Category Archives: Politics

‘Gay Pride’ vs Humility

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love

Some tweets for your consideration.

“Gay pride”…


Swalling your pride…

“Gay pride”…

False pride…

“Gay pride”…


No room for pride…

“Gay pride”…

Rejecting pride…

“Gay pride”…


Dangers of believing lies about pride…

“Gay pride”…

Letting go of pride…


The opposite of pride is humility, the “moral virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself. It is the virtue that restrains the unruly desire for personal greatness and leads people to an orderly love of themselves based on a true appreciation of their position with respect to God and their neighbors.”

He whose heart rejects humility does not know God and cannot truly love his neighbor because he is too busy loving himself.

 

 

 

 

There is a holy pride. Holy pride is the kind that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had. That is in knowing your value and dignity in GOD’S EYES, as He defines you, regardless of what government and popular society may say about you. Dr. King knew that what God says trumps what society may say.

Donahue: IRS Targeted Catholic League at Behest of Soros-Funded Catholics United

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catholics for obama

If you know anything about Catholic organizations that are engaged in speaking out on political issues, you will know that Catholic League and Catholics United do virtually the same activity, though with opposing opinions. In light of the news that the IRS has been actively targeting conservative groups, Bill Donahue of Catholic League has decided to go public with the news that the IRS targeted Catholic League at the behest of Catholics United.

Newsmax:

Just weeks after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, I was notified by the IRS that the Catholic League was under investigation for violating the IRS Code on political activities as it relates to 501(c)(3) organizations. What the IRS did not know was that I had proof who contacted them to launch the investigation: Catholics United, a George Soros-funded Catholic organization.

By the way, we now know that the White House knew early, in the words of the Washington Post, about this targeting.

You may remember George Soros as the billionaire backer of Barack Obama in his first presidential election. Should it be legal for a billionaire to back a political organization? Absolutely. It should be legal. People, especially Catholics, need to be aware, however, that Catholics United is an organization that is designed to spread confusion among Catholics about core Church teaching on essential matters like life, marriage, and how to address poverty. Organizations like Catholic League, on the other hand, are designed to educate people about what the Church actually teaches on these issues and to fight against false stereotypes and misinformation about the Catholic Church.

For the IRS to target Catholic League in the first place is wrong. For them to do so at the behest of Catholics United is high magnitude corruption.

Donahue writes:

So the problem extends beyond the IRS. It extends to left-wing activists, funded by left-wing tycoons, all for the purpose of silencing conservatives. It’s time someone was held accountable for this obscene political game.

Agreed.

The Catholic faithful will continue to defend the Church, no matter how ugly our opponents may get. My hope is that this ugliness will be remedied…soon. If not, we’ll still be Catholic.

Ten Rights Not Mentioned in the U.S. Constitution

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One of the very frustrating things about politics for me is that so many people, both on the Left and the Right, speak about rights as if the Constitution (or government, in general) is their source. God is the source of our rights, not any man-made government. In America, certain of these God-given rights are considered to be so basic that, in order to have an orderly society, government must defend them. This is why we have a Constitution, because laws and law enforcement preserve us from the horrific consequences of anarchy. In all other things but defense of basic rights, government is supposed to be silent. Because our rights come from God, and because people have diverse views about God, the force of government in defense of rights has to be limited to the basics in order that our civil government does not oppress those of different beliefs. Our rights, though, are many more in number than what we see in civil law.

Here, in no particular order and paraphrased from the Code of Canon Law, are ten rights that I have, in my understanding as a Catholic believer in God, that are not listed in the Constitution. I have others besides those I list here. The silence of government on these matters does not mean that the right does not exist. It is between me, God, and the Church. Having said that, if any civil law infringes on these and any other rights that I have in accordance with the Catholic Faith, then that law is an unjust law.

Ten Rights Not Mentioned in the U.S. Constitution

1. Right to spread the Gospel in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

2. Right to express my needs and desires, particularly spiritual ones, to the Church.

3. Right to express any concerns that I may have to priests and to my bishop about matters pertaining to the good of the Church.

