A New Reason for Hope and Change

Just ask my wife and children. They will tell you. I am a giver. Totally.

Judge Bork Predicts: A “Terrible Conflict” Will Endanger U.S. Catholics’ Religious Freedom

Former Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork has predicted that upcoming legal battles will have significant ramifications for religious freedom. He names as issues of major concern the continued freedom of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions and the likely “terrible conflict” resulting from the advancement of homosexual rights.

Speaking in an interview published Tuesday by Cybercast News Service, Judge Bork discussed the contentious nature of modern politics.

“Everything is up for debate these days. I can’t think of anything that isn’t,” he said.

“You are going to get Catholic hospitals that are going to be required as a matter of law to perform abortions,” he claimed.

“We are going to see in the near future a terrible conflict between claimed rights of homosexuals and religious freedom… You are going to get Catholic or other groups’ relief services that are going to be required to allow adoption of a child by homosexual couples.  We are going to have a real conflict that goes right to the heart of the society.”

Asked whether there was a freedom of conscience clause anywhere in the Constitution that might prohibit the U.S. government from compelling a religious hospital to perform abortions, he replied: “Well, the free exercise of religion clause might fulfill that role.”

He agreed with the CNS interviewer, Editor in Chief Terry Jeffrey, that such coercion forces someone to act against their religion and could be construed as a violation of the right to free exercise of religion.

However, Judge Bork was unsure about whether the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold such a right. He predicted the decision would rest with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in some cases sides with liberals and at other times with “originalists,” those who profess to hold a more tradition-minded interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

“It depends upon Anthony Kennedy,” Judge Bork told CNS. “Now, it’s a funny situation in which the moral life of a nation is in effect decided by one judge, because you have four solid liberal votes, four solid originalist votes, and one vote you can’t predict too accurately in advance.”

Though Justice Kennedy is a Catholic, he sided with the majority who upheld the pro-abortion rights Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. . . . (read article)

(Courtesy of New Advent)

(More) Crazy Words From America Magazine

LarryD, over at his Acts of the Apostasy blog, comments wittily and effectively on the blather that, yet again, clutters the pages of America Magazine. He writes:

The more I read America, the National Catholic Weekly, the more I’m beginning to think that the inclusion of the word ‘Catholic’ is a typo. Seems that the editors have gotten together and scribbled some open letters and memos to the incoming President. Here are selections from their submissions, with my comments.

Pop some Tums before reading this collection of mostly inane comments from these Catholic pundits. But I suspect you'll enjoy reading, as I did, LarryD's ripostes.

As We Traipse Along the Edge of a Precipice . . .

. . . a gambol that may well plunge us headlong into the abyss, let’s stop for a few moments and ponder how the Lord would have us respond to the spiritus mundi we see steadily coiling around our civilization. 

My friend Michael O'Brien, whom I have admired for many years, composed some months ago a trenchant meditation on the situation we now find ourselves in. It's one we've known for some time would eventually be upon us. And now, it would appear that it’s here.

Consider this snippet from Michael’s sobering yet encouraging narrative. After you've read it, I’d recommend you take a moment to share it with your network of friends and family:

Our generation has chosen to resolve its dilemmas by saying that a certain sin which is killing us is not actually a sin. It has accepted the catastrophic lie that security lies in negating the fullness of our humanity. In such a dehumanized climate the heart and mind eventually begin to spring leaks and blow fuses. The soul cries out mutely with depressions, sicknesses, unacknowledged and unrepented guilt, fears and resentment of those who dare to contradict the fundamental compromise––the list goes on.

Above all, there a subconscious despair. It is precisely this despair which saps our life without our knowing it, bleeding away vital energies and driving us further and further into a complex of compromises. No restoration of the world will occur until this despair is recognized for what it is and replaced by hope. Little renewal of our Church in the West will come to pass until there is repentance, which is the foundation of hope. If we as a people and as individuals do not repent, then the Body of Christ in our part of the world will continue to deteriorate. However much we may deny the reality of our condition, if real medicine is not applied we may even come close to extinction. As St. James points out: “Sin, when it is full grown, brings death.” (James 1:15).

Genuine Christian hope is not a facile optimism nor is it a gloomy pessimism. It is a willingness to look into the face of a very difficult and confused state of affairs and find there the victory of good over evil. Yet we cannot truly understand the enormity of the victory if we blithely continue to think that all is well, or at least comfortably bad.

This is not the time to look back in anger but rather around in awareness and forward with hope. It is precisely at this moment in history, in the face of a growing culture of death, that Humanae Vitae’s prophetic dimension is being revealed as a message of hope. It bears repeating that hope is realism. It examines the damage done to our lives and to our community. It recognizes that a society which violates the conscience, directly or indirectly, is an anti-human one. . .  (Continue reading)

White House Web Site Becomes Pro-Abortion After Obama Inauguration

In less than five minutes after Barack Obama took over as the next president, the White House web site changed from pro-life to pro-abortion. The previous site, which touted the pro-life proclamation President Bush signed late last week, now includes Obama's agenda for women, which calls for promoting abortion.

