The Pill and Women's Health

Q - I have asked numerous health professionals, several of which were Catholic, and the general opinion seems to be that birth control pills, when taken not for contraceptive use, can help alleviate debilitating symptoms of PMS, and have no proven risks of cancer or other major diseases. On the other hand, many of my Catholic friends and internet sources say that birth control pills are not safe for anyone, and there are other options. When researching women's health issues like endometriosis, doctors across the board prescribe birth control. Who should I trust for the true facts?

A - Thanks for the question. Pope Paul VI stated in Humane Vitae:

“On the other hand, the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever." (HV 15).

When the purpose is medicinal and not for contraceptive reasons, it can be permissable - in some situations - to use the pill as medicine.

Most doctors know the easiest route to treat a problem and that usually involves some kind of prescription. There are other treatments, but they can be more expensive and you might have to search hard to find them. I highly recommend you call the Pope Paul VI Institute or see a pro-life Ob/Gyn to discuss these issues. I can recommend one to you here in College Station. They might be able to recommend a course of treatment that won't have as many side effects as putting you on the pill.

I am guessing that you are a college student and if that is the case, then I am guessing you are not sexually active - therefore there is nothing wrong (presently) with taking a birth control pill to treat a health issue, but there are other options.

If you are married, then I recommend you seek out alternatives to the pill and only use it as a last option, if necessary. Remember that there isn't always just one way to treat a health issue and different doctors might have different treatments they would recommend. One of the things you would want to avoid is the fact that birth control pills can cause chemical abortions, so other options (many times much better options) that a pro-life doctor can help you with would be what I would highly recommend.

I hope this helps.

Behind Hollywood Shows are Advocates of Radical Agendas

After reading my post "Is GLEE Promoting Planned Parenthood's Sexual Education?" I got an email from a reader who sent me a link to an organization that I had not heard of before, but now believe should be known by others. The group is called EntertainmentResource.org - their stated mission is the following:

The Entertainment Resource Professionals Association (ERPA) is a coalition of independent organizations and individuals who work to inspire cause-specific story ideas within entertainment media, and to provide accurate and unbiased public health information to members of television, film and video game industries. ERPA's primary purpose is to serve as a support system and resource for its participants working in this new and growing field, which we call Entertainment Outreach. ERPA members gather monthly in the Los Angeles area to ensure regular networking opportunities. The organization also hosts a listserv for ongoing information sharing.

This group is co-sponsored by The Media Project (a project of Advocates for Youth), and the UCLA School of Public Health. Sounds simple and harmless right?

Not exactly.

The Media Project is a group that advocates for adolescent education of abortion, contraception, sex homosexual identity, etc. Their mission is:

The Media Project, a program of Advocates for Youth, offers entertainment professionals the latest facts, research assistance, script consultation, and story ideas on today's sexual and reproductive health issues, including condoms, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, abstinence, and abortion.

So, they consult with Hollywood writers, producers, directors, actors, and other professionals to bring their agenda to the table. Are they successful in getting their viewpoints across? They sure are and tout their successes on their website.

The industry respects them and uses them as consultants. They are an outreach service of Advocates for Youth. This group has the same agenda, but with many other goals, including sex education curricula in schools, lobbying elected official, research that supports their goals, etc. They are run by a former executive at NARAL - a national pro-abortion group.

So, now the connection all comes together. The list of people involved includes "educators, researchers, public health officials, public relations professionals, writers, journalists, publicists, advertisers and media professionals, among others."

Here are some of the "facts" that are on the AFY website:

• Abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula teach that sexual expression outside of marriage will have harmful social, psychological and physical consequences, thereby stigmatizing and shaming students who have already had sex;.
• Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs discriminate against GLBTQ students who can’t legally marry by expressing relationships in strict heterosexual standards.
• Advocates for Youth believes that it is time to get over the “condom phobia” promoted during the last eight (8) years. Young people need all the facts about condoms and not just the negative spin from social conservatives.
• Advocates for Youth believes that birth control is basic health care and that confidential access to birth control benefits. Every person has the right to decide when they want to have children and how many.
• Advocates for Youth supports removing the arbitrary age restriction for emergency contraception over-the-counter for all women of reproductive age. No young woman should have to face an unwanted pregnancy when a remedy exists to prevent pregnancy.

This is all harmful for our children and society. We need to stand up and oppose these kind of programs and the public funding of such programs that run contrary to the health and well-being of our society.

We also need to support groups that are trying to change the culture of the entertainment industry, such as:

• Act One
• Origin Entertainment
• John Paul The Great Catholic University - Communications Media Department
• Family Theater Productions

We also need to pray for those who work in the entertainment industry and love them enough to try an influence them to change their ways if they are advocating things that are unhealthy for themselves or others.

Marriage - What is the Big Deal?

Marriage is under a barrage of attacks in our culture. Issues such as no-fault divorce, cohabitation, same-sex marriage, and the contraceptive mentality (which separates sex and babies and makes it about pleasure alone) have brought us to the point where marriage is an institution that has been relegated to the trash heap of history. This is unfortunate, because the issue couldn't be a bigger one - without strong marriages our culture WILL collapse. It isn't a matter of IF but WHEN. If you study history you will not find a culture where marriages were denigrated as much as they are presently and yet the culture survived.

So, what to do? We need to turn the trends around and fast. This is why our next Distinguished Speaker in St. Mary's Distinguished Speaker series, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Dr. Morse will speak on "Natural Marriage: Lifelong, Exclusive Union - Woman and Man" This presentation will take place April 8 at 7:00 pm in the church, at St. Mary’s Catholic Center. The presentation is free and open to all. (FACEBOOK INVITE HERE)

Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the founder and President of The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage, to promote life-long married love to college students by creating an intellectual and social climate favorable to marriage.

She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.

She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001), recently reissued in paperback, as Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.

Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1980 and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago during 1979-80. She taught economics at Yale University and George Mason University for 15 years. She was John M. Olin visiting scholar at the Cornell Law School in fall 1993. She is a regular contributor to the National Review Online, National Catholic Register, Town Hall, MercatorNet and To the Source.

