B16:  “Well Celebrated Mass Is Best Catechesis.”

Zenit News, Pope Benedict XVI-The doctrine of the Eucharist — and its relevance for believers — is not sufficiently understood and must be a catechetical priority, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this Wednesday when he went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran to address participants at the convention for the Diocese of Rome.

The Holy Father told his diocese that a “more profound knowledge of the mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord” is a necessity for the communities of Rome.

“At the same time,” he added, “in the missionary spirit that we wish to nourish, it is necessary to spread the commitment to proclaim such Eucharistic faith, so that every man will encounter Jesus Christ who has revealed the ‘close’ God, friend of humanity, and to witness it with an eloquent life of charity.”

The Pontiff went on to give a reflection on the Eucharistic mystery, considering Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and how it is memorialized. He acknowledged that “sacrifice” is no longer a popular word.

“However, properly understood,” he said, “[sacrifice] is and remains fundamental, because it reveals to us with what love God loves us in Christ.”

Entering a reality

Benedict XVI affirmed that Mass itself, “celebrated in the respect of the liturgical norms and with a fitting appreciation of the richness of the signs and gestures,” fosters and promotes Eucharistic faith.

“In the Eucharistic celebration,” he said, “we do not invent something, but we enter into a reality that precedes us, more than that, which embraces heaven and earth and, hence, also the past, the future and the present. This universal openness, this encounter with all the sons and daughters of God is the grandeur of the Eucharist: We go to meet the reality of God present in the body and blood of the Risen One among us.”

It is because of this, the Holy Father affirmed, that liturgical prescriptions are not mere “external things” but “express concretely this reality of the revelation of the body and blood of Christ.”

Hence, he contended, the best catechesis on the Eucharist is the Eucharist itself, well celebrated.

Individual altars

Later in his address, the Bishop of Rome noted how the Eucharistic celebration must lead to charity.

“Feeding on him we are freed from the bonds of individualism and, through communion with him, we ourselves become, together, one thing, his Mystical Body,” he said. This surmounts the differences of profession, class and nationality to form “one great family, that of the children of God.”

“When we receive Christ,” the Pope added, “the love of God expands in our innermost self, modifies our heart radically and makes us capable of gestures that, by the expansive force of good, can transform the life of those that are next to us. [...] A celebrated Eucharist imposes on us and at the same time renders us capable of becoming, in our turn, bread broken for brothers, coming to meet their needs and giving ourselves.

“Because of this, a Eucharistic celebration that does not lead to meet men where they live, work and suffer, to take to them the love of God, does not manifest the love it encloses. To be faithful to the mystery that is celebrated on the altars we must, as the Apostle Paul exhorts us, offer our bodies, ourselves, in spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God in those circumstances that require dying to our ‘I’ and constitute our daily ‘altar.’”

The Foundation of Physical

And Spiritual Death

I have often said that contraception is the foundation of all the attacks on life that we currently see happening all around us.  Contraception is the true foundation of the culture of death, and to tear down the culture of death’s infrastructure Catholics must wake up to the fact that contraception is INTRINSICALY EVIL (never permissible).  Our prayer should be that God will grant us courageous priest who will speak out about the foundation of the culture of death because the priest’s immortal soul and the souls of Catholics under his care depend on it. From contraception, to abortion, to partial-birth abortion, to infanticide, to Embryonic Stem Cell Research, to euthanasia we continue to march towards oblivion while a lot of the time there is little or no warning from the pulpit.  The proceeding article is taken from the National Catholic Register, and it underlies the fact that contraception is the foundation of the culture of death.   Jeff Gares

In 2009, in response to the Pope’s comments about condoms and AIDS in Africa, Knox said that the Pope is “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”  This past week, Knox was asked if he stood by this statement and he answered with an emphatic “I do.”

Knox’s statement is as ignorant as it is lacking in integrity.  Why, last year even the leftist Washington Post conceded “The pope may be right.”

In 2003, Norman Hearst and Sanny Chen of the University of California conducted a condom effectiveness study for the United Nations’ AIDS program and found no evidence of condoms working as a primary HIV-prevention measure in Africa.

So why would an adviser to President Obama’s on faith-based issues stand by such an offensive and unscientific remark?  Why accuse the Pope, and by extension the entire Church—an organization that unarguably helps more people than any other—of hurting people in the name of Jesus?

Believe it or not, this is really about abortion.  Knox and others recognize, wittingly or unwittingly, that the foundation of modern sexual liberation relies upon denying or removing any of the consequences of that sinful behavior, even to the point of killing. They also know that the contraceptive mentality underpins the entire culture of death.  The contraceptive and utilitarian view of life and of procreation is the “mitochondrial Eve” from which all the horrors of the culture of death are descended.  Abortion, ESCR, and euthanasia all call contraception “mother.”

That is why any acknowledgment, no matter how trivial, obvious, or scientific, that calls into question the magic consequence-erasing power of contraception must be attacked with all vigor.

The Catholic Church’s consistent and unbending opposition to the contraceptive culture makes it the perennial target of promoters of the culture of death.  This can also be seen in previous anti-Catholic comments by Knox on homosexuality and the Church in reference to a lesbian couple being denied communion.

“In this holy Lenten season, it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple. The Human Rights Campaign grieves with the couple, Leah Vader and Lynne Huskinson, over this act of spiritual and emotional violence perpetrated against them.”

While Knox ostensibly and offensively comments on a different topic, lesbianism and communion, the reason remains the same . What this quote shows is that Knox’s anti-Catholicism is as strategic as it is deep-seated.  Unfortunately, President Obama hired Knox for a reason and continues to stand behind him no matter how many anti-Catholic statements he makes. President Obama supports Knox because he understands the same thing that Knox does, that the entire culture of death is built on the foundation of contraception and One doesn’t undermine the foundation when One lives in the penthouse.

Fidelity to the Gospel
Frees You With The Truth

London, England (CNN) — A furor has erupted in Britain over comments by the pope seen as critical of a new law the Roman Catholic church fears will force it to accept homosexuals into its ranks.

In remarks to 35 British and Welsh Catholic bishops during a visit to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI urged them to challenge what he said were attempts to restrict religious freedoms.

“Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society,” the pope said, according to the Vatican Information Service.

“Yet, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.”

The Catholic News Service said pope’s comments were a direct assault on a new Equality Bill under debate in the British Parliament that the Catholic clergy say will expose them to prosecution if they reject priesthood candidates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The upper House of Lords has amended the legislation to exempt priests or ministers, but both the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England say it still affects other clerical staff and have called for a return to the status quo.

Pope Benedict, who is due to visit the UK this year, urged the bishops to uphold religious principles and press their case with “national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society,” CNS reported.

“When so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard?” he said.

“Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others — on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth,” he said.

Britain’s conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper described the comments, which come ahead of a general election that could unseat the ruling Labour Party, as a “strongly worded intervention in British politics.”

Gavin D’Costa, a professor in Catholic Theology at the UK’s University of Bristol said the pope was more likely to be airing the concerns of his bishops than wading in with direct criticism of British political policy.

“He is speaking about a theme, about how the state and religion relate and whether the state has a right to interfere with the running of religious groups,” he told CNN.