Q. If Opening a Planned Parenthood Office is Such a Good Thing. . . .

Then why did they lie about who they were in Aurora, IL when they applied to the City Council for a building permit?

A. Because they knew that if they came in honestly the outcry would be so loud that they probably wouldn't be able to move in. So, they lied about who they were & what they were doing.

Here is what happened:

(From the 1 Aug 2007 Stop Planned Parenthood Wed Report)

"Planned Parenthood formed a limited partnership named Gemini Health Systems, LLC. It then purchased the land and applied for all permits using this name. As it began construction, a sign in front of the building indicated that it was the future home of Gemini Health Systems. Thus, there was simply no public indication that this was a Planned Parenthood facility.

During the later stages of construction, one of the workers became concerned when he realized that bullet-proof glass was being installed and that one of the rooms was referred to as a “recovery room.” The worker alerted his pastor who then notified local pro-lifers. After a flurry of activity, newspaper reporters contacted Planned Parenthood leaders and they admitted that, not only is it a Planned Parenthood facility, but Planned Parenthood intends to commit abortions there."

Thank God the truth got out. It didn't take long for the Pro-Life forces to get organized. According to a LifeSite report: "A massive pro-life press conference and rally was held near the newly-constructed facilities of a mega Planned Parenthood abortion mill on Thursday. The event was part of a full-scale campaign launched by pro-lifers from the Chicago district to prevent the clinic’s scheduled opening this fall.

About four hundred people attended the pro-life rally that was held at the Prisco Community Center in Aurora. Pro-life flyers, little plastic figures of foetuses and other information and promotional material lined the tables inside the building."

Plans were made for a candlelight vigil to be held in front of the new facility. About 60 people attended. On 9 August a 40 day prayer vigil was begun. On 25 August at 9 am they held a massive rally. Here is some video for that rally which had about 1000 people in attendance:

On 28 August 400 citizens attended the Aurora City Council meeting. Only 2 speakers spoke in support of the clinic.

According to STOPPP other developments include:
On Monday (27 Aug), the City of Aurora hired an outside law firm to review the permit and building process of Planned Parenthood to make sure all laws were followed and PP did not commit fraud by its deceptive practices.

Pro-lifers, through the Thomas More Law Center have filed a lawsuit against the city of Aurora police department claiming that the police have violated their first amendment rights.

According to a post on Illinois Review: "Aurora's new Planned Parenthood facility may not open as scheduled September 18, pending the outcome of an investigation initiated by the city's mayor and demanded by angry residents.

Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner told residents late Tuesday night that Planned Parenthood's new facility would not open until an investigation had been completed as to whether city protocol had been properly followed to obtain city permits and whether or not Planned Parenthood used fraud or deception in the process.

"If I had known Planned Parenthood was moving into that location, I would have voted no," Alderman Richard Laurence said. "If I find out someone was involved in hiding this, well . . .""

"Attorney Vince Tessitore gave the aldermen copies of forms showing Gemini Office Development said new building's tenant was "Unknown at this time," withholding a direct connection between Gemini and Planned Parenthood, who is to be the new occupant.

Questions as to whether city officials knowingly cooperated with Gemini or whether Gemini withheld information on their own will be investigated, Weisner said."

This Sat a 1pm there will be a "Youth for Truth" Rally in front of the PP building. According to the Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood website:

"These young people want Planned Parenthood to know their propaganda will be resisted in our schools.

Families Against Planned Parenthood organizer Eric Scheidler will address the teens. Several youth will speak out against Planned Parenthood's program of sexual irresponsibility, disrespect for parents and abortion. All who attend will receive free "Youth for Truth" T-shirts."

Keep praying for the whole truth to come out, for the success of the rally & the prayer vigil so that the PP Clinic will never open.

& if you can, attend a part of the prayer vigil.

Iowa Right to Life Committee 2nd Huge Book Sale

Live in the Des Moines, IA area? Looking for a good book to read? Looking for an opportunity to support the Pro-Life Movement in Iowa? Here is a great opportunity to do so.

It is The Iowa Right to Life Committee's 2nd Huge book sale. It will be held 12-18 Sept 2007 at in the Apollo Bldg on 114th St at the Aurora Business Park in Urbandale off I-80 and Douglas. The times are 10:00am-10:00pm daily.

The book sale was started as an alternative to the annual book sale held by Planned Parenthood every Sept in Des Moines. The money raised by IRLC will go to supporting Iowa Pregnancy Centers as well as providing funds for education to promote life.

(The following is taken from the IRLC website)

The Alternative Book Sale

There is now an alternative to Parenthood’s book sale that is provided by the right to life. The sad reality is that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the U.S. that works tirelessly to promote their business.
After the first book sale we learned that people love books and they like it even more when they know their donation and their purchase go to a great cause.
With over 120 categories of books to choose from, there is a book for everyone in the family, including an excellent selection of home schoolbooks. This is also a wonderful opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of treasure hunting for books that are almost new, or out of print at incredible prices that range from .25 - $5.00.
The Coffee Company from Johnston will be joining the book sale again with their great coffee and treats, while piano music plays in the background.

Platinum Members
Serious book buyers will be given the opportunity to be the first to shop by becoming “Platinum Members.” Members will pay $150.00 (which will go toward the purchase of books) to be admitted into the PRE-SALE the night before on September 11th beginning at 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Memberships are purchased at the door or by calling the IRLC office at 515-244-1012.
(For more information to become a Platinum Member, contact Rhonda Philips the Book Sale Coordinator at 515-205-8024)
There will be a $5.00 fee on opening day, September 12th. All other days are no charge.

Donating Antique Books

If you are willing to part with your prized collection of books or records, Christine Dubiel, a professional appraiser, is providing accurate values to collectable books. Donations are tax deductible. The I.R.S. considers her an expert in personal property and she is also a past member of the A.S.A. (American Society of Appraisers), specializing in books. Finally, she is Ab Initio Books, a book publisher. She is offering this service at no charge to IRLC. Contact Christine at: cdbookdm@msn.com

Donations and Volunteers Needed
·Books, CD, DVD's of all kinds (please good condition)
· Please Help! We need six-foot tables-- loaned or donated

Contact: Rhonda Phillips at Iowa Right to Life to get involved: 515-205-8024 or Rhondie27@aol.com
To contact IRLC: Committee@IRLC.og
Book drop for donations: IRLC 1500 Illinois Street Des Moines
Book Donations are tax deductible

Dog Fighting = Barbaric / Murder, Abortion = Ho-Hum

Former US Congressman J.C. Watts has it right that something is wrong when we are more upset about a football player involved in dog fights (horrible as that is) than the over 3500 innocent lives snuffed daily by abortion.

