Look who's a "single-issue" cardinal!

Thanks to the American Papist blogspot for pointing out that by saying the other day that his field was immigration, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles was labeling himself a single-issue man.

Cardinal Mahony and countless other liberal Catholics have lectured us pro-life Catholics for years and years and years that: "Abortion is only one issue. You can't be truly pro-life if you only oppose abortion. You have to accept the broad spectrum of life issues."

So how come Cardinal Mahony says he has only one issue?

Don't look now, but: "Immigration is ONLY ONE ISSUE."

And, of course, liberal Catholics should admit that abortion is a big part of the illegal aliens issue: L.A.'s many abortionists prey on women and girls who are illegals.

You would think that anyone who really and truly wants to help illegal aliens would fight the abortionists hard -- and would also fight the politicians who protect the abortionists and funnel the taxpayers' money to them for the babies they kill.

Cardinal Mahony: "I spend all my time on" lobbying for illegals, none on looking into abortion funding in Obamacare

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles had made his priorities clear in the past, but in an interview (click on this post's title) with CNSNews on Sept. 22 he really left no doubt about them.

And in doing so, the Cardinal refused to back up an old friend of his, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia -- and in fact gave more credence to Barack H. Obama than to Cardinal Rigali!

Asked if he agrees with Cardinal Rigali that the House health care (read, "socialized medicine") bill uses tax dollars to pay for aborting babies and therefore needs to be amended to keep that from happening, Cardinal Mahony replied this way:

"This is 'way beyond my field. My field is immigration. I really haven’t kept up on that, and I spend all my time on this other. You have to get somebody who spends time on that."

Obviously, Cardinal Mahony could have replied instead, "If that's what my old friend Cardinal Rigali says, he must be right." Why didn't he do that?

Then, asked if he believes the bill should pay for aborting babies, Cardinal Mahony answered, "No, but that’s what the president said, too, so."

Recall that Cardinal Mahony once was the chairman of our U.S. bishops' pro-life committee. Recall also that L.A.'s predatory abortionists kill 108 babies every day in our fair area. Does our Cardinal Archbishop really have no time anymore to spend on saving our babies from being aborted?

At the bottom of the CNSNews article I've cited, you can read damage-control-attempts comments by the Archdiocesan spokesman, Tod Tamberg, and people's rebuttals of him.

More claims about the Michael Baker case

Steve Lopez is not exactly a friend of the Church, so bear that in mind if you read his column (click on this post's title) in today's Los Angeles Times.

Lopez's column is about court testimony by Msgr. Richard Loomis last week that in 2000 he wrote a memo that said the Archdiocese of Los Angeles should tell the police about sexual abuse allegations against since-defrocked Fr. Michael Baker. Msgr. Loomis testified that Cardinal Roger Mahony told him not to report the allegations.

Lopez says it is possible that Msgr. Loomis is making up these claims because he was put on leave of absence when sexual abuse allegations were made against himself.

But Lopez also says Archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg, in an e-mail, did not "come right out and say" no such memo from Msgr. Loomis exists.

To see if the Archdiocese issues any statement on all of this, you can always visit these sites:

http://www.la-archdiocese.org

http://www.the-tidings.com

Let us keep praying for our Archdiocese and all of Holy Mother Church.

Fr. Roger Landry to bishops: You haven't converted ANY pro-abortion politicians, so it's time to try a new approach

As Ole Q mentioned yesterday, Fr. Roger Landry, editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, has been writing about the funeral Mass for Teddy Kennedy and its implications for the U.S. bishops' decades-long useless policy of futilely "educating" Catholic pro-abortion politicians instead of warning and then disciplining them for their own good.

