Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

For you say, “I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,” and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. - Revelation 3:17

This one goes a leap beyond the believable I think, even for the most fervent Catholic haters. We become defiled through our desire for revenge. Forgiveness is an act of the will, a gift to another which comes from sorrow.

Atheist, Jeremy Hall claims that pressure within the Army to believe in God is so strong, it got to the point “I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist.” Hall, a recent atheist convert and school drop out, plans on leaving the Army next year and also filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He insists, “I’m not in it for cash, I want no one else to go what I went through.” He employed the assistance of the notoriously anti-christian organization , The Military Religious Freedom Foundation to represent him.

“Our new Federal lawsuit will show the almost incomprehensible national security risks to America and the world as a result of the destruction of the wall separating Church and State in the United States armed forces. The United States military is actively engaged in a pernicious and pervasive pattern and practice of unconstitutional rape of the precious religious freedoms of our honorable and noble sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines, national guard, reservists and veterans. This evil is a noxious, institutional force-feeding of fundamentalist Christianity by our nation’s military command structure in complete defiance of the United States Constitution.”

The truth behind our motivations are very rarely initially understood. Given that faith in God doesn’t depend on knowledge as much as with understanding, atheism can never be the conclusion of a scientific or philosophical theory, but a premeditated act of the will. One cannot disprove that which isn’t learned, but received. God will not allow Himself to be revealed to the proud through theory and logic, but to those willing to seek Him with a sincere heart.

I believe the conversion to atheism has less to do with one’s intellectual discovery, and more to do with a calculated cop out based on a human weaknesses (sin). A term known as cognitive dissonance can be explained as the feelings we all experience when our beliefs and behaviors don’t match up. The most powerful type of dissonance are those which are based on our self-image when we experience feelings such as foolishness, shame, embarrassment, and guilt. In order to avoid these uncomfortable and most undesirable feelings about ourselves, we are left with three choices; we either change our behaviors (faith, religion), justify and rationalize our behaviors by changing the conflicting beliefs (atheism/agnostic), or justify our behaviors by adding new cognitions (heretics). Proof once again that more sin is the punishment of our sins.

“Once I taste of the spirit, all carnal things become meaningless” - The Ascent of Mount Carmel by Saint John of the Cross

“How often have I yearned to gather you as a mother hen gathers her young under her wing, but you refused Me.” - Mt 7:9-11

The notorious 80 year old Marxist artist Hrdlicka had his most obscene work removed from the Dommuseum of Vienna. As with most of the Utopian Narcissists who blame religion for the world’s problems while pushing their own brand of religion on the rest of us, hope for a future world without restraint, where the human person and condition can be reduced to ideological talking points and slogans - Hrdlicka, like a window into his soul, attacks the most sacred Sacrament with a sexual perversion most begotten by his “marxist” god which has incidentally killed more than 100 million people during the twentieth century.

Good, short article at the CERC called Totaled Utopia on the always angry and frustrated totalitarian left’s attempt to create a Marxist heaven on earth.

A month or so ago I ran into a lady at a pro-life gathering peddling a stack of yellow flyers, promoting a Christian pro-life film “like” Bella, called “Noelle” and while enduring my brief but painful inquisition, it took her no more than 15 seconds to convince me something wasn’t right about her and/or the film as I tend to get a tad suspicious when a disclaimer is followed by a but, as was the case of a pro-life advocate, who felt “we” needed to stop judging women who were getting abortions. I was then introduced to Noëlle, a film about a priest - girl - pregnant - abortion…., but we mustn’t get defensive - it’s Christian, it’s pro-life, it’s all about forgiveness!! She admittedly didn’t know the details of the film, but none-the-less, continued to walk among the crowed promoting it.

I admit it, I do get defensive and tend to over react to what appears to be this relentless stereotyping agenda of Catholic priests and the Church by the media, I just get so sick of it, so I called her on it. “But don’t be so quick to judge, it’s a Christian film and it’s pro-life!!” Look as I could, I never found anything on-line that could definitively identify this movie as being anti-Catholic, until yesterday.

