Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at Oratory of St. Francis de Sales

A few weeks after his elevation to the College of Cardinals by the Holy Father, His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke is coming home to St. Louis.

St. Francis de Sales Oratory will have the great honor of receiving His Eminence on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 5:00 PM. Cardinal Burke will celebrate a Solemn Te Deum of thanksgiving with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. After the ceremony all the faithful are invited to the church hall for a reception in the Cardinal’s honor. Please join us on this glorious occasion when we will have the opportunity to congratulate His Eminence personally and to thank him for all that he has done for St. Francis de Sales Oratory.

Source.

The ACLU's Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals

Will a federal emergency-medical-treatment law be rewritten to mandate that all hospitals provide abortions?

Ho, ho, ho! Just in time for Christmas, the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new salvo against people of faith. Even as billions around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, joyless, abortion-obsessed secularists never take a holiday.

On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic hospitals in the U.S. to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn. They’re counting on sympathetic Obama rationing czar Donald Berwick — a recess appointee whose radical views on wealth and health redistribution were never vetted by Congress — to dictate which religious principles hospital operators can and cannot follow.

More here.

Dr Edward Peters: Bp. Olmsted, Canon 216, and St. Joseph's Hospital

Dr Peters writes:

Well, the situation at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, in terms of its compliance (or lack thereof) with several fundamental points of Catholic medical-moral teaching, was apparently worse than we thought. Bp. Olmsted’s decision to decertify St. Joseph’s as a Catholic institution is quite well grounded.

Read why here

Dr Edward Peters: Lisa Fullam's dangerous advice should be ignored

Dr Peters writes:

When informed that the Vatican would oppose him, Joseph Stalin shrugged and asked “How many troops does the pope have?” To the dictator, the only views that mattered were those backed-up by men with guns.

Lisa Fullam has offered authorities at Catholic Healthcare West / St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix similarly myopic, even dangerous, advice when she suggested that, because the word “Catholic” is not copyright-able, the enterprise should continue to call itself “Catholic” despite Bp. Thomas Olmsted’s threatened prohibition of such use, and simply “let the canonical chips fall where they may.” Apparently Fullam believes that, since men with badges will never show up to enforce a cease-and-desist order (that will never be issued) by a civil court regarding the word “Catholic”, Catholic hospital officials need not worry about bishops tossing a few “canonical chips” their way.

I strongly suggest that St. Joseph's seek advice from another expert.

Read more here.

Dr Edward Peters: A good profile essay on almost-Cardinal Burke

Dr Peters writes:

Franz Klein of the Diocese of Lacrosse has a nice spread on Archbishop, and-one-day-shy-of-being-formally Cardinal, Burke in the on-line The Catholic Times (18 Nov. 2010, page 3B). Klein offers a good overview of Burke’s typical day at the Apostolic Signatura, and of the esteem in which he is held by those concerned for the proper coordination of law and theology. The essay even features a few quotes by yours truly. So enjoy!

It's been another good week for the Church: Abp. Dolan elected president of the USCCB, Abp. Burke, among others, elevated to the College of Cardinals. Let's just remember, though, the trials of the Church in places like China, where bishops faithful to the Holy See are being forced to attend on Saturday an episcopal ordination performed in violation of 1983 CIC 1382. Think of it as two strides forward, one shove back. Oremus pro invicem.

Speaking of cardinals, I have updated my list of Cardinal Electors.

Original post here.

Baghdad Catholic Church Hostage Drama Ends in Bloodbath

At least 37 people have been killed after Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church in central Baghdad to free dozens of hostages being held by gunmen there, security sources say.

Twenty-five hostages were among the dead, along with seven members of the Iraqi security forces and at least five of the attackers, they told the BBC.

About 100 people had been inside Our Lady of Salvation for an evening Mass...

Continued here

Please, remember these people in your prayers.

Video of "Catholic" Omitting, "Under God", While Leading the Pledge of Allegiance on the House Floor

What you will see is a sad display of disrespect by a United States Congresswoman from Minnesota, Democrat Betty McCollum [who apparently likes to tout her "Catholic" faith when running for re-election]...

