Canadian Federal Election 2015: Two bishops speak up: "abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day"

Bishop Vann

Catholics need to realize how serious the upcoming Federal election is in Canada. As pointed out in previous posts, the CCCBs Episcopal Commission on Justice and Peace is a miserable failure when instructing Catholics in the gravity and preeminent evilness of abortion; failing to underscore the moral crisis, the absolute urgency to openly oppose the monstrous evil that plagues Canada, when up to 100,000 unborn children will be butchered per year. This is a scandalous compromise with evil. 

Some babies will be murdered in the particularly hideous sadist torture of "partial-birth" abortion, where the little one will be stabbed through the back of the neck into the  brain. 

Bishop Farrell

Thankfully, the American bishops have produced an excellent Guide on how to vote. We impoverished Catholics in Canada must turn to them for moral guidance. Many documents issued by the Catholic bishops of America are readily available on the internet. One outstanding example is the Joint Statement from their Excellencies, Bishop Kevin Farrell and Bishop Kevin Vann, from the Dioceses of  Dallas and Fort Worth, respectively. Published in 2008, it is as timeless as if it were penned today, for the truth is always timeless. Please pray for these two good shepherds that they may continue to guide their flocks amidst the trials and tribulations of this world. 

I urge all Catholics to study this document and form their consciences accordingly. Please spread this Letter far and wide. Please also encourage Catholics to study the USCCBs superb "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship". 

Joint Statement
from Bishop Kevin Farrell and
Bishop Kevin Vann
to the Faithful of the Dioceses of Dallas and Fort Worth

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

   
     ...The Church teaches that all Catholics should participate as "faithful citizens" in the public square, especially through our voice in the voting booth, and that we have the responsibility to treat the decision for whom we will vote for with profound moral seriousness.  We must approach the right and duty to vote with a properly formed and informed conscience in accordance with the teachings of the Church.  Last November, the Bishops of the United States issued a document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in which we and our brother Bishops issued clear moral guidelines to aid the faithful in proper formation of conscience with regard to the many issues we face in our nation today.  Through this joint statement to the faithful of Dallas and Fort Worth, we seek to briefly summarize the key points and dispel any confusion or misunderstanding that may be present among you concerning the teaching contained in the document, especially that which may have arisen from recent public misinterpretation concerning this teaching.

1.  Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly teaches that not all issues have the same moral equivalence.  Some issues involve "intrinsic evils"; that is, they can never under any circumstance or condition be morally justified.  Preeminent among these intrinsic evils are legalized abortion, the promotion of same sex unions and "marriages", repression of religious liberty, as well as public policies permitting euthanasia, racial discrimination or destructive human embryonic stem cell research.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly states:

"There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. Such actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called ‘intrinsically evil' actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia. In our nation, ‘abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others' (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5). It is a mistake with grave moral consequences to treat the destruction of innocent human life merely as a matter of individual choice. A legal system that violates the basic right to life on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed." (22)

2.  The destruction of the most innocent of human life through abortion and embryonic stem cell research not only undercuts the basic human right to life, but it also subverts and distorts the common good.  As Pope John Paul II clearly states:

"Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good... It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop..." (The Gospel of Life, 72; 101)

3.  Therefore, we cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion – while not the"only issue" – it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, more than 48 million innocent lives have been lost. Each year in our nation more than one million lives are lost through legalized abortion. Countless other lives are also lost through embryonic stem cell research. In the coming months our nation will once again elect our political leaders. This electoral cycle affords us an opportunity to promote the culture of life in our nation. As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act, and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America, limiting it as much as we can until it is finally abolished.

4.  As Catholics we are faced with a number of issues that are of concern and should be addressed, such as immigration reform, healthcare, the economy and its solvency, care and concern for the poor, and the war on terror.  As Catholics we must be concerned about these issues and work to see that just solutions are brought about.  There are many possible solutions to these issues and there can be reasonable debate among Catholics on how to best approach and solve them. These are matters of "prudential judgment." But let us be clear: issues of prudential judgment are not morally equivalent to issues involving intrinsic evils. No matter how right a given candidate is on any of these issues, it does not outweigh a candidate's unacceptable position in favor of an intrinsic evil such as abortion or the protection of "abortion rights."

As Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship states:

"The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed." (28)

5.  Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate's position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:

a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or "abortion rights," a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evildone; or,

b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning,there are no "truly grave moral" or "proportionate" reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.

