The bishops in the Philippines sure ain’t afraid to stare down the enemies of their flock. Their opposition to the “Reproductive Health” bill is well documented. Now they’re taking on a huge mining company.

It’s not uncommon for multinationals to take advantage of poor countries by wrecking the environment to make a quick buck exploiting natural resources. The multinational mining giant Xstrata is currently looking to expand its operations in the Philippines in a manner that violates government environmental laws. Politicians are under pressure to amend the laws to allow the project to go through. However, local residents and the Catholic Church are opposed to the operation because of the environmental impact. The blowback is having a big impact.

With local polls due next year, South Cotabato legislators are reluctant to amend the law because they risk the ire of the Church, said Arthur Pingoy, the region’s governor. (Source)

Yeah, they’d better be afraid ’cause the priests are calling it like they see it: Read the rest of this entry »

Remember that old 70′s movie called Soylent Green? It was a sci-fi flick starring Charlton Heston. The movie was set in 2022, which must have seemed like the distant future to them at the time, but it’s just around the corner for us.

The name of the movie comes from the small green wafers, produced by Soylent Corporation, that served as the main source of food. They were supposed to be made of high-energy plankton, but as the movie progresses, you discover that they’re made of human remains. Pretty gross.

Well, it turns out that Soylent Green isn’t just for 2022. It’s already happening in 2012:

News outlets are reporting that thousands of capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies have been seized by South Korean customs officials. (Source)

Say what? Read the rest of this entry »

This is an amazing development:

Blatty, author of both novel and film versions of the horror classic “The Exorcist,” is getting ready to launch a canonical suit against alma mater Georgetown University, calling U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance as commencement speaker “the last straw” in the school’s relinquishing of Catholic identity

“The scandals that Georgetown has given to the faithful are too many to count and too many to ignore any longer,” said Blatty in an announcement.

The graduate of Georgetown’s Class of 1950 announced the creation of The Father King Society to Make Georgetown Honest, Catholic and Better, under which Blatty plans to launch canonical action against the school seeking remedies “up to and including the possible removal or suspension of top-ranked Georgetown’s right to call itself Catholic or Jesuit in its fundraising and representations to applicants.”

Amen, brother! Now we’re talkin’.

Blatty is on the same page as Socon or Bust when it comes to the “pastoral” approach to dissenters:

“Of course, what we truly seek is for Georgetown to have the vision and courage to be Catholic, but clearly the slow pastoral approach has not worked. Georgetown is being dishonest. Together, we need to end that!” he said.

May 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference has published the full text of a new rite of blessing for children in the womb.

The new prayers, first proposed in 2008, are aimed at helping parents of unborn children “by imparting grace and comfort in time of concern and need,” encouraging parishes to unite in prayer for the child, and fostering “respect for human life within society.”

The prayers, approved by the Vatican earlier this year, may be said either within a Mass or on their own, and have been published as a booklet in both English and Spanish. (Source)

I couldn’t find these prayers on the website of the CCCB. I wonder why the Canadian bishops haven’t published this yet. Hopefully the delay is only due to the need to translate it to French.

A thoughful piece by Andrew Coyne in the Ottawa Citizen.

It’s time to move in for the kill.

Even the CBC, of all people, is reporting on the public furor over the sex-hibition at the Museum of Science and Technology. Check it out:

Canada’s Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa has raised the age limit for admission to a controversial sex exhibit after dozens of complaints about the content.

As well, animated video informing children about masturbation has been removed.

The moves followed complaints about the exhibit called Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition.

“The museum has received a higher-than-expected amount of expressions of concerns from the public,” spokesman Yves St-Onge told Reuters. (Source)

Reuters? Good grief! You mean the whole world now knows about this? They must think Canadians are a bunch of pervs!

Heritage Minister James Moore spoke out against the exhibit during Question Period, but his spokesman went even further:

Moore’s spokesman, James Maunder, had earlier said the purpose of the Museum of Science and Technology is to foster scientific and technological literacy.

“It is clear this exhibit does not fit within that mandate,” Maunder told CBC News. “Its content cannot be defended, and is insulting to taxpayers.”

My sentiments exactly.

I even saw CBC covering it on TV this evening! Clearly we’ve rocked the boat big time. Give credit to the Ottawa Sun for doing an excellent article on it yesterday, from which I drew inspiration for my complaint to the government.

For those of you that haven’t complained yet, give yourself the satisfaction of dealing the fatal blow. My earlier post gives you the email addresses you need.

Here’s my letter to Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board (tony.clement@parl.gc.ca), with a c.c. to the Prime Minister (pm@pm.gc.ca). I suggest our readers point out the abortion connection to the Prime Minister. That’ll get his attention You can also write to the Heritage Minister, James Moore (james.moore@pch.gc.ca)

Hon. Tony Clement
President of the Treasury Board

cc. Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Dear Tony,

I appreciate the efforts you’re making to cut unnecessary spending and balance the budget. However, I’m greatly distressed that taxpayer money is being used to fund a sex-hibition at Ottawa’s Museum of Science and Technology. The official name is “Sex: A Tell-all Exhibition”, but the content is very disturbing.

The “Erecto-matic” display contains a felt dissection of part of a limp penis. Press a button and the penis becomes erect. Is this how our hard-earned taxes should be employed?

Then there’s a display with a picture of two girls around the age of 13 pressed together naked, looking at the camera as if the viewer has just discovered them showering. Most normal Canadians would call this child porn. Do you want to be bankrolling this crap?

Then there’s the abortion issue. There are two audio stations where you can press a button to receive an answer from a health professional to a series of prepared questions. One question asks what to do if you’re pregnant with an unwanted child. The woman simply explains that in Quebec you can have an abortion without parental consent at the age of 14. She does not mention adoption. Since when is the federal government in the business of counseling abortions? I thought the Prime Minister didn’t want to talk about abortion?

