Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana

....A bishop does not belong in politics, even when he thinks being political serves the cause of Christ. And if the USCCB is going to use the money that it collects from Catholic lay people to support the agenda of a political party…well, what’s the difference between that and a labor union using the dues it collects to donate to a candidate for whom some of its members do not intend to vote?….

Posted By Judie Brown, Catholic Exchange, On March 9, 2010

For the past couple of days, we have heard rumblings from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, starting with a very curious article in Politico ^[1].  David Rogers interviewed Richard Doerflinger, the USCCB’s associate director of pro-life activities, who apparently made the comment that if the House of Representatives agrees to what Stupak is asking for in the Obamacare bill, then the USCCB will work on the U. S. Senate to go along with the same language. The report does not say that the USCCB will generate advocacy from the Catholic laity, but rather that the organization itself will throw its weight around, which sounds a whole lot like lobbying and not much like holding the line for truly Catholic principles in health care reform.

The story ^[1] continues,

“With a large network of Catholic hospitals and the [C]hurch’s gospel of social justice, the bishops have long called for expanded health coverage. As Kathy Saile, director of domestic policy for the conference, said last fall, ‘The bishops see it as a moral imperative and national priority.’

“But abortion has been a stubborn dividing point with the two sides fighting over how tight to make the ban on federal funding.”

It is of the utmost importance to clarify for the unsuspecting or uncatechized  that the Catholic Church does not teach that the killing of a child prior to birth by an act of abortion is the only intrinsically evil way to rob a person of  his or her life. There is also human embryonic stem cell research, many types of contraceptives, euthanasia and infanticide … each of which is equally evil, equally deadly and equally unmentioned by the USCCB in connection with Obamacare.

That is perhaps troubling enough, but there is more. We cannot help but think that the politics of so-called progressivism has become more important at the USCCB than the wishes of the Catholic faithful, who like the majority of Americans, don’t want Obamanomics ^[2] shoved down their throats. Why is there such a rush to sate the liberal elements of the Democratic political machine and so little time to consider what is (as one Catholic cardinal explained to me) the job of the laity, not the hierarchy? As I recall, he told me that bishops are charged with preaching truth, and it is the people in the pew who are supposed to do the political work. However, apparently he, like so many of his peers, does not really believe that for a second. What a shame.

Oh, but let us not overlook the engagement with the laity that the USCCB did invite just this past weekend. At every door of my Catholic parish this weekend, after every Mass, we were invited to sign postcards that the parish would then mail, on our behalf, to our two U.S. senators and our congressman. The postcards, however, were not about the unprincipled “health care reform” proposals that are being discussed night and day. No, the postcards dealt with immigration …

Justice for Immigrants ^[3] is a USCCB-sponsored web site on which one can find the same postcard that was distributed in my parish on Sunday, March 7. The text of the postcard ^[4] reads,

I am a concerned constituent and agree with the U.S. Catholic bishops that the U.S. immigration system is broken and is in need of repair.

I ask that this year you support immigration reform legislation that keeps immigrant families together, adopts smart and humane enforcement policies, and ensures that immigrants without legal status register with the government and begin a path toward citizenship. Our families and communities cannot wait!

What occurred to me as I listened to the announcement about these postcards was not that there was anything wrong with such a lobbying campaign, but the question of why the focus had moved away from getting the “health care reform” mess clarified first. It should also be pointed out that, in every one of their pastoral letters to elected officials, the bishops have placed the future standing of immigrants on the same level as the murder of preborn persons. And why is the USCCB focusing on immigration reform now, at such a critical point in this nation’s legislative history?

Well, maybe my new favorite, the “pugilist priest ^[5]” has the right idea. Opining on his personal blog on the very same article in Politico that troubled me so much, he expresses his frustration like this:

There are a plethora of reasons why a Catholic citizen may choose not to support a government reform of health care. He might consider it a statist provision which robs him of his self-determination and chips away at his individual liberties. He may believe that it’s financially irresponsible. Maybe he’s lived for a time in a country that has government administered health care and knows, first hand, the disaster it is. He may be a small business owner who knows how it will destroy what he’s spent his life building. He may even have his own moral reasons for fearing it: the marginalization of the handicapped and elderly; government bureaucrats deciding what is or is not appropriate medical care, etc. All concerns that the bishops—God alone knows how—have determined don’t matter to them, and which they have decided that we, as Catholic citizens, don’t have a right to be concerned about ourselves as they decree otherwise.

And what’s wrong with that, you ask? Simply put, it is none of the bishops’ business to support or oppose a piece of legislation. Oppose abortion? Certainly. Point out the dangers in some proposed legislation if it does violence to the moral teaching of the Church and has the potential to compel Catholic citizens to violate the prescriptions of the Gospel? Without a doubt. But to embrace a particular political point of view because they have concluded that it, somehow, expresses in secular terms what they believe? Not on your life!

