Sunday, November 29, 2009

Blessed Advent!!

Update on Tiger Woods Kerfuffle

Woods and his wife again decline to speak to police.

Traffic accidents are not on the priority list of police departments but when a single car accident happens at 2am in the morn, there's admissions that he peeled out after an argument, there are golf clubs, smashed windows and unconscious people in a 20 mile an hour in a big huge Escalade - there is some diligence to do.

The police went to the door on Friday and Wood's wife asked them to come back on Saturday because Tiger was sleeping. Apparently yesterday, the police were on their way to the house and Wood's agent phoned into the police station asking them to delay their questioning until Sunday.

Personally, I don't get all the drowsiness after a fender bender. Perhaps it is more a realization that he has screwed up his marriage and his life. the whole thing is about to be fodder in the public square and, he's overwhelmed. If the story in the National Enquirer has any truth to it, it not only affects his family, but would seriously affect his image, endorsements - etc.

The devil is a crafty fellow, isn't he? How he just loves to bait people who are talented, effective, happy, loving and/or in love with God. The next thing you know, he's dangling the seven deadly sins in your face and, the wagons are circling from the messes you've created by falling to the various temptations.

I read a quote yesterday from Wood's mother-in-law asking for space, they're trying to sort things out between them and she was praying for everyone concerned. I second that motion.

On this first day of Advent, I'll be keeping this young family in my prayers too. God help them, help them to manage the mess they've made, draw them to you and heal their lives in the ways they need to be healed. Guide them with Your Grace and guard them in their moments of temptation.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Fr. Z on Catholic Democrat Cronies Patrick Whelan, Steve Krueger and Suzanne Morse

The old "Voice of the Faithful" characters, some of whom are operating the remnants of (the jailbird pedophile pimp) Eric McFadden's "Catholic Democrats" organization, are the subject of discussion over at Fr. Z's.

Just how deeply sycophantic are the political toadies of the group Catholic Democrats?



Fr. Z fisks the most recent activities of McFadden's "Catholic Democrats": marketing abortions in the abortion healthcare package.

I think there's some police detectives in Columbus, Ohio who have some answers to how sychopantic and psychotic Eric McFadden's group can get. It isn't pretty underneath the subterfuge.

Men who push promiscuity to women have some hefty reasons to keep the abortion industry harvesting their prey.

The "women's liberation" movement liberates them from making child support payments.

McFadden's co-founder in "Catholic Democrats", Patrick Whelan, has picked up Suzanne Morse, former "communications manager for Voice of the Faithful". Shortly after Eric McFadden's arrest, Whelan recycled the initiative and recruited Former Executive Director of Voice of the Faithful.

Their most recent debauchery is the same old meme: They've cracked the code of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - it's the treatise of the Republican National Committee and we're all secret agents.

They are worked up about the interchange between Bp. Tobin of Providence and pro-abortion Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). The group Catholic Democrats want abortion as part of health care and therefore they can’t stand Catholic bishops who speak out when "Catholics" support abortion.

The tactic of Catholic Deomcrats is to turn this into a political issue. For example, if the Republican Party has a pro-life (anti-abortion) plank, and if a Catholic bishop speaks out when a pro-abortion Democrat supports abortion rights… therefore… try to follow now… therefore the Bishop is actually supporting the Republican Party. See? See? Wasn’t that easy? Great reasoning.

Catholic Democrats are political hacks. They might be Democrats, but they sure aren’t Catholics.

Father's comments are in bold~

From the Catholic Democrats website:

November 24, 2009

Support Congressman Kennedy and Health Care Reform

Call Bishop Tobin Today

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish—where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source—where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials—and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.
– President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1960, Houston Texas, The Greater Houston Ministerial Association

[What a misguided and damaging speech that was. What comes to mind is the phrase: "But for Wales?"]

Dear Friends,

This past Sunday, it was reported that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin had barred his Congressional representative, Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), from receiving Holy Communion in the diocese in early 2007, a sanction that remains in place today. [This is mendacious. Bp. Tobin has not imposed any sanction or censure on Rep. Kennedy – though he probably should. He requested in private discussion that the Congressman not receive. That is not the same as a "sanction". The Bishop did not "bar" him. But that is not to the purposes of this group, who will lie for the sake of their message.] We are asking you for your help in responding to this action and to the bishop’s disparagement of Representative Kennedy’s Catholic faith [I believe that Rep. Kennedy disparaged his own Catholic faith by his actions and public statements.] that occurred in the course of a public dispute that preceded this recent revelation.

[Watch this. You can see how Catholic Democrats try to drag this who thing over into the sphere of mere politics.] Bishop Tobin has made no secret of his preference for the Republican positions on a variety of social issues. A majority of Catholics hold views similar to Congressman Kennedy, [And this is another problem: They think morality can be determined by majorities.] namely that constructive measures to decrease the number of abortions [No… I think Catholic Democrats actually want abortion to be paid for by tax-payer dollars.] are a more Christian and effective approach than the vague criminalization threats of the past. [This issue of "criminalization" must be discussed at length elsewhere. For now, they are just using it as a scare tactic.] Catholic Democrats believes that Bishop Tobin’s [wait for it…] personal political views are driving actions that are not only hurtful to Catholics in Rhode Island but also to the larger Church [ ROFL! Sure! I bet they do! The last thing they want is strong bishops.] – as well as fueling the political divisions across our country.

This public conflict is deeply regrettable, particularly at a time when our country is debating national health care reform. [And Catholic Democrats want abortion to be paid for.] In the midst of this historic opportunity, that would help millions of people in need, Bishop Tobin returned to a divisive path. Building on his sanction [Again, it was not a sanction. It was a request.] in 2007, the bishop recently issued a public letter that only added to the polarization of the health care debate when faith, reason, and civility [What in his letter was a violation of "faith, reason, and civility"? Quotes, please?] are called for, particularly from our pastoral leaders. [But remember: If the Bishop takes a position, then he is not being "pastoral". "Pastoral" is where you let liberals do what they want.]
Do visit Fr. Z and read the rest of his excellent dissection.

At the end of the day, they fire the salvo that Bishop Tobin is carrying out the orders of the Republican party and Whelan and his recycled VOTF group are crusaders for those suffering political oppression - and so they're recruiting people to take Bishop Tobin under siege.

Last I checked, "Catholic Democrats" was not registered with the Secretary of State in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, though they claim on their website to have officers and a 'treasurer". Ergo, they're either a handful of clowns with bupkis, making like their somebody important in politics without two nickels to rub together - or somebody is giving them money they're not reporting to the IRS and paying taxes upon.

I'll have to check back with the SOS office here in Mass and see if there's any status change.

To me, the paper trail on this group should be under the nose of Cardinal George's committee to govern the use of the word "Catholic".

***UPDATE

I reviewed the status of Catholic Democrats of Massachusetts.

If you look at the website, Patrick Whelan lists himself as the "Director" and Mary Beth Saffo is listed as the "Treasurer".

Here, he lists himself as the "President" of Catholic Democrats with Steve Kruger as the Executive Director.

We can be reached at:

Catholic Democrats
PO Box 290331
Boston, MA 02129


However, if you check the corporate database of the Secretary of State and run a wordsearch for the entity "Catholic Democrats" or scroll down to do a search for Patrick Whelan and Steven Krueger or Mary Beth Saffo under individuals operating a business in Massachusetts, it's a bust.

BTW -- If you check out this page on the Catholic Democrats site, you'll find this:

Through the "Issues" section of its website, Catholic Democrats shows how the positions of the Democratic Party are consistent with Catholic Social Teaching.