4. Right to follow my own spiritual life provided that it is in keeping with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

5. Right to education that is in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

6. Right to a good reputation.

7. Right to be free from coercion in choosing a state of life.

8. Right to inquire about spiritual matters from those I am in obedience to, such as a spiritual director or confessor.

9. Right to worship God in accordance with the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.

10. Right to be subjected to discipline that is within the bounds of the norms of Church law. (No excessive discipline.)

Again, this list is not a complete list of my rights. None of these rights are specifically delineated in the federal United States Constitution and it is certainly not necessary for me, or any Catholic, that they be in the Constitution. What is necessary for me as a Catholic is that my government, no matter which country I am a citizen of, refrain from enacting laws that trample on my rights as a Catholic.

As it stands, the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of religion. That includes any expression of my Catholic Faith, no matter what it may be. Unfortunately, our government is doing more and more these days to trample on our rights as Catholics. The reason is that so many people today see government as if government is God and, as such, the author of all rights. They have no religion apart from government, which has become their religion. While I see God as the source of my rights, they see government as the source, whether as a conservative Republican who believes the only rights are listed in the Constitution, or as a liberal Democrat who believes that rights are determined by majority vote.

Until Americans decide once more to embrace the Founders’ view that our rights come from God alone, and that it is government’s role to defend, even with the proverbial sword, only the most basic of them, Catholics are going to have differences of opinion with people in both parties.

 

 

 

Obama’s Scandals Show the Dangers of Obamacare

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It seems someone may have slipped a red pill into the DC water system. Politico reports that DC is turning on President Obama in light of several scandals, including revelations that the IRS has targeted groups that disagree with the president on issues and that the Department of Justice seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters. It is becoming clearer even to people on the left who have rabidly defended the president that the idea of an all-powerful government that can target you, or anyone, may not be as great as they thought it would be. This morning at Politico, this larger picture is mentioned in terms of Obamacare, and rightly so.

“If you spend most of your time on politics, the tone that’s set throughout the federal agencies really is, politics is paramount,” continued Holtz-Eakin, who heads the nonprofit American Action Forum. “If you think about a generic argument about Obamacare — which happens to be true — is that it’s going to run an enormous amount of American insurance and health care decisions through D.C., that no longer sounds benign.”

(In a Monday MSNBC appearance, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made the argument like so: “Why would you trust the bureaucracy with your health if you can’t trust the bureaucracy with your politics?”)

Sadly, the article ends with the argument that the fear of government will blow over just as other scandals (like Solyndra and the Ground Zero mosque) have blown over.

The surer bet, said Matt Bennett, vice president of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, is that the party will have even more ground to make up when it comes to persuading Americans to believe that government can be a positive good.

“My view is that when Obama said, we’re going to have the most open and transparent and ethical government in history, he absolutely meant every word of that and means it today. But the government is a gargantuan, sprawling enterprise that does stupid things every day and some of that comes to light. Because all big enterprises do stupid things,” Bennett said.

They still prefer government control to freedom. They are still okay with the idea of people suffering greatly (as long as they are a minority) to bring about a “greater good.” This is one of the main errors of the ideology of the radical left, that somehow the end justifies the means. In order to make an omelet, you have to crack some eggs. The problem is that elites run all of this, and they protect each other. It is the guy with the minority opinion, who objects to this control by elites, whose eggs are cracked, ultimately. That is why it took the story about the Associated Press and the Department of Justice to make so many in Washington rethink President Obama. “How dare he do that” to the press who defends him at every turn. How dare he use his power to attack fellow elites.

They still don’t get it. God help us.

Rick Santorum Is Such a Passionist

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Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum. Photo: Associated Press

My friend Rick Santorum sends along a link to his latest column.

Read it at this link: Heaven Welcomes Sweet ‘Saint Brendan’

Personally and spiritually speaking, Rick Santorum is quite the Passionist. What I mean is, he has a keen awareness that our sufferings have value to God and that we all have a share in the Cross of Jesus, with each other and for each other, out of love for each other and for the purpose of giving thanks and praise to God, Who is the source of all of our blessings. This is crystal clear in his article about Brendan Kelly.

