Father Marcial Maciel, L.C., has died

Padre Alvaro Corcuera, the head of the Legionaries of Christ, has announced that the Legionaries' founder, Padre Marcial Maciel, L.C., died today http://www.marcialmaciel.com/eng/nfundador.htm

What with the allegations and Pope Benedict's action, let us pray for the repose of his soul and let us pray for everyone concerned.

May God always watch over, guide, protect and prosper our Catholic Church, for His glory and the eternal good of souls.

My Jesus, mercy! Mary, help!

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P.S. The Reuters report (click on this post's title) could not resist calling the Legionaries of Christ "an ultra-conservative movement." The news media hardly ever call anyone "liberal," let alone "ultra-liberal."

The h.q. sale

It is old news (click on this post's title) now -- the Archdiocese of Los Angeles's Jan. 23 sale of its 12-story headquarters building on Wilshire Boulevard to Jamison Properties for $31 million.

ThriftyPayLess donated the building to the Archdiocese in 1995.

Jamison says it has more than 100 properties with more than $3 billion in capitalization http://www.jamisonproperties.com

The Archdiocese will lease back four floors of the building.

Have you heard anything interesting about the sale?

"Love is a verb," so let's love our preborn babies

"Love is a verb" is the title of a current Tidings article (click on this post's title) about this year's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Prayer Breakfast, which was held on Jan. 21 at Verbum Dei High School in Watts.

Loyola Marymount Prof. Michael Datcher, the keynoter, said, "Dr. King knew that love is a verb, an action word...Let's love God by changing the world, by making agape love a verb."

He also told clergy they should "lead by example. Your people need your leadership. That's why Dr. King's example was so powerful. He lived the message."

L.A. Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Solis said: "God does not like lukewarm Christians. He wants hot-blooded Christians, people of action who know that love isn't just a feeling, but something we do with our hearts."

So with these words in mind, look at the photo above: The members of the L.A. pro-life youth group Survivors are gathering to sing Christmas carols outside an L.A. abortion chamber. They save babies' lives by doing this; moms change their minds and come outside and get real help from the pro-lifers.

These anti-abortion kids are "people of action." They are turning "love into a verb." So we should each become like them, shouldn't we? -- "changing the world" by practicing life-saving pro-life action.

Your excellencies in the hierarchy, and reverend clergy, "Your people need your leadership" outside our many local abortion chambers." Will you become a "hot-blooded Christian" who saves our babies from abortion-death, and helps their moms, by leading your people outside the abortion chambers?

Will you "live the message" for preborn babies and their moms?

After all, as we know, "Love is a verb."

The Archdiocesan Respect Life Mass

"Closed" is what we want, and pray for, and need every single abortion mill to be, here in Los Angeles and in the rest of the Archdiocese, too -- but you and I need to work to see that happen, as well as to pray.

The current issue of The Tidings has a Catholic News Service story on the huge Jan. 22 March for Life in D.C. It also has a story (click on this post's title) on the Jan. 19 Archdiocesan Respect Life Mass.

The story says dear and good Sister Paula Vandegaer, founder of International Life Services, who has done so much for decades to fight abortion and euthanasia killings, "introduced the annual ceremony of light commemorating the estimated 151 lives lost to abortion daily in the County of Los Angeles."

Hear that? 151 babies a day, aborted right here among us in L.A.

Don't you think we need to start ending our abortions?

Suggestion: It's long past time that our Catholic hierarchy, clergy and laity in L.A. get the Saul Alinsky-Industrial Areas Foundation-United Neighborhoods Organization (UNO)-South Central Organizing Committe-East Valley Organization (EVO)-and-similar activism groups to apply their strategies and tactics to shutting down the abortion profiteers who prey upon our people.

Any takers? Please pray about it.

Pope Pius XII, we love you! Please pray for us!

