Category Archives: Catholic Church

by | October 4, 2013 · 10:30 pm

Obama will arrest priests for celebrating Mass?

Every time I think the Obama Democrats have hit bottom, they find some way to dig their Hell Pit a little deeper.

The U.S. military is roughly 25% Catholic, but Catholic priests make up only about 8% of the active duty Chaplain Corps.

The 275,000 Catholic men and women in uniform (and their spouses and children) are served by only 234 active duty priests.

The military deals with this priest shortage by hiring local civilian priests to service bases where an active duty Catholic Chaplain is not present.

These priests are among those government personnel the Obama Democrats refuse to pay during the government shutdown.

But it goes further. Obama Democrats are not just refusing to pay civilian priests; they are also threatening to ARREST them if they even try to VOLUNTEER.

Military communion

Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, issued a statement today saying,

“The President’s strategy during the slowdown, just as during the sequestration, is to create as much pain as possible. However, this action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.

I just emailed the Archbishop of the AMS and said I hoped he planned to encourage his priests to defy Obama.

The WWII vets said NO and won. If priests just show up at every base as usual, they’ll win that as well.

Bishop Tutu - Choosing sides

Sources:

ABOUT the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS)

  • AMS was created as an independent archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 1985 as the only Catholic jurisdiction responsible for endorsing and granting faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military and VA Medical Centers.
  • AMS-endorsed chaplains serve at more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29 countries, making the AMS the nation’s only global archdiocese. AMS-endorsed chaplains also serve at 153 VA Medical Centers throughout the U.S.
  • The AMS service population also includes American Catholic civilians working for the federal government in 134 countries, but currently, due to limited resources, the AMS cannot adequately serve this population.
  • Worldwide, an estimated 1.8 million Catholics depend on the AMS to meet their spiritual and sacramental needs.
  • For more information on the Archdiocese for the Military Services, visit http://www.milarch.org, the only official Web site for Catholics in the military and for the Cause of Father Vincent Capodanno, MM.

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Filed under Armed Forces, Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Democrats, Religious Liberty

by | September 30, 2013 · 5:12 pm

April 27, 2014: Canonizations in Rome

Pope JP II - Your move Batman

Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be declared Saints by Pope Francis next spring on the Feast of Divine Mercy.

Church rules governing the process for beatification and canonization ordinarily require the confirmation of 2 miracles: the first before a candidate is beatified, and a 2nd subsequent miracle after the beatification to fulfill the requirements for canonization.

The point of these miracles is to ensure that God wants these people canonized, since it is He who performs miracles, not the saints.

Saints are held up to the faithful as examples, so the Congregation for the Causes of Saints begins by being very careful who is even considered for beatification. There is extensive research into the person’s life and writings, interviews with survivors, etc.

The Church appoints people to act as the Devil’s advocate and argue against the candidate and any reported miracles.

The miracles leading to the canonization of Pope John Paul II include a French nun healed of Parkinson’s disease and a Costa Rican woman healed of a brain aneurysm.

Netflix has three pages of movies about JPII. I’ve seen these three and can highly recommend them.

Pope JP II movie recommends

Sources:

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Filed under Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II

by | September 30, 2013 · 4:31 pm

My friend was healed of cancer at Lourdes

I used to be part of the RCIA Core Team in my parish. At our end of term picnic, one of the older ladies kind of called us all to attention and said, “I’ve never talked about this publicly before, but I think it’s time. Thirteen years ago, I was healed of cancer at Lourdes.” It was an amazing story.

She had had small malignant tumors on her face removed twice, but the cancer had come back and her doctor told her the next surgery was going to leave her disfigured. She showed us the scarring from the first surgeries. On the left side of her chin, next to her lower lip was a big patch of kind of shiny skin. I’d never noticed it, but when she pointed it out, it was easy to see.

The new tumor was going to mean taking out part of her lip, yet she was apparently quite calm about it, only asking they delay the date until after she got back from a trip she’d promised to take with a friend who was nervous of traveling alone. The trip was to the Marian Shrine at Lourdes, site of numerous miraculous healings. Yet somehow, my friend never thought to go for herself, just to be a companion to her friend.

