The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter

Does Wealth Transfer to State Portend Bigger Disaster?

2008-10-05T12:11:00.001-07:00

The recent "crisis" in the US financial markets, created by a state solution to home ownership for low or no income people, has led to the biggest transfer of wealth in history from private citizens to the state.

The average citizen only knew there was a crisis at all by watching television or reading the paper as the media trumpeted the government's warnings and extolled their remedy. It's been said before that in a crisis people will glady hand over civil liberties and wealth but never get it back when the crisis passes. Some have warned that such crises, created artificailly by large investment bankers, are designed to get the masses to conform to their designs.

But what exactly is afoot? It's hard to tell who's pulling the strings these days as one of the more inept presidencies in history has combined with the most corrupt Congress ever to transfer a trillion dollars to investment banks and insurance comapnies, using fear and bribes (known as pork barrel spending) to get their way.

In the meantime, for almost a year, stock prices have been in dramatic decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at over 14,000 in November of 2007. Yet despite it's steady 4,000+ point drop since that time, a comparably modest fall of 777 points was used to scare the politicians and the masses into accepting this theft of the treasury. Simultaneously, private property values have also fallen by >20% in many markets. Low income homeowners who saw their variable interest rate loans increase in cost while their property value was falling simply walked away from their mortgages back to their relatively stable expense rentals.

For those whose wealth is a combination of IRA's, 401K's, stocks and their residence, their net worth has fallen precipitously. And now with the national debt approaching 10 trillion dollars, inflation, unemployment and higher taxes are almost a sure bet.

It has been said that wealth never disappears. It is simply transferred. In the current case, the wealth is being transferred from the people to the treasury and then to investment banks. If the trend continues, there will be a depression. Amid such financial chaos, government will be able to convince people of almost any radical solution. More pressure will be put on forming larger trading blocks, economic unions of regional countries as with the EU. Civil liberties will need to be curtailed as the masses act out frustration with their diminishing resources. Pressure to limit family size through sterilization of the weak, forced contraception and abortion, and for euthanasia will increase. Gun registration and confiscation will be required.

To what end is this all going? Economic despair always paves the way for strong totalitarian leaders to emerge. They need not take power. People will gladly give it to them in exchange for better nliving standards now in the rearview mirror of memory.

Antichrist is described as the most cunning of all humans. His charisma will likewise be unsurpassed. His handler is already at work, preparing the battlefield. Look for religious and political upheavals to result from the current "crisis", ones that will amaze and cause great wonder.

Yes, something big is afoot.

Financial Collapse and Revelation

2008-09-30T05:08:00.000-07:00

Market Falls "777" Points

Once in a while, there are signs that God wants you to pay attention to secular affairs. I don't pretend to know the Divine Mind. But after reading The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, I pay attention to numbers and symbols.

The terror attacks of 9/11/01 was one of those times. I saw it as an attack on financial and military superpower, a humbling of a great nation that has lost its way morally. When the towers came down, all that was left was a cross on top of the pile, much like a grave marker. But in the shadows of the rubble stood the little chapel of Saints Peter and Paul with nary a cracked window. I saw this as a sign that god is in control, not the terrorists and certainly not the government.

During the Middle Ages, it was customary that the tallest structure in a town was a church. As a sort of divine zoning plan, no other structure was permitted (or desired) to be taller. On 9/11/01, the tallest building in NYC was a financial building. Money had replaced God in order of importance. But God has a way of using secondary agents to accomplish His will in secular affairs. And 19 terrorists with box cutters brought the financial and military hyper-power to its knees.

But as it says in the Apocalypse, "they did not repent of the works of their hands". And so like ants, we rebuilt not the physical towers but the financial ones. We created towers of fraudulent paper built on the dreams of poor people yearning to own homes. The greedy power brokers saw a way to inflate balance sheets and investment portfolios. Corrupt politicians saw it as a way to appear beneficent while lining their own pockets with campaign contributions from massive financial institutions. Any attempt at reform was rebuffed with cries of 'discrimination".

But the Great Equalizer once again has brought the towers crashing down. His sign this time is a number and the number is 777, the number of points the stock index fell in one day. 7 is the biblical number for perfection and completion. Certainly the stock market drop was neither complete nor perfect. But God's plan for us is perfect and complete though only known to Him. Once again, we will fail to "repent of the works of our hands" and we will again build towers on the backs of the poor.

But do not despair. As always, God is truly in control. And that is the message of the number.

Wars, Storms, Sightings - Do They Point to the End?

2008-07-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

It seems a day doesn't go by that either someone sends me an article or I read on a Catholic site about a war, impending war, natural disaster, economic collapse or other man made calamity that the author claims foretells the end times.

To put stock in such things is to ignore the obvious and to ignore prophetic writings. In the Bible, the actions of God's people, in the Old Testament Israel, and in the Book of Revelation, the Church, indicate when events of significant change will occur.

In our time we have seen the influence of the Church in the western world slide precipitously towards irrelevance as a secular humanist wave has swept over mankind. Why? Look closely INSIDE the Church. We have witnessed the greatest apostasy in history as priests and religious threw of the bonds of authority after Vatican II, engaged in the most disgusting sexual abuse of their charges, enabled and covered up by their bishops.

To make it worse, the bishops continue to this day to deflect attention away from themselves and towards their own priests and the victims they were supposed to be dispensing the sacraments to. They were supposed to help us get to heaven!

No earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, stock market crash, apparition or war compares to the complete devastation wrought by faithless members of the episcopate on the Church. Indeed, all those other natural and unnatural disasters usually have the effect of driving the faithful to SEEK God, to return to piety. These bishops have driven the largest exodus out of the Church in history!

But when the teaching members of the Church say one thing and do another, proclaim justice but avoid blame, cover up and divert attention, condemn abortion but fail to enforce canon law against those who enable it, claim homosexuality is gravely immoral and disordered but refuse to remove homosexuals from their midst, proclaim the True Presence but give communion to public and obstinate sinners, who is left to believe?

Remember Excorde Ecclesae, the bishops statement on Catholic colleges and universities? The idea was that these institutions should reflect and teach the Catholic faith, a novel idea. Instead they have foisted the most anti-Catholic doctrines imaginable on young people. One such college, Holy Cross in Worcester, MA actually sponsored a family planning conference featuring Planned Parenthood! The bishop first warned the college president and then went back to his hole when he was ignored. Is this what Jesus meant by his admonition not to "separate the wheat from the weeds" or is this just institutional cowardice and accommodation?

