Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Does God change? Does the truth change?

No -- the truth does not change to fit the ways of the world.

The truth is perennial.

That's why I think you'll really like this:

Vatican Condemnation of Homosexuality in 2003 -- Valid Then, Valid Now

It's a good refresher.

As the New Year approaches, I would like to thank you -- on behalf of the entire team of TFP Student Action volunteers -- for your outstanding help throughout 2014.

With your prayers and generous support, you helped us stand up for moral values on college campuses nationwide. Every prayer and every action counted. And I'm so glad and grateful to be able to count you among my friends who proclaim the truth, defend the unborn, and protect the sanctity of marriage.

Thank you so much.

We now have 144,000 students and parents involved in this spiritual crusade for the future of America.

However, the struggle for moral values in 2015 will be challenging for sure. To meet those challenges we must continue to band together and rely on the grace of God more than ever, for we have the unmerited privilege of serving the King of kings Whose victory over evil has already been assured: The gates of hell will never prevail.

May the Infant Jesus and His Holy Mother grant you and your family many graces this Christmas Season and New Year.

Again, thank you for fighting the good fight.

Feel free to share this statement of the Vatican against unnatural vice with others.

Monday, December 29, 2014

10 Tips for Better New Year's Resolutions

2014 has flown by…and here we are about to enter 2015!

Which, brings us to New Year Resolutions…

But these are never as simple as they sound, are they?

They come with a lot of question marks:

What resolutions? How many? Will I be able to keep them?

Click for 10 Tips for Better New Year's Resolutions, for inspirational, concise, practical, doable, tips on how to make a real difference in your spiritual life in 2015!

But before you click on the link to the 10 Tips, I want to suggest to you a prayer for the incoming year.

By the looks of it, it is going to be a tough one and we need to pray.

Here is one of my favorite prayers from the great Saint Teresa of Avila.

It is not exactly a prayer and more like a verse or a poem, but I find it very inspiring and helpful in my daily life.

Nada te turbe, nada te espante,
todo se pasa, Dios no se muda;
la paciencia todo lo alcanza;
quien a Dios tiene nada le falta:
Sólo Dios basta.
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

Now, I invite you to click here and spend a few minutes on the New Year’s Resolution page.

A very blessed and happy New year to you and your loved ones. God bless!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Message

    This Christmas I offer you the enclosed spiritual bouquet, a gift from Our Lady’s volunteers who store up treasures in heaven with you in mind. 

    I am also having a special Christmas Mass, offered for your intentions. 

    My good friend Msgr. Henry Otero will pray for your intentions at Mass, in thanksgiving for your role in launching a record 12,629 public square Rosary rallies across America in 2014. 

    Also, see America Needs Fatima staff and volunteers "Spiritual Bouquet" to you!

    May the Christ Child and His Blessed Mother shower you and your loved ones with blessings this Christmas Season!

Merry Christmas!

And Please read these inspiring Christmas meditations.

A Christmas Reflection

Gathered 'Round the Manger

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Catholic Marquette Univ. SUSPENDS professor who defends Catholic teaching on marriage

Because he was unfairly suspended...

I invite you to tell Prof. John McAdams that you support his right to defend God's marriage at Catholic Marquette University.

Click here to tell Prof. McAdams that you stand with him

Background:

Fact #1: Evaporating Freedom

Catholic students at Marquette are no longer free to oppose homosexual "marriage." According to Fox News, teaching assistant Cheryl Abbate told a Marquette philosophy student who wanted to defend traditional marriage: “You don’t have a right in this class to make homophobic comments.”

Fact #2: Catholic Teaching Silenced

Prof. John McAdams defended the young student's free speech right to speak in favor of God-ordained marriage on his blog. “Like the rest of academia, Marquette is less and less a real university,” he stated. “When gay marriage cannot be discussed -- certainly not a Catholic university.”

Fact #3: Suspended & Banned

On December 16, Prof. McAdams was placed under investigation, suspended and banned from campus. “You are relieved of all teaching duties and all other faculty activities,” stated Dean Richard Holz in a letter to McAdams. “You are to remain off campus during this time.”

Fact #4: Political Correctness = Persecution

Prof. McAdams, who has taught at Marquette for 37 years, told Fox News: “It would be odd to be charged with harassing someone by reporting something accurately on my blog. A lot of politically correct faculty have wanted my head on a pike.”

Click here to support Prof. McAdams

It's especially disturbing to see this sad situation unfold at a Catholic university such as Marquette. The spiritual enemy is within the walls, spreading sin, confusion and error.

That's why I hope you'll take a moment to sign your message of support for Prof. McAdams. Your voice will encourage him and help many more Catholic teachers and students to hold the line and continue defending God's law.

Can you help me collect 20,000 messages of support today?
You don't need to be a student to participate.

So please:

Click here to stand with Prof. McAdams

Thank you for standing up for the truth. Thank you for defending true marriage. And thank you for fighting the good fight.

May the Infant Jesus and His Blessed Mother grant you and your family a most joyful and holy Christmas.

P.S. -- Please send this email to 5 friends. You see, the best way to send a powerful message to the administrators of Marquette University is to show them just how many Americans stand with Prof. McAdams.

Catholic professors and students should be free to speak the truth -- always and everywhere.

Six Sublime Ways to Make Christmas Merry Again

John Horvat II

DSC_2589Christmas should be a time of great joy, but oftentimes it isn’t. Perhaps the joy is lost in the season’s gaudy and frantic commercialization that has turned a great holy day into a secular holiday. There is also the loud revelry of winter parties present that tends to suffocate the memories of calm Christmases past. Whatever the cause, the fact remains that the merry is often taken out of our Christmases.

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It is not as if people do not try to celebrate Christmas. They do all the right things: put up Christmas trees, get together with family, send out Christmas cards or even go to church. But this vague desire to be merry often triggers only warm and fuzzy feelings. The final result is a sensation of a great emptiness, of something that has gone missing.

There is a reason for this emptiness. Christmas cannot just be a jumble of fuzzy feelings. It asks more of us than simply gathering together with family and friends or putting in a shallow appearance at church. The feast does not lend itself to mediocrity. It refuses to be reduced to ornaments, holly and folly. When we turn Christmas into a social occasion, it loses its meaning and becomes empty.

The best thing to remedy this situation is to do something sublime this Christmas.

It is really the only way to make Christmas merry again. By sublime, we mean doing those things which, by their excellence, cause souls to be overawed by their magnificence, grandeur and marvelousness. It provokes what Edmund Burke rightly calls “the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

Doing something sublime this Christmas need not involve great expense, but it does ask that we be not niggardly and selfish. It may be experienced alone, but more often involves sharing with others. All that is necessary for the sublime to work is that we be turned toward that which inspires awe. It is only natural that our search would lead us to the manger where Christ awaits us.

Thus, doing something sublime might involve works of art, music, ideas, or feats associated with Christmas that strongly draw and overwhelm us. It involves the extraordinary not the ordinary, the beautiful not the ugly; all that is marvelous and innocent.

A sublime Christmas means engaging in those activities that have always captivated the soul. Such a list might include:

Put up that kind of Christmas tree with all types of lights and ornaments that one can DSC_2568

easily spend hours contemplating.  Avoid the three-minute, popup, pre-lit holiday tree.