In short:

If you’re in the Catholic camp, it’s a (1) anti-Catholic smear movie which (2) denigrates Catholicism .

If you’re in the NOT Catholic group, and you (1) liked ‘Bella,’ You’ll Love ‘Noëlle’ it’s a (2) powerhouse with a message to heal millions, (3) which offers Inspirational Message of Forgiveness and Second Chances for the Christmas Season.

Apparently, for some christians the only thing better than a pro-life film for the holidays is a pro-life film flavored with fumbling Catholics .

I’ll try to be careful here, but all this brings out an issue that came to light as we tried to bring together the pro-life community for the 40 Days for Life. We were optimistic and enthusiastic about including the Protestant community in the campaign, but despite our pleading among the mega churches and abundance of pro-life Christians in our fine city, we had absolutely zero participation. From what I perceived and heard, it was more important that it NOT be Catholic than it being pro-life, or maybe they were just too busy preparing for the Pro-Life event of the year - the one hour long Life Chain. Then again, if they came knocking on my door, would I be open to support their pro-life endeavors? I hope I would be. In the name of fairness, there were also plenty of Catholic churches who were not receptive of supporting the cause.

Anyway, I heard the movie stunk, hooray for Christian unity and Merry Christmas!

Militant atheist Philip Pullman came out swinging after hearing the news of the American League calling for a boycott of his anti-catholic film, The Golden Compass. He insisted the reason behind the movie was to attract readers and for, “people to be allowed to make up their own mind” while flatly denying being a militant atheist with any sort of agenda. He proceeded to go on the offensive with a condescending rant aimed directly at Mr. Donohoe and other Catholics calling for a boycott:

“To regard it as this Donohoe man has said - that I’m a militant atheist, and my intention is to convert people - how the hell does he know that?” he said, in an interview with Newsweek magazine.

“Why don’t we trust readers? Why don’t we trust film goers? Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world.”

Perhaps the Catholic “nitwits” suspicions were prompted from the words which came directly out of the mouth of Pullman himself. The Washington Post and others have reported that he has claimed as one of his key goals,……… to “undermine the basis” of Christian belief.

Well,… to regard it as this Pullman man has said - that there are “nitwits” who would actually take a conniving man at his word- it causes me to shake my head with sorrow of the wickedness of exposing unsuspecting children to an atheistic fantasy of systematically destroying God, all through the doings of a pompous and self-righteous fraud. Although it sure looks as though he’s having a blast reading to the monkey and all those kids!!!

Credits (Story and Image) - TimesOnLine

Teen Wins Legal Battle for H.S. Pro-Life Club - 16-year-old Stephanie Hoffmeier started a  Pro-Life club in a public high school which attracted approximately 20 people at it’s first meeting. After originally denying her request, school officials quickly conceded they were wrong after discovering she had filed a law suit. Hoffmeier said her legal fight was a matter of equity. (more)

Atheist Gun Man Pummeled by Church Choir - 65-year-old atheist armed with a gun terrorized a Catholic church before the evening Sunday Mass. While yelling that there was no God and no religion he assaulted a priest after calling him a child molester and had to be taken down by members of the Choir. (more)

Britney Spears, following in the footsteps of her mentor Madonna, has chosen to use the Catholic Church as a launching pad for some cheap, controversial publicity to market her new album release. While Spears posed in several pictures that depict her seducing a priest in the confessional, you have the usual suspects in the press eagerly anticipating a reaction from Church representatives. In walks William Donahue (for whom I have respect along with the belief that he does as best he can) of the Catholic League who proceeds to launch a bunker buster Scud by taking a personal swipe at Spears.

