Does Pope Francis want us to be Poor?

There is a lot of discussion out there that suggests Pope Francis is some type of Liberation Theologian by questioning the luxury cars driven by many Vatican clergy and living his radically different lifestyle at Sta Marta, eating in a cafeteria with the visiting priests, wearing a plain medal Cross, keeping his tattered brown shoes. What is he, some kind of commie? 

No actually, he fought that trend when he was Jesuit superior in Argentina. He knows Christ came to win our souls back from Satan to bring us to Heaven. Period. BUT we have an obligation to remember the poor and adjust our spending to share with them. 

Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Its just that Pope Francis, by living so radically, so visually, by his spartan lifestyle, makes it harder for comfortable Catholics to ignore and we are unhappy that our extravagant lifestyle is suddenly in question. I feel it as I consider my purchases, and I hear grumblings from fellow Catholics.

I have had two emotional arguments lately with devout Catholic ladies who resent his asking them to pare down their luxuries, or at least my saying this is a good thing for the entire Church, not an option for the few. This is what terrifies me: when devout Catholic laymen and priests whose blogs have tremendous followings start to disparage what the pope is preaching with his very life in order to preserve a lifestyle which may be a bit too comfy. It only proves him right, we must slim down in order to survive as a Church, to save our very souls. We have become enslaved to comfort which may not last. Look at the world economy, if our faith is to be tested by paring down a few luxuries, what will happen in the event of an economic collapse? Pope Francis lived in Argentina where they used chalkboards to write food prices, so they could raise them several times a day!

Plus I want to pose a challenge to you which the dear ladies could not answer. Name one rich saint. Oh, many started out rich, but to a man, they gave most of their goods to the poor, took up their crosses, and followed Our Lord. Aren't all Catholics called to do the same?

 Folks, this is not original material. We just haven't seen it lived as closely since Mother Teresa was last on earth. She died in 1997, how much have we forgotten in 16 years?

Daughter of Holocaust Survivor "Addresses" the Mob in the Texas Abortion Hearing

Here is a guest post by a good and brave friend of mine, Peggy Clores whose mother was a Holocaust Survivor.
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And so we descend further into the abyss of darkened consciences. I gave you more credit, Ladies.


Throughout these decades of legalized mass murder-55 million Americans that we know about-I have often spoken and written about the fact that when the pictorial records of Hitler's heartless crimes against humanity emerged, the world was aghast that this had happened "on our watch". Repeatedly I have insisted that the pictorial horror of abortion was a critical component in confronting the reality of the pro-choice argument and eliciting the re-assement of consciences.


I was wrong. At least when it came to the consciences of the mob in the Texas chamber and all those in the blogosphere cheering them on.


Only months after the Gosnell "House of Horrors" was made known to the world( by those who still have integrity and right conscience in journalistic reporting) we have this savage display of women screaming for their bloody "rights". That's all we can call it at this point in connection to the 20-week ban they were opposing. What have we become? When my mother watched the Nazi's toss babies in the air and shoot them for target practice or swing them by their feet and bash their skulls against a tree, she could never have envisioned that one day-in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave-that beautiful women who were made for authentic greatness and empowerment would be reduced to this. I used to say "they don't know". They don't know that heads are being ripped off and babies are being tortured in abortion chambers and being flushed down toilets or thrown in the trash.

I can't give you that benefit of the doubt now, Ladies.


Yet all is not lost. Not at all. Just ask any of the countless young women(and men!) who are the survivors of America's Abortion Holocaust -otherwise self-proclaimed The Pro-Life Generation. They know that they have managed to survive a wipe out of one third of their generation! Literally one third. They have heard the grave regrets of the countless physically, psychologically, and spiritually broken women who were victims of mass feminist indoctrination that rivaled any of Hitler's rationalizations for placing millions in ovens. They have witnessed the heroic action on the part of generations of pro-life women and men who have selflessly and sacrificially supported women and their babies and picked up the broken pieces. They understand that the only distinction between Planned Parenthood and the Gosnell clinic is that it is a cleaner "Gas chamber" facility and the largest Abortion Provider in our nation. Period.


Above all, they have seen the pictures and, thanks be to God, find them unconscionable.


In contrast to the uncivilized display inside the Texas Capitol, half a million of them humbly and peacefully march annually in Washington on the anniversary of the day that America lost it's moral compass and sanctioned decades of mass murder.

My dear American sisters, it's time to stop screaming and know that we truly love you. Be not afraid. You deserve better. Much, much, better.