Participate in that kind of Christmas caroling where the person sings with full lung those beautiful Christmas carols that capture the sublime scene of that first silent night.

Attend a traditional Christmas concert and be overawed by a full choir and live orchestra. Marvel at the fact that so many still gather for these events in our secular days to celebrate the birth of Our Savior.

Seek to live Christmas through the eyes of children. Their overawing innocence delights the soul and regenerates innocence lost. Do everything possible to cultivate this innocence in children and the child in one’s own soul.

DSC_2573

Visit an elaborate and beautiful nativity scene that delights the soul by its variety and imaginative characters.

Attend a Midnight Mass that observes all the pomp and ceremony of the occasion, allowing all to see the sublime in the symbolism and liturgy.

All these things (and so many others) can be sublime since they fill the holiday emptiness with intense admiration, wonder and reverent love. They can be excellent, inspiring and extremely beautiful. However, they are mere means so that we might better contemplate “the reason for the season.”

The seventh and most important sublime thing we can do this Christmas is to contemplate the Christ Child in the manger under the loving gaze of His Holy Mother and Saint Joseph. We should consider the fact that Christ came to save us. “For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us.”(Is. 9:6)

On that ineffable night when Our Savior was born to Mary Ever Virgin, an immense Subscription3

impossibility became possible: the God-man was born. From the moment of His birth, this Divine Infant desired to bear hardship for us. We sense His striking, audacious and sublime love for us. From heaven descended torrents of graces which paved the way for our salvation and made Christian civilization possible.

Such considerations should inspire us to serve the object of our admiration and to give of ourselves freely to Him Whom we love. It is then that Christmas makes sense and is again made merry.

And so let not this Christmas be an ordinary and empty holiday. Let it not be a bland celebration of self. Rather, fill this special season with all that which can fill us with reverent love, awe and wonder for the Christ Child.

Let it be a merry and sublime Christmas!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Christmas Peace, NOT the Peace of the Cemeteries

We gather to celebrate the beautiful feast of Christmas, a lovable tradition, established and handed down to us through the centuries. As this year comes to a close, we look back to find that last year ended in similar circumstances: generalized chaos and confusion as risks increase. Presently our situation is similar to last year’s with an even greater potential for confusion and even greater risk, while a general atmosphere of apprehension spreads over the whole country.

Peace in Truth is Found in the Holy Roman Catholic Church

Yet, at this Yuletide, we recall the angelic chant to the shepherds on that rustic and poetic first Christmas Eve as the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to men of good will”.

CLICK HERE for your free copy of Return to Order in ebook format

Yes, peace is tranquility, but not just any tranquility.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that “peace is the tranquility of order”. Where there is order there is real peace. Where there is an absence of order there is no peace. What exists is a veiled disorder, an artificial order, but no real peace.

Peace exists, rather, in churches where Catholic doctrine is professed in its integrity; where people all love, understand and feel the same way because they are imbued with the Divine Holy Ghost, who is eminently a Spirit of Peace.

In temporal society we find this peace in a very few places, namely at such gatherings as these, where men live who indeed strive to give glory to God in the highest and, therefore, peace on earth reigns among these men of good will.

But all you who are reading this are also an agent of peace. You savor this peace, you appreciate this peace, you take it to your families, and thus bring them the law of Christ, the Faith of Christ, the order of Christ and the Reign of Christ. As you take into your families the doctrine of His Holy Catholic Church and live by its sweet rule and yoke, you have true peace.

This is the peace that our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to bring to the world and which He expressed in these magnificent words: Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis, “I give you My peace, I leave you My peace.” Which means, He gave them His peace, which is the tranquility of order, leaving this gift to men, to the world, at the time that He was about to leave earth to ascend to heaven.

Great and Small Gather Around the Manger

So, let us approach that heavenly crib of Jesus Christ, the King of Peace, the descendant of a regal dynasty from which also descended Mary Most Holy and Saint Joseph, who, nevertheless, now kneels in the capacity of a humble carpenter before the Savior just born of his wife, the Virgin Mother.

And before great potentates draw near the crib with precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, God wished for humble shepherds to approach and be received with tender love. Even the ox and the donkey were invited to warm Baby Jesus with their breath.

We must be Soldiers of Peace and Soldiers of Order

All this is peace; all this is order. We should be soldiers of peace and soldiers of order, fighting in an orderly manner as true soldiers of Christ in the Reign of Christ.

But aren’t these terms, peace and fight, contradictory? Isn’t peace concomitant with non-aggression? So how can we be “soldiers of peace”? Likewise, how can we call ourselves “soldiers of order” in case of war, when war is such a huge mess?

Nevertheless, peace is present when one fights against disorder through order. This must be well understood. Peace, the peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ exists when men are in order. But this peace does not exist only in non-combat. There is peace also when one fights for order against disorder.

There was also a great battle in heaven between Saint Michael the Archangel and the angels of fidelity and obedience against the angels of infidelity and disobedience. It was so great a battle that Scriptures describes it for us as a great battle was fought in heaven.

So, even at this moment peace did not cease to reign in heaven, because the good were on the side of God fighting to expel from the heavenly mansion the devils who, as agents of disorder, had become unworthy of it.

If there was a war in heaven, it was a war of health against disease, a war of life against death, a war of good against rebellious evil. This battle, by the very fact that it was a battle between what should exist against what should not exist, in itself is order.

In the contemporary world we are precious agents of peace in the measure that we fight against evil angels and those who are dedicated to spreading evil, the agents of war.

So also in the contemporary world we are precious agents of peace in the measure that we fight the evil angels and their minions in their multifaceted attack on faith, morality and good customs.

In the contemporary world we are precious agents of peace in the measure that we fight the evil angels and their minions in their multifaceted attack on faith, morality and good customs.

The peace that we desire for the coming year is the peace of order against the agents of disorder. Only then will we have the peace of order in the tranquility of order. So, let us be agents of order in the coming year, not only because we refuse to engage in useless battles, but also because we do choose to engage in the good fight of which Saint Paul speaks when he said of himself as he lay dying: “Lord, I fought the good fight, now give me the reward of Thy glory.” If we do this in the coming year as we have done this year, we can end the year with peace and hope.

In this generation of thieves and adulterers let us be souls on fire, souls burning with love and strong warriors engendered by Faith. We were not born only to rejoice, or mainly to be happy. We were born, above all, to fight; we were born, above all, to serve the Holy Catholic Church.

Then whatever the furor of evil throughout the world, whatever their threats, we are agents of peace, we are children of Mary, and we are fighters of good order. Thus, by the grace of Mary we may say like Saint Paul and the end of next year: Lord, throughout this year we fought the good fight. Give us now during this year the reward of Thy glory.

(Adapted from a message of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira to TFP Supporters on Dec. 18, 1992 at a Christmas gathering.)

Friday, December 19, 2014

What is the REAL meaning of Christmas?

Here is a most beautiful piece that explains:

  • The REAL meaning of Christmas

Also, you will find timely lessons for our beloved nation that are nicely laid out in the book Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society--Where We've Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go.

And I offer you a free ebook copy of this fascinating book as a Christmas gift:

  • Return To Order

It is available here on Amazon Kindle at NO COST for the next 48 hours. 

Don’t own a Kindle?  No problem.  

