John, at the respected Powerline blog, has now weighed in on Shannen Coffin's revelation that Elena Kagan deliberately created misleading info in order to defend partial-birth abortion:
"Unless there is some other interpretation of these documents that does not occur to me, it appears that Elena Kagan participated in a gigantic scientific deception. On behalf of the Clinton White House, she deliberately subverted what was supposed to be an objective scientific process. The ACOG report was certainly seen in that light by the federal courts.... The federal courts were victimized by a gross deception and a perversion of both the scientific process and the judicial process, carried out, the evidence appears to show, by Elena Kagan.
Ms. Kagan has a great deal of explaining to do. Unless she can come up with an innocent explanation for these documents, she should not be confirmed."
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: The Blind can Now See With Their Own Stem-Cells!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! From LifeSiteNews:
"For individuals blinded by chemical burns, the ever advancing field of adult stem-cell research has provided yet another astonishing cure – giving them sight through their own stem cells.
Italian researchers have reported developing a very successful therapy to cure those who were either blinded, or whose vision was severely impaired, thanks to chemical burns to their corneas. Such burns can come about through handling everything from toxic cleaning substances at home to heavy-duty chemicals at work....
In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists treated 107 eyes of 106 patients with stem cells derived from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, where stem cells are naturally produced by the body to do repairs on the cornea.
The researchers derived the stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, and then encouraged them to multiply. Once they had enough stem cells, they removed the scar tissue over the bad eye, and then grafted the stem cells on over the site of the cornea, which then began to generate new corneal tissues.
After 12-24 months had passed, these grafts were then followed up by corrective surgeries.
One patient had severe alkali burns on both his eyes from 1948. Researchers, however, were able to adapt and derive limbal stem-cell cultures with biopsied tissue taken from the patient’s left eye. The therapy managed to successfully restore both corneal surfaces, transitioning the man from blindness to having an almost normal, combined vision of close to 20/30. Follow-ups after two and five years showed that both eyes were stable after the treatment.
In all, the treatment had a 76.6 percent success rate, sustained over the past decade. The researchers note that all their failure cases occurred within the first year of treatment. In all 82 of 107 eyes had successful cures, with partial success in 14 others.
"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy, told the Associated Press. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."
The Family Research Council blog has more, including ABC News video about the case. We also repeat what has become one of our mantras at "A Shepherd's Voice" ever since Prop 71 in California passed:
"Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"
We must point out it was idiots in the press (like ABC News) that were foursquare behind ESCR, and painted those of us opposed to it as anti-science bigots.
Our friend Don Margolis has been beating the adult stem-cell drum (he refers to them as "repair stem-cells") for years, calling them the greatest medicine ever known to mankind, and it looks like he is right. Visit his website: http://donmargolis.com/blog/ and check out the list of diseases and conditions being treated with adult stem-cells.
"For individuals blinded by chemical burns, the ever advancing field of adult stem-cell research has provided yet another astonishing cure – giving them sight through their own stem cells.
Italian researchers have reported developing a very successful therapy to cure those who were either blinded, or whose vision was severely impaired, thanks to chemical burns to their corneas. Such burns can come about through handling everything from toxic cleaning substances at home to heavy-duty chemicals at work....
In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists treated 107 eyes of 106 patients with stem cells derived from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, where stem cells are naturally produced by the body to do repairs on the cornea.
The researchers derived the stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, and then encouraged them to multiply. Once they had enough stem cells, they removed the scar tissue over the bad eye, and then grafted the stem cells on over the site of the cornea, which then began to generate new corneal tissues.
After 12-24 months had passed, these grafts were then followed up by corrective surgeries.
One patient had severe alkali burns on both his eyes from 1948. Researchers, however, were able to adapt and derive limbal stem-cell cultures with biopsied tissue taken from the patient’s left eye. The therapy managed to successfully restore both corneal surfaces, transitioning the man from blindness to having an almost normal, combined vision of close to 20/30. Follow-ups after two and five years showed that both eyes were stable after the treatment.
