Listen and weep...

...as  Mr. Barack Obama, as an Illinois state senator on April 4, 2002, argues against SB1663, the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act:




Heartless.

Pray for Rimsha Masih

I would be over the moon if the Democrats, including the president, would quit harping on the non-existent "War on Women" and start bringing up the all too real War on Christians in the Middle East:

From The Catholic Register (in Canada) (with my emphases and comments):

Work under way to free Pakistani girl [falsely] accused of blasphemy 

Written by Catholic News Service Friday, 24 August 2012 10:14

VATICAN CITY - Pakistani institutions and religious leaders are working together for the release of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy and to reduce the risk of Muslim-Christian violence over the incident, said the Pakistani prime minister's special advisor on minorities.

Paul Bhatti, the Catholic advisor, told the Vatican's Fides news agency Aug. 23 that those working to secure the girl's release included Muslim leaders.

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has reported that the girl, Rimsha Masih, is an 11-year-old with Down syndrome.  She was taken into custody Aug. 18 after allegedly being found with burned pages of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. When the police took her away, hundreds of angry Muslims were reportedly gathering in the mainly poor Christian neighbourhood of Islamabad where she lived.[I have had the privilege of working with people with Down's Syndrome, some of whom were very "high-functioning" and some of whom needed assistance with every aspect of daily life. It makes me sick to think of one of those innocent souls being arrested, locked up, and interrogated.]

Hundreds of families have fled the neighbourhood, and the police presence has increased.

"The situation is under control," Bhatti told Fides. [And the check is in the mail, the innocent have nothing to fear, etc., etc.]

Catholic leaders in Pakistan and human rights activists have said the country's anti-blasphemy law, which includes offenses against the Quran, has been misused to persecute Christians and other minorities in the country. [You think?]

Daughter of St. Paul Sister Daniela Baronchelli, who works in Pakistan, told Vatican Radio Aug. 20: "We have been told that the girl cannot respond to the interrogation. They found her with a bag that had parts of a burned Quran inside. They don't know, however, who gave it to her or where she got it; they don't know anything." [I wonder if the same person who gave it to her was the one who reported her.]

Sr. Daniela said the angry crowd "wanted to burn her alive because they say it was a great offense against the Quran." [May God have mercy on their souls for even considering it.]

The unjust use of the anti-blasphemy law "unfortunately is becoming all too common. The fact is that the extremists don't want the Christians here any more, so any little thing — true or not — is enough to incite a revolt," she said.

In related news (in case you're not yet horrified enough at the so-called "religion of peace") is this story from The International Business Times:

11-Year-Old Christian Boy Mutilated in Pakistan

By Vasudevan Sridharan

August 24, 2012 11:33 AM GMT

Less than a week after an 11-year old Christian girl was arrested for blasphemy in Pakistan, the mutilated body of an 11-year-old Christian boy has been found in the Punjab province.

The body, identified as that of Samuel Yaqoob, was found with its nose and lips cut off. Samuel's legs had been chopped off and the stomach organs removed. [Monsters. Kyrie eleison.]

It is reported that police officials who found the body had difficulty identifying it. With the help of Samuel's relatives, the police eventually identified the body because of a unique mark on the boy's forehead.

The boy, who lived in the Faisalabad area, was reported missing four days before his body was found during the religious holiday of Eid. [I'm tempted to make some snarky comment about how Christians celebrate their holidays, but I'll refrain...]

Although police officials are investigating the issue of blasphemy [How about investigating the butchery of an innocent child instead?], it remains unclear whether Samuel's words or actions contributed to the murder. [ He. Was. 11. Years. Old. He was butchered. Repeat as freaking necessary until you get those facts through your skull. In no realm of reason could anyone ever make the claim that his "words or actions contributed" to what those monsters did to him. What kind of world do we live in that a reporter would write it, an editor approve it and a newspaper publish it? God have mercy.]

 The boy's background is subject to conflicting reports. While some suggest he was an orphan, others quote his mother as saying: "We neither received any phone call for ransom nor were we told that Samuel had committed blasphemy."

Samuel's murder follows the detention of an 11-year-old girl, widely reported to have Downs syndrome, for allegedly burning the Koran.

The incident has ignited a debate on religious tolerance in the country and the strict laws against blasphemy. Under current law, the authorities can impose the death penalty for desecrating the Koran.

Still want to claim that Islam is a "religion that reaffirms peace, fairness, tolerance", Mr. President?

You know you're Catholic when...

...stories like this from the Scranton Times Tribune make you shudder:

Carbondale Church descrated by theft

A golden container and the hosts for Holy Communion inside it were stolen during an overnight break-in Tuesday at St. Rose of Lima Church in Carbondale.

Called the ciborium, it was the only thing taken.

One has to hope that the thief a) only wanted the gold; b) had no idea that he/she was committing a huge act of sacrilege; and c) comes to repentance.

However,

Monsignor David L. Tressler, the church's pastor, described the Catholic community as stunned and hurt. There is a "real sense of violation," and it is all the more disheartening because the thief targeted the hosts, which are at the heart of the religion's identity, he said.

There were certainly more valuable items. "Once they were in the church, they could've had a field day," Monsignor Tressler said.

So it's very well possible that what happened at St. Rose of Lima wasn't merely a theft, but a very deliberate act by a person or persons who knew Who the ciborium held.

There's a reason satanists celebrate black masses and not twisted versions of other types of worship: the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, and even the demons believe and tremble.

Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for us sinners.

Another point for the Culture of Death

From the Washington Post:

FDA approves ella as 5-day-after emergency contraception

The Food and Drug Administration approved a controversial new form of emergency contraception Friday that can prevent a pregnancy as many as five days after sex.

