Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Has Died

I just saw this on the blog of my colleague at One Peter Five.  Justice Scalia was found dead this morning.  He was a faithful Catholic and as such, one of the sane voices on the United States Supreme Court.  I needn't tell you the significance this lends to this election, and to the need for the decent US Senators to stop a nefarious nomination by Obama to fill Scalia's seat.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.

What Is Going On At The Mount?

I am referring to Mount St Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD.  It is a Catholic university, with ties to Mother Seton.  Several of the Seton family are buried next to the grotto attached to the Mount.  While the school itself has had an unfortunate reputation as a "drinking school", its seminary has been touted as being one of the most orthodox in the country.  In his book "Goodbye Good Men", Jimmy Akin (correction: author is Michael Rose) sang its praises.  I've known many faithful priests; more often than not, they have graduated from the Mount.

Over the past few days, controversy at the Mount has been made public.  It seems to revolve around its president, Simon Newman.  He apparently made a crude remark about some students whose dismissal he was planning to pursue, based purely on surveys that projected failure for the students, calling them "cuddly bunnies" who should have a "glock to their heads".  When an independent student newspaper took umbrage with that, he fired some faculty who was an advisor to the paper, along with other faculty.  After massive uproar over those dismissals, Newman reinstated them.

Newman also took potshots at the school's Catholic identity, saying there were "too many bleeding crucifixes" in an employee's office and referring to some students as "Catholic jihadis".  The Mount seems to have two web pages; one that is devoid of any reference to the Catholic faith and another that still acknowledges its heritage.  Who/what are they trying to attract with the first?  Newman also is alleged to have said "Catholic doesn't sell".  If true, that last quip may be more telling than one might think.

I googled Simon Newman to see what he might have brought to the school.  One might think that a candidate for Catholic school administrators might be experience in a Catholic institution and even perhaps some theology degrees. Nope!  None of that!  He was, however, a past president of Cornerstone Management Group and Senior Advisor at JP Capital Partners.  His education includes an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.  That's nice, I suppose, but how does all that equip him to lead a Catholic institution that has as its mission to educate its students in the Faith?  Of course it doesn't.  While Newman might be qualified to govern a business enterprise, there's no indication of credentials for suitability in leading a Catholic apostolate.  That leads to this question: What on earth was the Board of Directors of the Mount thinking when they hired this man?  What were their priorities?  It's not too difficult to imagine that Newman must have connections to substantial money.  Is it possible that the lure of easy money might have colored the board's perception of Newman?  While much ire is understandably directed at Newman, the board of directors must also come under serious scrutiny, as evidenced by this ongoing debacle.

While I've been in the process of writing this post, the Cardinal Newman Society has released its statement, and it links to an article detailing the non-binding resolution of the Mount faculty in urging Newman to resign.  From what I gather, I can only hope and pray that Newman does the decent thing and resign.  Then the Board of Directors must seriously examine their own priorities before they invite another disaster upon the Mount.

From The Carhart Carnage Department - Number 12!

On February 4 at his Nebraska hell-hole, Leroy Carhart caused another woman to go to the hospital.  Recordings obtained by Operation Rescue indicate that the woman was bleeding heavily and that the abortion may have been incomplete.  This poses a life-threatening condition for the woman.  Her condition remains unknown.  This happened less than one month after he caused the hospitalization of a woman at the Germantown mill.

Ladies and gentlemen, these two incidents bring his current "hit list" of brutalized women to twelve.  Operation Rescue counts eleven women butchered between the Nebraska and Maryland mills since 2012 - with one of the Maryland incidents resulting in death.  Recall that Christin Gilbert died at his now-closed Kansas location.  Two women died at his hands - at least that's all of which we are aware at this time.  Mark my words - there will be more - and I do mean fatalities.

These numbers, horrendous as they are, are by far dwarfed by the thousands of tiny children ripped to pieces by Carhart in their mothers' wombs.  The state governments are complicit, to be sure.  Nevertheless, each and everyone of us needs to ask if he/she is doing everything within his/her power to bring this carnage to a halt.  Are you regularly offering witness in front of your local abortion chamber?  If not, I'd suggest participation in 40 Days For Life.  Go to their website and join an outreach local to you.  If you're looking for a worthy Lenten exercise, this would be an excellent choice.

From The Ecumenicide Department - Death By Dialogue

Via Church Militant, I learned today that the USCCB is launching a new group called "National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue" to establish "mutual esteem", "greater understanding" and a "deep sense of trust".  This organization will be co-chaired by a Catholic and a muslim.  While the muslim is yet to be announced, the Catholic co-chair will be Archbishop Blaise Cupich.  Given what I've written about him in earlier posts, we can well wonder what could possibly go right with this looming debacle.

In that list of oh-so-lofty goals, there is no mention whatsoever of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the One True Faith to the lost souls that are the muslims.  As mentioned in yesterday's post, the Church's one mission is to save souls (Clergy!  Burn that into your memories!).  With all this jibber-jabber about "dialogue", the saving of souls will not be happening at these little gab-fests.  "But Jesus dialogued with people!", some might protest.  No He didn't.  He certainly had conversations with people, but they were not "dialogues" between equals.  He always taught, preached, exhorted, rebuked - always the conversations were between Master and disciples (unless the exchanges were malevolent, as with Caiaphas, Pilate, Pharisees, etc).  Never did He condescend to be regarded as "just one of the guys".

