Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
Once in a while, there are signs that God wants you to pay attention to secular affairs. I don't pretend to know the Divine Mind. But after reading The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, I pay attention to numbers and symbols.
The terror attacks of 9/11/01 was one of those times. I saw it as an attack on financial and military superpower, a humbling of a great nation that has lost its way morally. When the towers came down, all that was left was a cross on top of the pile, much like a grave marker. But in the shadows of the rubble stood the little chapel of Saints Peter and Paul with nary a cracked window.I saw this as a sign that god is in control, not the terrorists and certainly not the government.
During the Middle Ages, it was customary that the tallest structure in a town was a church. As a sort of divine zoning plan, no other structure was permitted (or desired) to be taller. On 9/11/01, the tallest building in NYC was a financial building. Money had replaced God in order of importance. But God has a way of using secondary agents to accomplish His will in secular affairs. And 19 terrorists with box cutters brought the financial and military hyper-power to its knees.
But as it says in the Apocalypse, "they did not repent of the works of their hands". And so like ants, we rebuilt not the physical towers but the financial ones. We created towers of fraudulent paper built on the dreams of poor people yearning to own homes. The greedy power brokers saw a way to inflate balance sheets and investment portfolios. Corrupt politicians saw it as a way to appear beneficent while lining their own pockets with campaign contributions from massive financial institutions. Any attempt at reform was rebuffed with cries of 'discrimination".
But the Great Equalizer once again has brought the towers crashing down. His sign this time is a number and the number is 777, the number of points the stock index fell in one day. 7 is the biblical number for perfection and completion. Certainly the stock market drop was neither complete nor perfect. But God's plan for us is perfect and complete though only known to Him. Once again, we will fail to "repent of the works of our hands" and we will again build towers on the backs of the poor.
But do not despair. As always, God is truly in control. And that is the message of the number.
Here are a few key excerpts from this article. I encourage readers to check out Dr. Kreeft's website and buy his books and recordings at http://www.peterkreeft.com/home.htm
Dr. Peter Kreeft: "We are living in a spiritual Hiroshima"
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
By Notes By Joe Wemhoff - The Annual Parish Respect Life Coordinator Conference, Archdiocese of Chicago
How to Win the Culture War
Dr. Peter Kreeft (pronounced "kreft") is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He is an orthodox Roman Catholic, who has written over 45 books, and who contributes regularly to various Christian publications. Dr. Kreeft is one of the most eloquent voices for the Faith in America. This summary of Dr. Kreeft's remarks was prepared on March 9, 2008, by Joseph A. Wemhoff, from memory and from extensive notes taken during the talk. Dr. Kreeft has his own website at www.peterkreeft.com.
In the 1960s, the term "culture war" meant the conflict between the Establishment and the Counter Culture. Later, it came to mean the conflict between Science and the Humanities. The term became formalized with the publication of the book Culture Wars by James Hunter in the 1990s.
Pope John Paul II fueled the idea by drawing the distinction between the "Culture of Life" and the "Culture of Death." The term "Culture War" is simply a euphemism for the conflict between Christ and the Antichrist, with the stakes being the fate of the universe.
Sadly, today, the Antichrist controls all of the formal and informal means of education and information in America, including the media, news reporting, publishing, music, movies (Hollywood), etc. Today, pornography generates more revenue in America than any other industry except gambling.
This is not a new struggle-it has been going on since the Middle Ages. The Christian religion is now in decline, and the Antichrist is now winning, because he has convinced most people to bypass that simple word: reason. Most people today "feel;" they no longer "think."
We are living in a "spiritual Hiroshima." The Catholic Church is full of psychobabble. Our bishops have all the courage and behavior of rabbits. Since Vatican II, three-quarters of our nuns are gone. Sunday Mass attendance has declined from 75% to 25%. Belief in the Real Presence has dropped from nearly 100% to about 30%. The Catholic Church has lost the power to arrest the decline of our culture.
Properly said, ours is not a "Culture of Death," but a "Culture of Murder." There is the murder of marriage (divorce). There is the murder of the unborn (abortion). There is the murder of reason by militant feminists and by militant homosexuals. The cloning of humans promises to turn the "I am" of God into the "it is" of humanism. Science is promising eternal life by working to eliminate from humankind the "age and die" gene, which supposedly is not found in non-sexual species and in cancer cells.
Our words cannot defeat the Culture of Death, but God's words can.
Eucharistic adoration can conquer the Culture of Death.
