Pope Francis and President Obama

 

Link:

• Caption Contest: Pope "Outs" Obama?

Pope Francis Reverses Position On Capitalism After Seeing Wide Variety Of American Oreos

(The Onion) WASHINGTON—Admitting the startling discovery had compelled him to reexamine his long-held beliefs, His Holiness Pope Francis announced Tuesday that he had reversed his critical stance toward capitalism after seeing the immense variety of Oreos available in the United States. “Oh, my goodness, look at all these! Golden Oreos, Cookie Dough Oreos, Mega Stuf Oreos, Birthday Cake Oreos—perhaps the system of free enterprise is not as terrible as I once feared,” said the visibly awed bishop of Rome while visiting a Washington, D.C. supermarket, adding that the sheer diversity of flavors, various colors and quantities of creme filling, and presence or absence of an outer fudge layer had led to a profound philosophical shift in his feelings toward the global economy and opened his eyes to the remarkable capabilities of the free market. “Only a truly exceptional and powerful economic system would be capable of producing so many limited-edition and holiday-themed flavors of a single cookie brand, such as these extraordinary Key Lime Pie Oreos and Candy Corn Oreos. This is not a force of global impoverishment at all, but one of endless enrichment.” At press time, the pontiff had reportedly withdrawn his acceptance of capitalism, calling any system that would unleash a Roadhouse Chili Monster Slim Jim on the public “an unholy abomination.”

Link:

• Pope Francis Reverses Position On Capitalism After Seeing Wide Variety Of American Oreos

GEORGE WILL: BIGOT WITH A BRAIN

(Catholic League) Bill Donohue comments on an article in yesterday’s Washington Post by columnist George Will; it is syndicated in other papers today:

“He [the pope] stands against modernity, rationality, science and, ultimately…open societies.” This is the kind of anti-Catholic trope that uneducated bigots have been trotting out for about a century. Now it is being advanced by George Will, an atheist whose latest cause is assisted suicide. He is an educated man, but his grasp of Catholicism is on a par with that of Bill Maher’s.

In my latest book, The Catholic Advantage: How Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful, I took Will to task for showcasing his ignorance of my religion when, in the 1980s, he misinterpreted what Cardinal John O’Connor meant when he said Catholicism is a “theology of suffering.” New York City Mayor Ed Koch got it, but it was over Will’s head.

Not surprisingly, Will doesn’t like Pope Francis. The Holy Father, he opines, is known for emitting “clouds of sanctimony.” He speaks with authority: pomposity, which is a close cousin to sanctimony, is his signature style. More important is his twisting of the pope’s position on materialism to mean that he is anti-electricity.

Will is a wordsmith, so he ought to know the difference between consumerism and “compulsive consumerism.” The latter is indeed a sin (a concept that is admittedly hard for atheists to understand). Why? Because it suggests extravagance, the kind of materialistic indulgence that no Christian can condone.

If it weren’t for Catholicism, there would be no Age of Science, so it is mind-boggling that Will would suggest otherwise. More recently, as Pope Benedict XVI has said, when faith and reason are severed, serious problems emerge. Will gets the latter but not the former. Neither did the 20th century’s totalitarians.

Contact: georgewill@washpost.com

Link:

• GEORGE WILL: BIGOT WITH A BRAIN

Mecca crane collapse `act of God`: Engineer

(Z News) Mecca: The collapse of a construction crane that killed 107 people at Mecca`s Grand Mosque was "an act of God" and not due to a technical fault, an engineer for the developer said Saturday.

The massive red and white crane, which crashed into the court of the mosque during a rainstorm and high winds Friday, also injured around 200 people.

The engineer for Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out a massive expansion of the mosque, told AFP the crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.

"It was not a technical issue at all," said the engineer, who asked not to be identified.
"I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all..."

Saudi Binladin Group belongs to the family of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Link:

• Mecca crane collapse `act of God`: Engineer

Pope Francis Reforms Roman Catholic Marriage Annulment Procedures

(Reuters) VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has reformed the Roman Catholic Church's cumbersome procedures for marriage annulments, a decision keenly awaited by many couples around the world who have divorced and remarried outside the church.

The Vatican said Monday that the pope had written a document known as a Motu Proprio, Latin for "by his own initiative," which changes the way Catholics get annulments.

