Monday, May 30, 2011

We Will Never, Ever Forget



Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Long-Awaited Crackdown from the Pope?

Fascinating commentary in blogosphere about the recent suppression of a Cistercian Abby, home of lapdancing nuns and purportedly, sexually active monks.

For those with eyes to see, the suppression of the Cistercian abbey at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, one of the traditional seven major pilgrimage sites in Rome, rates far more than placement in a "news of the weird" column. Instead, it's the latest chapter in what might be called a "Quiet Revolution" under Pope Benedict XVI, referring to a reform in clerical culture beginning in Rome and radiating beyond...

The consensus was that a renaissance was unfolding under Cistercian Abbot Simone Maria Fioraso, an ecclesiastical mover and shaker if ever there was one. Vocations were growing, and the basilica had become a crossroads for Italian nobility, political VIPs and pop culture icons...

Headlines proclaimed, "Holy Cross in Jerusalem becomes a superstar."

Yet around the same time, rumors began to swirl that something wasn't quite right. Some critics charged that Fioraso seemed more interested in cozying up to social elites than in the traditional disciplines of the monastic life, while others raised questions about money management, especially given that the monks ran a successful boutique and hotel, apparently without clear accounting of the revenue flows. More darkly, there were rumors of "inappropriate relationships" carried on by some of the monks, understood to be code for some sort of sexual misconduct...

Also part of the picture are Benedict's policy moves to expedite procedures for weeding abusers out of the priesthood, including a recent set of revisions to canon law, as well as his decision earlier this year to create a new financial watchdog authority with the power to ride herd over once-untouchable entities such as the Vatican Bank or Propaganda Fide. The overall impression is that this is a pope weary of scandal, doing what he can to clean house.


If you're interested in catching a glimpse of the floozy dances, Mary Ann Kreitzer posted a doozy.

Terry the troublemaker posted another, and as usual at Terry's cyberspace, it solicited some interesting comments.

For instance, Henry Karlson said the Pope's sanctions reminded him of this theological metaphor he recently wrote: The Purity of Faith Must Be Preserved, Even When Found Mixed with Error.

Is it me, or is this an oxymoron?

Preserving people in their errors is preserving the purity of faith?

One of these things is the antithesis of the other: error and purity of faith.

Even if you could make sense out of this caricature of the Christ's Apostolic Mission, wouldn't you think the lucid message from the Pope's actions validate that suppressing errors is what actually preserves the purity of faith?

It is true, that sister twinkle toes may have been misled to believe that as a nun, shedding her clothes and dancing provocatively at the monk's den of inequity was "dancing for our Lord".

Suffice it to say, the Pope has now relieved her of this misconception. Hopefully, she'll put her clothes back on and be a model for modesty & celibacy. If she wants to don that outfit and dance for Our Lord, she can do it in the privacy of her own room. There really isn't a need for an audience.

What is going awry in Henry Karlson's gig is that he pursues the errors of other religions and produces long dissertations on how to incorporate the veneration of false idols and ideas into Catholicism. He is on quest to 'purify' Christ Jesus' faith by embracing his own errors (like "Saint Buddha") , encouraging others in theirs and spreading it around the internet as some avant-garde breed of Catholicism.

He believes Christ and Christendom is a violent intellectual assault to the uncatechized. Instead of 'go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit', the mantra of Catholic theologians should be to embrace ideas of false gods and pagan worship as they undoubtedly contain some element of truth in them.

I guess this is why people are clapping at Charlie Sheen?

Winning!

It is such a pity, isn't it, that Christ didn't have this savvy advice in His three year Apostolate. The Passion and Crucifixion could have been avoided. Two-thousand years worth of martyrs had it all wrong.

Poor Henry has been robbed.

My favorite example of resources the de facto schism has used to debride Catholicism of the Cross comes from two translations from the Book of Revelation.


"Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city."


"Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

Keep your clothes clean kiddies, you never know when Christ is coming to inspect our laundry.

Whoops, there goes the bell on my dryer...so let me cut to the chase. Here's my dime's worth of advice, for what its worth:

When it comes to the Catholic faith, you are what you read. I would avoid this stuff like the Kadashians.

