Friends of Life: Only 6 of 24 Catholic Senators

Pray, and thank God, for these Catholic "Friends of Life" in Congress who voted to restore the Mexico City policy to protect unborn human beings:

Mel Martinez of Florida
Sam Brownback of Kansas
Jim Bunning of Kentucky
David Vitter of Louisiana
Mike Johanns of Nebraska
Jim Risch of Idaho

Hostile to Life

Two Catholic senators who frequently vote anti-life with Democrats voted against restoring the policy, thus allowing federal funds to be given to groups providing abortions overseas:

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Susan Collins of Maine

These two Republicans joined 16 anti-life Catholic Democrats voting "NAY,":

Casey, Jr. (PA)
Gillibrand (NY)
Reed (RI)
Leahy (VT)
Cantwell (WA)
Menendez (NJ)
Murray (WV)
Begich (AL)
Dodd (CT)
Landrieu (LA)
Harkin (IA
Kerry (MA)
McCaskill (MO)
Mikulski (MD)
Durbin (IL)
Kaufman (DE)

Not voting was Sen. Kennedy (MA).

Read more about this pathetic and scandalous situation at One Nation Under God where Lisa Correnti explains how to sign a petition to Cardinal George, president of the USCCB, asking him to tell Catholic politicians to stop receiving campaign donations from pro-abortion organizations like NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List, and NOW.

"Here is a list of the total contributions made to the senators who voted against the bill to restore the Mexico City Policy.

"Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who assumed office only in January 2007, has accepted $986,619 from the pro-abortion lobby.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has received $205,768

“Pro-life" Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA), $327,914.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), $1,043,301

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), $17,400

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), $303,014

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), $44,585

Sen. Christopher Dodd (CT), $31,235

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), $326,996

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), $191,057

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), $367,491

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), $77,216

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), $24,435

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), $244,360"

Story from Catholic Online

Hey, Nancy, Babies Stimulate the Economy, Not Contraceptives!

Bravo, John Boehner! Thank you for asking N. for a true economic stimulus - not contraceptives but a culture of life that welcomes babies!

As The Miami Herald reports, Mr. Boehner responded to the insanity of the "contraceptive Madam", Nancy Pelosi, by demanding that this anti-life and anti-family economic killer be taken out of the proposed economic stimulus package. It sounds like maybe N. was listening.

Thank you, Mr. Boehner, you are a "Friend of Life". You see, just like our Holy Father Benedict said, that "reason and religion go together", not the violence of the war on children, women and families being waged every day with the weapons of contraception and abortion.

Mrs. Pelosi, please put down the weapons with which you are attacking babies and women! Please put down the weapons of the cult of death and help us create the peace which welcomes every human life as sacred and worth defending! Please join us in the Culture of Life, and you, too, will live!

Prayers, please.

-MCITL

Vatican II: Not a "dogma" of faith

"From the moment in which the bishops and priests of the Fraternity recognize the Church, and the Magisterium of the Pope, that will suffice as an implicit acknowledgment."

The following news item from Rorate Caeli is offered in light of the recent act of our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, to lift the decree of excommunication from the bishops ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel LeFebvre of the Society of Saint Pius X:

Sunday, January 25, 2009

What will the SSPX have to do?

"Vatican II is not a dogma of Faith," Roman sources say

In her article on six questions related to the Decree which remitted the sanction of excommunication of the four bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), the Vatican correspondent for French newspaper La Croix (the Catholic-owned daily), Isabelle de Gaulmyn includes some well-known facts.

However, there is some new information in the text, which we present below.

1. Possible news conference by Cardinal Castrillón:

"This week, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, which is in charge of this reintegration, should explain it [the future possibilities] publicly to the press."


2. Letter of Cardinal Bertone. Regarding the question on whether this "reintegration encompasses an acknowledgment of the teachings of Vatican II", De Gaulmyn reveals that the decree was the object of a letter sent by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, to Curial authorities:

"This is the whole problem. The decree published on Saturday does not speak of Vatican II, but it evokes indirectly the 'problem posed at the origin'. Not more than, according to our information, the letter sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the authorities of the Curia, in which he makes this gesture known."


3. So, what about Vatican II? At least for the moment there does not seem to be any desire from those responsible for the discussions on the Vatican side to demand from the SSPX the express acceptance of one specific Council (the Second Vatican Council or, for instance, the First Lyon Council), since they may all be implictly included in more generic expressions. In the words of De Gaulmyn:

"The refusal of the teachings of the Council is the true cause of the rupture of the Integrists. For the constitution of the Institute of the Good Shepherd [IBP] by former members of the Fraternity, in 2006, its members explicitly vowed 'to have a positive attitude of study and communication with the Apostolic See, avoiding all controversy, (...) regarding certain points taught by the Second Vatican Council or regarding subsequent reforms of the liturgy and of the law, and which seem to us hardly reconcilable with Tradition.'

