SUNLIT UPLANDS

Now Obama Has Proved It: He Really Is An Enemy of the Catholic Church. But How Will That Affect the 54 Per Cent of Catholics Who Voted for Him Last Time?

2012-01-28T10:35:00.000-05:00

Why do I have a sinking feeling about the answer to that question? Someone cheer me up, do

President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius, US health secretary (Photo: CNS)

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

About a year ago, I wrote a blog entitled “Why Barack Obama has to be seen as an enemy of the Catholic Church”. This was picked up by quite a few American Catholic blogs, for example this one, which reproduced the piece in full; and it attracted much favourable attention: but some of the reactions, also from American Catholics – who presumably were from that shameful 54 per cent of Catholics who voted for Obama – were not favourable.

Well, if ever there was any doubt about whether or not I was right, it has now been removed – that is for Catholics who understand, unlike the late Cardinal Bernardin, with his “seamless garment” theology (according to which abortion, say, was just one of a whole raft of other issues like war and peace, opposition to the death penalty, welfare reform and civil liberties), that actually “life issues” are not like others, negotiable or – like the morality of war, for instance – subject to context and circumstance: who understand, in other words, that abortion and euthanasia are always and under all circumstances, just wrong.

Obama’s health secretary has now issued a ruling: that under his administration’s Health Care Act not only must any provider of health care be prepared to supply artificial contraception (including drugs which, though labelled contraceptive, are in fact abortifacient) but that that definitely includes Catholics (for the CNS story, see here):

(CNSNews.com) – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Washington, DC, issued a warning last week against the implementation of an Obamacare regulation that would place many Catholic employers in an “untenable position” by requiring all health care plans to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing contraceptives, in violation of religious liberty and particularly Catholic moral teaching.

His warning coincided with a full-page ad by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which said the regulation, set to start on Aug. 1, 2012, could “severely curtail” Catholic health care providers.

Catholic institutions account for 12.7 percent of the nation’s hospitals, according to the 2009 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, with more than 5.6 million patients admitted to Catholic hospitals in a one-year period. An additional 1,400 long-term care and other Catholic health facilities are present in all 50 states, according to the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Also, there are about 70 million Catholics in the United States.

So, American Catholics, you now know, if you didn’t know before: you cannot, if you are a faithful Catholic, vote for this man. He is an enemy of your Church and everything it stands for. But that prompts the question: how come so many Catholics voted for him last time? How come, while we are about it, that one of the first things that happened in his presidency was the conferring on him of an honorary degree by Notre Dame, that renowned “Catholic” University?

This is a long and murky story. It involves telling (which I don’t have time for here) all about the links between Notre Dame and certain clergy from the Archdiocese of Chicago (prop. the above-mentioned Cardinal Bernardin) and their connections with a legendary political radical, a Marxist atheist called Saul Alinsky, who despite his many attacks on the Church received vast funding from something called the Catholic Fund for Human Development (CHD), an agency of the USCCB which over the years has raised hundreds of millions from second collections taken up after Sunday Mass. The following are examples of some of the grants made by the CHD:

• 1985: $40,000 for Chicago’s Developing Communities Project, led by then lead organiser, Barack Obama
• 1986: $33,000 for Obama’s Developing Communities Project, which Obama continued to lead
• 1992: ACORN funding (see below) for Project Vote, a Chicago programme which Obama also led
• 1995: Cardinal Bernardin helped commit $116,000 from the national CHD fund to Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors, an Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation organisation
• 2000 – 2008: $7m went to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), an Alinsky-influenced, leftist network under criminal investigation in several states. ACORN supports radical, ‘in your face’ local and national causes as well as abortion. CHD funding stopped only in November 2008, well after every other American wondered when the bishops would halt the allocation of $1m to the group.
• Ongoing: $20,000 to $30,000 per community group across the country under the guise of ‘community organisation’
• Also ongoing: 4% to 5% of total CHD funds to the Gamaliel Foundation, a Marxist socio-political network of Alinsky-inspired organisations
• Still ongoing: Alinsky’s own Industrial Areas Foundation, which receives 16% of CHD funds annually!

No wonder that when Obama received his degree at Notre Dame, he spoke so warmly about Cardinal Bernardin: he was addressing an institution that had been deeply impregnated with the CHD mentality and with Cardinal Bernardin’s seamless garment theology. No wonder that when he later spoke to a small group of Catholic journalists, he more or less told them that Cardinal Bernardin had given him his (very Left-wing) start in politics:

“The president said he had fond memories of Cardinal Bernardin and that when he started his neighborhood projects, they were funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development,” he said. “After the first question, from the National Catholic Reporter‘s Joe Feuerherd, the president jokingly asked, ‘Was there really [a controversy at Notre Dame]?’

“The president spoke about how during Cardinal Bernardin’s time the US bishops spoke about the nuclear freeze, the sanctuary movement, immigration, and the poor, but that later a decided change took place,” added Fr Kearns. “He said that the responses to his administration mirror the tensions in the Church overall, but that Cardinal Bernardin was pro-life and never hesitated to make his views known, but he had a consistent ‘seamless garment’ approach that emphasized the other issues as well. The president said that that part of the Catholic tradition continues to inspire him. Those issues, he said, seemed to have gotten buried by the abortion debate.”

Well, Mr President, you’re wrong: there has indeed been something, perhaps not yet enough, of a “decided change” (though what about the CHD? I’d like to know, if anyone can tell me): but American Catholics still take issues to do with social justice seriously, of course they do. Notre Dame, however, is now very clearly seen as being an institution which is Catholic in name only. And that is a very definite advance: at least American Catholics know where they are. It might be fitting, indeed, to end with the letter Archbishop Nienstedt of Saint Paul and Minneapolis wrote to the President of Notre Dame about his now notorious invitation to Obama, a letter which spelled out the parting of the ways very clearly:

Dear Father Jenkins:

I have just learned that you, as President of the University of Notre Dame, have invited President Barack Obama to be the graduation commencement speaker at the University’s exercises on May 17, 2009. I was also informed that you will confer on the president an honorary doctor of laws degree, one of the highest honors bestowed by your institution.

I write to protest this egregious decision on your part. President Obama has been a pro-abortion legislator. He has indicated, especially since he took office, his deliberate disregard of the unborn by lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research, by promoting the FOCA [Freedom of Choice Act] agenda and by his open support for gay rights throughout this country.

It is a travesty that the University of Notre Dame, considered by many to be a Catholic University, should give its public support to such an anti-Catholic politician.
I hope that you are able to reconsider this decision. If not, please do not expect me to support your University in the future.

Sincerely yours,

The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

That about says it all; and now Obama’s abortionist Health Care Act has put the matter beyond doubt. The question now is this: how will that 54 per cent of American Catholics (and that’s a lot of votes) who helped put him into the presidency, vote this time? And why is it that I have a sinking feeling about the answer to that question?