When they got there, her friend wanted her to go into the baths, which she didn’t care about doing, but again, for her friend, she went down the steps. She said they had two volunteer companions in the waters to help each person down the steps, then walk across to the other side of the pool which I gathered was about chest high on this little lady. Then they dunked her completely under, walked her back and up the steps where more volunteers waited with towels.

As she went up the steps, the ladies in the water and out were jabbering excitedly (probably in French) and pointing and poking at her. She was TOTALLY DRY. Her hair, her clothes, as soon as it rose above the level of the water, it was totally dry! Funnily enough, she didn’t think much of it!

The next morning, she was sitting on her bed waiting for her friend to finish in the bathroom. When the friend came out, she looked at this lady and screamed! “Look! Look!! Go in the bathroom and look in the mirror!!!”

Her face was totally clear of all cancer. And it never came back.

She said her friend and her doctor obviously knew. The only other person she told was her pastor at the time. She had no interest in reporting it to Lourdes because of all the fuss it would involve, producing medical records, going back to Lourdes repeatedly for examinations. She doesn’t seem to have been all that confident the cancer wouldn’t return, maybe because she felt unworthy or because it had come back twice before. I don’t know. I’m just grateful I was there the day God told her to finally tell her story.

It’s one thing when someone you don’t know stands in a spotlight and says, “Look at me! God healed me!” You just gotta wonder if they’re legit or have some angle or con going on. But I’d known this woman and her companion for years through our parish work. They were both regulars at Mass and the annual women’s retreat … those “salt of the earth” kind of people who don’t gossip or flutter around demanding attention, but do roll up their sleeves when there’s work to be done. I think the thing that struck me most in her telling of this remarkable story is now embarrassed she seemed about it all.

More about Lourdes:

http://en.lourdes-france.org/

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity

by | September 29, 2013 · 3:54 pm

We Will Not Comply

Civil disobedience - Gandhi

October 1, 2013 – Obamacare Exchanges open, ushering in mandated direct and/or indirect funding for abortion in most health insurance policies.

  • The ACA requires that health insurance premiums include at least a monthly one dollar surcharge that will be used directly to underwrite abortions.
  • The HHS Mandate requires all non-exempt businesses and institutions – including religious institutions – facilitate contraception, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs in their policies.

Civil disobedience - composite

A coalition of pro-life leaders has developed a unified “We Will Not Comply” response to this assault on life, conscience and religious liberty.

A Pledge for the Preservation of Life and Liberty

PLEDGE

This Pledge has been carefully crafted to stand as a ‘line in the sand’. In its final paragraph, it states:

We declare that we will not comply with any regulation of the ACA wherein we are forced to pay for abortion or forced to willfully participate in the killing of innocent children.

In practicality, this means we will not choose an insurance policy that contains abortion funding, whether directly or indirectly, even to the point of choosing no insurance, at all. Furthermore, we support any citizen who chooses to act in peaceful protest, including non-violent civil disobedience, as the government has no authority to force us, as free citizens, to violate our conscience or forfeit our religious freedoms.

http://www.prolifenation.org/pledge/

Civil disobedience - St Thomas More

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a nationwide bulletin in June 2012, calling all American Catholics to prepare themselves to engage in civil disobedience to Obamacare. It’s brief and to the point:

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/upload/BW-USCCB-Conscience-Bulletin-Insert_ENG.pdf

Source:

Pro-Life Leaders Pledge: We Will Not Obey Obamacare’s Abortion Funding, HHS Mandate

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Filed under Abortion, Catholic Church, HHS, Obamacare, Religious Liberty

by | September 21, 2013 · 9:09 am

Reliable sources

Pope Francis With Christ

I read this in one of my Facebook groups. With the American Left crushing on the allegedly ‘Democrat’ Pope over his ‘message to GOP’ (not), I thought it was especially timely.

If there’s one important life lesson my mother taught me, it was QUESTION EVERYTHING (and she meant EVERYTHING) – but get your answers FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE.

Want to know whether a certain medication, supplement, or food additive is safe or not?

