Saturday, March 31, 2012

An Updated Manner to Live the Passion of Christ; Follow the Passion of the Church

By Plinio CorrĂȘa de Oliveira

Amidst the current sufferings of the Mystical Body of Christ, our Holy Mother Church, presently under fierce attack from internal and external enemies, let us follow some thoughts of Prof. Plinio CorrĂȘa de Oliveira, who always brought Our Lord’s Passion, an event of 2000 years ago, into current focus during his Lenten lectures.

There is often a defect in our meditations that diminishes their effectiveness. It is to ponder episodes from the life of Our Lord without linking them to our lives and to what happens around us. Accordingly, we are shocked at the inconsistency and ingratitude of the Jews, when, shortly after having honored Jesus with a solemn procession as Savior they crucified Him with a hatred many find hard to understand.

The Jews of 2000 years ago, when Our Lord walked the earth, are not alone in exhibiting this ingratitude and inconsistency. Still today, in the hearts of so many of the faithful, Our Lord must bear this recurring swing between adoration and insults. And this happens not only in the unseen depths of the consciences. In many countries, Our Lord has been successively glorified and offended in a short period of time.

Let us not spend our time only in horrified contemplation of the infamy of the deicide people. For our salvation, it is far more useful that we contemplate our own infamy. Trusting in God’s goodness, this is how we can truly amend our lives.

Reparation for today’s offenses against God

Everyone knows that sin is an insult to God. The person who commits a mortal sin expels God from his heart, breaks the filial relations he owes God as his Creator and rejects His grace. Here we have a revealing analogy between the Jews who killed Our Lord and ourselves when we commit a mortal sin. Yet, again and again, after having ardently glorified Our Lord by good deeds or at least by going through the motions, we commit a mortal sin and crucify Him in our heart!

There is no doubt that Our Lord is gravely offended in our days. Let us become souls of reparation. If we are not able to make reparation with the light of our virtue, at least we can do so by the sincerity of our humility. Sincere humility is intelligent, reasonable, and solid, not flowery words and emotional chest-beating. During this Holy Lenten season our humility can make reparation before the throne of God for the countless offenses committed against Him at every moment.

[Legionario, April 6, 1941]

Why Chinese Communists Need “Learning Classes”

The Union of Catholic Asian News has reported that Coadjutor Bishop Peter Shaos Zhumin of Wenzhou and his chancellor Father Paul Jiang Sunian were kidnapped this week and forced to attend state run “learning classes.” Local Church sources quoted government officials as saying, “if Bishop Shao and Father Jiang are ‘intelligent enough in their learning,’ they will be allowed back soon; if not, they will be detained longer.”

This news story calls to mind myriad episodes in the history of the Church. So many in the past have tried to “teach” the Church a lesson. The enemies of the Church never seem to learn. This has been the consistent behavior of communists throughout their brief and despotic history.  They have long dreamed of controlling the Catholic Church by forcing Church authorities to submit to their perverse communist ideology.

However, such “lessons,” have frequently had the opposite effect. The famous observation of Tertullian, “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians,” shows how when the Church is persecuted, it only serves to make Her thrive. This was the lesson the Romans learned when they tried to suppress Christianity.

The communist Chinese seem intent upon repeating this lesson since their constant efforts to obliterate the underground Church makes it obvious that they have utterly failed to coerce all Catholics to submit to their atheist government or its “patriotic church.”

It seems quite evident that in China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea, there is only one lesson that is taught: submission to communist authorities. They would do well to learn that the lessons of history are different. Chinese communists would profit by “learning classes” of another sort. There they would learn that in the end, the Church always prevails and they will be just one more of the many enemies that have been defeated by Her.

Written by Gary J. Isbell

Obama endorses Planned Parenthood: ‘you’ll never stop fighting for choice and neither will I’

by Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an unusually candid video addressed to Planned Parenthood, President Obama assured the billion-dollar abortion organization of his continued support and touted his record blocking efforts to defund the group by pro-life “professional politicians.”

“For you and for most Americans, protecting women’s health is a mission that stands above politics,” said the president in a video posted to Youtube by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Yet in the past year you’ve had politicians who want to deny millions of women the care they rely on, and inject themselves into decisions that are best made between a woman and her doctor.”

The affirmation comes amidst an onslaught of bad publicity for the abortion giant in recent months: The group is now under federal investigation after reports alleged that it has engaged in systematic Medicaid fraud, abused other federal funds, and routinely evaded state abortion laws.

Planned Parenthood’s defensive posture became even clearer last December when prominent breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure cut funding to the group because of the investigation, as well as the fact that Planned Parenthood clinics do not provide direct breast cancer services such as mammograms. After Planned Parenthood and its allies excoriated Komen for the decision, the charity was forced to apologize, but left it unclear whether the grants would resume.

Obama extolled Planned Parenthood’s “fight” for women in the video, suggesting that the group helped women receive “mammograms,” alongside praise for its efforts providing affordable contraception.

“So when some professional politicians casually say that they’ll ‘get rid of Planned Parenthood,’ don’t forget what they’re really talking about: eliminating the funding for preventive care that millions of women rely on and leaving them to fend for themselves,” said Obama.

Kristan Hawkins, head of Students for Life of America, called it “outrageous” that Obama would repeat the claim that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms, after extensive coverage pointing out that the abortion organization does not provide the service.

“Somehow the White House has missed the memo that PLANNED PARENTHOOD DOESN’T PROVIDE MAMMOGRAMS. How could they have missed that?” wrote Hawkins.

“And why is Planned Parenthood posting videos that say as much, when they have already been caught in the lie?”

The president also referred to last year’s budget negotiation stalemate, in which Obama and House GOP leader John Boehner came to personal loggerheads over the bill’s provision defunding Planned Parenthood - the final issue Obama cited in his refusal to sign the bill hours before government shutdown.

When “Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government” over the measure, “I had a simple answer: no,” Obama said in the video.

The president concluded: “I know that Planned Parenthood will continue providing care no matter what. I know you’ll never stop fighting to protect the health care and the choices that America’s women deserve.

“And as long as I have the privilege of being your president, neither will I.”

Ontario’s NDP hope to force Catholic schools into naming clubs ‘gay-straight alliance’

by Thaddeus Baklinski

TORONTO, March 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As parents battle the McGuinty Liberal government’s effort to impose homosexual “anti-bullying” clubs on Ontario’s schools, Ontario’s New Democratic Party is taking it a step further by announcing plans to introduce an amendment that would force schools to let the clubs be called “gay-straight alliances.”

Currently McGuinty’s controversial Bill 13 says the clubs can be called “gay-straight alliance or another name,” which has allowed the Catholic schools to instead set up a network of clubs under the name “Respecting Differences”.

But New Democrat MPP and education critic Peter Tabuns (Danforth-Greenwood) has revealed that his party is planning to introduce an amendment that would force Catholic schools to allow students to use the name “gay-straight alliance” if they choose.

The amendment “will allow students to determine the name of the group,” Tabuns told Xtra. “We also think [Education Minister Laurel Broten] should closely monitor the implementation of the bill in schools.”

Bill 13 was introduced on November 30th and received second reading at Queen’s Park on March 26. It comes as part of McGuinty’s stated effort to reform the “attitudes” of the province’s children on homosexuality.

“Allowing students in schools to set up support networks gives them the security of being together and reduces the isolation that we all know can be, literally, deadly,” Tabuns remarked.

Ontario’s Catholic bishops have opposed GSAs, saying they encourage early self-identification as homosexual.

And pro-family advocates have charged that the groups encourage the normalization and affirmation of the homosexual lifestyle, and promote homosexual activism by tying youth into a cross-continent network of activists.

Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier has said that McGuinty’s bill, which has been criticized by religious groups for its strong emphasis on sexual orientation, “reaches the zenith of downright stupidity” and manipulates recent suicides by homosexual teens for “political gain.”

“Bill 13 is little more than a poorly disguised pacifier intended to create a perception that not only is the government acting, but is also compassionate and sympathetic toward children who are bullied,” wrote Hillier (Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington) in a strongly worded op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen in January.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has pointed out that the bill would actually increase the isolation bullied children might feel.

