Pro-abortion crony of Mahony gets national forum

Antonio Villaraigosa gave a Spanish-language speech tonight as an official response of the national Democrat Party to the President's State of the Union Address.

Yes, this is the same Antonio Villaraigosa to whom Cardinal Mahony last summer turned over the Cathedral for an "interfaith service" ("coronation" is more like it) on the morning of his inauguration as mayor of Los Angeles - and whom the Cardinal then walked side by side with on a triumphal procession to the inauguration.

And yes, this is the same Antonio Villaraigosa who has been viciously pro-abortion at every stop in his career in politics. Brave Catholic students with "You Can't Be Catholic and Pro-Abortion" t-shirts followed the Cardinal and the mayor-elect last summer in the Cathedral and, with signs, on the procession to the inauguration. How could any Cardinal forsake those pro-life true hearts for a pro-abortion politico?

From Villaraigosa's remarks tonight, though, no one listening would have any idea that he is pro-abortion. He professed to be pro-family. He used the word "family" so often, you'd think it was the only word he knew. He expressed concern for children. And he ended by saying, "God bless America; God bless you all."

So here is the party of abortion giving a national forum to a pro-abortion nominally Catholic politician. They are obviously grooming him for future national office. They are obviously using him to deceive people into thinking that he and his party are pro-family and, by extension, pro-life -- when just the opposite is true.

So, Cardinal Mahony, you helped sow the seeds of all this last summer when you welcomed Villaraigosa in the Cathedral and you paraded with him in public. Has anyone ever seen you give similar blessing to any pro-life politician anywhere?

Birth control pill pollutes water supply in our Archdiocese

Don't look now, but the birth control pill is damaging the Southern California environment. The story "Traces of Prescription Drugs Found in Southland Aquifers" in the January 30, 2006, LA Times reports that estrogen-packed birth control pills are one of the prescription drugs contaminating our water supply.

So much estrogen is in creeks and other water sources that it is feminizing fish.

By the way, this is a real dilemma for the lefties, isn't it? They are ideologically hooked on both the Pill and environmentalism, and they can't give up either one.

But anyway, now we know that the Pill is wreaking havoc on our reservoirs and streams. Will this latest news prompt the Cardinal and his largely silent clergy to finally start warning their flock about the Pill?

Not likely. The Pill wreaks havoc every day on the souls of its users, on their physical and emotional health and on their marriages. The Pill also literally wreaks havoc on the newly conceived and never-to-be-baptized babies (an estimated 9 million a year in the United States alone) whom it aborts so often. These evils have not moved the Cardinal or most clergy to action.

Dear Lord, please inspire all of our shepherds to clean up our spiritual environment! Amen.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#10)

TEN: URGE EVERYONE TO FULFILL MARY'S FATIMA REQUESTS If God suddenly sent His Mother from Heaven to appear to three of the faithful at the Catheral, gave the world several urgent requests through her to prevent global disaster, and proved her apparition and message were genuine with a spectacular miracle that thousands witnessed, would Cardinal Mahony act as if it never happened?

No? Then why has he been silent about the urgent requests that Mary gave the three children to whom she appeared at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917--a message confirmed by an incredible solar miracle on October 13, 1917, that as many as 70,000 people witnessed, including Socialists who come there to scoff?

Our Lady warned that "War is a punishment from God for sin." She said people must stop offending God and atone for their sins by praying the Rosary, adding a special prayer to it, sacrificing for sinners, and making Communions of reparation on five consecutive First Saturdays.

She warned that if people did not heed her message, a second (and worse) World War would break out, and that Russia would spread its errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good would be martyred, the Holy Father would suffer much, and "various nations will be annihilated." Every punishment she foretold has come true so far...except the last.

The errors of Communist Russia--including official godlessness, glorification of the State, persecution and martyrdom of believers, massive abortion, easy divorce, shoving women into the work force and onto the battlefield, etc.--are still ravaging the world, and not just in Communist countries such as Cuba and China.

What's more, sin seems far worse in our time than in 1917. More than a billion babies murdered in their mothers' wombs. Euthanasia and infanticide. Massive fornication and adultery. Pornography everywhere. Glamorization of sodomy. Occult practices and satanism. Epidemics of drug use. Blasphemy, sacrilege, brutality and immorality in entertainment and the arts. Greed and corruption in government and business. I could go on, of course.

Is it any surprise that the Red Chinese have threatened to incinerate the West Coast with nuclear weapons, the North Koreans are rattling their nuclear saber at us, the news is filled with talk about terrorists detonating smuggled "suitcase" nukes in U.S. cities, and the Mideast conflict could go nuclear before long?

The Cardinal could please God and Our Lady greatly (and help prevent the annihilation of "various nations") if he would issue a pastoral letter explaining her message and warnings, and telling people how to fulfull her reqests.

Plus, he should bring back Mary's Hour at the Coliseum...direct every pastor to preach the Fatima message and lead his people in the Fatima devotions...have every school principal bring the message to the classroom and teach all students to pray the Rosary...have speakers on Fatima at the Archdiocese's big upcoming Religious Education Congress...personally lead the First Saturday devotions that Mary asked for, and invite the media to cover them...build a Fatima shrine in Los Angeles, and publicize it...invite Fatima organizations to work in the Archdiocese, and aid them...and more.

Perhaps a future Archbishop of Los Angeles will take God's Fatima requests seriously. If there is a future.

"It was Mahony against all the victims"

"This was a period of time when the Church and Cardinal Mahony were doing their best to camouflage and bury the crimes that these pedophile priests committed. I felt it was the Church and Mahony against all the victims. And I felt so alone."

So testified Mark B. on Friday in the trial of Michael Wempe, 66, the former priest whom Cardinal Mahony turned loose on the public despite knowing Wempe was accused of sex crimes against boys.

Wempe has admitted molesting Mark B. and one of Mark B.'s brothers (and 11 other boys), but denies fondling their younger brother Jayson B., now 28, in the former priest's office at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the early 1990s. Wempe cannot be prosecuted for the crimes he admits committing because in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court declared they happened too long ago.

Trying not to cry, Jayson B. testified against Wempe for two hours, painting a graphic picture of the former priest's alleged acts. "I hate Wempe," he said.

Earlier, during jury selection, one potential juror, a woman, said, "My stomach was in such turmoil since I found out what this case was about that I could hardly sleep last night. I found it repulsive." Another woman in the jury pool exclaimed, "My God, how can anyone do that to somebody?

The Cardinal sent Wempe to be chaplain at Cedars after the then-priest got "treatment" at a center in New Mexico. Wempe's lawyer, Leonard Levine, says Wempe was "cured" and has not preyed on any more young men since then.

