Monday, December 27, 2010

Catholicism Series - Trailer

From Fr Robert Barron and his Word on Fire website.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

HIV/AIDS Industry keeps their head in the sand

HIV study reveals alarming trend showing younger men are more willing to take risks. The Australian, 12th December 2010.

AN Australian study of HIV transmission has revealed an alarming culture shift in which younger gay men appear more willing to take sexual risks and so become infected with the virus earlier.

Continue reading HIV study reveals alarming trend showing younger men are more willing to take risks | The Australian

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Al Kresta interviews Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin

Al Kresta
 One of my favourite Catholic commentators, Al Kresta, interviews one of my favourite Catholic Apologists, Jimmy Akin, about the Early Church Fathers on Ave Maria Radio.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers lack good taste as well as good ethics

Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers combine poetry, scripture, and stupidity so as to make themselves feel good about themselves. Somebody should tell them that whilst Jesus willingly gave up his life for the benefit of others, the human embryos killed for their stem cells don't... their life is extinguished by researchers.

Stem C.

By Tyson Anderson

This is my body

which is given for you.
But I am not great.

I have neither wealth,

nor fame, nor grace.

I cannot comfort with words,

nor inspire to march.

I am small and simple,
so leave me this.
Let me heal you.
This is my body
which is given for you.

Take this

in remembrance of me.

Read more at Mary Meets Dolly.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

SMITHSONIAN HOSTS ANTI-CHRISTIAN EXHIBIT

MORE STUPIDITY FROM THE USUAL SUSPECTS
November 30, 2010. Catholic League (USA)

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is currently hosting an exhibit, "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," that features a video that shows large ants eating away at Jesus on a crucifix. The exhibit is replete with homoerotic images.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

According to Penny Starr of CNSnews.com, David C. Ward, co-curator of the National Portrait Gallery, says the video, "A Fire in My Belly," is one of the "masterpieces" of this exhibit. We call it hate speech. Perversely, there is a plaque at the entrance to the exhibit that says the Gallery is committed to "the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America's promise of equality, inclusion, and social dignity." Somehow Christians didn't make the cut.

The creator of this "masterpiece" video is dead of AIDS. But he did not die without blaming society for his self-destructive behavior. David Wojnarowicz said, "When I was told I'd contracted the virus, it didn't take long for me to realize that I'd contracted a diseased society as well." Who did he blame? Besides some politicians and government workers, he fingered "those thinly disguised walking swastikas that wear religious garments over their murderous intentions." So Father John did it.

At least Wojnarowicz bared his soul. Ward just spins. Like others who have attacked Christians before with their "art," he says the ants crawling all over Jesus represent "the lack of attention to Christian teachings." So the ants are actually giving Christians a wake-up call! How thoughtful.

It does not matter that private sources funded this exhibition: the majority of the money afforded the Smithsonian Institution comes from the taxpayers. Accordingly, I am writing today to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asking them to reconsider future funding.

From Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

UPDATE: Smithsonian Pulls Exhibit.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Archbishop Dolan’s Critics Freak Out

November 17, 2010, Catholic League (USA)

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the way some of the critics of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan are reacting to his election yesterday as the new head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

NPR is worried that Archbishop Dolan is "overtly conservative," and Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times is fretting about his "confrontational approach." Dissident Catholics are upset as well: New Ways Ministry says the vote "sends an ominous message"; Call to Action also sees his election as "ominous"; Sr. Maureen Fiedler says "we now have our very own Catholic version of the 'Tea Party' movement"; DignityUSA concludes that Dolan's election means the hierarchy is "out of step" with Catholics. Similarly, the Human Rights Campaign, a gay secular group, says the vote means the hierarchy is "out of step." Not to be outdone, the website of the Tucson Citizen accused Dolan of evincing an "arrogant" attitude in winning (it is true that he was caught smiling).

SNAP, the professional victims' group, opines that Dolan's "winning personality obscures his terrible track record on abuse." Marian Ronan of Religion Dispatches says his election is "not a good sign," and her colleague, Sarah Posner, concludes—and this really is ominous—that "the bishops are targeting families with loved ones who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender." The Internet site Lez Get Real calls Dolan "the Vatican's spin-doctor," and the website of Time has a headline which reads, "More Bad News for Obama 2012: Catholics Elect Dolan." Edgeboston.com picked up the AP piece, but chose to give it a new headline: "Catholic Bishops' Vote to Mean Harder Church Stance Against Gay Families." And atheist Susan Jacoby is sweating over the fact that Dolan will be treated by the media "as if he is the voice of all American Catholics." She needs to get used to it.

Now it is tempting to conclude that some in the asylum have escaped. More likely, it means these are not good times for those who have sought—in many cases their entire adult life—to turn the Catholic Church, and America more generally, upside down and inside out. They gave it their best shot, but they lost. Maybe it's time they retired.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Setback for China – Vatican Relations

Chengde: illicit Episcopal ordination, the first in four years

China-flag Beijing (AsiaNews) - The vice-president of the Patriotic Association, Liu Bainain confirmed to the media that the ordination of Fr Joseph Guo Jincai as Bishop of Chengde (Hebei) will take place tomorrow November 20. The ordination of the 42-year old priest, the first in the last four years, and the obligation of certain bishops to attend were criticized by the Vatican yesterday as "serious violations of freedom of religion and conscience" and "harmful" to the constructive relations between China and the Holy See.

Continue reading at  Asia News

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Non-Christian Requires Large Quantity of Cotton Wool - Again

Mamma Mia! Don't mention God or Jesus

Cotton Wool CAMMERAY Public School students have been told not to make reference to God or Jesus in the school’s end-of-year concert.

A teacher, who has been counselled by the school, told about 60 year 5 students they could not mention God or Jesus in the concert because it could offend people who were not Christians, a parent, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Daily.

The annual event involves the entire school, and every class is asked to come up with an idea for a song or play to perform, with ABBA being added to the list.

The school’s principal Pamela Crawley initially denied the religious ban, saying it would have been “crazy” for a teacher to make such a statement, but later, through the Education Department, said the teacher was being counselled over the November 5 incident.

Continue reading at the Mosman Daily.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Dutch journalist threatened with torture, death following letter condemning abortion

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman. DEN BOSCH, Netherlands, November 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)

Mariska Orban Pro-life journalist Mariska Orbán de Haas says that she has received hundreds of death threats and more than ten threats of torture following the publication of an open letter she wrote to a pro-abortion parliamentarian asking her to reconsider her position on the subject.

The letter, which was addressed to Representative Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert and published in the Katholiek Nieuwsblad (Catholic News), was written in response to Hennis-Plassschaert's angry reaction after receiving a plastic fetal model from Catholic bishop Everard de Jong. The bishop had sent the models to Hennis-Plasschaert and all other members of the Dutch House of Representatives.  He also included a letter in which he asked the representatives to stop the killing of the unborn in the face of impending budget restrictions, pointing out that defunding "bloody abortion clinics" would save money and help preserve future generations who could care for the elderly.

After Hennis-Plasschaert called the letter from the bishop "disgusting," Orbán wrote to her publicly, pointing out that both she and Hennis-Plasschaert have experienced the suffering of miscarriages, and that the fetal model she received from Bishop De Jong would resemble their lost children at the time of their deaths.

