Defend Marriage. Defend Life. Protect the Future.

Readers in California, please don’t forget that as you attempt to chose a pro-Life candidate for President of the US you are also being called to defend marriage by voting Yes on Proposition 8. Whether they are beloved friends, co-workers or relatives, we all probably all know gays and lesbians that we love and care deeply about; many of them may be in long-term loving relationships. But let’s not fool ourselves, a "marriage" between two people of the same sex is not a marriage in Christ. It is not love in the way Christ called us to love one another and the more we head down this path of destroying the institution of marriage, the further we move down the road to our own destruction as a society.



For proof you need only look at the dying populations of many European nations that have allowed gay “marriage”.There is no doubt you will be persecuted and maligned for your views and actually following you faith, but remember, this is the Truth of Christ and he was persecuted for us.

Here’s a link to a fine flyer by The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Their young people spent the summer getting out the word on Proposition 8.




(Originally posted at The American Catholic)

A New Blog Arises

At the invitation of Tito at Custos Fidei, I will be a contributing to a new blog called American Catholic. We go live on Monday so go take a look and join the conversation.

My wife likes Gov. Sarah Palin...

so much she made up some cool t-shirts!

"May we see heaven as our goal and come to share her glory"

Love those Nashville Sisters!

H/T to Fr. Finigan

I pray that Christ forgives them. Imagine what you would do if someone hit your mother.

A Priestess in Every Parish?

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend loves the Church so much she wants to destroy it.

It needs to rethink its position on the ordination of women and married people, on abortion, on gay clergy and gay unions. "Clearly," she says, "if we can believe in the virgin birth and that the body and blood of Christ are in the eucharist, then we can certainly believe that a woman can be a priest."

These things have worked so well in other churches, right Kathy?

A crime against Nature

Great post over at Hallowed Ground. Here's an excerpt:

Homosexuals want their sin to be exempt, they want us to say their sin is not sin. They want us to call evil good. They have organized themselves, and are forcing Society to go along with it. Why don’t all pick-pockets get organized, and campaign against “anti-Thieve” sentiments. Create something called “Theiveaphobia”, and lambast all who disagree as biogots, hate-mongers, etc. We’ll have an annual ”Thief Pride Parade” down 5th Avenue!

Read the rest here.

More Reason to Pray for Conversions

And you thought gay bishops and ordained women was as bad as it gets with the Episcopal church. Now they give you "gangsta baptisms"

"One son was blessed at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Morningside Heights four years ago during a quasi-religious ceremony. "It's like a christening," he said. "The priest holds the baby and we say our prayer at the same time. We have to have the window open and the baby pointed toward the sun."

The more I grow in understanding and embrace of my Catholic faith, the more clearly I see the return to paganism and the need for intense evangelizing. The culture of death has our society in...well... a death grip. With the collapse over the past 40 years of traditional morals, mores, and institutions, so much of our culture mirrors the pagans world that the Apostles and early Christians encountered in the Near East, North Africa, and especially Europe. Thus we must pray and evangelize stronger than ever before. Social scientists will see this child gangsta issue as one to be fixed with more government sponsored social programs and education. While those are in important, as with abortion, euthanasia and other sins and immorality, this won't be solved without the conversion of peoples hearts.



So grab your rosaries people and don't be afraid to talk about and live your Catholic faith!

More Reasons Why Turkey Should Be Excluded From The EU

The murder of "non-muslims" (i.e. Christians) for their property.



Mary, Help of Christians

Oro pro nobis

Recent Additions to the Blogroll

Custos Fidei

Mad Trad

The Bovina Bloviator

Babel

“Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says." Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.” --Genesis 11: 7-9


From Father Tim Finigan at the The Hermeneutic of Continuity we get this wonderful video from Lourdes of a Traditional Mass complete with adorable school children from France. As Fr. Finigan mentions, this is a true multi-cultural Mass. Men, women and children from all over the world speaking many languages and having many cultures, can come to together and worship as one in the Body of Christ.



