I'm nominated for the Pro-life blog awards!

Thank you, DR at The Maritime Sentry for nominating me for this prestigious award from the American Life League.As ALL says, blogging, especially pro-life blogging can be a lonely and thankless job. I hear that.

Sometimes when comments are sparse, or overwhelimingly negative as they were on this post, I wonder if the only readers out there are coming by accident through Google. I certainly don't want to preach to choir, and unintentional readers may have their eyes opened in ways they never imagined, but still, it's so gratifying to be recognized by fellow writers, bloggers, and pro-lifers. Thank you.

There is no voting from thegeneral public, a panel of pro-life bloggers and media specialists will decide the winners. I'm on pins and needles; this would be a great honor coming from ALL.

If you chose abortion, make a new start with God this year

A Century of Martyrs

The Twentieth Century had more Christian martyrs than all 20 previous centuries.

The secular West has been looking the other way for a very long time. Even the average church-going Christian is not likely to know that 45.5 million of the estimated 70 million Christians who have died for Christ did so in the last century. For this reason, scholars such as Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and author of The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, refer to the past century as one of the darkest periods of martyrdom since the birth of Christianity.
But they won't make TIME magazine's list of heroes, so I'm linking to the Catholic Online story about them here. This century is off to a brutal start for Christians, especially in Asia.
If the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, we are due for a huge revival. Just in time, we've never needed one more.
HT A Catholic Mom in Hawaii

Lila Rose; Woman of the Year

She bravely walked into Planned Parenthood Mills to expose their evil illegal activities,and made national headlines. Just don't expect her to be extolled on your TV news channel.
Lila Rose Chosen As Operation Rescue's 2008 Person Of The Year

Wichita, KS - Operation Rescue announces that Lila Rose, a 20-year old UCLA student that has made national headlines exposing wrong-doing at abortion clinics, is the recipient of its 2008 Person of the Year Malachi Award.
"Lila Rose exemplifies the new wave of pro-life activism and best reflects Operation Rescue's own efforts to expose illegal conduct in our nation's abortion mills," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Her work has helped raise public awareness of the seedy underbelly of the abortion industry and has helped to launch criminal investigations that we pray will eventually hold out-of-control abortionists accountable for their criminal acts."
Lila Rose is the president of Live Action Films and has released a number of undercover sting videos of Planned Parenthood employees coaching girls to cover up for men who are committing statutory rape.
Each year Operation Rescue presents the Malachi Award to pro-life activists who are impacting the nation for the cause of life. The award is named after an aborted baby that was discovered in an abortion clinic dumpster, whose image has been used nationally to bring attention to the desperate plight of the pre-born.
Previous recipients include Dr. Johnny Hunter of LEARN, who is exposing the devestating effects of abortion on the African-American community, Leslee Unruh, who spearheaded efforts to ban abortion in South Dakota, and Phill Kline, the Kansas prosecutor whose abortion investigations have led to 107 criminal charges against Planned Parenthood.
To watch her sting videos of Planned Parenthood click here.

Jean at Catholic Fire's definitive answer on why abortion is wrong

Is a must read. Well done, my friend!

Spaniards celebrate the family

On the Feast of the Holy Family yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Spanish families gathered in Madrid. Let's follow their example here in the US.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended a Mass in central Madrid on Sunday designed to promote traditional family values in a predominantly Roman Catholic country that has legalized gay marriage and made it easier for people to divorce.
The service started with a message from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged Spanish Catholics to keep their families strong.
"Dear families, do not let love, openness to life and the incomparable links that join your homes weaken," the pope said in a message read out in Madrid. "The pope is by your side," the pontiff added.

Read the entire story here.

HT Associated Press

This does not bode well for Catholic leadership

Somehow I missed the voting results of the USCCB Convention. All right, maybe it was deliberate, these things end up frustrating me, and tempting me to the sin of detraction.
All the outspoken bishops who have the guts to reprimand so-called Catholic politicians who vote to exterminate babies, get silenced by losing the leadership positions to quieter bishops.

Now King Obama can ascend to the throne in peace, knowing that those in charge of the USCCB are the nice guys who won't bother him. And probably voted for him.
HT Totus Tuus Family and
The Washington Times

Feast of St Stephen, martyr

Obama and Hillary are about to invade the UN...
Unborn babies in unspeakable danger...
Dear Friend of the Friday Fax,
On this Christmas Eve, I am truly frightened about the battles that will begin in a few short weeks when Barack Obama becomes President and Hillary Clinton becomes US Secretary of States. I know what is about to happen.
I lived through the Clinton years when abortion was pushed relentlessly by the Clintons and their cohorts at the UN. It was awful.
Pro-lifers were outnumbered by 1,000 to one. Pro-lifers were outspent by $1 billion to one.
Pro-life Christians were persecuted by UN officials simply for being present and fighting for the unborn. The nightmare is about to continue and it will be worse than ever before.
Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion president the US has ever known. He will push for abortion in every venue there is. It will be worse at the UN than anywhere else? Why? Because hardly anyone pays attention to the UN. His work will be hidden. This hiddenness will allow Barack to truly be Barack when it comes to distain for the unborn child.
It will be far worse this time because Barack will also become the most pro-UN president the US has ever seen. He and his team believe the US should join the "global consensus" on a whole host of UN social policy issues, most especially abortion. Worse than that, he and his team believe whole-heartedly that the UN is the sovereign power, not the US, not other sovereign states. He and his team are eager to subsume national sovereignty into UN sovereignty. This includes not just US sovereignty, but Australian sovereignty, Canadian sovereignty, Spanish sovereignty and every other national sovereignty on the globe.
But it will be worse this time than during the Clinton years precisely because his UN team will be led by Hillary Clinton, the Grand Dame of UN pro-abortionists. Hillary was literally leader of the pack at the UN during the nineties, and the pack was braying for a right to abortion. We beat them then and they are back for revenge.
This is what will happen. The US will immediately join the European Union and the UN bureaucracy in advancing a woman's so-called right to choose abortion. You can expect the following:
• A new global conference on women's health, maternal health and violence against women. This will be used to advance a universal right to abortion.
• A new global conference celebrating and advancing Cairo+15 (Cairo+10 was largely ignored during the Bush years because pro-aborts feared a loss).
• A new global conference celebrating and advancing Beijing+15 (Beijing+10 was also largely ignored during the Bush years for fear of a loss).
• You will see renewed US funding of the UN Population Fund, the premier UN agency for advancing population control and abortion.
• You will see Obama strike down US laws forbidding abortion funding for groups around the world. This will result in millions of more dollars supporting abortion around the world.
You will see much much more. But here is the good news. C-FAM and the Friday Fax will be there. As much as the Obamas and the Clintons and the UN hate it, we will be there at every meeting. If we can't get into the meeting, we will be sitting in the hallway outside. We will delve in to documents no one else sees. We will meet with diplomats you will never hear of. We will stalk those halls at the UN all day and, if need be, into the night. We will shine our bright light on UN abortion shenanigans when no one else is there. We will tell the truth.
C-FAM and the Friday Fax are uniquely situated to do this work for the global pro-life movement. We have been here for more than ten years. We are the only pro-life group working exclusively on UN matters. It is as if we have been in training for a decade just to meet the challenge of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And we say, bring them on! We are ready. But, we need your help. Right now the Friday Fax costs more than $100,000 a year to produce. This includes salaries, office space, computers, printing and mailing the snail-mail edition, and the cost of sending out emails (yes that costs money, too!). And our expenses are about to go through the roof.
Our hugely successful online petition for the unborn child that so far as netted almost 500,000 names will add a net 200,000+ names to our Friday Fax list. We do not have the money to email that many. Some firms want to charge us $2000 per month to mail that many! Needless to say, we will find a cheaper solution. Still, our costs are about to go much higher. Now is the time to step forward and help the Friday Fax,=2 0the only weekly source of pro-life and pro-family news coming out of UN headquarters in New York City.
Now and over the next five weeks we will be running our bi-annual Friday Fax fund drive. You can go right HERE and give. You can give by credit card over our super-secure server, or you can send us a check (mail instructions HERE). You can also wire us your contribution (instructions HERE).
Now is the time. The Obamas and the Clintons will be backed by billions and billions of dollars. The Friday Fax gets by on a pittance. Still, we and our allies have beaten them before. We can beat them again. But we need you now.
And remember to pray for us, too. This is not just a battle of people but of powers and principalities. We cannot beat them, only He can.
Please help the Friday Fax. We are here. We are ready. We are not afraid.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Austin Ruse of C-FAM