Bishop Blasts Secularist Intolerance, Calls for ‘Assertive Action’ to Defend Church

2012-01-27T20:57:00.007-05:00

Bishop Jenky's criticism of "remarkably passive" lay people in the pastoral letter referenced below, is a bit hard to take. It certainly wasn't the American bishops who were in the forefront of America's massive pro-life movement in its early years. Lay people have also been complaining for years about the very positive movie reviews, issued by the bishops' own organization, for sex-laden, violent and morally offensive movies. The bishops' own Campaign for Human Development has funded for decades the very leftist organizations that have militantly opposed Church teaching, including Obama's own ACORN in Chicago. Finally, American bishops weren't leading efforts to stop the sexual molestation of young people; more than half of the American bishops covered it up. But now with Obama's assaults on individual conscience, Catholic institutions, and most importantly to bishops like Jenky, the shut-off of the federal dollars spigot, they seem to have found their voice.

Welcome, Bishop Jenky, to the culture wars; glad to have you finally with us.

From Catholic World News

Noting that “American Catholics have in recent decades become remarkably passive even in the face of relentless hostility from the media, the entertainment industry, and now from some politicians,” Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria has issued a pastoral letter on secularism.

The letter, issued on January 8, received a wider audience when it was published in the January 26 issue of Origins.

“The Catholic Diocese of Peoria now exists in a political reality that is increasingly secular in outlook and today is often specifically hostile to the convictions of our Faith,” the bishop wrote. “Atheists and secularists have long realized that the Church of Rome is perhaps the largest single institution that still stands in the way of a completely secularized society. In Illinois where politics are notoriously corrupt and whose governmental agenda is so singularly ineffective, intrenched political power happens to be concentrated in a single region that for generations has been immune to reform. This situation has given determined special interest groups a unique opportunity to impose their views on everyone else as they endeavor to exclude faith from any role in the public forum.”

Bishop Jenky continued:

As your Bishop, I now believe it is critically necessary to raise an alarm among the faithful regarding growing threats to our religious freedom due to theincreasing steps toward radical secularization taking place in Illinois. Beside the abrupt exclusion of Catholic Charities from childcare and adoption services and increasing attempts to intimidate Catholic healthcare, I am also concerned about possible future moves that could be made against the independence of our Catholic schools and other public ministries of our Diocese. Eventually it may come to pass that our fidelity to the Gospel of Christ and to Catholic tradition may place us in direct conflict with recent legal definitions of the State of Illinois. There are certainly some in our state whose commitment to [atheistic] secularism is so intense that they may well try to restrict the Church’s role only to the sacristy and sanctuary.

I am especially scandalized by some “Catholic” politicians who willingly collaborate with efforts to restrict the civil liberty of the faith tradition from which they were originally sprung. Many of those in office who were taught to read and write in Catholic schools, now seem entirely indifferent to the consciences of those Catholics who live their faith. On Ash Wednesday, they like to be conspicuous with crosses on their foreheads, but the true Cross of Christ seems far from their hearts and minds. They enjoy parties on March the 17th and wearing green sweaters but in effect are ashamed of Saint Patrick’s unwavering zeal for the Catholic Christianity. They like photo opportunities with the hierarchy, but break their word to them without a moment’s hesitation. They may still use the rituals of Catholicism to mark their happy and sad occasions, but apparently would sell their soul for a vote or a dollar. What does it benefit a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul (Mark 8:36), but eternal loss for the sake of public office in Illinois is an extraordinarily foolish deal with the devil. Such people certainly need our prayers, but they should no longer be able to take our friendship or our support for granted …

Even when our institutions are attacked and our most sacred beliefs held up for scorn, many Catholics sadly remain silent. As your Bishop, it is therefore my duty before God to call faithful Catholics into more assertive action in defense of our religion and those public ministries which we hold to be the work of Christ.
“Loyal believers are called upon not only to defend the Faith but even to defend the very concept of faith in the face of aggressive secularism and increasingly intolerant atheism,” Bishop Jenky concluded. “It now seems to be the unbelievers who apparently hope to initiate some new kind of inquisition designed to entirely exclude God from the public forum. In the face of growing hostility, practicing Catholics need to recognize that the choices we make and the witness we either offer or withhold will have both temporal and eternal consequences for each one of us. Christ the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church he founded on the rock of Peter’s faith (Matthew 16:1), but he also warned that at the end of time he will deny those who deny him (cf. Matthew 10:33).”

“Catholicism is filled with enormous spiritual richness, a cohesive intellectual tradition, and a remarkable commitment to charity and service. It is the Faith for which we should be ready and willing to give our hearts and even to offer up our lives. It is also the Faith by which we all certainly will be judged before the throne of Almighty God.”

Romney Supporters Paid to be Romney Supporters

2012-01-26T13:32:00.001-05:00

Do you think that Mitt Romney is too cynical, has no core principles, and is yet another in a long line of Establishment-supported Republicans more interested in securing power than the best interests of our country? Guess what ... even his campaign workers agree with you.

Whatever one may think of the Santorum campaign, his grassroots supporters are not paid and believe in their hearts that he is the one consistent, principled conservative in the race.

It's no surprise that the Romney campaign fails to inspire grassroots support for his campaign, but do we really want another cynical manipulator of public opinion in the White House?

Here's what a Romney campaign worker thinks about "his candidate."

Gingrich and Reagan

2012-01-26T11:04:00.002-05:00

In the 1980s, the candidate repeatedly insulted the president.

Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich in the Oval Office

By Elliot Abrams

In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich. “I worked with President Reagan to change things in Washington,” “we helped defeat the Soviet empire,” and “I helped lead the effort to defeat Communism in the Congress” are typical claims by the former speaker of the House.

The claims are misleading at best. As a new member of Congress in the Reagan years — and I was an assistant secretary of state — Mr. Gingrich voted with the president regularly, but equally often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides, and his policies to defeat Communism. Gingrich was voluble and certain in predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail, and in all of this he was dead wrong.

Read the rest of this entry at National Review Online >>

New Questions, Challenges Confront Episcopal-Turned-Catholic Leader

2012-01-26T10:37:00.001-05:00

Fr. Jeffrey N. Steenson

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Father Jeffrey N. Steenson is finding that there are a lot of new roads to travel and new questions to resolve since his Jan. 1 appointment as head of the Houston-based Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans who want to become Catholics.

The former Episcopal bishop of the Rio Grande, who was ordained a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., in February 2009, was to be installed in his new post Feb. 12. Also in February, a class of about 40 former Episcopal priests will begin an intensive, Internet-based course of studies to become Catholic priests within the ordinariate.

Father Steenson and his wife, Debra, have three grown children and a grandson. Because he is married, he will not be ordained a bishop, but he will become a full voting member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He spoke to Catholic News Service during a busy day Jan. 22 at Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore, where he celebrated Mass, received a group of parishioners into the Catholic Church, performed a baptism and led an evensong service.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the ordinariate and yourself in the next months or years?

