for a "culture of life"

Here is a recent address regarding "the great human rights struggle of our time."

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New direction

Anglicans to Catholics: Ready or Not, Here we Come
Church of England General Synod to touch off an exodus by approving women bishops

By Hilary White

YORK, England, July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "There can be no future for Christianity in Europe without Rome," an Anglican bishop told the Sunday Telegraph this weekend, after it was revealed that a group of "senior" bishops from the Church of England has been in secret negotiations with the highest levels of the Vatican to discuss the current crisis in Anglicanism over the acceptance of homosexuality and female bishops. Bishops from both the Church of England's "evangelical" or protestant and "high" or "Catholic" wings are said to have been involved in the talks that some believe may presage a mass return of Anglicans to the Catholic fold.

Meanwhile, the news has just been released that the General Synod of the Church of England voted tonight to accept the consecration of women as bishops, a move that is likely to result in the exodus of a large number of clergy and a permanent split in the Church that is the officially established religion under British law. The ongoing dissolution of the Church of England, of which Queen Elizabeth is the head, may result in significant constitutional and legal changes to the make-up of Britain. Some fear that it may result in Britain becoming officially a secular nation.

The news comes just days before the start of the Lambeth Conference, the once-in-ten-years gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world set for July 16 to August 4. This year's conference is being boycotted by many bishops over support by the liberalised western Anglican leadership for acceptance of homosexuality. Thus far, five out of the total of 38 Anglican primates and a large number of territorial bishops have said they will not attend. An alternate conference of traditionally Christian Anglican bishops and laity met in June in Jerusalem to discuss ways forward.

Some at the General Synod had suggested the creation of "super bishops" in an extra-geographical diocese who would have jurisdiction over those members of the Church who refuse to accept female bishops. It is not known now whether this arrangement will be honoured. Anglican officials are expected to draw up legislation to bring in women bishops by 2014 at the earliest, Ruth Gledhill reports in the Times.

In anticipation of the move to consecrate female bishops, more than 1,300 clergy, including 11 serving bishops, have written to the archbishops of Canterbury and York saying they will leave the Church of England if women are consecrated bishops.
While women have been raised to the Anglican episcopate in the US, the Church of England has only ordained female diocesan clergy. Three sitting diocesan bishops have also written to the Archbishop of Canterbury supporting the threat and two other bishops have said they are preparing to leave the Church.

Gledhill quotes the Rev. Prebendary David Houlding, a leading Anglo-Catholic, who said, "It's getting worse - it's going downhill very badly."

"It's quite clear there is a pincer movement and we are being squeezed out. We are being pushed by a particular liberal agenda and we are going to have women bishops at the exclusion of any other view."

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, while favouring some accommodation towards the traditionalists, said, "I am deeply unhappy with schemes or solutions which involve the structural humiliation of women, who are elected to the episcopate and end up haggling about the limits to their authority."

The news that a group of "senior" Anglican bishops are in talks with Rome during the crisis came as a surprise to representatives of the Catholic Church of England and Wales, attending the Synod as observers. Gledhill reported that Monsignor Andrew Faley, ecumenical officer of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, had "no information" that such talks had taken place. The Telegraph reports that the Rowan Williams was also not told of the talks that are reported to have been with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's highest doctrinal authority after the Pope himself.

The talks come with a backdrop of a difficult history. In 1992, when the Church of England voted to ordain female clergy, a similar crisis ensued in which a large number of Anglican ministers applied to Rome to create a provision to retain the traditional Anglican style of worship but seek communion with the See of Rome. At that time, under Pope John Paul II, some "Anglican Use" parishes were established in the US, but the episcopate of the Catholic Church of England and Wales obstructed the solution. Hopes were dashed when the Catholic bishops of England and Wales announced that converts would only be accepted individually, not en masse, and there would be no provision made for the retention of 500 year-old Anglican liturgical traditions.

It was noted that the heavily liberalised Catholic leadership did not relish the thought of a massive influx of doctrinally and liturgically traditional and highly educated clergy into their midst.

But since the election of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made unprecedented moves to reconcile traditionalists in the Catholic Church, and who was strongly supportive of the Anglican traditionalists before his election, hope has been revived that a path may be cleared.

