* * * * * * * * * * * * *
'Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence 'What It All Means,' Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.
The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the 'why' questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.
I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is, a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.
But despite this, - or because of it, - God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.
Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.
To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life,- and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non believing hearts - an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly, exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered.
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease, smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, - but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance; and comprehension - and yet don't. By His love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.
'You Have Been Called'. Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet, a loved one holds your hand at the side. 'It's cancer,' the healer announces.
The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. 'Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler.' But another voice whispers: 'You have been called.' Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter,- and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our 'normal time.'
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.
We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us part way there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two peoples' worries and fears.
'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was an humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. 'I'm going to try to beat [this cancer],' he told me several months before he died. 'But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side.'
His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity, - filled with life and love we cannot comprehend, - and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it. It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us!
This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.
What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who believe, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place, in the hollow of God's hand.'
T. Snow
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Decisive Pope the world needs
Young Australian journalist John Heard says of the Holy Father: "People everywhere welcome his gifts. As a young Catholic studying in a modern university where relativism and other intellectual trends pushed against Christian truth, beauty and goodness- I often found Benedict to be speaking directly to those who wanted to push back. "
Read the entire story here
HT News.com AU
Read the entire story here
HT News.com AU
Monday, July 14, 2008
New Website: 10,000 Catholics for Obama
This website is campaign approved recruitment tool for young Catholics who aren't educated enough on life issues to know that a Catholic in good standing cannot vote for Obama.
New DTaP vaccine uses aborted baby cells
"On June 26, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended adding the Pentacel vaccine to the immunization schedule for children. Pentacel is a combination vaccine of Diptheria, Petrussis, Tetanus (DTap), HiB and Polio. It is the first DTaP-based combination vaccine that also includes polio and HiB vaccine components.
While similar five-in-one vaccines like Pediarix and Pediacel are also available, controversy has arisen over the use of the Pentacel vaccine, because the polio portion of this vaccine is grown on the MRC-5 cell line - derived from human fetuses. England's J.P Jacobs for the Medical Resource Council created this cell line in 1966. It was derived from the fifth subject of the study: the normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus who was electively aborted by a 27-year-old woman."
Children of God for Life is a website with information about which vaccines are derived from the remains of aborted babies. Catholics have a legal religious exemption from vaccines since abortion is against Catholic teaching.This is the position which I take, and I have never been challenged on it.
That is not to say that it is against Catholic teaching for Catholics to use these vaccines, since the child is already dead, but if you still want your child to receive this vaccine, you can request ethical alternatives.
Read the full story here.
HT ALL
While similar five-in-one vaccines like Pediarix and Pediacel are also available, controversy has arisen over the use of the Pentacel vaccine, because the polio portion of this vaccine is grown on the MRC-5 cell line - derived from human fetuses. England's J.P Jacobs for the Medical Resource Council created this cell line in 1966. It was derived from the fifth subject of the study: the normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus who was electively aborted by a 27-year-old woman."
Children of God for Life is a website with information about which vaccines are derived from the remains of aborted babies. Catholics have a legal religious exemption from vaccines since abortion is against Catholic teaching.This is the position which I take, and I have never been challenged on it.
That is not to say that it is against Catholic teaching for Catholics to use these vaccines, since the child is already dead, but if you still want your child to receive this vaccine, you can request ethical alternatives.
Read the full story here.
HT ALL
Sunday, July 13, 2008
New DVD to teach priests to say the Latin Mass
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, begun by Pope John Paul to restore the Traditional Latin Mass is offering a free instructional DVD for priests and seminarians who want to learn how to say the Low Mass. In our diocese, one of the seminarians took their training one summer in Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Lincoln, Nebraska, and said a High Mass on June 28 at which my daughter sang in the schola. It was heavenly! (See photo)Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos who introduces the video, comments here;
"The cardinal also emphasized that this Mass was a universal gift.
“All this liturgical richness, all this spiritual richness, and all the prayers so well-preserved during the centuries, all of this is offered by the Rome of today for all. As a gift for all, it is not a gift merely for the so-called traditionalists. No, it is a gift for the whole Catholic Church,” .
HT Catholic Online
NYS Governor Patterson wants input!! Give it to him now!
The phone was answered immediately; the script was exactly as described below. It took all of 8 or 9 seconds. -- You don't have to be a New York State resident, so spread the word WIDELY.
New York Governor David Paterson has opened a phone line to determine how much support there is for his directive to recognize same-sexmarriages from other states and countries. The call is simple. Here's all you have to do:
Call: 1-518-474-8390
This is literally what happens when calling:Person on the Other End of the Phone: 'Executive Chamber, may I helpyou?'
You: 'I want to voice my opposition to Governor Paterson's same-sexmarriage directive.'
POTOEOTP: 'OK, what's your zip code?'You: '11231 (or whatever it is).'
POTOEOTP: 'OK, thanks, goodbye.' ---
New York Governor David Paterson has opened a phone line to determine how much support there is for his directive to recognize same-sexmarriages from other states and countries. The call is simple. Here's all you have to do:
Call: 1-518-474-8390
This is literally what happens when calling:Person on the Other End of the Phone: 'Executive Chamber, may I helpyou?'
You: 'I want to voice my opposition to Governor Paterson's same-sexmarriage directive.'
POTOEOTP: 'OK, what's your zip code?'You: '11231 (or whatever it is).'
POTOEOTP: 'OK, thanks, goodbye.' ---
Was Tony Snow a more sincere Catholic than Tim Russert?
It's not for us to judge the state of an individuals soul, but just look at Russert, who supported pro-abortion Catholic politicians Moynihan and Cuomo, and Snow who worked in a largely pro-life Bush White House (yes, I know Bush promoted the use of embryonic stem cell lines, but held firm against killing more embryos for more cells) President Bush's pro-life accomplishments are unmatched, however, and no one doubts his sincerity on this issue, he never tried the Cuomo lint, "I will not impose my personal religious beliefs on others". You are known by the company you keep. Tony Snow was a quietly Catholic in word and loudly Catholic in action.Here's an anecdote from a Republican insider.
"Tony always spoke of his spirituality in a different way than did Russert, who wore it on his sleeve in almost a patronizing manner, despite his history of liberalism. I just saw Dana Perino, Tony's successor at the White House who used to hang around my office at the State Capitol back in the early '90s when she was a college student & TV intern from southern Colorado & I was chief PR poobah for the House GOP, interviewed live on Fox News; Dana said that Tony always kept a Bible (Holy Family or something similar?) on his desk that he readily & regularly consulted. "
Phil Ross
UPDATE:
From the Family Research Council:
Universally Liked, Universally Missed
In Washington one meets a handful of people who are almost universally liked and respected. So much is at stake in the partisan battles in the capital that having the admiration of political friend and foe alike is rare. Tim Russert achieved that and so did Tony Snow. Tony spoke at the FRC Action Values Voter Summit in 2006 and described with relish his experience at the White House with a mix of professionalism and amazement that was endearing and all-American. He knew, appreciated, and communicated how lucky he was to have been born in the U.S. of A., grown up in the Midwest, and had the chance to work in hallways and places he had dreamed of as a kid. That youthfulness, and the bedrock values that fueled him, never faded, whether at the peak of his success or in the throes of his illness. The proximity of those two things, the peak and the throes coming at once, and the way he handled both with wit and verve only underscored how grounded he was. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family
The Holy Father asks the faithful in invoke the Holy Spirit for World Youth Day
He emphasized the importance of Catholics worldwide joining in prayer for the July 15-20 event, to be held in Sydney, Australia.
"I invite the whole Church to share in this new stage of the great pilgrimage of young people across the world, begun in 1985 by the Servant of God John Paul II," he exhorted. "I am certain that from all the corners of the earth Catholics will be united with me and with all the young people gathered -- as in the Cenacle -- in Sydney, intensely invoking the Holy Spirit so that he will flood hearts with the inner light of love of God and of brothers, and of courageous initiative to introduce Jesus' eternal message in the diversity of languages and cultures."
Read the entire story here.
HT Zenit
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful,
enkindle in them the fire of Your love,
Send forth Your Spirit, so that they can be re-created,
and renew the face of the earth.
Amen
"I invite the whole Church to share in this new stage of the great pilgrimage of young people across the world, begun in 1985 by the Servant of God John Paul II," he exhorted. "I am certain that from all the corners of the earth Catholics will be united with me and with all the young people gathered -- as in the Cenacle -- in Sydney, intensely invoking the Holy Spirit so that he will flood hearts with the inner light of love of God and of brothers, and of courageous initiative to introduce Jesus' eternal message in the diversity of languages and cultures."
Read the entire story here.
HT Zenit
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful,
enkindle in them the fire of Your love,
Send forth Your Spirit, so that they can be re-created,
and renew the face of the earth.
Amen
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Fight AIDS in Uganda with Catholic teachings:NO WAY!
It seems that the forces of the Culture of Death hates a Catholic success story. It reminds me of the Spanish diplomat's line in "The Mission", regarding the conomic success of the missions, "IF you wanted the approval of the state, you should have produced a noble failure".
No, the Catholic Church has made Uganda the lowest HIV infected nation in African, without condoms and condoning fornication, so the pro-death camp had to undermine their efforts, lest their unsuccessful condom distribution look foolish by comparison.
"We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."
Sam L. Ruteikara wrote in the Washington Post that efforts to maintain the world's most successful AIDS prevention programme was "sabotaged" by precisely those Western "experts" who insisted that only condoms would work.
Ruteikara is the co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee. He wrote in a column in the Washington Post on June 30, "AIDS epidemics in Africa are driven by people having sex regularly with more than one person." The Western experts, dedicated to the exclusive promotion of condoms, were incensed when Ugandan AIDS rates plummeted with this "ABC" method that left condoms as a "last resort".
Ruteikara nailed it, the Westerners were more interested in promoting promiscuity than preventing deaths.
We have the same problem here in the public schools, with Planned Parenthood's 'safe sex' programs are nothing but marketing campaigns to keep their abortion mills making big money.
Read the entire story here.
HT Life Site News
No, the Catholic Church has made Uganda the lowest HIV infected nation in African, without condoms and condoning fornication, so the pro-death camp had to undermine their efforts, lest their unsuccessful condom distribution look foolish by comparison.
"We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."
