Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

The Bolivian President wants to put an end to Catholicism in the schools and as the country’s official religion.

“Instead of religion, they’ll do languages,” “Religion is a question of faith, and faith can’t be taught, much less in an obligatory manner.”

The leftist government, in its efforts to rid Bolivia of the vestiges of a colonial past that discriminated against the Indian majority, is also pushing a constitutional reform that would remove Catholicism as the country’s official religion.

Catholicism has been the country’s official religion since Bolivia’s founding in 1825.

Google is showing signs of more resistance in complying with regulators even as rival providers are complying more with the federal government’s guidelines.

While Yahoo! searches for “pre-teen” and “sex” and “video” only showed up news articles from television networks, the same search on Google resulted in pre-teen sex videos, pictures and a teen sex sponsored link.

Google Associate General Counsel Nicole Wong, stressed the company’s commitment to protect children from becoming victims of child pornography. She asserted the difficulty of keeping child pornography off their search engine, which is triple the size of its competition and dominates the market.

The professor who invited students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy a pro-life display has punishment decided by District Judge.

Criminal charges have been dismissed against Professor Sally Jacobsen, a former professor at Northern Kentucky University who destroyed a pro-life campus display in April.

District Judge Karen Thomas said Jacobsen’s successful completion of a mediation program would stand in lieu of the first-time misdemeanour charges, which included two counts of misdemeanour theft and two counts of third-degree criminal mischief, reported the Cincinnati Post.

Professor Richard Ebstein of Hebrew University said D4 was not entirely responsible for sex addiction and social factors also play roles. The D4 dopamine receptor gene has previously been linked to gambling and other addictive behaviors.

Dr. Phillip Blosser of the Pertinacious Papist has a gadfly visiting his blog who sadly is an priest. I say sadly because this poor confused soul appears to be obsessed with homosexual sex and attempting to justify it based upon some illusionary ideal. Where does he find this “ideal”? Ostensibly from talking to those with SSA who succumb to their temptations, about their experiences. It seems to me that if you talk to anyone with an affective disorder and assume that they can objectively describe the impacts of their disordered experiences on their emotional health, then you are quite naive.

Any way, Dr. Blosser recently responded to Fr. O’Leary’s musings that the connection between the structure and purpose of the body and any deeper meaning was “biologism.” Biologism was a term coined by another confused priest, Fr. Charlie Curran, to argue that morality cannot be derived from biological structures. This position suffers from a Cartesian dualism which considers the soul and body to be antithetical to one another. It is not surprising that Fr. O’Leary would try to resort to such a defective anthropology in trying to justify disorder because one needs some way to justify ignoring common sense.

Any way, Dr. Blosser provides an excellent summary showing why anal sex is unnatural and dangerous, and in fact that the entire SSA lifestyle, in general, is unnatural and dangerous. He focuses on the biological implications. What is Fr. O’Leary’s response? Hate speech. Well of course. If there is no logical argument against the facts I suppose one must resort to playing the “victim” card.

Go read the post, but be advised that it is necessarily somewhat graphic and so it is also repulsive.

As the Associated Press reported it:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top climate scientists are giving “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.

“They are quite literally afraid to know the truth,” Gore said. “Because if you accept the truth of what the scientific community is saying, it gives you a moral imperative to start to rein in the 70 million tons of global warming pollution that human civilization is putting into the atmosphere every day.”

Here is what the AP conveniently conveniently didn’t report:

Professor Bob Carter, of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia, on Gore’s film:

“Gore’s circumstantial arguments are so weak that they are pathetic. It issimply incredible that they, and his film, are commanding public attention.”

“The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science.” – Bob Carter as quoted in the Canadian Free Press, June 12, 2006

Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, wrote:

“A general characteristic of Mr. Gore’s approach is to assiduously ignore the fact that the earth and its climate are dynamic; they are always changing even without any external forcing. To treat all change as something to fear is bad enough; to do so in order to exploit that fear is much worse.” – Lindzen wrote in an op-ed in the June 26, 2006 Wall Street Journal.

The omitted opinions (as opposed to the term known as full disclosure) are just the “tip of the melting iceberg”, Spero News breaks down the whole story that were just too inconvenient to share.