Continue reading at Life Site News.

JAY LENO NEEDS NEW SCRIPT

 November 11, 2010

Jay Leno
Image by Lee Stranahan
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking Catholics to provide Jay Leno with some new script. He explains why:

Last night, Jay Leno did what comes natural to him—he bashed Catholicism for the umpteenth time. His scriptwriters handed him a few lines about one miscreant priest, and he took the opportunity to hype the case further by lying about what happened. The priest was charged with ripping off his parish to pay for his online porn habit, but this wasn't good enough for Leno. He wanted to implicate the entire Catholic Church. So what did he do? He said "the Church transferred him to another parish that has free WiFi. Yeah, so that's nice." Leno lied about the transfer; he did so because his goal was to indict the Church.

In the event Leno wants to practice diversity, we have some new script:

· In the news this week is the story of a woman being sentenced to death under Islamic law in Pakistan. Her crime? She is a Christian.

· Last week, Oprah Winfrey was in the news for featuring a discussion with adults who were sexually abused by Episcoplaian priests in their youth.

· This week it was reported that 17 Jews have been charged with stealing $42 million from Holocaust survivors; the money was financed by the German government.

Imagine how much fun Leno could have with script like this! He wouldn't even have to lie about any of it to get a good laugh.

From the Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Abortion in Victoria

The Media, the Pope and the Gay Kiss-in.

 8 November 2010. Catholic League of Australia.

pope If you ever wanted proof that the media does not give a fair go to the Pope and the Catholic Church then here it is.

Yesterday, the Pope arrived in Barcelona to open the new Cathedral of the Holy Family. As he was driving to the Cathedral around 100 to 200 hundred gay people staged a ‘kiss in’. This is compared to the 250,000 pilgrims who were there supporting the Pope. The protesters only represented 0.08% of the crowd.

Who do you think the media decided to focus on? These are the headlines of a few major Australian and international news services.

Continue reading The Media, the Pope and the Gay Kiss-in.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Dramatic defeat of Iowa judges raises hopes for marriage amendment

 Des Moines, Iowa, Nov 5, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).
When U.S. voters are asked whether or not their state should retain its judges every two years, many aren't quite sure how to make their decisions. But a majority of Iowa voters knew exactly what they were doing, when they voted against retaining three of the state's Supreme Court justices on Nov. 2.

In April 2009, Justices David Baker, Michael Streit, and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus agreed with four other state justices in ruling that the Iowa state constitution's equal protection clause implied a right of same-sex couples to marry.

Their ruling overturned a 1998 state law specifying that “only a marriage between a male and a female is valid.” Suddenly, homosexual “marriage” was legal in Iowa.

This year, three of the deciding justices were up for retention or rejection by voters. As election day approached, organizations opposing the redefinition of marriage invested significant funding and energy to make Iowa voters aware that this year's judgment on judges was far from routine.

This time, it was the voters' turn to make a dramatic change. On Tuesday, Baker, Streit and Ternus became the first judges ousted by Iowa voters since 1962.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Cuba opens first Catholic seminary since the revolution

 4 November 2010. BBC News

Seminary Cuba Cuban President Raul Castro has attended the inauguration of the first new Catholic building on the communist island in more than half a century.

Mr Castro joined priests, including Vatican officials, at a new seminary outside of the capital, Havana.

Ties between the Roman Catholic Church and state soured in the aftermath of the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Continue reading at BBC News - Cuba opens first Catholic seminary since the revolution

Thursday, October 28, 2010

What Queenslanders Really Think About Abortion - The Catholic Leader

“What Queenslanders Really Think About Abortion" warns that an average swing of 12 per cent would be generated against members of State Parliament who voted in favour of decriminalising abortion.

The report has been sent in booklet form to all 89 members of the State Parliament aimed to convince those politicians in the middle the issue of abortion is much more complicated than is commonly presented.

Australian Family Association (AFA) spokesman Alan Baker told a media conference at the launch of the report at the Parliamentary Annexe last Monday, the independent opinion poll also showed there had been no swing in favour of decriminalising abortion since a recent Cairns trial related to abortion.

A Cairns jury on October 14 found a woman not guilty of procuring an abortion and a man not guilty of supplying drugs to procure an abortion.

Continue reading at The Catholic Leader

Full results of survey can be found here.

As usual the Courier Mail plays a role in pushing the Pro-Abortion agenda.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Sacred, Beautiful & Universal

From Corpus Christi Watershed
(56min 19sec)

SACRED, BEAUTIFUL, & UNIVERSAL: Colloquium XIX from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Six Stages of a Catholic Converts Life (post conversion)

Tridentine Mass, Novus Ordo Mass

Whilst I'm not a big fan of the Tridentine Mass and some of the problems with the Novus Ordo may be overstated, you have to wonder why the opposition to the tradition Tridentine Mass is so strong. I think Michael Voris is also right in saying the meal aspect of the Mass should be secondary to the sacrificial aspect of the Mass as seems to be indicated in the Cathechism.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

New Twist to Same Sex Marriage

Single woman marries herself

If marriage can be anything you want it to be… Why not?

Oct 23 2010

A 30-year-old Taiwanese woman has put an unusual twist on the traditional white wedding by ditching the husband part and marrying herself.

PHOTOS: Woman marries herself

Office worker Chen Wei-yih said she wanted to show other single thirty-something women that they were not failures, media reported.

“I was just hoping that more people would love themselves,” Chen said.

Single woman marries herself (Warning: Ninemsn story. Treat with caution)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Leslie Cannold advocating for Dead Beat Dads?

When feminists start to support the "rights" of men you just know in reality it's all about women's "rights".

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Safe Sex Failure

Australian HIV diagnoses hit 18 year high

Danny Rose  AAP  October 18, 2010

AUSTRALIANS newly diagnosed with HIV totalled 1050 during 2009, the highest number in almost two decades.

It was the fourth year in a row that new HIV diagnoses in Australia hovered around the thousand mark, and up significantly from about 700 cases annually seen during the late 1990s.

Australia had a "decreasing trend throughout the 1990s" for HIV transmission, University of NSW Associate Professor David Wilson said, but the trend had rebounded in the past 10 years.

Continue reading Australian HIV diagnoses hit 18 year high | Courier Mail

Friday, October 8, 2010

Revisiting Geoffrey Robertson’s plan to arrest the Pope

Should the Pope be tried for crimes against humanity?

Mercator Net, Michael Cook | Friday, 9 April 2010

A United Nations jurist wants to put Benedict XVI in the dock for condoning sex-abuse. The real question is, how many others should be there with him?

A prominent Australian-British human rights lawyer and United Nations jurist has suggested that the Pope be put on trial for crimes against humanity. I think that this is a brilliant idea.

Geoffrey Robertson outlined his scheme in The Guardian and a number of Australian newspapers. Although he feels strongly that the Vatican is fraudulently representing itself as an independent country, the Pope should be brought to account for systematic abuse of human rights during his pontificate. Since 2002, he points out, heads of state are no longer immune from prosecution before the International Criminal Court. For instance, a warrant has been issued for the arrest of the president of the Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In Pope Benedict’s case, Robertson argues that this includes sexual abuse of minors:

Continue reading at MercatorNet: Should the Pope be tried for crimes against humanity?