Pope John Paul II spoke of a New Evangelization, which means not the preaching of new words, but the preaching God's timeless words to new generations of people. It's easy to be busy; it's far more difficult to be holy. We need to start by being holy. We need to join God's jihad.
There is a tendency today to substitute "spirituality" for "religion." In the Bible, the Tower of Babel represents "spirituality," while Noah's ark-with all its sights and smells and inconveniences-represents "religion." It is not easy being a Catholic.
Consider that only God, angels, and human beings are persons. God did not become angelic to redeem them, but He became man to redeem humankind.
Human life is sacred for three reasons:
1. Men and women are created in the image and likeness of God Himself. 2. Human life is linked to God's life. 3. Human beings are destined to share in eternal life with God.
As portrayed in the book Christ and the University, the Humanities are ground zero in the current Culture War, in the battle between Christ and the Antichrist. This is because college professors now have the power over young minds that priests and saints and kings once had.
The dark, black spot at the center of intellectual thought these past decades is a deconstructionism which says that truth is nothing more than "the hypocritical mask on the face of power." We are lead to believe that there is no objective truth, and that all is relative. It used to be that Science was the source of deconstructionist ideas, but, scientists must deal in facts, and facts tend to be real. Now the Humanities are the major source of deconstructionism.
The only two moments of peace in history are in Genesis (before history) and in the Apocalypse (after history). All of human history in between is full of war and of spirits thirsty for the blood of children.
Pro-choice people will not-indeed, cannot-listen to reason. Pro-choice people are insane and will not convert to reason-they will attempt to convert reason. Dr. Kreeft cited several cases. In one of his books-which, he bemoaned, are read only by pro-lifers-he made an airtight, logical argument that tolerating abortion is tantamount to tolerating infanticide. Confronted with this logic, pro-choicers said, yes, Dr. Kreeft, you just showed us how infanticide is now OK.
During World War II, I.G. Farben GmbH of Germany made Zyklon B, the gas used to kill so many in the gas chambers. Today, a French successor company to I.G. Farben makes the abortifacient RU-486. Either the face of evil has changed little, or the devil has a limited range of business contacts.
There are five aspects of the Culture War to be considered.
History of the Jihad
Since the Middle Ages, humanity has been on a slow, ever-ascending upward slope of becoming smarter, healthier, and more technologically advanced, while, at the same time, being on a slow, ever-descending slope of becoming weaker morally.
God's grace will save us, but on two conditions:
1. We ask for it, which means that we must value wisdom and holiness more than cleverness and worldly riches. 2. We believe that God will deliver (not to believe is to call God a liar).
These past centuries, mankind has fluctuated between the sins of despair and presumption. Despair is represented by Camus and other Existentialists. Presumption is exemplified by Rousseau, the Enlightenment, and by New Age ideas and practices.
We are entering an apocalyptic age, which might be described as Brave New World or as The Abolition of Man-each of which, ironically, is also the title of a book by Aldous Huxley and by C. S. Lewis, respectively. We should recall that the Bible predicts that the Great Tribulation of the end times will be so bad that no flesh would survive if God did not shorten the days.
In the First Millenium after Christ, the Church won the world. But then, she became fat and weak. The Second Millenium has belonged to the Antichrist. We are now in the Third Millenium, and the outcome these next thousand years is anything but clear.
We need to remember that this world is not our home; heaven is.
Came across this video and hoped it was an Anglican but unfortunately this is a Roman Catholic Priest. I may be a bit old fashioned but I was led to believe that my own presence at a protestant "church" was considered scandalous and to be discouraged. So I don't go even when the wedding there is a close relative.
This is ecumenism run amok, an extreme example of the false teaching directly resulting from the "reforms' of Vatican II that distorted the meaning of brotherly love to include realtivism. The priest calls Rev. Wright a "prophet". Really, I thought we were taught that the line of prpohets ended with John the Baptist. Since Christ is the revelation of God, there is no need for more prophecy.
I think you have to read and reflect on the posting I made before about the Sixth Trumpet and the first of the three woes to appreciate how many have been deceived and who is doing the deceiving.
Does this Priest have a Bishop? I'd like to hear from the Archbishop of Chicago concerning this man. What seminary produces this?
Proverbs 30 27 The locust hath no king, yet they all go out by their bands.
