Is an all-male priesthood discriminatory?

In response to the controversy over the HHS mandate, many critics have accused the Catholic Church of being "anti-woman."

In addition to criticizing the Church's opposition to the mandate, these critics will often trot out the old charge that the Church discriminates against women because only males are allowed to be ordained priests.

My response to these critics:

One must be careful not to assume that all gender distinctions are discriminatory. One would not argue that God has discriminated against males by not allowing them to become pregnant. Or,that He has discriminated against females by not allowing them to impregnate. There is a greater point or purpose to these distinctions, even if we do not fully understand it.

So, likewise, we cannot assume upfront that an all-male priesthood is discriminatory. If God intended there to be gender distinctions in the physical realm, who is to say he has not also intended gender distinctions in the spiritual realm?

We must remember that the all-male priesthood has its roots in the selection of the twelve Apostles by Jesus Himself. So, if we follow the reasoning that the all-male priesthood is discriminatory to its logical conclusion, we would have to declare that Jesus discriminated against women when He selected only males to be his Apostles. Yet, we know that cannot be, because Jesus was without sin.

Moreover, Jesus bucked the conventions of His day on many issues, so why would He not do so in his selection of the Apostles? Once again, there must be a deeper point or purpose there, even if it is difficult for us to discern or understand.

Many Catholics do not realize that there is a complex theology at the heart of the Catholic priesthood, rooted in the idea of Christ as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride. The priest theologically assumes the role of Christ and becomes the bridegroom in relation to the Church as the bride. If the priest were to be a female, the theology breaks down, because you end up with two brides and no bridegroom.

Washington Times: "New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism"

A coincidence? I think not.

From the Washington Times:

The Obama campaign apparently didn't look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, "Forward" — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name "Forward!" or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called "Forward (generic name of socialist publications)."

"The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications," the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan "Forward!" reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word "Forward" with the "O" having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign's official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named "Vorwaerts" (the German word for "Forward"). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany's SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).

Vladimir Lenin founded the publication "Vpered" (the Russian word for "forward") in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as "Forward, Soviet" (though also and more literally as "Stride, Soviet").

Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama's history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.

Paul Ryan explains his proposed budget in light of Catholic Social Teaching

Congressman Paul Ryan (R, WI), in an op-ed published in the National Catholic Register, explains that his proposed budget incorporates principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

I am particularly pleased to see his references to the principle of subsidiarity, by which the Church warns of the the dangers of centralizing power in large, distant bureaucracies (the U.S. government comes to my mind).

The full text:

The Catholic Church offers a rich overview of its thought, summarized in the Compendium of Social Doctrine, to guide Catholics in bringing truth to society’s problems. In his introduction, Cardinal Renato Martino, then president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, wrote, “This area belongs in a particular way” to those lay faithful who are active “in the social sector.”

As a congressman and Catholic layman, I am persuaded that Catholic social truths are in accord with the “self-evident truths” our Founders bequeathed to us in the founding ideas of America: independence, limited government and the dignity and freedom of every human person. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, I am tasked with applying these enduring principles to the urgent social problems of our time: an economy that is not providing enough opportunities for our citizens, a safety net that is failing our most vulnerable populations, and a crushing burden of debt that is threatening our children and grandchildren with a diminished future.

These problems are related: The debt is weighing on job creation today, closing off the most promising avenues for the poor to rise. As a result, more and more of society’s most vulnerable remain mired in public-assistance programs whose outdated structures often act as a trap that hinders upward mobility. And this economic stagnation and growing dependence fuels the growing national debt — a vicious cycle that calls for bold reforms equal to the challenge.

We cannot continue to ignore this problem. The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has rightly termed this attitude “living in untruth … at the expense of future generations.” In approaching this problem as a lay Catholic in public life, I have found it useful to apply the twin principles of solidarity (recognition of the common ties that unite all human beings in equal dignity) and subsidiarity (respect for the relationships between individuals and intermediate social groups such as families, businesses, schools, local communities and state governments).

When applied in equal measure, these principles complete and balance each other. But when one is applied exclusively, the result can be harmful. For example, in a misapplication of solidarity, politicians in both parties expanded big government for decades. These policies have had dismal results. One out of every six people in the United States is now living below the poverty level — the largest number of poor people on record.

