Jill Stanek: Barack Obama “unmoved” by reports of infanticide

Stanek relates the story of how one night she saw a nurse bringing a baby to the soiled utility room to die, because the parents of the child did not want to hold it. The other nurse also did not have the time to hold the child. “When she told me what she was doing I couldn’t bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone,” says Stanek. “And so I cradled and rocked him for the forty-five minutes that he lived.”

Stanek recounts how, besides testifying before the federal House, she also testified before an Illinois State Senate Committee, a Committee on which Barack Obama sat.

“Barack Obama,” she says, “was unmoved, and actually opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.”

“This one guy, Barack Obama,” she says, “thought that infanticide was acceptable and voted to protect it. Some people said that Barack Obama was uninformed or may not have fully understood the implications of this bill. But he voted against it three times. That’s calculated.”

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First family takes 17 lavish vacations at taxpayer expense, while many taxpayers can’t even afford to buy gasoline.

“Blue collar Democratic voters, stuck taking depressing ‘staycations’ because they can’t afford gas and hotels, are resentful of the first family’s 17 lavish vacations around the world and don’t want their tax dollars paying for the Obamas’ holidays, according to a new analysis of swing voters,” reports the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard.

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* * * NEWS FLASH – swallowing small amounts of saliva, over extended periods of time, is ALWAYS FATAL * * *

Momento mori: Latin phrase meaning, “Remember, you will die”.

This is the truest reality there is. This is what makes us all the same. It doesn’t matter how rich we are, or how popular we are, or how powerful we are: we are all going to “kick the bucket” one day. Isn’t that a nice thought?

Okay, you may say, so what? After we come to accept this basic reality, we have to make sure we do everything with our end in mind. God tells us in the Book of Sirach, “Call no man happy before his death, for by how he ends, a man is known” (11:28 [RNAB]). The world is filled with examples of men who began well and ended badly! We need to make sure that we are not one of them!

If we keep our end in mind then we can begin to reflect on what is most important: What will I accomplish with my short time on earth? What do I want people to say about me once I’ve taken my last breath? Was my life worth living? Will I be a person who changed the world? Will I be a person who gave more than I took? Or will I be a person who took more than I gave? Will people say of me, “I loved to be around that man because he was a true man and he gave his life away for others”? Or will they say, “That person was one of the most miserable human beings you would ever want to meet”? What will others say about you?

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1st amendment prohibits the government from meddling in church business … even when it comes to politics … and tax exemptions!

The Thomas More Society says that the law and the Bill of Rights is on the bishop’s side, and promises a “free and aggressive legal defense to any religious leaders targeted or victimized for the robust exercise of their free speech rights.”

“The Internal Revenue Service has no legal right to investigate, let alone threaten or penalize the Catholic Diocese of Peoria for illegal ‘electioneering’ after Bishop Daniel Jenky, C.S.C., referred to policies of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin while delivering a robust, wholly legitimate critique of current federal efforts to quash and curtail religious liberties,” says Thomas Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society.

“References to egregious, historical mistakes on the part of political leaders of the past in messages to congregations, even in an election year, are fully protected by the First Amendment, whether those messages are delivered from the pulpit or on soap boxes in the public square,” he continued.

“We think the law is very clear,” said Brejcha.

“Well-settled federal law does not prohibit churches and other tax-exempt non-profits from speaking out against government policies at odds with the common good or – as in this case – constitutionally obnoxious.”

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“Sir, it’s going to take a pretty thick rug for that kind of praying.”

“Sir, it’s going to take a pretty thick rug for that kind of praying.”
(Preacher’s response to WWII General George Patton’s prayer request,
which was subsequently granted.)

Now we come to another prayer request … not from a military general … but from Father Ryan Erlenbush, at The New Theological Movement website … which will also require “a pretty thick rug”:

I propose that, during the month of May, we join together in a campaign for the family Rosary. To promote the family Rosary, we would do well to begin with a month of prayer. I suggest that, through a joint spiritual effort, we offer prayers every day during May for the renewal of the family Rosary and in preparation for an active Family Rosary Campaign in which we would engage during the month of October (the Month of the Rosary).

If you have a blog, or a facebook page or twitter account, please consider promoting this Family Rosary Campaign!

Visit the site

Makes you wonder how Obama would feel if his daughter (and grandchild) was “punished” by an abortion…

“It’s appalling. It’s offensive. It’s out of touch. And when it comes to what’s going on out there, you’re not going to close your eyes,” Obama said. “Women across America aren’t closing their eyes. As long as I’m president, I won’t either.”

The president explained that as a husband and father of two daughters he has a “vested interest” in advancing rights for women, and would fight efforts to “turn back the clock to the ’50s or the ’40s or the ’30s or maybe further than that.”

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Secret Service expects agents to be celibate while on the job!

by Doug Lawrence

The U.S. government lately seems to be demanding celibacy from Secret Service agents, so why is celibacy still such a “hot button issue” when it comes to Catholic priests, who regularly deal with  matters of  life and death, and who typically remain “on-duty” 24/7 and 365, wherever they happen to be?