In all, the treatment had a 76.6 percent success rate, sustained over the past decade. The researchers note that all their failure cases occurred within the first year of treatment. In all 82 of 107 eyes had successful cures, with partial success in 14 others.
"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy, told the Associated Press. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."
The Family Research Council blog has more, including ABC News video about the case. We also repeat what has become one of our mantras at "A Shepherd's Voice" ever since Prop 71 in California passed:
"Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"
We must point out it was idiots in the press (like ABC News) that were foursquare behind ESCR, and painted those of us opposed to it as anti-science bigots.
Our friend Don Margolis has been beating the adult stem-cell drum (he refers to them as "repair stem-cells") for years, calling them the greatest medicine ever known to mankind, and it looks like he is right. Visit his website: http://donmargolis.com/blog/ and check out the list of diseases and conditions being treated with adult stem-cells.
"Why are Jews Liberal?--A Symposium"
"Why Are Jews Liberal?" was a September 2009 symposium at Commentary magazine, which I just ran across. Five noted Jewish writers--David Wolpe, Jonathan D. Sarna, Michael Medved, William Kristol and Jeff Jacoby--responded to that quesion asked by Mr. Norman Podhoretz, in his book of the same name. Just about all the of the five point out that the disease of liberalism does not affect those who are serious about their Judaism--the Orthodox.
The short essays by each of the five are very interesting, and, in as much as one cannot answer the question "Why are Jews Liberal?" without at least roughly defining liberalism, the essays go beyond the specific Jewish/liberal question. Some examples:
Jonathon D. Sarna: "Nor is it (liberalism) a ‘substitute for religion,’ it is a religion in its own right, complete with its own catechism and its own dogmas and . . . obdurately resistant to facts that undermine its claims and promises....Jewish liberalism endures, Podhoretz concludes, because turning conservative, in liberal eyes, is nothing short of heresy—or worse, apostasy."
Michael Medved: "For most American Jews, the core of their Jewish identity isn’t solidarity with Israel; it’s rejection of Christianity....Jewish voters don’t embrace candidates based on their support for the state of Israel as much as they passionately oppose candidates based on their identification with Christianity—especially the fervent evangelicalism of the dreaded “Christian Right.”
The anti-Christian obsessions of American Jews lead not only to skewed perceptions of our true friends and enemies but also to anomalous definitions of “Jewish issues.” Much of the communal establishment insists, for instance, that their support of same-sex marriage and “abortion rights” expresses timeless Jewish values. Why and how? In 3,000 years of well-documented tradition prior to, say, 1970, there was not the slightest hint of any sort of endorsement of homosexual coupling. Moreover, Jewish law has always frowned upon abortion, authorizing the procedure only in extreme cases where the welfare of the mother is profoundly threatened.
The liberal belief that Jews should be pro-choice and pro–gay marriage has nothing to do with connecting to Jewish tradition and everything to do with disassociating from Christian conservatives."
Jeff Jacoby: "Most American Jews, on the other hand, seem to have learned from an early age that to be Jewish is to be a liberal Democrat, no matter what. No matter that anti-Semitism today makes its home primarily on the Left, while in most quarters of the Right, hostility toward Jews has been anathematized. No matter that Israel’s worst enemies congregate with leftists, while its staunchest defenders tend to be resolute conservatives. No matter that Republicans support the Jewish state by far larger margins than Democrats do. No matter that on a host of issues—homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, racial preferences, public prayer —the “Torah” of contemporary liberalism, as Podhoretz calls it, diverges sharply from the Torah of Judaism. As Why Are Jews Liberals? convincingly and depressingly demonstrates, the loyalty of American Jews to the Left has been unaffected by the failure of the Left to reciprocate that loyalty.
David Gelertner: "The world of contemporary liberalism is wider than Jews and Judaism.... Western Europe is full of reactionary liberals....In fact, we can study Western Europe not only as a related case but also as a hint and a warning about the American Jewish future—because Europe is far ahead of America in the modern-liberalism department. In America, liberal aspirations are moderated by the Gulf Stream of a basically conservative, religious citizenry.
