Daily Archives: July 6, 2012

P.A.F.E. Press Release Sent July 5, 2012 Opposing GSAs

Friday, July 6, 2012
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P.A.F.E. Press Release Sent July 5, 2012 Opposing GSAs

Posted onJuly 6, 2012by

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: 

(Toronto, July 4, 2012)  Parents as First Educators (P.A.F.E.) calls upon Ontario Catholic Trustees to implement “Respecting Difference” clubs as the responsible and Constitutional solution to bullying in schools.   The last-minute changes to Bill 13 which force Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs on Catholic taxpayers are both unnecessary and unconstitutional.

In January, 2012, a solution to bullying in Ontario was proposed in the “Respecting Difference” document issued by the Ontario Catholic Trustee Association in consultation with the Bishops of Ontario.  It proposed clubs that support the religious beliefs of the schools.  P.A.F.E. is requesting the Trustees to continue to implement these clubs in all Catholic schools in spite of the passing of Bill 13.  GSAs undermine the Church`s teachings on the purpose of sex and family.  Forcing Catholic schools to have Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) violates the constitutional guarantees provided to Catholic taxpayers.

Ontario lawyer Geoff Cauchi states Trustees have the legal right to refuse to cooperate with anything that would undermine the schools’ religious character, due to the guarantee of Section 93 of the Constitution.   As Mr. Cauchi says, a reasonable court should find that “it would be absurd to expect a Catholic Board to tolerate the presence in its schools of student groups that present an anti-Catholic ‘counter witness.’”

Ontario Catholic taxpayers have a right to a Catholic school system. This system must promote Church teaching and Catholic values. The province has no right to force the school system to violate its Catholic principles. P.A.F.E. President Teresa Pierre says, “Dalton McGuinty is a bully for trying to force Catholic schools to host clubs which violate the civil and religious rights of Ontario taxpayers.  The highest law of the land says Catholic schools have the right to guide their clubs according to their principles.”

Catholic Trustees have the political, moral and legal right to implement the “Respecting Difference ” clubs. These clubs are designed to help with all anti-bullying issues, and maintain the Catholic values Section 93 of the Constitution is intended to preserve.


Contact:  Teresa Pierre            pafe4you@gmail.com                    ph. 416 859 5396

About John Laws

Catholic, married, pro-life, pro-family, parent. Active in the Knights of Columbus. Member of the staff at The Interim, Canada’s Life and Family Newspaper.

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P.A.F.E. Press Release Sent July 5, 2012 Opposing GSAs

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Vatican II on the LCWR

Friday, July 6, 2012

When religious orders do not produce vocations, they are then to…

“If after consulting the appropriate Ordinaries, the Holy See decides that certain communities or monasteries no longer offer any reasonable hope of flourishing, these should be forbidden thereafter to accept novices. If it can be done, they should be absorbed by a more vigorous community or monastery which approximates their own purpose and spirit.”

-Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life

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Vatican II on the LCWR

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Federal judge stops feds’ indefinite detention law

Friday, July 6, 2012

Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall has taken a strong stand for individual rights.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, July 6, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A controversial law that would allow the president to indefinitely detain Americans without trial hit a roadblock after a federal judge blocked the federal government from making any arrests under its purview.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of New York City temporarily halted any arrests or detentions that would take place under the terms of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which took effect on July 1.

In a 68-page opinion, Judge Forrest wrote, while she only enjoined the law “with great caution,” the government had “a strong public interest in ensuring that due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment are protected by ensuring that ordinary citizens are able to understand the scope of conduct that could subject them to indefinite military detention.”

“It is the responsibility of our judicial system to protect the public from acts of Congress that infringe upon constitutional rights,” Judge Forrest wrote.

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The NDAA, which President Barack Obama signed last December 31, allows the president to hold enemy combatants in military detention facilities without trial until the end of hostilities, if the person “substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.”

Critics of the law note that the president alone determines who fits this criteria, without any judicial or congressional input. The law merely requires the Secretary of Defense to “regularly brief” Congress about “covered persons.”

During deliberations, the Senate rejected an amendment offered by Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, limiting permanent detention to those captured “abroad.”

“This law can apply to pro-lifers, yes,” John W. Whitehead, a constitutional attorney and founder of The Rutherford Institute, told LifeSiteNews.com.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to give signs that it considers pro-life organizations and believers in limited government public enemy number one.

A federally funded study conducted on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this January claimed that “single issue groups” such as “anti-abortion” organizations had committed more terrorist acts over a longer period of time than any group, including Islamic fundamentalists. The report also warns officials to beware of anyone who is “suspicious of centralized federal authority” or
“reverent of individual liberty.”

DHS and FBI agents have also been briefed by Planned Parenthood to monitor right to life activists to prevent alleged pro-life terrorism.

Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, filed an amicus curiae brief in the anti-NDAA lawsuit. He previously authored a law forbidding Virginia the state Nation Guard and Volunteer Defense Force from making arrests pursuant to NDAA.

New York Times reporter Chris Hedges testified that, because he associated with terrorists while reporting on them, he could be indefinitely detained.

Forrest, who was appointed by Barack Obama, issued her ruling on May 16.

Others who joined Marshall in opposing the law before Judge Forrest include Virginia State Sen. Dick Black, the Tenth Amendment Center, Gun Owners of America, Pastor Chuck Baldwin, U.S. Border Control, the Constitution Party National Committee, and many others.

