More thoughts on Archbishop Burke and St. Louis

Just a couple of more thoughts about the big fundraising dinner in St. Louis last Saturday night, the one at which pro-abortion entertainers mocked Archbishop Burke for not attending.

How could any Catholic sit there in the audience and not stand up and rebuke the finks for mocking the Archbishop?

The answer is that no Catholic worth the name would be in the audience in the first place.

The answer also is that many in the audience have been anti-life in their personal lives, by using contraceptives, getting sterilized and even being complicit in aborting babies.

The answer also is that many other Catholics, including everyone from cardinals on down, have undercut good Catholic pro-life shepherds such as Archbishop Burke by consorting with pro-aborts themselves and otherwise compromising with the anti-life forces, the culture of death.

There are more answers, but that is enough for starters.

I don't know about you, but I would sure like to hear Cardinal Mahony loudly and clearly come to the defense of Archbishop Burke. The rest of the US bishops should do the same. That would help teach American Catholics what is right.

No, I do not expect that to happen. But it ought to.

A reminder: All Archbishop Burke did was, away back in February, ask the foundation to get a different star for the fundraiser. They refused to; the fault is theirs, not his.

Some archbishops are more forthright than others

Kudos to Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis for refusing to attend the Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center Foundation's fundraiser last night (click on this post's title) that headlined pop singer Sheryl Crow, a prominent pro-abort who was raised in Missouri.

The archbishop also resigned from the foundation's board after the members defied his request that they disinvite Miss Crow.

Archbishop Burke said last week, "It's very painful for me, but I have to answer to God for the responsibility I have as archbishop. A Catholic institution featuring a performer who promotes moral evil gives the impression that the Church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching."

The archbishop added that the foundation's featuring Miss Crow is "an affront to the identity and mission of the medical center, dedicated as it is to the service of life and Christ's healing mission."

At the event last night, emcee Bob Costas, comedian Billy Crystal and Sheryl Crow all mocked Archbishop Burke for not attending. Costas "joked" that one of the singer's reasons for being at the event was "to get me excommunicated."

Okay, Costas, you asked for it; whoever is your bishop, he should call you in and explain to you what is at stake in compromising with evil.

As you can imagine, the "news" media, who function as a powerful public relations arm of the powerful abortion and homosexual lobbies, have lyingly portrayed Archbishop Burke as refusing to help sick children, when in fact he is DEFENDING children -- those targeted for abortion.

Sheryl Crow has had breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy in early 2006 and seven weeks of radiation. So we should pray for her and for all cancer survivors.

But she is also a pro-abort, and she did a campaign spot that helped pass a terrible pro-cloning initiative in Missouri last fall. If she wants to heal and save children, obviously she should include the 3,400 American children who receive the death penalty by abortion every day.

Please tell Archbishop Burke you are proud of him. Go to http://www.archstl.org and click on "contact the archdiocese" and then fill out your message there.

Cardinal Mahony, please follow Archbishop Raymond Burke's great example and stop compromising the Church's teaching by appearing in public with pro-aborts.

Jack Valenti (1921-2007), R.I.P.

As you probably have heard, Jack Valenti, the retired head of the Motion Picture Association of America, died yesterday at age 85.

He was best known for getting Hollywood to bypass the Catholic-inspired Hays Office Production Code, which for three decades had protected the American public by preventing moviemakers from putting sadism, nudity, filth, hatred of God, etc., in their movies.

At his urging, moviemakers in 1968 adopted a "rating" system that let them make all the evil slime they wanted but sugarcoat it with "ratings" that supposedly informed the public.

The New York Times obituary of him (click on this post's title) quotes him: "I was determined to free the screen from anything like the Hays Code. But I also emphasized that freedom demanded responsibility."

Anyone even remotely familiar with the fountain of filth and slime in movies since then knows that moviemakers have been just the opposite of responsible.

What is more, the ratings have undergone constant "ratings creep" downward, so that more and more evil is allowed in each category, thus deceiving the unwary in the public about the content.

