“I want…….a world where all your churches burn…….” September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, disaster, Ecumenism, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, persecution, sadness, scandals, secularism, sexual depravity, Society.comments closed
Which is another way of saying, I want a bloodbath of Christians, and I want it now. Thus, “tolerance,” from the oh so tolerant Left. Thanks to reader skeinster for sending this along:
Yesterday, at Indiana University the pro-life group on campus met up with the Students for Life of America team and our explosive Planned Parenthood Project. In the midst of talking to hundreds of students about Planned Parenthood’s corrupt business practices, some students became irate.
The young man in the video above began yelling at our Regional Coordinator, Alicia, and when asked why he was upset on camera he replied, “You’re in conflict with the world that I want which is a world where all your churches burn.” And further went on to say, “And if we are ever strong enough, we are going to stop you.”
On top of this Satanic threat, another male student began tearing our up our display of 915 pink crosses we have been using as part of our project to symbolize the 915 babies that Planned Parenthood kills each day.
When he was asked to stop damaging these crosses, the student screamed that abortion “was awesome!” and began throwingour crosses in the trash and said “that’s where they need to be!”
Is this the world we want to “aggiornamento” with? Oh…………that should be great! I’m sure they’ll be so open to what the Church has to say! Is an atheist like this also on the path to salvation? After all, he’s only doing what his conscience tells him is right.
I am very confident we will simply see more and more of this. After all, “the children are our future,” so if you consider a scraggly 30 year old professional student a child, you can see how we’re doomed. I jest, but in reality, this culture is only growing more and more hostile to Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, as it grows more and more disconnected from its Christian roots and embraces more and more the sexular paganism rampant among the opinion-making elites. I figured I’d live to see white martyrdoms going on, but now I actually am starting to fear red ones, too. I think we may see all manner of persecution in the near future, as the young seem especially to have fallen into complete religious indifferentism and sexular pagan hedonism.
Well, at least that will provide many and sundry paths to Heaven. And that should always be the foremost thought in our minds – our own salvation and how to achieve it, and that of our spouses and families.
Dr. Taylor Marshall giving a conference in Carrollton Oct. 12 September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, fun, General Catholic, Interior Life, manhood, North Deanery, sadness, secularism, Society, Spiritual Warfare, true leadership.comments closed
Taylor Marshall is hosting a men’s conference at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Carrollton on Oct. 12 at 9am. All details and registration here. Cost is $20 but this includes a box lunch. The theme of the conference is answering the call to holiness. More below:
Registration is now open for this year’s Fall 2013 Men’s Conference at St. Catherine of Siena in Carrollton, Texas. The conference will take place Saturday, October 12th; 9:00 A.M. til 3:30 P.M. We encourage you to kick off the day by joining us for morning Mass at 8:30A.M. This year’s registration includes a boxed lunch and drink. Reconciliation and Eucharistic Adoration will be available. This year’s theme is Answering the Call to Holiness. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Taylor Marshall who teaches at Fisher More College in Ft. Worth, TX, has authored several books and has been featured on EWTN’s The Journey Home. –
That’s true, Taylor has been featured on The Journey Home, and he blogs at Canterbury Tales. He’s also been taking a pretty harsh tone at times towards some of his fellow traddy-types, which might explain why he’s still able to speak on church grounds. Me, not so much.
I shouldn’t tease. Taylor is a good guy. And there are fewer topics dearer to my heart than the dire need for Catholic men to start acting like men again. Heck, not just Catholic men, but all men, but since Catholics should lead the culture in all things, it is imperative in particular that Catholic men lead the charge. I’m sure Taylor will have some good advice on how to do that, since I know he cares passionately about that topic, as well.
Scandal in the Diocese – radical pro-abort invited to speak at St. Luke – CANCELLED September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, North Deanery, sadness, scandals, secularism, sickness, Society.comments closed
Anyone who votes in favor of laws furthering the slaughter of perfect innocents is, to my mind, by definition a radical.
A concerned reader whom I prefer not to name tipped me to a developing scandal in the Dallas Diocese. Bishop Farrell has apparently approved that state representative Rafael Anchia speak at St. Luke’s on the subject of Obamacare. I say Bishop Farrell has approved, because I have been told in the past that the bishop approves all these types of public events. Rep. Anchia is extremely pro-abort and has voted against many pro-life bills, including the most recent bill banning abortion after 20 weeks and requiring abortuaries to meet minimal health and safety requirements. Regardless of Rep. Anchia’s position on Obamacare and the ongoing persecution of the Church through that attempt at tacit socialism, it seems incredible that a man who has so routinely voted in favor of the mass murder of innocents could be invited to speak on Church property. Judging from his voting record, he’s pretty lefty across the board, which means he likely holds other views in opposition to the revealed Dogmas of the Faith.