Unfortunately, this is so unlike what many of us see in our local parishes. At my own parish, where sometimes up to three languages are used during the liturgy (outside of the Greek of the Kyrie), I often feel like one of the inhabitants of Babel. During this years Stations of the Cross on Good Friday I was often lost trying to keep up with the Spanish and Creole used in the prayers and hymns. In my opinion this attempt to show how “multi-cultural” and “inclusive” we are does not bring unity but causes a rupture, not only with our Catholic and Christian heritage, but with one another as well. As I wait for the 11:00 AM Spanish Mass to end before our Noon English Mass starts, I look at those leaving the church and think to myself, “It’s almost as if we are in different churches.” How wonderful if we all, Spanish, English, Creole, Vietnamese, or Korean speakers, could sill worship together. How moving would it be to truly feel as one During the Stations, as well as beautiful, by praying and singing in Latin? Instead of three or four different Sunday Masses for each language spoken among the parishioners, we could have one (although I think we would need more Mass times as the pews, in my opinion, would fill up with the returning faithful of all cultures)and be truly unified.

God scattered those building the Tower of Babel because they were uplifting themselves instead of Him. They, much like Adam and Eve, strove to “be like gods. “ But God in his infinite wisdom and mercy brought us together again not to glorify ourselves but to build His city; to erect His Civitate Dei through the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Even though we all continued to speak a multitude of languages, one not understanding the other, He bestowed on His Church the Latin language so that those disunited after Babel may be unified again to worship Him.

Sadly, the last forty years have seen us scattered and confused again. Unlike the story in Genesis, this time it is man scattering us, confusing our understanding and dividing those who should be one in Christ. And what have we gained? Can we not see that the glorious tower constructed over the last 2000 years has begun to crumble and fall apart much like the Tower of Babel?


It is time to return Latin the pride of place it deserves in the Mass and restore the unity that it brought to the Church.

First Friday Traditional Mass in Manhattan

First Friday Traditional Solemn Mass
Votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
With Solemn Benediction after Mass

June 6th, 2008 at 6:30PM
*
Presented by
The Oratory of the Sacred Heart
at
The Church of the Guardian Angel
193 Tenth Avenue at 21st Street,
New York City
†
Celebrant: The Very Reverend Gilles Wach,
Superior General of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest
Deacon: Father Andreas Hellmann
Subdeacon: Father Cyprian La Pastina
†
Please join us at a convivium in the church hall immediately following Solemn Benediction

1, V, F, C, E trains to 23rd Street Station
M23 Bus to 10th Avenue
*
For information: (917) 535-2054

What's Old Is New Again

It is true what Jeffrey Tucker says over at NLM, there has been amazing progress in the liturgy since the Holy Fathers Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. The mansion is surely open and being slowly but surely restored to its former glory. It is not only, as Jeffrey states, in parishes across the nation we are seeing the fruits of Pope Benedict but in individual catholic lives. Jeffrey writes;

"But the real implications here are more significant still. What Summorum has done is re-legitimate the whole of our Catholic heritage--in the broadest way with can think of that term--and free us from the deracination that had become common in the postconciliar years."

I could not agree more and for myself this has been very true. A year or so ago I had never heard of Tridentine Mass. Even if I had, coming from a Protestant tradition where things can, and have, changed based on not much more than the whims of the church’s pastor, I probably would have seen no problem in “changing the Mass” or throwing off old traditions. But also as a convert of only two years now so my exposure even with the Novus Ordo is limited, I never experienced many of the worst abuses of the 70 and 80’s and for the most part my parish priest is orthodox. I suppose in a way I was what some have called a "small t" Catholic.

Not much more than a year ago I began to hear, mostly on Catholic blogs, of this thing call a motu proprio that was coming from Pope Benedict regarding the Latin Mass. Curious, I some research and my eyes were opened to a whole new world. I experienced, via the internet, my first mass using the 1962 missal (a SSPX mass by the way), and I haven’t been able to go back to the old world since. I felt drawn to not only search out a local parish with the Extraordinary Form (amazingly I discovered one only a few blocks and less than a 10 minute walk away.) but it opened a flood gate of desire within me to learn more about the preconciliar Church and to discover its beauty and traditions. A beauty I knew was all too often lacking and a respect for tradition to often lost in our Catholic culture today.

