Photo Caption Call - 01/31/09

AmP's Top Post: Pro-life, devout Catholic named new Republican Party chair!

Even if you don't have a caption, you can rate your favorite captions (submitted by others) in the comment box.

View the winning caption from the last Photo Caption Call here.

[Source: Beachpig]

What's wrong with this picture?

... nothing you can't fix! ;)

update: thanks to your efforts - AmP jumped to 102 votes!! Now do the same here, please. :)

AmP cd-of-the-month: Norbertine Fathers' Anthology

I just got mine in the mail! You can order yours at Amazon.com here.

More:

[From Abbot Eugene Hayes]: "On February 10th the new Abbey CD, entitled "Anthology," will be released. We are all very excited by this upcoming event as it provides an excellent opportunity to make the Abbey and our Expansion Project more widely known. Youtube already has a preview of the CD."

Learn more about the Norbertine Fathers here.

Me and the California Norbertines go way back.

Text: CSC Superior General's (of Notre Dame) letter to Barack Obama

This text was sent to me by email on April 22nd. I believe it is genuine.

Please add your comments here.

Here is the full text of the 13-page letter to President Obama from the Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, C.S.C. Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross, which oversees Notre Dame.

THE CONGREGATION OF HOLY CROSS
General Administration
Via Framura, 85
00168 Rome, Italy

March 22, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
The United States of America

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Notre Dame!

The University of Notre Dame was founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross and in 1844 it was established as a civil moral person by a legislative act of the state of Indiana. On March 6, 1967, with the consent of the Holy Father Pope Paul VI, in the spirit of Vatican Council II with its clarion call for all Catholics to take greater responsibility for living and strengthening the life of the Church, the Congregation of Holy Cross ceded its ownership of the University of Notre Dame to a Board of Fellows. The University remains, however, under the continuous sponsorship of the Congregation of Holy Cross of which I am the Superior General.

The dramatic alienation of ownership of the University of Notre Dame from the Congregation of Holy Cross took place in light of the Second Vatican Council's recommendation that competent laity play a more significant role in the administration of religious and ecclesiastical property. Through this unprecedented gesture the Congregation of Holy Cross sought to offer competent lay Catholics broader responsibility for Catholic higher education without jeopardizing the authentic Catholic character of the institution.

President Obama, the University of Notre Dame is honored to have you, as President of the United States of America, deliver the commencement address to the graduating class of 2009. Personally, in so many ways, I admire you as a great American, a person endowed with extraordinarily well developed intellectual gifts, and, in my opinion, a man whose enormous compassion characterizes the goodness of his heart. Mr. President, you have the potential for greatness; I pray it be realized.

As you know the University of Notre Dame's decision to award you the honorary degree and to invite you to deliver the commencement address is fraught with controversy. As Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross I have been deluged with angry e-mails regarding Notre Dame's decision to invite you to campus for the honors you are to receive.

Because of the University's legal civil alienation from the Congregation, I have no authority over its decision making - those responsibilities are now directed by a Board of Fellows and a Board of Trustees. Nevertheless I do hold personal authority over all of the Holy Cross priests and brothers of the Congregation who serve at the University of Notre Dame including its president who is always a Holy Cross priest.

President Obama, you are superbly versed in the issues of our day. I have no doubt that your policy convictions are grounded in rigorous study and that all your important decisions are supported by your conscience. Therefore, through this open letter, I would like to take advantage of the occasion of your receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame, to ask you to rethink, through prayerful wrestling with your own conscience, your stated positions on the vital "life issues" of our day, particularly in regard to abortion, embryonic forms of stem cell research and your position on the Freedom of Choice Act before Congress.

Perhaps such an impertinent request rings with insolence. I mean you neither rudeness nor disrespect. I ask you this directly because as a Catholic, in this critical area of life and death issues, I hold and promote contrary views to your own as to what is right and just for the common good of our nation.

In a very real sense your presence at Notre Dame offers us a kind of seminar, a stimulus of mind and heart, to quicken and incite conscience formation. None of us want to be stubborn and yet we have clear convictions. We want to be open to a variety of perspectives yet it is our principled beliefs that define us. We Catholics are always battling the vagrancies of "relativism." It is clear, however, that your positions on some of the fundamental "life issues" of our nation can neither be supported by the mission and ministry of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University of Notre Dame nor the faithful Catholic community.

Mr. President, in thinking of your coming visit to Notre Dame, I am reminded of the way you seized the opportunity, in the heat of your campaign for president, to address the issue of racial bigotry in our American culture. Your courage in addressing a history of the racism and violent discrimination in a nation grounded in human rights and freedom for all, confronted us with the inconsistency and hypocrisy of our words and actions. In addressing the issue of racism head on with passionate convictions and sterling logic you not only benefited politically during a critical point of the campaign but you also used this precarious opportunity as a teachable moment for the nation, calling us to our best selves, to live truly who we say we are.

In a similar way your presence at Notre Dame affords all of us a teachable moment. We Catholics will not modify or compromise our essential faith convictions but we do need help in developing our skills of communication and organization to express our faith convictions in American society so as to be heard and taken seriously. How are we Catholics to participate in all levels of government without betraying our consciences or without being coerced by potential laws that would violate our consciences? This is a colossal concern for us with far reaching consequences that go to the core of who we are as a nation, as human beings and people of faith.

Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., President of Notre Dame, reminded students recently that that the University of Notre Dame aspires to help them grow in faith and moral character. He gave them points to ponder. In a list of six smidgens of wisdom, Father Jenkins first urged them to wrestle with the largest questions of life such as:"What is a truly good, worthy human life and how do I live it?" Perhaps the largest question of all is: "What, if anything, am I willing to die for?"
Will we die for our essential beliefs?

Most Catholics, who disagree with the decision of the University to offer you this award, are rooted deeply in their faith, however imperfect we may be. We often fail, we are sinners, no doubt about it. Trusting in God's love we try to pick ourselves up, seek forgiveness and try to do better. Our faith means everything to us; we have a faith we will die for.

Sadly today, many faithful Catholics now feel out of the mainstream of our nation's direction and decision-making. Sometimes it seems many legislators, judges and executives, and even yourself, Mr. President, dismiss our views too off-handedly, without giving them the serious attention and reflection they deserve. How are we Catholics to go about getting ourselves to be taken seriously by our government leaders?

President Obama, your presence at Notre Dame, a premier Catholic institution, is regarded by many good Catholics as scandalous because of your support of abortion rights, regarded by us as an intrinsic evil. In awarding you this degree, they experience Notre Dame as undermining essential, intrinsic Catholic dogma which upholds the dignity of human life. They believe that in honoring you or in giving you a platform to speak, the University of Notre Dame is selling her soul for who knows what: perhaps, at best, for the prestige and glory of having the President of the United States on campus during his first year in office or perhaps at worst, giving an endorsement to your "anti-life policies."

I do not believe this outrage is simply a demonstration of partisan politics. I sincerely want to rejoice in your presence at Notre Dame as President of the United States. But really, can I? In all sincerity, President Obama, how are we Catholics to deal with you, or any other government leader, who upholds what we believe to be the intrinsic evil of abortion and who is willing to sign the FOCA legislation? How are we to confront Catholic leaders in your own Administration by whom we feel so abandoned? Are we to use tactics of shunning you and dismissing you as we feel shunned and dismissed? This is a far from frivolous question. Shunning seems to be the growing trend among many Catholic leaders and institutions today. It seems to be the only recourse left open. It is, of course, a tactic many politicians have used on occasion, including yourself.

During the campaign for example, you went to great and painful lengths to distance yourself from your pastor over extremely controversial issues. Our Catholic concern for the right to life motivates us to go to great and painful lengths to distance ourselves from you because of your position on many of the "life issues."

There are also politicians on both sides of the aisle who say we as a nation can never meet or negotiate with our enemies until they first change their ways. Your predecessor, for example, shunned political leaders of nations who sponsored state terrorism. Your administration has taken a different tact. You have indicated your willingness to engage our nation's foes in dialogue, yet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, states that he will continue to shun you until the United States changes behavior toward Iran. "Change only in words is not enough. Change must be real," he said.

Likewise, there is no way you could possibly invite the Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to the United States to address a joint session of the Congress. It is unthinkable. Many Catholics find a parallel situation in your being invited to speak at a Catholic institution like Notre Dame. They are scandalized beyond measure that Notre Dame would do such a thing.

Mr. President, as you know the "life issues" before us are quite matter of fact, yet exceedingly complex. Our most essential faith conviction is straight-forward. You yourself expressed it so well in your remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this past February 5th, when you said: "No matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life an innocent human being. This much we know."

This much we know, Mr. President, your statement on the taking of an innocent life is our belief. It is the kind of clear, straightforward talk of your conscience convictions that we find so appealing. But sadly for us Catholics, your words do not express our meaning when you speak of "taking the life of an innocent human being."

President Obama, I found the entirety of your remarks at the prayer breakfast truly inspiring and motivating. In your words I found, in summary form, the reason of my admiration and esteem for you and the root of my patriotism. With your words, however, I also found, in summary form, the reason I could vote neither for you nor the Democratic ticket nor the Republican ticket. In fact, as a Catholic I believe myself disenfranchised from my government and disillusioned with what I perceive as a great gap between the rhetoric of our founding national ideals and the hubris of our so-called national convictions which more and more seem simply to enshrine our self-interest for prosperity over democracy. As an American Catholic, will I ever be able to vote again for a nominee of a major political party when each party, in my view, fails the consistency test in promoting the rights and dignity of all human beings from conception to natural death?

I am embarrassed to confess that I sat out the last election cycle. I am finding it more and more difficult to vote for the candidates of our major political parties. My friends tell me to vote by all means, vote for the lesser of the evils. Unfortunately today's evils seem so much larger than my conscience can bear, whether they be on abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, immigration, the economy, housing for the poor, health care for the uninsured, the environment, war or weapons of mass destruction. I do love my country and I do want to vote. I just don't know how to vote while remaining true to my conscience formed by my faith convictions.

But to return to your simple truth: "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being."

Catholic dogma insists that life begins at conception. Innocent human life is conceived through sexual intercourse meant to be the most intimate, expression of love possible between two human beings, save giving up one's life for the other. In his first encyclical, "God Is Love," Pope Benedict XVI taught that "one meaning in love, amid a multiplicity of meanings, stands out in particular: the love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness. This would seem to be the very epitome of love."

It is true that sometimes, tragically, life is formed in the brutality of rape or in the shame of incest. Likewise life is often unintentionally conceived within the process of people solely seeking sexual pleasures.

But in Catholic dogma, human life is human life. Abortion is considered an unspeakable crime, the taking of an innocent human life. As you so well stated "no God condones taking the life of an innocent human being." As Catholics, that much we know. You prayed "let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate." Just as love begets love, hate begets hate.

There are some people who hate the life of a child in the womb due to the unwanted consequences of sheltering, nurturing and forming that new "intruder," that new guest, who is now forever altering the agenda of one's personal life as well as the life of our larger society.

There are some religious people who now hate Notre Dame for inviting you to speak at the 2009 graduation and receive an honorary degree. I fear their hate will beget further hate. Will their hatred ultimately destroy their souls in the guise of self-righteousness, just as powerfully as abortion destroys the physical life of a newly conceived child?

Embedded in the civil laws framing our United States cultural values, and even among some Christian believers, an embryo growing in a woman's womb is not considered to be a human life; "it" is regarded simply as new tissue, a kind of cancerous, biological growth infecting a woman's body and threatening a woman's independent way of life. Legalized abortion clearly implies that a person's choice for personal freedom supersedes the natural human obligation to protect and nurture human life. Biological destiny has its challenges for both women and men in making our choices. The Hebrew Scripture emphatically expresses the right decision in the choice between life and death: "choose life!"

Faithful Catholics believe that the fetus, the embryo, growing in the womb is a distinct human being. We believe that the new child's mother is the guardian of her baby's life within her womb. She is offering this new creation precious hospitality, just as a Christian might give a journeying pilgrim the respite of hospitality within one's own home.

This much we know, Mr. President, in our culture, dictated by the law of the land, a newly conceived embryo is not offered the dignity and rights of an independent, innocent human being. "There is no God who condones taking the life an innocent human being." As Catholics, this much we know, abortion is taking the life of an innocent human being. Nothing will ever change that.

President Obama, would you really sign into law a bill like FOCA which would force faith-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to perform abortions? Would you deny doctors and health care professionals their most precious human freedom in choosing life?

The issue of choice in American law looms large before us: in your logic it will be lawful to choose abortion but it will be a crime to choose life. In Catholic logic one cannot choose to murder in any circumstance, even in punishment for crime. One can choose life but not death. I am not so naïve as to believe that passing such ill-advised, contemptible legislation such as FOCA will "end the culture wars" as you have stated. On the contrary it will be considered by many of us as a persecution of the Catholic Church.

Tragically, we have a tradition in our United States culture which gives us permission to define the parameters of human life when it suits our self-interest. Did we not justify our tradition of slavery by denying that a black human being of African decent was fully human? To call a slave a human being would have interrupted the economic progress and well being of our country's self-interest. Many leaders of the nation believed we could not afford to do that. As I understand it, President Lincoln had a contrary view and took us to civil war for the sake of unifying our country's conscience in terms of the rights and dignity of all human life. Or was it simply a war fought over the nation's economy?

And so now today we are engaged in a great civil war over conscience formation. The defense of human life is an obligation for all humanity, not just for Catholics. Or is this war simply a war over the right to defend our self-interest without regard for promoting the responsibility we have for others?

An "unwanted" child comes in many forms: an untimely presence; a disabled or deformed creature; an embryo of the wrong sex; a child conceived out of wedlock; a child conceived through a hideous crime. We today have an unparalleled capacity through our scientific know-how, unlike the limited knowledge at the disposal of Adolf Hitler, to create a super race, free of any spot or wrinkle. The new laws of our society seem to aspire toward creating genetic purity within the human species, hoping to assure a problem-free future for the sake of human happiness, pleasure, prosperity and peace.

There is no doubt in my mind, Mr. President, that in the not too distant future we will have godlike powers to form the perfect human species. The Tower of Babel will have had nothing on us when it comes to asserting our god-like greatness.