To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or "abortion rights" when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible.

6. In conclusion, as stated in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the decisions we make on these political and moral issues affect not only the general peace and prosperity of society at large, but also may affect each individual's salvation. As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day. With knowledge of the Church's teaching on these grave matters, it is incumbent upon each of us as Catholics to educate ourselves on where the candidates running for office stand on these issues, particularly those involving intrinsic evils. May God bless you.

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell Bishop of Dallas

Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann Bishop of Fort Worth

The Ontario Catholic Teachers Association - OECTA - declares "collective environmental sin" is the "greatest religious issue" of all time!

Who can deny that our age is one marked by a great crisis, which appears above all as a profound "crisis of truth"?

Letter to Families, Pope John Paul II 

The Toronto Secondary Unit (TSU), of the militantly dissident Ontario Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) has proclaimed that "collective environmental sin" is the "greatest religious issue" of all time! Imagine that!

Sin is a personal offense against Almighty God, it is not "collective". 

As to the TSU declaration: NO dear members of OECTA. The greatest religious issue - at least of our time - is, as St. Pope John Paul II identified - a "crisis of truth"- manifested in subjectivism, immantentism and moral relativism. This is turn has led to an unprecedented anarchical and increasingly totalitarian moral crisis: contraception, abortion, divorce, sexual perversion and license. Instead of opposing these evils, OECTA continues to dissent, thereby pouring spiritual poison into young, gullible minds. How perversely evil. 

"Abortion" and "Foetus": The Episcopal Commission on Peace and Justice Electoral Guide 2015 ~ yes, words DO matter!

A Partial Birth Abortion: 

where the nearly delivered baby is murdered 

by stabbing him or her into the brain 

I have written about the shameful decision of the CCCB's Episcopal Commission to avoid using the word "abortion",  and the use of the word "foetus", rather than "unborn child". This is compromise with evil. 

Abortion: The Catechism of the Catholic Church uses "abortion". If the Guide is referring to abortion, why not use the word? Sins need to be specified and not obfuscated. In fact, a careful reading of the Guide does not tell us why abortion should be opposed (or for that matter suicide and euthanasia, which are mentioned by name); why it is a moral evil, a mortal sin. Given the state of catechesis it cannot be presumed that Catholics are cognizant of abortion as an evil to be opposed as a non-negotiable. To the contrary, the trend over the past decade and more shows an increase in Catholics (including regular Sunday Mass attendees) adhering to a pro-abortion position. The gap with our separated protestant brethren is actually widening. It is the Catholics who are embracing the culture of death more than the protestants. The moral relativist crisis amongst the faithful is actually worsening. 

Foetus: The morality of using "foetus" outside of a medical context is dehumanizing and degrading. It is used habitually and purposely by those who do not want to use "unborn child" or "baby". All the more reason to use "unborn child".  Consider: during partial birth abortion (which is practiced in Canada), the child is delivered free of the mother, but for the head (otherwise it is "legally" considered a homicide). The baby is then murdered by the abortionist stabbing him or her just below the skull at the back of the neck into the brain. Is such a murdered child to be referred to as a "foetus" in a Catholic election guide? 

John Finnis of Oxford University argues it in this manner: 

For about 12 weeks after viability some of these little beings are on the outside being tended by the pediatrician and everyone as babies, and some of them are on the inside still intertwined with their mothers, and being cared for, in some cases, by gynecologists who recognise they have two patients, and in some cases, as the mother decides (in America, or the party official in China) being threatened with destruction by her (or the state's) abortionist as a mere fetus. However extensive the rights in all fairness of the mother, and they are extensive, they are no basis at all for denying to the child she's bearing during those twelve weeks its proper human name, her baby or child...

Excellent point! Words have consequences: at times very serious moral consequences. 

Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) -Toronto Secondary Unit (TSU) campaigns for pro-abortion politicians

This is the type of politician that OECTA supports

We have posted a number of times about the objectively evil Ontario Englsih Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA); a strident and militantly dissident union - at least in its leadership - openly opposed to the Catholic Church.  Back in the nineties, OECTA was openly calling for priestesses, and hosting people, such as the "arch-heretic" Gregory Baum (the very words of  the Rev. Msgr. Vincent Foy). 

