Prediction: (in McLaughlin Group fashion)



The Media is About to Launch a Renewed Attack on the Catholic Church



The recent Episcopalian decision to openly consecrate an openly homosexual bishop will unleash a renewed attack on the Roman Catholic Church.



Why?



Because it will afford many newspapers an opportunity to "out" certian high ranking Catholic bishops who have long been rumoured to be active homosexuals. Several papers were close to doing this last year but didn't want to appear to be anti-homosexual by exposing these prelates at the same time as the sexual abuse of the minors was the main issue. It would have made the papers seem to be unsympathetic to homsexuality linking it with the deviant behavior of pedophilia.



Now they have their opportunity and I fully expect them to act on it.



This (if in fact it happens and I fully expect that it will), lends great credibility to the critiques of Father Benedict Groeschel's claim that the media circus that surrounded the sad revelations of clergy abuse last year were more idealogically driven and not as they were portrayed at the time a true search for the truth. Father Groeschel's critique can be read in his bestselling book From Scandal to Hope that I have linked to at the end of this post.



When these stories hit, make no mistake, they are being released with an agenda that is essentially anti-Catholic.



Of course it goes without saying that if the Church did a better job of policing itself there would be little to for the media to report. That is another issue and one that we should pray that the Holy Spirit will use whatever crisis arises to remedy and rectify.



But the truth is not the issue where the media is concerned, especially in this case for if it were these stories would have been released some time ago and not as I predict in the next few weeks.

Want to Own a Home? Move to Fort Wayne, IN



From of all places The New York Times:



Not a single house in Fort Wayne — a small, manufacturing-heavy city halfway between Chicago and Detroit, with a jobless rate below the nation's — has sold this year for more than $800,000, according to real estate industry data. That is roughly the average price of a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.



"The real housing boom is fairly concentrated," said Mark M. Zandi, the chief economist of Economy .com, a research firm. "And at the moment, it is clearly keeping the economy afloat in those areas."



There is no such cushion throughout much of the nation's interior. Some economists argue that the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate cuts might have been more effective at ending the economic slowdown if the gains in house prices — and the potential they create for consumer spending — had been more broadly shared.



Last year, Tom and Judy Auer sold the four-bedroom Fort Wayne house where they raised their three children for $107,900, or slightly less than the $34,000 they bought it for in 1974, after adjusting for inflation. Without a bonanza from the sale, the couple now live in a smaller house in Fort Wayne, relying on the pension from Mr. Auer's job as a hardware salesman at Sears, Roebuck and Social Security, which they began drawing early.



Marva and Bill Herx, on the other hand, left Fort Wayne in 1998 to move to the Philadelphia suburbs for his job. When they returned last year, they had made enough profit selling their Pennsylvania house — for about 40 percent more than the purchase price — that they were able to move into a house in Fort Wayne noticeably bigger than the one they had left.



"The home costs in Fort Wayne have stayed pretty much the same," said Ms. Herx, who is in her 50's. "In Philadelphia, we made a good profit in just four years."

It is good that we are here!



When Pope John Paul prophetically added the Mysteries of Light to the meditations of the rosary last October, he remarked that the Transfiguration was the preminent "mystery of light" in that it exemplified the others in a remarkable way. I have meditated on the mysteries of light myself, now for about eight months. Over the course of these meditations it has become more apparent that one of the essential elements of the spirituality of these mysteries is the statement of St. Peter on the mount at the transfiguration, "It is good that we are here, Rabbi!"



The title Peter uses "Rabbi" or teacher is also illustrative of what the Christian life is all about as it is lived. Jesus teaches us by his passion, death and resurection to view the daily events of life in a way that is only possible if we have faith in Him. Suddenly every element of our lives becomes a potential ephiphany, likely encounter. Truly, "light has shone in the darkness."



The Liturgy of the Hours for today presents a reading from St. Paul in the Office of Readings. I found it an intersting choice until I arrived at this part of the passage:



We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practise cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.



