"EWTN Grabs NBC Fumble"

NCRegister:

CatholicVote.org’s new pro-life ad will air Sunday on EWTN’s “Faith Bowl” broadcast.

EWTN added the ad following NBC’s decision Wednesday to refuse to air the pro-life ad during this Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast.

As first reported by the Daily Blog, CatholicVote.org was told by NBC and the National Football League that the pro-life ad was rejected because they don’t want to air any ads about ‘political candidates or issues.’

The Daily Blog has repeatedly contacted NBC officials, unsuccessfully seeking a more detailed explanation of why the pro-life ad was rejected.

This shouldn’t be interpreted to imply that the Daily Blog is recommending that Catholics and other pro-lifers should boycott watching Sunday’s football extravaganza. We’re not.

But we do recommend tuning in beforehand to EWTN’s pregame “Faith Bowl.” Along with airing the CatholicVote.org ad that’s too “controversial” for NBC, the show will feature Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Mark Loretta and Antonio Soave, a former professional soccer player and current director of the Benedictine College School of Business, analyzing the role Catholicism and Christianity play in professional and collegiate sports.

The Faith Bowl airs at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, half an hour before Super Bowl XLIII’s opening kickoff at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.

"Through Him, With Him, In Him"

Fr. Richard Ho Lung describes his journey from Boston College professor to founder of the Missionaries of the Poor(MOP).



A year ago I participated in a silent retreat with the MOP, on Mount Tabor, Jamaica. Before ascending we spent a day at the missions in Kingston. Although I have eight children myself, six still at home, I cannot stop wracking my brains for ways to contribute to the MOP efforts. Those brothers are pure love, and their simple hard working lives are joyful beacons of God's mercy. I long to return to the missions and 'tend to Christ's wounds' , but in the meantime I ask you to consider what you may be able to do to help 'the least of our brothers'.

"The Alexandrian" Winter 2009

The 'Winter 2009' issue of The Alexandrian is out. Short fiction, poetry, essays and art following a theme of "Poverty Chastity, and Obedience", this Catholic culture journal from Canada shows us the depth of intelligence and creativity amongst our Catholic youth. Support their efforts by reading it and commenting.

Stimulating Sex

The 'stimulus' bill that passed through the House without any Republican support is still supporting illicit sex with millions of dollars.
OneNewsNow:

...Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America (CWA) points out (that)Planned Parenthood and others are still seeking money through the stimulus package to reduce population and promote "safe sex" programs for youth. Wright says it does not make sense. "The economic stimulus bill shifts the burden of the debt onto the next generation; yet if we are spending billions of more dollars in 'family planning,' there won't be much of a next generation to pay this huge debt," she argues.
In a CWA press release, Wright points out the $825-billion stimulus package halts funding for abstinence education programs while including $335 million for sexually transmitted disease (STD) education and prevention programs. She notes that the Centers for Disease Control -- a recipient of STD education funding -- previously has used federal funds for programs that she says "may stimulate some people, but not the economy."
"A transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco that advertised available HIV testing, that funded an event called 'Got Love? – Flirt/Date/Score' that taught participants how to flirt with greater finesse," the family advocate notes, "and also funded events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received nearly $700,000 in government funds."
Simply put, says Wright, the economic stimulus bill still funds programs that "encourage irresponsible sexual activity that increases healthcare costs."

(h/t Catholic Fire)

Hey Doug #5 - RNC Chooses REAL Catholic

A pro-life, devout, Catholic has been chosen as RNC chair!

American Papist:

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. (and former state party chairman) Michael Steele has been elected as the new chair of the Republican National Committee....

Here is an example of a politician who has a chance of affecting REAL 'hope' and 'change'. Talk about LIFE support!!

"Holy Sex @ 40"

Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online, reminds us of the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI encyclicalHumanae Vitae, and of what slow learners we have been!

...If you’re a woman getting angrier by the word as you read this, do yourself a favor: Instead of getting mad, psychoanalyzing me until your overworked Blackberry thumb gets tired, pick up a copy of one Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. Do a little Googling on “Theology of the Body”. Take a little time for considered reading and reflection. In this context — yours and mine — what Humanae Vitae has to say is truly radical:

Conjugal love . . . is total [pleno]; that is, it is a very special form of personal friendship whereby the spouses generously share everything with each other without undue reservations and without concern for their selfish convenience. One who truly loves his spouse not only loves her for what he receives from her but also for her own sake. This he does joyfully, as he enriches [his beloved] with the gift of himself.

Lopez does a good job of contrasting the Church's prescience with popular culture's blindness, and concludes...

Don’t hate us because we’re Catholic — we’re happy to share with you something that really works. The Good News is for sharing.