Surely future laws will require us to remove any genetic tendency toward weakness and imperfection; we will soon have a nation (and world?) of perfect "Stepford Wives" and perhaps "Stepford Husbands" and "Stepford Children." We will soon become quite adept in the art of putting people out of their misery; particularly if they are causing us misery!

On a very personal level, Mr. President, as a young man I was scandalized by the Republican agenda after theRoe vs. Wade decision. As I recall, perhaps mistakenly but I sincerely believe accurately, that some powerful Republican governors introduced the country's most liberal abortion laws in their populous states. I seem to recall hearing one Republican Senator say in a television interview that he favored abortion because it was cheaper than welfare. I also recall hearing an influential Democrat calling abortion "black genocide." Somewhere along the line, I suppose in the defense of women's rights and in the rise of Christian fundamentalism as a political power, the agendas flip-flopped, one side to the other. How did that ever happen? But when it did, given my faith convictions and my conscience, I had no choice but to surrender my political affiliation as a Democrat and become an Independent.

In all sincerity, Mr. President, how am I to conduct myself as an American Catholic? If the "Freedom of Choice Act" were to be passed, would it mean that I flee to Canada in protest, the way so many of my peers did during the Vietnam War? Should I flee to the desert as did Christians of old to escape the fabric of a sinful society seemingly beyond conversion?

In my humble opinion, Mr. President, it doesn't do us any good to withdraw from society; and it surely doesn't do us any good to throw things at one another, be they shoes or missiles or ugly words. Does it do us any good as Catholics to honor with honorary degrees those who disagree with us over essential matters of life and death? In my opinion it doesn't do the conscience of Catholic politicians any good to state that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they will nevertheless uphold the law of the land.

When the Honorable Mario Cuomo was Governor of New York, a Catholic civil servant, for example, he said that although he was opposed to abortion he would support abortion rights as the law of the land. Yet in promoting opposition to the death penalty, and in this I fully agreed with him, he was willing to fight with all his political might to change the law of the land. Where was his consistency? Where is any Catholic's consistency in living faith as a public servant or in honoring a public servant who chooses death over life, whether it be through abortion or through punishment for crime?

President Obama, what good will it do for Catholic politicians to bring his or her faith convictions into the culture wars of legislating for the common good? Surely they will lose their next election; the secular industrial news media complex will see to that. From what platform, then, ought Catholics to speak? Can we only shun the political world and thereby risk losing our souls to a possible spiritual death through indifference or self-righteousness? It seems shunning has become our only choice. Surely we can do better than that. Our sins as a Catholic Church are well known, we cannot dare be self-righteous. But we dare not remain silent either, even in the face of our own sins. Repentance and conversion, mercy and forgiveness are the only healing remedies for all of us.

And how are Catholics to relate with Catholics who seem so indifferent to these fundamental life issues? I agree with Archbishop Charles Chaput, who complained: "Too many Catholics just don't really care. That's the truth of it. If they cared, our political environment would be different. If 65 million Catholics really cared about their faith and cared about what it teaches, neither political party could ignore what we believe about justice for the poor, or the homeless, or immigrants, or the unborn child. If 65 million American Catholics really understood their faith, we wouldn't need to waste each other's time arguing about whether the legalized killing of an unborn child is somehow 'balanced out' or excused by three other good social policies."

Mr. President, may I digress for a moment and risk trying your patience? May I share with you a great personal gripe with our American free press? The big business of our industrial news media complex seems hardly free to me. The industrial news media complex seems no more than a huge business monopoly whose owners have become the new teaching hierarchy of the culture wars. The Catholic Church's magisterium, teaching authority, cannot hold a candle to the magisterium of the powerful lords of the industrial news media complex.

When it comes to reporting news of the Catholic Church our infamous free press seems more than eager to employ yellow journalism sound bytes to make news and money while promulgating their self-centered values in the formation of our American culture. Let me give you a current example: the Pope's recent visit to Africa. On March 17th, while on the plane to Cameroon, Pope Benedict was asked about the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS and the Church's position on the use of condoms. The Pope responded with what I perceived to be a thoughtful and gracious answer. What the church teaches in regard to healing is the"humanization of sexuality" through the promotion of sexual responsibility and dignity on the one hand, and on the other hand, "a willingness to be present with those who are suffering." He spoke of the many church programs and dedicated care givers currently helping people with AIDS.

As you well know, Mr. President, the news media make the news. Their story reduced the Pope's visit to Africa as a condemnation of condoms, ignoring completely his eloquent message for justice, peace and mercy at every level of life on the African continent.

How can the media play up condoms and downplay encouraging words such as these of Pope Benedict XVI which offer so much challenge and inspiration that can enrich us all?

"Angola knows that the time has come for Africa to be the Continent of Hope! All upright human conduct is hope in action. Our actions are never indifferent before God. Nor are they indifferent for the unfolding of history. Friends, armed with integrity, magnanimity and compassion, you can transform this continent, freeing your people from the scourges of greed, violence and unrest and leading them along the path marked with the principles indispensable to every modern civic democracy: respect and promotion of human rights, transparent governance, an independent judiciary, a free press, a civil service of integrity, a properly functioning network of schools and hospitals, and - most pressing - a determination born from the conversion of hearts to excise corruption once and for all."

Mr. President, I am quite sure you will find in the Pope a kindred spirit when you meet him. Both of you have keen intellects and compassionate hearts.

Unfortunately, the current newsmakers clearly find Catholic bashing in vogue. They ridicule the Church's rich social and spiritual teaching with inane sound bytes meant to undermine the teaching authority of the Church in fostering a good and just civilization of love.

Mr. President, what advice would you give someone like me who wants to respect a wide diversity of opinion yet who seeks to live faith convictions that relate to the essential common good of our American Society?

Like so many Americans, and people of good will around the world, I find such great hope in you. I pray my hope will be realized; however, I fear disillusionment, I fear being let down, with a thud. I mentioned that I believe you have the potential for greatness. I sincerely pray for the realization of your potential because, selfishly, in the process, you will help me and many others to fulfill our potential as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

When sharing smidgens of wisdom with Notre Dame Students, one point Father Jenkins made, which I like very much, concerned the risk of their making mistakes while striving for excellence in all they do. He said that our mistakes can often be great teachers, for they offer us great sources of insight and motivation. He quoted Chief Justice John Roberts who once said, "Failure is a more effective stimulus than success - because you don't get to do it over, but you do get the chance to do it better next time."

Mr. President, may I be so audacious as to suggest that you have made a mistake in your position supporting abortion rights as the law of the land. May I suggest, with all humility for I am far from perfect, that you give your conscience a fresh opportunity to be formed anew in a holy awe and reverence before human life in every form at every stage - from conception to natural death. For we are all the Children of God.

I believe, President Obama, as I am sure you do, that love makes the world go round. I gained the greatest appreciation for the meaning of salvation through God's love lived out in human beings in the holy words of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. They reinforced for me the nature of Christ's death on the cross for the sake of our salvation; they taught me what it is to be Christ-like. Permit me to share them with you. You are more than likely familiar with them already. He said:

"To our most bitter opponents we say: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we shall continue to love you. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and our churches and we will still love you. Threaten our children and we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities in the night hours. Beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be assured we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, not only for ourselves but for you as well. Appealing to your consciences and your heart, we shall win you over in love in the process of gaining our freedom. Our victory will be a double victory."

Mr. President, I pray that Catholics, through the grace of God's love in their passionate determination to love all people, will help win over our American society and our world culture to reverence the inherent dignity of all human life, without exception.

I don't want sound bytes to determine the kind of relationship of respect I have for you or the quality of fidelity the University of Notre Dame has with the larger Church. I want simply to be respectful of you as my brother and my President to dialogue with you and my country without betraying my fundamental faith convictions. We live in a pluralistic society, yes. Concerned and committed Catholics are an essential part of that plurality. We have something vital and indispensable to say to everyone about these "life issues." We want to be taken seriously. We insist on taking ourselves seriously, that is why there has been so much protest and turmoil in regard to your presence at Notre Dame.

I want, in words of Rev. King, to embrace what I believe to be the great truth which stands before the door of the United States today: "to stand up for that which is right and that which is just...We die when we refuse to stand up for that which is right. We die when we refuse to take a stand for that which is true. So we are going to stand up right here."

The defense of all human life is the great truth standing before the door of our lives in American society today. I pray that the nation will open that door of truth and walk through it. We need you, Mr. President: your goodness, your courage, your faith convictions about the sacredness of all human life, from conception to natural death, to lead us through that door.

Perhaps, Mr. President, at the University of Notre Dame, you can stand up and shed some light on how Catholics can be taken seriously for our faith convictions without being dismissed off-handedly and shunned; it is so offensive to be ignored, it is unacceptable. We need to rally; we need to stand up for this great truth of life.

Please, Mr. President, stand up for the truth of life, walk through that door and take us, as a nation, with you. If you do, I have no doubt whatsoever, that your greatness will be realized.

Be assured of my prayers, Mr. President, for you and your good and delightful family. What a blessing your family is to the nation. May God's grace expand the love in your hearts day in and day out. And, too, congratulations on receiving your honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame!

Respectfully yours,

Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, C.S.C.
Superior General

Text: "Grisez's Response to a Critic and a Friend" {AmP Exclusive}

Dr. Germain Grisez, who has already posted an open letter and a follow-up on these pages, now responds to what he describes as "the nastiest critic and the only serious effort at counterargument that I’ve seen".

Please post your comments here.

Posted with permission of the author, February 12th, 2009.

Someone who remains Anonymous on this website says: “Whenever there is a crisis there is a tendency for everybody and his dog to weigh in as experts. Now we have the Peters, Weigel and Grisez among others ‘directing’ the church as to what it ‘should’ do.” Anonymous exhorts us: “Please don't forget that you are maligning many good and holy people, perhaps far holier than yourselves, when you attack an order that is full of extremely dedicated people, who have given their lives for Christ.”

I have not been trying to direct the Legion and the Church as to what they should do. Rather, I have offered advice and provided reasons to accept it, especially this reason: “Even after the death of an institute’s saintly founder, its members’ service and life continue as cooperation with him or her. Regardless of Father Maciel’s subjective moral responsibility—which only God knows—the evidence of his objective betrayal of his commitment makes it impossible for you and other good and faithful Legionaries any longer to carry on your service and life as cooperation with him.”

I addressed that reasoning to friends in the Legion and posted it in the hope that other good and faithful members of the Legion and of Regnum Christi would read it and urge their superiors and/or the Pope to do what is necessary to salvage their common good from the wreckage resulting from Maciel’s wrongful behavior. In offering my advice, I have neither attacked the Legion nor maligned its members.

Unlike Anonymous, whose response simply ignored my argument, one of my Legionary friends, in a private communication, responded to my argument. He points out that God often has done great good through sinful men, for example, he gave us the Psalms through David. But while true, that is beside the point. Jesus, not David, leads us when we do the Liturgy of the Hours. We do not belong to an institute that David founded. Moreover, David did not lead a double life.

My friend also recalls that some of the Franciscan friars who split off in the sixteenth century to found the Capuchin Franciscans eventually rejoined their original community, were expelled for rebelling against superiors, and/or left the Catholic Church. Yet the Capuchins survived and flourished. That’s true. But the men who led the Capuchins to success regarded Francis of Assisi, whose purity of heart is unquestionable, as their father founder. Their movement’s whole purpose was to regain a more perfect share in Francis’s charism—to be, as they saw it, more Franciscan than the Franciscan communities from which they split off.

Contrast that with Fr. Alvaro Corcuera’s testimony: “Through the charism he [Maciel] passed on to us, many people have received from God what has given meaning to our lives: love for Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Church, the Pope and souls.” Most Catholics whom I have known, including my own parents and siblings, received all those things as the practice of the Catholic faith they received from their parents, first pastors, and other early teachers.

My view is that what Legionaries and Regnum Christi members received from Maciel was something different and more specific, something that includes both the holiness that he appeared to embody—which, by God’s grace, many of his followers really do embody—and the reality of his duplicity. If the compound of apparent holiness and actual duplicity could constitute the charism of the founder of a religious institute, members of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi could reasonably continue with Maciel as their “Father Founder.” But I think those who have hitherto regarded Maciel as Father Founder might still salvage, from the wreckage resulting from his wrongful behavior, much of what they stand to lose—but only if they can obtain the Pope’s help in identifying new leaders to serve as founders of a re-formed, and reformed, institute and lay apostolic group.

===

Please post your comments here.

Text: an RC member's account of Fr. Alvaro's Mass

This email is being widely circulated among members of Regnum Christi. It's an account of the same Mass I attended, celebrated by Fr. Alvaro, the head of the Legionaries of Christ.

I've reported my impressions of the same Mass/homily here.

Please post your comments here.

I've bolded parts of the text I found interesting. I have also scanned the text for typographic errors:

Dear family and friends,

This week each one of us has learned that our founder, Fr. Marcial
Maciel, has fathered a daughter now in her early twenties. Deeply
saddened and confused, I myself have internally sought to reconcile
the irreconcilable contradictions: the scandal of what he has done and
the foundation of the Legion and Regnum Christi. Having wrestled with
these truths in my heart and in prayer, I write to you to share some
of the grace and solace that has been poured over my poor soul during
this time.

Tonight, I attended mass in Kensington, Maryland, where Fr. Alvaro
Corcuerra, the Director General of the Legionaries of Christ and the
Regnum Christi Movement, celebrated mass and spoke to us during this
troubling time. I wish to share with you his words and hopefully this
may help you to find some peace.

The Mass began in great solemnity with readings from the book of Job.
How fitting that Job should be used because he was the man of
suffering, taunted by his friends that God had deserted him. Fr.
Alvaro began his homily in English and then switched to Spanish half
way through, hoping to be more articulate and allow what he was being
said to be translated properly into English. I will try to relate
faithfully only what he said and not my reflections, though what I
relate is not verbatim. I was also switching between languages
listening in both English and Spanish trying to grasp every word.

1. "I come here to be with you as a family. It is easier at times to
be together as a family when things are going well, but it is as a
family that we suffer together. I am heart broken and I am sorry if I
have caused you any suffering."