For those who live in the world and have not come to truly believe (place all of their trust in) in Jesus Christ (this would include many of us) there is a blindness that keeps us from seeing the light. The mysteries of light point out our need to truly be baptized ("I must decrease, he must increase"); to give the water of our humanity to the Lord that he might turn it into the wine of His Divinity; to seek first the Kingdom of God in all of our actions; to come to know the ways of the Lord in the Scriptures (exemplified by Moses, Elijah and Jesus transfigured in the world) and to be fed by His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.



Experiencing the Kingdom of God here on earth is something that the Eucharist makes possible. Our participation in the Eucharist takes us from our sinfulness, to God's revelation, to our acceptance of God's Kingship, to a seat at the Banquet and a meal fit for a King and then a mission to "go" back into the world and to experience it transfigured in the light of God's kingdom. Mother Teresa stands as the greatest example we have of what it would be like to be such a believer. Literally to see Christ everywhere!



Today's feast is an invitation to change, to repent, to have our eyes opened by the Master. At every moment of today say with St. Peter, "It is good that we are here, Rabbi" in your light we see everything anew, where before all we did was curse the darkness.

Fr. John Harvey Explains Church's Position on Homosexuality



The context of his talk and interview was the firing of the music director of this parish who was openly gay and refused to take a public vow of chastity.



I wonder how many parishes this has been done in?





From the Rockford Register Star:



REGISTER STAR: What do you think of Bill Stein, Holy Family’s former music director who is gay and was fired in June for his refusal to take a vow of chastity?



ANSWER: In my opinion, he is a Catholic and he knew the rules. We are supposed to live our lives in accordance with the Catholic faith and he has violated that rule in a serious way by being involved in a same-sex union and by wanting to adopt a child as well. We, the Catholic Church, do not support that idea of same-sex couples raising children for good reason, and that is the right of the child. We contend that a child should have a mother and a father. Being raised by two people of the same sex can lead to a child suffering deprivation with regard to relationships to persons of the opposite sex.



Q: What do you think of the decision facing the Episcopalian Church regarding what could be that denomination’s first homosexual bishop?



A: The Catholic Church will oppose ordaining an openly gay man to the episcopacy because a bishop should pattern his life upon the example of the 12 Apostles and Christ in which a homosexual act is seen as seriously immoral under all circumstances. He could be a very nice person, but his style of life is contrary to the Gospel. I’ve spent 50 years of my life working with homosexual people, and they all suffer a deprivation in not being attracted to the opposite sex. I have nothing against homosexuals, but I oppose homosexual activity.



Q: Summarize why the Catholic Church believes homosexuality is wrong.



A: The church holds that a homosexual act by its very nature is wrong because it doesn’t fulfill the purpose of a human sexual act. Normally, the union of marriage is a permanent commitment of a man to a woman with the hope of producing children. In some marriages, a child doesn’t come. If nature itself doesn’t produce children, that’s different. There are two purposes for a human sexual act: the union of a man and a woman and the procreation of children.



Q: What is the philosophy and purpose of COURAGE, your support ministry for homosexual-oriented Catholics?



A: Our philosophy is that men and women with same-sex attraction can desire to have a chaste life in accordance with the Roman Catholic teaching. Our purpose is then to teach these people how to practice chastity. That’s not easy, so we formed a support group for them back in 1980. We have five purposes: to live in accordance with Roman Catholic teachings; to develop interior prayer and learn to pray with the heart; to come together regularly to discuss our life and experiences so that none of us will have to practice the pain of homosexuality alone because you need to talk about it; fourth, it is necessary to form good friendships in order to be chaste; and to give a good example to others.



Q: Is it more difficult for a homosexual to live a chaste life than a heterosexual?



A: It’s much more difficult for a homosexual. A heterosexual can live a life of prayer and meet someone and enter into a life of conjugal chastity, but a homosexual can only live a life of chastity through prayer and the help of Christ.

Sneak Preview of Mel Gibson's The Passion



Harvest Online | Special

Amy's New Blog



New look, new name:



open book

New Book by Martin Farkus!



Congratulations!