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Should I be surprised that the murder of forty million babies in the United States since 1973 is not on the list for voter concerns that “Jezabel” knoll feels must be confronted in the next election? What are they concerned about? Read the Statement recently issued by the order’s Office for Global Concerns:

“Maryknoll seeks to help U.S. voters understand what it means to love our neighbors in a shrinking world. As daily witnesses to how U.S. policy and economic decisions impact people who lack basic necessities, endure the scourge of racism, live with gender-based discrimination or feel the impact of climate change, Maryknoll missioners ask that U.S. voters keep these neighbors, and their stories, in mind as they scrutinize candidates’ policy proposals and go to the polls.”

Marie Dennis’ full article in Catholic Online is here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.10.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

In the spirit of Blessed Giana Molla another mother sacrifices her life in refusing a cancer treatment that would have ended the life of her unborn baby. CWN reports it here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.10.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Our Lady of Sheshan is the patroness of China.  Every May 24th on the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians the universal Catholic Church prays and offers Masses for the persecuted Church in China.  The Communist government will not allow the Catholics from Hong Kong to gather with fellow Catholics at the shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan, so Cardinal Zen had to cancel the pilgrimage.  Story here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.10.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Vienna, Apr. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (bio - news) has issued a statement defending the decision to host an art exhibit featuring homo-erotic images of Christ and the apostles at the Vienna cathedral’s museum.

In response to a query from the German-language kath.net news site, Cardinal Schönborn noted that Alfred Hrdlicka, the artist whose works have provoked charges of blasphemy, is “one of Austria’s most notable living artists.” Story here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.10.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Dr. Marian T. Horvat reviews Mark Zima’s book, Mother Teresa: The Case for the Cause.

newseditor :: Apr.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

When I first took issue with Dr. Deepak Chopra’s book, The Third Jesus, my criticism was based on a few excerpts from the Introduction that I had seen on one of the news sites I frequent on the web. The fact that I titled my short post “In the Vanguard of the Antichrist” led to its being noted on the Chopra Center homepage. Loyal bloggers were quick to defend the doctor; however, a couple of them who did so were out for blood. One wrote: “Crucify him!” Another opted that I be taken somewhere and given a “beating.” “Why?” he asked himself. “Oh, just because,” he answered. I think the first was just trying to be humorous in his own dark way. The second poster, however, reminded me of the English heretics who enjoyed disemboweling Catholics, “just because” they were Catholics.

Chopra posts gushing testimonials from four prominent “Catholics” in order to bolster the universal appeal of his book. The first one he cites, Miceal Ledwith, is made to look like he is an adviser to the pope, because he was on the Vatican’s International Theological Commission for seventeen years. This Commission, of which he is no longer a member anyway, is a joke, a wasted endeavor, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, not the pope personally, decides on who gets on it. Every diocese in the world gets to make a contribution of at least two “theologians”. It hosts a wide spectrum of members some of whom wouldn’t even recognize others on the Commission as being Catholic. Ledwith was dismissed by the Vatican from the active priesthood in 2005. One of the reasons was his long-standing promotion of new age theosophy. He had personally participated in the dedication of a new age retreat and school in California, Ramtha’s School of Ancient Wisdom. If anyone wants to know how bizarre this ex-catholic is check his eerie website at www.hamburgeruniverse.com. His four degrees in philosophy and theology only make his apostasy more culpable.

Then there’s Sister Judian Breitenbach of the Catholic order of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. She is identified as the Founder of the Sari Asher Namaste’ Center in LaPorte, Indiana. She is a yoga instructor. That’s all I know about her and it’s enough.

Two priests, both in “good standing” with the Catholic Church endorsed the book. They are Rev. Edward J. Ruetz, retired , and Father Paul Keenan, Director of Radio Ministry for the Archdiocese of New York. From the comments they made in support of The Third Jesus it is clear that their karma ran over their dogma a long time ago.

I ended up buying the book. Here are my thoughts about it.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

From CNA:

The Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, compared euthanasia with Hitler’s racial purging and said both situations are “the consequence of a society without God.”

Progressivists and leftists hate it when their programs (euthanasia, abortion, contraception, etc.) are likened to the nefarious agenda of Nazism. They seem to cherish a monopoly on such similes. However, it is the progressivists and leftists that praise Margaret Sanger.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a proponent of “race hygiene” through “negative eugenics,” an attempt to reduce the fertility of “dysgenic” groups, in the early 20th century. In 1921, she said eugenics is “the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems, and the ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.” She also cautioned, “We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”[See Undercover Investigation Reveals Planned Parenthood’s Racism]

Explain that.

Brother Andre Marie :: Apr.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

On April 1, the Pontifical Lateran University presented the book, “Capuozzo, Indulge this Child: The Life of Giovanni Palatucci,” published by Saint Paul Editions. The new book tells the life of the heroic Italian police officer who saved five thousand Jews during World War II.

[Full Story]

newseditor :: Apr.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Vatican, Apr. 8, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has released a message to the people of the United States, in preparation for his trip to America next week. Read here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Apr. 7, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Vatican statement issued last week “does not go far enough to allay concerns” about the implications of an amended version of the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews, the Anti-Defamation League has complained.

While welcoming the Vatican’s assurance that the Catholic Church remains fully committed to inter-religious dialogue, the ADL said that Good Friday prayer in question– a text that is read only in Latin, and only in the few parishes where the extraordinary form of the liturgy is the norm for Easter Triduum celebrations– remains problematical.

Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL in America, explained that the clarification issued from Rome “still does not specifically say that the Catholic Church is opposed to proselytizing Jews.” The ADL statement continued with an expression of disappointment that the Vatican had not “explicitly rejected calls to conversion or to proselytizing Jews.”

Moreover, Foxman pointed out in his critical remarks, the statement of clarification from Rome will not be read aloud when the Good Friday prayer is recited during that day’s solemn liturgy. The prayer will stand alone, he observed, “with its call for Jews to recognize Jesus as the savior of all men and its hope that ‘all Israel will be saved.’”

newseditor :: Apr.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

An Orwellian plan that has state and federal governments staking claim to the ownership of every newborn’s DNA in perpetuity is advancing under the radar of most privacy rights activists, but would turn the United States’ citizenry into a huge pool of subjects for involuntary scientific experimentation, according to one organization alarmed over the issue. [Full Article at WorldNetDaily]

newseditor :: Apr.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Yesterday at Saints Peter and Paul in Baghdad, the funeral was held for Youssef Adel, killed Saturday by unknown persons. Also present at the function, the Vatican nuncio and Cardinal Delly. The plan to drive Christians out of Iraq could be part of a more general strategy of Shiite supremacy in the Middle East. Go to AsiaNews for the story of the Assyrian Orthodox priest, Father Youssef Adel.

newseditor :: Apr.07.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

[See also “Former PM Tony Blair is Now Raising Funds for Homosexual Group.” Quote: “John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) commented on the matter saying, ‘During his premiership, Tony Blair became one of the world’s most significant architects of the culture of death - promoting abortion, experiments on human embryos, including on cloned human embryos, and euthanasia by neglect.’” This should shed some light on what constitutes “extremism” to Mr. Blair.]

London, Apr. 4, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair called for a greater appreciation of religious faith during an April 3 address at Westminster cathedral.

Blair– who entered the Catholic Church shortly after his resignation from government leadership last year– said that “we ignore the power of religion at our peril.”

“Religious faith is a good thing in itself,” Blair said, and “should be a force for progress.” But he said that the influence of religious leadership is too often wielded by extremists.

Although Islamic terrorists have been most prominent in exploiting their faith, the British leader said that “virtually every religion” is tainted by extremism. He defined extremists as those who see their faith “as a means of excluding the other person who does not share it.”

Today, he continued, religious faiths need to be protected from the influence of extremists on one hand and militant secularists, who would exclude all religious influence, on the other.

Looking back on his own public career, Blair said that he had encountered a “packet of trouble” whenever he spoke about his faith. Yet he insisted that for someone with clear religious beliefs, “there is no conceivable way that it wouldn’t affect your politics.”

Blair told the Westminster audience that his goal in establishing a Faith Foundation is to use the power of religion for beneficial projects, notably including the fight against global poverty.

newseditor :: Apr.07.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Bill likely to create vast new cadre of family planning personnel in Africa with a personal interest in promoting population control

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

April 4, 2008, LifeSiteNews.com– The U.S. House of Representatives has approved what could become the biggest financial bonanza in history for the population control movement.

The House voted today to approve H.R. 5501, which is popularly known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has already pumped billions of dollars into programs in Africa that ostensibly seek to reduce the spread of HIV and to provide medications to those already infected.  A similar bill (S 2731) is under consideration in the Senate.