Jack Valenti presided over all this and steadfastly defended the ratings system despite all the filth, nudity, sadism, hatred of Catholicism and of all religion, and other evils it has permitted.

How many billions of mortal sins have people committed during and after watching the thousands of vile, evil movies that Jack Valenti let be made?

So we should pray for the repose of Jack Valenti's soul. We should also, of course, pray for solace and every consolation for his wife and children.

Will Cardinal Roger Mahony issue a statement praising Jack Valenti? Will the Cardinal hold his funeral in the Cathedral?

Will the Cardinal ever denounce movie slime and move to protect his flock, and all America and the entire world, by demanding reinstatement of a movie Production Code? (Tragically, this is only a rhetorical question.)

Correction: Mexico bishops said pro-abort pols incur excommunication as soon as the first baby is killed

An article I just read somewhere (sorry, I do not have the link) has clarified what the bishops of Mexico, presumably including Archbishop Aguirre of Acapulco, said about excommunication and the pro-abortion politicians:

The bishops said the politicians of Mexico City will incur automatic excommunicati0n as soon as the first baby is aborted as a result of their vote to legalize the killings.

Sorry my last post relied on what the New York Times reported incorrectly about Archbishop Aguirre.

What I wished Cardinal Mahony would say still applies, that he would tell all the pro-abortion politicians in this Archdiocese that they are excommunicated because they are complicit directly in the abortions of babies by the hundreds of thousands.

Pro-abort pols excommunicate selves, says Acapulco archbishop

Today's New York Times reports (click on this post's title) on the Mexico City assembly's "legalization" of aborting babies through their first three months in the womb. The story notes that Archbishop Felipe Aguirre Franco of Acapulco said the day before the vote that all who would vote to kill babies would thereby automatically excommunicate themselves.

Don't you think Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles should be as clear as Archbishop Aguirre of Acapulco? They both teach the same Catholic doctrine, don't they? Or do they?

Your Eminence, please use the "E" word -- "Excommunicate." Tell your many pro-abortion Catholic politicians, "You automatically excommunicate yourselves by voting pro-death."

By the way, pro-lifers in Mexico say they will challenge the pro-abortion vote by arguing that the Mexican constitution's prohibition of the death penalty protects unborn babies' right to life.

Mexico's pro-life Catholic Lawyers group also says the assembly violated its own laws and Mexico's constitution "by ignoring a petition for a referendum on the issue."

Cardinal Mahony, we're waiting for you to be as forthright as Archbishop Aguirre. We can't hear you yet...

Mexico City reverts to human sacrifice

As expected, the legislative assembly in Mexico City today "legalized" aborting babies, 46-19 (click on this post's title for the AP story). The next step is for it to be signed into "law."

From the AP story: "'Decriminalizing abortion is a historic triumph, a triumph of the left,' said city legislator Jorge Diaz Cuervo, a social democrat who voted for the bill. 'Today, there is a new atmosphere in this city. It is the atmosphere of freedom.'"

Sorry, Sr. Diaz, but the atmosphere is not of freedom but of blood and death. You and your left-wing buddies are reinstituting human sacrifice in Mexico after a hiatus of nearly 500 years.

These leftists are reverting to worship of the Aztec "god" Huitzilopochtli, the drinker of blood and eater of hearts, to whom so many people were sacrificed through the centuries. "All the gods of the pagans are demons" [or "things of nought"], the Psalmist tells us.

La Llorona, the Weeping Woman who murders her children, will be walking in the night again, crying, "Ay, mis hijos!" ("O, my children!") and "Donde estan mis hijos?" ("Where are my children?").

The pro-aborts should listen to Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Yesterday (April 23) he pointed out the truth: That abortion mills are "slaughterhouses of human beings." You can read about it at:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/0742401.html

Time for the Catholics of Mexico City, all Mexico and everywhere to rise up and resist -- to fill the streets and plazas and say, "No more business as usual until you end this injustice."

Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, ruega por nosotros! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Pro-Life Mass for Mexico City at La Placita Church, 7 p.m. Monday

We all need to come to La Placita Church downtown this Monday night, April 23, at 7 p.m., for a pro-life Mass for the intention of preserving the right to life in Mexico City and all Mexico.

Mexico City's leftist-controlled legislative assembly is to vote this Tuesday on whether to pervert the law in order to permit aborting babies through their first three months in the womb.

If the pro-aborts win the vote on Tuesday, pro-lifers will keep on fighting, of course.

La Placita Church, the historic Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, is downtown opposite Olvera Street, at 535 North Main Street. The pro-life Mass will be in Spanish, with some English during the sermon; but that should be no barrier to English-speakers.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

The Tidings runs another "women's ordination" column

I do not find it in the online edition (click on this post's title) of this week's (April 20) issue of the Tidings, but page 16 of the print edition carries a column by one Phyllis Zagano, "Is the [P]ope moving toward women's ordination?"

She claims to think isolated words of Pope Benedict suggest he is leaning toward having deaconesses.

She uses a typically false liberal line: "As Catholicism is increasingly bereft of priests..."

Guess she's never heard of the orthodox parishes, dioceses and whole countries in which priestly vocations are flourishing.

The Tidings strikes again! But what else is new?

Bishop Brom of San Diego testifies for six hours

Today's Los Angeles Times reports (click on this post's title) on Bishop Robert H. Brom's six hours of testimony yesterday in bankruptcy court in San Diego.

As with other similar stories, this one is not pretty reading.

A U.S. trustee, a dozen lawyers and seven victims faced off against the bishop and his officials and lawyers.

At issue is the accuracy of three different versions of the value of its assets that the Diocese of San Diego has supplied since last summer. Also at issue is the nature of diocesan ownership arrangements of parishes and other properties.

The mess continues, and as we know, it is expensive, not just in money but in terms of scandal.

Limbo is now in limbo

Please accept Ol' Q's apologies for not posting for several days. Yes, you guessed it -- I did my income tax at the last minute; only it took a lot longer than a minute, that is for sure. Then after that, some other things got in the way of my posting, too.

Back to blogger business, now, though!

"Limbo lower now," ran some of the lyrics of an old Sixties song, "The Limbo Rock."

Limbo is lower now, says Cardinal William Levada's International Theological Commission in a new (today, April 20) document, "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised." (Sorry, I do not have a link yet.)

We should all tell everybody: The document is NOT infallible, and it does NOT say anything definitively. What it does say is this:

"The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to HOPE that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation." [emphasis added]

The Catholic News Service story (sorry, I don't have a link) about the new document points out that the commission says people should not use the new theological approach to "negate the necessity of baptism, nor to delay the conferral of the sacrament."

Significantly, the commission admits that its "hopefulness" about unbaptized babies is not the same as "certainty" about them: "It must be clearly acknowledged that the church does NOT have sure knowledge about the salvation of unbaptized infants who die." [emphasis added]

In the following essay from late 2005, a priest points out that the then-forthcoming document could not be infallible and could lead people to put off or omit Baptism altogether for their babies: http://www.seattlecatholic.com/m051203.html

Good news about our Vietnamese priests

Today's L.A. Times reports (click on this post's title) that 25 of the 94 students at what is left of St. John's Seminary in Camarillo are Vietnamese; that "almost 28%" of 181 diocesan priests in the Diocese of Orange are Asian, most of them Vietnamese; and that in the USA overall, 12% of Catholic seminary students are Asian.

The reporters largely attribute these vocations to families' belief that the priesthood is a prestigious profession. The reporters do not seem to really understand that the priesthood is a calling, and the role that grace, faith and prayer play in young Catholics' response to the call.

But anyway, let us pray for our Vietnamese priests and seminarians, and let us thank God for them.

