Catholic Coalition Questions Coakley on Ethics Committe Inquiry

Coalition To Save Catholic Health Care

                                                                                      

NEWS RELEASE

TUESDAY, 28  SEPTEMBER, 2010

CONTACT: R. T. Neary, Chairman

PH: 508 359 4551

RTNeary@Verizon.net

                                                                                      

   COAKLEY QUESTIONED ON ETHICS COMMITTEE INQUIRY

            Attorney General Martha Coakley was accused of playing pressure politics to avoid the bad publicity attached to her conflict of interest with the CEO of the Caritas Christi Health Care System.  The charge was made by the Coalition To Save Catholic Health Care.

            “Not only has Martha Coakley failed to respond to our letter 6 weeks ago asking that she recuse herself from any approval of a buyout of Caritas Christi by Cerberus Capital Management L.P.,” said Coalition Chairman R. T. Neary, “but she appears to be involved with the foot-dragging of the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, as well”.  Both government functions are housed in One Ashburton Place in Boston, so the process would be expected to move at a fairly rapid pace.  Instead the requests to both have been stretched out far beyond what would seem to be reasonable, raising additional serious questions.

            Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his wife made the maximum-allowable contributions to the recent failed campaign for the U.S. Senate by Coakley, $9,600 in total, and they hosted a fund-raiser for her in their home.  They invited Caritas Christi officials as well as a number of other guests. Dr. de la Torre would stand to benefit enormously by becoming CEO of the new Cerberus entity, Steward Health Care, LLC.  The salary, bonus arrangements and other perquisites have never been revealed by Cerberus, the 25 billion dollar giant.

            The Massachusetts Ethics Commission was established to be an independent state agency whose Mission Statement calls for it “to foster integrity in public service” and “to prevent conflicts between private interests and public duties.”

             James McKenna, a Millbury lawyer, amassed over 27,000 write-in votes in the primary to have his name placed on the ballot of the Republican Party, which was unwilling to nominate a candidate to oppose Coakley.

             “Perhaps the fact that Attorney General Coakley now has an opponent in the upcoming election will make clear that her sense of entitlement is strictly subjective,” said Neary.  “She must respond to legitimate requests by citizens seeking to have integrity and transparency evident in her actions. These negotiations have been fraught with deceit, nebulous figures and outright lies, yet the entities seem to be operating as though they are above the law,” he added.

             The Coalition seeks to have negotiations with venture capital company Cerberus terminated, and to have the Roman Catholic identity and ownership preserved permanently. They strongly disagree with statements that the chain is in bad financial condition, and call for complete disclosures of all facets of the proposed deal.  Both sides have refused to do so. 

The Red Mass

Our annual Red Mass took place over the weekend.

The Red Mass is a Sacramental celebration for our lawyers and justices to supply them with the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit as Roman Catholics.

The Vestments are red to symbolize martyrdom and tongues of fire.

This comes in handy when our Catholic hospitals, doctors, nurse were illegally forced to hand out abortifacients to...Oops..

..when our priests are falsely accused and they don't have the money to defend themselves against...

...when the archdiocese hired abortionists to outsource abortions to and promised to give women a ride there so they could look like they didn't have anything to do with it...

...in the Caritas hospital give away to Cerebus with Catholic conscience protections hanging by a thread..

Oh wait.

The Fall and The Rise of Catholic Warriors

I wanted to add my observations and comments to a post at Inside Catholic that should be of much interest to Catholic Warriors.

Before I exorcise the merits of Michael Sean Winters' post at NCR, a little sidebar:

Can somebody enlighten me about what it is with the NCR crowd that causes the peculiar and annoying habit of gluing their middle name to their identity?

I'm sure it has something to do with years of reading and experiencing the drivel and like Pavlov's dog, as soon as I see someone using their full middle name instead of using a middle initial like the rest of us...but...Carol Mary McKinley places it among the strange and somewhat creepy phenomenon of people who speak of themselves in the third person.

As to the substance of Winters' screed, there are some interesting things for warriors to note.

First, the cycle of grassroots activism follows a path.

You work under the radar to build momentum on various levels. As momentum builds, when it reaches a certain point various levels of higher placed people start to join you and there is a more public aspect to the grassroots movement. If successful, it becomes the culture that drives academia, law and governance. In the case where this activism is taking hold in a religion, it drives theology.

When a power structure is on the way down, and out, it falls in the same way. When it reaches a certain downward motion, the higher-level people walk away.

Let me explain how this works in Catholicism:

The NCR's people took the reigns of theology in the Bernadin/post-Vatican II era.

For many years,they had numerous Bishops in the USCCB publicly advancing their causes. In the last decade, this dwindled. Many of their writings over the last few years griped about the inertia of Bishops who would not go out in public with them to advance their causes.

The turnaround of that ship came in 2003, when grassroots Catholics alerted higher level theologians, journalists, activists and leaders of a meeting that took place with several Bishops, including Cardinals McCarrick and Gregory to advance an agenda of dissent inside of the Catholic Church. Catholics in high-ranking positions put an end to future efforts by calling the same Bishops to the table of accountability.

This was the beginning of the tail spin as their Bishops had to retreat to under the radar level.

As grassroots leaders kept an eye on Bishops, they were afraid to have anything to do with meeting with dissenters. If you do some diligence on what NCR journalists and activists write about the Bishops during 2008 election, you will see that they gripe about not being able to engage a single Bishop.

This causes demoralization of grassroots. Then comes inertia.

This is a familiar pattern for seasoned activists. We see the fall or the rise - sometimes we see both.

From all accounts from moles and and even the Washington Post, there is chaos going on. Their own leaders are distancing themselves from them. In the world of activism, this is an indication of the state of affairs or our detractors and it is not good.

I'd be surprised to learn Winters is out of the loop on the status, but I suppose it could be he is not as connected as he tries to appear to be.


In any event, Hudson's article highlights how there was actually a flip in the power structure of the Catholic Church at the the level of the USCCB:

Mr. Winters, for reasons he does not reveal, believes “most bishops have come to realize what Hudson cannot bring himself to realize, that Sr. Carol might have been right, that there is no abortion funding in the health care overhaul. . . .”

I’m not aware of any bishops who have stated publicly what Mr. Winters believes “most bishops have come to realize.” That would mean either 100 bishops, if he were counting by dioceses, or over 150 if he is counting them in the aggregate.

If true, Mr. Winters is sitting on the biggest Catholic story to be written in 2010:

“Catholic Bishops Admit They Were Wrong About Obamacare and Abortion.”

Mr. Winters and the Bernadin crowd are not unaware of what has happened on the hierarchal level of the Bishops. Unless he doesn't read the National Catholic Reporter, he is bluffing on this.


But, what appears to be genuine is his ignorance of what the grassroots movement is up to now - freeing the deposit of faith on the parish and diocese level.

