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| Wish I had her brain: Dr. Sanity, thank you again. |
Wow, and my post on a comment of mine on a post seems very much like post-post-modern literature. Oh, dear...
Monday, 20 February 2012
Sanity and Insanity
Dr Sanity, who is the genius blogger, has written on Santorum and BLT today, with a great cartoon. Check this out. And, as I am weary of repeating what I have written on this blog and my former blog against BLT, here is my comment on the great doctor's post.
from Supertradmum...Thanks for posting this. I have been almost manic since 2008, in trying to convince people of the nutsiness of the Wright Church in Chicago and the entire Black Liberation Theology anti-Semitism. The lack of scholarship overtaken by ideology in a race concerning which dumb theory is the best to push BLT has been ignored by the media. Santorum seemed to back down a bit today, but phony theologies is a great phrase. The Christian Jesus is not a militant, violent Messiah, nor are the Blacks the Chosen People of God. On my blog and in the classroom when I was teaching college, I less than successfully pointed out the Marxist behind the Cross ideas of Obama. Well, some of the voting public have bothered to look at the websites of Obama's ex-church in Chicago and the BLT stuff taught in New York at the Union Theological Center. How many articles does one have to write on this disgusting tripe before some out there in voting land get it? Thanks for your erudition and insights again.
Wow, and my post on a comment of mine on a post seems very much like post-post-modern literature. Oh, dear...
Wow, and my post on a comment of mine on a post seems very much like post-post-modern literature. Oh, dear...
Strange Bedfellows for Santorum
Evangelicals and Catholics are surging for Rick Santorum. Exit polls online show this surge. Forty years ago, Evangelicals would never have voted for a Catholic. Christians are beginning to realize that there exists more common goods, especially in the area of morals and ethics, than not. A growing respect for Catholic conservatives, such as Santorum and Gingrich, emerges from this shared base of the view that Jesus is God and what He actually taught in the New Testament is Truth. If one wants statistics, check out articles on Iowa and Texas polls. The primaries tomorrow may show this trend.
May this support for the bishops, and Santotum coming from some of the Evangelicals, last through the voting season. Check here for an interesting view from Pew Research Center.
"Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters."
Prayer for Priests, Five
A Prayer Before the Blessed Sacrament
for the Increase of Priestly and Religious Vocations
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal Father,
Son of the Virgin Mary,
we thank you for offering your life in sacrifice on
the Cross, and for renewing this sacrifice
in every Mass celebrated throughout the world.
Son of the Virgin Mary,
we thank you for offering your life in sacrifice on
the Cross, and for renewing this sacrifice
in every Mass celebrated throughout the world.
In the Power of the Holy Spirit
we adore you and proclaim
your living presence in the Eucharist.
We desire to imitate the love you show us
in your death and resurrection,
by loving and serving one another.
we adore you and proclaim
your living presence in the Eucharist.
We desire to imitate the love you show us
in your death and resurrection,
by loving and serving one another.
We ask you to call many young people to religious
life, and to provide the holy and generous priests
that are so needed in you Church today.
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer. Amen.
life, and to provide the holy and generous priests
that are so needed in you Church today.
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer. Amen.
Cardinal Rigali
Thanks to Adoremus for this prayer and many others for priests.
No priests, no bishops, no Eucharist. Pray for priests.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Kristallnacht and The Lukewarm War
The Cold War is being talked about in the media because of the situations in Iran and Syria. I am concerned about the Lukewarm War. Most Americans and Britains are asleep while their rights and freedoms have been eroded by financial decisions made either in Congress or in the EU, and by the liberal and indeed, Marxist ideologies which control almost all aspects of society. But, the change has been gradual and most Catholics have not realized, as they have forgotten their history, how tyrants get into power. All it takes is one event.
In the horror of Kristallnacht, German Stormtroppers killed 91 Jews and destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues, after the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, by a Polish Jew. The violence had been brewing for years, with stricter controls over the Jewish population of Germany, and only one event was necessary for the Government to kill, destroy, round-up 30,000 Jews and send them to the concentration camps. which were ready for them.
Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, burst out like puss out of a putrid sore. a sore which was created by the Lukewarm War. For years, almost the entire population of Germany had been made into automatons by the systematic destruction of many cultural stays-- classical education, the influence of the Catholic Church, and the family. The hatred of the Jews was not created by the Nazis, but fanned into flames by that party, using old prejudices and legal means to create a sub-class.
The Lukewarmness of the German people, greed, and the mediocrity of many of the ministers of religion created an atmosphere of complicity. How many people turned a blind eye to persecution and genocide? Most.
Even in small towns, such as Zeven, a town of 2,300 people or so, witnessed degradation of the Jews, destruction and death. That ordinary people would collaborate with the SS was the result of years of Lukewarm acceptance of the steps of persecution. Read this chilling description of the Night from the Daily Telegraph, from Wiki:
Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. I have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the "fun".
