Catholic church becoming liberal? Don't hold your breath!

A blog on CNN suggested that the Pope would be changing the church toward more liberalism but this was not confirmed by anything he said, nor any of his homilies.

The video I am sending said the Pope called for "great changes" in the church but the vatican "expert" interviewed said nothing of the sort and if feeding the poor is what they mean, the Catholic church already feeds 3/4 of the world's poor and hungry, a fact conveniently "forgotten" by the secular media.

The Holy Father simply said that the church needs to reach out to people - be more Evangelistic -  his remark about not getting caught up in "unimportant details" which I feel was grossly misinterpreted by the liberal media, did not mean lowering Eucharistic standards or making the Catholic church into "Catholic lite" as in more tolerant of sin.  The CNN blogger actually referred to the church asking pro abortion politicians to refrain from receiving Holy Communion as "wafer wars"  (** sigh **) and said he thought the Pope might, in the future, allow politicians supporting abortion to receive the Eucharist - my reaction to this would be, don't hold your breath for this to happen. 
So bottom line, I would not waste much time with his blog however, the news video at this site seems a bit more accurate and it's good to be aware of what the media is saying about our church so we can provide corrections to it.

Of course, the Holy Father is very evangelistic as we also should be, but he is also very strong on good doctrine and upholding Catholic teachings!

Seems in the media, they are either dissing him or perpetuating - shall we say to be nice - inaccuracies (hmmm) about him.

Here's the link: and it's CNN but think of it this way, people probably won't bother reading the article and just seeing the photo or watching the video will remind them of church, especially those who have been lax in their Sunday attendance.

God works all good for those who love Him!

I believe the link below will take you right to the video....

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/11/26/seg-pope-changes.cnn.html

Pope Francis affirms the Gospel of Life as a tool of Evangelization

The following is the text of Pope Francis speech to gynecologists and medical providers on Sept 20, 2013.  The original text is in Italian and not available in English - I've done my best to translate:

ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN ORGANIZED BY THE
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS OF CATHOLIC DOCTORS

Clementine Hall
Friday , September 20, 2013

Pope Francis - remarks to gynecologists and medical providers:

I apologize for the delay, because today ... this is a morning too complicated for audiences ... I apologize.

1. The first point that I would like to share with you is this: [what] we are witnessing today is a paradoxical situation, in dealing with the medical profession. On the one hand we see - and thank God [for this] - the progress of medicine, thanks to the work of scientists who, with passion and with sparing no effort, are dedicated to finding new cures. On the other hand, however, we find also the danger that the doctor might lose his/her identity as a servant of life. The cultural disorientation has also affected what looked like an unassailable area: your medical care, as by the nature at their service of life, the health professions are sometimes induced to disregard life itself. Instead, as we remember the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate , "openness to life is at the center of true development." There is no true development without this openness to life. "If you lose the personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life, then other forms of acceptance of lives that are valuable for society also wither away. The acceptance of life strengthens moral fiber and makes people capable of mutual help "(n. 28). The paradoxical situation is seen in the fact that while you give the person new rights, sometimes even alleged rights, this does not always protect the life as a primary value and basic right of every man. The final objective of doctor is always the defense and promotion of life.

2. The second point:  which in this context, should be heard, is that the Church appeals to the conscience, the conscience of all health care professionals and volunteers. In a special way you Gynecologists, are called to collaborate in the creation of new human lives. Yours is a unique vocation and mission, which requires study, conscience and humanity. At one time, the women who helped in childbirth called "co-mothers"  i.e. midwives were like a mother to the infant, and the mother. You too are "co-mothers" and "co-fathers", too.

A widespread mentality of profits, the "culture of waste", which now enslaves the hearts and minds of many, has a very high cost: it requires eliminating human beings, especially if they are physically or socially weaker. Our response to this mentality is a "yes" to life first, without hesitation! "The first right of the human person is his/her life. S/He has other goods and some of them are more precious than other things, but the right to life, is the fundamental right, before all other rights or things. "(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , Declaration on Procured Abortion , November 18, 1974, 11). Things have a price and are sold, but people have a dignity, worth more than things and do not have monetarial value i.e. are priceless. Many times, we find ourselves in situations where we see what happens when life is devalued. For this attention to human life in its totality has become in recent years a real priority of the Magisterium of the Church, particularly to the most defenseless, that is, the disabled, the sick, the unborn child, the child, the elderly, i.e. the most defenseless life.

