Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Sad Sign of the Times: The End of 170-Year-Old Baltimore Parish

"A renowned city architect designed St. Peter the Apostle Church 170 years ago. Irish laborers dug the foundation by hand, donating their labor to build it. And its early parishioners spared no expense in adorning their house of worship. They installed an elaborate white marble altar, with a life-size statue of the church's patron saint towering over it, and placed intricately carved angels at the sides of the tabernacle."
For more, click below:

Sale ends an era for 170-year-old parish - Baltimore Sun

Monday, January 30, 2012

Please, Please Protest! Children Throw Grenades And Worse At Jesus In New Blasphemous Play…

Please join our protest of a blasphemous new theater play called "On The Concept of the Face..."

Because in the play the Holy Face of Jesus is subjected to the most vile possible insults and mockeries!

PROTEST NOW

(READ WITH CAUTION... this is highly blasphemous!...and also vulgar.)


According to reviews of the theater play On The Concept of the Face... in the play:

“…a son taking care of his incontinent father. He wants to go to work, but his father ***** himself again and again. You see the brown stains on his diaper … You even smell the horrible stench.


“Then nine kids walk on stage. They take off their backpacks and start taking out grenades. They take out the pin and start throwing them at the face of Christ. Each time they hit the painting you hear a loud bang.

“The last scene is entirely about that painting.”

PROTEST NOW

The Last Scene: (The review’s wording is too vile to continue with, so I’ll take it from here.)

It looks like a large knife slashes the face of Christ. Large, red-brown streaks ‘bleed’ out and spread over His face, before a black veil of the ‘tears’ entirely covers the portrait of the Son of God.

The painting is finally torn up, giving way to a large black panel. Above, in large letters, one can read, You are my shepherd. There’s another word that comes into view as well: not. You are not my shepherd.

This play has been touring major European cities since the summer of 2011, but, sadly, we have only just come across it.

It is scheduled to show from February 1 – February 5
at the deSingel International Arts Campus in the city of Antwerp, Belgium, so there’s no time to lose, protest now!

You and I both know that it makes no difference whatsoever where the Satanic head of blasphemy rears itself... If we know about it, we MUST defend the honor of God.

Hopefully, if everyone who gets this email actually peacefully and legally defends Our Lord’s honor and protests, then we will have a very practical effect upon the administrators of the deSignell “Arts” campus and maybe they’ll stop the blasphemous play from showing.

If not, at least we will have done our duty to God.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Photos from March for Life 2012!

Here are some scenes from the 2012 March for Life!

TFP and America Needs Fatima were so happy to participate in the March this year.

The rain could not dampen the enthusiasm of marchers. I think that there must have been 300,000 people or more.

Duke Paul of Oldenburg (left, with the red cape and smile) joins the American TFP for the March.

The faces of the marchers express seriousness and resolution for the defense of the unborn.

TFP members in the TFP ceremonial habit march with Our Lady of Fatima.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Considerations on the Conversion of Saint Paul

Considerations on the Conversion of Saint Paul

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

As Saint Paul was struck off his horse, he was shaken by the turn of events when Our Lord asked him the question “Why persecutes thou Me?” In other words, open your eyes! Examine your conscience! Realize the fact that you are doing something which, if you make an upright examination of conscience, you will find that it is wrong.


Our Lord’s question was reminiscent of one Our Lord Himself asked the man who hit Him during His Passion: “If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou Me?”


In fact, Saint Paul gave no answer to Him because he had none to give. He simply responded: “Who art Thou, Lord?” And he said “Lord” right away because he sensed Who it really was. Our Lord answered: “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”


By saying “Whom thou persecutest,” Our Lord made clear Who He is. He was telling Saint Paul: See Who I am. See Who you are persecuting, and therefore measure how hideous your crime is.


After this, Our Lord adds a somewhat mysterious statement: “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” The goad is the wind. He was saying that it is hard to oppose the wind. In this case, the wind is the blowing wind of grace that for a while had been calling Paul to conversion, but he resisted it. The context at least leads to this hypothesis.


