Speaking to American Hispanic Catholics, Archbishop Gomez of San Antonio issued a call for the raising up of Hispanic Catholic leaders, with an emphasis on the re-evangelization of America (emphasis mine).
…In his address, titled “La predicación y la enseñanza: Evangelization, Education, and the Hispanic Catholic Future,” the archbishop mentioned such problems as a consumerist approach to religion and certain Protestant preachers’ exploitation of the “poverty and insecurity” of Hispanics…
…Archbishop Gomez said the most serious problem Catholic Hispanics face is the “dominant culture” in the United States which is “aggressively, even militantly secularized…”
“Definitely, we need to raise up Hispanic Catholics leaders, and we need a pastoral plan to educate Hispanics in the faith and to nourish them with the sacraments,” Archbishop Gomez said. “But this must be part of a wider evangelical strategy. We need to commit ourselves again to the work of re-evangelization, to preaching the Gospel again to America.”
Noting the rise in high school dropout rates and single-parent families among Hispanics, the archbishop said, “I worry that we may be ministering to a permanent Hispanic underclass.”
Hispanics have some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births and abortion, he added, saying these cannot be written off as just “conservative” issues.
“[W]e need to find new ways to keep our kids chaste and in school, and to instill in them the value of education,” he advised. “We need to push for real improvements in public education, and in public support for private education, especially in our poorest school districts. And we need to assemble all the resources of our own network of Catholic schools to meet this challenge.”
The archbishop then further underlined the need for evangelization.
“Hispanic ministry should mean only one thing—bringing Hispanic people to the encounter with Jesus Christ in his Church. Too often, I’m afraid, we lose sight of that,” he said, warning that Catholics should not mistake the “means” of programs and bureaucratic administration for this most important end.
“The proclamation of Jesus Christ must be the criteria against which we measure everything we do in Hispanic ministry,” he continued. “Are we making new disciples? Are we strengthening the faith of those who have already been made disciples? Is the knowledge and love of Christ spreading through our work?”
About a month ago I attended the Parish Leadership/Evangelization Day organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George, answered a few questions posed by the attendees. Following, are three of his succinct responses to questions dealing with topics such as understanding the Holy Trinity, Liberation Theology, and immigration reform.
Lent encourages us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and thus to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what road to take in life. And thus, the Season of Lent offers us an ascetic and liturgical route which, while helping us to open our eyes to our weakness, opens our hearts to the merciful love of Christ. BENEDICT XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, 1st March 2006.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The liturgical season of Lent is fast approaching. The Lord is giving us yet one more opportunity to work on ourselves, on our souls. For this, I thank Him!
As you are well aware we are living in a very tumultuous time; a time of financial distress, war, and a time in which radical politicians –and presidents–boldly undermine the sanctity of life. This time in which we live demands conversion, a radical turning away from sin to God. But unless we ourselves begin this conversion process, the world will continue getting worse and worse by the minute.
I warmly encourage each and everyone reading this post to take advantage of Lent, to make it the best Lent you ever had, the most spiritually fruitful. Let us enter into this holy season with a deep desire “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,” so that we “may be filled with all the fullnes of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
Please realize that God has given us everything we need to experience the conversion of our own hearts and minds, if we but humbly accept His Divine Grace. Let us ask our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, to plead our cause before the Lord, to teach us how to be good sons and daughters of the Most High, to protect us from all harm. Let us also ask our Brothers and Sisters who dedicated their lives to the fulfilment of the Christian vocation, and who now enjoy the Beatific Vision, to come to our aid in times of temptation so that we may be strengthened and may come off unharmed after the battle. Finally, let us be mindful that, through Baptism, we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and so we all have the responsibility to look out for one another, especially for the poor (Philipians 2:4; Matthew 25:40). Let us, then, pray for one another during Lent!
For my Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy 441) class, we have to write an informal, one page, reaction paper for each of the reading assignments. I would like to share it with you.
For my Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy 441) class, we have to write an informal, one page, reaction paper for each of the reading assignments.
Here is my first reaction paper for you to read and critique!
A group of six anti-war protesters interrupted an Easter Sunday Mass in Chicago yesterday morning. Stunning parishioners during Cardinal Francis George’s homily they went up and down the aisle of the auditorium at Holy Name Cathedral (undergoing repairs) shouting and squirting stage blood on the congregation. The six were arrested following an angry confrontation with parishioners in the entryway.