Some jobs simply require total dedication!

The President of the United States is not God,
no matter what our current president might believe,
yet it’s very clear that those who are dedicated
to keeping him safe must remain
totally devoted to their task.

Celibacy is not an outmoded notion. It remains a very necessary and practical discipline for many … particularly Catholic priests … and apparently … Secret Service agents.

It’s nice to see government finally coming to appreciate traditional, Catholic discipline and common sense.

Don’t you wish everybody did?

Notre Dame vs. Bishop Jenky: Academia purportedly is about the pursuit of knowledge, but today most academics seem to be chiefly concerned about ideological purity and attacking ideas that offend their preconceived prejudices.

Father Wilson Miscamble, a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross and a history professor at Notre Dame defends Bishop Jenky from the attacks of members of the Notre Dame faculty:

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Wacky keynote addresses at annual assemblies of the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) speak volumes.

As anyone who’s a member of a large organization knows: leadership is often way, way out in front of those they lead. . .sometimes too far out.

Read ’em (and weep)

Secretary Sebelius admits to Congress: Obama regime was woefully negligent in promulgating HHS Mandate.

…the spotlight was again on Secretary Sebelius yesterday during testimony before a congressional committee.

During her appearance, Sebelius was asked about her claim that the HHS mandate “strikes the appropriate balance” between religious liberty and so called “preventative services.”

She admitted, “I am not a lawyer,” and that no significant legal groundwork was done to determine how the new mandate would impact our religious freedom. She admitted that no legal memos exist; only that there were “discussions.”

The truth is the legal justification for the new HHS mandate is full of holes.

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Three “classes” of priests: “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware.”

Saint Augustine

A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

Preaching on this verse, St. Augustine once said, “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware.” He refers these three characters to three classes of priests.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, we do well to consider the qualities of these characters and, even more, how the faithful ought to relate to their priests and bishops. Why is it that the people should tolerate the hireling?

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Radical feminism is … at its very core … unnatural and unholy

Consider the moving story of Kate Spicer: “I’m childless at 42 and haunted by the baby I aborted at 18″. I offer here parts of that story: “Terminating a pregnancy seemed far cleverer than pushing double buggies in small-town Devon, which is what some of my peers were doing after their O-levels.

“Today, I feel more emotional, guilty almost, about that bundle of cells I got rid of. In the bitterest of ironies, that terminated pregnancy remains the sum total of my reproductive history. Throughout my adulthood, I have sometimes felt broody, but have never let myself dwell on it.

“Using logic and reason, I pushed these instinctive urges from my mind: you don’t have enough money, you don’t have a solid relationship, you have no career stability, men can’t be relied on, you are too insecure. The family unit — Mum, Dad, two children — looked dull, claustrophobic and suburban. I was in denial, but every now and again my real feelings would break through the tough-girl rationale.

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Ya gotta have heart…

Those familiar with scripture will readily recall that the heart has a prominent place in both testaments.

In the Old Testament, God complains, through the prophets, about the superficial worship of the people, who offer material sacrifice, but their hearts are far from him. Proverbs speaks of wisdom entering one’s heart (Prov 2:10), the need to trust the Lord with all one’s heart (3.5), how a perverted heart devises evil (Prov 6.14), and that the Lord weighs the heart (Prov 21:2).

At the beginning of the New Testament, Mary is described as treasuring and pondering events in her heart. Then, there is that intense preacher in the desert, St. John the Baptist, who had people travel from all over the country into the desert to experience his ministry. What did his speech have that converted such difficult categories of people, like the greedy tax collectors, the tough military, and the professional prostitutes?  Even the haughty King Herod listened to his prisoner’s words.

The key is found in his description as ardens et lucens, ardent and illuminating. He appealed to both the mind, and to the heart. Malachi foretold a prophet who would turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. This was mentioned by Gabriel to John’s father, Zachary, in the Temple.

The Letters of St. Paul frequently speak in reference to the heart, such as when he asks Philemon to “refresh [his] heart in Christ” (Phlm1:20).  Christ always pleads with others in the hope their exchange enlarges his hearers’ hearts towards him.

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It is no coincidence that some of the Gay Liberation Front’s most zealous leaders are religious sisters and ex-sisters.

For example, lesbian activist Virginia “Ginny” Apuzzo, a former Sister of Charity, has founded numerous homosexual local and national organizations including the New York City and the Hudson Valley Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Community Centers and was Executive Director of the NY-based National Gay Task Force. She also served as Vice-Chair of the New York State AIDS Advisory Council, and was the highest-ranking gay or lesbian official to work in the White House.

The late Jean O’Leary, a former Sister of the Holy Humility of Mary, was an early spokesman for the male-dominated Gay Activist Alliance, which she left to form the Lesbian Feminist Liberation. She later co-chaired the National Gay Task Force and helped build the National Gay Rights Advocates and co-founded National Coming Out Day. Like Apuzzo, she played a major role in White House “gay” politics.

