The Sins That Cause Most Souls to go to Hell

The Sins That Cause Most Souls to go to Hell

Mother Godinho, who directed the Lisbon Orphanage where Blessed Jacinta Marto stayed shortly before dying at the hospital, carefully wrote down the holy girl’s words.

Two of her notes are outstandingly important today. The first says,“The sins [that] cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh.”

With a directly supernatural illumination, that innocent, barely ten year old girl repeats what Saint Alphonsus Liguori says—sins against chastity “fill hell with souls.”

When Mother Godinho asked Jacinta if she understood what it meant to be pure, she answered, “I do. To be pure in body is to keep chastity. To be pure in soul is not to commit sins, not to look at what one should not see . . . . “

The second, rather prophetic statement, is, “Fashions that will greatly offend Our Lord will appear.” It is good to recall that modesty is the outer defense of chastity, the walls defending the castle, as well as the gardens adorning the palace.

The correct question, when it comes to fashion, is not what is the extreme limit at which one is allowed to arrive, but how can one’s attire more clearly manifest love of modesty and of the virtue of purity.

Sexualization of kids

I found the following bit of news very disturbing.

In its new report "Stand and Deliver," the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is demanding that governments, religious institutions and society at large provide "comprehensive sexuality education" for children as young as ten years old.

In a foreword, Bert Koenders of the Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, which helped fund the publication, asserts that, "Young people have the right to be fully informed about sexuality and to have access to contraceptives and other services. These rights are enshrined in various internationally agreed human rights convention and treaties, but – unfortunately – they are still not universally respected."

According to IPPF, as "young people are sexual beings," it should be self-evident that "sexuality education promotes individual well-being and the advancement of broader societal and public health goals." IPPF argues that "comprehensive sexuality education" must be mandatory in school, and governments must also ensure that this education is delivered to those young people who are out of school (I find this particularly designed against home schooled kids and kids in private catholic schools).

IPPF claims that "With young people as partners, today's adult decision-makers have the chance to recast sex and sexuality as a positive force for change and development, as a source of pleasure, an embodiment of human rights and an expression of self."

IPPF contends that comprehensive sexuality education is necessary to encourage young people's "self-esteem, thoughtful decision-making and negotiation skills and it helps them to develop satisfying and pleasurable sexual lives." Moreover, IPPF expounds that the "power" of comprehensive sexuality education "to challenge traditional gender roles" must not be underestimated.

The IPPF report stresses granting young people "unconstrained" access to sexuality education and services, "free from administrative restrictions and obstacles," like requiring health providers to obtain parental or spousal permission before providing contraceptives. IPPF demands that young people be able to "obtain the services they need and want, unconstrained by psychological, attitudinal, cultural or social factors."

IPPF targets religion and religious groups as one of the main barriers to adolescent access to sexuality education and sexual and reproductive "services." IPPF criticizes that many religious teachings "deny the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex and limited guidelines for sexual education often focus on abstinence before marriage," which IPPF claims has been ineffective in many settings.

According to IPPF, religious institutions – like the Catholic Church and Islamic schools – need to be "pragmatic" to accommodate young people as "sexual beings" and amend their teachings to "find a way of explaining and providing guidance on issues of sex and sexual relationships among young people, which supports rather than denies their experiences and needs."

Sexual education has been a topic of heated debates at the United Nations, with many critics fearing that parental rights to educate their children will be violated. Just last year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a set of sexual education guidelines that were met with such staunch resistance from conservatives that the organization was forced to take down the document from its website and review.

Critics expect more debates over "comprehensive sexuality education" to flare up in the coming months as UN Commission season gets underway.

(Article from http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1563/pub_detail.asp)

Msgr Joao Cla Dias audience with the Holy Father

On the occasion of the defence of his doctoral thesis in Canon Law, at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, Msgr. Joao Scognamiglio Cla Dias, was received by Pope Benedict XVI,on November 26, 2009. At the start of the audience, the Holy Father made mention of the characteristic cross of the Heralds, which the founder wore on his cassock. Upon being thanked for granting the pontifical approval of the Clerical Society Virgo Flos Carmeli and the feminine Society Regina Virginum, the Pope said: "You deserved it, you deserved it." When he was told that the Heralds would soon have 112 doctors in Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law, Pope Benedict XVI asked in which universities these studies were being pursued. He was informed that they were the Angelicum, Gregorian and Salesianum in Rome; as well as the Pontifical Bolivarian University in Medellin; the Pontifical and Civil Faculty of Theology, Lima, and the Pontifical Post Graduate Institute of Canon Law in Rio de Janeiro.


As a token of fidelity to the Church and the Chair of Peter, Msgr. Joao presented a Rosary of rubies and diamonds to the Pope, crafted by artisans of the Heralds of the Gospel. Benedict XVI received it, saying: "How precious!" Finally, the Holy Father granted an apostolic blessing to all the members of the Heralds throughout the world.