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Federal judge stops feds’ indefinite detention law

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Wikkimissa time again

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Here we are five years into the era of Summorum Pontificum and whatever may be said about it, there can be no denying that there are more Traditional Masses being offered in more places with each passing year. To that end, I always take the opportunity each July 7th to ask readers of Rorate Caeli to consult Wikkimissa – the indispensable international directory of the Traditional Latin Mass – to make sure that all Mass listings are up to date. Wikkimissa relies heavily on users to keep its information current. Please take a few moments to see if the listings for the Masses in your area are correct. You may edit the site directly but please make sure that the new information is accurate.

Excerpt from: 

Wikkimissa time again

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Adrenaline, anyone?

Friday, July 6, 2012

So I’m hanging up my laundry this morning,

and poing!

the line breaks.

Crumb.

I pick up clothes from the back fence to the house,

rewash the pieces that landed in the garden,

and rehang everything else on the second line.

I have a lot of laundry to do today.

So I decide that I should try to restring the clothesline.

Except the blooming pulley is about five meters off the ground, at the back of our garden.


My husband is the monkey who usually climbs the ladder to do stuff up there.

Me? I’m no monkey. Not with my dizzy brain.

But there’s a lot of laundry to dry.

So I call my daughters and set up the ladder.

It’s wobbly.

But I can do this.

Can’t I?

I take the end of the clothesline and up I go…

The top of the ladder (one of those extendable ones) is really shaky though the girls hold its base firmly.

I can’t quite reach from the double rungs, so I have to step up on a single rung.

And one more.


I can just barely hook the curled end of the clothesline over the pulley…

but to get it through, I’ll have to let go of the ladder.

My heart is pounding and my knees are wobbly.

But I’m so close, I can’t give up now.

I let go of the ladder, grab the pulley with both hands, and the line slips around it.

I grab the end of it, and tremble my way back down the ladder.

Whoo hoo!

I did it!

Good to be back on terra firma, and that’s an understatement.

The only problem is that I’m not strong enough to pull the two ends of the line back to the clip that holds them together, sigh.
Still a lot of laundry to dry…

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Adrenaline, anyone?

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Religious freedom signs censored on Ohio campus, lawsuit alleges

Friday, July 6, 2012

Bryan Kemper spoke as students were silenced.

DAYTON, OHIO, July 6, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A western Ohio college has been slapped with a lawsuit after campus police told attendees at a “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally they had no right to hold up signs.

As members of Sinclair College’s Traditional Values Club held one of the national rallies in the largely Catholic area, campus police instructed those in the crowd to put their signs, which read “Religious Freedom for All Americans,” and the banner announcing the event on the ground or face repercussions.

Attorneys for the Thomas More Society say the college’s speech guidelines violate the rights of its 20,000 students, and the police did “irreparable harm to” their clients’ “rights under the First Amendment.”

Its Campus Access Policy states that only recognized student organizations can hold events or distribute literature on campus. Campus security read that prohibition to forbid hand-held signs, as well. The legal complaint warns such a policy could conceivably result in banning all literature distribution – and that violates the very idea of higher education.

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Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel of the Thomas More Society, said, “Schools are meant for the free expression of ideas, but Sinclair has taken the stance that its students must check their free speech rights at the door.”

Bryan Kemper, Youth Outreach Coordinator for Priests for Life, was speaking at the event. The lawsuit is filed in his name, as well as two students.

Contact info:
Steven L. Johnson, Sinclair College president and CEO
444 West Third Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402
(937) 512-2525

Link - 

Religious freedom signs censored on Ohio campus, lawsuit alleges

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Pelosi: Ted Kennedy helped with health bill from Heaven

Friday, July 6, 2012

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters the day the Supreme Court upheld the federal health care law that the late Senator Ted Kennedy was “busily at work” after death to keep the reform afloat in the courts as well as Congress, CNSNews.com reported.

“I knew that when he left us he would go to Heaven and help pass the bill,” said Pelosi June 28, “and now I know he was busily at work until this decision came down, inspiring one way or another, and now he can rest in peace. His dream for America’s families has become a reality.”

Pelosi said she spoke to Kennedy’s widow Vicki and son Patrick following the 5-4 ruling, “thanking them for the important role that he played, a lifetime of commitment to making healthcare a right, not a privilege in our country.”

One of Kennedy’s last great political impacts before his death was his role in introducing the health care reform bill, which passed seven months after the Massachusetts senator succumbed to brain cancer in 2009.

See the article here:

Pelosi: Ted Kennedy helped with health bill from Heaven

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Taking the culture back: Leaving the Christian Art Ghetto

Friday, July 6, 2012

July 6, 2012 (Breakpoint.org) – When I say the words “Christian art,” most of you probably think of a tranquil cottage, windows alight and chimney smoking, with a snippet of a Psalm scrawled on the frame. Or you may just recall novels oozing with stilted dialogue about Jesus in every chapter. This stuff can’t really compete with what the world offers, you might say, but that’s okay, because it’s “Christian.”

But what if these things radically miss the mark of true Christian art? What if our art should be the envy of the world?

Yesterday Eric Metaxas talked about the recent successful campaign to remove the film “The Blind Side” from a major Christian bookstore chain because it realistically depicted inner-city life.

