The notebook of Leonius

Pakistan: Christians are ‘treated like animals,’

2010-03-25T18:20:00.000Z

An official of the Pakistani bishops’ conference has called upon the international community to exert pressure upon the nation’s government and defend the nation’s beleaguered Christian minority.

“In Pakistan, Christians suffer and see their lives in danger every day,” said Father John Shakir Nadeem, secretary of the bishops’ commission for social communications. “In some areas, believers are treated like animals, in slavery or subjected to harassment, violence, and forced conversions.”

“There is a widespread phenomenon of kidnapping of Christian girls, with death threats to the poorest families,” he continued. “Their abduction is followed by conversion and forced marriage. It is a stigma that many NGOs [non-governmental organizations] denounce in the face of the indifference of the authorities.”

He continued:

The situation is certainly varies between urban and rural areas. Christians in the city-- even in a general context of discrimination-- live together in neighborhoods called “colonies.” They have access to education, social services, to work. 30% of the Christian population can also make their way in society, even though here we are exposed to terrorist attacks against churches and Christian areas.

In remote villages, rural areas, the situation is very different. Small Christian groups, often poor, marginalized, and illiterate, suffer the oppression of the Muslim majority and are under the rule of others who make their profit by bullying, to rape, slavery, murder … Christians are often subject to false accusations of blasphemy, to threats of conversion, violence against women, property and possessions.

The Church spokesman made his complaint as Christians in Rawalpindi gathered for the funeral of Arshed Masih, who died from burns that covered 80% of his body. Neighbors reported that Masih was burned by local police-- the same police who had raped his wife.

Christians are a tiny minority in Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population; only 0.7% of the Islamic republic’s 159.6 million people are Catholic.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-24T10:45:00.000Z

The Catholic Church with that wisdom which is the fruit of age and experience, as well as of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has an intimate knowledge of human nature. She knows that an abstract religion is not only inadequate to our wants, but is intrinsicly impossible. It must be embodied in some forms, and must have some outward expression, for we are men and not angels.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-23T10:34:00.001Z

THE Catholic Church teaches nothing but what has been revealed by God, or is plainly deducible from revelation. All truth comes from God, as all light proceeds from the sun. He is the author of natural, as well as of revealed truth. One truth can never contradict another. No truth of revelation can ever be opposed to any truth of science. Natural and revealed truth always are and always must be in harmony and shed light upon one another, just as one star throws light upon another and expands our view of the firmament above us.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-22T09:18:00.002Z

A VISIT every day to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament dissipates the worldly mist that may have enveloped you, and brings you nearer to the God of Light. It sobers the senses, moderates the abnormal activity of the mind, calms the passions, sweetens the labours, lightens the burdens of life, and diffuses around you a spirit of heavenly peace and tranquillity.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-20T11:36:00.000Z

THE sincere adorers and lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ look with reverence on every object with which He was associated, and they conceive an affection for every person that was near and dear to Him on earth. The closer the intimacy of those persons with our Saviour, the holier do they appear in our estimation, just as those planets which revolve around the sun partake most of its light and heat.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-19T16:20:00.000Z

NEVER did any man speak as Jesus spoke. As far as we have any record of His utterances, the most admired discourse He ever delivered was the Sermon on the Mount. But even the Sermon on the Mount yields in force and pales before the Sermon on the Cross. There we find eloquence in action; and if our Lord had restricted His mission on earth to the preaching of the Word, like the Scribes and Pharisees, without illustrating it by the splendour of His example, He would never have caused that mighty revolution which has changed the face of the world; nor would He be adored today by millions of disciples from the rising to the setting of the sun.

How to be Happy, What the Remedy is which alone can afford Relief to an Agitated Conscience

2010-03-18T19:19:00.000Z

3. It may be asked where is the equity of the proceeding in substituting the innocent for the guilty, and in rewarding one party in consideration of what was done by another?

It may be said in answer, that God, who is the law-giver, can choose the manner He pleases to secure the honour of His law.

Though the natural course of things requires the infliction of punishment on the transgressors own person, yet does this imply that infinite wisdom cannot contrive a method which is above the ordinary course of things, and still reflecting in the highest degree the Divine character?

And since in the method revealed to us the law appears most honourable, while the Saviour and the saved are jointly exalted and beatified, do not the justice and mercy of God appear inexpressibly glorious?

But as all God's operations baffle man's ingenuity, and confound his reasoning's; so also this glorious method is by us but imperfectly understood, and there belongs to it much that is a mystery to be adored.

A mere casuist may suggest numerous objections, and he may perhaps find in the doctrine matter of offence to his speculative tendencies. Nevertheless, a devout study of the truth is a means of quieting the tumult in the bosom of a troubled sinner, and of soothing the agitations of an awakened conscience.

When the truth concerning the atonement is devoutly studied, it commends itself to our reason, and it is adapted to elevate and to ennoble our minds; for it is found to be part of a grand scheme which has originated in unfathomable wisdom.

Natural conscience suggests the necessity of some means to secure the favour of an offended God, yet how vain, frivolous, and even absurd, are many of the expedients used by men when left to the guidance of their imagination.

But the principles and designs of the great plan of redemption are such that they are fitted to give the highest exercise to the most capacious understandings, and to incite in the most exalted minds a spirit of adoration.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-18T16:37:00.000Z

THE upright Christian believes not only in the sanctity of human suffering, but also in its heavenly recompense when endured for Christ's sake.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-17T14:34:00.002Z

HOW are we to pay allegiance to Christ our King? By consecrating to Him the two noblest faculties of our souls our intellect and our will.

We submit our intellect to Him by an abiding faith in Him, and our will by observing His law and loving Him.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-16T11:48:00.000Z

THE timely remembrance of an appropriate sentence of Holy Writ is a tower of strength in the hour of temptation or despondency.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-15T10:57:00.002Z

THE Christian dispensation excels the Jewish law, not only by the breadth and clearness of its revelation, but also by the sublime standard of its moral teaching. The law of Moses governed the exterior conduct of man; the law of Christ controls the interior movements of his heart.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-13T19:13:00.000Z

LOOK today upon the face of your Christ and let the conduct of our Lord inspire you to be a faithful Christian. Be ever faithful to conscience, to principle and to duty. Above all, be ever loyal to your religious convictions, through honour and dishonour, through good report and evil report. This is the Christian manhood which distinguishes the hero from the coward, the martyr from the apostate.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-12T12:40:00.000Z

THE holy Scripture is your weapon in time of war, your companion in time of peace.

Daily Maxim

2010-03-11T11:25:00.000Z

RESOLVE during this holy season of Lent to set aside a certain time each day or night which you will devote to the reading of a religious book. Above all other books, choose the Sacred Scriptures.

How to be Happy, What the Remedy is which alone can afford Relief to an Agitated Conscience

2010-03-10T19:51:00.004Z

2. Now, as the principal cause of the distress is a sense of God's displeasure, it is evident that no relief can be experienced until the anxious individual perceives some means by which God can be appeased.

This is effected solely through Christ's atonement. The term atonement signifies that satisfaction has been rendered to God for man's transgressions.

God is often represented as being angry in consequence of our sins. We are, however, not to consider His anger as an emotion similar to that which exists in a frail creature.

By His anger we are to understand the exercise of His vindictive justice in punishing sin. Hence the atonement is that ransom which the justice of God requires in order that the guilty may be honourably pardoned.

And what is it that can be a ransom or satisfaction to God as a righteous judge?

It is clear that it must be something in respect to whcih the law is not tarnished when the transgressor is spared.

There can be no satisfaction unless the requirements of the law are fully answered and unless its threatenings for transgressions are fully executed.

What then is the satisfaction?

It is the complete obedience and sufferings of Christ as our substitute.

The greatness of God and the greatness of sin require a greatness of sacrifice. But since the Son of God, in the nature of man, offered Himself for us to God, this is a sacrifice which our enlightened reason commends even when we have the most elevated notions of the Divine character, and the liveliest apprehension of our own demerit.

Maxim

2010-03-10T15:03:00.001Z

KNOW then, my brethren, that perfection is made up of little things well performed.

Michael Angelo was once engaged in executing a marble statue. The patron one day called on the artist in his studio and was surprised to find how slowly he had progressed in his work.

"What have you done" he asked, "since I was last here?" "Oh" replied the sculptor, "I have retouched this part, polished that; I have softened this feature, have brought out that muscle, have given more expression to that lip, more energy to that limb."

"But these are trifles," said his patron. "Yes, but trifles go to make perfection, and perfection, I assure you, is no trifle."

Remember, then, that those little acts of devotion, of Christian courtesy and charity which you are daily called on to practice, may be trifles, but they are trifles which form the perfect man, and a perfect man is the noblest work of God.

How to be Happy, What the Remedy is which alone can afford Relief to an Agitated Conscience

2010-03-09T12:57:00.000Z

1. It is clear that the remedy must contain elements of relief adapted to counteract the elements of distress.

There is a remedy for an evil conscience revealed to us which has been tried innumerable times, and in the worst cases, and in every variety of circumstances; and myriads, even when quitting the world, have borne testimony to its thorough efficacy.

The virtue of some medicines was first discovered by an accidental observation of their effects, but afterwards by analysing their component parts, reasons could be adduced showing why they are adapted to certain diseases.

Some, in like manner, have experienced the powerful effects of the remedy which we have in view, and when they afterwards, in their calm hours, studied the Scriptures and the character of God, they saw reasons showing its complete adaptation to the purpose.

Maxim

2010-03-09T12:29:00.002Z

THE Redeemer of mankind has never conferred a greater temporal blessing on the human race than by ennobling and sanctifying labour, and by rescuing it from the stigma of degradation that had been branded upon it. The primeval curse attached to labour has been obliterated by the toilsome life of Jesus Christ. He has shed a halo around the workshop and has lightened the mechanic's tools by assuming the trade of an artisan.

Muslims slaughter hundreds of Christians in Nigeria

2010-03-08T21:55:00.000Z

Muslim gangs attacked three villages in central Nigeria and killed up to 400 Christians in pre-dawn attacks on March 7. “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses, and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” said one witness. Another added, “We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and then the older men, who cannot run, these were the ones that were slaughtered.”

Some 300 Christian churches have been destroyed in the area around Jos during the past four years. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos described his efforts to have friendly relations with Muslims, the effects of the local imposition of Sharia, and the caution with which he catechizes potential Muslim converts, some of whom “come just because they want to infiltrate.”

Maxim

2010-03-08T12:19:00.000Z

CONSCIENCE enlightens me on the existence of a God who is all-seeing and to whom I am responsible for my deliberate acts. There is no moral action of mine on which He does not pronounce a decision. There is no crime I commit against which He does not give an immediate sentence. His court is never adjourned. He never nods on the bench.

Maxim

2010-03-07T00:13:00.003Z

AS the life and health of your body require that it be sustained by daily food and exercise, so do the life and growth of faith demand that it be nourished by daily prayer and the observance of God's precepts. If it is not thus nurtured, it will languish and die.

How to be Happy, The Torment of an Evil Conscience

2010-03-05T18:53:00.001Z

4. Hence, the conviction that the soul is immortal becomes another element of torment.

The thought of immortality incites the most gloomy sentiments in an individual having the preceding emotions.

He is aware that he approaches a circumstance in which he shall find himself totally helpless, and shall enter into a state of existence of which he is now totally ignorant.

And he cannot avoid the impression that he will be at the entire disposal of Him whose displeasure he now partly experiences.

We may naturally suppose what the feelings are of a traveller who finds himself alone in the midst of an endless plain of a sandy desert, while suffering at the same time the scorching rays of a vertical sun.

Yet, this is only a feeble comparison to show the feelings of him who experiences the remorse and terrors of a guilty conscience while he mentally beholds before him boundless eternity.

The preceding observations are only a very partial description of the distress which many have experienced. Let them, however, suffice to incite our minds in the search for some means of alleviation, whcih I will move on to discuss next.

Maxim

2010-03-05T11:41:00.000Z

THE fault with most of us is that we live and act as if our existence closed with the grave.

Maxim

2010-03-04T15:49:00.002Z

IT is a fearful thing to receive the grace of God in vain ! According to the testimony of Christ Himself, it is a sign of reprobation to have a distaste or aversion for the word of God. He said to the Jews, "Ye hear not the word of God, because ye are not of God."

How to be Happy, The Torment of an Evil Conscience

2010-03-03T15:45:00.000Z

3. And, in connection with all this, he has a lively sense of God's anger.

There is no need of arguments to prove that God can communicate to the mind of man either an experience of his favour, by which that man is rendered happy in the midst of most trying circumstances, or a feeling of his displeasure, by which the hardiest individual may be overcome with sorrow and anguish.

Fire, which ordinarily is to us an occasion of so much enjoyment, may, through a little variety of circumstances, produce intolerable pain.

God, who is the author of all our comforts, may , by justly varying his dealings, produce such emotions as to make the stout hearted exclaim, "Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

In such a case, the mental and moral powers of man become so many avenues of distress, and their capacity of indefinite expansion shows the possibility of their becoming occasions of ever increasing misery.

Maxim

2010-03-03T12:16:00.002Z

SUFFERING is the law of human life. No man can escape it, whether he be pope or king, emperor or president. But if tribulation is a law of human life, it is also, thank God, a law and a condition of Christian progress and perfection. It is a means ordained by Heaven for our sanctification and salvation.

How to be Happy, The Torment of an Evil Conscience

2010-03-02T22:31:00.001Z

2. Another element is deep shame and keen remorse.

This is especially the case after some notorious actions. When passion has subsided, and external objects have lost their charm, then comes a time for reflection. The transgressor now cannot but perceive his utter folly in allowing himself to be impelled by such unworthy motives, and to be illuded by such sordid objects.

He sees that he has incurred a stain whcih cannot be wiped away, and that he has caused, perhaps, damage both to himself and to to others which cannot be repaired.

He now begins to regard himself in th same light as he is beheld by others. And since he is well aware that in proportion as his character is understood, he is odious and contemptible to his fellow men, he himself regards his own conduct with similiar feelings.

His own sin, like a spectre, haunts him always and everywhere.

According to an old law, he who had murdered a man was to have the corpse of the slain individual tied on his back, and he was to carry it with him in all his movements until either himself was overcome by the poisonous exhalations, or the body was totally decomposed.

There is something analogous in the case of him in whose mind a consciousness of sin has been produced. He experiences chagrin and remorse, he regards himself with abhorrence, and he has a painful sense of utter inability to effect for himself deliverance.

THE VOCATION OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE

2010-03-02T19:17:00.004Z

by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver
1 March 2010.

One of the ironies in my talk tonight is this. I'm a Catholic bishop, speaking at a Baptist university in America's Protestant heartland. But I've been welcomed with more warmth and friendship than I might find at a number of Catholic venues. This is a fact worth discussing. I'll come back to it at the end of my comments. [...]

I need to offer a few caveats before I turn to the substance of our discussion.

The first caveat is this: My thoughts tonight are purely my own. I don't speak for the Holy See, or the American Catholic bishops, or the Houston Catholic community. In the Catholic tradition, the local bishop is the chief preacher and teacher of the faith, and the shepherd of the local Church. Here in Houston you have an outstanding bishop – a man of great Christian faith and intellect – in Cardinal Daniel DiNardo. In all things Catholic tonight, I'm glad to defer to his leadership.

Here's my second caveat: I'm here as a Catholic Christian and an American citizen – in that order. Both of these identities are important. They don't need to conflict. They are not, however, the same thing. And they do not have the same weight. I love my country. I revere the genius of its founding documents and its public institutions. But no nation, not even the one I love, has a right to my allegiance, or my silence, in matters that belong to God or that undermine the dignity of the human persons He created.

My third caveat is this: Catholics and Protestants have different memories of American history. The historian Paul Johnson once wrote that America was “born Protestant” (1). That's clearly true. Whatever America is today or may become tomorrow, its origin was deeply shaped by a Protestant Christian spirit, and the fruit of that spirit has been, on the balance, a great blessing for humanity. But it's also true that, while Catholics have always thrived in the United States, they lived through two centuries of discrimination, religious bigotry and occasional violence. Protestants of course will remember things quite differently. They will remember Catholic persecution of dissenters in Europe, the entanglements of the Roman Church and state power, and papal suspicion of democracy and religious liberty.

We can't erase those memories. And we cannot – nor should we try to – paper over the issues that still divide us as believers in terms of doctrine, authority and our understandings of the Church. Ecumenism based on good manners instead of truth is empty. It's also a form of lying. If we share a love of Jesus Christ and a familial bond in baptism and God’s Word, then on a fundamental level, we're brothers and sisters. Members of a family owe each other more than surface courtesies. We owe each other the kind of fraternal respect that “speak[s] the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). We also urgently owe each other solidarity and support in dealing with a culture that increasingly derides religious faith in general, and the Christian faith in particular. And that brings me to the heart of what I want to share with you.

*

Our theme tonight is the vocation of Christians in American public life. That’s a pretty broad canvas. Broad enough that I wrote a book about it. Tonight I want to focus in a special way on the role of Christians in our country’s civic and political life. The key to our discussion will be that word “vocation.” It comes from the Latin word "vocare," which means, “to call.” Christians believe that God calls each of us individually, and all of us as a believing community, to know, love and serve him in our daily lives.

But there’s more. He also asks us to make disciples of all nations. That means we have a duty to preach Jesus Christ. We have a mandate to share his Gospel of truth, mercy, justice and love. These are mission words; action words. They’re not optional. And they have practical consequences for the way we think, speak, make choices and live our lives, not just at home but in the public square. Real Christian faith is always personal, but it’s never private. And we need to think about that simple fact in light of an anniversary.

Fifty years ago this fall, in September 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate for president, spoke to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. He had one purpose. He needed to convince 300 uneasy Protestant ministers, and the country at large, that a Catholic like himself could serve loyally as our nation’s chief executive. Kennedy convinced the country, if not the ministers, and went on to be elected. And his speech left a lasting mark on American politics. It was sincere, compelling, articulate – and wrong. Not wrong about the patriotism of Catholics, but wrong about American history and very wrong about the role of religious faith in our nation’s life. And he wasn’t merely “wrong.” His Houston remarks profoundly undermined the place not just of Catholics, but of all religious believers, in America’s public life and political conversation. Today, half a century later, we’re paying for the damage.

Now those are strong statements. So I’ll try to explain them by doing three things. First, I want to look at the problems in what Kennedy actually said. Second, I want to reflect on what a proper Christian approach to politics and public service might look like. And last, I want to examine where Kennedy’s speech has led us – in other words, the realities we face today, and what Christians need to do about those realities.

*

John Kennedy was a great speaker. Ted Sorensen, who helped craft the Houston speech, was a gifted writer. As a result, it’s easy to speed-read Kennedy’s Houston remarks as a passionate appeal for tolerance. But the text has at least two big flaws (2). The first is political and historical. The second is religious.

Early in his remarks, Kennedy said: “I believe in an America where the separation of Church and state is absolute.” Given the distrust historically shown to Catholics in this country, his words were shrewdly chosen. The trouble is, the Constitution doesn’t say that. The Founders and Framers didn’t believe that. And the history of the United States contradicts that. Unlike revolutionary leaders in Europe, the American Founders looked quite favorably on religion. Many were believers themselves. In fact, one of the main reasons for writing the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause – the clause that bars any federally-endorsed Church – was that several of the Constitution’s Framers wanted to protect the publicly funded Protestant Churches they already had in their own states. John Adams actually preferred a “mild and equitable establishment of religion” and helped draft that into the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution (3).

America’s Founders encouraged mutual support between religion and government. Their reasons were practical. In their view, a republic like the United States needs a virtuous people to survive. Religious faith, rightly lived, forms virtuous people. Thus, the modern, drastic sense of the “separation of Church and state” had little force in American consciousness until Justice Hugo Black excavated it from a private letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association (4). Justice Black then used Jefferson’s phrase in the Supreme Court’s Everson v. Board of Education decision in 1947.

The date of that Court decision is important, because America’s Catholic bishops wrote a wonderful pastoral letter one year later – in 1948 – called “The Christian in Action.” It’s worth reading. In that letter, the bishops did two things. They strongly endorsed American democracy and religious freedom. They also strongly challenged Justice Black’s logic in Everson.

