Yesterday's Protest Of The Chris Matthews Appearance At A Catholic Church

Although he has makes no secret of his disdain for the Church's teachings on life and morals, Chris Matthews was invited to Blessed Sacrament yesterday to sign and sell his latest book.  Our numerous calls, emails, etc to the parish and to the chancery were not answered, let alone heeded.  We were left no alternative but to go there and raise our voices.  Some had advocated that we refrain from doing so.  While we respect these fellow Catholics, we feel that a "polite silence" would have been a grave injustice to the babies whose murders are approved by Matthews (and some of the other parishioners, who flat-out told us that).

Despite his nose-thumbing at Our Lord, Matthews was invited to use the Church to promote himself and to peddle his wares.  What this Church thought it would gain by selling its soul on this occasion I fail to grasp.  At first we stood in front of the church, on the sidewalk at Western Avenue.  We held our large signs and passed out a flyer describing our purpose for being there.  The Truth Truck drove by regularly (pictured right).

Others of our number went into the library where the event took place.  They offered pointed questions and even more pointed rebukes.  I walked into the courtyard as some of them were being ushered out.  Below are some scenes from that.  I understand that the proceedings inside the library itself were recorded.  I will link to those videos in a future post when they are ready.  (click here if you cannot see embedded video).



I truly hope that no other Catholic facility will see fit to besmirch its holy grounds by allowing another dissident Catholic to promote him/herself and by extension, his/her cancerous proclivities.  However, should another such sad occasion arise, we will be ready.

St John Neumann Church - An Example To Emulate

Any prolife activist who has been in front of abortion mills for any appreciable length of time knows that there is a directly proportional relationship between the number of prolifers in front of the mills to the number of mothers who decide not to have their children murdered.  Simply put, when our numbers out there are greater, we see more babies saved and less babies murdered.  It's the power of prayer and of the physical presence of people who care.  Over the past year that there has been a concerted prolife witness on Wisteria Avneue in Germantown, where Dr. Carhart murders late-term babies, this dynamic has been seen over and over.

The website http://www.prayforgermantown.com/ details the prolife efforts there.  It makes plain that Carhart starts the three-day murder process on Monday mornings.  Hence they ask that all good people be on Wisteria Avenue between the hours of 8am-10am, since that is when most of the women arrive to start the grisly process.  We also know that many Catholic parishes have their daily Masses at 9am, posing an immediate conflict for those Catholics who would like to be both places at the same time.

Today St John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg announced that they are moving their Monday 9am Mass to 12 noon for the express purposes of:

• accomodating those who want to be on Wisteria Avenue to reach out to abortion-minded women
• encouraging more participation of Catholics by giving them a way to be on Wisteria Avenue without missing Mass

St John Neumann priests will hear Confessions that day starting at 11:30am, and the Miraculous Medal Novena will occur after Mass.  If the noon Mass is too late for some, both St John Neumann and St Martin of Tours do have Mass at 6:30am those days.

While I won't advocate that all neighboring parishes make those Mass changes (since for some people, 9am may be the only time they can make Mass), I will suggest three things for them to do:

1. Announce in your own bulletins St John Neumann's noon Mass, so that your parishioners will know there's a Mass available should they wish to join the prolife witness on Wisteria Drive.
2. Consider how your parish can encourage your own parishioners to support this life-saving effort.
3. Your own parish priests should make an ongoing commitment to be there.  The example of a parish priest will encourage parishioners to join him.

Remember - YOU are needed to be out there to intercede and save lives!

Obama - Treating Prolifers And Conservatives As Public Enemies

This is a two-part post.  From today's Lifenews we read that on August 25th, the Obama administration brought in Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation and the Feminist Majority Foundation to conduct a "training" in Oregon for the FBI and Department of Justice.  The topic?  Why, "violence against reproductive health centers", of course!  By describing our First Amendment speech as violent, they seek to inhibit us from speaking out.  I would suspect that is why they allowed prolife advocates to sit in on this training.  The advocates who attended obtained a booklet; it is on the Lifenews site and the pdf is downloadable. 