Here’s a new twist: The Gay Lesbian Alliance citing discrimination against heterosexual couples:

The Commission on Gender Equality has found that two guest houses in Cape Town catering only for homosexual men are within their rights, saying this accommodation is a “necessity in our democratic society”.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance lodged a complaint against two Amsterdam guest houses in the City Bowl and Sea Point more than a year ago, saying they had turned several people away because they were “men only” resorts.

The GLA cited discrimination against women, lesbians and heterosexual couples who, according to them, had lodged 107 complaints with the organisation.

The commission said the guest houses were “serving a legitimate interest in… that they seek to create a comfortable environment for gay men where they can express themselves freely“.

Planned Parenthood was disappointed with the Supreme Court decision to allow pro-life license plates, but vowed to continue to explore options to ban the plates.

Fifty-five percent of all proceeds from plates sold will go to “crisis pregnancy centers” across the state. Tennessee will join about a dozen other states that allow drivers to pay extra for the “Choose Life” specialty tags.

Zenit ran an article yesterday that is music to my ears. Benedict XVI has mentioned this over and over again. Any development of sacred music, to be authentically liturgical, must be an organic outgrowth of sacred polyphony and Gregorian chant. From the article:

“An authentic updating of sacred music cannot occur except in line with the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian Chant, and of sacred polyphony,” the Pontiff added.

“This is why,” Benedict XVI said, “in the musical field, as well as in that of other artistic forms, the ecclesial community has always promoted and supported those who investigate new expressive ways without rejecting the past, the history of the human spirit, which is also the history of its dialogue with God.”

We need to continually hear this; the more it is said the more likely it will be that people will listen and then believe it.

Does anyone know a U.S. bishop that might consider a ceremonial book burning of such offensive hymnals like GIA’s Gather? An event like that might serve as an historical milestone in the historical narrative of the post conciliar deformation of the liturgy followed by an authentic liturgical renewal.

“Wakefield Metropolitan District Council approved Wathey and Faunch as foster carers three years ago but within months they were assaulting boys from troubled homes, the court was told. The two were found guilty of abusing four boys aged between 8 and 14. “

It goes without saying, that not everyone who has same-sex attraction is at risk for being child molesters, but at the same time, the facts CANNOT be ignored. Men make up a vast majority of the child abusers. “Homosexuals are over represented in child sex offenses: Those among the 1 to 3 percent of the population that is sexually attracted to the same sex are committing up to one-third of the sex crimes against children.”

Who knows how “exact” these numbers are, but we need to carefully examine the overwhelming trend. As a society, we are accountable for protecting those who cannot protect themselves, and we do not have the right to gamble with an innocent life. Protecting orphans need to take precedence over the social pressure of being called a homophobe. It will be much easier to sleep at night after being verbally assaulted with slander, than to live with the fact that a child may needlessly be at risk because of a society’s distorted sense of tolerance . I mean, how bad can it really be to be called a homophobe for the sake of an innocent child?

This is just one of he many nuggets of wisdom, the “whopper” at Marquette University is teaching under his own authority. When it comes to his obedience to the local Bishop, he comments, “it puts the Bishop into the embarrassing and impossible position of judging scholars without the benefit of the appropriate expertise.”

You need to go here and here to read about this guy!

The “clergy” who are accusing Bishop O’Malley and other bishops of mounting a political compaign just so happens to be members of the political group called, “Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry“.

A group of clergy from the state’s leading religious denominations tomorrow will, for the first time, call on the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Massachusetts to stop its political campaign to revoke civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. These clergy say that the Catholic bishops’ ongoing campaign to deny legal rights to couples married by other denominations amounts to religious discrimination. The clergy will release an open letter to Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Roman Catholic bishops asking the Catholic hierarchy to respect religious freedom and for a constitutional amendment that would deny civil marriage rights to couples married by other denominations. The legislature will consider the amendment July 12 in a constitutional convention.

You’ve got to be kidding me? Maybe these two clergy members would be wise to follow their advice first. Watch out for that swinging BEAM!!!!!

Some cases of mouth cancer could be caused by a virus contracted during oral sex, scientists have warned.

It is being reported that the more older bothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be “gay”. Somehow, a canadian professor thinks these results “provide evidence that a prenatal mechanism, and not social and/or rearing factors, affects men’s sexual orientation development”.