  • Ask an unbiased chemist or, better yet, look it up in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Want to know what the Catholic Church teaches about a certain topic?

  • Ask a spiritually committed priest or, better yet, look it up in official Church documents.

5 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, Pope Francis

by | September 20, 2013 · 1:49 pm

About that Pope Francis interview

After six months in the papacy, Pope Francis gave his first extensive interview. Liberals are wetting themselves over how he supposedly gave the GOP “what for” and the Democrat Party “two thumbs up.”

Sheesh. Only in Liberal Bubble World would the leader of a GLOBAL CHURCH take sides in the partisan politics of a single nation.

Leftists know so little about Christianity in general or about the Catholic Church in particular. For example, they’re crowing about how the Pope is supposedly backing off on abortion, gay marriage and birth control.

What he said was, “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.”

There’s no change in doctrine here.

What he said was that these issues don’t need to be discussed to the exclusion of all others. He was talking about the church not being too turned in on itself, too obsessed with rules. He said the church needs to be more of a field hospital, where people can feel cared for.

He also said, “I have never been a right-winger.”

I don’t know what “right-wing” means to an Argentinian, but I would hazard a guess it cannot be translated into American partisan politics to mean, “Jesus was a Democrat.”

Pope Francis has affirmed church teaching on abortion and euthanasia.

“We should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals.”

“In Argentina, a child conceived by the rape of a mentally ill or retarded woman can be condemned to death.”

“In Argentina there is clandestine euthanasia.  Social services pay up to a certain point; if you pass it, ‘die, you are very old’.  Today, elderly people are discarded when, in reality, they are the seat of wisdom of the society. The right to life means allowing people to live and not killing, allowing them to grow, to eat, to be educated, to be healed, and to be permitted to die with dignity.”

Pope Francis has affirmed church teaching on homosexuality.

He has said that men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity and that every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.

But he said their pursuit of equal rights is the devil’s work. He strongly opposed legislation introduced in 2010 by the Argentine Government to allow same-sex marriage, calling it a “real and dire anthropological throwback.” In a letter to the monasteries of Buenos Aires, he wrote:

“Let’s not be naïve, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Pope Francis has rejected Socialism:

Pope Francis spent a good deal of time in Argentina fighting against the modernist reforms of the government. Moreover, within the Church the spectre of liberation theologies that conflate Christ’s justice with Marxist principles was (and still is) a constant presence in Latin America.

“To those who are now promising to fix all your problems, I say, ‘Go and fix yourself.’ . . . Have a change of heart. Get to confession, before you need it even more! The current crisis will not be improved by magicians from outside the country and nor will [improvement] come from the golden mouth of our politicians, so accustomed to making incredible promises.”

Good comments from Twitchy:

  • Liberal rodents love to show off how little they know about religion and how bad they are at self-awareness.
  • The Holy Father is not an ally of the slime that ridiculed God.
  • God a Democrat? Lay off the opium, pal.
  • People have wondered how Latin American social democratic philosophies would play in the Vatican. It seems its more Libertarian than anything. De-emphasize rules. Emphasize core values. Jesus is our savior. The Church is here to help us know, love and serve God so we can be happy with Him forever.
  • Only self-obsessed libs think everything is about them.

Sources:

2 Comments

Filed under Abortion, Catholic Church, Christianity, Euthanasia, Life Issues, Pope Francis

by | September 20, 2013 · 9:18 am

This is not my country any more

Negotiations [1:08]

Candidate Obama said often that we could solve all our problems if we just talked to each other. President Obama is being hailed now for his willingness to negotiate with rather than bomb Syria. What a hypocrite! He has consistently refused to even sit down and talk to anyone who disagrees with him, especially if they’re Republicans.

I remember when the HHS mandate came out and the Catholic Bishops raised an uproar. The White House invited them to come and have a sit down about the issue, but afterwards, the Bishops said all that happened was that Obama aides pompously informed them that Obama knew more about Catholic teaching than the Bishops did and anyway shut up and do what you’re told.