Of course, there was a flip side to finding this new world as many things about the old one don't sit so well anymore. Now when I see an older church that has had its High Altar ripped out I am angered. I feel something is wrong when I hear "Wade in the Water" or "Amazing Grace" every other week while Gregorian Chant is neglected. Pagan inspired liturgical dance before the alter sickens me. But those things just make me want to get more involved in my parish and that is always a good thing. Who would have guessed that a year ago I would be participating in our Corpus Christi procession or walking the Stations of the Cross during Holy Week? Or prayng the Liturgy of the Hours? Or working to begin a "stable group" at my parish to bring the Extraordinary Form back to our glorious High Alter (luckily, it was never touched). And how this has helped me to embrace fully the teachings of the Church and throw off cafeteriaism would take another post to fully explain. Again, none of that is directly related to Benedict’s motu proprio but its discovering the Extraordinary Form that drew me to them.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not one of those who feels the Mass of Paul VI is "invalid". It is the form of the Mass that drew me into the Church and remnants of our 2000 year history are still there. I have used it to persuade others of the truth of the Catholic Church. But the Tridentine, or Extraordinary Form, is much like the Church and its moral teachings, there is something of the Beauty, Truth and right worship in it that grabs hold of those with open hearts. After experiencing it for the first time you are never the same.

So I pledge my gratitude to the Pope Benedict for providing the pastoral leadership that has led me to these green pastures. I would never have guessed that when I saw him standing at the Loggia in three years ago that he would have such a profound effect on my life.

Oculi Omnium

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. Its a graduale from the Feast of Corpus Christi chanted at São Paulo's Saint Benedict Monastery.




I didn't wish to merely put up the audio, so I included a few pictures I've grabbed over the months from different sites. Many, of course, came from the wonderful Hallowed Ground.

The words and music can be found here.

Consider it inoculation against this.

Also, go read my wonderful wife's thoughts on our first Corpus Christi procession. I had planned on writing something but it would pale in comparison to her beautiful words.

A Precious Gift

A birthday gift from my beautiful wife made with her own loving hands. I will treasure this for the rest of my life!

Vive Le Revolution

During the Holy Father's homily on the Feast Day of Corpus Christi, after quoting from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, he stated the following:

"In these words we feel the truth and the power of the Christian revolution, the most profound revolution in human history, which we may experience in the Eucharist where people of different ages, sexes, social conditions and political ideas come together in the presence of the Lord.”

These words struck me because once I called and hoped for "revolution". The likes of mass murderers like Che Guevara, Black Panthers like Huey Newton and Fred Hampton, and African Nationalists like Kwame Nkrumah, and various others who promised social utopias were my heroes. During college I devoured the books of Left-wing nationalist intellectuals like Franz Fanon and collected the poetry an prose of Black Arts Movement founder Amiri Baraka. I just knew that I would be in the "vanguard" when, as The Last Poets put it, "When the Revolution Comes" (warning graphic lyrics and images).

But somewhere along the way I began to wonder why all of these utopias failed and fell into internecine warfare and bloodshed that, in most instances, left those that were to be freed worse off. At first, I fell for the excuses told by the likes of Walter Rodney and others that it was white imperialist interference. But that too began to ring hollow. Yes, the West supported the likes of Mobuto but so had millions of Africans.

It wasn't' until I a few years after I came into the Church, and really began to understand the message and mission of Christ, that I truly understood that all of these utopias were poor imitations of Him. All were substitutes designed by men who cried non servium and began to impose their wills instead of God's. Their revolutions failed because, like us all, they were fallen.

So now instead of Viva La Revolution, I cry Viva Christus Rex!

B. Obama, Thinks you're Stupid

Patrick at CMR puts it best:

"Not only does Barack Obama think that you cling to religion and guns out of bitterness, he also thinks you are an idiot."

Shutting Down the Cafeteria

While I will occasionally still frequent his blog (if he decides to stick around) I can no longer keep Gerald Augustinus' "The Cafeteria is Closed" in my Catholic Blog links. Someone who apparently thinks its OK to "change" the gender of young children, thinks we should accept homosexuality is normal sexual behavior, doesn't see what's the big deal with gay "marriage" can no longer really call themselves Catholic and I will no longer promote such a person's website on my meager blog.

