Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Still no electricity...



Estimated repair time from the electric company....September 4th!

I am a lot of things but living like a pioneer woman is not among them. I enjoy the finer things like warm water and lights.

I've figured out though the most important item in the scheme of things. When you get right down to it, it's the hairdryer.

:)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

THIS is what I'm talking about...



Pope Benedict XVI has asked forgiveness on behalf of generations of “cradle Catholics” who have failed to transmit the faith to others.

“We who have known God since we were young, must ask forgiveness,” said Pope Benedict to a gathering of his former students at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, on Aug. 28.

The Pope said an apology is due because “we bring people so little of the light of His face, because from us comes so little certainty that He exists, that He is there, and that He is the Great One that everyone is waiting for.”

Monday, August 29, 2011

Cardinal O'Malley Lumps Innocent Men in With Pedophiles

Our friends and colleagues at BCI have charitably covered the latest on Cardinal O'Malley's earning trust and respect campaign: Archdiocese airs list of priest accused of sexual abuse.

At one time, they were threatening to put the names of dead men on the list but I see they did not.

Tell me something. How did this slander pan out for them? Whom did they please? Whose trust did they earn?

If the people around the Cardinal were deliberately trying to sabotage his reputation, they couldn't do a better job.

Breathtaking stupidity.

St. Augustine Rocks




Love, and do what you will. If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love. If you censure, censure out of love. If you forbear, forbear out of love. Put love in your heart. Nothing but good can spring from that source.

St. Augustine

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Friday's walk to the train...

I'm reading a book called "In the Likeness of Christ written by Fr. Edward Leen. Fr. Leen reminds the reader that life, destiny, the will of God requires so much more than being a passive observer and spontaneous participant to what is going on around you. It's a book that assists our discipline to see the world through the eyes of the soul and not the eyes in our head.

I can't get enough of these kinds of books. I need these books. We get ourselves into a state of grace, try to remain there. We go on our merry way thinking Our Lord is in the driver's seat. But if we are not keenly aware and we instead live life on the surface through our emotions, we get ourselves into all kinds of trouble. I'm not dissing emotions. I love emotions. I just don't want to base my actions on them unless they are, at the bare minimum, not offending God.

The book's focus (at least so far) has been on the angelic.

So there I was on the way to the commuter rail making my way home at the end of my work week. Thinking about this past week and praying. Earthquakes. Hurricaines. Posts I have not yet dealt with - Mark Shea's last Voriscreed and the release of names from the Archdiocese of innocent men lumped in with pedophiles.

Walking down Surface Road to South Station, there' a long line of benches where the homeless congregate. Their faces are a roadmap to their long life of drinking, drugs, poor nutrition, mental illness. You see people there for years and then they disappear. A new woman showed up a few weeks ago with what must be ten suitcases full of stuff. It will eventually all get stolen from her but she is guarding it with her life. Afraid to move or sleep, she's there 24/7.

She had her back to me but just as I was walking by, she began shrieking 'hey you' and insults about Christ and talking about Satan's power to overcome. A power this poor woman must know all too well. I wondered how she got into this condition as I made the sign of the Cross, denounced Satan, praised God and prayed for her. I thought about the impotence of priests. Too weak or egotistical to confront the demons sweetly seducing their flocks right in front of their eyes.


Have you ever read the writings of Anne Catherine Emmerich?

Good reading, especially in front of the Eucharist in Adoration.

She was mystically taken to Our Lord's Passion and Crucifixion with the ability to see what he saw.

From Chapter 38 during the nailing of Christ to the Cross...

This scene was rendered the more frightful to me by the sight of demons, who were invisible to others, and I saw large bodies of evil spirits under the forms of toads, serpents, sharp-clawed dragons, and venomous insects, urging these wicked men to still greater cruelty, and perfectly darkening the air. They crept into the mouths and into the hearts of the assistants, sat upon their shoulders, filled their minds with wicked images, and incited them to revile and insult our Lord with still greater brutality. Weeping angels, however, stood around Jesus, and the sight of their tears consoled me not a little, and they were accompanied by little angels of glory, whose heads alone I saw. There were likewise angels of pity and angels of consolation among them; the latter frequently approached the Blessed Virgin and the rest of the pious persons who were assembled there, and whispered words of comfort which enabled them to bear up with firmness.


Good times ahead as we follow Christ along His path.

Let's be on our toes.

I pray you are all riding out this storm ok. No electricity here (I'm on an aircard.)so I have no idea what's happening. I thought the worst of the storm had passed but it seems the wind is picking up speed.

Be safe.




Thursday, August 25, 2011

This is Why I Can't Drum Up Respect for SNAP



They don't know when to stop.

Category 2 Hurricane Coming...



You think somebody upstairs is getting mad?

I wrote to a colleague laboring in Christ's vineyard about Biden's most recent revelation that he is open to the tyranny of communism and killing people to manage debt and he wrote back with a sobering thought:


When the building shook yesterday here in ____________ from the earthquake in Virginia and we evacuated for 90 minutes I was struck by the thought that a horrible chastisement can happen so suddenly with such brutal force that our entire culture could be in the grip of a vengeful God who’s patience has come to an end someday soon. I read recently that Arch Sambi told the editor of Inside the Vatican that there is every reason to believe that the Fatima prediction of a great crucible is closer to us than we might think. People like Biden just accelerate the pace.