Most of these priests and seminarians probably are anti-Communist, thanks to their own or their family's experience with persecution of the Faith by the Vietnamese Communists. So let us pray that they will always remind their flocks to pray for our fellow Catholics around the world who endure persecution for Jesus' sake.

Let us also pray that they will be spared the belief among some in our U.S. Church that homosexuality -- inclination to sodomy -- is "giftedness."

Let us also pray they will see the immense need for them to be actively pro-life, to do their utmost to stop abortions in their parishes and to save babies and help their moms.

And let us pray that our Vietnamese priests and seminarians will have a spirit of ready obedience should Pope Benedict open up the Tridentine Mass for wide use.

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday, the wonderful day on which Jesus Himself promised St. Faustina Kowalska in the 1930's that the floodgates of His mercy would be open.

"Let no soul fear to approach Me, though its sins be as scarlet," said Jesus.

Jesus promised an incredible treasure -- total remission of sin and of punishment! -- to those who would go to Confession and receive Holy Communon on that day. (The Church allows the Confession to be a little before or after the Feast.)

Time for us all to seek Divine Mercy and to become more merciful ourselves -- doing, as Jesus commanded, deeds of mercy that arise from love of Him.

And we should spread this devotion so everyone can learn of it.

Click on this post's title for a good, thorough resource on Divine Mercy, the Chaplet, the Feast, etc.

Some words to live by

This Sunday, April 15, is the 60th anniversary of the day that Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson became the first black American to play in baseball's Major Leagues since the late 19th century.

Here is a great quote from him -- from a letter he wrote to a young fan in September 1957, as reported in a story by Bob Nightengale in yesterday's (April 13) USA Today:

"I learned a long time ago that a person must be true to himself if he is to succeed. He must be willing to stand by his principles even at the possible loss of prestige. He must first learn to live with himself before he can hope to live with others."

Good words, no? for all orthodox Catholics and pro-lifers to remember and to put into practice.

Bulletin: Pope today summoned all heads of the Curia

Phil Lawler of Catholic World News reports that today Pope Benedict XVI summoned the heads of the Roman Curia for a meeting.

Mr. Lawler says, "Something is happening."

The Catholic World News web site is: http://www.cwnews.com

L.A. Times says Cardinal's clout is diminishing

A front-page, above-the-fold article in today's L.A. Times is headlined, "Mahony's influence is dwindling in L.A."

That Times story, by the way, sits right next to a big story, photo and all, that glorifies Catholic pro-abortion politician Nancy Pelosi.

Basically, the article about the Cardinal says the clergy abuse and hierarchy-enabling-and-coverup scandal has eroded his moral authority and his political power, and so has the rise of Latino politicians to such political heights they think they no longer need his help.

The story cites Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's public defiance of the Church on the death-by-doctor pending legislation AB374 -- as if Catholic politicians defying the Church on the right to life is something new! We have news for the Times about that.

The article is really an essay, not a news story with facts. It does have a photo of Cardinal Mahony beaming and applauding beside Catholic pro-abortion politician Antonio Villaraigosa as he gesticulates exuberantly during his inauguration as L.A.'s mayor.

That photo captures the real reason for loss of clout by the Cardinal: He has backed the Catholic anti-life politicians, worked with them and done them many favors even as they have defied him for decades to push the killings of millions of California babies -- and, now, to push euthanasia.

Catholic bishops who do that sell their birthright for a mess of pottage; and then we hear, in someone's phrase, the unmistakable flapping sound of chickens coming home to roost.

New motu proprio due May 5?

Third-hand reports on the Net repeat a rumor that Pope Benedict XVI has told author Alice von Hildebrand that he will issue his new motu proprio on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on May 5, the Feast of Pope St. Pius V (pictured above; image from www.dailycatholic.org ).

