Gloria TV News on the Feast of Blessed Junipero Serra.

Horrendous Liturgical Abuses in Vienna Parish

Austria.

In the parish of Vienna Südstadt liturgical abuses are legion. On last year’s Feast of Corpus Christi, the parish-priest, Father Jakob Mitterhöfer consecrated a pita bread and wine within a pottery jug. The First Communion children were given pieces of the consecrated bread which they dipped into the chalice. Nearly all the prayers were improvised, including the Canon of Mass. During the epiclesis the faithful extended their hands the way concelebrants would have done it. Several parishioners stood around the altar as so-called Mass assistants. During the per-ipsum, they raise the sacred vessels. This Easter, the parishioners celebrated a banquet in the church before proceding to the Easter fire. During the banquet, wine and bread were consumed at several tables. This Corpus Christi, Father Mitterhöfer organised a procession which started after the Gloria. He carried a loaf of unconsecrated bread and a jug of wine to a nearby meadow and then went around the church. During this procession, children through flowers in front of bread and wine.

Father Stefano Gobbi has Died

Italy

On Wednesday, Father Stefano Gobbi, has died. He was 80 years old. In the early Seventies, Fr Gobbi founded the Gobbi
. According to the Movement, its members now include over 400 Catholic cardinals and bishops, more than 100,000 Catholic priests, and several million lay Catholics worldwide. Father Gobbi claimed to have interior locutions which he attributed to the Virgin Mary. The messages from July 1973 to December 1997 were published in the book: "To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons." These messages have now become the de facto hand book of the “Marian Movement of Priests”.

Petition for a New Pro-Life-Patron

United States

Catholic pro-lifers are petitioning the Vatican for a new patron – the late John Paul II. In a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, the international pro-life organization “World Prayer for Life” thanked the pope for the recent beatification of John Paul II. It noted his “great commitment” to protecting life from conception to natural death. The pro-life group wrote to the pop: ““We humbly dare ask Your Holiness to establish blessed John Paul II the patron of human life defenders.”

How to Get the Genies Back Into the Bottle

Great Britain

On his blog Father Ray Blake expressed his disappointment that he didn’t see any school children for the Mass celebrated in the honor of the Saints Peter and Paul. Father admitted that he was too involved with Corpus Christi and forgot to announce the Holy Day at the main Mass on Sunday, though it was in the newsletter. But then he points to another problem: If Episcopal Conferences tell people that religion is a Sunday only thing we can't blame people if they take them at their word.” Father Blake concludes: “I know our own Bishops are going to re-examine the whole issue of Holy Days. But: The problem is it is very easy to let genies out of bottles but how do you get them in again?”