2. "With the recent events, I come to speak to you about them. Here we
must take them and place them in the heart of Christ.. Only he can
heal the broken-hearted. Only Christ can heal the suffering. Today, I
awoke at 2:00am. I was thinking about you. I prayed for you and I
asked Christ that he give to me all your sufferings. I am sorry for
any sufferings that I may have caused you. Let us put everything in
the heart of Christ."

3. "I come to you with complete openness of conscience. I am open. I
tell you what I know. Regarding the abuses that our Father Founder may
have committed. I have no precise data. I simply cannot confirm
anything. I don't know. We do know that our Father Founder has a
daughter, a girl."

4. "I was speaking to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, about everything
almost a year and half ago. Sitting across from him, he said, "Come
closer." I moved around the corner (of the desk) so as to be nearer to
him, and I asked him. "What do you think of the Legion and Regnum
Christi?" The Holy Father replied, "You know what I think of the
Legion and Regnum Christi. I love them. I am near to them. Tell them
that I am near to them. My only concern is that you will be caught up
in the event and the news and that you will not grow. You must grow."
I tell this to you so that you may know that the Holy Father is near
to us."

5. "I have wanted to speak to each Legionary and consecrated
personally. This was very difficult. I had to tell them everything. I
had to also tell everything to Fr. John Walsh who brought me into ECYD
as a boy. I told Fr. Walsh and he told me about how a rocket launches.
The Legion and Regnum Christi are like a rocket. When a rocket
launches. It goes through different stages of the launch. In different
stages of the launch, parts of the rocket fall off. These parts of the
rocket must fall off in order for the rocket to launch properly. We
are in a new stage of the launch. Fr. John Walsh also told me that he
will only preach one thing now. As a priest, he will only preach the
Mercy of God."

6. "I as a priest have only received good from our Father Founder. I
received this beautiful charism and I have received my relationship
with Christ from him. This is what I have personally received. If
there is anyone who is suffering on my account. I am sorry."

7. "Before Nuestro Padre died, I spoke to him in Palermo. He told me.
The Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi are the Legion of CHRIST and
Regnum Christi of CHRIST. They belong to Christ and the Church. They
are of the Church. They do not belong to a person. They are for the
Church."

8. "During this time, Cardinal Franc Rode, Prefect for religious
orders, has been very near to us. He has been attending events with us
in Chile, in Brazil, etc. He told me," I tell you this not as a friend
but as a man who loves the Church and Christ. The Legion and Regnum
Christi are for the Church. They belong to the Church. And you, Fr.
Alvaro. You need to go to confession. .."..I was confused saying, well
I went last week and you know that I go weekly. The cardinal told me,
"You must confess your fear. You are not afraid of what people will
say, that is not your fault. You must confess because you fear the
lack of faith. This is Christ's work. This is a great time for
holiness." "

10. "The Church knows and the Church approves of everything that we
are doing. I am sorry for any suffering that this may have caused you.
The other day I was in Thornwood and I awoke and went for a walk in
the early morning out in the snow. I knelt down and prayed to God for
you. I put everything in the heart of Christ for you...(and at this
point, I cannot remember precisely what he said, but it was to the
effect that) Christ answered my prayer. I must believe and we must
have faith in the Church and Christ. We are Christ-centered and we
must continue Christ-centered. The Church knows and approves
everything."

This is all that I remember from the homily. After the homily, I took
advantage of the opportunity to speak to him, I relay this to you so
that it may help to resolve questions as to why there is no specific
statement from the Legion at this time. During the conversation, he
mentioned that some people are asking for a statement. They are
disappointed that there is not a written statement. He said that he is
speaking to the Holy Father and going step by step as the Church is
asking them. The statement that was to be made, has already been made, and it is the May statement of 2006. That is the statement that the Church has wanted to make. It affirms that the Church recognizes and
is grateful for the works of Regnum Christi and the movement.

I also very specifically mentioned that some would like the Church to
check each seminary and apostolic seminary so that it is sure that
they are following what the Church wants done. He assured me that the
Church knows and has approved. Everything is already approved.

Following this conversation, I turned from Fr. Alvaro and surprisingly
came face to face with Fr. Evaristo Sada. Fr. Evaristo Sada was
Nuestro Padre's secretary for may years. Many of us have met him.
Having managed to speak quietly to Fr. Alvaro, I began to cry with Fr.
Evaristo. And, here I share my own personal sentiments. I told him to
tell Fr. Alvaro that we are praying for him. Many of us are mostly
concerned about the Legionaries and the Consecrated. They are the ones
to be hurt the most. I also told him that I cried because of the
absolute humility and charity of Fr. Alvaro. And, would he please
console Fr. Alvaro by letting him know that we are putting up a
website where people can offer prayers and sacrifices as a spiritual
bouquet especially for the Legionaries and the Consecrated Men and
Women of Regnum Christi. He thanked me and mentioned that other Regnum
Christi families are adopting priests and consecrated. We could do
this also. Each family can adopt a Legionaries, a priest, a brother, a
consecrated and invite them for dinner...make them their own son or
daughter during this time. So many of them work hidden and alone, away
doing monotonous work such as secretarial and administrative duties.
(I understood this to refer to all priests and religious whether
diocesan or other.) Now is a time to welcome them into the home as
part of a family. Many of them are far away from their families.

In closing, I invite you to pray for each other, to pray for me, for
the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated members of the Regnum
Christi movement, all members and the Church. I thank everyone who has
been so near to me. I appreciate all that you have done. I hope that
this website with the opportunity to offer prayers and sacrifices for
the Legionaries and the Consecrated may soon be activated....hopefully
by tomorrow night. A running tally of your prayers and sacrifices will
show on the website. I hope to send this information to you soon. If I
don't e-mail you, you may be able to google the words spiritual
bouquet soon and find the website on your own.. It will be translated
into as many languages as possible...so you can send the link to your
friends in Mexico, Europe, etc.

Please post your comments here.

Text: My observations of Fr. Alvaro's Feb. 8th Mass

February 10th, 2009

{scroll down for bullet points of what Fr. Alvaro said}

Please post your comments here. You may read a Regnum Christi member's observations here.

This Sunday I was invited to attend a local Mass of healing celebrated by Fr. Alvaro Corcuera at a Catholic parish (it counted for Sunday Mass). Fr. Alvaro, it is my understanding, has been conducting these types of events for local Regnum Christi members – I do not know how many more he has planned. The Legion speaks of itself as a family, and in the interest of truth and justice, I publish these thoughts with a hope that the promises he has made within the family, he will abide by outside the family as well.

First some general observations: the Mass was attended by many families, and many young girls (the Legionaries must have a school for young women in the area). A few girls had crafted a home-made poster with notes of encouragement for Fr. Alvaro. It was very quiet before Mass began (late by about 15 minutes). Fr. Alvaro is obviously a person of great charisma. He shook hands and exchanged muted smiles during both the procession and recession, taking upwards of five minutes each way. He met with people individually in a receiving line after Mass. Several times during the Mass a young woman walked up to the ambo and explained the spirituality of the Mass part about to begin (“this is the responsorial psalm …” etc. I have not seen this in a Catholic liturgy before.

There were about a dozen Legionary priests concelebrating, one of whom acted as a translator for the majority of Fr. Alvaro’s homily (which lasted almost 40 minutes). Fr. Alvaro never moved quickly. During his homily he cracked several jokes, which received a great deal of reaction (I would suspect because they released the tension of the occasion). At times he was animated, at other times he was convicted, sometimes searching for words, and at other times making apologies for his poor English skills.

Before and during the Mass, I saw many people with worried, drawn faces. I saw several women on the verge of tears and with tissue. During important points of the homily, one of the priests appeared to have his mouth open in disbelief, transfixed. I have to say I felt very much an outsider during the Mass. Perhaps people recognized me and knew I was not in the movement.

Here is what Fr. Alvaro said. I do not always recall where in the homily he made each of these various points, so I will list them in a bullet format, roughly chronologically (the early ones are of less interest than the middle ones – he built up slowly):

The most interesting comments are in bold.

{scroll down farther for my summary conclusions}

• At the beginning of the homily, he said the night previous he awoke at 2am and took a walk outside in the snow. In prayer, he asked Jesus to take all the sufferings of Regnum Christi and the Legionaries of Christ and put them on himself (actually, he added that he asked Jesus to split them 50/50 between himself and the translator. This is an example of the humorous interjections he made.)
• He asked people to forgive him, if he has been a cause of some of their pain. He said he has only tried to have the mind of Christ in all this
• He said it was appropriate to meet in front of the Eucharist, for the answer to all our problems can be found in It
• He said times such as these make one appreciate the Mercy of God more
• He said one must look at these things from the perspective of love and prayer
• He said in all this he has been searching for the best answer, even though people will come to different answers, he made no apology for the answer he came to (as regarding how to address the Maciel revelations)
• He said God wants all things to bring us closer to heaven, and that he has a plan for this too
• He spoke about the time surrounding when the Holy See made its announcement inviting Maciel to a life of penitence and prayer. He said at that time he went to the Virgin Mary asking her to look over her family (i.e., the Legion)
• He related his experience of being at the deathbed of Maciel, and of giving him the last rites. Before Maciel died, he said, Maciel told him that the Legion is of Christ, and it does not belong to any one person. Fr. Alvaro said that at that moment “we” realized it was up to us to lead the movement forward
• On the topic of abuse, Fr. Alvaro said that he does not have any specific access to information, and one cannot know what is true and isn’t (here, and at other points I will note, the exact content of his meaning wasn’t always clear – I was listening very carefully for what would be admitted, etc., but coming away it’s still hazy to me exactly what was said. Things were said, but often not in a definitive way.)
• He said he and all the movement must always ask what Christ would do; he said he has operated as he believes Christ would have him act
• He re-iterated what other Legionary priests have said publicly about being personally unable to deny the good things the Founder transmitted to him, saying “I received Christ [from Maciel]. I received the Church. And the Church is my life.”
• Regarding the daughter (again, this was said in a circumlocution, but the basic gist was): We don’t deny there is a daughter. We cannot deny it.
• There was mention of two changes being made to the Legion: removing Maciel’s pictures from public places and removing some feast days (it appears that Legionaries have been celebrating at least the dates in March of Maciel’s birthday and baptism day – during Lent).
• He gave a general impression that the Legionary was 100% compliant with what the Vatican wanted to see happen. Fr. Alvaro claimed that his individual visitation of Regnum Christi Chapters was approved by the Holy See: “Go tell your family.” He mentioned that before the Mass he met with each one of the present priests individually. He said he did not want members of the Family to hear the news from the Internet or on a phone call.
  The motivation for making these internal changes is to “safeguard this great charism we have received.” A charism, Fr. Alvaro said, that is of the Church (and the Legion is “nothing without the Church.”)
• He said, at various times, that if anyone had been hurt (he did not say by whom) that they should come forward and be received with open arms. He said that if there was any question someone needed answered to help their suffering he would give it (an odd promise, I thought, because the superior of an order ought to be privy to at least some information that he holds privately. Still, he made the offer.)
• He related a strange tale of his first meeting with Pope Benedict a year and a half ago. He said the Pope could tell at that meeting that Fr. Alvaro was “hurting” (he did not explain why he was hurting). He said the Holy Father told him to “come closer” (here, in this story, Fr. Alvaro spoke in his broken English directly, without the use of the priest translator). The general impression (again, general because it’s hard to recall exactly what Fr. Alvaro was meaning), was that Pope Benedict was very concerned the challenges facing the Legion would cause them to lose heart and cease practicing their charism.
• A second strange tale: Fr. Alvaro mentioned that during a recent meeting with Cardinal Rode, Rode said to him, in effect, that if the Legion stopped practicing its charism, Rode would “kill him.” This drew laughter. Frankly, I didn’t get the humor. At this point he came back to his story of waking up the night before (or that night, it was unclear) and taking a 2am walk where he implored Jesus to help him discover the right answer. Jesus evidently told Fr. Alvaro to continue with the charism. Fr. Alvaro specified that this was not a “private revelation” so he could share it with the family. He said this with a sort of wry grin so I don’t know to what degree he expected his audience to understand this personal locution to be a mystical experience, or a spiritual anecdote, or what have you.
• Ultimately, the interaction between the Vatican and the Legionaries’ own investigations remain a complete mystery to me. No specific dates were given (except ones already publicly known). I could not conclude if the substantiation of these sexual abuse allegations and the revelation of a daughter and mistress were the result of Vatican action, Legionary action, a combination of the both, etc. At times it appeared the Vatican was telling the Legionary things (typically regarding the sexual abuse). At others it appeared the reverse (perhaps more with regards to the child). At the same time, he implied the Vatican could not tell him everything (that he was, in essence, in the dark), while Fr. Alvaro never mentioned which people in the Vatican had been informed about what the Legion had discovered.

While I’ve written a great deal, you can see that, in the end, Fr. Alvaro gave practically no information beyond what is already generally known.

The additional content could briefly be summarized as follows:

• We’re very sorry for this pain. We tried our best to avoid it, but it’s impossible. This is an opportunity to grow in faith
• The Pope, Cardinal Rode, and “the Vatican” are eager to see us heal, move beyond this, and continue to practice our charism
• We’ve done everything we can by the Vatican (inform them, ask them what to do) and by the victims (if anyone has been hurt, we’ll take care of you) and now by you (we came to you personally to tell you and celebrate this Mass of healing)
• Long excurses on the Christian Life, Christ, virtues, etc. But nothing especial to the Legion. Simply Catholic teaching, always generally applicable.

And yet, at the end of Mass, the entire congregation knelt and recited together three memorized prayers: a prayer for the pope, a prayer for the general director (Fr. Alvaro), and a prayer for their own fidelity. This last prayer contains the following paragraphs, I have highlighted parts of it in bold, but they recited the entire prayer:

“ Lord Jesus, you have entrusted to us the mission of furthering the Legion and Regnum Christi … This mission comes to us as an utterly free, unforeseen, mysterious reality, out of all proportion to our abilities.

