Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Vatican Prefect On Kneeling For Communion


[La Razón:] Nevertheless, Benedict XVI has reiterated in some instances the propriety of receiving communion kneeling and in the mouth. Is it something important, or is it a mere matter of form?

[Cañizares:] - No, it is not just a matter of form. What does it mean to receive communion in the mouth? What does it mean to kneel before the Most Holy Sacrament? What dies it mean to kneel during the consecration at Mass? It means adoration, it means recognizing the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; it means respect and an attitude of faith of a man who prostrates before God because he knows that everything comes from Him, and we feel speechless, dumbfounded, before the wondrousness, his goodness, and his mercy. That is why it is not the same to place the hand, and to receive communion in any fashion, than doing it in a respectful way; it is not the same to receive communion kneeling or standing up, because all these signs indicate a profound meaning. What we have to grasp is that profound attitude of the man who prostrates himself before God, and that is what the Pope wants.

source
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: So while traditionalist Catholics have been ignored and berated for years, it finally turns out that they've been right all along - at least on this issue.

It's been a long time coming. Once again the Vatican points us back to our historic traditions. We Catholics need to start acting like Catholics again. As the new prefect points out; standing or kneeling for communion is not the same, and it is not just a matter of form. That's why Protestants don't do it. You'll notice that Protestants don't kneel at the consecration, when they visit a Catholic mass, simply because they don't believe in the real presence. They know EXACTLY what kneeling means. To kneel is to show adoration. That's why they don't do it. Funny how so many Catholics seem to have forgotten this when it comes time to receive the blessed sacrament.

So the question is what to do now. Should Catholics take it upon themselves to begin kneeling and receiving on the tongue during the Ordinary Form liturgy, or should they wait for the USCCB to come out with some kind of statement on the matter. If the latter, we may be waiting for a hundred years. Maybe it's time to just do what we know is right, and what the Vatican confirms is right. Based on papal liturgies, and now these words from the CDW prefect, the official position of the Vatican is that Catholics should kneel and receive communion on the tongue. While the official position of the USCCB is that Catholics should stand and receive communion on the hand. So which is it? Do we obey the Vatican or the USCCB? After all is said and done, that's what it comes down to. We must chose between the USCCB, which has no real governing authority, or the Vatican, which is the apostolic See of Peter. What's it going to be? Peter or the USCCB? I know my position. 'The Catholic Knight' will be kneeling and receiving communion on the tongue no matter what mass I'm attending.  The only exception to that would be if kneeling might hold up the line or cause some kind of disturbance.  In which case I will at least receive the sacrament on the tongue while standing, as they do in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church.

The point is we've got to take a stand somewhere - (no pun intended). If we don't boldly show our reverence for the eucharistic Lord at mass, when shall we do it? Now I'm not talking about making a scene. The mass should never be a place for calling attention to one's self, but at the same time, it should not be a place for the disciples of modernism to strip our faith of everything we hold dear. Now is as good a time as any to do something about it, and the Vatican has affirmed our right to do it. So let's do it in a spirit of true reverence for our eucharistic Lord, and with no spite or malice toward anyone. Let's all agree to boycott the hand for starters. No more communion in the hand. From now on communion on the tongue in all circumstances. Then when the opportunity presents itself, and doing so will not cause a disruption of any kind, we kneel down to receive the Lord. Is there anybody out there with me on this?

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

LIFETEEN Founder Excommunicated

Teenagers Gather Around the Alter During the Consecration
As Was A Common Practice In LIFETEEN Masses Some Time Ago
Only A Few LIFETEEN Parishes Still Continue This Practice
(AP) - Phoenix's Catholic bishop has excommunicated a priest who started a nondenominational ministry after the priest was charged with misdemeanor sexual misconduct.

The action announced Monday against Monsignor Dale Fushek, once the diocese's second highest-ranking administrator, was a response to his creation of the Praise and Worship Center in Chandler....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It's time for Catholic parishes around the nation to rethink what they're doing. Yes, as Catholics we MUST reach out to the youth in our own congregations, but we need to reconsider how we're doing it.

For starters let's look at the English version of the mass itself. We're currently using a translation of the liturgy that the Vatican has labeled "defective" (read more here), and has revoked our permission to keep using it. That's why a new English translation has been approved by the Vatican and the USCCB, which will be put into use sometime in 2010.

The pope has also made it clear that we should expect more changes to the Ordinary Form of the mass, that will reintroduce traditions long since forgotten by most Catholics. For example, we can expect to see the use of high alter candle configurations, wherein the priest always faces a crucifix, and sometimes (when appropriate) the use of the ad orientem posture, where the priest faces east. We can expect to see the reintroduction of bells at the consecration, along with the use of more incense. The pope has also suggested the use of Latin at the consecration itself in all masses, no matter what language it's celebrated in. He is also planning on moving the "sign of peace" closer to the creed so as to create a greater atmosphere of solemnity during the eucharistic prayers. He has already indicated he would like to see greater use of traditional sacred music (such as Gregorian chant) during mass. The list goes on and on.

What's the message being sent here? It should be obvious. The Catholic Church needs to start being "Catholic" again, embracing our historical traditions, and giving them new life in the modern world. The changes coming out of the Vatican should serve as a guide for the average parish liturgist and choirmaster. We're heading toward a period of greater solemnity, greater reverence, and more tradition. Parishes that resist this change will only get left behind and ultimately hurt themselves.

But what about the youth? How will they be able to relate? Those who seriously ask such questions are operating on a template that is about 30 years old. The pop culture folk masses (which are epitomized by LIFETEEN) are an antiquated relic of the last generation. Youth may still be seeking out loud contemporary music, but mass is not where they really want to find it. Contemporary Christian music is a huge industry now. There are radio stations around the nation 100% dedicated to playing these songs around the clock. Youth can listen to these songs on their car radios, iPods and MP3 players. In fact, they often do. Over the last 30 years a new phenomenon has developed called the "Christian rock concert," wherein Christian youth can scream, dance, wave their hands in the air, etc. This didn't exist in the 1970s and 80s, but it does now, and it's bigger than ever. The youth hear this music all the time, outside of mass, and in fact, it's usually a lot better than anything the local parish choir can produce. Yes there is an outlet for Catholic youth in contemporary music, and Catholic parishes SHOULD be promoting it, but not at mass!

The point is the youth of today can get their pop culture music, in Christian variety form, anywhere they want. There is even a "Catholic flavor" of Christian pop music -- believe it or not. What, you've never heard? Ask any Catholic teenager. Many surveys are now perplexing Church leadership with results finding that the majority of practicing Catholic youths are more "pre-Vatican II" in their mentality. How could that be? and why? For starters, Vatican II has nothing to do with it. What it really has to do with is the sense of solemnity. When Catholic youth visit mass, they're not looking to hear the same thing they can get on their iPods and MP3 players. They're looking for something completely different. They're looking for a sense of the sacred. They want mystery. They want other-worldly. They want to escape the trappings of this earth to meet the Lord in sublime reverence and awe. That's why so many of them are flocking to the Extraordinary Form of the mass. It has nothing to do with Latin. It has nothing to do with the 1962 Missal. It's about solemnity, mystery, reverence and transcending everyday reality. That's something they can't get on their iPods and MP3 players. That's something they don't hear on the car radio, and it's something they will never experience at a Christian rock concert. It's something that only the Catholic Church can give them, that is, IF their local parish is willing.