Monday, August 22, 2011

People Cost Money So Joe Biden Fully Understands Killing Them

Joe Biden gets it.

He 'fully understands' China's one-child policy and yanking pregnant women out of their homes to kill their children to save money.


What we ended up doing is setting up a system whereby we did cut by $1.2 trillion upfront, the deficit over the next 10 years. And we set up a group of senators that have to come up with another $1.2 to $1.7 trillion in savings or automatically there will be cuts that go into effect in January to get those savings. So the savings will be accomplished. But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I’m not second-guessing -- of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.

So hopefully we can act in a way on a problem that's much less severe than yours, and maybe we can learn together from how we can do that.


Whoah. He is a lunatic.

ADDENDUM

Boehner has summed it up perfectly..What the hell, Joe?

I am blown away by the revelation that killing people to control debt is truly where they are going.

Biden is a monument to what Sacrilegious Communion will do to your intellect.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Future of Our Church

Please forgive the delay on posting on the magnificent witness of World Youth Day to the future of our Church. The combination of beefing up my prayer life and exercising is sucking up the 'free time' I use to blog. I've been an avid exerciser all my life but have been slacking for the past year. (Some savvy advice: Don't try this experiment unless you can afford to carry 20 extra pounds and you enjoy stiff joints and muscle weakness.) Former runner, now walker, I've added it back into my daily routine.

Anyway, I've been meaning to post about the Mass I went to last Sunday but maybe the delay actually makes a good segway into a post about World Youth Day.

Most of us here at TTC are missionaries who have the abilities to see the tools for salvation being withheld from the faithful. We share Christ's heartache over the loss of souls as closely as our hearts ache over our own physical loss of loved ones to death. We see the repercussions of severing God from the culture.

It is strange how efforts to reconnect people to Christ are misconstrued to be divisive but if you think about it, it actually is divisive. If souls are given the tools that lead them to the Sacrament of Confession and Sacramental Grace, their intimacy and union with Christ is divisive to people who positioned themselves to be adored and idolized. Priests who confirm us in our sins are so much "nicer" to us than Christ and His Church as we are being led astray by the devil and all his works, the symbiosis of our spiritual intimacy and attachments and the ego of these priests feed off of each other. Let us face it. On its face, the work we do to sever these attachments to bring people to Christ is divisive to the mortals involved.

These priests, by the way, are the Scribes and Pharisees spoken about in today's Scripture. Urban dictionary language would refer to this symbiosis as the narcissists. Christ speaks about them today in Scripture and calls them Scribes and Pharisees.

The narcissists are everywhere. We ride the emotions of how this affects us and others. Righteous anger has the propensity to settle into discouragement and lo and behold despair comes moseying on down the road. If we give in to the serious sin of despair, just like every other sin, it makes a home in our emotions and starts rewiring our emotional circuits. If we are not conscious about how sin processes,the haywire emotions get into the driver's seat of our animus and intellect.

We have to be on our own guard when we see souls being misled and our Liturgies trampled by the narcissists, least we fall. I've been there, done that. It kept me away from the Sacraments for quite some time. Watching it all was too much for me to bear. I had to spend years finding the caverns where our religion is taught or at the very least not massacred and our Liturgies take us to Golgatha and the Resurrection.

These places are not always convenient and as the purity of what I was being fed ignited grace, I found I was able to tolerate little things going awry at a Liturgy. I believe this is what Bishop Coyne coined as 'emotional cruise control' when he was describing his frustrations a few weeks back.

Last Sunday, my schedule left only the later afternoon for Sunday Mass and the only choices were places unknown to me (which I still avoid), places I've experienced Liturgical and spiritual malpractice that is too much for me to bear and the charismatic Lifeteen Mass where the time before Mass is spent listening to the deafening echoes of the discussions of teenagers and well-meaning adults trying to lead them to Christ and the Liturgy has some annoying but not fatal irregularities. I chose the Lifeteen Mass because I've never heard anything doctrinally that is doctrinally misleading and there is nothing that invalidated the Mass.

The noise before Mass was a crucible as I knew it would be. Collecting yourself spiritually, praying, preparing took enormous effort. And, of course, as soon as I was able to overcome the noise to intimately and spiritually connect to Christ, the louder a few dames around me in their 50s and 60s got!

Five years ago, I would have come out of that deep cavern to stew in my emotions, give them dirty looks or in my better days tapped them and ask in charity if they could lower their voices so that people who use this time to pray and prepare could concentrate.

As soon as I felt myself leaving Christ's intimacy to be annoyed, I reminded myself that these are good people on the road to Emmaus. As the Mass began and I was surrounded by them, lifting their hands in prayer, praise and song, I couldn't help being uplifted by their fire for Our Lord. It's like watching newlyweds. They are newlyweds. The thought of how much Christ is comforted by their fire brought me to tears. It still brings me to tears thinking about it now. The talking at the beginning of the Mass is minutia in comparison.