Apocalypse 9 3 And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle: and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold: and their faces were as the faces of men.8 And they had hair as the hair of women; and their teeth were as lions: 9 And they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was as the noise of chariots and many horses running to battle. 10 And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had over them 11 A king, the angel of the bottomless pit; whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon; in Latin Exterminans,
My brother-in-law, Steven Paul, explained that the first woe was the falling star, a holy bishop who apostatized from the faith. Indeed he identified him as Martin Luther and the woe as protestantism in general.
So the "locusts" relate to that time and that event. Steven did not go into much depth about them. He mentioned a couple of their characteristics - that breastplates of iron signified "a will hardened against all natural reason."
In the passages above, I am pointing out that in Proverbs, a characteristic of locusts is that they "have no king". They do not follow a single leader but rather they swarm together.
A major objection of protestantism is the primacy of the pope. They rejected central authority. As a result, they are untethered from the traditions and teachings of any body or person, the Church and Her pope specifically. So they are "free" to change traditional teachings at their whim or to satisfy current trends and fads, like women priests, gay marriage, gay bishops, etc.
But in Chapter 9 of the Apocalypse, they now have a king, the king of the abyss, Satan. Up until the time of the second woe, they are perfectly comfortable rejecting Christ's Vicar on earth. Instead, they opt for a more powerful and charismatic leader, an angel.
In his book, The Book of Destiny, Rev. Herman Bernard Kramer writes:
"These locusts obey him and do his work. He aims at the destruction of the Church, of the faith of his poor victims and of heir souls forever in hell. The promoters of heresy, error and immorality, are the subjects of Satan and bring irremediable and final ruin to all his followers."
Kramer goes on to give the history of opinions regarding when and whom these locusts are. My update is that we are seeing them in the persons like the current Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, folks like Eugene Robinson, and many evangelical "Christians" who rail against the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
There are also locusts inside the Church because they have not yet been cast out. We are indeed in the days of the end of the first woe and right before the second. Consider these passages carefully and don't be deceived.
Our take: The following articles only confirm what we already sensed - that Europe has lost its faith and that the resulting vacuum is being filled by Islam. What Islam failed to capture by conquest it now takes by procreation and the apathy of the formerly Christian lands it has spread to without resistance. All that remains is for the tipping point to be reached when the remaining faithful are persecuted and put to the sword.
Madrid, Mar. 26, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Union of Muslim Communities in Spain (UCIDE) claims that 1.13 million Spaniards, or 2.5% of the country's residents, are Muslim, Vatican Radio reports.
Moroccan immigrants, numbering approximately 565,000, constitute the largest Muslim group in Spain. Also, almost 35,000 native Spaniards have converted to Islam.
UCIDE is demanding Islamic religion classes in public schools in the four Spanish regions with the highest concentration of Muslims: Catalonia, with 279,000; Madrid, with 197,000; Andalusia, with 185,000; and Valencia, with 131,000.
British Muslims to outnumber Christians? London, Mar. 26, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Muslims may outnumber practicing Catholics in England and Wales by the year 2020, according to a forthcoming study.
A Christian Research study on estimates that the number of Catholics attending Sunday Mass regularly will fall to 679,000 in the next 12 years. Over the same period, the "Religious Trends" forecast says, the number of Muslims praying at English mosques will rise to 683,000.
Catholics already outnumber Anglicans attending Sunday services in England. The "Religious Trends" survey, which will be published in April, will suggest that by the year 2050, the number of practicing Muslims will exceed the number of Christians attending all Sunday church services in England.
I apologize to my frequent visitors for not posting or writing much the last few days. I've had a bit of writer's block. Or rather, the ideas and news articles have come so fast and furious lately that I haven't had time to thoroughly read them all and pick the ones most relevant to the Apocalypse.
But what has really been on my mind is the complete collapse of the Catholic way of life as seen through the prism of the local parish. I was contemplating that during the Triduum when we are at our supposedly most solemn. On Holy Thursday, a cell phone was vibrating in someones pocket behind me. It belonged to someone in the choir. On Good Friday, the Missal says to leave Church silently. But instead, I heard the usual chatter about every meaningless topic people could think of.
As a child, both before and shortly after the "reforms" a Church was a holy place, a sacred place. When you entered, even as a child, you knew to be quiet and respectful. You wore decent clothes there, especially on holy days. And you reverenced the priest, never questioning his holiness.
