Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

The fell clutch of circumstance prevented my posting for the last two days, so excuse me for that.

Some of the comments about my most recent post here have turned into debates about (a) what, if anything, is "mainstream" Catholicism? and (b) the authenticity of certain of Our Lady's visits to her flock, including those to the children of Fatima.

One commenter used the term "the legend of Fatima," so it occurred to me to go to the Website of the World Apostolate of Fatima (click on this post's title). There, among many interesting things, I found the above oft-reproduced photo of Pope John Paul II, who, like his immediate predecessors in the Chair of Peter, thought Fatima no legend.

(I do not want to get into any debates here about the consecration or the secrets. I just want to reaffirm my belief in Our Lady of Fatima, in the little shepherds and in the message of Fatima.)

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for each of us and for all the Church, especially here in our Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is beset by many an ill and needs your intercession.

Bishop leads prayers for rain -- and it rains. Deo gratias!

The San Angelo Standard-Times today reports (click on this post's title) that Bishop Michael Pfeifer of the Diocese of San Angelo,Texas, on August 9 asked everyone in his drought-stricken area to pray on Sunday, August 27, for rain -- and more than 1-1/2 inches of rain fell that day!

Bishop Pfeifer wrote on August 9, '''As we humbly pray for this gift, we thank our God for the rains of the past, and we trust that as we ask our Heavenly Father for this gift in the name of Christ, that it will be granted,' the letter states...'We leave that in the hands of God.'''

Yes, we have intentions at Mass. But what intentions can you think of that Cardinal Mahony should ask everyone in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to pray for, at every Mass, every day?

To stop earthquakes, fires, floods and drought, for starters.

But how about a right to life intention at every Mass? We DESPERATELY need that. And our U.S. bishops a while back called for a pro-life intention at every Mass, believe it or not.

A prayer that every Catholic resist and refuse the proselytizers of all the false sects, and that all who have defected return to Holy Mother Church. We really need that one, too.

I leave the rest to your imagination. But please be charitable in your wording!

Calif. and U.S. bishops, and Levada and the Pope, need to rein in Niederauer

This post is about a real heart-breaker: Archbishop Niederauer's San Francisco Catholic Charities merrily getting ready to do its part in keelhauling many innocent little adoptive children to homosexuals. Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports (click on this post's title) all about it.

Why are Los Angeles's contributions to San Francisco -- Cardinal Levada and Archbishop Niederauer -- collaborators in turning the children over to "objectively disordered" adults? Why are these prelates not FIGHTING that? And why is the Church not stopping them?

The Chronicle article says Catholic Charities enlisted an avowedly homosexual San Francisco supervisor to provide advice on getting around the Church's order not to turn children over to homosexuals -- and now he gloats, blasphemously, "The Lord works in mysterious ways."

Listen to this: "'We were undeniably told to stop doing direct placements to same-sex couples,'' said [Catholic Charities] Executive Director Brian Cahill. 'But our new archbishop, George Niederauer, who had barely unpacked, gave us -- to his everlasting credit -- the opportunity to craft a solution that would be consistent with [C]hurch teaching and also faithful to our mission.'"

And this: "'There will be critics who say that kids will still be placed with same-sex couples,' said Cahill, who is planning 'an aggressive recruitment'' of potential adoptive parents among the archdiocese's parishes. 'That is true -- the largest potential number of adoptive parents in the foster care system are gay and lesbian couples. But this is what we are supposed to be doing. This is the work of the [C]hurch.'"

If you want to see where all this is leading, read the following article, also from today's Chronicle. The headline is, "When is it OK for boys to be girls, and girls to be boys?" and the subhead is, "Many kids want to look and act like the other sex..." It is about teachers encouraging "gender-variant behaviors" in innocent little kids. It starts out this way:

"Park Day School is throwing out gender boundaries. Teachers at the private Oakland elementary school have stopped asking the children to line up according to sex when walking to and from class. They now let boys play girls and girls play boys in skits. And there's a unisex bathroom. Admissions director Flo Hodes is even a little apologetic that she still balances classes by gender." The article is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/27/MNGL2KQ8H41.DTL&type=printable

This article does not even ask whether these children have homosexual parents who might be influencing them.
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The illustration above, from an old Austrian holy card, is from the Patron Saints Index at www.catholic-forum.com/saints

Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh might face jail. D.A. to decide what went down.

As we know, the feast day of Santa Rosa de Lima (1586-1617) was just this past week, August 23. As we also know, she is the patroness of the Diocese of Santa Rosa here in California.