J.C. WATTS: Dogfighting barbaric? So is abortion

Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat, referred to this act as "barbaric." In case you missed it the first time, he repeated it. Again. And again. And yet again.

Byrd acknowledged that he's witnessed one execution in his life, but wouldn't mind seeing another "if it involves this cruel, sadistic, cannibalistic business."

The gentleman from West Virginia got pretty worked up over the whole thing. "How inhuman! How dastardly!" bellowed the senator.

But wait. There's more! "Barbaric!" he yelled. "Let that word resound from hill to hill, and from mountain to mountain, and valley to valley across the broad land. Barbaric! Barbaric! May God help those poor souls who'd be so cruel. Barbaric! Hear me! Barbaric!"

But the 89-year old dean of the Senate wasn't done. He graciously offered that he would not prejudge a man's guilt or innocence on the barbaric actions which instigated his ire, but he left no doubts about his sentiments.

"I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt," he said.

In his never-ending quest not to be outdone by a demagogic colleague, would-be President John Kerry wrote a letter describing this as "one of society's most barbaric and inhumane activities."

CNN host Nancy Grace called it "murder" and compared the perpetrator to O.J. Simpson.

What heinous act has these -- and millions of other compassionate lovers and defenders of life -- so outraged? Could they possibly be expressing their condemnation to those physicians who swore an oath to honor and protect life, yet abort millions of viable young lives in utero every year? Could these esteemed leaders be acknowledging that the brutal procedure known as partial-birth abortion is indeed a sadistic and barbaric mistreatment of God's greatest gift -- human life?

Sadly, no. These men and women, and millions others like them, get more worked up over the admittedly brutal and inhumane treatment of soulless dogs, as evidenced by their public proclamations in the Michael Vick case.

Nancy Grace pointed out on her program, over video of two dogs annihilating each other, that the dogs "can't defend themselves." I'm confident Ms. Grace has never shown video of a partial-birth abortion procedure, and I'm relatively confident she has somehow failed to acknowledge that the unborn children are even more defenseless, but she's outraged over this nevertheless. If only they and their animal-rights allies would acknowledge the more precious worth of human life.

(I must note that Sen. Byrd has voted for a ban on partial-birth abortions, but I wonder if he debated in favor of human life with the passion he showed for Vick's canines.)

Please don't misunderstand me. I love dogs. There is no doubt the crime for which Michael Vick has been charged is brutal and inhumane, to say the least. But I fear our culture has degenerated to a level where our priorities are so out of whack, that we decry "from mountain to mountain and valley to valley" the mistreatment of innocent animals, while we turn a collective and legislative blind eye to the premature and yes, barbaric killing of human life in the name of "choice."

What's wrong with this picture?

I am in no way defending Vick, an NFL quarterback, for his off-field enterprises. If the allegations are true, and this happened on his property under his watch, the man clearly should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Vick has had several run-ins with authorities and fans over the past several years. At one point, you heard him say he's just "one of the boys." It's time for him to rise above the level of a boy, and raise the standard of maturity and responsibility for his "boys" to live up to.

Like it or not, being a high school, college and NFL superstar making millions of dollars a year brings with it some responsibility. And as any leader knows, the burden of leadership can sometimes be heavy. Unfortunately, Vick has fumbled the ball.

I've been a dog owner, and I must say I got attached to my critter. I'm not amused by or defensive of the accusations against Vick and his "boys."

But once -- just once -- I'd like to hear the John Kerrys, Nancy Graces and PETA supporters of the world weep over the brutal and barbaric taking of human life that they call "choice."

Absent that, I weep for them and for our culture.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com), chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group, is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.

You Can Tell A Lot About a Person by the Friends He Keeps

Or, as the latest video from the Catholic seminarians at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, what is good about NFP & bad about contraception:

Papa Benedetto: Have Your Passport Ready If You Want to Enter the Narrow Gate

BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gandolfo

Sunday, 26 August 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today's liturgy presents to us enlightening yet at the same time disconcerting words of Christ.

On his last journey to Jerusalem someone asked him: "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" And Jesus answered: "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (Lk 13: 23-24).

What does this "narrow door" mean? Why do many not succeed in entering through it? Is it a way reserved for only a few of the chosen?

Indeed, at close examination this way of reasoning by those who were conversing with Jesus is always timely: the temptation to interpret religious practice as a source of privileges or security is always lying in wait.

Actually, Christ's message goes in exactly the opposite direction: everyone may enter life, but the door is "narrow" for all. We are not privileged. The passage to eternal life is open to all, but it is "narrow" because it is demanding: it requires commitment, self-denial and the mortification of one's selfishness.

Once again, as on recent Sundays, the Gospel invites us to think about the future which awaits us and for which we must prepare during our earthly pilgrimage.

Salvation, which Jesus brought with his death and Resurrection, is universal. He is the One Redeemer and invites everyone to the banquet of immortal life; but on one and the same condition: that of striving to follow and imitate him, taking up one's cross as he did, and devoting one's life to serving the brethren. This condition for entering heavenly life is consequently one and universal.

In the Gospel, Jesus recalls further that it is not on the basis of presumed privileges that we will be judged but according to our actions. The "workers of iniquity" will find themselves shut out, whereas all who have done good and sought justice at the cost of sacrifices will be welcomed.

Thus, it will not suffice to declare that we are "friends" of Christ, boasting of false merits: "We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets" (Lk 13: 26).

True friendship with Jesus is expressed in the way of life: it is expressed with goodness of heart, with humility, meekness and mercy, love for justice and truth, a sincere and honest commitment to peace and reconciliation.

We might say that this is the "identity card" that qualifies us as his real "friends"; this is the "passport" that will give us access to eternal life.

Dear brothers and sisters, if we too want to pass through the narrow door, we must work to be little, that is, humble of heart like Jesus, like Mary his Mother and our Mother. She was the first, following her Son, to take the way of the Cross and she was taken up to Heaven in glory, an event we commemorated a few days ago. The Christian people invoke her as Ianua Caeli, Gate of Heaven. Let us ask her to guide us in our daily decisions on the road that leads to the "gate of Heaven".

