Doubling Down – Dallas Ursuline nuns defend Gates’ contraception campaign May 10, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, asshatery, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, religious, sadness, sickness, Society.comments closed
And Gates describes them as “incredibly progressive,” which I know will shock most readers. A note to parents, some photos below of Ursuline girls may be scandalous:
A group of Ursuline nuns whom billionaire Melinda Gates had claimed in a recent speech supports her campaign to inject tens of millions of women in impoverished countries with Depo-Provera and other contraceptive drugs, has issued a statement defending Gates and the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while simultaneously claiming to support Catholic moral teaching.
Gates recently told Newsweek that the nuns at the Ursuline Academy of Dallas, where she once attended school, were delighted to hear about her plans to initiate a global contraceptive campaign and contacted her to tell her: “We’re all for you. We know this is a difficult issue to speak on, but we absolutely believe that you’re living under Catholic values.” [Then, these sisters – not nuns – have a faulty, even apostate understanding of “Catholic values.”]
Nothing says Catholic like showing some leg
“It was just so heartening,” Gates said of the phone call, which she says the Ursuline nuns made to her hotel room in Berlin, where she had just announced her intentions at a TEDxChange conference in early April.
In a statement on the matter issued yesterday to “employees, parents, students, alumnae, and other members of our school community” and obtained by LifeSiteNews.com, [Ursuline] Academy President Margaret Ann Moser says that the nuns are “proud of Melinda French Gates, her dedication to social justice, her compassion for the underserved, and the great work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.” [Work that includes things completely antithetical to the Faith, such as the widest possible distribution of contraception. I should also note the truly demonic plan to formulate chemical contraception cocktails into vaccines, to be issued even without people’s knowledge, but Bill and the very Catholic Melinda Gates know what is best for you. I must wonder if the “new contraceptive technologies” Gates mentioned in the post I did yesterday could include these new vaccines. Imagine being given the choice – you can vaccinate your child against measles, mumps, etc, but it will make them sterile. Forced sterilization has occurred to millions of women in the Third World, often with US funding. Of course, chemical contraception also frequently induces abortion]
Moser – the spittin’ image of a nun!
“Melinda Gates leads from her conscience, and acts on her beliefs as a concerned citizen of our world,” adds Moser, explaining, “The mission of Ursuline Academy of Dallas is to educate young women for such leadership.” [that is a pretty strong endorsement. She is basically saying that we think what she is doing is great, and find nothing to criticize. I am certain she is held up as a role model for the girls at Ursuline – Moser just endorsed her. What kind of Catholic Faith will the present generation of girls at Ursuline then develop? A false faith, a faith that rejects core beliefs, like Gates? It’s a virtual certainty that most will]
While claiming that “Ursuline is committed to the moral and doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church” and recognizing that “Melinda’s beliefs on birth control are different from those of the Catholic Church,” the sisters nonetheless say they “respect her right” to “speak from her research and experience of the world we live in.” [Well, then you are liars, and you aren’t committed to the Dogma of the Faith regarding contraception and abortion. You cannot issue statements supportive of a person pursuing an agenda antithetical to the Faith, and then turn around and say you support that Faith. It’s a lie. Shame on these twisted sisters]
The nuns do not address Gates’ claim that they endorsed her contraceptive campaign. [Of course they don’t. They either don’t believe what the Church believes, or they don’t want to offend a huge donor, or likely both] Spokeswoman for the Ursuline Academy of Dallas told LifeSiteNews.com that “Ursuline Academy is not participating in interviews or other discussion of Ms. Gates’ remarks or the statement. The attached statement is the extent of Ursuline’s comment at this time.”….[What cowards…….]
Ursuline drill team.
Appropriate for little Catholic girls?
…When an interviewer at the Berlin TEDxChange conference asked Gates if the Ursuline nuns “are going to be horrified, or are they cheering you on?” regarding her campaign, Gates responded: “Well, I know they’re going see the TED Talk, because they know that I’m doing it, and I plan to send it to them. And, you know, the nuns who taught me were incredibly progressive.” [of all the things a nun should be, progressive is about the very last]
I suggest you contact the Diocese about this. This is simply unacceptable. Catholics have the right to know that their children are being taught the Faith in the Catholic schools Bishop Farrell has made such a priority. I think we have dump trucks full of evidence that they don’t, that the progressivism, as Gates says, is deeply ingrained, and that the Faith is constantly repudiated or trivialized.
You can contact the following folks about this:
Vicar General, Greg Kelly: gkelly@cathdal.org 214-379-2826
Elsa Espinoza, Secretary to Bishop Farrell: eespinoz@cathdal.org 214-379-2816
Mary Edlund Chancellor, Dallas Diocese chancellor@cathdal.org 214-379-2819 [Don’t expect much sympathy, here!]
