Friday, May 31, 2013

The single, root cause of why children leave the Church



You may have heard someone lament the fact that, in spite of a Catholic formation, the children today live like pagans, without God and without religion.

There is an explanation for this tragic situation.

What happens is, that while the child is little and yet innocent, everything goes relatively well. He or she prays and still likes to go to Church, and to be good.

Why Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is So Crucial

But, as happened to Adam and Eve in paradise, at a certain point temptation knocks on the door of the child's soul.

This temptation suggests to the child that that world of religion and morals, where all is beauty, truth and goodness is not reality.

The devil tries to shake the child's first certainties in God and heaven and in all that is good as being something too high, too far away and too bothersome – things that can be simply cast aside.

A tendency is slowly born in the child to gradually leave virtue aside. The child muses, “These things are fantasy; they are unreal and should not be taken into account.”

This temptation, if not resisted, has a decimating effect on the child's soul and on their outlook on life.

The parent tries to keep the child on the right path by teaching them to pray, which is something precious beyond any words!, but this alone may not suffice.

For the very sense of order that is in the child's soul, that is characteristic of innocence, lies in a sphere which requires special work and attention. Common cares are insufficient.

Before the temptation, the child may have loved truth with some degree of exclusiveness. In other words, the child may have rejected sin, which is the opposite of goodness.

If the child did indeed reject evil, he or she is well armed to face temptation when it comes. However, if the child did NOT love good in an exclusive manner, but only as one likes a hobby, he is unarmed.

But what is often lacking in today's Catholic education is exactly this teaching about the importance of an exclusive love of good. Children, often, are not challenged to love God with their entire being, and to reject evil in a final, categorical manner.

In the middle ages, things were different. Then, there were so many saints because children were taught to love good and abhor evil.

For example, Queen Blanche, the mother of King Saint Louis IX, told him often that she would rather see him dead than know that he would live to commit a mortal sin.

Let us pray to Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, to help Catholic educators learn how to teach children about loving good exclusively, and about rejecting evil categorically.

Once that happens, we will hear fewer complaints about children leaving the Church.


Why Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is So Crucial

Archdiocese of NY’s coverage of contraception, abortion

by Ben Johnson

NEW YORK, May 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Archdiocese of New York must fund abortion-on-demand and contraception as part of the terms of a contract negotiated by a major donor to President Barack Obama.

The archdiocese acknowledged on Monday that it funds the morally objectionable services for 3,000 medical workers in the Catholic Health Care System, known as ArchCare, under a contract negotiated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The national union spent more money on behalf of the Democratic Party during the 2012 election than any other PAC, union, or group in the nation.

The archdiocese told the New York Times on Monday that it must furnish coverage “under protest” for these ArchCare employees because of their membership in the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes. The league negotiated the benefits with 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East decades ago.

Observers on all sides say there is likely little Cardinal Timothy Dolan or others can do to change the policy, because of the union's heavy political power.

ArchCare CEO Scott LaRue told the New York Times, “It doesn’t matter whether you join the league or you don’t join; the league determines the contract, and then the union goes and forces the same arrangement on the other homes whether you are in the league or not.”

Bruce McIver, president of the league, admitted it “would be very difficult” for ArchCare to change the terms of the SEIU contract.

That has not prevented proponents of the mandate from accusing Cardinal Dolan and the archdiocese of duplicity when criticizing the HHS mandate, which would force Catholic institutions to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs.

“The Catholic Church are hypocrites!? Imagine that!” writes Traci Egan Morrissey at Jezebel.com. “Why won't the church just continue looking the other way? It's what they're good at.”

Sarah Lipton-Lubet of the ACLU said, “I can’t begin to understand the argument that coverage that has been part of the plan for however many years is suddenly anathema.”

Some supporters are also outraged. Claire Healey at The American Spectator charged the cardinal with “blatantly ignoring his own policies by allowing health care plans continue to indirectly fund abortions, as they have for over 10 years.”

The archdiocese said the stipulations already existed before ArchCare came into existence, and Cardinal Dolan's predecessors had to choose whether to fund abortion under objection or deprive thousands of its workers of health care coverage.

“The Constitution and other provisions of federal law prohibit the government from imposing the mandate on the Archdiocese,” responded Joseph Zwilling, communications director, today. “A labor union is not subject to the same constraints as the federal government in this regard, and so the fact that 1199 requires these benefits as part of its plan does not excuse the government’s violation of the Archdiocese’s federal rights.”

The SEIU – both at the national and local level – wholeheartedly suports the government's attempts to coerce the archdiocese into violating its conscience.

Last year national president Mary Kay Henry stated union members were “standing up for the freedom of women to make their personal health decisions with their families and physicians, not their employers.” (Emphasis in original.)

SEIU was the top spender for the Democratic Party in the 2012 election, dispensing almost $70 million, and possibly more.

"The presidential election is our number one priority this year," said SEIU political director Brandon Davis.

The union joined forces with the superPAC Priorities USA Action on a series of Spanish-language totaling $4 million.

The SEIU spent more than $27 million supporting Barack Obama in 2008 and tens of million in the 2010 election.

The 1199 local has also made $10,022,162 in political donations since 2003, with nearly 60 percent of its contributions to candidates going to Democrats. Democratic candidates received more than twice as much as Republicans during that time period.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has received more of 1199's political contributions than any other politician: $130,000 from 2006-2012.

The union's longtime president, Andy Stern, was among President Obama's closest advisors during his first term. Incomplete visitor logs show Stern among the most frequent visitors to the White House. He also served on the president's deficit reduction panel.

Obama has, in turn, appointed SEIU advisors to sensitive positions in his administration and granted the union waivers others have been denied.

Obama has furnished Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund, and its 4,550 enrollees, with an ObamaCare waiver, exempting the union from complying with his signature legislative accomplishment.

The statements, and behavior, of SEIU leaders has caused some to question the advice its members offer.

Andy Stern suddenly stepped down as SEIU leader in 2010 just days before the FBI and the Labor Department announced they were investigating whether he had illegally used union money to fact-check and promote his 2006 book, A Country that Works, and whether he paid an SEIU boss $150,000 to do nothing.

In December 2011, Stern wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal touting Communist “China's Superior Economic Model.”

“I wonder what a persecuted Chinese Christian or a Chinese woman who suffered a forced abortion would think upon seeing this article,” wrote Joseph Lawler at The American Spectatorat the time.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

May 31 -- The Queenship of Mary

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church.


Blessed Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s Queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human race.

Constituted by the Lord Queen of Heaven and Earth, and exalted above all choirs of Angels and the ranks of Saints in Heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, she petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and she obtains what she seeks.”

Miraculous Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima at TFP National Headquarters

(Queen of Heaven and Earth, she petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and she obtains what she seeks.)

Pope Pius XII added the following: “We command that on the festival there be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this there is founded a great hope that there will rejoice in the triumph of religion and in Christian peace…

“Therefore, let all approach with greater confidence now than before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother to beg help in difficulty, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow…

“Whoever, therefore, honors the lady ruler of the Angels and of men — and let no one think themselves exempt from the payment of that tribute of a grateful and loving soul — let them call upon her as most truly Queen and as the Queen who brings the blessings of peace, that She may show us all, after this exile, Jesus, who will be our enduring peace and joy.”

Devotion to Mary is disinterested. It inspires us to seek God alone in his Blessed Mother and not ourselves.


After having explained and condemned false devotions to the Blessed Virgin we shall now briefly describe what true devotion is.

It is:

1. interior

2. trustful

3. holy

4. constant

5. disinterested

Eight false types of peity and how to avoid them

First, true devotion to our Lady is interior, that is, it comes from within the mind and the heart and follows from the esteem in which we hold her, the high regard we have for her greatness, and the love we bear her.

Second, it is trustful, that is to say, it fills us with confidence in the Blessed Virgin, the confidence that a child has for its loving Mother. It prompts us to go to her in every need of body and soul with great simplicity, trust and affection. We implore our Mother's help always, everywhere, and for everything. We pray to her to be enlightened in our doubts, to be put back on the right path when we go astray, to be protected when we are tempted, to be strengthened when we are weakening, to be lifted up when we fall into sin, to be encouraged when we are losing heart, to be rid of our scruples, to be consoled in the trials, crosses and disappointments of life. Finally, in all our afflictions of body and soul, we naturally turn to Mary for help, with never a fear of importuning her or displeasing our Lord.

