The Ruling Class Tosses Americans Overboard
….Displays of this kind of elitist condescension and disdain for the everyday people were once upon a time reserved for the likes of the French aristocracy before 1789…..
Geoffrey P. Hunt, American Thinker,July 31, 2010
But the larger story here isn’t about tax havens. And it isn’t about hypocrisy. And it’s far less about trophy wives with trust funds. It’s not even about being a lifelong leech working in government jobs sucking the blood out of beleaguered taxpayers. It’s about the increasing distance and disconnects between the governing class and everybody else. It’s about abandoning American workers and deliberately staying out of touch with and out of reach from everyday people.
$7 million is a lot of dough. Easily more than twice what the vast majority of Americans will earn over their entire lifetimes. And those modest earning prospects are slipping away as two out of ten Americans of working age are now either unemployed or underemployed.
All too pedestrian for John Kerry. Anyone can get a boat built in Maine or Rhode Island. But none of that would have the glitter and cachet of built-in-New Zealand.
Look, John Kerry and his wife can spend their tax-free municipal bond income anywhere they please. But the prospect of a US Senator splurging on a $7 million personal pleasure craft built halfway around the globe while Americans suffer through the worst economic catastrophe since the 1930s is not just unseemly — it’s nauseating. Displays of this kind of elitist condescension and disdain for the everyday people were once upon a time reserved for the likes of the French aristocracy before 1789.
And while the governing class arrogance and alienation from everyday Americans is worsening, the bastions of big government keep ever expanding. The Capitol district in Washington DC is a concrete berm and steel barrier enclave with few hotel vacancies and virtually full employment. Unsupervised staffers and unbridled regulators daily impose thousands of pages of rules on us. Even presumably free market stalwarts inside American companies are convinced that Washington is the center of the universe.
The American electorate has always been wary of decision makers beyond their existential line of sight. So were the founders declaring in the last amendment in the Bill of Rights, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Arizona Police and Tribal Police
Guess who our president prefers dealing with . . . . For, whatever the answer, tribal police have been granted the authority which has been denied Arizona police…..
James M. Thunder, American Spectator, 7/30/2010
President Barack Obama talks about the need to reduce crime in American Indian communities as he prepares to sign the Tribal Law and Order Act during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House today. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Surely there is some irony and hypocrisy in the fact that, on the day after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against some provisions of the Arizona law that specified the enforcement in the state of certain federal immigration laws, President Obama signed into law yesterday the Tribal Law and Order Act. Why irony? Why hypocrisy?
First let me observe, and correct me if I am wrong, that state officers, including state judges, are sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution and all (all!) federal laws. If this were not clear before the Civil War, it was made clear after the Civil War. It is their duty. They need no grant from the federal government. So, even without a state law in Arizona that commands police within the state to enforce certain federal immigration laws, and details how they must do so, they are obliged by their oaths to do so.
Comes now President Obama, the Chief Executive Officer of the United States, sworn to faithfully execute the federal laws, who instructs Attorney General Holder to march into federal court to seek an injunction against this new Arizona law and to prohibit the enforcement of federal laws (bad enough by itself) and compounds this violation of his oath by restraining police officers from performing their sworn obligations. At the President’s request, the federal court has carved out — from the universe of the laws the police are sworn to uphold — particular federal immigration laws. This is a reversal of the Civil Rights Era in which the federal government mandated that the states comply with federal law — and sent federal marshals and troops to ensure that they did so.
The day after the judge’s ruling, President Obama signed the Trial Law and Order Act. According to reports, this law “will allow selected tribal police officers to enforce federal laws on Indian lands…” I am not sufficiently versed in Indian Law to know why tribal police officers, unlike state officers, need to be specifically deputized to enforce federal law. And, perhaps a reader can inform us whether this new law defines the federal laws now enforceable by tribal police to include immigration laws. Certainly a positive answer to this question would highlight the contrast that exists now between the authorities of tribal and Arizona police.
For, whatever the answer, tribal police have been granted the authority which has been denied Arizona police.
But there is more. The report states that tribal police are empowered to enforce federal laws “whether or not the offender is Indian.”
If there was any merit to the argument that the Arizona law necessarily entailed racial profiling, is there not a great risk of racial profiling when tribal police enforce the federal laws against non-Indians on Indian Reservations? It is far easier for tribal police to discern who does not belong on the reservations they patrol than for Arizona police to discern who does not belong in the United States.
So, do we not have the prospect of a person of Hispanic ethnicity on a reservation in Arizona being lawfully stopped and questioned by tribal police, while the same person standing outside the reservation cannot be by Arizona police?
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/30/arizona-police-and-tribal-poli
Why America Seems So Hopeless Right Now, and So Depressed
Writing for the Wall Street Journal in February 2009, Peter Ferrera, director of entitlement and budget policy for the Institute for Policy Innovation and former Reagan administration official, offered some historical insight:
“The best way to understand [President Obama's ideological approach to the economy] is to compare what’s being proposed now with what Ronald Reagan accomplished. In 1980, amid a seriously dysfunctional economy, Reagan campaigned for president on an economic recovery program with four specific components. The first was across-the-board reductions in tax rates to provide incentives for saving, investment, entrepreneurship and work. The second component was deregulation to remove unnecessary costs on the economy. . . . Third was the control of government spending. . . . The fourth component of the Reagan recovery plan was tight, anti-inflation monetary policy, which was spectacularly successful. . . . We know such policies work because they turned around in just two years an economy far worse than today’s. We were suffering from multiyear, double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates, declining incomes, and rising poverty. In fact, what we suffer with today is not the worst economy since the Great Depression, but the worst economy since Jimmy Carter – the last time liberals were dominant politically and intellectually. The Obama administration’s economic policies do not include any of the four Reagan components. . . . This is why America seems so hopeless right now, and so depressed. We are stuck going in exactly the wrong direction on economic policy because of currently dominant ideological fashions.”
SOURCE: “Ideology v. Reality”, By Ken Connor, Catholic Exchange, July 31, 2010
Will Washington’s Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
…Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully…..