A: We have to create a set of norms to govern it -- I'm not a canon lawyer, but the canon lawyers call it particular law. None of that exists yet so that's what we've been working overtime on for the last month, just to try and create that. So there's the practical question of getting the legal and business structure set up, and I've noticed that there are so many questions about the ordinariate -- about what it is, what its mission is -- that it's easy for people to misunderstand or draw wrong conclusions. Like, the Episcopalians shouldn't think we're sheep stealing because we could never contact an Episcopalian directly. The Catholic Church wonders, "Will you fit in or will you just be a separate entity?" So we have to show that we're going to keep our patrimony, our identity intact but we're a fully functioning part of the Catholic Church and we have deep respect for the ecumenical protocols whenever there are these awkward situations coming up. So I would say this is very, very difficult. (Laughs) God is really going to have to watch over us in all this.

Q: Are there special challenges to governing a church jurisdiction that covers so large a geographical area?

A: I'm sure there are going to be many, and it's primarily going to be for the clergy to be able to build relationships with each other. We're going to be virtual in so many respects. We're going to really depend on technology to keep communication open. Our formation program for the clergy is going to be run via a really high-tech Internet system that will allow real-time, two-way communications, which I'm told has never been attempted before in any kind of a theological exercise. So that will be hard, and I'm concerned that a small group -- I mean, this church (Mount Calvary) is not going to have any problems -- but a small group that is out in the middle of nowhere doesn't feel isolated and forgotten. So we will have to work really hard on that.

Q: It seems to me that there would be something to learn from the Eastern Catholic jurisdictions in the United States on that. Have you been contacted with them about how they ...

A: I've talked to some of them. I've listened to many of the stories that have been told about their difficulties over the years. But in a way the Catholic Church today is in such a different place than it was in the early part of the 20th century. I've felt only a great sense of welcome from the Catholic bishops. And I hope -- I don't know how to put it, because I don't know enough about the history of Eastern Catholicism to be able to speak very knowledgeably about it -- but I don't want to see us living too separated of an existence from the Latin rite. For good theological and historical reasons too because that's where we came from. Whereas the Eastern-rite Catholics, they have a ritual identity that goes way, way, way back. And for Anglicans, I mean we're specifically not a ritual church; we're not recognized as a separate rite but we're part of the regular Roman rite using our Anglican patrimony.

Q: Has the formation of the ordinariate given a new impetus or prompted a renewed interest in joining the Catholic Church among new groups of Episcopalians?

A: Oh yes, there has been. Probably maybe 30 extra priests have contacted us at some level. It's not an easy journey, even the ordinariate, because the priest really has to be willing to make the journey to the Catholic Church and not just escape from his own. So it requires commitment and a lot of prayer to think through and a lot of sacrifices have to be made. And it's very hard to start all over again. So I do expect that it will grow, but my goal has been that as we form these guys they will be able to stand equally with their Latin Catholic counterparts, that they'll be as well formed and be able to function in the priesthood at the same level.

Q: Why is the ordinariate needed when individual Episcopalians and even married Episcopal priests have been able to join the Catholic Church through other routes for years?

A: When the apostolic constitution was published, there was an explanation written by (Jesuit) Father (Gianfranco) Ghirlanda, who's the canon lawyer at the Gregorian University, that's kind of the official commentary on it. And he answered that question by saying that the reason for the ordinariate is to guarantee the existence of the liturgical identity and patrimony. So whereas in the pastoral provision for an individual converting, they just kind of merge into the local Catholic culture, we're expected to keep this patrimony, these traditions alive, because the pope said there is something precious about them that is worthy to be shared with the rest of the Catholic Church. So Father Ghirlanda said the ordinariate is to guarantee the freedom to keep this liturgy alive. I mean liturgy in the broadest sense of the word -- the music, all that constitutes the Anglican tradition.

Q: Why is the process different for groups of Anglicans than for individuals who want to become Catholic?

A: Of course if it is an individual layperson they go through RCIA in their own parish. If it is an individual clergy person or priest, they would go through the pastoral provision which is administered by Bishop Kevin Vann in Fort Worth. And that will continue. The pastoral provision basically uses the same program of priestly formation that exists for the seminaries, only it's kind of tailored to an individual, so it's whatever Father So and So needs in order to do it. The way that has worked up to now is that the faculty of the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Seton Hall have provided the formation. They kind of evaluate where candidates are and tell them what they need. But for the ordinariate we'll be doing that on our own this spring and practically speaking the process is accelerated. ... It starts at the beginning of February and it goes into May, so it's basically one semester of intense work. Some people can't believe that that's possible, that you can make a priest that fast, but the Vatican has approved this process and asked for it to be expedited in this way because the assumption is that the clergymen coming in have already received pastoral, spiritual and human formation through their Anglican training, and we're just trying to address the differences in the intellectual formation, in the theology. So the formation program for the priests is essentially a comparative reading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church -- where does it differ from the Anglican theological tradition -- and to address those differences.

Q: Some people have said it's not really fair, because married Catholic priests can't come back. How would you respond to that?

A: It's kind of easy actually. That would be to compare apples and oranges. When we became priests in the Anglican Church, we became priests in an ecclesial tradition that permitted married clergy. So the Holy See is simply recognizing that and allowing us ... it's an ancient principle from the early church. Whatever stage of life you are in when you come into the ministry, that's where you stay. So if a man came as a celibate, he would be required to maintain that discipline. If one came as a married man, he would be expected to be a good husband. And if he should ever be widowed, then he would embrace the discipline of celibacy. It's not a new rule, it's basically the old Eastern discipline about married clergy. So, I don't want it to sound critical, but for those Catholic priests who left to get married and then want to come back again, that's a whole totally different question for them. And I don't think it is comparable to what the ordinariate is about.

Q: As the only married member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, what do you hope to bring to the discussions at national bishops' meetings and in the committees to which you are appointed?

A: (Laughs) I can't even imagine. Well I was taught, in my days in the Episcopal House of Bishops, in those early days you were taught to be there, to be square and to keep your mouth shut. And I think I will have a lot to learn and I don't anticipate doing much talking. But a lot of relationship building, I think. I've been to two meetings of the bishops now and it's amazing to me that a business meeting is a business meeting, no matter what communion it's in. So some of it is pretty tedious. I think one of the differences I see, though, is that the unity that exists among the Catholic bishops is far greater than what I see among the Episcopal bishops. I was quite taken by that, you felt that there was just a greater consensus on important things. Plus the USCCB has (Cardinal-designate Timothy M.) Dolan -- I have never seen a man run a meeting so effectively as him. I'm astonished by how good he is. I've never seen anything like it, at any level.

Q: Are there any particular issues that you plan to bring to the attention of the bishops because of your unique role?

A: What we're going to need from the Catholic bishops is their cooperation and help with a lot of the practicalities, such as insurance, health insurance, all those things that we can't (do alone). It's impossible to actually go out and create a national health plan for the clergy. So in many of the practicalities, we hope that we can partner with the local dioceses. I also would like to see the men, the priests of the ordinariate, spend a lot of time with their counterparts in the Latin dioceses in terms of clergy meetings and gatherings, priests' conferences. My goal -- I don't know if it is going to be possible -- would be to see every priest in the ordinariate also have faculties in the local diocese. I know that is a grand goal to have. Because when Cardinal (William J.) Levada opened this up, that first press conference he had, ... he used the word "integration," not "absorption," because the idea is not to just be absorbed and lose your identity but to deeply integrate with the local diocese and so I would guess in terms of my relationships with the bishops, it's going to be aimed in that direction. And I want the men, my priests to have, one of the great joys of the priesthood is the fellowship with other priests. One of the surpassing joys of the priesthood is the life you get to share with other priests. And I don't want them to miss out on that.