There was also a young child several rows back whose mother gave him a book and snacks to keep him occupied. Every once in a while he could come across a discover in the book and shared his joy with his mother. The Mass was disrupted with "A DOG!","A TURTLE!" in the happiest little voice as his mother would remind him to be quiet. I remember these days hoping not to frustrate the people around me but too in love with Our Lord not to go, not to bring them closer to Christ's Presence. Not every home has two parents that are practicing Catholics. One parent may even resent it. Others are single parents. I smiled each time I heard that voice and prayed for him and his mother, that their faith forever be preserved.

The young man, the teenagers on fire for the Lord, this is the future of our Church.
This fire was my own path to Christ. It eventually burns off the impurities and irregularities.

We have a lot of scandals around us but we have to be on our guard not to make things into scandal that are not.

If you are in a diocese or parish where you can fine tune a Lifeteen Liturgy, go for it of course. To those of us on the Isle of Crete, we have to choose our battles wisely.

Listen, even John Allen's snippy little article has some inkling about the fire. It's the evangelicals stupid.

He is having a pipe dream of course in his claim that fire and the children of John Paul II, whom he admits strongly defend Catholic Church teaching, is conservative and liberal all at the same time, but he sees what he does not have the knowledge to evaluate:

That said, the Evangelicals clearly set the tone. World Youth Day is perhaps the lone international venue where being faithfully, energetically Catholic amounts to the “hip” choice of lifestyle. To be clear, this passion isn’t artificially manufactured by party ideologues and foisted on impressionable youth, like the Nuremberg rallies or Mao’s Red Guard brigades; it’s something these young believers already feel, and WYD simply provides an outlet.
In that sense, World Youth Day is the premier reminder of a fundamental truth about Catholicism in the early 21st century. Given the double whammy of Evangelical Catholicism as both the idée fixe of the church’s leadership class, and a driving force among the inner core of younger believers, it’s destined to shape the culture of the church (especially in the global north, i.e., Europe and the United States) for the foreseeable future. One can debate its merits, but not its staying power.
In the real world, the contest for the Catholic future is therefore not between the Evangelicals and some other group -- say, liberal reformers. It’s inside the Evangelical movement, between an open and optimistic wing committed to “Affirmative Orthodoxy,” i.e., emphasizing what the church affirms rather than what it condemns, and a more defensive cohort committed to waging cultural war.
How that tension shakes out among today’s crop of church leaders will be interesting to follow,


It sure is going to be interesting to follow. This is why simultaneously, others are working on internal reforms.

If it helps the dying breed at the National Catholic Reporter to sleep better at night to think the children being led to accept and defend Church teaching and promote it in the culture are 'liberals', rock on dude.


Meanwhile, the Pope reminded the children to “swim against the tide” and abide by the principles of the Catholic Church despite broader changes in society...

At the end of Sunday’s Mass, the pope announced that the next such event would be in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Until then, he told those at the service, in Portuguese, that they “will be swimming against the tide in a society with a relativistic culture, which wishes neither to seek nor hold on to the truth.”
.

Spectacular!

Though the event was marred earlier this week by clashes between the police and protesters condemning its cost, the huge and ebullient welcome for the pope provided a powerful demonstration of his influence, even at a time when church attendance has been dwindling in Catholic countries like Spain.



As It was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.

The Pope heard Confessions at the Festival of Forgiveness and he gave a beautiful and grace-filled message to our seminarians and priests.


That said, Christ the High Priest is also the Good Shepherd who cares for his sheep, even giving his life for them (John 10:11). In order to liken yourselves to the Lord in this as well, your heart must mature while in seminary, remaining completely open to the Master. This openness, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, inspires the decision to live in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven and, leaving aside the world’s goods, live in austerity of life and sincere obedience, without pretense.

Ask him to let you imitate him in his perfect charity towards all, so that you do not shun the excluded and sinners, but help them convert and return to the right path. Ask him to teach you how to be close to the sick and the poor in simplicity and generosity. Face this challenge without anxiety or mediocrity, but rather as a beautiful way of living our human life in gratuitousness and service, as witnesses of God made man, messengers of the supreme dignity of the human person and therefore its unconditional defenders.

And, we have a new Doctor of the Church, St. John of Avila whose works influenced the Council of Trent and was involve reformation of clerics

Lots of luck to John Allen.




Saturday, August 20, 2011

Thought for the Day


‎"America is suffering not so much from intolerance, which is bigotry, as it is from tolerance, which is indifference to truth and error, and a philosophical nonchalance that has been interpreted as broad-mindedness." ~ Archbishop Fulton Sheen

I Can't Believe It. That You Would Shed Your Blood and I Receive It



I am not worthy of Your Body and Your Blood
Say the Word and I shall be healed.

How I love you Lord.

The Catholic News Agency Failing to File Annual Reports?


Our Heavenly Father has such a sense of humor and justice, doesn't he?