Fr. Landry's editorial (click on this post's title) in the September 11 issue of The Anchor is about that subject, too. He notes that the bishops' "educating" policy has not converted any politician, has not made any politician less pro-abortion, and in fact has taught these politicians that they can be 100% pro-abortion and still go to Communion. Fr. Landry writes:

"Jesus spoke of a different way in the Gospel (Mt 18:15-18). It involves not merely general educational statements that we hope offenders will apply to themselves in conscience, but the type of one-on-one instruction traditionally called fraternal correction. If that fails, and fails repeatedly, Jesus enjoined us to regard the offender as someone who no longer belongs to the community, who is no longer a member in good standing.

"This may seem harsh, but we should remember that Jesus always seeks nothing but the best for His Church and for individual sinners, even obstinate sinners. Implied in Jesus' strategy is that education involves not just information but formation, and that you can't form disciples without discipline. This is a lesson that after four decades of the undeniable failure of another approach, we need to consider anew."

Cardinal Mahony, are you listening? Auxiliary bishops, are you listening? Reverend clergy, are you listening? Is Fr. Landry right? What should you do about all the pro-abortion Catholic politicians in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles? What are you going to do to save the little babies of our Archdiocese from these defiant politicians? Nothing? Or something (in fact, something new)?

Fr. Roger Landry calls our bishops' decades-long "educate the pro-abortion politicians" strategy a total failure

LifeSiteNews.com notes that in his column (click on this post's title) in the Sept. 4 issue of The Anchor, the Fall River (Massachusetts) diocesan newspaper he edits, Fr. Roger Landry wrote that the U.S. bishops' policy of trying to "educate" pro-abortion politicians has never worked.

Fr. Landry penned these obviously accurate words:

"...one of the reasons why [Teddy] Kennedy’s example was so injurious to the Church was because the pastors of the Church, for the most part, made the imprudent call to do little or nothing about it beyond general teaching statements that they hoped offending politicians would apply to themselves.

"There were no real consequences, and as a result, Senator Kennedy, scores of other Catholic politicians, and millions of American Catholic lay people concluded that the Church’s teachings in defense of human life cannot be that important if those who publicly and repeatedly act in violation of it do so with impunity."

Fr. Landry went on to write the following:

"This leads to one of the most important lessons that pastors in the United States need to draw from the history of the Church’s interactions with Senator Kennedy for its future engagement of other pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Despite the good intentions to try to engage him, teach him, and help bring him to conversion, the strategy failed.

"There were many words given at the Senator’s exequies about his 'private faith,' but private faith is not enough. 'Faith without deeds is dead,' as St. James poignantly reminds us. The Church has a responsibility to help bring people from 'private faith' to see the consequences of it in public actions, and, in the Senator’s case, we didn’t succeed."

Thank you, Fr. Landry.

Now, we might recall that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles issued a statement --
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/08/cardinal_mahony_on_ted_ke.php -- on August 26 on the death of Teddy Kennedy.

That was the one in which Cardinal Mahony praised Teddy Kennedy as "a great champion" of "the voiceless, the powerless, and the most needy of our citizens." Yes, all of the "voiceless, powerless, and most needy" -- except, of course, for our millions of abortion-targeted preborn babies.

In that same statement, the following words of Cardinal Mahony totally illustrate Fr. Landry's point that the U.S. bishops' "educate politicians, but without any consequences for them" policy is a dismal failure:

"Over the years [writes Cardinal Mahony], however, I was never able to bring him to promote fundamental rights for one important group in our society—the unborn. But he did struggle with this aspect of his Catholic faith, and I was hopeful that at some point he would see that all of his work for the most needy had to begin with a commitment to every person—born and unborn."

The lesson is clear: If we are ever to get anywhere in saving babies from losing their lives to abortion, our bishops need to start warning our politicians that they cannot stay actively Catholic if they keep aiding and abetting the mass murder of God's little babies.

May Cardinal Mahony come to agree with this assessment and then defend the preborn babies in his jurisdiction by truly disciplining the pro-abortion Catholic politicians in his same jurisdiction. (No, I'm not really expecting this to happen. But it sure ought to.)