When there is a battle, you strike the shepherds and the sheeple flee. Their shepherds have been silenced and now, the battle is taking place on the lower levels.

Who are we 'taking our faith back' from?

Sister Mary Wear the Pants and Father Promote Promiscuity who have been heading up catechesis and the Mr. BigFat Wall Street Portfolio baiting Bishops into dissent by using their wealth and power.

It is not really surprising that Winters is unaware of what is going on in the grassroots. We don't worship in the same places. Even if they came to observe us, our parishes are not places where our grassroots movements take place. They are places of worship, places to listen to God, answer the call, fortify our spirit, fuel our courage and tenacity.

But it is puzzling he seems unaware of how the power structure operates, rises and falls. Hudson is not in the grassroots. He is a messenger of what the grassroots tells him and other higher ranking Catholics.


I can report, without exaggeration, that in Boston, the grassroots movement to take back our parishes and Chanceries from those who are now in place to dismantle the Catholic Church, is growing so rapidly we are recruiting people to help process and catalog the information and get plans in place to overthrow. Information is power. Brace yourselves, for there is a tsunami on its way. There are so many willing to serve, the growth spurt is going to take some time to organize.

At this juncture, many things happen. Reporting silences those who would ordinarily hold something dissenting in their parish. Because tomorrow, they will read about it in blogosphere. The Chancery acts quicker on dissent (as they did in the Hancock situation) because they no longer want their inertia to be reported in painstaking detail.

And, the ship slowly begins to navigate the turn.

I will also say for the record, that we are hearing from many who are in other dioceses, in other states, who are starting their own grassroots movements.

The one thing everyone knows about Deal is that he is the supreme networker. His article certainly is in keeping with what Boston Bloggers are experiencing in the grassroots. The power inside of the Catholic Church is shifting. Michael Voris reported on this a few weeks back.

Call it a Catholic Tea Party. Call it whatever you want. There is a movement well under way. If Sean Michael Winters doesn't know about it, doesn't see it, all the better - because he won't be reporting on it and the day will come when it will be an ambush.

All that has ever been needed is for Catholic warriors to stand up, take a deep breath and blow down their house of cards.

Speaking of which, here in Boston, don't miss the latest on one of the most formidable leaders of the Bernadin movement at Bryan Hehir Exposed: Bryan Hehir and Call to Action, Part 2.

Have a great Sunday. Carol Mary McKinley is off with her family apple picking, so she won't be blogging any more today.

:O)

Thou My Best Thought By Day or By Night

Riches I heed not
Nor man's empty praise
Thou my inheritance now and always
Thou and Thou only first in my heart
High King of Heaven my treasure Thou art

Follow Up on the Catholic Education Problems at Sacred Heart School in Kingston

Earlier this Summer, I apprised readers that there was an update coming to the story about the ongoing saga at Sacred Heart High School in Kingston.

Matt Abbott has the story at Renew. Matt's story is being widely circulated in Catholic circles. (Pewsitter, Spirit Daily and Catholic blogs on the internet)

Catholic parents met with school officials, archdiocesan officials and the fruit of those meetings is not good.

Parents were first ignored and rebuffed. After three or four weeks of slipping out the back door the school principal, Mr. Enos, met with parents. He made clear at these meetings (as he did with me) that he was 100% behind the article and if the opportunity arose to publish similar articles in the future, he will do so.

Additionally, Mr. Enos expressed his unhappiness with the parents for bringing the article to the attention of the Bishop and the Archdiocese and he made clear to them that they were not to do so in the future.

I'd like to remind you that Sacred Heart's article told children a man who hired pedophiles, tied children to tables and had them abused around the clock for 24 hours or more without a break to 'record' their response, was the enlightened one on matters of human sexuality.

Not only did Mr. Enos defend his actions in approving the article, he used his position as principal to tell parents concerned about the ramifications of this article to their own children and other Catholics who attend the school, that he was not happy that there is a code of silence they were not adhering to.

When asked, Enos said that, in hindsight, he wouldn't change his position and he would approve a similar article again if presented the opportunity in the future. He also told the parents that the conversation he had with them was not to leave the room — a version of 'What happens at Sacred Heart stays at Sacred Heart.'

Anyone see a problem with this kind of thuggery?


Can someone tell me what is worse than distributing information to children that a known pedophile who abused thousands of children is the enlightened one on human sexuality and then threatening parents not to tell the Bishop about scandals in the future?

Isn't this a problem for the clowns at the Chancery who are supposed to be protecting 'safe environments to tell' at parishes and schools?

Parents were eventually referred to Mr. Enos' boss, the grand pubah of the Sisters of the Divine Providence, Sister Mary Francis Fletcher.

I spoke to the parents earlier this Summer and the meeting was scandalous. (I hope to convince the parents to permit me to divulge more information about this meeting in the not too distant future.)

We have sent Sister a number of e-mails requesting a written explanation of the administration's plan to address the concerns raised by the parents. Sister has essentially ignored these requests; thus, parents will have no input into how to prevent this situation from happening at Sacred Heart in the future. Sister's arrogant, dismissive and disinterested manner in which she has addressed our concerns and requests is disturbing.

As concerned parents, we requested that the administration respect our decision (and duty) to educate our children in a school committed to a true Catholic education. We are stunned and deeply saddened by all this. We feel a moral obligation not to support a school that calls itself Catholic but authorizes articles in the school newspaper that undermine the Catholic faith, marginalize Catholic teaching — easily available to anyone with a Catechism — treat parents with contempt, and marginalize parents for raising legitimate concerns over these published articles.

I believe it is absolutely critical (and I will advise the parents, council members and other local and national leaders) to add a few more things to this list.

The superior at the Sisters of the Divine Providence should be investigated for hostility to Catholic doctrine by the Vatican.

More importantly Courage and EnCourage need to be brought into Sacred Heart School and in fact EVERY Catholic school across the diocese where this situation pops up.

Courage can be a constant presence rather than "article and counter-article" that will only lead the children in an intellectual circle. Courage is really group support on the ground. They know what to say and how to say it. They put processes for dealing with the feelings of being marginalized and bring about an end that helps them to know they are no different than any one of us, that there is love in the Catholic Church and Her teachings. There is parental support and family support. If there is a genuine concern about hostility or malice, there are trained people who those children can report things to and have that situation taken care of. There shouldn't be any more shame imparted to a child struggling with a same-sex attraction than there is with any other child struggling with temptation and sin.

Here we will have a climate that is safe for one and all and most especially safe for Catholic teachers to teach the faith and Catholic children to learn it. There is no gripe that can be taken up by people who oppose our faith other than telling them a Catholic school may not be the place for their child.

Conservative Catholics have been and continue to be terrorized. They are wounded, frustrated and deeply concerned about the Catechesis that is leaving Catholic children without the tools to make the choices necessary for their salvation.

