Category: Faith & Values

Brett Kavanaugh’s Association with Pro-Abortion Anthony Kennedy Renders Him Unsuitable for the Supreme Court

Abortion, Donald Trump, Faith & Values, Headlines, Human Life, Human Rights, Law, Politics & Government, Senate, Supreme Court
Supreme Court Facade with Parkland and Blossoming Trees, adapted from image at supremecourt.gov

Brett Kavanaugh’s association with, and ongoing endorsement of, pro-abortion former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy as a champion of “liberty,” reveals Kavanaugh’s lack of moral compass and judicial and intellectual incompetence.  As such, any loyal American and any person with respect for human life should oppose his confirmation to the Supreme Court and call for his removal from the judiciary.

The biggest threat to American lives, for four decades, has been so-called “abortion,” the deliberate taking of human life in a mother’s womb. Sixty million surgical abortions alone since the Roe v. Wade decision blocked prosecutions for abortion make it a bigger killer of Americans than all wars combined.  On average, abortion is nearly like having 9/11 occur every single day.



In 1992, abortion was kept decriminalized by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, with Anthony Kennedy serving as the deciding vote and co-author of the main opinion.

Yet, despite Kavanaugh’s supposed affiliation with the Catholic Faith, and despite his supposedly elite education, Kavanaugh was willing to serve as a law clerk for Anthony Kennedy within a year of Kennedy’s human rights violation as a perpetrator of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

If Kavanaugh had repudiated his past association with Kennedy, and attributed it immaturity, or a lack of awareness of the horrific scope and nature of abortion within less than two decades of Roe v. Wade, there still would be cause to reject his nomination.

Yet, right up until the present, and throughout his nomination process,  Kavanaugh has aggravated his wrongdoing, updated his association with Kennedy, and made it even more egregious by referencing Anthony Kennedy as having a legacy of liberty or being a champion of liberty.

That places Kavanaugh in the position of praising and admiring one of the architects of some of the most massive and atrocious human rights violations in human history.



Additionally, the scope of abortion as, literally, a direct threat and attack on the American population, calls for charges of de facto treason, and calls into question Kavanaugh’s patriotism and loyalty to the United States.

These facts alone would require a rejection of his nomination.

Defense of human life is the cornerstone of a national government’s right to exist, its justification for being a government.

Yet to associate an architect of decriminalized abortion with liberty, a cornerstone value of the American Republic, not only reveals Kavanaugh as an anti-American hypocrite, it calls into question his competency to engage in rational thought and honest intellectual analysis, and therefore calls into question his capacity to serve on the bench.

The most fundamental liberty, and first liberty interest mentioned in the nation’s founding Declaration of Independence, is the right to live and not be killed.

Abortion, the deliberate taking of defenseless human life, is the opposite of liberty.



Indeed, it is the defenselessness of the targeted victim that helps defines abortion. If a child in the womb had the capacity to defend herself, there would be no abortion.

Moreover, abortion’s scope is not only an existential threat to America, it is an existential threat to American democracy and the legitimacy of the American government.  It is not simply the the case that government justifies its existence on its ability to defend human life, but embraces the taking of human life on a massive scale.

Decriminalized surgical Abortion has killed roughly the same number of persons necessary to get elected to the Presidency.  One of the major political parties is in a position where it cannot form a legitimate government, because roughly as many Americans have been killed, in their mothers’ wombs, as the number of votes that party gets in presidential elections.  It would be like Hitler murdering 6 million Jews, getting 6 million votes from Nazis, and claiming that he was duly elected by the nation as a whole.

And, in addition to some Republicans being pro-abortion themselves, lukewarm Republicans mouthing anti-abortion positions but tepidly failing to take action to remedy the situation, call into question their own weak leadership and legitimacy.

Yet, on the level of intellect and rational analysis, Kavanaugh’s lauding of the person most responsible for decriminalized abortion as a champion of “liberty” is not simply treasonous.

It is, to put it simply, stupid.