The details of the document, which is expected to streamline and simplify the procedure, will be released Tuesday at a Vatican news conference.

An annulment, formally known as a "decree of nullity," is a ruling that a marriage was not valid according to church law because certain prerequisites, such as free will, psychological maturity and openness to having children, were lacking.

The 1.2 billion-member church does not recognize divorce. Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the church in civil services are considered to be still married to their first spouses and living in a state of sin. This bars them from receiving sacraments such as communion.

The new procedures follow the pope's appointment a year ago of an 11-member commission of lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process. The Vatican said at the time that he wanted to "simplify and streamline" the procedure while "safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage."

The situation of divorced and remarried Catholics who want to fully participate in the church is a topic of great debate, particularly in countries such as the U.S. and Germany, and it will be a main topic at a synod of bishops from around the world at the Vatican next month.

Making it easier for divorced couples to receive annulments would allow them to return to the sacraments.

Progressive bishops want the church to be more merciful toward Catholics whose first marriages have failed.

One Vatican expert on marriage annulments said that the new rules would not change the criteria for getting annulments but that they would make the procedures easier.

Link:

• Pope Francis Reforms Roman Catholic Marriage Annulment Procedures

A conservative revolt is brewing inside the Vatican

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, stands by Pope Francis saluting bishops, at the end of weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sept. 2, 2015. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

By Anthony Faiola September 7 at 7:33 PM

 

VATICAN CITY — On a sunny morning earlier this year, a camera crew entered a well-appointed apartment just outside the 9th-century gates of Vatican City. Pristinely dressed in the black robes and scarlet sash of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church, the Wisconsin-born Cardinal Raymond Burke sat in his elaborately upholstered armchair and appeared to issue a warning to Pope Francis.
A staunch conservative and Vatican bureaucrat, Burke had been demoted by the pope a few months earlier, but it did not take the fight out of him. Francis had been backing a more inclusive era, giving space to progressive voices on divorced Catholics as well as gays and lesbians. In front of the camera, Burke said he would “resist” liberal changes — and seemed to caution Francis about the limits of his authority. “One must be very attentive regarding the power of the pope,” Burke told the French news crew.

Papal power, Burke warned, “is not absolute.” He added, “The pope does not have the power to change teaching [or] doctrine.”

Burke’s words belied a growing sense of alarm among strict conservatives, exposing what is fast emerging as a culture war over Francis’s papacy and the powerful hierarchy that governs the Roman Catholic Church.

This month, Francis makes his first trip to the United States at a time when his progressive allies are heralding him as a revolutionary, a man who only last week broadened the power of priests to forgive women who commit what Catholic teachings call the “mortal sin” of abortion during his newly declared “year of mercy” starting in December. On Sunday, he called for “every” Catholic parish in Europe to offer shelter to one refugee family from the thousands of asylum-seekers risking all to escape war-torn Syria and other pockets of conflict and poverty.

Yet as he upends church convention, Francis also is grappling with a conservative backlash to the liberal momentum building inside the church. In more than a dozen interviews, including with seven senior church officials, insiders say the change has left the hierarchy more polarized over the direction of the church than at any point since the great papal reformers of the 1960s.

The conservative rebellion is taking on many guises, in public comments, yes, but also in the rising popularity of conservative Catholic Web sites promoting Francis dissenters; books and promotional materials backed by conservative clerics seeking to counter the liberal trend; and leaks to the news media, aimed at Vatican reformers.

In his recent comments, Burke was also merely stating fact. Despite the vast powers of the pope, church doctrine serves as a kind of constitution. And for liberal reformers, the bruising theological pushback by conservatives is complicating efforts to translate the pope’s transformative style into tangible changes... (continued)

Read More Here

Link:

• A conservative revolt is brewing inside the Vatican

CDF: Medjugorje Parish Priest and "Seers" Not Allowed to Spread Messages Within the Parish of Medjugorje

By Gianluca Barile

Via Google Translation:

"The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with a warning, signed by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, has forbidden the parish priest, Fr. Marinko Sakota, and six alleged seers who claim to see the "Lady" for 34 years, to take evidence or spread "messages" within the parish of Medjugorje. It is a blow dealt to the "Ministry of Propaganda" of Medjugorje, the machine of the communication of the alleged seers, so dubbed because it is able to convey, in near real time, the lyrics of "messages", already translated into several languages in every corner of the world, thanks to social networks and the countless devotional sites. This is, in yet another confirmation, after the ban imposed on some of the alleged visionaries to hold public meetings in Italian Dioceses, which we proceed towards a "black smoke" regarding the recognition of the supposed apparitions..." (continued)

Links:

• Official Medjugorje Report Released: Serious Doubts About Authenticity
• Diario di un Vaticanista
• Vatican bans "seers" from spreading "messages" inside Parish of Medjugorje

Father John Corapi Update

By Matt C. Abbott

(Renew America)  A bit of good news to share: A reliable source has informed me that Father John Corapi, a popular priest among orthodox Catholics who departed public life after a tumultuous period a few years ago, remains in the priesthood and is re-establishing his spiritual life.

There's no indication he'll be returning to public life anytime soon, if ever. However, it's nice to know that Father Corapi can at least be a quiet prayer warrior during this extremely difficult time in the Church and world.

I won't go into the particulars about what transpired in the past – it's water under the bridge – and I'm sure there's information on the Internet (some of it more reliable than other information, obviously) for those who may not be familiar with the situation. Plus, those who really didn't pay attention to him in the first place likely don't care one way or the other about his current status.

The bottom line is that we all are wounded and spiritually/morally fall often (I know I do!). We just have to try our best to keep moving forward in faith in this "valley of tears." A very difficult task, I must say. That doesn't mean condoning moral corruption or remaining silent about it, but we all need God's mercy.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

Link:

• Brief update on Father John Corapi

POPE FRANCIS FOR YEAR OF MERCY GRANTS THAT SSPX PRIESTS CAN VALIDLY ABSOLVE!

From Father Z:

Huge news. This was under embargo till noon, Rome time, which must be honored. [UPDATE: The Bollettino is now available HERE]
 
The Year of Mercy begins 8 December 2015 until 20 November 2016.

It is about to be announced that the Holy Father has sent a letter to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization about the upcoming Extraordinary Year of Mercy...  (continued)

Read More Here

Link:

• POPE FRANCIS FOR YEAR OF MERCY GRANTS THAT SSPX PRIESTS CAN VALIDLY ABSOLVE!

Church Inquiry May Pit Pope Against a Popular Bosnian Shrine

Roman Catholic pilgrims on the hill above the small Bosnian town of Medjugorje, where in 1981 a group of six youths said the Virgin Mary appeared to them. Three say they still see her daily. Credit Ziyah Gafic for The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

(The New York Times) MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia and Herzegovina — At exactly 6:40 p.m. one sultry day this month, the peal of church bells rang though the main square of this town, bringing countless pilgrims instantly to their knees.

The ringing marked the moment, 34 years ago, when a group of six youths say the Virgin Mary appeared to them. Three of them say she has continued to do so, usually at the same time, every day since.

Over that period, the scheduled apparitions have drawn millions of believers to this small town, and a good dose of suspicion from skeptics, including, perhaps, Pope Francis. In what was interpreted as a thinly veiled jab at the claims, he recently joked during a morning homily about “visionaries who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4 o’clock this afternoon...”

Already, since the pope announced in June that a decision was imminent, the numbers of Italians — once the bulk of the pilgrims here — have fallen by half.

“Whatever the verdict turns out to be, this wait is creating a state of uncertainty for the pilgrims, and that affects the season,” said Sante Frigo, an Italian married to a pilgrim guide in Medjugorje.

“From the point of view of the pilgrimage supply chain,” he added, “it’s been a catastrophe.”

Faith aside, for the residents of a town that once barely survived on tobacco plantations and vineyards, the claims of apparitions have been an irrefutable blessing...

Doubters accuse the visionaries of blurring the line between the spiritual and the material by capitalizing on the apparitions through global speaking tours and investments in the local tourism industry.

“You have to bear in mind that the visionaries have built economic interests here,” said one skeptic, Marco Corvaglia, a high school teacher who chronicled what he claims are the visionaries’ conflicts of interest on his blog.