The bishops wrote that “it would be an utter distortion of American history and law” to force the nation’s public institutions into an “indifference to religion and the exclusion of cooperation between religion and government.” They rejected Justice Black’s harsh new sense of the separation of Church and state as a “shibboleth of doctrinaire secularism”(5). And the bishops argued their case from the facts of American history.

The value of remembering that pastoral statement tonight is this: Kennedy referenced the 1948 bishops’ letter in his Houston comments. He wanted to prove the deep Catholic support for American democracy. And rightly so. But he neglected to mention that the same bishops, in the same letter, repudiated the new and radical kind of separation doctrine he was preaching.

The Houston remarks also created a religious problem. To his credit, Kennedy said that if his duties as President should “ever require me to violate my conscience or violate the national interest, I would resign the office.” He also warned that he would not “disavow my views or my church in order to win this election.” But in its effect, the Houston speech did exactly that. It began the project of walling religion away from the process of governance in a new and aggressive way. It also divided a person’s private beliefs from his or her public duties. And it set “the national interest” over and against “outside religious pressures or dictates.”

For his audience of Protestant ministers, Kennedy’s stress on personal conscience may have sounded familiar and reassuring. But what Kennedy actually did, according to Jesuit scholar Mark Massa, was something quite alien and new. He “‘secularize[d] the American presidency in order to win it.” In other words, “[P]recisely because Kennedy was not an adherent of that mainstream Protestant religiosity that had created and buttressed the ‘plausibility structures’ of [American] political culture at least since Lincoln, he had to ‘privatize’ presidential religious belief – including and especially his own – in order to win that office” (6).

In Massa’s view, the kind of secularity pushed by the Houston speech “represented a near total privatization of religious belief – so much a privatization that religious observers from both sides of the Catholic/Protestant fence commented on its remarkable atheistic implications for public life and discourse.” And the irony – again as told by Massa – is that some of the same people who worried publicly about Kennedy’s Catholic faith got a result very different from the one they expected. In effect, “the raising of the [Catholic] issue itself went a considerable way toward ‘secularizing’ the American public square by privatizing personal belief. The very effort to ‘safeguard’ the [essentially Protestant] religious aura of the presidency... contributed in significant ways to its secularization.”

Fifty years after Kennedy’s Houston speech, we have more Catholics in national public office than ever before. But I wonder if we’ve ever had fewer of them who can coherently explain how their faith informs their work, or who even feel obligated to try. The life of our country is no more “Catholic” or “Christian” than it was 100 years ago. In fact it's arguably less so. And at least one of the reasons for it is this: Too many Catholics confuse their personal opinions with a real Christian conscience. Too many live their faith as if it were a private idiosyncrasy – the kind that they’ll never allow to become a public nuisance. And too many just don't really believe. Maybe it’s different in Protestant circles. But I hope you’ll forgive me if I say, “I doubt it.”

*

John Kennedy didn’t create the trends in American life that I’ve described. But at least for Catholics, his Houston speech clearly fed them. Which brings me to the second point of my talk: What would a proper Christian approach to politics look like? John Courtney Murray, the Jesuit scholar who spoke so forcefully about the dignity of American democracy and religious freedom, once wrote: “The Holy Spirit does not descend into the City of Man in the form of a dove. He comes only in the endlessly energetic spirit of justice and love that dwells in the man of the City, the layman” (7).

Here's what that means. Christianity is not mainly – or even significantly –- about politics. It's about living and sharing the love of God. And Christian political engagement, when it happens, is never mainly the task of the clergy. That work belongs to lay believers who live most intensely in the world. Christian faith is not a set of ethics or doctrines. It's not a group of theories about social and economic justice. All these things have their place. All of them can be important. But a Christian life begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ; and it bears fruit in the justice, mercy and love we show to others because of that relationship.

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:37-40). That's the test of our faith, and without a passion for Jesus Christ in our hearts that reshapes our lives, Christianity is just a word game and a legend. Relationships have consequences. A married man will commit himself to certain actions and behaviors, no matter what the cost, out of the love he bears for his wife. Our relationship with God is the same. We need to live and prove our love by our actions, not just in our personal and family lives, but also in the public square. Therefore Christians individually and the Church as a believing community engage the political order as an obligation of the Word of God. Human law teaches and forms as well as regulates; and human politics is the exercise of power – which means both have moral implications that the Christian cannot ignore and still remain faithful to his vocation as a light to the world (Mt 5:14-16).

Robert Dodaro, the Augustinian priest and scholar, wrote a wonderful book a few years ago called "Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine". In his book and elsewhere, Dodaro makes four key points about Augustine's view of Christianity and politics (8).

First, Augustine never really offers a political theory, and there's a reason. He doesn't believe human beings can know or create perfect justice in this world. Our judgment is always flawed by our sinfulness. Therefore, the right starting point for any Christian politics is humility, modesty and a very sober realism.

Second, no political order, no matter how seemingly good, can ever constitute a just society. Errors in moral judgment can't be avoided. These errors also grow exponentially in their complexity as they move from lower to higher levels of society and governance. Therefore the Christian needs to be loyal to her nation and obedient to its legitimate rulers. But he also needs to cultivate a critical vigilance about both.

Third, despite these concerns, Christians still have a duty to take part in public life according to their God-given abilities, even when their faith brings them into conflict with public authority. We can’t simply ignore or withdraw from civic affairs. The reason is simple. The classic civic virtues named by Cicero – prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance – can be renewed and elevated, to the benefit of all citizens, by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. Therefore, political engagement is a worthy Christian task, and public office is an honorable Christian vocation.

Fourth, in governing as best they can, while conforming their lives and their judgment to the content of the Gospel, Christian leaders in public life can accomplish real good, and they can make a difference. Their success will always be limited and mixed. It will never be ideal. But with the help of God they can improve the moral quality of society, which makes the effort invaluable.

What Augustine believes about Christian leaders, we can reasonably extend to the vocation of all Christian citizens. The skills of the Christian citizen are finally very simple: a zeal for Jesus Christ and his Church; a conscience formed in humility and rooted in Scripture and the believing community; the prudence to see which issues in public life are vital and foundational to human dignity, and which ones are not; and the courage to work for what's right. We don't cultivate these skills alone. We develop them together as Christians, in prayer, on our knees, in the presence of Jesus Christ – and also in discussions like tonight.

*

Now before ending, I want to turn briefly to the third point I mentioned earlier in my talk: the realities we face today, and what Christians need to do about them. As I was preparing these comments for tonight, I listed all the urgent issues that demand our attention as believers: abortion; immigration; our obligations to the poor, the elderly and the disabled; questions of war and peace; our national confusion about sexual identity and human nature, and the attacks on marriage and family life that flow from this confusion; the growing disconnection of our science and technology from real moral reflection; the erosion of freedom of conscience in our national health-care debates; the content and quality of the schools that form our children.

The list is long. I believe abortion is the foundational human rights issue of our lifetime. We need to do everything we can to support women in their pregnancies and to end the legal killing of unborn children. We may want to remember that the Romans had a visceral hatred for Carthage not because Carthage was a commercial rival, or because its people had a different language and customs. The Romans hated Carthage above all because its people sacrificed their infants to Ba’al. For the Romans, who themselves were a hard people, that was a unique kind of wickedness and barbarism. As a nation, we might profitably ask ourselves whom and what we’ve really been worshipping in our 40 million “legal” abortions since 1973.

All of these issues that I’ve listed above divide our country and our Churches in a way Augustine would have found quite understandable. The City of God and the City of Man overlap in this world. Only God knows who finally belongs to which. But in the meantime, in seeking to live the Gospel we claim to believe, we find friends and brothers in unforeseen places, unlikely places; and when that happens, even a foreign place can seem like one’s home.

The vocation of Christians in American public life does not have a Baptist or Catholic or Greek Orthodox or any other brand-specific label. John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me” – which is so key to the identity of Houston Baptist University, burns just as hot in this heart, and the heart of every Catholic who truly understands his faith. Our job is to love God, preach Jesus Christ, serve and defend God’s people, and sanctify the world as his agents. To do that work, we need to be one. Not “one” in pious words or good intentions, but really one, perfectly one, in mind and heart and action, as Christ intended. This is what Jesus meant when he said: “I do not pray for these only, but also those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Jn 17:20-21).

We live in a country that was once – despite its sins and flaws – deeply shaped by Christian faith. It can be so again. But we will do that together, or we won’t do it at all. We need to remember the words of St. Hilary from so long ago: "Unum sunt, qui invicem sunt", they are one, who are wholly for each other (9). May God grant us the grace to love each other, support each other and live wholly for each other in Jesus Christ – so that we might work together in renewing the nation that has served human freedom so well.

__________

(1) Paul Johnson, “An Almost-Chosen People,” First Things, June/July 2006; adapted from his Erasmus Lecture.

(2) Full text of the Kennedy Houston speech is available online from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

(3) John Witte, Jr., “From Establishment to Freedom of Public Religion,” Emory University School of Law, Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series, Research Paper No. 04-1, 2003, p. 5.

(4) Ibid., p. 2-3.

(5) U.S. Catholic bishops, pastoral letter, “The Christian in Action,” No. 11, 1948; see also Nos. 12-18; reprinted in "Pastoral Letters of the American Hierarchy, 1792-1970," Hugh J. Nolan, Our Sunday Visitor, 1971.

(6) Mark Massa, S.J.; quotations from Massa are from “A Catholic for President? John F. Kennedy and the ‘Secular’ Theology of the Houston Speech, 1960,” Journal of Church and State, Spring 1997.

(7) John Courtney Murray, S.J., “The Role of Faith in the Renovation of the World,” 1948; Murray’s works are available online from the Woodstock Theological Center Library.

(8) Robert Dodaro, O.S.A.; see private correspondence with speaker, along with "Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine," Cambridge University Press, 2008 (first published in 2004), and “Ecclesia and Res Publica: How Augustinian Are Neo-Augustinian Politics?,” collected in "Augustine and Post-Modern Thought: A New Alliance Against Modernity?," Peeters, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 2009.

(9) Referenced in Murray, “The Construction of a Christian Culture;” essay originally delivered as three talks in 1940, available as noted above.

Maxim

2010-03-02T14:02:00.003Z

TO save your soul and become a shining light in God's kingdom, you are not called upon to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land, you are not obliged to visit the Tombs of the Apostles, or to work miracles, or to shed your blood for the faith, or to convert nations; but you are merely required to maintain with fidelity the post assigned to you by Providence.

The Prisoner (1955) PART 1

2010-03-02T01:15:00.003Z

A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. As a prince of his church, and a popular hero of this people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and afterward his resistance when his country again fell to a totalitarian conquerer. In prison, his interrogator is determined to get a confession of guilt against the state from the strong willed man, and thus destroy his power over his people.

The Prisoner was banned from the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals.

How to be Happy, The Torment of an Evil Conscience

2010-03-01T17:41:00.000Z

1. There is first of all a consciousness of sin committed.

This is experienced by many who have not been guilty of acts of any peculiar atrocity. And it is difficult sometimes to point out any immediate occasion of the disquietude.

After years of comparative ease and indifference, a vivid recollection is produced of past faults, and several considerations are ushered into the mind by which these past actions are greatly aggravated.

External means, in some cases, have so little to do with the agitation that is must be ascribed either to the inherent activity of conscience itself, or to a secret and Divine influence upon the mind.

At other times, the falling into some notorious sin is an occasion of producing a recollection of many other actions that had fallen into oblivion; jsut as a serious injury is, sometimes, an occasion of disclosing several maladies which had been latent in the constitution.

It is often the case, also, that the judicious application of some truth is a means of rousing the conscience from its dormancy, and of bringing forgotten sins into remembrance. By turning a rod in the bottom of a well or pool, the deposited sand or slime is raise to the surface; so also by applying some truths, old sins are brought to recollection.

Sometimes, also, a heavy affliction is an occasion of producing the same effect.

This answers the same purpose with regard to some of the metals - the excessive dross and impurity are soon made apparent.

When either of these means is an occasion of producing a conviction, the subject of it can with propriety say, "My sin is ever before me."

Maxim

2010-03-01T11:15:00.000Z

THE sacrifice of the Mass is identical with that of the Cross, both having the same victim and High Priest Jesus Christ.

Maxim

2010-02-28T01:36:00.003Z

AMONG the various dogmas of the Catholic Church there is none which rests on stronger Scriptural authority than the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. You tell me it is a mystery above your comprehension a mystery, indeed. A religion that rejects a revealed truth because it is incomprehensible contains in itself the seeds of dissolution, and will end in rationalism.

Maxim

2010-02-27T12:49:00.002Z

"A CHURCH that is universal must have a universal tongue, whilst a national church, or a church whose members speak one and the same language, and whose doctrines conveniently change to suit the times, can safely adopt the vernacular tongue in it's liturgy." Cardinal Gibbons Archbishop of Baltimore

How to be Happy, How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience

2010-02-26T18:16:00.000Z

4. Moreover, it is an evidence of an evil conscience if a man cannot be at ease unless he keeps out of his mind death and eternity.

It is natural for us to fear death, for it is the most violent shock that we an endure, and the strangest change that we can experience.

And, for this reason, even a good man may be afraid of the event itself, though he has no cause to fear its consequences. Yet the thought of it does not greatly agitate his mind, and sometimes he can behold its approach with serenity.

But the thought of death is to some like the entrance of a dreadful messenger into a circle of merry companions: it causes a revulsion in their feelings, and mixes sadness with their mirth and gaiety.

These are some of the indications of an evil conscience. We will next move on to the consideration of a new point.

Modernism

2010-02-26T17:51:00.001Z

Maxim

2010-02-26T11:56:00.002Z

CHRISTIAN wives and mothers, what a debt of gratitude you owe to the Catholic Church for the honorable position you now hold in family and social life. If you are no longer the slaves, but the mistresses of your households; if you are no longer regarded as tenants at will, but the queens of the domestic kingdom and the peers of your husbands, you owe your emancipation to the Church of Christ, that contended for your rights at the cost of her blood.

Hundreds of Christian families fleeing violence

2010-02-25T21:10:00.000Z

Mosul (AsiaNews) - Mosul is experiencing a veritable "humanitarian emergency" in just one day, yesterday, "hundreds of Christian families" left the city in search of shelter, leaving behind their homes, property, commercial activities: the situation "is dramatic". Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona, Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, confirmed to AsiaNews about the exodus of the faithful from the city. Meanwhile, Mgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, will launch "a demonstration and a fast", to sensitize the international community to the "massacre of Iraqi Christians" and stop the violence in the country.

The archbishop of Mosul is concerned about the many families, "hundreds" in one day yesterday, leaving the city. Bishop Nona speaks of an " unending via Crucis” and denounces the "change in methods" operated by the armed gangs. "In the past we said to the Christians to remain closed in the house – he remembers - but now they are even attacked in their own homes”. The reference is to the murder took place last February 23: commandos entered the house of Aishwa Marosi, a Christian of 59, killing the man and two boys. His wife and daughter witnessed the murder but were spared by the criminals.

Bishop Nona confirms the risk that "Mosul will be emptied completely of Christians”, who are fleeing towards the plain of Nineveh and other places considered safer. "Yesterday I visited some families – he continues - I have tried to bring comfort, but the situation is dramatic. The people fled without taking anything with them”. This is why the local archdiocese has launched an initial emergency response, trying to provide "essential supplies and relief", but the danger of "a humanitarian crisis is real."

How to be Happy, How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience

2010-02-25T18:20:00.000Z

3. It is also a sign of an evil conscience if a man cannot think of God without being made unhappy.

Conscience refers us to God as omniscient, as the great Searcher of the heart, and as the righteous judge of all our actions. And it is a favourable indication if we can seriously think of Him without being disquieted.

I have read of a Swedenborgian, who, influenced by superstition, thought that he had arrived at much perfection when he could, with an open eye, gaze without blinking at the sun.

He, it is true, ahd been led astray by some delusive imagination; however when a man is in possession of a good conscience he can fix his thoughts on God with some degree of complacency.

But a man who lacks this inward peace, can with propriety adopt a saying which we find in Scripture, "I remembered God and was troubled."

Since he is conscious of much sin, of which he has not repented, he cannot enjoy inward composure, but so long as he can keep God out of his thoughts; for notwithstanding all his efforts, he can not divest himself of the impression that God has been a witness of all his conduct, and that he must again appear before his righteous tribunal.

Maxim

2010-02-25T09:42:00.001Z

MARRIAGE is the most inviolable and the most irrevocable contract that can exist. Every human compact but this can be lawfully dissolved. Nations maybe justified in abrogating treaties with each other. Merchants may dissolve partnerships. Brothers will eventually leave the parental roof and divide their inheritance. Friends, like Abraham and Lot, may part company. But the marriage bond can never be dissolved except by death.

How to be Happy, How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience

2010-02-24T18:00:00.002Z

2. It is an evidence of an evil conscience if a man cannot endure self inspection.

Many a man is afraid of self examination. He is as indisposed to commune with his own heart as some children are to visit in the dark a room haunted, according to rumour by spectres.

This is an indication of a bad state of things. Owing to want of peace in their own bosoms, many are unhappy when left alone; they are habitually uneasy, and they in various ways show signs of discontent and moroseness.

And for the same reason, they make use of many expedients in order to avoid fellowship with themselves. They watch television, they peruse the internet, they read with avidity works of fiction, they visit exciting scenes, they indulge in intoxicating drinks, and waste much of their time in frivolous amusements.

Practical Catholicism

2010-02-24T13:07:00.000Z

Maxim

2010-02-24T11:49:00.000Z

THE whole history of Jesus Christ is marked by mercy and compassion for suffering humanity. From the moment of His incarnation till the hour of His death, every thought and word and act of His Divine life was directed towards the alleviation of the ills and miseries of fallen man.

How to be Happy, How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience

2010-02-23T20:32:00.002Z

Can we recognise Peace of Conscience?

1. ii. Change of circumstances may be an occasion of a serious change in the thoughts and feelings of those who now appear quite obdurate.

The chinks and crevices in a dilapidated house may cause no inconvenience to the inhabitant as long as the fair weather continues, but when winter arrives he is soon convinced that he has been occupying a deceitful dwelling, and that the consequences to him are serious.

While health continues, and while affairs are prosperous a presumptuous sinner may be at ease, but when the storm of adversity begins to blow, his previous confidence gives place to trouble and alarm.

Heaps of combustible material may do no harm, or may occasion no inconvenience, while a certain element is at a distance, but should a few sparks of fire visit them the catastrophe would be indescribable.

An evil conscience is like those materials, and though it may at present cause no inconvenience, yet there are sparks existing - Divine terrors - which may produce the most distressing consequences.

maxim

2010-02-23T12:03:00.001Z

THE Holy Father may live and die in the catacombs as the early Pontiffs did for the first three centuries. He may be dragged from his see and perish in exile, like the Martins, the Gregories and the Piuses. He may wander a penniless pilgrim like Peter himself. Rome may sink below the Mediterranean; but the Chair of Peter will stand and Peter will live in his successors.

How to be Happy, How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience?

2010-02-22T17:07:00.003Z

How Can we recognise Peace of Conscience?

1.i. It may be observed, in the first place, that security and indifference are no evidence of peace.

A man, owing to various causes, may enjoy comparative ease, while at the same time there may lodge in his bosom elements of distress. His present quietude may be the result of levity and inconsideration. Hence his peace is similar to that a of a man who ignorantly travels over a frozen lake, supposing it to be a firm plain.

It is well known that a repetition of the same sin tends immediately to impair one's moral perception, and to deaden every refined sensibility.

But though a man may not at present think much of the evil of his actions, yet this is by no means a proof that he shall be hereafter free from the painful emotions connected with a guilty conscience. We are told that the little insect in Africa called tetse, secretly bites the cattle, and that its bite is always fatal. Still, the bitten animal appears for a while as healthy and frisky as ever, but the day at last arrives on which the instilled poison shows its deadly effects.

Through the commission of sin a moral poison is infused into a man's conscience and though he may for a time addict himself to mirth and folly, yet a period will arrive in which its terrible effects will be experienced.

Maxim

2010-02-22T16:29:00.001Z

EVERY blessing we enjoy in the order of nature or grace is a gratuitous bounty of our Creator; "Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights."