Sam L. Ruteikara wrote in the Washington Post that efforts to maintain the world's most successful AIDS prevention programme was "sabotaged" by precisely those Western "experts" who insisted that only condoms would work.
Ruteikara is the co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee. He wrote in a column in the Washington Post on June 30, "AIDS epidemics in Africa are driven by people having sex regularly with more than one person." The Western experts, dedicated to the exclusive promotion of condoms, were incensed when Ugandan AIDS rates plummeted with this "ABC" method that left condoms as a "last resort".
Ruteikara nailed it, the Westerners were more interested in promoting promiscuity than preventing deaths.
We have the same problem here in the public schools, with Planned Parenthood's 'safe sex' programs are nothing but marketing campaigns to keep their abortion mills making big money.
Read the entire story here.
HT Life Site News
Tony Snow the Catholic Journalist, dead at 53
He addressed the graduating class of 2007 at Catholic University with these words.
“When it comes to faith, I’ve taken my own journey. You will have to take your own. But here’s what I know. Faith is as natural as the air we breathe. Religion is not an opiate, just the opposite. It is the introduction to the ultimate extreme sport. There is nothing that you can imagine that God cannot trump.
As Paul said “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And once you realize that there is something greater than you out there, and then you have to decide, “Do I acknowledge it and do I act upon it?” You have to at some point surrender yourself. And there is nothing worthwhile in your life that will not at some point require an act of submission.”
Spoken like a true Catholic.
Eternal rest grant him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him,
may his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen
Read the entire story here.
HT Catholic Online
“When it comes to faith, I’ve taken my own journey. You will have to take your own. But here’s what I know. Faith is as natural as the air we breathe. Religion is not an opiate, just the opposite. It is the introduction to the ultimate extreme sport. There is nothing that you can imagine that God cannot trump.
As Paul said “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And once you realize that there is something greater than you out there, and then you have to decide, “Do I acknowledge it and do I act upon it?” You have to at some point surrender yourself. And there is nothing worthwhile in your life that will not at some point require an act of submission.”
Spoken like a true Catholic.
Eternal rest grant him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him,
may his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen
Read the entire story here.
HT Catholic Online
Farewell letter from Archbisop Burke
We will miss his leadership here, but he's going to a higher position where he can be an even greater influence in the Church."As archbishop, building upon the strength of Catholic life in the Archdiocese, I tried to lead you in the new evangelization which is so needed in the totally secularized society in which we live. Your response has been dedicated and generous. In thanking you for your response to my pastoral leadership in carrying out the new evangelization, I urge you to continue to teach, to celebrate in prayer and the sacred liturgy, and to live in practice our Catholic faith with new enthusiasm and new energy, with the enthusiasm and energy of the first disciples of our Lord and of the first missionaries to our part of the world."
. . ."Our society, which esteems, above all, political correctness, views negatively anyone who is in the eye of a controversy over questions of faith and morals. Yet, in the Church, we know that we, like our Divine Master, are destined to be a "sign of contradiction" (Luke 2:34). It is not by chance that our most esteemed religious symbol is the crucified Christ.If a totally secularized society is not uncomfortable with the way we teach and pray and live, then we are not putting the truth of our faith into practice. While we must always speak the truth with love (Ephesians 4:15), we must speak the truth.
"A society which prefers the comfort of confusion and error will not be pleased. But what alone matters for us is that we be pleasing in the eyes of God. Thank you for holding fast to the truth of our Catholic faith, for praying and worshiping with the great devotion and fervor, and for witnessing to the truth of the faith in your attitudes, words, and actions."
Steve Mosher: US birthrate up, pro-life sentiment on the increase
Sometimes the grim scenario of cultural decline we see in Western Europe will spread to the US; but not this time, says Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute. The American birthrate is back up to replacement levels and this nation is gradually becoming more pro-life.
Read the entire story here.
My theory on this is that pro-lifers have more children, who are more likely to have children than their pro-death counterparts who value material success or career more than children. This blogger thinks that prolific homechool families are taking over the nation, and paints this picture of what a nation run by such people would look like:
" the likes of Pelosi and Kerry and Kennedy (take your pick) won't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected to public office and, poof! there goes Cafeteria Catholicism in Congress. Hillary will be just a bad dream, and Alan Keyes a public force to be reckoned with.
No more abortion, no more assisted suicide, no euthanasia, no gay "marriage" and no more whiny little brats joining the military who don't possess any real intentions of manning up and being soldiers with moral integrity....And no more public school teachers molesting, raping and beating on children, or teaching sex ed in the name of "protecting our youth from unscrupulous priests."
Down at the Inauguration of President Bush in 2000, I addressed this topic with two elderly NARAL protesters, "you women forgot one important thing in your support of abortion; you are aborting your consistency. Pro-lifers love life, and thus while you are driving yourselves to extinction, our many children will be running this country". The poor women were apoplectic with rage, but had no response.
I have one for them, atheists essentially own the public school system right through university, if Prof. Meyer the Eucharist defiler is any indication. That's where they repeat the pro-death mantra (unless you're a polar bear). They have our children, if we are foolish enough to allow them access.
Then there's the media. The media once belonged exclusively to non-believers, but now, thanks to the internet, we lovers of God's gift of live have found our platform. We must vigorously protect this medium and the growing number of Catholic radio and TV outlets from the jealous hands of those who would silence it, under the guise of "Fairness".
Yes we are winning the culture war, but we must never rest upon our laurels. Mother Cabrini a diminutive Italian with poor health her whole life set up hospitals, orphanages and schools all over North and South America. She was known to say, " there will be time to rest in Heaven".
Let's get back to work to bring about the Culture of Life in America.
HT One News Now
Read the entire story here.
My theory on this is that pro-lifers have more children, who are more likely to have children than their pro-death counterparts who value material success or career more than children. This blogger thinks that prolific homechool families are taking over the nation, and paints this picture of what a nation run by such people would look like:
" the likes of Pelosi and Kerry and Kennedy (take your pick) won't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected to public office and, poof! there goes Cafeteria Catholicism in Congress. Hillary will be just a bad dream, and Alan Keyes a public force to be reckoned with.
No more abortion, no more assisted suicide, no euthanasia, no gay "marriage" and no more whiny little brats joining the military who don't possess any real intentions of manning up and being soldiers with moral integrity....And no more public school teachers molesting, raping and beating on children, or teaching sex ed in the name of "protecting our youth from unscrupulous priests."
Down at the Inauguration of President Bush in 2000, I addressed this topic with two elderly NARAL protesters, "you women forgot one important thing in your support of abortion; you are aborting your consistency. Pro-lifers love life, and thus while you are driving yourselves to extinction, our many children will be running this country". The poor women were apoplectic with rage, but had no response.
I have one for them, atheists essentially own the public school system right through university, if Prof. Meyer the Eucharist defiler is any indication. That's where they repeat the pro-death mantra (unless you're a polar bear). They have our children, if we are foolish enough to allow them access.
Then there's the media. The media once belonged exclusively to non-believers, but now, thanks to the internet, we lovers of God's gift of live have found our platform. We must vigorously protect this medium and the growing number of Catholic radio and TV outlets from the jealous hands of those who would silence it, under the guise of "Fairness".
Yes we are winning the culture war, but we must never rest upon our laurels. Mother Cabrini a diminutive Italian with poor health her whole life set up hospitals, orphanages and schools all over North and South America. She was known to say, " there will be time to rest in Heaven".
Let's get back to work to bring about the Culture of Life in America.
HT One News Now
Prolifers to receive cash prizes as incentives
Unlike pro-abortion advocates with large profits from abortion at stake, pro-life advocacy work is so often a thankless job, now someone is finding a way to say thank you for the babies who have no voice.
Family News in Focus
Organizers hope the program will inspire the next generation of life advocates.
The Gerard Health Foundation is sponsoring a Life Prizes program to honor people who have made significant contributions to the pro-life cause. The annual program will award $600,000.
Pre-selected nominees were chosen based on pro-life achievements in the public advocacy, scientific research and legal arenas.
Philanthropist Raymond Ruddy is dedicating the first award to his parents, who were strong believers in the cause.
"We hope it will encourage pro-lifers who spend most of their life battling the forces for evil," he said. "We hope this will help them and give them some encouragement and also some additional funds for the struggle."
Cathy Ruse, director of Life Prizes, said she is hoping the program will inspire the next generation of pro-life leaders.
"Once they see the great work thatÃs been done by so many heroes to date," she said, "they will only be motivated more to get in this great fight for humanity."
The awards gala will be held at the Students for Life January conference in Washington.
Family News in Focus
Organizers hope the program will inspire the next generation of life advocates.
The Gerard Health Foundation is sponsoring a Life Prizes program to honor people who have made significant contributions to the pro-life cause. The annual program will award $600,000.
Pre-selected nominees were chosen based on pro-life achievements in the public advocacy, scientific research and legal arenas.
Philanthropist Raymond Ruddy is dedicating the first award to his parents, who were strong believers in the cause.
"We hope it will encourage pro-lifers who spend most of their life battling the forces for evil," he said. "We hope this will help them and give them some encouragement and also some additional funds for the struggle."
Cathy Ruse, director of Life Prizes, said she is hoping the program will inspire the next generation of pro-life leaders.
"Once they see the great work thatÃs been done by so many heroes to date," she said, "they will only be motivated more to get in this great fight for humanity."
The awards gala will be held at the Students for Life January conference in Washington.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Univ Minnesota Prof Myers on the verge of hysteria
HYSTERIA MARKS MYERS AND HIS ILK
Yesterday, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a news release calling attention to the plea that Paul Zachary Myers made on his blog: he solicited the Communion Host for the express purpose of desecrating it. Donohue now responds to the reaction he has received from the University of Minnesota Morris professor, as well as others:
"Myers went on Houston radio station KPFT last night saying that Bill Donohue has "declared a fatwa" against him. He should know better; I don't need others to do the fighting for me. I'm quite good at it myself. But he'd better be careful what he says, because if I get any death threats, it won't be hard to connect the dots.
"Myers, who claims expertise in studying zebrafish, has quite a following among the King Kong Theory of Creation gang. Indeed, we've been inundated with hate mail from all over the world, and it all stems from those whose alleged god is reason.