Next time you hear any of our fellow Catholics, young or old, attack the Vicar of Christ Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) and our one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church, tell them to visit these web pages and report back with their findings:

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius.php

http://www.catholicleague.org/rer.php?topic=The+Church+and+the+Holocaust

http://www.catholicleague.org/petition.php

http://www.sistermargherita.com/sanctity.htm

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0108-marchione

If a Catholic, young or old, ever attacks Pope Pius XII and the Church without having read these web pages and similar ones and without having studied the excellent, solid sources there, he has not begun to do balanced, objective and thorough research and he is operating without all the facts.

It is our duty to our Catholic Church, yours and mine, to make our fellow Catholics, young and old, aware of the truth about Pope Pius XII, the Vicar of Christ. Think of all that title signifies! -- and pray for protection for our Church.

+ Pro-life Fr. William Kidwell, S.J., Requiescat in Pace +

Go to the latest issue of The Florida Catholic to read the obituary (click on this post's title) of a great priest, pro-life Fr. William Kidwell, S.J., 83.

Every Jan. 22 for more than two decades, Fr. Kidwell took high school kids from sunny Miami to frigid Washington, D.C., to take part in the March for Life.

This year, two days before his death on Jan. 13, Fr. Kidwell dictated a letter to teacher colleague Jim Dugard to tell everyone "to speak up and to rally around [preborn babies] since much of America is not doing this."

So at this year's March for Life, getting to carry the lead banner were Fr. Kidwell's kids from Miami. Their backpacks bore his name.

Mr. Dugard said about Fr. Kidwell, "I know that he is surrounded by all of those children who died from abortion and God has rewarded him for his tireless effort on behalf of the unborn."

Some of you, Reverend Clergy of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, are, like Fr. Kidwell, leading our children to be pro-life. May I respectfully urge every one of you to make it unanimous and be a pro-life apostle like that great priest.

(Thanks to today's LifeSiteNews for telling the world about Fr. Kidwell.)

January 22, Roe vs. Wade, a date that continues to live in infamy. We have to start saving our babies.

The painting above is making ole Q shed some tears tonight. How about you?

It's called "Earth's Trash, Heaven's Treasure," and it shows guardian angels taking aborted babies from an abortion mill's dumpster up to Jesus in Heaven.

You can get a copy at www.priestsforlife.org./store

Did you know that Bishop John W. Yanta of Amarillo has declared this January 22, 2008, a Day of Fasting and Abstinence in his diocese? God reward him!!!

Bishop Yanta writes in his diocesan paper, "I encourage all the people of God to attend Mass that day, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, pray the rosary and witness to life...Make Jan. 22 a day of repentance and reparation." [emphases added]

Did you also know that, as Bishop Yanta's newspaper, The West Texas Catholic, points out, the GIRM, no. 373, says this:

"On the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade (1973) Jan. 22 shall be observed in all dioceses of the United States as a particular day of penance for violations of the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life." [emphasis added]

So let's tell everyone about this and let's pray, do penance and seek to save babies on Jan. 22, a day that continues to live in infamy.

And by the way, did you also know that it was our own Bishop John Ward of L.A. who came up with the name, "right to life movement," many years ago? God bless him!

Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., new Superior General of the Society of Jesus

The 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus yesterday elected Spanish-born Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, 71, as the Society's 30th Superior General, and Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval.

Fr. Nicolas has been a missionary in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines for decades.

The Ignatius Insight Scoop blogspot links to an article (click on this post's title) about him. It quotes him:

"'The question is how to give the Ignatian experience to a Buddhist', he says. 'Not maybe formulated in Christian terms, which is what Ignatius asked, but to go to the core of the experience. What happens to a person that goes through a number of exercises that really turn a person inside-out. This is still for us a big challenge.'"

"Not...what Ignatius asked" -- ??? Let's hope he didn't mean that the way it sounds.

Let's greet Fr. Nicolas and pray for him, for the entire Society of Jesus and for all the Church. Amen.

