Don't close Catholic hospitals, keep them open and dare Obama to start persecuting

Probably you have heard recently that prominent U.S. Catholic bishops have warned that if Barack Hussein Obama removes conscience protections for pro-life medical personnel, Catholic hospitals would shut down rather than turn pro-abortion.

A better route for the bishops to take would be to keep Catholic hospitals open and pro-life and to see if Obama would send in federal troops to try to enforce his pro-abortion policies. Imagine the terrible publicity for Obama and his administration then!

Of course, what would actually happen if Catholic hospitals stayed open and refused to become pro-abortion is that Obama and his allies in Congress, HHS, etc., first would cut off the taxpayer dollars that go to Catholic hospitals.

Next, Obama might fine and indict the pro-life administrators and medical personnel of Catholic hospitals. That would be a spectacle: Catholic prisoners of conscience on trial for the Faith and the pro-life cause.

Anyway, it is not a good idea to close Catholic hospitals. Our bishops should continue business as usual, defy Obama and dare him to begin persecuting the Church.

Let us hope and pray that none of our Catholic bishops ever find a way to compromise and turn Catholic hospitals "partly" anti-life.

Look who's pushing Kmiec

The online California Catholic Daily of Nov. 27 (click on this post's title) reported that the Nov. 23 issue of America magazine ran an article that pushed Obama shill and ex-pro-lifer Doug Kmiec for abortion zealot Obama's ambassador to the Holy See.

Fortunately, sources at the Vatican have been quoted as saying Kmiec would not be acceptable. Let's hope and pray that that opinion will win the day.

Could the article be a trial balloon floated to prod the Obama team into giving Kmiec the ambassadorship?

What reward will Obama give Kmiec for propagandizing for him among Catholics? It would be great if the Obama team would offer Kmiec nothing or else only a minor post.

But what nerve of America, and how typical of liberals, to think an excuser of, and propagandist for, a blatantly pro-abortion politician would make a great U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Kmiec is indeed an ex-pro-lifer, by the way, because in an op-ed of his in the L.A. Times on October 17 he said this about aborting God's little babies:

"The way out is to remember that when there are differences among religious creeds, none is entitled to be given preference in law or policy. Sometimes the law must simply leave space for the exercise of individual judgment, because our religious or scientific differences of opinion are for the moment too profound to be bridged collectively."

Pro-Catholic and pro-life suggestions for our bishops

Steve Jalsevac of LifeSiteNews.com has penned a four-part article (click on this post's title) about things wrong with the Church in the USA and what the bishops should do about it.

It's worth reading. It's also worth telling others to read.

Thank You, dear God!

Thank You, dear God!

Thank You for creating us, redeeming us, giving us Holy Mother Church, giving us the Sacraments and graces and the consolation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving us Mass and being with us in every Tabernacle, giving us Your Blessed Mother, giving us the Saints, giving us our own Guardian Angel, giving us the Rosary and folding us under Your big wings.

And thank You for all the many blessings and gifts and graces and favors and "God-incidences" and every other good thing, so many that it's hard to keep track of them all and list them.

Thank You, too, for our crosses, difficulties and sorrows in this vale of tears, and for helping us make our way through them and follow You on the Way to Heaven.

Thank You for You, dear God. Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pro-Life MP's 13 recommendations for Catholic bishops & clergy

Recently retired Canadian Member of Parliament Tom Wappel, the Henry Hyde of Canada, last week recommended 13 ways that Catholic bishops and clergy can get their flocks to become firmer in the Faith and to start thinking and acting pro-life.

LifeSiteNews.com did a story about the recommendations (click on this post's title).

Mr. Wappel urges bishops and priests to ask their flocks if they really believe Jesus founded the Catholic Church and if they believe Catholic doctrine is true -- and if so, how could someone who professes those things ever advocate abortion, euthanasia and homosexual "marriage."

That is recommendation #13. Wait until you see #8, about speaking to Catholic high schools on the right to life. Mr. Wappel says his "worst experience as a politician in any school that I ever went to across this great country" was in 1990, at a Catholic high school in Yellow Knife in the Northwest Territories, when the staff and students made him feel "like a piece of meat that was dangled over a pool of sharks" because he was pro-life and anti-euthanasia.

If you know any pro-life, pro-chastity activists who speak to audiences at Catholic high schools, you know that what Mr. Wappel says is true. It does not happen everywhere, of course, but just about every pro-life speaker can tell of a time or times when parents, staffers and students became angry when reminded that fornication, abortion and contraception are mortal sins.

Anyway, you'll want to read Mr. Wappel's 13 recommendations and then show them to the priests and bishops you know.

Not sure if I can post anything on "Thanksgiving eve" or the big day itself. But I'll try.

And let us all thank God for His rich and many blessings upon us. I thank God for you and every visitor and commenter and friend of onelacatholic! God bless you, and God bless America.