"As a result of the hysteria that Myers' ilk have promoted, at least one public official is taking it seriously. Thomas E. Foley is chairman of Virginia's First Congressional District Republican Committee, a delegate to the Republican National Convention and one of two Republican at large nominees for Virginia's Electoral College. His concern is for the safety of Catholics attending this year's Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Myers' backyard. Accordingly, Foley has asked the top GOP brass to provide additional security while in the Twin Cities so that Catholics can worship without fear of violence. Given the vitriol we have experienced for simply exercising our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, we support Foley's request.
"We already know that Myers lost one round: the university has removed the link to his blog from his faculty page. He should be prepared to lose a few more rounds. By the way, Myers says he is delighted to have finally garnered my attention. Too bad I can't say the same, I never heard of the guy until yesterday."
Contact Professor Paul Z. Myers at myersp@morris.umn.edu
Vive Christus Rex's post on this outrage
Creative Minority Report's post on this issue.
.
Yesterday, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a news release calling attention to the plea that Paul Zachary Myers made on his blog: he solicited the Communion Host for the express purpose of desecrating it. Donohue now responds to the reaction he has received from the University of Minnesota Morris professor, as well as others:
"Myers went on Houston radio station KPFT last night saying that Bill Donohue has "declared a fatwa" against him. He should know better; I don't need others to do the fighting for me. I'm quite good at it myself. But he'd better be careful what he says, because if I get any death threats, it won't be hard to connect the dots.
"Myers, who claims expertise in studying zebrafish, has quite a following among the King Kong Theory of Creation gang. Indeed, we've been inundated with hate mail from all over the world, and it all stems from those whose alleged god is reason.
"As a result of the hysteria that Myers' ilk have promoted, at least one public official is taking it seriously. Thomas E. Foley is chairman of Virginia's First Congressional District Republican Committee, a delegate to the Republican National Convention and one of two Republican at large nominees for Virginia's Electoral College. His concern is for the safety of Catholics attending this year's Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Myers' backyard. Accordingly, Foley has asked the top GOP brass to provide additional security while in the Twin Cities so that Catholics can worship without fear of violence. Given the vitriol we have experienced for simply exercising our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, we support Foley's request.
"We already know that Myers lost one round: the university has removed the link to his blog from his faculty page. He should be prepared to lose a few more rounds. By the way, Myers says he is delighted to have finally garnered my attention. Too bad I can't say the same, I never heard of the guy until yesterday."
Contact Professor Paul Z. Myers at myersp@morris.umn.edu
Vive Christus Rex's post on this outrage
Creative Minority Report's post on this issue.
.
Calling Californians, protest the Pro-Death Obama
San Diego, CA - San Diegans will have the opportunity to voice opposition to Sen. Barack Obama's radical support for unfettered abortion this Sunday when the Democratic presidential candidate makes a lunch-time appearance at the La Raza Convention downtown.
La Raza is the largest Latino civil rights organization.
Obama has been the focus of a widely publicized media campaign by the Christian Defense Coalition that is exposing Obama's extremist support for taxpayer funding of abortions.
Obama's appearance at the La Raza Convention is particular ironic, given the recent arrest in San Diego of Bertha Bugarin, a non-medical abortion clinic owner who is charged with 28 felony counts in two counties for committing illegal abortions without a medical license. Bugarin owned a chain of abortion mills that targeted poor Hispanic neighborhoods for exploitation.
"Abortionists are famous for targeting minority communities and those who are most vulnerable. When Obama throws his support behind the abortion industry, he is also tacitly supporting the exploitation of Latinos and African Americans," said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. "Operation Rescue urges all pro-life supporters in the San Diego area to let their voices be heard in protest of Obama's extremist abortion policies, and his tacit approval of the abortion industry's despicable pattern of racial exploitation."
Protest Details:
Obama appearance at La Raza National Convention Sunday, July 13, 2008
at 11:00 am-1:00 pm111 West Harbor Dr. (downtown San Diego)
San Diego contact: Sylvia Sullivan at 619-460-3017
La Raza is the largest Latino civil rights organization.
Obama has been the focus of a widely publicized media campaign by the Christian Defense Coalition that is exposing Obama's extremist support for taxpayer funding of abortions.
Obama's appearance at the La Raza Convention is particular ironic, given the recent arrest in San Diego of Bertha Bugarin, a non-medical abortion clinic owner who is charged with 28 felony counts in two counties for committing illegal abortions without a medical license. Bugarin owned a chain of abortion mills that targeted poor Hispanic neighborhoods for exploitation.
"Abortionists are famous for targeting minority communities and those who are most vulnerable. When Obama throws his support behind the abortion industry, he is also tacitly supporting the exploitation of Latinos and African Americans," said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. "Operation Rescue urges all pro-life supporters in the San Diego area to let their voices be heard in protest of Obama's extremist abortion policies, and his tacit approval of the abortion industry's despicable pattern of racial exploitation."
Protest Details:
Obama appearance at La Raza National Convention Sunday, July 13, 2008
at 11:00 am-1:00 pm111 West Harbor Dr. (downtown San Diego)
San Diego contact: Sylvia Sullivan at 619-460-3017
Great defense of Home Education
From the Pointless Shrew. We're educated, we're politically conservative, and WE VOTE! Worse of all for liberals, we are making plenty of babies, and converts to our way of life, so soon, you'll find we're running the country.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
DEATH WISH. The impending suicide of a once great nation.
If I could only have one last post, to sum up what I mean to say on this blog, THIS would be it.No one speaks the truth with greater force and clarity than Fr. Corapi.
©2008 REV. JOHN A. CORAPI, SOLT, STD
A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July--alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and
respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying.
Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or global terrorism did not greatly disturb them.
They had become an endangered species, and little had been done to answer their
terrified and silent screams from the womb. They decided that the barbaric treatment that
they and their fellow unwanted unborn human beings have had to endure for perilous
decades was unconscionable and unbearable. They cried out to their Creator for
inspiration and protection, and then unanimously they put forth a declaration. It began as
follows:
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE
CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH
CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY
AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS….”
THAT AMONG THESE IS LIFE; THAT AMONG THESE IS LIFE; THAT AMONG
THESE IS LIFE!
The first and pre-eminent right is the right to life. This truth the Founding Fathers were
sure of, and anyone with any common sense at all is equally sure of it. 232 years after the
Declaration of Independence was signed the amount of common sense that seems to be
operative in many spheres of influence—most notably the courts and the political arena--
can easily be poured into a very small thimble.
The United States of America seems to have a death wish, and we have traveled far down
the road to having that wish realized.
When law divorces itself from common sense and spawns the illegitimate offspring of
distortions of law, resulting in illegal laws—based neither on the natural law nor divine
law--this undermines law itself, generating disdain for the law. Erosion of trust in the
courts, or the system in general, is inevitable.
The genesis of the death wish is rooted in the fall of man that we see in the Book of
Genesis. The substance of the fall is wrapped up in Lucifer’s pride, transferred to Adam
and Eve—“You can be like gods, knowing good and evil.” The unholy, yet inevitable,
consequence of that pride is disobedience—eating the forbidden fruit. The ultimate end is
death, as God said it would be. That’s the way it was in the beginning. That’s the way it
is now. That’s the way it will be until time breathes forth it’s last moment.
The prototypical sin is pride, the pride that seeks to exalt the creature above the Creator:
“I can be like God.” Then, subjectively and arbitrarily, man tries to assert himself,
imagining that he knows what’s good and evil for himself without reference to God and
God’s law. This was the fall of the angels and the fall of man. The attempt by creatures to
usurp what is only the province of God. Only God knows what is good for His creation.
In recent years it took the form of a self-inflicted heart wound when some dissident
Catholics rejected the teaching of the Church, a teaching that clearly held that artificial
contraception is intrinsically evil. Then, as Pope Paul VI had warned, it metastasized into
abortion. From abortion it degenerated even further into partial-birth abortion. It was then
a short and easy step to infanticide.
The exclamation point at the end of the death wish is that now there is yet anothercandidate for the office of president of the United States who has in an extraordinary waydone everything possible to breathe life into all of the barbaric elements of the deathwish. He and his party make no apologies for their support of abortion, partial-birthabortion, and even infanticide. It’s hard to believe that we have degenerated to the pointthat we’ll murder a helpless baby should it escape the violence of an abortion and be born alive. Can a Catholic vote for such persons? We are told, “yes” for a “proportionate reason.” What, I might ask, is the proportionate reason so weighty as to excuse
supporting those responsible for what is tantamount to genocide?
The judges and politicians that support such barbaric practices are truly guilty of
genocide: genocide—the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial,
religious, national, or social group. “What is the group so targeted?” you might ask. The
group is unwanted, unborn children--tens of millions of them.
The Supreme Court justices that gave us Roe v. Wade will have to plead temporary
insanity in the court of history. There will be no defense in the highest Court that is the
judgment seat of almighty God if they do not repent of the incalculable evil they have
wrought.
Yet, despite the life and death importance of this travesty of authentic law, there will be
no serious discussion among political candidates, or anyone else. It is as if society has
been bewitched, blind to the splendor of truth, deaf to the cries of the most innocent, most
vulnerable, and most utterly helpless.
From artificial contraception to abortion to partial-birth abortion, then on to infanticidewe march toward the abyss of oblivion, a society marked for death. Is it any wonder we can rationalize the killing of the elderly or the sick through euthanasia? The tragic murderof Terri Schiavo is a logical extension of a morally numb society’s mad march toward itsown suicidal death. She wasn’t sick. She wasn’t dying. They murdered her, starved her to death--one of the cruelest forms of death. She was innocent, yet subjected to a most cruel and unusual punishment. Why? Because she was helpless? Because she was too much trouble, too hard to look at?
As Abraham Lincoln asserted, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author
and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
We are dying by suicide, moral and spiritual suicide, and the moral demise of a nation almost always precedes the ultimate demise of a nation.
Many of our leaders, political and legal, are reminiscent of the horrid witches in Act 1
Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” chanting shrilly to a morally sick public all too
eager to be confirmed in their sins,
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Good is evil, and evil is good. The truth is a lie and lies are the truth, hover through the
fog of moral relativism and the filthy air of a world gone mad with the madness of sin.
The words of the prophet thunder through the ages, “ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).
