Feds Responsible for Release of Criminal Invader Who Killed Nun

Illegal Immigrant Who Killed Nun In Accident Was Released By Feds

The man suspected of drunken driving and killing a Catholic nun in Prince William County this weekend is an illegal immigrant who was awaiting deportation and who federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said Monday.

The man, Carlos Montano, a county resident, had been arrested by police twice before on drunk-driving charges, and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities....

This country is under attack from without and from within. Perhaps someday we will see the traitors and criminals receive their "just" punishment.

Article here.

Let me get this straight...

...Radical extremists, marxists and statists are trying to pass a "health care" plan

written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it,

passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it,

to be signed by a 'pres__ent' who is also exempt from it, hasn't read it, and who smokes,

with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,

all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese,

and financed by a country that's broke.

And we haven't even discussed the abortion funding, death panels, rationing, and taxes...

What could possibly go wrong?

HT PS

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.

Bishop Howard Hubbard Approves Free Distribution of Needles

From Catholic Culture:

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, who serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, has approved a proposal by diocesan Catholic Charities to distribute free needles to drug abusers in the hope of preventing the spread of AIDS.

“I understand there will be questions, but this is common sense,” said Sister Maureen Joyce, CEO of Catholic Charities. “I strongly believe in this. It will save lives.”

“From a theological standpoint, we're not being faithful to our mission if we don't reach out to people addicted to drugs, too,” Sister Joyce added.

An $83,000 van filled with syringes will be parked in two neighborhoods and serve as the focal point of Catholic Charities’ needle distribution efforts.

“This is a proven method used around the country, but there has been a huge gap in this area that nobody was stepping up to fill,” said Angela Keller, executive director of AIDS services for Catholic Charities, whose web site links to the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, whose mission is “to promote the well being of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer identified people and those affected by discrimination based on gender identity and expression.”

In a 2003 address, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, then president of the Pontifical Council of the Family, urged abstinence from drugs to prevent the spread of AIDS. In doing so, he cited a 1987 statement of the bishops of the United States:

Even earlier, the bishops of the United States of America affirmed in their 1987 statement: “abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage as well as the avoidance of intravenous drug abuse are the only morally correct and medically sure ways to prevent the spread of AIDS” …

Prof. Lino Ciccone adds: “Therefore a true and effective prevention is above all the set of initiatives that aim at putting an end to whatever promotes sexual laxity, presented as a triumph of liberty and civilization – similar to what is being done to help youth not to fall into the slavery of drugs or to free them from them. In other words: true prevention takes place only through a serious educational effort. An education free from equivocations and widespread reductive concepts, which leads to the discovery, or rediscovery, of the values of sexuality and a correct scale of values in human life.

“Any other option that excludes such ways, or worse, that implies an ulterior push towards sexual promiscuity and/or the use of drugs, is anything but prevention, and to promote the same is tragically deceitful.”

During its 2007-8 fiscal year, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, Inc., received $17,973,859 in government grants $3,875,773 in direct public support (i.e., contributions, gifts, and grants), and $474,538 in indirect public support, according to its tax return. It also received $16,358,929 in program service revenue, including government contracts. Other revenue sources such as special events and investment income brought total revenue to $40,093,321...

Some no longer contribute to so-called "Catholic" charities anymore. Too many "Catholic" charities are anything but Catholic. Like most progressives/liberals, they have a misguided, erroneous, and harmful understanding of charity.

Hubbard does not turn 75 for about 4 more years...

Fr. Corapi on the Evils of Socialism

via email:

At a time when it surely seems that capitalism has run amuck and poised the world on the edge of economic ruin, the temptation is very strong for the pendulum to swing too far left into the failed and immoral territory of socialism. Historically pure socialism has never worked, philosophically it cannot work, and morally it is inherently evil (because it undermines the right of private property ownership, an inherent human right) and hence should not be given a chance to work.

The response might be that what we have at the moment isn’t pure socialism. The problem is that the moment is incredibly fluid and the direction toward a more radical form of socialism under way with frightening speed. Unless, of course, you believe the politicians and their appointees whose stock-in-trade has become lies, deception, and self-interest.

The common error is to think that socialism helps the poor and disenfranchised. As Pope Leo XIII pointed out as long ago as 1891 in his Encyclical “Rerum Novarum”, socialism does not help the poor. Rather, it reduces everyone to the same lowest common denominator of poverty and misery, while at the same time drying up the very sources of capital.

I recently prepared a half hour video presentation for the “Fullness of Truth” conference in Corpus Christi, Texas that speaks of the Church’s social teaching relative to socialism. This is a brief synthesis of some of the problems we face economically and how socialism is not the answer to these problems.