Men and the Abortion Aftermath

Ever since I took my speakers class at DBQ Co. Right to Life in 2006 I have felt very strongly about this issue. There are so many lies put out there by groups like Planned Parenthhod denying the emotional & psychological damage that abortion does to everyone who is involved in an abortion. They deny it exists, when confronted with studies that prove damage does exist,they denigrate those studies. Interestingly enough, many, if not most, of those studies have been done by abortion supporters. But the truth is getting out there. Abortion is murder. It kills a life & does horrible emotional damage to everyone else who is involved with the act.

Fortunately, there are groups out there who are reaching out to those hurt by an abortion. They are bringing the good news that God can & does forgive. These groups bring God's love, God's healing & forgiveness to the other victims of an abortion, the mother, the father, the family of the child aborted.

On the right side bar of this blog I have a list of groups who help those hurt by their participation in an abortion. 1 of those is Rachel's Vineyard. Here is a Zenit interview with its associate director:

Men and the Abortion Aftermath

Interview With Kevin Burke of Rachel’s Vineyard

KING of PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania, AUG. 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- One man's sharing gives other men permission to examine their own role in abortion and the impact it has had on their lives, said counselor Kevin Burke.

Burke, the associate director of Rachel's Vineyard Ministries, and pastoral associate at Priests For Life, has co-edited a new book, "Redeeming a Father's Heart," along with David Wemhoff and Marvin Stockwell, about healing the wounds of post-abortive men.

In this interview with ZENIT, Burke discusses the type of wounds men experience when they have been involved in an abortion, avenues for healing, and how to help the women they love also find healing after an abortion.

Q: Your new book, "Redeeming a Father's Heart," addresses the suffering men experience from abortion. Why do you think this issue has gotten so little attention until now.

Burke: We have all heard the exhausted phrase repeated over the years that "abortion is a private personal decision between a woman, her health care provider and her God."

Men were seen to be peripheral figures in the process, detached and unaffected by the woman's "choice."

The reality is that men are involved in 95% of all abortion decisions, and they are profoundly impacted by their participation in the abortion of their child.

In our work as counseling professionals, my wife Theresa and I have worked with many individuals and couples who came to us for healing after abortion.

In the last eight years we have seen a steady increase in men who attended our Rachel's Vineyard Retreats seeking healing.

Many came with their wives or after their partner had attended. As they shared their experiences of abortion we quickly recognized the devastating impact it had on their lives.

Similar to women, when men experience deep healing of post abortion pain, they are freed from the shame and guilt that feeds silence and isolation.

There is a willingness to share their experience with others because they finally recognize that their feelings are normal, they are not alone.

Abortion hurts, and it impacts relationships in the home and workplace. (Emphasis mine!)

When one man shares his experience with close friends and family, it gives other men permission to examine their own role in abortion and the impact it has had on their lives and come forward to find healing.

Q: Aside from the absence of the physical suffering caused by the actual abortion, how does the psychological pain and healing process in post-abortive men differ from the experience of women?

Burke: The majority of men encourage, manipulate and even force their girlfriends, partners or wives to abort.

Many other men physically and/or emotionally abandon the mother of their child when they learn she is pregnant.

She is left alone to carry the full burden of the decision and the physical and emotional aftermath of the abortion.

Often the man may rationalize that abortion is in the best interest of the mother and deny her post-abortion grief.

An important part of healing for many men begins with an agonizing repentance of their role in the abortion procedure and the failure to protect mother and baby from harm.

This act of humility opens the door for them to acknowledge that they have also lost a son or a daughter.

This recognition gives them permission to examine how this loss has impacted their lives, how it has injured their father's heart, and encourages them to reach out for reconciliation with God and their child on the journey to healing, peace and restoration in Christ.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those men who have an instinctive desire to prevent the mother of their child from having an abortion. They do everything they can to offer support to care for both mother and baby.

If they are powerless to prevent the death of their son or daughter, they typically experience serious depression, rage and grief following an unwanted abortion that can be turned inward in self destruction or acted out in numerous unhealthy ways including the abuse of drugs/alcohol/gambling addictions, anger management issues, pornography, etc.

Such men need immediate counseling and an effective emotional and spiritual healing process like the Rachel's Vineyard Retreat.

Keep in mind that men who participate in and support the abortion decision will also experience post abortion symptoms such as shame, guilt, complicated grief, anxiety, depression and relational problems.

Other men suffer from sexual dysfunctions, addictions to pornography and related problems.

The place of the wound is typically where symptoms emerge -- and those symptoms then are likely to occur in future relational difficulties or obsessions and compulsions surrounding sexuality.

Jonathan Flora's story in Redeeming A Father’s Heart reveals that symptoms can be hidden beneath a very successful businessman who is emotionally detached and involved in transitional physical relationships for many years ... yet whose heart is wounded, closed off from deeper intimacy and love that we all hunger for.

Men often do not connect these symptoms with an abortion loss unless they are guided to explore this with a counselor, clergy, friend, through a post-abortion Web site, or a book like "Redeeming a Father's Heart."

Q: One of the chapters, “I Married A Post Abortive Woman,” looks at a man who married a woman who had an abortion before they met. The woman, knowing her husband was not involved in the abortion, was reluctant to share with him her suffering. In what ways can men who find themselves in this situation help the women they love?

Burke: This is a powerful account of a husband growing in his marital promise to love his wife as Christ loves the Church.

However, you can see how tenuous the relationship is in the early stages of their marriage as she struggles with depression, feeling unworthy to embrace motherhood and thoughts of cutting herself -- a commonly diagnosed symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder which is not uncommon among those traumatized by abortion.

The wife exhibits another symptom of post-abortion trauma: marital infidelity. This symptom is rooted in the common experience after abortion of struggling to fully trust and bond with one's spouse.

She feels unworthy of her spouse's love and she is fearful of embracing motherhood. Sadly, she acts out by having an extramarital affair. Many other relationships would have ended by this point.

Fortunately, the couple attended a marriage encounter weekend and later a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat, which led this couple to embrace the healing journey together.

What a blessing this was for their marriage! You see in this couple the redemption of their marriage as they grow to fully live the moral teachings of the Church, which are experienced not as a legalistic burden, but as a gift that offers healing, liberation and freedom.

This husband learned to grow in his role as Christ to his spouse. It is a beautiful example for all men.

It is important to note that this couple would likely have come to healing sooner if they had been gently introduced to a healing program like Rachel's Vineyard and had received information on how abortion might impact their relationship.