Today, August 26, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (click on this post's title) that "the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office has recommended criminal charges be filed against Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh for failing to timely report evidence of [homo]sexual abuse by a Sonoma priest [Fr. Xavier Ochoa, 68] who has since fled the country." Now the Sonoma County D.A. must decide whether to bring the charges against Bishop Walsh, who has already said that if he were to be found guilty, he would accept whatever punishment would be meted out.

It has come to this.

Santa Rosa de Lima, ruega por nosotros! Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us!
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Incidentally, the beautiful image of Santa Rosa above is from the Patron Saints Index at www.catholic-forum.com/saints

The Tidings swipes at Cardinal McIntyre

Looks like Q here's recent remarks in memory of our Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, of happy memory, were much needed -- because, unbelieveably, some forces in our Archdiocese even now, nearly 40 years later, still resent him and attack him.

Case in point: This week's issue of Cardinal Mahony's mouthpiece The Tidings takes a heavy-handed swipe (click on this post's title) at Cardinal McIntyre. The Tidings takes a book about nuns and the hierarchy in the 60s, which mentions Cardinal McIntyre and the revolt of some Immaculate Heart sisters -- and assigns as the reviewer one Anita Caspary, who by sheer coincidence just happens to have been an IHM nemesis of Cardinal McIntyre.

Sorry, Tidings, but journalistic objectivity (admittedly a dated concept in this universal era of propagandize-your-readers "advocacy journalism") dictates that when you have a book about a dispute, any dispute, you assign the review to a third party, not to one of the disputants, and that you fully identify the role of any disputant you do let review a book about said dispute.

The book sounds wrong anyway; it seems to blame the vast and sudden exodus from the U.S. sisterhood in the 60s and 70's not on crazed radical feminism and Spirit of VatII-ism but on good prelates such as Cardinal McIntyre, who had the good of the sisters' souls in mind.

Anita Caspary's Tidings book review does accomplish one thing, though; it gives us a new liberal euphemism. She says, "more flexibility in the understanding of obedience." I think we all recognize that "flexibility" for what it is: Disobedience.

Start working for Prop 85 now!

Last year, the parental notification initiative (it was Prop 73) probably would have passed if it had not gotten swallowed up by the voters' rejection of all the initiatives because of their anger at the special election Gov. Schwarzie called.

But there is good news: A NEW parental notification initiative, Prop 85, the Parents' Right To Know & Child Protection Initiative, is on the ballot for this November.

Theer is no guarantee this much-needed measure will pass. We need to get everyone working for it. Now is our only chance to fight for it. Click on this post's title to find out how to help.

Importante: You can get Prop 85 materials in Spanish at: http://www.parentsright2know.org/toolsinspanish.html

The California Catholic Conference, our California bishops' lobbying arm in Sacramento, supports Prop 85. You can see what they say about it at: http://www.cacatholic.org/prop85.html

Be sure to tell all your family, relatives and friends about these websites and encourage them to join you in working for Prop 85. If this measure passes, you will have helped to: save many preborn babies' lives; foster family unity; safeguard parents' authority, role and rights; and protect many teenage girls from the evil over-age men who prey upon them.

Let's get to work!

"Keep the faith" but...

A Catholic in our Archdiocese reports seeing a bumper sticker the other day that reads,

Keep the Faith -- Change the Church
Voice of the Faithful

Talk about a Protestant formulation! Keep what faith? Faithful to what?

You cannot separate Faith and the Church.

How can anyone think Jesus founded His Church and sent the Holy Spirit upon Her, but His Church has still been wrong about practically everything, and for a whopping 2,000 years?

Sorry, Voice of the Faithful -- and the Word and Life group I posted about the other day -- but you sure sound faithful only to your own egos and your own dated, Sixties-leftover ideology. You say you are trying to change the Church; but you are trying to change the Faith. Please pray for the humility that we all need...and for willingness to listen to others (namely, Christ's Vicar on Earth and the Holy Spirit-inspired Magisterium of the Church).

Great advice for Angelenos and everyone

Here is some timeless counsel that is immediately and personally relevant to each of us in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in our neighbors Orange and San Diego, and everywhere else:

GAZE AT THE STAR!
O man, whoever you are, carried along by the tide of this world, tossed adrift among its storms and tempests, never take your eyes from the light of this star.

When the winds of temptation are unleashed upon you, when you are washed up on the reefs of adversity, fix your eyes on the star, and call to Mary!

If you are tossed on the waves of pride, ambition or jealousy, look at the star and cry out for Mary!

If anger or greed or the beguiling charms of the flesh rock the vessel of your soul, gaze at Mary.