When you are teaching the faith, the resources you immerse your audience in will make all the difference in the world to their spiritual life - perhaps for the rest of their lives. In a world where the overwhelming majority of Catholics are ignorant of Transubstantiation and the Sacraments, Catholic prayers, sacramentals - why would you bother scrounging up this tripe to feed the flock?

Dust off the Catechism and teach it. It has preserved our faith without errors for 2000 years.

p.s. If this is really a crackdown starting in Rome and will be spreading beyond:

+
IHS

Dear Beloved Pope Benedict XVI,

"Yoo-Hoo" from Boston.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Boston Globe Article on Retaliation Against Daughters of St. Paul

Another article ran in the Globe yesterday on the retaliation taken against the Daughters of St. Paul for airing the dirty laundry, corruption and misfeasance at the Archdiocese of Boston.

The Archdiocese wants to sweep it all under the carpet, but we are at a critical moment in time where it is important to keep the proper focus on what has transpired.

The successor to Sister Margaret Timothy Sato arrived at the Daughters’ provincial headquarters in Jamaica Plain shortly after the order’s superior general, Sister M. Antonieta Bruscato, flew to Boston from Rome and met with O’Malley in the rectory of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End.

In that meeting, the cardinal and Bruscato expressed dismay that the Daughters’ US province had taken the extraordinary step of suing O’Malley and other trustees of a church-run pension fund in court rather than resolving their differences in a more amicable way, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak about the conversation.


The Daughters of St. Paul most certainly did attempt to resolve their differences in a more amicable way for over four years. During that time, the Cardinal Archbishop's Administration and the Cardinal himself refused to give money back to the people to whom it belonged.

During the four years of the Daughter's asking the Archdiocese in amicable ways to hand over the money that does not belong to them, to their misfortune, the ineptitude, mismanagement, omissions, commissions, lying, arrogance, abuse of power, intimidation tactics, character assassinations and other frightening ethical problems each of us doing business with the Archdiocese has experienced, revealed itself.

The Cardinal did not have to call the mother superior at all. All he had to do in the five years of negotiating giving the money back to the people to whom it belongs was give it to them, along with the audits that account for the amount they hand over.

The Cardinal called the Mother General. She rushed over and met with the Cardinal at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross whereupon she immediately went to Jamaica Plain and removed the leadership.

Terry Donilon's quote in the article that 'we' don't retaliate is ludicrous. Moreoever, since when is the spokesperson for a Cardinal Archbishop included as the part of 'we' in the power structure of the Cathedra?


Our wise friend Jerry posted the following comment on another thread:

Carol, you know I'm not a fan of Cardinal Sean's. His withholding money from and his lack of transparency toward the Daughters is deplorable. Regarding the DSP's lawsuit, though, I think the cardinal has the better part of the confrontation. The Daughters exist in the archdiocese only with the permission of the cardinal, and must be obedient to him. Going outside the Church to sue him is over the top except in a very grave situation. Accordingly, the decision to sue should be approved by the superior of the order, and with consultation of highly regarded canon lawyers. That their superior had heads rolling indicates that the local sisters didn't contact her. That was a mistake.


I must wholeheartedly disagree. Here's the reason why.

For some time now, Chancery cronies have been mischaracterizing 'obedience' to include silence and cover up of their misdeeds, abuse of people including children, corruption and criminal activity. We all, including religious orders get called to the carpet to accept their mischaracterizations.

This has to come to an end.

It's not about loss of money, reputation, leadership position but because the disordered dynamic that covered up the rapes of children is more entrenched than it ever has been. Here in Boston, we experienced it when it even involved setting up an abortion business to enrich themselves.

Think about this for a minute. They will deploy these tactics even when it comes to murdering children to enrich themselves.

The "Dallas Charter" is a joke.

Nobody - no priests, lay person, nun or their superior general - or any other Catholic should rush in at the hour of exposition to help the Cardinal silence, penalize, retaliate and make an example in the public square of what happens to you when you expose it.

It is a serious flaw and in fact an obstacle for some people who feel called to vocations because they have made vocations a vow to cover up their corruption and retaliate and remove people who won't play along.