Saint Paul answered in his own radical way. He wasted no time. He saw that he was wrong and placed himself at the service of God. He asked: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?” The Acts of the Apostles say that he was trembling and astonished as he asked the question. In other words, the blow had hit home. He was disoriented and afraid. He was shaken as he went through a short ordeal of a few minutes which completely changed him and shook his soul. Our Lord then said to him: “Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

Conversion of Saint Paul - Statue on St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy
Statue of Saint Paul,
Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome


Why did Our Lord not tell him what to do right away? The whole dialogue took place while Saint Paul was blinded and prostrated on the ground. He was told to arise and go to the city and find out what he must do. In other words, he must receive Our Lord’s orders slowly, subjecting himself with humility like a child who takes orders from his superior.


Our Lord was telling him: Go, therefore, groping and advancing step by step, to find out what I want, because I am your Lord and command you as a servant, who is under his Lord’s orders and can do nothing else.


Thus, Saint Paul did not know what God wanted of him. He did not even know if God might want him to remain blind for his whole life. He, the great Paul, the excellent and illustrious Pharisee, was now going to enter the city of Damascus like a child, led by the hand. In other words, it was the complete breakdown of his pride. The text of the Acts ends thus: “But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus.”


In other words, he entered Damascus as a blind man. There he would be blind for a few days, until the scales would fall from his eyes.

The preceding text is taken from an informal lecture Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on January 24, 1966. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. –Ed.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Protest Pro-Abortion Speaker at a Catholic University

While pro-life Americans attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., the Catholic Jesuit University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is preparing for something unimaginable.

In fact, they have invited an avowed abortion advocate and former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies to give the keynote speech at the University on January 28.

The bishop of Scranton, Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, asked that the invitation be withdrawn. Unfortunately, his request was rebuffed by university officials. Yes, his request was denied…

It’s unbelievable, but I still think that you and I can make a real difference if we peacefully protest and CALL the university today.

Sign your urgent protest NOW

I invite you to pick up the phone and dial 570-941-7500 right now.

Ask for Fr. Kevin Quinn, president of the University of Scranton and politely urge him to cancel the appearance of pro-abortion advocate Marjorie Margolies.

Your protest was successful last year when two Catholic colleges canceled pro-abortion speakers on campus.

Let’s do it again.

You see, after Ms. Margolies’ congressional career ended, her pro-abortion record only got worse, culminating in her position as Executive Director of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a pro-abortion organization dedicated to “dramatically increasing the number of women in elected office who support reproductive choices and options, from all parties and at all levels of government.”

How can a woman with such a pro-abortion record be invited to give not only a lecture, but a keynote address at a Catholic University, an institution that should be a cornerstone in the defense of innocent life?

This is simply mind boggling.

Thank you for defending innocent life.


Sign your urgent protest NOW

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Priest Presents Transgender Calendar in Italy

ANSA news agency reports: - A priest presented a calendar dedicated to the transgender community of Genoa in Italy.

At a launch, Father Andrea Gallo was with 12 transgender models, each representing a different month of the year. "Defending one's rights against hypocrisy" and "giving a voice to the voiceless" was the reason for supporting the calendar, said Gallo. It is the second time in a week that an Italian clergy member has taken an openly progressive stance on sexual identity. Breaking with the Vatican line, Ragusa bishop Paolo Urso said Thursday that the state should recognise gay couples.

Friday, January 20, 2012

How is it Possible? Only 13 of Spaniards Practice Faith

Madrid, Spain, Jan 13, 2012 / 06:05 pm (CNA/Europa Press).- New data shows that despite over 70 percent of Spaniards identifying themselves as Catholic, only 13.6 percent say they practice their faith and attend services on Sunday and holy days.

Read more:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/only-13-percent-of-spains-catholics-say-they-practice-faith/

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Flood of ‘De-baptisms’ Worries European Church Leaders

PARIS (Washington Post)— Last October, a court in Normandy ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Rene Lebouvier to have his name permanently removed from church records — making him the first Frenchman to be officially “de-baptized.”

The Washington Post reports: "Lebouvier’s case is among a growing wave of de-baptisms in Europe, one of the most visible manifestations of the continent’s secular drift. Websites offering informal de-baptism certificates have mushroomed. Other Christians are formally breaking from the church by opting out of state church taxes.

"While there are no official statistics, experts and secular activists count the numbers of de-baptisms in the tens of thousands."

Read more by clicking here

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Bishop: Italy Should Recognize Homosexual Couples

RAGUSA, Italy,-- A Catholic bishop in Sicily broke with the Vatican to declare that the Italian government should recognize same-sex unions.

Paolo Urso, bishop of the Sicilian city of Ragusa said homosexual couples should be legally recognized, ANSA reported.