Funny how Wempe admits the crimes he is off the hook for, but denies committing the crimes he can be prosecuted for.

LA priest sentenced

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports ...

A retired priest accused of molesting an Eagle Rock youth pleaded no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Father Stephen Hernandez, 72, tried to kill himself when he learned four years ago that he was being investigated for alleged child sexual abuse.

Hernandez was accused of molesting a boy he met while counseling minors at Eastlake Juvenile Hall. The boy said the priest touched him at his home and at the priest's residence at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in El Sereno. The priest also took pictures of the boy in various states of undress.

Hernandez was given a sentence of 3 years probation and was ordered to stay away from minors.

Father Wempe on trial

Click HERE and HERE for CBS News videos about the trial of admitted child molester, Father Michael Wempe.

Wempe, 66, is on trial for allegedly molesting a boy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Cardinal Roger M. Mahony assigned him in the 1990s after a stint of therapy triggered by an earlier sexual misconduct report. (LOS ANGELES TIMES)

Mahony's highly paid handlers claim that the notion that bishops generally shuffled molester-priests from place to place is nothing but a "myth" created by the press.

Serves him right? New Levada subpoena

How many times will Archbishop William Levada have to make the long trek from Rome to San Francisco to be grilled about clergy sex abuse cases? At least once more, this time in March, reports Ron Russell in the sfweekly.

Earlier this month, the Catholic Church's Number Two man was forced to answer lawyers' questions about alleged sex crimes by a former priest whom Levada had suspended, then restored to the active ministry, during his tenure as Archbishop of Portland (1986-1995). Levada had also OKd secret money payouts to three of the man's alleged victims, to forestall lawsuits. (The prelate's recent testimony is being kept secret.)

When he arrived at a downtown office building for the depostion, the Archbishop managed to elude a pack of reporters and TV cameras by slipping into a side door. He dodged the supposedly vigilant media when he left, too, again by a side door.

He might have have thought he was home free, but Anthony Piscitelli had other plans. Piscitelli is a process server. As Levada tried to elude him, Piscitelli wedged a new subpoena beneath a newspaper under the Archbishop's arm and announced, "Sir, you are served."

Archbishop Levada must now return to testify in the case of a Marin County woman who is suing the Archdiocese of San Francisco. She insists a priest sexually abused her when Levada headed that Archdiocese.

Join an urgent novena now underway

Please join the annual nine-day novena to Our Lady of Good Success, a Church-approved devotion that is finally coming to light. This centuries-old prophecy was designed to remain hidden till the present crisis in the Church had all but obscured the Faith.

In the early 1600s, Our Lady appeared to a holy nun in Quito, Ecuador, Mother Mariana de Jesus, and told her what would happen to the Faith in the 20th century. Priests would cause scandal and people's faith would wane. Mother Mariana agreed to suffer then for what we are going through now.

Our Lady promised to grant all spiritual and temporal requests if we invoke her under the title of Our Lady of Good Success. The annual novena started Tuesday (January 24) and continues till the eve of the Feast of the Purification. (Surely Our Merciful Lord and His Mother will hear your petitions even if you join the novena now.) You can learn more about the novena by searching on "Our Lady of Good Success."

Our friend Patricia wrote in to remind us of this novena. In addition, she asks, "Please, can you put out a call for everyone who reads your blog to pray for a return to faith of all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles? I, along with a group of friends in Massachusetts, will pray with you.

"Your part of the country is in dire need of help. This prophecy is very hopeful. Our Lady said that as it spreads, it will help usher in a complete restoration of Holy Mother Church.

"God bless and keep up the great work. --Patricia"

God bless you, too, Patricia! May Our Lady reward you for your charity toward this Archdiocese!

Is Wempe a victim?

Homosexual predators' lawyers really should quit practicing law and enter the arts. That's because nobody is gifted with more creativity.

Take Leonard Levine, who is defending Michael Wempe against charges that the ex-priest molested a boy after Cardinal Mahony made Wempe, a known molester who had received "therapy," a chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Wempe has admitted molesting 13 boys years earlier, but Levine says one of them who is now describing those crimes is lying. Why? To get even with Wempe for past crimes against the victim's two brothers, whose cases the U.S. Supreme Court torpedoed in a 2003 ruling that struck down a California law allowing prosecution of decades-old sex crimes.

"He wanted to make sure Michael Wempe went to prison, and he wanted to increase the price the defendant and the Church would have to pay," Levine informed the world. The victim, a former altar boy at St. Elizabeth's Mission in Lake Hughes, told the court Wempe committed sex crimes against him on 100-plus occasions.

Eight victims are now revealing what Wempe did to them, although thanks to the Supremes the ex-priest cannot be prosecuted in those cases.

But Cardinal Mahony's creativity matches even lawyer Levine's.

Incredibly, the Cardinal's newspaper, The Tidings (January 20), asserts that in the past "society at large," including our bishops, simply did not know about the "compulsive nature of the sexual abuse of minors." The poor bishops, you see, were innocent victims of those darned therapists who assured the shepherds that they could send "treated" sex criminals back into the ministry. (If the bishops really think therapists were guilty of malpractice, why don't they sue them?)

The article, Treating Priests Who Abuse: Then and Now, goes on to rap Catholic therapists for not telling the world that things are different now.

Anything, it seems, to deflect the blame away from the hierarchy.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#9)

NINE: COMBAT "SECTS APPEAL" AMONG LATINOS Multitudes of Latino Catholics (both U.S.-born and immigrants) have left the Church in your Archdiocese, including thousands who declare they have "found Christ" in Protestant sects.

The roots of this outflux are many: meager or non-existent catechesis in the immigrants' home countries..."Catholicism lite" here in L.A....clergy sex-crimes scandals in your Archdiocese...radio programs and ad campaigns by non-Catholic "iglesias"...the warm welcomes and practical aid that sects give to homesick, bewildered immigrants...the seductive "gospels" of prosperity, contraception and divorce that some Protestant ministers preach...etc.

Launch a crash program to bring back the lost Latinos. For example, seek the counsel of bishops who are successful in that. Poll your priests, religious and lay people "in the trenches" for ideas. Direct each parish to begin an outreach to bring back sheep who have strayed. Import the methods of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, who go door to door to rescue fallen-away and lapsed Catholics.

Set up a multi-million-dollar fund to provide welcomes and practical services to new arrivals. Begin Spanish-language radio and TV catechism programs (starring only 100-percent orthodox catechists). Run professionally produced ads in the Spanish-language media. Raise a seven-figure sum to fund pro-life Latino groups trying to save babies from millionaire abortionists and the "clinicas" that push contaception, abortifacients and sterilization on our Latin youth and families.

