Friday, July 29, 2011

Facebook welcomes unborn babies to your families!

Very cool. If you're pregnant, or your wife is pregnant, Facebook evidently acknowledges that your unborn child is...a child!

In editing your family member profile, you can now add "I'm expecting" to your clan. Kudos to the Social Network.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

"Maria talking about abortion" and her make-believe "Aunt Lucia": Latinos, you're being used.

Here's the thing. I'm BLEEPING PAYING for some cartoonish idiot and her equally idiotic "aunt" to sell folks on abortion. BLEEPING TIRED of it!

Governor Patrick, take this horrible site DOWN! Now!

(Here it is, Guv, just in case you have the same difficulty navigating the web as you evidently do governing the Commonwealth.)

(Generally I don't get this upset about things but when I'm asked to pay for some bone head -- offense definitely intended, Governor Patrick -- advocating kids and older females to commit something something heinous -- like killing a child, and, not incidentally, killing the mother's spirit as well -- well, heck, what can I say? I get ticked off.

By the way, you Latina and Latino amigos o' mine -- how do you feel about being USED to promote the destruction of your children? I mean, come on. Look at the "image" of "Maria." Look at what her "Aunt Lucia" says? Are you falling for this? You're being USED, friends.

The "procedure" that was promoted to reduce the population of African Americans -- and succeeded -- is now being used against you, folks. You're going to stand for it?

Personally, I find it interesting that "Maria Talks" is under the auspices of the "Health and Human Services" Director JudyAnn Bigby, don't you?

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Medjugorje: let's be careful out there

"Mary, pray for us, and soften the hearts of unbelievers."

I saw this Medjugorje-related post on Facebook and truly pray that it refers to unbelievers in Christ, rather than those of us who have serious doubts about the apparitions of Our Lady to some kids in Yugoslavia.

For those from Mars, a bit o' background: ;-)

On June 24, 1981, six children in the town of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia (today, Bosnia-Herzegovina), began to experience phenomena which they alleged to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This apparition had a message of peace for the world, as well as a call to conversion, prayer and fasting. It also entrusted to the children secret messages about events to be fulfilled in the future. These "secrets," confided individually to different visionaries, have not been revealed to the public. The apparitions themselves have continued almost daily since 1981, with some of the now young adults continuing to experience them regularly (those who have not yet received all the secrets intended for them) and others not. Originally they occurred on a hilltop near the town where a large Cross commemorating the Redemption exists. They have since occurred in many other places, including the parish church, St. James, and wherever the visionaries happen to be located at the time of the apparition. (compliments of EWTN)


Here's what scares me and prompts me to pray:

There are some people—the visionaries of course, but thousands of pilgrims—who Truly Believe in the Medjugorje apparitions. I have heard and spoken to many, many good folk who have traveled there, returning with (and I don't doubt their testimony, by the way) Rosaries that have been turned into gold, healings (both physical, and perhaps, spiritual...perhaps) and a myriad of "miracles."

I put "miracles in quotes because I'm not sure from whence these "miracles" derive. Hence, my prayers.

I'm afraid for people who have put all their faith in Medjugorje.

I'm afraid that, if—and this is a very plausible "if"—the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, receives and reports the revelation that the "apparitions" at Medjugorje are either not real at all, or, perhaps worse, the work of demonic activity (don't HIT me! It's possible!)? I fear the loss of faith in the Church of Jesus Christ...something even the most devoted Medjugorje pilgrim, I would hope, find appalling. At least, Our Lady would.


Queen of Peace, pray for us.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Archbishop Chaput: "Our Choices Shape Our Eternity"

In Muslim countries like Pakistan, many of the young men begin studying the Koran as soon as they can read. In fact, many of them learn to read using the Koran. They read and discuss the Koran every day, for hours each day, every day of the week until they know it by heart. Many of them can recite whole sections of the Koran without thinking. Little by little, like water dripping on a stone, it shapes their whole view of the world—what’s right and what’s wrong; what’s important and what’s not.

Here in America, we have a similar kind of training. It’s called television. The typical American spends between three and seven hours a day watching TV and sees well over 2 million commercials in the course of a lifetime.

Great blog by the Archbishop. Read the whole thing here.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

Father Roger Landry: Toward the true pastoral care of those with same-sex attractions

Father Roger Landry wrote a very loving piece...far, FAR better than I could have expressed it, but putting into words what I've tried to express...and what I've tried so hard to tell myself.

