(Excerpts of an article written by Sam Miller, prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman - NOT Catholic) Submitted by Dee Lynd
Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?
Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to your Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. Your graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%, all at a cost to you. To the rest of the Americans it's free.
The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students. The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - n ot just Catholics - in the United States today.
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.
Let me give you some figures that you as Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8 % of clergywomen reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia.
This is not a Catholic Problem. A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. Then remember what Jeremiah said: 'Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls'. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions. Be proud that you're a Catholic.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Guilani Needs Repentance
Today’s National Catholic Register has this note of interest:
In light of Rudy Giuliani receiving the Eucharist during the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Archdiocese of New York released the following comment from Cardinal Edward Egan this morning. I received the statement from Joe Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.
“The Catholic Church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God. Throughout my years as Archbishop of New York, I have repeated this teaching in sermons, articles, addresses, and interviews without hesitation or compromise of any kind. Thus it was that I had an understanding with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, when I became Archbishop of New York and he was serving as Mayor of New York, that he was not to receive the Eucharist because of his well-known support of abortion. I deeply regret that Mr. Giuliani received the Eucharist during the Papal visit here in New York, and I will be seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding.”
-- Tim Drake
Kudos to Cardinal Egan!
How about the rest of our priests and bishops? Have they the courage to follow suit?
In light of Rudy Giuliani receiving the Eucharist during the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Archdiocese of New York released the following comment from Cardinal Edward Egan this morning. I received the statement from Joe Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.
“The Catholic Church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God. Throughout my years as Archbishop of New York, I have repeated this teaching in sermons, articles, addresses, and interviews without hesitation or compromise of any kind. Thus it was that I had an understanding with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, when I became Archbishop of New York and he was serving as Mayor of New York, that he was not to receive the Eucharist because of his well-known support of abortion. I deeply regret that Mr. Giuliani received the Eucharist during the Papal visit here in New York, and I will be seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding.”
-- Tim Drake
Kudos to Cardinal Egan!
How about the rest of our priests and bishops? Have they the courage to follow suit?
Dean Mengler gets it!
From LifeNews.com:
Catholic St. Thomas Law School: No Credit for Planned Parenthood Volunteering
"St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) -- Thomas Mengler, Dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, has ruled that students may not count volunteer work at Planned Parenthood as part of their required service hours. The university’s student Public Service Board (PSB) had previously decided to count volunteer work at the notorious abortion provider toward the graduation requirement. "Volunteer service at Planned Parenthood, whatever the nature of that service, advances the mission of Planned Parenthood, an organization whose mission is fundamentally at odds with a core value of the Catholic Church,” Mengler said. The Dean continued, “Such service does not constitute 'qualifying public service' for purposes of satisfying the School of Law's graduation requirement of 50 hours of public service.”
Patrick Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society, praised the move. “Dean Mengler has taken a clear position in support of the law school’s Catholic mission and opposed to the reprehensible activities of Planned Parenthood. He has set an important example for other law schools that have all but abandoned a distinctive Catholic identity.”
God Bless the good Dean! If you'd like to thank him, here's his email tmmengler@stthomas.edu
Catholic St. Thomas Law School: No Credit for Planned Parenthood Volunteering
"St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) -- Thomas Mengler, Dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, has ruled that students may not count volunteer work at Planned Parenthood as part of their required service hours. The university’s student Public Service Board (PSB) had previously decided to count volunteer work at the notorious abortion provider toward the graduation requirement. "Volunteer service at Planned Parenthood, whatever the nature of that service, advances the mission of Planned Parenthood, an organization whose mission is fundamentally at odds with a core value of the Catholic Church,” Mengler said. The Dean continued, “Such service does not constitute 'qualifying public service' for purposes of satisfying the School of Law's graduation requirement of 50 hours of public service.”
Patrick Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society, praised the move. “Dean Mengler has taken a clear position in support of the law school’s Catholic mission and opposed to the reprehensible activities of Planned Parenthood. He has set an important example for other law schools that have all but abandoned a distinctive Catholic identity.”
God Bless the good Dean! If you'd like to thank him, here's his email tmmengler@stthomas.edu
Sunday, April 27, 2008
"Screwtape" on stage
There's an interview with actor Max McLean (who plays Screwtape) over on "the Christian Post." He seems like a thoughtful guy:
"CP: How do you feel about playing a devil? Is it difficult because you are a Christian?
McLean: From actually an acting perspective, it’s a lot of fun. That’s the reality of it. But as a Christian, I think what has been very helpful about it is that he (Screwtape) exposes in me my pride because he is pure pride. So in order to play him you got to just go for those places which unfortunately were quite easy for me to find. "
H/t "Threshing Grain"
Posted by Gibbons
"CP: How do you feel about playing a devil? Is it difficult because you are a Christian?