This is a case-study in something I talk about at Summit frequently: As Christians, we too often dismiss good art and accept mediocre substitutes just because they’re labeled Christian. We’ve created for ourselves a kind of “artistic ghetto,” and are willing to preserve it even at the cost of quality.

In many ways, “Christian art” has become a synonym for anything that’s charming, quaint, or makes us feel good. It often portrays a one-sided world where evil doesn’t exist and only “positive” and “uplifting” messages are allowed.

You may be thinking by now of the late Christian painter Thomas Kinkade. Whatever you think of his work, too few of us are asking “What makes his paintings uniquely “Christian?” Daniel Siedell at Patheos.com argues that Kinkade’s work is what happens when we reduce the meaning of “Christian” to “a world in which all we need is home and hearth, a weekend retreat, [and] a cozy night with the family to put us right with God.” But that’s not the world we actually live in, which is described in Scripture as being desperately broken and in need of redemption and hope.

In fact, says one hugely influential Christian filmmaker, even though we insist on calling our art “Christian,” we’ve watered down its core message to a kind of facile moralism that says “behave and be nice,” but nothing more.

Phil Vischer, the creator of Big Ideas Productions’ “Veggie Tales” lost ownership of his company after it went bankrupt in 2003. In a recent interview with World magazine, Phil says he regrets the direction he took his famous children’s show.

“I had spent 10 years trying to convince kids to behave Christianly without actually teaching them Christianity,” he said. You can say “hey kids, be more forgiving because the Bible says so. But that isn’t Christianity.”

In his book, “Bad Religion,” Ross Douthat quotes Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict): “The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.” Reflecting on Ratzinger’s words, Douthat added, “Today, we have too few of both.”

So how do we reclaim Christianity’s place in the world of art? How do we move beyond naïve idealism and begin making excellent art that serves its real purpose of paraphrasing reality as it really is?

For starters, we could take a cue from Peter Docter, award-winning writer and director for Pixar, who brought us movies like “Toy Story,” “Wall-E,” “Monsters, Inc” and “Up,” and who just happens to be a devout Presbyterian.

Docter’s art is shaping an entire generation. The values and lessons of his animated stories have been praised by both Christian and non-Christian critics alike. These movies are about family, courage, friendship, loving your neighbor, and they’re the gold standard of the industry. And most importantly, they’re not stuck in the Christian ghetto, but bringing wholesome entertainment to eager audiences.

It was C. S. Lewis, an artist whose work shook the church and the world, who said that what we need is not more Christian books, but more books by Christians. What if we accept this challenge? What if the distinction between “Christian art” and “real art” disappears? What if the world one day looks at Christian art, and starts to feel like a ghetto, itself?

Reprinted with permission from Breakpoint.org

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Taking the culture back: Leaving the Christian Art Ghetto

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Agreeing To Disagree

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Looking at the last part of Michael Griener’s series on

why he is not Catholic

. It is more than a little disappointing. He details how his opinion or the teaching of his protestant tradition is different from the Catholic church’s teaching on many points. Then he just assumes his opinion is obviously right. Often protestants will provide some biblical argument explaining why they think their opinion is right. He does not even go there. He just does not seem to get his mind around the fact that not everyone thinks like him. That other churches, including the Catholic church, use the same New Testament he does and arrive at very different doctrines. It shows how far we have to go in raising the authority issue that someone who is reasonably highly thought of as a protestant pastor can address the question of Catholicism at some length and totally miss the authority issue. Not just getting the wrong answer but not even coming close to the right question. Just treating his own opinion or his own tradition as infallible and thinking that is going to be convincing. Either he does not get out much or the Catholics who have been talking about this need to get out even more.

He did raise one point that is worth a comment. He tells the story of his daughter trying to date a Catholic.

He was a nice young man, polite, kind, and a fellow student at her
little Christian high school. He was also a Catholic from a devout
Catholic family. As the non-dating stage of their relationship went on,
it became apparent that he was “really” a Catholic, even though he
attended a non-Catholic Christian school. My daughter assured me that
his faith was genuine and that their religious difference would mean
little. I told her I did not question his relationship with Jesus, but I
suggested she was underestimating the differences in the faiths.

Look at what is happening here. He is saying that this boy is a Christian yet there is a difference in the faiths. That is not biblical. St Paul says in Eph 4:5 that all Christians have one faith. What we have together in Jesus is supposed to bring us together. People that you would not expect to get along should become friends because they are both Christians. But the opposite is happening here. A young couple that seems like they like each other has to split up because of their religion.

In John 17:23 Jesus prays,”May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Here we have the opposite. Not only is complete unity not happening supernaturally but even the natural human bonds are being broken. Our unity is supposed to let the world know Jesus is really from God and that God does love them. Those are pretty important truths. So what happens when we do the exact opposite of what Jesus prays for? When we let religion divide Christian from Christian? The world might still see something of God but there is a lot that is not of God obscuring it, a lot of pride and a lot of judging.


It has become politically correct to say Catholics are not evil and many Catholics have a good relationship with Jesus. But that only makes sense up to a point. Having their child contemplate marrying a Catholic is too much for most protestants. It makes sense. Realistically the new family is going to end up choosing to be Catholic or protestant. Both sides dislike that idea. Catholics can articulate why. They believe valid sacraments are important and the protestant church does not have them. Protestants have more trouble saying why their child becoming Catholic is worse than their child moving to another protestant denomination. They say the Catholic church is a Christian church but not really.

