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

Contraception - Why do Catholics say it's wrong

There are a lot of misconceptions about why the Catholic church teaches against using birth control but I find that few understand about this and even some priests do not understand it.

I'm going to take the usual questions one by one:

1. Why shouldn't we use the birth control pill?  First of all, there are many health reasons to not use it. The pill greatly raises the risk for heart attack, stroke, thrombosis and breast cancer and not just if you are older.  Since the advent of the pill, even the so called "safe" low dose pill, we have seen heart disease and strokes in women in their 20's and 30's!  Secondly, the way the pill works is that it prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. Yes, it does stop ovulation but not all the time. The woman on the pill ovulates LESS, she does NOT stop ovulating totally.  About 25% of the time, her eggs DO get fertilized and if this happens, the pill prevents the new conception from implanting in the womb. Instead it passes into the toilet and dies. This IS abortion because what was passed into the toilet was genetically a total new human being!  That's why they call the pill an abortifacient!

2. Why shouldn't we use barriers like condoms?  Again, there is the irritation factor for the woman and of course, the men feel a greatly reduced libido using these.  Those are definitely the safest type of birth control but they are not all that safe.  Other barriers like shields don't work but if an egg does get fertilized, the shield may be a problem. Shields can also cause irritation and raise the risk for uterine cancer etc as does any source of constant irritation internally.

OK, those are the physical reasons now let's look at the theology.  We are not supposed to say "no" to God. That is, Christians believe that each life, each pregnancy, is a planned Act of God so if a life results as a repercussion of a couple making love, that is God's Plan EVEN if it creates an unplanned pregnancy to unmarried people - we do not know why God plans things that we don't understand, but we know that we cannot understand much of God's plan and/or won't until we get to Heaven.

So does the Catholic church feel that we should do as the Duggers did and have umpteen kids?  No, actually the church does believe in family planning using Natural Family Planning which means abstinence for 7 days a month.  That isn't very much and the rest of the time, you can proceed totally naturally. Natural Family Planning is NOT the old method of rhythm and not dependent on having regular periods - it is done by observing bodily signs "down south" in order to tell exactly when you are ovulating!

Ironically, Natural Family Planning is now known to be much more effective than the pill in preventing pregnancy - the pill is only 60% effective but Natural Family Planning is 95% effective and actually used by many who are not Catholic or even Christian!

What, you might ask then, is the difference, between Natural Family Planning and contraception?  Good question. The differences are several.

First, you are not saying "NO way" to God - instead you are saying "I don't think I'm ready now" because by not doing anything artificial, you are opening the door to God overriding (I prayed that God would override my Natural Family Planning - I felt uncomfortable having another child because of a chronic illness but I knew if God overrode, it would be ok... unfortunately, God never DID override our Natural Family Planning).

Second, you are not mutilating your body or doing anything destructive to avoid pregnancy. Remember, our bodies are the "Temples of the Holy Spirit".

Third, of course, if an egg gets fertilized which we do believe is a planned Act of God, then it will get implanted and you will be blessed with another child, that is, although you let God know you don't think this is a good time for you to get pregnant, you are also saying "But Thy Will be done" that is, if He has planned another child for you, you leave the door open!

Fourth, Natural Family Planning is something done as a mutual decision of the man and the woman!  Since they are a couple, this is the way things should be!

Planned Parenthood estimates that 60% of abortions are due to failed artificial birth control i.e. if you have said "NO WAY" to God and He overrides, then you might want to terminate your baby.

Planned Parenthood also says that 80% or more of Catholic women are using artificial birth control. Why is this?  My feeling is, it's due to not knowing any better - that is if they knew that Natural Family Planning was not only a whole lot more effective than the pill  but also, it's not defying God's Will should He want to provide another child, and if they knew how easy Natural Family Planning was to learn and how wonderful it feels, and how risky to their health the pill is (some researchers say that the two most avoidable causes of breast cancer which is in epidemic in our society now - are abortion and the pill!), few women would want to continue using the pill.

Consider learning Natural Family Planning - it's better - way better for you, it will not raise your risk for heart attack, stroke, thrombosis and breast cancer and best of all, it does not lock the door to Divine Providence!  Win- win, yes?

Is Yoga satanic?

Recently, an elderly priest in the Vatican who has done 70,000 exorcisms (so saith the news), came out with a comment where he supposedly condemned yoga as of Satan.  Yoga, said 85 year old Fr Gabriel Amorth, "works with magic and leads to evil."  And of course, some Catholics who have similar beliefs have quoted this priest - so have some news media, happy at the chance to make the church look bad.


