Some Logic-Challenged Progressives Stick Feet In Mouths

This happened last week at the rally in front of the Supreme Court as it prepared to hear Hobby Lobby's case.  Obamacare supporters were also there and Media Research Center interviewed them.  This would be humorous if not so scary.  Why scary?  Because these people vote!

Comparison of Auschwitz to the Abortion Holocaust

(Note: the piece below is written by my fellow front-liner and Catholic Media Coalition colleague, Jim Fritz)

What was Auschwitz? Built by the Nazis as both a concentration camp (prison) and death camp, Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi camps and the most streamlined mass killing center ever created. It was at Auschwitz that 1.1 million people were murdered. The majority of the people killed in the Holocaust were Jews; however many Catholics and Catholic priests were also killed. The most famous Catholic priest was Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who died as prisoner 16770 in Auschwitz on August 14, 1941. After a prisoner had escaped from the camp, another prisoner was scheduled for execution – a prisoner with a wife and children. Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

The concentration camp was actually opened in May 1940 and operated until January 1945, shortly before the war ended. Auschwitz, only 37 miles from Krakow, Poland, was the largest camp, but only one of many and included 45 sub-camps. It was the scene of medical experiments, and the home of Block 11 (a place of severe torture) and the Black Wall (a place of execution).

Auschwitz II was built approximately two miles away from Auschwitz I and was the primary killing center of the Auschwitz death camp. Auschwitz III was built as "housing" for the slave laborers at a synthetic rubber factory. The 45 other sub-camps also housed prisoners used for forced labor.

Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, anti-socials, criminals and prisoners of war were rounded up, stuffed into railroad cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. When the trains stopped at Auschwitz ll, the newly arrived were told to and get off the train, leaving all their belongings on board, and gather on the railway platform known as "the ramp." Families who had disembarked together were quickly and brutally separated as an SS officer, usually a Nazi doctor, ordered each individual into one of two lines. Most women, children, older men, and those who looked unfit or unhealthy were ordered to the left; while most young men and others who looked strong enough to perform hard labor were sent to the right. Unbeknownst to the people in the two lines, the left line led to immediate death in the gas chambers, and people in the right line were imprisoned in the camp.

Once the selection process concluded, a select group of Auschwitz prisoners gathered up all the belongings, and these items (including clothing, eyeglasses, medicine, shoes, books, pictures, jewelry and prayer shawls) would periodically be bundled and shipped back to Germany (the spoils of war).

The people sent to the left line were never told they had been chosen for death. They were told that they were going to be sent to work but first must shower and be disinfected. The victims were ushered into an anteroom and told to remove all their clothing. Totally naked, these men, women and children were ushered into a large room which resembled a large shower room. After the doors closed, a Nazi would pour Zyklon-B pellets which turned into poison gas upon contact with air. The gas killed quickly.

Once everyone in the room was dead, special prisoners would air out the room and remove the bodies. The bodies were searched for gold and placed in the crematoria. Auschwitz ll had four main gas chambers, each with its own crematorium. Each gas chamber could incinerate about 6,000 people a day.

When the Allies overtook Germany and the war ended, I was a teenager. I would view newsreels showing these death camps before each movie. I saw pictures of the gas chambers and naked bodies stacked like piles of wood; the crematoriums and the tall smoke stacks. I saw the gold and other items extracted from the bodies before cremation. One soldier had a small lamp shade made from the tattooed skin of a victim. All of us who viewed these scenes wondered how a society could tolerate this.

The German population denied knowledge of this holocaust and to some extent, this may have been true as Jews and other victims boxed into traincars did not envision being gassed and cremated. However, the Germans were aware of the treatment of Jews and others. The Germans knew of the incarceration and evacuation of Jews in boxcars to labor camps, yet most did nothing to intervene.

There is an excellent pro-life flyer called “Sing a Little Louder” which recalls the holocaust and the reaction of the German people. It contains a story of an old man who approached pro-life activist Penny Lea after a speech. He told her he had lived in Germany during this time. He was a Christian and every week attended Sunday services. Like most people, he had heard what was happening to the Jews, but like most people he tried to distance himself from reality.