He started his blog, he said, out of concern that millions were being duped by the collective power of suggestion. The Medjugorje apparitions, he and other skeptics believe, are nothing other than an “instrument of mass manipulation...”

On a recent afternoon, one of the three who still claims to see the Virgin daily, Ivan Dragicevic, 50, took to a stage built behind the parish church — with outdoor seating for about 9,000 — to share his experiences with pilgrims braving the heat.

Mr. Dragicevic, who lives in Boston and in Medjugorje, spoke of his conversations with the Virgin, as pilgrims from around the world listened to a simultaneous translation broadcast on various radio frequencies. A group of Frenchwomen took copious notes.

Once he had finished, he quickly left, brusquely declining requests for an interview.

At Magnificat, a guesthouse built three years ago by one of the daily seers, Marija Pavlovic, also 50, graciously greeted pilgrims, offering words of comfort and blessings.

The hotel itself has been a source of controversy. While Ms. Pavlovic describes it as a “center of spirituality,” it is actually a “luxury hotel,” Mr. Corvaglia and other critics say.

Ms. Pavlovic, who divides her time between Italy and here, also declined to be interviewed. “We don’t want to throw fuel on the fire,” she said. “We want to wait until the waters calm down...” (continued)

Read More at the New York Times

Link:

• Church Inquiry May Pit Pope Against a Popular Bosnian Shrine

UPDATE!  Official Medjugorje Report Released: Serious Doubts About Authenticity

Mark Zuckerberg - why are you picking on priests while apologizing to "others"?

By Sarah Palin

Hey Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook - why are you picking on priests while apologizing to "others"?
Friends, have you heard about this? Facebook is forcing members of religious orders to remove their titles – their spiritual and vocational identities like "Monsignor" and "Father" – when using the social media monopoly, while permitting everyone else to use titles like "Father". In fact, Facebook just publicly apologized "to drag queens, drag kings... ," etc. for any confusion regarding THEIR allowance to use whatever names and titles they choose on Facebook, like "Father"! Surely this is just a management oversight, eh? Granted, they're a monopoly, but if enough of us speak up about their intolerance, then let's hope they get the message and allow freedom of religion. If not, there's not much point in any of us hanging in there with Facebook, right? Here's my coverage of the issue in One America News Network: https://youtu.be/TiWdu--ZU6Y



Link:

• Sarah Palin's Facebook Page

The Medjugorje Deception

UPDATE: Official Medjugorje Report Released: Serious Doubts About Authenticity

This Guy Reacting to Chris Christie’s ‘I’ve Used Birth Control’ Comment Is All of Us

by Andrew Husband

(Mediaite) Listening to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talk about his sex life isn’t exactly anything anyone wants to hear right now. Unfortunately, potential voters in a New Hampshire restaurant had to hear all about it on Tuesday morning.

Christie is just one of the many GOP candidates who have made stops in the New England conservative state. While discussing his Catholicism and whether or not religion had a place in politics, the governor addressed the often touchy subject of contraception:

“I’m a Catholic, but I’ve used birth control, and not just the rhythm method, okay?”

That’s when a man seated in front of Christie, wearing a white shirt and a red tie, dropped his head in his hands in the hopes of disguising his smirk. We don’t know his name or who he is, but he just became our nation’s everyman:


The New Jersey governor continued, arguing his “church has a teaching against birth control,” but his use of contraceptives doesn’t make him “an awful Catholic.”

Link:

• This Guy Reacting to Chris Christie’s ‘I’ve Used Birth Control’ Comment Is All of Us

German Protestants apologise for Reformation iconoclasm

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

(The Tablet) The German Protestant Church (EKD) has apologised for the widespread destruction of religious images during the Reformation.

“The Protestant Church rejects the destruction of images. Images have long since become an expression of Protestant piety,” Protestant Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber underlined at a meeting of delegations from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the EKD. The clerics met in Hamburg to discuss the word “image” from the Orthodox and Protestant points of view. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and EKD chairman Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm sent greetings and blessings to the Hamburg meeting.