If you are interested in reading more, please check out MercatorNet's focus blog on the sexual abuse crisis -- Just B16

Hollywood and the usual anti-Christian cliches

"GLEE" TACKLES RELIGION

Catholic League, October 6, 2010

Glee Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night's episode of the Fox show, "Glee":

The producers of "Glee" decided to address religion. A gay atheist was treated with sympathy for his victim status, the victimizer being Christianity, especially Catholicism. Judaism was treated with kid gloves and Islam got a pass. In other words, it was the usual Hollywood stuff.

The show revolved around a football player who sees an image of Jesus in his grilled cheese sandwich, labeling it "Grilled Cheesus." Throughout the show the audience was treated to such lines as "I think God is kind of like Santa Claus for adults. Otherwise, God's kind of a jerk, isn't he?"; "Asking someone to believe in a fantasy [religion]…however comforting, isn't a moral thing to do. It's cruel." References to Catholicism included mocking quips about "Sweet Holy Mother of God Academy."

The pivotal remark, which set the tone, was made by the gay atheist: "The reason I don't go to church is because most churches don't think very much of gay people. Or women. Or science."

The lines mouthed by the characters are a reflection of what Hollywood script writers and producers believe. Back in 1986, S. Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman and Linda Lichter wrote a landmark book, The Media Elite. The three social scientists, not affiliated with conservative causes, found that the media elite had nothing in common with most Americans on the subject of religion: while 94 percent of Americans identified themselves as religious, only 50 percent of the media elite did. Even more striking, while 86 percent of the public said religion was important to them, 86 percent of the media elite said they seldom or never attend church. Studies since have shown that nothing much has changed.

Homosexuality and atheism are all the rage these days with the cultural elite. As "Glee" showed last night, so is ripping on Christians.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Art depicting Jesus receiving head from another man destroyed

VILE JESUS ARTWORK SMASHED

 Catholic League, October 7, 2010

Kathleen Folden A Montana truck driver, Kathleen Folden, took a crowbar to the Plexiglass case housing artwork at Colorado's Loveland Museum which depicted a man performing oral sex on Jesus. Folden was arrested after she ripped the artwork to pieces. Commenting is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

Had the art depicted a man performing fellatio on Muhammad, the museum may have been blown up by now. So it is lucky that Ms. Folden is a Christian.

It is striking to read the responses of those who defended the obscene art. "I am appalled by the violence," says Loveland's director of Cultural Services Susan Ison. But she is not appalled by the portrayal of Jesus having a man perform oral sex on him. Indeed, she justified this obscenity by calling it "very complex." Had the artwork showed her performing oral sex on her father, it's a sure bet it would lose its complexity.

Continue reading at Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

ABC’s religious department twisting the truth again.

Priest denies making claims about Mary MacKillop's excommunication

Clare Rawlinson and James Madden  The Australian October 07, 2010

Mary MacKillop THE priest who spent 25 years lobbying for Mary MacKillop's canonisation has angrily dismissed recent media reports.

The reports said the soon-to-be saint was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for exposing acts of child sex abuse by a South Australian clergyman.

Paul Gardiner, chaplain of the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre, said the claims, published on ABC Online and in Fairfax newspapers last month, were false, and he feared the misleading coverage was an attempt to take a swipe at the church and distract the public in the lead-up to MacKillop's canonisation on October 17.

ABC Online and Fairfax both reported that MacKillop's ousting from the church in 1871 was prompted by her exposure of a Kapunda priest's abuse of local children. The claims were based on remarks made by Father Gardiner in a documentary made for ABC TV's Compass program.

But both Father Gardiner and the program's executive producer deny ever making such an inference. "Early in 1870, the scandal occurred and the Sisters of Saint Joseph reported it to Father Tenison Woods, but Mary was in Queensland and no one was worried about her," Father Gardiner told The Australian.

Father Gardiner, considered the nation's foremost authority on the history of MacKillop, said his words had been twisted to suit the "ill will" of media outlets.

Continue reading Priest denies making claims about MacKillop's excommunication | The Australian

Monday, October 4, 2010

Good news for Catholic Bioethics:

Researchers pioneer new method to generate non-embryonic stem cells

 Boston, Mass., Oct 1, 2010 / 07:03 am (CNA).-
In what one expert calls a “major paper,” researchers have reported new advances in creating efficient and safe alternatives to human embryonic stem cells.
A team led by Derrick J. Rossi of the Children’s Hospital Boston used laboratory-made versions of natural biological signals to quickly convert ordinary skin cells into cells that appear virtually identical to embryonic stem cells. They can then coax these cells to change into specific tissues that would be a match for transplantation into patients, the Washington Post reports
Continue reading Researchers pioneer new method to generate non-embryonic stem cells :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Geoffrey Robertson at Protest the Pope

Another elitist Atheist demonstrates he doesn't know what he's talking about.
The video shows the lies preached by Roberston:


Geoffrey Robertson speech at Protest The Pope march


And below, the facts Roberston chooses to ignore:

The Pope demeaning women? Demonising homosexuals? Wishing that IVF children had never been born?
The Pope has never demeaned women. As far as demonising homosexuals, here is what Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger, said to the Catholic Bishops of the world in 1985 on the pastoral care of homosexual persons:
"10. It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law."
Hardly demonising homosexuals.

And of course the Pope never said that he wished IVF children had never been born. What the Church teaches is that most artificial reproductive methods injure the dignity of the person conceived and should not be used. However, once conceived every human being has a right to be protected.

Maybe Robertson is suffering some mental disorder???

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Jon Stewart Misleads Public about Pope Benedict XVI

Jon Stewart can be a funny guy... A moron too.

In the video below he uses a New York Times story (which is actually false) as the basis for a long skit to ridicule the Pope and the Catholic Church.




The truth is of course out their... Just not in the New York Times (or the Melbourne Age that ran with the same story) or on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show".

Plenty of rebuttals to the lies in the New York Times story that Jon Stewart used for his hate mongering can be found here.

If there's too many to choose from Jimmy Akin's article is a good summary.

Pope Benedict referred to the lies against him as gossip. Gossip like the New York Times story is usually lacking fact. I suppose Jon Stewart needs to resort to lies sometimes in order to get his laughs.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Stupidity and Artificial Reproduction hold hands again.

Anger at IVF treatment for jailed terrorist couple – Courier Mail

2nd October 2010

SPANIARDS have reacted with fury to the news that two convicted Eta terrorists are undergoing IVF treatment in prison at the State's expense.

Fernando Garcia Jodra, 40, and his girlfriend Nerea Bengoa Zarisolo, 39, are hoping to become parents despite the fact that both have been condemned to minimum jail terms of 30 years after being found guilty in 2004 of four murders.

They are held in separate prisons and are not allowed physical contact, communicating only by letters, which are checked and censored. It is their right, however, under Spanish law, to apply to have IVF treatment in jail.

Continue reading Anger at IVF treatment for jailed terrorist couple | Courier Mail

Response to CNN Documentary on the Pope

The Catholic League responses to another slur against the Pope.