"When two people, even if they're the same sex, decide to live together, it's important for the State to recognize this fact," he was quoted as saying. "But it must be called something different from marriage."

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Your iPhone Was Built, In Part, By 13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour

We love our iPhones and iPads.

We love the prices of our iPhones and iPads.

We love the super-high profit margins of Apple, Inc., the maker of our iPhones and iPads.

And that's why it's disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads — and the super-high profit margins of Apple — are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Old Church in Poland -- MAGNIFICENT

Have a look at this old wooden church in south west Poland
Use the pointers to look all the way round the church. It's incredible! Best viewed full screen. Do zoom in to get details.

http://zieba.wroclaw.pl/kpg/kps.html

A Holy Count Converts the King

St. Remigius of Rheims

St. Remigius annointing Clovis. Basilique Saint-Remi de Reims

Apostle of the Franks, Archbishop of Rheims, b. at Cerny or Laon, 437; d. at Rheims, 13 January 533.

His father was Emile, Count of Laon. He studied literature at Rheims and soon became so noted for learning and sanctity that he was elected Archbishop of Rheims in his twenty-second year. Thence-forward his chief aim was the propagation of Christianity in the realm of the Franks. The story of the return of the sacred vessels, which had been stolen from the Church of Soissons, testifies to the friendly relations existing between him and Clovis, King of the Franks, whom he converted to Christianity with the assistance of St. Waast (Vedastus, Vaast) and St. Clotilda, wife of Clovis.

Paving stone in the nave of Notre Dame de Reims, France. Reads, in French: "Here Saint Remi (Saint Remigius) baptized Clovis king of the Franks"

Even before he embraced Christianity, Clovis had showered benefits upon both the Bishop and Cathedral of Rheims, and after the battle of Tolbiac, he requested Remigius to baptize him at Rheims (24 December, 496) in presence of several bishops of the Franks and Alemanni and great numbers of the Frankish army. Clovis granted Remigius stretches of territory, in which the latter established and endowed many churches. He erected, with the papal consent, bishoprics at Tournai; Cambrai; Terouanne, where he ordained the first bishop in 499; Arras, where he placed St. Waast; Laon, which he gave to his nephew Gunband.

Tomb of St. Remigius in the choir in the Basilique Saint-Remi

The authors of “Gallia Christiana” record numerous and munificent donations made to St. Remigius by members of the Frankish nobility, which he presented to the cathedral at Reims. In 517 he held a synod, at which after a heated discussion he converted a bishop of Arian views. In 523 he wrote congratulating Pope Hormisdas upon his election. St. Medardus, Bishop of Noyon, was consecrated by him in 530. Although St. Remigius’s influence over people and prelates was extraordinary, yet upon one occasion, the history of which has come down to us, his course of action was attacked. His condonement of the offences of one Claudius, a priest, brought upon him the rebukes of his episcopal brethren, who deemed Claudius deserving of degradation. The reply of St. Remigius, which is still extant, is able and convincing (cf. Labbe, “Concilia”, IV).

Tomb of St. Remigius

His relics were kept in the cathedral of Rheims, whence Hincmar had them translated to Epernay during the period of the invasion by the Northmen, thence, in 1099, at the instance of Leo IX, to the Abbey of Saint-Remy. His sermons, so much admired by Sidonius Apollinaris (lib. IX, cap. lxx), are not extant. On his other works we have four letters, the one containing his defence in the matter of Claudius, two written to Clovis, and a fourth to the Bishop of Tongres. According to several biographers, the Testament of St. Remigius is apocryphal; Mabillon and Ducange, however, argue for its authenticity. The attribution of other works to St. Remigius, particularly a commentary upon St. Paul’s Epistles, is entirely without foundation.

Acta Sanct. I October, 59-187; Hist. litt. France, III (Paris, 1735), 155-163; DE CERIZIERS, Les heureux commencements de la France chretienne sous St. Remi (Reims, 1633); MARLOT, Tombeau de St. Remi (Reims, 1647); DORIGNY, Vie de St Remi (Paris, 1714); AUBERT, Vie de St. Remi (Paris, 1849); MEYER, Notice de deux MSS. de la vie de St. Remi in Notes et extraits de MSS., XXXV (Paris, 1895), 117-30; D’AVENAY, St. Remi de Reims (Lille, 1896); CARLIER, Vie de St Remi (Tours, 1896).

cfr. JOSEPH DEDIEU (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia)

Friday, January 13, 2012

Appeasing Red China: A Path to Self-Destruction

Written by James Bascom

Review of Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama is Hastening America’s Decline and Ushering A Century of Chinese Domination by Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II.