Destroying image was most common in the immediate aftermath of the Reformation. In the first half of the sixteenth century, statues of the Virgin and the saints, stained-glass windows, organs and any objects associated with miracles and the supernatural were removed from Catholic churches and wayside chapels and in many cases destroyed. Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and southern Germany suffered particularly... (continued)

Read More Here

Link:

• German Protestants apologise for Reformation iconoclasm

Scott Walker backtracks on reaction to gay Boy Scout leaders

By Adam B. Lerner

(Politico) Scott Walker stumbled over his own prior comments Wednesday, saying that when he called on the Boy Scouts to reinstate a ban on gay leaders because it “protected children,” he meant the ban protected them from media scrutiny.

“The protection was not a physical protection,” Walker said Wednesday at an event in South Carolina, according to The New York Times. Rather, the Wisconsin governor continued, he was referring to “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which is about camping and citizenship and things of that nature.”

The Wisconsin Republican added that, ultimately, whether or not to reinstate the ban is “up to the Boy Scouts.”

The comments came after the Independent Journal Review, in a report Tuesday, quoted Walker as saying he supported the Boy Scouts’ previous membership policy “because it protected children and advanced Scout values...” (continued)

Link:

• Scott Walker backtracks on reaction to gay Boy Scout leaders

Medjugorje Restrictions Confirmed by Alleged Visionary Marija Pavlovic

UPDATE from Silvia Bergamin at Mattino Padova (Google translation):

CITTADELLA. In 600 they expected for the entire afternoon, but the Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic in Cittadella has held only a handful of minutes. "My presence in Cittadella has all hell broke loose," he said the woman, "The curia of Padova has warned the organizers to let me pray with you. I decided to meet you anyway. I'm not a visionary, I am a quiet person. I will not disobey the Church, but I think that prayer does not hurt. My journey continues, I come to Medjugorje. I can not pray with you, I can not bear my testimony, but no one can stop me from praying in my heart. "
 
The words of Marija have raised more than a little disappointment among the hundreds of faithful gathered in Villa Rina to live a moment of reflection and prayer. "It's a shame," the general comment, "Why do Muslims have the right to pray at the Citadel, while Christians not?". The diocese said in a letter the reasons for no: "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith points out that, pending further provisions by the Holy See, the Christian communities - bishops, priests and faithful - are required to observe the already established by the bishops of the former Yugoslavia in the Zadar Declaration of April 10, 1991: "On the basis of investigation up till now it is not possible to say whether it's supernatural apparitions or revelations". It is therefore not allowed to the clergy and faithful of the diocese to participate in any meetings, conferences or public celebrations in which would be taken for granted as to their credibility... " (continued) 

Original post:

From Guarda Con Me:

As announced, this afternoon held a meeting in Cittadella, province of Padua, with the participation of Marija Pavlovic, visionary of Medjugorje.

Organized by her friend and nurse with the support of local authorities, the intention was to offer a moment of prayer and meditation for all the loyal guests of the council chamber, made available by the town Padua.

The visionary occurred appointment but did not offer its usual testimony, pointing out instead that "I just came to say goodbye, because I had promised my friend.  I received a letter in which I was asked not to attend public meetings".

At this point, considering the information coming from Medjugorje from people you trust, we have to admit that the recent rumors regarding restrictions on the visionaries of the country of Herzegovina, are reliable:  the visionaries no longer have to appear publicly, nor to testify, nor let alone for the appearances, remaining "confined" to their homes...  (continued)

Read More Here

Links:

• Marija a Cittadella solo per salutare a conferma delle restrizioni
• Preghiere vietate alla veggente Marija 

Related:

• Vatican Remains Mum on Medjugorje: No Decision Has Been Made
• Medjugorje: Vatican Rejects the Apparitions
• Pope Francis Indicates That Seers of Medjugorje Have Psychological Problems
• Medjugorje Decision Will Take ‘Months’, says Vatican Spokesman
• Vatican Cancels Another Medjugorje Event
• Pope Dismisses 'Visions' as Medjugorje Decision Nears
• Pope Francis: Don’t live your lives according to what seers tell you
• Medjugorje Ruling - "We are about to make decisions" says Pope Francis
• Days after Medjugorje comment, Pope downplays predictable visions
• Medjugorje "visionary" Vicka flinches while in "ecstasy" (video)
• Pope Francis: "Our Lady... is not a postmaster, sending messages every day" 
• Medjugorje Warning From Archbishop Carlson
• Father George Rutler: Medjugorje cult "has become an industry from which many have made a lot of money"
• Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

Pope gives hammer and sickle crucifix to Mary

From Andrea Tornielli:

“Mother of the Saviour and our Mother,” Francis prayed, “You, Queen of Bolivia, who from the height of your Shrine in Copacabana attend to the prayers and needs of your children, especially the most poor and abandoned, and protect them: Receive as a gift from the heart of Bolivia and my filial affection the symbols of affection and closeness that – in the name of the Bolivian people – Mr. President Evo Morales Ayma has bestowed on me with cordial and generous affection, on the occasion of this Apostolic Journey, which I entrusted to your solicitous intercession...”