Planned Parenthood queen cites disobedient Catholics in slam at Cardinal O'Malley

Did you see (click on this post's title) the other day that the head of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts said Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston shouldn't have criticized Barack Hussein Obama or Planned Parenthood, as he did, because many Catholics disobey Catholic morality and doctrine about aborting and contracepting babies?

What she said is a big non sequitur. That bad Catholics exist does not mean bishops should stop announcing Catholic truth -- just the opposite!

But, tragically, she is right that far too many Catholics -- one would be too many -- stray from the Church and the Culture of Life. We are reaping the consequences of the past four decades of liberals running the Church in the USA. It is hard to rebuild after liberals have torn down.

Liberal Catholics wreck everything. When they are in charge, many Catholics flee from our Holy Mother Church and many stay in the Church only to try to subvert Her.

Thank God for the bold bishops around our country who pray, teach and act truly Catholic. They are our hope, and we must support them with our prayers and in every other way.

May all our cardinals and bishops learn from the brave ones and become like them. Full speed ahead!

Mexico pro-vida y siempre fiel -- pro-life and ever faithful

Today's edition of the free e-mail "Daily Pro-Life Quotes" from the Unborn Word Alliance says that the Mexican bishops' conference has agreed to implement these right to life actions:

• Prayer, Holy Hours, Masses for [the right to] life

• Teaching "Evangelium Vitae" everywhere

• Massive and permanent campaigns for [the right to] life

• Promoting pro-life laws

• Creating pro-life and natural family planning committees at parish level.

Now, if only our U.S. bishops would implement all of these things, too, and each of them at the national, diocesan and parish levels!

Nra. Sra. de Guadalupe, ruega por nosotros! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Pro-abortion Maria Shriver brags that she picks and chooses

Did you see the story (click on this post's title) on the online California Catholic Daily two days ago about an interview that Maria Shriver, the wife of fellow pro-abort Arnold Schwarzenegger, gave recently?

With a rosary around her neck, she told the interviewers, "I start every one of my days praying. I go to church every week. I went to Catholic schools my entire life."

But then she said, "I pick and choose... I think I'm probably a 'Cafeteria Catholic.'"

She elaborated:

"I have a dispute with a lot of the Catholic Church. Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church... I don’t believe that if someone’s divorced they shouldn’t get Communion; I don’t believe that people who are gay shouldn’t be accepted into the Church… I’m pro-choice, I believe women should have that right."

She called Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson, her pastor at St. Monica's Church in Santa Monica, "a huge part of my life."

Let's hope, then, that Msgr. Torgerson has tried to straighten her out and will keep trying.

Cardinal Mahony's Tidings runs a Fr. McBrien post-election attack on the pro-life bishops

The little baby in the 4D ultrasound photo above, who is eight weeks old and already playing inside mama, counts not at all with some Catholics, including those in the hierarchy and clergy.

What else can we conclude from this week's (November 21) issue of The Tidings, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?

In that issue this publication, which has seen better days by far, carries one of Father Richard McBrien's worst columns ever: He wants the faithful, orthodox Catholic bishops who issued pro-life statements before Election Day to get with it, stop saying aborting millions of babies is the preeminent issue, and just plain shut up.

Father McBrien starts out this way:

"... Catholic voters are paying less and less attention to the urgings of some of the Conference's most theologically rigid and politically partisan bishops... This was in spite of the efforts of a vocal handful of bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver and Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, to try to persuade Catholics that a vote for the Democratic ticket was tantamount to a vote for abortion and, therefore, gravely sinful."

In Father McBrien's twisted Liberal World, 110 pro-life bishops are only "a vocal handful." He continues:

"This vocal minority of bishops have to ask themselves whether their one-issue approach is actually counter-productive, not only in terms of its effectiveness with Catholic voters but also in its effectiveness in actually reducing the number of abortions in the United States.

"This year, in any case, their narrow approach to life issues has stirred other pro-life Catholics to fight back and to reject the focus on the abortion issue to the practical exclusion of all others."

Again, in Father McBrien's sick Liberal World, he thinks speaking up for MILLIONS of BABIES is "narrow."

Father McBrien also imagines that the best way to fight baby-killing is to stop talking about it. He also pretends that Catholics who want us pro-lifers to silence ourselves about aborting millions of babies are somehow "pro-life" themselves. He goes on:

"In the future, Conference leaders must make it unmistakably clear that, while individual bishops are free to issue statements and take stands within and for their own dioceses, such bishops have no personal authority beyond their dioceses, and indeed that their views are contrary to the stated teachings and policies of the Conference itself."

In Father McBrien's Liberal World, things get really bizarre; he doesn't want us to know that our U.S. bishops have said, in their Living the Gospel of Life (1998), that appeals to other issues are suspect if they do not make fighting abortion the priority. He continues:

"The Democratic ticket won the support of 66 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, and 57 percent between the ages of 30 and 44.

