Shocker: Pope Benedict's not a Republican!

Being a Catholic requires something usually absent in politics. Humility.
Howard Dean has a point, McCain should denounce the anti-papal comments of Tom Tancredo.
Dean Said. "If McCain believes, as he has said, that 'these are God's children,' he should not stand by silently as Tancredo or anyone else in the Republican Party continues using immigrants as scapegoats or playing politics with immigration legislation."
Former Republican candidate Tom Tancredo, like Lou Dobbs, was offended by the Holy Father's embracing of the Hispanic Catholics in the USA, and accused him of inviting illegal immigrants here to bolster the Catholic population here. It was a shock to some of my anti-immigrant Republican Catholic friends to see that Pope Benedict hasn't read Republican talking points. Or the rantings of Pat Buchanan. I imagine that Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly aren't thrilled either, but they have more class(hopefully) than to come out and criticize the Pope. I once debated Sean on his radio show about immigration and told him how unjust it was to deny visas to those immigrants who are already here. He conceded the point that visas are only granted to immigrants who have many countrymen already in the US with political clout. Like the Irish. The rule of law only applies when the law is just. God's justice trumps the Justice Department.
I have to tell this to those Catholics who have viciously attacked me on this blog for saying that legal status of a person does not diminish their humanity, and that President Bush was right to try and bring a humane solution to the scandal the exploitation of illegal immigrants, who already have jobs and want to be able to feed their families.
Did you know that, according to Fr. Benedict Groeschel illegal immigrants pay millions into a Social Security System they can never collect from, since they are working with invalid SS cards. We, the wealthiest nation on earth, can afford to admit them legally and as Catholics, we must acknowledge that they are our brothers in Christ, and welcome them. They will comprise half the Church in the USA by 2030. Either welcome them or lose them to the sects.
Pope Benedict knows this, happily embraces Hispanics, and speaks beautiful Spanish. You should have heard all the enthusiasm of the Legionary priests in the Seminary crowd. Most of them are Mexican, and more orthodox, on fire priests cannot be found. We are fortunate to have them among us. They will replace our aging liberal priests bringing renewed vigor into the Church. We will remember the Marian devotion of our European immigrant ancestors.

May God forgive us for our materialism which makes us reluctant to share our wealth with the neediest among us. Remember the Rich Man and Lazarus. The undocumented man seeking work on the corner is his modern day equivalent. Let him have papers so that he is no longer exploited by rich contractors. My husband who is from El Salvador made $100 a day making cement sidewalks for his Italian boss. A $20,000 job took one week, and cost the boss $2,500 in labor, the same in materials, and he earned a profit of $5,000 a week, for setting up the job, a few minutes of supervision each evening, and collecting the money when the job was done. His five undocumented employees did the backbreaking labor for only $100 a day. Where's the justice in that?
Just because Republicans are pro-life, it doesn't mean we Catholics are supposed to adopt the GOP Party line across the board. Being a Catholic means that we have no home politically, just temporary abodes.
Don't get me wrong, my Italian grandparents were Democratic committeemen, and I have never voted Democrat because of the abortion issue, and cannot until abortion is illegal and traditional marriage is constitutionally protected. But I am a Catholic first and a Republican second.
HT World Net Daily
UPDATE:
Some of my favorite Catholic blogs are abuzz on this issue. Go to Pro Ecclesia and follow Jay's links
UPDATE #2
A friend has alerted me to some substantive posts over at Rorarte Caeli with quotes from the popes of the past 50 years to support my position that Catholics must welcome the immigrant, and help meet his needs.
“'the Church in America must be a vigilant advocate, defending against any unjust restriction the natural right of individual persons to move freely within their own nation and from one nation to another. Attention must be called to the rights of migrants and their families and to respect for their human dignity, even in cases of non-legal immigration”.
Pope John Paul II

Planned Parenthood Exposed on Hannity's America

Did I just mention that Sean Hannity needs to become more Catholic than Republican?

Once, I met him in his hometown of Huntington, at a book signing. I waited in line for over an hour with Christina, and, as he signed my book, I introduced him to Christina and said, "remember Sean, that you are the only voice of these children in the secular media, they are counting on you to speak up for their right to life". Thanks, Sean!

