If one belonged to one organizaiton that had very strong and principled opposition to a certain practice, to which one gives at least nominal assent to by one's public witness, and one belonged to another organization which contravened those principles by its frequent dissent and contempt for them, one would have to chose sides, but then, if one didn't, one would probably be a Jesuit. They have an excuse for everything.
Georgetown University Student Government Votes to Fund Pro-Abortion Panel
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mainstream Muslims Burn Christian Alive for Refusing to Convert
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – Arshed Masih, 38, is still fighting for his life in Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, a city not far from Pakistan’s capital. With the help of police, Muslim extremists last Friday set him on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and raped his wife, local sources told AsiaNews. The incident occurred in front of a local police station.
In 2005, Masih and his wife began working for a wealthy Muslim businessman, he as driver and she as his wife’s maid. Recently, the two fell out of favour with their employer and his family because they insisted on remaining Christian.
During the incident, Masih’s wife, Martha, “was raped by police agents,” local sources said. The couple’s three children, ranging in age from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents being brutalised.
“Masih and his wife are currently being treated in hospital,” Holy Family Hospital officials said. “He was listed in serious condition with about 80 per cent of his body burned,” the BosNewsLife agency reported. With that kind of burns, hospital officials said the 38-year-old victim (pictured) is not likely to survive.
Link to Asia News...
In 2005, Masih and his wife began working for a wealthy Muslim businessman, he as driver and she as his wife’s maid. Recently, the two fell out of favour with their employer and his family because they insisted on remaining Christian.
During the incident, Masih’s wife, Martha, “was raped by police agents,” local sources said. The couple’s three children, ranging in age from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents being brutalised.
“Masih and his wife are currently being treated in hospital,” Holy Family Hospital officials said. “He was listed in serious condition with about 80 per cent of his body burned,” the BosNewsLife agency reported. With that kind of burns, hospital officials said the 38-year-old victim (pictured) is not likely to survive.
Link to Asia News...
Real Catholics Upset Rabbi's Talk at Notre Dame
These demonstrations of this year, at Thieberville, the interruption of a Gay protest at Notre Dame and now this, really demonstrate the undeniable and admirable nature of the French martial, Catholic spirit.
Liberal prelates still don't seem to understand that this kind of "ecumenical" activity is what is turning their churches into mere museums and is a significant contributor to the "vocations crisis" they like to blame on non-factors like celibacy and the "monarchical" nature of the Church.
Link to Reuters...
Also, check out the differences in ages between the people there who are participating in the Religious Indifferentism and the people who are using the Cathedral for the purpose it was intended when it was built almost 1000 years ago, praying.
Liberal prelates still don't seem to understand that this kind of "ecumenical" activity is what is turning their churches into mere museums and is a significant contributor to the "vocations crisis" they like to blame on non-factors like celibacy and the "monarchical" nature of the Church.
The warm round of applause that Krygier received when he returned to the nave after the lecture bore that out. At the same time, arch-traditionalists such as Rev. Régis de Cacqueray, head of the French section of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) congratulated protesters for their “courage” and said: “The Paris cathedral is neither a synagogue nor a Masonic temple.”
An ultra-traditionalist blog called “Les Intransigeants” (The Intransigents) spoke its mind more openly: “Notre Dame again defended against the outrage by the merchants of the Temple.” The rest of the post was worse anti-Semitic venom.
Link to Reuters...
Also, check out the differences in ages between the people there who are participating in the Religious Indifferentism and the people who are using the Cathedral for the purpose it was intended when it was built almost 1000 years ago, praying.
Sr. Keehan receives presidential pen for supporting health care despite bishops' objections :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
I betrayed my religious vocation and all I got was this stupid pen.
Sr. Keehan receives presidential pen for supporting health care despite bishops' objections :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
Russians Forced to Confront Implications of Large Number of ‘Ethnic Orthodox’
Paul Goble
Russians for a long time have dismissed many of the traditionally Islamic peoples of their country as “ethnic Muslims,” a term that refers to the fact that, as a result of Soviet anti-religious policies and modernization, many members of these nations identify as Muslims but neither know much about Islam or practice the faith.