Q: Have you had an opportunity to meet the Holy Father? Will you be participating in the "ad limina" visits to Rome by the U.S. bishops this year?

A: Sometime in the next five years I am going to do one. I have met the Holy Father but not as Pope Benedict. I met him as Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993 and I actually read a paper for him on this subject, receiving Anglicans. So I haven't met him since then. Since I've been a Catholic, I went to many papal things during that year. I met Cardinal (Tarcisio) Bertone, that was my principal high contact, and Cardinal Levada of course, but I haven't met the Holy Father as Holy Father. I can't wait.

Q: If you had the opportunity, what would you say to the Holy Father?

A: Thank you, first of all. This wouldn't have happened without him. This was not an idea that developed in one of the dicasteries of the Curia. This came right from the top and he had to convince a lot of people. So I feel that Pope Benedict put himself out on the line on this, and I want to be sure we don't let the Holy Father's words fall to the ground. I want him to be proud of us and see that we are making a fruitful contribution to the church.

And the other thing I'd like to do if I could see him is to thank him for his Christology book that he wrote. It's sort of a life-changer for me -- "Jesus of Nazareth" 1 and 2. I'm a utility infielder at the seminary, in other words they throw me classes to teach when no one else can do it and last year I was given Christology. So the seminarians and I just read Pope Benedict, and it was an astonishing experience to do that. I think we all walked away from that experience in something of an awe for Benedict as a theologian. I'd like to thank him for that too. As a theologian I would say that in "Jesus of Nazareth" part 2, his chapter on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is probably the most extraordinary piece of theology of our time. It's astonishingly adventuresome. I mean, he opens up doors that, I don't know, it just took my breath away. That's probably more than your readers would be interested in, but I would vote that chapter on Gethsemane as one of the most amazing pieces of theology done in our time.

Q: Two of your sons have special needs.

A: Yes, our two boys have Asperger's syndrome. They're adults now. One of them lives with us; he's employed by Walgreens, which has a phenomenal program for disabled adults. I'm amazed at Walgreens. That's Eric. And our other son, John, lives in Seattle, on his own, and he's a software engineer for Amazon.com. And we hold him up in prayer, more than once a day, to have our little boy out there on his own. ... We moved him out in July, so about half a year now. He loves his work there. He talks about Uncle Jeff, you know, the head of Amazon. He's been a very good employer. And then our daughter Kristina, she's a pediatric doctor in Traverse City, Mich., with her husband and our grandson, Peter. We're very proud of him.

None of our children has come into the Catholic Church yet. All of them are very, very interested and I think the boys will come in relatively soon. ... Our children are all very strong Christians. Eric I think belongs to every young adult group in Houston, from Catholic to Baptist. He gets his social outreach through that; he's welcomed by Christian groups.

Q: In light of the March for Life tomorrow, I know there are a lot of challenges with special-needs kids but also a lot of gifts that you get from them. I was wondering if you could talk about that a little bit.

A: I remember when we got the diagnosis on Eric that he was autistic. It was obviously a pretty life-changing experience for us. And it was a Catholic nun, my first patristics teacher, she just appeared on the doorstep in Oxford -- Sister Agnes Cunningham, her name is, an amazing woman, she's the first woman president of the Catholic Theological Society of America -- and we were so down in the dumps about it and she walked in the door and said how God had chosen us for something special. And it was a total 180-degree attitude readjustment moment for us. And for parents that have special-needs kids, it's obviously very painful and difficult, but God never asks us to do something without giving us even more blessings. I just think if people offer up these challenges to God, they'll be astonished at what comes back.

Happy Australia Day to Our Friends in OZ

2012-01-26T00:00:00.002-05:00

G'day and warmest good wishes to our Australian friends and visitors.

The Australian National Anthem

Slim Dusty Sings "Waltzing Matilda

Robert Burns Day - "The Peoples Poet" - BBC Documentary

2012-01-25T15:11:00.002-05:00

Writer Andrew O'Hagan asks what made Robert Burns one of the world's favorite poets. He travels through the landscape of modern Scotland in a poetic journey to the places that inspired Burns and to discover the story of his wild and dramatic life.

Republican Address to the Nation: Governor Mitch Daniels

2012-01-25T14:11:00.002-05:00

We heartily agree with many national commentators who have said that Governor Mitch Daniels' response to the State of the Union Address was the finest opposition party response ever delivered. It is a clear analysis of America's true condition and the failed "extremism" of Barack Hussein Obama. It is also presents a clear, conservative vision as to how America can be restored to her Constitutional foundation, and American ideals of liberty and justice for all.

Pennsylvania Bishop Slams Public Schools, Says Hitler and Mussolini Would ‘Love Our System’

2012-01-25T13:42:00.002-05:00

From LifeSiteNews.com

By Christine Dhanagom

In the midst of a raging battle in Pennsylvania over school vouchers, Harrisburg Bishop Joseph McFadden had some tough words about the nation’s public school system.

“In totalitarian governments, they would love our system,” he told an ABC affiliate. “This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all those tried to establish - a monolith so all the children would be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.”

Bishop McFadden is a longtime advocate of school vouchers, which would enable parents to apply some of their tax money towards a private school education for their children.

The Pennsylvania state legislature voted against a school voucher program this past December, but the Church hierarchy in the state is hoping to keep the issue alive.

“All parents should be allowed to use their tax dollars to send their child to a school of their choice,” Bishop McFadden wrote in an Op-Ed printed in the Patriot-News this past November. “To say that only public schools have a claim on educational tax dollars or that allowing a monopoly in education is the best way to use these funds flies in the face of the American ideal of freedom of expression and ideas.”

His words have drawn the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes school choice.

“I don’t think Hitler would appreciate children learning about free speech or freedom of religion. He also wouldn’t appreciate Jewish children being educated,” Andy Hoover. Legislative Director for ACLU of Pennsylvania told the Scranton Atheism Examiner.

Hoover also claimed, in an interview with ABC, that Catholic schools should not receive taxpayer money since they could “deny admission to kids based on religion, disability, ethnicity, and language skills, sexual orientation, and sexual gender identity.”

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, widely considered a pro-life champion, has also been a vocal supporter of school choice.

In a recent statement, he blamed the failure of the voucher program for Catholic school closings in Philadelphia.

“It’s useful to wonder how many of our schools might have been saved if, over the last decade, Catholics had fought for vouchers as loudly and vigorously as they now grieve about school closings,” he wrote.

The archbishop added: “Some Catholics, too many, seem to find it easier to criticize their own leaders than to face the fact that they’re discriminated against every day of the year. They pay once for public schools; then they pay again for the Catholic schools.”