Is God trying to Catholicize the USA through immigration from the south? He might just be. If so, that is all the more reason to go all-out to make every Latino a Catholic who knows and practices our Holy Faith.

LA Life Chain

'The real culprit is Mahony'

After reading time and again about priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese abusing children, I feel that the real culprit is Cardinal Roger Mahony. Over and over he has made poor choices to hide the dysfunctional side of the Catholic Church, hoping, and I'm sure praying, that if he sent these priests to other parishes, the problem would just go away ... from an LA Times Letter to the Editor.

Jury selected for trial of homosexual molester priest

Former LA priest, Father Michael Wempe, who through his attorney admitted to sexually abusing 13 boys from 1977 to 1986, will be judged by a jury comprised of 6 men and 6 women. He is being charged with sexually abusing a boy in the early 1990's.

Go HERE and HERE for details.

Religious Miseducation Congress preview

What part of a-s-s-e-n-t doesn't Roger Mahony understand?

It isn't rocket science: the Church's members "must give not only internal but also external assent to her teachings," period. (As the late Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary reminds us.)

But assent might not exactly be priority number one at the Cardinal's big yearly "Religious Education" Congress, slated for March 30 through April 2, 2006. The air will be thick with designer dogmas, judging from the lineup of speakers he has marshalled to "educate" thousands of Catholic religion teachers. Some have links to the far-out Call to Action organization; its members are not just cafeteria Catholics, they want to overturn the buffet.

Click on "R.E. Congress" under "Quick Links" at the Cardinal's website (la-archdiocese.org) and you will find 202 speakers. To be sure, some are all right, but there are dozens of others like...

--Scott Appleby, who mocks "fundamentalist" Catholics (including Pope John Paul II) who want to "be faithful to God by following Church teaching"

--Fr. Richard Sparks, who says he is "not anti-choice" and mouths dirty speculations about Jesus and St. Mary Magdalene

--Fr. James Martin, who thinks Catholics need role models of "healthy gay priests"

--Edwina Gately, who keynoted the "gay" Catholics' 2002 Dignity USA confab (other bishops forbid her to speak in their dioceses, but Cardinal Mahony welcomes her)

--Bishop Donald Trautman, who was instrumental in radical-feminizing the words of the Mass and who bucks the Vatican on litugical discipline

--Thomas Groome, who pushes she-priests and she-bishops and dissents from many Church teachings

Google these names and some of the others and your hair will stand on end. But the Cardinal is proud of his speakers--so proud that the January 30 issue of The Tidings features a full-page ad showcasing many of the most hair-raising ones.

It is two months till the Cardinal's dancing girls signal the opening of this year's Congress. Let us pray daily that God will protect the religion teachers--and the innumerable young people whom they influence--from every error. St. Athanasius, pray for us! Pope St. Pius X, pray for us! St. Vibiana, pray for us!

One less (sic) egg to fry

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports ...

The Diocese of San Bernardino has formally excommunicated a Coachella Valley priest for heresy.

In a move that church officials called rare, a tribunal of three Inland Empire Roman Catholic priests found Father Ned Reidy, 69, guilty of heresy and schism after a trial in December.

Reidy left the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 after nearly two decades as a parish priest in Palm Desert.

For more, go to HAMMERING HERETICS IN SAN BERNARDINO.

Tip to Clayton at The Weight of Glory.

46,651,625 (and counting)

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

LA Masses

The Cliffs Notes version of the excerpt cited below from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal is:

No wicker baskets.
No kool-aid pitchers.
No brainer.

The G.I.R.M. states ...

327. Among the requisites for the celebration of Mass, the sacred vessels are held in special honor, especially the chalice and paten, in which the bread and wine are offered and consecrated, and from which they are consumed.

328. Sacred vessels are to be made from precious metal. If they are made from metal that rusts or from a metal less precious than gold, then ordinarily they should be gilded on the inside.

329. In the Dioceses of the United States of America, sacred vessels may also be made from other solid materials that, according to the common estimation in each region, are precious, for example, ebony or other hard woods, provided that such materials are suited to sacred use and do not easily break or deteriorate. This applies to all vessels which hold the hosts, such as the paten, the ciborium, the pyx, the monstrance, and other things of this kind.

330. As regards chalices and other vessels that are intended to serve as receptacles for the Blood of the Lord, they are to have bowls of nonabsorbent material. The base, on the other hand, may be made of other solid and worthy materials.

331. For the consecration of hosts, a large paten may appropriately be used; on it is placed the bread for the priest and the deacon as well as for the other ministers and for the faithful.

332. As to the form of the sacred vessels, the artist may fashion them in a manner that is more in keeping with the customs of each region, provided each vessel is suited to the intended liturgical use and is clearly distinguishable from those intended for everyday use.

LA's finest

Concelebrants at a Mass at Cardinal Mahony's Religious Educaton Congress (2005)

They look like a happy lot, except the guy seated on the right.

Father McBrien and the rest of the story

This week's issue of The Tidings runs two fine letters that criticize syndicated columnist Father Richard McBrien for attacking pro-life activists recently.

But there's more to the story. The Boston Herald reported on January 19 that the Cardinal Newman Society will ask Father McBrien's boss, University of Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins, to investigate that column for plagiarism.

You probably know that the Society is a watchdog group that promotes orthodoxy, decency and the right to life on Catholic college campuses.

Between them, the Society and the Herald say they've found nine similarities between Father McBrien's words and a December 11 Boston Globe column by Eileen McNamara as well as Globe news coverage of the December protest about which Father McBrien wrote.

The Herald says Father McBrien credited one sentence but not the other passages in question. It also says Father McBrien "conceded that he took facts from the Globe that he should have credited, but denied committing plagiarism."

One of the "facts" that Father McBrien seems to have taken is columnist Eileen McNamara's claim that pro-lifers miss the Latin Mass and miss Cardinal Law for letting pro-lifers gather at Catholic churches before rescues.

Father McBrien in the past has taken a nasty tone toward the Blessed Virgin Mary, vented his anger at pro-lifers and said the Pope should not canonize then-Blesseds Padre Pio, Josemaria Escriva and Juan Diego, whom he called "bad models for the universal Church." If The Tidings has not dumped him by now, will it do so because of a plagiarism rap, should it stick? Let's not hold our breath.

"Keep your gaze fixed on Christ"

That was quite an issue of the LA Times today. Jesse Jackson in court to answer a minister's lawsuit accusing him of civil rights violations and making threats; ex-Fr. Michael Stephen Baker arrested at LAX on a child molestation rap; and retired Fr. Michael Wempe about to stand trial on child sex abuse charges.

The Times story about the Wempe trial says, "The new case highlights victims' claims that Mahony failed to protect them from abusive priests even after he was aware of the clerics' serious misconduct. During jury selection, several prospective jurors expressed anger with the Catholic Church's handling of accused priests."

Someone should tell those jury candidates that "the Catholic Church" is a tad larger than just Cardinal Mahony and his fellow U.S. bishops. We can see, though, why people might be upset that the Cardinal "reassigned Wempe to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 1988, after he spent six months in a residential center for predators."

The Tambergian claim that "nobody [--nobody!--] knew in 1986," or 1988 or later, that a priest who committed crimes against children and teens could not just pick up and continue as an "alter Christus," another Christ, after "treatment," is so at odds with truth and reality as to be not just absurd but sickening.

Instead, let us listen to Pope Benedict XVI. Today, reports Zenit.org, he received in audience the priests, deacons and seminarians of Rome's diocesan seminary. He told them that "prepared and courageous priests are needed who...convinced of the Gospel truth, are concerned above all with proclaiming Christ."

The Pontiff said priests must have "a serious commitment to personal sanctification and the exercise of virtues, especially humility and charity."

Finally, the Holy Father told the priests, deacons and seminarians "to keep [your] gaze fixed on Christ. The more you are in communion with him, the more you will be able to follow faithfully in his footsteps, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that your love for the Lord matures."

May we see the day, sooner rather than later, when all priests and seminarians really and truly "keep [their] gaze fixed on Christ." Amen.

More on Father Baker's arrest

Father Michael Baker was arrested by authorities at Los Angeles International Airport upon his arrival from Thailand and Nepal, places well known for child sex trafficking. The former priest's attorney, Donald Steier, stated that Baker was simply returning home from an "overseas vacation."

Baker won't be taking anymore overseas vacations anytime soon.

In 1986, Father Baker admitted to Mahony that he had sexually abused minors. Mahony sent the priest away to a treatment center and then later assigned him to a series of nine other parishes, according to the THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. The same report states that authorities consider Baker "among the most prolific alleged abusers in the church." Cardinal Mahony has stated publicly that Baker case is "the one that troubles me most." And indeed it should.

Go HERE for a summary of Baker's record.

The THE LOS ANGELES TIMES explains ...

Baker was about to stand trial in 2003 on different molestation charges. But his case and those of nearly a dozen accused priests were thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court barred the revival of decades-old childhood sexual abuse prosecutions.

Thursday's arrest involves a molestation case that authorities say took place within the statute of limitations. It involves allegations that Baker sexually assaulted a young boy, now 27, in the rectory of a church somewhere in Los Angeles County.

In an effete attempt to exculpate his boss for allowing a confessed pedophile to be repeatedly assigned to parishes, Archdiocesan spokesman Todd Tamberg, said ...

"Baker was a classic example of how deceptive these kinds of people are. He lied to the archbishop about the nature and extent of his problem, he deceived his therapists, and he deceived the young people who trusted him," Tamberg said. "That is the nature of this compulsion. This wasn't known in 1986. We know it now."

"This wasn't known in 1986. We know it now."

No, Todd, it was known then. Archbishop Mahony knew. Baker told him so.

And now THE WHOLE WORLD WILL KNOW.

The "myth" of molester moving prelates is about to explode in your face.

Father Baker arrested today

He had just returned from Thailand.

NBC 4 News reports ...

LOS ANGELES -- A former Los Angeles Archdiocese priest who escaped prosecution for sexual abuse on children in 2003 because of a Supreme Court ruling was arrested Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport.

Michael Stephen Baker, 58, was arrested at 2 p.m. on suspicion of commiting lewd acts upon a child, according to Sgt. Dan Scott, of the sheriff's Special Victims Bureau.

The report continues ...

Baker left the ministry in 2000, said Tod Tambergm of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Baker told Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1986 that he had molested children, according to the archdiocese and Baker. The archbishop did not alert police, but rather sent Baker for treatment, after which he was assigned to a series of nine other parishes.

"Cardinal Mahony has already acknowledged and apologized for the mistakes made in handling Father Michael Baker, a case that taught many important lessons," the diocese noted in its 2004 "Report to the People of God."

Baker had been accused of sexually abusing 23 boys and girls from 1974 to 1999, including at least four after he admitted his molestations to Mahony, the archdiocese has reported.

Father Baker just might be Mahony's Father Shanley. We shall see.

For more, go HERE.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#8)

EIGHT: SHUT OFF THE FOUNTAIN OF FILTH Suppose the sewer line outside your residence broke and started spewing its contents in all directions, endangering the health of the community. Would you (a) put a clothespin on your nose and smile, or (b) pressure those responsible till they cleaned up the mess?

You are the Archbishop of the pornography capital of the world. Day after day, L.A.'s smut kings spew out tsunamis of XXX-rated sewage all over God's good earth. They ruin countless young people and marriages, trigger innumerable sexual sins, set the stage for numberless abortions, fan epidemics of VD, AIDS and sex addiction, and spark rapes and child molestations worldwide. Do you want your legacy to include, "Did nothing about the pornography plague infecting the whole world from right under his nose"?

Start lobbying law enforcement at local, state, national and international levels to start slapping handcuffs on the porn kings who have turned L.A. into one of the most shameful places on earth, and who make the whole world wonder why you have a hands-off policy.

Next, dust off the 20th-century popes' beautiful documents on indecency in movies and TV. Study them closely, pray, then take action. Privately lobby the movie and TV bosses to reinstate the pro-decency production code that the U.S. bishops persuaded Hollywood to adopt during the 1920s, and which fostered the Golden Age of film.

If the Hollywood big shots refuse to stop spewing nudity, sex scenes, gutter language, brutality, satanism, anti-Christian bigotry and other poison at the children and families of the world, form an alliance with every pro-decency leader in the country and publicly shame them till they clean up their act.

Father Wempe trial begins

CBS NEWS reports ...

LOS ANGELES - Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a former Roman Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a boy in the early 1990s.

Michael Wempe, 65, faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted of five felony counts, Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks said. It’s estimated that jury selection will take about three days and the trial will last about three weeks.

Click HERE for THE DAILY NEWS report on Wempe.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, predictably, has no report.

LA priest's trial may put spotlight on Mahony

VENTURA COUNTY STAR NEWS reports ...

A lineup of men whom [Father Michael] Wempe is alleged to have abused while working as a member of the Roman Catholic clergy will be on hand to take the stand as his trial gets under way in Los Angeles today.

Wempe served at four Catholic parishes in and around Ventura County between 1969 and 1987. He was arrested in 2003 for molesting five boys in incidents alleged to have happened from 1977 to 1986 in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties. Victims have claimed he sexually abused them during camping trips, car rides, motorcycle rides and extended visits to parish rectories.

