Need to get some home improvement stuff tonight

I guess Lowe's is listening. According to the WND, Lowes has dropped the "Holiday tree" and brought back the "Christmas tree" as the war for Christmas rages.

Thanks to DFO for the tip

Happy WHAT?

This blew my mind.

I receive the standard junk mail requests for donations from many sources, but this one stuck out before I threw it out. The culprit was the Maryknoll organization. A nice envelope adorned with the Madonna and Christ Child.

But to the left was the greeting
Happy Holidays.


Better not offend anyone, lest they not donate to us.

In the same breath

I often wonder on the hypocricy and why the media loves this so much. But then I remember those who are not with Christ are against Him.

The MSM has had a field day publishing the rants of former priests who were either, a.) not truly called to be priests, or b.) failed to live up to their calling. These former priests rail against the Church and point out her flaws with a viciousness that reminds me of someone who is so wrong, they are trying to convince themselves of the lies also.

In article 1, Kinkel asks

What's wrong with being a gay priest? If you're celibate, as the Catholic Church already requires you to be, then what's the difference if you're gay or straight at heart?

What is wrong? His logic first of all. Celibacy means forgoing marriage. Homosexuals do that by choice, the real issue is chastity. And if they are chaste and not militantly "pro-gay" then the document on seminary formation does not restrict them from the priesthood. But if you proclaim yourself "gay" you are essentially saying you are proud of your sin and unrepentent. Sinful pride and unrepentence should be exclude one from the seminary also.

In article 2, Steir goes a step further. And this is my main beef. If someone wants to change an organization from within, here is a tip. Put down the shotgun and listen. They claim they want to help solve the priest shortage and think the Vatican should consider married priests, then in the same breath throw out the standard dissident line about women priests.

It is so easy to ignore a person when they keep beating on a wall that is sealed and shut. Women priests are impossible in the Church and Rome has made that clear. If you want to be taken seriously, PLEASE leave the dead horse at home.

More on Archbishop O'Malley's letter

Here is an excellent synopsis on Lifesite regarding the Archbishops letter. The bottom line, so elequently put is

Concluding his letter, the Archbishop answered a common objection made by those with homosexual tendencies. "Sometimes we are told: 'If you do not accept my behavior, you do not love me.' In reality we must communicate the exact opposite: 'Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior,'" he said.

Here is a link to the actual letter.

The MASTER'S Card

As I mentioned in the prior article, as a son of Adam, I am thankful for any method of ridding my soul of the stain of sin. Think of it as "Pay now rather than pay later."

Purgatory is sort of like the pain of paying off credit cards after the holiday. We spend beyond our means and have to purge our accounts of that misdeed. Sin is usually just the corruption of something good. Overeating, sexual fantasies, drunkenness... are just extremes or perversions of enjoying good food, appreciating beauty and the gift of marital union, and enjoying good spirits in moderation.

By our fallen nature we often spend beyond our limit, buy into false ideas, indulge our temptations. So how do we avoid the overdrafts and backdrafts of eternal debtors prison? We tend to rely on a CC, or Church Card. Most CCs are limited in scope to denouncing your debt, and pretending it never happened. Some CCs actually try to change the spending habits of their members. In the Catholic Church Card, CCC, we have the total package. I call it...

The MASTER'S Card.
The MASTER'S Card has many unique offerings.

• "Indulgence Option" Also known as the "Prepay Plan" for those interested paying off debts in small doses. Not to be confuse with indulging temptations, the "Indulgence Option" is granted on special occasions (Jubilees, Annual Recourse* and Bearer Certificates**) to those in need of debt relief. This is no longer a popular option because of Luther's 95 misreadings of terms. It isn't that Christ hasn't saved us, it is because we continue to overspend even after the plan is initiated at baptism.
• "Complete Payoff Plan", aka the Martyrs option, is an immediate complete forgiveness of debts through the shedding of blood. Not a popular option in the Western world, it is still in full use by those members in China and under Islamic rule.
• "Debt Counseling" offered at most parishes on Saturday's from 3:30 to 4:45 pm. This is a completely unique option not offered by any other CCs. If properly understood, all members interested in the Eternal Saving Account would sign up for this option. Regretfully most do not know the power of this offer or think they can live without it.
• "Sunday Money" offers those low on dough a chance to receive free Bread of Life. This Bread offered for the life of the world is available at a Mass near you. This option is best used after signing up for regular "Debt Counseling."

