Poland's Catholics to Do Penance and Pray For Priests

WARSAW, Poland, JAN. 15, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Ash Wednesday will be a day of prayer and repentance for all Poland's priests, the country's bishops have decided...

The message from the Polish bishops reads: "The Church of Poland has always shared the mood of the country as much as it has always shared its fate, even at the darkest times of our history.

"The instances of weakness and disloyalty of some of its members, including priests, which have come to light after so many years cannot change this.

"May this time be, for us all, an opportunity of repentance and reconciliation, to restore violated justice and regain mutual trust and hope."

The bishops say they "hope Ash Wednesday, Feb. 21, will be a day of prayer and repentance for all the priests of Poland. We hope all the churches of our dioceses will raise prayers to Divine Mercy, asking for forgiveness for the mistakes and weaknesses committed in the proclamation of the Gospel in its entirety."

"We priests come from the people," the bishops add. "We belong to Polish society, which in its entirety needs to turn its back on evil, in the fullness of conversion."

I think this is an excellent idea that the bishops of the United States might consider as a worthwhile spiritual exercise to promote...and even if they don't maybe we can resolve to do it as our own way of supporting our priests.

No More Free Speech?

Dom over at Bettnet points out something that is happening in the Democrat Run Congress.  He says

"The first bill put up before the US Senate under the new Democrat-controlled Congress is S.1, called “Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007”. As usual with names of legislation, the actual intent is opposite of what it’s called.

In fact, what it does, in Section 220, is seek to put grassroots lobbying groups under the same onerous regulations as paid and professional lobbyists. For example, communications from Vote on Marriage to voters would be treated the same as K Street lobbyist taking your senator out to lunch. Make no mistake, this is aimed squarely at groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family and the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute and others. In fact, the legislation is written in such a way that it sounds like pro-family, pro-life groups are the targets. Meanwhile, unions, trade groups, corporations, and even foreign governments are exempted from its provisions.

An amendment has already been proposed that would undo these restrictive burdens on free speech called the “Bennett Amendment.” You should contact your senators to let them know that they should vote “Yes” on the Bennett Amendment."

Amen!  I agree...lets let them know what we think.

In Liturgical News...

Fr. Z has an excellent post on the recent statements made by Bishop Trautman regarding the new translation of the Roman Missal...here is an excerpt to wet your whistle:

But Father! But Father!", some of you are surely asserting as you read, "What is going on? Why are they trying to do away with the improvements that are being made to the translations?"

I think the answer to that lies in two main ideas.

First, there is a type of cleric and/or liturgical expert out there who, simply put, thinks you are stupid.

Second, there is a sort of cleric and/or liturgical expert out there who, simply put, doesn’t believe what the prayers really say...

Let’s turn this on its head.

What would the reaction be, I wonder, from priests and bishops and liturgists if people far and wide went public in speeches and articles about how their priests were too stupid to explain the prayers, they were incompetent teachers, that they were using little goo-goo words in homilies and sticking to the lowest common liturgical denominator because they themselves aren’t capable of rising to the challenge they were ordained for. D’ya ‘spose that might raise the ire of a few clerics? What would they do if, perhaps, people said these clerics of ours are showing themselves to be incompetent with the money we give them. We had better give them less and less because they just don’t have what it takes to use it wisely.

This is precisely what is being suggested when the dumbed-down lame-duck supernannuated ICEL versions are defended in full view of translations that are manifestly more accurate. They are saying that people are too dumb to grasp what Mother Church is praying.

If you would like to read the whole post click here...it's quite good.

Peculiar Aristocratic Titles

Your Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:

His Most Serene Highness Lord Reverend. D. R. Christensen the Abstemious of Lardle Midhoop.

Get your peculiar aristocratic title here.

The New Speaker of the House

Let us pray that she will truly live the Catholic faith she claims to adhere to.