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Punditry

Passing the buck

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

STATEMENT OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO
REGARDING REMARKS MADE BY FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
June 4, 2007

On Saturday, May 26, 2007, during an anti-gun rally at a Riverdale gun shop, Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina parish, reportedly made aggressive and inappropriate statements threatening the store’s owner.

If the comments reported are accurate, and a threat was made, it is up to the civil authorities to investigate the matter and determine what if any action should be taken against Fr. Pfleger.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, stated, “publicly delivering a threat against anyone’s life betrays the civil order and is morally outrageous, especially if this threat came from a priest. It is first of all up to the civil authorities to determine what threat might have been contained in the remarks attributed to Fr. Michael Pfleger. With that determination, the sponsors of the anti-gun rally and the Archdiocese can better decide how to respond.”

Jester Hat Tip: AMDG

That is a pretty disappointing statement from Cardinal George. Just because something might not be determined to be a prosecutable crime does not mean that it might not warrant discipline from the diocese. If the comments reported accurate line is also quite a dodge since there is audio easily available of what was said. Even if in context the use of the word "snuff" was not meant as murder towards the gun shop order the whole demonstration was quite inappropriate. Of course this is not exactly the first instance of the scandal of Fr. Michael Pfleger who has no problem having pro-abortion speakers at his parish and recently had racist Loius Farrakhan speak who has said such things as "White people are potential humans — they haven’t evolved yet." Fr. Pfleger also appears as a testimonial on Sen. Obama’s campaign page. Yes Sen. Obama who voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and is one of the Senate’s most ardent protectors of abortion at any time.

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Other

Evolution of Morality

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Patrick O’Hannigan at The Paragraph Farmer has been doing coverage of the various Christopher Hitchen’s debates. He links to the conclusion of a debate between Hitchens and Douglas Wilson which makes a great point on the evolution of morality.

Tonight on the Hugh Hewitt show the entire show will be a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dr. Mark Roberts. I heared Dr. Roberts on Hugh’s show before and it should be a pretty good debate. Usually when Hitchens appears on the Hugh Hewitt show and the topic veers to religion it is always a train wreck with Hitchens showing himself to be a fundamentalist atheist not willing to give religion any due. I can admire Hitchens for willing to do so many debates on the subject, but I would admire him more if I had any feeling he was an honest atheist open to the truth.

On Sunday I read his Peter Hitchens’ review his brother’s book that was quite interesting, especially Christopher’s "locution" at the age of nine that the world was not ordered.

I do think the appropriate thing to do would be to ask Blessed Mother Teresa and Bob Hope to intercede for Mr. Hitchens conversion.

Update: Listening to the debate I was not much impressed by either Hitchens or Mark D. Roberts.
Hitchens seems to be unable to make any distinctions and treats religion as a lump. Though the funniest thing in the debate was when Hitchens called Pope John Paul II "A great mammal."
Yes, Pope John Paul the Great Mammal would be a new title in Church history.

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Pro-life

How to tell the difference

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Since according to the story below Planned Parenthood thinks women can’t tell the difference between a "reproductive health center" and a Crisis Pregnancy Center then I offer this as a public service

  • If they want to kill your baby and want money for the abortion – you are in a "reproductive health center."
  • If you tell them you want to keep the baby and need assistance and they give you the boot – you are in a "reproductive health center."
  • If you are underage and tell them about your adult boy friend and they ask you to lie about your birth date – you are in a "reproductive health center."
  • If the clinic was founded by an organization whose leader was a racist eugenist – you are in Planned Parenthood’s "reproductive health center."
  • If the word or phrase fetus, tissue mass, product of conception is used – you are in a "reproductive health center."
  • If they use the world baby – you are in a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
  • If they give you a free ultrasound to show you the current development of your child – you are in a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
  • If they offer or connect you with services to help you to deliver your child and to provide assistance after the birth – you are in a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
  • If the clinic is staffed mainly by volunteers or have salaries paid for by donations – you are in a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
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Pro-life

The war on Crisis Pregnancy Centers

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Via Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney has introduced a “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act” which is targeting Planned Parenthood’s nemesis, the Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

“New York City has seen firsthand how crisis pregnancy centers deliberately confuse women by establishing themselves near legitimate reproductive health care centers. These fake clinics have opened in close proximity to our Brooklyn and Bronx centers, misleading clients seeking the unbiased care that Planned Parenthood provides. Planned Parenthood knows that women are completely capable of making the best decision for themselves and their families – without coercion, intimidation or lies. We provide our patients with a full range of medically accurate information about our services, as well as comprehensive unbiased counseling on all pregnancy options, including carrying a pregnancy to term, adoption, and abortion. As health care providers you need to be honest with your patients. Fake clinics are not honest. They are not health care providers and they need to stop pretending to be,” said Joan Malin, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City.