Thorough our "Get Local," we connect Catholic Democrats with our local chapters.

We look forward to working with the Obama administration.

Patrick Whelan, President
Steven Krueger, Executive Director



The Obama Administration working with "Catholic Democrats" leaves a lot of questions about rounding up people to attack a Catholic Cardinal.

Whelan and McFadden co-authored an article called "Politicking in Catholic Churches" at the beginning of their "Catholic Democrat" initiative. It seems Whelan has taken down every reference and link to McFadden on his "Catholic Democrat" website.

In any event, politicians and administrations waging war against the Catholic Church have long been using McFadden, Whelan and a handful of others to do their dirty work for them.

Sick of the Rain?

I'm feeling advent around the corner.



Prepare for Mass - Watch and Stay Awake!

Spanish Bishops Excommunicate Abortion Politicians

Today the Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Episcopal Conference issued a statement saying that politicians who vote for a proposed law liberalizing abortion in Spain place themselves in an "objective state of sin and, while the situation lasts, may not be admitted to Holy Communion."...


The document states that this transformation of abortion into a right is the "poisoned source of immorality and injustice that corrupts the entire text [of the proposed law]


A colleague of mine recently asked me my thoughts about Patrick Kennedy's excommunication. When I told him, he said he would never have anything to do with abortion but he believed the country should protect the abortion rights.

The conversation went something like this:

"You don't really support rights to kill another person, do you? Do you believe in wife beating rights or raping rights?"

"No"


"But you know it's a moral evil against a person and it revolts you enough that you wouldn't get involved with abortion yourself, so why would you support the right to bring an end to another person's life?"

"I'm not sure I'd call it a person at that point."

"Well, was your wife ever pregnant?"

"Yes"

"Did a person come out?"

"Yes"

"Well then, that's what was in there, wasn't it?"

...silence...

"It's not about what you want to call the stage of life the person is in when you take it's life away, it's about taking an action to interfere and stop the life from it's destiny. You're not elderly, but if somebody doesn't take your life from you violently, you're going to become one."

Watch "Silent Scream" and tell me abortion isn't killing another person. Take a look at some pictures of the victims of abortion, watch a partial birth abortion and tell me you don't know what the dead body is or that you support a person's "right" do do that to another person.

The devil is in the details.


There are many arbiters of what is truth when it comes to the rights of persons. The more we ignore the concentration camps for the unborn and quantify the people setting them up as righteous in the eyes of God, as a society, we're heading for a conflict with God that is ugly.

Politicians that support and enact laws that kill other people are anathema and the time has long since passed for the Church to give concrete and undeniable direction on where they are leading their constituents.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Tiger Woods' Car Accident

Sort of sad news in the Tiger Woods department.that's emerging from after a car accident early this morning.

The story isn't gelling.

At 2:25 this morning and from the garage to the curb he gets up enough speed to take out a fire hydrant and sideswipe a tree. His wife claims to have heard the accident and ran outside with a golf club to smash out the back window to get Tiger out of the car.


Was the car so bad she couldn't open the doors?

But...um, he was driving a Cadillac Escalade, it isn't a very long driveway, there was only front-end damage and it wasn't even bad enough for the air bags to deploy.

She had to smash out the back window of a Cadillac Escalade, climb up inside the SUV, pull him over the front seat, pull him through the back seat, through the cargo area and finally through the back window? Why not lift the tailgate?

When the police arrived, Woods was laying on the ground beside the car and was in and out of consciousness. He was taken to the hospital and released a few hours later.

The police ruled out alcohol but say the accident is under investigation.

Apparently, they've discovered Woods and his wife were arguing. This story also claims comes the National Enquirer is running a story saying they have evidence Woods has been cheating on his wife.

I don't have a good feeling about this one.

Jay Leno Quote:

With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

Good luck with that.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Monday, November 23, 2009

Fun Turkey Cookies

Gobble, gobble.

Coakley and Capuano Take Pot Shots at the Catholic Church

US Representative Michael Capuano and Attorney General Martha Coakley both said Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin’s overreacted in his written request that US Representative Patrick Kennedy not take communion because of the Rhode Island Democrat’s stance on abortion.

“And they wonder why people stop going to church,” Capuano said during an hourlong discussion moderated by Emily Rooney that will air tonight on WGBH-TV. “As far as I’m concerned, they haven’t written me. Maybe they’ve just written me off, I don’t know.”

“I consider myself a Catholic and I disagree with my church on several items,” listing abortion, gay marriage, and the restrictions on women and married men from serving as priests.


Coakley, who has been criticized for not prosecuting Rev. John Geoghan earlier, had even harsher words for her church.

“I also disagree with the institution and the role they played in hiding pedophile priests for years,” he said. “It seems to me a little bit ironic that a church that was willing to overlook the victimization of many, many children over several years is now turning around and saying to people who are good Christians, good Catholics, that, ‘You can’t join this.’”

“This position of this bishop has indicated that some of the bishops want to get more political, and I think people will react to it very badly,” Coakley said, adding that it has not been an issue in the Boston Archdiocese.


That's amazing considering the news today that Coakley protected and hid at least one pedophile who went on to abuse more children.

Indeed the Boston Cathedra is sede vacante. In fact, it's worse than sede vacante as they're actively assisting oppressors of the Catholic religion.

Anyway, I wish these two turkeys would join another religion and disavow their tenets in the public square.

The Manhattan Declaration

A Call of Christian Conscience

Some pretty heavy names in the Catholic circle signed onto this.


As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust - and especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjust - undermine the common good, rather than serve it.


Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.


Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's.


Huh. Whatdaya know.

If they come any closer to striking at the Heart of Christ's Church, the men are going to stand up and fight.

In times of oppression, God never fails to raise Saints.

Nice Tribute to Bishop Tobin at the American Life League

Here.

Ever since Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, D.D., arrived in the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, he has been an articulate defender of truth. Since his installation in May 2005, he has focused his attention on shepherding his people, not only with a vision of faith through understanding, but with a clear set of Catholic moral principles that clearly guide his actions and shape his words.

Bishop Tobin is fondly remembered at American Life League for his “My interview with President Obama” column and his follow-up commentary, “Jesus wasn’t always nice,” in which he shared with his flock the various comments he had received after publishing the Obama “interview”:


If the language in my article about President Obama’s funding of abortions seemed harsh and offensive, so be it. It has nothing to do with my personal attitude about the man. Admittedly I’m not a fan, but as I’ve written before, I pray for him and his fine family and I wish him well. As a religious leader, though, charged with carrying on the prophetic mission of Christ, I have the right, and in fact the duty, to challenge his immoral actions. I do so because Christian charity requires me to do so, because I love my country and I believe in the sanctity of human life. As St. Paul said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.” (1Cor. 9:16)

Bishop Tobin does not mince words. During the latest scuffle with Congressman Patrick Kennedy, for example, he suggested that pro-abortion Catholic public figures “really have to question their membership in the [C]hurch.”


What a man.

What a Bishop.

Here's Judie's take action:

Take action:

1. Thank Bishop Tobin for his courage in standing up for the truth and for his concern for Congressman Kennedy’s soul. Contact the bishop’s public affairs manager, Karen Davis (call 401-278-4600, fax 401-278-4659 or e-mail kdavis@dioceseofprovidence.org), or write to this address:

Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, D.D.
Diocese of Providence
One Cathedral Square
Providence, RI 02903

2. Contact Congressman Patrick Kennedy to let him know that you are praying for his conversion to truth. E-mail him through his congressional web site, call 202-225-4911, fax 202-225-3290 or write to this address:

Representative Patrick Kennedy
407 Cannon House Office Building
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515


Judie Brown

What's next for Adam Lambert, the artistic freedom of defecating?

