By John 6:54
Congratulations to the Dallas & Fort Worth Bishops for the following clear teaching.
Below is just an excerpt from the statement but it gets to the meat of the matter. Click here to read the whole statement.
"Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate’s position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:
a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or “abortion rights,” a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,
b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning, there are no “truly grave moral” or proportionate” reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.
To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or “abortion rights” when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible."
As the AmericanPapist.com points out "either the Texas bishops are wrong about Church teaching, or a common argument claimed by some Catholics is wrong. I don’t see how the two positions can co-exist in the situation as it exists in America today for catholics."
I agree with the Papist and since this is a clear issue of "Faith & Morals" I believe the Bishops are correct.
Continue reading Texas Bishops
By John 6:54
A few Sundays back our parish priest gave us a good homily on increasing our respect for all life and the issues of our day. He also tied into the fact that our society seems to make decisions leaning towards the economics of the situation.
Example 1 Abortion
Most abortions are not performed because of situations of rape or incest but most abortions are performed because of simple economics of the situation. Most abortions are performed because the mother feels she can not afford to raise a baby or does not want the economic strain that it would cause her.
Example 2 Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The destruction of human beings in an embryonic stage is some how considered to be valid due to potential cures available that would ultimately lead to economic gain for the researchers who discover them.
Example 3 Euthanasia
Many in favor believe it is okay to allow someone to end their life because they no longer lead a life believed to be “productive” to themselves or by societ,y and the care they need costs too much.
Example 4 Death Penalty
Many believe we should not spend the money needed to keep someone in jail for life when they could be executed.
In all four of these examples our society seems to basis it’s decision off the gut economics of the situation. If it’s going to cost us money that we don’t want to spend we let it pass. In three week our country is going to decide who it wants to be President. Which candidate will we choose? The one who sides with life or the one who represents perceived economic “change”? My fear is that we once again as a society, make a decision not on the life issue but on the perceived economics of the situation.
Continue reading Life vs Economics
By John 6:54
 The National Debt Clock situated near Times Square ran out of numbers as the federal government’s debt soared to $10.2 trillion. The debt clock, which was erected in 1989 by Seymour Durst, was only equipped to handle a debt of up to $9.9 Trillion. The current economic crisis helped push the clock over that mark. The dollar sign has now be switched to a one while they wait to add two more digits. God help us if we have to use another digit. When the clock was put up in 1989, the national debt was $2.7 trillion. Oh what a difference 20 years makes.
To the left is a graph of the National Debt since 1940.
Continue reading Debt Clock
By John 6:54
Adapted from “The Advantages of Natural Family Planning,” brochure by Father Paul Marx, O.S.B. Ph.D., as appears in The Facts of Life, by Brian Clowes, Ph.D., (Human Life International™, 2001), p. 98.1
(1) NFP does not interfere with the natural reproductive system and process designed by God.
(2) NFP is morally acceptable to all religions and cultures.
(3) NFP avoids the use of mechanical devices or powerful hormones which may have harmful effects.
(4) NFP is among the most effective methods of nonpermanent fertility regulation known when learned and used properly — up to 99 percent, as described in, “Contraception.”
(5) NFP is virtually free of charge, whereas contraceptive and abortifacient methods cost anywhere from $616 to $2,520 U.S. dollars annually. This point is particularly crucial in areas of developing countries where health care is rudimentary and expensive.
(6) NFP strengthens marriage and family. It allows husband and wife to have the dignity of actual stewardship of the gift of fertility according to their unique circumstances. It fosters sexual self-control, which is central and essential to human freedom, true love and maturity. It also sets a good example of chastity in married life for teenaged children.
(7) NFP is aesthetic. Of all of the methods of fertility regulation, only NFP allows the couple to make love as God and nature intended. It is amusing that “lovemaking manuals” try to work condoms, diaphragms, and various messy jams and jellies into the act of making love — “getting rigged to make love,” as one noted gynecologist calls it. It is an enduring contradiction that many of the same people who pride themselves on the “natural” aspects of their lives don’t hesitate to pollute their bodies with drugs and devices, and cannot let the most intimate aspect of their existence be truly natural and human.