The Holy Father on True Joy

This was one of the Pope's reflections Monday when he met with the Roman Curia and other officials for the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings.
"A party is an integral part of joy," the Holy Father acknowledged. "And a party can be organized, but joy cannot.
"It can only be offered as a gift; and, in fact, it has been given us in abundance. That's why we feel grateful."
The Pontiff recalled how St. Paul lists joy among the fruits of the Holy Spirit and in the same way, St. John unites the Spirit and joy.
"Joy is the gift in which all other gifts are summed up," the Bishop of Rome affirmed, just a few days before Christmas. "It is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with oneself, something that can only be derived from being in harmony with God and his creation."
HT Zenit

The Holy Father's Christmas gift to the Church: The Inconvenient Truth

"In thousands of news articles and talk shows around the world today from Bulgaria to India, Pope Benedict XVI is being bashed for daring to say we should care as much for mankind as the tropical rainforests; that the harm caused by going against the Creator's plan for human sexuality is destructive and hurtful. In truth, he is being pilloried for having enough love to tell his brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction, promiscuity, pornography, adultery and more, that their behavior is hurting them and society at large. It is hurting them physically, psychologically, but most importantly - hurting them spiritually. "

Life Site News

When a father sees his beloved children committing moral suicide, he tells them. He tells them, knowing that they most likely will scoff at him, tell him to mind his own business, or possibly get downright abusive in return.
Such has happened to our beloved Pope Benedict in return for his wisdom on the sins of the flesh, which Our Lady of Fatima told the children a century ago, led more people to hell than any other. He is speaking the truth in love. And because truth is so obscured by the mainstream press, and hated by the world, the virulent reaction should as no surprise to us. It merely indicates the necessity of the warning; if we continue to spit at God's gift of married love, through extra marital sexual relations, we are sowing the seeds of not only our own destruction, but the downfall of Western Civilization. It happened to Rome.

And about the rainforests; they come under the same category as the liberal hypocrisy about smoking; these are mere distractions to make them seem morally righteous while they destroy their lives through promiscuity. And those of the poorly catechized Catholics who follow their lead. If you are dying of AIDS, quitting smoking won't save you, but a good confession will prepare you for eternity. That's why Mother Teresa and Cardinal O'Connor set up the first AIDS hospice in New York City in the 80's. Catholics not only speak the truth in love, but we pick up the pieces afterward when our brothers and sisters are suffering the physical, spiritual, and emotional devastation of disobeying God's laws. Cardinal O'Connor also set up a religious order, the Sisters of Life, to care for mothers in crisis pregnancies, and for victims of "choice", those suffering the trauma of post abortion syndrome.

Gay bashers we are not. Fr Paul Harvey and Fr Benedict Groeschel have organized "Courage" to help those with same-sex attraction overcome their addiction and lead chaste, happy lives full of wholesome relationships with man and God.

God bless Pope Benedict and the leaders of the Catholic Church and Pastor Rick Warren for daring to speak the truth on this crucial issue of our times. Let's do our best to support them in their mission to save humanity from itself, on the very feast of the birth of our Blessed Saviour.
Read the entire story on Life Site News.

The troops in Iraq celebrating Christmas;pray for them

Paul Weyrich and BIll Buckley; loss of conservative leadership

from
The American Spectator : Requiem for a General
"The loss of Paul Weyrich is a serious one. Taken together with the death of William F. Buckley earlier this year, the conservative movement has lost two leading lights. The burden lies heavy upon the succeeding generations to find some way to occupy their places.
Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Sarah Palin are you listening?

Cardinal Avery Dulles, RIP

During the incredible excitement of the Holy Father's prayer with youth at St Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, NY, there was a moment of peaceful diaglogue. Pope Benedict and Cardinal Avery Dulles met in his sickroom for what they most likely knew was a farewell visit. Now he has been laid to rest at age 90 with a funeral Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
John Allen has published this interview with the Cardinal, part of his upcoming book on megatrends in Catholicism.

The World Over features an interview with "The Priests"

Here is the latest buzz from their producers at SONY
THREE IRISH PRIESTS = 4 U.S. #1s!!!

STRAIGHT TO #1 ON AMAZON'S SALES CHART
FOLLOWING THEIR "CBS SUNDAY MORNING" APPEARANCE
#1 HEATSEEKERS CHART
#1 CURRENT CLASSICAL TRADITIONAL CHART
#1 TOP NEW ARTIST ALBUM CHART
#5 CURRENT CLASSICAL OVERALL CHART

THE PRIESTS SELF-TITLED ALBUM IS DIVINE GLOBAL SMASH
Internationally Holds #1 Spot in Ireland (4x Platinum) and Norway (Platinum)
#3 Sweden (Platinum), and #5 in the UK (Platinum)

(NEW YORK) – A vocal trio of three Roman Catholic priests from Ireland is creating an international musical sensation as The Priests. After a feature aired on CBS Sunday Morning this week, capturing The Priests while recording their album at the Vatican, their album skyrocketed to #1 on the Amazon sales chart. Also, The Priests' PBS Special began airing Thanksgiving weekend and continues to air across the country for the PBS pledge drive. The self-titled album The Priests (RCA Victor) this week soars to #1 on the Heatseekers Chart, #1 on the Current Classical Traditional Chart, #1 on the Top New Artist Albums Chart, and #5 on the Current Classical Overall chart.

The Priests are Father Eugene O’Hagan, Father Martin O’Hagan and Father David Delargy; three practicing Roman Catholic Priests from Northern Ireland who grew up singing together while studying for the priesthood, and all joined by their shared faith and passion for music.

The Priests was released simultaneously in more than 30 countries, fulfilling an unprecedented global demand, and is being embraced worldwide with stellar charting success. The Priests have been certified as the having the fastest selling UK debut for a classical act by the Guinness World Book of Records. The album debuted at #1 in Ireland (4x platinum), #5 in the UK (platinum), and currently holds the #1 spot in Norway (platinum), #3 in Sweden (platinum), #4 in New Zealand (gold), #7 in Spain, #8 in Finland (gold), and has achieved gold status in Canada.

Additionally, The Priests have stated that the majority of the profits from the sale of their album will be given to charity. The Priests are delighted with the tremendous success of the album, and are currently back in their parishes in Northern Ireland preparing for Christmas festivities.

Featuring a collection of spiritually inspired tracks such as O Holy Night, Pie Jesu, Ave Maria, Panis Angelicus, as well as great classical arias and traditional Irish tracks and blessings, the album showcases the passion and exquisite harmonies of The Priests. The album has been produced by Mike Hedges, whose previous work includes best selling albums by U2 and Manic Street Preachers. The album, featuring the Choir of Philharmonic Academy of Rome, was recorded in Ireland and in the Choir Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. The choral arrangements are by the choir’s Spanish born director, Mons Pablo Colino, the Emeritus Director of the Cappella Giulia choir in St Peter’s Basilica.

