Justin Katz of Dust in the Light has a column at NRO today on Faith and Works and writes some short answers to questions the the Bishops conference posed to the candidates.

In a satellite interview with Milwaukee TV station WISN, Kerry said, "I regret that when George Bush had the opportunity in Afghanistan at Tora Bora, he didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden."

"He outsourced the job to Afghan warlords. I would never have done that. I think it was an enormous mistake, and we're paying the price for that today," he said.

This is a perfect example of why John Kerry would be terrible as our commander-in-chief. His first response to Osama and his veiled threats was not condensing OBL and his attempt to influence the US elections, but instead only sees a political advantage. He should have been outraged at this attempt to influence our elections instead of taking more pot shots at our generals. When it comes down to it President Bush is no FDR looking studiously over maps to determine allowable bombing sites. The President has made the tough decisions and then turned over the planning to the military instead of being a micro-manager. So this whole week of criticism starting from the the missing ammunition to now has all been about blasting our military with his own Monday night quarterbacking. To him Bush is the enemy and OBL is only a nuisance. If he had the same fervor to conduct the war on terror as he has to become president then maybe he would be an acceptable commander-in-chief.

I am especially tired of his charge of outsourcing since it is both misleading and his own plan is to outsource everything to the UN.

The headline alone — "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics" — angered several readers of a full-page advertisement in Twin Cities newspapers this week and stirred complaints to the local archdiocese, which said it had nothing to do with its content.

"I go to daily Mass, I'm a serious Catholic, and I don't feel at all in conjunction with those views,'' said Carol Mulcahy of St. Paul.

And just what are those views this serious Catholic doesn't feel in conjunction with? Abortion, Euthanasia, ESCR, Cloning, and Homosexual Marriage.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is making it clear the "church'' didn't pay for Tuesday's ad. In fact, it discouraged parishes from distributing its contents in booklet form because it deemed it was partisan.

"We are nonpartisan, and we don't want to send an unintended signal that implies we're telling anyone who to vote for,'' archdiocesan spokesman Dennis McGrath said. "For the same reason, we wouldn't issue a disavowal of the ad either, not in this charged political environment.'' [Source]

This sounds more like a statement from the Diocese of Laodicea.

Then again maybe it just wasn't fair for Catholic Answers to single out serious Catholics. After all many Catholics who hold heterodox opinions are serious too - seriously wrong. So to remedy this oversight:

Psalm 31:2-3, 3-4, 5-6
Incline thy ear to me, rescue me speedily! Be thou a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! Yea, thou art my rock and my fortress; for thy name's sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge. Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God. Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols; but I trust in the LORD.

Holy Mother of God,
hear the prayers of the Church
for all mothers,
especially those wearied by life
and overcome by the suffering
they bear for their children.

Hail Mary...

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
intercede for them
from your place in heaven,
that the mercy of your divine Son
might lighten their burden
and give them strength.

Hail Mary...

Glory to the Father....

The Holy Cross
Each time I pray, I am called to join my prayer with Christ's perfect prayer upon the cross. It is easy from the vantage of the cross to see the world clearly. To see how easy it is to join the suffering of the innocent to the suffering of him who is without sin. We should work for an end to all the forms of violence which threaten life. That is a wonderful good. But it is even more important to stand with the Virgin Mother and to beg her son to come to our aid.

TSO has the transcript.

I like the idea, now if I can just only find a surgeon to get some humility implants and of course a faith lift. I wonder if they would use Chrism Oil of Olay?

Dawn Eden has been on a roll this week with coverage of Planned Parenthood's Teenwire. She covered the horrendously cheesy game Birthcontroids (screen shots must be seen to be believed.) Then there was the fact that Teenwire is opened to those between six and forty-four. And now she covers more interactive games with one that has a couple copulating behind a cow and then another that introduces the topic of questioning your sexuality that ends with a man and a pig.

Now here are some other game suggestions for them.

1. Fetus Kong - You guide the fetus up a series of ladders while the mother throws barrels of contraceptives at you. Game play is rigged so that you can never win.
2. Emily's List PAC Man - Go through the maze trying to eat all of the pills. Four different colored fetuses follow you around and will ruin your life if they touch you. In each corner is a super birth control that allows you to eat the fetuses with no harm.
3. Personal Space Invaders - Shot from behind your womb fortresses the lines of embryos waiting to implant. Shoot them all or else Game Over - your pregnant!
4. Dodger - Try to cross the street safely to the abortion clinic where you can make your right to choose. Evil pro-lifers block your way with such violent tactics as silently praying and carrying signs.

Here is the text from Mel Gibson's commercial running in California.

Research on adult and umbilical cord stem cells have led to cures in 300,000 cases. But that’s not what Proposition 71 is about.

This is Mel Gibson and I’m concerned that the people aren’t fully informed about Prop 71.

We have a lot of questions to ask, like why are we being misled into thinking Prop 71 isn’t about cloning, when it is?

That’s what it says: "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer," and that’s a scientific term for cloning.

If cloning human embryos for destruction is so promising, why aren’t private companies paying the $6 billion?

Because in 23 years embryonic stem cell research has not produced a single human cure. All it yielded is tumors, rejections and mutations.

See, that science doesn’t atttract venture capital, so why should the taxpayers be bled dry?

This is Mel Gibson. I’m voting no on Prop 71.

Creating life simply to destroy it is wrong, particularly when there are effective alternatives readily available.

Minneapolis (AP) The leader of a local Roman Catholic church known for its support of gay and lesbian issues said he will comply with an order from the Vatican to remove Gay Pride material from the church Web site.

The Rev. George Wertin of St. Joan of Arc said he would also stop allowing unordained guests to speak during the celebration of Mass, which was requested two weeks ago in a face-to-face meeting with two local bishops.

However, Wertin said the local church would keep with its long practice of community decision making, so several parish committees would consider precisely how to respond. "It takes awhile to turn a ship around," he said. [Source]

Turning the ship around is certainly accurate since they have been going the wrong way for years. Fr. Wertin's decision to comply is not exactly resounding obedience by the tone of the letter on St Joan's web site.

A group of persons who attend our Sunday services alerted Rome of our stance and a certain cardinal promptly put the squeeze on Archbishop Flynn to get us in line. This, despite the fact that as a church we view the GLBT community for who they are – God’s children, like all the rest of us.

We have to clean up our act in other ways, too: no more outside speakers during Mass, and expunge an offending article on our Web site written by Father George in August reporting our involvement in the Gay Pride Parade.

How to respond to demands like these? That was the question that faced the 200 or so persons who attended a meeting in the church on Sunday afternoon. (The first of two; the second such meeting was on Monday evening and open to the whole parish as well.)

“I am an American Catholic. I wonder about my First Amendment Rights.”

“ Do we have the right to know who our accusers are?”

“I see this community as a grain of sand in an oyster.”

Come on, grains of sand, start scratching. We’re all destined to turn into pearls in the end.

...The larger Church, God bless Her, is slow to act and we are not the first to suffer from Her caution about questions Godly. Think about St. Francis, Telihard de Chardin, victims of the Crusades.

Funny I see this parish more as a gallstone in the body of Christ. Other comments made by the parishioners seem to indicate that they would comply mainly to keep their priest from being removed. They understand that their heterodox views openly assented to would not survive in the climate of most other priests. Their site is chuck full of the phrase "prophetic voice" and yet they don't understand the prophets. The prophets preached a return to God when Israel was falling into the practices of false religion and living as the cultures around them were. Many of them were killed because the society did not want to hear their message of repentance and return. St. Joan preaches a message that is not at odds with the culture around them but also indistinguishable from it. This is another community that has confused love of neighbor with endorsement of the neighbor's sin.

On Monday two stories broke. One with the NYT and the missing munitions at Al Qaqaa and the other was with the Washington Times and Kerry making up his meeting with all the members of the UN Security Council. The Al Qaqaa story has been the one constantly in the news even though the reporting has had to be backtracked in its assertions and it was probably politically motivated as a job saving measure by Mohammed ElBaradei. The timeline started out this week with ammunition disappearing after the invasion to the likelihood that it happened before the invasion. 380 tons at the start of the week now appears to be just 3 tons. I am more likely to believe the cover of the National Enquirer to the front page of the NYT.

The lie about the UN Security Council meeting has got no traction even though this story is greatly indicative of John "Bush Lied" Kerry. I should not be surprised since again this just shows that John Kerry's greatest qualification to be president is that he is not George W. Bush. Why does this outright fabrication not spark concern among the public? Why do we so easily accept the premise that all politicians are liars and outright exaggerations are just to be expected as part of the political process? It is quite understandable with our falling nature that when someone is caught in wrongdoing that they lie about it to protect themselves. It is quite another thing to lie when you don't have to. To exaggerate your importance by placing yourself in a meeting or situation that didn't happen. These constant lies are part of his public career and his presidential campaign.

• Claimed he met with foreign leaders who endorsed him.
• Claimed he spent Christmas in Cambodia.
• Claimed a dog was blown off his swift boat and then landed on another one.
• Claimed he was in Iraq during the cease fire agreement.
• Claimed he was at a famous Red Sox game when he was actually attending a dinner in another state

But I guess there is an upside to all of this if he became president. We could save a lot of money in travel costs to other countries since he could just claim that he met with them. I am sure the Secret Service would be pleased that they don't have to defend him in imaginary circumstances. Official biographers would be constantly working as new stories about his time in Vietnam and the Senate would emerge and be added to his narrative. Walter Mitty was an amateur compared to John Kerry.

October 23, 2004 / NEWTON, Mass. — L. George Chedid wants his eldest son to learn about math and science and all the rest of the academic subjects that children learn in elementary school. But he draws the line at his boy learning about same-sex “marriage” — especially at the impressionable age of 7.

Chedid’s son was in first grade at Burr Elementary School in Newton, Mass., last spring when the principal announced over the intercom that the state was officially recognizing same-sex “marriages.” The school then sent several of its homosexual teachers to various classrooms — from kindergarten through fifth grade — to explain what this meant and to herald the law as a wonderful civil-rights advancement, said Chedid, an engineering professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

“A kid at that age looks at anything the teacher says as absolute truth,” he said. “The teacher comes in and tells that 7-year-old, ‘It’s okay for Johnny to wear a skirt. It’s fine for Peter to marry Paul.’… It’s indoctrination of these kids that flies in the face of the principles and morals that I’d like to institute in my child.”

The resulting uproar in the town pitted parent against parent, with a generous use of epithets such as “bigots” and “homophobes,” Chedid said.

Chedid and his wife, both practicing Maronite Catholics, decided over the summer to put their eldest son in a nearby Catholic school. They also placed their next-youngest child, who was entering kindergarten, in Catholic school, where Chedid said they are “a lot safer from gay propaganda.” [Source]

Hebrews 5:7-9
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Holy Mother of God,
hear the prayers of the Church
for all mothers,
especially those wearied by life
and overcome by the suffering
they bear for their children.
Hail Mary...

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
intercede for them
from your place in heaven,
that the mercy of your divine Son
might lighten their burden
and give them strength.

Hail Mary...

Glory to the Father....

Pray for Families
I know of a family which prays each night. Since the kids were little they are gathered from their games and their grumbling to the couch in the living room. There they pray for those whom they love and those they have a hard time loving. They pray for the unborn and for little babies. They pray for the sick and the dying. They pray for the Church and for their priest. Many a night it was the knowledge of those prayers that gave me hope and peace and a good night's sleep.

Luke 2:33-35
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against
(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also),

Holy Mother of God,
hear the prayers of the Church
for all mothers,
especially those wearied by life
and overcome by the suffering
they bear for their children.
Hail Mary...

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
intercede for them
from your place in heaven,
that the mercy of your divine Son
might lighten their burden
and give them strength.

Hail Mary...

Glory to the Father....

Pray for All Children
The eyes of a child are an infinite well of life, hope and goodness. If you doubt the value of life, look into the eyes of a child. If you are worn by life's worries, look into the eyes of a child. If you want to see tomorrow, look into the eyes of a child. And what you will see is the divine spark which brought beauty out of chaos, the infinite beauty, which is the presence of the Creator in his creation.

Here is an interesting interview by NRO with Brian Golden a Democratic state representative from Massachusetts.

Rep. Golden: If you look at it objectively you can see a profound difference. When John Kennedy spoke to people about his religion, he was essentially saying, "I'm a Catholic, but don't hold it against me." John Kerry essentially says, "I'm a Catholic, but don't hold me to it."

It's one thing if you don't believe that human life begins at conception. However, John Kerry admits he believes that life begins at conception but won't do anything to protect it in law. How does he square his conscience with his official antipathy to all legislation protecting human life? John Kennedy said that "if the time should ever come...when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise." Can you imagine that coming from John Kerry? Senator Kerry's willingness to place political expedience before conscience is disturbing no matter what your faith.

The Roman Catholic bishop of Springfield protested yesterday the Holyoke School Committee's recent decision to make condoms available to students in grades 6-12, arguing that the school system is ''an endorser and an enabler of early adolescent sex."

''I am profoundly disappointed and disturbed," Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell said in a statement, contending that school officials are reducing sex to ''meaningless self-gratification."

''This decision is, in effect, a millstone around the necks of parents," he said.

Some members of the School Committee, which approved the policy several weeks ago, said they had to act because of the city's high teenage birth rate and high incidence of AIDS. It's unclear how many school systems across the state make condoms available, because the state Education Department doesn't track the policy, a department spokeswoman said. At least one school system, Cambridge, makes condoms available in school health clinics, according to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. [Source]

I guess the three R's are now Rubbers, Rubbers and Rubbers. They seem to understand that to help prevent children from developing lung discease that they educate them to not smoke - instead of providing lung sheaths. Yet went it comes to teenage pregnancy - the only problem is pregnancy and not teenage sex. The Bishop's saying that this is in effect, a millstone around the necks of the parents is exactly right. We also know from similar programs that this program won't reduce teenage pregnancy and even when this program fails they will introduce it to 6-8th graders anyway.

Update: Reader Mark H made the following comment which I thought was excellent.

One can only hope that someday an enlightened society will look back on these 'No Child Left Unsheathed' programs with the same head-shaking as we do now on 'Flat Earth' beliefs.

More people need to point out the foolishness of the condom programs by capitalizing on the contrast with anti-smoking programs. How about we start our own anti-smoking campaign?

-Pass out filtered, low nicotine cigarettes to kids: They're Gonna Try It Anyway, So Give Them Some Protection!

-"Don't give in to peer pressure; when your friends ask you to share tobacco, say 'Only if we use chew.'"

-Set up 'Planned Breathing' clinics, where kids can go for lung treatment without consent from their parents (and to buy all the cigarettes they want, of course; but they'll only talk about the 'health care' part.) After all, the kids have a right to privacy!

Catholic University Employees Donate More to Kerry than Bush

(CNSNews.com) - A review of Federal Election Commission reports shows the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry received more donations from employees of Catholic universities than President George W. Bush.

The Cardinal Newman Society found that employees gave $196,025 to Kerry's campaign which was nine times the amount given to Bush, who only received $21,200 from Catholic university employees. [Source]

From John Kerry's My Faith speech

My faith, and the faith I have seen in the lives of so many Americans, also teaches me that, "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do unto me." That means we have a moral obligation to one another, to the forgotten, and to those who live in the shadows. This is a moral obligation at the heart of all our great religious traditions. It is also the vision of America: "E Pluribus Unum." The ethical test of a good society is how it treats its most vulnerable members.

"Whatever you do to the least of these, you do unto me." So I guess then John Kerry is admitting that he is aborting Jesus and chopping Jesus up to get at his stem-cells.

Who among us is more vulnerable today than the 8 million Americans who are out of work? Who is more vulnerable than the 45 million Americans without health insurance? Who is more vulnerable than the parents who have to choose between food and medicine for their children?

I guess he can't see the forest because of all the abortion clinics in the way. Chris Burgwald also posts on that statement with:

This is who, Senator: the 43 million people we have allowed to be killed since abortion was legalized in 1973. That's 4000 people a day, today, Senator. Where are you for those vulnerable?

I know there are some Bishops who have suggested that as a public official I must cast votes or take public positions - on issues like a woman's right to choose and stem cell research - that carry out the tenets of the Catholic Church. I love my Church; I respect the Bishops; but I respectfully disagree.

"Personally opposed" and yet speaks of a women's right to choose. I would hate to see the rhetoric if he was personally for. Elaine of My Domestic Church says "I won't mention that I think Kerry is an H******" Well for the record I don't think John Kerry is a heretic. A heretic actually believes in the falsehood they profess. If the core constituents of the Democratic party were pro-life is there any doubt that John Kerry would also then be pro-life (in words)?

Lane Core, Jr has writen an excellent Novena Prayer for the election.

Almighty God, all things are in your hands: our nation, our communities, our families, our lives.

In this time of great decision, bless our country and its people. Prosper the efforts of the just and true, and thwart the purposes of the unjust and dishonest. Preserve our land from violence and turmoil, and keep our relationships decent and respectful.

Inspire voters, legislators, executives, and judges so our country may be a land where morality is furthered by law and authority; where life is protected, marriage is respected, and family is supported; where the innocent are spared, and the guilty are punished; where justice is tempered by mercy, and mercy fortified by justice.

Help us to keep the United States of America a land where the rule of law and respect for individual dignity are the legal foundation of a just order.

Amen.

I had already intended to do the same and will be posting the following pro-life Novena prayer for the next nine days leading up to the election.

In today's Gospel reading from the Gospel of Luke:

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I found it interesting that the words used to describe the Pharisee's prayer was "prayed thus with himself." That his prayer was not offered to God in humility and thankfulness but was a prayer to himself for moral superiority. On the other had the publican did not boast but only asked for mercy. The word contrition comes from the Latin contritio--a breaking of something hardened. When I first found the source of the word contrition I saw just how apt this was. That this breaking of something hard into pieces is usually our pride. The Council of Trent defined contrition as "a sorrow of soul and a hatred of sin committed, with a firm purpose of not sinning in the future." The movie Love story had the most twisted definition of love with its tag line "Love means never having to say your sorry." This one is straight out of the Devil's cathechism where charity only means self-love.

Even when at times during our conversions when God removes some large rocks of sins we start to notice something else. Sometimes when you go outside and remove a large rock what you find revealed underneath a swarm of maggots and worms. It is the same thing with ourselves that when big sins are repented of and removed through God's grace that we notice (for sometime first time) many other sins, faults, and imperfections. Sometimes these sins seem harder to dispatch then maybe there more serous predecessors. That we try to stamp them out but they squiggle away just our of reach. As in the garden when we try to dispose of these maggots we don't try to remove them all at once but to stomp they out individually till they are gone. Again through God's grace and perseverance we need to do the same thing to our own garden of faults.

We also can walk away justified like the publican when we remember our faults and put our trust in God's mercy and not self-appointed righteousness. The good the the Pharisee had to boast of was through grace and instead he should have been deep in thankfulness and prayer for those who were not yet in God's grace. Being a Catholic I can sometimes catch myself displaying the attitude of the Pharisee when reading about the Anglican communion and especially the whole Bishop Gene Robinson debacle. "Lord I am glad I am in your Church and not the church of other men, I fast, pray the rosary, and give to the poor." While I fully believe the the Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus established on earth it is not through personal merit that I wound up in his Church. So I try to remember to be greatly thankful for being a Catholic and pray with Jesus in his high priestly prayer "that they may be one."

Dawn Eden reports on a case where Planned Parenthood is refusing to hand over the body of an aborted fetus to authorities in a statutory rape case because they say that it is part of the woman's medical record. Of course this is part of their "No Child Abuser Left Behind" policy where they have stonewalled and not reported cases of adult-child sex. Where does a father involved in incest turn to when he has impregnated his daughter? Why it is Planned Parenthood that will help him out of this ticklish situation. An adult that has gotten a teenager pregnant - never fear (and never tell the parents) Planned Parenthood to the rescue again.

Now I think there is something else going on here from a trend I have noticed. Unborn babies are seen as a tissue blob, culture mass, "fetus", product of conception, and biological material. Now they have confused the child with a medical record. I think we should raise up a collection for money to pay for optometrists and then glasses of PP and their employees. Obviously they have eyesight that makes Mr. Magoo look eagle-eyed by comparison or they would never make such silly mistakes.

Patrick Sweeney has some photos for this years March for Life in New York. Here are some from last year's march.

Have you ever had a piece of the Eucharist stuck in your teeth? I have at times felt with my tongue a piece of his most Precious Body caught in the cap of a tooth. I remember once thinking of grabbing a tooth pick (to dislodge and to swallow) and then I realized I would be like Roman centurion Longinus who put a spear into his side. Then I also realized how cool it was to have a temporary tabernacle in my mouth and the the Eucharist would remain with me a little longer before being digested. No attempt here to be sacrilegious, after all Jesus is the the way the tooth and the life.

The nation's 273 active Roman Catholic bishops have nominated a 10-candidate field that includes Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and two cardinals for election as president and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The incumbent vice president - in this case, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash. - traditionally is elected president.

However, selecting a new vice president is another matter. Even though Dolan, 54, has been a bishop only since 2001 and archbishop here for just two years, his potential to be elected vice president of the conference when it meets next month in Washington, D.C., cannot be ruled out.

"He's got as good a chance as any of them," said Father Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America and author of the book "Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church."

"He's well respected by the bishops," Reese said. "The more I think about it, the more I think Dolan has a good chance." [Source]

I heard the good Bishop speak once before and posted on it. From everything that I have read and seen Archbishop Dolan would be an excellent choice.

I just fixed a problem with my comment spam protection that was rejecting all comments. Spammers had included a fake url that when added to the blacklist caused all comments to be rejected.

In a column from Georgetown's The Hoya by a Jesuit priest.

Over the past few decades, faithful dissenters to non-infallible Church teachings or questions of Church organization have been vilified and even demonized in the Church, ecclesiastical power has been increasingly centralized and concentrated in the hands of a few, access to ecclesiastical corridors of power has been limited to a narrow group of those deemed ideologically pure — a combination which some have called the “Sovietization” of the Church.

We haven't been concerned about discussions on non-infallible teachings. The fact is that what they consider in this category are subjects like homosexuality, women's ordination, and contraception. The only thing they consider infallible is there opinion about what is infallible.

For some time in this country, ham-handedness and tone-deafness have characterized many of the Church’s actions and statements in the public arena.

The truth is that over the past few decades, it has often been painful for many American Catholics, some Jesuits among them, to be publicly identified with the Roman Catholic Church.

It’s small wonder that marketers and admissions experts encourage our schools to advertise themselves simply as “Jesuit” and refer only to our “Ignatian” tradition. “Catholic” is not a politically correct word these days, especially in the vaunted halls of secular humanism and the American educational system, private and public, which it dominates.

Wow I thought it was the other way around. That the Church has been pained by being associated with many Jesuits. Now I know there are good Jesuits - I recently saw that listed on the latest endangered species list.

Not all of the blame for that lies outside the Church.

Still, the perpetuation of this sense of distance has been and is a disservice to our students.

It has led us to miss opportunities to invite them to claim the Catholic heritage as their own and to take active responsibility for it.

It has contributed to the recurrent refrain that Georgetown is not Catholic enough, when in fact we are in many ways more authentically Catholic than the self-proclaimed academic bastions of orthodoxy in our country

Authentically Catholic like perhaps:

• Showing the Vagina Monologues on campus.
• Having free-speech zones.
• Ejecting students for passing out flyers against homosexuality.
• Teachers walking out when Cardinal Arinze spoke.
• A priest bioethicist who does not quite know what an embryo is and whether they can be be destroyed for stem-cells.
• Doing embryonic stem-cell research from aborted babies.
• Having speaker after speaker who is pro-abortion or against other teachings of the faith.
• Having a gay and lesbian film festival

Maybe it is just me since if I was going to make up a list for authentically Catholic - none of these items would be included.

Radio Blogger has called into question John Kerry shooting a goose in what has been termed Gandergate. When asked by a reporter "How mandy did you get," Kerry replied "Everybody got one." Yet the photo reveals no Goose being carried by John Kerry's and that everybody else is carrying one.

I believe that he accidentally shot down Mother Goose. After finding out the the goose had no job other then being a mother, his wife Teresa told him that since this goose never had a real job he should throw it out. I think we should all cry fowl over this.

If you are currently a blogspot blogger or want to start a blog on your own domain I would highly recommend the provider that I use. In the almost two years that I have been Tranquil Hosting I have experienced hardly any downtime and when I did run into a problem I always got a quick response (within an hour). This page shows their blog hosting structure. I am not receiving any renumeration for this post, but would totally recommend their low cost hosting service that will even help you to install Movable Type.

A priest writes to Captain's Quarters in response to Fr. Hummer's support of John Kerry.

I’m sorry to report that Fr. Hummer would not be the only priest in Ohio to welcome John Kerry with his cheerleader’s pom-poms. There are all too many of my colleagues who have not moved out the ‘60’s or the knee-jerk pacifism or union-worshipping that goes with it. The problems are many and need not detain us here. There is, however, good news coming. I teach at the Catholic seminary in St. Louis (Kenrick Seminary) occasionally and the new guys coming in are outstanding for the most part (you could see this in the incident in St. Louis after the debate there where the seminarians held a prayer vigil at the Kerry rally afterward-those were my students). These men will be bishops sooner rather than later.

As has been said, “Help is on the way.”

All the anecdotal information I have seen verifies this viewpoint as does this post from The Meandering Mind of a Seminarian. It was no surprise that Fr. Greeley took a break from writing his usual soft porn to write a column about young fogeys to decry this trend.

This column is for the Catholic women who feel they cannot speak publicly about their feelings of anger, hurt and betrayal with their beloved church.

For weeks, Catholic women have written and called me, often anonymously. They approach me in public, at meetings and after speeches, or politely interrupt me at the grocery store, in restaurants, even sporting events.

These are heartbreaking conversations.

Here it comes since you know what is next.

Almost always, they want me to know their faith is important to them, that they attend church regularly and want to remain active in their parishes. But they also want to talk about how painful it is to sit in church these days because their wombs, and what they do with them, have become fodder for sermon after sermon meant to influence how Catholics will vote in this election.

If you have a problem sitting in the pew because of your womb I would suggest a different sitting position.

"It's not just what the priest says," one woman told me. "It's all the propaganda that comes with it. It's the leaflets at the back of the church, the parishioners who don't like your bumper sticker and tell you you're not a real Catholic if you support a woman's right to choose.

This is what I never understand about theists who are pro-abortion. Believing that God created us and gives us our souls and at the same time believing that you may take the life of something you consider inconvenient. It is understandable when atheists and agnostics hold this position, but for those who profess the faith it is pure hypocrisy.

An Akron church has erected more than a hundred small crosses in its yard for babies who've been aborted. In the Cleveland area, several women described a troubling turn of events in their church parking lots.

Now memorials to the unborn are troubling and not the fact of what the memorials indicate.

"On every car, there was a brochure listing only candidates who oppose abortion," a mother of two told me. "I was so angry. I am smart enough to make my own decisions, and this is not why I go to church."

Not exactly let it be done according to thy will.

What upsets them the most is the church's assumption that a woman can't make this private decision by herself, for herself. The church argues that the life of the fetus trumps all else - including the life of the mother and victims of rape and incest - and that any argument about choice dehumanizes the fetus. Declaring that women are not stakeholders in decisions about their own bodies, however, dehumanizes them, especially when the person who declares you immoral is a man who will never have to face pregnancy or its consequences.

We are automatically dehumanized whenever we choose to have another die for our sake. We are all stakeholders in our decisions and should always choose good. Many human choices are between good and evil and St Paul said we must never tire of doing good. This does not include exceptions due to timing or career pressures. She then goes on with the old saw about the Church saying that a fetus trumps the life of a mother. They of course never provide a reference for such a statement. This is part of the meme that we only care about the child in the womb and to heck with it after it is born.

Peggy Driscoll, director of Pro Life for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, says there is no official order for churches to step up anti-abortion efforts in recent months.

"Those fliers in parking lots are not coming from the diocese," she said. "They are printed by secular organizations that sometimes adopt religious-sounding names so they seem to be from the Catholic Church, but they're not."

Do we need an official order to step up anti-abortion efforts and why is she apologizing for anti-abortion literature?

Sermons can vary, she said. If a priest regularly preaches against abortion, that's his agenda. Not all priests have taken up the cause against a women's right to choose. They leave politics to the politicians.

The most painful conversations I've had about abortion are with Catholic women. They describe their horror as church leaders lectured that, should their own lives ever be threatened by an unplanned pregnancy, well, they've lived their lives. It's the baby's turn. And they cry over the guilt.

This rhetoric is just plain sick. Horror at Church teaching. Lives threatened by unplanned pregnancies. You would think that babies are more dangerous then terrorists. That they rise up out of their wombs to smite their mothers. To these women the movie Rosemary's Baby would have been just as scary if the child had been an unplanned pregnancy.

Heather Harrington, an abortion counselor at PreTerm, said many Catholic patients have told her, "I know I can't have this baby, but I'm going to go to hell now. I will not go to heaven."

"I feel so horribly sad for them," Harrington said. "They feel they can't receive any comfort or solace at their churches."

Catholics get abortions. A mother of two described hers to me this week. It was her first pregnancy, and her doctor said the fetus had a lethal genetic defect. She knew her baby would die, and so she made the difficult choice to abort. To this day, she tells no one.

"I certainly could not tell my priest, because he would say I should have carried the baby to term and let nature run its course. And we don't talk openly at church, so I have no idea who there would support my decision."

The anti-abortion sermons at her church are turning her off, and possibly away. Recently, she resigned from a leadership post there.

"The priest is up there condemning women like me, and he has no idea what we go through when we make that choice. It's insulting, and it hurts. A lot of people tell me privately they disagree but just ignore it. I can't do that. I have to believe in the church, in my religion, and if I can't, then I'll have to leave." [Source]

Jesus though his Church is infinitely merciful. We all have sinned and need forgiveness and the first step to receiving this mercy is repentance through contrition . We can not demand that the priest not preach about sins that are too close to us - though it would make the sermons much shorter. If we are only looking for affirmation then we should better seek a mirror.

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

After abortion offers many links resources for those needing healing from the effects of abortion.

Oct 20, 2004 (AXcess News) Washington - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this week launches a nationwide two-week ad campaign highlighting the issue of stem cell research. The ads draw a clear distinction between embryonic stem cell research, which requires the destruction of human life at the embryonic stage, and adult stem cell research. [Source]

The two ads to be used are in PDF format:

Stem Cell Ad 1

Stem Cell Ad 2

I especially think that the first one is effective.

What do you think of the color-coded terror alerts the Department of Homeland Security issues?

I think Americans, sadly, laugh at it. They don't know what to do.

Will you continue that program?

No. I'm going to find some more thoughtful way of alerting America.

Maybe he will do something similar to the French alert system with various shades of yellow.

Or more likely he will have a Diplomat Alert System where each successive level requires sending even more diplomats and weapons inspectors to address the problem. This was after all his plan to contain Saddam Hussien by doing what we had already been doing since the first Gulf War.

Or maybe a more "thoughtful way" would be this:

Five swing state newspapers will publish a full-page ad Wednesday chiding Democratic Sen. John Kerry for embracing abortion rights - what an accompanying list of Catholic elected officials and voters argue is a contradiction to his faith.

The ad, titled "An Open Letter from Fellow Catholics to John Kerry," was paid for by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It is running in mid-sized newspapers with strong Catholic readership in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Florida.

"In the most recent debate, Senator Kerry, you said, 'everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith,' and that 'everything is a gift from the Almighty.' But apparently, when it comes to the issue of the right to life, you follow neither your own faith nor your own reason," the ad says.

"Senator Kerry, your stand contradicts both your faith and reason," the ad says.

The letter is signed by 38 Catholics, including Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; American Catholic Council president Connie Marshner; former Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn; and a handful of college professors, including two from Catholic University. [Source]

Dawn Eden reports on the crack team, I mean team on crack, working to defraud voters registration forms with names like Mary Poppins. She lists some reasons why Mary Poppins would support John Kerry. Here are a few of my own.

• Because a nanny would support a nanny state
• She said "Sacked! Certainly not! I am never sacked" and Kerry said "I don't fall down," the SOB knocked me over."
• The character Mr. Banks said "Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts"
• She also said "I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about." just like Kerry supporter Don Imus said "I don't know what he's talking about.'' after interviewing Kerry about Iraq.
• The movie starred Dick Van Dyke and Kerry called Cheney's daughter a .... during the debates.
• John Kerry would raise the minimum wage for chimney sweeps
• Because one day everyone will carry an umbrella to protect themselves from global warming.

Now anybody seeing this advertisement would be highly suspicious of these amazing claims. They would notice that no reputable scientist supports these claims and that there is no research showing that stem-cell phones would actually work. Why then is it that with the same outlandish claims and circumstances that people have become so convinced of ESCR?

Test

Says pamphlet sent by Hooker oversimplifies Catholic positions

Wow that sentence sent me for a loop until I read the rest.

ALBANY — A Roman Catholic official has admonished Assemblyman Daniel Hooker for distributing what he called a "right-wing" and "simplistic" voter’s guide for church members.

Hooker, R-Saugerties, recently mailed about 150 copies of the "Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics," published by a conservative California group, to priests and deacons in his Assembly district.

The pamphlet urges Catholics to avoid voting for candidates who "endorse or promote intrinsically evil policies" such as abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.

In a letter to Hooker, the Very Rev. Thomas Berardi, dean of the Schoharie Deanery, said the pamphlet presents a "narrow and simplistic" view of Catholic morality. The pamphlet does not deal with other life-related issues, such as those who die from war, capital punishment and inadequate health care, he said. [Source]

It is amazing just how much animosity Catholic Answer's Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics has stirred up. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that whenever an orthodox point of view is expressed that it upsets the apple cart of political thinking. I remember once reading a book called Flawed Expectations: The Reception of the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Msgr. Michael Wrenn and Kenneth Whitehead. At the time it surprised me just how much opposition there was to the CCC and how groups of theologians and religious educators fought to undermine it and actually told people that it was not for the laity. The same types of criticisms that I have seen of Catholic Answer's guide were also applied to the Catechism.

"If you are going to present yourself to Catholics as a politician who is a Catholic, then I strongly suggest that you be better-informed and provide balanced material that reflects the church’s social teachings across the board and the diverse thinking of the Catholic people, theologians and pastoral ministers," Berardi wrote.

As a public service I will translate the last paragraph for you. "Stop talking about abortion already. After all we support increasing the minimum wage you know."

I have a suggestion for pro-life politicians that they present a new bill called The Minimum Age Act. The minimum age for life will be set at zero (conception) with everybody who reaches that age receive the protection of the Constitution. Then they can always talk about supporting the minimum age whereas Democrats don't. Of course some things would never change. Democrats will be seeking to raise the minimum age first from 0 to 9 months.

Hooker said he respects Berardi, who was once his parish priest, as a man of God, but he said they have different political perspectives.

Led by their bishops, about 1,500 Catholics rallied at the Statehouse in Trenton yesterday to urge political leaders and the voters who elect them to uphold "the sanctity of life" by opposing abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

The "Witness for Life" Mass and rally marked the first time all five of New Jersey's Roman Catholic dioceses had jointly demonstrated to urge voters to cast their ballots for leaders who uphold church teaching that life must be protected from the moment of conception until natural death. Trenton Bishop John M. Smith called it "historic."

"It is a nonpolitical rally. It is a rally for life," Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said.

Neither Camden Bishop Joseph Galante, who gave the sermon at a 10 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, nor any of the speakers at the noontime rally that followed at the Statehouse mentioned either President Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry.

But the day's overall message -- that upholding the sanctity of life is more important than any other issue facing the electorate -- was one that plainly favored Bush, a Methodist, over Kerry, only the third Catholic in the nation's history to run for president on a major party ticket.

The president sharply curtailed embryonic stem cell research and has said he wants to promote a "culture of life." Kerry supports the right to an abortion, calling it a choice "between a woman, God and her doctor," and charged that Bush "turned his back on science" by limiting stem cell research.

Galante told worshipers at the cathedral that "each and every human life is precious, precious, from the first moment of conception until natural death."

"Before any other right can be protected, the right to be must be protected above all," the Rev. Michael Manning, coordinator of Respect Life Ministries for the Diocese of Trenton, told the crowd at the Statehouse.

Newark Auxiliary Bishop Charles McDonnell, in leading the demonstrators in the Pledge of Allegiance, amended it to end: "with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn." [Source]

Johnah Goldberg at NRO has been receiving pretty much the identical e-mails saying the following.

Jonah, I wonder if all these religious, moral, sanctimonious people will stick to their guns if embryonic stem cell research does bear fruit. Can you imagine: Doctor: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we are able to give your child a new liver, but it would involve using embryonic stem cells to grow a healthy one or we could simply use research procured from embryonic stem cell research to repair his diseased liver. Mr. Smith: Sorry Doc. We are morally against embryonic stem cell use so we must wait and put our child's fate in God's hands. Yeah right. I suspect they'll take the new liver and pray for forgiveness later. Sort of like all these anti-gun whackos who are against firearms until a nice big 9MM fired by a police officer saves their life or until their precious loved ones (ahem, Rosie O'Donnell) need protection. Honestly, who knows if embryonic stem cells will ever produce anything meaningful. If the people "protesting" this research now pledge to never use any technologies derived from it for themselves or their children, I say keep on marching. But if new treatments are developed all of these hypocrites will be among the first in line for treatments (even if they successfully keep their tax dollars from supporting this research). And they know it. For that reason alone they ought to shut up.

Talk about a silly argument. I guess if they really started to harvest poor people for organs and selling them on the black market these people would make the same argument. If your child needs a new liver and there is one available on the black market wouldn't you take it even though you think that killing people for their organs is wrong? So everybody should just shut up about harvesting people for organs while they are still alive. What amazes me is that such a specious argument is even advanced and that they are thinking it is a gotcha and intellectually persuasive.

Move over, "Fluffy" and "Fido." You've been replaced — by Lutherans whose faith has influenced the naming of their pets. Responding to a call in the July issue of The Lutheran, readers not only reported faith-full names but also served up stories to go with them.

Not surprisingly, Martin Luther is a driving force for some pet owners. "We named our dog 'Lute' — short for Lutheran," wrote Steve Tangen, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Dickinson, N.D. "We wanted to be an ecumenical household, so we decided if we got a cat, we would name it 'Cat' — short for Catholic."

This could lead to problems especially if their dog started to nail 95 feces onto doors. I am also not sure about the concept of animal ecumenism. One barking out that the other is a heretic and the cat meowing back an anathema. I read somewhere recently a blogger wanting to name their dog anathema just so that they could say Anathema sit! Would they say the Nicene Breed? Would cats say "Be purrfect as the father is purrfect? Would an owner sen their dog to obedience of faith school?

Mona Lackore's family had a string of bad luck with cats that had anything but nine lives. So she named the next one Moses Methuselah in hopes of a long life. "He did survive significantly longer than his immediate predecessors," said the Willmar, Minn., resident. [Source]

You know that rhetorical trick where one takes the opponent's argument, extends it to its own logical conclusion, and asks: "Is that what you really want"? He or she is then supposed to recoil in confusion and respond: "Of course not." Well, I tried it on the BBC's Moral Maze a few months back and it failed completely. The issue was abortion, I was on the panel, and the witness was Dr Ellie Lee, the co-ordinator of the ProChoice Forum and lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Kent.

Dr Lee stated her mantra that "abortion should be available as early as possible and as late as necessary". So, I asked her, suppose a mother gave birth to a baby at full term, and then just as the umbilical cord had been cut, found that the infant repelled her. Should she be allowed to have the baby killed? "I think so, yes," replied Dr Lee. There and then, live on Radio 4, I dried up. I suppose if I had been a lawyer I would have said: "I have no further questions." But fortunately the presenter, Michael Buerk, noticed my inability to continue and smoothly stepped in with a question of his own. [Source][Via Relapsed Catholic]

This at least is an intellectually consistent answer. If you can kill a child through abortion before birth then why should you have any squeamishness about it afterwards. The Human Fairy did not descend upon the child at birth and touch it with it's magic wand bestowing humanity and rights. If only more pro-abortion supporters took off their masks of verbal obfuscation and say what their intellectual ideas really lead to. Maybe it is a good sign that they feel they still can't come out fully in the open and that society still sees after birth infanticide as wrong. i just wonder how long it will remain that way?

A liberal California think-tank and an alliance of pro-choice women groups have joined with evangelical Christians and the Roman Catholic Church to oppose a ballot proposition that would provide $3 billion for stem cell research in California.

Proposition 71 would create nearly $300 million in funding each year for 10 years to fund stem cell research in California. The measure comes in the face of Bush administration restrictions on federal funding for the research, which many believe will lead to new cures for spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other maladies.

The nonprofit Center for Genetics and Society and a group called the Pro-Choice Alliance against Prop. 71 - both of which voice support for stem cell research - blasted Prop. 71 as being fiscally irresponsible and lacking adequate scientific, medical and ethical controls over the research. (Source)

Dawn Eden's has a great post called Tragically Hip that highlights the seeming disparity of being conservative and culturally knowledgeable.

The prime minister, an Anglican, had reportedly expressed an interest in joining his wife Cherie and their four children in the Catholic faith.

The Blair family priest, Father Timothy Russ, told The Times newspaper Mr Blair "may well" convert.

But Mr Blair emphatically denied the story when challenged by reporters, joking: "Don't they run this once a year?"

'No barrier'

Fr Russ, the priest who presides over communion at Chequers, said it would be "unwise" to speculate on whether Mr Blair would convert but added "it might well end up that way".

Mr Blair had even asked him: "Can the prime minister of Britain be a Catholic?," he told the paper.

But asked by reporters in Budapest, where Mr Blair is attending a Progressive Government conference, whether he was planning to convert, he said: "I am saying no.

"Don't they run this once a year? I think they do." (Source)

I think I will pray for Tony Blair's conversion and in fact I encourage you to do so also. Maybe I will call this The Blair Switch Project.

One of the challenges in being a Christian is to work on not jumping to conclusions about a person's motives. To try to assign a more charitable reason for a perceived failure. I have written in the past about liturgical abuses and how it has dumbfounded me as to how the obvious rubrics in the GIRM can be totally ignored and substituted with someone own preferences. I was inclined to think the worse of those who do change the liturgy to their own liking or point of view. When I served a six month sting as a Navy Recruiter we were told that if someone came into the office and wanted to go into electronics to not focus on this one field until after they have had a physical. The reason for this is that since some people have color blindness this would make it difficult to work in the electronics field. Resistors and some other components are color coded and wiring is done the same way. It was only after they had successfully passed the test for color blindness and had the requisite ASVAB test scores that we would talk to them about the electronics field. This got me wondering if just possibly there might be underlying physical problem or learning disorder leading to liturgical abuse?

The Curt Jester Institute for Liturgical Dysfunction after much research and tests has determined the underlying physical problems that have lead to many liturgical abuses. Rubric comes from the from the Latin rubrica for red which signified the red earth used by carpenters to mark on wood the line to follow in cutting it. Today it seems that some liturgist holding to a meaning that rubric is the mark in the GIRM for cutting out. But the truth is otherwise. Because of the color used for rubrics liturgist who suffer from Liturgical Rubric Color Dyslexia actually not only don't see the rubrics but see something else entirely.

Liturgical Rubric Color Dyslexia (LRCD):

Example of LRCD

Chant Deafness (CD):

This is similar to tone deafness. With Chant Deafness the person not only can't hear the beauty of chant, but even worse, believes that many hymns found in modern hymnals are beautiful. Those who are tone deaf normally can't find a job as a choir director. Those that are Chant deaf actually for some unknown reason appear to be predominantly chosen as choir directors. While we should have empathy for those afflicted with such a horrible syndrome - I think equal opportunity for this problems goes to far.

Sign of Peace Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (SOPOCD):

We have all heard of those with OCD that obsessively keep washing their hands over and over. There is a liturgical variant of this syndrome where the priest at Mass can not keep himself from leaving the sanctuary and then shaking the hands of everybody at Mass. Some priests have a milder variant where they can control themselves and only shake the hands of everybody in the front couple of rows.

Reverse Posture Syndrome (RPS):

You might observe someone standing after receiving the Eucharist or sitting during the consecration. People who have RPS automatically choose any posture but the one recommended. Strangely some bishops have even encouraged this disorder.

Levitating Hand Magnetism Syndrome (LHMS):

This seems to be a very common syndrome that infected the populace sometime in the 60s or 70s. People who have LHMS will display the following symptoms. During the Our Father their hands will start to levitate up in the air and then magnetically attach themselves to the hands of someone else with LHSM)

Gender Replacement Syndrome (GRS):

If during a scripture reading or a homily you keep hearing Brothers and Sisters inserted all over the place then this person has GRS. A sure sign that a whole parish is infected with GRS is if you hear the hymn Faith or Our Mothers or any other derivation on that theme. This syndrome is very easy to test in the clinic. You simply ask them to say the word man in a universal context. They are simply unable to do it. Instead you will hear human kind, people, person, or just about anything but the word man. Normally these people can recite any word combinations of the three persons in the Divine Trinity except the words Father and Son.

Smells and Bells Allergy (SBA):

Parishes seemed to have worked overtime to make their churches SBA friendly for those who suffer from this severe allergy. The first waft from a thurible is horrible and can make them break out in a rash - rash judgment. Bell ringing at the consecration, especially if done by an altar boy vice an altar girl, will not only wake them up but causes them to seek an antidote immediately. This allergy seems to be extremely selective and in tests done cowbells, tambourines, their cell phone going off during Mass, wind chimes and other forms of instruments that can chime cause no discomfort, but the slightest ring during the consecration causes major discomfort. Symptoms include guttural muttering about pre-Vatican II and verbal aspirations about traditionalists (said as if it is a swear word. The smell allergy also seems to be highly selective since many subjects followed new age concepts such as aroma therapy and many liturgical practices that don't pass the smell test they can easily accept.

Loftophobia:

Even in churches with perfectly fine choir lofts singers afflicted with loftophobia have the fear of singing at heights suspended above the back of the church and away from the gaze of the congregation. Those with lofophobia are usually not bothered by crowds since they don't mind being crowded into a small area in the sanctuary. This phobia seems to have a group dynamic like mass hysteria and is usually known more properly as Mass Entertainment. Those who are afflicted by loftophobia usually also have a form of relevantitis. Another symptom of loftophobia that occurs in choir directors is wandering handitits. This is where the choir director is unable to keeps his hands at their side and they try to direct the audience congregation like an orchestra conductor.

Leotardation:

This extremely strange physical and mental psychosis causes the person to have the urge to dress in leotards and prance around the sanctuary. This is often associated with additionally waving banners, streamers, or other props around in some rhythmic movement. If this is observed do not approach the individual but immediately call your local institute for the liturgically insane.

So I am sure this information will be invaluable in helping you to view people with Liturgical Dysfunctions with more kindness and charity. Please report any other instances of LD to the Curt Jester Institute for Liturgical Dysfunction for further study.

WEST PALM BEACH -- An appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling that struck down Florida's abortion consent law.

The never-used ``Women's Right to Know Act'' would have provided specific information about risks that doctors had to pass along to patients, and would ordered them to give the patients a state-produced flier on abortion alternatives.

A three judge panel at the 4th District Court of Appeal determined the law was unconstitutional because ``it imposes significant obstacles and burdens upon the pregnant woman which improperly intrude upon the exercise of her choice between abortion and childbirth,'' according to the opinion, written by Judge W. Matthew Stevenson.

Attorney Barry Silver, who represented one of the groups challenging the law, said it would have required doctors to provide biased, religious and inaccurate information to patients who were seeking an abortion.

``It would have eviscerated a woman's right to choose in the State of Florida,'' Silver said. [Source]

So what exactly was being done to eviscerate a woman's right?

The law requires abortionists in the state to inform women about the age and development of their unborn child and provide them with a state-published pamphlet suggesting abortion alternatives. [Source]

Oh my! Forcing mothers to know the age of the child which is about to be killed is just so tacky on the part of the government. We are all just suppose to play along in the deception that there is something other than a child in the womb. When it comes to knowledge about pregnancy - Mums the word. Especially since they don't want Mom to be the word. And then the evil government was also forcing women to know about alternatives to abortion and that they could be entitled to government benefits if they have their child. Knowledge is a dangerous thing and keeping women ignorant is a major part of the pro-abortion movement. Abortion-Breast-Cancer link - hey shut up about that. Psychological trauma including a lifetime of regret - hey shut up about that. The fact that people and organizations will help women in these circumstances -hey shut up about that.

Coming up in November is a ballot initiative here in Florida which would put into law parental notification laws on abortion. There was a lawsuit to try to prevent this from appearing on the ballot and I guess the Florida Supreme Court was having an off day because even they couldn't come up with an excuse to keep this off the ballot. I just wonder if this passes how long it will take a court to strike it down?

During the debates some blogs have done what is known as liveblogging where they continuously update a post as the debate goes on. I woke up this morning with some strange psychic ability that can look into the future and receive parts of tonight's debate. So as far as I know this post will be the first instance of psychic liveblogging. My view of the future in the debate is a little fuzzy but the following impressions of some phrases come through clearly with regards to John Kerry.

"I have a plan to fix healthcare. One man stood between America and lower prescription drugs. The President made a choice and he choose the wrong one, I will do it better. I have a plan to fix the economy. Upper one percent.... Tax breaks for the rich. 2.7 million lost manufacturing jobs lost. I will not increase taxes on the middle class. I have a plan for the environment. Reduce rollbacks to our Clean Air Act. The Kerry-Edwards plan will increase energy conservation. I have a plan for energy dependence. I have a plan for education."

Now obviously my abilities are imprecise since I heard many instances of him having a plan but my psychic abilities did not actually detect any plan offered. Well at least I am not alone in that problem.

Here are some more conventional livebloggers.

John Hawkins of Right Wing News.
Captain's Quarters
Powerline

Yesterday John Edwards said, "When John Kerry is the president people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk again!" implying that Christopher Reeve could have been helped by embryonic stem cell research.

Yes Dr. John (wouldn't it be great to have a president who believes in science" Kerry has taken his presidential campaign medical show on the road. Long gone are the days of disreputable snake oil that can cure anything. We are much more advanced now with embryonic stem-cells that promise to cure anything the heart desires including the heart.

"Don't ask me to point you to research papers saying that. Just take my word for it after all have I ever lied to you. You in the wheelchair come up front. We have never met isn't that true young man? Yes it is true Dr. Kerry. Here drink down my concoction of fresh squeezed embryonic stem-cells with fetal pulp included. I will place my hand on your forehead and say Rise, Rise and Walk!"

Below is an email that was sent to members of the University of Notre Dame pro-life group about the viscous destruction of a field of 1200 crosses that their group had erected for Respect Life Month.

As many of you know, the Cemetery for the Innocents present on south quad this Thursday and Friday was destroyed by vandals early Friday morning between the hours of 3:00 and 6:30 a.m. A report has been filed with the security police,and they are currently investigating the attack.

As for the damage sustained, the vandals broke 900 of the 1200 crosses on the quad, pulling the cross beams off of the stakes and scattering them on the grass.

Thank you to all who stopped by during the day to help reassemble the crosses and put them back on the quad. Over 1,000 crosses were reassembled successfully, though the remainder were unsalvageable. (source)

This is not exactly what Jesus meant when he said pick up your cross daily.

This is a story that repeats itself across the country. Last year in my diocese the same thing happened. Recently at a university a person was beaten by pro-choicer's for the crime of taking literature from a pro-life table. These people should really be referred to as pro-qualififed-choice. You are allowed to choose just as long as your choice is in conformance with the outcome that they want. You can't choose to be against abortion or contraception and be pro-choice by their definition. By this tortured logic if you choose to be pro-life you are anti-choice. The abortion brown shirt tactics are increased vandalism, verbal abuse, and at times more violent actions. There was recently a t-shirt that said something like "I was beaten by a tolerant open-minded person."

What happens when you nuance the war on terror? When Kerry was interviewed by The New York Times Magazine on Sunday he let slip his view of the war on terror he said:

`We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives but they're a nuisance.''

Nuance meeting nuisance becomes NuISance. So will be begin to have the War on Nuisance. This is where John Kerry pledges he will hunt down and kill nuisancers. Even the acronym is better - War on Nuisance is WON - much more positive then WOT. I am sure that the last words of those who had their heads chopped off was "what a nuisance."

The other quote that pundits have been jumping on is:

"As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."

Now I don't blame Mr. Kerry for coming up with the prostitution comparison. After all if you are on a ticket with two Johns prostitution easily comes to mind.

James Lileks put it best when he wrote " Tony Soprano doesn't take over schools and shoot kids in the back. The doxies of the Bunny Ranch don’t train at flight schools to ram brothels into skyscrapers."

This is also not surprising considering John Kerry's concept of defeating terrorism is through law enforcement action. If only we could wake up some judge and get a warrant for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi we could start to put an end to the problems in Fallujah. "Are you Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?" "Yes I am" "Book him , Dano." Maybe they could make it a crime to carry bombs in your car - that would really persuade suicide bombers especially if it was a hefty fine.

Other sources:
ScrappleFace has the story Kerry Says Do-Not-Terrorize List Would End Nuisance
Belmont Club has Pillar of Salt
Hugh Hewitt

Dr. Mark Rollo knows stem cell research could lead to medical breakthroughs in the search for cures to diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.

But he also thinks it's wrong to use embryos for research.

"The Catholic Church teaches, and I believe, it's immoral to destroy human life or to use another human life for spare parts," said Rollo, a Fitchburg family practice doctor and practicing Catholic. "Sure, it could be a cure of Parkinson's and other diseases, but the means matter. The ends don't justify the means."

The debate over embryo, or embryonic, stem cell research boils down to a disagreement on when human life begins.

Stem cells give rise to all types of cells in the body, and researchers want to use them to create healthy new cells to cure diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, cancer and auto-immune disorders.

There are two types of stem cell research: adult and embryonic.

Scientists take adult stem cells from a person's body tissue to make new cells. For example, liver stem cells might be used to create new liver cells to repair organ damage.

Bone marrow transplants are another form of using adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells come from a newly fertilized egg, or embryo, and they are believed to be capable of forming any type of human cell.

Stem cells can also be taken from umbilical cords and the placenta, after a baby is born.

Lanza said embryos used at ACT often come from in-vitro fertilization clinics that collect a number of egg and sperm samples to help couples become pregnant.

Saving lives

"Obviously there are leftovers and (clinicians) only implant some of them," said Lanza. "(Remaining embryos) are either destroyed or frozen indefinitely. The argument is, do we throw them away like garbage or use them to save lives? That's what the debate comes down to."

Leominster resident Kathy Corant supports embryonic stem cell research.

"Anything we can do to help find cures for Parkinson's or any other kind of disease, I'm all for it," she said.

Dawn Cormier believes stem cell research is necessary to help cure diseases.

"I don't personally believe an embryo is a baby," said Cormier, 27, while pushing her newborn baby in a stroller along Main Street in Leominster. "If it can help, why not try? We don't necessarily have to continue it."

Others believe destroying a potential life, no matter how early, is wrong.

"I think it depends on your religious beliefs," said John Ruel of Leominster, said of supporting stem cell research. "I'm against anything involving a human embryo, but I support (adult stem cell research) or bone marrow (transplants)."

Ruel is also a practicing Catholic.

Rollo believes the "driving force" behind embryonic stem cell research is "a way of further validating abortion."

"If you are destroying an embryo, that is basically aborting an early human being," said Rollo, who said Kerry's position is "indefensible," as a Catholic himself. (source)

I think the scariest line in the article was "Anything we can do to help find cures for ..., I'm all for it," Truly anything? One point made in the article I do believe in is that the fight for ESCR is more often about protecting the "right" or abortion compared to the perceived promise of ESCR.

SecretAgentMan has a great post on the Communion of Saints and about canonization.

Again John Kerry has gone to a black church and has touted the same bible verse that he has cited previously from the Book of James - that faith without works is dead. Since this is the only one he ever seems to cite maybe it is what Protestants call a life verse that speaks to him. If it is I find it pretty ironic that he continuously uses this verse especially considering his position that abortion is wrong and is a article of faith, but he can't do anything about it in public life. Maybe he should modify it to "Faith without works is dead unless you represent people of different faiths or no faiths at all. In this case faith without works is politically expedient." And why is it that he only brings up a Bible verse is when speaking in front of predominantly black audiences like at churches and at the NAACP? This seems to me to be pandering.

You don't often see a headline that is titled Feminists and Faith and then goes on to say.

She believes abortion is morally wrong, the advent of contraception did a disservice to women and the priesthood should be reserved for men only.

But 20-year-old Hilary Rowe doesn't hesitate to call herself a feminist.

" The more I was learning about feminism, the more I was intrigued by it, but I really struggled with the life issues," said Rowe, a devout Catholic who began studying feminism when she arrived at CU two years ago. "Finding that there was a feminism that supports the dignity of human life from conception and the dignity of women really struck me."

Rowe is among a growing number of young Catholic women who prescribe to what they call a "new feminism," one that not only strives for equality between men and women but also emphasizes the "true dignity of women" as mothers and caregivers.

As a volunteer with the new Denver-based Catholic feminist group ENDOW (short for Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) she recently helped launch a new study group on the CU campus for young Catholic women seeking a feminism that is more in line with their Catholic beliefs. The eight-member group is one of 20 ENDOW groups now meeting across the nation, and proponents of the movement anticipate it will continue to grow.

"Everyone is just hungry for it," said Rowe, who believes that, in many ways, the secular feminist movement has done a disservice to women. "Instead of looking at what is truly feminine and valuing that, it asks women to change into the qualities that we see as masculine. That never appealed to me."

It then goes on with the normal feminist tripe from the President of the local chapter of NOW of how listening to the Pope will never get women ahead in the world.

Here is an interesting article about a lay Dominican woman who recently died.

Redstate refers to a blog that lists the 29 times John Kerry said "I have a plan" during the debate. A great way for Jeopardy to save money would be to ask constestants "What is John Kerry's plan." His multiple plans our so secret that their security clearance require him to store them in Sandy Berger's socks.

I was wondering if at last night's presidential debate whether the issue of ESCR or abortion would ever come up. It finally did towards the end.

DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

KERRY: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that.

But I can counsel people. I can talk reasonably about life and about responsibility. I can talk to people, as my wife Teresa does, about making other choices, and about abstinence, and about all these other things that we ought to do as a responsible society.

But as a president, I have to represent all the people in the nation. And I have to make that judgment.

Now, I believe that you can take that position and not be pro- abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. And that means being smart about allowing people to be fully educated, to know what their options are in life, and making certain that you don't deny a poor person the right to be able to have whatever the constitution affords them if they can't afford it otherwise.

That's why I think it's important. That's why I think it's important for the United States, for instance, not to have this rigid ideological restriction on helping families around the world to be able to make a smart decision about family planning.

You'll help prevent AIDS.

You'll help prevent unwanted children, unwanted pregnancies.

You'll actually do a better job, I think, of passing on the moral responsibility that is expressed in your question. And I truly respect it.

I think I agree with President Bush when after Kerry's statement he said "I'm trying to decipher that." The argument that Kerry used makes a sophist look rational by comparison. Protecting life becomes just an article of faith as it was only some law in a homeowners association instead of something that is part of natural law and can be known by all those of good will. Their are many Democratic articles of faith that he is willing to take against the majority of those who don't share that faith. For example the Kyoto treaty, tax increases, national health care, cloning, multilateralism instead of leadership, etc. By this view the only way you could represent the people in our republic is to only pass laws that have a 100% consensus. Then again maybe his taking every possible position on every idea is consistent with his view. He can represent both those against the Iraq war and for it as his voting reflects. He is personally against abortion but votes for it for those in favor of it. He is for middle class tax cuts but to help those against it he doesn't show up for the vote. He is like the character Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five but instead of being "unstuck in time" he is unstuck in opinions. From one moment to the next he never knows what opinion reality he is currently in. If a movie were to be made on John Kerry I would title it "A Man for All Reasons"

Then he says he will counsel people about other choices like abstinence. Oops an article of faith being imposed on the public. Maybe he is personally in favor of abstinence education but to be consistent on imposing moral views explains why he voted against the $75M for abstinence education.

I would also like to know how abortion reduces AIDS? Show me a country that increases "family planning" education and I will show you a country that has an increasing AIDS rate. And then we come to the unwanted children and unwanted pregnancy line. If children can be killed because they are unwanted after conception then why not killed if unwanted after birth? If society arrested and charged someone for being unwanted and then executed them how is that any different from charging an unborn child for having committed the crime of life that they should be executed for a someone's disposition towards them?

And then Kerry responded with a follow up:

Well, again, the president just said, categorically, my opponent is against this, my opponent is against that. You know, it's just not that simple. No, I'm not.

I'm against the partial-birth abortion, but you've got to have an exception for the life of the mother and the health of the mother under the strictest test of bodily injury to the mother.

Secondly, with respect to parental notification, I'm not going to require a 16-or 17-year-old kid who's been raped by her father and who's pregnant to have to notify her father. So you got to have a judicial intervention. And because they didn't have a judicial intervention where she could go somewhere and get help, I voted against it. It's never quite as simple as the president wants you to believe.

Funny how the health of the mother does not seem to matter when it comes to the Abortion-Breast-Cancer link. Or when women die in totally unregulated abortion clinics. The Supreme Court extended health of the mother to include psychiatric health and so again this ignores the psychological effects on those involved in abortions as chronicled daily at After Abortion. Then there is the fact that partial birth abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of the mother. How is the mother's life endangered since in both cases a baby is delivered the only difference is that the PBA procedure produces the delivery of a dead baby. Even the AMA said PBA "is not good medicine" and "not medically indicated." Maybe these types of things are the most annoying part of the abortion debate. Politicians and others can make totally unsubstantiated claims and then not be ridiculed and mocked by the MSM. The MSM is more often accomplishes then reporters or fact-checkers. John Kerry keeps claiming that he would be a president who believes in science - perhaps he means junk science.

LONG: Senator Kerry, thousands of people have already been cured or treated by the use of adult stem cells or umbilical cord stem cells. However, no one has been cured by using embryonic stem cells.

Wouldn't it be wide to use stem cells obtained without the destruction of an embryo?

KERRY: You know, Elizabeth, I really respect your -- the feeling that's in your question. I understand it. I know the morality that's prompting that question, and I respect it enormously.

But like Nancy Reagan, and so many other people -- you know, I was at a forum with Michael J. Fox the other day in New Hampshire, who's suffering from Parkinson's, and he wants us to do stem cell, embryonic stem cell. And this fellow stood up, and he was quivering. His whole body was shaking from the nerve disease, the muscular disease that he had.

And he said to me and to the whole hall, he said, You know, don't take away my hope, because my hope is what keeps me going.

Chris Reeve is a friend of mine. Chris Reeve exercises every single day to keep those muscles alive for the day when he believes he can walk again, and I want him to walk again.

I think we can save lives.

Now, I think we can do ethically guided embryonic stem-cell research.

We have 100,000 to 200,000 embryos that are frozen in nitrogen today from fertility clinics. These weren't taken from abortion or something like that. They're from a fertility clinic. And they're either going to be destroyed or left frozen.

And I believe if we have the option, which scientists tell us we do, of curing Parkinson's, curing diabetes, curing, you know, some kind of a, you know, paraplegic or quadriplegic or, you know, a spinal cord injury, anything, that's the nature of the human spirit.