William A. Donohue, Ph.D. Catholic League – 1st October 2010

The CNN documentary, "What the Pope Knew," which aired September 25, deserves a response.

The program begins with music and graphics that set the tone: those who think Pope Benedict XVI has been adept at combating priestly sexual abuse must realize that there is "a darker, more complicated story." Dark, yes, but from CNN's perch, the story is not all that complicated: the pope is guilty of "foot-dragging and, perhaps, obstruction."

We learn from CNN host Gary Tuchman that "For decades, before he became pope, Joseph Ratzinger was a high-ranking Vatican official who, more than anyone else beside Pope John Paul, could have taken decisive action to stem the sexual abuse crisis." Similarly, author David Gibson says the pope "always took the stalling tactic."

It is simply not true that Ratzinger was in charge of this issue "for decades." In fact, he wasn't given the authority to police the sexual abuse problem until 2001. What is truly astonishing is that Tuchman concedes as much later in the program. After he notes that "By 2001, the sexual abuse crisis was beginning to engulf the Catholic Church," he says, "The pope gave Cardinal Ratzinger and the CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) the power to cut through the bureaucracy and handle all sexual abuse cases directly."

In other words, Tuchman was incorrect the first time when he said that "for decades" Ratzinger "could have taken decisive action." He couldn't have been in charge "for decades" if he wasn't given police powers until 2001 (he became pope in 2005).

Nowhere in the program is there any evidence that the pope was guilty of obstruction of justice. This is a serious charge—the most serious made in the course of the documentary. Yet to throw this out, without ever producing evidence to substantiate it, is malicious. It won't cut it to say that he was "perhaps" guilty of obstruction. CNN intentionally planted this seed and never explicitly addressed the subject of obstruction of justice again.

Continue reading at Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Not all Sexual Abuse is Equal

 Catholic League - October 1, 2010

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a news story about a former priest who molested a male listed as John Doe:

On September 28, the Chicago Tribune reported that "former Chicago priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormick sexually abused him [Doe] while he was a grammar school student." We then learn that the student was really a middle-school student, in the eighth grade, when the abuse began. The abuse reportedly continued for five years. According to the lawsuit, "McCormack inappropriately sexually touched, hugged, rubbed and/or abused Doe."

It's time to ask some tough questions. Why did this young man not object earlier? Why did he allow the "abuse" to continue until he was 18? The use of the quotes is deliberate: the charge against the former priest is not rape, but rubbing. While still objectionable, there is a glacial difference between being rubbed and raped.

Here's what we know. We know that this case, like most of them, was the work of a homosexual, not a pedophile. And like most of the cases of priestly sexual misconduct, there was no rape involved. Inappropriate touching is morally wrong, and the offenders should be punished, but the time has come to object to all those pundits who like to say that the scandal is all about child rape. Most of the cases did not involve children—they were post-pubescent males—and most weren't raped.

Why does this matter? Because those looking to sue the Catholic Church for being inappropriately rubbed decades ago are not exactly the poster boys for the victims of child rape. And because those who hate the Church continue to use the term child rape as a way of discrediting the Church. They lie about this being a pedophilia problem and they lie about the nature of the misconduct. That’s reason enough to call them on it.

From Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Friday, October 1, 2010

Another stunning clear insight from the Pope

 By Phil Lawler | September 16, 2010 – CatholicCulture.org

Pope Benedict has a disconcerting way of hitting nails directly on the head. It's disconcerting, I say, because I struggle and strain to make a point, never satisfying myself that I've made it clearly, and then along comes the Holy Father, and he pounds home the same point in a simple, clear, remark. 

For example, in writing The Faithful Departed I tried to explain that when Church leaders seek after public affirmation, they lose focus on the faith, and eventually lose public affirmation as well. To be honest, I've always had trouble summarizing that argument quickly; I have trouble boiling down the message of the book into a single paragraph.

Then today, as he met with the journalists who are accompanying him on his trip to Great Britain, the Pope made the point deftly, clearly-- and quite unexpectedly, I think-- in response to one journalist's question. The question was how the Church could be more attractive to the public. Notice how the Pope, in the very first phrase of his reply (which I emphasize below), steers the conversation off its predictable course to make a more important point:

I would say that a Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church is at the service of another: she serves, not for herself, not to be a strong body, rather she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths and great forces of love, reconciling love that appeared in this figure and that always comes from the presence of Jesus Christ.”

I spent many months, and 264 pages, trying to get at that point. Pope Benedict nailed it down in one stroke with an extemporaneous comment. Disconcerting. But beautiful!

From Catholic Culture : On The News : another stunning clear insight from the Pope

Monday, September 27, 2010

Relationships market after 50 years of the pill

 25th September 2010 – Cardinal George Pell – The Australian
FAR from bringing equality, contraception has redistributed power away from women, says George Pell.
THIS year is the 50th anniversary of the contraceptive pill, a development that has changed Western life enormously, in some ways most people do not understand.
While majority opinion regards the pill as a significant social benefit for giving women greater control of their fertility, the consensus is not overwhelming, especially among women.
A May CBS News poll of 591 adult Americans found that 59 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women believed the pill had made women's lives better.
In an article in the ecumenical journal First Things that month, North American economist Timothy Reichert approached the topic with "straight-forward microeconomic reasoning", concluding that contraception had triggered a redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men.
Continue reading at The Australian

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Pro-Choice Planned Parenthood enabling statutory rape?

What the Pro-Choice Lobby don't want you to see

Have you any conception what abortion is all about?
The ad supposedly banned from Irish TV.

Catholics may be sick of clerical sex abuse stories, but they can't be ignored

 By Greg Erlandson – Our Sunday Visitor

We’ve received several emails and letters from readers, pleading, essentially, “Enough!” of our coverage of the clerical sex abuse crisis. One said she was “weary of the continuing barrage of information on the sexual scandal in the Church. I know that it has happened; I know that the Holy Father is doing everything in his power to respond to it. I just do not think that we need to hear so much about it.”

Even as the co-author of a recent book on Pope Benedict XVI and the crisis, I find myself wanting to agree. We are all tired of this topic. It is a bad news story that won’t go away. Many of us have been dealing with news of the scandals since 1985 — a quarter of a century.

Continue reading Catholics may be sick of clerical sex abuse stories, but they can't be ignored: Our Sunday Visitor

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Stephen Hawking's God gaffe

by Simon Rowney

With a series of conceptual confusions, many inherited from his predecessors but some completely original, Stephen Hawking has revealed his stunning lack of philosophical subtlety.  His latest contribution is to challenge the validity of proofs for the existence of God but the bizarre argumentation and obvious misunderstandings severely damage his credibility as a cosmologist.
Continue reading at CathBlog - Stephen Hawking's God gaffe

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Abortion 'Doulas' and the Twisted Message of the Abortion Industry - Catholic Online

By Jennifer Hartline. 11th September 2010 - Catholic Online
baby blocks on belly The abortion industry wants to seem caring and compassionate. But they can't have it both ways.  If abortion truly is what the supporters of abortion insist it is, there is no need for a doula; there's no need for emotional support of any kind or any reason to extend compassion. This is the tiger giving you bandages for your wounds right before he mauls you, plus arranging for a "companion" to hold your hand and remind you how painless and great it's going to be.
Continue reading Abortion 'Doulas' and the Twisted Message of the Abortion Industry -  Catholic Online

How the New Atheists are abusing the truth | Spiked

Monday 13 September 2010. Brendan O’Neill.

