Archives for July 2016

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #202)

7 Quick Takes Friday

This week: Planned Parenthood continues to misuse the judicial system to ruin opponents who expose their business. Chris Stefanick reminds us to “be present” to our families. Perverts now enjoying Target’s new pervert-friendly policy. Fr. Mike Schmitz reviews the absolute minimum to actually be Catholic (so called “practicing Catholic”). Bishop Barron looks at a C.S. Lewis classic. FBI Director Comey, despite lack of indictment for extremely serious crimes, actually proves the numerous lies and the actual crimes (even though people apparently don’t care). Is it really a fact that 97% of climate scientists are in agreement?

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Planned Parenthood is on a vengeful mission to crush David Deleiden any way they can. You may recall that he is head of the Center for Medical Progress which exposed their baby parts business. Having failed at criminal charges (which was 100% ludicrous), they are now working a civil suit angle. If he were not David and they an uber-evil Goliath, there would be no point since they utterly have no case. But with their resources (including your tax money), the hope is to keep him in court for years and destroy him in legal fees.

Undeterred, here is CMR’s latest video:

If you can help David, please contribute to his legal defense fund as I did.

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We are all so busy. When we get home tired and with a lot on our mind, are we actually there for our family other than physically? Christopher Stefanick reminds us to Be Present:

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Target Restroom

Strengthen your resolve to boycott Target. They should be a pariah until they apologize and reverse their pervert-friendly bathroom policy. Brave hero’s are they for the extreme liberal crowd, this very family-hostile policy has already born fruit. Read how a “transgender woman” videotaped a young woman in Target’s fitting room. The story is here.

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What is the very minimum to be a Practicing Catholic? Fr. Mike presents the 5 precepts of the Church (Catechism 2041 to 2043).

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Bishop Barron discusses the theological insight genius of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce:

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It’s odd. FBI Director James Comey’s explanation of how no crimes were committed seems to actually detail facts which are prima facie proof. Regardless of that, we have the candidate’s emphatic explanations. Let’s see how that squares:

At this point I suspect very few people believe her. The problem is that so many just don’t care.

Back to my point of her criminal guilt:

Again, if this were you – for far less – you would surely be sent to prison for a very long time. In this case however, so many people simply don’t care.

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It is a well known fact that 97% of reputable climate scientists agree that climate change is real. This issue is settled. Let’s pass sweeping laws to address it! Or maybe, we should give that oft-repeated claim just a teeny bit of scrutiny.


Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was begun by Jennifer Fulwiler and is now continued by Kelly Mantoan. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Kelly for hosting this project!

Elsewhere: growing Amoris Laetitia pushback

Elsewhere

For all the good, beautiful and true prose in Amoris Laetitia, there are serious problems. As I noted in my review written 11 days after its publication (Amoris Laetitia conclusions), the “problems overshadow the rest of the document”.

I am not usually good at predictions, but these were easy:

  • Amoris Laetitia will fail in its goals, but will be seriously divisive for the Church.
  • Those who are “divorced and remarried” will increasingly receive communion (and thereby, as St. Paul warned, “eats and drinks judgment on himself”) — with and without pastoral guidance.
  • In areas where bishops tolerate (or worse, promote) this abuse, actual applications for annulments will decline in preference to this express approach.
  • Young people contemplating marriage, will have ever more reason to doubt the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. What they see in actions will speak much louder to them than the words to the contrary.
  • Likewise, struggling marriages will be weakened as a new acceptance for “remarriage” may appear to be normalized.
  • A future “pope of clarity” will have to unambiguously correct this and other official ambiguities which have appeared in recent years.

All but the last one have already proven to be true. I hope that I am wrong on the last prediction, but I continue to doubt that Pope Francis will satisfactorily address this. It will therefore continue to fester, to lead people astray and to increase division.

This week we learn that 45 Catholic academics urge cardinals to ask Pope Francis to fix exhortation’s errors. This was reported in LifeSite News:

Forty-five Catholic prelates, academics, and clergy have submitted an appeal to the Dean of the College of Cardinals in Rome requesting that the cardinals and Eastern Catholic Patriarchs petition Pope Francis to repudiate a list of erroneous propositions that can be drawn from Amoris Laetitia.

The appeal will be sent in various languages to the 218 living Catholic Cardinals and Patriarchs over the coming weeks.

The unnamed signatories contend that the exhortation contains “a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals.” According to the group’s press release, the signatories submitted along with their appeal a documented list of applicable theological censures specifying “the nature and degree of the errors that could be attributed to Amoris laetitia.”

The group’s appeal asks the cardinals, in their capacities as the Pope’s official advisers, to approach Pope Francis with a request that he reject “the errors listed in the document in a definitive and final manner, and to authoritatively state that Amoris laetitia does not require any of them to be believed or considered as possibly true.”

