I have been watching in a distracted way the live stream of the annual USCCB blah blah and occasionally checking the liberal reactions: rather like tossing a bad of treats into a dog park.
In any event, someone sent me this image:
What part of the so-called “AFFORDABLE” Care Act can we really afford?
From The Catholic League:
No Priest is Safe
November 11, 2013 Bill Donohue comments on our anti-priest culture: Two stories in the news today make it clear that no Catholic priest is safe. Anyone can accuse a priest of molestation, no matter how long ago, and get away with it. Father John P. Paul has stepped down as pastor of Our Lady of Calvary in Philadelphia. He resigned because of the emotional stress he has been under. In all his years as a priest, he has never had an accusation made against him (he was ordained in 1972). But now, out of the blue, he is being charged with abusing two boys in 1968, when he was a seminarian. It’s funny how both of these alleged victims decided to wait 45 years to make their case—in tandem, no less. The police were contacted but the case was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. But Father Paul is still being investigated by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Had Father Paul been Mr. Paul, a public school teacher, and he was accused of violating a minor at the end of the school year last June, the statute of limitations would have expired (accusers have 90 days to file charges against public school teachers). Moreover, no one would be investigating him. But when it comes to Father Paul, even though the alleged abuse happened in the year Rev. Martin Luther King and Sen. Bobby Kennedy were shot, it’s not too late to get him. It’s never too late to get a priest. Last week in Chicago, a 73-year-old priest was shaken down for money by the same two con-artist brothers who had hustled him before. This time the priest said no. “We’ll say you touched us—read the paper—they’ll believe us,” they said. Sadly, it’s true. Thanks to our anti-priest culture, fueled by the likes of Bill Maher, every priest is considered suspect. None are safe. Please keep Father Paul in your prayers
Someone who levels a false accusation, for the sake of money or to harm the Church, deserves to burn in Hell for eternity.
I can hear it already: “There’s goes crazy ol’ Father Z again! Every time there is a big disaster, he posts about prepping!”
That’s right.
That’s because it could happen to you.
Natural disasters happen. Man made disasters happen. They can happen where you are and to you.
Do you have any sort of plan? Taking care of yourself and your loved ones is not something you want to be sloppy about.
I read in one story about the devastation caused in the Philippines by the super typhoon
Typhoon Survivors Hunt For Food ‘Like Zombies’
The zombie thing is a bit of a joke in pop culture. This isn’t a joke. Nope. Not funny at all.
Survivors of the super typhoon that has devastated several islands in the Philippines have begun scavenging for food and looting shops in order to stay alive, witnesses say.
Shopping centres and grocery stores in hard-hit Tacloban have reportedly been stripped of goods as rescuers’ efforts to deliver food and water are hampered by severed roads and communications.
“Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families,” high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, said as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors.
“People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk. I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger.”
Witnesses described how survivors are forming long queues at aid stations, waiting desperately for handouts of rice and water.
Some sit and stare, covering their faces with rags to keep out the smell of the dead.
One woman, eight months pregnant, described through tears how her 11 family members vanished in the storm, including two daughters.
“I can’t think right now. I am overwhelmed,” she said.
During a visit to Tacloban, President Benigno Aquino acknowledged that looting had emerged as a major concern after only 20 out of 390 of the city’s police officers turned up for work following the typhoon.
“So we will send about 300 police and soldiers to take their place and bring back peace and order,” he said.
“Tonight, an armoured vehicle will arrive and our armed forces will display the strength of the state to put a stop to this looting.”
Aid agencies have warned that many of the 480,000 people whose homes have been destroyed by the bludgeoning force of the cyclone face a desperate battle to survive.
“Everything is gone. Our house is like a skeleton and we are running out of food and water. We are looking for food everywhere,” said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte.
“Even the delivery vans were looted. People are walking like zombies looking for food. It’s like a movie.”
Nancy Chang, who was in Tacloblan City on a business trip from China and walked three hours through mud and debris for a military-led evacuation, said: “It’s like the end of the world.”
[…]
The rest is horrible.
“It’s like the end of the world.”
