Sex Abuse and the Failure of Secular Governments and Society.

From Andrew Bolt’s Blog
What a disgraceful failure of Brumby Government - but what troubling evidence of the social decay that has so overwhelmed it:

VICTORIA’S most vulnerable children are being physically and sexually abused, raped by other children and sexually exploited by carers while in the state child protection system.
A damning Ombudsman’s report has uncovered a number of instances where children in foster care, residential homes and the care of relatives have had their limbs broken, seen their guardians selling drugs to other children and been kept with families despite evidence of abuse.
In what the opposition has described as a “sickening” report, Ombudsman George Brouwer has identified a number of failures by the Department of Human Services, including not screening carers properly, especially when the person is an extended relative of the child, failing to adhere to procedures and not taking appropriate action against carers after cases of abuse…
Mr Brouwer drew on statistics from the Child Safety Commissioner, who found 593 children were subject to alleged physical or sexual abuse while in care from 2008 to 2009. There were also 73 incidents of prostitution involving 21 children.

Galus Australis » Jewish Knight Defends Pius XII

There are perhaps three million Jews who are alive today because of Pius XII's secret but direct intervention, writes Gary Krupp, a Jewish Papal Knight.
Continue reading at Galus Australis

The National Catholic Bioethics Center - Imposing our Beliefs on Others

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D
Recently I was asked to speak in Virginia at legislative hearings about embryonic stem cell research. After I gave my testimony, one of the senators asked a pointed question. "Father Tad, by arguing against embryonic stem cell research, don't you see how you are trying to impose your beliefs on others, and shouldn't we as elected lawmakers avoid imposing a narrow religious view on the rest of society?" The senator's question was an example of the fuzzy thinking that has become commonplace in recent years within many state legislatures and among many lawmakers.
Continue reading at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (USA)

Catholic Church announces adult stem cell venture with Neostem :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

New York City, N.Y., May 25, 2010 / 10:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican issued a communique on Tuesday announcing a joint initiative with an international bio-pharmaceutical company to raise awareness and expand research of adult stem cell therapy.

Neostem Inc. and the Pontifical Council for Culture will combine the efforts of their respective foundations, the Stem for Life Foundation and STOQ (Science Theology and the Ontological Quest) Foundation, to advance research and explore the use of adult stem cells in regenerative medicine.

Fr. Tomasz Trafny from the Council for Culture remarked in a May 19 press release, "Considering the potential implication of scientific investigation, medical applicability and the cultural impact of research on adult stem cells, we view the collaboration with NeoStem as a critical effort."

"Through educational initiatives with NeoStem and sponsorship of scientific research programs involving cutting edge adult stem cell science which does not hurt human life, we come one step closer to a breakthrough that can relieve needless human suffering,” he said.
Continue reading at the Catholic News Agency (CNA).

Catholic League: Obama Team Backs Vatican Immunity.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

The Obama administration has sided with the Vatican in holding that the Ninth Circuit Court erred when it ruled that an exception could be made to the federal law that grants immunity to other nations seeking immunity from lawsuits arising from cases of abuse in the U.S.
A man who alleges he was sexually abused in the 1960s by a priest in Oregon brought suit maintaining that the Vatican should be held responsible because there were accusations made against the priest before he was transferred to the western state. The Vatican has long argued that the Holy See is not responsible for the behavior of priests in the various dioceses throughout the world.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue was happy with the decision:
By the most elementary standards of justice, this was the right ruling. First, the idea that anyone should be permitted to sue, independent of the nature of the offense, for an incident that allegedly took place a half century ago, is patently outrageous. Second, the idea that Catholic priests line up single file, taking their cues from the Vatican, and that the Holy See could possibly be held accountable for the actions of priests all over the globe, is positively ludicrous.
The Catholic League commends the Obama administration, and especially Supreme Court nominee Eleanor Kagan, the Solicitor General involved in this suit. Justice was served.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Dawkins preaches to the deluded against the divine.

LIKE revivalists from an alternative universe, 2500 hardcore believers in the absence of religion packed into the Global Atheists Convention in Melbourne last weekend to give a hero's welcome to the high priest of belief in unbelief, Richard Dawkins.

The bestselling author of The God Delusion was similarly fawned over by the Australian media, which uncritically lapped up everything he said.
This was even after (or perhaps because) he referred to the Pope as a Nazi, which managed to combine defamation of the pontiff with implicit Holocaust denial.
By comparison, Family First senator Steve Fielding may feel he got off lightly when Dawkins described him merely as more stupid than an earthworm.

Continue Reading at the Australian March 16th ...

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The Neo-Pagans Are Giving Ancient Paganism a Bad Name

A Christian who has not at some time felt a sharp twinge of annoyance at the antics of that disparate group of humbugs who can be loosely described as “neo-pagans” can only be a Christian of the most privileged isolation or of the most phlegmatic disposition. As “Goddess” spirituality finds a secure home in religious studies departments and chain bookstores, as the “solstice” nudges Christmas out of Episcopalian cathedrals, Celtic music festivals, and PBS children’s programming, and as C.E. replaces A.D. in academic books, a Christian cannot help but suspect that there are a great number of people with a great deal of influence in public life who would like to see the name of Christ removed from any position of eminence and submerged in a sea of other names.
Continue Reading at the New Oxford Review

Parody - Dawkins discovers he can't arrest the Pope.

These parodies are funny even though they've been around for a while now. But of course Dawkins is not really like Hitler. I might see the original movie one day.

For full screen view click the right side edge of the control bar (the icon is only half showing).

Finding God through Faith and Reason - Episode 1 of 13 Episodes

Sex Abuse Issue Again

From Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things:

Insofar as anyone comes out well from all this [the sex abuse crisis], it is Pope Benedict. However much the narrative demands that he be pulled in, nothing yet published has held up to serious scrutiny. Which ought not, really, to be a surprise. This man was the one who actually saw there was a problem—the one who, in 2005, openly denounced the “filth in the Church and in the priesthood.”

Bottum also writes a good summary of the recent media hysteria over the Catholic Church's now past sex abuse problem and the effect this media attention it is having on the average Catholic. It seems committed Catholics are still committed.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/anti-catholicism-again