That great and holy Pontiff, who reigned 1566-1572, standardized the Roman Breviary and the Mass in his bull or apostolic constitution of July 14, 1570, Quo Primum. You can read it at:

http://www.dailycatholic.org/quoprimu.htm (Latin original, plus English translation)

Will Pope Benedict's rumored new document really "free up" priests to say the Tridentine Latin Mass at will, or will it place conditions, such as making the faithful petition for it?

And whatever it says, will the American hierarchy place obstacles in the way?

By the way, Pope Benedict has already recommended that Mass in international gatherings be said in Latin and that Gregorian chant be sung if possible.

Hmmm -- is Cardinal Mahony's Religious Education Congress an international gathering? Wouldn't it be something to see next year's REC Masses all in the Tridentine Latin Rite, with chant and with lawful liturgical rubrics and vessels! If you see the Cardinal, ask him for that.

Fabian Nunez has a Skelton in his closet

Yesterday, April 9, Easter Monday, L.A. Times columnist George Skelton followed up his Holy Thursday anti-Catholic, pro-euthanasia column (click on this post's title) with another one (sorry I don't have the link).

In his Holy Thursday column, Skelton whined that Cardinal Mahony had said in a sermon that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, by co-sponsoring the death-by-doctor measure AB374, had failed to grasp the Culture of Life and had got "into this other direction, the culture of death."

Skelton, seemingly not knowing that Pope John Paul II used those terms frequently, quoted Nunez as calling the Cardinal's remarks "extreme and dogmatic."

Skelton, Nunez and their ilk do not want Catholic bishops and priests interfering with their culture of death juggernaut by proclaiming Catholic truth.

Skelton said Nunez "couldn't tell whether the cardinal 'believes I should be kicked out of the church.'" Nunez added, "'I'm not going to say I'm leaving the [C]hurch today or tomorrow, but I've got to reflect on all of this...I'm not a regular Sunday churchgoer, but I am Catholic...It's a serious accusation he's making of [sic] me.'"

In his follow-up pro-euthanasia, anti-Catholic column yesterday, Skelton acknowledged that the term "culture of death" is "[C]hurch lingo." But he called it "coarse rhetoric."

Skelton went on to blast our Catholic doctrine that death-by-doctor "assisted suicide" and other types of euthanasia are, as Cardinal Mahony has said, "against God's law and God's plan."

Everybody else in the Church, all of us, clergy, consecrated religious and lay, had better start defending our Church and everyone's God-given right to life.

We each of us need to become bold, speak up louder and louder and defy Nunez and his fellow anti-life politicians and their sycophants in the "news" media, such as Skelton.

Assembly Dems post Skelton's anti-Catholic column!

Did you see L.A. Times columnist George Skelton's ugly attack of April 5, Holy Thursday, on Cardinal Mahony, our Church itself and Catholic pro-life doctrine against euthanasia?

Guess what? The Democrats in our California State Assembly have posted that heinous anti-Catholic column on their official state government web site (click on this post's title).

That is outright government persecution of you and me and our Holy Faith. This is an outrage.

But will this Democrat anti-Catholic, anti-life atrocity teach our hierarchy and clergy anything?

After all, the majority of them have always voted Democrat.

But maybe now some of them will follow the lead of Monsignor John Moretta of Resurrection Parish in Boyle Heights ("El Boy-le," many people call that city).

Skelton's April 5 column slammed Monsignor Moretta for talking back to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. After some of his parishioners confronted Nunez in a restaurant over his co-sponsorship of the death-by-doctor bill AB374, the monsignor wrote Nunez, "You are attaching your name forever to death," and called it "a bunch of bull" to object "separation of church and state" when the Church speaks in defense of everyone's right to life.

Our Democrat-loving hierarchy and clergy should drop their blinders and admit that when they cooperate with, and let themselves be used by, the anti-Catholic, anti-life politicians, this is the reward they get: A kick in the teeth, and persecution of their flock.

Jury finds pro-life Fr. Norman Weslin not guilty

The news media definitely are not trumpeting it, but there is great pro-life news.