How to be Happy

2010-02-20T17:37:00.003Z

Peace of conscience is that serenity of mind which is the result of inward confidence that we are free from the guilt of sin. It implies that all vicious habits and practices have been forsaken, and that all past faults and transgressions have been pardoned.

Maxim

2010-02-19T20:27:00.001Z

WHAT are afflictions, if patiently endured, but the raw material out of which we can weave the royal robe that we shall deserve to wear at the banquet of the great King?

Maxim

2010-02-18T15:43:00.001Z

THE food of the word of God is as nutritive to your soul when furnished by the humblest of God's servants as if it were offered by an angel.

Is it possible to be happy?

2010-02-18T15:34:00.003Z

THE HAPPY MAN HAS PEACE OF CONSCIENCE

This is essential to happiness. Without this, to aim at being happy would be like an attempt to see without light, to breathe without air, or to swim without water.

Conscience is that power of operation of the soul by which man approves or condemns his own actions. Its approbation is an occasion of the most genuine satisfaction. On the other hand, its reproof or its censure produces, in some cases, the most intense grief and remorse.

It bears witness with God, for it is His deputy in our own bosom; and for this reason we are ever to bear in mind that "if our heart" or conscience "condemns us, God is greater than our hearts." Hence, the kind of testimony it adduces is to us of the greatest importance.

Maxim

2010-02-17T19:49:00.001Z

REMEMBER that the moral ruler of the world holds the reins of government, which He never surrenders - so long as He guides and controls the chariot that carries you and your fortunes, happen what will, you have nothing to fear, provided you put your trust in Him. "Hope in the Lord and do good, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Is it possible to be happy?

2010-02-16T14:27:00.004Z

To whatever extremes any man may have been carried by the current of folly and temptations, he may yet cheer himself with the thought, that by pausing in his career, and by availing himself of the means brought within his reach, he may still become a happy man.

And to those young men who are jsut starting out it may be said that there are certain great principles made known to us, which by embracing they may avoid the errors which have led many others to sorrow and ruin, and may instead enjoy a life which will be pleasant, useful and honourable.

So it is to these great principles that we will turn our attention so that we may all learn the secrets to happiness and become that which we all long to be, happy.

Maxim

2010-02-16T13:33:00.001Z

COUNTLESS multitudes of hungering souls are following our Saviour today, as they followed Him of old in the desert and are receiving from Him the bread of consolation. O, how many a desolate heart cries out to Him in its anguish with Peter and says: "Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

Maxim

2010-02-15T21:18:00.001Z

TRUTH is the golden coin with God's image stamped upon it, that circulates among men of all nations and tribes and tongues and peoples; its standard value never changes nor depreciates.

Is it Possible to be happy?

2010-02-14T13:17:00.003Z

THERE are two questions that may be considered in reference to the subject of happiness. One is:

How those may yet become happy who through past errors and follies have made themselves miserable?

The Other is:

How those may secure the largest amounts of happiness who are now forming their character?

Some of us have advanced far in the process of self-ruin, wounding our own consciences we have blighted almost all our good prospects hence when we view the future we have become subject to deadly gloom and black despair.

Still there is a means revealed by which the weight of this distress may be lifted, may be cast off by the men who struggle underneath this crushing burden.

A means through which we may yet cherish a good hope with regards to the future.

Though the world in its primitive state presented nothing but darkness and confusion, yet there were a power and a fullness existing adequate to bring it into order and beauty, and to replenish it with life and luxuriance.

The means which have been revealed are equally effectual to create happiness in the place of misery, and to effect order and harmony where there is now moral desolation.

This is not a theory which requires to be proved, but a truth which has been confirmed by innumerable instances.

Maxim Feb 14th 2010

2010-02-14T12:42:00.001Z

WE all are, or ought to be, pupils in the school of Christ, preparing ourselves during this life of probation to receive a diploma of sanctity which will admit us to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Is it Possible to be happy?

2010-02-13T23:44:00.005Z

Many people today are asking themselves the question is it possible to be happy?

And in asking it they are making another admission, they are unhappy, they lack happiness.

Well the answer to that question you will be pleased to know is yes, absolutely it is possible to be happy and not only that but happiness is without a doubt possible for you achieve.

In the next series of blogs we will explore how to achieve that which seems so illusive to so many, true and lasting happiness.

Maxim for Feb 13th 2010

2010-02-13T14:17:00.002Z

WHATEVER love or foresight or tender devotion is found in an earthly father is but a faint ray of the sunlight that beams from the heart of your heavenly Father. Parental prudence is the shadowy human counterpart of Divine Providence.

Young adult Catholics are largely pro-life but say they are moral relativists

2010-02-12T12:39:00.007Z

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men." Matthew 5:13

In a 1997 report to the American bishops, Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis documented “a pattern of doctrinal deficiencies” in the catechetical texts he had reviewed. Over a dozen years later, some of the fruits of that insufficient catechesis are on display in a new survey conducted by the Knights of Columbus and the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

The survey found that 82% of Catholic millennials-- those between the ages of 18 and 29-- believe that “morals are relative; that is, there is no definite right and wrong for everybody,” while only 18% believe that “morals are fixed and based on unchanging standards.”

All of the catechises in the world, all the apologetics, all of the convincing others of the truth's of Catholic teaching is undermined when relativism is left unchallenged. As long as the contagion of relativism infects the body it will remain to weak to act as an antidote to that same infection in the rest of the body that makes up society.

Catholics then remain the salt of the earth, but relativism along with its sibling indifference rob the salt of its savour so that it fails to add its flavour to society. By succumbing to relativism we become "good for nothing", ie. utterly useless and even worse than useless as the unflavoured salt dilutes any remaining good salt robbing it of its strength also.

http://www.catholicculture.org/

A Twelve Step Program for Bishops

2010-02-11T23:59:00.004Z

An excerpt from Bishop Rene Henry Gracida.
Full article Here.

The following are twelve simple rules enabling bishops to effectively remedy the crisis in all transparency yet resolute firmness:

1.) Ordinaries need to instill publicly, through their personal preaching and through the vicarious preaching of their priests, that not only is it against the Christian Faith to support the ‘right to choose,’ but that one loses entirely the virtue of Supernatural Faith, the right to the Sacraments, Christian Burial, and more importantly, eternal Salvation if one publicly and obstinately adheres to a ‘right to choose abortion’ in opposition to the fundamental belief of the Christian and Apostolic Faith in the sanctity of innocent human life.

Any public and obstinate support, by word or by vote, of either abortion, or absent that, “only” the civil “right to-choose abortion” qualifies as heresy. To be “personally opposed to abortion” is not a defense to supporting a “right to choose murder.” The propositions 1) “Abortion is not intrinsically evil” and 2) One has a “civil” or “human” right to choose abortion are both in reason, and by Divine Law, two specifically distinct heresies. A pro-choice Catholic politician may get away with not committing the one, but he certainly falls into the pit of committing the other.

2.) The grave circumstances of the age in which we live, the obligation to proclaim the Faith in all its purity, the need to protect the Sacraments from sacrilege, and the obligation to eliminate grave scandal amongst the faithful all impel the bishop to publicly and courageously inquire among the clergy and laity of his diocese as to who amongst those Catholic politicians having a domicile in his territory are publicly supporting abortion or a right to choose, in accord with Canon 1717, No. 1. Evidence verifiable in the external forum should be presented along with any information.

3.) Upon being presented with evidence of the presence in the Diocese of a politician having a domicile or quasi-domicile who both publicly holds the right-to-murder doctrine and receives the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and, upon verification of the evidence, the bishop should order the individual to appear before him quam primum (Canon 1339, No. 2).

4.) Should the politician agree to the meeting, the bishop should at that time point out his error, reiterate to the individual the obligation to submit with the assent of Faith to the dogmatic teaching of the Church on the need to respect innocent human life. Clarify the absolute incompatibility of the position he espouses with the baptismal character, and thence order him to cease and desist from any further or private support of his pro-choice deviance. As a Catholic in public office, the individual can never favor or condone a right to abortion, but to the contrary, must strive to limit and revoke pro-choice legislation. As the obligation to publicly profess dogmatic Faith inures in the Catholic subject whenever publicly interrogated, a Catholic can never support, whether in public or in private, a right to choose abortion (Canon 750, No. 1, Canon 1364, No. 1).

5.) Should the politician not agree to the meeting, then the substance of Step No. 4 should be sent to the individual in writing by registered mail (Canon 1509, No. 1;)

6.) At the conclusion of the meeting agreed to, the bishop should obtain a formal written recantation of the individual’s erroneous beliefs. Once done, an offer to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation should be extended to the penitent.

7.) If the bishop obtains a formal written recantation, with the consent of the individual, he should release a statement publicizing the fact that the individual and the Church are one in the same Faith once again (cfr. Canon 1347, No. 1). Additionally, an obligation for reparation of harm and the dispelling of scandal, commensurate to the degree of injury done to the Faith, the Church, and civil society, needs to be completed or seriously promised prior to reconciliation (Canon 1347, No. 2).

8.) If the bishop is unable to obtain a formal written retraction, fraternal correction and canonical correction should be exercised in writing by registered mail (Canon 1339, Nos. 1-3), and, if possible, in person, reproving that 1) the requirement of Christian witness to a non-negotiable tenet of the Faith demands that he be publicly identified as holding a contradictory position to that of the Catholic Church, depriving him of the right to call himself “Catholic,” and 2) should the individual refuse to amend his ways, the Bishop may impose an Interdict ferendae sententiae barring him from receiving the Most Holy Eucharist in order to safeguard unambiguously and without question the provisions of Canon 915. Moreover, the individual may be advised that, circumstances warranting, the Ordinary may, after the expiration of a certain allowance of time as set forth in the monitum, publicly declare him to have been automatically excommunicated for heresy according to Canon 1364, No. 1, and deprived from the reception of all of the Sacraments (Canon 1331, No. 1 as well as Christian burial (Canon 1184, No. 1).

9.) After giving the individual a reasonable period of time for reflection and consultation with his confessor/spiritual director (Canon 1347, Nos. 1-2), failing the acceptance of a further opportunity for emendation provided to the individual within a determined time limit, the bishop should decide by decree and after consultation with two other judges or experts (Canon 1718, Nos. 2-3), whether he can (Canon 1718, No. 1, 1), should (Canons 1341: 1718, No. 1, 2), and must (Canon 1728, No. 1, 3) proceed by way of judicial process or extra-judicial administrative decree in order to inflict or declare the commensurate penalty of Interdict ferendae sententiae, or declare Excommunication for heresy to have been incurred latae sententiae.

10.) Once the Sentence is pronounced, or the extra-judicial Decree issued, the Bishop should promulgate the decree by publication in the diocesan newspaper with an appropriate description of the process leading up to the issuing of the canonical decree (Canon 8, No. 2).

11.) After the publication of the decree, the bishop should send a letter to the clergy explaining to them what their duties and responsibilities are in respect to the penalties imposed by the decree.

12.) The bishop should follow up on the publication of the decree with a letter to the recalcitrant, urging him to return into full communion with the Church, reminding him of the Parable of the Prodigal Son: As the Good Shepherd never refrains from welcoming a stray sheep back into the fold, so will the bishop, in imitation of Christ, always strive to bring the one who became lost back into the bosom of Holy Mother Church, but only in entire Truth and Charity.

This Twelve-Step Program is clear, coherent with the Faith, and in accordance with the requirements of canonical equity. If the Penal Canons of the Code are now to be dusted off and brought out of the cupboard within which they have lain dormant for almost half-a-century, it is because the balm of mercy and discretion of measure have failed to heal the growing infection of error and scandal inside the Church and the genocide increasing daily in the world around us. The time for half-measures and fear of reprisal, loss of position, temporal advantage, or career opportunity is over — the time for action in now.

Rene Henry Gracida, DD
Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi

Vietnam: parish under siege; Hanoi archdiocese protests police violence

2010-01-21T22:47:00.000Z

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5218

The Hanoi archdiocese has strongly protested the continuing violent attacks against Catholics at a Dong Chiem parish, after a Redemptorist brother was severely beaten and left unconscious.

The archdiocese reports that a delegation of Church officials, visiting the Dong Chiem parish to investigate reports of police harassment, “was completely besieged as police at checkpoints prohibited any outsiders to get in.” At the checkpoint, Brother Anthony Nguyen Van Tang was brutally assaulted by police officials. He was carried away, unconscious, by his colleagues—whose clothes were soaked with the Redemptorist brother’s blood.

Attacks on parishioners at Dong Chiem have become commonplace, the Hanoi archdiocese charged, and police are blocking all entrances to the church, leaving the parish virtually under siege. The Redemptorist order in Vietnam has also lodged an official protest, demanding an end to the police action that began with the demolition of a crucifix at the parish cemetery.

Catholics in Hanoi fear that the government will use its propaganda machinery to stir up public sentiment against Catholics, leading to mob violence against prominent Church targets. Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet has reportedly taken refuge outside the city to avoid confrontations, recognizing the likelihood that pro-government crowds will demonstrate outside his residence, demanding his resignation.

Elsewhere in Vietnam, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced several human-rights activists to prison sentences ranging from 5 to 16 years. The sentences came after trials conducted under heavy security, rousing protests from human-rights activists.

Hail Glorious St. Patrick

2010-01-07T22:22:00.005Z

Hail, glorious Saint Patrick, dear saint of our Isle,
On us thy poor children bestow a sweet smile;
And now thou art high in the mansions above,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

Hail, glorious Saint Patrick, thy words were once strong
Against Satan's wiles and an heretic throng;
Not less is thy might where in heaven thou art;
O, come to our aid, in our battle take part.

On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

In the war against sin, in the fight for the faith,
Dear saint, may thy children resist unto death;
May their strength be in meekness, in penance, their prayer,
Their banner the cross which they glory to bear.

On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

Thy people, now exiles on many a shore,
Shall love and revere thee till time be no more;
And the fire thou hast kindled shall ever burn bright,
Its warmth undiminished, undying its light.

On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

Ever bless and defend the sweet land of our birth,
Where the shamrock still blooms as when thou wert on earth,
And our hearts shall yet burn, wherever we roam,
For God and Saint Patrick, and our native home.

On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.

More attacks against Christians in Mosul

2010-01-01T16:29:00.000Z

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=17239&size=A

Mosul (AsiaNews) - Attacks continue against Christians to push them to flee from Iraq. Yesterday afternoon Zhaki Homo Bashir, a Christian deacon, was hit by gunfire from a group of unknown criminals. The man had just entered his shop located in the district of al Jadida. Seriously injured, he was transported to hospital. AsiaNews published the news yesterday of the kidnapping a college student from an Islamic group. News has also reached the agency in recent days that another Christian was killed on Christmas Eve; Basil Isho Youhanna was hit by gunfire in front of his house in the neighbourhood of Tahrir, in northern Mosul. In recent weeks there has been an increase of killings of Christians and attacks on churches and convents. All the violence is part of a project of "ethnic cleansing" against the Iraqi Christians, reported to AsiaNews by Msgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk. The national government and the local governorate are powerless before these attacks, while the different ethnic groups Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen - with the possible infiltration of extremist cells – are all blaming each other.

According to local sources, since 2003, the year of the fall of Saddam Hussein, at least 1960 Christians have been killed in Iraq. Their presence has been reduced by at least half because of the exodus to other quieter areas of the country (Kurdistan) or abroad.

Christmas

2009-12-25T01:06:00.001Z

The Religion of Humanism (worship of man) THE "LET THEM SAY" PRINCIPLES IN THE "RELIGION" OF WORSHIPPING PEOPLE

2009-10-29T16:41:00.002Z

The basic rules of this "religion" are founded on two principles:

"Let them say," and "Don't let them say." At these principles' root is the error of seeking to please others and feeling one has to assume the identity and lead the kind of life that others expect. In other words, a person who adopts such a goal has ceased to use his mind and his freedom of thought. He will have to change himself constantly in relation to other people's expressions of praise, affection, interest, intimacy and friendship. Such concerns as, "I want people to say this about me", and "I don't want anyone to say that about me" prevent him from using his mind and cause him to make every effort towards the impossible goal of trying to please everyone. He is forced to live not in accordance with what he sees as very true and of which he does not have the slightest doubt, but in accordance with what society demands. However, the Scriptures says that a life not founded on seeking to please God will certainly lead to Hell the one who lives it.

"And thou my son Solomon, know the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the thoughts of minds. If thou seek him, thou shalt find him: but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." 1 Paralipomenon 28:9

Despite the clear truth revealed in this verse, the importance of winning God's favor has been almost totally lost in today's society.

People have come to see themselves as attached to others rather than to God. At the root of this is human beings' endless desire to show off and receive praise.

People's Passion for Showing Of and Earning Praise

The human ego wants to show off and receive praise from others. People, still unaware that God has created them as His servants and that they survive by what He gives them, want to receive praise and are eager to obtain a selfish superiority by doing all they can to show off to others. They believe that they possess their talents by their own power and that they can obtain everything they want with their own hands. The Scriptures gives us an example of this wrong state of mind:

"The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth." 1 Kings 2:7

"But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God." Luke 12:21

From these verses in the Scriptures, we can see that a life based on ostentation and praise is the selfish passion of faithless people. They think that the purpose of life is to receive praise from others, show off their wealth and become richer; and when they are able to do so, they believe they have gained something. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, God tells us about people who have this distorted way of
thinking:

"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to that doctrine which is according to godliness, He is proud, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and strifes of words; from which arise envies, contentions, blasphemies, evil suspicions, Conflicts of men corrupted in mind, and who are destitute of the truth, supposing gain to be godliness.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out. But having food, and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content. For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition. For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows." 1 Timothy 6:3-10

The reality is not as it appears, however, to those who think it a virtue to be in the majority. God did not create the world so that individuals could contend with one another and gain superiority in selfish pursuits; He created it to test who would do the best things in their service to Him. It says in the Scriptures:

"But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him." Hebrews 11:6

For this reason, the most pleasurable, happy and joyful things are those that are done to win God's favor, because a human being can be basically satisfied by the joy that faith brings. All else brings a short-lived sense of satisfaction that will be of no benefit in the Afterlife.

Yet some individuals reject true religion and prefer to worship people they idolize other beings apart from God and as a result, base everything they do on this foundation. They are always ostentatious, showing off to others the things they have been given. But ostentation puts great material and spiritual burdens on an individual. It wearies his mind and body and distances him from his very nature, turning him into someone who acts inhumanely towards others, treating them harshly, with anger, grudging insincerity and hypocrisy. This person may even start performing acts of worship that require sincerity of heart so that others will say that he is a devout Catholic. In the Scriptures, God tells us of people who practice religion as lip service to others:

"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matthew 23:27-28

Combining the desire to please others with faith in God is a breach of religious sincerity. In His sight, it makes an individual insincere. By paying too much attention to what people think of him, he sullies his faith with ostentation and hardens his heart with the selfish desire for praise. As a result, he lives for worldly gain and profit and loses his fear of God. Totally unaware of the punishment He will give, he will employ the fine moral qualities he should use to earn God's favor as currency for worldly gain and to bring opportunities his way. Everyone who "worships" people adjusts his life to these principles.

I will give some examples of his distorted mentality as it appears in daily life.

THE "LET THEM SAY" PRINCIPLE

In an ignorant society, people feel continually obliged to live with regard for what others say, will say, or have said. As a result, they do not think about God and are far from acting according to sound moral principles. Their thoughts are divorced from religious morality, and they know nothing about the well-being that religion can give, having fallen into a chaotic, contentious environment where right and wrong are confused.

According to this distorted mentality, only human beings have the right to make laws and establish rules. All the things that God has commanded or prohibited are removed from human life, one by one. For this reason, an individual who practices the precepts of true religion and disregards any argument that detracts from the importance of winning God's favor, will immediately attract notice of ignorant people and who will treat him badly. But a person who is sincere in his religion will take no notice of this adverse behavior because his only goal in this world is to win God's favor.

But concerns for what others will say or think may influence those whose faith is weak. This is why they cannot fully practice the moral virtues of the Faith and in their thoughts and actions, why they resemble idolaters more than real Catholics. These individuals live their whole lives greatly deceived by a perverse understanding of the "facts of life" that prevents them from embracing the real spirit of religion.

