We need to pray for Father Neuhaus

Father Richard John Neuhaus, the founder and editor of the Catholic journal First Things, "is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in Manhattan’s Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center," the National Catholic Register reported (click on this post's title) today.

The report quotes New York City pro-lifer Chris Slattery, who has visited Father Neuhaus:

"He’s clearly had a serious recurrence of a new cancer. It’s going to require some immediate chemotherapy. He was in a lot of pain... I think what he’s got is a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which is completely unrelated to the previous cancer he had some ten years ago, which was a colon cancer."

So let's remember Father Neuhaus in our prayers.

Our Lady, Health of the Sick, Help of Christians and Queen of the Clergy, pray for Father Neuhaus!

The Tidings and CNS publicize Dignitatis Personae

It is good to see that the December 19 issue of The Tidings carries three articles about Dignitatis Personae, the new document on bioethics that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued this month on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12.

You can see the articles at:

http://www.the-tidings.com/2008/121908/biomain_text.htm

http://www.the-tidings.com/2008/121908/biocenter_text.htm

http://www.the-tidings.com/2008/121908/bioreact_text.htm

Will Father Richard McBrien now pen a column to undercut Dignitatis Personae, as he undercut Humanae Vitae?

Bishop John Ward has been a bishop for 45 years

The December 19 issue of The Tidings has a nice article (click on this post's title) about our Bishop John Ward, 88, and the 45th anniversary of his ordination as a bishop.

Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, of happy memory, ordained then-Msgr. John Ward on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, in 1963.

Says The Tidings, Bishop Ward "was the last man in the last class ordained by Archbishop John J. Cantwell in 1946 in St. Vibiana's Cathedral (before the archbishop's death in 1947)."

The January 2005 issue of the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission said this about Bishop Ward:

"When Bishop John Ward was pastor [at St. Timothy near Century City], every Sunday saw a Latin Novus Ordo. Although a Latin schola was hired twice a year or so, most of the time the chant was performed by the congregation, as envisioned by the liturgy decree of Vatican II. Parishioners sang from Jubilate Deo, the small manual of simple chants issued by Paul VI and intended by him for use in every Latin-rite parish throughout the world."

As I have mentioned in the past, Bishop Ward coined the term, "right to life movement."

Ad multos annos, Your Excellency!

Let's make it a pro-life 2009 -- make every day Christmas

Want to make every day Christmas? Save babies. Imagine a pro-life Los Angeles in which every baby escapes the Herod-abortionists and is welcomed as in the Nativity scene above (from nativitysets.com).

To achieve that, we pro-lifers are going to have to redouble our efforts and buck the system.

After all, pretty soon we're going to have a pro-abortion Chief Executive who (1) claims to want to make aborting babies rare and (2) proposes to do so by taking every pro-abortion step that Planned Parenthood demands he take.

This pro-abortion politician wants us to believe that if the economy improves, people will abort fewer of their babies. First of all, he's supposing that he can improve the economy through big government and big spending and big taxes. Second, he's assuming that many people do not abort babies for the sake of convenience.

But anyway, here are some ideas for how to create a pro-life 2009. What ideas do you have?

We need a public, visible pro-life presence. Go to the March for Life in D.C. on Jan. 22. Go to the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco on Jan. 24. Start your own prayer vigils.

Get your fellow parishioners together and get your pastor's permission to start a parish pro-life group.

Get your pastor to start parish Adoration for right to life.

Get your pastor to let you put a pro-life materials rack in your church's vestibule.

Get pro-life bulletin inserts from Priests for Life and get them in your parish bulletins.

Visit and learn from pro-life websites and tell others about them.

Get your pastor to lead pro-life prayer vigils outside the abortion mills inside your parish boundaries. Every time, have shut-ins pray and offer up for the cause of your saving babies.

Start your own pro-life group or join your local one(s).

Start your own pro-life center or volunteer at local one(s).

Start your own maternity home or volunteer at local one(s).

What ideas do you have?

Ole Q is back -- sorry for not posting for a bit

Hi, hola, bonjour and, as I'm told they say in Ireland, Dhia dhuit (which, I'm also told, means God be with you).

I hope you had a really blessed Christmas. I'm sorry that unavoidable circumstances made it just impossible for Ole Q to post for the past two weeks.

Thank you very much for your recent comments, and I'll reply to them very soon. Thank you for hanging in there with onelacatholic!

God bless you!

L.A. archdiocesan newspaper publishes anti-Catholic column by Protestant pastor

What a disgrace.

