I thought to watch the Kennedy funeral was too severe a penance to inflict upon myself. Ed Peters though managed it and has some comments about it. At the end he says:

The whole experience left me less hopeful about “dialogue” on life issues (not that I was very hopeful to begin with): we are, it seems clear, talking to people who have no sense of the enormity of the crimes being committed daily against the innocent. None. None.

This matches exactly my own feeling on this. That what abortion means seems to be totally lost on so many in the Church. Even among those that call themselves pro-life they have lost the horror of the murder of the unborn. It seems like the support of abortion has become to them like some unpopular zoning ordinance. Disagreeable, but don’t make too much noise about it. Don’t mention the fact that the deceased supporting sucking the brains out of a child just before being born – talking about this is bad taste, but I guess not voting for this.

Looking at what Ed Peters wrote on the funeral it is just sad that the Church is used in such a way as to promote someone who was a leader in the Culture of Death and who planned and orchestrated how to keep the Supreme Court nice and favorable to abortion. Also very sad that the only person to offer a prayer for the Senator was the President (how does that figure in his Protestantism?).

It also becomes a mockery of the Mass when the intercessions become “Intercessory Talking Points” such as praying for national health care (Oh Lord Deliver us from this). It is also quite evident that the people who talked about the Senator were irony deficient in their praise.

The purpose of a funeral Mass seems to me to pray for the departed, not ask for their intercessions. So instead we have scandal instead of asking for prayers for the late Senator. Just too bad we can’t stick to the GIRM.

From the Catholic Action League

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today decried the scandal which occurred this morning at Boston’s most historic Catholic shrine — the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, known as Mission Church — where a Mass of Christian Burial was used to “celebrate the life” of one of America’s most notorious opponents of Catholic morality, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Senator Kennedy fought for more than three decades to keep the killing of pre-born children legal and unrestricted in the United States.

Surgical abortion has claimed more than fifty-one million human lives since 1973. The Catholic religion defines abortion as an “abominable crime”.

President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy, in which he alluded to Kennedy’s support for gay rights. One of the Prayers of the Faithful was a petition to end divisions “between gays and straights”.

Ecclesial participants included Rev. Raymond Collins, Rector of the Basilica; Rev. Mark Hession, Kennedy’s parish priest from Our Lady of Victories Church in Centerville on Cape Cod; Rev. J. Donald Monan, Chancellor of Boston College; and Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, who thanked President Obama for his words and his presence. Both the homilist, Fr. Hession, and Cardinal O’Malley suggested that the late senator had found eternal salvation.

The Catholic Action League called the event “a tragic example of the Church’s willingness to surrender to the culture, and serve Caesar rather than Christ”.

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: “Senator Kennedy supported legal abortion, partial-birth abortion, the public funding of Medicaid abortions, embryonic stem cell research, birth control, federal family planning programs, and so-called emergency contraception. He defended Roe v. Wade, endorsed the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and opposed both the Human Life Amendment and the Hyde Amendment. Kennedy maintained a 100% rating from both NARAL and Planned Parenthood. In 1993, he received the Kenneth Edelin Award from Planned Parenthood, and in 2000 received the Champions of Choice Award from NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts at the hands of the same Dr. Kenneth Edelin, the infamous abortionist.”

During his 1994 reelection campaign, Kennedy said ‘I wear as a badge of honor my opposition to the anti-choicers’. His successful obstruction of the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 effectively prevented the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Beyond his specific positions on human life issues, Senator Kennedy, along with the late Congressman Robert Drinan, provided the cover and the example for two generations of Catholic politicians to defect from Church teaching on the sanctity of innocent human life.”

“No rational person can reasonably be expected to take seriously Catholic opposition to abortion when a champion of the Culture of Death, who repeatedly betrayed the Faith of his baptism, is lauded and extolled by priests and prelates in a Marian basilica. This morning’s spectacle is evidence of the corruption which pervades the Catholic Church in the United States. The right to life will never be recognized by secular society if it is not first vindicated and consistently upheld within the institutions of the Church itself.”

