Planned Parenthood Lied to Buy, No Surprize

Yesterday I put up a post about Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's announcement they had bought a building here in DBQ so they could expand their services, likely to include telemed abortions. What was not mentioned, but I & many others suspected, is that there was more to the story. Knowing PP's track record of setting up dummy corporations to buy a building or site without people knowing it was them, (Aurora Il for example) I wondered if that might not be the case this time. Well, it turns out I was right.

DuTrac Credit Union was contacted by Hillcrest Development LLC to buy the building. According to Tom Anderson, DuTrac Senior VP of Operations, they were unaware that PPH was behind the corporation until after DuTrac completed the sale of the building Tuesday afternoon. It was then that Senior VP of marketing & business development, Jason Norton, received a call from Marsha Dorhout, PPH's director of marketing, letting DuTrac know they had bought it. She told him that PPH had set up a "straw" company to purchase the property given the "controversial nature" of some services Planned Parenthood provides.

Of course PPH's CEO, Jill June, had to add her slander of Pro-Lifers to justify it as well. she said "Planned Parenthood and our patients have been harassed by a fringe minority since the day we announced a health center in Dubuque. In order to protect our staff and our patients from this continued bullying, Planned Parenthod of the Heartland and our numerous Iowa supporters created Hillcrest, LLC so we could purchase this building and create a new health center the women and men of Dubuque deserve."

What she fails to say is that her definition of harrasment is our legal, free speech protest, presence out there. From early on PP's supports have made unprovable claims that we have harrassed them, blocked people from entering etc. If that was true then why haven't the police ever been called or charges filed? The answer is simple, she is lying & she knows it. Lying, PP's SOP (standard operating procedure) that has been documented time & time again. They have been proven to lie about rape & incest thanks to Live Action's investigations. They have been caught lying about the medical facts of childhood development in the wombe. I could go on & on.

The news has created a PR nightmare for DuTrac. June claims in another of her lies that we are a fringe minority, yet the spin that DuTrac is doing shows that the Pro-lifers are anything but a fringe group, or a minority. Norton told the DBQ TH that "DuTrac is politically neutral, but it has concerns that the building was sold to Planned Parenthood." He went on to say that PP's calling "after the fact put DuTrac in an ethical & moral quandary."

"We did our due dilligence and sold it to Hillcrest Development LLC, not Planned Parenthood. DuTrac does not have an opinion one way or the other about the actions of Planned Parenthood. We did not believe in any way Planned Parenthood would be moving into that building." He also said "It was a horrible, horrible accident." Norton also said that they cannot not rescind the purchase contract but they have yet to cash the check the received from Hillcrest Development.

Before I go on, I have to say that some years ago I took a class on PR. & part of what we dealt with was dealing with problems like this. So I am speaking with a bit of expertise. & it sounds to me like DuTrac is trying to have it both ways.

If DuTrac is politically neutral & has no opinions about PP's actions then why are they in a moral quandary. They simply sold a building to a willing buyer. & if DuTrac had no idea that Heartland Development wasn't who they claimed to be, why are they in an ethical quandary also? & why are they calling the sale a "horrible accident"?

What they are trying to do is keep from losing customers who are talking about pulling out their business as a result of the sale. Their words are aimed at appeasing the Pro-lifers without actually admitting that what PP does is wrong so that they don't upset the Pro-aborts. & I highly suspect that for some, the "due dilligence" they claim they did won't be enough. DuTrac also told the TH that "Initial inquiries by DuTrac management about who Hillcrest Development was, and a site visit by people associated with Hillcrest, yielded no clues as to Hillcrest Development's plans for the building." It sounds to me like DuTrac simply checked into whether the LLC had the money & that was enough for them to not worry who was behind it.

& while you can be sure that "telemed abortions" are definitely in the works, PPH is downplaying that possibility without actually denying it. PPH Board member Jason Lehman said in a statement that the expansion of services doesn't necessarily mean offering abortions. True, but it does't mean they won't either. Lehman went on to spout another os PP's standard claims. "Our focus has always been and will continue to be on prevention-including preventing unintended pregnancies that may lead to abortion." That statement has been disproven by former PP employees like Abby Johnson many times. In fact, Planned Parenthood Federation has required their affiliates to increase the number of abortions they do. & for those affiliates that don't, they have required them to start offering them.

Lehman went on to add "We will consider offering abortion care, based on the demand of our clients." Using the term care with abortion just shows how sick & twisted they are. Calling abortion health care when it is death care.

& you can be sure PPH will find the demand even when it isn't there. In 2008 PPH's Eastern Iowa predicesor said there was a demand for a site in Monticello. In 2010 they closed the site because the reality was there was no demand. PP spinned the closing by saying "Feedback from patients has reflected their preference in the convenience of accessing reproductive healthcare while traveling to Cedar Rapids and Dubuque for work and shopping. Both health centers are equal distances from the current... location - 35 miles." Travelling 35 miles was more convenient?

Meanwhile in 2008 when the DBQ site opened they claimed there was a huge demand. The demand was so huge they went from being open 40 hours to being open 17.

Yesterday I wondered about any zoning issues. I found out the building housed Comprehensive Rehab before DuTrac, so it is likely there won't be any zoning issues. Building permits for remodeling are another thing. They will give some clues as to what PPH plans on doing.

You can be sure that when the new site opens, the Pro-life presence will continue, whether it be open 17 hours or 40 hours there will continue to be a peaceful, prayerful presence on the sidewalk. It will be interesting to see if PP puts up some fencing & gates for the parking lot to add to the false impression that we are dangerous.

________

Meanwhile, I wish to end on a positive note. The Clarity Clinic has announced it will expand it's outreach to the 3 colleges in DBQ in order to provide college women in crisis pregnancy situations with alternatives to abortion.

Bad News for DBQ, Planned Parenthood Buys Building, Expanding Services

This afternoon Planned Parenthjood of the Heartland issued the following press release:

Contact: Shelby Cloke - Public Relations Manager
(515) 235-0413 or (515)249-6084
shelby.cloke@ppheartland.org
***For Immediate Release***
New Health Center Opening in Dubuque

August 30th, 2011 (DES MOINES, IA) – Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is happy to announce plans to open a new health center in Dubuque, Iowa.
The new facility will replace the current health center in Dubuque. It will be located at 3365 Hillcrest Road.
The new center will continue to provide all the reproductive health services we currently offer including cancer screenings, annual exams, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and more.
“The new upgraded facility will allow us to better serve more patients in the Dubuque area,” says Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Board Member, Jason Lehman.
“We are renovating the new space to the specific needs of our patients and staff. With private access and additional space, the new health center will better accommodate the women, men and families who rely on us for quality care.”
Closing on the new building was completed today. Completion of renovations has not been determined. No definitive move date has been set.

What PPH fails to mention is what the more is, abortions. The odds are they are going to be telemed abortions since that is PPH's big thing these days.

Steve Brody executive director of DBQ Co Right to Life issued the following statement:
“Planned Parenthood has been seeking to escape from their downtown location for quite some time, in an effort to get away from our successfully peaceful and prayerful protest. The lack of customers and their reduction in hours forced them to either leave Dubuque altogether or find a new location that might offer cover for their customers. This follows an historical pattern for Planned Parenthood when they have been in a location for three years.”

