Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Bill Donohue vs. Michael Voris

From Bill Donohue at the Catholic League followed by Michael Voris' response:

Bill Donohue addresses recent attacks on Cardinal Donald Wuerl:

The crazies on the Catholic right have set their sights on Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington. Why? Because he is close to Pope Francis, and they hate the pope. The attacks are coming from The Church Militant, a loose gang of angry right-wingers who specialize in character assassination, and American Spectator hater George Neumayr.

Three recent hit pieces by Church Militant author Christine Niles set the agenda. She says “today’s archbishop of Washington owns a penthouse in a complex valued at $43 million.” That is a lie. He owns not a centimeter of his third-floor “penthouse,” an apartment that sits atop Our Lady Queen of the Americas parish. Like bishops all over the world, he resides in a spot that was specifically designed for the local Ordinary. There is nothing scandalous about this Church patrimony.

Church Militant head Michael Voris says his unidentified sources claim that when Wuerl was the Bishop of Pittsburgh his gay-friendly approach earned him the nickname “Donna the Girl.” I taught at a Pittsburgh Catholic college during Wuerl’s years and never once did I hear anyone tag him as such. Voris also says that Wuerl stole a “Catechism work composed by Fr. John Hardon by simply putting his name to it.” That’s another lie. I guess Wuerl was channeling Hardon when he gave his TV series of lectures on the subject.

Neumayr is so far gone that he accuses Wuerl of being a Communist because someone spotted a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book in his office in the 1970s. That would make me Chairman of the Politburo: I have a copy of Das Kapital in my office right now.

These crazies are mad at Wuerl because he doesn’t believe in using the Eucharist as a weapon to smack liberal Catholic politicians. Wuerl has said that the refusal of Holy Communion “should be made only after clear efforts to persuade and convince the person that their actions are wrong and bear moral consequences.” Exactly. Wuerl is a great gift to the Catholic Church. These critics are as ignorant as they are malicious.

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And from ChurchMilitant.com:

The Empire Strikes Back

Say the truth about the evil in the Church and wait for the fireworks.



There's a saying that goes: "If you start getting flak for what you are saying, know that your bombs have hit their target."

Such is the case with a couple of stories that ChurchMilitant.com released a few days back about establishment kingpin Washington, D.C. Cardinal-Archbishop Donald Wuerl. His Eminence has moved to the front of the quiet assault against orthodox Catholicism in the United States and is joined by various allies both in the clergy and certain Catholic media circles in that assault.
To show the behind-the-scenes influence Cdl. Wuerl exhibits, shortly after our reports ran, Catholic-Establishment attack dog Bill Donohue of the self-described Catholic League came out calling us here at ChurchMilitant.com "right-wing nut jobs" (nice Catholic language, by the way, Catholic League man).

He took umbrage at our reports, enough to actually issue a press release where he accused us of "attacking" (by the way, it's called reporting) Cdl. Wuerl because he is a friend of the Pope, and (he claims) we "hate the Pope."

What a stupid charge revealing the stupidity and lack of research on the part of whoever wrote it. ChurchMilitant.com is the one faithful Catholic organization that has been pilloried by other Catholic organizations for not calling the Pope a heretic, possessed, evil and every other name under the sun. We have, in fact, done the exact opposite of what Donohue portrays. We have been the voice of reason in the Catholic media saying that the Holy Father must be given every benefit of a doubt, and if something needs to be addressed, it needs to be in the most charitable, respectful terms possible.

But Donohue, in his excitement to be seen as Supreme Guardian of the Establishment and always being the attack dog so he can continue to curry favor and rub elbows, totally disregards facts and just bullies whomever he wants. Cardinal Wuerl has a disgraceful record as cardinal archbishop, and it needs to be talked about, regardless of what Bill Donohue deems worthy of reporting. Who set up Bill Donohue as overlord of what is newsworthy and what is not?

Donohue, you will recall, was out front and center defending Cdl. Timothy Dolan's pitiful example of cheering active homosexuals who work for NBC to be permitted to march openly in the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade. True to form, when Catholics outside the well-cocooned establishment saw this as a bad move, Donohue went on the attack, even calling us and others names and hurling insults around at anyone who would even dare to think that a cardinal could err. He even came out and personally supported the move, throwing the weight of his one-man operation Catholic League behind the gay propaganda offensive.