Mahony has admitted he erred in transferring Wempe.

"Hundreds of victims have been denied this process because church officials aided and abetted and covered up crimes by the clergy in the Catholic Church," [SNAP's Mary Grant] said. "So when we see this, it gives us some hope that justice will be done."

The trial will be watched by many.

Grant is hoping it will bring light to Mahony's involvement.

"This is one step in that direction," she said. "We believe that Cardinal Mahony should be criminally indicted for his complicity in the crimes by his priests."

For full story, click HERE.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#7)

SEVEN TEACH YOUR EDUCATORS A LESSON It will soon be spring--time for housecleaning. Your Office of Religous Education needs it desperately.

Determine which people in that department and in each of your grade schools and high schools assent wholeheartedly to all of the Church's teachings, and which embrace "designer dogmas."

Require the latter people to update their knowledge of the Faith through solid refresher courses from 100 percent orthodox educators, with emphasis on Humanae Vitae, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of John Paul the Great. If your people flunk, cut class or talk back to the teacher, fire them and replace them with people who love ALL of the Magisterium.

Take the same approach to your colossal Religious Education Congress, coming up March 30-April 2. Tell the many dissenting speakers you have booked to unpack their bags and return their honoraria, because they are no longer welcome.

Instead, book orthodox scholars, authors, columnists, apologists and media personalities from Thomas Aquinas College, Christendom College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Magdalen College, Ave Maria University, EWTN, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, The Wanderer, Catholics United for the Faith, Adoremus, American Life League, Catholic Answers, etc.

Finally, refuse to set foot on any local "Catholic" college or university campus whose faculty members refuse to sign the Mandatum (oath of fidelity to the Magisterium) that John Paul II called for in Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990), or which honors pro-abortion public figures, allows a "gay and lesbian" club, or hosts "The V***** Monologues."

LA Masses

LA Religious Education Congress 'Mass'

Did Mass at your parish this Sunday leave you incensed?

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#6)

SIX: TELL YOUR FLOCK THE TRUTH ABOUT CONTRACEPTION Tell your priests to study, affirm, teach and preach Humanae Vitae from the pulpit, in the confessional and in the marriage preparation courses.

Issue a pastoral letter that explains the evils of contraception and sterilization. In it, apologize to the laity for any times in the past 40 years that any priests have told them to "use your own conscience" about contraception.

Tell your flock that the Pill is an abortifacient: That often it does not prevent conception, it aborts a new baby who has already been conceived. Tell your flock that on average, women on the Pill unwittingly abort one baby each year, and that, as one priest has pointed out, this means Catholic women on the Pill are unknowingly aborting babies even while they are going up the aisle to receive Communion.

Tell your flock that contraception does not cut the number of abortions, it increases them. Contraception backer Dr. Malcolm Potts admitted this years ago, as did abortionist Dr. Judith Bury and others, and it remains true today.

Tell your flock that contraception and abortion are linked, and condemn the "babies are bad" contraceptive mentality that causes people to resort to abortion when their contraceptives fail, as they inevitably do even over quite short periods of time.

Tell your flock that contraception seriously endangers and harms women's health and that it undermines and wrecks marriages by putting limits on spouses' self-giving, which to be truly fulfilling needs to be without reservations and therefore open to transmitting life. Spouses' mutual gift of self needs to be 100 percent; contraception makes that impossible.

Tell your flock that Natural Family Planning (NFP) is allowed for grave reasons for a period of time but not indefinitely. Explain that NFP today truly works, that couples say it enhances their marriage and that it is completely different from, and far more advanced than, the no longer used "rhythm method" of 50 years ago.

Cite to your flock these words of Pope John Paul II in L'Osservatore Romano, October 10, 1983: "...contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or say the contrary is equal to maintaining that in human life situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God."

And tell your flock that the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2370) calls contraception "intrinsically evil."

The quotable Mahony

"We have zero tolerance: past, present and future."

Oops, he forgot the pluperfect: Go HERE.

SOURCE: CBS News video report. Click HERE (and allow a few moments for the video to download).

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#5)

FIVE: PUNISH, DON'T PRAISE, PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS Suppose there was an inauguration of a Catholic new mayor who was a longtime and avowed racist. Would you walk side by side with him and his racist cronies in his victory procession? Suppose a longtime and avowed racist died. Would you open your cathedral to his funeral and praise him there?

If your answer to these questions is "No, of course not," then you need to answer this question: Why have you done these very favors, and many more, for Catholic longtime and avowed pro-abortion politicians?

The Popes, the Second Vatican Council, many Vatican documents, the Catechism and our U.S. bishops all say that as preborn babies we have a God-given right to life, that killing us in the womb is an unspeakable crime and that there is a duty to protect babies and fight abortion. That's "fight abortion" -- not "promote abortion."

When you parade with hard-core, vicious, unrepentant, defiant pro-abortion politicians, and when you praise them, you are promoting abortion. You are saying, with your presence and your words, that babies' deaths don't matter and that promoting and making those babies' deaths possible is just fine with you.

Your all-smiles public appearances with pro-abortion politicians undercut the Church's teachings about the right to life. Palling around with pro-abortion politicians signifies your approval of them. They are taking advantage of you -- they get your approval, but you and the Church, not to mention unborn babies, get nothing back.

Please fulfill your duty to protect unborn babies, the most defenseless and innocent members of your flock. To God, every baby in the womb is equal in human dignity and worth to us already-borns; we must all affirm that truth with positive action.

If you have spoken privately with these pro-abortion politicians and told them to reform and they have ignored you, then they need a wakeup call. The Code of Canon Law (915) says those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin should be denied Communion. For the good of these politicians' souls, and to save the lives of millions of babies, please excommunicate the politicians as a charitable, fraternal and salutary warning to them.

And then, no more parades and funerals for them, except the ones who thanks to you will have repented, reformed and started saving babies' lives instead of taking them.

Bishops shuffling around clergy abusers? 'One of the greatest myths '

THE TIDINGS reports ...

"The belief that bishops moved child abusers from parish to parish, allowing them to abuse over and over, may well be one of the greatest myths created by the press coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Church."

This is a pathetically feeble attempt on the part of the handlers of the very troubled and rapidly disintegrating Archdiocese of Los Angeles to de-mythologize clergy sexual abuse in general and to extricate, in particular, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony from any complicity with these horrid scandals.

I have only four words to say in response to this absurd and baseless claim:

FATHER MICHAEL STEPHEN BAKER.

In a 2002 letter to his priests, Cardinal Mahony wrote:

"As your archbishop, I assume full responsibility for allowing Baker to remain in any type of ministry during the 1990s. I offer my sincere, personal apologies for my failure to take firm and decisive action much earlier."

