Who Does Lindsey Graham Represent?

NumbersUSA Airs Radio and TV Ads Against Amnesty Proponent Lindsey Graham 

Call Lindsey Graham and ask him who he represents:  (864) 250-1417

Supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants has earned South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham the opposition of NumbersUSA , a border security group that began a statewide radio ad campaign against Senator Graham on Tuesday, saying television ads would follow today.

Graham, is a member of the Senate “gang of eight,” a bipartisan group pushing for a comprehensive immigration “reform” bill that includes a “path to citizenship” or amnesty for those who came to this country illegally.

According to NewsMax, although Graham is the first member of the “gang of eight” to be targeted, NumbersUSA says it plans to run negative ads about the other seven members of the group: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

NumbersUSA, which believes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants would only draw more illegal immigrants to the U.S., plans to spend $150,000 on its anti-Graham ad campaign, says NewsMax.

Read more at Richard Viguerie's Conservative HQ >>

God Doesn't Make Mistakes

A beautiful boy with Down Syndrome and the pure love of one of God's noblest creatures.

Bob Woodward Slams Obama for "A Kind of Madness"

You know there's a crisis in the Presidency when editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and now Bob Woodward begin speculating about "the madness" of the Kenyan they helped elevate to the nation's highest office.

It may be time for Section 4, of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, to serve its intended purpose.  Besides, how could the nation provide sufficient feedings and all those vacations for Moochelle once sequester kicks in?

Pope Benedict's Final General Audience

Pope Benedict XVI

On February 27, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in Saint Peter's Square. It was one of the largest of his pontificate—and, indeed, of any pontificate—as more than 200,000 people gathered to wish the Holy Father farewell, the day before his resignation took effect at 8 P.M. on February 28, 2013.

While Pope Benedict's remarks at this final general audience were not his final public words—he is expected to offer a few words on February 28, when he arrives at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he will remain in seclusion until the upcoming conclave chooses his successor—they are likely the final public address of any length to be offered by this remarkable man, whose entire life has been lived in service to Jesus Christ and the Church that He founded. From the first, Pope Benedict's Wednesday general audiences have featured meticulously prepared remarks on points of doctrine or the lives and writings of saints, especially the Fathers of the Church and the doctors of the Church; but his words at his final general audience, while reflecting Pope Benedict's profound intellect, came even more from the heart than from the head. His deep gratitude to those gathered to wish him well was apparent; but so was his gratitude to Christ for having called him to a lifetime of service in the "vineyard of the Lord."

The text that follows is the official translation by the Vatican Information Service of Pope Benedict's remarks at his final general audience. (I have added the headings, based on the text.)

"My Heart Expands and Embraces the Whole Church":

Like the Apostle Paul in the Biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart that I have to especially thank God who guides and builds up the Church, who plants His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His People. At this moment my heart expands and embraces the whole Church throughout the world and I thank God for the 'news' that, in these years of my Petrine ministry, I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love that truly circulates in the Body of the Church, making it to live in the love and the hope that opens us to and guides us towards the fullness of life, towards our heavenly homeland.

I feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).

"I Have Felt His Presence Every Day":

At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.

When, on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every day. It has been a stretch of the Church's path that has had moments of joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful, but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His love.

"God Loves Us, But Awaits Us to Also Love Him":

We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every morning, say: 'I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian...' Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us to also love Him!

"See How the Church Is Alive Today":

It is not only God who I wish to thank at this time. A pope is not alone in guiding Peter's barque, even if it is his primary responsibility. I have never felt alone in bearing the joy and the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed at my side so many people who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me. First of all, you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your advice, and your friendship have been precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my secretary of state who has accompanied me faithfully over the years; the Secretariat of State and the whole of the Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in their various areas, serve the Holy See. There are many faces that are never seen, remaining in obscurity, but precisely in their silence, in their daily dedication in a spirit of faith and humility, they were a sure and reliable support to me. A special thought goes to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot forget my Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, consecrated persons, and the entire People of God. In my pastoral visits, meetings, audiences, and trips I always felt great care and deep affection, but I have also loved each and every one of you, without exception, with that pastoral love that is the heart of every pastor, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I held each of you in prayer, with a father's heart.

I wish to send my greetings and my thanks to all: a pope's heart extends to the whole world. And I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes the great family of Nations present here. Here I am also thinking of all those who work for good communication and I thank them for their important service.