He had to; Dolan had supported and cheered it, so the very non-independent Donohue had to get in lock step and do the same. His official excuse: He had been promised that since sodomites could openly march in the parade, then so could pro-life groups. Riiiiight. Sure they could!

Then suddenly, in a move that anyone with a quarter-brian could see coming, the pro-sodomite parade committee changed their minds and said no to pro-life groups. That sent Donohue into a frenzied tizzy as he voiced his opposition to such a double-dealing, back-stabbing action on the part of the parade committee.

Well, Bill, what do you expect? You and your establishment wine-and-cheese crowd have always misjudged the depth of the evil. You sleep with dogs and you're gonna' get fleas. Or more precisely, play with the devil and you're gonna get burned. That Donohue could have so badly misjudged, so pathetically thought that this crowd could be appealed to for fairness disqualifies him from any further consideration by serious Catholics. What a colossal lapse in judgment.

And the proof is even further demonstrated at the immaturity and lack of clear thinking on the part of Donohue and the other establishment crowd when we now see that the St. Patrick's Parade committee — the very ones that Donohue had initially applauded — now want to remove St. Patrick himself from the parade and remove the existing requirement that Catholics be on the committee.

In a couple of years, the former St Patrick's Day parade up 5th Avenue will be nothing more than a polyglot of sexual deviants and a celebration of multicultural, pluralistic-society idiocy — and it would have been accomplished because men like Cdl. Dolan and most especially Bill Donohue co-operated with the first stage because their own pride and hubris got in the way and they did not sufficiently stand up for Our Blessed Lord.

And why? Because they were having too much fun and spending too much time making sport of serious Catholics who saw the hand-writing on the wall and who were put off by the scandal of a prince of the Church leading a parade with active, proud sodomites all under the banner of the very saint who helped bring about an end to homosexuality in Ireland.

So you will excuse us and everyone else if we simply dismiss Bill Donohue and wish him a good retirement. He has proven that his allegiance is with the establishment, right or wrong. He has conflated in his mind that an individual cardinal or bishop equals the Church. They do not. As St. John Chrysostom so aptly warned, the floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of such.
We need to pray for the bishops as we are constantly stating and re-inforcing here at ChurchMilitant.com. We need to uplift and praise the faithful ones who are bold in declaring the truths of the Church. But the sorry, conniving, double-dealing ones with their own agenda of changing the Church need to be exposed because they are wicked.

Donald Wuerl has consistently said that canon law 915 needs to be ignored because it does not apply to pro-abortion Catholic politicians. It does, and he is wrong.

He was one of the major agitators in Rome at the Synod for sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion by adulterers.

He is the point man on tarring any Catholic who disagrees with him and his "New Church" garbage as an enemy of the Pope, a line of thought picked up and run with by Donahue with regard to us.
He plays his connections with the liberal media to smear other good cardinals who oppose him, such as he did in the case of The Tablet's "story" that Cdl. Burke lives in palatial surroundings in Rome. So does Cardinal Wuerl In Washington, D.C. What's good for the goose is good for gander.

Sources through the North American College in Rome have told us that Wuerl is constantly bad-mouthing Cardinal Burke and pillories him every chance he gets.

When bishop of Pittsburgh, in addition to living in luxurious accommodations, Wuerl had extremely friendly relations with the homosexual crowd in the Church and various sources say those connections also exist in Rome.

For Bill Donohue to go on the attack to defend this prelate reveals an awful lot. Why didn't he go on the attack against The Tablet for their insinuation that Burke lives in luxury? Because he knows that the establishment doesn't like Burke, so he felt no need to defend him. But when the darling of the "New Church" crowd, the wine-tasters and party-throwers and friends of the political crowd and the antique collectors get rightfully pointed out as hypocrites, his misguided fury knows no bounds.
In case you missed the memo, Mr. Donahue, things have changed. There are simply too many Catholics in the rank and file, we peasant Catholics, who will no longer keep quiet about your business-as-usual, status-quo approach to the Church. Holy Mother Church is in crisis, and you and your cronies — including various prelates — have helped to bring it about.  Bluster all you want, but none of us is going away.

You can stop the class warfare in the Church, Bill. We aren't the ones living in multi-million dollar houses and jetting around the world on the nickles of widows who throw their money in the plate each week.