We are making this half hour DVD available to our customers free with a regular purchase of $50.00 or more for a limited time only.

God Bless You
Fr. John Corapi
-----------------

More here

An Open Letter to Father Jenkins, Notre Dame

An Open Letter to Father Jenkins
President of the University of Notre Dame

I pray God that you, and the Trustees and Faculty of the University of Notre Dame will reconsider your decision to extend an Honorary Degree to Barack Obama, and that you will withdraw your invitation to him to speak at the University's Commencement exercises in May. As leaders in the American Catholic community do you not hold to the Church's teaching with regard to the inviolable sanctity of human life, and against the heinous practice of abortion?

The issue at stake in the fight against abortion is starkly simple: Are all human beings created equal, or not? It is the same issue that was at stake in the fight against slavery and racial discrimination.

As an American who subscribes to the self-evident truths our country was founded upon, I answer the question in favor of equality. As a descendant of enslaved Black Americans, I believe that any other answer would invalidate the struggle for justice to which so many Americans of all races gave their lives.

Given that the principle at stake is the same as that which demanded opposition to slavery, I have always had a simple test when dealing with any question involving abortion. I ask myself what I would do or say if slavery was the issue in question. I recommend this test for your consideration. Ask yourself whether you would invite as a Commencement speaker an individual who abused the authority of office to provide Federal funding for the purchase of slaves. Would you consider it honorable for the University to confer an honorary degree on an individual who issued executive orders allowing US funds to be used to support slave markets? Would you let the University be used to give stature to a politician who supported the position that ownership of slaves is a matter of individual choice?

I hope and assume that the answer to all of these questions is no. Since you have chosen to answer otherwise where abortion rather than slavery is at issue, you must see a moral difference between enslaving grown people and killing nascent ones. Or else you see a moral difference between the nascent child in the abortuary and the slave on the auction block. As a Black, Catholic, prolife American, I challenge you to explain the difference to me and to everyone like me. Perhaps you make a distinction because the child is more helpless, more imperatively incapable of voluntary wrongdoing, more explicitly acknowledged by Christ to be the subject of His special regard? (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:2) Or perhaps it's because some refuse to recognize the nascent child's humanity?

Whenever someone raises the latter objection I remember a speech Frederick Douglass made in which he felt compelled to make arguments for the humanity of black Americans because, he said, "A respectable public journal, published in Richmond Virginia., bases its whole defence [sic] of the slave system upon a denial of the Negro's manhood." You see, people once raised a question about that, which supposedly Catholic Christians (including some no doubt from my home state of Maryland) probably used at that time to justify their commerce with slaveholders; their willingness to hold in honor those who practiced or defended slavery; or even their own willingness to hold slaves themselves.

When I read of slavery in my youth I could not understand why so many tolerated such evil for so long. I asked God to help me never in my life to be such as they were. Once I fully understood the nature of the abortion issue, I was moved to stand against abortion and the slaughter of innocent life as I would have wanted all people of conscience and goodwill to stand against slavery and the rape of my forbears' liberty. When people suggest that Barack Obama shares some heritage with me, I know better. For the truest test of that heritage is not the color of someone's skin, but the determination of their heart, never to stand silently by while God's fundamental law of justice is denied to persons whose only crime is the unjustly despised appearance of their humanity.

I know that the Catholic Church today is guilty of no such dereliction. The Holy Father, the clergy, and millions of the laity have joined together in prayer, and work and sacrifice to bear witness against the wrong of abortion, to bear witness against a false idea of choice that betrays God-given liberty. Your University bears the name of the Blessed Mother of Christ, who honored God's will for human life though it could have meant her own dishonor in minds of her contemporaries. Even if, as you say, Obama's visit does worldly honor to you and your colleagues, what is more consistent with her example: to seek honor at the expense of God's truth, or to forego it if need be, in obedience to His loving will.

I realize that such a decision is not so much for thought as for prayer. So I ask that you give prayerful consideration to the plea that is on my heart, and on the hearts of millions like me. This may well be a teaching moment for Obama and other politicians like him. But sometimes one deed speaks more certainly of truth than many words could do. Thus spoke the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Are we not called to act as He did? Perhaps the best Commencement speech of all would be the testimony of silence, in which, perhaps for the first time, someone who needs to hear it will hear the voice of Rachel, weeping. (Matthew 2:18)

With Pleasing Hope for Life,

Alan Keyes

----------------
We can still pray for the conversion of heart needed by those who promote, by thought, word, or deed, the murder of the unborn and the culture of death.