At this point I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all of the many people around the world who, in recent weeks, have sent me touching tokens of concern, friendship, and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone. I feel this again now in such a great way that it touches my heart. The Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel very close to him. It's true that I receive letters from the world's notables—from heads of states, from religious leaders, from representatives of the world of culture, etc. But I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their hearts and make me feel their affection, which is born of our being together with Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write to me the way one would write, for example, to a prince or a dignitary that they don't know. They write to me as brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with the sense of a very affectionate family tie. In this you can touch what the Church is—not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian ends, but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ who unites us all. Experiencing the Church in this way and being able to almost touch with our hands the strength of His truth and His love is a reason for joy at a time when many are speaking of its decline. See how the Church is alive today!

"For the Good of the Church":

In these last months I have felt that my strength had diminished and I asked God earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its seriousness and also its newness, but with a profound peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, agonized choices, always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not of oneself.

Allow me here to return once again to 19 April, 2005. The gravity of the decision lay precisely in the fact that, from that moment on, I was always and for always engaged by the Lord. Always—whoever assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and entirely to everyone, to the whole Church. His life, so to speak, is totally deprived of its private dimension. I experienced, and I am experiencing it precisely now, that one receives life precisely when they give it. Before I said that many people who love the Lord also love St. Peter's Successor and are fond of him; that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion; because he no longer belongs to himself but he belongs to all and all belong to him.

'Always' is also 'forever'--there is no return to private life. My decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I am not returning to private life, to a life of trips, meetings, receptions, conferences, etc. I am not abandoning the cross, but am remaining beside the Crucified Lord in a new way. I no longer bear the power of the office for the governance of the Church, but I remain in the service of prayer, within St. Peter's paddock, so to speak. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example to me in this. He has shown us the way for a life that, active or passive, belongs wholly to God's work.

"The Lord Is Near and Embraces Us With His Love":

I also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to accompany the Church's journey through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. May the Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.

We call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.

Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.

Lindsey Graham Celebrates Obama's Drone Kills

 “Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, (but I've got another election coming up!)"

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham  (Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

  

Lindsey Graham has announced that those killed by remote control drone attacks in America's undeclared wars numbers about 4700.  The Senator told the Easley, SC Rotary Club “Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, but we’re at war, and we’ve taken out some very senior members of Al-Qaeda.”  

Did anyone think to ask when Congress declared this war?

It is astonishing that a United States Senator would celebrate the remote control killing of anyone, particularly since he acknowledges that innocent civilians are included in Obama's kill-count.  But Senator Graham has a special need to macho-up every six years and pretend that he is a manly conservative.  He wants to distract us from those pesky recorded votes and loony-left statements about nationalizing the banks, fingerprinting law-abiding citizens, amnesty for illegal invaders, and his verbal assaults on the TEA Party and Glenn Beck, while "reaching across the aisle to play footsie with Chuck Schumer and the Senate's other liberal Dems.   

Sometime between now and November 2014 watch for Grahamnesty, with club in hand, to join in a baby seal hunt.

In another time, Grahamnesty's pre-election posturing and bombast might be seen as amusing.  Unfortunately, because of his support for two Marxists on the Supreme Court and an administration intent on destroying and subverting the United States, every day Lindsey Graham remains in the United States Senate is a tragedy and brings shame on all South Carolinians.

Heroic Nuns of the Holocaust

Many nuns risked life to save strangers from the Nazis

By Father Alexander Lucie-Smith

I have just been looking once more at an interesting book published by Oxford University Press back in 2008, which, I think, needs to be more widely known. It is entitled Hidden Children of the Holocaust, and its author is Suzanne Vromen, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Bard College.

Professor Vromen is herself the child of European Jews, which must have made the writing of the book a very special task for her. The book’s subtitle is “Belgian Nuns and their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis”. It is based on oral testimonies of survivors, both children and nuns, as well as those who acted as escorts and go-betweens. It is an important book, not least because several of the people interviewed in the course of research have since died; thus we have the sensation of reading a story that might easily have been lost to us. In addition, this account fills a gap in our knowledge. It is often asserted (not just by Catholics) that the Catholic Church did much to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe; Professor Vromen’s research tells us who did what and why they did it in one particular corner of the continent. In the arguments about the role of the Church at the time of the Holocaust this book provides us with hard evidence and answers, something which is sadly lacking in much of the discussion.