(Pictures and article from The Heralds of Gospel magazine)

Persecution

Here is a link to a very interesting document about persecution of Christians globally

http://www.aidtochurch.org/pdf/Persecuted_&_Forgotton_comp.pdf

Some Statistics about the Church in the USA

The following is from the book "Index of Leading Catholic Indicators" by Kenneth C JOnes

These statistics are astounding and the situation in Canada and Western Europe are far worse.

"Priests: After skyrocketing from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States thereafter dropped to 45,000 in 2002. By 2020, there will be about 31,000 priests — and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70. Right now there are more priests age 80 to 84 than there are age 30 to 34.

"Ordinations: In 1965 there were 1,575 American ordinations to the priesthood, in 2002 there were 450, a decline of 350 percent. Taking into account ordinations, deaths and departures, in 1965 there was a net gain of 725 priests. In 1998, there was a net loss of 810.

"Priest-less parishes: About 3 percent of U.S. parishes, or 549, were without a resident priest in 1965. In 2002 there were 2,928 priest-less parishes, about 15 percent of U.S. parishes. By 2020, a quarter of all parishes, 4,656, will have no priest.

"Seminaries: Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700 — a 90 percent decrease. Without any students, seminaries across the country have been sold or shuttered. There were 596 seminaries in 1965, and only 200 in 2002. There were over three times as many total seminarians in 1930 as in 2002. There were over seven times as many religious order seminarians in 1945 as in 2002. There were over three times as many diocesan seminarians in 1945 as in 2002. There were more seminaries in 1955 than in 2002. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of U.S. diocesan seminaries decreased by 33 percent. In that same thirty seven year period, the number of U.S. religious seminaries decreased by 75 percent.

"Sisters: 180,000 sisters were the backbone of the American Catholic education and health systems in 1965. In 2002, there were 75,000 sisters, with an average age of 68. By 2020, the number of sisters will drop to 40,000 — and of these, only 21,000 will be age 70 or under. In 1965, 104,000 sisters were teaching, while in 2002 there were only 8,200 teachers. That is a reduction of about 92 percent. There were over nine times as many sisters teaching in 1945 as in 2002.

"Brothers: The number of professed brothers decreased from about 12,000 in 1965 to 5,700 in 2002, with a further drop to 3,100 in 2020. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of brothers teaching decreased by 80 percent. There were three times as many brothers teaching in 1945 as in 2002.

"Religious Orders: The religious orders will soon be virtually nonexistent in the United States. For example, in 1965 there were 5,277 Jesuit priests and 3,559 seminarians; in 2000 there were 3,172 priests and 389 seminarians. There were 2,534 OFM Franciscan priests and 2,251 seminarians in 1965; in 2000 there were 1,492 priests and 60 seminarians. There were 2,434 Christian Brothers in 1965 and 912 seminarians; in 2000 there were 959 Brothers and 7 seminarians. There were 1,148 Redemptorist priests in 1965 and 1,128 seminarians; in 2000 there were 349 priests and 24 seminarians. Every major religious order in the United States mirrors these statistics of decline.

"High Schools: Between 1965 and 2002 the number of diocesan high schools fell from 1,566 to 786. At the same time the number of students dropped from almost 700,000 to 386,000. There were more private Catholic high schools in 1945 than in 2002. There were more than twice as many diocesan high schools in 1945 as in 2002.

"Parochial Grade Schools: There were 10,503 parochial grade schools in 1965 and 6,623 in 2002. The number of students plummeted from 4.5 million to 1.9 million. There were more parochial grade schools in 1930 than in 2002.

"Sacramental Life: In 1965 there were 1.3 million infant baptisms, in 2002 there were 1 million. There were more infant baptisms in 1955 than in 2002. (In the same period the number of Catholics in the United States rose from 45 million to 65 million.) In 1965 there were 126,000 adult baptisms — converts — in 2002 there were 80,000. In 1965 there were 352,000 Catholic marriages, in 2002 there were 256,000. There were more Catholic marriages in 1950 than in 2002. There were extremely few annulments in the U.S. in 1968. In 1968 there were 338 annulments, in 2002 there were 50,000. Jones quotes the highly respected canon lawyer Edward Peters from his November, 1996 Homiletic and Pastoral Review article Annulments in America: "According to the 1994 Catholic Almanac, 59,220,000 American Catholics make up 6.2% of the world's 949,578,000 Catholic population. In 1991, the U.S. accounted for 63,900 (79%) of the world's 80,700 annulments."

"Mass attendance: A 1958 Gallup poll reported that 74 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1958. A 1994 University of Notre Dame study found that the attendance rate was 26.6 percent. A more recent study by Fordham University professor James Lothian concluded that 65 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1965, while the rate dropped to 25 percent in 2000."

