Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation, and I have absolutely no expertise or inside knowledge to comment on either [though the Canon Lawyer Mr Peters does make things pretty clear indeed], it seems to me that whenever there is dissention in the Church it causes scandal and that must be avoided at all costs since it divides us and gives comfort to the enemies of Holy Mother Church.
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

@philosopher

Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

Muuno,
I have really only come to this particular discussion very late in the piece. Please allow me, however, to add my twuppence-worth. I am sorry to pick up the dejected tone in your posting and I'm sorry if you feel that those who disagree with you are coming from prejudice rather than love. But at times what is required is tough love. The Church as a good Mother must set boundaries for its children otherwise passions, bad company, experimentation, rebellion, drugs and alcohol can lead people from the straight and narrow. Too often over the last 30 or so years situations have been allowed to develop where "mellowness" was all the vogue ... morals were thought to be flexible ... there was no black and white but a miasma of grey. BUT, in fact, objective truth, absolute truth about morals does exist and it is up to the Magisterium of the Church to teach what THAT is [and at some level in you, this idea, I suspect, must still resonate or else you would not have come to this website and attempted to dialogue so much]. So, please, do not be so quick to dismiss the "authority of the Church". It is not "the old fogey taking all fun out of life". It is actually the institution that, if it is heard and followed, will fill so many more people with hope, peace and, yes, fun. Fathers who don't go to bars, but go home to their families, to love their wives and provide the necessary male authority model for their children create not only a happy family now but well-rounded, integrated, faith-filled future models for countless more children who won't turn to drugs, alcohol, petty theft, low scholastic achievement and so on and so on and so on ... not a vicious cycle but a virtuous cycle. Parents who struggle together through stormy periods with perseverance and with the determination to focus and work on the love they had/have together rather than the present temporary irritant will not only create a truly growth-inducing platform for themselves but will also teach their chidren the reality that difficulties need to be faced, forgiveness must always be offered and so the kids will find themselves in a very secure environment in which to develop and grow. There are countless other examples of how following the teachings of the Church can actually solve problems and bring people closer together. People who have opposed what you say do not simply do it because it does no echo their own beliefs but because it does not follow the teachings of the Church. It may be small comfort but, on this issue, the Church has made it very clear that it does not focus on the actor but on the action. The latter is unacceptable in the Christian Community but ... there is a duty incumbent on all of us to challenge, naturally, but also support and encourage the former. So, Muuno, please don't leave this site. We are all sinners ... the Lord came to call sinners not the healthy. In his human nature He was tempted in ALL things that we are and he experienced to the nth degree EVERYTHING that we suffer. He understands us all - the young man out of work contemplating suicide; the young girl pregnant at 14 and the jock father refusing to take any resposibility; the young boy who can't take his eyes off another young woman in her class but can't understand why. Jesus though understands all these situations and is inviting all these people to let Him in to their heart so that He can give them peace - if they would only entrust themselves to His Divine Mercy. And the Church is there too ... clearly, unequivocally but also lovingly and gently presenting us with what is the right response in keeping with our true human nature. "GloriaTV" is for all who are humbly seeking the truth ... those who "continue to work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling".
Take care my sister and let's pray for each other ... you for me that I will be less keen to judge but see in ALL my sister and brother in Christ; me for you that you will humbly open yourself to the Lord's promptings coming to you through the teachings of His Church.
Peace!
Cristus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

Sbpfu, I am really appreciative of the fact that we can disagree without resorting to offensive language. It would be an understatement to say that I don't know as much as I should about liturgical music and so on. I am, therefore, learning a lot from reading what you and ACL are posting. And I thank both of you! I still find myself, however, disagreeing with you on two points. One is terminology. There is really no such thing as the Roman Catholic Church. In that sense, "Roman" was a construct of High Anglicanism in the past to sustain the fiction that there were "several" branches of the Catholic Church. On one side was the "Roman", on the onother was the "Eastern or Greek" and in the middle, the so called "Via Media", was the Anglican. In the Creed we believe in "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" because there is only one Catholic Church under one Supreme Pontiff, the Pope, but this One Catholic Church has several rites. The Latin Rite is by far the biggest but by no means the only one nor the normative. Hence, even if Latin is the "official language" of the Latin Rite it is not the Official Language of the Catholic Church. That is why at the most solemn of Papal Masses the Holy Gospel is also sung in Greek. It emphasises the fact that the Catholic Church is more than just the Latin or Western part of it. The second point over which I would disagree with you is that I really do believe that it does not really matter what language we use in worshiping God [provided, naturally and fundamentally, that the FORM of the worship is orthodox - and the Novo Ordo IS orthodox].
May God continue to bless you, Sbpfu, and may you continue to post on this site so that all of us can learn more. You too ACL!
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

Gregory — 16/09/2011 01:25:00:
Holy Cannoli, It is a little thing to be judged by you!

