Church Environmentalism Is Phariseeism

Today is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time and we are in Cycle B for Sunday readings.  Today's first reading is from Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8.  Here it is.

Moses said to the people:
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?”

Today's Gospel is from Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23.  I repost that.

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace 
they do not eat without purifying themselves. 
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” 
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand. 
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.All these evils come from within and they defile.”

I emphasized in bold some points that I'll make in a minute.

Death-Camp Neighbors At Spring Street - Today's Nazi Citizens

For the last 10+ years, several of us pro-life activists have been outside the Planned Parenthood in Silver Spring MD to pray for an end to the barbarity occurring in suite 450 of 1400 Spring Street in Silver Spring MD.  We also offer real help to women going into that hell hole, aware that many feel they have no alternative due to difficult personal circumstances.  See here for some accounts of our outreaches.

We are in Silver Spring MD, a notorious nest of progressives and pro-abortion individuals.  Many of them are in the neighborhood just across the street from us.  I have written before of some acrimonious interactions between them and us.  I draw your attention to this piece.  In it I made mention of the Nazi death camps and their surrounding neighborhoods.  When the Allies invaded Germany and liberated the death camps, they forced the citizens of the neighboring towns to tour the camps and witness the carnage that they allowed to happen.  Here is an account of such an exercise.

You'll notice that an excuse that the Germans gave was "we didn't know".  Whether or not that is true we'll never know.  What we do know is that there is now no such excuse, especially when we who seek to inform are discounted and even hated for the information we bring them.  Such has been the case for the Woodside neighborhood just to our north.  It was evidenced in this incident five years ago and again today.

In the wake of the CMP videos regarding Planned Parenthood's murder of babies and selling of their bodies, we have launched an effort to defund Planned Parenthood.  One of our number arrived late today and parked her car in the neighborhood.  She was legally parked and put her "Defund Planned Parenthood" inside her front windshield.

Some time later a man from the neighborhood approached two of our number (neither of them the owner of the car) and voiced his objections to the sign. What were his objections?  Well, it seems that he was hosting a birthday party for his child and thought it "inappropriate" for the children to see.

Let's ponder the inane silliness of what this guy was saying.  First, let's forget about objections to "those gory pictures" for none were present on her car.

• Any kids I know who attend birthday parties would not notice such signage (no more so than other signs on other cars).  They'd be focused on ice cream, cake, gifts and games.
• We know who would find the signs "inappropriate".  It would be those who support baby-murder, so we can consider as potential "offendees" the man and/or his adult guests.
• If anything is "inappropriate for children", it's Planned Parenthood itself.  It is very "inappropriate" to murder tiny children and exploit their corpses for "research".

So the guy finally left.  An hour or so later, one of our number noticed that the windshield had been covered over so that the sign was blocked.  Boys and girls, can we say "vandalism"?  Consider the arrogance.  The guy had his grubby paws on my friend's car, arbitrarily and erroneously deciding that her First Amendment rights were not to be respected: most likely because what her sign said pricked his guilty pro-abortion conscience.

Fortunately - for the guy - it was not anything that could not be removed.  And it was removed by the driver's husband.  Afterwards I took some pictures and now post them below.

You can see that the car, with sign in front windshield, is legally parked.

This is the sign that the guy covered over.  His act of covering the sign is legally actionable.

It was parked in front of 8706 2nd Avenue, Silver Spring, MD.  The man who approached the two women said the car was parked "in front of his house", so this must be where he lives.

Planned Parenthood Protest At Falls Church VA

This Planned Parenthood is yet another location of Planned Parenthood Of Metropolitan DC.  850 showed up and hopefully will keep coming.

Planned Parenthood Travesty - The Archdiocese Of Washington Makes Its Mind Known

The Archdiocese of Washington has made a statement regarding Planned Parenthood's sale of babies whom they have murdered.  Click on the player to hear one of their spokespeople speak of the concern that the chancery has regarding this matter.



That's about the size of it!  Two weeks ago the Catholic Standard buried this blurb towards the back of the print edition when the first few videos were released.  Today I received the August 27th edition.  Bearing in mind that this is the first edition out since the massive Planned Parenthood protests this past Saturday, with 70 thousand pro-lifers in over 300 cities participating.  It was the largest protest of Planned Parenthood in history.  Yet not one peep was uttered in today's rag, even though two of the protest locations were within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Washington.  Today we got to read how interesting Pope Francis is because he had a parakeet as a boy and some other silly drivel, but what did we hear about the massive protest effort this past weekend?  Zero-zip-nada!  This is why many faithful Catholics have long ago ceased to regard the Catholic Standard as a reliable source of relevant Catholic news.  Long-time readers might recall that the many failures of the Standard were motivating factors behind the start of this blog.