Here are two articles from Dr. Morse that lay out the argument about why traditional marriage advocacy is necessary and urgent.

• How Cohabitation Is a Sin Against Social Justice
• Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ and the Persecution of Civil Society

A snip from the first one:

When I give campus talks on the risks of cohabitation, I can always count on some smarty to challenge me saying that the risks are not really so great to people like himself. What he usually means (and it is almost always a “he”) is that the statistics are skewed by a large number of poor, uneducated cohabiting couples who are at higher risk for all sorts of problems anyway. Unspoken, but implied, is that he is cohabiting himself and plans not to change based on anything I say.

So, he might argue, this particular boyfriend was just a loser, while the cohabiting men of his own social circle are not. Women of higher income and education will not face such serious problems as this woman living in a hotel room with a creep. But studies that control for education and income still find that cohabitation is risky.

We have created a culture that says sex, marriage and childbearing have no necessary relationship to each other. This culture, like any culture, is made up of the decisions of all of us: the things we choose to do and not do, the justifications we offer for our actions, the things we celebrate and the things we condemn. We have an indirect impact on the culture and therefore on the people around us. Every problem of the poor is exacerbated by the failure of marriage. The “alternatives to marriage” are destroying the culture of the poor.

So I present this challenge to my young friends on campus: “You might get away with participating in social practices that become much more destructive as they trickle down into the lower classes. It is not social justice to claim for yourself the rights to behaviors that you can manage but are a disaster for the less fortunate. Do you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem?”

Federal Government and Family Planning $$$

The Population Research Institute, which does phenomenal work, asks whether the USA should live up to the promise of malaria aid or continue to increase funding for "family planning" (i.e. abortion and contraception).
I think the answer is obvious. But, this video should prove their point.



Speaking of family planning, Planned Parenthood claims that the government shouldn't cut their funding because they provide services that same lives, including mammograms. But, do they? Live Action takes up the challenge of finding out.

Fr. Barron on Whether Hell is Crowded or Empty

Abby Johnson's New Ad Goes After Planned Parenthood Funding

Abby is really doing some nice work. Remember, she is an Aggie and will be Catholic sometime soon. Please keep her and all in the pro-life movement in your prayers. There is some big momentum building right now.

For more on this ad go here.

Fr. Barron on Living Out God's Will

Very nice commentary on why living God's will is consonant with our own nature as human beings:

Company Uses Fetal Cells From Aborted Babies to Test Artificial Flavors

This is sick!

Debi Vinnedge, the director of the pro-life organization, tells LifeNews.com today that, in 2010, her group wrote to Senomyx CEO Kent Snyder and pointed out that moral options for testing their food additives could and should be used. But when Senomyx ignored her letter, the group wrote to the companies Senomyx listed on their website as “collaborators” warning them of public backlash and threatened boycott. They included food giants PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, Solae and Nestlé. (See update below.)

“The company’s key flavor programs focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients that are intended to allow for the reduction of MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products,” the Senomyx web site says. “Using isolated human taste receptors, we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

Vinnedge says a boycott is important because the collaborating companies provide Senomyx with research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

“What they don’t tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” she said. “They could have easily chosen animal, insect, or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors.”

Vinnedge says she has contacted the food companies working with Senomyx, but said it took three letters before one company, Nestlé, finally admitted its relationship with Senomyx and company officials claimed the line of cells from abortions was “well established in scientific research”.

Both PepsiCo and Campbell Soup also responded.

PepsiCo wrote: “We hope you are reassured to learn that our collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives.”

Campbell Soup officials told the pro-life group: “Every effort is made to use the finest ingredients and develop the greatest selection of products, all at a great value. With this in mind, it must be said that the trust we have cultivated and developed over the years with our consumers is not worth compromising to cut costs or increase profit margins.”

While Campbell Soup didn’t state they would change their methods, their response, gave Vinnedge hope.

“If enough people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these consumer products, it may convince Senomyx to change their methods,” she said. “Otherwise, we will be buying Coca-Cola, Lipton soups and Hershey products.”

UPDATE: Within hours of its press statement to LifeNews.com, the pro-life group received notice from Campbell Soup that the company has severed its ties with Senomyx. Juli Mandel Sloves, Senior Manager of Nutrition & Wellness Communications at Campbell Soup Company, told Vinnedge, “We are no longer in partnership with Senomyx. This fact was discussed during the Senomyx conference call with its investors earlier this month.”

Continue Reading.

A Journey With Christ Takes a Detour Through Aggieland

A great story about how one woman fell in love with Jesus and followed Him wherever He led her. Part of her story takes place here, at St. Mary's Catholic Center. A snip:

A Grand turning point in my life came when I left my family home in Houston to begin my freshman year at Texas A&M University. During the summer before I left I was really very afraid of leaving home. I worried about whether or not I would be able to make friends. I was also worried about keeping my faith. I wanted to have a good support in that respect. I wanted to be challenged to GROW in my faith rather than be challenged to merely RETAIN my faith. I prayed for this, not being able to imagine how it would happen.

At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in College Station, Texas, God answered my prayers above and beyond all of my expectations! During my first couple of weeks of attending St. Mary’s I discovered the faith community and “potential” friends who were also passionate about the Catholic faith. I cannot say enough how thankful I am for how much God has blessed me through those people who became my friends in Christ.

The young people that I met there inspired me, and I soon became involved. I began to attend daily Mass, regular Eucharistic Adoration, bible study, a praise and worship group, and I began to staff the Aggie Awakening Retreats after making the retreat myself. Many of my friends were open to religious vocations and I began to think about it more seriously myself. I began to seek God’s will for my life as I began to trust in His plan of love for me and in His Fatherly goodness and providence.

On December 8th of 2003, I consecrated myself to Mary through St. Maximillian Kolbe. I began to love Mary and know her more intimately, and I wanted to imitate her love and her virtues. I was drawn to meditate on her sorrows and the depth of her share in the Passion of Jesus. I understood that Mary’s love and fiat to God that she gave in the beginning came to an apex in her being with Jesus during His Passion and her offering of Jesus in union with Him.