This can't be part of vocations. If and when you find unjust deeds and you exhaust good faith efforts to resolve it - four years is plenty - and you come across the dynamic we all know is operating under the Cardinal's nose - how do you accept your money and walk away knowing they will deploy it against others?

What just person could do this to others?

The hard way or the easy way, the end of this matrix of abuse of power is nigh.

This is just not good enough for Christ.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

National Catholic Reporter's Joe Feuerherd is Dead at 48

From Fr. Z.

Christe Eleison.

Cardinal O'Malley Retaliates Against the Daughters of St. Paul

Earlier this week, the Cardinal's spokesperson made the claim that the powers in control of the Archdiocese do not retaliate. Here's what he said:

Retaliation is not in our playbook. I reject it on right. We don't practice it, and we don't believe in retaliation," Donilon said.




For those with first-hand experiences with the Cardinal and his staff, the statement was simply...incredulous. Retaliation and threats of retaliation are exactly how the diocese lords it over their priests and employees.

In fact, it's their operating system for not just the people who rely upon them for a paycheck, they employ retaliation and threats of retaliation with quite a garden variety of people - former employees, religious orders, organizations, journalists and even you're average Catholic in the pew.

This is very difficult to say, but I feel compelled to say it - the tactic most frequently used by Cardinal O'Malley himself is one that every Catholic should be familiar with - it's not the rapes, the cover ups, the corruption, the contracts they make to abort children of the poor, the money stolen and mismanaged, etc., that is 'doing harm to the Church', it is the public exposition by the victims of their shenanigans.

This same dynamic was used on the Daughter's of St. Paul.

It wasn't the Cardinal and his team's mismanagement of millions of dollars, the cooked books and the missing money that 'hurt the Church', it was the Boston Globe article that exposed the scandal. The Cardinal called in a chit to the Mother Superior and when the phone call was over, the Mother Superior flew over here and removed the local leadership of the Daughters of St. Paul.

The little group of docile nuns who tried to get the money of their hard-working employees back have been retaliated against.

How does that stack up against the statement that "retaliation is not in their playbook"?

I am woman, I am pathetic.

What drives women to abandon their precious gifts to pursue something they think they've been cheated out of?

To me, their gesture says "I can't see my own beauty, can't recognize my talents and treasures".

Why advertise your flaws in the public square? It's like hanging a sign around your neck saying "I am woman, I am pathetic".

Some poor creature in Australia has come up with a doozy - Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is "creeping infallibility".

Creeping infallibility” is precisely what is at issue here -- a papal document that made no claim to infallibility raised to the level of infallibility by a Vatican congregation’s statement that has no competence to make such a determination, and now almost casually described as infallible in a disciplinary letter to a bishop by the current pope.


Look, let's cut to the chase.

These are people who believe their own thoughts trump the Catechism. They are the they in they shall be like Gods.

Why the quibble about a Pope's Apostolic Letter?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Archdiocese Turns Down St. Mary's Parents

As the closing of St. Mary of the Assumption School nears, members of the Parent Teacher Association say they want to open an independent private school to provide Catholic education in the northern part of the city.

But just as earlier this week when the group raised $335,000 in a last effort to keep St. Mary open, the Archdiocese of Boston has said no.


Oh, I get it. They need another empty building on their hands.

Wasn't the hype about Catholic education all about opening new schools?

All they seem to be doing is closing schools.

Everything they touch seems to turn to poo.

Anyway, it's interesting that Donilon is quoted now like he is the Archbishop.

Where is the Archbishop?

Does he know?

We are not entertaining this , as there are very good options in the greater Lawrence area,"


The folks in the Chancery making three hundred grand each wouldn't get this, but Lawrence is a big place. Poor people don't have cars or means to get their children across town.

Here's my favorite quote:

Donilon said starting an independent school is an extensive process which requires canonical approval.


Yes folks, these are people who are interested in Canonical law.

Stop laughing.

Brace yourself because the best is yet to come:


This is not about one school versus another. Retaliation is not in our playbook. I reject it on right. We don't practice it, and we don't believe in retaliation," Donilon said.


I think there's a breaking story Daughters of St. Paul that will put this fib out of it's misery, won't it.

The truth is, retaliation is the operating system of the Archbishop's fiefdom and the Cardinal's hands have blood on them. Sadly, he is involved.

