Archbishop Dolan on 'Unpleasant Truths'

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has taken on the controversy over pro-life billboards in that city with civility, clarity and truth.  His most recent column is a reminder that speaking the truth, however objectionable some people may find it, is always an act of charity. The billboard he defends may have saved lives, and growing support for the pro-life cause is proof that witnesses to truth are changing hearts and saving souls.

I’ve known for a long time that I should lose some weight. So, last week, I visited my doctor, and he showed me a gross, disgusting, dripping ball of yellow wax. “This,” he said to me, “is what ten pounds of fat looks like. This is what you’re carrying around in your body.” Was it upsetting? Unnerving? Sobering? You bet it was. It was also true, and it was effective, as it strengthened my resolve to get my weight under control.

Being confronted by the truth can often be unpleasant. That’s why those who fight so hard to eradicate world hunger will show us what hunger does, with a picture of a starving child, covered with flies and sores. Does it disturb us to face that truth, an image we’d rather not see or think about? It should, even as it spurs us to action.

It’s the same with smoking. I’m sure you’ve seen those television commercials that graphically portray the effects of smoking. It’s unpleasant to look at open heart surgery, or a pair of diseased lungs, or to see a person who has lost fingers, toes, or the esophagus, all due to smoking. The ads are nauseating, even hideous, to see. But the New York State Department of Health, among many others, sponsors these kinds of ads because they know that they can help to save lives.

Another ad has been generating some fierce reactions. Here in New York, a billboard was recently displayed, that simply stated “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.” This message was accompanied by a photograph of a young, African-American girl.

Is that message unpleasant? Is it upsetting? Does it get our attention?

Yes!

Because the message is somberly true. The City of New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently released its vital statistics from a year ago which showed that 59.8% of African-American pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion. That’s even higher than the chilling city-wide average of 41% of pregnancies ending in abortion. (I joined other community leaders from a diversity of religious and ethnic backgrounds at a press conference sponsored by the Chiaroscuro Foundation about this a few weeks ago.)

So why has the billboard suddenly been taken down? What was it that moved many of our elected officials to condemn this ad and call for the gag order. Are they claiming that free speech is a right enjoyed only by those who favor abortion or their pet causes? Do they believe that unpleasant and disturbing truths should not be spoken? Or are they afraid that when people are finally confronted with the reality of the horror of abortion, and with the toll that it is taking in our city, particularly in our African-American community, that they will be moved to defend innocent, unborn, human life?

Perhaps I’m more saddened by this intolerance right now because on Monday I will be celebrating the funeral mass for Doctor Bernard Nathanson, that giant of the pro-life movement, who died earlier this week. If you don’t know Dr. Nathanson’s story, you should. At one time, he fought hard to promote and expand abortion on demand in this state and in our country. He was one of the founders of the National Abortion Rights Action League. He ran what he called the “largest abortion clinic in the Western world,” and bragged about personally performing thousands of abortions. But, when Dr. Nathanson was confronted with the undeniable truth, when he could see the unborn baby in the womb through the use of ultrasound technology, he abandoned his support for abortion and became a crusader for the protection of the life of the baby in the womb.

His courage and bravery should be an inspiration to us, especially when we have to face unpleasant and sobering truths.

Why Barack Obama Has to be Seen as an Enemy of the Catholic Church

 We need to be alert: he is not without influence, even on this side of the pond

President Barack Obama waves when he came to the graduation ceremony at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 2009 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

Is Barack Obama the most anti-Catholic American president in living memory?

I don’t mean, of course, that he has openly attacked the Church (though it was noted that, at his inauguration as president, contrary to normal practice there was among the clergy invited to attend not one single Catholic, though he made a point of inviting the controversial — because openly and actively homosexual — Episcopalian (i.e. Anglican) bishop, Gene Robinson).

What I mean, though, is that across the whole spectrum of contemporary moral issues, he is passionately committed to a series of views which run directly contrary to those of the Church. All this has caused at least one Catholic bishop (there are probably others) to call him anti-Catholic.

Tea Party Summit: A 40-Year Plan to Take America Back

Nearly 2,400 delegates from across the U.S. attended the Tea Party Patriot American Policy Summit to hear ideas about restoring America’s greatness.

Supporters stand and cheer on Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul as he addresses supporters during the Tea Party Summit at the Phoenix Convention Center on Saturday Feb. 26, 2011, in Phoenix.

From OneNewsNow

By Ed Vitagliano

It will take a while to accomplish that goal, according to Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator and a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, the group hosting the summit. Martin was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

In an interview with One News Now, Martin said it took a generation to produce the “cultural shift” that has led us to this point, and it will “take a full generation to instill Constitutional principles again.”

Moscow Boys' Choir - 'Nunc Dimittis'

'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation'

Founded in 1957, the Moscow Boys' Choir is Russia's most prestigious all-boy choir. The Choir has  toured Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Poland, England, and United States. Formerly directed by Leonid Baklushin, the choir is now directed by Ms. Ninel Kamburg. 

From the Pastor - 'The Witness of Martyrs'

A weekly column by Father George Rutler

During the millennium celebrations of 2000, Pope John Paul II went to the Colosseum in Rome and remembered Christ’s martyrs: “In the century and the millennium just begun, may the memory of these brothers and sisters of ours remain always vivid. Indeed, may it grow still stronger! Let it be passed on from generation to generation, so that from it there may blossom a profound Christian renewal!” He cited the eight principal groups of modern martyrs: victims of Soviet totalitarianism, of communism in other countries, of Nazism, of Islamic ultra-fundamentalism, of violent religious nationalism in Asia, of tribal and anti-missionary hatred, of aggressive secularism, and of organized crime.

Chesterton said: “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” A recent example was Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuan of Vietnam, who died in 2002. He became Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon in 1975 and was imprisoned for 13 years, nine of those in solitary confinement. His serene witness seemed to have converted some of his guards. Those who are persecuted by those who hate the faith (“odium fidei”) have great power from Heaven to strengthen the Church on earth. In 2009, a seminarian named Joseph Nguyen, whose parents had immigrated to the United States and had personally known Cardinal Nguyên Van Thuan, contracted pneumonia complicated by swine flu. He lay in a coma for 32 days, after his heartbeat had dropped nearly beyond recovery and his brain activity ceased. His parents prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Nguyên Van Thu?n. The young man regained consciousness and said that while in the coma, he had two visions of the cardinal. He is now well and back in seminary.

Father Marek Rybinski

The courage of Christ’s witnesses is an embarrassment to those for whom Christ is not a holy mystery but just an enigma. This past week, the media cast a blind eye on the murder by jihadists of a 33-year-old Polish priest, Father Marek Rybinski, who ran a Salesian school in Tunisia. In Kabul, Afghanistan, after six years of torture and deprivation in prison, Said Musa was sentenced to public execution under sharia law for converting from Islam to Christianity. The father of six children, one disabled, had been working with the Red Cross since losing a leg to a landmine while serving in the Afghan army. Save for the Wall Street Journal, our newspapers have been uninterested in this. In 2006, the intervention of President Bush saved another convert, but there has been no similar executive appeal so far in the instance of Said Musa. Indeed, the post of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom still remains vacant in the present administration.

The courage of those who suffer far outweighs the weakness of those who do nothing, and it greatly strengthens the Church. "For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

A Reagan Forum with Senator Scott Brown

A Reagan Forum featuring Senator Scott Brown on February 25, 2011.

For more information on the ongoing works of President Reagan's Foundation, you may wish to visit: http://www.reaganfoundation.org.

Conversation with a Benedictine Monk

This is a fascinating interview with Brother Giles Conacher, OSB, Prior of Pluscarden Abbey in Moray, Scotland.  Pluscarden is a Benedictine monastery and the only medieval monastery in Britain still inhabited by monks that is used for its original purpose.

The conversation provides an insight into the life of a monk, the Benedictine charism,  monasticism, and Conacher's thoughts about early Christianity, technology, time, clocks and western thought.  The interview was conducted by Alan Macfarlane, who taught in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, and is now Emeritus Professor of Anthropological Science and a Life Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Homosexuals Sue Christian Bed & Breakfast Owner for Refusing 'Civil Union' Ceremony

From Illinois Family Institute

By Laurie Higgins

Attacks on religious liberty and freedom of conscience have started -- mere weeks after Governor Pat Quinn (D) signed the 'civil unions' bill into law -- just as we warned.

The Walder Family - attacked by radical homosexual activists

While many conservatives think wisdom and political pragmatism dictate a "truce" on the social issues, liberals, including homosexuals, see this time as ripe for an all-out frontal assault on virtually every issue pertaining to homosexual practice.

The most recent assault by those who view our side's cowardly truce as their golden opportunity is taking place in Illinois. Just one month after Governor Patrick Quinn signed the civil union bill into law, a homosexual couple has filed complaints with both the Illinois Attorney General and the Illinois Department of Human Rights for the refusal of two innkeepers to rent out their privately owned bed and breakfasts for a civil union ceremony and reception.

Message of Hope and Comfort from the Prime Minister of New Zealand

Hat Tip to Transalpine Redemptorists

The Right Honourable
John Key.
Prime Minister of New Zealand.

New Zealanders have woken to a tragedy unfolding in the great city of Christchurch.

The earthquake that struck the Canterbury region at ten to one yesterday has wreaked death and destruction on a dreadful scale.

There is no reason that can make sense of this event.

No words that can spare our pain.

We are witnessing the havoc caused by a violent and ruthless act of nature.

Many people have lost their lives. Families have lost their cherished loved ones. Mates have lost their mates.

These deaths are the greatest loss.

They remind us that buildings are just buildings, roads just roads, but our people are irreplaceable.

Today all New Zealanders grieve for you Christchurch.

To all those who woke up in Christchurch today feeling lucky to be alive, we know that you too are shocked, unnerved and grieving.

We know that your loss is sharpened by fear.

Our minds go to the mothers and fathers comforting children struck by anxiety and disbelief.

They go to the elderly, infirm and isolated who experienced this event alone and who remain blunted by shock.

And they go to each and every Cantabrian who has stoically endured six months of aftershocks, only to be hit by the biggest shock of all.

On behalf of New Zealand let me say to all of you: We feel your pain, as only a small nation can, for none of us feel removed from this event.

I am a proud son of Christchurch. I was raised there, I got my first job there, my sister lives there, my mother died there, I know what a wonderful place it is.

But my connection to Christchurch is no rare thing.

All New Zealanders have a piece of our heart in Christchurch.

All of our lives are touched by this event.

A friend or family member who lives there. A time spent studying there or a memorable experience had there.

We feel connected to your suffering. Your tragedy is our tragedy.

Today I want Christchurch to hear this message:

You will get through this.

This proud country is right behind you and we are backing you with all our might.

The world is with us.

Our Australian neighbours, our British and American friends, the great countries of this world, all are putting their shoulder to your wheel. They are sending their support, their expertise, their people to help us.

Christchurch, today is the day your great comeback begins.

Though your buildings are broken, your streets awash, and your hearts are aching, your great spirit will overcome.

While nature has taken much from you, it can not take your survivor’s spirit.

This devastating event marks the beginning of a long journey for your city.

It will be a journey that leads us from ruins and despair to hope and new opportunities. From great hardship will come great strength.

It will be a difficult journey, but progress is certain, things will get better, Christchurch will rise again.

On behalf of the Government, let me be clear that no one will be left to walk this journey alone.

New Zealand will walk this journey with you. We will be there every step of the way.

Christchurch; this is not your test, this is New Zealand’s test.

I promise we will meet this test.

Today and tomorrow our focus must be on preserving lives, on rescuing those who are trapped and treating those who are injured.

We pay tribute to the hundreds of search and rescue workers, emergency personnel, medical professionals and each and every person who is contributing to this effort.

You are heroes amongst us.

Already the bravery and resilience of Canterbury is on show.

In the weeks ahead our journey will take us to new obstacles, new challenges.

We have a city to rebuild. We have peoples’ livelihoods to restore. We have a community’s confidence to inspire.

We will rise to these challenges.

We will rebuild this city resolutely, and with the conviction that this is what it is to be a Cantabrian, what it is to be a New Zealander.

We are a country of pioneers. Whether we came by waka, sailboat, or aeroplane, we came with the conviction that we could build a new life in this country.

That great pioneering spirit will come to the fore in Christchurch over the coming months and years.

Though lost lives will never be replaced, and though your city will never look the same again, you will rebuild your city, you will rebuild your lives, you will overcome.

We have seen many cities in the world come back from disasters on this scale, and Christchurch will be no exception.

I know that all New Zealanders stand ready to help.

Right now, we can help by rallying around those who are grieving, supporting those whose livelihoods are in peril.

My message to all Kiwis who want to help is - act on that desire.

No act of kindness is too small.

Right now, you can help by offering support to friends and family who are hurting. Offer them a bed or a roof over their head if that is what they need. Make your donations to help those who have been hit hardest.

As infrastructure recovers, your visits to Christchurch will be welcome.

Above all, throughout this journey, offer those affected your love. Know that your humanity is more powerful than any act of nature.

As we look to the future, New Zealanders should know that the Government is going to do everything we can to support the recovery and rebuilding of Christchurch.

We are a resilient nation, and we will not bow down to this challenge.

Another Gross Example of the Repression of Christianity in Turkey

Why are we still seriously considering Turkish membership of the EU?

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

Pope Benedict XVI, accompanied by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his 2006 visit to Turkey (Picture: PA)

Yet more evidence has emerged that Turkey’s proposed membership of the EU should be definitively ruled out on the grounds of the incompatibility of the proposed partners. To put it simply, despite the increasingly secular nature of contemporary Europe and certainly of the EU itself, nothing will ever change the fact that the cultural roots of Europe are Christian: and however insistent the Turks are about the secularity of Turkey’s political institutions, even these are beginning to show the ineradicably Islamic and increasingly Islamist character of Turkey’s underlying culture. And as an unpleasant case now unfolding demonstrates, this is Islam of a clearly anti-Christian character.

Briefly, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recip Erdogan, has put his weight behind attempts to crush a small Christian community and to seize an important part of its assets. Though there are now only a few thousand Syro-Orthodox Christians left, they are still in occupation of one of the oldest monasteries anywhere in the world.

Manufacturing’s Dismal Decade

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Last year, Barack Obama committed his administration to doubling U.S. exports in half a decade.

The good news: He is on the way. U.S. exports of goods and services grew in 2010 by 16.6 percent.

Bad news: U.S. imports, starting from a higher base, surged by 19.7 percent.

Result: The U.S. trade deficit in 2010 worsened by 33 percent, rising from $375 billion to $498 billion, the largest percentage increase in a decade. If Obama keeps this up, he may prove as big a disaster for U.S. manufacturing as his predecessor, although these are big shoes to fill.

FBI: Bush’s Dallas Home Among Targets of Saudi Student Charged in Bombing Plot

Could that Left-wing hate rhetoric be responsible for this?

FBI agents say the Preston Hollow home of former President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush was among the potential bombing targets listed by a Saudi Arabian citizen arrested Wednesday on charges of attempting use a weapon of mass destruction.

From The Dallas Morning News
By Jason Trahan

A 20-year-old Saudi Arabian national arrested by the FBI in Lubbock for allegedly plotting to carry out terrorist attacks planned to target the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush, documents show.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a Saudi citizen, was arrested late Wednesday and is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Lubbock on Friday morning.

Special Agent Mark White, a spokesman for the Dallas FBI, whose jurisdiction includes Lubbock, said the terrorism investigation is ongoing, but “the federal complaint contains no allegations that he received direction from or was under the control of a foreign terrorist organization.”

Senator Wants to Mandate Background Checks for All Gun Sales

We would suggest that for every attempt by Senator Schumer and his ilk to undermine the Second Amendment, pro Second Amendment legislators should introduce legislation requiring background checks for every candidate who seeks a federal office.  Federal civil service employees are subject to such background checks, why should those making our laws be exempt?  There should also be stiff penalties for those withholding criminal and mental health records from the FBI ... and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Perhaps if we had background checks as exhaustive for the President of the United States as some propose for sportsmen, we wouldn't have a President who claims to have studied at Columbia University and yet was not seen by a single eyewitness, and whose birth and academic records are more closely guarded than national secrets and diplomatic cables.

From The Hill

By Mike Lillis

All gun sales – even private transactions – would require a background check under legislation unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Current law requires that only licensed firearms dealers perform background checks, but Schumer says those rules don't go far enough to keep guns from the hands of violent criminals, the mentally ill, drug abusers and other prohibited buyers.

"Lax reporting by states and federal agencies has allowed guns to get into the hands of dangerous individuals with consequences that have been tragic and deadly," Schumer said Wednesday in a statement.

Wisconsin Unions vs. Governor Walker is a Battle for the Soul of America

As even pro-union FDR understood, collective-bargaining rights for government workers is the ultimate conflict of interest. What is really at stake in the Wisconsin donnybrook is whether individual liberty or government power has the upper hand in our country.

From The Christian Science Monitor

By Mark Hendrickson

It is hard to overstate what is at stake in the dramatic showdown between Wisconsin’s teachers and their Republican governor and legislature. The political and economic course of our country hinges on how the issue of public sector unions is resolved, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

For the sake of our country’s political and economic future, Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues need to prevail in the current contest with the Wisconsin teachers’ union and their allies.

That isn’t easy for me to say. As an educator, I have great respect for all those (and they are many) in my chosen profession who capably and even brilliantly serve our nation’s youth. The fact is, though, that the status quo is untenable.

Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2011

"You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him." (cf. Col 2: 12) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Lenten period, which leads us to the celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with due diligence. As she awaits the definitive encounter with her Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent).

1. This very life was already bestowed upon us on the day of our Baptism, when we "become sharers in Christ’s death and Resurrection", and there began for us "the joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples" (Homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 10 January, 2010). In his Letters, St. Paul repeatedly insists on the singular communion with the Son of God that this washing brings about. The fact that, in most cases, Baptism is received in infancy highlights how it is a gift of God: no one earns eternal life through their own efforts. The mercy of God, which cancels sin and, at the same time, allows us to experience in our lives "the mind of Christ Jesus" (Phil 2: 5), is given to men and women freely.The Apostle to the Gentiles, in the Letter to the Philippians, expresses the meaning of the transformation that takes place through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, pointing to its goal: that "I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3: 10-11). Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the baptized to reach the adult stature of Christ.

A particular connection binds Baptism to Lent as the favorable time to experience this saving Grace. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council exhorted all of the Church’s Pastors to make greater use "of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 109). In fact, the Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism: this Sacrament realizes the great mystery in which man dies to sin, is made a sharer in the new life of the Risen Christ and receives the same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rm 8: 11). This free gift must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today, is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life. Truly, they live their Baptism as an act that shapes their entire existence.

Michigan GOP Majority Eyes ‘Right to Work’ Legislation

The battle for America is playing out dramatically in the nation's heartland.  This struggle between two classes of Americans -- hard working taxpayers described by Obama as "clinging to their guns and Bibles," and the Obamunists -- socialist, governmental elites who fancy themselves the ruling class, and believe they know what's best for the rest of us.  Using the Cloward-Piven Strategy and their handbook for revolution, Rules for Radicals, they are intent on bankrupting and destroying the old Republic so that they might impose a new Marxist order.

Wisconsin makes clear that Americans should get their children out of schools that exist for the benefit of leftist governmental unions.  They provide indoctrination; they most assuredly do not provide education.  Their own test scores testify in every state that they utterly fail to provide the education most parents want for their children.

We believe the outcome of the battle in Wisconsin and other states is crucial to the survival and success of liberty in America.  In this regard, we are not surprised that one of the greatest freedom fighters we have known, and a Sunlit Uplands Contributing Editor, Gary Glenn, is playing a leadership role on what may be a battlefield even more challenging than Wisconsin.

The Michigan Messenger reports:

"Gary Glenn, who runs the American Family Association of Michigan, scored his first legislative scores in Idaho pushing for Right to Work legislation there. Idaho approved Right to Work 25 years ago, and Glenn recently returned to celebrate that win. He says Right to Work is really about civil rights.

'State Right to Work laws are civil rights measures that protect employees against job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation by prohibiting collective bargaining agreements which require employees to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of continued employment, i.e., ‘pay up or you’re fired.’ The result is that each individual is free to choose for himself whether to join or financially support a union at his place of work, without fearing discrimination, retribution, or termination for whichever choice he makes,' Glenn said. 'Obviously, employees in Right to Work states are just as free to exercise their federally-guaranteed right to join or support a union if they wish as they are anywhere else.'

Many Michigan groups, like CALL and a coalition of Tea Party groups who are hosting a day long conference in Lansing later this year, are turning to Glenn for advice, guidance and support in driving Right to Work legislation to the forefront of Michigan’s agenda."

Buckingham Palace Announces US State Visit to Great Britain

The press secretary to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II has announced a State Visit to the United Kingdom that the Obama's will undertake May 24-26, 2011.

The community agitators currently occupying the White House could learn much from Queen Elizabeth about service, duty, and embodying a nation's noblest and highest ideals. Unfortunately, we have little hope that they will. Given the President's consistently boorish behavior toward Great Britain and its leaders, we wonder if he will be returning his desk given to the White House by Queen Victoria, or the Capitol building's Minton floor tiles also given by Great Britain.  Or will he present Her Majesty with another ipod loaded with The One's most memorable speeches?

We dread this ghetto trash representing the United States in any forum, much less to America's closest and most faithful ally. Our British readers should know that this couple in no way represents America, as the world will unmistakably see in November 2012.

The President of the United States, President Barack Obama, has accepted an invitation from The Queen to pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday 24th May to Thursday 26th May 2011.

The President will be accompanied by Mrs Obama and will stay at Buckingham Palace.

Background

Previous visits by American Presidents include:

President Eisenhower paid a visit to The Queen at Balmoral Castle in 1959:

President and Mrs Kennedy dined with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in June 1961;

President Nixon had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in February 1969 and again visited in 1970;

President Carter was received by The Queen in London in 1977;

President and Mrs Reagan made an official visit to the UK in June 1982, staying at Windsor Castle;

President and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh in June 1989;

President and Mrs Clinton visited The Queen in December 2000;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen on 19th July 2001 at Buckingham Palace;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush made a State Visit to the UK in November 2003;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush visited The Queen at Windsor Castle on 15th June, 2008;

President and Mrs Obama met The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace during the G20 meeting in London in April 2009.

Massive Earthquake Kills More Than 65 in Christchurch, New Zealand, Cathedral in Ruins

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, NZ has been destroyed .

It is reported that more than 65 people have been killed as a result of the massive earthquake that has struck Christchurch, New Zealand.  In addition, that city's historic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, considered the finest architecture in Australasia, has half collapsed along with its spire.

The following was recorded in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on the Solemnity of Christ the King in 1999. This was the entrance hymn and you can hear the thurible clinking. The Cathedral was noted for its liturgical music program.

On this Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, we are united in prayer with our brothers and sisters in New Zealand.  May Christ our King wipe away every tear and give you comfort and hope.

Barack Hussein Alinsky

By Patrick J. Buchanan

As a large and furious demonstration was under way outside and inside the Capitol in Madison last week, Barack Obama invited in a TV camera crew from Milwaukee and proceeded to fan the flames.

Dropping the mask of The Great Compromiser, Obama reverted to his role as South Chicago community organizer, charging Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature with an “assault on unions.”

As the late Saul Alinsky admonished in his “Rules for Radicals,” “the community organizer … must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression.”

After Obama goaded the demonstrators, the protests swelled. All 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to paralyze the upper chamber by denying it a quorum. Teachers went on strike, left kids in the classroom and came to Madison. Schools shut down.

Bernard Nathanson, Abortionist Who Became Pro-Life Activist, Dead at 84

From Catholic World News

Bernard Nathanson, who was one of the leading figures in the abortion industry before he converted to the pro-life cause and the Catholic faith, died on February 21 in New York at the age of 84.

Nathanson estimated that he performed 5,000 abortions personally, and as director of busy abortion clinics he supervised more than 70,000 abortions. He was co-founder of the group now known as NARAL, and helped craft the arguments in favor of abortion on demand. But Nathanson experienced a profound change of heart, and eventually embraced the pro-life cause.

In 1985 the former abortionist produced The Silent Scream, a highly influential film that showed ultrasound images of the unborn child in the womb. Later, in his book Aborting America, he revealed how he and other abortion advocates had distorted facts— notably by concocting false statistics on the number of deaths from illegal abortion—in order to gain public acceptance of the practice. In later years he expressed profound remorse for his participation both in the destruction of unborn children and in the propaganda campaign to promote the abortion industry. “I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age,” he confessed.

In a later book, his 1996 autobiography The Hand of God, Nathanson recounted the next step in his dramatic conversion: his entrance into the Catholic Church. He was baptized that year by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. His godmother was Joan Andrews Bell, who had once spent more than a year in prison—much of it in solitary confinement—for her involvement in non-violent efforts to blockade abortion clinics.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

Bernard Nathanson Dead at 84 (National Catholic Register)

Exhausted Food Nanny Flees to Vail, Gorges on Short Ribs

Rush Limbaugh skewers Moochelle, now enjoying another taxpayer-paid vacation.

Can you spot the Nutritionist-at-Large?

Left to right – Princess Letizia of Spain, French first lady Carla Bruni, and taking a break from her vegetable patch, Michelle Obama.

Huckabee Charges 'Class Warfare'

Mike Huckabee berated Obama for his involvement in the Wisconsin labor protests.  
AP Photo

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee berated President Obama on Friday for his "unfortunate involvement" in the Wisconsin labor protests.

In a Fox News interview, Huckabee said Obama is "trying to make this class warfare," out of a bill that would eliminate the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers in an effort to reduce the budget deficit.

"This is a president who would not be sitting in that office were it not for public sector unions who rallied for him in a significant way," Huckabee said. "He didn't have to go this far."

The former presidential contender told Fox News that Obama has been unduly influenced by public sector unions, and that he is now asking taxpayers to foot the bill for an overrun in pension and benefit costs.

"The president however, at risk of being indelicate, he's had more sleep-over's from Andy Stern at the SEIU than any other guest at the White House," Huckabee said.

"If the states go bankrupt, the people who want an extra 10 dollars will be losing thousands of dollars," he said.

'Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee' - Ludwig Van Beethoven

From the Pastor - 'True Joy'

A weekly column by Father George Rutler

The Danaids in Greek lore were fifty young sisters forced into marriage with the sons of Aegyptus, who was the brother of their father Danaus. On their wedding day all of them, save for Hypermnestra, killed their new husbands. The Danaids were slain by the goddess Artemis, the twin of Apollo, and cast into the underworld where forever they were forced to pour water into jars with holes in them.

This was a myth, and the behavior of the Danaid brides is the sort of behavior discouraged in our Pre-Cana programs. But there are many people who would have us spend our days pouring water into leaking vessels. Among them are the “motivational experts” who promise “fulfillment” through vacuous psychology. One after another they are replaced on the lecture circuit with others just as illusory. Nothing can be filled full unless it can be filled in the first place, and to be capable of being filled requires that we know what it means to “be.” That can only be understood by understanding God.

God is the source of all life. The “I AM” requires a total offering of the self in a bond of love. If the self is to become what it was made to be, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5). When Jesus announced that he is the I AM, he also promised authentic fulfillment: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

The inadequacy of many “motivational experts” is rooted in their limited understanding of joy. Only a total offering of the self to God can fulfill human potential and bestow true joy. Those who do accomplish that are saints. The kind of half-hearted “spirituality” which is based on feeling rather than fact, which uses empty words to fill a void in the soul, is a caricature of the true Christianity that saves us from the endless sorrow of trying to fill leaking vessels and never insults our dignity by proposing to make us “feel good about ourselves.”

Golda Meir said, “Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh, either.” The saints weep whole-heartedly for the sorrows of the world with the tears of Christ and, by so doing, they enter into his joy. The word for that fulfillment is “glory,” a word unknown to those who peddle easy prescriptions for ephemeral happiness. “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2: 7-8).

Fr. George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, is available from Crossroads Publishing.

 

Wisconsin Photo Says It All

Gary Glenn Interviewed on the Bott Radio Network

Gary Glenn

Gary Glenn, President of the American Family Association of Michigan and Contributing Editor of Sunlit Uplands, was recently interviewed on the Bott Radio Network by Dick Bott, its founder and Chairman and host of BRN’s public affairs talk show “The Complete Story.” The interview was heard on nearly 90 Christian radio stations in 15 states, from Tennessee to California and Indiana to Texas.

Click here to listen.

We think our readers will be especially interested in what Mr. Bott and Gary have to say about the "great pretender," Mitt Romney.  According to the AFA-Michigan website their discussion includes:

AFA-Michigan’s news release this week calling on Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative leaders to act to protect taxpayers from being forced to fund spousal-type benefits for the homosexual “partners” of state employees.  Glenn said the state should instead limit such benefits only to legally married employees as an incentive to encourage and promote marriage, an institution which social studies prove reduces poverty and the need for law enforcement, social welfare, and other government programs. Bottom line: incentivize and promote more marriages, get less government at less cost to taxpayers.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney’s responsibility for the actual implementation of so-called homosexual “marriage” in Massachusetts. As Associated Press reported April 25, 2004: “Gov. Mitt Romney’s top legal counsel told the state’s justices of the peace Sunday to resign if they are unwilling to preside over the marriage of same-sex couples beginning next month. …’If a justice of the peace cannot comply with his or her oath of office, then we would expect that person to tender their resignation from that office.’ …Romney has also ordered changes to the state’s marriage application, replacing ‘bride” and ‘groom’ with ‘Party A’ and ‘Party B.’”

African-Americans’ strong support for traditional marriage despite homosexual activists’ attempts to equate their political agenda with and thus exploit the black church-led Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - 'How Great Thou Art'

In loving memory of a special friend on her birthday.

House Republicans Taking America Back, Keeping Pledge to America

The House is under new management and they are off to a great start -- keeping their "pledge to America" in votes today to defund Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare.  

May they press on and let those 23 Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2012 defend their votes for bloated, out-of-control, unconstitutional, and nearly bankrupt government.  

And let Obama veto himself back to Chicago too!

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visits Pope at the Vatican

Analyst Notes New Era of Russia-Vatican Relations

By Jesús Colina

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI received in audience today Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, during which the two spoke of a mutual desire to strengthen bilateral relations and collaborate in the promotion of human and Christian values.

A Vatican press statement released after the meeting stated that the "cordial" discussions also addressed "the positive contribution interreligious dialogue can make to society," as well as "the international situation, with particular reference to the Middle East."

Medvedev, accompanied by the minister for foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, also met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states.

Robert Moynihan, the founder and editor of the monthly magazine "Inside the Vatican," told ZENIT that he considers the meeting to be a confirmation of a new era of collaboration between Russia and the Catholic Church.

"I find this meeting between the president of Russia and Benedict XVI a highly visible confirmation of a multi-year process of ever-improving relations between Russia and the Vatican," said Moynihan. "The two leaders are not talking about theological matters; they are talking about values, about how Russia and the Catholic Church can work together in the cultural and social field."

He continued: "I note that this meeting in Rome takes place just after a week-long visit of Russian orthodox metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, to the United States, where he met with Protestant evangelical as well as U.S. government and Catholic leaders in New York, Washington and Dallas.

"Hilarion delivered precisely this same message everywhere he went in the United States: that Russia is ready to collaborate with the West on cultural and social matters such as support for marriage and the traditional family."

Clear message

"I see Medvedev's visit to the Pope in this context," added Moynihan, who is considered to be an expert in Russia-Vatican relations. "The message seems clear: Russian leaders are taking the initiative to reach out to the West with proposals of cultural and social collaboration. It seems to be a plan.

"In any case, it is one of the most interesting phenomena on the global cultural and political scene, and the pope's meeting with Medvedev is a punctuation mark in this process."

Moynihan said the next step "is still not clear, but I suspect it will be concrete cultural and social initiatives in which western Christians and others of good will will create structures to work with the Russians on some of the great moral challenges of our time."

"And I think," he added, "uniting the financial and spiritual strength of a resurgent Russia seeking its identity with the strength of the Catholics and evangelicals of the West could have dramatic consequences for the impact and success of what we may call those 'traditional values' initiatives in the years ahead."

"The next steps to watch for will be the launching of concrete common efforts, and then a meeting between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill, perhaps in two years time," Moynihan concluded. "But there are many forces opposed to this developing alliance, so there are likely to be many potholes and obstacles on the road toward truly effective and culture-changing Russian-Vatican collaboration."

Put Simply: Religion Matters

From Real Clear Religion

By Tony Blair

(Note: The following was excerpted from Blair's keynote speech at Monterrey Tecnológico University in Mexico on Tuesday. The full text of the speech can be found here.) 

A new type of debate is taking shape. It can centre around immigration or protectionism but it is above all, about issues to do with culture and integration and it is altogether more vigorous and potentially more explosive. In the Middle East, it is about whether the West fundamentally respects or does not the religion of Islam; and the Israel-Palestine dispute is caught up with it. In Europe, it is about whether our attempt to integrate cultures has succeeded or failed; and insofar as there is a perception of failure, it is about whether our "generosity" in allowing inward migration and encouraging multi-culturalism has been abused. Here it is often felt that the "host" nations are being unfairly taken advantage of by those who want Western benefits but not Western values. The economic challenge is intensifying the cultural one.

In meeting this challenge, democracy and even economic change are not enough. There is a social challenge too. Do we want societies that are open to those who have different faiths and cultures to our own traditions; or do we want, in the face of insecurity and economic crisis, to close down, to look after what some would call "our own" first and foremost? And if we want open ones, what are the conditions for such openness to prevail?

Ronald Reagan Statue to be Unveiled in London's Grosvenor Square

A statue of Ronald Reagan is to be unveiled in London's Grosvenor Square, as part of a year of celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of the former US president.

From The Telegraph

By Harriet Alexander

The 10 foot bronze will be positioned on a pedestal close to the American Embassy, and stand alongside existing statues of two other 20th Century US leaders, Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin D Roosevelt. The Embassy is moving to a new location next year, but the statues will remain in Mayfair.

With the unveiling scheduled for July 4, US Independence Day, the Ronald Reagan Foundation has invited Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron to attend the ceremony.

Condoleezza Rice, the former US secretary of state who worked for the Pentagon during Mr Reagan's presidency, will represent Nancy Reagan, 89, who will be following proceedings from her Californian home.

"President Reagan always referred to the United States' special relationship with Great Britain, especially his personal friendship with Baroness Thatcher," said Rob Bauer, director of external affairs for the Ronald Reagan Foundation.
 

"The Reagan Foundation commissioned the statue to honour that partnership and to celebrate an enduring alliance."

Mr Reagan, who was US president between 1981 and 1989, died in 2004 at the age of 93.

The statue is to be created by Chas Fagan, the American sculptor who created a likeness of Mr Reagan for the Capitol Rotunda in the US Congress.

The Foundation, which is funding the work, hopes that the statue will have as much impact as the 2009 US version.

Mrs Reagan cried as the image was revealed. She said: "This statue is a wonderful likeness of Ronnie. He would be so proud." 

 

 

In Sharp Reversal, U.S. Agrees to Rebuke Israel in Security Council

From Foreign Policy

By Colum Lynch

The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.

But the Palestinians rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesday of Arab representatives and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution on Friday, according to officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospect that the Obama adminstration will cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.

AGENDA: Grinding America Down

The DVD with a chilling message

Ted Baehr, editor of Movieguide has called AGENDA: Grinding America Down "the most powerful expose of the communist, socialist, progressive attempt to take over America produced so far." It is the story of our illegitimate, Marxist president and his fellow travelers. It is the story of how America is being undermined through its educational system and popular culture. It is a chilling look at the reality of what has befallen our country.

The full video is available from WorldNetDaily, which in our opinion has done more than any  publication to expose the evil ones that now occupy  America's highest offices.  The following is a trailer:

What's Wrong with the West?

Is the West in decline because it has lost touch with its Christian roots?

The following is a chapter by Robert P. George and William L. Saunders from Exiting a Dead End Road: a GPS for Christians in Public Discourse, a new book published by Kairos Publications in Vienna, and edited by Gudrun and Martin Kugler. The book can be ordered here.  

The West has faced many challenges in the past, many turning points, from the Asiatic invasions of the Dark Ages to the dark ages of Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin. And it faces one now -- the eclipse of its historical Christian identity.

In the past, when armies of aggression threatened our society, those threats were met with nerve and with steel. We pray God that steel will never be necessary again, but certainly it will require nerves of steel -- steely determination -- to meet what may be the greatest threat Christianity has faced in its history.

The threat is this: at just the moment when many Christians have lost self-confidence, ideologically doctrinaire secularists have launched a determined attack on all public vestiges of Christianity. They have chosen their moment well, but their attack need not succeed. If Christians will regain the confidence that comes from their Creed, they can arrest the assault being waged in the cause of secularist ideology. Courage was required in the past; it is required again.

Christians are well-equipped for this battle. Christianity enables man to use twin tools in engaging the world and its problems -- reason and faith. Other than the specially revealed truths of faith, all truths are accessible to unaided reason, and, thus, to all people of good will. When Christian citizens contend over issues of importance in the public square, they should be confident that they bring not a narrow sectarianism but an understanding based upon principles of reason -- natural justice, natural law -- in the interest of the common good. 

 

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