Saturday, October 31, 2009

Joe Coleman's jig is up - Mary was a no-show at Knock

Previously saying that everyone with eyes of faith would see the Blessed Mother at Knock at 3PM today, and expecting 50,000 to show up -10,000 people walked away disappointed today at Knock.

More than 10,000 people were left disappointed in Ireland Saturday as the Virgin Mary failed to appear as predicted at Knock Basilica.

By 3 p.m. Irish time (10 a.m. EST) about 7,000 people had crammed into the Basilica with a further 3,000 people outside.

Dubliner Joe Coleman, the man who had predicted the apparition left the Basilica at about 4 p.m. saying he had seen Our Lady as anticipated.

Coleman, who says he is “a visionary of our Blessed Mother” said he had also received communication from the Virgin Mary.

However, he said he was unwilling to reveal the message.

Speaking earlier this week Coleman had he warned that the visitation would only be visible “to people who come with an open heart”.


Apparently, 10,000 people who left their homes anticipating seeing Mary went with a closed heart.

Coleman saw her though and he has a message.

Whaoh.

Wait a minute...I'm getting a message too....

Hang on...it's coming....

I

see

10,000 jackasses...

..and 2 Blaggards.


Anglican Trade

Our friend Patrick Madrid has an enjoyable post up Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Apse on the Way Out.

The Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, Eugene Taylor Sutton, has announced that "the door swings both ways." He's rolling out the welcome mat for Catholics who, dissenting from Catholic teaching and yearning for a church home that will accept each of them "just as I am," may want to go out through the in door that Pope Benedict XVI is holding open for Anglicans who want to become Catholic.


Our parishes safe places for the teachings of the Church?

No terrorizing, threatening, bullying?

No heresy, abuse of the Body and Blood of Christ?

What a little piece of heaven that would be.

Shelter from the storms.

It's nice to dream.

What Halloween would be complete without Jon Gosselin News

On the heels of giving back (by court order) the 230,000 he stole from the bank account that feeds and houses his children, sleeping around with women, including an episode where he brought a young woman into his house to sleep with her in front of his children and calling it "babysitting" and when his wife found exploiting the police to get them to protect Jon and the whoring going on in front of the children, taking away the mother's means of supporting the children when his manwhoring got him cut from the show, contemplating a hookup with Octomom for a reality show - it's all culminated in a public drumroll for an new event this weekend.

Gosselin's latest victim came out early in the week admitting Jon is emotionally abusive and she is traumatized.Some celebrity rabbi has now stepped who used to be Michael Jackson's spiritual adviser (and we all know how he lived his life and ended up)and is saying there will be a big event on All Saints Day: Jon is going to apologize for his behavior.

On Wednesday, Glassman opened up about her relationship with the reality star dad, telling The Insider that he was frequently angry and emotionally abusive. "He'll call me and take his anger out on me," Glassman, 22, said. "He has 'mantrums.' .... I cry and say, 'Why are you so mean to me?' "

Still, she insisted that she wanted to stay with the father of eight. "I don't want to leave him all alone," she said. "When I love someone I would never hurt them."

A day later, Gosselin apologized to his girlfriend, saying in a statement, "I am grateful for her emotional support and I regret any pain that my actions have caused her."

Gosselin then announced that he planned to reconnect with his "deeper, more spiritual, more altruistic self" by studying with celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. "I have allowed myself to become somewhat severed from my own moral anchor and [to] be carried away by the challenges of fame," Gosselin, 32, said Friday.

Boteach seemed to foreshadow the couple's possible decision to spend time apart. "A husband must be faithful and he cannot be with another woman (while still married) and he cannot humiliate his wife by being photographed with other women," he said Friday. "Jon has to take responsibility for that and ask for forgiveness."


The rabbi seems like a decent man, actually, but I am a little suspicious of the publicity stunt. Perhaps he's just a sucker for a sob story. The fact that he's selling tickets to this event puts him, in my mind, in more of a circus category.

I feel sorry for the people being sucked into this creep's vacuum to try to "help" him. What he needs is a 30 day stint at an alcohol abuse treatment center and a good look in the mirror.

I'm suspect he's using props and narcissistic supply to abuse as he puts on the TADA, the show of redemption, so necessary for survival when everywhere you turn you are a jackass.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Tattle on the Bishop

Interesting quote from the Pro-Life Office of the USCCB.

Catholic leaders have asked bishops across the nation to insert the e-mail, titled "Oppose Abortion Funding and Mandates in Health Care Reform," in every parish bulletin or distribute it in pews or at church entrances.

"Congressional votes may take place as soon as early November," Tom Grenchik, secretariat of pro-life activities for the USCCB, wrote to diocesan pro-life directors and the state Catholic conference director.

"If your Arch/bishop is not in agreement with disseminating the bulletin insert, you will be hearing from his office immediately," Grenchik added


Whooah boy. That's enough to make them dance like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Last thing Bishops want is an invitation to tattle on them.

Is it me or is that a line in the sand?

The Recession is Over...Not so Much

"The recession is over" clowns lasted a lot shorter than even I thought they would.

Stocks tumbled 250 today.

Drops in key barometers of the health of consumers — what they're spending, what they're earning and how they're feeling — fanned worries that an economic recovery celebrated by the market only a day earlier won't last.

The huge reversal in market sentiment reflected how desperate stock investors are to reach conclusions about how the economy is doing, and how quickly they are willing to abandon those convictions.

The about-face from Thursday to Friday in the S&P 500 index, the benchmark for many mutual funds, was the sharpest swing for since February.

"I think you have a market that is ultimately looking for its direction," said Bob Froehlich, senior managing director at Hartford Financial Services.


They're looking for direction are they?

Ask the working slobs who always have our fingers on the pulse of the economy. We are not going to be fooled by the false indicators of economic "recovery" engineered by the taxpayer infusion of cash -- buying people cars and mortgage write offs for irresponsible people whose incomes could never afford the houses they bought.

Those things are are phony blips on the screen.

For starters, let's chat about the emptying commuter rail, people discussing layoffs in their corporations, furloughs, their lack of cash flow, the credit they can't get, several states creeping towards bankruptcy, how much groceries, gas, oil and staples are costing us.

If they actually think this is the road to recovery, they're stupider than we imagined.

Add trillion dollar bill presented to taxpayers to buy insurance for people who can't afford it themselves to this mess and see how it pans out.

The United States couldn't fare worse than Obama if they elected a man who is intentionally bankrupting and sabotaging the United States.

A day after a euphoric rally pushed stocks up the largest amount in three months, on Friday investors fretted that strapped consumers won't be able to carry on a recovery in the economy that has been driven by government spending and companies boosting profits through cost-cuts.


What will they do now.

Obama better hook up with Dorothy and the TinMan on the Yellow Brick Road to ask the wizard for a brain.

The recession is over.

Heh.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Another Maroon "Chaplain" at Harvard

Good without God Chaplain.

"A group called the Boston Area Coalition of Reason has spent $11,000 to buy ads on more than 200 subway cars on the Red Line and Green Line to raise awareness about people who believe that God is a myth."

"...It plans ads for another 10 cities, which will coincide with the publication of a book titled “Good Without God,’’ by Greg Epstein, a member of the coalition’s board who is the humanist chaplain at Harvard.


Well, misery does love company now doesn't it. Goodie for him.

I don't think there's anything more heartbreaking than people living their lives without a connection to God.

More Clarity on the Scuffle at Our Lady of Knock

Earlier this month, Knock made the headlines again when some 5,000 people gathered there in the hope of seeing an apparition of Our Lady, following the prediction by Dubliner Joe Coleman, who describes himself as “a visionary of our Blessed Mother and a spiritual healer under the energy of the Holy Spirit”. A video posted on YouTube of the sun breaking through the clouds at Knock on October 11th, with a voiceover by Coleman, has to date attracted almost 10,500 views.



Not much to see, other than the sun peeking through the clouds in Ireland. They evidently don't see the sun often enough to recognize the phenomenon as completely natural.

Coleman is now predicting that this Saturday, at 3pm, Our Lady will appear in the Knock Basilica, and that there will be even larger crowds in attendance this time, now that word is spreading via the internet.


