The New York Times reports:
The threatening letter opened with a misspelling, a common fault of the genre. “Father Bonaface,” it read, addressing the Rev. Boniface Ramsey, pastor of the Roman Catholic St. Joseph’s Church Yorkville. “Be careful when you report, people selling drugs on 87th St.”Continue reading>>>
Get Religion points out the absurdity:
Yesterday after the House of Representatives voted 228 to 196 to limit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, I was surprised to find the following headline at the New York Times: Democrats Defend Killing of Viable Fetuses to Appease Vocal Base Only kidding, of course. As Matthew J. Franck of First Things wrote, that’s a New York Times headline we’ll never see. The real headline used exhibits the partisan editorializing we’ve come to expect from the Old Gray Lady: G.O.P. Pushes New Abortion Limits to Appease Vocal Base -Continue reading>>>
Catholic?
Everyone knows what Planned Parenthood does. Not only is it the largest abortion provider in the nation, but it feeds the godless culture of death that keeps the abortion cycle running. In many ways, Planned Parenthood is the flagship of the sexual revolution, the antithesis of Catholic moral teaching and natural law. However, notwithstanding Planned Parenthood's immoral mission, the Catholic University of San Diego's School of Leadership has posted a job entry on its web site offering a paid position with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. The post was made on May 23.Continue reading>>>
We are all lucky to be alive.
“It is not only that in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to be considered as “crimes”, paradoxically they assume the nature of “rights”, to the point that the State is called upon to give them legal recognition and to make them available through the free services of health care personnel. Such attacks strike human life at the time of its greatest frailty, when it lacks any means of self-defence. Even more serious is the fact that, most often, those attacks are carried out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family—the family which by its nature is called to be the ‘sanctuary of life’” (no. 11). — John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, March 25, 1995. When one re-reads Blessed Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on life, he needs to keep these statistics in mind: Since 1980, some 1,295,830,000 abortions were performed throughout the world. That is about one-seventh of the present world population.Continue reading>>>
He speaks of horrors but also the joy of the Mass.
A priest working in the devastated city of Homs in Syria has given an account of some of the horror he's facing every day. The priest, who cannot be named, sent a report to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, which is supporting Syrians with an aid package of £25,450 (€30,000) for a center in Homs, on top of £42,450 (€50,000) given last year. The report details the priest's struggle to provide basic food, shelter and medicine to more than 30,000 people fleeing violence amid ongoing bomb blasts and other violence.Continue reading>>>
What could go wrong? A Shepherd's Voice reports:
From June 20-27, 2013 a retreat for men will be held in Spain. The retreat will be led by two Jesuit Priests. It will be held in “…a self-catering retreat/holiday home run by the Jesuits which we will have to ourselves.” A description of the retreat may be found at spanishretreats.org.uk. It is titled “Liberation. A Retreat for Men in Calpe, Costa Blanca, Spain, June 20-27. Led by Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ.” Readers will be quite familiar with Fr. Godfrey. Until September of 2010, Godfrey served as the Executive Director of University Ministry at the Jesuit University of San Francisco. He was demoted from the position of executive director right around the time that California Catholic Daily reported on his long-time association with Patrick Mulcahey. CalCatholic revealed that Mulcahey, whom Godfrey singled out for special praise in the introduction to his book Gays and Grays: the story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church had been keeping a “slave” and was giving workshops on the Master/slave lifestyle. Godfrey still serves as an associate director of Ministry at USF.Continue reading>>>
He writes:
I didn't really care for the latest cinematic iteration of the Superman myth. Like way too many movies today, it was made for the generation that came of age with video games and MTV and their constant, irritatingly frenetic action. When the CGI whiz-bang stuff kicks in, I just check out, and Man of Steel is about three-quarters whiz-bang. However, there is a theme in this film that is worthy of some reflection, namely the tension between individual autonomy and a state-controlled society. Man of Steel commences with a lengthy segment dealing with the closing days of the planet Krypton. We learn that a fiercely totalitarian regime, led by a General Zod, is seeking the arrest of a scientist called Jor-El. It becomes clear that Jor-El has attempted to undermine the regime's policy of strictly controlling the genetics of Kryptonite newborns. Very much in the manner of Plato's Republic, Kryptonite children are rigidly pre-programmed to be a member of one of three social groups.Continue reading>>>
The bleakness of the future just got bleaker. And something tells me that we're still bleakering.
