Sunday, July 31, 2011

Hell







NEW YORK TIMES READER KILLS DOZENS IN NORWAY

by Ann Coulter
Townhalll

July 27, 2011

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/files/original/AnnCoulter.jpgThe New York Times wasted no time in jumping to conclusions about Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who staged two deadly attacks in Oslo last weekend, claiming in the first two paragraphs of one story that he was a “gun-loving,” “right-wing,” “fundamentalist Christian,” opposed to “multiculturalism.”

It may as well have thrown in “Fox News-watching” and “global warming skeptic.”

This was a big departure from the Times’ conclusion-resisting coverage of the Fort Hood shooting suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Despite reports that Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he gunned down his fellow soldiers at a military medical facility in 2009, only one of seven Times articles on Hasan so much as mentioned that he was a Muslim.

Of course, that story ran one year after Hasan’s arrest, so by then, I suppose, the cat was out of the bag.
In fact, however, Americans who jumped to conclusions about Hasan were right and New York Times reporters who jumped to conclusions about Breivik were wrong....

Saturday, July 30, 2011

House Committee passes bill requiring your ISP to spy on every click and keystroke you make online and retain for 12 months

From BoingBoing.net:

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-10 for H.R. 1981, a data-retention bill that will require your ISP to spy on everything you do online and save records of it for 12 months. California Rep Zoe Lofgren, one of the Democrats who opposed the bill, called it a “data bank of every digital act by every American” that would “let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.” Here’s commentary from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who’ve got a form for contacting your rep to ask her or him to kill this:
The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized. Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans’ expressive activities is simply un-American. Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets. Today’s vote is therefore very disappointing, but we are especially thankful to GOP Representatives Sensenbrenner, Issa and Chaffetz, who chose principle over party-line in opposing this dangerous tech mandate. We hope that bipartisan opposition will grow as the bill makes its way to the House floor and more lawmakers are educated about this anti-privacy, anti-free speech, anti-innovation proposal.
Link

Everyone loves children, right? Who could possibly not like children?

Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

Friday, July 29, 2011

Intimidation is the Enemy’s Tool

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ALuBn61huGc/TdkrCg7q-UI/AAAAAAAAFvg/fZpMlpsgRxY/s1600/Fallen.jpg

"Bullies have plans.

The tactic of the Enemy, and the Enemy’s human agents, is to bully victims into silence.

Intimidation and aggression is the not so subtle way that fidelity is assailed, not only by the Enemy, but also by enemies who are used by the Enemy.

Anyone who is being bullied by the left, by the liberal opponents of the Holy Father and his vision, must not be – like victims of rape – forced into silence.

We must hear about and report attempts to repress the rights of faithful Catholics who just want to pray and live out their legitimate aspirations."

I Won't Back Down - Tom Petty

Runnin' Down a Dream - Tom Petty

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Franciscan Friars & Air Maria : Michael Voris in D.C.


Friar Roderic Mary with Michael Voris

Uploaded January 28, 2010

NY State Fair unveils 1,500-calorie 'Donut Burger'

(Scott Sroka/National Geographic/File Photo)
(Scott Sroka/National Geographic/File Photo)

(WLS 890 AM) SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Want fries with that ... doughnut?

A food booth in Syracuse will unveil the "Big Kahuna Donut Burger" at this year's New York State Fair.

For between $5 and $6, the adventurous eater will get a quarter-pound burger in between slices of a grilled, glazed doughnut. Toss on some cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion and you've got yourself a 1,500-calorie meal.

America's state fairs can be counted on to provide foods featuring offbeat ingredient combinations. Wisconsin has chocolate covered bacon on a stick, you can get fried beer in Texas, Massachusetts provides fried jelly beans and North Carolina has the "Koolickle," pickles soaked in Kool-Aid.

New York's fair opens Aug. 25.

Judgment Day

Some owners so obsessed with their smartphones, they name them


BY ELLEN GIBSON
Associated Press

"Watching people who get their first smartphone, there's a very quick progression from having a basic phone you don't talk about to people who love their iPhone, name their phone and buy their phones outfits," said Lisa Merlo, director of psychotherapy training at the University of Florida...

Merlo, a clinical psychologist, said she has observed a number of behaviors among smartphone users that she labels problematic.

Among them, she said, are some patients who pretend to talk on the phone or fiddle with apps to avoid eye contact or other interactions at a bar or a party; others are so genuinely engrossed in their phones that they ignore the people around them completely.

"The more bells and whistles the phone has," she said, "the more likely they are to get too attached."

For some, the anxious feeling that they might miss something has caused them to slumber next to their smartphones...

For others, being away from their phone will almost certainly cause separation anxiety. According to researchers at the Ericsson Consumer Lab, some people have become so dependent on being able to use their smartphones to go online anytime, anywhere, that without that access, they "can no longer handle their daily routine."

Protestant Sees Purgatory?

By Michelle George

Most people only can imagine what awaits them after they die, but Bob said he doesn't have to wonder -- he already knows. That's because the Thornville resident said he had the opportunity to observe Heaven in 2010 when he was clinically dead for 21 minutes during open heart surgery at Fairfield Medical Center...

Bob said he eventually found himself in a "paradise" where he saw his and Lois' family members approaching him through a meadow. He said he did not speak to anyone, just observed his surroundings.

When Bob "returned" to the hospital, he said he saw a type of purgatory with hundreds of souls all around him. Purgatory is believed to be a place or state after death in which penitent souls are purified and thereby made ready for heaven.

"There were an awful lot of them -- when you looked out the window, they were just wandering," he said.
Lois said she was surprised at the description her husband gave her of purgatory. As a Protestant, she said she always was taught that there is no such thing as being "caught in limbo."