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Peggy Clores is a columnist for Amazing Catechists and the Adult Education Co-Coordinator at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Her mother was imprisoned with her siblings in Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen from 1943 to 1945. Her grandparents were gassed in the ovens of Auschwitz.

Beauty and the Beast

In the movie, "The Music Within" the true story of disability rights activist Richard Pimentel, a handicapped man is chased from a diner in the 1980's because his condition, cerebral palsy violates the 'ugly' laws. His appearance offended some customers and he was summarily booted from the restaurant. Some have said that about my daughter with Down syndrome. A nurse in the hospital when she was born advised me there was plastic surgery which could 'fix her face'. I was devastated to hear I had a daughter whose face was considered too ugly to be left alone. And she had only just been born.
But in the eleven years of raising her, I have come to love those almond eyes and now we think that our children with Down syndrome have a special winsomeness which makes them particularly lovely.
There is a sweet faced beauty in an aqua t-shirt in this photo, a young woman with a smile and the look of Down syndrome, she's holding what appears to be her mother's hand. Look at the kindness in her face. I would love to know her someday, have her as my daughters' friend.

Now look at the angry, shaven, pierced, mocking woman next to her, in the black sleeveless t-shirt,  holding the offensive sign which reads, "Free abortion on demand without apology". Her face which would normally be considered attractive, is ugly. Beastly even. Because of the offensive sign she carries, her deliverate attempt to dress as a man, her mouth is contorted by hateful speech and I would guess by a lifetime of abuse and sin. She has taken God's gift of  normal chromosomes and good looks and thrown them away in favor of a 'look' which offends God and her fellow demonstrators. Her pain and anger have distorted God's image in her.

Who is beauty and who is the beast?

 Let's pray for both of them, that the lovely woman with Down syndrome can teach the sad demonstrator what love is.

Austin Texas is the Gettysburg of this Century

Today was the 150th anniversary of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Gettysburg. To honor the dead lost in this tragedy,  President Lincoln took the opportunity to give a speech which resounded in the human heart, the renowned Gettysburg Address, which ended with the words,

Pro-life women supporting the ban on abortion 

" It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

This speech gave heart to a nation losing heart while locked in mortal combat against its own citizens. It hurts to the core to be fighting fellow Americans, and it can make you lose faith in our nation. We needed inspiration from our leader and we got it. He paid the ultimate price with his assassination shortly after the war ended.
The bitterness destroyed Abraham Lincoln but not this nation which survived to become a more just civilization, till 1973 when the Supreme Court in its infamous Roe v Wade decision declared another class of human beings property, as they had done to Dred Scott. Since that time 55 million Americans have lost their lives to abortion, a number in which African Americans are disproportionately represented. We have not grown in virtue since then, but fell into a pit of depravity, where butchers like Kermit Gosnell are permitted to kill live babies with their bare hands and let their mothers languish in filth. We have to shame journalists and legislators to do their duty to report injustice and act to correct it. For awhile it seemed that America was beginning to care about the suffering of babies whose spines were summarily snipped at birth or ripped limb from limb before birth, a few inches making the unthinkable legal. We almost passed a ban on late term abortion last week in the Texas legislature, but in the final three seconds before passing, the shrieks of those who fight for the right to abortion, stopped the bill from protecting the innocent, ironically in the name of women. Led by Wendy Davis a woman who chose life for her child as a single mother and went on to great success, graduating from Harvard Law School and being elected to the State Senate but wants to make a name for herself preserving abortion in the name of women.

Today, at the state capitol building in Austin Texas two sides faced off in equally bitter conflict, though not with arms, with voices. Planned Parenthood and their employees is supporting State Senator Wendy Davis' attempt to filibuster a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, which nowadays is nearly the age of viability, when a child can life outside the womb. The pro-abort side is wearing orange, the pro-life side, blue. You can easily hear who is shouting and who is singing Amazing Grace, the song written by a converted slave trader.
Listen here. And here.
 I find it unthinkable, that a nation noble enough to sacrifice the greatest loss of life in any war of our history for the freedom of the African American slave, and then fight another battle for their full civil rights a century later, allows innocent babies to be vivisected in their mothers' wombs. In the name of women's rights.

Abraham Lincoln would be aghast. We have lost the righteousness we killed each other for in Gettysburg, betraying the 'new birth of freedom'.
Who will emerge as the new leader to help us resurrection our nation from this moral quagmire?