Note the dates here.
| SS-Brigadefuehrer Reinhard Heydrich at his Munich office during his tenure as deputy chief of the Bavarian Political Police (photo at site above). As Himmler's assistant in securing control of the Munich and then the Bavarian police after the Nazi seizure of power, Heydrich assured the successful "synchronization" [Gleichschaltung] of the political police in the other German states during 1933-34. In 1934, he became Chief of the Berlin Gestapo and by 1936, he was given command of the Security Police [political and criminal police forces] throughout the Reich. In 1941, Heydrich oversaw the murderous activities of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) in the Soviet Union, and in keeping with Goering’s instruction to implement a "total solution" to the "Jewish Question," convened and chaired the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, to discuss and coordinate the coming fate of Europe’s Jews. Heydrich was mortally wounded by members of the Czech resistance on May 27, 1942 near Prague and died several days later. |
Such changes happened over several generations, where the True Faith of the German people was exchanged for neo-paganism, financial security, and greed. The phrase itself was a mockery of the horror which occurred. Note:
So, it appears, the term "Kristallnacht" or "Crystal Night" was invented by Nazis to mock Jews on that black November night in 1938. It is, therefore, another example of Nazi perversion. There are numerous other examples of this same tendency in the language of the Nazi perpetrators: Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") for gassing victims, Euthanasie for a policy of mass murder of retarded or physically handicapped patients, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes you Free) over the entrance to Auschwitz. When the Nazis launched their plan to annihilate the remaining Jews in Poland in the fall of 1943, they called it "Erntefest," or Harvest Festival. While this may have been a code word, as Froma Zeitlin has observed, it had the same grim and terrible irony that is reflected in Kristallnacht as in so many other instances of the perverted uses of language in the Third Reich. Perhaps most cynical of all is the use of the term, "Endloesung der Judenfrage" (Final Solution of the Jewish Question), for what is now known as the Holocaust. Goebbels frequently used such terminology to amuse his audiences (usually other Nazi officials) and to further demoralize his victims.
Gradual hatred, gradual marginalization, systematic change of culture and breakdown of Western Ideals. Sound familiar?
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How do such racial hatred and hysteria control a people who live in a democracy? How does such callousness and violence strike at one group of people without consequences?
You can answer those two questions by looking at the financial and cultural chaos of our present time, both in America and in Europe. Who will be blamed? Those who are not politically correct, those who supposedly use hate speech, those who are perceived as intolerant. The Catholics, the real Catholics.
‘"Yes, we can, we will, we dare". Men, step aside for the women--too bad, so sad
Does that phrase in quotations sound familiar? No, it is not POTUS, but the title of the conference of women priests in Sweden in 2010. The official Church of Sweden policy for ordaining women is now over 60 years old. There has been a huge influx of women into the priesthood, with the statistics in 2009 being about 33% of the entire ordained ministers being women. The Church of Sweden also has seen women bishops and the approval of same-sex marriages in that church. Hmmm.
My point is this. With the allowance of women priests, the ministry has become "feminized" to the point where the number of women priests may outstrip those of men in that country. (That is the same country which hates families and has outlawed home schooling, as seen below in another post.) May I make an extrapolation. With the permitting of altar girls in the Catholic Church, we have seen a drop in the number of altar boys, except in the Tridentine Mass community.
Sorry, but there is a connection to the lack of vocations to the priesthood and the allowance of altar girls. Watch the Church of Sweden. One of its slogans is "one world, one church". Why does this church remind me of the Obama Administration? Hmmm. Spot the similarities in the photos.
My point is this. With the allowance of women priests, the ministry has become "feminized" to the point where the number of women priests may outstrip those of men in that country. (That is the same country which hates families and has outlawed home schooling, as seen below in another post.) May I make an extrapolation. With the permitting of altar girls in the Catholic Church, we have seen a drop in the number of altar boys, except in the Tridentine Mass community.
Silence is a Necessity, not a Luxury
Some people around the table this morning were discussing what they were going to give up for Lent. Chocolate and coffee were favorites. I have a suggestion. What if Catholics gave up NOISE? To be able to reflect or to pray, to have an examination of conscience, or listen to the small, still voice of God, one must pray, must be in silence.
I envy my ancestors, both in Europe and in America, who did not have cell phones, televisions, radios or other sources of noise. To live in silence is a gift not to be taken for granted. Silence makes us face ourselves, our sins and failings, our lack of charity. On the positive side, silence enables us to have a relationship with God. Relationships take time and attention. We cannot pay attention to God without silence. I suggest that if we truly love someone, we can sit in the same room with that person for hours and be at peace, in silence. Truly, to be present to someone, we must be silent and attentive. We must wait for God. And, if we fill our minds and hearts with noise, He will pass us by.
Only in silence does God come to the soul for refreshment and peace. I see and sometimes feel the stress of so many people around me who cannot live in silence. They must be doing and moving constantly. In silence and stillness, we present ourselves before God. As Mother Teresa said once, when asked what she does in prayer, "I look at God." The interviewers asked what God did. "He looks at me."
Looking means being still. I can see the wood pigeons in the lot next door because I am still, looking out my window. I stood and looked at the glorious night sky last night, marveling at Orion, the Pleiades, the Milky Way, Venus, Jupiter, Sirius. One must stop to look. One must stop to listen. Even lay people must live in some silence in order to reflect, to wait on God. I suggest giving up noise for Lent. Turn off the radio, get rid of the television, turn off the computer and cell phone unless necessary. Create a quiet corner in your room, in your house, in your soul. Wait for God to come in the silence of your being.
I envy my ancestors, both in Europe and in America, who did not have cell phones, televisions, radios or other sources of noise. To live in silence is a gift not to be taken for granted. Silence makes us face ourselves, our sins and failings, our lack of charity. On the positive side, silence enables us to have a relationship with God. Relationships take time and attention. We cannot pay attention to God without silence. I suggest that if we truly love someone, we can sit in the same room with that person for hours and be at peace, in silence. Truly, to be present to someone, we must be silent and attentive. We must wait for God. And, if we fill our minds and hearts with noise, He will pass us by.
Only in silence does God come to the soul for refreshment and peace. I see and sometimes feel the stress of so many people around me who cannot live in silence. They must be doing and moving constantly. In silence and stillness, we present ourselves before God. As Mother Teresa said once, when asked what she does in prayer, "I look at God." The interviewers asked what God did. "He looks at me."