Pray that Mr. Donahue comes around to his senses.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

What Did The Pope Really Say… about Lutherans and Communion?

From Father Z:
"There is the tone with which he speaks and there are the words with which he speaks.  We are left to untangle the knot.

That said, for this issue the Pope made a clear statement:

I wouldn’t ever dare to allow this, because it’s not my competence.”

Before anyone gets out onto the ledge outside the window, read that again and repeat it to yourself.  The Pope is not saying that Lutherans can go to Communion... "

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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Pick-Me-Up Music Post



By Ann Barnhardt

As has been discussed here for years, the best secular, non-liturgical music is that which can be heard as either God singing to man, or man singing to God.

Just reiterating – this is music for OUTSIDE the liturgy – OUTSIDE the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office.

Here’s one!  A really good one, too!

“To Make You Feel My Love”, originally penned by Bob Dylan, but covered to great effect by my so-not-favorite country singer, in fact, the man who ATE country music… Garth Brooks.  Yeah.  I know.

Anyway, if you read the lyrics as God singing to mankind, and disregard the whole Garth Brooks qua Garth Brooks thing, it will make you cry.  I have added a couple of suggestive motifs below, in red brackets.

When the rain’s blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case [worldly and demonic persecution]
I would offer you a warm embrace [Confession and Eucharist]
To make you feel My Love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear [demons]
And there is no one to dry your tears [because sweetie, there probably ain’t gonna be]
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel My Love

I know you haven’t made your mind up yet [Because you have free will]
But I would never do you wrong [The Law]
I’ve known it from the moment that we met [When I created you and sewed you together in your mother’s womb]
There’s no doubt in My Mind where you belong [With Me, in heaven, forever]

I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue [the Scourging at the Pillar]
I’d go crawling down the avenue [The Way of the Cross to Calvary]
There ain’t nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel My Love

The storms are raging a rollin’ sea
Down on the highway of regret [Sin]
The winds of change are blowing wild and free [Heretics]
But you ain’t seen nothing like Me yet [Come, Eternal and Unchanging Lord Jesus]

There ain’t nothing that I wouldn’t do [Humiliation, torture, execution, withstand sacrilege]
Go to the ends of the earth for you [Incarnation leading to Calvary, and then the Eucharist, the Real Presence in the Eucharist all over the earth in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass]

Make you happy, make your dreams come true [We can’t even begin to imagine…]
To make you feel My…….. Love [I’m in.  You had me at “Hello.”]

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Chicago Catholic sister wins Food Network’s ‘Chopped’


(WGN) CHICAGO — A Chicago nun’s culinary skills made her a big winner Monday on the Food Network.

Sister Alicia Torres was one of four chefs competing in Monday’s episode of “Chopped.” Torres won the competition.

Torres usually uses her cooking abilities to help feed hundreds of needy West Side families every month.

On “Chopped,” she and her fellow contestants competed for $10,000 to be given to their charity.

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Monday, November 9, 2015

What have we come to?


By Fr. Ray Blake

What have we come to? I had a letter recently from a parishioner telling me he had fallen in love with another man and therefore wasn't going to be coming to Mass anymore!


The Gospel yesterday in the Old Rite was the wheat harvest sown with zizzania (translated as cockle), the owner tells the servants that rather than weeding out the weeds, to leave them until harvest time, 'lest the wheat also is lost'. The Second Vatican Council spoke about a 'universal call to holiness', what we seem to have difficulty with is coping with the fact that not everyone wants 'holiness', or at least wants to delay it until the last moment, or simply feels they are incapable of it.. (continued)


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Thursday, November 5, 2015

Elton John says he would like to meet his ‘hero’ Pope Francis


(Catholic Herald) Elton John has said he would like to meet Pope Francis, who he has previously described as a “hero”.

On BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme the musician said he considered Pope Francis an “ally” against conservative bishops in Africa in his views on same-sex relationships.

“My sly bet is yes he is. He’s just had the [synod] in Rome and I think he’s fighting an uphill battle against the African cardinals and bishops.”

Elton John said his message to the Pope was: “Keep going, keep pushing it. Change is very hard, especially in the Catholic Church, you don’t get things done immediately, you’re not going to persuade people, just keep going and keep going and eventually the wall will fall. I think he’s on our side.”