Jones points out that "Mass attendance of U.S. Catholics fell precipitously in the decade following the liturgical changes and has continued to decline ever since." "This decline" he writes, "is not an isolated phenomenon, confined solely to the Church in America. In England and Wales, the time pattern of Mass attendance has been just as bad, perhaps even worse."

Jones' next point is critical: "Church attendance of Protestants, in contrast, has followed a much different path. For most of the period it was without any discernable trend, either up or down. In recent years it has actually risen. The notion that the Catholic fall off was simply one part of a larger societal trend, therefore, receives absolutely no support in these data."

But these sad statistics may even miss the worse news. That news is that the actual spiritual state of the remaining "Catholics" may be even more weakened than these miserable, falling numbers reveal. That is because those reduced numbers of "Catholic" people are still baptizing their fewer babies, are still going to deficient Novus Ordo Masses, and are still following the graduates of homosexualized seminaries. They are led by priests and religious who probably do not, doctrinally, believe what the Catholic Church requires them to believe. In other words, even these positive numbers — drastically reduced though they are — may be extremely soft because these positive "Catholics" may be practical Protestants, or even profoundly non-Christian in their beliefs.

Only 10 percent of lay religion teachers, Jones writes in citing a 2000 Notre Dame poll, accept Catholic Church teaching on artificial birth control. Although even Vatican II taught that the Eucharist was the source and summit of the Catholic faith, a New York Times/CBS poll revealed that 70 percent of Catholics age 18-44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus. How ironic that the post-Vatican II freefall from the faith even left behind what good Traditional teaching could be gleaned from the sometimes ambiguous Council documents.

Jones presents the following data compiled from the National Catholic Reporter of October 29, 1999:

PERCENTAGE OF CATHOLICS WHO BELIEVE A PERSON CAN BE A GOOD CATHOLIC WITHOUT PERFORMING THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:

1999

Without going to Church every Sunday: 77

Without obeying Church teaching on birth control: 72

Without obeying Church teaching on divorce and remarriage: 65

Without obeying Church teaching on abortion: 53

Without believing that in the Mass the bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Jesus: 38

Without their marriage being approved by the Catholic Church: 68

Without donating their time or money to help the poor: 56

Without donating their time or money to help the parish: 60

Without believing that Jesus physically rose from the dead: 23

(This is a excerpt form the following site)

Baby on who was to be taken off life support moves leg

There have been good and bad days for Isaac and Rebecka May these past three months; Wednesday was a good day.

First, their baby son — on the same day he was initially scheduled to be removed from life support — moved his legs in a way they hadn’t seen before, raising them to his stomach in alternating fashion.

“And (Isaiah) was wiggling his body as he was doing it, and moving his hands and his arms — just like you would see any other baby move,” 23-year-old mother Rebecka said by phone from Edmonton.

“It gives us hope.”

Second, the young family received a flood of support for the legal bid they launched earlier this week to keep their son on life support until they feel they know for certain what his medical future holds.

“Hopeful and confident — we have so much support out there,” she said, adding people are stopping and wishing them well. “It’s been very encouraging and uplifting for us. We are very humbled by it.”

On Tuesday, the couple from Rocky Mountain House, Alta., won a reprieve from the courts for their son. Last week, the first-time parents received a letter indicating doctors would take Isaiah off life support at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The Mays are seeking 90 days to assess Isaiah’s condition in order to see if it improves and to explore alternatives. They are also seeking a second opinion.

Alberta Health Services are looking for a decision to be made within 30 days.

The board’s lawyer has said caregivers at Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton have also been under considerable stress about the medical and ethical decision.

“It is appropriate to turn now to the courts for direction,” the health board said in a statement.

A judge is expected to make a decision about such a timeline on Jan. 27.

“The lawyers representing Alberta Health Services and the doctor who has primary care for Isaiah, they are professionals I very much respect and I know that we are working on this from a team perspective,” said the couple’s lawyer, Rosanna Saccomani.

Isaiah was born on Oct. 24, 2009, with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck in the Rocky Mountain House hospital following a 40-hour labour.

Deprived of oxygen and having inhaled amniotic fluid and fecal matter, he was taken by air ambulance to Stollery Children’s Hospital, where he has been on a ventilator ever since. He is fed through an IV tube.

Rebecka and Isaac have been told that their son has severe and irreversible brain damage.

Link http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Alberta+parents+hopeful+life+support+moves+legs/2465732/story.html

New Archbishop for Mosul Iraq

Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona, whose election as the archbishop of Mosul of the Chaldeans was confirmed Nov. 13 by Benedict XVI, was officially installed in the archeparchy Sunday.

The 2008 wave of violence claimed the life of the former archbishop of Mosul of the Chaldeans, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho.

He was kidnapped in February of that year outside of a church where he had led the Way of the Cross on a Lenten Friday. During the kidnapping, his three companions were killed.