The excommunication of LIFETEEN founder Dale Fushek should be an eye opening watershed to most LIFETEEN parishes, and contemporary Catholic parishes in general. Fushek's excommunication had nothing to do with LIFETEEN, directly, but it did have a lot to do with the attitude and mindset of the man who created LIFETEEN. It was an attitude and a mindset that got him into trouble with the law, and ultimately led him to create a "nondenominational worship center" outside of the Catholic Church -- effectively a schismatic act. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying LIFETEEN is schismatic, but I am saying that it was produced by a schismatic mind, and that in itself should be cause for alarm. When you compound this with the obvious problems associated with the current English mass translation (soon to be retired), and a general loss of historic Catholic traditions, you can begin to see the possible dangers. The tragic and saddening event of Dale Fushek's excommunication should be a wake-up call to Catholic parishes all around the nation. Perhaps it's time to look to the pope for new guidance and reconsider the direction of the American Church.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Year 2012 And The End Of The World


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I've refrained from blogging on this for some time, as I truly hate getting into this stuff, but as the year 2012 approaches I'm afraid if I don't chime in, I will be negligent in letting people know what is likely to happen. So here it is.

In all realistic probability, the world will not end in 2012. In all realistic probability, the world will not even drastically change in 2012, unless man does something particular to change it - like a major war for example. Yes, we could have some big earthquakes, a tsunami, some major storms, but these could happen in any year. They've happened in years past, and they will most certainly happen in years future.

The doomsday consensus on the Internet and the blogosphere seems to center around our solar system's crossing of the galactic plane, and the supposed end of the Mayan calendar. My readers deserve facts not conjecture, so let's examine them.

The Mayan Calender
There is really nothing mystical or magical about this system of dating. Nearly all ancient civilizations developed methods of calculating time, and the Mayans were no different. The civilizations of ancient Central America have always been a fascination to western culture, simply because they were so far removed from everything known by the Old World (Europe, Africa & Asia). Their exotic character however, doesn't make them any more special than the ancient civilizations on other continents. Might I also point out that there is substantial evidence of ancient Mayan culture engaging in human sacrifice. That's not necessarily a virtuous characteristic. Still, in spite of their flaws, they did manage to organize a pretty elaborate calendar, that spans an incredible amount of time, and is fairly accurate as far as ancient calendars go. Yes it is true that the Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012, and that has been the source of much speculation by occult New Agers. However, it should be pointed out that the Mayan calendar is cyclic in nature, and just because one reaches the end of a cycle, that doesn't necessarily imply something bad is going to happen. There is no archaeological evidence to suggest that the Mayans themselves made any such prediction.
(Wikipedia) - "For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. in Crystal River, Florida. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."

source
By "cash in" she means they're making a lot of money on the ignorance of any poor fool who will believe them. Ancient calendars were not designed to predict the end of the world, or even the start of natural disasters. No, the ancients were far more practical than that. They spent great amounts of time and energy perfecting these calendars for only one reason -- farming. Yes, that's right. They needed to know exactly when would be the best time to plant seeds, and when would be the best time to harvest. Watching the weather can be very unreliable. The position of the stars, moon and sun could much more accurately determine what time of year it was, and thus when would be best for planting and harvesting. I'm sure the ancient Mayans, if they could see us today, would be very amused by the way our technologically advanced civilization is fretting about their humble means of calculating the seasons. They would be very amused indeed.

The Mayan calendar does not predict the end of the world, or even the end of an age, or the start of a new one. The end of the Mayan calendar predicts one thing, and one thing only, which is the end of the Mayan calendar. It amazes me how easily people ascribe mythic qualities to sources that obviously don't deserve them. My favorite example is Nostradamus, who according to tabloid magazines, has accurately predicted every major disaster and political event since the middle 16th century. A careful examination of his writings reveals that he really didn't predict anything. I mean to say he never really committed himself to any one prediction. He wrote in parables and symbolism, which was so incredibly vague, that much of it can be interpreted any number of ways. That was the beauty of his craft though. Like fortune tellers and astrologers, his descriptions vaguely touch on so many common characteristics, that it's easy for the interested reader to immediately assign those vague descriptions to something personal in his or her own life. Likewise, the interested reader in Nostradamus does the same with his vague descriptions and history, connecting today's headlines with his writings, in ways Nostradamus himself could have never imagined. The average believer in Nostradamus today has never actually sat down to read any of his writings. Instead the average believer gets his/her information straight from the tabloid press, and what these tabloids say he said. Of course we know how accurate the tabloid media is -- a real source of "solid" information I'm sure. Then we have the predictions of supposed psychic Edgar Cayce, whom many would have us believe is a wellspring of prophetic information, even though he predicted the lost continent of Atlantis would resurface in either 1968 or 1969. Yet still, there are entire schools devoted to the study of this one man and the supposed "predictions" he made. Proponents of the Mayan calendar doomsday scenario frequently point to supposed "parallel predictions" made by Nostradamus and Cayce. To the Catholic mind this can't mean much, considering Nostradamus never committed to any of his predictions, and Cayce was so blatantly wrong on the biggest one he ever made.

The best advice I can give to all of my Catholic readers is to distance themselves from this kind of nonsense. It is the stuff of New Age occultism, something expressly forbidden by the First Commandment. It's bad enough that most of this is derived from the occult, but to make matters worse, many of those using the Mayan calendar to predict "something big" are really just after big money. They may be trying to sell you a book, or a magazine, or even worse some kind of "survival kit." Don't be fooled. These people are charlatans.

The Galactic Plane
It's quite common for doomsday fanatics to take a skin of the truth, and stuff it with lies. On the issue of the galactic plane, they're definitely on to something true, but their time tables are too heavily dependent on the Mayan calendar thing. There is no way the ancient Mayans could know exactly when the earth's solar system will cross the galactic plane, and there is no way they could have calculated it based on the observations of their time. Yes, the earth's solar system is scheduled to cross the galactic plane some time in the near future, but scientists do not know exactly when, and "soon" in galactic terms could mean anytime within the next one million years.

What is the galactic plane? Well think of our galaxy as a spiral disk spinning through space. It's about 100,000 light-years across, and about 10,000 light-years thick. Just to give you an idea of size, light travels at about 186,000 miles per second. Now that means a particle-wave of light travels about 11 million miles a minute, and about 670 million miles an hour. So to figure the size of the galaxy, just figure that it takes about 100,000 years for that same particle-wave of light to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. 

Within this spiral disk are billions (maybe even trillions) of stars. They all revolve counterclockwise around the center of the disk, which is powered by the gravitational force of a massive black hole - a star so dense that light cannot escape it. Time and space itself implode within the massive gravitational pull of this black hole, creating what scientists call a "singularity." This singularity is a "pinhole," if you will, reaching back to the first cause from which the universe sprang forth, and it is the final end in which our universe will eventually return. It could best be described as a window into eternity, and it is the closest this universe will ever come to encountering God face to face, outside the incarnation of Jesus Christ of course.