The conundrum on how to fulfil our obligation to protect the Church from slander and abuse while not feeding in to the hands of the desperate publicity hounds and those who take joy in wounding the Church is nothing short of frustrating. In my opinion, a great place to start would be to focus mainly on the issue at hand and not on the perps themselves.  Given the fact that there will always be attacks at some level aimed at the Church, we must not only do our best to avoid doing any collateral damage which may feed the fire of anti-catholicism but also train ourselves to remain calm, couragous and sincere in our defense of Catholics and the truths within the Church. Easier said than done, I know. That’s not to say that from time to time I haven’t indulged in the guilty pleasures of seeing Donahue giving them hell.

If misery no longer existed, I sometimes wonder what some people would do with their lives. Despair is the tool of the devil, and a particular disciple of despair named Jan Egesborg has dedicated his life as an artist to dealing with the misery of world the only way he knows how–by spreading it. The idea behind Surrend.org, his website, is to make fun of the world’s powerful men and crazy ideological conflicts by using the street as it’s exhibition space with stickers and posters to express themselves. His latest project was created specifically for the Polish speaking Catholics as he slandered John Paul II by placing him in hell with notorious Nazi’s. Egesborg commented that the initial response from Poles has been a strong reaction to his “satirical” webpage, “for Poles it is just as controversial as the Mohamed cartoon was for Muslims,” he said.

Based on his exploitation of real victims of repression and abuse, this guy revels in his own vain glory while at the same time he redistributes his own anger and resentment on to those whom he despises. Join us in congratulating Jan as today’s C-L-S Misery Loves Company poster child.

Historian Sergio Luzzatto’s latest book The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy has deduced that Padre Pio faked his stigmata through pouring carbolic acid on his hands. A secret Vatican document found by Luzzatto revealed how a pharmacist remembered a young Padre Pio buying four grams of carbolic acid in 1919. The testimony was originally presented to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Pasquale Gagliardi, as proof that Padre Pio caused his own stigmata with acid.

What I suspect is conveniently omitted from Luzatto’s novel is a fair disclosure on the truth surrounding Archbishop Gagliardi’s “veritable satanic war” waged against Padre Pio. For what ever reason, the Archbishop was bent on sabotaging St. Pio’s ministry through baseless accusations of sexual and monetary improprieties and soliciting falsified letters which were then forwarded to the Vatican. When in truth, it was the archbishop himself who was the center of controversy which included public accusations of sexual molestation, unchastity and faulty accounting errors, in addition to his diocese being infected with continued and habitual pederasty as well as acts of cleric sodomy. The Vatican eventually removed him from his diocese.

Saint Pio never retaliated nor ever criticized Archbishop Gagliardi and immediately said Mass for him after his death. It is said that the angriest he was ever seen about the archbishop’s attacks was against one of his own supporters who had verbally attacked Gagliardi - another fact that will most likely never come to light in Luzzatto’s book which has the stench of anti-catholicism which far exceeds that of carbolic acid.

Attorney John Aretakis’ tactics of exploiting sex abuse victims as a means of inflicting damage to the Church has been fined $10,000 by a federal judge for what was deemed a frivolous lawsuit, using the case to advance his own agenda. Aretakis was representing a woman in a pro bono lawsuit against the Church when he was found guilty for misconduct, an act for which he’s been previously sanctioned, for having no basis for any of the causes of action that are alleged in his false complaints. His common practice (eerily similar to those of SNAP) between the filing of a complaint and publicized press conferences support the inference that Mr. Aretakis’s intention is to injure.

The judge said that Aretakis’ complaint was “sloppy and filled with mistakes, for example, it names a dead man as a defendant”.

That intent is confirmed by Mr. Aretakis’s statements in which he describes himself as an activist for clergy sexual abuse victims and is quoted as intending to “continue to humiliate and embarrass the Church” by bringing incidents of sexual abuse to light, even if he cannot bring them in court.

This intent to humiliate and embarrass is further manifested in the amended complaint which is littered with wholly irrelevant, inflammatory, and embarrassing facts concerning defendants and non-defendants alike that have no bearing on the actions brought, such as ‘it was widely known that he [one of the defendants] was an alcoholic.’ Accordingly, the Court finds that sanctions are necessary in this case”. The $8,000 fine represents $2,000 to be paid to each of the four law firms representing the defendants.