The Obama administration has just filed suit in the Supreme Court trying to force Hobby Lobby to obey the HHS mandate, despite the fact that it violates the owners’ right to religious freedom. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/09/19/obama-admin-takes-hobby-lobby-to-supreme-court-to-force-it-to-obey-hhs-mandate/

Students Banned from Passing Out Constitutions on Constitution Day at Modesto Junior College [6:19]

Modesto Junior College in California told a student that he could not pass out copies of the United States Constitution outside the student center on September 17, 2013—Constitution Day.

Captured on video, college police and administrators demanded that Robert Van Tuinen stop passing out Constitution pamphlets and told him that he would only be allowed to pass them out in the college’s tiny free speech zone, and only after scheduling it several days or weeks ahead of time.

The links to the full, unedited videos taken by students are posted below this edited version, which contains the most relevant portions of the experience.

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Filed under Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Constitution, HHS, John Kerry, National Debt, Obamacare, Religious Liberty, Republicans, Supreme Court, Vladimir Putin

by | September 12, 2013 · 3:28 am

By their fruits we shall know them

2013_09 07 Prayer and Fasting for peace

  • Sept. 7, 2013: Pope Francis leads a global day of prayer and fasting for peace.
  • Sept. 10, 2013: Syria accepts a Russian proposal to give up all its chemical weapons and Obama asks Congress to delay votes on authorizing military strikes.

The Blessed Virgin Mary told us at Medjugorje:

“Through fasting and prayer, one can stop wars.”

July 21, 1982

Let’s not forget.

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Middle East, Pope Francis, Syria

by | August 29, 2013 · 7:43 pm

Catholic teaching on Democracy

The Catholic Church supports democracy, because of all political systems it offers the best conditions for achieving equality before the law and safeguarding human rights. In order to do that, however, democracy must be more than mere majority rule. True democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law that recognizes the fundamental God given rights of all and defends them, if necessary, even against the will of the majority.

History teaches that even democracy offers no absolute protection from violations of human dignity and human rights. It always runs the risk of becoming a tyranny of the majority over a minority. Democracy depends on preconditions that it cannot guarantee in and of itself. That is why Christians in particular must make sure that the values indispensable to a democracy are not undermined.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN THIS NEW BOOK:

Salvation is from the Jews by Roy H. Shoeman & Dr. Brant Pitre

The book traces the role of Judaism and the Jewish people in God’s plan for the salvation of mankind, from Abraham through the Second Coming, as revealed by the Catholic faith and by a thoughtful examination of history. It will give Christians a deeper understanding of Judaism, both as a religion in itself and as a central component of Christian salvation.

To Jews it reveals the incomprehensible importance, nobility and glory that Judaism most truly has. It examines the unique and central role Judaism plays in the destiny of the world. It documents that throughout history attacks on Jews and Judaism have been rooted not in Christianity, but in the most anti-Christian of forces.

Areas addressed include: the Messianic prophecies in Jewish scripture; the anti-Christian roots of Nazi anti-Semitism; the links between Nazism and Arab anti-Semitism; the theological insights of major Jewish converts; and the role of the Jews in the Second Coming.

Sources:

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Human Rights

by | August 24, 2013 · 6:07 pm

Catholic billboard professionally defaced

2013_08 Try God billboard defaced

Scot Landry, host of The Good Catholic Life radio program weekdays at 4 p.m. on WQOM, remarked that,

“An act against one faith, in some ways, is an act against all faiths, and against all people of faith. This act of vandalism was certainly not a prank. It should cause us to reflect on the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that hostility is increasing against the practice of faith and against religious expression.

People of faith, including Catholics, contribute so much to the fabric of our society in the Boston-area, through social service organizations, hospitals, schools and in little acts of service in every community. The message of “Try God” is a hopeful one as it invites everyone, in some way, to connect with a faith community and participate in building a civilization of love.”

1060 AM WQOM (Boston) offers a combination of national shows from EWTN Radio (Ave Maria Radio, Catholic Answers) and local productions (The Good Catholic Life, daily Mass, and the recitation of the Rosary). Outside of the AM range, you can listen @ wqom.org for computers or with iCatholicRadio app for mobile devices and tablets.

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity