EXCERPT:

Rush Limbaugh: …..Now, I want to expand on something.  A lot of people tell me, a lot of people ask me, “Rush, how are we gonna persuade these Obama voters, or just any liberal?  How we going to persuade ‘em?”  You know, it does happen.  I, on this program, as a result of this program, have persuaded millions of liberals over the past 20 years to change their minds about things . . . Logic won’t work. Challenge the big, good thing they think they’re part of, and point out the pain liberalism causes……

Thursday After Ash Wednesday,   February 26, 2009

Collect: All-powerful Father, You have built Your Church on the rock of Saint Peter’s confession of faith. May nothing divide or weaken our unity in faith and love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Yesterday we began Lent. Today we take up our cross and follow Christ. We are presented with a choice, “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. . . Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.”

In her effort to inspire us with courage for the coming battle, the Church puts heroes before our eyes at the very outset of Lent. The first hero is the soldier George, the station saint. He proved himself mightier than the dragon, a thrilling accomplishment. Christ also is challenging the powers of darkness; He must fight the dragon from hell and crush his head. The same holds for the mystical Christ, the Church. Catechumens, penitents, faithful – all must do battle with the dragon. …Today the fighting proceeds under the flag and leadership of the solider St. George. It is a battle of life or death. Only he who declares total war on the dragon can hope for life in abundance. – The Church’s Year of Grace

Stational Church

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, February 25, 2009

His speech may have inspired the nation, but President Obama’s economic cheerleading failed to make a believer out of Wall Street. Despite today’s bleak news on the trading floor, the comforter-in-chief seemed to accomplish what he set out to do on Tuesday night–raise the spirits of grassroots Americans. Before last night’s speech, confidence in the country had tumbled. While an overwhelming majority approved of President Obama (62%), nearly 80% agreed that “things are going badly in the United States.” By a noticeable margin, the President has become more popular than his policies.

While people respond to his rhetoric, the market responds to reality–which is why investors have seen an interesting trend each time the President’s outlines his agenda for the economy in a major speech.

Obama’s stock goes up, and the Dow goes down.

Like a truth indicator to the President’s plans, Wall Street tells us what Obama will not:  financial experts have serious misgivings about the administration’s approach to the crisis. The correlation below is really quite striking.

When the President speaks, the market listens… and crumbles.

• November 5, 2008 (Wednesday after Election Day): -486 (5.0%)




• January 9, 2009 (one day after Obama speaks at George Mason University on “need” for $800 billion stimulus package): -143 (1.6%)




• January 20, 2009 (Inauguration Day): -332 (4.0%)




• February 10, 2009 (one day after Obama declares that without a stimulus, “an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with a catastrophe”): -382 (4.6%)




• February 17, 2009 (market opens for the first time after Congress passes $787 billion stimulus on February 13; Obama signs bill into law, declaring, “The stimulus lets Americans claim destiny.”): -298 (3.8%)




• February 19, 2009 (one day after Obama announces potential mortgage relief plan): -90 (1.2%)




• February 25, 2009 (one day after Obama’s first speech to the full Congress): -80 (1.1%)

RELATED: Associated Press: Major stock market indexes fall to 1997 levels

VATICAN CITY, Feb 26, 2009 (CNA) – Pope Benedict began Lent yesterday by presiding over Mass at the Church of Saint Sabina and calling on Catholics to enter the period of conversion through frequent contact with the Word of God, more intense prayer and a penitential lifestyle. Let these be “a stimulus to convert and to love our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and needy,” he said…….CONTINUED..……

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, February 25, 2009

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor,  February 26, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — White House officials have acknowledged that abortion and the controversy surrounding embattled late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller are holding up President Barack Obama’s potential selection of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to become the next Health Secretary.

As LifeNews.com previously reported, White House aides told the New York Times last week that Obama had settled on naming the pro-abortion governor as his top health official.

Following the news, pro-life groups launched an all-out blitz to highlight Sebelius’ extreme pro-abortion views and her cozy relationship with Tiller, one of the few to do abortions so late in pregnancy.

Yesterday, a district court judge dismissed an effort by Tiller’s attorneys to throw out charges the state attorney general has filed against him for allegedly doing illegal abortions.

Now, White House officials tell CBN News that abortion and the Tiller-Sebelius connection are causing pause when considering Sebelius for the Cabinet post.