Waterloo OECTA retweeting OECTA's participation at the obscene and
evil Gay Pride Parade in Toronto 

Recently, OECTA's Toronto branch, the Toronto Secondary Unit (TSU) is busy endorsing Toronto candidates for the Federal election that are pro-abortion and pro-homosexualist that they believe are particularly favourable to the union. But it seems that the secularist disease infects all of OECTA, not just the notoriously militant TSU, but also, e.g. OECTA Waterloo. As I wrote a few months ago, it was very disheartening to read that the President of OECTA was openly supporting homosexualism. Instead of throwing him out, OECTA membership is either supportive or silent (due to cowardice?). 

Canada is in a very, very dangerous situation. The Church is an even more dangerous situation. Here, we have a critical election, and the Catholic teachers union in Ontario is openly supporting objectively evil candidates.  Why? Yes, why indeed. 

Canadian Bishops' "Episcopal Commission on Justice & Peace" promote Election Guides that are silent on the the issue of our times: abortion

"Abortion is murder in the womb"

Mother Teresa

A betrayed saint

The unaccountable and un-canonical Episcopal Commission on Justice and Peace, having released its own scandalous election Guide, that could not even mention the word "abortion" (with no mention of the just recently "legalized" abortion pill RU-486), has updated the CCCB website to include links to two further election guides: one from Development and Peace, the other from the Canadian Council of Churches. The holy name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is not mentioned in either document from these two "religious" organizations.  Both of these two new guides are secularist, promoting at best a sociological, horizontal Christianity, long ago condemned by the Popes. Neither guide addresses the three non-negotiable election items of Pope Benedict XVI. So what possible use could they be to inform a Catholic  conscience? One might ask: why not, for example, include REAL Women of Canada's Election Guide on their recommended list? 

"Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion" Laudato Si, Pope Francis

D & P perverts Pope Francis' encyclical, Laudato Si, failing to mention that at the centre of any ecological movement is human ecology: the defense of life from conception to natural death. D & P's concern is imposing new taxes on carbon emissions and extending government control into peoples lives. Strangely, it shows no concern to impose control to stop the heartless from killing unborn children? 

The Commission's recommended election guides

D & P fails to mention what Popes John Paul II,  Benedict XVI and Francis have written (c.f. human ecology): there can be no true, moral and just environmental movement without defending human life. First in this defense is the weakest most vulnerable of lives: the unborn, the elderly, the sick and disabled. We have mass extermination of the unborn, and we will soon have "legalized" euthanasia. Why are they silent?  

The document by the Canadian Council of Churches is hardly better. It does bring up euthanasia, but only within the context of needing a "debate" - there is NO opposition to euthanasia in this document, that, the Episcopal Commission evidently sees fit to recommend to Catholics for study on election issues. Needless to say, the CCC is likewise SILENT on abortion, the family, "same-sex marriage" and so on. 

Just how important is abortion an election issue? Let us, once again,  recall the words of St. Pope John Paul II:

It was a legally elected parliament, "which allowed for the election of Hitler in Germany in the 1930s and then the same Reichstag that gave Hitler powers which paved a way for the political invasion of Europe, for the creation of concentration camps and for introducing the so-called 'final solution' of the Jewish question, which meant the extermination of millions of sons and daughters of Israel." The pope continued, "We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws. ... Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."

Truly one can ask: why would the Episcopal Commission on Justice and Peace recommend these two election guides, when they are objectively evil? A great injustice has been committed against the Catholic faithful and loyal bishops who could never acquiesce to this. This committee is compromising with evil. It was tried in the 1930s with the Nazis, and we know the result of that. This is madness.

Prayer for Canada

0 Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust our country to your loving care.

Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed with the burden of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.

.Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and to the respon­sibilities that accompany human freedom.

Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and the breakdown of family life.

Grant us the wisdom to know and proclaim that this nation was founded on God’s law and that He alone is the True Source of our cherished rights and freedoms.

Guide and protect this land from every evil and from the attacks of the powers of darkness.

O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new culture of life. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Imprimatur: Bishop Roman Danylak, D.D,

Titular Bishop of Nyssa - Dec. 12, 2004

Canadian Election: Voting the lesser of two evils is a delusion... Msgr. Kass and Hitler

"On the one hand we must preserve our soul, but on the other hand a rejection of the Enabling Act would result in unpleasant consequences for fraction and party. What is left is only to guard us against the worst. Were a two-thirds majority not obtained, the government's plans would be carried through by other means. The President has acquiesced in the Enabling Act."