Just use the free app on the right side of the page and download a free copy of Return to Order  right on to your computer.  It’s easy to do.

You can also send this link to your friends so they too can get an ebook copy of Return to Order at NO COST!

About the book, the former U.S. Attorney General, the Honorable Edwin Meese III, says:

Return to Order provides an interesting analysis of how the United States has departed from the spiritual, cultural and economic precepts that supported the founding and the early history of our republic. It also sets forth valuable recommendations for restoring our society to its foundation of ordered liberty and traditional values.”
But time is of the essence!

Please take advantage of this special Christmas offer now!

  • Free Ebook Return To Order

Have a blessed and very Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

How video games kill the soul & body

Video Games

Elizabeth Woolley founded Online Gamers Anonymous for people addicted to video games. Mrs. Woolley has been interviewed by the Catholic Herald Citizen, CBC, CBS, and the BBC. She has travelled internationally to speak at conferences on the dangers of gaming. In 2002, she started a website to warn society about the “dark” side of gaming and to provide help and counseling for those who are already addicted to video games.

Crusade Magazine: Could you please explain why you founded Online Gamers Anonymous?

Mrs. Woolley: In 2000, my son Shawn became addicted to an online video game called Everquest. Within three months he quit his job, got evicted from his home, and was up all night playing. Despite our efforts to help him get his life back together, he committed suicide only a year and a half after being introduced to the game.

Shortly after Shawn’s suicide, I did an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and that’s when I realized how many families are being broken up and suffering like us. In 2002, I founded the Online Gamers Anonymous site so these people would have a place to go and know they are not alone.

I want to warn people that these games can take control of their lives just like drugs or alcohol. Some gamers told me one can become addicted in less than 24 hours. Once a gamer has gone from social gaming to addicted gaming, he can’t go back. Games can be a drug of choice and need to be looked at that way.

Our website, www.olganon.org spreads research on how gaming affects children, stunting their mental growth and social development, and helps to warn parents. We host several meetings a week where addicted gamers can talk and support one another to turn their lives around and also have a very active forum where different topics are discussed.

Crusade: Do you have any tips for parents who have video games in the house?

Mrs. Woolley: The biggest key is to make sure that your child’s life is balanced. Children cannot be raised on just one activity otherwise they will run into difficulties. Even if the child protests. It is your job as parents to say “no” and guide him towards other activities.

Being a parent isn’t easy, but trust me, there was life before video games, and as parents we have to find or make activities to give our children besides sitting them in front of a screen. That means getting them into sports, social events, and educational activities. Alternatives need to be presented. If the child says he doesn’t want to leave the game, you have to set limits, otherwise he will develop problems.

Crusade: Who can get addicted and what are the consequences?

Mrs. Woolley: Anyone can get addicted. Colleges recognize that video games cause a huge percentage of their dropouts. Many now bring in counselors to deal with excessive gaming. Some are asking students if they play games before offering a scholarship.

They know they might be wasting a scholarship on a gamer. I know several parents who lost their college funds to their gaming children this way.

Many teenagers being pulled into these games are actually geniuses. They are very intelligent and highly motivated. Proof of this is that many games require hours of tedious effort, concentration and patience. It is very sad to see how all this brilliant mind power is being wasted.
Besides considering how these games are affecting their personal lives and education, we should imagine what could be happening if these very capable people were solving the real problems of society. Instead, video games have become a big part of the dumbing-down of our society.

Fully grown, hard-working adults also get addicted. I know several who had a job and house but lost it all to the games. An extreme case is of a man in Florida who lost his job and had to start living on the street. Now he has a restaurant job and makes just enough to get himself to the gaming café, where he spends the rest of the day. When the café closes he sleeps on the street and does the same the next day.

Many fathers leave their families to spend more time gaming. They don’t care about their children, because all they feel they can do is play.

Grown women tend to play social games like Farmville, SIMS and Second Life because they like to do things with others. This often leads to problems because married women end up leaving husband and family, neglecting their real children, to be with someone in the game. There are many examples of this. An extreme case is the Korean couple who let their real child die of malnutrition because they spent all their time taking care of a virtual baby.

Crusade: Most video games give children a sense of worth and accomplishment. What’s wrong with that?

Mrs. Woolley: One of the main dangers is precisely that it is so very easy to get worth and accomplishment from a game. And if you don’t succeed or like what you did you can just restart until you get it right. Well, real life isn’t like that. Real life isn’t easy and you don’t often get do-overs. So the child grows disappointed with real life and ends up by quitting in real life. He says, “This is too hard,” and runs back to the games.
This poses a huge danger to the child’s social life. Instead of satisfying his desire for things like worth and accomplishment through social interaction, he obtains it through the game. Then he fails to get the experience he needs in real life, especially by suffering and learning how to deal with the bad as well as the good times. Real life isn’t easy for anybody, but allowing a child to use games as a drug to escape reality is not going to teach him how to cope with real life.
I could see this in my son. In the game he could easily do whatever he wanted and feel like he was accomplishing something. In the mean time, he was not spending time nurturing his real life, so there was nothing there to sustain him.  He no longer cared about the future and advancing in his real life. If most of your time is spent in games there isn’t enough time to enhance real life education, skills or friendships. Anyone who wants real accomplishment needs to get out of gaming and get working in real life.

Crusade: What would you tell parents who use video games to help entertain their children?

Mrs. Woolley: I have seen a lot of reckless behavior by parents because they want to use games as baby sitters. Unfortunately, a lot of it is because many are gamers themselves.
Firstly, giving children a game to get them out of your hair is not being a good parent. Be with your children in real life! I know of a father who taught his 3-year-old child to play World of Warcraft with him because he felt that if he could get his child addicted to it then he could interact with him through the game. I let parents know that gaming with your child is not interacting because almost no words are being exchanged; the child’s only communication with anything is through the controls.
Secondly, I recommend parents not allow any child under 16 to play games connected to the Internet, period. You never know who they are playing against, and pedophiles are figuring out ways to connect with children through these games. Somehow, because it is inside the home, parents think it is safe; but it isn’t. Giving them Internet games is like putting them in a public bar by themselves.

Also, many times parents tell me they can’t help but give what their children want and they don’t seriously look at what is in the game. These games can have sexually explicit material, cursing, drug use, senseless violence and destruction. If this stuff was in a movie, the violence alone would make it R-rated. Most of the Christian families I talk to would never hand their children an R rated movie, but they allow them to interact with violent games. This is very damaging.

Crusade: What if the games are non-violent and not online?

Mrs. Woolley: Just because it’s non-violent and not online doesn’t mean it cannot be harmful. That would be like saying it’s alright for kids to be handed non-violent drugs. Again, video games should be viewed as possible drugs and no one should be allowed to become addicted to them.
We really find that when a gamer crosses the line from having the choice of playing to being compelled to play, his mind has actually been rewired by the gaming. He is no longer playing because he wants to but because he has to. Then he starts hating the games but cannot stop. And then, as his life breaks down, he goes into a vicious circle of feeling guilty and having highs on the games, only to plunge back down and return to the game where it all starts again. And while tapping away at controls he becomes dehumanized, giving less importance to his senses, not going outside, getting exercise or sunshine eating good food; he turns into a human shell.