Please consider respectfully contacting both the parish and Bishop Farrell concerning this matter. These kinds of things cause such great scandal and confusion to the faithful, and give a seal of approval to holders of public office they absolutely do not deserve. If you contact either the parish or Diocese, please be respectful. Contact information below:
St. Luke’s Office: 972-259-3222
Bishop’s email : bishop@cathdal.org, [note, this goes to his secretary or some other flunky person created in the image and likeness of God, deserving of eminent respect and the highest charity, but who possesses no actual ability to affect any change in this situation. It’s the best you can do]
Bishop’s phone: 214-379-2816
Or tweet Bishop Farrell: @bishop_farrell
How funny, should it be God’s desire, we will almost certainly reside in this parish’s boundaries fairly soon. Oh, goody!
UPDATE: – The Diocese has responded that the pastor cancelled this event. Good for him. Perhaps I am more blessed than I thought to be moving near there. I did also learn that this parish has daily Adoration.
Sorry for the confusion, I was informed of this by a local Diocesan source, so it seemed pretty valid.
Pope Francis living with rabbi in Vatican, plan joint trip to Holy Land September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disconcerting, Ecumenism, episcopate, error, General Catholic, Papa, persecution, sadness, scandals, secularism, shocking, the return.comments closed
Ecumenism is certainly a priority of Pope Francis. His rabbi friend from Argentina has been staying with him for the past week in the Pope’s hotel-like domicile in the Vatican:
‘Never before in the history of Christian-Jewish relations have a Pope and a Rabbi celebrated their friendship by living in the Vatican together for several days, sharing all meals, including on two Jewish festivals and the Sabbath at which the Rabbi said prayers in Hebrew, and discussing what more they can do together to promote dialogue and peace in the world.
That is what actually happened over the past four days at the Vatican guesthouse (Santa Marta) where Pope Francis lives and where his friend from Buenos Aires, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, has been his guest from September 25 to this day.
“I eat with him at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. He cares for me, and controls everything regarding my food to makes sure it is all kosher, and according to my religious tradition. These are festive days, and I have to say certain prayers at meals and, I expand the last prayer and translate it. He accompanies me together with the others at table -his secretaries and a bishop, and they all say ‘Amen’ at the end”, the Rabbi said.
By acting in this way, the Pope and Rabbi are sending an extraordinary message of friendship, dialogue and peace not only to their respective religious communities but also to the whole world. And they plan to do even more together, Rabbi Skorka revealed when we talked together at Santa Marta, on September 27.
He and the Pope are planning to travel together to the Holy Land next year. The Israeli and Palestinian authorities have invited Pope Francis, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew1, wants him to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting of his predecessor, Athenagoras, with Paul VI in the Holy City.
“We are dreaming of traveling together to Israel soon, and the Pope is working on this subject”, the Rabbi said. “I dream of embracing him at the Kotel, or Wailing Wall, and I will accompany him to Bethlehem, in the Palestinian territories. His presence can help a lot at this moment when the peace talks are starting again”, he added.
Skorka sees a deep spiritual significance for both of them in being together at the sites that are sacred to their respective religions. “I do not cease to be a Jew for him, and he goes on keeping his own faith. But the two spiritualities have to have a point of encounter. We cannot live in a world where we reject each other, we must build bridges.” [Hmmm…..an opinion asserted as a bald declaration of fact.]
“We come together without burying our identities. I spoke to him about evangelization, and he stated emphatically that the Catholic Church cannot engage in proselytism”, he said…’ [Then we may as well close up shop and shut down the Church. I pray this rabbi got the Pope’s meaning quite wrong. Christ’s own Great Commission COMMANDS that we evangelize and even proselytize souls, proselytism just being a negative term for those who engage in eager evangelization, but that was exactly the kind of evangelization that converted many, many Jews to the Faith and eventually conquered much of the world.]