The second part of this post pertains to Obama's paranoia regarding Fox News, as reported by Newsmax.  You see, unlike those paragons of unbiased reporting such as the New York Times and the Washington Post (stop snickering!), Fox News has the audacity to (Sit down, now!  Have the smelling salts handy) a point of view that is (gasp!) DESTRUCTIVE!  How so, you might ask?  Why, it's because the Messiah Most Miserable disagrees with it!  Understand now?

Open Letter to Father Jenkins of Notre Dame

Father Jenkins, Mr. X forwarded to me your reply to him regarding the arrests at Notre Dame last May.

I am not a lawyer and am not versed in the various legalities of who has what authority to drop charges or who has what property rights over the campus of Notre Dame. I do believe that these are minor questions, and perhaps even red herrings to avoid dealing with more fundamental issues.

We all know that on campus at that time were people of many various opinions regarding the decision to honor President Obama. Many of these individuals expressed their opinions by wearing clothing, carrying signs, etc. I speak not only of the Catholics protesting Obama’s appearance, but those individuals who approved of Obama’s appearance. Yet only those people who opposed Obama’s appearance were barred from campus and subsequently arrested. Obviously there were distinctions made on basis of expressed opinions. You mentioned that the police were professional in their demeanor. Given that, there is no way that the police would have made distinctions concerning who would be admitted to campus and who would not be granted such admission; they lacked the authority to do so, and they knew it. They had to receive instructions from some other authority. That authority, Father, could have come only from your office.

The response you gave to Mr. X is the same pathetic cop-out that you have given to many others. It is an attempt to play Pontius Pilate by washing your hands of this matter while trying to pawn responsibility to Indiana legal authorities, when these Catholic people were plainly arrested at the behest of Notre Dame authorities. It is utter nonsense to claim that you are unable to at least ask that the charges be dropped, when those charges exist because you forbade them to come onto campus. Let me be plain, and please direct this to the Board of Directors and to the Trustees of Notre Dame. By extending that ill-advised invitation to one of the most pro-abortion presidents in United States history, Notre Dame seriously besmirched its very identity as a Catholic institution. Will you continue to bring shame upon Notre Dame by prosecuting these people? What have you to gain, Father, by doing so? Do you think your seared conscience will somehow be assuaged by your vindictive pursuit of these charges against good Catholic people? Why not urge the authorities to drop those charges and retain at least some shred of dignity and honor for yourself and Notre Dame?

Father, this letter to you is open. It appears in the blog http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com, under a posting with the date of this email. Any replies – or lack thereof – will likewise be posted. Please do the right thing and have these charges dropped.
Praying that God will bless you with common sense and wisdom regarding this matter, I am

Janet Baker, President, Faithful Catholics of MD/DC, Inc.

Here's the email from Fr Jenkins that occasioned this open letter:

(begin quote)
Thank you for your email regarding Notre Dame’s response to the arrests of protesters on campus in connection with the commencement exercises in May.

As I understand, you are calling upon Notre Dame to “drop the charges” against those arrested for criminal trespass. It is important to note that these protesters were arrested for trespassing, not for expressing their pro-life position; we agree with them and uphold the Catholic Church’s position on the sanctity of human life.

Under Indiana law, however, Notre Dame is not the complainant in these matters and so is not in any position to “drop the charges.” Nevertheless, Notre Dame officials have been in regular contact with the prosecutor’s office on these matters, and, in consultation with the University, the prosecutor has offered Pre-Trial Diversion to those for whom the May incident was a first-time offense. As described by the prosecutor, this program does not require the individual to plead guilty or go through a trial; rather, the charges are dropped after one year so long as the individual does not commit another criminal offense. We understand that most of those arrested have chosen not to take advantage of this offer and obviously we cannot force them to do so. In essence, the choice of whether or not to go to trial belongs to the defendants.