This ought to be interesting.

The prediction comes with my favorite big red flag: Our Lady is going to shut the gates of Heaven to anyone who doesn't believe Coleman.

Coleman claims that Mary, in her latest apparition, told him she is very angry: “She will rock the foundations of the church if the people do not listen, from Rome back down to where we are, down to Knock. And the gates of Heaven will be closed.” How will she do this? “She says she’ll do it, I don’t know how she’ll do it, but she’s angry,” he repeats.


That is just not something that is coming from the Holy Spirit for reasons I don't think any reader here needs an explanation about.

Massive Mobilization of Catholics to Oppose "Health Care" that Will Kill Us All from....the Bishops!

Kicking things up ten notches at the USCCB

An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to mobilize the Catholic faithful on an urgent matter of public policy concerning the fundamental and foundational human right to life.


And if you think that's shocking, get this:

The E-Mail specifically asks that no parish opt out of this initiative.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

HBO and Larry David Urinate on Christ







The few snippets I've seen of Larry David when I'm turning a channel demonstrate that he's a vulgar social moron.

At one point in the show, David goes to the bathroom in a Catholic home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus; he doesn't clean it off. Then a Catholic woman goes to the bathroom, sees the picture and concludes that Jesus is crying. She then summons her equally stupid mother and the two of them fall to their knees in prayer. When David and Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) are asked if they ever experienced a miracle, David answers, "every erection is a miracle." That's what passes for creativity these days.


Disburbed individuals.

This snippet from the newsbusters story says it all:



A Big Hollywood reader sent an e-mail message to the website asking an interesting question:

Of course, the hypocrisy is that Mr. David would never exhibit such gross contempt for any other religion, especially Islam. Can you imagine the s**t storm that would follow if David pissed on a painting of the prophet Muhammad? Of course, HBO, the complicit scum that they are, would not have allowed that to air.

When You Eat My Body and Drink My Blood - you shall contract H1N1

The Boston Globe started the day with headlines about the "jarring" and radical changes to the Catholic Liturgy to prepare for the mythical H1N1.

The Rev. Jonathan Gaspar, co director of the Boston Archdiocese’s Office of Worship and Spiritual Life, acknowledged in an interview that the measures are “going to be jarring at first’’ for the nearly 300,000 Catholics who attend weekly services and are accustomed to the rituals.


Has anybody know of anybody in the nation who is sick and who can present laboratory results that say they have H1N1?

The internet is a big place. Nobody I know can find anybody who has it or even knows of anybody who knows somebody else who has it.

Hellllloooooooeeeewww.


The Blood of Christ is contained within the Eucharist. Every Grace and gift is complete within the Eucharist and so there is no jarring change there.

No shaking hands or hugging at Mass... is...jarring?

The article drove the detractors of the Catholic Church to thrash about in the comments section.

Personally, I agree wholeheartedly with this comment:

'Why is this front page news? I mean, seriously, who cares?"

The reason the Globe writes a disproportionate number of articles on the Catholic Church relative to other religions can be found in the number of comments regarding this silly article. It is a non-story but the Globe folks know that any story on the Church will bring out the haters in force which will drive key metrics for Boston.com such as the number of visitors, number of comments, time on site per visit and page views all of which can drive advertising rates.

While the Globe clearly hates the church for its positions on gay marriage and abortion and keeps a full time anti-Catholic op-ed writer on staff, the decision to run this story is simply an economic one.


I absolutely LOVE the faith of the Greek Orthodox hierarch:

The local Greek Orthodox diocese has taken a different approach, arguing disease cannot be spread via Communion.

“The Church has always been clear in its belief that diseases are not transmitted from the Holy Chalice, which we believe contains the very body and blood of our Savior,’’ Metropolitan Methodios, the presiding hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Massachusetts, said in a statement. He urged sick people to stay home but also said worshipers should “not panic, but carry on with their usual activities, including going to church and receiving Holy Communion.’’


I left a message for Fr. Convertino of St. Anthony's Shrine today. Getting in touch with anybody there is quite the process. I'll keep you updated on the happenings there.

In the meantime, a reader sent the below info that affirms that it is the Bishop, not Fr. Convertino or any other sacrilegious loose cannon with authority over changes for the bubonic plague we are not seeing.

Guarding Against Swine Flu
ROME, OCT. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Q: What is the bishop's authority when it comes to a pandemic such as the H1N1 virus? Our local bishop has not only removed the sign of peace at Mass in order to avoid handshakes, forbade the reception of the Eucharist on the tongue, removed the possibility for the faithful to receive the blood of Christ, and emptied the blessed water in all the churches of our diocese, but he has officially asked all parishioners to not attend Mass on Sunday if they have a cough. I find this measure a little extreme when our town has not yet had any real case of this virus and our province has had very few cases as a total. Is a cough really an excuse to not attend Sunday Mass? -- M.J., Province of Alberta

A: There are really two questions involved. One regards the extent of the bishop's authority when it comes to responding to a pandemic, the other regarding a particular prudential judgment by a bishop.

With respect to the first question, all of the measures mentioned by our correspondent would fall under the bishop's general overall authority to regulate the liturgy and to dispense from disciplinary laws in particular cases. It is understood that most of these are temporary measures. The bishop would have the authority to permanently regulate some of these elements such as the gesture for the sign of peace and the availability of Communion under both species as the law already places the regulation of these elements under his authority.

Others, such as the prohibition against receiving Communion on the tongue, can be enacted as an emergency measure by the bishop but could not be made permanent or general without an indult from the Holy See.

The practices outlined by the bishop in this case are basically preventive measures that seek to avoid the spread of a possible pandemic and reduce the risk of infection.

In more serious cases, such as being in the midst of an actual pandemic, the bishop could even take more drastic action. Thus during the initial outbreak of this flu, when the malady was still poorly understood, the cardinal archbishop of Mexico City even went so far as to cancel all public Masses for a couple of weeks until the danger subsided.

With respect to the second question, I believe it is necessary to defer to the bishop's prudential judgment in reaching a decision. Since most bishops are not doctors of medicine they would usually consult with experts and with public health authorities regarding appropriate actions to take in the face on an objective risk. We have to suppose that your bishop took these steps and made his decision in the light of informed advice.

For example, in normal circumstances a mild cough would not necessarily excuse an otherwise healthy person from attending Sunday Mass. If, however, the person was as yet unaware as to the cause of the symptom (be it the common cold, regular seasonal flu or this new strain), he should prudently not expose himself and others to risk until the issue has been duly clarified.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Feast of St. Jude tomorrow, October 28th

Tomorrow, October 28th is the Feast of St. Jude.

St. Jude is the patron Saint of hopeless causes.

He is an author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, particularly the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics. This Apostle is said to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia, which was then subject to Persia. The final conversion of the Armenian nation to Christianity did not take place until the third century of our era.

Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection. Little else is known of his life. Legend claims that he visited Beirut and Edessa; possibly martyred with St. Simon in Persia.

Jude is invoked in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them. Therefore, he is the patron saint of desperate cases and his feast day is October 28


St. Jude rocks.


Kelly Thatcher has an entertaining post about the phenomenon around St. Jude that derails a bit from the Catholic practice of petitioning a Saint for an intercession.

Kelly has a fun way of expressing her exasperation.

Do visit and enjoy.

Be persistent

Below was sent to me and I pass it along to you to demonstrate why it's important to make a sensible but firm appeal when hysteria is in the air and the Eucharist and faithful are victimized:



POWER in the Internet

Carol - last week a friend told me she had been up in NH & read in the Union Leader that the Diocese via Bishop McCormack had issued directives that because of the swine flu Communion on the tongue was not allowed. SO, I sent the diocese office an email


----- Original Message -----
From: Donovan, Kevin
To: ________________
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:09 AM
Subject: Diocese of Manchester

Dear Miss ______________,





Thank you for your e-mail. You should be aware that Bishop McCormack has distributed revised sanitary directives to all clergy regarding the distribution of the Holy Eucharist. Priests, deacons, and extraordinary ministers have been asked that, should one wish to receive on the tongue that they may do so. I hope this is helpful to you.



