If we know how to pray...

"Prayer is what ultimately reveals who we are in relation to God and other people. If we can pray, then we can talk to others; if we know how to pray, then we also know how to relate to others." -Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Riccardo Muti sides with Pope on sacred music

Muti sides with pope against Church 'sing-songs' - ANSA English

"It is possible to modernize holy music," he once said at a concert at the Sistine Chapel. "But this cannot happen outside the great traditional path of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphonic choral music.

"The pope is right when he says it is necessary to bring our great musical heritage back into churches," said Muti, a former director of Milan's La Scala who is now in charge of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

"When I go to church and I hear four strums of a guitar or choruses of senseless, insipid words, I think it's an insult... I can't work out how come once upon a time there were Mozart and Bach and now we have little sing-songs. This is a lack of respect for people's intelligence."

The Elephant in the Sacristy: homosexuality and the sex abuse scandal

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

As the priestly sex abuse scandal runs its course, we don't appear yet to have reached the point where the bishops openly and honestly deal with homosexuality as an important factor.

Ignatius of Antioch, on the authority of the Roman See

"You [the See of Rome] have envied no one, but others have you taught. I desire only that what you have enjoined in your instructions may remain in force" (Epistle to the Romans 3:1 [A.D. 110])

-St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch

Cyprian of Carthage, on the primacy of Peter

"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.’ . . . On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

-Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (d. 258)

St. Gregory Nazianzen, on the primacy of Rome

"Regarding the faith which they uphold, the ancient Rome has kept a straight course from of old, and still does so, uniting the whole West by sound teaching, as is just, since she presides over all and guards the universal divine harmony." (Carmen de Vita Sua, 382 A.D.)

-St. Gregory Nazianzen, Archbishop of Constantinople (c. 329-389)

St. John Chrysostom, on the primacy of Peter

"He [Peter] was the chosen one of the Apostles, the mouth of the Apostles, the leader of the band...Jesus put into his hands the chief authority among the brethren...For he who then did not dare to question Jesus, but committed the office to another, was even entrusted with the chief authority over the brethren, and not only does not commit to another what relates to himself, but himself now puts a question to his Master concerning another. John is silent, but Peter speaks...for Peter greatly loved John...When therefore Christ had foretold great things to him, and committed the world to him, and spoke beforehand of his martyrdom, and testified that his love was greater than all the others..." (Hom. 88 on St. John).

-St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, c. 349–407.

John Paul II beatified!

-Still inspiring millions