I think it is respecting life to reach for that cure. I think it is respecting life to do it in an ethical way.

And the president has chosen a policy that makes it impossible for our scientists to do that. I want the future, and I think we have to grab it.

Would these embryo's be used against the will of the parents? Mr. Kerry did not mention that he is also in favor of clone-and-kill laws for ESCR. This is also another example of why the Catholic Church is right about In Vitro Fertilization. The warehousing of people in liquid nitrogen is the direct effect of modern reproductive technologies in that to help people have children also helps them also to have frozen children doomed to a hibernated life and eventual destruction.

But to give equal to morally absurd statements - President Bush replies.

Embryonic stem-cell research requires the destruction of life to create a stem cell. I'm the first president ever to allow funding -- federal funding -- for embryonic stem-cell research.

Those two sentences taken together are just odd and even Senator Kerry called him on it. to which the President responded:

BUSH: Let me make sure you understand my decision. Those stem- cells lines already existed. The embryo had already been destroyed prior to my decision.

I had to make the decision to destroy more life, so we continue to destroy life -- I made the decision to balance science and ethics.

Now possibly that is a good moral line of reasoning or at least is much better then purposely creating and destroying embryos or directly killing frozen embryos for the purpose of research. My problem with that line of reasoning is many. Say for instance that those 20 stem-cell lines had produced medical cures. This would have created a demand for embryonic stem-cells that those already existing lines of stem-cells could never satisfy and would directly lead to the demand for sources such as clone-and-kill.

Dawn Eden in reply to the debate wrote a post titled W.C. Fields Hated Children and Dogs: John Kerry Probably Doesn't Hate Dogs

I couldn't help but think of John Kerry rhapsodizing in last night's debate about how he wouldn't make an "article of faith" into law. I'm sure Kerry wouldn't see anything fundamentally wrong with the moral priorities of a society that gives a man 25 years for beheading a dog—but would allow that same man, were he a doctor, to stick a pair of scissors into the back of a six-month unborn-baby's skull.

Now as someone who not only enjoys old W.C. Fields movies and has played him on the stage I can remember some of W.C. other quotes relating to children that fit in perfectly with society today.

"All the sounds of little feet around the house. Nothing like having midgets for servants."

Someone asked Fields: "How do you like children?" He responded:"Parboiled!" or sometimes "They are very good with mustard."

"There is not a man in America who has not had a secret ambition to boot an infant."

The last quote is not funny in the least, but sadly it is too reflective of the culture of death.

While doing research on the debate I ran across this Google parody page.

Earl of Times Against Humanity also has a Lessons Learned: Bush vs Kerry Round 1 (scroll down)

Actor Michael J. Fox, known for his youthful movie and television roles, appears fragile in the ad Democrat John Kerry's campaign unveiled Thursday.

But his message is strong: Electing Kerry could help cure him of the Parkinson's disease causing his frail appearance and cure millions more suffering from "devastating illnesses."

"George Bush says we can wait," Fox says in the 30-second spot airing in battleground states. "I say lives are at stake." (source)

That is a statement I can totally agree with. Lives are at stake. Thousands to millions of lives are at stake. Well they won't burn them at the stake but they will sacrifice them on the altar of the petri dish. These people are the modern Frankenstein that would attempt to extend life through the parts of others. At least Dr. Frankenstein was more ethical - he waited before the donors were dead to retrieve their parts.

Via Michelle Malkin is this story.

LIVERMORE, Calif. - It didn't take a nuclear physicist to realize changes were needed after a $40,000 ceramic mural was unveiled outside the city's new library and everyone could see the misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures.

"Our library director is very frustrated that she has this lovely new library and it has all these misspellings in front," said city councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich, one of three council members who voted Monday to authorize paying another $6,000, plus expenses, to fly the artist up from Miami to fix the errors.

Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday by The Associated Press, Maria Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work, but offered no apologizes for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names.

"The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work."

..."The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind the words register correctly."

I think the City should misspell her name on the $6000 dollar check. She can then go and find a bank that has Blake's concept of enlightenment cash it.

TOULON, France - The French law meant to banish Muslim headscarves from state schools is finding unexpected targets in southern France, where some principals have begun turning away Roman Catholic chaplains.

Five priests have been barred from state schools in the Var region despite the fact that French law has long allowed them entry to meet Catholic pupils there, according to the local diocesan spokesman Father Charles Mallard.

One school in this Mediterranean port city barred a priest this week because he was wearing a cassock, the traditional black robe he wore last year without problem before the new law barring conspicuous religious symbols came into force. (Source)

I suggest a trade. France sends us cassock wearing priests and we send them people like Fr. McBrien and Joan Chittister. They will never again have to worry about priests wearing cassocks or religious habit wearing nuns again.

For those who keep singing the joys of national healthcare - Captain's Quarters reports.

The Manchester Guardian reports on a family's struggle against Britain's National Health Service to keep their daughter alive. The NHS has decided that Charlotte Wyatt, an eleven-month-old preemie, will never be able to recover from the complications of her birth and want to force a do-not-resuscitate order onto her parents:

The parents of baby Charlotte Wyatt are expected to hear this afternoon whether a high court judge has supported their case for their daughter's right to life.

Darren and Debbie Wyatt from Portsmouth tried to convince Mr Justice Hedley that their 11-month-old child has a right to life. They argued their daughter should be provided with every aspect of medical care available.

Charlotte was born three months premature, weighing only 1lb and measuring five inches. She has already stopped breathing three times due to serious heart and lung problems; she is fed through a tube because she cannot suck from a bottle and she needs a constant supply of oxygen.

Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust argues that resuscitating Charlotte again would lead to further damage to her lungs and cause her further suffering. It has asked the court for an order allowing its doctors not to ventilate her again if she has life-threatening breathing difficulties.

This is no surprise that when limited money interacts with increasing health care demands that the sanctity of the government fund beats out the sanctity of life every time. History only repeats itself here. When Germany's National Socialist (Nazi) Party brought about national healthcare that the first to die for this plan was the elderly through euthanasia. Then those with birth defects or who were judged incurably ill were next. Their experience with gas chambers started with these people.

In these cases the government always gets to decide who is worth saving and who is not. Life is fine just as long as it doesn't eat up much needed money for healthier people. Of course these types of examples only elicit comments such as we would do it better and it wouldn't happen here. The people in England, Canada, and many European nations all said the same thing - that they would do it better. This is the same mind set of those who have seen socialism fail in every part of the world yet think that they would do it right if just given a chance.

AUGUSTA -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland canceled a state lawmaker's talk on prescription drugs for the elderly here after learning from his opponent that he is pro-choice on abortion.

State Rep. Arthur L. Lerman, D-Augusta, said he had been invited to address a lady's guild meeting Tuesday at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church by guild leader Claire Poulin, who had seen him make a similar presentation at another forum for the elderly.

But that invitation was abruptly canceled Monday after Lerman's opponent in the race for House District 57, Republican Michael G. Hein, complained to diocese officials that Lerman's appearance violated Bishop Richard J. Malone's ban on pro-choice candidates in his churches.

Lerman is a one-term Democratic who represents House District 57.

"I did get uninvited. I got a call from Mrs. Poulin," Lerman said Tuesday. "We had set it up for today, and she called last night and said it had become very political and she requested that I not be at the meeting today." (source)

This line of answer is becoming more common. Whenever a politician's view is held to the fire they complain that this has become political.

Diocese spokeswoman Sue Bernard said Malone recently issued an edict that candidates or other supporters of abortion rights be denied access to church facilities, reflecting U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops policy.

I wonder if she actually used the word edict or if the reporter editorialized her statement.

Bernard confirmed that diocese officials had ordered the pastor at St. Mary's Church to cancel the women's guild meeting rather than allow Lerman to speak. She said she knew of no other instance in Maine in which diocesan officials prevented pro-choice candidates from appearing at Catholic facilities.

What the article does not mention is the fact that this policy is not just the policy of the local Bishop but is in fact the policy of the USCCB as issued at their last meeting. The lack of other diocese of not doing the same thing is not indictment of this action, but actually shame for other diocese not following the policy.

As scripture says "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," there are some parts I would not apply directly. For example if you are single and dating I would not try these lines from the Song of Solomon.

Your hair is like a flock of goats,

Most women will not find this word image particularly flattering.

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

You might as well say "Get thee to a dentist."

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

If you are going to use an analogy to nature I would not use the word "heap" to describe her belly.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

Comparing facial appendages to large buildings is certainly a no-no unless you are just looking to get slapped.

In an article on the Catholic Vote I ran across this stunning theological explanation for why a Catholic should vote for John Kerry despite his pro-abortion voting record.

"It's not that he's Catholic, it's that he's a Democrat and not Bush." -- Kerry supporter Robert Feldkircher of Parma, Ohio.

What a ringing endorsement.

Sometimes you hear the rhetorical question What Would Jesus Drive. Well what about the saints? Previously I answered the question about the Blessed Virgin Mary with this picture.

Mary's Fiat

After watching the Song of Bernadette the other night I decided to go look for a picture of her car.

Bernadette Subaru.

Now of course in france they spell her last name slightly different - Soubiroux. But she wasn't thrilled with French cars and went for a more compact and economical Japanese car. The nice thing about Bernadette is that even when she gets a new car she doesn't lourdes it over you.

I don't often watch Hannity & Colmes but I happened to catch part of last's night's interview with Ann Coulter on her more recent book. The part I found interesting was when Alan Colmes asked her again about her post 9-11 quote "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." He was asking her if she really meant that we should convert other countries to Christianity and seemed dumbfounded at her reply that we should. What I found interesting is that I saw his question as a cornerstone of modern liberal ideas about religion. To them it is more akin to being a member of the Elks or Moose lodge. Then they would further delineate by liberal and conservative lodges. That you would ask anybody with any sort of beliefs whether they would want all people to have those same beliefs is just a dumb question. If you ask an atheist if they thought it would be better if all people were atheists they would also reply in the affirmative.

There is only one reason to hold any belief, because it is true or at least that you believe it to be true. To put all religions or unbelief on equal footing is syncretism at its worse. Either something is true or it is not. Contradictory beliefs are either both wrong or one is partially or wholly correct, but they can't both be true. Of course this bias against religious belief is weighted more against Christianity. Reporters go out of their way to say after each terrorists attack that Islam is a peaceful religion but intone the opposite in the rare case of the nutcase Christian who performs a violent act. They will use the word fundamentalist as if the word alone would explain that person's violent act.

This view is not surprising since the word dogma has now become a dirty word. Being a missionary is now seen as unhealthy fanaticism instead of working to spread the good news. It is no surprise as churches and religious orders become more modernist that they also become less missionary. Respect for other people's beliefs does not need to lapse into the relativistic view that if it works for them - then fine. We were created for truth and it is no surprise that Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

John Hawkins of Right Wing News offers some basic tips in "Your Basic Guide To Computer Maintenance" Besides the funny stories he offers from personal experience in doing internet tech support he has some good basic computer tips.

