Will You Pray for Usurper "President" Obama?

An email from Catholic Culture:

CatholicCulture.org is sponsoring a perpetual (around-the-clock) Rosary for the next 30 days, asking God to bless the new administration with an authentic perception of the Good, which will also lead it to oppose intrinsic evils such as abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, human cloning and gay marriage.

Why not consider signing up for a time slot? Those outside the United States can help by taking slots that are difficult in our time zones. You'll find the link to the Rosary on our home page, or you can go to it directly here: Obama Rosary.

One of the growing conflicts in American life is that between healthy secularity (which demands separation of Church and state) and radical secularism (a cultural rebellion against God). Late last year, Cardinal Camilo Ruini gave an excellent address on this topic to a conference on "Religious Freedom: The United States and Europe": French vs American Models of Freedom and Religion.

But while we're thinking and praying about political culture, let's not forget the Church or our own families.

The full report on the Apostolic Visitation of American seminaries is now available in our library. Among other things, it serves as an important reminder that all priests and future priests need our prayers.

As for the family, when the World Meeting of Families closed last Sunday, Pope Benedict gave this homily: It Is in the Home Where One Learns to Truly Live. There are a great many definitions of the good life, from the natural ideals of the Greeks to the hedonistic visions of modern America. In just a few paragraphs, Benedict develops a better idea, along with a beautiful prayer....

Of course we need to pray for our country and for the conversion of those who are opposed to the good and wish to spread more evil in this country and in the world. Just as we are to continue to pray for the souls of all of the departed, including the death peddlers, tyrants and genocideal maniacs of years past, we pray for those who are still living. We do not pray for their success, for their desires are to promote evil and the culture of death. We pray that their efforts are thwarted at every turn. Should evil be perpetrated despite our prayers, we ask that we might see and recognize the good that God wills to come from that evil.