We have done a terrible job at getting the message right.

Frankly, I have a confession to make.

I am gay friendly.

I'm probably worse than gay friendly, I actually can say there are gays whom I love and I hope and pray that in evangelizing my faith, or wanting that faith evangelized to Catholic children. it does not diminish that love in any way.

This doesn't mean there is an iota of compromise on wanting my faith taught to me and to those in our Catholic communities.

Using the term 'something is gay friendly' in such a way that makes it seem like Catholics and the Catholic Church should't be friendly to gays is not really the wisest choice of words. We should eliminate it from our vocabulary.

We need some new jargon.

Yes, gays have an agenda. They want to be loved. They want to be treated with respect. There is no obstacle to this in a Catholic agenda of wanting our faith taught in our parishes and schools.

There are, of course, some situations where these lofty goals can't be met. For instance, when people want to publicly reject or do not want Catholic teachings taught in Catholic apostolates.

Several months ago, in the process of trying to enroll her child at St. Paul's in Hingham, a lesbian parent made clear that Catholic teaching was offensive to her and she wanted her child enrolled in a Catholic school that would not teach Catholic morality. Local Catholic writer Gail Besse did a great job on the roundup in a story published by the New Oxford Review.

This is not a workable situation, but instead of admitting this, Fr. Bryan Hehir, Jack Connors and Mary Grassa O'Neil cooked up a scheme to cut off funding to any Catholic school in Boston that declared a similar situation as unworkable. The priest who did the right thing, Fr. Rafferty, was hung out to dry. The auxiliary Bishop, Bishop Dooher, placed the child in a Catholic school in Weymouth, thereby making it an impossible place for any teacher to teach Catholic ethics and morality. I can give you my oath as a Catholic activist that are not done with this situation by any means in Boston.

There is a fight going on with the administration under Cardinal O'Malley on the future of Catholic education and they have not yet begun to see the whites of our eyes.

We will not surrender until our faith is freed from the imprisonment or the desks of Fr. Hehir and his cronies are emptied at 66 Brooks Drive.

As Kate Hepburn once said, "Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

The Archdiocese Spent Ten Million on Hosting Parish "Vigils" in Closed Parishes

Detials at the Fuzzy Math Post at Boston Catholic Insider.

Here is what the audited annual reports show for Reconfiguration Operation Expense. Some of this is no doubt administrative, but most of it is the heating, cooling, electrical, taxes, snow removal and other facilities-related expenses associated with the closed parishes:

2005:   $2,693,860

2006:   $2,917,245

2007:   $1,785,000

2008:   $1,377,617

2009:   $1,496,277

Total: $10,269,999

That is a lot of loot for invalid liturgies for a handful of people in these parishes.

How do you spend money on this and then have the audacity to send employees letters saying their pensions are underfunded and nearly bankrupt?

And  - on this post,  inquiring minds want to know how Jack Connors' pet projects are getting funded.  

Pay attention to this:

But something noteworthy happens after the Reconfiguration Fund Oversight Committee was disbanded and subsequent reconfiguration funds were moved to the Central Fund, like the archdiocese disclosed would happen.  Once centralized, it became possible for those funds to be granted or loaned to parishes or other entities outside the decree zone or unnamed in the decree without anyone really watching.  For example, in the 2008 annual report we see this:

“On August 13, 2007 as part of the parish reconfiguration process $2.5 million was transferred to Trinity Catholic Academy Brockton, Inc.”  a newly formed related organization that consolidated the operations of certain parish schools in Brockton.”

Maybe we missed something.  How did Jack Connors’ new Catholic Schools program suddenly become part of the previous “parish reconfiguration process”? 

How did Connors get a hold of the money and authority to jockey his cronies into nearly every lay position at the Archdiocese?

I'm beginning to wonder if somebody just showed up early at the Pastoral Center, holed up in an office and started ordering the jellyfish around,  they could have control of the diocese.  

The place is a mess and needs a whole new crew.

What do you say we each take an office, start passing out orders and send invoices every week for wizards to pay the bills?

Everyone in Christendom is Getting An Email From Me with "no subject" and a link...

It's some kind of virus going around that hacks into your account and sends the link out to your contacts.

Delete the email and run your antivirus program.

The good news is, there seems to be no virus when you run a scan.

Congrats to Massachusetts Grassroots Prolifers...

...who tried to lobby Romney on our issues during his tenure here in Massachusetts and was thown under the Mittmobile.

Enjoy this report from the values voter summit.


Mitt Romney is toast.

On top of that, Romney's speech came across as plastic, forced, and stilted. He was the only speaker of the weekend to use a teleprompter, and at times tried to be more of a stand-up comic than a political leader. He seemed to be working to get a Las Vegas lounge act instead of a seat in the Oval Office. While other conservative speakers spoke from the heart, he spoke from a script.

But it is his glaring weaknesses on social issues that will doom his chances for electoral success in 2012. He was given the feature slot at the Values Voter Summit, the last spot on the Friday morning slate, and his speech fell flatter than the proverbial pancake. Response was polite but tepid.

Reinventing Romneycare/Obamacare, 50 dollar abortions as the new GOP prolife agenda may not play out in 2012 after all.

Update on the Occult at St. Joseph's in Belmont

UPDATE - It is confirmed.  The Hancock presentation has been canceled.




The story that we broke over the weekend about an occult event at St. Joseph's in Belmont was investigated today on several levels at the Archdiocese and it appears the event has been cancelled.

While there is no formal confirmation yet, the event is no longer listed on the bulletin at St. Joseph's and it is no longer on Hancock's schedule of events.

This is actually a very surprising outcome.  These kinds of events have come and gone in the archdiocese from time to time and we have not been able to get action taken on them.    Dare we hope that this is a sign that our concerns are going to be taken seriously?

Thanks to all who responded, contacted the pastor, surrounding parishes to warn other pastors, the Bishops and others in the Archdiocese to expressed your concerns.

Finally, thank you to those in the Archdiocese who did the right thing, standing up to protect the grieving and broken.

Bryan Hehir, Call to Action and Marxism

If you're like me and have been waiting decades to see some smoking guns on the agenda of Bryan Hehir, you're going to want to pay VERY close attention this week to Bryan Hehir Exposed.

Here's the first installment.

Here's a teaser:

For those of you finding the trip down “Memory Lane” with Fr. Bryan Hehir to be enlightening, hopefully you’ll find our latest foray into our Bryan Hehir archives to as interesting as recent ones. As we share writings and reports of Fr. Hehir’s record during the period from the mid-1970’s to mid-80’s, you’ll note the words “socialism” and Marxism” occasionally come up in materials describing the product of his work, among other words. No inferences are intended to be made by this blog in that regard. But if you’re not yet convinced that what we have posted about Fr. Hehir for a while is true or if you’re not yet outraged over his record documented here, just keep reading for more information and you may change your mind soon.