Apparently the British state is about to roll out the red carpet for a seriously evil rape facilitator. Pope Benedict XVI is the boss of a church that acts as a ‘patron, protector and financier of child rape’, says one secularist writer. Last week the UK Independent reported that in America, ‘over 10,000 people have come forward to say they were raped as part of this misery-go-round’ overseen by His Holiness and His Lackeys. In Ireland alone, a tiny country of 4.5million people, ‘Thousands were raped in reform schools’, said a British broadsheet headline last year, ramming home the ugly truth of how many kids have been raped by the Catholic Church’s army of paedophile priests.

But how true is this ugly truth? Were 10,000 children in America and thousands more in Ireland really raped by Catholic priests? In a word, no.

Continue reading - How the New Atheists are abusing the truth | spiked

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

ANGELUS: God always comes out to meet us

VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (VIS)

VATICAN CITY, 12 SEP 2010 (VIS) - At midday today, before praying the Angelus with faithful gathered in the central courtyard of the Apostolic Palace in Castelgandolfo, Benedict XVI remarked on the readings of today's Mass and invited people to pray for his forthcoming trip to the United Kingdom.

  In today's Gospel "Jesus narrates the three 'parables of mercy'", said the Pope. "When He speaks 'of the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, of the woman who looks for the lost coin, of the father who goes to meet and embrace his prodigal son, these are no mere words: they constitute an explanation of His very being and activity'. The shepherd who finds the lost sheep is the Lord Himself Who, with the Cross, takes sinful man upon Himself in order to redeem him".

  "How can we not open our hearts to the certainty that, though sinners, we are loved by God? He never tires of coming out to meet us, He is always the first to start down the road that separates us from Him. The Book of Exodus shows how Moses, with a faithful and audacious prayer, managed to move God, so to say, from the throne of justice to the throne of mercy. Penitence is the measure of faith, thanks to which we return to Truth".

  With reference to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Holy Father noted how "when the elder son is offended by the festive welcome shown to his brother, it is again the father who goes out to meet him. ... Only faith can transform selfishness into joy and re-establish proper relations with others and with God", he said.

  Finally, the Holy Father asked for prayers for his apostolic visit to the United Kingdom where, next Sunday, he is due to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman. "To the Virgin Mary", he said, "whose Holy Name is celebrated in the Church today, we entrust our journey of conversion towards God".

VIS news - Holy See Press Office: ANGELUS: GOD ALWAYS COMES OUT TO MEET US

Anti-Catholic Nutters have their Day in the Sun.

From the Catholic League. September 2010.
The following is a sample of the all-out attack on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church prior to the pope's visit to the U.K. All quotes appear in original form:
Continue reading at the Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Monday, September 13, 2010

Pro-Choice group convince Mexican officials to reduce punishment for infanticide :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

 Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 9, 2010 / 09:53 pm (CNA).

Feminist groups and leaders have pressured officials in the Mexican state of Guanajuato to drastically reduce the punishment for infanticide.

For weeks, feminist organizations such as Las Libres confused the public by claiming that six women in Guanajuato, who were in prison for killing their babies, were in fact in prison for abortion.

After being dismissed by local officials and U.N. delegates, the feminists changed their strategy to seeking a reduction in punishment for women who kill their children during the first hours following birth. Such a crime, punishable in the past by 35 years in prison, will now be punishable be only three to 10 years due to a controversial reform of the state's civil code.

Continue reading at Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Friday, September 10, 2010

The Journey Home - Scott and Kimberly Hahn

The Journey Home program on EWTN is one of the networks best. In this episode Marcus Grodi interviews Scott and Kimberly Hahn about their conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism. The Hahn's converstion story retold in their book "Rome Sweet Home" is one of the all time favourite conversion stories.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Has Geoffrey Robertson Lost The Plot?

From a Sydney Morning Herald article 9th September 2010:

THE Vatican should be treated as a kind of ''rogue state'' by the rest of the world until it stops using statehood - and the ancient rules of the canon law - to protect paedophile priests.

So says Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the veteran human rights lawyer and United Nations judge, arguing that the Catholic Church is the only religion permitted under international law to claim the privileges of statehood and its leaders immunity from civil or criminal action.

A response from Austen Ivereigh at America Magazine to similar claims of Geoffery Robertson:
Where to begin? [in addressing the nuttiness of Robertson's claims] (a) the Vatican does not deal with abusive priests, local dioceses or congregations do; (b) Where these have failed to act against abusive priests, it has not been because they have resorted to canon law instead of civil law, but because they failed to resort to either canon OR civil law; (c) the cases which have been referred to the Vatican (since 2001) have been referred precisely in order to ensure appropriate action IS taken; (d) confidentiality is imposed in canonical legal processes in those cases where -- as in solicitation in the confessional -- these are canonical crimes, not civil ones; (e) the canonical process (eg laicisation) only takes place after any civil action (prosecution, trial, sentencing) has taken place; (f) it wasn't the Vatican which back in the 1980s moved priests accused of abuse to other parishes, it was bishops. And so on.
If only Pope Benedict were an ordinary citizen, he could rightly sue Robertson for his wholly untrue and grossly defamatory claim that clerical abuse was allowed to take place because "Joseph Ratzinger, both as head of the CDF and as Pope, has insisted for the past 30 years that all such cases be dealt with in secrecy under canon law." That is a monstrous lie -- and, given Cardinal Ratzingers record in this area, simply laughable.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Another Pro-Choice lobby group caught out lying.

Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 3, 2010 / 09:50 pm (CNA).

The governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, Juan Manuel Oliva Ramirez, expressed regret this week that some feminist groups lied in their desire to push for abortion. He also rejected the groups' claims that women in his region were imprisoned for having an abortion.

“From the onset we determined that no women were imprisoned for abortion, which was the accusation these feminists groups were making against the state government.” He added, “we have demonstrated that such cases do not exist in Guanajuato.”

Ramirez underscored that the state human rights office and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights both determined that “no women are in prison for abortion” and that accusations to the contrary were completely false.

Several days ago the U.N. dismissed claims by the feminist group “Las Libres” that “dozens of women” have become victims of Mexican law that protects life from the moment of conception and have been jailed for causing the deaths of their newborn children.

Mexican governor says feminists lied about women being imprisoned for abortion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)


UPDATE:
Pro-Choice group lobbies to reduce the punishment given to women who murder their new born baby.

STATISTICS FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GREAT BRITAIN

From the Vatican Information Service (VIS) – September 2010

For the occasion of Benedict XVI's forthcoming apostolic trip to the United Kingdom, due to take place from 16 to 19 September and during which he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, statistics concerning the Catholic Church in that country have been published. The information, updated to 31 December 2009, comes from the Central Statistical Office of the Church.