The December 12, 2008, issue of The Tidings, Cardinal Roger Mahony's L.A. archdiocesan newspaper, has a column, "Let's cut to the chase, shall we?" (click on this post's title), by Tom Ehrich, a "writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest."

The column's specific anti-Catholic part is here:

"A church truly concerned about 'historic Christian teaching' would look at Christian history -- the gap between Jesus' circles of inclusion and the early Church's hierarchy and exclusion; the gap between Jesus' call for peace and Church-sponsored wars; the gap between Jesus' humility and prelates' pride --- and conclude that, yes, perhaps it's time to take a fresh look at what they claim and what they are."

But the rest of the column reeks of hostility to Catholicism, too -- hostility to Catholic, and derivative Protestant, doctrine on sexual morality, especially the part against sodomy.

Ehrich's gripe is that "the tiny Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, Ill., recently voted to secede from the national Episcopal Church for being too liberal." He can't stand "Its stern refusals -- No to women as priests, No to homosexuals, No to theological diversity [sic] ..."

I've inserted "sic" after Ehrich's term "theological diversity," because the correct term, obviously, is "heresy." We should hope and pray that the Episcopalians of Quincy, Illinois, are on their way back home to Rome, to the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

But back to Ehrich. He writes:

"If a church wanted to walk the walk of Jesus as Savior, it wouldn't be debating sexuality. It would be helping people to deal with economic deprivation and to correct the values that led to this morass. It would promote community and sacrifice."

Ehrich also pens this truth-bending, misleading bilge:

"Jesus, of course, said nothing about homosexuality, ordination rules or church structures. An estimated two-thirds of his teachings concerned wealth and property and our need to be more generous and sacrificial."

That is "the chase" we're supposed to "cut to." Just drop all that inconvenient stuff about purity and having a clean heart, and instead live by the Democrat Party platform.

Ehrich also writes:

"A truly evangelical church would embrace all of Scripture and not just cherry-pick the few verses that confirm a cultural stance on homosexuality."

Notice the lies that recognizing sodomy as sinful is "cultural," not a matter of morality, and is a "stance," not a teaching.

Um, Tom -- and you, too, The Tidings -- don't you remember the times Jesus told us to have a clean heart and avoid lust? Was, and is, Jesus not saying that to everyone? Was He exempting homosexuals from being chaste?

And why did Jesus found the Catholic Church? And name Peter its first head? And set up a hierarchy, His Apostles, and call only men to be among them? And create the Sacrament of Holy Orders and ordain only men?

No wonder that Ehrich wrote this to the State Journal-Register of Springfield, Illinois, on June 15, 2008:

"Instead of crowd-stirring detours into religious ideology and supposed 'values' issues like abortion and same-sex marriage that have nothing to do with Christian values but merely agitate some Christians, candidates would address world stature lost to torture chambers, ham-fisted anti-diplomacy and bullying unmasked as weakness."

Time to clean house at The Tidings. Does Cardinal Mahony see no need to?

Ven. Edel Quinn, pray for us!

Ole L.A. can always use more savers of souls; what place cannot?

We always need savers of souls, such as Ven. Edel Quinn (1907-1944) of the Legion of Mary. I learned about her when I was a kid; and how much we all owe to Catholic literature and Catholic bookstores!

On fire with love of Jesus and Mary, holy Edel from Dublin became a tireless saver of souls in the mission field of Africa, despite suffering constant illness and exhaustion.

Do you know about Edel Quinn and about the Legion of Mary? If you don't, look them up! You'll say to yourself, like I am, "How much Edel did for Jesus and Mary! Am I doing enough for them?"

For one place to learn about Edel, click on this post's title. (The site is in Spanish.)

Here is a poem that Edel loved:

What is all, when all is told,
that ceaseless striving for fame and gold,
the passing joys and the bitter tears?
We are only here for a few short years.

What is all, just passing through?
A cross for me and a cross for you.
Ours seems heavy when others' seem light.
But God in the end sets all things right.

He tempers the dark with heavenly gold.
And that is all when all is told.

Jesus, Mary, I love You, save souls! Ven. Edel Quinn, pray for us!

Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Nuestra Dulce Senora Santa Maria de Guadalupe, ruega por nosotros! Our Sweet Lady, Holy Mary of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Hope you have had a very happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

And I hope that on Tuesday, December 9, you had a happy Feast Day of San Juan Diego, too!

