WE'RE DOOMED

Our newest U.S. Senator
Writer, satirist and all-around smart aleck Al Franken has finally won his prolonged fight for election to the United States Senate.

Woe is us.

1) The Culture of Death under the leadership of B.O. now has a filibuster-proof majority.

2) Minnesota has elected a virulently anti-Catholic man as their senator.

What do I mean?

Here is just a a short list of some of Franken's anti-Catholic history from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph's Catholic Key:

• He has mocked the Eucharist

• He has ridiculed the crucifixion of Jesus

• He has slandered all priests as molesters

• He has belittled practicing Catholics (e.g., Knights of Columbus)

• He has disparaged the Church’s teaching on embryonic stem cell research

• He made crude jokes about a dying woman, Terri Schiavo, and then misrepresented her condition by passing her off as "already dead."

• Franken also addressed a New York audience on the topic of that city's late, great archbishop asking, "Isn't Cardinal O'Connor an a**hole?"

Nice stuff.

What can we do about it? Prayer and fasting for a start. The worst evils are yet to come.

The Pope Says:GROW UP!

POPE EXPLAINS
WHAT "THINKING LIKE AN ADULT" REALLY MEANS
In the last few decades, the expression ‘adult faith’ [fede adulta, 'grown up faith'] has become a widespread slogan. It is often used in relation to the attitudes of those who no longer pay attention to what the Church and her Pastors say — which is to say, those who choose on their own what to believe or not to believe in a sort of ‘do-it-yourself’ faith. Expressing oneself against the Magisterium of the Church is presented as a sort of ‘courage’, whereas in fact not much courage is needed because one can be certain of receiving public praise.

Instead, courage is needed to adhere to the Church’s faith, even if it contradicts the 'order' of today’s world. Paul calls this non-conformism an ‘adult faith’. For him, following the prevailing winds and currents of the time is childish.



For this reason, it is part of an adult faith to dedicate oneself to the inviolability of life from its beginning, thus radically opposing the principle of violence, in defense precisely of the most defenseless. It is part of an adult faith to recognize the lifelong marriage between one man and one woman in accordance with the Creator’s order, re-established again by Christ. An adult faith does not follow any current here and there. It stands against the winds of fashion.

-Benedict XIV
Homily - First Vespers of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
June 28, 2009





with thanks to Rorate Caeli

Indulge Me for a Moment

HERE IS A GOOD REASON TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT ETERNITY:
There are two kinds of punishment attached to sin, eternal and temporal. If the sin is mortal (serious, grave) sin, the person loses the friendship of God and with it the life of divine grace within. This punishment is eternal. If the person is not restored to grace before death he will be punished forever in hell, since serious sin is an infinite insult to an All-Holy God and thus deserves a like punishment. It was to repair for such sin that Jesus became man and was crucified. As God His sacrifice was infinitely meritorious, as Man He was able to represent us. He thus could expiate for our mortal sins, which are not just beyond our power of expiation but infinitely beyond it.

Mortal sin, and also venial sin (which has no eternal punishment attached to it), both disturb the right order within us and in the order of justice in general. We all experience these temporal (or in-time, in-this-world) consequences of sin, both both personally and socially. Sin changes us (or rather we sin because we are not what we are supposed to be), and like a pebble in a pond these changes have effects beyond us. Not only must we be sorry for our sins, but we must be more thoroughly converted to the Lord, and demonstrate that conversion (Acts 26:20) by our actions. So, while sacramental absolution forgives the eternal guilt of sin, which requires the infinite merits of Christ, it does not necessarily remove all the temporal punishment, since they are somewhat within our power to repair (and somewhat unknown to us). Depending on our degree of sorrow, absolution may result in the expiation of all the temporal guilt of sin. However, for that which it does not repair, we must offer further expiation through prayer, penance, carrying the Cross etc., or after death be purified in purgatory (Rev 21:27).

A WAY OUT: INDULGENCES
What an Indulgence does is to take an occasion of such expiation (a certain prayer, penance, charity or other designated work) and add to its intrinsic merit before God an additional value based on the treasury of merits of Jesus Christ, and those perfectly united to Him in heaven (the saints). This can either partially, or under certain conditions, totally remit the temporal punishment due to sin. This depends, naturally, on our openness to God's grace. A mechanical performance of an indulgenced work would not have effect. Performing an indulgenced work should have the consequence of fixing our will away from our sins and entirely on God. This is why among the most important of the conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence, and the hardest to satisfy, is the complete detachment or detestation of our sins. By detesting our sins we orient our will away from creatures (to the degree we love them inordinately), towards God. In this way we open our will to the action of His mercy flowing into our souls, which alone is able to effect the complete remission of the temporal punishment to our sins.

An example will perhaps better illustrate these points. A boy playing ball breaks a window of his home. Contrite and sorrowful he goes to his father, who forgives him. However, despite the forgiveness the window is still broken and must be repaired. Since the boy's personal resources are insufficient to pay for a new window, the father requires him to pay a few dollars from his savings and forego some of his allowance for several weeks, but that he, the father, will pay the rest. This balances justice and mercy (generous love). To ask the boy to do nothing, when it is possible for him to make some reparation, would not be in accordance with the truth, or even the boy's good. Yet, even this temporal debt is beyond the boy's possibilities. Therefore, from his own treasury the father generously makes up what the child cannot provide. This is indulgence. Unlike the theologies that say "we are washed it the blood of the Lamb and there is nothing left to do," Catholic teaching respects the natural order of justice, as Jesus clearly did in the Gospels, yet recognizes that man cannot foresee or undo all the temporal consequences of his sin. However, God in His mercy will satisfy justice for what we cannot repair.

HOW DO I PLACE MY ORDER?
To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in a state of grace. You must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church's jurisdiction, and you must be in a state of grace because apart from God's grace none of your actions are fundamentally pleasing to God (meritorious). You also must have at least the habitual intention of gaining an indulgence by the act performed.

To gain a partial indulgence, you must perform with a contrite heart the act to which the indulgence is attached.

To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act with a contrite heart, plus you must go to confession (one confession may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion, and pray for the pope's intentions. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary said for the pope's intentions are sufficient, although you are free to substitute other prayers of your own choosing.) The final condition is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial sin.

Because of the extreme difficulty in meeting the final condition, plenary indulgences are rarely obtained. If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet the last condition, a partial indulgence is received instead.

Below are indulgences listed in the Handbook of Indulgences (New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1991). Note that there is an indulgence for Bible reading. So, rather than discouraging Bible reading, the Catholic Church promotes it by giving indulgences for it! (This was the case long before Vatican II.)

An act of spiritual communion, expressed in any devout formula whatsoever, is endowed with a partial indulgence.

A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who devoutly spend time in mental prayer.

A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who read sacred Scripture with the veneration due God's word and as a form of spiritual reading. The indulgence will be a plenary one when such reading is done for at least one-half hour [provided the other conditions are met].

A partial indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who devoutly sign themselves with the cross while saying the customary formula: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

Priests who administer the sacraments to the Christian faithful who are in a life-and-death situation should not neglect to impart to them the apostolic blessing, with its attached indulgence.

But if a priest cannot be present, Holy Mother Church lovingly grants such persons who are rightly disposed a plenary indulgence to be obtained in articulo mortis, at the approach of death, provided they regularly prayed in some way during their lifetime. The use of a crucifix or a cross is recommended in obtaining this plenary indulgence. In such a situation the three usual conditions required in order to gain a plenary indulgence are substituted for by the condition "provided they regularly prayed in some way." The Christian faithful can obtain the plenary indulgence mentioned here as death approaches (in articulo mortis) even if they had already obtained another plenary indulgence that same day.

SOURCES: New Advent Encyclopedia, This Rock magazine, Jimmy Akin.

Padre Pio Said It

The Christian who has forgotten his true vocation and is merely a Christian in name, a worldly Christian, judges things quite differently. His judgment is the exact opposite to that of the Christian worthy of the name who lives according to the spirit of Jesus Christ. The former judges things from the point of view of their capacity to satisfy his vanity and his passions. The latter, on the other hand, invariably judges them in relation to eternal things.

Hence the one that is a Christian merely in name, the Christian in high society, sets a great value on honours, wealth, fleeting things, comforts and all that this wretched world has to offer. 0 foolish man, enter into yourself and remember that by your baptism you renounced the world and are dead to it. The Holy Spirit tells you so by the mouth of St. Paul: "You have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God"

ANSWERING THE ANTI-BLOGGER BISHOP

Archbishop James Weisgerber

LifeSite News is running an interesting story about the Archbishop of Winnipeg, James Weisgerber and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (of which he is the president) and the controversy over their funding of Development & Peace, an agency that has been accused of funding abortions. Unhappy that this funding has been exposed and caused the bishops the CCCB embarrassment, the archbishop has attacked Catholic bloggers, by saying:

"These bloggers who claim to be more Catholic than anyone -- I think first of all they're not part of the church, they're not Catholic in the sense that they have no mandate, they have no authority, they have no accountability. And they speak very, very definitively about what it means to be Catholic, and they're followed by so many people."

I cannot speak for all Catholic bloggers, but I would like to address his accusations point by point, at least with regard to my own efforts at blogging:

"These bloggers who claim to be more Catholic than anyone..."
I've never made any such claim.

"I think first of all they're not part of the church..."
Would he like to see my baptismal certificate?


"they're not Catholic in the sense that they have no mandate..."
Perhaps he could re-read Vatican II's Decree on the Laity, APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM, specifically, this excerpt:

As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the laity have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the Church. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the apostolate of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness. In the manner of the men and women who helped Paul in spreading the Gospel (cf. Acts 18:18, 26; Rom. 16:3) the laity with the right apostolic attitude supply what is lacking to their brethren and refresh the spirit of pastors and of the rest of the faithful (cf. 1 Cor. 16:17-18).

I would add that every Catholic has a mandate to share and defend his faith.

"they have no authority..."
The sidebar of this blog makes it clear that this site is not an official site for any diocese or parish.

"they have no accountability..."
To a certain extent this is true. However, I am accountable in ways he seems to be overlooking. I am accountable to those who read this blog. I engage my readers and discuss topics with them in a way that many bishops shun. In fact, when many Catholics attempt to contact their bishop, they soon find many layers of bureaucracy protecting their bishop from ever facing anyone he doesn't wish to talk to. My name is on the line with every post on this blog.


"And they speak very, very definitively about what it means to be Catholic..."
If I make any definitive statements about being Catholic, I make it a point to back up my statement with Church documents. In fact, I would prefer to say that I present what The Church definitively says about being Catholic. There was a time when we could count on our priests and bishops to tell us but...oh, never mind.

"...and they're followed by so many people."
Take a look at the counter at the bottom of my sidebar. As Catholic blogs go, I'm pretty small-time. In fact, most Catholic blogs have relatively small followings, except for a few very popular ones.

The archbishop should admit what is REALLY bothering him:
With the internet, everyone is more accountable. Bishops are now accountable (well, at least a bit MORE accountable) about how they spend our money. Priests, bishops, nuns and catechists are now more accountable for what they say, teach and preach. One stupid remark from the pulpit on any given Sunday can be all over the blogosphere on Sunday night. This is one of the reasons that the rupturistas who have lied to us about Vatican II for the last 40 years aren't getting away with it any longer.

Part of the success of the Church's return to orthodoxy and tradition can certainly be attributed to Catholic bloggers who have held our priests' and bishops' feet to the fire. But first and foremost, we must thank the Holy Father, Pope Benedict for his courage and leadership. We bloggers are simply sticking to his orders, even when his own lieutenants are subverting him.

THE WHOLE IS WORSE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Is the USCCB an Intrinsic Evil?
By Jim Fritz
Catholic Media Coalition

I know! I know! There are many saintly bishops within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), but is the USCCB as an entity an intrinsic evil? This article takes a look at the actions of this group and lets you determine the answer. First, let's define an intrinsic evil using some of the USCCB's own words. Then, let's look at some of the actions of the USCCB in recent years.

Intrinsic Evil
There is a strong tradition in Catholic moral theology that evaluates the morality of acts according to a threefold test that looks at 1) the act itself, 2) the intent of the actor; and 3) the circumstances surrounding the act. All three must be good (or at least neutral) for the act to be morally licit. Traditionally, to say that something is "intrinsically" evil is to say it is evil at the level of the act. It is "objectively" wrong, regardless of the intent of the actor or the circumstances. Such acts can never be morally licit. This does not mean, however, that such acts are always greater evils than acts that are evil by intent or circumstance.

What are these Intrinsic Evils? According to the Church these are: 1) murder of unborn babies (abortion); 2) murder of the sick and disabled (euthanasia); 3) conception of human lives for the purpose of Fetal Stem Cell Research; 4) illicit and intrinsically disordered sexual licentiousness; and, 5) cloning of humans.

Actions of the USCCB
The actions we will review are:

• the publication of the purposely defective Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship;
• the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD);
• the rejection of Canon 915;
• publication of Always our Children; and lastly,
• cinema reviews recommending movies with homosexual content.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship
To put it bluntly, this USCCB document has played a decisive role in empowering Catholic supporters of abortion by providing the escape clauses needed to convince Catholics they could vote for a pro-abortion candidate in good conscience. There are two major loopholes in the document. First, it states that Catholics are allowed to vote for a supporter of abortion rights so long as 1) the voter does not intend to support that position, or 2) there are offsetting "morally grave reasons." The document never explains what constitutes "morally grave reasons," leaving it to the reader to make his own determination which can be quite erroneous.

It is this writer's contention this clause was purposely inserted into the document by socially progressive bishops as a loophole. Common sense indicates the bishops had to have been aware this clause was a loophole to allow voting for pro-abortion politicians and not an accidental opening. Arguments that Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship needs to be taken as a whole to be understood do not hold water. The loophole was taken out of context repeatedly and published on the websites of the pro-abortion candidates. At a conference at Creighton University in June, John Carr, Executive Director of Social Development and World Peace for the USCCB, "stressed that the bishops' document does not shut the door on any candidate, not even one who supports abortion rights." The bishops were told this, and they still left the loophole intact as this was their original intent. Although several bishops have spoken out forcefully, saying the document is being abused, it was never changed or clarified by the USCCB.

Bishop Robert Vasa pointed out that voting for a pro-abortion candidate is never justified when the opponent is pro-life. Similarly, Bishops Kevin Vann and Kevin Farrell in a joint letter to their faithful insist there are no "'truly grave moral' or 'proportionate' reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year."

