One Less Waste Of Catholic Dollars

The USCCB announced yesterday that its propaganda puppet news dissemination arm, the Catholic News Service, will cease operations at the end of 2022.  USCCB Publishing will also fizzle out at that time.

Oh, my!  However will the local diocesan rags waste their newsprint?  Maybe they will actually have to do some real journalism and finally wake up to the colossal scandals that they've been encouraged to ignore?  I realize that is a far-fetched hope, but one can dream, no?

Now what will the USCCB do with the money saved?  Channel it to some other communist-front organization?  I wouldn't doubt it.

The Air At Catholic News Services Is Now A Bit Cleaner

On Monday Lepanto Institute broke the news that Tony Spence, former Director of Catholic News Service openly shilled for the gay agenda.  Lepanto and many others called for his resignation.

On this occasion, reason and decency prevailed.  The bishops asked for Spence's resignation and he tendered it.  When we stand for the truth, things can happen.  Now let us pray for two things: 1) that the position will be filled by a real Catholic and 2) that Spence repents of his advocacy for mortal sin before it's too late.

Head Of Catholic News Service Betrays His Faith And Fellow Catholics

It was almost a year ago when Lepanto Institute uncovered the scandal of the Catholic Relief Services harboring a sodomite within the ranks of their officials.  Since then he resigned from CRS.  We pray that he also quit his mortally sinful lifestyle.

Now the same Lepanto Institute has discovered that Tony Spence, Director of the Catholic News Service, has been shilling for the gay agenda on his twitter page.  He concurrently is working to submarine the rights of Christians to live by their consciences without being forced to do obeisance to the demands of gay activists.  Bear in mind that the Catholic News Service is the official news organ of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Spence has occupied that position since 2004.

On its page, Lepanto has reproduced some of the heretical tweets.  When I went to Spence's twitter page I saw that the incriminating tweets had been pulled down.  Gee!  I wonder why!

Between these two and the head of CCHD who worked for Wendy "Abortion Barbie" Davis, the progressive bishops seem to have a penchant for placing flaming dissidents within the higher positions of their organizations.  That is no accident.  They know exactly what they are doing.

Recall that Estridge did resign when the spotlight shone on him.  Let's see if we can perform a similar service in the case of Spence.  We will not make any headway in fighting the culture of death until and unless we purge the Church of all the filth and corruption within its structures.

Pope Francis - "Church Teaching Can't Open People To God's Love"???

In yesterday's homily, Pope Francis said that "courses in yoga, zen meditation, even extensive studies in church teaching and spirituality can never free people enough to open their hearts to God and His love" - quoting from Catholic News Service.

Say what????   Of course yoga and zen won't lead anyone to God's love; in fact they'll do just the opposite for these lead to idolatry.  But to mention these in the same breath as church tradition is to place all three on the same level.  To do so is a great disservices to the truth and will cause much confusion and even disdain of the development of Catholic intellect.

The quote goes on.  "Only the Holy Spirit can move the heart and make it docile to the Lord.."  Well, without a modicum of knowledge of Church tradition, how does one discern the action of the Holy Spirit from that of something else?  Does not the teaching and spirituality of the Catholic Church originate from the Holy Spirit and God's own word?

Why the setting up of false dichotomies between this "movement" and the Sacred Tradition of the Church?  Only harm and confusion can arise from this.  Pray for Holy Mother Church.

Rosa DeLauro Wastes Catholic Newsprint

Catholic News Service, the propaganda arm media outlet of the USCCB, conducted an interview of Rosa DeLauro, Democratic Congresswoman from Connecticut.  Because her name has a familiar sound to me, I looked her up on my blog.  Sure enough, I posted about her in the past.  She and a gang of other CINO pro-abortion politicians wrote an open letter to Cardinal McCarrick demanding that he not deny them Holy Communion simply because they support the murder of babies (minor matter, that!).  As I said before, they need not have bothered, but I digress!

She's taking the opportunity to rip into the budget proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan.  It seems that his budget cuts too much into the socialistic "social justice" pet projects of both the progressives in Congress and the progressives in the USCCB.  She also tears into Archbishop Dolan for his leadership in opposing the encroachment of the religious freedoms of real Catholics by the Messiah Most Miserable and his Minions Most Mindless (one of whom was being interviewed by CNS).  Perhaps some elements of the USCCB are embarrassed by the Archbishop and feel they must make nice-nice to the CINO cabal in Congress.

If the Catholic Church in the US wants to slash its expenditures and redirect them to charity, they'd do well to abolish the USCCB.  What a waste of Catholic dollars!

Yippee! Changes To The Catholic Standard!! Goodie-Gumdrops!!

Well, maybe I'm being just a tad too enthusiatic.  My colleague at A Washington DC Catholic has detailed the changes.  Rather than post a long comment over there, I'll just post my feedback below.  The numbers correspond to his original points.