Damien Thompson, a 'blogger for the Telegraph and editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald, wrote, "The Pope's closest advisers are not in a mood to allow the bishops the same freedom this time. They are already cross at the poor English response to the Motu Proprio liberating the Latin liturgy - and have conveyed their displeasure to the relevant bishops in no uncertain terms."

"The Anglican traditionalists know that they cannot trust a Catholic bishop not to shop them to Rowan Williams. So the liberal RC hierarchy has been - quite properly - kept in the dark."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070717.html

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Church unity threatened

Church vote opens door to female bishops

Synod rejects compromise deal and raises fears of split with traditionalists
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Tuesday July 8, 2008

Ruling General Synod throws out compromises that would have appeased opponents

The Church of England was thrown into turmoil last night over the issue of women bishops, as it rejected proposals that would have accommodated clergy strongly opposed to the historic change.

In an emotional, sometimes bitter debate lasting more than seven hours, the General Synod voted against introducing separate structures and "superbishops", to oversee parishes opposed to women bishops, because they were seen as amounting to institutionalised discrimination.

Instead, the 468 members narrowly agreed to the idea of introducing a national statutory code of practice, throwing out all compromises that would have appeased opponents of women bishops.

A code of practice has yet to be fully explored, but will not satisfy the demands of traditionalists and conservative evangelicals, who had formed an alliance to block consideration of any such code.

The Bishop of Winchester, Michael Scott-Joynt, condemned the final vote, taken after amendments had been tabled and rejected, as "mean-spirited and short-sighted". "The manifest majority was profoundly short-sighted. At every point it could have offered reassurances, and it did not do that," he said.

In the debate, one churchman, Gerald O'Brien, told the synod there were possibilities of receiving episcopal oversight from overseas archbishops. His comments drew boos and hisses from the assembly.

Scott-Joynt criticised such threats. "We've got people talking about defection - they were clearly talking about the Global Anglican Future conference [held last month in Jerusalem, which ended with the threat of an Anglican breakaway]. We've got a lot of soul-searching to do."

He echoed the sentiments of the Bishop of Dover, the Right Rev Stephen Venner, who was in tears after he made a speech, imploring the pro-women lobby to show some generosity.

"I feel ashamed. We have talked about wanting to give an honourable place for those who disagree, and we have turned down almost every realistic opportunity. We have not even been prepared to explore the possibility of fresh expressions of dioceses or bishops. And still we talk the talk of being inclusive."

Venner was referring to the superbishops plan, which failed to win a two-thirds majority across the three houses (bishops, clergy and laity) even though more backed it than opposed it. Synod's decision infuriated the influential Anglo-Catholic wing, which wants protection from women bishops. One senior churchman, the Rev Prebendary David Houlding, said: "It's getting worse, it's going downhill very badly. It's quite clear there's a pincer movement and we're being squeezed out. There is only one way forward: a code of practice." He added: "There will be no walkout - yet."

The archbishops of Canterbury and York appeared pensive during the debate, holding their heads in their hands. There were frequent pauses for silent prayer and reflection. The synod ignored their pleas. Rowan Williams and John Sentamu wanted legislative protection rather than a voluntary code of practice. Sentamu supported plans for superbishops, while Williams wanted "more rather than less robust" legislation.

The Bishop of Durham said such a vital and sensitive debate should not have taken place a week before Lambeth, the once-a-decade gathering of the world's Anglican bishops. He called for unity amid the mood of unhappiness and disunity.

The Right Rev Tom Wright said: "There might be some things that we might eventually have to split over. This should not be one of them."

The prospect of rebellion has loomed large over the meeting in York, which ends today. Yesterday's vote means the church moves toward ordaining women bishops with a code of practice, to be drawn up for consideration by the synod in February. The code will need a two-thirds majority in each of the houses when it reaches the final vote in several years' time.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/07/anglicanism.religion2/print

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Visitation of the Blessed Virgin - July 2

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior . . ."

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Pope and Patriarch issue messages on St. Paul

Pope and Patriarch issue messages on St. Paul

Pope Benedict and [Eastern Orthodox] Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople spoke on universality of faith and the example of Paul, who combined the Latin, Greek, and Jewish cultures.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

By FIDES

(Spero News) Pope Benedict XVI went on Saturday 28 June at 6pm to the Roman Basilica of St Paul's outside the Walls to preside First Vespers of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on the occasion of the opening of a special Year of Saint Paul with the participation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I as well as representatives of other Christian Churches and communities.

