Equality at the expense of sanity, epidemiology division

CDC Director: 'We Will Control' First Ebola Case Diagnosed in U.S.

"Ebola is a scary disease because of the severity of the illness it causes," Frieden said Tuesday evening. "We're stopping it in its tracks in this country."

I would have felt safer had we not allowed it into this country in the first place.

Equality at the expense of sanity, "transgender" division

The picture is of Martin Rothblatt, who changed his name to "Martine." Has anyone ever seen a real woman pose like that? Such a pose is male to the core.

The picture is from the GenderTrender website. Heaven knows we don't agree with them on many things, but they certainly get the insanity of the "transgender" movement. The authors over there chronicle the invasion of "women only" spaces by men pretending to be women. Because the two sides are somewhat remote from the average American's experience, and because the mainstream media, (progressive to the core), always sides with whatever the latest "oppressed group" is, it does not get the coverage that it should. 

The vitriol targeting any 'anti-transgender' feminists is astonishingly hate filled. I cannot think of a comparable case, offhand. Pretty much everyone has heard about athlete Ray Rice's altercation with his girlfriend. But how many know about Fallon Fox (a male boxer) beating up (female boxer) Tamikka Brents? Because Fox is "transgender" he was able to get into the ring with Brents. He beat the crap out of her: gave her a concussion and an orbital bone fracture in under three minutes. LifeSiteNews did a story on it. GenderTrender's article on Fox/Brents covers a number of other "Transgender" men who have entered women's sports.

"The gay rights movement has devolved into a big lie factory"

No one has written or spoken more passionately and knowledgeably about the destruction of the family by homosexual activists than Robert Oscar Lopez. Here is another home run column of his at American Thinker:

Excerpts:

Like an obsessive-compulsive one-note Charlie, my refrain has been, for years: children have an inalienable right to a mother and father, cannot be bought or sold, and are entitled to know their origins. Whether it is straight people or gay people using divorce, surrogacy, trafficking, or any other means to deny people these rights, I oppose it.

This is a teachable moment because it reveals a great deal about what makes the Human Rights Campaign tick. They’re after your kids, plain and simple; all their other issues are mere window dressing.

They have convinced themselves that gays are a tribe unto themselves, so their consuming goal is to populate the tribe so they don’t disappear.

Parenthood is their great white whale. They want to have children to love them and call them Mom and Dad. They need to get those children from you because biology prevents them from siring them naturally. Gentlemen readers, these folks are trying to find a way to get the sperm out of your testicles and into their laboratories; lady readers, these folks need to find a way to implant an embryo of their sperm in your womb, keep you obedient during the gestation, and take your baby away forever.

The main item on the gay lobby’s agenda is patently insane. People don’t generally want to let lesbians milk sperm out of their testicles. People don’t usually like the idea of gay men gestating babies in their wombs and then taking them away. (And no, “visitation” plans where these gamete donors get to see their progeny a few times a month are not a good arrangement; that stuff’s really creepy.)

And at least with me, these HRC lackeys cannot pull the old “are you saying my children are worth any less?” routine. Just because you control a human being doesn’t mean that’s your child. Even if someone is your child, criticizing you is not the same as insulting your child. This is basic, but somehow the HRC manages to whitewash the complexities. Despite all the choreographed photographs of happy gay couples with children, people generally do not like growing up and knowing that half of them was sold to a gay couple...."

Mr. Lopez's website is English Manif. He is under no illusions, and he tells the truth unflinchingly:

"The gay rights movement has devolved into a big lie factory. The movement always did have a self-deluding component, especially during the beginning of the AIDS crisis, but in those days they were truly oppositional, even in NYC – now they are a monstrous force to be reckoned with, supported by all the power of law – and corporate America. There isn't a corporation that doesn't offer a diversity program, and a university that doesn't offer a “Diva University” webpage (I didn't make this up). The claim that the ligbitists are poor little victims is 100% false. The ligbitist movement has all the brute force of capitalism and Uncle Sam behind it. It is an establishment, oppressive, and coercive force. And it lies 24/7."

Two NZ men marry for love, homosexual activists 'fuming'

From LGBTQNation:

"Gay rights groups in New Zealand are fuming over the legal, same-sex marriage between two heterosexual men in a radio station stunt in exchange for tickets to the Rugby World Cup to be held in the United Kingdom in 2015.

Self-described best mates since childhood, Matt McCormick, 24, married engineering student Travis McIntosh, 23, in a rugby stadium on Friday....
Gay rights activists have condemned the union, calling the stunt 'a mockery of the institution of marriage.'

