Excommunication...what it's not?

The call is for excommunication of Governor Cuomo is blasting loud and clear from Catholics across the nation. It sounds good to me, here is an individual among many that claim the Catholic identity, however his actions give the lay Catholic and non-Catholic alike the obvious examples of something totally opposite.

Some don't even know he is already banned from receiving Holy Communion, so what good would it do?

Many Catholic blogs/podcasts bugle the same call for excommunication and some try to engage in a rather superficial, emotional call to light the torches and storm Frankenstein's castle.

How many Catholics really  know the,  What, How, Why of excommunication?
Rather than just join the band wagon, we should educate ourselves on the subject matter, terminology definitions, purpose and expectations.

Edward Peters a well know Canon  Lawyer has an excellent blog (In the Light of the Law, a Canon Lawyer's blog) one should visit regularly to help with that education. Yes, some of it my be a little hard to understand but canon law is not a simple matter and excommunication is not a simple declaration.

Here's one of a few resent pieces on this subject that will be a helpful place to start.

On excommunicating Andrew Cuomo for heresy

 

NY Mayor...Excommunication?

The new Abortion law of NY has risen the Life issue to another level. It's no longer considered a discussion or debate but a right to kill a child ... at birth. The cry is to excommunicate the NY Mayor.

So why hasn't the Cardinal Dolan or Bishop Scharfenberger done so?
The Bishop of Albany voices his thoughts on EWTN.

Educate Yourself: Border Issue

You would have to be living under a rock to not know of the Border issue played daily on the local and cable news outlets. Every newspaper, and political magazine has it covered and even the late
night shows have to add their two cents to up their ratings.

The one thing that is missing is the facts and an honest discussion. In fact an honest discussion and real facts on the subject are the last thing portrayed.

We need to educate ourselves and learn the facts for ourselves because its getting harder and harder to believe anything. We hear from our priest, bishops and even the Pope as interpreted by the media, which is often twisted to conform to a particular bias.

Case in point, I did an quick internet search: "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Immigration". It came up with reference to the US Catholic Bishops websites.

¶1911: Internal quote is from Gaudium et Spes: “The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good. This good calls for an organization of the community of nations able to provide ‘for men’s different needs, both in the fields of social life—such as food supplies, health, education, labor and also in certain special circumstances which can crop up here and there, e.g., the need to promote the general improvement of developing countries, or to alleviate the distressing conditions in which refugees dispersed throughout the world find themselves, or also to assist migrants and their families. to alleviate the distressing conditions in which refugees dispersed throughout the world find themselves, or also to assist migrants and their families.’”

¶2211: “The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially… the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate.”

¶2241: “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extend they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.”

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

--> ¶2433: “Access to employment and to professions must be hope to all without unjust discrimination; men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment.”

Catholic teaching except it leaves out pertinent paragraphs, see the text in Red.
-->

Making sense of U.S. immigration law, enforcement, and the current crisis

Where do we go, who do we listen to?

Not all our priest and bishops are wrong, often we hear partial  truths and facts. We need to continue to read the churches teaching through encyclicals good Catholic resources, and our good and faithful priests and Bishops


Pray for peace and a fuller understanding on this issue

Below are a couple more good resources:

Compendiumof the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church

http://www.antoniano.org/carbajo/FST/Readings/Magisterium/EN_Compendium_CST.pdf

Modern Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration

https://cliniclegal.org/sites/default/file/modern_catholic_social_teaching_on_immigration_0.pdf

 
-->

PETER KREEFT NEW BOOK - FORTY REASONS I AM CATHOLIC

I just finished a Philosophy 5 college course this passed semester. I kind of knew the academic world was biased against religion and as I expected, I ended up confronting (respectfully) the professor who is a professed Catholic, Agnostic, Eastern religious guru follower and sometimes Atheist in his writings on many occasions in class during the semester. All of these like the heads of a Hydra, you never knew which you were facing when you attended class. The Professor and I butted heads on the second day of class on the topic of Galileo religion vs science...NOT!) and believe it or not that kind of created a sort of relationship of mutual respect throughout the rest of the class. 

His bias was of the Scientism perspective and being maybe four or five years younger than the professor, I tried to bring a little balance and counter for the benefit of the youngin's in the class They seemed to want to swallow whatever the instructor feed them. 