TEOTWAWKI can happen to you.
Having a plan and a ready stash of potable water, grab-n-go food, clothing, a back up of necessary meds, and… yes… weapons and ammo for hunting and for protection are bare necessities. After a while money won’t be worth much, compared to, say, a can of pickled okra.
I say, spend some money now for things that have real value, including items that can keep you and your loved ones healthy and alive in time of need.
“But Father! But Father!”, you might be howling. “GUNS? For protection? You are a fear-mongering war-monger. People are nice when we are nice to them. Besides, Pres. Obama will send the government to help us! And you hate Vatican II!”
Sure when the food runs out, people will be nice.
I rather think that people will get strange. Wait until all the people who are on (often over-prescribed) drugs for their depression or for their other mental states… come off their meds way too fast and get a crazy. People who are hungry and thirsty and frightened for their children can get pretty desperate. And dogs get wilder fast and form packs.
You can always trade ammo.
We are all nine meals and three days of water away from looting and violence.
Look. Aside from EMPs from attacks or CMEs, when tornadoes rip through places like Joplin, Missouri, I think about readers here. There are floods, earthquakes, … lots of bad things happen to real people. They can happen to real people like you and like me.
You might want to read the Deep Winter series. Lights Out and One Second After also present scenarios that provoke thought. There are lots of books in this genre. This genre of writing is not great literature, but it drills into the sorts of things that could happen to you and me.
Eye of the Tiber satirically “reports”:
Dumbstruck Congregation Listens In Awe As “Judgmental” Pastor Delivers Sound Homily
Encinitas, CA–Listening in shock and horror as a visiting priest delivered what many believed to be a judgmental homily earlier this morning, many parishioners at Sacred Heard Catholic Church in Encinitas, California, were traumatized after listening to what some called “the most sound homily they had ever heard.” “It was disgusting,” one parishioner, Debbie Locke, told EOTT. “This is a Church for goodness sakes.” Others also voiced their concerns saying that such filth should never be spoken anywhere, let alone in a church. “This is the house of God!” parishioner Bob Woodward said. “Is there no place left in the world where we can avoid hatred, injustice, judgment, and sound Catholic doctrine!” According to Woodward, a world that “did not allow for a women’s right to choose, or for two men to love one another” was not a world deserving of the King of Kings. The baffled and furious parishioner went on to explain how he was forced to flee Denver years ago after noticing a more prevalent and uncomfortable trend of sound homilies coming from several pulpits around the diocese. “The Bishop was doing nothing about it, so I fled with my family from Denver so that we could get away from that kind of critical and unwelcoming attitude. I chose to flee so that my Catholic children could grow up in a world that is accepting of all things…even if they’re not even remotely close to being in the same vicinity of being in line with Catholic teaching.”
Who am I to judge?
The International Olympic Committee seems to be adopting the Vatican’s time-honored policy “Yesterday’s technology tomorrow!”
From FNC:
No Tweets, Instagrams, iPhones at the Olympics, authorities declare
The 2014 Olympics might feel more like 1914.
Journalists attending the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia will be forbidden from using everyday technology to take pictures and share information — the mobile phones and tablets that have woven themselves into the fabric of daily life, the Olympics committee said.
“Journalists using mobile phones to film athletes or spectators will be considered a serious violation and will result in cancellation of accreditation,” Vasily Konov, head of the state-run R-Sport news agency, which controls accreditation at February’s games, told a seminar for sports journalists.
That means no iPhone pictures, no Vine videos, no Instagram accounts sharing the minute-by-minute details of the events, no Twitter accounts with updates and so on.
According to Russian news site Svoboda, the ban will including all mobile devices and tablets, including iPhones and iPads. Fans may be banned from carrying in professional camera gear as well.
Several journalists have already fallen foul of strict accreditation regulations surrounding the Olympics, Buzzfeed reported Monday, including Dutch journalists working on a multimedia project and a Norwegian TV crew.
I was looking forward to the live-blogging of the all-important CURLING events.
