Pro-life billboard set ablaze, police investigate

by Peter Baklinski

BEAMSVILLE, Ontario, August 30, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At 1:18 Thursday morning, in a parking lot in the middle of a small Ontario town, police extinguished a pro-life billboard that had been set on fire and left to blaze.

“Obviously, we’ve hit a nerve,” said Coreen Wierenga, spokesperson for the Christian Heritage Party-Niagara West Glanbrook, which erected the billboard.

The massive billboard features a larger-than-life baby in utero, curled in a fetal position. “I praise you Lord because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…You knit me together in my mother’s womb,” reads white letter text against a purple background.

“I think it’s a beautiful billboard. I don’t think it’s offensive", said Wierenga told LifeSiteNews.com. "I’m flabbergasted”.

The billboard is made out of Coroplast, a plastic that is not easily destroyed by fire.

“It’s not something that you hold a lighter to", Corren said. "Whoever came had to have some kind of a torch mechanism."

"The whole billboard didn’t go up in flames, but that was their intention”, Wierenga said.

The bottom corners were already destroyed by fire before police arrived to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher, Niagara Regional Police Service confirmed to LifeSiteNews.com.

The billboard, put up six months ago, has caused a series of controversies within the small town of 10,000 people.

Within two days of it being erected, the municipality ordered its removal, saying that it violated by-law specifications for signs.

But owners fought back and succeeded in keeping the billboard up.

Since then there have been pro-abortion protests in front of the billboard with people holding signs with the message “Abortion is our right”. The billboard has also been vandalized with spray paint.

Wierenga said that opposition to the billboard seemed to have settled down in the last two months. “And now they try torching it.”

“Somebody in the small town of Beamsville obviously doesn’t appreciate the message”, Coreen said.

The case has been forwarded to Grimsby’s Criminal Investigation’s unit, LifeSiteNews has learned.

The arson comes one week before the pro-life billboard was to be replaced by a new one with a pro-family message.

Fervent Catholics protest blasphemous movie “Paradise Faith” in Hollywood

The blasphemous film is called: Paradise Faith and it was showing at the Silent Theater near Hollywood. 

On very short notice TFP-America Needs Fatima representative, Michael Whitcraft, called friends of Our Lady to pray a Rosary of Reparation in front of the Silent Theater on Wednesday night, Aug. 29, against this very offensive movie.

WARNING: INAPPROPRIATE For Minors.  Deeply Disturbing! Read With Caution.

The movie Paradise: Faith, by Ulrich Seidl, is a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix.

EXTREME CAUTION

The NY Times (8/22/13) reports: Speaking of the main character in the film, “…Later in the movie, she m*****bates with the same crucifix.” [redaction ours: Ed.] Other press reports contribute… A woman…“m*****bates using a crucifix.” “it is right to show her m********ing using a cross, as she is making love to Jesus,” responds the director Ulrich Seidl when asked about it.

The protest consisted in praying the fifteen decades of the rosary, some other prayers (especially the St. Michael prayer) and the Litany of Our Lady.  Our people spread out single to double file to cover the entire front of the cinema. 

We were very happy and consoled to be able to offer this public act of reparation against such a terrible pornographic attack on the Holy Crucifix of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

7,000 Rally Captains Milestone Reached for Rosary Crusade on October 12

Contact: Robert Ritchie, www.ANF.org

717-225-7147, ext 236 -- HANOVER, Penn., Aug 31, 2013

America Needs Fatima along with hundreds of thousands of Catholics are preparing to pray the Public Square Rosary for America on October 12, 2013.

al The goal is 10 thousand rallies nationwide, which is more than last year’s total of 9,077.

America Needs Fatima is promoting rosary rallies in public places to send a clear message to a suffering Nation: human solutions aren't working. We must turn to God by praying the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, begging for His help and guidance.

At the group's campaign headquarters near Topeka, Kansas, coordinator Francis Slobodnik announced that they had reached a milestone of 7,000 Rosary Rally Captains.

"Over 7,000 people have agreed to organize these rallies. There are rally captains in every state, and in Puerto Rico. People are really excited about it and momentum is snowballing," noted Mr. Slobodnik.

"Participants will proclaim their faith publicly, pray for America, and send a clear message to secularists who want to ban God from the public square."

"The office is buzzing with activity. Rosary volunteers and staff are busy contacting new rosary captains, answering questions and sending out supplies.  More volunteers just arrived to help handle calls."

"More and more people are looking to the Fatima message because men aren't solving the moral crisis in society." Mr. Slobodnik continued. "In other words, prayer, penance and conversion are God's answer to our problems."

To join other Rally Captains and help organize a rally in your town, contact the America Needs Fatima headquarters at 866-584-6012 or check out:

http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/PSRR-Articles/rally-captain-signup.html

Sign up to become a Rosary Rally Captain in 2013.  A red rose
will be sent to Fatima in your name.

St. Bernard and the Templar warrior-monks: a new vocation in the Church

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Bernard took a strong liking to Hugues, promising to compile a rule for him and find recruits. “They can fight the battle of the Lord and indeed be soldiers of Christ.” In 1128 a council was convened at Troyes and, on Bernard’s advice, Hugues attended it. Though the abbot was not present he sent a rule, which was debated and endorsed by the council. Copies of the Templar constitutions survive from the thirteenth century and these state that the first part of the rule was “par le commandement dou concile et dou venerable père Bernart abbes de Clerevaus.” [“By order of the council and of the venerable father Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux.”]

Hugues de Payens

Bernard thought of Hugues’s new brethren as military Cistercians. Significantly, brother-knights wore a white hooded habit in the cloister, like Cistercian choir monks…. On active service this habit was replaced by a cloak. An emphasis on silence, even to the extent of using signs in the refectory, came from the same source, while the simplicity of Cistercian altar furnishings was paralleled by the plainest weapons and saddlery possible, with no trace of gold or silver. Brethren slept in dormitories in shirt and breeches, as Cistercians still do today.

Unless on night duty, attendance at matins was strictly enforced, for they said the Office together in choir, not the full Roman Office, but the Little Office—psalms and prayers easily memorized by men who could not read…. Religious services alternated with military exercises. There were two main meals, both eaten in silence with sacred reading from a French translation of the Bible, special emphasis being placed on the Books of Joshua and the Maccabees.

All found inspiration in the ferocious exploits of Judas, his brothers and their war-bands in reconquering the Holy Land from cruel infidels…. Each knight was allowed three horses…. His Master was not merely a commanding officer but an abbot. For the first time in Christian history soldiers would live as monks.

Desmond Seward, The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders (New York: Penguin Books, 1995), 31-2.

Iowa gubernatorial candidates, Democrats pray to ‘the Lord’ for more abortion access (video)

by John Jalsevac

August 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Newly released video footage shows Democrat gubernatorial candidates Tyler Olson and Jack Hatch joining abortion activists in an extended prayer in thanksgiving for abortionists, asking for increased abortion access, and decrying the fact that women have been "made afraid of their own power by their paternalistic religion."

The five-minute prayer begins, "We give thanks, O Lord, for the doctors, both current and future, who provide quality abortion care, and pray that they may be kept safe."

"We pray for the 45 million American women who have had safe, legal abortions. May they stand tall and refuse shame," the prayer continues. "We pray for elected officials, that they may always support a woman's right to make her own medical decisions."

