Friday, May 03, 2013

FLASHBACK: Betrayal by Catholic Bishops Quickens Secularization of Society



Check the news today…every day. The West crumbles and we appear to be powerless to stop it. Moral chaos, including rampant homosexual rights and pornography, looming economic collapse, creeping Islam, losses in religious freedom and freedom of speech, erosion of constitutional rights, waning international influence and credibility: THESE ARE ALL CONNECTED.  

I don’t believe in fate and I don’t believe God wills for us this kind of demise. However, in God’s economy, actions produce consequences and wrong actions produce—at the least—painful consequences. We are straying tragically from the path of God and we are experiencing tragic consequences, i.e. the breakdown of our society. Only God knows whether we’ve passed the point of no return.

God has direct representatives here on earth, those in the lineage of the Apostles, whose duty is to instruct and exhort in the ways of God. These representatives, the Catholic Bishops, have remarkable influence—far more than we can imagine—in the world, particularly in our Western society which traces its institutions and worldview predominantly to Christianity.

Warning is a function of exhortation and beyond a shadow of a doubt, we need the clearest and strongest possible warnings. They will not come except from God’s prophets and in our day, those prophets are none other than the Bishops. I will continue to make this case because unless the people of God rise up and demand holy and fearless leadership from their shepherds, all will likely be lost for our civilization and like Greece and Rome we will be replaced with a more worthy successor. Chances are—and if history is any judge—such a replacement will be revealed in the midst of great upheaval, war and destruction.

Will Christians secure the attention of God and His governors, the Bishops? Will their cries reach Heaven and the cathedrae of the Bishops? First must come repentance.

"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious."

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The following was a press release issued in 2007 which provides in vivid detail one snapshot of the alarming failure of Catholic Bishops in Canada to preach and teach God’s Word and the true Catholic faith which is the only formula for godly character formation. Such failure consigns our nation to a continuing degradation and injustice which threatens the hard earned, God-given prosperity of our great nation.


Vote Life, Canada! Decries Honours Heaped by Montreal’s Cardinal Turcotte on Chief Justice Antonio Lamer, One of Chief Architects of Canada’s Culture of Death

Toronto, ON December 11/Christian Newswire—The recent funeral of Canada’s former Chief Justice Antonio Lamer was presided over in Montreal’s Cathedral by Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte who described Lamer as "a giant of the law," claiming that his passion for justice would make the whole world more peaceful and serene and intimating that his form of justice pleased God.

“What scandalous remarks were these and other absurd comments made by the Cardinal,” protests Eric Alcock, President of Vote Life, Canada!  “This event illustrates well the case made in our “Open Letter” that the Catholic Bishops of Canada are sustaining and fostering a pseudo-catholicism which has overtaken Canada and fatally blinded the vast majority of Catholics to the true tenets of Catholicism.”

The truth says Alcock, is that “Lamer practically denied the concept of Common Good, as set forth by Church teaching, and pursued his own perverse notion of individual liberty and autonomy as a democratic right, thereby denying God’s true justice.”

“Incredibly, by his own testimony at times, he sought to divorce legal considerations from morality, the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the absolute law of God, urging Canadians to accept the secular nature of Canadian society demanded by the Charter of Rights. This is the secularization link to which Catholic Bishops like Marc Ouellet appear blind, a link which starts in every Bishop’s own diocese through a failure to adopt a faithful (to official teachings), comprehensive and determined approach to Catholic catechesis and exacerbated by a serious neglect of Catholic discipline mandated by the tradition of the Church. Both failures make it impossible to prevent—and rout—the radical anti-life and anti-family politics or ‘democracy’ espoused by renegade Catholics like Lamer.”

“A solid orthodox Catholic faith would have uniquely positioned Lamer to guide Canada safely through the choppy complex waters of Charter interpretations for the greater Common Good of Canada,” observed Alcock. “But his pseudo-catholic faith, imbibed and lived out approvingly under the tutelage of Canada’s pseudo-catholic Bishops, led rather to the dismemberment of millions of unborn children and also the intense assault on family and marriage.”

Alcock maintains that Lamer’s spurious Catholicism and the nation-wide scandal it spawned ought to have provoked the firm rebuke and correction of some Canadian Bishop aiming to preserve the Common Good, protect the innocent and defenseless and save faithful Catholics and other Christians from devastating confusion. According to Catholic teaching, scandal is defined as “an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.”

“The fact that not one Canadian Bishop is on record addressing this long term national scandal testifies to the pervasive and spiritually corrupting effect of pseudo-catholicism. The lukewarmness, heresy or in some cases outright rebellion against official Church teachings by Canada’s Bishops has clearly left them susceptible to gross deception and manipulation by the devil.