"I was taught that your spirit goes to God and your body to dust, so this went against everything we've been taught," she said. "But I knew he was seeing what he was seeing..."  (continued)


Heaven for 21 minutes: Local couple tells of afterlife experience

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle discovered in Turkey's Denizli

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle discovered in Turkey's Denizli

D'Andria said the structure of the tomb and the writings on it proved that it belonged to St. Philip the Apostle, who is recognized as a martyr in the history of Christianity

(World Bulletin) The tomb of St. Philip the Apostle, one of the original 12 disciples of Christianity's central figure Jesus Christ, has been discovered during the ongoing excavations in Turkey's south-western province of Denizli.

Italian professor Francesco D'Andria, the head of the excavation team at the Hierapolis ancient city in Denizli, told reporters on Tuesday that experts had reached the tomb of St. Philip whose name is mentioned in the Bible as one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus.

Professor D'Andria said archeologists had been working for years to find the tomb of the Biblical figure, and finally, they had managed to reach the monument while working on the ruins of a newly-unearthed church in Hierapolis.

D'Andria said the structure of the tomb and the writings on it proved that it belonged to St. Philip the Apostle, who is recognized as a martyr in the history of Christianity.

Describing the discovery as a major development both for archeology and the Christian world, D'Andria said the tomb, which had not been opened yet, was expected to become an important Christian pilgrimage destination.

Hierapolis, whose name means "sacred city", is an ancient city located next to the renowned Pamukkale, white Travertine terraces, in Denizli province. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city, famous for its historical hot springs used as a spa since the 2nd century, is a mixture of Pagan, Roman, Jewish and early Christian influences.

Ancient tradition associates Hierapolis with St. Philip the Apostle, who is believed to have died in the city around 80 AD. The follower, who is known as the apostle who preached in Greece, Syria, and Phrygia, is said to have been martyred in Hierapolis. The legend is that St. Philip was crucified upside-down or martyred by beheading.

After the apostle's death, an octagonal tomb named "The Martryium" was erected for him where he is believed to have been martyred.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

USCCB / World Youth Day Approved Catechist



Related:

RealCatholicTV.com Thanks United States Conference of Catholic Bishops For Clarification on Role at World Youth Day

RealCatholicTV.com Thanks United States Conference of Catholic Bishops For Clarification on Role at World Youth Day


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2011


REALCATHOLICTV.COM THANKS UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS FOR CLARIFICATION ON ROLE AT WORLD YOUTH DAY

SOUTH BEND, IN – The faithful who work at www.realcatholictv.com would like to thank the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for drawing attention to our existence and scheduled contributions to the upcoming World Youth Day events to be held in Madrid, Spain on August 17 and 19, as well as the launch of its new pilot program striving to address tough issues concerning sexuality and morals facing Catholic youth today, www.nobullinmadrid.com.

While we regret that an unlisted assistant to the Secretariat of the Committee for Laity of the USCCB has declined to give us her approval "to participate in the cultural program" of WYD, we prefer to rely upon the higher authority of Our Lord Himself, and an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church as we do what we can to increase the authentic Faith and Morals of the Catholic Church, and fulfill our duty:
"The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ's Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself." Cf. Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3.
For every press release that is issued mentioning our existence, more and more tangible interest in www.realcatholictv.com is generated on the part of ordinary Catholic faithful simply seeking straightforward information on just how to be really Catholic – not only in word, but more importantly in deed - which all too often is lacking on the part of some Dioceses in too many parishes to the grave detriment of souls. For the significant increased attention drawn to the exclusive on-line product found on www.realcatholictv.com, we are very grateful.

The faithful at www.realcatholictv.com are in full compliance with the universal norms of the Code of Canon Law, the universal legislation of the Roman Catholic Church, which in no canon muzzles ordinary Catholic faithful from using themselves on the web as genuine instruments of dissemination of Catholic principles. As a result, we are puzzled as to what would motivate the USCCB from precluding Catholics in good standing with the Church from sharing authentic Catholic Faith and Morals in a updated format resonating with the youth of today.

To learn more about us, check us out at www.realcatholictv.com, and www.nobullinmadrid.com. Press and other Media are invited to contact Miss

Susan Vance, Director of Communications, directly at 248-545-5716, or by email
at info@realcatholictv.com

Links:
Related:

Abortionist admits: babies sometimes born alive and left ‘wiggling around in the toilet’

 
ORLANDO, Florida, July 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In disturbing testimony during court proceedings against a well-known Florida abortionist, a fellow abortionist reportedly admitted that some aborted children are delivered alive and left “wiggling around in the toilet,” where they are allowed to die.

The testimony occurred during proceedings against abortionist James Pendergraft, who was forced to pay over $36 million last week for a botched procedure that left its intended target alive, but severely disabled...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Bacon Wrapped Eggs


h/t to Suzanne

Let's Play "Name That Priest"

Excerpt from an article by Fr. Gordon Macrae at These Stone Walls:

"...The whole sordid DSK affair reminded me of something that happened in prison in 2001, a full year before the national onslaught of sex abuse claims against Catholic priests.

One day one of my fellow prisoners – Randy, a name which fit him well – was called to the prison visiting room for an unexpected visit. Upon his return, he was at my cell door, which was itself an unusual occurrence. Randy was one of those individuals who lived to scheme, and who approached every human interaction in terms of what might be in it for him. I was not at all in Randy’s circle of friends in prison.