Hey, I'll bet they had no idea their 'non-profit' status was out of compliance and they are committing 'tax fraud'.

They better get hopping to send back all of the donations that have been sent to them.

By the bye, from what little digging I've done, the 501(c)3 status of St. Michael's Media, Inc. has Not been revoked by the IRS. It appears to be in good standing.



Friday, August 19, 2011

Please Sir, May We Have Our Religion Taught To Our Children?



These are the days, aren't they?

Priests teach you to act on your temptations.

The Bishop condones it as the shining example to follow.

Young and naive, uneducated, without Sacramental grace, we go on a toot.

Those of us lucky enough to find our way to Truth come crawling back begging for God's mercy.

We sit in the pews with our children waiting for the priests to teach truth but they lead our children into temptation.

We do everything we can to ask them in charity not to mislead our children, our neighbors, friends, family and fellow Catholics.

You'd think that would be an innocuous request. But that is when the muggings commence. The damage these muggings have done to Catholics is immeasurable.

Here's the question I have:

What possible reason would they have to want Catholic children to continue to be led into temptation and sin?

Somehow, I think the devil is in those details.


The funny thing is, the 'nicer' these Catholics proclaim themselves to be, the meaner they can be.

There is a sword of Damacles hanging over the heads of Catholics who ask to have our religion taught to us. If you dare to do it, bottom feeders will dig up the things you did when you were severed from Christ's Grace to humiliate, embarrass and silence you. They make mountains out of molehills, slander and malign. The people who put themselves out there as models of kindness have a feast day. The crucible of the individuals pursuing the distribution of Sacramental Grace for themselves and others is a victory for them. People observing it, moved by compassion to point out the lack of lucidity and compassion going on in the feeding frenzy get swept up by the hostile crowd.

If you are struggling with sin and drag yourself into Church and ask for the tools for Grace, your sins will be exploited and pounced on by wild lions.

Let us face it. Catholics are afraid to evangelize because this is what will be done unto you.

History repeats itself. The predicament inside of the Catholic Church is the same predicament Athinasius fought.

It is one thing for us to be persecuted outside of the walls. This is our fiat.

We have a different situation on our hands: Our religion is being held captive internally.

It has to be freed so Christ's evangelists can be fed and fortified, new evangelists raised. The army needs more soldiers to witness as we follow the Mystical Body of Christ to our destination. There are not enough at this point in time.


Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, Peter was a liar and a coward, Mary Magdalene was a notorious sinner and possibly a prostitute and Lazarus was dead.

The Apostle Paul describes his own struggles with sin in Romans 7.

Take a moment to read it. It is a masterpiece.

I never thought about this before, but is it possible he sat down to write this humble revelation because was being bird-dogged... by the Christians?


I don't mean to be condescending when I say this, so please forgive me because I've just got to say it:

If you don't understand the apostolates of those being raised to free up religion internally and you're taking whacks at those doing it, you are deprived of spiritual insight. Your resistance is neither wisdom nor charity. You're not being 'nice'. You're gumming up the works.

Please, understand and just pray for us.The internal fighting over it is rocking the boat. Listen in the silence to God and do whatever He tells you to do. This is what He is telling us to do. We are NOT going to stop.

St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.

Catholic News Agency's Smear Campaign on Voris and RealCatholicTV


The Catholic News Agency has fallen to a new low. They're now trying to dig up dirt to run smear campaigns on Catholics who have had enough of the counterfeit church they've been raising in the US for the last forty years.

I guess the National Catholic Reporter thugs were busy trying to ridicule Fr. Z?

If you read the thread of comments - and I would encourage you to leave one there - it didn't exactly have the outcome they had hoped for.

Voris didn't file his annual reports with the Secretary of State. Big whoop. It happens all the time to people running nonprofits. They run on a shoestring, they're not savvy in entity compliance. In fact, the IRS revoked the non-profit status of about 30,000 entities last year.

The Catholic News Agency also dug up some kind of online video games that Simon Rafe created that has sexual content. Ok. The man has published an apology for the scandal and sought the Sacrament of Confession. I'm not sure what he was thinking but I've had a few interactions with Simon and he has always been zealous and orthodox. I'm sure the matter will be dealt with internally. Prayers for all.

There's been a few sniveling reactions across he internet. They go something like this: 'Good enough, this is what Michael has been doing to others. Who is he to think he is beyond reproach." The vultures flock to the comboxes and good times were had by all.

How disingenuous. It's the equivalent of trying to dig up dirt on a policeman and then when you find something, all the thugs in town gather to ridicule a man who has been protecting the common good.


The concept of confronting theologians with errors so that Catholic children will be taught the authentic faith and led to resist temptation is some kind of vice to them. Trying to take a person down who is protecting children from error is virtue.

This is the same thing the Bernadin crowd has been doing to us for decades. Asking to have our religion taught to us and our children results in character assassinations and thuggery.

You know what?

Knock yourselves out. We're all going to keep going. Our children deserve to have their religion taught them them and by the Christ, they will. Go bleep yourselves.