When I said in the title that the Archdiocese of Washington made its mind known regarding the video, I was not being facetious.  Their silence is most telling of their obvious indifference to the sale of murder victims.

With a few noteworthy exceptions, this silence of the shepherds has become the trend.  I list the exceptions below, regretting that this list isn't as long as it should be.

• Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield IL has called for a "day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer" to beg God's forgiveness as a nation.
• Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone led the San Francisco protest. 
• Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay WI was at the Planne Parenthood of Grand Chute event
• Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence RI spoke at the local event.
• Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Raleigh (NC) had this to say to his diocese

This list should be a LOT longer!  If I missed any bishop, please advise via comments.

Envirowhackos Prepare For Pope's Visit

From the Washington Post we read that several envirowhacko groups are planning to stage a rally on the Mall on September 24th, when the Pope is due to speak at the Capitol.  Their permit application reveals that they expect several hundred thousand to attend this thing.  Note on the Post site the picture of the poster thanking the pope for Laudato Si.  They intend to make "the moral case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions".

So they expect around two hundred thousand.  Alrighty then!  Now just how are all these environmentally-conscious activists planning to get to this rally?  I assume the great bulk will be from out of town and from different areas of the country.  In keeping with their aim of "reducing greenhouse gas emissions", will they eschew cars and planes?  Do they plan to hike on foot here?  Or maybe they'll come via horses and wagons?  Surely they don't plan to increase their own carbon footprints with gas-guzzling planes and cars now, do they?  Do they???  Well, I think we know the answer to that!

Noami Klein herself let the cat out of the bag regarding the real use that progressives have for environmentalism.  It's a ploy to foist socialism, with all its atheistic and anti-life underpinnings on humanity.  And yes, the pope is in on it; let's stop pretending that he's a naive but lovable ol' grandpappy.  Whatever else he is, he's not stupid.

We now have an idea why the United Nations has embraced environmentalism, along with Agenda 21 and all the socialist philosophies underlying them.  Why else would Ban Ki-Moon have attended the Vatican-sponsored environmental summits?  We have noticed these patterns and the Vatican tries to poo-poo our concerns.  Perhaps they protest too loudly.

From The Maturation Department - Scandal At The World Meeting Of Families

About 2.5 months ago, Lepanto Institute alerted us to the fact that a lesbian activist would be in a key role in deciding what entities would be allowed to set up exhibits at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia next month.  We also learned at about the same time that Philadelphia Archbishop Chaput said that "non-traditional families" would be welcomed at the meeting.  My blog post at that time gives more details.  At this time I have received no indication that these two matters have been rectified.  I must assume that they haven't.

Lepanto Institute has once again done stellar work in exposing a more significant scandal, one that centers around the president of the World Meeting of Families, Robert Ciaruffoli.  Over the years he has made contributions to various pro-abortion candidates for political office, including to the campaign of a former Planned Parenthood director.  See the above link for more details.

Now you might wonder about the "maturation department" reference in this post's title.  Recall that after last October's extraordinary sin-nod, Pope Francis said that we had a year to "mature" in preparation for this upcoming ordinary sin-nod.  Almost immediately a barrage of meetings, pronouncements, appointments and firings etc occurred, all with the theme of undermining the Church's teachings on family and life.  I firmly believe that the retention of the dissidents in the structure of the World Meeting of Families is part and parcel of this "maturation".

One of these "appointments" is Archbishop Blaise Cupich of Chicago.  He was dissident when he was Bishop of Spokane and then was appointed to Chicago by the Pope.  Last Sunday he was invested with the pallium at Mass.  He preached on the family at Mass, saying that "we must not settle for solutions that no longer work".  Given past history we can surmise his meaning.  Yes, that link is to the New Ways Ministry blog, and they in turn link to the entire homily.  It is a sad day for the Church when an organization that foments mortal sin waxes lyrical about the preaching of an errant bishop.  By the way, the pallium signifies unity with the pope.  Regrettably this union is real.

I suppose because the sin-nod is less than two months away, that all stops will be pulled in last-minute "maturation" measures.