In the early 1920’s, Vladimir Lenin was attending one of his regular meetings with the Politburo. The Soviet Union was facing famine, riots and widespread social upheaval caused largely by its socialist collectivist policies. The specter of the world’s first communist state, dedicated to nothing less than world revolution and the overthrow of the Christian social order, struck many in the West with well-founded fear and apprehension.


And yet, legions of Western companies were pouring money and technology into the U.S.S.R. Household names such as Ford, General Electric, DuPont and the Radio Corporation of America among others, were investing millions of dollars in Russia, building factories, selling their products, and worst of all, providing the Russian government with every sort of technical assistance and expertise. Turning to his advisor, Grigory Zinoviev, Lenin remarked that “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”


Historians tell us that Lenin never actually made this comment, but a more accurate summary of the relationship between the communist world and the West could scarcely have been made. In a single sentence, it affirmed: (1) that Communism is inherently weak, and (2) it will nevertheless conquer the world, not by its own strength, but through complicity, cynicism and treason from within the West.


How history repeats itself. In their aptly titled book, Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama is Hastening America’s Decline and Ushering a Century of Chinese Domination, Brett Decker and William C. Triplett II demonstrate beyond any doubt that this Western self-demolition in the face of the communist threat continues unabated, not with the old Soviet Union, but with China. They show how the present Obama Administration and fifth column politicians, media personalities and businessmen – motivated in no small part by sympathy for Marxism and antipathy for Christian civilization as symbolized by the United States – are delivering our country into the hands of the Red Dragon.


In the world of statecraft, symbolism carries tremendous weight. Mere words, simple gestures and even body language can have major long-term consequences. A case in point, and the inspiration for the book’s title was the bow President Obama gave to Chinese Premier Hu Jintao at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. The bow has become a fitting metaphor for the Obama administration’s China policy: a subservient, groveling and penitential gesture about America’s sins, real or imagined. Quoting Dr. Lillian Glass, an expert in body language:


“The Chinese leader does not return the bow. In fact, the leader looks very superior to Obama as he doesn’t bow back…The bottom line, perceptions wise, is that when a president of a powerful country bows to other heads of state or those in a lesser political position, it makes him appear weak. There is nothing humorous about a president of one of the most powerful countries in the world being perceived as weak, under any circumstances.”

President Obama's Bow to Chinese Premier Hu Jintao at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit gave inspiration for the book's title.

The gesture has not been lost on the Chinese. The communist regime, emboldened by America’s perceived decline, continues to enslave its 1.3 billion people, persecute Christianity (especially Catholics faithful to Rome), embark on a massive military buildup, threaten and intimidate its neighbors, brazenly steal secrets and technology from American corporations and the U.S. government and export weapons and technology to terrorists and their state sponsors such as Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Bowing to Beijing lists in detail, case after case, of blatant Chinese aggression, such as the 2011 encounter between the USS McCampell and the MV Light, a Chinese-owned merchant ship involved in high-tech weapons smuggling to the Middle East via Burma. And yes, slave labor, not to mention torture, kangaroo courts, forced abortion, non-existent property rights, “shoot-to-order” prisoner organ harvesting and “re-education labor camps” are a way of life in twenty-first century China.


Admittedly, wishful thinking about China comes from the political right almost as much as it does from the left, albeit for different reasons. A persistent conservative myth about China is that free-trade will eventually win over the communists to Western-style democracy. Supposedly, the Chinese will inevitably see the error of their ways and dictatorship will give way to elections, peace and prosperity.


This rosy picture is fake. In China, only the communists become rich, and the rich become, well…communists. Of all Chinese with a net worth of over $16 million, 91% are children of top Communist party members. Indeed, a pseudo-aristocracy comprised of a mere 200 to 300 members of important communist party families, called “Princelings,” wield near total control over the government, economy, military and financial system of the supposedly “classless” People’s Republic.


Ironically, China’s burgeoning middle class is becoming the Communist Party’s strongest support. Anyone who gets rich in China owes that wealth to the good graces of the Communist Party. Why would they want to shatter the status quo? Regime change is bad for business, after all.