The prayer was led by abortion activist Midge Slater, according to the Iowa Republican. It was part of a rally by abortion activists ahead of a hearing on proposed rules banning the practice of having abortionists in a remote location dispense abortion drugs to women via webcam.

Pro-life activists held their own prayer service at a nearby church, according to the Des Moines Register.

The Iowa Republican reports that at the end of the pro-abortion prayer, Hatch stood up and began applauding, before stopping, while Olson remained seated and did not applaud.

During the prayer Slater also asked "the Lord" for increased funding for abortion, increased abortion access in the developing world, and called abortion a "blessing."

She also prayed that "all women will know that they were created in the image of God: good and holy, moral and wise," and asked that all pregnant women will "be surrounded by loving voices."

They are trying to abolish the very notion of gender

World gone mad:

Cambridge University announced will be removing the “gendered” nature of graduation dress codes:

“It’s good to see the university receptive to helping us make changes to tradition when tradition no longer fits reality. B...ut like in any city, or university, many hearts and minds still have to be changed before gender and sexuality stops being an issue, and just “is”’.

Read more…
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Does-Chelsea-Mannings-new-identity-mean-its-time-for-a-new-debate-on-gender-20130827060044.htm

An $11,000 Prize in Switzerland and a Consecration in Costa Rica

by Gustavo A. Solimeo

According to media reports, Switzerland has announced it will hold a national competition that will search for a new national anthem to replace its current one, which government officials say “has too many references to God and is too old-fashioned.”^[1]

The text of the current anthem, which was officially adopted in 1981, dates back to 1841. It “includes references to God, prayer, mountains and sunshine” whereas officials now want a new text which will “include values enshrined in the Swiss constitution, such as democracy and solidarity,” clarifies BBC News.^[2]

The competition to find a new Swiss national anthem will begin in January 2014 and will run for six months. The winning lyrics will receive a prize of 10,000 Swiss francs, the equivalent to $10,834.^[3]

The “Problem” Is the Text
This will be not the first time the Swiss anthem has changed. In 1981, When You Call, my Fatherland, was replaced by the current anthem, Swiss Psalm, to avoid confusion when played without the lyrics, because it was set to the same tune as the British national anthem ─ God Save the Queen.^[4]

Now, the “problem” is not the prayer nor the need to avoid confusion, but the appeal of “political correctness.”

In fact, Lukas Niederberger, who is directing the competition, told the BBC: “The real problem is above all the text.”

“Officially the anthem is a psalm, a prayer, but of course we have an open society, religiously neutral. We have atheists, no single god, so this anthem is a difficulty.”^[5]

The mention of God did not seem to bother the Swiss in 1981. In fact, it was already used on patriotic occasions before it became the official anthem of the country. “The choice of it as the national anthem was not a medieval option, but a decision of the era of color television and credit cards.”^[6]

While this is happening in a country in Europe, there is an edifying example of an opposite governmental move in the New World.

Consecration and Request for Forgiveness
On August 2, a Mass was celebrated in Cartago, Costa Roca in honor of the country’s Patroness, the Virgin of the Angels. On that occasion, President Laura Chinchilla, along with the assembly president, Luis Fernando Mendoza, and Supreme Court chief justice Zarela Villanueva, consecrated the government, people and nation to God and the Blessed Mother.^[7]

“I, Laura Chinchilla, President of the Republic of Costa Rica, with the authority bestowed upon me hereby consecrate myself, my family and the Republic of Costa Rica to the love and protection of Almighty God through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Angels, placing in her loving hands my Government with all its officers, employees and citizens who are under my responsibility. […]

“Upon making this consecration, I ask God forgiveness for all the transgressions perpetrated in our country in the past and for all decisions that may have been made against His commandments, asking His help to change everything that separates us from Him."^[8]

After the President, the heads of the Legislative and the Judiciary read the text of the consecration and request for forgiveness, adapted to each of their institutions. [Full text below]

This is undoubtedly a beautiful example of a profession of faith by a country’s rulers, one that should fill every Catholic heart with joy in these days of growing secularism, indifference and relativism.

It is well to recall that Costa Rica is one of the few countries whose Constitution (Article 75) establishes Catholicism as the official state religion.^[9]

Looming Shadows
Unfortunately, this bright picture is not without its shadows...
Three days earlier the government, yielding to pressures from international agencies,^[10] had sent the Legislative Assembly, projected bills on in vitro fertilization and so-called “cohabitation partnerships” (“sociedades de convivencia”) ─ an euphemism for same-sex “marriage.”^[11]
Costa Rica is one of the only countries to ban in vitro fertilization: the Constitutional Court ruled that this technique violates the right to life.

Consistency
Will Costa Rican rulers be consistent with the serious commitment they made before God, His Blessed Mother and men?

One should fear they will not, for Communications Minister Carlos Roverssi said the government will maintain its support of the two projected bills.^[12]

Nonetheless, whatever the outcome of this matter will be, the fact is that the act was done and has value before God and History.
May the Virgin of the Angels give Costa Rican rulers strength to resist all pressure, and persevere in the good resolutions stated in their act of consecration and also help the Swiss people to avoid the sad path of secularization that is leading Europe to become an ex-Christian (or even an anti-Christian) continent.

Act of Consecration of the three branches of government of the Republic of Costa Rica to the Virgin of the Angels

“I, Laura Chinchilla, President of the Republic of Costa Rica, with the authority bestowed upon me hereby consecrate myself, my family and the Republic of Costa Rica to the love and protection of Almighty God through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Angels, placing in her loving hands my Government with all its officers, employees and citizens who are under my responsibility.

I offer Almighty God my thoughts and decisions as President of Costa Rica to use them for the good of this country so that in my governance I will always keep the Ten Commandments in mind.

I pray God, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Angels, to heed and accept my act of consecration and cover this country with His special protection.

Upon making this consecration, I ask God forgiveness for all the transgressions perpetrated in our country in the past and for all decisions that may have been made against His commandments, asking His help to change everything that separates us from Him.”^[13]

1.

Cf. Stoyan Zaimov, “Switzerland to Replace ‘Psalm’-Like National Anthem With a Secular One,” The Christian Post, Aug. 7, 2013, http://www.christianpost.com/news/switzerland-to-replace-psalm-like-national-anthem-with-a-secular-one-101744/^↑

2.

Cf. Laurence Peter, “Swiss to launch national anthem competition in 2014,” BBC News, Aug. 2, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23550915?print=true^↑

3.

Ibid. Cf. Alex Marshall, “Swiss launch competition to find new national anthem,” The Guardian, Aug. 14, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/14/swiss-competition-new-national-anthem;
Cf. Pablo J. Ginés, “Suiza dará 10.000 dólares a quien quite a Dios de su himno y lo sustituya por ‘la democracia,’” Religión en Libertad, Aug. 11, 2013, http://www.religionenlibertad.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=30612^↑

4.

Cf. Alex Marshall, “Swiss launch competition to find new national anthem,” The Guardian, Aug. 14, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/14/swiss-competition-new-national-anthem^↑

5.

Cf. Laurence Peter, “Swiss to launch national anthem competition in 2014,” BBC News, Aug. 2, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23550915?print=true^↑

6.

Cf. Pablo J. Ginés, “Suiza dará 10.000 dólares a quien quite a Dios de su himno y lo sustituya por ‘la democracia,’” Religión en Libertad, Aug. 11, 2013, http://www.religionenlibertad.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=30612^↑

7.

