Pope Benedict's Christmas Poem

He has written a prayer for the Church in China in its search for union and communion, he has written one for the Catholics of Ireland on their journey of penitence and renewal in the wake of the sex abuse scandal. Now he has also written one for all nascent human life read for the first time during a global vigil Saturday evening. Below we publish a draft Vatican Radio translation from the Italian original of Pope Benedict XVI’s Prayer for Life:

Lord Jesus,

You who faithfully visit and fulfil with your Presence

the Church and the history of men;

You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood

render us participants in divine Life

and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life;

We adore and bless you.

Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life,

truly present and alive among us, we beg you.
Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,

make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb

the miraculous work of the Creator,

open our hearts to generously welcoming every child

that comes into life.
Bless all families,

sanctify the union of spouses,

render fruitful their love.


Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies

with the light of your Spirit,

so that peoples and nations may recognise and respect

the sacred nature of life, of ever human life.
Guide the work of scientists and doctors,

so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person,

and no-one endures suppression or injustice.

Gift creative charity to administrators and economists,

so they may realise and promote sufficient conditions

so that young families can serenely embrace

the birth of new children

Console the married couples who suffer

because they are unable to have children

and in Your goodness provide for them.
Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children,

so they may experience the warmth of your Charity,

the consolation of your divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,

in whose womb you took on our human nature,

we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Saviour,

the strength to love and serve life,

in anticipation of living forever in You,

in communion with the Blessed Trinity

Holy Father tells Catholics to be patient

On Gaudete Sunday, the Holy Father blessed statues of Baby Jesus.to be put in Italian creches.

 

  Quoting a passage from St. James - "Be patient therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord" - the Holy Father said: "I believe it is important, in our time, to underline the value of constancy and patience, virtues which were part of the everyday baggage of our forebears, but which seem less popular today in a world which exalts change and the capacity to adapt to new and diverse situations. Without detracting from these aspects, which are also human qualities, Advent calls us to strengthen that inner tenacity, that resistance of heart which enables us not to lose hope as we wait for a good that is late in coming, but to await it - indeed, to prepare for its arrival - with confidence".

 

  Continuing his commentary on the Letter, in which the Apostle proposes the example of the patience of farmers as they await their crop, Benedict XVI said: "Farmers are not fatalists but the model of a mentality which harmoniously unites faith and reason. On the one hand they know the laws of nature and skilfully carry out their work while, on the other, they trust in Providence because certain fundamental things are not in their hands but in the hands of God. Patience and constancy are, indeed, a blend of human commitment and trust in God.

 

  "'Strengthen your hearts' says the Scripture. How can we do this?" the Pope asked. "How can we strengthen our hearts which, in themselves, are somewhat fragile and become even more instable in the culture which surrounds us? Help is not wanting: we have the Word of God. For indeed, while everything else passes and changes, the Word of the Lord does not pass. If the events of life make us feel lost and all our certainties seem to crumble, we have a compass to find our way, we have an anchor so as not to drift with the current".

 

  In this context, the Holy Father recalled "the model of the prophets; that is, of the people whom God has call to speak in His name. The prophet finds his joy and strength in the Word of the Lord and, while men and women often seek happiness by following ways which turn out to be mistaken, he announces the true hope, the hope that does not delude because it is founded on the faithfulness of God. All Christians, by virtue of their Baptism, have received prophetic dignity. May each of us rediscover this and nourish it by listening assiduously to the divine Word".

 

  After praying the Angelus the Pope addressed some words to the children of Rome. "Dear young friends", he said, "when you place the statuette of the Baby Jesus in the grotto or the manger, say a prayer for the Pope and for his intentions. Thank you!"

And a child shall lead us

This toddler knows he is welcome at the altar, yet he goes on his knees. So much to learn from in this beautifully simple gesture. Let us follow suit this Advent.

