Sunday Reading for, August 20th, 2017

Sunday Reading for, August 20th, 2017

  19:53    Catholic Channels

---

 Sunday  Reading for, August 20th, 2017
   
First Reading , Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
1 Thus says Yahweh: Make fair judgement your concern, act with justice, for soon my salvation will come and my saving justice be manifest.

6 As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him, to love Yahweh's name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant:

7 these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
2 Then the earth will acknowledge your ways, and all nations your power to save.

3 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.

5 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.

6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God has blessed us.


Gospel, Matthew 15:21-28
21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Lord, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.'

23 But he said not a word in answer to her. And his disciples went and pleaded with him, saying, 'Give her what she wants, because she keeps shouting after us.'

24 He said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'

25 But the woman had come up and was bowing low before him. 'Lord,' she said, 'help me.'

26 He replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'

27 She retorted, 'Ah yes, Lord; but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters' table.'

28 Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your desire be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again.

2nd Reading, Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
13 Let me say then to you gentiles that, as far as I am an apostle to the gentiles, I take pride in this work of service;

14 and I want it to be the means of rousing to envy the people who are my own blood-relations and so of saving some of them.

15 Since their rejection meant the reconciliation of the world, do you know what their re-acceptance will mean? Nothing less than life from the dead!

29 There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or of his choice.

30 Just as you were in the past disobedient to God but now you have been shown mercy, through their disobedience;

31 so in the same way they are disobedient now, so that through the mercy shown to you they too will receive mercy.

32 God has imprisoned all human beings in their own disobedience only to show mercy to them all.

Read More

Master Daolu ordered to cease all further rescue work of women and children in Rugao.

Master Daolu ordered to cease all further rescue work of women and children in Rugao.

  15:30    Catholic Channels

---

The Chinese news outlet Global Times is reporting that a monk who saves babies from abortion and then brings them up has come into conflict with authorities.

Master Daolu, a former businessman turned monk, believes, like many Buddhists, that the baby has a soul fm conception, and that abortion is murder. However, he doesn’t just persuade women not to have abortions – he provides shelter and care for them and their babies.

Lifelong care
According to an earlier Global Times article, when he began his ministry, Master Daolu converted his own villa in Nantong, in East China’s Jiangsu Province into a foster home, hiring nannies and recruiting volunteers to care for abandoned babies. He offers women in crisis pregnancies – most of them in their twenties and unmarried -money, shelter, healthcare and help to raise their children. He promises to take care of the children until adulthood, and, he explains, mothers “chose me instead of a public foster home, as they could return to see their children or take away them at any time.” Public foster homes only receive orphans and the mothers don’t know of their babies’ whereabouts after they are adopted, he says.

Shut down
This brave monk has already faced huge difficulties in obtaining hukou, or household registration, for the children, which is needed to access public education and healthcare. Now it is reported that the local government in Rugao, a county-level city under Nantong’s jurisdiction, has shut down his foster home, and forced him to sign an agreement that all the women leave and take their children with them. He is also ordered to cease all further rescue work of women and children in Rugao.

Battling on
Daolu hasn’t disbanded the women and children as he promised in the letter, instead arranging for them to live in apartments rented by himself, or the homes of lay Buddhists. He said that there are currently more than 20 women waiting to give birth and 23 children up to five years of age under his care. He has no plans to stop his rescue efforts, and has vowed to keep fighting to get legal recognition for the children.

Incomprehensible number of lives lost
This is a somewhat surprising article to find in the Global Times, whose editorial stance is strongly pro-government. Even more surprisingly, it admits the enormous scale of abortion in China – 23 million abortions a year, including 10 million that are performed in private clinics or via medication (which the Chinese government repeatedly ignored). However, it makes no mention that many are the direct result of China’s coercive population control policy, and forced abortion is rife.

Read More

Vietnam team to help families in the northern region

Vietnam team to help families in the northern region

  15:11    Catholic Channels

---

Catholic relief workers in Vietnam are avoiding involvement with the government in order to deliver supplies to flood victims in the remote Yen Bai province.