Is this act of letting the purposely defective Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship stand as a document to be used by the faithful an intrinsic evil?

Catholic Campaign for Human Development
In 1969, the U.S. bishops established the CCHD to fund low income controlled empowerment projects and to educate Catholics about the root causes of poverty. In 1994, The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly, ran a series of articles by Paul Likoudis shedding light on the activities of the CCHD. Likoudis wrote that the anniversary "brought [many U.S. Catholics] to plead with the… bishops for an investigation of and an audit into what kinds of programs the ecclesiastical apparatus has funded." Likoudis exposed a broad range of serious problems. They included financing organizations that support abortion and contraception, funneling money into leftist groups working for socialistic political goals, and organizing voter drives to elect radical politicians. Likoudis exposed the intimate connection between atheist Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and CCHD. Alinsky, the grandfather of a new type of community organizing, promoted radical and immoral means. Approximately one third to one half of all organizations funded by the USCCB's CCHD are Alinskyite groups with philosophies antithetical to Catholic teaching on social justice. The CCHD has used millions of dollars from unsuspecting Catholics to fund these groups.

In 2006, the Employment Policies Institute released a study called Rotten ACORN: America's Bad Seed. It describes ACORN (one of the organizations funded by the CCHD) as a "vast web of groups run by long-time anti-corporate activist Wade Rathke and a handful of his closest allies…[with] more than 75 organizations run…out of one office…in New Orleans." The thirty-page report with 140 footnotes goes on to describe what essentially is the "Rathke family business," up to its neck in voter fraud, shaking down banks and private businesses, funneling massive amounts of money into the pockets of family members through its spider web of networks, and mistreating its employees. Rathke was forced out in 2008 after his brother, Dale, embezzled almost a million dollars which Rathke covered up, keeping his brother on the payroll for eight years after the 2000 crime. Finally, after the FBI began an investigation into the CCHD funded ACORN, the USCCB decided to suspend funding. They did not cancel it - they merely suspended it to continue again when the publicity dies down. The USCCB still refuses to overhaul a completely dysfunctional organization that, according to one of their bishops, cannot possibly be managed under its present organizational set up.

After the election of the most pro-abortion candidate in history, supported in part by the CCHD, is this another example of the USCCB supporting an intrinsic evil?

Rejection of Canon 915
Church's Canon Law 915 states: "Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion." Debate on the issue was closed several years ago with a letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The then-head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith intervened in a debate between the US Bishops on the issue in 2004. Cardinal Ratzinger said in his letter titled, "Worthiness to receive Holy Communion," that a Catholic politician who would vote for "permissive abortion and euthanasia laws" after being duly instructed and warned, "must" be denied Communion. Ratzinger's letter explained that if such a politician "with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it." Recently Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, confirmed this position. Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, whom Pope Benedict appointed this year to head the highest judicial court in the Vatican, has remarked on the need for bishops to uphold this canon, since without doing so they undermine belief in the truth of the evil of abortion. "No matter how often a bishop or priest repeats the teaching of the Church regarding procured abortion, if he stands by and does nothing to discipline a Catholic who publicly supports legislation permitting the gravest of injustices and, at the same time, presents himself to receive Holy Communion, then his teaching rings hollow," wrote Burke. "To remain silent is to permit serious confusion regarding a fundamental truth of the moral law."

Cardinal Arinze in 2004 said a pro-abortion politician "is not fit" to receive Communion. "If they should not receive, then they should not be given," he added. In November 2007 during a video interview, Cardinal Arinze was asked again if a person who votes for abortion can receive Holy Communion. He replied, "Do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to answer that? Get the children for first Communion and say to them, 'Somebody votes for the killing of unborn babies, and says, I voted for that, I will vote for that every time.' And these babies are killed not one or two, but in millions, and that person says, 'I'm a practicing Catholic,' should that person receive Communion next Sunday? The children will answer that at the drop of a hat. You don't need a cardinal to answer that." Excommunication is allowed by Canon law which says the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ. Yet the USCCB refuses to enforce this law.

With the majority of the bishops refusing to enforce Canon Law 915 to stop "Catholic" politicians from supporting abortion, is this another example of the USCCB supporting an intrinsic evil?

Publication of Always our Children
n October 1997, a document entitled Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children was published by the Committee on Marriage and the Family of the USCCB. To be fair it should be made clear the document was composed without any input from the majority of the American Catholic bishops, who were given no opportunity whatsoever to comment on its pastoral usefulness or on its contents. The illusion is given, perhaps deliberately, and carried forth by the media to the effect that this is something the U.S. bishops have published. However, to this date the USCCB has not denounced this very flawed and defective document, and it is still being promulgated by the homosexual movement.

Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz, who has been one of the most vocal opponents to Always Our Children, had the following to say: "The document, in a view which is shared by many, is founded on bad advice, mistaken theology, erroneous science and skewed sociology. It is pastorally helpful in no perceptible way. Does this committee intend to issue documents to parents of drug addicts, promiscuous teenagers, adult children involved in canonically invalid marriages, and the like? These are far more numerous than parents of homosexuals. The occasion and the motivation for this document's birth remain hidden in the murky arrangements which brought it forth.

"Not only does this document fail to take into account the latest revision in the authentic Latin version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality, but it juxtaposes several quotes from the Catechism in order to pretend falsely and preposterously that the Catechism says homosexuality is a gift from God and should be accepted as a fixed and permanent identity. Of course, the document, in order to support the incorrect views it contains, totally neglects to cite the Catholic doctrine set forth by the Holy See which teaches that the homosexual orientation is "objectively disordered." Also, the document's definition of the virtue and practice of chastity is inadequate and distorted. "The character of this document is such that it would require a book of many pages to point out all its bad features, which sometimes cross the border from poor advice to evil advice. For instance, I believe it is wicked to counsel parents not to intervene, but rather to adopt a 'wait and see' attitude when they find their adolescent children 'experimenting' with homosexual acts. Parents have a grave moral duty to prevent their children from committing mortal sins when they can. It is certainly and seriously wrong to counsel parents to 'accept' their children's homosexual friends.”

“Calamity and frightening disaster' are terms which are not too excessive to describe this document. It is my view that this document carries no weight or authority for Catholics, whom I would advise to ignore or oppose it."

With the USCCB seemingly supporting illicit and intrinsically disordered sexual licentiousness by their lack of action, is this another example of the USCCB supporting an intrinsic evil?

Cinema Reviews
Harry Forbes, who heads the USCCB's Office for Film and Broadcasting, in his latest review, praises the movie, Milk, which exalts the first openly homosexual man elected to public office in U.S. history. According to Forbes, Milk contains scenes of "male kissing and non-graphic encounters, rear male nudity, murder, suicide, and some rough language, crude expressions and profanity."

Despite such material, and despite the movie's blatant glorification of the homosexual rights agenda, it is not rated "Morally Offensive" (O), but only receives a rating of "L," for "Limited Adult Audience." Furthermore, in his review Forbes in no way objects to or cautions viewers about the content of the film, instead offering nothing but words of praise.

Forbes calls the movie "a solid biographical drama about San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk." Forbes also speaks approvingly of the movie's strong emphasis on the Catholic faith of Milk's assassin, Dan White.

Forbes has written other reviews praising films that promote and glorify homosexual behavior and attack the Catholic faith, including "Brokeback Mountain," which is about a sodomite relationship between two cowboys, and "The Golden Compass," which is atheistic and vilifies Christianity.

Despite repeated protests from priests and Catholic laity, the USCCB continues to allow Forbes to write reviews on the organization's behalf.

Human Life International President Fr. Thomas Euteneuer angrily denounced Forbes' latest pro-homosexualist review. "Moral outrage is the only response to someone like Harry Forbes who consistently trashes Catholic values in his movie reviews and gets away with it," wrote Euteneuer. "We are accustomed to pagans celebrating their values and letting lots of immorality slide with a wink and a nod, but when the official movie reviewer for the USCCB does it time and time again with no consequences, we have no credible moral compass with which to evaluate the content of movies any more."

With the USCCB seemingly supporting illicit and intrinsically disordered sexual licentiousness, is this another example of the USCCB supporting an intrinsic evil?

CONCLUSION
During this last election only 50 bishops stated that abortion is the most important issue in a U.S. election. It is an abomination that less than 20 percent of the bishops came out against an intrinsic evil. There is no excuse for all the rest who failed their flock by not fighting for the lives of the least among us. Can you imagine what the impact would have been if all of the bishops of the USCCB had honored the sanctity of human life?

In short, we're talking about a sorry organization that should have been dissolved shortly after its inception years ago. One of its founders, the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, was so unCatholic that he enabled purported Catholics to easily vote for pro-abortion politicians by equating abortion with any other peace and social justice issue, ad nauseam, via a 'con' which he referred to as a "seamless garment."

Infiltrations of the so-called "social progressives" and the confusion in the Church by these people have been going on since the formation of the USCCB. Many of the social justice advocates have replaced the goal of heaven with a goal of earthly happiness and their focus is very much on placing these same advocates in charge of worldly means with the power to distribute these means to those they deem needy. It is amazing that so many in positions of authority in the Church have not yet caught on to how this undermines the Faith rather than supports it.

Approval rating and trust in the USCCB could not be lower. The good bishops are embarrassed by the actions of the USCCB. The faithful are disgusted. The credibility of the USCCB is lower than the US Congress composed of lawyers and politicians, not bishops. Positive actions by the USCCB, such as opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), must be viewed with suspicion. Do they know FOCA is not likely to pass and are simply trying to look good?

We offer no answer to the question posed at the beginning. We believe it is obvious, but leave it up to the reader.

We offer no solution other than prayers, plus verbal and written comments to your bishops. We believe there are many saintly bishops who are as embarrassed as we about the USCCB. Give them your support. Be active in your protection of the unborn, the handicapped and the elderly. Be active in your protection of the Faith.

"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)



Here is the website where you can find the contact information for all the bishops in the United States. By going to the individual diocese, you can find their e-mail addresses. http://www.usccb.org/bishops.shtml.
Also, for your information Pope Benedict XVI's e-mail address: benedictxvi@vatican.va.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

The liturgy of the early ages is most certainly worthy of all veneration. But ancient usage must not be esteemed more suitable and proper, either in its own right or in its significance for later times and new situations, on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma of antiquity. The more recent liturgical rites likewise deserve reverence and respect. They, too, owe their inspiration to the Holy Spirit, who assists the Church in every age even to the consummation of the world.[52] They are equally the resources used by the majestic Spouse of Jesus Christ to promote and procure the sanctity of man.

Assuredly it is a wise and most laudable thing to return in spirit and affection to the sources of the sacred liturgy. For research in this field of study, by tracing it back to its origins, contributes valuable assistance towards a more thorough and careful investigation of the significance of feast-days, and of the meaning of the texts and sacred ceremonies employed on their occasion. But it is neither wise nor laudable to reduce everything to antiquity by every possible device. Thus, to cite some instances, one would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive tableform; were he to want black excluded as a color for the liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Churches; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the divine Redeemer's body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings; and lastly were he to disdain and reject polyphonic music or singing in parts, even where it conforms to regulations issued by the Holy See.
- Pius XII
Mediator Dei
1947

The Truth!The Truth!WE DESERVE THE TRUTH!

If you love the traditions of the Church and if you support the Magisterium of the Church and if you actually dare to speak out against the liturgical abuses and defiance of Church law that have become almost the norm in so many parishes, you can always count on someone invoking Vatican II. Or worse, you will be confronted by someone who assumes that you are against Vatican II. Which brings me to a demand that we Catholics need to scream at the top of our voices to some of our priests, bishops and catechists:

STOP LYING TO US ABOUT VATICAN II!

With that in mind, read this excerpt from a letter from the Bishop of Basel, Switzerland, Kurt Koch, to his priests, reprinted by Fr. Z. After you read it, click here and read it with Fr. Z's comments. You've got to love a bishop with this kind of horse sense--and let's hope it's contagious:

What moves me?

More honesty please!

In the last few weeks a lot of journalists, and also some clergy, have been expressing their opinions of Pope Benedict. In these opinions were also contained many half-truths, untruths, and slanders.The worst accusation asserts that the Pope wishes to go back to before the Second Vatican Council. This accusation is the worst because it implies that the very person who possesses the teaching authority of the universal Church would work to undermine the authority of the council. This verdict, however, would be completely mistaken. As a young theologian, in fact, Benedict XVI contributed very much to the council. Anyone who seeks to understand the Pope now—not just from the media—but also by reading what he writes, would come to the conclusion that he has oriented his entire magisterium on the council. How should we then understand the accusation being made?

Many people have signed a petition for the unqualified acceptance of the council. Right from the start, the expression "unqualified acceptance" irritates me because I don’t know anyone—myself included—to whom it would apply. A few arbitrarily chosen examples will suffice:

– The council did not abolish Latin in the liturgy. On the contrary, it emphasized that in the Roman Rite, apart from exceptional cases, the use of the Latin language must be maintained. Who among the vocal defenders of the council wishes "unqualified acceptance" of that?

– The council declared that the Church regards Gregorian Chant as the "music proper to the Roman Rite", and that it must therefore "be given primary place." In how many parishes is this implemented "without qualification?"

– The council expressly requested that governmental authorities voluntarily give up those rights to participation in the selection of bishops, that had arisen over the course of time. Which defender of the council advocates "without qualification" for that?

– The council described the fundamental nature of the liturgy as the celebration the pascal mystery and the eucharistic sacrifice as "the completion of the work of our salvation." How can that be reconciled with my experience, made in many different parishes, that the sacrificial understanding of the Mass has been completely eliminated from the liturgical language and the Mass is now understood only as a meal or "the breaking of bread?" In what way can one justify this profound change by reference to the council?

– No office of the Church was given more significance by the council that that of bishop. How can we then understand the widespread diminishment in Switzerland of this office of the Church, which is justified by reference to the council? When, for example, Hans Kung denies completely the teaching authority of the bishops, allowing them only the office of pastoral leadership?

It would not be difficult to lengthen this litany. Even so, it should be obvious why I demand more honesty in the current debate about the council. Instead of accusing others, and even the Pope, of wishing to go back to before the council, everyone would be well advised to look over their own books and reassess their own personal position on the council. Because not everything that was said and done after the council, was therefore done in accordance with the council—and that applies also to the diocese of Basel. In any case, the last few weeks have illustrated to me that a primary problem in the current situation has been a very poor, and in part very one-sided understanding and acceptance of the council, even by Catholics that defend the council "without qualification." In this regard we all—once more including myself—have a lot of ground to make up. Therefore I again repeat my urgent request: More honesty please!