“What a grievous time in our nation’s history when the most urgent and charitable work in Canada is to summon Catholic Bishops, the God given shepherds of our nation, to flee the wrath of God and return to the true faith.” 




Thursday, May 02, 2013

The Gosnell Story And Its Lessons



Posted in Weekly column from Archbishop Chaput, on April 26th, 2013 at http://catholicphilly.com/

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The Gosnell Story And Its Lessons
+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia

Some stories, no matter how unsettling, just can’t be ignored — even when some people are determined to look away.

The murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell will soon go to jury. And like every other criminally accused person under the law, Gosnell is innocent until proven guilty. Whatever the verdict though, there’s no ambiguity about the kind of business he ran at his West Philadelphia “Women’s Medical Center” ­— an abortion clinic that critics have likened to a meatpacking plant or a butcher shop, with unborn children delivered into a toilet, and jars of fetal body parts stored around the facility.

Dr. Gosnell was originally charged with one count of infanticide and five counts of “abuse of corpse” for killing fetuses born alive by plunging scissors into their necks. Without explanation, the judge in the case accepted a motion to acquit Gosnell of these charges earlier this week. Gosnell still faces four counts of first-degree and one count of third-degree murder. Eight of his coworkers have already pleaded guilty in the case, including three to third-degree murder.

Or so said The New York Times in a report dated April 23.  The date is important.  Gosnell’s trial began March 18, more than a month ago.  The Times coverage, while modest, is significant.  Why?  The answer is simple.  The Inquirer – Philadelphia’s hometown paper – has done a good job following the trial.  But most prestige national media have seemed remarkably eager to ignore the story until shamed into covering it.

Gosnell is much more than a “local” story. The continuing debate over legalized abortion is a hot-button national issue that drew half a million pro-life demonstrators to Washington in January. The battle over abortion restrictions continues in every state. Forty years after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, resistance to permissive abortion remains high. And the vivid details of the Gosnell clinic tragedy have the kind of salacious appeal that few national media would normally avoid — if the issue were anything else. But abortion is too often, and in too many news rooms, exactly the kind of topic that brings on a sudden case of snow blindness.

The real story in the Gosnell trial is bigger than the ugly allegations against Gosnell himself; it includes the failure — the allergic disinterest — of some of our most important national media. A headline in The Atlantic magazine, April 12, states the obvious: “Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story: The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy.”

The Atlantic story by Conor Friedersdorf is worth reading. But don’t stop there.  Read this by Kirsten Powers, columnist for The Daily Beast, in USA Today. And these excellent analyses by journalists Terry Mattingly, Mollie Hemingway and George Conger.

The irony is that much of the media’s lethargy in covering the Gosnell case really doesn’t surprise. It’s part of the fabric of a culture that simply will not see what it doesn’t want to see about the realities of abortion. And it leads to the kind of implausible claim made recently by one local commentator that “no sense of guilt is warranted” by the media because “there is no causal connection between coverage of [the Gosnell] case and bias.” It’s hard to imagine a more untenable alibi.

The brutality in abortion is intimate, personal and permanent. It violates women, and it kills a developing human life every time — whether the venue is a “Women’s Medical Center”-style meat factory or a soothing suburban clinic. What makes the Gosnell story unique is that it should distress anyone with its details, pro-choice or pro-life, regardless of religion or politics.

But of course, people need to know about an evil before they can do anything about it. 


March for Life St. John's NL May 9, 2013



Dear Friends "for Life"

Please help us spread the March for Life announcement below.

For those of you who are coming to the March for Life, we will have signs available but encourage you to make your own.

For those of you outside of the St. John's area, we can assist you hold a March in your area. If you are on the Burin Peninsula and would like to join the group coming to St. John’s please contact us. 

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March for Life

May 9th 2013, 12:30 pm at Confederation Building. Gather in east parking lot to march to the front. The pro-life movement invites you to attend this peaceful prayerful public witness to human life. In solidarity with tens of thousands marching in Ottawa and nation wide supporting those touched by abortion and mourning over 3,000,000 victims since May 1969. This year's theme targets the anti-woman barbaric practice of sex-selection abortion in Canada. "It's a girl" should not be a death sentence. For information please visit http://tiny.cc/marchforlife2013 or prolifenl@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you!

Together we can make a difference!

Patrick Hanlon
Spokesperson
Pro-Life NL
"Building a Culture of Life ...Upon this Rock."


Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Contradicting Muhammed? Or Just a Rational Discussion on Islam




Four days ago I posted a lengthy question which I intended to present to the local Muslim Students Association at the question period following the conclusion of their special lecture entitled “Muslim Contribution to World Civilization”. However, I abandoned the idea after listening to the lecture and being struck by a mixture of feelings, one of which was a sense of pity for these “lost” Muslims, all of whom appeared to be quite sincere and serious about their faith. Who was I to try to bust their party with a big question that might have appeared to them to be a well-planned attack?  

Furthermore, the address given was more of an informal pep talk for Muslims than it was a scholarly work on the subject advertised “Muslim Contribution to World Civilization.” In regard to Muslim “contributions” it was pathetic, as I previously noted, and by that I mean that it was not only distressingly inadequate but it also generated a good deal of sympathy for those souls who listened intently but were in the dark.

A few days later, I dropped off the following message in a sealed envelope to the Muslim Student Association office at MUN. I hope as you read it my new approach will make sense to you.

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February 6, 2013

Imam Sheharyar Shaikh
AND
President, Muslim Students' Association of MUN

Greetings to all!

And thanks for the informative public lecture entitled “Muslim Contribution to World Civilization” held on Thursday past, January 31, at SN-2109 at MUN. I was in attendance at that event and was impressed by the sincerity and interest of those present.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a native Newfoundlander and an observant, joyful Catholic. I graduated from MUN quite a long time ago with science and education degrees and after teaching for about five years I subsequently entered the business field and later went into ministry as a Protestant Christian pastor. About ten years ago I resigned as a pastor and shortly thereafter was received into the Catholic Church.  I am now ## years old and live in the greater St. John’s area.

At the conclusion of the public lecture of last Thursday, during the brief question time, I felt very strongly that I would like to propose some questions and also make some comments. Unfortunately, my mind was swirling with too many thoughts and not enough focus so I hesitated to say anything. However, since the event I have become quite enthused about making a good will gesture—perhaps it may even be a service— by offering to address your group with a series of observations and comments.

You will no doubt be curious as to what I might be planning to share and, indeed, you are entitled to more details. Let me say first and foremost that my intention in no way is to disrespect your faith or to provoke a controversy. Also, rest assured that I would not endeavour to make a theological argument against Islam, although a future debate on Christianity versus Islam might attract a good number of interested parties from diverse backgrounds and persuasions!

On the contrary I would very much like to address your group in good faith and try to share with you what I believe are the crucial questions and issues facing Muslims living in Canada and the West. Your Imam alluded in his address to some challenges and difficulties experienced by all Canadian Muslims and I believe I can expand significantly on that subject. Knowledge and understanding are both key to overcoming such difficulties and it is my opinion that my background and experience can provide important perspective to that end. In any such cross cultural exchange a few hard questions may also need to be raised.

There are areas of common agreement that would also warrant a mention. It would be very advantageous to examine these shared values and it may help to close some distance.

Bear in mind that I am speaking from the perspective of a convinced Christian and I do not pretend to be an expert on Islam. I have studied Islam on an introductory level in the past, due mainly to my training and preparation for Christian ministry. However, I am a keen observer of cultural events, news, and politics and I do take note of the current dynamics of Muslim integration into our Canadian society. In addition, I believe local Muslims would benefit from an explanation of what has shaped my attitudes towards Islam for the past fifty or more years because these are shared overtly or covertly by the majority of my fellow Canadians.

A further safeguard respecting my address—for your peace of mind and if you insisted—would be a stipulation that I should be ready to terminate my talk at any time should it in any way be deemed by MSA leadership to be offensive or disingenuous. I would be agreeable to such a clause. Questions from the audience would of course be left until last.  Attendees would be requested to be civil and courteous and to refrain from interruptions. In fairness I believe a time frame of at least 10 minutes would be essential but a full presentation of my thoughts would be more helpful and consequential and would be best suited to a 30-45 minute session, quite possibly prepared in PowerPoint format.

Please give serious consideration to my offer. I believe it will be a very refreshing and productive encounter. To discuss this matter further, feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Contact info was provided.

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On February 25 I received a reply from the MSA president, thanking me for attending the public lecture and indicating appreciation for my comments/feedback. The President noted that he had sent a copy of my letter to Imam Sheharyar who resided in Toronto and that I could contact him if I wished through the North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF) at www.namf.ca. MSA was hoping to invite him back again in the near future and he hoped we might have a discussion at that time.

As of today, I have heard no further word from anyone connected with the MSA group or the Imam although I would certainly like to have the opportunity to make that presentation to them, hoping to win over some hearts and minds.

The question that dogs me is: Do Muslims want to engage in a rational discussion of Islam, or do they simply want to charge forward with blinders full on?