So what’s happened in Europe?
In much of Western (especially northwestern) Europe, marriage seems to be dying...Up-to-date Englishmen on the topic of science versus religion sound, too often, like smug low-church curates in Trollope holding forth on the British Empire versus the filthy natives....European sex (casual or not, hetero- or homo-) seems to have developed the moral significance of an ATM transaction on a street corner...
The strangest aspect of modern Europe is its tentative yet progressing love affair with death. (We think of Keats listening, darkling, to his nightingale.) The death wish is plain among Europeans who shrug off birthrates so low (and immigration rates so high) that their nations will be gone within a few generations. The death wish probably plays a part in the fervor some European nations (especially Germany) feel to lose themselves in the European Union, and in the outright enthusiasm in parts of Europe for assisted suicide. Modern Germany often cremates the dead with no rites and no comment, making death as humdrum as taking out the garbage."
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
The short essays by each of the five are very interesting, and, in as much as one cannot answer the question "Why are Jews Liberal?" without at least roughly defining liberalism, the essays go beyond the specific Jewish/liberal question. Some examples:
Jonathon D. Sarna: "Nor is it (liberalism) a ‘substitute for religion,’ it is a religion in its own right, complete with its own catechism and its own dogmas and . . . obdurately resistant to facts that undermine its claims and promises....Jewish liberalism endures, Podhoretz concludes, because turning conservative, in liberal eyes, is nothing short of heresy—or worse, apostasy."
Michael Medved: "For most American Jews, the core of their Jewish identity isn’t solidarity with Israel; it’s rejection of Christianity....Jewish voters don’t embrace candidates based on their support for the state of Israel as much as they passionately oppose candidates based on their identification with Christianity—especially the fervent evangelicalism of the dreaded “Christian Right.”
The anti-Christian obsessions of American Jews lead not only to skewed perceptions of our true friends and enemies but also to anomalous definitions of “Jewish issues.” Much of the communal establishment insists, for instance, that their support of same-sex marriage and “abortion rights” expresses timeless Jewish values. Why and how? In 3,000 years of well-documented tradition prior to, say, 1970, there was not the slightest hint of any sort of endorsement of homosexual coupling. Moreover, Jewish law has always frowned upon abortion, authorizing the procedure only in extreme cases where the welfare of the mother is profoundly threatened.
The liberal belief that Jews should be pro-choice and pro–gay marriage has nothing to do with connecting to Jewish tradition and everything to do with disassociating from Christian conservatives."
Jeff Jacoby: "Most American Jews, on the other hand, seem to have learned from an early age that to be Jewish is to be a liberal Democrat, no matter what. No matter that anti-Semitism today makes its home primarily on the Left, while in most quarters of the Right, hostility toward Jews has been anathematized. No matter that Israel’s worst enemies congregate with leftists, while its staunchest defenders tend to be resolute conservatives. No matter that Republicans support the Jewish state by far larger margins than Democrats do. No matter that on a host of issues—homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, racial preferences, public prayer —the “Torah” of contemporary liberalism, as Podhoretz calls it, diverges sharply from the Torah of Judaism. As Why Are Jews Liberals? convincingly and depressingly demonstrates, the loyalty of American Jews to the Left has been unaffected by the failure of the Left to reciprocate that loyalty.
David Gelertner: "The world of contemporary liberalism is wider than Jews and Judaism.... Western Europe is full of reactionary liberals....In fact, we can study Western Europe not only as a related case but also as a hint and a warning about the American Jewish future—because Europe is far ahead of America in the modern-liberalism department. In America, liberal aspirations are moderated by the Gulf Stream of a basically conservative, religious citizenry.
So what’s happened in Europe?
In much of Western (especially northwestern) Europe, marriage seems to be dying...Up-to-date Englishmen on the topic of science versus religion sound, too often, like smug low-church curates in Trollope holding forth on the British Empire versus the filthy natives....European sex (casual or not, hetero- or homo-) seems to have developed the moral significance of an ATM transaction on a street corner...