Third, true devotion to our Lady is holy, that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary. Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom.

Fourth, true devotion to our Lady is constant. It strengthens us in our desire to do good and prevents us from giving up our devotional practices too easily. It gives us the courage to oppose the fashions and maxims of the world, the vexations and unruly inclinations of the flesh and the temptations of the devil. Thus a person truly devoted to our Blessed Lady is not changeable, fretful, scrupulous or timid. We do not say however that such a person never sins or that his sensible feelings of devotion never change. When he has fallen, he stretches out his hand to his Blessed Mother and rises again. If he loses all taste and feeling for devotion, he is not at all upset because a good and faithful servant of Mary is guided in his life by faith in Jesus and Mary, and not by feelings.

Fifth, true devotion to Mary is disinterested. It inspires us to seek God alone in his Blessed Mother and not ourselves. The true subject of Mary does not serve his illustrious Queen for selfish gain. He does not serve her for temporal or eternal well-being but simply and solely because she has the right to be served and God alone in her. He loves her not so much because she is good to him or because he expects something from her, but simply because she is lovable.

That is why he loves and serves her just as faithfully in weariness and dryness of soul as in sweet and sensible fervor. He loves her as much on Calvary as at Cana. How pleasing and precious in the sight of God and his holy Mother must these servants of Mary be, who serve her without any self-seeking. How rare they are nowadays! It is to increase their number that I have taken up my pen to write down what I have been teaching with success both publicly and in private in my missions for many years.

I have already said many things about the Blessed Virgin and, as I am trying to fashion a true servant of Mary and a true disciple of Jesus, I have still a great deal to say, although through ignorance, inability, and lack of time, I shall leave infinitely more unsaid.

But my labor will be well rewarded if this little book falls into the hands of a noble soul, a child of God and of Mary, born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. My time will be well spent if, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, after having read this book he is convinced of the supreme value of the solid devotion to Mary I am about to describe. If I thought that my guilty blood could help the reader to accept in his heart the truths that I set down in honor of my dear Mother and Queen, I, her most unworthy child and slave, would use it instead of ink to write these words. I would hope to find faithful souls who, by their perseverance in the devotion I teach, will repay her for the loss she has suffered through my ingratitude and infidelity.

I feel more than ever inspired to believe and expect the complete fulfillment of the desire that is deeply engraved on my heart and what I have prayed to God for over many years, namely, that in the near or distant future the Blessed Virgin will have more children, servants and slaves of love than ever before, and that through them Jesus, my dear Lord, will reign more than ever in the hearts of men.

I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear to pieces with their diabolical teeth this little book and the one the Holy Spirit made use of to write it, or they will cause it at least to lie hidden in the darkness and silence of a chest and so prevent it from seeing the light of day. They will even attack and persecute those who read it and put into practice what it contains. But no matter! So much the better! It even gives me encouragement to hope for great success at the prospect of a mighty legion of brave and valiant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, both men and women, who will fight the devil, the world, and corrupt nature in the perilous times that are sure to come.

"Let the reader understand. Let him accept this teaching who can."

Pulling Nasty Spiritual Weeds from the Soul

Official Cross-Dressing Day for kids sparks outrage

'I do not want to send my son to school dressed like a girl'

It was part of a week of school spirit festivities in Milwaukee that included theme days such as Crazy Hair Day and events were routine for students and parents until the schedule hit “Gender-Bender” Day.

Then parents reacted. “I do not want to send my son to school dressed like a girl,” one parent told Fox 6 News, which reported on the dispute.

The fight focused on the idea that school officials should not be telling students of grade school age to dress like the opposite sex. The report from Fox said the school, when confronted by concerns about a “gender-bender” day, did decide to alter the name to “Switch it up.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/official-cross-dressing-day-for-kids-sparks-outrage/#m4XBl2L4YE1k1sRm.99

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

VOICE Of Jesus --- The Fullness Of Delights


Purify thy heart, therefore, and nothing
shall hinder thee from being sweetly
united to My Heart, and from tasting
the fullness of Its delights.

Photo of Sacred Heart of Jesus Statue

1. The Voice of Jesus. My Child, if thou wilt enter into the intimacy of My Heart, and taste the unutterable sweetness of Its intercourse, cleanse thy heart from every evil.

For I, thy Well-beloved, am pure and stainless, I delight Myself among the lilies.

How could there exist a union betwixt My Heart and thine, unless thou hadst carefully purified it?

For who shall accuse My Heart of sin? And how canst thou say: My heart is clean; since thy heart itself is conscious of the contrary?

Alas! My Child, what a heart is thine! Born in sin, so long an abode of evil spirits, defiled and disfigured by so many stains, strongly drawn to evil and sadly estranged from supernal good; fostering so many ill-regulated affections, the fruitful sources of sin, full of itself and of the world, accustomed, for the most part, to have itself in all things for its ultimate object.

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2. Wonderful indeed is it, that thou darest invite Me to enter into such a heart, and to reside amid such uncleanness.

A wicked heart is to Me an object of abhorrence, but an unclean heart I loathe: how then could it delight Me to dwell therein?

I seek a pure heart, and all My delight is to dwell therein; and to be there entertained among lilies.

Whoever, therefore, loves cleanness of heart, shall enjoy My presence, and shall experience the tenderness, and divine sweetness of My Heart.

3. Be not deceived, My Child, thinking that it is well with thee, provided thou dost outwardly deport thyself in a proper manner, since I look chiefly at the heart.

And what will it avail thee to have been pleasing, by thy outward conduct, to all creatures, if, by thy inward dispositions, thou hast been displeasing to Me?

If thy heart is stainless, then shalt thou be wholly pure: since it is from the heart that proceed evil thoughts, uncleanness, fraud, blasphemy and all manner of evil.

Purify thy heart, therefore, and nothing shall hinder thee from being sweetly united to My Heart, and from tasting the fullness of Its delights.

But, if only outwardly thou turn away from evil, if thou do not root out sin from thy heart, thou shalt never be free from vices: they shall sprout forth with ten times greater vigor from within than thou shalt be able to shun from without; and, whilst thou appearest to stand firm, thou shalt sink beneath the weight of inward evils.

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4. Come then, My Child, prepare a neat dwelling place for Me in thy heart, and I, when I come, will be wholly thine, and thou shalt be wholly Mine; and there shall exist a wonderful intimacy between us, and a union known only to those who have tried it by experience.
Be of good courage, and begin forthwith this all-important work: thou canst feel no true joy, until thou finish it entirely.

Fear of trouble hinders many from perfectly purifying their hearts.

This is a device of the enemy: the wily foe, -- knowing that on a true and thorough cleansing of the heart depends not thy salvation and perfection alone, but also that of others, and, above all, My glory, --this foe strives by every means, to keep thee from this undertaking.

Give no heed to the suggestions of the crafty schemer, who cares not, whether it be by true or false means that he attains his object.

Do thou pray, ask for divine grace; with this, set about thy work bravely; and thou shalt see that all difficulties vanish before thy greatness of spirit; and, to thy astonishment, thou shalt find, that where thou didst look for the greatest hardships, there shalt thou meet the greatest consolations.

5. The voice of the Disciple. I beg and beseech Thee, Lord, create a clean heart in me, and renew a right spirit in my interior.

My whole heart is defiled with uncleanness: and, from the heart, infection has spread over the powers of my soul, and over the senses of my body. Alas! O Lord! what is there in me without blemish, or altogether pure?

Send forth, I beseech Thee, the light of Thy grace, and illumine my mind; that I may know, and bewail, all the evil I have done, and the good which I have neglected.

O how I regret, sweetest Jesus, that I have dishonored Thy dwelling-place in so unworthy a manner, that I have displeased Thee, that I have saddened Thy Heart! I grieve, O my supreme Good: I lament and abhor all my sins: I avow my malice and my ungratefulness: I implore the mercy of Thy Heart.

Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean: wash me from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Yea, from hidden offenses, and from those not my own, purify my heart.

Come, Jesus, enter my heart, and make for Thy self a scourge with the cords of holy fear, of lively gratitude, and of pure love, and drive out all them that defile this Thy dwelling.

Behold, henceforth I will give admittance to none of them: Thy house shall be called a house of prayer: in it, I will worship Thee; in it, I will love Thee; in it, I will occupy myself with Thee alone.