FR. GEORGE W. RUTLER: "This is a highly cynical act, contemptuous of the Church’s prophetic voice in civil society and wagering that there will be no retribution. If a midwestern school seeks attention by granting Mr. Obama an honorary doctorate in law, the next logical step would be to grant Judas Iscariot posthumously an honorary doctorate in business administration."

Catholic Citizens of Illinois calls for Boycott of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Some of us have refused to participate in this sinful activity for years - With God's help and blessings, maybe more Catholics will thumb their noses at the CCHD and contribute to truly worthy causes?

By Catholic Citizens of Illinois

When the Catholic Bishops of the United States established the Campaign for Human Development in 1970, they mandated the Campaign to fund "such projects as voter registration, community organizations, community-run schools, minority-owned cooperatives and credit unions, capital for industrial development and job training programs, and setting up rural cooperatives." It was subsequently renamed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, with prohibitions on funding of projects that were not in conformity with Catholic moral teaching.

The CCHD was sold to Catholic parishioners with a slogan of "a hand up instead of a hand out," but instead, CCHD has heavily invested in the political organizing techniques of Saul Alinky, a Marxist organizer from Chicago who founded the nationwide Industrial Areas Foundation, which in the Chicago area is known as United Power. United Power has been financed by various mainline Protestant churches and has made great inroads into the Catholic Church in Chicago, recruiting parish ministers and receiving funding from various parishes through dues and contributions. For all practical purposes, United Power is an extension of the far left wing of the Democrat Party....

Continued here.

Pass it on to your Catholic family and friends! Someone needs to clean the rats out at the USCCB.

"Catholics" in Alliance [with evil] Issue Survey

The group, "Catholics"[So-called] in Alliance for the Common Good, has issued a survey now that Americans have placed the nation at risk by voting for abortion, infanticide, marxism, socialism, raising the white flag of surrender, spreading poverty, stifling of our Bill of Rights, nationalizing private enterprise, and only God knows what other evils await us. However "Catholics" in Alliance sees America at a[n] historic crossroads, and a new president-elect and a new Congress coming to Washington...

These promoters of dissent, "Catholics" in Alliance, want to hear from you about

how you think we should put our movement's common good platform into action so as to best work toward the common good this year.

Please click here and complete our survey of the top three issues you think the Alliance should focus on through advocacy and public awareness campaigns in the next year. These issues are in alphabetical, not in any priority order. We will definitely continue to work to build a consistent culture of life by advocating for the Pregnant Women's Support Act and other efforts, therefore we are not including it on the list because we are committed to this priority.
With input from you and our partner organizations and board members, we will prioritize these issues. This does not mean we will not work on all of the issues, but it will help us focus our resources!

What are the main issues listed from which one may select? Let's have a look-see:

* Climate Change/Environment [change the laws of nature, man is god!]

* Comprehensive Immigration Reform [Amnesty for all law breakers, criminals]

* Health Care: Advocating for universal health care [gov't bureaucrats can do it better]

* Living Wages and Rights of Workers: Employee Free Choice Act [close businesses]

* Poverty Reduction – Cut U.S. poverty in half [hike entitlements, lower standard of living]

* Responsible End to Iraq War [surrender]

More government intervention into many areas where it has no constitutional authority...And where is the fundamental right to life? Oh yes, already a priority [on the back burner, no doubt].

May God have mercy on us! After nearly 50 million abortions (not counting the millions upon millions of abortions caused by artificial contraception), perhaps we are to suffer a divine chastisement for our abysmal moral failures and morally bankrupt behavior?

Maybe I need to get down on my knees more often and ask for forgiveness and mercy? Perhaps mt sacrifices and prayers could be more sincere? Could Our Lord be granting our desires by allowing us the type of leaders many have requested?

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my
sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend
Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly
resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near
occasions of sin.

"Pope" Kmiec Corrects Archbishop Chaput

I grow weary of pseudo-Catholics like Kmiec and others who routinely contradict the teachings of the Church and those bishops who faithfully hand on those teachings to the faithful. Kmiec's recent article in the National UNCatholic Reporter is titled:

'Why Archbishop Chaput's abortion stance is wrong'

He states:

The good Archbishop....has taken issue with my recent book, Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Question about Barack Obama, suggesting, in his personal view as a private citizen, that Catholic teaching does not support an affirmative answer.

No faithful Catholic can honestly suggest that a Catholic can vote for Obama without being complicit in cooperating with the grave evil of abortion. Kmiec resorts to intellectually dishonest rationalizations by suggesting otherwise.

Kmiec claims:

...it is not over the essence of Church instruction which gives primacy to the promotion of human life, but rather, the preferred means of implementing it.