Remember,

Moral bankruptcy leads to eternal damnation, for everything else unconfessed, there is The MASTER'S Card.

*The Year of the Eucharist offer has just expired. Please watch for the next Annual Recourse offer.
**Only available for honoring the Bearer of the Christ Child.

Note to the Good Curt Jester, this is a separate offer, independent of any perceived similarities to your Vatican City State Credit Card Offer. This offer stands alone as a result of the recent Plenary Indulgence Offer.

Sinners take note

Sinners (and there is an I in sinner) take note, Pope Benedict has granted a plenary indulgence for the upcoming feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th.

the decree continues, “the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, when he renders public homage of praise to Mary Immaculate, has the heartfelt desire that the entire Church should join with him, so that all the faithful, united in the name of the common Mother, become ever stronger in the faith, adhere with greater devotion to Christ, and love their brothers with more fervent charity.”

As a son of Adam, I am thankful for any method (granted by the Bride of Christ) of ridding my soul of the stain of sin.

The tolerable genocide

From http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2005/11/darfur-tolerable-genocide.html

Who would have thought that a genocide could become worse? But after
two years of heartbreaking slaughter, rape and mayhem, the situation
in Darfur is now spiraling downward.

More villages are again being attacked and burned -- over the last
week thatch-roof huts have been burning near the town of Gereida and
far to the northwest near Jebel Mun.

Aid workers have been stripped, beaten and robbed. A few more attacks
on aid workers, and agencies may pull out -- leaving the hapless
people of Darfur with no buffer between themselves and the butchers.

The international community has delegated security to the African
Union, but its 7,000 troops can't even defend themselves, let alone
protect civilians. One group of 18 peacekeepers was kidnapped last
month, and then 20 soldiers sent to rescue them were kidnapped as
well; four other soldiers and two contractors were killed in a
separate incident.

What will happen if the situation continues to deteriorate sharply and
aid groups pull out? The U.N. has estimated that the death toll could
then rise to 100,000 a month.

The turmoil has also infected neighboring Chad, which is inhabited by
some of the same tribes as Sudan. Diplomats and U.N. officials are
increasingly worried that Chad could tumble back into its own horrific
civil war as well.

This downward spiral has happened because for more than two years, the
international community has treated this as a tolerable genocide. In
my next column, my last from Darfur, I'll outline the steps we need to
take. But the essential starting point is outrage: a recognition that
countering genocide must be a global priority.

It's true that a few hundred thousand deaths in Darfur -- a good guess
of the toll so far -- might not amount to much in a world where two
million a year die of malaria. But there is something special about
genocide. When humans deliberately wipe out others because of their
tribe or skin color, when babies succumb not to diarrhea but to
bayonets and bonfires, that is not just one more tragedy. It is a
monstrosity that demands a response from other humans. We demean our
own humanity, and that of the victims, when we avert our eyes.

Already, large swaths of Darfur are so unsafe that they are ''no go''
areas for humanitarian organizations -- meaning that we don't know
what horrors are occurring in those areas. But we have some clues.

There are widespread reports that the janjaweed, the government-backed
Arab marauders who have been slaughtering members of several African
tribes, sometimes find it convenient not to kill or expel every last
African but to leave a few alive to grow vegetables and run markets.
So they let some live in exchange for protection money or slave labor.

One Western aid worker in Darfur told me that she had visited an area
controlled by janjaweed. In public, everyone insisted -- meekly and
fearfully -- that everything was fine.

Then she spoke privately to two sisters, both of the Fur tribe. They
said that the local Fur were being enslaved by the janjaweed, forced
to work in the fields and even to pay protection money every month
just to be allowed to live. The two sisters said that they were forced
to cook for the janjaweed troops and to accept being raped by them.

Finally, they said, their terrified father had summoned the courage to
beg the janjaweed commander to let his daughters go. That's when the
commander beheaded the father in front of his daughters.

''They told me they just wanted to die,'' the aid worker remembered in
frustration. ''They're living like slaves, in complete and utter fear.
And we can't do anything about it.''

