Gay activists disrupt Sunday service at Michigan church
13 November 2008
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Loading ....- A homosexual activist group on Sunday disrupted services at a Michigan Assemblies of God-affiliated church, throwing fliers, shouting slogans at churchgoers, and kissing each other.
David Williams, communications director at the church and son of its pastor Dave Williams, said their slogans included phrases like “It’s OK to be gay” and claims that Jesus was homosexual, the Lansing State Journal reports.
During the disruption, another group of protestors demonstrated outside the church. The outside protesters left peacefully when someone on the pastoral team told them they were not welcome on church property.
Williams said in a statement that churchgoers were unclear what the purpose of the demonstration was.
The church reportedly teaches that homosexuality is a sin, but Williams stressed “Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus’ example of loving the sinner but not the sin.”
According to the Lansing State Journal, a Lansing group affiliated with a radical homosexual organization called Bash Back issued a call on October 7 for activists to join a “radical queer convergence” in Lansing between November 7 and November 9.
A report on the Bash Back group’s web site claimed credit for the protest. It described the outside protesters as a small group dressed in pink and black equipped “with a megaphone, black flags, picket signs and an upside-down pink cross.”
“The group was extremely loud and wildly offensive,” the web site said, describing the outside protest as meant to distract the church’s guards.
According to the web site, a fire alarm was pulled and protesters of the same sex “began making out in front of the pastor.”
The Eaton County Sheriff’s Department reportedly received a call concerning the protest at about noon on Sunday. Deputies did not handle the protests inside the church and made no arrests.
Jessica Larkin, an employee with the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department, told CNA on Wednesday that no charges were filed.
“The church didn’t file any complaint. When we arrived there, they [the protesters] left on their own accord when they were told to leave. There was no incident as they were leaving,” she said.
Officials at the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office told CNA that an investigation would not be conducted into the incident if charges were not filed with the sheriff.
The Lansing State Journal reports that Williams said the church had received 80 to 85 e-mails and phone calls by Tuesday, “from churches and individuals around the country to express their concern and general disgust for what happened on Sunday.”
Orissa bishops warn state leader of ‘master plan’ to wipe out Christianity
.- Denouncing what they called a “master plan” to wipe out Christianity, the bishops of India’s troubled Orissa region have written a letter to state’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik concerning the persecution of Christians at the hands of Hindu extremists.
Conveying their “sincere thanks and appreciation” for his appointment with them, the bishops’ November 10 letter brings several concerns to his attention.
First, the bishops addressed the “exodus of Christians” from Kandhamal District. Noting the “considerable reduction” of refugees in relief camps, the bishops denied that those who leave the camps are returning to their homes.
“Most of them have migrated to relief camps in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jhanla, Berhampur and also settled down in rented houses and in the homes of relations, friends, acquaintances etc. It is estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 Christians of Kandhamal district are living outside the district,” the bishops wrote.
People in the relief camps want to return to their villages, but fear being attacked on their return trip or in the villages themselves. The refugees also fear being forced to become Hindus “under pain of death or loss of properties,” said the bishops, who reported that returnees are being told to convert or leave the village, the district, or even the country.
The bishops’ letter reported the details of such forced conversions, saying Christians are compelled to “accept Hindu Samskaras under oath and under pain of divine punishment.” Christians are also being prevented from harvesting their fields unless they become Hindus, and one man was denied burial in his village because he was not a Hindu.
Further, many of the criminals involved in the anti-Christian attacks are still at large.
Naming several injustices against Christians, the bishops noted that Christians are still being chased away from their homes and villages, and the state government has not fulfilled its promises to allot land and money to those made homeless.
According to the bishops, criminals are still looting and burning Christian homes, churches, and institutions.
The bishops challenged characterizations of the anti-Christian attacks as an ethnic conflict:
“Hindu Fundamentalist groups have been trying to name the communal violence as an Ethnic Conflict between the Tribals and the Pano Christians. A cursory look at facts reveals that this conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal district, Orissa, in order to realize the hidden agenda of Sangh Parivar of establishing a Hindu Nation.”