For more information check out www.thepriests.com/discover

Photos available at www.rcamusicgrouppress.com

NY Times upset over Vatican prolife document

John Allen Jr in an Op-Ed says that Obama may have more issues on which he agrees with the Vatican than President Bush, but that the Vatican coming out with a clarification on life issues at the beginning of the Obama reign, is like shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre.
In the ’08 elections, pro-life Catholics emerged as the dominant voice of the religious right. To be sure, Mr. Obama won a majority among Catholics. Yet the sharpest anti-Obama rhetoric from religious leaders came not from old culture warriors like Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson but rather from some Catholic clergymen.
Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., for example, warned voters that their eternal salvation might be at stake if they supported Mr. Obama. A couple of pro-life priests even suggested that Catholics who voted for Mr. Obama should go to confession. (Their bishops, it should be said, quickly rejected that idea.)
Cardinal Francis Stafford, a former archbishop of Denver who today heads a Vatican court, described Mr. Obama’s rhetoric on abortion as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,” and compared the election results to the Garden of Gethsemane — the spot where, according to the Bible, Jesus agonized before his crucifixion.
In that context, “Dignitas Personae” risks being read as encouragement for the most ardent pro-life forces in America to let slip the dogs of war.
They are right, of course, the timing is bad. It should have come out three months ago, during the election, maybe things would have turned out differently if Catholics had life issues instead of money on their minds in the voting booth.
Don't worry, Mr Allen, the dogs of war are making plans to attend the March for Life to welcome our new president.
Read the entire article here.

Boston College to fund the V monologues on campus

If you send your children toBoston College for a Catholic education, think again. With apologies to their lone Catholic professor, Dr. Peter Kreeft, an outstanding author, and the CSLewis of our times, this is not a Catholic college.

Why Christmas is under attack

From Bill Donohue at the Catholic League. “The root cause of the war on Christmas, which is conducted almost exclusively by well-educated white people in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia—the very same people who like gay marriage—has almost nothing to do with fidelity to law (the First Amendment in the U.S.): it has to do with ideology. “The ideology is plainly an expression of left-wing secularism, and it is nothing if not anti-Western and anti-Christian. At its worst, it is driven by hatred; at its best, it is driven by a defensive posture, a deep sense of embarrassment over the legacy of Western civilization. There is no historical or moral justification for either. Moreover, those who are pushing this agenda generally lie about their work.HT Catholic Online

New group to research and approve ethical vaccines

One of the problems with being pro-life is that you just can't "Go with the flow". You try to find out if your favorite grocery store supports Planned Parenthood. You try not to support the One Child Policy by buying products made in China (good luck; some items you just can't find made anywhere else). Then there's the sticky situation of vaccines. I have been using the reliably pro-life website of Children of God for Life to avoid giving my children shots which use fetal cells. BUt sometimes you just can't find the versions of the shots they recommend. According to Catholic teaching, we can come down on both sides of this issue; we can use the vaccines, since most of the babies killed happened generations ago, and the murder is not ongoing. Or we can object, and use this objection as a reason on school religious exemption forms which are available in 48 states. I choose this position, and have never been challenged on it.
Besides this issue, I am aware of the medical/pharmaceutical community requiring a ridiculous number of vaccines for non-life threatening illnesses, or illnesses which a well behaved person would NOT contract. Like hepatitis B, or Human Papilloma Virus. Our children are being pushed to receive these vaccines as a means to eliminate these diseases from the general population. They are contracted through sin, so that those who engage in promiscuous sex or illicit drug use can do so with impunity, thanks to our children taking their medecine. Only we have to live with the side effects in our children, which, in the case of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, may include the death of our girls.
I nearly lost Isabella at 6 months to a reaction to the now unused DPT shot. Not one of the six doctors who saw her with a 106 degree temperature and the classic symptoms of Whooping Cough in the ER on Christmas Eve admitted she had had a reaction to her 6 month DTP shot. But her pediatrician refrained from giving her the booster. Hmm, no wonder this whole industry makes me a cynic! Now, after reading "A Shot in the Dark" and seeing that this shot was changed, I know that we have to take action to make certain our children are not poisoned in the pediatrician's office.
Here's a recommendation which may help us from Fr Tom Euteneuer at Human Life International.
It is not ironic that in this season of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, Human Life International has been asked to support a new pro-life vaccine research company that is challenging, to the core, the practice of pumping unethical vaccines into the bodies of our children. This non-profit company also provides a safe-haven for the consciences of parents that find themselves between the rock of government regulations and the hard place of vaccines made from cell lines using aborted fetal tissue. The Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI) is the answer to these tough realities. Don't be thrown by the "choice" in the name; their founders are actually helping to provide some real alternatives in this field. Dr. Theresa Dreisher, PhD, founder and CEO of parent company AVM Biotechnology, is a fantastic pro-life biomedical researcher, an internationally renowned stem cell scientist, guest lecturer and educator with over 22 patents. She has made a sacrificial commitment to provide necessary research for the pro-life community so that we can have ethical vaccines as well as credible research about unethical ones that will help us hold Big Pharmaceutical accountable for their practices.
I recently got introduced to their operation, and I can tell you that we just have to support this initiative! What do I mean? Here are a few stunning facts that her brochure highlights:
By the time a child enters school they have received an average of 36 vaccinations - a number of them during the first 12 months of life; several of these contain aborted fetal DNA and cellular contaminants, a fact that has many parents, scientists and medical professionals concerned. Also,
Before children received so many vaccinations and before modern vaccines with aborted fetal DNA, only 1 child out of 10,000 was diagnosed with autism, now 1 child out of 150 is diagnosed. Is there a link? Well, only serious and non-ideological research will give us that answer.
SCPI reviews, researches and disseminates the context and content of vaccines and other biologic medicines to enable physicians, pharmacists, parents and grandparents to be "informed consumers." They investigate the biologic and physiologic consequences of human DNA and cellular contaminants in our medicines. Furthermore, they provide a "Pro-Life Produced" stamp on their medicine so that physicians, pharmacists or patients can be confident that the drug does not contain human DNA or cellular contaminants. They also have a "Pro-Life Compatible" stamp to indicate that that drug was not tainted during discovery, development or commercialization by the use of electively aborted, embryonic or any other unethically obtained human material. I just can't see a downside to this great operation. They are just what we need!
We are asking that during this Advent and Christmas season you consider supporting them with a gift. They are a gift to men and women of conscience, and they need to know that we will stand behind them! Click here to access SCPI information.
Dear friends, as we approach the blessed day of the Birth of the Christ Child, please accept HLI's best wishes for you and your families and know that we are praying for you in gratitude for your ongoing support of the sanctity of life, marriage and family all around the world.


Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

Campbell's it's not your mother's soup anymore

No doubt you have happy memories of one type of Campbell's Soup; Chicken Noodles when you had a cold, or Tomato with grilled cheese on meatless Friday lunches. Well, think again. Campbell's Soup is now promoting the homosexual agenda and two mommy families. Maybe you might want to change your brand of soup.
You can email Campbell's Soup here and voice your protest.
The Campbell's Soup Company purchased a pair of two-page advertisement spreads in one of the nation's leading pro-homosexual magazines, including an ad highlighting a lesbian couple and their son, reports the American Family Association.
The advertisement for Campbell's product Swanson's broth, the AFA reports, appears in both the December 2008 and January 2009 issues of The Advocate, a magazine that touts itself with the line, "For 40 years, setting the standard in LGBT journalism."
Read the entire story at World Net Daily

Next bailout: the abortion industry?

