My Good Friend Is Gay

“He seems to be real gentleman: polite, kind, cheerful... How can it be bad to be gay with those virtues? Why can’t it be a lawful union to be gay? More and more people are accepting it today. “

You can love and respect your gay friend, but if you don’t hate sexual excess you are not a good Catholic. It is a God-issue more than a Catholic Church-issue. As the commandments, including the sixth, come from God, so only He can change this law. And since He is unchangeable it will never happen!

Your friend’s soul is in danger of hell fire. Don’t fall into the trap of confusing apparent virtue on the one hand, and sexual excess on the other.

Listen to God not to man!

"The Biggest, Bloodiest Scandal in U.S. Presidential History"

The first major television network to report in depth on the "Justice" Department's outrageous "Fast and Furious" plot, to smuggle guns from the US. to Mexico is Univision, the Spanish Language TV network.

The Univison report is, of course, in Spanish, but Bob Owens at PJ Media has a synopsis.

"It is chilling to learn that each weapon recovered was dumped at the scene of a crime by cartel members who had attempted, and in most cases completed, the crime of first-degree murder. It is even more disturbing to know that American Department of Justice officials knew that most of the weapons walked over the border would only be discarded by the police and recovered by Mexican authorities after they were used in a crime, and that they were indifferent to the body count being racked up, callously noting that to make an omelet, eggs had to be broken."

Our major English-language networks are being shamed by the Spainsh language newcomer, which is fifth, and by some counts, fourth, in total viewership. I wish they had an English language news show.

¡Gracias! Univision.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Make It Happen, Lord

I was invited to witness the The Miracle of San Gennaro and had the privilege of standing very near to the Archbishop as the miracle was repeated when the blood of Naples' patron saint liquefied.A huge crowd of faithful, who had been pouring into the city's cathedral and the square outside from the early hours of the day, greeted the announcement of the miracle recurrence with warm applause. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the Archbishop of Naples, held up a phial containing the blood of the 3rd-century saint. For religious and superstitious Neapolitans, the ritual's success is a good omen for the city.

The miracle takes place on the anniversary of the martyrdom of San Gennaro in September 305 AD. The dried blood of the saint is preserved in two glass phials and traditionally liquefies three times a year. The liquefaction process sometimes takes hours, even days, and on occasions fails to happen at all. When the miracle does not occur it is seen as a sign of impending disaster. In fact, disaster has struck on at least five occasions when the blood failed to liquefy.

A group of Italian scientists has analysed the contents of the phials, establishing that they do contain blood, but have been unable to explain the phenomenon. Some sceptics believe it is due to the shaking of the containers or the penetration of warmth from the holder's hands.

Sceptic that I was I walked away a true believer. No way it could have been done by the Archbishop’s hand. It was not a warm day; and one can shake dried blood all day and ever see the blood begin to flow!

Purpose of this blog? I am offering prayers for St Gennaro's intercession that, as Naples was relieved of many disasters, we too might be relieved of the horrors of our present US government. We cannot take another four years!

Romney Will Win in November

Why? Remember what happened in the last national election, 2010? That's the last hard data. The Republicans had a victory of enormous proportions. The entire election was a referendum on President Obama, and specifically on Obamacare. Has anything gotten better? NO. Not only that, the flaws in and objections to Obamacare have become more apparent.

The pointy-heads have lots of arguments for Obama, and the media are covering for him, but they are untrustworthy, and they are acting as if the 2010 tsunami never happened. Since then we have seen our ambassador to Libya murdered--the first American ambassador murdered in 30 years. Obama will certainly get a "bounce" when he directs our military to kill some terrorists in retaliation, but it will not be enough.

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Both Charles Krauthammer and especially former Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell have good articles on how the mainstream media has abrogated its responsibility when it comes to Obama. Caddell says that the mainstream media has become an enemty of the American People--something we said practically word for word back on September 13.

