Category Archives: Catholic Church

by | June 13, 2012 · 4:39 pm

For the first time in my adult life …

… I am PROUD to be an American Catholic!

Bishops Prepare for Largest Civil Disobedience Since the 60s by Andrew Bair – June 3, 2012

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/03/bishops-prepare-for-largest-civil-disobedience-since-the-60s/

The United States Catholic bishops are readying American Catholics for what may be the largest campaign of civil disobedience since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

In addition to 12 lawsuits against the Obama Administration including 46 plaintiffs from dioceses, hospitals and universities, the US Catholic bishops will urge Catholics to openly defy the Obama HHS Mandate. In June, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will distribute bulletin inserts nationwide, which reference Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his call for civil disobedience in response to unjust laws.

The USCCB bulletin insert quotes “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which Dr. King writes, “I would agree with Saint Augustine that ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’… A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

The Catholic bishops also note in the document, “Some unjust laws impose such injustices on individuals and organizations that disobeying the laws may be justified. Every effort must be made to repeal them. When fundamental human goods, such as the right of conscience, are at stake, we may need to witness to the truth by resisting the law and incurring its penalties.”

The USCCB has organized a two-week campaign called the Fortnight for Freedom, which will extend from June 21st through July 4th to raise awareness about the threats to rights of conscience posed by the HHS mandate. The very same authority used by the HHS Secretary under the Obama healthcare law to mandate insurance coverage of contraceptives and sterilizations could also be used to force coverage of surgical abortions. The mandate is scheduled to go into effect on August 1st.

Recently, the USCCB released a document entitled “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty” in which the bishops emphasized they would not back down from their opposition the HHS Mandate. http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/our-first-most-cherished-liberty.cfm

EXCERPT:

We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other. Our allegiances are distinct, but they need not be contradictory, and should instead be complementary. That is the teaching of our Catholic faith, which obliges us to work together with fellow citizens for the common good of all who live in this land. That is the vision of our founding and our Constitution, which guarantees citizens of all religious faiths the right to contribute to our common life together.

Freedom is not only for Americans, but we think of it as something of our special inheritance, fought for at a great price, and a heritage to be guarded now. We are stewards of this gift, not only for ourselves but for all nations and peoples who yearn to be free. Catholics in America have discharged this duty of guarding freedom admirably for many generations.

In 1887, when the archbishop of Baltimore, James Gibbons, was made the second American cardinal, he defended the American heritage of religious liberty during his visit to Rome to receive the red hat. Speaking of the great progress the Catholic Church had made in the United States, he attributed it to the “civil liberty we enjoy in our enlightened republic.” Indeed, he made a bolder claim, namely that “in the genial atmosphere of liberty [the Church] blossoms like a rose.”

From well before Cardinal Gibbons, Catholics in America have been advocates for religious liberty, and the landmark teaching of the Second Vatican Council on religious liberty was influenced by the American experience. It is among the proudest boasts of the Church on these shores. We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today.

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Filed under Catholic Church, HHS, Life Issues, Obamacare, Religious Liberty

by | June 12, 2012 · 7:00 pm

MSM yawns over religious freedom protests

Chrissy’s Site Bites @ http://news.webshots.com/photo/2853928450056011884pvRuHs

Click on graphic to embiggen.

If you like this, you might also enjoy @ https://polination.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/the-journalistic-establishments-latest-violation-of-public-trust/

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, HHS, Media Bias, Obamacare, Religious Liberty

by | June 12, 2012 · 2:34 pm

Chrissy’s Cliff Notes to Humani Generis

Humani Generis is a Papal Encyclical that was promulgated by Pope Pius XII on August 12, 1950. The full text is posted @ http://www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/p12human.htm.

A Papal Encyclical is a letter written by a Pope to either all of the Bishops in a specific country or to all of the Bishops in the world which is intended to guide the Bishops in their relations with their flocks. Encyclicals generally deal with some issue that is causing problems for the faithful. In the case of Humani Generis, the issue was evolution.