I thought seriously about doing something very stupid here, but stopped myself at the last minute. I am too dumb to know certain things!
I love this review of Ursuline on Judy’s Book. I think it says it all:
Ursuline is a great girls school. It is nominally Catholic, but don’t let that hold you back if you don’t happen to be part of the Catholic Church. You can still send your child there are there will be no problem. The environment can be a little cut-throat with all those girls competing to be the best, but it is still a good place to be. [Nothing says “Catholic school” to me like some good ol’ cutthroat competition. It actually sounds like a very WASPy (I can say that, I am one) prep school, dudn’t it? Kidding aside, this place sounds like the apotheosis of the problems in “Catholic” education since the Council – secular, materialist, and devoid of the Faith] The teachers and classes are very very good and the extracirriculars are good. Classmates often stay friends for a long time
h/t reader Janet!
Attacked by tolerance May 10, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, persecution, sadness, sickness, Society, Tradition, unadulterated evil, Virtue.comments closed
“Liberal tolerance” – I think it an oxymoronic cliche by now. I fear it is only going to get worse. I stand by my statements in the previous post. But there is a growing minority in this country who have no experience of the Christian religion outside hateful caricatures in the media, and who have a more and more open antipathy themselves.
As I have said in the past, so-called gay marriage, as with gay-directed “hate crimes” legislation and other efforts, will be the vehicle of growing persecution. Where “gay marriage” has become legal, such as in Canada, it quickly becomes the focal point to silence Christians (but not other, more favored religions) and to drive Christianity from the public square.
TFP has engaged in many protests, but they’ve never gotten a response this hostile before.
Unsurprisingly, given the indoctrination they’ve received in the media, the current college age (so-called “millenial”) group is overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage. Because they don’t know God, and thus don’t know anything beyond themselves or the pleasures of this world, such as they are. If this is all there is, it seems unfathomable to deny someone their desire/pleasure. But this is not all there is – it’s a fleeting figment, it’s not the reality people think it is, this is not our destination, it’s just a brief detour. I wish people could understand that – this world is not the reality we are pointed towards – God is.
And He has spoken.
I will also note this – the more lost in sin, especially sins of lust, our culture becomes, the more violent, barbaric, and childish it will become. Thus, the actions of many in the video.
More good work from TFP.
Did Obama just give away the election? May 10, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in foolishness, General Catholic, persecution, sadness, scandals, Society.comments closed
Obama, pandering to a tiny but very well funded fraction of his base of dopeheads, losers, sloths, the sexually perverse, and university faculty and staff (but I repeat myself), may have just finished himself yesterday in rejecting even his pathetic pretense of the Christian faith and supporting gay marriage:
Just moments ago President Barack Obama said he was in favor of same-sex marriage.
During the interview, here’s how he says his understanding of Christ and his Christian faith inspired him to do so….
So, after claiming in 1996 that he was for the state recognition of gays simulating marriage as the real deal, but then being against it when it looked like it would help win in 2008, he’s now for it again since he hopes that might increase his depressed cash intake (compared to 2008, and in spite of engaging in more campaign rallies than any of his predecessors at this point in the campaign) and fire up his moribund base. I think it’s going to backfire, bigtime.
Because I don’t believe that anywhere near 50% of Americans are in favor of this radical redefinition of marriage. I think most Americans know, at least on some level, possibly subconscious, that this redefinition really means the destruction of marriage as we know it. While there are sexular pagans out there who would be all for anything that gives them a momentary thrill, I don’t believe the majority of Americans are quite this depraved – yet. I know some recent polls suggest otherwise, but they’re Gallup, so they are almost certainly politically biased (look at the ratio of R’s, D’s, and I’s in the poll). That’s not to say we haven’t experienced a horrific moral collapse in this country, and that far too many people – maybe over 40% – support this attack on marriage and the family. But I don’t think it’s half, or even close to half, yet.
The electoral data bears this out. Gay marriage, so called, has only become law by two ways – legislative action in a few states, and judicial fiat in most others. As I mentioned yesterday, gay marriage has come on the ballot in 31 states, and it has been defeated 31 times. North Carolina, which has been sliding leftward, just passed a constitutional amendment recognizing marriage for what it is almost 2:1. And around the country, politicians who have voted for gay marriage from moderate/independent (not liberal or conservative) districts have been turned out of office a number of times. I think there is a lot more opposition of this so called gay marriage issue than we are led to believe. I really believe that the narrow, self-anointed elite is trying to foist this issue on the rest of us.