"These voters are not only the future of the country; many of them are also the future of the Catholic Church. Do our pastoral leaders really want to be so far out of step with this crucially important constituency?"

Like all denizens of Liberal World, Father McBrien wants us pro-lifers to get in "step" with those who want us to shut up about the slayings of millions and millions of God's little babies.

Sorry, Charlie -- I mean, Father McBrien -- no dice. No matter how much you dislike us and our defense of the babies, we're here to stay and we'll be all the louder in defending the little ones.

And that goes for you, too, The Tidings.

(P.S. The baby photo above and many more like it are viewable at www.prolifeamerica.com)

How many of the hierarchy voted for Obama, did you say?

Have you heard (click on this post's title) that pro-life (and convert to the Faith) Laura Ingraham recently had EWTN news chief Raymond Arroyo on her national radio show?

She asked him, "Here is the problem: How many of the bishops voted for Obama?"

Raymond Arroyo answered, "...The bishops I spoke to say that maybe half of their brother bishops, if not more, voted for Obama. Because they thought the symbol of Obama would overcome racism and be a great healer and unity [sic]."

Hmmm. "...maybe half...if not more" sounds suspiciously like the 54% of all U.S. Catholic voters who picked Obama.

Ole Q would not be surprised if the figure was more like two-thirds. That is how many of the bishops did NOT issue statements against Obama before the election.

None of this should surprise us, if we look back a bit in history and recall that ALL of the English bishops, except one, the martyr St. John Fisher, sold out to the English king, the monster Henry VIII.

A slight fix for the Cardinal Stafford story

Here is a slight fix for the just-previous story about Cardinal James Stafford's address at the Catholic University of America:

The cardinal did not say, as reported, that Obama himself was "apocalyptic." He said about Obama that his "rhetoric is post-modernist and marks an agenda and ambition that are aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic."

So I regret the error. It is only Obama's "agenda and ambition" that are "apocalyptic."

Somehow, though, that does not make me feel any happier about the next four years. How about you?

Are Cardinal Stafford and Cardinal Mahony in the same Church?

Have you read about Cardinal James Stafford's address (click on this post's title for an article and a link to video) at the Catholic University of America the other day?

In probably the strongest language any Cardinal has ever used against any prominent U.S. politician, Cardinal Stafford called Barack Hussein Obama "apocalyptic" and noted that he campaigned on an "extremist anti-life platform."

Cardinal Stafford also issued these words of warning:

“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”

Cardinal Stafford said we will shed “hot, angry tears of betrayal.”

The Cardinal also said that “If 1968 [the year so many in the U.S. hierarchy and clergy disobeyed Pope Paul VI and Humanae Vitae] was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion."

Don't look now, but when a Cardinal at the Vatican says we Catholics are going to be under an apocalyptic extremist and weeping tears of betrayal with Jesus during His Agony in the Garden, that is serious talk. It is a prophetic warning for you and me.

Compare these words of Cardinal Stafford to those of Cardinal Roger Mahony in his letter of congratulations to Obama: "All people of good will from coast to coast will want to work with you..." Cardinal Mahony also asked God's blessings on pro-abortion Obama's administration!

As the saying goes, "Can you spot the difference?"

Cardinal Mahony congratulates abortion zealot Obama, totally ignores preborn babies

What else is new?

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles has written president-elect Barack Hussein Obama a congratulatory message that fails to defend or intercede for the lives of God's little preborn babies.

I've only found the text of the Cardinal's letter in the print edition of the November 14 issue of The Tidings. I haven't found it in the online edition of that paper or on the Archdiocesan web site.

His Eminence tells Obama, "Your many speeches over the past two years have focused upon the needs of so many within our American society. All people of good will from coast to coast will want to work with you to achieve those goals..."

Then the Cardinal says, "There is one particular need, however, that will be best met in early 2009..."

Do you suppose this "particular need" that Cardinal Roger Mahony singles out is, say, "Putting an end to the aborting of 1.2 million babies a year in the USA?"

No, the need he brings up is how to regularize the situation of illegal aliens.

How do you think Obama and his transition team and potential staffers reacted to a letter from an American cardinal that completely lets him off the hook on aborting babies?

Do you suppose they laughed out loud and said, "Look at the free pass he's giving us! We don't have to worry about any trouble over abortion from him!"

More on pro-life Father Newman

Today LifeSiteNews.com has an update (click on this post's title) on pro-life Father Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

As you might already know, the Charleston diocesan administrator said on the diocesan web site that Father Scott should not have written in his parish bulletin a week ago that Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion politician should go to Confession before receiving Communion.