+ Kurt Koch
Bishop of Basel

Yes, indeed! More honesty please! We deserve no less.


Bishop Kurt Koch

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. And when we mention Christians, We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life -- for these find some excuse for their ignorance in the fact that the demands of their harsh employers hardly leave them time to take care of themselves or of their dear ones -- but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there.
-St. Pius X
Acerbo Nimis
1905

FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL SHUDDER

J. Harvie Wilkinson
"The fact is that we - civilized people - are retreating to the haven of our Constitution to justify dismembering a partly born child and crushing its skull. Surely centuries hence, people will look back on this gruesome practice done in the name of fundamental law by a society of high achievement. And they will shudder."

-Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson
4th Circuit Appeals Court
from opinion upholding Virginia's Partial Birth Abortion Ban

Get the entire story here.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

WHAT ARE the Church's greatest needs at the present time? Don't be surprised at Our answer and don't write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church's greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the Devil.
-Pope Paul VI
Address to General Audience
November 15, 1972

Padre Pio Said It

"The Catholic Church is not a Hotel for Saints. It is a Hospital for sinners."

PRAY FOR CONVERSION!

OneNationUnderGod, a Catholic political advocacy group is sponsoring a campaign to have Catholics pray for the conversion of "Catholic in Name Only" (CINO) politicians.

Great idea! However, let's take the idea a bit further and apply to a few of our priests and bishops. Here are a few obvious choices:


Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Retired Bishop Gumbleton might be the most famous auxiliary bishop to have never been promoted to a top job. He has been a supporter of Catholic dissident groups such as Priests for Equality and Call to Action (the same groups Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska has excommunicated) and has done everything possible to eliminate any responsibility of homosexual clergy for the sexual abuse crises that have been plaguing the Church since 1992. Yes, let us pray for his conversion to the Catholic faith.


Bishop Matthew Clark
Rochester's Bishop has not only embraced the homosexual agenda, but has made it known that homosexuals seeking ordination are more than welcome in his diocese. Never one to mention the Catechism of the Catholic Church's points about the grave disorder that homosexuality presents us with and completely ignoring the letters from Rome reminding bishops that homosexual candidates are unsuited for the priesthood, Clark has made his career vocation a mission of changing the very character of the Church. Let us pray for the conversion of this apostle of the hermeneutic of rupture.


Roger Cardinal Mahony
True, it may not be a crime to build the ugliest excuse of a cathedral in America (well, there is Oakland too) Cardinal Mahony has shamelessly attempted to redefine the Mass with his "pastoral litter letter" Gather Faithfully Together, has funded a video that proclaimed homosexuality as God's "gift" to the Church and has made his Religious Education Congress the most notorious dissent-fest of un-Catholic speakers posing as Catholics on the planet. It is going to take two generations to un-do the damage that he has done to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Pray not only for his conversion, but for his prompt resignation.

DON'T STOP THERE!
Do you know a priest or bishop preaching ideas that are antithetical to the teachings of the Church?

Do you know a priest or bishop that demands you respect his authority even though he brazenly rejects the authority of the pope?

Organize a prayer chain or prayer group and pray for these men. The Catholic Church is in need of Catholic leaders like never before.

Exposing Pro "Choice" Logic

When serious moral and political issues are reduced to sloganeering, any chance for substantive debate and examination are greatly diminished, as so brilliantly demonstrated here by Ann Coulter

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

However, a rude awakening is in store for the person who thinks that penance is necessary only for those aspiring to membership in the kingdom of God. He who is already a member of Christ must learn of necessity to keep a rein upon himself. Only so will he be able to drive away the enemy of his soul and keep his baptismal innocence unsullied, or regain God's grace when it is lost by sin.

To become a member of Holy Church by baptism is to be clothed in the beauty with which Christ adorns His beloved Bride. "Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her; that he might sanctify her, cleansing her in the bath of water by means of the word of life; in order that he might present to himself the Church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she might be holy and without blemish."

This being so, well may those sinners who have stained the white robe of their sacred baptism fear the just punishments of God. Their remedy is "to wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb" -- to restore themselves to their former splendor in the sacrament of Penance -- and to school themselves in the practice of Christian virtue. Hence the Apostle Paul's severe warning: "A man making void the law of Moses dies without any mercy on the word of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishments do you think he deserves, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant through which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? . . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
-Blessed John XXIII
Paenitentiam Agere
1962

Vatican II

"There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady."
-St. John Bosco
1862

Your Excellencies,THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE

Bishop Marc Aillet
This past week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' "Ad-Hoc Committee in Defense of Marriage" gave a presentation to the bishops at their semi-annual meeting for what will eventually be part of a pastoral letter on marriage (and we all know just how effective those pastoral letters are). Many fear that this is too little, too late.

Now let's be serious. Do we really need committees in order for a bishop to teach basic morality backed up by the Catholic faith? The sad reality is that with a few courageous exceptions, most U.S. Bishops don't speak out much about homosexuality, except perhaps Cardinal Mahony, who calls homosexuality a "gift" to the Church.

So for the sake of the old guard of bishops who seem clueless about dealing with the issue and the younger bishops who are struggling to find their voice in the midst of the politically correct bureaucracy the old guard wants to bury them in, I offer the example of the Bishop of Bayonne, France, Marc Aillet, who released this statement about a Gay Pride festival in Biarritz:

The organization of the "Gay Pride 2009” in Biarritz for Saturday 20 June only arouses my indignation, as it arouses the disapproval of many families and other people whatever their religious beliefs may be.

Indeed, the participation in this event by "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence", an association known for its provocative anti-Catholicism and blasphemous provocations, shows a genuine contempt for the Catholic faith and religious life which so strongly characterizes the soul, culture, and traditions of the Basque region.

It is the Churches intends to defend and promote in all circumstances, the family founded on marriage between persons of different sexes and the right of every child to be raised by a father and a mother.

It therefore rejects claims that "Gay Pride" echoes in the name of a tiny minority of our citizens, but it eminently respects homosexual persons with care and compassion for the suffering and difficulties that are so often theirs.

It proclaims that every person is a child of God and that everyone is called to conversion and holiness.

See, Your Excellencies? It's not that hard and it doesn't take a committee, focus groups or direct marketing campaigns to teach straightforwardly. In fact, our greatest saints were fabulously successful in getting the message out without the benefit of the media. The Bible is clear. The Catechism is clear. Why the hesitation? Why the silence?

Why have so few U.S. Bishops spoken out on this troubling issue?

Hmmm.

PRIVATE DOCTRINES

Rorate Caeli

"Our needs, our limits and weaknesses must lead us anew to the Heart of Jesus. If it is in fact true that sinners, by contemplating Him, must learn from Him the necessary "sorrow of sins" that leads them to the Father, this is even more true for sacred ministers.

"How to forget, regarding this, that nothing makes the Church, the Body of Christ, suffer so much as the sins of her shepherds, above all of those who turn into "robbers of sheep" (John 10, 1), either because they misguide them with their private doctrines, or because they suffocate them within snares of sin and of death? Even for us, dear priests, the call to conversion and to recourse to Divine Mercy holds true, and we ought also to present with humility to the Heart of Jesus the request that He may preserve us from the terrible risk of harming those whom we are bound to save."

-Benedict XVI
Homily during Vespers - Opening of the Year for Priests
June 19, 2009

TRUE THEN, NOW & ALWAYS

"We can see the hand of Satan in every hypocritical and powerful lie against the truth. We can identify the prodding of the devil Wherever love is absent, dead, and where selfishness is cold, cruel, and so on, and where the name of Jesus is defamed with conscious and rebellious hatred. Saint Paul tells us: Whoever denies Jesus Christ, Anatema sit [may he be condemned]. The condemnation goes to the demon who is behind man's denial. The devil is also active where the spirit of the Gospel is mystified* and contradicted: he achieves victory wherever despair has the final word.
-Pope Paul VI
Address to General Audience
November 15, 1972

*NOTE:
The use of mystify has nothing to do with mysticism. The term is defined as:

1. to confuse, bewilder, or puzzle.
2. To make obscure or mysterious.

The Holy Father was condemning those who confuse or obscure the spirit of the Gospel.

THE WORST KIND OF ABUSE:THE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY(after years of defying it)

Archbishop Weakland in 1980

THE DISGRACEFUL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REMBERT WEAKLAND
by George Neumayr
Catholic World Report

It sounds like an over-the-top Tom Wolfe novel: a successor to the apostles conducts an affair with a male graduate student, is accused of “date rape” and emotional harm by said student, and raids the collection basket of the faithful to hush the student up, then, as the bishop settles into a cushy retirement, he pens a “coming out” memoir in praise of homosexual behavior, all the while retaining the canonical rights and privileges of a retired archbishop and receiving pats on the back from fellow clergy.

Alas, this is no racy and risible fiction; it is the real story of Archbishop Rembert Weakland. The retired archbishop of Milwaukee released June 15 his autobiography,A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop. In it he admits to several affairs with men, crowns himself the first voluntarily “out” bishop, and argues that the Church should endorse the “physical, genital expression” of homosexuality, as he put it to the New York Times in May.

“If we say our God is an all-loving god,” he said to the Times, “how do you explain that at any given time probably 400 million living on the planet at one time would be gay? Are the religions of the world, as does Catholicism, saying to those hundreds of millions of people, you have to pass your whole life without any physical, genital expression of that love?”


Weakland gave this interview to the Times, by the way, from the “Archbishop Weakland Center, which houses the archdiocesan cathedral offices in downtown Milwaukee.” This small snapshot of episcopal decadence—an openly “gay” bishop spouting heresy while sitting in a diocesan office still named in his honor—would be amusing if it weren’t so sad and scandalous.

If Church officials worried about the corruption and perdition of souls as much as they fret about “tolerance” and “collegiality,” they would end this disgusting farce and suspend Weakland’s faculties. Instead, they sit on their hands as Weakland, outfitted in his priestly collar, grants interviews to news outlets about the glories of mortal sin.

The chutzpah of Weakland is breathtaking. But then, this is a Benedictine monk (he once was head abbot of the order, a footnote that is not likely to be lost on future Edward Gibbons) who could with a straight face spearhead a pastoral letter accusing Ronald Reagan of greed and fiscal irresponsibility while dipping himself into the faithful’s pockets for a $450,000 “loan” to pay off his disgruntled paramour, Paul Marcoux.

In other eras, a disgraced Benedictine monk would disappear into obscure days of prayer and penitential labor; these days he publishes a tribute to homosexuality and anxiously awaits a booking to appear on Charlie Rose and Oprah.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when Weakland was riding high in his episcopal saddle, he regarded himself as a sort of modern-day Cardinal Richelieu, a viciously savvy player of progressive Church politics. He knew the rules and how to bend them. But now he presents himself as an innocent waif and victim.

He had no idea that those abusive priests he shuffled from parish to parish were committing a “crime” when they raped children. Also, he “naively” assumed these children would “grow out of” and “forget” the molestation.


The airbrushed, warm fuzzy version, designed for mass consumption

Weakland also has the gall to blame Pope John Paul II’s Vatican in part for his payout to the grad student. You see, if only Weakland could have been open about his homosexuality (and the Vatican hadn’t been so secretive), the payout wouldn’t have been necessary, he suggested to the Times:

Archbishop Weakland said he probably should have gone to Rome and explained that he had had a relationship with Mr. Marcoux, that he had ended it by writing an emotional letter that Mr. Marcoux still had and that the archbishop’s lawyers regarded Mr. Marcoux’s threats as blackmail.

But, the archbishop said, a highly placed friend in Rome advised him that church officials preferred that such things be hushed up, which is “the Roman way.”

“I suppose, also, being frank, I wouldn’t have wanted to be labeled in Rome at that point as gay,” Archbishop Weakland said. “Rome is a little village.”

The Roman way? Try the Weakland way. Notice he doesn’t mention the most obvious consequence of coming clean to Rome: he would have had to resign.

Weakland’s dishonesty is sickening. Here is a bishop who violated his vows grossly, then plundered the hard-earned dollars of Catholic families to conceal his fraud, all so that he could avoid resignation and preserve his power, which he then used to liberalize and corrupt the Church in America for over a generation.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all.

Nor must we overlook the characteristic nobility of Latin for mal structure. Its "concise, varied and harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity" makes for singular clarity and impressiveness of expression.

For these reasons the Apostolic See has always been at pains to preserve Latin, deeming it worthy of being used in the exercise of her teaching authority "as the splendid vesture of her heavenly doctrine and sacred laws." She further requires her sacred ministers to use it, for by so doing they are the better able, wherever they may be, to acquaint themselves with the mind of the Holy See on any matter, and communicate the more easily with Rome and with one another.

Thus the "knowledge and use of this language," so intimately bound up with the Church's life, "is important not so much on cultural or literary grounds, as for religious reasons." These are the words of Our Predecessor Pius XI, who conducted a scientific inquiry into this whole subject, and indicated three qualities of the Latin language which harmonize to a remarkable degree with the Church's nature. "For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure to the end of time ... of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non-vernacular."
-Blessed John XXIII
Veterum Sapientia
On the promotion of the study of Latin
1962

You Can Lose It

Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone

From Catholic Culture

In a homily preached in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 15-- the first of two consecutive days of meetings between Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops of Austria on the situation in the Diocese of Linz-- Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone referred to two texts of St. Paul in making two points he wished “to emphasize briefly.”

He said the first text-- “I have kept the faith” (2 Tm. 4:7)-- is a reminder that faith is a very precious gift that is not acquired once for all. “The faith is able to be lost in every age and condition of life,” said Cardinal Bertone. “Rather, the truth of the faith itself can be lost, adulterating it, polluting it, confusing it.” The second text (Phil. 3:12-14), Cardinal Bertone preached, shows that St. Paul kept focused on the judgment of God as he conducted his pastoral work.

RECAP:
YOU CAN LOSE YOUR FAITH BY...

ADULTERATING IT

POLLUTING IT

CONFUSING IT



GOT IT?