Sadly, this circus which surrounds the sex abuse crisis is merely a mirage of justice and has allowed those with the likes of Aretakis to steal from individuals in the Church who are no more culpable of the crimes than the victims themselves as well as providing a public forum on which to inflict unjust harm to the Church. To think that this is an isolated incident among Catholic antagonists is naive and unfortunately will continue to occur until someone in the position of authority stands up to the bullies and says no more.

In Transylvania and throughout Romania, Catholics who lost more than 2,000 churches to the Russian Orthodox church after the Second World War when the Russians banned Catholicism now want their churches back.  In most cases, the Orthodox church had said no, so Catholics have had to set up chapels in local villages, using borrowed rooms, basements, schools and even open fields to hold Mass.  The Orthodox Church is a powerful force in today’s Romania and as a result, a total of 2,200 Catholic properties remained in Orthodox hands and court actions by Catholics to recover the properies, including houses and land, has been met with very limited success.

In January, Romania was admitted to the European Union after promising to respect the rule of law and consequently some properties have been returned to Catholics which now have the Orthodox up in arms, resisting with anger towards the Catholics and vice-versa.

Apparently, Catholics are not the only ones to complain against the strong arm of the Orthodox as reported by the United States’ state department of the church’s campaigning against other Christian faiths. Allegedly, there have been cases of Orthodox priests inciting the local population against Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Baptist Church, the Greek Catholic Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Meanwhile, the Orthodox church have their hands full of battling accusations that it collaborated with the former Communists.

For the Mccanns, in their darkest hours of wondering the fate of their 4 year old daughter, it was their faith that kept them going…..that was until the Pope yanked his support and pulled their images from the Vatican website. Get the story here.

In their dark hours, it was faith that kept them going. They had nowhere else to go.

They took their torment to the very seat of their faith - to the Vatican, where the Pope held their hands and told them he would pray for them. They seemed to gain great strength from that.

But now, in their hour of need, like Pontius Pilate, he has washed his hands of them. A whiff of guilt, and the Catholic hierarchy distance themselves. And this from an organization built on guilt and hypocrisy.

Ouch! Whether or not this obviously bigoted author believes her ill written tripe about the Pope isn’t the point of my post. What I found most glaring was the common thread (of which some of us are guilty of from time to time) of her prideful and self righteous hypocrisy. In this case, her condemnation of the media (and Pope) was for the exact same sin of which she, herself, is guilty. As judge and jury, her unfounded mindset of guilt and judgment blindly and without cause - condemns the Pope, than proceeds to criticize the press for simply duplicating her deeds of prejudging others. In fact, she says it best in her own words, like a self fulfilling prophecy, when she writes, “there is a condemnation mindset creeping in that is sickening to watch.”

Australian artist, Priscilla Bracks, insisted that her Jesus_ bin Laden “art”, was not meant to offend but a medium in which to promote discussions and to ask questions about how we think about our world and what is accepted and what is not accepted. Bracks is apparently another victim of the radical christian right who attack anyone who believes differently than ourselves. Imagine the shock of Bracks being blind sided over the controversy of Jesus morphing to a terrorist.

Her explanation of choosing Jesus and bin-Laden for the subjects of her “art”:

When you observe these two people, Osama Bin Ladin and Jesus, their ethics could not be more different. But they were both pursued by two of the world’s most powerful armies – the US and the Roman armies. Jesus is clearly defined by history, but I am interested in how history will treat the image of Osama.

This work has quite an open text so people are likely to read the image in many different ways. Some have mentioned they see it as a juxtaposition of good and evil, whilst others are interested in its comment on how iconic figures are created.

I guess someone should have let Bracks in the little fact that her main premise for comparing Jesus to bin-Laden is grossly inaccurate, as it was the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees who were pursuing Jesus. The Jews had NO Army and were under the control of the Romans who were at best, indifferent towards Jesus. Which brings us to the point of asking why is Jesus really being compared to bin-Laden? Although I have no way of knowing the heart and mind of the artist, she must either lack social awareness and sensitivity, or she’s ignorant and reckless towards research that goes into art work, or she’s lying.