When, racked by the enormity of your sins, ashamed that your conscience is sullied or in terror of the threat of judgment, you are swallowed up by the abyss of sorrow or plunged into the depths of despair, think of Mary.

When you are in danger, distress or desperate situations, call for Mary, cry out to Mary!

Oh, that her name may never leave your lips, may never leave your heart; never cease to imitate her life so that you may obtain the favor of her prayers (...)

And your own experience will show you the rightness of calling out that word: The name of the virgin was Mary!

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose feast is today, August 20; extract from his second homily “Super Missus.”

Our Lady of the Angels, pray for us and for our Archdiocese and our neighbors!

P.S. Click on this post's title to visit "A Moment with Mary," the source of this prayer.

Priests barred from being witch doctors

Here is a brief item from the Aug. 17, 2006, edition of USA Today:

"S. African priests barred from being witch doctors -- The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference warned priests to stop moonlighting as witch doctors, fortune tellers and traditional healers, and to rely on Christ for miracles. The Conference, which represents bishops in South Africa, Swaziland and Botswana, said on its website that some priests were using the traditonal African practice of calling on ancestors for healing. it said the practice 'borders on idolatry.'"

To read the bishops' pastoral statement, click on this post's title.

Now, if only certain Catholics in our Archdiocese of Los Angeles and around the USA would give up their atatchment to the occult, New Age, brujas, enneagrams, the four directions "prayer," pagan rites, "goddess" worship, superstitions, astrology, etc.!

We should invite the Missionaries...

The Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, the new pro-life religious order that Father Frank Pavone has founded, are headquartered in the Diocese of Amarillo (under the great Bishop John Yanta), but they plan to be a catalyst for the pro-life cause all over our country. Their priests and their Lay Associates plan pro-life visits around the USA.

Each of us should work in our parish, school and other Catholic institutions and groups to get the Missionaries invited into Los Angeles as often as possible so they can foster pro-life growth here.

Father Pavone's super Priests for Life website carries news about the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life: http://www.priestsforlife.org

Can you think of ways to help make the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life a welcome, valued and frequent guest here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?

Problems in Santa Barbara

Catholics in Santa Barbara up the coast say that the local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press, frequently runs blatantly anti-Christian op-eds on Sundays and that it sometimes runs specifically anti-Catholic op-eds and "news" stories on weekdays.

The paper, which some say they call the News-Oppress and the News-Suppress, was at it again today, August 17, in an article by Melissa Evans, "Catholics who question faith finding support in lay group" (click on this post's title; but to read the entire article you have to register).

The "lay group" is Word and Life, which, says the article, "has taken a hard look at Catholic feminist theology [sic], homosexuality, sex abuse, evolution, priest celibacy and religious violence --topics that have historically made the upper tiers of the Catholic hierarchy cringe."

The article goes on, "...there must also be a place for Catholics to question their faith in order to grow, say members of the group."

"'I can speak what is true for me,'" one member says.

Naturally, these phonies profess to love the Church -- as they savage Her and lie about Her.

Listen to this sentence from the story: "They weren't encouraged to study the Bible on their own -- that was something only priests did."

But the worst of the article is yet to come:

"Part of the problem with Catholic tradition is that for so many years, lay people have been forced to sit back and let leaders tell them what to believe, said the Rev. Virgil Cordano [O.F.M.], a regular speaker at Word and Life who has supported the cause from the beginning.

"'God speaks through everybody,' said the Rev. Cordano [ed. note: Jim Jones? David Koresh?], a Franciscan friar. 'We need more pluralism, more diversity of voices and different expressions of truth. There is a way of integrating many voices and still maintaining unity.'"

Elderly Father Virgil, as he is known, is the retired pastor of the Old Mission Santa Barbara, many of whose parishioners, I hear, are wealthy ultra-liberals.

The article says, "Word and Life has had speakers endorse ideas such as female ordination and acceptance of homosexuals."

The article quotes "the Rev. Anne Howard, an Episcopalian minister [aha!] who is a regular speaker." She says, "'...they have a real serious commitment to learning. They're willing to go beyond the accepted boundaries for lay education.'"

Notice that reporter Evans gives only one side, never asking orthodox Catholics to comment.

Also note the incredible egotism of Word and Life, and their complete lack of perspective. Nobody has read the Bible except them! Nobody is even educated except them! They know better than everyone else in the Church today and for the past 2,000 years!

Hmmm. What would Word and Life think if we "questioned" them so we could "grow?"