By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A ROBBINS, INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY, 07/30/2010
The Internet is a large-scale version of the “Committees of Correspondence” that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington’s failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.
People are asking, “Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?”
Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.
Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There’s no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.
Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.
Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.
He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.
He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most “consequential” president ever.
The Wall Street Journal’s steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is “an alien in the White House.”
His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him “anti-business.” Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced “redistribution of income” in history.
Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America’s financial future is “unusually uncertain.”
A Wall Street “fear gauge” based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.
Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington’s wise farewell admonition: “cherish public credit … use it as sparingly as possible … avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt … bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not … inconvenient and unpleasant … .”
Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama.
THE VORTEX: Weapons of MASS Destruction 07-30
Michael Voris: The newest installment of CIA (Catholic Investigative Agency) takes a look at what happened to the Catholic Mass at Vatican II and the years following it. It’s that time again – once more we are exposing evil in the Church to the light of day!
Watch this short video and share it with your friends . . . and stay tuned for the full program coming this weekend!
WATCH ONLINE: http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/yWnL_n4Ti5c
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
Abortion Leaders Complain: HHS Abortion Ban ‘Not What We Expected’
…For pro-aborts who had claimed victory in the battle over health care – a battle during which Planned Parenthood had boasted frequent and close contact with the White House – the HHS statement was a clear instance of backpedaling…..
By Kathleen Gilbert,July 30, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the White House continues to claim that a ban on abortion funding was always understood to apply to the whole federal health care law, abortion leaders, who once hailed the health care bill as a “huge victory,” are still expressing shock at the Obama administration’s last-minute ban of elective abortion funding in federally-funded high risk insurance pools.
The thoughts of various abortion lobby leaders were collected in a Politico piece Friday detailing the pro-abortion confusion that followed a statement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which said that abortion would not be covered in the high risk pools established by the new federal health care legislation. The statement, prompted by a National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) investigation that revealed that Pennsylvania’s proposed plan was set to federally fund elective abortions, was confirmed in new regulations issued by the HHS Friday.
While Politico’s Sarah Kliff called the incident “a reminder [to abortion groups] of the health reform battle they lost,” the groups’ reaction to the health care bill’s passage, and their current outrage, suggest that the abortion lobby never believed the health care battle was lost in the first place. After the bill was signed in March, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, called the bill “a huge victory,” noting it “will significantly increase insurance coverage of reproductive health care, including family planning.” Richards also dismissed Obama’s Executive Order, which purported to extend Hyde-amendment restrictions to the health care bill, as a mere “symbolic gesture.”
And while the HHS statement itself suggested the ban was merely reiterating current law, both Factcheck.org and the Congressional Research Service concluded that no such abortion funding ban existed for the high-risk pools prior to the HHS statement.
For pro-aborts who had claimed victory in the battle over health care – a battle during which Planned Parenthood had boasted frequent and close contact with the White House – the HHS statement was a clear instance of backpedaling.
“This is not the outcome we expected,” Laurie Rubiner, Planned Parenthood vice president for public policy, told Politico. “We now know we need to be vigilant to make sure there aren’t other areas of the law where there is silence. There is a whole host of areas that we’re going to be watching like a hawk.”
Despite the patchwork approach to banning abortion funding, the White House continues to portray the outcome of the fiasco as simply maintaining the status quo – a line used in debate prior to the bill’s passage to justify the bill’s weak abortion-funding language.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the White House Office of Health Reform, claimed in a blog post Thursday that “in reality, no new ground has been broken.” “This policy meets the president’s commitment throughout the health reform debate to neither expand nor scale back current restrictions on federal funding for abortion and ensures that no federal funds will be used to cover abortion services other than the exceptions mentioned above,” wrote DeParle.
A White House official also told Politico that “the president is committed to neither expanding nor scaling back current restrictions on federal funding for abortion.”
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said that the Obama administration has been caught trying to have it both ways: courting the pro-abortion lobby, while attempting to appease widespread opposition to public funding of abortion.
“The Obama administration is trying to play both sides. It tried to sneak funding for abortion in one program. Then, when caught, they announced a ‘ban,’ but at the same time declared the ban as ‘temporary’ and ‘not a precedent’ for what it will do in other programs,” said Wright in a statement Friday. “This leads to one obvious conclusion: temporary fixes don’t work. Congress needs to pass a permanent ban on abortion funding.”
Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL), two top pro-life leaders on Capitol Hill, introduced legislation Friday that aims to close the loopholes once and for all with a permanent Hyde-amendment ban on abortion funding that would pertain to all U.S. law.
“In announcing the temporary ban, the White House affirmed that the ‘President is committed to neither expanding nor scaling back current restrictions on federal funding for abortion.’ This new bill fits that promise, as it will uphold current laws, making permanent what has been for too long temporary,” said Wright.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10073013.html
In the LifeLight: 40 Days for Life Leader Talks Saving Lives, One Prayer at a Time
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following the closure of yet another abortion facility deluged by pro-life prayer and fasting, one leader of the wildly successful 40 Days for Life campaign has discussed the principles behind a movement that has electrified the pro-life community around the world.
Shawn Carney is Campaign Director for 40 Days for Life, a national prayer campaign to end abortion that has grown by leaps and bounds since it was launched in 2006, in both the U.S. and abroad. In this exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Carney shares his thoughts on the success of 40 Days for Life, which besides witnessing the rescue of countless babies and mothers from abortion, has also seen abortion mills close - the latest being in Fayetteville, Arkansas – and clinic workers converted.
Carney actually began his pro-life work in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic once directed by Abby Johnson, who is now an established pro-life speaker. Johnson, who has known Carney for eight years, left Planned Parenthood and walked into Carney’s office after witnessing an abortion on an ultrasound machine. He is sponsoring her entry into the Catholic Church.
He tells LifeSiteNews.com about the 40 Days for Life, its success, what is makes it tick, its growing popularity, and its two powerful ingredients for ending a culture of abortion: prayer and fasting.
LSN: What is your reaction to the closing of the abortion clinic in Fayetteville, Arkansas as a 40 Days for Life success?
