This week: From the Susan B. Anthony list…   Welcome to the Bureau of Womanhood Conformity. The Fathers of Mercy: supporting the new evangelism since 1808. A child’s story of survival, born 4 months premature. Candid comments on the abortion business, from a former clinic owner. A whole new market snuffing-out life at the other end – Planned GrandParenthood. The liberal magazine cover craze.

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Welcome to the Bureau of Womanhood Conformity. Independent thoughts are considered subversive. Rule #1: all must agree with Our Leader. Deviations will not be tolerated.

Tell President Obama to respect a woman’s choice to practice her beliefs…   not his. It is not Obama’s opposition who is waging a war on women.

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This is not the first time the Church has had a call for a new evangelism. The Fathers of Mercy were founded in 1808 to fulfill this very purpose. They are still going strong! Stop by their website to learn more about them or visit their YouTube channel for some excellent homilies. For example, there is this one on superficial preaching:

…or this on on the warnings and prophecy of Pope Paul VI in his 1968 masterpiece Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life):

Fallen away Catholics and those interested in the fullness of the Christian faith might be interested in the basics:

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Only 1 pound, 2 ounces and 12 inches long – Ezekiel Cal Lugo was born 4 months early. This beautiful video tells the story:

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Pregnancy services such as abortion protect a woman’s right to choose and make it the “safe, legal and rare” option that it is today. Women’s health, not profit, is the motive. Yea, right.

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Laugh now, but for the culture of death, the implications of this are not at all far-fetched:

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Thanks to a new California law, school students will now receive mandatory indoctrination instruction on the historical contribution of homosexuals. California lawmakers are determined to brainwash teach their young children that which is necessary to become successful adults. Apparently, that does not include things like science. California now ranks 47th in the nation in science at the 8th grade level. Only 22% of California 8th grade students managed to even pass the national standardized test.

Oh, and while California lawmakers are focused on honoring the gay agenda, the state itself is sinking fast. Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) announced the deficit is now $16 billion (up from $9.2 billion in January). Expect drastic cuts and huge tax increases, followed by an exodus of individuals and companies to…   anywhere else.

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Newsweek, irrelevant as ever, pays homage to their candidate. If you have been under a rock, that first cover is real. The others are products of The Looking Spoon and The People’s Cube.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

This week: Obama has now “evolved” and is out of the closet on so called “gay marriage.” Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi teach the Catholic faith and explain how it moves them to support unnatural unions. “Occupiers” have been showing their political leanings via their t-shirts. “Hope and Change” has become “Hype and Blame,” so a new slogan has been unveiled. The Copenhagen Philharmonic takes us away from all of this in a flash mob.

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Obama has now “evolved” and is out of the closet. He has given his full support to “gay marriage”. If given the opportunity, he will back that with the full power and might of the federal government. “Gay marriage” is not about discrimination, bigotry or equality. See my earlier piece But how does “gay marriage” hurt you? for a primer. The Manhattan Declaration folks also recommend the following:

• What is Marriage?
• Why I’m Optimistic About Natural Marriage
• Why Is Marriage Important? (video)
• Who Needs Marriage?
• Marriage in Society: The Generation Clash (pps. 47-57)
• What Would Bonhoeffer Do?
• Dennis Prager Debates Perez Hilton on Same-Sex Marriage (video; contains objectionable content)
• Religion, Reason, and Same-Sex Marriage
• A Marriage in Full

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Father Joe (Biden) has again been teaching the faith to all who will listen. His lessons span wide ranging topics from abortion to unnatural sexual unions to social teaching. Always interesting and always wrong. His bishop has corrected him before, but can not be on alert 24/7 to counter every statement this guy makes.

Why does he do it? After all, Biden could simply give his support to all these things and his reason for doing so, WITHOUT identifying himself as a Catholic or falsely claiming congruity with Catholic teaching. Answer: to give cover to those who wish to place political interests above God. To those inclined to think of his “teaching” as giving “plausible deniability,” remember that God knows your heart.