The Holy Father called, we responded

In the diocese of Norwich, CT, Bishop Michael Cote held a Holy Hour and Benediction for Nascent Human Life. It was well attended, and the Benediction hymns were enthusiastically sung in Latin. Some of the petitions were particularly touching, especially,
"You love those who are afflicted,
Help parents of unborn children with disabilities to cherish the baby you have entrusted to their care".
Your Son, Jesus, healed the sick,
Guide all doctors to be guardians of life, especially the lives of unborn children with serious health conditions."
I don't know whether those petitions were written by the bishop or sent from the Vatican, but I appreciated them and they gave me great comfort that the Church Militant was praying as one with the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant for the people closest to my heart.Imagine the power we unleashed last night! These are the people for whom we prayed are those I have dedicated my work on this blog and elsewhere.
Here is the prayer from Pope John Paul's  encyclical Evangelium Vitae which we prayed.

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living,
To yo do we entrust the cause of life. Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.
Read the entire article at CNS.

The condom conumdrum is a moot point

Dr Gerard Nadal is not an armchair theologian like some of my commenters on the previous post. He is a microbiologist, and sticks to his area of expertise; HIV transmission. According to the good doctor, condoms are not enough to prevent the spread of HIV:

So the truth of the matter is that condoms have a much, much, higher failure rate than 15% during typical use. In dealing with the transmissibility of HIV, this is catastrophic.

IF you really love someone; you abstain. Period.

Will anyone hear his rational point of view amidst the cacaphony of voices unleased by the Holy Father's comments? Pope Benedict was not recommending condoms, he was merely saying any act towards protecting another is moving towards morality, it shows an awakening of the moral sensibility. No one said it overrides the immoratliy of homosexual acts, or contraceptive acts.
It was meant to make a hypothetical point, which is importnt to understand particularly if condoms are as ineffective as Dr Nadal maintains.
Read  his entire post here.

Clearing up the Condom Controversy

It  took me by surprise this Saturday, seeing that Fox News reporting that the Holy Father had approved the use of condoms for prostitutes. I was flabbergasted, and went online to see rumors flying thick on social networks. It was a topic for discussion among adults at the Sunday Church gatherings, and I was refusing to comment,  waiting till one came which I felt was helpful.So, if you are just hearing this 'news' relax, it as a leak of a book length interview called, Light of the World,  to be released tomorrow from Ignatius Press. Pope Benedict spoke with a German reporter, and like his Regensberg talk which stirred so much controversy when it was taken out of context,  shows how little the mainstream press understands the heart of the Church.
The quotes are were leaked by L'Osservatore Romano.

"There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality."

The interviewer asked the Pontiff, "Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?"

The Holy Father replied, "She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality." (emphasis mine)

Dr Janet Smith, professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and bioethics expert,  provides not only context and accurate quotes of the Holy Father's words but a useful analogy;

An analogy: If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets.

Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing.

I see this as saying. "Holy Mother Church has always stated that homosexual acts, (which are surely what the Holy meant to reference when he said 'male prostitute') are intrinsically evil. A mortal sin. Although using a condom is not contracepting in homosexual acts which are not procreative by their nature, the fact that the prostitute is showing concern for his sexual partner's health is a step in the right direction towards morality.No one is saying that using condoms is suddenly a moral act. Of course, we hope and pray that the man repents and lives a faithful chaste life.That is our focus to guide the faithful. "

Pope John Paul in Familiaris Consortio spoke of incremental steps toward moral behavior:

 What is needed is a continuous, permanent conversion which, while requiring an interior detachment from every evil and an adherence to good in its fullness, is brought about concretely in steps which lead us ever forward.(emphasis mine)

 In other words, it would be worse if a male prostitute would engage is homosexual acts knowing he could be giving HIV to his client. Showing a little concern  is better than none, but it does not make the act itself morally acceptable, nor does it make condom use in other cases acceptable.The reports that condoms are OK'ed by the Pope show a lack of understanding of Church teaching. In a society where even Catholics do not understand the reasons behind the Church's prohibition of contraception, it is not a suprise that reporters would make the same mistake pursuing what seemed like a big news story.

Read the entire article here. 

Holy Father asks pro-lifers to participate in a worldwide prayer vigil Nov 27

He has never made this request before. This is a perfect way to spend the First Sunday of Advent, preparing the world for the coming of He Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Mark your calendars.
LIfe Site News reports:

Earlier this year Pope Benedict XVI announced the worldwide vigil, and urged all dioceses around the world to participate as much as they are able.