Link:

• Pope leaves decorative honours with the hammer and anvil in Bolivia

Oklahoma Governor: 10 Commandments Here to Stay

By Christine Niles @ Church Militant:

In a remarkable and rare move, a state governor is defying the order of its highest court. Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma is resisting last week's state Supreme Court ruling holding the Ten Commandments monument an unconstitutional violation of separation of Church and State, and Fallin claims the monument is here to stay — at least for now...

The governor says outright that "the court got it wrong." In a statement Tuesday, Fallin said:

The Ten Commandments monument was built to recognize and honor the historical significance of the Commandments in our state's and nation's systems of laws. The monument was built and maintained with private dollars. It is virtually identical to a monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol which the United States Supreme Court ruled to be permissible.  It is a privately funded tribute to historical events, not a taxpayer funded endorsement of any religion, as some have alleged.

Nevertheless, last week the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Oklahoma's Ten Commandments monument was impermissible. Their decision was deeply disturbing to many in our Legislature, many in the general public, and to me.

Oklahoma is a state where we respect the rule of law, and we will not ignore the state courts or their decisions. However, we are also a state with three co-equal branches of government. At this time, Attorney General Scott Pruitt, with my support, has filed a petition requesting a rehearing of the Ten Commandments case. Additionally, our Legislature has signaled its support for pursuing changes to our state Constitution that will make it clear the Ten Commandments monument is legally permissible. If legislative efforts are successful, the people of Oklahoma will get to vote on the issue. 

During this process, which will involve both legal appeals and potential legislative and constitutional changes, the Ten Commandments monument will remain on the Capitol grounds.

Link:

• Okla. Governor: 10 Commandments Here to Stay

Jindal To Slam Republicans Who Want to ‘Silence’ Pro-Life Base at National Right To Life Convention

Presidential contender Bobby Jindal will deliver the keynote address Thursday at the National Right to Life Convention in New Orleans.

By Dr. Susan Berry

(Breitbart) According to a press release containing some of Jindal’s prepared remarks, the Republican governor of Louisiana – which has been named as the most pro-life state in the nation – will blast the Republican Party “smart guys” for failing to adhere to a commitment to pro-life policies, portraying the pro-life base, instead, as a “distraction.”

“The Republican smart guys in Washington see cultural issues such as protecting life as a side issue and a distraction,” Jindal plans to say. “They urge us to minimize discussions of such things that they fear will alienate voters.”

Referring to Republicans of this mind-set as “spineless,” Jindal will assert, “Hear me on this – we will not hide our lamp under a bushel. If the Republican Party cannot make defending the defenseless into a winning issue, they should just close up shop...” (continued)

Read More Here

Link:

• Jindal To Slam Republicans Who Want to ‘Silence’ Pro-Life Base at National Right To Life Convention

Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice

(Medical Press) Using gene therapy, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have restored hearing in mice with a genetic form of deafness. Their work, published online July 8 by the journal Science Translational Medicine, could pave the way for gene therapy in people with hearing loss caused by genetic mutations.

"Our gene therapy protocol is not yet ready for clinical trials—we need to tweak it a bit more—but in the not-too-distant future we think it could be developed for therapeutic use in humans," says Jeffrey Holt, PhD, a scientist in the Department of Otolaryngology and F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children's and an associate professor of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School...

