John Elefante - "This Time" (OFFICIAL VIDEO @JohnElefante)

Help Austin Ruse save kids with Down syndrome

YOU CAN SMELL THE DEVIL BREATH WHEN YOU ARE AROUND CHILDREN WITH DOWNS... Read on to find out why... The devil wants them dead. Who? Children with Down Syndrome. Why would the devil want them dead? Because they are messengers sent from God to teach us about love. First, they are joyful people. Sure they have bad days like all of us. But for the most part, they are happy and joyful people and so loving it would knock your socks off. They love unconditionally. The devil really hates that. He hates that the most. Second, they teach us how to love. Its a hard thing to think about raising and caring for a person with Down Syndrome. It is a lifetime of work and frankly it scares those faced with such a task. But, what parents and siblings of such children tell you, it is an amazing experience. It brings you out of yourself. They teach you the joys of sacrifice. And the devil hates that. He hates it when people learn to sacrifice for others. The devil hates it when place ourselves second or third or fourth. SO THE DEVIL WANTS THEM DEAD This is why up to 90% of unborn children diagnosed with Down Syndrome are killed by the abortionists knife. The devil wants that. He likes that. So, what are we going to do to help them? We are going to become their friends and supporters. We will make lifelong friends with them and help them and their families through life. We are going to be an example to the world but even more than that, we are going to be an example to that mother who gets the diagnosis today and who is even now contemplating abortion that little messenger of God. The devil likes that. There is an organization that the devil hates and I am helping them. It is called Best Buddies International. Best Buddies raises up friends for those with Down Syndrome. Best Buddies is active in high schools, colleges and communities all across this land and to points overseas. Best Buddies is one of the most amazing organizations that I know of. I AM RIDING 62 MILES THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA That is why on October 19, my friends and I are climbing our out-of-shape bodies onto bicycles and riding 62 miles through the mountains of Norther Virginia, to raise money for Best Buddies and to give the devil a black eye. There is a very good chance I will be the number one fundraiser this year. Right now I am in second place. There is a very good chance that our team (C-FAM/Lejeune) will place third and possibly second ahead of more than a dozen corporate teams. We cannot do this without your help. Please go to http://www.elabs3.com/c.html?ufl=1&rtr=on&s=ebss,1mzcf,4t6x,iq8x,etzb,2j6l,cdul and donate to this worthy cause. If you file taxes in the US, your donation is 100% tax deductible. Can you help us with a donation of $500? How about $100? $50? Really any amount will do. I really need your prayers, too, not only that I will reach my personal goal of $25,000 but that I will complete this monster ride. I went on a training ride this weekend. We road 32 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation and I have to admit, it was really really tough. I am willing to make this minor sacrifice in order to give the devil and black-eye and to help a child with Down Syndrome and her family! Please go to http://www.elabs3.com/c.html?ufl=1&rtr=on&s=ebss,1mzcf,4t6x,iq8x,etzb,2j6l,cdul and give as much as you can. Many many thanks. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President/C-FAM Publisher/Friday Fax PS If I am the highest fundraiser, when they give me the mic at the awards ceremony, I will dedicate my ride to all those precious children with Downs who have been aborted. We can never forget them. We can never give up trying to save them.

Pope Francis speaks on homosexuality in Jesuit Magazine.

Raymond Arroyo posted this on Facebook

Pope Francis on the Church's "small-minded rules" and his outreach to gays:
“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all. The confessor, for example, is always in danger of being either too much of a rigorist or too lax. Neither is merciful, because neither of them really takes responsibility for the person. The rigorist washes his hands so that he leaves it to the commandment. The loose minister washes his hands by simply saying, ‘This is not a sin’ or something like that. In pastoral ministry we must accompany people, and we must heal their wounds...
"In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this.During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person."

From the new extended interview granted to Jesuit Magazines, released today.

Here is my take.
Too often the position of the Church, that homosexual actions is sinful, alienates the person struggling with same sex attraction, and he or she does not seek healing and confession, feeling rejected. What have we gained if he or she doesn't return to the Church? Is that what Christ died for, to alienate the sinner who then seeks refuge in his sin?

My friend, married for several years, the father of several children and an active member in lay ecclesial movements, experienced a severe crisis in his family, a double murder of those closest to him. His reaction was to return to the sin he thought he had overcome by himself; homosexual relations. Fr Harvey of Courage offered to personally counsel him and his wife. For some reason it didn't happen, and an opportunity to save a family was lost. This man was a leader in the Church, a great husband and father who carried a deep wound not one of us who cared for him knew about. Fr Harvey's offer to counsel him did not include, I am sure, finger wagging in his face, nor would it include justification of his sin, as I suspect some clergy had done for him. I feel that it would have led to healing and a repentant sinner who could witness to others. 