According to this CBS News report, Mahony admitted "... he knew about Baker's problems, but for the next 14 years assigned him to different parishes where he had access to children."

No doubt the de-mythologizer who penned the propaganda piece cited above would be in full accord with the Biblical de-mythologizers who assert that Our Lord Jesus Christ never really said the following words anyway:

"It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." (Luke 17)

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#4)

FOUR: MAKE ACTUAL PROGRESS AGAINST MASS MURDER The March for Life and the Life Chain can become a great springboard for Catholic life-saving action against abortion and euthanasia. Prove to the community that we act upon our beliefs. Create and fund a large and active pro-life Archdiocesan office, staff it with knowledgable veterans of the anti-abortion movement, and seek and take their counsel.

Take many high-profile public stands for pro-life bills and election issues and against anti-life bills and election issues. Take a leading role in the new petition drive for this year's new Parental Notification about Abortion initiative.

Assign every parish, pastor and priest an abortion mill that is inside or near their parish boundary and order them to lead their parishioners in legally and peacefully praying, picketing and sidewalk counseling there at least once every week. Then join your pastors and people in praying the Rosary with a new parish each week.

State publicly, loudly and repeatedly that the Archdiocese will support any and all women who are in a crisis pregnancy, including helping them build a new life after baby is born. Put up billboards saying that, especially near abortion mills and by freeways and major streets. Put up large signs saying that outside every Catholic church, school, hospital and other facility.

Cooperate with, and support lavishly, existing pro-life pregnancy counseling centers, and found new ones everywhere they are needed.

State publicly, loudly and repeatedly that Planned Parenthood and other mass committers of abortion are racist and genocidal because they place so many of their killing centers in areas where members of minority groups live and work.

Transmit belief in the Culture of Life, and awareness of the mass murder going on around us daily, to every student in Archdiocesan schools and CCD classes. Have pro-life and pro-chastity educators speak often in classrooms and at assemblies. Have regular pro-life Masses at all schools. Have principals and teachers lead students in projects such as following babies' nine-month gestation through the nine-month school year. Have students make Rosary pledge drives for the right to life.

Make sure every Catholic group, including social justice groups, understands that they cannot consider themselves truly Catholic and truly for social justice unless they take active part in opposing abortions and building the Culture of Life.

Remind every pastor, priest, deacon and parish that our U.S. Bishops, in their Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities, say that a pro-life intention is to be included in the petitions at EVERY Mass. EVERY Mass! Make sure they do this.

Seek every opportunity to lead by personal example in saving babies' lives, helping moms and fighting the abortion profiteers who prey on our community every day.

LA March for Life

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The Los Angeles Archdiocese Commission for Catholic Life Issues and Hispanics for Life are sponsoring the 2006 Los Angeles March for Life/Life Chain on Sunday, January 22, 2006, the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Thousands of people will meet at the Los Angeles Cathedral and then process with pro-life signs through the streets of downtown L.A. to pray for an end to abortion.

For more, click HERE.

Will Levada evade-a trial?

The Number Two man in the entire Catholic Church flies all the way from Rome to San Francisco and, dressed in civvies, enters an office building by a side door to avoid protesters. Though he himself is in charge of dealing with priests accused of sex crimes against minors, he must now answer lawyers' questions, under oath, about his own alleged role in covering up such crimes when he was Archbishop of Portland--which, facing $155 million in sex-crimes damage claims, later became the first U.S. diocese to declare bankruptcy. As he walks into the office building, he's handed a subpoena to testify in another sex-crimes case.

What's wrong with this picture?

"Everything" would be an understatement. Though Portland has already shelled out $53 million to settle 130 sex-abuse claims, Archbishop Levada's former Archdiocese has 150 more cases to deal with. And lawyers want the prelate to tell the whole truth about his own actions.

For instance, in 1994, he returned accused molester Fr. Joseph Baccellieri to the active ministry. In April, 2004, he testified under oath that he removed Fr. Baccellieri in 1992 when he heard an allegation of sex abuse against him, dating to the 1970s. But, reports Ron Russell in the January 4 SF Weekly, "Levada wasn't telling all that he knew."

According to the paper, in 1993 Levada was aware of other accusations that the priest had victimized three males, and had okayed secret payoffs to each of them when they threatened to sue the Archdiocese. One victim said the priest "had sodomized him for several years." Since 2004, four more males have alleged in lawsuits that the priest committed sex crimes against them in the 1970s, when they were teens.

David Slader, who represents three of plaintiffs, says it's "unconscionable" that Levada didn't report the priest to the police. (The Archdiocese says Oregon law didn't require Levada to, because by then the alleged victims were adults.)

"All the evidence we've been able to find demonstrates that Archbishop Levada's sole concern was to maintain a veil of secrecy and to continue the false impression that Father Baccellieri was a trustworthy and dutiful priest," Slader complains.

Thread by thread, Levada's veil is unraveling. What will the world learn? Next to the brief January 9 New York Times story about Levada's deposition was a sex video ad with the headline, "Sex. It's Never Too Late to Learn Something New."

Cathedral rector closes door on bogus conference

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports ...

The Roman Catholic cathedral of Los Angeles on Monday rescinded its invitation to hold a Christian unity conference later this month after concluding that the principal speaker was to be a controversial self-proclaimed mystic who claimed to speak directly with God, Jesus and Mary.

In a letter to the sponsors, Msgr. Kevin Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, said that what had been represented by sponsors as a Christian unity conference had turned out to be largely a forum for Vassula Ryden, a Greek Orthodox laywoman who has attracted worldwide attention with her reports of sacred conversations.

I'm glad that finally somebody from the Archdiocese (or was it Rome?) is reading LA Catholic. It was here exactly one month ago that I blew the whistle on the bogus ecumenical event that was scheduled to be held at Cardinal Mahony's cathedral at the end of this month.

Among those who were scheduled to speak at the Key to Christian Unity Conference was self-proclaimed "visionary," Vassula Ryden. In 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under its former head, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, issued this warning about Ryden:

" ... this Congregation requests the intervention of the Bishops so that their faithful may be suitably informed and that no opportunity may be provided in their Dioceses for the dissemination of her ideas. Lastly, the Congregation invites all the faithful not to regard Mrs. Vassula Ryden's writings and speeches as supernatural and to preserve the purity of the faith that the Lord has entrusted to the Church."

Is it not astounding that neither Monsignor Kostelnik (cathedral rector) nor the Rt. Reverend Alexei Smith (who heads the Archdiocese's ecumenical and interreglious affairs) was aware of Ryden's complete lack of credibility? What is more, in the TIMES piece Kostelnik acknowledges that Mahony himself was going to give the opening remarks at the conference. The cathedral previously played host to an embarrassing "interfaith" pow-wow to celebrate the election of the pro-abort, pro-gay agenda, leftist mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa.