That aid worker has found her own voice, by starting a blog called
''Sleepless in Sudan'' in which she describes what she sees around
her. It sears at http://sleeplessinsudan.blogspot.com, without the
self-censorship that aid groups routinely accept as the price for
being permitted to save lives in Darfur.

Our leaders still haven't found their voices, though. Congress has
even facilitated the genocide by lately cutting all funds for the
African Union peacekeepers in Darfur; we urgently need to persuade
Congress to restore that money.

So what will it take? Will President Bush and other leaders discover
some backbone if the killing spreads to Chad and the death toll
reaches 500,000? One million? God forbid, two million?

How much genocide is too much?

Three for Monday

The Curt Jester steps up with the true meaning of Advent.

Amy Welborn links to "What they defend".

And Archbishop O'Malley of Boston steps up to the plate, and delivers another hit.

Okay that was four links, but it was three subjects.

Officially leaked

The long awaited Instruction concerning the criteria of vocational discernment regarding persons with homosexual tendencies has been leaked. For such a highly sought after document and being from the Vatican, it is very short and easily read. Perhaps the Vatican has learned to speak a bit slower and clearer for those hard of hearing.

Here is the main point in my opinion:

The desire alone to become a priest is not sufficient and there is no right to receive Ordination. It is the duty of the Church... to discern the qualification of he who wishes to enter the seminary,

The Church has the duty to oversee her priests' formation. And as the document clearly states, homosexual acts are gravely sinful and homosexual tendencies are disordered.

Notice there is no condemnation of the sinner. Just pure Catholic teaching on sin and its results.

It would probably almost pass

Andy at High School Conservative has a great parody of those opposing Prop 73 in California.

Thanks to the tip from Katelyn Sills of Stand Up and Speak Out. This is Ms. Sills that was expelled from Loretto high school for standing up for the Catholic faith.

More reason for optimism for our future.

Why does this look familiar

A humorous look at the Divine and the not-so-divine Liturgy

Never again, again?

The latest from the Coalition for Darfur published in the NY Times.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
20 November 2005
The New York Times

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

TAMA, Sudan -- So who killed 2-year-old Zahra Abdullah for belonging
to the Fur tribe?

At one level, the answer is simple: The murderers were members of the
janjaweed militia that stormed into this mud-brick village in the
South Darfur region at dawn four weeks ago on horses, camels and
trucks. Zahra's mother, Fatima Omar Adam, woke to gunfire and smoke
and knew at once what was happening.

She jumped up from her sleeping mat and put Zahra on her back, then
grabbed the hands of her two older children and raced out of her
thatch-roof hut with her husband.

Some of the marauders were right outside. They yanked Zahra from Ms.
Fatima's back and began bludgeoning her on the ground in front of her
shrieking mother and sister. Then the men began beating Ms. Fatima and
the other two children, so she grabbed them and fled -- and the men
returned to beating the life out of Zahra.

At another level, responsibility belongs to the Sudanese government,
which armed the janjaweed and gave them license to slaughter and rape
members of several African tribes, including the Fur.

Then some responsibility attaches to the rebels in Darfur. They claim
to be representing the tribes being ethnically cleansed, but they have
been fighting each other instead of negotiating a peace with the
government that would end the bloodbath.

And finally, responsibility belongs to the international community --
to you and me -- for acquiescing in yet another genocide.

Tama is just the latest of many hundreds of villages that have been
methodically destroyed in the killing fields of Darfur over the last
two years. Ms. Fatima sat on the ground and told me her story -- which
was confirmed by other eyewitnesses -- in a dull, choked monotone, as
she described her guilt at leaving her child to die.

''Zahra was on the ground, and they were beating her with sticks, but
I ran away,'' she said. Her 4-year-old son, Adam, was also beaten
badly but survived. A 9-year-old daughter, Khadija, has only minor
injuries but she told me that she had constant nightmares about the
janjaweed.

At least Ms. Fatima knows what happened to her daughter. A neighbor,
Aisha Yagoub Abdurahman, is beside herself because she says she saw
her 10-year-old son Adil carried off by the janjaweed. He is still
missing, and everyone knows that the janjaweed regularly enslave
children like him, using them as servants or sexual playthings. In
all, 37 people were killed in Tama, and another 12 are missing.