SIX MORE GOOD CATHOLICS(and one very bad one)

Fr. Hans Kung: Can ANYONE find a photo of him dressed in clerics?
FATHER HANS KUNG
Fr. Kung has the distinction of being the most famous dissident theologian in the world, He has led the charge to the denial of Vatican I’s dogma of papal infallibility and has been a relentless critic of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI—a former university colleague. Among his criticisms is that the Holy Father is too rigid, yet when Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications against the Society of St. Pius X bishops, Kung criticized that too—evidently it’s O.K. to be rigid and exclusionary if it’s toward traditional Catholics. Kung was stripped of his license to teach as a Catholic theologian, but that has not stopped him from being the darling of leftist Catholics and he remains a priest in good standing in spite of how many people he has led away from the Catholic faith.


FATHER EDWARD SCHILLEBEECKX, O.P.
Like Fr. Kung, Fr. Schillebeeckx is also a world-renowned theologian of questionable ideas. In an age where belief in the Real Presence is at an all time low, Fr. Schillebeeckx has proposed that the "sign" of the bread and wine are changed into the "sign" of Jesus Christ. This heresy is specifically condemned in the Pope Paul VI Eucharistic Encyclical Mysterium Fidei. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has also questioned his positions suggesting that the resurrection of Christ is not an objective fact of faith. Retired (thanks be to God) he remains a priest in good standing, even though he has planted nothing but questions in the minds of so many Catholics who were looking for answers.


Michael Moore
Mega-calorie-consuming filmmaker Michael Moore, famous for firing cannonballs of hostility with a warm, fuzzy smile, proudly proclaims that his Catholic faith has influenced his quest for a more just society. The only problem is that Mr. Moore has taken the Church’s teachings on social justice and made the leap that they equate with a leftist political revolution. Besides promoting his anti-business, anti-capitalist ideology, Moore has probably done more than George Soros to help elect pro-abortion politicians. Of course, he is a Catholic in good standing and welcome in any parish.


Fr. Charles Curran
Fr. Curran was among the first of the traitors to publicly denounce Humanae Vitae and has been a consistent critic of the Church’s positions on premarital sex, masturbation, contraception, abortion, homosexual acts, divorce, euthanasia, and in vitro fertilization. Our Lady of Fatima told the young children she appeared to that more souls were in hell for unrepentant sins of the flesh than for any other sins. Where does that put a Catholic priest who actually promotes such sins? In this world, it wins him a favorable mention in every other issue of U.S. Catholic the “Catholic” magazine stinking up the racks in the vestibule of rupturista churches around America.


Fidel Castro
After years of persecuting Catholics, nationalizing Church property and making life miserable in Cuba, Fidel had the chutzpah to play the “faithful Catholic” when he welcomed Pope John Paul II to his island hell on earth nation. The Vatican has high hopes for Castro and his brother, Raul, to bring more religious freedom to Cuba and Cuba’s citizens have high hopes that both men will die soon. When Castro does pass, look for a huge funeral Mass with full honors.


The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
This homosexual, gender-bending activist group takes every opportunity they can to make a mockery of the Catholic Church and the good women who for centuries put the world behind them to serve God. Their activities have included blasphemous Jesus look-alike contest and bingo games where sex toys were awarded as prizes. Are they Catholics in good standing? Heck, Archbishop Niederauer himself distributed Holy Communion to them!

AND NOW FOR THE BAD CATHOLIC…




ME!

Since March of 2007, I have been banished from my own parish by a restraining order that orders me to stay away from people who do not even live in Valdosta, whom I am forbidden to so much as mention by name!

Bishop Boland of Savannah has extended the reach of the order by ordering me off of all Catholic Church property in Valdosta, even though I have never been convicted of any crime, have never touched or threatened anyone and have a federal security clearance.

Yep, If these are "good" Catholics, then I'm glad to be one of the "bad" ones.

You're not a priest.You have no authority.NOW TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY KID!

Communion time at Our Lady of Perpetual Modernism:
16 Extraordinary Ministers (3 token men with 13 women)
18 people in the congregation
no stained glass
no statues
lots of pastel colors and plants

By Ed Peters, J.D., J.C.D.
In Light of the Law

Lay ministers of holy Communion should stop offering "blessings-in-lieu-of-Communion" at Mass.

Concerns about swine flu have prompted many parishes to discontinue the routine administration of the Precious Blood. Okay, fine. But there's another Communion rite practice that should also cease if only out of concerns for public health. This time, however, it's a practice that (unlike distribution from the Cup) is an abuse per se, namely, that of lay ministers of holy Communion purporting to confer "blessings-in-lieu-of-Communion" on every Tom, Pat, and Harriet who comes up in line.

Lay ministers of holy Communion (by definition, extraordinary ministers thereof), in response to people approaching them without the intention to receive Communion (maybe such folks are non-Catholics or are Catholic kids prior to First Communion), currently do one of three things: they (1) speak and gesture a sign of the cross over such folks, or (2) lay hands on such persons' heads or shoulders while voicing a blessing, or (3) waive the Eucharist over them while purporting to confer a blessing. I think all three actions are liturgical abuses.

Let's consider them in order of gravity:

1. Blessing the faithful with the Most August Sacrament is expressly reserved to the ordained. Lay persons may not confer any blessings with the Host (Eucharistic worship outside of Mass nn. 91, 97-99, and 1983 CIC 1168). This practice should therefore be immediately halted wherever it has cropped up.

2. Touching many persons' hair, faces, and/or garments while serving food (albeit divine Food) to the public has to be a violation of some health and safety regulation somewhere, not to mention its being poor manners. If the swine flu makes distribution from a common Cup an issue, surely touching hair and heads while serving others food from a common Plate is a problem. This particular practice should therefore be halted promptly, regardless of what one might think about lay blessings during Mass.

3. Ministers of holy Communion have, I suggest, no authority by their office to confer any sort of blessing on anyone. Neither the General Instruction on the Roman Missal nor the Book of Blessings (which later source makes provisions for laity to administer certain blessings) authorizes ministers of Communion to confer blessings during Mass. Given that lay persons serving as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion have no liturgical duties besides the administration of Communion, the introduction of a mini-blessing rite to be performed by them seems to me a plain violation of Canon 846. This practice should, I think, be halted pending a study of its liceity by qualified persons and, if appropriate, its authorization by the competent authority (1983 CIC 838, 1167).

In brief, I suggest that lay ministers of holy Communion have no authority to bless anyone in Communion lines, they should refrain from touching people while distributing holy Communion, and they should immediately cease using the Blessed Sacrament for mini-Benediction rites.

If it takes swine flu to provide the occasion of halting these liturgically illicit, and hygienically unsound, lay blessing practices during Mass, so be it.

CAN WE GET SOME VINDICATION HERE?

Retired Archbishop Weakland:
We've heard quite enough about his gay old times.

by Edward Peters, J.D., J.C.D.
In Light of the Law

If, as George Neumayr writes in the July 2009 Catholic World Report, Abp. Rembert Weakland's autobiography really is, among other things, a "memoir in praise of homosexual behavior" in which the prominent prelate admits "several affairs with men" and "argues that the Church should endorse the 'physical, genital expression' of homosexuality", then Rome has, as I see it, no defensible choice but, in accord with canons 1405.1.3 and 1717, to launch an investigation into the allegation that Weakland has, in violation of Canon 1369, used "published writings or other . . . instruments of social communication . . . to gravely injure good morals" and visit upon him a fitting penalty. That Weakland is an archbishop should not shield him from canonical investigation and punishment, but rather serves to underscore the need for his correction under c. 1326.1.2. Moreover, the Order of St. Benedict should, I think, signal its willingness to participate in the process in accord with law (esp. cc. 696.1 and 705).

It's obvious that Weakland has no intention of stopping his attacks on various Church teachings or of refraining from giving protracted scandal to the faithful. The damage he has done, especially to the Church of Milwaukee, but to the Church Universal as well, is incalculable. What Rome should have done during the decades of defiance shown it by Weakland is a matter for historians to debate. The only question today, as I see it, is what, if anything, will Rome finally do to vindicate the faithful against the appalling and on-going scandal of Abp. Rembert Weakland?

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

In these times, so dangerous to religion and society, when the clergy of every nation are called on to unite together in defense of the Faith and Christian morals, it belongs to you, beloved sons, joined by a special bond to this Apostolic See, to give to all an example and be the first in unlimited obedience to the voice and command of the Vicar of Jesus Christ; and so may the blessing of God which we invoke descend copiously and preserve the Italian clergy ever worthy of their illustrious traditions.
-Pope Leo XIII
Fin dal Principio
(On the Education of the Clergy)
1902

Paper Tigers & Scapegoats

Reverend Walter Hoye

The City of Oakland, California seems to have declared war on Walter Hoye, the pro-life pastor of Berkeley Missionary Baptist Church. Not content to arrest him a year ago in May for violating the city's abortion clinic "bubble law", they obtained a restraining order against him, in spite of the fact that there was no evidence of him ever committing any violent act (something I'm familiar with). Hoye was later convicted of violating the ordinance, sentenced to 30 days in jail with a fine and, finally, released after 18 days for good behavior.

Now Alameda County's district attorney is seeking a court inunction to keep Hoye the distance of a football field away from the clinic where he regularly counsels women considering abortion. Below is a the text of an email from Hoye explaining his situation:

Yesterday, the Alameda County District Attorney (Thomas J. Orloff) filed a "Motion for Injunctive Relief Pursuant to Oakland Municipal Code Section 8.52.040.”

The matter is set for Friday, June 19th, 2009, at 2:00 P.M. in front of Judge Stuart Hing.

This is the latest attack from the City of Oakland.

The D.A. is asking Judge Hing to issue an order to keep me from approaching within 100 yards of the Family Planning Specialist Medical Group's Oakland clinic for a period of three years.

I will be represented by the Life Legal Defense Foundation.

Feel free to publish this information.

As always, emphasize "Peace and "Prayer" to all those that feel led by God to attend.

"Peace and "Pray" is the calling card of the Issues4Life Foundation, as we are committed to the principles of "Non-Violent Civil Disobedience" advocated by Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

As I learn more I will keep you posted.


Please pray for Reverend Hoye. A man with this kind of courage deserves our support. Please pray for his enemies in the abortion industry and the local government as well, that Hoye's suffering will help them grow a conscience.

The consistent defense of human life:

...Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.
-Pope Paul III
Sublimus Dei
1537


To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34).
-Pope John Paul II
Evangelium Vitae
1995

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

There is no need to insist how foreign it is to the virtue of charity, which embraces both God and men, for the members of Christ's Church not to think of those unfortunate souls who live in error outside the Fold. Surely the obligation of charity, which binds us to God, demands not only that we strive to increase by every means within our power the number of those who adore Him "in spirit and in truth" (John iv, 24) but also that we try to bring under the rule of the gentle Christ as many other men as possible in order that "the profit in his blood" (Psalms xxix, 10) may be the more and more fruitful and that we may make ourselves the more acceptable to Him to Whom nothing can possibly be more pleasing than that "men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." (I Timothy ii, 4)
-Pius XI
Rerum Ecclesiae
On Catholic Missions
1926

Austrian bishops taken to the woodshed:HOW TO GET A FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGWITH THE POPE

"Now what we got here is a failure to communicate..."
Austria's bishops, led by Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, met with the Holy Father yesterday and will meet again today, but it was not their scheduled ad limina visit. It was an extraordinary "command" appearance in which the country's bishops were summoned to come to discuss the problems--many of their own making--in the Austrian Church.

Of particular concern is the Diocese of Linz, considered a "problem diocese" by the Holy Father. Linz' priests went into open rebellion against the Holy Father after he appointed Father Gerhard Maria Wagner as its new auxiliary bishop in January. Wagner was allegedly offensive to many of Linz' priests because of his traditionalist leanings, opposition to abortion and homosexuality and a statement he once made attributing Hurricane Katrina as a punishment for sin (evidently the priests in Linz believe New Orleans is a holy, family-friendly place, free of all vice). Wagner withdrew his name from consideration and the Pope acquiesced.

Under the leadership of Bishop Ludwig Schwarz, Linz has distinguished itself as the most un-Catholic diocese in Europe.

Among Schwarz' achievements:

• Urging businesses to fight "global warming" by "lifestyle change"

• Inviting Catholics in the diocese to a "Global Church Specialist" seminar to be addressed by Hindu "eco-feminist" Dr. Vandana Shiva

• Allowed one of his priests, Father Josef Friedl, to live openly with a woman--until the story broke worldwide and the bad publicity forced him to fire Friedl (This doesn't just happen in Austria, folks).

• Permitted a Corpus Christi procession this past week using an illicitly consecrated focaccia loaf held with tongs instead of a consecrated Host in a monstrance (see the photo below).

What makes a diocese like Linz so bold and brazen in its rebellion against Rome? Perhaps the leader of Austria's bishops, Cardinal Schonborn. In many respects, a fine Cardinal, Schonborn seems perfectly comforable with liturgical abuse, as evidenced by his own presiding at a youth Mass filled with blasphemous deviations from liturgical norms.

MAKE NO MISTAKE:
THIS MEETING IS MEANT TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD'S OTHER "PROGRESSIVE" BISHOPS WHO HAVE "PROGRESSED" BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Austria's Catholics are crying out for relief and sanity under the leadership of a hierarchy that has embraced a different Gospel than the one Jesus preached. And Austria's bishops are crying out too: Crying out to be punished. Let us pray that the Holy Father can set these men straight or else move them into early retirement.

Come to think of it, that's not a bad game plan for America's bishops!


Would the Holy Father approve of THIS Corpus Christi procession?

SACRIFICE OR SMORGASBORD?

Only a priest can do this and it only happens at Mass.
Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life.
-Eucharisticum Mysterium
Instruction on Eucharistic Worship
Sacred Congregation of Rites
1967

I know we're not supposed to ask questions once the "authorities" have spoken, but can anyone tell me WHERE in the Vatican II documents that the Mass stopped being a sacrifice and the Eucharist was re-directed to become a "communal meal"?


Anyone can do this in their own home.

Catholic schools in the Amchurch era:LOOTED

SACRAMENTO BISHOP SUES RELIGIOUS ORDER
ALLEGES THEY TOOK THE MONEY AND RAN

Loretto High School, an all-girls Catholic preparatory school in Sacramento, is closing its doors after 50 years, citing declining enrollment--but something doesn't smell right: The nuns who ran the school, The Loreto Sisters from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVN) have sold the campus, which listed at $10.3 million. They plan to use money donated to the schools to pay of existing debts and finance the retired nuns motherhouse in Illinois.

