Why did it take FOX News to blow ACORN’s evil deception? Instead the CCHD and the USCCB deliberately ignored the many Catholics that told them about this scandal for many years prior to this. Now that the USCCB/CCHD has been inconvenienced with bad public relations they finally cut them off. Well CCHD still funds many organizations that that are diametrically opposed to the central tenants of the Catholic Church. Here is a short list of what and who they fund:
Abortion, Capital Punishment and War: One of these things is not like the other
The basic difference between abortion and capital punishment (or the waging of armed force) is that the Church has firmly and explicitly taught that the former is an intrinsic evil: the direct taking of innocent human life to be opposed everywhere and at all times, while the moral worth of the latter two measures are contingent upon specific criteria and circumstance.
In the case of capital punishment, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s discussion of the fifth commandment, specifically the matter of “legitimate defense” (sections #2263-2267); on the matter of the waging of armed force, the Catholic tradition’s criteria for a “just war” (sections #2307-2317).
But is it not true that the Church has explicitly opposed contemporary instances of capital punishment or war? — If so, why have the Bishops not sought to impose similar restrictions on communion on those officials in public life favoring the use of capital punishment, or expressing their support of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq — a conflict on which both Pope John Paul II and even our present Pope (then-Cardinal Ratzinger) made their opposition known? Aren’t such figures not in open dissent and in a state of obstinate sin against the Church as well?
Planned Parenthood: Bad Business in Big Trouble
Medical abortions — which involve delivering the dead baby at home — are promoted as cost-effective alternative to surgical abortions, which is especially appealing to financially fragile affiliates. Take, for example, the Springfield, Illinois, location.
In 2008, all of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates in Illinois consolidated into a single affiliate and pooled their resources. This enabled the Springfield clinic to offer medical abortions — something they were unable to do before, owing to lack of expertise. Steve Trombley, CEO of Chicago Planned Parenthood, stated that the organization “will provide medication abortions in Springfield, rather than surgical abortions, because the medication approach requires less space, expense and other resources” — while still fetching $400 in revenues for each abortion. Such changes are expected to enhance the financial viability of the consolidated affiliate: Planned Parenthood of Illinois posted annual revenues of $24 million and a net loss of $2.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, Trombley said.
Top Ten Things to Know about Advent
The local radio stations are already playing Christmas music and everyone is already talking about the “Christmas” season–but it’s not yet Christmas – this Sunday begins Advent, the season for preparing for Christmas.
So what is Advent and why is it important? Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. It has a quasi-penitential theme, and this can be a strong antidote against the consumerism of our nation and time.
I was recently wondering about the origins of Advent and its history. So I did a little research and came up with the Top Ten Things You Need to Know about Advent:
The Natural law= bigotry? Please.
Baloney. What’s being retrofitted here is old-time anti-Catholic bigotry, tarted up in the guise of tolerance and extended to those who think there are moral truths built into the world and into us—truths that we can grasp by reason.
Ken Cuccinelli is a serious, practicing Catholic. He’s also a sophisticated politician who knows that you don’t argue public policy in the public square on the basis of uniquely Catholic theological premises. Rather, you make your arguments in a public vocabulary, accessible to all. That’s the grammar and vocabulary of the natural moral law: the basis on which Thomas Jefferson argued the case for American national independence, Martin Luther King, Jr., promoted the civil rights of African Americans, and John Paul II passionately and effectively defended the religious and political rights of all.
Was Jefferson a bigot when he staked America’s claim to independent nationhood on “self-evident” moral truths derived from “the laws of nature?” Was King a bigot when, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he argued that “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law”? Was John Paul II a bigot when, at the United Nations in 1995, he suggested that the truths of the natural moral law—“the moral logic which is built into human life”—could serve as a universal “grammar” enabling genuinely cross-cultural dialogue? Please.
Five Advent Reflections
The Following are “Five Advent Reflections” I have prepared. If these interest you I have prepared them also in PDF format which you can get by clicking here: The Season of Advent
Tom Roeser and the spirit of Fr. Ernie respond to certain Catholic commentators, politicians
Catholics bound by the moral law can agreeably participate in the secular political system where civil law may contradict the moral. But in no sense should the civil law intrude upon the conscience of the Catholic and require his compliance… nor frankly can the Catholic inflict the Church’s morals on the state beyond what is understood as the democratic process.
It is important to accept this as Murray’s wise guide-and nothing more. It certainly didn’t mean that Murray recommended that Catholics surrender their consciences and bow to unjust civil law. Far from it. But this is what John F. Kennedy implied when he addressed the Houston ministerial association in a speech written by one John Cogley, who ultimately left the Church. In his speech Kennedy assuaged the Protestant ministers by saying that he would not inflict his Church’s views on the country, that he would serve as president who happened to be Catholic-not as a Catholic president. This sounded dangerously scandalous to one of Catholic formation-except that Kennedy added this which I paraphrase: if an issue ever arises where civil action contradicts my religious conscience, I shall resign. That was enough to close the credibility gap.