This black hole is rotating at an incredible speed, and the centripetal force of it's rotation causes the center of it's gravitation well to get spread out, like a micro thin disk spanning the center of the galaxy. That micro thin disk of gravity collects a lot of cosmic dust, particles and for lack of a better term -- space junk. It is spread uniformly (as far as we know) from one end of the galaxy to the other, and it is around this disk that all the stars in the galaxy bounce up and down through like a wooden horse on a carousel. Our nearest star (the sun) is no different. In fact, astronomers at NASA have calculated that our solar system (which includes the earth of course) bounces through this galactic plane about once ever 32 million years. When it does, we tend to pass through a very messy part of space, filled with all sorts of dust particles, rocks, ice and space junk. All of this increases our chance of a collision, and based on the geological history of the earth, a collision with something is almost guaranteed. To describe this, I'll quote the only source I trust on such things, and that is NASA...
(GISS NASA) - In the early 1980s, a GISS scientist, Richard Stothers, discovered that the impact cratering record on Earth displays a certain regularity. Wholesale bombardments by large meteoroids seem to have recurred at intervals of 30 to 35 million years. He also noticed that this magic number seems to be close to the length of time the Solar System needs to move up from and back down to the plane of our disk-like galaxy of stars, the Milky Way. Astronomers have known for a long time that, in its revolution around the central mass of our galaxy, the Solar System performs such an up-and-down motion quite regularly, like a horse on a merry-go-round. Material lying mostly near the galactic plane tugs with its gravitational force on objects only loosely bound to the Solar System, like the distant comets that occupy a vast halo far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Many of these shaken comets then rain down in a shower toward the Sun, much as ripe apples drop from a tall tree during a windstorm. Our Earth intercepts some of the infalling comets. The biggest gravitational disturbances of the outer comet halo are believed to be made by close encounters with very massive objects, like the huge clouds of gas and dust that lie between the stars....

source
The only question is how big of a collision, and what the damage will be. The last time we were hit was about 35 million years ago, by two meteors (one hitting Russia and the other creating a large crater at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.) These caused mass extinction of animal species on the planet, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the mass extinction cased by the previous crossing of the galactic plane some 65 million years ago. That collision with just one huge meteor killed off all the dinosaurs and left a magma crater just off the Yucatan Peninsula which is so big that it's only visible by special satellite imaging. So based on all the evidence and calculations, we are due to cross the galactic plane anytime now, but keep in mind that the word "anytime" in galactic terms could mean anytime within the next one million years. The odds of that happening in 2012, based on the cycle of an agrarian calendar, designed by the Mayan civilization thousands of years ago, are extremely slim. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would put my money on the world NOT ending in 2012, and laugh all the way to the bank on January 1st, 2013.

Yes, astronomical science, along with the geologic record, seem to indicate that our world will soon end -- soon meaning within a million years. It could be a smaller catastrophe that will simply change the world as we know it. Or it could be a larger cataclysm that will end the age of the mammals much in the same way the meteor 65 million years ago ended the age of the dinosaurs. Our Catholic Christian religion teaches us that mankind's demise will come a different way, involving a final trial against the forces of evil, resulting in a general judgment of God upon all the nations. How this relates to earth crossing the galactic plane, if at all, is completely unknown, and it would be foolish to speculate on such things. So let's not.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Conservative Bishop = Booming Vocations

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The evidence speaks for itself. A strong orthodox bishop begets a thriving diocese, and that in turn begets a boom in vocations. Want to solve the priest shortage? The solution is simple. Go staunch conservative! Go ORTHODOX! If this happened in every diocese throughout the nation, within ten years, the priest shortage problem would be solved!
(CNA) - Encouraging and supporting vocations to the priesthood and religious life has been a top priority for Bishop Robert Finn since his installation in the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph. Currently, the diocese has nearly 30 men studying to become diocesan priests while others have been called to nearby religious orders.

While 27 men are currently in various stages of formation to serve as diocesan priests in the diocese, others have been called to different communities. Over the past year, at least three women and one young man from the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph entered religious life in other dioceses. Our Lady of Good Counsel parishioner Rebecca Restivo entered the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. St. Pius X grad Therese Ringel and St. Mary's High School alumna Lisa Gordon both entered the School Sisters of Christ the King in Lincoln, Nebraska. O'Hara High School grad and Benedictine alumn, Carl Baker, recently became a novice at St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas...

read full story here

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Gay Marriage And The Fall Of America!

(SFGate) - Prop. 8 would overturn the court's 4-3 ruling May 15 that declared same-sex couples had the right to marry under the California Constitution on the grounds of privacy and equal protection. Backers of the measure made the court a focus of their campaign, accusing "activist judges" of thwarting the will of voters who had approved a similar measure as an initiative statute in 2000.

Three lawsuits were filed directly with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking orders immediately blocking enforcement of Prop. 8 and ultimately striking it down as a violation of fundamental rights in the California Constitution.

The plaintiffs are six unmarried same-sex couples and the advocacy group Equality California; another couple who married shortly after the May 15 ruling took effect; and the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, joined by Santa Clara County.

Although their lawyers would not discuss their strategy publicly, each suit seeks to overturn Prop. 8 on the basis of state law and avoids federal constitutional claims that could send the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gay-rights advocates have tried to keep such disputes away from the nation's high court, out of fear that the justices would issue a nationwide ruling rejecting any right of same-sex marriage under the U.S. Constitution....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The people of California have spoken, homosexual marriage is officially abolished. However, as is typical in the People's Republic of California, the courts threaten to overturn the will of the people even in a state constitutional amendment. To be sure, so long as it stays within the California courts, this is California's problem. The California government hasn't represented the people of California in decades, and why the people haven't abolished the state government with a constitutional convention is beyond me. Alas, that is California's problem for Californians to deal with. However, I don't believe the lawyers advocating gay-marriage will keep it in California's courts at all. Just as soon as they fail to get the ruling they want from the California courts, they'll appeal it to the federal courts, and once that happens California's problem becomes America's problem.

Before the federal courts will be the question of whether or not the federal government can annul a state constitutional decision by the people of a state on the issue of gay-marriage. Should the federal courts rule against the people, every state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage within the nation will be at stake. The issue will be put before the United States Supreme Court in what will amount to a U.S. Constitutional crisis. At the feet of nine Supreme Court justices will lie the fate and future of the United States of America.

Should the U.S. Supreme Court decide to uphold a federal court's decision to strike down a state constitutional marriage ban, then gay-marriage will effectively be forced on every state in the Union by judicial fiat. What will that mean? It will mean that the United States government, via the federal court system, will be effectively waging an ALL OUT WAR on Christian civilization and the traditional family. It will place the United States federal government as the sworn enemy of every Catholic family and Catholic parish in the nation. The same would go for any Evangelical Christian family and congregation in this nation as well. The United States government would effectively be waging war against traditional Christianity itself.

At that point, there will be no more reason to preserve the U.S. Constitution, the federal government, or Union of the United States of America. For any government that wages war against it's own people, and the civilization they have created, is effectively a false government and has lost it's right to govern. The people of the United States would have only two options available to them at that time.
  1. They can convince Congress to pass the 'Federal Marriage Amendment' (F.M.A.), so the states could immediately ratify it, and uphold their state bans on gay-marriage. Unfortunately, the people have recently elected officials to the U.S. government who have made it clear they have no intention of ever passing such an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Both the new President-Elect, Barack Obama, and the Congressional Democrats, have made it clear that they support "gay-rights" and have no intention of doing anything that would stop gay-marriage from becoming the law of the land. If it never gets out of Congress, the states can never ratify it. So option number one is now next to impossible.
  2. The people of states that ardently opposes gay-marriage can begin organizing and drafting measures for the secession of those states from the federal government and the United States of America. This of course would have to be done through the peaceful, democratic and lawful means outlined for us in the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Only by becoming free and independent countries can those states then uphold their own constitutions and the will of the people. After two or more of those states successfully secede using only peaceful, democratic and lawful means, then they can reorganize under whatever form of community, confederation or collective they see fit. Economically, such measures would be viable by restructuring tax laws in those newly born nation-states to attract business investment. The "Fair Tax" proposed by the 'Americans for Fair Taxation' (read more here) would be one possible way this could happen, and should prove more than enough to bolster the economic viability of newly born nation-states. Other measures of deregulation and free market reforms would also serve to make secession a financially attractive and profitable alternative. As for national defense of these nation-state, treaties could be signed with the United States government, allowing it to keep U.S. military bases within these nation-states free of rent or lease, provided the U.S. government pledge to defend these nation-states from all foreign aggressors. This would set the foundation for peaceful coexistence and fair-trade with states still choosing to stay within the United States of America.
Three IF's would cause these events to come about, and I might add that these three IF's are all real possibilities in the very near future, thanks to the aggressive tactics of lawyers pushing gay-marriage through the courts against the will of the American people.
  1. IF the federal courts rule against a state constitutional measure banning gay-marriage, and...
  2. IF the U.S. Supreme Court upholds that ruling, and...
  3. IF the U.S. Congress will not pass the 'Federal Marriage Amendment'...
  4. THEN the only way the people can defend their families and Christian civilization is to secede from the federal Union.
Otherwise, the only alternative is to accept the fall of Christianity within North America to a regime that favors and promotes homosexuality. In other words, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress would effectively make it the Christian duty of every God fearing believer in America to break all political ties with the United States government. Failure to do so would be failure to defend one's Christian faith against the external attack by a hostile and oppressive government. For the first time in American history, Christians would be forced to choose between their government and their faith. So you say you don't think it can happen. We can only hope.  But I have a bad feeling it will.  Just sit back and watch.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Election Day = Judgment Day For America

"How can I bless this nation when the blood of the babies cries out to me from the ground"

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Like it or not, this election will determine our nation's eternal destiny. With the cast of our votes, we will decide if this holocaust of abortion-on-demand will be enshrined into our national law FOREVER. If Obama wins the election, he has promised to do this by signing the "Freedom of Choice Act" (F.O.C.A.) into law as his "first act as president." Once that happens, there will be no reason to believe that God will bless America anymore. He will bless us only in the same way he "blesses" other unrepentant nations that commit genocide.  He will "bless" us with our national demise.  This election decides it all.  Vote wisely...
(Remnant) - As this edition of The Remnant reaches you, “This center-right country is about to vastly strengthen a liberal Congress whose approval rating is 10 percent and implant in Washington a regime further to the left than any in U.S. history,” as Pat Buchanan wrote on October 17 at WorldNetDaily.com.

A day later, Bishop Robert J. Herman, administrator of the Diocese of Saint Louis, published a column in which he warned, both literally and metaphorically, that “Judgment day is on its way… For many, this coming election may very well be judgment day, for this election will measure us…. The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy. My desire for a good economy cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion. My desire to end the war in Iraq cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion.” (CNA, October 18, 2008).

A vote for B. Hussein Obama is unquestionably a vote to remove all restrictions on abortion. This man of mystery—who is he, where was he really born, and who are the equally mysterious financiers of his Harvard law degree?—has vowed precisely to eliminate all restrictions on abortion by signing FOCA into law, whose passage by a Democrat super majority will be his for the asking. This is a man who, in the one moment of visible nervousness I observed during the last presidential debate, doggedly defended the practice of leaving the victims of botched abortions to die in a utility room at a Chicago hospital....

read full story here

Friday, October 17, 2008

James Ossuary Is A Total FRAUD!


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Remember the burial box (ossuary) that was supposedly "found" a while back? Those who promoted it claimed it dated back to the time of Jesus and the inscription proved conclusively that the Apostle James was Jesus' actual brother, and therefore, the Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity was false. Well a lot of people casted doubt on these fantastic claims, and 'The Catholic Knight' was one of them. Now it looks like we've all been vindicated. As it turns out, the whole thing is a fraud, and the Israeli police are not happy about it...
(FoxNews) - The discovery electrified the faithful and faithful archaeologists alike. But skeptics began to dig deeper into the mysterious find, and Israeli police started investigating.

They found the box was authentically old, dating back to 60 A.D., the biblical date of James' death. But the inscription, they found, was a forgery.

The investigators took Golan to court, accusing the dealer of turning believers' faith against them to rake in his millions, TIME reported....

read full story here

Monday, September 29, 2008

VATICAN: Democratic Party = "Party Of Death"

(CNS) -- The Democratic Party in the United States "risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,'" said U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican's highest court.....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: In a stunning rebuke of the U.S. Democratic Party, a high ranking Vatican official (Archbishop Raymond Burke) has accused it of becoming a "party of death," leaving no doubt how some Vatican officials view this American institution. It's a serious blow with long lasting effects. The Prefect of the Apostolic Signature, which is comparable to the "chief justice" on the Vatican's "supreme court," (to use an American analogy), is the archbishop who overseas all matters relating to the ecclesiastical court system. His position in the worldwide Catholic Church is extremely significant and powerful, and makes him a serious future contender for the papal throne. Ergo, his condemnation of the U.S. Democratic Party is very damning. 

Rarely do Vatican officials take such strong stands of condemnation against political parties. This condemnation effectively puts the U.S. Democratic Party in a rare and distinguished "Hall of Shame," accompanied by such organizations as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Nazi Party of Hitler's Germany. In comparison to such extreme examples of political thuggery, it seems shocking that a high ranking Vatican official would characterize the U.S. Democratic Party this way. Why would he do this?

It's important to note that the good archbishop prefaced this characterization by stating that the Democratic Party "risks becoming" a party of death, and he did not say it had "already become" this. That's important, because the good archbishop is leaving room for a way out - an "exit strategy" if you will - for the Democratic Party to cease supporting the "culture of death" and mend it's wicked ways.

That being said, the reasons for his condemnation should be clear to anyone who knows the slightest bit about Church teaching on the sanctity of human life and traditional marriage.
  1. The Church teaches that abortion is a "grave sin" tantamount to murder and terrorism, while the Democratic Party asserts it is simply a matter of "personal choice."
  2. The Church teaches that euthanasia is also "murder" comparable to the eugenic programs of Nazi Germany, while the Democratic Party asserts it is simply "death with dignity."
  3. The Church teaches that embryonic stem-cell research is "baby farming," and "murder," similar to the kinds of human experiments performed by German doctors during the Third Reich, while the Democratic Party asserts it is simply "for a good cause."
  4. The Church teaches that gay-marriage is a "perversion of the natural law," and an "abomination before God," while the Democratic Party asserts it is simply a matter of "civil rights."
  5. The Church teaches that homosexual behavior is "perverse sin," and that young children should be sheltered from seeing it, while the Democratic Party asserts that it's "normal" and children should be taught to "embrace it" and be "tolerant" of it.
With such a dichotomy outlined like this, it becomes a bit more easy to understand why some Vatican officials might be inclined to think of the U.S. Democratic Party in such a negative light. Suspiciously absent is the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, which has been strangely silent, as high ranking Vatican officials make claims such as this. Those who are familiar with the nuances of "vatican-ese" (the diplomacy of Vatican words and actions) realize this could only mean one thing. The pope approves of the message. There are some things a pope simply cannot say in public. That should be well understood after the fallout following the pope's comments on Islam at the university in Germany a couple years back. Dozens of Christians lost their lives in Muslim riots after the pope quoted a medieval emperor simply in a rhetorical sense. A slip of a Vatican official's lips, exposing a message the pope does not endorse, is almost immediately followed by a disclaimer from the Vatican press office. Such is not the case following Archbishop Burke's comments harshly criticizing the U.S. Democratic Party. It simply leads one to believe the pope agrees.

"The Catholic Knight" also agrees, but as is typical of my character, I would like to take it a step further. In my opinion, the U.S. Democratic Party does not "risk" the possibility of becoming a "party of death," it instead already has, and there may be no turning back now.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Hitler's Pope

(Philadelphia Evening Bulletin) - ...Hitler's Pope has been criticized for its accuracy and dedication to objective history, and Mr. Cornwell admits that since its publication, his views have undergone revision.

"While I believe with many commentators that the pope might have done more to help the plight of the Jews, I now feel, 10 years after the publication of my book, that his scope for action was severely limited and I am prepared to state this," he said....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Ten years after the bombshell book, hyper media criticism, and forty years after the communist propaganda first hit the American public, Pope Pius XII has finally been vindicated....
(ANSA) - Vatican City, September 17 - New research clears controversial wartime pope Pius XII from the accusation that he did not do enough to save Jews, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday.