1 Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Jer. 23

We have seen a priesthood devastated first by the sexual revolution that saw family sizes shrink and materialism grow and then by homosexuality that has gripped the seminaries and discouraged authentic vocations. Bishops have been compromised and blackmailed by their own failings, moving molesters from parish to parish to continue their reign of terror.

Now, as a political system veers out of control codifying sin as privilege, the bishops are too self-absorbed and lacking in credibility to speak out effectively and rally the faithful who are less educated in the faith and more confused than ever due to the infiltration of pagans and secularist authors in religious education programs.

At times like these, God has always acted. But He also promised that one day there would be a final battle, and that in that battle, the devastation of souls would be unprecedented. God's mercy is that He will spare some of the faithful. But His justice is that the day will come.

Don't look to the sky for signs, or to geopolitical events or Wall Street. One need look no further than the local parish, if it hasn't been sold off, to figure out that something cataclysmic is about to happen. The Church has become "like a scroll rolled up." The "sun is darkened and the moon will not give its light."

Catholic Boston College Sponsors Panel Focusing on Homosexual Couples

2008-06-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

Note: For those who believe the scandal has passed and all is well in the Archdiocese of Boston, read this closely. A Catholic institution is promoting immoral counterfeit arrangements between homosexuals and the Church leaders are hiding and doing nothing.

Catholic Boston College Sponsors Panel Focusing on Homosexual Couples

BOSTON, MA, June 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized Jesuit administered Boston College for sponsoring and hosting Love Across Boundaries, which is being advertised as "a panel conversation with Boston couples who focus on their own interracial, interfaith and same-sex Love Across Boundaries". Featured participants will include Paul McLaughlin, Assistant Dean of Harvard College and his homosexual partner Jason Shumaker, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at MIT.

The event, sponsored by the New Center for Arts and Culture and Boston College's Office of the Provost, will be held this afternoon and this evening at BC's Bapst Library as part of Bloomsday Boston, the annual celebration of James Joyce and his novel Ulysses. Among those reading excerpts from the book will be former Lieutenant Governor Thomas P. O'Neill III, who is a longstanding supporter of legal abortion.

The Catholic Action League has called the event "another shameless betrayal of Catholic principles by the leadership of Boston College and its parent religious order, the Jesuits".

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: "No reasonable person could be expected to believe that the Catholic Church is serious in its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage as long as Catholic institutions publicly affirm homosexual relationships and prominently showcase pro-abortion political figures. Boston College, with the complicity of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, continues to flaunt its infidelity to Catholic moral teaching and callously compromise what is left of its Catholic identity, while the Archdiocese of Boston, through its silence and inaction, functions as its enabler".

"This disgraceful episode is one more example of the systemic collapse of Catholic loyalties in the very leadership of the Church in the United States"LifeSiteNews attempted to contact the Archdiocese of Boston, but they were not immediately available for comment.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061605.html

The Challenges Faced by Humanae Vitae Priests and the Resultant 'Clergy Problem'

2008-05-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Note: Contraception is the greatest evil of our time. It's acceptance by Catholics against Church teaching drives a wedge between the faithful and the clergy and causes the clergy to be in grave danger of apostasy. It naturally leads to all other evils of the flesh - abortion, adultery, pre- and extra- marital sex. And once the sex act is divorced from procreation, homosexuality and all other perversions quickly increase. This is nothing new. But it is on the rise and is insidious.

The Challenges Faced by Humanae Vitae Priests and the Resultant 'Clergy Problem'

5/18/2008 8:27:00 AM
By John Mallon -Human Life International e-Newsletter

When priests lose the nerve to preach over concern for money, are they following after Peter, or Judas?First of all, I want to thank all of you priests, deacons and seminarians who signed on to this mailing list. It is very encouraging to see the humility and willingness to gain knowledge that will help you in your service to God's people. If this seems a strange statement, let me tell you that in the first 48 hours that this site was up we received emails from about 130 priests demanding to be removed from the mailing list. Some were quite nasty. Some took offense that someone sent in their email as though it were a personal affront.

It is no secret that orthodox priests who think with the Church often receive cold shoulders and outright hostility from their brother priests. Those who don't go along with the "CYA club" or the clerical mafia and preach Christ instead of the status quo, thus rocking the boat, soon know they are persona non grata. All too often a faithful priest who makes a mistake is much more likely to be called on the carpet and chewed out much more severely by the bishop than a dissident cleric whose errors are deliberate and treated with kid gloves.

A priest friend of mine, ordained within the last 12 years or so, told me that during his first parish assignment he dutifully preached on contraception, but immediately afterwards was "spoken to" by the pastor. The pastor ordered him "not to do that again," and muttered, "just watch the collection receipts go down."

Huh?

If this is what we are about, then we are no better than a governmental bureaucracy that self-perpetuates after having lost its purpose for existing. I should add that the pastor was not a wild-eyed radical or dissenter, but one of the stalwarts of the diocese, the type to whom bishops like to send the newly ordained to learn the ropes. He was the type that another priest friend of mine referred to as "a company man." In frustration he cried out to me, "John, they're company men!" By the company, he was not referring to the Magisterium, but the local diocesan system. They knew how to play the game, advance their careers, manipulate or get around the bishop when necessary, and keep their own backsides covered.

The Gospel? What Gospel?

If they only knew the true danger their backsides were in.

Christ didn't land on the Cross by playing it safe with the high priests of His day.
In view of the corrupt system outlined above, when people ask about the sex abuse crisis, "How could this have happened?" the only answer is, "How could it not have happened?" when whistle-blowers were punished and abusers honored or at least coddled. The only response is "Thank God it happened!" Not thank God children were abused, but thank God the corrupt system that allowed it to continue was blown sky high. It is only the beginning, but it may well be the deliverance so many of us have been praying for. Recalling the famous vision of Pope Leo XIII where he saw God grant Satan's request of 100 years to destroy the Church, and chose the 20th century, was it an accident that this particular stronghold collapsed two years into the 21st century? Judgment begins with the House of God (1 Peter 4:17). Thank God.