CBN News White House correspondent David Brody indicates that a senior Obama administration official confirmed that “concerns voiced by pro-life groups about potential HHS Secretary Nominee Kathleen Sebelius have come up in high level White House discussions but it has not disqualified her from the job.”

The official also admitted that “Tiller’s name has come up in discussions and acknowledges that if she’s picked there will be people gunning for her, but that ultimately the Kansas Governor is getting a bum rap on the abortion issue.”

“The discussion inside the White House centers on whether Sebelius’s stellar record as public servant trumps the controversy that could arise over Tiller,” Brody indicates.

At the same time, a senior Republican official in Congress told CBN News that abortion would play a big role in discussions about her.

“Her nomination would raise serious concerns because her extremist pro-abortion views are so far outside of the American mainstream,” the GOP aide said.

There is little doubt Obama, who is strongly pro-abortion, will appoint a pro-abortion Health Secretary, but he and his top staff will have to decide whether or not they want to appoint someone like Sebelius whose record is so radical.

Sebelius won the governorship with large donations from Tiller, who is currently on trial for allegedly doing illegal abortions.

She appointed abortion practitioner Howard Ellis – who gave up his medical license in Missouri to avoid disciplinary action – to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. That’s the agency that is responsible for monitoring medical staff and centers to make sure they comply with the law. Ellis was later charged by the Board with attempting to persuade a physician to falsify records.

Sebelius also appointed a supporter of Tiller’s political action committee and pro-abortion activist to the Human Rights Commission, which pro-life advocates considered an irony.

Sebelius’ hand-picked attorney general, Paul Morrison, ran for office as a defender of the abortion industry. After only a few months in office, he was forced to resign amidst reports of having sex in public buildings with a subordinate and abusing his authority to obstruct the investigation of abortion practitioners.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat4860.html

Patriot Post, Wednesday Chronicle – Vol. 09 No. 08

“Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line and saddle future generations with debt. Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need? That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did. It’s irresponsible. And it’s no way to strengthen our economy, create jobs or build a prosperous future for our children.”
–Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in his rebuttal to Obama’s address Tuesday night

“[President Obama's line in Tuesday night's speech,] ‘We have identified more than two trillion dollars [in savings] over the next ten years’ drew applause from the Congress, but wait’ll they see which of their favorite programs — which go to their favorite constituents and donors — get whacked.”
–political analyst Rich Galen

“Let’s remember that most folks — even those with underwater mortgages, where the loan value is more than the home value — do not walk away from their obligations. They don’t want to wreck their credit — and their homes are their castles. That’s the American way. But if we penalize the good guys and subsidize the bad ones, we are undermining the moral and economic fabric of this country.”
–Lawrence Kudlow

“Disgraced Democratic Sen. John Edwards was right about one thing: There are two Americas. One America is full of moochers, big and small, corporate and individual, trampling over themselves with their hands out demanding endless bailouts. The other America is full of disgusted, hardworking citizens getting sick of being played for chumps and punished for practicing personal responsibility.”
–columnist Michelle Malkin

“Racial ‘sensitivity’ requires not eradicating racial stereotypes but keeping them alive –and not only keeping them alive but remaining acutely conscious of them at all times.”
–Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

“If black people continue to accept the corrupt blame game agenda of liberal whites, black politicians and assorted hustlers, as opposed to accepting personal responsibility, the future for many black Americans will remain bleak.”
–economist Walter E. Williams

http://patriotpost.us/

By Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur, Catholic Exchange, February 19th, 2009

I once ate chicken pot pie on Good Friday. It was the day I got home from the hospital after the birth of my first child. My very kind non-Catholic neighbor made us a welcome home dinner. I did a quick mental appraisal of the situation. I could either stick with the Good Friday rules on abstinence and offend my neighbor, or I could eat the meal graciously and demonstrate my appreciation for her thoughtfulness. I chose the second course of action.

The rules of the Church on Lenten fasting and abstinence are good. We all do have an obligation to sacrifice. It shows our solidarity with others of our faith and also helps us on our spiritual journey. Yet, they come second to the primary law of Christian life — to love God and to love our neighbor. There are times, such as the instance I just related, when the two do come into conflict. In that case, the choice is clear. Fasting will gain us little spiritual merit if we offend our neighbor in the process.