Magdi Christian Allam stands in a long line of Christians whose witness to Christ was a matter of life and death. This testament was written by Dom Christian de Cherge, OCSO in Algiers, December 1, 1993 to be opened in the event of his death at the hands of Islamic extremists. The letter is a kind of apologia for the seven French Trappists of Tibhirine–Brothers Christian-Marie, Bruno, Célestin, Christophe, Luc, Michel, and Paul who chose to remain in Algeria despite increasing threats on their lives, the assassinations of several of their friends, and the urging of various government and Church authorities to abandon their home and their mission.
Taken hostage just before Palm Sunday, the seven, who have become known as the “martyrs of hope,” gave their final witness on May 24, 1996. The testament was read in public two days later on Pentecost Sunday, 1996.
Barak Obama’s positions on everything from parental notification to sex shops near schools to sex ed in kindergarten to being the exact opposite of everything I stand for is discussed in this little known video from 8 months ago.
Some disclaimers. First, I am not pleased with the title of this video, but fortunately this vid. doesnt speak about it. Second, this vid. makes references to the “Magical Negro.” This made me a bit uncomfortable until I learned what that expression meant. Then it removed a scale or two from my eyes. The LA Times has an excellent editorial on it here.
The Magical Negro theory may explain the Obama as Messiah phenom which is also reaching new heights. In Obama’s words:
“…that a light will shine through that window,
a beam of light will come down upon you,
you will experience an epiphany
…and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls
and vote for Obama.”
One of the oddest phenomena in the current era is that there may soon be more Evangelicals spurning birth control than Catholics. It is a topic that has been gaining steam for some years in Evangelical circles, though they would never admit something so bold as that maybe H.H. Paul VI was right in writing Humanae Vitae.
While Evangelicals employ different kinds of arguments, happily a growing number are filling their quivers and coming often closer to a teaching of the Church than many Catholics. Remember the first step toward the Church for the Scott and Kimberly Hahn was acceptance of Humanae Vitae.
Hello my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ!I would like to share this youtube video with you.
Imagine if all that time and effort that is being put into creating these “little beauties” (read little skanks) was put into turning these girls into models of virtue. Imagine if these mothers, instead of instilling the love of worldy things into these children would instill in them the love of God and neighbor. Imagine the “caliber” of sanctity that these little girls would achieve!So, what do you guys think?
St. Ann instructing Mother Mary in the ways of the LORD.
In such stark contrast to some of the anti-life stories we hear all the time – some of which I have touched on here at PC… I wanted to share this after running across this story over at Creative Minority Report.
Edwarda O’Bara was a vivacious sixteen-year-old and a mild diabetic. During the early morning hours of January 3rd, 1970, Edwarda woke up shaking and in great pain because the oral form of insulin she had been taking wasn’t reaching her blood stream. Edwarda was rushed to the hospital emergency room and as she lay in her hospital bed sliding in and out of consciousness she turned to her mother Kaye and said, “Promise you won’t leave me, will you, Mommy?” Kaye looked at her frightened daughter and said, “Of course not, I would never leave you, darling, I promise. And a promise is a promise!” Those were the last words that were exchanged before Edwarda quietly slipped into a diabetic coma.For the past 36 years, Edwarda has lived her life in a coma, and Kaye has lived her promise of never leaving her daughter’s side. Kaye who is now over 78 years old has kept a vigil at Edwarda’s bedside, caring for her every two hours, twenty-four hours a day, for the past 36 years! She has maintained this grueling pace and during these 36 years has not slept for more than 90 minutes at a time. As a devoted mother, Kaye chose not to institutionalize Edwarda, but rather to care for her at home and assume the tremendous financial burden that accompanies personally caring for a comatose child.
Kaye O’Bara passed away March 7th.
Please pray for the repose of her soul.
For more information, Kaye’s website: http://www.edwardaobara.com/
Never having taken “The Pill™” (being a man, I don’t need “The Pill™” to “fix” me – my fertility doesn’t need fixing apparently) something only recently occurred to me as a dumb man…”The Pill™” comes in the sort of dispensers pictured here, I understand, as a matter of course. Yes? (We have anon options in the combox – pipe up if I am wrong!)