When I saw the movie, The Passion of the Christ, in 2004, I experienced a strong desire to comfort Jesus in His Passion. I found myself wishing that I could have been there with Jesus in the Garden and on Calvary to comfort Him. I was attracted to saints who were especially devoted to the Passion and to Mary as Mother of Sorrows. Religious life began to make sense for me on a logical level. I began to have a sense that I was possibly being “called” to love and follow Jesus in this radical, exclusive, and whole-hearted way. Even so, I couldn’t quite bring myself to take the initiative to look into it in a practical way by learning about different communities.

Continue reading.

Tip o' the hat to The Anchoress for sending me the link.

Most Dramatic Tsunami Footage Yet.

I think this video is the most dramatic footage of the Tsunami to hit Japan yet.

Please pray for Japan.

Random Stuff

Some things you don't need to know about, but might like anyway:


***The coolest pen I have ever seen. It scans any color from your environment and then calibrates it and automatically loads the right amount of RGB ink to replicate the color.


***For the next World Cup, Qatar is building floating airships that will act as clouds to cool the crowds.


***Why can't our highways be fixed like they fix them in Japan?


***A study for everything means that one study found that religious people are more likely to be obese.


***Tech is moving so fast, but this graphic shows just how fast.

Is GLEE Promoting Planned Parenthood's Sexual Education?

One Catholic writer makes just such an argument. I think too many people don't critically analyze the messages that enters our homes via the TV and internet.

If you don't believe the episode in question is promoting Planned Parenthood - then why would Planned Parenthood hype the episode on their Facebook page? They wrote:

Hey Gleeks, did you see Glee's "Sexy" episode last night? The ep touched on different aspects of sex and sex ed. One scene getting lots of buzz is when Kurt's dad decides it's time to have "The Talk" with him. This clip captures some of the jitters families can experience when talking about sex but also illustrates an opportunity for parents to connect with their kids and convey important information. Thoughts?

The article certainly should get you thinking, at least:

On Tuesday, March 8th, ‘Glee ‘ – which regularly features homosexual relationships and rampant sexual activity by minors – managed to limbo even lower (under a bar set already almost on the floor) with an episode featuring Gwenyth Paltrow as the school’s visiting “sex education” teacher.

Some of you might recall that Paltrow and her mother, Blythe Danner, are also known for their “work” as celebrity supporters of the largest abortion business in America, Planned Parenthood. Twice, the mother-daughter duo has used Mother’s Day as what they called the “perfect time” to send out an email soliciting donations on behalf of Planned Parenthood. Yes, that’s right. Gwenyth Paltrow and her mother used the day dedicated to mothers (whose role it is to protect and nurture their babies, not kill them) to solicit more money for the business that not only killed 324,008 unborn babies in 2008 alone, but that did so while receiving $349.6 million in federal funding from our taxpayer dollars. In 2009, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million.

Now, as a strong pro-life advocate, I am well aware of the dangers of “sex education.”

The graphic (and very often pornographic) materials and speech that are used not only gets kids thinking more about sex, but also – by purporting sex to be just another item on the list making up your teen’s “health”, sharply takes away from the sacredness of the act, which was intended by God to be only for one man and one woman within the bond of marriage. “Sex education” has been shown to lead to an increase in underage sexual activity, and it is obvious to many that “sex education” is Planned Parenthood’s modus operandi for indoctrinating and attracting new young customers (our kids) through direct marketing to them in our schools. Planned Parenthood has literally infiltrated our schools across the country, including right here in Rhode Island. (The FY 2007 Annual Report for Planned Parenthood of RI reports Planned Parenthood running workshops in the Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls school systems at the middle school and high school levels.) After hearing that Paltrow would be guest starring on ‘Glee’ as a “sex education” teacher, I had to tune in just to witness and report on how far the episode would go – and how much evil would be employed – in what I knew was sure to be an egregious attack on the minds and souls of young viewers across America.

Even I was shocked. The episode began with outright hate speech against Catholicism, and quickly moved on to thinly veiled promotion of students becoming sexually active.

In the first scene, Paltrow’s character tries to pressure another teacher who is in favor of abstinence education into getting on board with her ideology. When the abstinence teacher dissents and says “I strongly disagree. I don’t think that we should barrage these kids with graphic information. They’re kids. I don’t want to steal their innocence,” Paltrow’s character haughtily exclaims: “Are you, like, some kind of crazy Pope lady?”

In a later scene, Paltrow’s character attempts to get the kids all riled up and excited about sex, rocking out and seductively dancing around in a low cut black leather jumpsuit and tauntingly screaming Joan Jett’s song lyrics “Do you wanna touch me there?” When one of the students, in the face of Paltrow’s character’s outrageous display, calmly asks: “What about those of us who choose to remain celibate?”, Paltrow’s character nastily replies: “Oh well I admire your choice…. Although I think you’re naive…and possibly frigid … I do admire your choice.”

This statement is telling, and it fits exactly in line with what many have seen of Planned Parenthood’s “sex education” tactics. Many can clearly see that Planned Parenthood is corrupting a whole generation starting with their covert, unhealthy, and immoral “sex education” agenda.
Continue Reading.

"I Can’t Look at You or Any Other Priest Without Thinking of a Sexual Abuser.”

This is what a man told Archbishop Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in an airport recently. You should read his article on what happened. It is enlightening.

An Airport Encounter

It was only the third time it had happened to me in my nearly thirty-five happy years as a priest, all three times over the last nine-and-a-half years.

Other priests tell me it has happened to them a lot more.

Three is enough. Each time has left me so shaken I was near nausea.

It happened last Friday . . .

I had just arrived at the Denver Airport, there to speak at their popular annual “Living Our Catholic Faith” conference.

As I was waiting with the others for the electronic train to take me to the terminal, a man, maybe in his mid-forties, waiting as well, came closer to me.

“Are you a Catholic priest?” he kindly asked.

“Sure am. Nice to meet you,” says I, as I offered my hand.

He ignored it. “I was raised a Catholic,” he replied, almost always a hint of a cut to come, but I was not prepared for the razor sharpness of the stiletto, as he went on, “and now, as a father of two boys, I can’t look at you or any other priest without thinking of a sexual abuser.”