To deliver the healthy gene, the team inserted it into an engineered virus called adeno-associated virus 1, or AAV1, together with a promoter—a genetic sequence that turns the gene on only in certain sensory cells of the inner ear known as hair cells. They then injected the gene-bearing AAV1 into the inner ear, with these findings:

• In the recessive deafness model, gene therapy with TMC1 restored the ability of sensory hair cells to respond to sound—producing a measurable electrical current—and also restored activity in the auditory portion of the brainstem. 
• Most importantly, the deaf mice regained their ability to hear. To test hearing, the researchers placed the mice in a "startle box" and sounded abrupt, loud tones. "Mice with TMC1 mutations will just sit there, but with gene therapy, they jump as high as a normal mouse," says Holt. (The force of their jump was measured by a plate on the floor underneath them; it was detectable at sounds beginning around 80 decibels.)
• In the dominant deafness model, gene therapy with a related gene, TMC2, was successful at the cellular and brain level, and partially successful at restoring actual hearing in the startle test...(continued)

Read More Here

Link:

• Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice

O’Reilly: Trump Right About Border Wall, San Francisco Officials ‘Directly Responsible’ for Steinle Murder

By Jeff Poor

(Breitbart) On Monday’s broadcast of “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly took real estate mogul and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s side in the immigration.

O’Reilly said Trump was correct on two calls – the wall on the southern border he had proposed and who was responsible for the death of Kate Steinle, which was the result of murder by an illegal immigrant that had been deported five times.

“So Trump is correct in saying that only a massive wall will stop the chaos and even then drugs and people will get through although not to the extent they do now,” O’Reilly said.

“Apparently Sanchez has seven felony convictions,” he later added. “[He] has been deported five times. Yet, he’s still walking around the streets of San Francisco, this guy. That’s because Mayor Ed Lee and the 11 members of the San Francisco City Supervisors refuse to cooperate with the federal government on criminal aliens.”

“The feds asked the city of San Francisco to keep Sanchez in custody,” O’Reilly continued. “The city refused. Ms. Steinle paid for that irresponsible and unconstitutional decision with her life. San Francisco is a sanctuary city and proud of it. And violent crimes committed by criminal aliens have happened there before. City authorities refuse to say how many because they know it’s a huge scandal, a black mark on the history of San Francisco, the most tolerant of cities. The family of Kate Steinle asking for calm, not vengeance, but ‘Talking Points’ is not as charitable.”

Link:

• O’Reilly: Trump Right About Border Wall, San Francisco Officials ‘Directly Responsible’ for Steinle Murder

The USA will have its first martyr

From Father Carlos Martins (via Facebook)

"In case you didn’t already know, the USA will have its first martyr. Father Stanley Rother’s death has been accepted by the Theological Panel of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints as a martyrdom, clearing the largest obstacle for his beatification. While normally there is a miracle required for beatification, martyrdom is the ultimate witness and imitation of Jesus Christ. As what the Church calls the “Baptism by Blood”, a martyrdom (death in witness to Christ and because of Him) washes away all sin, even mortal, should the martyr be in such a state at the time of the martrydom.

A diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Fr. Stanley was a hero to the Guatemalan people. When the rebels put him on a death list he fled Guatemala and returned to his native Oklahoma. However, he grew more and more distraught, and felt like he had abandoned his sheep. He returned, knowing that he was probably be shot, like so many others had. That is exactly what happened.

His case now moves on to a panel of cardinals and archbishops, and then on to the Pope. But these are more or less rubber stamps. The tough part of the investigation is now over. In the words of a little bird within the Congregation, “Go ahead and print the holy cards.”

Though 9 years old, there's a great article about his life and death here: http://okgazette.com/2006/07/13/heart-of-a-martyr/#f

From Day by Day with María:

Please join me and the Church in Oklahoma and Guatemala in praying for the canonization of this faithful priest and martyr:

Heavenly Father,
source of all holiness,
in every generation you raise up
men and women heroic in love and service.

You have blessed your Church
with the life of Stanley Rother,
priest, missionary, and martyr.

Through his prayer, his preaching,
his presence, and his pastoral love,
you revealed Your love and Your presence
with us as Shepherd.

If it be your will,
may he be proclaimed
by the universal church
as martyr and saint,
living now in your presence
and interceding for us all.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany

By Melanie Hall, Berlin

(The Telegraph) German soldiers grappled for nine hours with an unusual task: trying to remove a Second World War tank found in the cellar of a villa.