As part of its effort to raise awareness about the event, HLI has sponsored an international petition of solidarity with the pope.

"We hope that Catholics understand the historical significance of Pope Benedict's invitation," said Joseph Meaney, HLI's director of international coordination. "The Holy Father for the first time in history has asked the Universal Catholic Church to gather together in a common liturgical event and pray for our preborn brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered around the world by abortion and other attacks of the culture of death."

HLI said that it is inviting all who want to join Pope Benedict and the universal Church in the vigil to sign a pledge of solidarity at yes-for-benedict.net.

Read the story at Life Site News.

Holy Father shares his heart with those with Special Needs in Spain

Cardinal Arinze tells Church to defend the dignity of human life

Cardinal Arinze lecture at Holy Apostles Seminary, October 12, 2010

It was an important event in the Catholic community of Connecticut. Bishop Michael Cote, the Seminary Rector, Monsignor, Lynn and Tom Wehner, editors of the Faith and Family and National Catholic Register, EWTN host Rhonda Chervin, Sean and Julie Forrest, President of the Family Institute of Connecticut, Peter Wolfgang and his wife, Leslie, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center Dr David Haas, dozens of seminary students, faculty members, religious sisters and friars in habit, and faithful Catholics came to hear Cardinal Arinze speak on the long history of the defense of the dignity of human life in the Church.

Dr John Haas, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center,  iintroduced the Cardinal by reminding us of the urgency of keeping up with bioethics by pointing out that Nobel Prizes are being given to scientists who made human embryos subjects for destruction. The Church has always embraced science; said Dr Hass, and established the first Catholic Bioethics Center in 1972, a year before Roe v Wade, before AIDS, or stem cells. The Church has always been at the forefront of defending the dignity of human life from the threat of abortion, euthanasia or suicide, and opposes society’s efforts to decorate these crimes with the title of “rights”.

Cardinal Arinze’s address

(This is not a transcription, but a reconstruction of my notes. Any inaccuracies or inelegant language are, therefore, mine. )

      Humanity is the crown of creation; men were the last to be created in Genesis and placed in the Garden of Eden. Pope John Paul II said that man is the summit of creation, and all is subject to him. Man was created in the image of God with an immortal soul and free will. Man alone can participate in the Divine Life of eternal happiness; it is breathtaking proof that human life is precious.  As the Baltimore Catechism reminds us; why did God make us? “God made us to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life, and be happy forever with Him in heaven.”

      St John the Evangelist said that human beings are gifted with intelligence, will and an immortal soul. Only the angels were created superior to mankind. By grace we recognize the sacred value of life beginning at conception through death. This is not romantic; it is reality that human life is sacred. There can be no civilization without recognition of the dignity of human life.
      The Passion of Jesus is proof that humans are precious to God. “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In Genesis, God said, “let Us make man in Our Own Image, giving him dominion over all creation. Men have intellence and will; God filled our hearts full of understanding. Vatican II stated that we alone know and love the Creator. Only when Cain slew Abel did the conflict of man vs. man begin.

      Evangelium Vitae said those who kill the unborn, the sick and the elderly violate “thou shalt not kill”. The law from Mt Sinai forbids the slaying of the innocent. Jesus, on the Sermon on the Mount, said that the value of human life is not absolute, “he who finds his life will lose it, he who loses his life for My sake, will find it” in praise of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the Faith., like St Stephen. Church Tradition respects human life at all stages, Church Father Tertullian calls abortion ‘an abominable crime’ and forbids killing a child before or after birth which was common at that time. The encyclicals Casti Connubi, Humane Vitae, Evangelium Vitae, and Caritas en Veritate of Pope Benedict all reaffirm the sacredness of human life. Pope Benedict sated in Caritas en Veritate that “openness to life is at the center of true development”. Evangelium Vitae states the inviolability of human life, Gaudium et Spes condemns murder, abortion, euthanasia, slavery, prostitution, human trafficking, and unjust working conditions. Vatican II says that life must be protected from the moment of conception, and thus abortion and euthanasia are unspeakable crimes which incur automatic excommunication.