Recently, our friend Frankly the Nut gifted me with two books about Young Earth Creationism (YEC), which is:

the religious belief that the Universe, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago. Its primary adherents are Christians and Jews who believe that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days, taking a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative as a basis for their beliefs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_creationism

I have had virtually no contact with this set of beliefs, having been raised Catholic in a very liberal Ivy League community. I was taught the Catholic position long ago, but undertook today to digest the original source (Humani Generis). If you’re interested, my version of the meaty bits is below.

============================

The theory of evolution deals with much that neither directly nor indirectly touches faith or morals, and which consequently the Church leaves to the free discussion of experts.

However, whatever new truth the sincere human mind is able to find cannot be opposed to truth already acquired, since God, the highest Truth, has created and guides the human intellect.

So while the Church does not forbid research and discussion of evolution, it requires that opinions favorable and unfavorable to the theory be weighed and judged with seriousness, moderation and measure.

The following issues are not up for debate:

Souls are immediately created by God.

Adam is the father of all true men, through natural generation as our first parent.

As to the interpretation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis:

They state truths which are fundamental to our salvation.

They were written with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error, so must never be considered on a par with other ancient myths or folk tales which have survived through the ages.

They were written in a metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a simple people.

Although they conform neither to the historical method used by the best of the ancient Greek and Latin writers nor to that used by by competent authors of our time, nevertheless they do pertain to history in a true sense whose exact nature must be further studied and determined by exegetes.

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Filed under Catholic Church, Creation, Evolution

by | May 31, 2012 · 12:24 am

American Catholics and Political Party Affiliation

A prominent Pennsylvania Democrat has switched her political affiliation to the GOP. In her letter of resignation to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, she wrote that it was “time to move forward with my life in a direction that is more in line with my faith.”

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Nardelli said, “I thought I could make a difference to change our party. It didn’t work. … It’s been going more and more to the left. This is not my father’s party. I did not leave the party; the party left me.”

From a speech delivered to Congress by Alabama Senator Thomas J. Heflin on January 28, 1928: Get ready for this battle. The Roman Catholics of every country on the earth are backing his campaign. Already they are spending money in the South buying up newspapers, seeking to control the vehicles that carry the news to the people. They are sending writers down there from New York and other places to misrepresent and slander our State, all this to build a foundation on which to work for Al Smith for President. The Roman Catholic edict has gone forth in secret articles, “Al Smith is to be made President.” Doctor McDaniel said: “Of all countries the Pope wants to control this country.” “The Knights of Columbus slogan,“ said Doctor Chapman, . . . ”is make America Catholic.” Here they tell you in their book that they will force the propaganda of Protestants to cease, they will lay the heavy hand of a Catholic state upon you and crush the life out of Protestantism in America.

Sources:

Pennsylvania Democratic Leader Defects to GOP, Cites Catholic Faith as Reason – May 29, 2012

http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/29/penn-democratic-leader-defects-to-gop-cites-catholic-faith-as-reason/

Warning Against the “Roman Catholic Party”: Catholicism and the 1928 Election

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5073/

 

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity

by | May 28, 2012 · 8:51 pm

Test of Fire

Test of Fire: Election 2012 [3:08]

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Filed under Catholic Church, Elections, Religious Liberty

by | May 25, 2012 · 9:32 pm

The Journalistic Establishment’s latest violation of public trust

Chrissy’s Site Bites @ http://news.webshots.com/photo/2286923270056011884aucbok

Click on graphic to embiggen.

After you sign the petition below (it’s free), please forward this to all of your patriotic friends and family, share it on your social networks, and remind people that freedom of religion was the first right guaranteed to us in our Constitution.

Petition @ http://www.mrcaction.org/action/586

“As a citizen and a patriot, I demand an end to the media’s obvious misleading of the public regarding what this mandate means for religious freedom in our country. I also call upon the media to fully report on the massive backlash this mandate has brought about.”