Romney Advisor Predicts No Repeal of ObamaCare

2012-01-25T13:15:00.001-05:00

From The Hill

ByJulian Pacquet

Mitt Romney adviser Norm Coleman, a former senator from Minnesota, predicted the GOP won't repeal the Democrats' healthcare reform law even if a Republican candidate defeats President Obama this November.

"You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president," Coleman told BioCentury This Week television in an interview that aired on Sunday. "You can't whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what's been done."

Coleman's remarks are remarkable because every Republican candidate — including Romney — has vowed to make repealing the law a priority. Coleman is also the chairman of the American Action Network, which has urged the courts to strike down the law's individual mandate and its Medicaid expansion.

Romney's campaign quickly distanced itself from Coleman's comments.

"With all due respect to Sen. Coleman, he's wrong," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said via e-mail. "Gov. Romney can and will repeal Obamacare and is committed to doing so."

Coleman's "advice will be critical as I lay out my vision for improving our economy at home and strengthening our partnerships around the world," Romney said in a statement in September when he announced that the former senator was becoming an adviser.

Coleman's remarks underscore the fact that despite their rhetoric, Republicans might find it impossible to reverse a number of provisions of the law that have already gone into effect. These include rebates to help seniors buy prescription drugs, new health insurance regulations and the creation of an approval pathway for complex biosimilar medicines.

"If there's a Republican president, what you'll see is states getting waivers … granted and then starting again, making sure that we lower costs, which this act hasn't done, while we provide better access," Coleman said.

Still, he said, the law "may collapse" on its own if the Supreme Court strikes down the requirement that everyone have insurance.

"I don't think the act works financially … if you don't have the individual mandate, because your costs are going to go so far through the roof."

Coleman was elected to the Senate in 2002 but lost his 2008 reelection bid to Democrat Al Franken after a protracted recount battle.

Remembering the Death of a World Hero on This Day in 1965

2012-01-24T17:15:00.001-05:00

Sir Winston Churchill

On this day in 1965, the great Sir Winston Churchill died in his ninetieth year. Soldier, statesman, author and painter, his Olympian gifts and personality were fitted to one of the greatest crises the world has ever known. He led his nation, the British Empire and Commonwealth, indeed, all freedom loving people through the storm to "broad, sunlit uplands." Western civilization will be forever in the debt of this great champion of freedom.

The following photos and reflection by Norman Phillips on Sir Winston Churchill's State Funeral were published in the Toronto Star.

Silent mourners pace slowly by the catafalque in Westminster Hall.

Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and his wife Maryon leave Westminster Hall.

In Trafalgar Square the gun carriage rolls past the monument to Lord Nelson.

Lady Churchill on the arm of son Randolph, followed by daughter Sarah

The escorted launch Havengore bears Sir Winston Churchill up the Thames.

At the grave in the village churchyard at Bladon was a tribute from his widow.

110 Nations mourn at St. Paul's
by Norman Phillips, The Toronto Star staff writer

LONDON In the magnificent service at St. Paul's -- a service never before attempted and impossible of repetition --Winston Churchill's name was not once mentioned.

The unspoken praise came from the multitude representing 110 nations.

From my seat in the cathedral nave I watched the two-hour ceremony as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal assembled a great cast of international figures for the state funeral.

As I entered the cathedral at 9 a.m. an almost blind light bathed the scrubbed stone walls of the ancient building.

Ushers with gold-tipped purple batons directed the early members of the congregation to their seats.

Mute television monitors hung from the wall recording events outside and two miles away where the funeral procession was assembling.

Directly beneath the 365-feet-high dome stood the waiting catafalque, its dull black velvet cross-hatched with silver.

6 candles, 3 gilt chairs

Beside it stood six black candlesticks with dull-gold beeswax candles and in front of it three red upholstered gilt chairs for the Queen, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip.

A workman in open-necked shirt mounted a 12-foot ladder to light the tapers, and a powerful vacuum cleaner sounded throughout the building as it removed footprints from the bright blue carpeting.

In the midst of these last-minute preparations, Lord Moran, Churchill's family doctor, walked down the aisle behind Apostolic Delegates in magenta robes. African diplomats in brightly-colored togas and bewigged legal officers.

It was like the stage setting for an extravaganza as characters were added one by one while the coffin rolled on inexorably from Westminster Hall.

By 10 minutes to 10 the scarlet-clad aldermen and high officers of the City of London filed through the south door and took their seats in the choir stalls.

Speaker follows mace.

The speaker of the House of Commons in gilt-embroidered black robes followed the mace bearer to his place under the dome and one minute later the Lord Chancellor preceeded by his mace took his seat along side the speaker.

Attendants waited with dark velvet cloths with which the maces must be covered in the presence of the Queen.

Gold-emblazoned officers of chivalry with lacy black mourning sashes over their scabards entered bearing Sir Winston's sword, crest and spurs, while the Lord Chamberlain went out of the cathedral to greet heads of state and royal representatives at the foot of the steps.

Among these President Charles de Gaulle and Russia's Marshal Ivan Konev, both in magnificent military uniforms, dominated the groups with whomthey entered.

The lord mayor of London was the last to arrive before the Queen. Carrying a four-foot, two-inch black mourning sword, he stood at the cathedral entrance greeting the royal party and leading them to where the Archbishop stood in the vestibule.

As the seldom-opened huge west doors swung on creaking hinges, the throb of the drums from the great procession mingled with the gentle organ music within the cathedral.

Finally, on the television screens, the gun carriage could be seen drawn up in the forecourt of St. Paul's and the bare-headed guardsmen stood the burden of the coffin on their shoulders.

At a signal from the earl marshal the procession entered the great west door at 10:49 and paced slowly up the nave followed by the pallbearers, officers bearing the Churchill banners, his orders and decoration, and his achievements, and place them on a black velvet covered table to the east of the catafalque. Then, the traditional Church of England service began with the choir chanting "the sentences" beginning "I am the resurrection and the life."

When the coffin was placed upon the bier, the whole congregation sang "Who Would True Valor See, Let Him Come Hither."

The 30-minute service ended with the Archbishop of Canterbury standing on the altar steps facing the congregation with his cross of office in his hand and offering a benediction.

Trumpeter high in dome

Then came the national anthem, and as it ended a trumpeter, high in the galleries of the dome, sounded the Last Post. As the last notes died away a bugler silhouetted against the narrow windows over the west door replied with reveille and the service was ended.

The bearer party, their faces bathed with perspiration from their heavy burden, led the procession out of the cathedral followed by the heavily-veiled Lady Churchill accompanied by her only son, Randolph.

In the cathedral forecourt, the family party mounted the five state carriages for the next stage of the procession, to Tower Hill and the waiting launches on the Thames.

Led by the lord mayor, the Queen walked to the great west door where the dean and chapter, the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury took formal leave of her. She then watched the great procession move off to the beat of the shrouded drums.

