The Only Independent Institution in The World

  http://www.marxists.org/admin/legal/lw-response.html       Irony times ten and a quotation for the day

July, 1842



from Karl Marx, "if....there is no supreme head of the Church, the domination of religion is nothing but the religion of domination, the cult of the will of the government."

Which is one reason why the Marxists have always hated the Catholic Church above all religions. With a supreme head, there can be no lasting power of a government over the Church. The Church is the only independent institution in the world.

There is a reason why Christ established His Church on earth under Peter and through Peter's successors.
Only an institution of divine origin can withstand the onslaught of political, governmental hatred we are now seeing in the United States, with the planned destruction of religious freedom.

Gramsci, in his first published letter from prison, explained that the Catholic Church, (especially under Popes Pius IX, X and Leo XIII) understood what the Marxists were attempting to do--not merely destroy religion, but destroy the Catholic Church.

They failed in the 19th century, so decided to infiltrate the Church in the 20th and 21st centuries. They has succeeded in many quarters, especially in Latin America and in the United States, as well as Italy.

Do not kid yourselves, dear readers, this is a real battle. The Church will survive, but as a remnant.

Will you be part of that remnant? Will you stay in the Church and suffer with Her?

Again, on the cult of personality

Several times in the past five years, I have written on the cult of personality. After reading Paul C. Vitz, Faith of the Fatherless, it is clear to me that the substitution of tyrants could very well be because people have an inflated view of leaders as fathers. I make this extrapolation looking at the growing cult of personality, which revealed itself to me in 2007 in the States.

During the media crisis of the first few months of the current papacy, this was true. People wanted a perfect man to be pope. Well, he is not perfect. Neither am I. But, those most distressed are those who fall into the cult of personality.

Also, the huge over-idolization of movies stars, political leaders and even CEOs, has led more and more to the worship of persons, rather than the worship of God.

For a man to come into the world, claim to be the savior of all economic and political problems, and then be given the power to do so, a man usually called the Anti-Christ, would be easier and easier coup to "pull-off" in this climate of hero-worship.

The lack of fathers provides an entire club of people who are looking for someone to take care of them, to guide them, to mold them.

The popularity of super-hero movies may be part of this sensibility to the cult of personality.

See how easy it would be for one superman, one extremely talented leader to take over, using the emotional needs of an entire world of fatherless creatures.

Vitz noted that most atheists are highly intelligent, are ambitious, are arrogant and vain. This sounds like many of our so-called leaders today.

Envy and personal resentment cause arrogance, and even atheism. I see this close at hand. That many Americans now hate the good, the true and the beautiful, as Vitz notes atheist so, is a sad declaration of the attitudes of arrogance and hatred coming out of the world of the atheists.

Hatred leads to envy and envy leads to the politics of envy, which we now see in America. How easy it would be for one tyrant to stir up this envy to a frenzied state, and take control after the chaos of civil war.

We need to pray, reflect, study, act....or we shall be swept away in that chaos.

Who Is The Elite? Who Is Transforming Your Children?

Why did Italy put this man on one of the national stamps? This happened in 1987. The world was very asleep then. Now, more Catholics are waking-up to the tyranny which is and has been forming the minds, the souls of your children.

I do hope, as I noted on this blog a few weeks ago, that Antonio Gramsci converted on his deathbed. I use to keep two lists on my dorm door at college. One was the list of home-schooled greats-like Dorothy Sayers. The other was a list of deathbed conversions. These lists were reminders to me and to my hall-mates that an alternative lifestyle was better than conformity to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Many posts on this blog are about the cleansing of the imagination. Many posts on this blog are about the necessity of moving out of the world in one's mind and spirit, even though one has to work in the world.

As laity, we are in the world, but not of the world.

The culture has moved beyond saving in the areas of morals. It is highly unlikely, unless there is a huge catastrophe, that people will change.

Let me go back to Gramsci again.

He wanted education to be taken out of the hands of the "elite". Now, what we see as the elite are the atheists and agnostics who have taken over the universities, colleges, high schools and elementary schools. In Gramsci's time, the elite were Catholic intellectuals, not Marxists. They were men, mostly, who were educated in the classical tradition and who were conservative.

His kulturkampf succeeded in removing the traditional elite and supplanting that group with those we see now in charge of all levels of education-ie. Core Curriculum.

Gramsci's vision is now American's vision, replacing the philosophies of Western Civilization, such as natural law philosophy, the Rule of Law, Catholicism, and so on.

Gramsci and his followers wrote that the elite would form the child. Of course, this is the duty of parents, not schools, who should be working with parents and not against parents in the formation of the child.

I have studied and shared on this blog the various Catholic educational methods of formation-see the links below. That the Marxists have succeeded in taking over what parents declined to do is obvious now.

However, Catholics are still not responding to this situation of the brain-washing of children by the State. The fact that all those dioceses have accepted the Core Curriculum, again noted on this blog earlier, demonstrates both the level of deceit and the level of complicity with the State in undermining both the authority of the parent over the formation of the child and the creation of a morally bankrupt generation, again.

Commentaries on Gramsci use the term "transformer" with regard to schools.

I hope readers are getting really scared. Your children are being transformed into persons who will not share your beliefs on natural law, the Rule of Law,

By the way, these ideas of Gramsci were disseminated around the world-not just in Europe. Marxists active in both North and South America, Central America, and, of course, parts of Asia and Africa have founded the new elite. To see who members of this new elite actually are, just look at the MPs in Great Britain, Ireland, the Hague.

Tyranny does not take over in a day. Two idols have been worshiped by some Catholics to bring us to this crisis in the culture. The first, the biggest idol, is money.

The second is conformity-the false American ideal of Americanism.

And back to my entertainment theme this month-look here for the source this phrase.

Certainly, nearly all major writers, artists and film-makers of post-Second World War Italy were to a greater or lesser extent influenced by his mighty presence in the recent past. 

And for those who tell me Marxism is a dead and spent ideology in Europe (rofl), check this out for one indication of new life. 

to be continued...

The most exciting thing I have heard in a long time

http://web.archive.org/web/20090919034614/http://cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=10411

and

http://ncronline.org/news/founder-italian-communism-died-good-catholic-vatican-prelate-says

sent to me by my twitter colleague,

Wagner Clemente Soto; Mr. Soto, a great thanks. I know a few people who would hate this good news. From one 
of the articles....

He had an image of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in his room,” de Magistris said. “During his final illness, the sisters of the clinic where he stayed brought him an image of the Child Jesus, and Gramsci kissed it,” he said.

“Gramsci died with the sacraments. He returned to the faith of his infancy,” de Magistris said. "Some in the Communist world prefer not to talk about it, but it's true."

Please join me in prayer in case his soul is in purgatory.....Thanks so much!

And, from the other article....On the other hand, Francesco Cossiga, former president of Italy, was prepared to take de Magistris at his word in light of his former role as head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

“No one else, with the exception of the pope, knows as much when it comes to the Sacred Penitentiary, the office that presides over questions relative to the internal forum of the baptized members of the Catholic church,” Cossiga said.

“If there’s a person who would know about a conversion by Gramsci, about his death in the bosom of the Catholic church, it’s precisely Archbishop de Magistris,” Cossiga said.

Buchanan Reveals Face of Alinsky

http://buchanan.org/blog/sadistic-strategy-obama-reid-5923

A snippet...shades of 2007 blogging before the first election....

The Obama-Reid strategy is, in a word, sadistic.

In the showdown over the shutdown of the U.S. government, the Obamaites tipped their hand yesterday as what their strategy is.

Taking a page out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” the plan is to maximize the people’s pain — to maximize the political damage to the enemy, the Republican Party.

What else explains it?....

Consider this: Asked Wednesday if there were any danger of America defaulting on her debt, President Obama rushed to assure a reporter that, yes, indeed, there certainly is such a peril.

Why would a president act in so perverse a manner, were he not trying deliberately to rattle or panic the markets?

Obama’s tactic worked. Thursday, the Dow plunged below 15,000.

and...

Undeniably, Republicans have voted to defund Obamacare, to suspend it for one year, and to reform it. But in each of these three votes, the House also voted to fund the entire government.

Why, then, is the government shut down? Because Harry Reid and Barack Obama have issued an edict: Either Obamacare is fully funded and untouched in the continuing resolution, or we kill the CR, shut down the government, and blame you.

And this is exactly what is going on.