McLean: From actually an acting perspective, it’s a lot of fun. That’s the reality of it. But as a Christian, I think what has been very helpful about it is that he (Screwtape) exposes in me my pride because he is pure pride. So in order to play him you got to just go for those places which unfortunately were quite easy for me to find. "
H/t "Threshing Grain"
Posted by Gibbons
Vocations on Facebook?
Why not?
From the "Alive and Young" blog:
"I logged into Facebook the other day and 'WOW!' an ad from a religious order promoting vocations for their order.
A great big "YEAH!" to the Salesians of Don Bosco for stepping up and advertising in places that youth frequent."
Friday, April 25, 2008
Abortion Supporters Bomb University
Plan-B supporters detonate homemade explosives at Chilean university
Santiago, Apr 25, 2008 / 02:21 pm (CNA).- A group called the Insurrectionalist Federation has claimed responsibility for an attack on the University of Los Andes in Santiago, Chile in which a homemade explosive device was detonated in one of the bathrooms.
The group in question sent a statement to a local radio station claiming responsibility for the attack as a rejection of the Constitutional Court’s ruling to prohibit distribution of the morning-after pill at public health facilities. One of the most reknown professors at the university is a member of the High Court.
Santiago, Apr 25, 2008 / 02:21 pm (CNA).- A group called the Insurrectionalist Federation has claimed responsibility for an attack on the University of Los Andes in Santiago, Chile in which a homemade explosive device was detonated in one of the bathrooms.
The group in question sent a statement to a local radio station claiming responsibility for the attack as a rejection of the Constitutional Court’s ruling to prohibit distribution of the morning-after pill at public health facilities. One of the most reknown professors at the university is a member of the High Court.
Maria Maddalena to be Beatified!
Wonderful news out of Rome. There will be three beatification ceremonies next week:
Candelaria de San Jose (born Susana Paz Castillo Ramirez), a Venezuelan Carmelite, will be beatified on Sunday, April 27.
Maria Maddalena of the Incarnation (born Caterina Sordini), the Italian founder of the Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, will be beatified on Saturday, May 3.
This is all great news but what especially caught my eye was the beatification of Maria Maddalena, foundress of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
That's because they make the hosts we use here at Saints Peter and Paul Church and whenever I have a chance to speak with them on the telephone, I come away a happy man! And no wonder:
"The one and only purpose of life for the Sister is to honor and glorify Jesus in the Eucharist."
Sometimes I hear people wondering why God hasn't decided to just close San Francisco up. Well, one reason is probably the Sisters in their little house over in the Haight. To learn more about them, go here.
Posted by Gibbons
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
USF: Take that, Pope Benedict!
They're shameless. . . remember back on March 14, when the President of USF, Fr. Stephen Privett was attacking George Weigel in "Catholic San Francisco" for arguing that Catholic teaching was "vestigal at best" on some Jesuit campuses? One of the examples Fr. Privett cited was, of all things, the "Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought"
Yeah, quite an example. Look what event the Lane Center chooses to promote on their event calendar. The April 25-27 "Northern California Call to Action" conference. Seems like just yesterday someone said this:
"...I wish to affirm 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."
Here's what Cardinal Re had to say about "Call to Action":
"The Vatican has determined that “the activities of ‘Call to Action’ in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint,” Cardinal Re writes. He concludes: “Thus to be a member of this Association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic Faith.”
*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.
Posted by Gibbons
Yeah, quite an example. Look what event the Lane Center chooses to promote on their event calendar. The April 25-27 "Northern California Call to Action" conference. Seems like just yesterday someone said this:
"...I wish to affirm 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."
Here's what Cardinal Re had to say about "Call to Action":
"The Vatican has determined that “the activities of ‘Call to Action’ in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint,” Cardinal Re writes. He concludes: “Thus to be a member of this Association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic Faith.”
*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.
Posted by Gibbons
Brick by brick...Choose Life!
Good news from Italy:
"Nearly 70 percent of Italian gynecologists now refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds and the number is increasing, a report by the country's ministry of health said Tuesday.
Abortion was legalised in 1978 in Italy but pressure from the Vatican -- which is strongly opposed to abortion -- enabled doctors to claim a "conscientious objection" clause and refuse to carry out terminations.
Between 2003 and 2007 the number of gynecologists claiming the conscience clause to avoid carrying out abortions rose from 58.7 percent to 69.2 percent, according to the report"
H/t "We the People"
Posted by Gibbons
"Nearly 70 percent of Italian gynecologists now refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds and the number is increasing, a report by the country's ministry of health said Tuesday.