By the way, the e-mail address for letters to the editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press is:
voices@newspress.com

Bishop slams pro-abort "one party" ahead of "the November madness"

A member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy has ripped the Democrat party -- he did not actually name it, but he did not have to -- as "the party of death" and has charged that it "would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people."

As you might surmise, this member of the hierarchy is not Cardinal Roger "Photo Ops with Countless Democrats" Mahony of Los Angeles.

No, he is Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois. He blasted the anti-lifers in "Reaping the whirlwind of abortion," his column (click on this post's title) of August 10, 2006, in his diocesan newspaper, The Observer.

Saying he wanted "to touch on this matter before we get too close to the November madness," Bishop Doran wrote this about the "one party":

"The seven 'sacraments' of their secular culture are abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation. These things they unabashedly espouse, profess and promote. Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation."

Go get 'em, Your Excellency!

Bishop Doran also wrote, "The toleration of sexual perversions among inverts, widespread contraception, easy access to “no fault” divorce, the killing of the elderly, radical feminism, embryonic stem cell research — all of these things defile and debase our human nature and our human destiny."

The bishop continued, "It is the duty of every Catholic to support the work of the parish Pro-Life directors and commissions and to work for the extirpation from our society of all those who in any way foster or promote these things."

"...the extirpation from our society..."!!!

Bishop Doran concluded his column with this question:

"These unholy sacraments of our secular culture are the seeds of the destruction of our nation. Think for yourself: what nation that kills its young, perverts marriage, prevents new life, and destroys the family, kills those deemed useless, makes the war of the sexes into a real war, and manipulates the genetic basis of human nature, can long endure?"

Hmmm. Somehow this Successor of the Apostles has forgotten to plug the "broad range of issues" that many of his fellow U.S. bishops promote to the benefit of their Democrat pals.

How can two members of the same hierarchy, Bishop Doran and Cardinal Mahony, treat Democrat anti-lifers so differently? (This is a rhetorical question, but your answer would be interesting!)

Teach your children about St. Tarcisius -- and "the raging dogs"

Today, August 15, as we know, is the wonderful Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.

It is also the feast day of St. Tarcisius, the altar-boy martyr of third-century or late-fourth-century Rome who was beaten to death in the street as he safeguarded Eucharistic Jesus on his person from a mob of pagans -- "raging dogs," as fourth-century Pope St. Damasus called them in his poem about the youthful martyr.

Read about him here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/TARCISI.htm

Ole Q is very grateful to his Mom and Dad because when he was a rabanito (peanut), they made sure to teach him, unforgettably, about heroic young St. Tarcisius and his love for the Blessed Sacrament.

Be sure to teach your children, grandchildren and little brothers and sisters about St. Tarcisius, too, and what his life and martyrdom tell us about the Real Presence.

What would St. Tarcisius say today about Communion, pro-abortion politicians and our bishops? Joseph Starrs of the American Life League wrote about this very subject, and memorably so, on Aug. 20, 2004, at washingtondispatch.com (click on this post's title).

Mr. Starrs told about the martyrdom of St. Tarcisius. And he noted that earlier in Aug. 2004, three Southern bishops -- Archbishop John Donoghue of Atlanta, Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston and Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte -- had come together to publicly say not to give Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Wrote Mr. Starrs, "The last sentence in their statement summed up their reason perfectly: 'We undertake this action to safeguard the sacred dignity of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, to reassure the faithful, and to save sinners.'"

What was the title of Mr. Starrs' article? It was, "Will the Bishops Surrender to the Raging Dogs?"

Now he tells us

An AP story (click on this post's title) today (Aug. 13) reports that Bishop Daniel Walsh of Santa Rosa has now apologized for waiting three days this last spring to tell authorities that Fr. Xavier Ochoa, 68, had admitted to him that he had homosexually abused a 12-year-old altar boy.

Fr. Ochoa took advantage of the delay to decamp to Mexico, where he apparently remains. A warrant is out for him on 10 felony raps and one misdemeanor involving three boys.

In a one-page public statement, Bishop Walsh says he "made an error in judgment" and chose "caution" instead of "doing the right thing." He says he knows his apology could get him charged with a crime; a probe has been underway. State law requires medical, school and clergy personnel to report claims of sex abuse of children right away.

The bishop says, "If I am found guilty for not taking immediate action, I will accept whatever punishment is imposed."

There might be more to the story. Reports are circulating that veteran author-researcher Mrs. Randy Engel's forthcoming new 1,318-page book, The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, discusses Fr. Ochoa, his connection with the resigned Bishop Patrick Ziemann and what Fr. Ochoa might know about members of the clergy in California.