The truth is the differences go quite deep. Protestants can’t really process that. They want to believe that anyone who accepts Jesus as their savior and accepts the bible as the word of God is part of the family of God and all the differences will be minor. It just is not true. There are different doctrinal frames of reference that are a hugely important. If the protestant admits they exist he has a problem. He has to address the question of which one is the right one. That is precisely the question being ducked in this article.

When you ask that question, which tradition, which philosophical framework, which paradigm is the correct one? Supposing you try and answer it objectively and not assume something from your tradition. Then Catholicism wins from almost any angle you look at it. It is more logical. It is more biblical. It is more historical. It is more workable. It is more beautiful. It is more global. It has produced more saints and a greater variety of saints. It has inspired more great art. It’s claims are more testable and have been tested for a longer time.

This is why this question never really gets faced. It does require a bit more abstract thinking but not all that much. Most are capable of doing that analysis. But when the thinking leads to unpleasant conclusions then they just think about something else. That is what struck me about the article. Even with this incident with his daughter and even choosing to write about Catholicism it is so easy to duck the central question. I was there once. Twenty years ago I would have done exactly the same thing. So I shall pray for Pastor Michael and his daughter Michal because these are important questions. Not just important for their spiritual walk but for the witness that Christians give to the world.

See original article here: 

Agreeing To Disagree

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Why legalising assisted suicide for anyone at all will inevitably lead to incremental extension

Friday, July 6, 2012

Pro-euthanasia activists always make a great play of how their proposals to help people kill themselves are extremely modest and are bound by ‘robust safeguards’.

Dignity in Dying, the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society, is a world leader in this art and their new draft bill, championed by Lord Falconer, is a classic example.

It’s only for the mentally competent, only for the terminally ill, only for adults they say.

There will be no killing of children, disabled people or demented people. It’s all going to be strictly controlled.

In fact it is only the beginning for two main reasons.

The first is that DID’s position is ultimately illogical. Their main arguments, autonomy (it’s my right) and compassion (I’m suffering unbearably), apply equally to some people who are not ‘mentally competent, terminally ill adults’. There are people who are not adults, not terminally ill or not mentally competent who claim they are suffering unbearably or who want to die.

Locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson is not terminally ill and celebrity novelist Terry Pratchett (pictured), who has Alzheimer’s, will soon not be mentally competent as a result of dementia. But they both want the ‘right to die’. On the other hand most terminally ill people do not want to die and are not suffering unbearably.

This means that if we legalise assisted suicide or euthanasia for those who are mentally competent terminally ill adults, the logic of the autonomy and compassion arguments will demand extension to other groups of people. Incremental extension is inevitable because the proposed legislation is actually discriminatory. It won’t survive five minutes in its current form without a human rights challenge on grounds of equality. Once you have a right for some, it will be argued, it must be there for all.

The second problem is that there are already many ever-so-slightly-more-radical groups which are already pushing for extension beyond mentally competent terminally ill adults. SOARS and FATE want it for elderly people, terminally ill or not, and EXIT International (Philip Nitschke’s outfit) says it should be available for the elderly bereaved and troubled teenagers.

In fact in the Times this week, celebrity novelist Terry Pratchett, a patron of Dignity in Dying who part-funded the defunct Falconer Commission, is saying that an exception should be made for Nicklinson who is not terminally ill and would require euthanasia and not assisted suicide (as he is not capable of killing himself even with assistance). So it seems that DID are unable to restrain the enthusiasm for extension of even their own patrons. I expect that Pratchett will also want an exception to be made for himself after he loses mental competence.

Pratchett argues as follows:

‘It appears that Lord Falconer of Thoroton and Tony Nicklinson are both stuck in the aspic of the law, which I quite understand. But surely, since Mr Nicklinson has a terrifying syndrome that none of us would ever wish to experience, one can’t help but wonder whether the law can take second place to compassion?’

I have already pointed out twenty disturbing facts about assisted suicide and euthanasia in Europe that Terry Pratchett does not tell us in the course of his relentless campaigning.

Don’t be fooled. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society may have changed its name but it has not changed its agenda. If they ever manage to get a bill passed by parliament which allows assisted suicide or euthanasia for anyone at all you can be sure that even before the ink is dry they will be clamouring for extension, and many will find the logic of the argument based on autonomy and compassion to be compelling.

It’s best not to go there at all.

Any change in the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia would place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden upon others. This would especially affect people who are disabled, elderly, sick or depressed.

Furthermore, persistent requests for euthanasia are extremely rare if people are properly cared for so our priority must be to ensure that good care addressing people’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs is accessible to all.

The present law making assisted suicide and euthanasia illegal is clear and right and does not need changing. The penalties it holds in reserve act as a strong deterrent to exploitation and abuse whilst giving discretion to prosecutors and judges in hard cases.

Hard cases, like that of Tony Nicklinson, make bad law. Even in a free democratic society there are limits to human freedom and the law must not be changed to accommodate the wishes of a small number of desperate and determined people.

Reprinted with permission from Peter Saunders’ blog.