Read more at The Catholic Herald >>

Tu Es Petrus! Thank You, Holy Father

Here is a loving tribute to our Holy Father, prepared by one of the Church's most dynamic religious communities of women, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, with music by the magnificent choral group, Libera.  Like our Blessed Lord whom he has served and valiantly proclaimed to the world, "he has done all things well" (Mk 7:37). If we could find a more perfect tribute, we would post it.

From the Pastor: "A Very Good Father"

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

The meteorite that exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the force of thirty atomic bombs had the biggest impact since the one that exploded over Tunguska in 1908 with a force more powerful than all the bombs, including the atomic ones dropped in the Second World War. But such a force of nature, when observed passing safely by with breathtaking speed, can also be a sign of the beauty and brevity of all things. So it was in “The Year of Three Popes” when the death of Paul VI was followed by the death of John Paul I just four weeks after his election, and then the election of John Paul II. Cardinal Confaloniere said of John Paul I, in the exquisite Latin for which he was famous: “He passed as a meteor which unexpectedly lights up the heavens and then disappears, leaving us amazed and astonished.”

The impact of that pope's sudden death seemed at the time to be immeasurably hurtful, and yet he made the way for many providential events. Now the gracious abdication of Pope Benedict XVI also amazes and astonishes. When he assumed the papacy, he knew the work would not be easy: “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.” Without histrionics or self-pity, he quietly took up his burden in the succession of St. Peter to whom the Lord said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not; and that when you are converted, you will strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).

In many glorious ways, Benedict XVI has done just that. With unerring fidelity he has explained the sacred deposit of the Faith to its opponents, both cultured and uncultured, with patient eloquence and stunning insight. Many reforms in the Church’s structure and the purification of abuses were his intense initiatives. Rather like St. Francis of Assisi going to meet with the caliph of Egypt clad only in simplicity, Benedict XVI refused to wear a bullet-proof vest when he went to Turkey, turning the anger of many to respect. A new reverence and beauty in worship has been his gift to the Church through his renewal of the sacred rites, and the provision of an ordinariate for whole groups seeking full communion with the Church “amazed and astonished” many. Now, his renunciation of the Keys entrusted to him, teaches the essence of the papacy as a stewardship that transcends the charisms of any individual. Officially, a pope is Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God. But to the world, this Pope has also been a very good Father.

Obama's Soviet Style Plan to Destroy America Revealed

The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.  The decision to allow China to compete for U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to keep Beijing economically interested in lending to the U.S. The Obama administration has run $1-trillion-plus annual federal budget deficits since taking office that likely will continue in the second term.

Allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. energy production is a reversal of the Bush administration's policy. In 2005, the Bush administration blocked China on grounds of national security from an $18.4 billion deal to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.

As WND has reported, Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be set up as "development zones" to establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/obama-lets...

"The Second Amendment as an Expression of First Principles"

Edward J. Erler, Professor of Political Science at California State University, San Bernadino, addressed the Hillsdale College Kirby Center in Washington, D. C. on February 13, 2013.

Lenten Observance At Allegheny College

From The American Conservative

By Rod Dreher

Ford Memorial Chapel, Allegheny College

 Oh, Dreherbait, must you be so succulent, so raw ^[1]?:

Allegheny College’s Ford Memorial Chapel was transformed into a boudoir of sorts Wednesday night, as professional sex educators advised students in attendance how best to touch themselves and their partners to reach orgasm in what was billed as an educational seminar.

The chapel, built and dedicated in 1902, is where Catholic mass and non-denominational services are conducted every week at the private liberal arts college in northwestern Pennsylvania. But all that took a back pew to Wednesday’s festivities, dubbed “I Heart the Female Orgasm” and hosted by a variety of student groups on campus.

The two sex educators, Marshall Miller and Kate Weinberg, talked students through a variety of masturbation techniques during the event.

But the young scholars received Scriptural exegesis in the chapel during the Lenten event:

But Weinberg said she believes that because Biblical scholars debate the exact meanings of many portions of the Bible, it permits a wide variety of sexual activity.

“A lot of Bible scholars say that’s the primary anti-masturbation story, but I don’t really see it,” she continued. “Onan wasn’t struck dead for masturbating. He was struck down for not sleeping with his brother’s wife. So the masturbation wasn’t the sin. So obviously, you know, the Bible is something that is interpreted in a lot of different ways.”

