Monday, March 28, 2011

More College Students Turning Away From God

I have both college grad children and some still in college. One thing they both tell me is that some of their professors and definitely anti-Catholic or at least non-religious in the teaching and in the advise they give students.

Carl Olsen of Insight Scoop  has a post on the topic

Let's see: You don't believe God exists. And you're angry with him. Huh...

 "Why Are More College Students Becoming Atheists?" asks HigherEdMorning.com:

The number of atheist student groups on college campuses has doubled in the past two years. The question is: Why? There are currently more than 250 non-theistic student groups at U.S. colleges and universities, according to AlterNet.org.
Just last year, there were only 159 such organizations, reports DailyOrange.com.
So are a growing number of students turning away from religion and toward atheism – or have they just become more vocal about it?

Gay Marriage and Mass Attendance.

Is there a correlation between attending Mass and support for Gay Marriage.

AmP has a post on the the matter.

LGBT-funded poll falsely claims that most Catholics support same-sex marriage

Last week I began to expose the coordinated efforts of well-funded gay-rights groups to subvert the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and marriage by funding groups, including “Catholic” groups, whose sole purpose is to change our minds about these issues.
MORE

Friday, March 25, 2011

Jesus the Activist a Model for Today Activist Catholic Church?

I've noticed a very distinct political left hand turn in our parish these past few months. Starting with an announcement from our pastor of the integration of the community activist organization ICUC/PICO (Inland Congregation United for Change) into our parish Youth Group.Specifically the Confirmation Class.

To be taught and given the 'TOOLS' they need to bring change. Change in the form of solving Foreclosures and support ICUC event centered on Immigration (a real example you can read on their website of allowing Illegal immigrates the three extra chances to drive without a legal license, registration, and insurance coverage).


Then the video during the homily of our Bishop Barnes of San Bernardino to immediately fill out registration cards in the pews to sign up for cacatholic.org, a political organization....during Mass.

Never mind that our Parish Men's Group was not allowed to hand out a 'Catholic Answers' Voters Guide (no candidates mentioned in the book) that reminded of Catholic Social Teaching (too orthodox).

So is some peoples claims of Jesus being an Activist to blame for many California Catholic Churches turning to such a 'Progressive' political stance?

Carl Olsen of Insight Scoop has a post on the Activist Jesus:

...
Was Jesus a card-carrying member of the ACLU? Did he donate to the National Right to Life Committee? I don’t believe we’ve seen it in the tax returns.
MORE

The Church and Immigration

Many orthodox Catholics are confused with what they are seeing in their local parishes when it comes to immigration.

Pastor singing our the cause of welcoming the illegal immigrant. Chastising those that don't. As if the U.S. isn't welcoming any immigrants at all.

Don't they realize just how many immigrants are legally admitted into the United States annually? I tell you I'm a little confused at times myself. Is the Church advocating breaking the law.

Just the other day I was reading the website of an outside organization in our local community that is being allowed into our parish by our pastor.

The ICUC organization was highlighting the fact that they negotiated allowing illegal immigrates three chances to avoid having their vehicle taking away because of not having a legal drivers license, registration, and insurance.

Three chances? I don't get it?

If your here illegally and you want a legal drivers license how do you obtain the proper legal documentation to qualify for one, namely two pieces of identification (legal social security card, birth certificate)?

I'm confused. How do  you negotiate that?

Nobody that's a good Christian wants to bus back 10 million illegals, and some kind of reform is long over do, but breaking laws is not the way.

I found this article on the subject of immigration and the Church. Hope it's helpful.




Deo volente, I will speak this afternoon at a panel sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic University of America about the Church’s role in immigration. The organizers of such events are well-intentioned and, contrary to what critics of the bishops’ conference think, often seek diverse voices.
They rarely hear them, however, because, except in pro-life discussions, social conservatives are typically token participants. And so avoid these events. It’s an uncomfortable and usually fruitless task, but someone has to do it.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Monday, March 21, 2011

Father Corapi ...Accused?

Accused, Father Corapi.of improprieties. These are just accusations and Father needs our prayer. This definitely doesn't sound like Fr. Corapi.