When he writes things like this, I wonder what people who are not Catholic will think about it. Barack Obama speaks of God and faith frequently, but he is not criticized for it as Rick Santorum is. When a Democrat speaks about God and faith, it is either yawned at or considered a good thing. When Republicans like Rick Santorum do it, there is undeniable panic. (The same holds with Governor Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Tony Perkins, and other politicos who are people of faith.) People accuse Republicans of “theocracy.” There is a word for people who claim Republicans want “theocracy” when they speak as openly about God as Democrats do and when the same criticisms are not directed at Democrats. That word is “hypocrisy.”

So, what is it, exactly, that makes Brendan Kelly saintly? It is primarily that he is an innocent who made the choice to offer up his sufferings for others, in an act of love. Would that we would all do that, in our sufferings. America would surely be a better place in which to live if we would put the needs of others before ourselves, especially when doing so may cause us some discomfort.

What do I mean by “suffering offered for others?” It can be any kind of suffering, actually. I’m reminded of a video tweeted recently by Patricia Heaton.

 

While he was imprisoned in Rome, St. Paul wrote to the Church at Colossæ:

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.– Colossians 1:24

Rick says that he believes Brendan Kelly is a saint, and the basis he offers is sound, at least for us Catholics. My greatest sorrow is that so few people, even many Catholics who were poorly catechized, realize that our sufferings may have graces attached to them if we offer them up in union with the sufferings of Christ. The Santorums understand this, and I am grateful that they do. That they do shows their genuine compassion for those who suffer, because they see that each of us has this role in God’s plan of love. In this, their Catholic Faith is truly authentic.

How might all of this translate to policy if Rick Santorum were to become president? It doesn’t really have a translation to policy except in the context of freedom. You read that right. Freedom. There is a very good passage on suffering in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that speaks of the inherent “mystery of lawlessness” and the “mystery of religion.”

God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? “I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution”, said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For “the mystery of lawlessness” is clarified only in the light of the “mystery of our religion”. The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.

It is only in the “mystery of religion” that the “mystery of lawlessness” is “clarified.” A moral society does not need as many laws as an immoral society does. Further, we are not going to have a moral society as long as we keep propping up people who insist that it is the role of government to “end suffering” for us. While it is true that there is a collective responsibility to bring healing in society, the more religion is removed from that role, the more lawlessness there will be, because, as the catechism rightly says, it is through religion that we understand lawlessness with full clarity.

Where morality is unwelcome or illegal, immorality will automatically rule. Where immorality rules, lawlessness (in God’s eyes) becomes the law of civil government. That is how we end up with unjust laws. On the other hand, the more freedom people have to do what they believe to be God’s will, and of course, the more committed they are to doing God’s will, the less need there is for government. This is why it is important for our leaders to speak openly about faith in God. It is God who will bring healing to America, through His love and through our love for each other, not government. Certainly, there must be laws to protect the innocent from the corrupt, but those laws must be just laws. Otherwise, the innocent become criminals.

Rick Santorum gets this, I know, because he speaks so frequently about the importance of our mediate institutions in society (non-profits of all kinds) in ministering to people in need. It is the “mystery of religion” that relies firmly on freedom of conscience which brings light to society. The “mystery of religion” is the “clarity” that shines light on the “mystery of lawlessness.”

Just as Brendan Kelly’s free choice, as a matter of conscience, to offer his sufferings for Bella and others was truly redemptive, so will our efforts on behalf of each other in a free society be redemptive for our country. It is not “theocracy” to simply allow people to do what they believe to be God’s will. It is tyranny, though, for the civil law to prevent people from doing what they believe to be God’s will.

I hope some of this makes sense. If you don’t understand, feel free to ask for elaboration in the comments.

Thank you, Rick, for understanding the Passion…and for everything that you and your family do to make it known. If any Santorums are reading this, I hope you approve of what I wrote here. I never seem to get this right enough to suit myself.

Happy Birthday, Bella!

St. Brendan, ora pro nobis!

St. Gemma Galgani, ora pro nobis!