Father Z does a great job as always commenting on a Life News piece in his: Joe Biden: Theologian!.

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Nancy Pelosi has added her own colorful comments, explaining that her Catholic faith “compels” her …[to be]…   for same-sex marriage.

Biden and Pelosi both are speaking loudly and proudly for the Catholic faith. This is not ignorance, given that they have been clearly told of their error. Access to any Catholic Catechism or faithful Catholic would also have quickly cleared up any misunderstanding. This is continuing, purposeful scandal to mislead the faithful and general public.

Father Z also covers this well, commenting on a CNSNews piece in his: Nancy Pelosi, Doctrix of the Church, cites Theologian Obama and calls evil “good”.

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Are they simply stupid or historical ignorant? The “occupiers” have a strong affinity for communist icons as evidenced by the popularity of t-shirt images. Then again, it may simply be a proclamation of their politics:

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Obama’s last campaign slogan was “Hope and Change.” As president, this has morphed into “Hype and Blame,” fundamentally transforming America away from Christianity into something we do not want and from which recovery will be difficult.

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Obama officially announced his presidential reelection campaign last week on Karl Marx’s birthday. His new, official campaign slogan was also announced – Forward. “Forward” has long been a rallying cry for Marxist propaganda as explained by The Washington Times. See their piece: New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism. Really, comrade.

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Too much depressing political news this week. For something much lighter and uplifting – the Copenhagen Philharmonic participate in a flash mob:

The music (Grieg’s Peer Gynt) was performed and recorded on the subway. The Danish metro is very quiet. They used 3 camera mounted mics, two microports glued to the ceiling and one stereo mic in the middle of everything. Spotted by Deacon Greg.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler to address this blogging need, but is guest hosted this week by Hallie Lord at Betty Beguiles. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen (and Hallie) for hosting this project!

This week: To Be Born – a video short story exploring one woman’s “choice.” Paul Ryan speaks sensibly at Georgetown, result as expected. More background on the LCWR (lest anyone still thinks action was either unnecessary or rash). Our hope is in our young and there is reason to be optimistic. Some good pieces last week on radical feminism. Welcoming our soldiers home. A quote of the week.

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To Be Born is a short video about a young woman who becomes pregnant, her struggle alone and the chance not to make the “choice” Planned Parenthood is banking on. This is a very powerful and very touching presentation of the short story A Letter from an Aborted Child.

This film is not excessively gory, but it briefly, dramatically portrays the horror a woman suffers with abortion. The real choice a mother has is well presented. Women who are recovering from an abortion may find it difficult.

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Paul Ryan spoke recently at Georgetown (Georgetown = liberal; Georgetown ≠ Catholic) on how Catholic social teaching influenced his budget proposal. He spoke not only of solidarity, but the often ignored principle of subsidiarity. He explained how a vigorous economy helps everyone and how big, central government doesn’t saying “I do not believe that the preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for big government.” Far better than a distant federal bureaucrat deciding what a person needs is “a human being that knows you, that knows your problems, that looks you in the eyes and sees the suffering that you’re experiencing.”

He is absolutely correct. He actually understands Catholic social justice, not the false doctrine incessantly chanted by liberal progressives with their false claims of social justice. Naturally, to borrow a phrase from Father Z, the left threw a “spittle-flecked nutty.” 90 (out of 2,000) of Georgetown’s faculty once again embarrassed themselves in signing a protest letter. Students also organized a protest and were quoted in the liberal media. Satellite TV vans were dispatched to cover the action. One might have thought there was danger of a riot! Here is a wide-angle shot of the protest:

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Last week I noted Father Z’s recounting (Nuns Gone Wild: A Trip Down Memory Lane) of the long history of dissent, disobedience and heterodoxy at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). While the service of individual nuns and sisters have often been selfless and loving, their leadership organization has been a source of scandal and divisiveness from Christ’s true Church.