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Why legalising assisted suicide for anyone at all will inevitably lead to incremental extension

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Cardinal Burke on the Extraordinary Form

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Cardinal Burke on the Extraordinary Form

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Parent group wants trustees to fight Bill-13

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Parent group wants trustees to fight Bill-13

Posted onJuly 6, 2012by

President of Parents as First Educators Teresa Peirre calls upon Ontario’s Catholic school trustees to reject the implementation of Gay-Straight Alliances during a press conference on July 5.

Parents as First Educators’ (PAFE) president Teresa Pierre is urging Ontario’s Catholic school trustees to pressure their boards into refusing to implement Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) in Catholic schools.

“A legal opinion (from lawyer Geoff Cauchi) obtained by PAFE argues Catholic trustees are obliged to refuse to implement GSAs in Catholic schools,” said Pierre at a news conference held in the shadow of St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto July 5. “Mr. Cauchi says a reasonable court should find that ‘it would be absurd to expect a Catholic board to tolerate the presence in its schools of student groups that present an anti-Catholic counter witness.’ ”

The 75-page document from RZCD Law Firm says that that Bill-13, the province’s new anti-bullying legislation, is a violation of the Catholic taxpayers’ constitutional rights. Further, the document stated that those who challenge this law through civil disobedience would be protected.

Created in 2011, PAFE’s original mission was to seek amendments to the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s equity policy by encouraging grassroots activism from trustees. As Bill-13 developed, PAFE expanded its scope to all Ontario Catholic boards. To date PAFE has a mailing list of 15,000 supporters who agree with Pierre that Respecting Difference groups provide a better solution to schoolyard bullying. (more…)

Parent group wants trustees to fight Bill-13

About John Laws

Catholic, married, pro-life, pro-family, parent. Active in the Knights of Columbus. Member of the staff at The Interim, Canada’s Life and Family Newspaper.

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Jesus is in Your Boat

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Ludolf Backhuysen, 1695

IT felt like the last straw. Our vehicles have been breaking down costing a small fortune, the farm animals have been getting sick and mysteriously injured, the machinery has been failing, the garden isn’t growing, windstorms have ravaged the fruit trees, and our apostolate has run out of money. As I raced last week to catch my flight to California for a Marian conference, I cried out in distress to my wife standing in the driveway: Doesn’t the Lord see we are in a free-fall?

I felt abandoned, and let the Lord know it. Two hours later, I arrived at the airport, passed through the gates, and settled down into my seat in the aircraft. I looked out my window as the earth and the chaos of the last month fell away beneath the clouds. “Lord,” I whispered, “to whom shall I go? You have the words of eternal life…”

I took out my Rosary and began to pray. I had hardly said two Hail Mary’s when suddenly this incredible Presence and tender love filled my soul. I was surprised by the love I felt since I had thrown a fit like a little child a couple of hours before. I sensed the Father telling me to read Mark 4 about the storm.

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”* The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (Mark 4:37-40)

 

WOUNDING JESUS

As I read the Word, I realized that those were my own words: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And I could hear Jesus saying to me, “Do you not yet have faith?” I felt the sting of my lack of trust, despite all the ways God has provided for my family and ministry in the past. As hopeless as things now appear, He was still asking, “Do you not yet have faith?”

I felt Him asking me to read another account when, once again, the disciple’s boat was being tossed by wind and waves. This time, however, Peter was more bold. Upon seeing Jesus walking toward them in the water, Peter says:

Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith,* why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:28-31)

“Yes, that is me,” I silently wept. “I am willing to follow You until the waves hit me, until the Cross begins to hurt. Forgive me Lord….” It took me two hours to pray the Rosary as the Lord walked me through the Scriptures, tenderly rebuking me.

In my hotel room, I felt compelled to open the diary of St. Faustina. I began to read:

My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners… I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them… Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces. So I turn to you, you-chosen souls, will you also fail to understand the love of My Heart? Here, too, My Heart finds disappointment; I do not find complete surrender to My love. So many reservations, so much distrust, so much caution…. The infidelity of a soul specially chosen by Me wounds My Heart most painfully. Such infidelities are swords which pierce My Heart. —Jesus to St. Faustina; Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 367

“Oh my Jesus… forgive me, Lord,” I cried. “Forgive me for wounding You by my lack of trust.” Yes, Jesus, dwelling in Heaven as the source and summit of the joy of the saints, can be wounded because Love, by its nature, is vulnerable. I could clearly see that I was forgetful of His goodness; that in the midst of the storm, I have “reservations, so much distrust, so much caution…” He was now asking of me for a complete response of my will: no more doubts, no more hesitation, no more uncertainty.

After the first night of the conference, I turned to the Diary and, to my surprise, read what Jesus said to St. Faustina during her conference:

In the evening, after the conference, I heard these words: I am with you. During this retreat, I will strengthen you in peace and in courage so that your strength will not fail in carrying out My designs. Therefore you will cancel out your will absolutely in this retreat and, instead, My complete will shall be accomplished in you. Know that it will cost you much, so write these words on a clean sheet of paper: “From today on, my own will does not exist,” and then cross out the page. And on the other side write these words: “From today on, I do the will of God everywhere, always, and in everything.” Be afraid of nothing; love will give you strength and make the realization of this easy. —Jesus to St. Faustina; Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 372

During the course of the weekend, Jesus calmed my interior storm and did what He said He would accomplish, insofar as I gave Him my full “fiat.” I experienced His mercy and healing in a very powerful way. While none of the problems back home are fixed, I know now, without a doubt, Jesus is in the boat.