This year's Walk for Life West Coast: 25,000+ marched

Kudos to every one of the 25,000+ pro-lifers up in San Francisco who took part in yesterday's fourth annual Walk for Life West Coast.

The San Francisco Chronicle covered (click on this post's title) the event and did actually manage to quote two of the Walk's speakers.

The Chronicle editors buried the story on Page B1. And of the 17 photos the paper posted online, eight were of the pro-aborts and only eight were of the event itself. (Oddly, one photo was of a policeman at the event.)

They used the "both sides" approach to what was a pro-life event -- giving equal coverage to the "300" (most likely fewer than that) abortion enthusiasts.

They said "At least 10,000 abortion opponents were bused into the city," as if nobody from San Francisco attended. Recall that at the first Walk, the pro-aborts claimed the pro-lifers must all be outsiders.

If you attended the Walk, could you please spare a moment to say here what it was like? Thanks in advance!

"Annual Archdiocesan Respect Life Celebration," Sat., Jan. 19, 2008

The above photo of a little girl or boy in 1972 is, as you probably know, a famous photo in the right to life, anti-abortion cause.

Some people forget that the babies, not politicians or awards dinners, are the center of the struggle. Saving the babies, rescuing them from death and then helping their moms/parents, is the whole point.

When you hear Catholics say, "Abortion is only one issue," reply, "Wrong. The little girl or boy who is targeted is a PERSON like you or me, NOT an issue."

Cardinal Mahony has announced (click on this post's title) the annual Archdiocesan pro-life Mass as January 22, the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, approaches. Details:

Date: Saturday, January 19, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 West Temple St., Los Angeles

The Cardinal's announcement says, "With the beautiful music of the Shantigarh Requiem for the Unborn we will sing our Lord's praises and affirm the value and dignity of each and every human life."

May I just point out that the terms "Requiem for the Unborn" and "celebration" do not quite mesh.

After all, more than 100,000 babies DIED in abortions in California, many in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in the 12 months since the last Los Angeles Archdiocesan Respect Life Celebration.

We can and should celebrate the abstract concept of "life," but that is just the beginning. There is much more to do than that -- and not just once a year.

Our singing a Requiem for the babies whom we have failed to save will really bear fruit if and when we are actually SAVING the LIVES of actual BABIES.

Let's make not once a year, but EVERY Mass we attend, a Requiem for the Unborn, and a springboard to baby-saving action by you and me.

Everyone can do something. Everyone has a part to play. Let us begin. For God's precious little babies. With Mary's help and through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Eight California bishops to attend West Coast Walk for Life this Sat.

News reports say eight California Catholic bishops will be among the thousands of pro-life marchers in the fourth annual Walk for Life West Coast (for Walk info., click on this post's title) this Saturday, Jan. 19, in San Francisco.

That's great!

How about if each of these bishops -- I hear Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Niederauer are among them -- would phone up his local pro-abortion politicians this week and forthrightly invite them to repent, convert and attend the Walk for Life together with him?

Can I hear an amen?

Latin Mass

The U.S. Navy photo above, of the (Tridentine/Latin) Mass of the Ages being said in the Igreja da Candelaria (Candelaria Church) in Rio de Janeiro in 1946, is a reminder of what we have been missing for lo, these past 40 years.

The celebrant of the Mass is an American priest and Navy chaplain, Commander Joseph T. O'Callahan, S.J., MOH (1905-1964).

Yes, MOH -- Father O'Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on his feast day, March 19, 1945. His citation begins this way:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945."

Click on this post's title to read the rest of the citation -- you'll be astounded and edified at Father's heroism -- and to learn more about him.

Bishop Juan Arzube, Requiescat in Pace

Let us pray for the repose of the soul of Bishop Juan Arzube. As The Tidings reports (click on this post's title), he entered eternal life on Christmas Day, at age 89. His funeral Mass was December 31. He was a priest for 53 years.