Now, the priest is treated like one of the gang. The building is almost constantly abuzz with chatter. The genuflect is hardly ever seen. The altar service is almost completely female now. Once reserved for young men who could later hear a call to the priesthood, now it's a social club for girls and boys have no interest. The same holds true for the foot washing on Holy Thursday, the initiation to the priesthood that Christ performed for his apostles. Now it's some sort of social status, missing the whole point of "the greatest among you must serve the least".
The pews are emptier now. So are the seminaries. Birth control is no longer enumerated as a sin in public. It has taken its toll. Homosexuality has compromised the priesthood even though only a small minority of priests practice it.
I went to confession on a Saturday in Lent at a fairly large parish. My wife and two of my seven children went with me. We were the only people there at first. As we left a very elderly couple arrived. That was it. As a child I remember long lines for confession on almost any Saturday. I remember a missal with words in Latin on one page and in English on the next so you could follow along. I remember an altar rail that we knelt at as an altar boy held a patten under our chins and the priest placed the host on out tongues.
I feel like I switched to a strange religion somewhere along the way, a protestant one. I long for the one from my childhood, the one where everything was sacred. Will I ever see it again?
I have to believe with all my heart that we are in a time when "the Sun is darkened and the moon does not give its light". Divine truth is no longer being taught. Strange doctrines have replaced it - radical feminism, environmentalism and relativism. Man has become his own God.
I also remember how full the churches were right after September 11, 2001. Catholic churches. People know the truth deep down. It is written on our nature. But we are being mislead and deceived. The time is drawing near when a false prophet, The False Prophet, will lead many away from the Church of Peter. And a leader will unite most of the world in a kingdom opposed to all the Church has taught for two millenia. And the only obstacle left will be the pope. And he will be assassinated shortly after his difficult election.
It's all in the book. And it seems more true today than when it was given to me a few years ago.
Note: Much of what the Church deems immoral comes from natural law. That is to say that nature itself reveals truths about God's creation. Deviation from the truth typically and necessarily brings evil upon man. "The wages of sin are death." And sin begets more sin.
In the article below, scientists are beginning to see what damage artificial contraception does to the natural order of things. I have always believed that the epidemic of infertility in humans is due to artificial birth control and abortion. As well, many social disorders of our day are likely linked in some way to mankind turning away from God's design for us.
Bud MacFarland, Sr. once said that the greatest evil of out time is the pill because it drives a wedge between the priest and women causing both to ignore grave sin.
Study Confirms Estrogen in Water from the Pill Devastating to Fish Populations By Hilary White ST. JOHN, New Brunswick, February 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study by Dr. Karen Kidd, of the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian Rivers Institute, found that estrogen from birth control pills flooding into the water system through sewage adversely affects fish populations.
The researchers added estrogen to an experimental lake at a level commonly found in the treated wastewater from cities with about 200,000 people. The researchers discovered that one consequence is that exposed male fish become feminized, producing a protein normally found in females. Chronic exposure to estrogen led to the near extinction of the lake's fathead minnow population, as well as significant declines in larger fish, such as pearl dace and lake trout.
"We've known for some time that estrogen can adversely affect the reproductive health of fish, but ours was the first study to show the long-term impact on the sustainability of wild fish populations," explains Kidd. "What we demonstrated is that estrogen can wipe out entire populations of small fish - a key food source for larger fish whose survival could in turn be threatened over the longer term."
Kidd also noted that once the estrogen levels in the water were lowered, fish populations rebounded after three years. "Once you take the stressor out the system, we now have ample evidence that suggests affected fish populations will recover," she said.
Kidd is preparing a report for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) titled, "From Kitchen Sinks to Ocean Basins: Emerging Chemical Contaminants and Human Health".
In the 1980's and 90's, municipalities in Canada and elsewhere began stencilling pictures of fish next to storm drains to remind citizens that toxic chemicals - such as paint and motor oil - poured into the sewers would harm the environment and wildlife. In 1998, a trendy industrial designer in San Francisco won an award for creating storm drain grates shaped like fish.
Health authorities estimate that 100 million women worldwide take some form of hormonal contraceptives; but there is still little media attention given to the growing concerns of scientists about its environmental impact. However, studies are leaking out into the mainstream press more frequently as public interest in the environment grows.
The Pill, along with numerous other commonly used chemicals, end up in the water system as estrogen. At a conference on breast cancer in Toronto in 1998, author and cancer surgeon Dr. Susan Love said, "Pollutants are metabolized in our bodies as estrogen. And it is lifetime exposure to estrogen that has increased world cancer rates by 26% since 1980....We live in a toxic soup of chemicals". Studies are also showing significant evidence for a link between environmental estrogens and estrogen-like chemical pollutants and the earlier onset of puberty in girls.