Click on this post's title to visit the great official site of the Basilica in Mexico City. It is in Spanish, of course. You can learn so much there, even if you don't know a lot of Spanish. For one thing, be sure to click on Codice Guadalupano and investigate everything.

God bless you!

Pope Benedict names Latin Mass backer to head Congregation for Divine Worship

There is good news from Rome:

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, 63, of Spain, as the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

A Kansas City (Mo.) blogspot (click on this post's title) says Cardinal Canizares is "a known proponent of the TLM" and "an aggressive leader in the 'reform of the reform' of Catholic liturgy," and he "has also ordained priests into the Institute of Christ the King."

The blogspot also says Cardinal Canizares is known as "Little Ratzinger."

We can all applaud Cardinal Francis Arinze, 76, who is stepping down as Divine Worship prefect for reasons of age, and wish him well.

The Holy Father's selection of Cardinal Canizares is good news for the Church, but sadly the inhabitants of many a bishop's residence and chancery office in the USA will not see it that way -- those who remain wedded to the outdated, liturgical abuse-filled Masses of the long-bygone 1960's with their wicker baskets for the Hosts, their Kool-Aid pitcher flagons for the Precious Blood, their "liturgical" dancing and their misinterpretations of "active participation."

Ad multos annos, Cardinal Canizares!

Will any Catholic prelate attend the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama?

Do you think any Catholic prelate or prelates will attend the inauguration of pro-abortion Barack Hussein Obama?

We need to hope and pray that they will not.

We also need to hope and pray that no cardinal or bishop would accept any invitation to give the invocation or the benediction.

Instead of taking part in the inauguration, our bishops, and far more of them than ever before, could attend the annual March for Life two days later.

What a powerful Catholic and pro-life statement it would be for our U.S. bishops to boycott the inauguration of the most pro-abortion chief executive ever!

Will Cardinal Mahony invite Barack Hussein Obama to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?

Given that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles had Slick Willie Clinton speak inside St. Vibiana's Cathedral, the only chief executive ever given that privilege, what do you think are the odds that His Eminence will invite Barack Hussein Obama to the Archdiocese of L.A.?

We need to hope and pray that Cardinal Mahony will acknowledge this time around that no pro-abortion politician, president or not, should ever be allowed inside any Catholic church or other venue, in ole L.A. or anywhere.

Nor should Cardinal Mahony lend his presence to any secular appearance anywhere in L.A. by pro-abortion Barack Hussein Obama.

The first step in getting Catholics to stop voting pro-abortion

What would you say should be the first step in getting Catholics to stop voting pro-abortion?

There are several possibilities. But a really good start would be for our U.S. bishops, singly and then formally together, to announce that they are de-registering from the Democrat Party because of its complicity in the mass slayings of America's preborn baby boys and girls by the tens of millions. Next, the major superiors of the religious orders could follow suit.

Then at least some priests and religious would follow the lead of our U.S. bishops and major superiors. And so would some lay Catholics.

This is not to say that the bishops, superiors, religious and laity have to register Republican, of course. They can register as Independents, obviously.

But, as Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly of St. Louis and now the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (at the Vatican), said earlier this year, "At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself into a party of death."

All the laity know very well that lots and lots of our bishops and priests are registered Democrat and vote Democrat.

The continued loyalty of many of our bishops, priests and religious to the pro-abortion "party of death" gives tens of millions of lay Catholics all the excuse they need to keep voting pro-abortion.

What a huge scandal! How on earth can Catholic bishops, priests, religious and lay people vote pro-abortion -- for that is exactly what they are doing when they vote Democrat.

Think of all the good our bishops and priests could do if they would only lead their flocks out of the "party of death" and into the Catholic, pro-life light of Christ.

Cardinal Mahony and his bishops pen soothing message to homosexuals

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and his bishops, Thomas Curry, Gerald Wilkerson, Edward Clark, Gabino Zavala, Alexander Salazar and Oscar Solis, have issued "A Pastoral Message to Homosexual Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles" (click on this post's title) and have posted it on their web site, in Spanish as well as English.

Apparently, the 98% of people who are normal may read the message, too. (Actually, I'm kidding by saying this, because the bishops do say in the first paragraph that they "would like" to address the message to all L.A. Catholics and to everyone in L.A.)

Our Catholic bishops' "pastoral message" explains at length that all major religions have always understood marriage and family as man-woman-based. But the bishops never mention the Sacrament of Matrimony and its founding by Jesus, nor do they quote any papal encyclicals or teaching documents from the Vatican. Our L.A. bishops instead quote the UN's "Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

No doubt our bishops would say their message's purpose is to explain Prop 8, not Catholic doctrine. But they are losing a "teachable moment."