CARNEY: Well, the Fayetteville news is excellent. We’ve had three forty days for life campaigns in front of that abortion doctor’s facility. He [Dr. William Harrison] has always been one of the more aggressive abortionists across the country, mocking our volunteers, mocking them in the media, really making it kind of a spectacle. And the campaign was led by a couple of moms, and they kept praying and kept recruiting, and getting people to get out and pray in front of his clinic. And that really wore on him.
I know he’s had health problems here recently, and we are certainly praying for his health. But his business has been declining, and he’s decided to close his clinic. It’s a huge victory for 40 Days for Life, but also for the local people, who were faithfully praying out in front of his facility for years, when he had no intention on not doing abortions for the rest of his life, and never retiring. He was bragging he was doing God’s will by offering abortions. So we continue to pray for him, and pray for his heart, and also rejoice that Fayetteville now doesn’t have an abortion facility.
LSN: Now this year’s 40 Days for Life campaign is coming up. Can you tell us a little about that?
CARNEY: It starts on September 22 and ends October 31. Last year it went from September 21 to November 1. So we always generally take the second to last Wednesday in September and then it ends – it’s very early this year being on Halloween – but it’s the first Sunday in November. It just happens to happens to fall on Halloween this year.
The reason for [these dates] is weather. We always have the Fall campaign in that position because we have a lot of campaigns in Canada and the mid-west and it can get very very cold toward the end. We have a lot of campaign in the deep south, where it is still summer. You know October in Texas is not fall. It is very, very hot, it gets up into the 90s. So when we started 40 days for Life on a national level in the fall of 2007, we positioned it that way due to weather. Obviously every year that there is an election, it helps to end a campaign on the Sunday before the election, especially when people need to be praying for our nation, and especially regarding abortion.
LSN: How many locations and participants do you have thus far for this upcoming national campaign?
CARNEY: Right now, I can’t even tell you, because we have some that are still in the mail, but we are over 200. We had 212 last year as a total, and we have been blown away by the results. There is a lot of enthusiasm. We are not going to release the exact amount of cities until a week or two after applications close this Saturday, because we will get some late comers in the mail. We’re still working out the cities that will do multiple locations than just one location. Continue reading
Pope Praying for Unemployed in August
Vatican City (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, the Vatican released Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intentions for the month of August. In his intentions, the Pontiff is praying that those in serious financial need or require housing will be assisted.
Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention is: “That those who are without work or homes or who are otherwise in serious need may find understanding and welcome, as well as concrete help in overcoming their difficulties.”
His mission intention is: “That the Church may be a ‘home’ for all people, ready to open her doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination, hunger or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-praying-for-unemployed-in-august/
GOSPEL & MEDITATION: Heeding or Silencing the Conscience
July 31, 2010
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, priest
Father Ernest Daly, LC
Matthew 14: 1-12
Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe you are looking for me. You stand ready to come to me in this moment of prayer. You want to help me see your love and where I can grow to be more like you. Thank you for your patience and goodness with me. I want to give myself totally to you.
Petition: Lord, help me to hear your voice more clearly today.
1. A Disturbing Voice John the Baptist had been sent to prepare the way for Christ. He was a witness to the holiness of God. He tried to awaken the sense of sin and the need for repentance. He spoke clearly and was afraid of no one. Sometimes the voice of God in my conscience can be bothersome, like John’s voice was to Herod. Yet a clear reminder of what is right and wrong is an act of mercy from God. He is giving us a chance to awaken from our lethargy and realize that our immortal souls are at stake. I should thank God when my conscience reminds me of things I need to change in my life.
2. What’s Wrong With a Little Entertainment? There is nothing wrong with having celebrations in our life and moments of joy and relaxation. A Christian’s life is rich in moments of happiness. But, as was the case in Herod’s birthday party, there exists the danger of looking for entertainment and relaxation in activities or pastimes which can simply manipulate our passions, weaken our morals, and deeply offend God. If we are unable to choose our entertainment wisely we can end up throwing away the richness of our spiritual inheritance for cheap thrills. Herod ends up as a murderer rather than a good king. His unchecked passions of sensuality and human respect make him use his power to destroy rather than protect. I must remember that even in the moments of relaxation I have the responsibility to protect and foster my Christian identity. I should look for healthy pastimes where I can share the joy of Christian living with my friends and family.
3. The Proverbial Second Chance When Herod hears of Jesus, his conscience pricks him. He knew he had killed a man of God. Somewhere in his heart he knew that God would have the last word. The presence of Christ is an additional grace that the Father offers Herod so that he may be converted. Unfortunately it is a grace that Herod will not take advantage of, just as he did not take advantage of the presence of John the Baptist. In my own life, how many times does the Father have to remind me of my call to holiness? Do I realize how much mercy the Lord has already shown me? What is it that I am still withholding from him? Today I will seek a deep conversion of heart in that area where I know I have still been withholding myself from God.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for enlightening my conscience with your Gospel. Help me to see where I have become deaf or insensitive to the call of your teachings. I want your grace to triumph in my life. Help me to be brave to change what offends you and to live a life of Christian authenticity.
Resolution: I will receive the sacrament of reconciliation today and also invite someone else to receive it.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 31, 2010
St. Ignatius founder of the Society of Jesus (more commonly known as the Jesuits) in 1534 and created the Spiritual Exercises, which popularized guided retreats in the Church and offered guidelines for discernment that are still used today.
He was born in Loyola, Spain, in 1491, the youngest of 12 children of a noble family. He served as a page in the Spanish cout of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
He became a soldier in the Spanish army in 1517 and wounded his leg during the siege of Pampeluna in 1521. During his recuperation, the only books to which he had access were one on the lives of the saints and the “Life of Christ” by Ludolph the Carthusian. It was during this time that he experienced a profound conversion.
On his recovery he took a vow of chastity, hung his sword before the altar of the Virgin of Montserrat. He spent another year in contemplation in a cave and then five years in the Holy Land, converting the Muslims. He then began six years of theological study. He founded the Society of Jesus six years after he earned his theology degree; it received papal approval in 1541. He died in Rome in 1556.