Read more at the link.

On Bunny Rabbits And Socialism-Part Two Out of Three

I am reading off and on for fun Venerable Fulton J. Sheen's Your Life is Worth Living. If you are evangelizing someone from age 16 on, I recommend this book. The chapters are from his television series and the chapters are short and self-contained.

Now, you might be puzzled as to what Fulton J. Sheen has to do with bunny rabbits or with socialism.

Did you know that the wild rabbit can travel up to 25 miles a day? Could....and that is a mile an hour, if the rabbit is not sleeping, which it would be doing, so more than a mile an hour, if needed for safety, food, or setting up a new warren.

That rabbits need freedom for survival is true even of house pet rabbits. This need for movement and freedom is not merely a natural drive, but a need for the rabbit to be a rabbit, and not a cat or a dog, which a rabbit is nothing like.

Now, Fulton J. Sheen had a lot to say about communism. He spoke eloquently and intellectually, but also practically about what communism does to the soul, the mind, the heart of a person, of a nation.

One of the best points Sheen made in one of his talks was that when he was teaching in a Catholic university, (he taught philosophy for 25 years), was that the Catholic teachers knew both sides of the argument concerning communism. These professors could argue, like St. Thomas Aquinas, as Sheen notes, both sides.

When I taught my students debate and argumentation, they had to learn both sides of the argument in order to win their "side".  Unless a Catholic understands from the inside out the real dangers of communism, this Catholic will not see their own slide into mental slavery.

I gave my house rabbit freedom to run around a very large walled-in garden. It was safe in that garden. When we moved into that house, it had been abandoned for a while and the garden was half-full of briars. It took us a month to clear back the heavy, stubborn briars. At the end of the large garden, we left some in a contained area. This was Sooty's special play area. If Sooty needed space, the rabbit would go into the tangled briars for time-out.

One of my favorite memories was a mid-summer night when Sooty did not come back in when we called at the patio door. It was getting dark,  and we were concerned, as Sooty slept inside.

I remember my husband standing on top of the briar patch calling Sooty, who apparently did not want to come in. Finally, I put food in its dish and stood by the patio door. The rabbit came out quickly and popped into the house for din-dins.

Now, we understood Sooty's needs and habits, but also the danger from owls and other predators, which would eat this little rabbit.

Sooty had freedom within limits. This is not the case for those living under communism as Sheen points out.

Our rabbit was free because we loved it and had a relationship with it. As Sheen points out, Catholicism is a relationship with God, not with a system.

Sooty knew whom it was obeying-a kind person who was feeding it and concerned.

We do not have that kind of relationship with tyrannies. Socialism and communism, as Sheen points out, create an anonymous "they" and we give that "they" power, or they take it.

The they is only so powerful as we make it in the West. and we have created a monster.

It is hard for me to convince people who are excellent Catholics of the danger of socialism. These good people in Europe cannot see how the society, the family, their own wildness, that is their own individual dignity have been eroded by group think and the "they" who control their lives.

The arguments usually end up centered on how wonderful the baby-killing national health system are for people.  I cannot help those who desire such systems to determine who lives or who dies, who is fit for the utilitarian world and who is fit to serve the state as opposed to those who are a burden on the state.

I cannot convince group-think Catholics who do not really know the other side of the argument.

Catholicism gives real freedom. As an institutional Church, the Catholic Church knows both sides of the argument. And, she preaches a relationship, not merely dogmas. As Sheen points out, to be free, one needs order and law, but God's laws not man's. And, socialism and communism both re-define man.

That is the problem. I did not re-define my rabbit. It was a rabbit, not a person.

The person is not merely a cog in the wheel of the state; the person does not exist for the state.

To know the arguments might help some Catholic who are socialists to repent.

There is also a misunderstanding between the term materialism and consumerism. This must be corrected. Too many Catholics think materialism is merely being caught up in the buying and accumulating of things-that is consumerism. Materialism is the philosophical idea that the world is all there is-there is no afterlife.

The goal of both communism and socialism is materialism-the denial that the ultimate goal of men and women is heaven. Those isms make earth the goal and earthly comforts the work of humankind.

This is not the case. The popes knew that materialism changes the definition of what it means to be human.

Be a Catholic. Fulton J. Sheen in this chapter mentioned that a communist told him that the encyclical on communism by the pope was the best understanding of the system he ever saw. The same is true for the encyclicals on socialism. Nothing has changed. A rabbit is a rabbit, a man a man, and a system which replaces God for security and identity is a tyranny.

Here is Pope Leo XIII.

In fine, the rewards and punishments of a future and eternal life having been handed over to oblivion, the ardent desire of happiness has been limited to the bounds of the present. Such doctrines as these having been scattered far and wide, so great a license of thought and action having sprung up on all sides, it is no matter for surprise that men of the lowest class, weary of their wretched home or workshop, are eager to attack the homes and fortunes of the rich; it is no matter for surprise that already there exists no sense of security either in public or private life, and that the human race should have advanced to the very verge of final dissolution.

...

Even family life itself, which is the cornerstone of all society and government, necessarily feels and experiences the salutary power of the Church, which redounds to the right ordering and preservation of every State and kingdom. For you know, venerable brethren, that the foundation of this society rests first of all in the indissoluble union of man and wife according to the necessity of natural law, and is completed in the mutual rights and duties of parents and children, masters and servants. You know also that the doctrines of socialism strive almost completely to dissolve this union; since, that stability which is imparted to it by religious wedlock being lost, it follows that the power of the father over his own children, and the duties of the children toward their parents, must be greatly weakened. But the Church, on the contrary, teaches that "marriage, honorable in all,"[13] which God himself instituted in the very beginning of the world, and made indissoluble for the propagation and preservation of the human species, has become still more binding and more holy through Christ, who raised it to the dignity of a sacrament, and chose to use it as the figure of His own union with the Church.

more here and here

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13apost.htm

http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12CH42.HTM

On this organic conception which alone is living, in which the noblest humanity and the most genuine Christian spirit flourish in harmony, there is marked the Scripture thought, expounded by the great Aquinas: Opus Justitiae Pax—The work of justice shall be peace—a thought which is applicable to the internal as to the external aspect of social life. It admits of neither contrast nor alternative such as expressed in the disjunction, love or right, but of the fruitful synthesis, love and right. In the one as in the other, since both radiate from the same Spirit of God, We read the program and the seal of the human spirit; they complement one another, give each other life and support, walk hand in hand along the road of concord and pacification, while right clears the way for love and love makes right less stern, and gives it a higher meaning. Both elevate human life to that social atmosphere where, even amid the failings, the obstacles and the difficulties of this earth a fraternal community of life is made possible.

But once let the baneful spirit of materialist ideas predominate; let the urge for power and for predominance take in its rough hands the direction of affairs; you shall then find its disruptive effects appearing daily in greater measure; you shall see love and justice disappear; all this as the sad foretaste of the catastrophes that menace society when it abandons God.

to be continued....

On Bunny Rabbits

Years ago, just because I do these sorts of things, I studied rabbits. I was interested in their social structure, habits, needs, and so on. That was in the days before blog and websites on house rabbits. I had to use books!

We had a house rabbit, and I wanted to make sure I understood, to a certain extent, my pet. Sooty Little Ears was a Black Rex, which are highly intelligent and fun pets.

Sooty Little Ears had the run of the house. He did his necessaries in a cat box, and was tidy.

This rabbit would meet people at the door. A person would bend over and stare, then say something like, "What an unusual cat. OH! It's a rabbit."

Sooty thought we were all rabbits. It thought we were strange rabbits, but rabbits none the less.

It sat next to us when we were on the sofa.  It sat under the table when we ate dinner.

But, if there was danger, in its little, beady, black eyes, Sooty revealed it was an Alpha Rabbit. We found this out in several ways.

One day, a huge cat from the neighbors, a house once removed, jumped into our upstairs window. Suddenly, we heard this thumping. Sooty was warning all of us of danger. Then, Sooty ran under the bed in the master bedroom and hid until I tossed the cat out of the house.

From then on, Sooty changed behavior. The rabbit would sleep at the door of the master bedroom at night, when before it would sleep anyway. It would sleep right at the open door, across from the window where the cat had jumped in.

Sooty was from there on in alert mode. If it sensed danger, it would thump and even wake us up at night.

Sooty remained wild, as most house rabbits do, because they have not been domesticated as long as dogs or cats. Wild animals need much more freedom and less stress than domesticated ones.

I compare Sooty's reversion to being a guard rabbit with thinking like a Christian.

Sometimes, Christians must move along with society or culture becoming domesticated, becoming one with the rest of society, losing the edge of being a contradiction in the world.

Then, something happens which awakens the wild, wakens the real Christ-likeness is the soul, the mind the heart.

This is our situation now. We need to be like Sooty Little Ears. We have been warned.
Unless we think like Christians, we shall not see the danger nor be ready for it.

For New Readers-some of the Gramsci Posts

Etheldredasplace: THE ANSWER TO GRAMSCI-The Cult of Social ...

05 Jun 2013

THE ANSWER TO GRAMSCI-The Cult of Social Justice and the Idolatry in SSM: the one thing necessary: 2. Posted by Supertradmum. Garrigou-Lagrange was ahead in his prophetic teachings. Remember his dates, 1877-64.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Why Gramsci Hated the Church

12 Jan 2013

2) The Church is still the great influence in Italian society, albeit, by 2013, not as much as in Gramsci's day. This influence, according to Gramsci, keeps the poor under the thumb of tyrannical priests. He somehow forgets that ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Victories and Losses-Gramsci and the West

04 Jan 2013

Three things which Gramsci desired have occurred. One, the slow war of undermining Catholic, Christian culture has occurred. This was not accomplished by war, but by the taking over of key elements of society, which I have ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Gramsci and the Democratic Party: two

05 Sep 2012

Here are some points from Gramsci on how to teach the proletariat to change so that the old ways of religion and culture, including natural law, as thrown out. My comments are in bold, large, not italic. Listen to what is being ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Pascendi Part Two: Gramsci and America

12 Feb 2012

Time for a Gramsci post. That Obama is the heir to Gramsci I have been trying to point out since 2007. However, few have listened, and the younger generation, I am told, simply do not care about Gramsci (see post below, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Gramsci and the Democratic Party: three

05 Sep 2012

Gramsci noted how to bury religious and spiritual views of history and culture. He noted that language was key in the revolution. The more I read him, the more cynical he seems to me. He claims to have hope, but his hope is ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Well, yet another Gramsci post; without the Spirit ...

31 Dec 2012

Gramsci was clear that the Church was the only institution to understand what he and other revolutionaries wanted in the culture wars and the destruction of Western civilization, itself created largely by Christendom.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Gramsci and the Democratic Party: one

05 Sep 2012

Read Gramsci here and look at the boldface parts. That the mechanicist conception has been a religion of the subaltern is shown by an analysis of the development of the Christian religion. Over a certain period of history in ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Another Gramsci Post and the Enemy of Marxism

25 Jul 2012

Well, I haven't written about Gramsci for a long time, and as I only have 16 articles in which I mention him by name, I thought it was about time I brought him out of the closet again. Why? Because Catholics do not think like ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: On Gramsci and Education

17 Jun 2012

I wonder if it is a lack of perfection to write about Gramsci on a Sunday post? Well, I have not mentioned him for awhile and unless I lose my Post-Post-Modernists, I thought I should reveal some more of his copious notebooks.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: A repeat for pondering

23 Jul 2013

Some of you have wondered when I was going to write my anti-Gramsci articles here. Well, here is the first of many. I wrote on this before many years ago and now it is time to dig in and get dirty on this blog. Here is where ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Elephant in the Church....

14 Apr 2012

In Notebook 2 from 1929-1933, Gramsci, using R. Michels and Max Weber, writes a long entry on the fact that bourgeois, socialist and Marxist parties have been formed around a charismatic leader. Gramsci also refers to Yves ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Catholics, just in case you think the UN is neutral....

11 Dec 2012

found within his writings on school and education in a traditional sense, but rather on the assumption that the core of Gramsci's message and even the purpose of his writings is profoundly and largely 'educational' As far as ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Ruling Class as the Societal Norm is the ...

13 Feb 2012

Gramsci noted in his prison notebooks, a new edition which came out last year, and in other earlier editions, that the ruling class will create the norms which society itself creates subjectively and in various groupings, after the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Enemy is Within the Church...I quote the ...

16 Apr 2012

The very first entry in the three volume set of Gramsci's Notebooks is a reference by him to the social encyclicals regarding socialism and Modernism. Obviously, Gramsci had read these, including The Syllabus of Errors, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: More on Maritain, Alinsky and Chomsky

07 Sep 2012

Alinsky and his groups were, in the early days in Chicago, anti-religious, as like Gramsci, they could see that the ONLY organized grass roots power was the Catholic Church and others, like the Evangelicals. Like Gramsci ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Catholic Church Cannot Be on the Defensive ...

12 Apr 2012

Catholics no longer think like Catholics and Gramsci can claim that the Church has lost Her ability to create Europe and even the States into a spiritual realm, wherein God is King. Now, the fact that Cardinals respond to ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Too many Church leaders do not think, or do not ...

13 Apr 2012

It is interesting when reading Marx, Gramsci and other communists, that the Church is referred to as the greatest conservative force in the world for values which form the social structures. How did the Church in the West move ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Thoughts on the Two Hitchens....the reality of ...

26 Jan 2013

Connected to this idea, in the book, is the rather simple idea, which I see in Gramsci, who is never mentioned in the book, but responsible for many of the ideas seen in Lenin and Stalin or Lukacs (who I studied in college), and ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Poll Results

25 Jan 2013

Gramsci did not come in the top five, but as he is connected to these movements, I shall not ignore his letters at all. If I count Gramsci alone, he came in at Seventh Place and the following would be one more down on the list; ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Marxism and the Politics of Envy

19 Mar 2012

In good Gramsci fashion and I feel another Gramsci blog approaching here this week, the symbols used are those of the Republic. Same thing is happening in Ireland, where the Republican movement has been undermined ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Passive Revolution and the "ordinovisti" in ...

05 Feb 2013

Passive Revolution and the "ordinovisti" in Washington. Posted by Supertradmum. I am wondering how long it will take to destroy a republic? Here is Gramsci from The Modern Prince: ...“man can affect his own development ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

First legal baby murder in Ireland: IMPORTANT UPDATE

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/ireland-first-legal-abortion  and contrary to the article, the woman's death which started off this campaign and brought it to this state, has been argued here in Ireland. Some, unlike The Guardian, say it was not the baby which killed her and that an abortion was not necessary. The people who wanted abortion used that death to push through legislation. Now, we have another post-Christian nation in Europe. I was here when all this happened and read all the reports, including the now disreputed article by the journalist who pushed this story.

UPDATE:
http://www.thelifeinstitute.net/latest-news/false-irish-times-headline-misleads-public-with-first-abortion-claim/

FALSE: IRISH TIMES HEADLINE MISLEADS PUBLIC WITH 'FIRST ABORTION' CLAIM

The Life Institute has said that the Irish Times has reached a new low in misreporting on abortion by running a headline today which claimed that the first 'abortion' had been carried out under the provisions of new legislation in the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin. Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said that the paper, in its rush to defend the abortion legislation, would have caused huge hurt to women and was deliberately misleading its readers. "From the details that have emerged it seems clear that this was not an abortion, but an intervention that was necessary to save a mother whose life was at risk from sepsis. The twin babies who were delivered were sadly too young to survive."   A hospital source confirmed that 'even before the passage of the legislation, Holles Street would have carried out terminations in cases like this, where the prognosis for the pregnancy was very poor', yet that detail was buried in the story and came after a most misleading headline, Ms Uí Bhriain pointed out. "As the Irish Times reporter well knows, our most senior obstetricians, such as Dr Sam Coulter Smith, the Master of the Rotunda, have repeatedly stated that these interventions should not be described as abortions, since the intent is not to kill the baby," she said.  The distinction was also highlighted in the guidelines of the Institute for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. "The claim that such interventions are abortions are hugely upsetting to the mothers and families involved who are already grieving the loss of their babies, and should not be exploited by the Irish Times or abortion campaigners," she said. The pro-life spokeswoman said that the Irish Times had also made another serious error in reporting since the Department of Health had since confirmed that the abortion legislation was not yet commenced. "The Irish Times claims to support women's rights, yet it causes upset and hurt to women to have lost their children, and uses every opportunity possible to push for abortion," she said. "Little wonder that their have fallen yet another 9% in new figures released today." Have you ever heard of post-birth abortion? I hadn’t up until recently. Two Dutch academics have published a paper on its supposed ethical legitimacy. It’s an attempted justification for being allowed to kill your baby after it has been born. As if partial-birth abortion wasn’t bad enough, or abortion in general for that matter, these guys have taken it to a level comparatively few other abortion advocates ever have (Peter Singer and Richard Dawkins being notable supporters). - See more at: http://www.youthdefence.ie/blog/2013/07/17/post-birth-abortion-the-next-logical-step-in-the-right-to-choose-mentality/#sthash.VtamiFdi.dpuf Have you ever heard of post-birth abortion? I hadn’t up until recently. Two Dutch academics have published a paper on its supposed ethical legitimacy. It’s an attempted justification for being allowed to kill your baby after it has been born. As if partial-birth abortion wasn’t bad enough, or abortion in general for that matter, these guys have taken it to a level comparatively few other abortion advocates ever have (Peter Singer and Richard Dawkins being notable supporters). - See more at: http://www.youthdefence.ie/blog/2013/07/17/post-birth-abortion-the-next-logical-step-in-the-right-to-choose-mentality/#sthash.VtamiFdi.dpuf