Cardinal McIntyre ordained himto the priesthood in 1954. Fr. Arzube became an auxiliary bishop in 1971 and headed the San Gabriel Pastoral Region from 1986 to his retirement in 1993.

Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini. Qui fecit caelum et terram.

Our help is in the Name of the Lord. Who made Heaven and Earth.

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Church funerals for the notorious

Today's New York Times carries a news story (click on this post's title) about a Catholic funeral Mass in Tucson for Salvatore "Bill" Bonnano, former second-in-command of the Bonnano mob family in New York.

Unfortunately, one of the deceased's sons noted at the Mass that “He swore his oath and he never questioned it, he never complained about it.”

So what was Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas thinking when he allowed this funeral Mass?

But this reminds Angelenos who have a long memory of another Catholic funeral and burial here in L.A., that of Dr. James McMahon, in 1995. McMahon was an abortionist of late-term babies, called himself the inventor of partial-birth abortion and never publicly repented, before he died of a brain aneurysm. Now he is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.

So what was Cardinal Roger Mahony thinking when he allowed those services?

And who has incurred the most guilt, a crime family member or a serial abortionist of late-term babies?

(The photo above is from today's New York Times.)

Let's pray for the Society of Jesus!

We should all be praying, of course, for the Society of Jesus as, beginning today, 225 of their leaders meet in Rome this month to conduct just the 35th general congregation in their nearly 470-year history.

I've heard that California provincial Fr. John McGarry, S.J., and two other Jesuits whose names I don't have are the California province's delegates. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Let's pray for them in particular.

Today's (Jan. 7) Zenit daily news bulletin reports that Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, spoke to the delegates at the opening Mass of their meeting.

Cardinal Rode, says Zenit, told the delegates:

"It is with sorrow and anxiety that I see that the 'sentire cum ecclesia' [thinking with the Church] of which your founder [St. Ignatius Loyola, pictured above in a very accurate likeness] frequently spoke is diminishing even in some members of religious families. The Church is waiting for a light from you to restore the 'sensus Ecclesiae' [sense of the Church]."

Cardinal Rode also urged the Jesuits to love the Church, obey "the Roman Pontiff" and fulfill the "urgent need" to "present to the faithful and to the world the authentic truth revealed in Scripture and Tradition."

The Cardinal issued this warning: "The doctrinal diversity of those who at all levels, by vocation and mission are called to announce the kingdom of truth and love, disorients the faithful and leads to a relativism without limits."

It is no secret that, as the Cardinal's words might suggest, problems exist in certain Jesuit universities, seminaries, projects and some, but not all, parishes and schools. May this meeting reinforce the definite good that does exist and may it also prompt true reform everywhere and every way it is needed.

We need to pray fervently for the Holy Spirit to, as the prayer goes, "fill the hearts" of the Jesuits who are meeting in Rome, "enkindle in them the fire of His love" and make them "truly wise" so they, and we, may "ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ Our Lord." Amen!

Vatican has begun preparing a follow-up to Summorum Pontificum

Have you seen the reports that the Vatican has started to draft an instruction on how to implement Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio on the Latin Mass?

The New Oxford Review Daily Feed of Jan. 4 quotes an article in The Canadian Press (click on this post's title). That article says:

"The Vatican has begun drafting a document to elaborate on Pope Benedict's recent liberalization of the old Latin Mass because some bishops are either ignoring his move or misinterpreting it, Vatican officials said."

The Vatican has given no publication date for the instruction.

Let's hope and pray that this instruction will foster obedience and overcome the party line of liberal bishops in California and around the USA: "The motu proprio will have little effect here," "Only a tiny minority wants the Latin Mass," "Our priests don't know how to say it."

More liberal-bishop party line: "We have one parish that has the Latin Mass, and that satisfies the motu proprio's intent," "We have to concentrate on what the great majority of the people want, not on the wishes of a few."