“Rather than permitting students to learn about their differences and recognize their commonalities in equity clubs, this Bill specifically sets out to isolate students into issue-specific groups,” the EFC argued.

“Attempting to address an issue as complex as bullying by legislative force is debatable,” the EFC said, adding that the “approach adopted by Bill 13 lacks sensitivity, flexibility, and a full consideration of proper application of the Constitution Act, 1867, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

David McNorgan, president of the Catholic School Chaplains of Ontario, says the name of the clubs should not be the focus of debate.

“The naming of the club is not crucial,” he told the Catholic Register. “I think everybody is going to be able to live without calling them GSAs. But as far as practical pastoral care for our kids, we’re going to be able to do it under different banners.”

Tabuns told LifeSiteNews that he will reveal the exact wording of his amendment when the bill reaches committee stage.

Cardinal Martini and the false theology promoting homosexuality

by John-Henry Westen

ROME, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Carlo Martini, who at the conclave of 2005 was a favorite of ‘social justice’ Catholics to be elected Pope, has penned a book wherein he supports homosexual relationships.  The powerful Cardinal who was Archbishop of Milan until his retirement in 2002 at age 75, now lives in Jerusalem and suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

Given Cardinal Martini’s prominence in the Catholic Church (some sources suggest that he had quite a few votes to become Pope in the 2005 conclave) his statements on homosexuality point to a powerful counter-ideology that has made significant inroads into the Church’s teaching on the matter of homosexuality.  It is an ideology or theology that was warned about already in 1986 by Martini’s contemporary Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

In his newly released book, Credere e conoscere (Faith and Understanding), Cardinal Martini posits his disagreement with the Catholic teaching against homosexual civil unions.  “I disagree with the positions of those in the Church, that take issue with civil unions,” he wrote. “It is not bad, instead of casual sex between men, that two people have a certain stability” and that the “state could recognize them.”

Cardinal Martini says that he can even understand (but not necessarily approve) gay pride parades.  He says he agrees with the Catholic Church’s promotion of traditional marriage for the stability of the human species, however he adds, it is “not right to express any discrimination on other types of unions.”

In his 1986 ‘Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,’ then-Cardinal Ratzinger outlined the “causes of confusion regarding the Church’s teaching” on homosexuality.  He described a false “new exegesis of Sacred Scripture which claims variously that Scripture has nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality, or that it somehow tacitly approves of it, or that all of its moral injunctions are so culture-bound that they are no longer applicable to contemporary life.”

Cardinal Ratzinger laid out the false theology and counters it with a true Biblical exegesis which seeks, he says, to “speak the truth in love.”

He warned that “increasing numbers of people today, even within the Church, are bringing enormous pressure to bear on the Church to accept the homosexual condition as though it were not disordered and to condone homosexual activity.”

“The movement within the Church,” he explained, is made up of “those who either ignore the teaching of the Church or seek somehow to undermine it. … One tactic used is to protest that any and all criticism of or reservations about homosexual people, their activity and lifestyle, are simply diverse forms of unjust discrimination.”

Most importantly he said, “No authentic pastoral programme will include organizations in which homosexual persons associate with each other without clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral. A truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.”

He added: “But we wish to make it clear that departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral. Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral. The neglect of the Church’s position prevents homosexual men and women from receiving the care they need and deserve.”

Like traditional marriage? Then dump Starbucks, says National Organization for Marriage

by Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Your morning cup of coffee isn’t the only heated thing Starbucks is brewing.

Because of the coffee giant’s aggressive activism in support of the controversial issue of same-sex “marriage,” pro-family advocates have launched a boycott to send a message that Starbucks should keep coffee out of the marriage debate.

The DumpStarbucks campaign was launched by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) after Kalen Holmes, Starbucks executive vice president, told U.S. partners in January that the Seattle-based company backed Washington state’s same-sex “marriage” legislation as “core to who we are and what we value as a company.”

The coffee company has publicly supported the gay rights agenda since at least 2005, and has joined an amicus brief against the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

At a board meeting on March 21, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz confirmed Holmes’ statement as the position adopted by the board and “not something that was a difficult decision for us.”

NOM chair Maggie Gallagher questioned the decision of the company to back efforts to unravel the legal definition of marriage.

“Millions of good, honorable, decent and loving people believe that marriage is the union of husband and wife for a reason—these unions make new life and connect children to a mom and a dad,” said Gallagher, who was present at the Starbucks board meeting. “Of all the sustainable ecosystems Starbucks might want to support, surely this one is worthy of a company that bills itself as a company with a conscience?”

The DumpStarbucks campaign is asking marriage defenders to let both their local Starbucks and company HQ know their reasons for forgoing their frappucinos. The campaign, which includes a petition to Starbucks CEO Schultz, has already reached over 23,000 pledges, and is expected to reach as far as China and the Middle East.

Joe Solmonese, head of the leading gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, dismissed the boycott as a “temper-tantrum” and defended Starbucks as “a vocal supporter of marriage equality.”

When it comes to boycotts, however, the tables are usually turned the other way: the gay rights movement has frequently used corporate pressure to punish companies or individuals for supporting traditional marriage, or for maintaining links to Christian pro-family groups.

Recently, a petition on the liberal site Change.org targeted the fast food chain Chick-Fil-A for its Christian affiliations, and demanded that the popular chain be removed from college campuses. Similar pressure has been directed at major companies for even giving an equal platform to pro-family views, such as Apple, which ultimately removed a Manhattan Declaration app and other conservative apps at the behest of gay rights protesters. Paypal also acceded to demands by the gay rights group All Out to “end the online hate trade” by cutting off pro-family groups from using their service.

Gallagher said that she doesn’t “generally support boycotts.” “But Starbucks has voluntarily decided—as a corporation—to associate its brand with a major political issue,” she said, noting that the decision would seem to contradict the company’s promises in some parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East, not to subsidize political causes.

NOM Cultural Director Thomas Peters told LifeSiteNews.com that the boycott is only in its first stage. “People don’t want their coffee company taking sides in a culture war,” said Peters.

For more information, click here.

Australian bishops rally forces against same-sex marriage

In a letter that will be sent to 80,000 Catholics, a group of six Australian bishops led by Melbourne’s Archbishop Denis Hart are asking the faithful to contact their political representatives and urge them to protect traditional marriage.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13854

Friday, March 30, 2012

Pro-abortion links still posted on Notre Dame’s website as “Internship Opportunities”

Update: University spokesman sidesteps issue; pro-abortion professor calls TFP “monsters.”

Confirmed: Some pro-abortion internships are funded by ND Gender Studies.

The Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame currently lists the following menu option on its webpage: “How to Find a Summer Internship.”  When students click on that option they are sent to a page titled:  “Summer Internship Opportunities,” which provides live links to pro-abortion groups. (Link)

Alerted about this fact, over 10,850 students and parents joined TFP Student Action in politely asking Fr. John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, to have the website entries that point students to pro-abortion organizations removed.

Notre Dame Responds

Instead of acknowledging the fact that these live links are posted on Notre Dame’s website, connecting students with pro-abortion groups that recruit college interns -- and removing them -- university spokesman Dennis Brown attempts to divert attention from the core issue: The pro-abortion links.

“It has come to my attention that your group [TFP] has posted erroneous information regarding internships at Notre Dame. You are claiming that Notre Dame is ‘offering’ internships with pro-abortion organizations and encouraging students to apply with these groups, and that simply isn’t true,” states Mr. Brown in an email.

“The material you have alluded to on the Department of Political Science website is nothing more than a list of organizations that have offered internships to students in the past. We respectfully request that you discontinue disseminating this inaccurate information,” he wrote.

What about the pro-abortion links?

Mr. Brown, however, dodges the central question: What about the pro-abortion links?  Were they removed?  Well, no.  In fact, those live links are still listed as “opportunities.”  And what are students expected to understand from the term “opportunity” other than just that – opportunity?

