BREAKING: Canada's activist Supreme Court forces approves medical murder

At a meeting of the Catholic Civil Rights League in December, we were warned that the writing seemed to be on the wall for this decision. It was not expected until May. Once again, Canada's Supreme Court judges have decided that which should be in Parliament's domain. These activist judges have forced upon this country abortion, threatened to do so with sodomite and lesbian "marriage", prostitution and now, euthanasia.

The Constitution of Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of Pierre Elliot Trudeau has been interpreted by leftists and activists to undermine our nation. 

There is buried within it an out; a Notwithstanding Clause to overturn the decision. Any bets on whether the government will find the fortitude to stand up to these bastards?

Happy now Michael?

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-canadas-top-court-rules-doctors-can-help-kill-patients

BREAKING: Canada’s top court rules doctors can help kill patients

 Assisted Suicide , Euthanasia

OTTAWA, February 6, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In a momentous ruling this morning, Canada’s highest court unanimously ruled to open the door to a doctor helping kill someone nearing the end-of-life stage, a ruling comparable to the sweeping Morgentaler ruling 27 years ago that allowed a doctor to kill someone at the earliest pre-born stage of life. 

In Carter v. Canada, the Court overturned a previous law prohibiting assisted suicide, in effect reversing the previous 1993 Rodriguez decision in which it said the state’s obligation to “protect the vulnerable” outweighed the rights of the individual to self-determination. The ruling makes Canada join the ranks of Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as Oregon and Washington, in allowing assisted suicide. 

Father Bulus Ya'qub, Rest in Peace with Christ good priest

World Council of Arameans [Syriacs]

IRAQ | Bestial ISIS jihadis behead another Aramean Christian, according to eye witnesses and local media. The priest Bulus Ya'qub, who was kidnapped 7 months ago and whose church was blown up, has been executed this week in the Ghazlani Camp south of Mosul. ISIS, which converted the Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in Mosul into a mosque, has already removed the crosses from at least 30 churches in Mosul.

Don't you agree that it is conspicuous, strange and unethical that the world media barely report about such atrocity crimes when it concerns defenseless Aramean Christians who lack the voice and the support of a country? It is time for the Aramean people to stand up and reclaim their dignity, human rights and freedom.

In the absence of a state, we ask you to support the WCA that will continue to raise the ignored voice and combat the human rights violations against the Aramean people in their occupied homelands. Click here for your support: http://www.wca-ngo.org/support

Obama justifies ISIS barbarism - refers to Crusades and Inquisition canards

Sometimes you read something and are left to gasp if it was truly said.

"Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said Wednesday. "And in our home country, slavery, and Jim Crow, all too often was justified in the name of Christ." Barack Hussein Obama.

Yes, he really did say that. Today. At the National Prayer Breakfast.

Do I have to shout it out Obama?

The Crusades were to free Christians from Muslim persecution. As for that old canard about the Inquisition, this Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser in the White House has proven by these two statements that he is manipulative, lying, deceitful and anti-Christian. 

The Inquisition was defensive against the Moors and heretics to a united Christian Europe. In five hundred years there are no more than 5000 executions that could have been due to the various Inquisitions. 

You wish to draw a moral equivalence?

Clearly, with Barack Hussein Obama, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. To have the absolute temerity to equate ISIS savagery with whatever excesses occurred centuries and millennia ago is evil and disgusting. Is he justifying the beheadings of children and innocents and the burying alive of people, the murder, the burning alive of a trapped man in a cage?

Tantumblogo provides a solid take on it at Dallas Area Catholics.

Meanwhile ... this is the man he wants "removed" and the people of this same land he wants slaughtered under a lie that Basser Al-Assad is persecuting his people and needs to be overthrown by America. Assad is shown here with his wife Asma during a visit to the Saint Takla Monastery in Maloula in 2014, before it was destroyed by Islamists funded by Barack Obama and urged on by John McCain. 

This is the man, President Sisi of Egypt, who showed up at Christmas Mass in the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo - the first time in modern Egyptian history that a President of Egypt has not only wished his beautiful lands Christians a Blessed Christmas but actually went into a Coptic Church to cheers and tears of joy by the people. He has vowed to rebuild churches destroyed by the Islamists under the Obama supported Muslim Brotherhood takeover!

A priest, Father Polous Yacoub has been beheaded in Mosul. Where is the outrage from this Obama?

Has America gone insane?

Do you have any idea what is coming upon you and the rest of us because of this man, Obama? 

Barack Hussein Obama has to be called out as an enemy of Catholics and Christians everywhere. 

He is an enemy to America and a danger to the security of our lands.