What does this all have to do with contraception? Contraception was the epicenter of the "sexual revolution." Contraception was also the epicenter of the movement for dissent against Church teaching, Humanae Vitae in particular, and the center of most of the fiercest battles in the Church today.

Contraception, abortion and homosexuality are the three legs of the stool upon which the Culture of Death sits. (We will have more on the contraception/homosexuality link in a future column.)
Thank God for you priests in our midst who know the Gospel has always been preached at personal risk and that Humanae Vitae is part of that Gospel and an expression of God's love and protection for His people.

California Court Strips Children of Right to Mother and Father

2008-05-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Note: As in Massachusetts, this ruling could not have come about without the decline and weakening of the Catholic Church and its influence on society for good. A formed conscience simply could not force itself against its own will to remove having a father and a mother from the rights of children. As well, to give rights to associations based on an unnatural and immoral act, sodomy, is sick and perverted. It's one thing to pass anti discrimination laws that protect people who indeed are born with physiological differences and quite another to favor people who have given in to their inclinations.

California Court Strips Children of Right to Mother and Father

By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com Editor in Chief

May 16, 2008(CNSNews.com) - In Thursday's 4-3 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court stripped children of the right to be raised by a mother and a father.

Most of the media coverage of the California Supreme Court's decision has focused on the court's declaration that there is a right to same-sex marriage. The ruling invalidated California's Proposition 22, a state ballot initiative that passed with 61 percent of the vote in 2000, and which banned same-sex marriage in the state.

But the California Supreme Court decision goes beyond simply giving same-sex couples the right to call their unions a "marriage." It also strips children of the right not to be artificially conceived or adopted by people other than a mother and a father.

Indeed, the court does not recognize that children have any right whatsoever to a mother and a father.

In the decision, the California court sees children primarily through the eyes of same-sex couples who want to secure custody and control of children. The court makes emphatically clear that it deems this to be a right of same-sex couples that is equal to--and identical to--the right of married mothers and fathers to adopt or conceive and raise their own children.

In making this argument, the court addresses biological parenthood as an accident of nature that can be swept aside by the court in its pursuit of what the court understands to be justice. To explain this vision of justice--and where children fit into this vision--the court equates same-sex couples to infertile heterosexual married couples.

"A person who is physically incapable of bearing children still has the potential to become a parent and raise a child through adoption or through means of assisted reproduction, and the constitutional right to marry ensures the individual the opportunity to raise children in an officially recognized family with the person with whom the individual has chosen to share his or her life," the court said.

Two homosexual men joining together and contracting to have a child artificially conceived, gestated and handed over to their custody, it concludes, is a question of the "liberty and personal autonomy" of the homosexual men, but not of the child who would be so conceived and raised.

"Finally, of course, the ability to have children and raise them with a loved one who can share the joys and challenges of that endeavor is without doubt a most valuable component of one's liberty and personal autonomy," said the court.

"Although persons can have children and raise them outside of marriage," the court said, "the institution of civil marriage affords official governmental sanction and sanctuary to the family unit, granting a parent the ability to afford his or her children the substantial benefits that flow from a stable two-parent family environment, a ready and public means of establishing to others the legal basis of one's parental relationship to one's children and the additional security that comes from the knowledge that his or her parental relationship with a child will be afforded protection by the government against the adverse actions or claims of others."

In constructing its vision for a new type of "family," the court rhetorically worked its way around the biological certainty (in a pre-human-cloning world) that all children have a mother and father (whether they are ever afforded the right to know them or not), by adopting a parental lexicon that features not moms and dads but "opposite-sex couples" and "same-sex couples."

"Extending access to the designation of marriage to same sex couples will not deprive any opposite-sex couple or their children of any of the rights and benefits conferred by the marriage statutes, but simply will make the benefit of the marriage designation available to same-sex couples and their children," said the court.

"While retention of the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples is not needed to preserve the rights and benefits of opposite-sex couples," said the court, "the exclusion of same-sex couples from the designation of marriage works a real and appreciable harm upon same-sex couples and their children."

Time Magazine: "Want to wreck the environment? Have a baby." - Prince Philip Concurs

2008-05-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Time Magazine: "Want to wreck the environment? Have a baby." - Prince Philip Concurs

LONDON, May 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A feature in the current issue of Time Magazine asks a rhetorical question, "What's an an environmentally conscious parent to do?" Time's Pamela Paul gives the response most frequently pushed by radical environmentalists, saying the answer is 'don't have children'. In a television interview this week, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, concurs, saying the recent increase in global food prices is due to too many children. At the same time, the Italian Prime Minister is seeking ways to turn around his country's disastrously low birth rate that currently stands at well below replacement level.

"Want to wreck the environment?" the Time feature starts, "Have a baby."

"Each bundle of joy gobbles up more of the planet's food, clogs garbage dumps with diapers, churns through plastic toys and winds up a gas-guzzling, resource-consuming grown-up like the rest of us. Still, babies are awfully cute. Given that most people still intend to procreate, what's an environmentally conscious parent to do?"

The Duke of Edinburgh followed the same environmentalist playlist when he said this week that the only way to save the planet is for people to stop having babies. Prince Philip told a television interviewer this week that the solution to the burgeoning global food crisis is simply to have fewer mouths to feed. The prince, who has four children, said, "Food prices are going up. Everyone thinks it's to do with not enough food, but it's really that demand is too great - too many people."

In recent months, food prices have risen dramatically around the world and economists are struggling to identify the reason. Most have said it is the result of rising oil prices which have affected the cost fertilizers, food transport, and industrial agriculture. The prince admitted that implementation of a massive population control movement might be a problem for governments. "Basically, it's a little embarrassing for everybody. No one quite knows how to handle it. Nobody wants their family life to be interfered with by the government."

Indeed, the only governments to try a systematic programme of population control are known to be among the world's most oppressive regimes. The communist government of China has had its One Child policy in place since 1979 when it was put in place ostensibly to alleviate social and environmental problems. The result has been social unrest, arrests of pregnant women and forced abortions and state-sponsored infanticide. It has also caused a massive and likely incurable imbalance in the population's sex ratio in favour of boys and resulted in a dramatic aging of the population. The Chinese government, while maintaining the One Child policy, is now struggling to find answers to the problem of millions of elderly with few children grown to adulthood to care for them.

