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     For events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on TIME CAPSULES: MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES

Historical Events in Church Annals for September 23:

76 A.D.


Death of Pope Saint Linus, immediate successor of Saint Peter. Linus was elected in 67 A.D. and created the first fifteen bishops after the Apostles. He forbade women to enter a church with uncovered heads, a custom that survived nearly 2000 years until Vatican II liberals did away with that. During his pontificate the evangelists Saint Luke and Saint Mark were martyred. He is buried near St. Peter in the crypt below the altar.

140 A.D.


Death of Saint Thecla who is said to have bribed the gatekeepers at the Roman prisons where Saint Paul was incarcerated in order that she could get inside and learn from the Apostle often for she had heard him preach and was so moved by the Word of God that she renounced her fiance and was baptized. She is said to have been in Paul's entourage in his journeys, all the way to his imprisonment.

695 A.D.


Death of Saint Adaman. This Irish-born abbott of Iona wrote the life of Saint Columba.

1942 A.D.


On this day the Nazis began experimental gassing executions at Auschwitz in Poland. Millions of Jews and thousands of Catholics would be slain including the priest Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe and Blessed Edith Stein who Pope John Paul II will canonize next month.

Any Catholic Senator voting for abortion could very well excommunicate themself through their actions according to Canon Law

     Targeting the two Illinois senators' disregard for Catholic doctrine as a slap in the bishops' face by Carol Mosely-Braun and Dick Durbin for their response to the bishops' plea to overturn the Partial Birth Abortion Ban veto by going against Catholic belief, the Executive Director of Pro-Life Action League Joseph Scheidler cites grounds for excommunication of any senator who claims to be Catholic and casts a vote for abortion. While Scheidler was referring to Illinois specifically and his call to Cardinal Francis George, OMI to take action, he was also including such travesties as Ted Kennedy who claims to be Catholic but his voting record has shown consistent disregard for Catholic doctrine. For more, click on Excommunication

      CHICAGO, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire "The partial birth abortion procedure is the most barbaric way they have come up with to kill an unborn child," said Joseph Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-Life Action League. "It is disguisting and abhorrent that our two Illinois senators, who claim to be Catholics, have again voted against an override of President Clinton's veto, ignoring the advice and counsel of all the Bishops of Illinois."

      "We are asking Cardinal George, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Illinois, to issue a statement censuring Carol Moseley-Braun and Richard Durbin," said Scheidler. "Canon Law and Papal Encyclicals are very clear on the consequences of involvement in abortion. Moseley-Braun and Durbin may well have excommunicated themselves with their vote to allow a procedure the Catholic Bishops have called 'infanticide,'" he said.

      "Catholic voters are entitled to a clear statement of the senators' excommunications," said Scheidler. "If Moseley-Braun and Durbin persist in their unrelenting support for the killing of unborn children, they should, at least, be confronted with the reality that they can no longer call themselves 'Catholic.'"

      On Sept. 9, the five Bishops of Illinois sent a joint letter to Senator Moseley-Braun and Senator Durbin, asking them to switch their votes on the partial birth abortion ban. But claiming that they had to represent people of all religions, both refused and cast their votes to uphold Clinton's veto. In point of fact the majority of Illinois voters, no matter what their religion, oppose the brutal procedure.

      "It is particularly offensive when a politician supports killing children and then pretends to belong to the Catholic Church, which holds all life to be sacred," said Scheidler. "Our unborn brothers and sisters deserve protection from public officials, not extermination. I hope that Cardinal George, Bishop Gregory, Bishop Meyer, Bishop Doran and Bishop Ryan are poised to issue a statement on excommunication."

Pope and Italian President to meet on the latter's turf in October

      A month shy of six years after the Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro first visited the Vatican, his Holiness John Paul II will return the favor when he journeys the short distance to the seat of Italian government on the Quirinal in Rome to meet with the head of Italy, a custom that is traditional in Italy and, to our knowledge, no other country extends the same to the Pope. It has long been the procedure for the Italian President, after his election, to pay an official visit to the Supreme Pontiff in recognition of their sharing the same city. This time discussions may include the recent harassment of Naples Cardinal Michele Giordano. For more, click on Vatican-Italian summit

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II will make an official visit to Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro on October 20. The meeting will take place at the Quirinal-- the presidential palace, named for the section of Rome where it stands.

