THANKSGIVING MESSAGE

To the members of St. George’s Old Roman Catholic community along with our many friends and neighbors,

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ; and those of the North American Old Roman Catholic Church, Archdiocese of California. May grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I extend my best wishes and prayers to each of you for a truly happy and blessed Thanksgiving. When we gather together with family and friends on this beautiful day, we shall give thanks and praise to God for all the wonderful gifts He has bestowed upon us, gifts all too often we take for granted.

As we celebrate our bounty, we do well to remember our brothers and sisters around the world and here at home within our own communities who are not as fortunate as we, those who have daunting material and personal needs. Let us pray for them and resolve anew to respond to their needs as generously as we can.

Bowing our heads to give thanks on this day let each of us pause to remember that the gift of life is a precious gift given to mankind by our creator. It is our Christian duty to support the local Right to Life organization’s with in our respective communities.

For all Old Roman Catholics as well as our other brothers and sisters of the Catholic faith the very best way to begin your Thanksgiving Day is by attending services in your parish community. The Eucharist is, of course, the ultimate act of thanksgiving and praise. We join the Psalmist in saying: “How can I repay the Lord for all the good He has done for me? I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” (Ps.116: 12-13)

And, finally . . . please don’t attempt to go shopping on Thanksgiving evening. Resist the crass and creeping commercialism of the season. Stay home with your family and friends, relax and enjoy their company. And by the way – at 3:30 pm cst the Philadelphia Eagles are playing the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, TX. Go Cowboys!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Bishop Hall

Cardinal Burke removed from Vatican post.

The following article has just been posted on the Lifesite webpage

BREAKING: Pope Francis removes Cardinal Burke from Vatican post, demoted to ceremonial role 

Putting the official stamp on months of rumours and what LifeSite had confirmed on Sept. 17, the Vatican announced today that Pope Francis has removed Cardinal Raymond Burke from his position as prefect of the Vatican's Apostolic Signatura - the highest court of the Catholic Church.

Instead, the cardinal, who until today was the highest ranking American at the Vatican, will be sent to serve as the patron for the Order of the Knights of Malta. 

The move to the largely ceremonial position is almost universally being reported as a demotion for the outspoken cardinal, who is widely viewed as the number one English-speaking defender of the Catholic Church's teaching on life and family issues.

However, the move by Pope Francis comes as little surprise to observers of Cardinal Burke's career. Within months of the pope's election, he removed the cardinal from his position as a member of the Congregation for Bishops, where he had been able to exert considerable influence on bishops' appointments worldwide. Instead, Burke was replaced by cardinals with a more leftist reputation, including Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington. 

Pro-life and pro-family leaders reacted to that lesser demotion at the time with dismay, expressing concerns that it had the flavor of a purge aimed at lessening the cardinal's influence. 

Vatican experts, including Crux's John Allen and Catholic News Service's Francis Rocca, are reporting that it is rare for a cardinal in such a high position at the Vatican to be removed without being assigned similar responsibilities. 

For years, the pro-life and pro-family movements have looked to Cardinal Burke as their strongest champion at the Vatican. 

In recent weeks, he led the charge against the push by some prelates, most notably Cardinal Walter Kasper, to liberalize the Church's pastoral practice relating to divorced and remarried Catholics, and the issue of homosexuality. 

In a series of interviews he strongly defended traditional Catholic teaching on marriage, and criticized the way the Vatican's recent Synod on the Family was conducted. Some of those interviews were also perceived as being critical of Pope Francis himself - although Cardinal Burke has decried such interpetations, saying, "I don't ever put myself in opposition to the successor of St. Peter."

The cardinal is perhaps best known for his staunch insistence that ministers of communion have  a duty to withhold the Eucharist from public and obstinate sinners - in particular Catholic politicians who have supported abortion or same-sex "marriage." 

Replacing Cardinal Burke at the Apostolic Signatura will be French Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, currently the pope’s foreign minister.