Since getting killed is the opposite of liberty, Kavanaugh lauding an architect of the mass-killing of innocent American lives makes Kavanaugh sound like a manipulative liar and an intellectually stunted buffoon.



Additionally troubling is the context of Kavanaugh as a Washingtonian child of privilege, raising the prospect of him “going along to get along,” putting status and prestige, and resume-filling, ahead of right and wrong and ahead of loyalty to the nation.  His continued malfeasance in praising Kennedy raises the prospect of Kavanaugh of putting the desire to be “in with the in-crowd,” whether in Washington or in the troubled would-be “legal” profession ahead of moral and intellectual sanity, and ahead of the duty to protect American lives.

Any loyal American should oppose the Kavanaugh nomination.

Any person wanting to respect human life should oppose the Kavanaugh nomination.

Andy would-be “anti-abortion” group or individual, or would-be “conservative” group or individual that endorses Kavanaugh should be dismissed as contrary to their supposed mission; should be denied donations or honors; and should be rejected as a would-be voice for pro-life or traditional values.

Any legislator promoting the Kavanaugh nomination should be rejected and voted out.  If such a person has been posing as pro-life or traditional values or conservative, that might help explain why decriminalized abortion has malingered on for four decades — because someone flying a “false flag” took up space in the body politic that should have gone to someone who actually holds those values.

Of course, another reason that decriminalized abortion has malingered on has been Congress going AWOL, committing dereliction of duty and drawing their salary under false pretenses, by failing to carry out their Constitutional duty to impeach and remove renegade judges — renegade judges and justices committing crimes against the Constitution and associating with the treasonous mass-killings of Americans in their mother’s wombs.



The Constitution provides measures for its own amending.  A renegade judge or justice amending the Constitution in violation of that provision — such as by judicial fiat, by a vote of less than ten politically lawyers serving as justices — has committed an illegal act.

A renegade judge doing so, with the foreseeable and known result of the mass-murder of Americans, should be regarded as treasonous.

The Constitution does not have a gap allowing such a thing to happen; the Founding Fathers did not have a lack of foresight to fail to provide for such a contingency.  The Constitution provides for the removal of judges, by action of Congress.  Failure to carry out that Constitutional duty makes the weak, derelict legislators accessories by omission.

If we see that the same people pushing the Kavanaugh nomination also have failed to carry out their Constitutional duties of office, if we see that they have failed to take steps to remove renegade judges, then their involvement with Kavanaugh provides a useful filter calling for their exposure and removal —  a fresh reminder that they need to be rejected as failed leaders and removed from office, and replaced with actual leaders who will do their jobs and be loyal to America.



Of course, an added factor is that President Donald Trump also has praised Anthony Kennedy.

As long as Trump remains in office, it is up to Americans to send the nomination back to Trump, and tell him to “get it right’ this time by rejecting Anthony Kennedy’s anti-American legacy and nominating a proper nominee instead of Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, Trump has added further disgrace by appointing a pro-abortion Republican, Rudolph Giuliani, to a key White House post.

If there is an effort to “Dump Trump,” these embarrassing missteps should prompt such a movement now, while there is still time before the next Presidential election.

A Republican failure to do so would further expose, as fraudulent “cocktail conservatives,” any Republicans who additionally demonstrate a disrespect for the nation by attempting to push forward the troubled Kavanaugh nomination.





U.S. Capitol file photo

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Pray for Ireland to Respect Human Life and God’s Law in Abortion Referendum

Abortion, Catholic, Child Abuse, Children, Faith & Values, Headlines, Human Life, Human Rights, Torture
Ireland Satellite Image adapted from image at nasa.gov

Ireland, on May 25, 2018, votes in a referendum to potentially amend the Irish constitution for potential legislative action relaxing restrictions on abortion.