Professor Bogaert suggested one explanation might be an immune reaction by the mother. In essence, her body builds up antibodies to male-specific molecules from past pregnancies that affect the developing brain of her foetus, shifting its sexual orientation. (WOW!!!)

Rather a stretch, to say the least. If anything, I think this points to a more environmental factor, but what do I know.

Professor Bogaert’s findings were greeted with caution yesterday by Roger Short, an expert in sexual orientation and evolution at the Melbourne Royal Women’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne.

Professor Short said he thought the immune reaction theory was “a bit of a pipe dream”.

“I won’t dispute the data, but when they try to delve into biology that sounds pretty far-fetched,” he said. There was “much more likely to be a sociological explanation”.

Best of luck to the Professor and his elusive brain immune, reacting, antibody, male specific molecules. There have been no links made to women and same sex attraction.

** quotes taken from original article link which has since expired

Zenit is running an article on a study just released looking at the interest in “marriage” of those who embrace an SSA liifestyle. The study was done by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy. Some of the findings:

So far the highest estimate of the proportion of homosexuals who have used the new laws to marry is in the American state of Massachusetts, with 16.7% tying the knot. But this seems to be an exception. In the Netherlands, where same-sex marriage has been established the longest, the percentage was far lower.

In April 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legally recognize marriages between two people of the same sex. From this date till the end of last year, 8,127 same-sex couples married in the Netherlands. Dutch survey data suggest that 2.8% of Dutch men and 1.4% of Dutch women are homosexuals. Assuming all same-sex partners who wedded in the Netherlands were residents, roughly 6.3% of homosexuals married by year-end 2005. The percentage, both here and in the following countries, includes all who were ever married, not necessarily the number of current marriages.

Belgium, in June 2003, followed the Netherlands. During the rest of that year, 1,708 same-sex couples married in Belgium. By year-end 2004 this increased to 2,204 couples. The authors did not find official estimates of the numbers of homosexuals in Belgium. If it were the same percentage as in the Netherlands, then roughly 4.7% of Belgian homosexuals had married by year-end 2004.

The Canadian Community Health Survey conducted by Statistics Canada first asked about sexual orientation in 2003. This resulted in 1.3% of men and 0.7% of women aged 18 to 59 identifying themselves as homosexuals. Of the seven provinces that have had same-sex marriage for at least one year, between 0.15% and 14% of Canadian homosexuals entered such marriages.

Information from newspaper reports and data collected by Gallagher and Baker suggest that the number of same-sex marriages, after an initial burst, appears to be decreasing with each passing year. This is clearest in the Netherlands. In 2001, from April to December, 2,414 couples entered into same-sex marriages. In 2002, the number of new same-sex marriages dropped to 1,838. By 2003 this decreased to 1,499. In 2004 there was a further fall, to 1,210. Recently released statistics put the number for 2005 at 1,166 couples.

All of the available data suggests that there is really, very little authentic interest in same-sex “marriage,” or even long term relationships among those who practice an SSA lifestyle. Now I am sure that there are those who hope against hope that “marriage”, if they could just find the right person, would heal the emotional and lifestyle dysfunction that they perennially experience. Unfortunately, this elusive “right person” is not out there. Those who submit to their SSA temptations cannot avoid the damaging psycho-emotional effects.

Nevertheless, it seems that those who hope for such a relationship are in the minority given these data. Something else is going on. It seems to me what we are seeing is the phenomena that occurs when one subliminally recognizes he is living in a problematic manner and so he needs continual reaffirmation from others that he is “o.k.” This, I think, is the explanation for the heated rhetoric one hears from SSA activists. Some actually need more than reaffirmation. They are obsessed with silencing those voices that remind them of the truth. I pray that they all come to accept the truth of the human person and eventually find comfort and healing through the Sacraments of Christ’s Church.

Read the whole article:

Daniel Vitz has an excellent article over at Godspy on Gandhi and his view on human sexuality including marriage and artificial contraception. Many would be surprised to find out that the darling of those of the politically liberal persuasion had views antithetical to theirs when it comes to matters of marriage, family, and sex. Vitz does an excellent job of reviewing Gandhi’s life at is relates to the development of his thought in these matters. Here are some interesting snips from the Vitz article (italicized snips are all Gandhi):

It is an insult to the fair sex to put up her case in support of birth-control by artificial methods. As it is, man has sufficiently degraded her for his lust, and artificial methods, no matter how well meaning the advocates may be, will still further degrade her. I urge the advocates of artificial methods to consider the consequences. Any large use of the methods is likely to result in the dissolution of the marriage bond and in free love…Birth control to me is a dismal abyss.