The phenomenon of early-onset puberty in American girls is so pervasive, that the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society urged changing the definition of abnormal development. Ten years ago, breast development at age 8 was considered abnormally early, but a study in 1997 said that among 17,000 girls in North Carolina, almost half of blacks and 15 percent of whites had begun breast development by age 8. Studies from the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand have shown similar results.
The new definition for abnormally early breast development ought to be, the society says, 7 for white girls and 6 for black girls. Marcia Herman-Giddens, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, said, "My fear is that medical groups could take the data and say 'This is normal. We don't have to worry about it.' My feeling is that it is not normal. It's a response to an abnormal environment."
Conclusive studies are difficult to conduct, however, because of the all-pervasive nature of the environmental contamination. With all the estrogen-like elements in the environment, Herman-Giddens said, "it's virtually impossible to study. There's no place to find an unexposed population."
Note: This plea reminds me of the cry from the martyrs under the altar in the Apocalypse. Patience is wearing thin for sure. But according to Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, Satan is in the Church, even the highest levels, and will not be cast out until the time of the "Great Sign." Until then, much suffering will continue.
MEMO TO THE POPE: PLEASE YOUR HOLINESS, ADDRESS CRISIS OF FAITH WITH THE BISHOPS
Holy Father, as everyone knows, you'll soon be among us! In April -- just a couple months away -- you will be visiting the U.S. Thank God for that! No doubt you'll handle this with your characteristic insight, prayerfulness, courage, and aplomb. We look forward to it. Thank you for being prayerful. Thank you for being faithful to the legacy of John Paul. Thank you so much for nudging our Church back to the right kind of music. Thank you for the call for protection of God's Creation. Thank you for not folding in to pressure when it came to the Good Friday prayer for Jews (in the Latin Rite). Thank you for both loving and communicating with but also standing up to Muslims. Thank you so much, Your Holiness, for gradually bringing back old Latin-style mysticism.
These are times of purification (and spiritual warfare) and of course your name is Benedict! You told us just the other day to confront evil. Our Church is going through a purification, and perhaps the beginning of recovering its lost treasures (or at least some of them). It is this, Your Holiness, that we would like to address.
May we be so bold, when it comes to your trip, as to offer a few recommendations? Please, Holy Father, speak even more on music during your trip. In some churches, it all but obscures the liturgy. There is that drumbeat. There is the sugar-sweet modernistic music -- as we try to pray. Surely there are no clashing cymbals in Heaven!
Meanwhile, homilies are often too intellectual, focused almost exclusively on the past. How about the present? How about the future? It is the dryness of religion that creates the desert. Please tell our good shepherds to speak about the miraculous! Please tell them to relate personally to us. There are miracles in our chapels. There are healings. These are largely ignored. Remember the miraculous Christian origin?
Holy Father, there is a real crisis of belief among our good bishops. You must speak to them as you never have -- with both love and urgency. There is a fear among U.S. clerics to believe in the supernatural because of what you so rightly have called the distortions of science. Please reorient our priests, our dioceses, away from scientism and back toward toward the deliverance of Jesus. Let them come into our midst in their miters and cast out spirits! Please speak on Adoration, Holy Father. Urge bishops on the importance. This alone will bring vocations and inspiration and exorcism.
There are many good, holy priests left. They live almost a white martyrdom. Often, they are cast away into the outlying parishes. But they are there. They are the backbone. They must be defended. Our Church will survive. No doubt -- even despite the crushing reality of church closings. But please tell our dear priests, Holy Father -- Our Lady's special sons -- to return to the mystical roots of the Faith. Please tell the nuns and priests and brothers and everyone else to stay clear of alternate beliefs. Holy Father, there is an epidemic here of the New Age. It has infiltrated dozens of Catholic retreat centers. Almost a majority. Many convents are less centers of prayer than ashrams. We're not sure you have been informed of the extent. Crystals, psychobabble, labyrinths. The same ones who allow all that disdain the devout and dismiss blessed salt as a superstition.
So it is, Holy Father, that naked we stand, as the enemy advances. Many clerics don't even seem to believe in the existence of the devil as he runs rampant around them (and especially in our seminaries). There is a planned "exorcism center" for Poland. How about North America? It is very serious. It must be approached as a mystical crisis, not one that can be addressed at an annual meeting. They must be pushed into a sense of battle. They must see your trip as the thunderous approach of reinforcements, of the larger battalion.