Yours,



Kevin Donovan


Director of Communication

BRAVO!

Is Obama's Swine Flu real?

This is an amazing youtube and website with information about Obama's flu hysteria.

According to info compiled:


There isn't a shred of evidence that 900 people have died from swine flu.

The CDC stopped testing for swine flu in August.


Obama's weekend announcement that gave the appearance that something had changed in the status of the swine flu was staged - The "emergency" he announced has been in place since July.

Listen to the full video, read the site and pass around the information.

Good luck to panicky and paranoid people in this administration!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Must be the Season of the Witch?

Only in Halloween week would we be treated with James Carroll and Maureen Dowd firing salvos at the Church on the same day.




The 70-year-old "brides of Christ" Dowd is in touch with are very upset that their vagina monologues are being bullied away from them.



As the Vatican is trying to wall off the “brides of Christ,” Cask of Amontillado style, it is welcoming extreme-right Anglicans into the Catholic Church — the ones who are disgruntled about female priests and openly gay bishops. Il Papa is even willing to bend Rome’s most doggedly held dogma, against married priests — as long as they’re clutching the Anglicans’ Book of Common Prayer....


The nuns are pushing back a bit, but it’s hard, since the church has decreed that women can’t be adversarial to men. A nun writing in Commonweal as “Sister X” protests, “American women religious are being bullied.”

She recalls that Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, who heads one of the investigations, moved a meeting at the University of Notre Dame off campus to protest a performance of “The Vagina Monologues.” “It is the rare bishop,” Sister X writes, “who has any real understanding of the lives women actually lead.”


I can't even make sense out her analogy. I think the Bishop knows exactly what Sister X is doing with her spare time. The faithful reported them and sent evidence of the lives they were leading. That's why they're under an investigation.

Communion Scuffle at St. Anthony's Shrine




At this morning's 6am Mass at St. Anthony's Shrine,the celebrant (according to the schedule was Fr. Raphael Bonnano)announced that Obama has declared the United States was a state of emergency and reception of the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue was strongly discouraged. I'm sure you won't be surprised to know Father proceeded to pass around the Cups though without a peep.

Obama is dictating how Catholics receive the Eucharist is he?

This is news to me.

As far as I know, any directives about the reception of the Eucharist comes from the Ordinary in the diocese.

I forgot to ask my friend whether Obama's instructions affected shaking hands and embracing at the kiss of peace. Somehow I doubt it.

The 6am Mass at Downtown Crossing are hardcore practicing and faithful Catholics, most of whom have been going to that Mass for 30 or more years and have seldom, if ever, used their hands to touch the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord.

An older gentleman waited at the very end of the Communion line and when he approached the priest, he approached the Blessed Sacrament to receive on his tongue like he's been doing all his life. The priest refused and began an argument.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the priest arguing with the gentleman and the scuffle carried on until the gentleman finally walked away, still refusing to touch Christ's Body.

Finally seeing the agitation of several Catholics in the pews, he acquiesced, called the gentleman back and gave him Communion by mouth.

I thought the whole idea of delivering reception of the Eucharist sacrilegiously to excommunicated Catholics was because the Communion line was not to be a place for confrontations?

Yet, this priest didn't hesitate to kick up a fight and refuse a worthy recipient?

First of all, no priest is permitted to dictate how you will receive the Eucharist. If you ever see a priest doing it, take out your phone and start recording it. Gotta be a lot quicker with those recording cameras. More importantly, if you hear dictates from Obama, it isn't rocket science to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the priest has derailed.

Here are the dictates from the Boston Archdiocese that will be in effect starting October 31:

In addition to practicing good hygiene, the Cardinal directs the following
for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy and for flu prevention:



v The Holy Water fonts are to be drained, cleaned with a disinfecting
soap, and re-filled with holy water on a regular basis. Please note that
old holy water should be disposed of in the sacrarium.



v The distribution of the Precious Blood for the faithful is suspended,
with the exception of those who must receive from the cup due to medical
reasons. The faith of the Church teaches that Christ, whole and entire,
is received even under only one species.



v The exchange of the Sign of Peace is to be offered without any physical
contact. If the priest celebrant chooses to extend the invitation for the
sign of peace, the faithful, instead of a handshake, may bow to the
persons nearby.



v While the faithful retain the option of receiving Holy Communion on the
tongue or in the hand, all ministers of Holy Communion are advised to
distribute the consecrated hosts with care, being cautious not to touch
the tongue or the hand of the communicant.



v Parishioners should be reminded that if they are ill or suspect they
are ill with a contagious illness, they are not bound by the Sunday Mass
obligation. They should remain at home and return to church when they are
well.



These directives are effective Saturday, October 31, 2009 and remain in
effect until the cold and flu season has come to an end. We thank you for
your understanding and support of these directives, which aim to protect
the health of our people.


Let's hold onto our rights as Roman Catholics, shall we?

We have a generation of Catholics to whom we owe the hand-off of the Deposit of Faith the same way we received It for the last 2000+ years.

A little James Carroll gnashing and grinding his teeth to start your week off!

Nothing like more people in the pews of the Catholic Church to agitate the James Carroll.

Last week’s anti-Anglican salvo from Rome shows how far the Catholic leadership has fallen from the heights of Vatican II. The invitation to “disgruntled’’ members of the Church of England’s extended family to abandon the Thames for the Tiber is a rejection of contemporary human experience, a resounding response of “No!’’ The church against the modern world, after all. Not only a cruel assault on a fellow Christian communion that is valiantly struggling to strike a balance between liberal and conservative impulses; not only an insult to loyal Catholic liberals who will be denied what converted Anglicans are offered (notably a married clergy); not only a slap at women and homosexuals whose progress toward equality is a global measure of justice; not only a stark contrast with the common Anglican practice of fully welcoming alienated Roman Catholics, while eschewing any pressure on them to convert - there is more.


There's more?

Can you stand the drama?

Gone are the good old days of hijacking Vatican II, Voice of the Faithful and 40 year old stories of sexual abuse by a handful of priests. The Anglican communion with the Catholic Church is a conspiracy of the cryptofacists of Opus Dei thwarting genetic science and the key to eradicating poverty.

Equally damaging, the Vatican’s preemptive exploitation of Anglican distress explicitly ducks the large and urgent challenge facing every religion and every religious person, which is how to positively reconcile tradition with the massive changes in awareness, knowledge, and communication that come with the scientific and technological breakthroughs that daily alter the meaning of existence.

From the misfit fringe of another denomination, Rome recruits the naysayers it needs to bolster what has become its own place on the margin of Catholic life. First there was Opus Dei, with its crypto-fascist origins, then there were the Holocaust-denying lovers of Latin - and now the Anglo-fundies. Come on over, guys!

While the Vatican and its recruits just say no, the rest of us attempt to apply tested modes of ethical reasoning to revolutions, for example, in genetic science that separate reproduction from sexuality. While the Vatican just says no, the rest of us reckon with the ways in which the worldwide status of women emerges as the key to development and a hoped-for eradication of poverty. While the Vatican just says no, the rest of us see the link between triumphalist rejection of pluralism and the intolerance that undergirds most of the world’s violence.

The story of the Vatican raid on the Anglican communion was front page news because these issues go deeper than religion. Nothing less than the survival of the human species is at stake. Will 21st-century fundamentalism thwart science across the globe? Will old habits of tribalism, nationalism, and excluding religious denominationalism prevent a new world humanism from emerging? Will the ancient wisdom of moral philosophies embedded in the great spiritual traditions be available as guides to future decisions? Or will rational, self-critical, ecumenically minded religion self-destruct just when humanity most needs its positive influence? Positive is the point.


Those Dan Brown novels are merging with reality for some people, eh?

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fr. Tom

Zero details but I did hear that Fr. Tom had adequate representation and the meeting resulted in no harm to Fr. Tom. When I get details, I'll post 'em.

It's critical to rally around our orthodox priests when Chancery officials try to use intimidation tactics to silence truth and righteousness.

They are oppressed in the regime at the "Pastoral Center" in Braintree. It is a hostile environment for Catholics loyal to the Magisterium.

God sees what they are doing and thanks to the internet, everyone else can see too.