In the fragile human, each of us is invited to recognize the face of the Lord, who in his human flesh has experienced the indifference and loneliness that often condemn the poorest, both in countries in the developing world, as well as in affluent societies . Every child not [allowed to be] born, but unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, the Lord's face before s/he was born, and likewise, every newborn, many of whom have experienced rejection in the world. And also, every senior,  - I talked about the child: let's go to the elderly, another point! Every elderly person, sick, or even if at the end of his/her days, carries the face of Christ. You can not discard [any life], as we proposed [what happens in] the "culture of waste"! You can not discard life!

3. The third aspect is a mandate: be witnesses and speakers of this "culture of life" . Your being Catholic entails greater responsibility: first of all to yourself, for the effort to be consistent with the Christian vocation, and then to contemporary culture, to help recognize the transcendent dimension in human life, the imprint of the creative work of God, from the very first moment of conception. This is a commitment to the new evangelization that often requires going against the current, and often, paying for your stand in popularity. The Lord counts on you to spread the "Gospel of life."

In this perspective the gynecology hospital departments are privileged places of witness and evangelization, because wherever the Church is, "the vehicle of the presence of God" living at the same time becomes an "instrument of the true humanization of man and the world" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization , 9). Growing awareness that the focus of medical care is the human person in a position of weakness, the health facility becomes' the place where the care relationship is not merely, a job - the job is of caring relationship - but a mission , where the charity of the Good Samaritan is the defining precept and the face of the sufferer, the Face of Christ "(Benedict XVI, Address at the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome , May 3, 2012).

Dear Friends and doctors, who are called to take care of human life in its initial phase, remind everyone, with facts and words, life is always, in all its phases and at any age, sacred and is always quality. And not for the reason of faith - no, no - but with science and reason! There is no human life more sacred than another, as there is a no human life qualitatively more significant than another. The credibility of a health care system is measured not only for efficiency, but also for the attention and love [extended] towards people, whose life is always sacred and inviolable.

Do not ever neglect to pray to the Lord and the Virgin Mary for having the strength to do your job well and bear witness with courage - courage! Today it takes courage - with courage witness with the "Gospel of life"! Thanks a lot.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130920_associazioni-medici-cattolici_it.html

Surrogacy - why is the Catholic church opposed?

These days we hear a lot about surrogacy on TV.  It is portrayed as a wonderful alternative for those couples who cannot conceive a baby.  But in the midst of the bravos from the media, the Catholic church is quietly opposed to the practice.

Most Catholics know the church doesn't approve but they don't know why....

The reason the church is opposed is simply this - surrogacy ends up turning the miracle of birth and the resulting baby
into a commodity which results in tragic circumstances at times.

An essay on Surrogacy puts it this way:

Surrogacy degrades a pregnancy to a service and a baby to a product. Experience shows that like any other commercial dealing the customer lays down his/her conditions before purchasing the goods. The surrogate may be forced to terminate the pregnancy if so desired by the contracting couple and she will not be able to terminate it if it is against the desire of the couple. She has difficulty in keeping her own baby. There have been instances where the contracting individual has specified the gender of the baby as well, refused to take the baby if it is not normal, and filed a suite against the surrogate saying she had broken the contract.

The same essay stated that they had interviewed several surrogate mothers and they were not willing to talk about how they felt when they had to relinquish the baby they carried for 9 months to the mother-to-be.  One gets the feeling this is very heart wrenching because there is excellent evidence that a woman attaches to her baby pretty early in pregnancy.

A pro abortion sign read "My baby, my body, my choice".  Notice the mother is already saying it's HER baby, and not the "products of conception" and not even THE baby but rather HER baby.   In other words, the mother is emotionally attaching to the infant in her womb very early in pregnancy.