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“Voice of Jesus” is taken from Arnoudt’s “Imitation of the Sacred Heart”, translated from the Latin of J.M. Fastre; Benziger Bros. Copyright 1866

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Pro-marriage revolution building in France: up to 1 million march

by Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent

Analysis

May 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The French have done it again. Two weeks after same-sex “marriage” became legal, the odds seemed against a major turnout for the latest national demonstration against the new law. And the minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls, certainly did his best to discourage would-be participants from joining the march: all day Saturday, he sent out alarming messages on television and on the radio warning that in view of expected violence families with children would do best to stay at home.

But on Sunday, organizers estimated that up to a million people marched from three different points in Paris towards the Invalides, including large numbers of young people and families with children and babies in push-cars. One mother answering the press said she had originally intended to come without her kids – Valls’ intimidation tactics encouraged her to bring them along.

The estimate given by organizers is more than six times the number given out by the ministry of the Interior. However, having walked in the dense crowds from the Austerlitz station to Invalides and seen photos and films of the other two walks, a million seems more plausible than the “150,000” noted by the police – and Valls has proved over recent months that minimizing participation statistics by any means is a specialty of his administration. Not to mention hampering and hindrances of all kinds: the number of regional trains coming in from the western suburbs where many more conservative families live was unexplainably halved on Sunday without notice, and specially hired coaches coming in from the north of Paris were stopped for customs controls.

The spirit of the marches was grave and determined, but as always largely peaceful. Less than two weeks previous, riots broke out in Paris when fans of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer club were to celebrate the clubs victory in the national football league: hundreds of ethnic youths from the suburbs came to join (and ruin) the party, burning cars, smashing shop windows and placing the more luxurious parts of Paris in a state of siege. The riots only gave rise to 21 arrests and the government was heavily criticized for not having handled the crisis adequately – the police was even called away when the “disturbances” began. Manuel Valls capitalized on those incidents by announcing that on May 26th, when the “well-behaved French” who pay their taxes and leave demonstration venues impeccably unscathed came for their rally, he would deploy 4,500 law enforcement officers to prevent the “violence” he was expecting - not to say hoping for.

Frigide Barjot, the “Manif pour tous’” figurehead, added oil on the fire by announcing that she would not join the march as planned because of threats to her person and foreseeable “extreme right-wing” violence.

She was to say later, commenting on the demonstration for private TV station BFM-TV, that she had been more or less put aside by the Manif’s organization because of her favorable stance on “civil unions,” which she has been touting from the start as the only possible alternative to same-sex “marriage”. Increasing popular irritation against what has been seen as a hijack of demonstrators’ motives already lead to Barjot’s being booed and whistled at in Lyons three weeks ago at a regional “Manif pour tous” (“demonstration for all”). Barjot has also announced that “marriage” having been given as a “right” to “human people” there can be no question of asking for the law to be repealed: her objective is now only to modify filiation laws so that homosexuals cannot adopt. The fight over the gay ‘marriage’ law is over, she said, instead pleading for political pressure on mayors in view of future municipal elections in order to preserve biological filiation in as many cases as possible.

It seems these intricacies left Sunday’s demonstrators cold; their main slogan was and still is: “Hollande, we want nothing of your law.”

As for the violence promised by Manuel Valls, it was mostly police brutality, once again. On the eve of the demonstration, a group of young people held a surprise sit-in on the Champs-Elysées, chaining themselves to crowd barriers. The demonstrators, not older than 20 or 25, were manhandled by the police, arrested and taken into custody. One young man, who has by now been taken into custody eleven times over various – always non-violent – actions against the marriage law, only received notification of his custody after being held over three hours; and he was only provided with a lawyer 15 hours after his arrest instead of one as the law requires. On his release on Sunday evening, he immediately joined the demonstration at the Invalides.

Many of the arrests on Saturday were simply for wearing sweatshirts with the “Manif pour tous’” official logo.

On Sunday, after the end of the “Manif pour tous”, dozens of “Veilleurs” (“watchers” or “wakers”) gathered behind the Invalides with small candles to read poetry and sing their theme song titled “Hope”, L’Espérance, which also marked the end of the official demonstration amid hushed silence on the part of the thousands who were still present. They were to be dispersed by the police at 5 o’clock on Monday morning, only to be replaced by a new group who in their turn were disbanded by the armed forces. They are planning to meet again on Monday evening.

On the other side of the Invalides - the immense esplanade that had been completely filled by the “Manif pour tous” - many demonstrators decided to stay on. Apart from a few radical groups, 95 % of those present were absolutely non-violent. They were gradually cornered by riot police and gassed – as usual. Many were arrested and beaten, including a 14 year-old boy. One witness – author and historian Reynal Secher, specialist of the history of the French Revolution and the genocide of the Vendée – told LifeSite he was harshly instructed to leave the sidewalk where he was peacefully walking. He refused, politely, saying he had every right to be there. A riot police pushed him and made him fall in the street using his shield.

The same Reynald Secher said he personally witnessed five plain-clothes police agents trying to incite the young people around them to use violent behavior. Their appearance being easily identifiable, the crowd immediately accused them of being provocateurs on the part of Manuel Valls and told them to put on their official police arm-bands or to leave. They chose to leave – fast. Several pictures and videos of previous demonstrations show this type of agent heating up the crowd and then running off behind the riot police wearing a police band on their upper arm.

In total 350 demonstrators were arrested and 250 taken into custody. The overwhelming majority are sober, law-abiding young people who came up to Paris with friends, sometimes with their parish or their parents.

Since the beginning of the anti-same-sex “marriage” demonstrations, the number of these arrests has been growing and several victims have opened lawsuits against the police for “wrongful arrest.”

To all appearances, the fight against legalized same-sex “marriage” is not going to stop with Sunday’s major demonstration. At the rally, Christian trade’s union CFTC vice-president Joseph Thouvenel called on the French to “enter into resistance” against the unjust laws on life, marriage, children and the family which are being implemented or prepared by the socialist government. Among these are euthanasia laws, attacks against child benefits and maternity leave, compulsory teaching of gender ideology in kindergarten, and free abortion for all – legal abortion is 100 % paid for by State insurance since Easter.

He asked the crowd to be inspired by the example of Solidarity – Solidarnosc – who shook off communist tyranny in Poland.

The “Manif pour tous’” new president, Ludovine de la Rochère, also spoke clearly and well. “You have found the energy you needed yesterday and today to stand up and fight. And you will continue to stand up tomorrow! … We do not want lies to form the very substance of the lives of the children of this country, we do not want gender ideology to triumph,” she said. “We are not running after a pseudo ‘sense of history’, we are writing History! Yes, we are building the future and that is why we are demonstrating. We want a better world, not a brave new world… Our demonstrations have been totally respectful of the laws of the republic; they have reacted as the apparatchiks of a totalitarian State – and I am not speaking lightly.”

France is standing up – and the government of François Hollande is more and more uneasy, over-reactive and openly biased.

The first “same-sex marriage” is to take place on Wednesday in the southern town of Montpellier. Several hundred guests, some 130 reporters and many political figureheads are expected to attend. The “happy couple” has been requested not to show itself in public as they were planning, dozens of riot police will protect the town hall where the “marriage” is to be registered and François Hollande in person has warned that he will tolerate no opposition.

In fact, tension is growing and even a mainstream daily splashed these words on its title page with a picture of Sunday’s rally: “France torn in two.”

St. Augustine of Canterbury

St. Augustine of Canterbury

First Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English; date of birth unknown; died 26 May, 604.

Symbols: cope, pallium, and mitre as Bishop of Canterbury, and pastoral staff and gospels as missionary.

St. Augustine

Nothing is known of his youth except that he was probably a Roman of the better class, and that early in life he become a monk in the famous monastery of St. Andrew erected by St. Gregory out of his own patrimony on the Cælian Hill. It was thus amid the religious intimacies of the Benedictine Rule and in the bracing atmosphere of a recent foundation that the character of the future missionary was formed.

Chance is said to have furnished the opportunity for the enterprise which was destined to link his name for all time with that of his friend and patron, St. Gregory, as the “true beginner” of one of the most important Churches in Christendom and the medium by which the authority of the Roman See was established over men of the English-speaking race. It is unnecessary to dwell here upon Bede’s well-known version of Gregory’s casual encounter with English slaves in the Roman market place (H.E., II, i), which is treated under GREGORY THE GREAT.