1. Will the subscription prices drop accordingly?  I hope so; I don't feel like paying for "glossy stuff and bolder headlines."
2. How about real news in the Catholic world? That would be far preferable to the periodic kiss-ups to pro-abortion personalities simply because they are powerful and they toss a few crumbs towards the chancery every now and then.
3. What does that mean?
4. Less articles from the Catholic News Service (USCCB propaganda machine) would be the improvement. Perhaps they can tap into the Wanderer or EWTN - or our blogs! (stop laughing immediately!)

Now notice what's missing from this "list of improvements".  How about a restoration of the letters to the editor? That's the feature that "mysteriously" disappeared from the Standard's pages when Cardinal McCarrick made plain that he would disobey Canon 915.  I have it on good source that at that time, the Standard was flooded with hundreds, if not thousands of letters decrying the Cardinal's statement.  Mine was in that pile.  Not one was published.  Even some of the progressives in the DC chancery who had some sense of honesty opposed the disingenuous decision to ignore our letters - a decision that continues even to the time of this writing. 

(Note to the Standard staff: the cessation of your "letters to the editor" was a major factor in my decision to start both the earlier wesite and this blog.)

To summarize:  If that is what the Catholic Standard means by "major changes", it will continue its downward spiral to oblivion.  It is already irrelevant; there aren't too many of us who take the Standard seriously in terms of finding out what is really happening in the Church.  If it truly wishes to reverse its self-destructive course, it will cease being a de facto USCCB mouthpiece with all its progressive panderings.  It will join the fight to expose progressive machinations within the Church rather than maintaining silence about them.  Somehow I don't think that is their mindset.

"Catholyc" Progressives, Abortion And Capital Punishment

In their July 14th edition, the Standard published a Catholic News Service article concerning the death penalty.  It appears on page 9.  It is not on the Standard's web page at this time; however, it is on the CNS site, to which I now link.

Pope John Paul II, in Evangelium Vitae, made plain his personal opposition to capital punishment.  However, being the Pontiff, he understood that even he was subject to sacred Tradition and Scripture which do make plain that capital punishment is a licit function of civil governments.  The late Pontiff made very clear that the use of capital punishment should not occur when the criminal could be so detained as to render the rest of the populace safe from future harm.  Obviously, on a case-by-case basis, such judgment is in the purview of the proper civil authorities.  Now let me add further that in a society such as ours, that for over 30 years has callously facilitated the slaughter of millions of tiny babies in their mothers' wombs, I do not believe that civil authorites have any moral credibility whatsoever to administer capital punishment; abortion has clouded their thinking processes that much.  However, it is clear that the issue of capital punishment is one on which good Catholics can disagree.  Abortion is not - no one can be a true Catholic who supports abortion in the least.

Now let's get back to the article.  It presents a statistic, that since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, that 1,258 executions have occurred.  Well, as lamentable as this number may be, let's bear in mind that these individuals were at least recognized as individuals.  They were convicted of captial crimes by juries of their peers and often attempted multiple appeals.  Some might argue that the trials may not have been fair, but at least they received trials, a perfunctory acknowledgement of their personhoods.

Between 1976 and now, 35 years have elapsed.  That means that on average, about 36 people per year in the entire country died via capital punishment.  Now let's compare that to abortion data.

In Maryland alone, according to some statistics supplied by the Guttmacher Institute as quoted by the Post-owned Gazette in their recent editorial, 34000 babies were murdered via abortion in Maryland alone.  That is equivalent to 93 government-sanctioned murders of babies every day - in Maryland alone.

Since the article cites national numbers, let's compare that to national numbers for abortion.  Compare 36 capital punishment executions per year with - 1.5 million murdered babies per year.  That means for every convicted criminal executed, almost 42,000 babies were aborted.

So now we see this page-long article dedicated to the plight of these 1,258 people who underwent capital punishment.  Where, oh where, is the commensurate concern shown for the 52+ million babies slaughtered?  I address this question to those in the Church structures who allege that they work for "social justice".  Do the math!  Not only that, but consider that these babies receive no benefit of trial, no appeal process whatsoever.  Your priorities need badly to be adjusted!

And Speaking Of "Zombies",

I read the February 24th edition of the Catholic Standard and was once again appalled at the zombie-esque chanting of the liberal/progressive mantras that polluted the pages of a supposedly "Catholic" publication.  Where to begin?  I suppose it doesn't matter, since all this mess has a common theme.

This is a long read, so....

Leftist CINO Rag: "Disarm Law-Abiding Citizens"

This article appears in the US Catholic magazine, but the blame for this nonsense lies squarely on the shoulders of the so-called "Catholic" News Services, those water-boys for the progressives who need a "Catholic" veneer for their nonsense.  It is entitled: Gun control: Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians. 

