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Brazilian bishop says Church did not encourage missing priest to take balloon flight Rio de Janeiro, Apr 26, 2008 / 10:59 am (CNA).- Bishop Joao Alves Dos Santos of Paranagua said this week the Church warned Father Adelir de Carli, who disappeared last Sunday, against the dangers of taking a balloon flight. The 41 year-old priest was hoping to break a balloon flight record in order to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truck drivers. Although he said he was prepared for the journey, he went missing a few hours after he began his flight and he has still not been found. Rescue efforts by the Brazilian Air Force were suspended on Thursday, but the priest's family is persisting in the search with the help of a rented twin engine plane. Bishop Dos Santos had joined in the now suspended search effort and said he is praying for the wellbeing of the priest. According to the bishop, the Church did not encourage Father De Carli to take the flight. "We respected his decision but we advised against the trip because it was dangerous," he said.

Is the pope Catholic? 20 Comments Written by Tony Woodlief December 22, 9:49 AM John Allen, senior correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter, offered in Friday's New York Times a moderating interpretation of the Vatican's recent statement, "Dignity of a Person." Allen's concern is that conservative Catholics will view the statement, which condemns embryonic stem cell research among other scientific tinkerings with human life, as a call to arms against a decidedly pro-abortion incoming American president. "Call to arms" is hyperbole, but it pales in comparison to Allen's rhetoric, which claims that Pope Benedict XVI's latest document on life "risks being read as encouragement for the most ardent pro-life forces in America to let slip the dogs of war." He also frets that the pope's document "may be the political equivalent of shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater." To counteract all this dog unleashing and theater shouting, Allen counsels the pope to find some way to "mobilize those Catholics who hope to build bridges." He doesn't want "strategic silence" on abortion, he says, but this rings a bit hollow after extended hand-wringing at the damage done by vocally Catholic pro-life leaders. Perhaps Allen isn't advocating strategic silence, but he does seem to call for less forceful talk. After all, if the pope says something that convinces Catholics that abortion is truly evil, we might "unleash the dogs of war." By all means, Pope Benedict, don't be strategically silent, but on the other hand, would you mind toning it down a bit? It's the kind of false verbal parsing one expects out of a congressional office. In effect, what Allen is asking is for the pope not to be Catholic. Or at least that he be less conspicuously so out of consideration for the tender American situation, which is fascinating insofar as Allen begins his essay by noting that Americans comprise only 6 percent of the global Catholic populat

If You Can't Speak Al-English . . ., Comcast Will Open an Arabic Service Center; How Many Defrauded Immigration? By Debbie Schlussel So, you're a Muslim in America, living in America's own little satellite of Hezbollah stronghold Bint Jbeil, Lebanon a/k/a Dearbornistan. And while you live here--legally or otherwise--you simply haven't taken it upon yourself to learn English. Well, if you're like the rest of its customers having repeated problems with Comcast cable "service," you'll no longer have to worry. You can press ithnan ["two" in Arabic]--or, maybe, wahed ["one"]--for Arabic. muslimphonejockey.jpg Dearborn Hezbo Call Center: As-Salaam Aleikum from Comcast I have some questions about this, such as why these people don't speak English and how they're able to stay here if they don't. You must take the citizenship test in English in order to become a U.S. citizen. The only exception is if you're mentally incompetent. So, how many of these uni-lingual, Arabic-only people are U.S. citizens, and whom did they pay off to either give them the answers to the citizenship test, let them skip it, and/or declare them "mentally incompetent"?: In response to a burgeoning demand from the Arab-American community, Comcast is opening its first bilingual service center today to serve its Arabic speaking customers. At 5070 Schaefer, just north of Michigan Avenue, the 3,360-square-foot office is aimed at serving a population that relies on Internet and digital voice functions to communicate with relatives and conduct business in the Middle East. The office will provide information on the latest services and technology to Arabic speakers. The American Arab Chamber of Commerce, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services [DS: Both of which openly support Hezbollah and HAMAS] and local politicians encouraged Comcast to open the center. The chamber conducted a survey to demonstrate the need. Yup, I'm sure that "survey" was "reliable." They'd never lie

A banking system encouraged by the Catholic Church's Social Teaching.

"They were so ecstatic, just over the moon with happiness and that is what makes this worthwhile." But Kathy says there are also sad moments. "You see people who have lost their loved ones, their children have run away. They have fallen away from their faith. They come here - the people who have had abortions, who have brain tumours - but they get solace and the strength to cope with it and there have been a lot of cures. The shop is open all day six days a week and it's just a constant point for many people where they know they can come and pray." Dog toys litter the floor of the shop and visitors need to beware of stepping on doggie tails. Jasper, the King Charles Spaniel, and Shannon, the German Shepherd cross, are as much part of the shop as Kathy and Padre Pio. A string of dogs have populated the shop over the years and visitors from abroad, returning after many years absence, come to see them as old friends. Kathy's father bred Kerry Blue terriers and she's always had dogs. Many of the people who visit the shop regularly come to see the dogs, not her, she says. When she arrived in London she was surprised that no one had heard of Padre Pio, who was still alive at the time. In Ireland, she says, everyone was aware of the miracle-working friar. Stella Lilley, who founded the Padre Pio Information Centre in the UK in 1972, knew a lot about the friar and Kathy started learning more. Eventually Stella was asked to open a Padre Pio shop to promote his Cause and Kathy, who was running a pub with her husband, helped her set it up. She never dreamed that she would be running it one day. In the 1990s Stella's husband became ill and she couldn't run the shop anymore. A buyer was found but he was going to get rid of Padre Pio. Kathy was horrified when she heard the news from a friend after Mass at Westminster Cathedral. How could the shop continue to run without Padre Pio? The shop was Padre Pio. Then someone suggested Kathy take on the challenge of the bookshop. Her

The origin of burying a statue of St. Joseph for the purpose of selling one's home is uncertain. Some say the tradition can be traced back hundreds of years to St. Teresa of Avila, who invoked St. Joseph's intercession in order to obtain land for new convents. According to this tradition, St. Teresa encouraged her companions to bury their St. Joseph medals as a symbol of devotion. Over time, the practice of burying medals evolved into that of burying statues. Today, some organizations promote this practice and have developed complete "Underground Real Estate Agent" kits. Many home-sellers and real estate agents nationwide continue this tradition. Burying a statue of St. Joseph for the purpose of selling one's home is an action similar to wearing a saint's medal or a scapular, having religious art in one's home, or placing a statue of a saint in one's yard-it is an outward sign of an inward devotion. Ideally, people who turn to this custom do so as a symbol of their devotion-an external sign of their trust in St. Joseph as a powerful intercessor. They demonstrate their faith in the power of prayer and the communion of saints. The individual consecrates the ground in the name of St. Joseph and asks him to intercede with God the Father on his or her behalf for the sale of the home.

Dan - condemned as heretical.

Pope John Paul II beatified a biblical the scholar (apparently the only one), Father Gabriel Allegra who was into Valtorta's writings. If this Pope's canonization of Sister Faustina is intented as an implicit approval of her writings then we should be not be able to apply the same principle to Father Gabriel's recent beatification? http://www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Gablegra/Alegintr.html

Dan, I can't offer an opinion on this that would have any merit. I'm not a theological scholar - simply an apostolate administrator. Having said that, it seems to me that a determination on this matter would be a bit more involved than that. Blessings, Sue

If you've never failed...you've never lived.