Father Newman issued a clarification that said, in part:

"...no one could conclude that a vote for Senator Obama is in itself or by itself a mortal sin. But from that same teaching, though, we must conclude that a vote for a pro-abortion candidate can be a mortal sin if the intent is to support abortion, that abortion is not merely one issue among other important issues, and that no Catholic should endorse a pro-abortion politician if a plausible pro-life alternative is available."

He added that he never intended to deny Communion to Obama voters and that he never said he would.

At LifeSiteNews.com, you can find other stories about this situation. One of them said Father Newman's parishioners gave him a standing ovation at Mass this past Sunday -- and when they did so, he turned toward the tabernacle and genuflected.

Someone has also reported that priests in the diocese were preparing a statement of support for Father Newman.

At my earlier post on Father Newman, you can see our friends' comments on the situation.

Wish we had a thousand Father Newmans!

Top law grad rebuts his pro-Obama prof, calls us all to be pro-life and to love and obey Jesus

Be sure to read, keep a copy of, and circulate a beautiful pro-life, pro-Catholic, pro-Jesus essay (click on this post's title) that commenter Gunnar Gundersen has written in response to his former professor Doug Kmiec's false arguments in favor of Barack Hussein Obama.

Thank you very much, Gunnar, for sending the link to your powerful and persuasive essay. I know you'll keep up your pro-life writing and work. Have you thought of joining a pro-life constitutional law group such as the Thomas More Law Society, or of founding your own such group in L.A.?

Pro-life and pro-family individuals and groups, and even our Catholic Church Herself, desperately need good legal champions, and that will be even more true in the Obamanation of the next four years.

Pro-life Catholic picket of Barack Hussein Obama shill Kmiec at St. John's Seminary was a big success this past Tuesday night

The pro-life Catholic candlelight picket of St. John's Seminary in Camarillo that I mentioned would take place Tuesday night turned out to be a big success.

Kudos to everyone involved! Good job!

Good friend Kenneth Fisher reports, in a comment on my post about the event, that 40-50 pro-lifers prayed the Rosary at the seminary's main entrance and that some people who attended Barack Hussein Obama shill Kmiec's lecture thanked the pro-lifers for being there.

Thanks very much to commenter Trubador for providing a link (click on this post's title) to the next morning's report about the event in the Ventura County Star.

The paper quoted pro-life Gary Schuberg of Camarillo as saying, "Our message is that you can't in good conscience support Obama[,] because of his stance on abortion."

Could it possibly be that Kmiec expects to be rewarded for his touting of abortion extremist Barack Hussein Obama, maybe with a federal judgeship or a post at the White House or Justice Department?

Those are small rewards for turning your back on God's little preborn babies.

Ex-REC keynoter Abp. Rembert Weakland is in the news again

Archbishop Rembert Weakland, a former keynoter of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony's big annual Religious "Miseducation" Congress, is in the news for admitting in a court deposition that he, as Catholic Culture reports (click on this post's title), "had knowingly assigned abusive priests to pastoral work and kept parishioners uninformed about the clerics' past offenses."

Wonder who he voted for.

Pastor gives his flock the truth

Maybe you've read about Father Jay Scott Newman (above), pastor of venerable St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

As CatholicNewsUSA reports (click on this post's title), Father Newman did his parishioners an inestimable, because soul-saving, favor last Sunday.

What was it? He gave them a letter that said, in part:

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president [Father was referrring to Barack Hussein Obama].

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

As you can imagine, this has not gone down well with some Obama devotees. May they develop the humility to admit they have done wrong. (We all need to develop that humility!)

May Father Newman's bishop back him!

Why do so many Catholics not care about the little babies who are ripped apart? It is heartbreaking.

Incidentally, three years ago Father Newman wrote this beautiful essay on how priests should say Mass:

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2005/11/worshipping-lord-in-beauty-of-holiness.html

Pro-life Catholics will picket Kmiec talk at St. John's Seminary tonight (Tuesday)

Pro-life Catholics will meet at 6 p.m. at the main gate of St. John's Seminary in Camarillo tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 11, with their rosaries and picket signs in hand.

The pro-life Catholics will picket the Seminary for disgracing the annual Newman C. Eberhardt Lecture series by having Obama shill Douglas Kmiec of Pepperdine be this year's speaker.

As reported here earlier, Kmiec, in an op-ed in the L.A. Times on October 17, said Catholics may vote for the abortion zealot Barack Hussein Obama. Kmiec also said this:

"The way out [about aborting babies] is to remember that when there are differences among religious creeds, none is entitled to be given preference in law or policy. Sometimes the law must simply leave space for the exercise of individual judgment, because our religious or scientific differences of opinion are for the moment too profound to be bridged collectively."

By writing, "the law must simply leave space for the exercise of individual judgment," Kmiec was saying abortion should be kept legal, don't you think?

The late Father Eberhardt was a beloved, holy and learned professor at St. John's Seminary for many years. Surely he could not be happy at tonight's travesty being held in his name.

I'm very sorry for this short notice. If you cannot join the picket, please pray for all the faithful pro-life picketers. We also need to pray for the misguided souls who are honoring Kmiec, that they will see the truth, repent, convert to the pro-life cause and make atonement.

We also need to pray that the seminarians will not be poisoned by Kmiec's deceptions and by the Seminary's honoring of him. Let's pray that they see through him and challenge him.

Seminaries need to teach seminarians to be uncompromisingly pro-life, not to pal around with
pro-abortion politicians or their shills as Cardinal Mahony has done far too often.

I would like to tell Kmiec that St. Thomas More is a much better example for us than he is.

Tonight's picket is the beginning of faithful Catholic resistance to the Catholic fellow travelers of the coming pro-abortion regime. God bless and richly reward the picketers!

Nine California pro-abortion Catholic sponsors of monstrous pro-abortion FOCA bill won reelection to House

Calling all California Catholic bishops: Please read the following excerpt from today's edition of the online California Catholic Daily (for the whole article, click on this post's title):

"Apparently, the Church’s position on FOCA is of little significance to the nine 'Catholic' members of Congress from California who cruised to reelection on Nov. 4. The 'Catholic' co-sponsors from California include: Rep. Loretta Sánchez, D-Garden Grove; Rep. Linda Sánchez, D- Lakewood; Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte; Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena; Rep. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek; Rep. Dianne Watson, D-Los Angeles; Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez; and Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk. Each won reelection by margins ranging from 65.5% to 87.7%."

FOCA is the bill that whose signing into law Barack Hussein Obama has promised Planned Parenthood will be the FIRST thing he does in office. It will eliminate ALL state and federal protections for preborn babies -- every advance eked out by pro-lifers in the last 35 years.

The USCCB is leading a fight against the potential passage and signing of FOCA.

Your excellencies, our California hierarchy, thank you for issuing statements in support of Prop 4, the family-notification-before-abortion initiative. Sadly, it lost.

But a few questions for you, your excellencies: In the just-concluded election campaign, did you and your priests tell your flock that they may not morally vote for pro-abortion politicians? Did you tell your priests and your minsters of the Eucharist not to give Communion to these anti-life, Church-defying politicians? Did you speak with these politicians and admonish them? Did you excommunicate these politicians?

If your answer is no, then what are you going to do with these politicians now? How are you going to protect preborn babies from them?

What are you going to do? We need an answer, and the babies need your protection.

Let's pray for Father Greeley

Let's pray for Father Andrew Greeley. He is 80 and is in critical condition in Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., say the Chicago Tribune and the AP (click on this post's title). Last Friday, Father Greeley fell and fractured his skull.

We all know that Father Greeley has promoted pro-abortion politicians and has written novels that critics and Catholic reviewers say have dirt in them. He also has said he knows about the crimes of a homosexual ring, but has not done anything about it.

All this, of course, is why we need to pray extra for him. Oremus -- oremos -- let us pray.

The spectacle of Catholic priests who supported Obama

Not very edifying, is it, to learn that some Catholic priests supported the pro-abortion zealots Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Biden for president and vice president?

Did you see, at romancatholicblog (click on this post's title) and elsewhere, that two Orange County pastors made donations to Obama?

Yep, Fr. Art Holquin and Fr. Fred Bailey did so.

Ole Q knows a padre who, a couple of days after the election of Obama, said he "couldn't be happier" with how things turned out.

Who is going to turn such padres around and straighten out their thinking?

If every bishop would REQUIRE every pastor and every parish to begin and maintain a parish pro-life pregnancy center and to undertake pro-life prayer and sidewalk counseling at the abortion mills inside their parish boundaries, then priests might finally learn all that is stake.

After the election of pro-abortion Obama, The Tidings and CNS bash and smear who else but, you guessed it, pro-lifers!

How predictable can The Tidings get -- and how disgusting.

The new issue of The Tidings, our archdiocesan newspaper, carries a Catholic News Service article by one Dennis Sadowski, "Reconciliation after election: Possible, but it will take time" (click on this post's title), in which a pro-Obama ex-nun (it figures) in Cincinnati claims a pro-life lady came to her door, spoke harshly to her for having an Obama-Biden yard sign and gave her a brochure with photos of aborted babies.

The article employs these negative words in connection with the pro-life lady: "Fire in her eyes," "launched into a tirade," "shouted," "the woman's anger grew," "she was furious," "thrusting an envelope," "she said in a shrill voice,""the irate visitor" and, last but not least, one of the pro-aborts' favorite epithets for pro-lifers, "these people."

The article also says, "Seemingly, the most heartfelt anger has revolved around the issues of pro-life and family concerns --- abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, traditional marriage, all keystones of the Catholic faith. Some of the most strident voices have questioned the faithfulness of Catholic supporters of the Democratic ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden."

