Republicans Should Embrace Paul Ryan’s Road Map
Published July 13, 2010 | 
By: Fred Barnes , Weekly Standard, July 12, 2010
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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
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For Republicans, the road map authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the most important proposal in domestic policy since Ronald Reagan embraced supply-side economics in the 1980 presidential campaign. It’s not only the freshest, boldest, and most comprehensive Republican thinking, it’s also the most relevant. If Republicans adopt the road map as their basic ideological blueprint, it offers them the prospect of a landslide in the midterm election this year, followed by victory in the presidential election in 2012.
For sure, that’s a lot of weight for a policy statement drafted by a 40-year-old House member to bear. But the road map is perfectly timed to deal with the crises of the moment: economic stagnation, uncontrolled spending, the deficit and long-term debt, soaring tax rates, health care, the housing problem, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
Yet Republican leaders are wary of endorsing it, and for understandable reasons. The road map is sweeping and politically risky. It would overhaul popular programs like Medicare, relying on individuals to make decisions now made by government. Democrats are already attacking it. When Ryan delivered the weekly Republican radio address in late June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a press release under the heading, “Republicans Make Key Advocate of Privatizing Social Security and Ending Medicare Their Spokesman on Budget.”
Republican leaders fear the road map might jeopardize, or at least minimize, what is expected to be a decisive Republican victory in the November midterm election. Their advantage in the congressional generic poll is at an all-time high, and President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to the mid-40s. Why give Democrats a target to shoot at?
There are three reasons Republicans should ignore their jitters about the road map. The first is that the nation’s disenchantment with Obama and Democrats will take Republicans only so far. There’s a residue of bad feelings toward Republicans from the years the party ruled Congress, spent too much, and produced scandals.
Voters have memories. To overcome their qualms, Republicans need to provide more than a litany of Democratic faults. Voters are looking for a serious solution to the mess we’re in.
The second reason should be obvious after the ignominious Republican defeat in May in the race for John Murtha’s old House seat in Pennsylvania. Democrat Mark Critz won by running to the right — against Washington, Obama, spending, the deficit — and Democratic candidates across the country are taking the same tack.
Republican candidates need to put some daylight between themselves and their Democratic opponents. The road map will stamp Republican candidates as the real conservatives, which is what voters happen to be looking for in 2010.
The third reason is the Republican message (or the absence of one). In Pennsylvania, it was “send a message to Nancy Pelosi.” Voters declined. The road map is a message. The country is falling apart, we’re going broke, government is on a takeover binge, the economy is wobbling. The road map is the solution. That’s a pretty good message.
For now, the road map has a relatively small but growing cheering section. A dozen House members have endorsed it. Sen. Jim DeMint praised it in his book “Saving Freedom.” Jeb Bush likes it. On CNN last week, economic historian Niall Ferguson called Ryan “a serious thinker on the Republican right who’s prepared to grapple with these issues of fiscal sustainability and come up with a plan.”
The plan would give everyone a refundable tax credit to buy health insurance, allow individual investment accounts to be carved out of Social Security, reduce the six income tax rates to two (10 and 25 percent), and replace the corporate tax (35 percent) with a business consumption tax (8.5 percent). And that’s not the half of it.
As ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Ryan was able to get the Congressional Budget Office to run the numbers in his plan. CBO concluded the plan would “make the Social Security and Medicare programs permanently solvent [and] lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold federal taxes to no higher than 19 percent of GDP.” Pretty impressive results, I’d say.
The road map does one more thing. It would give Republicans an agenda if they gain control of the House or Senate in the midterm election — or a mandate if they win both. “What’s the point of winning an election if you don’t have a mandate?” Ryan asks.
He doesn’t expect a mandate in 2010. “I need to make sure these ideas survive this election,” he says, and set the stage for “the most ideological, sea-changing election in our lifetime” in 2012. Merely survive in 2010? The road map can do better than that. How about thrive?