For days there was no news from the archbishop or his kidnappers. Finally, after a phone call from the assailants, the prelate's body was found March 13 in a shallow grave. He was 65.

The election of Archbishop Nona took place according to the tradition in the Eastern-rite Churches. The synod of bishops of the Chaldean Church made the decision, which was then approved by the Pope.

Sunday's ceremony for Archbishop Nona was attended by several political and Muslim leaders.

Please note that Christians in this part of the world are severely persecuted, so please keep them in your prayers

Yet Another church attacked in Malaysia

A ninth church was vandalized Monday in Malaysia in a series of arson attacks that have raised religious tensions surrounding a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians in this mostly Muslim nation.

"Allah" is the common term for God in Malay-language Bibles, but the government and many Muslim groups insist that the word should be reserved for use in Islam.

The attacks, which began on Friday, came after a court ruling on Dec. 31 that overturned a government ban on the use of "Allah" by Christians. That ruling has been stayed while the government appeals.

Only one of the churches has been seriously damaged, and some of the attacks were minor. In Monday's attack, the Sidang Injil Borneo Church in the central state of Negeri Sembilan was slightly damaged when its door was burned, according to local reports.

Government officials condemned the violence Monday but defended their position, saying conditions are different in Malaysia from those in neighboring Indonesia or in Arab nations where "Allah" is the common term for God

Refer to this link

Interesting article about a transgendered person who used to work at a Church

It began innocuously enough when the incoming priest at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Student Center at Drake University noticed a piece of paper on a copy machine in the parish office.

On it was a counselor's authorization of hormone therapy for a transgendered person about to undergo a sex change. On a letterhead that included the center's name and address.

What came quickly after is changing a community:

The intervention of the bishop, worried about liability for the Diocese of Des Moines. The firing of the transgendered woman who worked part time as parish housekeeper and who, as an independent social worker, used parish offices to provide counseling for transgendered clients. Nearly 100 parishioners organizing separate prayer services instead of going to Mass because they said they sought a welcoming place for all. And angst in a once-tight faith community about how the church should minister to those whose lifestyles aren't condoned by the church.

Some in the parish believe the Catholic Church must adhere to 2,000 years of teaching because, even in a changing world, what kind of religion is permissive of everything? Others believe the church should welcome everyone because, after all, isn't that what Jesus did?

"It brought up these other issues: 'What's the place for people who have alternative lifestyles, whether they're transgender or homosexual?' " said Phil James, who recently left St. Catherine's, partly because of the controversy, partly because the father of three wanted a parish with more children.

"Clearly, they had reason to fire this woman," he said. "But the perception opened up a lot of wounds about the Catholic Church in general. ... We want to be a welcoming Christian faith, but how is that possible when we kick people out that aren't like us? That's the perception, anyway. I'm not saying it's real."

His father, parishioner Larry James Sr., sees the firing as straightforward.

"I believe bishop couldn't have done anything else," James Sr. said, even though he believes the counselor helped people and the fallout hurt. "It was tough on the church and tough on the priest and bishop, because they truly had empathy for that woman."

The person who sparked the divide is Susan McIntyre, 57, who for 10 years worked as a housekeeper at the student center. Many didn't know it, but the quiet woman who kept the place spick-and-span used to be named Jim Ford. In 1988, he had gender-reassignment surgery and became Susan McIntyre. (In the eyes of the Vatican, McIntyre is still a man.)

McIntyre converted to Catholicism in the 1990s. A few years ago, the priest at St. Catherine's gave her permission to use parish space to see counseling clients on Saturday mornings, she said. McIntyre never spoke directly to the priest about being transgendered, but she believes he knew. She formed a transgender support group that met at the church, and the priest, Jim Laurenzo, sometimes stopped by the support group to say hello, McIntyre said. (Laurenzo, now retired, did not return telephone messages.)

Then the parish - a Newman Center, which ministers to students at the non-Catholic university as well as the nonstudent community - got a new priest, Joel McNeil. McNeil spotted the letter on the copy machine, took it to the bishop, and found himself in a sticky situation.

"He's not on the same page as people like me, but he is a good person who came into a hornet's nest," said parishioner Mary Kay Shanley, who describes St. Catherine's as liberal. "We're very aware of the rules of the Roman Catholic Church. But maybe if we had a theme song, I've often thought it would be one we sing at church that's called, 'All Are Welcome in This Place.' "

To McNeil, though, the theological discussion arising from the firing is about much more than one parish's bent toward inclusiveness. It's about 2,000 years of consistent church teaching.

"All are welcome, but not everything goes," McNeil said. "The bottom line is: What does Jesus want? And here at a Catholic church, we understand Christianity in a historical context. We are not free to reinvent Christianity."

On its surface, what some in the church call "the Susan McIntyre affair" is a simple case of a person overstepping her bounds and putting the diocese in a precarious situation regarding liability.