One piece -- of many! -- struck me:

Gay pride is an expression that embraces something far different than respect for all those with same-sex attractions. Rather it connotes: treating same-sex activity as a quasi-sacrament to be celebrated instead of a sin to be confessed; approval and advocacy of same-sex relationships, lifestyle, unions, and "marriages;" rejection and ridicule of Biblical and magisterial teaching on human sexuality; and acceptance of a deeply-flawed anthropology that totally marginalizes the meaning of God's having made the human person in His image and likeness male and female (Gen 1:27).


But there's so much more. Please read the entire column here.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Saint Cecilia's Parish...and how Father Unni (inadvertently perhaps) got me thinking

So, anyway, Father Unni, pastor of Saint Cecilia's Parish in Boston, and his parishioners, have evidently got their way in being allowed to "celebrate" Mass this Sunday to "celebrate" the "LGBT" community.

(Parenthetically, I've got a question: what do the sexual preferences of people have to do with transgendered folk? I never quite understood that.)

From the website (and yes, it is from the parish website...please don't tell me it's a "link" okay? It's right on the home page):

Please join the entire Saint Cecilia parish community for next Sunday's eleven o'clock liturgy where we will reaffirm that Saint Celia is a place of welcome for all, including the LGBT community.


Okay, what's wrong with this paragraph?

First of all, I believe the Sunday "liturgy" is called a "Mass."

That said, the purpose of a "Mass," at least for Catholics, isn't to "reaffirm" anything except the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Who isn't even mentioned in the notice, by the way) and to celebrate the fact that His Sacrifice is repeated, and that, through the words of His priest, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is made present under the species of bread and wine.

This is a bleeping MIRACLE, folks! And it isn't even mentioned. The notice seems to be glorifying the wrong people.

But wait...there's more!

In order to mark the occasion, Mass will be followed by a reception and a bountiful table. [And then it goes on to ask for help to provide foo for the "feast," yadda, yadda, yadda.]


This is all wrong.

Forget the fact that sin seems to be the star of the show. I mean, taken as it is, maybe they're merely saying "we welcome everybody who happens to be sexually attracted to the same gender, those who are attracted to their own gender and also to the opposite sex, and, while we're at it, those who truly believe they're not the gender they find themselves strapped into."

Maybe. (I doubt that, to be honest with you, but it's nice to think I might be wrong in my doubts.)

The real question is this:

When and why did we start "celebrating" all sorts of things other than Jesus Christ?

I mean, we have Masses to "celebrate" everything from long-time married couples, to the Boy Scouts, to those Who Have Contributed to The Church, to All Those Varied But Worthy Causes—well, the list goes on.

And so, this whole SNAFU has gotten me thinking (ouch! my head!):

Why don't we slow down, stop dislocating our shoulders by patting ourselves on the back, and remember what the Mass is all about?

If we're not ready, or catechized enough, to even acknowledge the sacred mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, then we're damn well not ready to start sharing the stage—or, in many cases, including evidently this one—to usurp the celebration of the most loving God-made-Man.

You know, there's another option:

Most celebrants offer their Masses for a special intention, which is generally announced before the Mass begins, or perhaps during the Eucharistic prayer, or in the Prayers of the Faithful, or all three.

Can't we just stick to that? As in: "This holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for the unification of all Christians." Or "This Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for the intentions of the Boy Scouts of America." Or "This Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for all married couples celebrating their [fill in the number] anniversary." Or "This Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for those who are living with same-gender attraction."

You get my point.

May we consider the notion of keeping the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the celebration of Christ's Sacrifice for us...and leave the partying for a time more appropriate?

Thursday, July 07, 2011

My cousin Steve Hardoin on Casey Anthony

I admit that I have not been following the Casey Anthony trial at all but of the little I know of it, it is sad that another young life was lost at the whim of her mother. I do have to wonder though, if it were just two years earlier, and the mother facilitated for someone to help birth the baby somewhat, then take a pair of scissors to the back of the baby's skull, then have the baby' brains sucked out before crushing the skull, Casey might have been heralded as a heroine activist for feminine rights.


Read the whole thing here. It was posted July 5.

(Interesting to note that this point was picked up by Rush Limbaugh yesterday.)

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Evangelization: how do we do it?

Okay, a Protestant lady I know slightly—she's involved in ministry—and I were chatting casually about a Catholic priest who's a mutual friend. The lady clearly thinks the world of him, which was nice enough to hear. But then she said:

"I just love Father X. He truly makes me wish I could become a Catholic priest."

Then she shrugged away the notion and went about her business, saying breezily something like "of course, your Church won't let me."

I wish her sentence would've stopped at the word "Catholic."

This has been bothering me all day. Should it? I truly don't know.

"Father, Your Son has asked that we ask you to send workers in Your harvest. Grant that I be the sort of Catholic others will want to emulate. In the Name of Jesus. Amen."