Since the Legion and the Movement will be vigorous and will flourish as long as the spirit of our founder is present and active in our lives and behavior, we ask you to open our eyes to the urgency of learning, assimilating and passing on the doctrine, spirit, apostolic methods, genuine traditions, discipline and lifestyle of the Legion and Regnum Christi, just as our founder has made them known to us, since this is our responsibility.

Lord, help us to adhere totally to the charism you inspired in our
founder.

… we ask from you what you ask of us: faith, great faith in your work, love for it, trust in its mission, docility, loyal collaboration, humility,a sense of responsibility, and fidelity. Amen.

And they finished this prayer, the congregation applauded Fr. Alvaro for some time.

For what it was worth, after the Mass, a vague acquaintance of mine walked up to me and asked how I had heard about the Mass. I told the individual, truthfully, that I was invited by a friend. The acquaintance asked pointedly which friend. I responded again, simply, “a friend”, and they walked away. It was an unflattering postscript to the experience.

This is what I saw and heard.

Please post your comments here.

Text: Dr. Grisez's Comment on Fr. Berg's letter

An official comment on Fr. Thomas Berg's letter to Regnum Christi, by Dr. Germain Grisez, Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Please leave comments on this post.

Posted at the request of the author, Dr. Grisez, on February 10th, 2009.

In writing his personal note “To my beloved Regnum Christi Family,” Fr. Thomas Berg, LC, did something beautiful. His note manifests pastoral love—genuine charity unconstrained by solidarity with the Superior General of the Legionaries of Christ, who seems to love Maciel too much to put himself, even now, in the place of each of those whom the “Father Founder” betrayed. Everyone touched by Fr. Berg’s love owes him admiration and gratitude for his heroic act.

To appreciate the significance of Fr. Berg’s personal note, one need only compare it with the letter written by Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, the Legionary Superior-General, to the members of Regnum Christi (published by Zenit here). Most of that letter consists of generalities that might have been written to any flock by its pastor during any hard time. The section of Fr. Alvaro’s letter specifically responding to Maciel’s wrongful behavior ignores his injury to his spiritual family. Grateful for the good that God did through the “Father Founder,” Fr. Alvaro slips past the evils Maciel inflicted on his spiritual children, and addresses their suffering and pain as if it were little more than the grief they might have felt on hearing of a saintly founder’s happy death:

In the present case, regarding the person of our Father Founder, I cannot but recognize all the good I received through him. Through the charism he passed on to us, many people have received from God what has given meaning to our lives: love for Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Church, the Pope and souls. These are our loves. On a personal level, I am grateful to him for being the instrument God used to give my entire life meaning, seeking eternal salvation, the path to God. This is the truth I experienced, and it would be impossible to find enough words to thank him.

It is also true that he was a man, and these things that have hurt and
surprised us—and I don’t believe we can explain with our reason alone—have already been judged by God. It is true that we are going through much suffering and a great deal of pain. As in a family, these pains draw us together and lead us to suffer and rejoice as one body. This circumstance we are living invites us to look at everything with much faith, humility and charity. Thus we place it in the hands of God, who teaches us the way of infinite mercy.

For my part, I ask forgiveness for all this suffering. And I beg God with all my being to help us all to see it from the heart of Christ.

This response—so detached from the horrible reality of Maciel’s wrongful behavior and its effects on his victims—will be welcomed by anyone who hates the Legionaries of Christ. Such a person will use the serene response as evidence that the Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi are brain-washed participants in a cult. However, that unjust judgment cannot stand against Fr. Berg and other good and faithful members of the Legionaries and Regnum Christi, who were complicit neither in Maciel’s wrongdoing nor in its concealment, and who benefited from the good God did through Maciel while not being corrupted by his duplicity.

Of Maciel’s wrongful behavior, Fr. Alvaro says: “I don’t believe we can explain [it] with our reason alone.” I agree. Such duplicity had to be diabolical. It seems that Satan meant to use Maciel to found a cult, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit outsmarted Satan, and the Founding Father has left behind a truly Christian family burdened with a horrible legacy. Unfortunately, incidental to that legacy are some defective practices that have troubled many good parents and moved some good bishops to exclude Legionaries from their dioceses.

With the grace of God that created and has sustained it, the Christian family Maciel left behind can survive and flourish provided its members completely reject his horrible legacy and make a clean break with the past. To do that, they must not share Fr. Alvaro’s complacency but urgently seek the personal intervention of Pope Benedict XVI, for which George Weigel (in First Things) and I have called (on these pages). Only a special and thorough apostolic visitation can fully and credibly free the Christian family Maciel left behind from his horrible legacy and everything incidental to it.

To the Pope’s personal intervention, the alternative—which Satan surely desires—is that Fr. Alvaro and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will go on as if all were now well. In that case, there will be no credible cleansing of the Founding Father’s legacy, and the genuine common good of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi will decompose, to the spiritual detriment of all the good and faithful members of that Christian family, and with immeasurable loss to the Catholic Church as a whole.

===

Please leave comments here.

Text: Letter of Juan Pedro Oriol, published Feb. 9th, 2009

Thanks to an AmP reader for a quick translation from the Spanish.

The original Spanish text is available at the end of this post.

You may post comments here.

I am a Legionary of Christ
Juan Pedro Oriol - February 9th, 2009

Yes, I am a Legionary of Christ. What a blessed vocation! Unexpected, not
deserved. Thank you, Lord!

Almost three years ago the Holy See published a bulletin inviting Father Maciel
to live a private life of prayer a penance renouncing to all public ministry.
At the same time independently of the person of the founder, it is recognized
with gratitude the apostolate of the Legionaries of Christ and "Regnum Christi"
association. In this and in many media I carried on an open defense of Father
Maciel, but without judging the ones claiming the contrary. Being honest, I
would have given anything for being able to defend him more. Yes this is true.

With pain that is difficult to describe of which I don’t want to brag about,
we have come to know that our founder lived a double life in which facts are
starting to be known that for us were unthinkable and today are still
difficult to believe that where true, but they are.

Yes, I am a Legionary of Christ priest. Present! Like many other legionary
brothers, one day, when I was 17 years old, I left my own life plan and
decided to give everything to follow Jesus, to fight for him, loving everyone
and trying to bring them closer to the love that ignited my heart full of
dreams and self-giving.

Santi (Translators note: Santiago), my brother, had found a
congregation, new to my family in Spain, they were called Legionaries of
Christ. A few months later, Santi left everything and went to the Legion that
arrived from my beautiful and loved Mexico. I still remember my parents that
day saying goodbye to the son that was leaving the family, the girl that loved
him so much, his chosen career, his new motorcycle that he barely had a chance
to enjoy, well, everything, and entered the novitiate of the congregation
which we barely knew. All that he took with him was a pair of black pants, a
few white clothes and a pair of shoes.

The lesson of life from my brother and his companions made me one day also
receive the call in my heart when I discovered that smiling Jesus was calling
my name. I left my boat and my youth, I had to cut my long hair, renounced my
plans and dreams, and I went to start the path of this vocation that has made
me very happy and has filled all my life.

I have shared 18 years of my priesthood besides thousands of youth from
Mexico. With all my limitations, I have tried to help them open a window in
their hearts to have a friendship with the Friend that never fails. Without
deserving it, I have receive so much love from Christ, I have experienced so
much tenderness from Mary, I have learned to love the Church, I have
discovered the value of souls and I have rejoiced to see how Regnum Christi
does so much good to the ones that accept it.

But the time of the storm has come, and amidst the dashing of its waves we are
surrounded by the astonishing mystery that leads my legionary brothers and me
to act like Jesus and hand ourselves over to him and everyone with a cleaner
heart in our vocation.

United to Father Alvaro Corcuera, our general director, and to my legionary
brothers, I beg for forgiveness for denying the voices that said things that I
would have never imagined, "I beg forgiveness for all the suffering"

I have learned as a priest, when you see, get to know and exprience so many
things about a person's life in and outside the confessionary, that personal
judgment only corresponds to God. The Gospel is very clear "don't judge and
you will not be judged, forgive and you will be forgiven".

We will continue our task more than ever - continuing to do good and expelling
even the least shadow of evil. Prayer heals, purifies and strengthens us. That
is why we ask for forgiveness with all our hearts. We recognize errors; we
don't persist in defending the facts neither do we judge the conscience of a
dead person, because we can't take the place that belongs only to God.

To the ones that tell us that our face doesn't seem clean we invite them to
get to know our lives and we open our homes. We do not want to react on a
defensive way upon the questions we are asked without seeing the duty of
looking with sincerity upon the mirror of the Gospel, and doing it with the
humility and simplicity that Jesus asks from us.

To those that have doubts about us and have stones ready to be thrown at us,
we ask you to follow the path of truth and don't mix lies that produce
confusion and harm.

We are certain that "truth will make us free", and today more than ever the
Legionaries of Christ want to accept and pay whatever the price is, obeying
the Pope, serving the Church and giving all our lives till the end for the souls.

Father Juan Pedro Oriol is a Legionary of Christ priest with a Degree on
Philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome. It is vocational director in
Mexico and family counselor. He is founder and director of Jaire. Lecturer and
author of the book “ Seeding Happiness” Dedicates his life and apostolate
working with young people in the western region of the country

[Editor's note: what follows is the Spanish-language original text...]

Sí, soy Legionario de Cristo. ¡Bendita vocación! Inesperada, inmerecida. ¡Gracias, Señor!

Hace casi tres años la Santa Sede emitió un comunicado en el que se invitaba al Padre Maciel a una vida reservada de oración y penitencia, renunciando a todo ministerio público, al tiempo que, "independientemente de la persona del fundador, se reconoce con gratitud el benemérito apostolado de los Legionarios de Cristo y de la asociación 'Regnum Christi'". En éste y en muchos medios de comunicación salí en defensa abierta del Padre Maciel, eso sí, sin juzgar a los que decían lo contrario. Siendo sincero, hubiera dado lo que fuera por haberlo podido defender aún más. Sí, así fue.

Con un dolor que es difícil describir y del que no quiero hacer el menor alarde, hemos conocido que nuestro fundador llevaba una doble vida, y dentro de ésta, empiezan a darse a conocer datos que para nosotros eran impensables y que hoy aún nos cuesta creer que sean verdad, pero lo son.

Sí, soy sacerdote Legionario de Cristo. Presente. Como tantos hermanos legionarios, un día, cuando yo tenía 17 años, dejé atrás mi plan de vida y decidí darlo todo para seguir a Jesús, para luchar por Él amando a los demás y tratando de acercarlos al amor que quemaba mi corazón lleno de ensueño y de entrega.

Santi, mi hermano de sangre, se había encontrado a una congregación, nueva para mi familia en España, se llamaban Legionarios de Cristo. Pocos meses después, Santi dejó todo y se fue a la Legión llegada de México lindo y querido. Aún recuerdo a mis padres aquel día despidiendo al hijo que dejaba su familia, la niña que tanto le quería, su carrera, su moto nueva que apenas alcanzó a disfrutar, en fin, todo, y entraba al noviciado de la congregación que casi no conocíamos. Todo lo que llevaba era una pequeña maleta, un par de pantalones negros, un poco de ropa blanca y un par de zapatos.

El ejemplo de vida de mi hermano y de sus compañeros hizo que un día yo también recibiera el llamado en mi corazón cuando descubrí que Jesús sonriendo decía mi nombre. Dejé mi barca en plena juventud, me corté el pelo, renuncié a mis planes y a mis sueños y me fui a comenzar el camino de esta vocación que me ha hecho tan feliz y que ha llenado tanto mi vida.

He compartido los 18 años de mi sacerdocio al lado de miles de jóvenes de todo México. Con todas mis limitaciones, he tratado de ayudarles a abrir una rendija de su corazón a la amistad con el Amigo que nunca falla. Sin merecerlo, he recibido tanto amor de Cristo, he experimentado tanta ternura de María, he aprendido a amar a la Iglesia, he descubierto el valor de las almas y he gozado al ver cómo el Regnum Christi hace tanto bien al que lo recibe.

Y ha llegado la hora de la galerna, y en medio de sus olas y de sus embates nos rodea el asombro ante el misterio que, a mis hermanos legionarios como a mí, nos lleva a querer actuar como Jesús y a entregarnos a Él y a los demás con un corazón más limpio en nuestra vocación.

Unido al Padre Álvaro Corcuera, nuestro director general, y a mis hermanos legionarios, pido perdón por negar las voces que decían lo que jamás podía haber llegado a imaginar, "pido perdón por tanto sufrimiento".

He aprendido como sacerdote, cuando uno ve, conoce y experimenta tantas cosas de la vida de los hombres dentro y fuera del confesionario, que el juicio personal sólo le corresponde a Dios. Y el Evangelio es muy claro: "no juzguéis y no seréis juzgados, perdonad y seréis perdonados".

Seguiremos más que nunca con nuestra labor, tratando de hacer siempre el bien y desterrando hasta la última sombra de lo malo. La oración nos cura, purifica y fortalece. Por ello, pedimos perdón, de todo corazón. Reconocemos los errores, no nos empeñamos en defender los hechos, tampoco juzgamos la conciencia de un difunto porque no podemos ocupar el lugar que sólo le toca a Dios.

A los que hoy nos dicen que nuestra cara no les parece demasiado limpia, les invitamos a conocer nuestra vida y les abrimos nuestra casa. No queremos reaccionar a la defensiva, ante los cuestionamientos que recibimos, sin antes haber advertido el deber de mirarnos con toda sinceridad ante el espejo del Evangelio, y hacerlo con la humildad y la sencillez que Jesús nos pide.

A los que tienen dudas de nosotros y tienen preparadas las piedras para arrojarlas, les pedimos que sigan el camino de la verdad y no mezclen mentiras, que tanto confunden y dañan.

Estamos seguros que "la verdad nos hará libres", y hoy más que nunca los Legionarios de Cristo la aceptamos y queremos vivirla, cueste lo que cueste, obedeciendo al Papa, sirviendo a la Iglesia y dando la vida por las almas hasta el final. +++

You may post comments here.

Text: Open letter to Legionaries by Dr. Germain Grisez

An open letter to the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, by Dr. Germain Grisez, Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Please post your comments here.

Posted with permission of the author February 5th, 2009.