 For those of faith, the academic environment can bring doubt and cause one to really question our beliefs. But that shouldn't be so. We should enter these classes and well the world with a sense of confidence in our faith. 

Philosopher Peter Kreeft is an anchor in revealing the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith and his new book, Forty Reasons I am Catholic seems like a timely one. I'm ordering mine...you should pick one up for yourselves as well.

STAY STRONG AND CONFIDENT IN YOUR FAITH, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

Great So Cal Event Jan 13, 2018

Here's a great event in the South Land that I will be attending.
It's advertised as "A Conversation with Bishop Barron and William Lane Craig", two leaders in the New Evangeliztion.

Most in the Catholic circles will know Bishop Barron as the founder of Word on Fire, an Evangelization movement on the internet with Blog,Videos and lectures around the globe.

Bishop Barron's "Catholicism" series on the Catholic faith has been aired on various networks throughout the U.S.

The Good Bishop makes his home in the Santa Barbara area, so it's a treat to see him closer to my home with the event located in Claremont California.

William Lane Craig is a protestant scholar with definite flare for defending the Christian faith.
I'm just now beginning to know more on his abilities.

Here's a Debate between himself and the late Christopher Hitchens. He does a marvelous job.

Hope to see you there.

 

(Photo; National Geographics) 
This is amazing...the recent restoration of the tomb of Jesus due to centuries of deterioration, has uncovered scientific analysis of actual dating of Jesus tomb as valid and correct. Some nice short videos along with the article as well

Age of Jesus' Tomb

This looks very interesting. If you're in D.C. check this exhibit out.

Tomb of Christ

"IT OFFENDS ME!" Crowd

So the history revisionist are still at it. We don't have to worry about others deleting our country from the pages of history, we seem to be doing it to ourselves.

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The saga of destroying statues and historical relics continues. It was once only practiced amount the ancient conquering nations, barbarians, and recently, ISIS crazies.   

Now the National Cathedral is modifying their stain class windows to comply with the "it offends me" crowd. Maybe they should sell the empty space to the highest bidder or the next absurd secular outrage.

I've even read how some Catholic schools are now taking down statues.

Now advanced our society has become.....?

IT OFFENDS ME! (LINK)

Modernism: Lecture

This guy is a character and ...a good orthodox teacher of the Catholic faith.
His three part lecture on MODERNISM is a must see (hear).
Part three to come...

MODERNISM https://instituteofcatholicculture.org/talk/modernism/

Here's a great faith resource. I listen to these on my phone at lunch time or on my van ride home. 10 min podcast that will definitely add to your knowledge about the Catholic faith.
Available on YouTube, Itunes, and Facebook at 'Soul of Seton'

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr9ayZevFflz6niRgjDlS-Q

Soul of Seton 

 

More "INconvenient Al Gore"

Al Gore's "Inconvenient Sequel" releases to theaters later this month (July). That's fine, I plan to see it. (though I may wait to rent it)

I admit to being one of those crazy "criminal non-believers".
I found the author of this articles while reviewing another of his articles. He is a qualified scientist, and well, just read this article.

 Hotter Than Ever...

While Watching the Twilight Zone Marathon....

So I'm relaxing on this July 4th, doing a little reading, and watching a little Twilight Zone Marathon with wife.

We like watching some of the old episodes and I always see something new in them each time I watch them.
The "Eye of the Beholder" is one that always intrigues me, from 1960.

In short it's about a woman that's just gone through surgery, bandages wrapped around her face and head. The room is dark and the figures of the doctors and nurses are hidden in the dark room.

the dialogue is one of 'I hope this surgery works..will it work doctor?". As the dialogue goes on it becomes clear that it's the State that controls the Health Care System and is forcing her to have this surgery because her appearance is not like all the others.

"Why must I go through this...who determines who is ugly and not?" says the frantic woman. The Doctor reassures her  everything will go well.

In the end, it doesn't go well, and her looks remain the same, the surgery didn't work. The twist in the story is that she is beautiful (Ely May Clampett - Donna Douglas) and the doctors, nurses and everyone else are the ones that are ugly. But, the State governs what beauty means and the remedy is if you don't look like every one else you pay the price, you must move to a commune with others that don't fit in with society.