Father Philip Powell has updated his excellent piece on the LCWR mindset as reflected in the content presented at their annual conferences: 8 Themes of the LCWR Worldview.

Also don’t miss these insightful pieces:

• Jeffery Miller’s: Faith and Works and the LCWR
• Jimmy Akin’s interview with Ann Carey (author of Sisters in Crisis)

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What do young people hunger for today: relativistic hippie or sacred, reverent liturgy? Father Joseph Kramer, FSSP discusses how the pendulum has swung back:

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Several recent pieces take an interesting look at feminism, not in the true sense of the word but as meant by those who typically use it – radical, liberal women.

First up is Patti Maguire Armstrong with her piece for Catholic Lane: Feminism vs. Feminine. She looks at scripture and how feminists twist it to mean exactly the opposite of the truth.

Jennifer Fulwiler wrote about the link of feminism with contraception and abortion. Her piece for the National Catholic Register is Why Do We Call It a “Culture of Death”?

Lastly, Dale O’Leary writing for Crisis Magazine looks at The Oppressed Lives of Stay-at-Home Moms. She explores the feminist underpinning of Obama operative Hilary Rosen’s recent attack on mothers.

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After the wives, children, parents and siblings — there are other family members who are ecstatic to see their returning soldiers:

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A quote of the week:

The Council did not create new articles of faith, nor did it replace existing ones with new ones. Its only concern was to make it possible to hold the same faith under different circumstances, to revitalize it. As for the work that preceded the Council, it seems to have been more intensive in Germany than elsewhere, for Germany was the heartland of the liturgical movement, the primary source in which the documents of the Council had their origin. But many of these documents were issued too abruptly. To many of the faithful, most of them seemed to be a challenge to the creativity of the individual congregation, in which separate groups constructed their own “liturgies” from week to week with a zeal that was as commendable as it was misplaced. To me, the most serious element in all this was the breach of fundamental, liturgical consciousness. The difference between liturgy and festivity, between liturgy and social event, disappeared gradually and imperceptibly, as witness the fact that many priests, imitating the etiquette of polite society, feel that they ought not to receive Holy Communion until the congregation has received; that they should no longer venture to say “I bless you” [German euch: familiar form of plural “you”] — thus dissolving the fundamental liturgical relationship between them and their congregation. In this context belong also the often obnoxious and banal greeting which, it must be admitted, many congregations tolerate with a kind of patient forbearance. In the period before the new missal made its appearance, but after the old one had already been characterized as “old-fashioned,” people forgot that there is a “rite,” that is, a prescribed liturgical form, and that liturgy is genuinely liturgy only if it is not subject to the will of those who celebrate it.

Pope Benedict XVI
The Feast of Faith

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

This week: A powerful video: If I wanted America to fail. Father Z takes us on a trip down memory lane with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The Mississippi governor nails it. What a post-ObamaCare world will look like. Wheelchairs are so 20th century. Federal debt is an enormous social justice issue. A quote of the week.

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Hope and change. Not my hope and not my desire to “fundamentally change America”:

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Catholic women religious are, and always have been, outstanding examples of service to the Church. HOWEVER, some among them – particularly their leadership – are seriously heterodox. They have repeatedly taken positions in opposition to the teaching of the Gospel and have rejected the authority of Christ’s Church. The scandal this caused has done real damage.

This is finally being addressed in a respectful and sensitive manner. Father Zuhlsdorf assembled a compilation of incidents to remind us why this action is necessary: Nuns Gone Wild: A Trip Down Memory Lane.

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Mississippi governor Phil Bryant recently signed into law a bill requiring physicians performing surgical abortions to be board certified and have admitting privileges at a hospital. Yes, this is a pro-life law (Planned Parenthood is “sick about” it). It also protects the women receiving surgical abortions.