Boston bloggers have emails, phone calls that tell a sad and rather frightening story of corruption, bullying and retaliation. Anyone who has ever dealt with them about anything beyond the smoke and mirrors of their PR campaigns is painfully aware of it.

"
I feel so horrible, my heart breaks every time I think about it," said Ingrid Castillo, whose son, Jesus, 7 attends St. Mary.

"I feel they (archdiocesan officials) don't have a heart because they are taking away education from the poor and faith of children."


They've thrown Jesus and the education of our faith into the street. What more is there to say. She has said it all.

Obama is Killing Civilians in Libya

Where's the outrage from the usual suspects?

The explosions occurred a day after NATO carried out some of its most intense bombings yet over the capital, including airstrikes near leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound.

Russia reacted to the NATO bombing campaign on Wednesday, calling the new airstrikes over Tripoli a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.


I guess nobody really gives a hoot.

What happened?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Blessed John Paul II Statue

Our friend Terry Nelson has highlighted some controversy over the new Blessed Pope John Paul II statue in Rome.

It looks like..uhm...mmm...well, I'll let Terry's post do the 'splaining.

Sound Reading on "End Times" (Hint-we've got a long way to go)

A few articles worthy of reading HERE and HERE that opine that Harold Camping's publicity stunt has painted all in Christendom as lunatics.

Thought provoking.

Mark Mallet has what I would consider to be an excellent perspective on 'end times' that is referenced from Catholic resources, HERE.

A couple of things that resonate with me from Mark's post.

Christ's Mystical Body, His Church, follows His Life here on earth. It doesn't seem to me we are anywhere near Golgotha. We've gone beyond Palm Sunday, that's for sure. Seems like we've been in Gethsemene.

All the nations that are falling are warning that Al Queda is taking over their country. Yemen's President cited an al aueda coup this week.

Like the rest of these countries that are falling to al queda, I know nothing about the regime being replaced by them. All I know is, what is taking their place is a tyranny that is much worse for everyone concerned.

It seems the focus has now shifted to the Holy Land. Scripturally, any way you slice it, it is disconcerting.

In terms of where this seems to be in the following of Christ's Mystical Body in His Passion and ultimately His Resurrection, it seems we are moving towards the seizing of Christ's Mystical Body in some nations. This is my educated guess, worth nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Mark's observations about Popes' language in our lifetime are also very interesting:

So where is this generation at in this sequence of cosmic events? Jesus instructed us to watch the signs of the times so that we would be better prepared for His coming. But not just His coming: preparation also for the arrival of false prophets, persecution, an Antichrist, and other tribulations. Yes, Jesus commanded us to watch and pray so that we would be able to remain faithful during the "final trial" that would come.

Based on what I’ve mentioned above, but particularly on the words of Pope John Paul II, Paul VI, Leo XIII, Pius X and other pontiffs who’ve all referred to our times in apocalyptic language, our generation is certainly a candidate for the possible arrival of the "lawless one."


This country has been making great strides towards lawlessness. Like Mark, if I were to venture a guess, we are hopefully thousands of years away.

It isn't good enough to focus on when the Bridegroom is coming so we can repent in time to be in good standing.

I never fell into the trap because it is based upon a foundation that I know I am sinning, I will do it anyway but I will watch for signs so I can stop and be sitting pretty if and when Christ returns before natural death. Remorse for hurting my Beloved is missing from this scenario. It would be all about me.

The Book of Revelation is what it is and we can't stop it anymore than the Apostles could stop Christ's Crucifixion. It's been the end game all along to follow that path.

The Mad Hatters like Camping are just another crucible along the way.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Stop the Scandal

If you have not done so already, please participate in the stop the scandal campaign.



Stop the Scandal 1


Stop the Scandal 2

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Sappy Emotions Over Bin Laden's Death

From Weigel.


What the death of bin Laden did demonstrate unmistakably is just how poorly many religious leaders and religious intellectuals think about the new kind of war in which we have been engaged for more than a decade and a half (although most of us only recognized that after 9/11). Which is to say, the death of Osama bin Laden demonstrated yet again how badly the just war tradition has been received by the men and women who are supposed to be its intellectual custodians.