“Today’s announcement from Planned Parenthood should prove to the entire tri-state community that our predictions back in 2008 were correct. Back then, we warned that an abortion pipeline would be introduced into Dubuque, and that Planned Parenthood would give mothers RU-486 to have their abortions at home. Let there be no doubt that RU-486 abortions via webcam will be in Dubuque and the number of miscarriages in town will increase, not to mention the emergency room visits.”

“It is eerie that just like in 2008, this announcement comes on a dark and dreary day in Dubuque. Nonetheless, our protest campaign will continue outside this new location, as will our education and information efforts. Our unborn children deserve protection, as do the citizens of Dubuque and the entire tri-state community.”

Steve is exactly right. This is not good for the health of women in DBQ. But it is good for those who wish to cover up rape & incest of minors because they now no longer have to leave town to do so.

As Steve pointed out, last Spring PP cut back from 40 to 17 hrs here in DBQ. So when the new location opens, will they go back to 40 hrs again? That remains to be seen.

The new location was the former location of a DuTrac Commuity Credit Union branch. It is a stand alone building with a parking lot. There is a sidewalk where we will be able to continue protesting. But it will be harder to counsel or pass out material as people can just drive by.

The location does raise a question in my mind about what the building is zoned for. & does that zoning allow for what PPH will do there, esp the abortions? I have passed to word on & it will be interesting to find out. If it is not zoned for what PPH wants to do, then you can be sure that the Pro-lifers in DBQ will make sure that there will have to be a public hearing at the zoning board. & that will enable us to speak out at bothe the commission meeting as well as the city council meeting.

Father Parker talked about this in his homilt this evening @ St. Mary's E DBQ. He reminded us that the force behind PP is demonic. More than ever we need to keep up teh spiritual warfare against thsi evil. Please pray that PPH's plans to expand in DBQ will be thwarted.

Additional coverage: Planned Parenthood Opening New Iowa Abortion-Referral Center

Obama's Yellow Sheet

Here are just a few examples from President Barack Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record. Not a pretty picture, unless you like pictures of genocide. & that is exactly what Obama has presided over & condoned, the mass genocide of the unborn. Instead of being president he should be locked up in jail for life for aiding & abetting in the murder of about 3 million babies since taking office.*

Let's start with the Post-Election / Pre-Inauguration period:
November 5, 2008 – Obama selects pro-abortion Rep. Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel has a 0% pro-life voting record according to National Right to Life.
November 19, 2008 – Obama picks pro-abortion former Sen. Tom Daschle as his Health and Human Services Secretary. Daschle has a long pro-abortion voting record according to National Right to Life. (After Daschle's tax scandal, he dropped out & was replaced by Kathleen Sibelius. Her time as governor of Kansas was marked by her total support of the abortion industry's every wish. See 28 Feb 2009 for more.)
November 20, 2008 – Obama chooses former NARAL legal director Dawn Johnsen to serve as a member of his Department of Justice Review Team. Later, he finalizes her appointment as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Legal Counsel in the Obama administration.
November 24, 2008 – Obama appoints Ellen Moran, the former director of the pro-abortion group Emily’s List as his White House communications director. Emily’s List only supports candidates who favored taxpayer funded abortions and opposed a partial-birth abortion ban.
November 24, 2008 – Obama puts former Emily’s List board member Melody Barnes in place as his director of the Domestic Policy Council.
November 30, 2008 – Obama named pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State. Clinton has an unblemished pro-abortion voting record and has supported making unlimited abortions an international right.
December 10, 2008 – Obama selects pro-abortion former Clinton administration official Jeanne Lambrew to become the deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Planned Parenthood is “excited” about the selection.
December 10, 2008 – Obama transition team publishes memo from dozens of pro-abortion groups listing their laundry list of pro-abortions actions they want him to take.

& after his innauguration it was all downhill. Here is just the 1st month & 1/2 in office:
January 22, 2009 – Releases statement restating support for Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions and has resulted in at least 50 million abortions since 1973.
January 23, 2009 – Forces taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations. Decision to overturn Mexico City Policy sends part of $457 million to pro-abortion organizations.
January 26, 2009 – Obama nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, James B. Steinberg, tells members of the Senate that taxpayers should be forced to fund abortions. Nominee erroneously says limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.
January 29, 2009 – President Obama nominates pro-abortion David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General. – The Vatican has rejected three Obama ambassador nominees because of their positions in favor of abortions.
April 7 – Obama has named pro-abortion law professor Harold Hongju Koh as the top lawyer for the State Department.
April 7 – Put more abortion advocates on his White House advisory council for faith-based issues.
February 12, 2009 – Obama nominates pro-abortion Elena Kagan to serve as Solicitor General.
February 27, 2009 – Starts the process of overturning pro-life conscience protections President Bush put in place to make sure medical staff and centers are not forced to do abortions.
February 28, 2009 – Barack Obama nominates pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius to become Secretary of Health and Human Services.
March 5, 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, made the invitation list as did other pro-abortion groups.
March 9, 2009 – President Barack Obama signed an executive order forcing taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

& a few other lowlights (follow link above for complete list):
2009
April 7 – The Vatican has rejected three Obama ambassador nominees because of their positions in favor of abortions.
April 14 – Obama administration releases document that claims pro-life people may engage in violence or extremism.
May 5 – Details emerge about a terrorism dictionary the administration of President Barack Obama put together in March. The Domestic Extremism Lexicon calls pro-life advocates violent and claims they employ racist overtones in engaging in criminal actions.
May 8 – President Obama’s new budget calls for taxpayer funded abortions in the nation’s capital.
May 8 – President Obama’s budget eliminates all federal funding for abstinence-only education.
May 26 – Appoints appeals court judge Sonia Sonotmayor as a Supreme Court nominee. Sotomayor agrees that the courts should make policy, such as the Roe v. Wade case. Sotomayor is later opposed by pro-life groups and supported by pro-abortion groups and those who know her say she will support abortion on the high court.
August 24 – Releases veterans guide promoting euthanasia.
September 13 – Obama waits two days to comment on shooting of pro-life advocate whereas he commented immediately on shooting of abortion practitioner.
December 17 – Signed a bill that overturned the 13-year-long ban on funding abortions with tax dollars in the nation’s capital.

2010
February 2, 2010 – Submits new budget calling for taxpayer funding of abortions and more money for Planned Parenthood.
March 22, 2010 – Signs the pro-abortion health care bill into law that contains massive abortion funding, no conscience protections andrationing.
March 26, 2010 – White House visitor logs show pro-abortion NARAL activist Nancy Keenan meeting with key Obama staffers frequently and invited to social functions.
May 10, 2010 – Names pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court; she is strongly opposed by pro-life groups.
May 26, 2010 – Congressman Chris Smith reports the Obama administration has spent $10 million potentially illegally promoting a pro-abortion constitution in Kenya.
August 16, 2010 – Obama administration approves new abortion drug Ella.
September 28, 2010 – Defends legal abortions in an interview.
September 30, 2010 – Obama administration exposed as to how it partnered with leading pro-abortion organizations to host an FBI training seminar in August with the main focus of declaring as “violent” the free speech activities of pro-life Americans.
December 14, 2010 – Obama administration admits it is working to rescind conscience protections for medical professionals who don’t want to participate in abortions.

