Invalid "ordination" of women today, July 31

Here we go again (click on this post's title), as eight misguided women think they will be ordained as Catholic priests, and four other misguided women think they will be ordained as Catholic deacons, on a boat in the confluence of rivers by Pittsburgh today.

Never mind that Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, declared, in his Apostolic Letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" on May 22, 1994,

"Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" is at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_22051994_ordinatio-sacerdotalis_en.html

According to news reports, the 12 women will not be taking vows of chastity and obedience -- which makes you wonder what, if any, vow they will take. A vow of disobedience?

Acts of disobedience such as this are not only not funny, they are shockingly EVIL -- not least because, at least anecdotally, some falsely "ordained" people go around and actually dare even to assist at deathbeds. They bamboozle dying people and their families into thinking the sacraments have been administered. Thus they effectively deny the dying person reception of the true sacraments and the ministrations of a genuine priest.

Another good motto for bloggers and commenters

Do you have any quotes that would serve as inspiration for bloggers and commenters? Please feel free to post them in your comments here.

Here is one: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Now, I value this quote strictly for what it says; I take it at face value.

So when I tell you that the quote is attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., please understand that by using it here, I am not endorsing its author's being in league with Planned Parenthood, nor am I endorsing any other associations or problems he had. And it is nice to know that his niece, Dr. Alveda King, is pro-life and that she even works for Priests for Life now.

I am just saying that this quote is a good one for bloggers and commenters.

July 31, Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

AMDG + Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam + To the Greater Glory of God

Happy Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. He died 450 years ago today, July 31, 1556. Two of the other seven original Jesuits, St. Francis Xavier and Bl. Peter Favre, were born 500 years ago this year, in 1506.

We know that the Society has serious problems nowadays, but we also, of course, know, and know of, fine Jesuit priests, whom we thank for their fidelity.

One good way to celebrate the Feast of St. Ignatius, in addition to Holy Mass, is to say some prayers that he wrote, as well as ones that St. Francis Xavier wrote. To see them, click on this post's title. You will find some in Latin as well as English.

St. Ignatius, pray for your Order and pray for us and our Archdiocese! Amen.

Good news about Latin Mass in Kansas City, Mo.

Today's Kansas City Star reports (click on this post's title) on Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn's current restoration of Old St. Patrick Oratory in downtown Kansas City (Mo.), his decision to turn it over to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and the beautiful and reverent Tridentine Latin Masses at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Kansas City.

(The bishop says he wants the Tridentine Latin Mass congregation to prosper. He is letting them have Latin Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows until Old St. Patrick is ready.)

Parts of this news article are very moving -- and there is a photo gallery of the Mass, too.

"Priestess" resigns from Boston chancery

If you know anyone who thinks that feminist liberal dissenter zealots do not gravitate toward jobs at bloated chancery office staffs, tell them to be sure to check out this news story (click on this post's title) about a bizarre situation in Boston.

What will your Sunday Mass be like this weekend?

We have not done this for a while, but -- can you find time to report here about the Mass(es) that you attend this Sunday in your parish or elsewhere? Thank you in advance!

The beautiful image here, and the quotation below, are from the Website of The Latin Mass Magazine (click on this post's title).

"If there is anything divine among man's possessions which might excite the envy of the citizens of heaven (could they ever be swayed by such a passion), this is undoubtedly the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by means of which men, having before their eyes, and taking into their hands the very Creator of heaven and earth, experience, while still on earth, a certain anticipation of heaven."
-- Pope Urban VII, 1634

Pro-life tie-ins for homilies

If you are a bishop, priest or deacon, did you know that through www.priestsforlife.org you can get pro-life material for your homilies, the intercessions and parish bulletins?

Here is how, directly from the Priests for Life website (click on this post's title):
------------------------------------------
Each week, Priests for Life provides an email service to clergy (subscribe at clergy@priestsforlife.org) containing three elements: General Intercessions, a one-paragraph bulletin insert, and suggestions for drawing pro-life themes out of the Sunday readings for the homily.

The email arrives eight or nine days before the Sunday for which it is designed...

The general intercessions for every Sunday of the year can be found at http://www.priestsforlife.org/intercessions/index.htm, more bulletin inserts can be found at http://www.priestsforlife.org/bulletin/index.htm, and homily hints can be found at www.priestsforlife.org/preaching

If you, as a bishop, priest or deacon, examine these resources, could you please comment here on them? Thank you in advance!