It seems like all sorts of substitutes are being put before our eyes to distract us from the salvation of souls.  With yesterday's post we see the distraction-du-jour was thinly-disguised gaia worship.  Today's revelation by Church Militant points to indifferentism.  I'm going to post below a commentary by Michael Matt regarding the yesterday's homage to environmentalism for he suggests a larger context to all of these pet projects of the vatican.

The Genius Of NARAL

Ladies and gentlemen, we have uncovered a secret video taken at NARAL headquarters as they strategized and planned their brilliant responses to the Dorito ad during Sunday's superbowl.  Here they are, the geniuses at work!

Where Is The REAL Care For God's Creation???

My colleague at One Peter Five put up the pope's latest video regarding environmentalism.  As he stated in this commentary, this video explicitly extols the idolatry of "earth worship" before the worship of the One True God.  The stench of idolatry billows forth from the first few moments of the clip till the very end.

Notice that "believers and unbelievers" are told that they "agree that the earth is our common heritage".  Then the pope asks, "however, what is happening to the world we live in"?  In a word, it's called "sin" and it manifests itself in much more significant ways than in some trash on a beach.  Its spiritually deadly effects are manifest in sexual immorality, murders of babies, elderly and other innocents, the persecution of Christians in once-civilized countries.  Please note that it is the latter group of sins that can and will damn souls to hell; trash on a beach won't do that.

Let's look at that phrase "earth is our common heritage".  No, that's not why God created man.  Let's hearken back to the Baltimore Catechism.  Why did God make man?  God made man to know, love and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next.  God created man to be with Him in heaven, not to be focused on this earth (good as it may be in and of itself).  It is the God-given mission of the Church to help souls get to heaven - that's it!  Anything else is ancillary and must be explicitly aimed at the ultimate end of eternal salvation.  Watch the video carefully.  Are the words "heaven", "soul", "repentance", "salvation" mentioned therein at least once?

At the 0:48 mark, the pope states that "we need a change that unites us all".  That change is the conversion of every person to the Roman Catholic Church.  Unless that happens, any unity will at best be very temporary and at worst, a cheap and dangerous facade of true unity.  Read the book of Genesis. It's worth noting that in the very beginning, there was true earthly harmony in creation.  It was only after the sin of our first parents that creation fell out of harmony.  That harmony won't be restored until there is conversion to the One True Faith and attendant obedience to the Church in matters of faith and morals.  At the 0:57 mark, we see the pope hoping that we "be free from the slavery of consumerism".  Well, how about "freedom from sin"?  

The absence of the call for conversion to Catholism in this video constitutes true indifference to the pinnacle of God's creation, i.e., man for if there is no explicit and overt effort to bring about conversion to the One True Faith, there is no real concern for God's creation.

Video Of Pope Leo XIII

This is the earliest recording of a pontiff.  Taken in 1896, this takes place in the Vatican Gardens.  What you hear is the pope chanting the Ave Maria.  It was Pope Leo XIII who composed the Prayer to St. Michael and the other prayers that at one time were prayed after Low Masses prior to Vatican II.

Pope Leo XIII - Oldest Vatican Film (Rome, 1896)
Pope Leo XIII in the Vatican Gardens in 1896. This is the oldest known video footage of a Pope and the oldest Italian film in existence. Pope Leo XIII chanting Ave Maria in Latin is the oldest known audio recording of a Pope (Rome, 1903)."Sua Santità papa Leone XIII" è un film del 1896. Oltre ad essere il primo filmato in cui compare un papa è anche la più antica pellicola italiana tuttora esistente. Leone XIII recitando l'Ave Maria in latino è la più antica registrazione della voce di un papa (Roma, 1903).
Posted by This is Christian Italy on Friday, February 5, 2016

Mardi Gras - A Diabolical Insult To The Holy Season Of Lent

Next Wednesday, Feb 10, is Ash Wednesday - the beginning of Lent.  Already on social sites we are seeing reminders and reflections regarding this sacred time of penitence and preparation for Easter.  Of course I frequent the Catholic circles in Facebook and other venues.  That said, I was quite taken aback when I saw the picture on the right.

It reminded me of a homily that I heard at least 10 years ago at my church on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday (known as Quinquagesima Sunday in the Extraordinary Rite).  It was excellent.  Father stated that there were mistakes that Catholics often made in their approach to Lent.  He said the first mistake is called "mardi gras".  He said it was indicative of the attitudes of too many Catholics towards the remedial disciplines of Lent: that they saw Lent as a time to be accepted with, at best, a begrudging acceptance as opposed to gratitude.  Such people are, at heart, willfully attached to their pleasures and comforts.  They tend to not take seriously their eternal destinies, seeing little need to prepare for death, judgment and either heaven or hell.  Hence they observe Lent grudgingly, often lamenting the temporary reduction of pleasures.