The survivors fled five miles to another village that had been
abandoned after being attacked by the janjaweed a year earlier. Now
the survivors are terrified, and they surrounded me to ask for advice
about how to stay alive.

None of them dared accompany me back to Tama, which is an eerie ghost
town, doors hanging off hinges and pots and sandals strewn about. The
only inhabitants I saw in Tama were camels, which are now using the
village as a pasture -- and which the villagers say belong to the
janjaweed. On the road back, I saw a group of six janjaweed, one
displaying his rifle.

Darfur is just the latest chapter in a sorry history of repeated
inaction in the face of genocide, from that of Armenians, through the
Holocaust, to the slaughter of Cambodians, Bosnians and Rwandans. If
we had acted more resolutely last year, then Zahra would probably
still be alive.

Attacks on villages like Tama occur regularly. Over the last week, one
tribe called the Falata, backed and armed by the Sudanese government,
has burned villages belonging to the Masalit tribe south of here.
Dozens of bodies are said to be lying unclaimed on the ground.

President Bush, where are you? You emphasize your willingness to speak
bluntly about evil, but you barely let the word Darfur pass your lips.
The central lesson of the history of genocide is that the essential
starting point of any response is to bellow moral outrage -- but
instead, Mr. President, you're whispering.

In a later column, I'll talk more specifically about actions we should
take, and it's true that this is a complex mess without easy
solutions. But for starters we need a dose of moral clarity. For all
the myriad complexities of Darfur, what history will remember is that
this is where little girls were bashed to death in front of their
parents because of their tribe -- and because the world couldn't be
bothered to notice.

the prophetical value of Pope Paul VI's "Humanae Vitae"

A great article from Zenit News on the dangers of contraception. Scientific studies are revealing the dangers of several versions of contraception.

The Ortho Eve patch (How fitting a name, Eve being the first woman to be tempted to "be like God" and make her own decisions about her body)

exposes users to more hormones than previously disclosed, the Associated Press reported Nov. 11. The higher level of hormones brings an increased risk of blood clots and other serious side effects.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer have found that estrogen-progesterone oral contraceptives are carcinogenic. And for those about to dismiss the IARC as some religious nuts posing as scientists, first consider that they are the cancer research division of the World Health Organization. And I don't think religious zealots and WHO exactly go hand in hand.

Can we get this officially defined as a serious sin

The Curt Jester has another masterpiece, The sin of commision.

What is not to understand about "must follow"

It always irks me when our bishops want to debate whether to implement instructions from the Vatican that are not optional.

The Vatican, which has said that all translations must follow literally from the Latin,

These corrections of mistranslations would ease much of the suffering of those who know, but can do little to change the errors. One of my favorite irks

The second would change the prayer "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" to "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."

Big difference there. We place too much emphasis on our bodies and too little on our soul in our society, and here the Mass has been mistranslated to do the same.

And locally, we have the experience of the misguided "throwing the blessing back" motion with our hands when we say, "and also with you." This extending the arms is a priestly gesture not to be used by the laity. Perhaps this will help rid us of that.

The third follows the priest's blessing of "the Lord be with you." It would change the congregation's response from "and also with you" to "and with your spirit."

Chicken or egg

If we had to divide up our activist energy as it relates to which cultural fight we would join, where would we fall?

I have thought about this on occasion. Is it more important to ensure our freedoms as Americans, or should we focus on right to life issues? This came up again in the hubub about Harriet Miers. Is it enough that she was pro-life? Anyone reading my blog would know that I think the right to life (in the legal battle) hinges on bigger issues. If we see the US Constitution as the primary protection of our God given rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, then the someone who will interpret the Consitution correctly will recognize the right to life.

So the right to life is the first and foremost, but from a judicial standpoint, we should be concerned about the whole constitution. The right to life will be taken care of in that stand.

This is why I had a problem with Priests for Life and Focus on the Family's endorsements of Miers on the sole grounds that she was pro-life.

But back to my question, where would I stand if I could only take one?

I would take it on Catholicism. I think the battles we face in our country will not be resolved without a dramatic return to morality. And I don't think morality can stand without the authority of the Church. Without that authority, the Bible can be interpreted however someone wants to twist it.

Relax

For all those who are concerned about SCOTUS nominee Alito's stance on abortion, relax.