One of the phrases being used in referring to the late Sen. Kennedy is that “He was a Catholic in good standing.”

This seems to me to be phrase that almost always pops up in referring to somebody who was at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church. If can’t think of reading an article ever where this term was used in connection to someone totally faithful to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Now what exactly is a Catholic in good standing? Is there a list on the internet somewhere of good standing Catholics? If so where is the list of Catholics in bad standing? Is there some Catholic equivalent of Santa Clause out there compiling this list and checking it twice?

Now this term is often used in hiring by diocese, but the term itself does not seem to have a technical definition. Though you would think it means something like a person who is a faithful follower of Christ, accepts the authority of the Holy See, follows God’s law, and whose personal life gives evidence of this. Though dissenters that say the are “Catholics in good standing” like the infamous abortion advocate Francis Kissling and the way it is used in many articles I think that it means “A Catholic who is not excommunicated, yet.”

The term is used in such a way as saying that since the Catholic Church has not sanctioned me in any way then they must not have a problem with me as a Catholic. In many cases they are able to say this because their bishop has done little or nothing in regards to the public scandal these publicly dissenting Catholics have caused. Nancy Pelosi, another “Catholic in Good Standing” made outrageous comments on abortion and remains a strong abortocrat. Her bishop did have a talk with her on this that she finally got around to attending. I am all for bishops working to persuade those Catholic politicians by dialoging with them on a personal level. It just seems to be that the dialog never ends and the public figure goes on causing scandal with no repercussions. Why exactly was a figure like Sen. Kennedy able to flouted Church teaching and positively support intrinsic evil over a large period of his life and never experience a medicinal remedy like excommunication? So many Catholic politicians have done exactly the same thing and have been the impetus for the Culture of Death. Though there are also a lot of Catholic priests and theologians that gave these politicians cover by inventing justifications for allowing a Catholic to support abortion. Fr. Drinan and others have a large hand in this. Though Fr. Drinan was also called a “Catholic in good standing” despite his support of abortion.

I am quite glad that more and more bishops seem to be speaking out and I hope this continues to happen. I just hope more realize that the care of souls includes both stopping scandal and providing medicinal remedies as provided by Canon Law. If men could be excommunicated for resisting integration, then why does not the same happen when public figures support intrinsic evils? If this leads to repentance than they can actually say there are “Catholics in good standing” without the tone of “Haven’t got caught yet.”

(CNSNews.com) – A June report from the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) suggests children of all countries and cultures are entitled to sexual and reproductive education beginning at age five.

The report, called International Guidelines on Sexual Education, was released in June in conjunction with the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization which works for universal access to “reproductive health care.”

In its rationale for creating the guidelines, the UNESCO report said it is “essential to recognize the need and entitlement of all young people to sexuality education.” An appendix backed that claim by pointing to a 2008 report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation that argued governments “are obligated to guarantee sexual rights,” and that “sexuality education is an integral component to human rights.”

Because I guess before sex education people could not figure it out. Got to wonder how for thousands of years people managed to procreate.

You got to wonder if Joycelyn Elders is now advising UNESCO since this is to be taught to children 5 – 8:

Touching and rubbing one’s genitals is called masturbation” and that “girls and boys have private body parts that can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself.”

For 9 to 12:

— “specific steps involved in obtaining and using condoms and contraception, including emergency contraception” and the “signs and symptoms of pregnancy.”
— That “legal abortion performed under sterile conditions by medically trained personnel is safe.”
— Discussing the ideas of “homophobia, transphobia and abuse of power.”

Yes Transphobia, the fear that your transmission will go bad resulting in a costly repair. Well maybe not, but surly this is another “phobia” that faithful Catholics can now also get assigned.

For those aged 12 to 15, the report recommends discussing “access to safe abortion and post-abortion care” and the “use and misuse of emergency contraception.” [reference]