Swiss Clergy Offer Communion to Divorced and Remarried

Pray Tell blog has this sad story:

Communion for the remarried: Swiss clergy and laity disobey, and head of German bishops calls for change in discipline

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Most Ironic and Self-Unaware Tweet...Evah!

Mall owner bans boxer from mall to show how tolerant he is. You have to read the tweet because it's hard to imagine how someone wrote it without any self reflection whatsoever.

Pacquiao Banned from L.A. Mall for Same-Sex Marriage Opposition

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LarryD Wants to Make a Catholic Movie

Dude, the actor portraying me is freaking Paul Giamatti and Patrick gets some leading man looking dude. Come on. I, by far, got the ugliest actor to portray me. I think in the sequel I'm gonna be played by Dennis Franz. Now, that's a good looking man. Continue reading>>>

Obama Lies About Gay Marriage

He says it's not a national issue but a state one but then says that state laws about it are illegal.

When President Obama came out last week in favor of redefining marriage, he couched his opinion in the context of federalism, saying, “I think it is a mistake to — try to make what has traditionally been a state issue into a national issue.” During that same interview, however, he declared that a bipartisan law designed to protect states from judges who redefine marriage in other states, is “unconstitutional.” It’s very hard to square these two statements.

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Franciscan U. Drops Student Healthcare

We will not comply.

“Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance,” the college said.

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Who are The Living Catholics You Look Up To?

This is a pretty interesting poll. Check it out on Facebook.Continue reading>>>

Embryphonic Steam Sells Research?

Deacon Dance writes:

Have you ever noticed that great evils are hidden in confusing words? Hitler’s “Final Solution” sounds rather positive, like everything is going to be fixed. “Eugenics” sounded so scientific that it was taught in most colleges, even to the point that here in America, that Land of the Free, we had laws for the sterilization of what we termed “imbeciles”. Makes Eugenics sound a bit darker when you think of it in that light. This couching of evil realities behind confusing or positive sounding words has a long history.

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NARAL Head Bemoans Intensity Gap

Darn. There's just not enough cheerleaders for killing babies anymore. LifeSitenews.com reports:

When Nancy Keenan, the head of America’s oldest abortion lobby, told the Washington Post she was stepping down, she cited a grim fact that she had noticed for years: abortion supporters just aren’t as young or zealous as their pro-life counterparts anymore. “While most young, antiabortion voters see abortion as a crucial political issue, NARAL’s own internal research does not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters,” wrote the Post’s Sarah Kliff. “If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.”

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Pursuing Purity: Why I Chose Abstinence

Christina Martin of Live Action writes:

I’m a 30-year-old black woman who’s proudly a virgin. Living in America, in 2012, I might be seen as a triple-minority. Some think I’m missing out, depriving myself, allowing my personal and religious beliefs to stifle the passions of my soul. It’s no wonder people think that way. Our culture is sex-saturated. When I was in high school, the MTV reality show “The Real World” was about people of different genders, races, and political and spiritual beliefs living together in hopes to challenge stereotypes and develop authentic friendships. Now the show’s more about how many attractive people can get drunk and sleep together in an episode.

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Diocese to Recruit Priests?

I think this is good news. If children don't see nuns or priests it won't even occur to them that they too could be called.

It took two years, but the Catholic Diocese of Charleston has put in place a strategy where no strategy was before. It’s a special kind of outreach — or maybe it should be called inreach. Through aggressive use of social media, as well as regular visits to Catholic schools, parishes and other institutions in the state, diocese officials are hoping to find and encourage future priests. The Rev. Jeffrey Kirby, vicar of vocations for the diocese, now works from a Charleston office in the Drexel House on Wentworth Street. He was appointed to the job two years ago, soon after the Most Rev. Robert E. Guglielmone took over as bishop.

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Awww. GCB Got Cancelled

Who'd a thunk alienating at least half the country wasn't a good idea for a television show. Continue reading>>>

Pin, Meet Balloon

Greece’s possible exit from the euro area moved to the center of Europe’s debt-crisis debate, with officials beginning to weigh the fallout of a withdrawal even as authorities in Athens struggled to form a government.

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Jesus Said Plenty About Marriage

Frank Weathers writes:

Hey y’all. Didn’t you know that Jesus didn’t say nothin’ about homosexuality in the Bible? True story. You ain’t gonna find Our Lord say that particular word nowheres in the Scriptures. It’s like he never heard of that situation. Heck, everbody knows that if Jesus didn’t say it, it don’t exist. Right? Just ask Stephen Colbert.

