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Accounting Practices Committee, a lay group of certified public accountants advising the USCCB, urged U. S. bishops to exert tighter control over the finances of the U. S.' 19,000 parishes. Recommendatons include that each parish submit an annual report to the bishop with the names and titles of parish finance council members, dates the council met, date the parish budget was approved, and date the published financial statement was given to parishioners. (85% of U.S. dioceses reported embezzlement according to a Villanover University study.)

Vatican has asked for financial accounting of every parish in England and Wales.

Vatican's Clergy Congregation stated when parishes are closed, funds should follow parishioners to their new parish, not revert to the diocese.

Going to Disney World in Florida? Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine in Orlando, Florida, was built just for you. An interesting selection in the gift shop is Santa kneeling before the Christ Child within the Nativity Scene.

Chinese Our Lady of Sheshan

Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother, venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title Help of Christians, the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth, you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption. You willingly and generously cooperated in that work, allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul, until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary, standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way, the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross. Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter. Grant that your children may discern at all times, even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love. May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus. In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love. Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built. Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen

St. Mary's County Museum Division

The cross marks the spot of the first Mass in the English-speaking American colonies held on Saint Clement's Island commemorating the beginning of the Archdiocese of Washington and the State of Maryland on March 25, 1634.

Sam/AP

Our Lady of the Rosary, Doha, Qatar

Update: 15,000 faithful attended the inauguration Mass and consecration of Our Lady of the Rosary in Doha, Qatar. Our Lady holds 5,000 parishioners, so screens and speakers were set up outside. Vatican envoy Cardinal Ivan Dias thanked "God and Qatar for this great gift." Filipino Catholic Shato Mawude said, "It is a day without precedent. I am very happy." Filipino Ariel Almyede said, "This church is a sign of a possible dialogue between the different faiths." Said Qatari Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, "The church sends a positive message to the world. At the moment we are enjoying the construction of mosques and Islamic centers in the West so we must be fair." Saudi Arabia is the only Gulf Arab state which does not allow churches - Saudi Arabia bans all non-Muslim religious activities and materials - but Archbishop Paul-Munjed al-Hashem said, "Discussions are under way with Saudi Arabia to allow the construction of churches in the kingdom. We cannot forecast the outcome." There are between three and four million Christians in Saudi Arabia. Backstory below:

Sam/AP

Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Doha, Qatar, is the first Catholic church to be inaugurated in Qatar in 14 centuries. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, donated the land. Our Lady of the Rosary will seat 2,700 parishioners and will have a parish hall, a rectory, a library, and a cafe. Since Christians are forbidden to display crosses in Islamic countries, Our Lady of the Rosary won't have a spire or freestanding cross, but the Qatari Constitution does guarantee religious freedom, and Qatar has a policy of religious tolerance.

Holy water from Our Lady of Lourdes in France

French inspectors at Tarbes-Lourdes Airport are refusing to allow Holy Water from Lourdes through the security gate because of the designation of carryon liquids as a security risk. Air-Mistral's Vatican Tours to Lourdes, however, provides a complimentary bottle of Holy Water from Our Lady of Lourdes for each passenger after boarding.

GNU License

Pilgrims climb Rome's Sanctuary of the Scala Santa/Holy Stairs Jesus climbed on his way to trial before Pontius Pilate and are granted a full indulgence for their sins. The 28 marble Holy Stairs are encased in wood, and pilgrims must climb on their knees to preserve the Holy Stairs, but pilgrims can peer through the wood while on their knees to see the marble stairs beneath. In 1589 Pope Sixtus V commissioned 40 artists, including Flemish landscape artist Paul Bril, who painted 18,000 square feet of frescoes to surround the stairs. The Passionists are entrusted with the care of Saint Sylvester Chapel housing the Sanctuary of the Scala Santa in Saint John Lateran Basilica. Saint Helena brought the Holy Stairs from Jerusalem to Rome.

U S A
Copyright © 2003 Dominican Novitiate of the Province of Saint Albert the Great

Assisi
Copyright © 2002 by Fr. Richard Lonsdale, Catholic1 Publishing

Antonina Wasili (Welk) Iwanowa and the Most Reverend Joseph Werth, Bishop of Siberia, Russia (Novosibirsk) saying prayers at the former Selz cemetery in May, 1996. Due to the easing of government restrictions, Bishop Werth was able to hear Antonina's confession, and Antonina was able to receive Holy Communion for the first time in 50 years.

The Roman Catholic Church in the Ukraine

Ukraine

Former Catholic German Village of Selz, Kutschurgan District, South Russia now Limanskoje near Odessa.

Basilica of the Assumption Cathedral at Salzburg
Copyright © 2000 John Burke

Antonina Wasili (Welk) Iwanowa and Michael M. Miller (1994)
at the former Basilica of the Assumption, Selz,
where Antonina was baptized and confirmed.
The Basilica was built in 1901 and modeled
after the Cathedral at Salzburg in Austria
but fell into disrepair due to government
restriction on religion. Memories of Antonina

Pope Benedict XVI received the bishops of the Ukraine for their first ad limina/5-year visit in 70 years on February 1, 2008. "Now that your Churches have rediscovered their complete freedom, you are here to represent your communities, reborn and vibrant in the faith, which have never ceased to feel their full communion with Peter's successor. You are welcome, dear brothers, in this house in which intense and incessant prayers have always been said for the beloved Greek-Catholic Church of Ukraine."

Cardinal Wu and His Pet Chicken

Cardinal Wu with his mother in 1986. Because of government restrictions, this was the only time they would meet in 40 years.

HONG KONG

His Eminence Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-Chung

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong

(Deceased)

U S A

Bishop Paul Z. Zipfel of Bismarck

Father Leonard Eckroth of

Ss. Peter and Paul Church with the

Millennium Cross in

Strasburg, North Dakota

Photograph used with permssion of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, PO Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599 Website: www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc

New Zealand

Vietnam
Similar to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Saint Joseph Cathedral was inaugurated on Christmas Day 1886
Provided by the Department of History, United States Military Academy

Permission of agenzia fides

Chaldean Church in Australia

Catholicism in Belarus

Catholicism in Cuba

Catholicism in Siberia

Catholicism in Turkmenistan

English language bookstores in France

Catholicism in Turkey

Although there is religious freedom in Turkey, the Catholic Church isn't legally recognized thereby making it difficult for the Church to purchase and/or own property to build churches, schools, and hospitals. Pope Benedict XVI, in a meeting with the Turkish Ambassador to the Vatican, Ambassador Muammer Dogan Akdur, urged Turkey to give the Catholic Church legal status. "I have no doubt that your government will do everything in its power to advance in this direction," said the pope.

Religion in Turkey

Catholicism in Vietnam

Christians in Kurdistan

Limbo

Catholic wedding checklist

Men still want to get married

Vatican document on men and women

Origin and meaning of the Sign of the Cross

Bishop Camillo Ballin, 63, Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait reports that the 150,000 Catholic Kuwaitis, "enjoy freedom of worship and suffer no restriction whatsoever. The local government is extremely generous. It offers us places of worship and all the necessary help in bureaucratic and official procedures. When there are major festivities, such as Christmas and Easter, we inform the authorities, who send us security forces, without interfering in what we are doing, to protect our community attending services from Islamist extremists."