Don't look now, but this article breaks rules of newswriting. First, it commits the fundamental no-no of taking the word of only one side as fact. There is no proof that this encounter ever happened, or if it did happen, that it happened as the Obama backer claims it did.

Just how does the Catholic News Service KNOW that the supposed pro-life lady had "fire in her eyes?" Just how does the author KNOW her voice was "shrill," she was "irate," "her anger grew," she "thrust" an envelope, etc.? True journalism delivers FACTS, not fantasies.

In the second place, the article goes right from this supposed angry lady to fantasizing about "heartfelt anger" and "strident voices" of pro-life, pro-family people throughout the campaign. We're to think all pro-lifers are like this "straw lady" creation of CNS.

Sorry, CNS and The Tidings, but I see through your propaganda and I do not believe you.

The article does admit the following, but after you read it I will point out something about it:

"Likewise, the din of malicious rhetoric has hardly left supporters of Republicans Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin untouched. Not only have staunch partisans attacked the candidates themselves in humiliating ways unheard of in 20th-century campaigns, but voters supporting the GOP duo have been degraded and mocked for their positions as well."

Notice that we are to think that the above paragraph provides balance. It does not entirely do that. First, it refers negatively to Catholics' pro-life, pro-family concerns as "the din of MALICIOUS rhetoric." Second, it refers to the opponents of McCain-Palin as "staunch partisans," which is not negative terminology, although it does then slam their actions. Third, it provides no specifics.

If CNS and The Tidings want to find actual angry, shrill, strident people, all they have to do is look at the anti-Prop 8 forces and their violence, property damage, theft and intimidation.

Liberal Catholics, you have not defeated the pro-life movement, only the defenseless little preborn babies. Aren't you proud of yourselves?

Liberal Catholics, no doubt including some cardinals and more than a few bishops, clergy and religious, can gloat all they want about what they suppose is a victory over the anti-abortion movement -- the election win of Barack Hussein Obama and his fellow abortion-promoting politicians in Congress and around the USA.

But the liberals have not defeated or even fazed the anti-abortion movement. They do not realize that we never go away. The liberals' real victims are America's preborn babies.

After all, if Barack Hussein gets to appoint one or more pro-abortion U.S. Supreme Court justices and dozens or hundreds of pro-abortion federal judges, then Roe vs. Wade will not be overturned, the Freedom of Choice [sic] Act will become law, and in the next generation millions or even tens of millions of America's preborn babies will pay the ultimate price.

We pro-lifers must now redouble our prayers and our efforts to see that more babies escape the clutches of the liberals and the pro-abortion politicians whom they obviously love above all else, even the Faith.

The cardinals and bishops who did not speak up for the babies, who did not excommunicate Catholic pro-abortion politicians such as Joseph Biden, and who in fact voted for Obama-Biden and other pro-aborts, have not defeated the pro-life movement, only the little babies.

Action plan for pro-lifers

Okay, we pro-lifers survived the 1992 and 1996 elections; now we have to survive the 2008 election. We have to, for the sake of the preborn babies and their moms and dads.

First off, we have to redouble our prayers, especially Holy Mass and the Rosary. We have to praise God for His gift of life, intercede for the babies and ask for graces and strength to keep building the Culture of Life and to confound and outdo and overcome the culture of death.

Second, we have to remind ourselves that we pro-lifers never go away. Come rack or ruin, we will be around, and we will keep saving babies and helping their moms.

Third, we have to look for all the positives that are all around us. Recent polls show that more Americans than ever want major restrictions on aborting babies. Pro-life groups exist on 443 (and probably many more) college campuses, and young Americans are increasingly pro-life. More young priests are pro-life than older ones. 110 or more bishops issued or signed pro-life statements in recent months. Priests for Life and other pro-life groups are already promising to forge ahead with pro-life initiatives.

There are lots more steps to think of. But in the meantime, let's each and all get busy and let's be happy warriors for the little preborn babies and their moms.

"Bad news pours in from all sides; thanks be to God." (a paraphrase) -- St. Francis Xavier, S.J.

Jesus, mercy; Mary, help!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, Cause of our Joy, pray for us!

Catholics risk eternal salvation by voting for pro-aborts

All over the Net yesterday and today, and making the e-mail rounds among pro-lifers yesterday and today, is a hard-hitting quote by one of the 110 -- and counting -- bishops who have issued or signed statements warning Catholics that they may not morally vote for pro-abortion candidates.

The bishop is Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, and here is what he says he would say to a Catholic who plans to vote for Obama:

"I would say, give consideration to your eternal salvation. Because to vote for a person who has expressed a fanatical determination to not only support abortion as it exists now, but to remove all limitations on it through the Freedom of Choice Act and to extend it without any resource, throwing out all the efforts of citizens over the last 35 years to place reasonable limits on abortion; that you, by voting for a person who has expressed his determination to do this, to Planned Parenthood, to NARAL, that you make yourself a participant in the act of abortion. That's gravely wrong and you mustn't do it, because your eternal salvation is tied up with that important choice."