However, to address Mr. Brown’s charge of inaccuracy, the title of TFP Student Action’s initial post was modified to read:  “Unacceptable: Notre Dame website links to pro-abortion ‘internship opportunities.’”  For the record, the original post was titled: “Unacceptable:  Notre Dame offers pro-abortion ‘internship opportunities’ to students.”

ND Professor to TFP: “Back Off, You Monsters”

Meanwhile, TFP Student Action received the following email message from a Notre Dame professor:

“Back off, you monsters. I teach at the University of Notre Dame and we are a finer university than you know. Of course we announce internships to organizations like Center for American Progress, Emily’s List, Feminist Majority Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Institute for Women's Policy Research, National Women’s Law Center, Think Progress, United Nations Population Fund.

“Why wouldn't we? These organizations each and all do fabulous work. And this university is a university - it participates in all dialogue. That's what a good university does.”
Clearly, not all professors at Notre Dame respect the Catholic faith or the right to life.

Office of the President Responds

More recently, one of our readers received this message from Notre Dame’s Office of the President:

“Thank you for taking the time to write.  Fr. Jenkins appreciates you sharing your thoughts, but he is not able to respond to each message individually.

“The information contained in the post on the TFP Student Action website was false. Contrary to the group’s unsubstantiated report, Notre Dame does not offer internships to the organizations that were cited and does not encourage students to apply for them. TFP has changed its story and no longer is making its original false claims. The list on the political science department website was just that, a list of internships students have taken and then self-reported to the department. No academic credit was given nor were university funds used with the internships in question.”
However, new facts only give rise to more concern.

Yes, Notre Dame did help fund pro-abortion internships

After additional research, Catholic blogger Kathy Schiffer at patheos.com made another sad discovery on March 26.  She found that internship grants have been given to students for work at other organizations that promote abortion and the homosexual agenda.

According to Notre Dame’s “Gender Studies” webpage:
“The Boehnen Summer Internship Grants are competitive grants that are awarded annually to Notre Dame Gender Studies undergraduate students who have secured unpaid summer internships that will help them analyze, understand, and gain valuable work experience in fields pertaining to Gender Studies...
“All currently enrolled Gender Studies Supplemental Majors and Gender Studies Minors are eligible to apply for these grants. The typical amount awarded is $2,500.” (Link)

To date, internship grants have been awarded to students for serving groups such as: (Link)

The Minnesota Women’s Consortium. Among the Consortium’s member groups, all of which claim to “empower women,” is Planned Parenthood.  The Notre Dame intern has blogged about her experiences on EqualityQuilt.com

The Anti-Defamation League of Boston, where the intern’s goal is to help combat “sexism, racism and heterosexism.”  This group supports the redefinition of God-ordained marriage.

The Resource Center Dallas. Its mission is to empower “the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.”  This group supports same-sex “marriage.”  

The National Organization for Women, one of America’s most active abortion advocacy groups.

The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance in Chicago.  This pro-homosexualist non-profit encourages students to bring same-sex partners to highschool proms.

Among research internships in the Bio-medical Sciences was one program at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). Their research is not restricted to adult stem cells; rather, they rely on embryonic stem cell lines derived from aborted fetuses, a type of research which the Church strongly opposes. (Link -- see page 9)

The Protest Continues

TFP Student Action is grateful to all its readers and members who signed the petition to Notre Dame.  For the future of our culture and country, we cannot afford to compromise with evil or surrender on moral values.

We will continue our peaceful and prayerful protest until the pro-abortion links, and internships, are removed.  The fact that Notre Dame students have served as interns for pro-abortion organizations in the past should cause embarrassment, not pride. 

Moreover, to post live links to pro-abortion groups under the title “Summer Internship Opportunities” is misleading and morally confusing to faithful Catholic students.
Therefore, we invite pro-life Americans to continue calling for their removal.

Please sign your instant protest today – right now – here

To give this peaceful effort more impact, please forward this message to all your pro-life friends (or even your entire address book).  You don’t need to be a student to participate.
Contact information (please be firm yet polite):

The University of Notre Dame
Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President
400 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: 574.631.3903
Email: president@nd.edu

Leave a protest message directly on Notre Dame's web site here

Real Men Put on the Armor of God

Real American Men Put on the Armor of God

Over 1200 men come together at the DCU center in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts on a cool spring day. What were they doing? I will give you a hint. Joe Lombardi, the quarterback coach of the New Orleans Saints and grandson of the legendary Green Bay Packer coach, was also there. No it was not a football game.

It was the 12th Annual Catholic Men’s Conference, put on by the Worcester diocese, and Mr. Lombardi was there to speak about his Catholic faith and that of his grandfather. It was not exactly the way we would imagine American men, often stereotyped as couch-potatoes who care little about religion and ideology, spending a Saturday. I saw them pack the room to capacity to listen to talks about their Faith during what amounted to a one-day retreat and consider it to be another paradox that exists “Only in America.”


Such a large gathering of men for a one-day conference on Catholic themes is not as rare as one would think in America. Cincinnati has had crowds at their annual event which go into the thousands. Indianapolis has such large gatherings for their “Lions Breathing Fire” conference they are forced to hold it in the city’s convention center.

Similar conferences can be found in Connecticut, and as far away as Beaverton, Oregon where its conference website invites “real Catholic men” to “put on the armor of God.” Worcester does take pride however, in being the first to organize such an event and the steady numbers they draw each year is a good indicator they are doing something right.

Real American Men Put on the Armor of God

John Baker of Ashburnham at Worcester Men’s Conference. (Courtesy of Catholic Free Press)

This year’s speakers included a conference favorite Fr. Larry Richards. His humor and captivating style held his audience’s attention even though his subject was about Penance and a look at the Ten Commandments, including the one most often transgressed in our modern world – the Sixth. While the subject of purity is a sensitive topic in any audience, one would expect it to be an almost forbidden subject in a room full of…well, manly men. It was not. One elderly gentleman, who spoke with me right after attending the talk, was delighted with the what-he-termed “hard hitting” subject matter. “[Fr. Richards] is not afraid to speak about tough subjects,” he said, “and we need to hear such things.”

Another impressive part of the conference was a long line of men that I observed. No, they were not in line for beer and chips, since, as we have already said, this was not a sporting event they were attending. These lines, --the longest I had seen since my Ash Wednesday experience in downtown New York-- were for the sacrament of Confession. A room full of priests sitting a safe distance from each other listened patiently to what must have been close to a thousand confessions. One could see the men took Father’s call to penance very seriously.

One of the attendees chatted with me before entering the queue. He had a horrific scar down the side of his face and another on his forearm. When I gingerly asked him where the scars came from, his response startled me; “A knife fight.” It did not seem an opportune time to go any further with my questions since my reason for being at the conference was to man a table with literature about TFP (Tradition, Family and Property). I offered him a rosary as a gift and asked him to pray for me. He smiled and said he would, before moving forward in the confession line.

While he might have been one of the colorful attendees, the reader must not look upon this as the typical one. Most of the men were well dressed, educated and articulate individuals looking for answers to tough questions and some brought their children. Two young men, ages 11 and 17, stayed for a long time watching TFP Student Action videos of  TFP members defending traditional marriage at such liberal bastions as Brown University, which has the reputation of being the Berkeley of the East Coast. Their father joined them after going to confession. He thanked me for the example of TFP members and described how his sons were “mesmerized” by what they saw.  

The highlight of the Conference, and one which would have caused a liberal to have nightmarish flashbacks of Tim Tebow, was the talk given by Joe Lombardi. While he did talk a bit of football it was only by way of analogy, for men trying to be the best Catholic they can be.

Real American Men Put on the Armor of God

One of the attendees at the conference speaks with the author as his son watches TFP Student Action videos. (Courtesy of Catholic Free Press)

Much to our surprise he described how his grandfather --the late Green Bay coach-- studied in the seminary for three years and was a devout Catholic who attended Mass and prayed his rosary daily. (Moments before his talk he stopped by the TFP table and proudly showed me the rosary, now his prized possession, which had formerly belonged to his grandfather.) He continued this theme, and shocked the audience in the process, by explaining life in his own family which mirrors that of his grandfather. He, his wife and six children also try to make the rosary and Mass part of their daily routine. Decorations in the Lombardi household include a crucifix in every room and religious art throughout the house.