Should the Church apologize for...

The dissenters are always demanding, as we know, that the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ apologize for everything under the sun, practically even for just existing.

Here is one apology we ought to see, though -- not by the entire Church, of course, but by the bishops and priests, and they know who they are, who for the past four decades have intimated publicly, or, much worse, have told people in Confession, that contraception is not a sin.

We REALLY need to hear an apology from them for perpetrating that great evil.

We also need restitution from them: Four decades, starting right now, of them studying, deeply assenting to and then preaching and teaching, and counseling in Confession, the beautiful Catholic truth about God's loving, happy and holy plan for marriage, children and family.

This is another one of those bright ideas that I am not holding my breath waiting to see happen. But it should happen, don't you agree?

A portrait of Cardinal McIntyre

Responding to my recent post about Cardinal McIntyre, of happy memory, commenter Dale kindly reported that Dorothy Day "kept a framed portrait of the Cardinal on her desk. It was signed 'To my good friend, Dorothy Day.' The late Miss Day was far more traditional in her piety than the leftists who claim to emulate her ever acknowledge. "

This prompted me to go looking for a portrait of Cardinal McIntyre. The one above is at www.findagrave.com

Cardinal McIntyre, please pray for us and for your beloved Los Angeles! Amen.

Happy 38th Anniversary, "Humanae Vitae!"

On July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), subtitled, "On the Regulation of Birth" (click on this post's title).

We should celebrate and promote this holy, Catholic, wise, prophetic and beautiful document today and every day, and we should thank and bless Pope Paul VI for it.

What is more, with the 40th anniversary only two years away, ideally every bishop in the USA should be planning and organizing big celebrations, symposia and so on, and should be making his clergy study, absorb and preach Humanae Vitae to their flocks from this day forward.

Please, stifle your laughter -- or your tears. I know the above suggestion is unlikely in the extreme to ever happen.

But we can celebrate, and here are some good ways to do that:

Read, save and pass along St. Padre Pio's beautiful, touching letter of support to Pope Paul VI
http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/PIOPOPE.HTM

Study, save and pass along this bibliography of great pro-life Catholic scholar Janet Smith's extensive works on pro-life and pro-family subjects, including Humanae Vitae:
http://www.aodonline.org/SHMS/Faculty+5819/Janet+Smith+9260/Dr.+Janet+Smith+-+Published+Articles.htm

Order copies of Humanae Vitae (and other encyclicals) from the Daughters of St. Paul, and pass along this link for making orders:
http://www.pauline.org/store/chdocs_paulvi.html

See, save and pass along the official text of Humanae Vitae in Latin:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_lt.html

And last but not least, please add your comments about Humanae Vitae here on this post, and please tell your friends and relatives to visit "onelacatholic," see this post and get the above resources themselves!

St. Charbel, pray for us and for peace!

Today is the feast day of St. Charbel Makhloof (1828-1898), the Lebanese Maronite Catholic monk and hermit whom Pope Paul VI canonized in 1977.

Let us ask him to intercede for peace with justice and reconciliation in the entire area, and for relief of the suffering of everyone on all sides of every conflict in that part of the world.

Naturally, our concern extends especially to the civilians -- on all sides -- that God may console them in their bereavement and that we and the world may aid them in their dire necessity. We also pray that all holy sites be spared from harm, as well as hospitals.

St. Charbel, please pray for us and for peace throughout the Middle East!

(Click on this post's title to learn more about St. Charbel.)

How Bishop Vasa will spend his vacation

Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, headquartered in the town of Bend, writes in his latest column (click on this post's title) that the life of a priest "is the life of a man-for-others." Read his column and find out how he is going to spend his vacation this summer.

Some IHMs versus Cardinal McIntyre

Maybe you have heard of the revolt that dissenter sisters in the Immaculate Heart of Mary order in this Archdiocese waged against Cardinal McIntyre in the late 1960s. It got so bad that "IHM" was said to stand for "I Hate McIntyre." Suffice it to say that the dissenter sisters won, got control of the order's property and left 50-90 loyal sisters out in the cold.

You can see some perspective on that revolt at an Amazon page of reviews/comments (click on this post's title) on a recent pro-IHM, anti-Cardinal McIntyre book. Several of the comments support the book, but several others give the real story and are pro-Cardinal McIntyre. The dissenting sisters were misled, and many led astray, by Carl Rogers' "sensitivity training."