I also believe that more research has to be done but there is already enough information on how gaming affects especially the young, stunting their mental growth and social development. That’s one thing that startled me about my son. He stopped talking to people, including to me, his own mother.

Before getting into this game he was just like the rest of us. He had a future, plans, friends, and a job. After he became addicted it was like a light in his mind was switched off. He no longer cared about how he would spend his real life; he no longer saw a real future; and he had no more goals or principles. He just stopped thinking about reality and became depressed. His whole personality changed and he became anti-social. That’s why I always say these games can rewire the brain and a gamer can change and become a different person. My son’s friends were astounded by how much he actually changed.

Crusade: Could you give an example of how some parents intervene too late?
Mrs. Woolley: One of the boys I knew was a 15-year-old from Canada called Brandon. He was playing a game called Call of Duty and his parents were struggling with him to quit, as they knew it was causing problems. Brandon attached far too much importance to being a very powerful person in this game and wanted to stay in it because of all the fake power and attention he was getting. In 2008, his parents finally decided to put their foot down and took the game from him. Brandon ran away from home and a few weeks later some hunters found his dead body about seven miles from the house. It seems he jumped from a tree.    

Crusade: Have addicts talked to you about the gaming buzz causing emptiness in real life?
Mrs. Woolley: Yes, absolutely, and it makes perfect sense because in the games there are always more “missions” and more interesting challenges. The gamers get an adrenaline rush to be able to attain the next level and figure out what to do next. Going on quests and planning cities is all very exciting, and when you go back to real life there’s what? Parents telling you to go sweep the floor, do your homework, do the dishes, and eat at the table; talk with your sister. And then parents are surprised when their children say “life is so depressing,” “everything is boring,” “I have no friends.” It is all because they are spending all their time on games and not experiencing real life; if children had activities, their own groups and friends, real life would be interesting for them.

Crusade: Could you share some more stories from your son’s addiction?
Mrs. Woolley: Yes. After my son became addicted to Everquest and was diagnosed with mental problems, he was admitted to a long-term support program. He was living in a group home five miles from my house. During the night I woke up and couldn’t sleep, which is very rare, so I went downstairs to check my e-mail and heard the front door opening. This was shortly past midnight. Thinking it was a burglar, I got a bat to challenge the thief. Then in walks my son, who was addicted to a game. He had walked five miles from the group home to play it. Who knows how many times he was getting up at night to play the game? Children admit it all the time on my forum that they are spending all night in front of these games without their parents knowing.  

Another time my son was at his brother’s wedding, the first wedding in the family. He left during the ceremony to play and didn’t return for the rest of the day. People noticed that he wasn’t at the reception and I discovered he had left in the middle of the wedding and walked home to continue playing his game. My son would have never have done that before his addiction. He loved parties and socializing.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Ferguson Riots and the Tale of Two Americas

I saw the Ferguson Riots in its proper perspective after reading this fascinating piece by my colleague Rex Teodosio:

The Ferguson Riots and the Tale of Two Americas

Also, there’s still time to sign our growing and very urgent petition to stop the Satanic “Christmas” display to Lucifer at the Florida State Rotunda:

Stop the Satanic "Christmas" Display!!

Finally, in the spirit of Christmas, you may want to read:

The Amazing Origins of the Most Beautiful Christmas Song

I sure hope you will enjoy reading it.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Because of you -- and many prayers – the abortion links to Planned Parenthood VANISHED, they are gone...

Remember when I asked you to contact the University of St. Thomas – a Catholic institution – and protest its web site listing of Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups as "internship opportunities"?

Well, I have good news for you. Your protest worked.

Planned Parenthood was DELETED. The others were too.

Read how it happened here

This victory for TRUTH could not have been achieved without your help and the participation of over 9,300 other souls. Thank you for your prayers, your readiness to take peaceful action and your commitment to defend moral values.

Let’s continue “fighting the good fight.”

P.S. – If you would like to support our work with a special tax-deductible gift for Christmas, please click here.

Oh, -- you may also like to see how the TFP Call to Chivalry camp went in the vast wilderness of Arkansas. The boys just loved it.

TFP Camp for Boys Who Want the Highest Ideal

I think you'll also like to see this video where TFP volunteers "fence" mentally with liberal students who are infected by radical relativism.

Meet Students Who Learn Relativism While Spending 47K

Financial disclosure

Monday, December 8, 2014

Our Lady's Protection For A Dying Man Who Did The First 5 Saturdays Devotion

The story below is about Holy Mary's protection for a dying man who did the Five First Saturdays Devotion, as Our Lady requested.

Why is this important?  Because Satan whispers in our ear that Our Lady doesn't always keep Her promises.

Well, you know that that's not true.  But to actually read a story about Our Lady's protection helps to banish all such temptations.  So, please read this story slowly and with devotion:

How Our Lady Kept Her Promise

I just hope and pray that you draw deep spiritual hope from this story.

I learned about it from one of Our Lady's Fatima Custodians.  You know… our dedicated young men who travel around the country, from home to home, with the Pilgrim Virgin Statues of Our Lady of Fatima.

Week after week, month after month, they teach people to amend their lives, do penance, pray the Rosary and practice the Five First Saturday Devotion, just as Our Lady requested.

This story is so impressive that you will probably want to forward it to others who may be tempted to doubt the Blessed Mother's love for us.

In fact, Our Lady will surely smile on you when you forward this story, because it will surely win over many doubtful souls to become Her devotees.

How Our Lady Kept Her Promise

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Scandal: New book, “The Lost Gospel” says Jesus and St. Mary Magdalene were married, had sexual relations, and two children

Please sign an urgent petition against this blasphemous book… and receive a complimentary and wonderfully illustrated pocket rosary booklet.

Please -- I need you to sign a petition against a terrible blasphemy against Our Lord Jesus Christ...

…because a new book called “The Lost Gospel” is spreading the lie that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, had sexual relations, and two children!

Just listen to this:

A book now being published by Pegasus Books and distributed by Amazon.com, and recently having received major publicity on the nightly news broadcasts of major news networks, claims that Jesus and St. Mary Magdalene married and had two children.

And I am urging you to click on the link below and:

Tell Pegasus Books and Amazon.com to stop selling The Lost Gospel
…and receive a complimentary and wonderfully illustrated pocket rosary booklet.

We Catholics must react against this vile insult to the Our Lord’s spotless purity and the converted purity of Saint Mary Magdalene.

According to The Christian Post, the authors of this blasphemous book that Pegasus Books has published state in the introduction of their book:

"There is now written evidence that Jesus was married to Mary the Magdalene and that they had children together. ... Gathering dust in the British library is a document that takes us into the missing years of Jesus' life. ... According to the document that we uncovered, sometime during this period he became engaged, got married, had sexual relations, and produced children.”

Tell Pegasus Books and Amazon.com to stop selling The Lost Gospel
…and receive a complimentary and wonderfully illustrated pocket rosary booklet.

And read a part of Amazon’s synopsis on its sales page:

“Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century i.e., Jesus’ lifetime.  And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus’ social, family and political life.”

Of course this claim to knowledge of “the inside story of Jesus’ social, family and political life,” is false.

This is not the history of the real Jesus Christ, nor the real history of the Catholic Church.

In an article entitled “Was Jesus Married?,” Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press, and a former staff apologist with Catholic Answers says: “There is as much historical evidence for Jesus being married as there is for him being a professional surfer.”