So many couples and families are wounded by misuse of the gift of sexuality and abortion loss.

They desperately need the healing found in the Church, and the gift of the Church's teachings on marriage and family life and the good news of abortion healing.

Q: In your book, most of the relationships involving abortions end in divorce, or breaking up. Is this common, and if so, how can couples who have had abortions save their relationships?

Burke: Yes, this is the most common outcome.

Tragically, a person will abort with the hope of salvaging their relationship, but the toxic aftereffects of abortion are like a radioactive seed planted in the heart of the relationship that will, at varying speeds, kill the relationship.

Keep in mind that the relational pain, the damage to trust and intimacy will continue to be present in future relationships and lead to further dysfunction and divorce.

That is why a trauma-sensitive healing process like Rachel's Vineyard is so important to treat the complicated grief, shame, guilt of abortion, so an individual is healed and free to fully trust and embrace the love of another.

Q: What resources are available to help men deal with post-abortion pain both at Project Rachel and elsewhere?

Burke: I am the co-founder with my wife Theresa of Rachel's Vineyard, an international post abortion healing ministry of Priests For Life.

We are blessed to be partnered with Father Frank Pavone, who serves as the pastoral director of Rachel's Vineyard, as we work together to build a culture of life. Over 500 healing retreats were offered around the world in the last year alone.

Men and couples do beautifully on the retreats and provide a special blessing to all participants. It is a special gift for many women to see a man grieving his role in an abortion decision, and the loss of his child.

It's also a great joy to see a man embrace his child with love as the weekend progresses.

Project Rachel, or other diocesan ministries, such as family life offices, sponsor about one-third of our weekend retreats in the United States.

We provide training and treatment models and work cooperatively with Project Rachel, parish-based ministries, retreat houses and all the other groups who reach out with the compassion and mercy of Christ to those suffering after abortion.

Another resource for post-abortive men is The Fatherhood Forever Foundation, founded by Jason Baier, also a contributing author to "Redeeming a Father's Heart."

Is It Worth Losing Your Head Over the Truth?

YES!!!!!

(See Mark 6:19-29)

Any questions? Ask St. John the Baptist! He'll tell you what the eternal rewards for doing so are!

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: "I am the truth"? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.

Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men. He was locked away in the darkness of prison, through he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ.

To endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather is was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward. Since death was ever at hand, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ's name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: "You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake." He tells us why it is Christ's gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us."

from a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable on the death of John the Baptist

Here's a Catholic Priest Who Takes His Shepherding Responsibilities Seriously

SHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be veewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting 'HARE'etics!

Huh, huh, huh, huh!

or

"You can have my gun when God pries it out of my cold dead hands!"
(New promotional poster for the NRA)

Fr. Erik Richtsteig at Orthometer is having a caption contest. The prize for the winning caption is definitely 1 that will have eternal benefits. Enter here: Caption Contest The entry deadline is 31 August 2007.

I guess if gun ownership is good enough for Moses (aka Charlton Heston) it is good enough for Fr. Richseig.

Ché Infamia!!!!!

It disgusts me that abortion is even legal in my ancestoral homeland of Italia. & that this happenned is even more disgusting. This article from LifeSite News shows the ugly truth about the selfishness that is a hugh componant of the abortion industry (Eugenics is the other.) .

Italian Hospital Aborts Healthy Twin and Leaves Handicapped Sibling

Mother returns and has Down syndrome child aborted

By Elizabeth O'Brien MILAN, Italy, August 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A fierce abortion debate has erupted in Italy after a mother pregnant with twins reported doctors to the authorities for aborting her healthy unborn baby while leaving the handicapped one alive.

Italian news agencies recently discovered that a hospital killed the "wrong" child in a pair of unborn twins in June. According to media reports, after the 38-year old woman discovered the so-called "mistake", she returned and had the second one, who was suffering from Down syndrome, aborted. She then reported medical staff, who are currently under investigation by the police.

The hospital termed the child's death a "misfortune," saying that the twins had switched places in between a previous ultrasound and the actual abortion. The woman was eighteen weeks pregnant when the children were aborted.

Calling on the Italian Health Minister to investigate the affair, leading Christian Democrat Luca Volonte decried the abortion as "infanticide arising from a contempt for human life," the Guardian Unlimited reports.

Senator Paolo Binetti, who is close to the Vatican says Inquirer.net, wrote in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, "The time has come to re-examine the abortion law." He said, "What happened in this hospital was not a medical abortion but an abortion done for the purposes of eugenics."

"They wanted to kill the sick fetus and save the healthy one and what didn't work properly in this business was the selection," wrote Binetti.

Ever since 1978 abortion has been legal on demand in Italy up to the third month of pregnancy. Pro-lifers are using this present case to fiercely argue against Italy's abortion laws, pointing out the contradictions and dangers within the present policy.

In March doctors in Florence's Careggi teaching hospital attempted to abort a perfectly healthy baby after two pre-natal diagnosis tests indicated that the child had a defective esophagus. The doctors botched the abortion, performed on the 22-week child, and subsequently discovered that the still-living baby was perfectly healthy. They managed to resuscitate the child temporarily (See http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030804.html).

Another abuse occurred this February when an Italian judge ordered that a thirteen-year old girl abort her unborn baby, despite her desperate pleas to save its life. Under Italian law, the parents or guardians of a minor can force her to abort her child, as happened in this case (See http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07021904.html).

(Added 28 August 2007 4:14 PM)

As I was saying about selfishness & eugenics in the abortion industry. No surprize that the Vaticano newspaper L'Osservatore Romano also agrees with the eugenics aspect of this whole event.

L'Osservatore Condemns Twin Abortion in Italy
Says Eugenics and Culture of Perfection to Blame

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- An abortion in Milan that killed a healthy twin fetus instead of her sibling with Down syndrome is a case of eugenics "imposing its law," says L'Osservatore Romano.

After it was discovered that the unborn baby with Down syndrome survived, a successive abortion later ended her life.

The Vatican's semi-official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is reporting the story in its Tuesday edition. The abortion was actually performed in June, but only recently made public.

According to L'Osservatore Romano, "eugenics is imposing its law." The article says the case can be attributed to "the culture of perfection that imposes the exclusion of all that does not appear beautiful, glowing, positive, captivating."

"What remains is emptiness, the desert of a life without content, though perfectly planned," the report continued.