What to respond? Yell at him? Cuss him out? Apologize? Deck him? Express understanding? I must admit all such reactions came to mind as I staggered with shame and anger from the damage of the wound he had inflicted with those stinging words.

“Well,” I recovered enough to remark, “I’m sure sorry you feel that way. But, let me ask you, do you automatically presume a sexual abuser when you see a Rabbi or Protestant minister?”

“Not at all,” he came back through gritted teeth as we both boarded the train.

“How about when you see a coach, or a boy scout leader, or a foster parent, or a counsellor, or physician?” I continued.

“Of course not!” he came back. “What’s all that got to do with it?”
Continue Reading.

Inception in 30 Seconds

Steven Greydanus reviews the movie Inception in 30 seconds.

I really enjoyed the film.

The Myth of Religion "Shoved Down Throats" is Busted!

Once in a while I hear someone say that they don't like it when others "shove religion down my throat" or that Christians need to "stop forcing your faith on me". Is there a proper response to these statements and what is it if there is?

Well, the simple answer is this. It is impossible to force another person to believe as you do. So, the statements are saying either:

1. you shouldn't be allowed to state your opinion about religion - which is a violation of free speech.
2. you shouldn't ever share an opinion with someone if it offends - yet, what if that opinion offends me? It is contradictory and silly.
3. you shouldn't share an opinion about religion if I don't want to talk about it - but this is the closing of the mind and yet most who make the statements above consider themselves "open-minded".

What is really going on is that someone is most likely threatened by religious thought, because it challenges them to go beyond their own formulations about life, salvation, the world, the meaning of life, etc. The word "force" is used as if someone were torturing another person. Rather, when a Christian speaks about faith, they don't "force" it down someone throat or onto someone. Rather, they propose an argument in favor of their beliefs. This is exactly what others do when they offer an opposing argument. An open and free society needs this kind of dialogue to be healthy.

What might be some examples of "shoving"? Maybe it is by those who go door-to-door to evangelize? But, what about salespeople that do the same thing? They aren't shoving vacuums down people's throat.

Then it must be the way the media always talks about religion. But, then we would also have much more instances of sex and violence "shoved" on us and that doesn't add up.

Maybe it is when a parent teaches a child their faith. That must be it! But, what about when an atheist teaches a child there is no God? Are they forcing their beliefs on their child?

Finally, it has to be when our government legislates based on Christian morality. Yet, even here, if one morality isn't accepted, another one will be.

There are not real instances of religion being shoved down someone's throat in our modern Western culture. Rather, it is a saying that the non-religious have made up to reject religious dialogue.

So, I conclude that these sayings are myths and they are busted!

6 Transitional Deacons Ordained for Dallas Diocese

6 new transitional Deacons is the most Dallas has had for many years. One of them, Deacon Edwin Leonard, was a student of mine while I was the Director of Campus Ministry at Texas Tech University. He also attended a few classes at Texas A&M before he went to Franciscan University and then seminary. Here is a great report on the ordination:

Pro-Lifers - Do You Need Inspiration?

Inspiration is found in our young people. It is found in the students, here at Texas A&M and other universities, that are changing the culture. It is found in 40 Days for Life, that was started here at St. Mary's Catholic Center. It is found in groups like Students for Life of America.

You can see the inspirational message of hope here:

Tip o' the hat to Thomas.

Scott Hahn Rocks with Matt Maher

This is fun.

Suicide and Salvation

Q: Is it sinful to think about suicide or killing  yourself? I mean, there are the obvious reasons, such as "Thou Shall Not Kill", and the fact that a suicidal person probably wouldn't make it to confession between the act and dying. However I know from psychology class that mental instabilities are often caused by chemical imbalances--many people are born with them, meaning God put them there or at least created them in the first place. So if such imbalances cause a person to become suicidal, does it meet the criteria for mortal sin? Does it matter if they were a really good person otherwise?

A - Thanks for the question. First off, if you ever serious about harming yourself or know someone who is, then you need to seek help. These kind of thoughts are not normal and you can get help for them. Your life is worth an infinite amount.

Here is a number to Suicide Hotline - 1-800-784-2433. Please use it if you need to. If you are a student at A&M and are in need of professional counseling, please contact Student Counseling Services. If this is a crisis, please call the help line at (979) 845-2700. If you are a student at Blinn, then please contact Center For Student Development at 979-209-7250 for professional counseling.

That being said, here is what the Catechism says about suicide:

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.
2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

In other words, we hope for salvation for those who commit suicide. But, in your final question you ask if it matters whether they were good otherwise. We have to be careful of trying to make salvation a balancing act, where the good outweighs the bad and then we get to heaven. This isn't how salvation works. Our salvation is determined by whether or not our souls are in the state of grace at the moment of death. If so, we go to heaven. If not, we don't go to heaven. God alone answers the question of every individual's salvation based on this criteria.


I have had several friends commit suicide through the years, including one of my good friends from my time at St. Mary's when I was a student. But, he was very sick. As I do with all who have died, I place them in the infinitely merciful hands of our Lord and pray for them.



Peace to you. You will be in our prayers and if you need help, please seek it out.

Top 50 Most Popular Phrases From The Bible

In our modern culture, we commonly use phrases which have originated from the Bible without even knowing their origin.

After doing a bit of research, I have compiled my top 50 list of commonly used phrases which originate from the Bible.

Note- I have put the phrase and the reference where it originated from, which may or may not be a direct quote from the Bible. Some originate from the Bible yet have changed over time.

• 50 - "My cup runneth over" - Psalms 23:5
• 49 - "O ye, of little faith" - Luke 12:28
• 48 - "Living off the fat of the land" - Genesis 45:17-18
• 47 - "Like a lamb led to the slaughter" - Jeremiah 11:19 / Isaiah 53:7
• 46 - "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" - Matthew 26:41
• 45 - "Flesh and blood" - Matthew 16:17
• 44 - "Spare the rod and spoil the child" - Proverbs 13:24 / 23:13
• 43 - "Forbidden fruit" - Genesis 2 & 3
• 42 - "Can a leopard change his spots?" - Jeremiah 13:23
• 41 - "A man after my own heart" - Samuel 13:14 / Acts 13:22
• 40 - "Do not cast your pearls before swine" - Matthew 7:6
• 39 - "The fruit of your loins" - Genesis 35:11
• 38 - "The powers that be" - Romans 13: 1-2
• 37 - "Drop in the bucket" - Isaiah 40:15
• 36 - "Eat, drink, and be merry" - Ecclesiastes 8:15
• 35 - "Eye for an eye" - Exodus 21:24 / Leviticus 24:20 / Deuteronomy 19:21 / Matthew 5:38
• 34 - "The good Samaritan" - Luke 10:25-37
• 33 - "He that is without sin, cast the first stone" - John 8:7
• 32 - "Labor of love" - 1 Thessalonians 1:3
• 31 - "The root of the matter" - Job 19:28
• 30 - "Fight the good fight" - 1 Timothy 6.12
• 29 - "Letter of the law" - 2 Corinthians 3:6
• 28 - "Many are called, but few are chosen" - Matthew 22:14
• 27 - "Man does not live by bread alone" - Deuteronomy 8:3 / Matthew 4:4
• 26 - "Salt of the earth" - Matthew 5:13
• 25 - "No rest for the wicked" or "No rest for the weary" - Isaiah 57:21
• 24 - "Sweat of your brow" - Genesis 3:19
• 23 - "Apple of my eye" - Deuteronomy 2:10 / Zechariah 2:8
• 22 - "The love of money is the root of all evil" - 1 Timothy 6:10
• 21 - "All things must pass" or "This too shall pass" - Matthew 24:6-8
• 20 - "The truth shall make you free" John 8:32
• 19 - "There's nothing new under the sun" - Ecclesiastes 1:9
• 18 - "For everything there is a season" - Ecclesiastes 3:1
• 17 - "As old as Methuselah" - Genesis 5: 25-27
• 16 - "Ashes to ashes" - Genesis 3:19
• 15 - "Twinkling of an eye" - 1 Corinthians 15:52
• 14 - "A fly in the ointment" - Ecclesiastes 10:1
• 13 - "Faith will move mountains" - Matthew 21:21
• 12 - "Signs of the times" - Matthew 16:3
• 11 - "It is better to give than to receive" - Acts 20:35
• 10 - "My brother's keeper" - Genesis 4:9
• 9 - "Physician, heal thyself" - Luke 4:23
• 8 - "Out of the mouths of babes" - Psalm 8:2
• 7 - "How the mighty have fallen" - 2 Samuel 1:19
• 6 - "Bite the dust" - Psalms 72: 9
• 5 - "Sour grapes" - Ezekiel 18:2
• 4 - "The writing on the wall" - Daniel 5:5
• 3 - "At my wit's end" - Psalm 107:27
• 2 - "Blind leading the blind" - Matthew 15:14 / Luke 6:39
• 1 - "By the skin of our teeth" - Job 19:20

No Obligation to Abstain from Meat Tomorrow. Want to Know Why? Read Below...

The reason the obligation to abstain from meat is dispensed for this Friday is because it is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. A solemnity is a more important day than a Friday of Lent. Therefore one is not obligated to abstain from meat. Canon 1251 says:

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

BTW - did you know that beavers, turtles, otters, manatees, and capybaras are not considered meat either? You can read all about it here.

How Can You Prove Jesus Is Truly Present In The Eucharist?

Religion Set to Go Extinct in Nine Nations?

I have to say that this is exactly the kind of study that screams bias and fudging of the data. Here are the highlights:

Dr Wiener continued: "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%."

The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the "non-religious" category.

They found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.

And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
Continue reading.

In other words they base this on mathematical models and not reality. Silliness. Joe Carter had a very good point about it all:

What is most interesting is that no one seems to have asked the obvious question: If religion goes extinct in societies where non-religious affiliation is more socially useful than religious affiliation, wouldn’t it also follow that religion would reach a saturation point in societies where religious affiliation is more socially useful than non-religious affiliation?

Can you imagine the panic that would result from a conclusive mathematical model that predicted America would soon be 100% religious?

Fr. Barron on God, the Tsunami, and the Problem of Evil

Most Irritating Phrases

Competition time. 

Based on the Oxford list of top ten most irritating phrases from 2008, you are charged with coming up with the most irritating combination of them, when combined with my own personal list. Also, add your own.

Oxford's most irritating phrases:
1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

Marcel's most irritating phrases/words (not exhaustive):

1 - Like
2 - You know? OR You know what I am saying?
3 - Don't judge me / You are being judgmental / Judge not (when misunderstood)
4 - actually...
5 - synergy
6 - Any overused sports cliche' (e.g. "110%", "bring our A game", etc.)
7 - It is what it is
8 - OMG
9 - Don't go there
10 - Any word that ends in "z" when it should be an "s" (e.g, boyz, songz, kidz, etc)

Now it is your turn. What is your list of the most irritating words or phrases.

Ready. Set. Go.
(FYI - comments may take a little while to approve. I am about to start jury duty.)

Top 14 Reasons To Read The Bible

Top 14 reasons why we need to read the Bible:

14 - Because God is the Divine author (2 Tim 3:16).

13 - It teaches us the ways of salvation (2 Tim 3:15).

12 - It helps raise up Godly children. (Deut 6:7).

11 - It helps give good counsel to others (Col 3:16).

10 - It has practical wisdom for everyday life (Psalm 119: 98).

9 - Because God teaches us His will for us through it. (Rom 12:2)

8 - Because the Devil has read it, knows it, and hates it. (Matt 4: 1-11)

7 - It helps fulfill the mission of the Church - to evangelize. (1 Cor 1: 17-25)

6 - It answers life's biggest questions - "Who am I", "Why am I here", "What is life all about", etc. (John 14: 5-27.

5 - It helps us fight temptations to sin. (Eph 6:17, Matt 4: 1-11)

4 - It tells us the history of God's people - our heritage in faith. (Acts 7: 2-56)

3 - It is God's encouragement through the rough times in life (James 1: 2-3).

2 - We cannot know Jesus personally or his plan for our lives without reading the Bible - as St. Jerome said "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ".