And as I said above, we Catholics cannot become complacent when the good name of the very Son of God is attacked.

Otherwise, the promoters of blasphemy will keep on pushing the envelope with new and more outrageous insults to Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Faith.

My friend, we see their strategy: endless repetition of blasphemy to demoralize Catholics and people of good will.

So -- we peacefully and prayerfully protest and speak out against these assaults on Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Tell Pegasus Books and Amazon.com to stop selling The Lost Gospel
…and receive a complimentary and wonderfully illustrated pocket rosary booklet.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

If Cardinal O’Malley Founded a Church…

by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo


A story has it that when Napoleon Bonaparte was at the height of his glory, a courtier proposed that he founded a church. The Emperor of the French is said to have answered, with a lot of common sense: “After Jesus Christ, in order to found a Church you need to carry a cross and die crucified on it, otherwise no one will take you seriously.”

True or not, this anecdote came to mind when I read an interview by Sean Cardinal O'Malley on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on November 16. [1]

In one of his answers to interviewer Norah O'Donnell, he said that, were he to found a church, it would admit the ordination of women priests.

Leaving aside for now the Cardinal’s surprising statement, it is of interest to note how nicely the liberal media treat churchmen friendly to it while continuing to attack the Church’s traditional doctrine and especially Her morals, thus taking full advantage of everything that can destroy the Church’s image in public opinion.
Indeed, according to today's liberal standards the Archbishop of Boston could not have been introduced in a more prestigious way:

“[A] shy Franciscan friar,” “[s]oft-spoken and unassuming”, “dressed in the brown habit of his Capuchin Franciscan order and not in a Cardinal's red robes,” “more inclined to conversation than condemnation,” “open, non-judgmental, given to simple living,” “a modest man,” “reluctant to put himself forward,” “humble, a true Franciscan,” “would rather be addressed as ‘Cardinal Seán,’ than ‘your Eminence.’” “[He sold] the palatial archbishop's residence and the 28 sprawling acres it sat on,” and “moved into the modest cathedral rectory.”

After lavishing such praise on the Cardinal, the CBS reporter – an alumna of Georgetown University – showed she is far from being a traditional Catholic.

As far as she is concerned, the Church is an old institution that has to be remade:

“At the heart of Pope Francis' revolution in the Catholic Church,” she says, “is a shy Franciscan friar, the pope's closest American advisor, Cardinal Sean O'Malley.” He is the one that “help[s] Francis remake an ancient institution.”

In what sense does the Church need to be “remade?”

Among other things, along the egalitarian line of the Voice of the Faithful movement (which had its moment in the sun in Boston years ago), she is indignant at the Church’s refusal to ordain women priests.

Referring to women, she says, “they can't preach,” “[t]hey can't administer the sacraments.” “[S]ome women feel like they're second-class Catholics,” and asks, “does the exclusion of women seem at all immoral?”

Non-ordination of women is supposedly unjust because it is not egalitarian:

“The sense of equality,” she says, “the sense of sort of the fairness of it” should allow the ordination of women.

And she adds:

“You wouldn't exclude someone based on race. But yet you do exclude people based on gender.”

It was facing this feminist onslaught that the Cardinal joshingly spoke about founding a church which, unlike the one founded by Jesus Christ, would ordain women priests.

First he sought to defend Church tradition by explaining that “the priesthood reflects the incarnation of Christ, who in his humanity is a man.” But facing the insistence of his interviewer, he formulated this sentence which is causing much scandal:

“[I]f I were founding a church, you know, I'd love to have women priests. But Christ founded it and what he has given us is something different.”

Though uttered jokingly, his statement is being interpreted by the media and by liberal Catholics in the sense that he personally disagrees with the way Our Lord instituted the priesthood in the Church.

Imprudence in this matter is to be lamented, above all when one bears in mind the infallible statements contained in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of May 22, 1994:

“Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.”[2]

Norah O'Donnell believes the opposite as she comments on the words of the Archbishop of Boston:

“But God is not afraid of change, as Pope Francis has told his bishops. And Cardinal O'Malley is thrilled with his old friend,” she says.

Yet, despite the liberal media and complacent ecclesiastics, the Church cannot change Her doctrine or the way She was instituted by Her Founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
______________________

1 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cardinal-sean-omalley-works-with-pope-francis-to-reform-catholic-church/. Emphasis added throughout.
2 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis_en.html. Emphasis added.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Grand Return Home For America, The Prodigal Nation

We are on the verge of a great crisis that has as its immediate cause an impending economic crash that will trigger as its effect the breakdown of our national consensus and American way of life.

The protests of 2010 in Greece on the left and in 2011 on the right. Photo by Philly boy92.

The protests of 2010 in Greece on the left and in 2011 on the right. Photo by Philly boy92.

Although this crisis will wreak great material havoc upon us, its greatest damage will be spiritual. While we have presented some practical guidelines as to what we might do in face of the present crisis, it is in this spiritual sphere that the main remedy lies. Without a great moral conversion of some kind, we will not see the return to order we so desire.

In PrayerThere must be a great reawakening that addresses the core spiritual issues that are at stake in our great debate. It avails us nothing if we survive the present storm and even implement our organic principles if it is done with the same restless spirit that brought us to our present plight. As long as we are inside the framework of frenetic intemperance, we will always carry within us the seeds of our own destruction. We must first move outside this framework. There must be a fundamental spiritual transformation that will change our mentalities and mend our ways.

Painting of the Prodigal son by Nikolay Losev.

Painting of the Prodigal son by Nikolay Losev.

Such a proposal cannot fail to suggest the figure of the Prodigal Son who, having left his father’s house for the “frenetic intemperance” of a dissolute life, realizes the gravity of his error and longs to return. In looking for our solution, we believe we must follow a similar path.

 

John Horvat II, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need To Go (York, Penn.: York Press, 2013), 192.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Abandoned Baby Found Alive in Storm Drain, Survived Five Days After Mother Left Him


An abandoned baby has been found alive in Sydney, Australia after his mother left him in a storm drain. Police allege the baby had been in the drain since last Tuesday, after having been born on Monday.

Click to Read at LifeNews.com:
http://www.lifenews.com/2014/11/24/abandoned-baby-found-alive-in-storm-drain-survived-five-days-after-mother-left-him/

Monday, November 24, 2014

Jewish banker converted by the Miraculous Medal

by Armando Santos

Born in 1814, Alphonse Ratisbonne was from a family of wealthy, well-known Jewish bankers in Strasbourg, France. In 1827, Alphonse’s older brother, Thèodore, converted to Catholicism and entered the priesthood, thus breaking with his anti-Catholic family whose hopes now lay in the young Alphonse. At 27, Alphonse was intelligent and well mannered. He had already finished his law degree, and decided to travel to Italy before marrying and assuming his responsibilities in the family business. However, God had other plans for him.

While in Rome, Alphonse visited works of art, and strictly out of cultural curiosity, a few Catholic churches. These visits hardened his anti-Catholic stance, and nourished his profound hatred for the Church. He also called on an old schoolmate and close friend, Gustave de Bussières. Gustave was a Protestant and several times had tried, in vain, to win Alphonse over to his religious convictions. Alphonse was introduced to Gustave’s brother, Baron de Bussières, who had recently converted to Catholicism and become a close friend of Father Thèodore Ratisbonne. Because of the Baron’s Catholicism and closeness with his turncoat brother, Alphonse greatly disliked him.