In the second reading for this past Sunday, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, St. Paul is addressing the opposite issue, but the result is the same. He instructs the Christians that they have no reason to abstain from any food, but if they are sharing a meal with their Jewish brethren and the food offends them, they should refrain from eating it out of love for their neighbor. “Never be a cause of offense.”

There is a difference between going out to a restaurant and ordering an appropriate Lenten meal and going to someone’s house and refusing to eat what they have prepared. The first is a witness to our Catholic faith (although it need not be announced); the second is rude and is likely to cause ill-feeling toward the Catholic tradition.

Many people, myself included, observe a personal fast of some type on Wednesdays and/or Fridays throughout the year. Perhaps one refrains from meat or from desserts. The same guidelines should apply. Sometimes, if one is with a large group, it is possible to adhere to one’s sacrifice without offending anyone. In a crowd of fifty people, no one is likely to care if you take a piece of cake or not unless you happen to be the guest of honor. In a small group, it is much more obvious. It is possible to enjoy parties and still sacrifice. If I know, for example, that I have some social obligation where I will be expected to enjoy a lavish meal and dessert, I adjust my fasting days accordingly in advance. If I find myself in a spur-of-the-moment celebration, I simply resolve to fast the next day instead. Indeed, sometimes this is harder — fasting on Saturday always seems more of a challenge than sacrificing on Friday. There is also the possibility of making some other sacrifice on Wednesday or Friday, perhaps to avoid media, for example.

Fasting and sacrifice are important parts of a Catholic life and can bring many benefits to both body and soul. Forgoing it should never be done lightly. However, it need always be subjugated to the need to love one another. Sometimes, the greater sacrifice is to fast from fasting.

Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur has a Master of Arts degree in Applied Theology from Elms College, and is editor of SpiritualWoman.net. She is also the author of Letters to Mary from a Young Mother (2004).

WRAPUP 3-Obama Forecasts $1.75 Trillion

Deficit This Year

*Deficit for FY2009 would represent 12.3 percent of GDP*Obama vows to slash deficit to $533 billion by 2013
*Cost of Iraqi, Afghan wars seen at $140 billion in 2009

By Caren Bohan and Jeff Mason, Feb 26, 2009, Reuters

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two in a budget on Thursday that urges a costly overhaul of the healthcare system and would spend billions to arrest the economy’s freefall.

An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is projected in Obama’s first budget, according to U.S. officials who briefed reporters on the numbers.

That is equal to 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product — the largest share since 1945 when the country ran a shortfall of 21.5 percent of GDP.

“While we must add to our deficits in the short term to provide immediate relief to families and get our economy moving, it is only by restoring fiscal discipline that we can produce sustained growth and shared prosperity,” Obama said at the White House. Continue reading →

By Charles Colson, Catholic Exchange,  February 26th, 2009

….For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting….

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition — prayer, almsgiving, fasting — to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium). For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that “fasting was ordained in Paradise,” and “the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam.” He thus concludes: ” ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence” (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that “we might humble ourselves before our God” (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah’s call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: “Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who “sees in secret, and will reward you” (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.

The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself” (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to “no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him … he will also have to live for his brethren” (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).

Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God.

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as “twisted and tangled knottiness” (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: “I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness” (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: “If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him — how does the love of God abide in him?” (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.

From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: “Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia — Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.”

Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 11 December 2008
Benedictus PP XVI

Editorial Cartoon by Steve Kelley

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/SteveKelley/2009/02/1

….Warns that party loyalty can be “a lethal kind of moral laziness”, ” a dead end” . . . Catholic participation in politics concerns our obligation to “the pursuit of justice and the common good in the public square” and “is part of the history of salvation” . . “Tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil.”….

By Steve Jalsevac,  February, 25, 2009, LifeSiteNews.com

TORONTO, Ontario – On a bitter cold February 23rd night at St. Basils Church on the campus St. Michael’s College, the University of Toronto, Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput delivered to a near capacity audience what was likely the most forthright and challenging talk on Catholic political responsibility ever given in Canada by a bishop.

The Archbishop had been invited to address the themes from his book, “Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.” He presented some background and thoughts on the book and then discussed the US election and the meaning of true hope.

Chaput began by noting the powerful negative effect of today’s culture on the public’s ability to think clearly about political implications and responsibilities. He stated, “American consumer culture is a very powerful narcotic.  Moral reasoning can be hard, and TV is a great painkiller.  This has political implications.  Real freedom demands an ability to think, and a great deal of modern life…seems deliberately designed to discourage that.”