Who were the pervs who staged this scene?:

The event was hosted by Allegheny’s student government and Allegheny College’s Reproductive Health Coalition, along with Young Feminists and Queers and Allies. It was funded by student activities fees.

The best part:

Chaplain Jane Ellen Nickel, who conducts non-denominational Christian services each Sunday and manages the office of Spiritual and Religious Life, said in an email to The College Fix that she saw nothing wrong with the event, and hoped students would feel comfortable attending a religious service there later.

“I don’t have a problem with it being held in the chapel. The program advocates responsible, respectful decision-making regarding sexual behavior, and includes the option waiting for marriage, a message that resonates with many students of faith. While the name may have some shock value, the event itself is consistent with our policy of opening the building to campus groups. We would love it if students at such an event experience the chapel as a welcoming space, and then feel encouraged to attend a religious service or program.”

Another campus administrator told The College Fix he had no problem with the event’s location.

“They have a great message about caring relationships,” said Dean of Students Joe DiChristina in an e-mail. “I appreciated their approach.”

Joe DiChristina and Jane Ellen Nickel may one day realize that their purpose in life is to serve as a negative example. You kind of expect college students to be horny nitwits. But you also expect grown-ups to be grown-ups. Not necessarily at Allegheny College ^[2], where “2,100 students with unusual combinations ^[3] of interests, skills, and talents” just added another set of unusual techniques to their skill set, thanks to their school, which costs $48,000 a year ^[4]to attend.

“Look, Mom, I can detect oppression narratives in 19th-century New England literature while bringing myself to orgasm atop a pogo stick!” the Allegheny liberal arts graduate can say, from the comfort of her parents’ basement.

I Will Thank God For Pope Benedict On Thursday Night

Pope Benedict XVI’s inspiring courage will be his lasting legacy
 

Pope Benedict XVI Photo: Press Association

From The Catholic Herald (UK)
By Father Alexander Lucie-Smith

Next week many parish churches will be holding special services of thanksgiving to mark the end of the reign of Benedict XVI. In the past the end of Pope’s reign was marked by Requiem Masses and a funeral in Rome; but not this time. Now, for the first time ever, we can thank the Lord for all he has given us in the Papal reign now drawing to a close, without having to mark the death of a Pope.

So, what has Benedict given us? It is still to early too talk about what politicians call “legacy”, and Benedict is a pastor not a politician, but there are several things that he has left us which perhaps have changed the Church permanently for the better, and which we can keep in mind when we recite the Te Deum at the end of the month.

Feast Of The Chair Of Saint Peter

Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to Your shepherd, the Pope, a spirit of courage and right judgement, a spirit of knowledge and love.

By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he, as successor to the apostle Peter and vicar of Christ, build Your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world. 

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Ordinariate Is A ‘Permanent Feature’ For The Church, Says Vatican Spokesman

From The Catholic Herald (UK)
By Madeleine Teahan

Fr Federico Lombardi Photo: Press Association

The Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham will remain “a permanent feature in the life of the Church,” Fr Federico Lombardi has said.

Fr Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office told the Catholic Herald: “As the Holy Father said during his visit to the UK in 2010, they will continue to ‘set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion’. The Personal Ordinariates are a permanent feature in the life of the Church and a sign of our lasting and unswerving commitment to that ultimate goal”.

Fr Lombardi said that the establishment of the ordinariate was a project, “particularly close to the heart of Pope Benedict XVI.” He said: “The ongoing development of these structures in the future will be a lasting legacy of his pontificate, but also a continuing contribution to the work of Christian unity and ecumenism.”

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established on January 15 2011 following the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus.

Pope Benedict issued the apostolic constitution in order to, “guarantee the unity of the episcopate” by providing a structure through which Anglicans could enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Fr James Bradley, Press Officer for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham said: “We have been greatly touched by the guidance and love of Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in the establishment and development of the Personal Ordinariates.

“In resigning as Pope, he has shown that the work and the office of the See of Peter is greater than one man. So, too, it follows that the actions of carried out in the name of that office are not simply policies akin to political strategy. We welcome Fr Lombardi’s words as a further testament to that.”

 

 

Who Killed the Middle Class?

By Patrick J. Buchanan 

“It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth — a rising, thriving middle class.” 
 