While He was speaking these words to me on a personal level, I knew that He was also speaking them to those at the conference, and to the entire body of Christ regarding another Storm that is coming…

JESUS IS IN YOUR BOAT

The Last Hour has come, brothers and sisters. The Great Storm of our times, the “end times”, is here (the end of this age, not the world).

And I want to tell those of you who are trying to follow Christ, despite your personal failures and setbacks, despite the trials and suffering which are at times relentless:

Jesus is in your boat.

Soon, this Storm is going to take on dimensions that will impact the entire world, moving her irreversibly toward the ultimate purification of evil from the planet. Few understand the scope of what is about to take place very soon. Few are prepared for the dimensions of this Storm. But you, I pray, will remember when the waves come crashing down:

Jesus is in your boat.

The reason the Apostles panicked was because they took their eyes off of Jesus and began to focus on the waves “breaking over the boat.” We too often begin to focus on the problems, which at times, seem as though they will totally sink us. We forget that…

Jesus is in the boat.

Keep your eyes and heart fixed on Him. Do this by canceling out your will and living in and accepting His will in all things.

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. (Matt 7:24-25)

We are being called to walk on water—to tread over the abyss amid wind and waves and a disappearing horizon. We must become the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies. The days are here and coming when we are going to have to depend upon God entirely. And I mean this in every way. But it is for a purpose, a divine purpose: that we would become the army of Christ in these last times where every soldier moves as one, in obedience, in order, and without hesitation. But this is only possible if the soldier’s mind is attentive and obedient to his Commander. The words of that prophecy given in Rome in the presence of Paul VI come to mind again:

Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation… Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert… I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me. A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my Church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my Spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen…. And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: land, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you… —word given to Ralph Martin, May 1975, St. Peter’s Square

Jesus is in our boat. He is in the Barque of Peter, the great Ship of the Church that must pass through this Storm called “The Passion.” But you must also make sure that He is indeed in your boat, that He is welcome. Do not be afraid! John Paul II told us time and again: Open wide your hearts to Jesus Christ! It is no coincidence that the words that Jesus gave to St. Faustina for the Church in this Last Hour are so simple and yet precise:

Jesus, I trust in you.

Pray these from the heart, and He will be in your boat.

Mankind has a decisive need for the witness of courageous and free young people who dare to go counter-current and proclaim strongly and enthusiastically their faith in God, Lord and Savior.… In this time threatened by violence, hatred and war, give witness that only He can give true peace to the hearts of men, to families and to the peoples of the earth.” —JOHN PAUL II, Message for 18th WYD on Palm-Sunday, 11-March-2003, Vatican Information Service


Peace, Be Still, by Arnold Friberg

 

Unfortunately, we have had to put the completion of my new album on hold. Please pray about financially supporting
this full-time ministry, or for God to provide the means we need to move forward. As always, we rely on His providence to do this work, as long as He wants.

Thank you.

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Jesus is in Your Boat

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BMA corrects Lord Falconer’ s misrepresentation of its position on ‘assisted dying’

Friday, July 6, 2012

Yesterday I drew attention to Lord Falconer’s false claim in the Times that the British Medical Association had adopted a neutral position on ‘assisted dying’ (a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia).

In fact the BMA, like the RCGP, RCP and Association for Palliative Medicine, are all opposed to any change in the law.

The story of the former Lord Chancellor’s ‘fiction’ has since been picked up by George Pitcher on the Daily Mail blogs.

And now the BMA itself has written to the Times to correct the ‘error’.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, BMA Director of Professional Activities, writes in the Times today (£):

Sir, Your article (‘Allowing Tony to die would be euthanasia’ (£), July 4) http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3465014.ece is incorrect when it says that the BMA has adopted a neutral position on assisted dying. A motion to change the BMA’s policy was debated last week at our annual conference but was overwhelmingly rejected. The BMA remains firmly opposed to assisted dying and we are not lobbying for any change in the law.

The letter is accompanied on the same page by a very interesting comment (£) from Terry Pratchett, Patron of Dignity in Dying (the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society), who funded Falconer’s now defunct Commission on Assisted Dying.

He is arguing, unlike DID (which must cause some embarrassment), that euthanasia should be available to severely disabled people and not just ‘mentally competent, terminally ill adults’ (aka the DID mantra).

I have also written to the Times in response to Falconer’s false claims on behalf of Care Not Killing. The letter is on the Times website but I am not holding my breath about it making the paper edition.

I have pasted it below

My letter to the Times about Lord Falconer’s new bill

Former Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, in seeking to promote his new assisted suicide bill (The Times, 4 July), makes the false claim that ‘the position of the British Medical Association (is) now neutral rather than opposed’.

The BMA is in fact opposed to the legalisation of both euthanasia and assisted suicide and affirmed this position at their annual representative meeting on 27 June when they rejected by a large majority a motion to go neutral brought by doctors affiliated to Dignity in Dying, the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society. It is astounding that Falconer seems not to know this.

The Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Association for Palliative Medicine and the British Geriatric Society are also opposed as are around 65% of doctors generally and over 90% of palliative medicine specialists.