Yet there he was. Thirty-something year-old Randy had an offer he thought I couldn’t refuse. He had just been visited by his lawyer, whom he declined to name, and wanted to tell me of an “interesting opportunity” proposed by the lawyer. According to Randy, the lawyer asked if he is Catholic. Randy responded, “Well . . . sort of. I guess I used to be.” The lawyer then asked if he “ever had a problem with a priest growing up.” Randy – who caught onto opportunities quickly – saw where this was going. “I guess that depends,” he told the lawyer who reportedly responded:
“Well, if you want to accuse a priest of something, I can have $50 grand in your account by the end of the year – a $100,000 settlement split fifty-fifty.”
Randy was shaking with enthusiasm as he stood at my door. He said he told the lawyer that he lives in a cellblock with a Catholic priest who has been accused. “Even better,” the lawyer reportedly said. “Tell him where you grew up and see if he can get you a name.”

So, let’s get this straight. For a “finder’s fee” I was to provide the name of some elderly or deceased priest who might have been present in Randy’s childhood community. Randy described this scenario as “a win-win situation all around” – except perhaps for the poor priest he was planning to accuse.  And it wasn’t just Randy.  I wrote of several similar fraud attempts in my 2005 article for Catalyst, “Sex Abuse and Signs of Fraud.”

Gordon-MacRae-Falsely-Accused-Priest-Extortion-by-Prisoners-Accusing-PriestsI related the “Randy story” to a Catholic official who openly doubted there was any connection between money and the clergy sex abuse scandal. “If this is true,” he wrote in reply, “it saddens me that some prisoners would come up with such a scam.” I pointed out that the scam was not proposed by a prisoner. It was proposed by a contingency lawyer, a member of the bar who swore an oath to uphold justice. The Church official never responded to that fact. He just went on negotiating settlements for every claim involving a fellow priest that came across his desk.

I guess I shouldn’t leave the “Randy story” dangling lest you wonder how it ended. I sent Randy packing with a promise to personally expose him if he ever attempted such a scheme. He never gave me the name of the lawyer. “You never know,” he said. “I might want to take him up on it some day.” I knew two other prisoners who attempted the scam. Both received settlements even after I exposed it.

Does this story send a chill down your spine? It should. Father Richard John Neuhaus once wrote to me that the very idea of priests and sexual abuse “is sleazy business.” Indeed it is, but the driving forces behind its public face have been news reporters and contingency lawyers, and neither has made this business any less sleazy.

Greed ranks right up there with lust among the Seven Deadly Sins."

Editor’s Note: Several of you have expressed a desire to join Fr. MacRae in a Spiritual Communion. He celebrates a private Mass in his prison cell on Sunday evenings between 11 pm and midnight. You’re invited to join in a Holy Hour during that time if you’re able.

An important message from Sen. Jim DeMint

From MissLiberty at CharlestonTeaParty.org:

Fellow Conservatives:

I have troubling news. I’m very careful about criticizing my party’s leaders, but what is happening in Washington right now cannot be ignored. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has abandoned the Cut-Cap-Balance Act and is now pushing a new plan that is nearly identical to the one proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

The Boehner-Reid plan gives the President an immediate increase in the debt limit and only promises to cut spending in the future. It violates all three principles of the Cut-Cap-Balance Pledge because it does not substantially cut current spending, it does not truly cap future

spending, and it does not require the passage of a strong Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the debt limit.

In short, I oppose the Boehner-Reid plan because it won’t balance the budget and stop the debt that is destroying our country.

The Boehner-Reid Plan

You will hear many claims about this plan over the next few days as it is pushed through the House and Senate. Some of

these claims will be true, but many will be false. Here are the facts. The Boehner-Reid plan:
  • Provides two increases in the debt limit — $900 billion and $1.6
    trillion — totaling $2.5 trillion
    . It gives the President
    an immediate $900 billion increase given that Congress does not vote to
    disapprove it. It gives the President another $1.6 trillion increase next year
    if a bill written by a new Super Committee passes both houses and becomes law.
  • Reduces spending by only $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.
    This amount won’t even come close to balancing the budget, as
    the debt is expected to grow by as much as $10 trillion over the next decade.
    The plan also reduces spending by only $6 billion in 2012. Considering that our
    government currently spends $10 billion a day, $6 billion is far too little to
    cut over the first year of the plan.
  • Calls for a vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment but does
    not require its passage
    . Without passage of a strong Balanced Budget
    Amendment, Congress will never break its addiction to spending.
  • Makes it virtually impossible to stop the debt limit from going up.
    The debt ceiling increases can only be stopped if Congress passes a resolution
    of disapproval and then votes to override the President’s veto with two-thirds
    support in the House and Senate.
  • Creates a new, 12-member Super Committee to write another “grand
    bargain”
    to reduce the deficit by at least $1.6 trillion. It does not,
    however, prohibit the Super Committee from writing a bill to raise taxes
    and destroy jobs
    . The bill can then be fast-tracked through the House
    and Senate with no amendments.
Why It Should Be Rejected

After reviewing the details of Boehner-Reid plan, I cannot support it. It won’t balance the budget and stop the debt. Even if the cuts called for in the plan were real, the debt will still increase by $7 trillion over the next ten years.
  • It won’t protect our AAA bond rating. According to
    financial reports, this plan will not reduce long-term spending by enough to
    prevent a downgrade. If we lose our AAA rating, it will create higher interest
    rates and cause our debt to grow even faster.
  • It will likely result in higher taxes that will destroy
    even more jobs. The unemployment rate is over 9 percent. We cannot afford to
    lose more jobs when so many Americans are struggling to find work.
There are some in my party who think I should ignore the flaws of the Boehner-Reid plan, bite my tongue, and support my party’s leaders. If I thought this were a political game, that might make sense. But the future of our country is at stake, I don’t believe this plan will save it, and I have a moral obligation to say so.