A book on Cardinal McIntyre that I have often hoped to get is the two-volume His Eminence of Los Angeles by Monsignor Francis J. Weber, the retired historian-archivist of our Archdiocese. Commenter "Anonymous" has read it several times and praises it highly.

How we can assist war relief in the Middle East

On this Sunday declared by Pope Benedict XVI to be one of prayer and penance for peace in the Middle East, here is some good news.

There is a reliable way that you and I can help relieve suffering in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East: By donating to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), which has been helping Catholics and people of all faiths and cultures in the Near East for many decades.

Myabe you are already familiar with CNEWA. Anyone who visits their Website (click on this post's title) will be inspired and edified by seeing the tremendous amount of good they do. Ole Quintero is going to make a donation for war relief, and I know you would like to, also.

By the way, I am not sure if it is made clear on CNEWA's website, but they can arrange Gregorian Masses to be said by poor priests to whom our stipends mean a great deal. (Gregorian Masses, of course, are a series said each day for 30 days by one priest for the intention of a particular deceased person -- for the release of their soul from Purgatory.)

Cardinal McIntyre, pray for us!

A week ago, July 16, was the 27th anniversary of the entrance into eternal life of the great James Francis Cardinal McIntyre (1886-1979), Archbishop of Los Angeles 1948-1970.

He was ordained a priest in 1921. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York consecrated him a bishop on January 8, 1941. In March 1948 he was installed as Archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeding the late Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1953.

Cardinal McIntyre was a leader of exceptional vision and foresight. As Los Angeles grew rapidly after World War II, he made sure the Archdiocese would grow with it and be able to serve the people, by finding and buying properties all over Southern California that one day would prove to be ideal sites for parishes, schools and other institutions in communities recently founded or even not yet founded.

Under Cardinal McIntyre, the Archdiocese flourished and the Church was strong. Seeds of trouble surfaced in the 1960s after Vatican II, when, among other things, some dissenters in the clergy and religious orders refused obedience to legitimate Catholic authority, including Pope Paul VI's profound and prophetic encyclical letter Humanae Vitae ("On Human Life"), July 25, 1968, which explained the beauty of married life and the evil of contraception.

Ever since those days, "liberals" have been unable to let go of the memory of Cardinal McIntyre. To this day, some of them still bring him up and revile him.

Obviously, not everything that every member of the hierarchy does can be perfect. But James Francis Cardinal McIntyre was a giant of the Faith, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will forever owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Cardinal McIntyre, pray for us!

Here is the Cross that the Left hopes to tear down

Here is the Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego, which the Irreligious Left hopes to tear down soon. The photo is from the site of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial (click on this post's title).

Our stance should be, "Sorry, Lefties, but the Cross is part of America's heritage and was central to the faith of the great majority of the servicemen and women whom it commemorates."

It is worth noting, or maybe we all know already, that the Spanish place name "Soledad" is from "Nuestra Senora de Soledad," or "Our Lady of Solitude."

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world. Amen.

Pro-Mount Soledad Cross article -- in The Tidings

The July 21 issue of The Tidings carries an article (click on this post's title) by law school dean Douglas Kmiec in defense of the constitutionality of the Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego. It is a good one.

Some kind friends of this blog have been asking me to resume using illustrations, so here is one. As you can see, it shows the Transfiguration. It is from Jesuit Father Jerome Nadal's 1595 Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia ("Notes and Meditations on the Gospels"). I found it at http://catholic-resources.org

Pray for peace

We are all gearing up for this coming Sunday, July 23, right? -- to take part in the worldwide day of prayer and penance for peace in the Middle East that Pope Benedict XVI has declared (click on this post's title).

Among our intentions that day, and every day, let us pray for the Christians of every country in the Middle East, for their protection and for protection for all the holy shrines and sites and all the churches, monasteries, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, schools and other institutions.

Our Lady, Queen ofPeace, pray for us!

Schumer inciting violence against us pro-life Christians!

Cardinal Roger Mahony and the rest of the U.S. bishops should take steps immediately to defend you and me and all their pro-life Christian flock from the vicious pro-abortion U.S. Senator Charles Schumer's shocking incitement to violence against us.

Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Schumer (Democrat-New York) called Christians who oppose murdering embryonic new babies for human experimentation "theocrats" who "want their faith to dictate what the government does." Schumer then said that the reason America's founders "put down their plows and took up muskets" was to fight people like us!