2011
January 23, 2011 – Celebrates anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
January 27, 2011 – Picks pro-abortion activist to lead Global Health Initiative.
February 7, 2011 – Obama rewards Catholic group that supported pro-abortion Obamacare with place on faith based panel.
February 18, 2011 – President Obama weakens conscience protections for pro-life medical workers.
March 2, 2011 – Obama administration refuses to investigate videos showing Planned Parenthood helping alleged sex traffickers get abortions for victimized underage girls.
March 4, 2011 – Obama threatens to veto bill de-funding Planned Parenthood abortion business.
March 8, 2011 – Michelle Obama hosts Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.
March 11, 2011 – Obama officials refuse to say who met with Obama to develop pro-abortion Obamacare.
April 14, 2011 – Obama administration castigates The Vatican over family planning.
May 11, 2011 – Obama schmoozes with Planned Parenthood abortion business president, Cecile Richards.
May 17, 2011 – Obama administration targets peaceful pro-life advocate for prosecution.
June 17, 2011 – Defends forcing taxpayers to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business in court.
August 1, 2011 – Forces insurance companies to pay for abortion drugs under Obamacare.
August 19, 2011 – Obama administration found to have spent taxpayer funds promoting pro-abortion Obamacare during the 2010 elections.
August 22, 2011 – Vice President Joe Biden fails to condemn China’s one-child, forced abortion policy.
August 23, 2011 — Obama administration calls children “sexual beings,” pushes sex on them.

Like I said:

NOT A PRETTY PICTURE, IS IT?????
___________
*Note this statistic is just an approximation as no states have been released for the years since Obama took office. The last year the CDC reported was for 2007. However, since the reporting is not manditory, not every one of the 52 reporting areas (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, & New York City) turns in a report, this number is low. The annual report of The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's propaganda arm, is much more accurate. They reported 1.21 million abortions were performed in 2008. So, over Obama's 2-2/3rd years in office, 3 million seems to be a fair estimate.

I Commit

Ruth Institute
A Project of National Orginization for Marriage

Could It Be because The Parents Know Their Children Will Get a Better Education

The Indiana Business Journal is reporting a huge exodus of students from public schools after the start of a new school voucher program in the state.(Vouchers prompt thousands to change schools) The South Bend School District Interim Superintendent Carole Schmidt has instructed principals to contact parents of students who are leaving to find out why? I suspect that they won't like the answer, to get a better education for their children because of the poor quality of the education offered in the public schools. In fact, I am willing to bet that will be the overwhelming reason.
The Baxters mentioned in the story, said they are pleased with their 16 year old son's education in the public schools. But they think the private school, Marian HS in Mishawaka, is a better fit for their 14 year old daughter. "Better fit" is an interesting phrase. It seems to imply that the public schools aren't offering the daughter what she most needs.
OK, every school can't offer everything to everyone. Some will be better than others in some areas. & in those cases it isn't the faulty of the public school.
On the other hand, I still go back to what I already said, the huge majority of the exodus will be made up of those wanting their children to get out of poor performing schools. But rather than face up to what they are doing wrong, it seems the schools are more upset about the loss of money. True, but if I was a tax payer in Indiana, I would be happy my good money is no longer going after bad. Maybe they better look at how the money is being spent, & be willing to stand up to the teachers unions if they defend poor teachers that should be gotten rid of.
In fact, it is clear from the way Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, talked about it, there is also a bit of not so subtle anti-Catholicism/anti-Christian in what he said. He said "The bottom line from our perspective is, when you cut through all the chaff, nobody can deny that public money is going to be taken from public schools, and they're going to end up in private, mostly religious schools." Now why did he feel it necessary to point out most of the private schools are religious?
Maybe it is because some of the opponants are using exactly that tact, the false premise of seperation of church & state. John West, who is an attorney for a group suing to stop the Indiana program, pointed out at a hearing on the issue that only 6 of the 240 private schools that have signed up for the voucher program are secular. So what? The law simply specifies that the school sign up. It is neutral toward the "free expression" of religion, or lack thereof, at the private schools.
The actual reason that the numbers are currently slanted toward Catholic Schools (70%) is simple. John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association,has the answer. He said that it's not surprising that Catholic schools are receiving so many of the vouchers, even though they make up fewer than half of the 415 schools in the group. Most Catholic schools already had state accreditation, which some private schools lack.
That brings me to another question, why isn't state accredidation of Catholic Schools a violation of the "seperation of church & state"? isn't that just as much giving state approbation as giving money is?
The reality is simple. Parents want their children to get the best education available. & if the public schools are failing the students should be able to go elsewhere. If the public schools offered a quality education they wouldn't be afraid of a little competition, Catholic or otherwise. They would be able to stand on their own.

St. Augustine - From Libertine to Doctor of the Church

Saint Augustine of Hippo (1)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

After the great Christmas festivities, I would like to return to the meditations on the Fathers of the Church and speak today of the greatest Father of the Latin Church, St Augustine. This man of passion and faith, of the highest intelligence and tireless in his pastoral care, a great Saint and Doctor of the Church is often known, at least by hearsay, even by those who ignore Christianity or who are not familiar with it, because he left a very deep mark on the cultural life of the West and on the whole world. Because of his special importance St Augustine's influence was widespread. It could be said on the one hand that all the roads of Latin Christian literature led to Hippo (today Annaba, on the coast of Algeria), the place where he was Bishop from 395 to his death in 430, and, on the other, that from this city of Roman Africa, many other roads of later Christianity and of Western culture itself branched out.

A civilization has seldom encountered such a great spirit who was able to assimilate Christianity's values and exalt its intrinsic wealth, inventing ideas and forms that were to nourish the future generations, as Paul VI also stressed: "It may be said that all the thought-currents of the past meet in his works and form the source which provides the whole doctrinal tradition of succeeding ages" (Inaugural Address at the Patristic Institute of the "Augustinianum", 4 May 1970; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 21 May 1970, p. 8). Augustine is also the Father of the Church who left the greatest number of works. Possidius, his biographer, said that it seemed impossible that one man could have written so many things in his lifetime. We shall speak of these different works at one of our meetings soon. Today, we shall focus on his life, which is easy to reconstruct from his writings, in particular the Confessions, his extraordinary spiritual autobiography written in praise of God. This is his most famous work; and rightly so, since it is precisely Augustine's Confessions, with their focus on interiority and psychology, that constitute a unique model in Western (and not only Western) literature—including non-religious literature—up to modern times. This attention to the spiritual life, to the mystery of the "I", to the mystery of God who is concealed in the "I", is something quite extraordinary, without precedent, and remains for ever, as it were, a spiritual "peak".

But to come back to his life: Augustine was born in Tagaste in the Roman Province of Numidia, Africa, on 13 November 354 to Patricius, a pagan who later became a catechumen, and Monica, a fervent Christian. This passionate woman, venerated as a saint, exercised an enormous influence on her son and raised him in the Christian faith. Augustine had also received the salt, a sign of acceptance in the catechumenate, and was always fascinated by the figure of Jesus Christ; indeed, he said that he had always loved Jesus but had drifted further and further away from ecclesial faith and practice, as also happens to many young people today.

