Canonize Father Hamel? There's Cause For Pause

Already on the blogosphere there are calls for the canonization of Father Hamel, the French priest murdered by Islamic terrorists while saying Mass in his parish church.  Of course I understand that he was murdered by Islamic terrorists because they despise the Faith and that is a factor in the canonization process.  I don't believe that's an overriding factor and there may be other facts to consider.

From an account of a prayer service to honor Father Hamel comes the unsettling news that his church contributed land to local Muslims so that they could build a mosque.  The local mosque leader is mourning the priest who, in his words, "helped us to pray to allah".  Ponder that.

The first of the Ten Commandment is "I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no false gods before Me."  Yet this parish, quite probably with the connivance of Father Hamel, gave material and formal cooperation to the act of idolatry.  What else is "helping to pray to allah" if not formal and material cooperation with that mortal sin?

Some might think I'm judging Father Hamel.  However, isn't the rush to canonize him prematurely its own form of rash judgment?  I think there are two "takeaways".

First, let us continue to pray for his repose and cease the presumption of instant admittance to heaven.  We just don't know.  Why deny him the prayers and sacrifices needed to mitigate any possible purgatory?

Second, the western civilization simply must stop coddling these terrorists, as that French church did. Sadly but predictably, we heard bleating from the Pope, who "challenged" Poland to lay aside its well-founded concerns about opening their borders to potential terrorists.   Closer to home we heard Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville Texas likening deportation of illegal immigrants to abortion.  For him to claim that deportation of illegals, which is a moral action, is equivalent to an inherently immoral action shows a complete ignorance of Church moral teaching.  The coddling of these terrorists by Church hierarchy is nothing more than someone kissing the hand that stabs them in the back.  I regret that Father Hamel learned that the hard way.  Must more good people die before we wake up?

Is The Pope Hell-Bent On The Death Of Western Civilization?

I don't have to rehash the sad account of Father Jacques Hamel, the French priest who was murdered by Islamic terrorists.  He was beheaded while saying Mass in his parish Church.  I will point out that the French, over the past few years, have literally opened their borders indiscriminately to thousands of middle east "refugees", among them Islamic terrorists.

The pope commented on the murder as he was flying to Poland.  Yes, it is another plane interview with its own slew of inanities.  He correctly stated that it's a war, but then went on to opine that "all religions seek peace" and then started on a "war of interests, money" etc.  He is exactly incorrect when he said that the murder of Father Hamel had nothing to do with religion.  In fact, the two murderers were affiliated with the Islamic State and were engaged in Islamic rituals during the beheading.  In fact, terrorists consider beheading to be mandated by the quran.  Yet the pope tries to reduce the motivations for such barbarism to be "money and interests".  Consider how he reduces the motivations to materialistic advantage.  Is that not rather symptomatic of a progressive and even socialistic mindset?

Last week LifeSiteNews gave us a glimpse into a book written by Cardinal Burke.  He addresses a variety of topics in that book, including the encroachment of Islam.  He states - correctly so, I might add - that Islam is, because of its own creeds, inherently unable to coexist peacefully with other religions (think about that when you see those silly "coexist" bumper strips on cars).  He said that it's important to understand the differences between Islam and Christianity.  I might add that one key difference is, contrary to liberal pipe-dreams, Muslims worship a false idol, not the One True God.  He said that Islam, according to its own doctrine, must also become the state.  Look at Dearborn Michigan.  We need to wake up, both to Islam and the threats of unbridled and illegal immigration.

The LifeSiteNews piece also mentions the warnings of Cardinal Sarah uttered last year about the dangers of Islam.  In the wake of Father Hamel's murder, Cardinal Sarah issued another warning as he asked how many decapitations would it take for European leaders to realize the situation in which the West finds itself.

Other clergy are sounding the alarm as well.  Father George Rutler, a priest from the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City, wrote of the destructive influence of pacifism and called on the west to wake up.   Sadly some refuse to acknowledge the truth.  Following the progressive scripts to perfection, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville TX likened the deportation of illegal immigrants to abortion.  In other words, he reduced the victims of abortion to political props to justify his progressive proclivities.  Conveniently he forgets that several of the 9/11 terrorists waltzed across the border like so many others.  How many more of these do we now have in the U.S.?