Of course, I will still keep him in my prayers.

Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra

Via Father Z. we see more of the chaos that ensues when groups separate themselves from the Vicar of Christ and the protection of the Holy Spirit. One video you have probably seen many times over the past week, the other is an anti-Pope in Spain.



These folks have truly veered off the road and "fallen into the ditch".

How long, O Lord?

Forty years I endured that generation; I said: "They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways." -- Psalm 95

Pull Out Those Rosaries!!

Calling all Christians ALL OVER THE WORLD!
The Council of Europe will vote on making abortion a Human Right tomorrow.
We need the troops now at the frontline.
We need PRAYER NOW!
Prayer NOW, that is what we need.
Please spread the word, people of prayer, come together.
Christians all over this globe,
Malta, Poland, Ireland, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino need you.
Come to our aid in prayer to battle this cloud of darkness
that if passed at the Council of Europe tomorrow
Wednesday 16th April,
it will start an unstoppable global swing to making abortion a ‘human right’
This is the time for ALL Christians to come together,
Prayer will make the difference.
In His name, we call you to pray.
In Life,
Paul Vincenti
Gift of Life

H/T to Per Christum

The Golden Calf Returns

"Worship becomes a feast that the community gives itself, a festival of self-affirmation. Instead of being worship of God, it becomes a circle closed in on itself: eating, drinking and making merry. The dance around the golden calf is an image of this self-seeking worship. It is a kind of banal self-gratification."



"The narrative of the golden calf is a warning about any kind of self-initiated and self-seeking worship. Ultimately, it is no longer concerned with God but with giving oneself a nice little alternative world, manufactured from one's own resources. Then liturgy really does become pointless, just fooling around. Or still worse it becomes an apostasy in sacral disguise." -- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - The Spirit of the Liturgy pg. 23

Fr. Michael Pfleger - A Priest No Longer Worthy of The Roman Collar

I wonder if this so-called catholic priest will give such a fiery sermon to Obama on his support of abortion?! I, as a Catholic, would like to see that and then would have some respect for the man. The sins committed by the Bush White House are many and grave (from the lies of the Iraq war to the neglect of New Orleans pre- and post-Katrina) but is the sin of abortion any less grave? Why stand so strong for a man who might send a few bucks to the Gulf Coast but will certainly allow millions of babies to be murdered in the womb, including those that actually make it into the world?

Its time for this priest, and many other Catholics, to conform their politics to the teachings of Christ and His Church and not the other way around.

Holy Week at the Church of Our Saviour in NYC

HOLY WEEK SERVICES

PALM SUNDAY, March 16
Masses: 5:00 pm Vigil Mass on Saturday
Sunday at 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 12:30 pm, 5:00 pm
Solemn Liturgy at 11:00 am

MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY
March 17, 18, and 19
Masses: 7:45 am and 12:05 pm
Confessions: 7:00–7:30 am and 12:30–1:00 pm

THE TRIDUUM

HOLY THURSDAY, March 20
12:05 pm: Mass (for commuters)
6:00 pm: MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Celebration of the Institution of the Eucharist
Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until 9:00 pm

GOOD FRIDAY, March 21
Confessions: 12:00–3:00 pm
MEDITATION ON THE SEVEN LAST WORDS
Noon to 3:00 pm
PREACHED BY FR. GEORGE W. RUTLER
(Prayers and hymns are offered between each meditation,
during which time worshippers may arrive or leave.)
3:15 pm: SOLEMN LITURGY OF THE PASSION
Liturgy of the Word, Recitation of the Passion,
Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion
5:00 pm: STATIONS OF THE CROSS

HOLY SATURDAY, March 22
Confessions: 4:00–5:00 pm
7:30 pm: THE SOLEMN LITURGY OF THE VIGIL
The Service of Light, the Liturgy of the Word,
Renewal of Baptismal Promises, and the First Mass of Easter

EASTER SUNDAY, March 23
Masses: 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 11:00 am, 12:30 pm
(No 5:00 pm Mass.)
The 9:30 and 11:00 am Masses will be sung.
The 9:30 am Mass will be celebrated in the Extraordinary Use of
the 1962 Latin Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

CINO

You have got to be kidding me!