Great Britain has a surface area of 230,762 square kilometres and a population of 59,381,000 of whom 5,264,000 (8.87 percent) are Catholic. There are 32 ecclesiastical circumscriptions and 2,977 parishes. Currently there are 59 bishops, 5,225 priests, 6,497 religious, 160 lay members of secular institutes and 34,669 catechists. Minor seminarians number 2, and major seminarians 245.
Continue reading at VIS News

Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Problems with Gay Marriage

EWTN's Raymond Arroyo interviews Dr Robert George who discusses numerous reasons as to why Same Sex Marriage should be rejected.

Video player may be too small for some people, if so click the full screen button on the right side bottom of the Video player for full screen viewing.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Artificially Conceiving a Bad Romantic Comedy | First Things

Aug 27, 2010 - Mary Rose Somarriba

Jennifer Aniston’s big new movie made headlines this week—for flopping. The Switch, a romantic comedy about a forty-year-old single woman who wants a baby and chooses to be artificially inseminated, brought in embarrassingly low ticket sales of only $8.4 million on opening weekend. Hollywood reporters have tried to think of all number of reasons for why it flopped so badly, ranging from the myth of lazy August filmgoers to the theory that Aniston is a blockbuster buzzkill.
But the answer may be the story itself. Just four months ago, Jennifer Lopez’s film on the same subject, The Back-up Plan—which came out this week on DVD— opened to a low $12.2 million. As reporters Gregg Kilday and Kim Masters put it, “Artificial insemination, it turns out, is the new box-office poison.”

Continue reading at First Things

There’s nothing funny about an industry that treats human beings as live-stock.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers Promise Everything but Deliver Nothing

By Diogenes | August 24, 2010 Catholic Culture

Read all the mainstream-media coverage of Judge Royce Lamberth’s decision to stop federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and you may notice that two major themes emerge. Neither theme is inaccurate, yet both are misleading.

First, the conventional accounts remind readers that embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR) has great potential.

It is “promising but controversial research,” says the Wall Street Journal. It is a “promising new science,” Time magazine agrees. Scientists “hope to be able to use” ESCR to treat many diseases, Reuters reports. The Los Angeles Times cites a White House spokesman who said judge’s decision “carries the potential to block ‘critical, life-saving research.’" [My emphasis throughout]

Promise... promising… potential…hope. What you don’t see, in all those news accounts, is a report that scientists have used ESCR successfully to treat diseases, or are using ESCR in clinical settings right now. You don’t even read about successful ESCR experiments that could soon lead to medical breakthroughs.

Continue reading at Catholic Culture : Off the Record : promise them anything

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Orang-utans are not remotely like humans

19th August 2010 – Helene Guldberg, Spiked.

Experts should know better than to claim that great apes can communicate in a similar way to human beings.

apes Time and again, we are told that humans are not that special after all: abilities previously thought to be uniquely human are now purportedly evident amongst the great apes. The most recent claim, published in the current issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, is that orang-utans use mime to make themselves understood.

Continue reading Orang-utans are not remotely like humans at Spiked.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Enemy of my Enemies

 By Diogenes | Catholic Culture - August 20, 2010

To be honest with you, I couldn’t get worked up about Bill Donohue’s campaign to persuade the owners of the Empire State Building to light up the tower on the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth

Yes, it would be nice if the Empire State Building honored Mother Teresa. But if the owners continue to refuse? Outside of Manhattan—and New Yorkers sometimes need to be reminded that there is a world outside Manhattan—no one will know, one way or another. I’m sure Mother Teresa herself doesn’t care. When you’re living in the glow of divine light, the electric kind isn’t likely to produce much excitement.

But if I’m puzzled by Donohue’s insistence on this issue, I’m absolutely flummoxed by the effort by a group of radical-left Catholic organizations to persuade the Empire State Building management not to turn on the lights. Indifference to the issue is quite understandable; there are lots of other more pressing issues on the public agenda. But active opposition to the Catholic League’s campaign—from people who describe themselves as Catholics-- is truly astonishing. This bears investigation.

First let’s take a look at the list of groups that joined in condemning Donohue’s drive:

  • Catholics for Choice
  • Call to Action
  • Chicago Women-Choice
  • DignityUSA
  • FOSIL
  • National Coalition of American Nuns
  • New Ways Ministry
  • Roman Catholic Womenpriests—USA
  • Take Back Our Church
  • Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual
  • Women's Ordination Conference

This is no ordinary list of Catholic organizations. These are groups that have been officially denounced by the Catholic hierarchy, groups led by people who have incurred formal excommunication, groups dedicated to the promotion of causes that the Church condemns.

Now look at the text of the letter they wrote to the Empire State Building’s management. They aren’t actually arguing against turning on the lights for Mother Teresa; they’re arguing against turning on the lights for Bill Donohue. The groups condemn him as “an attack dog for the radical right, helping to promote its misogynist and homophobic agenda.”

Ah, now I understand. If Bill Donohue wins, these groups lose. And now for the first time, I feel myself getting excited about his light-up-the-Empire-State-Building campaign.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

MercatorNet: Hope, change and AIDS

1st December 2009 – Mercator Net.

The lack of impact on HIV incidence in Africa from years of multi-million dollar Western investments in condom promotion was too glaring and too consistent to keep ignoring -- even though UNAIDS brazenly attempted to do just that. When researchers at the University of California at San Francisco – who had been commissioned by UNAIDS! -- found that condoms have not been responsible for turning around any of the severe African epidemics, UNAIDS tried to alter these important findings and ultimately refused to publish them.

Continue reading at MercatorNet: Hope, change and AIDS

Utilitarian ideology hampers fight against African AIDS

29th February 2008 – Mercator Net.

I recently visited Ethiopia to help conduct an HIV and AIDS prevention training program as part of a grant by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The participants were expecting yet another biological crash course in how to minimise the risk of infection. Instead, it centred around themes like true love versus false love, respect and communication. These are all aspects of mutual faithfulness as a strategy to avoiding HIV infection, the "B" of the Ugandan-inspired "ABC" strategy in which A=Abstinence, B=Be Faithful and C=Condoms.

For the men and women attending the training, the "Be Faithful" approach was a revelation and a relief. One woman, a wife and a mother, expressed a sentiment shared by many by saying she was pleased with this approach and the horizons it opened in people’s hearts and minds. But she was also puzzled as to why such basic human themes are not more routinely promoted in the context of HIV prevention, adding: "Why hasn’t anyone explained it like this before?" By the end of the week, another married couple decided to reunite instead of continuing to hold different jobs in different cities.

Continue reading Utilitarian ideology hampers fight against African AIDS

You have dogmas, but I don’t

11th August – Mercator Net.

The world’s most dangerous idea would have to bear upon its biggest problems; these are not political or economic in nature, but ultimately cultural in origin – which is to say that they are in some way related to religion.  It would be difficult not to include among them the breakdown of the family – the scale and speed of which is hard to imagine without the birth control pill.  Though it promises “control” – an illusion – it has instead delivered discord, demographic disaster, and ultimately deflationary pressures in the economy. A similar frame of mind – “if it works, it is ok” – also justified the unscrupulous financial practices which contributed mightily to our present economic woes.

More precisely, then, our biggest problems can be traced back to moral and intellectual shortcomings which, in our present cultural climate, are no longer recognized as such.  To point them out is to risk giving offense; contemporary life is thus governed by deceptive if fashionable convention rather than by truth.  