Kmiec seems to assert that a vote for the most anti-life politician is a desirable means to end abortion - this is beyond ludicrous and borders on the insane.

Kmiec goes on to quote Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, on "proportionate reasons" and then mistakenly advises Catholics as to what "proportionate reasons" means:

Cardinal Ratzinger (now His Holiness Benedict XVI) accepting the idea that voting results in a type of remote cooperation with sin counseled:

"When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion . . . but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons."

...The Cardinal clearly affirms that Catholics -- like all Americans in the 2008 election -- have the full slate of parties and candidates available to them, with the determination of what is a "proportionate reason" to vote for an imperfect candidate a matter for individual conscience. It's hard to see Archbishop Chaput's essay as agreeable with the Cardinal's proposition.

"Pope" Kmiec grasps at straws, using erroneous reasoning, to justify a malformed conscience which is at odds with the truth, at odds with the Church, at odds with life itself, and at odds with God.

The circumstances for Catholics in 2008 are a happier one than Archbishop Chaput lets on. The social justice policies of Senator Obama and his ability to work toward the common good upon common ground makes him a source of hope for all Americans...

What does Kmiec know that others do not, especially about Obama's so-called "social justice policies" when he has not bit of experience in implementing anything other than political thuggery and promoting the murder of infants born alive from botched abortions? This charlatan's resume is paper thin, if it exists at all, yet we are to conclude from Kmiec that Obama will implement policies for the good of the country - which country is yet to be determined.

Kmiec ventures into theological areas in which he is ill-equipped to traverse, yet he does so as if he were an expert theologian - and in doing so, he scandalizes untold Catholics and aids them into committing grave moral sin by advocating support for "The One."

It also seems that National Catholic Reporter has been making great strides in usurping the role of the Church by promulgating numerous "teachings" by armchair pontiffs whose only aim is to call into question the Church's perennial teachings and support dissension among the multitude of Catholics whose moral foundations are are not on solid footings.

Shame on Kmiec and the National Catholic Reporter for its open opposition to the Church an to God, Himself. It's scandal to many that they are even allowed to call themselves Catholic.

It's well past time for bishops to address this usurpation of the rights of the Church.

The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost: Obama, ACORN, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development

From our friends at Catholic Citizens of Illinois:

By Stephanie Block

For nearly forty years, The Wanderer has followed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's funding of radical, left-wing political organizations, many of them carrying the brand of Saul Alinsky. The Wanderer also covered the first Call to Action conference - the months of "hearings" leading up to it, its orchestrated structure and contrived demands - and our reporters commented on the Alinskyian nature of it, not merely in its tactics but in its outcomes. In hindsight, we can see that organized dissent in the Church was a product of organized parishes, filled with Alinskyian-trained laity.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is responsible for that. [my emphasis]

It is also responsible, in some part, for the fact that forty years later, we have a virulently pro-abortion, pro-homosexual presidential candidate whose principle political training has been in Alinskyian organizing. While he - Barak Obama - was lead organizer in Chicago for the Developing Communities Project, it received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and a $33,000 grant in 1986.

While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel....

....millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades going into Alinskyian community organizing....

Relatively little from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection goes to "help the poor." .... [Even though Catholics were led to believe that they were "helping the poor"]

...The Catholics involved in the extensive trainings these networks offer are not catechized in Catholic principles of social activism or political analysis but in Marxist analysis and praxis.....

The problems are manifest and deeply rooted:

Catholics trained in Alinskyian thought become confused about the comparative moral weight of the issues they encounter in the public arena. They also become confused about the legitimate authority of the Church....

Even the politically naïve are fascinated by the pejorative dismissal of Obama as a "community organizer" and his campaign's rebuttal that to disrespect community organizers is to disrespect Catholic Action.

It is not authentic "Catholic Action" for Catholics to engage in such Alinskyian-trained "community organizing." It is antithetical to true social justice and Catholic teaching.

I have to whole-heartily agree with Stephanie Block when she states:

After 40 years of funding the bad guys, it's time to stop.
__________________

NB: In the epigraph of his book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky notes

"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer." [Source]

When "Social Justice" Becomes Scandal

From a dear Wisconsin friend, we learn:

A Catholic Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, Diocese of Superior, to to host FIVE pro-abortion politicians for a Social Justice forum, February 23, 2008.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Hudson, Wisconsin, Social Justice Conference "Healthcare 2008--Addressing Disparity Through Policy, Programs and Individual Actions."

