Memorial Day

Here are interesting statistics from our local paper today.

Kenneth Kogut of Concord writes a letter to the editor referring to the 1,191,000 US soldiers who gave their lives in all of our wars and are remembered this Memorial Day.

But there is a monument in the Concord-Walnut Creek area which reads:

“In memory of the Women and Children Killed by Legal Abortion in the United States since Abortion was Legalized in 1973”:

56,000 in Concord
2,7000,000 in the Bay Area
13,000,000 in the California
56,000,000 in the United States.

If you were born during or after 1973, you should be especially pleased with this memorial, because your name isn’t on it.

USF update: Bishop Robinson at USF/ VOTF event.

We all remember the contretemps between George Weigel and University of San Francisco President Fr. Stephen J. Privett in "Catholic San Francisco" some time back. Our position then was that Weigel was right and Privett was wrong, and that's still our position. Among other things, Mr. Weigel referred to Catholicity on Jesuit campuses as being "vestigial at best." Fr. Privett took exception to that, and laid out a long list of institutions at USF that proved the University's fidelity. Strangely, one of the institutions he mentioned was the Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought. We have posted on the Lane Center a number of times. (For an exhaustive list of USF/Lane Center events that should trouble any faithful Catholic, go here.)

Well, look who's speaking at the Lane Center on June 13, 2008 as part of his "Voice of the Faithful" tour: retired auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Australia. Just a few days ago Cardinal Mahony himself had to forbid Bishop Robinson from speaking in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Why? From a Catholic News Agency article:

"In a May 8 statement, the Australian bishops said that Bishop Robinson’s questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively is connected to the bishop’s “uncertainty about the knowledge and authority of Christ himself.”

Cardinal Mahony's response, from the same article:

“Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,” the cardinal wrote. He also urged Bishop Robinson to cancel his entire speaking tour and to work with the Australian bishops’ conference, saying he would expect him to “follow exactly” their recommendations."

So the Cardinal of California won't allow Bishop Robinson to speak in his Archdiocese, but USF is perfectly happy to have him speaking at their University. They are not only thumbing their noses at the Cardinal, but at the Holy Father as well. A little more than a month ago, Benedict addressed Catholic Educators with these words:

"In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church’s munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it."

Posted by Gibbons

How Long?

Is any taxpayer's money being spent to save babies in the womb?

How, in God's name, did Planned Parenthood get $330 million tax payer funds last year for its program of killing babies?

And now the pork barrel spending of our congress is providing more of our taxes to subsidize drugs that abort infant life.

It's our money and we have got to curb the killing and one way is to curb the spending. We can do it by getting rid of those Senators and Members of Congress who spend our money like there's no tomorrow. Make your vote count for good!

Hold Your Horses!

We thank God for those fighting to maintain marriage as it was meant to be from the time that the Lord God created Adam and Eve to people the earth.

Yesterday the Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a petition with the California Supreme Court asking the court to delay the effective date of its May 15 decision on marriage until after California voters have been heard on a constitutional amendment in November.

It makes sense, but will the court buy it? If an amendment to the constitution is approved in November all those lining up to go though the ceremony now will have some well-deserved legal problems to solve—and some added bills to pay to their greedy lawyers.

“The people of California have a constitutional right to vote on marriage, and we trust the high court will respect the democratic process.” said ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy.

Yes, it can be done.

Good Archbishop Burke of St. Louis shows the way.

"Burke's efforts lead to biggest Catholic ordination class in decades"

From STLtoday.com:

"A bishop's principal responsibility is to provide priests for the people in his pastoral care," (Archbishop Raymond) Burke said in an interview last week from Rome. Ordinations have to be absolutely right at the top of my priorities."

During a Vatican meeting just months before his death in 2004, Pope John Paul II told Burke and other Midwest bishops to do more to increase the number of men training for the priesthood.

And what do the seminarians say?

"He stands for truth when he knows that's not going to be easy," (Deacon Edward) Nemeth said, "so we know he'll support us when we have to do the same."

h/t Curt Jester

Tyranny of Men

Tom Amadeo’s response to an article in the California Catholic Daily News posted Sunday, May 18, 2008.