So said Barack Obama in his State of the Union.

And for one of his ideas to reignite that engine, Republicans applauded.

“And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union — because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

One wonders if any of those in the hall who rose robotically at the phrase “free and fair” were aware of the trade results just in from 2012.

What were the 2012 figures for the European Union?

Aled Jones - "How Great Thou Art"

In loving remembrance of a special friend on her birthday.

Could Cardinal Ravasi Be The Next Pope?

The erudite President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, would, under any circumstances, be on a short list  from which the College of Cardinals will select the next Pope.   But this week at the invitation of Pope Benedict, the Biblical scholar will be preaching the week-long Lenten spiritual exercises for the Holy Father and the Roman Curia.  Whether it was Pope Benedict's plan to highlight the scholarly churchman weeks before the conclave that will elect his successor, or the work of the Holy Spirit, we may never know.  But the Vatican's annual retreat will provide ample opportunity for some of the Church's most influential Cardinals to observe close-up the heart and mind of Cardinal Ravasi.  His spiritual reflections will also be disseminated world-wide, including here at Sunlit Uplands..

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter has written the following profile of this leading candidate for the Papacy.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi

A spotlight on 'the most interesting man in the church'

From The National Catholic Reporter

By John Allen

Rome - Openly campaigning for the papacy is not only taboo, it's usually fatal. Most cardinals are of the belief that if someone actually wants the job, they have no idea what it's about.

On the other hand, sometimes circumstances align to thrust someone into the spotlight, creating an opportunity to either boost or diminish his electoral prospects, even if that's not officially the purpose of what's going on.

Today one such papabile steps onto the stage in Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, a 70-year-old biblical scholar, essayist and intellectual omnivore.

From Sunday evening to Saturday morning, Ravasi will preach the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia, an annual retreat during which the Vatican more or less goes into lockdown while its personnel gather in the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

"My Song Is Love Unknown"

This sublime choral video is one of many created by our friend, Gregory Benton, author of the Piddingworth blog.

My song is love unknown,
My Saviour's love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then "Crucify!" is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease, and 'gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav'n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

Father Rutler: Life-Changing News

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

When a pope retires, I have to change the proposed topic of my column. Now I know how a pastor must have felt in 1415 when Pope Gregory XII resigned, and in 1294 when Celestine V did the same. While papal resignations cannot therefore be said to have become a habit, they do remind one that Holy Orders are indelible, but the papacy itself is not.

We also are reminded, as we need to be in an age of diminishing attention spans, that there have been 265 popes. I recently read of a Protestant lady who converted to Catholicism upon being shown that list. God gave the Keys of the Kingdom to Peter, knowing that the Galilean fisherman had a limited life span. Since there is no re-incarnation, there is a succession, and that will go on until the end of time. Even calling Rome the Eternal City is extravagant rhetoric, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). No one knows this more clearly than Pope Benedict XVI, whose intellectual brilliance and eloquent teaching have enabled him to explain this to the world in remarkable ways, but never more so than by his own example.

Pope John Paul II died in the days of Easter, having taught a confused world, as Christ said when He rose from the dead, “Do not be afraid.” Pope Benedict XVI is relinquishing the Keys in Lent, and another will hold them in Easter. This gives a special import to the Forty Days on which we have now embarked. Pope Benedict enters a new phase of his life, when he will be devoted to praying for all of God’s holy Church. All of us can more closely identify now with the first apostles, who were called by Christ to change their lives. The fishermen became fishers of men, and that is why we are here now, worshiping the same Lord that they learned to worship after many signs and revelations.

As Lent is a time of abstinence, it would be good to abstain from the vain speculations of the media and self-appointed “experts” inside the Church and out, who see these things with merely human eyes and may use a papal resignation as a suggestion that the papacy is just another human office like a presidency or prime ministership. We should also remember that the world has been around a lot longer than we have, and if an asteroid changed the whole ecology of terrestrial life some 66 million years ago when it struck Mexico, as scientists have now determined, the Good News of Christ really is recent news. What is required at this crucial moment in history is that we follow the example of the first apostles: “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11).

Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Name Canada’s First Religious Freedom Ambassador

We hope Canada's good Prime Minister and Her Canadian Majesty's new ambassador will begin their defense of religious freedom by applying pressure on the intolerant, Marxist regime south of their border.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will unveil the government’s long-awaited Office of Religious Freedom on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will unveil the government’s long-awaited Office of Religious Freedom and name Canada’s first religious freedom ambassador at a Toronto-area Ahmadiyya Muslim community centre on Tuesday. 