It just goes to show you that some people never learn from their mistakes. They either try to cover them up or just pass the buck. The problem is, Mahony is running out of bucks. I am sure it wasn't easy for Kostelnik to return Vassula's $3000 check and the $200 deposit for food services. After all, money is money.

Hennigan's shenanigans?

With the skill of a surgeon, DIOGENES cuts through the carefully crafted words and the lawyerly language to pinpoint the legal strategy of Cardinal Mahony's high-powered and highly paid legal counsel. "Uncle Di" explains:

Last November we noted the equally curious coincidence that the 44 "representative cases" the Archdiocese agreed could be litigated in court date from 1958 to 1985 -- all of them, that is, before the time Mahony became archbishop. Therefore, none of the allegations that would be scrutinized in a public trial involve decisions for which Mahony was personally responsible. There will be big bucks to pay, of course, but we have the assurance of the Archdiocese's explicit hope that their insurers will, after all, do the right thing and pony up. And if they don't, well, whose fault is that?

A man less easily moved by episcopal suasion than your Uncle Di might reckon that this is the twofer the Archdiocese is trying to pull off:

1) The abuse that occurred on Mahony's watch (post-1985) will be settled, for cash, out of court. That means no trial, hence no senior ecclesiastics in the witness box, hence no consequent arraignment for complicity or perjury, hence no jail time for You Know Who.

2) The abuse that occurred before Mahony's time (pre-1985) will go to trial -- by an arrangement in which nine of the 44 select cases are agreed upon -- and whatever hit the Archdiocese takes will be financial. That means no senior ecclesiastics in the witness box (the relevant ones are dead), hence no consequent arraignment for complicity or perjury, hence no jail time for You Know Who.

The 560 as-yet-unresolved accusations will oblige the faithful to untrouser multiple millions, obviously. But isn't that a small price to pay, after all, for the privilege of a Pastor fearless in defense of the most precious and vulnerable truths of our Catholic faith?

I hate to say it but Cardinal Teflon just may pull it off, which means it's time for me to run over to La Placita to light a box of veladoras to the Virgin.

LA Masses

Cardinal Mahony, flanked by his concelebrating auxiliary bishops, was the "presider" of this "Eucharist" during the February 2005 Religious Education Congress in Anaheim.

Anything exciting to report at your local "Sunday Liturgy?"

Banned in Boston, OK in LA

In an essay entitled, "Banned in Boston," Father Richard McBrien writes in THE TIDINGS ...

A tiny group of ultra-conservative Catholics protested the decision of Catholic Charities of Boston ... to confer its annual award upon Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino. Catholic Charities honored him for his commitment to the poor and to the cause of justice. The activists, on the other hand, regard him as an advocate of abortion and gay marriage.

Unfortunately, Archbishop Sean O'Malley yielded to their pressure and boycotted the dinner ...

Meanwhile in LA, Cardinal Roger Mahony has announced that William Wardlaw, the very powerful Democrat "reign maker" and former State chairman of the pro-abortion Clinton-Gore campaigns, will be receiving THE CARDINAL'S AWARD this coming February. The purpose of the award is to recognize Wardlaw for his "long and distinguished service" to the Catholic community of Los Angeles. Fact is, Wardlaw is lengendary for having raised millions of dollars for politicians and various civic projects. Aware of this, Mahony recruited him some years ago to help raise nearly $200 million for his new "cathedral."

In June 2004, however, the US Bishops in their statement, Catholics in Political Life, decreed that the Church should not give commendations to individuals who fail to uphold the basic moral teachings of the faith. This official document of the USCCB, which was passed by a vote of 183 to 6, states:

"The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

It is widely known that the Cardinal of the West does not abide opposition to his own decrees. Nonetheless, in an utter act of defiance, Mahony has given "zero obedience" to a clearly stated teaching of his own bishops' conference by honoring the man who played a major role in electing to office the "abortion President," William Jefferson Clinton.

Click HERE for a photo of Mahony crony William Wardlaw with his good buddy, the Cardinal.

See the related posts by Clayton Emmer and Brian Knotts.

See also my previous post, THERE OUTTA BE A LAW AGAINST AN AWARD FOR WARDLAW.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#3)

(Presented one per day)

THREE: END THE ARTIFICIAL "PRIEST SHORTAGE" Invite bishops in Poland, Africa and other places known for loyalty to the Magisterium to send some of their abundant priests and seminarians into your Archdiocese. Encourage your priests and seminarians to learn from their example.

Borrow some officials from dioceses that have plentiful priestly vocations and turn your seminary over to them. Let them restore doctrinal orthodoxy, loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, liturgical reverence, moral discipline, traditional prayers, devotion to the Blessed Mother, and the sublime concept of the priesthood that seminaries used to instill in young men. Have them show the door to any and all homosexual seminarians, staff or faculty.

Give the boot to any of your current officials who long for priestesses or who abort the vocations of orthodox candidates.

And watch your seminary fill up with outstanding future priests.

"That's ONE BILLION with a 'B'"

Eric Spillman, in a KTLA News VIDEO REPORT on the clergy sexual abuse lawsuits facing Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, states ...

"The cost for the Church could be huge. So many victims are suing the cost of an overall settlement could end up being higher than ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That's ONE BILLION with a "B." And most of that money would come directly from the Church; there is no insurance to cover it."

"B" also stands for the BIGGEST clergy sexual abuse payout in the nation, which will make the Archdiocese of Mahony both the BIGGEST and the BADDEST of them all!

Photo credit: BBC

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal (#2)

(Presented one per day.)

TWO: STOP WRECKOVATING OUR CHURCHES Stop breaking the hearts of the faithful, and wasting millions of dollars, by wreckovating perfectly good Catholic churches.

Restore (de-wreckovate) the churches you have already mutilated; inevitably, future bishops, pastors and parishioners will do so if you do not.

Swear off the heterodox and transitory, ephemeral latest fads in church design. Dump the highly paid professional wreckovation-consultant profiteers.

Stop hiding the Blessed Sacrament in side chapels or behind ugly barriers. Restore our tabernacles to places of prominence so we can readily adore our Creator and Savior. Instill in your flock love and reverence for the Real Presence by teaching them to genuflect, to not speak in church and to dress respectfully for Mass.

Encourage your pastors and foster vocations by establishing frequent Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction and public Eucharistic processions in every parish.