God help us.

Obama revealed his true colors at Prayer Breakfast, and true ignorance of history

Written by Allen West on February 6, 2015

There is grave danger in statements supporting moral equivalency and religious relativism. What happens is horrific behavior is excused because you have a certain recalcitrance in admitting the existence of evil.

President Barack Obama had the chance to affirm our Judeo-Christian faith heritage at the National Prayer Breakfast just days after the world was exposed to the savage and barbaric actions of ISIS in the burning to death of the captured Jordanian fighter pilot. But he did not.

As we reported yesterday, instead the Islamapologist-in-Chief attempted to find moral equivalency between the brutality of ISIS and Christianity, saying that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

Obama also denounced Islamic State terrorists for professing to stand up for Islam when they were actually “betraying it.” “We see ISIL, a brutal vicious death cult that in the name of religion carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism,” he said criticizing them for “claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.”

Now, being a simple student of history, I’d like to share a simple analysis — and please, I ask all the Islamapologists reading this to sit down and take a deep breath.

First of all, Pope Urban II called for the Crusade in response to Muslim brigands and raiders who were attacking Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. I find it rather odd that Obama would refer to something that is over 900 years old in order to make a statement of relativism. The sad truth is that no one is running around in Knights Templar white robes declaring “God wills it.” However, the same enemy that Pope Urban II saw as a threat exists to today and still declares, “Allahu Akhbar.”

As for the Spanish Inquisition, consider that this came after the expulsion of Muslim domination on the Iberian Peninsula for some 700 years.

As a matter of fact, Islamists still refer to Spain as “Al Andalusia” which means to this day still consider it Muslim land — after all it was part of their caliphate conquest. Good thing ol’ Charles “The Hammer” Martel turned back an invading Muslim Army in 732 AD at the Battle of Tours — just as was done by the Venetian fleet at Lepanto in 1571 — just as done by the heroic European Knights at Vienna in 1683. Yes, the Inquisition was horrible and severely affected the Jewish population in Spain. It was however, an overreaction to ensure that Catholicism reigned superior and was never again subjugated as it had been under the Moors of North Africa.

You see religious relativism in this case dismisses the actions of ISIS who is actually more closely following the exploits of Mohammad.

If you study history and begin at the Medina phase, approximately 622 AD, you’ll find a murderous warlord who used terror and “religious manipulation” as he led almost 25 combat raids, the first being the Nakhla raid, circa 622 AD. This all came after the “peaceful” first phase of Islam, just 12 years in length.

The world has been exposed to the brutality of militant Islam for some 1400 years – a theocratic-political totalitarian ideology that spread by way of the sword, not peaceful proselytization. Hence why the flag of Saudi Arabia has a koranic verse above the sword of Mohammad.

And if you understand the Koran and the hadiths you’ll find the history laid out here corresponds to a shift in the verses and traditions towards violence — which the latter verse under the premise of “nakeesh” (abrogation) supersede the previous “peaceful” verses — yet all are still held in equal regard as the words of Allah as revealed to Muhammad.

Lastly, as we shared yesterday, Obama should be careful in equivocating slavery and Jim Crow to the actions of ISIS — after all it was those righteous Democrat Christians who supported such heinous actions as lynchings.

I have a simple recommendation for President Obama — don’t attend any more National Prayer Breakfasts. The angst created by these ill-conceived words is just not worth it — better to just not be there, than to be there and call into question your loyalties to the Judeo-Christian faith heritage of America.

Obama once again attempted to lecture us and failed miserably. ISIS is Islamic, they are militant Islamists and they represent an evil that came from a man who went rogue and used a religious belief as a means to an end — power. Now, that should have been the crux of Obama’s comments, but I suppose those “undisclosed” Muslim leaders with whom he met had a different idea.

Mr. President, true, you are not running again, and true, you did win twice. But even truer, you are damning your reputation as a president and may never hold any regard or esteem of the American people. Then again, perhaps that was always your aim, as you fundamentally transform our beloved Constitutional Republic.

A sad state of affairs in Aurora - Our Lady of Grace, Pray for us!

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has called on priests to stay close to the marginalised, to go out to the "peripheries" and to be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep.” At Our Lady of Grace Church in Aurora, on the periphery of Toronto, I'm afraid that it is more of stench; it's been going on for over 25 years as you will come to read shortly.