Is it not obvious that the California Supreme Court has assumed the right to force the Constitution to mean whatever the judges want it to mean? Was not this, in principle, what the U.S.Supreme Court did on the issue of abortion? The big lie is that we are a "nation of laws", while in reality we are a lawless pseudo-republic, ruled by powerful individuals called judges. I can call us a lawless pseudo-republic because when those who are assigned to protect and enforce the law, break the law then there is no law! Why have any Constitution at all? The courts have determined that it is not only their prerogative to intrepret the law, but to change the definitions of the very terms of the written law they have sworn to uphold! This is not the rule of law---it is the tyranny of men. The courts have marginalized the rights of the population to define the meaning of the terms of its laws. And soon that population will do with the Constitution, exactly that which the courts do now: they will use the Constitution as toilet tissue.

Well said, Tom, I could not agree more.

Bishop Vigneron to the Faithful of the Oakland Diocese

Message on Trinity Sunday, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

From the decision of our State Supreme Court last Thursday, we appear to be heading – at least for a time – toward a social order in which same-sex couples will be able to contract marriage. This is a profoundly significant matter. I, as your bishop, want to speak to your about it, to offer you my pastoral support and guidance.

My message today, because of circumstances, must be relatively brief. I cannot talk about all that needs to be said in a full discussion of this question. Nonetheless, I will offer some strategic points that give us a sense of our situation.

I begin with the most fundamental point: Marriage is a reality authored by God in his very act of creating the human race. According to his irrevocable plan, the marriage relationship is only possible between one man and one woman. The purposes of this relationship are (1) the mutual loving support of husband and wife and (2) their loving service of life by bringing children into the world and raising them to be virtuous and productive. The experience of history – both ancient and in our own time – has taught us that no government has the power to change the order which God has inscribed in our nature.

The conviction that same-sex couples cannot enter marriage is a conviction which all Catholics implicitly affirm when, in our baptismal promises, we profess that we share the Church’s faith that the “Father Almighty [is] the Creator of heaven and earth.”

This conviction about marriage, while confirmed by faith, can be known from reason. Therefore, our efforts to enshrine this wisdom about marriage in the laws of our community are not an imposition of an ideology but a service of the truth which we make for the common good. This wisdom about the nature of marriage is not a form of discrimination, but undergirds our freedom to live according to God’s plan for us.

Your priests and I, together with the deacons and our other co-workers, pledge to support you as you exercise your baptismal vocation. As the Second Vatican Council reminds us, God gave you the mission to configure the civil order to his design. In this way, through Christ and with the help of His Holy Spirit, you are making of this world a gift pleasing to the Father. This is the most fundamental act of your baptismal priesthood.

As I see it, the challenges ahead fall into two classes: (1) those of the short term and (2) ones for the long haul.

In regard to the short term: As faithful citizens Catholics are called to bring our laws regarding marriage into conformity with what we know about the nature of marriage.

In the long term: If such efforts fail, our way of life will become counter-cultural, always a difficult situation for Christians -- one our forebears faced in many ages past, one that the Lord himself predicted for us. Indeed, even if such efforts meet with success, our work is far from done. We would still be living in a society where many accept a set of convictions that is ultimately detrimental to the integrity of human life, with negative consequences for one’s happiness in this world and the next. Your mission then will be, as it always has been, to be a light and leaven for the new creation established in Christ. The resources of the Theology of the Body, worked out by the late Holy Father, John Paul II, will be an especially helpful resource for this task.

I will do my best, as the principal pastor of the Church in the Diocese of Oakland, to lead you in your response to this situation in the months and years ahead. And I know that your priests are one with me in pledging you this service.

Above all, let us not lose heart. As Pope John Paul II constantly reminded us: “Be not afraid.” Christ is risen. His vision for our world, and for the place of marriage in it, will, according to the time he has appointed, become the truth of our world.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Allen Vigneron

USF Homosexual Activism update!

It's Commencement time at USF again. And who has USF chosen as their primary honoree? Ambassador Mark Dybul, an out and open homosexual.





From: Lifesite News:

"Dybul is the United States’ Global AIDS Coordinator, a position that carries the rank of ambassador. He has the role of leading the implementation of President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Dybul was sworn in by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice October 10, while his homosexual “partner”, Jason Claire, held the Bible.