The Jesuits remain numerous today. There are currently more than 500 Jesuit universities and colleges worldwide.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=549
FDA OKs First Embryonic Stem Cell Research Trial on Humans, Despite Concerns
By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, July 30, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Obama administration has approved the bid by cloning company Geron to undertake the first trial involving the use of embryonic stem cells in humans. They have never been used before in people because the cells cause tumors and have immune system rejection issues when tried in animals.
Scientists and pro-life advocates say human embryonic stem cells are not ready for trial because problems associated with the cells in animals haven’t been solved. The embryonic stem cells still cause tumors and have issues with the immune system rejecting the injection of the cells.
The Food and Drug Administration has initially placed the trial on hold but Geron indicated today that the agency is now allowing it to proceed with an early stage trial on an stem cell therapy for acute spinal cord injury.
The FDA placed a hold on the trial last August, when evidence showed Geron’s GRNOPC1 encountered safety issues when used in animal studies. Geron’s own data showed higher frequency of small cysts within the injury site in the spinal cord of animals injected with the embryonic cells…..continued………….
http://lifenews.com/bio3137.html
REAGAN: Accountability
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
HAS ANDY’S MIND GONE? New Propaganda Pitchman for ObamaCare
Says great things came out of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 Great Society”; tells seniors that “good things are coming” under (Obamacare) including free preventive checkups and lower-cost prescriptions for Medicare recipients.…..Did he mention Death Panels?
Online: Andy Griffith ad: http://tinyurl.com/22wnrrp
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20100730/D9H9EIV03.html
What is Necessary to Conquer Evil?
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)
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Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.
Romans 12: 21
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Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)
BECK GETS IT! Why Don’t Others Follow Suit? Inside a Radical Manifesto
July 28, 2010- Beck: Inside a Radical Manifesto — The Weather Underground’s two-step approach toward revolution
READ: Inside a Radical Manifesto“You Don’t Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows”
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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: ETHICS
Definition: Ethics
Many writers regard ethics (Gr. ethike) as any scientific treatment of the moral order and divide it into theological, or Christian, ethics (moral theology) and philosophical ethics (moral philosophy). What is usually understood by ethics, however, is philosophical ethics, or moral philosophy, and in this sense the present article will treat the subject. Moral philosophy is a division of practical philosophy. Theoretical, or speculative, philosophy has to do with being, or with the order of things not dependent on reason, and its object is to obtain by the natural light of reason a knowledge of this order in its ultimate causes. Practical philosophy, on the other hand, concerns itself with what ought to be, or with the order of actshuman and which therefore depend upon our reason. It is also divided into logic and ethics. The former rightly orders the intellectualtruth, while the latter directs the activities of the will; the object of the former is the true; that of the latter is the good. which are activities and teaches the proper method in the acquirement of
Hence ethics may be defined as the science of the moral rectitude of human acts in accordance with the first principles of natural reason.
Logic and ethics are normative and practical sciences, because they prescribe norms or rules for human activities and show how, according to these norms, a man ought to direct his actions. Ethics is pre-eminently practical and directive; for it orders the activity of the will, and the latter it is which sets all the other faculties of man in motion. Hence, to order the will is the same as to order the whole man. Moreover, ethics not only directs a man how to act if he wishes to be morally good, but sets before him the absolute obligation he is under of doing good and avoiding evil.
A distinction must be made between ethics and morals, or morality. Every people, even the most uncivilized and uncultured, has its own morality or sum of prescriptions which govern its moral conduct. Nature had so provided that each man establishes for himself a code of moral concepts and principles which are applicable to the details of practical life, without the necessity of awaiting the conclusions of science. Ethics is the scientific or philosophical treatment of morality. The subject-matter proper of ethics is the deliberate, free actions of man; for these alone are in our power, and concerning these alone can rules be prescribed, not concerning those actions which are performed without deliberation, or through ignorance or coercion. Besides this, the scope of ethics includes whatever has reference to free human acts, whether as principle or cause of action (law, conscience, virtue), or as effect or circumstance of action (merit, punishment, etc.). The particular aspect (formal object) under which ethics considers free acts is that of their moral goodness or the rectitude of order involved in them as human acts. A man may be a good artist or orator and at the same time a morally bad man, or, conversely, a morally good man and a poor artist or technician. Ethics has merely to do with the order which relates to man as man, and which makes of him a good man. Sociology is at the present day considered by many as a scienceethics. If, however, by sociology is meant a philosophical treatment of society, it is a division of ethics; for the enquiry into the nature of society in general, into the origin, nature, object and purpose of natural societies (the family, the state) and their relations to one another forms an essential part of Ethics. If, on the other hand, sociology be regarded as the aggregate of the sciences which have reference to the social life of man, it is not a single science but a complexus of sciences; and among these, so far as the natural order is concerned, ethics has the first claim…………..
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05556a.htm
Definition: Ethics
eth·ics
) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
Obama and Education: Another End-Run Around Normal Legislative Procedure
Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.”
Duncan certainly got the quiet part right. Since his Administration came into office, President Obama has quietly been reworking the country’s education system, doing an end-run around normal legislative procedure. With the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) funding doubled thanks to the so-called “stimulus,” the Administration has little need or incentive to bother negotiating its education agenda through Congress. Instead, the DOE is using that windfall of funding and power to stage a significant overhaul of local schools; dangling grant money before cash-strapped states on the condition they adopt key pieces of the Obama education agenda. And this is all happening without public consideration, even though it means that parents will now have to trek to Washington to petition an unaccountable bureaucracy if they want to see changes in their children’s curriculum. Knocking on the door at the DOE (the lowest rated federal department) is unlikely to produce a response.
The push for national education standards and tests began last year when the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) began writing standards for what all U.S. students should learn in school. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has been backing the effort with federal dollars, pressing Race to the Top grants in front of fiscally starved states while making it clear that they also intend to make Title I funding (the largest federal education program at $14.5 billion) contingent upon acceptance of these standards. A number of states have signed onto the standards to position themselves for federal grants—without the American people ever having the opportunity to weigh in on such a drastic change that will soon be coming to a school near you.