A “yes” vote would make it easier to allow murder, as long as the victim was not yet born. Prenatal child-killing often is described as so-called “abortion,” to recast what is deliberate killing as a kind of artificial miscarriage.  A number of abortions also are essentially death by torture, carried out against helpless victims who can feel pain.  There are additional issues raised by the harm abortion causes against the physical, mental and spiritual health and well-being of the mother, as well as female babies being targeted for killing at a higher rate than males.



Ireland needs our prayers, that the Irish people will respect human life and respect God by saying “no” to murder, including saying “no” to abortion.  Ultimately those who promote and participate in abortion not only are unbalanced in their thinking and a danger to the potential murder victims.  They also imperil their very souls by involving themselves with an evil that could result in their being condemned to hell, and likely would absent some unusual act of Divine Mercy prompted by some factor calling into question the perpetrator’s capacity.

So-called abortion is the most widespread human rights abuse on earth, and is often a leading cause of death for various groups or in some locales.



As murder, abortion grotesquely violates God’s Law, to the point where procurement of abortion brings automatic excommunication in the Catholic Church, and the Code of Canon Law.

Given that fact, it is curiously perverse that Ireland would be targeted for a referendum on abortion, given that Ireland is so predominantly Catholic, roughly 88% according to the U.S. State Department.

Those promoting abortion in Ireland not only are looking to kill more Irish, they are looking to get more Irish excommunicated in the process, and to implicate as much of the country as possible through the referendum.  Those voting in favor of abortion are, in the process, making themselves co-conspirators to murder and falling into some spectrum of grave sin, barring themselves from receiving Communion.  Any nominal Catholic publicly promoting abortion would be guilty of public scandal, and thereby barred from Communion until they publicly repented.  So, all around, it is if those promoting the abortion change are not only interesting in promoting killing.  In what is likely a diabolical matter, they are interested in corrupting the soul of a nation, and the souls of individuals, driving a wedge between them and God; driving a wedge between them and the Faith and Sacraments; and seeking to send more people to hell.





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Notre Dame Final Four Run Tainted by NCAA’s Scheduling on Good Friday and Easter; Catholic Institution Should Have Abstained From Participating

Catholic, College Basketball, Faith & Values, Headlines, NCAA, Notre Dame Football, Notre Dame Sports, Sports
File Photo of the Baslica of the Sacred Heart and Golden Dome at the University of Notre Dame

The NCAA has created an anti-Catholic and anti-Christian effect by scheduling a national semifinal (Final Four game) on Good Friday in women’s basketball. Doing so violates the solemn nature of the day and subjects Catholics to having to play on a day when they are fasting, and when they are abstaining from meat. At least the game is not at 3 p.m., the hour that Christ laid down His Life on the Cross, yet it is in the evening. #NotreDame should have refused to play.

The movie “Chariots of Fire” featured an Olympic athlete who refused to compete on the Sabbath. Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in a World Series game on Yom Kippur. Notre Dame should have refused to participate in the tournament if the Final Four was going to be on Good Friday.



Notre Dame Women’s Basketball has made yet another Final Four run, yet probably should have sat out the tournament when the NCAA drew up the bracket to force games on Good Friday and Easter, two of the most sacred dates on the Catholic Liturgical Calendar.

Good Friday, in particular, is a day of solemn observance honoring the Passion and Death of Christ on the Cross, for which an athletic contest intended as a form of entertainment is inconsistent. Additionally, Catholics are required to engage in fasting on Good Friday, to take in less than the ordinary amount of nutrition, as well as a day of abstinence from meat.

It appears that an additional form of abstinence that Notre Dame should have practiced was to abstain from participation in the tournament, unless they wanted to see if they could advance and then simply forfeit the semifinal.

Notre Dame is French for “Our Lady,” referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the day her Son was Crucified, the Blessed Mother was not playing basketball or rooting for an athletic contest. When most of everyone else had run off, the Blessed Mother was there at the foot of the Cross.

The Final Four fiasco is a missed opportunity for the University of Notre Dame. Against the backdrop of a society beset by various evils and temptations and moral failings, these circumstances offered an opportunity for Notre Dame to offer leadership, by refusing to disrespect Good Friday and Easter.



