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Feelings, nothing more than feelings!

A particular warning for us bloggers.

TORONTO, Ontario, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Leaders of Ontario’s 250,000 Orthodox Christians took aim at bullying in the province’s schools on Monday – starting with the government’s proposed Bill 13, the Accepting School Act. A clergy delegation appeared as witnesses before the Standing Committee on Social Policy at Queen’s Park, charging that the government’s anti-bullying legislation virtually ignores most bullying victims in schools, while at the same time targeting traditional religious groups for censure. “Statistics Canada data on bullying and violence indicates that bullying against religious groups is more than twice as common as bullying against self-identified gays and lesbians,” noted Father Geoffrey Korz, Orthodox Dean of Ontario and chief presented to the Queen’s Park committee. He was joined by Father William Makarenko, former Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and supported by Father John Koulouras of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto, and Father Alexei Vassiouchkine of the Russian Orthodox Church. “We must ask, why does Bill 13 make repeated, special mention of LGBT anti-bullying initiatives, when such incidents represent only a fraction of the reality of bullying in Ontario schools?”…(Source)

This is the kind of direct questions that we need more of from our Clergy.  Good on the Orthodox for asking the hard questions.   It’s time to push back.  And the politicians really do need to understand that imposing Gaydom on our children will have political repercussions.  Only when we start taking ourselves seriously will the politicians start to pay attention.

It’s time for Christians to stop being the doormat of Dalton McGuinty.

OTTAWA, May 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) today released a pastoral letter on freedom of conscience and religion.  Issued by the CCCB Permanent Council, the letter expresses concern about an “aggressive relativism” in Canada that seeks to relegate religion to the private sphere. Read the rest of this entry »

The only real solution to the crisis of publicly funded Catholic schooling in Canada.

Good on Fr. Anthony.  Great priest.  Takes no bull but delivers the hard truth with charity.

From the “Abortion is the BEST thing going” files….

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., May 15, 2012 – The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer notes that a Chinese study consisting of 1,351 subjects published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention in February, 2012 reported a very statistically significant increased risk of breast cancer for women with previous induced abortions (IAs) in comparison with women without previous IAs. [1] Researchers led by Ai-Ren Jiang reported a statistically significant 1.52-fold elevation in risk for women with IAs and a “significant dose-response relationship between (the risk) for breast cancer and number of (IAs),” meaning that risk climbed with number of IAs….(Source)

The time is ripe for faithful Catholics, especially in the US, to approach the clergy and humbly ask them to preach about sexual morality.

Think about it: the tone of the discourse of the US bishops towards Obama’s abortion/contraception mandate is rapidly approaching a feverish pitch. Some weeks ago we heard the call for a national day of fasting on March 30. Then the USCCB released a blunt statement in April on this issue. Now they’re calling for civil disobedience.

Clearly, the bishops are setting this up as the greatest battle of our age. And rightfully so. So why aren’t they preaching about it from the pulpit?

They’ve spun the issue of paying for contraception and abortion as a matter of fundamental religious freedom. Fair enough. Given how much noise they’re making, any non-Catholic outsider would logically conclude that these issues are a central part of the Catholic Faith, as opposed to accessory parts of Catholicism, like the colours of priestly vestments on different feast days. Yet, if this same non-Catholic outsider were to sit in a Catholic pew every day for a year, he’d never hear a peep about contraception and maybe only one or two mentions of abortion.

Does it make sense that I hear more about birth control on CNN than in our churches? The bishops tell us that we have to be willing to go to the rack over these issues, but they dare not mention these same issues at Mass? Read the rest of this entry »

Personally, the more I think about it, I believe that we must not alienate the non-Catholics. We are as one on the Hill and to have our Lord in Eucharist there would not only be disrespectful to the Eucharist it could also insight some very hard feelings,or even cause a riot . We have come so far in this fight and to jeopardize our unity would be a grave mistake…

Above is an email that I received about my push for having a Eucharistic procession and benediction on Parliament Hill.  While I certainly respect the idea of having all Christians and non-Christians alike join in the abortion battle, the idea that Catholics (or any Faith group, for that matter) have to somehow check their spirituality at the door is rooted in a false ecumenism.  Do not all Christians suffer from the complaint by the Secularists?  “Keep your religion out of politics.”  If we Christians reject this idea, then we should also reject the same principle when it applies to our intramural differences, as well.  It’s the same deadly logic that seeks to impose an artificial unity.   We, as Catholics, are on Parliament Hill principally because we are Catholic.  So why should we hide our distinct spirituality because it offends non-Catholics?  First of all, we’re 90-95% of the people who show up for the March for Life every year.  That alone makes this “you may give offense” charge, offensive in itself!  Secondly, no Catholic would feel offended if other Christians or non-Christians wanted to express the reason for their participation, either.   And remember, folks, I am not even suggesting having the Eucharistic event during the actual March itself.  Heaven forbid!  I am simply saying, “We Catholics brought abortion in to this country. We Catholics have to do our part to take it out, in our own way.”  I repeat: this is a spiritual battle which must be won in that realm, first, before it translates into sociological and political victory.