When will our bishops and yes, pope, man up and face the fact that Islam is opposed to Christianity and stop coddling it?

Amoris Laetitia Paves Way For Immoral Sex Ed At World Youth Day

I've written a bit about the document that I'll call Amoralis Lamentia in the past and I'll link to those posts now for some context.  A few weeks ago there was some buzz on the blogosphere about a protest addressed to the pope regarding the errors in AL.  Because the authors/signers were anonymous at the time and the content unknown, I did not think it prudent to jump on the bandwagon.  I simply had no idea what it entailed.

Now more is known, and One Peter Five has it, along with a link to the full document.  The document calls AL "a grave danger to Catholic faith and morals".  No truer words were spoken.  Both the document and cover letter are pdf files; they can be saved to your own machines.  I suggest you do so.  I suggest you read it very carefully, alongside the English translation of Amoralis Lamentia.  Pay close attention to the censures.  Understand that Pope Francis claims that AL is "sound doctrine".  Cardinal Schonborn takes the lunacy even further by stating that previous Catholic teaching must be read in light of Amoris Laetitia.  My!  Doesn't he have it backwards! It is AL that must conform to the Sacred Tradition of the Church, not vice versa.  I suspect the protest was written before Schonborn plopped this stinker, else it might have been listed in the censures.

In my first anthology of posts there is stated a theory that the synods were rigged to pave the way for this thing, and even the ouster of Pope Benedict XVI was done with this in mind.  The protest states that Amoralis Lamentia will pose a danger to Catholic morals.  This week, during World Youth Day, the young people attending that thing will have foisted upon them a most immoral sex education program, promulgated by Pontifical Council for the Family.  The president of that council is Msgr Paglia.  At the World Family Meeting in Philadelphia last year, he stated that gays would have the same status as others - to implement the Instrumentum Laboris on the Synod, a precursor to Amoralis Lamentia.

LifeSiteNews has more detail on this program.  While the program is held out as Church teaching, it does not touch on what constitutes sins against chastity.  The importance of parents is entirely neglected.  The language and videos used therein can be considered pornographic.  And of course it is being promulgated to implement Amoralis Lamentia.  As LSN points out, the very existence of this program runs counter to many papal teachings of the past.  But then again, we see how Schonborn sought to undermine Church tradtition by making it subordinate to Amoralis Lamentia.

I'd urge parents of young people who are attending this World Youth Day to be vigilant.  Ask questions.  Don't be passive in the face of this intrusion into your sphere of authority.  Be informed and be parents.  I'd make the same recommendation of those who are chaperoning groups attending this thing.  Be prepared to offer authentic Church teaching on this and other matters.

Texas Drops Charges Against Daleiden And Merritt

Prosecutors of the Harris County District Attorney's office dropped all charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, two investigators with Center for Medical Progress.  Recall that CMP conducted the undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood and several of their cronies and unearthed their bartering with body parts from aborted babies.  Daleiden and Merritt were respectively represented by the Thomas More Society and Liberty Council.  For more details see LifeSiteNews, Operation Rescue and Center for Medical Progress.

This development is indeed a boon for citizen journalism and the ongoing investigations of the sordid doings of Planned Parenthood.  It serves to put abortionists on notice that pro-life activists won't be intimidated by their scare tactics.  We will fight back.

Why Resist Examination Of Voting Through Catholic Moral Theology?

The post prior to this deals with the matter of examining this election in light of Catholic moral teaching.  A comment to that post seems to take exception to what I wrote.  One line stands out, citing "an erroneous use of Catholic doctrine to try and put pressure on people to vote for Trump".  Would it be an erroneous use of Catholic doctrine to pursuade people not to vote for Hillary?  This question of mine is not merely rhetorical, especially since Hillary has chosen a pro-abortion Catholic as her running mate and will be likely to snag the votes of many liberal Catholics as did Obama.

