Father Corapi: In Reality, Sadness Has No Place At Christmas Time Or Any Time

For Humanity And Divinity Have Been
Joined In Christ Jesus.

In the course of a life’s journey there are often stretches of bad road. It seems that some people have an easier time than others, but it is a rare individual that never encounters a rough stretch. In recent years, perhaps that’s why I have found an increasing number of people that liken themselves to old cars. One poor woman said she felt very old. When I reminded her that she was only 39, she responded that she’s like a three year old car – not that old, but with over 500,000 miles – most of it over bad roads.
It is a rather well known fact that the Christmas holidays are the most difficult period many people face all year. Many of my pastor friends tell me that more people die during the week before Christmas than any other time.
With the erosion of family unity has come sadness, all at a time that should be joyful. Sometimes we can only be happy by willing it, often not merely by feeling it. Reality demands that at Christmas we will to be happy, after all “A Child has been born to us!”
As I look out my window the snow is falling and the pine trees are clothed in Christmas white. It is very silent, perhaps a prelude to a silent night not far off. At a time when the forces of evil are relentless in their attempts to not only take Christ out of Christmas, but to suppress Christmas altogether, we must be just as relentless in our efforts to give glory to God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
This year approach Christmas as you would approach the Christ Child himself – with reverence and with thanksgiving. Allow nothing to rob your joy at this precious time. Sadness has no place in reality, true reality, for the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us. Humanity and divinity have been joined in Jesus, now come to us as an infant. In the cold winter of human hearts there is often no room at the Inn for the Holy Family. Make room in the warmth of your heart for the infant King the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Often the greatest joy is experienced by giving something to others: A smile, forgiveness, perhaps the gift of faith itself.
Have a most blessed and Merry Christmas, and may God give you the Gift Who contains all gifts: the Holy Spirit.