Ironically, Prince Philip's wish has already come true. Currently the British birth rate stands at approximately 1.66 births per woman, well below the 2.1 level at which a population is sustained naturally.

Meanwhile, the recently elected Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, is casting about for ways to stop the plummeting of the Italian birth rate. He told journalists today that he would try to remove "material reasons" that push women to seek abortions. In his inaugural speech before parliament, Berlusconi promised "new and important expenditures for demographic development". Italy is facing a demographic crisis. The country once noted for its fervent Catholicism and dedication to large families, is aging as the birth rate drops. Italy is now the "greyest" country in the European Union, with the highest "ageing index," according to the Italian National Statistics Institute (Istat). Istat estimates that the birth rate has climbed slightly from 1995 to 2005, from 1.19 births per woman to 1.32, but the government agency said this was almost entirely the result of immigration.

Government interference with family life has long been a major goal of the environmental movement's population control goals through enforced abortion, contraception and sterilization.

It is axiomatic among environmentalists that the human population would outstrip the world's food supply. Last year, Paul Watson, founder and president of the radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, denounced the "human virus" said that a "radical and invasive approach" was required. Watson who has called human beings the "AIDS of the Earth" said, "Curing a body of cancer requires radical and invasive therapy, and therefore, curing the biosphere of the human virus will also require a radical and invasive approach."

In 2007, the UK's leading population control lobbyist group, the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), issued a warning of environmental disaster if British couples do not restrict themselves to a two-child maximum.

Pastor Connected with Prominent Gay Porn Website

2008-05-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Texas Pastor Connected with Prominent Gay Porn Website
By Michael BaggotMCKINNEY, TX,

May 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Texas residents are alarmed that Bishop Kevin Farrell has appointed Fr. Arthur Mallinson, a priest associated with a prominent website for actively homosexual priests and religious, pastor of the newly renovated St. Michael's parish in McKinney, Texas.

Fr. Arthur Mallinson's picture has appeared on the St. Sebastian's Angels (SSA) website, a now defunct online network for actively homosexual priests and religious that featured pornographic images, sexually explicit comments, and derogatory remarks about Vatican churchmen, particularly against then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

In 1999, the reform organization Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) exposed SSA and the fifty-three priests involved in the site. South African Bishop Reginald Cawcutt resigned after his activity on the site was revealed.

Barbara Kralis, concerned ex-parishioner of St. Michael, encouraged readers to take action in a Sunday column for CatholicCitizens.org.

"He is a priest who put his photo on a gay priest's website so that he could make contact with other like-minded priests," Kralis wrote of Fr. Mallinson. "If anyone on this email list has family who are in this diocese of Dallas, who are worried about them being exposed to the machinations of such a perverted priest, please consider writing a letter Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell and express your concern regarding this priest"

When she spoke with LifeSiteNews.com, Kralis had a series of questions."Why would our bishop promote a priest like this, what good is this going to do the people? Why wouldn't he [Bishop Farrell] read all of the priests' files very carefully? Why would he [Fr. Mallinson] be moved to a big, glorious parish?"

A spokeswoman for Bishop Farrell told LifeSiteNews.com that Fr. Mallinson is not supportive of any of the crude images or words found on the SSA site. She noted that the SSA site was initially "not a site meant to provide an arena to find sexual partners." Instead, it was meant to give participants "prayer and spiritual support to maintain and live a celibate lifestyle."

According to the Bishop's spokeswoman, Fr. Mallinson ceased activity with SSA in 2001 when it became involved in immoral activity. "When it strayed from its original mission, he no longer wanted to be involved. He did not agree or condone comments about the Pope on the website. He ceased participation when pornography went on the website"

Stephen Brady, founder of RCF, told LifeSiteNews.com that his group first exposed SSA's lewd activities in September 1999, more than a year before Fr. Mallinson's departure from the group. "We never caught him sending pornography," Brady said of Fr. Mallinson. Nonetheless, Brady expressed concern that a priest would seek help to live celibacy from a pornographic site recounting male homosexual exploits.

"If he has to run to a website-that speaks volumes for flaws in his diocese."

To politely express concerns:
Bishop Kevin Farrell
Bishop of Diocese of Dallas
PO Box 190507
Dallas, TX 75219
214-528-2240

Update: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051403.html

Governor's Veto Prompts Pastoral Action

2008-05-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Note: What a powerful and direct public repudiation of a public official. The archbishop is right , of course, and we should all pray that the governor amends her life and begins to understand how her actions scandalize the entire body of Christ. In the meantime, this statement serves as a wonderful model for other bishops facing the scandal of politicians in their jurisdictions who openly defy Church teaching and scandalize the faithful.

Governor's Veto Prompts Pastoral Action

On the day of my return (Monday, April 21) from the exhilarating experience of participating in Pope Benedict's pastoral visit to the United States, I learned that Governor Kathleen Sebelius had vetoed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act (HS SB 389), which had been passed by significant majorities in both chambers of the Kansas Legislature. Last week, an attempt to override the governor's veto failed in the Senate by two votes.Governor Sebelius in her veto message claimed: "For years, the people of Kansas have asked their elected officials to move beyond legislative debates on issues like abortion." From her veto message, I received the impression the governor considered it a waste of the Legislature’s time to pass a statute that attempts to protect some women by making certain they have the opportunity to be well-informed: 1) about the development of their unborn child; and 2) about abortion alternatives available to them. Evidently, the governor does not approve of legislators devoting energy to protecting children and women by making it possible to enforce existing Kansas laws regulating late-term abortions.

The governor's veto message demonstrated a lack of respect to the members of the Kansas General Assembly who had carefully crafted and resoundingly passed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, as well as to the many Kansans who find it more than an embarrassment, in no small part due to several previous vetoes by Governor Sebelius of earlier legislative efforts to regulate abortion clinics, that Kansas has become infamous for being the late-term abortion center for the Midwest.

What makes the governor's rhetoric and actions even more troubling has been her acceptance of campaign contributions from Wichita's Dr. George Tiller, perhaps the most notorious late-term abortionist in the nation. In addition to Dr. Tiller's direct donations to her campaign, the governor has benefited from the Political Action Committees funded by Dr. Tiller to support pro-abortion candidates in Kansas.