I don't follow "Idol" but I have heard Lambert's name thrown about here and there.

Millions of viewers saw Lambert simulate oral sex with a back-up dancer, plant a passionate kiss on the mouth of a male keyboard player and gesture to the audience with his middle finger during the closing act of the live music awards show.

Broadcaster ABC cut away from one moment in which Lambert rubbed his crotch for its U.S. West Coast version that aired later on Sunday evening. But by then, the singer's racy rendition of his debut single "For Your Entertainment" was already on its way to becoming the talking point of the show.

"Female performers have been doing this for years -- pushing the envelope about sexuality -- and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out," said Lambert, who publicly declared he was gay after "American Idol" ended in May.

"We're in 2009; it's time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people's eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I'm not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom," the singer, 27, told Rolling Stone magazine after Sunday's show.


Artistic freedom is talent performed that woos and edifies the audience.

The expression of sexuality given to another human being as demonstrable acts of love are intimate and private acts between two souls devoted and committed to one another.

"Adrenaline is a crazy, crazy, crazy feeling. Some of the things I love most about performing is when you're up there and all of the sudden you just have these feelings, this rush that comes over you," he told CNN afterward.


He thinks the country wants to watch the degradation of the sex he performs behind a building with strangers when he gets aroused by "adrenaline"? Presumably he gives the finger to after he's done with them - adrenaline and all.

Gross.

Martha Coakley the Pimp

Well, well, what have we here?

But seven years earlier, Coakley, then the head of the Middlesex child abuse unit, had Geoghan in her sights and took a dramatically different approach. Back then, three grade-school brothers told investigators that Geoghan had inappropriately touched them during numerous visits to their Waltham home, and had made lewd telephone calls to them. Rather than prosecute, Coakley agreed to grant Geoghan a year of probation in a closed-door proceeding that received no media attention at all.

Because of the deal, Geoghan faced no formal charges and no criminal record.


Coakley's political expedience of the Catholic Church wasn't in her bag of tricks in those days?

Among the characters in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the coddling of perverts is and always has been parents, lay people, doctors and in the case of the Church, the people in the pews.

Parents don't want to tell.

It's as much of a secret when it's a relative as it is when it's a member of the Church.

Charging Geoghan with something and exposing him publicly might well have brought forward victims, witnesses, whistle-blowers, and evidence that could have resulted in a conviction and a tougher sentence,’’ said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“What Martha Coakley did in 1995 I would consider negligent from the point of view of the public good,’’ said A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and psychotherapist who has written extensively about clergy sexual abuse. “Even if it was a misdemeanor, once you put it in the public eye, that’s what starts people coming forward.’’


Nevertheless, the people in Massachusetts will elect her.

When it comes to aiding and abetting perverts, or even being a pervert, if you're a movie star, producer or a politician, your misfeasance and malfeasance is excused.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Bishop Tobin's Response to Patrick Kennedy's Excommunication Revelation

Later in the day, Bishop Tobin issued a statement clarifying the terms of his decision.

“I am disappointed and really surprised that Congressman Patrick Kennedy has chosen to reopen the public discussion about his practice of the faith and his reception of Holy Communion. This comes almost two weeks after the Congressman indicated to local media that he would no longer comment publicly on his faith or his relationship with the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tobin writes.



Bishop Tobin said that on February 21, 2007, he wrote to Congressman Kennedy stating that “in light of the Church's clear teaching, and your consistent actions, therefore, I believe it is inappropriate for you to be receiving Holy Communion and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so.

“My request came in light of the new statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that said, ‘If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definite teachings on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the Eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain.’”

In the same letter, Bishop Tobin wrote to Congressman Kennedy: "I am writing to you personally and confidentially as a pastor addressing a member of his flock . . . At the present time I have no need or intention to make this a public issue.”

More Details on Patrick Kennedy's Excommunication

Since Kennedy let the cat out of the bag, Bishop Tobin has released more details.

Kennedy's Excommunication took place in 2007:

The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island said Sunday that he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman's public stance on moral issues.

Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

Kennedy did not say where or how he received those instructions. He declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's request.

"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion....

Tobin urged Kennedy not to receive communion in a February 2007 letter, a portion of which was released publicly by Tobin's office Sunday.

"In light of the Church's clear teaching, and your consistent actions, therefore, I believe it is inappropriate for you to be receiving Holy Communion and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so," Tobin wrote.


The revelation of Kennedy's excommunication couldn't come at a better time because it gives those voting on immoral and unethical healthcare without the excuse that they did not know what they were doing.

Choose Truth or lies, Life or death but whatever you choose, they see the ax just waiting to chop them from the Root.

Herald Story on Kennedy's Excommunication

The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal’s Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation’s most famous Roman Catholic family.

"ultra orthodox"

It's time to get rid of the dumb notion that there is some kind of compass that permits Catholics to pick and choose their beliefs.

Fully surrender to the teachings of the Church is what makes us Catholics.

These kinds of labels are politically correct measurements of how much you reject the teachings of the Church.

There is no such thing as conservative, orthodox or liberal

You are either faithful or unfaithful to the teachings of the Church.

Let's start changing the lingo on the internet, shall we?

Allelluia, for our Lord, God Almighty Reigns




Get ready to be moved to tears by the absolutely breathtaking pictures.

Bishop Finn leads 22,000 in Eucharistic Congress.

THIS is what we need in D.C. in response to the healthcare kerfuffle.

A large scale Eucharistic procession.

Think we can pull it together?

Bishop Tobin Excommunicates Patrick Kennedy


Kennedy reveals he's been excommunicated



Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.

"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion.


Let us pray others follow Bishop Tobin's courageous leadership.

This has been a long period where the teachings of the Catholic Church have been he-said-she-said in the public square. Various people who hold the tenets of the Church in contempt, yet claim authority to teach It, have erected a golden calf and named it "Catholicism". Far too many souls are being seduced.

Being complacent (or craven) is not an option.

We have a small window of opportunity to enlighten the intellect of Catholics in Congress and the House about the gravity of imposing immoral and inept medical care and how it will affect salvation. Losing the ability to tell right from wrong is caused by being emboldened in our sins and gives the devil the opportunity to use us as tools.

This is the subterfuge of the spiritual world we cannot see, the Holy Spirit uses people as tools and the devil uses people as tools:

The world is filled with information. Education brings us to a fork in the road where we act upon free will. One road is living a life of surrender to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, fed by God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Catholic Church. The other road is the chaos of following our own desires.

In subterfuge of this spiritual world people rise to call others to migration.

Anytime Christ's Church holds the Light up for all to see and follow, the spiritual battle for souls will provoke the spiritual force opposing the Light to use their tools call souls back to the darkness.

The culture is entrenched and the message of the Prodigal Son will be twisted. To be effective, the message from Apostolic successors has got to be swift, powerful and unified.

Kennedy could appeal the decision to officials in the Vatican, but the hierarchy of the Catholic church is unlikely to overturn a bishop, said Michael Sean Winters, a church observer and author of "Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats."

"It's really bad theology," said Winters, who opposes abortion. "You're turning the altar rail into a battle field, a political battlefield no less, and it does a disservice to the Eucharist."


How is throwing the Eucharist into a cesspool a disservice?