As I listened to this young man, speaking in such frank terms about his Catholic faith, to a group of men in Worcester, Massachusetts I could not help but reflect how contrary this is to what many would expect to find in America. This is, after all, a land where men can speak about sports but are cautioned to steer clear of the forbidden subjects like religion and politics.

Nevertheless these are the very subjects which American men most yearn to speak about. These Americans don’t mind being seen as “real men who put on the armor of God” even if others might consider them a paradox that exists only in America.

By Norman Fulkerson

Military Academy Holds 1st Week of 'Homosexual Pride' Events

The unthinkable is happening.

Wilson Ring from the Associated Press  reports that a week of homosexual pride events took place at Norwich University, the nation's oldest private military academy. 

The events are believed to be the first of their kind on a military campus.

Also, openly homosexual clubs have opened at other military establishments, even at West Point.

In the face of a such a blatant transgression of God’s Holy Law, we pray that all God fearing Americans will stand up and prayerfully and peacefully oppose the shocking moral decline of this nation.

Don't Erect a Monument to Che

Dear editors, As a victim of Che Guevara’s atrocities, as a historian, and as a Cuban of Irish descent, I am deeply disturbed by the fact that the city of Galway is planning to erect a monument to Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I don’t mind one bit if those behind this monstrous project want to believe lies — that’s their right in a truly free society — but it would be wrong to allow their abysmal ignorance or willful blindness to stand unchallenged.

Those who think highly of Che may be surprised to hear it, but they have way too much...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/294367/don-t-erect-monument-che-carlos-eire

20 cities join largest ever March for Life in Romania: media pays attention

by Thaddeus Baklinski

BUCHAREST, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Over 20 cities in Romania celebrated a March for Life on Saturday, March 24, an event organizers say is spreading a pro-life message across the country.

“It is becoming one of the most important events in Romania, where ideas for life are reflected in the street. This year’s event expanded nationwide,” Larisa Iftime, president of Pro-Vita Media, told LifeSiteNews.

Iftime explained that the first Romanian March for Life was organized by the Darul VieĆŁii (Gift of Life) Association in Timisoara five years ago, and last year was organized and held for the first time in the capital Bucharest by the Pro-Vita Bucharest Association.

“Many other non-governmental, Christian and pro-life organizations came together this year to support the March for Life,” Iftime said.

In Bucharest, organizers said about 1000 people, “mainly young people,” marched from Revolution Square to Izvor Park (Spring Park), in front of the Parliament Palace, where youth handed out flyers with information about the beginning of life and the tragic consequences of abortion.

At Izvor Park, Bogdan Stanciu, president of the Pro-Vita Bucharest Association, told the crowd that Romania has lost more children to abortion in the past fifty years than the current total population of the country. He said the timing of the event around the 25th of March, the day Catholics and Orthodox celebrate as the feast of the Annunciation, is intentional.

“The Mother of God was overjoyed at the news of being pregnant with Jesus Christ. The news that a family will have children should be a joy for us too,” Stanciu said. “We are against contraception, which is a form of slaughter also. In the past 50 years 22,178,906 children have been killed through abortion, far more than the present population of Romania.”

“The dramatic situation of abortion in Romania is a legacy of communism, when people forget about God, and have been brainwashed by atheistic ideas,” said Dr. Daniela Păun, president of the Bucharest branch of the Gift of Life Association, in her address to the participants.

“At present, the phenomenon of abortion in Romania is determined largely by the abortion industry that make huge amounts of money from abortions,” said Dr. Păun.

An important aspect to this year’s March, the organizers said, was the launch of the “Manifest for Life,” presented to politicians and the media in Bucharest, in which pro-life organizations are demanding legislation for the protection of life and the family in Romania.

In the city of Cluj the March for Life was organized by representatives of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla and other Christian associations, and was attended by over 500 people, the organizers reported.

In Oradea, hundreds gathered in the city centre to hear Florica Chereches, deputy mayor and mother of four children. “Statistics show that in Romania, on average, a woman has four abortions, but we have absolute records of women with 35 abortions or more each,” said Chereches. “These figures are frightening. We have every year 47,000 teenagers who have abortions and kill their babies in their wombs. That is why I support this March. We have to cry for those who cannot cry.”

In Arad, the March was organized by organizations “Drept” (Right) and “Alege ViaĆŁa” (Choose Life). The participants stopped at Children’s Hospital to commemorate the children aborted there, then marched to Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, where a cross of candles in memory of children killed by abortion was created.

“With this March, we want to warn people about the tragedy of abortion in Romania. We affirm the right to life of unborn children from conception, respect for life in all its phases and the need for family support,” said Ana-Maria Jitea, coordinator of the “Choose Life” campaign promoted in Arad schools.

Organizers said Marches in other cities were each attended by several hundred pro-life participants.

“A novelty is the way the March was perceived by the media this year,” Iftime told LifeSiteNews, “unlike last year.”

Organizers said the event was reported in almost all the national press, by newspapers and news agencies.

“The news was rich, interspersed with many positive comments on life, and in some cases, the event was particularly mentioned among the important issues of the day,” Iftime observed.

“The most important is that there were more than twice as many participants as last year,” Iftime said. “The vast majority of participants were young and very young people. We are pleased that the press was very much present. Little by little, the society starts to be interested in this topic. Our goal, as the organizers of this march, was to bring the issue of abortion on the public agenda. We are glad that we succeeded to do this.”

A video of the 2012 Romanian March for Life events has been produced by Pro-Vita Media and is available here.

Good news: Same-sex unions overturned

Slovenia: referendum vote overturns same-sex unions

Voters in Slovenia have rejected a bid to allow legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.

Read more:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=wm#inbox/13661d982948ac63

Catholic student group to leave Vanderbilt campus over 'all-comers' policy

Is Vanderbilt University waging a war on religion?

Many of the university’s religious student groups think so. They have been told by the administration that they cannot have faith or belief-based requirements for leadership. That means an atheist could run for leadership of a Christian group, a Jew for leadership of a Muslim group, a Pagan for leadership of a Catholic group, and on and on.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/29/catholic-student-group-to-leave-vanderbilt-campus/?cmpid=NL_FNTopHeadlines#ixzz1qbuhNtRg

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Beautiful free download: The Way of the Cross

Please listen to this beautiful audio recording of the Way of the Cross just in time for Holy Week.

Here's the free Way of the Cross download

These short meditations by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira are a great way to start off Holy week.

The text version is here.

And the free audio file is here.

If you like it, please consider sending it to your friends.
May Our Lord and His Blessed Mother grant you ever more courage, enthusiasm and zeal to move forward, defending moral values.

God, Exemplary Cause of the Universe

Plinio CorrĂȘa de Oliveira

The multiplicity and hierarchy of all created things manifest the marvelous order of the universe and reflect the infinite beauty of the divine Creator

“God, the uncreated and infinitely beautiful Being, is reflected in a thousand ways in all other beings that He created. Accordingly, there is not even one being which in one way or another fails to reflect the uncreated beauty of God.

But the beauty of God is revealed above all in the harmonious and hierarchical ensemble of all these beings, so that, in a certain sense, there is no better way of knowing God’s infinite and uncreated beauty than by

analyzing the finite and created beauty of the universe, considered not so much in each individual being but in the ensemble of all beings.”*

________

(*) Excerpt from a lecture by Plinio CorrĂȘa de Oliveira in SĂŁo Paulo at a Conference of the Third Carmelite Order on 11-15-1958 and published in Mensageiro do Carmelo, special issue, 1959.

Washington Post caught fronting Chinese propaganda as news articles, says watchdog group

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 28, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Washington Post is one of the most respected names in all of journalism, but critics say it has put its credibility on the auction block by partnering with the Chinese and Russian governments to reprint foreign propaganda under its masthead.

The controversy swirls around the publication of China Watch, a news supplement inserted into the newspaper. The Washington Post logo appears alongside its own, and China Watch‘s website is hosted on WaPo‘s server. However, most of its stories are produced by China Daily, an English-language “newspaper” with offices in Beijing. It is heavily censored by the Communist Chinese regime, with stories carefully chosen to advance the party line and the nation’s geostrategic interests.