Richard Pates, bishop of Des Moines, mailed McIntyre a three-sentence termination letter saying her firing was based on "your unauthorized representation indicating that you are employed by and operating on behalf of the Newman Center as a counselor or social worker." Nowhere does the letter refer to gender identity.

In an interview, Pates called the matter a personnel issue, nothing more.

Susan McIntyre admits her life has been weird.

Born Jim Ford, he grew up on Des Moines' east side, a sensitive boy who sometimes broke into tears at a beautiful sunset. As a lifeguard, Ford once saved a 15-year-old from drowning. But every time he looked in a mirror, the image looked different from what he felt inside.

He got a master's degree in social work from the University of Iowa, then a job with psychiatric patients at Broadlawns Medical Center: "I'd always wanted to work with the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor."

Ford was working at the hospital in 1987 when he witnessed a patient's death. With that came a profound understanding that life is fleeting. He decided it was time to be his true self, and Ford became Susan McIntyre. She began an independent counseling practice - the only transgendered licensed independent social worker in Iowa, she said - to help other transgendered people.

"I would have died," likely committing suicide, without the sex change, she said. "I wanted my outsides to match my insides."

As McIntyre, she felt at home in the Catholic faith, even with its teachings that homosexual behavior and some types of sexual reassignment are sins.

Under church teachings, a transgendered person with ambiguous sexual organs may have surgery to correct the problem. However, in McIntyre's case, she felt her brain and soul were born female, but not the sexual organs. The church believes cases like McIntyre's are psychological and calls sex-change surgery mutilation.

Pates said the church's views on homosexuality and transgenderism fall in line with two millennia of teaching, part and parcel with its overall stance on human sexuality: that sex should be reserved for marriage between a man and a woman, and in cooperation with God to create new life. Any sexual act outside marriage is thus sinful.

McIntyre has found Catholicism a deep faith and loved the tradition even as she hated some of the church's views. Once she wrote to Pope John Paul II about the pain caused by the church's teachings on transgendered people.

Why would McIntyre convert to a faith that deems a sin something she believes is integral to her identity?

Internally, she says, she always thought of herself as a woman. She believed the church's view on transgendered people doesn't acknowledge modern science and that, in time, it would change. And she saw so much good in her new faith that she didn't want one teaching to push her away.

And so McIntyre got the job at St. Catherine of Siena and asked the priest to use church space for counseling. McIntyre said she never represented her counseling as being done through the church but admits to using the parish name and address on letterhead.

"It wasn't a secret," she said. "I was actually proud of it. I was doing a service for folks who were incredibly poor."

Then, in late September, the bishop's secretary asked McIntyre to visit the next day. In a 15-minute meeting with the bishop and his attorney, McIntyre was fired.

She cried for a month, feeling as if her church family had rejected her. She tried to get a lawyer, but none would take her case, she said.

McIntyre believes the real issue isn't about her; it's about how the church responds to homosexuals and transgendered people. There's a movement in psychiatric circles to reclassify transgenderism as a medical condition instead of a mental illness, similar to a movement that two decades ago succeeded in removing homosexuality from a list of mental disorders.

"The bishop made it pretty clear that I was not welcome," McIntyre said. "(So) can I be Catholic, or actually not? That's what the big deal is."

For defenders of the Catholic Church, the McIntyre case is open and shut.

Bishop Pates said that McIntyre's firing as parish janitor was based on her representing her counseling services as being under the auspices of the church. It had nothing to do with her gender identity.

"We want to be very, very clear this instance is strictly a personnel issue," Pates said.

Diocesan attorney Frank Harty said McIntyre's use of letterhead that made it appear she was a church counselor violated her professional code of ethics as a licensed social worker, even if she had the priest's permission. That exposed the diocese to a potential lawsuit if, say, McIntyre counseled someone going through a sex change and the person later regretted doing so, Harty said.

Some in the parish were angry that McIntyre was fired as housekeeper instead of just being told to quit counseling on church property, and they told the bishop so in a meeting he held with about 60 parishioners.

Eric Morse, a liturgy coordinator at the parish who is searching for another church home, holds that view.

"The bishop just brought the hammer down on her instead of being a Christian and showing her some mercy. The Christian way to handle this was to tell Susan she would not be able to do counseling at the church any more. ... That punishment was too great for the crime."

According to McNeil, the bishop considered other alternatives in consultation with the diocesan attorney. But since McIntyre's counseling practice put the diocese at risk of a liability lawsuit, McNeil said, the diocese decided firing was the most appropriate measure.

In a room just inside the doors of St. Catherine of Siena parish recently, McNeil spoke about his tumultuous first few months as pastor. He knows this situation can be painted as the powerful Catholic Church trampling on a housekeeper's individual rights. But he rankled at some parishioners' comments that this incident showed St. Catherine's had become an unwelcoming place.

