Why I Refuse to Support the Girl Scouts or Buy the Cookies

Girl Scouts Distribute Planned Parenthood Sex Guide at UN Meeting
By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

(NEW YORK - C-FAM) The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” The event was part of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which concludes this week. The brochure, aimed at young people living with HIV, contains explicit and graphic details on sex, as well as the promotion of casual sex in many forms....

Read more

Archbishop Raymond Burke Visits Thomas More College's Rome Campus

From yesterday:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2009

ARCHBISHOP RAYMOND BURKE VISITS THOMAS MORE COLLEGE’S ROME CAMPUS

(ROME, ITALY)—For the second time this semester, the students of Thomas More College’s Rome program enjoyed the company of Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. Effectively the Chief Justice of the Roman Catholic Church’s “Supreme Court,” Archbishop Burke is one of the highest ranking Americans in the Roman Curia, which governs the Church on behalf of the pope.

Archbishop Burke celebrated Mass in the College’s Rome campus chapel with students and staff on the Feast of Christ the King. His homily highlighted the importance of letting Christ reign as king in our lives and over society—and the practical steps Christians can take toward making this happen, principally by rediscovering devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thomas More College was formally consecrated to the Sacred Heart on October 16, 2009.

Archbishop Burke then joined the students in the dining hall maintained by the Maronite Catholic monks who host Thomas More College’s Rome program each year. During the three-course meal accompanied by local red wine, Archbishop Burke gave the students free rein to ask questions on a wide array of subjects, according to sophomore William Russell.

“He was very amiable and answered the questions with frankness and sincerity,” said Russell. “The topics ranged from the centrality of the family to the social effects of technology, mediocrity in America, and even the goodness of family farming. Burke is a native of Wisconsin and the son of a dairy farmer, so he has firm opinions on the subject.”

Sophomore Mary Monaghan recounts: “After Mass, when we discussed problems of the world over pistachios and peanuts, it was particularly encouraging to hear Archbishop Burke’s response to the issue of the breakdown of the family—which he cited as the source of most of the troubles in modern culture. He encouraged familial devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the importance of working together and eating together as a family. Though the atmosphere can become tense when dining with a renowned person, our lunch with Archbishop Burke was not like that. He listened to our opinions, too. It was a pleasure speaking with him.”

Over cups of espresso in the formal reception room after dinner, the prefect described the work of the Apostolic Signatura and answered students’ questions about the inner workings of the highest levels of governance in the Church.

Sophomore Benjamin Bible asked Archbishop Burke about his public statements concerning Catholic politicians who dissent from core truths of the Faith, such as the sanctity of life. The Archbishop gave a detailed explanation, which echoed the position he has consistently pronounced publically—that dissenting politicians should not receive or be offered Holy Communion.

The students and the prelate also discussed more global issues, including the recent intervention by the European Court of Human Rights into the Church/State relationship in Italy. In that case, the court decided to pull out the crucifixes which have traditionally been displayed in Italian classrooms. As the chief jurist for a very different international tribunal, Burke offered a well-informed and incisive critique of that court decision.

As the archbishop was preparing to depart, William Russell and Mary Monaghan (who are engaged to be married) asked him for their blessing, which Archbishop Burke cheerfully gave.

“The visit was a great success,” Russell said. “After an afternoon of worship, discussion, and feasting, we all left feeling renewed and refreshed.”

For most of the school’s history, each sophomore at Thomas More College has taken part in the school’s required Rome Semester to gain a first-hand experience of the capital of Christendom. Whether they’re touring ancient pagan temples, navigating the catacombs that hold the bones of saints, or learning the Christian import of masterworks by Bernini and Michaelangelo, students are guided by Thomas More College faculty to place each experience in the context of their broad, liberal arts education and the Catholic tradition.

The Rome semester makes intimate and immediate the school’s tight focus on the history and classic texts of the Western tradition. It pushes students to go beyond their textbooks and lectures to grow in their faith—as well as their understanding of the foundations of Western civilization and American democracy.

Thomas More College’s Rome program is housed in a monastery just miles from the Vatican, where students interact daily with a community of monks—seeing firsthand the mode of life that gave birth to medieval academic culture.

While in Rome, students also are given the opportunity to meet with high level Church officials. In addition to Archbishop Raymond Burke, Thomas More College’s Rome program students have attended Masses with Pope Benedict XVI and dined with Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Archbishop Burke has consistently praised Thomas More College for its fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church. Earlier this year, the archbishop wrote:

Both the liberal arts curriculum and the extracurricular activities at Thomas More College are outstanding for their fidelity to the Magisterium. The teaching at Thomas More College exemplifies the right relationship between faith and reason, which is always at the service of the truth. The faculty of the College are faithful in their teaching and example, and, therefore, are able to educate students in the way which prepares them to follow Christ, the Truth, in both their private and public life. At a time when some Catholic institutions of higher education are drifting from the Catholic faith, it is most heartening to know that Thomas More College continues to promote and defend vigorously the Catholic faith and its practice. To put it simply, Thomas More College is a gift for which all of us should be most grateful.