Turkey is reclaiming its jihadi past, while Europe is simultaneously erasing its own Christian heritage.Continue reading>>>
Why are we arming them again?
So this was done by the people our illustrious President Barack H. Obama wants to send arms to. Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists. The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.Continue reading>>>
Fr. Z has the news:
ACTION ITEM! ST. JOSEPH’s name NOW in Eucharistic Prayers II, III, IV Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf Have you seen the news? Decades after John XXIII placed the name of Joseph in the Roman Canon, it seems that the name of the great Patron of the Dying, Terror of Demons, will be in the Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV in the 3rd edition of the Missale Romanum.Continue reading>>>
Funny. As always.
Before I explain why, though, I want to let you all know that I feel Godde has called me to become a pizza. Hence the new blog title.Continue reading>>>
Carl Olson reports on this disturbing story. Mind you it's got pretty nasty excerpts from the books so don't say you weren't warned.
A reader recently sent an e-mail which opened with this question: "Has St. Ignatius High School never heard of Ignatius Press?" The institution in question is a Jesuit preparatory school in Cleveland, Ohio. I know very little about it (I'm told that tuition is around $11,000 a year), but I see that the school's website features the following quote:Continue reading>>>
A conversation about the importance of Catholic media:
Fr. Mitch talks with Jeanette DeMelo, Editor In Chief of the National Catholic Register.Continue reading>>>
Mom to 8 doesn't like the Common Core:
Common Core is the new national teaching standard adopted and touted by the Obama administration. From kindergarten through high school and from state to state students are taught the same material. SAT questions reflect the information taught. The emphasis is on writing, passionate writing. (All fiction is drastically reduced in the curriculum). Students are encouraged and instructed to use strong powerful words in their writing, and to become activists. The "passionate" themes are carried through all subjects taught, from social studies to math.Continue reading>>>
CNS News reports:
Actor John Ratzenberger said Friday that when he was a child, there was no need for surveillance, “because we knew God was watching us.” “When we were kids, we didn’t need security cameras on the telephone poles to watch us, because we knew God was watching us. We don’t need cameras. We had God,” Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on “Cheers,” said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C.http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cheers-star-we-didn-t-need-surveillance-when-we-were-kids-we-had-god#sthash.J55EIRjU.dpuf Continue reading>>>
Patrick Clarke writes an interesting piece at Catholic Moral Theology:
On this blog and in Catholic moral discourse more generally, there have been a considerable number of critiques of libertarian principles on the basis that they directly conflict with Catholic social doctrine. I have been largely convinced by these critiques in so far as they take aim at static policy proposals at a general level. However, I want to suggest that the recent revelation of the scope of our government’s surveillance practices and capacities should make it clear that there may be certain times in which the defense of the common good will bring Catholics into alignment with libertarians on particular issues. I believe now is one such time.Continue reading>>>
Walter Hudson discovers that love multiplies. It doesn't divide:
Last week, I became a father for the second time. My wife presented me with another son. I imagine that the birth of a second child proves over time to be a unique experience. There may be no other moment in life which so profoundly demonstrates love’s abundance. When you have your first child, it feels like a pinnacle. How could you possibly love more than that? The prospect of a second child seems to the uninitiated to portend a division of that love between two objects, like the division of an estate between inheritors. I did not need to know my new son for long before realizing that parental love does not divide. It multiplies. Everything my firstborn means to me has been duplicated.Continue reading>>>
Radio Vaticana reports:
For a Christian, Jesus is “all”, and this is the source of his or her benevolence. This was the focus of Pope Francis’s message during Mass on Monday morning at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Pope also affirmed that the righteousness of Jesus exceeds the righteousness of the scribes, that it is superior to the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” kind of justice.Continue reading>>>
It's almost like they don't actually care about children.
Disgraced former "Sesame Street" puppeteer and producer Kevin Clash won three Daytime Awards in Los Angeles this weekend.Continue reading>>>
Breitbart reports:
During his radio show on Friday, Rush Limbaugh told his listeners, “I think abortion is at the root of so much that has and is going wrong in this country.” The conservative host went on to discuss that the reason why amnesty is essential to the liberal agenda is because abortion has, since Roe v. Wade in 1973, wiped out millions of potential taxpayers. The Democrat Party, Limbaugh said, has turned to amnesty as a means to ensure a “permanent underclass” in order to continue its image as the party of big government entitlements.Continue reading>>>