Not that the John Kennedy we have come to understand would allow his Catholicism to interfere with his duties. In fact it is commonly known now that he did in fact allow sexual immorality to coincide with his duties and in fact it is still an open question as to whether his immorality… his promiscuous attentions to a young woman also the mistress of a Mafia chieftain… did him in! I shall not digress further! [Laughter].
… “There are two powers by which this world is chiefly ruled: the sacred authority of the Popes and the royal power. Of these the priestly power is much more important because it has to render account for the Kings of men themselves at the Divine Tribunal. For you know that although you have the highest place in dignity over the human race, yet you must submit yourself faithfully to those who have charge of divine things and look to them for the means of your salvation… For if in matters pertaining to the administration of public discipline, the bishops of the Church, knowing that the Empire has been conferred on you by divine instrumentality, are themselves obedient to your laws, lest in purely material affairs contrary opinions may seem to be voiced, with what willingness I ask you, should you obey those to whom is assigned the administration of divine mysteries?”
How times have changed!
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Geo. Washington, President
Tom Roeser on “the Squid” – Obama, Daley, and “The Chicago Way”
“The Chicago Way”-a method of bamboozling and backstabbing-is leading to disillusionment by significant portions of the Left with Barack Obama, the man it hailed as supposedly the most inspiring Democrat since Bobby Kennedy …
“A critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for [Obama’s] presidency [have begun] to wonder whether they had misjudged the man,” she wrote. She added this:
“The Craig embarrassment gives these people a new reason… to conclude that he (Obama) wasn’t the person of integrity or even classiness they had thought, and, more fundamentally, that his ability to move people and actually lead… is not what had been promised in the campaign.”
Reception for Father Dan Cambra on December 6th – Darien, Illinois
Reception for Father Dan
After two decades of faithful service in the Midwest, including 7 years
at Our Lady of Peace in Darien, Illinois
Father Dan Cambra is moving to the Divine Mercy Shrine
in Massachusetts, where he will continue to serve as
Provincial of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
in Massachusetts, where he will continue to serve as
Provincial of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
Join us for a celebration of Fr. Dan’s
wonderful vocation to the Priesthood,
as we send him off to Stockbridge
with prayers and best wishes for continued success.
wonderful vocation to the Priesthood,
as we send him off to Stockbridge
with prayers and best wishes for continued success.
A buffet lunch will be served.
All are welcome …
Sunday December 6
1 – 3 PM
Darien Sportsplex – 451 Plainfield Road – Darien, IL 60561
(2 blocks East of Our Lady of Peace Church)
Plenty of free parking. Elevator building.
First Thanksgiving Was Actually Catholic
It Was a Traditional Latin Mass of Thanksgiving in St. Augustine, in 1565. Fifty five years before the Pilgrims Landed at Plymouth Rock.
History books have long portrayed images of the US’s first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with Pilgrims, dressed in black and white, sharing turkey with American Indians. (It should be noted that the Pilgrims, who came to America to escape religious persecution from the Anglicans, were themselves the perpetrators of religious persecution. When they had been in power, they had gone around the English countryside destroying Anglican altars and liturgical accoutrements because the Anglican Church was too “papish” for them. No wonder they were “persecuted.”)
To the contrary, the research of Michael Gannon, an expert on Florida colonial history and professor of history at the University of Florida, over twenty years ago revealed that St. Augustine, the US’s oldest city, was the site of the first Thanksgiving. This first Thanksgiving took place in 1565, 55 years before the Pilgrims landed, when the Spanish founder of St. Augustine, Pedro Menindez de Avilis, and 800 Spanish settlers shared in a Mass of Thanksgiving. Get that? A Mass. A Traditional Latin Mass.
Following the Mass, Menindez ordered a communal meal to be shared by the Spaniards and the Seloy Indians who occupied the landing site. Prof. Gannon, in his book, The Cross in the Sand, states that the nation’s first Thanksgiving menu would most likely have consisted of what the Spanish settlers had with them during their voyage: cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic seasoning, hard sea biscuits, and red wine. If the Seloy natives contributed to the meal, the table would have seen wild turkey, venison, gopher-tortoise, mullet, corn, beans, and squash. [PRNewswire]
So, you traditional Catholic families, when you gather around your Thanksgiving table this year, tell your children the real story of the first Thanksgiving: that it was hosted not by the Pilgrims, but by traditional Roman Catholics, and that its centerpiece was not a turkey, but the Traditional Latin Mass.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Submitted By Doria2
Book Selection: Divorce, annulments, and the Catholic Church
The following are excerpts from the book Annulments and the Catholic Church: Straight Answers to Tough Questions, authored by canon and civil lawyer Edward Peters. The book is written mostly in question-and-answer format, with 100 questions on the topic of Church annulments being answered by Dr. Peters. Thanks to Matthew Pinto and Mike Flickinger of Ascension Press for allowing me to reprint this material.