The IBVM, a garden-variety order of modernist "peace and justice" nuns who shed their habits years ago, is currently involved in promoting UN policies and programs has a history of existing on the fringe of the Church.

In 1998, its leaders issued statements supporting women's ordination. One of the "nuns", Sister Caroline Dawson, actually said, "For several years, I’ve stopped reading papal documents. To me, they’re irrelevant and painful." (And that is what we have entrusted the Catholic education of our children to?)

In 2005, Loretto High School's principal, Sister Helen Timothy, expelled a pro-life student for exposing one of Loretto High School's lay teachers as an abortion clinic escort, even after the bishop of the diocese demanded that the high school fire the teacher.

Bishop Jaime Soto and seven financial contributors who have given generously to the school are suing the Sisters of Loreto, insisting that the money was donated for Catholic education in Sacramento, and that it should be used explicitly for that purpose.

This is going to be very interesting.


Loretto High School Principal "Sister" Helen Timothy:
Just one more reason to bring back veils and wimples.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

I exhort all the churches, and the bishops, priests, religious and members of the laity, to be open to the Church's universality, and to avoid every form of provincialism or exclusiveness, or feelings of self-sufficiency.: Local churches, although rooted in their own people and their own culture, must always maintain an effective sense of the universality of the faith, giving and receiving spiritual gifts, experiences of pastoral work in evangelization and initial proclamation, as well as personnel for the apostolate and material resources.
-John Paul II
Redemptoris missio
1990

Quacks, Charlatans & Heretics

"I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel. Which is not another, only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received,
let him be anathema."
-Galatians 1:6-9

Being married to a physician allows me to hear some incredible stories, some of which I wish I had never heard. Through medical school, residency and beyond, my wife has shared some of the most hideous things that can afflict the human body and some of the stupidest things some people will do in search of a cure.

Any major city has the newspaper ads for accupuncturists, chiropractors, hypnotists and varied "alternative" healers willing to sell a miracle for the right price. The more adventurous even cross the border, going to special clinics or buying prescription drugs without a prescription in Mexico. Most of us don't however. Especially with today's internet.

Instead, most of us look up our ailments online. We look up the prescription drugs our doctors give us. Sometimes we learn the side effects better than the healing properties of certain drugs. One thing is for sure: If the FDA told you that a particular drug was fatal, you wouldn't take it.

So what about the CDF? If they tell you it's fatal will you still take it? WHO is the CDF you ask?

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (previously known as the Holy Office and even the Office of the Inquisition) is the Vatican curial department that sorts out the good teaching from the bad. During the pontificate of John Paul II, our current Holy Father, Benedict XVI, served as its prefect.

The Catholic Church does not have the power to reverse its teachings when it comes to faith and morals. 2,000 years of tradition, scripture, the Church Fathers and an ancient tradition of scholarship have made it pretty clear that the Catholic Church does not bend with the times. And the CDF is the Church's arm for protecting the purity of the faith, so that nothing fatal can infect your relationship with God and His Church.

But some people don't like the Church's medicine. They are looking for easier cure. Repentence, mortification, self-denial, penance and discipline are not popular words these days. Instead, we hear trendy phrases like "fundamental option", "self-actualization", "self-fulfillment", "personal freedom", "liberation theology" and the like. But is that what Jesus taught us? Is that what He lived?

BUT WE ARE A VATICAN II CHURCH!

Fine. But Vatican II did not offer any new dogmas of the faith or reverse any that exist. Vatican II did not reverse any of the Church's teachings. Vatican II didn't reverse Pope St. Pius X's encyclicals warning us of the dangers of modernism.

The real irony is that the oldest members of the Church seem to have bought the false message. Often it is because a disobedient priest somewhere along the line took away the difficulty of Church law by giving them permission to take the easy way out. But deep down, their Catholic sense tells them that something is not right--they just refuse to listen.

What do I mean?

• Zeke wants to marry Zelda but he needs an annulment and he has no grounds. So Father Y coaches him about how to fill out the annulment papers to make it appear that there are grounds.

• Frank and Franny have a boy and a girl and don't want any more children. So Father Q tells Franny not to worry about taking birth control pills when she comes to Confession.

• Councilman Crowley has a blossoming political career. However, in order to rise in his party, he has to support fellow members who support abortion rights. Father X tells Crowley that the Church has changed, and it's between him and God, and it's nobody else's business.

• Simon and Shirley send their son to a Catholic school, where the religion teachers assure the students that there will be women priests just as soon as the pope dies and the next one is elected. It doesn't really sound right to them, but they get along well with the staff and don't want their kids kicked out, since there is a waiting list of students wanting to get in.

• Buddy and Betty have never married in the Catholic Church. Father G tells them that they are not married in the eyes of God and tells them that they must abstain from sex or else abstain from Holy Communion until they can be married in the Church. They shop a few parishes and settle on St. Crispin's because Father Z told them that the Church has changed and they don't need to abstain from anything.

• Father W has told everyone that it is no longer appropriate to kneel at the consecration during Mass, but that everyone must stand. He also turns away communicants who try to receive on the tongue, telling them that such practices are "preconciliar". Several parishioners yearn to receive Holy Communion the traditional way, but don't want Father W to be mad at them. He's very popular and it could hurt their "standing" in the parish.



Last week, I was listening to a song by U2 that included this poignant phrase:

You lied to me 'cause I asked you to...

Are we looking for a priest to lie to us?

Do we prefer the lies of a priest who is easygoing and friendly to the truths of another priest who may not have great social skills, but has great piety and devotion?

If your doctor told you that the lump in your stomach that was getting increasingly painful was nothing to worry about and just suggested taking painkillers, would you take him at his word, or would you get a second opinion?

If we won't let the quacks of medical profession get away with it, why do we trust the eternal destiny of our soul to quacks?

THE CHURCH'S TEACHINGS ARE VERY CLEAR.

THEY ARE NOT AMBIGUOUS.



The Catechism of the Catholic Church is online. The Code of Canon Law is online. Every papal encyclical is online. Every apostolic letter of instruction is online. Every decree of every ecumenical council is online. The writings of the Church Fathers are online.

If you have a good priest who is orthodox, check up on the Church's teachings anyway. You'll learn more and appreciate your priest more.

If you think you might have a quack running your parish, do your homework. Your eternal destiny is at stake.

Not Just a Prayer,But an Antidote

THE LITANY OF HUMILITY
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

(accustomed to be said after celebration of Mass, by Merry Cardinal del Val, secretary of state to Pope Saint Pius X)

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

Some men, indeed do not attack the truth willfully, but work in heedless disregard of it. They act as though God had given us intellects for some purpose other than the pursuit and attainment of truth. This mistaken sort of action leads directly to that absurd proposition: one religion is just as good as another, for there is no distinction here between truth and falsehood. "This attitude," to quote Pope Leo again, "is directed to the destruction of all religions, but particularly the Catholic faith, which cannot be placed on a level with other religions without serious injustice, since it alone is true."

...Indeed, the Catholic Church is set apart and distinguished by these three characteristics: unity of doctrine, unity of organization, unity of worship. This unity is so conspicuous that by it all men can find and recognize the Catholic Church.

...It is the will of God, the Church's founder, that all the sheep should eventually gather into this one fold, under the guidance of one shepherd. All God's children are summoned to their father's only home, and its cornerstone is Peter.


-Blessed John XXIII.
Ad Petri Cathedrum
1959

He Must Have Read Mortalium Animos

Jeffrey Steel: Swimming the Tiber

Some people choose God first.

Before financial security, before respect among peers, before advancement in their field of employment, some people choose God first.

Such is the case of Anglican clergyman Jeffrey Steel of Durham England. On Sunday, June 7, he published a post on his blog explaining why he was leaving the Church of England to become a Catholic with his wife and six children.

This could be a very expensive decision for Steel. Besides losing his job as a minister, he will certainly incur the wrath of a number of his longtime peers as well as congregants in his soon-to-be former parish.

In his post, he makes an observation that many Catholics would do well to read, describing the effect of studying the letters of an early Anglican bishop to St. Robert Bellarmine: "...I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things."

Some people choose God first.

Steel knows he is not taking the safe path. He writes: "Though my time in Rome had quite a bit of emotion as I prayed, what I actually came to see was the end of the wrestling with these questions in my mind and heart. It was now time to act on what my conscience was saying to me for some time. It was time to surrender myself and submit to Mother Church knowing in faith that God would open doors."

Some people choose God first.

Steel's adult life has been spent as a minister. While the Church has granted dispensations for the ordination of some converted Protestant ministers who are married, it has been on a case-by-case basis and there is no guarantee that Steel will ever be ordained a Catholic priest: "I realise that I do not come to the Church making demands. I come offering my life to Jesus and to the Church as I seek his will for my life. For the time being, I am simply giving up being the teacher and am now becoming the student of Mother Church. What she does with me is in the best interest of her and God's kingdom. "

Some people choose God first.

Finally it should be noted that the name of Steel's blog is "De Cura Animarum" (About the Cure of Souls). Many a Catholic priest would do well to review the purpose of his vocation in light of those words. It is glaringly obvious that Steel is not becoming a Catholic because of any false ecumenical gestures from the Catholic Church. He is joining the One True Church because it is the one Church that refuses to shed its sacramental character and divine mission, in spite of how hard some of its members have worked to undermine it.

Welcome home.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

The unity of Christians cannot otherwise be obtained than by securing the return of the separated to the one true Church of Christ from which they once unhappily withdrew. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, that stands forth before all and that by the will of its Founder will remain forever the same as when He Himself established it for the salvation of all mankind.
-Pius XI
Mortalium Animos, 1928

INSTANT STRESS RELIEF

Fantasia X, Que Contrahaze La Harpa en La Manera de Ludovico
-Alonso Mudarra, 1546.

Too many words? Then how about "stunningly beautiful"?

GIVE US THE REAL THING!

Catholic Culture reports that adult baptisms in the Catholic Church (the indicator of conversions) dropped 9 percent last year.

This poses a tough question:

WHY WOULD ANYONE CONVERT
TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH?

There are several possible answers, but let's look at the reasons people will not bother becoming Roman Catholic:

• No one wants to become a Roman Catholic for more "community"

• No one wants to become a Roman Catholic for a Protestant Church with sacraments

• No one wants to become a Roman Catholic to follow the way of the world

• No one wants to become a Roman Catholic to attend a Mass that has no Catholic character to it

Actually, I could go on and on about the reasons people do not convert--but this list is really about the reasons that dioceses are discouraging conversions.

My wife is a convert to the faith. She had been attending Mass for years and attending seminars and pretty much learned a lot about the basics of the faith long before joining the Church. When she graduated from college and was applying for medical school, (long before our engagement) I suggested she get serious about joining the Church, since she might never find the time to do so again.

She began attending an RCIA class at the parish where she went to Mass. Now she probably could have TAUGHT the RCIA class, but she knew attendance was required if she was to be confirmed. After one class, she called me and said, "I don't think I can do this." She complained about how dumbed-down and watered-down the instruction was. I agreed to attend with her the following week. The class, taught by a modernist nun in lay clothes, was all she described and more--that is to say, it was horrible.

At my suggestion, she made an appointment with the associate pastor at the parish the next week. She went in and explained that the class was just too hard for her to take and she asked if she could "test out" and just move forward to Confirmation. The priest asked her why she wanted to become a Catholic. She immediately replied, "I want to be a member of the only Church that has valid apostolic orders and comes from the apostolic succession." His eyebrows raised.

He asked her a few more questions and suggested she return to talk to him in another week for some private instruction. After a couple of more conversations, he set a date for her Confrimation and she was received into the Church shortly after.

That's not the end of the story. We have many friends and acquaintances who converted to the Catholic faith. When they found out that my wife by-passed RCIA, they all said the same thing:

"That's not fair! Why couldn't I get out of going to those stupid classes?"

(As a footnote, I called another priest I knew at another parish to see about my future wife attending RCIA in his parish. When he asked where she had gone to her first class, I told him. He said, "Oh yes, Sister ------- is doing excellent work!" They all stick together.)

Weak formation is not limited to RCIA classes either.

I received an email recently from a candidate for the permanent diaconate in another part of the country. He writes:

As I look back on the formation process few words can describe this display and the "instructors": Shameful!

-women Priests and Deacons, we were told the church has not decided on this??
-condoms for the Aids problem in Africa ??
-be more inclusive to Protestants?? less liturgy!!!?

I was the only candidate willing to literally stand up and dispute the lies, which was always meet with nonsense discussions and more rhetoric and lies, all of the ultra liberal candidates were selected to continue in formation. I and a few others were asked to leave, big surprise.

My point?

Protestants do not join the Catholic Church to become Protestants.

No Catholic identity means no conversions.

TRUE THEN, TRUER NOW

“At no time in the future can a priest, whether secular or order priest, ever be forced to use any other way of saying Mass. And in order once and for all to preclude any scruples of conscience and fear of ecclesiastical penalties and censures, we declare herewith that it is by virtue of our Apostolic authority that we decree and prescribe that this present order and decree of ours is to last in perpetuity, and never at a future date can it be revoked or amended legally. . . . “And if, nevertheless, anyone would dare attempt any action contrary to this order of ours, handed down for all times, let him know that he has incurred the wrath of Almighty God, and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
-Pope St. Pius V
Quo Primum

"OFFENSIVE BEYOND BELIEF"

Abortion is not a "civil right"--it's the denial of the most basic right:
Life

Fr. Frank Pavone's Blog

Atlanta, GA - Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., today reacted to remarks by late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart that compared the killing of George Tiller to the assassination of her uncle.

“For LeRoy Carhart to mention the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked through peaceful and non-violent means, in the same breath with that of George Tiller, whose work ended peace and brought violence to babies in the womb, is offensive beyond belief,” said Dr. King. “The analogy is just wrong.”

“Dr. Carhart also speaks of hate crimes,” added Dr. King. “I would simply ask him, is it not hateful to regard an entire class of people as non-human because they’re unwanted?”

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, also commented, “The message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was that every human being has equal dignity. LeRoy Carhart and every other abortionist violate that message every time they dismember a baby. The comparison is ridiculous.”


Dr. Alveda King

CHRIST THE HIGH PRIEST

By Father Richard Perozich
Pastor, St. Mary Church, Escondido, California

On the Thursday after Pentecost, the Church celebrates the feast of Christ the High Priest, using the liturgy of the Holy Eucharist from the Roman Missal. As I was preparing for the celebration of this Mass on June 4 which I did privately because Thursday is my day off, I began to reflect on who Jesus is, what he has done, what his priesthood means, how I share in it by baptism and ordination, and how short I fall in living out my commitment in the common priesthood and the ordained priesthood.