Looking means being still. I can see the wood pigeons in the lot next door because I am still, looking out my window. I stood and looked at the glorious night sky last night, marveling at Orion, the Pleiades, the Milky Way, Venus, Jupiter, Sirius. One must stop to look. One must stop to listen. Even lay people must live in some silence in order to reflect, to wait on God. I suggest giving up noise for Lent. Turn off the radio, get rid of the television, turn off the computer and cell phone unless necessary. Create a quiet corner in your room, in your house, in your soul. Wait for God to come in the silence of your being.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
St. Philip Howard, pray for us
The third saint to be commemorated in the new chapel at Horsham is the star of the Howard Family, St. Philip Howard, 13th (20th) Earl of Arundel. His image is surrounded by the two Jesuits, Ss. Robert Southwell and Thomas Garnet. One of the endearing charms of this man are his writings, which became popular immediately after his death in the Tower, in 1595. A short list of these publications follows: "Epistle of Christ to the Faithful Soul " translated from Lanspergius (Johann Justus of Lansberg), was printed at Antwerp, 1595; St-Omer, 1610; London, 1867; his "Fourfold Meditations of Four Last Things" (once attributed to Southwell ), London, 1895; his "Verses on the Passion", by the Cath. Record Soc., VI, 29. from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
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| Photo from Diocese of Arundel and Brighton News Blog 09-02-12 |
That he suffered so terribly for such a long time imprisoned for his faith gives us hope in our own increasingly troubled times. I, for one, find it comforting that a layman of the stature of St. Philip went before us to God to intercede for us now. His feast day is October 19th and he is the main patron of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton.
St. Thomas Garnet, pray for us
On the new altar dedicated in Horsham, West Sussex, are the three Elizabethan martyrs dear to the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. St. Thomas Garnet, Jesuit, whose uncle was the famous superior of the Jesuits, Henry Garnet, went to Horsham Grammar School, the connection, growing up in that area. Can one imagine him, a new priest of only twenty-four, going from Catholic house to house, catechizing, administering the sacraments, saying Mass?
He was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, primarily for his relationship to Henry Garnet, considered one of the plotters. More of his story may be found here. He was actually freed after some time, but returned and finally was killed at Tyburn on June 23rd, 1608, and shares a feast day with Ss. Edmund Campion, who was martyred in 1601, and Robert Southwell, martyred in 1595. May the Holy Spirit raise up such men again.
St. Robert Southwell, pray for us
20 February 1595 was the date of the death, the martyrdom of one of England's most loved martyrs. St. Robert Southwell, Jesuit, is one of the saints honored in a new altar in Horsham. His life and death bear witness to the glorious grace given to many of the Jesuits during the horrible days of Elizabeth I's persecution of the Roman Catholic Church. Robert Southwell's life may be found here, but I want to emphasize a few points. I first met Robert Southwell in a class I took on the mystical poets of England. His "Burning Babe", which I show here, is one of the best English poems ever penned. And, even though it is cold and wet February, this poem resonates and touches us with a great emotion of spiritual Love. That the martyr, who suffered under the hands of Richard Topcliffe, could write such symbols and images of God's Incarnation shows us the type of sentiment and faith which breeds martyrs.
Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”
With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.
The second aspect of Robert Southwell's life to examine is his connection to Horsham, home of the new
altar. There is an irony in that Southwell was born in Horsham St. Faith in Norfolk, but found himself
the private chaplain of St. Philip Howard, 13th (20th) Earl of Arundel's wife, Anne. Countess of
Arundel and Surrey, thus making the connection with Horsham in West Sussex. That this sensitive,
intelligent and talented young Jesuit would work in the area of what is now the Diocese of Arundel and
Brighton makes him even more beloved to those born and bred in Sussex. His feast day is December 1st,
with a memorial on February 20th, in some places.
Friday, 17 February 2012
Vatican to be forced to pay taxes on schools, hospitals, hostels with chapels
"This is a victory for public pressure," said Mario Staderini, the leader of the Italian Radicals party. "We've managed to break down – a little bit – the wall protecting the Church." The Italian leader of the Radical party has been trying to change the exemption which came into effect 2005. The Tablet correspondence made the situation look worse than it is by pointing out difficulties in the Vatican. Sadly, there is a false idea that the Church is wealthy beyond belief.
This is persecution, plain and simple.
Catholics Marginalized-Buchanan Out of MSNBC
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| Thanks, Wiki |
Directly from LifeSiteNews: double standard from Government regarding Occupy Washington and Priests for Life--Is anyone surprised?
UPDATED: Catholic priest, pro-life activists arrested outside White House protesting Obama mandate
| Kathleen Gilbert | Thu Feb 16 13:39 EST | Abortion |
Co-authored with John Jalsevac
Updated: Feb. 16, 2012 at 4:48 pm EST.
February 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Six pro-life activists, including one Catholic priest, were arrested this morning in front of the White House while holding a peaceful prayer vigil in protest against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. They were released shortly thereafter, after paying a $100 fine.
Fr. Denis Wilde, the Associate Director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews that by their arrests the protesters hoped to send a “wake-up call” to President Obama that opposition to his mandate is not going away.
The six were arrested on a charge of “disobeying a lawful order.” The priest explained that while it is legal to hold protests in front of the White House, protesters are not allowed to remain stationary, including if they kneel down and pray.
“Occupy Wall Street protesters have been occupying federal property for months, but when we kneel in prayer, the police are called in and we are arrested,” Father Wilde said. “We knew that was the risk when we gathered today, and we will do it again regardless of the risk. What people of faith – of every faith – need to do now is stand with us.”