More here

When will this witch be excommunicated?

Pelosi Statement on Marriage Equality Ruling

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on the ruling announced today by U.S. District Court Judge Walker in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger:

“I am extremely encouraged by the ruling today, which found that Proposition 8 violated both the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Proposition 8 has taken away individual rights and freedoms, and is a stain upon the California Constitution.

“We must continue to fight against discriminatory marriage amendments and work toward the day when all American families are treated equally."

Does her bishop, like Chairman MaObama, lacking the 'cajones' to do his duty?

Former inmate recalls daring escape from Auschwitz

A wonderful story:

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer Monika Scislowska, Associated Press Writer

NOWY TARG, Poland – With every step toward the gate, Jerzy Bielecki was certain he would be shot.

The day was July 21, 1944. Bielecki was walking in broad daylight down a pathway at Auschwitz, wearing a stolen SS uniform with his Jewish sweetheart Cyla Cybulska by his side.

His knees buckling with fear, he tried to keep a stern bearing on the long stretch of gravel to the sentry post.

The German guard frowned at his forged pass and eyed the two for a period that seemed like an eternity — then uttered the miraculous words: "Ja, danke" — yes, thank you — and let Jerzy and Cyla out of the death camp and into freedom.

It was a common saying among Auschwitz inmates that the only way out was through the crematorium chimneys. These were among the few ever to escape through the side door.

The 23-year-old Bielecki used his relatively privileged position as a German-speaking Catholic Pole to orchestrate the daring rescue of his Jewish girlfriend who was doomed to die.

"It was great love," Bielecki, now 89, recalled in an interview at his home in this small southern town 55 miles (85 kilometers) from Auschwitz.

"We were making plans that we would get married and would live together forever."

Bielecki was 19 when the Germans seized him on the false suspicion he was a resistance fighter, and brought to the camp in April 1940 in the first transport of inmates, all Poles.

He was given number 243 and was sent to work in warehouses, where occasional access to additional food offered some chance of survival.

It was two years before the first mass transports of Jews started arriving in 1942. Most of the Jews were taken straight to the gas chambers of neighboring Birkenau, while a few were designated to be forced laborers amid horrific conditions, allowing them to postpone death.

In September 1943 Bielecki was assigned to a grain storage warehouse. Another inmate was showing him around when suddenly a door opened and a group of girls walked in.

"It seemed to me that one of them, a pretty dark-haired one, winked at me," Bielecki said with a broad smile as he recalled the scene. It was Cyla — who had just been assigned to repair grain sacks.

Their friendship grew into love, as the warehouse offered brief chances for more face-to-face meetings.

In a report she wrote for the Auschwitz memorial in 1983, Cybulska recalled that during the meetings they told each other their life stories and "every meeting was a truly important event for both of us."

Cybulska, her parents, two brothers and a younger sister were rounded up in January 1943 in the Lomza ghetto in northern Poland and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her parents and sister were immediately killed in the gas chambers, but she and her brothers were sent to work.

By September, 22-year-old Cybulska was the only one left alive, with inmate number 29558 tattooed on her left forearm.

As their love blossomed, Bielecki began working on the daring plan for escape.

From a fellow Polish inmate working at a uniform warehouse he secretly got a complete SS uniform and a pass. Using an eraser and a pencil, he changed the officer's name in the pass from Rottenfuehrer Helmut Stehler to Steiner just in case the guard knew the real Stehler, and filled it in to say an inmate was being led out of the camp for police interrogation at a nearby station. He secured some food, a razor for himself and a sweater and boots for Cybulska.

He briefed her on his plan: "Tomorrow an SS-man will come to take you for an interrogation. The SS-man will be me."

The next afternoon, Bielecki, dressed in the stolen uniform, came to the laundry barrack where Cybulska had been moved for work duty. Sweating with fear, he demanded the German supervisor release the woman.

Bielecki led her out of the barrack and onto a long path leading to a side gate guarded by the sleepy SS-man who let them go through.

The fear of being gunned down remained with him in his first steps of freedom: "I felt pain in my backbone, where I was expecting to be shot," Bielecki said.

But when he eventually looked back, the guard was in his booth. They walked on to a road, then into fields where they hid in dense bushes until dark, when they started to march.

"Marching across fields and woods was very exhausting, especially for me, not used to such intensive walks," Cybulska said in her report to Auschwitz as quoted in a Polish-language book Bielecki has written, "He Who Saves One Life ..."

"Far from any settlements, we had to cross rivers," she wrote. "When water was high ... Jurek carried me to the other side."

At one point she was too tired to walk and asked him to leave her.

"Jurek did not want to hear that and kept repeating: 'we fled together and will walk on together,'" she reported, referring to Jerzy by his Polish diminutive.

For nine nights they moved under the cover of darkness toward Bielecki's uncle's home in a village not far from Krakow.

His mother, who was living at the house, was overjoyed to see him alive, though wasted-away after four years at Auschwitz. A devout Catholic, however, she was dead-set against him marrying a Jewish girl.

"How will you live? How will you raise your children?" Bielecki recalls her asking.

To keep her away from possible Nazi patrols, Cybulska was hidden on a nearby farm. Bielecki decided to go into hiding in Krakow — a fateful choice they believed would improve their chances of avoiding capture by the Nazis. The couple spent their last night together under a pear tree in an orchard, saying their goodbyes and making plans to meet right after the war.

After the Soviet army rolled through Krakow in January 1945, Bielecki left the city where he had been hiding from Nazi pursuit and walked 25-miles (40-kilometers) along snow-covered roads to meet Cybulska at the farmhouse.

But he was four days too late.

Cybulska, not aware that the area where she had been hiding had been liberated three weeks before Krakow, gave up waiting for him, concluding her "Juracek" either was dead or had abandoned their plans.

She got on a train to Warsaw, planning to find an uncle in the United States. On the train she met a Jewish man, David Zacharowitz, and the two began a relationship and eventually married. They headed to Sweden, then to Cybulska's uncle in New York, who helped them start a jewelry business. Zacharowitz died in 1975.

In Poland, Bielecki eventually started a family of his own and worked as the director of a school for car mechanics. He had no news of Cybulska and had no way of finding her.

In her report Cybulska said that she was haunted in the years after she left Poland by a wish to see her hometown and to find Jurek, if he was alive.

Sheer chance made her wish come true.

While talking to her Polish cleaning woman in 1982, Cybulska related her Auschwitz escape story.

The woman was stunned.

"I know the story, I saw a man on Polish TV saying he had led his Jewish girlfriend out of Auschwitz," the cleaning lady told Cybulska, according to Bielecki.

She tracked down his phone number and one early morning in May 1983 the telephone rang in Bielecki's apartment in Nowy Targ.

"I heard someone laughing — or crying — on the phone and then a female voice said "Juracku, this is me, your little Cyla," Bielecki recalls.

A few weeks later they met at Krakow airport. He brought 39 red roses, one for each year they spent apart. She visited him in Poland many times, and they jointly visited the Auschwitz memorial, the farmer family that hid her and many other places, staying together in hotels.

"The love started to come back," Bielecki said.

"Cyla was telling me: leave your wife, come with me to America," he recalls. "She cried a lot when I told her: Look, I have such fine children, I have a son, how could I do that?"

She returned to New York and wrote to him: "Jurek I will not come again," Bielecki recalled.

They never met again and she did not reply to his letters.

Cybulska died a few years later in New York in 2002.

In 1985, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem awarded Bielecki the Righteous Among the Nations title for saving Cybulska. The institute's website account of the escape and its aftermath is consistent with Bielecki's account to The Associated Press.

"I was very much in love with Cyla, very much," Bielecki said. "Sometimes I cried after the war, that she was not with me. I dreamed of her at night and woke up crying."

"Fate decided for us, but I would do the same again."

Source (with pics).

Hitler learns that Gomez will succeed Mahony as Archbishop of LA

Another of a series of Hitler spoofs...HT to TM!

NRLC Statement on Stupak "Deal"

STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE ON ABORTION "DEAL" ON HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

WASHINGTON -- (Sunday, March 21, 2010, 6 PM EDT) -- In response to today's announcement regarding an agreement between Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) and President Obama on the pending health care bill (H.R. 3590), the following statement was issued by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in the 50 states:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) remains strongly opposed to the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590). A lawmaker who votes for this bill is voting to require federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that will pay for elective abortion, and voting to undermine longstanding pro-life policies in other ways as well. Pro-life citizens nationwide know that this is a pro-abortion bill. Pro-life citizens know, and they will be reminded again and again, which lawmakers deserve their gratitude for voting against this pro-abortion legislation.

The executive order promised by President Obama was issued for political effect. It changes nothing. It does not correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill. The president cannot amend a bill by issuing an order, and the federal courts will enforce what the law says.

To elaborate: The order does not truly correct any of the seven objectionable pro-abortion provisions described in NRLC's March 19 letter to the House of Representatives, which is posted here: www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCToHouseOnHealthBill.pdf.

Regarding Community Health Centers (CHCs), NRLC has documented the problem created by H.R. 3590 here: www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCMemoCommHealth.html.

Prof. Robert Destro, a professor of law and former dean of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and an expert on abortion-related litigation, has sent lawmakers a letter explaining why the bill opens the door to direct federal funding of abortion in Community Health Centers: www.nrlc.org/ahc/DestroLetterToStupakOnCommHealthCenters.pdf.

Prof. Destro clearly explains why it is the statutory language that will govern.

Regarding the new program to provide tax credits to purchase private insurance, the executive order merely tinkers with the formalities of a bookkeeping scheme under which federal subsidies will pay for plans that cover elective abortion -- a break from the longstanding principles of the Hyde Amendment.

The order does nothing at all to mitigate the other abortion-related problems described in the NRLC letter, dealing with bill provisions that create dangerous regulatory mandate authorities, revise Indian health programs, and create pools of directly appropriated funds that are not covered by existing restrictions on funding of abortion. Nor can the order correct the omission from the pending legislation of the necessary conscience-protection language that had been included in House-passed health care legislation last November (the "Weldon language").

For additional information regarding the abortion-related components of the legislation, and NRLC's assessment of the gravity of these issues, please refer to the March 19 letter linked above, and other materials posted on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/AHC/Index.html.

For interviews on this issue, please call the NRLC Communications Department at (202) 626-8825.

Isn't Stupak supposed to be Catholic? Where's HIS bishop and when do we see the anti-life "Catholic" politicians receive an interdict under Canon 915?

U.S. Bishops’ final plea to Congressmen: Do not pass pro-abortion health care bill

As if CONgress critters ever listen to anyone - far too many ignore their constituents in order to lick Zero's boots!

In a final, urgent plea to prevent the passage of the current form of the Senate health care bill, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Saturday evening sent a letter to Congressmen asking them to vote “no.”

“For decades,” the letter says, “the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity.”

“Our community of faith,” the bishops continue, “provides health care to millions, purchases health care for tens of thousands and addresses the failings of our health care system in our parishes, emergency rooms and shelters. This is why we as bishops continue to insist that health care reform which truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all is a moral imperative and an urgent national priority.”

Nevertheless, they add, “we are convinced that the Senate legislation now presented to the House of Representatives on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis sadly fails this test and ought to be opposed.”

...the bishops argue that health care reform “must protect life and conscience, not threaten them." The Senate bill "extends abortion coverage, allows federal funds to pay for elective abortions (for example, through a new appropriation for services at Community Health Centers that bypasses the Hyde amendment), and denies adequate conscience protection to individuals and institutions."...

..."With deep regret, but clear in our moral judgment, we are compelled to continue to urge House members to oppose the Senate bill unless these fundamental flaws are remedied. At this critical moment, we urge Representatives to take the steps necessary to ensure that health care reform respects the life and dignity of all, from conception to natural death," the letter concludes.

Source.

Unbelievable Sacrilege! Pelosi Prays To St. Joseph To Pass Health Care

What a DISGRACEFUL HERETIC!!! May God have mercy on her soul!!!

NEW ABORTION SCANDAL at Catholic College

From America Needs Fatima:

Ask this Catholic college to take Planned Parenthood off its web site - sign your protest here

The University of Detroit Mercy - a Catholic institution - lists Planned Parenthood on its web site under "Career & Professional Resources." Another pro-abortion group called the National Organization for Women (NOW) is also listed.

SIGN THIS E-PROTEST to get these listings removed

-- Fact #1:

Further investigation shows that Dr. Jane Schaberg, Professor of Religious Studies at the same university is a member of NOW and the dissident group Catholics for Free Choice.
Hard to believe. But it gets worse.

-- Fact #2:

Referred to as a "feminist biblical scholar," Prof. Schaberg authored a blasphemous book, first published in 1987, titled: The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives. The offensive work argues that Jesus was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, but most likely the offspring of a r a p e.

-- Fact #3:

On page 95, the book states: "…Mary, in the tradition Luke inherited, experienced a disaster worse than barrenness: sexual violation."

As far as I know, Prof. Schaberg has not publicly retracted this opinion. Her book is still available online through Amazon. Yet, she continues teaching religious studies.

Your instant protest message will go directly to Fr. Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., the president of the University of Detroit Mercy, urging him to remove every mention of Planned Parenthood from the university's web site.

I'd like to mention our recent victory at Rosemont College. Yes. In fact, Planned Parenthood was DELETED from the college website in less than 24-hours after we launched our protest.

A second victory is possible.

Will you help me ramp up this protest?

Let's delete Planned Parenthood - right now - here

And to give this peaceful effort much more impact, help me spread the word by forwarding this message to your pro-life friends (or even your entire address book).

With God's help, the truth will triumph.

Sincerely in Jesu et Maria
Robert E. Ritchie
America Needs Fatima
www.ANF.org

Catholic Health Assoc. Health Bill Support 'Utterly Un-Catholic': HLI President

WASHINGTON, DC, March 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the U.S. bishops step up their opposition to the abortion-expanding Senate health bill this month, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) has again muddled the pro-life Catholic response by issuing warm support for the bill - despite its not being "perfect" on the abortion issue. The president of Human Life International responded by condemning CHA's support for the bill as "utterly un-Catholic" and "a grave insult" to Catholics.

In remarks posted on the CHA website, president and CEO Sr. Carol Keehan wrote: "As I watched our president present his plan to pass the health reform legislation, it was clear this is an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans....

Idiotic morons welcome those like Keehan...While she may be infatuated with a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who supports murdering unborn children, she should, at the very least, read the 2300+ monstrous pages of deathcare BEFORE she proclaims that this Trojan horse will provide " an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans."

Only an incompetent imbecile could make such a claim.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, a leading commentator on social issues among Catholic bishops, on Monday slammed Catholic organizations who are backing the bill for providing moral cover for a deeply problematic measure.

In an On The Square blog post, Chaput wrote that, "Groups, trade associations, and publications describing themselves as 'Catholic' or 'prolife' that endorse the Senate version—whatever their intentions—are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health care reform."

"By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation," wrote Chaput....


Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews.com that while he could not say whether Keehan is "really acting on bad faith" or "just deeply confused" about the radically pro-abortion health care bill, "Her organization stands to gain a great deal by its passage, and they regulary collaborate with the proponents of this legislation, so her credibility on this issue is, to put it mildly, less than rock solid."

"It is a grave insult to Sister's fellow Catholics that she would stoop to lend what some will see as a Catholic stamp of approval to this destructive and, if enacted, irreversible assault on life," he continued. "Nothing in this bill merits for it the support of any thinking, faithful Catholic. Period.

"To pretend otherwise not only places one in opposition to the bishops, but requires that one disregard the right to life of the the weakest and most vulnerable among us. This is utterly un-Catholic."

Read more.

Catholic Investigative Agency is here...

From RealCatholicTV.com:

As promised, the premiere episode of RealCatholicTV.com's new program Catholic Investigative Agency (CIA) is now available for viewing.

The Topic: Saul Alinsky and the Catholic Church in America.

http://www.RealCatholicTV.net/cia/

Please take time to watch this hard-hitting, factual presentation of how $280,000,000 of Catholic money has gone to Saul Alinsky style community organizing groups under the banner of "social justice".

Follow the history as well as the money and understand what ideology has secretly been working inside the Church in America since at least the 1960s.

You can't afford to miss this.

It's time to take the loosen the death grip of progressives on the Church.

Please pass this on to every person you know.

The Doctrine of the Catholic Kennedy? Worthless...

In 1960, he theorized the most rigid separation between Church and state, in order to be acceptable as president. Half a century later, Archbishop Chaput is accusing him of causing serious damage. An essay by Professor Diotallevi on the limits and shortcomings of secularism...
by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 2, 2010 – Precisely fifty years after the memorable speech, preserved in the anthologies, that John F. Kennedy gave to the Protestant pastors of Houston in order to convince them and the entire nation that as a Catholic he could be a good president (see photo), the archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, has returned to the scene of the crime, in Houston, for a Baptist conference on the role of Christians in public life.

The "crime" was precisely the one committed by Kennedy with that speech, Chaput maintained in his talk, given yesterday evening at Houston Baptist University and reproduced in its entirety further below....

Continued here

The Baby Gianna Story Part 1

Part I: Answering the Call

Jessica Chominski fights for the lives of others. Little lives. The ones many don’t think are worth fighting for. She is the sole full time employee of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center in Pennsylvania....

Last June Jessica's phone rang. It was the call that would change her life. Jessica had no idea how her struggle for one baby would change her forever. And in the end, that one little baby may change many more lives than hers. All Jessica knew was that every time the phone rang a life might depend on her. She simply answered the call.

“Do you guys help out with abortion?” a woman nervously asked.

Jessica informed the woman that they didn’t perform abortions at the center. She offered to discuss options. “We can provide information,” she said. “Would you like to come by?”

Silence....

Very moving - be sure to continue to "Part 2"

Read more here.

December 8-The Immaculate Conception

"I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she will crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." Genesis, 3:15.

In the early years of the seventeenth century the armies of Sweden threatened to overrun Austria. They won victory after victory. The Austrian Emperor, Ferdinand III, was desperate. In 1629 he decided to make a public appeal for the protection of the Blessed Virgin, toward whom he had a tender devotion.

He ordered the building of a giant column in the city square of Vienna. It was decorated with numerous emblems, all representing some phase of the Immaculate Conception. At each of the four corners of the foundation he directed that angels in armor be placed, treading the dragon under their feet, showing how our Spotless Mother won the victory over original sin and all sin. On the summit of the column stood a statue of the Mother of God, her foot on the head of the satanic serpent. At the base of the imposing pillar were carved the words:

"TO THE MOST HIGH AND GOOD GOD, LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, FROM WHOM KINGS HOLD THEIR THRONES.

"TO THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD, CONCEIVED WITHOUT STAIN OF ORIGINAL SIN, BY WHOM PRINCES COMMAND, WHO HAS THIS DAY BEEN CHOSEN BY PARTICULAR DEVOTION AS PATRONESS OF AUSTRIA, THE EMPEROR FERDINAND III ENTRUSTS AND CONSECRATES ALL HIS POSSESSIONS, HIS PERSON, HIS CHILDREN, HIS PEOPLE, HIS ARMIES, HIS DOMAINS; AND IN PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THIS, HIS DEVOTION, HE HAS ERECTED THIS STATUE."

Never in the history of the land was there a more solemn celebration than that which marked the dedication of this splendid shaft. It gave triumphant testimony to their love of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

The devout emperor marched in the procession, attended by his son Ferdinand IV, who was king of Bohemia and Hungary, by his daughter Marianna, who was queen of Spain, by representatives of many countries, by all the nobility, by religious communities and by the secular clergy. An immense crowd followed as the pious parade made its way to the foot of the column. There the emperor repeated aloud and with all the fervor of his soul the words inscribed in stone, the words inscribed in their hearts, the words consecrating and dedicating himself and his kingdom and his people to the Immaculate Mother of God.

How pleasing this dedication was to Mary is seen in the sudden and striking assistance she sent to those who honored her Immaculate Conception. Motherlike she hurried to help. A few days after this magnificent demonstration the emperor met the enemy at Eger, close to the invaders' camp. With one blow he stopped the oncoming Swedes and forced them to sign a complete and lasting treaty of peace. His empire was saved.

Austria, or any other nation, never had more invaders than America has today. True, we do have friends. But those who plot our downfall are so great and numerous, so secret and satanic, that every true American must awaken to threatening enemies from within and without. There is no cause for hysteria, but there is need to realize that certain forces, foreign to the spirit of America, are working to wreck our glorious nation.

There was, for instance, a godless government called the Soviet, which openly admitted its purpose to envelop us within its Iron Curtain. Agents of that Red regime were (are) working in all classes and professions and in many departments of our government, to bring about the overthrow of all that we Americans hold sacred.

How long it takes some people to wake up! For decades the Catholic Church has been warning the world about Atheistic Communism. Only when war was waged in helpless Korea did some eyes and minds open.

Knowingly and unknowingly thousands of so-called Americans are working against our government. Our schools are honeycombed with teachers who are against God, the very foundation of our nation.

Another group who profess to believe in God are openly and secretly working against God's Church, the Catholic Church, the most patriotic and powerful force for true Americanism in the land. In college classrooms, in church pulpits, in secret societies, in telephone, back-fence, club, and Internet gossip there is ceaseless sniping at the beliefs and practices of a spiritual organization which stands and fights for every basic principle of the United States.

In this army invading America we see the greedy capitalist and the merciless money-changer who give ground to the charge of capitalist cruelty. Thank God, not all managers and owners are lined up with them. And we see the Marxists and the socialists who wish to rob the working man and his family of the fruits of his hard work.

The invaders include racketeers and fomenters of violence, race hatred and bigotry, printers and peddlers of pornography and impurity, producers and patrons of immoral movies, sellers and buyers and users of artificial birth control, the abortion industry engaged in infanticide with its supporters in government and even, God forbid, in the Church.

We witness evil and insidious forces within government heaping burden upon burden on Americans all while wasting tax dollars on non-essential or questionable government programs. We see the attack coming from those who wish to pervert and destroy the morals of society with the push to legitimize the deadly sins of homosexuality, adultery, contraception, and other sexually perverse acts.

In that army we see Blanshards and Oxnams, so-called converted Catholics and Witnesses of Jehovah, all tearing away at the nation's foundations.

Who can stop such invaders? Who can save our soil from such traitors?

All the policemen in the world, including our FBI and our military can not repulse such attackers.

Like King Ferdinand and the people of Austria, we Americans will appeal to one who has been victorious before, one who has won the greatest victory of all time, the victory over sin.

On December 8 we publicly and lovingly dedicate ourselves again to the Immaculate Virgin and Mother. Ask her help in halting the enemies of the country which chose her as patroness under the title of the Immaculate Conception.

May Mary Immaculate, the victorious Virgin, win another victory for us.
Amen.
__________________
Adapted from Feasts of Our Lady
by Msgr. Arthur Tonne

A Catholic Funeral for Ted Kennedy?

Dr Edward Peters writes:

Most of Teddy Kennedy's politics, and most of whatever parts of his personal life I knew through the media, angered and sometimes even disgusted me. But my opinions about Teddy's legacy are not at issue in assessing his right to a Catholic funeral under canon law. I trust that my writings on the proper understanding and correct application of 1983 CIC 1184 (the canon regulating the funeral rites to be accorded - - or not, as the case may be - - to Catholics) are reasonably well-known to readers of this blog. So let's move directly to the canonical question of Kennedy's funeral.

Read about it here.