Cf. “Los presidentes de los tres poderes de Costa Rica piden perdón ante la Virgen de los Ángeles,” La Nación/InfoCatólica, Aug. 4, 2013, http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=18128;
“Gobierno profundiza el estado confesional: Costa Rica ‘consagrada’ a la Virgen de los Ángeles,” Informa-TICO, Aug. 2, 2013, http://www.informa-tico.com/2-08-2013/gobierno-profundiza-estado-confesional-costa-rica-consagrada-virgen-angeles;
Esteban Oviedo, “Presidentes de los tres poderes hicieron acto de consagración a Dios y a la Virgen,” La Nación, Aug. 2, 2013, http://www.nacion.com/nacional/Presidentes-consagracion-Dios-Virgen-instituciones_0_1357464326.html?print=1^↑

8.

Cf. juandiegogm “Acto de Consagración de los tres poderes de la República de Costa Rica a la Virgen de los Ángeles,” Radio Actual 107.1 FM, Aug. 5, 2013, http://www.radioactualfm.com/consagracion-poderes-4/^↑

9.

United States Department of State, “U.S. Department of State Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2005 - Costa Rica,” Nov. 8, 2005, http://www.refworld.org/docid/437c9cf42f.html^↑

10.

Frank Rodríguez, “Costa Rica debe permitir la Fertilización in Vitro, ordenó la Corte Interamericana,” Amelia Rueda, Dec. 20, 2012, http://www.ameliarueda.com/costa-rica-debe-permitir-la-fertilizacion-in-vitro-ordeno-la-corte-interamericana/^↑

11.

Cf. “Los presidentes de los tres poderes de Costa Rica piden perdón ante la Virgen de los Ángeles,” La Nación/InfoCatólica, Aug. 4, 2013, http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=18128;^↑

12.

Ibid.^↑

13.

Cf. juandiegogm “Acto de Consagración de los tres poderes de la República de Costa Rica a la Virgen de los Ángeles,” Radio Actual 107.1 FM, Aug. 5, 2013, http://www.radioactualfm.com/consagracion-poderes-4/^↑

Wow! 6,816 people have already become captains in the 2013 Public Square Rosary Crusade!

Please consider being a captain and get a complimentary red rose placed at Fatima, Portugal, in your name.

See SHOTS of friends of Our Lady, JUST LIKE YOU, doing Rallies from our 2012 Public Square Rosary Crusade.

Become a rosary captain here.

Our Lady needs you to be a Rally Captain in the 2013 Public Square Rosary Crusade.
Why?

Because human solutions have failed, and we’re sinking fast, much faster than we thought possible, into terrible moral, financial, and spiritual troubles, and …with worse things to come if people don’t pray the Rosary and amend their lives.

See, last year, we had 9,077 rosaries in the public square. And this year, our goal is 10,000. Will you lead one of these 10,000 rosaries?

To become a rosary rally captain, please CLICK HERE.

Or simply call 866-584-6012 and sign up by phone.

Then you’d be one of 10,000 team captains who will say a public rosary on October 12, 2013, the Saturday closest to October 13, the anniversary of the spectacular Fatima miracle of the sun.

And then, a complimentary red rose will be taken to Fatima Portugal in your name, and right to the spot where Our Lady appeared.

See our 2012 Fatima Rally Captains’ rose bouquet being placed.
Please know we’re committed to give you the best assistance possible for your rally preparations. Our Lady’s special team will help you each step of the way.

IN THIS YEAR OF FAITH,
Our Lady needs you.
It’s very easy to be a rosary rally captain.

Just gather even a few family members and friends to join you to pray a rosary in a public place this coming October 12, Saturday, at 12 noon. We’ll send you a banner, instruction manual, and a booklet with suggested prayers, hymns, and instructions to give more glory to Jesus through Mary.

See SNAPSHOTS of friends of Our Lady, just like you, doing Rallies
from our 2012 Public Square Rosary Crusade.

Please Commit NOW.
Don’t put it off.

Once you’ve signed up as a team captain, thanks to Our Lady’s very special and dear Public Square Rosary Rally Donors, we will send you a free and very beautiful rally banner and training manual in the mail.

This provides you with everything that you need for a simple and successful rally.

Also, Mr. Francis Slobodnik is our director and with him are many ladies and gentlemen – all prepared to help you. They are only a phone call away. As I said, the dedicated help line is 866-584-6012.

To help make your rally even more successful, in addition to the complimentary rally banner and training manual, we offer additional rally supplies, in case you want to do more.
These include full versions of our English and Spanish Manuals, posters, intention sheets, prayer programs and much more.

To help others locate your rally, or the rally nearest them, our site will post a listing of the thousands of other rallies across the country.

If you would like others to contact you about joining your rally, please allow us to place your name and contact phone number on our website.

By allowing us to do so, others can contact you directly for more information about coming to your rally.

Please allow me to post your information by calling us toll free at 866-584-6012.
Thank you very much and may God bless you!

P.S. – To become a team captain, simply call 866-584-6012 to sign up or GO HERE (online is better and quicker).
It would be very helpful if you would allow us to post your rally contact information so others can learn about your rally and join you. Thank you!

The Atlantic publishes two articles normalizing pedophilia

by Wesley J. Smith

August 27, 2013 (National Review) - I have written about this before. In our growing hedonistic culture, pedophilia is in the process of being normalized, downgraded by some from a severe sexual perversion into a mere ”orientation.” 

The Atlantic–mainstream media!–has two articles that push us in that direction. First, “I Pedophile,” by David Goldberg–a Canadian journalist convicted for viewing child pornography–argues that his obsession with children is a “sexual orientation:”

The main query that I am convinced will always be without an answer is why I am a pedophile. It is the equivalent of trying to determine why someone is heterosexual or gay. We don’t choose our sexual orientations. If we could, believe me, no one would choose mine.

Read more…

http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/the-atlantic-publishes-two-articles-normalizing-pedophilia

38 nations sign document urging radical support for abortion, homosexuality

by Sofia Vazquez-Mellado

August 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Representatives of 38 Latin American and Caribbean countries have signed onto a document that includes language urging the region to, “Ensure … the availability of safe, good-quality abortion services for women with unwanted and unaccepted pregnancies.”

The document, titled the “Montevideo Consensus,” calls on governments that ban abortion “to consider amending their laws … relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy in order to protect the lives and health of women and adolescent girls.”

The representatives met from August 12th to the 15th in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, with the stated purpose of examining the progress of the UN Cairo Conference on Population and Development held in 1994.

The document also declares that countries should “guarantee universal access to assisted fertility treatments,” and the “access to a wide range of culturally relevant, scientifically sound modern contraceptive methods, including emergency oral contraception.”

Ensuring “the effective implementation from early childhood of comprehensive sexuality education programs,” is also among the agreements the participants reached.

The meeting was organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the Uruguayan government with support from the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). It also brought together 24 regional and international agencies and 260 non-governmental organizations.

Over 800 participants attended the meeting, which made it one of the largest intergovernmental conferences in recent years in the region, according to ECLAC.

Daphne Cuevas, of the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network, told the press that the reaction to the conference’s outcome was “jubilation.”

“We feminists came here with a series of clearly outlined proposals that were taken up integrally by the governments, which sent out a strong signal to the world that in Latin America, women’s rights are on the rise,” said the activist.

Another one of the document’s ‘achievements’ was the recognition of sexual rights and reproductive rights as separate concepts.