And a side note to those on the other side claiming this should disqualify him, read this and shut-up:

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a long history of advocacy on behalf of liberal causes, but she was evaluated on her 13-year record as a federal judge and her jurisprudence, not her belief that there was a constitutional right to prostitution or polygamy."

Now, what is with the apparent contradiction with Alito's beliefs and rulings? As some have taken the pain to point out, the SCOTUS isn't just about abortion. Roe v. Wade was judicial usurpation. The case was a fraud and the ruling had no basis in the constitution.

Those of us who have been fighting for good judges (and pressuring poor appointments to withdraw) are not just looking for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. There are so many cases where judicial activism is tearing our country down by the foundation. Lawrence v. Texas, another fraud case that was setup to destroy marriage. The Massachusetts court mandating the legislature to create a law.

This is about appointing judges that will judge according to the constitution and work within the checks and balances of our Judicial system.

Judge Alito has a personal belief that abortion is wrong. But rightly or wrongly, the Supreme Court has set the precedence that abortion is legal. Alito recognized that he was not the sole arbitrator of the law, but a judge within a system. And as a lower level judge, he followed the rulings that set precedence from above, despite his personal belief. Oh, would that more judges would realize it isn't about them.

Once confirmed to the HIGHEST court in the land, he may correctly rule based on the constitution. He will help set the precedent, and rightly so.

Ahh, relief is in sight

For those yearning for a more reverent liturgy, help may be on the way. Although the Vatican typically moves at a snails pace, the Pope encourages quick completion of English Mass translation.

...the new translation from Latin will allow the English-speaking faithful around the world to "benefit from the use of liturgical texts accurately rendered."


...will succeed in transmitting the treasures of the faith and the liturgical tradition in the specific context of a devout and reverent eucharistic celebration.

I heard a bit on this on Catholic Answers Live also. The guest (forgive me, I don't recall the name) said that this was in response to some requested changes by the American bishops.

As one who suffers from knowing what the proper translations should be, yet unable to do much about it; all I can say is, HOORAY!

Classic case of denial

In an article called Group warns about failed birth control, the director of the Westchester Planned [anti-]Parenthood office offers her brilliant analysis of why two women on Depo Provera got pregnant.

"'We don't know how these women got pregnant,'" Ms Winjum said."

We are under the impression that the Depo shot was not the cause.

I am left wondering if these women got all the bad side effects without the "desired" suppression of a woman's natural cycle.

My letter to the editor

In his letter ("Hierarchy wants control," Nov 8) that the Catholic Church is afraid of women priests, Mike opines from a humanistic perspective. But as often is the case, this is similar to looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The view is very narrow.First, married priest would likely lead to greater loyalty, even sucking up, to the bishop. Celibate priests can readily be moved from parish to parish, but a married priest would be burdened greatly by a move. So desire for stability or prime locations would be a greater influence. A priest has a family and it is his parish. Adding another family reminds me of the verse that a man cannot serve two masters.

Women priests are not feared, they are impossible. The priest represents Christ, the Church represents the Bride of Christ. Female priests would equal a homosexual relationship and as Mike alluded, that is incompatible with the Christian faith.

Thirdly, there was no tacit approval of gay priests.

Nay, this wasn't about control, The Church is concerned about our salvation. But Her perspective is from the correct end of the telescope.

Catholics and sports, a fresh look

Here is the original article about the Vatican taking a look into the Christian mission role in sports.

Here is a sampling the Daily Eudemon's take.

The Holy Three: Owner, Player, Agent
Liturgical Dance in the End Zone
Forgiving the Father Who Stabs You for Not Playing His Son in Tee Ball
Soccer Moms: Possessed or Devoted?
Helping Pros Who Receive the Minimum $350,000.00 Annual Salary

And I will add

Press Conference Preaching
How to Claim God's Help in Victory Without Insulting Thy Opponent
Know It, Love It, Serve Me; Tales of an Obsessive Parent
Smack Talkin' In All Charity
How Deion Sanders Found god, and his name was Deion.
There is no Deity without Dei[on]

One line says it all regarding "gay" priests

“It’s not about you. It’s about the Church and the good of the Church”

Okay, I lied, I can't just not comment on this. Commenting is why I blog.