The Pastor, Father Joseph Gorman, has been removed for the time-being for "ecclesiastical irregularities." Last Sunday, Auxiliary Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick attended the parish to explain the situation to the people. The next day Neil MacCarthy, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Toronto explained that there were two serious irregularities. Father Gorman presided over a wedding in the parish where one person had not received a "Decree of Nullity" and he allegedly wed two other Catholics -- a couple, according to the Toronto Star, in an Anglican chapel. It is also alleged that Father Gorman then altered the records to indicate that another minister had officiated. He is also alleged to have not followed accounting procedures for special collections and according to a report, gave parish funds directly to people "in need" in the parish. According to our sources Father Gorman was asked to take a leave of absence and to advise the parish and refused forcing the bishop to order the leave and make the announcement. Father Gorman is still listed as Pastor.

Please note that any comments about Father Gorman other than an expression of prayer for him, will not be published.

Now, let's get to the meat of the matter.

One cannot marry in the Catholic Church if one is married previously. An investigation must be held by the Marriage Tribunal and a Decree of Nullity issued that the first marriage did not take place for whatever grounds or defects are determined within Canon Law. Father Gorman knows this. 

Not all annulment requests are granted. There are safeguards in place so that this does not happen. If this is true and Father Gorman did this it is extremely serious. It involves a desecration of the Sacrament of Matrimony, and the "second" marriage was invalid and the people are in a state of mortal sin (adultery) sanctioned by the parish priest. Secondly, marrying a Catholic "couple" at an Anglican church is a serious matter. What could  be the reason for this? Were they not permitted to marry in a Catholic Church? Were they previously married? Were they a couple of the "same-sex?" Why would a Catholic priest preside over the marriage of a Catholic couple in an Anglican church and then falsify the documents? This is a very, very serious matter, it violates provincial government law as well as Church Law. Further, there were some alleged financial irregularities on special collections which are ordered by the Bishop for specific purposes. However this, if true, pales in comparison to the issues of the marriage ceremonies.

From the Catholic Register:

The archdiocese said it ultimately acted in response to an "ongoing pattern" by Gorman to disregard Church procedures. That was particularly the case when Gorman married a Catholic couple from his parish in an Anglican chapel "after being advised on more than one occasion this was not permitted," according to Neil MacCarthy, the archdiocese director of communications. Gorman then falsely indicated on marriage papers that another minister had performed the ceremony.

"This activity was contrary to the laws of the Catholic Church and violated the civil marriage act, putting his own licence to celebrate weddings in jeopardy," said MacCarthy.

"This was not a rash decision," said MacCarthy. "It followed ongoing discussions over several months with Fr. Gorman."

After Bishop Kirkpatrick read a statement, presumably at the homily, His Excellency was interrupted by various people who stood up in the church and shouted out at the Bishop demanding their pastor back. Interviewed by the well-known anti-Catholic Toronto Star (bet they couldn't wait for this one, eh?), Randall Gerrits, said that the people shouted that the "Catholic Church should be more open to change ... there was a standing ovation and then people started walking out ... nothings been explained; everyone is still in the dark" 

In the dark? That's an understatement. 

You should be ashamed of yourselves. 

You are a disgrace.

Your shouting out at the Bishop in the church during Mass and then giving a standing ovation to the muckrakers and walking out - objectively speaking was a mortal sin - it was  a sacrilege. You also missed Mass on Sunday. You did everything but, the keeping of "the Lord's Day holy!" It requires you to go to the Sacrament of Confession before receiving Holy Communion again, lest you commit another sin of sacrilege for receiving "unworthily and bringing condemnation upon yourself." Hey, don't blame me, take it up with Saint Paul (Corinthians 11:27).

How could you possibly think that doing this was the right thing to do at Mass?

Gerrits continues, "I'm not Catholic. My husband's not Catholic but we go to Our Lady of Grace because of Father Joe."

A question for Mrs Gerrits, has Father Joe asked your family to take instruction in the RCIA -- the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults -- you know, to become, Catholic? Has anyone ever told you that you don't to to Mass for any priest but for God and to save your soul?

She continues, "During mass, he's funny. People laugh. He's great with kids and makes them part of mass, so they have fun and want to go."

Oh how sweet. How warm and fuzzy. (JB this was from the Fox)

Mrs. Gerrits - The priest is not be "funny" at Mass, he should be sober. The Mass is not about the priest, it is about Jesus Christ. Mass is not about having fun and your children should go because you take them and teach them, not because it is fun.

We go to Mass for four reasons which you can remember with the acronym, ACTS, just like the book of the Bible:

A = Adoration of God - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT.

C = Contrition for our sins.

T = Thanksgiving for all the gifts that God has given to us.

S = Supplication - asking God for our needs and the needs of others.

Nowhere there does it say to have fun or to go because the priest is funny.  