This agenda has allegedly been furthered by concealing the fact that the attack victims were Christians.
The bishops expressed happiness that the Orissa government has decided to establish a Fast Track Court at Kandhamal to expedite the trials of cases related to the violence. In addition, the bishops requested that the judge of the court should be from a religion other than Hindu or Christian.
Continuing their requests, the bishops asked that the presence of national police in Kandhamal be extended until the parliamentary and assembly elections in Orissa are concluded, citing the State Police’s low numbers and inability to defend themselves.
Finally, the bishops asked that churches be built or repaired by the first week of December, 2008, to allow Christmas preparations to begin and spiritual traditions to be observed.
“This will also help confidence building among the congregations and bury the past quietly as they approach Christmas 2008,” their letter concluded.
The letter was signed by Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar; Bishop of Balasore Thomas Thiruthalil; and Bishop of Berhampur Sarat Nayak.
Another ‘champion of abortion’ becomes defender of life: the story of Sotjan Adasevic
.- The Spanish daily “La Razon” has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former “champion of abortion.” Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.
“The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue,” the newspaper reported. “Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.”
In describing his conversion, Adasevic “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name”
“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.
“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,’ St. Thomas told him.
“Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions,” the article stated.
“That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion—something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby’s heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,”
After this experience, Adasevic “told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”
After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.
“You are my good friend, keep going,’ the man in black and white told him. Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslav television to air the film ‘The Silent Scream,’ by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times.”
Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
“Influenced by Aristotle, Thomas wrote that human life begins forty days after fertilization,” Adasevic wrote in one article. La Razon commented that Adasevic “suggests that perhaps the saint wanted to make amends for that error.” Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
Without the coming of Christ, the world will not be just or renewed, Pope teaches
.- In the presence of thousands at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI continued his weekly teachings on St. Paul, speaking about the apostle’s teaching on the Lord’s second coming. The Holy Father stressed that without Christ’s presence, there will never be a truly just and renewed world.
“Every Christian discourse on the last things, called eschatology, always begins with the resurrection,” Pope Benedict began as he turned to Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians.
“Probably in the year 52 St. Paul wrote the first of his letters, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he speaks of the return of Jesus. The Apostle writes, ‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord’.”
The essential message, Pope Benedict summarized, is to “be with the Lord.”
Benedict XVI then pointed out how in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle “changes perspective and speaks of the negative events that will precede the end. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived, he says, as if the Day of the Lord were truly imminent by some chronological calculation. … The continuation of the Pauline text makes it clear that the coming of the Lord will be preceded by apostasy and by the appearance of a person identified only as ‘the lawless one’, the ‘one destined for destruction’, whom tradition came to identify as the Antichrist.”
“The intention of this Letter of St. Paul is, above all, practical: the Lord’s second coming does not dispense one from one’s obligation in this world, but on the contrary, creates a responsibility before the Divine Judge regarding our actions in this world,” the Pope taught.
Turning to Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, the Holy Father observed how even though the apostle was imprisoned and awaiting a possible condemnation to death, he was able to indicate his “complete being with Christ.” Living for others demonstrates Paul’s “perfect availability to the will of God.” His being with Christ creates a great interior freedom: “freedom in the face of death, but also freedom in the face of all life’s tasks and sufferings.”
Pope Benedict then went on to consider what “fundamental convictions” Christians should have when faced with death and the end of the world.
“Firstly,” Benedict said, “the conviction that Jesus is risen, is with the Father and is always with us. … Secondly, the conviction that Christ is with me. … Thirdly, the conviction that the Judge has left us responsibility for the world and for our brothers and sisters in Christ and the conviction of his mercy. …We know that God is the true Judge, we are sure He is good, we know His face, the face of the risen Christ. … For this reason we can be sure of His goodness and live our lives courageously.”
At the end of his First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul “repeats a prayer of the early Christian communities of Palestine, putting it into the mouths of the Corinthians themselves: ‘Marana tha! Our Lord, come!’ … which is also how the Book of the Apocalypse ends. … Can we pray like this today? In our lives, in our world, it is difficult to pray sincerely for this world to perish, for the coming of the New Jerusalem, the Final Judgment, Christ the Judge. … Nonetheless, like the first Christian community we can say: Come Jesus!”