Got me thinking about baby Charlie Gard. The State run Health Care System has sentenced him to death, preventing the parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard from perusing further effort to save little Charlie.

Yanking Life Support From UK Baby Demonstrates Dangers Of Socialized Medicine

The health care debate goes on in the U.S.
This week legislature in California was delayed and unions were up and arms with death threats and protests.

The Federal government is debating the same issue with the attempted repeal of Obama Care and people, the news media and Democrats are up and arms about not getting full government health care.

Hmmmm. maybe people should watch a little more Twilight Zone or maybe we have entered the Twilight Zone ourselves.

DECONSTRUCTING THE BIBLE

I've recently gone back to school to attempt a degree in philosophy and with a full work schedule and my older years, that's no small feat.

I am enjoying it immensely...the youngn's in my classes are smart and eagerly seeking knowledge. The Professors are great too, but there is a bias agenda that they do not hide. That is to disprove the Christian faith, Catholicism specifically, whether it be in beginning philosophy classes or art history or critical thinking or any of the liberal art classes I've been taking.

Time and time again I see the professors lecturing from hand written notes that I can see they've had for quite a while from past classes, spouting what they call facts against Christianity with little response from my young classmates. Most eagerly are jotting down notes, taking it all in without challenging any of the discussions. Having a little life experience now under my belt, i can't just sit back and not say anything.

I will politely ask for references to backup what is in the lecture and when I have to, I'll correct any Catholic mis-representation. I remember one professor in an Art History Class on the Renaissance period, spout that the reason for Madonna paintings is because Catholic Nuns were discriminated against higher positions in the Church.

Really?????
Give me a break, where are the references for that?
None were given of course.

In a World Religion Class, we studied Eastern and Western Religions. All was well in the Eastern religion and the class was encouraged to read the and experience their teachings but when it came to Christianity, Biblical Interpretation was emphasized. Question the teachings, and here is the historical evidence against the Bible.

The Professor, a self professed "ex-Catholic" proclaimed "you have to be exposed to Biblical Interpretation at least once in your lives."
The majority of the lesson lectures and assigned readings where anti-Christianity. Subjects on disproving the Old Testament to Jesus not a Historical person.
I was not shy in my homework assignments or in class. I expected a little more retribution for this but to the professor's credit they did not.

We wonder why are kids are losing their faith in College, this is the reason. The Bible experts are now falsely considered only from the academic realm and church scholars are said to be bias. It's actually the other way around. The agenda now is to "deconstruct the Bible" and if we don't know the arguments or what the Church says about them, we and our children will fall into the trap of believing the Church has no validity in interpreting it's own Book.

Anyway, It's summer and I get to do a little reading on my own.
I decided to follow up on the topic of Biblical Interpretation brought up in my classes.
Enclosed is a terrific three part webinar entitled "Deconstructing the Bible" by Prof Jeffrey Morrow on the Institute of Catholic Culture website.

Institute Of Catholic Culture: Deconstructing the Bible

It's excellent and lecture notes are provide.
Please invest a little time with this most important topic. A stretch of the mind, but well worth it.

Anyone who's read Ray Bradbury's, Fahrenheit 451 will Identify with this. LG wallpaper, ultra-thin TV.

In Fahrenheit 451 homes contained huge  wall size TV's that would sponsor government programing to control individual's thoughts through TV shows and even allow them to partake in the interactive sit-coms

There's a new Catholic website by Steve Wood called, "Luke21.com".
Steve, is the founding father of our "St Joseph's Covenant Keepers, Men's Group and he also heads up the Dads.org website.

This new website is on Catholic Eschatology (Study of the End Times). He uses scripture. the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Church Fathers for his study, especially St Augustine.

No, he won't be making any predictions on a date of the Second coming but he promises to make known the Catholic perspective of the end times, it's relevance today and why we as Catholics need to know this.

The first of many coming Podcasts is uploaded to this website (Luke21.com), and he explains it's purpose in the first episode.

I like it and will be following this presentation. I'll probably load the podcasts and listen to it on my vanpool ride home....what else am I going to do for 2 1/2 hrs 😊

Check it out, tell me what you think!
Link: http://luke21.com/

Here's the first review of the new Scorsese movie 'Silence'.