"Chopra-consciousness"

Carl Olson of Ignatius Insight Scoop is reading Chopra so we don't have to.

Paranoia Will Destroy Ya!

Uh, no...Gov. Spitzer was brought down because he has alienated everyone in Albany, both Democrats and Republicans with his win at all cost approach to governing and his arrogant personality. This left him with few friends and no allies willing to back him up.

His bill to make abortion and "right", the so-called the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, was reprehensible and, like other Catholics here in New York State, I was fighting it, but belief that there was some sort of Vast Anti-Abortion Conspiracy out to destroy him is ludicrous. You may as well think advocacy groups for the blind brought him down to put in office the first blind governor in US history.

This type of silliness is what drove me away from the Left.

A Rosary For Christendom

The Battle of Lepanto as well as the Battle of Vienna in 1683 are pivitol moments in the history of Western Civilization and Western Christianity. Students of history (as I am sure all of my readers are!) know these battles well, but while they may be in the past, the threats that faced the West then still face us today. We know of the murderous attacks in London, New York and Madrid and that groups like Al-Qaeda want us to bow in submission to Islam, or die, and they will use airplanes, IEDs and the mentally disabled strapped with suicide belts to kill us. But, in my opinion, the threats by groups like Hizbollah and al-Qaeda pale in comparison to the threat of the slow drip, dripping of growing militancy among second and third generation Muslims living in the West coupled with the dramatically low birth rates of Catholic and other Christian Westerners. As others have noted, it may be only a few decades before the great cathedrals of Europe see the Star and Crescent replace their Crosses. There is no massive fleet racing for the shores of Italy but the invasion has begun.

But it is not only militant Islam that seems to have us on the ropes. As in the years leading up to Lepanto when Christian powers like France, due to petty political and religious differences, failed to take action, thus actively leaving Europe and the faithful vulnerable, many here at home leave us vulnerable in the name of so-called multiculturalism and "tolerance". We face secularism, its "life-partner" relativism and an increasingly militant anti-Christian sentiment at home among non-believers and "progressives". The abomination of abortion slaughtering innocents, acceptance and active promotion of the LGBT and sometimes Q lifestyle and gay "marriage", and a growing number who live 'etsi Deus non daretur', it almost seems as if it will soon be a crime to have the faith , proclaim the Truth , or teach it to our children. although Socialism has been discredited around the world, some still haven't gotten the memo, and we are still living with its disastrous results.

Everywhere Christendom is under attack. But as Catholics we possess one of the most powerful weapons in the universe...The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have pledged that from now on every Wednesday my Rosary prayer will include an intention for the protection and defense of Christendom. It worked well enough for Pope Pius V, so it will work for us if enough of us still love and hold dear the Sacrifice of Christ and the words of the Blessed Mother.

I hope you will join me in this simple but powerful act. Out civilization and our Church and Faith depend on it. Remember, we are a Church Militant not a Church passive.

True Words

Father George Rutler of Our Savior with words for our time:

The middle of Lent, marked as Laetare Sunday, points to the Heavenly Jerusalem as the goal of all living. This is not escapism, any more than a lighthouse on a far coast is a distraction. The fullest life is one lived in knowledge that mortal life leads to eternal life. The alternative to this truth is utopianism, the attempt to create an earthly paradise. It is the delusion of both the watered-down kind of religion called "Modernism" and the controlling kind of politics called "Statism."

As Modernism, in its denial of a supernatural perspective, is a contradiction of religious truth, religious denominations that teach only vague precepts about earthly happiness dwindle quickly. Reliable statistics for last year indicate that the more a religious sect embraces the materialistic trends of a secular culture, the more it fades. While denominations with firm counter-cultural beliefs, however inadequate they may be, grew (Southern Baptists: +0.22%; Mormons: +1.56%; Jehovah’s Witnesses: +2.25%), the once popular "mainline" denominations are melting from the scene (United Methodists: –1%; Presbyterian Church: –2.36%; Episcopalians: –4.15%). The Catholic Church, which is not a denomination but rather the rock from which denominations are chipped, increased 0.88%, or about 640,000, and these figures, including priestly vocations, are highest where doctrine is clearest.