Monsignor Ludwig Kass

Meet Monsignor Ludwig Kass. In March of 1933 he was head of the Centre Party, a predominantly Catholic party with 74 seats in the Reichstag out of a total of 647. The Enabling Act, which provided the legal basis for Hitler's rise to power, allowed the chancellor to pass laws without involving the Reichstag. Msgr. Kass argued in favor of the Enabling Act, presumably in return for unspecified constitutional and ecclesiastical guarantees from Hitler. On March 23, 1933 the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act with the support of most of the Centre Party. Soon after this Msgr. Kass left for Rome and resigned from his position in the party. On July 20, 1933 the Reichskonkordat was signed followed shortly thereafter by the disbanding of the Catholic Centre Party. Msgr. Kass ended his career in exile in Rome, supervising the archaeological excavations under St. Peter's Basilica.

Monsignor Kass seems to me to be a tragic figure caught between two evils. On one hand persecution of the Catholic Church in Bismark's Kulturkampf was fairly recent history. The Centre Party had its origins in protecting Catholic rights in the face of this persecution. On the other hand the threat of a Bolshevik revolution in the face of the weakness of the Wiemar government and recent events in Russia seemed to be a greater threat. Perhaps Hitler's conciliatory tone led him to believe he could trust Hitler's promises.

Hitler's Speech to the Reichstag

By its decision to carry out the political and moral cleansing of our public life, the Government is creating and securing the conditions for a really deep and inner religious life. The advantages for the individual which may be derived from compromises with atheistic organizations do not compare in any way with the consequences which are visible in the destruction of our common religious and ethical values.

The Government will treat all other denominations with objective and impartial justice. It cannot, however, tolerate allowing membership of a certain denomination or of a certain race being used as a release from all common legal obligations, or as a blank cheque for unpunishable behavior, or for the toleration of crimes. [The national Government will allow and confirm to the Christian denominations the enjoyment of their due influence in schools and education.] And it will be concerned for the sincere cooperation between Church and State.

The struggle against the materialistic ideology and for the erection of a true people's community (Volksgemeinschaft) serves as much the interests of the German nation as of our Christian faith. ...The national Government, seeing in Christianity the unshakable foundation of the moral and ethical life of our people, attaches utmost importance to the cultivation and maintenance of the friendliest relations with the Holy See. ...The rights of the churches will not be curtailed; their position in relation to the State will not be changed.

It is easy to see how Msgr. Kass might have been swayed. He did not have the benefit of our historical hindsight in evaluating the consequences of his actions. The presence of Nazi troops outside the Kroll Opera House where the Reichstag was meeting might have been a clue. The Night of the Long Knives would not take place for another year and Kristallnacht was still years away. Hitler was still on his best behavior courting his rivals and clinging to the veneer of legality. Perhaps the monsignor thought, like so many others, that Hitler and his Nazis could be controlled. I can only imagine Msgr. Kass' feelings of remorse in his Roman exile as he watched World War 2 unfold.  

Catholics are once again suffering the effects of a new Kulturkampf. We have not yet gotten to the point of jailing clergy for preaching against same sex marriage, abortion or euthanasia but that may well be because it happens so seldom. We have already seen the collapse of Catholic school systems in parts of Canada. We have definitely gotten to the point of jailing peaceful pro-life protesters. We are also looking to an external threat in the middle east as many of our brethren are being killed for their faith. In the face of this we are given an electoral choice which can only be characterized as the lesser of three evils.

This pragmatic lesser of two evils strategy can only go so far before you find yourself severely compromised. Perhaps it is time we begin to preach the gospel in its entirety without compromise. If they threaten to close our schools and churches then so be it. I would rather attend mass in a garage with a clear conscience.

Enabling Act of 1933

Centre Party (Catholic Encyclopedia 1911)

"The Centre is essentially a political, non-denominational party; it takes its stand on the constitution of the German Empire, which requires of the deputies that they regard themselves as the representatives of the whole German people." True however to its programme, the Centre has regarded as its first and most urgent task the defeat of all legislative measures directed against the Catholic section of the community; and, just as during the Kulturkamf, so also today the preservation of the civil equality of the Catholic minority is considered the chief duty of the party. Apart from its programme, the fact that almost all the deputies of the Centre and their electors belong to the Catholic Church furnishes a sufficient guarantee that the party will most strenuously represent the interests of German Catholics in every sphere of public life.

Canadian Bishops' website promotes two new secularist election guides that are silent on abortion ~ why are they compromising with evil?