Our Lady, Queen of the Clergy and Help of Christians, pray for us!

Crossroads...is good news

Here is some good news about young pro-lifers from around the USA.

Crossroads is a pro-life group that sponsors groups of young people on pro-life walks across America every summer (click on this post's title). They have just finished their more than 10,000 miles (!!!) of pro-life walks in the scorching summer of 2006 -- and...

Today, Saturday, Aug. 12, in Washington, D.C., the Crossroads kids:

• attended 8:30 a.m. Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
• prayed and counseled outside the Planned Parenthood abortion site in downtown D.C.
• returned to the Basilica and walked from there to a rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol
• had a well-deserved 3 p.m. lunch at the Dubliner Restaurant, an Irish pub on Capitol Hill

Sounds like a well-spent Saturday, wouldn't you say, not to mention a well-spent summer? Visit Crossroads' Website, see what they do, and tell all your friends about them.

Have you ever encountered the Crossroads walkers or any similar kids? Please tell us all about it.

Pro-life is the future!

We can sum it all up in just five words

Much of what ails the U.S. Church, and how to fix it, we can say in just five words:

DEFEND PREBORN BABIES, NOT MOLESTERS

This was one of the many picket sign slogans carried by Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc., and their friends outside the mid-June meeting of the U.S. bishops here in L.A.

Just imagine the good that would result if every bishop stopped conducting business as usual and instead made it his PRIORITY to TRULY start ending abortion in his diocese.

Don't you think the Holy Spirit would rush in, and graces would flow, when we finally de-hardened our hearts and opened them up to help preborn babies and their in-trouble moms?

So let us pray:

"Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the Earth. Amen."

Father McBrien and the priesthood

Sadly, bloggers can always count on Father Richard McBrien's columns to provide grist for their mill, and this week's column (click on this post's title), as found in Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony's archdiocesan newspaper The Tidings, is no exception. It is about who gets canonized.

Father McBrien's complaint is one he has sounded before. He writes, "Very few married lay persons can readily identify with such Christian types" as "priests, bishops, male and female religious, and lay persons who either remained virgins and celibates during their lifetime or, if married, entered a convent or founded a religious order after the death of their spouse."

He concludes by saying, "These commonalities are surely significant, but they do not directly touch the experience of ordinary married Catholics with children and grandchildren."

It is a statement so far removed from the reality of Catholic life as to be astounding, to claim that priests, religious, holy lay people and founders of religious orders "do not directly touch the experience of ordinary married Catholics with children and grandchildren."

The very fabric and fiber of our lives are totally interwoven with the lives of the holy priests, sisters, brothers and lay people who have been there for us in all our joys and sorrows.

Father McBrien -- Priests, including yourself, do "directly touch the experience of ordinary married Catholics." Please read the poem,"The Beautiful Hands of a Priest." Yes, I know that cynics, and even some in the clergy, mock it as corny; but it tells the truth. Just read it and you will see and recall how very much priests have to do with every Catholic's life every day.

Just go to: http://www.ewtn.com/library/PRIESTS/POEMPRIE.TXT

The first two stanzas of "The Beautiful Hands of a Priest" say so much:

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek them when tasting life's woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone...

This one will make your hair stand on end

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported yesterday (click on this post's title) that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is being sued by the family of murder victim Dan O'Connell.

A Wisconsin judge ruled last October there is probable cause to believe that Fr. Ryan Erickson shot Mr. O'Connell and James Ellison on February 5, 2002 and had been molesting a teenage boy. Authorities think Fr. Erickson shot Mr. O'Connell for confronting him about the abuse and that Mr. Ellison was shot when he came to see what the shooting was about.

Fr. Erickson killed himself on December 19, 2004, some days after police questioned him.

The lawsuit says it wants accountability from the bishops. You can read the rest by checking the newspaper article. Sorry to report this tragic news story.

As we know, our Church needs our prayers for restoration. Oremus.

How bishops let pro-aborts off the hook

The following quote from the September 2004 San Francisco Faith (click on this post's titile) shows how then-Abp. William Levada came up with a broad rationale -- an absurdly narrow definition of "intent" -- to excuse Catholic pro-abortion politicians:

"But for Archbishop Levada, formal cooperation is a very narrow category, it seems. 'Can a politician be guilty of formal cooperation in evil?' Levada asked, to which he responded, yes, if he 'intends to promote the killing of innocent life.' [Emphasis in original.] Even a voter, Levada said, could be guilty of formal cooperation in evil if he has such an intention.