As children, how many of us didn’t enjoy any opportunity to provoke or take a jab those who we did not agree with nor like? I wonder how the crowd who supports her “art”work would be just as supportive if say, she morphed Margarett Sanger with Hitler or Stalin?

The winner is … Fordham University, that little beacon of Jesuit controversy, and fresh off the heels of it’s US News & World Report ranking of the 70th best college in the country, continues to woo critics. The judges were not only impressed by the academics, but the school’s commitment “to prepare us as people with strong morals, values and ethical behavioral standards”.

Unfortunately, the morals, values and ethical behavioral standards of Fordham look to be notoriously secular, and consequently anti-catholic. It’s (Fordham legal dept.) public support for “gay” marriage, annual Vagina monologue presentations, pro-abortion graduation commencement speakers, and “gay” alliance associations, among others, may be hot for a series on MTV or Bravo, but they’re not Catholic.

It’s my suspicions that most Catholic colleges/universities have administrators and scholars who may have a underlying personal stake in fostering the culture of dissent. Both personal and professional lives have been defined by and built upon the same deep-seated beliefs that have put them at odds with the teachings of the Church, so the roots of the conflict between Catholic academia and Church authority are deeply personal. If only Fordham would amend their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint by 30% over the next 10 years, to include dissenting professors and administrators- our Catholic universities could have BOTH - less yellow AND more green.

Evangelical pastor Tim Rude and supporter of presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has since apologized for his anti-catholic statements made in e-mails ,which have been in circulation for the last 2 weeks, aimed at presidential candidate Sam Brownback’s conversion to Catholicism in 2002. His e-mail was sent to Brownback’s evangelical supporters with the hope of garnering support for his candidate based on anti-Catholic prejudice to attack the Senator’s “discernment” and character.

“Huckabee is an evangelical. He (Brownback) has not learned how to speak to evangelicals; i.e. Bush 41 & 43. He is one of us. I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002. Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s. I don’t know if this fact is widely known among evangelicals who are supporting Brownback.”

When confronted, he defended his actions by stating “All I was trying to say is that Protestants should vote for Protestants.” Deal W. Hudson has details of the apology letter and more detailed information on his blog.

According to Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, dangerous. Saying the Church’s ‘head in the sand approach” is missing out on an important opportunity to send a message of lifelong safe practices to it’s young, Catholic participants. Quite shockingly, the Catholic Church is choosing not to follow the advice of Rhiannon or in the foot steps of the 2000 Olympics, the Gay Games and the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in promoting condom use among it’s attendees.

Rhiannon has been described to be somewhat of a Stalinist, but without the sense of humor.  She was instrumental in having charges brought against Cardinal Pell for instructing Catholic parliamentary members on the Church’s stance on embryonic stem cell research.

Leaders of Northern Ireland’s anti-Catholic Orange Order, are requesting negotiations with Catholics after police restricted, for the 10th straight year, one of the group’s major Protestant/Reformation themed marches through a predominately Catholic town. Since Northern Ireland was established as a part of the United Kingdom in 1921, the Catholic minority has understandibly opposed the tradition of Orange parades designed to intimidate and insult them with “kick the pope” bands and songs with overtly anti-Catholic themes. The last major standoff ended in 1998 after an alleged Protestant arsonist burned to death three Catholic children during riots in another town.

Apparently, the organization has changed the marketing strategy of the confrontational march by turning it into a festival of prosperity called Orangefest.

A lovely thought. They’ll be marching in time with their arms swinging, as some onlookers shout angry abuse from the pavement. There will be hatred in the eyes of some of the marchers too, as they sing a song like “The Billy Boys” and direct it at the Catholics whose homes they’re passing: “We’re up to our necks in Fenian blood … surrender or you’ll die.”

And why would any Catholic be skeptical of negotiating with a notoriously anti-catholic organization who had just delivered a symbolic letter of protest by men packing swords?