The article I quoted, calls these ladies, "gestational serfs".  Please consider reading this article - it's excellent...just click on the link below:

Gestational Serfs by Wesley Smith, JD

Less kids than dogs in our society

A pew research study was quoted by predictor of demographic doom, Jonathan Last... Last recently published a book called "What to Expect when no one is Expecting" and apparently, that got the attention of the media pundits since articles about his predictions appeared in several news sources.

Last is a father himself and he says, the research showing there are more dogs in the USA than kids is troubling - not because kids are missed (Last maintains that child-free folks who dote on their dogs are happier than parents of kids) but because we are getting a situation of elderly living longer with less and less young folks to pay into the Social Security system.  Whereas 140 some workers supported each retiree in the 1940's, today, 3 or less workers support each retiree and if the trend continues, it will bankrupt the system.

The less children trend is world-wide, Last points out.  (Other studies have found that that whereas the USA is just at replacement rate, most of Europe is below replacement rate).

The reasons for less kids as stated by the author Last, are: "Higher divorce rates, cohabitation outside marriage, effective birth control, legalization of abortion, women in the workplace, delayed marriage and motherhood and the exploding costs of raising children."

What no one takes in consideration though is the Islam populations are at a high replacement rate since they neither believe in birth control or abortion, suggesting that if THAT trend continues, , in the not so distant future, we all will have to wear head coverings, and freedom of religion will be history etc.

Most Americans don't want to see the possibility of a "Demographic Collapse" coming. For example, one person from Harvard, quoted, stated that young people with no kids are better workers in the workforce.

The good news in all of this (if there is any) is that perhaps is if Americans think it's hurting them in the pocketbook, they might do something about it, although Russia's attempts to get folks to have more kids, even offering them money to do this, have so far have not been really successful.

And the elephant in the room, is, of course, the solution to too many elderly people is already implemented where euthanasia is legal.  That was, of course, Hitler's solution, also.  "He who does not study history is doomed to repeat it!"

Resignation of the Pope - Open season on the church?

On the occasion of the resignation of the Pope, the blog-o-sphere and the news media have been vibrating with verbiage and much of it seems to be taking the opportunity to suggest that the 85 year old, sickly Pope's resignation is somehow a criticism of the Catholic church.

I get that the media does not like us but I've seen one of Benedict's old old treatises being quoted by several Catholics and this is a bit strange IMO.  That is, instead of quoting his very eloquent Encyclicals or his homilies while in the Papacy, or his scholarly 3 volume work about the life of Jesus, they appear to prefer dredging up something he wrote in the 1960's to a church in total turmoil.  And naturally, it was a bit critical of the church because back then, many Catholics, even priests and religious folks seemed to have been extremely confused and somewhat lost with the changes in the liturgy of Vatican II.  What I don't understand is why Benedict's recent and very important works are being bypassed in favor of this 40 plus year old treatise written to a church in transition (in 1969).

What Josef Ratzinger said about the church in 1969, in the middle of the turmoil of the aftermath of Vatican II (which was extremely poorly launched) is not true now.  The so called "modernizing" of the church was being done then, and because it was so poorly explained and got a lot of complaint from the pew, he likely was trying to educate the public and clergy about the changes.

In retrospect, they should have never promulgated the changes until they had a new "code of Canon law" in place.  The changes themselves were not bad but Catholics seem to lose their minds for several years as far as liturgy and we had the "Kumbaya" every Sunday mentality. Because many Catholics had not even listened to the Mass for years (they showed up and fingered their Rosaries), they knew little about what was going on, on the altar at Mass.

I remember as a Protestant, when I inquired about the Catholic Church from my Catholic friends, I found they all seemed to only know 3 things about their doctrine:  1. If you eat meat on Fridays and don't get to confession soon, and you die, you will go to h*ll, 2. Babies have to be baptized soon after birth or they go to a place called "Limbo" (no one could tell me what exactly limbo was) and 3. If you don't go to Mass on Sunday, you are in mortal sin and could go to h*ll if you don't get to confession.

So naturally, when Vatican II came along, the combination of the poorly planned promulgation of the changes and the ignorance of the average Catholic in the pew, caused the huge liturgical abuse and general turmoil we saw for several years after Vatican II.  We ignored centuries of wonderful liturgical music and sang trashy pop songs in church, priests ripped up Rosaries in the pulpit and told the people "we don't do this anymore", church members danced in skanky garb and called it "liturgical dance" and most folks seemed totally confused.