If it wasn’t so evil you could almost admire the Orwellian language used. "legitimate reproductive health care centers" are the ones that help you not reproduce and the "deceptive" ones are the ones that help support you to reproduce. Planned Parenthood fights tooth and nail to prevent mandatory access to ultrasounds yet have the nerve to talk about lies and coercion. Their whole use of choice is what is deceptive and should be stopped. If they really supported choice there would be Planned Parenthood Maternity Hospitals. So can anybody be surprised that their so-called counselors push women towards the "choice" that financially benefits them?

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News

Love & Responsibility Program

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

MANASSAS, VA – Today Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) President Patrick Reilly announced the hiring of author Dawn Eden to become CNS’s first Director of its new Love & Responsibility Program.

“We are thrilled that Dawn has agreed to join us as the head of our new Love & Responsibility Program,” said Reilly. “The combination of Dawn’s professional experience and natural ability to connect with students on a personal level will jump-start our work to promote authentic Catholic values on love, life and sexual ethics on Catholic campuses.”

Before joining the Cardinal Newman Society, Ms. Eden served as Deputy News Editor of the New York Daily News. She is the author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On (Thomas Nelson, 2006) and her writings have appeared in national publications such as the Sunday Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, Touchstone, Canada’s National Post, and National Review Online.

Ms. Eden is also in demand as a speaker, having given talks to college students and young-adult groups throughout the U.S. including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Newman Hall, Cleveland’s St. Mary Seminary, and Washington, D.C.’s Catholic Information Center, as well as Theology on Tap events around the country. She is a featured speaker at this weekend’s Legion of Mary Youth Conference in Dublin, Ireland and at next week’s 26th Annual G.K. Chesterton Conference in St. Paul, Minn.

The CNS Love & Responsibility Program seeks to reestablish chastity as the cornerstone of Catholic campus culture by proactively promoting Catholic values, such as those embodied in Pope John Paul II’s frequent exhortations on the “theology of the body” and Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love).

Ms. Eden will, among other things, advise, train and provide support for students at Catholic colleges who are developing student clubs, lectures or other campus events in support of Catholic teaching on love and sexuality.

For more information on the Cardinal Newman Society’s Love & Responsibility Program see www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.

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News

SaintCast

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Last week Paul Camarata from the SaintCast podcast had me on his show for a new segment he has developed where each week he is going to ask bloggers and others who there favorite saints are and some other questions.

Right click to download episode #61 of the SaintCast.

After Paul had queried me about this I finally got around to picking up a USB microphone so that I could use Skype to so that he could record it for his show. Paul has the most wonderful voice and if he ever gives up his day job as neurosurgeon then I am sure he could make it doing voiceover work or as a D.J. Though more important Paul always puts on an entertaining show where he covers the saints that are being celebrated for the week and doing in depth segments on particular saints. He also has had quality people on his show, me being the exception, and a expert on relics. I have listened to his podcast since the first one he put out and the production values are quite high.

Subscribe to the SaintCast.

SaintCast.org.

The SaintCast is part of the SQPN network home of other quality podcasts such as Fr Rodericks’ Daily Breakfast, Rosary Army, Catholics in a small town, Catholic Family Podcast, Catholic Under the Hood, TechnoPriest, Catholic Rockers, Into the Deep and other fine shows.

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Punditry

Religious submission of intellect and will

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell plans to ask new principals of Catholic schools to make a "religious submission of intellect and will" to the teachings of the Church. Now it is easy to foresee the reaction. Diogenes has a cartoon from the Brisbane Times that asserts that this submission makes you brain dead and he then goes on to talk about "Thinking Catholics."

The term "Thinking Catholics" used by some progressive Catholics annoys me. Though when I was an atheist I was annoyed by atheists who called themselves "Brights" and "Freethinkers." All of these terms are an evidence of intellectual pride and I though I didn’t like the terms I remember the pride of being an atheist as being smarter then those dumb theists who blindly followed a faith. Reading some "Thinking Catholics" I detect this same pride which is in many ways similar.