Almost 20 soldiers struggled to remove the tank from a villa on Thursday in a wealthy suburb of Kiel in northern Germany, after police searching the property discovered the tank, a torpedo, an anti-aircraft gun and other weapons in the cellar on Wednesday.

Police raided the home in the town of Heikendorf under instructions from prosecutors, who suspected that the villa's 78-year-old owner held the weaponry illegally under a law controlling the possession of instruments of war.

The army was called in to try to remove the 1943-vintage Panther tank, and struggled for nine hours to tow it out using two modern recovery tanks designed to haul damaged battle tanks off the field.

The soldiers ended up having to build their own wooden ramp in order to free to tank.

Ulrich Burchardi, an army spokesman, described the difficult task of removing the tank without damaging the house as “precision work.”

Prosecutors in Kiel were alerted to the existence of the weapons by the authorities in Berlin, who had previously searched the villa for stolen Nazi art around a month earlier, national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

But Peter Gramsch, lawyer for the villa’s owner, claimed that the tank and the anti-aircraft gun could no longer fire their weapons and were therefore not breaking any law.

He told the newspaper there was even a note from the responsible district office from 2005 stating that the tank had lost its weapons capability.

Mr Gramsch now wants to take legal action against the seizure and also for compensation for his client.

“I assume that the tank was damaged in the process,“ he said... (continued)

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Catholic School Teacher Fired for Same-Sex Marriage Files Federal Lawsuit

(The Cardinal Newman Society) A Catholic school in Macon, Ga., is facing a federal discrimination lawsuit from a former teacher whose employment was terminated in 2014 after the school found that he would be legally marrying his same-sex partner.

“The argument being made in this suit—that a Catholic school’s commitment to upholding Catholic teaching on marriage is discriminatory toward homosexual employees—is a grave threat to Catholic education,” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society.

“A Catholic school exists for the very purpose of teaching the faith and forming young people for God,” he continued. “The implication is that our religion itself, rooted in love and true concern for the good of the person and the common good, is discriminatory because it upholds standards of morality and natural law.”

The teacher, Flint Dollar, taught music at Mount de Sales Academy for three years before his termination on May 21, 2014. The Telegraph reported that Dollar informed the school of his upcoming same-sex marriage when he signed the contract for the 2014-2015 term on May 1, 2014.

According to Breitbart, Dollar argued that “he was fired because of his marriage plans and [because] he didn’t comport with the school’s ‘traditional gender stereotypes.’” An investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reportedly determined “that ‘there is reasonable cause to conclude’ that Dollar had been discriminated against based on his sexual orientation.”

“The suit seeks a jury trial, saying that the school acted with malice or reckless indifference to Dollar’s federally protected rights. Dollar seeks back pay, reinstatement to his job, compensation for his emotional pain and suffering, and attorney’s fees,” reports Breitbart.. (continued)

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SSPX Bp. Fellay: “we are on the eve of important events that we cannot yet define”

From SSPX.org via WDTPRS:

Where is the Society today? What are its strong points and its weak points? What future do you foresee for it?

I see a peaceful future. It is a work that has been entrusted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary; all we have to do is remain faithful to their will. This Church is the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who remains her head and will not allow her to be destroyed.

The Society’s weaknesses? The risk of separation is serious. Look at the caricature of Tradition that calls itself the “Resistance”, for example: it is a non-Catholic spirit that is almost sectarian. We wish to have nothing to do with it; it is a movement that is withdrawn into itself, with people who think that they are the only good and just men on earth: that is not Catholic. It is an objective, but relative danger. Most of the Society is healthy and will not fall into these illusions. This encourages us to rely upon supernatural means. God will show us what He wants of us; He will speak through circumstances.

The strong points? The living fidelity that bears fruit and shows the world today that the Catholic life, even with all its requirements, is possible. But—another weak point—we are men of our times, and it would be a dream to pretend that we are immunized against the influence of the modern world. To be more precise, we must avoid the caricature of wishing for a Church without wrinkles or stains here below: that is not what the good Lord promised us on this earth. That is not what the “Holy Church” means; it means that she is capable of sanctifying using the means given by Our Lord: the sacraments, the Faith, discipline, religious life, the life of prayer... (continued)

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• SSPX Bp. Fellay: “we are on the eve of important events that we cannot yet define”