Bishop Joseph Nguyen Van Yen led a Caritas Vietnam team to help families in the northern region. He explained that government officials do not recognize the Catholic charitable agency, “so we try to pay quick, quiet visits to victims, console them and give them money so that they can deal with their situation.”

Read More

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth has urged Catholics to register to vote, in advance of a unusual postal referendum on legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth has urged Catholics to register to vote, in advance of a unusual postal referendum on legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

  14:24    Catholic Channels

---

An Australian archbishop has urged Catholics to register to vote, in advance of a unusual postal referendum on legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, in a pastoral letter to be read at all the parishes of the archdiocese, explained that the Catholic Church “cannot support proposals for the changing of the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.”

While acknowledging that the Catholic Church cannot impose its beliefs on Australian society, the archbishop added that Catholics have every right to air their views. He decried ad hominem attacks on those who oppose same-sex marriage:

It is unworthy to suggest that those who argue against the proposed redefinition of marriage are homophobic or in some way lacking in intellectual depth. It is unfair to suggest that they are trying to force their views on others. It is cruel to claim that such people are devoid of love, compassion or understanding for those in same-sex relationships.
The Australian government is organizing a non-binding “postal plebiscite” in which registered voters will be asked to weigh in on the question of same-sex marriage. The results will be tabulated in November.

Read More

bishop in the Philippines has denounced the reported plan of an Islamic terrorist group to force hostages into the role of suicide bombers.

bishop in the Philippines has denounced the reported plan of an Islamic terrorist group to force hostages into the role of suicide bombers.

  14:14    Catholic Channels

---

A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has denounced the reported plan of an Islamic terrorist group to force hostages into the role of suicide bombers.

Bishop Edwin de la Peña y Angot of Marawi—the city on the island of Mindanao where terrorists attacked the cathedral and seized hostages in May—reacted to warnings that the Islamic group would use the hostages as human bombs. The tactic is “horrible… to be condemned!” he said.

”These terrorists are clearly desperate to even imagine something like that,” said the bishop. The Islamic militants, who had evidently planned to take control of the city, have been battling sporadically with government troops. About 40 militants remain in Marawi, officials report, surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.

Read More

call for systematic and intensified preaching and catechesis on marriage

call for systematic and intensified preaching and catechesis on marriage

  14:05    Catholic Channels

---

Radical action urged as Catholic marriages hit lowest level since 1941
Scotland needs a Catholic marriage association, tribunal head says

The Scottish bishops have been urged to take radical action after the number of Catholic marriages in Scotland hit the lowest level since 1941.

There were just 1,346 Catholic marriages in Scotland last year, down from a high of 7,066 in 1970.

Mgr Peter Magee, head of the Scottish Catholic Interdiocesan Tribunal, which rules on annulments, said he would like to see better preaching about marriages in parishes, the establishment of a Catholic Marriage Association, and one Sunday in the year dedicated to matrimony.

“We need more systematic and intensified preaching and catechesis on marriage, preaching at Mass and catechesis both in Catholic schools and in the preparation of couples for marriage,” he said.

“Here we need to harness the expert help of communicators, psychologists in line with the Catholic vision of marriage and any other professional class which would help get the message across, including Catholic media, Catholic think tanks and Catholic social media wizards.”

Mgr Magee added that Catholic marriages should be ‘a source of inspiration.’

“This would include examples of marriages from the past and present and ways of enabling solid Catholic marriages to witness to others about the truth of what marriage is, with all its wonders and problems,” he said.

The monsignor also called for the establishment of a Catholic Marriage Association.

“[This would] have the task of critically analysing the cultural and philosophical trends in our society, in order to demonstrate when those trends are, or are not, serving the true need for love, intimacy, stability, children and interpersonal development of a coupled man and woman,” he said.

“It would demythologise the lies which are thrown at us concerning love, sex, relationships, happiness and fulfilment and which proceed solely from the self centred needs of the hedonism which has infected and corrupted our culture and our laws.

“We need a sensitive but articulate presentation of why cohabitation does not respond humanly, never mind Christianly, to what the human being craves deep down.”