“Of course we do not want the end of the world to come now,” the Pope explained. “On the other hand, we do want the world of injustice to end, we do want the world to change, the civilization of love to begin, a world of justice and peace to come, a world without violence and hunger. … But without the presence of Christ a truly just and renewed world will never come.”
In closing, the Holy Father turned to modern day circumstances and beseeched Jesus to come. “Let us also say, with great urgency and in the circumstances of our day: O Lord, come! … Come in the refugee camps, in Darfur, in Nord-Kivu. Come where illegal drugs reign. Come also among those rich people who have forgotten you, who live only for themselves. We pray that Christ may be truly present today in our world and that he renew it.”
Kerala Celebrating St. Alphonsa, First Saint from India
By Nirmala Carvalho
11/11/2008
BHARANGANAM (AsiaNews) – More than 100,000 people took part in celebrations for the proclamation of the first Indian saint, Clarist sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, who was canonised on 12 October by Benedict XVI.
Card Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation of Eastern Churches, and former Indian President Abul Kalam, were present yesterday at the ceremonies, the last of the nine days devoted to the celebrations.
Fr Paul Theklat, editor of the influential Satyadeepam newspaper and spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Church, talked to AsiaNews about the day’s great event.
“The great function took place at the church of St-Mary in Bharananganam where the saint is buried. More than 50 bishops took part along with many prelates from other denominations and sister Churches,” he said. “Political leaders like state’s opposition leader Ommen Chandi and state ministers also attended the event.”
Card Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi and Moran Baselios Cleemis, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malabar were among the prelates in attendance
The nine-day celebration programme was organised by the diocese of Palai where the saint was born in 1910 in co-operation with the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council as an act of thanksgiving to God for the gift of Saint-Alphonsa, born Anna Muttathupadathu, and for her canonisation.
Speaking to those present, former President Kalam said the “greatest tribute to the memory of St. Alphonsa is to emulate the ideals of love and compassion for which she lived her short life of suffering, penance and prayer.”
“Each one of us must take a vow that we would remove the pain of at least one person every month as St. Alphonsa had shown through her personal example,” he added.
“Blessed is the land where Sister Alphonsa walked and walked with us,” said the former head of state as he read a brief poem he wrote in honour of the saint who dreamt greater heights and so “achieved the greatest.”
Cardinal Sandri, who arrived in India on 5 November, took part in various initiatives dedicated to the Clarist nun. Yesterday he also conducted Mass so that religious freedom may be preserved in the “land of non-violence.”
Noting that non-violence is only the path to fight violence the cardinal mentioned the recent brutal acts against the Christian communities in the state of Orissa.
The prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches had already spoken last Friday with Card Varkey Vithyathil about the events which since late August have lead to the death of more than a hundred people in an escalation of inhuman acts.
“Orissa,” he told the Syro-Malabar archbishop, “is a name that is alive in our hearts and on our lips as well as those of the people of Europe—we are with the persecuted Church. We ask for freedom of religion in order to live in freedom and peace.”
Catholic League: Atheists Launch ‘Godless Holiday Campaign’
NEW YORK, N.Y. (Catholic League) - The American Humanist Association launched today what it calls its “Godless Holiday Campaign.” Its ad in the New York Times and Washington Post reads, “Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.” The same ad will appear on Metro buses in Washington, D.C.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, responded as follows:
“It is a shame that an organization that worships nothing would be forced to crib its ‘Holiday Campaign’ ad from a Christmas song about St. Nick. More important is the reasoning employed by Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. He says that ‘Morality doesn’t come from religion. It’s a set of values embraced by individuals and society based on empathy, fairness and experience.’
