"Choice" is precisely the issue

We may be confused about when life begins as is Speaker Pelosi. We may be confused about many things.

But about one thing we will never be confused: our own choices.

A choice to end a life is never confusing. I see a life. I choose to end it. Case closed. No confusion.

Procured abortion is ALWAYS a choice and NEVER confusing.

What about this is so confusing that the Pelosis of the the world don't get it?

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn, pray for us.

Catholics believe that Christ is the sole Savior

Catechism to be changed to better reflect teaching on salvation of all in Christ

It was announced Aug. 5 that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has approved an important change to The U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults. A seriously ambiguous, misleading and doctrinally deficient statement on the status of the Sinaitic Covenant, that is, the Torah or Law of Moses, will be removed, and --- if the Holy See grants its recognitio --- will be replaced with a statement that quotes St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans.

The sentence to be changed currently reads:

“Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them.”

In its place will be this sentence:

“To the Jewish people, whom God first chose to hear his word, 'belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ' (Rom 9:4-5; cf. CCC, No. 839).”

The current language is objectionable for many reasons, not least because it suggests --- and seems to have been intended to suggest --- that the Law of Moses remains in force and obligatory for the Jewish people, that Jews are ordinarily saved through the observance of Mosaic law and therefore need not confess that Jesus is Lord and Christ. That heretical opinion has been spreading throughout the Church, and was even promoted in “Reflections on Covenant and Mission” (12 Aug. 2002), a document of the USCCB’s Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. On the contrary, the New Testament, the Church Fathers, and the ordinary and extraordinary Magisterium clearly, consistently, irreformably and infallibly teach that the Sinaitic Covenant was never salvific and has not been binding on anyone ever since it was fulfilled by Christ. As St. Paul teaches, “You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law: you are fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). To claim that anyone, even just the Jews, can be saved through the Law is to deny the holy Catholic faith.

In a letter informing the U.S. bishops of the outcome of their vote to edit the adult catechism, Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB general secretary, correctly explains:

“Catholics understand that all previous covenants that God made with the Jewish people have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ through the new covenant established through his sacrificial death on the cross. The prior version of the text might be understood to imply that one of the former covenants imparts salvation without the mediation of Christ, whom Christians believe to be the universal savior of all people.”

Of course it is possible to parse the current language of the adult catechism in such a way that it does not contradict, or almost doesn’t contradict, the Catholic faith. Nevertheless a catechism should plainly and clearly and accurately state the faith. The average adult should not have to (nor is he qualified to) squint and strain to understand a statement in the correct way. The predictable effect of the extremely ambiguous current language will be gravely hurtful to souls: pernicious misteaching, a failure to hand on what the Church believes about the Sinaitic Covenant.

The proposed new language is far superior, because it avoids the suggestion that the Law of Moses is salvific for the Jews. It could still be clearer about the status of the Law and of the Jewish people, but it is better to have a divinely-inspired passage from Holy Scripture that can be misinterpreted than to have a misleading statement that can, with effort, be interpreted in a way that doesn’t contradict divine revelation.

Let us continue to pray for those Jews who have not yet received the gift of faith in Christ. May the blood of the Savior now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life, that they may enjoy the never-revoked promises that God made to Abraham and to his seed. And let us pray for the conversion, or short of that, the silencing, of those who attempt to subvert what the Church believes.

(Thanks to Rorate-Caeli.blogspot.com for this story.)

Pro-Abortion Catholics should be "publicly admonished" and then "denied" communion

Catholics who support abortion should not receive Communion, says Archbishop Burke

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Rome, Aug 19, 2008 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Raymond Burke, said this week that Catholics, especially politicians who publically defend abortion, should not receive Communion, and that ministers of Communion should be responsibly charitable in denying it to them if they ask for it, “until they have reformed their lives.”

In an interview with the magazine, Radici Christiane, Archbishop Burke pointed out that there is often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion. “Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned. “If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege.”

To illustrate his point, he referred to “public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law. For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives. A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life,” the archbishop said.

“If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege,” he added.

“We must avoid giving people the impression that one can be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist,” the archbishop continued. “Secondly, there could be another form of scandal, [This is a very important point.] consisting of leading people to think that the public act that this person is doing, which until now everyone believed was a serious sin, is really not that serious - if the Church allows him or her to receive Communion.”

“If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately upholding abortion rights and receiving the Eucharist, what will the average person think? He or she could come to believe that it up to a certain point it is okay to do away with an innocent life in the mother’s womb,” he warned.

Archbishop Burke also noted that when a bishop or a Church leader prevents an abortion supporter from receiving Communion, “it is not with the intention of interfering in public life but rather in the spiritual state of the politician or public official who, if Catholic, should follow the divine law in the public sphere as well.”

“Therefore, it is simply ridiculous and wrong to try to silence a pastor, accusing him of interfering in politics so that he cannot do good to the soul of a member of his flock,” he stated.

It is “simply wrong” to think that the faith must be reduced to the private sphere and eliminated from public life, Archbishop Burke said, encouraging Catholics “to bear witness to our faith not only in private in our homes but also in our public lives with others in order to bear strong witness to Christ.”

Starting here, starting now

A man in the parish named Rob brought his new web site to my attention this morning. Thus begins a new collection of Catholic sites dedicated to busting the myths and bringing out the truth about the beauty of the fullness of Christian Faith in the universal Church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

Do you have a site to add to the collection? Any elements of unorthodoxy will result in elimination.

Try this one out. Send comments. Thanks.

From Rob's site:

"Which Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ?

"Many claim that their church is that founded by Jesus Christ. Christ, Himself, clearly states his intention to found one and only one church. “And this on this rock I will build my church.” [Matthew 16:18]. In His high priestly prayer at thLast Supper, He prayed “that they may be one, as we are one.” [John 17:20 2] For the first thousand years, there was only one Christian Church. So which church today is the legitimate and faithful continuation of the Church Jesus founded?

"To find the answer, we need to look back to the writings of Christians from the 1st and 2nd centuries and examine what they wrote about the Church in its early decades. For these writings, we look to the Early Church Fathers, some of whom learned their faith from the apostles themselves. Their writings, many still in existence, speak in great detail of the practices and doctrines of the early church. Let’s compare what they say to the claims of churches in our own time."

For more, visit: What do CATHOLICS Really Believe? (Copyright 2008)

Peace be with you!
Fr C