Oh, and by the way - no bull in Madrid was sold out.




Sunday, August 14, 2011

Lord my soul cries out to You


Catholic Chatter about Rick Perry in 2012



Though I wasn't too crazy about Rick Perry's controversial invitation to Haggee, this was not a deal breaker for me.

I am not at all enamored with Perry's 'states rights' talk.

We've put a structure in place that trumps states rights when it's clear federal protection is necessary to protect life, dignity, a class of people and our culture.

But his talk about 'states rights' wasn't fatal. It is, after all, part of our Constitution. It can even be good strategy at some point in history while combating something egregious.

But sometimes a state or a group of states come up with ideas that need to be totally outlawed. Slavery, for instance. Denying people the right to vote based on color or gender. Denying them the right to bear arms. Denying them the right to drink alcohol. Denying them life.

Perry considers abortions a states rights issue.

Legalizing the killing of a class of people isn't a state's right. It's a human rights issue that needs to be taken up on the federal level and Constitutionally protected.

We refine our Constitution when things start going awry on the state level. That's the system we have in place.

When a politician uses states rights talk about abortion, I start to get a little skeptical. Actually, a lot skeptical. But again, it isn't a write-off.


As a Catholic, a mother and a woman, this was the deal breaker.

But if we force every daughter to get Gardasil, we have lost hope in the ability of our children to say no to hazardous premarital sex.

In effect, the very decision to give your daughter Gardasil tells your daughter: “I know you can’t say no.” This gives her the green light. She’ll think: “After all, Mom and Dad think I’m having sex anyway.”

But having the state mandate this is even worse. You establish a culture where young girls are resigned to becoming a sex object. It’s an assault on the dignity of young women.



Females are too stupid and nymphomaniac to waste any more of our energies aspiring to teach them the virtues of chastity and morality. He has given up the pursuit of teaching the culture the qualities of a decent, emotionally stable life partner. His cultural policies are driven to surrender to the hook up mentality.

IMO, Perry has some subterfuge that affects his respect for women and children and ultimately his discretion. Too much of the Kadashians going on there for me.

It would take a lot of convincing to get on board that machine.

Blessed Feast of the Assumption



All of your personal intentions are in my prayers.

Please remember to pray for our youth attending WYD in Madrid on this blessed feast.

The 2012 Election for POTUS

Pawlenty is out. It's a bit early to throw in the towel but there it is.

Last I knew, candidates were busing in people to stack the Ames. It isn't very reliable.

I'm a-scaird.

Michele and Ron? Really?

I'd get behind Michele as she's on the team but is she electable? To be honest, I haven't really been paying that much attention. I'd vote for the Ron up against Barack Hussein but he's a little too Shirley McLaine for me.

At least these two are solidly pro-life.

Strange the flipflopper didn't participate. His previous strategy has been to bus 'em into Iowa and stack the poll. Enthusiasm among voters must be low.

There's no question in my mind that Rick Santorum is an authentic prolifer. But two problems. His discretion is (less than stellar), and I suspect the left will take quotes from his book to fearmonger. I also never got the feeling his personality was a winner among his peers in Washington. He's made an awful lot of enemies within our ranks (people who ordinarily get along with other people). It does not speak well of his leadership. If he can't pull our own team together, our bid for the White House is toast. I wouldn't rail against him if he were the nominee (as I would Romney) but I lack enthusiasm.

Rick Perry is courting the evangelicals. He's got his game on with them but will they use their political forces to elect him? When you scratch the surface,his policies and agenda aren't much different than Barack's. What's the attraction? Grassroot voters will scratch the surface and sooner or later, he'll go under the bus. He's not getting into the White House without the grassroots. What's the point?

We have a situation where the White House is the GOP's to lose and this is as good as it gets?

The defection of Obama's troops continues to be fascinating. He could go down as the most divisive President in the history of American politics. It should be an interesting week, as he is apparently going to come out swinging.

We'll see what he's got left. We'll see what the GOP has in their armory. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall?





Friday, August 12, 2011

Goodbye Healthcare Mandate...?

Georgia Appeals Court rules it unconstitutional. Driving the thing closer to SCOTUS?


A federal appeals court in Atlanta on Friday struck down a key provision of the Obama administration's health care reform law, ruling that Congress exceeded its authority in mandating that most Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or face a penalty.

A divided, three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the individual mandate was "breathtaking in its expansive scope" and therefore unconstitutional. The "individual mandate," they wrote, "exceeds Congress's enumerated commerce power."

The opinion was written jointly by Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina, a George H.W. Bush appointee, and Judge Frank M. Hull, appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton. The ruling marks the first time a judge appointed by a Democratic president struck down the key provision of the law.


Stop laughing!


Wasn't the "success" predicated upon the mandate? If people aren't forced to purchase insurance, they'll be right back in the emergency room looking for a handout.

I wonder what the wizards will do now?

BTW - did you see this article saying the Dems have the doldrums about Obama's reelection chances and they're wondering whether Hillary would have made a better president?

Think they'll be a big TADA?

Bert and Ernie

Apparently, I missed all the commotion to make these PBS children's puppets attracted to each others genitals.