All major disability rights groups in Britain also oppose any change in the law believing it will lead to increased prejudice towards them and increased pressure on them to end their lives.

Furthermore the so-called ‘robust safeguards’ in Falconer’s new bill are essentially those that British Parliaments have rejected three times since 2006 out of concern for public safety in the House of Lords (2006 and 2009) and in Scotland (2010).

The present law with its blanket prohibition on both assisted suicide and euthanasia illegal is clear and right and does not need changing. The penalties it holds in reserve act as a strong deterrent to exploitation and abuse whilst giving discretion to prosecutors and judges in hard cases.

Reprinted with permission from Peter Saunders’ blog.

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BMA corrects Lord Falconer’ s misrepresentation of its position on ‘assisted dying’

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Catholic parents group wants to defy Ontario’s Gay-Straight Alliances law

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Catholic parents group wants to defy Ontario’s Gay-Straight Alliances law

Posted onJuly 6, 2012by

A parents’ group said Thursday they won’t stand for the province bullying them into creating Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in Catholic schools.

“We’re calling upon Ontario Catholic Trustees to implement ‘Respecting Difference’ clubs as the responsible solution to bullying in schools,” said Teresa Pierre, the president of Parents as First Educators.

The Ontario legislature passed controversial legislation in early June that allows students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance in public and Catholic schools in an effort to curb bullying.

Earlier this year the Ontario Catholic Trustee Association proposed their own way of dealing with bullying in schools.

They said they wanted to create “Respecting Difference” clubs, which would still address issues of students who were being bullied but stayed true to traditional Catholic teachings on sexual behaviour and values.

“PAFE is requesting the trustees to continue to implement these clubs in all Catholic schools in spite of the passing of Bill 13,” Pierre announced. (more…)

Catholic parents group wants to defy Ontario’s Gay-Straight Alliances law

About John Laws

Catholic, married, pro-life, pro-family, parent. Active in the Knights of Columbus. Member of the staff at The Interim, Canada’s Life and Family Newspaper.

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Nick Clegg’s Tommy Cooper imitation

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Nick Clegg has shifted the goalposts on same sex “marriage” –

Just like that!

In an interview for yesterday’s Evening Standard (We should allow gay weddings in church) the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has said that Churches that wish to conduct same sex “marriages” should be able to do so.

Until now, Churches have received “reassurances” that same sex “marriage” legislation would only apply to civil ceremonies, not to those held in Church. The value of those reassurances is well summarised in the Telegraph article (Nick Clegg backs gay marriage in churches – in break with David Cameron pledge) speaking of Nick Clegg’s new move on the subject:

It follows a series of hints from leading Coalition figures that reassurances given to religious groups could be revisited once the plans are on the statute book.

In other words, “We lied.”

At the moment, Clegg says that Churches would not be forced to conduct same sex “marriages.” I leave it to you to work out just how much this latest reassurance is worth.

(There is a poll at the Daily Telegraph article, in which you may wish to particpate.)

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Nick Clegg’s Tommy Cooper imitation

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Intrepid cyclists off again

Friday, July 6, 2012
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Some of the young people from my parish are cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End to raise funds for Mary’s Meals, St Pio’s Friary, Bradford and the African Missions. The above picture shows Anna Marie who decided on a warm-up from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to John O’Groats. Her father Adrian has gamely accompanied her; as he is only a year younger than me, I have the highest respect for this endeavour.

You can read about the various stages on the dedicated blog To Land’s End. Others will be joining throughout the route.

Roads through the mountains take the easiest route but it is still a long uphill climb on a bicycle. Here is a picture from a stretch in the Cairngorms:

There was a

problem with a wheel

, necessitating a careful freewheel down hill and a visit to a highland bicycle shop:

They have already raised over £4000 – to contribute, go to their

Charity Giving page

Link: 

Intrepid cyclists off again

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Ex-Scientology leader: Messy Tom Cruise divorce could destroy the allegedly pro-abort cult

Friday, July 6, 2012

Tom Cruise with Katie Holmes and their baby Suri.

LOS ANGELES, California, July 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A former leader in the Church of Scientology is warning that a messy divorce between movie stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes could “blow Scientology wide open.” In addition to concerns about harassment and abuse, the cult has faced numerous allegations of coercing members into committing abortions.

As news of the impending divorce fills the Hollywood gossip pages, Marty Rathbun, who was the second most powerful leader in the cult until he left in 2004 to become an “independent Scientologist,” is urging Cruise to acquiesce to Holmes’ demands rather than engage her in a public custody battle over their six-year-old daughter Suri.

“Katie could blow Scientology wide open. If Tom’s smart, he won’t fight her on anything, even custody. He should just try to settle his way out of it,” Rathbun told The Hollywood Reporter.

“She could press this sole-custody issue and litigate it, and that would be the biggest nightmare in the Church of Scientology’s history,” he added. “It would be a circus they couldn’t survive.”

Click ‘like’ if you want to END ABORTION!

For pro-life advocates, the biggest question mark around the organization surrounds allegations of coerced abortions centering on the cult’s elite Sea Organization, whose members must sign a billion-year contract to serve Scientology for millions of lifetimes. Members are forbidden from having children.

In 2010, the St. Petersburg Times reported that they had uncovered over a dozen women who said they had been pressured into abortion while members of Sea Org.

