The Beasts Legalize Crucifixion

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion. Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad.

Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas. While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism.

Link (here)

The painting is Golgotha, The Crucifixion of Christ by Ilya Repin, 1869

Prefect Of Divine Worship, Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Had This To Say

What does it mean to receive communion in the mouth? What does it mean to kneel before the Most Holy Sacrament? What dies it mean to kneel during the consecration at Mass?

It means adoration, it means recognizing the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; it means respect and an attitude of faith of a man who prostrates before God because he knows that everything comes from Him, and we feel speechless, dumbfounded, before the wondrousness, his goodness, and his mercy.

That is why it is not the same to place the hand, and to receive communion in any fashion, than doing it in a respectful way; it is not the same to receive communion kneeling or standing up, because all these signs indicate a profound meaning. What we have to grasp is that profound attitude of the man who prostrates himself before God, and that is what the Pope wants.

Link (here) to Rorate Caeli

Rev. Dwight Longenecker On The Anti-Catholic Catholics

Does this mean that anti-Catholicism is dead? I fear not. While the old-fashioned Protestant variety is dying out, a new and equally virulent form is rising up.... One example is from people who actually call themselves Catholics. The dissenting Catholics in our church have, for the most part, worn a friendly face.

They couch their disobedience in polite terminology. They "respectfully disagree with the Holy Father," or "they are listening carefully to the teaching of the Church, but they are also listening carefully to their own consciences."

This deceitful dissent will soon die out: As the radical Catholics see their own agendas withering for lack of interest, and as they observe the increasing youth and influence of the faithful Catholics, their true colors will be revealed. If they have not done so already, those dissenting Catholics will remove themselves from the Church. Their failure will focus in anger, their frustration will surface as rage, and they will move from being dissenting Catholics to outspoken critics of the Church.
Link (here)

Rev. Dwight Longenecker writes from Greenville, South Carolina where he is Chaplain to St Joseph's Catholic School. Read his website and daily blog at www.dwightlongenecker.com..

Only 50 Years Ago

A Quebec priest in the 1950s taking Holy Communion to the sick,
escorted by an alter boy with a bell.
Notice the little girl kneeling as the Procession passes.

From
Fr. Ray Blake
(here)

Muslims Converting To The Catholic Faith

Lost in Conversion?

By Christopher Deliso

When Kosovo’s Albanians celebrated the major Muslim holiday of Bajram, at the end of September, more than a few worshippers were conspicuous for their absence.

A trickle of media articles over the past few months have dealt with the issue of religion in Kosovo from a relatively unreported angle: the curious phenomenon of conversion. Apparently, Albanians in this Muslim-majority statelet have been increasingly ‘returning’ to the Catholic religion, which their ancestors had forsaken centuries ago.

This story is interesting and relevant in its own right, but has become particularly revealing in light of the way it has been developed in the media, something that raises another set of issues. Whereas early reports of a new trend towards conversion mentioned the fact that Albanians had been Christians before the Ottomans arrived in the 14th century, and converted thereafter, only recently have reports begun adding an element of victimology to the narrative.

For example, a Sept. 28 Reuters report that took the pulse of recently reborn Catholics in Kosovo claimed that ‘…the majority of ethnic Albanians were forcibly converted to Islam, mostly through the imposition of high taxes on Catholics, when the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans.’ This almost seems to imply that other Christians were threatened with taxation by the Turks, but did not convert. It also ignores that in several places at different times, Christians seeking to convert were actually prevented from doing so because the Ottomans prudently sought they would lose a local tax base for relatively little in return.

Reuters’ description of ‘forcible conversion’ as something to be equated with desire for social advancement is a strange one.

The real things that were forcible for the Ottomans were the forced kidnappings of young Christian men and women for the janissary corps and harems of Constantinople. Although there were far worse things to be suffered than paying high taxes by remaining Christian under the Turks, these were left out.

In backwards hinterlands of the empire, as in Kosovo and Bosnia, the local Muslim lords were known for being especially pernicious towards those who did not desert their religion.

Although this disparity led to simmering resentments which had long-term influence, as pointed out by former NSA officer John Schindler in the Bosnian context, the article does not consider how inter-ethnic problems in Kosovo today might perhaps have roots in this phenomenon. Schindler notes that it was particularly in border hinterlands of the empire such as Bosnia and Kosovo that the rule of the Turks and converted local lords allegiant to them was especially vicious. The Orthodox Christian Serbs clung to their religion- and suffered under the rule of those who found it expedient to change their own. Understanding the context of local opinions today requires an appreciation of this former relationship.

Within the Albanian community itself, how is the conversion issue playing out?