"Thus, it appears, for Levada, if a politician supports an abortion bill or a voter an abortion candidate for any reason except 'to promote the killing of innocent life,' he is not guilty of formal cooperation in evil. Hence the archbishop’s conclusion that such formal cooperation on the part of voters 'seems unlikely as a general rule;' and his answer, 'I hope not,' to the question, whether 'a Catholic politician who has voted for a law favoring abortion be judged to have this intention.'"

Ahem. If you vote for a law that PROMOTES aborting millions of babies, how can you or anyone else claim that you are NOT "intend[ing] to PROMOTE [emphasis added] the KILLING [emphasis added] of" those babies?

Tough luck, little preborn babies. You get DISMEMBERED -- and the politicians who vote for your dismemberment get rewarded with Holy Communion from Successors of the Apostles.

Dolores Huerta is pro-abortion

That Los Angeles Times news story on Monday, Aug. 7, about the California Labor Federation opposing this November's Proposition 85, the pro-life parental notification initiative, wrote about Dolores Huerta, 76, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) and a visitor, from time to time, to Cardinal Mahony's Cathedral.

Perhaps most recently she was at the Cathedral on April 5 of this year for Cardinal Mahony's Mass on his day of fasting for immigration "reform"; the AP photographed her at Mass and the Cardinal greeting her afterwards.

The trouble is, Dolores Huerta is a flaming pro-abortion agitator and lobbyist. In September 2004, said the Fresno Bee, she told the UFW convention, "I'm the mother of 11 children, and I'm Catholic. But [abortion] is the proper choice of every woman. It's not the government's decision to determine how many children we're going to have."

She is still at it. The Times reported Monday that she helped persuade the CLF to go pro-abortion by speaking in favor of it and by arranging for the Feminist Majority [sic] Foundation to send 12 interns to hand out abortion propaganda leaflets at the CLF convention hotel.

Incidentally, Mrs. Huerta goes places besides the Cathedral. The People's Weekly World of March 26, 2005, reported that she attended the Anne Burlak Timpson Labor Forum, an annual International Women’s Day event in Boston, on March 11, 2005. There, said the newspaper, "[Mrs.] Huerta received the 'Red Flame Award' for outstanding progressive [sic] leadership. The award’s name is based on the nickname of Anne Burlak Timpson, an outstanding labor organizer and leader of the CPUSA [Communist Party USA]."

After the California Labor Federation went pro-abortion, Cardinal Mahony's spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Los Angeles Times, "It doesn't preclude us from working together on those areas where we do share common concerns."

It is high time to stop having "common concerns" with Red Flamers and pro-aborts!

Tamberg: "Working together" with pro-aborts

A story by Joe Mathews in the Los Angeles Times on Monday, Aug. 7, "Labor Is Backing Abortion Rights [sic]," reports that the giant California Labor Federation has broken with U.S. organized labor tradition by taking a position on abortion.

That position is pro-abortion, as you might expect from left-wing union leaders; they are opposing Proposition 85, the pro-life parental notification initiative on this November's ballot. And on top of that, they are urging the national AFL-CIO to go pro-abortion.

What does Cardinal Mahony's spokesman Tod Tamberg have to do with any of this? Listen to the news story:

"Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which has worked with labor leaders on organizing and immigrant rights, called the vote 'disappointing' but added: 'It would be unrealistic to expect every group to believe the same way we do about every issue. It doesn't preclude us from working together on those areas where we do share common concerns.'"

Notice how Tamberg lumps aborting BABIES in with "every issue," even though Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II have called abortion the No. 1 issue for all Catholics.

Who would Cardinal Mahony, Tod Tamberg and the Archdiocese NOT work with, if they will collaborate buddy-buddy with hardened, cynical, political-hack advocates of legalized DISMEMBERMENT of BABIES by the MILLIONS?

Yes, ole Q knows it is nothing new for our bishops to collaborate with pro-aborts. For shame!

They will never change

"Liberals" always claim that "conservatives" resist change. But no one has ever resisted change so rigidly and relentlessly as Catholic "liberals" today and those of the last four decades.

Case in point:

The Catholic News Agency today notes (click on this post's title) that after an 18-month probe, the Special Panel of Clergy Misconduct, of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, has given the diocese an eight-page [is that all?] report that contains blockbuster admissions.

One of the admissions is [quoting the CNA article about the report] "that former Bishop Daniel Ryan engaged in improper sexual conduct — namely multiple homosexual relationships with male prostitutes and other priests or deacons — and used his office to conceal his activities. His conduct created a culture of secrecy in the diocese, discouraging faithful priests from coming forward with information."