The Way Forward

Fortunately, there is a much better solution.


The Cut-Cap-Balance Act would balance the budget, stop the debt, and protect our AAA bond rating. This legislation passed the House with bipartisan support but was blocked by Democrats in the Senate.

The votes in the Senate for Cut-Cap-Balance are there if Republicans stand firm. 23 Democrats in the Senate have expressed support for

the Balanced Budget Amendment at some point in their careers. They’re blocking it now because they believe Republicans will blink and agree to something much less.

And that’s exactly what will happen if the Boehner-Reid plan is passed. It gives the big spenders in Washington everything they wanted — an increase in the debt limit, phony spending cuts, and a mechanism to pass tax increases.

Please call your senators today and urge them to oppose the Boehner-Reid plan and to demand passage of the Cut, Cap, Balance Act.

Respectfully,



Jim DeMint
United States Senator
Chairman, Senate
Conservatives Fund
h/t to RummyChick at Free Republic

Chinese jets chase U.S. surveillance jet over Taiwan Strait


Two Chinese warplanes intercepted an American spy plane over the tense Taiwan Strait last month in China’s most aggressive challenge to U.S. surveillance flights since a 2001 collision that touched off an international crisis.

According to defense officials, the intercept took place June 29. The two Chinese jets flew from a base in China to head off an Air Force U-2 spy plane over the dividing line in the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait.

“In general, these reconnaissance flights are conducted in international airspace, as are the PRC [Chinese] intercepts, which happen fairly routinely,” said a Pentagon official familiar with the incident.

“There is no ‘repel’ aspect to them,” he said of reports from Asia that the Chinese jets had “repelled” the U-2 flight during the intercept.

A Pacific Command spokesman declined to provide details of the incident other than to say it occurred June 29 as the Air Force was conducting a routine operation in international airspace in the area of the East China Sea.

Other officials said the U-2 had taken off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa as part of a routine surveillance program of China.

The Chinese Su-27 jets tried to follow the U-2 as it flew south along the western dividing line on the Taiwan Strait.

According to the officials, at one point the Su-27s split up in pursuing the U-2. One jet turned back before crossing the median line, and the second continued across the line until two Taiwanese F-16s took off to intercept it.

It is not known how the Su-27s were able to follow the U-2, which normally flies at much higher altitudes than the warplanes...


Sins of the Flesh

Police: Woman Assaulted With Bratwurst


David Derong, KCCI.com

Des Moines police said woman living on the 1400 block of East 9th Street was assaulted with a bratwurst Monday night after refusing to fight with a homeless woman.

Connie Jones, 63, told police that she got into a verbal argument in her home with Tajuana Banks, 31, over the childcare of her granddaughter. Jones stated that Banks regularly visits her home and tries to spark physical altercations.In this instance, Banks repeatedly yelled profanities at Jones in an attempt to get her to fight, according to the police report.

Police said Jones kept her cool and refused to fight, until Banks picked up a nearby bratwurst and hurled it at the victim’s chest. Police documented grease marks on Jones’ clothing for the police report.

Parishioner Yells at Priest During Homily For Preaching About Contraception

Priest physically assaulted for celebrating TLM and bringing back sacred tradition

"The liberal approach.

Our friends at Rorate posted a translation of an article in Italian about an incident in Ronta, near Florence.

My emphases and comments:

You have been tough, but we will smash your head. Signed, Your friend Satan”. That was one of several threatening messages sent to Father Hernán García Pardo, parish priest of San Michele, in Ronta [Mugello region of the Province of Florence, Tuscany]. His fault [was] that of celebrating the Latin Mass, liberalized by Benedict XVI in September 2007.  [NB: "The Latin Mass" can also be the Novus Ordo.]
The warnings, which had been recurrent for some time, had not made the priest, who despite everything has continued to say Mass according to the ancient rite, give up. The last chapter [took place] last Wednesday, when he was beaten up by a ‘faithful’ in the town’s rectory in the presence of his aged mother. The beating led to bruising on his back; having been sent to the emergency room of Borgo San Lorenzo, he was medicated..." (continued)

Press Release: Catholic Clergy Disavow Disobedience

Contact: Rev. Fr. John Trigilio, Jr., PhD., Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, 717-957-9309 

HARRISBURG, Penn., July 25, 2011 /Christian Newswire -- Motivated out of the loving bond of brotherhood between all men in Holy Orders, the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (a national association of 500 priests and deacons) invokes fraternal correction on the 157 American priests who recently and imprudently signed a statement supporting Father Bourgeois's "right to speak his conscience." We charitably remind our brethren that this priest blatantly attended and participated in the invalid pseudo-ordination of a woman. Such actions risk the canonical penalty of excommunication and are injurious to the common good of the Mystical Body of Christ. We also admonish the dissident priests and deacons in Austria who signed the infamous "Call to Disobedience" and urge them to repent and recant.

Every deacon and priest takes the Oath of Fidelity before he is ordained and during the sacrament of Holy Orders he makes a solemn promise of obedience and respect to his bishop. Obedience to the Magisterium on doctrinal matters and obedience to the Hierarchy on disciplinary matters is not an option but an essential component of ordained ministry. As Catholic Clergy we are all commissioned by Christ to teach only what the Church teaches and to obey our lawful superiors in humility and filial charity. Espousing heretical teachings and/or defying legitimate ecclesiastical authority causes harm to the unity and welfare of the Bride of Christ. As brothers in Holy Orders, we pray for all deacons, priests and bishops that all of us can renew our promise of obedience and our oath of fidelity to better serve the Christian faithful who deserve nothing less from us.