We need a better approach to restore the balance, and the House-passed budget offers one by reintroducing subsidiarity, which the Holy Father has called “the most effective antidote against any form of all-encompassing welfare state.” Our budget builds on the successful welfare reforms of the 1990s, using federal subsidium to empower state and local governments, communities and individuals — those closest to the problems of society. Our budget promotes opportunity and upward mobility by strengthening job-training programs to help those who have fallen on hard times.

Our budget ends welfare for those who don’t need it, but strengthens welfare programs for those who do. Government safety-net programs have been stretched to the breaking point in recent years, failing the very citizens who need help the most. When solidarity and subsidiarity are in balance, civil society is revitalized, not displaced. We rightly pride ourselves on looking out for one another — and government has an important role to play in that. But relying on distant government bureaucracies to lead this effort just hasn’t worked.

Instead of letting critical health and retirement programs go bankrupt, our budget saves and strengthens them so they can fulfill their missions in the 21st century. President Barack Obama’s health-care law puts a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of cutting Medicare. This is wrong. I do not believe we should turn the fate of our parents and grandparents over to an unaccountable board and let it make decisions that could deny them access to their care.

Our budget keeps the protections that have made Medicare a guaranteed promise for the elderly. It makes no changes for those in or near retirement. Our proposed reforms restore subsidiarity by putting seniors themselves in charge of their personal health-care decisions. In solidarity with the elderly, our budget empowers them to choose the coverage that works best for them, with a guarantee of high-quality care at an affordable price. And it allows seniors to choose a traditional Medicare option if they prefer.

Our budget averts the looming debt-fueled economic crisis, which would hurt the poor the first and the worst. It lifts the debt and frees the nation from the constraints of ever-expanding government. And it promotes economic growth and opportunity, with bold reforms to make the tax code fair and equitable and a credible, principled plan to prevent a debt crisis from ever happening.

Our budget has been criticized for giving tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the poor. It does no such thing. Instead of taking more and more from the paychecks of working Americans, the House budget proposes a comprehensive reform of the tax code to make it fair, simple and competitive. We would lower rates for everyone across the board. But revenue would still rise every year under our budget because our economy grows and because our budget proposes to eliminate special-interest loopholes that go primarily to the influential and well-off. Washington should not micromanage people’s decisions through the tax code. Basic economics and basic morality both tell us that people have a right to keep and decide how to spend their hard-earned dollars.

I have been making a serious effort to explain how the truths of Catholic social thought impact our budget, claiming neither a monopoly on the social teachings nor that persons of good faith must agree with my practical answers. I have invited those with different views to dialogue about the facts. Pope Benedict’s example of charitable debate with politicians, philosophers, scholars and clergy outside of the faith should inspire our own Catholic dialogue on how the social magisterium furthers the common good and well-being of all Americans.

For those who are interested in learning more about the important principle of subsidiarity (including links to Church teaching documents), click HERE and HERE.

Book trailer: "Adam and Eve After the Pill Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution" by Mary Eberstadt

I am placing this book on my "must read" list.





A short essay that provides a succinct and powerful explanation of the Catholic Church's teaching on contraception can be found here.

A commentary on why the Catholic Church opposes contraception can be found here.

Full text of Humanae Vitae can be found here.

Information on the Benefits of Natural Family Planning can be found here.

The Church, Women, and Contraception

In response to the controversy over the HHS mandate, many people on the left have responded by accusing the Catholic Church of being anti-woman, or even worse, of "hating" women.

Jennifer Fulwiler, an insightful blogger for the always excellent National Catholic Register, has penned a thought-provoking essay arguing that just the opposite is the case.  She argues that the Church loves women and is looking out for their best interest.

I strongly encourage you to read the whole piece, which can be found here.

This passage is an excerpt that I found to be particularly striking:

...it is only the Catholic Church that is willing to tell women unpopular truths about human sexuality. Only the Catholic Church dares to remind us that the human sexual act always carries the potential to create new human beings, and that we're setting ourselves and our future children up for disaster when we disregard this most fundamental of truths. It may not be convenient. It may not be what people want to be true. But it is true. And knowing the truth is always a prerequisite for freedom.