There's a sign out front of the church that identifies it as Catholic, McNeil noted. It's a matter of truth in advertising, he said: Would the parish stick by Catholic teachings or have a set of beliefs that went outside the Catholic tent?

"For a person who sees Christianity as fidelity to what Christ began 2,000 years ago, we can't change that teaching," he said.

Part of the Catholic belief, McNeil said, is that those who are oriented to homosexuality are called to lives of chastity, and those who believe their inward gender is different from their outward gender must battle that as a psychological problem, not with surgery.

"Heresy is overstressing one truth at the expense of other truths," McNeil said. "There is some truth that the church must be welcoming, but not to the point where it ceases being the church."

Three-hundred families make up the nonstudent parishioners at St. Catherine of Siena, the parish where former Gov. Tom Vilsack attended Mass before moving to Washington, D.C. The church was born in a room above the Varsity Theater in 1969 and dedicated to supporting Catholic students at Drake. Students come Sunday nights for a home-cooked meal.

The parish gained a reputation as a congregation with an appetite for social justice. Members traveled to El Salvador to rebuild a church destroyed by an earthquake.

For its parishioners, the McIntyre matter has involved more than liability or church doctrine.

It was personal, and it has hurt.

"It's just gut-wrenching for me and a lot of other people in the parish," said parishioner Larry James Sr., who supports the bishop's actions.

McNeil is confident that his parish is already rebounding from its rough patch. The arrival of a new priest always brings difficulties, he said, and McIntyre's situation exacerbated them.

He hopes the parish recalibrates in coming months, having strayed too far left in the Catholic spectrum.

Shanley, the parishioner who described herself as "not on the same page" with McNeil, acknowledged that "the bishop is doing his job." Then she added, "But most of us wish we could have been left alone."

Additional Facts

National views

John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said that transgendered people have a psychological disorder, and that surgery to change one's gender is offensive to God.

His independent organization, which directly follows the teachings of the Catholic Church, promotes "human dignity in health care and the life sciences."

"We would say this is a gravely disordered act, an assault upon God's creation, an act of mutilation that renders an otherwise healthy body dysfunctional," Haas said. "There can be surgical interventions to heal, cure or overcome pathologies to save lives. If it doesn't hold to those ends, the church holds them to be acts of mutilation."

Haas said transgendered people who have had sexual reassignment surgery should not receive communion in the church unless they have repented.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics, has heard of two situations nationally where unpaid volunteers lost their ministry jobs at Catholic parishes after telling a priest they were switching their gender. In a third situation, a paid transgender organist was fired after he began to dress as a woman.

"Transgender people fight the experience of exclusion and misunderstanding, and the fear of being exposed so often in their lives," Duddy-Burke said. "I can only imagine the pain of no longer having a home in the parish."

Asked about church teachings that prohibit what her organization stands for, Duddy-Burke said the question turns on how you define "the church." Many people equate the Catholic Church with the leadership and the hierarchy, Duddy-Burke said, but she believes the Catholic Church is "the broad people of God." It's an example of pastoral practice versus doctrinalism, she said.

(Your Opinions on the matter are sought)

Allah's terrorist are at it again in Malaysia

Arsonists in Malaysia struck a fourth church on Saturday as the government tried to soothe tensions arising from a row over the use of the word "Allah" to refer to the Muslim God.
The unprecedented attacks risk dividing the mainly Muslim nation of 28 million people, which has significant religious minorities, and complicating Prime Minister Najib Razak's plan to win back support from the non-Muslims before the next elections by 2013.
The row, over a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use Allah in its Malay-language editions, prompted Muslims to protest at mosques on Friday and sparked arson attacks on three churches that saw one Pentecostalist church gutted.
While Najib visited the badly damaged Pentecostalist church and offered a government grant of half a million ringgit ($148,100) to maintain "a harmonious society," church leaders said they wanted more concrete assurances of safety.
"We ask the government to make a strong statement to these wrongdoers so we can worship in peace on Sunday," Reverend Hermen Shastri, secretary-general to the Council of Churches Malaysia, told Reuters.
Malaysia is mainly Muslim and Malay but there are substantial ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities who mainly practice Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.
These minorities handed the government its biggest losses in 2008 state and national elections in part due to feelings of religious marginalization and growing disillusionment with corruption.
In the latest attack on early Saturday, unidentified attackers flung a home-made petrol bomb at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in a suburb in Selangor state. The two-storey bungalow sustained minor damage, church officials said.
Police said they have stepped up security at all places of worship but faced a manpower shortage. Inspector General of Police Musa Hasan told churches across the country to hire more security guards.