Incidentally, the indefatigable watchdog group Roman Catholic Faithful has said that all along, after uncovering it and documenting it -- and has been savaged for it.

But the reason this post is titled, "They will never change" is that the panel, according to the CNA article, says "priests who have engaged in grave sexual misconduct, excluding misconduct with minors, but who have [here quoting the report] 'admitted their failings, have undergone treatment, and are actively engaged in aftercare may be considered to return to ministry.'”

The CNA article also says, "In the case of priests who engaged in misconduct, the panel said they may return to public ministry 'provided there is clear and convincing evidence that person has acknowledged wrongdoing, repented and is sufficiently in recovery so as not to present a threat to the spiritual, psychological, or physical well-being of himself or others.'”

Unbelievable. Catholic "liberals" will never change; they will never admit that such priests do not belong in the priesthood. To that extent, "liberal' Catholics are enablers of such priests.

Shocking horror: S.F. Archdiocese skirts adoption order

The San Francisco Chronicle reports (click on this post's title) that the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco says it will halt its full adoption services -- but will work with the state Dept. of Social Services and with the group California Kids Connection, giving referrals.

From the Chronicle: "Archbishop George Niederauer said that the new partnership would still allow children to be placed with gay and lesbian couples. 'That would be a decision that would be made by the adoption agency,' Niederauer said. 'We can no longer run an agency that makes those decisions...We feel that by withdrawing from direct placement, we would be consistent with the [C]hurch's teachings.'"

The Chronicle says the Archdiocese of San Francisco "will help post pictures of the children on the Internet for prospective parents to view."

The Church said in 2003 that turning children over to homosexuals is "gravely immoral" and "would actually mean doing violence to these children."

A Catholic News Agency article at http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7325
says:

"If that work ultimately leads to a match between a gay parent and a foster child, that is fine, said Brian Cahill, executive director of Catholic Charities of San Francisco. 'God loves them all,' he told the Boston Globe. Cahill said his understanding of Church teachings is that a Catholic agency cannot be 'directly involved' in the placement of a child in a same-sex household.

"Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco said he thought the new arrangement was a form of potential 'remote' cooperation that does not conflict with Catholic moral teaching, reported the newspaper. He told the Globe that he consulted his predecessor, Cardinal William Levada, on the plan. Cardinal Levada is now the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

(I have not yet found the Globe article that the Catholic News Agency story refers to.)

This is a shocking horror -- the Church helping turn over innocent tots to homosexuals. "Remote," my eye!

The Catholic thing for the Archdiocese to do would be to continue, not end, its adoption services and to flatly refuse to turn over children to homosexuals or to facilitate in the slightest any turning them over to homosexuals. That might well result in persecution of the Church -- but so what, when what is at stake is the children's physical, moral, spiritual and eternal safety?

St. John Vianney, pray for us!

Yours truly did not post yesterday, August 4, the feast day of St. John Vianney, the Cure d'Ars, the patron saint of parish priests. Let us salute him and invoke his intercession every day.

Be sure to visit the site of the Sanctuary in Ars, at: http://arsnet.org The site is in French, but much of the info. is clear and the illustrations are beautiful.

Also, click on this post's title for a prayer group site whose resources include a Rosary, litany and novena for priests.

Let us pray for every priest and member of the hierarchy we know and have ever known, all throughout our lives. May God bring every one of them, and us, to Heaven. Amen.

These Catholics got through to Rome

Thanks to friend Jared for sending a link (click on this post's title) to a comment by "bear06," who says Catholics in his diocese got the attention, in a big way, of many Vatican officials, including the future Pope Benedict XVI himself, by sending a multimedia CD of all their documentation, including videos of multiple abuses at Masses, "awful diocesan letters," etc.

"Bear06" even says Cardinal Ratzinger said that the CD was the biggest thing to hit Rome and that the makers of it should spread word of this method to others.

Update on the lawsuits -- L.A., San Diego

The San Diego Union-Tribune did an update the other day (click on this post's title) on the status of the many sex abuse lawsuits pending against the Diocese of San Diego and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Here is an excerpt:

"A Union-Tribune accounting of the San Diego diocese's properties placed tax-assessed value at more than $500 million. 'And the appraised/market value is two to three times that,' said Irwin Zalkin, an attorney representing many of the San Diego plaintiffs. 'Couple that with their insurance policies and there are ample funds to settle these suits without affecting schools or parishes.'"