Fr. Mullen's Statement About the Meeting with the Cardinal

My commentary follows Father's Statement...

My Meeting with the Cardinal

I had a very positive meeting with His Eminence Cardinal O’Malley last Saturday, September 18th. We spoke for over an hour regarding St. Brendan Parish and the “safe environment programs” offered by the Archdiocese of Boston. He was open to all of my comments and observations and allowed me to express fully all my concerns. At the same time he responded to many of my points, which meant he was truly engaged in the discussion. Also involved was Fr. Bryan Parrish, Special Assistant to the Vicar General, who helped to prepare His Eminence and myself for this very productive meeting.
The meeting had originally been scheduled for Saturday morning at 10:00 A.M., but was changed to 2:00 P.M. I did not inform people of this change because a Holy Hour had already been planned for 10:00 to 11:00 A.M. and I did not want people to think that they would have to come back at 2:00! I am thankful to all who attended the Mass; I understand that the church was “packed”. I am thankful to Fr. Bill Scanlon for celebrating the Mass and for hearing confessions for two hours! I am also thankful to Deacon Hackett for conducting the Holy Hour. I was able to inform His Eminence that there were many people praying for the meeting.
I first shared with the Cardinal my vocation story and a short description of my parish experiences. Then I pleaded with him that he would not ask me to do anything against my conscience. He said that he would never ask anyone to do anything against his conscience. I spoke of the value of a program like that of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, entitled “Healthy Families: Safe Children”. Bishop Vasa, ordinary of the Diocese of Baker, is also Episcopal Advisor to the Catholic Medical Association. Their report of a few years ago, entitled “To Protect and to Prevent” is one of the main sources for “Healthy Families: Safe Children”. His Eminence pointed out that this program was not approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), which indeed it is not. I encouraged His Eminence to think about how the bishops of the United States should re-visit the issue of “safe environment” programs and the report of the Catholic Medical Association so that they could approve Bishop Vasa’s program.
His Eminence holds it as a great responsibility of his to abide by all the standards put forth by the NCCB for the protection of children in all parishes and archdiocesan institutions. He wants all Catholics to know that he is very diligent in pursuing this matter. My concerns have always been threefold: 1) to do all things in a straight-forward manner; 2) to protect the innocence of the children of St. Brendan’s in their “latency period”; and 3) to respect the rights of parents regarding their position as primary teachers in the matters of life and love. I believe that he and I were able to come to an agreement so that his concerns and mine were both shared and met. I am happy to submit the Cardinal’s wishes in this way.
It was the Cardinal who pointed out that parents can always withdraw their children from a program they don’t like. This shows that he is certainly in accord with the rights of parents as the primary teachers of their children. Granted that, it was his wish that an approved program be presented at St. Brendan’s.
I asked the Cardinal if he would allow me to present a program from Ireland entitled “Stay Safe” according to the innocence of the children of St. Brendan’s parish, the rights of their parents, and my conscience as a pastor. With the suggestion of Fr. Parrish, this would include supplementations that I thought were necessary. I mentioned that what is really needed is that parents be aware of the sensitive time of a child’s “latency period” and the affirmation that the church has consistently made regarding parents’ duties to give their children sexual information in a time, method, and manner that they judge to be appropriate. I said that such matters would certainly be part of the supplementations I would make. His Eminence said that he would be happy if I would present the “Stay Safe” program in this way. He knew that I thought that there were some difficulties with that program and so that I would present it in a way that would seem to solve those difficulties. It was clear that we were in agreement.
I had been told beforehand by some in the know that my concerns that my tenure as pastor was in danger were exaggerated. The Cardinal certainly did not want me to think that I was a problem priest! He was very gracious and complimentary to me regarding the vibrancy of the life at St. Brendan Parish. And I bragged about some of the good things going on here.
I am grateful to His Eminence for his kindness to me and for his concern for the children and families of the Archdiocese of Boston. I am also grateful to Fr. Parrish for facilitating this meeting and to others – you know who you are! – for helping me to put my thoughts in order prior to the meeting. I am uplifted by the prayer that was offered and the notes of encouragement that were sent. And for those who might have a question, these are my words, approved only by me.
Thanks to all!

**********

Fr. Mullen can be trusted implicitly and we can be confident that the arrangement worked out will keep the children safe from harm and explotation while still not violating the agreements the bishops made to keep them from the scandal of prosecution and possibly jail.

This priest spent eight years refusing to put the children entrusted to his care into a situation whereby a pedophile in the community would know that down at the local parish they are looking for volunteers to tell stories to children about what it feels like to have somebody put their hands down your pants and use the situation to eventually give Catholic kids personal lessons.

The presentation of materials is not going to put a kindergarten child into the position of having their psyche damaged by being told that their childhood is about defending themselves from pedophiles because what is inside of their pants is a magnet for criminals and rapist.

There are a lot of good things that come from Father's suffering, witness and positive outcome for his parish.

He has raised awareness that children in other parishes are in danger of being sexually exploited and mentally and emotionally abused in any parish who is following the orders of the Chancery on these programs. He told the Cardinal that something should be done by the Bishops to review and get rid of these dangerous programs, follow the advice of the CMA and rational and lucid people and replace these programs with Bishop Vasa's program or other programs that operate similarly. (There of course is nothing stopping putting this on the agenda and acting on it because everyone who is sane knows it is damaging to children and had nothing at all to do with fixing the problem: The hostile internal environment to report shenanigans and problems we have getting anybody in the heirarchy to do something about corruption inside of a diocese.)

Fr. Mullen showed great courage in refusing to hand children over to the dangers and he worked out a solution that was agreeable to everyone.

Father did a perfect job and everyone here in the truth is pleased with this outcome for him and the children Christ placed into his care. I hope many other priests follow his lead.

Every time I think of how the bishops bartered away the innocence and safety of our children to save their backsides from jail, I wonder what they think of themselves when they look in the mirror after reading St. Paul's letters from prison.

There is one thing in Fr. Mullen's statement that I feel strongly needs a clarification.

It was the Cardinal who pointed out that parents can always withdraw their children from a program they don’t like. This shows that he is certainly in accord with the rights of parents as the primary teachers of their children. Granted that, it was his wish that an approved program be presented at St. Brendan’s.

While I believe the context of this statement to be characterizing the specific situation at St. Brendan's, it does not apply in any other context.

The Cardinal is not and never has been in accord with the rights of parents as the primary teachers of their children when he institutes programs diocesan wide that are mandatory that take those rights away -- and excuses himself with the notion that parents who find they are damaging to their child can always withdraw their children.

He is fully aware these programs are damaging and dangerous to children.