Some five years after his elevation to the Roman See (590) Gregory began to look about him for ways and means to carry out the dream of his earlier days. He naturally turned to the community he had ruled more than a decade of years before in the monastery on the Cælian Hill. Out of these he selected a company of about forty and designated Augustine, at that time Prior of St. Andrew’s, to be their representative and spokesman.

The appointment, as will appear later on, seems to have been of a somewhat indeterminate character; but from this time forward until his death in 604 it is to Augustine as “strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory (roboratus confirmatione beati patris Gregorii, Bede, H. E., I, xxv) that English, as distinguished from British, Christianity owes its primary inspiration.

Read more…

http://nobility.org/2013/05/27/augustine-of-canterbury/

Balance and Harmony Between Riches and Poverty

by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo


“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Balance and Harmony Between Riches and Poverty

Pauperist Heresies
Heresies requiring material poverty for eternal salvation have sprung up since the dawn of Christianity.

Here we refer more particularly to medieval miserabilists. Under the influence of the Cathars or Albigensians, who adopted the Manichean principle that matter is not only evil but the source of all evil, so-called pauperist heresies such as the Waldensians, The Poor of Lyons, the Patarines, the Apostolic Brethren, the Little Brethren or Fraticelli, the Humbled, Beghards, Hussites, Taborites, etc. proliferated in France, Bohemia, and Italy. The movement later continued with the Protestant pseudo-Reformation as in the case of Thomas Munzer’s Anabaptist hordes in Germany.

In general, leaving aside their particularities, these heretics preached effective poverty as necessary for salvation, fought private property and both richness and splendor in the Church and in temporal society. They said there were two churches: one poor and deprived — the true church to which they belonged — and the other rich and carnal, led by the Pope, to which the bishops belonged.

Read more…

http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/catholic-perspective/balance-and-harmony-between-riches-and-poverty.html

Monday, May 27, 2013

A 7th apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima

While many Fatima devotees know the salient aspects of Our Lady’s message and the various events surrounding the apparitions, certain details or nuances could yet be overlooked. We dare offer here several points for study and reflection in the hope they will help one better appreciate the meaning of the Fatima message:

1. A seventh apparition

Our Lady appeared six times at Fatima from May, 1917 to October, 1917. However, during the first apparition Our Lady mentioned that she will return to Cova the Iria, the site of the apparition, a seventh time. In her own words Our Lady said,

“I have come here to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth day of each month at this same hour. Later I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward, I will return here a seventh time.”

Although Fatima specialists differ in their opinions with regard to its interpretation, nothing against Faith prevents a Catholic to hope and confide that this promise would be fulfilled in the near future. Certainly it is a glorious and most singular event a faithful Catholic could eagerly look forward to especially in our confusing and chaotic times. Perhaps, the seventh apparition would usher in the time of peace that St. Louis Grignion de Montfort described as the Reign of Mary and which Our Lady prophesied as the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.

Read more

http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Articles/10-forgotten-facts-about-fatima-and-why-you-should-know-them.html

The Twilight of Honor

Twilight_of_honorThe current climate of scandals streaks across the political landscape of the nation like a tornado that leaves a trail of devastation in its wake. However, unlike a tornado, this is not a chance happening that appears upon the scene but rather an uncovering that reveals a disturbing rottenness.

What we see from the open wounds of these scandals is a systemic problem that threatens the health of the nation. We are reminded of a kind of cancer since it permeates the whole social body and now advances openly and cynically before all.

The details and circumstances behind all the scandals are still developing. However, beyond the media hype and finger pointing, what is at work here is a clash of values that is hardly new. Throughout history, two sides, two economic outlooks, two lifestyles have long stood opposed to one another as if engaged in constant combat. Our present political climate is but a tragic episode of this fight between these two perspectives.

Read more…

http://www.returntoorder.org/2013/05/the-twilight-of-honor/

Sunday, May 26, 2013

A Catholic hero and priest to remember on Memorial Day


Americans love heroes. Something about them grips the American soul. Perhaps the attraction lies precisely in going against the zeitgeist of this hedonistic age. Heroes are outside the box.

They do not fare well in a culture where real living has been reduced to pre-packaged experiences and media-generated events. They get lost in consumer mazes where they are constantly told to enjoy life. Heroes do not sign multi-million dollar sports or advertising contracts.

Heroes rise above mass-markets and mass media and quench the thirst of postmodern man by speaking of honor, courage and sacrifice.

Above all, heroes, especially those in combat, rise above complacency, self-interest and comfort. They completely mobilize all their resources, with the highest degree of dedication for a determined ideal. And that is why they are held in awe.

Fr. Joseph O'Callahan: The Bravest Man

A Padre in Jump Boots

A Catholic Hero

While American heroes somehow still sprout from the sterile soil of a hostile culture, it is not often that one finds a Catholic hero. That is why the recently-published book The Grunt Padre is a pleasant surprise. It is the thrilling narrative of American Catholic heroism without Hollywood embellishment or sentimentality.

The story could not be more American. Vincent Capodanno grew up in the thirties and forties in a large Italian-American family on Staten Island. His was a typical education of an ordinary American of his time. He responded to the call of his vocation and joined the Maryknoll missionary order. Upon ordination in 1958, he served in Taiwan and later Hong Kong.

His life might well have ended in the quiet dedication required of missionary life in faraway lands. However, in the mid-60's, the direction of his life abruptly changed when he volunteered to serve as a Naval/Marine Corps chaplain in Vietnam. While studying history at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in the nineties, author Fr. Daniel Mode unexpectedly uncovered the deeds of the remarkable Fr. Vincent R. Capodanno.

The Grunt Padre

In his new assignment as a Navy/Marine Chaplain, Father Capodanno found a parish among the "needy." He sought the lonely Marines, the "grunts" who were exposed to death, suffering and sacrifice. He felt a compelling desire to be with these forgotten parishioners in their greatest hours of need.

On April 30, 1966 Father Capodanno began a sixteen-month tour with the 7th and 5th Marine Regiments where he became "the best known and sought after chaplain in the Marine Corps.”

"What set Father Vincent apart was the way he lived his ministry with the Marines," writes Father Mode. "He was not a religious leader who did his job and then returned to the comfort of his own circle. He lived as a grunt Marine. Wherever they went, he went. Whatever burdens they had to carry, he shared the load. No problem was too large or too small to take to Father Vincent - he was available to them day and night."

The soldiers responded to his devotion and soon he became affectionately known to his Marines as "the Grunt Padre."

Beyond the Call of Duty

Thus began an active life of dedication and service that went beyond the call of duty. He became a true father to young boys on the front lines. He was "out there" with his men where he lived, ate, and slept as they did. To the young recruits thrust into the terrifying reality of battle, he was always available in his tent where anyone could drop in for comfort and guidance.

He shared his salary, rations and cigarettes with anyone in need. He could always be counted upon for a cold soda or a book from his reading library. When Christmas came around and soldiers felt forgotten, Father Vincent saw to it that no Marine was without gifts which he obtained through a relentless campaign from friends and organizations all over the world.

More importantly, he heard confessions for hours on end, instructed converts, and administered the sacraments. His granting of General Absolution before battle unburdened the consciences of the Marines and instilled in them the courage to fight. His mere presence in a unit was enough to lift the morale of all on patrol.

When men died, he was at their side so they would not die alone. He gave them Last Rites encouraging them to repent and persevere. In addition, he wrote countless letters of personal condolence to parents of wounded and dead Marines and offered solid grounding and hope to fellow Marines who lost friends.

When the pseudo-peace movement began to oppose the war, Fr. Vincent raised the spirits of demoralized soldiers in the field. He encouraged his men to oppose that same brutal communist system, which still oppresses Vietnam today.

Battle Missions

However, it was in battle where Father Capodanno excelled and inspired. He would find out from friends in military intelligence which unit was most likely to encounter the heaviest contact and volunteer for those assignments.
Marines would find him walking dangerous perimeters and keeping company with them in distant jungle outposts. The Grunt Padre could be seen leaping out of a helicopter in the midst of battle. He would care for the wounded, bless troops, and give Communion to Catholics, before taking off for another battle zone.

When his tour of duty came to an end, he obtained an extension. Despite the prosaic conditions of battle and an ecumenical chaplain corps, nothing could turn him away from his burning desire to give everything in the service of God, the Church and his men.

Faithful to the End

On September 4, 1967, the helicopter carrying him to the site of battle crashed during a large-scale offensive named Operation Swift. The 5th Marines found themselves in dire straights, outnumbered 5-to-1 by 2,500 North Vietnamese regular troops.