Now, largely in reaction to a new poll, Russians and especially Russian religious leaders are having to focus on the reality that alongside “ethnic Muslims,” there appear to be an increasing number of “ethnic Orthodox” Russians who identify with the religion but neither know much about it or take part in religious practice.
The confrontation with that somewhat uncomfortable reality has at least two serious consequences. On the one hand, it calls into question the claims the Moscow Patriarchate makes and that some in the Russian government accept that the Russian Federation is genuinely “an Orthodox Christian” country.
Link to Georgian Daily...
Russians for a long time have dismissed many of the traditionally Islamic peoples of their country as “ethnic Muslims,” a term that refers to the fact that, as a result of Soviet anti-religious policies and modernization, many members of these nations identify as Muslims but neither know much about Islam or practice the faith.
Now, largely in reaction to a new poll, Russians and especially Russian religious leaders are having to focus on the reality that alongside “ethnic Muslims,” there appear to be an increasing number of “ethnic Orthodox” Russians who identify with the religion but neither know much about it or take part in religious practice.
The confrontation with that somewhat uncomfortable reality has at least two serious consequences. On the one hand, it calls into question the claims the Moscow Patriarchate makes and that some in the Russian government accept that the Russian Federation is genuinely “an Orthodox Christian” country.
Link to Georgian Daily...
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Cardinal Schönborn Honors Dissident Group in Stepansdom
Despite his own criticism of 'We are Church' and that of his brother Bishops and the Spanish Bishops Conference, even, Cardinal Schönborn will host this group which by most estimates is nothing more than a different confession, certainly outside the Church. Kathnet won't come out and criticize Cardinal Schönborn for this, but perhaps even the people at Regnum Christi are starting to wonder about just who or what this Cardinal is about.
Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is invited with the controversial organization "We are Church" to a Penance Service in the Vienna Stepensdom.
I am angry, God...Kath.net...
Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is invited with the controversial organization "We are Church" to a Penance Service in the Vienna Stepensdom.
Wien (kath.net) The Vienese Cardinal Schönborn will hold a meeting next week on Wednesday, the 31st of March, together with the controversial group "We are Church" (WSK) in the Stepensdom a complaint and penance service under the motto "I am angry, God". There will be victims of sexual violence by priests who will have the opportunity, to formulate their pain in the presence of the Cardinal. Hans Peter Hurka, the director of the Austrian Group, informed the "Presse" of this event on Sunday.
"We are Church" is not an officially recognized group of the Church and has in the past years increasingly made initiatives against the Church, which have been clearly rejected by Rome. The Diocese Regensburg reported "We are Church" in November 2006 as a "problematic splinter group". The Salzburg Archbishop Alois Kothgasserr has prohibited in 2005 the organization "We are Church" in the Cathedral Book Store from presenting a so-called "Pastoral Letter". Kothgasser then said, orally: "Who follows Christ, must also follow Peter, and whoever remains by Peter, there is also the Church." [Wow]
Even the Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn had criticized the group on a number of occasions in the past. Among them, in 2003 he criticized the group at a press conference, that the Platform of an Initiative supported, belonged to a network of Freemasons, of the "European Humanity Federation", which seeks the omission of article 51 from the EU-Constitution. Article 51 is concerned with the status of the Church and cultural societies. It will have been stated that they respected and did not vitiate, that the Union will grant "according the legal status, to Church and religious Unities or Communities in the member states." Otherwise it is certain, that the Union led a "open, transparent and fair Dialog" with the Church. "This Dialog Clause was put into question by "We are Church", said Schönborn: "One wonders." It needs a "more specific and thorough explanation."
A number of other Bishops, like Archbishop Ludwig Schick who said that "Weisner and his confederates need to do penance and go to confession. 'We are Church' could tell everyone, that through the triple bonds of Faith, the Sacraments and the pious and obedient unity with Pope and Bishops, builds a church community. From this Communion, Weisner and his followers appear to have separated themselves."
Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa said in 2003 clearly, "'We are Church' is not in the soil of the Catholic Church."
The famous Catholic journalist Guido Horst said in a commentary: "The church-whiners, who in the last years trusted themselves to the "spirit of the Council", were unfruitful. "We are Church" consists of a post-office box and an E-mail server, Church-People-Demanders, who found their organ in the public forum, are remaining today, grey and (spiritually) childless.