We have inverted the poles of the moral power grid. We have begun to call the negative
pole the positive, and the positive the negative. This inversion of reality begets disaster:
The power fails, the lights go out, darkness falls—and indeed, if your light is darkness,
how deep, how very deep will the darkness be! (cf. Mt 6:23).
This death wish has marched toward its logical and inexorable conclusion
with little opposition from leaders--political, legal, or religious. The world knows the
Catholic Church and any self-respecting and faithful Christian roundly reject abortion and all of the other nails in the coffin of contemporary society, but the defense of life has been weak. Weak leadership, whether in society in general, or in the Church in particular,is punishment for sin. The Old Covenant has examples enough of the Chosen People being turned over to exile and their enemies because of infidelity. They lamented, “Wehave no priest, prophet, or king.” These were taken away because of infidelity.
In recent times large numbers of Catholics and other Christians rejected Pope Paul VI’s landmark and prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae, on Human Life. A majority of the bishops of
Canada did so publicly, formally, and in writing with their infamous Winnipeg Statement.
The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen lamented bitterly in the 1970s that the prophetic spirit of Christ had all but been extinguished in the c
ontemporary Church. Today there are many CEOs, all too few Apostles. Are we afraid of a fight? Do we fear rejection, misunderstanding, or derision? Are we cowed and intimidated by fallacious notions of the separation of Church and state? Could we be afraid of persecution? Could we be afraid of losing our tax-exempt status? Have we declared détente with evil?The clock is ticking. Midnight is approaching. Time is running out for our nation, anation that once was great, and could be great again if enough of us wake up and
renounce this curse of a death wish. Will God turn his friends over to His enemies as Hehas done multiple times in the past? Will radical Islam overrun us? Will the planet cook?Will one too many natural disasters grind us into dust? Will we collapse economically?
All of the above? Perhaps these are all merely effects of the underlying cause—a death
wish that chokes the life out of us.
In the end it is likely that President Abraham Lincoln had it right: “Intoxicated with
unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” Thus forgetting that we are one nation under God, we become a nation gone under (President Ronald Reagan).
And, indeed, “If destruction be our lot we ourselves will be its author and finisher. As a
nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
May God grant us the grace to awake from this deadly moral slumber, renounce the death wish, and live like truly free men and women—in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Rev John Corapi, SOLT-2008
www.fathercorapi.com
Abortion - Funeral for aborted babies
Fr Pavone gives a few aborted babies names and the dignity of a Christian Burial.
50 million American children have died this way with no funeral, no grave, they live in the mercy of God, and in the painful memories of their wounded mothers, as their bodies rot in landfills and sewers.
May God have mercy on those who participate in abortion, and those of us who do nothing to stop this great evil.
It's time to stop Big Abortion Business Planned Parenthood
American Life League is leading the effort to defund Planned Parenthood, and our federal representatives are fighting to make this happen!
Last evening, New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith joined 10 other pro-life congressmen to spend an hour on the floor of the US House of Representatives, discussing the business of Big Abortion and the need to completely cut Planned Parenthood from YOUR money!
What they had to say is powerful!
"It's time for us to take a serious, and for some, a second look at Planned Parenthood, its origins, and the fact that since 1973, the year the US Supreme Court issued its famous Roe. v. Wade decision, and legalized abortion, that approximately 4.5 million babies, disproportionately African-American and hispanic, have died in Planned Parenthood clinics."
"Planned Parenthood ought to be called 'Child Abuse Incorporated' for the 4.5 million children it has already killed"
"For Planned Parenthood, business is good. Violence against children pays handsomely." -- Rep. Chris Smith, New Jersey
"The abortion industry is a billion dollar business." -- Rep. Joseph Pitts, Pennsylvania
"This organization has now become a big box retailer; big abortion in other words. It is a big retailer and it brought in a billion dollars in revenues.""They are the Wal-Mart of Big Abortion." -- Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota
"An accounting gimic masks the way for Planned Parenthood to use federal dollars to fund its (Planned Parenthood) abortion services."
"Lest there be any confusion, abortion is an industry." -- Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho
"Planned Parenthood is using your tax dollars to raise more money to run against your candidate to elect someone who will give them more tax dollars." -- Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio.
You can view each representative's segment on this important topic ... DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD .. by going to http://www.youtube.com/user/rockforlifeusa. Please help us and help those courageous congressmen put an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood by posting these video clips on your blogs and spread the word!
Last evening, New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith joined 10 other pro-life congressmen to spend an hour on the floor of the US House of Representatives, discussing the business of Big Abortion and the need to completely cut Planned Parenthood from YOUR money!
What they had to say is powerful!
"It's time for us to take a serious, and for some, a second look at Planned Parenthood, its origins, and the fact that since 1973, the year the US Supreme Court issued its famous Roe. v. Wade decision, and legalized abortion, that approximately 4.5 million babies, disproportionately African-American and hispanic, have died in Planned Parenthood clinics."
"Planned Parenthood ought to be called 'Child Abuse Incorporated' for the 4.5 million children it has already killed"
"For Planned Parenthood, business is good. Violence against children pays handsomely." -- Rep. Chris Smith, New Jersey
"The abortion industry is a billion dollar business." -- Rep. Joseph Pitts, Pennsylvania
"This organization has now become a big box retailer; big abortion in other words. It is a big retailer and it brought in a billion dollars in revenues.""They are the Wal-Mart of Big Abortion." -- Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota
"An accounting gimic masks the way for Planned Parenthood to use federal dollars to fund its (Planned Parenthood) abortion services."
"Lest there be any confusion, abortion is an industry." -- Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho
"Planned Parenthood is using your tax dollars to raise more money to run against your candidate to elect someone who will give them more tax dollars." -- Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio.
You can view each representative's segment on this important topic ... DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD .. by going to http://www.youtube.com/user/rockforlifeusa. Please help us and help those courageous congressmen put an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood by posting these video clips on your blogs and spread the word!
C-Fam has a new website
Dear Colleague,
Today I am proud to announce that we finally have a website that we can be, well, proud of! Please go here Check out Inside the UN, the Center for UN Documents, the International Organizations Research Group. Check out our new mission statement, the result of a year-long strategic planning process. Today we are reporting on another story you will not have read anywhere else. The US Government has rejected advances by the Danish Government to join a global campaign to put abortion into the Millennium Development Goals. The Danes, along with the UN Population Fund and others is running something called the Torch Campaign that explicitly calls for governments to support "sexual and reproductive health," a phrase that is used repeatedly to promote access to abortion. We are also beginning a three part series by Susan Yoshihara and a very important new book about the history of population control by a Yale-educated scholar at Columbia University. I will write more about this in the coming weeks, but please take a look at Susan's review and then order the book.
Yours sincerely,
Austin RusePresident
Today I am proud to announce that we finally have a website that we can be, well, proud of! Please go here Check out Inside the UN, the Center for UN Documents, the International Organizations Research Group. Check out our new mission statement, the result of a year-long strategic planning process. Today we are reporting on another story you will not have read anywhere else. The US Government has rejected advances by the Danish Government to join a global campaign to put abortion into the Millennium Development Goals. The Danes, along with the UN Population Fund and others is running something called the Torch Campaign that explicitly calls for governments to support "sexual and reproductive health," a phrase that is used repeatedly to promote access to abortion. We are also beginning a three part series by Susan Yoshihara and a very important new book about the history of population control by a Yale-educated scholar at Columbia University. I will write more about this in the coming weeks, but please take a look at Susan's review and then order the book.
Yours sincerely,
Austin RusePresident
Student steals Body of Christ from UCF Mass
from the Catholic League
To protest student fees for religious services at the University of Central Florida (UCF), a student walked out of a campus Mass on June 29 with the Eucharist. Webster Cook, a student senator, finally returned the Host this past weekend.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered the following remarks today:
"For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage'regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance'is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion."
It's time for Catholics to stand up for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!
Contact UCF president John C. Hitt at jhitt@mail.ucf.edu
I did, and here is his less than satisfactory response.
Ms. Velasquez:
The Eucharist has been returned, and the matter is in the hands of the student judicial system.
John C. Hitt
President, UCF
UPDATE:
Webster apparently went crying to daddy, who is now prowling the blogs and attacking those of us who post on this outrage. Go over and read his comment on Vive Christus Rex. Dr Webster is an educated man, he should teach his son respect for the religious practices of 0thers instead of trying to bully those who call his son on the carpet for his outrageous actions.
If he had done this as a child, none of this would have happened. Psychologist Dr. Ray Guardendi says, "if you don't' teach your child discipline, somebody will. It may be a teacher, an employer or a judge, but someday, somebody will".
In this case, we are all helping to parent Dr. Webster's son, teaching him to respect others'religious practices, and, hopefully, Almighty God.
UPDATE #2
Surprised he was raised a Catholic? Unfortunately, given the sad state of catechesis, I am not.
Cook wants a meeting with his bishop to discuss using force to pry the Holy Eucharist from his hands! And an apology! Dr. Webster did a worse job raising him than I originally thought!
To protest student fees for religious services at the University of Central Florida (UCF), a student walked out of a campus Mass on June 29 with the Eucharist. Webster Cook, a student senator, finally returned the Host this past weekend.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered the following remarks today:
"For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage'regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance'is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion."
It's time for Catholics to stand up for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!
Contact UCF president John C. Hitt at jhitt@mail.ucf.edu
I did, and here is his less than satisfactory response.
Ms. Velasquez:
The Eucharist has been returned, and the matter is in the hands of the student judicial system.
John C. Hitt
President, UCF
UPDATE:
Webster apparently went crying to daddy, who is now prowling the blogs and attacking those of us who post on this outrage. Go over and read his comment on Vive Christus Rex. Dr Webster is an educated man, he should teach his son respect for the religious practices of 0thers instead of trying to bully those who call his son on the carpet for his outrageous actions.
If he had done this as a child, none of this would have happened. Psychologist Dr. Ray Guardendi says, "if you don't' teach your child discipline, somebody will. It may be a teacher, an employer or a judge, but someday, somebody will".
In this case, we are all helping to parent Dr. Webster's son, teaching him to respect others'religious practices, and, hopefully, Almighty God.
UPDATE #2
Surprised he was raised a Catholic? Unfortunately, given the sad state of catechesis, I am not.