Adopt a Priest

This apostolate is trying to generate some prayerful support for our priests in a more formal way.

It seems you can register and adopt a priest. I'm impatient and didn't really find details on their website in my two... minute perusal but will post more details when I get them.

The older I get and the more distractions I have - I need a physical reminder. Remember the bracelets they used to pass out for veterans? That would remind me several times a day. I'm going to hook up with my jeweler and see what he can put together. I have a couple of ideas.

anyway - adopt a priest!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Too Many Noses Running, Obama Declares a State of Emergency

Make that Too Many Noses MAY RUN, Obama Declares a State of Emergency.

"It's important to note that this is a proactive measure -- not a response to a new development," an administration official said.


Seasonal flu normally peaks sometime between late November and early March and kills about 36,000 Americans in an average year.


In the last year the swine flu killed 900.

Bizarre.

Has this guy ever looked into how many people cigarettes are killing each year?

He smokes them to boot.

Congressman Mike Rogers on Obamacare

Spiritual Reading and Practices

To keep the spark going in my spiritual life, I try not to fall into routine and am always switching up on spiritual reading, novena's, practices and prayers. Except the Rosary - of course - which is a mainstay.

In the last month or so, I had been thinking of either doing the St. Louis DeMontefort Consecration or St. Teresa of Avila's spiritual practice of the seven mansions of the soul. I've done both of these before (and did the St. Louis DeMontefort Consecration for many years in a row) but haven't visited these practices for years.

Both are very intense, both in effort and fruits they bring and it seemed I never really had the time in the past five or so years.

Last weekend, I made my twice a month visit to the bookstore to pick up reading materials and fate played a hand into my choice. Barnes and Noble at the Derby Street Shops in Hingham has several bargain tables (usually 7 dollars and under) I customarily rummage through - and I found "Entering the Castle An Inner Path to God and Your Soul by Caroline Myss. I thought (and hoped) of St. Teresa when I read the title but cynic in me picked it up and expected new age crap. I gave it my 30 second look through a few pages and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a guide to St. Teresa's spiritual practices.

I'm absolutely loving being connected to this spiritual practice again and the book is a phenomenal tour guide. It's easy reading, filled with insight to navigating the conscience, the soul and the ego to meditative prayer and connecting with the voice of the Holy Spirit.

If you're looking for some soul food, this book comes highly recommended.

Maybe We Can't




Plagued by his own plummeting polls and playing to empty seats at a high-roller Hub fund-raiser, President Obama acknowledged yesterday that his close friend and political alter ego Gov. Deval Patrick faces a rough road to re-election.

“There really should be no doubt that this guy gets a second term. But let’s be honest. This is going to be a tough race,” Obama told a room barely half-full with 125 deep-pocketed Democrats who ponied up $6,000 for Patrick and the party. “Re-election is not a foregone conclusion because times are tough.”



In the most liberal state in the nation they can't even scrounge up 800 people for a swanky Presidential event?

Wow - what a swift blow to the aspirations of the Democrats from a year ago.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Patrick Kennedy Memorializes the Legacy of Cardinal O'Malley's Train Wreck

Kennedy Spars with Church on Abortion

The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy seemed to mend his differences with the Catholic Church just before his death. But less than two months later, his youngest son has plunged into a firestorm of controversy with the church.

Why would anyone leave their own children to live out the remainder of their lives in a legacy of spiritual chaos?

I just can't wrap my head around that kind of selfishness.

Ted Kennedy was given the precious gift of having months of spiritual direction and counseling of Catholic priests at his bedside.

I just can 't imagine wasting precious time and energy authoring a letter to your Pope about your accomplishments, orchestrating the President of the United States to hand deliver it while leaving your own family ignorant about your epiphany.

Kennedy, speaking in support of a public option for a proposed universal health care plan, told Catholic News Service in an article posted Thursday that he found it perplexing that the church would oppose the health insurance plan.

“I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person - that right now we have 50 million people who are uninsured,’’ Kennedy said.

He added: “You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people life-saving health care? I thought they were prolife? If the church is prolife, then they ought to be for health care reform, because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive


Bishop Tobin stepped right up to the plate:



Tobin had outlined his concerns in a Sept. 21 letter he sent to the Rhode Island congressional delegation, saying he could not support any legislation “that diminishes human dignity or threatens the right to life.’’


Yesterday, he was more direct, saying that Kennedy’s comments were “irresponsible and ignorant of the facts.’’

“But the congressman is correct in stating that he ‘can’t understand,’ ’’ Tobin said. “He got that part right.’’

The bishop explained the church’s stance, saying that while the church supports health care overhaul, “we are adamantly opposed to health care legislation that threatens the life of unborn children, requires taxpayers to pay for abortion, rations health care, or compromises the conscience of individuals.

“Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island,’’ the bishop said. “I believe the congressman owes us an apology for his irresponsible comments. It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will find a way to provide morally responsible leadership for our state.’’


That seemed to shut him up:

A Kennedy spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.


And, of course, no story about the Kennedys is complete without the incompetence of the Boston Cathedra:

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, of the Boston diocese, also participated in the senator’s funeral, in spite of criticism, and explained later that “we will stop the practice of abortion by changing the law, and we will be successful in changing the law if we change people’s hearts.’’

“We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief of loss,’’ O’Malley said.


Tell that to the dozens of falsely accused priests in Boston but that is a story for another time.

Everyone knows that turning away people when they experience grief of loss is the antithesis of the Catholic Church. Everyone supports outreach to this beautiful family.

The Cardinal is not facing his permission and participation in permitting the Sanctuary to be held hostage by family members and the President to put the official stamp of approval of the Catholics on the policies Ted Kennedy worked on his whole life as the road to salvation.


My own children may not like what I'm called to teach them. More often than not, there's a dust up when I won't give them permission to do things I know are not good for their well-being. Responding to their losses and grief in life have nothing at all to do with the responsibilities of teaching right from wrong.

Responsible parents wouldn't teach their own children about moral sexuality and host a party for Planned Parenthood to espouse the heavenly nature of sleeping around while they pray quietly in a corner or bring people who are not their husbands and wives home and sleep with them in front of their children.

The Cardinal is kidding himself about what went awry. He just can't seem to face his own duplicity. Patrick Kennedy memorializes the legacy of Cardinal O'Malley's train wreck.

The comments on the story seem to indicate that the Kennedys have lost their patina, even with Boston Globe readers.

This one, to me, hits the nail on the head:

The only difference between abortion and murder is time.

Both abortion and murder seem to be okay with Kennedys

Thursday, October 22, 2009

National anti-Catholic Reporter




Every time somebody sends me a link to something from the National Catholic Reporter that is spiritually disordered, when I'm reading the piece, my soul takes a trip to the disordered plane the author occupies. The mental fog they've sent out into the stratosphere tries to roll into my well-being. Whatever malice they have for the teachings of the Church or the people who evangelize them sits on my chest like a hundred pound weight. I feel like I've descended into hell and I can't get away from it soon enough.

Today, somebody sent me a link to a story an individual named Jamie L Manson writes about the magnificent invitation to be in full Communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

This glorious victory for the Roman Catholic Church and the hundreds of thousands of Anglicans who have been hoping this moment would come for the last ten years is met by a nitwit piece labeling Christ's Church as the institution of misogynists and homophobes.

At this beautiful moment of unity, this young woman stands at the doors to blockade and discourage, foaming at the mouth, Misogynist? Homophobic? We’ve got the church for you!

Of course, this poor misguided soul starts off with a valid observation about the Franciscan luminaries who handled the sex addict priest leaving victims all over town for decades:

Ms. Bond, who was impregnated and abandoned by a Catholic priest, cannot get funding for her son’s brain cancer treatments. The priest receives little disciplining from his superiors. She is told by the Franciscan order, who never encouraged the priest to leave the ministry, that they have already gone “far beyond what the law would require,” in their financial support. They also reminded her that, by speaking publicly, she is in jeopardy of paying a penalty because she is in violation of a confidentiality agreement that she signed years ago.



Which reminds me, in upcoming coverage of the scandals of the Boston Archdiocese, I'll be doing a few pieces on the duplicity of the Cardinal and Bryan Hehir running around town as arbiters of "justice" while at the same time telling sick and retired priests to go scratch their backsides with a broken bottle.