Augustine also had a brother, Navigius, and a sister whose name is unknown to us and who, after being widowed subsequently became the head of a monastery for women. As a boy with a very keen intelligence, Augustine received a good education although he was not always an exemplary student. However, he learned grammar well, first in his native town and then in Madaura, and from 370, he studied rhetoric in Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa. He mastered Latin perfectly but was not quite as successful with Greek and did not learn Punic, spoken by his contemporaries. It was in Carthage itself that for the first time Augustine read the Hortensius, a writing by Cicero later lost, an event that can be placed at the beginning of his journey towards conversion. In fact, Cicero's text awoke within him love for wisdom, as, by then a Bishop, he was to write in his Confessions: "The book changed my feelings", to the extent that "every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardour in my heart" (III, 4, 7).

However, since he was convinced that without Jesus the truth cannot be said effectively to have been found and since Jesus' Name was not mentioned in this book, immediately after he read it he began to read Scripture, the Bible. But it disappointed him. This was not only because the Latin style of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures was inadequate but also because to him their content itself did not seem satisfying. In the scriptural narratives of wars and other human vicissitudes, he discovered neither the loftiness of philosophy nor the splendour of the search for the truth which is part of it. Yet he did not want to live without God and thus sought a religion which corresponded to his desire for the truth and also with his desire to draw close to Jesus. Thus, he fell into the net of the Manicheans, who presented themselves as Christians and promised a totally rational religion. They said that the world was divided into two principles: good and evil. And in this way the whole complexity of human history can be explained. Their dualistic morals also pleased St Augustine, because it included a very high morality for the elect: and those like him who adhered to it could live a life better suited to the situation of the time, especially for a young man. He therefore became a Manichean, convinced at that time that he had found the synthesis between rationality and the search for the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Manicheanism also offered him a concrete advantage in life: joining the Manicheans facilitated the prospects of a career. By belonging to that religion, which included so many influential figures, he was able to continue his relationship with a woman and to advance in his career. By this woman he had a son, Adeodatus, who was very dear to him and very intelligent, who was later to be present during the preparation for Baptism near Lake Como, taking part in those "Dialogues" which St Augustine has passed down to us. The boy unfortunately died prematurely. Having been a grammar teacher since his twenties in the city of his birth, he soon returned to Carthage, where he became a brilliant and famous teacher of rhetoric. However, with time Augustine began to distance himself from the faith of the Manicheans. They disappointed him precisely from the intellectual viewpoint since they proved incapable of dispelling his doubts. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where the imperial court resided at that time and where he obtained a prestigious post through the good offices and recommendations of the Prefect of Rome, Symmacus, a pagan hostile to St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

In Milan, Augustine acquired the habit of listening - at first for the purpose of enriching his rhetorical baggage - to the eloquent preaching of Bishop Ambrose, who had been a representative of the Emperor for Northern Italy. The African rhetorician was fascinated by the words of the great Milanese Prelate; and not only by his rhetoric. It was above all the content that increasingly touched Augustine's heart. The great difficulty with the Old Testament, because of its lack of rhetorical beauty and lofty philosophy was resolved in St Ambrose's preaching through his typological interpretation of the Old Testament: Augustine realized that the whole of the Old Testament was a journey toward Jesus Christ. Thus, he found the key to understanding the beauty and even the philosophical depth of the Old Testament and grasped the whole unity of the mystery of Christ in history, as well as the synthesis between philosophy, rationality and faith in the Logos, in Christ, the Eternal Word who was made flesh.

Augustine soon realized that the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the Neo-Platonic philosophy practised by the Bishop of Milan enabled him to solve the intellectual difficulties which, when he was younger during his first approach to the biblical texts, had seemed insurmountable to him.

Thus, Augustine followed his reading of the philosophers' writings by reading Scripture anew, especially the Pauline Letters. His conversion to Christianity on 15 August 386 therefore came at the end of a long and tormented inner journey - of which we shall speak in another catechesis -, and the African moved to the countryside, north of Milan by Lake Como - with his mother Monica, his son Adeodatus and a small group of friends - to prepare himself for Baptism. So it was that at the age of 32 Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan on 24 April 387, during the Easter Vigil.

After his Baptism, Augustine decided to return to Africa with his friends, with the idea of living a community life of the monastic kind at the service of God. However, while awaiting their departure in Ostia, his mother fell ill unexpectedly and died shortly afterwards, breaking her son's heart. Having returned to his homeland at last, the convert settled in Hippo for the very purpose of founding a monastery. In this city on the African coast he was ordained a priest in 391, despite his reticence, and with a few companions began the monastic life which had long been in his mind, dividing his time between prayer, study and preaching. All he wanted was to be at the service of the truth. He did not feel he had a vocation to pastoral life but realized later that God was calling him to be a pastor among others and thus to offer people the gift of the truth. He was ordained a Bishop in Hippo four years later, in 395. Augustine continued to deepen his study of Scripture and of the texts of the Christian tradition and was an exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral commitment: he preached several times a week to his faithful, supported the poor and orphans, supervised the formation of the clergy and the organization of mens' and womens' monasteries. In short, the former rhetorician asserted himself as one of the most important exponents of Christianity of that time. He was very active in the government of his Diocese - with remarkable, even civil, implications - in the more than 35 years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of Hippo actually exercised a vast influence in his guidance of the Catholic Church in Roman Africa and, more generally, in the Christianity of his time, coping with religious tendencies and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in the one God, rich in mercy.

And Augustine entrusted himself to God every day until the very end of his life: smitten by fever, while for almost three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal invaders, the Bishop - his friend Possidius recounts in his Vita Augustini - asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large characters, "and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant hot tears" (31, 2). This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life. He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet 76. We will devote our next encounters to his work, his message and his inner experience.
NOTE: This was the 1st of 5 talks on St. Augustine of Hippo that Papa Benedetto gave at the Wednesday Audiences. You can read the other 4 at the following links:
Saint Augustine of Hippo (2)
Saint Augustine of Hippo (3)
Saint Augustine of Hippo (4)
Saint Augustine of Hippo (5)

Better Than An Imprimatur

Source: Button's Blog (Autographed Bible)

