The brutal reality of abortion….. February 11, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, horror, sickness, Society.comments closed
….and the casual acceptance of horror it has visited on our civilization. I wish I could write like Mark Steyn:
Viable babies were born*. Gosnell killed them by plunging scissors into their spinal cords. He taught his staff to do the same.
This is a remarkable moment in American life: A man is killing actual living, gurgling, bouncing babies on an industrial scale – and it barely makes the papers. Had he plunged his scissors into the spinal cord of a Democrat politician in Arizona, then The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC and everyone else would be linking it to Sarah Palin’s uncivil call for dramatic cuts in government spending. But “Doctor” Kermit Gosnell’s mound of corpses is apparently entirely unconnected to the broader culture.
Oh. Well, “Dr” Gosnell’s just one rogue abortionist. How about the “right to choose” over at Planned Parenthood? There are a whole range of choices – not so much for the illegally smuggled underage foreign sex slave, but at least for her pimp. If you’re a middle-aged guy running a child-sex business, you have the “right to choose” what’s best for that 13-year old Venezuelan hottie you brought over a couple weeks back. As the Falls Church clinic assures him:
We don’t necessarily look at the legal status, like I said.
That’s good to know. With Planned Parenthood aiding and abetting child prostitution, my friend Rich Lowry argued that the back alley is back:
Legal abortion was supposed to end “back-alley abortions,” both their dangers and their entanglements with shady characters. But the practice and the mores of the back alley are with us still, tolerated by people for whom the ready provision of abortion trumps all else.
Rich is right. Ever since Roe v Wade, proponents of a woman’s “right to choose” have warned us against going back to the bad old days of rusty coat hangers and unsterilized instruments from money-grubbing butchers on the wrong side of town. Now, happily, the back alley is on the main drag, and with a state permit framed on the wall. In Philadelphia:
Furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments were not properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not disposed of; they were reused, over and over again. Medical equipment – such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse oximeter, the blood pressure cuff – was generally broken; even when it worked, it wasn’t used. The emergency exit was padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags and plastic jugs, were fetal remains. It was a baby charnel house.
In New Jersey:
The Department of Health and Senior Services investigated the abortion facility and found dirty forceps, rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs, and a quarter-inch of dirt and debris under an examining table.
The back alley is back, and supersized: The above New Jersey clinic performs 10,000 abortions a year. When the pro-choice rally ends and Cameron Diaz, Ashley Judd and other celebrities d’un certain age return to Hollywood, and the upper-middle-class women with the one designer baby go back to their suburbs, a woman’s “right to choose” means that, day in, day out, the blessings of this “right” fall disproportionately on all the identity groups the upscale liberals profess to care about – poor women, black women, Hispanic women, undocumented women, and other denizens of Big Government’s back alley.
A government back alley, licensed and supposedly regulated, is worse than the old kind, because it implies the approval of the state, and of society. That’s what Gosnell thought he had, when he murdered those babies and mutilated those teenage girls. That’s what Planned Parenthood think they have, when they facilitate the sexual exploitation of Third World children. And, given the silence of the PC media, maybe they’re right. Aside from the intrinsic evil of not only Gosnell but a state that knowingly colludes with him, these “little” abortion stories reveal an almost totalitarian mindset in the “pro-choice” movement’s determination to brook no intrusion of reality upon the official myths. You may be one of those wealthy suburban “feminists” or “new men” indifferent to the fate of eight-pound “blobs of tissue” or 14-year old “women”, but the gulf between propaganda and truth, between the fatuous feelgood bumper stickers and the rusty crochet hooks, is profound – and, in a world where statists and social engineers serve as ruthless enforcers for the prevailing ideology, its deep moral corruption will eventually swallow you, too.
I am so sick of the lies of the abortion industry. Every word out of their mouth is a lie. Pro-aborts are the most fundamentally dishonest people I have ever met.
Time to chill….. February 11, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Art and Architecture, awesomeness, Basics, General Catholic.comments closed
…..I’ve worked up enough oh-so-righteous indignation for a while……time to chill and enjoy som beautiful Catholic art. Don’t want to spoil the weekend, after all! I’m going to be out a couple of days – God bless you all, especially you, WL (or JB)!
There’s an even better version of this picture some where, but I can’t find it. I love it.
I’ll replay a couple of oldies since we’ve been on the subject of sin, death, and judgement:
Oh noes, I ruined the mood!