Eighth Video Out - Planned Parenthood Is High Volume Producer

In this video, Cate Dyer, CEO of Stem Express, is quite open about Planned Parenthood's role in supplying "specimens" to "research labs".  Listen closely to the whole thing.  You'll understand why Stem Express engaged in legal maneuverings to squelch these videos.  You'll also understand why her sister "resigned" her cushy influential job in Speaker Boehner's office.  What thousands of us accomplished this past Saturday was a great start, but still just a start.  As Mr. McPherson said at the Spring Street rally, "Planned Parenthood must be destroyed".

Battle Lines Being Drawn For The Sin-Nod In October

We know how some of the pope's closest advisers seem to hold God's plan for marriage in disdain.  Cardinal Maradiaga has made his leanings clear - brazenly clear.  So has Archbishop Cupich, the newly-appointed delegate to the sin-nod.

Fortunately it seems that faithful prelates are also organizing themselves to keep the Vatican in line with traditions mandated by Christ.  Father Z reveals that eleven cardinals have collaborated on a book that has as it aims the stemming of the "protestantization of the Church".  Like the "five cardinals" book of last year, this promises to be of great help in preserving truth.  I do hope that, unlike the "five cardinals" book, that this book is preserved from progressive sticky-fingers.  I understand from that same article that several African bishops are publishing their own book in defense of marriage and other traditional teachings.  Speaking of African bishops the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference published a statement pledging resistance to the Culture of Death.

Last week John Smeaton of Voice of the Family released a statement outlining why this sin-nod's Instrumentum Laboris should be recognized as a threat to authentic family life.  With all the pro-abortion folks being wined and dines at "shadow synods" and other gab-fests at the Vatican in anticipation of the sin-nod, can we still be in denial about the ruckus that awaits us in a matter of weeks?

How God Is Blessing Russia

It has been quite ironic to see how Russia has embraced Christian morality lately, especially in terms of honoring the family as God ordained it.  However, not all are happy about it.  Madonna, the so-called "Material Girl", has vowed never to perform in Russia again owing to the latter's refusal to capitulate to the gay nazis.

So you see, ladies and gentlemen, there are blessings to be had from obedience to God's laws!  Think how much cleaner and clearer will be Russia's air, without the Material Girl polluting it with her porn-performances!  I almost begin to envy Russia!

Traitorous Catholics Colluding With Planned Parenthood

First, some good news.  Speaker John Boehner's "health policy adviser", Charlotte Ivancic, has "resigned".  Recall that she is a sister of Cate Dyer, owner and founder of Stem Express, a partner with Planned Parenthood in the trafficking of baby body parts.  I strongly suspect that because the soon-to-be-released 8th CMP video will implicate Dyer, that Boehner doesn't want that albatross around his neck.  Now let's see if he can gin up enough spine and testosterone to do the right thing and divest Planned Parenthood of our tax dollars.

Now the bad news.

Several years ago the Cardinal Newman Society did an expose of Catholic colleges with ties to Planned Parenthood.  These ties usually entailed:

• faculty who were also affiliated with Planned Parenthood or some other abortion racket
• students who did internships with abortion perpetrators
• pro-abortion student groups on campus

They revisited their research in the wake of the CMP videos and found that not much improvement had occurred.  This is detailed in a report issued on August 18th.  In it is listed numerous such association.  It seems that Georgetown University won the dubious distinction of having the greatest number of such association in the whole cabal of them.

Two days ago I blogged that the new headquarters for Planned Parenthood of DC was being built by a Catholic-owned construction company called Pizzano Contractors.  Further research revealed that Robert Pizzano Jr, the CEO for the company, founded a charity in honor of his late son who had developmental disabilities.  It's called the Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund.  We know that many unborn babies are murdered when it is determined that they are disabled.  Therefore, on one hand Pizzano is memorializing his disabled son while on the other hand is facilitating the murders of babies who are targeted because they are similar to Joey in terms of disabilities.  Do we see the double standard, the mental disconnect displayed by Pizzano?  Pray for Pizzano and the faculties of these Catholic schools that they may remember to Whom they must give an account at the end of their lives.

I post below some video that I found of the rally at the new Planned Parenthood place in NE Washington.  As you listen to Pat Mahoney telling people to look into the rooms, consider that these rooms are being refurbished by a Catholic to be murder chambers.