“Codes of morality, of course, have always been grounded in religion. For those of us in Western civilization, its tenets emanate from the Judeo-Christian ethos. By casting this heritage aside, and replacing it with nothing more than the conscience of lone individuals, we lay the groundwork for moral anarchy. And that is because there is nothing that cannot be justified if the only moral benchmark is what men and women posit to be right and wrong. Indeed, every monster in history has followed his conscience.
“We know that militant secularists are busy flexing their muscles these days, but is it too much to expect them to act rationally? Highly recommended would be what we Catholics call ‘an examination of conscience,’ a process best fulfilled by repairing to the Catholic Catechism for guidance.”
Orissa Bishops ask Government to Rebuild Churches Destroyed by Terrorists
By Nirmala Carvalho
11/12/2008
BHUBANESHWAR (AsiaNews) – The bishops of three Orissa dioceses have sent a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in which they denounce the pervasive reign of terror that hangs over Christians who have been attacked by radical Hindu groups for months. In order to stop the Christian exodus from the state—many Christians have moved to neighbouring states—the bishops urge the authorities to act quickly to rebuild churches before Christmas.
In fact and this despite government reassurances that things have calmed down, local clergymen are reporting that members of their congregations are still unable to go back home for fear of death or re-conversion to Hinduism. They point out that aid pledged by the authorities for the reconstruction of villages and churches has not yet arrived and that Christians are still scared to harvest their fields and so are bound to lose their livelihood.
Mgr Thomas Thiruthalil, chairman of the Orissa Bishops’ Regional Council, met Naveen Patnaik yesterday. He was accompanied by Mgr Raphael Cheenath, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Mgr Sarat Nayak of Berhampur and other Christian leaders, including Asit Mohanty, of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
Speaking to AsiaNews, Monsignor Thiruthalil, who is bishop of Balasore, said that during the meeting the “chief minister was cordial and responded positively to us,” assuring “us of [his] cooperation to work together to establish normalcy in Kandhamal,” the area hardest-hit by Hindu attacks.
“The situation [in Orissa] is precarious,” the bishop explained. “People are afraid and the fear of violence looms large; moreover, people are terrified of forced conversion to Hinduism [. . .]. Our priests are slowly returning to their parishes (or what is left of them), but they too are stalked by fear. They are prime targets for elimination or re-conversion by Hindu fundamentalists and their parents and families have often been compelled to return to Hinduism, forced to shave their heads and drink water mixed with cow dung and urine and perform Hindu chants. Even if people take comfort in the presence of their priest, they are still traumatised by their experience and by the suffering they have had to endure.”
In order to rebuild a sense of normalcy, the bishops have called on the Orissa state government to rebuild the 180 or so churches that were destroyed, ideally before Christmas this year.
Bishop Thiruthalil explained that until recently Christians and Hindus lived in peace with one another in Kandhamal district.
“Kandhamal was a place of religious tolerance and mutual cooperation. People helped each other working in the fields, sowing and harvesting crops; Hindus and Christians even celebrated religious festivals together. Regrettably, fundamentalists sowed hatred and suspicion in the minds of Hindus who then turned against the Christians.”
In their letter the bishops said that hatred against Christians is motivated by religion and that any explanation based on “social” factors is false. Arguments like this have been advanced by some people in the state who claim that anti-Christian persecution is due to Christians enriching themselves in the face of an increasingly poor Tribal population. For them this is patently untrue. In fact poor Tribals have been killed in the pogrom as much as anyone else simply because they were Christian. The purpose of the violence was to stop conversions to Christianity.
What is more local clergymen suspect that the attacks were politically motivated, carried out to boost Hindu nationalism (at the expense of Christians) and bolster opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as they prepare themselves for the next election scheduled to take place on 9 April 2009.
For this reason the bishops want the army’s special forces sent in by the central government to stay in Orissa at least until after the elections.
In their letter to the chief minister, the bishops also slam the collusion between fundamentalists and local police forces who more often than not have refused to register complaints filed by Christians
Pope Benedict recalls Pius XII’s teachings and impact on the Church
.- On Saturday, Pope Benedict met with participants in a congress titled, “The Heritage of Pius XII’s Magisterium and Vatican Council II.” During the event, the Pontiff called to mind Pius XII’s teachings, his relationship with Christ, and his influence on the Church.