Payouts could average "at least $1 million"

Today's LA Times says the Archdiocese of LA and lawyers for "about 45" of the alleged victims of sex abuse by clergy are getting close to agreement on payouts of at least $1 million in damages per claim. The Times says that figure could be "a tentative benchmark" for payouts in each of the rest of the cases still pending.

Don't look now, but the number of other cases still pending is at least 515.

The archdiocese's lead lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan, told the Times that he's optimistic about this settlement but "it's a long way from conclusion." Hennigan told the Times in 2004 that payouts in the 50 worst cases could be $5 million apiece.

The Times notes that last October Hennigan said Cardinal Mahony [who took over the archdiocese in 1985] at first had been "'overly optimistic' about therapeutic treatments and made some 'terrible mistakes' by ordering accused priests to counseling and then letting them back into the archdiocese."

Sadly, many in the U.S. hierarchy remain in denial that most cases of abuse by clergy involve homosexuals preying on teenagers. Bishops such as George Niederauer still claim men with lifelong homosexual attractions can make fine priests. Evidently nothing, but nothing, will make them admit the Church is right in saying homosexuals should not be ordained.

Not all homosexuals will molest, but why expose the flock to the risk? Studies show homosexuals are much more likely than heterosexuals to be molesters. Dr. Judith Reisman says homosexuals are 40 times more likely than heterosexuals to molest young people. And the Catechism (2357) says homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and notes that Sacred Scripture regards them as "grave depravity."

The quotable Mahony

"Rev. Robert H. Schuller's great legacy will be his creative use of television to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the world," said Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles. "He was always searching for new ways to bring the Gospel message to as many people as possible." [source]

Will we hear such praise from "Cardinal Hollywood" for the unlikely founder of the LARGEST RELGIOUS BROADCASTING EMPIRE IN THE WORLD?

Don't bet on it.

See related posts HERE and HERE.

LGBT rabbi decries papal appointment

WINDY CITY TIMES reports ...

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum—the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s oldest synagogue for LGBT Jews—released a statement condemning the appointment of Archbishop Pietro Sambi as the Vatican’s new representative to the U.S. Kleinbaum said that Sambi’s appointment “sends a strong message, affirming the church hierarchy’s willingness to target our community for persecution and derision within the Catholic Church and align itself with other anti-gay religious extremists.”

You may visit the web site of Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum's synagogue HERE.

LA's own Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein was a proud signer on CBST's "Support of World Pride in Jerusalem" petition. Go to World Pride in Jerusalem web site HERE.

New Year's Resolutions for a Cardinal

(Presented one per day. Collect the whole set! Be the first on your block -- er, blog.)

ONE: THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS Stop violating the Church’s liturgical norms, and order all your priests to follow your example. Tell your clergy: No more altering the text of Holy Mass. No more editorial comments in mid-Mass. No more using the prohibited flagons (Kool-Aid pitchers!) to hold the Precious Blood. No more dancing girls. No more inviting lay "altar egos" to stand behind the altar.

And because having girl altar boys is merely permitted, not required, foster vocations to the priesthood by having only boy altar boys (wow, what a concept!) serve Mass.

Foster true diversity in the language of the liturgy. We have Masses in 35 tongues, yet one language is mostly prohibited: Latin. Urge every parish to schedule both the Tridentine Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Latin Mass weekly and daily. Teach Latin to your seminarians and as required updating for your clergy.

How do you say 'lavender mafia' in Yiddish?

Congregation Kol Ami of West Hollywood gave its "Guardian of Justice" award to the leading "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender" media conglomerate, PlanetOut.com. Some of the entities owned by "PlanetOut" are ...

http://www.advocate.com/
www.gay.com
www.out.com

Would you be surprised if I told you that the web developer of West Hollywood's very "gay friendly" synagogue is "Cardinal Hollywood's" very own openly "gay" deacon, the Reverend Eric Stoltz?

What? Nothing surprises you anymore?

Go HERE and HERE for related posts.

By the way, the term "lavender mafia" was coined by sociologist and author of bawdy novels, Father Andrew Greeley.

The quotable Mahony

"Without question, the quality of the construction, especially the concrete work on the cathedral itself, is unparalleled.” [source]

Another way to put it would be ...

"Cement plus water equals ugly and everybody feels that." [source]

More U.S. bishops to turn 75 this year

The Catholic News Service (CNS) reports that this year, 14 U.S. bishops, including two cardinals, will hit 75, the age at which bishops must submit their resignation to the Holy Father -- who might accept the resignation but does not have to.

CNS also notes that 14 other U.S. bishops, including three cardinals, are still on the job even though they are already 75 or older. Cardinal Edmund Szoka is 78 and Cardinals Adam Maida of Detroit and Theodore McCarrick of Wash., D.C., are 75.

Turning 75 in 2006 will be Cardinals William Keeler of Baltimore and Bernard Law.

So let's keep praying for all our bishops and for appointments of great new bishops who are orthodox, actively anti-abortion and anti-the "gay" agenda.

Jesus never existed

So says the film, THE GOD WHO ISN'T THERE, by ex-fundamentalist Christian Brian Fleming.

Click HERE to see the trailer.

One of the "experts" who appears in this "documentary film" is folklorist Alan Dundes of UC Berkeley. On March 30, 2005, Professor Dundes made a heart stopping discovery that caused him to abruptly put aside his research. And thus began the myth of THE PROFESSOR WHO WASN'T THERE.

Hanoi Jane's regret

CONTACTMUSIC.COM reports ...

BARBARELLA star JANE FONDA holds a deep regret that she'll never be able to celebrate a 50-year wedding anniversary with the love of her life.

The thrice-wed actress, who hasn't remarried since divorcing media mogul TED TURNER in 2001, admits she'd always dreamed of having a union last a handful of dates, but now that she's 67, she knows it's not a possibility.

LA Masses

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony celebrates Mass for Bosco Tech's 50th Anniversary

So how was Mass in your neck of the woods on the Solemnity of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

Anti-gay person of the year

AP photo

THE WASHINGTON BLADE reports ...

Presiding over what some describe as the “strongest bully pulpit in the world,” Pope Benedict XVI, just eight months into his tenure, has unilaterally targeted gay men and lesbians as moral threats to society.

From banning gay priests to publicly lobbying against same-sex marriage rights in Spain and Italy, Pope Benedict XVI appears to be taking a swift approach to excluding gay people from equal rights across the globe.

“His rhetoric is obscene. He wants gays clearly taken care of — it’s almost like the Final Solution,” said Kara Speltz, a Catholic lesbian activist for Soulforce, an organization dedicated to ending anti-gay discrimination within all religions.

Is there any chance that McCarrick of DC and Mahony of LA will be issuing statements condemning THE WASHINGTON BLADE'S anti-Catholic bigotry?

Don't hold your breath.