Schumer is a repeat offender, it turns out. A Web search on "Schumer" and "put down their plows" reveals that in Spring 2005 he used the same "plows" and "muskets" incitement against Christians who want Constitution-distorting judges replaced.

Has any other Senator in history ever committed incitement to violence against his or her fellow Americans, besides in the Civil War? Nope, or at least highly unlikely.

The U.S. bishops should immediately denounce Schumer and then call for the Senate to impeach and expel him for encouraging violence against us pro-life Christians.

If our bishops will not respond to this attack by Schumer, what will evoke a response from them? (This is a rhetorical question.)

motto for bloggers

Do you receive Communique, the free pro-life e-mail newsletter from Judie Brown's American Life League? (See all.org) The issue of July 13 had this quotation:

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become your sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”
-- Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), Dutch neo-Calvinist theologian and politician

Here is where I insert a disclaimer: Of course, to quote this Mr. K. is only to relay this one, single, lone quotation from him. It is not to endorse or agree with anything he ever said, did, thought or stood for in his long life. For example, he is said to have agreed with the Kaiser's side in World War I; you'd think he was old enough by then to know better!

One more disclaimer: Naturally, we need to take the quotation's words "battle" and "with all the fire of your faith" in a good sense -- the loving, just and logical "battle" and "faith" of the saints, not of anyone who lacks logic, charity and justice.

But anyway, to "lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy" kind of sums up what blogging is all about, and what activism is partly about; and it is part of evangelization, too.

update on pro-aborts

Probably you have read that at the Mass of installation for Bishop Donald Wuerl as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., last month, the pro-abortion Massachusetts Democrat U.S. Senators Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry sat by the central aisle, in the third row, and that Bishop Wuerl, shaking hands with attendees as he processed into the Basilica, shook their hands.

Probably you have also read that later in that Mass, Kerry was in the line to which the Apostolic Delegate was giving Communion, and did receive Communion from him. LifeSiteNews.com reported that and surmised that it was unintentional on the part of the Apostolic Delegate.

Does any of this mean that the mind of the universal Church is that mass abortion-facilitating politicians are fine fellows and should be given Communion? No.

A while ago, a commenter professed to be upset that I asked whether then-Bishop Wuerl and Cardinal Mahony were opposite-coast bookends. I should have specified that I was asking that question about the way they deal with pro-abortion politicians. We will see what track record Archbishop Wuerl compiles now in D.C., but very publicly shaking hands right off the bat with the mega pro-abort twin K's, Kennedy and Kerry, was not a great start.

Yes, I know Cardinal Mahony's record with pro-abort politicians is a long one. Let us see, though, here and now in this election year, what he will do and what Abp. Wuerl will do.

Against the Cross, and for witchcraft

In two editorials on Saturday, July 15, the Los Angeles Times really revealed its true colors.

The first editorial, entitled, "Crossing the Line," condemns the Mt. Soledad Cross war memorial in San Diego as "a 43-foot-tall constitutional violation," "an extremely visible symbol of one religion" [guess which one; but the editorial never uses the word "Christianity"] and "an unacceptable establishment of religion on public land."

The second editorial (click on this post's title) sanitizes witchcraft by calling it "the Wiccan faith, which is a nature-based religion often confused with [s]atanism." It then demands, in the name of "religious freedom," that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from now on add the "Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star within a circle," to the list of symbols it allows on commemorative plaques for deceased veterans -- in this case, for Nevada National Guardsman Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, "a Wiccan" who died in action in Afghanistan.

This is liberalism in a nutshell: "Religious freedom" is fine when it is misapplied for a demonic ANTI-religion, but bad when it is applied for the True Religion, Catholicism.

Somehow, I do not expect to open the Times anytime soon and see an op-ed in defense of the Catholic Faith and true religious freedom by Cardinal Mahony and the rest of the California bishops in reply to these anti-Christian editorials. That is exactly what we need, though, from the shepherds who by virtue of their office are pledged to defend us.

Let us pray for mercy for the soul of Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, who gave his life for his country.

The Tidings is at it again

Cardinal Roger Mahony's The Tidings is at it again -- attacking religious conservatives.

