Americans seem mesmerized by the word "change." And, by golly, they sure got it last week from the California Supreme Court. It is difficult to imagine a single social change greater than redefining marriage from opposite sex to include members of the same sex. (read more)
by Dennis Prager
“Redefining marriage will affect the entire nation, not just California,” said Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, the organization spearheading the effort to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman. “Issuing licenses to same-sex couples will cause nationwide legal chaos, and the attorneys general of at least ten states recognize that a failure to grant the stay will lead to potentially needless chaos.
Yes, but the lawyers will get rich!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Brick by Brick...
From the article "Gynecologists and obstetricians of Ecuador reject abortion":
"They went on to note that 'science teaches that life begins with conception. If this truth is also affirmed by religions it does not therefore cease to be a strictly scientific truth to only become a debatable religious opinion. Whoever denies that life begins at conception doesn’t have an issue with religion but rather with science. To deny this certainty of biology is not an expression of a lack of faith, but rather a lack of an elementary knowledge of human genetics, or even worse, of simple general culture,' the doctors said."
Emphasis added.
Read the whole thing.
"They went on to note that 'science teaches that life begins with conception. If this truth is also affirmed by religions it does not therefore cease to be a strictly scientific truth to only become a debatable religious opinion. Whoever denies that life begins at conception doesn’t have an issue with religion but rather with science. To deny this certainty of biology is not an expression of a lack of faith, but rather a lack of an elementary knowledge of human genetics, or even worse, of simple general culture,' the doctors said."
Emphasis added.
Read the whole thing.
Archbishop Nauman teaches it!
From the Archbishop's column in the "The Leaven", the paper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City:
Q. What is meant when it is said that Gov. Sebelius’ actions were scandalous?
A. To answer this question, I again refer to “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper,” which references the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “To give scandal means more than to cause other people to be shocked or upset by what one does. Rather, one’s action leads someone else to sin. Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. To lead others into sin is indeed a very serious matter. Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged” (no. 4). Governor Sebelius’ public support for legalized abortion, as a Catholic, naturally leads others to question the moral gravity of abortion. In effect, her actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, coupled with her reception of holy Communion, have said to other Catholics: “I am a good Catholic and I support legalized abortion. You can be a good Catholic and support legalized abortion.”
Read the whole thing here.
Q. What is meant when it is said that Gov. Sebelius’ actions were scandalous?
A. To answer this question, I again refer to “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper,” which references the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “To give scandal means more than to cause other people to be shocked or upset by what one does. Rather, one’s action leads someone else to sin. Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. To lead others into sin is indeed a very serious matter. Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged” (no. 4). Governor Sebelius’ public support for legalized abortion, as a Catholic, naturally leads others to question the moral gravity of abortion. In effect, her actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, coupled with her reception of holy Communion, have said to other Catholics: “I am a good Catholic and I support legalized abortion. You can be a good Catholic and support legalized abortion.”
Read the whole thing here.
Suicide?
An Inportant notice from Catholics for the Common Good:
AB 2747 Facing Final Deadline -Friday, May 30
Contact Your Assembly Member's Capitol Office Today
Time is crucial- this is the last possible week for a vote on AB 2747, the pernicious bill designed to establish a platform for assisted suicide in California. If the bill is not brought up for an assembly vote by the legislative deadline of this Friday, May 30-- it will be dead.
It is important to voice our opposition to AB 2747 more vehemently than ever. While the cancer doctors are prominent and active opponents of the bill- inexplicably, the California Medical Association has thrown its support behind AB 2747.
AB 2747 is a sneaky bill which links the rarely used practice of palliative sedation to "voluntary stopping of eating and drinking" (VSED), establishing the latter as a legitimate medical option. However, VSED is not recognized as a medical treatment- it causes the patient to die slowly of starvation and dehydration. AB 2747 mandates health care providers to inform patients of this and other end-of-life options when they have been diagnosed with a year or less to live.Making VSED a medical option would present a very convenient opportunity for advocates of physician-assisted suicide to propose lethal prescriptions as a means of ending life in a more "humane" way.
California bishops are strongly opposed to the bill, along with Catholic hospitals and disability groups.
For talking points and more information on the bill, go to http://www.ccgaction.org/life/pas/AB2747Update.
AB 2747 Facing Final Deadline -Friday, May 30
Contact Your Assembly Member's Capitol Office Today
Time is crucial- this is the last possible week for a vote on AB 2747, the pernicious bill designed to establish a platform for assisted suicide in California. If the bill is not brought up for an assembly vote by the legislative deadline of this Friday, May 30-- it will be dead.
It is important to voice our opposition to AB 2747 more vehemently than ever. While the cancer doctors are prominent and active opponents of the bill- inexplicably, the California Medical Association has thrown its support behind AB 2747.
AB 2747 is a sneaky bill which links the rarely used practice of palliative sedation to "voluntary stopping of eating and drinking" (VSED), establishing the latter as a legitimate medical option. However, VSED is not recognized as a medical treatment- it causes the patient to die slowly of starvation and dehydration. AB 2747 mandates health care providers to inform patients of this and other end-of-life options when they have been diagnosed with a year or less to live.Making VSED a medical option would present a very convenient opportunity for advocates of physician-assisted suicide to propose lethal prescriptions as a means of ending life in a more "humane" way.
California bishops are strongly opposed to the bill, along with Catholic hospitals and disability groups.
For talking points and more information on the bill, go to http://www.ccgaction.org/life/pas/AB2747Update.
Monday, May 26, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, May 23, 2008
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!
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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
"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
Monday, May 19, 2008
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.
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, 2008Dear 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
Friday, May 16, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