The Kosovars interviewed by Reuters tended to take the ‘crypto-Christian’ route, by which they claimed that their forefathers only pretended to be Muslims:

“…for centuries, many remembered their Christian roots and lived as what they call ‘Catholics in hiding.’ Some, nearly a century after the Ottomans left the Balkans, now see the chance to reveal their true beliefs.”

The timing is indeed quite impeccable. Yet the experiences of this reporter indicate perhaps another motivation at work. In April, our team visited precisely the same church in Klina where the Reuters piece starts off at with the Sopi family (perhaps related to the famous, deceased Albanian bishop of that name?) However, speaking informally with young Albanians outside the church, a very different concept emerged. As one 20-year-old student put it: “we know that the West does not like Muslims and is against Islam. It is better for us to be Christians again.”

In Pristina, inside a small Catholic church, the caretaker informed us that some 21 people had come in the previous three months to re-embrace the faith; more were expected to emerge. As the Reuters article points out, a large Catholic cathedral is being built here, much to the displeasure of Muslim leaders. The article quotes the head of the Kosovo Islamic community, Mufti Naim Ternava, who is opposed to the building of the new cathedral at the heart of Pristina, as criticizing rural church-building as well: “…no human brain can understand how a church should be build in the middle of 13 Muslim villages,” he said.

Supporters of Kosovar Catholicism inevitably point to Mother Teresa, born in nearby Skopje, who has became the symbol of Albanian Christianity far and wide,

a cultural process that has brought criticism from Muslim groups in Albania itself. Recent examples of some of these animosities are discussed in my book The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West (Praeger Security International, 2007), in which I maintain that, in Kosovo the end of the nationalist question (i.e., with the achievement of statehood) is the beginning of the religious one.

After Kosovo’s Albanian leaders declared independence on February 17, some explained the Arab world’s failure to recognize this decree as a sort of revenge. Kosovo had taken so much money and aid from them, but in the end had turned its back on Islam.

Link (here) to the full article.

Agressive, Disruptive And Apocalyptic

Cardinal Stafford criticizes Obama as ‘aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic’

Cardinal James Stafford / President-elect Barack Obama

Washington DC, Nov 17, 2008 / 02:27 pm (CNA).- Cardinal James Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, delivered a lecture on Thursday saying

that the future under President-elect Obama will echo Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. Criticizing Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,” he went on to speak about a decline in respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the values of marriage and human dignity.

Delivered at the Catholic University of America, the cardinal’s lecture was titled “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul,” the student university paper The Tower reports. Hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, his words focused upon Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, whose fortieth anniversary is marked this year. Commenting on the results of the recent presidential election,

Cardinal Stafford said on Election Day “America suffered a cultural earthquake.” The cardinal argued that President-elect Obama had campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform” and predicted that the near future would be a time of trial.

“If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” he said, contrasting the year of Humane Vitae’s promulgation with this election year. “For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Cardinal Stafford told his audience.

Catholics who weep the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” should try to identify with Jesus, who during his agony in the garden was “sick because of love.” The cardinal attributed America’s decline to the Supreme Court’s decisions such as the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide.

“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic,” Cardinal Stafford commented, according to The Tower. His theological remarks centered upon man’s relationship with God and man’s place in society. “Man is a sacred element of secular life,” he said, arguing that therefore

“man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”

Cardinal Stafford also touched on the state of the family, saying that the truest reflection of the relationship between the believer and God is the relationship between husband and wife, and that contraceptive use does not fit within that relationship.

Link (here)

Blue is for Purity

In Catholic religious art the color blue, not white, is symbolic of purity. The white wedding gown originated in the nineteenth century in imitation of Queen Victoria who wore white for her wedding to Prince Albert. The blue that brides were instructed to wear “something borrowed, something blue” on the wedding day was in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is so often pictured with a blue mantle signifying her virginal purity. The French, even though they have long forgotten why, honor Our Lady in their familiar exclamation, Sacré Bleu, which traditionally was a plea for protection under her blue mantle.

by Brian Kelly

Link (here)

The Catholic Faith and Higher Education, "Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity"

All of St. Thomas Aquinas' work-all of his natural philosophy and theology-aims ultimately at understanding and revering the God-head, Three-in-One. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the last things a student studies at Thomas Aquinas College.

Pope John Paul II reminds us in his encyclical Fides et Ratio that "The Church has been justified in consistently proposing St. Thomas as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology." His Holiness concludes that encyclical by invoking the life and example of the Blessed Virgin as a "true parable," illuminating the relation between faith and reason.