It is the first time the pope has come out publicly to defend the record of his WWII predecessor, who is moving towards sainthood despite accusations of keeping silent about the Holocaust....

.... The pope thanked the Pave the Way Foundation, made up of Catholics and Jews, for uncovering the evidence in favour of Pius.

He voiced the hope that further studies can reinforce ''the historical truth, overcoming all remaining prejudice''. Benedict's statement on the new research - which has not yet been made public - follows last year's assertion by his No.2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, that people ignore evidence disproving Pius was indulgent towards Hitler.

Pius was the victim of a ''black legend'', said Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State....

read full story here

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(CWNews.com) - The Vatican has confirmed the existence of a directive from Pope Pius XII, asking Catholic clergy and religious to shelter Jews from the Holocaust.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (bio - news), the Vatican Secretary of State, acknowledged in short April 19 announcement that Pope Pius XII issued instructions for all religious institutions to open their doors to Jewish people. The catacombs of Rome were also made available for shelter....

read full story here

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(CNA).- A former high-ranking officer with the KGB claims that the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence agency in the 1960s were set on executing a smear campaign against the Catholic Church, and the main target was Pope Pius XII.

In a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII “as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer.”

“In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe,” writes Pacepa. “Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB’s main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. ‘Dead men cannot defend themselves’ was the KGB’s latest slogan.”

The code name for this operation against Pope Pius XII was “Seat-12.”

read full story here
There was no "Hitler's Pope." The whole thing was a fabrication, a lie, invented by the Soviet KGB, in a plan called "Seat 12," devised for the sole purpose of undermining the moral authority of the Catholic Church over the western world. It was enthusiastically embraced by the enemies of the Catholic Church on both sides of the political spectrum. The Secular Left loved it! The Religious Right used it. (I even had a Jehovah's Witness at my door preach it to me.) Oh how eager so many where to believe the lie! Even some Catholics jumped on the bandwagon. The criticism from the Left-wing biased media was unending. We heard it from all the major television and cable networks. After Cornwell's 'Hitler's Pope' was published, literally dozens of knock off books followed. The television preachers, oh how many television preachers, included it in their sermons. Some Evangelical authors included it in their own books on apologetics and eschatology.  Millions upon millions of unsuspecting Evangelicals were subjected to this lie, many of whom still believe it, because they trust the television preacher who told them. (I can't even count the number of times I've been confronted about it by misinformed Evangelicals.) It was perhaps one of the greatest lies of our time - the whopper of the century!

We can learn a lot about those who enthusiastically embraced it, who went out of their way to spread it around, and took every opportunity to rub it in the face of any Catholic who would dare defend the Church on anything. Shall we call it "prejudice?" Perhaps "bigotry" might be a better word. So what are we to say of those Catholics who actually embraced it, using it as an excuse to rationalize their opposition to the Church on this issue or that? What shame! What scandal! What embarrassment! Shame on all those who engaged in this nonsense! Dishonor and disrepute upon those who eagerly embraced such a lie, that so seriously defamed the Church, without even questioning it!

So what are we to say of the mainstream news media? Do we see primetime retractions in their news broadcasts? Do we get so much as an inkling of regret for having slandered the Church for so many years? No. Not a peep out of them. How about the Secular Left-wingers out there? Any apologies? None. There is nothing but silence. What about the Religious Right-wingers? I'll give them credit. At least some have apologized.  A few (especially those who understand what it's like to be slandered) never believed it to begin with.  To them I give thanks. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not holding a grudge here, and I wouldn't advise that any of us do. Rather, I would like to use this whole thing as an object lesson for Catholics, Protestants and non-religious people alike. Prejudice can just as well be defined as eagerly embracing bad news about somebody (or some people) without ever questioning the validity of the news itself, or even the credibility of the source who reported it.

The fabrication of "Hitler's Pope" is the epitome of this. The KGB introduced this lie to the western world in 1963 via a German author and playwright named Rolf Hochhuth. The play, entitled "The Deputy," was introduced as fiction. The pope in the play was never mentioned by name. The incriminating accusations against the pope were made by suggestion and insinuation. Hochhuth himself was raised in Nazi Germany and was a member of Hitler's Youth. While that itself is not incriminating, since service was compulsory, his refusal to talk about it, combined with his defense of those who deny the Holocaust, does tarnish his reputation a bit. It is not known if Hochhuth was directly hired by the KGB to write the play, or if the KGB simply used his material as an opportunity. Only two things are known as fact. The first is that the KGB was authorized by the Soviet Kremlin to smear the reputation of Pope Pius XII after his death in a plan named "Seat 12." The second, is that Rolf Hochhuth wrote the play that started the job. Beyond that we can surmise that Soviet involvement helped to promote the ideas of the play throughout Europe and North America, eventually coming to a climax in John Cornwell's 1999 bombshell book "Hitler's Pope." It can be reasonably assumed that Cornwell was simply operating on the momentum of the propaganda itself, and was probably not working for the KGB, since the Soviet Union fell almost a decade earlier. By this time the KGB's lies had taken on a life of their own, that outlived those who originally promoted them. Cornwell might be considered a victim of this by some, but the obvious distortions in the book causes 'The Catholic Knight' to question his culpability. It would seem to me that Cornwell may have been a victim of Soviet propaganda, but it was his own prejudice that caused him to write his book the way he did. Just to cite a small example of this, the cover of the book features a black and white photo that appears to show the image of Pope Pius XII being saluted by a Nazi officer. In fact, the photo is doctored. A comparison of the original photo with the book cover, reveals that the supposed Nazi officer is actually a civilian cab driver. Deception begins even before the book is opened, while the fables and inaccuracies written therein have been exposed and rebuffed by many historians. Cornwell is responsible for his own libel against Pius XII. Thankfully, for his sake, he is finally starting to admit his error.

Soon Pope Pius XII will be canonized as a saint, and when he is, all of this will be drudged up again for a public to see. This time, however, they'll be given the other side of the story, the whole story, and the world will see just how low the enemies of the Church will sink to slander the name of a good man in the hopes of tarnishing the Church's moral authority. A word to the wise for critics of the Catholic Church, especially those in the mainstream media. You've been played! You've been suckered! Nearly half a century ago a lie was concocted by communists on the other side of the world, and you bought it! They used you. You fell for it, and now it's come out that you unwittingly cooperated with communists to spread KGB propaganda. Are you feeling a little sheepish now? You should. If you don't, you should be worried about yourself. So the lesson is this. Next time you hear a supposed "fact" about the history of the Catholic Church, you might want to do a little research before you believe it. Maybe you ought to check the sources. Maybe you should allow a little skepticism to enter your mind, the next time somebody tells you a "scandalous" tale about the world's largest Christian organization.  It's just a little friendly advice.  Take it for what it's worth.

Vatican Take On U.S. Financial Crisis

(CNS) -- The current financial crisis pummeling the United States and beyond is a sign that the so-called "new economy" and its risky investments have failed, the Vatican newspaper said.

The booming growth of financial markets did not correspond to real growth or concrete development for society because it created an artificially robust gross national product, said a Sept. 24 article in L'Osservatore Romano.

The only real growth registered in this crisis has been "the commissions, profits of the banks and bonuses for the managers," it said.

The article, with the headline "A costly illusion," was written by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, an Italian economist and professor of financial ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy.

The U.S. financial meltdown has been blamed on "the greed of managers and lack of regulations. But curiously, no one ever refers to the indirect responsibility of the government's economic policy" which, he wrote, tried to cover the lack of any real economic development with a booming Wall Street.