Perhaps it is time to ask the bishops and cardinals to put the tabernacle back in the center and the chairs that priests use off to the side. Perhaps this will start to humble us. Perhaps this will bring the right thing at the center. Please urge bishops who are closing churches to turn them into oratories (instead of selling them to realtors). Please address the Catholic colleges that not only ignore Catholicism but negate it. (They have a play called the Vagina Monologues at Notre Dame!)
Please, please, Holy Father: address the crisis of Catholic schools. Scold this nation for not allowing vouchers -- for not even allowing the deduction of tuition from taxes! Desperately, we need you to speak, as you have the ear of the nation, of Congress, about the incredible unfairness. Our Catholic schools can not be allowed to die. We hope we are not being pretentious but in many ways our society and our Church (at least in the West) are at a tipping point. Often, the only orthodox priests are foreign ones. As much as it hurts to say, Holy Father, many faithful have lost faith in their bishops. There are the majority who are so good and have fought the odds to be where they are -- despite the culture around them. Dear bishops indeed!
But in far too many instances -- Holy Father -- the spirit of bureaucracy has overcome the Holy Spirit. We have many good men who are not allowed into seminaries -- who are turned away because they are devout -- and priests who were never even taught how to bless a house (or Holy Water)!
Please tell your bishops to go out among the people. Please tell them to forget the annual Alfred E. Smith dinner. Please urge them to forgo the opulence. Please urge far more prayer (than administration). John Paul II prayed seven hours a day!
This we hate to discuss, but there is the abuse crisis. Holy Father, much has been purged (many abusers have been exposed), but there is still the niggling feeling that the general issue of homosexuality in the priesthood has not been fully confronted. There are churches in the U.S. that rent out to blasphemous transvestite groups but won't allow a talk on Fatima.
Holy Father, it may be a bit too critical and suspicious and ardent but it has gotten to the point where one Catholic writer in the beleaguered archdiocese of Boston has hinted (in a new book) that the slow response and at times cover-up in abuse cases was due to homosexual blackmail -- that certain bishops themselves have been compromised and thus neutralized. Is this true? Notes one reviewer: "The account offered is devastating and the blame is clearly laid at the door of the American bishops. 'The thesis of this book,' writes [author Phil] Lawler, 'is that the sex abuse scandal in American Catholicism was not only aggravated but actually caused by the willingness of church leaders to sacrifice the essential for the inessential; to build up the human institution even to the detriment of the Divine mandate.' Bishops again and again responded to the crisis as institutional managers, employing public relations stratagems to evade, deceive, and distract attention from their own responsibility.
"Lawler adds: 'Homosexual influence within the American clergy was not in itself the cause of the sex abuse crisis. The corruption wrought by that influence was a more important factor.' He very gingerly addresses a theory proposed by a number of commentators on the crisis, namely, that bishops engaged in cover-ups and other deceptions because they were threatened with homosexual blackmail. He cites a number of instances in which this appears to be the case and bishops were permitted to resign when their misdeeds could no longer be denied. 'The blackmail hypothesis,' he writes, 'provides a logical explanation for behavior that is otherwise inexplicable: the bishops’ willingness to risk the welfare of the faithful and their own reputations in order to protect abusive priests.'"
These are not our words. But you see our point; you see the bitterness. You see the suspicions. We need to purge any homosexuals who have positions of any sort of prominence. There was a real and serious infiltration.
Three years ago, during the first Holy Week of your papacy, you spoke of the "filth" in the priesthood. Perhaps, when you are in New York, that language needs to be repeated. We don't like to stray so far into such territory, but you can see the mindset of many dedicated Catholics. A priest or bishop will in some cases bless a Mardi Gras or even a "gay-pride" event and do so with pleasure at the same time that he turns down Adoration.
Why, for example, would a priest wear a vestment like that to the right? How are we to react? Please call on our bishops to evangelize. Please call on them to be holy. Please call on them to evoke the Holy Spirit. He will cleanse! He will resurrect! Perhaps the best way of urging evangelization is to do so yourself during your trip -- laying on hands, exercising charisms, letting our great Church leaders know the way to evoke the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit Who will fill the pews again -- not intellectual language. We do not so much need terms like "Mulieris Dignitatem" or "humanum" as simply, "Praise God!" (or "Get thee hence, Satan!"). A Benedict you are! Like your namesake, you fight evil. And now, you will be stepping on the devil's turf. Do you not always step on the devil's turf?