Before entering the Basilica, the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarch and a representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, lit a lamp in the Hall of the Basilica which will burn throughout the Year of Saint Paul. The procession entered the Basilica through the Door of St Paul and after veneration at the tomb of the Apostle, Vespers began.

In his homily Pope Benedict said "For us Paul is not a figure of the past whom we recall with veneration. For us He is a teacher, an apostle and a herald of Jesus Christ. We have come here together not to reflect on past history, never to return. Paul wishes to speak with us - today. This is why I have called a special Year of St Paul: to listen to him and learn from him as our teacher, the faith and the truth, in which are rooted the reasons for unity of all disciples of
Christ ".

After greeting the numerous delegates and representatives of other Christian Churches and communities the Pope asked: "Who is Paul? What does he say to me?".

The reply is found in three New Testament texts illustrated by the Holy Father. In the Letter to the Galations "he gave us a most personal profession of faith... his faith is the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a personal way; it is knowledge of the fact that Christ faced death not for something anonymous but for love of him - of Paul - and that, as the Risen Lord, He still loves him, Christ gave himself for him. His faith is being struck by the love of Jesus Christ, a love which overwhelms and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an opinion on God and the world. His faith is the impact of God's love on his heart. So this faith is in fact love for Jesus Christ".

In the Letter to the Thessalonians we read "for Paul the truth was too great to be sacrificed for any external success. The truth he had experience in his encounter with the Risen Christ was for him worth strife, persecution, suffering. He was deeply motivated by the fact that he felt loved by Jesus Christ and felt a desire to share this love with others. Paul was a man struck by a great love, and his work and suffering are explained by this nucleus".

The Holy Father then illustrated one key word: freedom. "Paul was free as a man loved by God and who, through God, was able to love with Him…anyone who loves Christ as Paul loved Him, can do anything, because his love is united with the will of Christ and so with the will of God; because his will is anchored in the truth and his will is not only his will, arbitrary of the autonomous I, instead it is integrated in the freedom of God and from this receives the way it is to walk".

Citing Jesus' words to Paul on the road to Damascus - "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" - the Pope explained "by persecuting the Church, Paul was persecuting Jesus Himself... Christ did not retire to heaven leaving a host of followers on earth to 'run his cause'.

The Church is not an association which promotes a cause. In the Church it is not a matter of a cause. It is a question of the person of Jesus Christ, who even as the Risen Lord was still 'flesh'... he has a body. He is personally present in his Church... In all this we glimpse the Eucharistic Mystery, in which Christ continues to give his Body and make us into his Body... Continually Christ draws us into his Body, he builds up his Body starting from the Eucharistic
centre, which for Paul is the heart of Christian life, through which all of us and as every individual can experience, in a personal way: He loved me and gave himself for me".

The Pope concluded him homily with these words: "We thank the Lord because he called Paul making him light of the nations and teacher for us all and we pray: give us today witnesses of the resurrection, filled with your love and able to carry the light of the Gospel in our times. Saint, pray for us! Amen."

Before the final Blessing the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I addressed those present and he said "radical conversion and the apostolic kerygma of Saul of Tarsus 'shook' history in the literal sense of the word and outlined the actual identity of Christianity...

This holy place outside the Walls is most appropriate for commemorating and celebrating a man who combined the Greek language and the Roman mentality of his day, stripping Christianity, once and for all, of any mental restriction and forging for ever the Catholic foundation of the ecumenical Church. Let us hope that the life and the Letters of St Paul may continue to be for us a source of inspiration that all peoples may obey faith in Christ."

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News from Canterbury

From The Sunday Times June 29, 2008

Anglicans form 'new church' in gay clergy row

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

Articles of faith: keep up with the debate on Ruth Gledhill's blog

The Anglican Church faces what is in effect a schism this weekend after the declaration last night of conservative evangelicals to create a "church within a church". The new body, called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, will have its own bishops, clergy and theological colleges.

Details of the fellowship were announced in Jerusalem last night at a summit of conservative Anglicans, the Global Anglican Future Conference.

It follows a protracted battle within the church over gay clergy. Many evangelicals were outraged when it was revealed this month that the civil partnership of two gay priests had been blessed in a London church with a traditional wedding liturgy.