In all the time that you have attended at Our Lady of Grace were you ever told that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary brought forward in time and re-presented on the Altar of Sacrifice in our churches? That it is a propitiatory (appeasing) offering to God the FATHER by God the SON through God the HOLY SPIRIT of the once and final blood sacrifice of Christ re-presented in an unbloody manner for the expiation of our sins and those of the whole world? Were you told that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, "tis God, the very God" made present under the species of bread and wine?

I have a question for Gerrit, did she and her family, non-Catholics, receive Holy Communion? 

Gerrit adds that she is "quite certain that if Father Joe doesn't come back, that church will lose lots of people." Perhaps she should read John 6:67.

A petition is being taken up for the return of Father to the parish. The comments there are pathetic. They are of the same type as Gerrit's and worse. What is clear is that a cult of personality seems to have existed at this parish. A cult of personality that has caused these people to lose all rationality and moral judgement of right and wrong. A cult of personality that endangers their faith and their souls.

The comments in the newspapers and the petition which you can read by clicking on the links below is a judgement and a condemnation of the current state of catechesis in the Archdiocese of Toronto. The actions of Father Gorman, the standards of the liturgy, his dog in the sanctuary as commonly known are all examples of a failure of formation and education -- this is also a condemnation on his superiors and his professors and the people of Our Lady of Grace parish are paying for it.

Something else about Our Lady of Grace Church in Aurora that will make you sick to your stomach. 

The cult of personality that seems to have developed with some parishioners for Father Gorman is quite strange considering previous episodes in this parish. Perhaps they're too young to know,perhaps they are new to the community. Perhaps the older ones that do know the history have forgotten or have have chosen to forget.

Last Sunday was not the first time that all hell broke loose in this parish and people stormed out. It happened one Sunday in 1990 when they did it to Cardinal Ambrozic himself when he announced that the pastor, Paul McCarthy was removed from the parish. A sordid and sinful abomination of innocents - there, in the rectory and at summer camps. Not only him but another. Barry Glendinning was stationed there as an Associate. 

Who was Barry Glendinning? Look him up and the trail of defilement, sodomy and destruction he sowed in dioceses across Canada from Edmonton to London, to Ottawa and Toronto. The Diocese of London is still literally "paying" for the crimes of this man shuffled off from parish to parish and diocese to diocese by Emmett Cardinal Carter. Glendinning plead guilty in 1974 to six counts of gross indecency involving children in Windsor, Ontario and was given a suspended sentence and three years probation. Yet, he was later sent to the people of Aurora by Carter! A liturgist he was that Glendinning, just like his fellow sodomite and child pornography aficionado Raymond Lahey (former Bishop of Antigonish arrested and convicted for possession of child pornography and now defrocked under the orders of Pope Benedict XVI). It's funny eh, how these types always end up in liturgy. They seem to have a hatred for the Mass and what it truly means and all things Holy these sodomites; and a sordid saga of deception, seems to be a regular pattern for the poor people of Aurora.

Perhaps the parishioners of Our Lady of Grace parish in Aurora need to ask some serious questions to the leadership in this Archdiocese about what is wrong with their parish and why they are afflicted with such pastors. Perhaps they need to ask how they an be so ignorant in catechetics that they would develop such patterns of cult worship rather than true worship of Our Blessed Lord. Hard questions to be sure, but someone above Father Gorman owes this parish an explanation for decades long patterns and failure in teaching the Catholic faith.

It is a sad situation and a great divide has been created in the parish. It need not have happened, had the Pastor done what was asked and gone quietly for the time-being explaining the reasons to the people himself. Instead, he chose a different path and it will not be an easy task for the parishioners to move forward. From the comment boxes, it is quite apparent to witness first hand the ignorance of many of the parishioners, there lack of respect for norms and the rule of law and their hostility towards anyone that would try to explain it. 

Pride is a dreadful thing.

Pray for Father Joseph Gorman and for the people of Our Lady of Grace parish in Aurora.

UPDATED:

http://www.catholicregister.org/item/19663-popular-priest-suspended-from-duties-at-aurora-parish

The archdiocese said it ultimately acted in response to an "ongoing pattern" by Gorman to disregard Church procedures. That was particularly the case when Gorman married a Catholic couple from his parish in an Anglican chapel "after being advised on more than one occasion this was not permitted," according to Neil MacCarthy, the archdiocese director of communications. Gorman then falsely indicated on marriage papers that another minister had performed the ceremony.

"This activity was contrary to the laws of the Catholic Church and violated the civil marriage act, putting his own licence to celebrate weddings in jeopardy," said MacCarthy.