Fred Barnes is executive editor of the Weekly Standard, from which this is adapted. Read the full Weekly Standard piece here.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Republicans-should-embrace-Paul-Ryan_s-Road-Map-98201434.html#ixzz0tYjiCeMD
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Republicans-should-embrace-Paul-Ryan_s-Road-Map-98201434.html
Let’s Be Clear! DOMA is on the Ropes
Published July 13, 2010 | By Charles Colson, Catholic Exchange, July 13, 2010
There it was, a front-page headline on the New York Times: “Judge Topples U. S. Rejection of Gay Unions.” In Boston, Federal Judge Joseph Tauro had ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, “plainly encroaches” on the right of the state like Massachusetts to define marriage and ensure its benefits.
In a separate ruling, Tauro ruled that DOMA violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Gay couples have brought the suits because, even though married in Massachusetts, they couldn’t get federal benefits, like Social Security, for their “spouses.”
DOMA was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996. It prevents one state from redefining marriage for the other 49. It defines marriage for purposes of federal law as the union of one man and one woman. Under DOMA, a state may define marriage however it wants, but the impact of that definition is limited to that state’s law.
DOMA was hailed as a victory for traditional marriage when it passed. No longer. Unless, as I pray, Tauro’s decision is overturned on appeal.
I am especially saddened personally because Joe Tauro is a long-time friend whose appointment as a federal judge I urged President Nixon to make. It’s for me a very painful irony.
My own personal “black Friday” was made complete by something else I read in that same edition of the Times: a review of the movie The Kids Are All Right, which celebrates the story of lesbian couple having a child through the aid of a sperm donor.
Come on! This comes right on the heels of a study definitively showing that sperm donor babies are more likely to suffer serious life-long emotional wounds than children raised by their biological parents.
Tauro’s decision and the gushing review of the movie are a clear sign that the gay-rights movement, unlike the Church, has mastered the long game and is capable of fighting on several fronts at the same time—politics, the courts and, especially, culture.
Tauro’s dismissal of DOMA was only possible because of the effort to change cultural attitudes about homosexuality. It’s as if the gay-rights movement took a page right out of the playbook of my hero, William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian and Christian who led the decades-long movement to abolish the slave trade. He fought the slave trade and worked to change cultural prejudice. He sparked a revival in the Church. And he won.
Sadly, Christians today seem to have a limited attention span and are confused about how or whether to shape culture. Our occasional political victories are nullified, however, where they matter—in the hearts and minds of Americans. The fate of DOMA is a bitter lesson.
Let’s be clear. This is every bit the victory gay-rights advocates say it is, which makes families and kids the big losers.
So Christians, we had better wake up. Don’t take the advice of those who are telling us we shouldn’t try to change the world. Let’s get busy, work harder, and take the long view—to restore, pray God, sanity to our culture.
Children Are Wonderful!
Published July 13, 2010 |
Baby laughing hysterically at Newfoundland dog….
BELOW: Charlie bit my finger – again ! (One of the most watched Youtube videos of all time!
Obama: Play Golf or Save the Gulf
Published July 13, 2010 | The Republican Party has been very careful not to politicize the Gulf oil spill and President Obama’s reaction to it, letting the American people judge based on his actions alone. But even without politicization, Obama’s poll numbers have fallen, and even Democratic party leaders James Carville and Terry McAuliffe have criticized his response.
RNC spokesman Doug Heye tells HUMAN EVENTS that the GOP “had not said anything about the spill. No press releases, no tweets” from April 20 (when the oil rig exploded) until Obama met with BP executives.
But, after the meeting, the RNC responded by posting this video which give a clear timeline of the president’s actions in the Gulf. The video is now the RNC’s most watched of this election cycle. Watch:
“What we’ve seen so far from the president sets a bad tone — golf games, Beatles concerts and another vacation this weekend — meanwhile oil spews into the Gulf and the American people want the leak plugged,” Heye says. To make this point, the RNC launched a website on Monday — “Play Golf or Save the Gulf?” –which asks readers: “Which 5 of the President’s leisure activities or missteps during this environmental disaster have made you the most angry?”