And so I find it ironic when contraception is said to allow anyone to live "freely." Secular culture assures women that they can go ahead and engage in the act that creates babies, even if they are not ready to be mothers. They are handed contraception, and told to forget all about the possibility of parenthood. Then, when the contraception fails, as it so often does, they find themselves feeling trapped, perceiving that their only escape is through the doors of an abortion facility. This, to me, does not look like freedom.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jennifer-fulwiler/the-contraception-trap/#ixzz1soaQWyiq

Video: F-35 - Joint Strike Fighter - In flight

White Sox pitcher Phil Humber throws perfect game!

Amazing!

From the USA Today:

White Sox right-hander Phil Humber pitched the third perfect game in franchise history, mowing down the Seattle Mariners 4-0 at Safeco Field on Saturday.

It was the 20th regular-season perfect game in major league history and from a most unlikely hero: Humber had never pitched into the ninth inning in his career, let alone pitch a complete game.

His place in history was ensured only after a most perilous ninth inning.

With Humber one out away from pulling it off, pinch-hitter Brendan Ryan went to a 3-2, count, fouled off a pitch, then struck out on a checked swing that he vehemently argued. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski was forced to retrieve the ball and throw to first for the 27th out...Source

Photo Credit: Steve Bisig, US Presswire

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announces plan to increase teacher pension contributions and to reduce benefits in order to help fix the state's fiscal crisis

It really stinks that irresponsible politicians failed to pay the state's share of the pension fund for decades, so they could use that money to cover their overspending in other areas allowing them to "artificially" balance the budget as required by law, and now they want the people they screwed over to each pony up tens of thousands of dollars in additional payments and lost benefits to help clean up the the mess they made.

Where are the investigations? All who have had a hand in this debacle should be thrown in jail for fraud. They are all a disgrace. 

From the Chicago Tribune:

Quinn called for employees to pay 3 percent more and to work until 67 instead of 65 or even earlier in some cases. The governor also would reduce yearly cost-of-living increases for retirees to 3 percent or half of the consumer price index, whichever is less. Pension calculations would be based on simple interest rather than compound interest, the more costly method now in place. Cost-of-living adjustments also would start at either age 67 or five years after retirement, whichever is earlier.

In addition, Quinn's plan would seek to halt some of the pension windfalls for people who aren't even in state government but get into state retirement systems. Public pensions would be limited to public sector employment. That came as a nod to pension abuses uncovered by the Tribune that showed how union leaders managed to count time in their jobs as union officials.

The plan also would require the state to pump in the correct amount that is owed to the pensions, a decision based on actual math rather than the gut feeling of how much lawmakers and governors want to spend each year. There's nothing to stop lawmakers from hitting the reset button as they've done in the past, however.

Quinn estimated his proposal would save the state between $65 billion and $85 billion over 30 years. Quinn said the retirement systems would be 100 percent funded by 2042. Current law calls for 90 percent funding and theoretically would reach that point in 2045, but the costs threaten to eat up the state budget for decades.

"This is a plan that will erase the liability," Quinn said. "At the end of 2042, we won't owe billions of dollars."

Quinn would give current employees the option to reject the changes and remain enrolled in the current retirement plans. But there's a big stick if an employee doesn't take the carrot: Current employees who refuse to accept the new pension plan would not be allowed to figure any future pay raises into their overall pension calculation, and they would lose state-paid health care upon retirement.

The plan would not affect current retirees, Quinn said.

Republican leaders Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont and Tom Cross of Oswego fear the Quinn plan would create a cost shift of up to $1 billion that would force property taxes to go up, always a hot-button issue for homeowners.

At issue is Quinn's goal of shifting pension costs for elementary and high school teachers outside Chicago onto the ledgers of local school districts and community colleges, which are partially funded by property taxes. Quinn also seeks to shift pension costs the state now picks up for public universities back to their overall operations.

Labor unions, long a honey pot of campaign funds for Democrats, wasted no time condemning the proposal. Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan, on behalf of a coalition of unions, called the plan tantamount to an endorsement of "unfair and unconstitutional cuts."