      It is traditional that a new president of Italy visits the Vatican soon after his election, and the Pope eventually returns the visit. The visits are marked by a formal address by each leader, and an exchange of symbolic gifts. The Holy See has no similar tradition for an exchange of visits with other heads of state.

      President Scalfaro came to the Vatican on November 22, 1992, but to date Pope John Paul II has not returned the visit. Scalfaro's term will expire in June 1999.

      The visit, a clear indication of good will, comes at a time when relations between the Italian government and the Holy See have been tested by the government's search of the offices of Naples Cardinal Michele Giordano-- a search which Vatican officials protested, saying it was a violation of the concordat which governs church-state relations in Italy. Vatican officials have also been pressing the government for more favorable treatment of Catholic schools.

Another Anglican priest returns to the True Fold over disintegration of his church's policies

      We could've told him it would happen. After all, a church not founded by God but rather a rebellious, sinful king cannot last. It might have saved Father Francis Brown the transition problems had he studied Catholic doctrine earlier in his life, but nonetheless another lost sheep returns to the fold with his announcement that he is leaving the Anglican Church and converting to Catholicism chiefly because of the Church of England's insistance on ordaining women priests and disregard for tradition. Let's hope and pray he doesn't have to deal with those same issues in the Roman Catholic Church. For more, click on Prodigal Priest

      LONDON (CWNews.com) - One of the Church of England's most vehement opponents of women priests announced this week he will join the Catholic Church. Father Francis Bown, vicar of St. Stephen's Church in Hull, England, has claimed the Church of England is spiritually, morally, and intellectually bankrupt.

      A leading campaigner against women priests, Father Bown hit the headlines four years ago when he paraded a coffin outside the church headquarters in London and performed the funeral rites of the Church of England while the General Synod voted to allow women priests. A notice outside his parish church in Hull reads: "This Anglican parish has no part in the apostasy of priestesses."

      Father Bown, who has been a priest for 21 years, said he felt sad to leave his parishioners, but the Church of England was no longer a fit home for anyone who believed in orthodox Christianity. "In contrast to the pathetic and broken Church of England," he said, "the Catholic Church speaks with the clear voice of authentic Christianity. I now realize that the proper course for faithful Anglicans is not to go on attempting to revive the corpse of the Church of England, but to place themselves in communion with the Holy See." Father Bown will officially leave his parish on October 17 and plans to move to London.

Greater accord between the Church and Jews evident in light of announcement a special Jewish ceremony will be held on Vatican grounds

      Despite all the rhetoric between Jews and Catholics over the holocaust, the Auschwitz controversy, Palestine, etc. the Vatican is extending the olive branch by acknowledging the high Jewish holydays currently in progress and announcing that on December 18, the feast of Hannukah will be commemorated in the Vatican garden with participation by both faiths. It is the first time ever such an event will have ever be held at the Holy See. For more, click on Cooperation.

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Vatican Radio today acknowledged the Jewish holy days, broadcasting a recorded interview with Rabbi Abraham Piattelli.

      With the marking of Rosh Hashanah on Monday, September 21, the Jewish people opened the new year-- the year 5759 by their reckoning. The holiday season continues through the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) on September 30, and the feast of Sukkoth on October 5.

      Yom Kippur, the rabbi explained, is the day when Jewish people seek pardon for their offenses. Sukkoth is a harvest feast, but it also recalls the 40 years which the Hebrew people spent in the desert before entering into the Holy Land. Thus, Rabbi Piattelli said, the feast is "a symbol of divine providence."

      Beginning on December 14 this year, Judaism will observe the feast of Hanukah, commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees. For the first time, that feast will be marked by a special celebration in the Vatican gardens, at which Cardinal Edward Cassidy will preside along with the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Aharon Lopez.

For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site. CWN is not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

      Today and tomorrow are regular weekdays in Ordinary Time. For the readings, liturgies and meditations, click on LITURGY

Wednesday September 23:
Twenty-Fifth Wednesday in Ordinary Time

Green vestments

First Reading: Proverbs 30: 5-9
Psalms: Psalm 119: 29, 72, 89, 101, 104, 163
Gospel Reading: Luke 9: 1-6

Thursday September 24:
Twenty-Fifth Thursday in Ordinary Time

Green vestments

First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11
Psalms: Psalm 90: 1, 2-6, 12-14, 17
Gospel Reading: Luke 9: 7-9

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September 23, 1998 volume 9, no. 186   DAILY CATHOLIC