      Threats to human life include not only those inherent in nature; natural disasters, but attacks on human life include scientific and technology, contraception, abortions, and the conditioning of society to present these crimes as rights. The slippery slope is conspiring against the ethical dimension of the medical profession as defined in the Hippocratic Oath, taken 2,500 years ago by doctors, in which physicians promised to do no harm, refrain from administering deadly drugs, or abortifacients to women, refrain from sexual involvement with patients, or revealing their confidential information.  This reflects the gift of God to see the truth; the Natural Laws, which proves that the 10 commandments are within the grasp of reason. In1964 Luis Lasagna revoked parts of the Hippocratic Oath, dealing with abortion and physician assisted suicide. Most doctors don’t take it now. Vatican II says that abortion is an unspeakable crime, an epidemic of worldwide proportions, In Europe, in 2008, there were 2.8 million abortions, or one every 11 seconds.

What are the excuses used to justify abortion?

 Pluralism, laws should not favor one religion over another. This fallacious, as abortion is against reason, it’s not Church law, like not eating meat on Fridays, its part of the Natural Law. It is not imposing religious views on others, others are imposing secular views on us. We are under what Pope Benedict called the Dictatorship of Relativism. If the right to life doesn’t exist, neither do any rights.

Freedom is often used to justify abortion; however, the use of my freedom cannot lead to the death of others. If I want the freedom to drive my car all over the road, and I kill you as a pedestrian, my freedom must be curtailed to protect your life.  Preservation of human life takes precedence over my freedom.

“It’s my body.” The baby is NOT part of the mother’s body. She has no right to turn her womb into a tomb.

“I am ‘personally opposed’ to abortion, but I don’t want to impose my views on others.” How about this’ “I am personally opposed to shooting you, but this man here wants to shoot you and I don’t want to impose my views on him, so I’m going to let him shoot you.” Objective norms of right and wrong DO exist!

Population Control Committees decide abortion is necessary. How about the members of the committee offer to die instead of the unborn? After all, they are usually 60-70 years old, and the baby is young, and has not had a chance to live yet.

Food shortage; the world could fee many more people than it does now. It is not true that the lower the population, the higher the level of civilization, look at the USA, it is densely populated and highly civilized. The population explosion is a myth, countries are unwilling to share with the poor. Pope Paul VI said, ‘If there is not enough bread, don’t kill the guests, make more bread!”

      Evangelium Vitae says that we are obligated to disobey unjust laws, the bishops under St Peter’s authority, have always said that direct abortion always constitutes a grave moral disorder. Common sense is not very common.

      These are situations which provide temptation to abortion; unmarried mothers, poverty, wish to continue one’s studies, feeling like you have too large a family, however they can’t change the illicit nature of abortion.

      In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II states that the following are responsible for abortion; the mother, the father, friends, doctors, nurses, politicians, those who encourage sexual permissiveness, lack of respect for mothers, and national and international organizations which promote abortions. Contraception promotes abortion; they are fruits of the same tree. Pharmaceuticals to abort without doctors and use of embryonic stem cells are also unacceptable.

      Euthanasia is unacceptable, here are the reasons used to justify it; prolonged suffering,  a fragile person who wants to die, false compassion of relatives, a desire to have control over life and death, to transplant organs, a desire to decrease costs of caring for the sick, and a desire to kill handicapped children. Euthanasia is the result of a culture which takes no notice of Good Friday, an absence of religious inspiration.

Other types of death are suicide, which is wrong, but the person may fall prey to mitigating factors. Murder which is always sinful, and terrorism which cries to heaven for justice. The Church has no traditional objection to the death penalty, since the person is not innocent, however modern times it is no longer necessary to protect society.

It is a sinister tendency to claim euthanasia and abortion as rights Pope John Paul II said. Therefore, government funding to subsidize abortion, forcing families to promote abortion is wrong. Human beings are seen as objects, to be used, the sick, weak, or unborn cannot defend themselves, and it is an abuse of their freedom to extinguish their destiny. The life of people should never depend on majority vote, human freedom should never grant one person absolute power over another. That is the death of true freedom.