It is intellectually dishonest to imply parents can guage the danger and harm because they are not present in the room and therefore have no way of knowing what is being said and done to their child that may be damaging them. Some of the damage may not present itself until long after a woman is married and the years spent characterizing sex as a violent act to defend herself from manifests itself in her relationship with her husband.

Further, that the Cardinal holds it as a great responsibility of his to abide by all the standards put forth by the NCCB for the protection of children in all parishes and archdiocesan institutions has everything to do with keeping bishops out of jail and nothing at all to do with the safety of children. You'll forgive me if I don't hold his eminence's great responsibility a virtue.


I want to repeat this warning for the record and I will be sending a copy of this post to the Archdiocescan lawyers for the paper trail.

The Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children (or whatever they are calling it now) is mandating programs that invite predators to every classroom to teach children what it feels like to have hands down their pants which may lead to a personal demonstration. This is how predators work. These are the opportunities they look for. The Cardinal, the Cardinal's men and women ramming this down the throats of priests have been informed numerous times of this danger.

A person or persons who would hand out this book to grade school children was training people how to administer the programs. You see this invitation?

This will lead children to resources to be sexually exploited.

The Cardinal instituted a program they were told would wind up leading children to be sexually exploited to save yhemselves.

Gentlemen:

I am putting it on you publicly so that when the day comes when this all blows up, and it may take decades, people can be held criminally and civilly responsible. There isn't going to be any room to throw our children under the bus to save yourselves.

In case I'm not being clear - pick up the phone, put reviewing these programs on the agenda, get the report of the Catholic Medical Association and pull experts together who know what it is doing to children and make the changes to the programs. Even if it means spending a few years in jail. You have no right to continue to do this to a generation of children.

Next Question: Who is leading the effort to recruit the new head of the Mass Catholic Conference?

The Mass Catholic Conference, which heads up lobbying to protect the conscience rights of Catholics, the lives of the unborn, sick, suffering was placed by Cardinal O'Malley under the leadership of J. Bryan Hehir.

Fr. Hehir has effectively amputated the Mass Catholic Conference from having any lobbying power. Hehir's philosophy on political lobbying for the right to life and conscience protections are summarized in THIS POST.

In essence, Catholics and the unborn don't have rights because that would shut down the rights of others to take those rights away and the entire social justice system will implode.

What's that you say? It doesn't make sense to you?

Join the club.

Hehir appointed Ed Saunders to follow his orders to do nothing. As Boston Catholics know, Ed Saunders returned to God. God rest his soul.

This leaves a vacancy that Boston Catholics need to seize.

A search committee has been appointed. We have asked the names of the people on the Committee and the Archdiocese has refused to divulge those names. Faithful Catholics have made clear they want the credentials of search to be focused on candidates who are faithful to the tenets of the Catholic religion and who have no history of employment working as a lobbyist for heterodox politicians and initiatives.


Boston Catholics active in lobbying and politics would like the archdiocese to be transparent about the search and we would like a Catholic faithful to the tenets of our faith to head up the search and choose the final candidate. We are on this and will be reporting on our efforts going on under the radar in the future.


BTW, it goes without saying:

Fr. Hehir should have nothing whatsoever to do with the search.

Fr. Mullen's Meeting

Many of you are anxious to hear news about Fr. Mullen.

I am waiting for official confirmation but I heard last evening from a member of St. Brendan's Community that Fr. Mullen was upbeat about the meeting.  My source told me that apparently, the Cardinal has reviewed the safe-environment programs Fr. Mullen finds acceptable that do not exploit the innocence of children or put the onus of defending themselves against pedophiles the Archdiocese hires upon them) and they have agreed that the program does not violate the spirit of their agreement with the US Attorney General to keep the Cardinals and Bishops out of jail.

I believe this to be a significant victory but I do want to wait until we hear the official word from Fr. Mullen before we do a cartwheel.

The Boston College National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management is Now in Full Control of the Archdiocese of Boston

Many national Catholic leaders surprised by the turn of events here in Boston under Cardinal O'Malley will often ask me specifics about what we see going on at the ground level.

As I've said before, one of the reasons why Boston Catholics have decided to publicly air their concerns in a blogging community is to give people a few central locations where a more accurate picture of what's going on - who the Cardinal has appointed and what is happening under the power structure the Cardinal has erected  - can be seen.

The National Roundtable of Church Management is now in complete control of the Archdiocese.   The Cardinal is no longer in control of anything.  For example, this is why Bryan Hehir had the confidence to contradict the Cardinal's ambiguous statement about a policy that will defund pastors if they teach Catholic moral principles in schools.

The mission of the "roundtable" was to get control of the money so that they could get control over the doctrine.

How this is playing out means various things to various people.

This focus on this blog has been and will continue to be about how the Deposit of Faith, and ultimately the salvation of souls, is going to be affected by the changes in Church structure now fully implemented by Cardinal O'Malley.

I'm not going to say too much more today because I want you to each take the time to review the short flick I have embedded featuring J. Bryan Hehir on how to effect Church Management nationally.

In a nutshell, the goal is to structure the power of the Church in America away from the structure of the Pope and the catechism and onto wealth controlling priests and bishops on the local level of the parishes and chanceries.

I have made some comments about responsive strategy over on Boston Catholic Insider on this thread that I believe will have efficacy in uprooting the regime.  Controlling a Cardinal is about controlling the money.  Jim Post was right about this and it certainly is in full swing in Boston.

While those of us focused on the sacraments and salvific mission of the Catholic Church don't really care about the money, I do believe that it is imperative that we round up the Shaughnesseys, McNeices, Flatleys, Opus Dei, Legatus and other people and apostolates who have wealth and interests in maintaining the structure of the Church headed by the Pope, pack up the resources we are assembling and give them a demonstration about the power structure Cardinal O'Malley has erected and the cost to Christendom.  They want to play games with controlling the Archbishop with money?  I am dealing myself a hand and am in the game.  These efforts will be getting underway shortly.  We have a few more critical revelations to archive so stay tuned.

This week, the Pilot featured an article written by the Vicar General about the access to prayer and the faith the Cardinal and the Vicar General have at the "Pastoral Center".

We would all like to be edified by the personal prayer habits of the Cardinal and the Vicar General.  I wish we could.  But the reality is, the people in the parishes are being terrorized when they express concerns about  invalid Sacraments or the eradication of Confession or our children demoralized with priests and lay people who reject the tenets of our faith or our liturgies being trampled and scandalized or being told Adoration and the Rosary scares people or our kindergartners sexualized by people who have them repeating "vagina" and "penis" in ccd classes thinking this absolves Corporation Sole from hiring and coddling pedophiles or children confirmed without knowing their prayers or what is happening at the Holy Mass, anything about Humana Vitae, Theology of the Body or people like Maureen Hancock coming in to perform the tricks of a sorcerer and the false 'god' "reiki" or the abortion contracts the Cardinal's administration is signing right under his nose or the marxists Bryan Hehir is bringing in to brainwash unsuspecting Catholics across the nation.