FOX News Program ExposesPlanned Parenthood Deception
CHICAGO – Less than 50 miles from Fidelis’ national headquarters in downtown Chicago is ground zero in the latest fight over abortion in America. In the small town of Aurora, IL, Planned Parenthood has deceptively completed construction on a massive 22,000 square foot abortion facility. The waiting room alone is reportedly large enough to hold 65 patients, and the facility is expected to open as early as next week.
Dedicated pro-life groups began protesting the clinic over a month ago when it was revealed that the clinic was deceptively built as a “health center” under the title Gemini. City records show that Planned Parenthood purposely misled officials, filing paperwork with the town under fictitious names in order to conceal Planned Parenthood’s identity.
Last night, the FOX News Channel’s Hannity’s America program featured an expose on the Aurora clinic, including mention of the fact that Planned Parenthood last year received over $300 million in taxpayer funds. These government funds are being used to promote abortion related services at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country, including the new super-abortion center about to open in Aurora, IL.
ACT NOW!Stop the funding of Planned Parenthood!
With your help, Fidelis continues to publicize this incredible fact. Every American deserves to know that their taxpayer funds are being used to fund the largest abortion provider in the world.
Legislation introduced in the United States Senate would help stop this outrage by preventing taxpayer funds from going to any health organization that performs abortions. As the Fox News video points out, Planned Parenthood is making millions of dollars in profit every year. Why do they need our money?
Over the past year, Fidelis has mailed over 500,000 letters informing Americans of this abuse of their hard earned dollars. Our government is wasting enough money. Funding for Planned Parenthood should be stopped today!
View the FOX News video here.
Help support Fidelis’ efforts to end the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
© Fidelis · (312)201-6559 · 65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601

Boxer fights Brownback for oversees abortions

As expected, yesterday's Senate votes over the 2008 Foreign Operations spending bill turned into an abortion showdown over the inclusion of the Mexico City policy. Although the policy--which bars the U.S. from funding any organization that performs or promotes overseas abortion--dates back to the Reagan years, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) led the charge to abolish it. In the end, her efforts to strip the Mexico City policy from the bill prevailed by a 53-41 vote. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) responded quickly with an amendment of his own to strike the language, but it failed by the same 12-vote margin. Unfortunately, Boxer's amendment is considered even more extreme than the House version. In keeping with his promise, President Bush yesterday reminded Senate liberals that theirs is not the final word on the Mexico City policy. The White House issued a statement renewing the President's vow to veto any bill that weakens America's laws on abortion. We applaud President Bush for consistently putting innocent human life first--even when it means postponing legislation that his administration wants passed.
If Democrats carry off the Presidency, millions of babies worldwide will die. If Rudy Guiliani wins, the exact same thing will happen. Why is he still leading in the polls? Because Catholics and pro-lifers are asleep!! Here's proof:

Although the media seem intent on downplaying the influence of social conservatives in the upcoming election, a recent poll by Fabrizio McLaughlin Associates points to just how misled those assumptions are. The study, "An Elephant Looks in the Mirror 10 Years Later," discussions the transformation of the Republican Party in the last 10 years and makes the statistical case that not only do values issues play a key role in the GOP platform, but values voters make up 51% of the party. Twenty-seven percent, by their classification, are "focused" on moral issues--and another 24%, the "Moralists," have a "laser-like focus" on moral issues. The reality is, a majority of the GOP are values voters. For candidates to ignore these social issues is for them to ignore the single-largest group in the Republican Party. They do so at their own risk. The reason Rudy Giuliani (R) continues to do well in polling data is that most Americans don't know where he stands on these issues. However, where voters perceive him to stand in his faith is another survey altogether. The Pew Forum's latest poll found that the statistical front-runners in both parties, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rudy Giuliani (R), are both considered the "least religious" by those surveyed. On the other hand, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is considered "very religious" by 46%, followed by Sen. John McCain (R) at 18%.
Interestingly, the poll didn't account for all candidates, which excludes those whom many would view as the most religious, including Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (R). In the end, though, most voters would agree that how important the candidates' faith seems to be isn't half as important as how closely they live by it
Let's hope that Sam Brownback's participation in the Values Voter's Summit with Mitt Romney provides some eye-opening contrast on who truly lives their faith. Let's hope that Sean Hannity is able to re-discover his Catholicism there, and stop supporting Guiliani.
HT Family Research Council