It is characteristic of Modernism that it engages platitudes about the human condition. Our Lord warned against the allurements of this: "There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive even the elect" (Matt. 24:24). The true Christ never uttered platitudes. His words cut liars and consoled the innocent.

As with Modernism in religion, so does Statism in politics tend to be platitudinous, with what Chesterton called "easy speeches that comfort cruel men." Statism is the veneration of the secular government as the primary agent of human happiness. It removes faith and hope and love from their focus on God and reduces them to exclusively civil virtues. The language has emotional appeal, and can even foment hysteria, but it soon collapses, though its human toll is painful to count.

The twentieth century was littered with disasters caused by substituting illusions for the Heavenly Jerusalem. "But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:23). Unless human enterprises keep an eye on the ultimate goal of Heaven ("sub specie aeternitatis"), faith in progress is superstition, hope for the future is fantasy, and love of the good things of life is delusion. To fear nothing but the loss of Heaven is to activate the highest human virtues. To fear nothing but the loss of earthly life is to reduce all emotion to one mood, which fluctuates between mere neurosis and blatant despair, and that mood is terror.

(H/T misere.org)

Speak it, Bishop!

Father Tim Finigan has posted a great video of an interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Bishop Schneider is the author of Dominus Est (not yet in English) and not a fan of communion in the hand.

Also Fr Z. has a terrific podcast on this very subject. Go have a listen.

We are slowly making progress in purging the stain of Modernism and Protestantism (i.e "the smoke of Satan") from the Church.

The "Me" Christianity

Two posts over at Closed Cafeteria exemplify the scourge of the Modern age. Its all about me and my needs” It is never about what Christ taught and said.

Senator Obama claims the Sermon on the Mount instead of the “obscure” Epistle to the Romans, is the reason for his support of same-sex “marriage.” He also claims his support of abortion does not make him less a Christian.

Also we hear about some long time dissenters who are setting up an “underground church” in response to the local bishop clamping down on their innovative “liturgy”

What do both of these “Christians” and “Catholics” have in common? The ever present “I”. Their ego, like Lucifer’s, keeps them from kneeling before the teaching of either Christ or those to whom He gave authority. Sen., Obama, for example, repeatedly uses the following phrases in his rationalization for his unchristian policies:

“In my mind, for my faith”
“my view”
“That's my view.”
“In terms of my faith”

Romano Guardini in his book ‘The End of the Modern World” states the following:

“With the new consciousness of self, however, which arose late in the e Middle
Ages and especially renaissance, man became important to himself. The “I”-
particularly the “I” of the extraordinary, of genius- became the measure by
which all human life was judged”

This has become even more so in contemporary times we are deluged with marketing and technology whose only purpose is to entertain us or validate us. That is neither the purpose of Christianity (as Sen. Obama seems to think) nor the Mass (as the “9 am” parishioners seem to want).

We need to pray for these folks that they see the fallacy of their ways and stop attempting to make Christ follow their ways but follow the path the “Light of the World” has illuminated.

Requiescat In Pace

Sad news. William F. Buckley has died.

How I wish we had public affairs programming as great as Firing Line was. I truly consider that program a gift from Mr. Buckley to me. As a tween and teen in the 80's, even as I was being formed by other forces into a Black Nationalist Marxist, I always enjoyed "Firing Line" and looked forward to watching every week. I suppose in some way it helped keep me from going completly of the deep (Left-wing) cliff.

I only hope there is something similar around when my son is the same age.

Our Saviour?

More of the Obama the Messiah fever takes hold as Farrakhan proclaims him the "Hope of World"

"This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better," he said. "This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed."

No wait, there's more!

Minister Farrakhan compared Mr. Obama to the religion's founder, Fard Muhammad, who also had a white mother and black father. "A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he told the crowd.

So if Farrakhan is claiming Obama is the Mahdi, can we now say for certain that he is Muslim?