Otago University Students’ Association Queer Support co-ordinator Neill Ballantyne, of Dunedin, said the wedding was an 'insult' because marriage equality was a 'hard fought' battle for New Zealand’s gay community,reports the New Zealand Hearald."

Don't be a hater, Neill. They obviously married for love. Love of rugby. Why do you sodomite activists oppose love?

Jennifer Roback Morse responds to Mr. Ballantyne:

"Sorry Neill. No go. You evidently did not realize that when you changed the law, you changed it for everyone. Two men can get married for any reason they want. The law does not require them to prove that they are actually 'gay,' or that they 'love each other,' however those terms might be defined in a legal context. (!)...

Gay activists and their wealthy patrons seem surprised that they do not get to control what everyone does and why they do it.

They have not really thought through what redefining marriage will actually mean for the whole of society."

Indeed. Actually, the fact is that people only believe in same-sex "marriage" when they no longer believe in marriage. That's why counterfeit 'marriage' only crept in as the U.S. marriage rate hit a 93-year low. In 2008, Bishop Allan Vigneron, then of Oakland, said that the fight over same-sex "marriage" was a wake-up call for our culture to relearn what marriage is. His Excellency was right. 

Part 3 of Valerie Schmalz blockbuster series is up at Catholic San Francisco

This should be an example for every diocesan paper in the country.

Part 3 of Valerie Schmalz's must-read series describing the attack by homosexual activists on the Church continues in the September 26 issue of Catholic San Francisco. The digital version of the paper is already online. The series has been on the paper's front page for 3 weeks straight,  and quickly reached #1 on the website's "Most popular news stories" list. Faithful America, whom Schmalz has exposed, has used the series as a fundraising tool.

This week Ms. Schmalz tackles the phony "hate group" tactic used by homosexual activists. The story begins:

FBI does not support ‘hate group’charge by Faithful America
Pro marriage advocates say ‘hate’ charge a tactic to marginalize

VALERIE SCHMALZ
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Many Catholics and other San Francisco Bay Area residents were taken aback when Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone was accused of allying with a “hate group” and others who use “hate speech” by speaking at the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C. on June 19.

“Hate group” and “hate speech” are phrases that conjure images of skinhead attacks, Ku Klux Klan lynchings or beating up people because they are gay – all actions that would certainly be serious sins to Christians who believe in Christ’s command to “love one another.”

Because that charge was so incendiary, Catholic San Francisco took a closer look at the charges leveled by Faithful America against the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage, organizers of the June 19 March for Marriage. Catholic San Francisco also examined the groups which leveled those charges…."

Later in the article, Schmalz continues:

‘Hate group’ charge

"The 'hate group' label used in the Faithful America petition and letter was devised by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group with no official government standing.

Based on interviews with a federal law enforcement official and others, the Southern Poverty Law Center lumps those who oppose same-sex marriage with racist supremacists.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not track “hate groups,” but investigates crimes, according to FBI spokesman Chris Allan. 'We are limited to investigate what a federal violation would be. It is not a crime to be part of a hate group it is only the action itself' of a hate crime which the FBI would investigate, said Allan, who also said the FBI had not investigated the Family Research Council for hate crimes…

The Southern Poverty Law Center official who spoke with Catholic San Francisco also said that the Family Research Council was placed on its 'hate map' for what it believes and what it says, not for any crimes"

The Southern Poverty Law Center are phonies with a political agenda. A simple example illustrates this: every year on Easter Sunday in San Francisco the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence conduct the Hunky Jesus contest, an event that mocks the torture and murder of Jesus Christ. That is a expression of hate of Christianity on the holiest day of the year for Christians.

You'd think a group that professes to be "teaching tolerance" might have something to say about this. But I just did a search for 'Hunky Jesus' on the Southern Poverty Law center's website. Here's the result:

Nothing. Nada. I doubt they would be so quiet if someone mocked the murder of, say, Matthew Shepherd. As I said the Southern Poverty Law Center are phonies with a political agenda.

Ms. Schmalz's article closes with two reflection on the ubiquitous lying that is part and parcel of the counterfeit marriage movement

"David is a member of Courage, the faithful Catholic group that ministers to people who experience same-sex attraction. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, in this article he is given a generic first name. He told

Catholic San Francisco the emphasis on hate speech is part of a strategy to demonize those who promote chastity. 'The trick of the enemy is to say the opposite of the truth,' said David, who said Courage relies on anonymity much as Alcoholics Anonymous does. 'The ones who are talking about bullying are running the big bully networks.'