Tony, even in the best of times this spending would be an outrage.  But at a time when the government is cutting more than $5 billion in annual spending and laying off thousands of public servants, this spending is just plain insulting.

As you know, museums will be flooded with kids on Canada Day, as admission is free and parents have the day off. I trust you can put an end to this disgrace before then.

Sincerely,

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 »

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 »

It’s pretty sad what today’s youth is becoming. Check out this quick video.

In light of the Archbishop of Montréal’s decision to aggressively promote the Earth Day protests – by having all the churches in the diocese ring their bells and asking every parish to exhort their faithful to join the protest – I felt compelled to drop him a friendly little note. The original French is at the bottom of this message. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, David Suzuki had to resign from the Board of the foundation that bears his name.

This week, a complaint has been lodged with the Canada Revenue Agency for his foundation to be investigated for violating rules about political involvement by charities:

“With 12 registered lobbyists, the David Suzuki Foundation has more lobbyists on staff than most government relations firms,” the release from EthicalOil.org said.

No kidding. It’s the beginning of the end for their charitable status. But give him credit for sticking to his guns, despite the threats:

“I am not going to shut up just because of the rules about charities.”

I wish our bishops would do the same.

It seems that enough of you complained to the National Post, which forced them to correct their horrifically distorted reporting about a small pro-choice gathering yesterday. If you click on the link now, you’ll notice that the word “huge” is missing from the characterization of the crowd:

On Wednesday, the pending debate drew a [snip] crowd of pro-choice supporters to Parliament Hill where a handful of anti-abortionists regularly picket. (Source)

I saved the original for posterity, so that everyone can see how they initially botched the story:

On Wednesday, the pending debate drew a huge crowd of pro-choice supporters to Parliament Hill where a handful of anti-abortionists regularly picket. (Source)

Well done, team. This is certainly a victory. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. I say “small” because I suspect that most hits on any given news article probably occur with the first 24 hours of its publication. So whoever was going to read that article already read it with the “huge” included. The National Post has covered its tracks by correcting the story, thus avoiding further criticism, but the damage is largely done.

We’ve seen this pattern before in many media outlets: they publish a biased story, make a big splash, then correct it 24 hours later so that the “official record” is accurate.

Nevertheless, chalk this one up as a victory for the Hobbits. Media moguls, we’re watching you.

This has to be the worst instance of media exaggeration in favour of abortion ever.

Yesterday, the media reported quite widely about a motion to be debated in Parliament regarding when human life begins. The pro-choice politicians and media were stirred into a trance-like frenzy, as usual. So far, nothing to get excited about.

But then I read the National Post’s coverage. Remember how the National Post used to have a small-c conservative bent? That’s obviously long gone. Towards the end of the article, they have this little nugget;

On Wednesday, the pending debate drew a huge crowd of pro-choice supporters to Parliament Hill where a handful of anti-abortionists regularly picket.

Toting banners with slogans like “reproductive justice now” and “if you can’t trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child,” the pro-choice group vowed to fight back against what they see as an attack on reproductive rights. (Source, backup link in case of whitewash is here)

Wow! Sounds like quite the demonstration, eh? It was HUGE! How many people do you figure turned up? Surely it must be in the thousands, right? Sounds awesomely impressive, don’t it? What a display of mobilization and power by the pro-choicers! The streets must’a been clogged with protesters, wouldn’t you say? The National Post didn’t give any specific numbers, but the Globe does:

Over 50 activists rallied on Parliament Hill Wednesday, one day before Mr. Woodworth’s private member’s motion will be debated in the House of Commons. (Source)

50 people?!?!? Goodness gracious me! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Pandemonium on steroids! 50 people! Where did they fit them all! HUGE!!!!!

This is so disgracious it makes me want to spit all over my laptop. The lineup for my lunch at the local fast-food joint was longer than 50. This is outright  manipulation of public opinion. You can’t even call them a news-paper anymore, because they don’t give you the news, just propaganda.

Just to put things into perspective, let’s use a concrete example us Canucks are familiar with. When an NHL playoff series ends and all the players and coaches come onto the ice to shake hands, that’s roughly 50 people. The thousands of fans in the stands around them are roughly similar to the turnout at the March for Life. Which one is huger?

For the umpteenth time, we learn the same lesson: You can’t trust the media on ANYTHING related to faith or morals. ANYTHING.

Why don’t you drop a line to the Editor of the National Post and tell them to stop insulting your intelligence? It’ll take 30 seconds of your time. God willing, they’ll edit their story so the lie disappears. And remind ‘em to come back to Parliament Hill on May 10th for the March for Life. We’ll show ‘em the meaning of “huge”.

By the way, the “handful” of people that regularly “picket” downtown, as they put it, are the prayer warriors that stand at the abortion mill every day. May God bless them.

The attack dogs have been sicked on Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria. Last week, he spoke out very bluntly and courageously against Obama’s assault on the Church. The enemies of the Church are now counter-attacking:

On Thursday, the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State claimed the homily violated federal law by taking sides in a political campaign.

“No rational person could believe the bishop was doing anything but saying vote against Obama,” said Barry Lynn, the group’s executive director… Churches are tax-exempt institutions, and they aren’t allowed to intervene in partisan politics.” (Source)

They’re absolutely right, by the way. The good bishop was indeed telling the faithful that they shouldn’t vote for Obama. That’s a no-no under existing tax rules. In both the U.S. and Canada, registered charities have restrictions on how they may intervene on political issues (a principle that makes perfect sense, in my view). The good bishop crossed the line. Americans United for Separation of Church and State make a valid legal point.

You wanna strip us of our tax-exempt status? Go ahead, make my day. Read the rest of this entry »