You can watch Caddell's speech below--remember, he worked for President Carter.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Nuns on the Bus

The National Review Online has the lollowing remarks I would like to share:

The  Sisters of Life were founded in 1991 by Cardinal John O’Connor and Mother Agnes Mary Donovan (a former Columbia psychology professor and clinician) as a new religious community of women dedicated to the defense of life at all stages and in all conditions. The Sisters of Life are wholly orthodox and wear the kind of modernized (and in their case, quite beautiful) religious habit envisioned by the Second Vatican Council. And unlike the religious orders represented by this summer’s “Nuns on the Bus” road show, which culminated in Sister Simone Campbell’s attempt to excommunicate Representative Paul Ryan at the Democratic National Convention (an effort that was, as President Obama might say, above Sister Simone’s pay grade), the Sisters of Life are growing, often attracting new recruits among highly educated and accomplished professional women.

Speaking at the Knight of Columus Mass @Red Mass@.Bishop Paprocki of Springfield made clear that recent letters from committee chairmen at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — letters widely cited by the Catholic Left in its demonization of Paul Ryan — were exercises in prudential judgment that were binding on precisely no one, for “reasonable minds can come to different conclusions about more effective ways” to solve the social problems addressed in the letters, including hunger. Thus Sister Simone, in telling the Democratic Convention that the Ryan budget had been condemned by the U.S. bishops, was either woefully ignorant or willfully malicious. And so, by extension, is every Catholic politician or activist who, like Sister Simone, misreads both Catholic social doctrine and the authority of letters written by USCCB chairmen, who speak for themselves, period.

Confession?

"Let’s be clear. Crying is not the goal, either of a sporting event or of a sacrament. What is interesting though is what can happen to students on the affective and spiritual plane when they are both suitably prepared and then given an opportunity to encounter the sacrament of reconciliation by staffs that take it seriously themselves."

Being Catholic

By Jonathan Doyle

Even The Onion's Had Enough of Press Fawning over Obama

Media Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Obama's Double-Homicide

WASHINGTON—More than a week after President Barack Obama's cold-blooded killing of a local couple, members of the American news media admitted Tuesday that they were still trying to find the best angle for covering the gruesome crime.

"I know there's a story in there somewhere," said Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, referring to Obama's home invasion and execution-style slaying of Jeff and Sue Finowicz on Apr. 8. "Right now though, it's probably best to just sit back and wait for more information to come in. After all, the only thing we know for sure is that our president senselessly murdered two unsuspecting Americans without emotion or hesitation."

Added Meacham, "It's not so cut and dried."

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Congressman West Hosts Forum on Abortion in the Black Community

Today, our friend Walter Hoye, Jr., and other black pro-lifers will bring their message to the halls of Congress.

At 1PM East Coast Time Congressman Allen West and the National Prolife Coalition will sponsor a forum to explore the horrific toll abortion is taking on the black community.

The forum will be held in the Rayburn Gold Room, Room 2168, of the Capitol.

In addition to Walter, presenters include: Ryan Bomberger, Founder of the Radiance Foundation; Stephen Broden, Sr. Pastor, Fairpark Bible Church; Dr. Freda Bush, MD; Catherine Davis, President, The Restoration Project; Day Gardner, President Black Prolife Union;  and Dean Nelson, Vice President, Underserved Outreach, Care Net.

Thank you, Congressman West for joining in this critical fight! Let us join in prayer:

"... The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16)

New Bishop for Orange County: Kevin Vann

This morning in Rome the Holy Father named Bishop Kevin Vann, Bishop of the diocese of FT. Worth, Texas, as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Orange. Bishop Vann will replace Bishop Tod Brown, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. Bishop Vann is 61.

The well-informed Rocco Palma gives a quick sketch of the new bishop:

"Over recent years, it’s hard to think of a national project on which Bishop Kevin Vann hasn’t been intimately involved. 

From serving on the three-member USCCB team that oversaw the Stateside implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus and mediating the bench’s oft-delicate relations with the nation’s Catholic hospitals, to filing suit against the Federal government over the contraceptive mandate of the Obama administration’s sweeping health-care reform, the 61 year-old prelate has cris-crossed considerably more ecclesial turf than the sprawling 28 counties of Northwest Texas he’s overseen since 2005."