In addition to Fr. Wilde those arrested were Jeff White and his teenage daughters Joanna and Jayne White of Survivors, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, and a local pro-lifer named John Randy Corish.
Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews.com: “The men arrested today, including our Associate Director, reveal the fact that the response to the unjust Obama mandate cannot be limited to the Courts, the Congress, and the press. It must bring us to the streets of America.”
“Over the years, the other side in this battle has tried to make the public afraid of us by painting us as arrogant, hateful, and violent. In reality, the other side should be afraid precisely because we are humble, peaceful, and prayerful, because therein lies the force that uproots injustice from society.”
A note on the Facebook page of Fr. Pavone of Priests for Life prior to the protest said that the protesters at the prayer vigil Thursday morning expected to meet with arrest, but said that “civil disobedience is called for.”
Pro-life groups including the Christian Defense Coalition, Operation Rescue, Rock for Life, Students for Life of America, and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust were all slated to join the prayer vigil.
“The faith community can never be silent or indifferent when it comes to matters of justice, human rights and religious liberty. We want to make it clear to President Obama that Christians would rather spend time in a jail cell than be coerced into complying with an mandate that violates our religious beliefs!” said Operation Rescue in a statement Tuesday.
Obama’s mandate that all employers cover all birth control, including abortifacients like ella, and sterilizations, has united Christians from numerous denominations in an unprecedented show of opposition. Despite an “accommodation” from the Obama administration last Friday ostensibly designed to appease religious-based opposition, the protests have only increased in vehemence, with the United States Conference of Catholic bishops denouncing the “accommodation” as insufficient.
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has said that he would “go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do.” Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), has also said Christians would go to jail if the mandate was not changed.
Kemper pointed out what he said was a double-standard in the police treatment of the pro-life activists: that while “Occupy people can live on federal property…these leaders cannot pray on public property” without being arrested. Kemper posted images of the protest in progress on his blog Thursday morning.
from the LifeSiteNews website
When Does the Virtual Community Become the Real Community?
I have been thinking of the need for blogging among Catholics. Pope Benedict XVI, when Cardinal Ratzinger, in 2001, reiterated an earlier comment about the future of the Church: he stated, "it will be reduced in its dimensions, it will be necessary to start again. However, from this test a Church would emerge that will have been strengthened by the process of simplification it experienced, by its renewed capacity to look within itself." The Church Militant would not in any way resemble Christendom, or the Church Triumphant. The isolation of Catholics causes many problems, especially sacramentally for the number of priests who cannot meet the needs of those in rural or isolated areas already.
The blogging community has characteristics different than other groups already. Firstly, the people in the group are technically savvy to a certain degree, have time to blog and post, and want information. This narrows the community down to a small group among Catholics in general.
Secondly, the people in the group have an unusually high level of reading comprehension, like to pursue the Teachings of the Church and want to grow as adults. The Catholic Faith has always been "intellectual", even in opposition to the Protestant denominations, which undermined the rational and emphasized experience, as the Pentecostals do today. This great heritage of the rational merged with the faith life is essentially Catholic.
Thirdly, these communities are self-selecting and tend to be either conservative, or orthodox, or liberal or liturgical and so on. If one looks at the blog lists of many of the bloggers, one sees overlaps, which indicated a community of sorts.
Lastly, the blogging community is temporary and immediate. That is, it responds to needs and events which are "now". Father Ray Blake's blog and Father Z's blog have responded in depth to areas needing action, political and financial, for example, in the past weeks especially.
But, the temporariness of the blogging community needs to be addressed more seriously. If a lone blogger in Germany cannot find the community with which he or she can share Faith, except online, this is a possible area of real concern. Even me, in a semi-rural area of Ireland, rely on bloggers for my main source of Catholic conversation daily or weekly. The local church communities no longer exist as communities, and the anti-intellectualism of most Catholics leads to isolation. How long we can rely on the virtual communties is a key discussion, as real communities must function in close proximity. I was in a lay community for seven years, and the day-to-day life of a basic Christian community barely resembles the virtual. However virtual communities exist now, this will change and we shall have to adjust in ways which may demand moving or being completely isolated.
The blogging community has characteristics different than other groups already. Firstly, the people in the group are technically savvy to a certain degree, have time to blog and post, and want information. This narrows the community down to a small group among Catholics in general.
Secondly, the people in the group have an unusually high level of reading comprehension, like to pursue the Teachings of the Church and want to grow as adults. The Catholic Faith has always been "intellectual", even in opposition to the Protestant denominations, which undermined the rational and emphasized experience, as the Pentecostals do today. This great heritage of the rational merged with the faith life is essentially Catholic.
Thirdly, these communities are self-selecting and tend to be either conservative, or orthodox, or liberal or liturgical and so on. If one looks at the blog lists of many of the bloggers, one sees overlaps, which indicated a community of sorts.
Lastly, the blogging community is temporary and immediate. That is, it responds to needs and events which are "now". Father Ray Blake's blog and Father Z's blog have responded in depth to areas needing action, political and financial, for example, in the past weeks especially.
But, the temporariness of the blogging community needs to be addressed more seriously. If a lone blogger in Germany cannot find the community with which he or she can share Faith, except online, this is a possible area of real concern. Even me, in a semi-rural area of Ireland, rely on bloggers for my main source of Catholic conversation daily or weekly. The local church communities no longer exist as communities, and the anti-intellectualism of most Catholics leads to isolation. How long we can rely on the virtual communties is a key discussion, as real communities must function in close proximity. I was in a lay community for seven years, and the day-to-day life of a basic Christian community barely resembles the virtual. However virtual communities exist now, this will change and we shall have to adjust in ways which may demand moving or being completely isolated.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Perfection Part Five in a Series: Children, Grace and Parental Duty
The great Spencer has a chilling video on his site today. The entire episode reminded me of the Jesuit saying, "Give us a child in education before the age of five, and he is a Catholic for life." Or, paraphrases thereof.