@Gregory ... truer words were never spoken!
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

www.google.com/search
Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Liturgical or Church Latin) is the Latin used by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. Having developed as a style of Late Latin called sermo humilis, used to preach and otherwise communicate to the people in ordinary language, it can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a simplified syntax in some cases, and, commonly, in modern times, an Italianate pronunciation. It appears in various contexts, including theological works, liturgical rites, and dogmatic proclamations, and in various styles: as syntactically simple as in the Vulgate, as hieratic as in the Roman Canon of the Mass, as terse and technical as the language of Aquinas' Summa Theologica, and as Ciceronian as in Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter Fides et Ratio. In late antiquity and in the Low Middle Ages the intended audience or use determined the style the ecclesiastical writer employed; in modern times it depends on the context. Christian Latin refers to the Latin employed in their preaching and writing by Christians of ancient times.

With all due respect, SBpfu, I have to disagree with you. Latin is not the official language of the Catholic Church. It USED to be the only LITURGICAL language of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. It now shares that honour with the various vernacular languages of the Western Church. The Catholic Church has many RITES and, therefore, many liturgical languages. One example is the Byzantine Rite which uses Greek as its liturgical language. There are even Rites in full Communion with the Vicar of Christ which worship God in Arabic [and therefore refer to God as "Allah"]. Why are we getting so upset with what language is used to worship God? Did Jesus speak Latin? No. Was the First Holy Mass [the Last Supper] in Latin? No. In what language were the last words of Our Lord and Saviour before he died on the Cross? Latin? No. Jesus and all his disciples spoke Aramaic. The native language of the first Pope was not Latin but Aramaic. In fact in Rome, during the earliest part of the Church's history, the original liturgical language was not even Latin but Greek. This was because the Scriptures of the Early Church were written in the language of the majority of the early Christians, Greek. Latin eventually became the liturgical language of the Western Church exactly because the language of the people in the West was Latin and not Greek. THAT is the point ... the language that was used to worship God was the language spoken by the people. The 21st Oecumenical Council of the Universal Church [Vatican II] meant to return the Western Church to that position. There is nothing naturally or inherently more holy or spiritual about Latin as a liturgical language. Now, if one says that for aesthetic reasons one wants to attend a Mass spoken in Latin ... I can perfectly understand that and totally respect it. Catholics now, thanks to the paternal solicitude of the Supreme Pontiff Pope Benedict XVI, have the perfectly legitimate option of attending a Mass said in the vernacular or in Latin. Please, however, let us not argue that Latin is "the sacred" language and, so, the Mass must be in Latin. Let us not try to second guess Ecumenical Councils of the Church and the Magisterium or try to be more Catholic than the Pope.
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

Dear Father Worthley, Thank you so much for giving us the full, unvarnished Catholic truth. I am so tired of "sedevacantists" on this site and others who try to divide the Church between "modernists" and "traditionalists". The only test of Catholicity is filial and loving submission and obedience to the Supreme Pontiff. No-one should set himself up as "more Catholic than the Pope" nor should we try to second guess the Holy Magisterium. We must all humbly follow His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and all the Bishops in communion with him. May God continue to bless you and your apostolate and may you continue to teach us all at "GloriaTV". Christus vincit Christus regant Christus imperat Viva il Papa!

@ACLumsden Have you heard the latest? SNAP [the "Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"] and the "US Centre for Constitutional Rights" [sic] are taking [or attempting to take] Pope Benedict to the International Criminal Court [ICC] for "crimes against humanity". They filed a complaint calling on the ICC to "take action and prosecute the Pope" for "direct and superior responsibility for the crimes against humanity and other acts of sexual violence committed around the world" against minors. If the whole issue weren't so sad, one would only laugh at this attempt to implicate the Pope, who has fought far more, and far more effectively, than most against this scourge in the Church, in such a sordid affair! Clearly it is an attempt to raid ecclesial cash registers!!!!
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
VIVA VIVA VIVA il PAPA!!!!!