What the News Media Doesn't Know About the Catholic Church Could Fill a Book

Over @ Dad29 I came across a post about an article in a Madison newspaper about the growing desire for the Exttraordinary form of the Latin Rite (EF Mass in Madison: Is It Different There?) In the post he looks at some of the ways the article just doesn't get it right about the Catholic Church (Fr. Z also has an article in which he looks at some of those errors as well.) I won't repeat what they covered. But there is still plenty for me to point out how the author shows that he really doesn't know the facts about Catholic liturgy. (The post @ Dad29 has a link to the article or you can go directly to it here.)
"For centuries, this (Latin) was the only way Catholics around the world experienced Mass. Reforms ushered in by Vatican II in the 1960s largely eliminated Latin Mass ". 2 glaring errors in these 2 sentances alone.
1st of all before Vatican II Latin was NOT the only way Catholics experienced the Mass. For Catholics of the Eastern Catholic Churches a variety of languages were used for the Divine Litrurgy as the mass is called in the Eastern Rites. Those languages included Greek, Syriac, Armenian & Aramaic. & even what they call the Tridentine Mass ("Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass"), more accurately the Traditional Latin Mass/TLM)wasn't said everywhere in the world in Latin. In certain parts of Eastern Europe like Croatia & other Slavic areas it was said in Church Slavonic.
Next, the reforms of Vatican II did NOT largely eliminate the Latin Mass. As anyone who has been paying attention knows, the Novus Ordo is in Latin & has been translated into various languages. The Novus Ordo is 1 of the forms of the Latin Mass. All the reforms did was open up the use of the vernacular in the liturgy. Shortly after Vatican II many parts of the TLM were translated into English & used until the promulgation of the Novus Ordo. A few other minor revisions were made. But nowhere did Vatican II eliminate the use of Latin. In fact its recent revival of usage in the Novus Ordo (NO) is actually going back to what Vatican II really said.
"For instance, a bishop once had to give permission for Latin Mass to be celebrated in his diocese." Not exactly true. Even though the Novus Ordo was usually said in the vernacular, no where was it forbidden for a priest to say it in Latin without permission of the Bishop. In fact the Sacramentary does include the Latin. The permission applied only to the TLM & even then exceptions were made. At the time the NO was promulgated, older priests were allowed to continue saying the TLM without any special permissiion.
Then there is the ridiculous. "The priest faces the altar, which traditionally faced East, the direction from which Catholics believe Christ will return." The priest still faces the altar. It is just that now it is positioned so that he is on 1 side & the people are on the other. & while ad orientum was the prefered orientation, not all Churches were built so that the priest faced East. My home parish in Oelwein had the priest facing West. So did the DBQ Cathedral. In Hazelton he faced North & in E DBQ & 1 Church in DBQ he faced South.
But even more ridiculous is this: "This means the priest has his back to the people, which traditionalists view as appropriate, like a general leading his troops." A general leading the troops?????? Where on Earth did the author come up with that. The priest was never compared to a general. He isn't leading the troops, he is taking the place of Christ & offering up a re-presentation of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. Not a new sacrifice, but the original sacrifice in an unbloody manner.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. While it is nice that they are paying some attention to what is going on in the media. it would be better if they bothered to get things right about the catholic Church in genearl & what is going on liturgically in particular.

For Those Still Harboring Doubts Planned Parenthood & the Democratic Party Are in an Ungodly Union

There isn't much I can add to this. It is just more proof of how sold out to the "culture of death" Obama's administration is. & how in bed with Planned Parenthood it is as well.
Obama admin website: infants and children are ‘sexual beings’

WARNING: disturbing content.
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Borrowing Planned Parenthood’s talking points almost verbatim, the Obama administration is now encouraging parents to begin thinking about their children, and even babies, as “sexual beings” who should be allowed to sexually stimulate themselves from infancy.
“Children are human beings and therefore sexual beings,” says a Q&A about sex directly linked to by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “It’s hard for parents to acknowledge this, just as it’s hard for kids to think of their parents as sexually active. But even infants have curiosity about their own bodies, which is healthy and normal.”
The page was reported by NewsBusters before it was picked up by Fox News on Tuesday.
The talking points on the page closely reflect the counseling on a parenting page by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s top contraception and sex education lobby, where readers are told they “need to give babies a sense of themselves, their sexuality, and their bodies from birth.”
Both pages teach that infant masturbation is already sexual in nature, and thus stopping it could cause the child sexual “shame” later in life. Instead, parents are told to encourage children to keep masturbating in private.
“It is natural for children to be interested in their own bodies. Some parents may choose to casually ignore self-touching. Others may want to acknowledge that, while they know it feels good, it is a private matter,” states the Obama administration’s popup link.
The theory that infants experience sexual pleasure stems from the research of Alfred Kinsey, a seminal researcher of the 1940s and 50s who sexually molested babies as young as five months old to collect data on children’s “orgasms.”
Infamous sexologist Alfred Kinsey
Although immensely influential in modern sexual theory, the truth about the nature of Kinsey’s research has been shut out of media attention for decades.
One chart from Kinsey’s files, found in his 1948 report “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” lists the number and duration of sexual stimulations of boys aged between 14 years and five months, including a four-year-old with 26 “orgasms” in a 24-hour time period.
Judith Reisman, PhD., an internationally-renowned expert on the 20th-century foundations of the sexual revolution, says Kinsey and his researchers defined “orgasms” as children convulsing, crying, hitting the molester, and expressing hysterical fear.
In a recent article, Reisman points to an August conference of mental health professionals seeking to normalize pedophilia as another symptom of Kinsey’s influence.
“In large measure, Dr. Kinsey’s mission has been accomplished, mostly posthumously, by his legion of true believers – elitists who have systematically brainwashed their fellow intellectual elites to adopt Kinsey’s pan-sexual secular worldview and jettison the Judeo Christian worldview upon which this country was founded and flourished,” wrote Reisman.
Click here to read more about the legacy of Alfred Kinsey.

Time to Rename the Democratic Party to Reflect What It Really Is:

The Pro-Planned Parenthood Party

Yesterday I posted a video on why who is elected president matters. This latest from how in bed the Democratic Party is with Planned parenthood (& not only them, the entire "culture of death") just shows how right Fr. Pavone was in what he said. In fact it should be clearer than ever of the importance to elect strong pro-life candidates to all levels of government, stae & local, as well as federal. & why it is especially important we do so in the 2012 election.
Of course, all we are seeing here is the same thing that happenned in Kansas under former Governor Kathleen Sibelius (now HHS Secretary), only on a national scale. We saw how Sibelius covered up for her buddies in the abortion industry by vetoing even basic laws that would require minimal regs to protect the safety of women. & she also failed to enforce the few laws that were on the books.
We are already seeing some of this same buddy buddy corruption on the national scale. besides this appointment of Wasserman Schultz, we see how the Obama administration gave into the aboetion industry with its recent rule change forcing even Catholic organizations to pay for contraceptives through their insurance. & you can be sure that abortion will be next should ObamaCare be allowed to stand.
Folks, now more than ever we must pray that God raise up Godly men & women to run for elected office. & then we must do what we can to get them elected as well as keep the fire under their feet after they are.
Ultimately, this is a spiritual battle. But that doesn't exempt us from action in the political arena. Being silent there is the same as saying abortion & the "culture of death" as the law of the land is OK. & we will have to answer to God for what we have & haven't done to fight it.

Democratic Party Chair Headlines Planned Parenthood Abortion Rally
The chair of the national Democratic party headlined a small rally in Florida yesterday for the Planned Parenthood, in what is the latest event having Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz working with the abortion business.

Wasserman Schultz was named by pro-abortion President Barack Obama recently to take over as the head of the Democratic Party nationally and prepare for his re-election campaign next year. At the time of her appointment to the position, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards praised Wasserman Schultz as a “heroine” for her extensive abortion advocacy. The appointment made it clear Obama would not run from him lengthy pro-abortion record.

Now, Schultz is continuing that abortion advocacy, appearing in the event sponsored by Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast, a local abortion affiliate.

“Show your support for Planned Parenthood, and tell your elected officials that women’s health matters,” an announcement of the rally read, without mentioning abortion. “We’re so excited to co-sponsor a rally in Ft. Lauderdale during the August Congressional recess with all our wonderful coalition partners – and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Congressman Ted Deutch, and Congressman Alcee Hastings in attendance. We’re going to turn downtown Ft. Lauderdale pink, and thank our elected officials who have defended women’s health care.”