1 - Christ is present when we read the Bible (2 Thes 2:13).

This list is only the tip of the iceberg. Our Holy Father issued a major document on Sacred Scripture last week (Verbum Domini) that the Church needs to get to know. Here are a few highlights of it:

The need for good formation:

In order to achieve the goal set by the Synod, namely, an increased emphasis on the Bible in the Church's pastoral activity, all Christians, and catechists in particular, need to receive suitable training. Attention needs to be paid to the biblical apostolate, which is a very valuable means to that end, as the Church's experience has shown. The Synod Fathers also recommended that, possibly through the use of existing academic structures, centres of formation should be established where laity and missionaries can be trained to understand, live and proclaim the word of God. Also, where needed, specialized institutes for biblical studies should be established to ensure that exegetes possess a solid understanding of theology and an appropriate appreciation for the contexts in which they carry out their mission.

The importance of praying with Scripture:

86. The Synod frequently insisted on the need for a prayerful approach to the sacred text as a fundamental element in the spiritual life of every believer, in the various ministries and states in life, with particular reference to lectio divina. The word of God is at the basis of all authentic Christian spirituality. The Synod Fathers thus took up the words of the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum: " Let the faithful go gladly to the sacred text itself, whether in the sacred liturgy, which is full of the divine words, or in devout reading, or in such suitable exercises and various other helps which, with the approval and guidance of the pastors of the Church, are happily spreading everywhere in our day. Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture ".

Laity are called to evangelize using the Scriptures:

The laity are called to exercise their own prophetic role, which derives directly from their Baptism, and to bear witness to the Gospel in daily life, wherever they find themselves. In this regard the Synod Fathers expressed " the greatest esteem, gratitude and encouragement for the service to evangelization which so many of the lay faithful, and women in particular, provide with generosity and commitment in their communities throughout the world, following the example of Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the joy of Easter ". The Synod also recognized with gratitude that the ecclesial movements and the new communities are a great force for evangelization in our times and an incentive to the development of new ways of proclaiming the Gospel.

The Bible and the New Evangelization:

Our own time, then, must be increasingly marked by a new hearing of God's word and a new evangelization. Recovering the centrality of the divine word in the Christian life leads us to appreciate anew the deepest meaning of the forceful appeal of Pope John Paul II: to pursue the missio ad gentes and vigorously to embark upon the new evangelization, expecially in those nations where the Gospel has been forgotten or meets with indifference as a result of widespread secularism. May the Holy Spirit awaken a hunger and thirst for the word of God, and raise up zealous heralds and witnesses of the Gospel.

If you desire to understand what the Catholic Church teaches about the Bible, then Verbum Domini in addition to the Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Scripture - Dei Verbum - are the two you documents you should read after the Catechism's section on Scripture.

New York Archbishop Dolan On 60 Minutes

Everyone should watch this. Well done Archbishop Dolan!

Top 15 Phrases Not Found in the Bible

These quotes are either frequently misquoted from the Bible or not there at all. I also have some things that are frequently thought to be in the Bible, but are not. I have tried to provide a origin of each, if I could find one. I have avoided doctrinal items (both valid and invalid ones) not found in the Bible, because that list would be never-ending.

Top 15 Phrases & Sayings Not Found in the Bible

15 - The Three Wisemen

They Bible calls them Magi, not "Wisemen", though the two are synonymous in common parlance. The Magi are found only in Matthew 2 and no number is given to them (three comes from the number of gifts given).

14 - "Moderation in all things"

This idea behind this phrase originates from Aristotle's ethics and the direct quote comes from Rome, several hundred years before Christ. Two different Romans are generally given credit - one named Terence and the other Petronius.

13 - "The Lord (or God) works in mysterious ways"

Comes from a Hymn ("God Moves in a Mysterious Way") by William Cowper, who lived in the 18th century.

12 - "The eye is a window to the soul"

Matthew 6:22 says "The lamp of the body is the eye", but there is no reference saying it is a window to the soul. There is no consensus as to the origin of this phrase. Some attribute it to a proverb of varying origin and others to several writers including Shakespeare and Milton.

11 - The Apple in the Garden of Eden.

There was fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2, 3), but we do not know what kind of fruit is was. The apple grew out of Christian tradition and may have been a result of artists trying to depict The Fall. It might also have come from the Latin word for evil ("malum" = evil / "malus" = apple). Some say it was likely a pomegranate. But, we do not know.

10 - "The lion will lay down with the lamb"

A very common misquote of Scripture. Isaiah 11:6 reads "Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them."

9 - "A fool and his money are soon parted"

Not even close to a Biblical reference - this comes from Thomas Tusser who wrote it in 1573 in in Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie.

8 - "This too shall pass"

The origin of this phrase isn't even Christian. It comes from a Persian Sufi (Muslim) poets some time in the middle ages.

7 - The Seven Deadly Sins

The list of the 7 deadly sins = wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. The first evidence of the list is from a monk in the 4th century. The list was then altered slightly by Pope Gregory I in 590. It was then popularized by Dante in his Divine Comedy.

6 - "Money is the root of all evil"

1 Timothy 6:10 says "For the love of money is the root of all evils". It is the love of money that causes the problem, not the money itself. Money doesn't have a moral value all to itself, it is what we do with it that makes the action good, neutral, or evil.

5 - "Pride comes before the fall"

Proverbs 16:18 says "Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

The origin of the misquote is unknown, but The Beatles' song "I'm a Loser" has the line in it.

4 - "Charity begins at home"

Generally credited to Terence, the Roman comic writer. It is sometimes also attributed to Sir Thomas Browne who wrote the phrase in 1642.

3 - "To thine ownself be true"

Comes from Hamlet by Shakespeare. In a bit of context the quote reads, ”This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Not bad advice, but not from the Bible.

2 - "Cleanliness is next to godliness"

While there are many references in the Mosaic law to cleanliness (esp. in Leviticus), there is none that we can ascribe to this quote. Some say it comes from a 2nd century Rabbi. We know the first English version comes from Francis Bacon. He wrote the following in Advancement of Learning, "Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God." John Wesley then changed it to the phrase we use today.