Thus from some religious quarters came laments, not over the ongoing damage that bin Laden’s evil network causes, but over the fact that he was killed and the method used to kill him. It seemed as if, at various divinity schools, bin Laden was a gangster writ large who ought to have been dealt with by law enforcement agencies and methods and, after apprehension, read his Miranda rights and given a trial by a jury of his peers.

This is nonsense, and dangerous nonsense at that.


The sappy emotions and immature theology associated with Bin Laden's death was yet another level of enlightenment on the poverty of Catholic Catechesis.

They were sad, you see, because letting Osama should have lived to kill tens of thousands more and rob them of the chance of conversion in the future because someday, he may have turned into St. Paul. Some of the people were opining that he may have been a St. Paul only the world couldn't see it.

Let me explain why this is so absurd where the rubber hits the road.

There are two types of remorse.

There is the remorse Peter had, when you are sorry unto Christ - sorry because your sins have hurt Christ. This is the kind of remorse you are living your life trying to resist sin. For as long as you are in surrender and practice, you retain your ability to feel sorry unto Christ.


Then there is the remorse of Judas who was sorry unto himself. That is when you are sorry because you have to suffer some consequence. Everything is all about you. If you feel sorrow about stealing, you're sorry you got caught and are in jail. You are blinded by sin and you spin into the self-destructive. The further you sink into the hole, the harder it gets to climb out.


Many prolife Catholics spent a couple of decades begging the Archbishop of Boston to take the actions necessary to give the man the warning he had been robbed by dissenting priests. The hundreds of thousands of constituents who had been misled by his leadership and the children that violently died took its toll in the arrogance. But during his funeral, a letter was read from Kennedy that gave us an indication he had been properly Sacramentally prepared to the right kind of remorse.

But conjecture that Osama felt sorrow unto Christ is baseless, ridiculous and worthless when we have 2000 years of conversion stories to draw upon.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cardinal O'Malley's Right-Hand Man (Jack Connors) Helping With Obama's Election (AGAIN!)

At what point does a Cardinal relieve one of their duties if raising money for the that administration that kills children doesn't get on his radar?



Be sure to check out the comments section at BCI.

Cardinal O'Malley's Right-Hand Man (Jack Connors) Helping With Obama's Election (AGAIN!)

At what point does a Cardinal relieve one of their duties if raising money for the that administration that kills children doesn't get on his radar?



Be sure to check out the comments section at BCI.

Schwarzenegger

I was surprised several years ago when women came pouring out of the woodwork telling tales about Schwarzenegger grabbing and groping women them and sorry to see this story unravel this family.

My Lord, you are all-powerful, you are God, you are Father.
We beg you through the intercession and help of the archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel for the deliverance of our brothers and sisters who are enslaved by the evil one.
All saints of heaven, come to our aid.

From anxiety, sadness and obsessions, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From hatred, fornication, envy, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From thoughts of jealousy, rage and death, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From every thought of suicide and abortion, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From every form of sinful sexuality, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From every division in our family and every harmful friendship, we beg you, free us O Lord.
From every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft and every form of the occult, we beg you, free us O Lord.

Lor, you who said, "I leave you peace, my peace I give to you", grant that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we may be liberated from every evil spell and enjoy your peace always, in the Name of Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Trump Out, Gingrich Hearts Healthcare Mandates, throws Ryan under the bus and, of course, Romney is...WINNING!


Busy day in Washington!


Gingrich hearts mandates, throws Ryan under the bus and then takes it all back.


Sitting under the lush palms and blue skies of the richest Americans' favorite resort — during off-season when the rich wouldn't be caught dead here, I hastily add — I naturally couldn't wait to watch Mitt Romney's PowerPoint presentation on health care.

But duty beckoned and, several pots of coffee later, I can only add my own voice to those who concluded: Poor Mitt Romney — though for different reasons.

Romney is in a bit of a pickle, or so it seems at a glance. He's running for president in part against Obamacare but has to acknowledge, as the president so often does, that Obamacare is modeled largely on the health-care plan that Romney created while governor of Massachusetts.