Christians account for nine percent of the 28 million population, with a sizable number of non-English speaking Christians in Malaysia's Borneo island states of Sabah and Sarawak who have used the word "Allah" for decades.
Najib's handling of the issue will determine whether he can keep the support of the Malays and win back ethnic Chinese and Indian voters to solidify his grip on power after taking control of the government last year.
"Till today we are protecting the interests of other races besides championing those of the Malays," Najib was earlier quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.
"Don't point fingers and say UMNO is racist...when churches are burned," he said referring to his party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that is the linchpin of the National Front that has ruled the country for 52 years.
But Malay-Muslims, including those in UMNO, fear the word could be used by Christians to proselytize to Muslims, which is already illegal in the Southeast Asian country.
More than 169,000 Malaysians have joined a group page on social networking site Facebook called "Protesting the use of the name Allah by non-Muslims," a fourfold increase from the start of this week that signals growing Islamic anger.
($1=3.375 Malaysian Ringgit)

Portugal almost ready to approve gay marriage

The Portuguese parliament on Friday (8th January 2010) passed the Socialist government's bill to legalise same-sex marriages, which Prime Minister Jose Socrates said was an historic step in the country's fight against discrimination.

Socrates' minority government pushed the bill through the house with support from left wing parties, while alternative proposals by the centre-right opposition for civil partnerships and a referendum on the issue were rejected.

"It is a small change in the law, but a very important and symbolic step to fully realise values that are pillars of open, tolerant and democratic societies; freedom, equality and non-discrimination," Socrates told parliament ahead of the vote.

The bill gives gay marriages the same rights as heterosexual marriages, including those on taxes, inheritance and housing, but does not offer them the right to adopt children.

CHURCH WARNING

It marks another modernising step for this predominantly Catholic country, especially after abortion was legalised in 2007. But the Catholic Church warned against the move.

"Millenary culture deems marriage as a contract between a man and a woman. Changing this understanding of what is a family can have extremely grave consequences in the future," said Bishop Dom Jose Policarpo, Lisbon patriarch.

The bill now needs to be ratified by conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva. If he approves it, Portugal will join Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Canada in allowing gay marriages, all of which allow gay married couples to adopt children as well.

Gay and lesbian hopes had been dented by the rejection of the Left Bloc party's gay marriage bill and by a Constitutional Court upholding a ban last year.

Ontario may get an openly Gay Mayor

(Gay George and his wife/husband/sin partner)

Ontario Premier McGuinty has accepted the resignation of George Smitherman, who is noticeable for being a public gay, from office to compete for mayor of Toronto, the Office of the Premier said Monday.

The openly gay Smitherman is regarded as a political attack dogand raised his municipal profile by leading a cleanup of city streets during the city workers' strike this summer.

George Smitherman and his wife/husband/sin partner Christopher Peloso were "married" on the 5th August 2007.

I wonder when Canada will have a homosexual Prime Minister. It cant be far away. I dont know if I want to live in such a place.

Democracy is classically defined as a government of, for and by the people. The people have a set of values based on which they elect representatives who form the government.The government passes laws based on the values of the people as the government shares the same values as the people.

Democracies have achieved greatness because they were based on the values of the people which they represented. However the edifice of democracy breaks down when the value system of the people changes.

Western democracy was based on Judeo-Christian values. These values laid the foundation of society and laws were based around these values. However as the people moved away from these values their elected representatives also passed laws which reflected these new values.

For example, society frowned upon adultery and laws were passed against adultery. However as people accepted adultery government had to pass laws which not only allowed divorces, but also recognized common law spouses and common law spousal benefits. Now a negative value - adultery - gets rewarded with the same benefits as monogamy and the value of monogamy is diminished.

Progressing on the same example, as adultery becomes more and more acceptable in society and loses all its stigma, fornication also becomes acceptable and soon all forms of sexuality becomes acceptable. Soon homosexuality is common and the government which is elected by people whose values now include support for a perverse sexuality passes law in support of such perversion. Homosexual unions are given the status of marriage and education systems are forced to teach sexual perversion as part of curriculum.

As the values of the people move further away from the Judeo-Christian value system each of the 10 commandments is broken and anti-values come to the fore, rights of choice (abortion and euthanasia) triumph of right to life. Government passes laws supporting abortion and euthanasia, the right to chose is taught in schools and any from of dissent is punished legally via human right tribunals.

As relativism grows a democracy fails and is replaced by a tyrannical government which makes laws to allow anti-values and punish real values. This is already seen in Canada and many parts of western Europe.

Peterborough bishop faces human rights complaint

Peterborough Bishop Nicola De Angelis and 12 parishioners at St. Michael’s parish in Cobourg, Ont., face an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (not the 'Commission', as previously reported) complaint that could cost the parishioners $20,000 each and the diocese of Peterborough $25,000 plus legal fees.

Jim Corcoran brought the complaint after he was asked to give up his position as an altar server at Sunday Masses. Corcoran was dismissed from all duties on the altar after 12 parishioners wrote a letter to De Angelis questioning the presence of a gay man serving at the altar of St. Michael’s.