He said the U.S. government's proposed bailout may stave off any worst-case scenario for its troubled financial markets, but it will not repair the root causes of the crisis....

read full story here

Does Financial Bailout Harken To One World Government?

(Spirit Daily) - Lost in the hullabaloo over the economy is the trend toward global consolidation. Astonishingly, the United States has taken over private financial institutions and may now send hundreds of billions into additional private interests on Wall Street, as it absorbs debt and assumes a degree of control. It is a "soft" socialism -- something that would have been unthinkable just a couple years ago and places tremendous power in the hands of the Federal Reserve, which long has been feared as a behind-the-scenes player that will control the economy and work toward a consolidation (first of businesses, then of nations) which in turn would lead to a new world order, and perhaps even a single world system of finance and governance.

For many years, this has seemed in the realm of wild conspiracy, but to increasing numbers, it is not quite so wild any longer. No one here is saying that a single small group of strategists is controlling the world, but terms like "secret governing" directed by a relatively small number of officials are a consideration that has grown more acute in recent days. We have long said the conspiracy is more a spiritual one -- a spiritual trend -- than the work of any single brilliant Geneva-or-Brussels-based cabal. Many different entities, some large, some small, some open, some secretive (see: "Bohemia Grove," or the Bilderberg Group), are moving in the same direction: consolidation first of finances, then of governments. One sees this most starkly with the United Nations, the European Union, and now the move (at least at the level of finances) to dissolve borders too in the Western Hemisphere (a former leader of Mexico even used the term "North American Union" as a goal for his nation; and a number of U.S. presidents -- including Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush (Sr.) -- have employed the term "new world order"). Recently, former British leader Tony Blair, a Catholic, was at Yale speaking of the need to merge faith with globalization.

Now, we believe that one can go too far with all of this. Not everything is a conspiracy. But something about what is occurring on Wall Street (and at the Treasury) does not seem right. In the wake of the reputed financial crisis (no one is really sure what is occurring), we see headlines to the effect that "global firms" (as one article put it) are "set to move in." That's disquieting. Do powerful financiers actually manipulate developments and markets to such a degree as to change the landscape almost single-handedly, and for the strategic goal of a single governance (and perhaps also a single spirituality)? This is the fear because a single system could be controlled, then, or at least decisively influenced, by a personage of evil....

read full story here

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Fall of American Christianity

(Christian Post) - While many Christians today are closely monitoring the growth and activity of Islam, especially after 9/11, another religious movement has been steadily growing “under the radar” and could become among the largest religions in the United States in less than five years.

“Wicca is the fastest-growing religion in America, set to be the third largest religion by 2012,” claims Marla Alupoaicei, who co-wrote the recently released book “Generation Hex” with fellow Christian author Dillon Burroughs.

“The numbers of adherents are doubling every 30 months,” she says.

Furthermore, every major city in the United States has networks of Wiccans, adds Burroughs.

“Certain parts of the country, such as the Pacific Northwest, the mountain states (New Mexico and Colorado) and areas near Salem, Mass., are the strongest in the U.S.,” he says. “However, I live in Tennessee and have found pockets of Wiccans in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia to interview. I didn't have to travel far or even outside of the so-called Bible belt to find Wiccans....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This trend is extremely important to monitor because it signals the beginning of the end for Christianity in the United States. It is virtually identical to the trend that existed in Europe during the middle of the 20th century. The rise of occultism is the result of the vacuum created by Secular Humanism. When governments and media push Secular Humanism upon a population, the effectively create a spiritual vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, and seeks to fill it as quickly as possible with anything it can. First to fill the void are unorganized natural religions, such as Wicca (pronounced as "wick-ka" or "witch-ah"), formerly known as "Witchcraft." Wicca is a naturalist religion, in which adherents worship nature and a spiritual "goddess." There is a strong sexual component to Wicca as well, which makes it very attractive to young men as well as women. Unlike spiritism, the New Age, and other forms of the occult; Wicca is highly successful, and has a history of an extremely fast growth rate. It mostly attracts young people who are disillusioned (or bored) with traditional Christian religion. This is the first generation of Wiccans.

Besides the obvious problems associated with Wicca's occultism, there is another serious problem that has become quite obvious in Europe, but completely ignored by the secular media. Wicca has a short half-life. By that I mean, it has the same problem as all unorganized religion. It doesn't last but two generations before it weakens enough to give way to the aggressive proselytism tactics of more organized religions. In Europe we see this happening with Islam. The children and grandchildren of European Wiccans are acutely aware of the problems associated with unorganized occultism, and seek a deeper meaning of existence in the spirituality of a more organized eastern religion - Islam. Try as they may to hold on to their children, European Wiccans have discovered that their unorganized spirituality is exactly everything Muslims claim it is; a form of Paganism that Allah (the God) abhors. As Europe enters it's third generation of occultism, massive conversions of Europe's native population to Islam are underway. The trend has become so prevailing, that some European countries (such as the U.K. for example) are instituting state enforced versions of Sharia (Islamic) Law to those who want to live by it. Europe has discovered, as a matter of historical fact, that Wicca cannot withstand the aggressive proselytism of Islam. In the end, little 'Harry Potter' always bows the knee to Allah.

Now we are witnessing the same trend emerging in the United States. Take a good look at these Wiccan communities, because that is the pool from which Islam will soon draw it's newest converts. It will happen within one or two generations at most. By the time the infants of today reach adulthood, we can expect to see a native Muslim population that is thriving in the United States.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

MILESTONE: Catholic Knight Reaches 100K Readers

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It happened late in the afternoon on September 21st, 2008. The 100,000th visitor logged on to 'The Catholic Knight' blog...

100,000

I remember starting this blog just three years ago and thinking it would be a milestone to gain just 1,000 readers. Little did I know then.

Known readers of 'The Catholic Knight' now include the following distinguished regular visitors...
  1. Two Vatican officials,
  2. Some U.S. Congressmen,
  3. At least one bishop in the U.S. Catholic Church,
  4. Multiple priests from around the world,
  5. Religious brothers and sisters from various locations,
  6. At least one editor from a major online Catholic publication,
  7. The editors of several Catholic blogs,
  8. A good number of U.S. soldiers fighting overseas,
  9. Somebody from the Chinese government who seems very interested in just about everything I publish here,
  10. Last but not least - you.
Thanks for reading.  God bless!

The Jewish Roots Of Catholicism



Want to learn more? click here

Evangelicals are well aware of the Jewish roots of Christianity, but they are mostly oblivious to how deeply this manifests itself within the Catholic Church. Many of the mysteries within Catholicism cannot be adequately explained without going back to the Jewish roots of the faith. Indeed, when Evangelicals learn of this, they gain a special appreciation for Catholicism, and some of them even convert over to Catholicism directly because of this. Catholics miss a huge window of opportunity for ecumenical relations with Evangelicals by glossing over the Jewish character of Catholicism. Emphasis on this element in Catholicism would not only help Evangelicals better understand the Catholic Church, but would also result in more Evangelical conversions to the Catholic faith.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Joe Biden May Cost Obama The Election


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: In nominating Senator Joe Biden as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama hoped Biden's "Catholic" identity would help him net the Catholic swing vote. However, in nominating a backsliding Cafeteria Catholic, Obama made a catastrophic miscalculation, and now that just may cost him the Catholic vote entirely.

The idea that Obama was specifically targeting the Catholic vote with his V.P. nominee pick is almost indisputable. During the selection process, news agencies across the nation reported Obama's probable short list - the overwhelming majority of those on it being "Catholic." All of them, however, would have backfired this year, because of the Vatican's crack down on pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians. However, the selection of Biden was quite possibly the worst pick imaginable at this time.

