A Tepid US Presidential Endorsement

The video below by Michael Voris pretty much explains it all. A faithful Catholic should, with a "tepid endorsement", vote for Romney for US President (POTUS). He explains it well.

I wonder why this is the reason more non-Catholic institutions are suing over the HHS mandate (for abortion-inducing drugs) than Catholic ones.

Year of Faith in Baltimore

Last Sunday, I went to St. Mark's in Catonsville (21228) to participate in the mass with Abp. Lori of Baltimore. I saw him before at the HHS Fortnight for Freedom mass, too, but this time my family was with me.

Abp. Lori Pointing Towards Heaven

His homily (found here) was very inspiring. It was especially inspiring since I'm trying to start an New Evangelization committee/ministry at my particular Church (plan to call it "Boot Camp of Beautiful Feet"; Romans 10: 15). It's also in the works to show Saint movies (Song of Bernadette etc.) and perhaps the Catholicism series by Fr. Barron (Jesus of Nazareth for Lent?).

The other thing I'm ecstatic about is that he included the following in the homily,

The second task for this Year of Faith and indeed for our lives together as Catholics is to become utterly convinced of the coherence, truth, beauty, and goodness of all that the Church teaches with respect to faith and morals, including those moral and social teachings that are often counter-cultural, such as the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexual morality and the sacredness of human life from the moment of conception until natural death. We are called to assent to what the Church teaches, not merely with an intellectual nod, a knowing smile, or a passing glance—but rather to become utterly convinced that these are the words of everlasting life. Our faith must not occupy merely a compartment in our minds and hearts but rather must shape the way we think, the decisions we make, the words we say, and the quality of our relationships at home, in the parish, at work, and with friends.

I've never heard anyone say this in a homily before. Wow! The rest of it was pretty terrific, too.

I hope the Lord will bless Abp. Lori and our Archdiocese of Baltimore with an increase in living faith. I wonder what else He will have in store for us.

(Here's Pope Benedict XVI's homily.)

Help Request for My Wife

My wife is in a book club of moms that sort of resembles The View, and she's the conservative Catholic one (They are formerly or currently stay-at-home moms). It also turns out that one of the book-club moms who was Catholic, goes to a non-denominational (denomination) Christian Ecclesiastic Community, and has multiple IVF children pretty much attacked my wife at a soccer practice last week about her beliefs; she just nodded. My wife was having a hard week with multiple close relatives and friends who are not doing well (to put it mildly), she told her "friend", and the "friend" still went on the war path.

Well ...

I just found this promising book that my wife can give to her friend. It's Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves, edited by Helen Alvaré. My wife quite often seeks good books by down-to-earth Catholic authors, and this one seems to fit the bill.

I'm wondering if you have any others to suggest? Thanks.

More Humanae Vitae Videos

Yesterday, I forgot to add the videos below to the list of "Best Humanae Vitae Videos".

The Catholic Church and Contraception Part 1 and 2

Best Humanae Vitae Videos

Yes, today is the 44th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the reaffirmation of the constant Church teaching on contraception by Pope Paul VI in 1968 (actually, *ALL* Protestants believed it until 1930, too).

The videos below are the best that I found on Youtube that talk about Humanae Vitae and contraception from best to less-than-best, but still good and on topic:

Humanae Vitae: Catholic Teaching - Part One and Two

The Catholic Church and Contraception Part 1 and 2

Contraception & the New Dark Age :
Where we are and how we got here Part 1 of a 4 part series.
Contraception & Salvation Part 2 of a 4 part series.
Contraception and Sanctification Part 3 of a 4 part series.
Contraception and the Sexual Ethic Part 4 of a 4 part series.

Dr Janet Smith - Contraception: Why Not - Abortion

Humanae Vitae: 40 Years Later - Part 1 and 2

Debunking Birth Control Myths - Episode 37 Excerpt - Life Report

The Tale of Two Mandates

The Tale of Two Mandates

It was the best of intentions; it was the worst of intentions. The Obama horse was welcomed as a gift by many of the country’s inhabitants as a gift of reconciliation. Those who took him in were not ready for what lay inside the belly of the beast.

There were the wise who knew the history of repercussions of such a gift, but they were powerless to stop the momentum of the mass of mischief that lurched inside the walls of power.

