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.