Toddlers can't sing their ABCs without being forced to think about what they're doing to each other after they're done singing.

How painful it is to watch the sexual demoralization of infants and toddlers.

Thankfully, producers announced they are not getting on board.

It's official -- what Bert and Ernie feel for each other is nothing but innocent puppet love.
The producers of "Sesame Street" delivered some bad news yesterday to legions of Muppet fans who've been convinced for years that Bert and Ernie are gay and who've been bombarding the Internet with speculation about a wedding.
But, it turns out, Muppets aren't gay. They aren't straight. They don't do sex. Period.
"Bert and Ernie are best friends," the producers said in a statement.
"Even though they are identified as male charac ters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets and do not have a sexual orientation."


BTW - why are heterosexuals losing their sexual identity to the word 'straight'?

I don't even get it. If heterosexuals are now 'straights', wouldn't the opposite of that mean if you're not heterosexual you are "crookeds"?

Let us not lose our human sexuality to wordsymthing.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bishop Coyne Blogs His Experience in the Pew


..and describes how the chaos in the Liturgy led to scandal and ultimately a change of plans to find another priest for the Sacrament of Confession.

He goes through all the motions. The oh-oh at "hello" that replaces the Sign of the Cross. The whoah, what was that, did that count questions after innovations. The cavern we've learned to retreat to instead of getting on an emotional rollercoaster of anger and sin.

As "Mass" progressed I was both disappointed and annoyed. I wasn't angry. I learned the trick long ago of moving into emotional "cruise control" when this stuff starts to happen. I also began to wonder if I should say something to the priest afterwards. I mean, I was just there as a visitor not as his bishop or vicar general. I was also on vacation so ... Nevertheless, I didn't let it go. What I did or did not do, I will leave between me and the priest. I hope it was helpful.


Always say something. For the hundreds/thousands who don't or can't that are scandalized.

I used to get up and leave. Sometimes, if I had experienced scandal in two or three different parishes back-to-back, I would check out for weeks or months. I've explained to solid priests that it was like being holed up in China where they have erected a counterfeit church. It looks Catholic, it says Catholic - but it isn't Catholic. I would no more sit in these places and take the chance of receiving an invalid Sacrament or give it legitimacy to my uncatechized brothers and sisters than I would sit through a Joan Chittister lecture at a National Catholic Reporter seminar.

Thankfully, laity drove this nonsense out of Dodge. Things are not quite as bad as they were five years ago. Our shine a light on it in blogosphere project put a lot of it out of its misery. The last thing a priest wants is to find his ditz being highlighted on the internet by Liturgy and Catechesis police. I'd say 70% of it has gone away. We are still not getting catechesis across most parishes but the daffy stuff is down to a tricke and in that vaccuum, parishes are popping up here and there with some good catechesis.

Anyway - Fr. Coyne's last paragraph hightlights something I've always liked about the guy - he's got heart. Compassion for the slobs in the pews.


Every time people ask my why some in the Church have a desire for the "extraordinary rite," the traditional Latin Mass, I guess I can give them at least one good reason. Masses like this. When one attends the Mass according to the Tridentine Rite, you know what you are going to get. There is no one being 'creative,' no one making up their own prayers or rite, and no question of validity. I am a chid of Vatican II. From the time I was old enough to understand what was happening at Mass, it has been the Mass of Pope Paul VI. I have been formed in it. I have studied it. I love it. Out of it, I have been ordained a deacon, a priest, and a bishop to celebrate it for the people of God. I have no desire to celebrate the Tridentine Rite but any time I hear people criticize those who want the "traditional" Mass, I am more inclined to understand why they want this form of the Mass. Perhaps if each priest were committed to the correct celebration of the present Mass of Paul VI - the Church's rites and not the rite of Fr. X - then maybe there would be less clamor for the "traditional" rite. Just a thought.


He's got that right.

I love the Novus Ordo too. I enter Christ's Passion and Sacrifice. Deep in prayer with the priest with the words I know by heart. When a priest innovates, I am taken out of that mystical place with Christ.

We don't want the stinking innovations that steal us from Christ and put the focus on some kind of performance. Just say the Mass dude. That's all we want when we show up in the pews. Be a witness to your obedience and faithfulness. Then we have the confidence that the Mass is valid. The Sacrament of Confession will be valid.

Many years have passed since (now) Bishop Coyne had the misfortune of receiving my communications. I didn't see eye-to-eye with him always. But never, not once, did I ever come across the kind of sniper clericalism that defends errors and shoots the messenger permeating the current occupants of the Chancery. There was no slinging of BS. It was open, honest communication. I loved his love for Christ's Church. His compass was always on doing right by Christ. He is a corker. But, I hope and I pray he has come through the gauntlet with this precious gift intact.

PS - he's added an addendum HERE. Good reading. Pray that he serves the multitude in Catholic blogosphere deprived of their religion and Sacraments with his honesty, humility and compassion. Priests need to read it and we could use a good dose of it ourselves.