Does this Prince of the Church use his newspaper to attack the obvious targets right in his own back yard, targets that many another bishop in his place would attack? For instance, does he attack Hollywood, that great corrupter of souls, that damnation-making fountain of filth? No, he takes money from Hollywood, lots of it. Does he attack the brazen pornographers in the Valley who make thousands of incredibly evil productions every year? No.

Does The Tidings attack L.A.'s dozens of abortion mills that kill tens of thousands of babies a year and exploit and injure so many women and girls? No. Does The Tidings attack the heretics in this Archdiocese who promote abortion, priestesses and the homosexual agenda? No. Does The Tidings attack the sects, who seduce countless Catholics away from the Faith? No.

You see, the Cardinal sees a far greater danger to the people of this Archdiocese: Religious conservatives. So he uses The Tidings to attack us, and in a particularly underhanded way. The article he selects, "Author examines religious right's 'hijacking' of Jesus" (click on this post's title), in the July 14 issue, creates a straw man, a caricature, by attributing to religious conservatives various attitudes and positions that most of us do not share.

Don't look now, your Eminence, but The Tidings is bearing false witness. I do not know anyone who supports Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. And of the many pro-lifers I know, their opinions are all over the map about the war in Iraq. Nor do they support "the rich" over the poor; some of us ARE the poor, the powerless, simple good souls, those without influence in the world.

The Tidings will not stop us by lying about us and calling us names. Not ever. We will keep on voting pro-life and anti-the homosexual agenda, not because of being "for the rich" or "for the war." And The Tidings can be sure we know that the irreligious Left does NOT help the poor but oppresses them; for just one example, witness the Left supporting abortion and NEVER lifting a finger to save preborn babies and their moms.

We see through The Tidings. So do many people, which is why its circulation is microscopic.

Bishop Yanta's new pastoral on Modesty

Be sure to visit the Website of the Diocese of Amarillo (click on this post's title) to see Bishop John Yanta's new pastoral letter, "Modesty Starts with Purification of the Heart." The bishop issued this pastoral on June 18, the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Bishop Yanta fills his pastoral with insights and quotes from Catholic teaching and Scripture, as well as with practical counsel. It is a keeper and it deserves wide forwarding by all of us.

Cardinal: Bad to change marriage laws

Speaking to the Theological-Pastoral Congress in association with the Fifth World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, last week, Cardinal William Levada "lamented the recent efforts in some nations to change laws that, for millennia, have 'recognized God's plan for marriage and the family.'" So reported CNA, as relayed by LifeSiteNews.com.

As we can see, the key words there are "God's plan." What part of the words "God's plan" do dissenters not understand? How could anyone think the Church could be wrong about this for two seconds, let alone two millennia, and that our elder brothers in the faith were wrong about it for the previous two millennia? How could anyone think Scripture is wrong about it?

Dissenters think that their opinions of the past few decades trump everything in salvation history. They think the Holy Father is not infallible but they are. This is a measure of just how deep is their attachment to wrong thinking and, all too often, to disordered things.

It is love, not "mean-spiritedness" or "bitter zeal" or "judgmentalism," for the Vicar of Christ, and us echoing him, to try to help people undertstand all this and get away from wrong thinking and things that objectively are sins, such as pride, heresy and sexual and homosexual sins.

Nor is it "self-righteous" and "holier than thou" for the Vicar of Christ, and us echoing him, to try to help our misguided and misled brothers and sisters see the light and repent and reform. We have all sinned and fallen short, and the just man falls seven times a day, God tells us in Scripture. We all need enlightenment, conversion, forgivenness and making restitution.

In defending marriage from those who are trying to destroy it, we are also defending the Holy Father, the Church and God and His plans for everyone's happiness and salvation. "God's plan": Two beautiful, holy and indispensable words for the world.

This book will give you hope

Is there hope? Si, sure, there is. But as we all know, Catholics "living with L.A.," other Catholics and other people of good will sometimes ask themselves that, as well as questions such as these:

Will God chastise the world? Has He abandoned us? Will He rescue what’s left of Christendom? Will He work a miracle to defeat the anti-Christian forces? What is He doing now? Is it possible to predict what He’ll do in the future?

If you have ever asked yourself any of these questions, you owe it to yourself, to your family and friends and really to the rest of the Church, to read a certain new book.

The book is historian Diane Moczar's Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know : The Divine Surprises and Chastisements that Shaped the Church and Changed the World (Manchester, N.H. : Sophia Institute Press, 2006). [see www.sophiainstitute.com ]

To see the Library of Congress page about it, click on this post's title.