Two concepts totally ignored in the liberal Catholic Church follow: firstly, the age of reason is still age seven in the formation of conscience. This indicates that a child by that age knows, by natural law, right from wrong. Of course, if the child has had good catechesis and good parenting, that child will have the advantage of grace building on nature-that is, the life-changing gifts of Baptism imprinted on the soul, aiding nature to move towards perfection. The subject of Baptism is found below in more than one posting, but we become children of God, heirs to heaven, freed from Original Sin, and given sanctifying grace, which means, the Indwelling of the Trinity.
If a child, who as a human has a proclivity towards natural law, then a child can choose sin and hatred over obedience and love.
This leads to a second teaching, which is that, sadly, children can go to Purgatory, and even Hell.
The liberals in the Church deny this idea, creating a false feeling of safety for bad parents, who have not catechized their own children. I know many. Excuses rain down like showers in Ireland--daily excuses from parents who hold these ideas, which are all wrong and even, damning, for themselves and their children. "We are letting her choose whether she wants to be a Christian when she gets older." She may die tomorrow. "He is too young to be scared of Hell." Look at his computer games-scarier than most things I would watch. "He cannot understand good and evil." Parents, that is your fault.
I write fairy tales. I have written stories for children for over forty years. I taught children before going back to university and college teaching (there are similarities). In my stories, people die, choose evil or good, are happy or sad. Art is not real, even fantasy, unless a similitude of the truth of life weaves through these stories.
Children choose good and evil daily. Children can go to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. Adults must stop being in denial about their own responsibilities.
I have "heard" the voice of God clearly, startlingly, rarely in my life, except as the still, small voice, but I can put my hand on my heart and tell you all one event. The second day after my son's birth, and he was born late the night before, almost twenty-four years ago, I was holding him in the old Cuckfield Hospital in Hampshire, sitting on the side of the bed. It was a gloriously sunny April day. The lilacs and other flowers bloomed outside the window by my bed in the dormitory like wing. I was holding my tiny boy.
Suddenly, I could not hear anyone, not even the birds. My baby and I were wrapped in a deep silence. I heard God the Father say, "When you die, I shall ask you one thing. Did you pass your Faith on to your son?" I was stunned, humbled. I said, "Yes, Lord. I shall. I will." I did.
For all parents, please say "yes" and do your duty. And, pray for the lost child in the video above. Perfection consists in this, from Garrigou-Lagrange:
There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in purgatory. No one enters heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into purgatory to be purified.
Two concepts totally ignored in the liberal Catholic Church follow: firstly, the age of reason is still age seven in the formation of conscience. This indicates that a child by that age knows, by natural law, right from wrong. Of course, if the child has had good catechesis and good parenting, that child will have the advantage of grace building on nature-that is, the life-changing gifts of Baptism imprinted on the soul, aiding nature to move towards perfection. The subject of Baptism is found below in more than one posting, but we become children of God, heirs to heaven, freed from Original Sin, and given sanctifying grace, which means, the Indwelling of the Trinity.
If a child, who as a human has a proclivity towards natural law, then a child can choose sin and hatred over obedience and love.
This leads to a second teaching, which is that, sadly, children can go to Purgatory, and even Hell.
The liberals in the Church deny this idea, creating a false feeling of safety for bad parents, who have not catechized their own children. I know many. Excuses rain down like showers in Ireland--daily excuses from parents who hold these ideas, which are all wrong and even, damning, for themselves and their children. "We are letting her choose whether she wants to be a Christian when she gets older." She may die tomorrow. "He is too young to be scared of Hell." Look at his computer games-scarier than most things I would watch. "He cannot understand good and evil." Parents, that is your fault.
I write fairy tales. I have written stories for children for over forty years. I taught children before going back to university and college teaching (there are similarities). In my stories, people die, choose evil or good, are happy or sad. Art is not real, even fantasy, unless a similitude of the truth of life weaves through these stories.
Children choose good and evil daily. Children can go to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. Adults must stop being in denial about their own responsibilities.
I have "heard" the voice of God clearly, startlingly, rarely in my life, except as the still, small voice, but I can put my hand on my heart and tell you all one event. The second day after my son's birth, and he was born late the night before, almost twenty-four years ago, I was holding him in the old Cuckfield Hospital in Hampshire, sitting on the side of the bed. It was a gloriously sunny April day. The lilacs and other flowers bloomed outside the window by my bed in the dormitory like wing. I was holding my tiny boy.
For all parents, please say "yes" and do your duty. And, pray for the lost child in the video above. Perfection consists in this, from Garrigou-Lagrange:
There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in purgatory. No one enters heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into purgatory to be purified.
The interior life of a just man who tends toward God and who already lives by Him is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Cure of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (2) If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? "Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?" our Lord adds. (3) "One thing is necessary," He tells us.(4) To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary: to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul even though it should lose everything else.
By the way, the word in Hebrew for "thing", dabar, also means word, work, matter, cause, act, judgment...In Revelation, a thing is not merely a concept, but a deed. And, the Word of God is efficacious, Christ Himself in the Flesh. When God asks us about a "thing", He does not merely mean intellectual assent, or triviality, but that which is and always will be.
By the way, the word in Hebrew for "thing", dabar, also means word, work, matter, cause, act, judgment...In Revelation, a thing is not merely a concept, but a deed. And, the Word of God is efficacious, Christ Himself in the Flesh. When God asks us about a "thing", He does not merely mean intellectual assent, or triviality, but that which is and always will be.