In her veto message, the governor took credit for lower abortion rates in Kansas, citing her support for "adoption incentives, extended health services for pregnant women, providing sex education and offering a variety of support services for families." Indeed, the governor and her administration should be commended for supporting adoption incentives and health services for pregnant women.

However, the governor overreaches by assuming credit for declining abortion rates in Kansas. Actually, lower abortion rates are part of a national trend. Our neighboring state of Missouri has actually had a steeper and longer decline in its abortion rate.

Governor Sebelius' inclusion of public school sex education programs as a factor in the abortion rate decline is absurd. Actually, valueless sex education programs in public schools have been around for years, coinciding with increased sexual activity among adolescents, as well as increases in teen pregnancy and abortion. On the other hand, the governor does not acknowledge the significant impact of mass media education programs, such as those sponsored by the Vitae Caring Foundation, or the remarkable practical assistance provided by Crisis Pregnancy Centers which are funded through the generosity of pro-life Kansans.

What makes the governor's actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, throughout her public career, even more painful for me is that she is Catholic. Sadly, Governor Sebelius is not unique in being a Catholic politician supporting legalized abortion.

Since becoming archbishop, I have met with Governor Sebelius several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions by which she has cooperated in the procurement of abortions performed in Kansas. My concern has been, as a pastor, both for the spiritual well-being of the governor but also for those who have been misled (scandalized) by her very public support for legalized abortion.

It has been my hope that through this dialogue the governor would come to understand her obligation: 1) to take the difficult political step, but necessary moral step, of repudiating her past actions in support of legalized abortion; and 2) in the future would use her exceptional leadership abilities to develop public policies extending the maximum legal protection possible to the unborn children of Kansas. Having made every effort to inform and to persuade Governor Sebelius and after consultation with Bishop Ron Gilmore (Dodge City), Bishop Paul Coakley (Salina) and Bishop Michael Jackels (Wichita), I wrote the governor last August requesting that she refrain from presenting herself for reception of the Eucharist until she had acknowledged the error of her past positions, made a worthy sacramental confession and taken the necessary steps for amendment of her life which would include a public repudiation of her previous efforts and actions in support of laws and policies sanctioning abortion.

Recently, it came to my attention that the governor had received holy Communion at one of our parishes. I have written to her again, asking her to respect my previous request and not require from me any additional pastoral actions.

The governor has spoken to me on more than one occasion about her obligation to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions. I have asked her to show a similar sense of obligation to honor divine law and the laws, teaching and legitimate authority within the church.

I have not made lightly this request of Governor Sebelius, but only after much prayer and reflection. The spiritually lethal message, communicated by our governor, as well as many other high profile Catholics in public life, has been in effect: "The church's teaching on abortion is optional!" I reissue my request of the faithful of the archdiocese to pray for Governor Sebelius. I hope that my request of the governor, not to present herself for holy Communion, will provoke her to reconsider the serious spiritual and moral consequences of her past and present actions. At the same time, I pray this pastoral action on my part will help alert other Catholics to the moral gravity of participating in and/or cooperating with the performance of abortions.

Amerabia: The Islamicization of the U.S.

2008-05-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Note: I don't mean to be alarmist about the movement of large numbers of Muslims to the U.S. or event their attempts at political activism.

What is more alarming is the drift away from the Catholic faith by Christians and the inactivity or even activism against Catholic faith and morals by nominal Catholics. 90% of Catholics in the U.S. practice birth control and 50% approve of abortion. Divorce rates are lower for "practicing" Catholics, but almost the same as the general population when all baptized Catholics are counted as Catholic.

It will be in another generation when Muslims have assimilated to the degree that they also no longer adhere to their faith according to "The Enemy at Home" by Dinesh D'Souza. The question is whether or not Catholics we'll still be here.

The best defense against having to adopt another culture's customs and values is to strengthen your own. To do so requires that you practice and value them. Has that train left the station for good in the west?

Amerabia: The Islamicization of the U.S.
By: Center for Security Policy

Even Americans knowledgeable about Europe's growing accommodation to the totalitarian ideology, known alternatively as Islamism, jihadism or Islamofascism, tend smugly to believe the same thing can't happen here. Think again.

Every day, new evidence appears of similar acts of submission — the Islamists call it "dhimmitude" — on the part of the U.S. government, judges, the press and leading corporations.

Eurabia, meet the United States of Amerabia.

The Agenda, Loud and Clear

On May 4, an ominous alarm was sounded in a Pajamas Media column by Youssef Ibrahim, a former New York Times reporter. Ibrahim is an astute critic of the Islamists' steady, tireless and increasingly effective efforts to impose, on Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the repressive theo-political-legal agenda they call Shariah law.

He warned that "In the very real war on terror, a noisy squabble over 'fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here' clouds a simple truth: namely, that 'they' are here already. Indeed, Islamists are busy constructing a wing of jihad in America's backyard."

Among the most worrisome of the "they" now operating inside the United States are various front organizations systematically established by the Islamist organization known as the Ikhwan, or Muslim Brotherhood. During last year's federal trial of the Holy Land Foundation on terrorism-financing charges, the government introduced into evidence the names of many scores of such Ikhwan fronts.

Identified also as unindicted co-conspirators were virtually every one of the most prominent Muslim-American organizations, including notably the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

Prosecutors also presented what amounts to a Brotherhood mission statement. According to a memorandum produced by the group in 1991: "The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a "Civilization-Jihadist" process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers."

To be clear, this is not the agenda of all Muslims, certainly not all American Muslims. Yet, we cannot safely ignore the fact that followers of the Muslim Brotherhood are among those who do have such an outcome as their goal — let alone allow our "hands" to contribute to its realization.

Writing about this Brotherhood manifesto in the Dallas Morning News last September, columnist Rod Dreher observed: "The entire 18-page platform outlines a plan for the long haul. It prescribes the Muslim Brotherhood's comprehensive plan to set down roots in civil society. It begins by both founding and taking control of American Muslim organizations, for the sake of unifying and educating the U.S. Muslim community — this to prepare it for the establishment of a global Islamic state governed by Shariah."

Inside the Gates

Unfortunately, in the past 17 years, the Ikhwan has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. Groups like CAIR, ISNA and MPAC not only made great strides in what Ibrahim calls "the common task [of] instill[ing] the notion among Arab-Americans or European immigrant communities of Muslim countries that they are not part of secular multicultural societies." Brotherhood fronts have also penetrated and exercised enormous influence over U.S. government agencies responsible for understanding and countering the Islamist threat.