This morning I found the attached Catholic News Service report posted on the National Catholic Register website, which suffices to convince me that the report’s content is substantially accurate. I attach it so that you may know exactly what has moved me to write this message to you, who are the only Legionaries of Christ I know well and regard as friends.

I hope that you will realize without my saying so that nothing true of Father Maciel could ever lessen my admiration and affection for you, my readiness to associate with you, and my desire to cooperate with you whenever our different vocations make doing so appropriate. As your friend, I am thinking about your plight, and wish to offer the help I can give you.

You must be feeling great pain at your spiritual father’s betrayal of Jesus, of his Church, and of you and all your good and faithful confreres. You also must be feeling great anxiety at the dimmed prospects for the unfolding of your vocations to priestly life and service. I try to imagine and do sympathize with those feelings and pray that the Holy Spirit will console you and strengthen you to console your good and faithful confreres.

In my draft of chapter three of my volume on clerical and consecrated service and life, I wrote:

While good close collaborators never renege on their total self-gift, some do leave the diocese or institute to which they first committed themselves in order to enter another, form an entirely new institute, or undertake a different sort of consecrated life. But they only undertake such a change if convinced that God is calling them to make it. Many saints have discerned such a calling and responded. Their example makes it clear that their commitment to and membership in particular dioceses or institutes is a stable but not always unalterable way of carrying out their fundamental commitment, namely, their self-gift to Jesus and his Church.

If I were you, I would bear in mind that your fundamental commitment is to Jesus and his Church. The question that should be uppermost in your minds is how to continue carrying out that commitment most faithfully and fruitfully.

You and all your good and faithful confreres share a common good that includes realities of great value: your communio with one another, your experience and habits of working together, and material means of carrying on your common service and life. All that should be protected, salvaged, and, if possible, kept intact. I do not think that good end can be realized by the juridical person, the Legionaries of Christ, and its present leadership.

Sex-abuse involving diocesan clerics and members of religious institutes has been dealt with up to now solely by sanctions against those guilty of abusive activities and by measures to prevent such activities. The bishops, religious superiors, and others who were guilty—of complicity in such wrongdoing, lying about it, irresponsibility toward victims, and so on—have in general not honestly admitted, much less rectified, what they did and failed to do. For that reason, the injury to the Church continues to fester. Still, those past experiences might seem to some Legionaries to provide a model by which your present plight can be overcome.

That would be a grave mistake for two reasons.

First, no matter how corrupt the hierarchy may be, faithful Catholics cannot do without it, but we can do without any particular religious institute. Everyone realizes that Father Maciel’s double life required the complicity of associates, some of whom surely are still members of the institute, and some of whom probably are functioning as superiors. Unless those who shared in the betrayal are identified and faithful Legionaries cleanly separate from them, the latter group’s common good will not continue receiving the support of faithful Catholics, and will not be preserved.

Second, when a bishop dies, the diocese’s priests cease cooperating with him. But even after the death of an institute’s saintly founder, its members’ service and life continue as cooperation with him or her. Regardless of Father Maciel’s subjective moral responsibility—which only God knows—the evidence of his objective betrayal of his commitment makes it impossible for you and other good and faithful Legionaries any longer to carry on your service and life as cooperation with him. Unless you and your confreres proceed as quickly as possible to terminate the juridical person, the Legionaries of Christ, and reorganize yourselves into a new institute, the common good you now share will begin to decompose: very few new men will join you, many in formation will leave, some professed members will separate, and the collaboration and support of the lay faithful will shrink.

The Pope is the ultimate superior on earth of every religious institute. Only the Pope can oversee the termination of the Legionaries of Christ, the salvaging of its faithful members and other assets, and their reconstitution into a new institute. Therefore, if I were you, I would at once appeal to the Pope to fulfill his responsibility toward you, to appoint two or three prelates—members neither of the Legionaries nor of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life—as an ad hoc papal commission to conduct a thorough visitation, identify those complicit in Father Maciel’s wrongdoing and its concealment until now, and work closely with faithful, professed members in carrying out an orderly termination of the existing Institute, election of a small group to serve as founders of its replacement, and the preparation of an entirely new and reformed body of particular law for the new institute.

Some of your good and faithful confreres undoubtedly will tell you that following my advice would violate your vow of obedience and constitute grave disloyalty to your superiors. Those sincere men will be mistaken. Your vow is to obey morally acceptable precepts. In the present disaster, it is, in my judgment, your grave moral duty to appeal to the Pope, as your superior, to save the common good of the faithful members of the Legionaries of Christ by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute. I am sure that most who were complicit in Father Maciel’s wrongdoing were constrained by a false sense of loyalty. Do not follow their bad and disastrous example. Remember instead your responsibility to Jesus and to his Church—to all those whose souls are still to be saved by your service and that of the members of the new foundation.

===

Please post your comments here.

Text: Internal LC update

Text of a letter sent out by a Legionaries of Christ school principle on Febuary 4th, 2009.

Personal information has been removed. Please leave comments here.

Dear [School] Families,

I wanted to provide you with some important information about Father
Marciel Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, that is
circulating publicly. Knowing that the information coming through the
media will range from fact-based to speculative, we wanted to get
something out to you quickly so you are aware of the information as it
has come to us through the most appropriate source, and put you in the
best position to counsel your child(ren) should they inquire.

As many of you likely recall, back in 2006 prior to his resignation as
the Legion General Director in 2005, and his death one year ago, the
Vatican embarked on an investigation in response to allegations made
against Father Maciel. At the conclusion of the investigation, the
Holy See sent a communiqué directing him to a life of prayer and
penance.

Upon embarking on its own internal inquiry, the Legion has
acknowledged actions "that were not appropriate for a Catholic
priest." As a result of these conclusions, the Legion and its
leadership have been working hard over the last months informing the
appropriate constituents, beginning within the Vatican, the Legion,
and as of the last few days, its Apostolates (schools, Regnum Christi,
etc.) and the Archdiocese.

This is sad and disturbing news for everyone, and I am sure even more
so for those who were closest to Father Maciel, particularly our
priests, brothers, and consecrated. But what we are reminding
ourselves here at the school is that the Legion, Regnum Christi, and
its apostolates (i.e. the school) are a work of God and they belong to
the Church, not to any one individual. We know what a gift we have
here (and what a gift our religious personnel are!) and any success
we've had or will achieve comes only through our fidelity to Christ,
His Church, and our common mission. So despite this news, we are
committed more than ever to continue our work and overcome any
challenge that might get in the way of God's will for our school, its
students and our families.

Our team is here and ready for any personal attention you or your
student(s) need regarding this matter.

God bless.

[Name]

===

Please leave comments here.

Breaking: Pro-life, devout Catholic named new RNC chair!

I'm hearing that it happened just minutes ago: Former Maryland Lt. Gov. (and former state party chairman) Michael Steele has been elected as the new chair of the Republican National Committee.

So who is he?!

CollegeNews tells us:

"Steele is a staunch social conservative: devoutly Catholic, pro-life, anti-embryonic stem cell research, etc."

Sounds like my kind of guy!

And no Kmiec-style justifications needed to support him.

update: WaPo blog:

The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman today in Washington, a decision that came after an excruciating series of ballots that displayed a level of drama rarely seen in national politics.

On the sixth and final ballot Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77.

"It's time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them," Steele said after his victory. "This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself."

update 2: I love seeing outcomes so surprising that the media doesn't quite know how to handle it. Associated Press finally has a short breaking news update out the door.

Remember - you read it on AmP first!

update 3: FoxNews has his biography:

"He spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood, but ultimately chose a career in law instead."

I'm impressed.

Raw video: Pope Benedict Presented With a Lion Cub

Since Wednesday's Papist Picture of the Day from this meeting of Pope and Lion proved so popular, I figured you would like to see the raw video which captures the entire encounter:

Papa Benny obviously knows his way around cats (just look at the way he pets the lion cub) ... but at the same time, I can understand his wariness! Still, what a brave Papa.

Only Six Catholic Senators Vote "YEA" to Stop Tax Money from Funding Overseas Abortion

Embarassing:

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 37 to 60. The majority of Catholic senators rejected this pro-life amendment with only six of twenty-five Catholic senators supporting it.

The Mexico City Policy was first adopted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, was ended by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and then reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001. Obama's reversal of the Mexico City Policy was applauded by liberal abortion rights groups across the country. The name comes from the city where a U.S. delegation first announced the law at a UN International Conference on Population.

... Six of the eight Catholic Republican senators voted "YEA." These senators are Martinez (FL), Brownback (KS), Bunning (KY), Vitter (LA), and two newly elected Senators; Johanns (NE) and Risch (ID). {ONUG}

... and shame on the rest of them. They will be receiving letters from their bishops ... when?

Rumor: 400k Anglicans to be received back into the Church?

This is technically "blog fodder", but believable hear-say, and if true, incredibly significant:

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is reportedly recommending that the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) be offered the status of personal prelature. The Traditional Anglican Communion is a group of approximately 400,000 Anglican’s that have broken away from the Anglican Communion seeking to preserve their Anglo-Catholic traditions. They formerly requested entry into the Catholic Church in 2007. These reports are emanating from an Australian Catholic weekly called The Record. {American Catholic}

Catholic Online posts a qualification to its initial report:

Catholic Online promised to up date our readers on this extraordinary story. So, we now pass this on: The National Catholic Register cites a "Vatican Source" as saying that "nothing's been decided" by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Reports abound that the Congregation has recommended the creation of a personal prelature as the vehicle through which to receive the members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Register contends that an official at the Congregation spoke with their correspondent Edward Pentin today saying,“It’s something that has appeared on the blogosphere and then been reiterated, but the truth is nothing’s been decided.” We set forth our original story below believing that the sources reporting this exciting news and the history of the dialogue support its accuracy.

This move strikes me as entirely likely, and seems to fit within the general framework of what Pope Benedict has been doing to reach out to other communities who are "all-but-Catholic" (that "all-but" remaining an important destinction, of course). A revealing paragraph from the Register piece:

An announcement could be made soon after Easter this year. It is understood that Pope Benedict XVI, who has taken a personal interest in the matter, has linked the issue to the year of St Paul, the greatest missionary in the history of the Church. The Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls could feature prominently in such an announcement for its traditional and historical links to Anglicanism.

Excellent observations from American Catholic contributor Tito Edwards:

If this information is accurate, this is an incredible turn of events coming from the Vatican. First the motu proprio freeing the Tridentine Mass, the overtures to S.S.P.X., and now granting the Traditional Anglican Communion the status of a personal prelature, which only Opus Dei occupies thus far. With the Catholic Church change occurs over centuries, but with the Venerable Pope Benedict XVI he has dramatically altered the landscape of the Catholic Church within three short years.

What does this mean for traditionalists (High Anglicans) in the Canterbury based Anglican Communion? Possibly protection from heterodoxical bishops by entering the Catholic Church as a personal prelature or simply entering the Traditional Anglican Communion. This is going to create shockwaves all the way to Canterbury and the rest of the Anglican Communion throughout the world. It will definitely make the prelates of England and Wales cringe in fear to the thought of hundred’s of thousands of Anglicans entering their realm and bolstering the numbers of faithful and dedicated Catholics. It will also certainly create havoc for Katherine Jefferts Schori and her bishops in keeping The Episcopal Communion together here in the United States.

Regular AmP readers know that I tend to not quote at length unless I find everything being said valuable.

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/29/09

Today's Top Story: "Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Sacked"

When the Holy Spirit decides to descend on your nose ... it's just awkward.

[source: REUTERS/Tony Gentile (VATICAN)]

V is for Vigneron!

Yesterday, on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Bp. Allen Vigneron became the 5th Archbishop of Detroit.

EWTN has his homily text. Catholic blogger Dianne has local coverage, including photos. I thought it interesting to see Cardinal George standing next to Cardinal "under federal investigation" Mahony.

The Detroit Free Press also has a photo gallery of the installation Mass. Here's my favorite photo:

Gimme that ol' time apostolic succession!

Two random notes: Detroit has 1.4 million Catholics. Vigneron is a spry 60.

Local press coverage:

• Detroit Free Press (plenty!): Vigneron installed as new Detroit archbishop, Archbishop-designate Vigneron aims to defend teachings, build harmony, Vigneron to touch on faith, ethics, bonds in ceremony
• Detroit News: Archbishop Vigneron installed, Live God's will, new archbishop tells crowd

update: Diane has a magnificent photopost up, with many "behind-the-scenes" shots.

Video: Pelosi stammers about STD earmarks

On The CBS "Early Show" today:

I explain the backstory for Pelosi's bid to include $335 million in STD prevention earmarks here.

Face it, Pelosi, there's no reason to have this stuff in the bill except that you want to sneak more money to your pet causes and organizations..... immoral causes and evil organizations, I might add.

Where is (are) the bishop(s)?

Breaking: "Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Sacked"

After their valiant efforts to raise the funding, a disappointing rejection from NBC:

"NBC has refused to air CatholicVote.org’s new pro-life ad during its broadcast of this Sunday’s Super Bowl game.

According to a Jan. 28 press release from CatholicVote.org, “After several days of negotiations, an NBC representative in Chicago told CatholicVote.org today that NBC and the NFL are not interested in advertisements involving ‘political candidates or issues.’" (NCRegister.com]

Political candidates or issues? NBC is telling us there will be nothing aired during the Super Bowl that involves a political issue? No health care ads? Global warming ads? Unemployment ads?

You've got to be kidding me! What a double standard.

And you can bet they'll be other ads that feature or in some way make reference to Obama.

{update - You can watch the rejected pro-life ad here:}

Visit the Catholic Vote website here.

Recent AmP Topics

Yesterday was a very busy blogging day, so just in case you missed something:

• A very funny Papist Picture of the Day, if I do say so myself (submit your own, too!)
• An update on the latest SSPX/Israel/Vatican negotiations, and brief recent history
• I scratched my head about $335 million dollars earmarked for STD prevention
• For the curious, some AmP statistics, and a little opportunity for charity
• Like the AmP banner? You'll love what one of my readers discovered.
• Action item: Think FOCA is bad? Well, the Prevention First Act is even more dangerous

Tweet.

I couldn't resist....

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/28/09

Today's Top Story: Worse than FOCA: Prevention First Act

"ORDAIN ME!! RAWR!!"

