Catholic Politic

Bishop Bruskewitz v. USCCB

2006-04-08T21:33:00.000-04:00

The left-wing wackos that are funded by your donations said this (page 8 - calling for strong fraternal correction because the Diocese of Lincoln has not permitted the USCCB board audit the diocese)

Bishop Bruskewitz responded.

The analysis is here and here.

AmericanPapist: Not Your Average Catholic!: The Bruskewitz Debate: Revisited

2006-04-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

AmericanPapist: Not Your Average Catholic!: The Bruskewitz Debate: Revisited

Cardinal Mahoney Double-Speak (and Dan Quayle Quotes)

2006-04-07T21:20:00.000-04:00

Here is more duplicity and double talk from Cardinal Mahoney. At least, I hope it is duplicity and not ignorance since this would place him in a league with few others.

Time for Dan Quayle Quotes:

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'"

"Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"The future will be better tomorrow."

"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."

"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican."

"I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix."

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

"When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."

"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it."

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."

"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."

Now I understand that this guy was under constant scrutiny, but I still can't believe he was the vice-president of the United States.

Giuliani - The End of the Republican Party?

2006-04-06T21:07:00.000-04:00

There is much talk about Giuliani these days.

In Poll

After Poll

After Poll

After Poll

He is shown at the strongest Republican Candidate out there (alongside McCain). The ONLY one out there who can beat the presumptive Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't believe for a second that Rudy will be the candidate. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, despite his many efforts, he has been out of the limelight for the past four years. Sorry, but head of the U.S. Olympic delegation and leading panels relating to security do not cut the mustard.
Second, Giuliani is a rabid pro-abort and a pro-homosexual activist! I do not use these terms lightly. Remember, when he was running against Hillary for the NY Senate seat Planned Parenthood could not decide between the two. He also did not support a partial birth abortion ban, but had made statements in the past supporting homosexual marriage.
Third, he has a ton of personal baggage. This guy had a long term extra-marital affair and then divorced his wife. I don't think people want a home-wrecker in the white House as first lady.

Rudy is not the Republican's knight in shining armor. Remember that before he dropped out of his Senate race, he'd slipped behind Hillary Clinton by 7 points.

The Catholics Likely Response. This Pro-Abortion Catholic will not cut the mustard! This is the point that I originally set out to write about. A Republican Pro-Abortion/homosexual Catholic Politician like Rudy will get KILLED by the Catholic voters (i.e. no support). The Catholic Right will not vote for him because of his stances on partial-birth abortion and homosexual marriage. The Catholic Left will not support him because the democratic candidate will be pro-abortion without the history of kicking the homeless out of the streets and cutting social services.

The end of the Republican Party? Not likely, even if Rudy is the candidate. However, don't expect the conservatives who jumped ship to all return to it. Those who do return would not trust the party leadership as much - resulting in less volunteer hours and donations. Over time this could prove to be a mortal wound!

enough for now!

Bobby Jindahl - A good Catholic politician

2006-04-01T18:05:00.000-05:00

Bobby Jindahl is an up and coming Catholic politician known for his orthodox positions. He is worth supporting. His impressive resume is here.

2006-04-01T18:02:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting article on Islam and conversion from to anything else.

Let the Games Begin - Who Gets the Catholic voter

2006-04-01T16:37:00.000-05:00

An article in The New York Observer signals the significant work the Democrats have already undertaken to woo the Catholic Voter. For a breakdown of the Catholic votes in the 2004 election, where the Democratic nominee was a Catholic look here.

Here are the important facts as I see them:

For the first time in nearly 100 years the majority of Catholics voted for a Republican presidential candidate.
The switch of Catholics casting their votes for Republicans instead of Democrats is a long-term major trend (not a one-time event) that began in the 1970's.
There are two reasons for this trend; an increase in wealth among Catholics and a variety of social issues like abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and pornography.

It is generally perceived that the increase in the number of Hispanic Catholics in the electorate will benefit the Democrats. the conventional wisdom is that they are new to this country and therefore will enjoy the government benefits that have been the bread and butter of Democratic politics. This may be true, however there are still the social issues as well as the ever increasing conservativeness of the Church.

Here is the beginning of an interesting article that I linked above....

Clinton Makes a Pitch For Catholic Voters

By E.J. Kessler

The hunt for the great American Catholic voter of 2008 started in earnest last week, led by none other than New York’s junior Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Speaking about a Republican-passed immigration bill that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, or to aid an illegal immigrant, Mrs. Clinton said, “It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures, because the bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.”

... OK, I can't take anymore of that! When Hilliary Clinton starts interpreting scripture she comes off like a complete phoney. It didn't work for Kerry, and I don't think that it will work for Hillary.