Space limitations preclude more than a handful of examples: The FBI allows CAIR to provide "sensitivity training" for its agents. U.S. intelligence actively recruits at ISNA and other Ikhwan front conferences. One of ISNA's highly placed admirers, Pentagon deputy chief Gordon England's consigliere Hisham Islam, was allowed to purge the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Islamist expert, Steven Coughlin, for warning against such practices.
Most recently, two key federal agencies, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, encouraged American officials to eschew, when describing our enemies, the use of such terms as jihadist, mujahedeen, Islamic terrorist, Islamist, holy warrior and Islamofascism. According to an Associated Press report, the government is supposed instead to "use the terms 'violent extremist' or 'terrorist.'

Both are widely understood terms that define our enemies appropriately and simultaneously deny them any level of legitimacy." (Evidently, President Bush has not gotten the word as he used what Andy McCarthy calls the "J-word" in his press conference last week.)

The Bottom Line

This astounding act of dhimmitude confirms Steve Coughlin's thesis: The enemy has so thoroughly gotten inside our decision-making as to preclude us from understanding his true nature and threat doctrine. By affording the Ikhwan such an opportunity, we have rendered this country, as a practical matter, incapable of countering our Islamist foes abroad — let alone here at home.

Fortunately, a courageous legislator, Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., has come forward to challenge the emerging Amerabia. She has unveiled a 10-point program that calls for, among other things: investigations of Ikhwan penetrations of our prison and military chaplain corps; an inquiry into the legitimacy of CAIR's tax-exempt status; corrective actions with respect to numerous ill-advised policies vis a vis Saudi Arabia; and addressing the seditious nature of Islamist threats to our government and people.

For her exemplary leadership and determination to resist national dhimmitude, this column recognizes Congresswoman Myrick with its coveted "Horatius (or, for the first time Horatia) at the Bridge" award, for her willingness, like the legendary Roman, to take on singlehandedly the enemy hordes and try to save her country.

We hope she will add to her list and secure the broadest possible support for her efforts.

Bishops vs. Church Teaching

2008-04-29T04:56:00.000-07:00

Pastoral Correction or Damage Control?

It is suspicious timing to say the least that Bob Novak comes out with a column claiming that prominent US Cardinals Wuerl and Egan invited pro-choice politicians to Holy Mass and at the same time Cardinal Egan is saying he "warned Rudy Giuliani" not to receive communion. Either Novak is in error or Egan is employing that well-honed skill that the Bishops have perfected - damage control.

Either way, it is a fact that while the Church hierarchy has clearly enunciated that canon law prohibits a public and persistent sinner from Communion, the U.S. Bishops have waffled in their enforcement and once again this year have deferred a definitive statement on the matter until "after the election" as they did four years ago. In doing so, they bring scandal on the faithful, especially those who have toiled for the unborn for a generation, often against powerful interests in government and industry.

The sin of the bishops reminds me of the sin of David who for lust for a woman exposed his own general in battle. The pro-life warriors like Judy Brown of American Life League, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests For Life, and Fr. Enteneuer of Human Life International, while tirelessly working for the unborn are continually undercut by bishops who are more interested in cozying up to political power and enjoying the trappings of their office than speaking the truth.

The two Cardinals mentioned have questionable pasts themselves as Egan has been linked to the shuttling of sex abusive priests while a bishop in Connecticut and Wuerl likewise while in Pennsylvania was known as "gay-friendly". That such morally weak pastors are less likely to confront the sin of abortion committed by the powerful is no surprise. That the Pope can't seem to persuade them otherwise is the puzzling paradox of our time.

Masonic Connection to EU But No Christian Mention

2008-04-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Note: When the EU Constitution was drafted and circulated, it contained no mention of the Christian heritage of Europe, its contributions to western civilization or any positive effect at all. Pope John Paul II and the Vatican made a request that it be amended to do so and were rejected. The article below however shows the warm relationship between Freemasonry and the EU leadership. So it's no surprise that the Church was repudiated.

Masonic Influence in the EU
By The Brussels Journal
Created 2008-04-17 11:11

A quote from a communique of the French Federation of Le Droit Humain, one of France's major anti-Christian ["liberal and adogmatic"] Masonic lodges, 11 April 2008 [English translation here]

The French Federation of Le Droit Humain represented by its president, Michel Payen, met on April 8, 2008 with the president of the European Commission, Jose-Manuel Barroso, [...] This meeting constitutes a major event regarding the place of Freemasonry in the construction of Europe; this place was underscored not only by the interest and attentiveness that President Barroso showed to the delegation and the time he accorded them, but also by the commitments he made to the values espoused by liberal and adogmatic Freemasonry, its positions and its opinions on subjects of concern. It was the first time that Freemasonry, as such, was able to express itself to such a high level European institution.

The delegation received assurances from President Barroso of his attachment to the spirit of "lacite" and to the principle of separation of religion from the State. The delegation stressed the importance of the Enlightenment in the history of Europe, a dimension to be taken into account at least equally with its religious roots, and certainly more closely tied to the roots of antiquity.

Finally, a principle of communication between the liberal and adogmatic Masonic Orders and the services of the European Commission, to be used whenever needed, was decided upon. Thus the French Federation of Le Droit Humain will propose, in the near future, a recommendation concerning the principle of emancipation that ought to form the basis of all European education systems, in direct relation to a recognition of the contribution of the Enlightenment to the common culture of the peoples that compose Europe, and in accordance with the principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Will Cleansing of Clergy Come Soon?

2008-04-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Commentary: Michael Brown of SpiritDaily.com calls for a "cleansing" of the priesthood to rid the Church of the filth that has permeated every level of the hierarchy 9but 1 I hope). While I also share this dream, I also am realistic on two levels that it will not happen anytime soon.

First of all, the virus by its nature spreads to where it can best survive. So it is in all the chanceries, seminaries and power positions. It controls media releases and writes speeches for the Pope when he travels.

Secondly, there is scriptural basis for a purge that happens once and only once, near to the end times. Jesus in His parables cautioned not to uproot the weeds for sake of the wheat. As well, it is said that the goats and the sheep will be separated when he calls forth his angels in judgment. While the Church has always had the tool of excommunication available for those who teach false doctrines, what we have in the current case is a more shadowy expression of apostasy. It may be that only God can tell who is who.