Unworthy reception of the Eucharist not only does a disservice to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord - it does a disservice to the soul who receives unworthily because it entrenches them in their sins. Further, it does a disservice to all those watching the circus of a public servant who dissents from the Church because they believe the actions of receiving is the equivalent of Communion with the Catholic Church.

As Fr. Convertino of St. Anthony's Shrine has memorialized, priests living a life of misleading their flocks have no problem with scuffles at the Altar. They do it all the time when people want to receive by mouth without touching the Blessed Sacrament or on their knees.

At the end of the day, those putting on the circus in the public square for the last 40 years have not plowed out and migrated the people towards the path of salvation. The world has descended. It's time for new leadership. The leadership of the last forty years is inching us towards the destruction of the empires this culture has built.

The Mercy of God will not permit a culture where so many of His souls are led to trudging the road to hell. The Old Testament is filled with empires that were wiped out by the Hand of God. God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son. The New Testament is filled with Christ's teachings, explanations and the sacrifice it cost Him to leave us a Church with Apostles designed to form our consciences and set us on the right road.

If you find yourself on the road with Patrick Kennedy and a culture that opposes the teachings of the Church, some soul searching on the identity of the spiritual subterfuge beckoning you is definitely order.


He declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's injunction.


God help him. Like it or lump it, Patrick Kennedy is experiencing the prodigal son, the father who would not let the son on the wrong path destroy the consciences in the rest of his household. Tough love to oust your flesh and blood but the reality is, there comes a point in time when somebody can undermine and poison the Truth in a household and the head of that household must take action to protect others.

The duty of a Shepherd of the Catholic Church to protect their children physically is minutia in the grand scheme of things. If they remove those who harm a body and leave those who harm the souls, their own salvation is at risk. The path to hell is paved with the skulls of shepherds who permitted a counterfeit church in the name of Catholicism to be erected and mislead.

I'm edified and hopeful at the new signs that the USCCB is going to guard and protect the Name Catholic from being hijacked. The excommunication of Patrick Kennedy is the first step on our road to recovering our heritage for our children.

Fr. Rutler's magnificent column this week hits this right between the eyes:



FROM THE PASTOR
November 22, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

Our Lord predicted that “… the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” (Mark 13:24) In every generation, there will be efforts to block Christ (the sun) and muffle the voice of his Church (the moon).

Cardinal Consalvi reminded Napoleon that even weak bishops for nineteen centuries had not been able to block the voice of Christ. A century and a half later, when the Vichy government claimed Catholic credentials but promoted genocide, Pierre Laval blustered: “Nobody and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of foreign Jews. Cardinals and bishops have intervened, but everyone is a master of his own trade. They handle religion. I handle government.” Three years later, Laval was executed, and in 1981 a chief object of Laval’s threats, Cardinal Gerlier, was posthumously declared “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.

In 1980, Cardinal Madieros of Boston wrote: “Those who make abortion possible by law cannot separate themselves from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime and deadly sin.” Shortly afterward, the Cardinal visited my college in Rome. He recounted how Senator Edward Kennedy told him: “You do your business, and I’ll do mine.” The next year, Cardinal Madieros died unexpectedly in heart surgery at the age of 67.

On November 12, the Bishop of Providence, Thomas J. Tobin, responded to a public comment of Congress-man Patrick Kennedy who had said: “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” The bishop asked, “What does it mean to be a Catholic?” He quoted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” The bishop gave a checklist for being a Catholic that applies to each of us: “Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?”

In 1947 Cardinal Ritter of St. Louis threatened to excommunicate any of his flock who tried to stop the racial integration of Catholic schools, and in 1962 Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans did in fact excommunicate a judge and two other Catholics for opposing desegregation. The media hailed them as prophets. But when newer bishops in the mold of Benedict XVI refuse to play courtier to decadent dynasties, voices older than Laval, and as old as Pilate, whine with a tone of lèse majesté: “Mind your own business.”


Father, no doubt, is rejoicing today.

Come on shepherds, stand up and fight.

***ADDENDUM

I'm passing along a suggestion a friend just sent me that I'm certainly going to follow and I hope you also consider:

Today's Mass & Communion is for this Bishop! God Bless Him & may he live a long long life!

Cover his back and lift him up.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Our Sweet Pope John Paul II Beatification Around the Corner?


There was a meeting Nov. 16 at the Congregation for Saints' Causes on the possibly heroic virtue of Pope Wojtyla.

But given that the participants' vote is subject to papal secrecy, to ask about or publish the result means to collaborate in the violation of this secret.


According to the process for beatification and canonization, in case the result was positive, it now corresponds to the Pope to sign the decree of heroic virtues. If everything has stayed on schedule, according to the calendar, the decree could be published in December.

If this were to be the case, John Paul II would receive the title "Venerable." This would be an important step, but not decisive for his being raised to the altar. Next, a miracle would have to be analyzed and attributed to the intercession of Karol Wojtyla after his death, by a medical commission, a commission of theologians and a commission of cardinals.

This is a good synopsis of Harry Reid's Trojan Horse

White House on a A Collision Course with Catholic Bishops


At the White House on Thursday, health reform director Nancy Ann DeParle praised Reid's effort to find a compromise on abortion.

"It was carefully worked through by the leader, who cares a lot about making sure this maintains the status quo on abortion policy," DeParle told reporters. Obama has said he wants the bill to remain neutral on abortion, and DeParle said Reid struck just the right balance.

But Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops' conference Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, said Reid's "is actually the worst bill we've seen so far on the life issues."

He called it "completely unacceptable," adding that "to say this reflects current law is ridiculous."

The bill would forbid including abortion coverage as a required medical benefit. However, it would allow a new government insurance plan to cover abortions and let private insurers that receive federal subsidies offer plans that include abortion coverage.

In all cases, the money to pay for abortions would have to come from premiums paid by beneficiaries themselves, kept strictly separate from federal subsidy dollars. Government funds could be used for abortions only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother - reflecting a current law known as the Hyde amendment.

The Hyde amendment restrictions apply to Medicaid, military health care and the federal employee health plan. Many states provide abortion coverage to low-income Medicaid beneficiaries, but they must do so separately with their own funds.

Abortion opponents say Reid's bill circumvents Hyde. For example, they say that any funds a government insurance plan would use to pay for abortion would be federal funds by definition - even if the money comes from premiums paid by beneficiaries.

"All the money the government has starts out being private money," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life. "Once the government has them, they're federal funds."


Catholics are not as stupid as we look.

Oprah's Quitting her Show

Who will step up to the plate to brainwash women?

More Obama Healthcare rationing for women

After the news mammograms are going to be pushed up to age 50 before your insurance will cover you comes the news that the wizards are recommending that physicians delay and less frequent testing for cervical cancer.



Funny we don't see see recommendations to push off prostate cancer screening for men?

No need to wonder about the gender of the people making these decisions do we.

Another proud day for feminists who pushed Obama down the throats of naive women.

Thanks ladies.

You've come a long way baby.

Flu Vaccine Safety Worries

People are having doubts about Obama's "swine flu" injection that informed people know is full of carcinogens.


Many Americans also feel the testing of the swine flu vaccine was done too quickly so its safety is uncertain (40 percent). Only slightly more, 45 percent, feel the testing was done as quickly as possible while still making sure the vaccine is safe. People with children are more likely to say the testing was done too quickly than those without (43-38 percent).


The power of creating hysteria is mind boggling.

N.B. There's a new strain of H1N1 that's drug resistant.

What now geniuses?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Obama's Healthcare rationing with Mammogram

Here comes higher deaths from breast cancer.

Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are blasting new guidelines from a government task force that recommends against routine mammograms for women under 50, questioning whether they are tantamount to health care "rationing" in the fight against the No. 2 cancer killer in U.S. women.

"I absolutely believe this could be a form of rationing," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga, a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist for 26 years. "It scares me."

Gingrey told FoxNews.com on Tuesday that he and other lawmakers are gravely concerned that insurance companies will seize upon the new guidelines to deny mammogram coverage for women under 50.

"Early detection is hugely important," Gingrey said, noting that breast self-exams are critical in looking for cancerous tissue masses.

The new government recommendations, released Monday by the Preventive Services Task Force of the Department of Health and Human Services, recommend against regular mammography tests in women aged 40 to 49. The guidelines also downplay the effectiveness of self-examinations and advise that women aged 50 to 74 years receive mammograms every other year.

Obama is Pro Death Penalty?

Here's a loaded statement:


WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama suggested on Wednesday the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks would be convicted and put to death...


Assemble the kangaroo court and go through the motions if you must, but the verdict is in: this guy is going to be convicted and put to death.

Geniuses running the country. Why not just paint a bullseye on NYC and clear air traffic for muslim extremists?

Anyway, where are all the cronies who whined about Bush, torture and the death penalty?

Planned Parenthood at Odds with Congress

House passage of a sweeping anti-abortion amendment has set off a wave of soul-searching and finger-pointing among abortion rights activists — many of whom thought they’d found a safe harbor when Democrats won the White House and big majorities in Congress last year.

“The reality is that we have a Democratic Congress, but we don’t have a pro-choice Congress,” said Laurie Rubiner, vice president of Planned Parenthood. “We’ve been making that point for months, but I think there were some people who didn’t get that point until now.”


Rubiner, like other abortion rights activists, lobbied hard to block passage of Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak’s amendment denying abortion funding through a proposed public-private health care exchange. But the amendment passed 240-194, with 64 House Democrats voting yes.

Some liberals are in an angry mood, blaming Stupak — and the Catholic bishops who backed his cause — for squeezing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as she tried to shore up support for her ambitious, imperiled health care reform package


Leave it to the Dean family to be crude and vulgar:

Howard Dean’s brother Jim Dean — the chairman of the progressive, pro-health-care-reform Democracy for America — is shipping hundreds of wire hangers to 20 abortion-rights-supporting House Democrats who voted yes for the anti-abortion Stupak amendment
.

When a country gives you the "freedom" and "right" to kill another human being, one of the people in that transaction has their freedom to live taken away from them violently. If protecting the civil and constitutional rights of the unborn causes people to kill other people in back alleys, the instruments they use and the chances they may take with their own lives isn't a good excuse for making the killing therapeutic and sterile. This is why we don't legalize gang land slayings.

There's a monkey wrench in their trajectory.

Keep praying.

The November 2009 USCCB General Assembly

Wow and wowee.

What a remarkable turnaround at the USCCB under the leadership of Cardinal George. God Bless him.

They promised to set a new course of fidelity for Catholic education and They're creating a committee to govern the Catholic identity of Catholic schools and media.

I just have to link to the reaction of Michael Sean Winters at the bastion of dissent, the National Catholic Reporter. .

I know that some felt nothing but shock and dismay at Cardinal George’s announcement that “we have recently begun discussions on how we might strengthen our [the bishops’] relationship to Catholic universities, to media claiming to be a voice in the Church, and to organizations that direct various works under Catholic auspices.”...

There is another aspect of American culture that fits in here, namely, our distrust of inquisitorial practices. Cardinal George is a very bright man and he surely understands that the immediate affect of any kind of ecclesiastical condemnation is to vaunt the work or organization condemned to new found notoriety....

Our culture lionizes dissent, which is why those who exercise it often look foolish claiming the mantle of a prophet for their stance. But, the committees Cardinal George is setting up will need to see their mission more in the form of a discussion than of an investigation...They must tread carefully if they are not to see a project that could be promising go astray and cause more harm than good.


They distrust people lining up what they write beside the Catechism of the Catholic Church and asking them to explain themselves do they?

Cry us a river.

Further, I don't think Cardinal George is dumb enough to buy into Winters thesis that condemning dissent at the National Catholic Reporter or anywhere else is going to advance their mission under the auspices of Catholic. Think Call to Action, Future Church, Voice of the Faithful. Nor does he give a rat's patoot whether the culture lionizes dissent and calls people who call them on it "foolish".

The chickens have come home to roost.

They tightened up the Liturgy and smacked down an attempted hijack.


They issued a statement on Marriage.

Another on Contraception.

They proposed revisions to directives on nutrition and hydration. This directive would have kept Terri Schiavo alive. This is huge because going forward, killing people by starvation and withholding water is going to get a lot harder.


The current Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services says, “There should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration to all patients, including patients who require medically assisted nutrition and hydration, as long as this is of sufficient benefit to outweigh the burdens involved to the patient.” Along with other changes, the proposed revision says, “As a general rule, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in chronic conditions (e.g., the ‘persistent vegetative state’) who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care.”


They also reiterated that they not accept anything less than the Stupak Amendment and expect conscience protections.


They elected Bishop Robert Carlson to replace Cardinal George.

This is good news. He's strong, he's orthodox, he loves the poor and the people he serves, he loves the Deposit of Faith, he's a magnet for vocations and he's very warm.

Here's a thread with some of his works and some comments from the faithful.

The new head of the Pro-life Office is Cardinal Daniel Dinardo.

Cardinal DiNardo has agreed there is a need for health care reform in broad terms, but strongly emphasized the critical requirement for any such legislation to protect the unborn and the vulnerable.

"After receiving materials regarding the health care debate from the U.S. Bishops' Conference yesterday, I am compelled to urge the Catholic faithful to pray that Congress will act to insure that needed reform will truly protect the life, dignity and health care of all," Cardinal DiNardo said in a statement October 29. "We need reform that protects life, not threatens it."

The sentiments reflect those of Cardinal Rigali, who has recently drawn national attention by representing the U.S. bishops' basic pro-life requirements for health care reform.


Cardinal Rigali did a superb job in his tenure. I was apprehensive to lose him in this pivotal role at this critical time. I think we can breathe a sigh of relief:

Like his predecessor, DiNardo has a reputation for taking a stand for Catholic Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

At the "Red Mass" marking the beginning of the U.S. judicial year last month, Cardinal DiNardo admonished several members of the U.S. Supreme Court in attendance to give "radical support" for the unborn. "In some cases the clients are voiceless for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support," he said.


I never thought we would see this kind of reform at the USCCB in our lifetime.

Thank you Lord for this encouraging development and answer to our prayers.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Bishop Trautman Making an Ass of Himself at His Waterloo




Fr. Z has the coverage.


Trautman, upset about the literal translation from the Latin Missal, predicts the liturgical reform to be a "pastoral disaster".

What a hoot he was.

When the Mass was completely in Latin, the pews and confessionals were packed. The last 40 years of whacky innovations has emptied the pews.



He doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in the intellect of Catholics
:


“The vast majority of God’s people in the assembly are not familiar with words of the new missal like ‘ineffable,’ ‘consubstantial,’ ‘incarnate,’ ‘inviolate,’ ‘oblation,’ ‘ignominy,’ ‘precursor,’ ‘suffused’ and ‘unvanquished.
he said.

Thank God, the Conference voted overwhelmingly to tell him to sit down and shut his pie hole.