The conference was held from November 6-8 and organized by the Pontifical Gregorian and Lateran Universities, and came to a close with Pope Benedict’s remarks on the impact Pius XII had on the Church through his writings and teachings.
Pope Benedict XVI explained that along with his 40 encyclicals, the late Pontiff spoke of the “responsibility of the laity within the Church” and “the great importance of the modern communications media,” especially “journalists’ duty to provide factual information respectful of moral norms.”
Pius XII also warned against the progress of science impacting morality, the Holy Father pointed out. Though he was a great admirer of technology, he never failed to “caution against the risks that research could bring if inattentive to moral values,” and “warned of the need to prevent at all costs the possibility of brilliant scientific advances being used to build deadly arms which could cause immense catastrophes and even the complete destruction of mankind.”
Benedict XVI continued to address the congress by focusing on Pius XII’s teachings on Mary. The words of Pius XII reached their culmination “in the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, by which the Holy Father intended to highlight the eschatological dimension of our lives, and to exalt the dignity of women.”
Turning to focus on Pius XII’s personality and spirituality, Benedict XVI noted that the late Pope was a realist who desired “to give all of himself to God, holding nothing back and unconcerned for his own delicate health.” “Everything in him arose from love for his Lord Jesus Christ, and love for the Church and humanity. He was, in fact, a priest in constant and intimate union with God,” Benedict said.
“In the person of the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII, the Lord gave His Church an exceptional gift for which we must all be grateful,” the Holy Father concluded.
Assassination attempt made John Paul II more devoted to Fatima, Cardinal Dziwisz recalls
.- John Paul II’s former secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, said last week that the late Pontiff become more devoted to Our Lady of Fatima after the attempt on his life of May 13, 1981, as he was convinced her intercession saved him.
“Before the attempt, (John Paul II) did not devote much time to the message of Fatima, but he certainly had visited the Shrine and knew about the devotion to our Lady that is very widespread throughout the world,” the cardinal said during a visit to Portugal.
“After the attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square,” he continued, the Pope’s attitude changed. “He became convinced that Our Lady of Fatima saved him, and he entered into the secret of the message of Fatima,” he said.
Cardinal Dziwisz said that he and the Pope often discussed Portugal and that the Pontiff felt close to the Portuguese people especially each May 13 and October 13, when he would appear on the balcony of St. Peter’s Square to pray and sing the Ave Maria.
“I very much remember the three visits the Pope made to Portugal,” the cardinal said, “and I’ll never forget when he came to thank Our Lady of Fatima for his life.”
John Paul II also had great admiration for “the devotion, prayer and ability to sacrifice of the devotees of Fatima,” he added.
Vatican analyst delivers harsh criticism of Cardinal Martini’s anti-Benedict XVI book
.- Vatican analyst Sandro Magister of the Italian web magazine L’Espresso will publish an extensive critique on Wednesday of the controversial book by Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, entitled, “Nocturnal Conversations in Jerusalem. On the Risks of Faith.”
The book, which was written in an interview style with German Jesuit Georg Sporschill, was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and since then it has attracted the attention of the secular press because of Cardinal Martini’s criticism of the post-conciliar Popes—from Paul VI to Benedict XVI—accusing them of contributing to “regression” in the Church.
Martini not only slams Humanae Vitae, but also questions some fundamental aspects of the Church’s faith.
Magister points out that the book has not been criticized by the Italian Bishops’ newspaper “Avvenire” or by the L’Osservatore Romano.
However, he said, “in private there is harsh and worried criticism of the book’s authors at the highest levels of the hierarchy.”
“But in public the rule is to remain silent. The fear is that publicly responding to the book’s thesis only makes the damage worse,” Magister adds.
Nevertheless, Pietro De Marco, professor of the University of Firenze and of the School of Theology of Central Italy, issued a measured but consistent critique of the book by Cardinal Martini.
Magister will publish the entire critique by Professor De Marco in his article this Wednesday at http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/?eng=y