The trailers look pretty good, very inspiring at the fire-of-faith that the early missionaries brought to the natives of various countries, this being Japan in the movie.

This review put a disappointing wet blanket on that thought. Haven't decided to see this or not.

I may anyway just to keep up with the future conversation on this.

Anyway, have a read and make your own decision.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/…/christus-apostata-scors…/

Fainting Hillary?

Wow, Hillary is going to have to explain this one...and I'm not buying the "lost shoe"explanation. She is clearly staggering. Prayers to Hillary but this is issue...along with all the other reasons why we shouldn't vote for her.

I wasn't focusing on her health, I thought it was an over blown conspiracy thang...but we'll have to keep an eye on this.

We do need a health Commander-In-Chief  

Fainting Hillary?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/11/hillary-clinton-has-medical-episode-at-911-ceremony-source-says.html

Canonization of Mother Teresa

On September 4, Mother Teresa will be declared a saint by Pope Francis.Now you can purchase this new book on Mother Teresa' journey for only $5.00... really!

Another book for my library

Mother Teresa's Book

Stay Alert: Threat at Sunday Mass

Interesting article.
You've heard about the terrible story of the beheading of a Catholic Priest in France. Now more recently a story from our own backyard.

In Riverside, California, the harassment of parishioners at Sunday Mass by individuals in a car shouting “Allahu Akbar!”. They didn't enter the Church but this is a boldness that we haven't seen here in the States before.

It's not sure who these idiots were but it raises the question, "Should we (Catholics) be concerned? Should we be  doing something to prepare for an event related to those in France or at least an interruption of Mass with these type of individual.

It's a shame that this would have to be on our minds when we really should be concentrating on the mystery of the mass, but with our loved ones right next to us in the pew, it's hard not to think of their safety.

Definitely at least some discussion at the parish office level should take place. Not to over react but not to react at all would be unwise.

What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/08/09/churches-take-new-security-measures-in-face-terror-threats.html

Devout Catholic VP's?

Seems that both the Republican and Democrat Presidential teams have chosen a Catholic for their VP slots. This is not by accident.

Both parties are trying to capture the wandering Catholic vote by selecting party described devout Catholics.

The problem for Catholics is that most in the pew don't understand what it is to be a devout Catholic so any definition put forth by the media, politicians and yes, even fellow Catholics who dont
 have a clue, define it in terms that try to persuade fellow parishioners to vote for whatever political bumper sticker candidate they endorse for the presidency.

Wrong approach. First, put aside the political party affiliations and  know your Catholic faith. Know/learn what the Catholic teachings really are. Then selection of a candidate is based on the truths of your faith and not the empty lies put out every day.

Go to confession regularly, Mass at least EVERY Sunday.

Read scripture daily..

Read your Catechism (the Catholic one), listen to some good talks and video's from Catholic speakers solid in the faith.

Who?

Mathew Kelly is good   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvEK-6gkp1M

Fr Mike, is one of my favorites   http://ascensionpresents.com/videos_categories/fr-mike-schmitz/

Taylor Marshall, a must: http://taylormarshall.com

Bishop Barron, absolutely!   http://www.wordonfire.org

Fr. Spitzer, lots on the existence of God and the Universe   http://www.magisreasonfaith.org

Trent Horn of Catholic Answer and lots of materials:  http://catholic.com

What to read?
these are some of my favorite sites:

Lots of articles : http://bigpulpit.com/

Angelus Catholic News: http://angelusnews.com/

The Catholic Thing: more articles

Crisis Magazine: http://www.crisismagazine.com/

Catholic news    http://aleteia.org/

I've got lots more resources, but this will do for now.

A couple of articles on the VP elects:

Tim Kaine’s bishop releases statement on ‘Catholics in Public Office - See more at: http://aleteia.org/blogs/deacon-greg-kandra/tom-kaines-bishop-releases-statement-on-catholics-in-public-office/#sthash.h4NIzq0P.dpuf

Statement by Tom Kaines Bishop on Catholics in Public Office:
http://aleteia.org/blogs/deacon-greg-kandra/tom-kaines-bishop-releases-statement-on-catholics-in-public-office/

Mike Pence Spiritual wanderings: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/on-gov.-mike-pence-and-evangelical-catholicism/