A baptized Catholic Native American orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving
Squanto, the beloved hero of Thanksgiving, was the Native American man who mediated between the Puritan Pilgrims and the Native Americans.
Squanto had been enslaved by the English but he was freed by Spanish Franciscans. Squanto thus received baptism and became a Catholic.
So it was a baptized Catholic Native American who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving.
“New Age” Will Soon Be Old Hat, and the Church Will Still Be Standing
It was in the late 1960s that the teachings begotten by Gurdjieff, Suzuki, Krishnamurti, et al., flowered in the hothouse of countercultural rebellion against certainties political as well as spiritual. These teachings went mainstream; when “my generation” wasn’t sucking on hookahs and listening to “White Rabbit,” or striking against the war in Vietnam, we were all agog over the spiritual news from the East.
We got over it. The joke of my generation is that we turned the world upside-down, then most of us went straight. The joke of the next generation, today’s “New Agers,” is that they thought they discovered what we had already sampled and many of us had abandoned, at least those of us who went to work for Goldman Sachs and had 1.7 children.
Something else happened in the next generation, however, which runs completely counter to the New Age: an evangelical revival of traditional Christianity in the most secular country on earth, the United States. With the remarkable force transmitted by the papacy of John Paul II, backed up by the genial teaching of Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has been revitalized—potentially rediscovering the meaning of Vatican II and magnetizing such unlikely converts as . . . well, me.
So I’m not going to worry too much about the latest pablum being served up by New Agers, no matter how many books they sell. Ages will continue to come and go, but my money says, the Church will still be standing.
Coma patient: “I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead,”
Brussels, Belgium, Nov 24, 2009 / 03:55 am (CNA).- A paralyzed man who was misdiagnosed as comatose for 23 years is again communicating with the world after new brain scans showed he was in fact conscious. A Catholic bioethics expert suggests the case shows the wisdom of Catholic teaching on the duty to provide sustenance for those believed to be comatose.
Rom Houben, a former martial arts enthusiast, was paralyzed in a 1983 car crash. The Daily Mail reports that his doctors in Zolder, Belgium used the internationally accepted Glasgow Coma Scale to assess his physical and verbal responses, but each time he was graded incorrectly.
“I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,” said Houben, who after therapy now communicates with the aid of a computer. “I dreamed myself away.”
Three years ago, new technology scans showed Houben’s brain was still functioning almost completely normally. His case has just been reported in a scientific paper by the doctor who discovered the mistake, neurological expert Dr. Steven Laureys of the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital.
Laureys’ re-evaluation of Houben showed that the patient had lost control of his body but was still fully aware of what was happening.
“Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt,” Houben said. “I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth.”
Bishop explains Kennedy sanctions. Surprised at Kennedy’s response.
“I am disappointed and really surprised that Congressman Patrick Kennedy has chosen to reopen the public discussion about his practice of the faith and his reception of Holy Communion. This comes almost two weeks after the Congressman indicated to local media that he would no longer comment publicly on his faith or his relationship with the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tobin writes.
Bishop Tobin said that on February 21, 2007, he wrote to Congressman Kennedy stating that “in light of the Church’s clear teaching, and your consistent actions, therefore, I believe it is inappropriate for you to be receiving Holy Communion and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so.
“My request came in light of the new statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that said, ‘If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definite teachings on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the Eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain.’”
In the same letter, Bishop Tobin wrote to Congressman Kennedy: “I am writing to you personally and confidentially as a pastor addressing a member of his flock . . . At the present time I have no need or intention to make this a public issue.”
On February 28, 2007, the Congressman responded to the Bishop sating: “I have the utmost respect for the work you do on behalf of the Catholic community in Rhode Island… I understand your pastoral advice was confidential in nature and given with the best intentions for my personal spiritual welfare.”
“I am disappointed that the Congressman would make public my pastoral and confidential request of nearly three years ago that sought to provide solely for his spiritual well-being,” the bishop writes in his Sunday statement.
Bishop Tobin explains that he has “no desire” to discuss Congressman Kennedy’s spiritual life in public.
“At the same time, I will absolutely respond publicly and strongly whenever he attacks the Catholic Church, misrepresents the teachings of the Church, or issues inaccurate statements about my pastoral ministry. It should be absolutely clear the Congressman himself has once again chosen to make this discussion a matter of public record. In the meantime, I will continue to pray – sincerely and fervently – for his conversion and repentance, and for his personal and spiritual well-being. I wish him well.”
Courtesy of Catholic News Agency
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 