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.

Would eternal life work on earth?

The possibility of whether eternal life would work on earth, is an idea which has been pondered, probably for centuries.  It certainly has been tossed back and forth during my lifetime as can be observed in some of the movies, discussing the possibility.

Sickness and pain would have to be somehow deleted from life - an idea extremely attractive to a society which sees no benefit in suffering.

Assuming that, there is the movie, "Tuck Everlasting".  Tuck drinks from a spring in the forest and finds he does not age at all (aging also has to be removed from the equation).  He does retain his youth and strength, but watches all his loved ones live, get old and die.  The movie ends with him standing all alone.

In fact, loneliness is something humans feel would be a given, if we outlive those we love.  That even can be seen in the elderly who have outlived parents and kids - they are extremely lonely and loneliness can be more painful than physical pain.

Which brings in the question, is physical pain the worst thing we can suffer?  According to a Dr Oz show, the consensus of the audience (and it seems, Dr Oz as well) was that if the physical pain gets pronounced enough, it would be a logical solution to seek someone to help us end our lives.  A woman with a type of muscular dystrophy which has taken away her ability to walk and use her arms, was prominent in the show - she did not use a respirator so apparently could eat and breath well and also could move her head fairly well. She was depressed and wanted the right to have a physician help her end her life.   Interestingly enough however, when Dr Oz asked her if she would favor not being treated if she got pneumonia again allowing her to die, she evaded the question. (She has had pneumonia twice and has been treated).

Another man, who looked elderly and was much more disabled than the lady - he required a respirator - told the audience that he appreciates every day of life he has been given.

Interesting, are the movies, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (one made in the 1950's and one made in the 1970's).  Tonight I saw yet, another remake entitled "Invasion" released in 2007.  The story is that some type of invasion from Outer Space takes over humans and recreates them as devoid of emotions.  "There will be no more war or suffering," the protagonists are told.  In all of these movies, there are a couple of humans who fight against the takeover, preferring their flawed emotions to becoming a being who is incapable of human love.  The latest version has a happy ending. A vaccine is found and given as a sort of antidote to the cells taking over humanity and everyone is cured and life goes back to normal.  But the leading lady is shown in the last scene as wondering whether the world with war and sadness is really preferable.

In the second and third movie of this group ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), each human who is taken over, is shown going through a type of aging after which s/he wakes up with no emotions, no ability to love.  This seems to be asking the question - if eternal live exists, wouldn't we have to be changed?  Our human concept of the change necessary, is being given - what the psychiatrists calls a blunted affect, i.e. a deadening of the emotions and all we care about.

Utimately, there seems a consensus that an eternal life here on earth would not be nice.  The movie, "Cocoon" depicts elderly folks stumbling across aliens who have somehow achieved eternal life but in order to obtain this, these elderly must go with the aliens to their planet, far away from the earth.

The Christian concept of eternal life is not a lessened awareness but rather a heightened awareness.  Something we humans cannot picture.  And even if we do not understand how this will be achieved, we have the testimony of Jesus, still the only man who ever made such an impression on the earth that He literally stopped time (which we then, divided in "AD or "anno Domini" i.e. "after God" and BC i.e. "before Christ").  If we still have questions, the Bible tells us "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, of the glories which God has planned for those who love Him."

There is a lot of evidence, observational and logical that we should not try to force our premature death but instead should patiently wait for God to call us.  There is also a rather impressive body of evidence that when God calls He will "make all things well" , not by us ceasing to exist but rather by our living in a full beautiful manner, the likes of which we cannot concept here on earth.

And of course, Cardinal Dolan said it much better than I did! :)

St Teresa chain letter?

A chain letter keeps popping up, claiming to be a prayer written by "St Theresa". It includes a New Age sounding prayer and warns the receiver (like all chain letters) to pass it on for "good luck" or that they will receive what they have been waiting for etc. First of all, there IS NO Catholic saint named "Theresa". There is a St Teresa of Avila and a St Therese of Lisieux (notice the difference in spelling). And neither of these, both of whom lived in the 19th century would have been involved with a computer chain letter or would have written a New Age prayer. Secondly, chain letters in general, are not a good idea. Third, God is not a vending machine. Prayer brings a person peace but not any kind of wish fulfillment or "good luck". If you get this letter, please send the link to my blog to the person who sent it,rather than perpetuating it. BTW, if you do share a forward, please do your friends the favor of removing all email addresses from the body of the email.

The Priest on the Titanic - Fr Thomas Byles

On the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (billed as "the ship even God cannot sink") and all the programs we are seeing on TV about this, no one has seen fit to mention the Catholic priest aboard that ship.