I am angry, God...Kath.net...
Berlusconi Lauds Holy Father's Sincerity and Humility
INTERNATIONAL REACTION: POPE BENEDICT’S pastoral letter to the Irish yesterday prompted the unexpected approval of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
In a remarkable communiqué, which may or may not be influenced by forthcoming regional elections, Mr Berlusconi expressed admiration for the “humility and sincerity” shown by the pope in the letter.
“Benedict XVI, like many of his predecessors, is often called on to confront very difficult situations . . . The way in which he responds is remarkably efficient, at least for all those who are not guided by totally hostile sentiments, and it is efficient both for its humility and sincerity and for the sound reasoning of the pope,” he said.
Link to original...
In a remarkable communiqué, which may or may not be influenced by forthcoming regional elections, Mr Berlusconi expressed admiration for the “humility and sincerity” shown by the pope in the letter.
“Benedict XVI, like many of his predecessors, is often called on to confront very difficult situations . . . The way in which he responds is remarkably efficient, at least for all those who are not guided by totally hostile sentiments, and it is efficient both for its humility and sincerity and for the sound reasoning of the pope,” he said.
Link to original...
Polish Court Upholds Verdict Against Catholic Magazine for Calling Abortion "Killing"
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
KATOWICE, Poland, March 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Katowice Appeal Court has today upheld the verdict of the Katowice District Court which ruled in September '09 that the Polish Catholic newspaper Gosc Niedzielny (Sunday Visitor) and its editor-in-chief Fr. Marek Gancarczyk were guilty of making offensive comments by saying abortion is the killing of an unborn child.
A further appeal is expected to go to Poland's Supreme Court.
Fr. Gancarczyk had appealed the earlier decision in the case brought against him by Alicja Tysiac, a woman who had previously won a "wrongful birth" suit against the Polish government at the European Court for Human Rights because she was refused an abortion. Poland permits abortion only in cases of rape, serious handicap in the baby, or serious health risk to the mother.
Link to Lifesite...
KATOWICE, Poland, March 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Katowice Appeal Court has today upheld the verdict of the Katowice District Court which ruled in September '09 that the Polish Catholic newspaper Gosc Niedzielny (Sunday Visitor) and its editor-in-chief Fr. Marek Gancarczyk were guilty of making offensive comments by saying abortion is the killing of an unborn child.
A further appeal is expected to go to Poland's Supreme Court.
Fr. Gancarczyk had appealed the earlier decision in the case brought against him by Alicja Tysiac, a woman who had previously won a "wrongful birth" suit against the Polish government at the European Court for Human Rights because she was refused an abortion. Poland permits abortion only in cases of rape, serious handicap in the baby, or serious health risk to the mother.
Link to Lifesite...
Pope's Critics Must Get their Facts Straight
THE evil of sexual abuse has no place in the Catholic Church and no one should doubt Benedict XVI's resolve to see it eradicated. His unprecedented pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland reflects his deep compassion for the victims of sexual abuse and his strong commitment to seeing that justice is done.
The Pope has met victims of sexual abuse in Australia and elsewhere. He has heard first-hand what they have suffered.
He is a man of immense compassion and goodness, and is personally committed to doing all he can to bring justice and healing to the victims.
The Australian...
The Pope has met victims of sexual abuse in Australia and elsewhere. He has heard first-hand what they have suffered.
He is a man of immense compassion and goodness, and is personally committed to doing all he can to bring justice and healing to the victims.
The Australian...
Zenit says Lifesite is too "Negative"
Zenit is controlled by the recently discredited Legionares of Christ, btw.
Dear readers,
This letter is hard to write, and it is long, but we are sure you will find it compelling reading.
LifeSiteNews is under attack - a sustained and focused attack, and we need your help and support at this time. Let me explain.
Over the last year we witnessed the President of the United States manipulate and undermine the very system and society he was elected to defend. With the majority of the country opposing his health care bill, Obama has been willing to put his presidency on the line, not to mention democracy - in order to implement the ideology of extreme anti-life groups.