(Members of the CCC profess their total allegiance to the Roman Pontiff and seek to promote ongoing spiritual, theological, pastoral formation in a fraternal setting. This week some of their members are meeting in Mundelein, IL, for an annual conference)
h/t to Fr. John Trigilio at The Black Biretta

Monday, July 25, 2011

The coming American schism


From Phyllis Zagano at The National Catholic Reporter:
"In the Right corner, the 'orthodox' crowd is coached by EWTN, The Wanderer, and the Catholic News Agency. Their cheering squad is led by folks like Bill Donohue at the Catholic League, the mysterious 'Father Z', and other angry righteous bloggers too numerous to mention. (Father Z calls this newspaper 'National Catholic Fishwrap.') They have a lot of money..."

Link
Related

OLAM Mass Changes - Mother Angelica





"A priest who violates either of these laws, is liable to suspension or removal of faculties." - The Most Reverend David Foley

Fr. Z: "Getting permission for Extraordinary Form in a parish"

From a reader (edited):
I have a friend whose priest performs the extraordinary form of the mass, but was only able to get it on Wednesday mornings. He does the ordinary form in a very traditional manner.
He said that it was very difficult getting permission from the [d]iocese for only the Wednesday morning mass, [?!?!?] so he won’t even try for a Sunday mass. I think Universae Ecclesiae would allow the priest to go around the archdiocese and to the Ecclesia Dei Commsion. What should he do if he wants to get a Sunday Mass.
For the love of all that is good and holy…

Pastors of parishes don’t need permission of the bishop… don’t need permission of the bishop… don’t need permission of the bishop to implement the provisions of Summorum Pontificum in their parishes.

May I suggest that Father read Summorum Pontificum?

How many years will it take to get it through that the provisions of Ecclesia Dei adflicta were superseded by those of Summorum Pontificum?

If the priest is a) the pastor and b) people ask him for the older Mass on Sundays and c) he or another priest can cover it along with the other Sunday Masses, no permission is needed… no permission is needed… no permission is needed from the chancery or bishop.

That doesn’t mean that there won’t be pressure from the chancery.  The priest has to want to deal with that.  But he is within his rights to implement Summorum Pontificum.  If there would be any undue interference from the chancery, I have little doubt but that the priest would find a very favorable hearing in the offices of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” so long as the priest followed the provisions of Summorum Pontificum.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Gov. Perry says NY gay marriage is fine by him because he believes in states’ rights

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/multimedia/photos/2009-09-15-GangsGiuliani6.jpg

By Associated Press

“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me,” he (Governor Rick Perry) said to applause from several hundred GOP donors in Aspen, Colo. “That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business...”

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Contraception Deception


Deceit … conspiracy … treachery … all fitting words for what was happening behind the scenes in the Catholic Church as the issue of Contraception overwhelmed the Church 50 years ago.

Welcome to Catholic Investigative Agency … and The Contraception Deception!

Hello … I’m Michael Voris … This is Catholic Investigative Agency.

What would you say if you were to hear that western civilization is living a lie … and it isn’t a small lie … in fact it is a lie that is literally killing us.

It’s the lie that contraception is good … that it's good for couples … good PUBLIC policy … good government policy … good for nations and its good for humanity.

In the last hundred years the world has gone from a near total rejection to a near total embrace of contraception and birth control.

Throughout this program we will be showing why contraception is not good for couples, or policy, or for nations, or for humanity … in fact it is evil.

But first … our thesis statement …

Modern man has divorced sex from procreation through his embrace of contraception...


Apostolic Nuncio to USA Archbp. Sambi gravely ill

The Apostolic Nuncio to the USA is gravely ill.  I suggest prayer for him and his family.

From the CNS blog:
Vatican ambassador to U.S. on ‘assisted ventilation’
Posted on July 22, 2011 by Jim Lackey

UPDATED  7/23

By Julie Asher
Catholic News Service

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, papal nuncio to the United States, “has been placed on assisted ventilation” since experiencing complications after he underwent “a delicate lung surgery” two weeks ago, according to the apostolic nunciature in Washington.

The ventilation is necessary “to attempt recovery of his lung function,” the nunciature said in an announcement released in the early evening July 22.

“The apostolic nunciature and the nuncio’s family kindly ask that bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful offer sacrifices and prayers for the health of the apostolic nuncio,” it said...

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

If Night Befalls Your Father, You Don’t Discard Him. You Just Don’t!

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 20, 2011

scandal in the Catholic Church, Father Paul Archambault, Father John Corapi, The Dark Night of a Soul, American Catholic priests, U.S. Bishops' zero tolerance, Catholic priesthood, administrative leave, sex abuse scandal in the Church, These Stone Walls, Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, Father Corapi, Catholic news, basic civil liberties, laicization, Canon Law, Dallas Charter, Pope John Paul II, defrocking, Ryan MacDonald, Puritan founders of New England, Cardinal Avery Dulles, rights of accused priests, bishop accountability, accused priest, dismissal from the priesthood, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Archbishop of Los AngelesThere’s another scandal in the Catholic Church just under the radar. It’s what happens after Father is accused, and it would never happen in your own family.

The first week of July brought dismal news for devoted Catholics already bent under the millstone of scandal. On Independence Day, I turned on New England Cable News to learn that forty-two year old Father Paul Archambault, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield ordained only six years, took his own life. It was heartbreaking, and I know his family must be devastated.

But I fear that far too many in his other family – the Catholic Church – have so steeled themselves against the relentless tide of painful news that such a tragedy is just another news day. That is an even greater tragedy. If you have never read my article, “The Dark Night of a Priestly Soul,” about the suicide of a priest I knew, please do. I wish Father Paul Archambault had read it. It may have helped him to seek another way to deal with whatever immense pain brought him to this horrific act. I have been where he was in the final moments of his life. I wish I could have helped him.