Will Barack Obama provide the abortion industry with a bailout of its own, costing taxpayers billions of dollars?
The Obama-Biden Transition Project posted a plan on its website called "Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration." It is signed by a coalition of 66 groups including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union.
I'm afraid the answer is "Yes" no matter how grave things are financially the NARAL folks will be paid back for their support during the campaign. Our tax dollars and those of generations to come will be putting more babies to death.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT HERE
From the Susan B Anthony List
We all knew that Planned Parenthood was going to have a special seat at the table in the Obama administration. Well it hasn’t taken them long at all to roll out their extreme agenda.
Tell your Senator today that Planned Parenthood should not get a bailout.
Abortion groups have submitted their 50 page proposal to the Obama-Biden transition team. At the top of the list? More taxpayer dollars for abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. How much more? Over 1.5 billion dollars more!
The Abortion Bailout Package:
· $1 BILLION dollars in taxpayer funding for International Abortion Groups like UNFPA, an international aid organization connected to coercive abortion as part of China’s coercive one-child policy
· $700 million in taxpayer funding for “Title X” Health Clinics (aka your local Planned Parenthood affiliate)
· Repeal the Hyde Amendment – Vastly expanding federal taxpayer funding for abortions
· Include Abortion coverage in any taxpayer-subsidized national health care program
· Expand taxpayer-funded abortions through the Peace Corps program
It is an outrage for Planned Parenthood to expect you to give your hard earned dollars to fund the destruction of innocent life.
Join citizens across our great country in telling their Senators to keep your tax dollars out of the abortion providers. Tell them to Stop the Abortion Bailout!
Sign the Petition today!

Read the entire article at World Net Daily.

Fr Tom Euteneuer to Pastor Rick Warren about the Inauguration

As much as I enjoy the flack Obama is getting from his base about Pastor Rick Warren's speech at the Inauguration, it does rankle me, when I consider that it's merely political posturing.
As expected, Fr Tom has a great perspective on this issue.
HLI Challenges
In Obama Inauguration
Pastor’s Participation
FRONT ROYAL, VA — The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International (HLI), today challenged Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA to reconsider his participation in the upcoming inaugural ceremonies for President-elect Barack Obama.
“We applaud Pastor Warren’s support of pro-life causes as well as his defense of traditional marriage,” said Father Euteneuer. “This is why we are concerned that his high-profile and explicitly Christian prayerful invocation at President-elect Obama’s inauguration may be perceived as an endorsement, even a blessing, of what will likely be the most anti-life administration in the history of this country.”
President-elect Obama has promised to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a massive assault on the dignity of life. He is also widely expected to reverse President George W. Bush’s executive order reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prevents funding of international groups and programs that advocate abortion, as well as funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which, among other assaults on life, has been demonstrated to support coercive “family planning” measures in China, including forced abortions and sterilizations.
“President-elect Obama has given every indication that he has no respect for the lives of the unborn, and whenever given the opportunity, has promised to enforce the most extreme demands of anti-life groups,” said Father Euteneuer. “This extremist agenda should not be seen to have the endorsement of pro-life leaders such as Pastor Warren.”
“I respect the personal relationship that Pastor Warren has with Mr. Obama,” said Father Euteneuer. “But such a public and explicitly Christian endorsement as this invocation is certainly confusing to those who know Mr. Obama’s record on life issues. We respectfully ask Pastor Warren to reconsider his participation in the inaugural ceremonies, given Mr. Obama’s extremist anti-life views.”

President Bush's parting gift to pro-life health care workers

Last night I saw a CNN special on "What Bush Did Right" yet the entire show was nothing but Bush bashing. They even blamed him for choking on a pretzel. Poor President Bush, who never did a selfish thing while in office, was indordinately modest, naming a litany of regrets which CNN jumped on mercilessly.
I disagreed with the Iraq war, but no one can say that President Bush was immoral or supported immorality while in office. Conservatives who have savaged him will be very repentant next January. We have only begun to miss President Bush, a decent, honest, imperfect leader who always sought God's will for our nation.
He left us a gift in this final action of his presidency.
Focus on the Familys Citizen Link encourages us to send President Bush thank you notes with this easy form.

from the Catholic League

RIGHTS OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS
GET A BOOST

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services today issued a regulation that considerably strengthens the rights of health care workers to practice according to their conscience; it affects those who work in federally funded health care institutions.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue applauds the decision:

“This regulation builds on the conscience rights for health care workers that was first broached in the 1970s by the Church Amendments, and later enhanced in 1996 by the Congress. It gives these men and women the right to be free from discriminatory edicts invoked by those who have no respect for their conscience rights. No one in the health care field should ever be compelled by law to perform or assist in a procedure that violates his or her conscience. This should be an elementary right, yet there are those who want to trespass on it.

“It is imperative that President-elect Obama resist the appeal of pro-abortion extremists to overturn this regulation. These fanatics would literally force objecting Catholics, and others, to perform abortions and other morally objectionable procedures, if they could. Consistent with the prudence he has shown so far, Obama would be wise to ignore the zealots and allow today’s regulation to stand.”

President Elect Obama is a lifelong smoker

This photo of Obama taken during his Freshman Year in College was hidden during the election. While there are few of us who haven't done something foolish or immoral during those years, most of us have the humility to avoid being cast in an almost divine light, in the view of our past failings. God might have forgiven us, but the press won't. Unless you are the Chosen One.
Smoking was one of the few vices which President Clinton did not participate, so while in office, he made smoking a mortal sin. Although I am thrilled that am no longer a victim of second hand smoke in public places, it has gone too far. Smoking is preached against in every health class while life-threatening sexual exploits are encouraged.

Films which depict people smoking are censored, which is hypocritical since they can be breaking all of the Ten Commandments in broad daylight but they must NOT be seen smoking. Now Obama gets away with even that.
This is what happens when you write your own moral code, ignoring the millenia of Judeo-Christian morality.

HT Times Online.

A new album for Christmas, "The Priests"

Vatican issues reproductive technology/stem cell guidelines

I was gratified to be listening to Dom Giordano's show on the talk radio called "The Big Talker" 1210 AM in Philadelphia all the way up here in CT (don't ask me how I got that station when I can't get NYC stations). Dom Giordano interviewed Cardinal Justin Rigali on these new guidelines. He was graciously offering the Cardinal time to explain how "the Church is a friend to science"and welcomes the many cures already attributed to ADULT stem cells. This invterview was filmed by Fox News and will be televised shortly. Listen to another of his interviews of Cardinla Rigali here.
He is an intelligent Catholic who uses his show to highlight the truths of the Church's stand on the life issues. Would that Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were this Catholic.
Don't miss this broadcast. It's one of very few times that a crystal clear description of Church teaching on bioethics is presented to a secular audience without any hostility on the part of the host. Savor this broadcast, it may become even rarer in the future.

Gaudete Sunday

Deacon Fournier has some reflections for Gaudete Sunday.
HT Catholic Online

Last year's celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ontario Catholic Hospital has been performing abortions for 20 years!