For decades, state workers have operated under the belief that their retirement plans basically could only go up and not go down, seizing on a reference in the Illinois Constitution that says their pensions cannot be diminished... Full article

If you want to take a look at this issue from the perspective of the teachers who are affected, check out this blog.

Full text: Controversial (but wonderful) homily by Bishop Daniel Jenky, CSC

This past Sunday Bishop Daniel Jenky, CSC of Peoria, Illinois, delivered a controversial homily in which he is alleged to have compared President Obama to Hitler and Stalin.

Needless, to say Bishop Jenky's words are being distorted and taken out of context.  

In the homily, the bishop provides a list of historical entities (including Hitler and Stalin) who have trampled on the rights of the Catholic Church and who have attempted to remove the Church's influence from the public square.  He then notes the parallels to the actions of the Obama Administration which is attempting to do the same thing with the recent HHS mandate.

The full text of Bishop Jenky's homily appears below.  I encourage you to read it for yourself.  

For those of you who would prefer to listen to the homily, you can find the the audio podcast (MP3) of the homily here. 

The Diocese of Peoria has released a statement in response to the controversy generated by the homily.  The statement can be found here. 

Personally, I find the homily to be moving and powerful.

The homily:

There is only one basic reason why Christianity exists and that is the fact that Jesus Christ truly rose from the grave.

The disciples never expected the resurrection. The unanimous testimony of all four Gospels is that the terrible death of Jesus on the cross entirely dashed all their hopes about Jesus and about his message. He was dead, and that was the end of it. They looked for nothing more, and they expected nothing more.

So as much as they had loved him, in their eyes Jesus was a failed messiah. His dying seemed to entirely rob both his teaching and even his miracles of any lasting significance.

And they were clearly terrified that his awful fate, at the hands of the Sanhedrin and the Romans, could easily become their awful fate. So they hid, trembling with terror, behind shuttered windows and locked doors.

When the Risen Christ suddenly appeared in their midst, their reaction was shocked incredulity. They simply could not believe their own eyes.

Reality only very slowly began to penetrate their consciousness when Jesus offers proof of his resurrection. He shows them the wounds on his hands, his feet, and his side. Jesus even allowed them to touch him. He breaks bread with them and eats with them. And only then could they admit to themselves what had seemed absolutely impossible – the one who had truly died had truly risen! The Crucified now stood before them as their Risen, glorious, triumphant Lord.

His rising from the grave was every bit as real as his dying on the cross. The resurrection was the manifest proof of the invincible power of Almighty God. The inescapable fact of the resurrection confirmed every word Jesus had ever spoken and every work Jesus had ever done.

The Gospel was the truth. Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah of Israel. Jesus was the Savior of the world. Jesus was the very Son of God.

There is no other explanation for Christianity. It should have died out and entirely disappeared when Christ died and was buried, except for the fact that Christ was truly risen, and that during the 40 days before his Ascension, he interacted with his Apostles and disciples, and on one occasion even with hundreds of his followers.

Today’s appointed Gospel reading for this Saturday in the Octave of Easter is taken from the 16th Chapter of Mark. It concludes with a command from the lips of Jesus, given to his disciples, given to the whole Church, given to you and me assembled here today: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

We heard in today’s Second Reading from the Acts of the Apostles that the same Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus was amazed at the boldness of Peter and John. Perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they recognized them as companions of Jesus. They warned them never again to teach, or speak to anyone, in the name of Jesus.

But the elders and the scribes might as well have tried to turn back the tide, or hold back an avalanche. Peter and John had seen the Risen Christ with their own eyes. Peter and John were filled with the Holy Spirit. They asked whether it is right “in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

And Peter and John and all the Apostles, starting first in Jerusalem in Judea and Galilee and then to the very ends of the earth, announced the Resurrection and the Good News to everyone they encountered.

According to the clear testimony of the Scriptures, these Apostles had once been rather ordinary men – like you and me. Their faith hadn’t always been strong. They made mistakes. They committed sins. They were often afraid and confused.

