Archive for June, 2013

Religious Freedom Under Threat at Home

by Archbishop William E. Lori, S.T.D.
Bishop-Lori

On Friday, Catholics throughout the United States will begin observing two weeks known as the Fortnight for Freedom. For a second consecutive year, the U.S. Catholic Church has set aside this time leading up to Independence Day to draw attention to the need to resist erosions of religious liberty so that faith can continue to enrich our public life.

How appropriate that the Fortnight should begin with a nationally televised Mass from our own Basilica of the Assumption, the first Catholic cathedral in the United States. Blessed Pope John Paul II once referred to the Basilica as a worldwide symbol of religious freedom. President Thomas Jefferson assisted in the Basilica’s uniquely American design — the brainchild of architect Benjamin Latrobe, who also designed the U.S. Capitol. The Basilica is the embodiment of what it means to be both Catholic and American, the intersection of faith and public life that is at the very heart of the Fortnight for Freedom.

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Fortnight For Freedom by Cardinal Dolan

dolan

Standing in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty is one of our most beloved landmarks, both as New Yorkers and as Americans.  So many of our ancestors fondly recalled seeing Lady Liberty, their first vision of a new homeland.  Many of them told the story of seeing her for the first time, and not a few of them had to pause in retelling it because of a lump in their throat or a tear in their eye.

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Japan’s Health Ministry Withdraws Cervical Cancer Vaccine Recommendation

Source: PreventDisease.com

Japan’s health ministry issued a nationwide notice that cervical cancer vaccinations should no longer be recommended for girls due to several hundred adverse reactions to the vaccines reported.

Samurai_with_sword

A publication in the Annals of Medicine has exposed the fraudulent nature of Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines such as Gardasil and Cervarix. Key messages the researchers reported include a lack of evidence for any HPV vaccines in preventing cervical cancer and lack of evaluation of health risks.

One of the problems with vaccinations such as HPV is that they are not preventative, they do compromise safety and physicians will never provide accurate explanations of vaccine risks and benefits because they do not know themselves. Physicians can only rely on the information from vaccine manufacturers and since long-term pharmacokinetic effects which study the bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of vaccines and their ingredients are never examined or analyzed, a Physician can never fully inform of patient of any benefits or risks.
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Cardinal Dolan Speech on Accepting the Wilberforce Award: The human project is all about babies!

Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan

“Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory!” I gratefully accept this prestigious Wilberforce Award, if you agree to certain conditions, okay?
We New Yorkers are tough negotiators, as you know, so, listen carefully to these conditions: Ready?
Condition #1: that receiving this award be an occasion, like every event in life should be, for me to praise God, from whom all blessings flow, and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose Resurrection we radiantly confess this paschaltide. “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory!” (more…)

Is society controlling your life?

By Kat Tomasewski
Source: Mom on the go in Holy Toledomedia-control

After getting the kiddos situation in the kitchen with an art project this morning I set off for the family room to fold clothes. Exciting I know! While folding I turned on the TV and quickly found myself being pulled into a talk show. The topic was unconventional marriages. The host was interviewing a traditional Orthodox Jewish marriage. First I found it ironic that the topic was unconventional marriages and the couple was in a traditional marriage. My second thought was, when did the traditional marriage become unconventional? Then I listen further and found myself mesmerized by the tradition, romance, and respect that this couple shared.

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Religious Freedom and the Need to Wake Up

Chaput-77by Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
CatholicPhilly.com

“IRS officials have, of course, confessed that they inappropriately targeted conservative groups — especially those with ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’ in their names — for extra scrutiny when they sought non-profit status. Allegations of abuse or harassment have since broadened to include groups conducting grassroots projects to ‘make America a better place to live,’ to promote classes about the U.S. Constitution or to raise support for Israel.

“However, it now appears the IRS also challenged some individuals and religious groups that, while defending key elements of their faith traditions, have criticized projects dear to the current White House, such as health-care reform, abortion rights and same-sex marriage.”

Terry Mattingly, director, Washington Journalism Center; weekly column, May 22

Let’s begin this week with a simple statement of fact. America’s Catholic bishops started pressing for adequate health-care coverage for all of our nation’s people decades before the current administration took office. In the Christian tradition, basic medical care is a matter of social justice and human dignity. Even now, even with the financial and structural flaws that critics believe undermine the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the bishops continue to share the goal of real health-care reform and affordable medical care for all Americans.

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Leading pro-life lawyer tells Fox he ‘can’t help but think’ IRS harassment was deliberate (Video)

Source: LifeSiteNews.com

As lawmakers investigate the IRS harassment of Tea Party, conservative, evangelical, Catholic, and other political organizations, a leading pro-life lawyer told Fox News that he “can't help but think” someone ordered the intense scrutiny his clients have experienced.

Peter Breen, executive director of the Thomas More Society, appeared on Megyn Kelly's program last week to detail how the tax agency began subjecting pro-life groups to an unconstitutional and illegal level of scrutiny during the Obama administration.

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My last ten burials/funerals with “Fr. Strangelove”…

…or How I stop worrying and learned to love the (Demographic) Bomb, NOT!

Fr-sauppe-pic2-107x150By Fr. Timothy Sauppé
Source: The Bellarmine Forum

A stranger came into the sacristy after Sunday Mass. In an incriminating huff he said, “I have been away from the area for fifteen years; where are the people? And now you are tearing down the school? I went there as a kid.” I put my hands up to quiet him from further talking and I calmly said, “Let me ask you a question: How many kids did you have?” He said, “Two.” Then I said, “So did everyone else. When you only have two kids per family there is no growth.” His demeanor changed, and then he dropped his head and said, “And they aren’t even going to Mass anymore.”

I never thought I would be asking that question, but since I had to close our parish school, I’ve grown bolder and I started to ask that question more often. When I came to my parish five years ago, the school was on its proverbial “last legs.” In its last two years we did everything we could to recruit more students, but eventually I had to face the fact that after 103 years of education the school was no longer viable. In one of the pre-closure brain-storming sessions with teachers, I was asked what to do to get more students. I replied, “Well, I know what to do, but it takes seven years.” The older teachers laughed, but the others needed me to state the obvious to the oblivious, viz. we need more babies. In my January 2010 letter to my bishop asking his permission to close our school, I wrote:

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