Illegal Immigrants get ripped off by our Social Security System

Before you pile on me, please know that I didn't come up with this on my own. Fr. Benedict Groeschel, no great liberal, yet faithful to Church teaching and to the truth, said it. On his live call in show Sunday evening, he said the following about sin, "we are guilty of robbing the poor in ways that we aren't aware, and this is a sin which the Old Testament says 'cries out to heaven for vengance'. "
He continued, "every year, illegal immigrants with fake Social Security cards pay BILLIONS of dollars into the system which they will never collect; they help keep that failing system going". The USCCB confirms this fact. So does my husband Francisco, who, as an illegal fleeing the terrible civil war in El Salvador, paid six months of Social Security he will never collect. Here is an article in USA Today confirming this fact.
So, next time a Catholic pundit (Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, are you listening?) tells you that illegals do nothing but rob this country, mention this fact. Yes, their kids go to school and get medical care. They are most likely citizens, and, even if they aren't, would you have them wandering the streets or die of preventable diseases right here in the USA?
Let me set the record straight, in my day job, I have worked with the poor for nearly 25 years. Illegal immigrants are NOT eligible for welfare. Do they still mangage to exploit the system sometimes? Sure. Did you ever file a homeowner's claim, or a tax deduction that was shaky? Let's be honest with ourselves,as Catholics, can't we afford to allow some of the poorest people in the world just get a job to feed their families? We who are overweight, whose homes are completely oversized for the 2.1 children we have, whose cars are big enough to climb the Rocky Mountains, yet never will, and whose cruise vacations rival those of the rich and famous. Why do we think it's moral to live like this, while children in the Southern Hemisphere die of hunger by the minute? Watch those World Vision Infomercials next time.
If your children lived where the water carried disease, and they had to scrape through garbage to eat, what would you be willing to do, to help them survive?
American Catholics are some of the richest people in the history of the world, yet we give a paltry 1% to our collection baskets in church, far less than Protestants. Yet our Church is involved in so many worthy projects to help the poor provide for themselves. Evangelization, education, health care, housing, there is so much your money can provide for the poor.

Mother Teresa told the story of a young Indian couple who, instead of the extravagant wedding which Indian couples celebrate, donated all the money to her. She asked them why they would sacrifice their wedding celebration, and they answered, "we want to share the joy of loving". I had a nice wedding, but since I've been married, I have supported several of my husbands' relatives through college. Was I always a willing and cheerful giver? Nope. God has blessed even my reluctant generosity, and He will certainly bless yours.

Here are some 100% reliable places to donate money.
Missionaries of Charity
Food for the Poor
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging
Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
Catholic World Mission
Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara

Terri Schiavo died two years ago today

Two years ago, two people were slowly dying in the public eye. Pope John Paul II, was failing, and Terri Schiavo was dying of court enforced dehydration. The nation watched Terri die, yet so many good people weren't hearing the truth about her; how she had been improving until her husband won a malpractice case on her behalf, vowing to use the funds for her rehabilitation, and did precisely the opposite. She never received a day of therapy again, even though rehab professionals testified that, with therapy she would be capable of swallowing on her own. Her parents and siblings begged for the right to care for her at their own expense, in their own home, and were coldly refused by the angriest husband on TV since OJ Simpson. A man who had a renowned euthanasia advocate constantly whispering in his ear. A man who appeared to want her to die with all his strength, though he had already gone on with his personal life, accompanied with a girlfriend, fathering two children.


Why must this helpless woman die? I asked myself.

How could a local judge ignore the Governor of Florida, the President of the United States and an act of Congress?

What has gone wrong with Christians in this country, that, at the urging of Dr. James Dobson, Sean Hannity, and Jesse Jackson, they don't rise up and demand her life be spared?

Can't they see her responding to her parents and siblings on the video?

How deeply has the Culture of Death permeated this culture?

And, the most chilling question of all for me, the mother of a child with Down Syndrome, 90% of whom are destroyed before birth, what will I do when they come to kill my Christina?