Bishop Gregory Aymond was voted in to replace Trautman on the Liturgy Committee. I don't know much about Bp. Aymond but on a quick google, he spoke out about Notre Dame so at least we're moving in the right direction.

As was announced recently, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., is presenting President Barack Obama with an honorary degree and have asked him to give the commencement address.

I, along with many other Catholics, express great disappointment and sadness that a Catholic university would honor someone who is pro-choice and who holds many values contrary to our Catholic belief.

In the midst of such a sad situation, as Catholics we must continue to be pro-life and to proclaim with even greater strength the values of Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

In my opinion, it is very clear that in this case the University of Notre Dame does not live up to its Catholic identity in giving this award and their leadership needs our prayerful support.



Boy, if they keep this up, I won't be able to renew my semi-annual ritual of quoting Fr. Wilson about watching the Bishop's Conference. (Watching the bishops' conference in action is like viewing the film of a train wreck over and over again. With bright-colored clowns hanging out the train windows, waving and blowing kisses. One only wishes one had a tomato.)

How refreshing!

Less Than Fully Catholic to Finally Come Under Scrutiny?

The USCCB is circling the wagons of hijackers of Catholic identity.

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Nov. 16 that Catholic publications, universities or other organizations that insist on complete independence from their bishops are “sectarian, less than fully Catholic.”

In his presidential address at the opening session of the fall USCCB general assembly in Baltimore, George announced that the bishops “have recently begun discussions on how we might strengthen our relationship to Catholic universities, to media claiming to be a voice in the church, and to organizations that direct various works under Catholic auspices.”

According to NCR sources, those issues were to be the main topic of discussion in a three-hour executive session the afternoon of Nov. 18, when the bishops were slated to meet alone behind closed doors, with all reporters and observers and virtually all USCCB staff excluded.

George placed his comments in the context of the bishops’ role in governance as promoters and guarantors of church unity.




I'm really excited about the prospect of finally obtaining clarity for the sake of our children and the propagation of our faith.

“Since everyone in Catholic communion is truly interrelated, and the visible nexus of these relations is the bishop, an insistence on complete independence from the bishop renders a person or institution sectarian, less than fully Catholic. The purpose of our reflections, therefore, is to clarify questions of truth or faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of Catholic communion.”


At a press conference later that afternoon George declined to name specific Catholic media, higher education or other organizations that the bishops might have in mind, but he said that more generally “if any institution, including the media, calls itself Catholic,” it is the moral responsibility of a bishop to assure that it is Catholic.

That offers the bishops “a chance to clarify the relationship” and see if the entity in question is operating within the bonds of Catholic communion, he said.


Phenomenal.

More coverage here.

Cardinal George also spoke about the responsibilities of bishops as teachers, defending the right of the bishops to define what it means to be Catholic and "to clarify questions of truth or faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of Catholic communion."

In making that remark about Catholic identity, Cardinal George was referring to two separate but related controversies: his own decision to set up USCCB committees to set standards for Catholic identity in educational institutions and media outlets; and the current political debate over health-care reform, in which the US bishops' conference has been heavily involved. Regarding the latter, the cardinal defended the right of Church leaders to engage in the public debate, noting that bishops are moral leaders, and "issues that are moral questions before they become political remain moral questions when they become political.”

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Patrick Kennedy: Don't fail Daddy's Legacy

The son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy warned the state’s U.S. Senate candidates yesterday not to apply an abortion “litmus test” that might stall the universal health care his father devoted much of his career to passing.

Don't fail Daddy's legacy.


The "legacy" is enshrined forevermore in the minds of the uncatechized who watched abortion advocates at the pulpit of Boston shrine canonize "the legacy" while the Cardinal sat by lending his imprimatur to the show.

The Cardinal sat on the sidelines nodding his approval with, of all things, a memorial card of Rose Kennedy's in his pocket saying that the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone would be losing their faith.

Much of what is noble in the politics and work of the Kennedys had its origins in the bedrock of the faith of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. As a young woman she had a profound experience of God’s love that transformed her life. She strove to communicate that faith to her large clan. Since the time of her funeral Mass I have kept her memorial prayer card, inscribed with Rose Kennedy’s own words:

"If God were to take away all His blessings, health, physical fitness, wealth, intelligence, and leave me but one gift, I would ask for faith – for with faith in Him and His goodness, mercy, love for me, and belief in everlasting life, I believe I could suffer the loss of my other gifts and still be happy – trustful, leaving all to His inscrutable Providence."


I guess so long as he has the deposit of faith, he thinks he isn't culpable for sponsoring a show misleading the faithful from their "faith". Good luck to him with that.

For the rest of us, using Rose Kennedy's memorial card to abstain him from his act of memorializing Kennedys "legacy" as the path to redemption is an oxymoron.

Faith is the act of believing in the tenets of your religion even when you yourself don't see the wisdom of them. You don't need faith for something that has already been proven to you beyond a shadow of a doubt. Faith is a surrender to trust when you can't find tangible answers and have reservations or doubt.


Many times in Christ's ministry He came upon people who asked him for miracles and Christ posed questions to them that led to a public profession of their faith in front of the crowds. On one occasion, He told a gentile woman who asked him for a miracle that you don't give that which is holy to the dogs. Whatever this gentile woman was doing in her personal life that was scandalous, Christ did not permit the situation to lead the crowd to any misunderstanding about the requirements of faith and redemption. The woman acknowledged the state of her soul and she also testified that even in her unworthiness, she was struggling and trying to catch the crumbs of grace from the Table of the Lord. After Christ baited people into public professions of faith, He'd say "Your faith has saved you".

Some people are on this earth to extinguish Light and some are holding the Light high. Poor Patrick Kennedy is left with the struggles of finding his way to the Light and he's still going the wrong way. God help him.

“We cannot allow us to miss this opportunity because some people are drawing a litmus test to this bill,” said U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) “For anybody running for especially my dad’s seat to condition their support on an issue as to whether they’re going to vote for it or against it . . . to me misses my dad’s legacy of health care for all.”


If prolifers having the litmus test at killing children as the antithesis of healthcare and it's throwing a monkey wrench into Ted's "legacy", so be it.

Here in Massachusetts, Daddy's legacy not only leads poor people to kill their own children, now, they won't even have any teeth.

We're not edified.


As I've said before - and I repeat here again - for the last 40 years, the abortion industry and the victims of wayward priests confirming people in their sins have been proselytizing that pro-lifers keep missing the boat on all the good things abortionists and their supporters accomplish when we focus on "one issue" instead of the "common good". Why are they suddenly obsessed about the subject matter of abortion?

Bernadin's seamless garment has been stripped from their hubris.

Naughty us, insist on advocating the constitutional rights of victims being burned alive, decapitated, or having their limbs ripped from their body with a vaccuum until they bleed to death. You'll pardon us for saying "Freedom of choice" my eye.


Pelosi said she doubted the anti-abortion amendment would survive the House-Senate conference committee, which will craft the final bill.


The House passed it. Now comes the Senate that will pass their own bill. Then, it goes to committee who snips and cuts and puts out the final version. Then, it goes back to the House and Senate. Then, the President signs it.

Everyone is on their side of the line in the sand.


It's going to be a feisty fight on the battlefield. Pony up the prayer warriors and the internet where we can debunk the Kennedys and Obamas "legacy" and promote the "legacy" of Christ.

Another Blow to Massachusetts Healthcare Reform

Surprise, surprise.

With Massachusetts Healthcare reform draining the already low coffers, Governor Deval Patrick is siphoning money by cutting care of the seniors and poor.

