U.S. To Send Largest International Pilgrim Group To World Youth Day In Sydney

From The US Conference of Catholic Bishops

The United States will send 15,000 young people to World Youth Day, the international event convened by Pope Benedict XVI, scheduled to take place in Sydney, Australia, from July 15 through 20. According to U.S. organizers, this will be the largest delegation representing any country outside of Australia. The young pilgrims will be joined by 50 U.S. bishops, including Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The young people, most of whom are in their late teens and young adult years, are traveling to Australia in 1,140 groups that range in varying sizes up to 520 individuals. Typically, the groups are organized by dioceses, parishes, religious associations and schools, though some groups are families who have chosen to make the journey on their own.

The gathering in Sydney marks the tenth international celebration of World Youth Day. The international celebration has occurred every two or three years since Pope John Paul II established it in 1985. In 1993, the international celebration of World Youth Day took place in Denver.

For the first time at World Youth Day the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will sponsor a Mass for all U.S. groups in Sydney. Cardinal George will preside and deliver the homily on Saturday morning, July 19, at an outdoor location in the center of Sydney. Concelebrating with him will be other U.S. bishops who will also use the opportunity to meet with young people from their dioceses. Musicians from Oregon Catholic Press and World Library Publications will give a concert prior to the Mass.

Young people from the United States will also take prominent roles in other aspects of the World Youth Day events. Armando Cervantes from the Diocese of Orange will be among 12 young adults from all parts of the world who will have lunch with the Holy Father on Friday, July 18, in Sydney. In addition, Juan Martinez from the Diocese of Austin, Texas will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation from Pope Benedict along with other young people at the closing Mass of World Youth Day on Sunday, July 20.

Annalee Moyer, from the Archdiocese of Washington and Leonardo Jaramillo, from the Archdiocese of Atlanta, were selected to be members of a two hundred-person group known as the International Liturgy Group. Members take leading parts in all the major events of World Youth Day including the papal ceremonies and liturgies. They function as a representative group for all the World Youth Day pilgrims.

“I am truly blessed by this opportunity to experience the universal Church in such a unique way with my peers from around the world,” said Moyer.

Australian organizers expect approximately 100,000 youths from their own country and 125,000 international visitors to make the World Youth Day pilgrimage to Sydney this month.

Poll Shows Most Oklahomans Don’t Prefer Public Schools

From The Tulsa Beacon

Results from a new public opinion survey taken in Oklahoma in late April indicate that more than 4 of 5 voters - 83 percent - would send their children to private, charter or virtual schools or educate their children in a home school setting. The survey was released today by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, along with eight other co-sponsors.

The survey touched on such issues as tax-credit scholarships, public school funding, and school choice. The results of the poll - the first of its kind conducted in the state - indicate divided public opinion on the quality of Oklahoma’s public school system. Forty-one percent rated the public schools as poor or fair, while 40 percent indicated the schools were good or excellent. Nineteen percent were undecided.

According to Paul DiPerna, director of the Friedman Foundation’s School Choice Survey in the State, “Oklahoma’s K-12 system does not fulfill parents’ schooling preferences. If tuition were portable to both public and private schools, it seems as though families and students would sort and match themselves across school types much differently than is allowed in the current system.”

The survey results indicate majority support for tax credits for both businesses and individuals who contribute money to nonprofit organizations which distribute private school scholarships. Fifty-four percent of those polled support tax credits for businesses, while 57 percent support tax credits for individuals. A larger majority, 58 percent, supported legislation creating a tax-credit scholarship system for students in low performing schools.

This past session the Oklahoma legislature failed to pass a bill that would create tax incentives for businesses that donated to private school scholarships. The measure passed the Oklahoma Senate but failed to make it past the Republican controlled House.

The scientifically representative poll of 1,200 likely Oklahoma voters was conducted April 25-27 by Strategic Vision, an Atlanta-based public affairs agency whose polls have been used by Newsweek, Time Magazine, BBC, ABC News, and USA Today among others. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In addition to the Friedman Foundation and the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, other sponsors of the poll include the Department of Catholic Education-Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Americans for Prosperity-Oklahoma, American Legislative Exchange Council, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Center for Education Reform, Connections Academy, Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, and the National Catholic Educational Association.

Anglo-Catholics Must Now Decide

By the Rt. Rev. Andrew Burnham

So we are to have a code of practice. Traditional Anglo-Catholics must now decide whether to stay in the Church of England in what, for a while, will be a protected colony - where the sacramental ministry of women bishops and priests is neither acknowledged nor received - or to leave.

Leaving isn't quite so easy as it sounds. You don't become a Catholic, for instance, because of what is wrong with another denomination or faith. You become a Catholic because you accept that the Catholic Church is what she says she is and the Catholic faith is what it says it is. In short, some Anglo-Catholics will stay and others will go. It is quite easy to think of unworthy reasons for staying - and there are no doubt one or two unworthy reasons for leaving.

There are also honourable reasons for staying. Like the Anglican clergy who wouldn't swear allegiance to William and Mary at the end of the 17th century and the Catholic clergy who wouldn't swear allegiance to the French Revolutionary government a century later, the "non-jurors" of the present day will soldier on and die out but they will be faithful to what they have believed and history will honour them for their faithfulness.