A jury in federal court in Omaha has found Father Norman Weslin, founder of the Lambs of Christ, not guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Father Weslin's alleged "federal crime" was that last April he prayed the Rosary in a security anteroom of the abortion business of the notorious LeRoy Carhart and, while speaking through a mail slot to the waiting room, urged abortion customers inside to let their babies live.

Had he been convicted, Father Weslin could have gotten 18 months in federal prison, three years of probation and a fine of $25,000.

Excellent idea for Cardinal Mahony: Invite Father Norman Weslin to be the keynote speaker at your 2008 Religious Education Congress, so he can inspire our clergy to pro-life activism.

Please pray for Fr. Norman Weslin, on trial today

We here in Los Angeles need to pray hard and long for elderly pro-life Father Norman Weslin, a Catholic priest of true holiness and valor, founder of Lambs of Christ.

It is going around on the Internet that he is on trial today, Holy Thursday, in federal court in Omaha, under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), for simply praying the Rosary at an abortion office and asking the moms to save their babies.

To any seamy garment type who clucks, "Well, if you disobey the law you've got to accept the consequences," may I remind you that, as the Church has held from ancient times right up to now, and as Pope John XXIII wrote in his encyclical letter Pacem in Terris, AN UNJUST LAW IS NO LAW AT ALL -- and that Pope John Paul II echoed that many times and said we in fact have an obligation not to obey unjust laws.

Obviously Father Weslin is undergoing a Passion on this Holy Thursday, when Jesus was betrayed, captured and put on trial.

As for observing the "law," well, police in the past savagely beat up Father Weslin at a baby-saving rescue.

Would that every Catholic priest and bishop, and every one of us, was like Father Weslin.

You can read about heroic Father Norman Weslin at this link (and an excerpt is below):
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3af18c9525b6.htm

...Obeying a Higher Court

Father Norman U. Weslin, O.S. is a Missionary Pro-Life Roman Catholic priest. After losing his wife, Mary Lou, in a tragic automobile accident, Father met with his two adopted children and they agreed to turn their Colorado home into The Mary Weslin Home for Pregnant, Unwed Mothers which has served hundreds of pregnant women and their children.

Father entered the seminary in 1982 and was ordained in Puerto Rico by Bishop Juan Fremiot Torres in 1986. He was assigned by Cardinal O’Connor to serve St. Christopher’s Church, Staten Island and later joined Mother Teresa and her priests in the Bronx serving the poor and saying Holy Mass, hearing confessions and giving conferences to Mother Teresa’s sisters using St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary and Blessed Josepha Mendendez’ The Way of Divine Love.

Father has been arrested 60-70 times and spent many months in jail – his crime – placing his body between the abortionist and the unborn American child -- trying to stop the killing of Jesus Christ’s babies -- while they are helpless and dependent on their mothers’ love and their father’s protection -- and our country’s promise to protect their Right to Life.

It would seem a perfectly legitimate behavior given the fact that Father Weslin had put his life on the line for our defense as a 20-year veteran in the U.S. Army and a Lt. Colonel, in charge of New York’s Nuclear Defense. He, like all our veterans, has been willing to die for our posterity. Defending American lives was his career. As a Catholic Priest, defending Jesus Christ’s newly formed infants is his vocation!

At the height of The Rescue Movement, Father and his National Lambs of Christ joined tens of thousands of American citizens and religious leaders who were arrested at over 6000 killing center sites and imprisoned in a Civil Rights Movement for the Unborn Child. These Pro-Lifers were working under the assumption that non-violent, civil disobedience was needed as a matter of conscience to raise public awareness, sympathy and action to stop a nation, blessed by God, from killing its future.

These Pro-Life Witnesses knew that a nine-man Supreme Court had no authority to create an unjust and immoral law that superceded God’s Law and our own Declaration of Independence. They were following in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

However, Gandhi’s and King’s movements were covered openly by the press and their witness won many supporters in the media. The secular, liberal media never accepted the goals of the United States Rescue Movement and therefore created a black-out of news about these actions.