Feminists in particular have been slow to realize how they have been duped into supporting the heaviest chains that women bear today...the popular culture's total disregard for the inherent value of a woman AS A WOMAN.

Hey Doug #4 - Mexico Has REAL Catholics

In spite of a federal push for abortion access, individual states in Mexico are standing up and protecting life.

LifeSiteNews:

The Mexican State of Colima has become the latest to reject an initiative by Mexican socialists to legalize abortion, in a 19-1 vote in the state Congress.

The representative who formulated the law, Adolfo Nunez Gonzales of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), attributed his loss to the influence of the Catholic faith in the state, which led the liberal Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to vote with the more pro-life National Action Party against the bill.

"It's not a secret for anyone that the Catholic Church is a sector with a lot of power and weight, and that, of course, what is said in a church one Sunday or whatever day the mass is done, influences the people to analyze it all week," he said. "PRI members are not foolish and know that if they have a good relationship with the Church, it can encourage the votes of many people."...

If only Mr. Kmiec had had the same conviction of faith and reason as his neighbours to the south...of course, they had the support of REAL CATHOLIC VOTERS!!

I wonder if Mr. Kmiec sees the same potential for reduction of abortions in the federal socialists in Mexico, as he sees in the social engineering policies of President Obama?

"Silent Scream"

*disturbing graphic video about abortion*



This video is 27 minutes long, graphic, disturbing and every person fighting for the lives of the unborn should watch it... at least once.

"Capitalism and Christianity"

Ottawa Theology On Tap held a lecture featuring Richard Bastien:

"Capitalism and Christianity: Cooperation or Conflict?"


Is capitalism a 'Protestant' invention? Has the Catholic tradition played a role in the rise of capitalism? Why the tension between the Christian tradition and the capitalist 'spirit'? What does the Church have to say about economics? Why are so many Christians opposed to capitalism?



Richard Bastien studied public finance at the University of Montreal and at Harvard University and spent most of his career working as an economist in the Canadian Ministry of Finance, specializing in international finance. Throughout the 1990s, he was Canada’s representative in the Paris Club and in the G-8 Group of debt experts. Mr. Bastien is currently Director of the Canadian Catholic Civil Rights League for the Ottawa region and a founding member of ÉGARDS - the only culturally-conservative journal in Canada in either official language. He also writes for Challenge Magazine.

(via Facebook)

Providence

I had been planning to join EWTN in the singing of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy this afternoon , dedicated to my Uncle PJ who died yesterday. All the kids were gathered with their rosaries, only to find that a live show had pre-empted the regular schedule - the installation of our new Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron!

Providence had us in front of the television to participate in the Mass (from a long long distance) and to become familiar with our new Shepherd.(You might not guess that Detroit is our 'diocese', but strangely enough- it is!)

Providence has also provided us with an exceptionally worthy and holy Shepherd. I can not express my gratitude to the Lord for helping us in this particular way.

After the Mass we prayed our Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Uncle PJ and were refreshed in Spirit by the couple of hours immersed in Christian Hope and Charity.

Somedays I really really love being a Catholic mother .

Rainbow Pop

(This would explain how the Obama/Pepsi logos are interchangeable. Obama-ade?)

Pepsico has put millions of dollars into groups that actively seek to promote homosexual lifestyle through legislation. The Westins will no longer be purchasing ANY Pepsico products because we don't want to support a company that is working against the welfare of our family and our society. They are actively working against marriage and family in US and Canada. I particularly resent their television ads which are propaganda for homosexual behaviour, and accessible to children whenever the television is on.

Sign Petition, read the details of Pepsico's social engineering attempts and see their despicable ads at "Boycott Pepsico".

"The Triumph Of Style Over Substance"

Mark Crutcher on what America finds acceptable today :

...I can assure you that there have always been people who wanted to be president whose morals were no better than those of Clinton or Obama. The difference was that, back when America was still a Christian nation, the voters had better morals than to knowingly elect these kind of people to public office...

...All across America, there are those who claim that it is possible for them to be pro-choice – or vote for a supporter of legalized abortion – without abandoning their Christian principles. They get away with this despite the fact that, from a theological standpoint, what they are saying is clearly demonstrable hogwash.

Two fundamental doctrines of Christianity are that God is the author of life and that He is incapable of making mistakes. Obviously, the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from those concepts is that when life exists in the womb it is God’s will that it be there. Since the obvious goal of abortion is to deny that will, support for its legality is, by definition, incompatible with Christianity.