Although wounded three times in the course of the battle, Fr. Capodanno refused to be medi-vacked. Like a ray of hope in the midst of the storm, he went up and down the line caring for the wounded and anointing the dying.

During the fierce fighting, the chaplain spotted a wounded corpsman hit by a burst of automatic fire and unable to move. Fr. Capodanno ran to his aid and began to care for his wounds. A Viet Cong machine gunner opened fire. With 27 bullet wounds in his spine, neck, and head, the Grunt Padre fell in battle, serving his men to the end.

All over Vietnam, the Marines mourned their Padre.

Beyond Death

The memory of Father Capodanno's sacrifice went beyond his death. His actions on the field of battle that day won him the nation's highest honor, The Congressional Medal of Honor.

Despite the pacifist objections of 73 Maryknoll priests, brothers and seminarians, the Navy commissioned a destroyer escort in 1973: the U.S.S. Capodanno. Numerous other memorials and statues have gone up in his memory.

The book, The Grunt Padre has served to inspire many Catholics who hunger for stories of Catholic heroism. His memory pierces through the cynical protests of the sixties and seventies that together with defeatist politicians consigned Vietnam to its present fate.

Above all, the story of Father Capodanno is a striking reminder that the time of the Catholic hero is not over. When imbued with total dedication, each and every Catholic can have an enormous value in the life of the Church. Modest though they may be, men like Father Capodanno can obtain the fire, integrity, dedication and conviction whereby they want their ideal, want it entirely, seek nothing else but their ideal and do everything to obtain it. Men like these move history. They strike that deep chord that awakens admiration and awe.

Those are the souls that have always characterized the Church. They reserve nothing for themselves, and give everything to God.

On May 21, 2006 Fr. Capodanno was declared Servant of God and his cause for canonization is currently under way.


Fr. Emil Kapaun: The Good Thief

A Padre in Jump Boots


Web site dedicated to Fr. Capodanno: www.vincentcapodanno.org

The Grunt Padre
by Fr. Daniel L. Mode

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Great Apostle of American Indian -- Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet

Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet

Missionary among the North American Indians, born at Termonde (Dendermonde), Belgium, 30 Jan., 1801; died at St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., 23 May, 1873. He emigrated to the United States in 1821 through a desire for missionary labours, and entered the Jesuit novitiate at Whitemarsh, Maryland. In 1823, however, at the suggestion of the United States Government a new Jesuit establishment was determined on and located at Florissant near St. Louis, Missouri, for work among the Indians. De Smet was among the pioneers and thus became one of the founders of the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus.

His first missionary tour among the red men was in 1838 when he founded St. Joseph’s Mission at Council Bluffs for the Pottawatomies. At this time also he visited the Sioux to arrange a peace between them and the Pottawatomies, the first of his peace missions. What may be called his life work did not begin, however, until 1840 when he set out for the Flathead country in the Far North-west.

As early as 1831, some Rocky Mountain Indians, influenced by Iroquois descendants of converts of one hundred and fifty years before, had made a trip to St. Louis begging for a “black-robe”. Their request could not be complied with at the time. Curiously enough, the incident excited Protestant missionary enterprise, owing to the wide dissemination of a mythical speech of one of the delegation expressing the disappointment of the Indians at not finding the Bible in St. Louis. Four Indian delegations in succession were dispatched from the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis to beg for “black-robes” and the last one, in 1839, composed of some Iroquois who dwelt among the Flatheads and Nez Percês, was successful. Father De Smet was assigned to the task and found his life-work.

He set out for the Rocky Mountain country in 1840 and his reception by the Flatheads and the Pend d’Oreilles was an augury of the great power over the red men which was to characterize his career. Having imparted instruction, surveyed the field, and promised a permanent mission he returned to St. Louis; he visited the Crows, Gros Ventres, and other tribes on his way back, travelling in all 4814 miles. In the following year he returned to the Flatheads with Father Nicholas Point and established St. Mary’s Mission on the Bitterroot river, some thirty miles south of Missoula, visiting also the Coeur-d’Alênes.

Realizing the magnitude of the task before him, De Smet went to Europe in 1843 to solicit funds and workers, and in 1844 with new labourers for the missions, among them being six Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, he returned, rounding Cape Horn and casting anchor in the mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria. Two days after, De Smet went by canoe to Fort Vancouver to confer with Bishop Blanchet, and on his return founded St. Ignatius Mission among the Kalispels of the Bay, who dwelt on Clark’s Fork of the Columbia river, forty miles above its mouth.

Father De Smet Monument at Lake Desmet between Buffalo and Sheridan Wyoming. Lake Desmet, pictured behind the monument, is a 3600 acre natural lake. Fr. De Smet, after whom the lake is named, described the lake in a letter dated August 24, 1851: “On the 23rd we left Tongue River. For ten hours we marched over mountain and valley, following the course of one of its tributaries, making, however, only about twenty-five miles. On the day following we crossed a chain of lofty mountains to attain the Lower Piney Fork, nearly twenty miles distant. We arrived quite unexpectedly on the borders of a lovely little lake about six miles long, and my traveling companions gave it my name. There our hunters killed several wild ducks.”

As the Blackfeet were a constant menace to other Indians for whom De Smet was labouring, he determined to influence them personally. This he accomplished in 1846 in the Yellowstone valley, where after a battle with the Crows, the Blackfeet respectfully listened to the “black-robe”.

He accompanied them to Fort Lewis in their own country where he induced them to conclude peace with the other Indians to whom they were hostile, and he left Father Point to found a mission among this formidable tribe. His return to St. Louis after an absence of three years and six months marks the end of his residence among the Indians, not from his own choice but by the arrangement of his religious superiors who deputed him to other work at St. Louis University. He coadjutors in his mission labours, Fathers Point, Mangarini, Nobili, Ravalli, De Bos, Adrian and Christian Hoecken, Joset and others, made De Smet’s foundations permanent by dwelling among the converted tribes.

De Smet was now to enter upon a new phase of his career. Thus far his life might be called a private one, though crowded with stirring dangers from man and beast, from mountain and flood, and marked by the successful establishment of numerous stations over the Rocky Mountain region. But his almost inexplicable and seemingly instantaneous ascendancy over every tribe with which he came in contact, and his writings which had made him famous in both hemispheres, caused the United States Government to look to him for help in its difficulties with the red men, and to invest him with a public character.

Henceforth he was to aid the Indians by pleading their cause before European nations and by becoming their intermediary at Washington. In 1851 owing to the influx of whites into California and Oregon, the Indians had grown restless and hostile. A general congress of tribes was determined on, and was held in the Creek Valley near Fort Laramie, and the Government requested De Smet’s presence as pacificator. He made the long journey and his presence soothed the ten thousand Indians at the council and brought about a satisfactory understanding.

Father De Smet with the Indian delegation that accompanied him to Washington, DC.

In 1858 he accompanied General Harney as a chaplain in his expedition against the Utah Mormons, at the close of which campaign the Government requested him to accompany the same officer to Oregon and Washington Territories, where, it was feared, an uprising of the Indians would soon take place. Here again his presence had the desired effect, for the Indians loved him and trusted him implicitly. A visit to the Sioux country a the beginning of the Civil War convinced him that a serious situation confronted the Government. The Indians rose in rebellion in August, 1862, and at the request of the government De Smet made a tour of the North-west.

When he found that a punitive expedition had been determined on, he refused to lend to it the sanction of his presence. The condition of affairs becoming more critical, the government again appealed to him in 1867 to go to the red men, who were enraged by white men’s perfidy and cruelty, and “endeavour to bring them back to peace and submission, and prevent as far as possible the destruction of property and the murder of the whites.” Accordingly he set out for the Upper Missouri, interviewing thousands of Indians on his way, and receiving delegations from the most hostile tribes, but before the Peace Commission could deal with them, he was obliged to return to St. Louis, where he was taken seriously ill.

In 1868, however, he again started on what Chittenden calls (Life, Letters and Travels of Pierre Jean De Smet, p. 92), “the most important mission of his whole career.” He travelled with the Peace Commissioners for some time, but later determined to penetrate alone into the very camp of the hostile Sioux. General Stanley says (ibid.): “Father De Smet alone of the entire white race could penetrate to these cruel savages and return safe and sound.” The missionary crossed the Bad Lands, and reached the main Sioux camp of some five thousand warriors under the leadership of Sitting Bull.