The strangest aspect of modern Europe is its tentative yet progressing love affair with death. (We think of Keats listening, darkling, to his nightingale.) The death wish is plain among Europeans who shrug off birthrates so low (and immigration rates so high) that their nations will be gone within a few generations. The death wish probably plays a part in the fervor some European nations (especially Germany) feel to lose themselves in the European Union, and in the outright enthusiasm in parts of Europe for assisted suicide. Modern Germany often cremates the dead with no rites and no comment, making death as humdrum as taking out the garbage."
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
Party-of-Death Nominee Kagan Distorted Report on Partial Birth Abortion
But that is what you get from the Democrats. Actually the National Review's headline is even stronger: "Kagan's Abortion Lie."
Over at "The Corner," former deputy assistant attorney general Shannen Coffin has the facts:
"The documents involved date from the Clinton White House. They show Miss Kagan’s willingness to manipulate medical science to fit the Democratic party’s political agenda on the hot-button issue of abortion. As such, they reflect poorly on both the author and the president who nominated her to the Supreme Court."
Mr. Coffen then describes how Kagan deliberately reworded the findings of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and he concludes:
"Miss Kagan’s decision to override a scientific finding with her own calculated distortion in order to protect access to the most despicable of abortion procedures seriously twisted the judicial process. One must question whether her nomination to the Court would have the same effect."
As the good Rabbis said on Friday, "Kagan is not fir to serve on this court, or any court."
Over at "The Corner," former deputy assistant attorney general Shannen Coffin has the facts:
"The documents involved date from the Clinton White House. They show Miss Kagan’s willingness to manipulate medical science to fit the Democratic party’s political agenda on the hot-button issue of abortion. As such, they reflect poorly on both the author and the president who nominated her to the Supreme Court."
Mr. Coffen then describes how Kagan deliberately reworded the findings of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and he concludes:
"Miss Kagan’s decision to override a scientific finding with her own calculated distortion in order to protect access to the most despicable of abortion procedures seriously twisted the judicial process. One must question whether her nomination to the Court would have the same effect."
As the good Rabbis said on Friday, "Kagan is not fir to serve on this court, or any court."
Friday, June 25, 2010
"Gay Marriage" Capitol of America Offers Condoms to Preschoolers
The school board of Provincetown, MA ruled earlier this week condoms available to all students, including preschoolers. After Governor Deval Patrick complained, they changed the policy to fifth graders and up--whoop de doo--but if it was up to the school board the original policy would have remained. The policy also allows condoms to be given to children without parental consent.
It's no accident that this happened in Provincetown "the gayest zipcode in America." In 2009, over 90% of the "marriages" that took place there were counterfeit. The Provincetown “2009 Annual Town Report” says:
"Five years after the Goodridge Decision, legalizing marriage in Massachusetts for same sex couples, marriage continued to significantly impact the Town Clerk’s Office in 2009. 2009 was the second busiest year for marriage filings, with a total of 528 marriage intentions filed in 2009, 492 of those filings by same sex couples – the highest total of marriage filings since the advent of same sex marriage in 2004, which saw a total of 899 marriage filings in that year."
One of the arguments made by proponents of same-sex “marriage” is that it would normalize same-sex couples and bring them into the mainstream culture. What this ruling from Provincetown shows us is that what is being normalized and mainstreamed is sexual irresponsibility--at the youngest possible age. When the schools in a town where 93% of "marriages" are between persons of the same sex offer condoms to 5 year-olds, without their parents consent, we can see what a crock that argument is, and always was.
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
It's no accident that this happened in Provincetown "the gayest zipcode in America." In 2009, over 90% of the "marriages" that took place there were counterfeit. The Provincetown “2009 Annual Town Report” says:
"Five years after the Goodridge Decision, legalizing marriage in Massachusetts for same sex couples, marriage continued to significantly impact the Town Clerk’s Office in 2009. 2009 was the second busiest year for marriage filings, with a total of 528 marriage intentions filed in 2009, 492 of those filings by same sex couples – the highest total of marriage filings since the advent of same sex marriage in 2004, which saw a total of 899 marriage filings in that year."