Perhaps the greatest strength of Bowing to Beijing lies in the fact that Decker and Triplett understand the larger picture. The United States is arguably the last great remnant of Christian order and civilization in the world today. Western leftists have spent decades trying to undermine and destroy this order. They dream of the day when the “imperialist” Christian West will cease to be the preeminent influence on the planet. China, like the Soviet Union before it, is their best hope to vanquish Western “oppression.” The supportive media almost cannot contain their enthusiasm for the upcoming “Chinese century.”


Bowing to Beijing is a crucially important book that helps dispel this myth of Chinese power. It shows how China, despite all the help from the West, is fundamentally weak. An utterly corrupt, amoral system will never rule the world of its own strength. Just as a terrorist cannot resist the power of a modern, serious, disciplined army, China can only hang us if we sell them the rope and climb the gallows ourselves.

Buy this book by clicking here

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Texas Teen Spared Forced Abortion – for Two Weeks

by Ben Johnson

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS, January 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Texas court has extended a temporary restraining order to prevent a 14-year-old girl from undergoing a forced abortion for at least two more weeks. Another court granted the motion in late December, after the girl’s lawyers say her parents physically assaulted the teenager in an effort to compel her to abort her unborn child.

Her legal counsel sought to have the order extended until the baby’s birth. Instead, on January 4, Judge Missy Medary of the 347th District Court appointed a guardian ad litem, a counselor who will advise the court what he deems to be in the girl’s best interests at a hearing on January 19. The judge will make a final determination at that time.

Stephen Casey, vice president and chief counsel of Texas Center for Defense of Life (TCDL), and TCDL President Greg Terra are representing the teen.

Casey told LifeSiteNews.com that a forced abortion such as this is “a highly underreported type of situation that pregnancy resource centers experience all the time.”

He and Terra launched their nonprofit shortly after defending a 16-year-old girl, whom Casey says was literally dragged ”across the sidewalk by the belt, leaving her bloody” as she was led to two Austin-area abortion clinics against her will. She won a restraining order from the District Court of Travis County in late 2010.

Since that initial case the two have been contacted by lawyers in Kansas City and Pittsburgh to assist in similar lawsuits.

In another case, eyewitnesses say abortion workers physically prevented a young, black teenager from leaving Affiliated Medical Services, a Milwaukee-area abortion clinic, in November. They estimated the girl was between 11 and 14 years of age.

Casey said pregnancy resource centers regularly tell them, “You were just one abortion appointment too late. The girl didn’t know, and she acquiesced and went through it.”

He predicted the number of cases will surge as women – not just young mothers – learn that they have an alternative. “When you don’t know you have any rights, you just acquiesce and give up without a fight,” he said.

Contrary to media portrayals, retraining orders do not bar all contact between parties in a case such as this; they only prevent parents from forcing their daughters to discuss abortion with them. “We don’t want to destroy families,” Casey said. “We want to protect the rights of these mothers to carry their children to terms. Roe works both ways.”

However, it is not clear the courts will always side with the mother. The Population Research Institute cited a January 2004 court ruling, Jane Roe II vs. Aware Women Center for Choice, Inc., as proof that some judges will allow a forced abortion to continue, if they believe it is necessary to “protect the health of the mother.”

TCDL provides its legal services pro bono throughout the state of Texas. Casey said those outside the state should contact the Alliance Defense Fund.

The firm has been asked to testify about pro-life legislation, defend medical professionals’ conscience rights, and represent pregnancy resource centers. Casey told LifeSiteNews.com that he and Terra hope to dedicate themselves to the cause full-time.

“It’s God call on our lives,” he said.

Contact Information:

Texas Center for Defense of Life
TCDL.org
501 S. Austin Ave., Suite 1130
Georgetown, TX 78626
(512) 763-9068

Alliance Defense Fund
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/
15100 N. 90th Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
1-800-TELL-ADF (835-5233)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Cubbyhole

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
The Cubbyhole
Like fish in an aquarium, we become immersed in “our” world, sometimes losing sight of reality.

I once visited an aquarium where each fish kept to his own area. I was struck by how sensitive some of them were to everything they encountered in their incessant and idle meandering through their respective liquid media: contact with any speck of vegetation, a minute piece of wire, even a bubble of air would immediately have an effect on their choice of direction, and their movements.