The announcement at Tahir Hall in the Toronto suburb of Vaughan will fulfil a two-year-old promise that has seen its fair share of controversy since it was first proposed during the 2011 federal election. 

 The government has pointed to a growing body of literature linking religious freedom with democratic rights and societal well-being to justify making the safeguarding of religious minorities abroad a key tenet of Canadian foreign policy.

Read more at National Post >>

Why Are We Still on the DMZ?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

North Korea has just pulled off an impressive dual feat — the successful test both of an intercontinental ballistic missile and an atom bomb in the 6-kiloton range.

Pyongyang’s ruler, 30-year-old Kim Jong Un, said the tests are aimed at the United States. So it would seem. One does not build an ICBM to hit Seoul, 30 miles away.

Experts believe North Korea is still far from having the capability to marry a nuclear warhead to a missile that could hit the West Coast. But this seems to be Kim’s goal.

Why is he obsessed with a nation half a world away? 
 

Furman University: A Beachhead for Truth-Seeking

Two North Carolina retirees foster the creation of a model program at Furman University.

Campus (Furman Mall fountains), Furman University

From The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
By Jane S. Shaw

What can be done about the ideological tilt at colleges and universities?  At times, it seems as though the Ivory Tower will be forever lost in a fog of political correctness and collectivist dogma.

Yet there have been some positive developments. A number of donors—individuals and organizations—are finding that they can make a difference in the fight to restore objective analysis and the search for truth. Through their efforts, small islands of intellectual rigor and appreciation of the foundations of Western civilization in our universities are popping up, even in bastions of rigid anti-Western thought.

President Kennedy's Secret Society Speech

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."

~ Thomas Jefferson

In this incredible audio recording of  President Kennedy addressing the American Newspaper Publishers Association,  he warns of secret societies that are the real power in global affairs.  Many believe his intent to expose and dismantle the secret workings of the Federal Reserve led to his murder.  Whatever the President's purpose behind these words, they stand as a striking rebuke to the secretive, manipulative and destructive, Marxist thug who currently occupies that once noble office.

Calvin Coolidge, Commander In Brief

By George F. Will

Before Ronald Reagan traveled the 16 blocks to the White House after his first inaugural address, the White House curator had, at the new president’s instruction, hung in the Cabinet room a portrait of Calvin Coolidge. The Great Communicator knew that “Silent Cal” could use words powerfully — 15 of them made him a national figure — because he was economical in their use, as in all things. 

Were Barack Obama, America’s most loquacious president (699 first-term teleprompter speeches), capable of learning from someone with whom he disagrees, he would profit from Amity Shlaes’s new biography of Coolidge, whom she calls “our great refrainer” with an “aptitude for brevity,” as when he said, “Inflation is repudiation.” She says that under his “minimalist” presidency, he “made a virtue of inaction.” As he said, “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” During the 67 months of his presidency, the national debt, the national government, the federal budget, unemployment (3.6 percent) and even consumer prices shrank. The GDP expanded 13.4 percent. 

Read more at The Washington Post >>

 

Al Jazeera Hires K Street to Lobby Congress

By Cliff Kincaid

Apparently on the defensive over its unorthodox entry into the U.S. media market, Al Jazeera has hired a high-powered lobbying firm on Capitol Hill to stave off an investigation of the curious transaction with former Democratic Vice President Al Gore. 

The firm, DLA Piper, represented Al Jazeera in the acquisition of Gore’s Current TV, has an office in Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, and is also active in the “Islamic financial services industry” in the Middle East. 

“Al Jazeera America is assembling a K Street team to advocate for its cable news channel,” reports The Hill. Current TV was purchased from Gore and other prominent Democrats, including Richard C. Blum, husband of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Gore reportedly got $100 million out of the $500 million deal.