Dr. William Fahey, president of Thomas More College, said, “Thomas More College is deeply grateful to Archbishop Burke for taking time to visit our Rome campus, and for allowing our students to interact with him in such an intimate and personal setting. We look forward to his continued guidance and support as we seek to develop in our students a profound love for Truth.”

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts provides a four-year undergraduate education which develops young people intellectually, ethically, and spiritually in the Catholic tradition and in faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas More College introduces its students to the central questions of the Western civilization – and to the Church’s response. It teaches the skills in reasoning, speaking, and writing that will allow its graduates to become faithful leaders according to the individual vocations which God has given them. In recent years, the College has allowed the strength of its curriculum to radiate out into several new initiatives, such as its Vatican Studies Center, Center for Faith and Culture (Oxford, England), and the Way of Beauty Program. Through the lectures, books, workshops and other programs hosted by these centers, Thomas More College is consistently seeking new and better ways of communicating perennial truths amid the confusion of contemporary society.
###
Contact: Charlie McKinney
Phone: (603) 880-8308, ext. 21
Mobile: (603) 913-5939
Email: cmckinney@ThomasMoreCollege.edu

Pictures of the visit can be viewed here.

'Change and Hope’ Turned Out to Mean 'Culture of Death,’ Says Archbishop Burke

The pro-abortion policies of the Obama Administration are part of the “culture of death” in America, said Archbishop Raymond L. Burke at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Friday.

Burke, who serves in the Vatican as the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, warned of a moral crisis in America specifically calling Pres__ent Barack Obama to task along with pro-abortion Catholic politicians and Catholic voters that support pro-abortion, pro-homosexual positions.

“What those who were so enthused about the strong message of change and hope in the United States, delivered during the last election campaign, are now discovering is a consistent implementation of policies and programs which confirm and advance the culture of death, which can only finally leave our world without the great hope,” said Burke.

Continued here

Dr Edward Peters: Whither Notre Dame

Dr Peters writes:

I remember my dad saying forty years ago that "Notre Dame is the alma mater of every Catholic who never went to college." He was right.

Forty years ago, most Catholics, like most Americans, had not been to college, though there was a growing sense that college was a good thing to do and thus a good thing to support. More importantly, forty years ago, Notre Dame's Catholicism was still recognizable by Catholics in the pews of America, so when Catholic parents dreamed of college for a son (and later, for a daughter), they dreamed of Notre Dame.

But all that's changed now - read more here

This is sick, like all of the Usurper's actions

Pro-abortion governor near top for health post
WASHINGTON - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was near the top of President Barack Obama's list of candidates to head the Health and Human Services Department, a senior administration official said Saturday....

It's time to start excommunicating so-called "Catholic" politicians whose actions and words publicly ridicule and rebuke the authority of the Church, the natural law and the basic understanding of right and wrong. They have chosen to side with the father of lies in a public manner - it's well past time to administer the medicinal balm of excommunication so that they might repent of their deadly sins while they still have an opportunity for forgiveness and eternal salvation.

King Zero only picks those in league with his mentor and leader, Satan...What a pathetic, narcissistic, lying degenerate reprobate he is - still, he is in need of major prayers.

More here.

Thine Eyes - 2009 Right to Life March in Washington, D.C.

Trailer with music documenting the 2009 Right to Life March in Washington, D.C.



HT to Mark S!

St. Mary's Protest - First Amendment Under Assault

St. Mary's College in Moraga, California shuts off debate to protect "reputation" of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Is Something of Historic Proportion Happening?

A reader commenting at another blog writes this following. Read it, forward it, trash it, whatever. [Minor editorial changes made for ease of reading]
_____________________

I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine.

And that is three times the 700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.

Who has this money?

Why do they have it?

Why are the terms unavailable to us?

Who asked for it?

Who authorized it?

I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about)–the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska.

All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more imporant.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change.

Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises.

Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression].

Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think.

How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media–did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)

Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years–a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency–it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe–and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.

###

You can find this essay here.

Please remember the power of prayer and pray the rosary daily, asking for Our Lady's intercession.

Ex-Priest Professor Who Doubts Virgin Birth Speaks at Catholic College

Robert Ritchie of America Needs Fatima sent me this today:

An ex-priest who doubts the Virgin Birth and who popularized the theory that Jesus's body was eaten by wild dogs, lectured at a Catholic College.