But meeting the Risen Lord had changed everything about these first disciples, and knowing the Risen Lord should also change everything about us.

You know, it has never been easy to be a Christian and it’s not supposed to be easy! The world, the flesh, and the devil will always love their own, and will always hate us. As Jesus once predicted, they hated me, they will certainly hate you.

But our Faith, when it is fully lived, is a fighting faith and a fearless faith. Grounded in the power of the resurrection, there is nothing in this world, and nothing in hell, that can ultimately defeat God’s one, true, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.

The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism.

And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.

The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.

May God have mercy on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.

As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.

In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.

Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like the first disciples locked up in the Upper Room.

In the late 19th century, Bismarck waged his “Kulturkampf,” a Culture War, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.

Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.

This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.

No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions.

Now remember what was the life-changing experience that utterly transformed those fearful and quaking disciples into fearless, heroic apostles. They encountered the Risen Christ. They reverenced his sacred wounds. They ate and drank with him.

Is that not what we do here together, this morning at this annual men’s march Mass?

This is the Saturday of the Octave of Easter, a solemnity so great and central to our Catholic faith that Easter Day is celebrated for eight full days, and the Easter season is joyously observed as the Great 50 Days of Easter. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ – risen from the grave – is in our midst. His Holy Word teaches us the truth. His Sacred Body and Blood becomes our food and drink.

The Risen Christ is our Eternal Lord; the Head of his Body, the Church; our High Priest; our Teacher; our Captain in the well-fought fight.

We have nothing to fear, but we have a world to win for him. We have nothing to fear, for we have an eternal destiny in heaven. We have nothing to fear, though the earth may quake, kingdoms may rise and fall, demons may rage, but St. Michael the Archangel, and all the hosts of heaven, fight on our behalf.

No matter what happens in this passing moment, at the end of time and history, our God is God and Jesus is Lord, forever and ever.

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

Christ wins! Christ reigns! Christ commands!  Source

Interview: Author Mary Eberstadt on the prophetic nature of Pope Paul VI's "Humane Vitae"

Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI lays out the Catholic argument against contraception and predicted the negative societal fallout of the sexual revolution.

Mary Eberstadt is the author of an intriguing new book titled, Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution. In an interview with LifeSiteNews, she says she "was ‘blown away’ by the prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae.

An Excerpt:

...The main thing that surprised me was its understanding of what would happen to the relation between the sexes. Humanae Vitae predicted that in a world of contraceptive sex, men and women would not get along as well, that once you sever procreation from recreational sex men would look down on women. He also advanced the idea that there would be a lowering of standards of conduct between the sexes. All of this, I argue, has come true, and yet the secular world has refused to acknowledge its truth. That to me is a paradox, because if you were to ask which document of modern times was the most unwanted and reviled document it would have be Humanae Vitae, right? Across the world, it is seen as a laughingstock in some places, as a profoundly undesired testament in others, yet this document contains more truth about the sexual revolution and the world it would usher in than any other document. We’re left here with a great paradox – I really believe that – that something that contains great truths has been almost universally reviled. And that in itself was justification enough to undertake this book...Full interview HERE.

Full text of Humanae Vitae can be found here.

Information on the Benefits of Natural Family Planning can be found here.

A short essay that provides a succinct and powerful explanation of the Church's teaching on contraception can be found here.

A commentary on why the Catholic Church opposes contraception can be found here.

US Bishops issue statement on religious freedom

Today, the U.S. Catholic Bishops released an extended statement on religious liberty.

A must-read for all Catholics.

Excerpt:

...Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith? Without religious liberty properly understood, all Americans suffer, deprived of the essential contribution in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that religious Americans make every day, both here at home and overseas.

What is at stake is whether America will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society—or whether the state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how they get to do it. Religious believers are part of American civil society, which includes neighbors helping each other, community associations, fraternal service clubs, sports leagues, and youth groups. All these Americans make their contribution to our common life, and they do not need the permission of the government to do so. Restrictions on religious liberty are an attack on civil society and the American genius for voluntary associations...

Full Statement

Public school: Image of traditional family is offensive

An American public school declares portrait of traditional family (husband, wife, and child) to be offensive; orders image to be removed from school mural.