I perfectly agree [naturally!] about the absolute centrality of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Redeeming Sacrifice which we relive in the Mass, and the Most Holy Trinity, and the Catholic Church established by Our Lord, when we talk about the FULLNESS of belief in the One God ... BUT ... that was NOT the focus of the original discussion. One does not go to someone else's place and offensively [there is no other way to describe it] tell them that they are wrong in all their beliefs! Furthermore, my other point was that we need to use whatever we have in common with Moslems [and other believers] to defeat our primary enemy - atheistic secularists. I see nothing wrong in using Moslems to further our own agenda - against abortion and so on. Kicking sand in Moslem faces and yelling "We have the fullness of Truth" [which, by the way, I do believe we have] might be satisfying on the testosterone level but it ain't good politics if we want to thwart atheistic secularism ... and I have no doubt that IT is THE clear and present danger throughout the Western World.
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!.

@holyrope3 You know that I respect you immensely [my responses to the videos that you post should, I hope, make you realise that]. But on this, I have to say that I disagree with you. There are three reasons why I think that what these men did [well-meaning as I'm sure they were] is wrong. Firstly, it is a matter of simple "courtesy and manners". One does not go uninvited to another's feast and preach beliefs that are not shared by the hosts. That is offensive. We Catholics wouldn't like it so why do it to others? Secondly, in this day and age, what they did is needlessly dangerous. Living one's Catholic faith fully and witnessing to it totally where we live and work is heroic enough. We don't need to court being beaten up, or worse, by unnecessarily being "offensive" to others in their own home. Thirdly, and this is a point that many [Christian, Jew or Moslem] tend to forget, there is only ONE GOD: Yahweh, God and Allah are the one Being [Allah is merely the Arabic word for God ... when Arab-speaking Christians pray they use the word "Allah" too]. We are all "People of the Book". Instead of antagonising Moslems [or Jews, or Protestants for that matter] we should try to concentrate on the common grounds that we share. The enemies, the primary enemies, of belief in God are not other believers in God [regardless of what they call Him] but atheists and secularists ... those who would ban ALL religions from the public arena. Moslems too are against abortion, pre-marital sex, gay marriage ... and so on. We should concentrate on converting pagans who do not believe in the One True God rather than preaching at Moslems. There is a potential real difference between most educated, middle class Moslems who are born in the West and those who live in the Moslem countries. We do need to reason with these and not antagonise them. Why? Because they can help us to fight against abortion etc, etc, etc. It is quite interesting that at many United Nations Conferences on "Women" and "Life" Issues it frequently happens that the Vatican, which has observer status, finds that its best allies are Moslem countries. Let me re-emphasise that I have lived in Moslem countries and I do know the dangers but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Let's not antagonise Moslems but use them to meet our own agenda.
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

Dear Kfarley,
I have actually lived and worked in the "Holy Land" of Islam - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [I got out after 3 months because I made sure that my contract had a clause allowing departure after 3 months if I "felt under threat"!!! ... thank God I got out!]. So, I know how oppressive Islam is in a "majority Moslem" country: Mass is proscribed; no Churches are allowed; priests, if found [and there are some "pretending" to work for TEXACO but actually secretly ministering to the needs of Western, Philippino and South Asian Catholics] are arrested, beaten and deported; bibles and other religious items found in luggage at the border are confiscated etc. etc. etc. Horrible society!!! No wonder Moslems are eager to live in the West! Incredible that once here, however, they clamour to recreate what they left behind! I am under no illusion about militant Islam and I believe firmly that we must ensure that Christianity remains the majority religion in Western countries and that we resist the "islamisation" of the West. NEVERTHELESS, I still think that going to proselytise at an "officially" Moslem function is the height of idiocy [forget the question of offensive manners]. Did these people have a death wish or a martyr complex???? And they've done it before????????????????????????????????????
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!

On the day in which we honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Most Holy Mother of God, on Her birthday ... we pray that She will intercede before Almighty God for the needs of the Church - the Holy Father, all members of the Episcopate, the Priesthood and the Religious Life, and all the rest of us who have the honour to have been given the totally undeserved precious gift of belonging to the One, Holy, Apostolic and Roman Catholic Church!
Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat
Viva il Papa!