Read more at NewsWithViews >>

 

Pope Benedict's Homily for Ash Wednesday 2013: "It is Never Too Late to Return to God"

Vatican Basilica
Wednesday, 13 February 2013

The English translation is by Vatican Radio

Venerable Brothers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin a new Lenten journey, a journey that extends over forty days and leads us towards the joy of Easter, to victory of Life over death. Following the ancient Roman tradition of Lenten stations, we are gathered for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The tradition says that the first statio took place in the Basilica of Saint Sabina on the Aventine Hill. Circumstances suggested we gather in St. Peter’s Basilica. Tonight there are many of us gathered around the tomb of the Apostle Peter, to also ask him to pray for the path of the Church going forward at this particular moment in time, to renew our faith in the Supreme Pastor, Christ the Lord. For me it is also a good opportunity to thank everyone, especially the faithful of the Diocese of Rome, as I prepare to conclude the Petrine ministry, and I ask you for a special remembrance in your prayer.

The readings that have just been proclaimed offer us ideas which, by the grace of God, we are called to transform into a concrete attitude and behaviour during Lent. First of all the Church proposes the powerful appeal which the prophet Joel addresses to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning” (2.12). Please note the phrase “with all your heart,” which means from the very core of our thoughts and feelings, from the roots of our decisions, choices and actions, with a gesture of total and radical freedom. But is this return to God possible? Yes, because there is a force that does not reside in our hearts, but that emanates from the heart of God and the power of His mercy. The prophet says: “return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment” (v. 13). It is possible to return to the Lord, it is a ‘grace’, because it is the work of God and the fruit of faith that we entrust to His mercy. But this return to God becomes a reality in our lives only when the grace of God penetrates and moves our innermost core, gifting us the power that “rends the heart”. Once again the prophet proclaims these words from God: “Rend your hearts and not your garments” (v. 13). Today, in fact, many are ready to “rend their garments” over scandals and injustices – which are of course caused by others – but few seem willing to act according to their own “heart”, their own conscience and their own intentions, by allowing the Lord transform, renew and convert them.

This “return to me with all your heart,” then, is a reminder that not only involves the individual but the entire community. Again we heard in the first reading: “Blow the horn in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly! Gather the people, sanctify the congregation; Assemble the elderly; gather the children, even infants nursing at the breast; Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her bridal tent (vv.15-16). The community dimension is an essential element in faith and Christian life. Christ came “to gather the children of God who are scattered into one” (Jn 11:52). The “we” of the Church is the community in which Jesus brings us together (cf. Jn 12:32), faith is necessarily ecclesial. And it is important to remember and to live this during Lent: each person must be aware that the penitential journey cannot be faced alone, but together with many brothers and sisters in the Church.

Finally, the prophet focuses on the prayers of priests, who, with tears in their eyes, turn to God, saying: ” Between the porch and the altar let the priests weep, let the ministers of the LORD weep and say: “Spare your people, Lord! Do not let your heritage become a disgrace, a byword among the nations! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”(V.17). This prayer leads us to reflect on the importance of witnessing to faith and Christian life, for each of us and our community, so that we can reveal the face of the Church and how this face is, at times, disfigured. I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the Church, of the divisions in the body of the Church. Living Lent in a more intense and evident ecclesial communion, overcoming individualism and rivalry is a humble and precious sign for those who have distanced themselves from the faith or who are indifferent.

Photo By Gregorio Borgia

“Well, now is the favourable time, this is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). The words of the Apostle Paul to the Christians of Corinth resonate for us with an urgency that does not permit absences or inertia. The term “now” is repeated and can not be missed, it is offered to us as a unique opportunity. And the Apostle’s gaze focuses on sharing with which Christ chose to characterize his life, taking on everything human to the point of taking on all of man’s sins. The words of St. Paul are very strong: “God made him sin for our sake.” Jesus, the innocent, the Holy One, “He who knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), bears the burden of sin sharing the outcome of death, and death of the Cross with humanity. The reconciliation we are offered came at a very high price, that of the Cross raised on Golgotha, on which the Son of God made man was hung. In this, in God’s immersion in human suffering and the abyss of evil, is the root of our justification. The “return to God with all your heart” in our Lenten journey passes through the Cross, in following Christ on the road to Calvary, to the total gift of self. It is a journey on which each and every day we learn to leave behind our selfishness and our being closed in on ourselves, to make room for God who opens and transforms our hearts. And as St. Paul reminds us, the proclamation of the Cross resonates within us thanks to the preaching of the Word, of which the Apostle himself is an ambassador. It is a call to us so that this Lenten journey be characterized by a more careful and assiduous listening to the Word of God, the light that illuminates our steps.