      Vatican II states that when God is forgotten, human creature is unintelligible, a fascination with technology and an overemphasis on preventing cruelty to animals are examples. For example, you cannot kill a dog, but you can kill an unborn child.. This type of practical materialism is an example of the Culture of Death.

     As we say at Mass, Dying you destroyed our death, raising you restored our life. The Church has received the mission to preach the Gospel of Life, via priests, teachers, catechists, and journalists. The Church extols the vocation of matrimony and sexuality. Jesus told us to expect opposition to this mission. In Rerum Novarum the Church defended the rights of workers, in Evangelium Vitae, the Church defends the unborn, and whose lives are snuffed out by abortion. In 1991, Pope John Paul II asked the bishops what they wanted, in 1995, he wrote Evangelium Vitae. Catholics have serious duties to insist on the sanctity of life, yet this shouldn’t bar them from prestigious positions. We shouldn’t say, “I am a Catholic, but. . . .” we should say, “I am a Catholic therefore. “    The right to life is from God not the state, and there will be accountability for this.

The state is not the only part of a civil society; it consists of families, churches, organizations, who all have duties toward the state. Pope Pius XI taught the right to private property and the principle of subsidiarty.

      Openness to life is at the center of true development. Some praiseworthy initiatives are; Natural Family Planning, hospitals, convalescent homes, religious and laypeople who serve sick, films like “The Silent Scream” and married couples who are open to life, especially that of the handicapped. The government should offer them assistance if they need it. Don’t just condemn abortion; offer women alternative homes to give birth.

Social and political action are needed, efforts to form consciences, mass media to promote the Culture of Life and send the Culture of Death packing.

The Cardinal’s remarks were met with a standing ovation and prolonged, thunderous applause. It seems his clear call to building a Culture of Life has struck a chord in the Catholic community of Connecticut. May we live up to the challenge he gave us to send the Culture of Death packing!

ICEL translation to include chants in Latin and English

During the end of Pope John Paul's pontificate, my prayer group was blessed to have a writer for "The Wandererer" with extraordinary insight into the Church. He said, that if Pope Benedict were elected, he would be the pope of the liturgy as John Paul was the pope of the people. On 7/7/07 we saw the wonderful Motu Proprio freeing the Latin Mass from unnecessary restrictions, now we are about to see a new English translation of the Mass. 

 Catholic Culture says,

The new English translation of the Roman Missal-- hailed by Helen Hull Hitchcock of Adoremus as “accurate, reverent, and beautiful”-- will include texts and music for chants in English and Latin. 

 

Having instilled  a love for traditional hymns and chant, and Mass in the Extraordinary Form in my daughters, I haev been anxious to see the Mass restored to its ancient splendor in most parishes, so that others may realize just what they are witnessing when they attend Holy Mass. 

I am waiting in joyful hope!

Read the entire story at Catholic Culture.

Pope Benedict was addressing Obama in the UK

Read Bill Donohue's comments on the significant omission of references to God when Obama was quoting the Declaration of Independence. He rewrote a well known founding document just to leave out references to God. He said "endowed (BY OUR CREATOR was omitted) with certain inelienable rights". Sorry, I just don't buy the fact that he made a mistake. He's far too calculating for that. And his fourth church appearance in 19 months with news cameras trailing behind doesn't make up for it. Obama wants to appear religious while at the same time expunging true participation of religious thinkers in the public debate.

 Pope Benedict, in his Westminster Hall address this week in London, discussed the crucial role religious belief plays in civilizing the culture, and the mistake civilizations make (20th century totalitarianism, financial meltdown due to unbridled greed) when God is leff out of the discussion. Far from suggesting the US or the UK adopt any one creed to run their government by, he merely meant that a reasonable discussion of ethics cannot exclude a discusson of the natural law, a common belief that our rights come from God and that he has written a code of ethics on the human heart. Is there anyone out there who needs to be taught "thou shalt not kill"? When God is excluded from the public square, man is left to his unruly passions, and the results are too often disasterous (abortion, euthanasia, financial meltdown).

Here are Bill Donohues' comments:
On September 15, President Barack Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Awards. In his remarks, he made reference to the Declaration of Independence. He said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the president's words:



There are several errors here, though only one that really matters. On a small scale, Jefferson chose "unalienable" instead of "inalienable," and following the word "rights" there is no colon: instead it should read, "that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." What really matters, however, is the omission of any reference to God: after "equal" it should read, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…."