One of the arguments made by proponents of same-sex “marriage” is that it would normalize same-sex couples and bring them into the mainstream culture. What this ruling from Provincetown shows us is that what is being normalized and mainstreamed is sexual irresponsibility--at the youngest possible age. When the schools in a town where 93% of "marriages" are between persons of the same sex offer condoms to 5 year-olds, without their parents consent, we can see what a crock that argument is, and always was.
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
Kagan "Not fit to sit on this Court--or any court."
"Elena Kagan is not kosher. She is not fit to sit on this Court--or any court."
So say the Orthodox Rabbis of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, bless them!
From CNSN News:
"Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that 'a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.'
Levin said most people are happy when 'one of their own' is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, 'We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head--from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, ‘Let’s homosexualize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’...
'It is clear from Ms. Kagan's record on issues such as abortion-on-demand, partial-birth-abortion, the radical homosexual and lesbian agenda, the 'supremacy' of the anti-family panoply over religious liberties of biblical adherents, et. al., that she will function as a flame-throwing radical, hastening society's already steep decline into Sodom and Gomorrah,' the rabbis said in the statement."
I'd love to hear a Bishop make a statement half as strong about any number of Catholic politicians.
So say the Orthodox Rabbis of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, bless them!
From CNSN News:
"Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that 'a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.'
Levin said most people are happy when 'one of their own' is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, 'We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head--from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, ‘Let’s homosexualize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’...
'It is clear from Ms. Kagan's record on issues such as abortion-on-demand, partial-birth-abortion, the radical homosexual and lesbian agenda, the 'supremacy' of the anti-family panoply over religious liberties of biblical adherents, et. al., that she will function as a flame-throwing radical, hastening society's already steep decline into Sodom and Gomorrah,' the rabbis said in the statement."
I'd love to hear a Bishop make a statement half as strong about any number of Catholic politicians.
"Reclaiming the Culture" Radio Show to Launch Monday
Monday marks the debut of "Reclaiming the Culture" a new Immaculate Heart Radio interview show that we at "A Shepherd's Voice" have helped with. The show's host, Dolores Meehan, descibes the mission:
“Bay Area Catholics are some of the strongest Catholics in the country. Reclaiming the Culture grew out of the desire to show that the Catholic Church in the Bay Area has the resources to confront the prevailing secular culture. Our purpose is to introduce great thinkers to listeners who may not have the opportunity to pursue an authentic, classical, Catholic education at, say, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. We see this as a chance to share the wisdom of the Catholic Church, which is far greater than many people realize, and is easily up to the task of engaging the prevailing secular culture. We want to move beyond catechesis and apologetics, important as they are, and enter into the arena where faith meets reason.”
There is a stellar line up of guests:
• On June 28 and July 5, Meehan will interview Fr. Michael Sweeney, President of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, on “Authentic Catholic Education—and the Impact of the Land O’ Lakes Conference.”
• July 12: Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, of Oakland, on “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call to Christian Conscience.
• July 19: Fr. Robert A. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, on a neglected area of Catholic social teaching “The Principle of Subsidiarity and the Service to the Poor.”
• July 26, bioethicist/author Dr. Janet Smith, of Sacred Heart Major Seminary on “The Right to Privacy.”
Future guests include:
• Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, of Ignatius Press;
• the very interesting Ave Maria University Professor of philosophy Maria Fedoryka on "The Gift of Woman";
• a fascinating (and scary) three-part interview with Mr. Brian Fairchild, an expert on Salafist Islamic groups in the U.S.;
• and the renowned authors and thinkers Mrs. Mary Eberstadt, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, and Dr. Anthony Esolen.