Such an example would have been helpful to the broader human community, and would have helped serve the NCAA with a “wake-up call.”

The NCAA, as coincidence would have it, is based within a few miles of an Irish Catholic church that reputedly was burned down by the anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan, back in the 1920’s when the KKK essentially took over Indiana and had deep tentacles into Indiana government. That was about the same era that the Notre Dame student body disrupted a Klan rally in South Bend and prepared to march on Klan headquareters before being convinced by the school president and Knute Rockne to head back to campus. And that was in the same era when Notre Dame started winning consensus national championships in football. It also was about the same era that Notre Dame reportedly starting adopting “The Fighting Irish” as their nickname, a term that originally had been hurled by an opposing team’s fans as an anti-Catholic racial slur, that the school would now wear as a badge of honor.

The NCAA is being de facto anti-Catholic by trying to force a Catholic institution to compete on a day when the Catholic Faith requires fasting and abstinence. And the NCAA is being anti-Catholic and, more broadly, anti-Christian, by disrespecting the solemn nature of Good Friday with the deliberate scheduling of the semifinal. The Final, of course, is scheduled for Easter Sunday, the Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord, the most important Feast Day on the Catholic calendar.

Today’s increasingly secularized, money-oriented University of “Notre Dame” is far too submissive to the NCAA’s de facto anti-Catholic, anti-Christian step of forcing a Final Four on the sacred day of Good Friday and Easter, the Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord. The university should have abstained from participating. And perhaps sports fans should abstain from watching.





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#NFL Embarasses Itself Inviting Unsavory, Untalented Stefani #Germanotta (so-called “#LadyGaga”) for #SuperBowl Halftime Show

Faith & Values, Headlines, NFL, Sports
File Photo of Football and Turf Near Goal Line

In one of the most-watched television broadcasts globally, the so-called #SuperBowl, the #NFL apparently has decided to go out of its way to offend mainstream America, believers in God, people of normal taste, and people who can hear pitch accurately, by featuring as its half-time performer the unsavory, untalented, droning Stefani Germanotta. Germanotta, a fallen-away Catholic who dropped out of a religious high school, performs under the stage name of “#LadyGaga,” a title that, according to a biography website, hearkens pack to a former career as a go-go dancer.



The “performance” itself was largely an exercise in mediocrity.  In addition to being unsavory and offensive, the individual in question tends to be boring, uninspired and droning in her sound, which tends to sound like a more boring, off-key version of dance club background music from the late 1980’s or early 1990’s.  In fact, one has to wonder how many the individual’s fans might be clinically tone deaf.



As laughable as it might seem now, not that many years ago, the NFL said it wanted to be known as family entertainment.  After featuring the likes of Madonna Ciccone, Katy Perry and now the unsavory, offensive, fallen-away Catholic Stefani Germanotta as Super Bowl half-time performers, the NFL has secured itself the branding of being unsuitable for families, unsuitable for people of good taste and, basically, unsuitable for normal people.

Stefani Germanotta has associated herself with nudity, the promotion of immorality and a lack of musical talent.  Her droning, forgetable, unspiring music tends to sound somewhat off-key and out of tune.  Those facts invite speculation that she resorts to shock value as an attention-getter to compensate for the fact that her music is boring and largely featureless.  If Germanotta had tried to emerge on the scene in the 1960’s or 1970’s, or perhaps any time prior to the mid-1990’s, she likely would not have a “music” career at all.



The individual also has shown her contempt for religious faith in a number of ways, including by singing love for Judas, as well as mocking prayer in a morbid manner by announcing at one point that she was praying naked.

#Pepsi shares part of the blame for the offensive fiasco, as the would-be sponsor of the debacle.

#Fox also shares blame, for having its announcers toe the party line by speaking favorably of the individual.