No motive

The San Paolo hospital in Milan reported that the case was "a terrible fatality." The babies were in their third month of gestation.

The error occurred because the twin sisters changed positions in the womb between the doctors' examination and the abortion.

L'Osservatore Romano reported: "Two girls have died, assassinated as a consequence of selective abortion. A radical decision has brought about another abortion, that of the little sister that still had life." No one "has the right to eliminate another life. No person has the right to take the position of God. Not for any motive."

"It is an illegitimate decision, even though it is authorized by the law, as here in Italy," it continued.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Commission for Life, spoke with Vatican Radio today about the case.

He said: "All of us have to feel involved in this and many other cases that are repeated every day, to take on a new and different commitment for the respect of human life from its first moment, because these little ones share in the same dignity we have.

"And in the case that they have some sort of sickness, that simply means that they have more motive to be helped."

GOD REALLY IS THEIR CO-PILOT!

Recently it was announced that The Vatican is starting a charter airline for Catholic pilgrims. Here is part of the report by Reuters:

ROME, Italy -- While some passengers only turn to prayer when jolted by turbulence, the Vatican made it standard on Monday by launching the world's first airline for Catholic pilgrims.
Complete with Vatican logos on headrests and air hostesses' uniforms, the inaugural flight travelled from Rome's Fiumicino airport for the shrine of Lourdes in France.
The charter flight's slogan spoke volumes about what its clients are doing above the clouds: "I'm Searching for Your Face, Lord".

"It is a spiritual journey," explained Francesco Gherra, one of the pilgrims who boarded Monday's inaugural flight hosted by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former head of Italy's bishops.
The Vatican aims to serve 150,000 pilgrims a year on its chartered Boeing 737, run by Italy's Mistral Air.
Destinations range from the shrine of Fatima in Portugal to Mount Sinai in Egypt, where Moses is said to have received the 10 Commandments from God.
In-flight entertainment on the way to the world's holy sites will, somewhat predictably, be religious in nature, the Vatican said.
"The crew has been informed that there are (religious) messages that will be transmitted, that films will be shown during the flight," said Father Cesar Atuire at the Vatican office coordinating pilgrimages.
Keeping costs for pilgrims low is another Vatican priority, Atuire said.

Here is another (somewhat tongue in cheek) take on the whole venture:

They have no schedules and will only tell you "Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."

When boarding you always have to enter through the "Narrow gate."

Everybody gets the same seating arrangement because with Vatican Air there are no Jews, Greeks, Male, Female, Business Class, Economy, or First Class.

They use nuns as stewardesses and will rap your knuckles if you forget to say grace before eating your package of peanuts.

After the nuns demonstrate how to exit the aircraft and how to use the oxygen masks, they demonstrate how to pray the Rosary available in the compartment on the back of each seat. They also tell the passengers "The Parable of the Unjust Stewardess."

You never have to worry about the pilot being raptured because Catholics don't fall for that fairly recent teleological innovation.

Flight insurance includes a fund that will pay stipends to a monastery of your choice that will have Masses said for you in case of a fatal accident.

There is always a priest onboard trained to quickly give general absolutions in case of an in flight emergency. Otherwise passengers may use the in flight confessionals. When using the in flight confessional make sure you slide the sign to occupied.

You get to offer up turbulence and airline food.

Not only is the seat a flotation device but it can also be used as a kneeler.

Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and males from some other orders are eligible for Frequent Friar Miles.

If Vatican Air loses your luggage St. Anthony is immediately invoked.

You never have to worry that your aircrew includes Pontius Pilot.

Connecting flights are made with Holy Virgin airlines.

Courtesy of Jeff Miller at The Curt Jester

Abortion - The Real Black Genocide in America

One Quarter of Black Population Missing from Abortion Genocide Says Dr. Alveda King

By Hilary White

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Alveda King, the niece of legendary human rights campaigner, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., told a meeting of Priests for Life, that the killing of a quarter of the black population of the US has not been from the lynch mobs of her childhood days, but from abortionists, “who plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope.

“The great irony,” she said, “is that abortion has done what the Klan only dreamed of.”

King was speaking Sunday at the unveiling of memorials at the Birmingham, Alabama church served by her late father, the Rev. A. D. Williams King. Her father served the church from 1961 to 1965, the height of the civil rights movement. King is a Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and lived with her family at the church’s parsonage when it was bombed in retaliation for her family’s involvement with the historic movement.

Christian Newswire quotes Dr. King at the ceremony: “Daddy was unswerving in his dedication to God and to the cause of justice. While the ceremonies Sunday marked a historic period from our past, it reminded me of another kind of struggle for survival African Americans face today.”

Dr. King pointed out that the killing of the unborn in the US, which has taken the lives of well over 42 million American children, is overwhelmingly concentrated in the African-American community. “In the last forty-plus years,” Dr. King said, “15 million black people have been denied their most basic civil right, the right to life. Roughly one quarter of the black population is now missing.”

The abortion movement’s history is inseparable from that of the eugenics movement that held the genocide of the “dysgenic races” as a central goal and for which the poor were the “enemies of the people.” In the US, abortion facilities and offices of Planned Parenthood are concentrated in poor areas where the black population is especially targeted.

Margaret Sanger, the foundress of the organisation that eventually became Planned Parenthood, had as her goal the control and subjugation of the poor ethnic peoples, including blacks.

Dr. King said, “It's time that we remember the sacrifices of men like my father and my uncle who worked and died so that our children could live.”“It's time to stop killing the future and keep their dream alive.”

Read the paper, “The Inherent Racism of Population Control” by Paul Jalsevac http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/Population_Control/Inher...

Mother Knows Best

The 27th was the feast of St. Monica (left) & today is the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo. For those who are unfamiliar with it, St. Monica's story is 1 of what prayer can accomplish if you are willing to continue even when God seems silent, not for days, not for weeks, but even for years & YEARS & YEARS.

St. Monica was born c 332 AD at Tagaste (Souk Ahrus), Algeria. She was born into a Christian family. As a child she developed a strong addiction to wine. But when finally confronted with her wine-bibbing, she stopped drinking except for tiny amount diluted with water at certain events. She was married to Patricius. He was a pagan with a violent temper who also had no love for Christianity. She remained patient & lived out her faith as a witness to him. A year before Patricius died he converted to Christianity.