The fact is, when someone claims to be pro-choice they are asserting three things. The first is that life is not a right inherited from God but a privilege bestowed by human beings who can withhold it if they “choose” to do so. The second is that God is neutral on whether a child He created is brutally torn limb from limb. The third is that it is possible to reject the innocent new lives that God creates without rejecting God Himself. From a Christian perspective, all three of these views are absurd.

In the final analysis, Christians cannot be pro-choice about the intentional destruction of innocent human life any more than they can be pro-choice about rape, robbery, slavery, incest, child abuse, etc...

Catholic Carnival #209

Found at "Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering", and wonderfully worked into a theme of "The Sound of Music".
Find articles on poetry,marriage,politics,freedom, prayer,temptation,sin,love and trust!

Whew!

Hey Doug! #3

LifesiteNews:

Following on the heels of the elimination of the Mexico City Policy, President Obama has confirmed that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which helped instigate, perpetuate and enforce China's coercive one-child policy, will again receive taxpayer dollars.

Appended to the statement announcing the end of the Mexico City Policy, Obama said: "In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the U.N. Population Fund.

"By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries." The move came as no surprise as Obama has spoken out in favor of UNFPA funding in the past....

But surely this is a surprise to 'Catholic Champion of LIFE' and Obama Apologist Doug Kmiec! This can't be the 'reduction of abortions' that Kmiec promised Obama was going to produce!?

Wake Up People!

Star Parker lays out the facts...

"Culture of responsibility is culture of life
The black poverty rate, which has been frozen at twice the national average for decades, is almost exclusively a phenomenon of single parent homes"

...Maybe our first black president doesn't know that, despite blacks being just 12 percent of the American population, black babies constitute 37 percent of all our aborted children. One of every two black pregnancies is aborted.


In the words of my friend, the Rev. Clenard Childress, "the most dangerous place for an African American to be is in the womb of their African American mother."


According to Obama's statement, Roe v Wade was about "reproductive freedom" and a "woman's right to choose" and our "daughters" having "the same rights ... as our sons."


What responsibilities go with these "rights" Mr. President? And do we have ultimate responsibilities? And if so, to whom?


In his inaugural address, Mr. Obama appealed for "a new era of responsibility," bemoaned "greed and irresponsibility" and "failure to make hard choices."


But, Mr. President, if you condone a culture that has no sense of awe and responsibility toward the greatest of all miracles and mysteries -- life itself -- how can you expect responsibility elsewhere?


The president's statement proposes to "reduce" abortions by expanding "access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services."


But if there is no problem in destroying the unborn child, why is reducing abortions a goal? If it is okay to do once, why not twenty times? Or a million times a year, like now?


And, sir, will you continue to force us taxpayers to pay for the "unintended" consequences of women exercising their "reproductive freedom"?


Can it be accidental that along with the millions of abortions that followed the Roe v. Wade decision, the stability of American families spiraled downward, divorce rates increased, and out of wedlock birth rates skyrocketed to where today four of ten babies are born to unwed mothers?


As Tom Sowell has pointed out, as late as 1970 most black children were raised in two parent families. By 1995 one third were...

Post Modern Economics a la Pelosi *UPDATE*

UPDATE
Seems like the contraception element of the 'stimulus' may be dropped.
We'll see.




"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me

...line them up to the left please. READY...AIM...FIRE!!



I would call this sardonic humour, if not for how vey sad and shameful this really is.

Scott Ott:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC News’ George Stephanapolous Sunday that the Democrat’s economic stimulus bill, containing hundreds of millions of dollars for “family planning” services for the poor, will make real cuts in the number of low-income people, thereby saving taxpayer dollars, and increasing average income for everyone.

“Poor people are a luxury we just can’t afford,’ said Rep. Pelosi, “They cost us a lot of money to maintain; what with food stamps, housing and health care. So if we can rapidly reduce the number of poor people through contraception and abortion, that’s a net gain for federal and state budgets, and a fast track to economic recovery. Every poor baby prevented is like money in the bank.”.....

Less than a week in power, and the Democrats cannot seem to pace themselves. They're going to run through all the social engineering strategies in the first month! Eugenics, euthanasia, gay marriage, abortion, human experimentation .... aren't the groups most affected by these moves also the ones that are most likely to vote Democrat?

I don't get the 'kill off our demographic' strategy. Are there really enough rich atheist secular humanist post modern nihilists in the country to keep these guys in power...? Really?!



On a serious note, I think Nancy Pelosi is in desperate and urgent need of prayers. Her time could expire any moment, as with all of us, and she seems ill prepared to meet her Maker. Thanks to real Christians (as opposed to faux catholics), who most assuredly have had her in their prayers for quite a while. By God's grace, even the most obvious lost cause can be redeemed.

.

Separation of Church and State Allows Blurring of Good and Evil

Meditation on the Credo

Homily January 2009 at St. Hedwig's Catholic Church, Barry's Bay, ON
(Deacon Jean-Nil Chabot)

I’ve been thinking about the Creed, this week. Each day, at the beginning of the Rosary, and each Sunday and solemnities, we pronounce the articles of the Creed; we profess that we believe in God the Father who created the universe and gave it its laws, in God the Son who redeemed us from eternal death, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us through the Church. Then, I realized how important the Creed is for the Christian world in “this most critical time” as the prayer says it. There is no chance for renewal, no beneficial social reform in the world without at least a tacit acknowledgement of these truths contained in the Creed.

There is an understanding now, in the western world, that because the end or purpose of the State is different from that of the Church, the two must be completely separated as if there were a chasm between them. There are even some sincere Christians who are led to believe that this is what Christ meant when he said: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” True, Caesar, or the State, has its own purpose, which is to rule over temporal things, but God rules over everything, including Caesar himself. When it comes to moral issues, which relate to God’s law, the Church has the right and duty to judge Caesar’s actions and declare them right or wrong. There is a distinction between Church and State, but in the moral order the Church is the institution chosen by Christ to teach that which belongs to God, who is the ruler over all.

Belief in the radical separation of Church and State allows the powerful to speak out of both sides of their mouths. A leader who has climbed to the top of the political ladder in his country can profess to be Christian and yet produce policy after policy which, in the moral order, is categorically anti-Christian. From one side of his mouth comes the promise to defend the weakest and most defenseless members of society. On the other side comes the promise to give free rein to the murder of those still in the womb. From the one side comes a commitment to the family, on the other the commitment to its destruction by redefining marriage in order to legalize same-sex unions.

The citizens of his country, our own country or any other, should not be deceived into believing that such changes can produce the better world which is promised to them. Jesus foretold that “false messiahs would appear and would perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.” As far as I’m concerned, the kind of enthusiasm that was manifested throughout the world, earlier this week, could qualify as one of these wonders. However, our Lord said we would recognize them by their fruits. Whatever other reasons may attract us to such leaders, their charism in particular, let us not be fooled – let us look at their voting records and see if it indicated good fruit or decaying fruit. Let us see if they are divided within themselves, with one part professing the good and the other professing the evil.

We believe in God the Creator, God the Redeemer and God the sanctifier. Three in one: distinct, but united as one. With God, the only separation is from evil. All good is from God, all evil opposes Him. We cannot trust those leaders who separate Church and State in order to remove the opposition between good and evil and include them both without distinction, in one political agenda. Our hope is not in such men, but in God who rules over all. If we turn back to Him, He will call humble and holy men to lead us. Only then will we deserve that justice and the common good to be established in this world. Already the victory has been obtained for us through the merits of Christ who died for us – what is left to be accomplished, is for the world to claim that victory by returning to God. Then we will be able sing today’s Psalm, Psalm 85, with thankful hearts.

Psalm 85 'A prayer for God's grace to assist us to the end'
1. Incline thine ear O Lord, and hear me: for I am needy and poor.
2. Preserve my soul, for I am holy: save thy servant, O Lord my God, that trusteth in thee.
3. Have mercy on me , O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.
4. Give joy to the soul of thy servant, for to thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.
5. For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: amd plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.
6. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer: and attend to the voice of my petition.
..................................................................................................................
17. Show me a token for good: that they who hate me may see, and be confounded, because thou, O Lord, hast helped and comforted me.

Letter To The President

From the Bioethics Defense Fund

Dear President Obama:


Congratulations on your historic inauguration.

We'd like to introduce ourselves. We are pro-life Americans.

You will be hearing from us so we'd like to share our motivations.

Like you, we are motivated by faith; we have faith in God in whose image we are created.

Like you, we are motivated by hope; we encourage the kind of hope that is personified by one person reaching out to another in difficult situations like crisis pregnancies, and the experience of suffering from disease.

Like you, we are motivated most of all by love.

We have a deep love for the unique and unrepeatable beauty of every unborn child targeted for abortion, and for that child's mother and father who will be deprived of their child's transforming love.

We have a deep love for the young women of our nation who live in a culture that exploits them as sex objects due to the easy availability of abortion.

We have a deep love for our friends and family who suffer from disease and who deserve medical research and treatment that does not burden their conscience with knowing that human lives were destroyed in the name of science.

We have a deep love for those at the end of life who deserve true care and concern, not the false compassion of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.

On this historic occasion that vindicates the rights of human beings who were once considered to be property in American law, we invite you, Mr. President, to lead our nation with policies that respect the dignity and human rights of every human life, from beginning to end.

Sincerely,

(go to BDF to sign letter)