Reclaiming the Culture airs every Monday at 9:10AM on KSFB Radio 1260 AM. For now, the show can only be heard live in the Bay Are, but podcasts of the interviews will be available following each show at http://www.reclaimingtheculture.org/
“Bay Area Catholics are some of the strongest Catholics in the country. Reclaiming the Culture grew out of the desire to show that the Catholic Church in the Bay Area has the resources to confront the prevailing secular culture. Our purpose is to introduce great thinkers to listeners who may not have the opportunity to pursue an authentic, classical, Catholic education at, say, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. We see this as a chance to share the wisdom of the Catholic Church, which is far greater than many people realize, and is easily up to the task of engaging the prevailing secular culture. We want to move beyond catechesis and apologetics, important as they are, and enter into the arena where faith meets reason.”
There is a stellar line up of guests:
• On June 28 and July 5, Meehan will interview Fr. Michael Sweeney, President of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, on “Authentic Catholic Education—and the Impact of the Land O’ Lakes Conference.”
• July 12: Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, of Oakland, on “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call to Christian Conscience.
• July 19: Fr. Robert A. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, on a neglected area of Catholic social teaching “The Principle of Subsidiarity and the Service to the Poor.”
• July 26, bioethicist/author Dr. Janet Smith, of Sacred Heart Major Seminary on “The Right to Privacy.”Future guests include:
• Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, of Ignatius Press;
• the very interesting Ave Maria University Professor of philosophy Maria Fedoryka on "The Gift of Woman";
• a fascinating (and scary) three-part interview with Mr. Brian Fairchild, an expert on Salafist Islamic groups in the U.S.;
• and the renowned authors and thinkers Mrs. Mary Eberstadt, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, and Dr. Anthony Esolen.
Reclaiming the Culture airs every Monday at 9:10AM on KSFB Radio 1260 AM. For now, the show can only be heard live in the Bay Are, but podcasts of the interviews will be available following each show at http://www.reclaimingtheculture.org/
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
"SIN" Back in Our Dictionaties!
The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, warned that it would be an error to remove the word “sin” from the human “dictionary” and believe that nothing is evil.
During his homily at Mass on Sunday, the cardinal lamented the “profound transformation” of the moral and religious understanding in many Christians. “For many today, nothing is evil, nothing is immoral and it seems like we’ve even erased the word sin from our dictionaries.”
“Without a guilty conscience, how will we feel the need for God’s forgiveness? How can we appreciate the salvation of Christ if we don’t think we need it?” he asked.
Related articles:
Of Human Life - By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
Of Human Life - Addendum some common questions – By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
During his homily at Mass on Sunday, the cardinal lamented the “profound transformation” of the moral and religious understanding in many Christians. “For many today, nothing is evil, nothing is immoral and it seems like we’ve even erased the word sin from our dictionaries.”
“Without a guilty conscience, how will we feel the need for God’s forgiveness? How can we appreciate the salvation of Christ if we don’t think we need it?” he asked.
Related articles:
Of Human Life - By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
Of Human Life - Addendum some common questions – By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
A Priest for Our Times
Close to 150,000 faithful flooded into Warsaw Sunday for the beatification of Jerzy Popieluszko, a Roman Catholic priest and opposition activist murdered 25 years ago by Poland's communist secret police.
Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B , the Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, represented Pope Benedict XVI at the beatification mass also attended by some Cardinals, including William Levada, and 100 bishops, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Jerzy Buzek, the head of the European Parliament.
On October 19, 1984, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a young priest from the Warsaw parish of St. Stanislaw Kostka, was invited to a prayer meeting held by the association for the pastoral care of workers of the town of Bydgoszcz. He celebrated Mass first, then commented on the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. He ended his comment with the following words: “Let’s pray God to set us free from fear and terror, but, first and foremost, from the desire for violence and vengeance.”
At the end of the meeting Father Popieluszko decided to go back home even though it was late. He was traveling in a car driven by a certain Waldemard Chrostowski.
When the car got close to a village called Górsk, it was stopped by officers of the secret service in the disguise of traffic police. After handcuffing the driver, they stunned the priest with a knock on the head, gagged him and threw him into the trunk of the car and drove away.
Chrostowski managed to get off the running car and gave the alarm.