Our bishops' message does not counsel homosexuals that their unnatural acts of sodomy cannot constitute a basis for marriage, that acts of sodomy spread hideous diseases, or that acts of sodomy are mortal sins and those who commit them may not receive Communion until they repent and confess. Again, the bishops are losing a "teachable moment."

The message does come with an appendix that provides the Bible's verses about marriage. (It also lists the Koran's verses about marriage, and in Arabic as well as English!)

The message brims with reassurances to homosexuals:

"...we want to reassure each of you that you are cherished members of the Catholic Church, and that we value you as equal and active members of the Body of Christ."

"...the importance of you, our homosexual brothers and sisters in the Church."

"...your personal dignity and value as full members of the Body of Christ."

"...the value and importance of of gay and lesbian persons."

"Your intrinsic value as human beings and brothers and sisters continues without change."

"We are disappointed that the ballot information about Proposition 8 stated that the purpose of the initiative was 'to ban gay marriage.' From the very beginning, this was not our purpose."

"If we had ever thought that the intent of this proposition was to harm you or anyone else in California, we would not have supported it."

"We are personally grateful for the witness and service of so many dedicated and generous homosexual Catholics. We pledge our commitment to safeguard your dignity."

"We are committed to find ways to eliminate discrimination against homosexual persons, and to help guarantee the basic rights which belong to each of us."

Our bishops should be defending our Catholic Church and the rest of society by telling all homosexual pressure groups to end their campaign to take over all elements of society and to silence, criminalize and punish all who oppose them and defend marriage, family and morality.

Our L.A. bishops say this about the homosexual campaign of hate against supporters of Prop 8:

"We are saddened that some people who opposed Proposition 8 have employed hurtful and accusatory language, and even threatening actions, against those who voted for Proposition 8. This is most unfortunate since such strategies obscure the basic matter at issue: the preservation of the ordered relationship of man and woman created by God."

In reality, of course, the homosexual hate campaign against backers of Prop 8 consisted of far more than "accusatory language" and "threatening actions." As has been reported, it targeted backers of Prop 8 with property damage, vandalism, physical harassment and violence.

Also, in reality the homosexual hate campaign is "most unfortunate" not because it "obscures the basic matter at issue" but because it is a hate campaign and because it violates the "rights," "dignity," "value" and "importance" of normal people. Our L.A. bishops fail to say that.

Can we next expect a pastoral message from our local hierarchy about cherishing L.A.'s preborn babies and the loving, prayerful and devoted pro-life activists who try to save them? Nope.

Letter-writers rip L.A. Times's anti-Catholicism

Here are two great letters to the editor (click on this post's title) in today's Los Angeles Times in response to that newspaper's editorial the other day about ordaining women, "What would Mary do?"
----------------------
It never ceases to amaze Catholics how often secular media outlets find it their business to opine about the internal matters of the Catholic Church.

The editorial on the Catholic Church's strictures for its clergy is just the latest example. As no one is forced to be Catholic, and anyone who is Catholic can quit at any time, it smacks of something other than curiosity that a newspaper thinks it right to judge a world religion through its secular lenses.
William Donohue, New York
[Notice that the L.A. Times conveniently (for them) omits Mr. Donohue's affiliation -- he's the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.]

::

With regard to the editorial "What would Mary do?" -- and based on the anti-Catholic vitriol in The Times' reporting and editorial pages -- Mary would cancel her subscription.
Charles O'Connell, Stevenson Ranch

What about the molesters in government schools?

Did you see the following letter in today's (Friday) L.A. Times?

"Re 'Etching abuse in church’s memory,' Column One, Dec. 1

"Monuments are being built 'to provide solace' to victims of abuse by clergy of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the author of a 2004 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education has reportedly stated that "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

"If she is proved correct, will the L.A. Unified School District put up a monument at the Belmont Learning Center for its victims of abuse by teachers? Or does our media and culture only care about abuse by Catholic priests? Do we really care about sexual abuse at all, or just the vocation of the abuser?

"Dave Pierre,
Downey"

Now, obviously, Mr. Pierre is not in the slightest excusing clergy sex abuse (and neither am I, obviously -- just the opposite, of course). Mr. Pierre is simply pointing out that if the news media truly wanted to protect all children, they would need to expend as much effort on spotlighting government school molesters as they have on spotlighting molesters in the clergy.