You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils. 1 Corinthians 10:21

"No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24

God tells us the fate of these people:

"But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Apocalypse 3:16

This false religion affects people like an infectious disease, preventing the many of weak will or personality from remembering God or seeking His favor. Under the influence of the majority, they regard their erroneous thinking as so normal that they don't even feel the need to distance themselves from it.

Describing the fundamental rationale of this false religion , which holds sway over its members and people of weak faith, would help people discover the distorted thinking they had fallen into. And by the Will of God, the sincere could save themselves from this false religion. The following passages give some stock examples of the "Let them say" mentality characteristic of the "peopleworshippers."

"Let Them Say I Am Good-natured"

The Bible has many statements about the importance of being morally virtuous. But the basis of this good nature must lie in their desire to win God's favor.

However, ignorant people live in a system that works in just the opposite way. An individual who practices People-ism has memorized the rules of his religion and thinks that by telling people what they want to hear, he is doing the right thing. Even if he is good natured, at the basis of this behavior is the desire to exert a positive influence on others, get them to like him, and gain from them something of material value.

He will do everything he can to achieve this goal; he will be perfectly good-natured. For example, if need be, he will help his neighborhood poor to display of his compassion; and will tell everyone how important honesty is for human beings. He will let himself seem to be modest. He will speak about the great harm evil brings upon humanity, appearing all the while to be happy, loving and patient.

People trust him for the appearance he presents; they like him and befriend him. They will tell all their friends how good-natured he is, give many examples of how he has helped others, shown compassion to a poor child or respect for some elderly person he met on the road. They describe to others how he took to the police station a wallet he found on the street, gave his seat on the bus to a pregnant woman even though his own feet were sore, turned up on time for work in the morning without seeming tired even though he stayed late at work the night before. This individual performs all these acts of self-sacrifice merely so that people will say he is good-natured , hardworking, compassionate and honest.

Another person will go to a rehabilitation center and bring little gifts to the people that live there. He will bring homeless children various things to make their rooms homey. Then, so that other people will know what he has done, he advertises his kindness to his close associates in an appropriate way. Or he may make a considerable donation for the renovation of a particular department of a hospital.

All these acts are laudable, of course, but it must be re m e mbered that they are "good" only if performed to earn God's favor. If done to bring an individual praise or appreciation, to make him appear good, generous and just, they will bring him no benefit beyond a small worldly gain. If conditions grow bad for him, or if acting good-natured turns to his disadvantage, he can immediately give up being "good." But things done to gain God's approval are permanent and enduring, because they are done unconditionally.

Moreover, it is very easy for anyone to turn from his error and change his intentions. An individual who realizes that "people worship" brings him nothing but harm must simply repent and intend to seek God's favor. This decision takes only a moment and from that moment, all the good things a person does with good intent hardly count for nothing, but are written in God's book to be rewarded.

The important thing is, that person fears God and strives to do His will. It's very important to recognize the power of God and to fear Him as one should, because when a person does not fear God, it is not clear how he will act or what kind of decisions he will make. If he requires rewards for doing good, he becomes instantly ill-natured.

It does not occur to him that his behavior will receive punishment from God. He may exhibit one character one week and a wholly different one the next. According to the laws of people-worship, he may return evil for evil and injustice for injustice. He also begins to apply the merciless laws of the religion he believes in. And because, as we said before, the deities this religion worships are only human beings, his human conscience functions accordingly. For this reason, he gives no importance to the kind of moral behavior expected by God. However, Christians also treat pitiless, cruel and unjust individuals who behave badly towards them as their moral virtue dictates and under no conditions do they compromise the virtuous behavior that pleases God.

Therefore, never do believers diverge or withdraw from their path of moral virtue. Always humane, they never lose their religious convictions, because their life aim is based on their desire to be servants
of God. In the Bible, God describes this kind of moral virtue:

Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. And when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.

But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. Matthew 6:1-6

Let Them Say that I Am Rich, Generous and Like to Spend Money

In "people-worshipping religion"; much importance is placed on wealth. In this false religion, wealth means power. A person with power in society has a few highly valued privileges; the richest person is the most popular, most deferred to, and enjoys the most friends. Such a person thinks that wealth will open wide all the proverbial doors for him. For this reason, some individuals expend lots of effort putting this aspect of themselves in the foreground.

They have a number of ways to get people to notice how rich they are and how they like to spend money. They never miss the opportunity to strengthen the impression of how wealthy they are, they are lavish, sometimes extravagant, in spending money on clothes, cars and houses. They decorate their homes in a way that society, other wealthy people, would appreciate. If society chose to decorate with the color green for a particular year, these individuals choose green too, even if they don't like it; and if red is in vogue, they use red. Wanting everything to be just right becomes a matter of pride for them. Influenced by the "let them say" and "let them think" mentality, they spend their whole lives doing things to display their wealth. They spend their summers in the most popular vacation spots and go skiing in the most stylish winter resorts. They send their children to school abroad and buy their clothes from other countries. In their circle of acquaintances they let it be known that "they have money too" and so buy an expensive yacht. Even if they do not sail it themselves, they moor it in a harbor to show it off. If there are people they want to impress, they take them sailing, treating their guests to the best food and drink to emphasize that they do not lack for anything.

If a person has money, of course there is nothing wrong with acting in this way if one wants to; in fact, if he takes real pleasure in doing these things, they are blessings. But most of the people we have been talking about think in this distorted way. They want only one thing: For people to observe that they are wealthy, generous and like to spend. This gives them a sense of selfish satisfaction, boosts their morale and increases their motivation. If they do not hear what they want to, they become upset, discouraged, depressed and take no pleasure in anything. But were they asked to show the same eagerness in teaching others religious morality and increasing the number of believers in God, probably they would decline the invitation.

This is because they are more interested in winning others' approval than earning the favor or God. In this, they would find nothing in terms of material gain or earning others' praise.

But on the Day of Judgment, they will leave behind all their possessions and enter our Lord's presence alone. They will leave behind all those individuals they tried to please and ingratiate themselves with, to the point of deifying them none of whom will be of the slightest assistance. They will defend themselves before God, Who tells us what awaits these adherents of false religion on the
Day of Judgment:

Let Them Say I Am Their Friend

People who practice this false religion befriend with the most attractive, wealthy, and famous people in their social circle. They give no importance to their moral character. To be known as the friend of a beautiful woman, for example, they endure all her caprices. To shine in her social circle, they'll do everything they can to be known as of that particular person's best friend and try to be seen with her.

Anyone with this mentality does the same thing when he makes friends with someone wealthy. He feels pride to talk and laugh with him sitting at the same table; she loves it when that person is familiar enough to call him by his first name, joke with him, call him or visit his home. He likes to be seen getting into his friend's car. He counts it a great success when people say about him, "That rich man's friend is very nice. How lucky he is!" He thinks he is important for having that man as a friend and just to be called "his friend," is prepared to take part in all his whims, even if they are sometimes cruel and selfish.

However, human beings must found their friendships on God's will, because they can gain honor and power only by being His servants. In the Bible, God tells us that all the honors and positions that people seek belong to Him:

"Thine, O Lord, is magnificence, and power, and glory, and victory: and to thee is praise: for all that is in heaven, and in earth, is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art above all princes. Thine are riches, and thine is glory, thou hast dominion over all, in thy hand is power and might: in thy hand greatness, and the empire of all things." 1 Paralipomenon 29:11-12

A person can be harmed and humiliated merely by forming worldly friendships based on the pursuit of these goals. Friendships established only to attract attention and stir up envy will never meet one's true expectations. So long as an individual does not live according to the moral teachings of the Bible, he will never know real friendship, faithfulness, or loyalty. Even if he appears to have gained a few worldly advantages, friends who do not practice the morality of the Bible will cause him great loss in the Hereafter. In the Bible, God reveals this truth:

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck. My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them... The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils. Proverbs 1:8-10,32-33

Let Them Say, "He Always Knows What's Best"

For someone to be called an economic expert, that person must give correct answers to every question he is asked on this subject. To do so, he must read and follow current events day and night. A person supposed to know about history must know every detail about some important event and whom it affected.

Again, this would require years of effort. Someone who claims to excel at sports must train for hours every day, win every competition and, if necessary, shunt his friends, family and social life to the
background.

But it must be remembered, these are worldly pursuits. Of course it's a good thing to work hard and be successful in the world. But if, in the pursuit of these things, the will of God is forgotten a person has a lot to lose. If he gains a certain amount of success in this world but has not lived to win God's favor, he will unless God wills otherwise forever lose his place in the Afterlife.

Our Lord has the highest knowledge; it is absolute. Therefore, a successful person supposed to know everything about everything in his chosen field must make an effort to win God's favor by being His servant and living a moral life. Real salvation is possible only in this way.

Let Them Say, "He Adapts Himself to Every Environment"

As we have been saying from the beginning, a person in an ignorant society feels obliged to follow its rules and lifestyle. He tries to do what his circle of acquaintances want him to and be the model of the sort of individual they want him to be. Often he won't hesitate to do something against the Churches moral teachings or act in a way that will bring him harm. He does not want to go contrary to one of the mantras of the religion of people worship, and wants others to say of him that "he adapts to every environment."

For example, a polite young man may have rebellious and disrespectful friends; although he may not be that way himself, he will try to conform to their lifestyle. He compromises his character because he does not want to be thrown out of the group and accused of being "not with it" or a "mommy's boy."

Even though he knows that cigarettes are bad for his health, he will start smoking because his friends do. Some may even believe in God but, because their social circle is not religious, may present themselves quite differently to his group. They will stop saying their prayers in order so as not to be expelled from the circle, all to win and keep the favor of others and keep them on his side. Those who behave in this way must consider the harm they are doing to themselves in this world and the world to come; they must fear that day when they will give their accounts to God.

To close one's eyes to immorality and turn away from what is right, with the excuse of fitting in with one's social group is very dangerous even from the point of view of the community. This distorted thinking lies especially at the root of the moral degeneration of young people. Suppose you met some who used drugs, were undergoing treatment for alcoholism or earned their living by prostitution.

Ask why they live the way they do, and one major reason they gave would be that they "had to fit in" with their friends. In the sight of God, however, no human being has any such duty towards another. God holds people responsible only for earning His favor and obeying His moral edicts.

Everything else done apart from this purpose will simply put people on the wrong path and induce them to do things against creation. And their lives will be consumed by pangs of conscience and
anxiety.

So far we have considered a few basic examples of the "let them say" principle of people-worship. But this false religion is not limited to these non-believers. Nearly every step taken by people who practice this "religion" is to get others to think well of them and win their approval. Their thoughts are obsessed with this goal, and they spend every moment in this pursuit.

But even though they live in the same community, individuals with sincere faith are different from those in the society of ignorance. They may appear to do the same things, yet their intention is not directed towards other people, but towards God. They realize that no human being has any power, and that all power belongs to Him.

They may do things to please others also, but their purpose is to win God's favor. As God has commanded, they act with moral propriety towards others and by so doing, they win God's approval and also make others happy.

Grenade explodes at Philippine cathedral

2009-10-27T18:53:00.000Z

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=442

A grenade has exploded at the cathedral of the Vicariate Apostolic of Jolo in the southern Philippines. No one was injured in the blast, and no one has claimed responsibility, though the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf is suspected.

While 81% of the nation’s 87 million people are Catholic, the Jolo area is heavily Muslim: fewer than 3% of the area’s 1 million residents are Catholic. Jolo's previous ordinary, Bishop Benjamin D. de Jesus, was slain in front of the cathedral in 1997.

The Religion of Humanism (worship of man) DISTORTED REASONINGS THAT LEAD PEOPLE TO FOLLOW THIS RELIGION

2009-10-25T15:19:00.002Z

Some people show no interest in following the commandments of God or in leading their lives according to His commands and prohibitions. But when it comes to living within a system that deifies other human beings, they are all too willing. This contradiction immediately begs the question of the deceptive promises made by the "religion" of idealizing. Considering this question, we find that those who reverence other people have very little concept of God's power.

Those who do not understand the limitless power of God and the purpose of the universe's creation try to live their lives according to rules of their own making, and based on an ignorant way of thinking apart from the Church. This is the foundation of the cult of worshipping people and also supplies the excuses why anyone should follow it. In the Scriptures, however, God tells us about those who propose false facts and reasoning to justify their rejection of true religion:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

By their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7:15-16

In this section, we will look at the falsehoods put forward by those who practice the superstitious "worship" of people instead of living according to the religion that God has revealed. Some of these distorted ideas include:

The "Facts of Life" Idea

God wants people to order every moment of their lives according to the Churches edicts, commands and prohibitions. The Church is a guide that lets human beings distinguish between right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, and those acts that please God and those that don't. For these reasons, God commands people in the Scriptures, to obey His Church:

And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Matthew 18:17

That the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places through the church, According to the eternal purpose, which he made, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10-11

But the majority does not organize its lives according to the edicts of the Church or its moral precepts.
They do not understand how important religious morality and the Church are, for their entire lives. They think that religion can offer occasional guidance in some limited areas of life. Apart from times of worry and distress, moments of great danger, serious pain, discomfort and insurmountable fear and at the hour of deaththey see no need to turn to God. They fail to grasp that everyone must live a life according to the dictates of religious morality. For this reason, they prefer to lead their whole lives as far away from religion as possible, not even discussing it among themselves. They even avoid mentioning the name of God.

For a person to live his life, however, he definitely needs the commands of God and the moral qualities taught by the Church.

It is good and easy for us to live according to the moral teachings in the book of our Lord and Creator. Without this morality, a healthy society is unthinkable; because laws decreed with no regard for human nature (that is, the character that human beings were created with), will have a detrimental effect on both individuals and on society and bring about social degradation. Relations between humans will deteriorate, and society will be plunged into chaos. As a result, war, confusion and oppression will be unavoidable throughout the world. Individuals divorced from religion, trying to follow the dictates of their own ignorant systems, will be overwhelmed by spiritual and physical distress.

Today, despite all this rampant negativity, some individuals not including sincere believers continue to insist that along with religion, there are also the "facts of life." This philosophy is based on rejecting the absolute necessity of religious morality in human life.

According to such distorted thinking, to follow the rules of religious morality is practically impossible. These people fear that were religion allowed into daily life, they would be deprived of all kinds of worldly blessings and lead a life of monotony. They think that living a life of religious morality will prevent them from enjoying life. Of course, this idea has nothing to do with reality. Religious morality creates the most comfortable social life in which the individual human spirit will be the most content and the most productive.

Those who adopt this high morality and escape the "facts of life" deception possess the soundest mood in their society. They will take pleasure in the beauties of life and play a major role in bringing about a society of peace, tolerance, and self-sacrifice.

But those divorced from religious morality think of practising virtue as a sign of weakness and naivete. For example, they believe that, no matter how much a person sacrifices himself for another, he will always get selfishness and unfairness in return and therefore, it would be silly to act in such a way. They regard any self-sacrificial act as well-intentioned but ignorant, a person doing a good deed for someone else free of charge and getting no acknowledgement for what he has done. In real life, as far as they are concerned, one should return selfishness for selfishness, grudge for grudge, hostility for hostility and enmity for enmity.

Ignorant society regards it as silly to be kind and make amends with anyone who constantly does you wrong, and to forgive that person for the bad things he has done. In response to such moral virtue, people in that society would belittle the good person, asking, "How gullible can you be? If that were me, he'd soon get what's coming to him!" According to the "facts of life" espoused by those who ignore the moral teachings of the Church, it is right to exchange evil for evil.

This way of thinking is commended in ignorant religions, which assert that no enemy can ever be a friend; no matter how much good one person does for another, underlying enmity still remains. The only one who loses is whoever does the favour.

Society holds the well-intentioned to be a weak person who doesn't realize when he is being abused. People with this distorted way of thinking believe that they have to embrace "the facts of life" even more tightly to keep themselves from falling into traps. They fear that they have to pay close attention to what people are thinking and to how they react. These individuals lay great importance on what others say; assuming that the more they get others to like them, the better will be their place in society. They think that once society likes them, they should absolutely resort to every sort of unseemly behaviour on the way to attaining their worldly ambitions.

In the Scriptures, however, God says that He wants human beings to be sincere in seeking His pleasure only and not to consider what other people might say. Our Lord commands His servants' moral character to be the opposite to that of the ignorant people we have been describing. In the sight of God, a good person is one who returns good for a wrong committed against him. Moreover, this kind of behaviour is an important step on the way to creating friendship out of enmity. In the Scriptures, God tells us of this happy result:

To no man rendering evil for evil. Providing good things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.

Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good. Romans 12:17-21

Practising the Churches moral teachings is the only way to salvation; this is true in forgiving others for the wrongs they have committed and in everything else we do. The real purpose of life is to be a servant who wins God's favour; who does good without hope for reward, sacrifices himself for others and gives of himself freely. He is just, patient, determined to urge goodness and dissuade from evil, and totally and unconditionally given to winning the favour of God.

But ignorant people who do not espouse the Churches moral teachings spend their whole lives in conflict, strife and unhappiness, and they think that such are the facts of life. They cannot imagine living a quiet life of moral virtue, free from falsehood, opportunism, insincerity and hypocrisy. They believe that the world is a place where only the strong survive. They ignore the reality of the eternal world to come; they live their lives only in relation to the short life in this world. They reject religious morality, saying, "Whatever I do in this world is for profit." Caught in this false world of man-made rules, they actually regard some human beings as deities and feel enslaved to them. As a result, they are bound to suffer for not obeying God's commands; they will live a life of degradation in this world, and their pains will be much more severe in the world to come.

The Scriptures tells us about their state:

And whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me; it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet, to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.

And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. Mark 9:41-49

The Misconception that the Majority Is Right

As I have said from the beginning, one reason that prevents people from practising religious morality is the "religion" of worshipping people" that makes them fear what other people will say and think about them. This misapprehension draws its strength from the idea that "the majority is always right," and a huge segment of society has adopted a lifestyle that goes with idolizing people an undisputed tradition passed down from father to son. Declaring themselves to be part of the majority, they misguide others into believing that the unjust ways of the "majority" and the rules they invent are correct.

However, the Scripture gives this command to all Christians:

For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward. Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you. 2 John 1:7-10

From this verse, we see that God commands people not to follow the unjust majority or obey the fanciful rules they make up. He tells them that their only way to salvation is by accepting and keeping the Faith He has revealed.

But the great majority of people feels obliged to conform to the majority's lifestyle, even if it does not fit with their conscience. As members of society, they feel this is their duty; that since they live in a particular society, they are bound to follow its laws and the way of life it prescribes as if it were a secular religion.

These people, who fail to appreciate religion's real meaning, believe that apart from the commands of God, there are rules that everyone must obey because man is a social creature. They agree that their most important duty is to please others. For this reason, they cannot escape the fruitless circular reasoning of "What do others say? What do they think? I hope they speak well of me and see me as intelligent, rich and generous. I don't want anyone to say or think ill of me."

However, the way most people live, the artificial rules they have invented and structures they've set up do not lead to truth. On the contrary, God tells us in the Scriptures that conforming to the majority
is a danger that threatens to divert one from the right path:

Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such, serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent. Romans 16:17-18

As a result, the majority chooses a way of life at odds with the Churches moral teachings: They are sarcastic and cruel to others, apt to betray their families and even their country. Without thinking, they commit acts that God has forbidden. But this should not be allowed to influence others. The fact that this sort of people make up the majority of a society should not justify everyone's behaving the same. For example, even if a society worships the god of fire, the sun or the stars, no one else is obliged to believe the same things. Or say that a society is silent about prostitution, fraud, injustice, thievery and other such amoral acts. No individual has to do the same things just because everyone else is. Or if the rich in a society are respected and the poor possessing nothing besides their good names are oppressed, there is no reason to spark the same mentality in others.