Railroad trains passed behind his small church, and each Sunday morning the parishioners could hear the whistle from a distance followed by the clacking of the train’s wheels as it passed by. The parishioners grimly realized the train was carrying Jews as cattle in those cars. They dreaded hearing the whistle and wheels because they knew the Jews would begin to cry out as they passed the church. It was terribly disturbing to them, but they felt there was nothing they could do to help these poor, miserable people.

They knew exactly what time the train would come by the church, at the same time they would be singing hymns. When they heard the whistle they sang as loudly as possible to drown out the screams.

The old man ended his story by confessing he still hears the train whistle and screams in his sleep. He asks God to forgive all of those who called themselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.

How many Christians today are doing the same thing in regard to the Abortion Holocaust? The old man said, “It is happening all over again in America with abortion.” More babies are killed in one year in America than were killed in the entire history of Auschwitz.

Another similarity of abortion to Auschwitz is the recent disclosure of 15,000 aborted babies who were incinerated by a British hospital as a heating source. This report of babies burned to heat UK hospitals is a shocking wake up to how callous people are toward abortion It is comparable to the way the Nazi regime treated human life.

Now, I am no longer a teenager, but an old man myself and I engage in sidewalk counseling at an abortion facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. I often plead for people to come and witness in front of the facility. I ask them to do this by holding a sign, or praying or counseling. I see those from local churches walk by and look away. I see those who walk on the other side of the street to avoid us. At most, we get an answer such as, “I will pray for you.”

I think, “Yes, they will pray for us from the comfort of their pews or living rooms while the prayer warriors and counselors are out there for hour after hour in the bitter cold of winter, rain in spring and heat in summer.” Those who say, “I will pray for you” are ignoring the unheard cries of the babies being killed less than a block from their churches. They are ignoring the likelihood these woman going through the abortion will suffer from this for the rest of their lives through depression, breast cancer and even suicide. They will ignore the fact that two thirds of these women are forced into the abortion by boyfriends, husbands, parents or others. I wonder how they manage to distance themselves from reality. I sometimes wonder if they also sing a little louder.

Jim Fritz

Bishops - From Scandalous To Heroic

First, we'll get the scandals out of the way.  That way, this post can end on an upbeat note.

Rorate Caeli has broken the news that in Argentina, two lesbians will have their "daughter" baptized in the Cathedral of Cordova.  They received the authorization of Archbishop Carlos Nanez.  On that same day, the two lesbians will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Ponder all this for a second.  The Sacrament of Confirmation confers grace to live out the Christian life in a more committed fashion.  The confirmandi vow to do so.  But their perverted lifestyles already render such vows an abysmal lie.  They are now in a state of mortal sin.  No sacramental grace can accrue to them and they most likely will be committing sacrilege by presenting themselves for Confirmation.  Regarding the baptism, one condition for baptism of children is that the parents promise to raise the child in the Faith.  They will, in fact, be raising the child to embrace the mortal sin of homosexual relations.  In other words, they may well be facilitators for that child's damnation, barring some intervention in that poor child's life.  Now consider that all this is occurring with the authorization, if not blessing, of Archbishop Nanez!  Is he a bishop or cowering politician??

The second piece of episcopal nonsense is brought to us courtesy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (so what else is new?).  They are calling us to pray and fast - for what they consider to be immigration reform.  Of course that clarions call would be for a pet project of progressives - not for anything mundane like - I dunno - maybe the slaughter of 3,500 babies every day via abortion, the attacks on marriage, Obamacare being crammed down our throats..those sorts of boring things.

This coming Tuesday bishops from all over the country will be gathering at Nogales AZ to offer Mass for those immigrants who died while trying to enter the United States illegally.  In other news, we see that amnesty rallies will be occurring all over the country this coming weekend.  But of course the Mass and these rallies are totally unrelated; we know - we just know in the depths of our li'l naive hearts that there is no coordination going on between these progressive groups!  No-sir-eee!  Ahem!

Enough with the bad.  Now for some good news (for a change).

In July of 2011, Father Jerry Zawada, a Franciscan Friar in Milwaukee WI "concelebrated" a Mass.  The word "concelebrated" is in quotes for the other "celebrant" is a woman pretending to be "ordained" by some "woman priest" bunch.  The Vatican, specifically the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has spoken.  Father Zawada is no longer permitted to function as a priest, and he must retire to a monastery run by his order to spend the remainder of his life in prayer and penance.  At this time, Zawada appears to be defiant.  It remains to see what further action will be necessary, but the Vatican is showing healthy resolve here.

More good news!  The Not-At-All Catholic Reporter snivvels reports that Oakland (CA) Bishop Michael Barber has changed the leadership of Holy Spirit Parish, which serves the campus of University of CA at Berkeley.  The poor little progressive "community" (you mean it isn't a parish?) is "angry and mystified".  While they all grab some hankies and shed some tears, let's look more closely, shall we?  It appears that the bishop wants "new direction" and some of this "community" don't understand.  Why, it has all these delightful little accouterments:

• LGTB groups (In other words, a gay "matchmaking" service)
• Dance ministry
• Taize prayer
• Just Faith
• membership in Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action - a member of the Alinskyian PICO network 

All five of these are signs of a parish headed straight towards progressive hell.  God bless Bishop Barber for his courage in standing up to the progressive lemmings that are so prevalent in Berkeley.

And now for our last courageous bishop - at least for this post.  Madison (WI) Bishop Robert Morlino has reaffirmed canon law that states that at the Holy Thursday service, only men may have their feet washed by the priest (it is permissible to omit that washing altogether).  This is significant in light of the fact that Pope Francis himself broke that law when he washed the feet of some Muslim women during Holy Thursday services last year.  It was anticipated that the Pope's actions might spur similar disregard for Canon Law on the part of prelates and priests.  That appears not to be the case in Madison.

Those Danged Dastardly Translators!

Bad little Italian-to-English translators in the Vatican offices!  Naughty!   It's all their fault, those meanines!  We can blame everything on them - and no one else!  Oh, by the way - who'd like to buy some Florida swamp lands?

That seems to be the gist of today's Vortex, which is really a snippet of the Mic'd Up program from a few days ago.  It probably is the case that there are some underhanded operatives within the Vatican communications apparatus who would like to spread confusion and will do so by sabotaging the English translations of the Holy Father's utterances.  Be that as it may, two questions immediately pop into mind:

1. How is it that the two previous pontiffs (Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II) didn't have nearly as much trouble getting their messages accurately translated into English?  Oh, there was that condom fluff-up a few years ago, but that was such an obvious failed-hit-job that we never heard of such issues again.
2. It's been a year now, and if the Holy Father isn't aware of the difficulty in getting his message translated into English, he's deliberately naive OR he welcomes the confusion.  What other explanation is there for not taking immediate measures to correct the English-translation difficulties? 

Some things the folks are saying in this video are so obvious that I'm surprised they are oblivious to their meaning.  For instance, at 4:00, they remark how the term "civil union" has a different meaning in Europe than in the English-speaking world.  Be that as it may - why, oh why, did the English translators choose that phrase?  They must have known how it would be interpreted, right? 

Then, right after that at 4:22, John Thavis remarks that no prior pope ever gave an interview to a journalist.  Well, gee-willikers!  Is it possible that the previous popes were onto something or perhaps just a tad more careful in making their messages plainly understood by all?  That's why there was "careful vetting": to ensure that the teaching of the Church was accurately presented and not reduced to a bunch of mishmash.

I am embedding only the summary of the Mic'd Up.  Here is a link to the entire thing; the "Francis Effect" is only one of several topics discussed.  In this longer version, Voris makes a good suggestion, if only in a "tongue in cheek" manner.  He suggests that some individual(s) in the English-translating office be fired.  Good idea!  Again, I look askance on the delay in remedying that sorry state of affairs in the Vatican.

Tonight In DC - Planned Parenthood Blood Feast Picketed

Today at a blood feast put on by Planned Parenthood, Nancy Pelosi received their "Margaret Sanger Award".  They consider that award their "highest honor".  Arguably it is appropriate; Margaret Sanger was an unabashed eugenicist, wanting to rid the world of what she called "human weeds".  During her life, she had been known to confer with Nazi doctors and Ku Klux Klan groups.  Rey Flores of American Life League penned some choice words regarding this evening's debacle.

So tonight Pelosi, a "katholyc" whose political career has been one huge mockery and affront to her faith and Our Lord Jesus Christ, received her "thirty pieces of silver".  This occurred at the annual gala for Planned Parenthood.  Without a doubt this bash was funded in part through abortion revenues; this it is most accurate to refer to this Planned Parenthood as a blood feast.

Fortunately more than a few of them received some real food for thought as they arrived.  About 10 - 20 of us, led by Defend Life of Baltimore, stood outside the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel (at Woodley and Connecticut) holding signs and distributing leaflets to those who would accept.  We were there from 5-7pm this evening.

My!  It's amazing that a few little signs and flyers can get these pro-aborts worked into a blather!  I was standing on the sidewalk next to the driveway off Woodley.  Some hotel official had a snit.  He came over and told me that I couldn't hand the flyers to "hotel guests".  I politely but firmly reminded him that I was on the public sidewalk where I had a perfect right to hand flyers to whomever would accept them.  He retreated a little bit and decided to be my "babysitter", for lack of better word.  When friends joined me who had signs, they decided to bring police in.  The police suv just drove around and parked along the street.  I didn't realize that DC had gotten to be so murder-free that they could spare the time to glower at some middle-aged ladies standing on the sidewalk.  A few people took flyers.  Some flipped the bird.  Sadly, from some of the faces, it was clear that at least three of the women passing by had been victimized by abortion - perhaps at a Planned Parenthood mill.

Other pro-lifers were standing along Connecticut Avenue, heading into the south entrance of the hotel.  Some of them got into heated exchanges with passersby and blood-feast attendees.  I don't mind hearing about these for it was evident that some consciences were jolted awake from their stupors.

These Planned Parenthood attendees, and hopefully Pelosi herself, had a little something to render that meal just a tad bit less sumptuous than it might have been otherwise.  All of us will be going before God when we die; these folks will do so with blood on their hands.  They need to repent and amend their lives pronto.

MD's "Bathroom Bill" - Where, Oh Where, Is The Maryland Catholic Conference On This?

I've been getting email alerts from MD-Petitions, Help Save Maryland and others (politicians and individuals) who are tracking the process of Maryland's SB212/HB1265.  It has been dubbed the "bathroom bill" and is a statewide version of the bill that passed the Montgomery County Council several years ago.  I'm a woman and I believe this is an affront to my safety, which is being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.  I'm glad that all these folks are alert and speaking out.  However, one organization's silence is deafening - an organization that ostensibly exists to promote the Catholic voice in legislative venues, particularly in Annapolis.  Which is that??  Why, it's...

The Maryland Catholic Conference

Look at their webpage.  Why isn't the Bathroom Bill smack-dab in the middle of their main page??  We see all sorts of advocacy for progressive positions such as minimum wage, "immigration reform", ya-da-ya-da.  I find their silence on the Bathroom Bill to be rather deafening.  Could it be that they just don't care?  Might it be that their silence is coerced or bought?  Why - oh why - hear we not one peep regarding this moral disaster that's about to be thrust on us?

And the Maryland Catholic Conference wonders why faithful Catholics don't take them seriously!

Cardinal Burke's Interview Two Months Ago - Truth With Clarity

Two months ago, Cardinal Burke gave an interview for a Polish magazine - naturally published in Polish.  LifeSiteNews has obtained an English translation of it.  In this interview, Cardinal Burke has outlined with clarity Christian truths as they impact our culture at large.

I urge careful attention to be paid to questions 7 and 10 - and most especially # 10.  Consider that in light of the HHS contraception mandate cases being heard by the US Supreme Court; oral arguments commenced today.

Today came the news that something called the "National Coalition of American Nuns" has sided with the Obamanistas and support the contraception mandate, throwing their fellow Catholics under the bus.  Of course, what also went under the bus are their religious vows.  Perhaps they should study question 7 in the Burke interview.

Judie Brown of American Life League and Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the interview as well.

Another Papal Homily Head-Scratcher

Yesterday, during a homily, Pope Francis had some things to say about humility and salvation.  Unfortunately I see only the excerpts as published by the Catholic News Agency.  The puzzling statement is this: "Jesus tells us: ‘if you do not put yourself on the margins, if you don’t feel what it is to be an outcast, you will not obtain salvation.'"  Biblical citation, please?

What is this with "margins" and "feel what it's like to be an outcast"?  I thought the idea was to recognize that I'm a sinner in constant need of His mercy, to repent of my sins and to obey His will.  Now maybe that does entail "feeling what it's like to be an outcast", but I think at best that speaks of an inappropriate reliance on superficial circumstances.  It shouldn't matter what I feel, one way or the other.  God's law is objective - that is, having no basis in the caprices of human emotions and experiences.  Oftentimes being a serious Christian will put us on the outskirts of contemporary culture, as Cardinal Burke aptly noticed, but again that's a superficial side-effect (at most) to following Jesus Christ, not a key indicator of sanctity.  For instance, I would imagine that a cold-blooded mass-murderer might feel him/herself to be a bit of an outcast; but no one with two working brain cells would opine that his/her "outcast" status is any indication that he/she is on the road to salvation - no, quite the opposite!

I'd love to see the entire homily, if a complete text is available.

Barbarism At New Lows In England

The picture at the left is that of an oven/crematorium in the Nazi death camp at Dachau.  Hundreds of thousands of prisoners were executed, and then their remains were incinerated in these ovens.  After the fall of the Nazis at the end of World War II, civilized people thought they'd seen an end to that oh-so-efficient barbarism of the Nazis.  Not so.

England was one of the countries that helped liberate many from the Nazis who had taken over Germany.  The United States was too.  Did our fathers and grandfathers have any inkling that less than 100 years later, such callousness and brutality would be found in their beloved homelands?

Today much of England is aghast at the revelation that ten of their National Health Service hospitals have been burning the bodies of babies who were miscarried and murdered via abortion .  In most cases, they were considered "clinical waste".  In a move that would have done any Nazi proud, some have burned the babies in "waste-to-energy" plants to warm the hospitals.

To their credit, the UK Department of Health has ordered an immediate ban on the burning of babies.  However, over 15 thousand babies were so treated; their parents were given little say in the matter and often treated callously.

Such is the coarsening effects of abortion.  The lives of tiny babies are treated as nothing, so why should any special regard be afforded their tiny corpses?  We've certainly seen that here.  Every pro-life activist has been aware that the late George Tiller, notorious late-term abortionist, had his own incinerators in which he burned the bodies of his tiny murder victims.  I've no doubt that Leroy Carhart would have set up some incinerators in Germantown were it not for the environmentalists (In the case of the latter, the broken clock is right at least twice a day).  On the other hand, the Nazi-esque gnomes in Annapolis just might try to "make some arrangements" for him in that regard.

That the National Health Service is in an uproar gives me hope that England's national conscience isn't completely deadened by abortion.  There might still be the slightest chance that western civilization can be salvaged - but only if people, en masse, repent before God and turn their lives and their countries around.

More Banalizing Of Lent In The Archdiocese Of Washington - This Time Over Guns

In today's bulletin from St. John Neumann in Gaithersburg, MD, page 4 bottom-left, we see an advertisement for a "Lenten Gun Violence Prevention program".  It's supposed to be held at St. Francis of Assisi church on Thursday April 3rd.  Oddly enough, I do not see it on St Francis' online bulletin (as of this afternoon).

This has all the hallmarks of being a push for gun control under sanctimonious trappings.  Let's visit "Heeding God's Call" website, shall we?   Here we have their "litany of commitment".  After a bunch of yammer that purportedly mourns the victims of violence and sympathizes with their families, we get into the meat of the thing.
Leader: Now is the time to end the senseless killing of our boys and our girls, our men and
our women.
People: Now is the time.
Leader: Now is the time to cease the profligate sale of assault weapons and all multiple
firing guns, weapons meant only for murder

Where, oh where, do we read in this lovely litany about appropriate punishments for those who engage in violence, regardless of tools used?  How about, "Now is the time to sentence violent criminals to life with hard labor and without parole and perks?"  Did I just overlook that part?

On page 6 of this document, this "covenant of commitment", they lament the culture they lament the "unrestricted proliferation of guns in our communities".  Under what rocks have they been hiding for the past few decades?  Gun control and regulations have burgeoned, making onerous the purchase of firearms for good citizens.  Moving on down, they lament the eight children killed every day (supposedly) by guns.  Nary a peep is said about the thirty-four hundred children murdered by abortion daily.  There is a key cause of other manners of violence.  That has led to a coarsening of morality, a devaluation of life in the minds of too many.

Lisa Delity of Heeding God's Call will be one of those leading the event at St. Francis of Assisi.   In 1994 she lost a brother, Michael Miller (FBI agent) to a murderer wielding a gun.  The write-up for Mr. Miller is found on the FBI page.  It states that the man who murdered him and other law enforcement officers, Bennie Lee Lawson, was already a suspect in a triple murder.  Why was he not behind bars?  Might that lack of detainment have been part of the problem?  So he got a gun.  Here's a news flash for bleeding hearts everywhere.  Criminals break laws - even (surprise!) gun control laws!  Lawson himself died during that 1994 shootout.

Delity, in 2008, issued a statement lamenting gun violence - and capital punishment.  I'm sure the irony escapes her.  At any rate, Lawson is not going to be able to murder any more people.  It already sounds like he had six to his charge - and no "gun registration" would have stopped that.

Rabbi Sue Levi Ewell is on Heeding's Coordinating Committee.  She's also an unabashed lesbian.  Then there's Rabbi Linda Holtzman (part of Heeding's Executive Committee), who is/was a member of something called Rabbis for Obama.  These two gals certainly aren't "heeding God's call" when it comes to His Laws on marriage, sexuality and life.  Their moral credibility is zilch.  And they help lead a group that pontificates about guns?  These "rabbis" are two reasons why "Heeding God's Call" will not be taken seriously by faithful Catholics.

Then there's Bishop Kermit Newkirk.  One of his other hats is that of leader of Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild (POWER).  That bunch is a branch of the Alinskyian PICO network.  We knew we'd find at least one of these "community-organizing" types lurking around.  Another "Heeding" director, Bishop Dwayne Royster, is also with POWER.

They also have a penchant for having "prayer vigils" outside of gun shops.  That's like having "prayer vigils" outside of car dealerships to curb deaths by reckless driving.  Such tactics do nothing to address the real issue - the violent criminals who use guns and any other weapon to wreck violence.  They insist on dancing around that "elephant in the living room" called the revolving prison door.  By the way - I wonder how many of them have "prayer vigils" outside of abortion mills, where real murder occurs?  Don't worry!  I won't hold my breath waiting for an answer.

Any organizations that allows lesbians, obamaphiles and Alinskyian devotees into its leadership ranks has nothing to contribute to any Catholic's faith and morals.  When Catholic "social justice" groups give them an audience, they lend credibility to the groups' dissidents and deviants.  That is unacceptable.