He was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. His counsels were at once agreed to, and representatives sent to meet the Peace Commission. A treaty of peace was signed, 2 July, 1868, by all the chiefs. This result has been looked on as the most remarkable event in the history of the Indian wars. Once again, in 1870, he visited the Indians, to arrange for a mission among the Sioux. In such a crowded life allusion can be made only to the principal events. His strange adventures among the red men his conversions and plantings of missions, his explorations and scientific observations may be studied in detail in his writings. On behalf of the Indians he crossed the ocean nineteen times, visiting popes, kings, and presidents, and traversing almost every European land. By actual calculation he travelled 180,000 miles on his errands of charity.

Father de Smet

His writings are numerous and vivid in descriptive power, rich in anecdote, and form an important contribution to our knowledge of Indian manners, customs, superstitions, and traditions. The general correctness of their geographical observations is testified to by later explorers, though scientific researches have since modified some minor details. Almost childlike in the cheerful bouyancy of his disposition, he preserved this characteristic to the end, though honoured by statesmen and made Chevalier of the Order of Leopold by the King of the Belgians.

That he was not wanting in personal courage is evinced by many events in his wonderful career. Though he had frequent narrow escapes from death in his perilous travels, and often took his life in his hands when penetrating among hostile tribes, he never faltered. But his main title to fame is his extraordinary power over the Indians, a power not other man is said to have equalled. To give a list of the Indian tribes with whom he came in contact, and over whom he acquired an ascendancy, would be to enumerate almost all the tribes west of the Mississippi.

Even Protestant writers declare him the sincerest friend the Indians ever had. The effects of his work for them were not permanent to the extent which he had planned, solely because the Indians have been swept away or engulfed by the white settlers of the North-west. If circumstances had allowed it, the reductions of Paraguay would have found a counterpart in North America. The archives of St. Louis University contain all the originals of De Smet’s writings known to be extant. Among these is the “Linton Album”, containing his itinerary from 1821 to the year of his death, also specimens of various Indian dialects, legends, poems, etc. The principal works of Father De Smet are: “Letters and Sketches, with a Narrative of a Year’s Residence among the Indian Tribes of the Rocky Mountains” (Philadelphia, 1843), translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian; “Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46″ (New York, 1847), translated into French and Flemish; “Voyage au grand désert en 1851″ (Brussels, 1853); “Western Missions and Missionaries” (New York, 1863), translated into French; “New Indian Sketches” (New York, 1865).

The crucifix that Fr. De Smet held on his deathbed. There is another ivory crucifix which was found in his room, which is located in the St. Louis, Missouri Collections. http://www.slu.edu/sluma-home/collections/sluma/jesuit-collections/crucifix

CHITTENDEN AND RICHARDSON, Life, Letters and Travels of Pierre Jean De Smet, S.J. (New York, 1905). It contains many hitherto unpublished letters and a map of De Smet’s travels; DEYNOODT, P. J. De Smet, missionaire Belge aux Etas-Unis (Brussels, 1878); PALLANDINO, Indian and White in the North-west (Baltimore, 1894); U.S. CATH. HIST. SOC., Hist. Records and Studies (New York, 1907), VII.

WILLIAM H.W. FANNING (cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)

Congressman: Stop Gosnell by putting ‘a Planned Parenthood clinic in every neighborhood’

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Democratic congressman has a unique solution for the atrocities perpetrated by late-term abortionists who botch their delivery in utero: Build more abortion facilities.

CNSNews.com reported that New York Congressman Jarrold Nadler said, “Dr. Gosnell represented the poor quality of health care services available in poorer communities” during a hearing on Trent Franks' 20-week “fetal pain” bill on Thursday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee .

“If that means funding a Planned Parenthood clinic in every neighborhood to put guys like Gosnell out of business, so be it,” said Nadler while discussing the bill, which would end abortions beyond 20 weeks on the grounds that the babies could feel pain by that point.

Nadler, who has a 100 percent voting record with NARAL Pro-Choice America, did not explain how funding the nation's most prolific abortion provider would reduce the number of grisly cases of infanticide or elevate the treatment women receive.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Gosnell's former patients would sometimes go to Planned Parenthood after visiting the Women's Medical Society, and "would complain to staff about the conditions there.” There is no record that Planned Parenthood turned their fellow abortionist in to the authorities.

Two employees of a Wilmington, Delaware, Planned Parenthood described the unsanitary conditions, where employees engaged in a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.”

Tanya Reaves, 24, died last July 20 after the treament she received in the Loop Health Center Planned Parenthood in Chicago. The autopsy concluded the abortionist perforated her uterus, then allowed her to hemorrhage for five-and-a-half hours before dropping her off at a hospital – and not telling the medical personnel about the perforation. A complaint filed in Februaty with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation by Thomas Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society in Chicago, on behalf of his client, the Pro-Life Action League, said Planned Parenthood's actions constituted the “abanonment of a patient.”

In a less publicized case, Ayanna Byer, 40, sued Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, where she says employees forced her to undergo an abortion against her will, without anesthesia, and which left part of her aborted baby inside her. Her case was filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Nadler's dismissive comments followed similar denials in the Senate, where Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, likened Dr. Gosnell's “house of horrors” to a dirty dentist's office. "Whatever the setting is – if it's a reproductive health care clinic, if it's a dentist, if it's any type of doctor – any kind of clinic, where there are willful violations of the law and violations of human dignity and violations of standard of care, we should call them out," she said.

Nadler called the bill “just another battle of the Republican war on women.”

Let’s be apostles of purity in an impure world

Imagine being just five feet away from Our Lady! Wouldn’t it be great to be but five feet away from her? But, what about having Our Lord within us? If only we would think of this when we receive Holy Communion.

She was “a Lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding a light that was clearer and more intense than that of a crystal goblet filled with crystalline water and struck by the rays of the most brilliant sun.” Her face, indescribably beautiful, was “neither sad nor happy, but serious,” with an air of mild reproach. Her hands, joined together as if she were praying, were resting on her breast and pointing upward. A rosary hung from her right hand. Her clothes seemed to be made of light. The tunic was white. The veil, white and edged with gold, covered the head of the Virgin and descended to her feet. Neither her hair nor her ears could be seen.…

Description of Our Lady by Sr. Lucia

As Sister Lucia recounts, when Our Lady appears, everything is white, everything is clean and everything is pure. She is, after all, the Virgin of virgins; entirely pure. The hymn Ave Maris Stella reminds us that Mary became the gate of heaven, while remaining a virgin. That is to say, it was through her that Christ, Our Lord, came into the world and yet her virginity suffered nothing. Always entirely pure, she attracts us by her purity.

Also, we learn the way of an apostle through the example of Our Lady. When she appeared, she attracted us to the beauty of purity. Let us never make the mistake of adopting questionable customs as far as purity goes, in order that people will accept us. No! To invite people to be pure, we must first show them the beauty of purity. Impurity seeks all darkness to hide its evil deeds but purity loves daylight and thrives in open air.

At Fatima, Our Lady spoke to an impure world using all the symbols of purity. Was that an invitation only to the little shepherds or was it to the world? She was dressed in white and bathed in light.

This reminds us of when Our Lord spoke of the lilies of the field, “But I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these” (Matt. 6:29)

Likewise, no one in all his or her glory was ever dressed as Our Lady was: in light.

The preceding text is taken from an informal address Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on June 5, 1984. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. –Ed

What Our Lady Said in May 1917

The Apparitions of Our Lady

Friday, May 24, 2013

A Descent Into Hell

A Descent Into Hell

A Review of Escape From Camp 14

Escape From Camp 14 is a modern-day horror story that spans 224 pages revealing the atrocities of the atheistic communist North Korean regime. Its facts are related by one of the few escapees who lived, Shin Dong-Hyuk. The testimony of a former inmate of the communist paradise only serves to highlight the fact that wherever communism has usurped power, it has never conquered souls. This is most evident in the case of Shin Dong-Hyuk who was born in this ghastly prison camp and knew no other life. However, he eventually sought anything but communism and succeeded.

Read more…

http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/tfp-recommends-books/a-descent-into-hell.html

VIDEO: Catholics Protest Pro-Abortion Speaker at Jesuit Boston College

By James Bascom

May 23, 2013

Shortly after it was founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus became perhaps the most formidable religious order in the history of the Church. It served as the centerpiece of the Catholic Counter-Reformation against the new-born Protestant Revolt and sent missionaries across the globe.

