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Saturday 11 February 2012

Santorum and Sharia and Religious Freedom

I had posted this in January, but "it got deleted'. I post it again now, as Santorum is the only candidate who has spoken against the idea that sharia law is incompatible with our Constitution. Good article from Politico here. We must discuss this in the States at all levels of government. It is too bad that his win in Iowa came so late, as it originally caused his campaign to lose momentum. It is picking up now.



"We need to define it and say what it is. And it is evil. Sharia law is incompatible with American jurisprudence and our Constitution."
Santorum, invoking New York Rep. Peter King’s hearing this week on the alleged radicalization of American Muslims, said that the vast majority of Muslims don't want to it either.
"They left because of Sharia law," he said, referring to why he believes Muslim immigrants left their home countries to come to the United States.
Santorum added, "Sharia law is not just a religious code. It is also a governmental code. It happens to be both religious in nature an origin, but it is a civil code. And it is incompatible with the civil code of the United States."

Santorum, a devout Catholic, warned about Sharia at CPAC last month, and his latest comments set up a stark contrast between his world view and President Obama's efforts to court support in the Muslim world.

Santorum had gained momentum coming out against the efforts of the Obama camp to restrict freedom of religion and conscience. This is one reason why his poll numbers are soaring. Romney can't really say much as his Romneycare has the same restrictions of conscience. Catholics need to pay attention to detail.


Another big posting day...so many important issues are coming to a head for us Westerners and Catholics.


Santorum Moves

From Creative Minority Report


Rick Santorum: Frontrunner!
Even when Rick Santorum surprised in Iowa, he was never considered a top contender because he never really budged in the national polls. But there is no doubting that Rick is a contender now after sweeping three states last week.

But now something incredible is happening. There were two national polls yesterday that showed Santorum now second to Romney in one and in a virtual tie for first. But the really interesting thing was the dailies on those polls showed a huge momentum shift toward Rick in the past few days. And now comes this bombshell.
Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP's newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul.
A fifteen point lead! Now it is one poll and PPP, but you couple that with the other polls and it is easy to conclude that we have a new frontrunner in this race.

Rick Santorum!

Lies and Political Illusions

Just in case any Americans are stupid enough to accept the so-called compromise, look at this reference given by Margaret on Father Z's blog. Chilling reminder of the deceitfulness surrounding us at this time.


An article entitled “Nothing But Squid Ink” at NRO’s Corner is pointing out that the “proposed regulations” just WENT INTO LAW YESTERDAY. Unchanged. Not even with Obama’s fig leaf compromise included. Money quote from the OFR.gov PDF file (p. 19): “Accordingly, the amendment to the interim final rule with comment period amending 29
CFR 2590.715-2713(a)(1)(iv) which was published in the Federal Register at 76 FR 46621-
46626 on August 3, 2011, is adopted as a final rule without change.” (my emphasis)

Those who have time check out the original source and make comments, please.

On being a soldier of Christ from the CCC

If the Pope called a Crusade, would anybody come?


III. The Effects of Confirmation
1302 It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
1303 From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:
- it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!";115
- it unites us more firmly to Christ;
- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;116
- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:117
Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.118
1304 Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the "character," which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness.119
1305 This "character" perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism, and "the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were officially (quasi ex officio)."120

Do we need reminders of our Confirmation duties and gifts? It is not an option for a confirmed Catholic to sit on the fence, do nothing, or worse, chose error over Truth.

We have power, and can you imagine for one moment what a different world it would be if all the confirmed Catholics lived the full life of grace, never compromised, and were soldiers for Christ in the world? 

On Purgatory and Living in the Darkness of Our Individualism


Once St. Macarius of Egypt found a human skull while walking in the desert. When Abba Macarius touched the skull with a palm branch, a voice came from the skull. When the elder asked, "Who are you?," the skull answered, "I was a pagan priest and lived in this place. Abba Macarius, have pity on us who are in eternal torment, and pray for us, for your prayer brings us comfort." The elder asked, "What comfort comes to you from my prayers?" The skull answered, "When you pray for us, light appears, and we begin to see one another."

Do not be immersed in the worldly....

When is grace with us? When we do not offend this benefaction, do not despise this gift. Who then in offending this grace can preserve it and not be deprived of it? God has granted thee absolution of sins, how then can a good mood or action of the Spirit abide with thee, if thou dost not retain it by good deeds? The cause of all good things lies in the grace of the Spirit always abiding with us. It leads us to every good thing, and when it leaves us, we remain abandoned and we perish. Let us not leave it! It depends on us whether it remains with us or not. It remains when we take care for the heavenly; it leaves when we are immersed in the worldly." St. John Chrysostom

A Series on Pascendi Dominici Gregis: Part One

Every time I read the great Encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, by Pope St. Pius X, I am amazed at how prophetic it was and how timely it is today. I would like to quote a few sections which apply directly to the politics of several nations in the West and within the Church



We make no delay in this matter is rendered necessary especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart, and are the more mischievous, the less conspicuously they appear. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, vaunt themselves as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man.

In the recent past, Pope Benedict stated that the grave problems involved enemies within the Church. These are those who do not obey the Teaching Magisterium of the Church in matters of correctly forming their consciences to conform to Tradition and Revelation, as in the matters of contraception and abortion.

The saintly Pope Pius X writes that the Modernists,  are wont to display a certain contempt for Catholic doctrines, or the Holy Fathers, for the Ecumenical Councils, for the ecclesiastical magisterium; and should they be rebuked for this, they complain that they are being deprived of their liberty. Lastly, guided by the theory that faith must be subject to science, they continuously and openly criticise the Church because of her sheer obstinacy in refusing to submit and accommodate her dogmas to the opinions of philosophy; while they, on their side, after having blotted out the old theology, endeavour to introduce a new theology which shall follow the vagaries of their philosophers.
We can see this in the so-called pro-choice Catholic politicians, or in the Catholics who maintain that civil unions for homosexuals do not contradict either natural law or the Church's teaching. And, the brilliant Pope continues, Concerning immanence it is not easy to determine what Modernists mean by it, for their own opinions on the subject vary. Some understand it in the sense that God working in man is more intimately present in him than man is in even himself, and this conception, if properly understood, is free from reproach. Others hold that the divine action is one with the action of nature, as the action of the first cause is one with the action of the secondary cause, and this would destroy the supernatural order. Others, finally, explain it in a way which savours of pantheism and this, in truth, is the sense which tallies best with the rest of their doctrines.

This is the great error in the thinking of the leaders in the United States, who contradict natural law on the basis that somehow, God is working in some sort of false progressivism (the Star-Trek heresy) which holds that we, in 2012, are smarter and holier than the 2,000 years of Christians who have gone before us. Arrogance stands firm against the Church. Of course, when natural law is ignored or twisted into some type of relativism, the supernatural order in a nation erodes and, finally, is destroyed. We have had plenty of warning, over a hundred years, in fact, to get ready for the onslaught on religious freedoms we see today. This encroachment of Modernism did not suddenly happen. The date of this Encyclical is 1907.
The prophetic nature of this document will even more clearly be seen in my second part which I shall post in a day or two, on the nature of Church and State relations. But, look carefully at the inspiration in this section: God was trying to get our attention 105 years ago. Who was paying attention?
For we are living in an age when the sense of liberty has reached its fullest development, and when the public conscience has in the civil order introduced popular government. Now there are not two consciences in man, any more than there are two lives. It is for the ecclesiastical authority, therefore, to shape itself to democratic forms, unless it wishes to provoke and foment an intestine conflict in the consciences of mankind. The penalty of refusal is disaster. For it is madness to think that the sentiment of liberty, as it is now spread abroad, can surrender. Were it forcibly confined and held in bonds, terrible would be its outburst, sweeping away at once both Church and religion. Such is the situation for the Modernists, and their one great anxiety is, in consequence, to find a way of conciliation between the authority of the Church and the liberty of believers.
More to come...




On the Coming of St. Valentine's Day


Father Z, on his wonderful blog, is correctly full of righteous anger and disgust concerning Valentine Day's commercial icky and stupid promotions. I, for one, want to use the upcoming day to thank Jesus, the Second Son of the Blessed Trinity for dying and rising to set me free from sin and eternal death. Thank you, God, for being Love. May the real spirit of St. Valentine's Day be in our hearts and minds. And, here is the link to Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Deus Caritas Est as a little valentine for all on the blog-a link and some photos of beautiful English roses.

For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. John 3:16