The interactive site allows Americans to chose from 13 “leisure activities or missteps” made by Obama since the BP spill. After sliding your five top choices to the list, you can then share them on Facebook and Twitter.
For my “Play Golf or Save the Gulf?” personal page, I chose these five options:
1. Instead of attending a memorial service for the eleven workers killed, Obama flew to California to raise funds for Barbara Boxer
2. Obama turned down 13 countries that offered to help us clean up the Gulf
3. Obama let 10 days pass before sending any Cabinet-level officials to Louisiana’s coast
4. Obama went golfing ten times since the explosion in the Gulf
5. Obama originally denied Louisiana officials permission to build up barrier islands between the coast’s marshes and the gulf
Heye says the purpose of the website is to “demonstrate that the administration’s nonchalant response to the greatest ecological disaster in our nation’s history is not working for the American people.”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38024
Human Events Headlines: July 13, 2010
Published July 13, 2010 |
Is Michelle Obama Inciting Racism?
Published July 13, 2010 | “When African American communities are still hit harder than just about anywhere by this economic downturn, and so many families are just barely scraping by, I think the {NAACP} founders would tell us that now is not the time to rest on our laurels. When stubborn inequalities still persist — in education and health, in income and wealth, I think those founders would urge us to increase our intensity, and to increase our discipline and our focus and keep fighting for a better future for our children and our grandchildren,” Michelle Obama said to the NAACP.
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Obama Cleanses the Terrorism Glossary
Published July 13, 2010 | …“Our enemy is not terror because terror is a state of mind and, as Americans, we refuse to live in fear,” John Brennan, the President’s closest adviser on counter-terrorism, told an audience….
By Rowan Scarborough, Human Events, 07/13/2010
President Obama and his cast of aides will lash out at Republicans, the Tea Party, banks, oil companies and Arizona. But when it comes to radical Islam, Obama-ites treat it with kid gloves or ignore it altogether.
Recent speeches show that—rather than identifying the enemy for what it is, bands of Islamic extremists who use their religion to justify murder—the administration searches for the root cause of terrorism, a “why do they hate us?” obsession which serves only to paralyze a global war to defeat terrorist killers.
Islamic extremists use mosques to raise funds, recruit and plan attacks. In Pakistan tribal areas, Taliban and al Qaeda use mosques as safe havens and as munitions stockpiles. Imams, Muslim religious leaders, use their positions to preach hate and encourage violence, citing verses from the Koran.
When Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty this week to trying to blow up an SUV in Times’ Square, he declared himself a “Muslim soldier.”
The bottom line: Islam and terrorism are intertwined. America will never understand its enemy, an enemy dedicated to its destruction, unless it comes to grips with that fact.
Yet, the Obama Administration is rewriting the official terrorism glossary to erase any Islam-terror connection.
“Our enemy is not terror because terror is a state of mind and, as Americans, we refuse to live in fear,” John Brennan, the President’s closest adviser on counter-terrorism, told an audience at the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself of one’s community.”
And Brennan added this: “The President’s strategy is absolutely clear about the threat we face. Our enemy is not terrorism because terrorism is but a tactic. Moreover, describing our enemy in religious terms would lend credence to the lie propagated by al Qaeda and its affiliates to justify terrorism, that the United States is somehow at war against Islam. The reality, of course, is that we have never been and will never be at war with Islam. After all, Islam, like so many faiths, is part of America.”
Then he listed an Obama national security priority: “This includes addressing the political, economic and social forces that can make some people fall victim to the cancer of violent extremism …. And I think there’s more work we need to do to understand the psychology behind terrorism. But a lot of times, the psychology is affected by the environment that has those political, social, economic factors that contribute to that.”