Something to look forward to.

I digress.

Manson hijacks the Franciscan Fromps and the indecent accounts of the conduct of his superiors, and proceeds to build a straw man.

Married Anglican priests and seminarians are provided with their own sacred structure, called "personal ordinariates," to enhance their spiritual care and guidance. They earned this special privilege by being vociferously misogynist and homophobic.

A woman is punished by Catholic superiors for her relationship with a priest, while married Anglican priests who are anti-woman and anti-gay are welcomed more fully into the Catholic clerical fold.

This week the Catholic church seems to have reached another low point in its perennial war on sex. However, in this latest twist of events, one form of sexual activity has been legitimized: married sex between male Anglican priests and their spouses who have reached qualifying levels of misogyny and homophobia.

Ironically, it was Gene Robinson -- whose courageous assent to the bishop’s seat in the Episcopal church first elicited the Anglican firestorm and threat of schism over the ordination of out gays and lesbians -- who first showed me that the relationship between misogyny and homophobia runs deep.





How come you never hear these folks connect the dots from the prohibition against prostitution to prostitutionophobia? Taking the Lord's Name in vain and vulgarophobia?

Oh, come on lady. If you're going be a cheerleader for sleeping around, have the decency to not to exploit the teachings of Christ's Church as some kind of boogeyman hating gays and women.

Destroy you own soul, bait and capture your sexual partners to destroy theirs. Have a field day but for the sake of human salvation and the suffering of Christ that won it - leave the teachings of the Church as the journey to towards salvation.

Some day, I sure hope somebody can adequately explain to me how the theology in the Bible where a woman baits a man into sin can escape us at the critical moments in our lives when we are baiting people into sins.

While many have interpreted the Adam and Eve story as a chronicle of birth, life and death, a closer reading also reveals that it is an account of the beginning of our shame towards our sexuality. Before taking the fruit, the man and the woman are said to be naked and unashamed. After realizing their nakedness, they hide from God, mistakenly convinced that God, too, will be embarrassed by their exposed genitals.


If you can bear with us for a brief moment and perhaps take your mind off of genitalia, there is a deposit of faith in the Catholic Church waiting to enlighten and enrich you. Shame about sexuality is the furthest thing from the Mind of a God who would impart such a deeply meaningful gift to be used with fidelity to the teachings of Church and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

When I see a young girl being so spiritually abused by the grown ups operating the National Catholic Reporter, I'm hard pressed not to see the story of Adam and Eve in the failure of the Ordinary in the See where the National Catholic Reporter is located. He might as well be holding out the apple. The name Catholic belongs to the faithful and it should never be permitted to exploit young women and men and bait thousands into sin.

I can't imagine something crossing my own threshold in front me, watching my children buy into some drivel and doing and saying nothing about it.


Good luck with that.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

No news about Fr. Tom yet

It will take me a couple of days to catch up with what happened.

I'll let everyone know when I hear.

Our friend LastCatholicinBoston brings up a point I've heard from time to time in the trenches: The spiritual battle has turned, we are no match for our opponents, we can't win at the Vatican - so let's get off the radar screen because they're going to get us.

I have two things to say about that: Quo Vadis.

It's not about being victorious. It's about putting it on paper and setting it under everyone's noses. If they heed the warning, goodie for them - goodie for all of us. If they don't, I'm going to keep on putting the paper trail under their noses until they do. If time passes and at the end of our lives the job isn't done - we pass the torch.

Never give up speaking the truth just because we are occupied and under siege.

Besides, now the Holy See has placed Archbishop Burke in a position where we can put the truth under his nose .

His mother did not raise a fool. And, given his recent public statements about the devil's work in a certain diocese near and dear to our hearts, call this a hunch - I think this holy servant may have an inkling as to who, exactly, is doing a disservice to the Church.

No, it is not time to give up.

I will not let a good priest be persecuted by the corrupt Archdiocese of Boston unopposed and without a paper trail. It's the very time to put together a nice little package of the Cardinal's tenure here or more precisely said the handing over of a diocese to dissenter J. Bryan Hehir and circulating it to all the right people.

Pony up!

Exciting day in the Church, eh?

Putting out the welcome mat for the Anglicans was quite a pleasant surprise to wake up to.

The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said a new apostolic constitution would establish "personal ordinariates" -- similar to dioceses -- to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them.

Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but married Anglican bishops will not be able to function as Catholic bishops in keeping with the long-standing Catholic and Orthodox tradition of ordaining only unmarried clergy as bishops, Cardinal Levada said.


Papal experts are projecting as many as 1000 priests may defect from the Anglican Church.

I'm thinking of a thousand we can send packing in a trade.

I digress.

This is awesome news!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cardinal O'Malley Retaliates Against Fr. Tom DiLorenzo

Word has been circulating now for a couple of days that Cardinal O'Malley has called in Fr. Tom DiLorenzo to talk about "his mental health" tomorrow, October 20th at 2:00pm.

Readers may remember that Fr. Tom was quite outspoken about Cardinal O'Malley's abortion contracts at the orchestration of Bryan Hehir and they tried to threaten and discipline Fr. Tom during the Caritas scandal. The Cardinal called off "the meeting" when a groundswell of prolifers let him know disciplining Fr. DiLorenzo for speaking out against his abortion contracts while letting dissenting priests have full freedom and reign is not going to fly.

Presuming the Caritas dust up has settled and he could quietly pull off a stunt to silence Fr. Tom, they've decided toss "mental health" concerns around to see if they can get enough momentum to yank him from ministry and silence him for good.

Cardinal O'Malley and his administrators retaliate and suppress those speaking out against bodily harm and corruption. This was the exact dynamic that permitted pedophiles to be protected and flourish.

It is alive and well in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila

Lord, grant that I may always allow myself
to be guided by You,
always follow Your plans,
and perfectly accomplish Your Holy Will.
Grant that in all things,
great and small,
today and all the days of my life,
I may do whatever You require of me.
Help me respond to the slightest prompting of Your Grace,
so that I may be Your trustworthy instrument for Your honour.
May Your Will be done in time
and in eternity by me, in me, and through me.

Amen.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Balloon Boy Story Falls Apart - Parents Will Face Criminal Charges

The exploitation of this child is mind boggling.

A sheriff said Saturday that his office will file criminal charges in the case of a 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying saucer-like helium balloon.

"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said Saturday. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."

He said deputies were seeking a search warrant for the family's home, and there would be more information at a news conference Sunday.


Heene's "big announcement" turned out to be a peculiar attempt to get media momentum, putting out a box for questions from the media. I guess he was expecting he would keep the media parked on his front lawn for a continuous show:

The Heenes were expected to speak to reporters outside their home later Saturday, after a strange day that began with Richard Heene knocking on the windows of journalists camped outside his home and promising a "big announcement." A few hours later, he did an about-face when he told reporters that they should leave questions in a cardboard box on the front doorstep.

Peace

May today there be peace within.

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

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

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

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

It is there for each and every one of us.

Known Priest Pedophile Was Still in the Saddle

Before starting this post, I want to say for the record that I am very, very grateful for holy priests and Bishops that Christ is fortifying to get us through this painful crucible.

There are pockets of them fulfilling the promise that Christ's Church will reign forever.

As I've said before and I continue to say - fine one if you can and hunker down there. Pray for the many having difficulty doing so.


Yesterday, the NYT ran a piece about the story of a priest who fathered a child who is now very sick. It is a bewildering discourse of a sexually sick priest and his superiors who have thrown money in exchange for a confidentiality agreement that keeps the woman's mouth shut.

The emotional manipulation and abandonment of the child played out at the hands of Rev. Henry Willenborg is incomprehensible.

The relationship starts when Willenborg grabs the woman for a passionate kiss after a marriage counseling session. For five years, they ran ministries together in the Church during the day and at night, they lived as a married couple.