Message on marriage

Mgr Magee said we should have one Sunday in the year dedicated to marriage, ‘much as we have one for life and other worthwhile causes.’

“It would not be just a day to preach about marriage nor to pray for it—these are givens,” he said. “It would be a day to celebrate marriage in the parish, both liturgically and socially.

“It would be a day to issue a message on marriage to the nation in the exercise of our right of free speech and in our sense of duty to present the Christian vision courageously and positively to our sceptical and secularist culture.”

He also suggested we need more ­marriage advisory services on a ‘more widespread basis, closer to local communities.’

“But those who lead them need proper training in the rich teaching of the Church in such matters, be it for those already married or those curious about getting married,” he said.

“While the culture around us seems against us, there are probably thousands of young people just waiting to hear ‘the Gospel of Marriage.’”

“[Young people] who would be enthralled and inspired to enter into marriage as God intended it, if someone would just take the time and explain to them, with love, the rich and profound treasure that it is, and that it can only be since it comes from the hands of God.

“I realise that much of what I propose requires resources, financial and personnel, but to precisely what other cause would it be more important to do so?”

Read More

‘We cannot accept the unethical way Canadian mining companies have been operating in Latin America ‘

‘We cannot accept the unethical way Canadian mining companies have been operating in Latin America ‘

  13:51    Catholic Channels

---

The Catholic bishops of Canada have issued a letter condemning “the unethical way Canadian mining companies have been operating in Latin America or other regions of the world.”

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Bishop Douglas Crosby of Hamilton, writing in his capacity as president of the Canadian bishops’ conference, says that the hierarchy “cannot remain indifferent to the cry of the poor or to the repercussions of environmental degradation on our common home.” The letter calls for appointment of an ombudsman to handle complaints against mining companies; measures to allow Canadian courts to handle prosecution of mining companies for violations of environmental law in other countries; and an end to government support of mining companies through free-trade agreements and international investment protection.

Read More

CONDITIONS ON PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS

CONDITIONS ON PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS

  13:24    Catholic Channels

---

Cardinal Medina: no Communion, funeral for pro-abortion politicians without public repentance

Read More

CONDITIONS ON PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS

CONDITIONS ON PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS

  13:24    Catholic Channels

---

Cardinal Medina: no Communion, funeral for pro-abortion politicians without public repentance

Read More

PROPOSAL FOR THE AMENDMENT OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW

PROPOSAL FOR THE AMENDMENT OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW

  12:52    Catholic Channels

---

A well known English theologian has proposed amending the Code of Canon Law to include “a procedure for calling to order a Pope who teaches error.”

Father Aidan Nichols—a Dominican who has taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome—made the suggestion in light of the “extremely grave” confusion caused by Pope Francis with his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

Father Nichols said that the papal document seemed to indicate that “actions condemned by the law of Christ can sometimes be morally right or even, indeed, requested by God.” He said that the document would allow for an unprecedented situation in which the Church “tolerated concubinage.”

The current Code of Canon Law does not provide for any situation in which the Roman Pontiff can be judged by anyone else. However, Father Nichols recalled, the First Vatican Council, in defining papal infallibility, did not take the position “that a Pope is incapable of leading people astray.”

The Dominican theologian reasoned that if a canonical procedure existed that would allow for the correction of a Pope, that might provide a deterrent against novelties in papal teaching. Moreover, he said, the procedure would offer some assurance to other Christians who have concerns about the sweeping nature of papal authority. He said: “Indeed, it may be that the present crisis of the Roman magisterium is providentially intended to call attention to the limits of primacy in this regard.”

Read More

The bishops of Venezuela “reject any foreign military interference” despite the country’s critical situation, said Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas.

The bishops of Venezuela “reject any foreign military interference” despite the country’s critical situation, said Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas.

  12:08    Catholic Channels

---

The catholic bishops of Venezuela “reject any foreign military interference” despite the country’s critical situation, said Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas.