More than a million low-income Massachusetts residents covered by Medicaid would be required to pay more for visits to certain doctors and receive prior approval for some expensive psychiatric medications under a plan announced yesterday by the Patrick administration to narrow a $307 million shortfall in the state’s MassHealth program.

Some of the biggest changes are in dental care for adults, who would no longer receive dentures or other oral care except for cleanings, X-rays, and emergency services.

That change alone is expected to save about $15 million this fiscal year, said interim Medicaid director Terence Dougherty.



Where's all the fat they said was built into healthcare before the business wizard Mitt Romney thrust "healthcare reform" on Massachusetts?

People's teeth were the unnecessary expenditures?

My God, the Democrats are taking away poor people's teeth.

That is just beneath contempt.


“Dentures aren’t a luxury,’’ said AARP Massachusetts state director Deborah Banda. “And if you are someone who relies on a personal care attendant to help you get out of bed or to the bathroom, that’s not a luxury either.

Under the proposals, the state will also stop paying for personal care attendants for patients requiring the in-home aides less than 15 hours a week.“Before the Commonwealth takes one more basic necessity away from our most vulnerable residents,’’ she said, “let’s exhaust every other option.’’


Oh come on lady, the AARP was giddy about "healthcare reform" even when rational people did the math about the money and warned the public about rationing of care for seniors and disabled. You wanted healthcare reform, you've got it.


Mike Fadel, vice president of 1199 SEIU, a labor union representing many health care workers, said, “As caregivers, our members see first-hand how cuts of this nature threaten the health, safety, and independence of seniors and people with disabilities across the Commonwealth.’’

Also drawing stinging reaction was the administration’s proposal to eliminate all of the funding for nursing home pre-screening, a $2.5 million cut that advocates said could force many more seniors into nursing homes. The counseling explores other options that can help people stay at home longer, such as personal care services.


Another surprise, warehousing senior citizens and the disabled. Gee, I wonder what will happen to them if they need help eating, or are in pain or need a surgery to improve the quality of their life as their bodies deteriorate.

And, good luck to all of them if they ever have some kind of traumatic event or catastrophic illness that requires hospitalization beyond 20 days:

The cuts identified so far, which also include some reduced payments to hospitals for patients who stay beyond 20 days, add up to about a third of the savings needed.


You don't suppose they'll be pushing very sick people out of the hospital after 20 days, do you? How will that work if they're cutting personal care attendants who'll need less than 15 hours after they get tossed out of the hospital

Let us not worry, I'm sure the hospital will let everyone stay no matter how much money they lose in reduced payments. They're democrats. Compassionate democrats. This is their pro-life package for caring for the sick and the poor.

When they bankrupt the nation, we'll all be on the dole and relying upon them for sustenance.

Something to look forward to!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Fr. Z on NCR

Every time somebody sends me a link to Fr. Z., I get caught up in the entertainment over there.

This post on another dumb editorial (Nostalgia is not a path to the future) at National Catholic Reporter will leave a smile on your face.

Love Fr. Z's comments. He sure doesn't beat around the bush does he.

Health Insurance at GOP Covered Abortions

Give the devil their due, they've dumped the provision.


"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement late Thursday after learning of the abortion coverage from a news report. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."


Out of the mouths of babes. Thank God they're motives are money. At least we have strings to pull the rug out from underneath their feet.

Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance, Catholic Democrats: Front for Proabortion Politicians

Father Z has a post up on a great article outlining how the Proabortion Politicians and Organizations set up phony organizations to hijack Catholics who have been misled by unfaithful priests.


Misleading “Catholic” organizations such as Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good operated as an arm for pro-abortion Democrats in 2008 and now enjoy an important role in the Obama administration.

By Anne Hendershott

Self-described “progressive” Catholic organizations, such as Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Catholics United, Catholic Democrats, and Voice of the Faithful, have successfully manipulated long-standing divisions among Catholics. In 2008, President Obama, with the help of misleading propaganda from these groups, won a majority of the Catholic vote.

Now these organizations are playing an important role in his administration


The article has uncovered several layers of the political whores of the proabortion politicians that infiltrate Catholic circles and spread propaganda to confuse the teachings of the Church.


Kelley teamed with Catholics United’s leaders, James Salt and Chris Korzen, in the 2008 campaign to neutralize the abortion issue by casting it in pro-Democratic Party terms. Salt and Korzen have plenty of political experience, as well. Salt’s political work has involved overseeing the Kansas Democratic Party’s dubious “faith outreach” efforts, including what he calls “messaging work” for the pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius and the development of “faith-based messaging resources.”

“EDGY WORK”

On its website, Catholics United describes itself as “a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition.” But in a September 12, 2008 radio interview heard at soundauthors.com, Korzen disclosed that at Catholics United “we do a little bit more edgy work…we can do lobbying and political work unlike your traditional non-profits.”

Prior to helping to found Catholics United, Korzen served as co-founder and director of the Catholic Voting Project in 2004, after working as an organizer with the Service Employees International Union. Korzen is a frequent contributor to the left-wing website The Huffington Post, where he often publishes pieces in support of the Democratic Party.


There is another hierarchy in this pyramid that involved Nancy Pelosi, the Clintons, the Governor Ted Strickland and jailbird Eric McFadden. This wing of the political machine is more sinister and treacherous. Readers of my blog will remember Kelly, Korzen, Salt and McFadden actually physically went to Churches to threaten and intimidate pro-lifers with the full consent and participation of unfaithful pastors. McFadden posted pictures of Kelly's organized trips to Churches on his blog. (McFadden took his blog down - but I believe I have them somewhere in the archives of this blog and tucked them away for safe keeping)

Experts in “messaging,” Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good have achieved tremendous success in convincing Catholic voters to focus on “social justice” issues like poverty as the way to reduce abortion rates without restricting abortion rights. Refusing to hold politicians like President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius accountable for their votes in favor of partial birth abortion and taxpayer funded abortion here and abroad, and against parental notification requirements, these progressive organizations maintain a consistent message of the “common good,” which they identify with electing Democrats.

Rather than focusing on the “divisive” issues surrounding abortion (like abortion restrictions), Catholics, they say, should elect candidates who would address the “root causes” of abortion.


Korzen and Company need a lesson in the birds and the bees. The "root causes" of 99% of abortions are falling to the temptation of sleeping with somebody who isn't your husband/wife and then the "men" involved (and I use that term loosely) pressure the woman into having abortions. There are numerous reasons why somebody would elect to kill the child they conceived that I don't have time to elaborate upon in this post - but the idea that poverty stricken women are lining up to abort their own children they conceived with their husbands and cannot afford is hogwash. There's plenty of things that can happen to a family that impact finances after children are born - even in the best of circumstances - and killing the children involved actually happens quite infrequently.

Reviewing the 2007 IRS 990 forms for both Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United raises some questions, because Chris Korzen is listed as having received compensation from Catholics in Alliance on the group’s 990 Form—even though the Catholics United website claimed he was the director there during the same time period. Still, Statement 6 of the Catholics in Alliance 990 form submitted to the IRS in 2007 clearly shows that Chris Korzen was compensated with a salary of $84,821 for working 40 hours per week for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. The relationship remains unclear.

What is clear is that in their 2007 IRS 990 form Catholics in Alliance reported a total of $1,119,368 in income from gifts, grants, and contributions, with another $9,819 in income from unrelated business activities, for a total of $1,129,187 in total support. In contrast, Catholics United, filing the EZ form because their income was so low, reported only $38,270.39 in total revenue. James Salt, listed as the organizing director at Catholics United, is the only paid employee with a salary of $9,800 per year. Chris Korzen is listed as the executive director, but according to the 2007 990 form received no salary from Catholics United.