God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi

Pope's Homily 1st Advent/Pro Life Vigil 11/27/10

Dear brothers and sisters,

With this evening’s celebration, the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new liturgical year beginning with its first stage: Advent, the period that commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. In this Advent period we will once again experience the closeness of the One who created the world, who guides history and cared for us to the point of becoming a man. This great and fascinating mystery of God with us, moreover of God who becomes one of us, is what we celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy Christmas. During the season of Advent we feel the Church that takes us by the hand and - in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary - expresses her motherhood allowing us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.
While our hearts reach out towards the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, the Church’s liturgy directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord in the splendour of glory. This is why we, in every Eucharist, “announce his death, proclaim his resurrection until he comes again” we hold vigil in prayer. The liturgy does not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of Advent, the cry with which the whole Bible concludes, the last page of the Revelation of Saint John: “Come, Lord Jesus “(22:20).
Dear brothers and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken up this invitation and those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in different situations of fragility, especially in its early days and in its early stages. The beginning of the liturgical year helps us to relive the expectation of God made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself small, He becomes a child, it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is near, who wanted to experience the life of man, from the very beginning, to save it completely, fully. And so the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord and the beginning of human life are intimately connected and in harmony with each other within the one saving plan of God, the Lord of life of each and every one of us. The Incarnation reveals to us, with intense light and in an amazing way, that every human life has an incomparable, a most elevated dignity.
Man has an unmistakable originality compared to all other living beings that inhabit the earth. He presents himself as a unique and singular entity, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of a material reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in the spiritual dimension and the corporal dimension. This is also suggested in the text of the First letter to the Thessalonians which was just proclaimed: “May the God of peace himself - St. Paul writes - make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ “(5:23). Therefore, we are spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and limits of our material condition, at the same time we are open to an infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome Him in us. We operate in earthly realities and through them we can perceive the presence of God and seek Him, truth, goodness and absolute beauty. We savour fragments of life and happiness and we long for total fulfilment.
God loves us so deeply, totally, without distinction, He calls us to friendship with him, He makes us part of a reality beyond all imagination, thought and word; His own divine life. With emotion and gratitude we acknowledge the value of the incomparable dignity of every human person and the great responsibility we have toward all. ” Christ, the final Adam, - says the Second Vatican Council - by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear…. by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. “(Gaudium et Spes, 22).
Believing in Jesus Christ also means having a new outlook on man, a look of trust and hope. Moreover, experience itself and reason show that the human being is a subject capable of discernment, self-conscious and free, unique and irreplaceable, the summit of all earthly things, that must be recognized in his innate value and always accepted with respect and love. He has the right not to be treated as an object of possession or something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the benefit of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself and his integral development should always be sought. Love for all, if it is sincere, naturally tends to become a preferential attention to the weakest and poorest. In this vein we find the Church’s concern for the unborn, the most fragile, the most threatened by the selfishness of adults and the darkening of consciences. The Church continually reiterates what was declared by the Second Vatican Council against abortion and all violations of unborn life: “from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care ” (ibid., n. 51).
There are cultural tendencies that seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological material, but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human being. So was Jesus in Mary’s womb, so it was for all of us in our mother’s womb. With the ancient Christian writer Tertullian we can say: ” he who will be a man is already one” (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider him a person from conception.
Unfortunately, even after birth, the lives of children continue to be exposed to abandonment, hunger, poverty, disease, abuse, violence or exploitation. The many violations of their rights that are committed in the world sorely hurt the conscience of every man of good will. Before the sad landscape of the injustices committed against human life, before and after birth, I make mine Pope John Paul II’s passionate appeal to the responsibility of each and every individual: ” respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!”(Encyclical Evangelium vitae, 5). I urge the protagonists of politics, economic and social communications to do everything in their power to promote a culture which respects human life, to provide favorable conditions and support networks for the reception and development of life.
To the Virgin Mary, who welcomed the Son of God made man with faith, with her maternal womb, with loving care, with nurturing support and vibrant with love, we entrust our commitment and prayer in favour of unborn life . We do in the liturgy - which is the place where we live the truth and where truth lives with us - worshiping the divine Eucharist, we contemplate Christ’s body, that body who took flesh from Mary by the Holy Spirit, and from her was born in Bethlehem for our salvation. Ave, verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine!
courtesy of Vatican Radio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The Pope’s Prayer for Nascent Life

Lord Jesus,
You who faithfully visit and fulfill with Your Presence
the Church and the history of men;
You who in the miraculous Sacrament of Your Body and Blood
render us participants in Divine Life
and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life;
We adore and bless You.

Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life,
truly Present and alive among us, we beg You.

Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,
make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb
the miraculous work of the Creator,
open our hearts to generously welcoming every child
that comes into life.

Bless all families,
sanctify the union of spouses,
render fruitful their love.

Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies
with the light of Your Spirit,
so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect
the sacred nature of life, of ever human life.

Guide the work of scientists and doctors,
so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person,
and no-one endures suppression or injustice.

Gift creative charity to administrators and economists,
so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions
so that young families can serenely embrace
the birth of new children

Console the married couples who suffer
because they are unable to have children
and in Your goodness provide for them.

Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children,
so they may experience the warmth of Your Charity,
the consolation of Your Divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,
in whose womb You took on our human nature,
we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Saviour,
the strength to love and serve life,
in anticipation of living forever in You,
in communion with the Blessed Trinity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Pope’s decision to usher in Advent with an evening of prayer for the unborn is a beautiful symbolic gesture, according to the newly named Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, a renowned bioethicist and former head of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the "Vigil for All Nascent Human Life,” in a special evening prayer celebration Nov. 27, the night before Advent begins.
Cardinal Sgreccia told EWTN News in an exclusive interview that there is a “a very prominent logic" to praying for nascent human life as Advent begins, "because Advent is dedicated to awaiting the birth of Jesus."
Traditionally, the Pope celebrates vespers or evening prayer to mark the start of Advent.
For this year's vigil celebration, he has called on Christians around the world to join him in praying for the unborn.
The "beautiful and well-chosen" theme should remind believers that Jesus Christ himself humbled himself to be born from the womb of Mary, the cardinal said.
It is “very wise,” for the Pope to use this season to call attention to the lives of preborn babies, entrusted to their mothers' care as they "await the light of birth," he said.
Cardinal Sgrecci said the Pope’s gesture is dramatic “in a period when nascent life is undervalued” and children are “not considered as a grace of God and a service to the world.”
The value of life must be promoted, he added, "because if children aren't born the very world is extinguished!"
Through prayer, said Cardinal Sgreccia, men and women are opened up to the eternal and given courage to confront difficult situations. Through prayer, he added, people come to know that they are being watched over.
The experience is much like the look between a mother and a child, he said. "Our mothers have always felt like this. Christian pregnancies are lived in this way."
In addition to their prayers, the cardinal said, people can help mothers and children by encouraging and promoting life in many different ways. He pointed to helping out with initiatives to assist new and expectant mothers, supporting adoption and making donations to pro-life institutions.
Cardinal Sgreccia also urged believers to make spiritual sacrifices, to offer up their sufferings to God for the sake of the unborn.
What is most important, he said, is "respecting life before and after it is born, helping it wherever it is — in misery, poverty, difficulty, obstacles.”
Christians, he said, must be “the voice of love, because love and life are tied together."
"Where there is love, life is enabled,” he said. “Life grows well when there is love from the mother and father and the society around it."

This Thanksgiving, Give Thanks For What You Have ....

And For What You Have Lost!  Remember That Everything Comes From Our Heavenly Father.

 
This Thanksgiving holiday may be the only one some of us have left, or it may be the most important one some of us will ever have. Let’s make the most of it. From the beginning, this mostly secular holiday has had a somewhat “holyday” dimension to it. After all, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God, mostly for surviving, but surely for the food they had that helped them to survive and ultimately prosper.
Taking things for granted is an occupational hazard of the human condition. It is easy to forget that all things come from God. Whatever we have is a gift from our Father, “Who art in Heaven,” and on earth, and in every heart and mind that permits him entrance.
This Thanksgiving some of us are having our own personal struggles, and it is not as easy perhaps to be thankful. Millions of people are nowhere near as well off as they once were. The lines at the local food banks and shelters are longer than they have been in recent times many places. Those of us who are able must help those less fortunate when we can. I spent one Thanksgiving homeless, roaming the streets of Los Angeles when I was younger. I can tell you it is a cold and desolate feeling.
Some of us are mad at God this Thanksgiving. I can understand that, although it doesn’t do any good to bang your head against the rock wall of Reality. Some of us don’t have what we had last year. I know dozens of people who have lost more than 40-50% of their wealth this past year. I lost my best friend this year. I know what it is to be mad at God too, although it isn’t the right thing to do, and it certainly doesn’t help. God gave us what we had to begin with.

The Prophets got mad at God at times.
They got over it, and so will we.

Some people lost wives, husbands, and children this year. I can’t imagine the depths of their suffering, but I sympathize with it. I don’t have a wife or children in the normal sense. I acquired a dog ten years ago at a very dark and painful time in my life. He saved my life when he was a puppy by giving me a reason to live. Years later he saved my life from two intruders who broke into my home early one morning. He was my best friend for years. He died tragically from cancer a couple of weeks ago. He bled to death internally and died as I held him on the examination table of the veterinary clinic. He was scared and could hardly breathe as he looked into my eyes.
I was mad at God for taking the only real friend I had for many years; the only one I lived with and could be close to through many dark and troubling years. He was always the same, day in and day out. He loved me unconditionally, and every morning he greeted me as though he hadn’t seen me for years, although he slept on the same bed that I did every night of the ten years he was with me.
It’s hard to lose things, harder to lose what we love. Yet, it was God who gave us these things from the beginning. I remember that there were over 3,000 sunrises and sunsets that I spent with Sage. He loved to walk with me anyplace we went. He loved to swim more than anything else. He was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and it was in his genes to be that way. He was loyal and he was loving, and he is gone, but I am thankful to God for the years He gave me to live with Sage. He always slept with one back leg over my ankle, as though he wanted to keep track of me through the night. He liked to watch football games on television, and sat next to me on the sofa with one paw draped over my leg.
He would often steal my shoes or socks and race joyously through the house and prance and dance until I told him to hand them over, which he always did as though it was his highest and happiest mission in life.
Loss is hard, but sometimes it is only in loss that we realize what we’ve had, the greatness of the gift and how much it has contributed to our life. It’s easy to give thanks when everything goes well. It’s easy to love when all is comfortable. It’s the highest and best thanks and love when we can do it from a place of loss. Be thankful for what you have, and for what you had, even if it was only for a little while, for as a wise man said, “Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”
So, this Thanksgiving let’s be thankful indeed for all we have, and for all we’ve had. It is all evidence of the love and care of God our Father.
Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving,
Fr. John Corapi

Pope's 'unprecedented' pro-life vigil - JOIN!

CNA STAFF, Nov 24, 2010 / 05:36 am (CNA/EWTN News) -
Nov 27, 2010 -
Catholic bishops across the U.S. are urging all of the faithful to unite their prayers with Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, Nov. 27, in an unprecedented worldwide vigil for unborn life.
The Pope will celebrate a special Vespers service that Saturday evening at St. Peter's Basilica, heralding the first Sunday of Advent. Pope Benedict has recommended that “parishes, religious communities, associations and movements” join him for evening prayer, in “churches throughout the world.”

The season of preparation for Christmas, the Pope said on Nov. 14, “is a favorable time to invoke the divine protection of every human being called into existence, and to give thanks to God for the gift of life we have received from our parents.”
Although it is common for the Pope to encourage prayer for particular intentions, the request for a coordinated worldwide vigil –to be held on the same date and approximately the same time, in all dioceses–  is highly exceptional. Several bishops' comments have indicated that nothing comparable has ever occurred in the history of the Church.
While many Americans may be occupied with the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving and the shopping blitz of “Black Friday,”  bishops across the country are encouraging believers not to neglect the Pope's historic call to prayer.
“At this moment in history,” Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco wrote, “when societies are endorsing the killing of human beings as a solution to social, economic, and environmental problems, the Holy Father is reminding us of the necessity and power of prayer to protect human life.”
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta stressed that those Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church should nevertheless join their prayers with those of the Pope and his flock throughout the world. He also encouraged those who cannot attend a vigil service, due to other commitments, to participate to the best of their ability.
“I invite all Christians to begin the Advent season uniting in prayer for God's protection and help for human life,” he wrote. “All are welcome to take part in a special prayer on November 27 whether at home or traveling over the Thanksgiving holidays.”
The Diocese of Davenport in Iowa has produced a booklet that will allow families who are unable to attend the full services, to join in some of the same prayers that Pope Benedict XVI will pray at St. Peter's on the night of the vigil. That booklet is available from the diocese's website, at http://www.davenportdiocese.org/lit/liturgylibrary/litPrayerforLifeFamilyBooklet.pdf.
All of the vigils will feature exposition of the Eucharist and and benediction, with most slated to include the Church's traditional evening prayer of psalms and petitions. Some parishes will also be hosting Marian processions and recitation of the Rosary. While most participating parishes will hold services during the evening, some have scheduled them earlier, or in conjunction with a vigil Mass.
Those planning to attend should confirm times and parish participation, either through the Internet or by contacting their local diocese before the Thanksgiving holiday, since offices may be closed the following Friday.

Defending the Honor of Those That Silently Defend YOU

There have been many an example given in the last couple weeks alone of relative atrocities committed by our TSA (Transportation Security Administration). These actors aren’t the clean-cut do-gooders one might expect to be working a job of such critical perceived importance. No.
Rather, looking upon them & listening to them speak, one might wonder what gutter they were dredged up from. Better on the Government payroll than the welfare roll, right? More to the point, these people now follow a mandate to either view you naked in astonishing detail or, in place of that, lay their hands upon your very private places in very public view.
Now the Dept of Homeland Security, shoulder to shoulder with the White House, has issued a statement decrying the “overblown outrage.” They point out that “fewer than one half of one percent of the 34 million passengers who traveled on airplanes in or to the U.S. last week were subjected to crotch-area pat-downs.” Most of you are at least adept at basic arithmetic. So take a moment & do the math.
Better yet, Jim Geraughty, columnist at the National Review Online, has already done it for you: and you can see it here courtesy of AlwaysCatholic blog, written by Sean Norris (@commompatriot).

The Lesser of Two Evils?

Well I purposely didn't comment on this when I first saw the news that Archbishop Dolan now heads the USCCB. Although I've left comments on Courageous Priest and some other places in my travels regarding my confusion about why everyone seemed so happy, I have reserved my personal blog comment till now. I must admit that when I saw an initial interview with Dolan when he arrived in NY (my old stomping grounds), he seemed like a really nice down to earth kinda guy. I'm not saying that has changed per say, but just that he should remember that often times, nice guys finish last ... and lose it all. 
What we really need in every parish and diocese is for priests and bishops to develop the backbones required to STAND STRAIGHT in the face of popular opinion realizing that relativism and complacency is killing the country and sending souls to perdition! And that is what I beg all to pray for ... strong clergy that stand for the TRUTH in the Way HE taught through apostolic succession as they are meant to do. The primary objective has always been to lead souls to heaven!!!!
Now I realize that the alternative was much worse connected to "THE SCANDALS" *shudders* and all the rest, but as I mentioned elsewhere, wasn't it Dolan who just a short time ago, sat smiling and greeting the LGBT members of a certain Manhattan Church in his diocese during a Mass where they were welcomed to partake of the Eucharist?
It gives me pause as well to have heard also that he is of the opinion that the current state of the Church in America is "going well". Michael Voris give a much more informative perspective that I can at the moment, so I invite you to have a look at the video below ... and PRAY ... PRAY ... PRAY for your priests and all religious and clergy that they receive the graces required to be the servants God desires!

In Somewhat Of A Surprise…
Archbishop Timothy Dolan Has Been Elected President
Of The United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops!

Well this is a pleasant surprise .... is it really?
What do you think? Sound off and leave a comment.

WORLDWIDE ROSARY TODAY 11/23/10 for Persecuted Catholics

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60 Catholics were brutally murdered while attending Mass in a Catholic Church in Bagdad , Iraq . They are glorious martyrs.
But 400,000 Catholics remain and are being persecuted for the faith. And we’re being asked to pray the Rosary to help them.
Tell friends about this Rosary
See this impassioned email I received from an Iraqi Catholic:
"I need help. I am Chaldean. We are Catholics from IRAQ who are persecuted for our faith. As you may have heard, the Muslim extremists bombed a Church in Baghdad , killing 2 priests and 58 believers.
"Is there anyway we can set up a rosary rally for Chaldeans? So all can join in? We need help. Please, I am begging you. I am begging you."
So please pray the Rosary on November 23 for persecuted Catholics in Iraq . And tell everyone you know to please join in.
Massacre at Mass in Baghdad
Spread news about this Rosary to your friends.
On TUESDAY NOVEMBER 23, AT 9PM THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL ROSARY RALLY AT  MOTHER OF GOD CHURCH IN SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN.
Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church
25585 Berg Road
Southfield, MI 48033
Tel: (248) 356-0565
Fax: (248) 356-5235
Email: MotherOfGodChurch@yahoo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS SPECIAL ROSARY TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
And please remember: the Rosary saved Austria from Russian Communists. It can save Catholics in Iraq too. There used to be 1.5 million Catholics in Iraq , but only 400,000 remain. They urgently need our prayers!
ROSARY SAVED AUSTRIA STORY

The Real Scoop on the Pope's Recent Condom Statement

Clarification in CONTEXT regarding the Holy Father's words on condoms ... geeesch! What the media will DO for a HEADLINE!

November 23, 2010 by John Thavis

VATICAN CITY — When Pope Benedict commented in a new book that using condoms to reduce the risk of disease could, in some circumstances, be a step toward moral responsibility, he used the example of a male prostitute.

That raised the question: Was the pope deliberately limiting his observations to this particular group?

The answer is no, according to Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, who presented the pope’s book today at the Vatican press office.

Father Lombardi acknowledged confusion over the gender question. He said the Italian version of the book, which translated the pope’s example as “prostitute” using the feminine gender, was an error. The original German used the masculine noun for prostitute, but there was debate over whether the word was being used generically or specifically.

So Father Lombardi took the question to the pope.

“I asked the pope personally if there was a serious or important problem in the choice of the masculine gender rather than the feminine, and he said no, that is, the main point — and this is why I didn’t refer to masculine or feminine in (my earlier) communiqué — is the first step of responsibility in taking into account the risk to the life of another person with whom one has relations,” Father Lombardi said.

“Whether a man or a woman or a transsexual does this, we’re at the same point. The point is the first step toward responsibility, to avoid posing a grave risk to another person,” Father Lombardi said.

For his part, Peter Seewald, the German journalist who posed the questions in the book, said at the press conference today that “there is no difference between male prostitute and female prostitute” in the pope’s remarks, despite all the controversy over the translations. He added: “The pope indicates that, in addition to the case he cited, there may be other cases in which one may imagine that use of a condom could be a step toward responsible sexuality in this area, and to prevent further infection.”

Here once again is the key passage on the subject in the book, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times,” when Seewald asks the pope whether it was “madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.”

Pope Benedict: As a matter of fact, you know, people can get condoms when they want them anyway. But this just goes to show that condoms alone do not resolve the question itself. More needs to happen. Meanwhile, the secular realm itself has developed the so-called ABC Theory: Abstinence-Be Faithful-Condom, where the condom is understood only as a last resort, when the other two points fail to work. This means that the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves. This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also a part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being.

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward discovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

Seewald: Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?

Pope Benedict: She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

Muslims vs. Martyrs

November 21, 2010
Muslims vs. Martyrs
By Jeannie DeAngelis

President Obama has assumed the role of a traveling advocate for Islam. Every chance the president gets, he climbs on a soapbox to address issues of callousness toward the Muslim faith. The president is well-practiced in Muslim apologetics, and regardless of nation or venue, he stresses the need for tolerance, understanding, and acceptance of all things Mohammad.

When traveling abroad, America's living example of ecumenical tolerance makes it a priority to identify first with the religious roots of his childhood, while at home, the president forfeits religious neutrality only when hosting Ramadan celebrations at the White House.

As far as Christianity is concerned, Obama takes a "not just" approach to clarify America as "no longer a Christian nation." In fact, Obama mentions his personal conversion to the Christian faith only as an addendum. Moreover, the president has yet to expound upon how someone so obviously enamored of Islam could leave such a "great religion" (he was registered as a Muslim in school in Indonesia) for Christendom if convinced that foundational principles of "advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings" are common to both faiths -- a belief proven false daily.

In Obama's worldwide undeniably pro-Muslim sermons, the plight of the persecuted Christian church goes unmentioned. Not once has Obama called to task the mujahedin who systematically murder and deny both Jews and Christians the respect Barack demands the world bestow on the religion of his youth.

Take Iraq, for instance. Recently, 53 Iraqi Christians were murdered in a church raid by militant Muslims in Bagdad. "Gunmen identifying themselves as members of the Islamic State of Iraq ... broke through [a] cathedral's security wall, took 100 worshipers hostage and shot the priest. Most of the victims died hours later when the attackers detonated suicide vests as security forces raided the building."

The subjugation of Iraqi Christians is so unrelenting that since the start of the war in 2003, 1.3 million Christians have diminished to what is now estimated at below half a million.

If religious tolerance is what drives Barack Hussein Obama, then why has he failed to mention the brutal persecution of a faith to which he purportedly adheres? In fact, when provided the opening to address the blood of Christian martyrs, Barack shrewdly twists the question into yet another excuse to promote Islam.

Obama concentrates on the supposed difficulties Muslims face as a minority religion in America, yet while in Cairo, America's "assalaamu alaykum" president overlooked the struggles endured by Egypt's largest religious minority, the Coptic Christians, and instead placated Islam -- a religion guilty of bigotry toward all other faiths.

In Ankara, Turkey -- where, by law, Iranian converts from Islam to Christianity who remain in Turkey face court-ordered arrest and deportation for apostasy -- Barack stated the following:

And we will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better -- including my own country. The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country -- I know, because I am one of them.

Similar oppressive situations exist for Christians around the globe. In Pakistan, the president puts more effort into the "exotic pronunciation" of Pock-ee-ston than addressing the pressing issue of Asia Bibi, sentenced to death by a judge for "blasphemy after she engaged in a religious discussion with co-workers." Why, when visiting Asia, did Obama neglect to mention Muslims unjustly beating Bibi for her faith, locking her in a room, and announcing "from mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey"?

Barack Obama has been feted in Muslim countries, has bowed to the Protector of Mecca and Medina, and has appeased nations that define "the Middle East policy of former U.S. President George Bush as 'sickening,' and accuse America of 'contributing to the slaughter of innocents' by supporting Israel." And he continues to do so while Christian pastors sit shackled in prison cells in Turkmenistan and face certain death in Iran.

In Ethiopia, converts to Christianity are attacked regularly by Muslims, while in India, where Obama spent time Koli dancing with schoolchildren, Muslim students severed a Christian professor's hand in response test questions given months prior on an exam.

What really stands out is how Obama, while recently visiting the most populous Muslim country in the world, squandered an opportunity to speak on behalf of persecuted Indonesian Christians.

It was there that Barack Obama chose to reminisce about hearing the Muslim call to prayer and to stand barefoot beside Michelle wearing a "head-covering adorned with gold beads" at the Istiqlal Mosque in central Jakarta. While there, Obama spoke of "Indonesia's history of religious tolerance and its commitment to democracy."

Either Obama failed to do pre-trip research, or he felt that the 2005 decapitation of three little girls from a Christian school did not meet the litmus test for religious intolerance. Barack never mentioned "[t]he girls' severed heads ... dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks." The note, written in the blood of innocents, read, "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."

While in Indonesia, Obama also ignored "incidents of church attacks and religious violence ... throughout Java outside of traditional 'hot spots' such as Greater Jakarta and West Java."

At home, the president espouses the "right" to build controversial mosques like Cordoba House in New York City, but he has not yet broached the subject of Muslim protestors, in the name of "interfaith harmony," preventing Indonesian Christians from building churches. Moreover, while visiting a Muslim country that excludes Israelis from entry, the president felt it appropriate to rebuke Israel for housing plans in Israel's capital, calling the holy city of Jerusalem a settlement.

As exemplified by Iran's vow to usher in a "world without Zionism," most people are well aware that aggression exists toward Israel. Nonetheless, Americans remain largely uninformed that Christians are "despised and rejected," jailed, beaten, and martyred in countries where Muslim majorities subjugate minority religions.

Barack Hussein contends, "All men and women are created equal, they have certain inalienable rights, and one of those is to practice their religion freely." The question that a nation built upon a Judeo-Christian foundation needs to ask is this: Why would Obama, the self-appointed global ambassador for religious tolerance, refuse to address the brutal, bloody, life-and-death struggle his supposed Christian brethren face worldwide at the hands of a religion he maintains is one of peace?

Author's content: www.jeannie-ology.com