It says countries need to: “Promote, protect and guarantee sexual health and rights and reproductive rights in order to contribute to the fulfillment of persons and to social justice in a society free from all forms of discrimination and violence.”

“We took another step forward by recognizing them separately,” said Cuevas. “What was approved 20 years ago in Cairo referred to reproductive, but not sexual, rights.”

In this matter the document also says governments should: “broaden the access available to men, including boys, adolescents and young men, to sexual and reproductive health-related information, counseling and services.”

Such measures, according to the Consensus, are being taken because the countries are “concerned at the high rates of maternal mortality, due largely to difficulties in obtaining access to proper sexual health and reproductive health services or to unsafe abortions, and aware that some experiences in the region have demonstrated that the penalization of abortion leads to higher rates of maternal mortality.”

Chile, however, where abortion is illegal without exception, holds the lowest maternal mortality rate in Latin America, a fact that was not mentioned in the Consensus.

The document also contains language that could be used to force homosexual “marriage” on the signatories, claiming that it is necessary to “promote policies that enable persons to exercise their sexual rights, which embrace the right to a safe and full sex life, as well as the right to take free, informed, voluntary and responsible decisions on their sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity, without coercion, discrimination or violence, and that guarantee the right to information and the means necessary for their sexual health and reproductive health.”

In what seems a direct address to Costa Rica, the document also reads: “a secular State is one of the elements fundamental to the full exercise of human rights, the deepening of democracy and the elimination of all forms of discrimination.”

Costa Rica is the last and only confessional state in Latin America, as it holds the Catholic faith as official in its Constitution.

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has recently started putting pressure on the country to change its laws and allow abortion, In vitro fertilization, the morning-after pill and same-sex ‘marriages’. The country may face trial if it does not comply with these impositions.

Scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood sees 24 offices close this year

by Cheryl Sullenger

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 23, 2013 (Operation Rescue) — Planned Parenthood offices across the nation have closed this year at a record rate, according to data compiled by Operation Rescue. At least 24 Planned Parenthood sites have closed in so far in 2013.

This number includes three surgical abortion clinics,three clinics that dispensed abortion pills, and 19 offices that referred for abortions.  Read more…

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/scandal-plagued-planned-parenthood-sees-24-offices-close-this-year

Revolution & Counter-Re​volution: Good vs. Evil

This work is a clear battle plan for victory

When will the moral crisis shaking the foundations of Western civilization at every level stop ravaging the family and harming the salvation of souls?

If you’re concerned about the future, you’ll find tremendous insight, a battle plan for victory in Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s work:

Revolution and Counter-Revolution (PDF format)

Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, intrepid Catholic leader and founder of the first TFP

For the next 3 days, this 180-page book is entirely yours to download.

Get your PDF version here

You can also get your hard copy here.

You see, not only has this book inspired the formation of TFP Student Action, but it prompted the founding of many Societies for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property worldwide.

In this work, you will find principles of wisdom that can stop the disintegration of society -- including abortion and its terrible culture of death.

Get your online copy of Revolution and Counter-Revolution now

And thank you so much for your support and friendship.

Praise for Revolution and Counter-Revolution

“The theme of this study is of the highest importance for the time in which we live... I congratulate the author of this magnificent work.”
-- Eugene Cardinal Tisserant

“Those of us who personally suffer from the effects of communism are well able to calculate the accuracy and urgent necessity of such a study.”
-- Thomas Cardinal Tien, China

“…authentic product of Christian wisdom.”
-- Fr. Anastasio Gutierrez, C.M.F. Founder of the Institutum Iuridicum Claretianum, Rome

“I am certain that your book has rendered an important service to the Catholic cause and that it will help gather the forces of good in order to soon solve this great contemporary problem.”
-- Archbishop Romolo Carboni

The film is a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix…

WARNING: INAPPROPRIATE For Minors.
Deeply Disturbing! Read With Caution.

Please E-Protest The Movie Paradise: Faith
The “Crucifix M*****bation” Movie

Send Your Instant E-PROTEST Message NOW

I’m sorry to say that Strand Releasing has now released the movie Paradise: Faith, by Ulrich Seidl.

The film is a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix.
I ask you to protest by sending a message to Strand Releasing, to Mr. Seidl, and to the two theaters that are showing the film.

We cannot – we MUST not – sit idly by on this.

Send Your Protest Message

If you need to know more details to join the protest…

...read below with EXTREME CAUTION.

The NY Times (8/22/13) reports:
Speaking of the main character in the film, “…Later in the movie, she m*****bates with the same crucifix.” [redaction ours: Ed.]

Other press reports contribute…

• A woman…“m*****bates using a crucifix.”
• “it is right to show her m********ing using a cross, as she is making love to Jesus,” responds the director Ulrich Seidl when asked about it.

PROTEST NOW …

…and defend the honor of Jesus and the decency of our culture.
In a disappointing but very clear sign of our neo-pagan times and the championing of anything insulting to Christianity, last year the Venice Film Festival awarded a special jury prize to this film. And then Strand Releasing purchased the “rights” to release the film in America.

Defend the symbol of our Redemption HERE

After that, please offer fervent prayers and ardent sacrifices in reparation. Here’s a beautiful prayer before a crucifix, so different than what the extremely offensive film offers.

The Bank That Trust Built

by John Horvat II

In writing about economy, I have frequently denounced what I call frenetic intemperance. Frenetic intemperance is a term to describe a restless and reckless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that foments a drive to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify all desires. Such a reckless spirit is often found in the financial sector of modern economies as it engages in all sorts of monetary wheeling and dealing.

I admit that banks have their purpose in society by securing money and facilitating transactions needed to carry out business. However, so strong is the frantic idea of modern banking that I have often asked myself if I could provide concrete examples of banking without frenetic intemperance. It is not an easy task.

But in the business section of The Sunday Times of Ireland (7-21-13),^[1] I quite unexpectedly found a refreshing example. It involves a London bank called C. Hoare & Co. It is not your ordinary bank.

Read more…

http://www.returntoorder.org/2013/08/bank-trust-built/

Just For Wearing A Rosary

Looking at him with great kindness Our Lady said: “As a reward for this little honor that you paid me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son.

Your life will be spared for a few more years.
See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.”

DISCOURSE (a 5 minute read…enjoy!)

It would hardly be possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady thinks of the Holy Rosary and how she vastly prefers it to all other devotions.

Neither can I sufficiently express how highly she rewards those who work to preach the devotion, to establish it and spread it, nor, on the other hand, how firmly she punishes those who work against it.

All during life, Saint Dominic had nothing more at heart than to praise Our Lady, to preach her greatness and to inspire everybody to honor her by saying her Rosary. As a reward he received countless graces from her; exercising her great power as Queen of Heaven, she crowned his labors with many miracles and prodigies. Almighty God always granted him what he asked through Our Lady. The greatest honor of all was that she helped him to crush the Albigensian heresy and made him the founder and patriarch of a great religious order.

As for Blessed Alan de la Roche, who restored the devotion to the Rosary, he received many privileges from Our Lady; she graciously appeared to him several times to teach him how to work out his salvation, to become a good priest and perfect religious, and how to pattern himself on Our Lord.

He used to be horribly tempted and persecuted by devils, and then a deep sadness would fall upon him and sometimes he would come close to despair – but Our Lady always comforted him by her sweet presence which banished the clouds of darkness from his soul.

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She taught him how to say the Rosary, explaining its value and the fruits to be gained by it and she gave him a great and glorious privilege: the honor of being called her new spouse.