While at least one Fox commentator tried to convince viewers that the would-be “show” at halftime was “amazing,” in reality the show ittself was boring as well as offensive, an embarrasment to the NFL, an embarrasment to football, an embarassment to Fox, and to anybody involved.



There also was the claim that mention of the individual on so-called “social media” was some kind of positive indicator, when, in reality, so-called “mentions” including negative mentions.

Quite frankly, one should question whether favorable commentators should be paid attention or hired for future commentary.  And NFL personnel responsible for inflicting this fiasco on America should be fired, for bad judgment and undermining the good of the sport, as well as for disrespecting the vast majority of Americans whose values and sense of taste have been attacked and disrespected by the trouble-making, unsavory individual the NFL tried to celebrate as something other than that.





 

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Voters in a State of Sin Should Not Vote

Abortion, Catholic, Crime, Faith & Values, Headlines, Human Life, Human Rights, Porn, Sex
File Photo of Polling Place Sign in Multiple Languages, adapted from image at justice.gov

Just as voters who are drunk or high on drugs should not vote, voters in a state of sin also should not vote.

The last thing the country needs is to have persons with clouded judgment or clouded motives exercising political power, including exercising the power to vote.  Yet that is exactly what we would get, with voters casting ballots while in a state of sin.

Voting in a state of sin would distort judgment and perceptions, make it harder to act for good and make it easier to act for ill.

Sin clouds judgment and reorients priorities in the wrong direction.  Habits of sin also make it easier for forces of temptation, including personified evil, to work their way into perceptions, thinking and decisionmaking.



Making matters worse, we have an election where sin has been infused into certain political ideologies.  It is as if some candidates for President, for example, would like to be Enabler-in-Chief instead of Commander-in-Chief.

An Enabler-in-Chief would be someone who provides the serious sinner with the false pseudo-comfort of an “easy” way out, being told by the candidate that their evil doings, such as moral depravity, prenatal childkilling, euthanasia or so-called “assisted suicide”, are just fine, that there is no need to deal with the anxiety of confronting their guilty conscience, confessing the truth, repenting, converting and seeking a new life.

Now, some might try to argue that everybody is a sinner, and perhaps try to manipulate the question brush the whole matter aside.

To some extent that is true, although it is possible, for example, for a Catholic voter to go to Confession, receive Absolution, declare and seek a complete rejection of sin, then vote.

Nevertheless, let us revise the imperative to refer to serious sin, or rather grave sin or mortal sin.  Those who have killed others, without doing so in legitimate self-defense or the defense of others, should not vote.  That includes those who have involved themselves with prenatal child-killing, so-called “abortion.”  Exceptions might be made for those who have sincerely repented and converted, which, for Catholics, would mean taking the necessary steps, currently in place, to have their automatic Excommunication lifted.



An added problem such a voter gets into, however, is that, when a candidate is pro-abortion, or otherwise promotes serious sin, it becomes sinful to even engage in the act of voting, in favor of the Candidate Promoting Sin.  And doing so also would call into question the sincerity of the sinful voter’s claim to have repented.

For example, consider a voter who is a chronic masturbator, who sometimes has seized opportunities to fornicate, who got themselves involved with a pregnancy as the male or the female, and then got connected with an abortion murdering their child in the womb, either as the mother or as the father.  Perhaps the childkiller/ fornicator/ masturbator takes advantage of the current Pope’s Year of Mercy option to clear their status and escape damnation just by going to Confession.  And perhaps, with God’s Grace, they even abstain from masturbating and further fornicating.  If they then squander their new-found Graces, and cast aside their new life of freedom from evil by voting for a pro-abortion candidate, their repentance would be in doubt, and they would be sinning anew.

Those who have engaged in sexual gratification or activity of any kind, outside of Sacramental Marriage, are in a state of grave sin and should not vote.That includes adultery, fornication, sodomy, solo masturbation, mutual masturbation, the viewing of pornography and perhaps even looking at some other person in a lustful manner.