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Help in Time of Miscarriage

I'm glad Karen Edmisten wrote this book "after miscarriage." A lot of folks go through this and often nobody around them even knows:

When I lost my second child to miscarriage nearly 20 years ago, I searched Catholic bookstores in vain for a book on miscarriage. I suffered interiorly for years, until my parish held a healing Mass on Feb. 2 (feast of the Presentation) for mothers who had lost a baby. It was an extraordinary evening of grace. We named our babies, writing their names on certificates which were laid upon the altar as we entrusted them to Christ. Relishing the peace I found in this Mass, I thought, Someone should write a book for Catholic mothers who have miscarried. I am grateful that such a book has been written by gifted writer and devout Catholic Karen Edmisten. It is an exquisite collection of reflections that tenderly embrace the bruised soul of a grieving mother.

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Remember to Sign the Petition Protesting Georgetown

The invitation to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is nothing short of a slap in the face of the bishops. Please sign your name to the petition which will be sent to Georgetown.

Dear President DeGioia: It has come to the attention of The Cardinal Newman Society and the following signers that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been granted the honor of speaking at the commencement [diploma] ceremony for Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute on Friday, May 18. We strongly urge you to withdraw the invitation to Secretary Sebelius immediately.

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Follow Fr. Martin Fox on his Vacation

Fr. Martin Fox is on vacation and I'm having a delightful time following along as he goes to cheap motels, to a Zac Brown concert (wish I was there), and a few bars. You can find him at Bonfire of The Vanities and enjoy. Continue reading>>>

If Life is Unworthy of Being Lived

This is the kind of thing I read and I thank God for smarty-pants people who are able to articulate history and how it relates to the horrifyingly similar present. Lucetta Scaraffia writes in L'Osservatore Romano:

The book by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, Die Freigabe der Venrichtung lebensunwerten Lebens (allowing the destruction of life unworthy of living) which came out in Germany in 1920 has at last been translated into Italian (in English it is: Permitting the Destruction of Unworthy Life: Its Extent and Form, translated by W.E. Wright, in Issues in Law and Medicine 1992, 8:231-265). I say “at last”, because this is a text that marks a watershed. It has inspired many important reflections that are only partially explained in the introduction on 19th-century history – very concentrated at the legal level – by the two editors, Ernesto De Cristofaro and Carlo Saletti. It reveals, in fact, that as well as the good fortune enjoyed in Germany in the first half of the 20th century – at the time of the rise of Nazism the definition of euthanasia in the well known Brockhaus Encyclopedia was inspired by their work and quoted them – reflection on eugenics, taken to its extremes, was widespread and was shared even before the Nazis came to power thanks to learned academics which the Nazis were not.

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The Quran and Jesus' Personal Conduct

Dave Miller PhD wrote this very interesting piece for Apologetics Press:

The Quran’s confusion regarding the person of Jesus manifests itself repeatedly—a confusion that reflects the misconceptions and misrepresentations of the New Testament that were prevalent within Christendom in the sixth and seventh centuries, which, in turn, were mistakenly accepted into the Quran. For example, consider the Quran’s report of Allah’s communication with Mary regarding Jesus:

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NC Reporter Lies About Archdiocese?

The Media Report has the story:

The left-wing National Catholic Reporter newspaper is suggesting that a newly discovered 27-year-old letter somehow may be evidence that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles knew that a priest it had welcomed from England had been accused of child abuse there. In fact, even a cursory look at the 1985 letter reveals that such a claim is blatantly untrue!

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The Everyday "I Love You"

This is just beautiful writing from Sherry. A must read:

My father has Alzheimer's. It keeps him from saying everything he thinks, sometimes in mid-sentence, but we still get occasional puns and stories that our hearts gobble like truffles. Often his deepest communication, though, is non-verbal: the smile that says, "I know you" from across the room. It is enough. My three-year-old has Down syndrome. When the rest of the world hears, "Ahhh. Rahh!" I know it means, "the dogs next door should come out so I can bark at them." Jumping up and down at the end of the driveway is his way of saying, "the bus is late and I want to go to school." Most of his communication is non-verbal; his actual words strike the heart. He says "IRUVYOU" at bedtime. He nods his head when we repeat it. It may never get clearer, but it's there and he means it with his whole heart. It is enough.

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