I will say this – there are many orthodox Jews who would condemn this rabbi’s conduct of his faith. They would condemn his consorting with a gentile. The Church has constantly asserted – at least until the last 30-odd years, when ecumania really took hold – that Jews must convert for salvation, that their own “tradition” is a dead one, made obsolete by the New Covenant. In fact, to posit that Jews have their own path to salvation, even with their rejection of the Incarnation of the Messiah, makes Christ into a liar and attacks the entire efficacy of the Gospels. It also makes into fools those many Jews (and others) who have converted to the One, True Faith.
But it seems at times that everything must be at the service of a worldly-oriented ecumenism, even the clearest of Dogmas. The scandal this ecumenism so frequently causes the faithful is just brushed aside as a remnant of that poor, unfortunate “negative ecclesiology” some misguided souls adhere to, unable to accept the new order of things.
When will fools like me get with the program?
Canonization dates for Popes John XXIII and John Paul II set September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Christendom, General Catholic, Glory, Papa, pr stunts, Saints, sanctity, the return, Virtue.comments closed
April 27, 2014. A priest I know, a really good priest, was wondering aloud about how the changes made to the canonization process, such as the elimination of the requirement for miracles and the post of devil’s advocate, affect the validity of these solemn declarations by the Church that certain souls are in Heaven. Such an argument was beyond my intellectual depth. I’m sure these canonizations will be received, in general, with rapturous joy. And perhaps rightly so. Two more souls assuredly in Heaven, that is a wondrous thing.
I will continue to pray.
Synod of Cardinals to “rip up” current constitution on Church governance? September 30, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disconcerting, episcopate, General Catholic, persecution, secularism, self-serving, the return.comments closed
As I have related in several recent blog posts, we would really start to know what this Pope plans to achieve next month (October), as the Synod of Cardinals begins their work of – apparently, in the words of their own leader – radical demolition on the current model of authority in the Churh. Now, that current model is quite a bit different from what governed the Church for centuries from Trent to VII, but I think what we’re looking at here is an unheard of devolution of power from the Vatican and Curia to the “local bishops,” which will mean in actuality, the national episcopal conferences, entities the world over utterly dominated by progressives.
A Roman Catholic cardinal said Sunday that a group of senior church figures handpicked by the Pope to shake up the Vatican’s murky and autocratic bureaucracy would “rip up and rewrite” the constitution which apportions power at the Holy See.
The eight cardinals, who were appointed by Pope Francis in April, have been briefed to revise the constitution, known as Pastor Bonus, drawn up in 1988 by Pope John Paul, in a bid to give greater voice to bishops around the world. [Look, there are lots of legitimate complaints regarding Pastor Bonus. It has basically made the Secretariat of State a semi-dictator in the Vatican. There is a giant war in the Vatican still ongoing between the immediately former Secretary of State – Bertone, and HIS predecessor, Sodano. Cardinal Sodano, waaaaay past retirement age, still has a huge wing of supporters in the Curia, and it was his supporters, it is thought, that created Vatileaks, contains most of the homosexual mafia, and who basically ran Pope Benedict out of office. I think some reform is definitely needed. But read on, I don’t think they’re headed in the right direction]
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the group’s leader, said that at tomorrow’s meeting they were planning to go much further than just changing “this and that”.
“No, that constitution is over,” he said in a television interview. “Now it is something different. We need to write something different,” he added. [OK, so Pastor Bonus is dead. What next?]
Gerard O’Connell, a Vatican analyst at the Vatican Insider, said that the proposed rule changes were a “rupture after a century of increasing centralisation”.
“Cardinal Maradiaga is hinting that the Pope is asking the fundamental question: ‘What can be decided in Rome and what at local level? How can the Roman Curia serve bishops instead of being an office of censure and control?’” [Ummm…….they have been an office of censure and control for very vital reasons. There has been a neo-modernist revolution in the Church, constantly advancing errors and endangering souls! The Pope has the charism of infallibility in certain circumstances. Bishops do not. Heresies and apostasy run amok in many dioceses – Rome has been at least something of a bulwark against this over the past two pontificates. Over the past 35 years, we at least had one pretty orthodox man in Rome whose job it was to limit the damage of the revolution in the Church. That man was Ratzinger. He is gone. The progressives want to insure his like can never dampen their excesses ever again.]
O’Connell cited Japanese bishops as examples of victims of the Vatican’s centralisation. “They must ask advice from Rome on the correct Japanese to use in their liturgies, yet you would think they would be the best judge.” [Yes, they have screwed a bunch of stuff up. Then again, the Japanese bishops are not without their own problems. The Curia screwed up the revised 2011 English translation of the Novus Ordo, making a vast improvement into a moderate one. But devolving huge swaths of power to episcopal conferences is not the answer. Doctrinally, bishops conferences still have no authority whatsoever. And what if the way this constitution is written not only devolved power to episcopal conferences, but through its language manages to favor progressive interests?]