Christ said clearly that looking at another person with lust is like committing adultery in the heart.

Another problem today is that there are those who are so entrenched in sin that they have built up all sorts of structures sustaining it, such as cohabitating in a sinful “relationship” with shared housing, or using their business life to promote sin, such as belonging to a law firm that boasts about employing persons living in sin.

Those engaging in theft, or dishonesty, or other grave sins also should abstain from voting, although some might argue about how serious or large the theft or dishonesty has to be.

What is particularly bizarre in the current election is the presence of candidates promoting abortion.  The only “religions” pushing for the killing of children, in the womb or already born, are ancient demon-worshiping pagan rites and subsets of Satanists.  So one confronts a situation of an ideology of child-killing embraced only by demon-worshiping pagans, certain Satanists, and a handful of political parties and their minions.  That the political parties doing so try to recast the matter with manipulative false arguments, perhaps seeking to portray the evil as something opposite, is not only not surprising.  False arguments and manipulation, and evil trying to pose as “good” is a common modus operandi of evil. In the Gospel we even see that the devil itself tried to misquote Holy Scripture when seeking to tempt Christ in the desert.

We need voters thinking clearly, acting for good; we do not need the country’s future disrupted and diverted by voters in an altered state of bad judgment and corrupt spirituality, perhaps additionally with devils pushing them to think themselves clever if they vote for the devils’ candidate.

Yet, in this narcissistic childish culture, perhaps it would be easier to put it another way.

Voters in a state of sin are not really themselves.  It would be analogous to them being drunk or high on drugs, or in some other altered state.

While in a state of sin, they are in conflict with the true them, as well as in conflict with their true hearts.  The Law of God, God’s Law of Love that stands in conflict with sin, is engraved on the flesh tablets of the human heart. If we sin, we not only stand in conflict with God; we stand in conflict with our own true hearts.

At the very least, voters in a state of sin have clouded judgment, distracted distorted perceptions, and motivations that are different from the motivations that they would have as their true selves, in union with God, as the good person, the real person God Created them to be.

Voters in a state of sin, particularly a state of grave sin, should not vote.





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Just Say No to Clinton’s Politics of Hate

2016 Elections, Faith & Values, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Politics & Government
Hillary Rodham Clinton file photo, during raid on Bin Laden

Few politicians could be more hateful than to center their political life around the widespread killing of innocent human life.

Yet that is what Hillary Rodham Clinton has done, by being a pro-abortion extremist favoring the continued decriminalization of prenatal child-killing.  She is pro-abortion to the extent that she even has supported partial-birth abortion, opposed by a super-majority of Americans.



Abortion already is a human rights violation, attacking the most basic of human rights, the right of innocent persons to not be killed.

With “surgical” abortions approaching 59 million in the United States alone, Rodham Clinton emerges as an egregious human rights violator by virtue of her support for abortion, and acceptance of funds from one or more abortion providers.

Yet, while even one abortion constitutes murder and a human rights violation, abortion on such a massive scale also represents a particular brutal, vicious form of treason.  A nation, ultimately, is its people, and anyone associating themselves with the killing of 59 million Americans in the womb could be considered someone embracing a vicious form of treason on a shocking scale.

As Secretary of State, Clinton even spoke at, and supported, an organization that is America’s biggest domestic abortion “provider.” Even though her role as Secretary of State did not even give her a basis to spend working hours addressing domestic abortion, she chose to do so, and to do so to promoting abortion.

Adding to the hatred attached to mass murder is the racist factor.

Abortion in America impacts African-Americans at a far higher rate than whites, considering their relevant portion of the population, so that abortion has been termed not only an anti-American genocide, but also an anti-Black genocide.  Abortion is the biggest killer of African-Americans.

The woman subjected to abortion, of course, also are hurt by it, with some injured or killed, perhaps scarred physically or psychologically for life.

Against that context, supporting Rodham Clinton in any way constitutes a supreme act of hatred — hatred of human life, hatred of children, hatred of women, hatred of racial minorities, hatred of America, hatred of good, hatred of decency.