Of course, it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that Cardinal Mahoney and a cadre of dissenting has-been bishops are a key element of Hillary's bid to be President. They continually confuse the issues and create disorder in the Church.

The Tactics of the Left - INTIMIDATION

2006-03-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

Pro-Abortion Students Disrupt University Pro-Life Display with Manure

By Gudrun Schultz

CALGARY, Alberta, March 31, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-abortion protestors at the University of Calgary dumped bags of cow manure in front of the Campus for Life Genocide Awareness Project on Tuesday.

The pro-life display depicts large, bloody images of abortion and historical genocide, comparing society’s sanction of the killing of unborn children to past government-sanctioned slaughter during the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide.

“It’s a comparison of atrocities in the past where governments and society have stripped the distinctions between human-hood and person-hood,” Campus for Life president Josh Nugent told the Gauntlet.

“In the past, when governments have stripped person-hood status from human beings, genocide has taken place. That’s what happened during the Holocaust, that’s what happened in Rwanda, that’s what happened on the killing fields of Cambodia. In every case, that is wrong. Just like the unborn, that is wrong. These cases are not the same, but they’re similar, and that’s the common thread. They’ve said this is a human being, but not a person, thus it shall not be granted rights as a human.”

The controversial exhibit has triggered violent reactions in the past from students in favour of abortion-at UBC in 1999 and Calgary in 2005.

This year, along with the bagged manure, students opposed to allowing the presentation of pro-life views and materials on campus displayed a banner reading “your campaign stinks like manure.”

End

Comment - It shouldn't surprise one that the left's response to the pro-life message is violent for two reasons:

To be pro-abortion is to be pro-violence - in that abortion is the most violent of actions.
The Majority of pro-abortion folks recognize that their views on abortion contradict other values that they have. To see first hand angst from the left read this article.

Homosexual Activist Irish Senator Compares Pope Benedict XVI to Hitler

2006-03-28T21:05:00.000-05:00

I heard it said by more than one person that Ireland is about 25 to 30 years behind the United States in Church insanity, then scandal and finally concomitant reform. Perhaps there is a political reality as well?

Here's an article that shows the Ireland homosexual agenda where we were about 25 to 30 years ago.

The Attack of the Church by the Left

2006-02-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

Not surprisingly, the elected officials of San Francisco have continued their war on the Church.

A few years ago they required all organizations doing business with the city to provide benefits to homosexual partners. Unfortunately, the Church collapsed after initial and promising resistance. As noted in the San Francisco Chronicle's March 22, 2006 article:

In 1996, San Francisco adopted landmark legislation requiring city contractors to provide their employees in domestic partnerships with the same benefits extended to their married co-workers. The Archdiocese of San Francisco, which holds a variety of city contracts to provide social services through its Catholic Charities arm, balked at that requirement because of its disapproval of homosexual relationships. After much hand-wringing, closed-door negotiations and public debate, a compromise was reached that appeased city officials and allowed the church to keep within its doctrine. Under the compromise, employees of city contractors could pick any one other person in their household to receive benefits, whether a domestic partner, a spouse, blood relative or roommate.

In other words, the Church blinked and the radical homosexual groups were emboldened.

It appears that things may have changed. Recently, soon-to-be Cardinal William Levada (ironically the previous Archbishop of San Francisco), issued a statement stating that Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households. The Archdiocese of Boston and now San Francisco have publicly stated that they will no longer provide adoption services to homosexual couples.

Maurice Healy, spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, told The Chronicle that adoptions into gay and lesbian households "are not in sync with church teaching, and we've committed ourselves to being in sync with church teaching.''

Not surprisingly, the elected officials at San Francisco, so intent upon diversity and tolerance, immediately attacked the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Read the following passage closely, because they liberals do three things:

The liberals aggressively seek the local church to disobey the higher ups.
The liberals discredit the Church by calling it a foreign country (let us note that they do not object to foreign interference when it supports their agenda). This is
reminiscent of the anti- Catholicism of bygone days.
The liberals characterize their political gains as part of the "established customs and traditions" regardless of how new or blatantly contrary it is to the established customs and traditions of our culture.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a non-binding resolution that takes aim at a statement issued two weeks ago by Cardinal-elect William Levada, the former archbishop for San Francisco who now serves as second-in-command at the Vatican. Levada said Catholic agencies "should not place children for adoption in homosexual households.''

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors wasted little time chiming in, and challenged local church officials to defy the Vatican.

"It is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great city's existing and established customs and traditions, such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need,'' the resolution stated.

Of course, there will always be some, especially in Catholic Charities, that will seek to disobey the Church, deny their place in the Church, and claim that the left's demands must be met because they are the established customs and traditions or, even more nauseating, that love calls for it. In this case, the individual was Brian Cahill who, with an Irish Catholic sounding name and the title of "executive director of Catholic charities", is very important.