Some are blaming the president for this error, but it is his speech writers, and those who vetted his address, who are to blame. The prepared remarks, as released by the White House, omit the word "Creator." Since this got by so many in the White House, it makes us wonder whether only incompetence was at work. While Obama may be given a pass, it is striking nonetheless that this omission got by a former constitutional law professor.

There are four references to God in the Declaration. God is the author of the "laws of nature and nature's God"; he is the "Creator" who "endowed" us with "unalienable rights"; he is "the Supreme Judge of the world"; and he provides "the protection of Divine Providence." As a former professor of political science, I made sure my students understood this, but evidently none of those who write or vet the president's speeches learned this in college. They should pay more attention, especially given the suspicion that Obama likes his religion lite.

Here is the text of Pope Benedict's speech to British government officials at Westminister Hall;  read this part in particular;

The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems has been illustrated all too clearly by the recent global financial crisis. There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions of people throughout the world. Just as “every economic decision has a moral consequence” (Caritas in Veritate, 37), so too in the political field, the ethical dimension of policy has far-reaching consequences that no government can afford to ignore. A positive illustration of this is found in one of the British Parliament’s particularly notable achievements – the abolition of the slave trade. The campaign that led to this landmark legislation was built upon firm ethical principles, rooted in the natural law, and it has made a contribution to civilization of which this nation may be justly proud.




The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This “corrective” role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.

Reason, enlightened by faith has guided all that is good in Western Civilization. Obama and his ilk are trying to expunge faith not only from the current dialouge, but from history itself. How ironic, that it was men fo faith like William Wilberforce and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. whose Christian faith led them to fight discrimination against Africans, would not have a seat at the table in Obama's world.

Two years ago, I was at the Papal Rally in Dunwoodie, NY

We love our Holy Father, go and visit this blog from writer Anna Arco to see twelve wonderful photos of him. This will remind us of why we need to be praying for him every day, to help him overcome the vitriol out there.
HT Faith and Family

Abuse victim in Malta: Pope Benedict XVI is a 'saint' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

When you cut through the 40 year old abuse cases, and talk with the Holy Father face to face, you see the compassion of the man in our Church who did the most to clean up the mess he didn't create: Pope Benedict XVI.
 May the abuse victims see what Joseph saw in him and find the grace to forgive  and move on.
May the rest of the Church hierarchy learn from the Holy Father to see the pain in the victims' eyes, and let it guide their actions in the future. No more winking at sin and passing the trash. There are real lives at stake, and eternal souls in the balance.
And may the media see the plank in their own eye; the rampant abuse in the public sector, before they point out once again the sins of the Church. Enough of this hypocrisy!

Abuse victim in Malta: Pope Benedict XVI is a 'saint' :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Happy Birthday Pope Benedict!

We love you and are praying for you as you are unfairly attacked by the media. You are our shepherd, the Vicar of Christ, and we stand behind you 100%.

May God grant you 100 years!

Knights of Columbus start novena today for Pope Benedict

When the Holy Father is under attack, whether by actual troops or legions of pro-death journalists, the faithful mus protect him. Join the Knights in a novena to protect the Holy Father and help him spread the Truth, no mater the cost.
The link to the novena.

In defense of our beloved shepherd, Pope Benedict

I am breaking my Holy Week fast from blogging for an important article which clears up the vile allegations of the New York Times. This article from Life Site News from the priest who was in charge of the Fr Murphy case, sets the record straight, and accuses the Times of sloppy journalism. In 1996, two decades after the last allegations of abuse by Fr. Murphy were made, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (then run by Cardinal Ratzinger) was informed of the accusations. The CDF instructed the local diocese to begin canonical proceedings against the priest. In the end, however, the recommendation was made by the CDF, due to Fr. Murphys extremely poor health, simply to restrict his pastoral activities, and he died several months later.


