'Planned Parenthood' president thanks dissenting "nun" for pro-abortion health care deform

Planned Parenthood head thanks religious sisters for ‘critical support’ of health care bill

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2010 / 07:28 am (CNA).- Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has praised the Catholic religious sisters who endorsed the Senate health care bill, claiming they deserve gratitude for making “a critical demonstration of support” for a bill that significantly increased coverage of “reproductive health care.”

Writing for the Huffington Post Wednesday in her capacity as president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Richards claimed that it was Catholic nuns who “most importantly broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform.”

“This brave and important move, demonstrating that they cared as much about the health care of families in America as they did about church hierarchy, was a critical demonstration of support.”

The group NETWORK claimed in a March 17 letter to the House of Representatives that it represented 59,000 women religious across the U.S. It urged members of Congress to support the bill....

Apostates and heretics - the whole lot! It's yet another in a LONG LIST of SCANDALS which generally remain unaddressed by US BISHOPS. The fact that these schismatic malcontents have yet to be disciplined is even more of a scandal to faithful Catholics.

Pray that our bishops and priests be graced with zeal and courage to do what they should do in addressing schism and heresy among those who claim to be "Catholic" yet continually pervert the Truth who is Jesus, Himself!

Article here.

Dr Edward Peters: Canonical options in the Sr. Donna Quinn case

Dr Peters writes:

Frankly, chances are slim that the Sinsinawa Dominicans will do anything about their Sr. Donna Quinn who publicly and formally cooperates in the death of babies by abortion. Chances are slim that anything will be done about her because, well, such are the times we live in: a Catholic religious can act for years as an abortion clinic escort and cause barely a ripple in her religious community, the local church, or in Rome. History won't believe it.

But a slim chance is still some chance, and the moral poverty of the age is no bar to our doing what we can in response to such conduct. I can at least point out the possibility of canonical consequences for Sr. Donna.

Read more here.

Dr Edward Peters: Rome must take control of the Legion crisis

Sacramento vs. the Dominicans: why St. Paul would approve

Dr Edward Peters writes:

The Diocese of Sacramento is suing the Western Province of the Dominicans for payment of what the diocese asserts is the religious order's fair share of a civil judgment entered against the diocese in regard to a sexual misconduct case involving a Dominican priest then working in the diocese.

What's unusual here is that the diocese is not suing the province in a civil court, but rather, in an ecclesiastical tribunal. One need not know anything about the merits of the case to say, this is a good move.

Find out why here.

Woman from Warrenton professes temporary vows

Warrenton native Sister M. Lissetta Gettinger professed temporary vows with the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration last month.

Don and Lorraine Gettinger, Sister M. Lissetta’s parents, are members of Holy Rosary Parish in Warrenton.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration are based in the Eastern or Immaculate Heart of Mary Province, centered in Mishawaka, Ind. Members of the congregation served from 1905 to 1988 as teachers and administrators at Immaculate Conception School in Union.

Sister M. Lissetta of St. Joseph, 27, professed her vows at Mass Aug. 10 in the chapel at Mount Alverno, the order’s motherhouse in Mishawaka. She vowed for three years "to live in chastity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, to choose a life of poverty and to offer the sacrifice of obedience," according to her community.

Provincial Superior Sister M. Angela Mellady accepted Sister M. Lissetta’s vows in the name of the Church. The white veil she wore as a novice for two years was exchanged with a black veil as an outward sign of her profession....

Awesome news! Let us keep Sister M. Lissetta in our prayers.

Making St Francis Proud?

For the longest time Tuesday morning, Brother Richard Jonathan, a member of the Society of Saint Francis, was the only one carrying a sign outside San Francisco City Hall as cameras whirred and gay men and lesbians filed in to be legally hitched.

Anyone who has paid attention to the Roman Catholic hierarchy’s official disappointment over the state Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling a month ago could be forgiven for looking twice at Jonathan’s placard. “Franciscans for Same-Sex Marriage,” it read....

An open and public scandal - what actions, we ask, will his superiors take to remedy this scandalous public rebellion? What about the bishop where this travesty occurred?

Brother Jonathan is ill-educated and confused about God, Jesus, and "love." Perhaps he should not be allowed in public anymore - except, of course, for his coming public penance [Uh, right!]?

By his actions, he trashes Our Lord, the Church, St Francis, and all of the faithful. He harms those afflicted with homosexual inclinations by encouraging them to engage in perversion and hedonism while erroneously calling it 'love.'

St Francis, please pray for the conversion of your wayward brothers.

Meditation for May 24, Sisterly Love

Speaking of the spirit of fraternal charity that St. John of the Cross excelled in developing in the communities around him, an author smilingly offers this objection: "Yes, they love one another in the convents; and evidently, if we compare the peace that reigns there with the peace that reigns in other places, we would say that they love one another a great deaL"

Slight praise, indeed! When the standard of comparison is very low, to say that one object surpasses another does not indicate a very remarkable degree of attainment. To say that they love one another more in the convent than is the general practice in the world is not saying very much. Ordinarily people love each other very little in the world.

Let us seek another criterion and aspire to a somewhat more elevated ideal, otherwise we shall scarcely surpass the low-water mark of the commonplace which is devoid of any grandeur.