“We are not accusing the pope of heresy,” said Dr. Joseph Shaw, a signatory and a spokesman for the group of scholars and pastors, “but we consider that numerous propositions in Amoris laetitia can be construed as heretical upon a natural reading of the text. Additional statements would fall under other established theological censures, such as scandalous, erroneous in faith, and ambiguous, among others.”

“It is our hope that by seeking from our Holy Father a definitive repudiation of these errors we can help to allay the confusion already brought about by Amoris laetitia among pastors and the lay faithful,” continued Shaw. “For that confusion can be dispelled effectively only by an unambiguous affirmation of authentic Catholic teaching by the Successor of Peter.”

The group takes issue with nineteen passages in Amoris Laetitia that seem to contradict Catholic doctrine and maintains that the exhortation undermines the Church’s teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who are not living abstinently may not receive the Sacraments.

The article goes on to provide more detail and examples. Read the whole piece at 45 Catholic academics urge cardinals to ask Pope Francis to fix exhortation’s errors.

There is still more…

That was not the only high-profile appeal this week. Sixteen pro-life leaders from around the world have made a similar, passionate request directly to the Holy Father. Read their comments at Plea to the pope: Life and family leaders call on pope to ‘end the confusion’.

Each speaks personally, directly to Pope Francis in this 30 minute video . Excerpts are also available for the public in the following short (under 4 minutes) version:

This problem can not and will not go away.

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #201)

7 Quick Takes Friday

This week: The latest issue of New Evangelists Monthly awaits your perusal. Ascension Press releases a new program on Theology of the Body. Fr. Mike Schmitz and Christopher Stefanick talk about suicide. Tim Haines is confused and disheartened by the PC fad to apologize. Bishop Barron takes a look at “hyper political correctness.” Jonah Goldberg contrasts ideologues and pragmatists.

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New Evangelists Monthly

Issue #43, July 2016, of New Evangelists Monthly is ready for your enjoyment! Scores of faithful Catholic bloggers have contributed their very best pieces from June. Contributing authors this month include:
Stephen Korsman, Virginia Lieto, Dave Wanat, Nancy Shuman, Erin Cupp, Rick Becker, Bonnie Way, Denise Hunnell, Adam Crawford, Vijaya Bodach, Brian Mullins, Fr. Stephen Morris, Rick Rice, Michael Seagriff, Dianna Kennedy, John Schroeder, Melanie Jean Juneau, Anita Moore, Birgit Jones, Robert Collins, Molly Oshatz, Melody Marie, Susan Stabile, Frank Rega, Carissa Douglas, Tracy Smith, Rich Maffeo, Larry T, Kirby Hoberg, Ellen Gable Hrkach, Tony Agnesi, Lora Goulet, Kathleen Laplante, Carolyn Astfalk, Elizabeth Reardon, Fr. Richard DeLillio, Larry Peterson, Christian LeBlanc, Rosemary Bogdan, Roxane Salonen, Margaret Felice, Allen Hebert, Lisa Laverty, David Torkington, De Maria, John Russell, Thomas Storck, David Cooney, W.L. Grayson, Barbara Hosbach, Laura Pearl, Lisa Ponchak, Dennis McGeehan, Leslie Klinger, Christina Nagy, Thomas and Deborah Richard, Bobbi, Sr. Maresa Lilley, Meg Kemmery, Bartimaeus Timeo, Fr. Errol Fernandes, Alicia, Tom Perna, Reese Cumming, Justin Soutar, Barbara Szyszkiewicz, Maria Johnson, James Milliken, Fr. Adrian Danker, Rita Buettner, Drusilla, Julian Barkin, Tami Schuelke, Jenn Tatum, Kim Padan, Fr. David Bird and Joseph Shaw.

This monthly “meta-magazine” showcases faithful Catholicism from theology to family life and “everything in between.” Enjoy it now at NewEvangelists.org.

Read Now

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Ascension Press has a new video trailer for a high school teen program entitled YOU: Life, Love and the Theology of the Body:

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Suicide seems to be increasing. Abortion and euthanasia (promoted by movies such as Me Before You) have diminished understanding of life’s value. American soldiers suffering PTSD die at the rate of almost 1 per hour. Fr. Mike Schmitz talks about Hope in the Face of Suicide:

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Christopher Stefanick offers hope to the suicidal, urging Let Me Remind You:

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Tim Haines talks honestly, passionately and from his heart on some failures in the Church:

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Bishop Robert Barron speaks about the problem of “hyper political correctness”:

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Jonah Goldberg (National Review Senior Editor), for Prager University, asks which one are you: ideologue or pragmatist?


Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was begun by Jennifer Fulwiler and is now continued by Kelly Mantoan. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Kelly for hosting this project!

New Evangelists Monthly – July 2016, Issue #43

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