Frankly, I and many others are not edified by the article about the personal prayer habits of people who are keeping the deposit of faith unto themselves up there at the Pastoral Center.

While they are trying to save their own souls, they have set up an administration that is making it impossible for the flock to save their children's souls or have any access to the truths of our faith.

It really is a lovely article but please beg our pardon when we say this:

The Pastoral Center is supposed to be a place where the administrators have the duty to protect, defend and distribute the temporal goods of Christ Church to THE PEOPLE.  It is not about the personal salvation and prayer habits of the Cardinal, Vicar General and their staff.    The administrators at the Boston Archdiocese are holding the Catholic religion in bondage.  And, they are terrorizing people who are demanding It's release for THE PEOPLE.  THE PEOPLE out here in the parishes who are subject to the aforementioned lunacy.  The structure of the Roman Catholic Church in Boston is being dismantled and preparations are underway to infect the rest of the Catholic Church across our nation with the false church erected in Boston.

The efforts under way are not going to happen under the radar while some of us are still breathing.  All of the money, every last nickel, in the portfolios of the Boston College National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management is not going to stop the testimony of many Catholics who are standing ready to reveal what is going down.

And, here is what is going down:




Did you hear anything about the structure in our dioceses and parishes to the Roman Catholic Church in Rome headed by the Pope?

Teaching the flock the source and summit of our tenets outlined in the Catechism?


This priest has been defrauding Catholics for 40 years. He is tapped into those who hijacked Jack Kennedy's name to use the Kennedy School of Government to break down democracy in America.

He is positioned to break down democracy AND the Roman Catholic Church at the same time and he is getting away with it.

Interesting Perspective on the Pope's Visit in the UK at The American Catholic

The Pope Of Christian Unity, Pope Benedict XVI Is In The UK

Many in the mainstream media have failed to see the obvious concerning Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the United Kingdom, the truth of the Catholic Church has won out. The Pope of Christian Unity (as he is often called by the blogging Father Z) is reaching out to serious minded Christians. The Holy Father is asking them to unite as they once were under the leadership of the Successor of Saint Peter. Now I realize Pope John Paul II went to the UK, but the Anglican Church is in a far more dilapidated condition than it was then.  In addition, I am aware that many in the United Kingdom, and Western Europe for that matter, have little to do with religious matters, but the same could be said in the early days of the Roman Empire. Against all odds, three centuries later Catholicism would be the dominant faith.  It can happen again.

The Holy Father is about to beatify John Cardinal Henry Newman. He was a towering figure in the 19th century state run Anglican Church. He came to the Catholic Church and gave us this memorable quote; To go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant. I am not bringing this up in the spirit of triumphalism but in the spirit of truth. Christ promised us that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church, and though it has been through many rough patches (we are currently in one) the truth is winning out. (Matthew 16:15-20.)

BTW - Deacon Sullivan whose miraculous cure advanced the cause of Cardinal Newman's beatification is a local of my hometown. 

Well, I Hope Catholic Men Are Happy

The weekend is upon us when I would normally kick back and wear a pair of comfortable jeans.

I now am suffering from pantophobia.  

We don't have any vices left.  You could have at let us keep our pants.

:O)

Holy Hour For Fr. Mullen Tomorrow

Kelly Thatcher has posted information on tomorrow's Holy Hour at St. Brendan's in Bellingham for Fr. Mullen.

There's a Mass at 9am.

See you there and if you can't make it, please keep Fr. Mullen and the Cardinal in your prayers.

Mother of God, pray for us !

Here's Kelly's post:

I've never met Father David Mullen, but if I had children I'd seriously consider moving to Bellingham in order to join hisparish. All you have to do is explore the parish website to understand why. 

This Saturday, September 18, the parish plans a special Holy Hour at 10:00 AM. (This is in addition to the parish's regular Saturday Exposition, Adoration, Confessions and Benediction from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM.) 

Why the additional Holy Hour? 

To pray for the parish and Father Mullen during his scheduled meeting with Sean Cardinal O'Malley. The meeting appears to be the culmination of the parish's eight year old struggle with the Archdiocese of Boston over the latter's so called "Safe Environment" programs, particularly one called "Talking About Touching." (TAT) 

This point of this post isn't to elaborate on the intrinsic evil of the "TAT" program. Others have done that far more thoroughly than I have—including Father David Mullen and his parishioners. My request is simple. Please join the Saint Brendan's parishioners in their prayers. Thank you. 

To get an idea of Father Mullen's efforts in protecting his parish—particularly the kids in it—go here.

Sorcery at Your Local Boston Parish

People unfamiliar with Boston will sometimes ask for an example of something egregious going on in Boston while the actual people in control of the Archdiocese have the Cardinal off learning how to quack.

Here's an example.

At St. Joseph's in Belmont, parishioners grieving over the death of a loved one are being treated to some dame named Maureen Hancock who is spiritual exploiting them by 'channeling' their dead relatives and performing pagan rituals like "reiki" to "heal" them:

http://stjoseph.belmont.ma.us/publications/bulletin.htm

Apparently this woman put on her show at St. Brendan's in Dorchester recently and is making the rounds in local parishes.

Here's her website:

http://www.seedsofhope.com/

Longtime readers know that I am a believer in the mystical and in fact have had mystical experiences myself.  I didn't have people talking to me, but in a period when I was deeply immersed in daily prayer four or five hours a day, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, daily Mass and practicing mystical prayer - I in fact had several mystical experiences.

I won't bore you with tough road in finding a priest who knew how to handle it but handle it we did.

For amateurs, there is no way to tell whether what you are seeing is angelic or demonic.  (Even people like Padre Pio had no way of knowing at times.)

If you come across a mystic, there is are clues about whether the person's  gifts are fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We do have legitimate mystics in the Boston Catholic community - several priests and at least one lay person, Frank Kelly (whom I will post about on another day).

In terms of claiming one is a mystic,  anyone claiming to be channeling your dead relatives and/or you look at their other 'services' and they are performing 'reiki', it is a no brainer.    There is spiritual danger.

What's wrong with reiki?

Reiki is actually the laying on of hands to deliver to you the spiritual forces that come from the 'reiki god'.  It is the antithesis of the spiritual forces delivered to Catholics by the Sacraments, the spiritual forces that come from the 'other' God, our Triune God.  Somebody who delivers the forces of the reiki god is called a Reiki Master.

It has actually been formally condemned by even by the USCCB.

About 2 million Americans have used Reiki, according to a 2002 survey by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Practitioners believe that a salutary life energy flows through the body and fosters well-being, the center said. The energy is often transmitted through experienced Reiki practitioners who lightly touch or place their hands above the patient's body.