Secretary Duncan’s use of the term revolution was also right on the mark. The federal government’s ever-expanding role in education, and now the Obama Administration’s push for national standards and tests, threatens the long-established right of parents to direct their children’s education and confuses a proper understanding of federalism. States model federalism for children by setting standards, tests, and curriculum. But that important lesson in self-government will be another unintended casualty of this standards overhaul now that the federal government is overreaching to set the educational terms for local schools—contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of federal law, which expressly prohibits federal involvement in standards, tests, and curriculum.
But it’s not just our deep-rooted principal of federalism that is at stake in President Obama’s education agenda; it’s also our ongoing pursuit of excellence that hangs in the balance. Continue reading
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, July 30, 2010
Rep. Smith: Saving Our Hyde
While HHS squabbles with Republicans about why taxpayers are footing the bill for abortions under the health care law, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) says that Congress should put the issue to rest once and for all. Instead of worrying about vague language and legislative loopholes, Rep. Smith is calling on members to pass a bill that would guarantee that no federal dollars will be used to take innocent human lives. Today, he and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act which would be a blanket rejection of abortion in every facet of government spending–from the health care law to the Defense Authorization bill and every program in between. If it passes, the Hyde amendment would be permanent, saving pro-life Congressmen from the yearly battle they have over its reauthorization. Never again would members have to debate whether legislation does or doesn’t include conscience protections, since this bill would also codify the Hyde-Weldon clause that bars groups from discriminating against people who refuse to provide, refer, or pay for abortions. Other policies, like the amendments that block overseas abortion funding, would also become a concrete part of U.S. law.
This push is especially timely given that a group of pro-abortion Senators are trying to open the doors to abortion on military bases. Meanwhile, HHS officials and other abortion proponents still insist that the new health care law won’t fund abortions–despite an independent analysis from Congressional Research Service, which reported that there’s nothing stopping the agency from covering the procedure in its high risk pools. Regardless of what Americans think about the legality of abortion, they object to paying for it by overwhelming majorities–which could explain why the Smith-Lipinski bill has such broad bipartisan support. Any member who claims to be moderate on abortion knows that they have to vote for this legislation to prove it. Passing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act is the only way to make pro-life policies permanent and apply them across the federal government. Even the Left should have no trouble supporting a bill that they insist is the status quo. Encourage your member to co-sponsor the Smith-Lipinski bill. Click here to contact them today!
Do Ask, We’ll Tell!
Check out today’s video clip with ADF Attorney Austin Nimocks for his take on how this repeal would silence Christians in all walks of military life.
Q: How will overturning this law affect military chaplains and other service members with faith-based convictions?
As Bob Maginnis points out in FRC’s Mission Compromised booklet, introducing open homosexuals into the military would seriously impact chaplains. They may be censored from speaking against homosexual behavior in chapels or counsel a service member confused about his sexuality to abstain from homosexual conduct. What’s more, they could face increased pressure to marry same-sex couples. These threats to religious liberty would make chaplains who stick by their convictions vulnerable, and some of them might choose leave the military altogether.
With Gambling Victory, Frank Bets on the House
“Congress is the one with the gambling problem,” or so says the Washington Times after the House Financial Services Committee voted to overturn UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). Following Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) lead, members passed H.R. 2267 out of committee, giving the full House a chance to vote on the largest expansion of online gambling ever. “With a $13.2 trillion credit line, federal lawmakers continue to make bad bets, doubling down on spending… in the vain hope that it will somehow pay off,” writes the Times. “Laying the foundation for Internet-specific taxes… will only enable… Congress to further jeopardize the country’s economic future.” Together with its companion bill, H.R. 4976, Rep. Frank claims that legalizing Internet gambling–and taxing it–will raise billions in federal and state revenues. Despite what he says, this bill isn’t about protecting free markets, but opening up a new questionable revenue stream for government spending.
For now, the future of Rep. Frank’s bill is unknown. Will Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) want to raise this controversial vote in September? Many think it’s unlikely. There’s a much better chance that she would turn this bill into a lame-duck vehicle. One surprise during yesterday’s committee vote was the group of seven Republicans who voted for the bill. Also, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a previous supporter of Rep. Frank’s bill, voted “present” once he became aware that this bill would lead to a massive expansion of taxation of Internet commerce. His vote–and the leadership of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.)–were the bright spots of the day. For more on who voted for an anti-federalist, pro-tax gambling bill, check out The Cloakroom Blog.
In the D.C. Circuit Court We Trust
In a victory that barely cracked the newswire, a federal appeals court threw out a case to strip “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency. An atheist in Texas had claimed that the national motto was unconstitutional, but even the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is comprised of some fairly liberal judges, tossed the lawsuit. Citing a 40-year-old Supreme Court precedent, the judges unanimously agreed that “The Statutes establishing ‘In God We Trust’ as our national motto and providing for its reproduction on United States currency do not violate the Establishment Clause.” Fortunately, the panel’s decision did more than protect religious liberty–it spared taxpayers and the courts a long, expensive, and drawn-out lawsuit.
Speaking of the importance of judges, FRC’s Church Ministries department has developed a number of resources for pastors on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. We encourage you to forward this link to your church leaders and ask them to share this information with their congregation before next week’s confirmation vote on the Senate floor!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU10G20&f=PG07J01
THE VORTEX: What’s a Catholic to do? 07-29
In the face of scandals like the homosexual agenda at a Manhattan parish, what’s a faithful Catholic to do?
WATCH ONLINE: http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/r2wzrEpdOVc
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
American Thinker Headlines: July 30, 2010
Obama’s Mean Streak
Ed Lasky
Barack Obama seems to have a pattern of using ceremonial or stately events as opportunities to ambush and humiliate people. More
The Obama Victory Reconsidered
Richard Baehr
Barack Obama’s presidential election victory in 2008 represents the most successful new product introduction in American history. More
Real Sherrod Story Still Untold
Jack Cashill
The numbers tell the story. More
Why the Electoral College Matters
Rick Moran
A campaign to circumvent the Elector College is underway, and it must be resisted. More
Gen. Jones is Not a Useful Idiot
Ken Blackwell
Our friends, the Russians. More
The Mom Thing
F. Owen Smith
Arlington National Cemetery is the biggest “mom thing” there is. More
Babies Created, Then Saved (from abortion) Pay Visit to U.S. Congressmen
….. “I had no idea it was a baby. I really thought it was just tissue and was just blown away that she had a head and arms and legs”….