On a radio talk show, he opines that the left – enamored with women’s health – should rush to support this bill. Gov. Bryant bluntly explains why they don’t:

Supporting his view of their hypocrisy, we see in California the pro-abortion lobby pushed for (update: and achieved) *less* protection in not requiring a doctor AT ALL. The left will have to update their mantra that the “choice” is between a woman and her doctor to “abortion practitioner”. Planned Parenthood thinks this is a dandy idea.

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With ObamaCare gone, either by judicial or legislative remedies, what happens to healthcare? Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar suggests in a recent piece – The next health care overhaul? Look to employers – the probable positive outcomes. Worth a read.

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Wheelchairs are so 20th century.

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The crushing impact of federal debt on the economy, the resulting impact on families and the burden placed on our children is an extremely serious social justice issue. This graphic sums up our free-fall from prosperity:

In the coming months, you will be *ceaselessly* bombarded by class-warfare advertisements, backed by biased, liberal media to question if Mitt Romney has too much money. It is a ridiculous distraction.

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Quote of the week:

Deconstructing one of President Obama’s speeches can be a bit like taking a trip to an alternate universe.

Michael Tanner in the National Review Online

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

This week: Several new vocational videos. An update on a falsely convicted priest. Issues for Catholics, other Christians and all Americans to consider in November. It’s back to church time at the White House. Jesse Jackson: Jesus was an occupier. Catholic church bowling alleys – who knew? Born again Catholics.

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The Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana has produced this new priest vocation video. I quite like it, but the Anchoress is somewhat less excited.

The Diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island has also produced a really good vocations video. It is longer, less of a promotion and more “meat and potatoes,” with 7 priests individually answering 9 questions about the call to the priesthood.

Finally, This Side of Eden is a documentary film about the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey in Mission, B.C. The trailer alone makes a good vocation promotion video:

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After the children (obviously), the next largest group of sex scandal victims were innocent priests. Unscrupulous people (and their lawyers) seeking cash settlements fabricated abuse, victim rights groups see every priest as deranged and dangerous, and liberal news media see an opportunity to attack the Church for her true moral teaching.

Many innocent priests have suffered greatly, some imprisoned longer than guilty rapists and murderers. I wrote about Father Gordon MacRae’s sad case in February. Ryan MacDonald wrote about this case yesterday for Catholic Lane. In Why Do SNAP and VOTF Fear the Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae? he looks at how the media and victims rights groups treated Fr. MacRae when he was accused and their silence now that strong exonerating evidence has emerged. Shameful.

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Divisive class warfare demagoguery aside, what are the real issues that should guide our November vote?

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It’s back to church time for the Obamas! After a protracted absence, the family has began attending services from now all the way through the November election. There is more! While our president spoke only vaguely of “holiday greetings” 2 years ago and broke new ground last year by skipping the Easter address altogether, this election year his campaign provided a solid Christian sounding one. This is exciting news for his efforts in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Keith Koffler has the story: Obama Wishes You a Very Religious Easter.

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What level is too low for even Jesse Jackson to stoop to? I don’t know, but calling our Lord and Savior an “occupier” doesn’t reach it. The Rev. Jackson reminds us that Jesus was killed because he fought and occupied the corrupt temple. Why should the rich occupy the holy place while the widow across the street is the 99%?

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The door on the left reads “Adoration Chapel”, the one on the right “Bowling Alley” (FWIW, their widths appear to be the same). This is St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Peoria, IL. Apparently, and completely unbeknownst to me, having a small bowling alley in your church was something of a fad in the 40’s and 50’s. A few are still left. According to this USA Today article, Catholics appear to be well represented. Per their website, St. Ann’s alley was built by the men’s club in order to sell beer before noon on Sundays. Really.

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Catholics are born again Christians. At my parish Friday Morning Men’s Fellowship I spoke about that and related topics some months ago. Russ Rentler has taken-up the topic in an excellent reader response: Are There Born Again Catholics?.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!