Royal Artillery men fired a 19-gun salute as the procession gathered momentum and at Tower Hill 60 massed pipers began the lament as the state funeral proper ended with the transfer of the body to the river launch Havengore for the voyage upriver.

Out of the pale noon clouds, there suddenly streaked 16 Lightning fighters of the Royal Air Force in a final service tribute.

So How Much Did the Massachusetts Liberal Pay in Taxes?

2012-01-24T13:31:00.003-05:00

Candidate Paid a 14% Effective Tax Rate for 2010 on $21.7 Million in Income

Nikki Haley and the Romney's: Taxes are for little people

From The Wall Street Journal

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid a 14% effective income tax rate in 2010 after making $3 million in tax-deductible charitable donations and drawing most of his income from investments, according to a summary of Mr. Romney's 2010 tax form provided by his campaign.

Mr. Romney reported $21.7 million in income. He paid $3 million in federal taxes, slightly more than the $2.98 million he made in charitable donations. At least $1.5 million of his charitable donations went to the Mormon Church.

Of Mr. Romney's 2010 income, he noted a capital gain of $12.6 million, taxable interest of $3.3 million, ordinary dividends of $4.9 million and smaller sums of gains and losses on business income, refunds and other income.

His 2010 return also showed that he had a financial account in Switzerland that was closed in 2010 and that he generated income from overseas investments. He also reported financial accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Romney's campaign plans to release his full tax filings for 2010 and an estimate for his 2011 taxes Tuesday. Late Monday, the campaign provided the Wall Street Journal with a preview of those forms.

Obama Offends the Catholic Left

2012-01-24T13:03:00.000-05:00

A contraceptive mandate provokes an unnecessary war.

From The Wall Street Journal

By William McGurn

When Barack Obama secured his party's nomination for president in 2008, one group of Democrats had special reason to cheer.

These were Democrats who were reliably liberal on policy but horrified by the party's sometimes knee-jerk animosity to faith. The low point may have been the 1992 Democratic convention. There the liberal but pro-life governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Sr., was humiliated when he was denied a speaking slot while a pro-choice Republican activist from his home state was allowed.

With Mr. Obama, all this looked to be in the past. In 2006, the Illinois senator delivered a speech declaring that "secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square." He followed up by appearing at fund-raisers for the anti-abortion Bob Casey Jr. during Mr. Casey's successful run for Sen. Rick Santorum's senate seat.

Sen. Casey went on to co-chair Mr. Obama's National Catholic Advisory Council. Sixteen years after the snub to his dad, he was given a prime-time speaking slot at the 2008 Democratic convention. And Mr. Obama would go on to capture a majority of the Catholic vote.

Now, suddenly, we have headlines about the president's "war on the Catholic Church." Mostly they stem from a Health and Human Services mandate that forces every employer to provide employees with health coverage that not only covers birth control and sterilization, but makes them free. Predictably, the move has drawn fire from the Catholic bishops.

Less predictable—and far more interesting—has been the heat from the Catholic left, including many who have in the past given the president vital cover. In a post for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters minces few words. Under the headline "J'ACCUSE," he rightly takes the president to the woodshed for the politics of the decision, for the substance, and for how "shamefully" it treats "those Catholics who went out on a limb" for him.

The message Mr. Obama is sending, says Mr. Winters, is "that there is no room in this great country of ours for the institutions our Church has built over the years to be Catholic in ways that are important to us."

Mr. Winters is not alone. The liberal Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, blogged that he "cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience"—and he urged people to fight it. Another liberal favorite, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., has raised the specter of "civil disobedience" and vowed that he will drop coverage for diocesan workers rather than comply. They are joined in their expressions of discontent by the leaders of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, which alone employs 70,000 people.

In the run-up to the ruling, the president of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins, suggested a modest compromise by which the president could have avoided most of this strife. That would have been by allowing the traditional exemption for religious organizations. That's the same understanding two of the president's own appointees to the Supreme Court just reaffirmed in a 9-0 ruling that recognized a faith-based school's First Amendment right to choose its own ministers without government interference, regardless of antidiscrimination law.

A few years ago Father Jenkins took enormous grief when he invited President Obama to speak at a Notre Dame commencement; now Father Jenkins finds himself publicly disapproving of an "unnecessary government intervention" that puts many organizations such as his in an "untenable position."

Here's just part of what he means by "untenable": Were Notre Dame to drop coverage for its 5,229 employees, the HHS penalty alone would amount to $10 million each year.

The irony, of course, is that the ruling is being imposed by a Catholic Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, working in an administration with a Catholic vice president, Joe Biden. A few years back the voluble Mr. Biden famously threatened to "shove my rosary beads" down the throat of those who dared suggest that his party's positions on social issues put it at odds with people of faith. Does he now mean to include Mr. Winters, Cardinal Mahony and Father Jenkins?

Catholic liberals appreciate that this HHS decision is more than a return to the hostility that sent so many Catholic Democrats fleeing to the Republican Party these past few decades. They understand that if left to stand, this ruling threatens the religious institutions closest to their hearts—those serving Americans in need, such as hospitals, soup kitchens and immigrant services.

Conservatives may enjoy the problems this creates for Mr. Obama this election year. Still, for those who care about issues such as life and marriage and religious liberty that so roil our body politic, we ought to wish Catholic progressives well in their intra-liberal fight. For we shall never arrive at the consensus we hope for if we allow our politics to be divided between a party of faith and a party of animosity to faith.

Pro-Aborts Disrupt March for Life Meeting in Washington, DC

2012-01-23T23:34:00.007-05:00

Here's the face of the pro-abortion movement in America -- fascist Brown Shirts invading and disrupting a March for Life meeting earlier today.

Like most Obamunist liberals, they have no respect for the rights of those with whom they disagree, no respect for life at any stage, and no interest in dialogue. They've promoted a culture of death for nearly 40 years and now they recognize they are losing -- their sad, doomed and bitter culture is being eclipsed by all those large, joyful, homeschooling Christian families who descend on Washington each year in ever larger numbers.

The good news is that those who make the trek to Washington each January pray for their persecutors. Among the intolerant fascists seen below, will be a few souls who will eventually be converted by prayer and will repent for what they did today.

Books: The Vocation of Flannery O'Connor

2012-01-23T18:23:00.002-05:00

Beyond the prolific writing career, the fascinating personal life, and the peacocks (lots of peacocks) Flannery O'Connor was a devout and inspirational Catholic. Word on Fire contributor Father Damian Ference takes a look at the writer today on the Word on Fire blog.

One of the greatest disciples of the twentieth century was neither a priest, nor a religious, nor a married person. She was a celibate, single woman who spent the last thirteen years of her life battling lupus while writing some of the best fiction the world has ever known, while living on a 455-acre dairy farm in Milledgeville, Georgia with her mother, her books, and forty-four peacocks. Her name was Flannery O’Connor.

Mary Flannery O’Connor, the only child of Edward O’Connor and Regina Cline O’Connor, was born and baptized in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She was raised in a strong Catholic circle, as she literally grew up in the shadow of the Church – the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist – which was a stone’s throw from the O’Connor home, impossible to miss from the family room window and her parents’ second-floor bedroom. Edward and Regina sent Flannery to Catholic school, but were themselves her first and best teachers in the ways of faith, as they promised at her baptism.