This is from Breitbart:
THREE 20-YEAR-OLDS MAKE WORKING OBAMACARE WEBSITE IN THREE DAYS
Even as President Obama has issued a constant refrain of how upset he is that his Obamacare website doesn’t work and promises that he’s on top of the fix, three 20-year-old website designers in San Francisco made a working Obamacare website using Healthcare.gov’s own code. They did it in only three days.
The three web developers who created the site, HealthSherpa.com, programmed it to do much of what Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare website, is supposed to do.
The enterprising young men whipped up their version of Obamacare in just days working in their off time.[…]
No, this doesn’t seem to be a joke.
The JOKE is the “AFFORDABLE” Care Act.
Was there a good point you heard in the sermon you heard as you fulfilled your Sunday Mass obligation?
Let us know. Sometimes people are in a situation where they don’t hear good sermons. Help them out.
In the Extraordinary Form it was the 5th Sunday remaining after Epiphany.
A massive storm has devastated the Philippines. Thousands are dead. Some 10,000 are dead. Who knows how many are injured and displaced.
I will say Mass for the dead from the storm tomorrow, Monday. I am sure you will join your prayers to mine.
Some of your fellow readers of this blog, and contributors in the combox, are from the Philippines.
The US military’s Pacific command has been mobilized to help. It is hard to say how many military personnel will eventually be dispatched to the area, but I am pretty use chaplains will be with them. But, remember, the Fishwrap and other liberals are attacking the collection to help the Archdiocese for Military Services. I don’t want anyone to forget the National Catholic Reporter‘s sustained attack on military chaplains during this time when US forces are heading to aid those poor, suffering people.
Click to donate!
I imagine that there are reliable Catholic services which will be organizing aid. Also, I will be watching to see if one of my favorite groups, Team Rubicon, heads across the Pacific.
UPDATE:
Team Rubicon has launched Operation Seabird. HERE
Here is a great point for our reflection on our obligation to revitalize our liturgical worship of God.
Unless we revitalize our liturgical worship, no other aspect of a New Evangelization will have any lasting effect.
Dan Burke wrote at the National Catholic Register:
The Devil’s War On Silence in Mass
A consistent thread in the resulting dialogue from my post “The Devil’s War On Silence” was on the common problem of the disturbing absence of silence in Mass. This is clearly a challenge that is very familiar to the majority of faithful Catholics.
Frequently, the noise assaults us right when we enter the church — from the choir, the parishioners and other sources. This despite the fact that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) clearly outlines the critical importance and specific instructions for the place of sacred silence in the Mass:
“Sacred silence also, as part of the celebration, is to be observed at the designated times,” the GIRM says. “Its purpose, however, depends on the time it occurs in each part of the celebration. Thus within the Act of Penitence and again after the invitation to pray, all recollect themselves; but at the conclusion of a reading or the homily, all meditate briefly on what they have heard; then after Communion, they praise and pray to God in their hearts.Even before the celebration itself, it is commendable that silence be observed in the church, in the sacristy, in the vesting room, and in adjacent areas, so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred action in a devout and fitting manner.” (#45)
Why Silence?
The most important portion of this instruction is contained clearly and elegantly in the last line, and it’s worthy of repetition: We need silence “so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred action in a devout and fitting manner.” Here we have the wisdom of the Church, as the Holy Spirit leads us to eschew all human priorities outside of God and to draw our hearts to the reality of this sacred encounter. The Mass finds its ultimate purpose in the condescension of God to meet with us and nourish us — and for us to respond in a manner worthy of this gift of all gifts.
It stands to reason that our behavior at Mass will be proportionally devout to the degree we believe this meeting of heaven an earth is actually happening. In contrast, those that see the Mass as a kind of religious social gathering — and harbor disbelief or lack proper instruction — will see no need for such formality, and will act accordingly.
What Is the Answer?
Those who do know the proper reality should lead by example and teach it in a way that is focused first on the reality of God present, and then on how we should respond. This cannot be done in a spirit of condescending traditionalism that worships tradition (as did the Pharisees). Instead, it must be done in a spirit of love that recognizes the power of liturgical tradition to aid and order the heart of the believer toward offering just praise to our most merciful and deserving God.