Of course, the political whores of abortion are paid by names we all recognize:



Despite their inability to engage in extensive lobbying, Catholics in Alliance has been extremely successful in attracting large donors. In fact, Catholics in Alliance has enjoyed the financial support of some of the biggest donors to progressive causes. Never a friend to the Catholic Church, George Soros, one of the earliest donors, contributed $50,000 to Catholics in Alliance in 2005 and another $100,000 in 2006 through his Open Society Institute. Likewise, Smith Bagley, a major Democratic donor and fundraiser, whose wife, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, is Chairman of the Board of Catholics in Alliance, came close to matching Soros with grants from his family’s Arca Foundation. With a long history of supporting progressive organizations like ACORN, the Gamaliel Foundation, People for the American Way, and Planned Parenthood, Arca contributed $50,000 to Catholics in Alliance in 2007 and another $75,000 in 2008.


This is one of my favorite lines in the article:

In an interview earlier this year, Chris Korzen claimed that at Catholics United “we follow Church teachings to the letter.” Yet in that same interview, Korzen stated, “I believe that one can pursue policies beyond criminalization of abortion that make that teaching present in the world.”


Amazingly, these same individuals are now focused on nothing but the absence of abortion coverage in the healthcare bill. I guess they were the one issue katholics all along.



***UPDATE

As I've said before, I'm on the fence about the Stupak Amendment. I have a load of concerns about the government takeover of healthcare, the bankruptcy it will send the country into, the rationing of healthcare to the sick and terminating life of seniors by withholding treatments or outright euthanasia -- and I'm full force against the government takeover of healthcare. In terms of how the Bill would affect the efficacy of exploiting the poor by convincing women to kill their own flesh and blood, I'm still on the fence about Stupak. It seems a step in the right direction to me. Nowhere near enough to get me on board, but a step in the right direction.

Speaking of the Bishop's approval of the Stupak, Chris Korzen and the George Soros "Catholics in Alliance" - here's a little piece of fun:

In a November 8 article titled “House votes for ban on abortion subsidies,” the Los Angeles Times quoted a statement from the pro-Obama group Catholics United attributing it to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The article in the LA Times, which remained uncorrected on Thursday evening, covered the final vote on the House health care bill and the previous passage of the Stupak amendment.

"The amendment, offered just prior to the vote on the healthcare bill, passed 240 to 194,” wrote LA Times’ reporter Kim Geiger.

Geiger then added: “The compromise won immediate support from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which urged Catholics to ‘lend their full-throated support’ to the Democrats' healthcare bill.”

“‘The bishops' stamp of approval means that this bill is unambiguously pro-life and we will vigorously oppose those who suggest otherwise,’ the conference said in a statement Saturday,” Geiger added in the story.

Nevertheless, the words attributed by the LA Times to the USCCB actually belong to a statement released by Chris Korzen, Executive Director of the independent, pro-Obama group Catholics United, which has supported the president’s health care bill even when the U.S. bishops where opposing it before the Stupak Amendment passed in the House.

The quote mistakenly attributed by the LA Times to the USCCB is taken from the fifth paragraph of Korzen's statement, which was released late on Saturday.


You know...I thought this was weird, even for the USCCB:

“‘The bishops' stamp of approval means that this bill is unambiguously pro-life and we will vigorously oppose those who suggest otherwise,’ the conference said in a statement Saturday,” Geiger added in the story.


You never know what way the wind will blow with the USCCB but I believe the leadership under Cardinal George to be sincere. With all the flaws left in healthcare 'reform', the statement was out of sync. The Bishops never put any stamp of approval on Stupak according to CNA.


The only dissenting voice came from the pro-Obama "Catholics United," whose executive director, Chris Korzen said that "the bishops' stamp of approval means that this bill is unambiguously pro-life, and we will vigorously oppose those who suggest otherwise."

However, a staff member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) currently working on the Hill to prevent health care from including an abortion mandate, quickly dismissed Korzen's claim.

Speaking for background to CNA, the USCCB staff member said that "there is stamp no of approval from the bishops whatsoever. Someone here has been either extremely naive or extremely partisan."


The bill will now be debated and voted upon in the Senate.

This one makes more sense:

The true USCCB statement, released on Monday, November 9, a day after the original LA Times story was published, was laudatory of the Stupak Amendment, but much less enthusiastic than Catholic United's on the health care bill.

In the USCCB statement, Cardinal Francis George said the bishops were thankful that “the Representatives honored President Obama’s commitment to the Congress and the nation that health care reform would not become a vehicle for expanding abortion funding or mandates.” But the USCCB president also warned that “the Conference will remain vigilant and involved throughout this entire process to assure that these essential provisions are maintained and included in the final legislation.”

“We remain deeply concerned about other aspects of health care reform as the debate now moves to the Senate, especially as it affects the poor and vulnerable, and those at the beginning and end of life. We will continue to insist that health care reform legislation must protect conscience rights. We support measures to make health care more affordable for low-income people and the uninsured. We remain deeply concerned that immigrants be treated fairly and not lose the health care coverage that they now have,” Cardinal George stated.



Soros' lizard is getting a little carried away, don't ya think??

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Judie Brown on Stupak

Judie has dissected (like only she can) the Stupak Amendment and raises some valid concerns.

In the days following the passage of the Stupak Amendment, which led directly to the passage of the Pelosi bill, it has been argued that the amendment’s passage is a victory for pro-life Americans. We are sorry to have to throw cold water on the celebration, but frankly, this is false, for the following reasons.

First, there is the undeniable fact that whatever the seriously deficient Stupak Amendment may or may not do, its language could fall out of any bill ultimately voted on in President Obama’s quest to pass a “health care reform” bill. Second, the Stupak Amendment only addresses abortion funding (and only partially at that).

The Pelosi bill (H.R. 3962) includes the following provisions:

• Expanded access to and funding of abortifacient contraception (section 1714)

• Federal funding of Planned Parenthood-style permissive sex education programs “to prevent teen pregnancy” (section 2526), similar to that stipulated in the Senate version of Obamacare

• Deceptive definitions that, in fact, allow euthanasia through withholding or withdrawing “medical treatment or medical care” and withholding or withdrawing of “nutrition or hydration” (section 240)

• Vaguely worded references to conscience rights and only partial protection of the same (sections 258 and 259)

• Language that forces a “participating health benefits plan” to not “discriminate” against any facilities that “provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.” (section 304)

Of course, the first two provisions would result in massive new federal subsidies for organizations such as Planned Parenthood, which peddle contraceptives, abortion and sexual promiscuity, especially to our youth.

The bottom line is that the intent to restore full protection of the human person and his inalienable right to life does not appear to be high on the USCCB’s list of priorities. Instead, it appears content with maintaining the sordid, deadly status quo. This leads one to presume that the USCCB wants mandatory health care coverage for one and all more than it desires the protection of all vulnerable human beings’ right to life.


I love Judie. She's one of the rare Catholics who will speak up about injustices even when they're being perpetrated from within - by priests, Bishops and Cardinals. When it comes to the choice between letting children be victimized by ideas, policies and people coming from inside of our Catholic camp and publicly opposing the injustices, she chooses the latter. So few people do.

Do read her whole piece.

She has put up more here - and she takes no prisoners.

Apparently, the NRTL participated in the errors.

Compromising on principle is not an option.