[source: (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO)]

Breaking: Israel's chief rabbinate severs Vatican ties

This is a complicated story, but the latest development has become especially noteworthy:

Israel's chief rabbinate severed ties with the Vatican on Wednesday to protest a papal decision to reinstate a bishop who publicly denied 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

The Jewish state's highest religious authority sent a letter to the Holy See expressing "sorrow and pain" at the papal decision. "It will be very difficult for the chief rabbinate of Israel to continue its dialogue with the Vatican as before," the letter said. Chief rabbis of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews were parties to the letter.

The rabbinate, which faxed a copy of the letter to The Associated Press, also canceled a meeting with the Vatican set for March. The rabbinate and the state of Israel have separate ties with the Vatican, and Wednesday's move does not affect state relations.
Pope Benedict XVI, faced with an uproar over the bishop, said Wednesday he feels "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the full horror of the Nazi genocide.

The remarks were his first public comments on the issue since the controversy erupted Saturday. (AP)

Obviously there are many layers here, many different things going on at once.

I tend to dislike jumping into stories in "real-time" when there is a significant chance that a little more time will clarify the situation. In the meantime, I've been reading a lot of coverage which I'll quickly summarize from memory:

• the disputed Swedish TV interview, it appears, was conducted without the knowledge of the Holy See, so there's very little chance the excommunication-lifting announcement went forward with a knowledge that such an incendiary episode had recently taken place
• the relationship between the Holy See and the four bishops in question is not directly a Jewish-Christian dispute, but the comments in question have overflowed into it
• Bp. Bernard Fellay, the Superior General of the SSPX, has attempted to gag the offending Bp. Richard Williamson after his anti-semitic comments were made public. The SSPX is now faced internally with a very important decision as to which side they take in the debate
• My gut reaction is to say that Israel's Rabbis are not handling this affair well, and that Pope Benedict is doing his very best to save a situation complicated by disadvantaged intel

Hopefully that sheds some light on the situation.

(oh, and for those who are interested in the original question regarding the ins-and-outs of the original lifting of the excommunications, see Ed Peters' comprehensive treatment of the variables.)

Papists - please populate the comment box with thoughtful comments and links to informed opinion.

I'll be watching this story as it develops.

$335 *Million* dollars for STD prevention?

Here's what you have to understand: the Democrat leadership views the economic stimulus package as an unprecedented opportunity to sneak huge amounts of money to their private supporters.

Earlier this week, we tracked House Speaker Pelosi's attempt to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to Family Planning services (like Planned Parenthood). Well, thankfully, she failed (once it received a great deal of attention and became an embarrassment).

Today, Drudge reports:

The House Democrats' bill includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In the past, the CDC has used STD education funding for programs that many Members of Congress find objectionable and arguably unrelated to a mission of economic stimulus [such as funding events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received $698,000 in government funds.]

"Whether this funding has merit is not the question; the point is it has no business in an economic plan supposedly focused on job creation," says a stimulated Hill source.

The radioactive paragraph:

"(4) not less than $335,000,000 shall be used as an additional amount to carry out domestic HIV/ AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually-transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis prevention programs, as jointly determined by the Secretary and the Director."

Hopefully the same attention shown to this waste of money will result in an identical result: removal.

update: if you are looking for how to let your voice be heard, The Anchoress shows us how.

AmP is doing well

I checked my website-level statistics for AmericanPapist today and found:

• 130 visits in 2005
• 535,520 visits in 2006
• 774,450 visits in 2007
• 1,691,276 visits in 2008
  
  = 3,001,376 visits at the beginning of 2009

(Rats, I missed my chance for a 3-millionth visit party.)

And if current trends continue, AmP could well add an additional 3 million visits this year!

Other benchmarks:

• Google Reader Subscribers: 1,098
• Feedburner Subscribers: 168
• Bloglines Subcribers: 189
• AmP Facebook Fans: 1,078
• AmP Twitter Followers: 225

AMDG.

5 Ways to Support AmP

Who keeps my fingers rattling away? You do! Here's how:

1. Buy AmP gear (Shirts, Mugs, Stickers & more!)
2. Purchase a BlogAd (or contact me directly via email)
3. Use this Amazon link (I get a small percentage)
4. Paypal donation (on the sidebar, the orange button)
5. Send me stuff (Catholic books, CDs, movies, etc)

God Bless you.

Where I am right now

Hopefully attending this:

"Hudson Institute and the Ethics and Public Policy Center are pleased to welcome Archbishop Raphael Cheenath for a discussion on the state of religious freedom in India. Archbishop Cheenath was ordained as a Priest of the Society of the Divine Word in 1963 and was appointed as the Archbishop of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, in the region of Orissa, in 1985. Orissa has been at the center of violent attacks against Christians in recent months. Archbishop Cheenath is now working along with Protestant and Evangelical church leaders to bring peace and stability to the region."

I have blogged about the dire situation in Orissa before.

I'm very interested to hear what the Archbishop has to say.

"What the FOCA?"

Gets your attention, doesn't it?

It got my attention when I saw various people wearing these t-shirts at the March for Life this year. It became a bit of a "thing" for people to mutter the phrase throughout the day, as a way to voice disapproval.

Edgy, effective - excellent: http://www.whatthefoca.com/.

Picture: AmP Banner Cardinal with Ratzinger

One of the most common questions I get asked is: "Who's that cardinal on the AmP banner?"

The answer, as I say on the sidebar, is Franciszek Cardinal Macharski, Archbishop Emeritus of Krakow, on the day of Pope Benedict's election. A loyal AmP reader discovered a photo of Cardinal Macharski concelebrating Mass with Cardinal Ratzinger several years back:

Photo caption: "Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI since 2005) on May 10, 2003, during the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Stanislaus in Szczepanów, Poland. Picture taken by Marian Lambert and released under CC-BY license by Szamil (www.szczepanow.pl) - Wikipedia

Ph/t: AmP Reader Erik.

Picture: 30,000 attend West Coast Walk For Life

A beautiful sight:

Pro-life demonstrations coast-to-coast:

Thousands more turned out for the 2009 Walk for Life West Coast despite a chance of rain. No rain this year, but lots of enthusiasm and excitement as more than 30,000 walked from Justin Herman Plaza along the Embarcadero to Marina Green on Saturday, January 24. {More.}

God Bless them!

Worse than FOCA: Prevention First Act

This act, introduced three weeks ago, is more dangerous than FOCA because it is already in Congress.

{updated} Select things the Prevention First Act (PFA) will do:

• Make Title X (family planning) a permanent program and fund it at $700 million or more.
• Mandate that health insurance programs that cover prescriptions must cover abortifacient contraceptives.
• Create a government program to push abortifacient "Emergency Contraception."
• Take all federal money away from any hospital that refuses to administer the abortifacient Emergency Contraception to victims of rape.
• Create additional massive government funding for Planned Parenthood style sex education programs (abstinence-only programs are specifically excluded from funding).
  Permanently include family planning services as part of the Medicaid program.

"All of these programs will result in more babies being killed and more taxpayer money going to the largest abortion chain in the nation ? Planned Parenthood." - {Source.}

American Life League has a comprehensive overview of what this bill will bring about should it pass.

LifeNews also covered this story. They recommend contacting members of the U.S. Senate.

Ph/t: AmP Reader Fr. William.

Papist Quote of the Day

Bishop Robert Hermann, administrator of the Archdiocse of St. Louis, on recent elections and "lax Catholics":

"Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living." {More.}

Ph/t: AmP reader John, via The Deacon's Bench.

Pelosi didn't limit herself to promoting contraception to help the economy

AmP reader Gunnar with an excellent observation:

[Seaker Nancy Pelosi] didn't limit herself to "birth control" but referred to "family planning services" which we all know is a code word which includes the "service" of abortion. I think that this should be highlighted. Although she mentioned contraception specifically with reference to the bill, she seems to be advocating all family planning services as a way to reduce costs. I think that this is a way bigger scandal that people are making it out to be, not only because of the gravely immoral support of contraception but because of the endorsement of all "family planning services" as a way to reduce government costs, especially in light of her goal of pursuing universal government provided health care.

I couldn't agree more. Her radical promotion of contraception and abortion is gravely scandalous.

Did you know...?

From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:

In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass “For Peace and Justice” (no. 22 of the “Masses for Various Needs”) should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.

It's true.

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/27/09

Today's Top Story: Obama "personal appeal" may drop contraception money from stimulus plan

Banana Republic debuts a new zucchetto color for Spring 2009.

[source: (AFP/File/Pier Paolo Cito)]

AmP nominated for Best Political Blog

Well, this is frankly a surprise - AmP is already on the first page of this Blogger's Choice Award.

If you are already registered on the site, it's a quick click to vote for AmP. I'd appreciate it!

Amazing: "Woman gives birth to octuplets in SoCal hospital"

An amazing story, to be sure, and with a surprise:

A woman gave birth Monday to eight babies, only the second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours, doctors said.

The mother gave birth to six boys and two girls weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said. The hospital had scheduled a Caesarean section for seven babies, but doctors were surprised when an eighth came out at 10:48 a.m.

"My eyes were wide," Dr. Karen Maples said, explaining her reaction to the last birth. (AP)

My heart is saddened, however, by all the euphamisms for abortion used in the last paragraph:

It's easier to control the number of births through in vitro fertilization, which involves combining egg and sperm in a lab dish and transferring the embryo into the uterus. Fertility drugs induce or enhance ovulation and couples often opt for selective reduction, in which women carrying multiple fetuses reduce the number of viable fetuses to two.

Control the number, selective reduction, reduce....

kill.

Updated: Obama "personal appeal" *will* drop contraception money from stimulus plan

{post updated - see below}

Quite a development:

House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.

Several officials said a final decision was expected on Tuesday, coinciding with Obama's scheduled visit to the Capitol for separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans.

The provision has emerged as a point of contention among Republicans, who criticize it as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy. (AP)

Two initial reactions:

• It is gratifying (even encouraging) to see Obama willing to bend on such issues
• It is gratifying to see Pelosi's stupid justifications left out in the cold this time

I'll be watching this and related stories closely.

Nancy Pelosi still needs to be answered.

update: Good analysis from Ed Morrissey, along with news that Pelosi is backing down:

"Democrats thought they could sneak subsidies for Planned Parenthood into the stimulus package, and why not? After all, in a bill that will cost $825 billion, who’d notice? Unfortunately for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, George Stephanopolous did. After failing to explain how hundreds of millions of dollars in new contraception funding would stimulate anything except libidos and Democrats, Pelosi will reluctantly remove the provisions from the stimulus bill this morning...

... Reid and Pelosi wanted to toss hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, an important contributor to Democratic candidates and the party. It has nothing to do with economic stimulus; it has everything to do with political stimulus."

Meanwhile, over at the death-happy Feministing blog, typical cluelessness:

"It is clear that state spending on family planning services not only save the state money and time, but have greater long-term benefits for the health of our people."

How do contraceptives save money and time? Oh that's right, because abortions take money and time. Reproductive Health Reality Check is hopping mad, too:

"Women are screwed, the poor lose essential health care, the Republicans galvanize their nutcase base by removing contraception but will still run around playing the common ground card. Could it maybe have been a better idea to flip this tired script and show some muscle right now?"

Note how Pelosi, the Feministing blogger, and RHRC ... are all in complete agreement on this issue!

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/26/09

Today's Top Story: Video: Speaker Pelosi says birth control will help the economy

1. Pray One Our Father

2. Pray Ten Hail Mary's

3. Take Picture of the Pope

4. Pray One "Glory Be..."

[source: REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito (ITALY)]

Released: Pope's March travel plans in Africa!

The low-down: "The programme of Benedict XVI's forthcoming apostolic trip to Cameroon and Angola from 17 to 23 March was made public today."

Highlights:

• The Holy Father will meet with representatives of the Muslim community of Cameroon.
• He will pronounce an address before members of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
• He will meet with young people in the stadium of Coquieros.

Click here to see Pope Benedict's full announced itinerary. More from Whispers:

"Scheduled to depart Rome on 17 March, the seven-day trek will be evenly divided between the two West African countries, with the pontiff basing himself at the nunciatures in their respective capitals.

... All four major encounters -- the suffering, Muslims, the young and the women's movements -- will include papal addresses, as will separate meetings with the Cameroonian and Angolan bishops.

The longest journey of this pontificate to date in terms of public schedule, Benedict will return to Rome on Monday, 21 March.

A busy pope, and an urgent visit!

Msgr. Guglielmone to become bishop of Charleston

A rare Saturday appointment:

VATICAN CITY, 24 JAN 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father .... Appointed Msgr. Robert E. Guglielmone of the clergy of the diocese of Rockville Centre, U.S.A., rector of Saint Agnes Cathedral, as bishop of Charleston (area 80,401, population 4,254,000, Catholics 176,372, priests 141, permanent deacons 91, religious 192), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in New York in 1945 and ordained a priest in 1978.

More from Whispers.

Papist Quote of the Day

From an AFP article entitled "Vatican official accuses Obama of 'arrogance'":

"Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, one of a number of so-called pontifical academies which are formed by or under the direction of the Holy See."

*Ahem* - "so-called"?! That's exactly what it's called.

I guess any body that dares to criticize Obama's decisions must be relegated to "so-called" status.

Video: "Pelosi says birth control will help the economy"

{updated: video added below.}

What a fine example of a Catholic witness in public office:

... not!

The sordid details:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury.

The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy. (Drudge)

Pelosi has said so many stupid things before that I didn't think she could shock me still. Well, I was wrong.

What especially gets me about this statement is her obstinance ("No aplogies. No."). She makes no excuses for her radical contraceptive solution and doesn't even have the good taste to qualify her commitments for such bald-faced legislation. Instead, she's dead-set on this solution. An evil solution.

Once again, I can't help but note that she's long overdue for her promised sit-down with her bishop.

143 days, 5 hours, 02 minutes, 33 seconds....

update: even from an economic point of view, this advice is just plain stupid.

update 2 (video):

update 3: Bill Donohue:

"We have reached a new low when high-ranking public office holders in the federal government cast children as the enemy. But at least it explains their enthusiasm for abortion-on-demand."