The fact-filled, scholarly but readable book is all about how God is active in the history of His people. You will see how God often intervenes just when things seem hopeless; what He promised us in a great 20th-century apparition; why we’re living in “possibly the most interesting” and “most perilous” chapter in all of Christian history; how God might require “high heroism and dedication” of us; the spiritual weapons we should use; and much more.

This book has 175 pages and is paperback. If you are like ole Quintero here, it will give you hope, encourage you and inspire you to keep entering the fray! Really, every Catholic activist should read it. So should every priest, religious and young Catholic. Enjoy!

Bishops buying homes

Possibly you have seen reports and comments on the Web about a bishop or two buying nice houses for individual priests.

Imagine the good that could result for the Catholic flock and for communities as a whole if instead of buying houses for individual priests, bishops would buy houses -- and lots of them -- to turn them into pro-life pregnancy counseling centers and homes for unwed moms.

Bishops could focus on buying houses or office space next to abortion businesses.

But, apparently, for many bishops, to do that they would need to change their mindsets and spiritual outlooks about 180 degrees. We should encourage them to get started on that course or else to resign and make way for bishops who will help moms and babies.

Milwaukee Archdiocese to sell chancery

I was going to headline this post just, "Archdiocese to sell chancery," but I knew that would unfairly raise people's hopes about a certain Archdiocese here in Southern California. (Okay, that is a joke. However, the closings and sales out here, of seminaries, are no joke at all.)

The AP has reported (click on this post's title) that the Milwaukee Archdiocese will sell its chancery and will also use a communications campaign to prepare the flock for "staggering financial consequences" -- that is a quote -- from pending lawsuits.

Recall that a few years ago Cardinal Mahony had Milwaukee's then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland keynote the Religious Education Congress.

Abortionists who repent and convert!

Hi! -- Hola! from me, Quintero, a Catholic "living with L.A." Que tal? -- What's up?

There is good news, and it is the Good News, in the current issue of Cardinal Mahony's Archdiocesan newspaper, The Tidings (click on this post's title): A column by Father Frank Pavone, founder of the pro-life group Priests for Life and of a new religious order, the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. Entitled, "Abortionists converted," the column says literally hundreds of abortionists have repented sincerely and stopped committing abortions.

Father Pavone says they even have their own group, the Society of Centurions, named for the Centurion at Calvary who repented and converted. He says many factors usually are at work in the conversion of an abortionist, and they include seeing pro-life picketers and getting to know a pro-lifer.

Father Pavone quotes from a Society of Centurions brochure:

"The Centurion who stood at the foot of the cross of Christ suddenly became horrified at the crucifixion he was ordered to carry out. When Christ died, this Centurion dropped his sword and fell to his knees exclaiming, 'Surely, this was an innocent man!'

"Those of us who have participated in the killing of unborn children are the Centurions of today. We have dropped our swords against the unborn child. Now we must recognize the depth of our guilt and deal with the ramifications... To revitalize our humanity we need to forgive and be forgiven, to reconcile and be healed."

Kudos to The Tidings for running this column.

Southern California has lots of abortionists. Let us pray for them to convert. Amen!

Save the Mount Soledad Cross!

As we all know, the Cross of Jesus Christ is under attack from many sources these days, and it is our duty, privilege and joy as Catholics to defend it everywhere we can.

One way we can do that is to defend the war memorial Mount Soledad Cross in the San Diego area from the secularists and judges who are violating our Nation's legal history by demanding its destruction. The Thomas More Law Society (click on this post's title) is doing a great job of defending it. So are the local Catholics who keep a Rosary vigil at the foot of the Cross.

Pro-life Catholic activist Sue Lopez notes, in comments relayed by fellow pro-life Catholic activist Allyson Smith, that Mount Soledad is named for Nuestra Senora de Soledad, Our Lady of Solitude. Let us invoke Her intercession in defense of the Cross and for the enlightenment and conversion of all of the enemies of the Church.

A great step toward protecting the Cross would be a statement in its favor by all the Bishops of California, especially if they held a press conference under the Cross and prayed the Rosary there, too. That is not in the cards, but it ought to be.

Yes, ole Quintero knows he is always thinking up stuff for the Bishops to do; but you have to admit it would be a more Catholic California if they would actually do these things, not to mention a livelier California, too. Anyway, do visit the Thomas More Law Society page!