Both the real and virtual editions of the publication contain the words, “A Paid Supplement to The Washington Post” – in much smaller print. Online, the words are just above a story on a program to teach LGBT activists to make documentary films and an ad for China Daily, inviting readers to “Click to open a window to the world.”

The owners and editors of The Washington Post “are lending their logo to this foreign propaganda,” Cliff Kincaid, director of Accuracy In Media‘s Center for Investigative Journalism, told LifeSiteNews.com. “If you didn’t know where this comes from, it looks like a regular newspaper.”

The Post runs a similar service for Russia called Russia Now.

The Chinese government, Kincaid said, is “using the logo of The Washington Post to create the impression this is like any other section of The Washington Post.”

“If you do your digging you can find out this is paid propaganda, and they’re use using the Post,” he added.

That is readily apparent from the way China Watch covers the brutal one-child policy, which often results in compulsory abortion. A 2009 story entitled “Nation stems population tide” by Li Xing contends, “The country’s one-child policy has ensured that the fruits of fast growth benefit all the people.”

The “news” supplement credited the anti-natalist policy with “reducing the tremendous pressure on natural resources and the environment, for stimulating economic development and social growth, and for enabling most people to move out of poverty.” Its source: Li Bin, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Wen Zhanshan, now 66, reminisced with Xing about how he used to create population control posters in the city of Harbin adorned with phrases like, “It is better to breed more pigs than children.” Today, the posters say, “Our mother earth is too tired to support too many children.”

The story notes at the bottom that Sun Hongfen of the a regional Population and Family Planning Bureau – a branch of the Chinese government – “contributed” to the story.

Another China Watch article discusses a panel on women’s issues, which raised the possibility that surviving children, spoiled by their grandparents, had developed a “Little Emperor” complex. “These kids might be spoiled, but they are also the repository of all their parents’ dreams,” said Amy Chua, a contributor to The Daily Beast and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother .“These ‘spoiled brats’ work extremely hard.”

A web search located zero articles about Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese dissident under house arrest for exposing the nation’s population policies.

Experts have questioned the ethics of the Post‘s relationship with Beijing. “They need to address the proverbial elephant in the living room – why are you carrying a Communist government-sponsored publication?” Lois Boynton, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told The Washington Free Beacon.

Fred Hiatt, the Post’s editorial page editor, told the Free Beacon “the material is clearly labeled” and the newspaper had run negative “editorials on China, human rights, [and] the importance of democratic development in China both for Chinese people and for the world.”

However, in February the Post‘s ombudsman took it to task for reprinting “propaganda” in its own pages. In February, Patrick Pexton accused his paper of ”Caving to China’s Demands” for posting an “interview” with Chinese vice president Xi Jinping. Instead of answering journalists’ questions, the Post revealed, “the Chinese government modified, deleted, and added questions to those The Post submitted.” Pexton called it “more press release or propaganda than news.”

Kincaid told LifeSiteNews.com there is a simple reason the paper is partnering with governments that curtail freedom of the press: “The Washington Post wants the money. It’s simply a matter of bucks.”

“We’ve been covering for quite some time that The Washington Post the newspaper is losing a lot of money,” he said,  leading to what he describes as a murky relationship with the for-profit school Kaplan University.
Kincaid said the fact that the Post is “taking this money directly from a foreign government” is “significant,” but the greater outrage is that an American newspaper would give cover to foreign governments, which he said are stepping up their operations in the United States.

He cited the operations of Al-Jazeera English (which is heavily funded by the government of Qatar), Iranian Press TV, and Russia Today as companies with high production values that are less than free news outlets.

“These foreign propaganda organs are increasing their influence and operations in the U.S., and that’s what we see in these advertising supplements. It’s just another aspect of their propaganda wars within the United States.”

Father Guarnizo and the nitty gritty of Canon Law and refusing Holy Communion

by Steve Jalsevac

March 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  In light of the recent news about the Archdiocese of Washington apologizing to an open lesbian for Communion being denied her at a funeral, a U.S. priest canonist has submitted to LifeSiteNews this unsolicited analysis of Catholic Canon Law on the matter.  The priest is known to LifeSiteNews but must remain publicly unnamed.

We are including this detailed analysis since the fact that they have not been denied Catholic sacraments has been a large factor in helping very influential, obstinately pro-abortion or anti-family Catholic politicians and activists (Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Kathleen Sibelius, Tony Blair, etc.) to legitimize their damaging actions, while still claiming to be in good standing with the Church. The Catholic public figures have in many cases been top leaders of actions against the protection of innocent human life and the family.

There is a growing clamor among pro-life and pro-family leaders, many laity and even from non-Catholics demanding that the Catholic Church end this damaging scandal by using its Canon 915 as an act of charity for the offenders, their victims and the wider community.

A Canonical Defense of Father Marcel Guarnizo
As a priest and canon lawyer, I’d like in canonical terms, to revisit the controversial events surrounding the denial of Holy Communion to Barbara Johnson by Father Marcel Guarnizo. First of all, while I agree with many of the points by the very well-respected canonist Dr. Ed Peters, I believe that even with the rather limited information currently available, Father Guarnizo very possibly and correctly satisfied the conditions of canon 915 in denying Holy Communion to Barbara Johnson. Secondly, I would like to comment on Father Guarnizo’s unjust “administrative leave” in light of the Code of Canon Law.
Canon 915 and Father Guarnizo

The first rule of interpretation in canon law is to read the canon.  Canon 915 reads:

“Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

As Ed Peters clearly points out, canon 915 lays an obligation on the minister distributing Holy Communion to deny Holy Communion to certain parties. Who are these parties? The first two parties are those who have been excommunicated or interdicted by imposition or declaration. The third party to be denied Holy Communion are those who fulfill all of the following three conditions, i.e., those who
1. Obstinately persist
2. in manifest
3. grave sin.
How is this canon to be interpreted? Ed Peters rightly mentions a general norm:

Can. 18 - “Laws which establish a penalty, restrict the free exercise of rights, or contain an exception from the law are subject to strict interpretation.”

as well as canon 912:

Can. 912 - “Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to Holy Communion.”

On the other hand, Father William Byrne, Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns, in the Archdiocese of Washington’s press release, states,

“We should receive Jesus with the intention of becoming more like Him. No one is entitled to the Eucharist. It is a free gift and should be received with humility and reverence.”

Ed Peters is again correct to say that the burden lies upon Father Guarnizo to prove he satisfied the requirements of canon 915. On the other hand, canon 915 lays a grave obligation on the minister of Holy Communion to protect the Eucharist from sacrilege and to prevent scandal. It goes without saying that the minister who violates canon 915 should be justly punished.
Ed Peters summarily explains why Father Guarnizo does not fufill the conditions of canon 915:

“Guarnizo did not know, and could not have verified, whether Johnson’s sin (speaking objectively), which could be grave (a conclusion I think a Catholic could reach based on the words used here) was also manifest, as well as obstinate and perseverating (sic). “

This statement raises a question. Given the extremely limited information we currently have from a variety of sources, how exactly does Ed Peters judge that Father “Guarnizo did not know, and could not have verified” Barbara Johnson was not a manifest, grave sinner? It is safe to assume that Ed Peters was not present at the chapel for the funeral, nor was he in the sacristy, nor does he have knowledge of who or how many persons witnessed the conversation that took place between Father Guarnizo and Barbara Johnson.
Ed Peters goes on to quote a number of very reputable and traditional Catholic moralists and manualists who express in various terms the meaning of canon 915. Let’s look carefully at canon 915. Here’s the canon again:

Canon 915 - “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

What is the purpose of canon 915? Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (the highest tribunal in the Church) answers this question in a paper regarding the liciety of admitting pro-abortion politicians to Holy Communion in light of canon 915. (For those who haven’t read the paper, the quick answer is “no”.) Cardinal Burke states that Canon 915 exists primarily to prevent sacrilege while at the same time preventing our Greatest Good from being violated. His Eminence also remarked in the Jesuit periodical America Magazine that,

“Canon 915 deals with the state of someone who persists in an open, serious moral violation and so has gravely sinned. This means you can’t receive Communion, but it is not saying you are excommunicated. It’s just saying you have broken, in a very serious way, your communion with God and with the Church and therefore are not able to receive Holy Communion.”