Thus, tieless and professorial, Romney took the stage Thursday before a smallish audience at the University of Michigan and executed a pre-emptive strike against those who can't stop talking about the similarities between President Obama's and Romney's respective plans, including the insurance mandate that conservative Americans find so repugnant.

Oy.



And, if nobody gives him money, he'll finance his nibs himself!

Where does that leave us?

Pawlenty and Santorum. Maybe Mitch.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Blogger Blackout, Vacationing with Good Friends and Taking up Golf!



How about that blogger blackout?

Though there are many bloggers masterminding world events, whose readership were undoubtedly stricken with panic, I was content in the knowledge that Tenth Crusade readers were not among them!

I apologize the blackout prevented me from posting I would be on vacationing on the Cape taking some golf lessons with a group I have been blessed to call friends for over 40 years. It was spectacular. (Watch yourselves on the fairways on the South Shore.)

A few highlights from last week...

It's déjà vu all over again with MadMitt making an ass of himself.

How'd that work for him?

He thinks he inoculated Romneycare by saying Commonwealth Care doesn't exist, taxpayers aren't bankrolling healthcare, Massachusetts is making money on 'mandates' and he's off to South Carolina to 'court the evangelicals'?

I can't imagine the nasty infighting in 2008 with the evangelicals over Romney didn't take them to school.

Huck's out. That's a crying shame.


Boehner cried. I really like this guy!

Did the Catholic crusade in blogosphere for Bin Laden's sainthood have any remarks on whether Jesus loved stash of pornography in the bunker?

Hope y'all had a great week.



Monday, May 9, 2011

World's Oldest Newlyweds at 100 and 90

Use it or lose it, says the groom.


They want to go kayaking and walking in California.

How cute is that.

Scratch Pakistan off the List of Allies - Winning!

Obama alienates another one.

The public outing of the CIA station chief here threatened on Monday to deepen the rift between the United States and Pakistan, with American officials saying they believed the disclosure had been made deliberately by Pakistan’s main spy agency.

If true, the leak would be a sign that Pakistan’s powerful security establishment, far from feeling chastened by the killing of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison city last week, is seeking to demonstrate its leverage over Washington and retaliate for the unilateral U.S. operation.

When George Bush was President, we had about a dozen more allies than we have with Obama two short years later.







Sunday, May 8, 2011

Obama's Regime of Thugs in Egypt is Killing Christians







At least six people were killed and 120 injured in sectarian clashes outside a Cairo church, an incident officials say began over rumors that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being held there against her will.

Witnesses said an armed group of Muslims marched on Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the oldest churches in Egypt.

During the clashes Saturday, Muslims and Christians exchanged gunfire, sending people running for cover, witnesses said.


A friend sent me this story, which I don't know whether it is true or untrue, but I've had some nagging questions about Obama's sudden willingness to kill Osama before he comes back to kill us all. It just doesn't jive with his dhimmitude and assistance to avante guard pockets of al queda.

On the one hand, he's held secret meetings with al queda's spin off and helped them execute a coup of a country who is escalating their war against Christianity. He's spent years talking about how important it is to replace protecting our lives and sovereignty with making nice with tyrants by providing them with ritzy dinners and cappuccinos as their regimes of murder are permitted to flourish. Why would he bother to chase down and kill Bin Laden?

It also struck me as odd that they've known where Bin Laden has been hiding since last August. Bin Laden's computers indicate they were preparing another 911 in September of this year. They had no way of knowing the plans Bin Laden was ordering. We've been here like sitting ducks for nine months while Obama's regime were 'watching' him?

The story talks about how the situation was forced and they pulled the aloof and detached president off the golf course and escorted him into the room to watch it after it had already begun.

Pray for our brothers and sisters.


Saturday, May 7, 2011

Pew Research Political Test

TAKE IT HERE.

Usually these things leave me in the libertarian bordering conservative republican profile - which I don't think is accurate. On this one, I came out as a staunch conservative along with 9% of respondents. A little fun for a late Saturday afternoon. Enjoy.