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/25/09

"What, my pet cat Chico worries you?!"

[source: (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, HO)]

Breaking: Pope lifts excommunications of Lefebvrite bishops

CNS:

Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunication of four bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The move was considered a major concession to the archbishop's traditionalist followers.

The Vatican said the decree removing the excommunication, signed Jan. 21 and made public three days later, marked an important step toward full communion with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1970.

It said some questions remain unresolved with the society, including its future status and that of its priests, and that these issues would be the subject of further talks.

The entire CNS article is worth the read. See also:

• CNA: Pope Benedict lifts excommunication of Bishops ordained by Lefebvre
• UK Telegraph: Bishop Fellay salutes 'benevolent and courageous' Pope Benedict
• UK Holy Smoke blog: Pope Benedict is taking a huge risk in lifting the SSPX excommunications
• Associated Press

Thoughts?

update: an initial reaction from an informed canonical source.

Vatican 2.0: Pope Benedict gets his own YouTube channel!

As reported earlier:

Puffs of smoke, speeches in Latin and multipage encyclicals have all been used by the Vatican to communicate with the faithful. Now the pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining the wannabe musicians, college pranksters and water-skiing squirrels on YouTube.

In his inaugural YouTube foray Friday, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed viewers to this "great family that knows no borders" and said he hoped they would "feel involved in this great dialogue of truth."

"Today is a day that writes a new page in history for the Holy See," Vatican Radio said in describing the launch of the site, http://youtube.com/vatican (AP)

Let's see if we can embed the channel:

If not, enjoy this video (the most popular on the channel right now):

I'm *so* excited about this initiative! But they need to enable embedding at some point....

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/23/09

Get that Bavarian chocolate in before Lent begins!

[source: REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN)

Kmiec claims consideration for Vatican diplomatic post

Kmiec is in snug with Obama, as his university's newspaper is eager to make clear:

Pepperdine School of Law's Douglas Kmiec, professor of constitutional law and advisor to Obama's presidential campaign, was especially privileged with proximity to the new president during inauguration festivities. Following a national day of service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Kmiec and his wife Carol attended a private worship service with Obama on Tuesday morning, as well as the Illinois inaugural ball in the evening.

Oh, and that ambassador job he's denied having any interest in (underlining mine)?

Kmiec.... confirmed that Obama may be considering appointing him to the position of Vatican Emissary."The President is nowhere close to determining such things because of the order of events … everyone's first order of business is economic recovery," Kmiec said. "At the appropriate time, when diplomatic relations through the State Department need to be addressed, I think my name would be part of the discussion."

Well, I guess he actually was.

"Obama to Lift Ban on Overseas Abortion Funding"

As expected:

President Obama on Friday is expected to lift a ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Obama will sign the executive order one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

The move, long expected in the Democratic president's first week in office, will be welcomed by liberals and criticized by abortion rights foes.

The so-called Mexico City policy requires any non-governmental organization to agree before receiving U.S. funds that they will "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations." (FOXNews.com)

update: AP weighs in - not a single mention of the March for Life, of course.

AmP receives Pro-Life Instigator Award for Activism

This morning AmP recieved the "Pro-Life Instigator Award for Activism" in the American Life League's first Pro-Life Blog Awards.

I was able to attend their Blog Awards breakfast this morning (on my way to class - it's a busy week!) and would encourage anyone staying in DC after the march to visit their ongoing Personhood Now conference.

Also be aware of the Students for Life of America conference taking place at Catholic U.

At the March

I will be at the blogs4life conference in the morning, and on the National Mall during the March for Life.

I'll be sending up live updates via twitter here.

Multimedia coverage will be posted to AMP NEWS once we have a chance to edit it over the weekend.

Please pray for the unborn today in a special way.

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/21/09

At that moment, the servants were relieved that the pope did not choose beef for lunch.

[source: AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO - photo explained.]

The March for Life media blackout

The annual March for Life is the mainstream media's favorite event not to cover, as Get Religion notes.

That's one of the reasons why there's AMP NEWS. We'll be there.

Obama invited to March for Life

Nellie Gray sent the invite on behalf of the March organizers. Read her letter here.

Sen. Brownback & Rep. Rodgers to speak at blogs4life

The press release:

Senator Brownback is one of the foremost proponents of life within the Senate. He has been involved with extensive pro-life legislation in Congress including the sponsorship of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, which would require doctors to inform pregnant women that expert testimony shows that unborn babies can feel pain after 20 weeks. Rep. McMorris Rodgers has been a consistent advocate for the unborn throughout her time in Congress. She founded the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus and co-chairs the Congressional Women's Caucus which seeks to better the lives of women and families.

Details here. The Family Research Council is hosting an open house with coffee, muffins, etc and you can watch the conference on flatscreen TV's. If you're lucky, you may catch sight of me as well. ;-)

Pro-Life Protesters arrive at White House on Obama's first day

WashingtonTimes reports:

It's President Obama's first full day in office, day 2 of the first 100 days, and he already has protesters giving him grief.

About 50 people from a pro-life organization held crosses, each with a year written since Roe v. Wade.

Obama isn't here, but a man with a bullhorn shouted at him that change should mean an end to abortion.

Yeah I know, like, how annoying - *rolls eyes*.

CNA: Catholic college students to participate in March for Life en masse

Here they come:

Thousands of Catholic college students and faculty will participate in the National March for Life in Washington, DC this Thursday.

The March began in 1974, one year after the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide, and has drawn tens of thousands of protestors to the nation’s capital for decades.

Pre-eminent among the colleges participating in the March is the Front Royal, Virginia-based Christendom College, which has participated in the demonstration since 1974. It will bus all of its students to Washington, and for the third time will lead the March with its school banner.

Magdalen College’s entire student body will travel about 500 miles from Warner, New Hampshire to march for the second straight year. Students solicited donations for the trip. (More)

Is your school/youth group sponsoring a trip to the march?

Preparing for the 36th March for Life

In what little time is spared me around work and school today, I'll be preparing for tomorrow's March for Life.

I will be at the blogs4life conference in the morning, and then I'll be milling around the National Mall, conducting interviews and filimg roll for future AMP NEWS content, and twittering away all the while.

And afterwards, where else but the Dubliner?

{Check AmP regularly today and tomorrow for updates.}

Wee Believers: Mass Kits for Catholic Kids (er, Boys)

Thanks to AmP reader Shaina for alerting me to this website:

http://www.weebelievers.com/

They even sell toy mass kits! Now there's a way to promote early vocation awareness.

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/20/09

"People, take it easy,there's plenty of Cardinal to go around!"

[source: REUTERS/Henry Romero (MEXICO)]

Breaking: Kennedy Suffers Seizure at Inaugural Lunch

A traumatic day:

Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd both were removed for medical emergencies during President Obama's celebratory inaugural luncheon on Tuesday.

Kennedy suffered a seizure at the end of the lunch, and a Republican House leadership member said a series of convulsions lasted a while.

...Last summer, the Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. A source close to the event told FOX News that Kennedy smiled at his friend Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, indicating to both that he was OK. (Fox News)

{Full Text} Pope congratulates Obama on Inauguration Day

update ... the full text:

"On the occasion of your inauguration as the 44th President of the United States of America I offer cordial good wishes, together with the assurance of my prayers that almighty God will grant you unfailing wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high responsibilities.

Under your leadership may the American people continue to find in their religious and political heritage the spiritual values and ethical principles needed to cooperate in the building of a truly just and free society, marked by respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of its members, especially the poor, the outcast, and those who have no voice.

At a time when so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world yearn for liberation from the scourge of poverty, hunger, and violence I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding, cooperation, and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life which God wills to set for the whole human family (cf. Isaiah 25:6-7).

Upon you and your family, and upon all the American people, I willingly invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace."

Apropos words from Pope Benedict

In a recent private audience, copied to the Vatican Information Service with the title "Do Not Lose Hope in the Face of Threatening Clouds", the Holy Father said:

"A new year is beginning and we have many expectations and hopes. Yet we cannot hide the fact that many threatening clouds are gathering on the horizon. We must not, however, lose heart, rather we must keep the flame of hope alive in our hearts. For us as Christians the true hope is Christ, the Father's gift to humanity. ... Only Christ can help us build a world in which justice and love reign"."

Related: John Allen, "The Pope’s Real Message for Obama" (NYT, 12/18/08).

A needed moment of levity

Emails pop into my inbox almost by the minute it seems, and because I have a blackberry and can access mobile email, I'm almost always sure to find a few new messages waiting for me whenever I check my coat pocket.

This email subject line gave me a chuckle. It's from LifeNews editor Steven Ertelt:

"Obama Officials Confirm He Will Fund Foreign Abortions on Weed"

*Ahem*. Mr. Ertelt obviously meant "Wed".

And now, back to matters of substance....

Listed: President Barack Obama's Pro-Abortion Record

LifeNews.com Editor Steven Ertelt has been working overtime:

"The following is a complication of bill signings, speeches, appointments and other actions that President Barack Obama has engaged in that have promoted abortion before and during his presidency. While Obama has promised to reduce abortions and some of his supporters believe that will happen, this long list proves his only agenda is promoting more abortions." [See the list.]

No, I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I'm trying to remain hopeful despite the evidence.

And in contrast: "President Bush Will Leave Strong Pro-Life Legacy on Abortion, Bioethics"

Video: Hope for Inauguration Day {link fixed}

Here's my pick:

More info from the press release and at CatholicVote. Commentary from LifeNews here.

AmP appearance: Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN

For any of you early birds, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show with Brian Patrick this morning at 8:50AM or so EST. As I mentioned, their 7 o'clock hour is now on the EWTN Global radio network.

I'll primarily be discussing the March for Life, and possibly some recent AmP topics.

And yes, 8:50AM is "early" for me (at least on days that I have off from school and work, like today).

Photo Caption Call - 1/19/08

Even if you don't have a caption, you can rate your favorite captions (submitted by others) in the comment box.

Winning Caption: "Since we are in Ordinary time shouldn't he be wearing a GREEN t-shirt?" - Michael Thomas

View the winning caption from the last Photo Caption Call here.

[Source: Philosopher and Lover]

Video: ALL's Training And Activism 2009

If you are in town for the March for Life, check it out:

More info here. It's free!

Events: March for Life 2009

The Cardinal Newman Society has compiled a great list (items in bold I plan on attending):

• 1/21 Tenth Annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference at Georgetown featuring Robert George and Feminist for Life’s Serrin Foster
• 1/21 “Exposing the Truth of Abortion” talk and screening of Beyond the Dark Valley at the Catholic Information Center
• 1/21 March for Life Convention at Hyatt Regency
• 1/21 An Afternoon of Prayerful Remembrance and Intercession at the National Shrine Crypt Church
• 1/21 Solemn Vigil Mass for Life at the National Shrine
• 1/21-1/23 American Life League’s Rock for Life Training and Activism Week in Washington
• 1/22 Cardinal Newman Society Breakfast Briefing for officials of Newman Guide Colleges
• 1/22 Solemn Mass for Life at the National Shrine
• 1/22 Youth Rally, Confessions and Mass at the Verizon Center
• 1/22 The 36th Annual March for Life (Washington, D.C.)
• 1/22 Catholic Athletes for Christ post-March reception at Kelly’s Irish Times
• 1/22 Rose Dinner at the Hyatt Regency
• 1/23 Pro-Life lobby day on Capitol Hill with Concerned Women for America (CWA, 1015 15th St, NW, D.C.)
• 1/24 Students for Life of America (SFLA) conference and VIP Reception

Also, Thursday, January 22, 12:45 pm at the Catholic Information Center in downtown DC:

• A screening of Beyond the Dark Valley, a short film featuring compelling testimonies of many who have been devastated by abortion. (For more information and to view a trailer for the film, visit www.BeyondTheDarkValley.org.)
• Discussion moderated by Joyce Zeunis, radio talk show host.
• Author Jane Brennan discusses her book, Motherhood Interrupted, a collection of sixteen stories of healing and hope after abortion.

For more events and tips, see my post last week.

Report: Vatican to get own YouTube channel

Cool:

The Vatican will soon have its own channel on the video sharing site YouTube where the Catholic faithful or the curious will be able to see Pope Benedict or Church events, a Vatican source said on Saturday.

The details of the accord are due to be presented on Friday at a news conference attended by Vatican officials as well as Henrique de Castro, managing director of media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube.

The initiative will involve Google, the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio.

It will mark the Vatican's deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican opened up its website, www.vatican.va, in 1995. (Reuters)

I hope they friend AmericanPapist and AMPNews!

Prayers for Pope's latinist Fr. Reggie Foster

Father Reginald Foster is the Pope's principal Latinist, and his positive influence is immeasurable.

From AmP reader Vince (I've edited out some of what I consider personal medical details):

Reginald continues to have serious health problems, ever since his fall last June. He has basically been bed ridden ever since that incident I just returned from the hospital where I was allowed (after a two hour wait) to go in and see Reggie. He was not conscious, but he did open one eye slightly for a moment when I spoke to him. Some of you may be hearing this news from other sources, but I just wanted to make sure that you heard. Say a prayer for Reggie.

Amen.

update: Fr. Z is organizing a spiritual bouquet to send to Fr. Reggie.

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/18/09

"My dear brothers and ... oh rats, this is my homily from last week."

[source: (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino]

Sen. Biden given standing ovation at DC Mass

Jeff Miller puts this little escapade in the category of "things that make you scream":

"[Vice-President Elect Joe] Biden and his wife, Jill, sat in a pew reserved for him and his family toward the back of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and listened as the Rev. Larry Madden, S.J., delivered a sermon about God as a constant anchor and the promise of hope and change for those who believe.

".... Toward the end of the 11:30 a.m. Mass, as one of the lectors urged those in attendance to welcome new members and visitors, some in the congregation laughed and then applauded, looking toward Biden. He eventually stood and acknowledged the response that included a standing ovation. (AP)"

My initial reaction was to go "Puke! Gag!" - But let's try to think about this a little more seriously...