1 - "God helps those who help themselves"

This very common phrase comes from Algernon Sydney, who wrote it in an article titled Discourses Concerning Government. It was then popularized by Ben Franklin in 1757 in Poor Richard's Almanac. In many ways this phrase is wrong, because God helps (saves) those who can NOT help themselves (sinners). Though we must agree to allow Him to help us.

Do you have any others?

Reading the Bible

Q - How important do you think reading the Bible is for the faith formation of a Catholic? What do you think about the situation in which a practicing Catholic, who has read parts of the Bible and New Testament, doesn’t continue because they “just don’t get anything out of it”?

A - Thanks for the question. Well, the first thing I would say is that if this is the case, there could be an issue with how the person is reading the Bible if they aren't getting anything out of reading the Bible. If we truly believe that the Bible contains the written revelation of all that God wanted to reveal to us about Himself, our relationship to Him, and our salvation, then there is no good reason not to read (and pray with) the Bible. But, we still must learn how to do so effectively and prayerfully. This takes time and practice.

The Bible is not a history textbook, a novel, or like any other piece of literature. It is God-breathed. It is an opportunity to encounter Christ. It is the primary way we can know about the life of Jesus. It is God's Word to us in the written form. So, maybe getting someone who is knowledgeable about how to pray with the Bible to help teach some ways to enter into prayer with the Bible would be a good idea.

As St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ". Do we want to know Jesus intimately? Then we cannot just brush aside the Bible as something that doesn't fit our fancy. From the sound of your question this person has not given the Bible a fair shake or they don't know how to really dive into The Word of God in the Bible, because they have only read "parts of the Bible". Maybe this quote from Vatican II's Constitution on The Word of God can help shed some light on the importance of reading the Bible for every Catholic (emphasis added):

The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God's word and of Christ's body. She has always maintained them, and continues to do so, together with sacred tradition, as the supreme rule of faith, since, as inspired by God and committed once and for all to writing, they impart the word of God Himself without change, and make the voice of the Holy Spirit resound in the words of the prophets and Apostles. Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture. For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: "For the word of God is living and active" (Heb. 4:12) and "it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified" (Acts 20:32; see 1 Thess. 2:13).

Scripture should be an indispensable part of every Christians' daily life. As the quote above shows us, it is a way we meet, talk, and receive grace from the Father.

I hope this helps.

____________________________________________________________________________

Other Links of interest:
**Good Catholic Bible Studies
**Best Bible Translations
**The Dos and Don'ts of Reading the Bible
**100 Catholic Ways to Pray

Is Getting Drunk a Mortal Sin?

Q - Is getting drunk a mortal sin?


A - First of all, I will leave the judgment of any particular person's culpability (guilt) to their confessor (whether one has committed all that is needed for a mortal sin or not). In other words, it isn't my place to judge your particular circumstances. I will try and answer the question on an objective level.

The Bible says the following about becoming drunk:

• Proverbs 23:19-35 tells us that becoming drunk is unwise and that we are not to do it.
• Proverbs 31:1-7 tells us that when we drink to excess we forget God's laws.
• Ephesians 5:15-18 - "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
• Paul also tells us in Galatians 5 that drunkenness is one of the acts that lead us away from the Kingdom of God and it is compared as an opposite to the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
• Lastly, 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us that if we get drunk we are not prepared for the coming of Christ's Kingdom at that time and we are then not acting as Sons of the Light, who are self-controlled.

Now, alcohol is not evil in and of itself, but the abuse of alcohol makes it serious (grave) matter, just as if we were to abuse something else that is good (e.g., eating too much). But, alcohol also has a second effect on us. It causes us to lose control of our free will and reason. Thus, when we freely give away the gift of our freedom to alcohol it increases our culpability. Thus, temperance (not too much or too little) is the virtue and goal we are aiming for.

The Catechism says this:

“The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air” (2290)

So, to abuse alcohol is to sin against the virtue of temperance and to then endanger a life afterward would make the sin, objectively speaking, grave matter.

Does this mean that getting drunk is grave matter for anyone? It depends...(don't you hate those answers.) Remember, that to be a mortal sin, grave matter is one of three parts and all three must be met. The other two are full knowledge and full consent. Thus, if you know it is wrong to get drunk, yet you do it intentionally anyway - the chances are that you have sinned mortally. Why? Because you just gave the one thing that is truly your own away - your free will.

The other problem with getting drunk is that (apart from being unhealthy, which if done frequently could be sinful) it can lead you to the occasion of other sins. St. Thomas Aquinas talks about it in the Summa Theologica. He says that if a man knowingly gets drunk, it is grave matter – which is the same as I stated above. But remember - it takes full knowledge and consent (basically someone drinking to get drunk) to become subjectively a mortal sin. If you want to read his full take on it you can here.

My advice would be to discuss it during confession (mention if you have lost the use of reason or not). Also, my second bit of advice would be to have a personal cut-off point which can be different for everyone, although there is a point where everyone would have "too much". So, don't push the limits, but rather err on the safe side.

To give up the gift of free will is to sin gravely. If you do so intentionally, knowing that it is wrong, then it would be a mortal sin.

Related Posts:
****Underage Drinking.****
****Dunking Your Aggie Ring.****

Fr. Chris Downey - Rock Musician to Catholic Priest

From OneBillionStories.com comes this video of Fr. Chris Downey, our Associate Pastor and former rock musician.



Part II:

One Mom Asks "Why Do We Let Our Girls Dress Like That?"

A mom who grew up "sexually liberated" and who "experimented" sexually now regrets a lot of her decisions and asks the question "Why Do We Let Them Dress Like That?" in the Wall Street Journal.
A snip:

In the pale-turquoise ladies' room, they congregate in front of the mirror, re-applying mascara and lip gloss, brushing their hair, straightening panty hose and gossiping: This one is "skanky," that one is "really cute," and so forth. Dressed in minidresses, perilously high heels, and glittery, dangling earrings, their eyes heavily shadowed in black-pearl and jade, they look like a flock of tropical birds. A few minutes later, they return to the dance floor, where they shake everything they've got under the party lights.