This is the fist presidential election held in the United States during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, and he is definitely having an impact. Indeed, it is no secret that the current pontiff wants to influence the world's social politics - especially on matters of human life. In short, he wants Catholics to put aside their partisan politics, and start voting like Catholics. That means Catholic voters must be educated, and communion must be withheld from them when they knowingly vote for pro-abortion politicians. It also means that bishops must take an aggressive stand against Catholic politicians who espouse heresy in a public setting (such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Joe Biden) and deny them communion so long as they fail to uphold the Church's teachings on life. It also means that Catholic organizations, like the 'Knights of Columbus' must aggressively work toward educating the general population about authentic Church teaching, and squarely oppose Catholic politicians who misrepresent it. All of these things, Pope Benedict XVI has aggressively pushed for during the last few years, and he's indicated he'll continue to push harder.

If Senator John Kerry thought he had it rough in his run for president in 2004, he had better thank his lucky stars that his name isn't Joe Biden who is running for Vice President this year. Indeed, Obama miscalculated severely, and picked a supposed "Catholic" who only irritates more Catholic voters than he draws. The last two elections has done nothing but prove that the selection of ANY pro-abortion Cafeteria Catholic (like John Kerry or Joe Biden) has become more of a political liability than an asset. This doesn't just apply to Democrats. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also a pro-abortion Cafeteria Catholic, discovered this during the Republican primary season. Obama's pick of Biden, in this Benedictine papal era, may very well cost him the election.
(WorldNetDaily) - Members of the Knights of Columbus Catholic organization have taken out ads to appear tomorrow in USA Today, the Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Delaware News Journal asking Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden to correct his statements about abortion.

Reminding him that under Catholic teaching, "abortion is a grave sin to be avoided at any time during a pregnancy," the organization attributes to Biden a "unique responsibility" to be correct when making public statements about the faith.

"Sen. Obama stressed your Catholic identity repeatedly when he introduced you as his running mate, and so your statements carry considerable weight, whether they are correct or not. You now have a unique responsibility when you make public statements about Catholic teaching," the letter says.

The issue of abortion has become a flashpoint in the 2008 presidential election for the Democratic nominees, Sens. Obama and Biden, at least in part because Obama is an ardent abortion proponent who has gone beyond the desires of even the National Abortion Rights Action League in advocating for the controversial procedure....

read full story here

Thursday, September 18, 2008

McCain Gets Catholic Vote

(NewsMax) - The McCain-Palin ticket may be locking its huge lead on a crucial voting bloc: church-going Catholics.

The development — contained Thursday in a poll by the Pew Research Center and backed by other polls — could be crucial to victory in November.

Why? Catholics are the ultimate swing voters and make up as much as one-third the population of battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Moreover, some 40 percent of U.S. Catholics have no affiliation with either party.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain now has opened a 16-percentage-point lead over Democratic rival Barack Obama among observant Catholics, according to the Pew poll. The lead began to widen with the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, who, unknown to most voters, was baptized in the Catholic Church but raised in primarily Protestant evangelical churches....

read full story here

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

OFFICIAL: Vatican Insists Theory Of Evolution Is Acceptable

(CNA) - The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture has said that evolutionary theory is “not incompatible” with the teachings of the Catholic Church, insisting that the theory of biological change over time was never condemned by the Church.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi made such remarks while presenting the new interdisciplinary conference to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species. The conference, which is a Vatican initiative to promote dialogue between scientists and theologians, is scheduled to take place in Rome in March 2009.

“Evolutionary theory is not incompatible a priori with the teaching of the Catholic Church, with the message of the Bible and theology, and in actual fact it was never condemned,” Archbishop Ravasi said....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I've written on this extensively. The teaching of the Church is that God created - period. Beyond that, most scientific theories are acceptable provided one acknowledges the basic premise that God created. How God created things is another matter. The Biblical accounts of creation should be taken as truth, but they don't have to be taken as literal scientific truth. The Bible is not a scientific textbook. The truth contained in the Biblical accounts of creation can be taken as moral truth and theological truth. Meaning these texts are designed to convey an important moral and theological message, not necessarily a literal scientific one. I say "accounts of creation" in plural, because there are three. The first is in Genesis 1, the second in Genesis 2 and the third is more general in John 1.

The most important thing for Catholics to remember is what separates humanity from the animal kingdom. Our bodies may be fashioned of the same stuff animals are made of. Our genetic code may have indeed evolved from lower forms of ape like creatures. However, our souls are NOT the product of evolution at all. They are a direct gift from God, complete from the beginning, and in no need of "evolution." The second creation story accounts for this in Genesis chapter 2. Therein we learn that God created the man out of the "slime" of the earth. One could take this as a literary reference to evolution if one wants to. But then God blew his breath (Hebrew: "Rauch" meaning spirit) into the nostrils of the man, and the man from then on became a living soul. This is a reference to the "divine spark" if you will, the moment when mankind ceased to be a member of the animal kingdom, and became a member of the spiritual kingdom. It is when man turned into a creature that could have an actual relationship with the living God, something animals can never have (read more here). That's the difference. That's what we must remember about ourselves, no matter what we learn about scientific theories and fossil evidence.

I've written on this topic extensively here, and here. They are excellent articles on the subject, and I think they give a much more balanced view on science from a Catholic perspective. Those links again are here...

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Britain Falls To Islam - Sharia Law Enacted - The Queen Must Be Mad!

(Times) - ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Behold the beginning of the end for Western civilization. Liberal Secular Humanism has finally reached it's logical conclusion. The fruit of Liberalism is Islam! 'The Catholic Knight,' along with many others, has been warning of this for three years now. As Liberals try to sterilize society of all Christian influence, as Secular governments continue to aid and abet them in this endeavor, and as churches compromise their morality to accommodate this trend; the final result is a spiritual vacuum in the collective society. Once that vacuum exists, the laws of nature take over.

Nature abhors a vacuum. That's a fundamental law of this universe. Wherever a vacuum exists, nature seeks to fill it as quickly as possible - with literally ANYTHING! The same holds true with human conscience and man's religious nature. When a society becomes devoid of religious conscience, human nature (which is very much a part of mother nature) seeks to fill it as quickly as possible - with literally anything. Thanks to liberal Secular Humanism, Europe has been devoid of it's historic Christian conscience for nearly half a century now. This is especially true in Great Britain, where the number of practicing Christians, who attend a church weekly, has now been reduced to a mere 10% of the British population. This Christian decline, spanning four decades, was accompanied by a dramatic increase in occult practices in the U.K..   It appeared that even in a religiously sterile environment, a good number of Brits still found a way to exercise their natural need for spirituality. Witchcraft (Wicca) and New Age occultism blossomed in England during the latter half of the 20th century. But that eventually gave way to a something much bigger and more organized - the rise of British Islam!

How could this happen!?!

With all civil remnants of Christianity having been neutered, and the churches of England having debased themselves with elements of Liberalism, the English population was ripe for the picking. Foreign immigrants from Africa and Asia were imported to the British Isles (as well as many other European nations) to shore up the population gap created by the Liberal exercises of abortion and artificial contraception. This was necessary to keep the country's social security system afloat. (In order for social security to work, you have to have an increasing population.) Since you can't force a liberal society to make babies, you've got to get your future taxpayers from somewhere, and immigrants from Africa and Asia were more than willing to fill the gap. Unfortunately, these immigrants also brought their religion with them - Islam.  Muslim immigrants to Britain reproduced at four to five times the rate of native British. So while the practice of British Christianity was shrinking, the practice of British Islam was expanding at an exponential rate. As Islam was introduced to a spiritually hungry British population, a growing number of native Brits began to convert, thus increasing the exponential growth of Islam in the British Isles to include home-grown "White Muslims" (as they were sometimes called). Currently, the number of practicing Muslims in the U.K. now exceeds the number of practicing Christians. Along with this demographic shift came a growing clamor for Sharia Law. That's because English Common Law, steeped in Christian morality and watered down by Secularism, is not good enough for the average Muslim. They demanded to be accommodated, and treated differently than the average Brit. They wanted their women to submit to Islamic laws, and their children to be raised and disciplined according to Islamic practices. A growing fear of social unrest (i.e. "Muslim Riots") has been driving the British government's quiet moves to pacify them. The institution of Sharia Law across the entire country, to those who want to submit to it, was not the first step toward this goal, and it certainly won't be the last.