The issue is a fundamental disconnect in world view and of each other, said Robert Reilly, author of 'Making Gay Okay' (Ignatius Press, 2014). 'People who are ruled by their passion which they think is love can only imagine opposition coming from another passion. The opposite is hatred,' Reilly said, but the supporters of marriage between one man and one woman are animated by a belief in a truth, not by hatred, he said.

Reilly quoted George Orwell, author of the novel '1984' which describes a totalitarian future where all thought is controlled and recast: 'The more a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.'

This is the best work Catholic San Francisco has ever done. It should be a model for every other diocesan paper in the country.

Cardinal Burke / Fr. Fessio Stand up for Marriage! & Family!

The great Cardinal Raymond Burke calls out the anti-family mass media at the Catholic News Agency:

"Next month's Synod on the Family has undergone an attempted hijacking by some media sources, which are fueling expectations that impossible changes will be made to Church doctrine, said the head of the Church's highest court.

'I don’t think you have to be brilliant to see that the media has, for months, been trying to hijack this Synod,' said Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect for the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – the office which, among other things, handles annulment cases in the Church.

In particular, he told CNA in a recent interview, the media has been presenting Pope Francis as being in favor of allowing Holy Communion to be distributed to those who are divorced and remarried, and other such propositions, even though this is not the case.

The danger, Cardinal Burke continued, is that 'the media has created a situation in which people expect that there are going to be these major changes which would, in fact, constitute a change in Church teaching, which is impossible."

'That’s why it’s very important for those who are in charge to be very clear,' he said."

It's interesting to me that of those Cardinals invested in the relegation of marriage to the dustbin of history most are Europeans, followed by some of their progeny from North and South Americans--places that themselves are on the road to oblivion because of their relegation of marriage to the dustbin of history.

The CNA article went on to mention Ignatius Press' new book, which promises to introduce much-needed clarity:

"Cardinal Burke, along with several other cardinals and scholars, have responded to this call in a book entitled 'Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church.' The book, set to be released in October, is a compilation of essays which provide scholarly answers to the claim that some divorced and remarried persons can be admitted to Holy Communion without having obtained an annulment, or a Church recognition that the marriage had never been valid."

Last week Ignatius Press' editor, Father Joe Fessio, schooled the foolish Cardinal Kaspar for his statements responding to the book's release. It was nice to see:

The Ignatius Press book’s introduction says the essays in “Remaining in the Truth of Christ” are responses to Cardinal Walter Kasper’s 2014 book “The Gospel of the Family,” which includes his advocacy of giving Holy Communion to some Catholics who have divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment.

Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder and editor of Ignatius Press, responded sharply to claims by Cardinal Kasper in an email exchange with CNA. He drew from Cardinal Kasper’s Sept. 18 interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, responding point-by-point to the cardinal’s statements.

In the interview, Cardinal Kasper complained of learning about the book from journalists who had received advance copies of it. The cardinal said that he had not received an advance copy, adding, “In my entire academic life nothing like this has ever happened to me.”

“You chose to leave academia to enter public life. Get used to it,” Fr. Fessio responded.

The priest also referenced Cardinal Kasper’s statement, “If cardinals who are the closest collaborators of the pope intervene in this organized and public manner, at least in regard to the most recent history of the Church we are facing an unprecedented situation.”

“Well, you did something unprecedented,” Fr. Fession replied. “And it was organized and public. Well, it was supposed to be done in secrecy, but then you published your consistory intervention as a book.”

Furthermore, Fr. Fessio responded to Cardinal Kasper’s statement that his consistory remarks had not offered “a definitive solution” but rather “posed some questions and offered considerations for possible responses.”

“Well, what are you complaining about then?” Fr. Fessio asked. “You got some answers and some responses to your considerations. Or weren’t those the answers you were expecting?”

There's a true son of St. Ignatius!

Valerie Schmalz's blockbuster series continues in Catholic San Francisco

Valerie Schmalz's must-read series describing the attack by homosexual activists on the Church continues in the September 19 issue of Catholic San Francisco. The digital version of the paper is already up. It's been on the paper's front page both last week and this week, and quickly reached #1 on the website's "Most popular news stories" list. This week's installment begins:


Faith the latest battleground for gay rights advocates
Faithful America targeting of Archbishop Cordileone showcases tactic

Don’t be surprised if same-sex partnered families are front and center in news coverage of the 2015 Catholic World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia – whether or not Pope Francis shows up.