Again Dawn Eden uncovers more political action by non-profit Planned Parenthood or is that Planned Partisanship. This time it is youth camps encouraging activism which suprise-suprise is aimed at President Bush. PP knows the future of their business and want to make sure that young minds are indoctrinated so as to not cut into their profit margin. I can see them forming their own version of the Hitler Youth. Children dressed up and goose stepping to the mantra "protect choice." Maybe they can come up with their own version of Joe Camel to encourage more teen sexuality leading to more profitable abortions. Possibly they could have Joe Fetus. Joe Fetus would be some obnoxious character wearing diapers that goes around sucking time and money out of mothers. The only way to get rid of this unpleasant character would be to terminate him. In fact maybe they can get a hold of George Lucas and license Jar Jar Binks (nobody else ever would.) The extremely annoying Jar Jar Binks in diapers with that reggae accent would ensure product sales.

It seems now that every time I go to Mass I hear a cell phone ringing during it. Then there is the inevitable people looking around to see who has made this faux paus during Mass. Some Mexican parishes have bought devices that basically cause an electronic interdict so that cell phones can not work within their operating range. This got me thinking about some other ideas that could be useful for this problem. How about custom ring tones that won't cause this embarrassment?

• The "And also with you" or for the Latin Mass "Et cum spíritu tuo" ring tone. This is a lot less embarrassing to have these responses even at the wrong time. People might just think that they are newbies.
• For Charismatic Catholic Masses or some Protestant services the "Alleluia" or "Amen" ring tone. This ring tone won't even be noticed.
• Then there is the universal ring tone for Catholics/Protestants/Unitarians of someone snoring.

I have also been thinking about another product. One of my problems when praying or doing spiritual reading is that my mind starts to wander (instead of engaging in wonder) or to come up with related comedy. Much to my chagrin some of my parodies have come to me while meditating. I guess I engage in Comedy Contemplation and instead of the mystical life my mind ponders the hysterical life - which instead of making me a mystic I become a hystic instead. The month of October is special to me since I am a Secular Discalced Carmelite and reading the writings of St. John of the Cross I got to thinking about the "Dark night of the soul." What if something could be made to help those who have progressed in the interior castles and our experiencing this. Here is a possible solution.

Dark Night of the Soul Night Light
Off	On

The light automatically come on if it detects you are experiencing spiritual dryness. When you are treading the path of the dark night with aridity and purgation the soul - the Dark Night of the Soul Night Light shines immediately. Otherwise when walking around your house in sensory night you might trip and fall.

You can read the online translation of the owner's manual here.

TSO lists some very funny unlikely bumper stickers.

So let me add my own items for this new form of blogger comedy.

• I would rather be at home with my wife than fish
• Just say no to war for olive oil
• Save the Gromphadorhina portentosa
• Speech therapists for Bush
• Unborn Children for Kerry
• Think cosmically, act galaxy
• Mean people are just fine by me
• You can't hug a child with Venus de Milo's arms
• Shi'ites happen
• If you can read this bumper sticker you must be home schooled
• I brake for religious ecstasy
• My other car is a Popemobile

“We are proud to honor Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones,” says Colleen Kannaday, president of St. Francis Hospital & Health Center. “He is a true friend to the communities within his district. His work speaks for itself, and his priorities have made an immeasurable impact on thousands of individuals throughout the South Side and the entire State of Illinois.”

Jones served as Senate Democratic Leader from 1993-2003. In 2003, he was elected President of the Illinois Senate. Under President Jones’ leadership, the Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation including a prescription drug discount program for senior and disabled citizens, equal pay for equal work, expanded health care programs for working families, increased the minimum wage, increased funding for education and reformed Illinois’ criminal justice system. [source]

Well they forgot two resume bullets. Must have been an oversight that a Catholic hospital overlooked his pro-abortion, pro-homosexual advocacies.

The Washington Post does a short article on religious blogs which includes mention of St. Blogs and especially the first member of St. Blogs (she also coined the term) Kathy Shaidle of Relapsed Catholic. They under reported the size of the St. Blogs parish by about 300 hundred since they said there were only about 100 lay people along with priests, canon lawyers, choir directors. [Link via Legislating Gremlins]

One thing I thought odd in the article was this statement.

Because the overwhelming majority of people who have the time and equipment necessary to blog are white middle-aged, well-educated and affluent, there is a conservative tinge to the blogosphere, said Lynn Schofied , a new-media scholar at the University of Colorado whose research focuses on the internet.

The only equipment necessary to blog is any device with an internet connection and the will to opine. I know Quenta Nârwenion blogs from the computer at a public library. My impression of the blogospere is not that it skews middle-aged but that the vast majority if bloggers are in their 20s or 30s. I also wonder how many bloggers in St. Blogs would see themselves as affluent, though I would say most are well-educated (not necessarily via educational institutions.) But maybe I should not complain to much (being a white, middle-age, high school educated, middle-class blogger) is that often you do not find the words well-educated and conservative in the same paragraph in the WaPo.

There is an excerpt on Catholics for President George W. Bush and the interview (pdf file) is here.

Via Captain's Quarter's

The Washington Post has an unusual editorial in today's edition pointing out the efforts of DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe to hijack their Letters section for unpaid advertising. You have to read this to believe it, but apparently some of the mindless sheep he's driving can't tell time:

WE RECEIVED THE following letter from a woman in Yonkers, N.Y.: "Dear editor: This debate made it clear: John Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. George Bush has had his chance; I'm ready for a new direction."

Cogent, succinct, personal -- everything we look for in a letter. So why are we writing about it here, instead of publishing it in the columns to the right? Unfortunately, the letter, perfect in every other way, arrived in our electronic in-box Thursday afternoon, four hours and 14 minutes before debate moderator Jim Lehrer posed his first question. ...

Maybe she was part of Psychics for Kerry.

If your black don't stray off the plantation. Dawn Eden relates this story. Plus lots of more good stuff at the Dawn Patrol this week including this trend on what is being called sacred scripture (Hint: It is not the Bible.).

George Mason University on Thursday canceled plans to have "Fahrenheit 9/11" director Michael Moore speak on campus five days before the presidential election.

The decision came after a Republican state legislator wrote a letter to university president Alan G. Merten protesting the Fairfax, Va., school's plans to pay the filmmaker $35,000 to speak on Oct. 28.

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"We just felt it wasn't the most appropriate use of [public] funds, so we decided the best thing to do was cancel," school spokesman Daniel Walsch said.

George Mason didn't notify Moore before making the decision public, Walsch said.

A message left seeking comment from Moore wasn't immediately returned to The Associated Press, but he told The Washington Post he plans to come and speak anyway.

"I'm going to show up in support of free speech and free expression," he said. (source)

Well if Michael Moore cares so much for "Free Speech" he should stop charging $35,000 dollars and up for his speeches.

Invite Michael Moore to speak - get thrown out of office. Add insult to injury, the activist filmmaker never comes to your Orem college - and you pay him $40,000 anyway.

Sound implausible?

Not at Utah Valley State College, where an increasingly popular recall petition could do just that: dump Moore and the student leaders who invited him.

"We've never had anything like that," UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said Thursday. But "if there's enough outcry by the student body, an election like this could happen."

As it stands, though, the "Fahrenheit 9/11" director will speak Oct. 20. Moore's conservative counterpoint, Sean Hannity, is booked for Oct. 11. And to ensure that "balance," Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. has offered his father's jet to bring Hannity to Utah.
Jim Bassi, the UVSC student body president locked in the cross hairs, worries a recall could prompt Moore to sue. By contract, the school still would have to pay the $40,000 speaking fee. (source)

What they don't mention is that the $40,000 speaking fee is almost the whole budget for the year for speakers. They also don't mention that Sean Hannity is speaking for free.

WEIRTON, W.VA -- John Edwards says voters should know that religion is important to him and to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but the issue shouldn't be used to divide people in the election.

"My faith is very important to me, and the same is true of John Kerry," the vice-presidential candidate told The Associated Press after a campaign stop in West Virginia this week.

Kerry was an altar boy-turned-soldier who wore a cross under his uniform every day in Vietnam and once contemplated the priesthood. Edwards was baptized as a teen, spent a decade in Bible study groups and led the weekly prayer breakfast in the U.S. Senate.

"The two of us talk about our faith -- with each other," Edwards said. "Our faith is important to us, and it's always been important to us, and people should know that.

"I don't think that faith should be used to divide us," he said. (source)

Because of the consequence of original sin the fact is that faith will divide us.

for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." -- Luke.12:52-53

A Jersey City man has been posing as a priest - leading Mass and attempting to solicit donations - for St. Paul of the Cross Church in Jersey City, according to parishioners and Archdiocese of Newark spokesman Jim Goodness.

According to both Goodness and church parishioners, the man showed up on Sunday and led the first part of a morning Mass before officials realized he did not belong.

"Someone is walking around . dressed as a priest," Goodness said. "He's asking for donations for some parish functions and he is clearly not authorized to do this."

The man is not ordained as a priest nor is he part of the Archdiocese, according to Goodness. At this point, Goodness said, it is not clear how much money the man may have accepted in donations.

A St. Paul parishioner, Rafael Torres, who on Monday filed a police report about the recent incidents, said the man introduces himself to people as "Father Chris."

Goodness said that St. Paul of the Cross has an upcoming annual festival and is holding several fund-raisers. Apparently, the man has been using the upcoming celebration as a way to solicit funds, he said.

"St. Paul is having a celebration . and at this point there have been some fund-raising activities," Goodness said. "I think he latched himself onto it."

Parishioners first saw the man when he suddenly showed up on Sunday to preside over Mass, Goodness said. At first, church officials thought nothing of it because they were expecting a visiting priest that day.

But when the real visiting priest showed up, the man told church officials that he was visiting the area and asked if he could still lead Mass. Because Catholic churches sometimes get requests from out-of-town priests to assist with services, the church officials saw no harm in it and told him that he could preside over the Mass with the help of the visiting priest, Goodness said.

"Apparently this fake priest made some mistakes," Goodness said. "He read the Gospel from the wrong place. He didn't read it from the pulpit. He also interrupted the priest a couple of times during the Mass."

At one point, Goodness said, the man temporarily left the service to get a glass of water. When the other priests realized that he was acting strangely, they asked him to leave while the visiting priest completed the Mass, Goodness said. (source)

So the next time a priest acts strangely during Mass and deviates from the Lectionary and the GIRM I now have a more charitable excuse for the behavior - maybe this is another fake priest instead of a real priest that should know better.

Update: Fake priest has been arrested.