For More Details refer to this link

Lessons from a Crashed Computer

I woke up yesterday morning to a crashed computer. After the boot up the computer would not load the OS. From about 10 AM in the morning till 2:00 AM I was resetting the computer.

The computer hard disk was full and as a consequence it would not load the OS. I had to format the entire hard disk making it clean and then install the OS again. After that I had to install various softwares.

A spiritual lesson was to be learnt. Sometimes in our spiritual journey we start taking up various tasks and do a lot of things for the Kingdom. After some time we forget why and for who we are doing these things. We become like a cluttered computer with lots of programs installed and lots of pictures and MP3s, we become like a library full of knowledge but nothing elese, or worse a garbage heap full of rubbish. And then we crash, we stop and examine ourselves and see that all the actions we think we are doing for God are not really for Him but more for ourselves. We need to reformat ourselves, by prayer and meditation, realizing that our primary duty is to Know, Love and Serve Him. In thar order specifically.

This lesson can be found in the Bible where Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches and the Father is the wine dresser who trims and prunes the branches. Your gardeners know that when a vine grows it uses energy that should be going to the grapes so it needs to be trimmed so that it bears more fruit. This pruning is like reformatting, sometimes our growth may look good to us, but we are not bearing the right kind of fruit. Hence it is a time for a reformat.

Happy Sunday
God Bless
Smiley

I am Upset

I have not been keeping well. Add to that the Irish Borthers abuse situation, Archbishop Weakland, Fr Cutie...and my mood just feels terrible. 

The Preisthood means a lot to me, I am an idealist, I know that preists are men, and men are human and make mistakes, but still I find this all very very saddening and heartbreaking.

I feel frustrated and powerless, I cannot do anything about this. All I can do is pray, pray to Mother Mary becasue all preists are her special sons. I can only imagine how all of this breaks her heart. 

There rant for the day over.

Obama Messiah Video

I have a very bad cold. And could hardly sleep at night. So while tossing and turning this song came to my mind and i had to make a video like this. Enjoy.


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic


If anyone knows how to modify this song so that I can put it in Youtube without the copyright nonsense, I wll be most greatful

Stupid "Catholic " Politicians wife

French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy accuses Pope Benedict of "damaging" countries in Africa with his stance on birth control.

"I find that the controversy coming from the Pope's message – albeit distorted by the media – is very damaging," she said. "In Africa it's often church people who look after sick people. It's astonishing to see the difference between the theory and the reality.

"I think the church should evolve on this issue. It presents the condom as a contraceptive which, incidentally, it forbids, although it is the only existing protection."

Bruni-Sarkozy added: "I was born Catholic, I was baptized, but in my life I feel profoundly secular."

Sorry Carla, firstly by marring a divorced man you are living in a state of sin, the sin is called fornication. *

Second secularism is condemned as a heretical error in the Syllabus of Errors by Pope Pius IX

* Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away? 8 He saith to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.

National March for life 2009 Blog

Hello Blogger friends,

Once again the main stream media has turned a blind eye to the prolife National March for Life rally in Ottawa. 10000 people stood out in the lawns of parliament and marched down the road in pouring rain and gusty winds to support the most basic of all human right the right to be born, yet we were all ignored.

In order to shout out from the rooftops that We as Canadians say that the Abortion discussion is not closed and we do Stand for Life from conception to natural death, With the help of a photographer firend, I have put up a new Blog

Crime Against Humanity

Please do visit the blog, leave your comments and pass it on to your friends.

Exodus 2009 - National March for Life Ottawa

Hi All,

I just got home at 9:30 pm from the Exodus 2009 - National March for Life Ottawa. It was a tremendous witness for what we as Christians belive in 'Life begins at Conceptions and ends at natural death'.

It was raining in the morning during the speeches and during the march. While this was a slight inconvenience, it did leave for beautiful pictures as the sun was not casting bright shadows and the road provided a lovely refelction.

After the march the rain stopped and than at 3:00pm which as you all know is the HOur of Divine Mercy the sun came out shining brightly down on us. It was as if heaven was weeping during the march for the poor murdered unborn children and then at the Hour of Mercy our Lord Jesus smiled down and poured out His Mercy on all of us and on our nation.

I will be positng pictures and probably opening a new blog or web site to cover the event with all the photographs which me brother in Chirst Efstathios Fillis took with his camera. Keep an eye posted for them.

It was a great pleasure to see the Archbishop of Toronto, Archbishop of Ottawa, Archbishop of Quebec as well as the Archbishop of the Polish Catholic church present amonst many other preists and religious sisters giving witness.

National walk for life in Ottawa

On the 14th May 2009 is the annual National walk for life in Ottawa. The capital of Canada. As you my reader may not know, Canada allows abortions right upto the ninth month. I ask you to pray for my newly adopted home country that her leaders may change these terrible murderous laws. Canada also allows homosexual unions and terms them as marriage. Please pray for us.