A Catholic Hero in the Trenches


Fr. Kapaun

March 25, 1951, the Catholic priest mounted the steps of a partially destroyed church, and turned to face his congregation, some 60 men – gaunt, foul-smelling, in tattered clothing.

Fr. Emil Kapaun raised a small, homemade, wooden cross to begin a prayer service, led the men in the Rosary, heard the confessions of the Catholics, and performed a Baptism. Then, he wept because there was no bread or wine to consecrate so that the men could receive the Eucharist....



Hundreds of U.S. prisoners were marched northward over snow-covered crests. Whenever the column paused, Fr. Kapaun hurried up and down the line, encouraging the men to pray, exhorting them not to give up. When a man had to be carried or be left to die, Fr. Kapaun, although suffering from frostbite himself, set the example by helping to carry a makeshift stretcher. Finally, they reached their destination, a frigid, mountainous area near the Chinese border. The poorly dressed prisoners were given so little to eat that they were starving to death.

For the men to survive they would have to steal food from their captors. So, praying to St. Dismas, the “Good Thief,” Fr. Kapaun would sneak out of his hut in the middle of the night, often coming back with a sack of grain, potatoes or corn. He volunteered for details to gather wood because the route passed the compound where the enlisted men were kept, and he could encourage them with a prayer, and sometimes slip out of line to visit the sick and wounded. He also undertook tasks that repulsed others, such as cleaning latrines and washing the soiled clothing of men with dysentery.

Fr. Kapaun’s faith never wavered. While he was willing to forgive the failings of prisoners toward their captors, he allowed no leeway in regard to the doctrines of the Church. He continually reminded prisoners to pray, assuring them that in spite of their difficulties, Our Lord would take care of them. As a result of his example, some 15 of his fellow prisoners converted to the Catholic Faith.


He rocks.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Clockwork Orange in London

All this to revenge the death a no good drug dealing criminal?

Where are these people's parents?

The focus of Tuesday's violence was Manchester in northwest England, where police were driven back by gangs of hundreds of youths who covered their faces with scarves and ski masks.

Gangs smashed their way into shoe shops and electronics stores and set fire to a girls' clothing store in the city centre.

Two raiders smashed the glass entrance of the Arndale shopping centre, Manchester's main shopping mall, allowing hundreds of youths to pour into a shop and emerge with armfuls of clothes and shoes.

Assistant chief constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester Police, who joined the force after moving to the city in 1981, called the scenes "senseless violence and senseless criminality on a scale I have never witnessed before."

Glen Barkworth, general manager of the Arndale centre, told BBC TV he had seen two shops "both breached, looted and then torched. I've witnessed youths picking up gratings, throwing them through the doors of Footasylum (a shop) where 50 youths cascaded into the unit, looting.


Think we'll experience the anarchy of thugs and thieves in the US?

When Barack Hussein made all the commotion about the Cambridge police being called when people saw a man breaking into a house, it certainly added to my conviction he considers police and the our military power the boogiemen.

Barney Frank Vapogate





Catchphrases for Catholic Sitcom



Fun.

Friends don't let friends do liturgical dance.

The Liturgy is a sex and pride free Sacrament.

Don't touch that Chalice.

Sissies are afraid of Confession.

Cardinal Come Home.

Kneel down and shut up.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Life is Precious and Beautiful


I started my vacation with a double-header of life is precious/can change in an instant news.

I learned of a death of a co-worker from many years ago--prayers for the repose of Patti's soul--and the second piece of news was about a local couple who owned a yummy gourmet bakery here in Pembroke which fell victim to Obamanomics.

The people who ran the bakery and their employees are a group of exceptional people. Along with offering tasty food, desserts and delicious coffee, they have the gifts to pull a community together. It was a family.

Back in June, the owner and chef is recovering from a hit by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the expressway on his way home from his new job in Boston. He was on his motorcycle and lost his leg. It is no doubt more than luck that he has the potential to live a long and happy life with his wife, family and friends.

I would encourage you to read about Patrick HERE, where you'll find a young man whose determination to live life to its fullest will inspire you.

Wanna read something funny?

We the stupid.



WHAT DID OBAMA INHERIT FROM BUSH, : GAS THAT WAS $1.70 PER GALLON; UNEMPLOYMENT THAT WAS AT ABOUT 4 PERCENT; AAA CREDIT RATING; A TIME WHEN WE WERE LEADING THE WORLD'S ECONOMIES; THE 'EVIL' BUSH DAYS SURE WERE GREAT, WEREN'T THEY?


The intellectual chaos is really something, isn't it?

Rorate Caeli has a must read citation from Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno with some noteworthy economic observations.




Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, see and deplore: Free competition has destroyed itself; economic dictatorship has supplanted the free market; unbridled ambition for power has likewise succeeded greed for gain; all economic life has become tragically hard, inexorable, and cruel. To these are to be added the grave evils that have resulted from an intermingling and shameful confusion of the functions and duties of public authority with those of the economic sphere - such as, one of the worst, the virtual degradation of the majesty of the State, which although it ought to sit on high like a queen and supreme arbitress, free from all partiality and intent upon the one common good and justice, is become a slave, surrendered and delivered to the passions and greed of men. And as to international relations, two different streams have issued from the one fountain-head: On the one hand, economic nationalism or even economic imperialism; on the other, a no less deadly and accursed internationalism of finance or international imperialism whose country is where profit is.