"Nothing of the sort this time, according to our sources: 'Vatican II is not a dogma of faith', they say. From the moment in which the bishops and priests of the Fraternity recognize the Church, and the Magisterium of the Pope, that will suffice as an implicit acknowledgment."

Meatless Fridays: NOT abolished AND a serious obligation*

Ask Father!

Q. "Why does it say 'Abstinence from meat or other penance' on the Fridays of the Catholic Chapel Calendar" (page 2)?

A. A lot of Catholics think that abstinence (“fish on Fridays”) has been abolished. But it hasn’t! The Church’s official law—called Canon Law—governs all the Catholic faithful throughout the world. Let’s take a look at what it says concerning abstinence:

˜ “Abstinence from meat … is observed on every Friday of the year, unless it [the Friday] coincides with a feast of the rank of Solemnity”: canon 1251;

˜ “The Bishops’ Conference [of each country or region] may determine the observance of abstinence … in more detail … especially substituting works of charity or acts of piety in whole or in part for the abstinence ….”: canon 1253.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops early on (in the 1970’s) allowed Catholics, if they wished, to replace the usual abstinence from meat with some work of charity: e.g. helping the poor (as on a COMREL), nursing the sick, etc. Also, one can perform an act of piety: reciting all or part of a Rosary, making the Stations of the Cross, etc.

Q. So, is there still an obligation on Fridays?

A. Yes, a serious obligation: either abstinence from meat (which is easy), or charitable work, or prayer.

-- Thanks to Father Charles Johnson, CHC, USNR, aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

(Art: El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (Greek, working in Spain),The Penitent Saint Peter, 1595-1600, Toledo, Spain. Oil on canvas. San Diego Museum of Art, Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1940:7)

* unless, as we read, some other form of penitence is observed.

'African Americans...are pro-life and uphold pro-creative marriage'

"As we see the dawn of a new year and a great milestone being passed, people across the country should let our new president know that we want babies in the womb protected and traditional marriage respected."
-- Alveda King

ATLANTA (Christian Newswire) - A group of African Americans and other community leaders gathered in Atlanta today to discuss an agenda to be presented to President Elect N. regarding his first 100 days in office.

The leaders agreed that African Americans who are celebrating the upcoming inauguration of President-Elect N. should carry a pro-family/pro-community agenda to Washington, DC.

"African Americans, like many Americans are pro-life and uphold pro-creative marriage," said Alveda King, a spokesperson for the team. "As we see the dawn of a new year and a great milestone being passed, people across the country should let our new president know that we want babies in the womb protected and traditional marriage respected."

The accomplishment of an African American holding the nation's highest office will be of little value if the black community continues to be destroyed by the horrible plagues of society such as: abortion's harmful effects on our women and children, teen pregnancy, AIDS/HIV, childhood obesity, incarceration of our youth, poverty, attacks on fatherhood, marriages and the hosts of evil we face every day.

The genocide must end. We are one human race, and it's time to stand up for the truth. It's time to stand up for life, liberty, and family.

"We need to be a party with a purpose," added the group. "We need to let N. know that our children's lives are more important than the money and political support of the abortion lobby, and that of all of the other special interests groups that destroy our quality of life. This nation was founded upon life, liberty, and justice for all."

The group will release their "open letter" to N., members of Congress, state legislators and other officials on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 10:00 A.M. at the Georgia State Capitol, room 125. The press is invited to attend.

(Story from Catholic Online.)

The Conversion of Dr. David A. White

Dr. White converted to the Catholic Faith in 1979. He has won some 35 converts at the U.S. Naval Academy to the Catholic Faith.

"I was raised liberal Protestant...

"Occasionally I would go and sit through a Sunday morning worship ceremony in the bare church, not pay attention to the sermon, sing a few hymns and then go home. That was about it. This means that when I was seventeen and was free and went off to university, I just gave the whole thing up.

"I say in sorrow, by the way, that this is what I now see my Catholic students doing. Very often, when the young people leave home, as soon as they get away, they stop going to Church. I know that. That's what I did...because there is nothing there to hold on to and they know it. As a result they leave."

Thanks to Una Voce Chesapeake, Dr David's story is available here.