Schultz tweeted about the rally afterwards — providing a picture and saying she was “with Rep. Red Deutch at the Planned Parenthood rally in south Florida. We are truly fighting for women’s lives. This is personal.”

“I joined my colleague Rep. Ted Deutch and others from the FL State Legislature at a rally with Planned Parenthood in South Florida tonight,” she added on her Facebook page. “This year, we’ve experienced some of the most severe attacks on women’s rights since Roe v. Wade. I was six years old when Roe v. Wade was handed down. And never in my life have I felt my constitutional rights as a woman were threatened like I do right now. The women who came before us faced tough times too, but they stayed with it – because they knew that it was up to them to ensure that they left us a better world. And now it’s our turn to carry the torch.”

This isn’t the first time Wasserman Schultz has participated in events for the local abortion business — as she headlined a training day for pro-abortion student activists earlier this year.

The full DNC unanimously ratified Wasserman Schultz’s selection, making her the first woman to head the Democratic Party. According to an AP report, she said after the election she would “make sure that no one outworks” the party when it comes to re-electing Obama. Heading the party, she would work to attract women voters for Obama, attack the pro-life Republican presidential candidates, and work to ensure Obama wins the top battleground state of Florida.

According to a CNN report, Obama praised her election, saying Wasserman Schultz “stays focused and accomplishes goals,” and telling Democrats, “Thanks for supporting Debbie. I know it will be a tough 18 more months but I know we’re going to get this thing done.”

Wasserman Schultz succeeded former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who has stepped down from his chairman post to run for the Senate in his home state.

Why Who We Elect President Matters

New Study Adds To Arguement for Adult, Not Embryonic, Stem Cells

Much as they keep trying to hype how the best bet for cures & treatment lies in using embryonic stem cells, the facts keep showing adult stem cells are the best, as well as safest, way to go.
A recent study at UCLA has discovered that cells made from embryonic stem cells had not turned off many of the genes normally expressed only in growing, pluripotent stem cells. Dr. William Lowry, senior author of the study, said that this could be very problematic, since some of those same pluripotency genes are expressed during cancer development. As reported in the study, the cells derived from embryonic stem cells were developmentally very immature. It was found that theywere most similar to cells less than six weeks after conception, in the earliest stages of human development.
Lowry said that "it also may present a challenge for transplantation, because the cells you end up with are not something that’s indicative of a cell you’d find in an adult or even in a newborn baby.”
Given that we now know more about why embryonic sterm cells are likely to cause cancer & the fact that adult stem cell successes continue to mount, the justification for killing unborn babies for their stem cells is pretty much a non-starter. Not that there ever should have any attempts to justify it in the 1st place, given that any research that requires the willful killing of a living human being to do so. Sadly, the Obama administration is so sold out to the "culture of death" that it coninues to expand embryonic stem cell research at taxpayer expense. This is something we cannot let continue as it is only bringing us closer to the day when the USA will have to answer for these sins. & if we do, we can expect something similar to what happenned to ancient Israel. They were warned as we are being warned. It is still not too late for this country to repent. But even if we do, we will still have to do penance for what we have allowed up to now. Better a little now, than a lot worse later. So, once again I remind us of the importance of prayer as well as action so we can change this country from having a "culture of death" to having a Godly "culture of life."

Study: Embryonic Stem Cells Don’t Work as Well as Adult Cells

New HLI Documentary: “The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life”

Human Life International (HLI)has produced a new documentary highlighting the fight for life in the Philippines. The documentary "underscores one of the most dramatic social and political struggles for life and family in the world." The film is already in heavy rotation on EWTN in the Philippines, and will debut in the United States and Canada on EWTN this week.
It looks at debate over the anti-life Reproductive Health (RH) Bill in the Philippine legislature & how Pro-Life leaders are working to keep it from passing. It includes interviews with Filipino pro-lifers leading the charge against the RH Bill. Among those interviewed are Archbishop of Cebu Jose Palma, Philippine Congressman Dr. Anthony Golez, HLI Philippines Director Dr. Rene Bullecer & Dr. Ligaya Acosta, a former pro-abortion Philippine Department of Health manager who is now HLI’s Regional Director for Asia & Oceania.
Speaking of the importance of this documentary Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carambula, interim president of HLI, had this to say: “Right now, proponents of the anti-life RH Bill are still a few votes short of achieving their deadly goal. Our wish is that this documentary will inspire not only Filipinos, but pro-lifers around the world, to stand with our brothers and sisters in the Philippines against the culture of death.”
Stephen Phelan, executive producer of the documentary & director of communications for HLI added: “It is profoundly inspiring to hear everyday Filipinos, as well as leaders from the political realm and the Catholic Church talk about how they have fought off this intrusive, anti-life and anti-family bill in its different forms for twelve years.”
He went on to say: “It is in some ways reminiscent of the struggle over health care in [the United States] – a detached political elite continues to force through a bill that the people have said time and again that they don’t want. The bill’s backers use deceptive language, they are funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from outside the Philippines, and they are attempting to attack and divide the Catholic Church.
Everyone must understand what is going on in the Philippines, and how we are all bound in the struggle for life and family.”
The program is scheduled to run on EWTN on 25 August at 1:30 PM & 26 August at 9:00 PM EDT.


Note: according to the story, as well as EWTN's website, it was supposed to premiere on EWTN at 3:30 am EDT(2:30 CDT)but for some reason it didn't run. The EWTH schedule does show the other 2 times.
Source: “The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life” Documentary Debuts on EWTN This Week

Time to Add a Little Class to This Blog - Spike Jones Style

St. Rose of Lima

Actually, This may Be A Prophetic Warning of What Lies Ahead

Source: Patriot Post

"He Who Has Ears to Hear" Has Useable Adult Stem Cells

(Couldn't resist the wordplay)
It seems that every time you turn arround these days another one of the arguments that claims to justify why we need embryonic stem cell research is biting the dust. Each day the number of real or definitely probable cures/treatments using adult stem cells grows. meanwhile the number of cures/treatments definitely held out by embryonic stem cells continues to stand at Zero.
At this point, logic would dictate that all embryonic stem cell research be abandoned, esp because of the ethical concerns. But because the "culture of death" is so entrenched in the Obama administration as well as elsewhere in the medical industry, evil is still being presented as a good. There is no need for using embryonic stem cells. & deep down, they know it. Pride, arrogance, a desire to play god, these are some of the real reasons behind their continuing to push for their use. Pride is what caused the fall of Satan & his fellow demons. & it will eventually be the downfall of those involved in the "culture of death".