This election is not the first one in which "purer than thou" misguided Catholics have decided to shirk their civic duties and stay home, not accepting that the GOP candidates, while far from perfect, were many times more preferable to their rabidly anti-God Democratic opponents.  Long-time readers of this blog will recall that I attempted, during those times, to examine that stance, and voting in general, through the lens of Catholic moral theology.  I've no doubt that my attempts may well have contained some mistakes, but to the best of my knowledge, I was the only one who attempted such examination  - at least openly.

Common sense dictates that matters such as exercise of the voting right/responsibility are so weighty as to warrant such examination and discussion.  I realize that many clergy might be inclined to shy away from it for fear of jeopardizing that all-too-important "c3" status.  By the way: did we all pick up what Trump said about repealing that onorous Johnson amendment?

Therefore I was delighted to see Father West's post on facebook - the one I copied into my Wednesday post.  Father Guarnizo believes that Father West's logic was "atrocious" but cited no reasons for his assertion.  I for one find no problem with Father West's reasoning, and it seems other commenters agree.  I'm grateful to Father West for taking a stab at looking at this election through the lens of moral theology.

As far as using doctrine to pursue a Trump vote, might it simply be that the application of Catholic moral principles make the truly moral course of action to be as plain and clear as the nose on one's face?  Sometimes there is only one moral path to take, leaving no "wiggle room".  To those who balk at such a suggestion, I can only say "tough tiddly-winks".  The situation is what it is.  Deal with it.

For those #nevertrump folks who still insist on digging in their heels and denying reality, I now link to some food for thought by Gerard Nadal.  If this shoe fits, please amend that.

Applying Catholic Moral Theology To The Question Of Voting Or Not Voting

Ladies and gentlemen, the nominees of the two parties are now determined.  This will be a Trump vs Clinton contest.  I just now finished watching Cruz's speech at the GOP convention.  I voted for him and had hoped that he would be the nominee.  Enough other people voted differently so now it is Trump who will be opposing Hillary Clinton.

There is no gainsaying that Trump has his warts.  But now he is officially the GOP candidate and the only one who now stands between us and a Hillary presidency.  No one, with a straight face and who pays attention to the facts of history, can pretend that Trump is just as evil as Hillary.  I've written before regarding the intentions voiced by some good people to either 1) not vote at all in the presidential election or to 2) write in a "third-party" candidate.  Either option will have the obvious effect of reducing the hurdle that Clinton would have to overcome to seize the White House.  Please read from this anthology of posts.

In those posts I attempted to examine the question of voting versus not voting in the context of Catholic moral theology.  Below are quotes from both Father Peter West and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, both speaking in terms of Catholic teaching.  I found these on facebook, by the way.

From Father West:  "Voting for Donald‬ Trump is not doing evil in order to achieve a good end. Voting for him is not endorsement of everything he has said or done. Your vote is an exercise of power. If you exercise that power to limit evil you are doing something good. You are not doing something evil in order to achieve a good end. In Catholic moral theology a moral act must be evaluated according to the act itself, the intention and the circumstances. All three have to be either good or neutral. The act of voting is in itself good. If your intention is to limit evil, your intentions are good. The circumstances in this election is that a vote for Trump is the only way to stop the election of a corrupt, dishonest, pro-abortion, anti-family, extremely careless criminal. Voting for Donald Trump is therefore a good moral act because it limits evil insofar as it is possible at the moment."

From Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI): "According to the principles of Catholic morality, an action can be considered licit whose object and proximate effect consist in limiting an evil insofar as is possible. Thus, when one intervenes in a situation judged evil in order to correct it for the better, and when the action is not evil in itself, such an action should be considered not as a voluntary acceptance of the lesser evil but rather as the effective improvement of the existing situation, even though one remains aware that not all evil present is able to eliminated for the moment."

I believe these establish the case, from rigorous application of Catholic moral theology, that a vote for Trump will assist in limiting the evil of a Clinton presidency.  If some of my #nevertrump friends remain unconvinced, would you please establish your case with your own examination of the question that applies Catholic moral theology to the question?  Needless to say, "personal preference" and "gut feeling" is not going to cut the mustard.  The discharging of our civic responsibilities demand utilization of reason and intellect for they are very serious matters.

Personnel Is Policy - Cardinal Muller Removed From CDF

Today it was announced that Pope Francis has removed Cardinal Gerhard Muller from his position as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  He will take post as Archbishop of Mainz.  His replacement at the CDF?  Cardinal Christophe Schonborn of Vienna: yes, this one.  He is also the prelate that overrode one of his priests when the latter blocked an openly gay man from sitting on a parish council - just two months after Cardinal Wuerl ousted Father Guarnizo for likewise being a faithful priest.  See here for more of Schonborn's destructive antics.

We knew this was just a matter of time, didn't we?  Cardinal Muller has been one of the few remaining voices of sanity and orthodoxy in the Vatican, much to the chagrin of many of his fellows and perhaps even Pope Francis.  Read here for an account of the many times he, as Prefect of the CDF, spoke truth to the lunacy spewing forth from the Vatican.  More than a year ago I predicted that Muller might well find himself in progressive cross-hairs; that has come to pass.  Surprise!!

As they say, "personnel is policy".  With all the faithful prelates being ejected from positions of influence in the Vatican in favor of progressives and de facto heretics, can there linger any reasonable doubt regarding the policies of Pope Francis?

Correction - There is reason to hope that this change has not happened and that the reporting was premature.

13 Million Rosaries

At Mass today and in our bulletins was promotion for a prayer campaign that in reality is nothing more than a repetition of the request of Our Lady of Fatima.  She asked us, nearly 100 years ago, to pray the Rosary daily for conversion and world piece.  With news of shootings of police and Islamic violence occurring on a daily basis, can anyone doubt that we need divine intervention?

More on this prayer campaign can be found at www.piercedhearts.org.  Please commit to praying one Rosary daily and encourage family/friends to do the same.

Center For Medical Progress And Select Investigative Panel

David Daleiden's Center for Medical Progress released another video recently.  I'll post that below.  I also link to a press conference given a few days ago by the Select Investigative Panel, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn.  We need to keep shining the light on those who would profit from baby-murder.  We must also get ourselves to the polls this November.  If the Democrats pick up House seats, the investigation could well be scuttled.

In Light Of Recent Shootings, USCCB Still Refuses To Acknowledge Need To Proclaim Church Teachings Regarding Sanctity Of Life

In today's issue of the Catholic Standard, we see published a statement by the USCCB regarding the recent shootings that have occurred this past week.  It seems that they understand well the Alinskyian rule, "never let a crisis go to waste" for they turn their statement into a commercial for left-wing causes.  Here is the "meat of the matter", as it were.  "In the days ahead, we will look toward additional ways of nurturing an open, honest and civil dialogue on issues of race relations, restorative justice, mental health, economic opportunity, and addressing the question of pervasive gun violence."

"Restorative justice" is their code phrase for income redistribution.  "Addressing the question of pervasive gun violence" is their code phrase for infringement on our Second Amendment rights.

If they really want to engage in the area of "race relations", they might want to pay attention to words uttered by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa who called for an apology for the number of black babies murdered via legalized abortion.  He is spot-on correct.  37% of the abortions in the U.S. are committed against black babies, yet blacks account for only 13% of the total U.S. population.  The Cardinal says this appears to be genocide.  I differ with him in saying that not only does it appear to be genocide, it in fact is genocide.  Why doesn't the "black lives matter" crowd give a damn about their own babies?  I daresay that when it comes to abortion, many of them actually cheer their own genocide.  But I digress since this post is addressing the incompetence of the USCCB.

Common sense tells us that no jibber-jabber about "race relations" will address the root causes - disrespect for life and the Author of Life.  If the bishops are really serious about restoring a respect for life, they will instruct their priests to preach about the evils of contraception.  They will insist upon obedience to Canon 915.  They will stop cowering before the gays and resume their duties to promulgate the teachings of Jesus Christ regarding marriage and family life.  Until that happens, we most likely will see violence escalate.

Pray for our clergy that they might live up to their dignity and duties afforded to them by the Sacrament of Holy Orders.