"For between the vocation of the Blessed Virgin and the vocation of true philosophy there is a deep harmony." It is therefore particularly fitting that the Chapel of Thomas Aquinas College be both Trinitarian and Marian.

To honor Mary with the name "Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity" is to honor her as the perfect daughter, spouse, and mother. A religious congregation founded under this title (the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity) explains it succinctly: She is the perfect daughter of the Father through the redemptive Incarnation and passion of the Son; she is the spouse of the Holy Spirit through the will of the Father and continues to be the most perfect of all mystical spouses; she is the most perfect mother of the Word through the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, she is the most perfect creation of the Father through the Son.At Thomas Aquinas College, young men and women engage with their teachers in the pursuit of Christian Wisdom, prior to commencing their life's work. The College is, therefore, focused inward upon that common life of mind and spirit which has as its center the academic quadrangle. Continuity is fundamental to that common life-continuity with the intellectual and spiritual heritage of our civilization.

The student at Thomas Aquinas College claims his inheritance from the inside by reading, analyzing and discussing the works which both produced that civilization and were produced by it. The architecture of the campus, and particularly that of the buildings on the academic quadrangle, reflects this continuity with the whole of western, Christian civilization. Not only do the buildings harmonize with each other, they spring from the architectural traditions of that civilization.

The Chapel, in particular, draws upon the California Missions as well as many of the great Romanesque churches of Christendom. It provides, therefore, an appropriate setting for the spiritual and sacramental life of the College. In its tower, three great bells are hung to ring out the Angelus each day. At the top of the tower gleams a golden cross, a sign to all of the sacred place that lies below. The dome, rising above the crossing of the transept and the nave, symbolizes continuity with the Mother Church, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Link to St. Thomas Aquinas College and Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel

The Modern Face Of Heresy

Church row escalates as priest denies Jesus was God

THE controversy surrounding one of Australia's most radical Catholic churches, St Mary's South Brisbane, has escalated into a wider debate over bedrock Christian beliefs.

On the line for parishioners of St Mary's and several other parishes in Queensland and NSW are fundamental church doctrines such as who can celebrate Mass, whether Jesus Christ was God, whether Mary had as many as six children, the bodily Resurrection, and the need for sacramental celebrations for same-sex marriages.

In a booklet being sold for $20, a NSW priest, Peter Dresser of Coonamble in the Diocese of Bathurst, insists Jesus was not God and did not think he was God. The booklet is on sale at two Brisbane parishes: St Mary's and the Wooloowin/Windsor/Kalinga Parish of outspoken Brisbane priest Richard Pascoe.

In God is Big. Real Big! Father Dresser -- who prefers to be known as Peter -- says: "This whole matter regarding Jesus being God ... not only does violence to my own intelligence, but must be a sticking point for millions of people trying to make some kind of sense of the Christian religion ... No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that."

Father Dresser said he found his own rural flock "very conservative" and admitted that many of them found his theology difficult to accept. He said he had rethought his approach after taking an interest in science. "I'm delighted they're opening up the debate at St Mary's," he said.

In his book, Father Dresser claims Mary had as many as six children, Joseph was the father of Jesus and the bodily Resurrection is not to be taken literally.

Sydney lecturer in church history, Anthony Robbie, said Father Dresser's claims defied all scriptural evidence.

"What a breathtaking know-all, to claim he knows the mind of Christ contrary to scripture and tradition. His words rob Christianity entirely of its meaning and purpose," Father Robbie said.

"The Council of Nicaea settled the question that Christ was God in 325, so he is 1700 years out of date. The rest is a regurgitation of every discredited 19th-century liberal Protestant German cliche in the book."

Recently, the priests at St Mary's -- Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick -- also canvassed the idea of Catholics celebrating the Eucharist in their homes, without a priest.

A discussion paper handed to parishioners by Father Kennedy and written by Charles Kelliher said the lack of priests in the 21st century should prompt the faithful to look back to the first 200 years of the church, before the priesthood and the church hierarchy came into existence.

"Like the house church of the first 200 years, it is the community of believers who can concelebrate and bring about the presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration. Let us embark on the journey as a community of believers in the modern day house church.

"The community of believers would call forth one of its members to preside at this memorial service. This person could be either man or woman, married or single ... with no special designation except being chosen or called forth to leadership by the community."

The director of adult education in the Archdiocese of Sydney, Opus Dei priest John Flader, said the earliest celebrants of the Eucharist were called presbyters, a Greek word meaning elders, but they had been appointed by the laying-on of hands by a bishop, and there was no evidence that women took such roles. "Even as early as around 100AD, Pope Clement I wrote to the church in Corinth setting out the authority of Rome over the local church, including the presbyters," Father Flader said. "Suggesting that lay people gather in homes today and pick someone to celebrate the Eucharist is absurd. It would never be valid."