By Kathleen Gilbert, Catholic Exchange, July 30th, 2010
In the wake of a bill introduced in Congress that could threaten the life-saving work of crisis pregnancy centers, congressmen on Capitol Hill this week got a chance to listen to key members of a pint-sized constituency whose lives were profoundly touched by such centers.
Four moms and three children – two of them babies – went to the Longworth Congressional Office Building on Wednesday as part of Heartbeat International’s 6th Babies Go to Congress event. They arrived to tell their stories of how crisis pregnancy centers helped them see new options other than abortion, and to show off the smiling faces whose lives were saved in the process.
One mother told congressmen the story of how an ultrasound obtained through her local crisis pregnancy center made her realize her tiny daughter’s humanity – and helped save a life she had felt pressured to end. “I had no idea it was a baby. I really thought it was just tissue and was just blown away that she had a head and arms and legs,” said mother Danica Fountain.
“I just want members of Congress to know how important these centers are and they’re so good for our community and our country,” said Fountain, whose daughter Elia, now 8, came along for the trip.
The mothers and pregnancy center representatives who participated said that their message had been well received by several congressmen.
Earlier this month Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced that they would introduce a bill to force crisis pregnancy centers to clearly advertise their lack of abortion services.
The “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act” is strongly backed by NARAL and Planned Parenthood, who have complained that such centers often position themselves near abortion clinics and attract potential customers.
However, the bill has been descried by pro-life groups and pregnancy care centers as a transparent attempt by abortion providers to protect their bottom line, and to prevent women from considering alternatives to abortion.
Crystal Berger of Sioux City, Iowa, is one woman whose personal story is a testament to the need for pregnancy care centers and the alternatives they offer. She came to Washington this week without a little one in tow, because she had chosen to give her up for adoption – a choice she said she does not regret. “Knowing what it took to raise a child, I wish I could say I was strong enough … but I knew I did not have it in me to handle another child, and not have the father present,” said Berger, who became unexpectedly pregnant with a second child at 22 years old. After the Alpha Center of Sioux City offered her guidance, she found an adoptive family with whom she keeps in touch, and is able to visit her child.
Reps. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) greeted the moms on their first day at the Capitol. The next morning, the group visited the offices of Rep. Stephanie Sandlin (D-SD), Steve King (R-IA), and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI).
Terrie Thompson of Chicago, IL brought bright-eyed baby Savannah, 1, on the exhausting trip – but says she was glad to have made the effort. “I was nervous, but so far the trip has been really wonderful,” said Thompson, 38.
The young faces even attracted an unexpected admirer: Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) stopped to greet Savannah on the way to his office a few steps away.
Other congressmen on the docket included Reps. Randy Forbes (R-VA), Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ); Senators included Sens. Jeff Fortenberry (R-LA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Jacquelyn Payne, 31, arrived from Virginia Beach, VA to tell the story of how she overcame the fear that her unexpected pregnancy would dash her hopes of maintaining her career and completing her college education.
“I was afraid, I was afraid of losing my great position in my great firm, I was afraid of not being able to get my degree, I was afraid of failing my son who’s 11, and which I made those sacrificial decisions in the first place, and disappointing my family, my friends, my coworkers and peers,” said Payne. She had decided to get a secret abortion before meeting with pro-lifers outside the abortion mill, who handed her information describing other options.
“The [abortion] facility was cold. They offered to or not to get an abortion: you either get in this line or you don’t. And I knew it wasn’t right,” said Payne, whose son Zuri Alexander, now eight months, dozed peacefully on her lap.
A volunteer at the Keim Center of Virginia Beach helped Payne see things differently. “She took four hours of her day to listen to me, a strange person out of the world, and she gave me all the emotional and moral support that I needed: she didn’t judge me, and I wasn’t afraid anymore,” she said. Having maintained both her career and her college plans, Payne now says that “everything has actually been blessed because of the pregnancy.”
On her decision to come to Congress, she said: “I didn’t know if my one little voice would make such a huge impact, but I knew I at least want to try to make a change where I could to help people … the way that I’ve been helped, selflessly. I’m very confident that us being here is making a big difference in the way they’re thinking.”
Yvonne Mackey, the director of the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Tidewater, praised the attentiveness of one congressional office to the stories of women who had been helped by crisis pregnancy centers. “Who else better can share the services of the centers than those who have actually used the services?”
This article is courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.
Mother Teresa’s ‘Revolution of Love’: She Lived Counter-Culture to Liberation Theology
…. This revolution of Mother Teresa’s had an ideology, and it was in stark contrast to the reductionist ideologies produced by the 20th century, in which a person’s worth was calculated by their economic output, race, politics, youth, beauty or celebrity . . . Mother Teresa witnessed gloriously to the dignity of human life by loving those who appeared to be worthless.…..
Archdiocese of Columbo
It was in God’s Providence that Mother Teresa’s death was to be eclipsed by the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It is probably inevitable that the 10th anniversary of their deaths should repeat the same pattern, but the nun would not want publicity for herself, only for the action of God, who had used her as the instrument of his purpose, and for her charism of serving the poorest of the poor.
Diana is an “icon”, Mother Teresa is a challenge, a sign of contradiction to contemporary sensibilities. Her courageous opposition to abortion and her support for traditional family earned her few plaudits among liberal and feminist circles, who continue to try to discredit her. She was an inconvenient saint even to some within the Church, for though she saw at first hand the injustices done to the poor, this did not make her embrace Liberation Theology, or to critique economic or political systems. (Which, we may ask, is more instantly attractive: to campaign to make poverty history, or to live in solidarity with the poor and serve them?) She was staunchly loyal to what the liberal-minded erroneously call the “Institutional Church” and to the Holy Father. She had a profound love and respect for priests and the priesthood and showed no ambition whatsoever to enter it herself. Her piety was of an old-fashioned stamp which emphasised the Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the rosary and the evangelical counsels. She seemed to be totally fulfilled in a life of obedience and service to the Church and the poorest of the poor.