Continue reading at MercatorNet: You have dogmas, but I don’t

Being human is no big deal???

11th August 2010 – Mercator Net.

A few years ago, a New York Times reporter celebrated the extension of human rights to nonhuman animals, after the environmental committee of the Spanish Parliament voted to grant great apes the right to life and freedom. In an odd but recurrent pattern of increasing animal rights at the expense of human dignity, the reporter exclaimed that we were kidding ourselves with our belief in unalienable “human” (his quote) rights.

Continue reading at MercatorNet: Being human is no big deal

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Love is not IVF and surrogacy

17th Feb 2010 – Mary Meets Dolly.

I am sure to get lots of flack about how this entry is callous, cruel and judgmental but sometimes you have to be honest.  A couple weeks ago one of the readings at Mass was about Love.  1 Corinthians 13 says:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I had this reading in mind when I read this story about a couple that used IVF and foreign surrogacy to have a child:

Continue reading “Love is not IVF and surrogacy” at Mary Meets Dolly

PAPAL WITCH HUNT DETOURED

 August 10, 2010 - Catholic League.
Attorney William McMurry, who sued the Holy See for being complicit in the sexual abuse of his three clients, is seeking to end the lawsuit; similar suits are still pending. McMurry won a settlement from the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2003 for $25.7 million.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed this issue today:
McMurry acknowledges that "Virtually every child who was abused and will come forward as an adult has come forward and sued a bishop and collected money, and once that happens, it's over." That's right—once they got their check, they cashed out. But not McMurry: his motives were more primordial. Which is why he continued.
What collapsed yesterday was the heart and soul of McMurry's interest: his attempt to put Pope Benedict XVI on trial. It was his objective to hold men in Rome accountable for the behavior of men in Louisville, simply because they all worked for the same organization. McMurry knew this was a high bar to clear—proving culpability on the part of the Holy See for what goes on in Kentucky—and so he decided it was a futile exercise.
There was one other reason why McMurry quit: he couldn't find any more alleged victims. But it was not for lack of trying. He admits he searched in vain for months looking to find any man who may have been groped. "No one who has not sued a bishop is in a position to help us despite our best efforts over the past several months," McMurry said.
Just think about it. Every day, for the past several months, William McMurry and his colleagues went to work in hot pursuit of finding some adult man who may have settled out of court. It did not matter how trivial the offense, how many decades ago it occurred, or how old the alleged victim was, all that mattered was that the offender had to be a priest. No minister, rabbi, school teacher, coach, counselor or psychologist would do. And now the gig is up.
Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Monday, August 9, 2010

NORTH KOREA About 23 Christians arrested, 3 executed

6th August 2010 – Asia News

Seoul (AsiaNews) – North Korea’s Stalinist regime has discovered some underground Christians in a house church in Pyongan Province. All 23 who met to celebrate a religious function were arrested. Three were tried and given the death penalty, which was swiftly executed, sources told AsiaNews. Confirmation about the incident also came from the North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, a group of North Korean exiles.

According to the sources, the arrests and executions were carried out in mid-May. “At that time, right after the disastrous currency reform, police discovered 23 Christians in Kuwal-dong, Pyungsung County, in Pyongan Province, who met at an underground church. After their arrest, they were interrogated at length. Eventually, the group’s “ringleaders” were sentenced to death and executed. The others were sent to Kwan-li-so (Penal labour colony) No 15 in Yodŏk.”

These North Koreans discovered underground Christianity when some of them travelled to mainland China for work.

“As the authorities fear the spread of religion, many area residents are rounded up and interrogated for days,” the sources said. However, “they cannot help it because the situation is so desperate that people are going back to religion. Such sentences are meant to scare people.”

North Korea denies freedom of religion absolutely. Officially, the country has three Christian places of worship (one Catholic and two Protestant churches) and four Buddhist temples, but only in the capital Pyongyang. No one has been able to confirm how many exist in the rest of the country. Accounts about their number by foreigners who have travelled around the country vary.

The only cult allowed is that of ‘Eternal President’ Kim Il-sung and his son, the ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il.

After the Korean War in 1953, the Stalinist regime ruthlessly proceeded to kill the country’s estimated 200,000 Catholics, and destroy their churches and abbeys.

Sources have told AsiaNews that in North Korea there are “no more than 200 Catholics left, all very old”.

NORTH KOREA About 23 Christians arrested, 3 executed - Asia News

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Scientific Fundamentalism?

August 2010 – Word on Fire Blog.

Robert Mixa responds to Lawrence Krauss's recent article in Scientific American which makes the popular claim that religion and science are at odds. Read below for Mixa's fact-filled rebuttal.


The myth that science and religion are irreconcilable is a hardy perennial among contemporary “intellectuals.” Lawrence Krauss’s recent article in Scientific American (“Faith and Foolishness,” August, 2010) is just one more example of the trend.
Dismayed by the perpetuation of this myth, I sent a link of the article to my friend, who is working on his PhD in philosophy. Since his dissertation research deals extensively with the philosophy of science, he was able to give me a lot of insight into the problems with Krauss’s argument.
As we discussed the article, we began to realize that Krauss’s construal of all religion as fundamentalism is, in fact, itself a fundamentalism which is not capable of understanding the unique Catholic synthesis of Faith and Reason, and which arrives at its anti-religious conclusions through selective use of evidence.

Continue reading at Fr. Robert Barron's Word On Fire - Culture: Faith and Foolishness?

Friday, August 6, 2010

Pope Benedict wanted to be a librarian

August 2010, Telegraph.

His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, declined his request to spend his last years as the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and as a librarian of the Vatican Library, according to the incumbent librarian and archivist Cardinal Raffaele Farina.

Speaking in Inside the Vatican magazine, Cardinal Farina recalled when he was appointed prefect of the Vatican Library in May 1997 he had a brief meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger in which he was asked his own opinion of the future pope joining the team.

At the time the future Pope Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s doctrinal enforcer.

But he found his job “burdensome” and wanted to retire to academic study of ancient documents for the rest of his life.

He asked the Pope if he could step down from his role when he turned 70 on April 16, 1997, a move which would have permanently removed him from Vatican politics and from the eyes of the world.

Continue reading - Pope Benedict wanted to be a librarian - Telegraph

Atheist Guru repeats his lies.

4th August 2010, Damian Thompson, Telegraph.
Vanity Fair have sent me a preview of Christopher Hitchens’s very unpleasant piece about his cancer – unpleasant not just because Hitchens describes in detail the invasion of his body by a monstrous tumour, but also because it contains a despicable slur against the Pope. (And Henry Kissinger, but I don’t care about that.)
He writes: “Will I really not live long enough … to read – if not indeed write – the obituaries of elderly criminals like Henry Kissinger and Joseph Ratzinger?

This should scarcely need saying, but Pope Benedict XVI is not a criminal: neither Hitchens nor anyone else has produced evidence that he covered up the crimes of paedophile priests. On the contrary, he sought to tighten up canonical procedures against sex abusers. There were plenty of cover-ups; it’s just that the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith didn’t organise them and, indeed, fought battles with some of those prelates who did.