"Abortion is murder in the womb"
Mother Teresa

The unaccountable and un-canonical Episcopal Commission on Justice and Peace, having released its own scandalous election Guide, that could not even mention the word "abortion" (with no mention of the just recently "legalized" abortion pill RU-486), has updated the CCCB website to include links to two further election guides: one from Development and Peace, the other from the Canadian Council of Churches. The holy name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is not mentioned in either document from these two "religious" organizations.  Both of these two new guides are secularist, promoting at best a sociological, horizontal Christianity, long ago condemned by the Popes. Neither guide addresses the three non-negotiable election items of Pope Benedict XVI. One might ask: why not, for example, include REAL Women of Canada's Election Guide on their recommended list? 

"Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion" Laudato Si, Pope Francis

D & P perverts Pope Francis' encyclical, Laudato Si, failing to mention that at the centre of any ecological movement is human ecology: the defense of life from conception to natural death. D & P's concern is imposing new taxes on carbon emissions and extending government control into peoples lives. Strangely, it shows no concern to impose control to stop the heartless from killing unborn children? 

The Commission's recommended election guides

D & P fails to mention what both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have written: there can be no true, moral and just environmental movement without defending human life. First in this defense is the weakest most vulnerable of lives: the unborn, the elderly, the sick and disabled. We have mass extermination of the unborn, and we will soon have "legalized" euthanasia.  

The document by the Canadian Council of Churches is hardly better. It does bring up euthanasia, but only within the context of needing a "debate" - there is NO opposition to euthanasia in this document, that, the Episcopal Commission evidently sees fit to recommend to Catholics for study on election issues. Needless to say, the CCC is SILENT on abortion, the family, "same-sex marriage" and so on. 

Just how important is abortion an election issue? Let us, once again,  recall the words of St. Pope John Paul II:

It was a legally elected parliament, "which allowed for the election of Hitler in Germany in the 1930s and then the same Reichstag that gave Hitler powers which paved a way for the political invasion of Europe, for the creation of concentration camps and for introducing the so-called 'final solution' of the Jewish question, which meant the extermination of millions of sons and daughters of Israel." The pope continued, "We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws. ... Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."

Truly one can ask: why would the Episcopal Commission on Justice and Peace recommend these two election guides, when they are objectively evil? A great injustice has been committed against the Catholic faithful and loyal bishops who could never acquiesce to this. This committee is compromising with evil. It was tired in the 1930s with the Nazis, and we know the result of that. This is madness.

Why Pope Francis cannot and will not even try to change the doctrine and practice on Holy Communion for Adulterers and on the intrinsic sinfulness of homosexual acts

Catholics too often forget that Our Lord Jesus Christ is in control of His Church. Catholics also all too often forget that the Pope is merely Christ's Vicar: the Pope, as every Catholic is, is bound to believe and obey everything Christ taught and everything that has been infallibly taught in the universal and ordinary Magisterium. 

Certainly, a Pope can commit error in discipline and jurisdiction. We know, for example, that the suppression of the Jesuits by Clement XIV was a juridical act and it was wrong. But, it did not affect doctrine or practice. Nonetheless, due to the Pope being pressured  by, in this case, Freemasonry, he did commit error and damaged the missionary activity of the Church. Disciple and jurisdiction play an important role in the Church: pray for the Pope!

A Pope can, however, err as a private doctor. Papal Sunday homilies, for example, are not protected by the guarantee of infallibility. Nor do Popes expect Catholics to regard such homilies as such.  There is much confusion as to the extent of Christ's protection over the Pope: the Pope is not some automaton moved magically by Our Lord. He is a free human agent, open to sin. That is why we must pray and pray even more for the Pope! Lucifer and the hordes of hell target the Pope like no other person. If he can inhibit the Pope, cause disciplinary and juridical confusion etc. he can inflict immense damage on the Mystical Body. If he can goad on the "wolves" (who still dwell in the Vatican, and innumerable Chanceries) to manipulate and undermine the Pope, he will. But, let us not forget, even in such scenarios, Christ permits it: as a punishment for infidelity. 

But to conclude; in answer to the immediate questions as to why the Pope will not try to change neither the doctrine nor the practice (for giving Holy Communion to Adulterers and/or acclaim that practicing homosexuality is approved), at the upcoming Synod on the Family, the answer is because Our Blessed Mother will be guiding him. These were the words of the Pope at Aparecida, on the 24th of July, 2013,as Pope Francis re-consecrated himself to Mary: 

Mary Most Holy by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in your beloved image of Aparecida, spread infinite favours over all Brazil.