Here are some examples of the Bishop's attitude in defense of life and the family:

On Abortion:

In October of 2008 Bishop Vann, along with his brother Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, issued a joint statement clarifying the meaning of the USCCB's Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship document. The statement asserted the absolute centrality of legalized abortion to our culture. All emphases in the original.

Therefore, we cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion – while not the "only issue" – it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, more than 48 million innocent lives have been lost. Each year in our nation more than one million lives are lost through legalized abortion. Countless other lives are also lost through embryonic stem cell research. In the coming months our nation will once again elect our political leaders. This electoral cycle affords us an opportunity to promote the culture of life in our nation. As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act, and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America, limiting it as much as we can until it is finally abolished.

He is very serious about this. In the runup to the 2004 elections, while serving as a Monsignor in Chicago, he said he would deny Communion to John Kerry and other pro-abortion politicians. The "Pro-Life" webpage of the Ft. Worth diocese has a full page devoted to exposing the evil of Planned Parenthood.

Their Excellencies go on to say:

"Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate's position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:

a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or "abortion rights," a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,

b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning, there are no "truly grave moral" or "proportionate" reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.

To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or "abortion rights" when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible."

On Marriage:

His Excellency is equally clear on what marriage is, and what it is not, and what it cannot be.  In a letter to the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, Bishop Vann wrote:

"Marriage is possible only between a man and a woman because it is only between them that the full expression of marital love is possible. In creation there is a unique complementarity between man and woman. Implicated in it is what Pope John Paul II called a “nuptial meaning”---a capacity for mutual self-giving which is total, extending to the depths of each person. The nuptial meaning of the body and of the person does not exist between persons of the same sex---they cannot have intercourse---and therefore a marital communion between them is not possible. It is thus that God’s will for man and woman to come together in a communion of love in marriage is written in the very nature of human beings. Such a union between persons of the same sex is impossible because human nature intrinsically does not allow for it."

His Excellency also expressed gratitude that the TLM was celebrated in his (now former) diocese of Ft. Worth.

Welcome to California, Bishop Vann!

"If I Could Have a Beer With Jesus"

How talented our young people are. A nice and moving song by a young man named Thomas Rhett.

Sebelius Ignores Church & Federal Law, too

Kathleen Sebelius, the pro-abortion Catholic head of the Department of Health and Human Services, not only ignores her Church--she ignores Federal law as well.

On September 12, the Daily Caller reported:

"President Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Wednesday.

Sebelius violated the law, the office said, when she publicly endorsed President Barack Obama’s re-election during a taxpayer-funded public event on Feb. 25, 2012.

Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner wrote to Obama that the OSC found Sebelius “violated the Hatch Act by making extemporaneous political remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity” on Feb. 25."

The violation took place at a fundraiser for the "Human Rights Campaig" homosexual activist group. The comprehensive report sent to President Obama by Carolyn  Lerner of  his own Office of Special Counsel, notes that twice during her speech Sebelius violated section 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1).

"Secretary Sebelius appeared at the HRC gala in her official capacity as HHS Secretary. As explained above, twice during the speech, Secretary Sebelius diverged from her prepared remarks. First, she endorsed the gubernatorial campaign of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton and stated that it is “hugely important” to elect a Democratic Governor in North Carolina. Although Secretary Sebelius testified that she “had not intended to endorse him,” her words had that effect. Because she made this endorsement in her official capacity as HHS Secretary, she violated the Hatch Act."

The report contained Sebelius response, in which she admitted violating the law,

Lerner's report concludes: 

"Congress has determined that violations of the Hatch Act by such officers be referred to the President “for appropriate action.”  See 5 U.S.C. § 1215(b).  Accordingly, OSC hereby submits this Report of Prohibited Political Activity, together with a response from Secretary Sebelius, to the President."

The New York Post reported:

"According to the OSC, the 'great majority' of Hatch Act violaters — about 100 a year — usually end up getting punished with a suspension."

As of this writing, President Obama has not disciplined Sebelius in any way.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

"I will do everything I can to help people make an intelligent choice, but whatever the people decide, they have decided, and I will be their instrument of execution," he said.

Sound high-minded, but he did not respect that principle when the constitutional amendment against same-sex "marriage" was passed by the voters.