"This was not a rash decision," said MacCarthy. "It followed ongoing discussions over several months with Fr. Gorman."

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/02/03/aurora-parishioners-want-their-suspended-priest-back.html

http://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/5298720-aurora-s-our-lady-of-grace-parishioners-rally-in-support-of-priest-in-wake-of-temporary-removal/

https://www.change.org/p/cardinal-thomas-collins-we-just-want-father-joe-gorman-back-at-our-lady-of-grace-catholic-church-in-aurora-on

The persecution of the FFI - St. Maximilian will take care of his spiritual children

A day in the life of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate courtesy of Rorate Caeli Blog.

The history is not yet written, it is still in progress.

The men who did this to the FFI are not smart; no, not very, not a one; but they are crafty. 

They have never been parents and do not understand that when you tell a child they can't do something they want to know why. If you prevent them from doing something without explanation or justice, they will do it anyway, in spite of you!

Truth cannot be suppressed.

Break them up and some or most will become priests anyway. They will shut-up and get ordained.

Go ahead and persecute.

Persecution is the seed.

Archbishop Hoser : "The Church has betrayed" its newest Saint!

Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness once again scours the Polish press for this gem. Thanks be to God for another Polish Bishop unafraid to speak the truth to power and 
corruption!

Read all of it here.

Monday, February 2, 2015

BREAKING NEWS from POLAND: Archbishop Henryk Hoser: "The Church has betrayed John Paul II...they did not follow his voice, they did not acquaint themselves with his teaching"

Archbishop Henryk Hoser. Photo: Courtesy  Artur Stelmasiak

Today's Niedziela, from Poland, carries an interview with Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga, about the recent acts of treachery against Our Lord, His Church and our recently sainted Pope, St. Pope John Paul II. These acts of treachery were committed by an assortment of innovators at last October's Synod of the Family.These innovators have not been idle, and neither have the defenders of the truth about the sanctity of holy matrimony. I predicted to a friend recently that the upcoming Synod will be an ugly confrontation, that (for example) the Polish Episcopate will never surrender to the innovators. We now have conclusive evidence that this is true. When an archbishop has to publicly proclaim that a canonized saint Pope has been betrayed, then we can see the depth of the rebellion, and the "filth" (c.f. Pope Benedict XVI) that has infiltrated the Mystical Body of Christ.  

Key highlights from Archbishop Hoser, which I have translated, include: 

Behold, the Tabernacle of Seattle Seahawks 12

+++

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. 

I ask pardon for those who do not believe, 

do not adore, do not hope, and do not  love You.

+++

Oh brother, you can even watch it live!  The video has now been removed from the parish website but it has been preserved on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lH9QpWX9G0

This is so not, Catholic.

+++

"And he saith to them: It is written, 

My house shall be called the house of prayer, 

but you have made it a den of thieves."

+++

UPDATED BELOW

St. Mary's Catholic (?) Church
4800 88th Street NE
Marysville, Washington
360-653-9400 ext. 109
www.stmary-stanne.org

Father Dwight Lewis
Parish Administrator
administrator@stmary-stanne.org

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain will respond to regular mail sent to: 
710 9th. Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104

The email for the Chancellor is:
mary.santi@seattlearch.org

Vicar for Clergy
gary.zender@seattlearch.org

St. Francis de Sales Oratory of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in St. Louis, Missouri 

UPDATE FROM COMBOX:

A member of the parish in Marysville left a comment. It deserves to be read and answered, so I am taking the liberty of attaching it here. However, I have now removed her name and her comments from the combox. She is distressed and has no reason to apologise. This is about clarifying a bad situation and bringing people to know that the liturgy is not a game we play, like football. 

May the person who put this comment know that she is loved and appreciated for her openness here and she does not need to feel bad about writing. However, I think it is important that the comment and my explanation stand in the interest of catechesis.

I am a member of this parish. Marysville is the city that just had a shooting at our high school 100 days ago. Father was trying to stir a healing, to find joy in life and show community and energy. It does not change the mass or its sacredness. We do not cover our heads, and most teens wear jeans to mass but they come! It is not right to be Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. This priest is bringing people to Jesus and meeting them where they are. Shame on you who judge. This is a community who love Jesus and wanted to celebrate and give thanks for the good in the world as well as the good in our faith at a tough time in Marysville. Uniting and celebrating the good. If you think this was wrong than you have that right but do not judge what you do not understand. I love our priest, our church, and will defend it. This city has been through so much. Pray for us, not hate and point fingers. This same church just opened a homeless shelter! Jesus is in our Faith Formation classes, our choir, and with our saints!