Ordained priests are configured to Christ, that is in their being a permanent indelible change is made so that they stay united to Him and to His Church, offer sacrifice and sacraments, teach the truth of Christ united to the whole Catholic Church over the centuries, and guide God’s flock according to Jesus’ teaching

The non ordained are configured to Jesus in baptism, and are freed from sin and set on a course toward new life where they participate in the offering of the sacrifice of the Mass uniting their own personal sacrifices to it, live the teaching and teach others to do the same, and pastor one another as they are pastored.

In America, a false idea of freedom is that we can leave the Catholic church, that all “churches” are equal, and it is our right to choose. Jesus created one Church. The fullness of it subsists in the Catholic Church with the Pope as its unifier on earth.

Catechism of the Catholic Church : 846 ... Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

Bishop Boland Discusses Vocations

For the last several years, the Diocese of Savannah has been doing a good job of attracting young men to the priesthood. In 2005, Savannah was the third best diocese (per-capita) in the U.S. for vocations. As of this writing, there are 13 seminarians committed to the Diocese of Savannah, with four slated for ordination later this month.

That said, is anyone honestly surprised that vocations are drying up in Ireland? The depth of the abuse problems that have been revealed recently only confirm that there is a systemic problem in Ireland's Church and, hopefully, the Holy Father will do something to stop the hemorrhaging. Perhaps the best thing Bishop Boland has going for him is that he is not trapped in Ireland!

There is one major reason some places are successful in vocations and others are not: ORTHODOXY. (Not the Orthodox Church, but orthodoxy with a small "o", meaning adherence to the magisterium of the Church and acceptance of the Church's teachings).

Our Sunday Visitor published a story by retiring Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss (himself a VERY successful bishop in attracting vocations) in 1995, entitled "Crisis in Vocations? What Crisis?" in which he made this observation:

It seems to me that the vocations 'crisis' is precipitated by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of teh Pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these ministries. I am personally aware of certain vocations directors, vocations teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who do not support the possibility of ordaining women or who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the rosary."

How does Archbishop Curtiss know about these problems? One way he would know is that for years, candidates who have been rejected by liberal dioceses and the effeminate seminary nazis and feminist nuns who control seminary admissions have fled to his diocese. His orthodoxy and that of his brother bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln have made Nebraska a refuge for orthodox priests and a paradise for Catholics who can't stomach the USCCB's institutionalized culture of dissent.

So what about Savannah?

Obviously, there are priests in this diocese who dissent from the Church's teachings--a few openly, many more in a "closeted" way, careful not to be too obvious about their ecclesiastical duplicity. There are also many solid priests who have somehow managed to maintain their orthodoxy or at least keep a balance between the culture of dissent so prevalent in priestly circles and their responsibilities as priests.

Bishop Boland must surely know that these younger seminarians take a more traditional, orthodox line than the men they will eventually replace--the men he supports (and even sometimes enables). However he is not discouraging our future priests, but empowering them, and in the process, empowering the future of the diocese. That shows, to a certain degree, open-mindedness, tolerance and maybe even a realistic acceptance that if the diocese is to continue to have priests for its growing Catholic populace, we'll have to accept the younger, more conservative vocations that are coming.

Perhaps the best thing that Bishop Boland has done for our seminarians has been protecting the integrity of their education. Most go to Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is probably the best (or at least one of the best) diocesan seminaries in the United States. His best talent is sent to the North American College in Rome.

So if Bishop Boland is doing his part to foster vocations, what can WE do? The answer lies in Archbishop Curtiss' further reflection on vocations:

Young people do not want to commit themselves to dioceses or communities that permit or simply ignore dissent from church doctrine...they do not want to be associated with people who are angry at the church's leadership or reject magisterial teaching. They do not want to be battered by agendas that are not the church's and radical movements that disparage their desire to be priests, religious or loyal lay leaders in the church.

Is it possible for young priests to be "battered" by anti-Church agendas after their ordination?

Yes.

But, you ask, who would do such a thing?

We do. We do it all the time.

Our priests are not sent to us to tell us what we want to hear. They come to give us the sacraments and tell us what we NEED to hear. So if a young priest fresh out of seminary preaches a homily about the importance of Confession, we should listen--especially if we never go. If a young priest preaches a homily explaining why In Vitro Fertilization or Artificial Contraception are intrinsically evil, let's at least give him the courtesy of a sincere listen rather than working behind his back for his transfer. It used to be that people might write their bishop to complain about priestly misbehavior or heresy from the pulpit, but in today's Church, softened by 30 years of lax teaching (or no teaching), people often complain to their bishop about priests who are too Catholic.

Can you imagine: Parishioners writing a bishop to complain that their priest is preaching what the Church teaches?

Don't complain about a priest shortage if you can't support the teachings of the Church. The priests who are coming will not be spoon-feeding us a feel-good gospel. It would serve us all well to listen and heed their words.

If you want to support the priesthood, support the Church. This is no time for "50 percent Catholics" (or even 90 percent). We are called to embrace the Church in Her totality. If you can't be 100 percent Catholic, please move over and make room for those who are hungry for the real thing.

THE HIGH PRICE OFDEALING WITH THE DEVIL

from Rorate Caeli

Giacomo Galeazzi reviews for La Stampa the new biography of Paul VI written by Andrea Tornielli, and mentions that what many considered a conspiracy theory was true: there was indeed a secret agreement, led by Cardinal Tisserand, between the Soviet Union and the Holy See (under John XXIII) in 1962 - an agreement which Paul VI also respected. As Galeazzi says:

In a note of November 15, 1965, in fact, Montini explicitly mentions among "the commitments of the Council" also that of "not mentioning Communism (1962)". The indication of the date at the end of the sentence written by Paul VI refers to the secret agreement, related by Tisserand, between Rome and Moscow.

And this would explain why the Second Vatican Council, which dealt with all sorts of issues, relevant and irrelevant alike, ignored the most challenging menace of its time: Communism.

Sounds Too Farfetched?
Read about AA-1025: The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle, a revealing manuscript found after the death of a priest that revealed he was a Communist agent whose only job was to assist in the infiltration of the Catholic Church.



Order the book here.

The Importance of Having the Right Enemies

“The hostility of the perverse sounds like praise for our life because it shows that we are an annoyance to those who do not love God; no one can be pleasing to God and to God’s enemies at the same time. He who seeks to please those who oppose God is no friend of God; and he who submits himself to the truth will fight against those who strive against the truth.”

-Pope St. Gregory the Great
In Ezechielem homiliae, 9



Thanks to Loyolalaw98 at Roman Catholic Blog

A Warning for Your Personal Safety!

Today, when my wife and eldest daughter returned from noon Mass at St. John the Evangelist, they were visibly shaken. In fact, I had to help them both in the house. My daughter burst into tears and ran into her room, while my wife stuttered in a state of post-traumatic shock:

"S-someone left business cards on the c-c-car!"

It's true!

Someone had the unmitigated gall to offend the sacred sensibilities of parishioners and threaten their personal safety by leaving business cards on automobiles while these poor congregants thought they were in the safety of the church attending Mass!

This poses some serious questions:

1) Did they get permission to put those cards on the autos?

2) If they DID have permission, why was no announcement made at Mass to pre-empt any safety concerns that startled parishioners would have upon finding these cards?

3) If they DID NOT have permission, is SJE going to prosecute the business (those notorious sandwich pushers at Submarina) for this crime of trespass and threat to everyone's personal safety?

This is outrageous! I am seriously considering bringing a lawsuit myself if the parish cannot guarantee the personal safety of my family.

Imagine the audacity! Terrorizing innocent Catholics by putting business cards on their cars!

You can't even be safe at Mass any more.


I'm shocked! Shocked!

UPDATE:
MAYBE THIS EXPLAINS IT
It seems that Submarina Inc. was founded in 1977 by Les Warfield and Ron Vickers in San Diego, California! And in California, it is not a crime to put flyers (or business cards) on cars. Evidently the local franchise has fallen too much under the influence of these California guys to remember what is right and proper here in Valdosta. (The actual company name is "Submarina California Subs". It's never a good idea to mention that state in the hospitality-rich South.)

Somebody out there better call these California outsiders and warn them that they'd better get their minds right! We don't put up with that stuff down here! If they keep this up, someone is going to have to file for a restraining order. Hopefully, the bishop will be notified about these dangerous sandwich vendors.

Hey Lord, uh, come back later!

One of the strangest episodes in the New Testament occurs in Saint Mark's Gospel. He tells us that at one point in His journey, Our Lord alighted on the coast of the Gerasenes and was met there by a man who lived in thew tombs, howling and lacerating himself. The man throws himself at Our Lord's feet in an act of worship and begs Him not to torment him. Our Lord commands the spirit that posses the man to identify itself and receives the answer: "Our name is Legion, because we are many." The devils then ask that, should Our Lord cast them out of the man, He allow them to enter into a nearby herd of swine. Our Lord mysteriously agrees and the swine rush headlong over a cliff into the sea. The man, then restored to his right senses, sits at Our Lord's feet.

The swineherds, we are told, run to the town and throughout the countryside, giving the report of what has happened. The population descends on the coast, where they find Jesus and the man who has been exorcised. And then, a curious thing occurs: They ask Our Lord to depart from them. This request is not like that of Simon Peter, who asked Our Lord in humility to depart from him because he was not worthy to be in His presence. The Gerasenes apparently want nothing to do with Christ. They want him out of their lives and off their land.

Their reaction, though it may seem puzzling at first, is really a quite common one. They know that a man of God has come among them; that he might do the same for them, for we are all in some degree possessed. They simply don't want to be freed from their demons. They are at home with them. They regret the loss of their swine and would regret the loss of their swinish habits. "Go. Leave us be, " they say to Christ.

And so do we all, almost daily.




-Excerpt, "Taking Care of Business" by Edwin Faust, The Latin Mass

TWO PERCENT OF CATHOLICS
GO TO CONFESSION ONCE A MONTH OR MORE.

Reminds one of the words of Fr. Bill Casey:

"I remember being in so many parishes where I found they would have confessions scheduled for about 15 minutes before the Saturday Vigil Mass begins. These would be parishes of 1500, 2000 families. You might hear three or four confessions and maybe 2,000 people would receive Holy Communion that weekend.

"Well, what do we discern from that? Either you have many people ready for canonization or you have many sacrilegious Communions."

Link to Fr. Casey

PERIL

How perilous and how grave is the disease of sin you shall know from the excellence and dignity of the Doctor HImself and of the medicines which are necessary to cure it. For when we hear of someone who is so ill that he is not content with the doctors of his own locality, but summons the most learned physicians from every direction and from the most distant places, and has need of the most exquisite medicines prepared at the greatest expense, then we who are not doctors would say that this person is laboring under some most grave kind of ailment.

What, then ought we to think of the disease of sin, which the wisdom, the genius, the power and the faculties of all men and all angels could never have healed? And clearly that disease would have led the whole human race to destruction had not Wisdom descended from the very bosom of God the Father, and prepared a most exquisite medicine from the very Blood of His own most dignified Body.

-St. Robert Bellarmine
Sermon on Hell, 1574

ECUMENISM HAS ITS LIMITS

Archbishop John Favalora
sporting the South Beach Bishop look

STATEMENT
from John C. Favalora, Archbishop of Miami,
about Father Alberto Cutié's separation from the Roman Catholic Church.

I am genuinely disappointed by the announcement made earlier this afternoon by Father Alberto Cutié that he is joining the Episcopal Church.

According to our canon law, with this very act Father Cutié is separating himself from the communion of the Roman Catholic Church (c. 1364, §1) by professing erroneous faith and morals, and refusing submission to the Holy Father (canon 751). He also is irregular for the exercise of sacred orders as a priest (canons 1041 and 1044, §1) and no longer has the faculties of the Archdiocese of Miami to celebrate the sacraments; nor may he preach or teach on Catholic faith and morals (cannon 1336, §1). His actions could lead to his dismissal from the clerical state.

This means that Father Cutié is removing himself from full communion with the Catholic Church and thereby forfeiting his rights as a cleric. Roman Catholics should not request the sacraments from Father Cuité. Any sacramental actions he attempts to perform would be illicit. Any Mass he says would be valid but illicit, meaning it does not meet a Catholic’s obligation. Father Cutié cannot validly officiate at marriages of Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Miami or anywhere.

Father Cutié is still bound by his promise to live a celibate life, which he freely embraced at ordination. Only the Holy Father can release him from that obligation.

To the Catholic faithful of Saint Francis de Sales Parish, Radio Paz and the entire Archdiocese of Miami, I again say that Father Cutié’s actions cannot be justified, despite his good works as a priest (statement of May 5, 2009). This is all the more true in light of today’s announcement. Father Cutié may have abandoned the Catholic Church; he may have abandoned you. But I tell you that the Catholic Church will never abandon you; the Archdiocese of Miami is here for you.

Father Cutié’s actions have caused grave scandal within the Catholic Church, harmed the Archdiocese of Miami − especially our priests – and led to division within the ecumenical community and the community at large. Today’s announcement only deepens those wounds.

When Father Cutié met with me on May 5th, he requested and I granted a leave of absence from the exercise of the priesthood. Because of this, he could no longer be the administrator of St Francis de Sales Parish or the General Director of Radio Paz. For the good of the Church and to avoid the media frenzy, I chose not to impose publicly an ecclesiastical penalty, although his admitted actions clearly warranted it. Since that meeting, I have not heard from Father Cutié nor has he requested to meet with me. He has never told me that he was considering joining the Episcopal Church.

I must also express my sincere disappointment with how Bishop Leo Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida has handled this situation. Bishop Frade has never spoken to me about his position on this delicate matter or what actions he was contemplating. I have only heard from him through the local media. This truly is a serious setback for ecumenical relations and cooperation between us. The Archdiocese of Miami has never made a public display when for doctrinal reasons Episcopal priests have joined the Catholic Church and sought ordination. In fact, to do so would violate the principles of the Catholic Church governing ecumenical relations. I regret that Bishop Frade has not afforded me or the Catholic community the same courtesy and respect.

In my nearly 50 years as a priest, I have often preached on Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son – which really should be called the parable of the Forgiving Father (Luke 15, 11-32). Perhaps the story told by the Lord so long ago is applicable to our discussions this afternoon.