Continue reading Christopher Hitchens: I'm sorry that I probably won't live to see the death of 'elderly criminal' Benedict XVI – Telegraph Blogs

UPDATE
Vanity Fair recants: Pope not an elderly criminal just an elderly villian.

Fr Robert Barron comments on Christopher Hitchens at "Word on Fire".

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Politics: A Decade Later: Time for a Dose of Reality on Stem Cells

August 2010. Catholic News Agency (CNA)

By Richard Doerflinger

In 1998, Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin first isolated human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These early, unspecialized cells were hailed as a way to create all cell types of the human body at will, a Holy Grail for curing diseases. Moral qualms about killing embryos for the cells were swept away in this wave of enthusiasm. In a few years, it was said, life-saving medical advances would show that such objections should be ignored.

A decade later, it is time for a reality check. ESCs have been involved in some interesting experiments, but are not close to producing cures. This is not due to limited federal funding—it is equally true in countries with no such limits, and in states pouring their own public funds into the research. ESCs in fact are unpredictable, difficult to control, and prone to causing tumors in animals. Experts now admit that human treatments using them may not emerge for decades, if ever.

The bishops’ statement Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship urges Catholics to become informed on important moral issues in public life, including this issue of destroying embryos for stem cell research.

Continue reading - A Decade Later: Time for a Dose of Reality on Stem Cells :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Monday, August 2, 2010

Priests Commit No More Abuse Than Other Males - Newsweek

8th April 2010

The priesthood is being cast as the refuge of pederasts. In fact, priests seem to abuse children at the same rate as everyone else.

The Catholic sex-abuse stories emerging every day suggest that Catholics have a much bigger problem with child molestation than other denominations and the general population. Many point to peculiarities of the Catholic Church (its celibacy rules for priests, its insular hierarchy, its exclusion of women) to infer that there's something particularly pernicious about Catholic clerics that predisposes them to these horrific acts. It's no wonder that, back in 2002—when the last Catholic sex-abuse scandal was making headlines—a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 64 percent of those queried thought Catholic priests "frequently'' abused children.

Yet experts say there's simply no data to support the claim at all. No formal comparative study has ever broken down child sexual abuse by denomination, and only the Catholic Church has released detailed data about its own. But based on the surveys and studies conducted by different denominations over the past 30 years, experts who study child abuse say they see little reason to conclude that sexual abuse is mostly a Catholic issue. "We don't see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others."

Continue reading Priests Commit No More Abuse Than Other Males - Newsweek

Book Review: Cracks in the Crescent - Islamic Contradictions

By Philip Blosser
Philip Blosser is Professor of Philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Sem­inary in Detroit, Michigan.
Cracks in the Crescent.  By Hussein Hajji Wario. Bethany Press. 252 pages. $24.95.

Since the events of 9/11, Christians in the West have become increasingly interested in what makes the Muslim world tick. Writers and publishers, for their part, have begun turning out a growing number of books introducing Western Christians to the world of Islam. Offerings from Catholic publishers include Jacques Jomier's The Bible and the Qur'an (Ignatius Press, 2002), Dan­iel Ali and Robert Spen­cer's Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics (Ascension Press, 2003); Spen­cer's Islam Unveiled (Encounter Books, 2003), and Giorgio Pao­lucci and Ca­mille Eid's interview-based volume, 111 Questions on Islam: Samir Kha­lil Samir, S.J., on Islam and the West (Ignatius Press, 2008), to mention but a few.

Hussein Hajji Wario's Cracks in the Crescent warrants special notice. Two facts set this book apart. First, Wario is not only a former Sunni Muslim with years of experience in an Islamic culture, but unlike many Muslims was thoroughly educated in the esoteric aspects of Islam. Second, the arguments he uses to expose Islam — arguments honed by years of experience of debating Muslim peers after his Christian conversion — are drawn from the extensive literature of Islam itself, not merely the Qur'an, but Islamic history, Seerah (the life of Muham­mad), Sunnah (specific words, actions, and practices of Mu­hammad), and Hadith (narrations based on the words of Muhammad shedding light on the Qur'an and matters of jurisprudence), and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The purpose of his book, Wario says, is to help both Muslims and non-Muslims seeking answers about the true nature of Islam.

Continue reading at New Oxford Review

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Anne Rice Quits Christianity

Friday, July 30, 2010, First Things Blog, Elizabeth Scalia.

Anne Rice, whose book Called Out of Darkness was a beautifully-written spiritual confession, has decided that she loves Christ but not Christians.

She’s neither the first nor the last to feel that way. Sometimes I do, too. Sometimes I hate myself as a Christian, because I do the thing so badly. Christianity is easy to do badly. You take the dogma and leave out the love – you’re doing it wrong. You try to “correct” others and bring too much “righteousness” and not enough love – you’re doing it wrong. Apply too much love, without accountability – you’re doing it wrong, then, too.

We cheat Christ when we do it badly. We cheat Christ and each other when we teach Him badly. We cheat Christ and each other and the Church when we catechize poorly, or when we approach the Supernatural with superficiality; when we stop applying thought to it. Forty years of sloppy, empty elementary catechesis during concurrent social revolution and generational upheaval was a bad choice for the churches, who now reap what they have sown.

Continue reading at The Anchoress | A First Things Blog

Bill Maher and his Bozo Fans



I'm not sure who to feel more contempt for - Bill Maher or his bozo fans in the audience. Maher is simply a lying shit-head and his approving audience must surely have shit for brains. There is no evidence that Pope Benedict XVI has been involved in any cover-up of sex abuse. I'm sure Maher gets much of his information from reading the rants of Christopher Hitchens. But so much of what Hitchens writes against the Catholic Church is easily refuted with the facts.

Tom Piatak from Chronicles Magazine debunks much of what Hitchens writes as does Sean Murphy who includes 80 footnotes in his article tearing to bits the lies of Hitchens.

From about 2:50 into the video Maher continues his lies this time directed at the Catholic League whose public criticism of Maher can be found here. It’s interesting to note the responses the Catholic League received from Maher bosses:

HBO spokesman stated ‘it’s a free country, and people are free to say silly things—even on HBO.’
And from Time/Warner, Maher’s anti-Catholic remarks were a matter of ‘creative freedom.’

Okay, so Bill Maher is a jerk who is permitted to lie and say silly things because comedians are given ‘creative freedom’. But what is funny about falsely accusing Pope Benedict of covering up sex abuse. Maybe Maher’s laughing fans are just bozos.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Sex au Naturel

Primacy of Truth over Power. St. Thomas More, Man for This [and All] Seasons

By Deacon Keith Fournier 22nd July 2010 Catholic Online (http://www.catholic.org/)
The England of the sixteenth century was in the midst of a serious crisis of politics, culture and faith, not unlike the times in which we now live
Thomas More Thomas More showed heroic courage in the face of a State which had lost its soul. He Never wavered in his fidelity to the Truth. He would not betray the truth or compromise it on the altar of public opinion for political opportunism. Thomas More was brought to trial for his fidelity to the Truth. As is often the case with persecution against Christians, it was framed as a charge against the "positive law".
Continue reading at Catholic Online

Also from EWTN Live:
Sir Thomas More - Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. with Dr. Samuel Gregg