The Second Vatican Council is clear: the duty of injecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ into secular society is the job of the laity, not the clergy. The bishops are right to object to language in the bill which would direct our tax dollars into paying for the murders of the innocent; but to press the resources of the Catholic Church into assisting in the passage of other provisions of the bill in some kind of back-room deal to achieve that goal is meddling in matters in which they have no purview.

To be fair, I’m reasonably sure that no Catholic bishop—except for the most strident of bleeding heart liberals (and there are some)—would tell me that they have a right to compel me to support legislation simply because they support it. What they don’t seem to understand is that, in supporting it themselves, they not only violate their [d]ivine mandate, but also trivialize their moral authority. A bishop does not belong in politics, even when he thinks being political serves the cause of Christ. And if the USCCB is going to use the money that it collects from Catholic lay people to support the agenda of a political party…well, what’s the difference between that and a labor union using the dues it collects to donate to a candidate for whom some of its members do not intend to vote?

So, the bishops believe that, aside from abortion, health care reform is compatible with the social teaching of the Church. That’s nice, but so what? It’s none of their business. It’s the laity’s business. It’s just another example of the hierarchy’s selective reading of Vatican II.

Wow! Though this priest and his fellow priests choose to remain anonymous, and thank God they do, what he has to say is extremely insightful and, to my mind, on the mark. Every Catholic bishop does indeed have a charism that, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church ^[6], is not only rich in grace but imbued with holiness, which he has a solemn duty to use to sanctify the Church:”

893 The bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer and work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by their example, “not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.” Thus, “together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain to eternal life.”

And the Catechism ^[7] says this about the special grace that comes from the Holy Spirit:

1586 For the bishop, this is first of all a grace of strength … the grace to guide and defend his Church with strength and prudence as a father and pastor, with gratuitous love for all and a preferential love for the poor, the sick, and the needy. This grace impels him to proclaim the Gospel to all, to be the model for his flock, to go before it on the way of sanctification by identifying himself in the Eucharist with Christ the priest and victim, not fearing to give his life for his sheep.

What America’s Catholics, not to mention her entire citizenry, need right now is the united voice of “stewards of grace,” not political lobbyists.

In the coming weeks, this nation will witness either the collapse of the most treacherous, deadly proposal ever to come out of the U.S. government or the passage of a dastardly program. One or the other will occur.  I would hate to think that, at a crucial moment, it was the bureaucrats supposedly representing the U.S. bishops who gave the winning edge to the most pro-abortion, pro-culture-of-death administration in this nation’s history. That is not a legacy I would want to bestow on this nation, and it is my hope that the Catholic bishops feel the same way.

Please let your bishop know you are praying for him, and hoping that he stands in the gap for the babies, the elderly and the infirm—and for justice.

http://catholicexchange.com/2010/03/09/127907/

Isaiah
Chapter 5: 20

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!

SOURCE:  THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC

There will come a day in this country when future generations will look back on legal abortion with the same shame and abhorrence that we now look upon slavery.  In that future those who stood up for the unborn will be regarded as heroines and heroes.  On that day no name will be more praised than that of Father Norman Weslin.

Father Weslin followed an extremely unlikely path to the priesthood.  Born 80 years ago to Oscar and Hilma Weslin, he was the 16th of 18 children, the first ten of whom died in infancy.  The family lived in Iron City in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  A tough land, it often produces tough people, and Norman Weslin was no exception.  Always in trouble in school, a bright spot in his life was his future wife Mary Lou who he met in the fifth grade.   She was Catholic and he was Lutheran, but that made no difference to him.  As they reached high school age she became the center of his life.

At 17 he joined the Army and asked Mary Lou to marry him.  She flatly refused unless he made something of himself.  Perhaps to the astonishment of both of them he did.  He graduated from Officer’s Candidate School in October of 1951 and was commissioned a second lieutenant.  He went on to artillery and missile school at Fort Bliss, Texas.  While there he converted to Catholicism and he and Mary Lou were married.

He then attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia which began his association with the 82nd Airborne.

While on assignment in Japan Mary Lou and he adopted their children, two Japanese-American kids, a 2 month old boy and an 11 month old girl.  (Along with his kids, Father Weslin now has two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.)   After Japan it was back to Fort Bliss, where Weslin graduated at the top of his class in nuclear missiles.  High level positions followed.  He served tours of duty in both Korea and Vietnam during his career in the Army.

All during this time Weslin continued to drink heavily.  In 1963 he accidentally set himself on fire while trying to restart a barbecue grill and nearly burned himself to death.  The drinking continued until 1968 when he retired from the Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  Joining Alcoholics Anonymous, he turned his life completely over to God and has never drank a drop of alcohol, other than that contained in the accidents of the Blood of Christ, since that time.