In the Gospel passage according of Matthew, to whom belongs to the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to three fundamental practices required by the Mosaic Law: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. These are also traditional indications on the Lenten journey to respond to the invitation to «return to God with all your heart.” But he points out that both the quality and the truth of our relationship with God is what qualifies the authenticity of every religious act. For this reason he denounces religious hypocrisy, a behaviour that seeks applause and approval. The true disciple does not serve himself or the “public”, but his Lord, in simplicity and generosity: “And your Father who sees everything in secret will reward you” (Mt 6,4.6.18). Our fitness will always be more effective the less we seek our own glory and the more we are aware that the reward of the righteous is God Himself, to be united to Him, here, on a journey of faith, and at the end of life, in the peace light of coming face to face with Him forever (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).

Dear brothers and sisters, we begin our Lenten journey with trust and joy. May the invitation to conversion , to “return to God with all our heart”, resonate strongly in us, accepting His grace that makes us new men and women, with the surprising news that is participating in the very life of Jesus. May none of us, therefore, be deaf to this appeal, also addressed in the austere rite, so simple and yet so beautiful, of the imposition of ashes, which we will shortly carry out. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and model of every true disciple of the Lord accompany us in this time. Amen!

A Godly Man in an Ungodly Age

 By Patrick J. Buchanan 

 

“To govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

With those brave, wise, simple words, Benedict XVI announced an end of his papacy. How stands the Church he has led for eight years? 

Pope Benedict's Abdication of the Petrine Office

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Like so many throughout the world, we felt shock and ineffable sadness on learning of our Holy Father's abdication today.

The quiet, scholarly Bavarian Pope has been a great and historic helmsman for the bark of Saint Peter.  With his restoration of the Extraordinary or Tridentine Mass, he has healed wounds that festered for decades and ended nearly a half century of turmoil and alienation that followed the Second Vatican Council; he has built trust and collaboration between the See of Peter and the churches of Constantinople and Moscow; he has healed divisions between Anglicanism and Catholicism and provided a bridge across which disaffected Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants could return to the historic Church and keep the beautiful patrimony of their traditions; he has ensured faithful translations of the Roman Missal and reverent liturgies, he has reminded Catholics of the "hermeneutic of continuity" and restored our beautiful traditions and devotions.  With superb ecclesiastical appointments, personal example, brilliant teaching and the invocation of a special Year of Faith, he has refocused a bureaucratic and self-focused Church into a dynamic, renewed and evangelical Catholicism that is reaching millions in Africa and Asia, while offering a radical, counter-cultural vision to the youth of historically Christian nations.  He has spawned a wealth of vocations among generous young people who know the emptiness and the despair of hedonism and secularism and want to live their lives, like that of their Pope, in radical service to Jesus, the Gospels and the salvific mission of the Church.  Perhaps the Holy Father's greatest gift is that of a teacher.  In countless letters, encyclicals, homilies, reflections and books, Pope Benedict has presented the Word of God, difficult theological issues and doctrine  in ways that are not only clear and relevant to modern men and women, but in ways that profoundly touch their hearts and compel action.

It was shocking to learn that for the first time in over 700 years a Pope will abdicate his position as Supreme Pontiff.  We believe that popes and monarchs are far more than chief administrative officers, important for what they do, but rather God-chosen leaders, spiritual leaders, important for what they are and represent.  Pope Benedict is Christ's Vicar on Earth and the successor of Saint Peter, the first Pope, but he has shouldered that awesome responsibility with humility, kindness and a profound love for the Church and all of its members.  

We wish he would stay and continue a dutiful and brilliant papacy for many, many more years;  but even in relinquishing the Petrine Office, this gentlemanly and holy Pope provides new insights about life lived radically in service to Christ and His Church.  He has acted with humility and as a loving shepherd not only for her more than a billion professed members, but to all mankind who, whether they recognize it or not, have been entrusted to his care and are the objects of his love, prayers and service.

We know that the Holy Spirit will provide the Church with the right Pope for the years ahead, but the 265th link connecting that papacy with all those before it, right back to Saint Peter, will always be remembered for his brilliance, holiness, glorious restoration and renewal.  Thank you, Holy Father, for your example, faithful teaching, for all that you did to restore and renew Christ's Church for a new and challenging era in salvation history.

May God richly bless you and honor you, in this life and the next, for being a good and holy shepherd.