(8) Finally, NFP, unlike all contraceptive and abortifacient methods, lets women and men learn about their bodies and work with them, rather than remaining ignorant and subduing them with chemicals. And NFP allows husbands to more intimately understand the psychology of their wives by understanding the nature of their menstrual cycles.
1 HLI always reminds couples that NFP is not simply a method of “natural” birth control. The Church clearly teaches that NFP is the only method couples may use to space births, but even this method is to be employed only “for grave reasons.” In our pastoral care of engaged couples, we must make sure that they understand the mind of the Church on this matter. Note the teaching from Humanae Vitae, paragraph 16, which says: If, then, there are serious motives for spacing births, motives deriving from physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that it is then permissible to take into account the natural rhythms immanent in the generative functions and to make use of marriage during the infertile times only, and in this way to regulate births without offending the moral principles that we have just recalled.
By John 6:54
By Father Thomas J. Euteneuer
Q: What is the difference between a couple who uses contraception NOT to get pregnant and a couple who uses Natural Family Planning NOT to get pregnant? Aren’t they both contracepting?
A: No. There is an intrinsic difference between these two acts. One is preventing conception by a deliberate act, and the other is avoiding conception by cooperation with nature. Both have the same result of not producing a baby, but they achieve this result by very different means. The end does not justify the means; rather the right means lead to the right ends, Thus, when it is necessary to avoid a pregnancy for grave reasons, the Church teaches that there is only one moral way to get there, the natural way.
The difference between natural and artificial birth prevention can be likened to the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance. Both acts lead to a reduction in the taxes paid, but one is illegal and the other is legal. For example, in tax evasion I am committing a fraud by a deliberate attempt to cheat the system of its due. (I am morally obliged to contribute to the common good.) In tax avoidance I am using the various possibilities for tax reduction that the system itself provides in order to avoid some of its costs. There is a world of difference between the two methods, even though in both cases I am paying fewer taxes.1
The human reproductive system has a built-in system of avoiding pregnancy. God built into the woman’s body cycles of fertility and infertility so pregnancy would not result from every sexual act. By learning the natural cycles of fertility, a couple may morally avoid conceiving a baby when they have a serious reason to do so. Conversely, a couple may also use the knowledge to achieve pregnancy.
The morality of the act has to take into account the intention as well as the method. The immoral intention of artificial contraception is birth prevention while the moral intention of Natural Family Planning is birth avoidance using the natural cycles of fertility. With the one, couples take “control” of the sexual function and nullify or sterilize it. Hence the name birth “control.” It turns the divine command “Be fruitful and multiply” right on its head. In the other, the couple cooperates with the natural system consisting of both fertile and infertile periods. If, however, a couple were to use NFP without grave reason for avoiding pregnancy, then their intention would be contraceptive by definition and therefore also gravely immoral. This is a distinction that even many teachers of NFP do not clarify for couples when they teach it, but it is the clear teaching of the Church that couples must not use NFP for “natural” contraception.
We can explain it another way. It all comes down to the “mentality” with which one uses the gift of human sexuality. If couples are masters and controllers of the sexual function, they will be engaging in immoral sex because they will be preventing births with their own selfish designs in mind. However, if they are stewards of God’s gift of sexuality in marriage, they cooperate with the Lord and become channels of His life to the world.
1 The American tax system allows deductions for each dependent child in the family. I know a pro-lifer in the U.S. who has nine children and as a result pays no taxes at all!
By John 6:54
Here is a video pulled from YouTube but has made it back up on the Bailout & Housing Crisis. Its 10 minutes of your time althougth it goes fast so I would suggest that you pause it here and there to make sure you catch what their getting at. I hope to get out of political posts once the election is done. But after writing about 20 letters in two weeks to my 3 representatives I’m still peaved. Even at 9 to 1 against by the American people Congress voted for the bailout. Getting it passed by loading it up with another $150 Billion in pork to the original $700 Billion in cash. This country is in trouble in more ways than one.