As a token of her chaste love for him she placed a ring upon his finger and a necklace made of her own hair about his neck and gave him a Rosary.

Father Tritème Carthagena and Martin of Navarre (both very learned men), and others as well, have spoken of him in terms of the highest praise. Blessed Alan died at Zwolle in Flanders September 8, 1475, after having brought over one hundred thousand people into the Confraternity [of the Rosary – Ed.].

Blessed Thomas of Saint John was well known for his sermons on the Most Holy Rosary, and the devil, jealous of the success he had with souls, tortured him so much that he fell ill and was sick so long that the doctors gave up on him.

One night when he really thought that he was dying, the devil appeared to him in the most horrible form imaginable. There was a picture of Our Lady near his bed; he looked at it and cried with all his heart and soul and strength: “Help me, save me, my sweet, sweet Mother!”

No sooner had he said this than the picture seemed to come alive and Our Lady put out her hand, took him by the arm and said: “Do not be afraid, Thomas my son, here I am and I am going to save you: get up now and go on preaching my Rosary as you used to do. I promise to shield you from your enemies.”

When Our Lady said this the devil fled and Blessed Thomas got up, finding that he was in perfect health. He then thanked the Blessed Mother with tears of joy. He resumed his Rosary apostolate and his sermons were marvelously successful.

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Our Lady not only blesses those who say her Rosary, but also abundantly rewards those who, by their example, inspire others to say it as well.

Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary. So he hung a large Rosary on his belt and always wore it, but unfortunately never said it himself.

Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary very devoutly.

One day the King fell seriously ill and when he was given up for dead he found himself, in a vision, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed and Our Lord as Sovereign Judge was just about to condemn him to hell when Our Lady appeared to intercede for him.

She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances. On the other side, she put the Rosary that he had always worn, along with all the Rosaries that had been said because of his example.

It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins.

Looking at him with great kindness Our Lady said: “As a reward for this little honor that you paid me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.”

When the King regained consciousness he cried out: “Blessed be the Rosary of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, by which I have been delivered from eternal damnation!”

After he had recovered his health, he spent the rest of his life in spreading devotion to the Holy Rosary and said it faithfully every day.

People who love the Blessed Virgin ought to follow the example of King Alphonsus and that of the saints whom I have mentioned so that they too may win other souls for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. They will receive great graces on earth and eternal life later on.

“They that explain me shall have life everlasting” (Ecclus. 24:31).

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Quotes About The Rosary
This “Stories of Mary – Stories of the Rosary” is taken from The Secret of the Rosary, 1st Edition, by Saint Louis de Montfort, America Needs Fatima, PO BOX 341, Hanover, PA 17331

- See more at: http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Stories-Of-Mary/som-just-for-wearing-a-rosary.html?email=reritchie@gmail.com&fname=Robert&lname=Ritchie&treat=Mr.&utm_campaign=E.MAF06551&utm_content=E.MAF06551&utm_medium=email&utm_source=E.MAF06551#sthash.C3uHBUb6.dpuf

Saint Sidonius Apollinaris – He was one of a network of aristocrat bishops

Gaius Sollius (Modestus) Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris (November 5[1] of an unknown year, perhaps 430 – August, 489) was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is “the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul” according to Eric Goldberg.[2]

He was one of four fifth-to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters survive in quantity; the others are Ruricius bishop of Limoges (died 507), Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne (died 518) and Magnus Felix Ennodius of Arles, bishop of Ticinum (died 534). All of them were linked in the tightly bound aristocratic Gallo-Roman network that provided the bishops of Catholic Gaul.[3] His feast day is August 21.

St. Sidonius Apollinaris

Sidonius was born in Lugdunum (Lyons). His father Apollinaris (born circa 405) was the Prefect of Gaul under Valentinian III; he recalls with pride being present with his father at the installation of Astyrius as consul for the year 449.[4] Sidonius’ grandfather was Praetorian Prefect of Gaul prior 409 and a friend of his successor Decimus Rusticus. Sidonius may be a descendant of another Apollinaris who was Prefect of Gaul under Constantine II between 337 and 340.

Sidonius married Papianilla, the daughter of Emperor Avitus, around 452.[5] This union produced one son, Apollinaris, and at least two daughters: Sidonius mentions in his letters Severina and Roscia, but a third, Alcima, is only mentioned much later by Gregory of Tours, whom Theodor Mommsen has speculated may be identified with one of his other daughters.[6] His known acquaintances include bishop Faustus of Riez and his theological adversary Claudianus Mamertus; his life and friendships put him in the center of 5th century Roman affairs.

In 457 Majorian deprived Avitus of the empire and seized the city of Lyons; Sidonius fell into his hands. However, the reputation of the aristocrat’s learning led Majorian to treat him with the greatest respect. In return Sidonius composed a panegyric in his honour (as he had previously done for Avitus), which won for him a statue at Rome and the title of count. In 467 or 468 the emperor Anthemius rewarded him for the panegyric which he had written in honour of him by raising him to the post of Urban Prefect of Rome until 469, and afterwards to the dignity of Patrician and Senator. In 470 or 472, he was elected to succeed Eparchius in the bishopric of Auvergne (Clermont, now Clermont-Ferrand).

On the capture of that city by the Goths in 474 he was imprisoned, as he had taken an active part in its defense; but he was afterwards released from captivity by Euric, king of the Goths, and continued to shepherd his flock as he had done before; he did so until his death.

Sidonius’s relations have been traced over several generations as a narrative of a family’s fortunes, from the prominence of his paternal grandfather’s time into subsequent decline in the 6th century under the Franks. Sidonius’s son Apollinaris, who was a correspondent of Ruricius of Limoges, commanded a unit raised in Auvergne on the losing side of the decisive Battle of Vouille, and also served as bishop of Clermont for four months until his death.[7] Sidonius’s grandson Arcadius, on hearing a rumor that the Frankish king Theuderic I had died, betrayed Clermont to Childebert I, only to abandon his wife and mother when Theuderic appeared; his other appearance in the history of Gregory of Tours is as a servant of king Childebert.[8]

His extant works are his Panegyrics on different emperors (in which he draws largely upon Statius, Ausonius and Claudian), which document several important political events. Carmen 7 is a panegyric to his father-in-law Avitus on his inauguration as emperor. Carmen 5 is a panegyric to Majorian, which offers evidence that Sidonius was able to overcome the natural suspicion and hostility towards the man who was responsible for the death of his father-in-law. Carmen 2 is a panegyric to the emperor Anthemius, part of Sidonius’ efforts to be appointed Urban Prefect of Rome; several samples of occasional verse; and nine books of Letters, about which W.B. Anderson notes, “Whatever one may think about their style and diction, the letters of Sidonius are an invaluable source of information on many aspects of the life of his time.”[9] While very stilted in diction, these Letters reveal Apollinaris as a man of genial temper, fond of good living and of pleasure. A letter of Sidonius’s addressed to Riothamus, “King of the Brittones” (c. 460) is of particular interest, since it provides evidence that a king or military leader with ties to Britain lived around the time frame of King Arthur. The best edition is that in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Berlin, 1887), which gives a survey of the manuscripts. An English translation of his poetry and letters by W.B. Anderson, with accompanying Latin text, have been published by the Loeb Classical Library (volume 1, containing his poems and books 1-3 of his letters, 1939; remainder of letters, 1965).