The Denver prelate emphasized the importance of forming “a strong and genuinely Catholic conscience” and following that conscience when voting.

However, Catholics with such consciences are often intimidated for doing so. Chaput explained that was one of the reasons he wrote his book: “Frankly, I just got tired of hearing outsiders and insiders tell Catholics to keep quiet about our religious and moral views in the big public debates that involve all of us as a society.  That’s a kind of bullying.  I don’t think Catholics should accept it.”

Catholic participation in politics concerns our obligation to “the pursuit of justice and the common good in the public square” and “is part of the history of salvation”, the Denver bishop proclaimed. He indicated that few are exempt since “Tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil.”

He expanded, “we have a duty to be politically engaged.  Why?  Because politics is the exercise of power, and the use of power always has moral content and human consequences.” Chaput challenged, “if we claim to be ‘Catholic,’ we need to prove it by our behaviour. And serving other people by working for justice, charity and truth in our nation’s political life is one of the very important ways we do that.”

As for those who separate their faith from their political actions, the author of “Render Unto Caesar” called it a denial of Christ. “That kind of separation would require Christians to deny who we are; to repudiate Jesus.”

The archbishop revealed that he was previously a long time Democrat who worked on political campaigns, including that of Jimmy Carter, but he no longer belongs to any political party. He warned, “The sooner Catholics feel at home in any political party, the sooner that party takes them for granted and then ignores their concerns.” Many Christians have complained of this in recent decades.

Driving the point home forcefully Chaput added, “Party loyalty for the sake of habit, or family tradition, or ethnic or class interest is a form of tribalism.  It’s a lethal kind of moral laziness.  Issues matter.  Character matters.  Acting on principle matters.  But party loyalty for the sake of party loyalty is a dead end.”

Pro-life, pro-family leaders have often been dismayed by their Christian leaders’ lack of courage on the issues that matter. Chaput addressed this, again with his unusual frankness for a  bishop: “modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice.”

Some of the Archbishops harshest words, yet still delivered in his calm, friendly speaking manner, were for those Catholics who supported the election of President Obama.

“A spirit of adulation bordering on servility already exists among some of the same Democratic-friendly Catholic writers, scholars, editors and activists who once accused prolifers of being too cozy with Republicans.”

Chaput explained, “all political leaders draw their authority from God.  We owe no leader any submission or cooperation in the pursuit of grave evil.”

He continued that Catholics must witness to their faith and moral convictions, “without excuses or apologies” and that “in democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs” as so many have referred to Obama.

Barack Obama was elected “to fix an economic crisis”, Chaput stated, and not “to retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion.” He warned, however that this “could easily happen” and “will happen” – “but only if Catholics and other religious believers allow it.”

The archbishop’s frank admission of the Church’s culpability for the current situation was likely something few in the audience had ever heard from a Catholic bishop. Chaput confessed, “The Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years.  And now we’re harvesting the results — in the public square, in our families and in the confusion of our personal lives.”

On abortion, Archbishop Chaput, was as direct and blunt as any pro-life leader could dream to finally hear from a Catholic bishop. He insisted that for Catholics, abortion should be a litmus test. “One of the defining things that set early Christians apart from the pagan culture around them was their respect for human life; and specifically their rejection of abortion and infanticide.  We can’t be Catholic and be evasive or indulgent about the killing of unborn life.  We can’t claim to be “Catholic” and “pro-choice” at the same time without owning the responsibility for where the choice leads – to a dead unborn child.”

Addressing the recent increase in pro-life spokesmen stating that efforts to change laws are futile and we should instead attempt to lessen the numbers of abortions, Chaput stated, “We can’t talk piously about programs to reduce the abortion body count without also working vigorously to change the laws that make the killing possible.”

Chaput challenged the hypocrisy of Catholics calling themselves Catholic and then voting like pagans, He stated, “if we don’t really believe in the humanity of the unborn child from the moment life begins, then we should stop lying to ourselves and others, and even to God, by claiming we’re something we’re not.”

Although it was admitted that Catholics need to “do a much better job of helping women who face problem pregnancies”, Chaput added the crucial perspective that, “we don’t “help” anyone by allowing or funding an intimate, lethal act of violence.  We can’t build a just society with the blood of unborn children.”

