Maximilian Kolbe
Patron Saint of Journalism
St. Michael
Protect Us
Sanger’s “Negroe Project”
“We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Margaret Sanger referring to her “Negro Project” in a 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble
Sanger says “Kill It”
“Many, perhaps, will think it idle to go farther in demonstrating the immorality of large families, but since there is still an abundance of proof at hand, it may be offered for the sake of those who find difficulty in adjusting old-fashioned ideas to the facts. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, “Women and the New Race”, Chapter V (link)
Listen Up Catholic Legislators
“With regard to the issue of same-sex marriage, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by the future Pope Benedict XVI, taught unequivocally in 2003 that before legislation in favor of same-sex unions, ‘the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.’ To say ‘gravely immoral’ means that if a Catholic legislator with deliberate consent votes in favor of same-sex marriage, it is a mortal sin, which would cut off the person’s communion with Christ and endanger the person’s eternal salvation.” Father Roger J. Landry, Diocese of Fall River, MA
Murder Is Murder
In Canton, Ohio, Bobby Cutts, Jr. is being charged with two counts of murder in the death of his wife and her unborn baby. Cutt’s wife, Jessie Davis, could have gone to a Planned Parenthood facility and had a legal abortion to kill her unborn baby. Why is Bobby Cutt’s Jr. being charged with murder while Planned Parenthood is being rewarded with government subsidies? How do pro-abortion people manage to keep a straight face while continuing to spin the nonsense of a woman’s “right to choose”?
Prophetic Words
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.” From Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s address to the Knights of Columbus, June, 1972
Morelle’s Private Religion
On June 18 the NYS Assembly voted to approve a law that would recognize same sex “marriage” in New York State. Voting yes on this radical proposal was NYS Assemblyman Joe Morelle. Joe Morelle is a self described Catholic. His biographical outline on Project Vote Smart indicates that he is a lector at St. Ambrose Church (link). Joe Morelle is also a supporter of a woman’s right to choose abortion (link) (link). Pope Benedict had this to say about Catholic politicians who try to make their faith a private matter:
The NYS Catholic Conference had this to say about the “marriage” equality legislation:
“The Catholic Church teaches that we treat our homosexual sisters and brothers with dignity and love … However, marriage is not some political term of art that can be re-imagined or redefined according to the whims of popular culture,” said a statement issued by the New York State Catholic Conference, the church’s lobbying arm (link).
Clustering Means Closing
As many of you know, the diocese has implemented a process called “clustering” in order to deal with the lack of vocations in this area. This process involves a grouping of several parishes under one pastor and the pooling of their resources. The parishes involved in this process are usually told that clustering will help to ensure their future viability.
Many sensible people have had serious doubts about this supposed strength through unity philosophy. Many have seen through the smokescreen and recognized that “clustering” really means “closing”.
The Cathedral Community is a clustering of Sacred heart Cathedral, Holy Rosary, and Most Precious Blood. It was recently announced that Holy Rosary and Most Precious Blood will be closing. All operations will be consolidated at the Cathedral. Many concerned parishioners at these parishes are now asking the questions that should have been asked in 1997 when the cluster was announced.
In order to deal with these concerned parishioners the Cathedral Community held three “listening sessions” on May 6, 10, and 12. A list of 31 questions and answers from these sessions was inserted into the Cathedral Communities bulletin of last week. One of the questions was:
“Why were we betrayed? Clustering was accepted because it was supposed to help keep all three churches open.”
Answer: “It was hoped that clustering would strengthen the vitality of all three parishes, but it proved unable to reverse the downward trends in attendance and sacraments that made clustering necessary in the first place.”
Could it be any more obvious that clustering is a flawed process? Unless of course the plan is to close these parishes right from the start. In many cases it would seem that clustering is nothing more than planned obsolescence for parishes.
Perhaps it’s time to go back to the tried and true-vocations and evangelization. Why not start with the approximately 200,000 diocesan Catholics who no longer regularly attend Mass on Sunday. 200,000 practicing Catholics would go a long way toward reversing the decline of faith in this diocese. I’m sure the parishioners of Holy Rosary and most Precious Blood would agree.
McBrien Rewrites the Catechism
“In the end, the elimination of Limbo raises questions not only about the necessity of baptism, but more fundamentally about the nature of Original Sin. What if we are all born permeated with the presence of God, which is grace, and which is ours to lose only later in life by sin? Why is such “good news” so disturbing for some? Why does it make them angry toward anyone who even suggests the possibility? Why is our solidarity with Adam in sin a more important value for such Christians than our solidarity with Christ in redemption? As the ITC notes, the Greek Fathers had no idea of inherited sin or guilt, so central to the West’s concept of Original Sin. Yet the Greeks were no less Catholic than we. Something surely to think about.” Father Richard McBrien excerpted from column of 5/18/07. (See full column here)
“Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.50 The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, N. 1250.
Father Richard McBrien is a featured columnist in the monthly edition of the Rochester based Catholic Courier.
O God My Mother?
“Teach Me To Listen
Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers. Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is, ‘Accept the person I am. Listen to me.’
Teach me to listen, my caring God, to those far from me the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.
Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside– in the deepest side of me.
Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence.
Teach me, Lord, to listen. Amen.”
Prayer spoken by Deacon David Palma at a recent St. Bernard’s Institute workshop. Deacon Palma is the Director of Deacon Formation and Deacon Personnel for the Diocese of Rochester.