He believed that woman “should realize her majesty and train herself to say ‘No’ when she means it,” and that man “must understand that woman is his companion and helpmate in life, and not a means of satisfying his carnal desire.” In Gandhi’s view, contraception made it easier to objectify women, and would poison a true understanding of their worth.

Once, in a debate with a birth control advocate, his opponent asked Gandhi whether he would advocate artificial birth control in specific cases where the health of the mother might be at risk. His reply? “No. One exception will lead to another till it finally becomes general.” Instead, Gandhi recommends that in these rare situations couples live apart if they are truly incapable of continence—a situation he was not ever willing to concede lightly. This statement was typical of Gandhi’s approach to these hard cases. “A wise judge will not give the wrong decision in the face of a hard case. He will allow himself to appear to have hardened his heart, because he knows that truest mercy lies in not making a bad law.”

“Artificial methods [of contraception] are like putting a premium on vice. They make man and woman reckless…”

“birth controllers turn vice into virtue. When sexual indulgence is regarded a virtue, it will be the undoing of man.”

If mutual consent makes a sexual act moral, whether within marriage or without, and, by parity of reasoning, even between members of the same sex, the whole basis of sexual morality is gone and nothing but misery and defect awaits the youth of the country… It is futile to hope that the use of contraceptives will be restricted to the mere regulation of progeny. There is hope for a decent life only so long as the sexual act is definitely related to the conception of precious life. This rules out of court perverted sexuality and, to a lesser degree, promiscuity. Divorce of the sexual act from its natural consequence must lead to hideous promiscuity and condonation, if not endorsement, of unnatural vice.

No word seems to be more abused to-day than the word ‘Natural”… Indeed, if we were to put man in the same category as the brute, many things could be proved to come under the description ‘natural’. But if they belong to two different species, not everything that is natural to the brute is natural to man…Man does not live by bread alone, as the brute does. He uses his reason to worship God and to know Him, and regards the attainment of that knowledge as summum bonum of life. The brute, if he can be said to worship God, does so involuntarily. The desire to worship God is inconceivable in the brute, while man can voluntarily worship even Satan. It must, therefore, be, and is, man’s nature to know and find God. When he worships Satan, he acts contrary to his nature.

Gandhi could have been writing for a Catholic bishop, and there are some today who ought to heed his wisdom in these matters. Those who extol his pacifist ideals ought to honestly consider his sage advice, given to him through natural law, in matters sexual as well. Go read the whole story.

The combination of genetics and environmental factors have impact on individual behaviors. New research on aggressive and sexual behaviors presented at International Congress of Neuroendocrinology June 19-22.

Genetics appear to be predictive only if men have hostile attitudes and fathers who never completed high school. Moreover, a genetic predisposition toward aggression could be rebuffed by a mother who nurtures her infant, suggests another study involving primates.

To understand what brings about arousal of the central nervous system leading to sexual behavior, scientists have had to discover specific biochemical reactions within a select group of neurons in the hypothalamus. The process involves a complement of sex steroid hormones, perhaps as many as 120 genes and a host of environmental variables (not least among them, arousing stimuli and a suitable mate).

AlloDerm is manufactured by LifeCell:

Australia’s drug regulator has warned health departments and selected doctors that Australians may have been implanted with a medical product made from stolen human body parts.

The bones, ligaments and skin – many of them aged and, due to the potential for infection, unsuitable for transplant – were traded to legitimate firms, which transformed them into products used to cure back pain, incontinence and other medical conditions.

Benedict XVI’s Wednesday audience catecheses on the Church continues with three lessons on St. Peter (May 17, May 24, and June 7). B16 has been devoting some time to the nature of the Church, especially her hierarchical structure, by discussing its foundation on the Apostles and what is meant by Apostolic succession. With the May 17th audience, he now is looking at the Apostles individually. And so appropriately, he begins with a look at St. Peter.