He has my prayers, and I hope things get resolved quickly.
CMR loves Father Corapi. Anytime I catch him speaking on EWTN I stop and listen and am always impressed and moved. That's why when I did my morning web surfing and came upon a headline at New Advent saying Accused: Father John Corapi Placed on Administrative Leave I was stunned.

A Call For Prayer - Father Corapi 
All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.  

Movie: Of Gods and Men

Saw the movie 'Of Gods and Men' a couple of weeks ago.

I actually didn't know about the circumstances of the story until viewing the trailer... and that's a shame. This is a story everyone should know about, and not for the reasons you might think. The story is about the murder of a group of monks in Afghanistan but that's just the outer shell of the story.

Here's a post on the movie and a link to one of my previous post with a trailer.

This weekend, Of Gods and Men — based on the true story of the martyred Trappist monks of the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria — gets its widest distribution yet, opening on 36 new screens in California, Connecticut, Colorado, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Is it playing anywhere near you? Check playdates!

Trailer: Of Gods and Men

Friday, March 18, 2011

Lenten Reading

Want a great book to read for Lent?
Try Benedict's new book Jesus of Nazareth Part 2. Shoot, if you haven't read the first pick up the CD version and play it in the car for your ride into/from work.

enjoy
Pope Benedict XVI's new book, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, released worldwide on March 10th, has broken the Top Ten on The New York Times best-sellers list. The book, which has received very positive reviews from Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders and scholars, will be #10 on the March 27th nonfiction best-sellers list.

The Catholic Church and "Collective Bargaining

I can't believe the confusion with Catholics regarding Unions, Collective Bargaining and that whole mess.

American Catholic attempts to set the record straight on the matter of Collective Bargaining.



With all of the happenings around Ohio and Wisconsin (and other states that have not receive such national attention), the internet is swamped with a review of the Church’s social teaching.  Being a public school teacher, I myself have spent more time with social justice documents in the last few months than ever.  At this point, I don’t care to rehash all of the points that others have brought up: the balance between just wages and fiscal responsibility, the fact that the “upper levels” of various unions don’t actually function like unions but rather as political activists, etc.  If you are interested in my take on these issues, you can read my comments here, here, here, and here.
Instead, I want to raise and issue that, to my knowledge, has not yet been raised.  (That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been raised of course, and if I have learned anything from being in the blogosphere, it is that there is usually nothing new under the sun; it just means that I have not yet come across it.)  When the Wisconsin legislature passed the bill by removing all of the fiscal clauses (to deal with the fact that the Democrats were MIA … removing the fiscal portions also removed the need for the higher quorum), there were Catholics that screamed, “This is a violation of Catholic social doctrine.  People have the right to unionize and the right to collective bargaining!”  There are actually two separate claims in this, the first of which is easily dismissed.  Yes, Catholic social teaching is emphatic that people have the natural right to form associations.  However, from what I understand, the legislation in neither Ohio or Wisconsin made it illegal for unions to form or to exist, nor did it prohibit anybody from joining such unions.  The teachers union, for instance, will exists as it does now.  (It is worth mentioning here that Catholic social teaching is also emphatic that people are not to be coerced into joining associations or to be denied employment because of their refusal to join particular associations, something clearly violated by the “closed shop” mentality in non right-to-work states.)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Insight Scoop - "Ecclesial Agnosticism"

Carl Oslon of Insight Scoop has a great article on, by the same title - Conscience, Authority, Obedience.

Unrestrained, the liberal stance stresses the individual and conscience to the point that authority is viewed with suspicion and seen as a threat. This removes the very possibility of conversion. By its own inner logic it tends toward a separation between Christ and the Church, holding at least implicitly that it is possible to be faithful to Christ without being faithful to his Church. It is even claimed that one can be a good Catholic without adhering to what the Church teaches.