And in your courage, do you not always confront evil and win?
Note: The advent of the "demographic winter" has multiple implications for the Church and points to many events described in teh Apocalypse. For one, priests come from families, most often stable ones with a married mother and father. For another, the scenes in the Apocalypse are described in terms of numbers of people in specific lands - Europe, Asia and Africa - that come into high potential as ratios change. And of course, the time of the second woe, fast approaching, is when the Church is in decline everywhere. That time can't be far off.
New documentary advocates strong families to avert "demographic winter"
Washington DC, Feb 13, 2008 / 01:25 am (CNA).- Filmmakers announced at a National Press Club press conference on Tuesday a "groundbreaking" documentary that addresses the problems of population decline and predicts a coming "demographic winter" that will result from weakened families.
Population decline is projected to seriously affect the sustainability of present societies by reducing the economic and tax bases of nations. The movie claims that as the number of elderly people swells there will be fewer and fewer young people to help care for them.
The documentary, titled "Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family," was written and directed by Rick Stout to examine developed countries that are below population replacement rates. The film brings together demographers, economists, sociologists, and civic and religious leaders to explore problems present generations will soon face due to shrinking and aging populations.
According to a press release for the film, the global birthrate has declined by 50 percent over the past half-century. Fifty nine nations, containing 44 percent of the world’s population, have birthrates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.
The filmmakers report that the European birthrate is 1.3 children per woman. This dearth of children is expected to cause Europe to have a shortfall of 20 million workers by 2030, while Russia could lose one-third of its population by 2050. The chilling effect this decline is projected to have on economics and culture has led some to dub the phenomenon a "demographic winter," a phrase from which the documentary takes its title.
"In nations with declining populations, who will operate the factories and farms? Who will guard the frontiers? With a graying population (a declining birthrate combined with growing longevity), who will support pension systems and otherwise care for the elderly?" asked the filmmakers in a press release.
Speakers at the press conference included Dr. Allan Carlson, the International Secretary of the World Council of Families; Maria Sophia Aguirre, a professor of economics at Catholic University; Patrick Fagan, a Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council; and Phillip Longman, author of "The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What To Do About It."
A three-minute trailer for the documentary is available at www.demographicwinter.com.
Note: This ruling required the judge to state outright a falsehood - that homosexuality is inborn. Not only is that not scientifically proven but it is also in direct opposition to legal precedent. In other words, the judge lied in order to rule in favor of immorality. The Father of Lies is gaining strength.
Judge: Teaching Erotic Sex and that Homosexuality is Inborn to 8th and 10th Graders is OK
February 05, 2008
ANN ARBOR, MI - Maryland Circuit Court Judge William J. Rowan, III, ruled last week that it is permissible to teach 8th and 10th grade Montgomery County public school students how to use condoms during anal and oral sex, as well as that homosexuality is inborn, even though in 2007 Maryland's highest appellate court ruled there is no scientific basis for such a conclusion. The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.
That sexual orientation is innate, namely, homosexuals are 'born that way,' is a theory that has been rejected by courts in several states including Maryland. Maryland's highest appellate court issued an opinion in a 2007 civil union case, holding that the proposition that homosexuality is innate is not supported by credible evidence. In fact, not one U.S. court presented with the issue has found homosexuality to be an innate characteristic.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which represents Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the Family Leader Network, and the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays had asked the Judge Rowan to overturn a Maryland Board of Education ruling that approves of public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland to teaching 8th and 10th graders that homosexuals are born that way, and how to use condoms during anal and oral sex.
274 Montgomery area doctors signed a petition objecting to the curriculum which promotes the notion that the use of condoms prevents disease in anal intercourse.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center commented, "Judge Rowan's ruling gives a green light to homosexual groups throughout Maryland to pressure school boards to adopt similar policies. We will be meeting with our clients next week regarding an appeal."
Montgomery educators defended their new sex curriculum that promotes anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism despite strong opposition from several pro family groups. Brandon Bolling, the Thomas More Law Center attorney who argued the case, asked Judge Rowan to either declare the curriculum illegal or send it back to the state board of education for another review. "Maryland law says that you have to teach something that is factually accurate," said Bolling. "They are not doing that, therefore it is illegal."
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.
You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.