But the bishops said "Reiki lacks scientific credibility" and "has not been accepted by the scientific and medical communities as an effective therapy."

The Japanese practice differs from Christian faith healing because "the healing power is at human disposal," the bishops said. In contrast, "for Christians the access to divine healing is by prayer to Christ as Lord and Savior."

Moreover, practicing Reiki puts Catholics' spiritual health in danger, the bishops said, by corrupting worship of God and turning religious devotion "in a false direction."

   I can't begin to tell how how outraged Catholics are that see our brothers and sisters who are grieving their dead being exploited instead of being pastorally cared for, healed through prayer and the Sacraments.

Letting go, surrendering back to God somebody whom we love is a very, very hard thing to do.   Probably the hardest thing any of us have to do.   It is the biggest challenge to our faith.  It needs the support of a good priest and a caring spiritual community and friends, relatives.

Aside from being hijacked away from authentic healing, what is wrong with someone claiming to be channeling the dead?

It is divination and condemned by the Catholic Church.

Here's the citation from the Catechism.

"All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm readings, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (No.2116),

Here is another story in the Boston Globe, loaded with clues about the spiritual dangers of this gig.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/01/30/above_and_beyond/

There are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, aunts and uncles, grandparents, best friends, even beloved dogs. Everyone's here. You might call it a family reunion, only many of the members aren't actually in the room. They're dead.

There is a little bit of truth to this but it is being used to exploit people.


We are indeed in communion with the dead.  Dead dogs? No.  Dead dogs are not part of our spiritual communion.  All in Heaven, purgatory and the angelic are all present.  


If this woman is hearing voices, they are not being channeled through or by the spiritual institution   that belongs to Christ.  nothing angelic would defy what the deposit of faith has condemned.  It is impossible.


By the way, before this gig, Hancock was a stand up comic.  

That's where Hancock comes in. A former stand-up comic and paralegal, she now devotes her time to what is literally her calling: She hears voices from beyond who want to connect with their loved ones through her. She's an "overseas operator," a "comedian medium," as she puts it, injecting humor into her sessions to keep them from becoming wakes.

She'll do a decent Whoopi Goldberg-as-medium imitation from "Ghost." She'll call your dearly departed "Gimpy" if that's what she hears. She'll dance with members of the audience when she's channeling a "hot ticket" or take on the personality of the dead one. If a funny husband pops up, she'll tell the widow that he "just pinched my rear." She once asked a startled man how his "plumbing" was and then told him that his (dead) mother was asking about his colonoscopy. The room erupted....Those in the audience have paid $60 apiece for the chance to hear something, anything, from their loved ones.

Crude and vulgar arenot the signs a mystic is operating in the spirit of God.

Keeping people who are practicing the occult as the road to healing far away from your flock is a pretty basic duty of a priest. And, when the priest is a lost soul, the duty falls to the Bishop.

The Bishops here under the Cardinal are being held back by the Cardinal.

There is a man at the top and that man is the Cardinal.  Some of the auxiliary Bishops are being prevented and forbidden from acting on the errors and scandals and, in this case - the occult.

  In other cases, they couldn't care less what happens to the people, they are reserving what is holy unto themselves.

This is precisely what is broken in the system and what the Boston Catholic Blogger Community is working on "fixing".

Wellesley, Massachusetts Middle School Students Brought to Muslim Mosque for Brainwashing

A shocking video of a Wellesley, Massachusetts school trip.

The mosque was founded by anti-semitic, anti-Christian, anti-American terrorists.  And, they promote wife beating.

There is quite a list of shady characters involved in the project.  

And, of course, what religious scandal would be complete without the Jesuits leading people from the One True Catholic and Apostolic Church?    Fr. Raymond Helmich of Boston College is heavily involved in recruiting for the terrorist/wife-beating "religion of peace".  You would think with the empty pews, he'd be spending time recruiting Catholics at B.C. into their faith?

No way would I have sat quietly through this outrageous presentation.  They ought to be glad I wasn't there because there would have been a lot of commotion.    Then again, my children would never have gone on the school trip to begin with.

Imagine if the Wellesley children were brought to a Catholic Church, preached to about Christ being the one, true God if you want to enter Heaven and ushered into a prayer service?

You've got to keep a constant watch on your children.  Don't let your children participate in any event, no matter how innocuous they try to make it sound that isn't vetted to make sure nothing is scandalous.  (This includes trips to Salem where bigotry against religion and Christianity is a part of most presentations.)

Volunteer to go on the trips.   If you are ever caught in a moment where muslim extremists seize children - get up out of your chair, walk over to the children and tell them the presenation is over and it is time to go back to the and lead them out of there.  If anyone stops you, tell muslims and the teachers they are breaking the law.  Get your cell phone out and record it.    Never sit through something like this without getting up and stopping it.

Catholic Evangelism in the New Millennium

After more than ten years of being a Catholic activist in Boston, I can say without exaggeration that every Catholic I know has a large pile of letters filled with meaningless platitudes from the Cardinal's administrators in response to our letters outlining error and scandal.

Some of us have large filing cabinets in our basements filled with the evidence of errors and scandal, our correspondence, correspondence other Catholics have sent us.

Ten years of sending letters and having meetings with Chancery employees has been a complete waste of time.  In fact, it has been worse than a complete waste of time.  It has been detrimental to the vocations of many faithful priests and lay people.  It is the same story all over the country.

There is no internal forum to stop the misuse and abuse of power, money the faith, the liturgy, our priests and our children.

As you know, here in Boston we are trying something new.

As the first part of a series of what should turn out to be a lively few months here in Boston, tune in to Boston Catholic Insider where an open letter to the presbyteral council (meeting tomorrow) has been posted.

Our driving purpose with the blog in putting certain topics out in the light of day is simply to expose verifiable facts and matters that most people objectively feel should be addressed or corrected so that we can build a stronger Catholic Church in Boston and continue the good works of the Church. We do not seek a “seat at the table” or “feel good” meetings to discuss these long-standing concerns with no commitment by the archdiocese to taking action.  Our hope with the blog was to give a voice to laity, donors, and the many outstanding priests and people faithfully serving the Archdiocese who are frustrated and fed up with the corruption, cronyism, and general direction of the Archdiocese. We also hope to serve as a temporary stop-gap while the Archdiocese works on implementing a credible whistleblower policy.

Based on  the overwhelming number of comments and suggestions we have received from lay people in the pews as well as people “inside” the Church (priests, archdiocesan employees, parish staff, and others close to the workings of the archdiocese), we feel these concerns should be addressed in an open, transparent way.

The observations, questions and answers sought in the open letter will blow you away.

 Just as J. Bryan Hehir and his cronies believe they are setting up something new and exciting for the future of the Church in America - in response, so do the thousands of Catholics behind the efforts of Catholic Bloggers in Boston.

Checkmate.

