"...Catholic teaching may be in disarray from grammar school to university; free-form sloppy, and even impious liturgical practices may be found in many dioceses; barely 40% of American Catholics attend Mass regularly, and many schoolchildren may have trouble reciting the Ten Commandments...seminaries may be empty... but the U.S. Bishop's Committee on Liturgy knows a mortal peril to the Faith when it sees one: It's those disruptive types who insist on kneeling to receive the Eucharist."
Michael M. Uhlmann

The Christmas Rose

The Christmas Rose is from a charming tale of a little shepherd girl who stood weeping outside the stable where Jesus was born because she had no gift for him. A watching Angel caused the snow at the little girl's feet to disappear, revealing the Christmas Rose which was formed by the angels from each tear of the little shepherdess; a lovely gift for the baby Jesus. The Christmas rose should be planted by the door to welcome Christ into the house. The rose is also associated with Saint Agnes, the patroness of purity, whose feast day is Jan. 21. She was only 13 when she suffered martyrdom for the Faith in Rome in 303.

Books | Article in Christianity Today titled Last Catholic Writer in America?

If you are a Catholic writer, you probably know the feeling yourself. It is as though you are the only person left who takes this stuff seriously—the only writer who cares about religion, and the only Catholic who has any literary taste. You are the last Catholic writer in America, and you are afraid the species is dying out. That is one of the reasons you stick around

Is It Arrogant to Say Christ Is the Only Savior? Asks Cardinal Ratzinger
Points to the Missteps of Relativism

MURCIA, Spain, DEC. 2, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Is it pretentious for Christians to proclaim Christ as the only Savior of mankind?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger posed that question Saturday, and in his response clarified the very meaning of the Christian mission.

The cardinal was addressing the congress on "Christ: Way, Truth and Life," which brought together world-renowned theologians at the Catholic University of St. Anthony.

"Isn't it arrogant to speak of truth in matters of religion to the point of affirming that truth, the only truth, has been found in one's own religion?" the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith added.

Addressing an audience of 3,000, Cardinal Ratzinger said that "today it has become a slogan of enormous repercussion to reject, as simultaneously simplistic and arrogant, all those who can be accused of believing that they 'possess' the truth."

"These people, it seems, are unable to dialogue; therefore, they cannot be taken seriously, because truth is not 'possessed' by anyone," the cardinal added, outlining the thesis of relativism. "We can only be in search of truth. However, against this affirmation one can object: What search is this about, if one can never arrive at the goal?"

"Are these people really searching, or is it that they do not wish to find the truth, because what they will find should not be?" he continued.

"Naturally, truth cannot be a possession; before it, I must always be one of humble acceptance, of being conscious of my own risk and accepting knowledge as a gift, of which I am not worthy, of which I cannot be vainglorious as if it were an achievement of mine," Cardinal Ratzinger clarified.

"If I have been given the truth, I must consider it as a responsibility, which also presupposes service to others," he explained. "Faith also affirms that the unlikeness between what is known by us and reality itself is infinitely greater than the likeness."

In reality, the arrogant one is the relativist, the cardinal said.

"Isn't it arrogant to say that God cannot give us the gift of truth?" he asked. "Is it not contempt for God to say that we have been born blind and that truth is not our concern?"

"Real arrogance" consists in "wanting to take God's place and to determine who we are, what we do, what we want to make of ourselves and of the world," the cardinal continued.

Therefore, "the only thing that we can do is to recognize with humility that we are unworthy messengers who do not proclaim ourselves, but who speak with holy fear of what is not ours, but of what comes from God," he added.

"Only in this way is the missionary task intelligible, which cannot mean spiritual colonialism, the submission of others to my culture and ideas," the cardinal emphasized. "In the first place, the mission calls for preparation for martyrdom, a willingness to lose oneself for the love of truth and of one's neighbor.

"Only in this way is the mission credible. Truth cannot and must not have any other weapon than itself."

ZE02120223 - http://www.zenit.org