The priest Ms. Bond fell in love with so many years ago, Father Willenborg, is currently the senior pastor of Our Lady of the Lake, a large, historic parish of 1,350 families on the shores of Lake Superior in Ashland, Wis. The church spire is visible from miles away, and the parish operates an adjoining school. On a recent Sunday, Father Willenborg affably led a morning Mass for about 300 people, adding a special blessing for the grandparents in the congregation. Afterward, in his office, he acknowledged that he does have a son, is aware his son is terminally ill, and said that he had tried to be attentive.

He said he did not want to talk about the situation, and pointed out that Ms. Bond had more to lose than he did because she had signed a confidentiality agreement that, if broken, requires her to pay a penalty. He asserted that Ms. Bond had shown no care for his needs and was only concerned about money, and that his son had shunned him. He said that he and the Franciscans had done nothing bad.


Well then why the need for a confidentiality agreement?

Luckily, the newspapers once again give us the details of whether he and the Franciscans are as innocent as the doves and it does not come down in their favor.

Eventually they had a son, setting off a series of legal battles as Ms. Bond repeatedly petitioned the church for child support. The Franciscans acquiesced, with the stipulation that she sign a confidentiality agreement. It is now an agreement she is willing to break as both she and her child, Nathan Halbach, 22, are battling cancer.

With little to lose, they are eager to tell their stories: the mother, a once-faithful Catholic who says the church protected a philandering priest and treated her as a legal adversary, and the son, about what it was like to grow up knowing his absentee father was a priest.


The commentary throughout the story from the young man is heartbreaking.

Father Willenborg had no contact again with his son until the boy was 13. Nathan remembers being so excited to finally meet his biological father that he insisted on getting a haircut. He remembers that Father Willenborg took him to McDonald’s and to see the movie “What Women Want.”

Nathan recalled, “It was sort of hard meeting this guy for the first time, at a place where we couldn’t talk to each other.”

In the next few years, Nathan said his disappointment grew. Father Willenborg did not visit, though he lived only 15 minutes away. He had promised to take Nathan to a baseball game, but it was two years before he stopped by and later called to say he had tickets. Nathan finally told Father Willenborg he did not want to see him.


Prior to fathering this child, he impregnated the same woman with the knowledge of his superiors. He suggests an abortion, (priests pushing sex and abortions in their ministries are a dead giveaway that beg the services of a private detective-- Any parent bringing their children to a priest pushing it is asking for trouble) she declines and later has a miscarriage. The Franciscans keep him firmly planted in his position as, of all things, a Rector at a Seminary. This position and subsequent assignments by the Franciscans included teaching celibacy to the seminarians.





He finally informed his Franciscan superiors of their liaison.

The pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. The Franciscans kept Father Willenborg in place as rector of their seminary in Quincy, Ill.

The couple then resolved to keep the relationship platonic, according to Ms. Bond, (whose recounting of events is consistent with what Father Willenborg said in a legal deposition). But a few months later, during an Easter-season retreat they had planned together for about 90 women, Father Willenborg showed up at her door. Ms. Bond said she was sure that Nathan was conceived that night.


This story could take the First Place Blue Ribbon away from the Shrine at Arch Street in Boston where the sex lives of the priests are included in a porn book written by a former Eucharistic minister - another responsibility of Cardinal O'Malley that is a big red flag in how seriously he takes sexually sick priests. He's done diddly squat about Arch Street.



In the course of this cretin's story comes the revelation that the affair ended when a jealous and distraught teenager showed up on her door telling the mother of his child that she had been sexually involved with the priest for years. The journalist got a hold of the now woman who affirmed the story but asked to remain anonymous.

An unexpected turn of events brought their idyll to an end. A young woman showed up at Ms. Bond’s house in a rage. She told Ms. Bond that she had been in a sexual relationship with Father Willenborg for years, since she was in high school. (Reached by phone last week, the woman confirmed the relationship, and said it had caused her a lifetime of pain. She asked to remain anonymous.) Immediately, the Franciscans sent Father Willenborg to a treatment center in New Mexico run by a religious order, for priests with sexual disorders and substance addictions.

Ms. Bond says that after that, they had sex together only once more: immediately after he returned from seven months at the center. She still has the receipt from the hotel room.
Beautiful.

Nathan is now so ill that he rarely leaves his house except for hospital visits. The highlight of his day is lumbering to the mailbox, leaning on his mother, who was told recently by doctors that she had carcinoid tumors in her appendix and colon. Strangers who get Nathan’s name and address from Web sites for cancer victims send him dozens of cards, often homemade, urging him not to give up.

Recently the mail included a card from Father Willenborg.


“I never understood,” Nathan said, “why he thought cards could make it all O.K.”


How about because he's an idiot and an abuser of human beings - for starters?

Per usual, now that the story is out in the press, the Franciscans were forced to suspend him.

Though the record is proof positive they knew he had a sexual addition because they forced him to go to sex therapy, they're now claiming they are shocked. Shocked I tell you.

Bishop Christensen said Father Willenborg believed that the other woman, who insisted on anonymity in the article, was not a minor. But Bishop Christensen said the suspension was necessary because American Catholic bishops agreed in 2002 to remove priests from the ministry who are credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.



They believed but they never investigated and found out the ages of the women he was sexually exploiting.

Isn't that special.

The duplicity is staggering.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to realize what the superiors of priests (including O'Malley) are still hiding when it comes to their own.

While we're on that subject, the deeds of the Canadian Bishop appear caught with kiddie porn on his laptop appear to be more devastating than anticipated.

An image of a naked boy wearing only rosary beads was among those found on Bishop Raymond Lahey’s laptop computer, a search warrant has revealed.

The RCMP’s child exploitation unit obtained the warrant in order to search the bishop’s home in Antigonish and his apartment in Sydney...

Court papers state that the image of the "young, naked male" showed him wearing only "a set of black rosary and a set of white rosary beads around his neck." The boy appears to be nine to 12 years old, court papers say....

One image allegedly depicts a young naked male who appears to be "hurt, as there are red welts and marks on his stomach and chest area."

"He looks sad in this image," the documents say....


The search warrant also alleges the bishop used the MSN Messenger service on the Internet to have sex-related chats with people he met online and "that the conversations are often sexual in nature." But the bishop told police he believed to the "best of his knowledge" that all the people involved in the talks were adults.

The RCMP say the images were found on his laptop in a folder called Downloads that contained 964 files. There were 33 videos in another folder, the court papers say.


The documents also state that on Oct. 9, the RCMP interviewed Shane Earle, who once lived at the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, N.L.

Mr. Earle, whose treatment at the orphanage in his teens led to a public inquiry, has said he saw child pornography at Bishop Lahey’s home in the 1980s when the clergyman was still living in his native Newfoundland.

Mr. Earle told police last week that he had spent some weekends and holidays at Bishop Lahey’s home in Mount Pearl, N.L., while he was a resident of the orphanage. He alleges he saw a "catalogue containing images of child pornography" during one of his stays at the bishop’s place.

"The images were of boys not older than 13 years old and that in some images the boys were sexually aroused," Mr. Earle told the RCMP.

Church officials in Newfoundland acknowledged before Mr. Earle’s Oct. 9 interview with the RCMP that little was done to help him in the ’80s after he told them what he had allegedly seen in Bishop Lahey’s quarters.




Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Balloongate

Boy, has this story taken off in the last 24 hours.

First the news that the young boy blabbed that Daddy told him not to answer when people call his name because they "were doing it for a show" and proceeded to vomit each time he was asked what he meant by that (talk about EXPLOITATION OF A MINOR CHILD--DSS material as far as I'm concerned).

Then came youtubes of the children uttering profanity and the f bomb, news that they all slept in their clothing in case they needed to "chase a storm", had been on "wife swap" reality shows TWICE, had approached TLC about doing a reality show about his family...and the news that before Daddyo called the police, he called the news and asked them to send a chopper with a camera. Now,a home video of the take-off has surfaced.

Before the fame-seeking backyard scientist Richard Heene phoned the police to report that his 6-year-old son, Falcon, had floated away on a homemade flying saucer Thursday morning, he called a local TV station and asked them to send a news helicopter.



Speculation that the runaway balloon was a publicity stunt by the family increased Thursday night after Falcon, in an interview on CNN, was asked why he had hid from his family for five hours — in the garage attic, the one place investigators did not search — while local and federal authorities scoured three counties, fearing he had fallen from the balloon.