Scientists Find Another Adult Stem Cell Source: The Ear

Japanese scientists have shown that useful adult stem cells can be isolated from the human ear.
The cells come from a part of the ear called the perichondrium, which is a thin layer of connective tissue that covers and protects cartilage in the human body. Previously another group had shown the regenerative potential of adult stem cells from rabbit ears, but the new study is the first to show such adult stem cells present in the human ear.
Prof. Shinji Kobayashi, lead author on the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues discovered adult stem cells from the membrane that covers cartilage in the human ear. They developed a technique to grow the adult stem cells into cartilage efficiently, and found that the human stem cell-derived cartilage was stable for at least 10 months after it was transplanted under the skin of mice.
As the authors note in their published paper, there is great demand for effective treatments for craniofacial injuries or abnormalities, but effective treatments are currently lacking. Their discovery of this new, easily-accessible source of adult stem cells and their technique for efficient growth of cartilage would allow patients suffering from craniofacial deformities to be treated with reconstructive material grown from adult stem cells collected from their own ears. The scientists hope to start a clinical study as early as 2012.

Hail Holy Queen!

tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam

What About the "irreparable harm" Planned parenthood Has Done to Unborn Babies?

Planned Parenthood in Kansas is having a hissie fit because the state of Kansas is refusing to hand over money to them after a judge temporarily enjoining a new state provision prioritizing family planning funds to non-abortion agencies.
As reported by LifeNews "U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten issued an injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law after Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri argued that it would suffer irreparable harm if the law was allowed to stand and that it would be forced to close one or more of its facilities because Kansas would direct hundreds of thousands of taxpayer funds to non-abortion medical clinics that provide the same services without also destroying the lives of women and unborn children in abortions." (emphasis mine)
Did you get that, their loss of money will cause them irreperable harm. But what about those lives they destroyed when they murdered unborn babies as well as the emotional harm done to the women who had the abortions?
I will admit that from PP's point of view, the loss of money to underwrite their abortion pipeline will cause them harm. But only from their point of view. Given what has gone on in Texas with that state's defunding of PP, as well as defunding elsewhere, they know they will have to close one of their 2 non-abortion sites that they use as a pipeline to feed the abortion mill in Overland Park. I am willing to bet it will be the Hays site as Wichita has a higher number of women it can lure in & victimize.
As for why PP isn't getting any money, the answer is simple, according to Kansans for Life legislative director Kathy Ostrowski they have NO current contracts with the state of Kansas that would require payments. No contracts mean their are none “to be restored by Marten, and a judge hasn’t the authority to create contracts between the state and private business.”
Of course that doesn't mean PP won't try & force Kansas to give them money.
After Marten's injunction was issued the Kansas Attorney General’s office filed an appellate brief in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals asking it to halt the decision placing a temporary hold on enforcing the new law de-funding Planned Parenthood.
In respose to the PP lawsuit, Kansas argued that it has the right to do so based on the 10th Amendment which they say allows it to determine tax funding. Kansas also argued that “The proposed injunction would commandeer one of the State’s agencies, forcing the State to cancel past contracts and enter into new ones selected by the Court. The proposed injunction would violate the State’s sovereignty and unconstitutionally replace the State’s discretion with the Court’s judgment.”
I suspect that is exactly what PP wants to Court to do. As I said before, PP knows they are losing support with the "People of the United States" & that the legislatures are following the will of the people. So they want to have the court stage a coup & undermine not only the 10th Amendment but do even more damage to the Contact clause (Article I, section 10, clause 1) as well.
The battles on the state level will eventually reach the Supreme Court. & when that point is reached we better hope that the Court has enough Justices willing to use original intent. This is another reason why we need to get Obama out before he can make any more appointments of judges who see the Constitution as a living document that can be changed at will rather than a document that was intended to put absolute limits on what the Federal Government can or can't do.
Source: Kansas Refuses to Send Tax Money to Planned Parenthood

Consecrating the Youth of the World to the Sacred Heart

This Just in From Madrid

At the end of the Mass for Seminarians at World Youth Day 2011, Papa Benedetto announced that he will soon declare San Juan de Ávila (St. John of Avila) as the 34th Doctor of the Catholic Church. He was born on 6 January 1500 @ Almodóvar del Campo. He died on – 10 May 1569 @ Montilla, Spain. He was a Spanish apostolic preacher, author & mystic. He was declared Venerable by Pope Clement XIII on 8 February 1799 & beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 12 November 1893. He was declared a saint on 31 May 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
He was the spiritual director of Ss Teresa of Avila, Francis Borgia, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcántara, & Venerable Louis of Granada. He will join 2 of them, St. Teresa of Avila & St. John of the Cross, in that exclusive group.
Quotes from his writings"
"Turn yourself round like a piece of clay and say to the Lord: I am clay, and you, Lord, the potter. Make of me what you will."
"Withdraw your heart from the world before God takes your body from it."
"Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you."
"Dear brothers and sisters,
I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship. That is why he (Christ) tells us that if we want to join him, we shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of worldly honor: 'The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant greater than his master.'” - from a letter by Saint John of Avila

_____________
Note: While Papa Benedetto is at it, might I add a couple others who I think should be added to that list.
I would suggest Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort because of his writings on mary & the Rosary. According to Wikipedia he is under consideration.
Another saint I would suggest he consider is St. Faustina because of what she wrote on Divine Mercy.
I have also heard it suggested that St. John Bosco be named a Doctor as well.
Should he ever become a saint Blessed John Duns Scotus OFM should be considered. His writing defending the Immaculate Conception was used in Pope Pius IX's declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
I am also sure that someday Blessed John Paul II will be declared a Doctor, especially because of his Theology of the Body as well as his writings on the "Culture of Life".
Another one that I would love to see declared a Doctor after he is declared a saint is Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

I Guess Mama Ratzinger Never Told Him Not to Play With His Food

CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters

BBC News story with video here.

The Defunding of Planned Parenthood on the State Level Is Paying Off

This headlines from a story about the closings says it all:
Numerous Planned Parenthoods close in wake of new Texas law
While the 7 that are closing don't do abortions, they are a part of Planned Parenthood's abortion pipeline. So their closing means there are fewer opportunities for PP to lure in victims. If this were about providing health care, then why these & not any of those that provide abortions? Simple, as Abby Johnson revealed, PP is pushing its affiliates to do more abortions, not fewer.
Meanwhile Arizona has gone Texas 1 step further, 7 of the 10 sites that do abortions are being forced to stop doing abortions now that an Arizona appellate court last week upheld a 2009 state law that placed new restrictions on abortions in the state. 1 of those changes authorizes only physicians to perform surgical abortions. Previously nurse practitioners & midwives could do them as well. Of course PP says they will appeal. It is clear that they place profits over the safety of women. Abortion is NOT the same as getting ears pierced or a shot. Yes, there are many things a nurse practitioner can do well, but an NP is NOT a trained surgeon. & abortion is major surgery as well as murder. As for midwives, their job is to see that babies are born safely, not killed. & there are even further removed from being a trained surgeon that NPs are. They would be better to follow the example of Shiphrah & Puah in Exodus 1.
It would be great if the Arizona sites had totally closed like those in Texas. Since they are still open, they can continue to be a pipeline. But anything that cuts down on the number of abortions,as this will, is a step in the right direction.
Read more:Planned Parenthood Stops Abortions at Seven Arizona Locations
These stories show how the times are changing. While Obama & his administration may still be in Planned parenthood's back pocket, the people across the USA are waking up & saying we are NOT going to use our money to pay for abortions. They are also calling PP's bluff when they claim they are about health care & providing safe abortions. If PP really felt that way, they wouldn't object to being treated like any other medical clinic. The fact that they object to even minimal safety standards shows it is money, not safety that motivates them.

On Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

Last June I went on On a Pilgimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. While each person's experience is unique, this does give you a little idea of what the experience is like. I highly recommend going to the shrine. I think I would have said it a little differently, it is where Heaven touched earth.


Entire story: 'It's like heaven touching earth'
H/T: The Badger Catholic ( StarTrib: Good Help Shrine; 'It's like heaven touching earth' )

If Newsweek Had Been Arround When St Joan of Arc Was Executed

Source: Out of Order: The Blog (Newsouique )

You Can't Have Liberty Without the Right to Life

From his speech last Saturday at the Iowa Straw Poll:

"There is something that precedes liberty, and that is life," Paul said. "If we are to defend liberty … you have to understand where that liberty, and where that life comes from. It does not come from the government, it comes from our creator." - Ron Paul (Ron Paul stresses opposition to abortion rights in Iowa speech)

H/T: Jill Stanek (Ron Paul: The right to life precedes liberty)

Everything You Should Know About Angels

Angels — The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About Them
1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.
2. They're present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.
3. They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.
4. They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.
5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.
6. They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.
7. There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.
8. Angels are aware of you, even though you can’t usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.
9. You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.
10. Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares” — that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.
11. We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.
12. Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster — for bodies, for souls, and for nations.
Follow link above for more from Dr. Peter Kreeft about angels.

Extending God's Mercy @ World Youth Day 2011 to Those Who Had an Abortion

This story pretty much speaks for itself. The Cardinal knows that World Youth Day can be a time of great grace as well as a time where people will be open in a special way to God's mercy. & he wants to ensure those attending that they are able to receive the full measure of that mercy. Normally in a diocese, if a priest doesn't have the faculty to lift an excommunication he has to approach the Bishop in a way that doesn't break the seal of Confession. At WYD that wouldn't be practical, so the Cardinal did the pastorally correct thing here. If he hadn't done so, many people who might otherwise be reconciled to the Catholic Church wouldn't.

World Youth Day priests granted power to lift abortion excommunications
by Patrick B. Craine
Tue Aug 16, 2011 15:44 EST
MADRID, Spain, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, has granted all of the 2,000 priests attending World Youth Day this week the special power to the lift the excommunication and to grant absolution in confession to those who have committed the sin of abortion.
According to the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law, any person who procures an abortion is automatically excommunicated from the Church (can. 1398). This penalty – the worst penalty there is under canon law - can only be lifted by the pope and bishops, as well as priests who have been given special permission by a bishop.
Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.
Priests hearing confessions at World Youth Day, however, will be granted special permission to deal with such cases from August 16-22.
The archdiocese said they hope that “all the faithful who attend the celebrations of World Youth Day can more easily access the fruits of divine grace, which opens the door to a new life for them,” according to EWTN News.
Madrid has been labeled the “abortion Mecca” of Europe by local pro-life leaders because of the skyrocketing rate of abortions, which grew from 51,000 in 1996 to 120,000 in 2007. As many as 1 out of 5 of its pregnancies now end in abortion.
Last July, the country’s socialist government implemented a new abortion law allowing the deadly procedure on-demand for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Iowa Governor Branstad On Laura Ingraham Monday

In part he explains why he snubbed an invite to tour with Obama in Iowa this week. He knows the "tour" is really political. & he wasn't going to give Obama any cover.

How Many Botched Abortions Is Too Many?

Apparently, up to the recent investigation by Operation Rescue & Project Defending Life the answer in Albuquerque NM is that there is no such thing as too many before someone steps in to investigate.
In mid July Operation Rescue released the recordings of five 911 calls over a recent 15-month period from Southwestern Women’s Options, (SWO) an abortion clinic in Albuquerque. Yesterday they released 8 more recordings, 6 more from SWO & the others from UNM Center for Reproductive Health, an abortion clinic that acts as an abortion training ground for the University of New Mexico.
As a result of the July release the New Mexico Board of Physicians is investigating 3 physicians. Under investigation are Shelley Sella a& Susan Robinson, late-term abortionists. They formerly worked for the nation’s largest late-term abortion clinic in Wichita KS prior to its closure in 2009. Also under investigation is Texas abortionist Curtis Boyd, who owns SWO where the 911 calls originated.
The latest were placed between November, 2008 & December, 2009. That comes to an average of 1 every 10 weeks. While that may not seem like many to some, how many other hospitals would get away with that many surgeries being botched if it was some other type? My only question is why didn't anyone notice this before now? I suspect no one was looking, or wanted to. We are seeing why it is important for groups like Operation Rescue & Live Action to keep doing what they are doing.
Interestingly enough after the 1st set of recording was released UNM Center for Reproductive Health abortionist Tony Ogburn who is also a spokesperson for UNM lashed out in the news media He claimed the woman’s privacy rights have been violated. I wonder if they suspected they would be next in line since UNMCRH knew there were at least these 2 recordings waiting to get out? That having been said, he knows full well these are public records. All of the 911 recordings were obtained through a public records request by Tara Shaver of Project Defending Life (PDL), who forwarded them to Operation Rescue. There has been at least 1 news reporter who later obtained the same 911 recording through his own public records request. So, Ogburn is trying to spin using smoke & mirrors.
As OR Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger said,“It is more likely that they are upset that we found out about this life-threatening abortion complication than they are about patient privacy.” She went on to add “There is a move by abortionists to hide behind the privacy rights of their patients to cover up their own mistakes. They don’t want anyone to know the truth about the real dangers women face during an abortion, especially in the later stages of pregnancy. Some abortionists cling to a façade of respectability, but the hard truth is that abortion does not draw America’s best and brightest. That is why abortion tragedies are all too common and all too often swept under the rug.”
Here are excerpts from the latest recording released:


You can to listen to the full recordings a well as find written transcripts & Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) transcripts here.
Here are the recording released in July:









You can read all the stories about the investigation here @ Operation Rescue's website.

As I said earlier, this is why all these investigations are so important, the truth needs to get out. & this is why the abortion industry is so up in arms about all the states that have defunded Planned Parenthood & other abortion providers. These revelations about botched operations, covering up rapes, etc have not exactly shown the industry in a good light. But it has shown them in their true light.
I am sure that this cut in funding is part of the reason for the timing of the recent HHS announcement requiring all insurance plans to cover birth control for women with not copay, to pacify their concerns. It was also a reward for their getting him elected.
Patient privacy is the big cover they are trying to use now. But I am willing to bet that as the 2012 elections get closer they will start screaming that the investigations are partisan attempts to get "anti-choice" candidates elected by maligning the industry. It will be an attempt to scare them into silence so the truth doesn't get out.
Another attepmt to silence Pro-lifers is currently playing out in the courts with the lawsuit former U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) has filed against the Susan B. Anthony List. While it should be a no-brainer that what SBAList did is political speech protected by the 1st amendment, it isn't a surprize that an Obama appointee, Judge Thomas Black, ruled the lawsuit could go ahead. The message is don't you dare say anything against a Pro-abort candidate or you will be hauled to court where our side has the unlimited funds (thanks to government largess) & you don't. Hopefully the suit will eventually be thrown out on appeal if they should lose at this level. If the suceeds, then the 1st Amendment will have been forever gutted.