Deal Hudson can't stop laughing after reading NCR

Deal has a good laugh over NCR boo-hooing over the drying up of money to fund Catholics in Alliance for the Common Hoods.  

I should think Catholic conservatives with money would be desperate enough this election to fund leaders who can build momentum and move the grassroots.  We shall see.


I had a good laugh too reading about Catholics United and Catholic Democrats putting their eggs in the social justice basket for the next election.

Really?

I've got my finger in the air and I'd say getting voters behind the meme of 'giving free stuff to people who don't work for it' is poor strategy for this election.   Gee, if they parade around Obama we may not have to do any work at all getting our people elected.

You know the woman with no experience in Delaware who just recently got her bachelor's degree that Sarah Palin endorsed?

She won. So much for those trying to paint the tea party as the GOP with a mask on.

If the GOP wants to be in the game at all, they better make some phone calls to the grassroots to vet their candidates and weed out the lightening rods.    If they send us another round of proabort miraculous makeovers, they are toast.

Get it?  We don't care if a candidate is democrat or republican.  We never did.  In fact most Catholics who unenrolled in the  democratic party  did so with a heavy heart.

The GOP is going to go the way of the whigs if they dont smarten up fast.    The people with the money are no longer in control.  Makeovers of people like Romney who spend their time working against prolife Catholics are no longer acceptable.   The republicans cannot win without prolife Catholics.

We got off the bus and we will not get on until you advance candidates who are with our program.  A mess has been made of our country.

Perry also won.

Our write-in candidate for AG - Jim McKenna got more than enough votes to get on the ballot in November.

What pro-lifers have to realize is, we don't need the GOP.   We can write in our own candidates and vote them onto the ballots in November and then vote them in.

This isn't rocket science.

We have the power.

We always did.

Send the GOP proaborts packing.  Very quickly they will learn to stop grooming proaborts.

Today is The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Everyone has their favorite Crucifix.  This is mine.

It's the Crucifix that hangs in my bedroom.  I made it about ten years ago at the height of the sexual abuse scandal to remind me of what we all do to Our Lord.

One of the last things I did was the wound Longinus made when he pierced the side of Crucified Christ when my youngest daughter looked it over and asked me "Where's the blue?"

When I asked her what she meant, she said "The water, you know, the water that represents divine mercy".

The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross… Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.

OOoooooooh. Yeah.   I added the gush of mercy.

The readings today are rich with symbolism for Catholics living valley of tears in the Boston Archdiocese.

In the first reading, the people were complaining to Moses  - "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." 


You freed us from bondage and saved our lives but we're starving and miserable.  Thanks a bunch.  Got any other bright ideas?

In [God ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. For He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things to Him, things in heaven and things on earth.  Ephesians 1:7-8

To free up our faith, our Sacraments, our priests for those who have a right to their inheritance, we have to reveal the state of affairs.  It is tempting to despair, to be demoralized and run away to something else.


Running away would make the sacrifice Christ made a waste.  


I'm not going anywhere and my advice, for what it's worth, is that you keep your feet firmly planted in the Mystical Body of Christ.   If you are tempted to run, find a Crucifix and gaze upon It and God will save you from the temptation.


When I am lifted up from the earth, i will draw all men to myself, says the Lord.


Mass ended yesterday with the following blessing;




May Almighty God keep you from all harm and bless you with every good gift. May he set his word in your heart and fill you with everlasting joy.  May Almight God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.

I'm too sexy for my pants?

In a little break from the seriousness of the content of the blog, I'm posting Simcha Fisher's very funny Manifesto on Pants.

Simcha wrote up her manifesto in response to an article on CatholiCity.

When we wear pants, it's a near occasion of sin for men?

I gotta tell you, this is a new one on me.  I always thought dresses and skirts made us more attractive to men.

As a dress and skirt wearer, frankly I'm a bit relieved.

If you've read Simcha before, you'll not be surprised to learn that responsible women who have been carefully and respectfully downplaying their assets are now being told their pants are responsible for every lustful thought men have in Christendom.

The anti-pants comments thread is most entertaining.  Some enlightening comments here too.

Tony Esolen tells that he once explained to his wife how often men think about sex - about once a minute.

As a conservative Catholic woman who tries to be reasonable, I am empathetic to this and make attempts not to cause a scandal.    But I'm afraid I agree with Simcha that putting the onus on women to make it impossible for men to be lustful, crosses the rubicon.

I don't think our pants are the problem.  It's about re-wiring your brain.

Fr. Mullen's Story Gets Some National Attention at Inside Catholic

***UPDATED STORY POSTED AT INSIDE CATHOLIC

Boston Priest to be Disciplined for Rejecting Talking about Touching

This Week from Fr. Rutler

FROM THE PASTOR
September 12, 2010
by Fr. George W. Rutler

As things pick up in September after the pleasantly languid summer weeks, we start a new season which is an annual allegory of the start of all new beginnings. Our Lord tells us that we must not embark upon the Christian life without considering the cost. He uses the image of constructing the tower and another image of going into battle (Luke 14: 28, 31). He was a “teknon,” which actually can mean not only a carpenter, but a designer, architect, stonemason, and general con­struction engineer. So in his human nature he knew about calculating the cost of a project. In his tormented land, he also knew about battles. When I preach at Mass, I am aware of the West Point men who serve at the altar. They know more about military strategy than I do. I am honored to be chaplain of the West Point Society, but that only makes me expert at attending dinners. I defer to the soldiers in matters of war. But having been ordained, I know what it is to count the cost of a commitment. The young priest makes costly promises to his bishop. A bride and groom make lifelong promises to each other. In each instance, a cost is exacted: a lifetime of service and love. But only those who have weathered the years know both how expensive the cost is, and how wonderful the rewards.

In many ways, Pope Benedict XVI is reminding our demoralized culture of the cost of discipleship. The images of the saints in our church remind us of the cost as they look at us. Daily, the defamers and mockers of the Church remind us by their rationalizations how facile it is to find excuses for not paying that cost. On August 28, Bishop John Yang Shudao of Fuzhou died after more than 28 years in Chinese Communist prisons. Our national media largely ignored that, because our culture is not inclined to pay the price that Christ exacts for eternal happiness, and it is perplexed by those who do. People who take Jesus seriously are not considered serious by those who want lives cheaply bought. Bill Millin died just a few days before Bishop Shudao. On June 6, 1944, he led the commandos of Britain’s First Special Service Brigade on Sword Beach in the Normandy invasion, playing the bagpipes. On that day, 4,400 men were killed. At a gathering years later, one of the German soldiers told him that they did not shoot him because they thought he was crazy. There are those who would say the same of the saints.

Jesus never told his Apostles what their dental plan would be, or where they would retire. He simply said, “Follow me.” It was the start of a costly investment of their lives, costly in the extreme, but with returns beyond anything this world can offer.