Pastor Runs Off Film Crew After “Cheesus Crust” Incident

They were filming scenes of “Bachelor 2″ in his church (my guess is that there probably was a bit more imprudence in letting them use a church for a movie with that name), from the Boston Herald:

The cheesed-off pastor of St. Leonard’s Church in the North End threw the cast and crew of the Dane Cook-Kate Hudson flick out of his parish hall after the Hollywood bunch staged a raaather impudent pizza scene in a nearby eatery!

The Rev. Antonio Nardoianni gave the Tinseltown types an hour to clear off church property after he discovered that their set people had remade a local pizza place into a joint called “Cheesus Crust.”

“I heard about some Christian symbols being used in a very derogatory way and I protested,” the Rev. Nardoianni told the Track. “How ignorant can they be? Is this the only way they can make money?”

Kerry’s Catholic U. Talk Cancelled

Cites ”scheduling conflict”… 

From Lifesite:

LifeSiteNews.com reported last week that Catholic University of America’s (CUA) newspaper ‘The Tower’ had revealed that the College Democrats at CUA had received the necessary permission from the administration and subsequently invited pro-abortion Senator Kerry to lecture at the University.

In its current issue released just today, The Tower newspaper is now reporting that according to both the Senator’s congressional office and the College Democrats, “Sen. John Kerry will not speak at the University this semester due to scheduling conflicts[…]

Mark Arnone, president of the College Democrats at CUA, had initially been forbidden by officials at the University Center, Student Programs and Events (UCSPE) to invite the pro-abortion senator to lecture.  However, after appealing the decision with a six page explanation on the reasons why Kerry should be allowed, Arnone received permission from UCSPE director Bill Jonas.  

According to The Tower, Jonas stated that he had been trying to employ a “common sense approach” in his decision but acknowledged that “[s]ome people are going to see that John Kerry is speaking at Catholic University and be angry about it. We have to find a balance.”

Hilary Clinton and God

A new book looks at Hilary Clinton and her religious beliefs, from Warren Throckmorton:

- How Bill Clinton’s pro-life pastor in Arkansas helped him come to a pro-choice position on abortion, and how the abortion issue has haunted both of Clintons as pro-choice Christians, and caused a permanent separation between them and pro-life Christians. There is no issue closer to Mrs. Clinton’s heart than abortion rights—to which she holds a nearly religious devotion—so much so that it has become a kind of political theology to the senator, equipped with its own set of apologetics.

- On the abortion issue, Kengor has provided unprecedented information on Mrs. Clinton and the root causes of her position. Interviewed several times for this book is Mrs. Clinton’s close friend and one-time OB-GYN, William F. Harrison, the nationally known Fayetteville, Arkansas abortion doctor. Harrison was very candid, and provided telling insights into Hillary’s sudden deep devotion to the cause of abortion rights by the time of Roe v. Wade, a marked moment on her political-religious path from Park Ridge Methodist to the White House.

- How the First Lady did indeed participate in strange moments of imaginary conversation with a deceased Eleanor Roosevelt from the solarium atop the White House. The woman who arranged these sessions and became very close to Hillary—Jean Houston—compared Hillary to Joan of Arc. Houston was widely known for her work delving into altered consciousness, the spirit world, and psychic experiences, and who in the 1960s had reportedly conducted experiments with LSD. According to one source, Houston seemed to believe that the embattled First Lady was going through a kind of female crucifixion, and that she was arguably the most pivotal woman in all of human history.

- How Mrs. Clinton is a strong advocate of prayer in public schools. Quoting her husband, she notes that “nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones, or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse door…. [R]eligion is too important in our history and our heritage for us to keep it out of our schools.”

- How Hillary, a self-described “old-fashioned Methodist,” endorses John Wesley’s credo that “the world is my parish.” Hillary cites Jesus Christ as the chief motivation in her government-based healthcare ministry to children. “We know so well what Jesus said to his disciples, holding a small child in his arms, that whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me, but the one who sends me,” says Hillary. “Take the image we have of Jesus—of Jesus as the Shepherd. Taking that face and transposing it onto the face of every child we see, then we would ask ourselves, ‘Would I turn that child away from the health care that child needs?’”

- How Senator Clinton’s faith is responsible for her position that marriage should be restricted to a man and a woman.

Pope John Paul II Relic Holy Card

The Rome Archdiocese is promoting the cause of Pope John Paul II. Among other things you do at this site is to request a “relic” holy card by email. You can also submit prayer requests. You can also  subscribe to the magazine Totus Tuus that details the cause, (somehow I did this early on and continue to receive it).

 A number of stories on this today out there, among them this one from The Independent:

As the beatification of Pope John Paul II grows closer, fragments of the white cassocks he wore when alive are being offered as relics over the internet.

On the Diocese of Rome website dedicated to the campaign to canonise the late pope, the diocese offers santini, a prayer card with a photograph of John Paul and a window containing a tiny fragment of his clothing. On the back is a prayer “imploring grace by the intercession of God’s servant John Paul II.” The prayer is available in many different languages. Stefano Chiodo, who runs the site, said “thousands and thousands” of the relics have already been dispatched.

The site stresses that the cards are completely free – though a contribution is solicited (the amount is not specified) from “whoever can afford it” to cover the cost of postage and packing. In the past, the sale of relics was a common and efficient way for popes to raise funds, but today it is frowned on.

“Relics (of any sort) may absolutely be neither sold nor purchased,” declares Monsignor Marco Frisinia, in charge of the Liturginal Office of the Vicariate of Rome, “because, being a sacred object, it is beyond price. The problem of the sale of relics over the internet is very common, and allow me to say that it is a sacrilege.”

The website also says the relic can only be used “in a private manner, in the silence of our hearts, until the day the Church declares him a saint”.