Read the rest of this entry at Fr. Robert Barron's Word on Fire blog >>

Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation

2012-01-23T14:28:00.006-05:00

A very interesting explanation of how many linguistic treasures in the sonnets and plays of Shakespeare have been lost due to changes in pronunciation. Hat tip to Brits at their Best.

Tyranny: Senator Rand Paul Detained at US Airport

2012-01-23T13:59:00.002-05:00

Senator Rand Paul, the son of the libertarian Republican candidate Ron Paul, was detained by guards at a Tennessee airport on Monday after apparently refusing to submit to a full body pat-down.

Senator Rand Paul

From The Telegraph

By Raf Sanchez

The younger Mr Paul, who like his father is a fierce advocate of civil liberties, was reportedly held at Nashville International Airport by agents from the Transport Security Administration (TSA), an agency he has repeatedly criticised for encroaching on Americans' freedoms.

A spokeswoman for the Kentucky Senator said he was being held "indefinitely" after he set off an alarm in an image scanner used at the airport's security check point.

The 49-year-old reportedly told agents that there was a fault in the machine and refused to submit to a physical search.

His father's campaign tweeted: "My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming."

In a separate Facebook post post, the campaign said that the senator had asked to be scanned a second time but that agents refused and insisted on a full pat-down.

Supporters of the Republican hopeful, whose campaign is centred around personal liberty, erupted in fury on Twitter and other social media sites.

There was no immediate comment from the TSA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security - the federal department created to defend the US from terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

In a Congressional hearing last year, the senator said the agency carried out needlessly "invasive" searches on young children.

Georgia Judge Orders President to Appear at Hearing on Ballot Eligibility

2012-01-23T10:26:00.003-05:00

A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president.

Leading Catholics Denounce Obama Administration's Disregard for Conscience Rights

2012-01-23T09:46:00.000-05:00

Obama and his "Catholic" Quislings

Leading American Catholics, including Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Robert George and Michael Sean Winters, respond to the Obama administration running roughshod over religious liberty and conscience rights in its requirement that all health plans cover contraceptives free of charge.

South Carolina Voter Turnout Topped Earlier Republican Contests

2012-01-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

From Bloomberg Business Week

By Greg Giroux

The Republican primary in South Carolina had record turnout, with bigger gains in voter participation than in Iowa and New Hampshire earlier this month.

The Jan. 21 South Carolina vote drew 602,000 Republicans, a 35 percent increase over 2008 participation, as former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich defeated former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the front-runner in national Republican polls. Gingrich received 40 percent of the vote compared with Romney’s 28 percent.

Yet Republicans beat the previous record of 573,000, set in the 2000 primary, in part because there was no Democratic primary and the pool of registered voters is much larger than a dozen years ago. South Carolina increased its voter registration to 2.8 million from 2.1 million in 2000, the last time Republicans had a competitive primary and Democrats didn’t.

“It’s a record that should have fallen, and it did,” Rhodes Cook, a political analyst and editor of The Rhodes Cook Letter, said in a telephone interview.

With Obama unopposed for renomination, South Carolina voters were free to take part in the Republican primary. Voters don’t register by party in South Carolina, which drew about 1 million voters for the 2008 primaries, including 532,000 for the Democratic contest and 445,000 for the Republican race.

No Contest

“You would expect some turnout increase in the Republican contest because there’s no contested Democratic contest,” Michael McDonald, a political scientist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, said in a telephone interview.

Future primaries might show whether Republicans can boost voter turnout outside the South, a Republican-rich region where the party’s nominee will carry most states over Obama in the November election.

Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, said it’s “hard to disentangle why at this point” South Carolina showed the first big turnout boost for Republicans compared to 2008. “I would give some credence to the theory that it’s a Southern thing,” he said, since anti- Obama sentiment is “particularly strong in” South Carolina.

A smaller share of registered voters went to the polls in the Republican primary this year than in 2000, when 27 percent of registered voters cast ballots. In that contest, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush won over Arizona Senator John McCain.

South Carolina increased its voter registration by 700,000 during those dozen years, while the increase in turnout was less than 30,000 votes. About 21.5 percent of voters cast ballots in this year’s Republican contest.

More Interest

South Carolina voters showed more interest than their counterparts in Iowa and New Hampshire, where participation was barely higher than in 2008, even though there weren’t Democratic contests this year competing for the attention of independents. Four years ago, then-Senators Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in a fight for the Democratic nomination.

This year’s Iowa Republican caucuses drew about 122,000 voters, less than 3 percent higher than in 2008 and a smaller share of the Republican electorate than four years ago.

In New Hampshire, the Republican vote increased by less than 4 percent, to 248,000 from 240,000.

“Republicans have a long way to go before they are generally enthusiastic about their candidates and message,” Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said in an e-mail message.

Next Gauge

The next gauge of Republicans’ interest will be in Florida, where the Jan. 31 primary will award all 50 of the state’s delegates to the winner. It is the first contest in which only registered Republicans may vote. About 1.95 million Republicans participated in the 2008 primary, in which McCain defeated Romney by 5 percentage points.

Like Iowa and New Hampshire, and unlike South Carolina, Florida is a politically competitive state that will help decide the November election. Obama won Florida over McCain by 3 percentage points in the 2008 election.

After Florida, there will be Republican caucuses in Maine, Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota during the first week of February. Caucuses draw lower voter turnout than primaries and place a higher priority on campaign organization.

Arizona and Michigan have primaries on Feb. 28 and Washington state holds caucuses on March 3. A dozen states hold primaries or caucuses on March 6, known as “Super Tuesday.”

Rick Santorum Turns Heat on Newt Gingrich in Florida

2012-01-23T09:04:00.001-05:00

Rick Santorum kicks off his Florida campaign with a critique of Newt Gingrich. | AP Photo

Rick Santorum kicked off his Florida campaign here Sunday by aiming directly at Newt Gingrich.

“It’s great to be glib, but it’s better to be principled,” the former Pennsylvania senator told a crowd of more than 200 standing in a hot parking lot of a strip mall in this town outside Fort Lauderdale.

Santorum dismissed the idea that the South Carolina primary reshaped the race into a Gingrich-Mitt Romney face-off. Saturday’s results could very quickly be overshadowed by the Jan. 31 Florida primary, in which he’s hoping to reemerge as a factor.

Read the rest of this entry at Politico >>

Ars Nova Singers - Heaven in a Wildflower

2012-01-22T00:00:00.009-05:00

To see a world in a grain of sand.
And heaven in a wild flower.

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy:

He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.

South Carolina Speaks

2012-01-21T22:14:00.005-05:00

While not our first choice, tonight's outcome in South Carolina is an indicator that the Republican mainstream rejects the "next-in-line" establishment choice for our party and wants radical change.