The NYTimes, however, has charged the CDF, and Pope Benedict himself, with having failed to take the case seriously, and of having declined to defrock the priest, “even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church.”
But Brundage has come to the defense of the pope, writing that "has done more than any other pope or bishop in history to rid the Catholic Church of the scourge of child sexual abuse and provide for those who have been injured."

It seems there may be an agenda afoot. . .don't you think it suspicious that the dirty tricks happened when the Church nearly succeeded in blocking the largest expansion of abortion in our time, in the health care bill?

Hitler rails against Pope Benedict

Pope Benedict's anniversary to be celebrated with Traditional Latin Mass in Washington DC Shrine

This will be the first time the Extraordinary Form of the Mass has been offered in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 45 years. It will be celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos.
Read the entire press release.

Pope Benedict acknowleges the power of new media

"A genuine revolution is taking place in the realm of social communications of which the Church is ever more responsibly conscious. . . . . These technologies make speech and penetrating communications possible, with a capacity to share ideas and opinions; to facilitate acquiring information and news in a personal way that is accessible to all." Pope Benedict XVI
Of course ours is the responsiability to use our blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts for the speading of the good news of the Kingdom of God and not for gossip, slander, or even to waste a precious opportunity to win souls for Christ, as the darkness of the Culture of Death closes in around us.
Use the media for Christ before the Obama Adminstration takes away our free speech, and we are restricted to handing out pamphlets in dark rooms, like the Chinese who are blocked from seeing this blog. Did Obama speak out for freedom speech during his visit to China? NO. He didn't even meet with the people, only with a roomful of Communist apparatchiks. He has already declared war on Rush Limbagh, Fox News, and those of us with the presumption to question Obamacare.
If we don't speak out, we deserve to lose our freedoms.
Read the entire story here.

Pope;be generous with the poor

Pope Benedict XVI today told a special summit of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that “opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions.”“Sufficient food is produced on a global scale to satisfy both current demands and those in the foreseeable future,” the pope said. What’s missing, the pope said, is instead “a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water.”

In particular, Benedict insisted “there is no cause-and-effect relationship between population growth and hunger” – an indirect reply to critics of the church’s ban on contraception, which is sometimes blamed for impeding efforts to limit population growth.
The pontiff asserted that “food and access to water” [are] “universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination.” Those rights, the pope argued, take on meaning as part of a network of rights “beginning with the primary one, the right to life.”

Read John Allen Jr's entire article in the National Catholic Reporter.
 
How fitting that on the feast day of St Elizabeth of Hungary, whose charity to the poor led her in-laws to throw her and her children out of the castle upon the death of the king, we should be discussing the poor. St Elizabeth lived among the poor she had faithfully seved until she was restored to the castle, and gave most of her goods to the poor. She remained humble, refusing to wear her crown in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and prostrating herself to Our Lord's Eucharistic Presence.
Many of the commenters on the above article criticized the Vatican and US bishops for their lifestyles instead of soul searching on their own extravagant lifestyles. There is hardly a soul in North America and Europe who couldn't cut back somewhere on their budget to give to the poor, myself included. That is where true change begins, poverty will never be ended by a government program. They just give us an excuse not to sacrifice, and say we've done our part.
But one import point to note from the article; the Holy Father specifically stated that world hunger cannot be blamed on population growth, but a failure to deliver the world's abundant food. I would add that sometimes its' political structures which block food from reaching the poor. Remember the 28 million Chinese peasants who starved in 1977 during Mao's Cultural Revolution? Remember when the great "We are the World" effort to feed the starving in Ethiopia led to the food rotting on the docks as hostile government forces blockaded efforts at delivery to the needy?

The overpopulation movement is now buoyed by support financial and moral from the Obama Administration, Steven W. Mosher of the Population Research Institue, addresses this in his weekly briefing below:
The Overpopulation Movement Struggles to Stay Relevant
by Colin Mason


Like aging sixties radicals seeking to relive their glory days, the fear mongers at the Optimum Population Trust (OPT) are still trying to scare us with the specter of overpopulation. The trouble is, the world has moved on, even if they haven't. The latest move by the British group—a major move to push contraception as the solution to global warming—has received a less than warm welcome from the global community.