Finally, it must be stated that the police who were on duty during this time were professional and respectful in carrying out their responsibilities to protect private property. Each person was given fair warning to leave the campus prior to any arrests.

Hopefully, this information provides you with a greater understanding of the issues involved in this matter. Again, thank you for writing. (end quote)

Double-Shame on the Washington Archdiocese and St. Matthew's Cathedral!

Today the annual Red Mass was held at 10am at the Cathedral of St. Matthew. It is held to commemorate the start of a new session of the US Supreme Court. Many priests and bishops concelebrate this Mass. As one might imagine, all sorts of dignitaries, mostly of a political bent, attend this Mass. Unfortunately many of these politicians, while Catholic, are also rabidly pro-abortion.

At 9am, approximately 20 pro-life activists gathered outside with posters showing the truth of abortion for three purposes. They were:

1. To educate the attendees of the reality of abortion
2. To urge pro-abortion attendees to repent of their sin of promoting abortion
3. To remind the clergy of their obligation under Canon Law 915 not to admit to Holy Communion those pro-abortion supporters who refused to repent of their sin

Most of the activists were constrained to remain across the street from the Cathedral. I was able to unobtrusively remain on the north side of the street to distribute flyers. All the Mass attendees were constrained to pass through metal detectors. While on one hand that was a strange infringement upon them, it did serve to make them wait outside. Even if they chose not to look at the posters across the street, they had no choice but to hear the pro-life exhortations of those of us who had bullhorns.
One of us, though, attempted to go in. She did so simply because she had to fulfill her own Sunday obligation. She simply wanted to attend Mass. Now as we know, all Catholics have the right to attend Mass provided they are properly disposed. Canon law 843 states this quite plainly.
She was wearing a pro-life tee shirt. At the metal detector booth, she was told - by Cathedral personnel! - that she couldn't wear it at that Mass. She regularly attends that Mass, and has regularly worn that shirt on other days. Can you just imagine being told that you cannot go into Mass while wearing a pro-life shirt? Moreover, at that same Mass are myriads of pro-abortion honchos. Were the Cathedral personnel afraid that the pro-abortion attendees might be offended by one pro-life shirt?
She asked to speak with a priest about the matter and waited for a half-hour for a priest that never arrived. She then left the line, went to a hotel to remove the shirt and got back in line. Everyone in front of her was admitted into the Cathedral. Just by coincidence (ahem!) they shut off admission right in front of her. Needless to say, she was rightfully indignant about being denied entrance to Mass. This video depicts the absolutely disgraceful way this woman was treated. As the video begins, you will notice the pro-lifers on their bullhorns calling out to the clergy who are lined up outside, waiting to process into the Cathedral.



The video ends just before she was taken to a police station. A few hours later, she was released (and yes, she was able to attend Mass!). This faithful Catholic was treated like dirt while inside the Cathedral, Our Lord was likewise treated as His Body and Blood were distributed to those engaged in mortal sin.

Shame upon the Cathedral of St. Matthew! Shame upon the Archdiocese of Washington! In fact, double shame upon them both! They allowed the sin of sacreligious Holy Communion to be committed, and they attempted to keep a good Catholic woman from going to Mass.

Please contact both these entities. Ask that any charges against this lady be dropped, as they are ridiculous farces. In fact, ask that they apologize to her for violating her canonical rights as a Catholic in good standing.

Cathedral of St Matthew
Msgr W Ronald Jameson
1725 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone 202-347-3215
(by the way - they seem to have an "Always Our Children" group!)

Archdiocese of Washington
Archbishop Donald Wuerl
PO Box 29260
Washington, DC 20017-0260
Phone 301-853-4500

If you write, please send letters via "certified mail, return receipt requested". Else, the letters will be lost! I'll post updates