One cannot argue that Mitt Romney is an outsider when he not only received the support of Governor Haley and Treasurer Loftis, but the endorsement of others of the Republican establishment like the Bush family and our last failed nominee, John McCain. Indeed, those endorsements probably cost Romney votes.

In good times, the South Carolina electorate will put social issues to the fore and might have been expected to support Rick Santorum; but the results tonight suggest that the economic crisis and defeat of Barack Hussein Obama are first and foremost in the minds of the Republican electorate. Over the course of several debates Gingrich convinced voters that he is well prepared to fiercely debate a president who needs a teleprompter to make routine welcoming remarks at small diplomatic and social events in the White House. While Santorum often sounded like he was debating policy details on the floor of the Senate, Romney played it safe and appeared to be marking time until Inauguration Day. He exuded all the vision and passion of Gerald Ford, George Herbert Walker Bush and Bob Dole. Gingrich, on the other hand, lashed out at the media everyone loves to hate and gave America a vision of what may be in store for a failed President.

Each of the three principal contenders has won one primary. When all is said and done, we believe Rick Santorum has the experience, commitment, principles and constancy to make the better President. But the lesson tonight is that Republican voters want bold, aggressive leadership and conservative solutions, even if to get them, they have to hold their nose and send a serial adulterer and his mistress of eight years to the White House.

From the Pastor - "Ordered by Our Creator"

2012-01-21T20:00:00.002-05:00

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

A rich experience in my life was knowing Father Stanley Jaki, the Benedictine priest and physicist who did much to explain the dependency of modern physical science on Christianity's perception of the universe. He received the Templeton Prize, a monetary award larger than a Nobel Prize, for explaining how the scientific method issues from the Judeo-Christian concept of a benign and ordered universe.

While priests are dedicated to theology as the "queen of sciences," some of them have contributed to the material sciences as well. Some days ago Google rightly honored Nicholas Steno whose research in stratigraphy earned him the sobriquet "Father of Geology." Google did not mention that he was a convert to Catholicism in 1667 and only ceased his research due to pastoral obligations when he became a bishop in 1677. His scientific achievements were not as important as his heroic virtue, for which Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1988.

The scientific lobe of my brain is lax, and buttoning my cassock is a complex challenge, but I enjoy thinking of my fellows in the priestly fraternity who advanced our knowledge of God's creation. As a student, I practiced the piano on the site where the Franciscan Roger Bacon, Doctor Mirabilis — “Wonderful Teacher," explored mathematics, optics and astronomy in the thirteenth century. His own teacher is thought to have been Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln who gave the basic structure for scientific experimentation. In the sixteenth century, Ignazio Danti, an Italian bishop, made discoveries in engineering, cartography, hydraulics and astronomy. On his heels came a French priest, Marin Mersenne, a friend a fellow student of Descartes. He pioneered attempts at a formula representing all prime numbers and established an international scientific congress. His contemporary, Father Jean-Felix Picard, is known as The Father of Modern Astronomy and was the first to measure accurately the size of our planet.

The nineteenth-century Augustinian abbot Gregor Mendel fathered modern genetics, discovering dominant and recessive genes as a high-school teacher. His contemporary, a missionary priest named Armand David, specialized in zoology, botany, geology and paleontology in China where he discovered, among other things, the Giant Panda. An American son of Belgian immigrants, Father Julius Nieuwland, invented the first synthetic rubber material by first polymerizing acetylene into divinylacetylene. Belgian native Father Georges Lemaître proposed the Big Bang Theory which he called the First Atomic Moment, and influenced Einstein. Still living is Father Michal Heller of Poland, whose research in general relativity theory and quantum mechanics was recognized, like Father Jaki’s, with a Templeton Prize.

The liturgical season of Ordinary Time witnesses to the creation ordered by our Creator, the Father of all thought: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you” (Jeremiah 1:5).

Key Leaders of Faith, Family, Back Santorum

2012-01-21T09:26:00.005-05:00

Senator Rick Santorum has been the conservative’s conservative in the race for the 2012 GOP nomination for president, stating biblical perspectives on homosexuality, marriage and other key social issues.

For that, he’s earned the support of dozens of key conservative leaders around the nation, from Family Talk radio founder James Dobson to Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Preparedness.

The announcement was made today by Richard Viguerie, the chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, and author of “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.”

In his statement, he said last week some 150 conservative leaders met at Nancy and Paul Pressler’s ranch in Texas to talk about the campaign and the candidates.

What resulted was an overwhelming 75 percent consensus to back Santorum.

The list, Viguerie said, “demonstrates that Rick Santorum is the best candidate to bring together social conservatives, national defense conservatives, economic conservatives, and the newly energized constitutional conservatives of the tea party.”

The statement said, “Rick Santorum is the only reliable conservative left in the race. He has a long involvement in the conservative movement, and he has demonstrated his commitment to hiring conservatives on his Senate staff and in his campaign. On the issues of vital importance to conservatives, such as the right to life, the pro-family agenda, national security, and fighting the growth of government, he has walked with us even when the path was hard.”

The text of the adopted endorsement says: “Conservatives are the largest ideological bloc in the American electorate. In this election cycle, a number of candidates with legitimate claims to conservative support have considered or sought the Republican nomination for president, but this has left the conservative vote divided, empowering those who do not share our views and values. To defeat Barack Obama, now is the time for conservatives to rally behind the most electable conservative candidate, and we believe that candidate is former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.”

Those signing included (organizations listed for identification purposes only):

Cathie Adams, president, Texas Eagle Forum

Gary Bauer, president, American Values

Brian Burch, president, CatholicVote.org Candidate Fund

Tim Busch, businessman, philanthropist, and attorney

Ken Campbell, California conservative leader

Peggy Dau, special liaison representative, Voice of the Martyrs

Penna Dexter, radio host and commentator

James Dobson, Family Talk

Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness

Tim Echols, Georgia Public Service Commission

Kirk Elliott, Philanthropia, founder and chairman

William J. Estrada, director, Generation Joshua

Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer, WND.com and WND Books

Robert Fischer, president, Fischer Furniture, Inc

Richard Ford, president, Heritage Alliance

Foster Friess, Friess Associates

Maggie Gallagher, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy

Michael Geer, Family Policy Leader, Harrisburg, Penn.

Ellen Grigsby, director of Institutional Partnerships, Open Doors USA

Rebecca Hagelin, president, Rebecca Hagelin Communications and Marketing, LLC

Patrick and Toya Hall, vice president, Guadalupe Radio Network

Jason Jones, producer of the film “Bella”

Tim LeFever, chairman of the board, Capitol Resource Institute

Brad Mattes, executive director, Life Issues Institute

William J. Murray, chairman, Religious Freedom Coalition

Richard Neill, Texas conservative leader

Preston Noell III, president, Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

Pam Olsen, president, Florida Prayer Network

Paul and Nancy Pressler, justice, Texas Court of Appeals (ret)

Penny Pullen, Illinois State Representative 1977-1993

Jill Stanek, pro-life activist and blogger

John Stemberger, Florida Family Action

Stacy Taylor, Texas conservative leader

Richard A. Viguerie, chairman, ConservativeHQ.com