St Mary's has continued with Eucharistic prayers celebrated by the congregation with women leading much of the mass. Recent preachers have included "community jester" and activist Tony Robertson.

While some argue that St Mary's should be closed, some priests say this would drive the teachers who attend the church towards informal services at home, which could influence the children they teach. "They say they regard themselves as Catholic so it would be better to ensure they conform to the Church's teachings and practice. These are not optional," said one.

Link (here)

Photo is of St. Mary's in Brisbane

Read Fr. Z's frank commentary on the subject (here)

Interview With Film Star Eduardo Verastegui About His McCain Endorsement

By Anita Crane

October 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Eduardo Verastegui, producer and lead actor of the 2007 American film Bella, met with Senator John McCain on October 17 in Miami, where they discussed the human rights at stake in this presidential election. Now Verastegui is using his star power – and more – to help McCain and Governor Sarah Palin win the votes of Latinos.

Verastegui said, “I am endorsing Sen. McCain for president because of his commitments to end abortion, protect traditional marriage and fix immigration law."

On Gov. Palin’s leadership, he said, “I love her. She’s a great role model for women.”

Verastegui has spoken at several McCain-Palin rallies. In Miami, the capital of Latin America and the first U.S. city where Verastegui lived, he campaigned for John McCain with McCain’s Senate allies Joe Lieberman and Mel Martinez, as well as Florida’s former governor, Jeb Bush and Governor Charlie Crist.

Verastegui said, “There I was, just an actor from Hollywood, not even a politician.

“I said more than 45 million babies have been killed by abortion in America and more than 200,000 Latino babies are killed by abortion each year. I told everyone that we need to put an end to this and, when I finished, I went to John McCain and I said, ‘Senator, thank you for your commitment to life. I’d like to give you something.’ I gave him a Miraculous Medal blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and he was amazing. He said, ‘Thank you so much! Look what I have here in my pocket.’ Then Sen. McCain took a medal out of his pocket that he carries everywhere and it was a Blessed Mother Teresa medal. He said, ‘Eduardo, now I am going to keep both.’

Verastegui also gave McCain’s wife, Cindy, a Miraculous Medal. He said, “I was touched when I found out that the McCains adopted one of their daughters from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India. There is nothing more beautiful than to give children homes with families who will love them. I hope that one day that I can do the same.”

Verastegui gives out Miraculous Medals because, as a practicing Catholic, he believes the Blessed Mother promised Saint Catherine Labouré that “all who wear it will receive great graces.”

As Americans prepare to vote, many think their country is in crisis and Verastegui agrees. Therefore, he said, “It would be a disaster if Senator Barack Obama is elected president.”

Verastegui believes that unless Americans elect a president who will defend fundamental human rights, no one can expect a sound economy, health care or national security, including immigration reform.

“Obama speaks about ‘change,’ but what change are we talking about?” he asked. “Fidel Castro spoke about change in Cuba. Hugo Chavez talks about change in Venezuela. A lot of other charismatic dictators promised change, but look what happened to their countries.”

Verastegui explained, “Obama’s change agenda is very, very dangerous. This is a historic moment. Whoever wins the presidential election will affect this country and the world for decades.

“Obama doesn’t represent the values of our Latino community. He has never done anything for us. He doesn’t know who we are.”

Referring to his filmmaking partners Alejandro Monteverde and Leo Severino, Verastegui said, “Alejandro, Leo and I can make hundreds movies like Bella and they will save many babies, but it’s never going to be as powerful as a president nominating judges who observe constitutional law.” McCain is committed to nominating constructionist judges, and Verastegui emphasized that “we are just one Supreme Court justice away from overturning Roe v. Wade.”

However, Verastegui warned that Obama threatens to codify the Roe v. Wade decision by signing the proposed Freedom of Choice Act, which would strip Americans of their right to protect innocent human lives, even from the savagery of partial-birth abortion. In a partial birth abortion the abortionist pulls a baby from his mother’s womb, stabs his skull and vacuums out his brains.

Verastegui is also pleased that McCain supports the protection of traditional marriage through state amendments legally defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Obama, on the other hand, told LGBT activists, “But my job, as president, is going to be to make sure that the legal rights that have consequences, on a day-to-day basis, for loving same-sex couples all across the country, that those rights are recognized and enforced by my White House and by my Justice Department.” Obama wants to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act and this implies that he intends to override the traditional marriage laws passed by numerous states.