It also is an act of hatred against God, the Author of all human life.  And support for a pro-abortion extremist like Rodham Clinton a serious sin.  If you are Catholic, for example, you should not present yourself for Communion in such a state of sin.

Just say no to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s politics of hate.





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In Election, Let’s Pray to Do God’s Will

2016 Elections, Faith & Values, Politics & Government
U.S. Map

Scripture says, if God is not the Architect, in vain do the builders labor.

Let’s pray to do God’s Will.

In the upcoming #election, let’s pray to do God’s Will with how each of us casts a vote, as well as with our other democracy-related activities, such as conversations, bumper stickers, yard signs, online posts, volunteering activities and so forth.

Some people might refuse to do this, to which we ask, “why?”

Are they afraid to pray? Or do they refuse to do God’s Will.

Let’s …

(1) pledge to do God’s Will

(2) pray to God, along the lines of, “God, I choose to do Your Will in this election. God, please help me to do Your Will. God, please help me to learn and know Your Will, and to act on it.”




In the process, we admit that God is Real, and that we are not God.

Before getting into any arguments about what God’s Will is, or how we feel about the election or any candidate or any issue, we admit that we should put God’s Will before our own.

We agree to cooperate with God, to lay the foundations for right judgment (i.e., right assessments) and right action.

If we do not seek to do God’s Will, if we choose to neglect our attentiveness to God or reject the notion, we run the risk of doing something that is not God’s Will.

By definition, we run the risk of opposing God’s Will, and we run the risk of finding ourselves fighting against God.

At the very least, we risk wasting time and resources, and having to back-track later to get back on course. As Scripture says, “If God is not the Architect, in vain do the builders labor.” Imagine trying to build a house, only to discover the plans were wrong, and it had to be torn back down, in whole or in part, and that we had to start over from scratch. If God is not the Architect, in vain do the builders labor.

Let’s pray to do God’s Will.



If someone tries to deny that God is Real, are they being realistic?

Even the demons could not bring themselves to deny that God is Real. The demons would start howling in the presence of Christ, proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. They knew, and still know, all too well that God is Real (and incidentally, that they are doomed to Eternal pointlessness, suffering and damnation in hell; that, in the end, humans who are Saved will take the places in Heaven that the demons were stupid enough to lose; and that ultimately there is nothing that evil can do about it.)

If someone admits that God is Real, yet refuses to pray, why are they afraid to pray?

If someone refuses to do God’s Will, why?

God’s Law of Love is engraved on the fleshy tablets of the human heart. So, in the end, someone who rebels against God ultimately is in conflict within themselves, in conflict with God’s Love, and God’s Law, already placed within their heart.

Have those who refuse to do God’s Will been trapped into an addiction, or bad habits or some kind of false fulfillment?  Are they, perhaps, propped up by seemingly “trendy” arguments that actually are false arguments, contradictory to God and God’s Law of Love?

Or if someone brushes aside the call to pray to do God’s Will, are they already on the right track, yet afraid to take on difficult choices in an imperfect human season.

Or do they know the right course, deep down, yet are cowardly, and not wanting to answer the call to do more. Are they like the earlier Jonah, who wanted to “run off and hide” rather than carry out God’s Will in a more involved role. Are they like the earlier Thomas More, who became a “go-along-to-get-along” participant in a bad government, instead of speaking out for the truth earlier, rather than waiting for the perjury of a bad man to finally force his hand. Are they lacking the energy of a Saint Dunstan, who helped better rulers, but refused to become involved with worse rulers, even if it meant fleeing into exile.

Are they like the younger Archbishop Bergoglio, who apparently remained mostly quiet in the face of the Argentine Junta, not ready to be more like Archbishop Oscar Romero or Saint Thomas Becket, who shed their blood for Christ at the altar rather than cower before evil.

Let’s pray to do God’s Will.