I, unworthy to be counted among your sons and daughters but full of desire to share in the blessings of your mercy, lie prostrate at your feet. To you I consecrate my intentions, that they may ever dwell on the love that you merit; to you I consecrate my tongue that it may ever praise you and spread your devotion; to you I consecrate my heart, that, after God, I may love you above all things.

Receive me, incomparable Queen, you whom Christ Crucified gave to us as Mother, and count me among your blessed sons and daughters; take me under your protection; come to my aid in all my needs, both spiritual and temporal, and above all at the hour of my death.

Bless me, heavenly helper, and through your powerful intercession, give me strength in my weakness, so that, by serving you faithfully in this life, I may praise you, love you and give you thanks in heaven, for all eternity. Let it be!

BREAKING: Bishop Athanasius Schneider gives conference in Poland on the abuse of distributing Holy Communion in the hand

His Excellency, Bishop Athanasius Schneider gave a conference in Krakow, Poland on the need for the utmost reverence towards the Most Blessed Sacrament, especially focusing on the near worldwide practice of distributing Holy Communion in the hand, which is an attack on the Real Presence, and causing great damage to the Church..."we cannot be indifferent, silent..."

Photos of the Bishop offering a Solemn High Mass can be seen here. 

Pope Francis: there is an Apostasy at work in the Church ~ "the apostasy, namely, the adoration of idols..."

"Only I can help you..." 

Many times Popes, subtly and in discrete ways reveal the true depths of their hearts and the real condition in the Church and the world. St. Pope John Paul II a few years before his death spoke of the "silent apostasy".  Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the crisis of faith.... now, we have Pope Francis speaking once again, of an "apostasy". 

The Holy Father spoke these astonishing words in his daily Meditation on April 20th, 2015. 

...And then the third temptation, “the apostasy: namely, the adoration of idols”. This too “is an everyday temptation of Christians, ours, of all of us who are the Church: the temptation not of power, of the Spirit’s power, but the temptation of worldly power”. 

...Herein lies “our daily temptation: slipping toward worldliness, toward power, and hence, faith, the mission weaken. The Church weakens”.

...Francis asked the Lord “to grant us this grace of astonishment of the encounter and also that He help us not to fall to the spirit of worldliness, which is that spirit which, behind or under a superficial layer of Christianity, will lead us to live as pagans”.

Rejecting the Church's Teaching: A Guide for the Combox Troll

The Church's teaching can be a difficult obstacle to attaining your political or economic objectives. Fortunately it is ignored most of the time and easily disposed of in those few instances when it is being publicly proclaimed. Here are some tactics that may prove useful in dealing with these pests.

1. Set up a straw man. Do not attack papal encyclicals directly. This risks placing you in direct opposition to the Vicar of Christ. Instead attack secondary or local expressions of these. For example, attacking Evangelium Vitae directly would place you in direct opposition to a canonized saint. This would be uncomfortable at best. Concentrate your attentions on local bishops and bishops conferences as some Americans have done to such great effect with Cardinal Bernardin. Media and politicians have exploited the seamless garment concept for their own ends so why can't we? 

2. Set up your own hierarchy of issues. The classic technique for countering the seamless garment argument is to use it as a smokescreen. Those issues you favor are used to mask those issues you disagree with. By a careful ordering of the list you can easily ignore the bottom of the list. Just because the Church wants to serve you a banquet doesn't mean you can't pick out the dishes you like.

3. Exploit cause and effect. The killing of a baby in an abortion is a direct effect of an evil action and requires no great understanding. However, the death of a woman of a drug overdose upon release from prison or a young man suffering a mental breakdown at the back of a street car is murky at best. Most people are quite incapable of following the chain of causation and cannot separate societal responsibility from personal culpability.  In other words, the baby is innocent but the drug addict is personally at fault for their own demise. Keep it black and white and simple. Most people do not want to think deeply on these issues especially if it involves self reflection. 

4. Exploit the emotions, especially anger and resentment. Most people do not want to pick up their cross. They want to lash out and blame someone, anyone, for the pain and misfortune they have experienced. This reservoir of anger and resentment sits there just beneath the surface waiting to be tapped. Why not take advantage of it? Harnessing this anger and directing it at a target of your own choosing can be a very effective tactic. If you are careful you can come up smelling of roses while others do your dirty work.