Has the world gone completely mad?

Decline in fertility threatens Asia

From LifeSiteNews.com:

NEW YORK, April 10, 2012 (C-FAM) The global fertility freefall is about to cause geopolitical upheaval in Asia, a panel of experts said last week. The experts, all contributors to the new book Population Decline and the Remaking of Great Power Politics, spoke at the world’s largest gathering of international relations specialists meeting in San Diego, California.

“For years scholars have said that if fewer people were born, the world would be a safer place. It turns out the opposite is true,” Dr. Susan Yoshihara told conferees at the 53rd annual convention of the International Studies Association, which drew more than 5000 scholars from around the world. Yoshihara is director of the International Organizations Research Group at C-FAM and coeditor of the new book with C-FAM Senior Fellow Douglas Sylva.

India’s leaders used to see a burgeoning population as a liability. Now they view it as a boon, Lisa Curtis said. India will add eleven million workers every year for the next several years. To translate this into economic wealth, India needs to overcome high social hurdles, the Heritage Foundation expert noted, such as its 25 percent illiteracy rate, labor inflexibility, and high rates of sex selective abortion and infanticide of baby girls.

China’s sex ratios are even more skewed, compounding problems with a workforce that will soon start to contract. This raises doubts about China’s rise, Gordon Chang said, noting that “Beijing sees India through the lens of demography.” Chinese leaders are concerned about the imminent demographic eclipse by India which might fuel political tensions with its neighbor.

While the two countries have increased trade from $5 billion to $70 billion in the last decade, their relationship still suffers from bitter memories of a border war, unresolved territorial disputes, and mutual suspicion in their rivalry for regional influence. Chang, a noted author and Forbes.com columnist, concluded that despite Beijing’s hopes, the coming century would not be kind to the Chinese.

That is because in order for a nation to be a “going concern”—a country with momentum—it must have more than just a geographical advantage, Francis Sempa said. It needs political organization and an abundance of manpower with efficiency, skill, and health. The author of several books on geopolitics said that demographic decline is causing stresses on alliances, such as the fact that European decline may necessitate more unilateral action by the United States.

Population decline may soon be straining the U.S.-Japan alliance also, Yoshihara added. Tokyo announced in January that the nation will lose a million people a year – a 30 percent population collapse by 2060. “As its closest ally in Asia turns inward, U.S. influence in the region hangs in the balance,” Yoshihara said, adding that the United States needs to look for new security partners to ensure regional stability and seize its own demographic advantage.

South Korea has also had to scale back its defense spending, Thomas Mahnken said. The Naval War college professor and former Pentagon official added that the U.S. needs to attract the “best and brightest” immigrants to preserve its demographic edge. America also needs to court new security partners such as India, the panel concluded, but they agreed that much more diplomacy was needed to forge a strategic partnership that could avert regional volatility.

Catholics Come Home

The apostolate Catholics Come Home is devoted to helping bring fallen away Catholics back "home" to the Church.



If you are interested in learning more about the Catholic Faith, you can click HERE. 

FREE BOOK:  If you would like to reintroduce yourself to Catholicism, the folks at DynamicCatholic.com are offering Matthew Kelly's wonderful book, Rediscover Catholicism:  A Spiritual Guide to Living With Passion & Purpose, for free.  To get the book, just click  HERE.

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Note:  Fr. Barron's recently released documentary, Catholicism, may also be of interest.  The film was very well-received and explores in a heartfelt way the many wonderful facets of Catholicism.  A short video trailer of the documentary can be viewed below:



An extended video preview of the film can be found HERE.

Fr. Barron's multimedia ministry and website can be found HERE.