Over the weekend, Pope Francis gave another clear indication that he sees the Vatican as a hotbed of intrigue and power struggles when he suggested Vatican policemen should crack down on gossip as well as looking out for intruders.
Defining gossip as the devil’s work, “a forbidden language” and “a war waged with the tongue”, he told gendarmes gathered for Mass to tell any gossipers: “Here there can be none of that: walk out of St Anne’s Gate. Go outside and talk there! Here you cannot!” [Is this genuine concern over the state of souls, or annoyance that some might question the direction of his pontificate?]
Cardinals gathering in Rome before Pope Francis was elected in March complained that Vatican officials had become a self-serving elite indifferent to the needs of dioceses around the world. [Are not the national conferences, and even many bishops, indifferent to the needs of souls for an orthodox faith? This is the pot calling the kettle black.]
Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said his group had received suggestions on Vatican reform from around the world, including 80 pages of suggestions from Latin America. The convergence on a few main themes suggested God’s will was at work, he said. “You cannot have millions of Catholics in the world suggesting the same unless the Holy Spirit is inspiring.”. [Well, millions of Catholics around the world think killing babies in the womb is wonderful, should we listen to them on that, too? The problem with trying to identify the sensus fidei is that it assumes well formed, obedient, orthodox Catholics, not a situation where a modernist revolution has run rampant through the Church.]
My own excitability aside, we really don’t know much, but the rumors which Pope Francis so derides all point in the same direction – a devolution of many powers, perhaps even power to determine Doctrine, from the Curia not to individual bishops, which would be exciting but perhaps manageable, but to the national episcopal conferences, which have demonstrated themselves both heavily biased towards progressive or modernist interests AND almost impervious to outside influence. Yay.
My own surmise is that even many of Pope Francis’ most staunch defenders may well experience a change of heart as they see what develops. But, then again, they may not, some people simply cannot bring themselves to criticize even the prudential actions of a reigning pontiff (long dead ones, that’s a different matter).
More and more evidence indicates Pope Francis may have been elected under a quid pro quo arrangement. The article also states that this new arrangement will get the Italian episcopal conference out from under the Vatican, something especially the progressives in Italy have long wanted. Non-curial Cardinals from around the world of course want more power, so this arrangement will suit them. The way the election came down so fast, much of this was certainly worked out in advance. All I can say is, yikes! This arrangement, if it becomes what I think it will, has the ability to unleash “Vatican III” on the Church without the headache of a formal council.
Thanks to reader RC for the tip.
Important admin post – it’s not Shea September 29, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin.comments closed
I received some input from a commenter I trust that the source of some baudy comments was Mark Shea. I did not take it too seriously but it was kind of a running gag. Mark has dropped by and refuted the allegation. That’s good enough for me, whoever it is, hopfully it will stop.
I thought it important to get this info out as soon as possible.
Pope Francis’ disconcerting choice of words – weekend reading September 27, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disconcerting, episcopate, General Catholic, Papa, reading, sadness, scandals, the return.comments closed
I just read a truly depressing, at yet at the same time, must read piece on the most infamous interview of a pope in the last several decades. It is interesting to see the concern and anxiety spread beyond usual traddy or traddy-leaning circles. A lot of folks are worried, confused, and anxious. I know I am. Sensible Bond, whom I haven’t read much before, has a great post on the choice of words Pope Francis used in that interview. To me, the Pope’s words tend towards the language of revolution. But, as “Bond” notes, in a delicious phrase, we are in the period of the Phony War. We don’t know a whole lot yet, as there has been little concrete action taken (but look for that to change very soon, within the next month). But, at the same time, I think many, many faithful souls have the sense that something is building, building…….there is rhetoric aplenty, and much of it (most of it?) points in a direction that leaves souls – especially souls that suffered through the first explosion of revolution in the 60s and 70s, or who have studied that period extensively……extremely disquieted.
So, go read Bond, and have a good weekend. Or a bad one. Whatever you choose. It’s supposed to rain here in Dallas, and I pray it does. No soccer! Yay! And our parched soil could use another 15 or 20 inches.