According to Robin Williams in his interview for the movie License to Wed, men who are celibate and hear the sins of others are prone to abusing pubescent children. I’ll give Mr. Williams the benefit of the doubt that this is not a potential sexual projection but I am curious as to what, if any, thought went into his claim.  Did he come to this conclusion through logically reasoning from certain facts to evident conclusions before embarking on his calumnious accusations against countless good men who have sacrificed so much in their lives for their commitment to serving God and others?  What are we to think of the Catholic Church who would employ either sex abusers or deceitful men who violate their vows of celibacy?

When asked if he had any concerns about having his role as a Protestant minister with a 10-year-old sidekick, he responds.

That’s why he’s a Protestant. If you had a Catholic priest with a small boy, already they’d be going “What’s up?” “What’s the boy?” “For the weekends.” You know it’s been a difficult thing for the Catholic Church to deal with after all these years when they have the Divine Witness Protection Program. Find a priest. It’s like three-card priest. “Find the priest, find the pedophile, find the priest. Here we go. Where is he? Right there. Here’s the priest, here’s the pedophile. Whoops! Found him! Move him over to another parish. Okay. Find him!” That’s why a lot of parishes don’t have Little League programs anymore. That’s why they went with a Protestant right away.

It might be something you look at for the Catholic Church to think about – maybe losing the whole celibacy thing. It’s a difficult thing when you realize that first of all you have to give up sex and then they say, “Okay. We’re going to put you in a small box and every week people are going to come and go “Bless me father for I have sinned.” “What have you done my son?” “Last night I was with two Philippine twins and it was slip and slide.” “Oh really? Keep going.” And then they’re going to take you from that and then put you next to pubescent children. It’s like getting out of Jenny Craig and saying “Where you gonna work?” “Haagen Dazs.” In the big picture that’s why he’s a Protestant and has been married and has some perspective on sexuality. Because it must be very difficult being a priest and having to talk about sex — kind of like Quasimodo is a chiropractor. I guess it works.

Only Williams knows for sure why he would make such malicious accusations against men who respond to the call to be priests, but it’s the same kind of illogical ignorance that fuels hate and prejudice towards other groups of people who look or believe differently than themselves. Ignorance may be bliss for the perpetrator but it’s usually at the expense of the victims. May God bless all of our priests.

Two couples will have to pay restitution for their part in destroying a century old marble altar during a Sunday Mass. After communion at a 11 a.m. Mass, a man and woman came forward, yelling at the parishioners calling them idolaters before turning over the valuable altar. Two of the individuals will do a little jail time and all are responsible for paying $11,958 for the physical damage in the church. The only voice of remorse came from the former Catholic in the group who was sorry that it had to come to this before anyone could actually see what they were doing is wrong, “And they still don’t see it“.

I just tore up a table that people saw as an idol, kneeling before it and bowing before an idol. “It was so monotone,” Turgeon said. “There was no passion, fire, reverence. Through the prayer they were just eyeballing everyone else and saying the words. They have no heart. That’s not love. (The Bible says) Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”

“We are in End Times,” Wagner said. “This is Armageddon, the end of all things. Basically, what we’re in right now is the appearance of the anti-christ who we believe to be Pope Benedict (XVI). . . . That’s the main reason we chose the Catholic church. It didn’t have anything to do with the people in it.”

Incidentally, the couple who attacked the altar are recognized as a common law couple explain that they believe “God spoke to him, telling both of us to go call out the evils of the Catholic church. We are followers of Christ.”

Saint John the Baptist in Hay Al-Athoriyeen was attacked by muslim extremists, killing several of the security guards who were protecting the church and Saint Jacob in Hay al Asya was vandalized and subsequently forcibly turned into a mosque. The attacks coincided with the funeral Mass for Father Ganni which was being celebrated in Karamles by Archbishop Faraj Rahho of Mosul. The situation for any Catholics who remain in Iraq has clearly hit an all time low. Please pray for all persecuted Christians, especially those in Iraq.