A coalition of four dissident Catholic groups, calling itself Equally Blessed, is recruiting for what it calls a pilgrimage to “speak out for the holiness of LGBT families” at the World Meeting of Families, to which Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has invited Pope Francis.

The Equally Blessed coalition received a $200,000 grant in March from Michigan self-identified gay billionaire Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation. That brings Arcus funding of Equally Blessed since 2010 to $770,000.

In a press release, Arcus said the 2014 grant was to support “a coalition of pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender) Catholic advocacy agencies which will amplify pro-LGBT voices within the Catholic Church in preparation for significant international gatherings planned by Catholic bishops and the Vatican.”

The Arcus Foundation’s grant-making is part of a strategy by a handful of nonprofit and private foundations to use the language of faith to challenge traditional sexual morality by directly attacking individual faith leaders, including Catholic bishops but also Protestants and Jews.

They fund dissidents in the Catholic Church, as well as other Christians and Jews who share their worldview opposing marriage as only between one man and woman. The financial grants help amplify the voices of dissident Catholics with the intention of making it appear as if the dissidents constitute a vigorous, loud, and committed contingent within ordinary Catholic parishes...."

It's a long and well-researched article, and, as noted, a must-read. You can read the whole thing here. 

Here is her chart of the foundations funding the faux-Catholic groups. Click the image for a larger version.



The Holy Name of Mary

Today is the optional feastday of the Holy Name of Mary, our Blessed Mother. From Wikipedia:


"Before the Battle of Vienna in 1683, John III Sobieski had placed his troops under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the following year, to celebrate the victory, Pope Innocent XI added the feast to the General Roman Calendar, assigning to it the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity of Mary.

The reform of Pope Pius X in 1911 restored to prominence the celebration of Sundays in their own right, after they had been often replaced by celebrations of the saints. The celebration of the Holy Name of Mary was therefore moved to 12 September. Later in the same century, the feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 in the reform of the Calendar by Pope Paul VI, as something of a duplication of the 8 September feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,but it did not cease to be a recognized feast of the Roman Rite, being mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 12 September. In 2002 Pope John Paul II restored the celebration to the General Roman Calendar.

And La Wik contains this interesting fact to mull over the next time you are having a Continental breakfast:

The day was commemorated in Vienna by creating a new kind of pastry, known now as the croissant, shaping it in the form of a half-moon from the crest on the Turkish flag. It was eaten along with coffee which was part of the booty from the Turks.

Important: SF Archdiocese Exposes LGBT 'Catholic' Groups

This week's Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco has an important and comprehensive expose of the motivations and funding of 'Catholic' homosexualist groups seeking to undermine the Church. The article begins:

Gay rights money funds archbishop’s critics
Faithful America part of national progressive advocacy network

September 10th, 2014
By Valerie Schmalz 

"Many Catholics in the San Francisco Bay Area were surprised by the strong negative reaction to Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone’s decision to give a talk about traditional marriage at a June 19 Washington, D.C., rally organized to support marriage.

A national online petition from Faithful America and a nationally publicized June 10 letter from 78 politicians and others urged the archbishop to withdraw from the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C. The letter and petition citing “hate” speech by the National Organization for Marriage and the labeling participant Family Research Council as a “hate group” created a media storm and disturbed many local Catholics and pastors.

Most are used to attacks on the archbishop for his strong advocacy of the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage and family, but the reaction seemed disproportionate to the event – which was a talk at a rally by a Catholic Church leader who has given many talks in support of marriage and family across the country and in the media.

 The cause for surprise among Catholics may be they assumed the powerful reaction was spontaneous. Now there is abundant evidence the reaction was both well planned and financed by Faithful America, an organization that is supported directly and indirectly by politically powerful and wealthy men and by grant-making foundations who have devoted millions of dollars to promoting acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) behavior...."

Flowchart showing funding behind the "Open Letter" to Archbishop Cordileone.
Courtesy Catholic San Francisco.

The article is part one of a three-part special report. It is very heartening to see this in an Archdiocesan newspaper. Not only that, the Archdiocese has a number of its ministries involved in the special report. Ms. Schmalz's article quotes Jesuit Father John Piderit, the Archdiocese's new moderator of the curia and vicar for administration. Fr. Piderit says:

“Similar to other groups, Faithful America is a well-funded pressure group that espouses a variety of viewpoints contrary to Catholic teaching. Informed Catholics are aware that such groups regularly promote their viewpoints in the media.... Catholics should treat these people with dignity, but Catholics also should be aware of their agenda and their tactics." 