I don’t yet know the source of Fr. Archambault’s unbearable anguish. He died sometime the previous Saturday night after celebrating Mass and then ministering to a family in a hospital emergency room where he was a chaplain.  When he did not show up for his Mass that Sunday morning, someone went in search of him. In between was the darkest night of his own priestly soul. Please, please pray for him.

Some twenty-six American Catholic priests have taken their own lives since priests became a favorite target of the news media, and of Satan himself. I have personally known five of them, and three others who were murdered...

Father John Molloy Passes Away

From Father George David Byers:

Say a prayer for Father Molloy right now, would you, please?


Check out the years ordained and the date:


Father had a great devotion to Saint Therese. He saved this picture from the trash:


Another favorite picture of Father Molloy:


Someone made this for him, since he is, after all, a Father of MERCY!


I remember Father Molloy saying that he loved the Dies Irae!


Father Molloy is of the original Fathers of Mercy, that is to say, that he survived the re-organization of the Society into a Pontifical Congregation way back in 1960 (the year I was born!). Only ten, all told, were to continue, and two of those died soon thereafter, leaving eight. The others died as the years went by. He survived them all. In fact, he outlived some of the younger generation coming in. Father Molloy has always been the stalwart preacher and gentle confessor, a lion in the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional...

Whatever Happened to ... the soccer pro who left to become a priest?

From the Washington Post:

Hilgenbrinck will be ordained in May 2014. Then it will be up to his bishop where he serves God. Of the many options, it is clear where his heart lies.

“To live in a parish and be a kind of shepherd of a flock and guiding people every single day in a daily Mass, meeting them in the most important times of their life — in baptism, in their marriage, in their death — being with someone their entire life, and getting to know families and leading them to holiness and a life with Christ, that’s what this is all about,” he said.

When asked what he enjoys most about being at the seminary, he says, “the peace that I feel in my life.
“I truly mean that. I feel a peace in my life now more than I ever have. When I was living my dream [of playing professional soccer], I thought I had everything that I ever wanted, and I wasn’t at peace like I am now...”


h/t Suzanne

Irish priests will refuse to break seal of confession if proposal becomes law

By Katherine Veik

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/images/Confessional_Credit_Paul_Lowry_CNA_World_Catholic_News_7_18_11.jpg.- Catholic priests in Ireland are prepared to “strongly” resist a proposed law that would require them to disclose information learned in confession.

“More than any other issue, it is probably the one that will unite both the liberal and conservative wings of the Church,” said Father Tony Flannery, a priest with the Association of Catholic Priests, in a July 18 e-mail to CNA.

“If even one exception was made to the seal of Confession, then the whole Sacrament would collapse,” he stated. “The truth of faith that this Sacrament is meant to convey is central to Christian teaching.”

The legislation, proposed by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, would put priests in jail for up to five years if they failed to tell authorities about sexual abuse crimes disclosed during confession.

Fr. Flannery said that the Association of Catholic Priests has not taken the proposed law very seriously, because it is simply not “workable.”

“When a person confesses in the confessional box, the priest would not normally know who they are, or indeed be able to see them,” he explained. “So how is he to report them?”

It is also “unlikely” that a person involved in abuse would go to confession, Fr. Flannery pointed out.
“In my forty years of priesthood, I don't ever remember someone confessing that they were currently abusing someone,” he said.

He noted that the prime minister’s bill also fails to address implications for other professions, and things that are said in other privileged situations of confidentiality.

It also opens the door for other crimes becoming exceptions, requiring further breaches of the confessional seal.

“Why make this one the only crime to be reported?” Fr. Flannery wondered.

The priest contends the proposed law is a “total over-reaction” to the recently released Cloyne Report, a study that found the Diocese of Cloyne failed to report nine cases of sexual abuse between the years 1996 and 2005.

Fr. Flannery predicted lawmakers would be “more calm and reasoned about all this” after a few months have passed.

But he made clear that “if this does come to law - which I do not expect - priests will resist it strongly.”

You Don't Love Me Anymore - Weird Al

Achy Breaky Song - Weird Al

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sherwood Schwartz, Creator of Gilligan and the Bradys, Dies at 94

Everett Collection
The seven who embarked on the three-hour tour on “Gilligan's Island.”
(New York Times) Sherwood Schwartz, who created “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch,” two of the most affectionately ridiculed and enduring television sitcoms of the 1960s and ’70s, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Hope Juber.

Mr. Schwartz weathered painfully dismissive reviews to see his shows prosper and live on for decades in syndication. Many critics suggested that they were successful because they ran counter to the tumultuous times in which they appeared: the era of the Vietnam War and sweeping social change.

Give or take a month or so, the original network run of “The Brady Bunch” coincided with two major upheavals in American society. The show, about a squeaky-clean blended family in California, began in 1969, shortly after Woodstock, and ended in 1974, soon after President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal.

Mr. Schwartz’s work may have been seen as lighthearted entertainment, but some scholars of popular culture took it very seriously. David Marc and Robert J. Thompson, authors of “Prime Time, Prime Movers,” in which they advance an auteur theory of television, considered Mr. Schwartz an innovator who made a “surgical strike into the national psyche...”


 

Re: Father Corapi - SOLT independent fact-finding team must have missed this stuff…

From Ex-Couchthedra:
"N.B.: I am relying on entirely public sources and internet sleuthing, the links to which I have been assiduously keeping and the really relevant ones appear below. I am unconnected with either party in any way.