Truth being, none of us have all the knowledge and all of us can be in error about something without making us bad people or even stupid people. 

That is, Fr Amorth is likely a good priest but like the rest of us, has his biases.  Chances are he's never done yoga and/or he may have observed some folks who were possessed or obsessed who happened to do yoga and he made a connection (for example had he asked, the possessed or obsessed person might have ridden a  bicycle as a kid also, so he could have said "riding a bicycle leads to satanic influence").  

Truly those type of errors are common and even made by our scientists as shown in the epidemiological studies which "proved" that giving birth control meds to menopausal women protected them from heart attack -- until 2 clinical studies found the opposite i.e. that birth control meds greatly raise the risk of not only heart attack, stroke and thrombosis but also significantly raise the risk of breast cancer. (One magazine pointed out two studies, one in the 1930's which gave synthetic estrogen to rats and all of them, male and female came down with breast cancer and yet, large organizations, today, ignore the connection completely). 

As an aside, our wonderful news services, which are so quick to condemn the Catholic church have failed to report the dangers of even low dose birth control to the public with the result that last I checked, there were millions of women still taking birth control medication, both for family planning and for hormone replacement therapy!

Sticking with the Bible and the words of Jesus, is a good idea in the case of Yoga  !  I am a devout Catholic who DOES yoga several times a week. I am also 67 years old and fit and yoga is part of my program.  Yoga is a wonderful inheritance from the East and can be a healthy practice. We do not have to embrace other religious beliefs to learn their good health practices. And bottom line - the words of Jesus "other sheep have I who are not members of this flock" and "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." Mark 7:15


Postscript: Fr Amorth also said that the Harry Potter books can lead to evil.  I tend to feel that, at best, those books are a horrible waste of time for kids who should be reading real literature like Tom Sawyer and Booth Tarkington.  I read a couple of Harry Potter books and while having a total absence of God, they encourage magic, some of it, black magic which could only have originated in Satan and which really can likely not lead to anything positive.  Luckily, most kids find these books boring - at least that was true of my grandkids.  Perhaps the answer to Harry Potter is for parents and teachers to gently crowd them out by suggesting worthwhile literature for children.  My emotional reaction to reading Harry Potter books was that they gave me a kind of creepy feeling.

No altar girls?

Fr. John Lankeit, the rector of our Cathedral in Phoenix, has started a firestorm amongst the liberals when he announced that there would be no more "altar girls" serving in the Cathedral. Fr John gave his reasons to EWTN News:

"We don't discourage one or the other, but we honor them for what they are, both male and female."

"We live in a society where there is deliberate gender confusion. I want to make sure that we don't allow that to happen, especially in the Church."

Surely, this decision will incite cries of how the Catholic church is discriminating against women.

Even though, a woman has been elevated in the Catholic church to the highest position ever given a human being and that through doing something that God only allows a woman to do - be a mother. I am speaking, of course, of Our Blessed Mother, Mary.

I have always wondered how the church can be accused of discriminating against women when they have given womenhood such awesome dignity through Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

I have also wondered how women can view Our Lord, hanging on the cross, dying for our sins in a most horrible, embarrassing manner and tell Him that they only will serve Him if they can be a priest.

But I have not seen in any news articles, the bottom line and that is, that things in this universe, even such tiny things as snowflakes are not interchangeable! Each snowflake is different from every other snow flake. Indeed, the universe, scientists have found out, runs on a very tight set of rules.

Unlike other explosions, the so called "Big Bang" which is accepted by all modern scientists, atheists or not, resulted in extreme order (other explosions all have ended up in chaos!) and this order has very low "tolerances" i.e. one small change could cause the whole thing to blow up or implode!

And so in the order of the universe, men are priests and women are mothers. End of story.

I applaud Fr John's courageous decision and I hope others follow suit and do not allow themselves to be persuaded by the disorderly-ness of this society!

Priest Scandal - what is the truth here?

There are two sides of the story of the so priest scandal but we only hear one side. The media emphasizes the cases (most of which happened years ago) of priests, statistically less than 1 percent of Catholic priests have been accused of this) ignoring that as high as 50% of abortionists may have also abused those who trusted them as well as the 20% of public school teachers and countless coaches also accused. Govt statistics tell us that most se/xual abuse happens in the home (75% percent of it) by step fathers and uncles etc.

