Bloomberg's choice

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man shall attack you to harm you; for I have many people in this city."
– Acts 18:9-10

By now everyone has heard that Mayor Bloomberg of New York excluded any priests, pastors, rabbis or imams from the official tenth anniversary of 9/11. In fact no prayer was allowed.

The godless Mayor Bloomberg was highly criticized for his decision by many Christians. I won't go into Bloomberg's lame reasons for this decision because they are, well, lame. Among the many excuses he offered was one that somehow a moment of silence could substitute for public prayer.

And as expected the secularist in chief, Barack Obama, had no comment -- signifying that he was in utter agreement with the plan to ban God from being visibly present. Yes, this is one more reason why I blame Obama for the blatant attacks on Christianity in the media and from corporations. One call from the White House is all it would have taken to straighten out Bloomberg; one comment in a press conference. But the bully pulpit is occupied by an agent of the humanists.

This sets a new precedent for America. Never before has there been an important national event in the history of this country where Christians were excluded from leading people in prayer. Never before!

What is next? I shudder to think.

So what is New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan's reaction to all this? The Washington Post reports that Archbishop Dolan said that he agrees with the decision.

Meanwhile, the New York Times piece on this subject was written by their top anti-religion propagandist, Laurie Goodstein. It's titled "Omitting Clergy at 9/11 Ceremony Prompts Protest".

Can you appreciate the subtlety of Goodstein's title? It's the clergy that are protesting, as if this was some sort of unreasonable demand by a bunch of outsiders.

In an apparent attempt to dampen the "protests", Obama read Psalm 46 when it was his turn to speak at the New York 9/11 commemoration.

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UPDATE (Sep 12):

I just discovered that Mayor Bloomberg attended a Memorial Service for the 343 firefighters that lost their lives on 9/11. The service was held on Saturday, September 10, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Not only was Bloomberg present, but he also spoke from the podium. (Presumably not the pulpit.) Archbishop Dolan was also present, although the local CBS news report doesn't even make any mention of it while featuring a quote from Bloomberg.

There is a video of the event from NY1 which is well worth watching. It shows two of the children of the fallen NYFD giving touching tributes to their fathers. It also shows Mayor Bloomberg speaking and a Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Archbishop Dolan does not appear in the video.

My question is, why is Mayor Bloomberg welcome into the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York? He was instrumental in passing the "homosexual marriage" bill in New York State and refused to welcome religious leaders to the official 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero. No one has done more to undermine the Catholic Church and the Christian religion in New York City.

Bishop DiMarzio of Brooklyn placed a ban on all politicians participating at any celebrations on Church property after the "homosexual marriage" defeat. Bloomberg made a media spectacle of the first day in which "homosexual marriage" was legal in New York. He personally presided over a "marriage" ceremony that day. He ordered city offices to be open on a Sunday in order to accommodate this triumphant celebration.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is a House of God. Michael Bloomberg by his very presence desecrates that temple. This is my opinion which is obviously not shared by Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Forgive them

And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
– Luke 23:34

I listened today September 11, 2011 to the homily of Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life on EWTN. And he made a very profound point. He said that many people asked "Where was God?" on that day of destruction and death. And he said that Christ was in the burning tower with the people dying there.

He went on to compare the suffering of those burned to death with that of Christ on the Cross. And I imagined that the burning tower contained within it the Crucifix of Christ as Manhattan became Golgotha.

If September 11, 2001 was the day of the Crucifixion, then we are still waiting for the Resurrection.

Since that day we have behaved like the criminal hanging on the cross beside Jesus who mockingly said, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

And we do not hear the voice of the other criminal who rebuked him saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."

He then asked Jesus for forgiveness saying, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Then Jesus forgave him of all his sins and said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

After that Luke tells us that "there was darkness over the whole land" from the sixth to the ninth hour. It seems to me that we are still living in that time of darkness; Christ is still suffering on the Cross.

It's time to forgive and to stop hating. It is time to pray for our enemies, "for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds."

Before this time of darkness ends we must stop mocking Christ as he hangs from the Cross. Instead, we must repent and ask for forgiveness. Only then will Christ's mission on earth be accomplished so that he can cry out in a loud voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" and give up his last breath.

And then Joseph of Arimethea, "a good and righteous man", can finally take down the body of Christ from the Cross and lay it in the tomb.

All these things must happen before the vigil can begin which will lead to the ultimate triumph and Resurrection of Christ.

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Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

US Spends Billions on Population Control in the Philippines

And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
 – Luke 1:14

She doesn't look like a eugenicist, but don't let looks fool you.

Kristie Anne Kenney was the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines from 2006 to 2009 (she's now the ambassador to Thailand). She's the author of this 2008 diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks reporting on US population control efforts in the Philippines.

There has been a vigorous public debate,
extensively covered by the news media, between
those who advocate the Catholic Church position
against all "artificial" family planning and
contraceptive methods and others who caution
that the Philippines' population growth is
outpacing the country's economic growth and its
ability to meet the food-supply needs of the
entire population.  Landmark appropriations and
draft legislation reflect increasing commitment
within the Philippine Government to further
expand and sustain programs started forty years
ago with U.S. Government's assistance through
USAID.  The U.S. Government continues to be the
largest donor in the Philippine population
sector supporting efforts to improve local
government service delivery and increase
private sector contributions to family health
outcomes.

She's the first female U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines. And yet the U.S. policy of population control as outlined by Henry Kissinger in 1974 in the infamous NSSM-200 document remains the same:

30. The World Population Plan of Action is not self-enforcing and will require vigorous efforts by interested countries, U.N. agencies and other international bodies to make it effective. U.S. leadership is essential. The strategy must include the following elements and actions:
(a) Concentration on key countries. Assistance for population moderation should give primary emphasis to the largest and fastest growing developing countries where there is special U.S. political and strategic interest. Those countries are: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Colombia.
[...]
(c) Increased assistance for family planning services, information and technology. This is a vital aspect of any world population program. (1) Family planning information and materials based on present technology should be made fully available as rapidly as possible to the 85% of the populations in key LDCs not now reached, essentially rural poor who have the highest fertility.

Anyone who thought that these eugenics programs would end because we now have an African-American President or because we have a female Secretary of State or because there is a female Ambassador to "key countries" like the Philippines or Thailand needs to re-examine their assumptions. And by the way, Ambassador Kristie Kenney was raised Catholic.

You can learn more about the battle in Catholic Philippines against population control at these links:

• Wikileaks Cable: U.S. Gov’t Largest Supporter of Philippines Population Control in Past 40 Years
• LifeSiteNews.com: How Western agencies are using billions to foist their population agenda on Filipinos
• The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life
• HLI World Watch
• Human Life International

In addition to the population control agenda we have learned from recent Wikileaks documents that the U.S. State Department has been active in spreading the homosexual agenda across the globe:

• Leaked cables: Obama admin called Catholic Church source of spreading “homophobia” in Poland
• Obama admin scheming to advance homosexuality in Africa Wikileaks reveals

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Related articles:

• The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life
• The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion  -- Mother Teresa

Ramona Trevino, former Planned Parenthood manager

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights.
 – Matthew 4:1-2

Here is another wonderful story of redemption as a result of 40 Days for Life.

When Ramona Trevino was 11 years old, she felt God was calling her to serve Him in a special way – so much so that she told her mother she wanted to become a nun one day.

But less than 20 years later, Ramona found herself managing perhaps one of the least convent-like places you could think of – a Planned Parenthood clinic....

You can read the full story of Ramona's conversion at LifeSiteNews -- "A former Planned Parenthood manager in her own words: Ramona Trevino speaks out".

In this video Ramona tells us how important our prayers are to changing the hearts of those who have fallen victim to the culture of death.



And finally, a reminder that the next prayer campaign for 40 Days for Life begins on September 28. So now would be a good time to start planning. You can go to their website to sign up and get more information:
http://40daysforlife.com/

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Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

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Related articles:

• Lent – 40 days for Life
• The conversion of Abby Johnson

A case of Joni Mitchell

Turn thou to me, and be gracious to me;
for I am lonely and afflicted.
 – Psalm 25:16

In a 1994 interview Joni Mitchell says:

"I've never been a feminist, because I believe in male-female relationships without apartheid. And I've never been a nihilist, because I continue to feel the heart is the healer."

She is the quintessential flower child of the 1960s. She still doesn't seem to understand the Pandora's box that was opened by the "sexual revolution".

She doesn't want to face the fact that she was used to drive forward the feminist, hedonist, nihilist culture that engulfs young people today. Like all of us, she is in need of repentance.

And she deserves our forgiveness for believing that this cultural revolution could be suspended at one innocent moment in time -- as if a delicate balance between God's commandments and the devil's temptations were possible.

This much I know. God will forgive her if she will set aside her foolish pride and go to confession. And deep down I'm sure Joni already knows that.



In the song "A case of you" Joni says:

I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid

Here we see her Christian roots, her fear of damnation and her struggle to "liberate" herself from those fears. It is the story of a generation, intoxicated by an excess of freedom.

This song seems to be about a lost lover, but I choose to interpret it as Joni's struggle with Christ. There are obvious allusions to Jesus in her lyrics:

Oh you're in my blood like holy wine

I don't know if Joni was raised Catholic. Her father was of Norwegian ancestry which would definitely tie her to the Protestant faith, but her mother was part Scottish and part Irish. So I don't know if her mother may have been brought up as a Catholic.

But how else could you interpret this line about "holy wine" except by the Catholic belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist? Christ enters into our bodies through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. He is in our blood.

The next line:

You taste so bitter and so sweet

seems to be drawn directly from the book of Revelation.

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth." And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. (Rev 10:9-10)

I never thought before about this passage referring to the Eucharist. But the words of the angel, "Take it and eat it" are similar to the words of the Catholic Mass:

Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my body which will be given up for you.

And then the angel says that it will taste sweet but be bitter in the stomach. Of course Joni could be thinking here of a "bitter sweet" love, but when taken together with the thought of Holy Wine it seems right to suppose she may have been alluding to the Holy Bread of life.

The most memorable lines for me from her song are these:

I remember that time you told me you said
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time

The deeply religious quality of this song resounds in these lines. While Jesus never says, "love is touching souls", He does touch our souls when we believe in Him and have faith in His power to guide and direct us along our pilgrim journey to heaven. And He is the source of Living Water which "pours out of" those who have accepted His love.

In the beginning of the song we find Joni lost and dejected. I imagine her speaking to Jesus like a lover in the style of the Song of Songs but rather than embracing Him, she rejects Him.

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar"

Doesn't "I am as constant as a northern star" sound like something that Jesus would speak to us in our souls? He is our guiding light. And only a cynical soul would respond by saying, "Sure, constantly in the darkness." How many who have rejected Christ have ended up "in the bar" -- slaves to alcohol and addiction?

The song ends with Joni meeting a woman. Could this be Mary, the Mother of Christ?

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"

She looks like Him and knows His life. Who knew Christ better than His Mother Mary? And like Mary always does, she says "Go to him."

But be prepared to carry your Cross. "Be prepared to bleed." Be prepared to be a martyr if that is where your faith leads you.

By the grace of God Joni's song can become a catechism for the Catholic faith. Pray for Joni. Pray for all the lost souls who have wandered away from the flock and no longer hear the voice of their Lord calling.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

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Related articles:

• God is Love - I use Joni's song "The Last Time I Saw Richard" from the album Blue to discuss love.
• My old man - Joni's song "My old man" is also from her album Blue. I use it to discuss marriage.

(I'm slowly working on writing an article for each of the songs in Joni's Blue album.)

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Complete lyrics of "A Case of you"
© 1970 Joni Mitchell

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar"

On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid

I remember that time you told me you said
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"

Oh but you are in my blood
You're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet

Oh, I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion -- Mother Teresa

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
 – Matthew 25:35

LifeSiteNews (LSN) has been working hard for years to expose the anti-Life policies of the Canadian Catholic Church's "Development and Peace" organization. This is the official international aid agency of the Canadian bishops. The latest development is the good news that the Bishop of Pembroke, Ontario has decided to withhold all funds from the controversial group.

An example of the anti-Life work of "Development and Peace" is shown in the following video. LSN discovered that in 2009 they were funding a group called The Freedom From Debt Coalition (FDC) that was working in the Philippines to pass the "Reproductive Health" bill which is forcefully opposed by the Catholic Church in the Philippines because it promotes contraception and sterilization.



Here is the response of Mother Teresa to those who foolishly seek to achieve peace while promoting contraception and abortion:

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today - abortion which brings people to such blindness.
 – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

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The excerpt above is from a speech that Mother Teresa gave at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC on February 3, 1994. You can listen to it here:
Audio of Mother Teresa's speech
The text of the speech is also available at the Priests for Life website at:
Text of Mother Teresa's speech

Priest for Life is currently inviting everyone to join them in a novena for Blessed Mother Teresa in remembrance of her passing from this world into heavenly bliss on September 5, 1997.

A promise

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
 – Matthew 25:35

Why do some people accept the killing of unborn children? Is it because they can't cry out as their lives are being cut short? Would we tolerate the killing of a baby that was born less than perfect or who was "unwanted" for other reasons?

Let's promise as a society that we will never kill another child in the womb or call that baby "unwanted". It is a matter of equality for all persons. It is a matter of love for the Christ within each of us.

The child growing in the womb is a hungry and thirsty stranger. Will we welcome him or her with the love and compassion that Jesus asked of us?

Abortion is never a "choice" for a civilized society. Every child is innocent and we must sacrifice as a society to welcome that child into the world that God has given us.

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We must teach children the virtue of chastity if we really love them and want them to live full and happy lives and then go on to their reward in heaven. Chastity is one of the treasures of Christianity that we have to offer the modern world. This virtue that has been ridiculed and trampled upon by the secular culture, is one of the greatest ways to show our love for God.

Chastity is not simply abstaining. It is not motivated by fear of disease or pregnancy. It is motivated by love of God and of ourselves. It is not based on saying "no" to the choices that the secular culture offers, but on saying "yes" to the choices that a life centered on Christ offers.

Chastity is a "yes" to love, to marriage, to parenthood and to life. It is time to unbury this hidden treasure of Christianity and let its light shine throughout the world.

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The alternative is this house of horrors that former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson describes in her account of working there late at night alone.

I walked in and heard the heavy door slam behind me.  It echoed as it closed.  The clinic had high ceilings and every noise echoed like you were in a cave.  It was silent…no creaks, no water dripping, nothing…totally silent.  So silent in fact, I could almost hear something…and I’m telling you, it almost sounded like babies crying.  I know that sounds crazy and I totally disregarded it at the time.  I ran up to the front of the clinic, away from the freezer where the babies were kept until the medical waste came to pick them up.  I didn’t want to be next to that freezer.  Did I really hear that?  Surely it was just my imagination.

This is the end result of the lie of "freedom" of "choice" that our society has bought into -- the haunting silent cries of the unborn.

Pray for the children who never felt the warmth of a mother's hug or a father's kiss.

Blessed Virgin Mary, out of love you said "yes" to God and life, pray for us.