Because the claim is seldom made outright, it might be helpful to see what this stance really is when analyzed. Let's give the name "ecclesial agnosticism" to the product of the analysis. It is a disincarnate ecclesiology. If agnostics don't deny God, they deny that he can be known, certainly that he became a man and can be identified with Jesus of Nazareth. Similarly, without denying the existence of the Church, without even denying that the Church possesses apostolic authority to teach, one can deny that this Church can be concretely identified, or that the conditions for infallible teaching are ever realized. But an unverifiable God cannot make demands on anyone, nor can a Church that possesses a charism of infallibility that can never be verified. The very condition of conversion, knowledge of absolute truth, becomes impossible to ascertain.
 

The New , Old Mass

B16 follows up on his efforts to re-instate the Latin Mass


This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Pope Comments on Immigration

Posted on Rorate Caeli Blog

Sunday, March 13, 2011


Immigration must "take into account the principles of law, cultural, and religious tradition" of welcoming nation

Citizenship must be considered today within the context of globalization, which is characterized, among other things, by large migration flows. Faced with this reality, as I mentioned above, it is necessary to combine solidarity and respect for the law, lest they upset social life, and the principles of law and cultural and even religious tradition which formed the Italian nation must be taken into account.
MORE...

Baby Joseph ...Followup

More information about Father Pavone, Priest for Life, and Baby Joseph.


Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life Leads Covert Mission to Rescue Baby Joseph

STATEN ISLAND, March 14, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Under cover of darkness, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, arrived in Ontario, Canada, Sunday night to rescue Baby Joseph Maraachli from the London Health Sciences Centre. For two weeks, doctors at the hospital in London, Ontario, have been delaying the baby's transfer to a hospital where efforts to save his life will not be officially labeled "futile."

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Nuclear Reactor Meltdown - What is it?

NYTimes has a nice graphic depicting the workings of a nuclear reactor and what happens in a meltdown.

The operating reactors at Fukushima Daiichi power station automatically shut down during the earthquake.
But after subsequent cooling failures, two of them went into partial meltdown.

Baby Joseph getting Treatment in U.S.

Father Pavone and the organization he belongs to Priest for Life has given baby Joseph a second chance at life.

Baby Joseph's second chance
The baby who was hours from being pulled off life support at his Canadian hospital has been rescued by the national director of Priests for Life and taken to the U.S. for treatment.
Thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli, who is currently kept alive by a respirator and was recently denied a transfer to a Michigan hospital to undergo a tracheotomy, arrived in the U.S. early Monday morning with Fr. Frank Pavone and other Priests for Life staff.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Earthquakes and Disaster ...are you prepared

Patrick Madrid has a 'heads-up' post on "are you prepared?"


Is today’s Japan quake a harbinger of worse to come?

Like the rest of world, I am horrified by the the damage and death being reported in Japan after today’s mega-quake which devastated the central island of Honshu. And I join countless others around the world who are praying for the Japanese people in an especially fervent way. Who knows what will happen next? Hopefully, the worst is behind them, but it’s quite possible that more quakes will rock Japan and other seismically active areas of the earth, including likely areas in the U.S. such as California and the St. Louis/New Madrid quake zone, etc. The Lord’s words, “Watch and pray,” are reverberating in my mind right now.

Japan

Quake, Flood, Nuclear power plant disaster, I have some major worries about the people of Japan.
Just looking at the posted videos and various news articles...well I sure the many have the same feelings.
Kind of makes you think about what would happen here n L.A.

Major Prayers for Japan.


Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Sunday that radiation at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima briefly rose above legal limits, but it has since declined significantly.

Being Pastoral or Faithful

A wonderful blog post by both Peters and Fr Z.

Lot's going on in our parish... and I think this is the basis to the problems there.

Being pastoral or being faithful. The good pastor at our parish, and I repeat, a good pastor has former and not the latter.

Which poses the dilemma how do I as a layman approach him on the subject

...more on this in later post.

Meanwhile an excellent article



Dr. Peters on being “pastoral” v. being faithful

 The great Ed Peters, Canonman, has offered on his blog In the Light of the Law some observations about the discussion of c. 915 and the Governor of New York.
But first, I ask rhetorically… how many times have I railed against the false dichotomy liberals assert between being “pastoral” and … well… faithful?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Fr. Barron - Anti-Catholicism

Father Barron has another terrific video, this one on Anti-Catholicism.