We like to think of the hierarchical structure as being the most efficient and effective for wielding power and authority. But a type of collegiality exists whereby the members are cautious not to step on each other's toes lest an internecine war break out. Such a war will occur, but in God's own time...

From SpirityDaily.com
IN WAKE OF POPE WHAT WE NEED NOW IS THE COMPLETE CLEANSING OF OUR PRIESTHOOD

Is a purification now underway in the Church?

It is a question that hangs in the air after the extraordinary papal visit.

Much to everyone's surprise, the horrific scandal surrounding homosexual abuse of youth by priests was brought front and center to the stage by a courageous pontiff who clearly saw what that scandal threatened.

He didn't mention much about the war in Iraq. He didn't take on genetics and cloning the way one might have expected (given their potential for future harm). There was an indelible allusion to restoring nature (when the Pope used the profound expression that we must "rediscover the authentic image of Creation"). There was also a message about immigrants and minorities and abortion, about unity.

But for the most part, it was not a policy trip, it was a pastoral one -- and that meant taking care of the blackest mark on Catholicism since its institution in America.

The scandal remains hard to believe: at least 5,000 men consecrated to God and granted the authority of presenting Christ in the Eucharist had used that position to take sexual advantage of young people -- mainly boys. That's not current priests, but since the 1950s.

But it's still deeply shocking and that so many hundreds of priests could have abused so many thousands of youngsters (one number says 19,000, more than a thousand in the Boston archdiocese alone) struck to the very heart of the Church's legitimacy. Truly, the smoke of Satan entered the Church precisely when Pope Paul VI said.

It is now time -- clearly -- to get rid of every last abuser, and to cleanse the priesthood also of homosexuality in general.

Those with a disordered bent need love and ministry but -- pending deliverance -- should not be wearing a collar.

There is the potential for the scandal to fade if bishops now follow through and if the Vatican takes further strong steps. If a bishop or even a cardinal is included, so be it. We won't judge. We'll let the Vatican.

Clearly, Benedict would like this. And his message is that he would rather have fewer good priests than a greater number who are compromised. On April 15th the Holy Father said: "Only healthy people, only people with a profound personal life in Christ and who also have a profound sacramental life can be admitted to the priesthood. It is more important to have good priests than to have many priests."

How right he is: a cleansed priesthood, a devout priesthood, and a holy priesthood will bring the Church -- and vocations -- roaring back.

Let the purification go full bore.

It was probably the priest shortage that caused many bishops to shield abusers. There is also the old adage that what the Church fears most is scandal.

There was no one phrase and no one gesture that stood out on the Pope's trip. Instead, it was the theme of a devastating scandal and need to purge it -- completely.

It was repeated. And repeated again. Once more also.

It was a theme that will either fall by the wayside or open up a floodgate.

In the hopes of many, it will be the latter.

For those abused by priests are not the only ones who have suffered.

So have millions sitting in the pews as "shepherds" who were actually wolves decimated the traditions.

For decades, faithful Catholics have endured an extremely unbalanced clergy: loyal, dedicated priests on one hand, barely Catholic ones on the other -- and not just homosexual.

It is time for the barely Catholic ones to turn completely Catholic -- Catholic in the definition of Rome -- or leave. Often, those of a disordered sexuality are also hostile to devout Catholicism -- equating it with rejection of their mindset.

A purified Church, however small, is what must now be sought -- and what Pope Benedict so clearly and bravely indicated.

We're not talking about extremists. We're not talking about those who go to the other end of the spectrum, denouncing everyone who doesn't kneel the way they do.

We're talking about those who have diminished the way we see Jesus.

Much of it has come by way of those of troubled orientation.

We get distressed when we get e-mails like this:

"For over seven years Minnesota has been noted has a flashpoint in the debate on sodomy inclusion in Catholic theology. The Vatican has directly stepped in on several incidents in the last couple years most notably when Rome directly intervened on Saint Joan of Arc parish and then when the retiring archbishop lost control of his Cathedral, a Vatican Cardinal personally intervened to regain authority over this sacred landmark.

Why are openly homosexual groups allowed to control parish halls -- and often much more than parish halls?

In the news this week -- on at least one Catholic website -- is the claim by a former priest and Church critic that a major cardinal who is now retired recruited seminarians as sexual partners. We hate even referring to this.

But the Sixties led to a culture of sexual perversity and many of those who fell into the realm of homosexuality chose to join the priesthood either because it did not matter to them that they couldn't participate in the heterosexual shenanigans that suddenly dominated our entire culture (discouraging those of normal sexuality from choosing celibacy) or because -- in a world where men were all single -- they could hide their orientation.

Admission of a few led to admission of more and then what at times seemed like close to thirty percent or higher in some especially distraught dioceses.

These were men who may well be very good souls but also suffer (as we all can) from an imbalance.

For the moment, the "why" is not so important. What is important is to help these men and to replace them (if deliverance does not work) with those of balanced psychology.

We do not want to sound harsh. The core of Christianity is love. Without it -- and this means unconditional love -- we are not true Catholics. It is not to condemn.

It is to purify.

For a while, there will be a shortage. Such is part of a purification.

Will it go further?

There are certainly other problems. An anti-traditional mindset has permeated the priesthood, often exhibiting itself in disallowance of holy songs (which were replaced by a sterile modernistic style), discouragement of novenas (which were made to seem archaic), prohibition of Adoration, the all-but-elimination of Confession (sin was no longer sin), and rejection of mysticism -- especially apparitions and weeping statues that seem to indicate a "conservative" view and point to problems in the liberal society (as well as the priesthood).

And so with all due respect and a heavy heart and the admonition that we must love and not condemn let us urge that the "purge" first root out perversity and then focus on those who have stripped the Church of its devotions, ruined its architecture, denounced its mysticism, prevented good men from entering seminaries, introduced the New Age, diluted its music, and besmirched the Blessed Mother and saints.

It is time to purge not just those who are in jail or should have gone to jail but also to cleanse the Church of all imbalance.

No longer should the faithful be asked to endure what has occurred since the sexual revolution (and Vatican II).

No longer should feminists control the admission of seminarians.

No longer should seminaries be a home-away-from home for gays.