The escape of Popieluszko’s driver did not make the police officers change their criminal plans: they beat the priest to death — the doctor who did the autopsy declared that he had never seen a man with such internal lesions — tied his hands and feet behind his back and threw him into the Vistula river with a bag full of stones tied to one leg.
Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B , the Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, represented Pope Benedict XVI at the beatification mass also attended by some Cardinals, including William Levada, and 100 bishops, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Jerzy Buzek, the head of the European Parliament.
On October 19, 1984, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a young priest from the Warsaw parish of St. Stanislaw Kostka, was invited to a prayer meeting held by the association for the pastoral care of workers of the town of Bydgoszcz. He celebrated Mass first, then commented on the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. He ended his comment with the following words: “Let’s pray God to set us free from fear and terror, but, first and foremost, from the desire for violence and vengeance.”
At the end of the meeting Father Popieluszko decided to go back home even though it was late. He was traveling in a car driven by a certain Waldemard Chrostowski.
When the car got close to a village called Górsk, it was stopped by officers of the secret service in the disguise of traffic police. After handcuffing the driver, they stunned the priest with a knock on the head, gagged him and threw him into the trunk of the car and drove away.
Chrostowski managed to get off the running car and gave the alarm.
The escape of Popieluszko’s driver did not make the police officers change their criminal plans: they beat the priest to death — the doctor who did the autopsy declared that he had never seen a man with such internal lesions — tied his hands and feet behind his back and threw him into the Vistula river with a bag full of stones tied to one leg.
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Church is Not Afraid of the Truth
Regarding the present uproar, the Church is not afraid to confront the horrific facts. Already in the reign of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), the Pope opened the secret Vatican archives to historians, saying that the Church is not afraid of the truth.
The same is true today. However, the problem is not the news itself but the way the facts are reported. Liberal media have an accurate “sense of selection” in which they emphasize sexual abuse only when it happens in the Church. They hide or minimize it when it takes place in other institutions. Conversely, the same media is only too ready to blow up the least expression of dissent or “reform” in the Church and “fail to see” demonstrations of filial submission and warm support for the Chair of Peter, or enthusiasm for the traditional devotional practices.
Paradoxically, the same liberal media rend their garments when reporting on abuse cases involving members of the Catholic clergy, but at the same time, favor the homosexual agenda, lewd fashions and licentious behavior in every way. They refues to acknowledge how the general amorality in sexual matters is the breeding ground for the proliferation of the deplorable abuse of minors everywhere.
Luiz Sérgio Solimeo
The same is true today. However, the problem is not the news itself but the way the facts are reported. Liberal media have an accurate “sense of selection” in which they emphasize sexual abuse only when it happens in the Church. They hide or minimize it when it takes place in other institutions. Conversely, the same media is only too ready to blow up the least expression of dissent or “reform” in the Church and “fail to see” demonstrations of filial submission and warm support for the Chair of Peter, or enthusiasm for the traditional devotional practices.
Paradoxically, the same liberal media rend their garments when reporting on abuse cases involving members of the Catholic clergy, but at the same time, favor the homosexual agenda, lewd fashions and licentious behavior in every way. They refues to acknowledge how the general amorality in sexual matters is the breeding ground for the proliferation of the deplorable abuse of minors everywhere.
Luiz Sérgio Solimeo
"Dads are not Second-Class Mothers"
A great column in the Wall Street Journal by Brad Wilcox (excerpts below from National Review's "The Corner")
"From Hollywood to the halls of the academy, as I point out in that WSJ piece, we often get the message that dads are superfluous. Plenty of people see men as second-class mothers. And large numbers of men and women in the U.S. think, on average, that single mothers can do just as good a job as a married mother and father in raising children.
But the science does not support the idea that fathers are fungible. On average, children raised in intact, married homes are much more likely to thrive in school, to steer clear of trouble with the law, to avoid a teen pregnancy, and to avoid an untimely demise. Moreover, the positive effects of fatherhood are especially strong for fathers who are engaged, affectionate, and firm with their children.