He was Fr Thomas Byles, a convert to Catholicism from the Anglican church.  

When the ship hit the iceberg, Fr Byles was on Deck, praying his breviary, a daily group of prayers priests say - which include the psalms and readings.  

When the ship started going down, Fr Byles was offered a place on the lifeboats but he twice refused to board the lifeboats, preferring to help other passengers get off the ship.

One of the problems with the Titanic and why so many passengers were lost is because they did not provide nearly enough lifeboats for all the passengers they carried so after loading about 705 people (of the 2228 passengers), they ran out of lifeboats, condemning the rest to sink with the ship. Those unable to fit into lifeboats were unable to swim to safety because the water was freezing.

Fr Byles chose to stay with those left on the ship, hearing confessions, and giving absolution and also led the Rosary with people of all faiths kneeling around him.  Just before the ship sank, Fr Thomas led all in an Act of Contrition.

He died when the ship went down and his body was never recovered.

Click here to go to his website.

The Girl Scouts, Planned Parenthood and feminism

This research on the Girl Scouts of America (GSA) and what I found, was a real shocker to me, because I was a Girl Scout in the 1950's and it was a very wholesome organization back then. Apparently things have changed.

It seems to have become extremely feminist in character and worse yet, since Kathy Cloninger, the CEO, admitted a "partnership" with Planned Parenthood in 2004 (see video link below), in order to provide the girls with "good information" for decision making (and distributing the Planned Parenthood brochures etc), it's likely that the GSA is also pro abortion.  In the video, Cloninger is talking with NBC.
Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the world.

Here's what Planned Parenthood talks about on information days, of the type which Cloninger suggested are provided for members of the GSA: (from the Planned Parenthood website)

>>>"Planned Parenthood Arizona wants to ensure that the communities we serve receive reliable information about se/xuality and reproductive health. We offer age-appropriate, culturally competent, medically accurate and interactive presentations in a safe, fun, and engaging learning environment that is empowering for every learner. We provide these presentations in a variety of settings-schools, community colleges and universities, public libraries, and community organizations.

Topics include:
- Birth Control Methods
- Se/xually Transmitted Infections
- Healthy Relationships
- Planned Parenthood Services <<<<

Notice the last one - Planned Parenthood SERVICES i.e. their biggest service is abortion!
Here's the video:  (please share especially with fellow Catholic parents!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZKiQub0ZnA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Girl Scouts of America also have become very evangelistic, according to the CEO who just assumed the job (Cloninger resigned recently). 

The new CEO of Girl Scouts is a Texas attorney, Anna Maria Chavez, who was a featured speaker at a convention where the steering committee included members from Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen.

http://www.girlscouts-swtx.org/images/gssa/Alumnae/CanWeTalk_Registration_11Aug09.pdf

Chavez also worked for Janet Napolitano (the governor of Arizona who sent a 13 year old girl to Tiller the killer for an abortion, despite the family protesting and promising that they would adopt the baby!).

"Right now Girl Scouts reaches about 10% of the girls in our country and that is not enough", lamented Chavez in a speech to the GSA convention recently.  She continued, "we need to turn ourselves out in an aggressive movement ... We need to step forward and shout from the rooftops... teaching girls to lead..a society led by women."

She concluded, "The world is waiting for someone to step forward to speak in the name of women - we are that someone ... Let's tell everyone about it...Girl Scouts is developing the female leaders of tomorrow!" 

You can listen to her speech at the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce7u908gbrc    part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjm_92yhnOs    part 2

Girl Scouts finances are in the 100 millions.

Their 2010 financial statement is so complex I cannot really, without a lot of study and pondering, decode it but they are working with millions of bucks of income as well as investments and more.

http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/facts/pdf/2010_annual_report.pdf

I first became aware of "professional girl scouts" when a neighbor of mine in Chicago got hired for a low level job.  She said she was making a comfortable income.  I haven't found what the CEO makes but I would assume it's a nice round figure. According to some internet sites the CEO of Boy Scouts makes in excess of 1 million bucks a year.

The central offices of the Girl Scouts of America, are in a building at 420 5th Ave in New York City. It's a modern all glass windows hi-rise. Chavez said her office was on the 17th floor of this building - you can look at the building in Google maps.

Considering the Girl Scouts admitted liaison with Planned Parenthood, it might be the time to delete the GSA organization from our Catholic parishes.

And also, it might be time to re-think buying Girl Scout cookies next year.

Sue Joan
http://net-abbey.org