“I was pounded for two days by the top person in my organization … about how the baby wasn’t a baby yet, it was just tissue and it wouldn’t matter if I aborted the baby,” said Laura Diekman, who joined Sea Org when she was 12 and became pregnant shortly after she wed another scientologist at the age of 16.

In May, Sam Domingo, 45, a former Sea Org member from Britain, revealed that she had been coerced into an abortion after she became pregnant with her first husband.

“I was told in no uncertain terms this was not to be — and to have an abortion as it was for the greater good,” she told The Sun.

“An ‘ethics officer’ helped arrange an abortion at a free clinic and I was given a week off to recover and then I was back on post as if nothing had happened,” she said.

Scientology leaders have responded to the allegations by claiming that the cult does not have a position on abortion. “At no time has any Church staff member been ‘forced’ to obtain an abortion,” spokesman Tommy Davis told The Tampa Bay Times in 2010.

Holmes filed for a divorce from her husband of five years in New York on June 29. Though she has not revealed her reasons, pundits and former Scientologists have speculated that Holmes did not want Suri raised in the cult after seeing how it affected Cruise’s two teenage children, who were adopted by him and Nicole Kidman in a former marriage.

Cruise is the most prominent member of the cult, which has long been known for courting celebrities. Church of Scientology chairman David Miscavige was Cruise’s best man at his marriage to Holmes in 2006.

“[Suri’s] at the age where the kids get indoctrinated,” Marc Headley, a former Scientology leader who left the cult in 2005 with help from police, told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s like, playtime over. You’re a Scientologist now. And they really de-emphasize the family. Katie becomes a lot less important as a mother. It’s all about the organization over the individual.”

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Ex-Scientology leader: Messy Tom Cruise divorce could destroy the allegedly pro-abort cult

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The Gospel and Social Media

Friday, July 6, 2012

This helpful blog post comes to us from Sr. Mary Ann Walsh and our friends at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This latest post, which can be found on the USCCB’s blog, challenges those who live and proclaim the gospel to use social media in a very important and dynamic way.

The Gospel and Social Media

Two caveats for evangelizers, that is, those who spread the Gospel today: 1. Use social media and 2. Follow its rules. It’s a new day in church work: the computer has replaced the pen, 15 minutes seems like eternity, and if you don’t get your message out fast, the audience disappears.

Here are some rules for social media evangelization:

1.  Translate church teaching. If you pour out documents or list a series of them online, you’re not spreading the Gospel, you’re simply creating an electronic file box. A document drop might help someone with his dissertation but it won’t help us follow the command to go forth and teach all nations. Teachers have to translate church teaching into popular speech. The evangelizer is a translator.

2.  Avoid church speak. Some phrases create barriers to communications. “Intrinsically evil,” for example, may earn an A on a theology paper but can merit an F in human discourse. Which drives home the message: “Abortion is wrong because it snuffs out innocent life” or “abortion is intrinsically evil”? One tells you what really happened. A second example of church speak is the word “presbyterate,” which emphasizes the distance between priests and people. There’s more warmth in speaking about “our priests.” “Presbyterate” sounds pejorative, as in “Listen, you presbyterate!”

3.  Use images, as Jesus did. God’s love is a freebie; you can’t earn it, you just have to accept it. Which sentence conveys that? “God’s love is infinite and you have inherent value” or “You’re more important than the sparrows who only have to exist for God to feed them”? The image gives you something to hold on to, even if you don’t like worms.

4.  Understand that social media is social. It’s like going to a party. You can’t sit in a corner and not converse. If you want to make a statement to which no one can reply, buy a billboard. Social media is electronic conversation. To engage in it you need to be willing to listen to others and converse with them.

5.  Social media sometimes calls for a suit of armor. Its anonymity lets incivility into the living room. Wearing emotional armor, you can handle disagreement, not take it personally, and learn from it. Social media is not for the thin-skinned.

6.  Use the delete button if comments cross the line of decency, but, hopefully, not often. Sometimes for your own sake you just have to say “So long.” You don’t need to be imprisoned on a social media site. But don’t walk away too quickly.

7.  Spread Catholicism’s fun parts. Talk about saints, like St. Nicholas, who came up with bags of gold for a woman’s dowry, or St. Teresa of Avila who, when exasperated by life’s trials, advised God, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!” Talk about good sermons you’ve heard, favorite hymns. Catholicism is warm, filled with stories, meaningful devotions, and other down-to-earth ways to convey the faith. It is not heady. Reaching into the heavens for language can make it hell for listeners.

8.  Remember rules are changing. I felt strange the first time I sent a condolence message via the Internet. Then I realized that my friend had announced her father’s death in an e-mail message. I could either wait until I had time to find the proper stationery and mail the note, or I could respond in her time of need. The Internet makes simple human gestures easier.

9.  Remember web messages live forever. The warning to not write anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front of the newspaper is more pertinent now. A picture of you hoisting a beer seems like a good idea until you find someone’s researching you online for a responsible position.

10.  Keep it short. The days of the 75-word sentence ended with Cardinal Newman. Phrases such as “Jesus wept,” and “Mary was silent” speak volumes, and usually less is more.

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The Gospel and Social Media

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Invalid Matter?

Friday, July 6, 2012
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This blog will be our Witness for the Faith.

Continued: 

Invalid Matter?

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