Brian Cahill, executive director of Catholic Charities, asserted Monday and again Tuesday that the agency has not decided to change course and prohibit the placement of children with gays and lesbians.
"Our policies and procedures have not changed,'' Cahill said.

This in spite of the church's clear statement relating to homosexual adoptions that, "Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions [homosexual] would actually mean doing violence to these children.''

We shouldn't be surprised to discover that Brian Cahill is an active homosexual who adopted a child with his homosexual partner. According to Valerie Schmalz of IgnatiusInsight:

Cahill, who has a gay son, recently promoted the director of HIV/AIDS services, Motola, to his second-in-command as director of programs and services. Motola was quoted and described favorably as a gay adoptive father in the archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic San Francisco, in a December 3, 2004, article written by the public relations person for Catholic Charities. Motola is listed on several websites as a gay father, as well as in the December 6, 2005, issue of the alternative gay newspaper, The Advocate.

Here we have the fourth tactic of the left:

4. Put your people in charge!

If you were waiting for the government to call it "hate speech" (the fifth tactic of the left) you need not wait long...

That statement, in particular, drew the scorn of the supervisors who in their resolution called it "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric (that) is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors.''

For a good summary of what is at stake for the Catholic Church in America

What are your typical college kids thinking these days?

2005-06-09T17:47:00.000-04:00

I thought that this was an interesting peak into the discussion of abortion. My thoughts:

For the most part people still believe in allowing a variety of opinions to be expressed
College students have successfully avoided thining deeply about major issues of the day.

Here are some patehtic statements;

There isn't really a logical argument. [to the pro-life cause]
I'm all about the women gets to decide what happens to her body
I thought that anytime before the third month the infant is not alive.
The truth of the matter is, their are laws that prohibit aborting babies that are that advanced in their development.

We've got a long way to go in educating the masses.

Pro-Abortion Intimidation and Hypocrisy in the University

2005-05-01T17:18:00.000-04:00

Protesters angry with university restrictions on their demonstration

by Alex Dimson

Student organisers of the protest against Wednesday's anti-abortion display say they are upset about the restrictions placed on their protest by the university.

Hannah Roman, a Students for Choice executive, said Campus Security had made an earlier arrangement with her pro-choice student group that the protest must be outside a ten-foot radius from the controversial display of Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) images. "And when we got here this morning they told us we had to be 50 feet away from the display," she said Wednesday.

Are the Pro-Abortion student groups implying that the University Administration is hostile to their cause? Please keep reading.

But UBC Vice-President, Students Brian Sullivan said that Students for Choice had not made any arrangements with UBC to hold a protest so close to the display. "Students for Choice evidently decided that they wanted to have a certain kind of presence there, which the university administration was happy to have them have," he said. "But it was also important that it not obscure or disrupt the already agreed upon display so they were asked to move back."

So the Pro-abortion Club simply didn't go through the proper channels for their counter-demonstration. It appears that the administration isn't hostile to the Pro-Abortion cause as the Pro-Abortion club would lead you to believe.

Students for Choice had also originally planned to surround the GAP display with sheets to prevent students from seeing the display until they were nearby. The display, which compares abortion to genocide using graphic images, was organised by the Alma Mater Society's pro-life club Lifeline.

This dispenses with the idea that the University is a marketplace of all ideas, or that the "students for choice" club had any interest in allowing the public to make an informed choice through dialogue or free-speech.

Roman alleges that the university was intimidated by a letter sent to her, and copied to the VP, Students office, by Lifeline's lawyer Craig Jones, who is also the president of the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). In the letter, Jones warns Students for Choice that Lifeline would likely seek legal recourse if the students went ahead with the "shrouding" of the display.

Don't you just HATE it when the other side begins to successfully use the same court that you have been using for the past century to push your agenda?

But Sullivan said that the letter played no role in UBC's decision. In the past UBC filed a legal injunction against the organisers of the original GAP display, to prevent it from coming to campus.

Hmmmm. Looks like

The Administration has been using its resources to stifle the debate, just like the "students for choice" except in a more "civilized" manner; and
The GAP folks have had to do a lot of work to get permission to set up their display (whereas the Pro-Abortion students feel entitled to behave in any manner they want and if they do not receive preferential treatment consider it an outrage).

"Obviously the university is not afraid to engage in some sort of legal stuff. We've been into that with GAP. Nothing in the relationship I've had with Lifeline or the AMS or anyone else has been influenced by an actual or threatened lawsuit," he said.

Roman said that she thinks Jones' letter was an "intimidation tactic." "What he intended to do was scare us so much that we wouldn't actually have our protest."

This from the girl who wanted permission to surround the Pro-life display and cover it up with large sheets so passer-bys could not see the display. Talk about pot calling the kettle black! Double-speak in action.