The 300 bishops and archbishops in Jerusalem insist they do not want to split from the 80m-strong Anglican communion. This is partly a recognition that a formal schism would involve protracted legal disputes about ownership of churches and other properties.

However, they last night declared their plans for a new "primates council" made up of the senior bishops and archbishops at the Jerusalem meeting. The new fellowship also represents a direct challenge to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In a statement last night they challenged the role of the archbishop as primus inter pares of the bishops of the Anglican communion. "While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury," it said.

The new fellowship will return to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the 39 articles of religion, train its own priests and insist on more orthodox practices in its churches. Although the instigators claim they are focused on reform from within it is said to represent the worst blow to church unity in the West since the Protestant reformation of the 16th century.

Central to the announcement was a "Jerusalem declaration", which will form the basis of the new fellowship. In the declaration the archbishops and bishops said: "We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed." It accused the leaders of the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada of proclaiming a "false gospel". The fellowship's first task will be to create a new Anglican body in North America.

Jerusalem was chosen as the location to announce the fellowship because of its precedence over Canterbury in the Christian hierarchy. A fellowship will be seen as a partial victory for Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, who was not at last night's meeting but who argued for reform from within. Unity, he said, was "a very precious thing".

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St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles - Homily

". . . If the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church then it is only that the martyrs confessed what was revealed to them, not by flesh and blood, but by the Father in heaven. That is they confessed Jesus Christ and as they were heard so was He. But as He was rejected so would they be. But this is how the kingdom of heaven advanced, how the sick were healed and how the demons lost their power.

". . . Jesus foresaw the fear and suffering and persecution that His disciples would face with His death on the cross. He saw the attacks His Church would undergo in the world. Therefore, He unites us in and feeds us at the altar that we may be strengthened in the one true faith with the hope of eternal life. If the seed of the Church is the blood of the martyrs then it is through the blood of Christ Himself that the Church has her very life. "By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle [Paul] declares, 'In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.' Colossians 1:14" (Iren., Ad. Haer., V, 2, 2) This Church bears until the Last Day the promise Jesus gave Peter; the gates of hell will not prevail against her. The serpent's head is crushed and the demons are cast out in Jesus' name. In Christ there is peace on earth and good will toward men. 'And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints.' (Introit)

"With Jesus' promise concerning the Church and her life under God's guidance, protection and blessing we see also how He looks ahead, choosing men to carry on His work in the apostolic ministry . . .

"If Jesus is the divine and human Rock on which the Church is built, Peter and his confession are the human means through which the Lord builds His Church . . . [the Lord] continues to reign graciously among us and prepare us for the Last Day when He will come to judge the living and the dead. In the meantime the Church continues to make the same loving confession as Peter as we confess the Nicene Creed. In the meantime we live in the Lord's promise, made certain by His cross, that though the Church suffers on earth, though she is attacked and rejected, even hell cannot prevail against her. For even as Christ reigns in heaven above so He reigns among us, ever 'precious food supplying' (LSB 630), guiding, protecting and blessing us and enriching and enlivening His Church on earth with the forgiveness of sins, all along preparing us for eternal life in His kingdom. Amen."

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who freely gives to this mortal immortality

On this day Christians remember the 2nd c. Bishop, St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Probably Irenaeus' best known writing is Adversus Haereses ("Against Heresies) where, among other things, he wrote against Gnosticism. In this excerpt he describes how Jesus, by His flesh and blood grants salvation to us in our flesh and blood.

". . . For we have given nothing to Him previously, nor does He desire anything from us, as if He stood in need of it; but we do stand in need of fellowship with Him. And for this reason it was that He graciously poured Himself out, that He might gather us into the bosom of the Father.

"2. But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of His body. 1 Corinthians 10:16 For blood can only come from veins and flesh, and whatsoever else makes up the substance of man, such as the Word of God was actually made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins." Colossians 1:14 And as we are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He wills Matthew 5:45). He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.

"3. When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?— even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Ephesians 5:30 He does not speak these words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh; Luke 24:39 but [he refers to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones—that [flesh] which is nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the bread which is His body. And just as a cutting from the vine planted in the ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat falling into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God, serves for the use of men, and having received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them resurrection to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption, 1 Corinthians 15:53 because the strength of God is made perfect in weakness, 2 Corinthians 12:3 in order that we may never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against God, our minds becoming ungrateful; but learning by experience that we possess eternal duration from the excelling power of this Being, not from our own nature, we may neither undervalue that glory which surrounds God as He is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but that we may know what God can effect, and what benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the true comprehension of things as they are, that is, both with regard to God and with regard to man . . ."

(Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. V, 2, 1-3; source: http://newadvent.org/fathers/0103502.htm)

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the general rule of all true religious worship (long)

The following quotation I came across by a Catholic author from years past. In it he discusses worship and the true veneration of Mary and the Saints. Whether or not the reader accepts what he states it is not a bit unconvincing and a good read. Enjoy!

" . . . let us carefully consider in what way devotion to [Mary] should be practised; for, even though furnished with a lasting foundation for our piety, we may show it by what are only vain and superstitious practices. There is a true devotion, and a false one; and the next point to treat concerns the kind of worship that we owe respectively to God, to the Blessed Virgin, and to all the Saints.

"The fundamental rule of the honour we pay to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints is this: that we must entirely refer it all to God and to our eternal salvation. If it were not referred to God it would be a purely human act, and we surely know that the Saints, being filled with God and His glory, will not accept purely human devotion. What does "religion" meand but a binding to God? And how could any act that was not religious please His holy ones? Hence, all devotion to Mary is useless and superstitious that does not lead us to the possession of God and the enjoyment of our heavenly inheritance. This is, indeed, the general rule of all true religious worship: that it flows from, and returns to, God, and is in no wise diverted from Him by being extended to His creatures.

"To come to particulars in the matter: there are two special points, concerning prayer to Our Lady and the Saints, on which the Church is accused by her enemies of erroneous practices, the first of which is 'idolatry'. In other words, Catholics are often charged with acting almost like the heathen in so using their canonised fellow-creatures as to be guilty of multiplying God, by turning them into so many minor deities to whom they pay divine homage. The folly and injustice of such an accusation is very simply proved by reference to the rule just given. The only honour recognized by the Church as due to her Saints is an honour strictly in accordance with that rule; which rule is itself founded upon the central principle of our Faith; namely, on the unity and supremacy of God.

"We Christians adore but one God; single, omnipotent, creator and dispensor of all things; in whose name we were consecrated at baptism; and in whom alone we recognise absolute sovereignty, unlimited goodness, and perfect fulness of Being. We honour the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, not by a worship of necessary service, or of subjection --for, in the order of religion, we are free as regards creatures, and subject only to God--but by an honour of brotherly love and fellowship. In them, we pay homage to wonders worked 'by the right hand of the Most High'; we revere the communication to them of His grace--the diffusion, through them, of His glory. In short, what we honour in them is the very fact of their dependence on that Primary Being to Whom alone our true worship relates; the sole principle of all good, and the end of all our desires, as of theirs. We must, then, entirely repudiate the fear, professed by our enemies, that the glory of God can be diminished by our conceiving high notions of Mary and the Saints. Would it not be attributing miserable weakness to the Creator to imagine Him jealous of His own gifts, and of the light He sheds on His creatures? Just as well might we expect the sun, if he had life, to be jealous of the moon, who shines merely by reflection of his own rays! No matter how highly we may honour Mary's perfections Jesus Christ could not possibly envy her, seeing that He is Himself the source of every grace she possesses. Let the critics who accuse us of idolatry in our worship of the Saints remember that they condemn, with us, the Ambroses, the Augustines, the Chrysostoms, on whose doctrine and example they know our practice to be founded, and whom they themselves acknowledge as authorities.

"The second accusation commonly made against us is that we make for ourselves many mediators, instead of relying on 'the One Sole Mediator, Jesus Christ, Who saved us with His blood'; and our motive for this error is often, further, said to be that--like certain ancient philosophers--we deem God Himself, even though made man for us, to be inaccessible immediately from His extreme purity. Now, if any Catholic ever allows such a notion as this to lay hold of him, and make him put the Saints, to the smallest extent, in the place of Christ, it can only be because of his most culpable ignorance or neglect of his own Church's teaching. No one is taught so plainly as we are that we were created by God for immediate intercourse with Him; but that we lost our privilege, for time, by sin; and that we should have lost it also for eternity if the Son had not reconciled us to the Father by taking our sins on Himself. Hence, we ask absolutely nothing except in the name of Our Saviour, as every child who has properly learnt its catechism is fully aware. All we do, in begging the Saints' prayers, is to beg the prayers of those among our own brethren who are specially dear to that Saviour Himself because of their supreme love for Him. We all--Protestant and Catholic alike--ask for the prayers of our living friends and fellow-Christians, and all believe that 'the prayer of the just man availeth much'. The doctrine of the 'Communion of Saints,' as Catholics put it into practice, is merely the carrying out of this principle with regard to those who are already in the company of God, but whom we believe to be, through His power, still present in spirit among us, and to have our interests at heart though no longer with us in the flesh.