Gregory of Tours speaks of Sidonius as a man who could celebrate Mass from memory (without a sacramentary) and give unprepared speeches without any hesitation.[10]

_________________

Notes

[1]Apollinaris alludes to the date of his birthday in a short poem addressed to his brother-in-law Ecdicius, Carmen 20.
[2] The Fall of the Roman Empire Revisited: Sidonius Apollinaris and His Crisis of Identity
[3] Ralph W. Mathisen, “Epistolography, Literary Circles and Family Ties in Late Roman Gaul” Transactions of the American Philological Association 111 (1981), pp. 95-109.
[4] Epistulae, VIII.6.5; translated by W.B. Anderson, Sidonius: Poems and Letters (Harvard: Loeb Classical Library, 1965), vol. 2 p. 423
[5] Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, 2.21. This is confirmed by the otherwise oblique allusion in Sidonius’ own Epistuale 2.2.3.
[6]Severina, Epistulae II.12.2; Roscia, Epistulae V.16.5; Alcima, Gregory of Tours Decem Libri Historiarum, III.2
[7] Gregory of Tours, 2.37, 3.2
[8] Gregory of Tours, 3.9, 11
[9] In his introduction to Sidonius: Poems and Letters (Cambridge: Loeb, 1939), vol. 1, p. lxiv.
[8] Gregory of Tours, 2.22

(cfr. Encyclopædia Britannica)

Radio Maria Interview Headmaster of Saint Louis de Montfort Academy Boy’s Boarding School

Radio Maria interviewed the headmaster of the Saint Louis de Montfort Academy, a TFP-run boarding school for boys.

Perhaps you want to listen to it.  Here is the link: http://radiomaria.us/sacredtreasures/2013/08/19/august-19-2013/

Dissident anti-Catholic National Catholic Reporter gets $2.3 million to cover LCWR controversy

by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent

KANSAS CITY, August 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Kansas-based National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the U.S.’s most notorious dissenting Catholic newspapers, has been granted $2.3 million to cover religious sisters, including the ongoing conflict between the Vatican and the far-left Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The money comes from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Catholic News Agency reports today, in a grant intended to create “a global sisters’ net.”

In a policy paper dated February this year, Brad Myers, senior program officer, wrote that sisters are a central interest to the Foundation, having taught Conrad Hilton in his childhood.

“The idea is a website devoted to the coverage of Catholic sisters globally,” Myers told CNA. “Initially our focus is going to be on issues facing Catholic sisters in the United States and Africa. Ultimately we do have global ambitions. We have stronger networks between these two countries, so that’s where we’ll start.”

The Foundation has already granted NCR $150,000 for a one-year grant in late 2011, to “assist with the planning for a project” for sisters.

Myers said that the Hilton Foundation “does not take a position on the controversy between the Vatican and the leadership conference.”

“This grant is just not related to the current issues related to the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR,” he said.

Although CNA said it did not receive a response to its request for comment from NCR, the paper recently launched a full section of its website dedicated to detailing LCWR’s grievances against the Vatican.

In January 2013, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City criticized NCR for consistently taking positions “against authentic Church teaching and leadership.” He said the agency’s perspectives “have not changed trajectory” since October 1968.

Bishop Finn said that the paper should cease to call itself “Catholic” due to its persistent hostility to foundational Catholic teachings and determined promotion of the socialist political agenda.

NCR has promoted “the ordination of women” and been “insistent [about] undermining of Church teaching on artificial contraception and sexual morality in general, lionizing dissident theologies while rejecting established Magisterial teaching, and a litany of other issues,” Bishop Finn said in a column in the diocesan newspaper.

He added that he had received continual complaints about NCR’s misrepresentation of Catholicism from concerned Catholics since his arrival in the diocese.

NCR has been the main organ through which the LCWR’s open war with the Vatican has been conducted.

CNA said that Myers “declined to comment on whether or not the newspaper’s history enables it to reliably cover Catholic issues.”

“For the most part, we’re looking to improve the support systems among religious life among women. Our approach is to look at ways to make the systems work better for all women religious,” Myers said.

The Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters has been funded with nearly $200 million and has made almost 10,000 grants to various communities over 26 years.

Though the Foundation’s policy paper admits that “the number of sisters worldwide is declining,” it says they “still make tremendous contributions to human development through their spiritual witness and service to those in need.”

The Hilton Foundation’s policy paper was enthusiastic about religious sisters in general, saying, “They are recognized as resourceful and efficient agents of human development, with hundreds of thousands of sisters around the world educating students, serving the vulnerable, standing with the oppressed, promoting peace, and advocating for justice.”

The policy paper made no mention of any interest in helping sisters further the religious or spiritual ends for which all Catholic religious orders are founded.

The Foundation’s policy paper goes on to say that a major obstacle for sisters in the “global north” is the ability to attract and keep new members. Indeed, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has tracked the steady decline in the numbers of women religious around the world from a 1965 peak of 1,004,304 to 721,935 this year.

In the U.S., these numbers were 179,954 in 1965 to 51,247 this year, with a median age of 76, according to the study commissioned by National Religious Vocation Conference.

Religious orders are merging and selling off properties; most of them have long since relinquished control of the charitable institutions their predecessors founded – schools and hospitals, nursing homes and care of the poor – to the state.

LCWR, the largest umbrella organization of religious sisters in the U.S., is still under scrutiny by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over the doctrinal issues outlined in a document published during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, in April 2012 that ordered a comprehensive reform of the organization.

LCWR includes about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's religious communities, representing about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious and has the highest average age for its members.

In sharp contrast, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, (CMSWR) founded in the 1990s to give a voice to those religious who wished to maintain their traditional devotion to Catholicism, have retained traditions like communal living and distinctive habits. The group represents just over 100 religious communities and 10,000 members.

The median age of nuns and sisters in CMSWR communities is about 60, and only 15 percent of those women joining CMSWR communities are over 40.

Some 43 percent of CMSWR institutes had at least five novices, compared with nine percent of the LCWR institutes.

The revolution of the family: the Marxist roots of ‘homosexualism’

by Hilary White

Top UK homosexualist activist Peter Tatchell recently penned a paean to a Manifesto put together in 1971 that gives a blueprint of the homosexualist "revolution" necessary to topple the traditional family.

August 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I have been asked recently “what is homosexualism?” I started using the term in my writing on these issues a few years ago when it became clear that we were dealing not with a group of people, but with a particular ideology that is often held by people who are not themselves homosexuals.

A few days ago in The Guardian, Peter Tatchell wrote a pretty good description not only of that ideology’s goals but its origins. This political ideology, often called “queer theory” by its proponents in academia, is what is being pushed, quite openly these days, by the “gay rights” movement. Despite what we are told all day by their collaborators in the mainstream media, from the six o’clock news to your favourite sit-com, this movement is not about “equal rights”. It is about re-writing the foundational concepts of our entire society. I predict that it will not be much longer before the pretense of “equality” is dropped, having done its work.

Many people are scratching their heads and asking how we have suddenly found ourselves at the point where two men can be “married,” a woman can be called a “husband” and a man, a “wife,” and children are reduced to political bargaining chips in the adoption wars, when it seems just yesterday we were only talking about equal rights. Since when do “equal rights” mean deconstructing, dismantling, these foundational social concepts?

If we read them closely, however, the activists themselves have begun to explain it in quite straightforward terms. For them, it has never been about “equal rights” but about the re-writing of our entire social order. The “gay rights” movement has always been, in Peter Tatchell’s own words, “revolutionary, not reformist.”