Prayer for Priests, Four
Prayer for Priests of St. Catherine of Siena
I beseech You, direct the hearts and wills of the servants of Your Bride, the Holy Church
Prayer for Priests, Three
O Mother of Christ,
O Mother of the Church,
O Mother of Jesus Christ,
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Santorum (Finally) Criticizes the "Christianity" of POTUS
Brietbart.tv has a clip of Santorum attacking Obama's connections to the Black Liberation Church in Chicago, which I have written about several times in 2008 and here on this blog. This hit the media before the last election. Thank God that one of the major politicians in the race is paying attention to the anti-Semitism and angry, hateful language which comes out of that movement. Check here on the "church" website for a view. This movement makes up Jesus in its own image and likeness, which has nothing to do with Revelation and the Incarnation. If people did not pay attention to all the media hype about this in 2008, they should now.
Catholics and the Media II: Edmund Campion
Because I am thinking of the Catholic use of the media today, here is Campion's Brag. If you remember, he printed this up at Stonor House, and distributed it, among other places, at the parish in Oxford. Brave, brave member of the Church Militant. Are we going to be so brave under the threat of disembowelment?
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, the Lords of Her Majestie's Privy Council: Whereas I have come out of Germanie and Boëmeland, being sent by my Superiours, and adventured myself into this noble Realm, my deare Countrie, for the glorie of God and benefit of souls, I thought it like enough that, in this busie, watchful, and suspicious worlde, I should either sooner or later be intercepted and stopped of my course.
Wherefore, providing for all events, and uncertaine what may become of me, when God shall haply deliver my body into durance, I supposed it needful to put this writing in a readiness, desiringe your good Lordships to give it yr reading, for to know my cause. This doing, I trust I shall ease you of some labour. For that which otherwise you must have sought for by practice of wit, I do now lay into your hands by plaine confession.
And to ye intent that the whole matter may be conceived in order, and so the better both understood and remembered, I make thereof these ixpoints or articles, directly, truly, and resolutely opening my full enterprise and purpose.
i. I confesse that I am (albeit unworthie) a priest of ye Catholike Church, and through ye great mercie of God vowed now these viii years into the Religion of the Societie of Jhesus. Hereby I have taken upon me a special kind of warfare under the banner of obedience, and eke resigned all my interest or possibilitie of wealth, honour, pleasure, and other worldlie felicitie.
ii. At the voice of our General Provost----which is to me a warrant from Heaven, and Oracle of Christ----I tooke my voyage from Prage to Rome (where our said General Father is always resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have done joyously into any part of Christendome or Heathenesse, had I been thereto assigned.
iii. My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme sinners, to confute errors----in brief, to crie alarme spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, where- with many my dear Countrymen are abused.
iv. I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts.
v. I do ask, to the glory of God, with all humility, and under your correction, iii sortes of indifferent and quiet audiences: the first before your Honours, wherein I will discourse of religion, so far as it toucheth the common weale and your nobilities: the second, whereof I make more account, before the Doctors and Masters and chosen men of both universities, wherein I undertake to avow the Faith of our Catholike Church by proofs innumerable, Scriptures, Councils, Fathers, History, natural and moral reasons: the third before the lawyers, spiritual and temporal, wherein I will justify the said Faith by the common wisdom of the laws standing yet in force and practice.
vi. I would be loth to speak anything that might sound of any insolent brag or challenge, especially being now as a dead man to this world and willing to put my head under every man's foot, and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet have I such a courage in avouching the Majesty of Jhesus my King, and such affiance in His gracious favour, and such assurance in my quarrel, and myevi- dence so impregnable, and because I know perfectly that no one Protestant, nor all the Protestants living, nor any sect of our adversaries (howsoever they face men down in pulpits, and overrule us in their kingdom of grammarians and unlearned ears) can maintain their doctrine in disputation. I am to sue most humbly and instantly for the combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished they come, the better welcome they shall be.
vii. Because it hath pleased God to enrich the Queen my Sovereign Ladye with notable gifts of nature, learning, and princely education, I do verily trust that----if her Highness would vouchsafe her royal person and good attention to such a conference as, in the ii part of my fifth article I have motioned, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am to utter----such manifest and fair light by good method and plain dealing may be cast upon these controversies, that possibly her zeal of truth and love of her people shall incline her noble Grace to disfavour some proceedings hurtful to the Realm, and procure towards us oppressed more equitie.
viii. Moreover I doubt not but you, her Highness' Council, being of such wisdom and discreet in cases most important, when you shall have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which many times by our adversaries are huddled up and confounded, will see upon what substantial grounds our Catholike Faith is builded, how feeble that side is which by sway of the time prevaileth against us, and so at last for your own souls, and for many thousand souls that depend upon your government, will discountenance error when it is bewrayed, and hearken to those who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your salvation. Many innocent hands are lifted up to Heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posteritie shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you Heaven, or to die upon your pikes.
And touching our Societie, be it known to you that we have made a league----all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practices of England----cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the Faith was planted: so it must be restored.
ix. If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.
Still in print.
St. Edmund is one of our family patrons. As he also worked in Bohemia, from where some of my ancestors hailed, I am partial to him above many saints.
SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, PRIEST AND MARTYR, Evelyn Waugh, 1937 and above link.
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| Thanks again, Wiki |
Wherefore, providing for all events, and uncertaine what may become of me, when God shall haply deliver my body into durance, I supposed it needful to put this writing in a readiness, desiringe your good Lordships to give it yr reading, for to know my cause. This doing, I trust I shall ease you of some labour. For that which otherwise you must have sought for by practice of wit, I do now lay into your hands by plaine confession.