Fr. Piderit adds:“The message is part of a larger strategy, and the appearance of open letters and demonstrators is planned, not spontaneous.”

In addition to Ms. Schmalz's expose, the paper also contains two related pieces by Mr. Ed Hopfner, the director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life for the Archdiocese. His first piece articulates the Church's teaching on marriage--what it is and what it isn't:

"The marriage vows reflect the love of God shown us in the person of Jesus Christ – freely given, faithfully and completely given, and fruitful (life-giving). Furthermore, through his life, death and resurrection, Christ has elevated marriage to a sacrament, which gives us the grace to overcome our lust – our disordered desire, our tendency to use others, even our spouse, instead of love them – and love our spouse in the way they deserve.

No other kind of 'love relationship' (parent-child, sibling, friendship, same-sex couple, polygamous ... ) has these features – thus no other kind can be a marriage in our understanding. While many states have legalized same-sex marriage, the church cannot recognize them as such. Pope Francis, while reminding us that we cannot judge the heart, only actions, with his famous 'Who am I to judge?' quote, has reiterated the church’s teaching on the unique character of ‘traditional’ marriage, calling same-sex legal marriage a 'destructive attack on God’s plan,' since it omits a key element of marriage, openness to new life."

Mr. Hopfner's second contribution articulates the Church's teaching on conscience:

"The Catholic Church does teach the primacy of individual conscience. It’s like a compass God has given us, to make moral decisions. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that we must always obey our consciences.

However it also tells us we have an obligation of proper formation of conscience, since we are all 'tempted by sin to prefer … (our) own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.' Just like a compass can point in the wrong direction if a magnet is nearby, so our conscience can be pulled in the wrong direction, and make errors in judgment. The catechism tells us this is particularly true when we are subject to 'bad example by others ... (by) a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, (or) rejection of the church’s authority and her teaching.'”

Msgr. Pope nails it on St. Pat's Parade--and other things as well

Via Rorate, we share the commonsensical observations of the great Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington. Apparently, that Archdiocese pulled his post from their website. 

I can't see any good reason why they would do this. Since they did do it, though, they must have a bad reason. I hope Cardinal Dolan reconsiders his foolish decision to participate in the New York parade.

Time to End the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner?
By: Msgr. Charles Pope


The time for happy-clappy, lighthearted engagement of our culture may be nearing an end. Sometimes it takes a while to understand that what used to work no longer works. Let me get more specific.

Decades ago the “Al Smith Dinner” was a time for Republicans and Democrats to bury the hatchet (even if only temporarily) and come together to raise money for the poor and to emphasize what unites us rather than what divides us. But in the old days the death of 50 million infants was not what divided us. We were divided about lesser things such as how much of the budget should go to defense and how much to social spending. Reasonable men might differ over that.

But now we are being asked to raise toasts and to enjoy a night of frivolity with those who think it is acceptable to abort children by the millions each year, with those who think anal sex is to be celebrated as an expression of love and that LGBTQIA… (I=intersexual, A= Asexual) is actually a form of sanity to which we should tip our hat, and with those who stand four-square against us over religious liberty.

Now the St. Patrick’s Parade is becoming of parade of disorder, chaos, and fake unity. Let’s be honest: St. Patrick’s Day nationally has become a disgraceful display of drunkenness and foolishness in the middle of Lent that more often embarrasses the memory of Patrick than honors it.

In New York City in particular, the “parade” is devolving into a farcical and hateful ridicule of the faith that St. Patrick preached.

It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other “Catholic” traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Let’s do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.

But don’t go to the parade; stay away from the Al Smith Dinner and all that “old school” stuff that hangs on in a darkened world. And as for St Patrick’s Day, it’s time to stop wearin’ the green and instead take up the purple of Lent and mean it. Enough of the celebration of stupidity, frivolity, and drunkenness that St Paddy’s day has become. We need penance now, not foolishness. We don’t need parades and dinner with people who scoff at our teachings, insist we compromise, use us for publicity, and make money off of us. We’re being played for (and are?) fools.

End the St Patrick’s parade. End the Al Smith Dinner and all other such compromised events. Enough now, back to Church! Wear the purple of Lent and if there is going to be a procession, let it be Eucharistic and penitential for the sins of this age.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

How say you?