It isn't just the secular world that has fallen into economic dictatorships, imperialism is in full bloom at our local parishes and Chanceries. That's the kicker.

"Wherefore," to use the words of Our Predecessor, "if human society is to be healed, only a return to Christian life and institutions will heal it." For this alone can provide effective remedy for that excessive care for passing things that is the origin of all vices; and this alone can draw away men's eyes, fascinated by and wholly fixed on the changing things of the world, and raise them toward Heaven. Who would deny that human society is in most urgent need of this cure now?

Minds of all, it is true, are affected almost solely by temporal upheavals, disasters, and calamities. But if we examine things critically with Christian eyes, as we should, what are all these compared with the loss of souls? Yet it is not rash by any means to say that the whole scheme of social and economic life is now such as to put in the way of vast numbers of mankind most serious obstacles which prevent them from caring for the one thing necessary; namely, their eternal salvation.


Go forth and multiply.

:)



Sunday, August 7, 2011

Summer Fun and Golfing...

Sorry, it's been a busy week and I can't seem to make it to the blog. I'm really behind on emails too but I will get to them.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

MCFL Gets Caught Between Whoring for the Republicans and Their Mission

More peculiar news(for a change) from MCFL.

First, they announce they're going after Romneycare. Then, with the same breath, they announce they'll support the fooline who authored it.

The cynic in me wonders whether Romney is withholding his ten thousand dollar donation.

Romney was for mandated socialized medicine with low co-pay abortions before he was against it. As we all know by now, Obama modeled Obamacare on Romneycare.

Romney has walked a fine line on the health care issue, as well, defending his law as a state solution to a state problem, while calling for a repeal of the national law, which he has denounced as a power grab.

It is highly unusual for a group that opposes abortion rights to challenge a Republican presidential candidate who embraces its cause. But some abortion opponents have questioned the sincerity of Romney’s beliefs.

During the 2008 Republican primary, for example, antiabortion activists protested outside several of his campaign appearances, while another candidate, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas attacked Romney’s shift on abortion.

Fox said her group is not trying to undercut Romney’s presidential campaign, merely one of the laws he signed.

“I have no problem with Mitt Romney,’’ she said. “If he is the nominee, we will back him to the hilt.’’



This is typical of the problems with MCFL. They support, lobby and help elect proabortion politicians and then when the laws they enact kill children, everyone, including them, is forced into running around the Commonwealth trying to save the few we can. And then, when a legitimate pro-life group mentions the obvious, they throw them under the bus and cover up the truth.

Even so, Citizens for Life, which is the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, had a statement on its website yesterday, blasting the state law in much starker terms.

“RomneyCare covers abortions, and the mandate forces citizens to participate in a system which strives to make the murder of unborn children as cheap as $50,’’ the statement said. “There are, however, many more ways which this requirement offends against both the sanctity of human life, principles of ethical medicine and simple common sense.’’

Yesterday, Citizens for Life removed the statement from its website and immediately began distancing itself from that line of attack, after being contacted by Peter Flaherty, Romney’s liaison to social conservatives.

Fox blamed the statement on a staff member at Citizens for Life, and said it did not reflect the group’s views


It doesn't reflect their views?

It has nothing to do with "views". These are facts. Abortions are covered with a 50 dollar co-pay under Romneycare.

“I was extremely upset,’’ she said. “He has removed it. I thought, ‘Where did this come from, because it had my name on it, and I never wrote it.’ ’’


Here's what's happened in the past - she either has fired them for disclosing the truth, or if they're a volunteer, they'll get a boot in the backside.

The woman is a menace.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Did Cardinal O'Malley BULLDOZE Cardinal O'Connell's Grave?

I assume TTC readers have already been over to BCI and seen the pictures of the demolition of the Chapel that housed the body of Cardinal O'Connell?

Are these people serious?

This is absolutely macabre.

It looks like the dirty scoundrels drove the bulldozer in from Commonwealth Avenue and went full speed ahead at the Chapel with the pedal to the metal.

We're in the process of finding out whether there were relics in the Altar that are lying somewhere in a gutter with the broken angels and cross.

Isn't this kind of disrespect to grave sites criminal?

The problem with the Cardinal is that he thinks everything he has dominion over belongs to him. It doesn't. He is a custodian who is charged with the preservation of the inheritance of Roman Catholics, including those who are yet to be born.

I hope the family was present and accounted for to make sure they actually moved the body. I wouldn't trust them for a nanosecond. They have a history of paving over graves when enough time has passed that the relatives of the relatives of the dead are dead themselves. Another time it was disclosed that the archdiocese was taking people out of their caskets and throwing them in the hole without it so they didn't have to do the work it takes to dig down the 12 feet.

We are dealing with the soulless.

What a crew of ghouls.