In previous years the bill has mandated that 33% of spending be committed to programs that prioritize abstinence, marital fidelity, delayed sexual debut, and other concepts that are family friendly and are likely to reduce the spread of venereal diseases.  Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Apr.07.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Reading the comments by the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, after the conclusion of France’s closed door episcopal conference, is about as inspiring as a flat tire. God forbid that the Church should turn back the clock to the nineteenth century, he cautioned, no not even to the 1950s.  Our priests are caught up “in the whirlwind” of modern society, he said, and are just too stressed. Meanwhile, let’s welcome the Mohammedan immigrants and do what we can to bolster the economy in those countries from which they came.  Did the convention of French bishops consider their obligation to  evangelize the infidels in their own homeland? If so, none of them are talking.  What they did discuss was the injustice of their getting the blame from lay folk for not providing leadership for the faithful.

Cardinal André 23, wasn’t it the 1800s that saw the greatest number of saints of any century in the history of France? Read here.

Brian Kelly :: Apr.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

London, Apr 4, 2008 / 03:19 am (CNA).- Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of Edinburgh and leader of Scotland’s Catholics, has written an editorial for a British newspaper criticizing the “hype-filled” claims used to advocate the creation of human-animal hybrid embyros.  He described the hybrid research itself as involving “grotesque procedures.” [Full article]

newseditor :: Apr.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

McDonald’s has signed on to a nationwide effort to promote “gay” and “lesbian” business ventures.

According to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, McDonald’s will aggressively promote the homosexual agenda. In remarks on McDonald’s Web site concerning the company becoming a member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Skinner wrote: “Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world…and we do.” … [Full article and plan of action]

newseditor :: Apr.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Today, the Vatican Press Office released a much awaited clarification on the new prayer for the Jews inserted into the 1962 Roman Missal. News stories and commentaries leading up to today’s release had anticipated something not in the final document. Expected was a repudiation of “proselytism,” the pejorative label put on evangelism nowadays. What was released instead was a reaffirmation that the Church has not reversed her stance against “contempt or discrimination against Jews.” Affirming that the Vatican II Declaration Nostra Aetate is still a guide for Vatican policy, the Holy See is “firmly repudiating any kind of anti-Semitism.” Continue Reading »

Brother Andre Marie :: Apr.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

The Vatican Press Office today released the following statement:  

Following the publication of the new Prayer for the Jews for the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, some groups within the Jewish community have expressed disappointment that it is not in harmony with the official declarations and statements of the Holy See regarding the Jewish people and their faith which have marked the progress of friendly relations between the Jews and the Catholic Church over the last forty years.

The Holy See wishes to reassure that the new formulation of the Prayer, which modifies certain expressions of the 1962 Missal, in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church’s regard for the Jews which has evolved from the basis of the Second Vatican Council, particularly the Declaration Nostra Aetate. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI, in an audience with the Chief Rabbis of Israel on 15 September 2005, remarked that this document “has proven to be a milestone on the road towards the reconciliation of Christians with the Jewish people.” The continuation of the position found in Nostra Aetate is clearly shown by the fact that the prayer contained in the 1970 Missal continues to be in full use, and is the ordinary form of the prayer of Catholics.

In the context of other affirmations of the Council - on Sacred Scripture (Dei Verbum, 14) and on the Church (Lumen Gentium, 16) - Nostra Aetate presents the fundamental principles which have sustained and today continue to sustain the bonds of esteem, dialogue, love, solidarity and collaboration between Catholics and Jews. It is precisely while examining the mystery of the Church that Nostra Aetate recalls the unique bond with which the people of the New Testament is spiritually linked with the stock of Abraham and rejects every attitude of contempt or discrimination against Jews, firmly repudiating any kind of anti-Semitism.

The Holy See hopes that the explanations made in this statement will help to clarify any misunderstanding. It reiterates the unwavering desire that the concrete progress made in mutual understanding and the growth in esteem between Jews and Christians will continue to develop.

[00514-02.01] [Original text: English]

[B0225-XX.01]

newseditor :: Apr.04.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Undercover investigator calls for congressional examination of PP

By Michael Baggot

LOS ANGELES, CA April 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews) - A new video reveals Planned Parenthood employees in both Oklahoma and New Mexico complying with an undercover “donor” requesting that his money be used specifically to abort an African-American child who might someday steal his own child’s spot in college through “affirmative action.”

When James O’Keefe, the undercover “donor,” asked if a donation could be used for aborting a black child, a PP staffer from Tulsa responded, “We can definitely designate it for an African-American.” Continue Reading »

newseditor :: Apr.03.2008 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off