In the first catechesis, Benedict reminds us that he is talking about the Church in terms of a family, and now he looks at Peter’s place in it. He shows Peter as the leading figure among the Apostles. Unlike the homilies one often hears these days which like to belittle Peter and his lack of faith, B16 is much more fair to him by recognizing his strengths (trust, sincerity, and generosity) as well as his weaknesses (impetuosity and strong will). Peter is the leader and so he also receives the most correction from Jesus (e.g. “get behind me Satan” Mk 8:33). Benedict shows from Peter’s experience, that the journey of faith is an up and down adventure; it is not a one time statement. If it is that way for a man who has enough faith to walk on water and still run away then we ought not be too comfortable in our illusions of self-sufficiency. It also ought not scandalize us too much when we see bishops or even the Pope fail.

The second catechesis focuses on Peter’s strength and his openness to the Holy Spirit (e.g. his response to Jesus’ “who do you say I am” in Mark 8 and his response to Jesus’ “will you also leave me” in John 6) which are followed by Peter’s weakness in denying the condemned Jesus. Benedict points out in John’s Gospel, how Peter is called to confront his weaknesses when Jesus asks Peter by the Sea of Galilee if he loves Him. The term John uses to describe Jesus’ question about Peter’s love is agape. Agape is the strongest, selfless and unconditional love. Peter responds and uses a term for love that show he now recognizes his weakness of faith. He tells Jesus that He already knows that Peter’s love is still only one of filias. As with Peter’s triple denial on Good Friday evening, Peter is called to thrice admit His total insufficiency without God’s grace. Peter is cut to the quick but he now knows what it means to be a leader in Christ’s Church. Peter responds three times about his yet insufficient love. In response, each time Jesus tells Peter to guard and tend His family, His flock. Benedict suggests that through this exchange, we can see that when we put our trust in the Church and the successor to St. Peter, we realize that from the beginning that this trust is not ultimately in a human institution or a human person, and not in our own faith. Rather we recognize that as with Peter, even when we have leaders with the right heart and earnest will, they will sometimes fail. Rather, our trust is in the divine institution, the Church, because She is guaranteed by its Head.

The final session on St. Peter looks at the significance of a name change in biblical times. Jesus changes Simon’s name (wavering) to Peter (rock). This name change reflects almost an ontological change in the person. The change also reflects a new mission; Peter is no longer a fisherman in his father’s employ but a fisherman in the employ of Christ. In the audience, B16 shows that Scripture consistently shows that Peter has primacy from the start (the only exception is Acts 15) and that both he and the other disciples recognize this (e.g. Peter is always first of the three who accompany Jesus in most significant events such as the Transfiguration, Jesus prays only that Peter’s faith will be saved in order to strengthen the brethren [Luke 22:30-31], the tax collectors in the Temple go up to Peter to ask about the Temple tax and Jesus has Peter pay it only for Himself and Peter, etc.). This primacy has a significant connotation when we recognize Jesus as the Son of God, a term which refers to the king in the line of David and this Davidic King is the promised Anointed One. Peter is the King’s prime-minister.

B16 treats the triple metaphors in Matthew 16: the Rock, the keys, and the authority to bind and loose. He shows the manner in which Christianity has always understood them. In other words, this three metaphors establish St. Peter with the primacy of authority over the Church. B16 goes on to point out that giving Peter the mission of strengthening the brethren in the context of the Last Supper reveals the ultimate meaning of his primacy: “Peter must be the custodian of the communion with Christ; he must guide in the communion with Christ so that the net will not tear but sustain the great universal communion.”

Peter is the sign and instrument of Church communion/unity with her Head, Christ. As St. Ambrose of Milan wrote in the fifth century, Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia (where is Peter, there is the Church).

Everyone probably has heard about what happened in early May in the Colorado state legislature as they were planning to debate a resolution honoring Planned Parenthood on thier 90th anniversary in the state. For those who may not have, here is the story about a courageous politician (there are still a few out there) who decided to put a face to what they were planning to debate.

He invited a young woman, Gianna Jessen, who survived her mother’s attempt to abort her and now suffers from cerebral palsy because of it, to sing the national anthem to open the session at which the debate would be held. Gianna apparently has an angelic voice and the entire legislature was taken with her singing. I suppose when Gianna informed them as to why she was disabled, it must have taken the wind out of the sails of those who wanted to congratulate PP for their “service” to humanity…by killing and maiming them.

Read the entire story!