Unlike Apuzzo and O’Leary, Sister Jeannine Gramick worked from inside AmChurch to co-found the homosexual dream machine known as New Ways Ministry with her Salvatorian sidekick, Fr. Robert Nugent. [4] Together, they ushered in the golden age of the wholesale homosexual colonization of male and female religious orders in the United States which lasted from 1978 to 1998, and continues even today, albeit, on a smaller scale.

In 1972, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), Baltimore Province, over the objections of fellow sisters, released Gramick from her teaching assignment at the College of Notre Dame so that she might pursue a career in “gay” politics starting with the formation of Dignity/Washington, D.C., and Dignity/Baltimore. She later joined the (Marxist) Quixote Center which served as the staging base for the establishment of New Ways Ministry in 1978, and its many front organizations including the Catholic Coalition for Gay Civil Rights, the Center for Homophobia Education, Catholic Parents Network, Sisters in Gay Ministry Associated (SIGMA) and the Conference of Catholic Lesbians (CCL), the last two organizations directed at the recruitment and political networking of lesbian religious in Catholic active orders.

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Pope Benedict XVI wants the Catholic Church in America to be in the forefront of reviving Catholicism worldwide.

“The Church in the United States should lead the entire Church in the world” in a revitalization effort, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said. “This is a great task, but you have the determination and the grace to do it. This I know is the vision of the Holy Father regarding the Church in the United States.”

The archbishop was speaking to an audience of seminarians and benefactors of the Pontifical College Josephinum at its annual rector’s dinner April 23. He called on the American Church to go beyond its mission of evangelizing the United States and “to be missionaries not only to the Third World, but especially to the countries of Europe.

“Christianity (in Europe) in some way has lost its strength and needs an example,” he said, noting “very positive signs of growth” in vocations to the priesthood and the religious life in the United States.

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Mississippi Governor says left’s mission is “to abort children”

“The hypocrisy of the left, that now tried to kill this bill, that says I should have never signed it, the true hypocrisy is that their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb,” Bryant told Wildmon. “And it doesn’t really matter, they don’t care that if the mother’s life is in jeopardy, that if something goes wrong, a doctor can’t admit them to a local hospital, that he’s not even board-certified.”

Link

Media happily supporting idealized image of Catholic sisters that hasn’t existed for a generation

“This spin,” she said, “is omnipresent, always interesting, and often unintentionally comic. But however maliciously intended, I think it contains an element of nostalgia. It proves the irresistible attraction of goodness. Not even the liberal mainstream media can fail to see its beauty.”

Dressed in a flowing habit and devoting her life to educating children and building hospitals, or gliding serenely down spotless convent hallways and singing Gregorian chant in Latin: the classic image of the nun is less stereotype than it is archetype, a cultural icon of everything good and holy and true, and it is as much beloved by media as it is by Catholics.

Steichen told LSN that the only trouble with this picture is that the “good sisters” made in the image of this archetype are mostly an artifact of U.S. history and are now nearly extinct. LCWR represents about 80 percent of the 57,000 religious sisters in the U.S., with an average age of 74 and climbing. With the exception of a handful of young, deliberately faithful, countercultural, and largely recently-founded communities, the LCWR nuns and sisters have abandoned not only the habit that symbolized their devotion, but the faith that defined it, she said.

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George Weigel vs. DeLauro re: Ryan

How, then, does DeLauro imagine herself as someone who speaks for “my Church, the Catholic Church?”

My hunch is that she imagines herself a spokeswoman for authentic Catholicism because she, like many other Catholics on the port side of both American politics and the Church, have long thought that they alone hold the high ground at the intersection of Catholic social teaching and public policy.

Memo to Congresswoman DeLauro and friends: Those days are over.

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Garvan Byrne died at the age of 11 after a long illness, but he left behind an amazing and inspiring video for people of faith.

Click here … and have the Kleenex ready

I don’t know if Garvan Byrnes is worthy of sainthood.  But it seems to me that the Church should consider investigating his life and death to see if he is worthy of  being named a “Servant of God.”  From there, God will decide how high this young man should rise on that scale of sanctity.   It may all come down to whether God permits miracles to be permitted when people petition Garvan in the name of Jesus.

Thanks to Te Deum laudamus!

This year, make your vocation your vacation: Catholic Action weeks – June 21st thru July 4th!

Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for two weeks of public protest in June and July against what it sees as growing government encroachment on religious freedom.

The protests are expected to include priests and nuns and thousands of Catholic parishioners. Some activists expect civil disobedience, which could lead to powerful images of priests and nuns being led away in hand restraints.

“This is the most dynamic situation I’ve ever seen since I’ve been involved in Catholics and politics,” said Deal Hudson, president of Catholic Advocate, who also headed Catholic outreach for the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign in 2000 and 2004. “I think civil disobedience is almost inevitable. I think that kind of protest is on the way.”

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