Referring to Claire’s mother, who was also present, as Dybul’s “mother-in-law,” Rice commented, “You have a wonderful family to support you, Mark.”

It will be good here to remember the guidelines of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops set forth in "Catholics in Political Life":

"The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

It was good to see our California Catholic Bishops coming out against yesterday's California Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex "marriage." Let's hope they're even more forceful during the upcoming Constitutional Amendment battle. We'd hoped to see some of our other local Catholic institutions on the side of the Church on this issue, but as usual we've been disappointed.

*For the origin of the "Gay Rome" tag, go here. It's at about 1:14 into this audio of a USF seminar, sponsored by the Lane Center, and held at (where else?) Most Holy Redeemer.

Time to Fight!

The Court’s rationale for its decision should prompt outrage from the majority of California’s citizens,” said Ron Prentice, chairman of the ProtectMarriage.com coalition, a group of organizations promoting the ballot initiative. “The will of the people has been completely undermined by four individuals. In November, the people will have an opportunity to overrule the Court’s decision by passing a constitutional amendment – and California’s voters must respond by voting.”

Our State Constitution must be amended in order to overturn what four misguided judges did to weaken the family fabric of our state.

Day of infamy!

It’s a sad day in California when our courts legalize same-sex marriage, by a 4-3 decision.

We have to remember that all people are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated as such, no matter what their behavior. We make a distinction between person and behavior, sometimes expressed as "hate the sin, love the sinner." The Catechism describes homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered": "They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

So we deplore acts of discrimination or unkindness against homosexual persons, but we insist on speaking the truth about the nature of homosexual acts. This is not a phobia. It is compassion together with frank recognition of the nature of a disordered condition.

The Catholic Church opposes homosexual activity because it is intrinsically disordered, an abuse of our human nature. But legalizing same-sex marriage has harmful effects on society.

We will pay dearly for the aberration of our California court that thwarts the will of the people and makes legal what is intrinsically illegal and immoral.

Excommunicated!

The pro-abortion Democratic Party has been ruffled by increased attention to the gulf of difference between US pro-abortion Catholic lawmakers and their alleged faith. The Party relies on Catholic voters to support their current Congressional majority, which they captured in 2006 in part through overtures by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touting her “conservative Catholic” credentials despite her pro-death stance.

Just one year ago Eighteen Catholic members of the U.S. House of Representatives publicly criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s condemnation of politicians who support abortion rights.

These 18 wrote that the pope’s reiteration that Catholics who participate in the legislative promotion of abortion should consider themselves excommunicated “offend[s] the very nature of the American experiment and does a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done.”

“We are concerned with the pope’s recent statement warning Catholic elected officials that they risk excommunication and would not receive communion for their pro-choice views,” said the lawmakers, that included Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Joe Baca (Calif.), Patrick Kennedy (R.I.) and Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.).

“Advancing respect for life and for the dignity of every human being is, as our church has taught us, our own life’s mission,” the House Democrats said. (How so?)

The fact is that religious sanction in the political arena directly conflicts with our fundamental beliefs about the role and responsibility of democratic representatives in a pluralistic America – it also clashes with freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution," a statement said. (What about freedom of the baby in the womb?)

These statements came as an aftermath to the Holy Father’s trip to Brazil. He replied to a question concerning the Mexican parliament‘s approval of a law in favor of abortion, declaring that “excommunication is laid down in the code; it is not arbitrary. It is simply written in the Code of Canon Law. The death of an innocent, of an unborn child, is inconceivable. It is not arbitrary, and the church express appreciation for life and for the individuality of life from the first moment of conception."

Once again we state: these “Catholic” politicians are excommunicated and should not receive the Eucharist until they confess their sin against life.

Good News--and about time!

From Boston.com

"After repeatedly getting criticized by conservative Catholics, and after years of pressure from the Vatican and some American bishops, Catholic colleges and universities are now shying away from politicians - especially those who, like Kennedy, Kerry, and Pelosi, support abortion rights - as commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients."

Read the whole thing.

This just means that some Catholic Colleges are finally following the directive of the USCCB set forth in "Catholics in Political Life." And they're doing that because of criticism by "conservative Catholics." Still, it's good.

I wonder who USF's 2008 commencement speaker will be?