Cook wants a meeting with his bishop to discuss using force to pry the Holy Eucharist from his hands! And an apology! Dr. Webster did a worse job raising him than I originally thought!
Univ Minnesota Prof Myers promises to desecrate the Eucharist
from the Catholic League
Paul Zachary Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has pledged to desecrate the Eucharist. He is responding to what happened recently at the University of Central Florida when a student walked out of Mass with the Host, holding it hostage for several days. Myers was angry at the Catholic League for criticizing the student. His post can be accessed from his faculty page on the university's website.
Here is an excerpt of his July 8 post, "It's a Frackin' Cracker!":
"Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?" Myers continued by saying, "if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage (no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching Bill Donohue kick the pope in the balls, which would apparently be a more humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:
"The Myers blog can be accessed from the university's website. The university has a policy statement on this issue which says that the "Contents of all electronic pages must be consistent with University of Minnesota policies, local, state and federal laws." One of the school's policies, "Code of Conduct," says that "When dealing with others," faculty et al. must be "respectful, fair and civil." Accordingly, we are contacting the President and the Board of Regents to see what they are going to do about this matter. Because the university is a state institution, we are also contacting the Minnesota le
gislature.
"It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively."
Here is the Professor's offensive blog post and photo, with a thousand equally offensive comments following it. He had so many atheists who wanted to mock the Church, he had to open a new thread here.
If you can't handle heart-stopping blasphemy, don't read this, I feel sick with disgust and worry for the eternal destiny of those who commented and for Professor Meyer.
Acts of reparation and much prayer are sorely needed, Catholics to overcome the depths of evil in that post.
If you want to protest this outrage, you may contact
Professor Meyer at his email address meye0974@umn.edu
Protest this bigotry which besmirches the reputation of the University of Minnesota.
Contact President Robert Bruininks at bruin001@umn.edu
Paul Zachary Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has pledged to desecrate the Eucharist. He is responding to what happened recently at the University of Central Florida when a student walked out of Mass with the Host, holding it hostage for several days. Myers was angry at the Catholic League for criticizing the student. His post can be accessed from his faculty page on the university's website.
Here is an excerpt of his July 8 post, "It's a Frackin' Cracker!":
"Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?" Myers continued by saying, "if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage (no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching Bill Donohue kick the pope in the balls, which would apparently be a more humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:
"The Myers blog can be accessed from the university's website. The university has a policy statement on this issue which says that the "Contents of all electronic pages must be consistent with University of Minnesota policies, local, state and federal laws." One of the school's policies, "Code of Conduct," says that "When dealing with others," faculty et al. must be "respectful, fair and civil." Accordingly, we are contacting the President and the Board of Regents to see what they are going to do about this matter. Because the university is a state institution, we are also contacting the Minnesota le
gislature."It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively."
Here is the Professor's offensive blog post and photo, with a thousand equally offensive comments following it. He had so many atheists who wanted to mock the Church, he had to open a new thread here.
If you can't handle heart-stopping blasphemy, don't read this, I feel sick with disgust and worry for the eternal destiny of those who commented and for Professor Meyer.
Acts of reparation and much prayer are sorely needed, Catholics to overcome the depths of evil in that post.
If you want to protest this outrage, you may contact
Professor Meyer at his email address meye0974@umn.edu
Protest this bigotry which besmirches the reputation of the University of Minnesota.
Contact President Robert Bruininks at bruin001@umn.edu
Refutation of WSJ article on Same Sex Marriage
Robert Reilly has an excellent article at MercatorNet on why the homosexual movement cares what Catholics think about their actions. Why it is all important to gain our acceptance for their actions. Far from being a private matter, same sex marriage affects the entire society, as marriage is a contract with society. But a contract which involves gravely immoral acts must continue to be rejected by Catholics.
"Habitual moral failure, however, can be lived with only by obliterating conscience through a more permanent rationalization. As I wrote in National Review several years ago, “If you are going to center your public life on the private act of sodomy, you had better transform sodomy into a highly moral act. If sodomy is a moral disorder, it cannot be legitimately advanced on the legal or civil level.” On the other hand, if it is a highly moral act, it should -- in fact, must -- serve as the basis for marriage, family, and community. This requires the assent of the community to the normative nature of the act of sodomy. In other words, we all must say that the bad is good.
This is why advocates of the homosexual cause like Mr. Rauch insist that everyone participates in the rationalization -- in this case, by making homosexual marriage legal. If the community gives the assent he seeks, then the rationalization is safe; the unreality has been securely established legally as the new reality. (Speak against the new reality and you may be committing a hate crime.) However, the community is not safe -- despite Rauch’s claims that homosexual marriage “is good for America.” Why not?"
That is why hate crimes legislation and it's resultant restrictions on free speech are so important to homosexual movement; those of us who dissent must be silenced. I believe that many homosexuals know, deep in their heart of hearts that their desires are disordered, but, like the Emperor's New Clothes, if we all join the chorus, saying that SSA is acceptable, we will drown out that still, small voice within.
"Habitual moral failure, however, can be lived with only by obliterating conscience through a more permanent rationalization. As I wrote in National Review several years ago, “If you are going to center your public life on the private act of sodomy, you had better transform sodomy into a highly moral act. If sodomy is a moral disorder, it cannot be legitimately advanced on the legal or civil level.” On the other hand, if it is a highly moral act, it should -- in fact, must -- serve as the basis for marriage, family, and community. This requires the assent of the community to the normative nature of the act of sodomy. In other words, we all must say that the bad is good.
This is why advocates of the homosexual cause like Mr. Rauch insist that everyone participates in the rationalization -- in this case, by making homosexual marriage legal. If the community gives the assent he seeks, then the rationalization is safe; the unreality has been securely established legally as the new reality. (Speak against the new reality and you may be committing a hate crime.) However, the community is not safe -- despite Rauch’s claims that homosexual marriage “is good for America.” Why not?"
That is why hate crimes legislation and it's resultant restrictions on free speech are so important to homosexual movement; those of us who dissent must be silenced. I believe that many homosexuals know, deep in their heart of hearts that their desires are disordered, but, like the Emperor's New Clothes, if we all join the chorus, saying that SSA is acceptable, we will drown out that still, small voice within.
US Bishops reject Vatican changes in language of Mass
"Known as the "Proper of Seasons," the prayers are said on Sundays, Holy Days and during liturgical seasons such as Lent, and change from day to day. Examples include the opening prayer, prayers said over the bread and wine, and prayer after Communion.The late Pope John Paul II ordered the new translations to increase fidelity to the original Latin. Some Vatican liturgists say the church moved too quickly -- and sloppily -- in translating the Mass into local languages after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s."
I'm stunned, the American bishops just reject something from the Vatican?
OK, I admit I was being ironic there. . . it's not the first time this has happened or we wouldn't have needed Summorum Pontificum, which just passed it's first anniversary.
That day, I was picking up my girls from Morning Star Camp, and attended a beautiful Latin Mass under the pines. After Mass, Father told us "the Holy Father on this day is making this form of the Mass available to the entire church". See a slideshow of that wonderful camp here.
Isabella is anxiously awaiting her week at camp next month, in their own brand new facility in Washington, NH, called the Monfort Retreat Center. I am anxiously awaiting an invitation to this piece of heaven for a Mother's Retreat!
Read the entire story here.
HT Chicago Tribune
Rabbi Yeduda Levin on the "Disorder of Canada"
Every year at the March for Life, Rabbi Yehuda Levin gives the final speech with brilliant clarity and a touch of humor, then opens the March with a blast of the shofar.Speaking in his capacity as spokesman for over a thousand Rabbis in the United States and Canada, Rabbi Levin stated: "I want to forcefully condemn whoever is responsible for misrepresenting millions of Canadian citizens, misrepresenting their love and respect for God's gift of life by giving an award to such a monster." He added: "This is another giant step down the slippery slope towards wholesale murder of babies, old people and undesirables."
Speaking of Morgentaler's Jewish roots, Rabbi Levin said, "As a Jew this man is a tremendous embarrassment to us and opposes Genesis 9:6 which indicates that feticide is a capital offence from the earliest times of the world's history."
Read complete story here.
HT Life Site News
Speaking of Morgentaler's Jewish roots, Rabbi Levin said, "As a Jew this man is a tremendous embarrassment to us and opposes Genesis 9:6 which indicates that feticide is a capital offence from the earliest times of the world's history."
Read complete story here.
HT Life Site News
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Article on the Holy Father and Youth in the National Catholic Register
My article on the teens at Dunwoodie has been published in the National Catholic Register.
I ran into Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand leaving Mass at Holy Family parish in New Rochelle that day, it was such an honor to be be able to interview her. She is pursuing canonization for her husband Dietrich, but I think she herself should be canonized, she is such a wise and holy woman.
Thank you to Therese who made that incredible day possible, and to the members of the Holy Family Youth Group in New Rochelle who gave Gabbi an ID card in the nick of time!
Thanks to Tina who found the link for me, for those of you with a subscription, this column is coming out in next week's paper.
I ran into Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand leaving Mass at Holy Family parish in New Rochelle that day, it was such an honor to be be able to interview her. She is pursuing canonization for her husband Dietrich, but I think she herself should be canonized, she is such a wise and holy woman.
Thank you to Therese who made that incredible day possible, and to the members of the Holy Family Youth Group in New Rochelle who gave Gabbi an ID card in the nick of time!
Thanks to Tina who found the link for me, for those of you with a subscription, this column is coming out in next week's paper.
"It's against public policy to starve a woman"
The Delaware Legislature is defending a woman who cannot defend herself. She overdosed on heroin, and her father is caring for her against her mother's wishes. Last year, she gave birth to a baby girl, Ember Grace.Lauren's father confirmed, "We struggle at times as we seek to share with the public the details of what is happening with Lauren because of the disagreement we have with Lauren's mother. We cannot understand her reasoning in refusing a path of hope, healing and restoration for Lauren and insisting on causing her death by withholding food and water from her. The issue in Lauren's case is the eternal truth that all people, no matter what their medical condition, bear the image of God and deserve basic care and an opportunity to be restored to health."
HT World Net Daily
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is pleased with this ruling. Read more here.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Book Review: A Haystack Full of Needles
Go over to Cause of Our Joy for a review of my friend Alice Gunther's wonderful new book on socialization for Catholic families.
AFA Calls for McDonald's boycott over radical Homosexual Agenda
McDonald's chooses to support homosexual agendaRefuses request to be neutral in culture war
McDonald's has refused a request to remain neutral in the culture war, choosing to continue support of the homosexual agenda. AFA wrote McDonald's asking the company do two things:
Remove McDonald's name and logo from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) Web site listing McDonald's as a "Corporate Partner and Organization Ally" of NGLCC.
Remove the endorsement of NGLCC by Richard Ellis, Vice President of Communications for McDonald's USA, from the NGLCC Web site.
McDonald's refused both requests. McDonald's donated $20,000 to NGLCC in exchange for membership in the NGLCC and a seat on the group's board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress on a wide range of issues including the promotion of homosexual marriage.
This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's, or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.
Pat Harris, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Vice President, Inclusion & Diversity at McDonald's, responded: "I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our position on diversity." Notice that Ms. Harris said "reaffirm." Translated: McDonald's will not change their policy of supporting the NGLCC and their promotion of homosexual marriage.
Richard Ellis, who is openly homosexual, was given a seat on the NGLCC Board of Directors. He was quoted as saying: "I'm thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and ready to go to work. I share the NGLCC's passion for business growth and development within the LGBT community, and I look forward to playing a role in moving these important initiatives forward."
Addressing McDonald's promotion of social issues, McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said earlier the company will aggressively promote the issues they approve. In remarks on its Web site, Skinner said: "Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world ... and we do."
Take Action!
Sign the online Boycott McDonald's petition and urge your friends and family to do the same.
Print and distribute the Boycott McDonald's petition.
Call your local McDonald's. Speak with the manager. Tell him or her (in a polite manner) that you will be boycotting McDonald's until they stop promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage. To find the phone number of your nearest McDonald's, click here.
UPDATE: In response to the boycott, McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman suggested to the Washington Post that those who oppose SSM are motivated by hate, saying "...hatred has no place in our culture." McDonald's has decided to adopt the "hate" theme used by gay activist groups for years.
Whitman went on to say, "We stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment." Mr. Whitman has intentionally avoided addressing the reason for the boycott. This boycott is not about hiring gays or how gay employees are treated. It is about McDonald's choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting their agenda.
Immoral Vaccines to be made mandatory
CoG for Life Asks Medical Profession & Pro-Life families: "Just say no to new aborted fetal vaccine!"
(Tennessee) Children of God for Life is calling on the Medical Profession to “just say no” to the newly US licensed aborted fetal vaccine, Pentacel, made by Sanofi Pasteur. On June 26th the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine be added to the immunization schedule for children, despite the fact that moral alternatives have been used in the US for years.
“We find it strange that the ACIP would recommend Pentacel in particular when children are already receiving untainted versions of these vaccines in their routine series of shots”, said Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for Children of God for Life.
Pentacel is a combination vaccine of Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus (DTaP) plus HiB and Polio. The polio portion of the vaccine uses aborted fetal cell line MRC-5, taken from the lung tissue of an electively aborted 14-week gestation baby.
“If a 5 in 1 vaccine is desired, why not recommend the ethical version, Pediarix, made by Glaxo SmithKline?” Vinnedge wanted to know. “The only difference between the two is that Pediarix protects against Hepatitis-B instead of HiB. Doctors using Pediarix today give separate shots for HiB. With Pentacel they will still have to give separate shots for Hepatitis-B so its not like Pentacel is reducing the number of injections.”
Vinnedge noted the push for Pentacel by the ACIP seems like a financial plug for Sanofi Pasteur, since sales of the vaccine may be lagging in both the US and Canada. Last year Canadian Physicians for Life successfully lobbied for access to Pediacel, a European version identical to Pentacel, except it does not use aborted fetal cell lines.
In May 2006, the Catholic Medical Association issued a formal statement noting that, “When alternative vaccines are available, they must be used in place of those produced by immoral means.” Likewise, the Christian Medical and Dental Association have repeatedly called on the industry to stop using aborted fetal cell lines in vaccine production.
In June 2005 the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life stated that doctors and families had not only a duty, but a "grave responsibility" to use alternatives and to pressure the industry so that vaccines without moral problems become available. But since there are already ethically acceptable alternatives to Pentacel that are widely used by the medical profession, parents should not have any problem obtaining them. In fact, Vinnedge believes that physicians concerned with preventing the spread of disease have a moral obligation to provide them.
"It is our hope that physicians will simply continue purchasing the competing products they have used for years”, Ms Vinnedge added. “The only way these drug companies will get the message that the public will not tolerate using aborted fetal vaccines is when the pharmaceutical companies' financial bottom line suffers. In the case of Pentacel, we certainly hope it will.”
Catholics may use this vaccine and others like it to claim a religious exemption from vaccinating their children. I do in New York State. Go to the Children of God for Life website for information on claiming this exemption in your home state.
(Tennessee) Children of God for Life is calling on the Medical Profession to “just say no” to the newly US licensed aborted fetal vaccine, Pentacel, made by Sanofi Pasteur. On June 26th the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine be added to the immunization schedule for children, despite the fact that moral alternatives have been used in the US for years.
“We find it strange that the ACIP would recommend Pentacel in particular when children are already receiving untainted versions of these vaccines in their routine series of shots”, said Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for Children of God for Life.
Pentacel is a combination vaccine of Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus (DTaP) plus HiB and Polio. The polio portion of the vaccine uses aborted fetal cell line MRC-5, taken from the lung tissue of an electively aborted 14-week gestation baby.
“If a 5 in 1 vaccine is desired, why not recommend the ethical version, Pediarix, made by Glaxo SmithKline?” Vinnedge wanted to know. “The only difference between the two is that Pediarix protects against Hepatitis-B instead of HiB. Doctors using Pediarix today give separate shots for HiB. With Pentacel they will still have to give separate shots for Hepatitis-B so its not like Pentacel is reducing the number of injections.”
Vinnedge noted the push for Pentacel by the ACIP seems like a financial plug for Sanofi Pasteur, since sales of the vaccine may be lagging in both the US and Canada. Last year Canadian Physicians for Life successfully lobbied for access to Pediacel, a European version identical to Pentacel, except it does not use aborted fetal cell lines.
In May 2006, the Catholic Medical Association issued a formal statement noting that, “When alternative vaccines are available, they must be used in place of those produced by immoral means.” Likewise, the Christian Medical and Dental Association have repeatedly called on the industry to stop using aborted fetal cell lines in vaccine production.
In June 2005 the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life stated that doctors and families had not only a duty, but a "grave responsibility" to use alternatives and to pressure the industry so that vaccines without moral problems become available. But since there are already ethically acceptable alternatives to Pentacel that are widely used by the medical profession, parents should not have any problem obtaining them. In fact, Vinnedge believes that physicians concerned with preventing the spread of disease have a moral obligation to provide them.
"It is our hope that physicians will simply continue purchasing the competing products they have used for years”, Ms Vinnedge added. “The only way these drug companies will get the message that the public will not tolerate using aborted fetal vaccines is when the pharmaceutical companies' financial bottom line suffers. In the case of Pentacel, we certainly hope it will.”
Catholics may use this vaccine and others like it to claim a religious exemption from vaccinating their children. I do in New York State. Go to the Children of God for Life website for information on claiming this exemption in your home state.
It Only Takes a Moment- Michael Crawford
The success of Wall-E gives me hope that people are tired of the hook-up culture in which women are used and discarded and long for the tender romanticism of this lovely song, one of my favorites since childhood.
Enjoy.
The 40th Anniversary of Humae Vitae
Fr Peter Ryan, SJ a professor of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Ma revisits Humanae Vitae on it's anniversary. How much stronger society would be if Catholics had welcomed this prophetic encyclical!
" the significance of Humanae Vitae is not to be found primarily in the status of the document but in the teaching it contains. Paul VI says that the core of that teaching-contraception is intrinsically wrong-reiterates what the Church has taught through the ages and is a truth that must be held. John Paul II goes further and says it is a truth of revelation to be accepted with faith. "
HT The Westchester Institute
" the significance of Humanae Vitae is not to be found primarily in the status of the document but in the teaching it contains. Paul VI says that the core of that teaching-contraception is intrinsically wrong-reiterates what the Church has taught through the ages and is a truth that must be held. John Paul II goes further and says it is a truth of revelation to be accepted with faith. "
HT The Westchester Institute
Monday, July 07, 2008
Want Justice in Sebelius' Kansas? Bring Cash
guest post by John Francis Borra On July 2nd, notorious millionaire abortionist George Tiller once again evaded justice when a grand jury, hobbled by months of state-sponsored stall tactics, was dismissed without indicting him. But who, really, is surprised? After all, Tiller, Planned Parenthood and other players in the country's abortion industry own the justice system here in Kansas.
Time after time, through the appointment and manipulation of attorneys general, district attorneys, judges and law enforcement, Governor Kathleen Sebelius has helped abortionists evade Kansas law. At every level; city, county and state, the regulation, investigation and prosecution of abortion operators have been stymied during her tenure, permitting illegal abortions, sexual assaults and other crimes to continue unchecked.
In April, Sebelius vetoed the Kansas Legislature's broadly supported Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act intended to protect mothers from being pressured into aborting their children. The intention of the bill was not to restrict abortion, but simply to ensure that existing laws were complied with; however, even this was too much for Sebelius, arguably the most aggressively anti-life governor in US history.
In May, it was discovered that she'd spent public funds on a lavish private party to thank Tiller and his genocidal staff for their support. Indifferent to the plight of vulnerable young women, Sebelius has funneled Tiller's huge campaign contributions to likeminded politicians. Her near-sociopathic commitment to killing has earned her rock star status among the leftwing of the Democratic Party, catapulting her to the top of its list of VP hopefuls.
Her persistent reception of the Eucharist, in direct defiance of Archbishop Joseph Naumann, is a testament to cynicism and sacrilege. Having facilitated the deaths of untold thousands, her actions cannot be reconciled to the Gospel. Yet she blithely desecrates of the very Body and Blood of Christ in a pretense of piety aimed at uninformed and gullible voters. And while this has little or no meaning to those outside the holy Catholic faith, all should understand its meaning: God is, at most, a stage prop to Kathleen Sebelius. This, more than anything, explains her easy fit as Barack Obama's running mate. While Sebelius feigns adherence to the ancient Christian faith, Obama has created God in his own image, a Trinity of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic experimentation compatible with his dark, utilitarian philosophy.