Hudson Star Observer article
Invited politicians and/or representatives: U.S. Senators Kohl, Feingold; U.S. Rep. Ron Kind; Wisc. Senator Sheila Harsdorf; Wisc. Rep. Kitty Rhoades (voting records listed below).

The Wisconsin State Assembly has passed legislation mandating that all Wisconsin hospitals, including religiously-affiliated hospitals, must inform any self-described victim of sexual assault of “emergency contraception” and must provide it upon her request.

Two of the five pro-death politicians invited to this forum, Wisconsin Sen. Harsdorf and Wisconsin Rep. Rhoades (a Catholic and parishioner of St. Patrick's), voted pro-abortion, anti-Catholic, on this bill. The other U.S. representatives, U.S. Senators Kohl and Feingold, are both pro-death, both voting for partial-birth infanticide; U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, pro-death and voted for partial-birth infanticide.

Please respectfully e-mail or call Fr. Parr (pastor, St. Patrick's) and Bishop Christensen and ask them to uphold the USCCB statement that states: "the Catholic community and Catholic institutions" should not honor those "who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" with awards, honors, or "platforms which would suggest support for their actions." …

Contact Father John Parr at: 715-381-5120x102; e-mail: jparr78@excite.com
Contact Bishop Christensen, Diocese of Superior, at: 715-392-2937x105, e-mail: Pat Wildenberg at pwildenberg@catholicdos.org

Click here for more information, documentation and history: Catholicism: One True Faith http://catholicismonetruefaith.blogspot.com

It's get out the vote time, so some "Catholics" put party before faith, and choose to call it "Social Justice." Those who support and promote the murder of the innocent unborn deserve no platform regardless of the topic of their "talks."

Their words ring hollow because they deny justice to the defenseless unborn and deprive them of their most basic right - the right to life. Catholics who promote (and allow) this kind of activity cause grave scandal among the faithful - pray for their sorry souls, especially during this Lenten season.

Bishop calls immigration law immoral

Oklahoma's new immigration law is immoral and unjust, Roman Catholic Bishop Edward J. Slattery declared in a pastoral letter made public this week.

It is only the second pastoral letter Slattery has written in his 14 years as bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa.

In it, he said ministry will not be withheld from illegal immigrants.

Slattery said the letter is a teaching document.

"I don't give my personal opinion. You won't find anything in there that is not in Scripture," he said.

"It's not my teaching, it's Christ's teaching, and I'm one with him because I'm one with the pope and the college of bishops worldwide......"

The immigration law, House Bill 1804, which went into effect Nov. 1, makes it a felony to knowingly transport illegal immigrants, creates barriers to hiring them and restricts benefits they can receive from the government.

In the 22-page pastoral letter, Slattery said that since the intention of HB1804 is immoral, its effects will be an intolerable increase in suffering of il legal immigrants, and those who must enforce the law....

Pope says political field is for laypeople, but church must guide

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Involvement in politics is a role reserved to laypeople, but Catholic Church leaders must explain and promote the moral principles that will contribute to the common good, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"The church, while recognizing that it is not a political agent, cannot abstain from taking an interest in the good of the whole civil community in which it lives and works," the pope said in a message published Oct. 18...

Pope Benedict said the most pressing issues include "respect for human life and the attention that must be paid to the needs of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman."

Who's To Blame If Hillary Clinton Wins The Catholic Vote in 2008?

by Deal W. Hudson
"If Giuliani and Clinton are the nominees, then Hillary Clinton will certainly win the Catholic vote in 2008." This is the opinion of a chief strategist behind George W. Bush's success with Catholic voters in 2000 and 2004.

Steve Wagner, president of QEV Analytics in Washington, D.C., isn't happy in reaching this conclusion. "Hillary Clinton, in spite of her pro-abortion position, will present a vigorous social justice agenda that will fill the void created by the GOP candidates."
. . .
Wagner explains, "The Catholic discontent with Bush and the Republican Party is not about Iraq, or he would have lost their vote in 2004. It's about their failure to deliver on the promises they made to address the moral decline of our society. Iraq and 9/11 distracted the president and the party from addressing the core concerns of Catholics and other people of faith."
. . .
But for now, if Wagner is right, we face the prospect of a pro-abortion candidate belonging to a pro-abortion political party winning the majority of the Catholic vote.

Some may not have seen this.

Source.

Congressmen Want U.S. Bishops to Intervene on Iraq War

I heard this on the radio last night but was unable to finad any story or followup on it until now.

My first reaction (a rash judgment?) was that these were probably the same Congresscritters who also want bishops to keep quite about intrinsically evil matters the legislators support such as abortion, embryonic stem cell research, homosexuality as well as other morally bankrupt positions.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro and 13 other Catholic members of Congress released a letter Tuesday calling on Catholic bishops to help end the war in Iraq.

"As Catholic members of Congress, we stand in unison with the Catholic Church in opposition to the war in Iraq," the Democratic 3rd District congresswoman said in a statement. "Yet to attain the ideal of peace, we must not only speak the words, we must take action."

As a result, she and her colleagues sent a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, or USCCB, urging it to "mobilize Catholic opinion on this, one of the most critical issues of our time."

Lest anyone forget, Rosa L. DeLauro and a cadre of 54 other so-called Catholic House Democrats outed themselves as pro-aborts last year (link).

DeLauro was also the "ringleader" of the "group of 18" who recently condemned Pope Benedict for his comments regarding excommunication for politicians, saying it would “offend the very nature of the American experiment and do a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done.” (Source)

All good work the Church has done is being systematically destroyed by these politicians who thwart good to advance evil, all while claimimng to be 'devout, practicing Catholics'...

I can now conclude that my initial reaction to the radio report was justified and correct - this is an attempt by pseudo-Catholics to enlist the support of bishops to further their agendas...

The members want to meet with key Catholic officials. They reminded the conference that "throughout our nation's history, Catholics have been at the forefront of the fight for social justice. Now, at another critical moment, we respectfully urge the USCCB to join with us in mobilizing support for Congress' efforts to end the war."

It would be a perfect opportunity for bishops to remind these "Catholics" what it means to be Catholic...and that there is a problem with a cafeteria style Catholicism as manifested by these people.

Revolting But Is It Really Unexpected?

LifeSite News posted an editorial which details facts that would naturally, it seems to me, be sickening for any person concerned with the sanctity of human life:

'Unprecedented' Letter from 7 Bishops Conferences to G8 Leaders Fails to Mention Abortion, Family Life

The G8 countries, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are known for being the eight leading industrialized countries. They are also all known for permitting the slaughter of innocent unborn children - abortion. All but one of those same countries are also on the road to legalizing homosexual 'marriage' and thus trashing the traditional family and religious freedom in the process.

As the G8 leaders meet this week we learn that "In an unprecedented action, the Presidents of the Catholic Bishops' Conferences of seven countries have written to the leaders of the Group of 8 Countries to urge bold action..."

Bold action on what? Abortion? Destructive research on human embryos? The need to protect the traditional family? Religious freedom?

Prepare yourselves - one would hope that as "shepherds" these bishops would exhibit courage, fortitude, and zeal in their duties...but alas, it appears that many of the shepherds have been replaced by hirelings - no doubt, illegals and imposters working for less than minimum wage.

As John-Henry Westen rightly concludes:

When people speak out on the environment, poverty, health care, peace and security they are applauded and highly regarded. Raise the spectre of rights of the unborn and protection for the traditional family and you are regarded as a pariah and a simpleton.

The cross is an uncomfortable place, but the first bishops of the church joined their Lord on it because they understood that is where salvation and true witness to Christ are found. Embracing the cross is said to be the most fruitful imitation of the Master, who did not tell people what they wanted to hear, but instead what they needed to hear in order to be saved.

Kudos to Westen for this insightful exposure - it demonstrates rather clearly the uselessness of some aspects of episcopal conferences.

Illegal Alien Statistics

Via email:

While we may need to reform our immigration policies (again), it seems only reasonable (and mandatory) that we secure our borders first.

So often, we get caught up in a debate over political semantics and end up ignoring the hard-shell realities of what we're talking about.

According to ImmigrationCounters.com, here are some of the realities that Flake-Gutierrez would airbrush out of the picture:

Number of Illegal Aliens in the Country
20,807,645

Money Wired to Mexico City since January, 2006
$22,213,001,672

Cost of Social Security Services for Illegal Aliens since 1996
$397,450,739,563

Number of Children of Illegal Aliens in Public Schools
3,958,789

Cost of Illegal Aliens in K-12 Since 1996:
$13,965,063,431

Number of Illegal Aliens Incarcerated
332,594

Cost of Incarcerations Since 2001
$1,398,127,429

Number of Illegal Aliens Fugitives
642,799

Skilled Jobs Taken by Illegal Aliens
9,872,838

Figures can trick your eyes. Take particular note that items above in dollars - These reflect BILLIONs not Millions of dollars -- and that item 3 above exceeds one-third of a TRILLION dollars.

Can you imagine how much it will cost taxpayers if we triple the number of Illegals entering this country!

So what's in a Billion anyway?