If you like this, you might also enjoy @ https://polination.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/newsweeks-gaylo-cover/

5 Comments

Filed under Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Constitution, First Amendment, Media Bias, Obamacare, Religious Liberty

by | May 6, 2012 · 1:00 pm

Intelligent Design is NOT Creationism

Until I imbibed the resources listed below, I was absolutely on board with the Catholic position on evolution, which is that there can be no conflict between science and faith, because God created everything.

My faith in and love for God are based on the same kinds of things that my faith in and love for my husband are based on. This is not to say that I ignore my mind in matters of the heart. I most decidedly do not. I did a very serious, intense, intellectual pursuit of all my Big Questions about God before I ever got close enough to be able to meet Him in person. I also dated for years before I met Dearest and had made a long list of things I wanted and did not want in a life mate.

After becoming a Born Again Christian at the age of 17, I read the Bible a lot, visited all kinds of churches, and hung out with many varieties of Christian believers. After a year or so, I felt a need to settle down into a faith community, so I asked God, “Where do you want me to worship, pray, learn and fellowship?” His answer was clear that, for me, it was the Roman Catholic Church.

I’ve had my differences and a few times really, really wanted to leave. Each time, He made it clear that this was His choice for me, so I’ve stuck it out. I have no illusions about my church’s short-comings, particularly in my liberal diocese in my liberal nation. Our official support for the Pro-Life movement has been sickeningly anemic and, until recently, some of the homilies and adult education programs in my parish have been based more on Democrat talking points than Church teaching or Scripture.

My point here is that Catholicism does not teach Creationism.

Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis (36–37) says we need not be hostile to modern cosmology.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis_en.html

And the Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

“[M]any scientific studies . . . have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life forms, and the appearance of man. These studies invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator” (283).

http://www.kofc.org/un/catechism/index.action

I believe God gave us the Bible and it’s all true. But what kind of truth are we talking about? Consider, for example, that Catholics take literally what Jesus said about having to eat His Body, but most non-Catholic Christians do not.

With respect to the apparent conflict between the creation stories in Genesis and scientific evidence for things like dinosaurs and the Big Bang, I was taught that there is no conflict. Those chapters are not historical or scientific texts, but a specific type of literature called “mythic.” (And the Psalms and the Song of Songs are “poetry.”)

In this context, the word “myth” has a bigger, deeper meaning than the throw away use it gets in things like “urban myth.” In the latter, the point of the story is to convey some historical and/or scientific truth. Even here, the word “myth” doesn’t necessarily mean “false”, any more than “old wives tales” are always wrong.

Mythic literature is totally different. In this context, the historical and/or scientific elements of the story are not the point at all. It’s only the deeper philosophical, moral and/or theological messages that are meant to be taken as literally true. This kind of literature is what we get in Aesop’s Fables and other morality tales, including the Parables of Jesus.

Examples: Mythbusters could demonstrate scientifically that the quack of a duck does echo. But they could not disprove the moral of The Lion and the Mouse — “Even the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves” — by demonstrating that lions and mice cannot talk.

There are many creation myths out there, a number of them contemporaneous with our Genesis myth. They posit things like the existence of multiple gods or that the supernatural reality is impersonal or that only the spiritual is good, but the material is evil.

By contrast, our myth tells us that there is one and only one God who is personal, loving and all-good, that He created everything and made it all good, and that evil results from departing from His perfect will.

I’m not a Scripture scholar, so I really can’t go any further with this. If you believe differently, that’s fine with me. I’m not interested in proselytizing or arguing, only explaining what I believe, which so far as I know, is consistent with Catholic teaching.

My big point in belaboring the issue in this blog is to provide a context for why you can take my word that I had no stake whatsoever in the Darwin vs. Intelligent Design debate. I was perfectly comfortable with the Catholic position, “If Darwin is right, it’s because that is how God chose to do things.”