His name is Dr. John Crossan. [Ed. Note: Some of you may have seen this heretic on TV (the History channel, etc) as an "expert" in Catholic matters] And he spoke at Bellarmine Univeristy, which calls itself "a university Catholic in its roots and ongoing tradition."

But according to the Christian Research Journal, Crossan casts doubt on the Virgin Birth by confusing fact and myth:

"They're all over Greek and Roman mythology, so what do I do? Do I believe all of those stories, or do I say all of those stories are lies except for our Christian story?"

Crossan then cites the myth of Caesar Augustus's birth as an example, in which his mother became impregnated by the sun god Apollo:

"His mother was in the temple of Apollo, she fell asleep. During the night she was impregnated by Apollo in the form of a snake, and therefore, of course, the child who was born was divine, Augustus, and of course millions of people would have said in the first century, '...look what's he's done. He's brought peace to the warring empire. He's got rid of the civil wars. He's our man.'"

And in his book "Jesus: The Revolutionary Biography," Dr. Crossan writes:

"The divine origins of Jesus are...just as...mythological as those of Octavius."

Is this the kind of Professor students should be learning from at a Catholic University?

Absolutely NOT!

Send your message of Catholic concern to the President of Bellarmine University, urging him to invite orthodox Catholic speakers to his campus instead of ex-priests who doubt the Virgin Birth.

Please send your message right away!

Sincerely,
Robert Ritchie
America Needs Fatima

PS - Please send a message of Catholic concern immediately to the Bellarmine University President Joseph J. McGowan.

Frankly, I'm shocked that such a speaker would even be considered to speak at any Catholic college or university. Would such actions please St Robert Bellarmine? Of course not, and Christ suffered and died to atone for such sins which cause scandal and implant doubts into the minds of the young!

School prevails in English-only lawsuit

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Wichita Catholic school policy requiring students to speak only English didn't break any civil rights laws.

But U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten criticized both sides in the lawsuit for the way they handled the conflict and characterized St. Anne Catholic School's implementation of its English-only policy as "one-sided...."

The Rev. Thomas Leland, St. Anne's pastor, said that English was the "common ground" for all the students and teachers.

"As long as we have a common ground, that is where we have to meet," Leland testified Friday....

Leland said that when school starts Monday at St. Anne, the English-only policy will remain in force.

Bishop Robert Finn: "We Want Authentic Catholic Schools that Help Form Saints"

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption, our schools begin to open. Students all over the diocese get their back packs together, some put on uniforms, and everyone begins getting up a bit earlier and ready for school. The studies, sports teams, and school clubs will soon be in full gear. The new year begins and our Catholic schools remain a big part of it: for many generations - and for thousands of students.

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is blessed with Catholic schools from early childhood through university. The mission and goals of our schools overlap in a variety of ways with the educational targets of the public schools. But there is something more that must define our schools....

Diocese formerly headed by Archbishop Gregory withheld abuse evidence

"History is history" as all were told by then-Bishop Gregory...

St. Louis, Aug. 11, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A former president of the US bishops' conference has been accused of withholding evidence about an abusive priest from a review board.

In an Illinois court case, Margaret Mensen-- who headed a board studying clerical abuse in the Belleville diocese-- has testified that former Bishop Wilton Gregory did not provide full records of priests who had been accused of molesting young people....

Not much of a surprise, I suppose. He is of the Bernardin legacy after all.




Related articles:
Diocese didn't provide information to board reviewing sex abuse allegations

Board investigating abuse by priests didn't get key info

Texts of the Holy Father's Addresses

Pope Benedict's:
Text of Address to youth
Text of Address at welcoming ceremony

A Return to Traditions at World Youth Day

By Andrew Rabel

At a press conference this morning, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney in answer to a question from Andrew Rabel, an Inside the Vatican magazine journalist, indicated that at the final WYD Mass at Randwick Racecourse on Sunday, in line with older practices that have been used in the Vatican and inside Italy in recent months, communion will most likely be received by those kneeling, from the Pope....

Now if this could become the normative posture, we might see a return to a sense of the sacred...Where are those Communion rails?

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for July

VATICAN CITY, 1 JUL 2008 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention
for July is: "That there may be an increase in the number of those who, as
volunteers, offer their services to the Christian community with generous
and prompt availability".

His mission intention is: "That the World Youth Day held in Sydney,
Australia, may awaken the fire of divine love in young people and make them
sowers of hope for a new humanity".

Source: V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service

Cardinal George Pell launches Youth Day 'faithbook'

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell has launched an internet social networking site designed specifically for World Youth Day.