THE ANSWER TO GRAMSCI-The Cult of Social Justice and the Idolatry in SSM: the one thing necessary: 2

Garrigou-Lagrange was ahead in his prophetic teachings. Remember his dates, 1877-1964. Too bad more clergy did not pay attention to his teaching.

His explanation of the cult of social justice has led to the false acceptance of sin in Europe and in some states in America. When one loses sight of the goal of perfection and the intimate relationship with the Trinity, to which we are all called, one falls into movements which are human centered and relativistic. As man becomes more and more his own idol, he relates all society and culture back to his own needs and desires, instead of concentrating on the one thing necessary-the pursuit of God.

 As usual, his words are in black italics, as are other quotations and my comments are in blue.

II. THE QUESTION OF THE ONE THING NECESSARY AT THE PRESENT TIME

What we have just said is true at all times; but the question of the interior life is being more sharply raised today than in several periods less troubled than ours. The explanation of this interest lies in the fact that many men have separated themselves from God and tried to organize intellectual and social life without Him. The great problems that have always preoccupied humanity have taken on a new and sometimes tragic aspect. To wish to get along without God, first Cause and last End, leads to an abyss; not only to nothingness, but also to physical and moral wretchedness that is worse than noth­ingness. Likewise, great problems grow exasperatingly serious, and man must finally perceive that all these problems ultimately lead to the fundamental religious problem; in other words, he will finally have to declare himself entirely for God or against Him. This is in its essence the problem of the interior life. Christ Himself says: "He that is not with Me is against Me." (5)

 I learned in the 1970s that one could no longer be mediocre, a wishy-washy Catholic. One had to be totally dedicated or one would be swept away with the crowd of lukewarm Catholics into hell. Christ said, 

Christ the Son of God said this: But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16 DR

The great modern scientific and social tendencies, in the midst of the conflicts that arise among them and in spite of the opposition of those who represent them, converge in this way, whether one wills it or not, toward the fundamental question of the intimate rela­tions of man with God. This point is reached' after many deviations. When man will no longer fulfill his great religious duties toward God who created him and who is his last End, he makes a religion for himself since he absolutely cannot get along without religion. 

Even the ancients knew that man had a duty to worship the gods, but man worships himself, which, in my opinion, is the symbol of so-called gay marriage. SSM creates an idol out of one's own gender. One worships one's self.

What could be more of a symbol of our day than the worship of self as we witness the pursuit of unnatural sex now accepted in most of Western Europe.  The icon of idolatry--

To replace the superior ideal which he has abandoned, man may, for example, place his religion in science or in the cult of social justice or in some human ideal, which finally he considers in a religious manner and even in a mystical manner. Thus he turns away from supreme reality, and there arises a vast number of problems that will be solved only if he returns to the fundamental problem of the intimate relations of the soul with God.

The culture-wars are a direct result of this attitude of moving away from the pursuit of the Love of God.