Those who are not called or able to teach (Note: almost no one in the Church falls into this category) should emulate the behavior they desire, but without the negativity often flowing freely from those who worship at the altar of traditionalism. Yes, we must live out our love for God in our reverent worship and love those who have yet to know the benefit of sound formation or maturity. For those who turn others away from God by their bad attitudes will be judged by a higher standard than those who know far less or who have yet to effectively live out what they know. Need convincing? Take a look at Matthew 18:21-25 for a glimpse at Jesus’ perspective on the wrong approach to this kind of situation.So What Does the Devil Have to Do With All of This?
[…]
You can read the rest there.
In his Spirit in the Liturgy, Joseph Card. Ratzinger wrote of liturgical silence:
We are realizing more and more clearly that silence is part of the liturgy. We respond, by singing and praying, to the God who addresses us, but the greater mystery, surpassing all words, summons us to silence. It must, of course, be a silence with content, not just the absence of speech and action. We should expect the liturgy to give us a positive stillness that will restore us. Such stillness will not be just a pause, in which a thousand thoughts and desires assault us, but a time of recollection, giving us an inward peace, allowing us to draw breath and rediscover the one thing necessary, which we have forgotten. That is why silence cannot be simply “made”, organized as if it were one activity among many. It is no accident that on all sides people are seeking techniques of meditation, a spirituality for emptying the mind. One of man’s deepest needs is making its presence felt, a need that is manifestly not being met in our present form of the liturgy. For silence to be fruitful, as we have already said, it must not be just a pause in the action of the liturgy. No, it must be an integral part of the liturgical event.
There is an old adage in theatre: Everything is nothing. If the whole set is red, you stop looking at it. If the volume is nothing but loud, you stop listening. If there is constant noise, sound, something to hear and process, you tune out.
However, there is a greater purpose to silence in liturgical worship. There is apophatic dimension of worship which must be fostered. We need to be able to experience mystery between the signs, just as Moses had a glimpse of God through the crack in the rock.
Meanwhile, remember what Screwtape said about silence and noise:
Music and silence – how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell – though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express – no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise – Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile – Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress. Meanwhile you, disgusting little –
[Here the MS. breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.]
This is what Screwtape in his rage accidentally transforms himself into a giant centipede. Nasty.
If the Mass you attend regularly has little or no silence… you need to make a change. A Mass that has no silence in it, that is constantly at you to pay attention to something in an invasive way, to force you into the wrong sort of “active participation”, is sort of like a giant demonic centipede crawling its way into your head.
BTW… did you know that John Cleese did an audiobook reading of The Screwtape Letters? Marvelous.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
shiny on YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS: “Thank you to all those who have prayed for my intentions in the past! This might be a small thing,…”
on WDTPRS – 9 November: Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, Rome’s Cathedral: “Fr Z — this is an excellent piece. Great teaching. Thanks for this.”
on “Sometimes the scalpel is the honey.” Wherein Fr. Z rants about “the parable of the wheat and tares”.: “Another thought: sometimes the only one who can successfully use the scalpel on us is ourself. Because ultimately, it is…” on “Sometimes the scalpel is the honey.” Wherein Fr. Z rants about “the parable of the wheat and tares”.: “Fr. Z, I appreciate the honesty about yourself. It is a good prayer. May God reward you!”
on ROME 26/10-11 – Day 37: For awhile…: “Safe travels, Happy Thanksgiving. Now that you are back in the USA, maybe we can get more updates from the…”
on “Sometimes the scalpel is the honey.” Wherein Fr. Z rants about “the parable of the wheat and tares”.: “I’m finally reading the Divine Comedy. I’m through the Inferno and halfway in the Purgatorio. I often wonder if someone…”
on YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS: “The complete prayer. I apologize it was missing a few lines. Thank you. PRAYER FOR HELP WITH PREGNANCY through the…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
Aid agencies have warned that many of the 480,000 people whose homes have been destroyed by the bludgeoning force of the cyclone face a desperate battle to survive.