This saint of the slums had none of the political radicalism often born of such work. So it was that she once surprised a reporter in Brazil by saying that she was in favour of revolution – indeed, she and her Sisters in the Missionaries of Charity were working for one, she said: a revolution of love.
This revolution of Mother Teresa’s had an ideology, and it was in stark contrast to the reductionist ideologies produced by the 20th century, in which a person’s worth was calculated by their economic output, race, politics, youth, beauty or celebrity. Mother Teresa’s vision of a new world came from revelation. To her eyes, everyone came from the hand of a kind and Provident Creator, and everyone had an inalienable dignity because of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. He was there in every human life, most of all in his “distressing disguise” in the poorest of the poor.
Mother Teresa’s legacy includes her indefatigable opposition to the culture of death. Her opposition to abortion and euthanasia had total credibility, for she had committed herself to the defence of all those whom society rejects or sees as expendable, and her opposition was backed with an unlimited willingness to care for any would-be victims of these outrages. Ideas about human dignity quickly disintegrate in the face of human cruelty and misery unless someone is prepared to give them expression, to enflesh them. Mother Teresa witnessed gloriously to the dignity of human life by loving those who appeared to be worthless. She was not just pro-life by expressing moral revulsion at interventions in birth and dying; her charism was to affirm the dignity of all life, especially the life of those who appeared unloved and unlovable. In serving them, she rescued their dignity and restored their worth. She showed that this dignity which can be outraged by man’s inhumanity to man can equally be healed by the gift of an authentic love. Her revolution was, in that sense, in perfect imitation of the revolution brought by the Incarnation, which confers a dignity on the sinful, outcast human by embracing him in the love of the Word made Man. It was this love she saw everywhere, Christ she saw in everyone. She said she was sure we would all be judged by his words: “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.”
Mother Teresa’s pro-life mentality caused her to speak of the poverty of the West, to alert us to a crisis of equal proportions to that of the slums of Calcutta. She spoke of the people metaphorically dying for want of love, for want of someone to listen to them, to smile at them, to love them. Her insistence that materialism and wealth have created a new kind of spiritual poverty in the wealthy nations should prevent us from seeing her just as the saint of the slums of Calcutta. We need to see the conditions in affluent 21st century Britain through the eyes of Mother Teresa’s pity.
Her spirituality seemed to owe much to her patron saint, Thérèse of Lisieux. There is a Carmelite feel to her devotion to Christ’s Passion and her understanding that the Christian must enter into its mystery. “Suffering,” she wrote, “is the kiss of Jesus.” In all the houses of her order today you will always find the crucifix prominently displayed with the words “I thirst” beneath it. Her vocation could be summed up as the attempt to respond to this thirst with all the faculties of her being. Like Thérèse, her spiritual writings emphasise her littleness, her essential weakness, but also the conviction that these are no impediment to God’s conversion of the soul. In writing of the spiritual life she is direct and unaffected: “God does not require of us that we be successful, only that we be faithful.”
St Thérèse would endorse her namesake’s insistence on fidelity to small tasks, to the daily round, as having immense value, the conviction that we do not need to do great things, “but only little things with great love”. The terrible doubts and absence of any sensible consolations Mother Teresa experienced, as we now know from the postulator of her Cause, also seem to confirm a spiritual affinity with Thérèse, and should encourage, rather than surprise us. That both of them could remain so faithful and rise to such heights of sanctity is a timely reminder to us of the ascendancy of the will over the emotions in the spiritual life, of the importance of duty. That she was a woman of a powerful will was obvious to those who had dealings with Mother Teresa, the extent to which she had surrendered it to God’s action is even more apparent in the light of her struggles. Displayed in all the houses of the order is one of her pithy sayings: “I want… I will, with God’s help, be holy.” As Thérèse, patron saint of missionaries, never left her convent, so Mother Teresa, famous for her tireless apostolate, would insist that her vocation was first a vocation to contemplation. When asked by a reporter what was the secret of her success she answered simply: “I pray.” The “how” of her revolution, as well as the “why”, centred on Jesus Christ.
At the centre of her life, at the centre of her work and mission, animating and comforting, was the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The expression she used, of “touching the broken body” meant the Body of Christ in the Eucharistic feast. Her day was a lived and practical expression of the idea that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. It would still surprise people, seeing her Sisters at work, to realise how much time they spend before the Blessed Sacrament.
And it is the priests and brothers and sisters of the Missionaries of Charity who are the final, and perhaps the most important, part of her legacy, for they embody her Spirit. Now numbering some 4,000 and working in 194 countries, they are a precious gift to the Church, especially for their consecration to a pristine form of poverty as a radical dependence on God’s Providence and in solidarity with the poorest of the poor. They attract vocations from all over the world, and the average age of the professed I would guess to be somewhere in the 30s. Some of their number have already witnessed to the faith with their lives, as Mother Teresa prophesied they would, in Yemen and Sierra Leone.
The Missionaries of Charity in London are preparing for Mother Teresa’s feast-day with a Novena. There is a prayer at Westminster Cathedral each evening, leading up to a Mass on September 5 for the MCs and their co-workers, after which there will be a festive meal where they will serve the poor. Blessed Teresa’s revolution of love is in safe hands.
Father Hardon Visits Mother Teresa’s House of the Dying in Calcutta
[ Source – The Catholic Herald UK ]
http://www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/news.php?id=100
The Lesson of Calcutta
…There is a lesson that Calcutta burned deeply into my soul….
Fr. Robert Barron, Catholic Education Resource Center
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I have been all across the world these past two years, filming for my documentary on Catholicism. With my team, I’ve travelled to Jerusalem, Rome, Madrid, Mexico City, Warsaw, Krakow, Auschwitz, Koln, New York, Philadelphia, Istanbul, Corinth, and Athens. But none of these places had a visceral impact to match that of the city I’ve just visited: Calcutta, India.