Continue reading Bailout Depression
By John 6:54
 The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was established by Pope Pius V on October 7th, 1572 to commemorate the great sea victory of the Christian forces over the Turks at Lepanto the previous year. It’s ironic that the most inspiring devotional prayer to our sweet Lady is also, well, a weapon. A spiritual weapon to be sure, and always effective in our battle for minds, hearts and souls. While the Rosary defies strict classification by any one image, it is nonetheless a spiritual resource of immense power if only we will deepen our appreciation of it and use it for the work of the Kingdom.
Militant imagery to describe the Rosary is not just due to its deployment during the Battle of Lepanto but also to the example of some of the greatest saints who used it for spiritual warfare. St. Dominic, who is credited with inventing the devotion in the 12th century (actually it existed in some form much earlier and he popularized it), used the Rosary to combat a pernicious heresy of his day and bring people back to the Catholic Faith. St. Maximilian Kolbe led his companions in the Nazi starvation bunker by singing hymns and reciting the Rosary to keep them from losing hope in such cruel circumstances. Padre Pio, no stranger to spiritual warfare, always told the people, "The Rosary is the weapon!" That saint was known to pray as many as ninety Rosaries a day in a shortened form for which he received ecclesiastical permission. He knew what was needed to fight the devil!
Mary’s Rosary is a powerful spiritual weapon for three main reasons: it is biblical, humble and repetitive. As St. Louis Marie de Montfort noted, the Rosary is not just a devotion to Mary – rather, it is a prayer through Mary directly to the Heart of Christ! That is the way Catholics pray it. Protestants, who reject Catholic prayers as being too Mary-centered, need to be shown that the Rosary consists of purely biblical prayers (the Our Father and the Hail Mary)! We also need to educate them that the goal of the prayer is meditation on the Mystery of Christ revealed to us in Scripture and Tradition. With the addition of the Luminous Mysteries by Pope John Paul II in 2002, the biblical reflection on the Life and Ministry of Christ is complete.
The Christian virtue of humility inevitably shatters the devil’s pride, and to that end, the Rosary is not a glorious sacrament but a humble devotion. The Rosary can be prayed communally but it can never really be prayed ostentatiously. The meditation of the Rosary is not on one’s self, it is on God. The Rosary teaches the most important lessons of faith with simple images, not esoteric learning. It also teaches the fundamental Christian virtues which St. John Vianney says are bound together by humility like the chain of a Rosary binds together all the beads! There is nothing about the Rosary which inspires arrogance, and that is why the devil hates it with a passion. He just can’t break its humility.
Finally, its repetitive intercession gives the Rosary a transformative strength that can only be likened to the slow force of the ancient streams that cut the Grand Canyon out of solid rock over thousands of years. It is an unstoppable force of good if only the people who pray it will not cease to pray for their intentions! This prayer is meaningful, meditative and pregnant with Our Lady’s presence which is always the most sure way to send any prayer to heaven. After all, She is the one who, we are told, will crush the head of the serpent; She reverses the ancient curse of Eve; She batters the gates of hell with a weapon in the form of a chain.
Pray the Rosary assiduously each day, and Mary will battle with you. Whatever gates of hell you are fighting…they shall not prevail!
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Continue reading The Rosary Batters the Gates of Hell
By John 6:54
Something I just became aware of for those living in Missiouri. Click the license plate to learn more.
Continue reading Choose Life
By John 6:54
 Sorry folks but I’m still stuck on politics which is probably why I’ve been a bit depressed lately. I’m starting to get a little scared about the Pro-Life chances in this election. I’m not sure how many people noticed after the debate last night when the candidates and their families were talking on stage, but Joe Biden walked up to Gov. Palin and grabbed her arm to get her attention and then proceeded to started rubbing it almost as if we were making an unconscious pass at her. It was absolutely vial. Would Joe have done that if he had been trying to get Mit Romney’s attention or even Hillary Clinton’s?
Obviously there is a gigantic double standard in our society when it comes to those who have become fixtures in Washington and the rest of our citizens. Where is media outrage? Where is public outrage? I wish Palin would have stepped back and slapped him. Joe’s actions at that moment was totally out of line and he should be held accountable. It wasn’t a “Gaffe” but it was Gross. God save us.
Watch it on this video from at the 1 hour 33 minute and 17 seconds mark on this video.
1:33:17 to 1:33:20 to be exact.
Continue reading Post Debate Arm Rubbing
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