Taking bits and pieces of various statements made by this and that document, the author tries to extrapolate a case for the disarmament of the law-abiding citizen.  She does find a quote, however, from the USCCB stating, "However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions -- i.e. police officers, military use -- handguns should be eliminated from our society."

My reply to that is "So what?"  We have put forth the case several times in this blog that the USCCB has no canonical authority whatsoever to determine Church policy.  For example, see:
http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2010/09/bishop-vasa-usccb-has-no-intrinsic.html
http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-usccb-anyway.html (note: watch that video on youtube, then watch the other Vortex videos on the USCCB as well)

Catholic Standard Botches Teaching On Condoms

In today's edition of the Catholic Standard, we see a Catholic News Service article, written about the Pope's recent remarks, that itself errs regarding contraception within marriage.  Yes, it was written by the CNS, but the Standard should have been responsible enough to edit out the error or decline publishing the piece.  Hence they're just as responsible for this promulgation of error.

The erroneous teaching is encapsulated in this paragraph:
"For years, in fact, Vatican officials and theologians have studied the morality of condom use to reduce the risk of AIDS. The Vatican has never proclaimed a "ban" on condom use in AIDS prevention; on the contrary, some Vatican theologians and officials have argued that for married couples in which one partner is HIV-infected, use of condoms could be a moral responsibility."

That's not correct.  Within the context of marriage, condoms can never be used as they will frustrate the procreative aspect of the marital act, regardless of the intent of the spouses.  What is correct to say is that the Church says nothing about the use of condoms outside of marriage, because outside of marriage between one man and one woman, sexual relations are already immoral.

The above quote is attributed to unnamed "Vatican officials and theologians".  Both CNS and the Standard should have taken the extra step to remind readers that such opinions are at serious variance with the Magisterium.  Perhaps they were merely taking cue from Cardinal McCarrick who, in May 2009, similarly and equally erroneously condoned such condom usage.

Catholic Standard Acquieces to Pop (Or Slop) Culture

Perhaps one hallmark of today's Culture of Death may be the fascination of teens and young people in the occult.  Anyone with an iota of sense understands that occultish accrutements often serve as sedgeways into satanic dabblings.  The so-called "goth" subculture is one facet.  In the 1960's we saw this creep in with TV shows such as "Bewitched" and "Dark Shadows".  Nowadays we see fascination with vampires and such, with shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the "Twilight" movies.  Again, it is the oblivious fool who holds these things to be nothing more than harmless fads.

Unfortunately, this week the Catholic Standard joined this less-than-stellar crowd of fools with its review of the movie "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse".  I won't go into all the details of the storyline and various characters.  Suffice it to say that I cannot fathom how an ostensibly Catholic newspaper can be so neglectful as to make no mention of the spiritual perils inherent with this "goth" culture.  In fact, I'd say this review could only serve to whet the curiousity of the youngster with this movie.  More disgustingly, the Catholic News Service rates this movie as A-II (adults and adolescents).  Why this isn't considered "morally objectionable" I'll never know.

Let me bring in other considerations, if spiritual matters are of no interest to supposedly Catholic news media.  It seems that many teenagers, due to direct influence of these "twilight/vampire" things, are now biting each other - all in the name of "love", of course!  Mothers!  Don't you remember having to teach your toddlers that biting others was mean and unaccepable?  I'm sure that biting was grounds for some "time-outs" sitting in a corner.  And now some very mixed-up kids are claiming that to be "love and affection"?  Well if that's "love" I wouldn't want to see "hatred".  Besides most folks with common sense know that's a great way to spread disease.

Many young people are very misguided.  The Catholic Standard and Catholic News Servicee, with this review, are exacerbating the problems of young people.  Shame on them.

First CCHD! Now Catholic News Service Has Gone South?

Actually, it has gone left.  Some might recall the justifiable uproar created in many diocesan newspapers during the 2000 Presidential race.  The Catholic News Service published an article entitled "Aside From Abortion, Lieberman Is Good on Catholic Issues".  Unfortunately some of the papers, such as the Catholic Standard, published it.  Many good Catholics cancelled their subscriptions, inducing the editor to issue what was a pathetic excuse for an apology (in other words, a damage control attempt).

Fast-forward now to this week's uproar at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life.  Five prominent members have petitioned the Holy Father for the removal of its president, Archbishop Rino Fischiella.  He wrote an article last year that appears to condone the abortion of twins carried by a nine-year-old girl in Brazil.  Rather than rehash the details here, please read the Lifesitenews article.

It is important to note that Fischiella told media, including CNS, that all was resolved within the Academy.  However, CNS misquoted one of the petition's signers, Christine Vollmer (who head Venezuela's Alliance for the Family) as concurring with Fischiella's apparent white-wash.  Ms. Vollmer will be asking CNS to correct their misstatement.

Last year, Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Apostolic Signatura, said that "The bishops need to look at our Catholic News Service; they need to review their coverage of [the Church's moral and social teachings] and give some new direction.”