On immigration, Verastegui tells voters that McCain took a big risk in Congress for Latinos while Obama abandoned them. Due to popular demand, McCain revised his reform policy. His presidential proposal includes security for U.S. citizens and innovations that would allow migrant workers to legally enter America according to market demands for their skills. Knowing the concerns of Latinos, Verastegui said, “McCain told me that he will reform the law so that it upholds human dignity of all immigrants and protects their families.”

Verastegui concluded, “The right to life is the most important thing to me, so I want to do whatever I can to support the best candidates. That’s why I support McCain-Palin.”

Eduardo Verastegui produced videos about Obama’s policies in English and Spanish. They are online at http://www.ObamaMustSee.com and http://www.DuraRealidad.com.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, "No Intrinsic Evil Can Ever Be Supported In Any Way"

The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.

We bishops of Pennsylvania quoted from the late Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful and I quote him again here: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 38).

Link (here) to Cardinal Justin Rigali's full article.

McCain Surges Ahead By 20% Among Catholic Voters

McCain has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics, with only days remaining before the November 4 election.
Link (here)

Catholic Monarchy Still Means Something

Open letter asks King of Spain not to sign decree allowing aborted babies to be ground up

Madrid, Oct 7, 2008 / 06:35 am (CNA).-

Father Joan Manuel Serra, a priest of the Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, has asked King Juan Carlos of Spain not to sign a royal decree that would modify mortuary policies and would make it legal to use “baby crushing machines” that would be used on the remains of babies aborted up to the seventh month of pregnancy in abortion clinics.

In an open letter, Father Serra recalled that current policy “obliges abortion ‘clinics’ to consider the remains of an abortion as cadavers, when they are human remains ‘of a sufficient entity,’ that is, at eleven or twelve weeks of pregnancy, and transfer them to a cemetery for their posterior dignified incineration or burial.”

However, after the scandal of the Ginemedex Clinic, where it was discovered that blenders were being used to cover up illegal late-term abortions, the government, “with the supposed support of the main opposition party,” has proposed changing the norms for mortuaries “so that the ‘remains’ of an abortion not be considered ‘human remains of sufficient entity’ until after the 28^th week of gestation,” that is, nearly the seventh month of pregnancy.

“Your majesty, we are reaching levels of inhumanity that are completely inadmissible and that are putting the very foundation of our society at risk,” Father Serra said. “If we do not protect the right to life of all,” even those who are weakest, we are laying “the foundations of a very violent society that will end up destroying itself.”

Father Serra told King Juan Carlos that if the current policy is kept in place, “of properly burying or incinerating the human remains of abortions during the first few weeks, at least we would be giving a humane message to society. This will make many people think again about the value of human life from the moment of conception.”

Link (here)

Archbishop Chaput On "Little Muders"

In an address delivered to the Witherspoon Institute on October 17, in Denver Colorado Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has made an historic political address. His newly famous "Little Murders" speech is resetting the Catholic social agenda in America. I have pulled together some of the highlights.

Speaking for myself, I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than

40 million unborn children killed by abortion

and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates.......... Arguments advanced in favor of Senator Obama are new. They've been around, in one form or another, for more than 25 years.

All of them seek to ''get beyond'' abortion, or economically reduce the number of abortions, or create a better society where abortion won't be necessary. All of them involve a misuse of the seamless garment imagery in Catholic social teaching. And all of them, in practice, seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues.

This is a great sadness. As Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have

''no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood.

.......Meanwhile, the basic human rights violation at the heart of abortion - the intentional destruction of an innocent, developing human life - is wordsmithed away as a terrible crime that just can't be fixed by the law. I don't believe that. I think that argument is a fraud. And I don't think any serious believer can accept that argument without damaging his or her credibility.

We still have more than a million abortions a year, and we can't blame them all on Republican social policies. After all, it was a Democratic president, not a Republican, who vetoed the partial birth abortion ban - twice.

The truth is that for some Catholics, the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause. It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about.

It interferes with their natural political alliances. And because the homicides involved in abortion are ''little murders'' - the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives - it's easy to look the other way.

The abortion lobby has fought every compromise and every legal restriction on abortion, every step of the way. Apparently they believe in their convictions more than some of us Catholics believe in ours. And I think that's an indictment of an entire generation of American Catholic leadership.

Link (here)

"In Love, Nothing Must Be Held Back."

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

(here)

Academic Priests Can Forget Ordinary Ministry

Too many priests are missing out on ordinary ministry, cardinal warns

Vatican City, Oct 13, 2008
(CNA).- The prefect for the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, warned this week that many priests dedicated to teaching forget or abandon ordinary ministry, in which the Word of God should be at the center.
Link (here) to the full article

Democrats Are Loosing The Catholic Battle

A Fight Among Catholics Over Which Party Best Reflects Church Teachings

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

As the Roman Catholic Church observes its annual “respect life” Sunday in this heated presidential election season, the unusually pitched competition for Catholic voters is setting off a round of skirmishes over how to apply the church’s teachings not only on abortion but also on the war in Iraq, immigration and racism.

In a departure from previous elections, Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are waging a fight within the church, arguing that the Democratic Party better reflects the full spectrum of church teachings.

It is a contest for credibility among observant Catholics, with each faction describing itself as a defender of “life.” The two sides disagree over how to address the “intrinsic evil” of abortion.

The escalating efforts by more-liberal Catholics are provoking a vigorous backlash from some bishops and the right.

In Scranton, Pa., every Catholic attending Mass this weekend will hear a special homily about the election next month: Bishop Joseph Martino has ordered every priest in the diocese to read a letter warning that voting for a supporter of abortion rights amounts to endorsing “homicide.”

Read the full piece in the NY Times (here) .

Priests For Life (here)

Destructive Influence Of A Certain Modern Culture

Pope decries godless nature of modern societies

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

WriterSun Oct 5, 6:54 AM ET

Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

"Surely they tried, I mean the Holy See tried but obviously they could not make agreement," Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen told AP Television News as he entered the basilica.

"Maybe the Holy See welcomes someone that they (the Chinese) would not allow," he said, adding that China might try to send a bishop who is not acceptable to the Holy See.

Chinese bishops have not been allowed to travel to similar meetings in the past.

Ties between the Vatican and China's communist government have long been strained. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. In recent years, some of those bishops have received the Vatican's tacit approval.

Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science. A rabbi will address the conference on Monday in what is believed to be the first time a Jew has participated in such a meeting.

Link (here)

Read and down load the PDF (here)

The Culture Of Death: The Politics Of Death

Vatican officials seldom single out political leaders who differ with the Church on issues like abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research. But now that the Vatican’s highest court is led by an American, the former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, we can expect things to get more explicit in Vatican City — at least when when it comes to U.S. politics.

Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” He then attacked two of the party’s most high profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

He said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.”

Pelosi drew U.S. bishops’ scorn for saying in a television interview last month that the Church itself had long debated when human life begins. Biden is a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights and analysts have said he could help woo wavering Catholics into Obama’s fold. Both argue that they cannot impose their religious views on others.

Burke said pro-life Democrats were “rare” and that it saddened him that the party that helped “our immigrant parents and grandparents” prosper in America had changed so much over the years.

Burke made headlines as archbishop of St. Louis for his public attacks on public figures who strayed from Catholic teaching. He suggested during the 2004 presidential campaign that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic, should be denied communion because of his views on abortion. Several bishops said at the time they would not give him communion and the media staked out churches where he attended Mass to see if he received it.

“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a letter in 2004 to American bishops restating the Church position that a priest must refuse to distribute communion to a Catholic politician who supported abortion rights. But Burke lamented that the letter was never distributed.

Burke’s criticism isn’t limited to Democrats. Last year, he accused singer Sheryl Crow of being “a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives” for defending a woman’s right to have an abortion and for being a proponent of stem cell research. He resigned as head of a children’s medical charity that featured the singer for a benefit concert.

Pope Benedict has been encouraging Catholic bishops to speak out more openly on public policy issues to make the Church’s voice heard. Any bets on when we’ll hear from Burke next?

Link (here)

Holy Smoke The Playing Field Is Being Leveled

A few nights ago I (Damian Thompson) joined a group of Catholic bloggers in a pub in Victoria. They included the world-famous Fr Z from America, Fr Tim Finigan and Mac McLernon ("Mulier Fortis"). We felt like a group of East European dissidents swapping samizdat literature in the 1970s.

There are liberal Catholic bloggers out there, but it is persecuted traditionalists who have seized control of cyberspace in the English-speaking world, with disastrous results for the secretive Futurechurch project.

Link (here) to Damian Thompson's great piece

Link (here) to Fr. Z's post on the same subject

Mother Theresa And Pope John Paul II "The Great"

Saint Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within..

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

Hat Tip to Karen Hall at Some Have Hats (here) and Some Wear Clerics (here)

Archbishop Gregory Of Atlanta Praises Legionaries

Mission Network Receives Honored Guest
By Trish Bailey

September 5, 2008. Atlanta, Georgia. On Thursday, September 4, the Mission Network headquarters in Atlanta opened its doors to receive Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who came to dedicate the altar of the chapel, leave the Blessed Sacrament to the tabernacle, and visit the team in our new offices. His visit brought inspiration and encouragement to the staff, and confirmed our sense of unity with the archdiocese.