Let me assure you of my respect and prayers regarding the tragedy which happened in your town. I was not aware of this sad event, just one more in a long series of tragedies in schools across America. I must say that I was probably more pre-occupied with the murders of two of our soldiers in Canada by Islamo-fascist terrorists (which our Prime Minister calls out by name) to have paid much attention to that shooting; or perhaps I am becoming as many are, immune to the situation. Regardless, it was a tragedy for those victims and their families and the community. May the dead rest in peace with Our Lord and may the perpetrators be confounded and the mourning comforted. I am sure that everyone here reading this will pause now and say a Hail Mary for those who continue to suffer from this event.

...

Now, the rest you are probably not going to like because I am going to give it to you straight. It is clear to me that you have erroneous opinions based on an ill-formed Catholic faith and catechetical upbringing and I will try answer you with charity, and clarity!

1. "Father was trying to stir a healing, to find joy in life and show community and energy."

I am sure that you are familiar with the saying, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions?" Well, that's the road ahead if that is what he was trying to do. First, I don't know Father's real intention. However, presuming that you are correct and this was his intention, objectively speaking, he was wrong and committed an abuse of the liturgy which for a priest, can be a very serious sin. I am actually surprised -- given that he is African I would have thought that he would know better. Perhaps though, he has been infected with the poison administered by previous Archbishops of Seattle beginning with Hunthausen that your current Shepherd is trying to remedy. Seattle has not been known for more than a century now of orthodoxy and true liturgical renewal but rather of liturgical abuse and heretical influences. How are the vocations there doing? You can read it all at the archived Seattle Catholic. On your point about "healing, joy in life and community and energy," let us put energy aside because that could mean anything. If you think that NFL football and other non-purposed paraphernalia in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass provides healing and joy, then that explains more about the situation in your parish and your faith knowledge than it does about anything else. Healing is found in prayer and adoration and in the Sacraments, the first and most particular being Penance and the Holy Eucharist. Joy is found in Truth and what was done here is none of that. Given that Father -- after pronouncing the final blessing, -- put on a Seahawks ski cap and threw a Seattle Seahawks blanket over his chasuble before the recessional, he may have known exactly what he was doing.

2. It does not change the mass or its sacredness. 

Wrong - it most certainly does! The fundamental problem is that, with all respect, you seem to have no idea what the Mass actually is and what is taking place at Mass. The word Mass comes from the Latin - missa which means "you are sent" the last words of the liturgy are, Ite missa est - Go, you are sent and that is part of our western language problem beginning with the Latin. Our ancestors knew what it meant - mission, we seem to have lost that. However, in the East, the liturgy is referred to as Divine Worship. In my own ancestors land of Lebanon in the Maronite Rite, it is Qurbono -- literally, The Sacrifice! There is a more fundamental fact seemingly poorly catechised Catholics are ignorant of and it is this: -- the Mass is the Sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary brought forward in time and re-presented on the Altar of Sacrifice in our churches. It is a propitiatory offering to God the Father by God the Son through the God the Holy Spirit of the once and final blood sacrifice of Christ in an unbloody manner for the expiation of my sins and yours and all of humanity should they come to Him to be baptised in water and washed by His blood! The problem, or so it seems, is that you were not taught this for the simple reason that many Catholic teachers, priests and bishops don't believe it. Further, the posture of the priest facing the people and the horizontal plane on which the Altar sits masks it (see the picture above from St Francis de Sales Oratory to show what I mean). Let me ask you this question -- if you were transported back in time to Calvary to witness the crucifixion of Our Blessed Lord, would you decorate the cross with Seattle Seahawks paraphernalia and jump up and dance or cheer for a sports team? Of course you would not! Therefore, what was done was, in fact, a ridicule of Divine Worship to God and a profanation of the sacred.

3. We do not cover our heads, and most teens wear jeans to mass but they come! 

Nobody asked you to cover your heads (as women) and the 1983 Code of Canon Law does not require it, though it is a worthy thing to do and Saint Paul the Apostle himself would demand it. As for "jeans" -- well, if that is all one has, then jeans are fine, but if you were going to meet the President of the United States (even the current boob in the White House), you would most certainly dress up and put on your "Sunday best" right? Why would you do any less for the King of kings and Lord of lords?

4. It is not right to be Pharisees and Sadducees. 

Ah that old canard, eh?; well, you forgot to add that I'm a "self-absorbed, promethean neo-pelagian" too! Tell me, when Jesus went to the Temple, His Father's house which is to be called "a house of prayer" but which was made into a "den of thieves" by the Pharisees and Sadducees, was he being Pharisaical when he beat them out of the Temple with whips and overturned the tables of the money-changers or was He just being a self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagian? Who then, Stacey, are the real Pharisees and Sadducees? Those who act as the ones did who defiled the Temple or your Church for last Sunday (and heaven knows what other times) or those who follow what Jesus did proclaiming that a "house of prayer has been turned into a den of thieves?"

5. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. 

He most certainly did and your comment is a non-sequitur. 

6. This priest is bringing people to Jesus and meeting them where they are. 

I hope that he is bringing them to Jesus but if this is where they are, they are in the wrong place. The priest must raise them to a higher level and if this is the height of expectation of the priest and the parish for your youth and people of Marysville, then he and you have a pretty low standard for yourselves and your neighbours.

7. Shame on you who judge. 

I'm reporting and besides, what is wrong with judging? We do it every day, you do it. What is it that you are not to judge? I am judging the actions of people that have done wrong. I am not judging your soul or the priest's, or the motives, I have been very careful about that with the word "objectively speaking." Objectively speaking it can be a mortal sin for a priest to introduce such things into the liturgy. Did you know that Vatican II actually taught this? "Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority." - Sacrosanctam Concilium, III. 22.3

8. This is a community who love Jesus and wanted to celebrate and give thanks for the good in the world as well as the good in our faith at a tough time in Marysville. Uniting and celebrating the good. 

All that is good and wonderful but the party does not belong at the Mass, but rather, in the parish hall!

9. If you think this was wrong then you have that right but do not judge what you do not understand. 

Not only do I have the God-given right as a citizen of Canada, but I have the calling as a Confirmed Catholic to preach the truth of Christ and His Church; and trust me, I fully understand what is going on.

10.  I love our priest, our church, and will defend it. 

Good, that is the right place to start. Now, you need to educate yourself on what was wrong with what was done.

11. This city has been through so much. Pray for us, don't hate and point fingers. This same church just opened a homeless shelter! Jesus is in our Faith Formation classes, our choir, and with our saints!

I am sure all people of goodwill will hold your community up in prayer. Nobody is hating anyone here so please don't use the gay-agenda, Islamic-fascist canard of "hater" to describe me or anyone else commenting on this blog. Homeless shelters are wonderful things and good for the parish that it began one. The City of Seattle has a homeless shelter or two, I should think, but it has nothing to do with the Mass or the Catholic Church; the Church is about more than "social justice." Remember, "not everyone who cries, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven." It is not about abominable worship to God with a homeless shelter that makes it all right; that makes it all wrong. A little bit of poison in water is still poison. It about right worship and a homeless shelter. 

Fundamentally, it seems that what you have not been taught is what was described above about the Holy Mass and that we go to Mass for four reasons which are easy to remember if you think of the Book of Acts, though you touched on it in #8:

A = Adoration of God - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT.

C = Contrition for our sins.

T = Thanksgiving for all the gifts that God has given to us.

S = Supplication - asking God for our needs and the needs of others.

Nowhere is there to worship the Seattle Seahawks.

One more thing.

Deacon Greg Kandra at The Deacon's Bench picked up this story and quoted directly from two documents easily found on EWTN. Read them there and don't argue with me, take it up with Rome.

The line in the sand

From the infamous Relatio of last October's Synod:

‘Welcoming homosexual persons’  --  “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.” ... “Are our communities capable of providing [them a welcoming home], accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

From Cardinal Baldisseri, the Cardinal in charge of the Synod:

“The documents were all seen and approved by the Pope, with the approval of his presence,” “Even the documents during the [Extraordinary] Synod, such as the Relatio ante disceptatationem [the preliminary report], the Relatio post disceptationem [interim report], and the Relatio synodi [final report] were seen by him before they were published.”

The Statement on Marriage by the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (British Province) issued on January 19, 2015:

Marriage was instituted by God, not invented by man (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1603). The Creator has built it into human nature, even into the human body, in its two complementary forms, male and female. ‘Male and female He created them’ (Gen.1: 27): man for woman, and woman for man, united in marriage as ‘one flesh’ for the procreation of new life: ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (Gen. 1: 28). God has given marriage its essential characteristics and proper laws: unity (one man married to one woman); indissolubility (nothing but death can end a marriage); and openness to procreation (in every act of physical love). No president or religious leader, no senate or synod, nor any government, has the authority to re-define marriage. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, raised marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament. The marriage of a Christian man and woman is a sacramental sign of His union with His Church (cf. Eph. 5: 32). Since the union of Christ with the Church, His Bride, cannot be dissolved, no power on earth, not even the Pope himself, can dissolve the valid sacramental marriage, once consummated, of a Christian man and woman. ‘Those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder’ (Mt. 19: 6). The Church’s discipline is built upon the doctrine of the faith, and gives practical expression to it. To introduce a discipline at odds with a doctrine thus implicitly undermines the doctrine. The discipline of not admitting to the Sacraments divorcees who have entered a subsequent civil ‘marriage’ follows directly from the doctrine of Marriage and the Eucharist as the Church has received it from Christ and His Apostles. Unless an annulment has recognized the invalidity of the original marriage, then the state of life of divorced and ‘remarried’ Catholics ‘objectively contradicts the union of love between Christ and the Church signified and effected by the Eucharist’ (Pope St John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, n. 180). However sorrowful for their sins they may be, the divorced and ‘remarried’ remain ‘one flesh’ (cf. Gen. 2: 24; Mt. 19:5) with their original and only spouses. Therefore, their second ‘marriages’ cannot participate in the one flesh union of Christ and His Church that is signified and effected by the Eucharist. In the absence of a clear appreciation of marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, a number of associated moral challenges have arisen. Amongst these is the growth of widespread homosexual activity and the promotion of such behaviour. The Church teaches, as she has always taught, that homosexual activity is gravely sinful, as it distorts one of the most sacred and fundamental dimensions of human life. Even the inclination to homosexual activity is ‘objectively disordered’ (CDF, 1986) in the sense that such a sexual inclination, with its associated tendencies, feelings and expressions, is not properly directed to spousal union, marriage, and procreation. The Church, of course, welcomes all human beings created in God’s image, who by His grace have the power to renounce their sins, live a chaste life and become saints. But the Church cannot bless, or tolerate, sin in any form, nor structures and lifestyles that encourage or promote sin, disorder, and temptation. The Church in so many ways reaches out to those broken and hurt by the breakdown of marriage in our society and by the widespread confusion of what it means to be male and female. No-one is turned away. The first mercy and true compassion is offering to sinners the truth of Christ as the light by which to live. The greatest help for those who struggle is to point out with charity the way of Christ, the only way conducive to virtue and true joy. The Church has nothing, can do nothing, is nothing, without Christ, her Head and Bridegroom. She is the servant of the Word of God (cf. Dei verbum, n. 10). Her pastors therefore have no power whatever to change what He taught about the nature and goods of marriage and have the duty to promote and defend that truth for the good of every person and society.

Well, I guess we know where the line is in the sand.

So, who's Catholic?

Bring it on, baby!

Mary Wagner's bravery

After the hit-and-run by Michael Coren in the Catholic Register on Mary Wagner, the Catholic Register responded with a guest column by Alissa Golob of Campaign Life. Of course it still begs the question as to why was Coren's column published in the first place. 

When one looks at the photo below it can be clearly seen that Coren's hit and the letter to the editor in the CR by a dyspeptic mutterer supporting him and criticizing two bloggers for leading with this news for a month until the Catholic press caught up is even more disgraceful. Mary is a humble and holy woman that would put both of these people to shame. 

I would like both Coren and the mutterer. once again barking up the wrong tree, to comment here about what they have done recently to match the humility, bravery and holiness of this woman and her fight to awake the consciousnesses of Canadians?

Mary Wagner with His Excellency Archbishop Depo of Czetochowa
Photo courtesy of Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness

Below is a an excerpt from Dorothy Cummings Mclean's column. Read all of at the Catholic Register.

Mary Wagner’s bravery is in not minding her own business

BY  DOROTHY CUMMINGS MCLEAN

• January 29, 2015

On Dec. 27, 1989, I was arrested outside a Toronto abortion business, thrown into a police van and locked in a cell for hours. So were about 74 other people, including at least one priest. The CBC reported 80.

Twenty-five years have passed, so readers may not remember that in the 1980s Catholics and evangelicals protested the horror of abortion outside Toronto’s hospitals and its four abortion businesses almost weekly. Back in 1989, only one of the “temporary bubble zones” had been created, and that was around Henry Morgentaler’s business on Harbord Street.

...

I could hold up a sign and take the verbal abuse, and I could even sit where the police said not to sit and get locked in a cell, but I never had the guts or the truly self-sacrificing love to approach abortion-bound women and say, “Please, won’t you reconsider? There is help for women who choose to keep their babies.” It was just too hard — the words choked in my throat.

Breaking the law of “mind your own business” can be harder than breaking the Criminal Code. For breaking that law — for having the courage and love to engage pregnant strangers face to face — I believe Mary Wagner deserves the honour those like her so rarely get.

(Cummings McLean is a Canadian writer and author of Ceremony of Innocence.)