Se/xual molestation is a definite problem in our society and will continue to be a problem if we only address the 1% of those priests thusly accused, closing our eyes to the overwhelming majority of abuse which has nothing to do with priests. (I also was se/xually molested, 4 times. By my violin teacher when I was 12 years old, by a guy my mother matched me up with when I was 19 who only didn't ra/pe me by the Grace of God and my own quick thinking, by a sports coach when I was in my 30's and by a doctor I had met socially who examined my sore leg in the swimming pool and proceeded to "cop a feel"!)

That being said, when this all came up, being a Roman Catholic myself, I was curious to do some investigating to see how bad things were or were not.

I first started with the town I live in, one of the 10 largest cities in the USA.

In my area, there are 5 priests accused over the past 30 years (this was before another one recently got accused - he quit the priesthood and the Catholic church, and started his own congregation before they could prosecute him). Ok, 2 of them were defrocked, 1 of them had fled to Ireland, 1 of them was dead and 1 was currently in prison. The Bishop had acted quickly on all the cases.

Conclusion, it was not true in my diocese that anything had been "covered up". On the contrary.

But what about the priest in Boston who started the firestorm? Curious about this, I researched him on the S.N.A.P. website. They have all the PDFs of the case there and SNAP is a group of victims who are very antiCatholic. I thought it was a good place to start the research - certainly no one can accuse them of covering anything up or being biased in favor of the Catholic church.

Where I expected to find something awful, I was actually quite surprised at what I uncovered on the SNAP site!

The priest in Boston had had complaints against him for a handful of boys but when the Cardinal went to investigate, he found that the priest was well liked in his parish and that even the parents of the kids who had complained, did not uphold the testimonies of their own kids! The cardinal's hands were tied. The priest, of course, lied through his teeth but the sad thing was, the people of his parish UPHELD HIM.

Ironically, the way the cardinal ended up discovering the truth, was that he was doing a "one on one" with all priests and when he got to this priest and had lunch with him, he realized immediately, that the priest was likely guilty! The Cardinal went home from that luncheon and started proceedings to defrock the priest! It should be noted that when he fired that priest from his parish, the people of the parish staged a major demonstration against the Cardinal! None of this made the news of course. :(

Quite different from the way the media or movies like "Our Fathers" portray it, isn't it?

Bottom line, He who started our church, Jesus, was crucified as a common criminal and He was perfect. Certainly our priests and cardinals and even strong Christians cannot expect otherwise.

That is, if Jesus rode to Heaven on a cross, should we expect to ride there in a plush lined Cadillac? Can we expect to be "popular" in a society which was capable of crucifying God incarnate?

And - please understand - the media does (as Stephen King put it) go for the "gross-out" even if it means um...bending the truth. Media information should not what anyone should be making decisions based on - it should carry a disclaimer of "for entertainment only - any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental!"

Society has it's Wires Crossed?

Today's news carried a story about an abortionist who is being sued. In itself, that's not surprising but the details of the case are macabre to say the least.

First of all, the lady who is suing him and his partner is doing so because he botched her abortion and her daughter ended up living but with multiple disabilities.

The girl, now ten years old, suffers from a host of disabilities in connection with the attempted killing, including cerebral palsy, loss of function on the left side of her body, strokes, mental disability, chronic lung disease, and seizures.

So my first question is - is the mom suing him because she's sorry the kid lived? It seems like that. Dr Pendergraft who owns 5 abortion clinics and is in jail at present for extortion, was ordered to pay the mother 18 million bucks. So maybe it just is all about money but what is that young girl going to think of all of this? This is not a nice way to start off one's life and especially when one has other disabilities.

Secondly, at the hearing (which wasn't reported in any of the mainstream news sources like MSNBC but was reported in several pro life sources), the abortionist's assistant glibly says that "yes, babies are delivered in the toilet all the time and many times are still alive, wiggling around in the toilet."

One person pointed out and I'd like the answer myself to this... if this were about puppies, there would be a public outcry but this can be said about human beings and few even notice!

That is, it appears to me (and several others have noted this) that dogs have more rights and respect in our society than do human babies.

I am reminded of the passage in the Bible which says that in the latter days, "the level of sin will be so high that the hearts of many will grow cold." When we no longer care about small humans alive and drowning in a toilet, sounds like we are pretty well there.