“You guys said that, um, we did this for the show,” the boy said.


pathetic

***UPDATE

A student who worked with Richard Heene says he has proof that a very similar publicity stunt was part of their reality show pitch to TLC.

And, Child Protective Services has finally been called in.

Child Protective Services has also reportedly been asked to interview Falcon Heene's family and Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said they would "probably open an investigation."

ABC News reported Alderden as saying he requested CPS wait to interview the boy and his family until after law enforcement was able to question the family Saturday.


I meant to mention that a colleague of mine who saw the interview clip on Diane Sawyer told me it was so disturbing, she had to shut it off. Here's the clip. Sawyer asked questions of the child about his comment that it was all about "a show" and ballooon boy and proceeded to gag - the parents were inattentive and let him go off to vomit by himself - Sawyer had to tell them to take care of their vomiting son.

By the way, the Sawyer interview appears to have a smoking gun. When Sawyer asks Richard Heene whether he and his wife were there when the balloon took off, Heene says they weren't, they were in the house and didn't see it. The home videos of the moment the balloon takes off captures them right there.

All of the youtubes of the family demonstrate there's something extremely disturbing about these reckless parents. If it's true they put the burden of this elaborate lie on a six year old, they are beneath contempt.

**Update 2 - "Big Announcement" coming at 10:00 am Pacific time, according to Richard Heene.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Medjugorje

There's been quite a smackdown in Medjugorje over the last few months.

The seers have been banished, the parish forbidden to publish or mention the "messages", a "chapel" the seers were operating up has been kiboshed, priests have to check in for permission to say a Mass - etc.

I know many people who traveled to Medjugorje and had a prayerful and holy experience.

Why wouldn't they?

They planned a trip to a destination where they intended to have a prayerful and holy experience.

There's Rosaries, prayer, music and a lot of people with Marian devotion there who have also traveled a long way to have a prayerful and holy experience.

God is present there as He is anywhere two people gather in His Name.


If you make plans to go on a retreat, you gear up spiritually, go there with intentions, you bring the tools for the objective of the experience and you feed off the people around you.

I never got good vibes from the windows of the souls of seers in Medjugorje. The messages weren't gelling for me. There were no vocations, scandal in the personal lives of the characters, the frequency of the messages were suspicious - among other things. They lost me when they started claiming the Blessed Mother would reschedule giving them nightly messages if there was a scheduling conflict with a local parish or a plane filled with pilgrims got delayed.

One of the elements that troubled me from the beginning was the dynamic that Medjugorje was essential to our personal salvation and the salvation of the world.

It appears that in the eleventh hour, one of the "seers" is trying to make the discipline of the Church as an event that will bring retaliatory action by God and the Blessed Mother.

Years ago, it was reported that Vicka Ivankovic, the most prominent seer at the famed apparition site of Medjugorje, had stated that the purported secrets there would begin when all belief in the apparitions seemed to be almost extinguished.


Who knew. Our survival has relied upon belief in Vicka Ivankovich. The Pope is blowing it!

And this one really laid it on thick:

Another alleged Croatian seer, Jim Singer, who now lives near Burlington, Toronto, said years ago that on September 23, 1995, "Our Blessed Mother stated (among other things) that the time is rapidly approaching when God's children will turn their backs on Medjugorje. The gift of Medjugorje will suffer tremendously and will reach the point when it will appear to be extinguished permanently. Many will rejoice and become cynical. Only the steadfast few will remain faithful and loyal few will remain faithful and loyal.... but at a great personal cost, humiliation, and ridicule. Indeed, the pressure will be so great that even the loyal souls will endure periods of serious doubt. However, just when it would seem that this gift is finally dead, Jesus Himself will raise it like the phoenix from the ashes.... And that is when the TRUE understanding of the gifts, and the prophecy of Medjugorje, will begin... but, for many it will be too late.


The story I first linked claims there's a rumor Cardinal Ratzinger visited Medjugorje "incognito".

When you have to start digging that low to validate your "apparitions", it isn't good.

Interesting developments ahead.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

New York Times Piece on Abortion

Jill Stanek has some good coverage of the New York Times piece on the pro-life community and abortion.

Amazing coverage for a secular newspaper on what happens to a child in an abortion.

Scott Brown supports this?

How troubling.

Today's story in the secular press was about "unsafe" abortion "killing 70,000".

It's criminal to keep pushing abortions on women.

Abortion is always "unsafe" for the child who is murdered.

Scott Brown

I've had many questions in the comments section and emails about Scott Brown's position on abortion.

Scott was forthright enough to give me some clarification today. He's prochoice but against partial-birth abortion:


Hi Carol.I am against partial-birth abortion, for parental consent, and against federal funding for abortions. Hope this helps.



No, I'm afraid that doesn't help at all.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Bishop Gumbleton gets the hook in Marquette

This week's Lead Us Not into Temptations Nobel Peace Prize goes to Bishop Alexander K. Sample of the Diocese of Marquette who has released the following statement:

“I attempted to handle this matter in a private, respectful and fraternal manner with Bishop Gumbleton. It is unfortunate that what should have remained a private matter between two bishops of the Catholic Church has been made available for public consumption.

I want to first of all say that my decision to ask Bishop Gumbleton not to come to Marquette had absolutely nothing to do with the group who invited him to speak, Marquette Citizens for Peace and Justice, nor with the topic of his publicized speech, since the Church is a strong advocate of peace and justice. I am sorry for the negative impact this has had on those planning this event.

There is a common courtesy usually observed between bishops whereby when one bishop wishes to enter into another bishop’s diocese to minister or make a public speech or appearance, he informs the local bishop ahead of time and seeks his approval. Only on October 9 did I receive any communication from Bishop Gumbleton, after this situation had already become public.

As the Bishop of the Diocese of Marquette, I am the chief shepherd and teacher of the Catholic faithful of the Upper Peninsula entrusted to my pastoral care. As such I am charged with the grave responsibility to keep clearly before my people the teachings of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals. Given Bishop Gumbleton’s very public position on certain important matters of Catholic teaching, specifically with regard to homosexuality and the ordination of women to the priesthood, it was my judgment that his presence in Marquette would not be helpful to me in fulfilling my responsibility.

I realize that these were not the topics upon which Bishop Gumbleton was planning to speak. However, I was concerned about his well-known and public stature and position on these issues and my inability to keep these matters from coming up in discussion. In order that no one becomes confused, everyone under my pastoral care must receive clear teaching on these important doctrines.

I offer my prayers for Bishop Gumbleton and for all those who have been negatively affected by this unfortunate situation.”


I've been saying for years the Bishops permitting (or hiring) a trojan horse to be rolled into their See to spiritually mislead Catholics is far greater negligence than shuffling pedophiles.

A parent's permissiveness in letting their children hook up with drunks, druggies and people who will sexually exploit them (including incest) pales in comparison.

As that Wise Man once said, fear not those that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him that can destroy both the soul and the body in hell.

Local Hero Ray Neary

Ex-Teacher Gives Sex-Ed Failing Grade


Sex education has devolved into a “how-to” course on hooking up, says one retired teacher who is demanding that the Legislature toss out the current sex ed law, make the classes elective, and tell parents what is being taught.

Raymond Neary, a former member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association board of directors, has enlisted Republican representatives to his cause.

“There’s got to be a filter somehow. This issue is so tied to moral, ethical and religious values of parents,” Neary said. “It’s a very different area from teaching the Civil War, for example, or mathematics.”


Let parents teach their own values to their own children.

Teachers shouldn't have the rights to usurp our moral compass in a free country.

Hijacking young girls and teaching them human sexuality and emotional intimacy comes cheap is wreaking havoc upon aspirations to find a loyal husband and father to their children. A vast majority of men can't be bothered with the kind of work it takes to form healthy and lasting relationships, they've been brainwashed that happiness in life is about finding a piece of ass. The schools are full of children acting out in one way or another the ultimate aggressions of living this way.

Ray Neary has been plugging away at this battle for decades at great personal sacrifice and cost. I've been proud to work with Ray and beside Ray on occassions when our paths crossed.