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VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT: Pope Benedict XVI at Ground Zero in New York City, Praying for Victims of 9/11 (2008)

Catholic, Faith & Values, Headlines, Pope Benedict XVI, Terrorism
Pope Benedict XVI Waving Before Crowd

Pope Benedict XVI visited Ground Zero in New York City on April 22, 2008, the site of the terrorist attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Videos of his visit follow below, as well as a transcript of the prayer he offered. The videos include an excerpt featuring his prayer of Blessing as well as a longer video.



From the Vatican Information Service:

POPE AT GROUND ZERO: GOD BRING PEACE TO OUR VIOLENT WORLD

VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2008 (VIS) – In New York at 9.30 a.m. local time today, the Pope visited Ground Zero, the name now used to refer to the site once occupied by the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

On 11 September 2001 two aircraft crashed into the twin towers, destroying them and a number of neighbouring buildings in a terrorist attack which cost the lives of 2,896 people. The site today is a vast 80-metre deep crater, surrounded by a fence and marked with a cross.

In 2002 the reconstruction of the World Trade Centre was put out for tender in a competition won by the architect Daniel Libensky. Today, Ground Zero is a construction site where work is scheduled to finish in the year 2012. The main building of the new complex will be the “Freedom Tower”, 541 metres high.



Benedict XVI arrived at Ground Zero accompanied by Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York. Awaiting him there were Michael Bloomberg, mayor of the city; David A. Paterson and John Corzine, respectively governors of New York and of New Jersey; 24 people representing the forces that responded to the attack of 11 September, and a number of injured and relatives of the victims.

The Holy Father kneeled for a few minutes of silent prayer for the victims of the attack, then lit a candle before pronouncing the following prayer:

“O God of Love, Compassion, and Healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

“We ask You in Your Goodness
to give Eternal Light and Peace
to all who died here –
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on 11 September 2001.

“We ask You, in Your Compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.

“We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

“God of Peace, bring Your Peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to Your Way of Love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.

“God of Understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek Your Light and Guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all”.

The prayer over, the Pope greeted survivors of the attack, relatives of some of the victims, and members of the rescue squads. Finally, he imparted his blessing to those present.

After the ceremony, the Holy Father returned to his residence where he bid farewell to the staff of the Holy See permanent mission to the United Nations in New York before having lunch in private.
PV-U.S.A./PRAYER GROUND ZERO/NEW YORK VIS 20080420 (620)

[VIS release also appeared at visnews-en.blogspot.in/2008/04/pope-at-ground-zero-god-bring-peace-to.html, bearing the following notice:

Copyright © VIS – Vatican Information Service

In accordance with international regulations on Intellectual Property and Author’s Rights, VIS authorises reproduction of news items issued by the Vatican Information Service, partially or in their entirety, on condition that the source (VIS – Vatican Information Service) is quoted.]



 

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NEWSWATCH Deal Hudson/The Christian Review: “The Catholic Church Doesn’t Really Care About Abortion”

2016 Elections, Catholic, Donald Trump, Faith & Values, Headlines, Human Life, Politics & Government, SCW Newswatch
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception file photo, adapted from image at loc.gov

… To make matters even more stark, Hillary Clinton has made the support of Planned Parenthood, the proven seller of infant body parts, part of her political platform, while the platform of her Democratic Party has announced a more extreme pro-abortion clause than in previous elections. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has promised to sign a bill defunding Planned Parenthood and has published a list of potential #SupremeCourt nominees all in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

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Pro-life Catholics need to wake up and realize that most of the ‘officialdom’ of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is already rolling out a national campaign that is virtually an arm of the Democratic Party. If you don’t believe me, start tracking the various conferences and forums being offered in your diocese, drill down to look at the host organization, the speakers, and their topics. Better yet, attend one and publicly voice your pro-life preferences and see what happens.

Click here for Deal Hudson/The Christian Review: “The Catholic Church Doesn’t Really Care About Abortion”



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