Gone is any mention of the Sanctity of Human Life Day or the speeches or actions of President Bush's that promoted human life. Now, in the same color scheme and format as the Bush site, there is a celebration of Obama's agenda.

According to a web site search of WhiteHouse.gov, the only page on the official governmental site to mention abortion is a page detailing what Obama will do to promote the interests of women.

Though abortions cause women a myriad of medical and mental health problems, Obama states his clear intent, in a section entitled "reproductive choice," to make abortions even more available.

"President Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration [sic]," the Obama White House site says.

"He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in that case," it adds.

The White House page also touts Obama's backing for the Prevention First Act.

Billed as a measure to provide more funding for family planning and contraception, pro-life advocates oppose it because it sends millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business that does 25 percent of the abortions across the country.

The Obama White House site also promotes the new president's view that Americans should be forced to pay for embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of human life and has never helped a single patient.

The web site comes across as a false claim that government has not supported stem cell research in general, even though President Bush spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the use of adult stem cells — the only kind to help any patients. (Read more)

Abortion Doughnuts

You read that right. Krispy Kreme, you know, the company that cranks out all those doughnuts, has profferred the following “freedom of choice” prize:

"Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet 'free' can be."

Trouble is, “freedom of choice” is really just code for “legalized murder of unborn children.” All those unborn children who get slaughtered by abortion sure aren't free to choose, are they? Just think of all the potential doughnut customers Krispy Kreme is helping to wipe out with this assinine gimmick. (Read story) (Read more on this story: Krispy Kreme apologizes)

Obama Officials Confirm He Will Fund Foreign Abortions Starting Tomorrow

Here it comes.

Strange Lights in the Sky

This story is linked to prominently today on the Drudge Report, so perhaps you've already seen these pictures of unusual and inexplicable columns of colored lights in the European night sky. But I just want to add that this phenomenon of strange lights in the sky is unsettlingly reminiscent of what the Blessed Virgin Mary promised to the three children at Fatima   in 1917: namely, that when the world saw a "great light" in the sky, a terrible war would soon commence. This startling phenomenon was observed across Europe on January 25th, 1938. The war started the following year, and tens of millions perished.

Just . . . something . . . to . . . think . . . about.

More on the Fatima Apparitions. 

Gay Episcopal “bishop” invited to pre-inauguration event in DC

This deplorable story brings Proverbs 14:7 to mind — “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge,” and also Proverbs 17:7 — “Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince.”

Gene Robinson, a divorced Episcopalian who abandonded his wife and children and now lives with his homosexual consort, is a hugely controversial bishop in the Episcopal Church. His selection to be made a bishop, not to mention his antics before, during, and after that elevation, have riven his denomination and caused many Episcopalians to rethink their allegiance to a Church that can do something so blatantly wrong. I've personally met a number of Episcopal converts to the Catholic Church who identified Gene Robinson's selection as a bishop as the catalyst for their decision to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church. (Futher evidence that God can bring good out of evil.)

And our new Lider Maximo has invited him to say a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial during one of the inauguration events:

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson will deliver the invocation at an event on Sunday to kick off inauguration festivities. His selection follows weeks of criticism from gay-rights groups over Obama's decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration. Warren had backed a recent ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in his home state of California.

Robinson has said he was stung by Warren's selection, but still believes Obama will be the most supportive president ever for gay-rights causes. "There's no question in my mind that he is the president who understands our issues and comes out of a background knowing what it's like to be discriminated against because of who you are," Robinson said Monday. "I think for the first time in a very long time we'll have a friend in the White House." (source)

The “we” he's speaking of here is the homosexual/gay lobby. And I'm afraid that, as wrong as Gene Robinson is about so many things, he's right about that last point. Time will surely tell.

 

 

Eucharistic Adoration (Reverse Momentum)

My thanks to a Anna Arco for finding and posting this nicely done video on Eucharistic adoration:

 

Members of the Religion of Peace Go for a Walk

This shows, as clearly as anything could, why England, like the rest of Europe, will soon be swept into the maw of radicalism. At least 50 London cops are cowed into submission. Where was the police effort to send in reinforcements and take a stand against these people?

Hey, United States and Canada. Are you paying attention? This stuff is coming here. (Courtesy of Jihad Watch.)

Lucid Posts and Comments

Hello all. My name is Fr. Bud Pelletier, I am pastor of a parish in the Diocese of Phoenix. Patrick has asked me to be an occasional contributor to his blog. Who am I to say no to a man who wants to drag his new-media communication tool into the ground.

I'm sure you will all expect lucid posts, witty comments and deep spiritual insights - all of which are beyond my abilities. I think Patrick asked me to help to provide comic relief.

But I'm here now, he's given me access, and the world shudders in terror.

Fr. Bud

Check Out This New Podcast, Even Though I'm On It

Parts one and two are loaded up here: http://www.fullnessoftruth.org/podcast/FOT_No_2.mp3

Here's My “Open Line” Radio Show From Last Thursday

http://ewtn.edgeboss.net/download/ewtn/audiolibrary/ol_01082009.mp3  

And behold, this day I am going the way of all flesh (Joshua 23:14)