Yikes! Wouldn't you think those words would give pause to even a liberal? How could liberals dispute any of what the bishop said?

Actually, one way they could dispute it would be to point out that "only" 110 bishops have said anything pro-life, and the majority, including L.A.'s cardinal and bishops, have been silent. Do the silent cardinals and bishops disagree with those who have spoken out, or what?

And does the silence of so many cardinals and bishops, including ours here in ole L.A., give cover to Catholics who want to vote pro-abortion?

Anyway, thanks to several pro-life e-newsletters for sending along Bishop Finn's powerful quote to everyone yesterday and today.

How come Cardinal Mahony didn't guide his flock about not voting for pro-aborts?

To guide its flock before today's election, the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, has posted on its web site a bunch of links (click on this post's title) to statements by U.S. bishops about how Catholics may not morally vote for pro-abortion candidates.

How come Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles has not done that? What could possibly be the reason(s)?

Encouragement from a Saint .. and a saint

Veteran and unstoppable pro-lifer Camille Giglio of California Life Advocates today has sent out this encouragement:

"The greatest grace God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers -- and then sustain him with His grace so he may endure to the end and be saved." -- Saint Justin Martyr

Camille adds this:

"My Good Pro Life Friends:

"I have been receiving numerous emails from individuals or
organizations attempting to provide words of encouragement or
acceptance for the results of the election tomorrow.

"I have no omniscience, but would like you know that I am thinking of
you who have been so supportive this year.

"I do hope that I will be rejoicing with you come Tuesday night, but if there is no rejoicing, let there be strength in the knowledge that God will not abandon his faithful. Someone sent around an encouragement to pray to all the aborted babies in heaven who must be very close to God, for an outcome of the election that will provide the respect and protection for life for which we all work and pray so hard..."

Amen, Camille! God bless you and all pro-lifers, and God convert everyone to the cause.

Noble advice on how to vote

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), photographed above, had the following to say about how to vote. (Thanks to the Traditional Values Coalition for coming up with the quote.)

This quote also applies to how to live our lives:

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

A pro-life letter in today's L.A. Times

A much better letter in the L.A. Times today than ex-Mahony official Chabolla's pro-Obama screed was a pro-life one from Rita Needham of Dedham, Mass. (click on this post's title). She writes:

"As election day looms and our nation stands on a precipice, I implore members of the Catholic Church to hear, receive and act on the Church's teaching.

"According to the church, it is morally impermissible to vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion when there is a morally acceptable alternative. While many passionately argue that issues of prudential judgment, such as the war on terrorism, poverty or immigration reform, must be granted equal weight, the Church does not agree.

"Obama has been touted as a visionary who will bring about great change in this country. I fear this to be true. Obama has publicly stated that as president, he would work to pass the Freedom of Choice Act.

"Undoubtedly there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Catholic Church if this legislation becomes law. What there shouldn't be is sympathy, if its members and its leaders subvert their moral obligation on election day."

Rita Needham has hit the nail on the head, wouldn't you agree, with her phrase, "if its members and leaders subvert their moral obligation on election day."

Ex-Mahony official touts Obama in letter to the editor in today's L.A. Times

Have you seen the letters to the editor in today's (Monday's) L.A. Times (click on this post's title)?

In one letter, Tom Chabolla, "formerly the secretariat director for pastoral and community services for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," writes:

"While some Catholic bishops would urge Catholic voters to use a narrow, single-issue lens at the ballot booth, there will be millions of Catholic, pro-life Democrats making a different choice and voting for Barack Obama...

"There are compelling moral reasons in this election to support a candidate who may not fully align with the Catholic Church on abortion but provides the best hope for working families, healthcare reform, reviving our economy and restoring our environment -- and they are no less Catholic for casting their vote for Obama."

As you can see, Chabolla conveniently forgets to provide this highly relevant quote:

"Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care... But being 'right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the 'rightness' of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community." (sec. 23) -- Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics (A Statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States, 1998)

A quick search of the Web reveals that this past April, when Barack Hussein Obama announced his "Catholic Advisory Committee," Chabolla was one of his nine "National Co-Chairs," right there with Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who protects late-term-baby-slayer George Tiller.

Also, the Center for Community Change lists Chabolla on its board of directors and gives his affiliation as "Assistant to the President, Service Employees International Union, Washington, D.C." The SEIU is pro-abortion.

And an article in Sojourners magazine in 2006 identified Chabolla as "associate director for programs at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development." The CCHD has given our collection money to pro-abortion groups.

How many other Chabolla types are lurking in L.A.'s chancery office and in all the chancery offices around the USA?