The same point is implied in St. Paul’s scolding of the Corinthian Christians during Mass:

“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.”

The minister who applies canon 915 actually does the sinner a great service in charity by preventing him from committing another grave sin.

The secondary purpose of canon 915 is the prevention of scandal. What is scandal? Cardinal Burke says:

“The first and properly theological meaning of scandal is to do or omit something which leads others into error or sin. The second meaning is to do or omit something which causes wonderment (admiratio) in others. Denying Holy Communion publicly to the occult sinner involves scandal in the second sense. Giving Holy Communion to the obstinately serious and public sinner involves scandal in the first sense.”

In his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas says that although there is a need for the minister distributing Holy Communion to protect the good name of the hidden sinner, there is also an obligation to protect the Eucharist from sacrilege by a public sinner.
Since Barbara Johnson doesn’t fall into the first two categories of canon 915, let’s see she if she fulfills the following three conditions for the last category of persons, i.e., those who
1. Obstinately persist
2. in manifest
3. grave sin.
1. Obstinately persist
What does it mean to “obstinately persist”?
The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (PCLT), the department of the Vatican whose job it is to interpret authentically both universal and particular laws in the Church, states that this phrase “obstinate persistence” is

“the existence of an objective situation of sin that endures in time and which the will of the individual member of the faithful does not bring to an end, no other requirements (attitude of defiance, prior warning, etc.) being necessary to establish the fundamental gravity of “the situation in the Church.”

“Obstinate persistence” denotes an objective (not subjective) state. Although commonly misunderstood, it is not necessary that warnings be issued in order to judge “obstinate persistence”.
Before the funeral Mass, Barbara Johnson declared her homosexual status by introducing her lesbian lover to Father Guarnizo. What was the purpose of this action? We now know, from media reports, that Barbara has been with her partner for 20 years.

We also know that Barbara Johnson walked out of the sacristy while her lover blocked the doorway.

2. “Manifest”

What does “manifest” mean?

Among the leading canon lawyers currently living in North America is Professor John Huels at St. Paul’s University. In his 1985 commentary on canon 915, Professor Huels writes that, “a manifest sin is one which is publicly known, even if only by a few.”

Although tempting, it is not possible completely to equate the term “manifest” with the term “public”, since, in the 1917 Code these two adjectives are used to describe those who are not allowed a Catholic funeral. (1917 Code of Canon Law, c. 1240. Alii peccatores publici et manifesti [Other public and manifest sinners])If “manifest” were exactly the same as“public”, why would the legislator have used both terms?“  Manifest” can also refer to the fact that certain moral actions by their very essence are always immoral and are objectively wrong.For example, we say that it is“manifest” or clear, i.e., there is no doubt, that a certain moral action is definitely wrong.The term “manifest”would certainly in its definition, a politician who is actively attempting to pass legislation to facilitate direct abortions. Understandably there is overlapping in meaning but the the term “public” can mean “that which is provable in the external forum.”
The Jesuit theologian Father Davis, in his classic Moral and Pastoral Theology published in 1938, declared that,

“He is, relatively speaking, a public sinner, if he is known to be such by those who observe that he asks for the Sacraments. He is said to ask for them publicly, if he does so, in the presence of any others, many or few, who would recognize him as a public sinner.”

The ancient Rituale Romanum stated:

“All the faithful are to be admitted to Holy Communion, except those who are prohibited for a just reason. The publicly unworthy, which are the excommunicated, those under interdict, and the manifestly infamous, such as prostitutes, those cohabiting, usurers, sorcerers, fortune-tellers, blasphemers and other sinners of the public kind, are, however, to be prevented, unless their penitence and amendment has been established and they will have repaired the public scandal.”

Furthermore, as Cardinal Burke mentions in his commentary on canon 915,

“Regarding the denial of Holy Communion, the [1720 Ruthenian] Synod made its own the perennial discipline of the Church:
“Heretics, schismatics, the excommunicated, the interdicted, public criminals, the openly infamous, as also prostitutes, the publicly cohabiting, major usurers, fortune-tellers, and other evil-doing men of the same kind, however, are not to be admitted to the reception of this Sacrament, according to the precept of Christ: ‘Do not give the Holy to dogs’. “

A notorious act here means an act that cannot be concealed.

The well-respected Father William Woestman adds that,

“the public reception of Communion by a public sinner implies that the Church and her ministers somehow condone the public serious sin.”

An author that Ed Peters is familiar with and recommends is the Dominican Father Halligan. Father Halligan, in Administration of the Sacraments, states that a crime

“is public, if it is already divulged or is so situated that it may and must be concluded that it will easily become commonly known.”

Who else was present in the sacristy on the day of Barbara Johnson’s mother’s funeral? Who else could have heard the conversation that took place between Father Guarnizo and Barbara Johnson? Usually before a liturgical ceremony such as a funeral, a number persons can be present in the sacristy (e.g., altar servers, schola members, members of the recently deceased, the parish secretary, etc.).

In addition, reasonableness is assumed in law. Is it not reasonable that the community, largely made up of Barbara Johnson’s family, knew of her lesbian relationship before the funeral if not at least at the funeral?

At family gatherings like funerals or weddings, people “catch up” and learn how everyone and everything has been going since the last funeral or wedding. People find out family news. Even strangers discover a little bit about who’s related to whom and so on. Is it not very reasonable that more than a few people present in that church building knew about the lesbian relationship between Barbara Johnson and her lover?

Every human being lives in a community. What about the community of which Barbara Johnson is a member and amongst whom she lives? Are they supposed to assume that Barbara Johnson received Holy Communion just like everybody else? Doesn’t this create scandal in Cardinal Burke’s first sense where the faithful are led into error about who is worthy to receive Holy Communion?
An unnamed source present at the funeral mentioned that most of the congregation was mysteriously not made up of those around the age of the recently deceased mother but were more around the age of Barbara Johnson. An unusually small percentage of people came up to receive Holy Communion. If these were friends of Barbara Johnson, what about the possible scandal that could have taken place if Father Gaurnizo had given her Holy Communion? This witness is confident that the vast majority of the persons present for the funeral knew about the lesbian “lifestyle” of Barbara Johnson.

3. Grave sin.

Regarding “Grave Sin”, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts declares that this is, “understood objectively, being that the minister of Communion would not be able to judge from subjective imputability.”
Now that we’ve walked through a working description of the phrase in canon 915 asserting that those who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” what is a concrete example of people who fall into this category? The answer is given to us by Blessed Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Catechism and again, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
Blessed John Paul II in Familaris Consortio in 1982:

“The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted hereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict the union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is a another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.”

Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1991:

“As far as the internal forum solution is concerned as a means of resolving the question of the validity of a prior marriage, the magisterium has not sanctioned its use for a number of reasons, among which is the inherent contradiction of resolving something in the internal forum which by its nature also pertains to and has such important consequences for the external forum.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, numbers 1650-1651:

“If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God’s law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic Communion as long as this situation persists. “

Pontifical Commission for Legislative Texts in 2000:

“In effect, the reception of the Body of Christ when one is publicly unworthy constitutes an objective harm to the ecclesial communion: it is a behavior that affects the rights of the Church and of all the faithful to live in accord with the exigencies of that communion. In the concrete case of the admission to Holy Communion of faithful who are divorced and remarried, the scandal, understood as an action that prompts others towards wrongdoing, affects at the same time both the sacrament of the Eucharist and the indissolubility of marriage. That scandal exists even if such behavior, unfortunately, no longer arouses surprise: in fact it is precisely with respect to the deformation of the conscience that it becomes more necessary for Pastors to act, with as much patience as firmness, as a protection to the sanctity of the Sacraments and a defense of Christian morality, and for the correct formation of the faithful.”