And it’s not just because I’m not a scientist. I have a very devout Catholic nephew who teaches Biology. He also has no problem with Darwin.

However, as much as I am not a scientist, I really enjoy anything about science, provided it is dumbed down enough for me to understand it. So, back when I was having my big epiphany about what a load of donkey doo most of my political assumptions were, I became intrigued by the Intelligent Design  movement. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. My personal favorite resources on the SCIENCE of Intelligent Design are:

Unlocking the Mystery of Life DVD
http://www.unlockingthemysteryoflife.com/

The Privileged Planet DVD
http://www.theprivilegedplanet.com/

Icons of Evolution, a SHORT book by Jonathan Wells
http://www.iconsofevolution.com/

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Design, a LONG book by Stephen C. Meyer
http://www.signatureinthecell.com/

At this point, I have no question whatsoever that Darwin’s theories are headed the same way that Freud’s went. Real scientists are finding more and more evidence within nature that points to the existence of an intelligent designer. It’s very exciting stuff.

If you enjoyed this, you might also like https://polination.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/censored/

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Creation, Evolution, Science

by | April 27, 2012 · 2:05 am

Sacrilege in the White House

Theologian Paul Begley of Indiana does a ten minute sermon on Michelle’s Jesus reference of April 17, 2012. He is NOT pleased!

Personally, I think Begley is being way too generous to Michelle in passing this off as a faux pas by her speech writers. This Obama-as-Jesus meme has been going on for years and the Obamas have both actively participated in it.

I’ve been collecting stuff about the Left’s elevation of Obama to some kind of divinity. [Brace yourself. There is some serious sacrilege here.]

After Michelle’s speech, there was an uproar from Christians, who conveniently do not put out fatwas on heretics like the Obamas (which is no doubt why they are NOT comparing Obama to Mohammed). Still … while there were no calls for stoning or beheading, there was enough outrage from Christians that the White House talking head tried to spin it that Michelle had not been referencing Jesus and the Bible, but Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

Yeah, right. Maybe in some all-gay neighborhood, the audience would think “Oz”, but Michelle Obama was speaking in the Bible Belt, for crying out loud!

Besides that, exactly one skinny week after Michelle’s speech, the Christian uproar and Jay Carney’s spin cycle, Barack Obama himself put on this “Can I have an Amen on that” for students at UNC.

We’ve seen how Obama treated the Catholic bishops’ protest over the HHS mandate.

March 6, 2012: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, has released a public letter today detailing a stunning conversation he and other bishops had with top White House officials about the controversial Obama HHS mandate. The bishops were asked to come to the White House to “work out the wrinkles” of the mandate, but when they got there, were just told that, as far as Obama et al. are concerned, the mandate is carved in stone.
The White House Press Secretary sneered at the bishops, saying they had always opposed Health Care anyway, which is just flat out wrong. Most of them have supported it for decades, ignoring the warning bells tolled by the minority about exactly what has come about. Dolan said, “The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching.”
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/06/cardinal-obama-admin-lectured-bishops-on-catholic-teaching/

How blatant and in our faces do they have to get before people of faith embrace the FACT that this administration HATES US?

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Filed under Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Jay Carney, Michelle Obama, Timothy Dolan

by | April 3, 2012 · 1:27 am

When the Archbishop Met the President

When the Archbishop Met the President By James Taranto – March 31, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577311800821270184.html

I just want to make sure all of you see the Archbishop Dolan interview in the Wall Street Journal. The whole thing is so good, I don’t even want to try to excerpt it. If you don’t have time to read it now, print it out. It’s really worth it.

More about Dolan @

https://polination.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/60-minutes-of-biased-reporting/

and

https://polination.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/dolan-one-of-new-cardinals/

2 Comments

Filed under Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Religious Liberty, Timothy Dolan

by | March 22, 2012 · 7:19 pm

Catholicism vs Socialism

This was posted May 12, 2009 … nearly three years ago. Nothing that’s happened since then has changed any of it.

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Socialism