This is terrible; a Catholic hosptial giving in to the culture of death. We should know better!
LifeSiteNews.com
Exclusive: Twenty Years of Eugenic Abortion at Ontario Catholic Hospital
By John-Henry Westen LONDON, December 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The chief ethicist for the diocese of London in Ontario Canada recently admitted to LifeSiteNews.com in an interview that St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in London has been performing "early induction" procedures in cases of diagnosed lethal fetal anomalies for twenty years, under his ethical direction. While Fr. Michael Prieur attempted to justify "early induction" for lethal fetal anomaly as not being abortion, the procedure has been condemned as illicit by the US Bishops' Doctrinal Committee and called "direct abortion" by the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC).
In an "early induction" the mother is induced into labor at a point so early in the pregnancy that even a healthy child would be unable to live outside the womb without specialized intensive care; under such circumstances, a severely disabled child will likely not live more than minutes.
At St. Joseph's "early induction" is used only when the diagnosed fetal disabilities are deemed so severe that the child will likely die within a few months, days or even hours of being born. The St. Joseph's policy on the matter states: "An early induction may be permitted after viability for a proportionate reason which can include grave physical, psychological or psychiatric considerations." Psychological justification for inducing labor in such cases is to spare the mother the pain of carrying to term a child that is likely to die shortly after birth anyway. Pro-life groups and church teaching on the issue, however, consider abortions of such children through early induction to be the same as regular abortion (the unjust killing of an unborn child), but with an added discrimination against those with a handicap. One of the most extreme cases of lethal fetal anomaly is anencephaly - a congenital anomaly characterized by failure of development of the cerebral hemispheres and overlying skull and scalp, exposing the brain stem. Most infants who have anencephaly do not survive for more than a few days after birth. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church does not permit abortion of such infants. A 1996 document on Anencephaly by the Committee on Doctrine of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops explains: "It can never be morally justified directly to cause the death of an innocent person no matter the age or condition of that person." In addition to being the chief ethicist at the hospital, Fr. Michael Prieur is a professor of Moral and Sacramental Theology at St. Peter's Seminary, a position he's held for over thirty-five years. He is widely known as one of the nation's foremost defenders of the Winnipeg Statement, a controversial statement of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops which many have deemed a dissent from Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. Fr. Prieur told LifeSiteNews.com that he wrote the protocol on the procedure with a team of obstetricians and neonatologists. "We've been doing it for twenty years now," he said. He noted more than once that, "This has the approval of the bishop." The office of Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the Diocese of London was contacted numerous times over the past week for comment but Mark Adkinson, the diocesan spokesman, told LifeSiteNews.com that while the Bishop had been made aware of the situation, the Diocese had no comment at this time. Bishop Fabbro was appointed to the Diocese in 2002, indicating that the initial permission to perform the procedure was given by now-retired bishop John Michael Sherlock. LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Bishop Sherlock about the situation. "Well, I can't remember any details now. You're on a very specific topic," he said. Asked specifically about Fr. Prieur, Bishop Sherlock said, "I know that he was responsible for ensuring that the Church's moral teaching in the matter of life was maintained at St. Joseph's hospital and I trusted his judgement, and had absolute confidence that he would be utilizing the most advanced moral theology in judging the appropriateness of certain medical procedures and I had trust in him." Several other Bishops offices were contacted to comment on this story but all refused comment, some stating that it was the prerogative of the local Bishop to comment on the matter. LifeSiteNews.com has obtained the policy of the Catholic hospital permitting such procedures. (See the 1997 version of the guidelines: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008_docs/earlyinductionIC8.pdf; See the 2006 version at: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008_docs/EarlyInductionEthicalGuidelinesMay2006.pdf) Fr. Prieur explained the procedure, saying, "Routinely, when we get them we would meet with ten to fifteen people to make sure of the diagnosis and the prognosis. We always pray. Because this is a very difficult area - what's called a conflict area. So we always pray. And then the decision is made to have an early induction." Fr. Prieur insisted that such procedures were not abortion. "Now it's not called abortion. We're not killing the baby. We're bringing the baby out and allowing the baby to die. That's a very important distinction," he told LifeSiteNews.com. When removed from the womb at 21 weeks gestation, however, even a healthy baby could not survive without highly specialized intensive care treatments. Prieur explained that in order to do the early induction for infants with lethal fetal anomalies, "the babies have to be viable. It has to be done after 21 weeks just in case there's a misdiagnosis. Then we can bring that child to term in a neonatal intensive care unit." Asked if such life-saving treatments are afforded to a child with the disorder, he replied, "No, no there's nothing you can do. Some of these conditions you know, we've had babies that are terribly deformed. Oh my goodness, I mean you pray that the baby will die. They come out terribly deformed. Nature's full of surprises. And remember we're not bound to the impossible. We don't have to preserve life at all costs. We let people die. That's not foreign to Catholic teaching. Allowing death is a normal thing." Prieur made a distinction between killing the baby via early induction of labour versus killing the baby by dismemberment in the womb. "And so we do not dismember the baby when we bring the baby out. Some hospitals would use dilatation and evacuation which means they would bring the child out in pieces. We will not allow that," he said. However, the US Bishops document Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services defines abortion as including such “early induction” procedures. "Abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted," says directive 45 of the document. (http://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.shtml ) In addition, the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), which has four Cardinals and several Bishops as part of its board, has called early induction of babies with anencephaly "direct abortion." (http://www.ncbcenter.org/04-03-11-EarlyInduction.asp ) The US Bishops' Doctrinal Committee document concerning anencephaly cited above spells it out clearly: "It is clear that before 'viability' it is never permitted to terminate the gestation of an anencephalic child as the means of avoiding psychological or physical risks to the mother. Nor is such termination permitted after 'viability' if early delivery endangers the child's life due to complications of prematurity." According to Fr. Prieur's interpretation, however, the procedure is totally in synch with Catholic doctrine, and even pro-life. He describes an early induction scenario in this way: "[The babies with lethal fetal anomaly] are dying and basically here's what happens, and I've been doing, we've been doing these for, like I said, for almost twenty years. People who are pro-life to their fingertips want the baby, get the diagnosis, find out that the baby is dying, will say, 'Is there any way we can hold that child while the child dies?' And I've often felt in my heart of hearts that's a signal from God, that what we're doing is the right thing. And there's a factor, and this is a technical term in theology - the instinct of the faith - and it's like, you know, in your heart of hearts you say, you know that makes sense. This is not your normal abortion, where we want to get rid of the baby. Not at all. See what I mean. And here's where we've got Catholic obstetricians here in town that say, 'Yes, this is the right thing to do.'" Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist and former President of the Catholic Medical Association, disagrees. Speaking on early induction for lethal fetal anomaly he said: "Every time I have been contacted over the many years that I have practiced neonatology, I instruct and encourage the mother to keep the baby in the uterus. It does not help the baby or the mother to deliver early." Byrne told LifeSiteNews.com, "Parents usually do what they are led to do. Parents ordinarily are not equipped to deal with all this. Parents and clergy need guidance from a pro-life physician. Induction is the frequently given direction and answer to many, if not most situations these days. It brings an end to the immediate problem, but parents and clergy eventually realize that they did not have to impose or encourage death." Dr. Byrne suggests that babies in utero with lethal fetal anomaly are "not dying, but living in the mother's womb." He adds that "they will die quicker if brought outside the uterus." Dr. Byrne concluded: "Killing is killing even when the baby has an abnormality and short gestation. We must not hasten or impose death. Sometimes when the baby gets out after natural labor, they live better than predicted." The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, (2323): "Because it should be treated as a person from conception, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed like every other human being." The bottom line on the matter from the NCBC is "early induction of an anencephalic child when there is no serious pathology of the mother which is being directly treated is not morally licit, emotional distress notwithstanding. Early induction of labor before term (37 weeks) to relieve emotional distress hastens the death of the child as a means of achieving this presumed good effect and unjustifiably deprives the child of the good of gestation." (http://www.usccb.org/dpp/anencephaly.htm ) The witness of parents who have gone through the birth of children with lethal fetal anomalies is powerful. LifeSiteNews.com spoke with one such mother, Barbara Farlow, who had this to say: "My daughter Annie was born with Trisomy 13 and she lived for 80 days. She smiled for the first time 3 days before she died. We would not have had that time if we had chosen early induction. I have come to know many families who had a baby who lived only a short period of time and every minute was unforgettable to them. Nobody has regrets. Families need a lot of support to carry to term and love their children until their natural death. The offer of early induction denies families this precious time and that is a tragedy." Mrs. Farlow has dedicated a website to the life of her child: http://www.anniefarlow.com/ Further, Farlow suggested that those interested in learning more about babies with lethal fetal anomalies may benefit from the videos of babies born with Trisomy 13 posted online (See below for links). Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com that once the child is delivered prematurely, the omission to care for these children may be euthanasia. According to the Catholic Church, "Euthanasia is an action or omission of an action which of itself and by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering ...The error of judgement into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded," he said, quoting the Catechism, Section 2277. The Catechism also states: "Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying person. It is morally unacceptable." Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition commented, saying, "All of this sounds pretty appalling to me. It sounds to me like this is nothing more than abortion dressed up in more attractive clothing." Hughes concluded: "Can some Catholic authority please put an end to the abortions going on at the Catholic hospital in London. Is this the only Catholic hospital that's doing this or is this widespread?" To express concerns:
Bishop Ronald Fabbro
Diocese of London
1070 Waterloo Street,
London, Ontario N6A 3Y2
Phone: 519-433-0658
Fax: 519-433-0011
E-mail: info@rcec.london.on.ca
His Eminence William Cardinal Levada, S.T.D.
Cardinal Prefect Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffizio 1100193
RomeItaly
email: cdf@cfaith.
va011 39 06 6988 3357011-39-0696100596
FAX Videos of Babies born with Lethal Fetal Anomalies:
Trisomy 13 lived 35 minuteshttp://www.kansascity.com/static/media/Audio_Photo_Gallery/; Trisomy 18 lived 99 days. (Shown on Oprah a few weeks ago)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0
Trisomy 18 lived 4.5 yearshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6kf6JJnhFg
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Planned Parenthood is terrified of 40 Days for Life

from David Bereit
The bold headline running across the envelope of the latest fundraising letter from Planned Parenthood Federation of America screams:"Relentless Anti-Choice Extremists: They're coming after our organization with everything they've got! Help us fight their post-election challenges!"

Despite Planned Parenthood having just succeeded in getting many of their close friends elected tothe highest offices in our land, the letter inside contains an urgent appeal for money, begging abortion advocates to "rush an immediate donation"to the abortion business to help fight "the latest showdown in a battle raging all across America."

What does the abortion giant find so "critical"? Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, clearly spells it out:
"Now, here's what worriesus the most..."Then she specifically identifies 40 Days for Lifeas one of the greatest threats to the abortion chain's business.
Richards writes, "Planned Parenthood is under attack," explaining the setbacks their staff andcustomers experienced when, "from September 24 toNovember 2, 2008 a coalition of anti-choice groups promoted a '40 Days' campaign all across America, including 24/7 prayer vigils outside Planned Parenthood offices and health centers."
She concludes the letter by saying, "thehard-edged, well-funded groups coming afterPlanned Parenthood are playing for keeps," while telling abortion supporters, "I only hope you realize how urgently we need you."

Wow. While I certainly wouldn't describe 40 Days forLife as "well-funded," we ARE playing for keeps.This is a matter of life and death, and the stakes are too high to treat this any other way.

And it's an amazing testimony to the power of prayer -- and YOUR dedication and faithfulness-- when the nation's largest abortion chain is running scared.

Your Chickens are coming home to roost, Gov Blagojevich

Well Governor who persecuted pharmacists for trying to live out their pro-life convictions, you have been an ardent pro-abortion activist, but you finally went too far for even the liberal media by attempting to sell Obama's Senate seat. Now you must be sacrificed. Here's why I'm glad he's under indictment.
In 2006, after members of the legislature sought to overturn his executive order, he made known his intent to veto any bills that would have protected the conscience rights of doctors and pharmacists.
In a 2006 State of the State address, Blagojevich said, "Now, I understand that several bills have been introduced that would overturn my executive order to protect women's reproductive freedoms … So let me make something else very clear -- if any of those bills reach my desk, they are dead on arrival."
May this be an opportunity for you repent of your sins and receive God's mercy.
Read the entire story on Lifesite News.

On the Heresies of Our Time; Fr Barron

C-FAM presents abortion petition to United Nations

Those of us in the blogosphere who worked to get signatures can be proud of the 350,000 signatures which were on this petition to include the unborn on the UN Declartion of Human Rights.
Austin Ruse, president of C-FAM, told Catholic News Agency he anticipates the pro-abortion petition to have only a tiny fraction of the number of signatures on C-FAM’s petition in favor of life and family.
“We are proud not only to match but far surpass the efforts of pro-abortion groups,” said Ruse.
Added Ruse, “I suspect that Marie Stopes and IPPF will present a few thousand names. This shows what we have known all along; that abortion is supported mostly by elites while everyday people are for protecting the unborn child.”
Read the entire story on NC Register.com.

Two great Catholic books for those you love

If you have a teenager in your life, I recommend the first in a series of books about John Paul 2 High called "Catholic Reluctantly".
For the young children through middle school, "Take it to the Queen" is a wonderful book from author Josephine Nobisso who wrote "The Weight of a Mass".
In terms of music, you can do no better than "The Priests".
I am listening to the Christmas CD from the wonderful Tenor Trio which I will be reviewing shortly. The have a breathtakingly beautiful Christmas special of the concert filmed in St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh on Public Televison, but don't buy the CD from PBS, since it's much more reasonsable elsewhere, and so much of PBS programming is objectionable.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception hour of grace

Acknowledgments: A Very special Thank you to the Felician Sisters in general who printed this story in their "AVE MARIA" magazine and who so graciously translated this story from Polish into English in order to comply with the request of the Blessed Virgin Mary that this message be sent throughout the world.
During the period of November 24, 1946 to December 8, 1947, the Blessed Mother appeared to Sister Pierrina in a little church in Montichiari, Italy, eleven times.
On the first appearance the Blessed Mother told Sister Pierrina that She wanted to be known as the 'Mystical Rose' and that an hour of grace should be kept at noon, December 8th in all the Catholic Churches of the world. The Blessed Mother wanted this to be known through all of Italy and the entire world.It was November 16, 1947 when Sister Pierrina was finishing her thanksgiving after Holy Communion when she saw a great light. She then saw a vision of the Blessed Mother as the 'Mystical Rose'.Sister was so deeply moved by the stunning beauty of Our Lady that she began talking to Her. All of a sudden a gentle force made her kneel down in front of Our Lady. The Blessed Mother spoke these words.
"My Son is greatly offended by the sins of impurity. He is already planning to end the deluge upon the people, for their destruction, but I have asked him to show mercy and not send the destruction. So that is why I have appeared to ask for penance and atonement for the sins of impurity."Then the Blessed Mother asked for an Act of Humility by Sister Pierrina. She asked her to make the sign of the cross with her tongue on each of the stones in the Sanctuary. "This shall be a reminder to the people that I have appeared here and do not have the people step on those stones."The Blessed Mother then stepped on each of the stones so that Her gown touched all four stones.
On the 22nd of November, Sister Pierrina felt the overwhelming urge to go to Church at 4:00. The Mother Superior, four Sisters and a group of friends accompanied her. They were all saying the Rosary when the Blessed Mother appeared as before.She instructed Sister Pierrina to make the sign of the cross on the stones and fence them off so that no one would step on them.Again Our Lady asked for penance. She said, "Penance is nothing more than accepting all our crosses daily willingly. No matter how small, accept them with love. "At this time, she told sister Pierrina to come again on December 8th at noon. "This will be My Hour of Grace.". The Sister asked how she was to prepare for this Hour of Grace? To which the Blessed Mother said, "With Prayers and Penance. Pray the 51st Psalm with outstretched arms three times.
During the Hour of Grace, many spiritual graces would be granted. The most hard-hearted sinners will be touched by the grace of God."The Blessed Virgin promised that whatever a person asked Her for during this Hour of Grace (even in impossible cases) would be granted to them, if it was in accordance with the will of the Eternal Father.
It was December 7th when Sister Pierrina felt the urge to go to Church. This time she was accompanied by the Priest and the Mother Superior.The Blessed Mother appeared with a young boy and girl dressed in beautiful white clothing. Sister Pierrina was sure these little ones were angels because they were so beautiful.The Blessed Mother said, "Tomorrow I will show you My Immaculate Heart which is so little known among the people." She asked people to pray for Russia."
There are so many people being held prisoners which their families know nothing of because they have been gone for so many years. Pray for the conversion of Russia, the suffering of the soldiers and their sacrifices and martyrdom will bring peace to Italy.The little children are Francisco and Jacinta. I am giving them to you as your companions. You will have much to suffer for My sake. I want simplicity and goodness from you as of these little children." The Blessed Mother then blessed Sister Pierrina, the Priest and all those who were gathered there.

On the morning of December 8th people began arriving at the little Church at 8:00 in the morning from neighboring towns. By noon, some 10,000 people had gathered to see the Blessed Mother, many of whom had to stand outside because the Church did not have enough room for the large crowd.Sister Pierrina was accompanied to Church by her Mother and Brothers, the Mother Superior and the Chief of Police from Montichiari. Sister was reciting the Rosary with the crowd in the middle of the Church. Suddenly a brilliant white light appeared from the ceiling. Stairs were coming from the light down to the floor of the Church about fifteen feet in length.The staircase was beautifully decorated with red, white and yellow roses. The Blessed Virgin appeared so radiant, dressed in white, with Her Hands folded. She was standing on a splendid carpet at the top of the stairs made of the red, white and yellow roses.In the most gentle and loving voice, Our Lady smiled and began to speak. "I am the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of all graces and the Mother of my Beloved Son, Jesus. I want to be known as the Mystical Rose. My wish is that every year on the 8th of December at noon an 'Hour of Grace' will be installed. Many spiritual graces and physical blessings will be received by those who pray undisturbed during this hour." Then slowly she began to ascend the staircase gracefully scattering roses as She went along until She reached midway of the staircase. Here again the Blessed Mother spoke, "I am very happy to see this great demonstration of Faith."Sister Pierrina asked for many of the sinners to be forgiven. The Blessed Mother replied. "My Divine Son will show his Greatest Mercy as much as the people will pray for them. I want this to be known and told to Pope Pius XII. Tell him I want him to install the 'Hour of Grace' throughout the whole world and even for those who are not able to go to Church during this time, can obtain this grace in their homes at noon time."She also asked that a Statue be made and placed on the spot where she stood.
This should be called the 'Rosa Mystica' and carried in procession through the town at which time many graces will be given and cures will take place. Then the Statue is to be returned to the Church.Our Lady prayed for the sick, some will be cured others not. Many men, women and children were cured at that very instant.A twenty-six year old woman who could not say a word for nine months, suddenly began shouting, "I see Her. I see the Blessed Virgin." An eighteen year old girl with ulcers was instantly cured. A five year old boy who had been paralyzed was told by the Blessed Mother, "Come to Me, you will be walking now." He was placed on the Blessed Stones and was able to walk.There were three others who were very sick and were immediately cured. But of course, the greatest miracles taking place were those of the spiritual blessings being shed upon the people gathered in the Church.The Blessed Mother said, "This is the last time I will appear here. Pray, weep and do penance on these Stones and you will receive the care of My Motherly Heart." She then left the little Church, but because of the Unending Love of Our Heavenly Mother, She has given us the 'Hour of Grace' to be spread through the entire world. She had given all the opportunity to demonstrate our love and trust to Her and to help make reparation for the grievous sins offending Her Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

REQUEST OF BLESSED MOTHER FOR THE HOUR OF GRACE1. Day and time of Hour of Grace - December 8th Feast of the Immaculate Conception - to be started at 12 noon and will continue until 1 PM (one full hour of prayer)
2. During this hour the person making the 'Hour of Grace' either at home or in the Church must put away all distractions (do not answer the telephone or answer any doors or do anything but totally concentrate on your union with God during this Special Hour of Grace)
3. Begin the Hour of Grace by praying three times the 51st Psalm with outstretched arms. Psalm 51 can be found below.
4. The rest of the Hour of Grace may be spent in silent communication with God meditating upon the Passion of Jesus saying the Holy Rosary, praising God in your own way or by using favorite prayers, singing hymns, meditating upon other Psalms, etc.Please distribute this message to as many people as you can. Remember to pray for your country during this hour. The Blessed Mother has requested that Her message be sent throughout the entire world. Please help the Blessed Virgin Mary to fulfill Her Mission well ... that all souls be drawn to God and that Jesus will be loved in every heart. This is the Perpetual song of her Heart. Let it also be ours.
Psalm 51
1For the leader. A psalm of David,
2when Nathan the prophet came to him after his affair with Bathsheba.3Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.4Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.5For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.6Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn.7True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me.8Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom.9Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.10Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.11Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt.12A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.13Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit.14Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.15I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.16Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise your healing power.17Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim your praise.184 For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept.19My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.205 Make Zion prosper in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.21Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts; then bullocks will be offered on your altar.
HT A Catholic Mom in Hawaii

My controversial review of "Twilight" the book

Is causing some irate comments from true believers. Join in the fray at Catholic Online.

My review of "Twilight" is up on Catholic Online

Before you let your teenage girls see this film; please consider my warning here.

The future of church music is brilliant, and ancient

Who's the man behind the curtain?

This is the most underreported fact about the Obama campaign; George Soros will be running the country. Of course the drive-by media wouldn't report this, but talk radio did not give this fact enough attention.
Now we have two foreigners running America, a Greeek (Soros) and an African (Obama).
Nice job,
from the Family Research Council
The Center of Obama's Attention
The Center for American Progress (CAP), part of the ever-expanding empire of liberal billionaire George Soros, is just three blocks from the White House, but it may be impossible to find an organization closer in ideology to the new administration. Working in unison with the Obama camp, CAP was the driving force behind key policies of Barack's campaign, including his plans for universal health care, energy, troop withdrawal, global warming, and the economy. Now, as Obama prepares to take over the executive reins, the Center's influence appears to be taking shape in the next President's inner circle. In a city where "personnel is policy," CAP staffers are already starting to populate key posts in the Democrat's administration. John Podesta, who presides as founder of CAP's $27 million operating budget, is one of three people leading the President's transition team. Along with Podesta, Tom Daschle, Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), served as CAP's Distinguished Senior Fellow. Several others named to HHS are also CAP alums. Their advice to Obama is largely contained in CAP's book, Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, released just a week after the election. Though the organization has been counted on for its recommendations on domestic issues, the group's social agenda is devastatingly pro-abortion. On CAP's website, visitors will find two extra, online chapters from the Change book, which advocate, among other things, the radical Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), taxpayer-funded abortion, "comprehensive" sex education, a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and a repeal of the abortion ban on military bases. CAP's political arm also spoke against the state marriage amendments and actively worked for the defeat of the state life initiatives on November 4. This should illustrate just how potent Washington nonprofits can be, particularly when they are functioning in the minority. Now that FRC finds itself in a similar position, rest assured that we are working from within to lead the battle for conservative ideas. To help us build on those efforts, please consider donating to FRC as we regroup for major fights over the future of faith, family, and freedom.

Too good to be true, but here it is!