*****
Her persistent reception of the Eucharist, in direct defiance of Archbishop Joseph Naumann, is a testament to cynicism and sacrilege. Having facilitated the deaths of untold thousands, her actions cannot be reconciled to the Gospel. Yet she blithely desecrates of the very Body and Blood of Christ in a pretense of piety aimed at uninformed and gullible voters. And while this has little or no meaning to those outside the holy Catholic faith, all should understand its meaning: God is, at most, a stage prop to Kathleen Sebelius. This, more than anything, explains her easy fit as Barack Obama's running mate. While Sebelius feigns adherence to the ancient Christian faith, Obama has created God in his own image, a Trinity of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic experimentation compatible with his dark, utilitarian philosophy.
*****
"used with permission."
Obama responds to Infanticide Charges
from the Catholic League
Reports have surfaced today by Deal Hudson and Jill Stanek that Sen. Barack Obama is dodging the issue of his support for selective infanticide. They refer to an interview that Obama granted last week to Cameron Strang of Relevant magazine.
In that exchange, Obama admitted that when he was in the Illinois senate he voted against a bill that would require health care for a baby who survived an abortion. "The reason was that there was already a law in place in Illinois that said that you always have to supply life-saving treatment to any infant under any circumstances, and this bill actually was designed to overturn Roe v. Wade, so I didn't think it was going to pass constitutional muster."
PULLEEEZE!
Translation; "I feared reprocussions from my biggest financial backers, NARAL and Planned Parenthood. They keep me in lockstep with their positions. So does George Soros."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue weighed in on this issue today:
"Is there a single bill forbidding racial discrimination that Obama would refuse to endorse on the grounds that we already have enough such laws in place? This begs the question: If protecting innocent human life is of paramount importance, then by what reasoning can it logically or morally be said that we already have enough legislation? When in doubt, wouldn't it make sense to vote in favor of stronger laws?
"Obama's position that the bill he voted against would overturn Roe is not a grey area. It explicitly said just the opposite.
"Finally, if the best Obama can do when faced with accusations of supporting selective infanticide"and that is exactly what the Catholic League is charging"is to say that this is not a 'fair characterization,' then something really smells. Given the seriousness of the accusation, if it were totally bogus, any other candidate for the presidency would immediately hold a press conference and demand an apology and a retraction. That Obama did not do so speaks volumes."
Reports have surfaced today by Deal Hudson and Jill Stanek that Sen. Barack Obama is dodging the issue of his support for selective infanticide. They refer to an interview that Obama granted last week to Cameron Strang of Relevant magazine.
In that exchange, Obama admitted that when he was in the Illinois senate he voted against a bill that would require health care for a baby who survived an abortion. "The reason was that there was already a law in place in Illinois that said that you always have to supply life-saving treatment to any infant under any circumstances, and this bill actually was designed to overturn Roe v. Wade, so I didn't think it was going to pass constitutional muster."
PULLEEEZE!
Translation; "I feared reprocussions from my biggest financial backers, NARAL and Planned Parenthood. They keep me in lockstep with their positions. So does George Soros."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue weighed in on this issue today:
"Is there a single bill forbidding racial discrimination that Obama would refuse to endorse on the grounds that we already have enough such laws in place? This begs the question: If protecting innocent human life is of paramount importance, then by what reasoning can it logically or morally be said that we already have enough legislation? When in doubt, wouldn't it make sense to vote in favor of stronger laws?
"Obama's position that the bill he voted against would overturn Roe is not a grey area. It explicitly said just the opposite.
"Finally, if the best Obama can do when faced with accusations of supporting selective infanticide"and that is exactly what the Catholic League is charging"is to say that this is not a 'fair characterization,' then something really smells. Given the seriousness of the accusation, if it were totally bogus, any other candidate for the presidency would immediately hold a press conference and demand an apology and a retraction. That Obama did not do so speaks volumes."
Bad for business
I love when, after you have a baby, the OB asks "what type of birth control are you using?" I used to answer, "isn't that bad for business?" I mean, if you are in the baby birthing business, and give out birth control, you cut into your profits, no?
Similarly, if you are in the business of teaching children, like the National Education Association, why on earth would you support abortion? We teachers look out on a classroom where one third of our would be students have been lost to abortion. Now our political PAC supports the most pro-abortion candidate in US history, so more children will never make it to the classroom.
Go figure.
Similarly, if you are in the business of teaching children, like the National Education Association, why on earth would you support abortion? We teachers look out on a classroom where one third of our would be students have been lost to abortion. Now our political PAC supports the most pro-abortion candidate in US history, so more children will never make it to the classroom.
Go figure.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Fr Damien, and parents of St. Therese will soon be saints
There has been a miracle accepted towards the cause for canonization of Louis and Marie Celine "Zelie" Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux.
Also the cause of Fr. Damien of Molokai has advanced, I have always admired the lives of these saintly people, and am hopeful they will be raised to the altar.
HT CNA
Also the cause of Fr. Damien of Molokai has advanced, I have always admired the lives of these saintly people, and am hopeful they will be raised to the altar.
HT CNA
Why the UN can't wait for George Bush to leave office
Front Royal, VA, 07/02/08--The Bush administration has once again withheld nearly $40 million from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), marking the seventh consecutive year that the U.S. government has refused the organization. The Population Research Institute applauds this decision, which honors the Kemp-Kasten amendment of 1985 forbidding tax dollars from going to programs of forced abortion.
The groundwork for this decision was laid by the Population Research Institute, headed by Steven W. Mosher, which has sent teams of investigators to China over the years. These investigations have found that the UNFPA was deeply involved in programs of forced abortion and coercive sterilization in that country. The evidence presented to the U.S. Congress and the White House, left no doubt that the UNFPA was operating in China in violations of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment.
Reacting to PRI's findings, President Bush in 2001 decided to redirect $34 million away from the UNFPA's coercive family-planning programs into child survival programs, anti-trafficking programs, and other programs. The UNFPA's subsequent efforts to cover-up its involvement in China, have been to no avail. No U.S. population funds have gone to the UNFPA for the past seven years, costing the organization a total of $235 million.
"The evidence demonstrates that the UNFPA continues to aid and abet China's barbaric one-child policy," says PRI's President Steven Mosher. "It doesn't deserve one penny of U.S. money."
Mosher is the author of the newly published Population Control--Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, which documents the undeclared war that the Chinese government has carried out on its own population. His book is available at PRI's web site: www.pop.org, and at bookstores everywhere.
The groundwork for this decision was laid by the Population Research Institute, headed by Steven W. Mosher, which has sent teams of investigators to China over the years. These investigations have found that the UNFPA was deeply involved in programs of forced abortion and coercive sterilization in that country. The evidence presented to the U.S. Congress and the White House, left no doubt that the UNFPA was operating in China in violations of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment.
Reacting to PRI's findings, President Bush in 2001 decided to redirect $34 million away from the UNFPA's coercive family-planning programs into child survival programs, anti-trafficking programs, and other programs. The UNFPA's subsequent efforts to cover-up its involvement in China, have been to no avail. No U.S. population funds have gone to the UNFPA for the past seven years, costing the organization a total of $235 million.
"The evidence demonstrates that the UNFPA continues to aid and abet China's barbaric one-child policy," says PRI's President Steven Mosher. "It doesn't deserve one penny of U.S. money."
Mosher is the author of the newly published Population Control--Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, which documents the undeclared war that the Chinese government has carried out on its own population. His book is available at PRI's web site: www.pop.org, and at bookstores everywhere.
Archbishop Burke: a national treasure
Due to a sudden proliferation of paid writing jobs(whoo-hoo!), I have had to conserve my energy by slowing down my blogging here.
That doesn't mean I'm unaware of such recent developments as the good Archbishop's appointment to Rome's highest court. I hope that makes one of our greatest American bishops papabile.
Before leaving for Rome, however Archbishop Burke gave the Diocese of St. Louis a parting gift: The Institute for Sacred Music. We will miss him and recognize all that he has given this country's Catholics and look forward to what he will offer the enire Church.
HT Zenit
That doesn't mean I'm unaware of such recent developments as the good Archbishop's appointment to Rome's highest court. I hope that makes one of our greatest American bishops papabile.
Before leaving for Rome, however Archbishop Burke gave the Diocese of St. Louis a parting gift: The Institute for Sacred Music. We will miss him and recognize all that he has given this country's Catholics and look forward to what he will offer the enire Church.
HT Zenit
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Liberal College Professors are Retiring
Perhaps there will be a spot for a conservative professor who is starting her second career. . . .
Read more here.
HT Spirit Daily
Read more here.
HT Spirit Daily
maria vallejo-nagera conversion at medjugorje
I was a pilgrim in Medugorge in 1987 and await the results of the Vatican inquiry, but I was quite impressed with the conversions and vocations which have come from this little town.
Sen McCain visits Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Here's what happened during the visit,
"They walked into the church together and a few minutes later, Monroy and McCain walked up to the altar. McCain laid a wreath of white roses – traditional in the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe – near the base of the painting. He then received a description of the painting for several minutes. Finally, he was blessed by Monsignor Monroy. For several minutes, according to reporters who were closer to the action (your pool was a football field away and had an obstructed view), the Monsignor had one hand on McCain’s forehead and another on his shoulder as he offered the blessing. Cindy McCain stood next to the Senator with her head bowed and her eyes closed. "
I hope Our Lady spoke to his heart during the blessing, asking him to be a valiant defender of the unborn, as he promises here, and helps him to WIN the election, so we don't have the most pro-abortion senator in US Senate as president.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!
Read the entire story here.
HT Catholic Online
"They walked into the church together and a few minutes later, Monroy and McCain walked up to the altar. McCain laid a wreath of white roses – traditional in the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe – near the base of the painting. He then received a description of the painting for several minutes. Finally, he was blessed by Monsignor Monroy. For several minutes, according to reporters who were closer to the action (your pool was a football field away and had an obstructed view), the Monsignor had one hand on McCain’s forehead and another on his shoulder as he offered the blessing. Cindy McCain stood next to the Senator with her head bowed and her eyes closed. "
I hope Our Lady spoke to his heart during the blessing, asking him to be a valiant defender of the unborn, as he promises here, and helps him to WIN the election, so we don't have the most pro-abortion senator in US Senate as president.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!