And to ye intent that the whole matter may be conceived in order, and so the better both understood and remembered, I make thereof these ixpoints or articles, directly, truly, and resolutely opening my full enterprise and purpose.
i. I confesse that I am (albeit unworthie) a priest of ye Catholike Church, and through ye great mercie of God vowed now these viii years into the Religion of the Societie of Jhesus. Hereby I have taken upon me a special kind of warfare under the banner of obedience, and eke resigned all my interest or possibilitie of wealth, honour, pleasure, and other worldlie felicitie.
ii. At the voice of our General Provost----which is to me a warrant from Heaven, and Oracle of Christ----I tooke my voyage from Prage to Rome (where our said General Father is always resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have done joyously into any part of Christendome or Heathenesse, had I been thereto assigned.
iii. My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme sinners, to confute errors----in brief, to crie alarme spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, where- with many my dear Countrymen are abused.
iv. I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts.
v. I do ask, to the glory of God, with all humility, and under your correction, iii sortes of indifferent and quiet audiences: the first before your Honours, wherein I will discourse of religion, so far as it toucheth the common weale and your nobilities: the second, whereof I make more account, before the Doctors and Masters and chosen men of both universities, wherein I undertake to avow the Faith of our Catholike Church by proofs innumerable, Scriptures, Councils, Fathers, History, natural and moral reasons: the third before the lawyers, spiritual and temporal, wherein I will justify the said Faith by the common wisdom of the laws standing yet in force and practice.
vi. I would be loth to speak anything that might sound of any insolent brag or challenge, especially being now as a dead man to this world and willing to put my head under every man's foot, and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet have I such a courage in avouching the Majesty of Jhesus my King, and such affiance in His gracious favour, and such assurance in my quarrel, and myevi- dence so impregnable, and because I know perfectly that no one Protestant, nor all the Protestants living, nor any sect of our adversaries (howsoever they face men down in pulpits, and overrule us in their kingdom of grammarians and unlearned ears) can maintain their doctrine in disputation. I am to sue most humbly and instantly for the combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished they come, the better welcome they shall be.
vii. Because it hath pleased God to enrich the Queen my Sovereign Ladye with notable gifts of nature, learning, and princely education, I do verily trust that----if her Highness would vouchsafe her royal person and good attention to such a conference as, in the ii part of my fifth article I have motioned, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am to utter----such manifest and fair light by good method and plain dealing may be cast upon these controversies, that possibly her zeal of truth and love of her people shall incline her noble Grace to disfavour some proceedings hurtful to the Realm, and procure towards us oppressed more equitie.
viii. Moreover I doubt not but you, her Highness' Council, being of such wisdom and discreet in cases most important, when you shall have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which many times by our adversaries are huddled up and confounded, will see upon what substantial grounds our Catholike Faith is builded, how feeble that side is which by sway of the time prevaileth against us, and so at last for your own souls, and for many thousand souls that depend upon your government, will discountenance error when it is bewrayed, and hearken to those who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your salvation. Many innocent hands are lifted up to Heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posteritie shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you Heaven, or to die upon your pikes.
And touching our Societie, be it known to you that we have made a league----all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practices of England----cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the Faith was planted: so it must be restored.
ix. If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.
St. Edmund is one of our family patrons. As he also worked in Bohemia, from where some of my ancestors hailed, I am partial to him above many saints.
SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, PRIEST AND MARTYR, Evelyn Waugh, 1937 and above link.
The Lack of Catholic Identity in Europe and Blogging for the Catholic Community
Part I On Catholics and the Media
Having traveled in Europe during the past year, I am struck again and again by the lack of Catholic identity among families. Obviously, there are exceptions, such as the families of children which attend the Latin Mass on Sunday in two locations where I have been in Ireland. But, the lack of Catholic identity is a hole in the spirit which seems to be filled with another identity, which is not even European.
It is as if Europeans do not want to be Europeans. The youth wear clothes which look like any styles popular in any large city in the States. The most common tee-shirt, and I am not kidding, which seems popular, besides those with band logos, is the Che Guevara tee-shirt. I wish I had a euro for every time I have seen a young man or woman with a Che shirt. I wonder if these young people have actually read his biography, which I have.
The lack of identity is not merely superficial. It reflects the death of the soul of Europe and, indeed, the national identity of many nations. Language is not the only mark of national identity. But, there is an insidious, slow, chipping away of the family, wherein customs, habits, consciousness of person-hood develop. One notices even in small towns the lack of identity-partly because of the EU regulations which allow all EU nationalities to go and live in other countries and work, creating a pan-European identity. This pan-European identity seems chic, but it has a downside. This identity is not based on the Catholic Faith. Two young Catholic men-each from two different European countries, told me recently that they have no one with whom to discuss the Faith in their communities. They rely on the Internet Catholic connections and blogs, which seem to be more important than one realizes at first.
For those of us who grew up with Fulton J. Sheen, for example, using the media for an encouragement of our Faith is not a new phenomenon. Resources such as the Catholic Encyclopedia online and other such study guides, including the Vatican website and other websites with the Encyclicals and teachings of the Church provide great sources of information-solid and true.
To be an adult Catholic, one must study the Faith. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's famous quotation comes to mind: An ignorant Catholic is a Protestant. Fulton J. Sheen repeated that truism. And, history shows us that the Catholic Church has always used the media of the day-letters, bulls, documents, etc. to pass on the Faith. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, for example, was widely published, as were pamphlets, such as St. Edmund Campion's tract on Catholicism- his "brag". Using the media of the day marks Catholicism. With the lack of Irish or Maltese identity, or Portuguese or Spanish, comes the lack of a Catholic identity. The Churches are full in Malta, Ireland and elsewhere, but the average Mass attender is older than I am, which is old.