This statement is intended to begin a debate that always comes back full-circle to the United States—Americans did something somewhere along the historical line to convert normal people into terrorists.
We know the 9-11 attackers in Germany were recruited and radicalized in a mosque in Hamburg. But since mentioning the Islamic connection is now out-of-bounds, Brennan wants us to focus on “economic and social forces” on these financially well-off and educated mass murderers.
Brennan cleanses Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki, the American in Yemen who encourages murder, of any tie to Islam.
“Individuals like Anwar Awlaki, who recently released a video, demonstrated that his rhetoric is anything but peaceful,” Brennan said. “It’s anything but Islamic. It is dedicated to murder and lashing out.”
Brennan is exonerating Islam of links to terrorism, thus enabling it to remain in denial and resist the sort of reform movement that could rid it of radical clerics.
Brennan was a long-time CIA analyst. He worked in the division at Langley that fought against President Bush’s war on terrorism and where anonymous bureaucrats leaked all sorts of unsubstantiated charges against the Pentagon and White House.
Before Obama’s election, Brennan told me the U.S. needed to reach out to the kinder side of Lebanese Hezbollah. Yes, that Hezbollah. The one dedicated to the destruction of Israel, the one designated a terror organization by the U.S. and the one supported by Syria and nuclear-wannabe Iran.
True to his word, Brennan told the Nixon Center last month the administration wants to build up “moderate elements” within Hezbollah, which he called a “very interesting organization.”
Here is what terrorism expert Steven Emerson told HUMAN EVENTS:
“John Brennan’s comments about the existence of moderates in Hezbollah and his definition of jihad meaning exclusively spiritual struggle reveals a dangerous mindset that wittingly endorses the deception perpetrated by Islamic terrorist organizations. His rationale for Hezbollah having moderate elements is based on the fact they have lawyers and doctors in the parliament. Might I remind Mr. Brennan that Ayman al Zawahiri, the number two in al Qaeda, is also a doctor? Hezbollah is not divisible between the ‘good Hezbollah’ and the ‘bad Hezbollah.’ There is only Hezbollah, a group responsible for the second largest number of Americans killed after al Qaeda. As for the meaning of jihad, I wonder if Mr. Brennan will now rename the terrorist group Islamic Jihad to be ‘The Union of Good’?” Continue reading
Founder’s Quote Daily
Published July 13, 2010 | 
“It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.”
–James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791
White House Denies NASA Remark on Muslim Outreach
Published July 13, 2010 | WASHINGTON - The White House is contradicting the NASA administrator’s claim that President Barack Obama assigned him to reach out to Muslims on science matters.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently told Al-Jazeera network that one of the charges Obama gave him was “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.”
Some conservative activists criticized the remarks.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that such activities are not among Bolden’s assigned tasks and that Bolden “misspoke.” He said administration officials have spoken with NASA about the matter.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1085790
LifeNews.com Headlines: July 13, 2010
Published July 13, 2010 | SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WILL VOTE ON PRO-ABORTION ELENA KAGAN NEXT WEEK
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The Senate Judiciary Committee had been slated to vote on the nomination of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court on Tuesday. However, members of the panel will now vote on her nomination next week instead and Kagan is expected to be approved by the Democrat-controlled committee.
U.S. EMBASSY IN KENYA DENIES OBAMA ADMIN FUNDING PRO-ABORTION CONSTITUTION
Nairobi, Kenya (LifeNews.com) – The United States embassy in Kenya issued a statement today saying the administration of President Barack Obama is not spending taxpayer dollars funding a campaign to support a pro-abortion Constitution Kenya voters will consider at the polls next month.
AMERICANS DESERVE TO HEAR HOW DONALD BERWICK WOULD RATION MEDICARE
by Mitch McConnell
Ordinarily, Senators come to the floor to talk about the things that happen in Washington while we’re here. Today I’d like to talk about something that happened last week while we weren’t here. I’m referring, of course, to the President’s outrageous decision to take advantage of Congress’s absence last week to sneak Donald Berwick in as the new head of Medicare and Medicaid.