On the eve of his departure, Alphonse reluctantly fulfilled his social obligation to leave his calling card at the Baron’s house as a farewell gesture. Hoping to avoid a meeting, Alphonse intended to leave his card discreetly and depart straight away, but was instead shown into the
house. The Baron greeted the young Jew warmly, and before long, had persuaded him to remain a few more days in Rome. Inspired by grace, the Baron insisted Alphonse accept a Miraculous Medal and copy down a beautiful prayer: the Memorare. Alphonse could hardly contain his anger at his host’s boldness of proposing these things to him, but decided to take everything good-heartedly, planning to later describe the Baron as an eccentric.

Click here to Order your free Miraculous Novena and Medal

During Alphonse’s stay, the Baron’s close friend, Count de La Ferronays, former French ambassador to the Holy See and a man of great virtue and piety, died quite suddenly. On the eve of his death, the Baron had asked the Count to pray the Memorare one hundred times for Alphonse’s conversion. It is possible that he offered his life to God for the conversion of the young Jewish banker.

A few days later, the Baron went to the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte to arrange for his friend’s funeral. Alphonse reluctantly went with him, all the while making violent criticisms of the Church and mocking Catholic practices. When they arrived, the Baron entered the sacristy to arrange the funeral while Alphonse remained in the church.

When the Baron returned just a few minutes later, the young man was gone. He searched the church, and soon discovered his young friend kneeling close to an altar, weeping.  Alphonse himself tells us what happened in those few minutes he waited for the Baron: “I had only been in the church a short while when, all of a sudden, I felt totally uneasy for no apparent reason. I raised my eyes and saw that the whole building had disappeared. Only one side chapel had, so to say, gathered all the light. In the midst of this splendor, the Virgin Mary appeared standing on the altar. She was grandiose, brilliant, full of majesty and sweetness, just as she is in the Miraculous Medal. An irresistible force attracted me to her. The Virgin made a gesture with her hand indicating I was to kneel.”

When de Bussières talked to Alphonse, he no longer found a Jew, but a convert who ardently desired baptism. The news of such an unexpected conversion immediately spread and caused a great commotion throughout Europe, and Pope Gregory XVI received the young convert, paternally. He ordered a detailed investigation with the rigor required by canon law, and concluded that the occurrence was a truly authentic miracle.

Alphonse took the name Maria Alphonse at baptism, and, wishing to become a priest, was ordained a Jesuit in 1847. After some time, and at the suggestion of Pope Pius IX, he left the Jesuits and joined his brother Thèodore in founding the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, dedicated to the conversion of the Jews. Father Theodore spread his congregation throughout France and England, while Father Maria Alphonse went to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, he established a house of the congregation on the plot of land where the praetorium of Pilate had formerly stood.

The two brothers died in 1884, both famed and well-loved for their exceptional virtues.

Click here to Order your free Miraculous Novena and Medal

The End of Thanksgiving

Shocking:

Stores in Walden Galleria Mall in Cheektowaga, New York, will be fined for NOT opening by 6PM on Thanksgiving Day. This consumerist tyranny has got to stop!

Sign your petition right now...

Ask the Walden Galleria Mall to NOT fine store owners, but instead let them spend Thanksgiving Day with their families in peace...

                                                       ***

Year after year, crazy consumerism eats away at one of the last remnants of peaceful family time in America – Thanksgiving Day.

Last year, we saw more and more stores pushing people to shop on Thanksgiving Day!

But this year, we’re facing something much worse...

According to media reports, the Walden Galleria Mall in Cheektowaga, New York, (near Buffalo) will fine stores $200 per hour for NOT opening by 6pm on Thanksgiving.

This is outrageous.

Are store owners no longer free to stay home with their families on Thanksgiving?
I guess not. So...

Is it right for a Mall to fine shop owners who

do NOT open on Thanksgiving?

If you say NO, then here’s something you can do. Sign our petition with this message:

Dear Walden Galleria Mall:

"Please don’t fine shops owners who stay home with family instead of doing business on Thanksgiving Day!"

Sign this petition right now!

Your action is absolutely necessary!

You see, to have a major impact, we need to collect thousands of signatures. And we need to do it now, before Thanksgiving Day.

Your signed petition – along with all the others – will be presented to the Walden Galleria Mall asking them NOT to fine stores who stay closed on Thanksgiving Day!

Thank you!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Millions expected to venerate remains of Saint Francis Xavier

UCANews

Some five million people are expected to venerate the remains of the 16th century Spanish missionary Francis Xavier when they are exhibited for 40 days beginning this weekend in Goa.

“We're determined that this event is celebrated in all its pomp and piety. We are working with other government agencies and the Church to make it a huge success," said ASI's Gangadhar Koregaonkar, assistant superintending archeological engineer.

Read more: http://www.ucanews.com/news/millions-expected-to-venerate-remains-of-saint-francis-xavier/72431

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Kansas Supreme Court gives go ahead to expansion of same-sex ‘marriage’

Kirsten AndersenKirsten Andersen, LifeSiteNews.com

Same-sex “marriage” was legalized in Kansas’ most populous county this week after the state Supreme Court lifted its stay of a lower court ruling barring enforcement of the state’s marriage protection law.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that Johnson County Chief Judge Kevin Moriarty did not overstep his bounds in ordering county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a decision handed down October 8.  The ruling follows a U.S. Supreme Court order issued last week that forced two other counties, Douglas County and Sedgwick County, to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in response to a lawsuit filed by several lesbians.

While homosexual activists argue the U.S. Supreme Court ruling applies to all counties, not just Douglas and Sedgwick, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt disagrees.  Because no other counties’ clerks were named in the original lawsuit, the state is not forcing other jurisdictions to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Meanwhile, Schmidt has vowed to defend the state’s marriage laws for “as long as a defense is properly available.”

In their ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court said they believe the U.S. Supreme Court ruling "is not as localized as the State argues," but declined to suggest any parameters for the decision.  Instead, they said they will leave it to the federal judiciary to decide the ultimate fate of the state’s marriage protection amendment, which was passed by a majority of voters in 2005 and defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Attorney General Schmidt said in a statement that he had hoped the Kansas high court would rule in a way that left no ambiguity about the legality of same-sex “marriage,” and was disappointed that decisions will now have to be made on a county-by-county basis until the federal courts make a final ruling on the issue.

“Although we asked the Kansas Supreme Court to provide statewide uniformity, today’s ruling leaves the decision whether to issue licenses in the hands of the federal judiciary and of district court judges throughout the state,” Schmidt said.

“Because a provision in the Kansas Constitution is at peril, the State of Kansas will continue its defense in federal court as long as a defense is properly available,” he continued. “I hope the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly agree to take up the case from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to give finality and certainty to Kansas and the rest of the country on this matter.”

The 6th Circuit is the first federal appeals court in the nation to uphold the legality of marriage protection laws, in contrast to the four other appeals courts that have struck them down.  The discrepancy means that the U.S. Supreme Court will probably have to step in and decide the matter, but time is running out to do so during this session.  The high court has only until January 16 to decide whether to hear the case during 2015.  Otherwise, a decision could come as late as June of 2016, keeping states like Kansas in legal limbo while they wait for a final verdict.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Is the Smartphone hurting your health and your ability to hear God’s voice?