I thought about posting a question along the lines of……..what will you do if or when Pope Francis crosses “that line?” Whatever that line is, for you. Some might say it is useless to worry, but I’m not sure it’s worry. It’s more like, planning for some reasonably likely event. Like building a tornado shelter in Texas – you will likely never need it, but if you do, you’ll be exceedingly glad you have it.
My great fear is that Pope Francis will neuter the ancient curial offices (whatever their names today, compared to the past) and transfer huge gobs of authority to the national conferences, which have absolutely no tradition of authority in the Church (and, to date, have NO actual authority) and are utterly dominated by progressives. But the wind through the willows says that is very, very likely.
God bless you!
Blessed John Paul II loved him some liturgical dance? September 27, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Latin Mass, Liturgy, Papa, persecution, sadness, scandals, self-serving, the return.comments closed
That’s what Archbishop Piero Marini, the Papal master of ceremonies for pretty much all of Pope John Paul II’s Masses, is now claiming. The claim is surely self-serving, and it should be noted that Marini (not to be confused with the current, and much more orthodox, Papal MC, Msgr. Guido Marini) has always been an extreme liturgical revolutionary and someone who has been known to twist history to fit his worldview. But, then again, Pope JPII certainly did allow some hideous liturgies to take place under his watch, something the Benedict XVI-New Marini team took significant steps to undo – thank God. Old Marini has had deep ties to liturgical wreckovation going back to his membership on Bishop Anibale Bugnini’s disastrous “concilium” for the implementation of the new Mass. Thus, take all the below with a grain of salt, it could be the self-serving reminiscences of a man who has always had some difficulty with the truth, but there could be some valid nuggets within:
Thus, Piero Marini points out that his position as papal master of ceremonies there had allowed him to implement “efficiently” [“Efficiently” means ruthlessly, brutally, arbitrarily, and without a thought to 1500+ years of Tradition] the guidelines of the Second Vatican Council: “It is the inclusion [there’s a modernist catch-phrase for you: “inclusion”] of some elements, at the entrance, the Offertory, which is part of the life of a country, where participants who are guests to the Mass will be instantly familiar. Also in song and sometimes even the dance.” Piero Marini dug deeply for the dances: “John Paul II liked it all, he always wanted to share the customs and traditions “. [Maybe. But in how many countries is dance really just an absolutely vital part of everyday life? Even still, inculturation has had the effect of making an instantly understandable, universal, and transcendent Liturgy one that is often completely opaque, local, and immanentist – that is, completely human, with no shade of the transcendent]
“When we were in Brazil,” he had been asked if the dancers of the local ballet school could be involved, “and we had agreed. They are then on two stairways that flanked up the altar. During the dance, a wind arose and their light dresses had stuck to their bodies. Some prelates expressed their disapproval. They had not heard Pope John Paul II. I was the only one beside him and as he softly said, ‘Beautiful, beautiful.’ He looked at the essence.” He continued: “During seminary they taught us to kill the body, but we save ourselves with the body. ” [This is an amazing problematic statement, but one a modernist would make. I pray Pope JPII did not make the statement Old Marini is attributing to him]
Piero Marini also tells an episode that is directed against the then President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini. He had disapproved of it, that in the Youth Liturgy some teenagers were introduced that moved their arms during the celebration. The Cardinal had expressed his disapproval to the Pope directly: “Even in this case John Paul II made it understood that their presence did not bother him…….”
…….Piero Marini: “The Eucharist originated in homes, for a small group of people. Jesus put it in the midst of the twelve Apostles, then the breaking of the bread took place in the first years of Christianity in small communities in houses. Certainly not in front of millions of people. It was inevitable that it happened, and we had to adapt, because the situation demanded it.”
————–End Quote—————–
I included that last bit, because both Fr. Nicholas Gihr, who I have been quoting a great deal lately, and the father of true liturgical reform, Dom Prosper Gueranger, noted that liturgical revolutionaries and those gone over to the anti-liturgical heresy ALWAYS posit there was some time, very early in the Church, of “pristine” Christian worship, without all the trappings of the Mass, with the vernacular used, without all the mystery and transcendence, etc. In short, they fantasize an early liturgy that is exactly what they want their liturgy – which often serves various heretical ends – to be. Suffice it to say, we don’t have a great deal of concrete evidence for how the Mass was offered early in the Church, but we do know that it was changed for numerous very good reasons, very Spirit-inspired reasons, into something more regal, august, and mysterious as soon as the Church was out from under the thumb of horrid persecution.