Time for a moratorium on the U.S. bishops' film rating office

Sometimes in the past I've pointed it out when the U.S. bishops' film rating office gives a positive review and rating to a morally offensive movie.

The bishops' office does that pretty frequently, actually.

Not only that, but they rarely blast or even point out the anti-Catholicism that permeates so many movies today.

So now I'm calling for the bishops to close their film rating office. Shut it down. Declare a moratorium.

Do not reopen the office until after the non-liberal bishops have searched for and hired reviewers who offer their full, free and wholehearted assent to Catholic morality about films and who will give evil movies the rating they deserve.

Giving space to a vile, morally offensive movie, spelling out its slime and then giving it a rating of less than "Morally Offensive" legitimizes the making of such movies and Catholics' viewing of them.

You might remember that the US bishops' film office gave an initially positive review to the homosexual-agenda propaganda movie "Brokeback Mountain" a couple of years ago.

They have just done something similar.

Wouldn't you think the U.S. bishops' film office would give a rating of "O" ("Morally Offensive") to a homosexual-agenda propaganda movie that shows "brief scenes of homosexual activity," such as homosexual men kissing, "nongraphic encounters" and "rear male nudity?"

Sure, you would. Me, too.

Well, the U.S. bishops' film office does NOT think so.

LifeSiteNews.com reports (click on this post's title) that the USCCB film office has given a rating of not "O" but of "L" ("Limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling") to -- but has written a positive review of -- the new film "Milk," a bio of the assassinated San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, an avowed homosexual.

The film is said to stress that the assassin was Catholic.

True, rating the film "L" is better than rating it A-I, A-II or A-III. But when the bishops' office couples that rating with a positive review, you can see the problem.

I can't bring myself to provide a direct link to the U.S. bishops' office review, but the LifeSiteNews.com story does have the link.

The LSN story also has the contact information for Chicago Archbishop Francis George, the USCCB president, in case anyone wants to (politely) complain to him.

Shut down the bishops' film rating office. Now.

Bishop agrees with Quintero: Defy the pro-aborts, don't close Catholic hospitals

Bishop Paul Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington, Northern Virginia, recently said that he would defy the federal government rather than close a Catholic hospital or permit it to abort babies under Barack Hussein Obama.

Just as Ole Pedro Quintero suggested in this very blogspot the other day!

LifeSiteNews.com today quoted Bishop Loverde:

"I would say, 'Yeah, I’m not going to close the hospital, you’re going to arrest me, go right ahead. You’ll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I’m not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions, and you can go take a flying leap.'"

Catholic teaching from the early days onward, as we know, is that an unjust law is no law at all and has no binding force. In the case of aborting babies, we have a duty not only to not comply with such a law but to oppose it.

The L.A. Times can't resist attacking our Church

That arrogant editorial (see the previous post) about "ordaining" ladies was not the only attack the L.A. Times made against our Church on Sunday. They also ran a long op-ed (click on this post's title) that included a slam at the Church.

The op-ed, "The GOP's McCarthy gene," by author Neal Gabler, wrongly accused the Republican Party of winning elections by appealing to people's fears.

The attack on our Church came when Gabler wrote this bilge:

"[Senator Joseph] McCarthy [R-Wisc], a Catholic, was especially adept at nursing national resentments [sic] among the sorts of people that typically did not vote Republican. He stumbled onto the fact [sic] that many of these people in postwar America were frightened and looking for scapegoats [sic]."

Why did Gabler write, and the L.A. Times print, those two words, "a Catholic?" They are out of place. They clearly have nothing to do with the topic. Are Catholics "adept at nursing national resentments?"

That is the language of bigotry. Such attacks are not small things. We must never let them stand unchallenged.

By the way, it is to the everlasting credit of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, who were good friends of Senator Joe McCarthy, that they loyally remained friends with him when everyone else in Washington, D.C., turned against him.

Once again the L.A. Times lectures our Church

Once again, and for the umpteenth time, the editors at the Los Angeles Times have given their secularist liberal advice to our Church.

They ran an editorial on Sunday (click on this post's title) and entitled it, in their print edition, "What Would Mary Do?" They criticized our Church for rightly warning Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois that he risks excommunication if he does not repent of and apologize for taking part in the obviously invalid "ordination" of a lady.

The L.A. Times is also upset with Cardinal Roger Mahony because he has rightly reminded everyone that lay people are forbidden to give the homily at Mass.

Ole Q has this advice for the Times: "Please leave the pontificating to the Pontiff, whose job it is!"