I then became curious to know how sensitive the fish were to what happened beyond the sheet of glass, which took up one whole side of the aquarium and allowed the visitors to observe them. What an illusion! They literally went so far as to place their mouths - and one could almost say, their eyes - on the glass. But the fish were insensitive to everything that went on beyond: a hand resting on the glass, gesticulating fingers, rapping on the glass - none of this caused the least sensation. The world outside the aquarium could come crashing down, and the fish would not pay the slightest attention to it as long as nothing happened inside their little liquid world.

I think of these fish when I consider the attitude of some of my contemporaries - and not a few of them - upon receiving news and commentaries about today's world through the television, the radio and the press. With increasing frequency, they deal with individual, local, and even national catastrophes. At times even the destruction of the world in a nuclear hecatomb is discussed. The person who hears these reports remains indifferent as long as they do not cause immediate repercussions in the cubbyhole of each one's petty private life.

Symptom of frightful corruption, aberrant contradictions, vertiginous indications of psychic imbalances in whole social groups - none of this is relevant as long as each one's petty life continues unaltered for a few more days, or rather, a few more hours.

This attitude puzzles me. And just as in front of the aquarium I had the desire, fortunately controlled, to puncture the glass and poke the fish in order to make them really feel the reality of this external world I was in, and which they ignored with such unintelligent disdain, I also have the desire to break through some "sheets" of glass behind which some contemporary "fish" live esconced only in their own little world, indifferent to the one outside.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Boys Celebrate New Year with Chivalry Program

From far and near, boys gathered to celebrate the New Year and learn about chivalry. The five-day program included interesting talks, lively games and cordial conviviality, culminating with the festive arrival of the New Year with prayers, medieval games and a splendid banquet.

From December 28 to January 2, participants learned about the heroes of the 1st Crusade, Saint John Bosco and his dreams of Hell, as well as the importance of Confession. They discovered the virtues of King Saint Louis IX and watched video footage of TFP street campaigns with keen interest.

To receive information about future youth camps, click here.

A steep climb up Peter’s Mountain in cold conditions was rewarded with a cup of hot chocolate made on the summit, while snow flurries enhanced the beautiful view of the Susquehanna River below.

The boys went to Washington D.C. where they toured the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land. The latter houses a replica of the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord, a copy of the catacombs and the manger of Bethlehem where Our Lord was born.

Winter Camp
HIRH Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza
presents the memento to one of the young
men.
The trip was completed with dinner: brick oven pizza at the TFP Headquarters in Spring Grove, Penn. Some 40 pizzas were served (about 320 slices).

Shield-ball, tug of war, dodge ball, a challenging obstacle course and prison break, a game with flashlights in the darkness of night, were played with great vigor.

And spiritual activities included the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary and frequent Mass attendance.

As the bell signaled the arrival of the New Year, camp members sang the Creed and recited St. Louis de Montfort’s Consecration to Mary, thus making the first act of the year a prayer to God through His Most Holy Mother. After prayer, a snack awaited. Fine cheese, preserves, mouth-watering pears, hot cider and delicious chocolate accompanied with Christmas carols and good conversation made the day special.

High Mass on New Year’s Day was followed by a sumptuous banquet. During dinner Godfrey of Bouillon entered the hall. Because of his great virtue of purity, he possessed extraordinary strength, which he demonstrated by cutting off the head of a camel in one blow. But the camel was not real. It was only a skit.

A memento was presented to each camp participant by HIRH Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Branganza, a descendent of Saint Louis IX. The memento was a framed picture of Godfrey de Bouillon at the Siege of Jerusalem, inscribed with a quote from the founder of the TFP, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliviera: “Of the several types of courage a man needs, one of the greatest or THE greatest, is the courage to decide to be pure.”

Winter Camp
The sultan (center) is amazed by the strenght of Godfrey of Bouillon
(right) who severed the neck of a camel with one blow.
Reinvigorated for the spiritual combat of 2012, the participants headed homewards. They had found new friends at Saint Louis de Montfort Academy, made spiritual steps forward and were filled with expectation and excitement for the upcoming Chivalry camps.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Abortion Advocacy Groups at 6 Catholic Universities – PROTEST NOW

As society continues its downward spiral, one would hope and expect Catholic universities to stand as a beacon in the darkness. Sadly, the actions of many Catholic educational institutions betray this hope. One particularly heinous facet of this betrayal is the presence of patently pro-abortion advocacy groups on Catholic campuses called “Students for Reproductive Justice.” Even the most cursory examination shows that in the shadow of “reproductive justice” looms the promotion of abortion, the worst injustice.

sign-the-protest

According to the Catholic Boston College web site:

“The Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) at Boston College Law School promotes discussion, education, and advocacy on issues of reproductive freedom. LSRJ works on reproductive health and choice issues such as global family planning, comprehensive sex education, contraceptive equity and birth control options, safe, legal and accessible abortion…”1

Boston College Abortion Advocacy Group
Snapshot of Boston College's web site listing of the pro-abortion advocacy group.