Well this dispenser is mighty useful, I think. Really it would be all the more useful still for persons who in attempting to preserve their own life, must take certain medicines in certain dosages daily…
Yet as far as I am aware, for the different medications that can preserve life no such ever-so-convenient packaging is made available to help the elderly, infirm or otherwise scatterbrained like myself who can’t remember if I took my daily vitamin…
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Pace University student who twice threw copies of the Koran into a toilet at the school after disputes with Muslims pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct in connection with the incidents.
StanislavShmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.
Shmulevich, of Brooklyn, admitted he tossed the Muslim holy books into toilets at Pace on Oct. 13, 2006, and Nov. 21, 2006. A criminal complaint says the Koran that was recovered in the October incident “was covered in feces.”
In both cases, a teacher found the books in a men’s room on the second floor of the school’s main building in lower Manhattan.
Muslims consider the Koran a sacred writing that contains the direct word of God, and desecrating it is seen as an offense against God.
Detective Faisal Khan, who prepared the complaint, said Shmulevich told him “he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had a recent disagreement.”
Shmulevich, a business major and immigrant from the former Soviet Union, initially was charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime. The charge is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
His lawyer, Glenn Morak, said he believed the disorderly conduct plea was an appropriate disposition.
“There was no hate crime here,” Morak said. “He accepts responsibility, and he is repentant.”
To be clear, I am not for destruction of property or such reckless and useless forms of disrespect. It is wrong to destroy other people’s property and terribly unconvincing way to prove your point… But to put it in perspective:
Yea, 300 hours for a student who tossed a book in the potty seems about fair!
300 man hours constitutes almost two “bank months” – 7.5 (40-hour) weeks to be precise…
If the gent is a college educated bi-lingual man working in the NYC area, I think it is a conservative (very conservative) estimate to value his hourly wage-earning potential at $15.00 an hour… That means the 7.5 work weeks of his life for throwing a book in the potty could reasonably be valued at $4,500…
How much would it have cost him to simply replace the Koran that was damaged? Actually, why wasn’t this a matter for a civil suit?
US Catholic University Approves Gay Straight Partnership Club
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
PORTLAND, Oregon, February 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The University of Portland, a Catholic university run by the Holy Cross Fathers, has officially recognized the university’s first-ever sexuality club, the Gay Straight Partnership (GSP).
The GSP’s mission, according to the club’s constitution, is “to build a community that is open and welcoming to all students” and “to help all students grow in friendship, knowledge, faith and service.”
Although the university administration had turned down previous requests to form a homosexual student’s club (in 1994 and 1999), the school was listed in 2004 as a ‘gay friendly’ institution by homosexual activist website Catholiclesbians.org (see LifeSiteNews.com report: U.S. Homosexual Activist Website Provides List of ‘Gay Friendly’ Catholic Parishes).
The club’s initial advisers, social work professor Anissa Rogers and Kristina Houck, the Health Center’s substance abuse prevention coordinator, were replaced by Holy Cross Fr. John Donato and Stacey Noem, a campus minister.
Donato said that he was chosen to be the club’s new adviser not only because he can act as a liaison between the administration and the students, but also for his ability to “vocalize and facilitate the mission of the university.”
“The fact that I am a Holy Cross priest and the associate vice president for student life is a good way to make sure that this group stays focused for what we hope all student groups are involved in, but also this particular one which deals with the sacred area of human sexuality,” Donato said.
There are really no two ways around it… Designating something as “gay” puts it in the sphere of association of a sex act. In the same fashion the University of Portland would likely not approve the “Playboy Swingers Club” or the “Porn Club” or the “Future Strippers of America” chapter… Well this one seems a no brainer. Any number of clubs that cater to interests students have beyond their sexual proclivites (within the confines of morality! The U of P “Reefer Club” doesn’t cut it!) are or can be available.
I would go one step further and suggest Portland probably has some gay bars and night clubs, so persons committed to being part of this community are probably not without recourse to social activities there. Quick Googling of “Portland OR Gay” confirms that.
Really though, the culture of the Catholic University should be one that is about promoting a vision of sexuality and family life that contravenes today’s social standards. This needn’t even be turned on its side and be made a “gay issue”… Frankly, given the “hook-up culture” that permeates the culture of 20somethings, there is no way to speak about it and re-affirm it enough.
Certainly setting up clubs based on orientations and preference for behaviors that go directly against it is not the way to promote how the Church deals with the “sacred area of human sexuality”.
Posted by David Bennett 
Posted by Jorge Flores 
Posted by Jorge Flores 