Others have pointed out the Marxist origins of the Sexual Revolution as a whole, and it is clear that the sudden explosion of homosexualism is merely the next logical step in a systematic programme. A close cousin to radical feminism and grandchild of Marxism, homosexualism was developed out of the politico-academic pseudo-field of “gender studies” and has, for 30 or 40 years, been pushed on a mostly unwilling public, through “anti-discrimination” and “equalities” legislation by a coalition of lobbyists, NGOs and politicians on the extreme left, and in increasingly powerful international circles.

Peter Tatchell is a prominent British homosexualist, which means he is a proponent of a specific political and social ideology that he wants to see adopted in British society and elsewhere. He is also a homosexual man, that is, he experiences sexual attraction for other men, a condition whose origin is still debated by doctors, psychiatrists and geneticists. The two things are not the same. This is a fact that tends to escape a lot of people who read and write about the Culture Wars, especially in its current manifestation that seems to have suddenly become all about homosexuality. Not all homosexuals are homosexualists, and not all homosexualists are homosexuals.

Tatchell’s Guardian piece was a paean to a document put together in 1971 by what he describes as a collective of “anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter- culturalists” to bring about “a revolution in consciousness”. He called the “Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto” “a pioneering agenda for social and personal transformation” that started with the proposal that “subverting the supremacy of heterosexual masculinity was the key to genuine liberation.” Tatchell said it was the book that changed his life.

The Manifesto sums it all up, Tatchell says, by “critiquing” “homophobia, sexism, marriage, the nuclear family, monogamy, the cults of youth and beauty, patriarchy, the gay ghetto and rigid male and female gender roles” … the whole kaboodle of the sexual revolution.

The Manifesto itself is quite blunt about identifying the main enemies to defeat: “The oppression of gay people starts in the most basic unit of society, the family.”

“Consisting of the man in charge, a slave as his wife, and their children on whom they force themselves as the ideal models. The very form of the family works against homosexuality.”

"The very form of the family works against homosexuality," says the Manifesto, professing that the only solution is a complete revolution in the social order.

Most tellingly, the Manifesto says that “reform,” in other words “equality,” is never going to be enough; what is needed is a total social revolution, a complete reordering of civilisation. Reform, it said, “cannot change the deep-down attitude of straight people that homosexuality is at best inferior to their own way of life, at worst a sickening perversion. It will take more than reforms to change this attitude, because it is rooted in our society’s most basic institution - the Patriarchal Family.”

Far from being “the source of our happiness and comfort,” it says, the family is the oppressive “unit” in which the “dominant man and submissive woman” teach children “false beliefs” about traditional “gender roles” “almost before we can talk”.

The core concept of gender ideology is given: there is “no proven systematic differences between male and female, apart from the obvious biological ones. Male and female genitals and reproductive systems are different, and so are certain other physical characteristics, but all differences of temperament, aptitudes and so on, are the result of upbringing and social pressures. They are not inborn.”

“Human beings could be much more various than our constricted patterns of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ permit - we should be free to develop with greater individuality.”

“Our entire society,” the Manifesto says, “is built around the patriarchal family and its enshrinement of these masculine and feminine roles. Religion, popular morality art, literature and sport all reinforce these stereotypes. In other words, this society is a sexist society, in which one's biological sex determines almost all of what one does and how one does it; a situation in which men are privileged, and women are mere adjuncts of men and objects for their use, both sexually and otherwise.”

It is this that must be overturned, entirely eradicated, before the true freedom we all deserve can be put in place.

It does not take a degree in political theory to recognise the origins of this kind of language: throw off your chains, comrades! Indeed, a very little digging will take you directly to the origins of the Gay Liberation Manifesto in the writing of the first Marxists: in this case, Friedrich Engels, who wrote a document describing what most of us call the traditional family in terms nearly identical to that of the Manifesto.

Engels called it “monogamous marriage” and said that it exists “not as the reconciliation of man and woman, still less as the highest form of such a reconciliation. Quite the contrary. Monogamous marriage comes on the scene as the subjugation of the one sex by the other; it announces a struggle between the sexes unknown throughout the whole previous prehistoric period.”

“The first class opposition that appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male.”

“The modern individual family is founded on the open or concealed domestic slavery of the wife, and modern society is a mass composed of these individual families as its molecules.” Engels’ solution, of course, we all know already.

The Gay Liberation Manifesto, like Mr. Engels’ work before it, proposes that once we throw off the ancient shackles of “heterosexism, male privilege and the tyranny of traditional gender roles” we all get to live in a glorious and shining “new sexual democracy” in which “erotic shame and guilt would be banished”. This means, in practice, more or less what we now have: everyone gets to sleep around with whomever, and nobody gets to have any long-term claims on anyone else either in marriage or as parents.

Now that it has started the global “gay marriage” snowball, the ideology’s promoters seem to have only a few mop-up operations left to accomplish. The pressure is already starting to widen the burst-open definition of marriage to include multiple partners of either sex and to legalise and accept paedophilia – as an expression of “children’s rights”. 

But as with all utopian visions, homosexualism’s great weakness is the failure to consider the entirety of human nature. It proposes, essentially, a permanent state of self-indulgent adolescence, and to other self-indulgent adolescents, this sounds pretty good. Have all the cake you want, eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and never get fat.

Unfortunately, since the 1960s, most of us have been raised to think that this programme is the very meaning of freedom and securing it the whole purpose of democracy. The ideology was already being promoted to children on television to children when I was a child. I remember the huge splash made in 1974 by an animated TV show called “Free to be you and me” that told us through a series of cute animated sketches, narrated by the icons of the 70s lefties Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda, that it was wrong to assume, or adopt, traditional sex roles. Gender ideology for tots. 

For those who actually try to put it into practice, however, it quickly becomes obvious that humans were simply not meant to function this way, and basing an entire culture on the proposition, as we have since the 1960s, is going to create dismal state of emotional and social chaos, misery, loneliness, poverty and selfishness such as the world has never seen before.

The main problem with the homosexualist version of the Marxist dream is that you have to get everyone to agree. And I mean everyone. Marxist theorists have always known that utopia will only work if no one is allowed to raise any objection. Everyone has to agree, and no voice of dissent can be tolerated to pop the soap bubble logic of the enterprise.

The first voice to be aggressively silenced, as always, is therefore the Church that proposes something rather more rich and (ahem) fertile for man’s destiny than this facile materialism and sensualism. The Church that, furthermore, has a more comprehensive understanding of human nature, and knows that total license is not a recipe for human happiness… far from it.

Zeal for the Most Holy Name of Mary

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

 

 

 

 

 

 

In times past, people considered names to be symbolic of the person. This was so true that for a long time people even gave great importance to initials, a kind of symbol of the name, which in turn is a symbol of the person.

Thus, a name was considered to be a symbol of the more profound psychological, moral and spiritual aspects of the person. The name of Our Lady, like the Most Holy Name of Jesus, should then be considered symbolic of the hallowed virtue of Our Lady, her mission, and all that which she represents.

From this standpoint, we venerate the name of Our Lady since it is an affirmation of her interior glory, inner qualities and her person. The name of Mary is then the symbolic manifestation of all that exists of hallowed in Our Lady. By honoring this name we celebrate the glory that Our Lady has, had and will have, in heaven, earth and the entire universe.