Analogous pro-abortion groups can be found at other Catholic universities, including DePaul University, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Santa Clara University and Seattle University.

The term “reproductive justice” is itself a mockery of justice, for it seeks not to respect, but to abolish true justice. Real justice bestows upon all the right to life, which abortion denies and tramples. The promotion of “contraception” and “choice issues” simply contribute to the total abolition of respect for innocent human life.

Also troubling is the “global family planning” agenda, the tragic results of which are playing out in China, where more than 13 million abortions – and many forced abortions – take place each year. 2

More than just advocating abortion on a remote web site, Students for Reproductive Justice actively promote the culture of death. Law students at Fordham, for instance, take part in “an ongoing escort program in partnership with Planned Parenthood.”3 Other activities include: “a research partnership with local pro-choice legal organizations,” and “brownbags with reproductive rights activists.” At DePaul University in Chicago, Law Students for Reproductive Justice are recognized as an official student organization with a professorial advisor. 4

It seems almost incomprehensible that such things, so blatantly against the law of God and nature, could be tolerated in any Catholic setting.

Why are these pro-abortion groups given free reign on these Catholic campuses? How much funding do they receive to promote abortion under the false pretense of “justice”?

Please support the timeless teachings of the Church, and the restoration of Catholic education. The abortion elephant in the Catholic classroom must be expelled.

Help TFP Student Action collect 20,000 peaceful protest petitions in 20 days.

sign-the-protest

Contact information:

Boston College
Fr. William P. Leahy, S.J.
18 Old Colony Road
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone: 617-552-3250
E-mail: william.leahy.1@bc.edu

DePaul University
Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M.
55 E. Jackson Blvd., 22nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312-362-8890
E-mail: president@depaul.edu

Fordham University
Fr. Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
441 E Fordham Rd.
Administration Bldg. Rm. 107
Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: 718-817-3000
E-mail: president@fordham.edu

Georgetown University
John J. DeGioia, Ph.D.
204 Healy Hall
37th & O Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057
Phone: 202-687-4134

Santa Clara University
Fr. Michael E. Engh, S.J.
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
Phone: 408-554-4100
E-mail: mengh@scu.edu

Seattle University
Fr. Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J.
901 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122-1090
Phone: 206-296-1891
E-mail: SUNDBORG@seattleu.edu

Footnotes

1.
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/studentorgs/srj.html [back]
2. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-30/world/china.abortions.millions_1_abortions-family-planning-policy-birth-control-method?_s=PM:WORLD [back]
3. http://law.fordham.edu/student-groups/11142.htm [back]
4. http://www.law.depaul.edu/students/pdf/student_handbook.pdf pg. 41 [back]

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

PROTEST UNWHOLESOME Super Bowl Halftime

They’re Ruining The Super Bowl For Families.
NFL Hires The Sensual & Neo-Pagan
Cirque du Soleil To Perform
With Impure & Blasphemous Madonna


Would you watch a football game that the openly homosexual Web site "Xtra" promotes?

And what about all the children who will unwittingly be watching the halftime show?

Here’s how the above mentioned Web site “Xtra” feels about it:

"Madonna to host gayest Super Bowl halftime show ever."

The site goes on to say:

“[In the 1990’s] the [Super Bowl] halftime show took its first tentative steps out of the closet, featuring the New Kids on the Block in 1991, Gloria Estefan and gay figure skater Brian Boitano in 1992 and Michael Jackson in 1993. Since then, Estefan, Queen Latifah, Christina Aguilera and 'N Sync have all performed, but never has the show just come out and said, "I'm gay" the way that having Madonna perform over ...Québécois acrobats no doubt will.

Welcome out of the closet, Super Bowl halftime show. You'll like it here.

Maybe your example will help all those young aspiring football players who are still in the closet.”

How shocking!

In face of this shocking statement, I ask you to speak out and to…

1) SEND YOUR PROTEST TO THE NFL For Choosing Unwholesome Entertainment For Your Super Bowl.