Abortion was legalised in 1978 in Italy but pressure from the Vatican -- which is strongly opposed to abortion -- enabled doctors to claim a "conscientious objection" clause and refuse to carry out terminations.
Between 2003 and 2007 the number of gynecologists claiming the conscience clause to avoid carrying out abortions rose from 58.7 percent to 69.2 percent, according to the report"
H/t "We the People"
Posted by Gibbons
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Us, Catholic Charities, and the BAR...
"Bay Area Reporter" that is. (motto: "Serving the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trasngender Community since 1971.")
Our brothers and sisters over at the BAR did a story/interview on my (Gibbons) article in California Catholic Daily, describing the extent to which CCCYO has become a homosexual activist organization. They also covered my letter to the Archbishop and priests of the archdiocese pleading with them not to attend the CCCYO April 11 fundraiser, due to the honoring of George Marcus and Levi-Strauss, Inc.
Considering that the BAR takes a diametrically opposed point of view, the article was reasonable and reasonably courteous. They did mistakenly credit both the CCD article and the letter to Fr. Malloy and Gibbons, when they were both the work of, and signed by, Gibbons alone. We forgive their confusion, since this blog has entries mostly by Fr. Malloy but sometimes by Gibbons, (which say, like this one: "Posted by Gibbons" at the bottom.) They have more or less corrected this.
And they described the letter to Archbishop Niederauer as an "attack." A letter respectfully pleading with a person not to do something can hardly, in good faith, be called an "attack."
They also said I "concoted" a "gay mafia" at Catholic Charities. That's like being accused of "concocting" a Sicilian mafia in Palermo. I encourage readers to go here and examine the evidence.
Finally they did not print my favorite answer to one of their questions. So I'll print it here:
BAR: "To some people I have spoken to it seems to them you are "obsessed" or "fixated" on both Catholic Charities' leadership and Most Holy Redeemer church. How would you respond to such criticism?"
Me: "You left out USF!"
Posted by Gibbons
*For the origin of the "Gay Rome" tag, go here. It's at about 1:14 into this audio of a USF seminar, held at (where else?) Most Holy Redeemer.
Our brothers and sisters over at the BAR did a story/interview on my (Gibbons) article in California Catholic Daily, describing the extent to which CCCYO has become a homosexual activist organization. They also covered my letter to the Archbishop and priests of the archdiocese pleading with them not to attend the CCCYO April 11 fundraiser, due to the honoring of George Marcus and Levi-Strauss, Inc.
Considering that the BAR takes a diametrically opposed point of view, the article was reasonable and reasonably courteous. They did mistakenly credit both the CCD article and the letter to Fr. Malloy and Gibbons, when they were both the work of, and signed by, Gibbons alone. We forgive their confusion, since this blog has entries mostly by Fr. Malloy but sometimes by Gibbons, (which say, like this one: "Posted by Gibbons" at the bottom.) They have more or less corrected this.
And they described the letter to Archbishop Niederauer as an "attack." A letter respectfully pleading with a person not to do something can hardly, in good faith, be called an "attack."
They also said I "concoted" a "gay mafia" at Catholic Charities. That's like being accused of "concocting" a Sicilian mafia in Palermo. I encourage readers to go here and examine the evidence.
Finally they did not print my favorite answer to one of their questions. So I'll print it here:
BAR: "To some people I have spoken to it seems to them you are "obsessed" or "fixated" on both Catholic Charities' leadership and Most Holy Redeemer church. How would you respond to such criticism?"
Me: "You left out USF!"
Posted by Gibbons
*For the origin of the "Gay Rome" tag, go here. It's at about 1:14 into this audio of a USF seminar, held at (where else?) Most Holy Redeemer.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Attention: USF
Our Holy Father has some solemn words for our Catholic teachers. His address at Catholic University in Washington says it loud and clear. And I especially implore all teachers at our Catholic Universities, colleges and high schools to heed these words.
Let me select just a couple of paragraphs from his talk, praying that it might mark the end of such liberties as “Vagina Monologues” and support of homosexual professors with their ideologies.
Your Eminences, Dear Brother Bishops, Distinguished Professors, Teachers and Educators,
...I wish to affirm 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.
Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church's Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution's life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual….
(the bold is from my pen)
Let me select just a couple of paragraphs from his talk, praying that it might mark the end of such liberties as “Vagina Monologues” and support of homosexual professors with their ideologies.
Your Eminences, Dear Brother Bishops, Distinguished Professors, Teachers and Educators,
...I wish to affirm 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.
Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church's Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution's life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual….
(the bold is from my pen)
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