Regarding her glory in heaven, all has been said. She is the queen of all angels and saints, placed above all creatures. She is placed incomparably and incommensurably above all creatures so that in the order of creation she is the high point toward which everything converges. She is our Mediatrix with God, Our Lord.

The glory that she has by this fact is simply inexpressible and derives from her condition as Mother of the Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Regarding her glory on earth, we consider how Our Lady must be glorified also on earth. The Glory be prayer states: Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The answer is: As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Thus, it is normal to affirm that Our Lady should also be venerated on earth; and for her most holy Name to be glorified in an ineffable way.

Imagine a world like that of Christendom which would be influenced by the spirit of the great Marian apostle Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort. Imagine if the disciples of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort were the salt of the earth and really set the tone for devotion to Our Lady throughout Christendom. Then we could understand what Our Lady’s glory in the world should be like. It would be incomparably more than it is today.

Our zeal for the glory and name of Our Lady should be as
children in their mother’s house. How can we feel happy on
earth, which is under Our Lady’s queenship, when we
see her being refused her rightful honors and respect?

We see how greatly Our Lady was glorified by Holy Mother Church (at least until progressivism entered the scene). To us this glory seemed immense. However, it was nothing in comparison to the glory that she should have according to the spirit of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort.

We must ardently love Our Lady’s glory because it is unbearable for her not to have the glory that she should have. It simply is most odious and execrable that vice, crime, the Revolution and the wickedness of men have managed to diminish the glory that she should receive from men.

Our zeal for the glory and name of Our Lady should be as children in their mother’s house. How could a son feel fine in his mother’s house when he sees others refusing to give the attention due to her? How can we feel happy on earth, which is under Our Lady’s queenship, when we see her being refused her rightful honors and respect?

This must be a continuous reason for us to have much more than just grief but great indignation that the Queen is not being recognized by all in the role which is her own.

                                                         ***

An informal lecture Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on September 11, 1964. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. –Ed.

Bolivian bishops declare pro-abortion legislators should not receive Communion

by Sofia Vazquez-Mellado

LA PAZ, Bolivia, August 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Secretary General for the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (BEC), Monsignor José Fuentes, has declared that government authorities who support abortion “shouldn’t receive communion,” because their view is clearly incompatible with the Church’s teachings.

The influential Bolivian newspaper Página7 reported this under a headline the bishops considered misleading: “Bolivian Bishops excommunicate four Ministers for being pro-abortion.”

The BEC has issued a public statement saying these publications were untrue. The media “shows ignorance towards the norms and procedures that govern the Catholic Church in these matters,” they wrote.

“We have expressed on many occasions that any person considering himself to be Catholic, who manifests his or her approval of abortion, is not being coherent with their own faith and is therefore not in communion with the Gospel’s teaching and the Church.”

“This doesn’t mean in any way a decision to excommunicate,” the statement continues. “The Church’s fundamental mission in society is not to emphasize punishment, but to preach forgiveness and reconciliation.”

“An extreme measure, like an excommunication of someone within the Church, is a serious and responsible process of analysis and research that has later to be made known in an official document by the competent authorities,” they corrected. “Such procedures have not taken place in this case.”

Canon 915 however does forbid the administration of Holy Communion to those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin.”

According to the 2004 document Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratziner, this includes those who consciously and voluntarily promote public campaigns that support abortion and those who approve its legalization, particularly legislators, judges and authorities.

Página7 corrected their report and took down its online version.

Nevertheless, Bolivian president Evo Morales, who seemed unaware of the correction, later declared that he “forgave” the bishops.

“Some bishops still have the Inquisition mentality,” he said.

He expressed his support for the four pro-abortion ministers – Amanda Dávila, Claudia Peña, Teresa Morales and Roberto Aguilar – through the Bolivian government’s news service.

Morales, who calls himself Catholic, said he was being “tolerant.”

“Like Jesus Christ, who has given his life for others,” Morales said he was willing to offer “the other cheek” in this incident.

5 reasons why you need the intercession of Our Lady

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1)  Although we receive the necessary graces for our salvation, we still need special graces to persevere. This is because the process of the decadence of a soul generally follows a pattern.

First, one commits acts of ingratitude that cause a retraction of grace. This causes the person in the state of grace to deteriorate slowly and stand in need of exceptional graces. When graces dwindle, one goes from one abuse to the next, until eventually falling into mortal sin.

2)  Devotion to Our Lady is crucial in obtaining the necessary graces to save the soul from this process.  We need an intercessor who supplements this gap with requests for additional graces, so that we might have sufficient graces for our salvation.

3)  Our Lady obtains for us the graces necessary to attain salvation.  The mere fact that we are devoted to her makes us pleasing to God Who is thus predisposed to answer our requests. However, human nature is so weak that we often abuse grace to such an extent that it is difficult to find those who practice sufficient fidelity to save themselves without Our Lady's intervention.

One might ask if this means that Our Lady is not the Mediatrix of all graces, but only of extraordinary graces. No, she also obtains the minimum of essential graces for us. However, our malice serves to demonstrate that we cannot persevere in the spiritual life without her full support.

Imagine a friend who is in a "state of grace," so to speak, in relation to you. In other words, he is a friend who depends completely on your kindness, and generally acts correctly toward you. However, although this friend does not commit grave faults against you, he nevertheless constantly commits small faults such as lack of courtesy, respect or affection. Of course, to the degree that he insists upon doing this, you gradually withdraw your friendship from him.

If he commits a grave fault, it is understandable that you severe your relationship with him.

This is a bit like the image of a sinner who, without losing the state of grace, almost inevitably, falls into mortal sin at a certain moment. To prevent this fall, the intercession of Our Lady is greatly needed. It is not only greatly needed, but indispensable since after a mortal sin, a person has no claim to obtain forgiveness.

Even if he were to repent, it is doubtful that God would give Heaven to a person in this state of soul without subjecting him to grave trials as a punishment for his attitude.

4)  Some people suppose that death comes as an accident, a disaster outside the ways of Providence, and that God has nothing to do with death.

Man walks along the ways of the spiritual life as he so pleases, and then all of a sudden death comes and interrupts God's plans and the development of his soul. In fact, it is nothing like this at all. No hair drops from our head without God allowing it. Everything is proportional to the orientation of our spiritual life.

In fact, the moment of our death is perfectly chosen with regard to our sins and merits. Without an intercessor with the merits of Our Lady, it would be impossible to remain in the state of grace.

Imagine that a friend commits several small faults toward you, but nothing atrocious. All of a sudden he shows up asking you for a gift. Would you be ready and willing to give it? Depending on the situation, you might refuse any request on his part.

5)  Our spiritual life is not a plateau next to an abyss. It is an inclined ramp, in the middle of which is a line that separates the state of grace from mortal sin. When someone is on the upper part of this ramp, he can go down without falling into mortal sin.

When a person on the upper part of the ramp commits an infidelity, God normally diminishes His graces; and with the dwindling of grace a person can fall into such a state of destitution as to be reduced to strictly indispensable grace.

When one says that venial sin leads to mortal sin, it does not mean that man lacks the sufficient grace not to fall, but that he all too often does not correspond to grace and thus falls.  Human nature has a very strong penchant to abuse grace.

However, in each concrete case, man has the will to react.  Man can only obtain all the necessary and opportune graces not to fall however, if he has recourse to Our Lady.  And that is why we need Our Lady.

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Adapted from a lecture given by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. It has been translated and edited for publication without his revision. –Ed.

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