Mexico winner Felipe Calderon is said to be pro-life

News reports (click on this post's title for one) say Mexico's "Trife" (election tribunal) has declared Felipe Calderon, the PANista candidate, the winner in Mexico's presidential election.

Pro-lifers in Mexico and elsewhere have been disappointed with Vicente Fox, who was said to be a pro-life Catholic but who married out of the Church and whose government committed anti-life actions. President-elect Calderon is said to be a pro-life Catholic and Opus Dei member who attends Mass daily; let us hope and pray he will fight for Mexico's moms and preborn babies.

Let us also pray that the evidently anti-life "AMLO" (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) and his supporters in the leftist PRD do not turn to violence over his narrow loss.

Nuestra Senora de Guadaupe, ruega por Mexico! (Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for Mexico!)

College persecutes priest for wearing his clericals?

Thirty-seven-year college professor Father Jim Crowley says a "division director" at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, New Hampshire, has passed him over for a promotion because "He felt that my collar was intimidating to students, that I shouldn't be dressed as a priest. He found it offensive to use the word 'Father.'" The "director" also claimed Father Crowley was teaching Catholic doctrine in his business courses.

Not only that, but Father Crowley's immediate superior, Dr. Dennis Spector, says the college has persecuted him ever since he refused to change his positive evaluation ofFather Crowley to a negative one.

Father Crowley and Dr. Spector won a "cease and desist" order against the college, but things did not improve, so now they are suing the college for discrimination.

So reported WTNH News Channel 8's Annie Rourke in Waterbury on July 5. (Click on this post's title.) (Thanks to today's LifeSiteNews.com for providing this link.)

It would be wonderful if every priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and all across the USA, for that matter, wore his clericals every day and everywhere. Yes, the Roman collar is "a sign of contradiction" -- but that is the point. By standing up for Christ, the Church and the priesthood, priests win more respect, make more friends and win more converts than they lose.

So let us root for Father Crowley and his friend Dennis Spector, and let us keep them in our prayers. One other thing: Our U.S. bishops ought to make a statement of support for Father Crowley's right to wear his clericals!

More lawsuits on the way?

The California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 this past Monday, July 3, that a wife who is suing her husband because she got HIV from him after he told her he had been monogamous and free of disease is entitled to legal discovery about his past sexual sins. (Click on this post's title.)

Well, okay, the court did not call them "sins." But, anyway...

It turns out that in this case, the man lied to his future wife and did not tell her that he had committed sodomy with men. She tested positive for HIV two months after they married.

The scope of this decision is not known for certain yet. Could it lead to lawsuits against the Church if, God forbid, any clergymen infected anyone? Time will tell.

Patroness of the United States of America

On this Fourth of July, and every day, we remember that Our Blessed Mother is Patroness of the United States of America, under her title, the Immaculate Conception.

Regina angelorum, ora pro nobis! (Queen of Angels, pray for us!)

Here, from Sister M. Therese, ed., I Sing of a Maiden: The Mary Book of Verse (The Macmillan Company, 1947), is a prayer-poem by Pope Leo XIII that we can certainly use today.

Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903)
WAR CRY: TO MARY
(Ardet pugna ferox; Lucifer ipse, videns)

When warfare blusters at high Lucifer's command,
And writhing monsters fume a course from Acheron's land,
With speed of wind and wing, O loving Mother haste!
Shield for the plagued of soul, sword for the heart laid waste!
Crush with thy virgin foot these cobras of the night,
Erect thy son a tower on the Mary-height
Where he may watch the serpents leave, as stars in flight.
-- From the Latin, by Raymond F. Roseliep

"Catholic Sources and the Declaration of Independence"

Next time a secularist, a pro-abort or a Democrat politician or voter tells you that "Religion has no place in politics and government," or a bigoted Protestant tells you that "Catholicism is un-American," tell them they are w-r-o-n-g. Then refer them to "Catholic Sources and the Declaration of Independence" (click on this post's title), a scholarly paper that Father John Rager wrote in 1928 to show parallels between the Declaration of Independence and St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Robert Bellarmine and many other Catholic thinkers.

Tell them that these parallels between Catholic thinkers' and Founding Fathers' thoughts on liberty are why Bellarmine-Jefferson High School ("Bell-Jeff") in our Archdiocese got its name.

Happy Independence Day!

