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In Austria, the children dressed as the Three Kings go from door to door collecting for charity. Except in one parish at least, they are all Queens.
And ps on the Diocesan website, a reader poll. In Österreich gibt es 14 christliche Kirchen. In Austria, there are 14 Christian In OÖ gibt es ... In Upper Austria, there are 5 9 12 14
There is only one Catholic Church and She is, by definition, Christian. This particular part of the vinyard seems to be riven by doubt about her Divine institution.
I discover today that it is the day that Don Bosco founded the Salesians in 1859. It is also the Feast of the Expectation of Our Lady. It is also my birthday.
He has had a steep career climb. Our freshly made Prince Ralf I. (surname, Birkner, born in Cleves) only arrived five year ago in our beautiful Bonn and he already become the Chief of the Carnival Clowns with his Bonn born and bred, Princess Miriam I. (surname, Schmitz). Also unusual: Ralf studied theology and was a priest for ten years. For personal reasons, he swapped his priesthood for an office job.
"In order to finance my studies, I became a solo entertainer ", he tells the assembly of great clowns. "I started with the accordion, but when I realised you cannot do so much with that, I went on to the keyboard," Prince Ralf I said further. Today, he no longer plays at weddings and anniversaries, but he accompanies a choir.
Otherwise, the ex-priest is happy to cook. "Since I'm diabetic, I naturally like to cook with a lot of vegetables, with low carbohydrates. I especially love the Mediterranean cuisine, "said Ralf Birkner. He has not got much time for hobbies. "My wife Katja and I commit ourselves to much volunteer work. I recently started as an emergency chaplain and I write for the newspaper in Munster, "said Ralf.
The new couple do not have so much time together- they were married in July 2007. Especially pleasing for Ralf I is his fan club "We are Prince" who were in evidence at the Proclamation of the Prince . "I could not have guessed at anything like this. Although I noticed that my wife suddenly had even less time, but I did not take any notice. Meanwhile, the group has got together about 100 members.
Cathcon note: “Wir sind Prinz” is a parody of “Wir sind Papst”, a famous headline in Germany the day after the election of the Holy Father, itself a play on "Wir sind Kirche" the name of a radical left church grouping and "Wir sind Weltmeister" from the football World Cup.
For comparison, the man gave up acting in Persona Christi at Mass to perform as a King of Clowns at his "coronation".
And the Pope, Vicar of Christ on earth.
Unbelievably, there could be something worse than the ex-priest becoming Prince of Fools.
A narrative dance choreographed by Joshua Monten and performed at the Stadttheater Bern, Switzerland) in 2006. It (allegedly) depicts the Papal Conclave, the intercession of the Holy Ghost, and the coronation of the new Pope.
Video report St. Agnes on Kossuth Avenue was built in 1887; it will soon close its doors. Parishioners must now travel about another mile to St. Anthony's. The diocese decided to merge the two during their consolidation and closure decisions which took place back in 2007. The new parish will be named St. Anthony and St. Agnes.
That was the prayer Bishop Thomas Costello and a congregation of nearly 600 said Sunday afternoon at the final Mass held at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church.
The church, built in 1887, was the first in the Syracuse Diocese, according to church documents, but officially closed with Sunday’s Mass. It will now merge with St. Anthony of Padua Church, located a mile away.
Lighthouse Baptist Church, currently on South Street, has purchased all four of St. Agnes’ buildings, Lighthouse officials said.
But St. Agnes is not about the structure it occupied, Costello said.
“St. Agnes is people – living stones,” Costello told parishioners at Sunday’s Mass. “You are St. Agnes. You are not closing. You’re just moving to another site.”
Mass had a 'somber air' this weekend at St. George Mission Church in Pittstown, as churchgoers learned that their parish is one of 33 being closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
Knew it was coming
Most parishioners saw it coming, according to the Rev. James Clark, who also leads Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Hoosick Falls, but the mood was still glum. 'A few people were upset, taken aback,' he said Sunday, 'but the majority of people had been expecting it. There was a somber air at Mass. It certainly wasn't jubilant.'
St Raphael The name of this archangel (Raphael = "God has healed") does not appear in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in the Septuagint only in the Book of Tobias. Here he first appears disguised in human form as the travelling companion of the younger Tobias, calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". The story of the adventurous journey during which the protective influence of the angel is shown in many ways including the binding "in the desert of upper Egypt" of the demon who had previously slain seven husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is picturesquely related in Tobit 5-11, to which the reader is referred. After the return and the healing of the blindness of the elder Tobias, Azarias makes himself known as "the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tobit 12:15. Cf. Revelation 8:2). Of these seven "archangels" which appear in the angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only three, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, are mentioned in the canonical Scriptures. The others, according to the Book of Enoch (cf. xxi) are Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel, while from other apocryphal sources we get the variant names Izidkiel, Hanael, and Kepharel instead of the last three in the other list.
Regarding the functions attributed to Raphael we have little more than his declaration to Tobias (Tobit 12) that when the latter was occupied in his works of mercy and charity, he (Raphael) offered his prayer to the Lord, that he was sent by the Lord to heal him of his blindness and to deliver Sara, his son's wife, from the devil. The Jewish category of the archangels is recognized in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 4:15; Jude 9), but only Gabriel and Michael are mentioned by name. Many commentators, however, identify Raphael with the "angel of the Lord" mentioned in John 5. This conjecture is base both on the significance of the name and on the healing role attributed to Raphael in the Book of Tobias. The Church assigns the feast of St. Raphael to 24 October. The hymns of the Office recall the healing power of the archangel and his victory over the demon. The lessons of the first Nocturn and the Antiphons of the entire Office are taken from the Book of Tobias, and the lessons of the second and third Nocturns from the works of St. Augustine, viz. for the second Nocturn a sermon on Tobias (sermon I on the fifteenth Sunday), and for the third, a homily on the opening verse of John, v. The Epistle of the Mass is taken from the twelfth chapter of Tobias, and the Gospel from John 5:1-4, referring to the pool called Probatica, where the multitude of the infirm lay awaiting the moving of the water, for "an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved.And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". Thus the conjecture of the commentators referred to above is confirmed by the official Liturgy of the Church.
of the Church of Oerlenbach, a village between Schweinfurt and Bad Kissingen in Wuerzburg diocese. The Church was built in 1967, is dedicated to the first bishop of Wuerzburg St. Burkhard, an English Saint.
A correspondent writes,
How is it possible to build such an church? Who is able to pray in this church?
The church is built for 1000 people and every Sunday visit there are between 80 and 100at Mass, if you are lucky! Most are seniors, no children, sometimes 2 or 3...
Vice President-elect Joe Biden worshipped and received communion Sunday at the same Roman Catholic church President John F. Kennedy attended just hours before his inauguration. Biden and his wife, Jill, sat in a pew reserved for him and his family toward the back of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and listened as the Rev. Larry Madden, S.J., delivered a sermon about God as a constant anchor and the promise of hope and change for those who believe.
First went the maniple, then the chasuble, then the alb. Once the stole (symbolising the binding of Jesus during his Passion) goes, the priest will disappear.
Cathcon translation of 