We published many revelations about the national and international dangers of the Obama presidency related to the issues of life, family, faith and culture. These revelations have caused some to view LifeSiteNews as being too negative and prone to sensationalism or having a political agenda - which we do not.
They refuse to believe that the presidency of this man, who appears so reasonable and concerned about the downtrodden, could actually be the subject of so many alarming reports.
We hoped that the facts would speak for themselves. However, the attractive image and inspiring, but too-often deceitful words of leaders such as Barack Obama, have in the past fooled the people of many nations. Hence LifeSiteNews is seen to be the bad guy - for merely reporting unwelcome and uncomfortable truths.
Last year we also saw Catholic Church officials in Massachusetts allow a scandalous near-canonization funeral for Ted Kennedy, arguably for many years the leading Catholic U.S. political proponent of abortion and same-sex 'marriage'.
The entire pro-life movement and many others were aghast that the Catholic Church would allow the funeral to be so blatantly used to idolize a man who was in many ways an arch-enemy of the Church, of life, of traditional morality. LifeSiteNews reported extensively on this scandal. For this we have received intense and still continuing backlash from some well-connected persons within the Church.
They are doing everything they can to falsely malign LifeSiteNews and its credibility and, it seems, have been spreading this poison everywhere they go. And they have been succeeding in convincing some people to believe their malicious propaganda.
And over the last year we have watched the executives of Development & Peace (D&P), the official international development organization of the Canadian Bishops' Conference, scandalously deny mounds of evidence proving they have been using Catholic donations to fund pro-abortion social justice groups.
In the most recent part of the saga, D&P has released a document, "Questioning Development and Peace," that significantly adds to their on-going verbal barrage of assaults against LifeSiteNews.com - a barrage that is having adverse and tangible effects on our organization.
D&P writes, in reference to LifeSiteNews and another pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition, that, "These groups are part of the far right wing fringe element of North American society and have themselves been associated with groups and individuals who have resorted to violence to publicize their cause and achieve their objective."
What does the reckless proclamation of such harsh and completely unfounded charges say about those who are making them? Remember, this is supposed to be an official arm of the Canadian Bishops' Conference!
Reason and facts appear to be making no impression whatever upon the intransigent leadership of D&P and its proponents, who are sowing considerable confusion among the faithful.
Despite volumes of compelling Internet, photographic, and direct interview evidence, this situation remains unresolved, and we are amazingly still being attacked for allegedly misrepresenting the truth.
Unfortunately, Development and Peace has a far greater access to Canadian Catholic Church institutions, publications, parishes and bishops across Canada than does LifeSiteNews. They are also networked internationally to other Church media and institutions. The vast majority of these have not read the LifeSiteNews reports on D&P and therefore, in most cases, have sadly mistakenly accepted the outrageous D&P claims at face value.
It is our obligation to continue with hard hitting news reports on the Obama administration's dangerous actions; on scandals such as the Kennedy funeral; and D&P and, in the US, CCHD funding of abortion advocacy groups, and in Rome, the Recife affair. However such reports have resulted in scathing assaults against LifeSiteNews.com and, in some cases, downright hatred.
Some who are startled by the influence of our reports and the loss of control over messaging and media they once had, are increasingly seeing LifeSiteNews as the enemy. Hence our motives and credibility are being attacked, while the solid facts in the reports are ignored or glossed over.
One result is that donations during this crucial fundraising campaign, a campaign we rely upon to sustain us until mid-June, have been lower than they should be. For instance, some of our previous donors have informed us that it is due to their confusion over the Development & Peace matter that they are not donating. They have never had to question the honesty of some notable Church representatives and find this difficult to deal with.
Additionally, there are other negative results of the determined slander campaign. An example of one of these is the very sensitive issue of Zenit News agency refusing to run a paid ad for LifeSiteNews. This was totally unexpected and is painful to report.
Late last year Zenit, with whom we have always had a positive relationship, began a new program of adding a paid ad to the top of their daily news email to their hundreds of thousands of subscribers in many nations. We immediately saw this as a great opportunity to expand our readership into an international market that would likely be very receptive to our news service.