A father had two sons. One of them took his inheritance early and left home, spending his money wantonly. The father waited patiently for the return of his prodigal son, who after he had seen the error of his ways, repented and returned home. Upon his return, the father lovingly embraced him and called him his son. I pray that Father Cutié will “come to his senses” (Luke 15, 17) and return home. The Catholic Church seeks the conversion and salvation of sinners, not their condemnation. The same is my attitude toward Father Cutié.

We must not forget, however, that there were two sons in the Lord’s story. The other son, who never left home, was angry that his erring brother was welcomed home by the father. To all faithful Catholics, I say what the father said to this second son: “You are with me always and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice. This brother of yours was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and is found” (Luke 15, 31-32).

In this beautiful parable Jesus teaches us that God is a loving and forgiving Father. Each of us has experienced that love, each of us needs that forgiveness; for we are all sinners. If our brother comes home, let us celebrate with the Father.

In conclusion, I commend and salute the priests of the Archdiocese of Miami and all priests who faithfully live and fulfill their promise of celibacy. By their fidelity to their promise they reflect more clearly to the world the Christ whose total gift of himself to the Father was pure and chaste love for his brothers and sisters. In our times so pre-occupied with sex, the gift of celibacy is all the more a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven where, as scripture says, there will be “no marrying or giving in marriage” (Matthew 22, 30). I encourage all Catholics to pray for and support our dedicated priests.

-Most Reverend John C. Favalora
Archbishop of Miami

Thanks to California Catholic Daily

NEWS FLASH:
There are huge numbers of Catholics who already converted to the Episcopalian religion. These conversos are hard to spot, since they are still attending and even performing services at most Catholic parishes. Some can be recognized by the Obama stickers on their cars. Many hide behind their parish memberships or roman collars.

There is one fool-proof method of finding out who the secret Episcopalians are: Tell them that you love the Traditional Latin Mass. Some are so deeply infested with this demonic bondage that they will start showing visible signs of anger at the mere mention of Latin. Be careful.

Changing of the Guard in Omaha

Bishop George Lucas

The Roman Catholic Faithful on Omaha's new Archbishop, George Lucas of Springfield, Illinois:

The Catholic Hierarchy did not do Omaha a favor by sending them Bishop George Lucas Bishop George Lucas of the Springfield, IL diocese seems to have dumped some of his garbage at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, NC. Msgr. John Renken, who is now at the cathedral and is acting as a judge in some annulment cases, was removed from the Springfield diocese several years ago after an investigation conducted by former Federal Prosecutor Bill Roberts concluded there were some problems in his background. The president and chief investigator for Catholic watchdog group Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF), Stephen Brady, stated today, "I know from first-hand testimony that Renken is a predatory homosexual and a thief. He was removed from this diocese because of misconduct, yet he has found his way to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh to conduct more business. God help those poor people."

On August 2, 2006 Bishop Lucas held a press conference releasing the results of his 18-month investigation of clergy misconduct within the Diocese. The report revealed that Lucas' predecessor, Bishop Daniel Ryan, "engaged in improper sexual conduct and used his office to conceal his activities. The investigation found a culture of secrecy fostered under Bishop Ryan's leadership which discouraged faithful priests from coming forward with information about misconduct. The actions of Bishop Ryan no doubt were harmful and seriously eroded the trust of parishioners and the community at large." Lucas began his investigation when he learned that one Thomas Munoz had contacted RCF with allegations of clergy misconduct. A complete copy of the report is available at www.dio.org or by contacting RCF.


Bishop Lucas had his 1999 installation Mass at a Masonic Temple.

In spite of the homosexual scandal that forced Bishop Ryan's "retirement" in 1999, Bishop Lucas permitted Bishop Ryan to continue to confirm children and even co-consecrate a bishop for a nearby diocese until Ryan was forced to take a "leave of absence" in 2004 after following the report that proved too embarrassing to the diocese.

49 Million to Five

The Obama Adminstration's idea of terrorism

In the wake of the shooting of late-term abortionist George Tiller, President Barack Obama sent out a welcome message that this nation would not tolerate attacks on pro-lifers or any other Americans because of their religion or beliefs.

Ha ha! Just kidding. That was the lead sentence -- with minor edits -- of a New York Times editorial warning about theoretical hate crimes against Muslims published eight months after 9/11. Can pro-lifers get a hate crimes bill passed and oceans of ink devoted to assuring Americans that "most pro-lifers are peaceful"?

For years, we've had to hear about the grave threat that Americans might overreact to a terrorist attack committed by 19 Muslims shouting "Allahu akbar" as they flew commercial jets into American skyscrapers. That would be the equivalent of 19 pro-lifers shouting "Abortion kills a beating heart!" as they gunned down thousands of innocent citizens in Wichita, Kan.

Why aren't liberals rushing to assure us this time that "most pro-lifers are peaceful"? Unlike Muslims, pro-lifers actually are peaceful.

According to recent polling, a majority of Americans oppose abortion -- which is consistent with liberals' hysterical refusal to allow us to vote on the subject. In a country with approximately 150 million pro-lifers, five abortionists have been killed since Roe v. Wade.

In that same 36 years, more than 49 million babies have been killed by abortionists. Let's recap that halftime score, sports fans: 49 million to five.

Meanwhile, fewer than 2 million Muslims live in America and, while Muslims are less murderous than abortionists, I'm fairly certain they've killed more than five people in the United States in the last 36 years. For some reason, the number "3,000" keeps popping into my head.

So in a country that is more than 50 percent pro-life -- and 80 percent opposed to the late-term abortions of the sort performed by Tiller -- only five abortionists have been killed. And in a country that is less than 0.5 percent Muslim, several dozen Muslims have killed thousands of Americans.

But the killing of about one abortionist per decade leads liberals to condemn the entire pro-life movement as "domestic terrorists." At least liberals have finally found some terrorists they'd like to send to Guantanamo.

Tiller bragged about performing 60,000 abortions, including abortions of viable babies, able to survive outside the mother's womb. He made millions of dollars performing late-term abortions so gruesome that only two other abortionists -- not a squeamish bunch -- in the entire country would perform them.

Kansas law allows late-term abortions only to save the mother's life or to prevent "irreversible physical damage" to the mother. But Tiller was more than happy to kill viable babies, provided the mothers: (1) forked over $5,000; and (2) mentioned "substantial and irreversible conditions," which, in Tiller's view, apparently included not being able to go to concerts or rodeos or being "temporarily depressed" on account of their pregnancies.

In return for blood money from Tiller's profitable abattoir, Democrats ran a political protection racket for the late-term abortionist.

In 1997, The Washington Post reported that Tiller attended one of Bill Clinton's White House coffees for major campaign contributors. In addition to a $25,000 donation to Clinton, Tiller wanted to thank him personally for 30 months of U.S. Marshals' protection paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

Kansas Democrats who received hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars from Tiller repeatedly intervened to block any interference with Tiller's abortion mill.

Kathleen Sebelius, who was the governor of Kansas until Obama made her Health and Human Services Secretary, received hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars from Tiller. Sebelius vetoed one bill restricting late-term abortions and another one that would have required Tiller to turn over his records pertaining to "substantial and irreversible conditions" justifying his late-term abortions.

Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison also got elected with the help of Tiller's blood money, replacing a Republican attorney general who was in the middle of an investigation of Tiller for various crimes including his failure to report statutory rapes, despite performing abortions on pregnant girls as young as 11.

But soon after Morrison replaced the Republican attorney general, the charges against Tiller were reduced and, in short order, he was acquitted of a few misdemeanors. In what is a not uncommon cost of doing business with Democrats, Morrison is now gone, having been forced to resign when his mistress charged him with sexual harassment and corruption.

Tiller was protected not only by a praetorian guard of elected Democrats, but also by the protective coloration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- coincidentally, the same church belonged to by Tiller's fellow Wichita executioner, the BTK killer.

The official Web page of the ELCA instructs: "A developing life in the womb does not have an absolute right to be born." As long as we're deciding who does and doesn't have an "absolute right to be born," who's to say late-term abortionists have an "absolute right" to live?

I wouldn't kill an abortionist myself, but I wouldn't want to impose my moral values on others. No one is for shooting abortionists. But how will criminalizing men making difficult, often tragic, decisions be an effective means of achieving the goal of reducing the shootings of abortionists?

Following the moral precepts of liberals, I believe the correct position is: If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, then don't shoot one.

This editorial was written by Ann Coulter for Human Events. If I had put the byline at the top, would you still have read it?

The Lovefest

The new edition of The Southern Cross has just been published and it appears that the entire issue is devoted to congratulating Bishop J. Kevin Boland on the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.

Just as any married couple who can survive 50 years together deserve congratulations, likewise, so does any priest serving that long, especially since our priests are married to the Church itself--a difficult wife under the best of circumstances. Bishop Boland's wife since 1995, the entire Diocese of Savannah, has been, no doubt, a demanding spouse.

So, I too congratulate Bishop Boland. I may disagree with him, but he is still my bishop. He may have banished me from my own parish, but he is still my bishop. He may refuse to talk to me or meet with me, but he is still my bishop. He has looked with indifference at my wife and children (face-to-face), but he is still my bishop. He has let his attorneys do all the talking for him, but he is still my bishop.

I hope, that as he celebrates his jubilee Mass on HIS property that perhaps he might just wonder what it is like to have to drive for an hour one way to get to the nearest Catholic Church...or worse, face arrest for setting foot on the grounds of your own parish.

I too pray for Bishop Boland and add to my prayers the intention that he not leave his post before reconciling with EVERYONE in his flock, including the sheep he may not like. Isn't that the pastoral thing to do?


CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR EXCELLENCY.

You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.
-Matthew 5:43-45

A FEW GOOD CATHOLICS( AND ONE BAD ONE)

CONGRESSWOMEN LINDA & LORETTA SANCHEZ
These two sisters both have a solid voting record of supporting abortion rights and homosexual rights. At the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, Loretta vehemently fought to keep a fundraising party at the Playboy Mansion over the objections of fellow party members. They are both welcome in their parishes at home and in Washington D.C. and can receive Holy Communion with no fear of refusal.


SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY
It would be hard to find a more staunch supporter of abortion rights and homosexual rights than Senator Edward Kennedy. The irony is that when several Catholic nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court appeared before him for questioning on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kennedy had no qualms about grilling them over their lack of support for "choice". Of course, Kennedy is always welcome in any Catholic Church in Massachusetts or D.C. and has never been denied Holy Communion. When you have a congregant as wealthy as Kennedy, you don't risk angering him.


CONGRESSWOMAN NANCY PELOSI
For sheer chutzpah, you cannot beat Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi not only supports abortion and homosexual rights, but has lied about the writings of the Church Fathers on national television as well as mis-represented Church teaching for a generation of confused Catholics whose only catechism was a book with butterflies on the cover. Yet, Pelosi insists that she is an "ardent Catholic". Her Archbishop at home in San Francisco, George Niederauer, evidently agrees. He supposedly met with her to privately discuss her open support of abortion, but nothing more has come of the meeting and she is still welcome at the Communion line of any Catholic Church (I was going to say "Communion Rail", but we all know that Catholics like Pelosi kneel for no one).


MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM
Of course the mayor of San Francisco supports abortion rights, but Newsom really made his name by insisting that The City start performing homosexual marriages. This has put his archbishop Niederauer in a bit of a predicament, since as a member of the California Catholic Conference, Niederauer had to at least NOMINALLY support Proposition 8, which outlawed homosexual marriage. But it obviously hasn't bothered Niederauer too much, since he is still quite comfortable hobnobbing with Newsom (far left in the picture below) and other wealthy Catholic donors.



PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON
Bill Clinton? A Catholic? Well, not exactly, but he IS an ardent supporter of abortion rights and, as president, made reversing the Mexico City Policy (that restricts abortions overseas) one of his first acts in office. Yet on March 29, 1998, President Clinton received Holy Communion while attending Mass as a guest in Johannesburg, South Africa. Now as politically charged as South Africa is, are we really to believe that the priest did not know that: a) Clinton was not a Catholic (and non-Catholics are not permitted to receive Holy Communion)? or b) Clinton was the world's leading proponent of abortion rights at the time?
Clinton scores as a good Catholic by virtue of the new ecumenism.

But give Clinton credit: At least HE understood that the norm for receiving Holy Communion is not in the hand.




CONGRESSMAN BARNEY FRANK
Come on, you say--Barney Frank is JEWISH!
And he is openly homosexual!
So what? In 2008 NETWORK, a Catholic "Social Justice" lobbying group, gave Frank a 100% approval rating (are they funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development?). Doesn't social justice trump moral theology and "denominational boundaries" in today's "New Church"?


Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
As Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864, Taney wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision, upholding the legality of slavery and stating that black people were "of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race". Yet he remained in the good graces of the Catholic Church. It seems that in Taney's time, even though the popes condemned slavery, many U.S. bishops looked the other way--sound familiar?


Justice William Brennan
William Brennan distinguished himself in 1973 by being the only Catholic on the Supreme Court AND by voting in the majority of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. His bishop never censured or disciplined him in any way for his vote, even thought he is complicit in the deaths of more than 50 million unborn children (to date).


Saleem Dennis, Attorney
Saleem "Sam" Dennis is one of Valdosta's most prolific and successful attorneys. He is also the president of the parish council at St. John the Evangelist Church. A man with a tireless work ethic and a strong knowledge of the law, Dennis did a masterful job in January 2007 of making sure that the temporary restraining order taken against me would become permanent. Particularly noteworthy was his condemnation of my freelance journalist work as he said with disgust: "He gets paid by the piece!" (I guess that means I'd be more respectable if I were given a retainer?) Thanks to Sam, he can discuss me freely and openly and I am restricted in multiple ways from telling my side of the story. But to Sam's credit, he is a generous donor and not just to the Catholic Church. In March 2003, he gave $2000 to the presidential campaign of pro-abortion Senator John Edwards (another attorney who specialized in malpractice cases). If someone who gives as much to the Church as Mr. Dennis says that I'm dangerous, the bishop is certainly going to believe him!

SO WHO'S THE BAD CATHOLIC?


ME!

YES! Guilty as charged! I have done everything I can to defend the Church's position on moral issues such as abortion, artificial contraception and embryonic stem cell research. I have openly declared my support for the Holy Father and his program to restore the Church to Her former glory, especially the right of ALL Catholics to worship according to the Church's ancient tradition. I have investigated and reported on scandals in the Church, even for newspapers and websites that don't enjoy mainstream "respectability". I love my Church. I homeschool my children. And I am banished from my own parish that is a five-minute drive away from my house. I'm not even allowed to communicate with my own bishop.