Sister Keehan continues to equivocate February 11, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, foolishness, General Catholic, religious, sadness, scandals, Society.comments closed
A few weeks ago, it appeared that St. Carol Keehan, the head of the Catholic Health Association that was a close confidant of Obama and was key in getting Obamacare passed, in spite of the opposition of the bishops, was trying to get back on the bishop’s good side after another troubling incident – her seeming statements that Catholic hospitals had every right to perform abortions if they felt there was a medical need, in spite of a local bishop’s opposition in Phoenix. After these disturbing events, Sr. Keehan tried to smooth things over by claiming to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the head of the USCCB, that, oh yes, of course CHA is totally, completely loyal to the bishop’s conference and all local bishops, and of course the local bishop always has the right to determine what services can be offered in a Catholic hospital in his diocese when those services affect the moral doctrine of the Faith. They would never doubt that or go there own way, no sir, never!
Well. It turns out, Sr, Keehan only made those statements for the bishop’s benefit, and felt those conversations where she feigned loyalty and observance of the legitimate Authority of the local ordinary because she thought those conversations would be private. Once they became public, Sr. Keehan rapidly changed her tune in two separate interviews, where she stated, to the effect “of course the bishop always has the authority to determine what constitutes morally acceptable services offered in our hospitals, but we are free to disagree with the bishop if we feel it necessary!” There’s a ringing endorsement for adherence to Authority! Want to see the equivocations in her own words, here you go:
In her January 18 letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the US bishops’ conference, Sister Keehan appeared to affirm that Catholic understanding of episcopal authority:
CHA has always said to sponsors, governing board members, manager and clinicians that an individual Bishop in his diocese is the authoritative interpreter of the ERDs. We explain that a Bishop has a right to interpret the ERDs and also to develop his own ethical and religious directives if he chooses.
Again the words seem clear. But within days the CHA president was singing a different tune:
But Sister Keehan told Our Sunday Visitor that even though CHA didn’t agree with Bishop Olmsted’s assessment, they have always believed strongly in the importance of following the ERDs and in the bishops’ authority to interpret them.
A few more equivocations from Sr. Keehan:
The public statements of Sister Keehan cannot stand up to even rudimentary logical analysis. But perhaps logical consistency was not her goal. In her letter to Archbishop Dolan, she sought to calm the fears of American bishops that the CHA was disregarding their authority. (It is revealing that she told America she did not expect that letter to become public.) In her subsequent public statements she has sought to reassure her supporters that she is not buckling under episcopal pressure.
By the way, Sister Keehan displayed her talent for equivocation again in her conversation with Our Sunday Visitor, when she tried to explain why the CHA has thrown its support behind the Protect Life Act, now pending before Congress. The Protect Life Act is designed to eliminate the funding for abortion that was contained in the Obama health-care reforms—which the CHA strongly supported, in spite of the US bishops’ opposition. During the debate on ObamaCare, the CHA argued that the bill did not provide taxpayer support for abortions; now the group is endorsing a bill that would eliminate that support. How can the contradiction be resolved?
“We are not supporting [the bill] because we think there was federal funding of abortion in the Affordable Health Care Act,” she said. “But we support anything that advances and strengthens our pro-life agenda.”
Not coincidentally, the “pro-life agenda” of the CHA failed to coincide with that of the US bishops last year, when the bishop encouraged opposition to the sweeping legislation that the CHA endorsed. Now the CHA has endorsed the Protect Life Act in an obvious bid to mend its tattered pro-life credentials. And Sister Keehan has written to Archbishop Dolan to mend the CHA’s tattered claim of loyalty to the American hierarchy.
Sr. Keehan, as I have said repeatedly, wants to have it exactly her way. When it suits the very profitable non-profit hospitals of CHA, she feigns loyalty to the Magisterium. When it doesn’t, she doesn’t. It’s as simple as that. I find it impossible to view CHA, or its member hospitals, as being faithful to the Doctrine of the Church. They operate according to their own “principles” and their own agenda. Until something drastic happens to change the direction at CHA, and especially with its leadership, they will have no credibility with me.
Voris expands on the need to have the Truth proclaimed – and I rant AGAIN! February 11, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, North Deanery, sadness, scandals.comments closed
So many Catholics are living, or have lived, lives that are contrary to that which is pleasing to God. I have definitely done so myself, in many ways, and have made more than one general confession to address these failings. Watch the below, and then I have some additional information and food for thought:
People must hear the Truth, all of it, no matter how much it hurts, how mad they get, or whatever the consequences are. I was wondering last night, is this refusal to tell the Truth an indication of too little faith in God, or too much concern for the affairs of man? If we have complete trust in God and His Will, we should proclaim the Truth he has revealed through His Church boldly, at all times, and let God handle the consequences. This doesn’t mean we should speak uncharitably, but we should – must – have great conviction, and trust in God that even if folks get mad, even if they leave the parish for a while, this Truth will work in their lives and God will move them to come back. We can’t play God, and say “we won’t talk about abortion/contraception/divorce and remarriage/homosexuality/adultery because that will make people mad, and then they might leave, contributions will drop, etc.” That’s putting ourselves in the role of God, deciding what the Truth is, or at least, what Truth will be declared in our parishes, and censoring those topics that are just too difficult for modern Catholics to deal with.