Here is the ad text that we placed into Zenit's automated ad creation system:
News on our website or free daily news emails - comprehensive, truthful, faithful to Catholic principles.
Link: http://www.lifesitenews.com/
When the Jan. 11 date came on which our ad was supposed to show, the ad was surprisingly not there.
I called Zenit and to my shock learned that it had been declined, although we were never advised of this. When I spoke with Zenit's US Bureau Chief and asked the reasons behind their decision, which I found odd since they have used LifeSiteNews stories in the past, she told me it was based on our conflicts with various bishops over D&P. A number of calls and respectful emails to Zenit management for further clarification received no response.
And yet, Zenit had published an article on the D&P controversy written by Salt&Life television, which is managed by Fr, Tom Rosica who has been a severe critic of our D&P reports. Zenit did not contact LSN for our side of this issue or publish any of our reports on it - even the one from the Peruvian bishops pleading for a halt to D&P funding of pro-abortion groups in their country - or the one about a D&P funded group backing a family planning bill intensely opposed by the bishops of the Phillipines.
However, it is not my intention to point fingers at Zenit. They are an excellent service to the Catholic Church, their staff are exceptional and we still hold them in high regard. But this situation is important to mention because it demonstrates the continuing negative effect of the campaign by Development and Peace and its allies to poison others with unfounded information, unjustly malign our reputation and divert attention away from the facts.
While we are used to verbal backlash, and proudly stand on the side of Truth, D&P's scathing attacks are truly costing us. We have been shut out of an important opportunity to reach a large international market of people who would very likely benefit from reading our reports and consequently bring about much needed cultural change.
I am sure that you can relate with me when I tell you that often times I feel powerless in this fight for the Truth. But at the end of the day, we both know where true power comes from.
We have also received fewer donations than expected over the course of this crucial fundraising campaign, and some of our previous donors have informed us that it is due to their confusion over some of the issues mentioned above. For this reason we are asking for your help and need you to make a financial gift to LifeSiteNews if you have not already done so.
Obama has shown he will not relent on his radical push for anti-life and anti-family measures. Some Church leaders have shown that they do not comprehend the great social and spiritual dangers of our times - the D&P and US CCHD scandals have demonstrated that more than a few within those organizations have no understanding of the Christian principles they supposedly strive to promote and would rather continue their "inadvertent" funding of pro-abortion and otherwise anti-Christian groups than admit the truth.
Simply put, if Obama, weak or even corrupt Church leaders and D&P or CCHD get their way, it is truth and the innocent who will suffer.
For the sake of all that is at stake, LifeSiteNews will continue to reveal and report the Truth, not what is politically correct or what pleases the largest number of people or what is safe. And we will continue to take the hits that come our way. The times we are in call for this.
As French theologian Godefroid de Fontaines put it: "It is better to preserve the truth, even at the cost of a scandal than to let it be suppressed through fear of a scandal."
But we need you to help us carry the burden because as we have described, the material means supporting this work are lacking.
I know that many of you have donated already and we are so thankful that you have responded to our call. Please forgive us for sending you these appeal letters even after you have donated. This is in no way a sign of ungratefulness on our part as we simply send all communications to our entire list.
If any of you are yet to donate, or can spare another contribution, please do not hesitate. Our critics' strategy of trashing anyone who dares to question their questionable deeds is seemingly working.
More than ever, we need your continued support to carry on this mission of exposing this and other grave scandals.
John-Henry Westen
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
LifeSiteNews.com
Dear readers,
This letter is hard to write, and it is long, but we are sure you will find it compelling reading.
LifeSiteNews is under attack - a sustained and focused attack, and we need your help and support at this time. Let me explain.
Over the last year we witnessed the President of the United States manipulate and undermine the very system and society he was elected to defend. With the majority of the country opposing his health care bill, Obama has been willing to put his presidency on the line, not to mention democracy - in order to implement the ideology of extreme anti-life groups.
We published many revelations about the national and international dangers of the Obama presidency related to the issues of life, family, faith and culture. These revelations have caused some to view LifeSiteNews as being too negative and prone to sensationalism or having a political agenda - which we do not.
They refuse to believe that the presidency of this man, who appears so reasonable and concerned about the downtrodden, could actually be the subject of so many alarming reports.
We hoped that the facts would speak for themselves. However, the attractive image and inspiring, but too-often deceitful words of leaders such as Barack Obama, have in the past fooled the people of many nations. Hence LifeSiteNews is seen to be the bad guy - for merely reporting unwelcome and uncomfortable truths.
Last year we also saw Catholic Church officials in Massachusetts allow a scandalous near-canonization funeral for Ted Kennedy, arguably for many years the leading Catholic U.S. political proponent of abortion and same-sex 'marriage'.
The entire pro-life movement and many others were aghast that the Catholic Church would allow the funeral to be so blatantly used to idolize a man who was in many ways an arch-enemy of the Church, of life, of traditional morality. LifeSiteNews reported extensively on this scandal. For this we have received intense and still continuing backlash from some well-connected persons within the Church.
They are doing everything they can to falsely malign LifeSiteNews and its credibility and, it seems, have been spreading this poison everywhere they go. And they have been succeeding in convincing some people to believe their malicious propaganda.
And over the last year we have watched the executives of Development & Peace (D&P), the official international development organization of the Canadian Bishops' Conference, scandalously deny mounds of evidence proving they have been using Catholic donations to fund pro-abortion social justice groups.
In the most recent part of the saga, D&P has released a document, "Questioning Development and Peace," that significantly adds to their on-going verbal barrage of assaults against LifeSiteNews.com - a barrage that is having adverse and tangible effects on our organization.
D&P writes, in reference to LifeSiteNews and another pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition, that, "These groups are part of the far right wing fringe element of North American society and have themselves been associated with groups and individuals who have resorted to violence to publicize their cause and achieve their objective."
What does the reckless proclamation of such harsh and completely unfounded charges say about those who are making them? Remember, this is supposed to be an official arm of the Canadian Bishops' Conference!
Reason and facts appear to be making no impression whatever upon the intransigent leadership of D&P and its proponents, who are sowing considerable confusion among the faithful.
Despite volumes of compelling Internet, photographic, and direct interview evidence, this situation remains unresolved, and we are amazingly still being attacked for allegedly misrepresenting the truth.
Unfortunately, Development and Peace has a far greater access to Canadian Catholic Church institutions, publications, parishes and bishops across Canada than does LifeSiteNews. They are also networked internationally to other Church media and institutions. The vast majority of these have not read the LifeSiteNews reports on D&P and therefore, in most cases, have sadly mistakenly accepted the outrageous D&P claims at face value.
It is our obligation to continue with hard hitting news reports on the Obama administration's dangerous actions; on scandals such as the Kennedy funeral; and D&P and, in the US, CCHD funding of abortion advocacy groups, and in Rome, the Recife affair. However such reports have resulted in scathing assaults against LifeSiteNews.com and, in some cases, downright hatred.
Some who are startled by the influence of our reports and the loss of control over messaging and media they once had, are increasingly seeing LifeSiteNews as the enemy. Hence our motives and credibility are being attacked, while the solid facts in the reports are ignored or glossed over.
One result is that donations during this crucial fundraising campaign, a campaign we rely upon to sustain us until mid-June, have been lower than they should be. For instance, some of our previous donors have informed us that it is due to their confusion over the Development & Peace matter that they are not donating. They have never had to question the honesty of some notable Church representatives and find this difficult to deal with.
Additionally, there are other negative results of the determined slander campaign. An example of one of these is the very sensitive issue of Zenit News agency refusing to run a paid ad for LifeSiteNews. This was totally unexpected and is painful to report.
Late last year Zenit, with whom we have always had a positive relationship, began a new program of adding a paid ad to the top of their daily news email to their hundreds of thousands of subscribers in many nations. We immediately saw this as a great opportunity to expand our readership into an international market that would likely be very receptive to our news service.
Here is the ad text that we placed into Zenit's automated ad creation system:
Title: "Indispensible" News on Life, Family, Culture
Text: Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, Human Life International - "LifeSiteNews is literally the best and most reliable source of information on the Church as it engages in mortal combat with the culture of death."
Austin Ruse, C-Fam - LifeSiteNews is "indispensible."
News on our website or free daily news emails - comprehensive, truthful, faithful to Catholic principles.
Link: http://www.lifesitenews.com/
When the Jan. 11 date came on which our ad was supposed to show, the ad was surprisingly not there.
I called Zenit and to my shock learned that it had been declined, although we were never advised of this. When I spoke with Zenit's US Bureau Chief and asked the reasons behind their decision, which I found odd since they have used LifeSiteNews stories in the past, she told me it was based on our conflicts with various bishops over D&P. A number of calls and respectful emails to Zenit management for further clarification received no response.
And yet, Zenit had published an article on the D&P controversy written by Salt&Life television, which is managed by Fr, Tom Rosica who has been a severe critic of our D&P reports. Zenit did not contact LSN for our side of this issue or publish any of our reports on it - even the one from the Peruvian bishops pleading for a halt to D&P funding of pro-abortion groups in their country - or the one about a D&P funded group backing a family planning bill intensely opposed by the bishops of the Phillipines.
However, it is not my intention to point fingers at Zenit. They are an excellent service to the Catholic Church, their staff are exceptional and we still hold them in high regard. But this situation is important to mention because it demonstrates the continuing negative effect of the campaign by Development and Peace and its allies to poison others with unfounded information, unjustly malign our reputation and divert attention away from the facts.
While we are used to verbal backlash, and proudly stand on the side of Truth, D&P's scathing attacks are truly costing us. We have been shut out of an important opportunity to reach a large international market of people who would very likely benefit from reading our reports and consequently bring about much needed cultural change.
I am sure that you can relate with me when I tell you that often times I feel powerless in this fight for the Truth. But at the end of the day, we both know where true power comes from.
We have also received fewer donations than expected over the course of this crucial fundraising campaign, and some of our previous donors have informed us that it is due to their confusion over some of the issues mentioned above. For this reason we are asking for your help and need you to make a financial gift to LifeSiteNews if you have not already done so.
Obama has shown he will not relent on his radical push for anti-life and anti-family measures. Some Church leaders have shown that they do not comprehend the great social and spiritual dangers of our times - the D&P and US CCHD scandals have demonstrated that more than a few within those organizations have no understanding of the Christian principles they supposedly strive to promote and would rather continue their "inadvertent" funding of pro-abortion and otherwise anti-Christian groups than admit the truth.
Simply put, if Obama, weak or even corrupt Church leaders and D&P or CCHD get their way, it is truth and the innocent who will suffer.
For the sake of all that is at stake, LifeSiteNews will continue to reveal and report the Truth, not what is politically correct or what pleases the largest number of people or what is safe. And we will continue to take the hits that come our way. The times we are in call for this.
As French theologian Godefroid de Fontaines put it: "It is better to preserve the truth, even at the cost of a scandal than to let it be suppressed through fear of a scandal."
But we need you to help us carry the burden because as we have described, the material means supporting this work are lacking.
I know that many of you have donated already and we are so thankful that you have responded to our call. Please forgive us for sending you these appeal letters even after you have donated. This is in no way a sign of ungratefulness on our part as we simply send all communications to our entire list.
If any of you are yet to donate, or can spare another contribution, please do not hesitate. Our critics' strategy of trashing anyone who dares to question their questionable deeds is seemingly working.
More than ever, we need your continued support to carry on this mission of exposing this and other grave scandals.
John-Henry Westen
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
LifeSiteNews.com
Homosexuals Highly Susceptible to Fatal and Debilitating Diseases
tlanta, Ga., Mar 23, 2010 / 06:19 am (CNA).- A new data analysis by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows HIV/AIDS and syphilis are taking a “heavy toll” among men who engage in homosexual relations. Their risk of HIV and syphilis infection is 40 times greater than that of men who do not practice homosexuality. The data, presented at the CDC’s National STD Prevention Conference, finds that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sexual relations with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women, a CDC press release reports.
According to the analysis, there are between 522 to 989 cases of new HIV diagnoses per 100,000 MSM, compared to 12 per 100,000 other men and 13 per 100,000 women.
The CDC analysis says that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women. While two per 100,000 other men and one per 100,000 women are infected by the disease, the rate among men who have homosexual relations is 91 to 173 cases per 100,000.