Granted... this is from the US perspective! The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

And while we are the subject, an article in the New York Post, "Rewarding Lawbreakers" by Kris W. Kobach, has a few more interesting items:

...the text is now circulating on Capitol Hill, and the content is astonishing. Just when it is becoming clear that overwhelming majorities of Americans - of all parties and all races - say they want to see stronger enforcement of our laws, the bill would take the country full speed in the opposite direction.

As promised, the bill will legalize most of the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens now in the country via a new "Z visa." Each would pay $3,000 - only slightly more than the going rate to be smuggled into America.

But provisions buried in the fine print are far more outrageous. Here's a sampling:

1) To qualify for the Z-visa amnesty, an illegal alien need only have a job (or be the parent, spouse, or child of someone with a job) and come up with a scrap of paper suggesting he was in the country before Jan. 1 of this year. Any bank statement, pay stub, or similarly forgeable record will do.

Expect a mass influx unlike anything this country has seen before, once the 12-month period for accepting Z visa applications begins. These rules are an open invitation to sneak in and present a fraudulent piece of paper indicating that you were already here.

2) Supporters of the bill call the Z visa "temporary" - neglecting to mention that it can be renewed indefinitely until the visa holder dies. Thus, we have the country's first permanent temporary visa. On top of that, it's a super-visa - allowing the holder to work, attend college or do just about anything else.

Are you a law-abiding alien who's interested in switching to this privileged status? Sorry. Only illegal aliens can qualify.

3) Many criminals and terrorists will find it easy to get a Z visa. The bill allows the government only one day to conduct a so-called "background check" on the applicant. If the (already overstretched) feds can't find anything in that single day, the alien gets a probationary visa that lets him roam at will and seek employment legally.

Plainly, the bill's authors don't have a clue how the government maintains info on criminals and terrorists. It has no single, searchable database of all dangerous people. Much data exists only in paper records that can't be searched in 24 hours. Other information is held by foreign governments.

The article is continued here.

We know that something must be done, but this isn't the way to do it...

Importing a Slave Class...

...or, as I heard on the radio the other day, "The Democrat Voter Importation Act of 2007"

From Ann Coulter's column, we read, in part:

...No law is ever enforced 100%.

We can't catch all rapists, so why not grant amnesty to rapists? Surely no one wants thousands of rapists living in the shadows! How about discrimination laws? Insider trading laws? Do you expect Bush to round up everyone who goes over the speed limit? Of course we can't do that. We can't even catch all murderers. What we need is "comprehensive murder reform." It's not "amnesty" -- we'll ask them to pay a small fine.

If it's "impossible" to deport illegal aliens, how did we come to have so much specific information about them? I keep hearing they are Catholic, pro-life, hardworking, just dying to become American citizens, and will take jobs other Americans won't...
* * *
We fought a civil war to force Democrats to give up on slavery 150 years ago. They've become so desperate for servants that now they're importing an underclass to wash their clothes and pick their vegetables. This vast class of unskilled immigrants is the left's new form of slavery.

Text of Pelosi's Commencement Address at USF

Be prepared for a nauseating read:
=====================================
WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi
delivered the commencement address this morning at the University of San
Francisco's McLaren School of Business. Below are her remarks as prepared:

"Good morning. Thank you, Dean Johnson for your warm welcome. Father
President Privett, trustees, faculty, staff, and families and friends of
the graduates, especially to graduates: it is an honor to join you today to
extend congratulations to the Class of 2007 of the McLaren School of
Business at the University of San Francisco.

"Father Privett, may I thank you publicly for the honor you extended to
me by offering the invocation at my swearing in as Speaker of the House. We
could not have been more inspired by his words. That day he challenged us
to pursue the common good of all the people of this great nation of ours
especially of those who need us the most.

"Almost 150 years ago, a brave group of Jesuit priests came to this
place to found San Francisco's first institution of higher learning. They
envisioned it to be a place for students to study the past, question the
present, and build a bright future. Today, those pioneers would see in the
class of 2007 that their mission has succeeded.

"Today, you join a long line of USF graduates who have and are
contributing to the betterment of our nation, and indeed the world. 52
years ago, Leo McCarthy sat where you sit now. He went on to become one of
the most respected public figures in our country. Art Agnos spoke of him so
beautifully -- what you should know about Mayor Agnos is that what he said
about Leo he did himself. When Art was in the State Assembly he would
encourage his employees to go out into the business world and bring their
sense of social responsibility with them.

"Both Art and I were mentored by Leo. Simply put for me, without Leo's
guidance over the years, there would not be a woman Speaker of the House.
Leo was a great patriot and he was proud that he was a veteran. Let us
salute the men and women in uniform, our veterans. They are our heroes.
They make us the land of the free and the home of the brave. True to the
challenge, he was here to promote patriotism and was an advocate for social
justice.