Living Witness

I think this video really shows the effect of witness by example. In this guys words, I think the Transalpine Redemptorist monks "got him"

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"Take up your cross and follow me"

My response to Feuerheud regarding his Op/Ed in the Washington Post:

Mr. Feuerherd,

I don't know whether you are going to Hell or not, and while I pray that we both end up forever with God, I must state that I am astonished at your opinion piece in the February 24th Washington Post. It shows that you have little regard for either the bishops or the Magesterium. You claim:

"John Paul's key criterion in choosing the men who lead the United States' 194
dioceses was their vocal support for church teachings that have been rejected in
whole (birth control) or in part (women's ordination and abortion) by many
Catholics in the pews and the broader American culture."

Where else in the world would you make such a claim? Would you criticize the President of the US for appointing folks who uphold the Constitution? It seems that he or she would need to appoint persons who are communist or anarchists because the public leans toward accepting this. Would this be a true servant of the people. Would this be a person who is upholding their oath to protect the Constitution and the United States of America? To meet the standards that you seem to expect from the Holy Father he would need to denounce his mission; a mission that is even more important that where public opinion is. The public onion of ancient Rome and Palestine didn't agree with the teachings of the Early Church Fathers; should they have been more "pragmatic"?

You also claim that,

"To Catholics like me who oppose liberal abortion laws but also think that other
issues -- war or peace, health care, just wages, immigration, affordable
housing, torture -- actually matter, the idea that abortion trumps everything,
all the time, no matter what, is both bad religion and bad civics."

How exactly is it bad religion to uphold the teachings of that religion? Sorry, but while I probably agree with you on many of those issues, support for abortion does trump ALL of those them

The primary aim of a bishop (including the Bishop of Rome) is not to conform himself to your political leanings (nor mine as I am a Democrat as well) but to lead the world to Christ. You may feel that abortion and euthanasia deserve the same moral standing as tax policy or stances on illegal aliens, but the Church, and I dare say Christ, does not. "Thou shall not murder" is what the commandment says and that means it is NEVER ok to intentionally take innocent human life. Nor can one be complicit in that taking of life. You and other may not like that but it is the truth. There is no such creature as "liberal" or "conservative" Catholics. You either follow the teachings of the Church, and thus Christ, or you don't. You are either fully in communion, or you or not.

Although I have many problems with them on certain issues, I applaud the Bishops on this issue and hope that they do more to instruct the faithful who are entrusted to them,

I, as an African-American man, find it hard to say that I will not be voting for the man who could be the first black president of the United States, but Sen. Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate for the US presidency in history. A man that would hold up or vote against a bill that would require babies who survived an abortion to be given life support is no true public servant, no true man and certainly no true Christian, and thus not worthy of my support or vote.

Mr. Feuerherd, and please take this with the love it is given, I will pray that Christ will touch your heart like he did St. Paul's, and like he did mine, so that you come to a true understanding that we are supposed to follow Christ, not demand that he follow us.

______________________________
Miserere Nobis, Deus

Kosovo...don't believe the hype from the MSM

See Andrew Cusack for more on what's really going on.

UPDATE: An even more disturbing news from this land lost.(via THC)

Undiscovered Blogs

Just found a great blog, Hallowedground. Go check it out!

The Morning (NY) Sun

Several weeks back I started to receive The New York Sun on my stoop every morning. Now I don't know if this was/is some sort of special prmotion or they possibly have the wrong address, but if its the former its working as I have come to look forward to finding it on my doorstep. In fact, if the cut me off nowI just may have to subsribe. I have really come to admire the tenacity and spunk of the Sun, as well as the clarity of its Op/Ed page.

Here are two prime examples from today:

Episcopalian Swan Song

Bishop Pike, who led the Diocese of San Francisco in the 1960s, is generally regarded as the godfather of the social-activist, fringe left-wing crowd that has come to dominate the leadership of the Episcopal Church today. When he wasn't attempting to communicate with apparitions and dabbling in the occult, Bishop Pike was openly questioning heavy-duty church doctrine such as the virgin birth and the Trinity.

Inside Obama's Rhetoric

Political candidates routinely indulge in exaggeration, pandering, inconsistency, and self-serving obscurity. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain do. The reason for holding Mr. Obama to a higher standard is that it's his standard and also his campaign's central theme. He has run on the vague promise of "change," but on issue after issue — immigration, the economy, global warming — he has offered boilerplate policies that evade the underlying causes of the stalemates.