We're so grateful here in Massachusetts for his labor.

May God inspire and strengthen Ray for many years to come.

North Korea and the Taliban Mark Another Milestone in Barack's Nobel Peace Prize by Testing Nuke Missiles


With Obama proving he will not defend the sovereignty of United States against any threat because he empathizes with the terrorists (he'll bend over and kiss their rings, release their militants from war camps, leave our soldiers as sitting ducks and ignore the building up of nuclear arsenals - etc.)North Korea and the Taliban are advancing and improving their nuclear technology to fire catastrophic weapons.

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea on Monday afternoon, a government source said.

The missiles were launched south of Musudan-ri, North Hamgyeong Province, according to the source. North Korea has declared a navigation ban in waters off its east and west coasts from Oct. 10 to 20, the source added.


The Taliban has seized nuclear-armed Pakistan's Army headquarters and the stunning response of Obama, courtesy of Hillary Clinton, is that this poses no threat to the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday the Taliban siege of Pakistan's army headquarters showed extremists are a growing threat in the nuclear-armed American ally, but she contended they don't pose a risk to the country's atomic arsenal.


This of course was said from her globetrotting hops around the globe waiting for Iran to "prove" their nuclear armament are a manifestation of their peaceful intentions.

Clinton, in London on the second leg of a five-day tour of Europe and Russia, also joined British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in warning Iran that they would not wait long for the Islamic republic to convince the world that its nuclear intentions are peaceful....

Miliband told reporters at a joint news conference with Clinton that although Pakistan faced a "mortal threat" from extremists, there was no danger of its nuclear weapons being compromised.

He scolded those who might raise the suggestion. "I think it's very important that alarmist talk is not allowed to gather pace," he said.


This sort of blindness to what is happening isn't of human origin.

It's blimy.

The kind of blindness that sets in when you're on the road to perdition. The things in our lives get dark and dreary enough that we turn to God in our desperation.

In the Bible, God's not-so-subtle character witness is Saul.

There he was riding around town on his horse as a bounty hunter, looking for Christians to bind and drag into Jerusalem to be persecuted, when he gets struck by God with enough force to knock him off his horse and blind him.

And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?


I'd love to say I've never been in a place in my life when I was defying God in one way or another and was so self-absorbed that I was this deceived.

Been there, done that.

Luckily, I wasn't in charge of the sovereignty and safety of the United States.

I have to wonder though where they're getting the notion that talking to people all nice like who are building and firing missiles is the roadmap to world peace.

Maybe what we should have done during Ted Kennedy's funeral was invite all the yahoos into the Cuban Missile Crisis exhibit to see if we could wake some of them out of their comas.

President John F. Kennedy's reaction to the Soviet Union missile camp in Cuba bought us 47 years, with the help of other Presidents who stood strong against the wiles of terrorists.

It looks like the sand in the hourglass is getting low. Just like every Nation before us who tried to alienate God from its power, God will lift his protective hand to bring the empire and its inhabitants to our knees, if He doesn't, in mercy, destroy us all together.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Paul Shanley, Woody Allen and Polanski were just grooving with the 70's

Ok, the article doesn't mention Paul Shanley but imagine if it did?

LOS ANGELES — At the end of “Manhattan,” the celebrated movie romance from 1979, a teenager played by Mariel Hemingway delivers some good news to the 42-year-old television writer, portrayed by Woody Allen, with whom she has had a long-running sexual affair....

That was then.

Roman Polanski’s arrest on Sept. 26 to face a decades-old charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl stirred global furor over both Mr. Polanski’s original misdeed and the way the authorities have handled it — along with some sharp reminders that, when it comes to adult sex with the under age, things have changed.

Manners, mores and law enforcement have become far less forgiving of sex crimes involving minors in the 31 years since Mr. Polanski was charged with both rape and sodomy involving drugs. He fled rather than face what was to have been a 48-day sentence after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.


The mores of the 70's didn't consider sexually exploiting children as anything more than ill-mannered. It was entertainment worth filming for Oscar material in Hollywood.

In 1978 officials argued that the plea agreement would spare Mr. Polanski’s young victim the notoriety of a trial. But the soft deal was also in tune with the more permissive times, when sex with the under age was often winked at, especially among entertainment world sophisticates.
The mother of the 13-year-old was cocktail partying permissive mother who handed her child over to a Hollywood nutcase without any chaperoning or inquiring about his intentions.

In a further conclusion that appeared to shed blame on the victim, it said, “There was some indication that circumstances were provocative, that there was some permissiveness by the mother,” who had allowed Ms. Geimer to spend time with Mr. Polanski. And, in a conclusion that might particularly jar readers today, it pointed toward evidence “that the victim was not only physically mature, but willing.”


After all, what mother would question a 43 year old pulling up his his Porsche and picking up their 13 year old? You simply blow kisses from the door and get back to finding out when the next party is.

Irresponsible parenting is part of pedophilia. Saying it out loud shouldn't be offensive. Accepting money and keeping your mouth shut, saying you don't want him prosecuted are the very things that kept the Church pedophiles under the radar.
There are kidnappings and random acts - I'm not speaking about those. In situations like the Polanski case and priest pedophiles, parental misfeasance and dysfunction is 90% of what victims are chosen in these kinds of situations. (Polanski's victim had already been sexually active at the age of 13.)

The probation officers quoted a pair of psychiatrists as saying that Mr. Polanski was not “a pedophile” or a “sexual deviate.”


As one of the culture warrior of sluts, Whoppi Goldberg,describes it "It isn't rape-rape."

Catholics are very interested to see what they do with Roman Polanski.

Perhaps John Geoghan's cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley is available. Feces in your food, prison guards leaving your cell door open, letting a homicidal maniac loose and looking the other way could be in Polanski's future.

Hollywood wouldn't take too kindly to that. Imagine the turmoil on "The View".

From Fr. Rutler

FROM THE PASTOR
October 11, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

I need not remind the Navy personnel in our parish that the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 ranks as one of the most important sea engagements of history. It may even top the list which includes the battles of Salamis in 480 B.C., Trafalgar in 1805, Tsushima in 1905, Jutland in 1916 and Midway in 1942. Years before he wrote Don Quixote, Cervantes, who was wounded in the battle, called it the greatest scene of centuries. A quiet Dominican friar, Pope Pius V, formed a Christian fleet with the navies of the Papal States, Venice, Spain, Genoa, Savoy and Malta under the command of Don Juan of Austria, who was called “the last Knight of Europe” in Chesterton’s poem “Lepanto.” Don Juan, the half-brother of the King of Spain, was an illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, by a popular singer of the day named Barbara Blomberg.

Assisting admirals included Agostino Barbarigo of Venice, who would be killed by arrows, and Giovanni Andrea Doria of Genoa. With great skill, the assembled fleet of 212 ships rowed and sailed from Messina in Sicily to the Gulf of Patras off Cyprus. The Muslim fleet of the Ottoman Turks under the command of Ali Pasha had 230 galleys and 56 smaller galliots. The combined forces numbered 150,000. With tremendous engineering skill, the fleets engaged each other in torrid combat all day long on October 7. Before the battle, Don Juan sailed by all his ships under a banner of Our Lady while praying the Rosary. Remarkably, Don Juan was only 24.

That night, far away in Rome, Pius V opened a window and cried out with tears of joy as he saw in the sky a vision of the battle exactly as it happened: “Thank God for the victory which He has just given the Christian army!” October 7 became the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. Two years later Pope Gregory XIII changed the name to Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Blessed Virgin received a new title, “Help of Christians.”

This is not just an interesting chapter in war history. The Battle of Lepanto was fought to save Christian civilization. Had it failed, we would not be living in a recognizable world. Not everyone at the time recognized its importance. King Charles IX of France did not participate, nor did King Louis XIV help when the Ottoman forces sought revenge at Vienna in 1683. Austria, and indeed Europe, was saved then by the Polish King Jan Sobieski who arrived just in time on September 11.

October is the month of the Rosary, poignantly so, as Europe is fast losing its Christian hope, not through military conquest, but through contraception, abortion and spiritual indifference. Our Lady will always secure victory, but only for those who do the will of her Son.

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