Actually, this doesn't just apply to the "gay" priests. It applies to everyone. Starting with anyone that thinks the Church should change to meet their needs.

Speaking of boycotts

The shortest and most effective boycott I can remember has ended as Catholic League's boycott of Walmart ends. Walmart apologized, fired the drunken Siberian Shaman named Kirby and fixed their web page so that Christmas isn't replaced by Holiday.

It isn't like I am going to start shopping at Walmart anyway, but I am glad they did the right thing. Cheap slave-labor goods and small community destroying policies are still in place, so they stay on the Don't-need-them list.

Finally some sense from Congress

I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package. It is about time the elected leaders of our country realize we can't keep running up the charge card. As Senator Coburn states

Congress is learning what the American people already know – charity requires
sacrifice.

Time to get our local WA and ID senators on board.

Boycotting 101

Eric Scheske of The Daily Eudemon hits on a topic I have been considering lately. How is a good Christian supposed to keep up. I like his advice on using a soft boycott.

If I can boycott an item without excess expense or inconvenience, I
will.

Driving all over town to avoid buying from certain companies is probably not in the best interest financially and family wise.

But in certain areas, I draw the line. American Girl, we can do without. A betrayal on that level deserves a swift kick in the bottom line. As a family we don't buy made in China. If I exhaust all other options on a necessary item, I may buy the item and counter with at donation to PRI or HLI's work in China.

From the not so fat and happy

Come another view on why CAFTA and all the free "trade" agreements are bad for the poor of other countries.

CAFTA did not come down from God. It is the flawed work of man, and only one of many versions of how our nations could be linked. I thank those members of the U.S. Congress who voted against CAFTA. They desire trade with fairness, justice and morality. They rise against the Bush administration’s threats to cut off our existing trade preferences so as to force Central American approval of this trade agreement. They yearn for a country that cooperates with, not presides over, its neighbors in the Western hemisphere.

Funny how the peasant farmers of Guatemala find time to be informed and protest these steps to global tyranny, but ask any affluent American about CAFTA and you get a blank stare.

Kudo's to Bishop Álvaro Ramazzini for a thoughtful and well written article. Here is a bishop truly concerned about the poor.

A Book for all Ages

One of the recent Words of Encouragement shows how timeless the Bible is.

Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Even if these forget! We have forgotten O Lord, have mercy on US!

Why we care

Why should we care so much about the courts and who sits on them? Is it really necessary to fight over these distant judges?

Read this article about the 9 Circus Court of Appallings. When the courts are saying the parents have no fundamental right to teach their own values to their kids, the fight has been thrust into your living room.

The bitter pill

A thought provoking article at Christianity Today.

Dying to self isn't easy. Especially when the culture surrounding us promotes the worship of self so completely.

Could the little pill have stood for more than just a chance to get a fiscally responsible life before opening it up to stinky diapers? Could [the pill] have changed not just the hormonal makeup of my cells, but also what cannot be seen under a microscope? Could it have served as one more safety lock on the door not just to my womb, but also to my figure, my marriage, my home, my career, my gym routine?

Here she hit the basic erroneous assumption of contraception

After taking care of that divine mess, she gave a lecture on the eugenics-rooted assumptions that have led Western Christians like me to view children—and even the possibility of their arrival—as an inconvenient interruption. Why, she asked, do we feel the need to perfectly time and fit children into our busy schedules? Is this a Christian instinct?"Only in a small number of cultures do we have the idea that adults should do their work, worship, and entertainment without the presence of children," she says.

As the song goes, "it ain't easy being easy." And that is especially true when we are submitting to God's will over our own.

Ah, baby clothes. Living in the space where human and divine freedoms overlap doesn't come easy, so my first reaction to her offer was weak-throated: gulp.

If this don't tell the tale

No chance of puppies for this couple. They've been spayed and neutered.

I have used that line on occasion when folks tell me that they have been "fixed." I reply that neutering is for dogs or cattle.

Wanna bet this poor old lady doesn't have any grandkids to spoil?

Well done parodies are like

well... well done parodies. This parody on the Rad Trads is hilarious. Titled Society of St. Pius the First, they claim “To be any more Trad, you’d have to be Jewish.”