This couldn't have been what OPT expected when it tried to capitalize on the obsession of leftist politicians with global warming. But their press release, put out in September of this year, struck many as more than a little self-serving. Perhaps it was that it hailed contraception as, of all things, “the latest in green technology.” Or perhaps it was the OPT funded the very study by the London School of Economics that it later hyped in its press release. Then there was the study itself, which made the rather strange claim that, “considered purely as a method of reducing future CO2 emissions, family planning is more cost-effective than leading low-carbon technologies.”

The report concluded by claiming that “the population issue must now be added into the negotiations for the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.” Although the authors stopped short of asserting, as Al Gore did, that babies cause global warming, they came close. Readers are left with the impression that fewer breathing humans equal a greener, healthier planet. We've never heard that one before.
A visit to OPT's prehistoric web site is like a trip back in time. “By reversing population growth,” OPT says, “we'd be taking another green step towards environmental survival for all.” There is no mention that Europe is dying.


The site even has a “Stop At Two” pledge, where environmental devotees can make a promise to reverse population growth. One wonders whether any of OPT's aging membership are still young enough to reproduce.

The intriguing thing about OPT's most recent pitch for mass population control—disguised as a scientific study—is the reaction it garnered among the public. One might expect at least some denizens of the Left to enthusiastically second its program, or at least nod approvingly.

Instead, the reaction was muted and, well, uncomfortable.
Austen Ivereigh of America Magazine, for instance, encountered OPT at London's “Battle of Ideas” festival in early November. Ivereigh reminds us that “doom-mongers always ignore the elasticity of economic productivity,” and contends that “the ecological crisis will be solved by meeting the needs of the poor, not chasing them off the planet.”
Even Ellie Lee, a self-proclaimed member of the pro-choice movement, takes issue with the “moral imperative” laid down by the OPT. “Campaign groups such as the Optimum Population Trust,” she writes on the Times Online, “seek to persuade us that we should plan, found and grow our families according to a moral imperative far more pressing than what we may feel is right for us.”
Lee is (rightly) miffed at the idea that OPT sees itself as a referee on who can have children, and when. “This is the attempt to manipulate the feelings and decisions of women all over the world,” she writes, “as they negotiate their way through the profoundly important process of making decisions about when to start a family.”
Brendan O'Neill, writing for Spiked!, thinks likewise. He describes an invitation-only OPT conference that he attended earlier this year, quipping that the affair was “hideously white.” There is something “unavoidably spooky,” he notes, about people who spend all their time “fretting about overpopulation.”


“You can bet,” he continues, “that when these well-to-do worriers about the human plague on the planet talk about burdensome people causing 'congestion, overcrowding and loss of green space' . . . they aren't talking about themselves, or their friends, or their neighbors, or their mistresses; they're talking about 'them'. You know 'them'! The breeders, the not-sufficiently-educated, the dwellers of teeming cities, not only in Africa and Asia but in Europe and America too.”


This apt observation shines a harsh light on the innate “creep factor” of organizations like OPT. Their members, when viewed en masse, look less like crusading saviors of the earth, and more like angry, bigoted, pampered ideologues. Their creed has not aged well.


Regrettably, gatherings of these types of crazy people are not limited to country clubs and richly-catered seminars. Population obsession is alive and well in men like John P. Holdren, President Obama's “Science Czar.” PRI has reported on Holdren's extremism in the past, and suffice it to say he has shown evidence of being yet another of these “well-to-do worriers.” Unfortunately, he now has the President's ear, as well.


However, culturally, population control is beginning to make the Western public uncomfortable. While many still believe the world to be overrun with humans, the proposed “solutions” to this so-called “problem” are even more unthinkable. Men like John P. Holdren, and the leaders at OPT, would do well to remember this.

As far as population control goes, in the words of a sixties song, the times, they are a-changin'.
Colin Mason is the Director of Media Production at Population Research Institute.

Yet, despite this recent unpopularity of "Stop at two" programs, the Obamacare program has language which suggests that this will be part of universal health care, along with abortion, and birth control.

UPDATE 11/20 The United Nations is on the same outdated page as Obama. They are pushing for limited population growth as part of a green initiative, according to Piero Tozzi at CFAM. Read the article here.