It has often been remarked that today science pretends to be a religion. Likewise socialism and communism claim to be a code of ethics and present themselves under the guise of a feverish cult of justice, thereby trying to captivate hearts and minds. As a matter of fact, the modern scholar seems to have a scrupulous devotion to the scientific method. He cultivates it to such a degree that he often seems to prefer the method of research to the truth. If he bestowed equally serious care on his interior life, he would quickly reach sanctity. Often, however, this religion of science is directed toward the apotheosis of man rather than toward the love of God. As much must be said of social activity, particularly under the form it assumes in socialism and communism. It is inspired by a mysticism which purposes a transfiguration of man, while at times it denies in the most absolute manner the rights of God.

Garrigou-Lagrange answers the ideology of Gramsci neatly.

This is simply a reiteration of the statement that the religious problem of the relations of man with God is at the basis of every great problem. We must declare ourselves for or against Him; indifference is no longer possible, as our times show in a striking manner. The present world-wide economic crisis demonstrates what men can do when they seek to get along without God.

Without God, the seriousness of life gets out of focus. If religion is no longer a grave matter but something to smile at, then the serious element in life must be sought elsewhere. Some place it, or pretend to place it, in science or in social activity; they devote the selves religiously to the search for scientific truth or to the establishment of justice between classes or peoples. After a while they are forced to perceive that they have ended in fearful disorder and that the relations between individuals and nations become more and more difficult, if not impossible. As St. Augustine and St. Thomas (6) have said, it is evident that the same material goods, as opposed to those of the spirit, cannot at one and the same time belong integrally to several persons. The same house, the same land, cannot simultaneously belong wholly to several men, nor the same territory to several nations. As a result, interests conflict when man feverishly makes these lesser goods his last end.

Since the early 19th century, the Popes, the Church, have been involved in spiritual warfare against communism and socialism. Sadly, in Europe and increasingly in America, the battle has been lost on the larger stage. Garrigou-Lagrange shows us the errors, just as did Pope Pius IX and X and all after.

St. Augustine, on the other hand, insists on the fact that the same spiritual goods can belong simultaneously and integrally to all and to each individual in particular. Without doing harm to another, we can fully possess the same truth, the same virtue, the same God. This is why our Lord says to us: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you." (7) Failure to hearken to this lesson, is to work at one's destruction and to verify once more the words of the Psalmist: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it." (8)

Has your life been in vain, pursuing comfort, status, acceptance? Take it from one who has lost all these things and resides in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. All else is vanity, and in the humility of nothingness and littleness, one experiences the God of Augustine, Abraham, John the Baptist..

If the serious element in life is out of focus, if it no longer is concerned with our duties toward God, but with the scientific and social activities of man; if man continually seeks himself instead of God, his last End, then events are not slow in showing him that he has taken an impossible way, which leads not only to nothingness, but to unbearable disorder and misery. We must again and again revert to Christ's words: "He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth." (9) The facts confirm this declaration.

I have lived in England for a total of more than 12 years and I have never heard a sermon on our duties as Catholics to God. Those duties begin with the carrying out of our baptismal vows and continue with our life in and with the Church. I suppose most clergy have not realized that the worship of God, that is, religion, is our first duty. In the section following, Garrigou-Lagrange reminds me of Bonhoeffer's distinction between cheap and costly grace. 

We conclude logically that religion can give an efficacious and truly realistic answer to the great modern problems only if it is a religion that is profoundly lived, not simply a superficial and cheap religion made up of some vocal prayers and some ceremonies in which religious art has more place than true piety. As a matter of fact, no religion that is profoundly lived is without an interior life, without that intimate and frequent conversation which we have not only with ourselves but with God.

Without an interior life, nothing is good or true. 

All the issues of the day...and here is a link to the encyclicals mentioned here.What a great teacher Pius XI was on modern issues, like his predecessors.......http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius11/

The last encyclicals of Pope Pius XI make this clear. To respond to what is good in the general aspirations of nations, aspirations to justice and charity among individuals, classes, and peoples, the Holy Father wrote the encyclicals on Christ the King, on His sanctifying influence in all His mystical body, on the family, on the sanctity of Christian marriage, on social questions, on the necessity of reparation, and on the missions. In all these encyclicals he deals with the reign of Christ over all humanity. The logical conclusion to be drawn is that religion, the interior life, must be profound, must be a true life of union with God if it is to keep the pre-eminence it should have over scientific and social activities. This is a manifest necessity.

To be continued....