A strange odor came from the beast as it entered the walled city, but the inhabitants naively assumed it followed in from the dank wood. For the enemy first desired to unleash a full frontal attack, but a slower, ranker deception was more likely to succeed. It was decided to let the little secret be hidden within the exterior of the beast of burden.

As the citizens of the castle pondered what could be inside the gift, they would have to wait to see what was really in it.

In the middle of the night, the moon glistened with a hollow hope that all was well. However suddenly, panels of the horse flew off and immediately flattened those who happened to be passing near the horse.

Then the men, so many angry men leapt out of the horse that a swarm of furious bees would be less densely packed and seem so humbly demure.

In what seemed to be an instant, the fortress was taken over by the red ones.

But to this day, the remaining remnants of the old city wait upon the day when their savior will come again.

---

I meant the above allegory to come out differently, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. I’ll address the two mandates (HHS & individual mandates) directly another day soon.

Fr. Barron vs. Voris?

No. Both Fr. Barron and Michael Voris of ChurchMilitant.tv believe that Vatican II was valid and good.

What is interesting is that Fr. Barron (second video at 1:51-2:17) answers Voris' question/comment (first video at 1:12-1:45).

Militant vs. Nice
"... No one in that [Spirit of Vatican II/"church of nice"] camp ever seems to be able to actually define what is meant by the spirit of Vatican II. ..."



The Meaning of Vatican II: A Commentary by Fr. Barron





Fr. Barron rightly clarifies that there is a split that developed between theologians after the council.

I wonder if that rift will ever close. I hope that it does soon, even in my Catholic parish.

On Graphic Abortion Images

                “You’re giving the prolife movement a black eye,” a male senior citizen angrily yelled out his open car window at me. It was a bright, but heated Friday afternoon at the bottom of a greatly-sloped hill on John’s Hopkins University in Baltimore City. As the loud motorist on Charles Street made the loud call, the vociferous Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) picture display of the Center for Bioethical Reform was being used to engage pedestrians — mostly students — and motorists that stopped at the red light nearby. (The GAP display used graphic pictures of various genocides, including abortion, to highlight the injustice of abortion.)

                It was the first time that I ever handed out prolife literature at a GAP display or engaged students on a college campus. It was to be expected that there would be counter-protesters and debates with many people along the prolife/proabortion spectrum, but how does the showing of abortion-killings pictures give the prolife movement a black eye? Doesn’t it open people’s eyes to the horror of abortion?

                A biology student at the display said that we shouldn’t show the gruesomely bloody pictures because young people might see the graphic abortion pictures, and it was also like displaying hard-core pornographic scenes. In a way, I always thought the same thing, but then I read about Lila Rose and others. Ms. Rose, the founder of Live Action (undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood’s racism and sex-abuse cover-ups), came to the prolife position at a young age from viewing a book in her parents’ collection that had graphic abortion pictures. From her eye-opening experience, she has become a strong advocate for showing graphic abortion pictures, especially on college campuses.

What the pictures are not is pornography. They are more akin to showing the aftermath of dehumanizing the women and men in the porn industry. If there were pictures of women with bruises, running mascara, and the like, they would more resemble the pictures of the GAP display.

                Really, abortion enables the cardinal sin of lust to run rampant which leads to the darkening of the heart and soul. What the widespread use of elective abortion does in reality is to allow the heart of the world to become lustful.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.” (Matthew 5: 27-29)

                In my Bible commentary, Gehenna was described as the place of “an idolatrous cult” where “children were offered in sacrifice” (2 Kings 23: 10; Jeremiah 7:31). So, those who are “thrown into Gehenna” go with those who sacrificed their children. Jesus is saying that if one continues in a state of sexual sin, especially with committing abortion in the GAP context, that person is thrown into the realm of those idolaters who killed their children, too. Those who sacrifice their sons and daughters in the womb for lust through abortion may have the same fate as those who sacrificed their children already born for idols.

What I think the GAP project does is to help “tear [an eye] out” of the world so that the world is not thrown into Gehenna. The aim of the pictures is conversion of heart and mind, that is, turning towards the truth that abortion kills a child that is loved and wanted by God, made in the image and likeness of God.

                As a Catholic Christian, I love my fellow man too much to not help him in, what some translations say, gauging out his eye with a graphic picture of what the results of his decisions look like.