On the issue of hope, proclaimed incessantly by the Obama campaign, the archbishop taught that real hope “has nothing to do with the cheesy optimism of election campaigns.  Hope assumes and demands a spine in believers” and “for a Christian — hope sustains us when the real answer to the problems or hard choices in life is “no, we can’t,” instead of “yes, we can.”

“The word “hope” on a campaign poster may give us a little thrill of righteousness,” said the Denver Archbishop, “but the world will still be a wreck when the drug wears off.  We can only attain hope through truth.  And what that means is this:  From the moment Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” the most important political statement anyone can make is “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

During the question and answer session following the lecture, a question was asked about the sometimes unmet responsibility of bishops to prevent pro-abortion speakers from addressing Catholic college functions.

Archbishop Chaput stated that bishops “welcome the input of the laity” and added, “If they disagree with us (bishops) it’s really important that we hear that. We need your support, but we also need to hear your concerns if you think we make decisions that are contrary to the good of the Church.” That was a surpringly refreshing response to some listeners who have experienced very different results from contacting their bishops on such matters.

In response to a question on the serious problems with the Catholicity of Catholic schools, Chaput emphasized the importance of “working on the principals and the people who manage the schools” as the best way to improve the Catholicity of the teachers.

On the abortion issue again, the archbishop said he was “astonished at the number of Catholics in my diocese who are pro-choice and who come to Mass every day.” He repeated, “I am astonished.”

In response to a question on ecumenical relations, he stated that Catholics now “have very little in common with the mainline protestant churches because we separate on the issues of life and marriage and embryonic stem cell research”. Chaput noted that the Church has recently developed a deeper relationship with Evaneglicals “because we share a passion for the foundational issue of life and for the in some ways equally foundational issue of the meaning of marriage.

In response to a question about the possible excommunication of pro-choice Catholics, the archbishop was emphatic that he saw it as being completely ineffective and counterproductive. He stated it would be “percived as random use of his POWER to hurt people rather than to deal with issues of the truth.” The archbishop further derided that use of a bishop’s authority and concluded, ” I don’t think it works and that is why I don’t do it. I don’t think there are bishops who think it does work. We just don’t go about that business these days.”

To read the text of Archbishop Chaput’s entire address see:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/090225a.html

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022509.html

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER, CATHOLIC EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER

Alexander Fleming around 1909. He discovered penicillin in 1928.

The discovery of penicillin as an antibiotic has been called the most important medical discovery of the last thousand years. The extraction from mold of the genus Penicillium has saved at least two hundred million lives so far. Penicillin has been around for millions of years but its antibacterial properties were noticed for the first time on September 28, 1928, when Alexander Fleming saw bacteria-free mold in a laboratory dish which he had retrieved from a pile of rubbish in St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London.

He paid attention. No one until then had.

Fleming was the son of a Scottish farmer and, learning Latin as a Catholic student, he knew the meaning of age quod agis. As a maxim, “do what you are doing” means to pay attention to ordinary things and extraordinary things may result.

When Jesus walked among men, most did not pay much attention to him precisely because he seemed ordinary. “He sighed from the depth of his spirit” and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (Mark 8:12). The truth behind miracles is in the often unnoticed details. For instance, the miraculous feedings of the five thousand and four thousand were not as important as the twelve and seven baskets of fragments left over, which represent the Apostles and the sacraments. “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?” (Mark 8:17-18).

Lent is a time to increase the power of perception. Small acts of penance and good confessions in this season are meant to increase that power. Instead of attempting extraordinary things, it is better to do more intensely the ordinary practices of Christian life: prayer, almsgiving, study, and evangelism. Age quod agis.

Jesus asked, “Have I been so long with you, Philip, and do you still not understand?” (John 14:9).

Shortly before Cardinal Dulles died last December, he reflected on how “doing what you are doing” with love in the normal process of living can lead to the most remarkable discoveries of God’s power in human weakness. It is simply a matter of paying attention:

“Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as elements of a full human existence. Well into my ninetieth year I have been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity. ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Father George William Rutler. Weekly Column for February 20, 2009.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0923.htm

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

By Jennifer Hartline, Catholic Online, 2/26/2009

There is so much to be gained from thoughtfully considering, and yes, dwelling on the events leading to Calvary.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - From now until Easter we offer all our rosary prayers within the context of the Sorrowful Mysteries. I have found throughout my life a tendency to resist dwelling on these painful events – a common human experience, I think. We instinctively turn away from pain and try to avoid it at all costs.