Given that most of the lawsuits involve homosexual crimes, we can formulate a lesson that many U.S. bishops, including those in California, refuse to admit: Admitting homosexuals to seminaries and ordaining them as priests is expensive, because many commit crimes.

You would think this would go without saying, but some people still dispute it.

No one has a right to the Sacrament of Holy Orders or to the religious life. God calls; He says, You did not choose Me, I chose you. Is it really likely that God calls to His priesthood and the religious life those who have, as the Church calls them, disordered inclinations?

Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula!

Our Lady of the Angels, pray for us and for our Archdiocese, on your feast day and always!

The beautiful William Bougereau painting above is found at many sites on the Web.

The following paragraph is from an article by Diana Serra Cary in The Catholic Hearth of July-August 1994:

"In 1769, the Spanish expedition to Upper California, under the command of Gaspar de Portola, arrived at a great plain, well watered by a fine river, on the second of August of that year. For this reason the river was given the name of the Rio Porciuncula (the Spanish spelling). Later, on September 4, 1781, when some forty-eight soldiers and settlers founded a town on this one-time camping site, they gave it the name El Puebla de Nuestra Senora, la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels of the River of Portiuncula)."

(I should add that, as we know, there are various versions of L.A.'s actual founding name.)

On this great feast day, though, we can learn about the feast (click on this post's title) and we can pray this prayer:

Salutation to the Blessed Virgin
( by Saint Francis of Assisi )
Hail Holy Lady, most holy Queen,
Mary, Mother of God.
Chosen by the Father in Heaven,
consecrated by Him.
With His most beloved Son
and Holy Spirit Comforter,
On you descended and still remains
fullness of grace
And every good.

Hail, His palace and His robe,
Mary, Mother of God.
Hail, His handmaid lowly and pure,
Loving servant of the Lord.
Hail, holy virtues given by God
to all the faithful in the world,
So that no longer we faithless be,
And may become the
servants of the Lord. AMEN.

We can also take this opportunity to remind ourselves anew to always pray to, thank and salute our God-given Guardian Angel and to always pray the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.

Movie ratings protests work

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which assigns Hollywood's movie ratings, has issued a statement denying that it ever gave a PG rating to a movie for having an overt Christian message. That statement is in response to a huge protest by the public.

Click on this post's title to check out an article about this issue. After a report of ratings discrimination, many supporters of several groups e-mailed the MPAA in protest. For example, the "American Family Association Action Alert" of Aug. 2 says, "...we asked our supporters to email the Motion Picture Association of America to drop their practice of rating PG any movie which had an evangelical Christian message. A total of 143,184 of you did...Another victory!"

If e-mails can get moviemakers' attention, imagine how much more good would result if a certain Cardinal in Los Angeles would get together with his fellow bishops and reinstate the Legion of Decency and a motion picture production code.

From the early 1930s to the early 1960s, under the threat of boycott by Catholics, moviemakers did not make indecent movies. They obeyed the Hayes Code, which was prompted by Pope Pius XI and our U.S. bishops and which specified production standards. Simultaneously, millions of Catholics enlisted in the Legion of Decency and promised to boycott indecent films. Hollywood listened -- and complied!

The U.S. bishops weakened in the mid-1960s and lost the will to keep the Code and the Legion going. A sewage spill of evil movies erupted almost immediately and still continues.

In 1992, moviemakers seemed ready to relent. But Cardinal Mahony said he did not want a production code. Incredibly, he said we should rely on moviemakers' "conscience."

We need to remind the Cardinal that it is long past time for him to restore the movie code and the Legion of Decency. No wonder the moviemakers make so many anti-Catholic, sacrilegious movies -- they see the Church as toothless and unwilling to use its power.

The floating "ordination"

That water-borne "ordination" of women did take place on Monday, the Philadelphia Inquirer (not to be confused with the National Enquirer) reported (click on this post's title) today.

Every cloud has a silver lining, though. Most of the women are in their 50's and 60's. They are a movement of the past. This quote from the Inquirer article is encouraging:

"'I used to think I'd see it [ordination of women] in my lifetime. Thirty years ago, the [C]hurch was much more fluid, much more open to change,' said E. Ann Matter, professor of religious studies and associate dean for arts and letters of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. 'There's been a backing away from that concept and more insistence on the tradition and the eternity of the [C]hurch.'"

Amen, sister!

We should note, though, that Cardinal Mahony's annual Religious Education Congress (the REC, as in "wreck") has featured speakers who are on record as favoring the "ordination" of women. Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, the Cardinal's REC could use, in Prof. Matter's words, "more insistence on the tradition and the eternity of the Church."