For married couples: The importance of being open to new life

Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, one of my favorite writers on life issues, calls for a "spirit of generosity" when it comes to procreation:

...In marriage, it can certainly be challenging to harmonize spousal love with the responsible transmission of life. Janet Smith and Christopher Kaczor, in an illuminating passage from one of their recent books, acknowledge this challenge and point to the need for a "spirit of generosity" when it comes to procreation:

"Pope John Paul II spoke of 'responsible parenthood,' in which a couple uses practical wisdom, prayer and a spirit of generosity in determining how many children they should have. Some Catholics believe that the Church permits the use of NFP only for reasons that verge on the truly desperate, such as a situation where a pregnancy would threaten a woman's life or a family is living in dire poverty. Magisterial documents, however, state that spouses may have physical, psychological, economic or social reasons for needing to limit family size, using several different adjectives to describe those reasons: One can have 'just' reasons, 'worthy' reasons, 'defensible' reasons, 'serious' reasons and 'weighty' reasons. In short, the Magisterium teaches that spouses must have unselfish reasons for using NFP and limiting their family size."

At times, then, our justifications for avoiding a pregnancy may merit further reflection and scrutiny on our part. When it comes to "poverty," for example, would our poverty, in the true sense of the word, mean that the child would be malnourished and without warm clothing, or would it simply mean that he or she would forego some of the latest hi-tech gadgets that other children in the neighborhood might be enjoying?

I recall what a father of seven children on a tight budget once told me in a conversation: "Honestly, there's always room around the table for one more, and with 'hand me down' clothing we always manage. And my goodness, isn't it a momentous thing to receive that trust of preparing another soul for an eternal destiny with God?" His wife pointed out how the older children ended up helping with raising the younger ones, lessening the burdens on mom and dad, and turning it into a "team effort."

The ancient Christian teaching on the two-fold purpose of marriage, namely, the "procreation and education of children," and the "mutual help and sanctification of the spouses," accurately summarizes the inner order of marriage. As the future John Paul II wrote in his great 1960 book 'Love and Responsibility,' radical personal openness to both of these purposes is essential to the success and meaning of any marriage. We should never enter into marriage with active opposition to the very ends for which it exists...

A collection of columns by Father Pacholczyk can be found HERE.

"October Baby": Movie Trailer and Reviews

A young woman seeks out the truth about her birth.

Trailer and reviews below:





Reviews of "October Baby:"

Catholic World Report

National Catholic Register

Catholic News Service


Official movie website can be found Here.

The left does not speak for all women!

Lila Rose, of Live Action, writes in Politico:

...Many liberal women, meanwhile, have eagerly embraced the role of victim, advancing the idea that women are casualties of a “war on women.” Women are now, as various cultural liberals have put it, “facing sexual McCarthyism” from “conservative cavemen” who want to return to the “Dark Ages.”

But women are not a monolith. And there is a growing group of passionate young women who are transforming what it means to be a woman. Allow me to introduce them to you. We are women who reject both the anti-male feminism of the 1960s and the “girls gone wild” mentality that’s pervasive today.
We are women for whom the idea of artificial birth control as “preventive care” is deeply insulting.
We are women who view the intentional killing of children not as a constitutional right, a matter of privacy or a necessary evil but, rather, as profoundly anti-woman and the antithesis of love.
We are women whose lives contradict the idea of an inevitable clash between religious liberty and women’s health. We are women who believe that something precious is lost when fertility is intentionally excluded from marriage, a sacred bond and a total giving of each spouse to the other.
We are women who believe that sex and pregnancy aren’t just health issues; they are also inextricably linked with family, morals, faith and values. And we are women who love everything about being a woman, including being mothers. We have noticed that the rise in the availability and use of cheap birth control coincided with increases in the rates of sex addiction, divorce, unmarried childbearing and abortion.
We have also noticed that while contraceptives and legal abortion promised to eliminate the exploitative attitude of men toward women, they have had the opposite effect...

Tim Tebow in New York: A Golden Opportunity for Evangelization

James Panero of the New York Daily News writes:

...Tebow is an evangelist — not just for his Christian faith, but more importantly, for the kind of living it commands. And now, rather than that message being spread in more conservative Colorado, Tebow has the opportunity to practice what he preaches on the world’s largest stage.

In a city where sky-high abortion rates are rarely questioned, he should spotlight the problem. In a city where churches are being forced out of public schools on weekends, he should speak for them. In a city where abstinence-only sex education is passé to the powers that be, he should connect with young people on the virtues of saving oneself for marriage.

Call it Tebow’s biggest mission.