The visit began with Mass at 10:00 a.m. Archbishop Gregory presided, with four Legionary priests and one diocesan priest concelebrating: Fr Scott Reilly, Fr Emilio Diaz-Torre, Fr Eamonn Shelly, Fr David Daly, and Fr John Howren of St Brendan’s parish in Cumming, Georgia. Legionary deacon Jacob DuMont also served during the Mass

During his homily, Archbishop Gregory commented on the first reading from Corinthians 3:18-23, saying that for all of us in the Church, the principle of unity and the focal point of our mission is always Christ.

“Christ is the center. Everything else is peripheral,” he said.

The dedication of the altar took place after the homily. Archbishop Gregory poured sacred chrism on the bare altar in the shape of three crosses, and then took a towel and carefully rubbed the oil into the surface of the wood. After the altar was dressed and prepared, the Mass continued in an atmosphere of fervent prayer.

Just before communion, Deacon Jacob DuMont carefully placed the consecrated host in the tabernacle to stay.

After Mass, Archbishop Gregory stopped for a photo with the entire staff outside and then took a tour of the offices. With his characteristic good humor and warmth, he teased the staff about their “new digs in the corporate world” and thanked them sincerely for their work.

The tour was followed by a 15-minute presentation about Mission Network, which coordinates a wide range of national apostolate programs serving children, youth, families, and vocations. The presentation also touched on the Regnum Christi Movement’s work in the field of education and mass media, and showed how our various programs and initiatives respond to the archdiocese’s mission objectives. After the presentation, Archbishop Gregory addressed the team with words of fatherly kindness, saying that the Legionaries and Regnum Christi members are a blessing in the archdiocese.

After saying with smile, “I wish you wild success,” he concluded: “I want you to know that your archbishop is pleased with you.”

For the team, these words were an encouragement to keep building up programs that serve the local church in the Atlanta and New York territories. The entire staff is extremely grateful to Archbishop Gregory for the inspiring visit, for his fatherly support, and for the lasting gift that he left us in the Blessed Sacrament.

Link (here).

The Politics And Emotion Of Abortion

Sarah Palin – the Post-Abortion Trig-ger?

Sept 5, 2008

Staten Island, NY – Kevin Burke, co-founder of the post-abortion healing ministry Rachel’s Vineyard, said today that anger directed at Sarah Palin and her family may stem from the repressed grief and pain of those who have had or been involved in an abortion.

“When someone publicly opposes abortion, this rejection can strike at a deeply repressed wound in the woman who has had an abortion or the man who has encouraged a woman to abort,” said Mr. Burke. “We at Rachel’s Vineyard know from our work with thousands of women and men that profound feelings of guilt and shame accompany abortion. The words or even just the presence of someone who believes abortion to be wrong can cause that repressed guilt and shame to erupt in anger.”

“The venomous response to Governor Palin’s family is probably heightened by the Palins’ dual rejection of abortion – first, in the case of their Down syndrome son, Trig, and then in the case of their daughter Bristol’s pregnancy,” added Mr. Burke. “Rather than lash out, though, I would encourage those burdened by the guilt of abortion to travel the road of reconciliation and healing. Anger toward others will not bring peace; compassion and forgiveness will.”

Link (here)

Like Judith Beheading Holofernes

Palin delivers star-turning performance at RNC

By TOM RAUM and LIZ SIDOT

An excerpt.

Largely unknown outside her home state, Palin told the convention: "I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," she said, speaking of her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, with a population of about 6,500.

"When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too," she said.

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Read a Catholic lady's insight on Sarah Palin from Karen Hall (here)

Communist

Thank you Some Have Hats' Karen Hall for this "hat tip", Obama the Marxist

The Other Side of Change: Obama and Saul Alinsky
by Mary Jo Anderson
At Inside Catholic

An excerpt.

Much has been written about Obama's career as a "community organizer," a benign term that was actually the brainchild of Marxist agitator Saul Alinsky, whose writings Obama studied and who founded an organization in Chicago for which Obama worked. Alinsky earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1930 and went to work in the state penitentiary. He came to believe that the "social milieu," not personal behavior, was responsible for the plight of the inmates -- and therefore, a changed society would eliminate aberrant behavior. In

1939, Alinsky created his Industrial Areas Foundation, a grassroots agitation organization that found its power in collectivizing working-class poor and idealistic radicals.

Alinsky is well-known for his second book, Rules for Radicals, which begins with praise for Lucifer, a rebel who achieved his own kingdom. The book stressed that activists must be "people committed to change." (Sound familiar?) He taught his agitators to avoid the "useless self-indulgence" of despising their own middle-class roots, instead exploiting the contempt they feel: "If we are to build power for change, the power and the people are in the big middle class majority."