Their militant structure, intense zeal for the Catholic cause, intransigence toward error, and absolute obedience to the Pope earned them great admiration. Indeed, the Jesuits’ love for the Papacy included an additional vow of obedience specifically to the successor of Saint Peter and the Supreme Magisterium of the Church.

See video and read more here…

http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/what-we-do/news-and-updates/video-catholics-protest-pro-abortion-speaker-at-jesuit-boston-college.html

How Can Obama, Planned Parenthood Defend Abortion After Gosnell’s Infanticides?

Here we are, in the month of May, when everyone joyfully celebrates Mothers Day, and we Catholics particularly remember our Blessed Mother Mary.  Read more… http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/23/how-can-obama-planned-parenthood-defend-abortion-after-gosnells-infanticides/

Boy Scouts vote to allow openly homosexual members

by John Jalsevac

GRAPEVINE, TX, May 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) National Council has voted in favor of a resolution to allow openly gay boys to join the organization.

Sixty percent of the 1400 delegates present at the Scouts annual meeting in Dallas, Texas voted in favor of the policy change.

The resolution states that “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

A ban on openly homosexual Scout leaders remains in place.

The change comes despite a survey by the BSA, which found that of 200,000 respondents, 61 percent supported the previous policy.

In a statement announcing the vote, the scouting organization said that while “people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting.”

Debate over the change has been contentious, with some predicting that the issue could fragment the scouting organization.

Earlier this week a petition signed by nearly 19,000 scouts, former scouts, and members of scouting families was presented to the BSA, urging the group to “uphold the values that have defined the organization for over 100 years.”

Additionally, a group of fifty U.S. religious leaders also signed a joint statement encouraging the BSA to maintain its current standards, pointing out that many troops are hosted by troops and religious institutions.

Family Research Council (FRC), one of the leading organizations that opposed the change, expressed “deep disappointment” with the vote.

"Sadly, the Boy Scouts' legacy of producing great leaders has become yet another casualty of moral compromise,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

“Unfortunately, Boy Scout delegates capitulated to strong-arm tactics and abandoned the timeless values that have served the organization well for more than 100 years.”

The Boy Scouts have been under intense pressure for years to change their policy banning homosexual youths and leaders.

Until this year the Scouts fought hard for the right to maintain their former policy, even taking the issue as far as the United States Supreme Court, which upheld their right to set membership standards.

As recently as last July, the 100-year-old outdoor group announced it firmly intended maintain its moral standards for members and leaders. However, in January the national scouting organization suddenly bowed to pressure to reconsider the policy.

Perkins accused the delegates of succumbing to “a concerted and manipulative effort by the national BSA leadership.” He also predicted that many local troops will break their ties the national organization, “so that they can continue to foster character among boys and respect the right of parents to discuss issues of sexuality with their sons.”

"It is clear that the current BSA leadership will bend with the winds of popular culture, and the whims of liberal special interest groups,” he said. “There is little doubt that God will soon be ushered out of scouting.

“Now is the time for new leadership. In the meantime, we will stand with those BSA Councils who will now act to protect boys from a new policy that only creates moral confusion and disrespects the views of the vast majority of Scouting parents."

The new policy will go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Religious leaders, families urge Scouts to stay with tradition as vote on homosexual membership looms

by Kirsten Andersen

IRVING, TX, May 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – As the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) prepare to vote Thursday on whether to allow openly homosexual members, thousands of current and former scouts and dozens of religious leaders are urging the organization to stand up to “intimidation” by gay activists and stay true to its roots.

Nearly 19,000 scouts, former scouts, and members of scouting families signed a petition to the BSA, urging the group to “uphold the values that have defined the organization for over 100 years.”

“The Boy Scouts should once again stand firm on moral principles that have successfully shaped our nation’s boys into leaders for generations,” said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) spokesman David Cortman, whose group delivered the petition to the BSA. “This is the expressed desire of thousands of Scouts and their families who have signed this petition. The Constitution protects the Boy Scouts’ freedom to promote the values that have defined the organization and to ensure that its leaders and members adhere to those values.”

A group of fifty U.S. religious leaders have also signed a joint statement encouraging the BSA to maintain its current standards.

“We strongly support the Boy Scouts of America current prohibition on open homosexuality and retaining it without revision,” the statement reads. “Nearly 70 percent of BSA troops are hosted by churches and religious institutions. Upholding traditional morality is vital for sustaining this partnership, for protecting Scout members, and for ensuring BSA has a strong future.”

The statement is signed by officials of the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Anglican Church in North America, Evangelical Presbyterian Church and several Pentecostal denominations, among others. The total membership represented by the signers is over 20 million.

“A proposal from the BSA board to prohibit ‘discrimination’ based on ‘sexual orientation or preference’ for BSA members potentially would open the Scouts to a wide range of open sexual expressions,” wrote the group. “In our current culture, it is more important than ever for our churches to protect and provide moral nurture for young people and for the Scouts. We implore members of the upcoming BSA Council to affirm the BSA's present policy, which the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed, and which has served BSA well."

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Please Sign A Respectful Petition To Disney CEO, Robert Iger

Please Sign
A Respectful Petition
To Disney CEO,
Robert Iger

Petition Background
According to press reports, homosexuals and pro-homosexual activists will soon be celebrating the 23rd annual “Gay Days”, at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

This is something that families and children should absolutely NOT be exposed to.

So, for the good of families and of children, please ask Disney not to allow any and all activities related to Homosexual Day. (We avoid using the word gay since there’s nothing gay about this sin.)

On behalf of the innocence of America’s children and unsuspecting families visiting Disney World over this Memorial Day weekend, please join me in this protest.

Send your instant e-petition now.

P.S. Please send your e-message today so Disney will hear from you and know the reasons why you absolutely object to them hosting a homosexual day at the park.

Also, please say a Rosary for the success of our nationwide protest against “Gay Days” at Disney. The Rosary is far more powerful than most people realize. So, let’s use it to defend the innocence of our children and the moral propriety of our society.

U.S. Democrats target crisis pregnancy centers with new bill

by Kirsten Andersen

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced a bill aimed at marginalizing Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), which serve women facing unexpected pregnancies with counseling and factual information about parenthood, adoption and abortion. CPCs also offer practical support for women who choose to parent, such as baby equipment, formula, diapers and clothing.

H.R. 2030, which Maloney named the “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act,” orders the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create regulations restricting CPCs’ advertising practices. The wording of the bill is minimal, leaving the details to be hammered out by the bureaucracy at a later date.

The congresswoman alleges that CPC advertisements claiming to offer information about abortion are misleading because CPCs do not provide or refer for abortions. They also give information about abortion that can be discouraging to abortion-minded women, such as information on fetal development; information about post-abortion trauma; and the physical risks of abortion including infertility, infections, increased risk for breast cancer, and even death.

“Crisis Pregnancy Centers … pose as sources of unbiased pregnancy counseling, using deceptive propaganda to dissuade women from considering comprehensive birth-control options or legal abortion,” Maloney said as she introduced the bill. “Fake reproductive health clinics entice women with unintended pregnancies through their doors under the pretense of providing the full range of reproductive options and services.”

Maloney’s bill would give broad powers to the FTC to create new regulations barring CPCs from advertising their abortion information services, and enforce those regulations with penalties and fines, even in the case of non-profit CPCs that provide pregnancy-related services for free.

NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood all back Maloney’s bill.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said she is “thrilled that Rep. Maloney is acting to hold these fake ‘clinics’ accountable.”

National Abortion Federation president Vicki Saporta claimed that CPCs “have a long history of intentionally misleading women to prevent them from accessing abortion care.”

Planned Parenthood, the U.S.’s largest abortion provider, has been aggressive in trying to shut down CPCs, which they call “fake clinics run by people who are anti-abortion.”

Recently, Planned Parenthood of Oregon introduced a bill that would require CPCs in the state to post highly visible notices at clinic entrances and on websites and advertisements stating explicitly that abortions and contraceptives are not provided by the clinic.

Similar city laws in Baltimore and New York City have been struck down in federal courts as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

Maloney’s bill currently has fourteen cosponsors, all Democrats. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

Young Christians will be locked out of public professions by homosexual ‘marriage’, ministers warn

by Hilary White

British House of Lords

LONDON, May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Young Christians will be shut out of all public professions, including teachers, doctors, nurses or any kind of public servant if the “gay marriage” bill is passed, a group of religious leaders has warned the government. The ministers issued the warning in a letter to the Daily Telegraph on the same day that the government came to an agreement with opposition parties over amendments. The bill is expected to move past the committee stage and on to the House of Lords after two days of debate today and tomorrow.