5. Exploit people's greed and self interest. Most people are not billionaire capitalists but most people have some vested interest in the system. It may be a mutual fund or retirement plan. It may even be the Horatio Alger myth of rags to riches that motivates people. In any case people fear that any systemic change in society may cost them personally.

6. Appeal to patriotism or nationalism. What better way to counter a religious concept with than with a pseudo religious concept like patriotism? Cold war rhetoric can be used to great effect, especially epithets like communist, Marxist and fascist. Most people have only a vague notion about the real meaning of these terms but are conditioned to an almost instinctive response to them. You want the instinctive emotional reaction with little or no conscious thought behind it. It is enough that people react as though to some enemy. This is called demonization.

7. Exploit the Winnipeg Statement loophole. The reaction to Humanae Vitae contained in the Winnipeg Statement states

In accord with the accepted principles of moral theology, if these persons have tried sincerely but without success to pursue a line of conduct in keeping with the given directives, they may be safely assured that, whoever honestly chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience.

This has been extensively used to promote dissent on the matter of birth control but a careful reading of it will reveal that the same rationale can be as easily applied to Quadragesimo Anno or Evangelii Gaudium as to Humanae Vitae. You might want to be careful with this one though. Just do it and don't bother publishing any high sounding statements about it. Such things have a way of biting you in the end.

8. Exploit the infallibility loophole. This is the notion that anything not proposed as infallible teaching is optional and can be safely ignored. Another variation of this is to call into question the pope's expertise in economics or political science. Americanists and other social modernists have been portraying the pope as some foreign potentate who has no real understanding of their society for well over a century. 

9. When all else fails, poison the well. Most people, however devout and blameless, have something you can latch on to. Find out what this mistake or error in judgement is and harp on it at every opportunity. Soon this seed of doubt will grow into a noxious weed, which will blot out any positive regard your opponent may have.

Unraveling the Seamless Garment

Human Life in some Documents of the Magisterium

A Consistent Ethic of Life: Continuing the Dialogue

St. Jane Frances de Chantal ~ a loving mother of souls

Today is the Feast Day of St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Amongst her writings are letters to her son. May mothers follow St. Jane's example of encouraging their children to live Christian lives. May St. Jane intercede before God to assist mothers in raising their children in these dangerous times. 

St. Jane Frances, pray for mothers and pray for us. 

Vive Jesus !

ANNECY, 1626.

I have an intense longing for news of you, as I cannot but feel anxious about this pain you are suffering. If I could but ease it by bearing it in my own body ! God so willing, what a relief it would be to me, for my heart is sore at the thought of you. Yet, believe me, my dearest Son, this suffering is sent for the profit of your soul. Bear it then as sweetly and as patiently as you can. It will help to win heaven for you. Lift up your heart often to that blessed country. The happiness that awaits us there is eternal, while the sorrows of this life soon pass away. And I beseech you, my own beloved Son, since your condition obliges you to row on the tempestuous sea of this world, try never to swallow its waters, but drink rather of those of Divine grace, turning in all your needs with a loving, filial trust to that source of mercy. Love above all else, and fear to displease, the God of sovereign goodness who alone can make you happy both here and hereafter. That you may possess in abundance His most precious graces is the abiding wish of her who with all her heart loves and cherishes you, her own special one.

Your good Mother

Is the Pope Catholic?

The Times of London published a startling item today, revealing that Pope John Paul II was in fact Catholic. We greet this news with great joy and anxiously await the day when dissenters, rebels and revolutionaries of all stripes reach the same conclusion about Pope Francis.
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS: August 11, 2015

Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as “the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years”. This should, of course, have read “non-Italian”. We apologise for the error.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and not necessarily those of any other contributor.

Corporate donations to Planned Parenthood manifests the moral degeneracy of Capitalist America

The Venerable Pope Pius XII

We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker - the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work..."

Pope Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique

I am neither a socialist nor a capitalist. I am a Catholic. The Catholic Church has firmly denounced various messianic materialist economic systems that take no account of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Various holy Popes such as Pius X (c.f. Notre Charge Apostolique, Pius XI (c.f. Quadragesimo Anno) and Pius XII (c.f. Le Pelerinage de Lourdes) have warned, denounced and exposed the evils of materialism and liberalism. The following list of capitalist supporters of Planned Parenthood in northern California, is just one illustrative example of how capitalism does the work of the devil. Capitalism is but liberalism applied to economics. 