Fr. Roger Landry writes about the funeral Mass for Teddy Kennedy

LifeSiteNews.com points out that in his column (click on this post's title) in the September 18 issue of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, Fr. Roger Landry, the paper's editor, writes about the funeral Mass for pro-abort Teddy Kennedy.

Fr. Landry says that the elaborate funeral Mass "seemed to communicate that it was more a public, political apotheosis of Senator Kennedy than a humble, insistent prayer of the Church his mother for the forgiveness of his sins and the repose of his soul."

Fr. Landry adds, "This was probably not helpful to the Senator eschatologically, obviously scandalous to devout pro-lifers spiritually, and likely injurious to the Church both doctrinally and practically." He concludes:

"This...controversy was totally avoidable; all that was necessary was to adhere to the letter and spirit of the Catholic funeral rite. And the Senator, pro-lifers and the Church as a whole certainly deserved that the Senator’s funeral be an unambiguous and undiluted expression of the Church’s faith."

A pro-life, pro-population verse from the Book of Isaiah

For thus says the LORD, the creator of the heavens, who is God, the designer and maker of the Earth who established it, not creating it to be a waste, but designing it to be lived in: I am the LORD, and there is no other. -- Isaiah 45:18

(Passed along by e-activist Robert Jason, who got it from T. Bloedow.)

How to find rest for your soul

Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old
Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls...
-- Jeremiah 6:16

Prayer for the Closing of an Abortion Mill

PRAYER FOR THE CLOSING OF AN ABORTION MILL
www.priestsforlife.org

Father, all life is in Your care.
You have entrusted us to one another,
that we may show our brothers and sisters
the same love You have for us.

We pray, then, for the least among us,
the children in the womb.
Protect them from the violence of abortion.
We pray for those who are scheduled to die at
(Name the abortion mill assigned to you).

Save them from death.
Give new hope to their parents, that they may
turn away from the desperate act of abortion.
Grant conversion to the abortionist and to the staff.

Show us how we are to respond to the bloodshed
in our midst, and lead us to the day when this place
of death will be transformed into a haven of life.

Guard us with Your joy and Your peace,
for in You, life is victorious.

We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

-- Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life

The Serran Prayer for Vocations

THE SERRAN PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

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

For the Blessed Virgin, on Her birthday

Ave, Maria! This being September 8, here is a prayer for Our Blessed Mother from the Edmundite Missions, Selma, Alabama.


Holy Mary, Mother of God, I, your unworthy servant, do
this day choose You as my Queen, Protectress and Advocate.

I resolve never to forsake You,
never to say anything against You.

I promise to love and serve You and to promote Your cause
before all so that they may also come to love and serve You.

Accept me, I beseech You, as Your servant forever. Stand
by me in my daily activities so that they give glory to God.

Please do not abandon me, ever. Grant me the gift of death [with
God's grace] and an eternity of happiness with You and Your Son Jesus.

Amen.

Prayer in Honor of the Sacred Wounds

Probably you know this prayer? Not everyone does.


PRAYER IN HONOR OF THE SACRED WOUNDS

My crucified Jesus!

I adore the Wounds in Thy Sacred Head
With sorrow deep and true.
May every thought of mine today
Be an act of Love for You.

I adore the Wounds of Thy Sacred Hands
With sorrow deep and true.
May every work of my hands today
Be an act of Love for You.

I adore the Wounds of Thy Sacred Feet
With sorrow deep and true.
May every step I take today
Be an act of Love for You.

I adore the Wound in Thy Sacred Heart
With sorrow deep and true.
May every beat of my heart today
Be an act of Love for You.

Prayer for Daily Neglects

Probably you know this prayer? Not everyone might.


A PRAYER FOR DAILY NEGLECTS

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with all Its love, all Its sufferings and all Its merits.

First -- To expiate all the sins I have committed this day and during all my life. (Glory be...)

Second -- To purify the good I have done badly this day and during all my life. (Glory be...)

Third -- To minister for the good I ought to have done, and that I have neglected, this day and during all my life. (Glory be...)

Amen.