Men like Marini do not like the traditional form of the Mass very much because that very form of the Mass is so opposed to their theological ideals. The TLM speaks constantly of sin, atonement, confession, repentence, redemption, hell, Heaven, salvation, good works, true charity, etc., etc – the whole panoply of “negative ecclesiology” the post-VII revolutionaries have spent decades trying to expirtate from the Church. Which expirtation, as far as it has been successful, has only managed to drive millions of souls into the depths of sin and out of the practice of the Faith. The “primitive liturgical ideal” isn’t even a new concept – it dates back to 4th century gnostics and 12th century Albigensians. The Church, for centuries, was wise enough to say “No, the Mass is what it is for very good reasons, reasons very pleasing to God, and to change it would be to threaten the very heart of the Church’s salvific mission.” But, somehow, that smoke of satan entered the Church, and men like Marini got hold of the levers of power. The result has been catastrophe on a scale that beggars the imagination.
But what do I know? I’m sure “Anita Lay” Shea will come by and leave dorky caricatures of my “conservative” concerns, reminding us all how we must be totally obedient to every utterance or thought of every bishop, no matter how wild eyed or destructive they are.
Obama finally finds someone his own size to pick on – Little Sisters of the Poor September 27, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Holy suffering, persecution, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
Well, he’s been kicked around by Putin, made to look a fool by Assad and Ahmadinejad, he can’t govern at all, his biggest ally is a corrupt Vegas politician, but Obama has finally found someone his own size he can kick around a little bit – the Little Sisters of the Poor:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finalized a contraception mandate that ignores the fact groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor are religious organizations, according to a lawsuit filed to protect them against fines for refusing to comply with an Obamacare mandate.
“We cannot violate our vows by participating in the government’s program to provide access to abortion-inducing drugs,” Sister Loraine Marie said of a class-action lawsuit filed against the mandate on behalf of multiple religious organizations that provide health benefits.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the plaintiffs, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
The choice of jurisdiction is critical: The Colorado district court falls under the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and thus is governed by that court’s precedent in most cases.
A 10th Circuit panel ruled earlier this year that the owners of Hobby Lobby did not have to comply with the HHS mandate (that lawsuit was also filed by the Becket Fund). President Obama’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to overturn the 10th Circuit’s ruling.
Well, the Supreme Court has already ruled in favor of Obamacare, so who knows whether this legal persecution will stand or not.
These Sisters may not be traditional, but they appear pretty orthodox, and make a nice representation to the public about how the government is persecuting the Church, including (or maybe especially) those souls most dedicated to Christ and the life of virtue. For Heaven’s sake, what need would a bunch of celibate nuns have for contraception coverage, anyway? But what this is really about is driving competitors to the government’s “charity” out of the marketplace, and making everyone dependent on the great Leviathan state as the soul source of all benefits and blessings, from cradle to grave.
We can really see in this issue a microcosm of how twisted the progressive conception of the modern liberal nation state really is. The state, literally, becomes “god,” with the power to decide who gets to be born, who dies, when, and how, who gets medical care, who is allowed to work, who receives income for not working, what you can say, what constitutes marriage, how your children must be educated, even what religion you follow. In the Leviathan state, all institutions are subordinate to the state – including, if not especially, religion. Such was a fundamental element of the “enlightened,” post-Christian society that Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, and all the other enlightenment divines envisioned and then unleashed upon the world.
And to insure that religion would be subject to the dictate of the state, a whole new dogma of “religious liberty” and “freedom of worship” was created, which was utterly novel until the late 17th century. The Leviathan state insists on “religious liberty,” which really comes to mean, in practice, the Constitution/governmental framework has dominance over any religious opinion. “Tolerance” becomes the greatest virtue. And then, 230 years later, you get where we are at now – the last remaining elements of Christianity fading fast from society, and a new sexular paganism rising in its place.
I’ll make one final little note in passing: almost all the enlightenment divines thought human chattel slavery, as practiced in US colonies and states on Africans, was just peachy keen and wonderfully in tune with all their talk on liberty and rights. John Locke wrote the Carolina Constitution that enshrined one man’s right to treat another man as property as a fundamental aspect of the government. Locke himself owned slaves, as did Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and most all those men so very, very dedicated to freedom for (almost) all men. That’s a prime reason why I believe if society becomes much more detached from its Christian moorings, we’ll see legalized slavery again. It already happens, in a sense, with abortion and organ harvesting.
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