But now Fr Harvey is with the Lord, the family lives in the same house, on different floors and is in constant acrimony. No one attends Mass anymore, and they seek consolation in the world. . I pray for them and ask Fr Harvey's intercession for healing.

A Night of Love in New York City as Fr George Rutler Remembers 9/11

Mme Lejuene addressed the gathering. 

I had just finished radiation for a melanoma in my eye, but I was determined not to miss an opportunity to meet with my friends at the Lejeune USA reception at the French Embassy in New York City. Tired from the treatments, I travelled from Boston with my daughter's help. We arrived in the warm summer rain, stopping for a slice of authentic New York pizza on our way to the French Embassy on Central Park East. We walked past elegant designer shops featuring cocktail dresses and bridal gowns, umbrellas aloft, until we were welcomed into the majestic building across from the Park.
At first, my daughter and I were awestruck by the Embassy's elegance: soaring, frescoed ceilings, marble foyers, and dramatic two story windows framed by velvet draperies. Waiters proffered champagne flutes and savory hors d'oeuvres. World-renowned scientists chatted with businessmen and clergy while well-dressed children whose almond eyes bore the signature of an extra chromosome, darted between adults.

But what instantly made me feel at home was the love which which permeated the gathering.

Dr William Mobley and LeticiaVelasquez.

Dr William Mobley mentioned it when he discussed his award winning research to overcome the cognitive delays inherent with Down syndrome. In her years at school, my 11 year old daughter Christina lost her ability to speak fluently, and has only learned to read nine words due to these delays, so I expected to hear a detailed scientific discussion about his research. But this night, I heard him talk about the love our children have shared with us, and how we learned from them how to give love. I saw Lejeune USA Pressident Mark Bradford and French Foundation director Thierry de la Villejegu who fiercely embraced me and thanked me for my writing.  I understood, we were united in this intense emotion because we loved our children and wanted them to have the best in their lives, and to make certain that more babies are born to live out the lives God intends them to lives as we give expectant mothers hope for their children's future.

Love was indeed the theme that evening. Those of us who have worked to support the research and improve the public understanding of Down syndrome, separately met, shook hands and became friends. I was honored to thank, once again, the widow of my hero, Dr Jerome Lejeune,

Mme Lejeune and Leticia.

Madame Berthe Lejeune, for her sacrifice as the wife behind the great man during his lifetime, and as the President of Fondation Lejeune after his death. I met columnist and fathers of daughters with Down syndrome, Matthew Hennessy, and Kurt Kondrich, and was able to thank Stephanie Hall Meredith for her work with The Human Development Institute.
 I had very little time to meet everyone there who has done great work advocating for those with Down syndrome, but the man I met as we left the Embassy surprised me by his presence.

Fr George Rutler, so impressive in his EWTN series "Christ in the City" was quietly waiting for his coat when I boldly asked him the question which had been on my mind every anniversary of 9/11. "Father, I heard that you gave general absolution to the first responders entering the Twin Towers on 9/11. Is that true?" He looked at me a bit startled at the question, seemly out of nowhere,  then his eyes took a distant look as he began to relive the tragic events which he witnessed firsthand as a priest in New York City who instantly rushed to the scene.

 I quickly regretted reviving those painful memories, as a tear welled up in his eye, but he didn't seem to mind recalling that day, painful as it was. He affirmed that he had indeed given wartime absolution to those entering the Towers, because, as he said, we were at war, suddenly and unexpectedly in our own land. But Fr Rutler refused to dwell on his own vital, soul-saving role in the events of that tragic day. He told me the moving story of the heroism of Fr Mychal Judge, who was killed while hearing the confessions of first responders entering the Towers to their deaths. He recalled how Fr Judge's body was laid at the foot of the altar of old St Patrick's Cathedral downtown, his spilled blood still flowing down the marble steps. A true alter Christus, offering himself to the last drop of blood for Christ's body, the Church. These two priests, like the crowd in the Embassy were about love. Love which doesn't count the cost as it " bears all things, hopes all things. believes all things." (ICor:13:7)

Gabriela and Leticia Velasquez, Mme Lejeune, Dr Elizabeth Rex.

We walked to the subway that evening, quietly reflective in the drumming of the rain on our umbrellas, wishing we knew of an open church to ponder the depth of this evening. We had been in the presence of true heroes, people whose first thought was of giving their time, their treasure, and their very lives for the good of others. My daughter who is becoming a nurse and I were fortunate to have been embraced by such company and rededicated our
efforts in the service of those beautiful people whom God had given us to bless our families.