We had gone there to film in locales associated with the work of Mother Teresa and her sisters, and therefore, we didn’t spend much time in the relatively presentable parts of the city. We went to the slums where, in Mother’s famous phrase, “the poorest of the poor” lived.
Here are just some of the images that I trust will stay branded in my mind for the rest of my life: a child of about ten gathering horse manure with his bare hands in order to sell it; people bathing in the river filled with raw sewage; a mentally disturbed woman just outside of the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity emitting a blood-curdling and other-worldly scream; garbage absolutely everywhere, as though the entire city were a trash heap; people whose only dwelling was the street or sidewalk; beggar children surrounding me and gesturing desperately to their mouths; a man at one of Mother’s hospitals with a goiter on his neck the size of a pumpkin; a Missionary of Charity sister, having just tended to a man bleeding from one of his ears, saying to me, “maggots again.”
When she was still a Loreto nun, Mother Teresa was making her way north of Calcutta by train to Darjeeling for a retreat. While she was riding on that train, she heard a voice inviting her to carry the light of Christ to the darkest places. Upon her return to Calcutta, she commenced the process that led eventually to the founding of the Missionaries of Charity, an order whose purpose would be to respond to that summons. This is the work that is carried on to this day by her sisters, in the meanest streets of Calcutta and in over five hundred establishments around the globe.
On the first day of our filming, we went to the Mother House of the community, the international headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity. I met a number of the sisters and had the privilege of speaking to Mother Prema, the current superior of the order. We visited Mother Teresa’s tiny cell, a room perhaps 12 feet by 12 feet, decorated by a small table and a bed with an impossibly thin mattress. The greatest joy of that day was to celebrate Mass near the tomb of Mother and to see many other pilgrims kneeling by her grave in deep prayer. On the second day, we filmed in a small hospital where the Missionaries of Charity care for children with mental and physical disabilities.
When we arrived, the electricity had just gone out and the room was stiflingly hot, since the fans had stopped. Everywhere the sisters and a large team of volunteers milled about, providing medical assistance, speaking to the kids, teaching some of them to sing simple songs, or just holding them. There was one sister, whose name I have forgotten but whose smile I will never forget. She was carrying in her arms a small girl of perhaps a year and half or two years old. The child was blind, her sightless eyes sunken in her head. I asked sister how they had come to care for this girl, and she told me that she had simply been abandoned on the street. “She is my special baby,” the sister said, and then she flashed this absolutely radiant smile, which told me that she had found a deep joy precisely in this hot, crowded hospital in the midst of one of the most squalid cities in the world.
 “She is my special baby,” the sister said, and then she flashed this absolutely radiant smile, which told me that she had found a deep joy precisely in this hot, crowded hospital in the midst of one of the most squalid cities in the world.
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We’re dealing with a deep mystery here. All of us human beings want joy. Everything we do and say, all of our actions and endeavors, are meant to produce contentment, peace, happiness. Even the most morally corrupt person, ultimately, wants joy. But how do we find it? The most elemental mistake – made consistently across the centuries to the present day – is to seek peace by filling up in ourselves something that we perceive to be missing.
We tell ourselves that we’d be happy if we just had enough pleasure, enough power, enough security, enough esteem. BUT THIS DOES NOT WORK. It is the supreme paradox of the Christian spiritual tradition that we become filled with joy precisely in the measure that we contrive a way to make of ourselves a gift. By emptying out the self in love for the other, we become filled to the brim with the divine life. The smile of that Missionary of Charity signaled the presence of a joy that no wealth, no security, no pleasure, no honor could possibly provide, and that can emerge even in the most miserable context. There is the lesson that Calcutta burned deeply into my soul.
ACKNOWLEDGEMEN: Father Robert Barron, “The Lesson of Calcutta.” Our Sunday Visitor (July 8, 2010).
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/stories_of_faith_and_character/cs0462.htm
LifeSiteNews.com Headlines: July 30, 2010
Breaking: Dr. Howell Reinstated by U. of Illinois
Thu Jul 29 17:45:17 EDT – According to a UIUC statement sent to LifeSiteNews.com, the school “will continue Kenneth Howell’s adjunct appointment for the fall semester.” Full Story
Congressional Report: ObamaCare Allows Abortion Funding
Thu Jul 29 18:25:46 EDT -The report has prompted a group of senators to demand that Hyde-amendment restrictions be instituted immediately. Full Story
Opinion: Chicago-Style Politics in Kenya
Thu Jul 29 12:09:39 EDT – “The situation in Kenya on the eve of their national constitutional referendum is reminiscent of Chicago’s dirty politics at its worst,” writes Human Life International’s Joseph Meaney. Full Story
Hawaiian Gay Couples File Lawsuit Demanding Marriage in All but Name
Thu Jul 29 12:47:20 EDT – Six homosexual couples are filing a lawsuit in Hawaii today asking for the same benefits and responsibilities as marriage but without the title of “marriage” or even of “civil union.” Full Story
Judge Orders Arizona to Help Pay Homosexual Partners’ Insurance
Thu Jul 29 18:00:43 EDT – The judge said that there was an “inherent inequality” in allowing married employees to participate in the state’s health plan fully, while requiring other employees to rely on other sources. Full Story
Another Pro-Life Voice at the UN as ADF Gains Consultative Status
Thu Jul 29 15:34:35 EDT – This status will allow ADF attorneys to attend and intervene at treaty and convention drafting meetings and help craft language that affirms religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family Full Story
Congressman Mike Pence Slams Dem Critics of Tea Party
“Yesterday we learned of a new effort by Democrats in Washington to attack American citizens who speak their mind and peaceably assemble as ‘extremists or radicals.’ Demeaning tea party citizens, or other Americans who are simply saying ‘no’ to runaway spending, takeovers and bailouts, is beneath the dignity of a great political party and it smacks of desperation.”
The Sunday Homily: STEPPING STONES TOWARD ETERNITY
Fr. James Farfaglia, July 31, 2010