"There is yet another principle involved in the true doctrine of honour to the Saints, which must be touched upon before we leave the subject; and that is the great advantage to ourselves contained in practising devotion towards them of a right sort. The Christian is bound to imitate what he honours, and the object of his worship must also be the model of his life. His God is a perfect God; and hence he must try to make himself perfect, and worship only those who have given honour to their Maker by imitating His perfections. When we venerate the Saints it is not to increase their glory: that is full; they have their perfect measure of it with God in heaven. We pay them homage--over and above the motive of giving glory to God--that we may incite ourselves to follow them, and we ask their prayers for the same purpose. This is the sense of the Church in instituting the feasts she does in honour of the Saints; and it is shown in the collect for St. Stephen's Day, which says: 'O Lord! give us grace to imitate that which we honour'. It is the constant tradition of the Church that the most essential part of devotion to the blessed in heaven is to profit by their example. Without this, all homage is vain. Whatever individual saint we are devout to, we must try to acquire that one's special virtues, and most of all are we bound to do this where the Queen of all Saints--the Virgin of virgins--is concerned. If we deeply revere--as every true Catholic does--the virginal chastity which enabled her to conceive the Son of God in her womb, we can duly express our veneration only by doing our best, according to our states of life, to imitate it in our own souls. So far does St. Ambrose go in his conviction of the power which the reverent imitation of Mary's virtue may confer on her true clients, that he says: 'every chaste soul that keeps its purity and innocence untarnished conceives the Eternal Wisdom in itself; and is filled with God and His grace after the pattern of Mary'."

(Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by Jacques Benigne Bossuet, tr. F. M. Capes, pp. 8-13)

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The Mass

The following excerpts from the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession are provided regarding usage of the word "Mass" and the return to the frequent offering of the Sacrament among Lutherans:

Confessio Augustana, Art. XXIV, De Missa

Falso accusantur ecclesiae nostrae, quod missam aboleant. Retinetur enim missa apud nos et summa reverentia celebratur.
(Triglotta, p.64)

Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence.
(Triglotta, p. 65)

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. Actually, the Mass is retained among us and is celebrated with the greatest reverence.
(Tappert, Latin, p. 56)

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. In fact, the Mass is retained among us and is celebrated with the greatest reverence."
(Kolb / Wengert, Latin, p. 69)

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence.
(McCain, et al, p. 73)

Apologia Confessionis, Art. XXIV, De Missa

Initio hoc iterum praefendum est nos non abolere missam, sed religiose retinere ac defendere. Fiunt enim apud nos missae singulis dominicis e aliis festis, in quibus porrigitur sacramentum his, qui uti volunt, postquam sunt explorati atque absoluti. Et servantur usitatae ceremoniae publicae, ordo lectionum, orationum, vestitus et alia
similia.
(Triglotta, pp. 382, 384)

At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord's Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things.
(Triglotta, pp. 383, 385)

To begin with, we must repeat the prefatory statement that we do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it. In our churches Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on other festivals, when the sacrament is offered to those who wish for it after they have been examined and absolved. We keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of the lessons, prayers, vestments, etc.
(Tappert, p. 249)

At the outset it is again necessary, by way of preface, to point out that we do not abolish the Mass but religiously retain and defend it. Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord's day and on other festivals, when the sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved. We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things.
(Kolb / Wengert, p. 258)

At the outset, we must again make this preliminary statement: we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously keep and defend it. Masses are celebrated among us every Lord's Day and on the other festivals. The Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other such things.
(McCain, et al, p. 246)

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Rights extended to apes

Here is a news article regarding the recent decision by the Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes.

One response I received on passing on this article is worth adding here: "It was bound to happen! Maybe unborn babies will be next."

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