There is another factor. Repentance is the key to drawing nearer to God. All of us sin – not just occasionally, all the time (unless we’re a great Saint in making, which, there aren’t too many of). Christ will forgive our sins, if we confess them and try to set our hearts against our sins. He knows we will fail alot – near constantly. But He will continue to forgive us if we keep trying to put our lives right, to confess, to receive that Grace that flows from the Sacraments, and gradually (God Willing) improve our lives. But so few Catholics go to confession today. This is partly their own fault, and partly a systemic fault of the Church today, especially in this country, especially in so many of our parishes – right here, in this diocese. I have been reviewing the amount of Confession time various parishes in the Diocese have – looking at 29 parishes, I found the average amount of time for Confession is 1.5 hours per week. That’s 78 hours per year. If each confession takes only 3 minutes, which is being very generous, since most take more, that would allow a parish to hear 1560 confessions a year. A number of parishes also have large confessional gathering during Lent and Advent, where a bunch of priests may hear 1000 confessions in a night. So, I’ll add 2000 more confessions to that number – 3560 confessions are heard each year in the ‘average’ Dallas parish. Given that we have parishes with “membership” ranging in the tens of thousands, that’s a paltry amount of Confessions heard. At best, even some of our smallest parishes only have enough confession time for each parishioner to avail themselves of that Sacrament once a year. There are parishes in this diocese who have 6-7000 people assisting at Mass every Sunday – and yet they have one or two hours of Confession per week. Of course people won’t avail themselves of a Sacrament if it’s never talked about during Mass, if it is given only one inconvenient hour per week (10-11a on Thursday – who can go then?), and if people are not instructed in sin, death, and judgement. There are 3 or 4 parishes I found that do a better job of highlighting Confession as a needed Sacrament (but even these could probably do better), but most have 1 or 2 hours per week.
In times past, priests spent more time in the Confessional than almost any other task. St. John Vianney, St. Joseph Cafasso, these men, and many others, LIVED in the confessional, and now they are Saints. Being in the Confessional can have many practical benefits for priests – they can become more aware of the trials the people in their care are laboring under, they will become aware of shortcomings in the understanding of the Faith, and they will receive more Grace from God because they dispense more Grace! Confession should be an ongoing, daily activity for priests, not something that occurs once a week when time can be carved out from overseeing the $5 million budget and the meetings with the 27 different parish ministries. And people need to be told to come! Not once a year, not twice, but regularly, monthly, weekly, maybe even daily if they are in the process of seriously amending their lives! We should have Confession during Mass when there is more than one priest at a parish, we should have Confession especially for hours on Friday and Saturday leading up to Sunday Mass! The more people go to Confession, the more Grace they will receive, the more they will become aware of sin, and even the causes of sin, in their lives, and the greater chance they have of becoming more serious about their faith and amending their lives!
The Catholic Faith is not easy. It’s very challenging – there are times when the Faith requires us to drastically change our lives in very apparent ways (goodbye, pron n beer n pills!), and there are times when it requires more subtle, interior changes. But it is the One True Faith instituted by Jesus Christ on earth for the salvation of souls and the living of lives that will have true joy, peace, charity, and hope! It is such an august, awesome Instrument, it is the Bride of Christ and should be adorned always with complete Truth and Beauty.
I would love to have to chastise myself for getting impatient waiting an hour to get into the Confessional – that would be so awesome! See, I’m selfish – I want confession so much because I NEED it so much! Another thing to confess! Yay!
Some probably far more effective words on Confession from Fr. Christopher Phillips:
Over the years of his life, a priest hears many thousands of confessions. It is one of the great privileges given to a priest, to pronounce the words of absolution which free a penitent from those chains which have bound him. There is perhaps no other time that the priest feels so deeply the sense of that fatherhood which gives him his title. A child of God speaks the words, “Bless me, father, for I have sinned…” and in the quiet of the confessional the power of Christ is stirred for the renewal of the soul. That which was broken is healed. What was so heavy at the time of coming is lifted. It is its own magnum mysterium as new birth is once more imparted to the penitent. The divine hears through the human ear. The fruits of Calvary are applied, and the waters of baptism flow once again over the sullied soul. In the confessional we are made young again. As a child is brought to the font, so the soul is presented to our Lord for Him to do His work. And when it is done, those happy words: “Go in peace, for the Lord has taken away your sins.”
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