The children from the Catholic schools do not attend daily Mass anywhere that I have seen, coming occasionally. This seems odd to me, as someone who grew up going to Catholic schools where daily Mass attendance was normal. In the States, I am familiar with many NAPCIS schools which have daily Mass, either joining the parish Mass, or having their own, if the schools are fortunate enough to have a chaplain.
The town where I am now literally is full of unemployed men in their twenties. They could be going to daily Mass, which would help them in many ways, I am sure. They lack the center of their being-their Catholic Faith, and the identity which would help them through life to become the person God created them to be.
Catholic media has become more important than ever. Catholics who want the Catholic identity watch Catholic television and such videos as The Vortex in places through-out the world. In my last blog, I had people in Indonesia and Australia, Russia, etc. reading about Catholic issues daily. This is true for most bloggers. The Internet at this moment in time is a key instrument for catechesis and evangelization.
The virtual Catholic community is an important resource for young people and the not-so-young. That we can share ideas and ideals gives many the identity and strength needed. Obviously, Catholic identity must be internalized and that is the job of the Catholic adult. But, until that happens, and perhaps even after that identity is solid and true, the Catholic virtual community remains essential.
Having traveled in Europe during the past year, I am struck again and again by the lack of Catholic identity among families. Obviously, there are exceptions, such as the families of children which attend the Latin Mass on Sunday in two locations where I have been in Ireland. But, the lack of Catholic identity is a hole in the spirit which seems to be filled with another identity, which is not even European.
It is as if Europeans do not want to be Europeans. The youth wear clothes which look like any styles popular in any large city in the States. The most common tee-shirt, and I am not kidding, which seems popular, besides those with band logos, is the Che Guevara tee-shirt. I wish I had a euro for every time I have seen a young man or woman with a Che shirt. I wonder if these young people have actually read his biography, which I have.
The lack of identity is not merely superficial. It reflects the death of the soul of Europe and, indeed, the national identity of many nations. Language is not the only mark of national identity. But, there is an insidious, slow, chipping away of the family, wherein customs, habits, consciousness of person-hood develop. One notices even in small towns the lack of identity-partly because of the EU regulations which allow all EU nationalities to go and live in other countries and work, creating a pan-European identity. This pan-European identity seems chic, but it has a downside. This identity is not based on the Catholic Faith. Two young Catholic men-each from two different European countries, told me recently that they have no one with whom to discuss the Faith in their communities. They rely on the Internet Catholic connections and blogs, which seem to be more important than one realizes at first.
For those of us who grew up with Fulton J. Sheen, for example, using the media for an encouragement of our Faith is not a new phenomenon. Resources such as the Catholic Encyclopedia online and other such study guides, including the Vatican website and other websites with the Encyclicals and teachings of the Church provide great sources of information-solid and true.
To be an adult Catholic, one must study the Faith. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's famous quotation comes to mind: An ignorant Catholic is a Protestant. Fulton J. Sheen repeated that truism. And, history shows us that the Catholic Church has always used the media of the day-letters, bulls, documents, etc. to pass on the Faith. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, for example, was widely published, as were pamphlets, such as St. Edmund Campion's tract on Catholicism- his "brag". Using the media of the day marks Catholicism. With the lack of Irish or Maltese identity, or Portuguese or Spanish, comes the lack of a Catholic identity. The Churches are full in Malta, Ireland and elsewhere, but the average Mass attender is older than I am, which is old.
The children from the Catholic schools do not attend daily Mass anywhere that I have seen, coming occasionally. This seems odd to me, as someone who grew up going to Catholic schools where daily Mass attendance was normal. In the States, I am familiar with many NAPCIS schools which have daily Mass, either joining the parish Mass, or having their own, if the schools are fortunate enough to have a chaplain.
The town where I am now literally is full of unemployed men in their twenties. They could be going to daily Mass, which would help them in many ways, I am sure. They lack the center of their being-their Catholic Faith, and the identity which would help them through life to become the person God created them to be.
The virtual Catholic community is an important resource for young people and the not-so-young. That we can share ideas and ideals gives many the identity and strength needed. Obviously, Catholic identity must be internalized and that is the job of the Catholic adult. But, until that happens, and perhaps even after that identity is solid and true, the Catholic virtual community remains essential.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Sweden is a Nation which Hates Families
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| Chart is American Statistics for Home Schooling Excellence |
In one case, here, Sweden took away a child who has not been with his parents for one year. Parents who want to leave Sweden and educate their children at home in another country are not allowed to do so.
This is tyranny. No State owns a child. Now, Ireland and the EU want to pass so-called child protection and child rights acts which would undermine the authority of the parent even more. Could anything be more damaging to religious freedom than the inability to teach one's own children the Faith? Persecution is the name of the game. HSLDA, (and I have another link on the side on this blog), claims the United States is in danger of copying European draconian laws on homeschooling. The Obama Admin, as seen in the post listed on the side, does not support home schooling. Look at this selection from an article on WND:
The conflicts in Sweden are getting as contentious as in Germany, where a long list of families simply have fled their home country instead of face the crushing fines, jail sentences and even destruction of families that government officials demand.
It was in a dramatic case just last year, involving the Romeike family, that a U.S. immigration judge granted political asylum in the U.S. because of the persecution they would face in they return to Germany. The Obama administration is appealing that ruling, seeking to send the family back.
Donnelly said what happens in Germany and now Sweden needs to be noted in the United States because of the habit officials have of adopting controversial European actions.
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| Dated but typical and all well above average for most States in America |
And, for the doubters, take a look at these scores from the HSLDA site.
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