Should it be granted Royal Assent “in its present form,” the 17 Christian ministers said, the bill will “isolate hundreds of thousands of young students and workers across the country who hold a fuller view of marriage based on religion or a traditional view.”

“These young people, from teenagers to 30-year-olds, will suffer discrimination and face new risks to their careers, and futures,” they added. The ministers said that many young Christians understand marriage as “the thread that binds generations.” They warned that “without much clearer protections for freedom of speech and freedom of belief, teachers and public-sector workers will have to choose between their conscience and their career, as many will be deterred from a public-service career or from charity involvement”.

“The Bill is supposed to be pro-marriage, pro-equality and pro-diversity, yet, as drafted, it is none of those things. There will be anger and sadness, and this Bill will cause pain for many, without tackling prejudice against the few.”

Signatories said that together they represented about 150,000 congregants, and included Archbishop Peter Smith of the Catholic archdiocese of Southwark, the Rev. John Stevens, the national director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and a number of Anglican and Presbyterian ministers. The letter follows a similar call from 500 Muslim Imams who signed a letter to The Sunday Telegraph accusing the Government of attacking “the cornerstone of family life”. The Imams called marriage a “sacred contract between a man and a woman” which “cannot be redefined”.

The “gay marriage” bill is set to be voted on in the House of Commons tomorrow after MPs voted on amendments today. Some MPs are bringing a motion forward to bring the proposal to change the definition of marriage to a public referendum in 2015.

A former defence minister, Sir Gerald Howarth, called the plan “divisive” and warned MPs that there are those “in the aggressive homosexual community who see this as but a stepping stone to something even further”.

Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond has told the government and his own party leaders that the “gay marriage” plan has “upset vast numbers of people”.

Speaking on the BBC’s political television talk show Question Time, Hammond said, “I have just never felt that this is what we should be focusing on.”

“This change does redefine marriage. For millions and millions of people who are married, the meaning of marriage changes,” he said.

There is “a real sense of anger among many people who are married” over the government’s assumption that “it has the ability to change the definition of an institution like marriage”.

A senior member of the House of Lords has vowed to bring a proposal before the Peers to throw the bill out, citing deficiencies in the political process by which it was brought forward. No mention was made of changing the definition of marriage in any party’s manifesto at the last election, and the “gay marriage” bill was not included in any Queen’s Speech, the ceremonial announcement of the government’s plans for the coming year.

Geoffrey Lord Dear, a former head of police, will call for the defeat of the bill in a vote on June 3rd. Lord Dear has previously defeated the Government in the Lords over free speech and a provision that allowed 42-day detentions without charge.

In a letter to fellow Peers, Lord Dear said, “The Government is using its raw power to press ahead as fast as possible. The political parties have no mandate from the public to bring it forward: the redefinition of marriage was not included in any party manifesto.

“The official consultation process massaged the results to downplay opposition and has been widely dismissed as a sham.” He called the process an exercise in “raw power” marked by “guillotined debates and undue pressure from party hierarchies on individual MPs”.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Justice Department: Employees must affirm homosexuality

by J. Matt Barber

May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence.

The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns over this administration’s latest attack on freedom.

Our sources have provided Liberty Counsel an internal DOJ document titled: “LGBT Inclusion at Work: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers.” It was emailed to DOJ managers in advance of the left’s so-called “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.”

The document is chilling. It’s riddled with directives that grossly violate – prima facie –employees’ First Amendment liberties.

Following are excerpts from the “DOJ Pride” decree. When it comes to “LGBT pride,” employees are ordered:

  • “DON’T judge or remain silent. Silence will be interpreted as disapproval.” (Italics mine)

That’s a threat.

And not even a subtle one.

Got it? For Christians and other morals-minded federal employees, it’s no longer enough to just shut up and “stay in the closet” – to live your life in silent recognition of biblical principles (which, by itself, is unlawful constraint). When it comes to mandatory celebration of homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors, “silence will be interpreted as disapproval.”

This lawless administration is now ordering federal employees – against their will – to affirm sexual behaviors that every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology reject.

Somewhere, right now, George Orwell is smiling.

The directive includes a quote from a “gay” federal employee to rationalize justification: “Ideally, I’d love to hear and see support from supervisors, so it’s clear that there aren’t just policies on paper. Silence seems like disapproval. There’s still an atmosphere of LGBT issues not being appropriate for the workplace (particularly for transgender people), or that people who bring it up are trying to rock the boat.”

Of course there’s “still an atmosphere of LGBT issues not being appropriate for the workplace.” When well over half of federal employees, half the country and most of the world still believe in objective sexual morality (and immorality), “the workplace,” especially the federal workplace, should, at the very least, remain neutral on these highly controversial and behavior-centric issues.

Still, to borrow from self-styled “queer activist,” anti-Christian bigot and Obama buddy Dan Savage, “it gets better”:

  • “DO assume that LGBT employees and their allies are listening to what you’re saying (whether in a meeting or around the proverbial water cooler) and will read what you’re writing (whether in a casual email or in a formal document), and make sure the language you use is inclusive and respectful.”

Is this the DOJ or the KGB? “[A]ssume that LGBT employees are listening …”? And what are “LGBT allies”? If you disagree with the homosexual activist political agenda, does that make you the enemy?

Yes, in any workplace, language should remain professional, but who defines what’s “inclusive”? Who decides what’s “respectful”? If asked about “LGBT issues,” for instance, can a Christian employee answer honestly: “I believe the Bible. I believe God designed sex to be shared between husband and wife within the bonds of marriage”? Or is that grounds for termination?

Here are some more DOs:

  • DO “Attend LGBT events sponsored by DOJ Pride and/or the Department, and invite (but don’t require) others to join you.”
  • DO “Display a symbol in your office (DOJ Pride sticker, copy of this brochure, etc.) indicating that it is a ‘safe space.’”

Are you kidding? Does this administration really think it’s legal to compel managers to “attend LGBT events,” or to “display pride stickers” against their will? That’s compulsory expression. That’s viewpoint discrimination.

That’s unconstitutional.

Click "like" if you want to defend true marriage.

But there’s more:

  • “DO use inclusive words like ‘partner,’ ‘significant other’ or ‘spouse’ rather than gender-specific terms like ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ (for example, in invitations to office parties or when asking a new employee about his/her home life).”

Oh, brother.

Sorry. Oh, gender-neutral sibling.

  • “DO use a transgender person’s chosen name and the pronoun that is consistent with the person’s self-identified gender.”

In other words, lie. Engage in corporate delusion.

  • “DO deal with offensive jokes and comments forcefully and swiftly when presented with evidence that they have occurred in the workplace.”
  • “DO communicate a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate jokes and comments, including those pertaining to a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.”

Who gets to decide what’s an “inappropriate joke [or] comment”? I thought we had a Constitution for that. It sure ain’t Big Brother Barack. Sure, I get it, it’s probably better not to start your work day with: “A lesbian, a tranny and two gays walk into a bath house …” but still, “no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” means no law. No matter how much Obama wishes it so, we don’t leave our constitutional rights at the federal workplace door.

The DOJ edict even addresses cross-dressing man woes:

“As a transgender woman [that's a man in a skirt], I want people to understand that I’m real. I want to be recognized as the gender I really am [again, you're a man in a skirt]. Yes, there was awkwardness with pronouns at first for folks who knew me before the transition. But it hurts when several years later people still use the wrong pronouns. And just imagine if people were constantly debating YOUR bathroom privileges. Imagine how humiliating that would be.”

Tell you what, buddy: I won’t “debate YOUR bathroom privileges” if you return to this planet. You’d better stay the heck out of the ladies room while my wife or two daughters are in there; otherwise, we have a problem. Women have an absolute right not be sexually harassed in the workplace – a right to privacy when using the facilities. To constantly worry whether a gender-confused, cross-dressing man is going to invade her privacy creates a hostile work environment.

This “DOJ Pride” directive is but the latest example of the “progressive” climate of fear and intimidation this radical Obama regime has created for Christians, conservatives and other values-oriented folks, both within and without the workplace.

I’m just glad the wheels are finally coming off.