WHITE HOUSE PREGNANCY ASSISTANCE FUND COULD FUND PRO-ABORTION GROUPS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The new pregnancy assistance fund the White House quietly announced earlier this month has already drawn skepticism from pro-life advocates. Now, other pro-life leaders who are chiming in on its creation say they are worried grant money will go to pro-abortion organizations.
PRO-LIFE WOMEN’S GROUP CONFIDENT WHITE HOUSE PREGNANCY FUNDS AIRTIGHT
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – While other pro-life groups are concerned about the new White House Pregnancy Fund, Feminists for Life of America contacted LifeNews.com today to say it believes the creation of the fund is good news and it is confident the money will end up in the right hands.
JUSTICE GINSBURG: SUPREME COURT WON’T REVERSE ROE V. WADE, UNLIMITED ABORTIONS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she is confident the Supreme Court will never overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that resulted in unlimited abortions in the United States. She said doing so would hurt poor people who supposedly have no other resource during an unplanned pregnancy.
PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES PROTEST NATIONAL NAACP CONVENTION OVER ABORTION BACKING
Kansas City, MO (LifeNews.com) – As black civil rights activists from across the country meet today in Kansas City for the NAACP convention, pro-life advocates are there to encourage them to oppose abortion. Black pro-lifers and supporters are letting convention-goers know the NAACP takes a position backing legalized abortion.
SARAH PALIN’S PAC BRINGS IN NEARLY $900K, MAY POINT TO 2012 PRESIDENTIAL BID
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The political action committee former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin set up to allow her to support candidates for other offices brought in nearly $900,000 in the last quarter in donations. The number is generating a buzz in political circles as it shows Palin may be serious about a presidential bid in 2012.
FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL RESPONDS TO BRITISH FETAL PAIN STUDY, SAYS IT’S FLAWED
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The Family Research Council today released a new report that refutes claims made recently by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) saying an unborn child is not able to feel pain before 24 weeks of development.
GOSPEL & MEDITATION: Harsh or Rash Judgment?
Published July 13, 2010 | July 13, 2010
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Shawn Aaron, LC
Matthew 11: 20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Introductory Prayer: God our Father, you are my shelter against the burning heat of the day and the storms of life. I know and I believe that I can count on your help when I stumble, that you will catch me when I fall and guide my steps firmly in faith toward the promise of eternal life.
Petition: Jesus, help me to seek you with a sincere heart.
1. Blessings and Responsibility Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more (cf. Luke 12:48). With every blessing comes a degree of responsibility. The mighty deeds worked in these towns were not seen by everyone in Israel, let alone the world. Therefore, those who do see them have a greater responsibility than those who do not. Jesus reproaches them so as to awaken them from their stupor. Since the miracles have not moved them to a deeper faith, then perhaps the reminder that they will one day be answerable to God might. Do I need a similar fear of punishment to drive me from my sins, or am I more focused on pleasing God in the details of my life?
2. The Goal is Repentance The goal of all of Jesus´ signs is to bring about a change of heart. Even in the Old Testament, the signs and wonders worked by Yahweh were intended to elicit a response of faith and trust from Israel. The danger for Israel, as for Jesus´ listeners and for us, is to become accustomed to these signs and to demand more signs, thus losing sight of their purpose – a redirection of our life from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness. Like Herod, we want to be dazzled by Jesus´ miracles, but we do not want to change our lives. Jesus never works a miracle in order to impress, but only to convert a heart back to God or to bring it into deeper union with God.
3. Reward or Punishment We can learn a great deal from this strong phrase: Firstly, that we will be judged for our actions and our omissions; secondly, that judgment from God has varying degrees. Since God sees and knows perfectly, the judgment will be objective; those who knew less will be judged less strictly. In other words, Sodom, Tyre and Sidon will indeed be judged, but according to natural law and not according to Christian faith, which they did not have access to at the time. Finally, but not exhaustively, we can deduce that there will be different gradations in heaven and hell according to how well our actions corresponded to what we knew to be true and good. This knowledge should stimulate us to be more generous with God and more centered on things that are above. Our Lord will handsomely reward our smallest good deed.