On the contrary, condoning injustice out of fear of society's criticism is itself a great injustice. It's unreasonable for a person to refrain from behaving as his conscience demands, just because he fears being criticized, rejected and despised by society. In the Scriptues God tells us that one of the greatest qualities of Christians is that they do not fear criticism:

Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets. Luke 6:22-23

And in another place:

If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. John 15:18-20

But most people cannot muster the determination needed to bear such hatred til the end. Because their hearts are far from God, they do not act according to their consciences. They cannot resist the ignorant mentality that says, "Everyone does it, so it must be right." And in pure heedlessness from God, they live out their lives in error, preferring to please other human beings and to fear their censure. Thoughts like, "What will people say?" and "If my friend says one more word, they'll find me out," and "Everyone does it, so I'll do it too," may turn a person into someone who worships people and not God, who is devoted to the pursuit of the world and totally removed from the moral teachings of the Church. As a result, some see no wrong in showing no sense of compassion, mercy or love, and enjoy oppressing others. Those interested only in money and social position see nothing wrong with a mentality that leaves no room for moral virtue. If most of his social class is unjust, fraudulent, with no moral virtues, knowing that he will be thrown out if he acts any differently, he behaves like the others.

He will think positively about even an immoral person, if his boss thinks well of him. Conversely, if his
director does not have a good opinion of this individual, our example may say negative things about him, without even having looked into the person's real character. These people have completely disregarded God and religious morality, and as a natural result, most continue to live according to the axiom that "the majority is right."

They demonstrate no independence of character. They become members of a circle similar to those social groups mentioned above, for they think that everyone lives, acts and thinks in a certain way. Wherever they turn, they find people like themselves conforming to the majority; and they cannot detect the error of their mental state because they mix with people whose main aim is pleasing others. As these brief examples show, if people adopt a lifestyle with no concern for winning God's favour, they will gain nothing. A society of intellectually and morally corrupt individuals will plunge the world into chaos. Thoughts and feelings that have no place in society will become rampant, fights over profit-taking, enmity, anger, hatred and jealousy.

Such a world, a place dominated by misery and chaos will become hard to live in. This is the reward in this world that God will give to those who ascribe equals to Him. In the Afterlife a more tragic end awaits them.

The Attitude of "No One Else Sees the Truth Except You!"

Another way this system encourages not believing in God and idolising others is in refusing to see the truth, or rejecting it completely. Along with conforming to the majority evident in ignorant societies, comes a refusal to listen to people with faith. While Catholics invite such people to believe in God and obey His commands, they affirm their belief in their ancestors and laws they have passed down. They aver that they will never compromise the laws and way of life their society has taught them.

In ignorant societies, people determined to live according to their ancestors' teachings directly oppose those others who want to stop this pervasive pseudo-religion, favoured by the ignorant, which has gained dominance over their lives. They don't want these people of faith, who have brought them the truth, to destroy the favourable relationships they've forged with others or to break their religion's superstitious rules. They want to invalidate the truth that sincere people of faith have patiently explained to them, by asking such ignorant things as, "Is it only you who understand these things?" or "Are so many people wrong?" or "Until now, no one has been aware of these things, but you are!"

They think that such a response will intimidate their opponent and make him lose self-confidence. (This may be effective in their own system of superstition, but no real Christian would be daunted by such a simple tactic.) As a result, the truth would remain hidden. But when they are overwhelmed by concerns such as, "What do people think about me? What can I do to please them? How can I make them like me and take me in?" the person who knows the truth will remind them and that they have no power to do anything apart from the fate that God has determined for them. This reminder means the collapse of their superstitions and the invalidation of their laws.

But no matter how hard the "people worshippers" work, God will never allow the truth to remain hidden. In the face of truth, superstition will be defeated and rendered ineffective. God will vindicate those who stand up for Him, no matter how few their numbers may seem. In the face of all the pressures they are subjected to, He will give them determination and resilience.

The Scriptures speak of the warnings that some prophets gave to prevent the societies in which they lived from living perverse, immoderate lives. Members of these societies disregarded the prophets, undertook to undermine their power and vigour, and finally expelled or kiled them. But on devout Catholics of course, this kind of opposition has never had an adverse effect.

Never forget, sometimes people cannot see facts that are very plain. Because they've been conditioned by the laws of their societies and have lived according to these laws for a very long time they do not want to upset their accustomed order. As a result, even though they see the great dangers to which their unseemly moral character exposes them, still they continually prefer what is false to what is true.

They cannot imagine that any model of living could afford them comfort and well-being, so, they are not prepared to abandon their ignorant religion, thinking it is the best of the worst. For them to experience real happiness and salvation in life, however, there is one very easy way. In order to find it while there is still time, they should listen to believers who warn them and show them the distortion of the system they live in. Until that day, they must listen to the voice of their conscience and consider that up until then, no one might have told the truth. They should remove the focus of their attention from human beings and direct it only towards God.

This will allow them to open their minds and understanding so that they may grasp life's real purpose; and as a result, they will seek to please God rather than their fellow humans.

In the Scriptures, God announced that only those who fear and obey Him will find happiness and salvation.

The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom, filling up peace and the fruit of salvation: Ecclesiasticus 1:22

The Religion of Humanism (worship of man) What Happens When A Society Turns To Idolatry?

2009-10-24T22:30:00.002+01:00

A few signs let us better understand the "religion" of worshipping people pervading a society. Of these, the most basic is the heedless behaviour exhibited by those who forget the existence of God and that He is with them at every moment.

Instead of seeking God's favour, a person who adopts such a pattern of behaviour blindly does what others ask of him, even if it is contrary to religious morality and will be prepared to suffer every humiliation and degradation.

For example, some behave in a way contrary to the teaching of the Church because they want certain others to accept them and be taken into their group. Though they know their behaviour is wrong, still they are willing to do every sort of disgraceful thing to get others to like them. As a result, they experience pangs of conscience in this life and will be repaid for their insincerity in the life to come.

Such people think they are ingratiated themselves with others, but God knows their real intentions. They forget God, but He sees them every moment and knows what they conceal in their hearts. And though other people may hold positive views about them, God knows their insincerity.

For example, a person may see that his boss's moral character is corrupt, that he treats the poor and needy unjustly and has made the kind of profit forbidden by God. Yet for the sake of a promotion, this employee pretends not to notice his boss's behaviour. He tries his best to make his boss think he is a loyal, hard worker and so he turns a blind eye to actions that God has forbidden. But God sees him, and knows everything he thinks and everything he says. He does nothing to win God's favour, but all the things he does to curry the approval of others is written down in the presence of God.

In fact, those who think this way and seek to influence others in their own favour become like puppets. Others control their strings, and they carry out to the letter what is wanted of them, regardless of whether it is right or wrong, lawful or forbidden. In order to satisfy only a few worldly desires and selfish passions, they agree to become a part of a system that ignores God and cares nothing for earning His favour. They are ready to behave in ways that humiliate themselves and degrade their humanity; they live under others' control, without the human dignity that faith affords.

As a result, they comprise a frightening group of people who are insincere, disrespectful and hypocritical towards others. They do not know what love really is and live only for their own gain. They lock themselves into a system where real friendship is absent and every relationship is based on profit. Within this system, they have created with their own hands, they are lonely and helpless, far from the mercy and assistance of God.

I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. Leviticus 26:30

Why do they turn to the idolatry of worshipping people? Some of the basic reasons can be listed as follows:

They Forget God and Want to Earn the Favour of Others

People who set up other idols beside God ignore His existence and absolute control over the universe. As a result of their heedless attitude, they think themselves autonomous. They believe that they can do whatever they want, live the kind of lives they desire according to their own plans; think that they have all total free will and that no one can interfere with them. They are rebels who accept no authority. They disregard the facts that everything is under the eternal power of God and that they are servants. They don't understand that the whole universe has a fate that God has determined for it and that no creature can escape its pre-ordained fate. As a result, they live their lives trying to fulfil their desires and passions in this world and forget about earning the favour of God.

In feeling irresponsible, however, they are quite wrong. Even though they may disregard God's existence, He is always with them. He sees everything they do and knows their eagerness to please others instead of Him. For example, He sees their efforts to show affection towards others in order to win their affection in return; and He sees the pains they take to persuade others to like them.

Such people work very hard to get the object of their affection to think that they really love and value him. But were they asked to show the same eagerness and determination towards God, they would refuse. For example, if asked to pray seven times a day, they would most probably decline, making the excuse that they have little time to do this and cannot allot times for prayer in the course of a busy workday. They realize that if they did establish their prayers, none of their associates would appreciate them. In other words, according to his distorted view, fulfilling this act of worship would bring them no concrete benefits. Furthermore, they may be heedless only because they wouldn't want anyone to say that they have converted and turned to religion. As a result of such choices, they will earn the approbation and appreciation of a handful of people. On the other hand, they do not realize that by not fulfilling an act of worship that God has required of all His servants, they have lost His eternal love and mercy.

For this reason, God warns His servants in the Scriptures against the danger of neglecting to seek His pleasure and trying to please other people instead. The Scripture says that He has commanded human beings to purify themselves from all kinds of idolatry and to turn to Him in prayer:

They Fear People More Than They Do God

To be terrified of some power or event often gives a person the will to perform many things in the very best way. The intensity of this fear leads a person to make unexpectedly clear decisions even if he feels inadequate to face the threat. People with deep, intense fear in their hearts will do anything they have to. For example, a hungry person with no money will do everything he can to accept a job offer. He will not miss the opportunity, but beforehand, will try to learn about the rules of the company and the kind of people who work there. At his interview, he will take pains not to make any mistakes and to present himself well. He will be very respectful towards the interviewers to make sure that his personality and experience make a good impression; and will be careful not to say anything that conflicts with this. He will not lose his train of thought or act inappropriately. His urgent fears and anxieties for the future keep him alert. He will do everything to convince the company officials that he is just the person they need.

On the job, another individual will be very afraid of getting caught doing something that the owner of the company frowns on. He won't be late for work, make personal phone calls or do other such things not acceptable in the company. He also warns other workers to be careful about these rules and regulations. As a worker, he is afraid of being called undisciplined or lax, because such negative opinions may result in material loss and stand in the way of a good life in this world. Discipline in work and appropriate behaviour are of course important, but the error lies in acting appropriately only out of fear of others. Such good behaviour, determined only by a situation will not last. A person who doesn't fear God will easily do all matter of things contrary to His discipline, if he assumes his so doing will not raise any eyebrows.

For this reason, the individual who behaves appropriately should never forget the important fact that the only power to be feared is God. It is He Who has created and controls the people and events that he gets excited about, fears and whose importance he exaggerates. In God's sight, neither wealth nor power has any significance; all that is important is people's moral excellence and fear of Him.

Moreover, people encounter only those events that are written in their destiny. If the man in our example was fated to take that job, no power apart from God's could change the course of events. No matter how many errors or mistakes he might make, that person is accepted for that job if God has determined it. But if his fate has been determined otherwise, he won't land that job, no matter what efforts he puts forth, because he cannot avoid the fate that God has determined for him.

The Holy Scriptures teach that all events happen with God's knowledge:

To the Lord was his own work known from the beginning of the world. Acts 15:18

Always remember, this individual in our example may die before he can take that job. In that case, the worldly fears he has experienced all his life and the autonomy he has imputed to other people would have no further meaning. All his efforts will have been in vain. On the Day of Judgement, none of those whose opinions he valued so highly will be of any support to him. As a punishment for neglecting to win God's favour throughout his life and trying to please other people instead, he will spend not a thousand, not ten thousand, not a million or even a billion years, unless otherwise willed by God, but an eternity suffering the pangs of Hell.

If he doesn't repent and ask God's forgiveness in his lifetime, for his sins and evil deeds God will condemn him to live in Hell for all eternity.

The Scriptures explain the importance of fear of God and repentance over and over again.

And give place to the fear of the most High: for the fear of God is all wisdom, and therein is to fear God, and the disposition of the law is in all wisdom. Ecclesiasticus 19:18

And after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying: The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel. Mark 1:14-15

So, when we think about these realities, we can more easily understand that the fear of God is much more important than all these other fears. The Scriptures speaks about this great reality in these
words:

Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of thy house. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. May the Lord bless thee out of Sion: and mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

And mayest thou see thy children's children, peace upon Israel. Psalm 127

The Religion of Humanism (worship of man) Man was created to serve God

2009-10-24T13:35:00.001+01:00

We are conscious beings who have the ability, created in us by God, to distinguish between right and wrong. As a result, we can understand His great power and the proofs for His existence, as well as the real purpose of this life and our life in the world to come.

But these abilities entail certain responsibilities.

Anyone who can conceive of all these things is aware that God is the only power Who must be served, and that there is no other deity besides Him.

Also, he is aware that our basic responsibility in this world is to have faith in God. In the Scriptures, God says this of Himself to His servants:

There is one most high Creator Almighty, and a powerful king, and greatly to be feared, who sitteth upon his throne, and is the God of dominion. The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of joy. The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy, and gladness, and length of days. Ecclesiasticus 1:8, 11-12

Plainly, the foundation of a happy and successful life lies upon a person's knowing his responsibility and serving only God.

This attitude also provides for balance in society as a whole. If it were otherwise, that is with an increased number of those who deny God's existence and do not fear the final punishment He will give, this balance would be ruined.

If people forget they are God's servants and turn to other creatures, there are serious consequences, such as the degeneration of morals in society and the degradation in human relationships. In such a situation, relationships are based on profit. The powerful oppress the weak; and mercilessness, cruelty, hypocrisy and hostility find an easy place to grow. As a result, family and social life, national well-being and even world peace are endangered.

In the Scriptures, God says that those who reject His commandments to follow their own desires will cause serious degeneration among humanity.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: The just man liveth by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.

Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four footed beasts, and of creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them. Romans 1:16-32

If the truth were to follow their whims and desires, the heavens and the Earth and everyone in them would have been brought to ruin. No indeed! We have given them their Reminder, but they have turned away from it.

Today, a large number of people do not realize that the causes of the degradation they live in and complain about constantly arise from their following their own passions and setting up partners beside God. For this reason, they look for remedies in various places. They believe that if only they made some economic, social and cultural changes, their nation's wealth would increase, and developing technology would solve all their problems. But these initiatives can have no effect unless people purify themselves entirely from putting other objects of worship beside God and come to a firm faith in Him alone. Even though new solutions are being developed all the time, they are of no avail since people keep acting in opposition to the high standards of morality enjoined by God.

There is only one way for people to escape the dark and frightening lifestyles they live and enter a content, secure environment .

This is to get free from the clutches of the "religion" of worshipping people that pervades society, to have faith only in God and to obey the commands and prohibitions He has given in the Scriptures and through His Church. This would result in happiness and salvation for all peoples, in as much as God, having created human beings, knows best what the human spirit needs. This fact is revealed in the Holy Scriptures:

For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever. Baruch 3:13

The Religion of Humanism (worship of man) Introduction

2009-10-24T13:33:00.000+01:00

Throughout history, the most important thing in some societies has not been what God expects from people, but what people expect from one another. With no awareness of God's commandments or of the way of life enjoined in the scriptures, people have strived to fulfil the expectations of the societies and social environments in which they live.

When we look at our present social environment, we can easily see that people are not fully aware of what the Lord has commanded and forbidden, and so do not practice these precepts in their lives. More importantly, none of them feels uncomfortable about such a situation. Almost no one considers the power of Almighty God, the importance of winning His favour, or the penalty they will receive from Him for not obeying His commandments.

Most people do not let these thoughts even cross their minds. Instead, they wonder what other people think about them and expect of them, and they are most interested in doing everything they can to ingratiate themselves with others. These individuals live in a system that directs more love and devotion toward their fellow men than toward God, and they cannot even imagine how this may be wrong.

This ingrained and very distorted way of thinking and living leads some individuals to squander their material and spiritual resources, even spending their lives in this pursuit. This worldly way of thinking develops into a kind of false religion with its own commandments and prohibitions, truths and falsehoods, obliging everyone to conform to them. Every individual is required to accept the ready-made program of what society expects of him. Only in this way can he live among others without being rejected and humiliated.

Any individual who does not conform to what is expected of him gets a clear sense from the way others speak to him and behave that they look down on him. In order not to get themselves into this situation, people hold in mind a few slogans that they are careful to repeat to themselves every day. For example, "They can call me smart (or intelligent, good-looking, happy, talkative or successful). But don't let them call me selfish (or naive or ignorant)" Those who believe in such "commandments" treat their fulfilment like an act of worship and apply their principles without fail. They put forth every effort into developing the sort of character that their associates will admire. As a result of these carefully studied schemes, they reach the point where they value other human beings more than God, accepting every proposal that will please those around them and focusing on them all their attention and devotion. From then on, they are caught up in a system of false beliefs in which one individual becomes the slave of others and become a devoted adherent of this secret religion.

This cult encourages you to abandon God and worship people instead of which false religion is the theme of this paper. This passionate attachment to other human beings we call "The Religion of Worshipping People" or "The Religion of Humanism."

In many places in the Holy Scriptures, God invites humanity to save themselves from this errant belief and serve only Him. In one of these verses, He says:

And the Lord spoke all these words: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:1-6)

And again:

"For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil. (Wisdom 14:27)

This paper will show how this satanic system puts people in great danger, both in this world and in terms of their eternal life to come. I will explain how it coerces them into rejecting God, Who created them, and deifies people in His place. In various examples from daily life, I will demonstrate how people fall under the control of this system. Using verses from the Scriptures, I will explain what people must do to save themselves from the spell of this false religion while they still have time.

No matter how great this distorted religion's influence on society, it must be remembered that a person with willpower and intelligence will find it very easy to renounce this superstitious system. The solution is simple: Have sincere faith in God and believe in no other gods besides Him. For His faithful servants, God opens the way and guides them along the right path. He has made the Catholic Church the means by which they can escape the darkness of their lives.

In many verses like this, God gives good tidings to those who believe in Him:

I am come a light into the world; that whosoever believeth in me, may not remain in darkness. John12:46

The Making of a Soldier of Christ

2009-10-11T17:44:00.000+01:00

HELL'S WIDEST GATE : IMPURITY

2009-09-26T17:48:00.003+01:00

By ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

"Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in that way" (Mt7.13).

Hell has then different gates, but these gates stand on our earth. "Her gates are sunk into the ground." (Lam 2.9) These are the vices by which men offend God, and
draw down upon themselves chastisements and eternal death. Among the other vices, there are four which send most souls to Hell, and on this earth bring upon men the
scourges of God; and these four are, HATRED, BLASPHEMY, THEFT, and IMPURITY.

Behold, the four gates by which the greater number of souls enter Hell; and it is of these four that I mean to speak today, in order that you may amend and cure yourselves of these four vices, otherwise God will cure you of them, but by your own destruction.

1. Hell's Widest Gate: Impurity

We have now to speak of the fourth gate of Hell, which is impurity [sexual sins], and it is by this gate that the greater number of the damned enter. Some will say that it is a trifling sin. Is it a trifling sin? It is a mortal sin. St. Antoninus writes that such is the nauseousness of this sin that the devils themselves cannot endure it.

Moreover, the Doctors of the Church say that certain demons, who have been superior to the rest, remembering their ancient dignity, disdain tempting to so loathsome a sin. Consider then how disgusting he must be to God, who, like a dog, is ever returning to his vomit, or wallowing like a pig in the stinking mire of this accursed vice (2 Pet 2.22).

The impure say, moreover, "God has compassion on us who are subject to this vice, because He knows that we are flesh." What do you say? God has compassion on this vice? But you must know that the most horrible chastisements with which God has ever visited the earth have been drawn down by this vice. St. Jerome says that this is the only sin of which we read that it caused God to repent of having made man, for all flesh had become corrupted (Gen 6.6-12). And so it is, St. Jerome says, that there is no sin which God punishes so rigorously, even upon earth, as this. He once sent fire from Heaven upon five cities, and consumed all their inhabitants for this sin (Sodom and Gomorrah,
Gen 18-19).

Principally on account of this sin did God destroy mankind, with the exception of eight persons, by the flood. It is a sin which God punishes, not only in the other life, but in this also. Because, says God, you have forgotten Me and turned your back upon Me, for a miserable pleasure of the flesh, I am resolved that even in this life you shall pay the price of your wickedness (Ezek 23.35). You say, "God has compassion upon men subject to this sin." But it is this sin that sends most men to Hell. St. Remigius says that the greater number of the damned are in Hell through this vice. Father Segneri writes that as this vice fills the world with sinners, so it fills Hell with damned souls; and before him St. Bernardine of Siena wrote: "This sin draws the whole world, as it were, into sin." And before him St. Bernard and St. Isidore said that "the human race is brought under the power of the devil more by lust than by all the other vices." The reason is because this vice proceeds from the natural inclination of the flesh. Hence St Thomas Aquinas says that the devil does not take such complacency in securing the commission of any other sin as of this, because the person who is plunged in this infernal mire remains lodged therein, and almost wholly unable to free himself again. "No one is so obstinate in sin as the impure," says St. Thomas of Villanova. Moreover, this vice deprives one of all light, for the impure man becomes so blind as almost wholly to forget God, says St. Laurence Justinian; which is in accordance with what is said by the prophet Hosea: They will not set their thoughts to return to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known God (Hos 5.4).