But Jones said that he sent the letter only to ensure that his clients had a right to express their views. "If it is okay for this majority to simply gather together and cover up the expression of the minority, then you simply are not going to have any minority expression at all."

More than Low Class? Claims that "Sacred" art in Catholic Churches is inspired by the Devil himself!

2005-04-26T18:03:00.000-04:00

A new documentary, "Rape of the Soul", claims to

"explore the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, and occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the acceptance of the artwork at the highest and most trusted levels of the Catholic Church...

..."Artists from DaVinci to Botticelli have imbedded subliminal images into their art for centuries, said Calace...In this case we found penises on crucifixes, anarchy symbols, swastikas, demonic faces and in modern works even the word 'sex' encrypted into the images."

This according to a story at World Net Daily. The website itself lack any specific facts that would make the reasonable person (ala me) believe them. The documentary appears to be from Silver Sword International, LLC, a company based out of Vancouver, Canada. A brief looksie doesn't show any links or connections to other organizations.

Before I continue this brief forray into investigative journalism please remember that World Net Daily had an editorial last year where they claimed,

“On Jan. 22, 1998, when [Pope Benedict XVI] was still a cardinal and the grand Inquisitor (yes!) of the Roman Catholic Church, he declared that their archives (4,500 large volumes) indicate a death toll of 25 million killed by the Catholic Church for being ‘heretics.’ And likely two-thirds of the original volumes are lost….”

Biases aside, the primary force behind the movie is Michael A. Calace (who claims to be Catholic, so we can exclude Jack Chick's influences from the production). He claims that while attending Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Westchester, NY he noticed his children unusually drawn to the OCP missal during Mass. Using his visual art expertise he noticed phallic symbols, demonic imagery and the sign of the beast. Look for yourself!

Can You spot the "666"?

Unfortunately, I will have to remain unmoved with my belief that bad taste more than the desire to stir up hidden lustful desires is the case of most of our bad art. To paraphrase something Russel Kirk said, the Church threw away its centuries of beauty and began building (and decorating) it's buildings in the finest architectural traditions of McDonalds.

Dissent, Homosexuality, and Abuse

2005-03-27T20:21:00.000-05:00

You have all there in the person of Gerard L. Branconnier. For fifteen years he was "marrying" homosexual couples - had a ministry - while on the side he was abusing boys. So you have

Dissent - publicly performing the marriage ceremony for homosexuals. See the video here.
Homosexuality - He was a known homosexual and encouraged homosexuality.
Abuse - He abused young men in their early to mid teens.

Rev. Branconnier continues to function as a Catholic priest, according to one victim who saw the molester in clerical garb, holding himself out as a functioning priest.

Bishop Timothy J. Harrington did nothing. Bishop Daniel P. Reilly did nothing. Let us see if Bishop Robert J. McManus does anything. Does Dante have a place for these Guys?

The Day After - Reflections on the State of the Union

2005-02-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

President Bush continues to perform and his opponents continue to underestimate him and alienate themselves from the average citizen.

The President's numbers from the warfront to the home front received a tremendous boost from this speech. Confidence that both Iraq and the United States were headed in the right direction rose to 78% and 77% respectively. His popularity among Catholics is indicative of a sea change in national party affiliation.

Some things that stuck me, and perhaps many Catholics, while listening to the SOTU address.

Bioethical Bravery - Bush continues to stand beside Catholics in the call and quest for a "culture of life."

"To build a culture of life, we must also ensure that scientific advances always serve human dignity, not take advantage of some lives for the benefit of others ... I will work with Congress to ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation or grown for body parts, and that human life is never bought and sold as a commodity."

The President will continue to erode into the Democratic Catholic base so long as they remain beholden to the abortion industry. They are so fearful of offending the abortion lobby that they are unable to unify in support of common sense measures prohibiting infanticide and punishing one who kills a woman's wanted unborn child.

The Display of Democratic Disrespect - Silence is one thing, but Democratic booing in the middle of the president's address showed a lack of class.

During the President's lengthy explanation as to why he believes social security reform is needed (and nearly everyone agrees on this point) a significant number of Democrats began to boo and shout (was it just my imagination or could you actually distinguish Ted Kenney's voice from the crowd). Having the bully pulpit the President was able to march on, but not before the Democrats made complete asses of themselves (pun intended). Democrats believe that they need to be more agressive, more extreme, more assertive, but they couldn't be farther from the truth.

The Lack of Laundry Lists - During his fourth SOTU address the President relied too much on new programs in search of applause lines. Here he received the greatest amount of applause for his promise to spend less then inflation, essentially allowing the government to shrink in size.

Of course, the greatest applause came when an Iraqi women who's husband had died under Hussein's regime consoled an American mother who's son had died fighting in Iraq. Watching the two, we all understood that their sacrifices were not in vain.