Turning his life over to God was not just a phrase to Norman Weslin.  He began to read some of the spiritual classics of the Faith, including the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross and he especially was touched by Saint Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary.  He received a master’s degree in theology from the Roman Catholic School of Applied Theology at the University of Berkley, of all places, and was disgusted, in his words, at the heresy and blasphemy taught at that institution.

In 1969 he began his involvement in the pro-life cause when he led the fight in Colorado to defeat a bill legalizing abortion.   Mary Lou fully shared his passion for the pro-life cause.

Mary Lou and Norman planned to spend their retirement teaching Indian kids on a reservation in Montana.  These plans came to a tragic end on July 2, 1980.  A car rear-ended the Weslin’s car which their daughter was driving, and Mary Lou was killed.  After her loss Norman was buried in grief for some time.  Ironically the driver of the car that struck his car was drunk at the time.  Norman personally forgave the driver.  Pulling his life back together, he transformed their home in Colorado Springs into the Mary Weslin Homes for Pregnant, Unwed Mothers.  To date over 226 mothers have stayed at the home prior to giving birth to their children.

In 1982 Weslin entered the Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales, Wisconsin to begin his studies for the priesthood at age 52.  This was during the misrule of Archbishop Rembert Weakland.  After two years the orthodox, and outspoken, Weslin was kicked out by the academic dean after Weslin refused to attend a class he believed taught heresy.  He continued his studies at Mater Dei Seminary in Spokane, Washington.  After ordination he joined the Oblates of Wisdom Order.

Prior to his ordination Father Weslin had taken part in abortion blockades at abortion clinics, once with Bishop Austin Vaughan, his spiritual adviser.  On retired status from his Order in 1988 he decided to take part in an abortion rescue in Atlanta.  He and 260 other pro-lifers were sent to Key Roads prison.  While there Father Weslin, for attempting to say Mass, spent nine days in solitary.  Imprisonment can often be surprisingly productive for those willing to use the time to think, as Father Weslin did.   During his time in solitary Father Weslin came up with the idea for the Lambs of Christ.  This would be an organization which would engage in civil disobedience at abortion clinics and thereby buy time for women to change their minds about aborting their kids.

Father Weslin immediately began to carry out his plan.  By 1992 he was successful enough that Time magazine had an article on the Lambs of Christ which may be read here.  Father Weslin has been imprisoned since 1988, 70 or 80 times, he has lost count. Occasionally he has been found not guilty by juries , but usually he is convicted and goes to jail.  After he gets out he goes on to the next abortion clinic.

To its ever lasting dishonor, the administration of Notre Dame had Father Weslin arrested on May 15, 2009 when he protested the granting of an honorary degree to President Obama, the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history.

http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/08/father-norman-weslin-champion-of-the-unborn/#more-18294

CONTINUED…….. Continue reading →

NEWSMAX, Monday, March 8, 2010

Prospects are good for resolving a dispute over abortion that has led some House Democrats to threaten to withhold support of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, a key Michigan Democrat said Monday.

Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Stupak said in an interview between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district. He was hosting a town hall meeting Monday night at a local high school.

“The president says he doesn’t want to expand or restrict current law (on abortion). Neither do I,” Stupak said. “That’s never been our position. So is there some language that we can agree on that hits both points — we don’t restrict, we don’t expand abortion rights? I think we can get there.”

Stupak has emerged as spokesman for about a dozen House Democrats who supported health legislation approved by the House in November but contend a $1 trillion version that passed the Senate the next month would authorize federal abortion subsidies. They insist on restoring stiffer restrictions Stupak added to the House measure.

Stupak had said last week that nothing had changed and he didn’t think the House leaders had the votes to pass the bill.

Stupak’s hard-line position has made him a lightning rod for abortion-rights supporters. Some accuse the 18-year lawmaker, a Roman Catholic, of allowing religious beliefs and personal opposition to abortion to jeopardize health reform. He denies it, saying the pro-choice side raised the issue by making the health bill a vehicle to expand abortion rights.

Anti-abortion lawmakers last summer urged House leaders to keep abortion out of the health debate “because it’s too divisive,” Stupak said. “So what did they do? They injected it into the debate. Everyone thinks I did; I did not.”

Clashing with his party’s leadership on the issue is unlikely to endanger Stupak’s political standing in his rural, blue-collar district, which geographically is among the biggest in the eastern U.S. It encompasses Michigan’s entire Upper Peninsula and a sizable chunk of the northern Lower Peninsula, roughly 600 miles from end to end. Continue reading →

Vatican City, Mar 6, 2010 (CNA).- The Italian media is reporting that Pope Benedict XVI authorized an official inquiry into the Marian apparitions at Medjugorje. The commission to examine the case is said to be led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini.