Research shows that people who use Smartphones work longer hours. As a consequence, they suffer from health problems such as insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, stomach and even cardiovascular problems.

Well, in my opinion, while the Smartphone brings some advantages, it can also be a double-edged sword. Please see more on this topic here:

The Smartphone: A Double-Edged Sword

African priest: Africa opposes homosexual acts not because they are "taboo", but because they are a sin

African priest: Africa opposes homosexuality not because it is "taboo", but because it is "repugnant to right reason...God's intention"

From the Toronto Catholic Witness Blogspot

Fr. Leo S. I. Mwenda, a young Dominican priest from Kenya recently published a letter that responded to Cardinal Kasper's criticism of the Church in Africa, as well as the mid-term relatio's treatment of homosexuality, cohabitation and Holy Communion for the civilly "remarried". Key passages on homosexuality include:

Read more here:

http://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.ca/2014/11/african-priest-africa-opposes.html

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Six Reasons Why Christian Civilization Always Favored Progress

by John Horvat II

DSC_0903There is the common myth repeated over and over again that Christianity suppresses science and progress. One would think that those who call Christianity “anti-science” would at least use some kind of scientific method to prove their accusations.

However, the proofs are sadly and incredibly lacking.

In contradiction to this myth, historians Stanley Jaki and A.C. Crombie affirm that “the rise of modern science, like that of political freedom and economic progress, has been coterminous with Christian-European thought, and for like causes.”

They claim that the biblical worldview contains all the essential elements for science and culture in general to flourish. Thus, at least six good reasons can be cited to support this claim:

1. Christians believed in a harmonious objective order intelligible to man which allowed for what Rodney Stark called “the triumph of reason.”

2. Christians believed in the biblical view that men’s role was to dominate nature and not be subject to it. This allowed them to search for ways to harness nature and make life easier.

3. There was a rejection of pantheistic magic that allowed the Faith to look for the reasons behind things.

4. The Catholic religion rejected the pagan idea of submission before the deities in nature that lived lives of vice and intrigue often at the expense of man’s progress.

5. The Church condemned superstition which hindered progress by adhering to irrational beliefs and practices.

6. Christians had a clear and rational understanding of reality which they developed into a philosophy that oriented their lives. This was opposed to the hazy, Gnostic understanding of reality that gave rise to fantasy and false mysticism that enslaved ancient and primitive peoples.

For these and other reasons, modern science only developed in Christian Europe and nowhere else. The groundwork was clearly laid.

Read more here:

http://www.returntoorder.org/the-book/

The Huge Spiritual Benefits In Accepting Suffering With Resignation

October: Sowing and Ploughing. Illuminated by Jean Poyer.

October: Sowing and Ploughing. Illuminated by Jean Poyer.

Here we find the secret of the “Way of the Cross” society. With similar rectitude, medieval man logically embraced his own suffering, paying special attention to the hardest part of his situation. This is frequently represented in medieval pictures and stained glass where each is engaged in his craft. All work diligently but without hurry, anxiety, or laziness. They carry their crosses, this hardest part of their lives, with joy and resignation since their model is Christ, Who suffered infinitely more for us.

Buckwheat Harvest: Summer by Jean-François Millet.

Buckwheat Harvest: Summer by Jean-François Millet.

“In this way all individual suffering is but the shadow of divine suffering, and all virtue is as a partial realization of absolute goodness,”* observes Huizinga. The result of this uprightness in suffering was that the person imagined for himself a way of imitating Christ that had perfection and sanctification as its goal. This perfection was well reflected in the quality of all his works, masterpieces, and monuments.

woodcarver of obermmergauAlas, how such considerations differ from those of today! People seek fleeting and easy happiness. They flee hardship, lose themselves in frenetic laughter, and constantly seek to escape their responsibilities. In their blindness, they cannot see Christ in His Divine rectitude and follow Him on the dolorous Way of the Cross.

Florida seniors

People seek fleeting and easy happiness. They flee hardship, lose themselves in frenetic laughter, and constantly seek to escape their responsibilities.

Yet it was this perspective that brought forth the flowering of the Middle Ages. The medieval man did not plan the Middle Ages; he merely desired to be like Jesus Christ. And from the realization of that desire, the Middle Ages was born and flowered.

Jarviewalk and the Festival of Colors 2012. Photo by MarkEsguerra.

In their blindness, they cannot see Christ in His Divine rectitude and follow Him on the dolorous Way of the Cross. (Jarviewalk and the Festival of Colors 2012. Photo by MarkEsguerra.)

This is the secret of the Middle Ages—and it is also our secret. If we could but have a similar, lively, and loving idea of Jesus Christ, we would want what they wanted and obtain what they received.

* Johan H. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954), 206.

 

 

John Horvat II, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need To Go (York, Penn.: York Press, 2013), 337-8.

Unusual Meeting at the Vatican: Communism: A Friend of the Poor?

 by Julio Loredo de Izcue


It is not uncommon to hear that communism was “a good idea poorly implemented.”

In spite of its actual experiences – all ending with catastrophic results – the idea that communism contains a “positive core” and is “friendly to the poor” reemerged at the World Meeting of Popular Movements organized at the Vatican from October 28 to 30 by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. It was held in the presence of Pope Francis and over one hundred representatives from movements often linked to the extreme left.

Besides being doctrinally questionable, this thesis is historically false. On the Catholic side, it was enunciated by Jacques Maritain, the ideologue of Catholic Action’s turn to the left. He applied it indiscriminately to both socialism and communism: “In the nineteenth century, socialism has been a protest of human consciousness and its more generous instincts against evils that cried out to heaven.... Socialism has loved the poor.”[1]

In this lyrical vision, Maritain included Soviet Communism: “For the first time in history, Maxim Gorky recently wrote about Soviet communism, the true love of man is organized as a creative force and sets as a goal the emancipation of thousands of workers. We believe in the profound sincerity of Gorky’s words.”[2]

This was also the thesis of Uruguayan Alberto Methol Ferré, philosophical mentor to an entire generation of Latin American churchmen of the “populist” line. According to Methol, the evil of Marxism lies only in his atheism: “The Church essentially rejected Marxism on account of the atheism it contained.” However, the system of Karl Marx had a valid element: “Marxism’s more valid [aspect] was its critique of capitalism.”[3]

This “valid” element leads the Uruguayan philosopher to defend aspects of the so-called liberation theology, of Marxist origin: “The theology of liberation can also be viewed as an attempt to assume the best of Marxism.... This theology has rendered an invaluable service by rethinking policy in light of the common good and therefore in close relationship with the preferential option for the poor and [for] justice.”[4]

It is amazing to see personages from the Catholic world exalting a system which the Magisterium of the Church defined as “detestable sect,”[5] “abominable sect,”[6] “intrinsically evil” system,[7] “shame of our time,”[8] the result of a “fundamental error;”[9] a system with which, in the words of Pius XI, “no collaboration can be admitted in any field.” Indeed, by a decree of the Holy Office of 1949, any collaboration with communism would lead to excommunication latae sententiae.