Read the entire story here.
HT Catholic Online
Why A Pledge on Humanae Vitae?
from Fr. Tom Eutneuer of HLI
To [Christian married couples] the Lord entrusts the task of making visible to men the holiness and sweetness of the law which unites the mutual love of husband and wife with their cooperation with the love of God the author of human life. [Pope Paul VI, Humanae vitae, ¶25].
It may seem odd to take a pledge to do what we are supposed to do anyway—follow the teachings of the Church. By our baptism and confirmation we are already vowed, at least implicitly, to do so. But we are living under special circumstances in a secular society where many Catholics have, knowingly or unknowingly supplanted their faith with another code by which they live, deeming it more “realistic.” But nothing is more realistic or “practical” than eternal salvation and living this life in accord with God’s designs.
So why do we pledge to assent to something as beautiful as God’s natural designs? Something, which in a less darkened world that ought to go without saying?
For two reasons, at least: First, as an act of reparation for forty years of public dissent that led so many people astray by treating this ignorance of our Church as some kind of “enlightenment” or “liberation.” Second as an act of witness and assent to counter the anti-witness of this dissent, which brought so much incalculable damage to our Church and world, and indeed the witness of the Church. We stand up as confessors of the Faith. In the ancient Church, after the great martyrdoms ceased, those who stood for the Faith in a hostile climate were known as confessors of the Faith.
In taking this pledge we stand with the martyrs and confessors of the past in giving public witness not only to the Truth of our Church but her beauty.
Human Life International has an ongoing campaign of collecting this Pledge from clergy members and seminarians. This week we announce and offer a similar pledge to members of the lay faithful.
To sign the Pledge electronically, click here.
To download a pdf copy of the Pledge to sign and distribute to others to sign please go here. [Laity Pledge in PDF]
We recommend pastors include it as a bulletin insert and lay people distribute it among friends and family.
Online Laity Pledge to Humanae Vitae
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,President, Human Life International
I took the pledge, did you?
To [Christian married couples] the Lord entrusts the task of making visible to men the holiness and sweetness of the law which unites the mutual love of husband and wife with their cooperation with the love of God the author of human life. [Pope Paul VI, Humanae vitae, ¶25].
It may seem odd to take a pledge to do what we are supposed to do anyway—follow the teachings of the Church. By our baptism and confirmation we are already vowed, at least implicitly, to do so. But we are living under special circumstances in a secular society where many Catholics have, knowingly or unknowingly supplanted their faith with another code by which they live, deeming it more “realistic.” But nothing is more realistic or “practical” than eternal salvation and living this life in accord with God’s designs.
So why do we pledge to assent to something as beautiful as God’s natural designs? Something, which in a less darkened world that ought to go without saying?
For two reasons, at least: First, as an act of reparation for forty years of public dissent that led so many people astray by treating this ignorance of our Church as some kind of “enlightenment” or “liberation.” Second as an act of witness and assent to counter the anti-witness of this dissent, which brought so much incalculable damage to our Church and world, and indeed the witness of the Church. We stand up as confessors of the Faith. In the ancient Church, after the great martyrdoms ceased, those who stood for the Faith in a hostile climate were known as confessors of the Faith.
In taking this pledge we stand with the martyrs and confessors of the past in giving public witness not only to the Truth of our Church but her beauty.
Human Life International has an ongoing campaign of collecting this Pledge from clergy members and seminarians. This week we announce and offer a similar pledge to members of the lay faithful.
To sign the Pledge electronically, click here.
To download a pdf copy of the Pledge to sign and distribute to others to sign please go here. [Laity Pledge in PDF]
We recommend pastors include it as a bulletin insert and lay people distribute it among friends and family.
Online Laity Pledge to Humanae Vitae
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,President, Human Life International
I took the pledge, did you?
Friday, July 04, 2008
Positive news on SSPX reunion with Rome?
From the blog of Andrea Tornielli (Vatican correspondent for Il Giornale):
I have learned from secure sources that, contrary to what has appeared in certain articles, the response of the Fraternity [of Saint Pius X - FSSPX/SSPX] to the letter of Cardinal Castrillón has not in fact been negative. The Cardinal is satisfied with it, has responded to Fellay, and has promptly delivered the letter of the Fraternity to Benedict XVI. After the deadline of the end of June, the Lefebvrists [sic] ask for time but - it seems - they will aim to respect the five points.
HT Barbara Kralis
I have learned from secure sources that, contrary to what has appeared in certain articles, the response of the Fraternity [of Saint Pius X - FSSPX/SSPX] to the letter of Cardinal Castrillón has not in fact been negative. The Cardinal is satisfied with it, has responded to Fellay, and has promptly delivered the letter of the Fraternity to Benedict XVI. After the deadline of the end of June, the Lefebvrists [sic] ask for time but - it seems - they will aim to respect the five points.
HT Barbara Kralis
Canadian priest returns award in protest of Morgentaler
Father Lucien Larre, a priest in Coquitlam, British Columbia who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1983 for his work with troubled adolescents, said on Wednesday he was “compelled in conscience to return my Order of Canada to Ottawa.”
“. . . I believe in my heart that he is horribly wrong and that the advisory committee made a terrible mistake,” he said.
Recipients of the Order of Canada “should be an inspiration to most Canadians,” he said, but elevating Morgentaler to the Order of Canada “degrades” the award for those who believe in the sanctity of human life.
Father Larre founded several Bosco Centers for disabled, emotionally disturbed and addicted adolescents."'
Well done, Fr. Larre, you are a light in the darkness!
Then it makes sense why he wouldn't want to share the Order of Canada with the 'Father of Abortion'. In the USA it would be like Mother Angleica sharing an award with Bill Baird. We all know what Mother would do in that situation, the committee would have to duck as her medal soared past their heads!
Read the entire story here.
HT CNA
UPDATE: sign the petition for non-Canadians to protest the award for Morgentaler here
“. . . I believe in my heart that he is horribly wrong and that the advisory committee made a terrible mistake,” he said.
Recipients of the Order of Canada “should be an inspiration to most Canadians,” he said, but elevating Morgentaler to the Order of Canada “degrades” the award for those who believe in the sanctity of human life.
Father Larre founded several Bosco Centers for disabled, emotionally disturbed and addicted adolescents."'
Well done, Fr. Larre, you are a light in the darkness!
Then it makes sense why he wouldn't want to share the Order of Canada with the 'Father of Abortion'. In the USA it would be like Mother Angleica sharing an award with Bill Baird. We all know what Mother would do in that situation, the committee would have to duck as her medal soared past their heads!
Read the entire story here.
HT CNA
UPDATE: sign the petition for non-Canadians to protest the award for Morgentaler here
Killer Tiller escapes justice; for now
The abortion mentality has won out; a grand jury failed to indict late term abortionist George Tiller. He may have escaped prosecution for now, but there is a Just Judge whom we all must meet at the end of our lives. Unless George Tiller is brought to repentance before then, that sentence will be eternal.
May Almighty God have mercy on him.
HT ALL news
May Almighty God have mercy on him.
HT ALL news
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
My first article in the National Catholic Register
Is a compiliation of the latest research being done for treatment of Trisomy 21 or Down sydnrome. I also mention the crucial discovery of the cause of Trisomy 21 by my patron saint, Dr. Jerome Lejeune. It's entitled, Down, Not Out.
Small tradtional religious order rejoins Rome
I pray that this is just the first part of a wave of reconciliations. Their superior said,
" Our community now truly rejoices in undisputed and peaceful posession of Communion with the Holy See because our priests are now in canonical good standing.We are very grateful to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for issuing, last July, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum which called us to come into undisputed and peaceful Communion with him."
It's evidence of Pope Benedict's tireless work. I once heard a traditional minded priest say, "If anyone can bring SSPX back, it'll be Pope Benedict, he speaks their language. " Keep praying, there are souls at stake.
HT St. Louis Catholic
" Our community now truly rejoices in undisputed and peaceful posession of Communion with the Holy See because our priests are now in canonical good standing.We are very grateful to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for issuing, last July, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum which called us to come into undisputed and peaceful Communion with him."
It's evidence of Pope Benedict's tireless work. I once heard a traditional minded priest say, "If anyone can bring SSPX back, it'll be Pope Benedict, he speaks their language. " Keep praying, there are souls at stake.
HT St. Louis Catholic
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Bishop calling for rescinding of award to Morgentaler
Archbishop Collins of Toronto is calling for Catholics to protest this outrage. If you are Canadian please support his valiant efforts. He is a true shepherd of his flock. Here is a quote from his statement,"A community's worth is measured by the way it treats the most vulnerable, and no one is more vulnerable than in the first nine months of life's journey. No person may presume to judge the soul of Henry Morgentaler, but it cannot be denied that the effect of his life's work has been a deadly assault upon the most helpless amongst us."
Read the entire story here.
HT Life Site News
Read the entire story here.
HT Life Site News
"Father of abortion" to receive Canada's top award
"The Order of Canada Advisory Council has voted to award the Order of Canada to abortionist and militant atheist Dr. Henry Morgentaler. Some Members of Parliament and others are reportedly moving to attempt to stop the bestowal of the award, calling the decision inappropriate and unpopular."In case you think we are so much better inthe USA, know that the National Education Association had George Tiller the baby killer as their March 2008 featured speaker.
Tomorrow there will be pro-life protests at the NEA Convention in Washington, DC tomorrow. For information, click here.
Read entire story here.
HT CNS
All is not lost for SSPX
You can always count on Fr. Zuhlsdorf for the inside scoop, and he has some valuable information that a reconiciliation with the Society of St. Pius X is not out of the picture yet. Keep the prayers coming.
Better off never being born
This is what a British doctor said about women breast cancer patients. I think of my dear friend Mary who fell victim to breast cancer two years ago and whose beautiful prayerful charity will be forever missed by her family and friends. She gave so much to me in the midst of her sufferings, offering them up for me and for unity in the Church, that my life will never be the same. That doctor has a lot to learn.
Read the story and the lively discussion which follows over at The Dawn Patrol.
Read the story and the lively discussion which follows over at The Dawn Patrol.
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