After celebrating a Mass on the 150th anniversary of the city’s cathedral, Cardinal Urosa reacted to a public statement by US President Donald Trump, hinting at a possible American military intervention. “The crisis through which we Venezuelans are suffering is so serious” that other nations are now speaking about involvement, the cardinal acknowledged. But he insisted: “We are Venezuelans, and especially because our government created the problem, we are the ones who have to resolve this crisis.”

Cardinal Urosa remarked that Venezuela’s bishops would reject “any foreign military interference.” He pointedly included interference by Cuba, “which has been in Venezuela for some time.”

Read More

Los obispos de Venezuela "rechazan cualquier interferencia militar extranjera" a pesar de la situación crítica del país, dijo el cardenal Jorge Urosa Savino de Caracas.

Los obispos de Venezuela "rechazan cualquier interferencia militar extranjera" a pesar de la situación crítica del país, dijo el cardenal Jorge Urosa Savino de Caracas.

  12:03    Catholic Channels

---

NUESTRA CRISIS ES CADA VEZ MÁS GRAVE.
DECLARACIONES
CARDENAL JORGE UROSA SAVINO, ARZOBISPO DE CARACAS
Luego de celebrar una Misa en la Catedral de Caracas con motivo de los 150
años de la consagración de la misma, el Cardenal Jorge Urosa Savino se
refirió a las breves declaraciones del Presidente de los Estados Unidos,
Donald Trump.
“ La crisis que sufrimos los venezolanos es tan grave que ahora surge un
problema externo, las amenazas de una opción militar por parte del
Presidente Trump”.
“Yo - y estoy seguro, todos los Obispos venezolanos - rechazo toda
ingerencia militar extranjera, como la cubana, presente desde hace algún
tiempo en Venezuela, y no estoy de acuerdo con la amenaza de una opción
militar. El problema, sin embargo es que la crisis social, política y económica
que sufrimos, es cada vez más grave; tanto, que da pie para que alguien
piense en una opción militar. Somos los venezolanos, y en especial el
Gobierno que la ha creado, los que tenemos que resolver la crisis actual”.
Caracas, 13 de agosto de 2017

Read More

HOLY FATHER'S CONDELENCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF TERRORIST ATTACK IN BARCELONA AND CAMBRILS, SPAIN

HOLY FATHER'S CONDELENCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF TERRORIST ATTACK IN BARCELONA AND CAMBRILS, SPAIN

  08:10    Catholic Channels

---

The Holy Father’s condolences for the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain The following is the telegram of condolences for the victims of the terrorist attacks that occurred yesterday in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain, sent by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on behalf of the Holy Father to His Eminence Juan José Omella y Omella, archbishop of Barcelona: Telegram CARDINAL JUAN JOSÉ OMELLA Y OMELLA ARCHBISHOP OF BARCELONA FOLLOWING THE NEWS OF THE CRUEL TERRORIST ATTACK THAT HAS SOWN DEATH AND PAIN IN LAS RAMBLAS IN BARCELONA, POPE FRANCIS WISHES TO EXPRESS HIS DEEPEST SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS WHO HAVE LOST THEIR LIVES TO SUCH AN INHUMAN ACT, AND OFFERS PRAYERS FOR THEIR ETERNAL REPOSE. IN THESE MOMENTS OF SORROW AND PAIN, HE WISHES ALSO TO OFFER HIS SUPPORT AND CLOSENESS TO THE MANY INJURED, TO THEIR FAMILIES, AND TO ALL CATALAN AND SPANISH SOCIETY. THE HOLY FATHER ONCE AGAIN CONDEMNS BLIND VIOLENCE, WHICH IS A GRAVE OFFENCE TO THE CREATOR, AND RAISES PRAYERS TO THE MOST HIGH THAT HE HELP US CONTINUE TO WORK WITH DETERMINATION FOR PEACE AND HARMONY IN THE WORLD. WITH THESE WISHES, HIS HOLINESS INVOKES UPON ALL THE VICTIMS, THEIR FAMILIES AND THE BELOVED SPANISH PEOPLE HIS APOSTOLIC BLESSING. 

CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN SECRETARY OF STATE OF HIS HOLINESS

Read More