Another time when I've seen such attitudes is when St. Patrick's Day has fallen on a Lenten Friday.  Hankering for their meat on Friday (as if there weren't 6 other days of the week), they've often petitioned their bishops for dispensation from the lenten practice on those Fridays.  All too often, the bishops themselves don't take lent seriously so they blithely let them have their way.  When that happened one year, I might have thought they were acting like naughty children who had gotten permission to raid the cookie jar at will; their gloating was that ridiculous to behold.

Take a look at the language in the picture.  Leaving aside the sloppy grammar, what we see here is an insult to faithful Catholics - and to the holy season of Lent.  It is an illustration of the careless Catholic who accepts Lent only with resentment.  The person in the picture has made himelf into a disgusting slob.  That is indeed what happens when one does not approach Catholic life and discipline with the reverence that it deserves.  One one takes a cavalier, jocular attitude towards the provisions that the Church has provided for our salvation, we degrade ourselves.

The Catholic writing this post will not align herself with the nod to gluttony suggested in this meme.  I trust many of you are like-minded.

Latest CMP Video Exposes PP Affiliate Where Asst DA Sits On Board Of Directors

By now you may have heard David Daleiden, director of Center for Medical Progress, has been indicted by a Texas district attorney who was charged with investigating Planned Parenthood.  You may recall over the past few months the postings of various videos that caught Planned Parenthood officials red-handed in the sale and trafficking of the bodies of babies whom they murdered.

The DA in question is Devon Anderson of Harris County, TX.  Right from the get-go, her handling of this case has shown signs of corruption and cronyism.  Anderson was originally tasked with investigating Planned Parenthood; that means bringing evidence before a grand jury for their vote.  It appears that the grand jury never took a vote on the charges against Planned Parenthood; rather, they turned on CMP.  Ladies and gentlemen, even if the grand jury honestly found no basis to charge Planned Parenthood, they still should have taken an official vote accordingly.  They didn't; why?

Now consider that Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, sits on the board of directors of CMP.  At about the same time that Anderson assumed office in 2013, OR lodged a complaint against Houston abortionist Doug Karpen for especially grisly methods of baby murder.  Karpen was represented by Chip Lewis.  He at the time tried to turn the tables on OR; that move went nowhere.  OR's complaint prompted Texas to pass abortuary regulations known as HB2.

This same Chip Lewis is a close friend of Anderson's - and one of her largest political donors!  Coincidence?  How about the fact that one of Anderson's assistant DAs, Lauren Reeder, sits on the board of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast?  Oh, my!  All sorts of "coincidences" abound!

Your prayers are needed that real justice may be done in this situation.  Daleiden isn't letting this matter stop him.  Today CNP released another video in which Planned Parenthood admits to issuing padded invoices to research organizations to increase their blood money profits from the sale of tiny children.  The video is below.  Note at the 3:15 mark the words of Melissa Farrell are recorded.  She is Director of Research at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast - the same PP outlet that has Lauren Reeder, Harris County Assistant DA, on its board.  If you want to see the unedited video with PPGC personnel, go here.

Laudato Si And Paris Agreement - Spawned From Same Progressive Agenda

Cardinal Peter Turkson, who had a major role in the drafting of Laudato Si, granted an interview to a news outlet called Mongabay.  In it, he unabashedly admitted that the preamble to the agreement and Laudato Si bore very striking resemblances.  I've no doubt that they are very similar.  This only goes to show how the current Vatican leadership - including Pope Francis - are taking their marching orders from progressive puppet-masters.  Turkson might attempt to pretend that Laudato Si was some sort of inspiration for the Paris Agreement.  However, could it be that the drafters of Laudato Si and the Paris Agreement are simply taking their talking points from the same sugar-daddies?  They certainly aren't basing their theories on solid science!

The Church hierarchy has no moral right to try to cram the "climate change" ideology down our throats.  The mission of the Church is to save souls; that's the mandate given to her by Jesus Christ Himself.  The Church disgraces herself when she lets that divinely-ordained mission play second fiddle to progressive pet projects that are designed to insinuate one-world government as the world's de facto deity.  That disgrace is being allowed by, if not perpetrated by, the pope.

For instance, the Church must uphold Christ's teachings on marriage and the evil of homosexual conduct.  The Italian Parliament is deliberating bills to legalize sodomy and the adoption of children by perverts.  Good people are taking a stand.  This past weekend, an organization called "Committee to Defend Our Children" organized a rally in Rome, dubbing it "Family Day 2016".  Hundreds of thousands of good people made their voices heard.   Cardinal Angel Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian Bishops' Conference played a key leadership role and was present at that rally.  Pope Francis, however, distanced himself from the rally, going so far as to cancel a meeting he had scheduled with Bagnasco. The Remnant has more details.  They give their opinions on the "whys and wherefores" of the pope's reluctance to stand with faithful Catholics.  They are opinions but I believe they are well-reasoned.

I mention all this to remind us all that it is outside the Church's realm of expertise to pronounce on "climate change".  We are free to disagree with the hierarchy's progressive take on the matter.  In light of the flimsy scientific basis for it and the progressive ramifications of it, I'd suggest we disagree with it vigorously.