"Thank you, Jackie, Niall, Conna, Sharon, and the rest of the McCarthy
family for sharing Leo with us. What you should know about Leo that is
especially appropriate today, is that as Speaker of the California State
Assembly and as Lieutenant Governor, Leo made promoting California's
economy a high priority.

"He saw how important globalization was. Indeed he was an inspiration
for the new Congress's Innovation Agenda -- our commitment to
competitiveness to keep America #1. He knew that innovation begins in the
classroom and was an advocate for research and development, and good paying
jobs.

"Another one of his former staffers, now Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, is
taking the lead in the House as the Congresswoman from Silicon Valley. His
influence continues to be felt. The business world, into which you will
enter, is a result of his tireless work to shape the future.

"We know that America's world leadership will be secured by those who
operate on the frontier of knowledge and discovery. From the beginning of
our nation, that frontier has been aggressively expanded by young people,
who are not wedded to old ways of thinking, or daunted by the encumbrances
of the past or the present.

"That entrepreneurial spirit led our founders to be magnificent
disruptors of the status quo. Their optimism, confidence, and hope has been
passed on from one generation to the next. The eternally young spirit of
America has been a source of strength all of you bring forth today and has
been a beacon of hope to the world. That optimism, faith, and confidence in
our country, has made our country young.

"In my travels as Speaker, I have met with presidents, prime ministers,
and kings. But what impressed and inspired me the most were my encounters
with young people. At a time when some world leaders question the value of
constructive dialogue with our adversaries, young people are engaged in
their own international dialogue, on campuses and through email and instant
messaging and blogs. I need not tell you gathered here today. They are
talking about their hopes for a brighter future -- of their desire for
peace and prosperity.

"The young people I met in my travels are weary of war. They want an
end to violence whether in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the
genocide in Darfur. They want to know if their leaders have the political
courage to make the difficult decisions necessary for peace. They want a
future and want to know if their leaders can produce economic opportunity,
health care, and education for a better future. They want to stop global
warming and preserve the planet -- God's beautiful creation.

[What about protecting children especially the unborn? Are they not God's most beautiful creation?]

"That's what I heard in the Middle East, and that is what I hear from
young people here at home. That unwillingness to accept the world as it is
now -- the impatience of youth -- is why I have such faith in the future
and in the class of 2007.

"The philosopher Hannah Arendt once observed that nations are driven by
the endless flywheel of violence believing that one last, one final violent
gesture will bring peace. But each time they sow the seeds for more
violence. Words, not weapons, are the tools of a new civilization.

"The university is where words reign. The college campus is permanently
the place where argument, debate, research, and articulate speech are and
should be prized and maintained.

"The University of San Francisco has given you these tools to
understand the world, to clarify your values, and to enter into dialogue
with others so that you can help promote better understanding for freedom
and peace.

"Pope Paul VI said, 'If you want peace, work for justice.' And today,
you will go forth as the USF vision statement says, 'as the leaders who
will fashion a more humane and just world.'

"My message to the graduate today is: 'Know your power and follow your
passion.' The power and passion that springs from the beauty of your
dreams, the depth of your imagination and the strength of your values. I
have confidence that you will succeed because of the magnificent education
you have received at USF. I want to extend my congratulations to the class
of 2007, wish you well and let you know you have a friend in the Speaker's
office. Thank you and God bless you."
============================
###

I would not be surpriesed if the Jeasuit founders of USF are not turning over in their graves that such an material heretic was allowed to be honored at the University...These people are diseased - if not mentally, then spiritually.

Source.

Simpson-Mazzoli, Redux?

Ted Kennedy, in 1986, said to the U.S. electorate:

"This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1-1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another Amnesty Bill like this."

Most of us know that Teddy has had a problem speaking the truth says the days when he went swimming with Mary Jo Kopechne.

And the American Chronicle responds:

After the dust settled, and the numbers counted -- your amnesty gave U.S. citizenship to 3.4 million who broke our laws to come here illegally – mostly Mexicans, to include a few bent upon terrorism toward the U.S. Today, they are included in the core leadership in La Raza and other separatist organizations focused upon breaking the United States apart.

Source.

As another has said:


All animals are equal, but those in the US Congress being much more equal than all others will do ANYTHING to perpetuate their power. Even burning down the farm. Even bringing in (and ignoring) epidemic murders, rapes, kidnappings, and, of course, infectious hepatitis,incurable tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, mumps, Chagas disease, leprosy, incurable Morgellons disease, and and Dengue fever.