But for the most part, there isn't all that much to shake. This particular group of party-goers consists of 12- and 13-year-old girls. Along with their male counterparts, they are celebrating the bat mitzvah of a classmate in a cushy East Coast suburb.

In a few years, their attention will turn to the annual ritual of shopping for a prom dress, and by then their fashion tastes will have advanced still more. Having done this now for two years with my own daughter, I continue to be amazed by the plunging necklines, built-in push-up bras, spangles, feathers, slits and peek-a-boos. And try finding a pair of sufficiently "prommish" shoes designed with less than a 2-inch heel.

All of which brings me to a question: Why do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this—like prostitutes, if we're being honest with ourselves—but pay for them to do it with our AmEx cards?

I posed this question to a friend whose teenage daughter goes to an all-girls private school in New York. "It isn't that different from when we were kids," she said. "The girls in the sexy clothes are the fast girls. They'll have Facebook pictures of themselves opening a bottle of Champagne, like Paris Hilton. And sometimes the moms and dads are out there contributing to it, shopping with them, throwing them parties at clubs. It's almost like they're saying, 'Look how hot my daughter is.'" But why? "I think it's a bonding thing," she said. "It starts with the mommy-daughter manicure and goes on from there."

I have a different theory. It has to do with how conflicted my own generation of women is about our own past, when many of us behaved in ways that we now regret. A woman I know, with two mature daughters, said, "If I could do it again, I wouldn't even have slept with my own husband before marriage. Sex is the most powerful thing there is, and our generation, what did we know?"

We are the first moms in history to have grown up with widely available birth control, the first who didn't have to worry about getting knocked up. We were also the first not only to be free of old-fashioned fears about our reputations but actually pressured by our peers and the wider culture to find our true womanhood in the bedroom. Not all of us are former good-time girls now drowning in regret—I know women of my generation who waited until marriage—but that's certainly the norm among my peers.

So here we are, the feminist and postfeminist and postpill generation. We somehow survived our own teen and college years (except for those who didn't), and now, with the exception of some Mormons, evangelicals and Orthodox Jews, scads of us don't know how to teach our own sons and daughters not to give away their bodies so readily. We're embarrassed, and we don't want to be, God forbid, hypocrites.

Still, in my own circle of girlfriends, the desire to push back is strong. I don't know one of them who doesn't have feelings of lingering discomfort regarding her own sexual past. And not one woman I've ever asked about the subject has said that she wishes she'd "experimented" more.
CONTINUE READING.

For a lot of modern women and girls the word "modest" has too many bad connotations. They think it means "frumpy" or out-of-style. When in fact it is a necessary protection of their dignity as women.

Men can also dress immodestly, but it is a vice that is seen in more women than men. Regardless of the sex of the person - If you "flaunt it", then "it" (you) will be abused and used. The virtue of modesty protects that which is supposed to remain hidden and reserved only for those that will respect the dignity of the individual before them.

The Theology of the Movie "The Adjustment Bureau"

Fr. Barron comments on the new movie "The Adjustment Bureau" and the bad theology in the movie:

He does have a few spoilers in it, but since I won't see the movie, I watched the whole video.

Fr. Corapi Placed on Administrative Leave After Accusations

This is a big story in Catholic circles. Fr. Corapi is one of the most famous speakers in the country right now and considered a walking saint by a lot of people. Of course we cannot know whether these accusations are true or not at this point. But, what we can do is pray for all involved.

Here is what Fr. Corapi posted on his website - denying the accusations.

A Call for Prayer

On Ash Wednesday I learned that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women. There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on "administrative leave" as the result of this.

I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.

All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.

Here is a good roundup of what we know and what we don't know from Elizabeth Scalia.

Here is a statement from his superior:

Statement from Rev. Gerald Sheehan, Regional Priest Servant

Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity

18 March 2011

Today, as Regional Priest Servant for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, I have the unhappy responsibility to announce that Father John Corapi, SOLT has been placed on administrative leave from priestly ministry, in accordance to the Code of Cannon Law of the Catholic Church. We have received an allegation that Father Corapi has behaved in a manner unbecoming of a priest and are duty-bound to conduct an investigation in this accusation.

It is important to keep in mind that this action in no way implies Father Corapi is guilty of the allegation. It is equally important to know that, based on the information we have received thus far, the claim of misconduct does not involve minors and does not arise to the of criminal conduct. Consequently, this matter will be investigated internally, and unless and until information suggests otherwise it will not be referred to civil authorities. In the event that we learn of any occasion where the criminal civil law may have been breached we will immediately refer the matter to civil authorities.

We shall see. In the meantime pray.

Who Wants a Laser Gun?

Science Fiction is now reality:

G.I. Joe used them to battle Cobra’s evil forces. Han solo shot his first in the Mos Eisley Cantina. For years, hand-held pulse laser guns have been something that existed only in the realm of cartoons and movies…until now.

German hacker [Patrick Priebe] recently constructed a laser pulse gun that looks so good, it could have easily come off a Hollywood movie set. Its sleek white and black exterior adds intrigue, but offers little warning as to how powerful the gun actually is.

Check it out:

Aggies Win The Tournament!!!

No, not that tournament...but a fictional one that Matt Swaim created. Let us just hope that the real tournament ends up like this one:

It’s often said that politics and religion are the two things that one shouldn’t discuss in polite company; which is why I tend to get excited when the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament rolls around, because it at least provides impolite company wherein I can talk smack about the latter. This ain’t Westphalia, baby.

Hence, for the fourth year in a row, we offer you Bracketology: Magisterial Fidelity Edition, a method of bracket-picking that produces mild amusement and pretty much no success. Here are the traditional criteria:

1. In games between religious schools and nonreligious schools, the religious school is picked.

2. In games between Christian schools and schools with other religious affiliations, the Christian school is picked.

3. In games between Catholic schools and protestant schools, the Catholic school is picked.

4. In games between Catholic schools, the one with the highest degree of fidelity to the Magisterium is picked.

Of course, when it comes down to it, I usually follow these criteria about as closely as some of these schools follow the Magisterium, so cut me some slack. Here are just a few of my predictions:
Continue Reading.

In other fun news, my book got a nice review in the National Catholic Register.