The queen must be mad!!!

Yes, she is, but it's not just her. It's her Prime Minister and the entire British Parliament, as well as much of the political elites in the U.K..   Anyone who would surrender the sovereignty of one's national laws, to the religious institutions of a foreign culture, is perfectly insane, without a doubt. 

They're mad with Liberalism, to the point where they've gone beyond Secular Humanism, allowing it to be abandoned and replaced with Islamic Sharia Law. Yes, the queen could have stopped this from happening. Though mostly thought of as a figurehead monarchy, the queen still reserves some constitutional powers which can be exercised at her discretion. One would think that if the entire House of Lords and Commons had gone completely mad enough to allow this, the queen herself might have stepped in to save England from this catastrophic historical blunder. No. Instead, she quietly sat in her palace and did nothing - absolutely nothing. Sadly, the English monarchy has just proved it's worthlessness - again.

So now the birthplace of our culture, the cradle of English civilization, has given itself over to Islam - not just culturally, but legally too. Currently, submission to Sharia Law in the U.K. is voluntary, but as the Islamic population of Britain continues to explode at an exponential rate, and the influence of Christianity continues to subside, how long can we really expect it to remain voluntary? How long before Muslims gain control of the Parliament? How long before they gain control of the Prime Minister's office? How long before they gain control of the English crown itself!?! When they do, what can we expect? I think a quick look at other nations that use Sharia Law will give us the answer to that question.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Human nature demands a religious conscious - some form of spirituality. Liberals love Secular Humanism, because it gives license to their sexual liberation. But Secular Humanism seeks to purge human society from all influences of the Christian religion. History is now demonstrating to us that the fruit of Liberalism is Islam. That's because when Liberals get what they want, Secular Humanism wipes all remnants of Christianity from public view. When that happens a spiritual vacuum is created, and as we all know, nature abhors a vacuum. It seeks to fill it with anything it can find, and Islam is more than ready to rise to the occasion. So Liberals eventually find themselves forced to embrace Islam, partly because of politically correct nonsense, and partly because they fear what Muslims will do if they don't. It's a natural progression, just as natural as nature itself. The only thing standing between Liberals and Islam is a healthy and robust Christianity. Eliminate Christianity from the scene, and it won't be long before it's a public call to prayer five times a day, and our daughters are forced to cover their faces.

We know that other European nations are already going down the same path, but I'm interested in who's next in the English-speaking world. Will it be South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada!?! What about the United States? Thankfully, the U.S.A. has a steady flood of illegal aliens from Mexico streaming into the nation - most of them Catholic. These people may be illegal now, but many of their children will eventually be taxpayers, and that may help keep the social security system afloat without having to import Muslim immigrants from Africa and Asia.

Liberalism has it's price. With the rise of Sharia Law in the U.K., we've now seen what it is. The only question that remains is, are we ready to pay it?  Believe it or not, there is a way out of this, even for Britain.  We must return to our Catholic roots, and take ALL the sexual ethics of the Church seriously.  Only then can there be a Christian revival in Europe, and the Islamic threat can at least be contained for the short term, and hopefully overcome in the long term.  Outside of this, there is no other way.  

Barack Obama Supports Infanticide

"We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live.... They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."

Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York
August 26, 2008

Saturday, September 13, 2008

OFFICIAL: Catholics May Not Vote For "Pro-Choice" Candidates

(LifeSiteNews.com) - During the opening day of the Catholic Leadership Conference yesterday, Baker Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa clarified the teaching of the US Bishops Conference regarding voting in favor of pro-abortion politicians. The question of whether Catholics may remain in good standing with the Church while voting for pro-abortion politicians was raised.

Bishop Vasa responded referencing the document of the United States Catholic Conference titled "Faithful Citizenship", noting a pro-abortion stance disqualifies candidates from consideration by faithful Catholics...

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Friday, September 12, 2008

BREAKING! Catholic Vote Goes Overwhelmingly To McCain/Palin

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Polls are coming in from multiple sources. Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin, has won the Catholic vote! McCain benefits from this, and Obama loses with his VP pick of a pro-choice, cafeteria Catholic (Joe Biden), who defies the Church's teachings, and cannot lawfully receive communion.

Obama's pick of Biden irritated a lot of Catholics. The man represents everything that is wrong in the U.S. Catholic Church today. Then McCain gave us a pro-life, pro-family, school-choice mother of five as his running mate. Catholic voters went wild. Catholic support of Barack Obama had been declining for months, and saw no recovery after his pick of Biden for VP. Now, with Sarah Palin on the McCain ticket, Catholic support for Obama/Biden has plunged to an all time low, while Catholic support for McCain/Palin sores to new heights. All of this comes on the heels of what appears to be an unofficial Vatican approval of Sarah Palin as an American Vice Presidential nominee. Here is a small sampling of what's going on...
(NewsMax) - Sarah Palin’s firm opposition to abortion and her status as a mother of five prompted a Vatican official to describe the Republican vice president nominee as a “dream candidate.”

“I couldn't be more happy,” a U.S. church official at the Vatican told Newsmax on the condition of anonymity. “She is, in many ways, a dream candidate, at least among Americans here....

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(The Campaign Spot) - Fritz Wenzel, a spokesman for the Zogby polling organization, is on XM POTUS08 right now, and he says that according to their numbers, McCain's surge in the polls started during the Democratic convention... which strikes me as rather odd.

Then he says that Sarah Palin is helping McCain by "double digits" among Catholic voters, particularly in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Michigan. While I don't find that impossible, it's interesting that a non-Catholic political figure would move the dial for Catholic voters. (Having said that, it's easy to picture her "hockey mom" style playing with Catholic voters in those states...

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(Huffington Post) - Catholics are the ultimate swing voters. No other large group has switched sides so often -- or been so consistently aligned with election winners. Catholics have backed the winner of the national popular vote for the last nine presidential elections: they've helped elect five Republican presidents, three Democratic presidents, and the popular-vote-winning but presidency-losing Democrat Al Gore.

Not only because of their winning track record, but also because they make up nearly a quarter of all registered voters in the United States, Catholics could determine who wins the White House in 2008.

That's why I'm curious to hear what young, traditional Catholics -- Generations X and Y -- think of Sarah Barracuda. Is Palin winning their support?

Thomas N. Peters posted that question online at AmericanPapist.com, winner of "Best Political/Social Commentary Site" in the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards. Peters, 23, who runs the site, has appeared on CNN, BBC World News, and The Today Show. AmericanPapist.com attracts visitors who are disproportionally in their 20s, and disproportionally traditional in their religious beliefs.

"My poll saw a 19% net increase in support for Sen. John McCain because of his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin," Peters told OffTheBus. "Plenty of my Catholic friends got swept up in palinmania. Many had pro-Palin Facebook statuses the day of the announcement, and even more had pro-Palin Facebook statuses after her convention speech. It's nice to have an attractive figurehead for our ideals, as opposed to someone from our grandparents' generation."

With 605 votes tallied after Palin was chosen to be McCain's running mate, here is the breakdown among mostly 20-something Catholics who adhere to the moral teachings of the pope...

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