I have wondered if at the creation of the Angels if the Satan and those who fell with him considered themselves "Thinking Angels?"

Now I consider myself a "Thinking with the Church Catholic" and those how have the mind set as evidence by the cartoon would consider those like me a "Unthinking, with the Church Catholic" which only shows their ignorance. Thinking with the Church means that you actually have to find what the Church thinks first before you can do any religious submission of intellect and will. Those that think this is easy again are misinformed. I certainly know in my case there would a slew of things that I believed and held that had to be abandoned in the face of Church teaching. It is just that when I investigated these convergences on my way into the Church and the reasons they were taught that I found those teachings to be true and my previously held assumptions to be false. So contrary to what "Thinking Catholics" assert you have to do a lot of thinking to be faithful to the Church and it is certainly not a case of blind intellectual faith in the Church. Now in my case it did help that I believed in the Church prior to believing all that she taught and this attitude helped me to better understand to some degree what she taught. As Augustine said, "I would not believe the Gospels if it were not for the Church."

One of my favorite stories taht I have read was in Alice Von Hildebrand’s book The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich Von Hildebrand when she describes her husbands entry into the Church. He was taking private lessons from a priest when he told the priest that he was ready to enter the Church. The priest knowing that Dietrich was against the Church’s teaching on contraception told him he would not bring him into the Church until he assented to it. Dietrich Von Hildebrand immediately made a declaration that he believes what the Church teaches despite his own lack of understanding and previous disagreement. Dietrich Von Hildebrand went on to wonderfully defend the Church’s teaching and to teach about the evil of contraception later in his life.

Thinking Catholics try to assert that faithful Catholics have to leave their brain at the door to be faithful to the magisterium where in fact the opposite is the case. To be obedient to the teaching authority of the Church you must leave you intellectual pride at the door and that whatever intellectual gifts you might have will be fully exercised in understanding and defending what the Church actually teaches.

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News

Supporting Bishop Bruskewitz

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

One of my commenters reported on a counter-demonstration to Call To Action.

For those who haven’t heard, when Call to Action learned we were organizing a show of support for our Bishop, they tried to preserve a monopoly on their sought after media attention by changing their protest to 11:00am. We learned about it just before 9:00am.

The signs were not yet printed! I was out collecting completed Petition pages! I couldn’t get to a computer! I was disheartened to say the least.

Well, the Holy Spirit took charge of the situation in no short order. A flurry of phone calls ensued. The signs would be ready for pick up at 10am in South Lincoln. The homeschoolers were called into action by Cheryl Winter. I made one call to her and with her directory in hand she made numerous calls. Liz Feuerborn phoned me on my cell and she sent out an urgent email to our homeschool group that reached many others as well.

I was hoping that we might have double their numbers at the 11:00am gathering. I was also concerned that our time would be drawn from petition gathering. I should not have worried! Here’s what happened:

About 116 red-shirted people showed up on a moment’s notice at the steps of the Chancery! Amazing! Call to Action again tried to lure the media away by changing their staging area (all 9 members of them!) to occur in front of the Cathedral parking lot instead of the Chancery. That meant it was time for a good old fashioned Catholic procession!

We were required by Lincoln Police (as they politely told us) to stay off of the public sidewalk. Off we went, filling the lawn in front of the Chancery, then in front of the Cathedral. We sang hymns, recited the Apostle’s Creed, we prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the return to the Church of Call to Action members. It was such a blessed sight. One family drove all the way from Palmyra, another from Wahoo!

After numerous interviews, we finally dispersed and returned to the business of finishing the Petition gathering. At 2:00pm we met at Doug’s home. He and his wife, daughter and grandchildren worked very hard on the Petition drive and we are very thankful- they provided the backbone and inspiration for all of their efforts!

We went forward with our support gathering at 2:45pm. More praying, including the Chaplet at 3pm- again for the return of those who have left the Church and also for our Bishop. At about 3:20 the petitions were totaled.

Call to Action collected signatures since December, 2006 and had approximately 1000.

Our faithful lay Catholics collected 1452 in just over 31 hours!

Bishop Bruskewitz addressed our happy celebration, received our Petitions of support, thanked us and granted our request for a blessing.

It surely shows just how far CTA is on the decline when they hold a demonstration and ten times more people show up for the counter-demonstration.

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