Reflecting on the time that has passed since the first apparitions between June 24 – 26 of 1981, Panorama cited the words of Italian journalist and writer Saverio Gaeta, who said, “It’s time to make it clear: it is either the most colossal blunder in the history of humanity or the most important event in the history of Christianity after the Resurrection of Christ.”

Gaeta wrote the book, “Medjugorje. It’s all true” in 2006. Continue reading →

When Microsoft co-founder and population-control advocate Bill Gates spoke recently of using vaccines to reduce world population, he set off a wave of speculation over his possible allusion to covert sterilization programs. According to the Gates Foundation, however, the multi-billionaire in fact advocates vaccine use to decrease child mortality – something he claims actually decreases population growth.

Gates’ comments occurred while he was speaking to a to a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference on how humans might reduce their CO2 emissions in order to reduce global warming. “Until we get near to zero [carbon emissions]” he claimed, “the temperature will continue to rise” – which he said would lead to “extremely bad” consequences.

Because the quantity of CO2 emitted is related to the human population, Gates briefly mentioned means to reduce the projected world population, including “reproductive health services” - abortion and contraception - as well as vaccines.

“Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent,” he said.

Gates is well-known for funding pro-abortion population control measures – but Gates’ vaccine reference immediately launched speculation regarding the use such drugs to disseminate sterilizing agents on a large scale.

Previous vaccination programs have been shown to have covertly been used to sterilize women.  In 1995, the Supreme Court of the Philippines found that vaccines used in a UNICEF anti-tetanus vaccination program contained B-hCG, which when given in a vaccine, permanently destroys women’s ability to sustain a pregnancy.  Aproximately three million women had already been given the vaccine. Continue reading →

Father Daniel Polzer, LC

Matthew 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ´Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.´ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ´Pay back what you owe.´ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ´Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.´ But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ´You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?´ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, as I prepare for the coming of Easter during this Lenten season, I turn to you in prayer. You have been merciful to me. Many times you have pardoned the great debt I owe. I trust in your merciful love and wish to transmit your love to many others faithfully. Here I am, Lord, ready to learn from your tender heart.

Petition: Lord, enlighten me to your gift of mercy.

1. An Unpayable Debt Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother. Jesus gives a short answer, telling a parable to make sure his answer is understood. In the parable God is the king, and we are all the servants who owe the king a huge amount. We are all in debt to God. He created us and keeps us in existence and gives us every good thing we have, every talent and virtue. We owe God everything. He owes us nothing. Do my daily thoughts and actions reflect this truth?

2. The Forgiving King The servant, not being able to pay, falls to his knees and begs for more time so that he can pay back the debt. The king offers him more than just time – he pardons the entire debt. God is generous. When we turn to him and ask for forgiveness, he offers us much more than we could hope for – he pardons our entire debt. Then why, we might ask, does the king settle accounts with his servant if he is so generous? Why not pardon the debt from the beginning instead of ordering him along with his wife and children to be sold? He calls the servant to account so that the servant will realize how much he owes and in realizing this, he might imitate God when dealing with his fellow-worker. God does not want us to be punished for our sins. He desires to forgive us the great debt we owe him, but he calls us to account for our sins in the hope that we will recognize how much we have both received from him and owe to him and thus will ask for forgiveness.

3. Unequal Treatment and Abuse of Freedom After being pardoned, the servant does not treat his debtor in the same merciful manner. He sends him to prison. He had every right to do so. In justice, his fellow servant owed him money; but in doing so he abuses the liberty that he has just been given. He does not stop to reflect that in this moment he himself should rightly be in slavery, sold along with his wife and children in order to pay his debt. He does not reflect that he is able to confront his fellow servant only because the king has had pity on him in the first place, giving him liberty. The offenses we suffer from our fellow men are real offenses, but before we demand justice we must stop and reflect that it is only because God has forgiven us our sins that we have the liberty to demand reparation from our fellow men. That reflection must lead us to have the same mercy with our fellow men that God has had with us.

Conversation with Christ: Lord thank you for this time of prayer. I must recognize that you have been merciful with me and forgiven me the great debt I owe. Thank you for the many times you have given me a second chance. During this time of Lent, help me to practice mercy toward those who owe or offend me.

Resolution: I will think of someone who has offended me and say a prayer asking God to help me forgive them.

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302

The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was raised by his older brother, St. Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in modern-day Turkey. Gregory’s success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming a professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained (this at a time when celibacy was not a matter of law for priests).

He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. He was briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people.

It was after the death of his beloved brother, Basil, that Gregory really came into his own. He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, St. Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=172