Link to CNA...
According to the analysis, there are between 522 to 989 cases of new HIV diagnoses per 100,000 MSM, compared to 12 per 100,000 other men and 13 per 100,000 women.
The CDC analysis says that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women. While two per 100,000 other men and one per 100,000 women are infected by the disease, the rate among men who have homosexual relations is 91 to 173 cases per 100,000.
Link to CNA...
Catholics Are Packing Churches in the South
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The pews are packed at many Charlotte-area Roman Catholic churches, but a scarcity of priests is leaving even some of the biggest parishes short-staffed and scrambling for help from retired and visiting clergy.
Recent examples aren't hard to find:
Just one full-time priest for months at 13,000-member St. Gabriel in Cotswold.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/21/90786/catholics-once-rare-in-the-south.html
Recent examples aren't hard to find:
Just one full-time priest for months at 13,000-member St. Gabriel in Cotswold.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/21/90786/catholics-once-rare-in-the-south.html
Monday, March 22, 2010
More Orthodoxy, less Hipsterism in a Collar
It's probably obvious to everyone except the especially guilty ones. Evil tends to make you short-sighted.
Catholic sex abuse scandal: time to sack trendy bishops and restore the faith
Gerald Warner
[The Telegraph] It has become fashionable to claim that the sex abuse scandal currently afflicting the Catholic Church is “its biggest crisis since the Reformation”. Oh, really? Tell me about it. The abuse issue is just a small part of the much larger crisis that has engulfed the Church since the Second Vatican Catastrophe and which is more serious than the Reformation.
Abolish clerical celibacy? The last thing a priest abusing altar boys needs or wants is a wife. There is no compulsory celibacy in the Church of England, but that has not prevented vicars and boy scouts furnishing gratifying amounts of copy to the tabloid Sunday papers for the past century. Celibacy goes against the grain of today’s “unrepressed”, “non-judgemental”, let-it-all-hang-out attitude to sex; its continued existence is a reproach to the hedonist Western world; so Rome must be persuaded to abolish it – likewise its condemnation of divorce, abortion, contraception, homosexuality and all the other fetishes of liberal society. Dream on, secularists.
“Irish abuse victims disappointed by Pope’s letter.” Of course they are. They were disappointed by it before they had read it, before it was even written. Any other response would diminish the power they find themselves wielding against the Church. Have they a legitimate grievance? In most cases, yes. They have a ferocious grievance against the “filth” (Benedict XVI’s term, long before he came under public pressure) who defiled them and treated them like animals.
Link to Telegraph...
Catholic sex abuse scandal: time to sack trendy bishops and restore the faith
Gerald Warner
[The Telegraph] It has become fashionable to claim that the sex abuse scandal currently afflicting the Catholic Church is “its biggest crisis since the Reformation”. Oh, really? Tell me about it. The abuse issue is just a small part of the much larger crisis that has engulfed the Church since the Second Vatican Catastrophe and which is more serious than the Reformation.
Abolish clerical celibacy? The last thing a priest abusing altar boys needs or wants is a wife. There is no compulsory celibacy in the Church of England, but that has not prevented vicars and boy scouts furnishing gratifying amounts of copy to the tabloid Sunday papers for the past century. Celibacy goes against the grain of today’s “unrepressed”, “non-judgemental”, let-it-all-hang-out attitude to sex; its continued existence is a reproach to the hedonist Western world; so Rome must be persuaded to abolish it – likewise its condemnation of divorce, abortion, contraception, homosexuality and all the other fetishes of liberal society. Dream on, secularists.
“Irish abuse victims disappointed by Pope’s letter.” Of course they are. They were disappointed by it before they had read it, before it was even written. Any other response would diminish the power they find themselves wielding against the Church. Have they a legitimate grievance? In most cases, yes. They have a ferocious grievance against the “filth” (Benedict XVI’s term, long before he came under public pressure) who defiled them and treated them like animals.
Link to Telegraph...
+Mahony Plans to Destroy St. Charles Borromeo in LA
Like a mortally wounded dragon, Cardinal Mahony is attempting his last acts of malice before he retires.
Link to LA Catholic...
Link to LA Catholic...
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