The couple had 3 children, Navigius, (all reports say that, unlike Augustine, he led an exemplary life), Augustine (right), and Perpetua, the only daughter, who became a religious. Augustine was born 13 November, 354. Patricius refused Monica's pleas to have the children baptised. But she did see that they received a Christian education. While he had a brilliant mind, he was wayward & lazy. At about aged 17 he went to Cathage to continue his education. There he met a woman who became his mistress (we don't know her name). Amazingly he remained faithful to her until he sepreated from her at his conversion. She bore him a son named Adeotadus in 372. During this time Augustine & his friend Honoratus bought into the heretical philosophy of the Manichæans.

All this while Monica kept praying for him. At 1 point she was so close to dispair that she went to see a holy bishop (name unknown) who consoled her saying: "It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." Trying to get away from her he headed to Rome & eventually Milan. Monica followed him. At Milan she met & was befriended by the bishop of the town, St. Ambrose. He encouraged her in her faith. Eventually Augustine feel under Ambrose's influence also. Ambrose's preaching touched Augustine's heart. In September of 386 while talking with his friend Alypius, he overhead 2 men talk about how they were converted while reading the life of St. Antony. Cut to the heart he ran into a nearby garden and cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?" He heard a child singing "Take up and read!" Seeing a copy of St. Paul's Epistles nearby, Augustine was convinced God was calling him to read them. Reading them, Augustine finally gave in & surrendered his life to Christ. Soon St. Ambrose baptised Augustine, his son Adeodatus & his friend Alypius. Adeodatus only lived about a year longer, dying at the age of 16. But during that time he helped his father.

In 387 Monica, Augustine & Navigus decided to return to Africa. At Ostia she became ill & died. In 391 he was ordained a priest. Augustine eventually went on to Hippo where he became the bishop. He wrote profusely. The most famous of his writings is his Confessions. In it he tells his life story, sins & all. But he did so much more. He battled not only the old heresy he embraced in his younger days, Manichæism, he battled the other big heresies of his day, Donatism, Pelagianism, Arianism and other heresies. He died 28 August, 430.

Here are 2 writings from his Confessions. In the 1st reading he reflects on how he ran away from God for so many years & his conversion.

"Urged to reflect upon myself, I entered under your guidance the innermost places of my being; but only because you had become my helper was I able to do so. I entered, then, and with the vision of my spirit, such as it was, I saw the incommutable light far above my spiritual ken and transcending my mind: not this common light which every carnal eye can see, nor any light of the same order; but greater, as though this common light were shining much more powerfully, far more brightly, and so extensively as to fill the universe. The light I saw was not the common light at all, but something different, utterly different, from all those things. Nor was it higher than my mind in the sense that oil floats on water or the sky is above the earth; it was exalted because this very light made me, and I was below it because by it I was made. Anyone who knows truth knows this light.

O eternal Truth, true Love, and beloved Eternity, you are my God, and for you I sigh day and night. As I first began to know you, you lifted me up and showed me that, while that which I might see exists indeed, I was not yet capable of seeing it. Your rays beamed intensely on me, beating back my feeble gaze, and I trembled with love and dread. I knew myself to be far away from you in a region of unlikeness, and I seemed to hear your voice from on high: “I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me”.

Accordingly I looked for a way to gain the strength I needed to enjoy you, but I did not find it until I embraced the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is also God, supreme over all things and blessed for ever. He called out, proclaiming I am the Way and Truth and the Life, nor had I known him as the food which, though I was not yet strong enough to eat it, he had mingled with our flesh, for the Word became flesh so that your Wisdom, through whom you created all things, might become for us the milk adapted to our infancy.

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!

Lo, you were within,

but I outside, seeking there for you,

and upon the shapely things you have made

I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.

You were with me, but I was not with you.

They held me back far from you,

those things which would have no being,

were they not in you.

You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;

you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;

you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you;

I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;

you touched me, and I burned for your peace."

Here is his relating the story of the death of his mother, St. Monica:

"Because the day when she was to leave this life was drawing near – a day known to you, though we were ignorant of it – she and I happened to be alone, through (as I believe) the mysterious workings of your will. We stood leaning against a window which looked out on a garden within the house where we were staying, at Ostia on the Tiber; for there, far from the crowds, we were recruiting our strength after the long journey, in order to prepare ourselves for our voyage overseas. We were alone, conferring very intimately. Forgetting what lay in the past, and stretching out to what was ahead, we enquired between ourselves, in the light of present truth, into what you are and what the eternal life of the saints would be like, for Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor human heart conceived it. And yet, with the mouth of our hearts wide open we panted thirstily for the celestial streams of your fountain, the fount of life which is with you.

This was the substance of our talk, though not the exact words. Yet you know, O Lord, how on that very day, amid this talk of ours that seemed to make the world with all its charms grow cheap, she said, “For my part, my son, I no longer find pleasure in anything that this life holds. What I am doing here still, or why I am still here, I do not know, for worldly hope has withered away for me. One thing only there was for which I desired to linger in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. And my God has granted this to me more lavishly than I could have hoped, letting me see even you spurning earthly happiness to be his servant. What am I still doing here?”

What I replied I cannot clearly remember, because just about that time – five days later, or not much more – she took to her bed with fever. One day during her illness she lapsed into unconsciousness and for a short time was unaware of her surroundings. We all came running, but she quickly returned to her senses, and, gazing at me and my brother as we stood there, she asked in puzzlement, “Where was I?”

We were bewildered with grief, but she looked keenly at us and said, “You are to bury your mother here”. I was silent, holding back my tears, but my brother said something about his hope that she would not die far from home but in her own country, for that would be a happier way. On hearing this she looked anxious and her eyes rebuked him for thinking so; then she turned her gaze from him to me and said, “What silly talk!” Shortly afterwards, addressing us both, she said, “Lay this body anywhere, and take no trouble over it. One thing only do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be”. Having made her meaning clear to us with such words as she could muster, she fell silent, and the pain of the disease grew worse. "

The Reason Michael Vick Decided to Enter a Plea

God's Divine "Coincidences"

In light of the last post, I don't find it 1 bit surprizing that last Monday's readings (20 August 2007) for Mass & the 1st reading in the Office of Readings for the Roman (Latin) Rite of the Catholic Church were what they were. God knew exactly what the World would need to hear. So He made sure that those readings would come up this past week of this year. Now we need to pay heed to their message.

So what were the readings & what did they say that was so timely?