As stated above, the thesis of a communism “friendly to the poor” is a mistake as posited and a fallacy in the real world. Far from being a friend, communism is the worst enemy of the poor.

Wherever it has been applied, in all its combinations, variations and declensions, the result has always been a sharp increase in poverty and social ills. In fact, the left makes not so much a preferential option for the poor but for poverty as such. Journalist Indro Montanelli was right when he wrote, “The left loves the poor so much that their numbers increase whenever it rises to power.”

From Old Communism to New Populism, the Same Revolutionary Core

Today, gruesome and cutthroat communism remains only in a few scattered spots like North Korea and Cuba, while the left, especially in Latin America, proclaims itself “populist.” This populism, however, retains the core of old revolutionary communism: an egalitarian and socialist vision hostile to private property and free enterprise. 

Contrary to its name, populism never comes from the people but from revolutionary elites and is always imposed by force, belying its supposedly democratic character. And once implemented, it has proven to be the worst enemy of the people.

The failure of socialism in Castro’s Cuba (to stay on Pope Francis’ continent) is such that the average monthly wage is still only US $ 21.00, by far the lowest in Latin America and “insufficient to meet the most basic needs of the population,” as President Raul Castro himself had to admit. Recently published data by economist Raul Sandoval of the University of Havana show that 70% of homes in Cuba are in disrepair.[10]

Another example is Venezuela. An oil-rich country with a flourishing economy to the point of being compared in the seventies to a “South American Florida,” it has been reduced by Chavez’s socialism to the “economic situation of a country at war”[11] where tragedy borders on the ridiculous. Recently, due to the chronic lack of shampoo in stores, the “Minister for Eco-socialism” (sic), Ricardo Molina suggested that his countrymen refrain from washing their hair as a form of “revolutionary sacrifice.”[12]

Another example is Ecuador. Though rich in oil resources, in 2008 it was forced to default on its external debt and is no longer able to obtain additional lines of credit on the international market. In 2013, China had to come to its aid by acquiring all its oil production.[13]

There is also the example of Argentina, where Peronist Cristina Kirchner was forced to default on the country’s debt for a second time in a few years. According to independent studies, poverty has now reached 36.5% of Argentina's population, forcing the INDEC (National Institute of Statistics and Census) to distort figures which would otherwise place the country below “third world’ levels.[14]

But, oh mystery! These failed systems were precise the ones defended in late October by militants of “popular movements” gathered at the Vatican under the aegis of Pope Francis. From Bolivian coca leader Evo Morales to anarchist activists of the “Leoncavallo Social Center,” famous for their physical aggressions of conservative political figures, the far left has gathered at Saint Peter’s. Latin American movements predominated.

The works, including the Pontiff’s talks and the final statement, were published in Spanish. A Cuban Communist blog referred to the event as the “World Assembly of the Fighting Poor.”

An Option for the Poor, or for Poverty?

A protagonist in the conference was João Pedro Stédile, leader of the Marxist-oriented and subversive Landless Workers Movement (MST) from Brazil. The MST slogan, “No peasant without land,” was transcribed in the conclusion of the final declaration. Through often violent actions, MST advocates a socialist and confiscatory “land reform,” i.e. the expropriation of farms to distribute the land to peasants grouped in “settlements” inspired by Soviet kolkhozes.

But none other than the very president of  Brazil’s INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform), Francisco Graziano Neto, has admitted: “Land reform turns out to be the worst public policy failure in our country”[15] Most of the “settlements” have become unproductive “rural slums,” as Minister Gilberto Carvalho has recently admitted.[16] However—and the mystery lingers on—these slums are precisely what MST proposes as a “populist” solution to the land question.

For those who closely monitor Latin American reality, the results of the World Meeting of “popular movements” hosted by the Vatican arouse perplexity and apprehension. Many of the movements that participated in it belong to the extreme left. An ecclesiastical endorsement would run a serious risk of being interpreted as a political prop to the said left, with catastrophic results for the very people they claim to defend. Is that the intention?

There are also rumors that in the context of the severe economic crisis we have been living after years of “neo-liberalism,” renewed populism would be able to inspire a new social consciousness that places the poor at the center of attention. Such awareness would be legitimate and even worthy of support. The problem is whether populism would be capable of providing it. In this case, a careful analysis shows how the left  is not so much in favor of the poor as it is of poverty as such, since it obstinately keeps proposing socioeconomic systems that have proven to be unsuccessful and severely damaging to the lower classes – precisely those it claims to help.

So, borrowing the ironic expression of Jesuit theologian Horace Bojorge we can say that this populism is for the poor nothing more than a ‘lead-filled life jacket.” It is one more fraud in the long series of frauds dotting the ominous journey of the world lLeft.


[1] Jacques Maritain, Umanesimo integrale, Borla, Roma 2009, p. 132.

[2] Ibid., pp. 132-133.

[3] Alberto Methol Ferré, Alver Metalli, Il Papa e il Filosofo, Cantagalli, Siena, 2014, pp. 49-50.

[4] Ibid., pp. 112, 114.

[5] Leo XIII, Encyclical Quod apostolici muneris, 28 December 1878.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Pius XI, Encyclical Divini Redemptoris, 19 March de1937.

[8] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect), Instruction Libertatis Nuntius, 6 August 1984.

[9] John Paul II, Encyclical Centesimus annus, 1 May 1991.

[10] Cf. Raúl A. Sandoval Gonzalez, La pobreza en Cuba, www.progreso-semanal.com, 28 March 2012.

[11] Infobae América, 2 March 2013.

[12] “Un ministro venezolano recomienda no lavarse el pelo si escasea el champú,” ABC, 31 October 2014.

[13] “La bandiera cinese piantata sull’Ecuador. Il gigante asiatico compra tutto il greggio, Corriere della Sera, 30 September 2013.

[14] Francisco Jueguen, Segun ex-técnicos del INDEC, la pobreza es del 36,5%,La Nacion, 12 April 2014.

[15] Francisco Graziano Neto, “Reforma Agraria de qualidade,” O Estado de S. Paulo, 17 April 2012.

[16] Fernando Odila, Política agrária federal criou ‘favelas rurais’, diz ministro,Folha de S. Paulo, 9 February 2013.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Students Learn Moral Relativism and Other "Liberal" Arts While Spending $47,000 a Year (Video)

By John Ritchie

Among other things, this video captures a discussion at Johns Hopkins University between TFP Student Action volunteers and students who use relativism to justify their support for same-sex "marriage."

VIDEO -- Moral Relativism

Some college cultures soak their students in the witches brew that "everything is relative," that nothing is true or certain.  The only exception to the rule of relativism is relativism itself. 

Relativism is the only acceptable absolute.  Unfortunately, as the video painfully illustrates, students fall for it to the point of believing that men can "functionally become cows" and cease being men, if majority opinion were to subscribe to that illogical idea.

However, to deny the difference between good and evil, truth and error, right and wrong is the apex of immorality, as it constitutes the essence of moral relativism, which is a real danger for it undermines definition, dignity and direction... and higher learning.

The footage was taken on Oct. 23 as TFP volunteers distributed their flier, 10 Reasons Why Same-Sex "Marriage" is Harmful and Must Be Opposed

Watch the video and see the relativism and other "liberal" arts one can acquire while spending $47,000 a year, the current tuition at Johns Hopkins University.