It's a little bit like that

Today's BC cartoon, reminds me a little bit of the push for anesthesia for the baby during an abortion.

Clarification please

In the WND article, the Church appears to give credence to evolution as worthy to believe.

This is true, at least partially. The Church accepts the scientific theory of evolution. It does not take the next step most "evolutionists" take in proclaiming God is not needed.

From John Allen's interview with Professor Nicola Cabibbo:

What clashes with divine creation is an extension of the theory of evolution
into materialistic interpretations, the so-called "evolutionism." What
evolutionism says, and here I'm thinking about people such as Dawkins, is that
there's no need for God. But that is not science, it's not part of what has been
discovered by science.

So, if we read the deeper into the article we see,

We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the
possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free
itself from every ethical or religious link,

So the sum of this is, faith in God as Creator is not opposed to science. True science will lead us to discover God. What we see in today's world is the evolutionists are crossing the boundary of science into faith. They are saying because of science, we can reason there is no God. Perhaps they would be better served to stay in the lab and out of preaching. Evolution is not a religion, it is a theory. Prove it to me in a lab and I will believe it. We are talking science, I will not accept it on faith.

Church says science and intellect is useful as long as it is not detached from religion.

Evolutionists say science doesn't need religion or God.

Who is being unreasonable here?

Anti-name calling to avoid losing an argument

From another blogs comments, where I was accused of being anti-intellectual.

My rebuttal
First, define anti-intellectual. Second, prove that I am that.

I find the use of the word to be a cop out. Many times when someone has no reply, they expose their shallow argument by name calling or throwing out an "ism" or "anti". For example, calling those conservatives who opposed Miers sexist. Or calling someone who isn't progressive anti-intellectual.

I am actually very intellectual about my faith. Sometimes too much so. My struggle often comes in feeling in my heart what I know in my head. I read when I have the time, enjoy reading and learning about my faith. I have listened to numerous tapes and CDs to learn my faith.

What I understand you to be saying is I don't follow the progressive mantra that the hierarchy is bad. And since many of the progressives are so-called intellectuals with PHDs, therefore I must be anti-intellectual.

On the contrary, as I have said before, true learning, true knowledge will lead us to Christ. I find many of these "intellectuals" to be leading people away from Christ, often because they don't like sharing the spotlight even with God.

Tell me how many people Fr. McBrien has brought to Christ. How many have really deepened their relationship with God because of him? I find him directing people to a self-worship.

Compare that to how many people have come to Christ because of Scott Hahn, Marcus Grodi and such. True conversion, true discipleship means dying to self, not promoting self.

I find the abortion/contraception crowd trying to fill that God shaped hole with earthly pleasure. Trying to put the self in that God shaped hole.

Straight from the Bible

Straight from the Bible and one of my favorite verses (I try to remember this verse whenever I encounter trials.)
John 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

From CNA, Archbishop: Pope will ‘prune’ institutions with weak Catholic identity

Archbishop Miller based his prediction on the writings of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He said the writings indicate that the new Pope believes it is a mistake to uphold institutions that lack a solid Catholic identity.

"[The Pope] argued that it might be better for the Church not to expend its resources trying to preserve institutions if their Catholic identity has been seriously compromised," the archbishop was quoted as saying. "His writings show that a time of purification lies ahead, and this undoubtedly will have some ramifications for Catholic institutions."

Archbishop Miller said the Pope believes the “measure of an institution can be judged by its Catholic integrity."

A sad yet hopeful thought, we must pray so these institutions will realize what it means to be Catholic. Excercising the correct authority of discipline is never meant to diminish or harm those punished, but rather to correct and call them back to obedience. Something that as a parent we must also remember.

Pruning is for the good of the tree.

And a "well liked" child psychiatrist he must be

From the bizarre career choices file we find this.

The former Kiss manager who spent 10 years on the lam to avoid supporting his ex-wife and kids pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge yesterday in a deal that allows him to resume working as a child psychiatrist.

...

His ex-wife, Rita Hilsen, who lives in an Upper West Side homeless shelter, criticized the deal as risky because her ex may flee again.

So, he keeps his license as a child psychiatrist? How many ways does that seem wrong. The good news is he knew it was wrong to avoid paying child support.

And more good news. There is one more child psychiatrist for all those little minds messed up by dead beat dads.