But as they say, “No pain, no gain.” There is so much to be gained from thoughtfully considering, and yes, dwelling on the events leading to Calvary. But this is uncomfortable stuff and very hard to face with a serious degree of reflection. (I still have to squelch the urge sometimes to skip over these cruel and heartbreaking scenes and go straight to the Glorious!)

I never hesitate to proclaim there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for one of my children because I love them so.

I love my Jesus, too. This year I feel challenged to sit still and do the uncomfortable…reflect on the agony, contemplate the wickedness, listen to the hatred, wince at the excruciating pain…and see myself in all of it.

He did it all…for me. He loves me so.

The Sorrowful Mysteries, part one

1st Sorrowful Mystery: The Agony in the Garden

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Luke 22:42-44

Let this mystery teach us true contrition for our sins.

True contrition… it seems to me that before we can have true contrition, we have to first truly understand that we have sinned.

I think our self-obsessed, modern, “enlightened” culture would very much like to proclaim Sin as an archaic, prohibitive concept whose time is over. Moral restrictions, clearly defined standards of right and wrong, and consequences for violators are all antiquated notions wrongly imposed on people of free will.

To dare to suggest that Someone outside ourselves, higher than ourselves has the authority to define right and wrong, good and evil, and then establish the just punishment for wrongdoing, well, that’s practically blasphemous in this age of moral relativism.

How can we be truly sorry if we’re not thoroughly convinced we’ve done wrong? Okay, maybe we can admit that we’ve sinned, but we haven’t done anything truly terrible, so it’s not really that bad. It can’t be that big a deal.

Think about that scene in the Garden again. Jesus was in so much anguish that he sweat blood as he prayed! He asked God to change the plan and find some other way, so it’s obvious this Sin problem is a very big deal, indeed. The torture He was about to suffer wasn’t due to something small or trivial.

But I can’t help wondering… what grieves Him more – that we sin, or that we try to cover our sin, make light of it, and even delight in it?

Is it the arrogance that inhabits our sins and causes us to deny that we haven’t just broken a rule or made a little mistake – we have sinned against a perfect and just God who also happens to love us beyond our comprehension?! Our sin is aggravated by prideful indifference. Insult is added to injury.

Why? Because it is scary as all hell, literally, to fully grasp the gravity of our own sin and the consequences of it, and were it not for the Cross and the unspeakable love of the Father, none of us could bear it. Contrition that begins out of fear of the just punishment for sin is a good place to start, but God isn’t satisfied with leaving us there. He wants to overwhelm us with His love; that crazy, illogical, endless love that took our hideous sin upon His perfect Self and endured our punishment for us.

We no longer have anything to fear. Now we are free to be repentant ,out of sorrow, not terror or despair. We can face our wretched condition and own up to our sins honestly, because what awaits us is forgiveness, not wrath. Once that reality takes root in our hearts, then gratitude inspires us, humility enables us, and LOVE compels us to true contrition.

“Blessed is he who transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:1-5

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge…Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:1-4, 7

Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=32323

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, FEB. 25, 2009

Vatican City (CNA) - Catholics worldwide are beginning Lent today with Ash Wednesday liturgies. On the occasion of the Brazilian Church’s Lenten Fraternity Campaign, Pope Benedict has issued a message reminding them that Lent “calls us to an unfailing struggle to do good” by practicing justice.

The message from Pope Benedict was sent to Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha, president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, as the Brazilian Church kicks off its Fraternity Campaign with the theme: “Peace is the fruit of justice.”

Pointing to the Latin American and Caribbean bishops’ document from Aparecida, the Pope describes the “clear signs of the presence of the Kingdom of God” as being found in “the individual and community experience of the Beatitudes, in the evangelization of the poor, … in universal access to the goods of creation, in mutual, sincere and fraternal forgiveness, … and in the struggle not to succumb to the temptation of becoming slaves to evil.”

As Lent begins, Catholics are called to “an unfailing struggle to do good, precisely because we know how difficult it is for us, as human beings, to dedicate ourselves seriously to the practice of justice, a justice more than ever necessary for a coexistence based on peace and love and not on hatred and indifference,” the Pope explains.

