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Lesson seen in group learning spiritual director was suspended priest SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- A recently confirmed report that a priest long forbidden to function as a cleric had been heavily involved with a local Springfield private prayer group shows the difficulties Catholics can run into when they support unofficial spiritual groups, according to church officials. It also illustrates the difficulty church authorities have tracking the activities of a small number of priests who continue to defy orders not to exercise their ministry. In early September, the Diocese of Springfield was contacted by Vic Valois, a Catholic and a former member of a group called Seeds of Hope. He reported that Father John J. Szantyr had been the group's long-standing spiritual mentor and occasional sacramental celebrant. Father Szantyr, 76, is allegedly a repeated sexual offender with victims in more than one diocese. He has been forbidden to minister in any way or to publicly present himself as a priest since being removed from ministry by the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., in 1988. Yet, until recently, he has continued to wear clerical clothing and refer to himself as "Father" in violation of the canonical restrictions against clerics who face credible charges of sexual abuse of a minor.

Natural family planning gets government, insurance recognition ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- The medical coding system used by the government, insurance companies, medical clinics and health care providers now includes two codes specifically for natural family planning. Behind the push for the new codes was the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals, a national organization that promotes the use of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which is used for natural family planning and women's health and infertility issues while upholding Catholic teaching. Diane Daly, director of the Office of Natural Family Planning for the St. Louis Archdiocese and a member of the academy, headed the committee that worked several years for the new codes. On Oct. 1, the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) published the following codes for natural family planning: V25.04: Counseling and instruction in natural family planning to avoid pregnancy, and V26.41: Procreative counseling and advice using natural family planning.

Italian priest denies Communion to excommunicated Archbishop Milingo ROME (CNS) -- At the start of a visit to Italy, excommunicated Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was denied Communion when he attended a Mass at a local parish church near Naples. The former Zambian archbishop and his wife, Maria Sung, attended an early evening Mass at a local church in Pompeii Jan. 10, one day after his arrival in Italy from South Korea. When the archbishop approached the celebrant -- Father Francesco Soprano -- he refused the Eucharist to the archbishop, who then reportedly blessed the celebrant and lightly touched his head, according to Italian media reports. Archbishop Milingo, who was married in a Unification church ceremony in 2001, was excommunicated by the Vatican in 2006 for illicitly ordaining married men. While he is excommunicated, the archbishop cannot receive the Eucharist or any sacrament of the church. The 77-year-old former archbishop of Lusaka was to be in Italy Jan. 9-27 to promote a new book, meet with supporters of his U.S.-based Married Priests Now! movement, and attend to various medical visits.

St. Augustine on Adoring the Eucharist Published Thursday, May 31, 2007 by Taylor Marshall | E-mail this post E-mail this post // Remember me (?) All personal information that you provide here will be governed by the Privacy Policy of Blogger.com. More... There has been a debate in the comments over whether St. Augustine believed that the elements of the Eucharist are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also claimed that St. Augustine held to a spiritual presence of Christ akin to that taught by John Calvin.Concerning the Eucharist, St. Augustine wrote:"Nobody eats this flesh without previously adoring it."- St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 98, 9As St. Augustine taught, Catholic Christians bow or kneel before receiving the Eucharist. This is because Catholics show worship or adoration (Greek - latria; Latin - adoratio) to the Eucharist because it is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and worthy of our worship.St. Augustine also explained that the Christians of his day prayed for the departed at the Eucharistic liturgy and he referred to the offering of the Eucharist as "the most true sacrifice" (verissium sacrificium) that the priest offers (immolat) to God. (cf. City of God, 10, 20)Either St. Augustine believed that he was offering the one true Sacrifice of Calvary at the Eucharist or he believed he was offering an independent sacrifice of symbolic bread and wine. A sacrifice to God of symbolic bread and wine would be blasphemous since the only acceptable sacrifice before God is the sacrifice of Christ that was offered once and for all. Therefore, Augustine must have believed that the sacrifice of the Eucharist was the same sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Hence, we have here the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist.The Eucharistic sacrifice is NOT a new sacrifice or a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ. It is the one sacrifice that Christ offered once and for all time. The presence of this one sacrifice is eternal and it realized in the eschatological banquet of the Holy Mass. Christ does not die again and again. But that one sacrificial death of redemption is re-presented every time the Holy Mass is offered or, to use the Latin phrase of St. Augustine, immolated.