TYPOLOGY GROUP PROFILES

YOU
Staunch Conservatives

Main Street Republicans

Libertarians

Disaffecteds

Post-Moderns

New Coalition Democrats

Hard-Pressed Democrats

Solid Liberals

Bystanders


High Ranking Vatican Monsignor Caught Propositioning in Gay Chat Room

When the video showed up on CNN, including putting his hand on the young mans bumbum while telling him he is not the lone individual at the Vatican engaging in booty calls under the Pope's nose, he explained that it was a stealth intelligence operation to gather information about homosexuality.

Doesn't say he's been removed, so maybe it's true. LOL.



Behave yourselves in the comments section.

Is "The Deacon's Bench" or "Patheos" an "approved apostolate"?

Just asking.

I called the Deacon's diocese and I was told the Deacon's Bench is not an approved apsotolate.

Call for yourself to verify.

That is all.

Florida Bans Looking Like a Fool With Your Pants Falling Down



For Thus May Our Hearts Turn, Oh Mother to Thee



Never a Wish Better than This, When You Only Have a Hundred Years to Live


An astute and moving reflection from somebody victimized by the 'feminist movement' called "Craving Burnt Toast on Mother's Day":

Fortunately, some modern-day moms feel increasingly uneasy as the months wear on, and, before long, they see the truth: The accolades at work are fleeting, while the memories of motherhood last forever.

Far be it from me to say I've never fallen to a foolish philosophy, but buying into the genre that women are undermined by the vocation of motherhood was thankfully not one of them.

I have always been driven to be the best mother I could be. As young as I can remember, I observed mothers around me, and stored their best practices in my memory bank. I read everything I could get my hands on at every stage of their development.

As my faith grew along with my vocation...maybe it's more accurate to say as Christ beckoned me home to my faith with my vocation... I pursued the Deposit of Faith to fortify my skills as a Catholic mother.

I sometimes read with with the belief I could debunk It! To my surprise, I was instead converted.

But even when putting mothering above everything else, juggling all of the balls in the air is an imperfect science. We carry the weight from the balls that fell or the few train wrecks along the way.

As our children age and harmful things beckon them, our job becomes a search and rescue and recovery mission.

Just about the time we hit 40, we have the epiphany... our mothers were right.

We do the best we can and sometimes, it isn't enough. Toast burns. Hearts break.

We love and win. We love and lose. We love and learn. We love and live.

Every day is a new day.

I am so grateful for all the mothers who taught me along the way to Christ. Especially, Our Blessed Mother.




Happy Mother's Day!


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

God Loved the Antichrist Just as Much as His Mother (and other half-baked urban legends and poppycock)

ner
The National Catholic Register ran a few sympathy for the devil articles yesterday that leave me a little perplexed about where EWTN is going with their newly-acquired publication.

I was actually shocked to read this doozy, called "The Shocking Truth God Loves Osama Bin Laden Too".


God loves murderers as much as he loves the rest of us, even as much as he loves the people whom they hurt. What does that say about our God? What does it mean for us, given that we are called to love as God loves?!

This most difficult of truths has come to mind again as I see Osama bin Laden’s image splashed all over the media, and hear the reports that he is now dead. God loves that man as much as he loved Mother Teresa? God loves that man as much as he loves the people on Flight 93? As much as he loves each of the other victims of 9/11? As much as he loves me? It’s true.

Saints preserve us!

Am I reading this right? Does this say that Mother Teresa and Osama Bin Laden are equitable recipients of God's love?

Dogs, sorcerers, unchaste, murderers, and servers of idols, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie are not to be left, as Scripture dictates, outside of the Kingdom?

The past few weeks of reading over there would leave one of the opinion that while God loves Bin Laden, it's Michael Voris who is on the highway to hell.

What madness.

Here's something well-written and succinct that puts things into the proper perspective:

But Proverbs 24:17 is indeed instructive; it is a call to humility and a recognition of the thin line between giving thanks for deliverance from evil and giving into the sort of pride that is itself the root of sin. Yes, we should rejoice in justice, but be soberly circumspect when it comes to the killing of those who are evil. God desires that all men be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), but he also judges justly and "will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury" (Rom. 2:6-8).
Of course God loves sinners, even unrepentant ones! But, the idea that He loves the children whose father is the devil the same as he loves His Saints is crackpot theology. Christ called some of these characters He came across in His days "dogs", "evildoers" and "swine" and warned the Apostles not to give pearls to them.