Not only did they purposely not report on these peaceful demonstrations – they went out of their way to report on the confrontational aspects when the abortion industry developed training manuals for pro-death supporters to physically and verbally abuse people kneeling in prayer...

Nunez spokesman defies and lies about the Church

In the wake (pun intended) of Cardinal Mahony's slam last Sunday at Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez for backing the death-by-doctor "assisted suicide" bill AB 374, Nunez's spokesman, Steve Maviglio, has defied our Church and lied about Her.

Maviglio said that while the speaker "respects the Cardinal’s view, this is another issue of individual choice where the overwhelming majority of Catholics have a different perspective than [sic] the official position of the Church. Personal liberty and dignity are important values to Californians, regardless of their religious beliefs."

Can you count the number of lies in those few words of Maviglio?

1. What Cardinal Mahony said was not "the Cardinal's view," it is Catholic doctrine.

2. Opting for suicide is a sin, not a matter of "choice" -- and in any case, "assisted suicide," as Kevorkian has shown, is more likely to become murder, not suicide.

3. No "overwhelming majority" of Catholics backs euthanasia.

4. Death by doctor is going to eliminate, not respect, the "personal liberty and dignity" of millions of us. Look what they did to Catholic housewife Terri Schiavo two years ago.

Maviglio is experienced at working for anti-life Catholics. He used to be Press Secretary for Governor Gray Davis and was the Executive Director of the House Democratic Caucus under Congressman Vic Fazio (D-Calif.).

News reports say Cardinal Mahony says he and Nunez had a meeting about AB374. When that was, the reports do not say.

Monsignor Royale Vadakin has sent out an announcement that the Cardinal's pro-life homily can be heard at http://www.la-archdiocese.org

Here are more leaders for the Cardinal to blast

Have you seen today's issue of the online California Catholic Daily? One article (click on this post's title) says that last Friday, March 30, Planned Parenthood "honored" our mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, with a "Planned Parenthood Hero Award" and "honored" far-left agitator Dolores Huerta with a "Margaret Sanger Award."

Planned Parenthood, whose own figures show that its abortuaries around our Nation abort 250,000 American infants every year, saluted Villaraigosa because last year he loyally did its bidding by recording a message in Spanish that helped defeat pro-life Proposition 85.

Now that Cardinal Mahony has seen fit to rip Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez by name, it is high time for him to do the same to Villaraigosa and Mrs. Huerta.

But that chastisement by itself would do little good unless the Cardinal backed it up by action.

Cardinal Mahony should also take action -- by disinviting these and all the many pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia Catholic politicians and other public figures from any and every Catholic function, church, parish, school and other institution throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The Cardinal should also tell them they cannot receive Communion until they publicly repent.

Please, your Eminence, do something. There is a crying need.

Cardinal slams AB 374 -- and Nunez

The Los Angeles Times today says (click on this post's title) that at noon Mass today, Cardinal Roger Mahony blasted AB 374, the patient-death-by-doctor "assisted suicide" bill pending in the Assembly, as "an assault on life," "a danger" and an element of "the culture of death."

The Cardinal also ripped Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez by name for backing the bill, saying, "We should be troubled at his support. Somehow, he has not understood the Culture of Life."

As we know, Nunez said in February that he was "ready to buck my Church" over this bill.

Cardinal Mahony cited Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) . Sections 57, 66 and 72 of that document condemn suicide and assisted suicide.

In Section 90 of that encyclical, Pope John Paul II says politicians ("civil leaders") may never abdicate their responsibility to defend "the lives of all."

"Civil leaders" includes you, Nunez!

By the way, as we recall, today is the second anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death.

The question remains, why would Nunez feel emboldened to "buck my Church?" The answer is that he anticipates no penalty from Cardinal Mahony or any of the U.S. bishops.

That is the sad reality.

Time for the U.S. bishops to back up their words with actions. Not that I expect that to happen.