Your instant e -protest message to the NFL will make them reconsider and maybe even stop this anti-family entertainment at future Super Bowls.

Who can turn a blind eye to all the insults and blasphemies hurled at the Mother of God and Her Divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ that the aging fifty-two year old Madonna has relentlessly and feverishly performed to audiences over the decades?

Can Madonna’s performances be held in too great disdain by devotees of God and His holy Mother? In a peaceful way, let’s do something about it.

On the home page of Madonna’s website, she has produced a 30 second “teaser” video crowing about her selection of the halftime entertainment at Super Bowl XLIV and gives her fans a visual idea of the super-sensual entertainment she likely plans to offer in league with Cirque du Soleil.

WARNING: both Madonna’s and Cirque’s Web-sites are objectionable.

Please, for the lo ve of God and the good of your family and our nation take an Important INSTANT ACTION.

SEND YOUR PROTEST TO THE NFL For Choosing Unwholesome Entertainment For The Super Bowl.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

My Favorite Picture of Our Lady of Genazzano



This is one of my favorite photos of the fresco of Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy. It was taken by a fellow TFP member who went there some time ago.

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Other Our Lady of Guadalupe

by Richard Segerstrom

Our Lady of Guadalupe Spain

The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
carved by Saint Luke the Evangelist, and given by
Pope Saint Gregory the Great to Saint Leander,
Bishop of Seville, Spain (picture above).

This statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Extremadura region of western Spain, is not to be confused with the Tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Tepeyac, Mexico. The statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was carved by Saint Luke the Evangelist, was given to Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville, by Pope Saint Gregory I in gratitude to Saint Leander for converting the Visigothic kings, Saint Hermengild¹ and Recared.

In the year 714, less than 150 years after Pope Saint Gregory had given Saint Leander the Statue, Seville fell to the Moors. The Image was taken by priests, who were fleeing the Moorish armies, to the region along the Guadalupejo (now Guadalupe) River in Extremadura. The priests who fled north with the Statue buried it in the hills near the Guadalupe River to prevent the Moors from discovering it. The Statue was so well hidden that in fact the Moors never did find it; then again, neither did the Catholics.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, a shepherd named Gil Cordero began to report apparitions of Our Lady in his field near the present day city of Cáceres. Our Lady ordered Gil Cordero to enlist the help of priests to dig at the place where She had appeared to him. The priests soon unearthed the Statue along with all of the documents and found Our Lady of Guadalupe to be in perfect condition.

Alfonso XI, King of Castile and León, became one of the first regular pilgrims to Guadalupe. King Alfonso XI wanted to expand the chapel of Guadalupe into a church and monastery, but he died in 1350, so it was completed by Juan I of Castile. King Juan I entrusted the shrine to the Hieronymites, Order of Saint Jerome. The Monastery maintained its royal patronage until 1835, when Church properties were seized and religious orders dispersed in Spain during the First Carlist War.

Among the many noteworthy personages that visited the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was Queen Isabella I, King Ferdinand II and Christopher Columbus. In 1486, during a Holy Week pilgrimage to this shrine, Columbus met with representatives from the court of the Catholic Monarchs to negotiate royal sponsorship of his voyages to India. After Columbus reached America in 1492 he returned to the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe to give thanks to God, through the intercession of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who had granted him a safe voyage.

The shrine of Guadalupe is a stunning complex of five main structures: the Mudejar cloister, the Gothic cloister, the Plateresque portal, the church building itself, which dates back to 1730 and was designed by one of Christopher Columbus’ descendants, and a painting and sculpture museum that houses works by many of Spain’s finest artists.

In 1907, the Virgin of Guadalupe was canonically crowned and declared the Patroness of Extremadura. Our Lady’s patronage was extended in 1928 to the entire Spanish-speaking world. In 1955, Pope Pius XII declared the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe a minor papal basilica.

¹LEOVIGILD, King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who reigned conjointly with him. All three were Arians until Hermenegild and Recared were converted by Saint Leander. Furious at their conversion, their father, Leovigild, had Hermenegild imprisoned and tortured in order to apostasies. Hermenegild refused and was beheaded on Easter night. A bright light shown from his cell letting all know of his martyrdom. Leovigild on his death-bed, though still an Arian, bade his son Recared to seek out Saint Leander, whom he had himself cruelly persecuted, and, following Saint Hermenegild’s example, converted to Catholicism. Recared, on his father’s death labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. Saint Hermenegild’s feast day is April 13th.