Let us speak of the friendship that our vocation clearly supposes, a friendship sealed by ardent devotion to the same sublime cause, capable of forgetting pettiness, and of surmounting miseries in­herent in all community life; of the friendship whose only bond is that holy passion of saving souls for Jesus Christ, and of loving Him as He has loved us, a purely supernatural friendship where all hearts are united and fixed in the Charity of the One Friend, united with and absorbed in the exclusive love of the Divine Heart who has so loved us and wants us to be loved by all.

"O Jesus, permit me to love all my sisters with this affection, and grant that I may love without faltering, without lessening my love, without excluding anyone from my affection, without however becoming familiar, that I may truly love my Sisters as sisters."

_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)

Pope to Visit Tomb of Australia's Saint-In-Waiting

SYDNEY, May 20, 2008 -- Pope to Visit Tomb of Blessed Mary MacKillop
by Andrew Rabel

It was confirmed today that Pope Benedict XVI will pray at the tomb of Bl Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), when he visits Sydney in July for World Youth Day celebrations.

Mary MacKillop was a 19th century nun who was a pioneer of Australia's Catholic school system. Her misunderstandings with Catholic bishops of the time led to her excommunication (which was soon lifted) and later on banishment from the city of Adelaide, among other things.

This never stopped the Melbourne born religious and social worker, from her tireless work in the order she co-founded, the Sisters of St Joseph on behalf of poor and abandoned children......

Vatican says prohibition against gays in seminaries is universal

Vatican City, May 19, 2008 / 09:21 am (CNA).- Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has sent a letter to the bishops of the world with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI reaffirming the norms established by the Congregation for Catholic Education in the 2005 document, “Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders,” as universal and without exceptions....

The letter, which Cardinal Bertone said was issued in response “to numerous requests for clarification,” implies that the prohibition against accepting homosexual candidates in seminaries applies not only to diocesan seminaries but also to those of religious orders and congregations, as well as to those that are located in mission territories....

See more here at Rorate Caeli

Pope thanks consecrated virgins for their 'total gift' to Christ

POPE Benedict thanked consecrated women virgins gathering at the Vatican today for their "total gift" to Christ, praising a holy rite that he recognised was difficult for some non-Catholics to understand.

"(Live your lives) in such a way that you always irradiate the dignity of being the wife of Christ," the pope said in an address to hundreds of consecrated virgins from dozens of countries meeting in Rome....

These are extraordinary women. When you pray for our priests and religious, please remember them as well.

Meditation for May 9, Joy

"Health is not contagious; sickness is."

It is true, alas! certain sicknesses do spread, not only sicknesses of the body but also those of the soul, in particular, sadness and down-heartedness; someone who easily gives way to feelings or is readily disturbed, diminishes or at least risks diminishing the morale of the whole group.

But is it true that health is not contagious?

Bodily health we need not discuss, but what about that of the soul? If it is true that one person's dejection weighs on a whole group, cannot the serene joy of an individual, on the contrary, up­lift the whole group? Nothing is more contagious than enthusiasm! One alert step forward and a whole assembly moves into action.

Who can deny the inspirational force of a strong morale, of a judicious and serene optimism rising, not from simplicity of in­telligence, but from interior strength of the will; not from an imagination prompt to distort reality or from an over-exalted sensi­tiveness, but from balance, a sane outlook, and a profound faith.

Joy spreads. By our joy we must win others to joy. Our happi­ness should enkindle theirs.

As a child, the future Ursuline, Marie de l'Incarnation (Marie Guyard)" was very joyful; she imagined that on that account her mother thought her unfit for the religious life. "I believe that my mother thought me unfit for the cloister because of my gay and pleasant disposition which she considered incompatible with the virtue of religion."

The contrary is true. The religious life needs and must have only cheerful souls.

_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)

Nun pleads guilty to stealing....

...apparently had a gambling problem.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic nun accused of stealing from the Omaha Archdiocese and gambling much of the money away has pleaded guilty to theft.

An attorney says Sister Barbara Markey pleaded Monday to theft of more than $1,500. Defense attorney J. William Gallup says she also agreed to pay $125,000 in restitution....

Don't neglect to pray for her!

Thoughts and Counsels - January 17

Time is but a period. It passes like the lightning flash. Suffering passes with time; suffering, then, is very short.

- Bl. Henry Suso
________________________
From Mary, Help of Christians
Part VI, Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year
Compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, OFM (© 1909, Benziger Brothers)

Over 37,000 Catholic religious over 70

News Release via Religion News Service
November 2007, For immediate release

The 20th national annual appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be conducted in Catholic parishes in the United States on Dec. 8-9.

Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, the appeal benefits the projected $9 billion retirement liability of the nation’s religious orders.

In 2006, this appeal distributed $23 million in Basic Grants that benefited 515 of the nation’s Catholic religious institutes, primarily those of women.

“The unfunded retirement liability is difficult and painful to comprehend,” said Sister Janice Bader, a Sister of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Missouri, and acting director of the National Religious Retirement Office. The appeal, she says, has helped ensure that this liability can become a “manageable concern...”
. . .

More than 37,000 Catholic religious are now past age 70. More than 5,000 women and men require skilled nursing care. While costs for care in a skilled nursing facility in the U.S. average more than $65,000 annually, religious institutes have kept their average cost of skilled nursing care to $49,850....

More at California Catholic Daily here.