We all know horror stories from those days like the priest who told the people that the Precious Blood was just wine and poured the excess into a plant during his homily at Mass!

Many of us wondered if the church would ever stop the insanity and many left the church - not due to the changes but due to the chaos abounding after the changes.  I even tried to leave the church back then (I missed the Blessed Sacrament too much so I returned soon after I left) - as year after year, things seemed to be totally messed up with no signs of improvement.

And this was the state of the church that Josef Ratzinger was talking about in the quotes from 1969, in the article now being dredged up.  He was not talking about the church today which has greatly matured from the "sick sixties".

The hierarchal structure of the church, which is often criticized by outsiders and Catholics also, is part of what ensures that the church is "one".  Before being Catholic, I was a member of a congregationalist concept church (which Protestant denominations tend to be even if they have a central president) and thus, there was no uniformity in the churches, even within the same denomination.

Cardinal Ratzinger's resignation as Pope has everything to do with his health state and nothing to do with a criticism of the Catholic Church, despite what we are hearing from  the mass media and/or reading in blogs even from Catholics.... He's blind in one eye and going deaf and described as cadaverously thin - he's 85 years old and just unable to keep up with the vigorous life as the Holy Father.  When his last trip just about did him in (those trips are very tiring, and would be even for a younger person), his doctors told him he was not well enough to travel by plane anymore and so he knew he would not be able to go to the upcoming Youth Conference.  He makes his choices - remaining the Pope and dying in a couple of months at which time, we will still have to select another Pope or resigning now and maybe living on a few more years, focusing on prayer and contemplation. I think most of us would make the same choice he did.

As a former outsider, it has always seemed to me that Catholics trust their church less than Protestants trust us.  There are times the blog-o-sphere (and the media) should either get their facts straight or consider embracing the virtue of silence.  (the photo is of Pope Benedict XVI several years ago when he visited the USA)

Kelly Klinger - post abortion traumatic stress

Kelly Clinger, (here pictured with her husband, Matt), a lovely young lady was a backup singer for Britney Spears. In her early twenty's she had two abortions.  After the second abortion, she suffered greatly - she suffering a lot of pain and bleeding.  (25% of abortions come with serious complications - it is surgery)  Two weeks after her second abortion, she made an appointment with her doctor and the doctor put her under anesthesia - when she woke up, her doctor was crying and she asked why.  "You had an abortion didn't you?" her doctor asked. "Yes," Kelly admitted.  Her doctor continued, "I found two tiny hands and feet inside of you!"

After the physical healing, she suffered a lot of psychological damage - nightmares, and self hatred - she felt that she had terminated her baby and felt very bad about it.  She also got into some substance abuse.  Going on a weekend for healing after abortion, she began to heal but was upset that she was not told of what could happen after an abortion.  She wrote her story in her blog which was re-published by Lifesite News and included the following:

"I have given up hope that the past could have been different.  I cannot change what I did.  Every bible study, counseling session, and prayer seems to just be a band-aid over a wound that will never heal.So, I will be a voice for my children who only know heaven.  I will be a voice for the millions of women who live in regret, guilt, self-hatred and fear of being “found out”.  I will be painfully honest about every feeling I have, and I will stand up for life even when it’s unpopular and politically incorrect.  So, please spare me your pro-life/pro-choice arguments.  I know what I saw.  I know how I feel.  I will never be the same.  I will never get over it."

Her blog was translated into 25 languages and within 2 weeks of her writing it, it had been viewed by thousands of people.  Kelly had found Jesus and she felt her life was changed in a beautiful way. She and her husband gave up drinking and she decided to be a spokesperson for "Silent no more", a organization for aborted women who regret their abortions.   Kelly and her husband have two girls now - named, Goodness and Mercy.  Their girls were named after the 23rd psalm "Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow you the rest of your life".

Kelly and Matt, her husband, were speakers at the West Coast walk for life.  If you missed it, you can catch it at EWTN.com.