The 1st reading at Mass was Judges 2:11-19. It is a summary of the events found in the rest of the book, just like I talked about in the last post. vs 11 "And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Ba'als." vs 14 "So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies." & vs 19 "But whenever the Judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways." summarize it perfectly.

The Responsorial Psalm was Psalms 106:34 - 37, 39 - 40, 43 - 44. The following are vs 35-37, 39: "(T)hey mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the harlot in their doings."

Sound familiar?

The Gospel was Matthew 19:16 - 22, the story of the rich young man & his reaction to Jesus' call. Rather than die to self he opted to walk away. Isn't that like so many of us when we hear the call to end abortion, fetal stem cell research, etc? God has called us to work to end these evils, no matter the cost. & many of us refuse. In fact many embrace these evils as good, going after the false riches they promise instead of the "Pearl of Great Price" that is Jesus.

& what was the 1st reading from the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for last Monday? It was Isaiah 3:1-15. Vs 8-9 say: "For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; Because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, To provoke the eyes of his glory. The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves." vs 11 "Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; For the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him." In other words it describes the fruit of Israel's refusing to obey God's laws.

We have the same choice. Are we going to answer God's call to stand up for what is right? Or are we going to continue to look the other way while the world turns further & further from obeying God's laws. If we remain silent then we are just as guilty as those who are actually involved in those evil works.

Then we will leave God no choice but to discipline us. He will have to chastise us so that, like Israel, we will repent & return to Him. But we can avoid this if we obey God's call. Like Daniel, we need to ask God's forgiveness for the sins of abortion, euthenasia, etc. We need to repent of being silent in the face of evil. Then we need to speak out & call the world to turn away from the evil that is being done. If the world needs to face a time of judgement for its disobedience it will. But Scripture is clear that any judgement, any chastisement will begin with the people of God. God will 1st purify His people if they refuse to obey Him. But it doesn't have to be that way.

"Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh's anger." Zephaniah 2:3

What are we going to do? Listen to God. Repent & return to Him? Speak out aginst the evil that is abortion? Or are we going to face judgement & chastisement because we have called evil good? The choice is ours!

(Note: When I talk about judgement I am not talking about the end of the World. I am talking about a chastisement of some sort. I don't claim to know any specifics about how it will take place. It may be like that prophecied at Akita. It may be something else. But, as I said above, it can be reduced or completely avoided. This depends on our response, corporately as God's Church as well as individually.)

This Comes Way TOO Close to Playing God

Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years
Scientists Believe Artificial Life Will Be Possible in 3 to 10 Years

This would sound like something out of Sci-Fi if they weren't so serious about it.

Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy (1 of the groups trying to do this) was quoted in the article as saying this: "(T)here are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.
When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen." ( I hope we never have to find out.)

Add this to cloning, abortion, etc & it sounds like mankind is trying to play God. You'd think that the lessons of the past would be enopugh to remind us. Sadly, mankind ignores or denies the lessons ever happenned. They cut God out completely. & in the past, the results haven't been pretty.

Let's look at a few Biblical examples.

1. Why did the Flood take place? In Genesis 6:5 we see the answer. "Yahweh saw that human wickedness was great on earth and that human hearts contrived nothing but wicked schemes all day long."

2. The Tower of Babel that resulted in the confusion of languages. Why did God do this? 1st of all we read in Genesis 11:4 we see the reason, pride & hubris: "Let us make a name for ourselves." God looked into the hearts of mankind & saw where this would lead: "If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do." (vs 6)

3. The whole book of Judges shows the results every time Israel turned its back on God & followed other gods. Yet they didn't learn. The same was true during the Monarchy.

4. After 9-11 Anne Graham was asked on The Early Show: "How could God let something like this happen?" Her response was: "I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?" Basically, she is reaffirming that once again we have failed to learn from our past mistakes.

If humanity keeps this up once again we will reap exactly what we deserve. & it won't be pretty. God doesn't want it to happen. But He respects our free-will. & when we turn our backs on God, He respects our choices & allows us to bear the fruit of our actions.

The fact that we haven't yet reached that point says that it is not to late. We can repent of or pride & hubris & turn back to doing what is right & ethical. We can end abortion, we can stop using embryonic stem cells. & we can turn away from trying to create artificial life & redirect the money & efforts in areas where it will do good & not bring harm.

This Sounds More Like Something Monty Python Would Write:

Norway's Moose Population in Trouble for Belching

"Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.

Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway's technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.

Bacteria in a moose's stomach create methane gas which is considered even more destructive to the environment than carbon dioxide gas."

Moose have been arround for how long? & now they are being considered a threat. This is just another proof of the absurdity of much of what the global warming moonbat community tries to push off as science.

We live in an ecosystem. This system is build arround the fact that every organism has an effect. The system was designed by God to balance out these effects. & despite mankinds failing to always take care of it as well as he could Earth's ecosystem is very flexable. In fact the latest info coming out proves that most of the claims that global warming is man-made are being thrown out the window. (New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears, NASA Global Warming Data Wrong, An Inconvenient Truth)

Besides, even if the Norwegian Moose are causing problems, Norway does have a solution that they are about to impliment: "Norway has some 120,000 moose but an estimated 35,000 are expected to be killed in this year's moose hunting season, which starts on September 25, Norwegian newspaper VG reported." This puts PETA (Moonbats for the Ethical Treatment of Aminals) in a quandry. If the oppose the killing of these moose so that the methane emmisions are cut, then they will appear to be anti-environment.

On the other hand, this news puts a new spin on who Boris Badenov was really working for. It wasn't some Eastern European Communist Country. It was Greenpeace. Now we know the real reason he was trying to kill "moose & squirrel". It was to protect the environment! He was a radical moonbat environmentalist. (It also adds something to Bullwinkle's famous line: "I don't know my own strength.")

As an aside, none of this is to downplay the fact that we do have a God given responsibility to be good stewards. It merely means that we need to use common sense. Those on the side of damn the environment are just as wrong as those that see everything man does that affects the environment is wrong. According to Genesis 2:15 God gave us the Earth & told man to to cultivate and care for it (perché lo coltivasse e lo custodisse in the Italiano, ut operaretur et custodiret illum in the Latin). Cultivate means developing, not merely leaving everything as it is or destroying it for that matter.

Norwegian Moose Blamed For Global Warming

The Real Stairway to Heaven

According to St. Rose of Lima (mystic & stigmatist):

Our Lord and Saviour lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven”.

When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions.