The noted 1917 Code commentar Fr. Lincoln Bouscaren, SJ, in Canon Law Digest (vol. 1, 408-409) also relates the case of

“a woman that was living in open concubinage with a relative, went to confession to a missionary, and was admitted by him to Holy Communion. The pastor of the church questioned the propriety of this course of action on the part of the missionary, and referred the matter to the Ordinary of the place. The latter forbade the admission of the woman to Holy Communion until she should have separated from the man with whom she was living. From this decree, the missionary had recourse tot he Sacred Congregation of the Council.

Question: Whether the decree of the Ordinary is to be obeyed.
Reply: In the affirmative.”

Father William Woestman logically concludes that

“the same principles apply to everyone whose habitual lifestyle is manifestly gravely sinful, e.g., the unmarried “living together,” homosexuals or lesbians in a public relationship, those actively participating in the performance of abortions, drug traffickers, gang members.”

We can see that Ed Peters clearly contradicts the point reinterated by Father Woestmann:

“I think that withholding Holy Communion from those divorced and remarried outside the Church is an application of Canon 915 (see, e.g., Kelly, in GB&I COMM [1995] 503), but I need not prove that point to show that withholding the Eucharist from divorced-and-remarrieds, that is, those who status is de iure public, is appropriate under, among other things, the 1994 CDF Letter on Communion for Divorced and Remarried Catholics, n. 6.  Of course, as Johnson is apparently not divorced and remarried outside the Church, and because Guarnizo did not suspect her of being so, his implicit appeal to the CDF letter and/or c. 915, fails in law and in fact.”

Objectively, homosexuality is graver than adultery. I don’t understand why Dr. Peters says that it is licit to use canon 915 to deny Holy Communion to those who are divorced and have remarried but it is not licit to use canon 915 for a lesbian in a homosexual relationship.
Up to this point, we’ve applied our attention to law relevant to the particular situation of Baabara Johnson. Now we ask, what should be done practically in a concrete situation?
The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts again provides the answer:

“Naturally, pastoral prudence would strongly suggest the avoidance of instances of public denial of Holy Communion. Pastors must strive to explain to the concerned faithful the true ecclesial sense of the norm, in such a way that they would be able to understand it or at least respect it. In those situations, however, in which these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible, the minister of Communion must refuse to distribute it to those who are publicly unworthy. They are to do this with extreme charity, and are to look for the opportune moment to explain the reasons that required the refusal. They must, however, do this with firmness, conscious of the value that such signs of strength have for the good of the Church and of souls.”

“The discernment of cases in which the faithful who find themselves in the described condition are to be excluded from Eucharistic Communion is the responsibility of the Priest who is responsible for the community.”

We know that Father Guarnizo did not make the funeral arrangments for Barbara Johnson’s mother. We also know that after hearing confessions from 9:30-10:20am, Father Guarnizo wanted to speak with Barbara before the 10:30am funeral Mass but was blocked by Barbara Johnson’s lover. We also know that Father Guarnizo’s action to deny Holy Communion to Barbara Johnson was extremely discreet.

Top priest-commentator hopes D&P financial crisis will spark needed reforms

by Patrick B. Craine

KINGSTON, Ontario, March 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the Canadian bishops’ call for increased support to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace in the wake of massive funding cuts by the Canadian government, Fr. Raymond de Souza has expressed hope that the organization’s financial crisis will instigate the needed reforms to its Catholic identity.

Reacting to the scandal swirling around D&P due to its funding of pro-abortion organizations, Canada’s most prominent priest-commentator wrote in the Catholic Register last year that the bishops’ official development arm has a “tenuous claim on Catholic dollars” because they “have a tenuous relationship with any distinctively Catholic mission.”

Fr. Raymond DeSouza

But, he notes in a new Catholic Register op-ed, “the pastors of the Church have a different collective judgment.”

“I wish I shared that view, but honesty — and the written record — requires me to say that I do not,” he wrote on Tuesday.

Click “like” if you want to end abortion!

D&P announced last week that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has cut its funding by 65%. While the organization had requested $49.2 million over the next five years, they will only receive $14.9 million. They had received $44.6 million from 2006-2011.

As a result, D&P is turning to the pews to make up the shortfall, and on March 22nd the CCCB issued an urgent appeal calling on Catholics “to do everything they can” to support the beleaguered organization. The bishops also pledged to take up D&P’s cause with government officials.

Nevertheless, D&P is preparing for a funding crisis, with plans for significant layoffs and reductions in their third world partnerships.

In his op-ed, Fr. de Souza explains that the Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has shifted its development funding to focus on programs in fewer countries and less on social and political activism.

“Both those shifts hit CCODP hard. Its long-standing approach has been to seek out partners in dozens and dozens of countries, and those partners are very much directed to social and political activism,” he writes.

While Catholics’ concerns have centred on D&P’s support of pro-abortion groups, the priest explains, the CIDA cuts came “because CCODP offers in large part a program no longer in keeping with CIDA priorities.”

Fr. De Souza stresses that Catholics must make up their own minds about whether to support D&P, noting that his judgment as a commentator “is by no means of equivalent weight to the bishops’ recommendation.”

Nevertheless, he expresses the hope that the crisis instigated by the government cuts will somehow spark the needed reforms that have been called for by numerous Canadian bishops, including especially Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto.

“The massive cuts in CCODP’s government aid have brought about an unexpected moment of crisis,” he writes. “It remains to be seen whether that crisis may produce the thoroughgoing reform of CCODP that, for example, Cardinal Collins of Toronto called for two years ago.”

Fr. de Souza’s op-ed is available here: Is D&P worth donating to? You decide

* See the LifeSiteNews Development and Peace Scandal Feature Page.

French presidential candidates in bidding war on homosexual ‘marriage’

by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

March 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is beginning to compromise his opposition to homosexual “marriage” in an attempt to catch up with his socialist rival in this year’s elections, Francois Hollande.

Trailing Hollande in polls over a second-round vote by between 8 and 16 percentage points, Sarkozy is offering to create a “marriage” ceremony that would be conducted by the government as part of the beginning of a Pact of Civil Solidarity (PACS), a loose legal arrangement open to homosexuals in France.

“I am ready to propose—it would be a matter of a decree—that the marriage ceremony, for a homosexual PACS, be made a right,” said Sarkozy in an interview with the French magazine Tetu, adding that “the ceremony would permit a true social acceptance” of homosexual unions.

He has also ceded the notion that cohabiting homosexuals constitute a “family.”

“A family can be one father-one mother, two fathers or two mothers. I think that it’s necessary to leave the situation as it is, in a somewhat unclear area, that we are not obligated to legislate everything, to vote for laws for everything,” Sarkozy said in the same interview.

Hollande, in contrast, told Tetu that he intends to create homosexual “marriage” by early 2013, a position endorsed by a majority of French, according to numerous opinion polls.

“I know that the first months of the parliamentary session will be essentially committed to elements of financial planning, so I prefer to be honest: if we want a good debate, it’s better to start at the beginning of 2013 and to finish by spring,” Hollande told Tetu in an interview published in the same edition as Sarkozy’s.

Although Sarkozy’s proposal would give the appearance of “marriage” to homosexual unions, they would not enjoy the same rights as marriage. PACS are weak contractual arrangements, offering ease of termination, with minimal resdidual obligations. Moreover, they do not afford the right of adopting children, something Sarkozy continues to oppose.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

University of Notre Dame gave internship grants to students for work at pro-abortion, pro-homosexual organizations

A recent campaign of America Needs Fatima highlighted the fact that the University of Notre Dame has live links to “internship opportunities” for students at pro-abortion groups on the webpage of its Political Science Department.

But there’s more to the story.

According to further research done by Mrs. Kathy Schiffer and posted on her blog Patheos.com, Notre Dame has also given grants to students for work at other organizations such as:

  • The Minnesota Women’s Consortium. Among the Consortium’s member groups, all of which claim to “empower women,” is Planned Parenthood.  The student intern blogged about her experiences at College Feminists Connect.
  • The Anti-Defamation League of Boston, where the intern’s goal is to help combat “sexism, racism and heterosexism.”
  • The Resource Center of Dallas. In addition to counseling, medical assistance and food subsidies, the Resource Center offers education programs for the GLBT community in Dallas.
  • The National Organization for Women, one of America’s paramount abortion advocacy groups.
  • The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance in Chicago.  That non-profit offers “sensitivity training and anti-prejudice workshops to schools and teachers wishing to create safe, non-threatening school and classroom environments for LGBT students.”
  • People for the American Way. That organization conducts research, legal, education, and advocacy for a wide variety of liberal causes.