Pray for Europe

Its not just the English who are losing their minds.

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the "Christian Ramadan" in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.

Hamas Rabbit

Via Closed Cafeteria, we are brought a TV show that is pure evil.




While we must condemn this sort of barbarism, we must also pray for the Palestinian people. We must certainly pray for the conversion or enlightenment (whichever you prefer) of their hearts and minds.
While Palestinians have been quite wronged over the past 50 years, and some sort of just solution must be reached in the Holy Land (which won't happen until they turn from attacking Israelis), there will be no real and lasting peace until they turn to Christ. Islam (like Protestantism) is showing that it has reached its logical conclusion....chaos.

Berkeley to Marines: You're 'not welcome in our city'

Berkeley City Councils tells Marines to leave.

One giant sign said, "No Military Predators in Our Town." Another message on a pink placard read, "Join the Marines. Travel to Exotic Lands. Meet Exciting and Unusual People -- And Kill Them."

Zanne Joi peered out from under her straw hat. "This Marine recruiting station is trying to recruit our youth to go to Iraq to kill and be killed. And we are against that," said Joi, a member of Code Pink Women for Peace.

"This is part of a multi-pronged effort to end this war."

Protester Sharon Adams added: "This recruiting station recruits people to go fight and then once they fight and they serve their country, our country doesn't take care of them. That's a shame."


More on this later...

Just Beautiful

More madness in My State

State Court Recognizes Gay Marriages From Elsewhere

"A New York appellate court ruled Friday that valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized in New York, just as the law recognizes those of heterosexual couples solemnized elsewhere. Lawyers for both sides said the ruling applied to all public and private employers in the state."

This is our fault

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has done a good job in his media appearances to defend the faith against its defamation by The View's Joy Behar. One thing Behar’s comments, attitudes, and downright hatred of Catholicism have shown me is how horribly our schools and parishes the faith are at teaching the faith. Behar, like all lapsed Catholics, is in a sense our fault. The Church bears much responsibility for her complete ignorance of the faith she was apparently brought up in. I'm a convert so I was never exposed to any childhood Catholic education, but I will tell you I learned almost nothing about the faith in my RCIA class. All that I know, and have grown to love, about Catholicism I learned through my own initiative.

This has got to change!

UPDATE: Joe has a few excellent suggestions

Why I can't vote for Barack Obama

As an African American man, I have always dreamed of helping to elect a Black man (or woman) as President of the USA. Now, here we are, Democrats poised to nominate such a man. I should be shouting Hallelujah, but I can’t. My Catholic faith has led me to understand and embrace wholeheartedly the Church’s pro-life stance. You must understand that this is something that would have been unimaginable not that long ago. Probably like most pro-choice folks, I wasn’t for abortion per se, but understood it as a "woman’s right" to decide when, and when not, to become pregnant. As a true blue liberal I saw pro-life or, as we would have said, anti-choice, folks as nothing but right-wing nuts who wanted to control women. But now understanding how the Church views this issue ,and how Catholics (should) believe that God commanded us not to kill, and Christ told us to love our neighbor, I cannot see how killing the unborn child can be a consistent with God's Word or liberal values, and is most certainly not a "right". All of the things liberals and most Democrats fight for such as universal healthcare, a higher minimum wage, equal treatment for all, free universal pre-K, environmental stewardship, none of that means anything if you don’t have the right to be born; the right to Life.

While none of the Democratic candidates stand firmly against abortion, Barack Obama seems to me to be the most pro-abortion. Not only is he pro-abortion but he seems the most arrogant towards those who are pro-life. How this can be from a man who says he is a Christian is beyond me, but then some Christian denominations are ok with divorce and gay “marriage” as well.

Just take a look at the video above. In my view, it’s one of the most disingenuous arguments for abortion “rights’ I have ever heard. How does a new human life affect the future of his young daughters? Their father is a young Harvard trained attorney, Senator and possibly future President. How can snuffing the life from one who hasn't even had the chance to enjoy it lead to the equal and fair treatment of women? Unfortunately, it falls in line with much of the liberal defense of abortion -- a line that I once parroted.

Sorry Barack, but I’ll wait for a Black candidate who stands for the sanctity of life.