I did some googling around, ran across some curious factoids (which haven’t made it to any of the mainstream Catholic sources):............"

h/t to Bishop Rene Henry Gracida

Bring Me To Life - Evanescence

Friday, July 15, 2011

Atheists unbless Texas

Godless group sues Rick Perry over prayer day event

By Emily Miller

(Washington Times) Atheists don’t want Texas Gov. Rick Perry to have a prayer day this summer. On Wednesday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asked a federal judge to block “The Response,” an event where Christians would gather in Houston to turn to God for direction and unity for an aggrieved nation.

The anti-God brigade insists this is a First Amendment violation, and it will also seek a restraining order to bar Mr. Perry’s participation.

FFRF president Annie Laurie Gaylor says the suit is warranted because Mr. Perry does not see a distinction between his personal beliefs and his duty and obligations as the state’s chief executive. “He has taken an oath of office to uphold a completely secular and godless Constitution where there is no religion in it - much less Jesus, much less days of prayer and fasting,” she told The Washington Times in an interview. “It’s way over the top...”


It Ain't You - Squirrel Nut Zippers

Lasagna - Weird Al Yankovic


h/t Suzanne

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Government proposal to break the seal of confession is without precedent

From David Quinn at the Irish Catholic:

The Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children are all indicating that a proposed new law will require priests to break the seal of confession if someone confesses to them the crime of paedophilia.

This would make us the one and only country in the Western world to have such a law. Even Revolutionary France in the days of its worst violence against the Church did not pass a law requiring the breaking of the seal of confession.

The justification for the law is that the crime of paedophilia is so heinous that no one who hears about it, under whatever circumstances, can be allowed to keep it to themselves.

But our Government is clearing missing something that every other Government can see, which is that at a minimum such a law is very unlikely to lead to a single conviction and at a maximum will be counter-productive and will make society less safe, rather than more safe.

It could equally be argued that a priest who hears a confession of murder must report it to the police. But if the murderer knew that priests were under such a legal requirement, the murderer would not make such a confession unless he was going to the police anyway.

On the other hand, a murderer who wishes to confess a crime to a priest, under the absolute seal of the confessional, is on the road to repentance and attending confession gives a priest the chance to encourage the murderer to turn himself over to the authorities or at the very least to cease his criminal activities.

The logic is the same with child abusers. No child abuser will go to a priest in confession knowing the priest is required to inform the police. But cutting off the avenue of confession to a child abuser makes it less likely that he will talk to someone who can persuade him to take the next step.

Various relationships in society are considered privileged and confidential. One is between a person and his or her confessor. Another is between a doctor and patient, and another is between a lawyer and client.

In creating a legal requirement that priests break the seal of confession under certain circumstances, the Irish State is going down a road very few other states in history have gone down. We need to seriously reconsider this extremely unwise and unprecedented proposal.

It says a lot about the present mood here that it can even be entertained.

Judge: Catholic Charities can keep serving foster kids, for now

Issue hinges on compliance with, interpretation of Illinois civil union law

(Chicago Tribune) SPRINGFIELD — Catholic Charities won the right to keep serving nearly 2,000 foster children in Illinois for at least another month, as a judge refused Tuesday to let the state cut ties with the agency that has balked at placing children with gay and unwed couples.

The temporary decree struck at the heart of one of the most contentious debates since Illinois made civil unions legal.

Despite the state's arguments that no contracts exist because state officials already declined to renew them, Judge John Schmidt ruled in Sangamon County Circuit Court that contracts between the state and Catholic Charities of Joliet, Peoria and Springfield through June 30 would remain intact.

"We're not going to be removing children from homes," Schmidt said. "I can't be any clearer. … We're going back to June 30..."

There’s something about the online world

"There’s something about the online world that causes some people to respond in reactionary fury in their futile quest to bring others around to their own point of view. You won’t have to look very far for some glaring examples among the comments on some purportedly Catholic blogs and websites."

Fr. Gordon MacRae, March 16, 2010.

New papal nuncio coming to US?

(Catholic Culture) "The Vatican will soon announce the appointment of a new apostolic nuncio to the United States, according to the veteran Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli of the Italian daily La Stampa.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who is currently serving as secretary of the Vatican city-state government, will be named the Vatican’s new representative in Washington, Tornielli reports. He would replace Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who has been the apostolic nuncio in the US since 2005..."
h/t to Carol McKinley

Chouteau Clerk Mistaken For Casey Anthony Attacked With Minivan

(News on 6) CHOUTEAU, Oklahoma -- An Oklahoma woman believes outrage over the Florida murder case almost cost her her life. The 26-year-old says a crazed woman tried to kill her because the woman thought she was Casey Anthony.

It happened in Chouteau last Friday night, July 8, 2011, just days after the Casey Anthony verdict.
Sammay Blackwell hopes she never hears this again:

"You look like Casey Anthony, I'm like 'okay,'" she said.

Blackwell doesn't think it's funny after what happened last week.

Blackwell works at a convenience store in Chouteau and said Shireen Nalley came in that night around 10 p.m. and looked strange, very suspicious, then left after buying gas.

"I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her," she said.

Sammay got off work at 10:30 that night and walked out to her car, which was parked on the other side of the building, and got inside.

"Began to back out and looked and I could tell she was staring directly at me; I could almost see the whites of her eyes," she recalled.

"I proceeded to pull out of the parking lot, and she was right behind me," Sammay said.

Blackwell drove a few miles and says Nalley suddenly rammed her van into the back of Blackwell's truck.
"I said, 'Oh my God, help me,'" Blackwell told News On 6.

She then pulled into a parking lot to get away.