We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul”.That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying:“

If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men”

(From a report by St. Rose of a vision of Jesus that she experienced.)

HAIL HOLY QUEEN!!!!!

Today is the Feast of the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven & Earth. This feast has a solid Biblical basis in the New Testament book of Revelation as well as in the Old Tetament promise of God to King David that he will have a descendant (Jesus) that will rule forever.

1st, lets look at what is found in Revelation to support my claim. We begin with Chapter 12 verse 1 where we read the description of a woman that has a "crown of twelve stars" on her head. This woman is clearly Mary as it talks about the woman giving birth to Jesus.

Later, in Revelation 12:5 we read: "She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod." This points back to the Prophecy of Nathan to David (2 Samuel 7) & shows that Jesus fullfills this promise.

So, what does this prove? It shows that Jesus is King, but it doesn't prove anything about Mary. Wrong! It does.

To see how it does we have to understand some things found in the Old Testament & how they foreshadow what will be in the Kingdom that Jesus will rule forever.

The Jewish kingship was a symbol of the Kingship of Jesus. & the trappings surrounding the kingship also had symbolic meaning. 1 of those was the role of the "Queen Mother" (gebirah).

Rather than try to explain it myself I will share with you some of what Scott Hahn has to say on the role of the Gebirah & how it applies to Mary (taken from Scott Hahn on Our Lady Read the entire article to get the full explanation.):

"I found in another book, The Graphic History of the Jewish Heritage, that the gebirah, the Queen Mother "occupied a unique and powerful position" throughout the history of ancient Israel's monarchy. He gives as an example Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, who was enthroned, which we will look at in just a moment."

"What's really interesting from Andreason's perspective is that even after the prophets are sent by God to purify the Jerusalem cult and the kingdom of all of these pagan encrustations, the institution of the gebirah continues with reforms by Hezekiah and Josiah. The fertility cults are suppressed and these ashora (sic) poles and so on are torn down, including sacred snakes, you know the nahushta and so on, but never the Queen Mother, that's allowed to remain. The central role for Andreason's research is that she was to be the king's wisdom counselor. Lady Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs is sort of like a personification of the Queen Mother, or visa versa. "

"But look at the beginning of the institution of the gebirah. It's something that continues. When the Queen Mother walks in, the king, because he is her son, pays filial homage to her and establishes her at his right hand, upon a throne as Queen Mother. If I am the father of the family of this kingdom, if I am the shepherd of this flock, that makes you the mother. Not only my mother but the grandmother of us all. That institution persisted down through the ages of the Judaite monarchy. There is no evidence of it ever being suppressed by the prophets or criticized by Yahweh or ever falling into hard times and being replaced because it was seen as something that was meaningless."

In those 3 paragraphs you have the what the Catholic Church teaches the role of Mary in the Church is & how its foundation is solidly based in Scripture. The Catholic doctrine of Mary is simply that of acknowledging her Biblically revealed/based role in God's plan of Salvation. Part of why Revelation 12 shows her with a crown is to acknowledge that she is fulfilling the role of gebirah & that we, as subjects in the Kingdom of God are to approach her the same way that the Jewish people approached the gebirah in the Old Testament.

Thought for the Day - 21 August 2007

Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.

Pope St. Pius X

Mission to Magadan Update - August 2007

I recently received my latest Mission to Magadan newsletter. But, before I share from it I'd like to make a few comments on why i support & promote this ministry.

If you go back to a little over a year ago when I 1st began writing about the Mission you will remember that it was shortly after I saw Fr. Michael Shields on Sunday Night Live with Fr. Benedict Groeschel on EWTN. (Fr. Shields will again be on the show on 23 Sept 2007.) Seeing the show I felt strongly about what they were doing for several reasons.

The 1st was the pro-Life aspects of the ministry. They were doing a powerful work to provide alternatives for women who saw abortion as the only option to deal with the poverty so rampant in the area. That leads to the other reasons why I felt this was important. Magadan was an area used by Stalin as a gulag. In so many ways the area is in need of the hope that can only come from the Gospel message. Finally, when Fr. Groeschel said to send money, it was like God was commanding me to donate.

Much of the newsletter focuses in on their Nativity Inn work. Nativity Inn describes itself as a "sanctuary for expectant mothers who do not have the financial resources to continue a pregnancy without the Church’s help." 2 women share their stories.

Oksana is an unwed mother expecting twins. Her parents are handcapped & unable to help her. She is from NE Russia & part of a rare native group, the Evenka. She was raised without being taught much about God or church. She admits to being frightened at times because of uncertainty. But, as she says: "I hope for the best for my children and now look more to God for help. He has given me these babies to be born and I believe He will not leave me alone without help."

Nina is a 28-yr old widow who is also expecting twins. Her husband was beaten to death when she was 5 months pregnant. The killers then set their apartment on fire to cover up the crime. She was left homeless, unemployed & caring fr a 2-1/2 yr old son Nikolai. But she is not without hope. "God is my help now. I know all things happen by His will." She came to believe at the age of 21 & was baptised at the Church of the Nativity at Ola. "I now know that the Lord will never leave me and my faith is now my only strength." Despite concerns for her 3 children she says: "I know that God is here and help is here through the church."

They need clothing items and baby carriages for twins to help these women. Given the shipping costs, it is best to send cash donations. This can be done 2 ways. The Nativity Inn webpage has a PayPal link. Or you can send it through the Archdiocese of Anchorage (see below). Do not mail checks or cash directly to them as they cannot cash the checks & it is difficult & costly to convert American dollars.

They also share the story of how they have begun a program to provide a hot lunch every Sunday at their mission in Ola for the children of the parish. About 20 children are fed every week. In addition to the meal they provide an opportunity for the children to play & watch Bible cartoons before Mass.

While there are many good Pro-Life organizations & Catholic charities to give to, this is 1 that I feel deserves your support. Please prayfully consider what you can do to help.

By mail:
Mission to Magaden
Archdiocese of Anchorage
225 CORDOVA ST
ANCHORAGE AL 99501-2409

Please make the check out to "Mission to Magadan".

At the Archdiocese's Magadan Mission webpage there is a link to their stewardship page where you can donate by Visa or MasterCard.

Friends of Nativity Inn also has a link to the PayPal site. Or you can mail a contribution specifically for Nativity Inn to:

Nativity Inn
c/o Connie Hood
100 South Brentwood, Suite 250
St. Louis, MO 63105

Please make your donation payable to "Church of the Nativity".