I try to report "just the facts here" with the addition of my enlightened opinion, naturally!
This case has been working it's way up for months, and I refused to report on it till now. Justice Clarence Thomas is forcing the Court to consider whether President elect Barack Obama is qualified to be president, BEFORE the electoral college meets.
What an upheaval a negative decision would cause!
Thy will be done, Lord!
In a highly unusual move, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the court to consider the request of an East Brunswick, N.J. attorney who has filed a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s status as a United States citizen.Thomas’s action took place after Justice David Souter had rejected a petition known as an application for a stay of writ of certiorari that asked the court to prevent the meeting of the Electoral College on Dec. 15, which will certify Obama as the 44th president of the United States and its first African-American president.The court has scheduled a Dec. 5 conference on the writ -- just 10 days before the Electoral College meets.
Read the entire story here.

USCCB Film reviewer Harry Forbes at it again

Thanks to Harry Forbe's lack of understanding or respect for Catholic teaching on sexuality, I am in the movie review business. That's why I started Catholic Media Review, and why it's getting me noticed not only on Google, but on Catholic online, MercatorNet, Reuters, The Chicago Sun-Times, "The Wanderer", and Catholic Exchange. Thanks, Harry! Now, I wish I made half his salary, which of course is paid by the faithful. I usually work for nothing.
He's at it again with his review of "Milk" about homosexual San Francicso city council member Harvey Milk.
The movie, which exalts the first openly homosexual man elected to public office in U.S. history, Harvey Milk, contains scenes of "male kissing and nongraphic encounters, rear male nudity, murder, suicide, and some rough language, crude expressions and profanity" by Forbes' own admission.
Despite such material, and despite the movie's blatant glorification of the homosexual rights agenda, it is not rated "Morally Offensive" (O), but only receives a rating of "L", for "Limited Adult Audience." Furthermore, in his review Forbes in no way objects to or cautions viewers about the content of the film, instead offering nothing but words of praise.

Read the entire story at Life Site News.

Converts make the best Catholics

Magdi Allam, the Muslim who was baptized a Catholic by the Holy Father at the Easter vigil this year, is financing a pro-life politics in Europe. He is a another example of how converts make the best Catholics. They appreciate the richness of the fullness of truth.
Speaking of his encounter with Jesus Christ and entry into the Catholic Church, Magdi Allam wrote: "I converted to the Catholic Christian religion, renouncing my previous Islamic faith. Thus, I finally saw the light, by divine grace. On my first Easter as a Christian I not only discovered Jesus, I discovered for the first time the face of the true and only God, who is the God of faith and reason."
Now, this former Muslim who bears the new name of “Christian” has formed a new Political Party to help Europe. This Party will put forth an entire slate of candidates in the European Union elections next year. The Party is called “Protagonists for Christian Europe”. It is explicitly and unapologetically committed to promoting and defending Europe’s Christian values and the Western culture which was informed by and built upon them. Magdi Allam openly declares that these values are the path to true and authentic freedom for all men and women. He also asserts that they are under a fierce assault by the forces of secularism and moral relativism.
Read the entire story on Catholic Online.

No 60 seat majority in the Senate: Chambliss wins Georgia!

This means that Obama can't overrun Congress like a steamroller with his radical agenda. Now he can face a filibuster on his initiatives IF the Republicans have the guts to oppose him. Remember when Clinton appointee, ACLU radical jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburn sailed through her Senate confirmation with 98 votes? Did Thomas, Roberts or Alito get such courtesy?
Even when we were in the majority, members refused to use the 'nuclear option' and break the Democrat stranglehold on Congress, so I hope they've learned their lesson and acquired a backbone!
Read the entire story here.

A confused sister

Yes, abortion is the killing of an innocent life. So is war andviolent killing on the street. I have often seen many starving babies inhospitals in Honduras and witnessed their pain. In these cases, abortionmight have been the lesser of two evils, and even the most mercifu lalternative.
I don't think being torn limb from limb is merciful any way you think about it, sister!

I challenge our bishops to dwell more on unjust economic issues that both create and perpetuate the need for children to die of starvation, and for women to choose abortion. It would be better to aim at eliminating poverty rather than focus only on abortion. Poverty in our country and the world at large is a disgrace that cries to heaven for vengeance.
Sr. Arlene Welding,
SSSF Campellsport, WI
Poverty is a sin which cries for vengance, and Catholics DO need to work on it, but it doesn't justify this kind of extremism, sister. Voting for Obama will do nothing but enrich his millionaire friends. The poor who voted for him will be sorely disappointed.

Thank you, Jill Stanek!

Not ony was Jill a relentless campaigner against the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever to run for office, but she continues to support the babies with Down sydnrome whom she has come to love.
Here is her post on KIDS joining the March for Life.
May God reward you, Jill!

Down syndrome and Europe

There's a lot of talk about eugenics in Europe, from Denmark's 'kinder system of eugenics' which means that 50% more babies with the condition are aborted thanks to new prenatal testing, to Britain's debate on whether higher birth rates of children with Trisomy 21 will harm the national health care system. For make no mistake: despite all the progress which children with Down Syndrome are now making in schools and homes up and down the country, the medical profession in general still has a visceral bias in favour of eugenic termination, which its practitioners are often startlingly crude in expressing. This is not based on a realistic and up-to-date assessment of the possibilities open to those with Down Syndrome, still less of the happiness which such people can and do bring to families and even communities as a whole: it is a function of the fact – which is undeniable – that people with Down Syndrome are likely to cost the NHS more in subsequent medical treatment than a child without any disabilities.
Only 70 years after the Holocaust, once again, certain Europeans are considered "life unworthy of life".
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
George Santayana

Please join us in publicizing this

For immediate release: For more information:
November 30, 2008 Eileen Haupt: 802-899-4882
Leticia Velasquez: 860-556-9116


FAMILES WHO HAVE CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME
TO MARCH TOGETHER IN THE 2009 MARCH FOR LIFE in D.C.
TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE HIGH INCIDENCE OF ABORTING
BABIES WITH DOWN SYNDROME


Leticia Velasquez and Eileen Haupt, two mothers who each have a daughter with Down syndrome are organizing a group of families who have children with Down syndrome to march together in the 2009 March for Life in Washington, D.C. We are calling our endeavor KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome) to raise awareness about the 90% abortion rate of babies with Down syndrome and to challenge the misinformation that often leads mothers who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome to seek an abortion.

WHEN: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 11:30 a.m. to Noon
WHERE: National Right to Life Committee, 512 10th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
WHAT: Meeting place for families who have children with Down syndrome (and other prenatally diagnosed conditions) to walk together in the 2009 March for Life


For more information please contact Eileen Haupt or Leticia Velasquez.


Eileen Haupt Leticia Velasquez
5 Old Pump Road 227 Cemetery Road
Jericho, VT 05465 Canterbury, CT 06331
(802) 899-4882 (860) 556-9116
vteileen@comcast.net marysjoys@yahoo.com



Leticia Velasquez is a mother of three daughters and lives in Connecticut. Her 6-year-old daughter, Christina, has Down syndrome. Leticia has a background in Journalism. She is the creator of several blogs and writes for several publications, including the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family Magazine. Her recent article published in the NCR entitled “Down, Hero Dad, and Palin” reported on the recent passage of the “Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act,” and the influence that Sarah Palin and the late Tom Vander Woude had on the success of the bill becoming law.

Eileen Haupt is the mother of two daughters and lives in Vermont. After her daughter Sadie was born with Down syndrome almost 10 years ago, she was drawn into the pro-life movement when she learned about the high incidence of aborting babies with Down syndrome. She is on the board of the Vermont Right to Life Committee and is the Alternate Delegate from Vermont to the board of the National Right to Life Committee. She ran as a candidate for State Representative in her district in Vermont in the 2008 elections.