"She hit me again, causing my vehicle to flip two and a half times, landing on the driver's side, and I just laid there playing dead," she said.

Blackwell's mother says she'll never forget her daughter's reaction.

"I got to her, she was crying, she was shaking, she says, 'Mama, this lady thinks I'm Casey Anthony and she tried to kill me," her mother said..

John Lennon's Opinion about Over Population



h/t to Marion

Holy Mass “free of time or geography”

"In Patrick O’Brian’s The Fortune of War Capt. Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin are prisoners of war in Boston.

At one point, Stephen goes to Sunday Mass, though he is running a bit late!
He hurried into his clothes, but even so the priest was on the altar by the time they reached the obscure chapel in a side-alley, and crept into the immensely evocative smell of old incense. There followed an interval on a completely different plane of being: with the familiar ancient words around him, always the same, in whatever country he had ever been (though now uttered in a broad Munster Latin), he lived free of time or geography, and he might have walked, a boy, into the streets of Barcelona, blazing white in the sun, or into those of Dublin under the soft rain.
Reason #3 for Summorum Pontificum."

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Eh Cumpari

High drama as monkeys wed in India

Rajesh, a 38-year-old auto rickshaw driver, shares a cigarette with his monkey Raju at Banetha village, in the north-western state of Rajasthan. PHOTO: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters 

(Reuters Life) TALWAS: The tale, set in the forests of northwestern India, had all the ingredients of a perfect Bollywood love story: emotion, celebration, star-crossed lovers and a nail-biting climax.

The only difference was that the lovers were monkeys, taking part in India’s first simian wedding – with the whole unfolding drama a classic clash between age-old village belief and the demands of modern life skeptical of that way of thought.

Hindu belief includes worship of animals as avatars of the gods. Monkeys have an especially significant role in Hindu mythology where they are worshipped as avatars of Hanuman, the mighty ape that aided Rama in his fight against evil.

So when plans for the wedding of “Raju” and “Chinki” were laid in the small village of Talwas, deep in the forests of Rajasthan, villagers responded with excitement.

Raju, the “groom,” was famous in Banetha village, about 55 km from Talwas, attracting crowds whenever he went outside. He was known for eating, sleeping and smoking cigarettes with his owner, Ramesh Saini, who treated him like a son.

“I want to enjoy the feelings of a son’s marriage through Raju’s wedding,” said Rajesh, a 38-year-old married but childless auto rickshaw driver who nursed Raju back to health after finding him unconscious three years ago.
So he was overjoyed two months ago when he met Chinki’s caretaker, a priest in a nearby village, who proposed that the two monkeys be married.

“We will welcome the bride in our house in Banetha after the wedding with all rituals,” said an excited Ramesh while offering tea to Raju at a roadside tea shop.

Hundreds of invitation cards were sent out to nearby villages for the wedding, planned according to traditional Hindu customs that include seven rounds of the sacred fire as the wedding vows are recited by a priest. A huge pre-wedding feast was planned, along with a procession with Raju on a horse.

But no good love story is complete without a little hiccup.

As news of the marriage spread, the state forest department officials stepped into action. Since monkeys are protected in India as government property, no one can pet them, train them or – as in this case – marry them, even to a fellow monkey.

“It’s illegal to marry a monkey. Anyone found doing that or attending the marriage ceremony will be arrested,” said forest range officer Bhavar Singh Kaviya.

Tensions rose in both villages after officials issued their final warning. The monkeys and their owners went into hiding.

On the day of the planned wedding, more than 200 guards poured into Talwas, where they confronted hundreds of people from nearby villages who had arrived to see the rare spectacle.

“I have come all the way just to watch god’s marriage and now the police are telling me to go back and stay away from the temple,” said Prem Jain, an angry 72-year-old villager, after arguing with a policeman.
“They told me the monkeys have been captured. They can’t capture god!”

But then came the news – the monkey couple had been secretly married off in a ceremony somewhere deep in the forest. The villagers erupted in joy and began celebrating.

The officials couldn’t resist congratulating Chinki and posed for pictures with her.

Both monkeys were captured and officials said they hoped to release them soon in nearby forests, but Ramesh was confident of their eventual return. “I know my son Raju, with his wife Chinki, will come back home,” said an emotional Ramesh. “I will hold a big reception for them!”

Male Brains Aren't Designed To Listen to Female Voices


From :

If you've ever spent time telling a guy a story or asking him a question, only to get a blank stare in response, then you know that there's definitely truth to this claim that guys weren't designed to hear us speak. I had a similar experience at brunch this weekend when I was going on and on to a male friend about something I can't even remember anymore. When I got to the end of my rant and finally asked him if he agreed with me on the topic at hand, his answer was, "sorry, I really wasn't listening to a word you said."

Even though I was incredibly frustrated with him, he did bring up a good point, asking, "would you rather I lie and say I heard you?" This little exchange, as insignificant as it was, did make me wonder exactly what it is that makes it so easy for men to tune us out.

As it turns out, a study published in the journal NeuroImage sought to answer the very same question. Researchers found that there are major differences in the way male and female brains process voice sounds. Different brain regions are activated in men, depending on whether they're hearing a male or female voice.

Apparently, the vibration and number of sound waves in our voice makes it harder for men to decipher what we're saying. When it comes to processing a woman's voice, they use the more complex auditory part of the brain that processes music, not human voices. But the guys in the study could easily hear and understand other men’s voices as speech because that uses a simpler brain mechanism at the back of the brain.

So, next time you want to get angry and yell at a guy for "not listening," cut him a little slack – his brain just wasn't made to hear you. My suggestion would be to speak slowly and get to your point fast.