Recent history teaches us that those who stay on - for instance, in similar circumstances in North American and Scandinavia - are not left alone for long. The pressure of secular culture bears down on them to ensure conformity with secular values.

As for those who choose to go, like in the early 1990s these will include some of the finest Anglican clergy.

Most of them are not motivated in the least by gender issues but by a keenness to pursue Catholic unity and truth.

For them, the decision of the Church of England to proceed to the ordination of women bishops without providing adequately for traditionalists renders the claims of the Church of England to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church shaky or simply untenable.

Codes of practice are shifting sands. The sacramental life of the Church must be built on rock.

How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made for our inclusion has been turned down flat?

How could we trust a code of practice when those who are offering it include those who have done most to undermine and seek to revoke the code of practice in force for these last 14 years?

The synodical process for traditional Anglo-Catholics is over. Some will try to draw new lines in the sand. But what the General Synod of the Church of England demonstrated on 7/7 (2008) is that, as on 11/11 (1992), it has decided that it is unilaterally competent to alter Holy Order. At one stage in the late 1990s it even had a go at changing the Creed. Here at work is a democratic Magisterium which at York this week showed that it values the advice of archbishops and bishops' prolocutors less than it does the outcome of a show of hands.

What we must humbly ask for now is for magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understands our longing for unity, and from the hierarchy of England and Wales. Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us.

Meanwhile we retreat into the wilderness and watch and pray.


The Rt. Rev. Andrew Burnham is the Bishop of Ebbsfleet and has been one of two "flying bishops" in the province of Canterbury. He is currently in discussion with the Vatican about ways to allow traditionalist Anglicans to become Catholic en masse.

American Children Indoctrinated Against Their Will in Taliban-Backed Madrassa in Pakistan

Up to 80 Americans Instructed by Taliban

"Karachi Kids" Documentary Highlights Their Plight

A Muslim father, a taxi driver in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States on a green card, flew his American born-boys against their will to Saudi Arabia, and then to the a radical, Taliban-backed Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi, Pakistan with instructions to the head master for his sons to memorize the entire Koran before returning to America. This is their story.

Children in the documentary film "The Karachi Kids" describe beatings and human rights violations for those who reject the radical teachings of their Taliban masters. Children from California and Georgia are interviewed in the film from inside the madrassa and discuss coming back to the United States to spread extremism within our borders.

The trailer of the documentary can be seen at www.KarachiKids.com.

Film producer Imran Raza, a Southern California native, discovered the children and captures on film the hard-core Islamic indoctrination and radical transformation of these kids. "American children are being indoctrinated by a radical and violent Islamic sect," Raza said. "Kids as young as five live in an Islamic version of the walled compound of religious radicals with little contact with their parents or any information not allowed inside the walls," Raza said. "I hope release of 'The Karachi Kids' will help end the abuse and sever the pipeline between Jihadists who want war on the values of freedom and American children who are being trained to spread radicalism back home."

There are now, according to the founder of the madrassa, between 70 and 80 other American children at the Jamia Binoria madrassa - and more than 100 Americans have already graduated from this diet of 24/7 Koran.

Raza said "This is a not only personal tragedy for the children but a new and dangerous national security question." In a chilling interview for the documentary, the headmaster of the madrassa -- who visits the United States to personally recruit American children during Ramadan -- tells Raza: "We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others. That is why I'm appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them.

C of E Bishop Will Lead Anglicans To Rome

From The Telegraph
By Damian Thompson

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, is to lead his fellow Anglo-Catholics from the Church of England into the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic Herald will reveal this week.

Bishop Burnham, one of two "flying bishops" in the province of Canterbury, has made a statement asking Pope Benedict XVI and the English Catholic bishops for "magnanimous gestures" that will allow traditionalists to become Catholics en masse.

He is confident that this will happen, following talks in Rome with Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism. He was accompanied on his visit by the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, the other Canterbury "flying bishop", who is expected to follow his example.

Bishop Burnham hopes that Rome will offer special arrangements whereby former Anglicans can stay worshipping in parishes under the guidance of a Catholic bishop. Most of these parishes already use the Roman liturgy, but there may be provision for Anglican prayers if churches request it.

Anglican priests who are already married will not be barred from ordination as priests, though Bishop Burnham would not be able to continue in episcopal orders, as he is married and there is an absolute bar on married bishops in the Roman and Orthodox Churches.

In his statement, Bishop Burnham explains why he is rejecting the code of practice offered to traditionalists by the General Synod last night.

"How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made for our inclusion has been turned down flat?" he asks. "How could we trust a code of practice when those who are offering it include those who have done most to undermine and seek to revoke the code of practice in force for these last 14 years? ...

"What we must humbly ask for now is for magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understands our longing for unity, and from the hierarchy of England and Wales. Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us."

Hunger Summit Dines on 18 Courses

President Bush and world leaders meeting at the G8 Summit in Japan are discussing world food shortages and policies that have resulted in famine in some parts of the world and runs on staples at your local Costco.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the above photo showing the leaders and their spouses dining at the Windsor Hotel Toya in the lakeside resort of Toyako, northern Japan's main island of Hokkaido Monday, July 7, 2008.

Out of concern for public relations, and because lavish dinners at other world summits to discuss hunger have been criticized, the G8 dinner was scaled down to the following 18 courses. Just your basic comfort food.

New Gingrich: "I'm Deeply Worried"