For instance, a recent study by sociologist Mark Regnerus found that the quality of a father’s relationship with his teenage daughter was a much better predictor of her sexual activity than the quality of her relationship with her mother. Dads appear to play a particularly powerful role in steering their daughters clear of early sex, as well as a teen pregnancy.
Studies like this suggest that dads are not second-class mothers. They have their own distinctive contributions to make to their children, and we should do more as a culture to encourage fathers to plug into their children’s lives and to enable them to keep that connection with their children alive."
"From Hollywood to the halls of the academy, as I point out in that WSJ piece, we often get the message that dads are superfluous. Plenty of people see men as second-class mothers. And large numbers of men and women in the U.S. think, on average, that single mothers can do just as good a job as a married mother and father in raising children.
But the science does not support the idea that fathers are fungible. On average, children raised in intact, married homes are much more likely to thrive in school, to steer clear of trouble with the law, to avoid a teen pregnancy, and to avoid an untimely demise. Moreover, the positive effects of fatherhood are especially strong for fathers who are engaged, affectionate, and firm with their children.
For instance, a recent study by sociologist Mark Regnerus found that the quality of a father’s relationship with his teenage daughter was a much better predictor of her sexual activity than the quality of her relationship with her mother. Dads appear to play a particularly powerful role in steering their daughters clear of early sex, as well as a teen pregnancy.
Studies like this suggest that dads are not second-class mothers. They have their own distinctive contributions to make to their children, and we should do more as a culture to encourage fathers to plug into their children’s lives and to enable them to keep that connection with their children alive."
This is a good time to show the "Mothers Matter/ Fathers Matter" segment of "Marriage Matters to Kids."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Closing Arguments in Trial over the People's Right to Self-Government
Judge Vaughn Walker heard closing arguments today in the Proposition 8 trial. The real subject of the trial is the right of the American people to self-government. We wrote back on January 25:
"We haven’t commented on the issue much, or even followed it, oreven followed it, because it seems to be mostly a propagandistic exercise in narcissism. The "trial" has the same relationship to a real trial as same-sex "marriage" has to real marriage. Proposition 8 was never about gay people, it was about the common good of society. The attempt by homosexualist activists to deny self-government to the people of California through the ruling of one judge just proves the point: they are more interested in themselves than in the common good."
We do expect Judge Walker to rule for the plaintiffs, and the case to be appealed. His conduct has been outrageous throughout the trial. On February 7, Constitutional scholar Ed Whelan wrote in The Corner:
"Walker’s entire course of conduct has only one sensible explanation: that Walker is hellbent to use the case to advance the cause of same-sex marriage. Given his manifest inability to be impartial, Walker should have recused himself from the beginning, and he remains obligated to do so now."
And as we reported back in February, Hastings Law School Professor Calvin Massey said the arguments made by the activists were "simply ludicrous" but also that he too expects Judge Vaughn Walker to rule in favor of the plaintiffs anyway, but also that it "does not matter a lot what Judge Walker does" because the case will be decided by appeal.
"We haven’t commented on the issue much, or even followed it, oreven followed it, because it seems to be mostly a propagandistic exercise in narcissism. The "trial" has the same relationship to a real trial as same-sex "marriage" has to real marriage. Proposition 8 was never about gay people, it was about the common good of society. The attempt by homosexualist activists to deny self-government to the people of California through the ruling of one judge just proves the point: they are more interested in themselves than in the common good."
We do expect Judge Walker to rule for the plaintiffs, and the case to be appealed. His conduct has been outrageous throughout the trial. On February 7, Constitutional scholar Ed Whelan wrote in The Corner:
"Walker’s entire course of conduct has only one sensible explanation: that Walker is hellbent to use the case to advance the cause of same-sex marriage. Given his manifest inability to be impartial, Walker should have recused himself from the beginning, and he remains obligated to do so now."
And as we reported back in February, Hastings Law School Professor Calvin Massey said the arguments made by the activists were "simply ludicrous" but also that he too expects Judge Vaughn Walker to rule in favor of the plaintiffs anyway, but also that it "does not matter a lot what Judge Walker does" because the case will be decided by appeal.
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