This episode perfectly illustrates the contrast between "identity Catholicism" and "conviction Catholicism." By these two phrases I mean:

• "identity Catholicism" reduces the term Catholic to a merely technical description: in this way Joe Biden is a Catholic. He was baptized, attends Mass, puts "Catholic" on his questionnaire.
• "conviction Catholicism" identitifies that one allows their Catholic faith to shape their life, and therefore one actually tries to abide by it, in this way Joe Biden is not a Catholic: He is woefully ignorant of what his own faith teaches (as his Meet the Press interview made crystal clear), and shows little desire to put his faith into action when it comes to issues as fundamental as safeguarding human life, for a start.

So what do I see when I am told about a Catholic congregation giving Joe Biden a standing ovation? People who care more about "identity Catholicism" than about "conviction Catholicism." Yes, Joe Biden is technically "Catholic" in identity, but is he a Catholic to single out for the his conviction in the faith?

We have lots of work to do.

Oh, and Holy Trinity is within walking distance of my new apartment. Politics makes for strange neighbors.

Krispy Kreme and A.L.L. spark online "Donut Wars"

A couple days ago I blogged about Krispy Kreme's unfortunate decision to offer free "Freedom of Choice" Donuts for Barack Obama's inauguration next week.

In response to KK's announcement, American Life League President Judie Brown released a statement:

"The unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that "choice" is synonymous with abortion access and celebration of 'freedom of choice' is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand."

After plenty of people voiced their non-appreciation of the charged phrasing to KK, the company released a statement which clarified: "On Election Day, November 4, 2008, Krispy Kreme ran a promotion that provided customers with one free star-shaped doughnut at stores nationwide. The Inauguration Day promotion is not about any social or political issue."

I take KK at their word. I think it was unfortunate how they decided to phrase their promotion, because the simple fact of the matter is that "freedom of choice" means something specific in this country's ongoing debate of ideas in the "culture wars."

Unwittingly, however (and here's where it gets interesting) Judie Brown's public comments have uncovered a cesspool of anti-life hate. It really takes your breath away. To my mind, this is a classic example of typically-unarmed (anti-life) combatants jumping at the opportunity to attack pro-life spokespersons.

And are they nasty. Take Jezebel (an online magazine of "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women"):

"The American Life League has finally discovered the secret, immoral ingredient that makes Krispy Kreme doughnuts so very addictive: fetuses. ... Freedom isn't really free, people, it takes thousands and thousands of aborted, dried up and reconstituted fetuses to make a single box of Krispy Kremes, and the American Life League is determined to stop this abomination!"

I guess Jezebel thinks it's being funny. So much for all people of good will agreeing that abortion is always a painful decision, etc. And of course, this isn't even close to ALL's actual point (I'll get to that).

Or similarly, Wonkette DC Gossip:

"Observe how they use that terrible code word “choice,” which in addition to meaning “being able to decide between one thing or another,” means “mandatory forced abortions for every citizen over the age of five”"

Hmm - which side is really exaggerating?

Or again, the Miami New Times blog:

"File this under "Overreactionary Wing Nuts" and another attempt of conservatives to redefine words for their political means (You can try to rewrite the Constitution, but not the dictionary). Of course, the "overreactionary libtard" counter to this is that conservatives want to demonize all choice from America until we're living under a fundamentalist dictatorship. A fundamentalist dictatorship without doughnuts."

This come-back is especially odd because "freedom of choice" is a liberal-invented euphemism for "abortion on demand" to begin with! Judie Brown is merely pointing out that "freedom of choice" has taken on a specific connotation tied to abortion rights (and other false "rights") and that we should sedulously avoid incorporating it into our common parlance.

But why do I even bother making these finer points? I can't help but think these would be completely lost on the three authors I quote above (and believe me, a blog search shows dozens of anti-lifers gleefully following suit).

This all is just a small taste of what pro-life activists have to put up with, ideologically and rhetorically, on a regular basis. I'm told that Judie Brown has been sent letters threatening her life, and that she's even been accused of racism (huh?!).

We can thank these "donut wars" for giving us a devastatingly-revealing view into the mindset of these opponents of life, a sad glimpse into their hatred and incivility, and a better appreciation of their uncanny ability to miss the point, and then mock the people whose message they are missing.

I mean, come on, did they really think it was just about some stupid donuts?

AmP Goals (Get Involved!)

Are you looking for an excuse to stay indoors, away from the cold, and have some time to spare?

You could:

• Vote for AmP in the '09 Blogger's Choice Awards (AmP is only 21 votes away from the Top 3)
• Join the official AmP Facebook Fanpage (AmP is only 25 people away from breaking 1,000)
• Follow me on Twitter (and get semi-frequent updates - hey, 172 people find that interesting)

There now! You've managed to burn away a little of your Saturday. ;-)

update: wow! A great response....

• AmP has now jumped to 4th place in the '90 Blogger's Choice Awards
• The official AmP Facebook Fanpage now has over 1,000 members
• Quite a few more people are now getting my updates on twitter

thanks!

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/16/09

But hey, vhatever, don't listen to me - it'z not like I'm zhe pope, ya know??

[source: REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN)]

What do 48,000 people have in common?

They all visited AmP in the last two weeks.

Do you have something you want to tell them?

Update: Catholic Bishops Bash ACLU Lawsuit

I reported on this disturbing development earlier in the week.

Now the bishops are responding:

The nation's Catholic bishops are bashing an ACLU lawsuit against the Bush administration to make them provide abortions for victims of sex trafficking. The pro-abortion law firm sued the Department of Health and Human Services saying it shouldn't let the USCCB prohibit abortions for those women.

.... In a statement sent to LifeNews.com on Thursday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said the ACLU lawsuit is "without merit and an affront to religious liberty."

Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Migration and Refugee Services, said the ACLU would only further exploit women by making the USCCB work with abortion businesses.

.... Wester told LifeNews.com that the lawsuit would hurt, not help, trafficking victims and would violate the First Amendment religious liberty rights of the USCCB.(LifeNews)

Suit up, folks, there's more to come I'm sure.

STDs still on the rise, report says

What, sexual profligacy has consequences?!

In spite of prevention efforts, new cases of some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases are going up, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

.... Based on the report and her own observations, it's safe to say that some of the prevention efforts are not working, Wimberly said. New, innovative methods will be required to get through to this generation of young people, for whom text messaging and the Internet are integral parts of daily life. (CNN)

Abstinence is a pretty darn good prevention method. Plus it's a simple message to text someone.

Update: USCCB Rep Corrects Incorrect Novena Email on FOCA

LifeNews:

If you're a pro-life Catholic, chances are you've seen the email that has been widely circulated across the Internet seeking prayers to stop the radical FOCA bill. While the email is accurate concerning how the Freedom of Choice Act will make abortion on demand the national law, there is one big error.

I pointed out that one big error a couple days ago.

Looking for a traditional Mass during the March for Life?

Look no further than the National Basilica:

AmP reader Sr. Miriam: "The extraordinary form of the Mass will be in the Lourdes Chapel at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, 2009."

I'm sure there will be others as well scattered about.

Krispy Kreme Celebrates Obama with Free “Freedom of Choice” Donuts

The doughnut giant released the following statement yesterday (underlining mine):

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet "free" can be.

Commentary from ALL President Judie Brown.

Even though I walk right by a Krispy Kreme every day, I'll have readers know that AmP runs on dunkin'.

NY plane crash "a miracle on the Hudson"

Amazing:

A cool-headed pilot maneuvered his crippled jetliner over New York City and ditched it in the frigid Hudson River on Thursday, and all 155 on board were pulled to safety as the plane slowly sank. It was, the governor said, "a miracle on the Hudson." One victim suffered two broken legs, a paramedic said, but there were no other reports of serious injuries.

The US Airways Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds just after takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, apparently disabling the engines.

The pilot, identified as Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III of Danville, Calif., "was phenomenal," passenger Joe Hart said. "He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn't a whole lot more than a rear-end (collision). It threw you into the seat ahead of you.

"Both engines cut out and he actually floated it into the river," he added. (AP)

Great piloting, and some special angelic assistance. What a cold day to be waiting in the water!

Papist Picture of the Day - 01/15/09

Hi little guy are you ready for your bless - WOW IS THAT A QUARTER?!

[source: REUTERS/Chris Helgren (VATICAN)]

Breaking: Vatican report on US Seminaries released

CNS is first to press:

An apostolic visitation team concluded that U.S. Catholic seminaries and houses of priestly formation are generally healthy, but recommended a stronger focus on moral theology, increased oversight of seminarians and greater involvement of diocesan bishops in the formation process."

This visitation has demonstrated that, since the 1990s, a greater sense of stability now prevails in the U.S. seminaries," the report said. "The appointment, over time, of rectors who are wise and faithful to the church has meant a gradual improvement, at least in the diocesan seminaries."

The report, sparked by the sexual abuse crisis that hit the U.S. church, concluded that seminaries appeared to have made improvements in the area of seminarian morality, most notably with regard to homosexual behavior.

"Of course, here and there some case or other of immorality -- again, usually homosexual behavior -- continues to show up," the report said. "However, in the main, the superiors now deal with these issues promptly and appropriately."

The report was dated Dec. 15 and signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, head of the Congregation for Catholic Education, which deals with seminaries. It was published on the Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to coincide with National Vocation Awareness Week, which began Jan. 12.

You can read the entire report here online (warning: PDF file).

The Catholic Key has early, and helpful commentary.

AP writes about big, scary "secret Vatican confession tribunal"

The AP decided to celebrate Halloween in January I guess with a story entitled "Vatican secret confession tribunal opens up". It begins:

"One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history."

Shock! Horror!

"Confessions of even the most heinous of crimes and sins — such as genocide or mass murder — are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal.

Its work involves those sins that are reserved for the pope — considered so serious that a local priest or bishop is not qualified to grant absolution, said Cardinal James Francis Stafford, an American who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary."

Eeek! Gasp!

"Taking up nearly an entire city block, it is just steps away from one of Rome's most profane piazzas — Campo dei Fiori, filled with bars catering to tourists and college-age Americans studying abroad."

Oh the humanity!

... so okay, the Vatican has a tribunal that deals with absolving very grave sins. It's called the Apostolic Penitentiary, but don't let the name fool you: sins are kept here (for a time), not sinners. And yes, because many of the crimes in question involve the sacrament of confession, it's not surprising that the subject matter is often kept, well, secret.

Oh yeah, and Italians don't go to confession much. That's a problem too, but it has nothing to do with the Apostolic Penitentiary. And it's pretty clear to me that the AP reporter (with visions of Dan Brown running through his head, no doubt) was just looking for material to fill-out his spook piece on the big, bad Vatican A.P., and chose the topic of promoting the sacrament of confession.

The ironic thing, of course, is that the Apostolic Penitentiary is actually a tribunal of mercy (not of punishment), that dispenses forgiveness from God for these horrible crimes according to the laws of the Church. The Apostolic Penitentiary is one of the few tribunals that keeps running even when the Pope is dead and a new one has not yet been elected - because the Church continues to dispense to mankind the means of salvation even when she is without a visible head.

Robinson to invoke "God of many understandings" at Obama invocation

AmP reader Ed listened to Gene Robinson on NPR:

Robinson a) assures the interviewer that he was not selected to offset the Warren selection and b) remarks how shocked he was that the invocations of the last 30-40 years are "aggressively Christian." He has no intention of invoking the name of Jesus; rather, he will invoke the "god of many understandings."

The summary from All Things Considered:

"The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, has been chosen to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's kickoff inaugural event Sunday. Robinson says he doesn't think Obama picked him to balance the selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who angered gay-rights supporters with his support of the ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California."

On a related note, I read in a local Washington paper today what I found confirmed online: "For the first time, a gay and lesbian band will be marching in a presidential inauguration." (They are actually LGBT, if it matters.)

So let's review: Robinson and gay bands are welcome, but Catholic clergy aren't even invited.

Is this the change we need?

More anti-Catholicism in San Francisco

What makes it especially bad is that in San Francisco, it's the local government doing the persecuting:

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story today on San Francisco City Assessor Phil Ting's attempt to squeeze millions from the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco in the form of Real Estate Transfer Tax. The unprecedented action is looking a lot like payback against the archdiocese for its support of Proposition 8.

.... The City government has a history anti-Catholicism which has only become more strident, and politically advantageous, since the passage of Proposition 8. Mayor Gavin Newsom excoriated the Catholic Church and the archdiocese during a tirade at what was supposed to be a Mayor's Prayer Breakfast with religious leaders, including Archbishop Niederauer. The Mayor, according to reports, got a standing ovation.

... Any clear-eyed observer might view this action by Ting, who's rumored to want the Mayor's chair after Newsom, as pandering to the anti-Catholic sentiment of voters in San Francisco.

[More from the Catholic Key.]

I'd be interested to hear what the Archdiocese has to say. If they want support, they should ask for it.

Catholics shunned at Obama Inauguration

Here in DC it seems that everyone and his brother is coming into town for the Inauguration of Barack Obama.

Well, actually, scratch that. It seems that Catholic clergy aren't being invited to the official events:

Steven Waldman of Beliefnet.com notes that Catholic clergy are conspicuously absent from Barack Obama’s selection of religious leaders invited to participate in his inauguration.

.... While all four of Obama’s picks are Protestants — albeit ones with highly disparate doctrinal outlooks — Beliefnet’s Waldman points out that before 1990 it was routine to include a Catholic representative among clerical inauguration invitees.

.... We suspect Obama’s omission of a Catholic participant was a whole lot more intentional than that. This year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver also notably excluded an invitation to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, unlike invitations extended at previous conventions to bishops such as Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles at the DNC in 2000 held in that city.

Why the contemporary reluctance among Democrats to grant Catholic bishops a voice at functions they have organized? Perhaps it’s because they fear that virtually any Catholic bishop they invite will call the nation’s attention to the Democratic Party’s failure to respect the sanctity of life of the unborn, because of the party’s formal commitment to the promotion of abortion rights. (Tom McFeely at National Catholic Register)

Considering how null Obama's personal outreach was to Catholics during his campaign, I'm not surprised we're not being invited to the table now. Our commitment to protecting unborn life would be an awkward sign of contradiction at the festivities, and a reminder that going ahead into the future, there are still issues that deeply (and tragically) divide us.