And still, this world is not Paradise, the Pope says. “Yet we know that, even if we achieve a reasonable distribution of wealth and a harmonious organization of society, nothing can remove the pain of sickness, misunderstanding, solitude, the death of people we love, or an awareness of our own limitations.”

Perhaps addressing the often raised question of how a good God can permit evil, the Holy Father writes, “Our Lord, abhors injustice and condemns those who practice it; yet He respects individual liberty and for this reason allows it to exist, because it forms part of the human condition after original sin. Despite this His heart, full of love for human beings, brought Him to shoulder, along with the cross, all our torments: our suffering, our sadness, our hunger, our thirst for justice.”

“Let us ask him for the strength to bear witness to the same feelings of peace and reconciliation that inspired Him on the Sermon on the Mount, in order to achieve eternal Beatitude.”

We go far back in history today to learn a bit about a saint whose name is not familiar to most of us in the West but who is celebrated by the Greek and other Eastern churches.

Born near Greece in the mid-fourth century, Porphry is most known for his generosity to the poor and for his ascetic lifestyle. Deserts and caves were his home for a time. At age 40, living in Jerusalem, Porphyry was ordained a priest.

If the accounts we have are correct, he was elected bishop of Gaza—without his knowledge and against his will. He was, in effect, kidnapped (with the help of a neighboring bishop, by the way) and forcibly consecrated bishop by the members of the small Christian community there. No sooner had Porphyry been consecrated bishop then he was accused by the local pagans of causing a drought. When rains came shortly afterward, the pagans gave credit to Porphyry and the Christian population and tensions subsided for a time.

For the next 13 years, Porphyry worked tirelessly for his people, instructed them and made many converts, though pagan opposition continued throughout his life. He died in the year 421.

…Old people are not dying fast enough for RINO Specter, GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE NIGHTMARE…

“I do believe it is fair to ask people to think about that and to make a decision in a living will.”

….“Taking a step back, it’s hard to deny that the artificial reproductive technology (ART) industry is almost solely responsible for the current social climate where a living human embryo is now regarded more as a product or resource than as the individual human being that it is” . . . the scientific and medical community has been able to create, manipulate, study, and destroy hundreds of thousands of human embryos…..

By Tom McFeely, National Catholic Register, February 24, 2009

Legionary of Christ Father Thomas Berg has posted an insightful commentary on the “Octomom” case.

The case, for anyone who hasn’t heard about it despite the exhaustive coverage it has received in news media, involves the California single mother who recently gave birth to eight children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The commentary by Father Berg, who is executive director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, is especially helpful in light of the moral quandaries raised by the “Octomom” controversy.

“Some of the more disturbing aspects of contemporary western culture all seem to have converged in the recent birth of octuplets to Nadya Suleman, a single mother in California: voluntary single parenthood via sperm donors, manufacturing of babies in Petri dishes, freezing live human embryos indefinitely, a renegade scientific and medical community,” Father Berg notes at the start of his commentary. “It’s hard to get one’s head around the situation and address it directly because nothing about it is normal or natural, from beginning to end.”

Father Berg can’t delve into a comprehensive analysis of all of these complexities in his commentary, but he does touch on several key points.

And he says that while some moral aspects of the “Octomom” case may seem quite murky, one thing is crystal clear in light of what occurred: Something needs to be done to regulate America’s billion-dollar artificial reproductive technology (ART) industry.

“Taking a step back, it’s hard to deny that the ART industry is almost solely responsible for the current social climate where a living human embryo is now regarded more as a product or resource than as the individual human being that it is,” Father Berg writes. “Through ART, the scientific and medical community has been able to create, manipulate, study, and destroy hundreds of thousands of human embryos. And currently, about 400,000 are frozen indefinitely in the United States alone, according to the most recent, reliable data. Additionally, these frozen individual human embryos have been targeted for years now by researchers who want to cull new lines of human embryonic stem cells from them.

“To say that ART has opened a Pandora’s Box of cultural ills is among the grossest of understatements. But perhaps the octomom episode will constitute a watershed moment ushering in the long overdue era of regulation for an industry that feeds on innocent human life in the name of fostering it, thinly concealing unbridled greed with a veneer of putative compassion.”

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/the_octomom_episode/

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski, CATHOLIC EXCHANGE, February 25th, 2009

By Msgr. Dennis Clark, Ph.D., Catholic Exchange, Feb. 25th, 2009