Scripture tells us that St. John was the disciple whom Jesus loved, the beloved disciple.

Did He not love the other eleven, or does this tell you that even among his most cherished faithful servants God does not love equally? Where do you suppose this put's Bin Laden, Hitler, David Duke?

Osama spent his life hunting Christ and His followers to annihilate them. Does that ring an identity bell with anyone who has read Scripture? Neutralizing the enmity which Scripture explains is Divinely placed is not something I would expect to read at a publication belonging to Mother Angelica. Is there an editor there that reviews the theological content or has the thing become a loose cannon?

There isn't a shred of evidence Bin Laden repented of his life's work of lying and murdering Christ. Can somebody please tell this teeny tiny blogger what the National Catholic Register is doing by suggesting Osama Bin Laden's life may have earned him a reward in Paradise?

It is a mockery of the theology of salvation.

The last paragraph or two of the Bible enumerates the public unrepented sin that leaves us outside of Christ's Church. You cannot simultaneously claim you leave judgments to God when you are out in the public square trying to trump those judgments.

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me lucifer
Cause Im in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste,



Praying for souls, even the most hardened sinner is the duty of every Catholic. Mucking the theology of salvation along with it, is its antithesis.

BIN LADEN'S CAPTURE ON THE FEAST OF DIVINE MERCY

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

It’s an understatement to say I’m deeply moved by the courage of the small group of men who carried out the attempted capture, and as events turned out, the assassination, of Osama Bin Laden.

Like his predecessors, Bin Laden was driven to hound and hunt down the Divinity of Christ. In the spiritual world, where we are aware of the unseen forces, we know his animus was counseled and driven by the devil. It's a tapestry that repeat's itself throughout our religious history.

There are conflicted emotions in seeing the sons of Egypt gobbled up by the Red Sea, Hitler's assassination, the execution of Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden.

I'll tell you what I see: Divine Mercy.

A gift, the fruit of prayer on the Feast of Divine Mercy, the intercession of Blessed Pope John Paul II on the day of his beatification. It is no coincidence that service I was at, we prayed for our soldiers in front of the Blessed Sacrament at almost the exact time the military action was carried out. I am sure similar prayers were said for the men who protect our freedom all over the country and in fact the world.

It was interesting watching Pelosi and the Democrats. Aren’t these the same people who are offended by squirting water on terrorists? They can't seem to stick to their story. They were positively giddy about shooting Bin Laden between the eyes. Per usual, their emotions and victory is focused on the people they see in the mirror.

They can't even see The Deliverer.

Rejoice and be thankful for those who responded to Grace and freed the world from the power of this evil. It is a tremendous victory.

We praise you Jesus, thank you Blessed John Paul II, St. Faustina, the Woman clothed in the sun, the Communion of Saints, souls in purgatory.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Blessed John Paul II

I hope you all enjoyed yesterday. I wouldn't even know where to begin about (I believe it was Fr. Rutler who called it) A Perfect Storm for Grace.

Here's a great resource on theplenary indulgence.

I wanted to say a few things about my beloved Pope John Paul II. I know several readers, friends, bloggers I respect have concerns about the beatification.

The concerns about the appointments and elevations of heretics and apostates are valid. I can't defend the indefensible. But, the cover up problem the Catholic Church has lies well underneath the Pope. It begins on the level of the parish, Chancery, Nuncio. It is in the pews, where no matter what a priest or Bishop does that is scandalous, there is war declared on anyone who brings a valid complaint forward. The code of silence. I can't pin it all on the Popes, though they are accountable for the diligence and ultimately the appointment, even here in Boston, the Cardinal's secretary buries the evidence and keeps it from the Cardinal. We have permitted this culture to flourish. This is almost entirely what the pushback on Michael Voris is - we finally have a man who is willing to serve Christ and Christ alone, withstand being slandered, humiliated, bullied and rebuffed. And yes, he kissed the kooran.

But with the deposit of faith he left us, opposition to his beatification, I feel, is not measured. I don't know how anyone who has read his apostolic treasure chest and feel these criticisms are balanced. Furthermore, the Blessed Mother was so present in his pontificate, she even literally saved his life.

It was a glorious day for Christ yesterday.