An extraordinary Catholic woman I know answered this question for me when she said,
"I would consider it an honor to die for your daughter!"

Would you?

Beware the Three-headed RINO!

THIS beast has taken over the Republican Party, talk show host Sean Hannity, and other formerly conservative entities. DON'T let it infect your thinking; resist it at all cost.


Remember your principles; they never had any!
HT Pro Ecclesia, Pro Familia, ProCivitate

Oh, and in case the Romney head is convincing you he's 'evolving in his support for life' watch his performance on YouTube to reorient you on where he stands on "abortion rights".

Sean Hannity has put his foot in it this time!

Fr Tom Euteneuer has found an ally in pro-life columnist, Jill Stanek, an Evangelical Christian, as she posts a fine defense of the Catholic Church here.

Read my comment on her blog here:
"I am grateful to Sean Hannity for causing Jill to produce her great article and this enlightened, discussion between Christians on this timely topic. Before 1930 all Christian Churches opposed birth control, as they recognized what it's legalization would do to society. The Episcopal Church in the 7th Lambeth Conference approved it, and the other mainline Protestant denominations followed suit. In the 1965, thanks to the Supreme Court decision Griswold v Connecticut, birth control was made available to married couples, and in 1972 to unmarried people, due to the efforts of abortion clinic owner, Bill Baird.(By the way the so-called right to privacy found by Justice Douglas in this case was the basis for the Roe v Wade decision). "

"Unmarried pregnancy, abortions, and child abuse all skyrocketed, exactly the opposite promised to us by Planned Parenthood, which, by the way, is the nation's biggest abortion business. (Dr Janet Smith does a devastating expose on the failure of contraception to fulfill all the promises that were given as excuses for it, in "Contraception; Why Not?")See the connection? "

"Pope Paul predicted in Humanae Vitae in 1968, that birth control would cheapen the role of women in society and lead to their exploitation. I have just spent a weekend in Hollywood, and there, the culture is absolutely toxic towards women. I had to shield my innocent daughter's eyes repeatedly. Pope Paul also predicted that governments would use birth control to control individuals, as we see in the Chinese one child policy. "

"Fr. Tom Euteneuer with his work in Human Life International has been fighting the worldwide exploitation of women and children which has resulted from the 'freedom' of birth control, and, it's backup when it fails, abortion. He knows of what he speaks. Women were once revered as mothers and wives, now they are almost universally viewed as sex objects. Once you divorce childbearing from sexuality, commitment flies out the window, and women are objectified. Funny how a celibate old man foresaw that 40 years ago. Perhaps he was the only one listening to the Holy Spirit. "

Thank you, Jill, for seeing what so many of our own faithful fail to see; the importance of respect for Church leadership and obedience to the Magisterium. If you're going to call yourself a Catholic, Mr. Hannity, then BE a Catholic. Even when it's inconvenient. Even when you have a liberal pastor who winks at disobedience to the Church's teaching. Even when it means trusting God with ALL of you, your fertility included. I once heard you say you couldn't afford more children. Really! Well, I must have more money than you (not!) because I have one more child. Right?
Sean, I spoke with you in the Book Revue in Huntington, and you seem like a sincere man, when it comes to defending the unborn. Let's remember it's Lent, and admit you were rude to Fr. Tom, and need to go to confession. The conservative Catholic community has been praying for your conversion on this issue long before this latest incident. Let God's grace prevail here, and receive Holy Communion in a state of grace this Easter. I'm sure your parents, God rest their souls, are praying for you at this moment as well.
If you want to tell Sean you want him to apologize to Fr. Tom, and that you're praying for his conversion, send him an email here.

Liberals are the Least Tolerant

Go to this post to see a typical liberal move to disqualify meteorologists who 'don't believe' in global warming. I, like Sean Hannity, who also grew up on Long Island, remember when voodoo science in the 1970's told us we were entering an ice age, and we were all going to freeze to death in 20 years, that is if there wasn't mass starvation from the rampant overpopulation by then.
Best response to liberal nonsense:
A dear friend of mine reminded me that whenever ALGORE gets an environmental award, someone sends us a massive cold front, so she automatically grabs a comforter! I HAD noticed the frigid cold snap since the Nobel Nominations!