Another disappointment from Peggy Noonan

Those who have read Peggy Noonan for any length of time know she is not a true-blue conservative. Her own words keep on confirming that assessment.

For example, in the midst of this presidential campaign, in her Wall Street Journal column of October 17, she bashed pro-life Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate.

Peggy Noonan concluded that column with this piece of insanity -- and one reason it is insane is that she provides no proof for it whatsoever:

"In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It’s no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."

What in Heaven's name is Peggy Noonan talking about? Who on Earth thinks "vulgarization" when they see or hear Sarah Palin? Okay, actually, a SNOB could think that.

You want vulgarization, what about Barack Hussein Obama voting to let abortion-surviving babies be abandoned to die painful, lonely deaths? What about Barack Hussein Obama calling babies a punishment? These things are not only vulgar, they are monstrous.

But that isn't all from Peggy Noonan. In her October 29 WSJ column, which the Orange County Register ran yesterday (Saturday), she wrote this insanity about Barack Hussein Obama:

"The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes:.... his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs... He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent... he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make."

She said she would not condemn Republicans who have endorsed Barack Hussein Obama. She also called Barack Hussein Obama an "intellectual." Something is wrong here.

She gave John McCain a mixed assessment, more so than she did Barack Hussein Obama.

Fortunately, she did fret that the combo of a Barack Hussein Obama presidency and a firmly Demoncrat Congress might become "a runaway train." She also interrupted her fawning over Barack Hussein Obama to admit that he should not have said, "That is above my pay grade" when asked when babies "get human rights." But she ended her column with this insanity:

"But let’s be frank. Something new is happening in America. It is the imminent arrival of a new liberal moment. History happens, it makes its turns, you hold on for dear life. Life moves... Eras end, and begin. 'God is in charge of history.' And so my beautiful election ends."

Get out the butterfly nets.

May Almighty God, the Author of Life, spare us on Election Day. And if that cannot be, may He give us the strength to deal with the future as we continue to try to save preborn babies' lives.

Keep on praying for the babies -- and vote on Tuesday!

There is plenty of hope!

Let's not listen to the drumbeat of the liberal, pro-abortion "news" media -- let's pray the Rosary for all pro-life, pro-family candidates and all pro-life, pro-family initiatives (Prop 4 and Prop 8 in California) from this very hour all the way through Tuesday, Election Day.

And let's be sure to get all of our pro-family and pro-life family members, relatives and friends out to vote on Tuesday, transporting them personally if we can.

How can anyone look at and meditate on the painting above, by the 17th-century master Georges de la Tour, and still vote pro-abortion?

How can they not soften their hearts and not want to do their utmost for preborn babies and their moms?

Our Lady of Victory, pray for us, and pray for preborn babies and their moms! Amen!

Every day, pray the Serran Prayer for Vocations

You might already be doing this -- it is a great thing for Catholics to pray for vocations to the priesthood every day.

Of course, we need to pray for all vocations every day, including those to the religious life, and that everyone find out and follow their calling to whatever station in life God wants for them.

Here is the Serra Club's prayer for vocations to the priesthood:

O God, Who will not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live, grant, we beseech Thee, through the intercession of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, St. Joseph, her spouse, Blessed Junipero Serra and all the saints, an increase of laborers for Thy Church, fellow laborers with Christ, to spend and consume themselves for souls. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

To vote for Obama is to vote to persecute your fellow Catholics

To vote for Barack Hussein Obama is to vote to persecute your fellow Catholics.

That is because Obama has promised the Planned Parenthood abortion giant (PP abortion chambers executed more than 289,000 American babies in PP's most recent reporting year) that "the first thing" he would do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

That monstrous bill would eliminate all state and federal protections for preborn babies, including pro-life conscience clauses for pro-lifers in the field of medicine.

That would force all pro-life Catholics in the field of medicine either to bend the knee to the culture of death, and cooperate in killing babies, or to leave their profession.

That could even mean Catholic hospitals would have to become complicit in aborting babies or to close their doors.

FOCA would also lead to draconian measures -- even worse than those that already exist -- against pro-life sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors outside abortion mills, meaning jail and prison time and crushing fines for Catholics who dare to take the right to life seriously.

So, as I said, Catholic liberals who vote for Obama will be voting to persecute their fellow Catholics.

Between now and the closing of the polls on Tuesday, please be sure to point out these things to the Catholics you know who are planning to vote for Barack Hussein Obama.

(Thanks to Women for Faith & Family for the illustration above, "The Martyrdom of St. Stephen," by Annibale Carracci, 1603-1604.)

Pro-life prayer of Pope John Paul II

O Mary, we entrust to you the cause of life. Look down upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born.

Grant all who believe in your Son to proclaim the Gospel of Life.

Obtain for them the grace to accept the Gospel as a gift ever new, to bear witness to it resolutely, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and Lover of Life.

Amen.