The singer, who is in a same-sex marriage, added: “I would love to meet him. I’m not a Catholic but from the first day he was elected he tried to bring a new message and change the Church and bring it into the 21st century. To be a inclusive Church. He has brought hope and change.”

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Monday, November 2, 2015

Polish Football Fans Unfurl 50-Foot ‘Stand And Defend Christianity’ Banner At Premier League Match


by Raheem Kassam and Oliver Lane

Polish football (soccer) fans unveiled an enormous anti mass migration banner at Sunday’s Silesian WrocÅ‚aw match against PoznaÅ„. Images from the match last night show a giant crusader defending Europe from invading jihadists in boats labelled USS Hussein, USS Bin Laden and USS ISIS.

(Breitbart) Just a week after Poland voted to kick out every left-wing member of it’s national parliament, ordinary Poles have again shown the spirit which led them to elect the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party, with football fans unveiling an over-sized anti-migration banner at Sunday’s match.

The hand-painted sheet, which is estimated to have been at least 50 feet tall and 75 feet wide depicts boatloads of migrants preparing to land on the southern shore of Europe. Many of the boat’s crews make the one fingered ‘ISIS salute’.

Defending Europe while clutching a sword and a shield showing the crest of the Silesian WrocÅ‚aw football club, a St. George’s cross-wearing crusader stands ready to fight the migrants, below writing which reads “While Europe Is Flooded With An Islamic Plague”.

Underneath, another 100 foot wide banner hangs from the stalls behind the goal and reads, in a traditional Polish script: “Let Us Stand In Defence Of Christianity”.

WrocÅ‚aw football club has one of the largest supporter bases in Poland, and the most politically active. Banners with strong anti-Communist messages are commonly seen at their games – and the fans like to get involved.

As well as football scarves which split space between the crests of the team, Poland, and anti-Islam symbols, banners seen at past matches have also condoned violence towards supporters of left-wing political views.

Wrocław maintains a strong friendship with Legia Warsaw, another politically active football team.

Legia has been fined on a number of occasions by football governing body UEFA over supposed racism at matches, and has displayed banners mocking Islamic jihad.

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Vatican leaks: Two arrested in new scandal


(BBC) The Vatican says it has arrested two people, a high-ranking priest and a former employee, on suspicion of leaking confidential documents.

They were members of a commission set up by Pope Francis to help reform Church finances.

Officials believe they passed records of its discussions to journalists investigating Vatican corruption.

The documents form the basis of two new books on the controversial state of the Vatican's finances.

One of the journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi, was involved in a previous leaks scandal at the Vatican, when Paolo Gabriele, butler to Pope Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI, was found guilty of stealing and copying documents from the Pope's desk.

Gabriele was given a jail sentence but pardoned by Pope Benedict.

The Vatican has called the latest incident a "serious betrayal of trust".

Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a 54-year-old priest, and Francesca Chaouqui, 33, were both arrested by the Vatican gendarmerie at the weekend.

New troubles for Vatican, by James Reynolds, BBC Rome correspondent

The Vatican has a recurring problem with secrets and leaks.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI's butler leaked documents which depicted infighting at the highest levels of the Church.

Some believe that this contributed to Benedict's decision to step down the following year.

Pope Francis promised a new kind of administration. Four months after his election, he created a commission designed to end mismanagement within the Curia, the bureaucracy of the Church in the Vatican.

By ordering a clean-up, the Pope inadvertently created material for a new round of leaks.

The Vatican now accuses two commission members of passing records of its discussions onto journalists.

Despite his best intentions, Pope Francis now faces the publication of details embarrassing to the church he leads.

His 88-year-old predecessor, retired to a converted Vatican convent, will sympathise.

Ms Chaouqui was released on Monday after she agreed to co-operate with investigators.

But Monsignor Vallejo Balda, a senior member of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, is still being held in a prison cell.

The two books, due to be published this week, are expected to reveal allegations of financial mismanagement as well as the extent of resistance to Pope Francis's attempts to reform the Vatican.

Renowned L'Espresso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi has entitled his book Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis's Church.

Meanwhile, Gianluigi Nuzzi's publisher, Chiarelettere, has said his book includes details of private meetings between high Vatican officials and the Pope.

According to the publisher, "you can hear Pope Francis, elected only three months before, as he strongly attacks the nomenklatura that for years managed the finances of the Holy See, denouncing: 'The costs are out of control, there are traps here'."

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