The impure man does not know God; he obeys neither God nor reason, as St. Jerome says; he obeys only the sensual appetite which causes him to act like a beast. This sin, because it flatters, makes us fall at once into the habit of it, a habit which some carry with them even to death. You see husbands, and decrepit old men, indulge in the same thoughts and committing the same sins that they committed in their youth. And because sins of this kind are so easily committed, they become multiplied without number. Ask of the sinner how many impure thoughts he has consented to: he will tell you he cannot remember. But, brother, if you cannot tell the number, God can; and you know that a single willful immodest thought is enough to send you to Hell. How many immodest words have you spoken, in which you took delight yourself, and by which you scandalized your neighbour? From thoughts and words you proceed to acts, and to those innumerable impurities which those wretches roll and wallow in like swine, without ever being satisfied, for this vice is never satisfied.

But, Father, you will say, how can I hold out against the innumerable temptations which assail me? I am weak, I am flesh. And since you are weak, why not recommend yourself to God, and to most holy Mary, who is the mother of purity? Since you are flesh, why do you throw yourself in the way of sin? Why do you not guard your eyes? Why do you gaze upon those objects from which temptations flow?...It is to be remarked, moreover, that this sin brings with it innumerable others: enmities, thefts, and, more especially, sacrilegious confessions and Communions, by reason of the shame which will not allow these impurities to be disclosed in confession. And let us remark here in passing, that it is sacrilege above all things that brings upon us sickness and death; for, says the Apostle, "He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord"; and then he adds: "therefore are many infirm and weak among you." (1 Cor 11.29-30)

And St. John Chrysostom, in explanation of that passage, says that St. Paul speaks of persons who were chastised with bodily infirmities because they received the Sacrament with a guilty conscience. My brethren, should you ever have been sunk in this vice, I do not bid you be disheartened, but arise at once from this foul and infernal pit; beg of God immediately to give you light, and stretch out His hand to you. The first thing that you have to do is to break with the occasion of sin: without that, preaching and tears and resolutions and confessions, all are lost. Remove the occasions, and then constantly recommend yourself to God, and to Mary the mother of purity. No matter how grievously you may be tempted, do not be discouraged by the temptation; at once call to your aid Jesus and Mary, pronouncing their sacred names. These blessed names have the power of making the devil fly, and stifling that hellish flame within you. If the devil persists in tempting you, persevere in calling upon Jesus and Mary, and certainly you shall not fall. In order to rid yourself of your evil habits, undertake some special devotion to our Lady; begin to fast in her honour upon Saturdays; contrive to visit her image every day, and beg of her to obtain for you deliverance from that vice. Every morning immediately after rising, never omit saying three "Hail Marys" in honour of her purity and do the same when going to bed;* and above all things, as I have said, when the temptation is most troublesome, call quickly upon Jesus and Mary. Beware, brother, if you do not be converted now, you may never be converted.

The Catholic Hero II

2009-09-13T12:55:00.002+01:00

Let us explore the motives which are common to all men, and which are the impulses of the ordinary world, as well as of captains, heroes, worthies, lawgivers, and saints. Which when we have performed, if it shall appear, "that those motives are best used and improved, when joined with religion; we may rest assured, that it is a stable, sober, and practical as well as generous, exalted and heroic position—that true greatness of mind is to be maintained only by Christian principles.

We will venture, then, to assert, that the two great springs of human actions are fame and conscience; for though we usually say such a one does not value his reputation, and such a one is a man of no conscience, it will, perhaps, be very easy to prove, that there seldom lives a person so profligate and abandoned, as not to prefer either the one or the other, even to life itself; and by the way, methinks, the quick pleasure men taste in the one, and as lively smart in the other, are strong arguments of their immortal nature: for such abstracted sufferings and enjoyments argue our souls too large for their present mansions; and raise us (even while we are in these bodies) to a being which does not at all affect them, but which is wholly spiritual and immaterial.

So strong (as we were going to proceed) is the passion for fame, that it never seems utterly extinct: for not to look among the men of the sword, whose whole play it is, and who suffer infinite hazards, toils, and miseries to enjoy it; not, I say, to dwell upon them, whose more professed pursuit is glory, we shall find it intrudes also as restlessly upon those of the quill; nay, the very authors who conceal their names, are yet vainer than they who publish theirs.

They both, indeed, aim at your applause, but the mock disguise of themselves in the former, is but a more subtle arrogance, at once to enjoy your esteem, and the reputation of contemning it: nay, not only such who would recommend themselves by great actions, and liberal arts, but even the lowest of mankind, and they who have gone out of the road, not only of honour, but also common honesty, have still a remaining relish for praise and applause.

For you may frequently observe malefactors at an execution, even in that weight of shame and terror, preserve, as it were, a corner of their souls for the reception of pity, and die with the sturdy satisfaction of not appearing to bend at the calamity, or perhaps desert their accomplices, by the sacrifice and betraying of whose lives we frequently see they might have saved their own.

By which last instance (that the basest men have still something punctilious to them) we may observe that the sense of fame and conscience is never quite killed, but that when we are come to the worst, we have only carried them into another interest, and turned our gratifications that way only to different objects; nor can it be imagined that the love histories we daily hear young fellows relate of the favours and fondness of debauched women to them, can be all that time designed for a self-accusation: no, their idle minds have only shifted their sense of things, and though they glory in their shame, yet still they glory.

What then must men do to make themselves easy in this invincible passion, or how shall they possess a thing that is of so inconsistent a nature, that if they will be masters of it, they must shun it: for if they speak to their own advantage, or suffer another to do it to them, they are equally contemptible: thus they spend their lives in pursuit of an ever absent good; and yet though applause must never come quite home to them, they are, it seems, miserable, except they are conscious that they have it.

Nor if every heart lies open to it, that heart that is most passionate to it, must be in eternal anxiety to attain it, though that very love frequently leads to the loss of it: for when our utmost bliss is placed in this charming possession of praise, and the world's opinion of our accomplishments, a flatterer needs no more in attempts upon men's honesty and women's chastity, but their being convinced their crimes may be a secret: so easily, alas! are both sexes led by admiration into contempt.

To rectify, therefore, and adjust our desires in this kind, we have the other concomitant motive of a living conscience, or the knowledge and judgement of what we are doing, which in the voyage of life is our ballast, as the other is our sail: but though fame and conscience, like judge and criminal, are thus placed together in us, they will have an understanding, and go into each other's interest, except there is a superior court in which both may be examined. Here was the unhappy block on which the noble heathen stumbled and lost his way; for the bare conscience of a thing's being ill, was not of consideration enough of itself to support men in the anguish of disgrace, poverty, and imprisonment.

But success, applause, renown, honour, and command, had attractions too forcible to mere men, to be relinquished but with life itself; to which truth, the braver and higher part of the heathen world have died martyrs.

The different sects and division of themselves into distinct classes of opinion, seem to be no other than the prosecution of this natural impulse to reputation, which class was Stoical or Epicurean, or the like, according to the force and bent of their complexions, which they misunderstood for their conscience; and Sallust begins his fine story of Cataline's conspiracy, with an acknowledgment to this purpose, for he takes it to be the peculiar duty and superiority of the human race above other animals (which he calls prone and obedient to their bellies) ne vitam stlentio transeant, not to let life pass away in a lazy silence; and further, is mihi demum vlvere et frui anima videtur, qui, negotio aliquo intentus artis bonae, famam quaerit: he only, in his opinion, might be truly said to live, who, being employed in some useful affair, obtained a reputation in an honest or liberal art. Thus this author of sober and excellent sense, makes it the end and happy consummation of a well-spent life, to arrive at a good fame; which makes our assertion in the beginning of this discourse very natural, viz. That the heathen virtues, which were little else but disguised or artificial passions, (since their good was in fame) must rise or fall with disappointment or success.

Now our good God, who claims not an utter extirpation, but the direction only of our passions, has provided also for this great desire, in giving it a scope as boundless as itself; and since it is never to be satisfied, has allowed it an aim which may supply it with eternal employment.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.''

In this command is the whole business of reputation (about which we are so miserably anxious) wholly rectified: and fame no longer a turbulent, wayward, uneasy pursuit, but (when thus made a subordinate and secondary cause of action) a calm, easy, indifferent and untroubled possession.

And what more glorious ambition can the mind of man have, than to consider itself actually employed in the service of, and in a manner in conjunction with, the mind of the universe, which is forever busy without toil, and working without weariness?

Thus the spirit of man, by new acquisitions, will daily receive earnest of a nobler state, and by its own enlargement better apprehend that spirit, after whose image it was made, which knows no complement
of place.

This adjusted passion will make men truly agreeable, substantially famous; for when the first intention pursues the service of the Almighty, distinction will naturally come, the only way it ever does come, without being apparently courted; nor will men be lost through a fondness of it, by affectation in the familiar life, or knavery in the busy: it is not a Stoical rant, but a reasonable confidence in a man thus armed, to be unmoved at misfortunes; let the sea, or the people rage; let the billows beat, the world be confused, the earth be shook; it is not to him a terror, but a daily request of his to hasten the very last day of human nature, that he may finish this various being, and enjoy the presence of his Maker in an endless tranquillity.

Thus, by taking in fame, the Christian religion (and no other motive) has fortified our minds on all sides, and made them impregnable by any happiness or misery with which this world can attack it: and now, if it is impartially apparent to us, that the Christian scheme is not only the way to ease and composure of mind in unhappy circumstances, but also the noblest spur to honest and great actions, what hinders but that we be baptised, and resolve all our perplexed notions of justice, generosity, patience, and bravery, into that one easy and portable virtue, piety? Which could arm our ancestors in this faith with so restless and victorious a constancy, that by their sufferings, their religion, from the outcast and scorn of the earth, has ascended sovereign thrones; and His Catholic Majesty Defender of the Faith, crowned by God are appellations
of the greatest monarchs of the most refined nations; nor can we enough thank the Almighty, who has disposed us into the world, when the Christian name bears pomp and authority, and not in its offensive, low, and despised beginnings: but, alas! its state is as much militant as ever, for there are earthly and narrow souls, as deeply scandalised at the prosperity the professors and teachers of this sacred faith enjoy, and object to them the miseries and necessities of the primitive believers!

Light and superficial men! Not seeing that riches is a much more dangerous dispensation than that of poverty; this we oppose as a foe, that we run to meet as a friend, and an enemy does his work more successfully in an embrace than a blow; but since the necessaries, conveniences, and honours of life, which the clergy enjoy, are so great an offence to their despisers, they are the more engaged to hold them dear; for they who envy a man for what he has, would certainly scorn him without it; when, therefore, they are both in good and bad fortune irreconcilable to them, may they always offend with their happiness; for it is not to be doubted, but that there are bishops and governors in the Church, whose decent hospitality, meekness, and charity to their brethren, will place them in the same mansions with the most heroic poor; and convince the mistake of their enemies, that the Eternal Pastor has given his worldly blessings into hands by which he approves their distribution; and still bestows upon us great and exemplary spirits, that can conquer the difficulties and enchantments of wealth itself.

To follow such excellent leaders, it will be necessary we now consider also what may be our best rule in that state we call our good fortune, and inquire whether Christianity can as well become its professors in the enjoyments of prosperity, as we have seen it has in the hardships of adversity; this also we shall best know, by contemplating our natural frame and tendency, which religion either assists or corrects in these circumstances.

The eternal God, in whom we live and move, and have our being, has impressed upon us all one nature, which as an emanation from him, who is universal life, presses us, by natural society, to a close union with each other; which is, methinks, a sort of enlargement of our very selves when we run into the ideas, sensations, and concerns of our brethren: by this force of our make, men are insensibly hurried into each other, and by a secret charm we lament with the unfortunate, and rejoice with the glad; for it is not possible for a human heart to be averse to anything
that is human: but by the very mien and gesture of the joyful and distressed, we rise and fall into their condition; and since joy is communicative, it is reasonable that grief should be contagious, both which are seen and felt at a look, for one man's eyes are spectacles to another to read his heart: those useful and honest instruments do not only discover objects to us, but make ourselves also transparent; for they, in spite of dissimulation, when the heart is full, will brighten into gladness, and gush into tears: from this foundation in nature is kindled that noble spark of celestial fire we call charity or compassion, which opens our bosoms, and extends our arms to embrace all mankind, and by this it is that the amorous man is not more suddenly melted with beauty, than the compassionate with misery.

Thus are we framed for mutual kindness, good-will, and service, and, therefore, our blessed Saviour has been pleased to give us (as a reiterated abridgement of all his law) the command of loving one another; and the man that imbibes that noble principle is in no danger of insolently transgressing against his fellow creatures, but will certainly use all the advantages which he has from nature and fortune to the good and welfare of others, for whose benefit, (next to the adoration of his Maker) he knows he was created.

This temper of mind, when neither polluted nor misled, tends to this purpose, and the improvement of it by religion raises on it an exalted superstructure, which inclines him in his words and actions, to be above the little crafts and doubles with which the world beneath him is perplexed: he is intrinsically possessed of what mere morality must own to be a fantastical chimera, the being wholly disinterested in the affairs of the person he affects or befriends; for, indeed, when the regard of our Maker is not our first impulse and desire in our hopes and purposes, it is impossible but that the fondness of ourselves and our own interest must recur upon us, and leaven the whole course of our actions: when the fountain is muddy it must stain the rivulet, and the predominant passion gives a tincture to all our cares and pleasures; so that men ordinarily love others out of a tenderness to themselves, and do good offices to receive them with increase and usury: nay, if we follow the best friendship we meet with to its source, and allow it to be what it sometimes really is, a passionate inclination to serve another, without hopes or visible possibility of receiving a return, yet we must also allow, that there is a deep interest to ourselves (though indeed a beautiful one) in satisfying that inclination; but that good intention is subject to be changed and interrupted (as, perhaps it was taken up) by accident, mistake, or turn of humour; but he that loves others for the love of God must be unchangeable,
for the cause of his benevolence to us is so; and though, indeed, he is not without self-regard in the hopes of receiving, one day, an immense reward of
all his labour, yet, since that is separate from this world, it is, to all intents of life, as far from interfering with our purposes, as if he had no such expectation; that very prospect in him is not of a selfish, incommunicable nature, but is augmented and furthered by our participation, while his joys are quickened and redoubled by the joint wishes of others: this is that blessed state of mind which is so excellently called singleness of heart; which inseparable peace and happiness, it is not in the power of all the tinsel in the world to discompose; for to a Christian and knowing mind, earth is but earth, though the refined dirt shine into gems and glister into gold.

He that thus justly values the wealth which Heaven has bestowed upon him, cannot grow giddy in the possession of it, for it serves only to express a noble and Christian nature, which dispenses liberally, and enjoys abstinently, the goods which he knows he may lose and must leave: but this extensive magnanimity, according to the rules of our faith, is not to be bestowed on those only who are our friends, but must reach also to our very enemies; though good sense as well as religion is so utterly banished the world, that men glory in their very passions, and pursue trifles with the utmost vengeance: so little do they know that to forgive is the most arduous pitch human nature can arrive at; a coward has often fought, a coward has often conquered, but a coward never forgave.

The power of doing that flows from a strength of soul conscious of its own force, whence it draws a certain safety which its enemy is not of consideration enough to interrupt; for it is peculiar in the make of a brave man to have his friends seem much above him, his enemies much below him.

Yet though the neglect of our enemies may so intense a forgiveness, as the love of them is not to be in the least accounted for by the force of constitution, but is
a more spiritual and refined moral introduced by Him, who died for those that persecuted Him, yet very justly delivered to us, when we consider ourselves as offenders, and to be forgiven on the reasonable
terms of forgiving; for who can ask what he will not bestow? especially when that gift is attended with a redemption from the crudest slavery to the most acceptable freedom: for when the mind is in the contemplation of revenge, all its thoughts must surely be tortured with the alternate pangs of rancour, envy, hatred, and indignation: and they who profess a sweet in the enjoyment of it, certainly never felt the consummate bliss of reconciliation: at such an instant the false ideas we received unravel, and the shyness, the distrust, the secret scorns, and all the base satisfactions men had in each other's faults and misfortunes, are dispelled, and their souls appear in their native whiteness, without the least streak of that malice or distaste which sullied them: and perhaps those very actions, which (when we looked at them in the oblique glance with which hatred doth always see things) were horrid and odious, when observed with honest and open eyes, are beauteous and ornamental.

But if men are averse to us in the most violent degree, and we can never bring them to an amicable temper, then, indeed, we are to exert an obstinate opposition to them, and never let the malice of our enemies have so effectual an advantage over us, as to escape our good will: for the neglected and despised tenets of religion are so generous, and in so transcendent and heroic a manner disposed for public good, that it is not in a man's power to avoid their influence; for the Christian is as much inclined to your service when your enemy, as the moral man when your friend.

Now since the dictates of Christianity are thus excellently suited to an enlarged love and ambition to serve the world, the most immediate method of seeing to what height they would accomplish that noble
work, is taking the liberty of observing how they would naturally influence the actions and passions of such persons, as have power to exert all the dictates and impulses which are inspired, either by their inclinations or opinions; for whatever is acted in the narrow path of a private life, passes away in the same obscurity that it was performed in; while the purposes and conduct of princes attract all eyes, and employ all tongues; in which difficult station and character it is not possible, but that a man without religion must be more exquisitely unhappy, than the meanest of his vassals; for the repeated pomp and pageantry of greatness must needs become, in time, either languid in the satisfactions they give, or turn the heads of the powerful, so that it is absolutely necessary that he should have something of more inward and deep regard, to keep his condition from being an oppression, either to himself or others.

Without such ties of real and solid honour, there is no way of forming a monarch, but after the Machiavilian scheme, by which a prince must ever seem to have all virtues, but really to be master of none, but is to be liberal, merciful and just, only as they serve his interests; while with the noble art of hypocrisy, empire would be to be extended, and new conquests be made by new devices, by which prompt address his creatures might insensibly give law in the business of life, by leading men in the entertainment of it, and making their great monarch the fountain of all that is delicate and refined, and his court the model for opinions in pleasure, as well as the pattern in dress; which might prevail so far upon an undiscerning world as (to
accomplish it for its approaching slavery) to make it receive a superfluous babble for a universal language.

Thus when words and show are apt to pass for the substantial things we are only to express, there would need no more to enslave a country but to adorn a court; for while every man's vanity makes him believe himself capable of becoming luxury, enjoyments are a ready bait for sufferings, and the hopes of preferment invitations to servitude, which slavery would be coloured with all the agreements, as they call it, imaginable: the noblest arts and artists, the finest pens and the most elegant minds, jointly employed to set it off, with the various embellishments of sumptuous entertainments, charming assemblies, and polished discourses: and those apostate abilities of men, the adored monarch might profusedly and skilfully encourage, while they flatter his virtue, and gild his vice at so high a rate, that he, without scorn of the one, or love of the other, would alternately and occasionally use both, so that his bounty should support him in his rapines, his mercy in his cruelties.

Nor is it to give things a more severe look than is natural, to suppose such must be the consequences of a Prince's having no other pursuit than that of his own glory; for if we consider an infant born into the world, and beholding itself the mightiest thing in it, itself the present admiration and future prospect of a fawning people, who profess themselves great or mean according to the figure he is to make among them, what fancy would net be debauched to believe they were but what they professed themselves, his mere creatures, and use them as such, by purchasing with their lives a boundless renown, which he, for want of a more just prospect, would place in the number of slaves, and the extent of his territories; such undoubtedly would be the tragic effects of a Prince's living with no religion, which are not to be surpassed but by his having a false one.