Abortion is the first and most obvious opportunity. The son of Baptist missionaries, Tebow was born in the Philippines. While pregnant, his mother Pam went against doctors’ orders and refused to have an abortion. This story has long informed Tebow’s own pro-life beliefs. During the 2010 Super Bowl, the organization Focus on the Family famously aired a pro-life advertisement featuring her being “tackled” by her loving son.

The ad proved to be a simple and positive treatment of a mother’s love for her “miracle baby.” “He almost didn’t make it into this world,” she said. “I can remember so many times when I almost lost him.”

Airing this soft-sell ad despite the pushback from abortion groups became a victory for Tebow and his convictions. He later claimed that a survey revealed that 5.5 million viewers changed their stance to pro-life because of its message. A football star can be a powerful argument against an abortion that had once been presented as a medical necessity.

What better place to repeatedly make the case than in New York City? This is the country’s “abortion capital,” with the highest rate of any city in the nation. Yet it’s rarely discussed that fully 40% of all pregnancies here end in abortion — 83,000 in 2010 — compared to 23% nationally, according to the Chiaroscuro Foundation.

It’s not that New Yorkers are happy about the fact: Two-thirds of us, including a majority of pro-choice supporters, believe these numbers are too high. It’s just that we’d prefer not to think about it. That may be coming to an end; it’ll be impossible for Tebow to ignore the epidemic in his new backyard.

Second, Tebow should challenge a city administration that’s been downright hostile to a few dozen small churches fighting for the right to use public school space on weekends. If secular groups can rent the spaces, the churches contend, why should religious organizations be forbidden?

But that’s precisely what Mayor Bloomberg has fought to do, citing a policy prohibiting “worship services” that courts have, up until now, endorsed.

A visit from Tebow to the Bronx Household of Faith, which is at the eye of this storm, would send a powerful message and likely change many minds.

And imagine if, instead of only serving as a spokesman for car dealerships and clothing brands like other sports stars, Tebow also uses his celebrity to sell New Yorkers on the evangelical Christian values that course through his bloodstream. For example, back in 2009, Tebow openly admitted in a press conference that he was a virgin — an earnest and honest expression of his convictions.

That sort of straight talk could win him many converts of the literal kind. Kids wearing his jersey might think twice before getting pressured by peers to engage in irresponsible behavior.

None of this is a leap of faith: Unlike Charles Barkley, who famously chafed when called a “role model,” Tebow embraces the term.

The Tim Tebow Foundation, which the football star first envisioned when he was an undergraduate, now uses “the public platform that God has blessed Tim Tebow with to inspire and make a difference in people’s lives throughout the world,” according to its website. As the testimonial from coaching legend Tony Dungy makes clear, “His leadership and Christian values set an example not just for his teammates, but for all young people.” Now, he has the opportunity to set an example for New Yorkers of all ages.

In the process, he just might call New York City to recognize its true character, hidden in plain sight. Much has been made about the pious Tebow landing in a heathen town. “So the Denver Broncos have sent quarterback Tim Tebow to the New York Jets, which is akin to dropping the Christian among the lions,” wrote Tracee Hamilton in the Washington Post.

It’s a common refrain, but it relies on a caricature. New York is far from the Gomorrah that Woody Allen describes in “Annie Hall”: “Don’t you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we’re left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes, and I live here.”

In fact, Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College and a demographer at Gotham Gazette, reports that an “estimated 6.8 million New Yorkers — or more than 83% of the population — were identified as being affiliated with some organized religion in 2000.”

Just how religious does that make New York City? More religious than all states except Louisiana and “even slightly higher than Utah,” writes Beveridge.

From the tallest church in America — Riverside Church, at 22 stories — to the seat of a newly reinvigorated Catholic archdiocese led by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, to the epicenter of American Jewry, to evangelical ministries now sprinkled into old theaters throughout the city, New Yorkers take their religion seriously but silently.

Tebow’s words and, more importantly, his actions, can help get religion out further into the public square.

“If people are still somehow talking about prayer or talking about my faith, then I think that’s pretty cool,” Tebow said on Monday.

Movie Review: Fr. Robert Barron Reviews "The Hunger Games"

WARNING: (Some Plot Spoilers if you have not read the book)