For these reasons, we are continuing our peaceful and prayerful protest of Notre Dame.

Please sign your instant protest today – right now – here

To give this peaceful effort more impact, please forward this message to all your pro-life friends (or even your entire address book).  You don’t need to be a student to participate.
Contact information (please be firm yet polite):

The University of Notre Dame
Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President
400 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: 574.631.3903
Email: president@nd.edu


Leave a protest message directly on Notre Dame's web site here

Pepsi named one of “world’s most ethical companies” despite exploitation of aborted babies

by Christine Dhanagom

NEW YORK, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the midst of a pro-life boycott over PepsiCo’s use of aborted fetal cells in flavor research, a prestigious international think tank has designated the soft drink company one of the “world’s most ethical companies.”

According to Ethisphere, the California based organization that produces the list, the ranking honors those companies that “go beyond making statements about doing business ‘ethically’ and translate those words into action,” and “demonstrate real and sustained ethical leadership within their industries.”

The recently released 2011 list names 110 companies, including Pepsi. Several other pro-life boycott targets were also included, such as Whole Foods and Marriott Hotels which have given support to Planned Parenthood.

The institute noted on its website that 26 companies which had previously been on the list were “dropped off” this year due to “ litigation and ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industry.”

Despite mounting outrage against Pepsi from consumers as well as a shareholder complaint, however, the soft drink company has never been removed from the list. In fact, Pepsi has touted itself as the only food and beverage producer to receive the honor every year since it was initiated in 2007.

While the soft drink company claimed in an email to LifeSiteNews that it does not “conduct or fund research that utilizes any human tissue or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses,” it did not deny the allegation in its response to a shareholder complaint over the research. Instead, the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission that shareholders should not be allowed to control whether a company uses aborted fetal cells in research since this “deals with matters related to the company’s ordinary business operations.”

According to Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, the company’s denial of its use of aborted fetal cells likely rests on the fact that the research company it has contracted with does not use the original cells from the aborted baby, but rather cells derived from those original cells.

Vinnedge, who is leading the charge against Pepsi, told LifeSiteNews that her organization is “shocked and disappointed” by news of the award.

“We wrote to Ethisphere to let them know that the fact that PepsiCo is funding the use of aborted fetal cell lines to discover and develop their flavor enhancers is far from ethical business practices,” She said. “In addition, PepsiCo has misled the public using semantics and craftily worded responses to consumer complaints to try and weasel out of what they are actually doing.”

Ethisphere did not respond to Vinnedge’s complaint beyond the initial automated response generated by any inquiry. The institute also did not return repeated phone calls from LifeSiteNews seeking comment.

To contact Ethisphere, go here

Homosexual ‘marriage’ push aims to ‘recreate society’ and marginalize Christianity says Archbishop

by Hilary White

GLASGOW/STRASSBURG, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Creating “gay marriage,” is an attempt to rewrite the natural law and “recreate society,” says Mario Conti, Archbishop of Glasgow.

The bishop’s strong comments as the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that there is no such thing as a “right” to “gay marriage” in the European Convention on Human Rights, a revelation that has yet to put a damper on the UK government’s enthusiasm for changing the legal definition of marriage.

“It is certainly not the role of law to recreate our society according to passing fashions and ideologies, nor to redefine nature whether in terms of persons and their rights or its natural institutions,” Archbishop Conti said in a homily at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh this weekend.

The prelate said that current plans to alter the definition of marriage, promoted by the Conservative government of David Cameron as an effort to strengthen marriage, are in reality just the next step in the “marginalisation” of Christianity and any voice opposed to homosexual activity.

“Those voices are growing ever louder in our country,” Conti said, “that attempted marginalisation is becoming ever more acute and we are witnessing the transformation of tolerance into a kind of tyranny in which religious views are the only ones which seem unworthy of respect and acceptance.”

The Archbishop cautioned, “We are witnessing the transformation of tolerance into a kind of tyranny in which religious views are the only ones which seem unworthy of respect and acceptance.

“Our society will descend further into ethical confusion and moral disintegration the more that those in Government and the judiciary slip society’s moorings from the capstans of virtue.”

While Prime Minister Cameron’s plans to rewrite the definition of marriage will only affect England and Wales, the local government of Scotland reportedly “tends towards the view” that the definition should also be altered in Scottish law. The consultation in Scotland closed in December, and never received the same media attention as England’s consultation that began this month.

In related news, a much-anticipated ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has come down against the concept of “gay marriage” as a human right, protected under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court said March 18th that the wording of the Convention itself restricting marriage to a man and a woman was “deliberate”. The ruling upheld one made earlier by France’s highest court prohibiting homosexual “marriage” and adoption.

There is no “indirect discrimination founded (…) on the impossibility of marriage,” the Court said. Article 12 of the Convention “does not impose on the governments of the state parties the obligation to open marriage to a homosexual couple”.

“Moreover, regard must be had to the historical context in which the Convention was adopted. In the 1950s marriage was clearly understood in the traditional sense of being a union between partners of different sex.”

Launching the British government’s consultation early this month, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said, “Put simply, it’s not right that a couple who love each other and want to formalise a commitment to each other should be denied the right to marry.” It remains to be seen if the ECHR ruling, which is binding on the UK, that there is no such right, will put a damper on the government’s plans to introduce “gay marriage”.

The government’s plans are not popular among the British public. A recent ComRes poll showed that 70 per cent want marriage to remain defined as a “lifelong exclusive commitment between a man and a woman”. A similar poll in Scotland found that 53 per cent of the public thinks that “homosexuals should not be allowed to redefine marriage for everyone else”. Members of Cameron’s party have warned the Prime Minister that while pushing “gay marriage” will win him few points on the extreme left it will alienate voters who are more concerned with the economy and immigration.

A petition being circulated by the Coalition for Marriage to oppose the plan has collected 323,986 signatures as of today. Colin Hart, the head of the Coalition, has described the government’s consultation on the subject as “a sham” in which the crucial question of whether the change ought to be made has already been taken, and all opposition will be ignored. The government’s document launching the consultation said that “points raised in responses that are out of the scope of the consultation and the consultation questions will not necessarily be considered”.

“I always thought that a consultation was about listening to people and asking them their views before making a decision,” Hart said. “Not only are they redefining the meaning of marriage, they’re redefining the meaning of consultation.”

According to MEP Nigel Farage, the head of the increasingly popular libertarian United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), David Cameron’s unprecedented push to create “gay marriage” has less to do with a sincere interest in the homosexualist political agenda than with fear of appearing weak to a public that is increasingly disillusioned with the EU and its mechanisms.

“The last thing he needs at the moment is to have the European courts declare our law discriminatory again and demand it be changed,” Farage wrote.

“He does not want you to realise that a foreign court is the highest court in the land,” a UKIP brief said.

David Coburn, UKIP’s openly gay London Regional Chairman, warned that the government is pointlessly picking a fight with religious people in Britain who could find themselves accused of “hate crimes” for their support of traditional marriage.

“That would be a grotesque assault on peoples’ freedom of conscience. As we all know these things tend to be the thin end of the wedge once the government’s ludicrous overpaid /over-pensioned thought police get on the job.”

Coburn wrote on the homosexualist news service Pink News, “The same-sex marriage debate is not an old-fashioned left-right political issue. It’s about freedom.”

“The Tories over the last few years have raced to catch up with Labour’s authoritarian politically correct agenda.” All three mainstream parties, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour have adopted the authoritarian mode.

Calling the government’s plans for marriage “equality fascism,” Coburn said, they have “created a grotesque, maximum security, Kafkaesque society where everything including speech and thought are regulated in the name of security and equality.

“You can stab old ladies or promising teenagers and do three months, but woe betide if you transgress the language and thought police.”