If ambition were spirited with zeal, what would follow, but that his people should be converted into an army, whose swords can make right in power, and sole controversy in belief; and if men should be stiffnecked to his doctrine, let them be contented with an oar and a chain in the midst of stripes and anguish, to contemplate on him, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

With a tyranny begun on his own subjects, and indignation that others draw their breath independent of his frown or smile, why should he not proceed to the seizure of the world, and if nothing but the thirst of sway were the motive of his actions, why should treaties be other than mere words, or solemn national compacts be anything but a halt in the march of that army, who are never to lay down their arms, until all men are reduced to the necessity of hanging their lives on his wayward will?

Who might supinely, and at leisure, expiate his own sins by other men's sufferings; while he daily meditates new slaughter, and conquest?

For mere man, when giddy with unbridled power, is an insatiate idol, not to be appeased with myriads offered to his pride, which may be puffed up by the adulation of a base and prostrate world, into an opinion that he is something more than human, by being something less: and alas, what is there that mortal man will not believe of himself when complimented with the attributes of God?

He cannot then conceive thoughts of a power as omnipresent as his: but should there be such a foe of mankind now upon earth, have our sins so far provoked Heaven, that we are left utterly naked to his fury? is there no power, no leader, no genius that can conduct and animate us to our death, or our defence?

Yes, our great God never gave one to reign by his permission, but he gave to another also to reign by his grace.

All the circumstances of the illustrious life of our Pope seem to have conspired to make him the check and bridle of tyranny, for his mind has been strengthened and confirmed by one continued struggle, and Heaven has educated him by adversity to a quick sense of the distresses and miseries of mankind, which he was born to redress: in just scorn of the trivial glories and light ostentations of power, that glorious instrument of Providence, moves like that, in a steady, calm and silent course, independent either of applause or of calumny, which renders him, if not in a political, yet in a moral, a philosophic, an heroic, and a Christian sense, an absolute monarch: who, satisfied with this unchangeable, just, and ample glory, must needs turn all his regards from himself, to the service of others; for he begins his enterprises with his own share in the success of them, for integrity bears in itself its reward, nor can that which depends not on event ever know
disappointment.

With the undoubted character of a glorious captain, and (what he much more values than the most splendid titles) that of a sincere and honest man, he is the hope and stay of the World, a universal good not to be engrossed by us only; for distant potentates implore his friendship, and injured empires court his assistance: he rules the world, not by an invasion of the people of the earth, but the address of its Princes; and if that world should be again roused from the repose which his prevailing arms have given it, why should we not hope that there is an Almighty, by whose influence the terrible enemy that thinks himself prepared for battle, may find he is but ripe for destruction, and that there may be in the womb of time great incidents which may make the catastrophe of a prosperous life as unfortunate, as the particular scenes of it were successful?

For there does not want a skilful eye, and resolute arm, to observe and grasp the occasion: a Pope, who, from a just notion of his duty to that Being, to whom
he must be accountable, has in the service of his fellow creatures, a noble contempt of pleasure and patience of labours, to whom it is hereditary to be the guardian and asserter of the native rights and liberties of mankind; and who, with a rational ambition, knows how much greater it is to give than to take away; whose every day is productive of some great action, in behalf of men's universal liberty, which great affection to them it is not in the power of their very ingratitude to alienate; he is constant and collected in himself, nor can their murmurs interrupt his toil, any more than their dreams his vigilance; a Pope who never did or spoke any thing that could justly give grief to his people, but when he mentioned his succession to them: but what grateful mind can bear that insupportable reflection?

No, we will with endless adoration implore Heaven to continue him to us, or expire in heaps before his pavilion, to guard his important life, and in the joint-cause of Heaven and earth, our religion and our liberty, destroy like ministering angels, or die an army of martyrs.

The Catholic Hero I

2009-09-11T20:37:00.002+01:00

THE world is divided between two sorts of people, the men of wit and the men of business, and these two have it wholly in their power; but however mighty the latter may esteem themselves, they have much the less share in the government of mankind, and till they can keep the others out of company as well as employment, they will have an almost irresistible dominion over us: for their imagination is so very quick and lively, that in all they enjoy or possess, they have a relish highly superior to that of slower men; which fine sense of things they can communicate to others in so prevailing a manner, that they give and take away what impressions they please; for while the man of wit speaks, he bestows upon his hearers, by an apt representation of his thoughts, all the happiness and pleasure of being such as he is, and quickens our heavier life into joys we should never of ourselves have tasted, so that we are, for our own sakes, his slaves and followers: but indeed they generally use this charming force with the utmost tyranny, and as it is too much in their power, misplace our love, our hatred, our desires, and aversions, on improper objects; so that when we are left to ourselves, we find truth discoloured to us; and they of faculties above us have wrapt things, in their own nature of a dark and horrid aspect, in so bright a disguise, that they have stamped a kind of praise and gallantry on some vices, and half persuaded us that a whore may be still a beauty, and an adulterer no villain.

These ills are supported by the arbitrary sway of legislative ridicule, while, by I know not what pedantry of good breeding, conversation is confined to indifferent, low, or perhaps vicious subjects; and all that is serious, good or great, almost banished from the world: for in imitation of those we have mentioned, there daily arise so many pretenders to do mischief, that what seemed at first but a conspiracy, is now a general insurrection against virtue; and when they, who really have wit, lead the way, it is hardly to be prevented, but that they must be followed by a crowd, who would be such, and make what shift they can to appear so, by helping one defect with another, and supplying want of wit with want of grace, and want of reputation with want of shame.

Thus are men hurried away in the prosecution of mean and sensual desires, and instead of employing their passions in the service of life, they spend their life in the service of their passions; yet, though it is a truth very little received, that virtue is its own reward, it is surely an undeniable one, that vice is its own punishment; for when we have given our appetites a loose rein, we are immediately precipitated by them into unbounded and endless wishes, while we repine at our fortune, if its narrowness curbs them, though the gratification of them were a kindness, like the indulgence of a man's thirst in a dropsy; but this distemper of mind is never to be remedied, till men will more unreservedly attempt the work, and will resolve to value themselves, rather upon a strong reason to allay their passions, than a fine imagination to raise
them.

For, if we best judge of things, when we are not actually engaged or concerned in them, every man's own experience must inform him that both the pleasures we follow, and the sorrows we shun, are in nature very different from what we conceive them, when we observe that past enjoyments are anxious, past sufferings pleasing in the reflection; and since the memory of the one makes us apprehend our strength, the other our weakness, it is an argument of a trivial mind to prefer the satisfactions, that lead to inquietude before pains, that lead to tranquillity.

But if that consists (as it certainly does) in the mind's enjoyment of truth, the most vexatious circumstance of its anguish, is that of being in doubt; from which men will find but a very short relief, if they draw it from the collections or observations of sedentary men, who have been called wise for proposing rules of active life, which they cannot be supposed to understand: for between the arrogant and fanatic indolence of some, and the false and pleasurable felicity of others (which are equally chimeras) a man is so utterly divided, that the happiness of philosophers appears as fantastic as the misery of lovers.

We shall not, it is hoped, be understood, by saying this, to imagine that there is a sufficient force in the following short essay, to stem the universal and destructive torrent of error and pleasure; it is sufficient
if we can stand without being carried away with it, and we shall very willingly resign the glory of an opposition, if we can enjoy the safety of a defence; and as it was at first attempted to disengage my own mind from deceiving appearances, so it can be published for no other end, but to set others a thinking with the same inclination: which whoever will please to do, will make a much better argument for his own private use, than any body else can for him: for ill habits of the mind, no more than those of the body, are to be cured by the patient's approbation of the medicine, except he will resolve to take it; and if my fellow-soldiers (to whose service more especially I would direct any thoughts I were capable of) would form to themselves (if any do not) a constant reason for their actions, they would find themselves better prepared for all the vicissitudes they are to meet with, when instead of the changeable heat of mere courage and blood, they acted upon the firm motives of duty, valour, and constancy of soul.
For (however they are disesteemed by some unthinking, not to say, ungrateful men) to profess arms, is to profess being ready to die for others; or is it an ordinary struggle between Reason, Sense, and Passion, that can raise men to a calm and ready negligence of life, and animate them to assault without fear, pursue without cruelty, and stab without hatred.

But virtuous principles must infallibly be not only better than any other we can embrace, to warm us to great attempts, but also to make our days in their ordinary passage slide away agreeably: for as nothing is more daring than Truth, so there is nothing more cheerful than Innocence.

General José Moscardó Ituarte

2009-09-06T18:08:00.003+01:00

General José Moscardó Ituarte was the military Governor of Toledo Province during the Spanish Civil War. He sided with the Nationalist army fighting the Republican government and his most notable action was the defence and holding of the Alcázar of Toledo against Republican forces.

When still a Colonel and military governor of the province, Moscardo was described by the English Major Geoffrey McNeill-Moss as "a tall, reserved, gentle-mannered man, a little awkward, rather punctillious: happy enough with a few people he knew well, but shy in company. He had a strict sense of duty. He was religious. In a nation where most were slack, he was exact."

For some time leading up to the Civil War Moscardo had lived in semi-retirement, a middle-aged soldier. When conflict commenced he assumed the role of Commandant of the citadel in Toledo, with a total garrison of 1,028, which included six hundred Civil Guard under their own commander, 150 army officers, 35 Falangists, 10 Carlists, 25 members of the Monarchist Association, and 40 peasants and workmen. In addition there were 670 non-combatants including 100 men too old to serve, 520 woman and 50 children.

The Siege of the Alcázar commenced and Moscardo held out for General Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces for 70 days from 22 July to 27 September 1936. Day after day, the Colonel sent out his daily radio report: Sin novedad en el Alcázar ("Nothing new at the Alcázar," or "All quiet at the Alcázar", an ironic understatement). His defiance heartened Franco's supporters everywhere and maddened the Republicans, who committed vast forces in vain assaults on the Alcázar.

On 23 July, Republican forces captured Moscardó's 16-year-old son, Luis. A Republican barrister in Toledo, telephoned Moscardó to say that if he did not surrender the Alcázar within 10 minutes, he would shoot Luis, Moscardó himself picked up the receiver.

Moscardó asked to speak to his son. He then told Luis, "Commend your soul to God and die like a patriot, shouting 'Long live Christ King' and 'Long live Spain, and die like a hero. Good-bye, my son.”

“That I can do,” answered Luis, “Good-bye, my father.”

Cabello came back on to the telephone, and Moscardó told him, “The Alcazar will never surrender,” and replaced the receiver. The Reds later executed his son.

When called upon to give his report for the day, Moscardó gave his famous reply, "Sin novedad” [Nothing new].

During the siege, a blindfolded Major Rojo approached the badly battered citadel with a white flag on September 9. His mission was to offer the garrison their lives if they would surrender. His proposal was, of course, rejected, but on leaving he asked Moscardó if he could convey any requests to the outside. Moscardo asked that a priest might be sent to the garrison to baptise children born during the siege. The Republicans agreed and sent in Canon Vasquez Camarassa. Of the priests in Toledo, only seven who were in hiding escaped massacre by the Republicans, so the Canon was in that respect lucky to be alive, said to be because of Left-wing sympathies. He urged the civilians, the women and children in particular to leave under a white flag. The unanimous reply was a refusal.

Finally, in mid-September the Communists were able to tunnel beneath the thick walls of the Alcazar and plant a large explosive charge, which they detonated in a massive blast, bringing down a section of the wall. With this, they gained partial entry into the fortress, and intense fighting progressed. As the situation became desperate, a large relief force arrived and the Republican troops fell back in disorder. The siege ended with a victory of the monarchist-nationalist forces.

When the Alcazar was finally relieved, Moscardo is said to have greeted the relief force's commanding Colonel. He had lost his son but saved his garrison. He stood stiffly to the salute and said, "No change to report."

10 Commandments of Chivalry

2009-08-15T20:20:00.000+01:00

Archbishop Dolan: Marriage is the ‘real vocation crisis’

2009-08-13T22:21:00.000+01:00

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has identified marriage as the “real vocation crisis” facing the Church in the United States.

“We have a vocation crisis to life-long, life-giving, loving, faithful marriage,” he said. “If we take care of that one, we’ll have all the priests and nuns we need for the Church.”

Archbishop Dolan said that other major challenges facing the Church include maintaining the Church’s “public face” of parishes, schools, charities, and hospitals, inviting fallen-away Catholics to return to the practice of the faith, and confronting secularism.

Foot Prints

2009-08-02T22:30:00.001+01:00

The Pope Drives

2009-07-25T13:56:00.001+01:00

After getting all of Pope Benedict 's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.

'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver, 'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'

'Well, to tell you the truth,' says the Pope, 'they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and I'd really like to drive today.'

'I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! What if something should happen?' protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning..

'Who's going to tell?' says the Pope with a smile.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 205 kph.. (Remember, the Pope is German.)
'Please slow down, Your Holiness!' pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

'Oh, dear God, I'm going to lose my license -- and my job!' moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

'I need to talk to the Chief,' he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going 205 kph.

'So bust him,' says the Chief.

'I don't think we want to do that, he's really important,' said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed,' All the more reason!'

'No, I mean really important,' said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, 'Who do you have there, the mayor?'
Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: ' A senator?'
Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'The Prime Minister?'
Cop: 'Bigger.'

'Well,' said the Chief, 'who is it?'

Cop: 'I think it's God!'

The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, 'What makes you think it's God?'

Cop: 'His chauffeur is the Pope!'

BUCHANAN TO OBAMA

2009-07-25T13:52:00.000+01:00

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.. This time, theSilent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants,student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude???

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids.? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the blackdropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

Profanation of the Eucharist in Malaysia: Undercover Muslims spit out Host

2009-07-12T22:22:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. Been busy and uninspired. But I had to post this as I'm outraged and terribly offended. Living in a Muslim country which has had it's secular identity, as enshrined in the constitution by it's founding fathers, slowly eroded over the years and a strong, concerted and conscious effort in imposing Islamic culture, beliefs and teachings on us in school and in our public life, we are used to being offended and having our religion discriminated against. Body snatchings are common. Someone is claimed to have been converted to Islam and then upon death, their mortal remains are corpsenapped and taken away for Islamic funeral rites. Even First Holy Communions are not exempt as the kids huddle in Church for their first taste of the Lord as Muslim mobs surround their Church. This we know.

But this is a new level as this is sacrilege of the highest degree.

Read the rest Here

Pupils told they have a 'right' to a good sex life: That's the advice for youngsters from the NHS

2009-07-12T21:43:00.002+01:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The NHS is telling school pupils they have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life and that it is good for their health.

A Health Service leaflet says experts concentrate too much on the need for safe sex and loving relationships, and not enough on the pleasure it can bring.

But family campaigners last night condemned the guidance, saying it encouraged underage sex and could increase rates of sexually-transmitted diseases.

Under the heading 'an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away',(Nice to see the NHS promoting pseudo medicine) the leaflet says: 'Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?'

The advice, which also claims regular sex is good for cardiovascular health, has been circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers.

It came to light just a week after it emerged that teenagers who took part in a £6million Government initiative to reduce teenage pregnancies were more than twice as likely to fall pregnant as other girls.

The scheme tried to persuade girls not to get pregnant by handing out condoms and teaching them about sex.(How much more does this approach have to fail before the govenrment will have the courage to admit they made a big, big mistake?)

The NHS leaflet has been drawn up by Sheffield primary care trust and is entitled Pleasure.

Its author, Steve Slack, director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield, defended it by saying the advice could encourage young people to delay losing their virginity(Because self abuse does not make you as much of a degenerate right? At least fornication is natural.) until they are sure they will enjoy the experience.

He added that as long as teenagers are fully informed(How is telling them its all about pleasure fully informing them?!) about sex and making decisions free of peer pressure as part of a caring relationship, they have as much right as an adult to a good sex life.(These people jsut love to make up new rights about everything, the only criteria it seems been that they want to do it so they have a right to do it!?!?)

But Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, Berkshire, who introduced classes in emotional well-being at the public school, described the approach as 'deplorable'.

Dr Trevor Stammers, of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, said the leaflet would encourage 'risky' behaviour and an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

'It is unbelievable that this is being sent to schools', he said.

'I'd like to know what scientific evidence there is to back this up. There are an awful lot of overpaid and under-occupied health promotion officers around who are obsessed with sex.'

He added that inciting underage sex was 'nothing less than encouraging child abuse'.

'If the NHS wants to promote a healthy heart, as it says it does in this leaflet, it should put the money into reducing smoking and alcohol,' he said. 'Underage sex is as dangerous as underage drink and usually leads to sexual ill-health.'

About 40,000 teenagers become pregnant every year in the UK - the highest level in western Europe. More than half end in abortion.

CARITAS IN VERITATE

2009-07-07T21:50:00.002+01:00

"To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago. Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good[147], and to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth." CARITAS IN VERITATE, 67

Why is the Pope URGENTLY calling for a one world government and an increase in globalisation and then at the same time trying to suggest that this will lead to an increase in subsidiarity?

At least 8 killed in Philippines cathedral bombing

2009-07-06T20:52:00.001+01:00

http://www.catholicculture.org/

At least 8 people were killed (by the latest count), and 30 injured, by a bomb that exploded during Sunday Mass at the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato City. Archbishop Orlando Quevedo-- who was just finishing his homily when the blast occurred- remarked: "This is not just a crime; it is a sacrilege." At his midday public audience Pope Benedict XVI referred to the bombing as an "ignoble act," promising to pray for the victims.

Police in the Philippines believe that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is responsible for the attack.

Conscious Birth Restriction

2009-07-05T00:35:00.003+01:00

Are we brutes, or have we fallen to a level below the brute, for which there is no name but perversion? A brute may be held in some respects a noble creation, swift of foot it may be, glossy of coat, a delight to the eye. Even your hog with ringed nose tip-tilted above the swell of the mire, is as God made him. He has no rational soul; but he is absolutely true to his instincts. Within his lowly sphere, he fulfils, by the compulsion of nature, it is true, Falstaff's resolution to live cleanly as a gentleman should. For he is no pervert. He has no desire to limit or end his kind. In comparison with the beast which the harpies of modern social progress would make us, he is a ministering angel, kindly, gracious and lovable.

In the pages of certain American newspapers and magazines, this social progress is "gabbling like a thing most brutish." We are regaled with details hitherto confined to the pages of textbooks on veterinary science. Whether or not the methods of birth restrictions therein recommended are fit and profitable may be left to the decision of the expert stock raiser. They are intended for brutes, and they may be suited for brutes, but man is not a brute. He has a rational soul. Independently of divine revelation, he knows the difference between right and wrong, and he can not free himself from the responsibility attaching to acts freely posited. He differs, therefore, and essentially, from the beast of the field. To apply the methods of stock raising to the human race is a thing more vile and stupid than any plot cooked in the befuddled brain of drunken Caliban, at home in his mud. For Caliban, be it remembered, very like a hog in many respects, like a hog was no perverter of the law of his nature.

The ostensible purpose of these vampires of society who promote birth control is to improve the human race. This they will do by popularizing a practice which directly and primarily makes the continuance of the human race impossible. Without restricting marital rights, this practice will relieve the contracting parties of the burden incidental to the rearing of children until such time as husband and wife are able to perform these duties satisfactorily. When this stage, economic, physical or moral, has been reached, it is proposed to allow the law of nature to operate without interference. It is also plain that a general knowledge of effective contraceptives will be of great value to persons contemplating or sustaining illicit unions.

It may be remarked at the outset, that no proof is offered, or can be offered, tending to show, first, that the physical organs functioning in procreation, are made fitter for their office by deliberate, habitual misuse; or, secondly, that the moral and psychic changes induced by this practice, and affecting the domain of the will, strengthen the individual to assume the necessary burdens of parenthood. But apart from these considerations, and granting for the moment that, year by year, thousands of human beings come into existence diseased and crippled, to fill our foundling homes, or to pass from surroundings of poverty and vice into hospitals, lunatic asylums and jails, let us come to the fundamental point at issue: Can men and women freely posit the act of which procreation is the natural term, and licitly shirk parenthood?

To this question, a negative is the only possible answer. No interference with the law of nature can be tolerated, whether the act leading to procreation be promiscuous, or sanctioned by the bond of marriage. If, in a given instance, valid reasons make the natural result of the union of the generative principles inadvisable, this end must be attained, not by a perversion of the functions of nature, but by abstinence.