Conversation with Christ: Dear Lord, open my eyes to the constant workings of your grace in my life. Never allow me to become complacent or to undervalue the tremendous gift of faith in my life. Thank you for reminding me of the importance of my daily decisions. Mother Most Pure, make my heart only for Jesus.
Resolution: Today I will read nos. 1783-1785 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. HENRY II
Published July 13, 2010 | CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 13, 2010
Born in 972 to the Duke of Bavaria and the daughter of the King of Burgundy, the future emperor was educated piously and rigorously by St. Wolfgang, bishop of Ratisbon, and had planned to enter the priesthood as a Benedictine monk.
However, at the age of 23, on the death of his father, Henry became the Duke of Bavaria, and seven years later, on the death of Otto III, he was elected emperor. He served in this capacity for 22 years, aided greatly by his wife, St. Cunegunde.
Henry II was an able politician who used his political skills to consolidate the place of the Church within the empire, and he was especially generous to the Benedictine Order, encouraging the reforms of Cluny and building many more monasteries.
In fact, near the end of his reign he wished to abdicate his throne and enter a monastery, but he was refused by the wise abbot, who told him that he had much to do in the world, and that he should dedicate his holy efforts to the advancement of the Church in the life of the empire.
He fought many battles to protect the empire from attacks from without, as well as rebellion within, notably the rebellion of Rome in 1014, which his army put down. He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII following his victory.
Henry established the See of Bamberg in which he built a Cathedral and towards which he was a doting benefactor.
He died in 1024, and was buried with his wife in the Cathedral of Bamberg, which has a strong devotion to him and the empress.
Pope Eugene III canonized him in 1146.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=520
Catechism of the Catholic Church . . . . . “I Believe”
“Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come”
St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2
PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
“I BELIEVE” – “WE BELIEVE”
CHAPTER THREE
MAN’S RESPONSE TO GOD
ARTICLE 2
WE BELIEVE
166 Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.
167 “I believe” (Apostles’ Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. “We believe” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. “I believe” is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both “I believe” and “We believe”.
I. “LORD, LOOK UPON THE FAITH OF YOUR CHURCH”
168 It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: “Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you”, as we sing in the hymn “Te Deum”; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: “I believe”, “We believe”. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: “What do you ask of God’s Church?” And the answer is: “Faith.” “What does faith offer you?” “Eternal life.”54
169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.”55 Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.
II. THE LANGUAGE OF FAITH
170 We do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. “The believer’s act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in the realities [which they express].”56 All the same, we do approach these realities with the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more.
171 The Church, “the pillar and bulwark of the truth”, faithfully guards “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”. She guards the memory of Christ’s words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith.57 As a mother who teaches her children to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.
III. ONLY ONE FAITH
172 Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father.58 St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a witness of this faith, declared:
173 “Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples. . . guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth.”59
174 “For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the center of the world. . .”60 The Church’s message “is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole world.”61
175 “We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without ceasing, under the action of God’s Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that contains it to be renewed.”62
IN BRIEF
176 Faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God who reveals himself. It involves an assent of the intellect and will to the self-revelation God has made through his deeds and words.
177 “To believe” has thus a twofold reference: to the person, and to the truth: to the truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it.
178 We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
179 Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior helps of the Holy Spirit.
180 “Believing” is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the human person.
181 “Believing” is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother” (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).
182 We believe all “that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed” (Paul VI, CPG # 20).
183 Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).
184 “Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come” (St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2).
THE CREDO
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all that is, seen and unseen.
his only Son, our Lord.
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven:
power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
he was born of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered died and was buried.
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge
the living and the dead
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the
Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy
catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p1s1c3a2.htm