No longer should dioceses scoff at miracles.

No longer should a diocese be a bureaucracy (where the devout are unwelcome).

It is time to purify. It is time to take the priesthood back. It is not time for a witch hunt.

But enough is enough.

We are the Church of Jesus.

There are a good number of remarkable priests. We meet them all the time. How they survived is itself miraculous -- a profile in courage.

Let us support them and pray for a purification even if, for a while, it means one priest for every three parishes.

The Pope indicated that this is preferable to more priests than ones who are bad.

It is time to move beyond lip service. It is time to move beyond this awful scandal. It is time to shine for the world.

Let them see how the Church handles itself in tough times. Let them see our honesty.

Let only the good and balanced and devout administer the Eucharist.

The Woman and the Eagle

2008-04-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Pope Receives Warm Welcome in Non-Catholic USA

The difference between how the Pope is treated in Europe compared to the cheering crowds and affection he finds in the USA has been on full display this week.

Only a few weeks ago, a university in Rome that was founded by a past pope effectively protested his impending visit there. Pope Benedict XVI cancelled and stayed home. And while there have been a few protesters along the route or outside the different venues this week, they have been few and largely marginalized.

In a particularly decent gesture, the Pope met with five people who had been caught up in clergy sexual abuse in Boston. He did so out of the spotlight and as a pastor and shepherd. It was no media event and was not announced ahead of time.

His meeting with Catholic college presidents likewise was much anticipated, especially by more traditional catholics who have lamented for some time that the Catholic colleges had drifted too far from orthodoxy and actually were stunting the growth of religious faith. Details on that can be found at our sister site Ivory Tower Heretics and at The Cardinal Newman Society web page.

Everywhere the Pope went, you could hear affection from the crowds, from the thousands at the White House singing Happy Birthday, to the huge crowd at Mass at National's Stadium.

Contrast that with the reception he receives in Europe. When the Pope speaks there it is met with a yawn, indifference or scorn. Europe has lost its soul. The most striking rebuke was when the European Union Constitution was written and credited Greek and Roman civilizations for their contributions but omitted all mention of the Catholic Church and her 2,000 year imprint on Europe.

In the book Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, by Steven Paul, the author describes how the Book of Revelation speaks of a time when the forces of Antichrist will close in on the Vatican in Rome forcing the hierarchy to flee. She is the "Woman Clothed With The Sun." The "Woman" flees with the aid of the "Two Wings of the Eagle, The Great One" to the "Wilderness."

Paul explains that wilderness is a term for a non-Catholic country. Why would the "Woman" flee to a non-Catholic country? Perhaps because the Catholic countries have either apostatized or are under the control or influence of Antichrist.

This week's events make it seem more plausible that the USA would and will perform such an act of mercy as the rescue of the Woman. That team helped end Soviet communist domination over a billion people and will work again to keep the world free.

Hamas Cleric Predicts''Rome Will Be Conquered by Islam'

2008-04-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

Note: The book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation", by Steven Paul essentially makes the same claim as this wacko from Hamas, that Rome will eventually be overrun by the kingdom of Antichrist and the Church will have to flee for safety. Isn't it ironic that this member of the Palestinian Parliament, an sort of oxymoron, sends this message while the pope is in the US?

Hamas Cleric Predicts 'Rome Will Be Conquered by Islam'
Monday , April 14, 2008

A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.

The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."

"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.
"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," he added.

Al-Astal last June preached how it was the duty of Palestinian women to martyr themselves by becoming homicide bombers.

"The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom," he said in a June 23, 2007 interview.

"When jihad becomes an individual duty, it applies to women too, because women do not differ from men when it comes to individual duties," he said, calling Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs" who should "taste the bitterness of death."

Friday's rant repeated that theme: "Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam.

"I believe that our children, or our grandchildren, will inherit our jihad and our sacrifices, and, Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them.

"Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls – and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire at whose brink they stand."

Here Comes the Press!

2008-04-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

Note: You can expect a slew of articles like this one during the pope's visit timed to dampen any enthusiasm for Catholicism his visit might spur. With that said, the data was collected by the US Bishops and does reflect a lax attitude towards the core teachings of the Church, especially the sacraments.

Study Finds American Catholics Embrace Their Faith, But Not Mass
Sunday , April 13, 2008

NEW YORK - American Catholics said in a new survey they were pleased with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, ahead of his first visit to the U.S. since he was elected. The study also found intense interest in faith among some young people.

Yet, few parishioners overall said they go to confession, and most believed they could be good Roman Catholics without going to Mass.

The poll, released Sunday, was commissioned by the nation's bishops and conducted in February by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, head of the bishops' communications committee, was encouraged by the openness to faith in the survey but said it highlighted the need for better religious instruction.

"The challenge for church leaders," he said, "is to help them see what Catholicism really means."
Strengthening Catholic identity and observance are central themes of Benedict's papacy, and topics he is expected to address when he travels to Washington and New York starting Tuesday.

In the survey, eight of 10 Catholics said they were somewhat or very satisfied with his leadership. Nearly half a million people sought tickets to his public events in both cities.

The poll found that Catholics born before 1960 — among the most faithful parishioners — and those born since the 1980s have similar outlooks.

For Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month, an overwhelming majority of the young and older generation believe Christ is present in the Eucharist.

Even more, the younger, regular Mass-goers surpass their elders in observing Lent, with nearly all saying they abstain from meat on Fridays and receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. The young people are also more likely to consider devotion to saints very important to their faith.

However, the study found that only 36 percent of the younger Catholics attend Mass at least once a month, compared with 64 percent of the older generation.

Sixty-eight percent of all Catholics surveyed said they agreed that they believed they could be in good standing with the church without going to weekly Mass.

The poll, "Sacraments Today: Belief and Practice Among U.S. Catholics," found that nearly one-third of the nation's 64 million Catholics attend Mass in any given week. That figure has remained the same in the last five years, according to the report.

Thirty percent of the respondents said they go to confession less than once a year and 45 percent said they never go.

Regarding the church's social justice teaching, two-thirds of Catholics said helping those in need is a moral duty for Catholics.

The survey also measured satisfaction with the American church hierarchy. Seventy-two percent of Catholics said they were somewhat or very satisfied with the bishops' leadership, a 14-point jump since 2004, when the clergy sex abuse crisis was still roiling the church.