This position, championed notably by the Catholic Church, is founded neither upon an arbitrarily chosen basis of man-made morality, nor upon changing reasons of expediency. It rests upon the natural law, the rule of conduct found in the constitution of our being. It was to this law that Cicero referred when he spoke of that ordination "not written, but born within us; which we have not learned or received by tradition, or read, but which we have sucked in, imbibed, from nature itself." St. Augustine, one of the master-minds of time, defines it "as the reason or will of God, commanding the observance of the natural order and forbidding its violation"; St. Thomas, as "the rational creature's participation in the eternal law." It is not given by supernatural revelation; both in being and in point of time, it is prior to revelation, strictly so called. It presupposes, as Kant admits, that knowledge of God which is acquired, not through revelation, but by reason; and its purpose is to guide all contingent beings to their natural end.

A master of jurisprudence, Blackstone, offers the following illuminating comments upon the natural law:
As man depends absolutely upon his Maker in all things, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will.... This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.... When He created man and endued him with free will to conduct himself in all parts of life, He laid down certain immutable laws of human nature.... He laid down only such laws as were founded in those relations of justice that existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept.... These are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil.... which He has enabled reason to discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct of human actions.... This law of nature.... is binding all over the globe, in all countries and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.

It is not necessary, then, to invoke supernatural revelation to show that acts militating against the preservation of the human species are in violation of the natural law, for, as Blackstone points out, this law is made known to man "by reason, so far as is necessary for the conduct of human nature." Man has, by his nature, the propensity and power to propagate his kind. This power, unless we are to accept a philosophy of hedonism and anarchy destructive of all society, is not given primarily for the good of the individual, but for the good of the species. Man can not attain the development suggested by nature without society; society can not exist if the generative function be perverted. The preservation of the human race, imperatively demanded by right reason and order, can be secured only by the means provided by nature. According to nature's law, the effect of the union of the generative principles is, de se, procreation. But the use of contraceptives effectively prevents procreation. It is, therefore, a violation of the natural law, and of its nature, forbidden.

To this argument, the following rebuttal has been offered. It is not intended to advise a permanent use of contraceptives. Like every human faculty, the generative power is to be exercised only under a wise restraint and with full understanding of its consequences to the individual and to society. But the natural law is not defeated by a single isolated act, or, indeed, by a series of such acts, restricted to a given pair. On the contrary, the true purpose of the law, the conservation of society, is best served by producing, through selective processes, a stock which will evolve a more highly perfected race.

In reply, it must be said that the time limits proposed by the advocates of birth restriction have no bearing on the argument. Common sense bears witness that the essential morality of an act is determined by its agreement or disagreement with a fixed norm; and this without reference to past conduct or to resolutions for the future. Lying is lying, whether I propose to give over lying after a single isolated infraction of the truth, or whether I have the unalterable determination of lying as long as I have breath. An individual is rightly called a thief, despite his intention to tread the ways of honesty after he has acquired a competency by thieving. Furthermore, it is nothing less than anarchy to sanction a violation of law on the ground that a single infraction does not effectively destroy the general purpose of the law.

Equally outside the question is the avowal of these advocates, that their sole intention is to improve the human race. The end does not justify the means; and it is with their methods, not with their intentions, that precise issue is raised. The order that is in the essence of things postulates that a faculty attain the end to which its nature impels it, and for which it is primarily and essentially intended. Such interference, then, as effectively prevents the faculty from attaining its end, violates the nature of that faculty. To uphold the contrary of this proposition involves a denial of the existence of the natural law. Now, no argument can obscure the fact that the primary end, intended by the very nature of the generative principles, is procreation; for these principles by their nature tend to this end and to no other. But the use of a contraceptive directly and effectively prevents the generative principles from attaining the end for which they are primarily and essentially intended, and is, therefore, an act specifically prohibited by the natural law.

Times have changed from the days when mother, wife, child, were terms which bore about them a sweetness and a sanctity almost supernal. We have thrown God out of our literature, our philosophy, our politics, our schools, our practical lives, and now we are taught that it is holy to eliminate Him completely from our very nature. Hence we are brought face to face with that most horrible of corruptions, the unnatural rottenness that is worked by fleshly lust unchained. In the first chapter of Romans, St. Paul bears witness to the fearful perversion of a once hardy, virile people. What stands between us and like ruin, if the counsels of these modern apostles of unutterable vileness, "whose very name it is a shame to speak," prevail? The truth of the living God, the law expressed in their nature, they made a lie; for this cause God gave them over to shameful affections. It is inevitable. Blot out God, and eternal night descends; and through the reeking vapours, the harpies hasten to feast upon this decadent mass that once was decency, high-mindedness, the purity of womanhood and the honour of man.

Modesty of Dress and the Love of God: An Effective Way to Defend the Family

2009-06-25T21:23:00.001+01:00

http://www.tfp.org/

The Face of Vulgarity.

“I love vulgarity. Good taste is death, vulgarity is life."^[1] These words by English fashion designer Mary Quant, who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants, reveal one of the most important, though rarely pointed out, aspects of the “fashion revolution” that started in the sixties: vulgarity.

Indeed, fashions have increasingly tended toward vulgarity. It is a vulgarity that tramples upon not only good taste and decorum but which reflects a mentality opposed to all order and discipline and to every kind of restraint, be it esthetic, moral or social, and which ultimately suggests a completely “liberated” standard of behavior.

Are Comfort and Practicality Supreme Criteria?
The rationale for introducing ever shorter skirts was “to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus.”^[2] The notion that comfort, practicality and freedom of movement must be the only criteria for dress has led to a breakdown in the general standard of sobriety and elegance, not to speak of the norms of modesty.

Thus, casual dress, being more comfortable and practical, increasingly becomes the norm regardless of people’s sex, age and circumstances. Jeans and the T-shirt (formerly a piece of underwear) became part of common attire.

Though one can wear less formal clothes at times of leisure, these clothes should not convey the impression that one is abandoning one’s dignity and seriousness. They should not give the idea that one is actually on vacation from one's principles.

In the past, even leisure dress, though more comfortable, maintained the dignity that one should never abandon.

It is curious to note that many companies require employees to wear business suits to convey an image of seriousness and responsibility. This is proof that clothes do transmit a message. They can express seriousness and responsibility or on the other hand, immaturity and a carelessness.

Unisex Garb
The premise that comfort and practicality must preside over the choice of clothes had yet another consequence: clothes no longer reflect one's identity. In other words, they no longer indicate a person’s social position, profession, or even more fundamental characteristics such as sex and age.

Thus, unisex garb has become widespread: jeans and shorts have come to be worn by people of both sexes and all generations. Young men and women, the youth and the aged, single and married, teachers and students, children and adults, all mix together and wear one and the same clothing which no longer expresses that which they are, think or desire.

The Habit Does Not Make the Monk but Identifies Him
One could object that “the habit does not make the monk.” The fact that a person dresses with distinction and elegance does not mean, of itself, that he has good principles and good behavior. Likewise, the fact that a person always wears casual dress does not necessarily indicate that he has bad principles or a reprehensible conduct. At first sight, the argument appears logical and even obvious. However, analyzed in depth, it does not stand.

True, the habit does not make the monk. Nevertheless, it is a strong element that identifies him. Furthermore, it influences not only the way people look at the monk but the way he looks at himself. No one will deny that the loss of identity by many nuns and monks that took place over the last forty years was largely due to their shedding the traditional habits, which adequately expressed the spirit of poverty, chastity and obedience, as well as an ascetic lifestyle proper to consecrated persons.^[3]

The Need for Coherence Between Dress and Convictions
Given the unity that exists in our tendencies, principles, convictions and behavior, the way we dress cannot fail to influence our mentality.

Wearing a certain type of clothing constitutes a form of behavior; and when clothing no longer adequately reflect our tendencies, principles and convictions, one’s mentality begins to undergo an imperceptible change to remain ‘in sync’ with the way one presents oneself. This is because human reason, by the force of logic inherent in it, naturally seeks to establish consistency between thought and behavior.

This rule is magnificently summed up in the famous phrase of French writer Paul Bourget: "One must live as one thinks, under pain of sooner or later ending up thinking as one has lived."

The process of transformation or erosion of principles can be slowed down or impeded by a person’s religious fervor, deeply rooted tendencies or ideas, and other factors. However, if inconsistency between behavior - reflected in the way one dresses - and one’s principles and convictions is not eliminated, the process of erosion, no matter how slow, becomes inexorable.

The beautiful, simple, and modest dress of the Belle Epoque.

Living Faith, Inadequate Clothing
This subtle erosion is often manifested by a loss of sensitivity regarding the fundamental points of one’s mentality. One example would be the respect one must have for the sacred.

In some way, concessions to the principle that comfort must be the only rule of dress have ended up by giving a casual note to more serious and holy activities. How can one explain, for example, that persons who have true faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and who make admirable sacrifices to frequent perpetual adoration, nevertheless see no contradiction in presenting themselves before the Blessed Sacrament wearing shorts as if they were on a picnic?

The same person who shows up thus dressed for perpetual adoration would never don those clothes for an audience, say, with Queen Elizabeth II. This contradiction shows how, though the person has maintained his faith, to a certain degree the notion of the majesty of the Sacrament of the Altar -- the Real Presence -- has vanished from his soul.

Egalitarianism...
There is a general tendency in our times to establish a most radical egalitarianism at all levels of culture and social relations between the sexes, and even, in the tendency of egalitarianianism, between men and animals.^[4]

In dress, this egalitarianism is manifested by the growing proletarianization, the establishment of unisex fashions and the abolition of differences between generations. The same garb can be worn by anybody no matter his position, age or circumstance (e.g. in a trip, a religious or civil ceremony).

Chaos reigns in the domains of fashion today. It is often difficult to distinguish, by their clothes, men from women, parents from children, a religious ceremony from a picnic. Haircuts and hairstyles follow the same tendency to confound age and sex and to break down standards of elegance and good taste.

...That Leads to Infantilization
One of the aspects that stand out the most in the modern dictates of fashion is the desire to create an illusion of eternal youth, even perpetual adolescence with no responsibility, a phenomenon that has been called the “Peter Pan Syndrome."^[5]

Modern fashion shows a tendency to infantilize people. A Brazilian fashion critic thus expressed herself: “For a long time now, we have seen on catwalks, both international and domestic, fashions that should be displayed at the Children’s Expo, such is the level of infantilization they suggest. Stylists over 25 years old were designing (and wearing) clothes that could be worn by children in a day care center.”^[6]

Modesty is Essential to Chastity
In addition to the extravagant, egalitarian and infantilizing tendency of modern fashion, one needs to consider the attack on virtue and the complete lack of modesty.

The human body has its beauty, and this beauty attracts us. Due to the disorder which Original Sin left in man, the disorder of concupiscence, the delight in contemplating bodily beauty, and particularly of the feminine body can lead to temptation and sin.

That is not to say that some parts of the body are good and can be shown and others are bad and must be covered. Such a statement is absurd and was never part of Church doctrine. All parts of the body are good, for the body is good as a whole, having been created by God. However, not all body parts are equal, and some excite the sexual appetite more than others. Thus, exposing those parts through semi-nudity or risqué low cut dresses or wearing clothes so tight as to accentuate one’s anatomy poses a grave risk of causing excitation, particularly in men in relation to women.

Therefore, clothes must cover that which must be covered and make stand out that which can be emphasized. To cover a woman’s face, like Muslims do, shows well the lack of equilibrium of a religion that does not understand true human dignity. The face, the noblest part of the body because it more perfectly reflects the spiritual soul, is precisely the part that stands out the most in the traditional habits of nuns.

Just as masculine clothes should emphasize the manly aspect proper to man, feminine fashion should manifest grace and delicacy. And in this sense, having longer hair is a natural adornment to frame a woman’s face.

Immorality in Fashions and Destruction of the Family
Garb that does not show a person’s self-respect as an intelligent and free being (and, through baptism, as a son or daughter of God and a temple of the Holy Ghost), contributes to a large extent to the present destruction of the family. It does this by favoring temptations against purity. It also does this by its vulgarity and childishness that corrodes the notion of the seriousness of life and the need for ascesis (self-discipline), all of which are fundamental elements that maintain family cohesion and stability.

The struggle for the restoration of the family by opposing abortion, contraception, and homosexuality will be much more effective if done together with efforts to restore sobriety, modesty and elegance in dress.

Dress and the Love of God

The role of clothing is not only to protect the body from the elements but also to serve as adornment and symbolize someone’s functions, characteristics and mentality. Garb must be not only dignified and decent but also as beautiful and elegant as possible (which requires more good taste than money).

If the “way of beauty” leads us to God by seeing Him as the exemplary cause of Creation, the “way of ugliness” turns us away from the Creator and places us on the slippery slope of sin. That is why ugliness is the very symbol of sin and is so well expressed by the expression “ugly as sin.”

DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

2009-06-14T15:41:00.002+01:00

"Be not solicitous; for your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things." Matth. vi. 32.

Holy Scripture tells us, that God Who created us, will provide for us whatever is necessary for our welfare, if we but trust in Him. It urges us therefore, not to be solicitous for the things of this world, but instead to seek the one thing necessary for eternal life, namely, the friendship of God. Many have misunderstood these words of Holy Writ, and hence they ask repeatedly: "Should we not trouble ourselves about the things of life?" Should the labourer in the field lay aside the plough, the sickle and the flail? Should the workman leave his workshop and leave his tools idle? God Himself says: "Be not solicitous, saying: What shall we eat, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things, and he will provide them"

My dear friends, we must make a distinction between care and solicitude. Divine Providence does not forbid man to take precautions, but it does forbid him to be over-solicitous. Precaution tries to provide for the necessities of the near future, without being over-anxious; while solicitude is that over-anxiety which worries all the time; whether the work on hand will ever be accomplished; whether it is worth doing at all, and what will happen if it should not be accomplished; and this solicitude of what the near future may have in store for us may be so all-embracing, as to absorb all our thoughts, and desires, and influence all our actions. It is this faint-hearted care, which, in the strife for the necessities of life, leaves God's Providence entirely out of consideration. That is prohibited; and justly, for, (1), it perplexes the mind, it directs all thoughts, desires and actions towards the goods of this world, and turns it away from that which alone is necessary i.e., God, and the salvation of the soul. "And the care of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word and he becometh fruitless."

Thus says the Divine Saviour, and unfortunately we see His prophecy fulfilled every day around us. The Lord often speaks to us directly by interior admonitions, and enlightens us through His priests. Many hear His word, but with how many does it bear fruit? Alas! too often it has no effect, and why?

Because the over-anxious care for the near future, and for worldly goods, leaves us no time to meditate upon God's word and still less time to practice it.

This anxious care, (2), antagonizes faith, undermines hope, and shakes our confidence in God. He who is so over-anxious seems to make the continuance of everything existing dependent upon human effort, endeavour and care. Therefore he evidently loses sight of the faith which teaches us that God alone is the preserver of all that is. He also deprives himself of all hope and confidence; for the same faith which tells us that God maintains everything, assures us also that God maintains it by virtue of His infinite love, and that He is always ready to grant to all whatever is necessary for continued existence.

This anxious care is, (3), quite useless; for by all this care we do not improve our miserable condition one iota, but make it more intolerable; we become lukewarm, morose and fretful, slow to do good and to overcome evil, as daily experience sufficiently proves. No good comes from increasing the troubles of this life, by such anxious solicitude; for the Lord Himself says: "Who amongst you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?" Just as little as you can cause God to retard the end of the world by one minute over the appointed time, as little can you prolong your life by anxious care and by your own power. Therefore it is unreasonable to be so very anxious about life and sustenance. What is there more insignificant than a hair! And yet our Lord says that every hair on our head is counted, and that we shall not lose a single one, unless God wills it. If God then regards, maintains and preserves each little hair, why should He not care much more for every human being, His own image, so that it may not perish?

If man, with all his plans, devices and consultations, with all his strength and power, cannot make one little hair grow on his head, how can he change what has been ordained by God's all-wise Providence? If God wills it not then all our efforts are vain. For this reason He forbids us all anxious solicitude.

However, he does not forbid us to be careful that is, to work and to provide for our necessities. He hates laziness, and it is His will that we should work, as holy Job tells us: "Man is born to labour and the bird to fly." (Job v. 7.) And again: "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." (II. Thess. iii. 10.)

It is foolish therefore, to fold your hands idly in your lap and wait for food to appear on the plate and money to fill your purse. God is not so lavish with His miracles as to work them in support of laziness and idleness.

"Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways and learn wisdom," says God. (Prov. vi. 6.) Observe how this little creature works, and works unceasingly, running hither and thither to gather in during the summer, so that it may have sufficient to live on in winter. You will never find it idle, but always free from anxious care and worry. And this is the command of God to Adam: "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," which means, as St. Chrysostom says, that by labour and work, but not by worry and foolish solicitude, shalt thou earn thy living. All I have said so far about sinful solicitude is comprised in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: "If we do not wish to act against the decrees of Providence we must (1), avoid all solicitude which extends itself over temporal affairs to such an extent as to interfere with our happiness; (2), and all solicitude which causes us to work beyond our strength and prevents us from taking needed rest and recreation; (3), all solicitude which makes us timid and faint-hearted, believing that the future holds nothing but adversity and misery for us.

If then you would prove yourself a true servant of the Lord, "seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice" i.e., be solicitous to become pious, to live honourably, and to work out your salvation.

Then do all you can, to the best of your knowledge, according to your strength and your position. Pray when it is time to pray, sleep when it is time to sleep, eat when it is time to eat, and work when it is time to work. Everything else you may well leave to the care of God. Besides, you know for certain that God will not desert any one who lives a good and righteous life and trusts in Him. Does not Jesus Christ say: "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its justice, and all other things shall be added unto you"? "Put not your trust in princes, in the children of man, in whom there is no salvation," says the Psalmist, "casting all your solicitude upon Him; for He hath care of you." (I. Peter v. 7.)

If this Father preserves the brute animals; clothes the lilies and the flowers of the fields so beautifully, and does not forget a single little bird or the smallest flower, how could it be possible that He would overlook us, who are to Him infinitely more than all animals and plants, and who are as men His image, and as Christians His children! This can never be! The Holy Ghost Himself says: "I have not seen the just forsaken." (Psalm xxxvi. 25.)

Therefore, when nobody else can help you, God will surely come to your aid. He is not only the creator, but also the preserver and governing power of the whole world. And that should be enough for us when anxious care fills our soul.

The Nazis of our times

2009-06-10T22:20:00.001+01:00

http://www.sfgate.com/

Lawyers for a Catholic advocacy group that sued San Francisco for condemning the Vatican's policy on same-sex adoptions are comparing the city's supervisors to Nazis laying the groundwork for the slaughter of Jews.

In a statement responding to last week's ruling by a federal appeals court in the city's favor, Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, used a German term for the Nazi policy of forced conformity to party doctrine and the elimination of opposition groups in the 1930s:

"It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco board's actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of Gleichschaltung, vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination."

He was referring to the supervisors' March 2006 resolution denouncing a Vatican order to Catholic Charities not to place adoptive children with same-sex couples. In the decree, Cardinal William Levada, the former San Francisco archbishop who now heads the church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said allowing gay or lesbian couples to adopt children "would actually mean doing violence to these children."

The nonbinding board resolution, sponsored by then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano, said the Vatican order contained "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric" and urged local Catholic officials, including Levada's successor as archbishop, George Niederauer, to disregard it. In response, Catholic Charities of San Francisco stopped placing children for adoption with any families.

In the lawsuit, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights accused the city of acting with hostility toward Catholicism in violation of the constitutional requirement of government neutrality. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the supervisors had acted for a legal, secular purpose, to protect same-sex couples from discrimination, and not to express disapproval of Catholicism.

The Thomas More Law Center, which represents the plaintiffs, said it would ask the full appeals court for a rehearing and then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the law center's Web page, its mission is "to defend and protect Christians and their religious beliefs in the public square."

"In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists in positions of authority in San Francisco have ... misused the instruments of the government to attack the Catholic Church," said attorney Robert Muise, who argued the case.

"We're not saying that the resolution is going to lead toward extermination of Catholics," Brian Rooney, attorney and spokesman for the law center, said Tuesday. "The problem with having governments vilifying religions and their tenets is that it's a slippery slope to instigate acts of violence."