent the Virgin Mary. It was designed by devout Catholic German artist named Arsene Heitz who recently revealed that his inspiration came from the visions at Rue de Bac and Catholic scriptural teachings. For more, click on Twelve Stars of Mary for Europe.
Congregation for the Causes of Saints will reveal on Monday, December 20th those to be beatified and canonized in the year 2000
The long-awaited speculation will be over in two weeks when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will reveal those candidates that have been confirmed for the title of blessed or saint by Pope John Paul II in the Jubilee Year. While some believe Pope John XXIII and Pope Pius IX will be beatified, most are relatively sure the Fatima children will be on the list and many also expect Blessed Juan Diego to be on the list for canonization. The jury is still out on whether Pope Pius XII and Pope Paul VI will make the list this time even though their process has been going on for some time. For more, click on 2000 Beatifications and Canonizations
Westminster Archdiocese launches door-to-door campaign to reach out to lapsed Catholics
;If the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons can do it, why not the Catholics? That is the thinking in Britain where the Westminster Archdiocese is launching a door-to-door campaign for Catholic parishioners to team-up in an attempt to bring lapsed Catholics back into the Church. Many are doing it in honor of the late Cardinal Basil Hume whose brainchild this was. It is a natural since statistics show attendance slipping badly in England. For more, click on Knocking on England's doors.
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 and the features, dossiers and Daily Dispatches at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.
Coming this weekend:
- The 5th selection in the Countdown of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY
- Another pertinent editorial in CATHOLIC PewPOINT
- Heart-filled words from Sister Mary Lucy Astuto in her column GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
- Sixty-eighth installment on our new daily feature APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
- Time Capsules in Church History with MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES focusing on December 8th and 9th
- DAILY LITURGY for the Second Friday and Saturday of Advent and Saturday's Feast of Pope Saint Damasus I and the THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT on Gaudete Sunday.
- Another gem from SIMPLY SHEEN and we highlight another Prince of the Church: Cardinal Adolfo Antonio Suarez Rivera of Mexico in our COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION
- ...and more in our 235th issue for 1999!
To review past articles in textonly format, click on Archives.
|
TOP CATHOLIC OF THE CENTURY COUNTDOWN:
Number 6:Saint Maximilian Mary KolbeMartyred Apostle of Modern Communications who dedicated his frail frame and strong heart to accomplishing all he could for the Immaculate Heart of Mary by establishing Militia Immaculata
Today as we continue to narrow down the TOP TEN CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY we bring you the 6th person selected out of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY. The voters chose Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, the Conventual Franciscan priest who, despite suffering from tuberculosis most of his life, built an empire for the Immaculate Heart of Mary through his Militia Immaculata and self-supporting Niepokalanow. This "Apostle of Mass Media" zealously promoted the Miraculous Medal and the consecration to Our Lady. His writings on Marian theology set the tone for Vatican II and the eventual proclamation of the Final Dogma of Mary. For more on the 6th selection, click on SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
DAILY LITURGY
Solemnity of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception - a Holy Day of Obligation, while tomorrow is the duo feast of the Second Thursday of Advent and the Feast of Blessed Juan Diego, Guadalupe visionary and hermit. Friday the Church commemorates the Second Friday of Advent. For the readings, liturgies, meditations, and vignettes on these feasts, click on DAILY LITURGY.
Why so many are blind to the Son!
In his column today, Pat Ludwa refutes the modernists' claim that they are teaching Catholicism to the youth today for their approach to the teachings of Holy Mother Church differ widely from what the Council Fathers determined at Vatican II. He shows where thirty years of brainwashing the young has desensitized them and, in many cases, not only turned them off to the Catholic Faith but sent them scurrying toward other sects in search of something. That something has always been in the Church. It's just that liberal teachers over the past three decades have camouflaged it and watered it down so that it often is hardly recognizable. Thirty years of damage cannot be corrected overnight, for Rome was not built in a day. Rather, as Pat points out, it probably will take another thirty years to right the ship so that the young will sail confidently again on the Barque of Peter without bailing out or fearing it will capsize. For Pat's column Disconnecting the young, click on VIEW FROM THE PEW
Events Today in Church History
December 8th is popular for the two most recent Ecumenical Councils, Vatican I and Vatican II. Pope Pius IX opened the First Vatican Council in Rome on this date in 1869. After nearly a year in session, the bishops and Council Fathers adjourned. It has still not officially been closed. Pope John XXIII closed the First Session of the Second Vatican Council on this date in 1962 and his successor Pope Paul VI officially closed the 21st Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) after four sessions on this date in 1965. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
Appreciation of Divine Providence
Today we continue with our new series in the search to uncover the wonderful treasures of the Church contained in the great Deposit of Faith. We remain on the infinite qualities of God, today featuring the Divine Providence of the Almighty which, if we trust in, we will continually be on the right path toward Heaven no matter how rough the path on earth becomes. For the sixty-seventh installment, click on APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
89 year-old Austrian Salesian Cardinal Alfons Stickler is now retired after serving in the Vatican Library and Archives as Prefect
Our one-hundred-thirty-second red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is the 79 year-old Austrian Prefect-emeritus of the Vatican Library and Archives Cardinal Alfons Stickler, S.D.B., who retired eleven years ago after teaching Canon Law for thirty years and serving in the Vatican Library for seventeen years. He was elevated to the cardinalate during Pope John Paul II's Consistory of May 25, 1985. For more on Cardinal Alfons Stickler, S.D.B., click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION
SIMPLY SHEEN:Three legs of love
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".
"Every love rests on a tripod. Every love has three bases or supports: goodness, knowledge and similarity."
November 25th Medjugorje Monthly Message
Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. In this time of grace, may the cross be a sign-post of love and unity for you through which true peace comes. That is why, little children, pray especially at this time that little Jesus, the Creator of peace, may be born in your hearts. Only through prayer will you become my apostles of peace in this world without peace. That is why, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE
The DAILY WORD
"And when the angel had come to her, he said, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women...Do not be afraid, Mary, for thous has found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thous shalt call His name Jesus...The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God.'"
Luke 1: 28, 30-31, 35
|
|