There is one more factor to consider. I was joking a bit earlier with my description of the Zero’s voting block, but it is no exaggeration to state that Obama depended on the black vote tremendously. He won over 90% But black Christians, in particular, have been some of the most strident opponents to gay marriage. He may have just split one of his key voting blocs. I sort of doubt that, but his support there is alot more questionable today, than it was just a few days ago.
Perhaps I’m overly sanguine on the nation’s beliefs regarding marriage. But I think – and pray -not. I think Nobama, in trying to shore up his fiscal support, may have just cost himself the support that really matters – votes.
Violence against Christians in Lebanon escalates May 10, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, General Catholic, Holy suffering, horror, Interior Life, persecution, sadness, Society, unadulterated evil.comments closed
There have been Christians in the Lebanon for 2000 years. The Faith was established there at least by AD 50. The Faith has also been in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc., for 2000 years. More and more, however, the Christians of these countries are being persecuted and forced to flee for their lives. The Iraqi Christian population fled to Syria. Now Syria’s Christian population is fleeing to Lebanon. But now the persecution of Christians in Lebanon is ratcheting up – they are running out of places to go!
A Lebanese priest who baptized a Muslim woman has been kidnapped and released.
The daughter of a Shiite cleric “said she was physically and psychologically tortured by her father for converting to Christianity three years ago, although she is a 24-year-old adult,” said Maronite Catholic Bishop Simon Atallah of Baalbek. “I have received an unconfirmed report that she had recently fled to an unknown destination after her father forced her to marry someone.”
The kidnappers thought that Father Walid Gharious knew the woman’s whereabouts and later released him. The nation’s president condemned the kidnapping.
According to the prelate, the kidnapped is part of an escalating pattern of violence against local Catholics.
Islam – such a pleasant religion to be around! Seriously, though, we are talking about millions of Christians being persecuted, or potentially so. There are 3 million Christians in Syria (possibly more, with the influx from Iraq), and over 2 million in Lebanon (about half the population, and about 1 million Maronites in union with the Holy See). We already know of the horrific and growing persecution of the Coptic Orthodox and others in Egypt (about 8 million). These are some of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, and there are muslim groups, and large segments of the population, that want to obliterate them.
I hope that occasional reader David R. might comment on this. He has personal experience of the Lebanese Maronite/Melkite communities. I wonder if he can corroborate this increasing persecution.
We should pray for these Christians. Some are in union with the Holy See, while most aren’t, but irrespective they are to varying degrees brothers in Christ and represent a literal touchstone with the earliest era of the Church and Christianity in general. I pray that they remain strong in their faith in spite of the constant persecution and Islamic proselytizing. I pray for a change in administration in this country so that the rights of Christians around the world will be far more vigorously defended, and stronger action taken against governments that tolerate or encourage this religious violence and hatred. The present occupant of the White House doesn’t seem much interested in doing much in that regard.
The best books are old books May 10, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, fun, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
There is an English spiritual classic called The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection,. It was written by Walter Hilton after he opened a major hotel chain in the late 14th Century. There are many editions around. But I have found most of those available from modern, current day publishers to be highly deficient – large parts have been excised, meaning subtly (or drastically) changed, and that more……hardcore, if you will……feeling of Catholic spirituality, as it would have been lived by a anchoress in 15th Century England (for whom the book was written) is lost. You really want an old copy of this book.
I found one, for a steal ($10) at Half Price Books. The book is 111 years old and is in mint condition! I don’t think the pages were ever cracked, or if they were, only very, very carefully. Given that this book was apparently in a seminary library, perhaps that goes some small way to explaining the catechetical collapse in the church in the 20th Century. But the book itself was originally published in London, on Pater Noster Row!, in 1870. Unfortunately, you’re unlikely to find the original book as I did.
But, no matter! You have two options to obtain this spiritual classic. If you don’t mind reading online, it’s all right here. You can buy a “publish on demand” version on Alibris for ~$24 if you’re like me and like to have pages to hold.
It’s a wonderful book, and the introductory essay is fantastic!
I’ve also found another old book, this one Vol. VI of the Moral Doctor, St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Ascetical Works, The Holy Eucharist. This one is a paperback reprint of a version published in 1934. It’s pretty old school. I haven’t gotten into this one, as much, but it looks very solid. I don’t even know where it came from, I think my wife had it from years back.
There are versions in print, but, again, I would be very wary of them. So many of our Catholic spiritual classics have been “modernized” out of all recognition of their original meaning and beauty (how can you shorten a 500 page original down to 150 pages without ripping out massive content and/or changing meaning? I would run from this edition) So, here’s another free version of the book online.
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