Catholics and the Fourth of July

On the Fourth of July, it is a good idea for us Angeleno Catholics to reflect on the service and sacrifices of our fellow American Catholics in the U.S. military.

Catholics have always been overrepresented in our Nation's military, and consequently in the rolls of the dead and wounded in our country's wars. So we must not ever let anyone tell us we have no right to cite our Faith in the public forum; our forebears and our children have bought and paid for that right with their very blood in mortal combat to preserve our Liberty.

The Catholic poet-patriot Joyce Kilmer was one of them; he died in action in France in World War I. His poem "Prayer of a Soldier in France" (click on this post's title) is a noble expression of Catholic and soldierly idealism, and it makes a wonderful Fourth of July prayer.

Many a Catholic youth from L.A., many a Murphy and Ramirez and Grabowski, lies in the Bivouac of the Dead, awaiting the Archangel's trumpet at the final muster. Honor to them, each and all, on this Independence Day and always! May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The other "undocumenteds"

Everyone who is for citizenship for the illegals who come here by the millions needs also to be for a smaller group who are not allowed in -- who in fact are forced back as soon as they are caught.

That group is the Cuban liberty-lovers who risk their lives at sea to flee the cruel grip of the Communist dictator Castro's illegal and totalitarian regime. The USA used to let them in, as refugees from tyranny -- until Bill Clinton came along, and George W. Bush after him.

Clinton never met an anti-Communist he liked. He decreed that Cuban refugees who managed to set foot on U.S. soil could stay here but that those caught at sea, even yards offshore, must be keelhauled back to Castro's goons. And "W" Bush has continued that evil practice.

This next week surrounding the Fourth of July, our annual celebrating of the winning of our liberty, is a great time for you and me to contact our Cardinal and our U.S. bishops and urge them to speak out against the monstrous Clinton-Bush "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy.

To get a glimpse into how awful is the Communist tyranny in Cuba, click on this post's title. You will enter Free-Biscet. org, a Website devoted to Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a physician whom Castro sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 for his pro-liberty activism. Castro had previously punished Dr. Biscet for his pro-life activism, incidentally. Pray for Dr. Biscet, who is in ill health and confined to a tiny cell, and for his wife Elsa Morejon, a pro-liberty activist herself.

It would be wonderful if every priest and bishop in L.A. and elsewhere who speaks out for illegals would plead for justice for the liberty-loving Cubans who seek haven in the USA.

Not Padre Serra's L.A. anymore

Cardinal Mahony should change the name of his Archdiocesan newspaper from The Tidings to The Blog Fodder. Every issue is a fertile source for comment.

The June 30 edition, for example, carries an article, "Native American Mass and confirmation called 'historic.'" Go to www.the-tidings.com to see it. Today, July 1, is the feast day of Blessed Padre Junipero Serra (click on this post's title), father of the Alta California missions. So The Blog Fodder -- I mean, The Tidings -- criticizes the missions instead of saluting Padre Serra.

The article is about a Mass on June 24 at Mision San Gabriel that included Confirmation for Carol Ramirez, who took Guadalupe Kateri as her Confirmation name. So far, so good.

But the Mass "seamlessly inculcated [sic] Native American songs, symbols and rituals throughout the liturgy." Also, a photo with the story shows a man lighting "sacred sage" outside the Mision before Mass, and the article portrays a slanted view of history.

The Tidings story says, "[Miss] Ramirez added that the historic liturgy was a way of honoring her ancestors who -- although they built the [M]ission churches -- were not allowed to incorporate their Native American ways into the Catholic Mass."

The story continues, "'Confirmation meant many things to me on that day,' said [Miss] Ramirez. 'I received the Holy Spirit within Catholic Church protocol as well as honoring Native American protocol. Both can see the harmony of these two worlds coming together to honor the Creator.'"

Don't look now, but in Mission days no one anywhere was "allowed to incorporate their...ways into the Catholic Mass." Everyone worshipped at, and loved, the Tridentine Mass in Latin.

Also don't look now, but the nine or 10 generations of descendants since Mission days have been most faithful Catholics overall and most grateful to Padre Serra for bringing Christ to them.

So, congratulations to Miss Ramirez on her Confirmation. But let us tell The Tidings to be fair in the future to the Missions and their faithful flocks and padres.

Let us thank Padre Serra in our prayers for all he has done for souls, and let us also ask him to intercede for our Archdiocese.