Pius XII, in an address in 1957, denounced in no uncertain terms the evils of an economic system detached from true morality. The holy Pope wrote:

This materialism is not confined to that condemned philosophy which dictates the policies and economy of a large segment of mankind. It rages also in a love of money which creates ever greater havoc as modern enterprises expand, and which, unfortunately, determines many of the decisions which weigh heavy on the life of the people. It finds expression in the cult of the body, in excessive desire for comforts, and in flight from all the austerities of life. It encourages scorn for human life, even for life which is destroyed before seeing the light of day.

This materialism is present in the unrestrained search for pleasure, which flaunts itself shamelessly and tries, through reading matter and entertainments, to seduce souls which are still pure. It shows itself in lack of interest in one's brother, in selfishness which crushes him, in justice which deprives him of his rights -- in a word, in that concept of life which regulates everything exclusively in terms of material prosperity and earthly satisfactions.

"And I will say to my soul. the rich man said, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years; take thy ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Thou fool, this night do they demand thy soul of thee."

1. 3Com Corporation
2. Abbott Laboratories Fund
3. Adaptec, Inc.
4. Adobe Systems, Inc.
5. ALZA Corporation
6. AMD – Advanced Micro Devices
7. American Express Corporation
8. Amgen Corporation
9. Aon Corporation
10. Aspect Global Giving Program
11. Autodesk, Inc.
12. Bakar Foundation, Gerson
13. Bank of America
14. Barclays Global Investors
15. Baxter International
16. Becton Dickinson & Company
17. Birkenstock Footprint Sandals, Inc.
18. Brobeck Charitable Foundation
19. Cadence Design System, Inc.
20. California HealthCare
21. California Wellness
22. Capital Group Companies
23. Charles Schwab
24. Chase Manhattan
25. ChevronTexaco
26. Chubb & Son, Inc.
27. Cisco Systems
28. Citigroup
29. CMP Media, Inc.
30. Compton Foundation, Inc.
31. Computer Associates Int’l, Inc.
32. Cowell Foundation, S.H.
33. Del Monte Foods
34. eBay
35. Electronic Arts, Inc.
36. Fannie Mae
37. Federated Department Stores, Inc.
38. First Data Corporation
39. Fleet
40. Flora Family Foundation
41. Fremont Group
42. Gallagher Foundation, Arthur J.
43. Gap
44. Genentech, Inc.
45. General Physics Corporation
46. General Re Corporation
47. Georgia-Pacific Corporation
48. Grainger, Inc.
49. Haas Fund, Evelyn and Walter Jr.
50. Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos and Rudy LLP
51. Harcourt, Inc.
52. Hewlett Foundation, William & Flora
53. Household International
54. IBM
55. IKON Office Solutions
56. Illinois Tool Works
57. Infocom Group
58. International Data Group, Inc.
59. Irvine Foundation, James
60. Joseph Seagram and Sons
61. Johnson & Johnson
62. JP Morgan
63. Kaiser Family Foundation, Henry J.
64. Lam Research Corporation
65. Levi Strauss
66. Macromedia
67. Macworld Communications, Inc.
68. Mastercard International
69. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
70. Merck Company
71. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
72. Microsoft Corporation
73. Millipore
74. Monsanto Fund
75. Moore Foundation, Gordon & Betty
76. Morgan Chase
77. Morrison & Foerster
78. National Semiconductor Corp.
79. Network Associates
80. Nokia
81. Northern Trust Company
82. Olin Corporation
83. Oracle Corporation
84. Packard Foundation, David & Lucille
85. PCW Communications, Inc.
86. Peninsula Community Foundation
87. PepsiCo
88. Pfizer
89. Providian Financial
90. Prudential
91. Quaker Oats
92. Qualcomm Inc.
93. RBC Dain Rauscher
94. Rockefeller Foundation
95. Rosendin Electric, Inc.
96. San Jose Mercury News
97. SBC
98. Schwab Corporation
99. Schudder Kemper In
100. vestments, Inc.
101. Starbucks
102. Stuart Foundation
103. Sun Microsystems
104. Synopsis
105. Tandy Corporation
106. Tenet Healthcare
107. U.S. Bancorp
108. UBS Realty Investors LLC
109. Washington Mutual
110. West Group
111. Working Assets Funding Service
112. Xinet
113. Yahoo!