Catholics Come Home

Catholic Schools

We Want Authentic Catholic Schools that Help Form Saints

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By Bishop Robert W. Finn
Kansas City-St. Joseph

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As we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption, our schools begin to open. Students all over the diocese get their back packs together, some put on uniforms, and everyone begins getting up a bit earlier and ready for school. The studies, sports teams, and school clubs will soon be in full gear. The new year begins and our Catholic schools remain a big part of it: for many generations - and for thousands of students.

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is blessed with Catholic schools from early childhood through university. The mission and goals of our schools overlap in a variety of ways with the educational targets of the public schools. But there is something more that must define our schools.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his visit last spring to the United States met with Catholic educators from all over the country in Washington, D.C. He challenged the leaders of our schools to make "Catholic identity" something more than the numbers of Catholic students or even the particular excellence of certain fields of study.

Catholic identity, the Holy Father said, "demands and inspires much more: namely that each and every aspect of your learning communities reverberates within the ecclesial life of faith." Our schools must be defined by a unique culture of faith, hope and charity.

Catholic identity certainly starts with sound, authentic presentations of the teaching of the Church. This is that "without which" we would not be providing helpful formation in the tradition and life of the Church. Living and life-giving Christian Faith is also necessary: faith in God the Holy Trinity, and faithful participation in the life of the Church. Our students should know the sacraments, not only from having studied them in coursework. They must live them, and practice them as the foundation stones for their Catholic lives.

Pope Benedict, himself a university professor for many years, had a special challenge for the leaders of our Catholic universities. Acknowledging the importance of academic freedom, the Pope insisted that appeals to academic freedom "to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission." This is the very core of the challenge extended to Catholic universities in the document "Ex Corde Ecclesia" which - some years ago - called all teachers of Theology to seek the "mandatum" or license of the local bishop to teach.

Schools sponsored activities and organizations, as well, must reflect the meaning and dignity of the human person. Secular or spiritual in focus, such opportunities must be totally consonant with the life of authentic faith and help the student in his or her healthy and holy development.

Catholic schools exist for a supernatural purpose. They are not only about measurable outcomes, or even helping students learn essential facts and marketable skills that prepare them for employment. They are about the formation of men and women in all aspects of life and living. Each student must be what God intends him or her to be. They must be helped toward their eternal salvation. It would seem to go without saying that "salvation" is discussed and taught in Catholic schools, but education in our schools must lead to the development of men and women who live virtue, understand better the mystery and meaning of life, and who will be set on a path which acknowledges the mystery of the Cross and has heaven as its ultimate goal.

Catholic schools must be based on a Catholic anthropology, that is, an authentic vision of what a person is and what his or her eternal destiny entails. We are not made ultimately for material success or sexual gratification, or just any kind of relationship. Rather, we are made for life-long faithful commitments that appropriately express our gender, our vocation and utilize our talents generously. Because we are called to holiness we must be helped to see how our daily work can be sanctified and sanctifying. Our moral life must take precedent over personal satisfaction or partisan political tendencies. The transcendent and unchanging truth of the value of human life must animate our convictions and guide all our decisions.

Catholic schools are a catalyst for growth in communion. We are more than individuals. The building block of society is the family which has the primary responsibility for the formation of children, and which must be safeguarded for the good of all society. We are beings - social and interactive by nature - who are incorporated through Baptism into a community of believers. We must be helped to see the differences and complementarity by which we actively make up the Church. We are meant to contribute; to give of ourselves as a response to the love and life we have received - first from God, and also from others. Obedience to God's law and cooperation for the good of the whole are necessary in any society. In the Catholic community our giving has a supernatural motive and is infused with Christian faith, hope and charity. Service toward others and a strong sense of mission and apostolate marks us as members of an apostolic Church which has been entrusted with the message of the Gospel for all to hear.

In our schools we pray. We need to pray. Prayer is a response to our sense of God's presence with us always, our readiness to be intercessors for one another, and the realization that we are persons constantly in need of God's light and grace. God is first, and when we put Him first, all the other good things find their proper place. We worship him in the community of the Church and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the font and highest expression of our life.

I pray that in our schools - from early childhood to university - we will be forming saints. Through obedience to the Holy Spirit, and His light entrusted to the Apostles, may our students begin to be more like Jesus Christ to the glory of the heavenly Father.

As we celebrate Mary's Assumption into heaven, let us entrust ourselves, our students and teachers - the whole mission and work of our schools - to her maternal love. Link (here)