Why?

Because in the upside-down logic of today's world, I'm not just a Bad Catholic--I'm "dangerous".

COMMENTS CLOSED FOR THIS POST

He Knows the Cost of Discipleship

Reverend Walter Hoye

by Gerald Korson
Oakland's Catholic Voice

After having served 18 days in prison, the Rev. Walter Hoye is a free man and will remain so — as long as he doesn’t come within eight feet of anyone who is about to enter an Oakland abortion clinic.

That hasn’t stopped the 52-year-old minister from returning to the public sidewalk outside the Family Planning Specialists Medical Group building near Jack London Square, the site of his arrest last May that resulted in his incarceration at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin earlier this year.

Hoye, executive elder of the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in south Berkeley, is on a mission not only to save unborn children and offer abortion alternatives to women, but also to inspire religious leaders — particularly African-American pastors like himself — to take up the pro-life mantle within their congregations and local communities.

“The women going into this clinic are not fully informed on this issue because our pastors have been horribly silent on abortion,” he told The Catholic Voice. “They’ll preach about the cost of discipleship, but in America today you’ve got to be willing to pay the cost of discipleship.”

That “cost of discipleship” — a term borrowed from theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose open criticisms of Adolf Hitler led to his execution in a Nazi concentration camp — is a real risk for pastors in many Protestant churches where “you can get voted out of your pulpit on the same day you preach,” Hoye said. “So when I talk to these pastors, I know what I’m asking them to do. I’m asking them to risk their jobs.”

Yet there is much more at stake. African Americans, he pointed out, are the “number one customers” of abortion clinics today. Although blacks account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population, 37 percent of all abortions in this country are performed on black women. With a live-birth rate lower than the mortality rate, Hoye said, there will be no black Americans left by the year 2100.

“Between 1882 and 1968, the Klan lynched 3,446 black folk. Abortion kills more than that in the African-American community in just three days,” he stated.

“When I explain to the brothers that abortion kills more of us than heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and violent crime, they begin to realize that this is the number-one issue facing the African-American community today.”

“I’m not using terms like ‘holocaust’ and ‘genocide’ to get a response,” he explained. “We’re literally killing ourselves.”

Unlike most black Americans, Hoye said he was “horribly disappointed” and “heartbroken” about the election last November of Barack Obama, who openly supports pro-choice positions and legislation, as the nation’s first African-American president. Most blacks “put their Bible down when it came to that election” and voted on the basis of the color of his skin, Hoye said.

Nevertheless, he places responsibility for the abortion issue squarely on the shoulders of Christians.
“This is a moral issue; it’s not a political issue. It’s not in the White House; it’s in the church house,” said Hoye. “Until we stand up as Christians and look at it as a moral issue, we’re not going to be effective in taking a stand against abortion.”

Hoye began his sidewalk-counseling efforts in 2006 with a low-key, peaceful presence outside the abortion clinic at 200 Webster Street in downtown Oakland, often accompanied by two elderly ladies from his church. Holding a sign that says simply, “God loves you and your baby — let us help,” he would say to those entering, “Good morning. May I talk with you about alternatives to the clinic?”

CLINIC EMPLOYED ESCORTS
At first, no one paid Hoye much attention at his weekly visits. Then the police started to show up periodically, and the clinic began employing escorts to help usher the women past him and into the facility.

In January 2008, the Oakland City Council passed a new “bubble law” ordinance barring the “non-consensual and knowing approach within eight feet” or “harassing” of any person seeking to enter an abortion clinic.

It further defined “harassing” to include the acts of handing out literature, displaying a sign, or engaging “in oral protest, education, or counseling.”

“Essentially, it’s like Daniel,” Hoye said, comparing himself to the Old Testament prophet. “They couldn’t find Daniel guilty of anything but praying, so they made praying illegal.”

Soon clinic personnel began taking more extreme efforts to keep Hoye from communicating his pro-life message to clinic patrons. Two or more orange-vested employees would stand and walk on either side of him, blocking him with their bodies and raising blank signs to block his own sign whenever another person approached the clinic.

Finally, on May 13 of last year, two clinic employees accused Hoye of harassment, and he was arrested by police. A judge quickly slapped him with a restraining order preventing him from returning to the clinic.

In January of this year, following a 13-day jury trial, Hoye was found guilty of two misdemeanor violations of the new city ordinance and faced up to two years in prison and $4,000 in fines.

When a judge sentenced him in February to a fine and a three-year probation including a promise to stay 100 feet from the clinic, Hoye declined the terms and asked instead for “straight time.”

On March 20, the same judge sentenced Hoye to 30 days in prison. He served 18 days and was released April 7.

The guilty verdict came despite the fact that no clinic patron had ever complained, hours of videotape revealed no harassment on his part, and even the clinic escorts said he was “nice” and never bothered anyone, Hoye said.

He said he turned down the initial sentence and asked for a jail sentence because “I’d rather serve the time and then be entirely free to continue do what I’m doing outside the clinic.”

In the meantime, his attorneys have appealed his conviction and have filed civil suit challenging the constitutionality of the city’s “bubble law.” Both issues are expected to get their day in court soon.

Calls to clinic director Jackie Barbic were not returned by press time.

At the time he entered prison, Hoye had already begun a radical fast as part of the 40 Days for Life campaign against abortion, and jail cuisine didn’t provide him the nutrition he needed to stay healthy, so he became ill and weak.

Nevertheless, he maintained a steady, virtually round-the-clock prison ministry.

“I was having so much success witnessing for Christ in jail, I led eight men to Christ,” he said. “I led prayer there like Paul and Silas. I must have answered a zillion questions about abortion, marriage and relationships. The men just kept coming all night and all day and say, ‘Can we talk?’ It was simply amazing.”

In the final days of his prison stay, Hoye had a “special visitor” in Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, who at the time had been appointed but not yet installed as bishop of Oakland.

They enjoyed a long visit together, shouting to each other through the thick glass of the visitation booths because the phones didn’t work.

“Getting a visit from him did my heart so much good,” Hoye said. “I am in love with the Catholic Church, I’m in love with this bishop. We had a tremendous visit.”

Bishop Cordileone told The Catholic Voice afterward that Hoye told him about “his high respect for the Catholic Church because we have been defending the sanctity of life all these years, and he even apologized for Protestants being late in the game.”

HIGHEST RESPECT
The bishop said he had the “highest respect” for the Baptist pastor for “what he was willing to suffer to bear witness to the sanctity of human life on this very contested issue, this very politically uncomfortable issue.”

Hoye’s ministry is designed in part to discomfort the comfortable.


Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone

After a month of recovery from his prison ailment, Hoye was back in front of the abortion clinic on May 7, this time with what he called his “potted plant stance” — standing in one place with his sign and his literature, offering help to the women who approach the clinic. He doesn’t think he actually needs to say anything.

“As soon as they see me standing on the sidewalk with my sign, the sisters know exactly why I’m there,” he explained. “Just my standing there is a powerful witness, and much of it is because I’m an African American and I’m a pastor. Some of them probably know me, and it’s difficult to walk by your pastor into an abortion clinic.”

That’s why his presence so offends the clinic staff, he said.

“They know that even if one African-American pastor is standing against them, he has the potential of waking up other African-American pastors — and I spend a lot of my time doing that,” said Hoye.

For Christians, especially black pastors, there’s still that matter of discipleship.

“If we consider the sacrifices we were making in the 1960s in order to use a restroom, a water fountain, go to a restaurant, sit on a bus, why aren’t we willing to make these sacrifices when we’re talking about our own children?” he asked.

“I would imagine that we would value our own children more than we would value a latrine, a urinal, or the right to drink out of a water fountain.”

He challenges all pastors to join him in educating the public about abortion and paying the cost of discipleship.

“Once we start paying the cost, the people will follow,” he said, “and we’ll see the end of abortion in America.”

Patron of the rupturistasLEGACY OF THE GREAT ELIMINATOR

Archbishop Annibale Bugnini:
Not someone to be proud of

WHAT WAS SACRED THEN IS SACRED NOW

thanks to Rorate Caeli

St. Teresa of Avila once indicated she would willingly die a martyr for the least liturgical rubric of Holy Church.

One of the lesser known rubrics which disappeared in the reforms of Annibale Bugnini, a few prescribed lines of the priest for various categories of adult baptism, was suppressed by the Congregation of Rites on Nov. 27, 1959. In the Roman Ritual, Holy Church had placed the following words on the lips of the priest, to be addressed to the one about to be baptized: If the catechumen had been a pagan, he was told “Horresce idola, respue simulacra” (“Abhor idols, reject images”); if “from the Hebrews,” “Horresce Iudaicam perfidiam, respue Hebraicam superstitionem” (“Abhor Jewish infidelity, reject Hebrew superstition”); if “from the Mohammedans,” “Horresce Mahumeticam perfidiam, respue pravam sectam infidelitatis” (“Abhor Mohammedan infidelity, reject that evil sect of infidelity”); and if “from heretics” among whom baptism was invalid (otherwise the convert would not be receiving baptism), “Horresce haereticam pravitatem, respue nefarias sectas impiorum N.” (“Abhor heretical depravity, reject the evil sects of the impious N.”).

From a notice of the suppression which appeared in Ephemerides Liturgicae, 74 (1960), p. 133-134, and which is signed “ab”, apparently by Annibale Bugnini who was editor of the publication, we can take a significant insight into the mentality of the prime architect of the liturgical changes of that decade, and perhaps that of many reforming officials and bishops of the day. Bugnini links this suppression to the earlier removal of the words “perfidis Judaeis” from the Good Friday liturgy. Bugnini acknowledges that these words of the Good Friday liturgy were perfectly exact (“exactissima”) in their original meaning. But now they have become “aurium offensiva” (quotation marks in the original; “offensive to the ears”), an expression which the liturgical reformer is obviously adapting from one of the theological notes which had been employed for centuries, “offensive to pious ears”. Bugnini does not say that the traditional expression is offensive to pious ears, but rather offensive to contemporary ears thanks to a change in the everyday meaning of “perfidis”.

Bugnini goes on to claim that removing similar lines from the Ritual is a logical consequence of the suppression of “perfidis Judaeis”, for, as he says, “adults who lived for so many years in good faith in their own religion and now embrace the Christian combat” do not easily bear having to hear such raw words (“tam cruda verba”) about the religion of their fathers (“paterna religione”). This is a remarkable justification for suppressing this part of the Ritual, for the only logical connection with the Good Friday prayer is that both texts are “offensive to the ears”. They are not “offensive” for the same reason: the Good Friday prayer had become offensive on account of changed semantics, while the Ritual passage is seen as offensive because of the presumed attitude of converts to the religions they are leaving behind.

One wants to ask, who is “offended” by these words, Bugnini or the converts? Eugenio Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome baptized shortly after World War II and who published his story, would certainly have heard them, since he went directly from the Synagogue to the Church. Did he find them offensive?

Were they offensive to the German Jewish psychologist Karl Stern? The illustrious 20th century convert could have heard them, since he seems to have identified himself to some degree with Judaism in the period before his baptism, although this is not totally clear from the source consulted by this blogger. Various sources, both by and about Edith Stein, do not answer the question whether she heard these words at her baptism, since she had been an atheist for years when she was baptized. However it is likely that she knew them, because one witness remarked the firmness and ease of her Latin pronunciation during the ceremonies of her baptism, so it is probable that this scholarly woman had become familiar with the Ritual, even if she was not received “from the Hebrews”. Was the future Carmelite St. Edith Stein offended by liturgical rubrics of Holy Church which St. Teresa of Avila would have shed her blood for?

If the suppressed lines of the Ritual sounded “offensive to the ears” of those who had followed a pagan religion of their fathers, what was Bugnini’s attitude to I Peter 1:18? “[Y]ou were redeemed from the futile manner of life handed down from your fathers . . .”

Was there something of Bugnini’s attitude in many or most of the bishops at Vatican II who in Nostra Aetate professed to consider other religions with sincere “respect” (or “regard”, another meaning of the term “observantia”)? Presuming most non-Christians’good faith, they primarily wanted to befriend the followers of other religions, and this may have been the motive of many when they expressed the attitude of “respect” they brought with them to the examination of religions, ready to acknowledge elements of goodness and truth which can be found in these religions and which are mentioned in the same paragraph.

But “what was sacred then is sacred now”, even when an earlier liturgical practice is changed, for the faith reflected in the earlier practice is true. As seen, even Bugnini said that what was expressed by “perfidis Judaeis” is perfectly exact. Likewise the Vatican II decree on missions discreetly mentions that elements of goodness and truth in the non-Christian world must be liberated from “contagiis malignis” (Ad Gentes 9). As a logical consequence, since the Church’s sacred liturgy has publically expressed her rejection of religious rivals to her Lord, this rejection cannot be rejected, even when those religions are also seen to contain elements of goodness and truth, and when the liturgical rubric in question is not in current use.

(Note: St. Thomas explains the nature of post-Christian Jewish “infidelitas” and “superstition”: it is to consider the ceremonial and Christ-prefiguring laws as still obligatory in the time when the foretold grace of Christ has arrived and been promulgated by the apostles.)

An Open Invitation

Bishop J. Kevin Boland, the Bishop of Savannah who is convinced that I am so dangerous that I must be kept off all Catholic properties in Valdosta, will be in Valdosta this Wednesday to honor Fr. Marvin LeFrois (a fine priest) on the 60th anniversary of his ordination.

Now I know bishops have very busy schedules, but I would be more than happy to meet personally with His Excellency at any place of his choosing. My door is open and he knows how to contact me.

I'll even consent to being handcuffed in his presence if he thinks I am too dangerous!

What say you, Your Excellency? Will it be dialogue or more banishment?

If the Pope John Paul II could sit down with Yasser Arafat, what do you have to lose by meeting with me?

"America's Heartland" MY FOOT!

This Youtube video with its maudlin, sappy soundtrack shows a large gathering of people in "flyover country" gathering to honor a baby-killer.

Yes, killing Tiller was wrong, but if this is truly middle America, then we are finished as a nation.


Without God, We're Doomed.

Why George Tiller Needs Your Prayers

Now he has to answer for this.
And the judge he is facing this time cannot be bought.