We’ve all heard many politicians use cowardly cop-outs while conceding ground to the Culture of Death. One of the classic lines is “I’m personally opposed to [insert depravity here], but I can’t impose my beliefs on others.”

Well, the shoe was on the other foot last week for the March for Life. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson proclaimed May 10th as “Respect for Life Day” in Ottawa, as he did last year. This triggered some angry reactions from a few pro-choicers, who attacked the mayor on Facebook and Twitter. The mayor’s response was a new twist on a familiar theme: Read the rest of this entry »

All 50 of them took off just before the March started down Ottawa’s streets.

So, uh, Mr. Harper, I assume you can count.  What are you afraid of?

Media hype and people who don’t even show?  What makes you think they’ll show up on Election night, either?

The “Conservative” Party really does need to learn how to count.

…Thanks to Barack Obama, who is for conservatives a gift that keeps on giving, the liberals are doffing the genial mask they donned in the days of Bill Clinton and revealing themselves as what they are. And, instead of seeking to subvert Roman Catholicism from within in the manner of Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy, as they have been doing with great success for half a century, they are attacking it head on, forcing the American church to return to its fundamental principles, and inducing non-members sympathetic to its understanding of human sexuality to think about joining…(Source)

The Catholic Church has been sleeping for the past 40 years, getting fat and lazy, and becoming too damn cozy with the State to the point where we were becoming the department of social justice within the government.  Obama has changed all that.  He is indeed the gift that keeps on giving. He very well might be the single most important cause for the resurgence of the Catholic Church.  For that, we all must be very grateful.

…so do the people.

Today as a culture here in Canada we tend to prize our individuality as a false sense of autonomy over relationships, community engagement and duty. In the abortion debate, individual autonomy is often at the core of discussion,” the archbishop pointed out.

“You’ve heard the slogan ‘my body, my choice’ offered as a discussion ending argument. But this is a false sense of personhood.

“God made us for relationships within and with one another. Our choices affect not only our lives, but also those of our family, our friends and the larger community. Our decisions have an impact beyond the limits of our own bodies, our own selves.”

Archbishop Prendergast expanded on this theme, explaining, “The true measure of personhood is not the degree of our autonomy; the true measure is our service, in love to God, found in the needs of our neighbour.”

“Who is our neighbour?” the archbishop asked: “the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, the defenceless, and yes, even those invisible in the womb.”

“To be a fully actualized human being is not to be autonomous. Rather, to be fully human is to be in communion with God and our sisters and brothers in the mystical body of Christ. We are not made to be solitary individuals. We are made to be individuals in solidarity with God and with each other.” (Source)

I think this might one of the few times that I’ve heard a Canadian bishop actually publicly engage the lame pro-abort arguments.  One of the objectives of Cardinal Ouellet is to choose bishops who actually defend the faith, instead of having an emphasis on being “pastoral”.  I think pastoral went out in the 70s but has hung around 40 years too long. Anyhow, from a Faith and sociological perspective, +Prendergast certainly does a great job.

I’ve got my own pithy responses to this “my body, my choice” argument:

1. If it’s your body and your choice, why is my wallet involved?

2. If it’s your choice, why is your boyfriend making the decision to abort for you?

3. If it’s your body, why does “your body” have two heads, two sets of arms and legs, two hearts and two of everything that we would otherwise not expect to find in one human body?

4. If it’s your choice, why does the abortion lobby do everything in its power to ensure that it’s not informed?

5. If it’s your body, what’s with the sperm in it?

6. If it’s your choice, it’s the slave owner’s choice too.  Chattel is chattel, after all.

7. If it’s your body, what organ or appendage are they dumping in the abortion bag after the “procedure”?

8. If it’s your choice, then it’s your tragic consequence too. Abortion destroys the lives of women.  Not all choices are created equal.

9. If it’s your body, why was your first child not as lucky as your second?

10. If it’s your choice, why did that baby all of a sudden become a “product of conception” when you changed your choice?

They’re like uncle Harry who just can’t hold  his liquor and wetted himself again at the Family Reunion.

From a past March for Life. Made me smile.

We’re coming.  And nothing in this world can stop it.

Fr. Dwight’s story here.