The decision to allow the sale of the pill, which will be marketed under the brand name "ella," was welcomed by family-planning proponents as a crucial new option to prevent unwanted pregnancies. But critics condemned the decision, arguing that it was misleading to approve ella as a contraceptive because the drug could also be used to induce an abortion.

Ella can cut the chances of becoming pregnant by about two-thirds for at least 120 hours after a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex, studies have shown. The only other emergency contraceptive on the market, the so-called morning-after pill sold as Plan B, is significantly less effective, becomes less effectual with each passing day and will not work after 72 hours.

...

Ella, known generically as ulipristal acetate, works as a contraceptive by blocking progesterone's activity, delaying the ovaries from producing an egg. But progesterone is also needed to prepare the womb to accept a fertilized egg and to nurture a developing embryo. That's how RU-486 prevents a fertilized egg from implanting and dislodges growing embryos. Ella's chemical similarity to RU-486 raises the possibility that it might do the same thing, perhaps if taken at elevated doses. But no one knows for sure whether the drug would induce an abortion, because the drug has never been tested that way.

"Raises the possibility that it might do the same thing." Saints preserve us. They know it does the same thing. If it didn't, it wouldn't be as effective 5 days after sex. Moreover, the regular old daily birth control pill works very similarly, as demonstrated by the Physician Labeling for Yaz:

Combination oral contraceptives (COCs) act by suppression of gonadotropins. Although the primary mechanism of this action is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include changes in the cervical mucus (which increases the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus) and the endometrium (which reduces the likelihood of implantation).

Oddly enough (I guess they think women are stoopid or something), the patient labeling lacks this information. But hey, anything to make a buck and keep a few more babies out of the world, right? After all, studies show having children makes parents unhappy, and by golly, the pursuit of happiness trumps right to life any day.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us sinners who fail to recognize the precious gift of life.

Blasphemy

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P.O. Box 20850
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(800) 633-5151
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consumeraffairs@hmausa.com

Was +Bishop Padovese a Martyr?

From EWTN News/CNA:

Bishop Padovese canceled Cyprus trip to avoid assassination of Pope

An Italian Vatican expert is saying that Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia and President of the Turkish Bishops’ Conference, canceled his trip to Cyprus because he feared that his driver –who later confessed to killing the bishop- might attempt an attack on Pope Benedict XVI during his stay on the island.

Analyst Fr. Fillippo di Giacomo, who writes for publications such as L’Unitá and La Stampa, revealed that “hours before Padovese was killed, the Turkish Government called him to say that his driver, who they themselves had put in his service four years before, had gotten out of hand. That is to say, he had embraced the fundamentalist cause.”

Speaking to the Spanish daily El Pais, Fr. di Giacomo added that “knowing this, Padovese canceled the tickets he had reserved to Cyprus for himself and Altun (his driver). He preferred to stay home rather than to make the trip because he feared that his driver would take advantage of his proximity to the Pope and make an attempt on his life.”

....

During the celebration of Bishop Padovese’s funeral Mass, the Turkish TV station NTV announced that the 26 year-old driver, Murat Altun, had confessed to killing the bishop. He died after being stabbed 25 times, eight of them in his heart, and was almost completely decapitated by Altun, who said he murdered Bishop Padovese because he had received a “divine inspiration.”

NTV added that Altun shouted “Allahu Akbar” a number of times after the murder, despite having presented himself as a Catholic.

I never believed that +Bishop Padovese's faith was unrelated to his brutal murder. But to think that he died in the pope's place...

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Obama and Catholics

President Obama has just renominated Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

Ms. Johnsen (along with other sadly misguided souls) actually tried to strip the Church of its tax-exempt status over its pro-life stances (see Abortion Rights Mobilization Inc v. A. Baker III and United States Catholic Conference v. Abortion Rights Mobilization).

Add her to the list of bigots that Obama has nominated or appointed. She joins:

• Chai Feldblum, nominee for Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She has stated: "Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that's the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner." Ms. Feldblum also believes that the First Amendment should no longer be used to evaluate religious freedom claims: "...I want to suggest that the best framework for dealing with [the conflict between gay rights and religious liberty] is to analyze religious people's claims as belief liberty interests under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, rather than as free exercise claims under the First Amendment."

• Harry Knox, member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He called the denial of the Eucharist to a lesbian couple "spiritual and emotional violence" and said that the Knights of Columbus were "foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression."

• Kevin Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Drug-Free Schools. In a speech to Marble Collegiate Church, he said: "We have to quit being afraif of the religious right. We also have to quit - I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to s ay, '[F---] 'em!' which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think.Drop dead!" Mr. Jennings is also a donating member of ACT UP, a homosexual, anti-AIDS, anti-Catholic Church organization which, in 1989, broke in St. Patrick's Cathedral, disrupted Mass, desecrated the Eucharist and posted obscene depictions of Cardinal O'Connor. Mr. Jennings was not a participant in the attack.
  

They say you can judge someone by the company they keep. Such company does not reassure me that Obama respects the Catholic faith. (We won't even go into the issue of multitude of lapsed Catholics he's appointed.)

Such nominees are especially troubling, considering that Belmont Abbey College is currently fighting a ruling by the EEOC over their health care policy, which does not cover abortion or contraceptives.

Reuben Daniels Jr., of the EEOC Charlotte District Office Director wrote“By denying prescription contraception drugs, Respondent (the college) is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives… By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women."

In other words, Catholic college aren't allowed to be Catholic if it interferes with "sexual liberty." Sounds like something Chai Feldblum would applaud.

Something is rotten in the District of Columbia...

God help us.

photo credit: Indiana University Law School