Tuesday, June 30, 2009

THE TOADS... FOR HOW MUCH LONGER THE TOADS?

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (*)

APPARENTLY, public opinion is rather unfamiliar with an option that the press is, all the while, imposing more and more upon all men.

image

This option is being promoted worldwide through a slogan that has the appearance of a mere play on words: "bet­ter red than dead." Everyone knows what this means: it is better to become a Red, accept the humiliating imposition of the communist regime, conform to the moral, social and economic anti-Christian organization inherent to it, rather than run the risk of a nuclear bombardment.

Let the truth be said. The meaning of that slogan is that life — yes, earthly life — is man's supreme good. One can infer from this that love of the Faith, national independence, personal dignity and honor must be less than love of life. Whence all the martyrs and all the soldiers who heretofore understood the contrary are imbeciles. By comparison, those who renounced the Faith, fled the field of battle, or basely acquiesced to any insult to save their own skins, were despised as poltroons.

The old table of standards has been inverted. The martyrs and war heroes who stood out in the ranks of humanity's elites should now be considered idiots. Also idiots, in the eyes of the public, are the moralists, orators and poets who stressed the supposed sublimity with which those imbeciles speedily pursued holocaust. Finally, the old dithyrambs to religious or civil heroism must be silenced and give way to the praise of imbecility, which drags the weak into following it.

Long live the poltroons! Their era of glory has arrived. Should "better red than dead" prevail, they will constitute the flower of humanity, the astute and security minded herd of those who have deified egoism. This is the apotheosis of Sancho Panza. How far this century had to fall to be consistent with the long process of decadence Christian Civilization was in was in when it awakened to history! I can already hear someone saying to me, "If we don't opt for the apotheosis of Sancho Panza, we will necessarily have that of Don Quixote. Is this what you want, Dr. Plinio?" To which I would not hesitate to answer that, as a Catholic, I categorically deny that the human race can be reduced to a bunch of Quixotes and Sanchos, and that only two roads are open to man: that of the disheveled and insane "hero" of La Mancha, and that of his abominable and vulgar squire. Today, amidst so much talk about a "third way," "Third World," and so on, almost no one remembers a different option that avoids both death and, above all, capitulation to the Soviet Moloch.

On a supremely elevated level, it is obvious that beyond Cervantes' alternative lie the sacrosanct paths of Christian her­oism. Yes, of Christian heroism as the Church has always taught it, and to which history owes its wisest, most splendid and most auspicious deeds for the spiritual and temporal good of men.

Today, however, I am not going to dwell on that level, but on another which, albeit much less elevated, deserves our highest attention.

I ask: Do men not have the means to prevent both atomic destruction and the catastrophe of surrendering to communism?

I have in my hand a weighty study on that question which to me seems highly conducive to finding that happy solution. It is "The Grain Weapon," by Mr. Dermot Healy, which he presented as his doctoral thesis at the University of Alberdeen, Scotland (Centrepoint, No. 1, 1982, 50 pp.).

In short, the author holds — and pro­ves — that: a) the Russian leaders were always very sensitive to a grain embargo by the United States, since the country's food production is insufficient for both its population and its livestock; b) an em­bargo would necessarily bring about widespread poverty with all its sequels such as unrest, strikes, agitation, etc.

If such an embargo were to be prolonged, I think that the fall of the regime would be inevitable, and that the spectre of atomic bombardment would fade away. As a result, the dilemma surrender or death would fall apart.

What are the obstacles preventing the implementing of that wholesome policy? Mr. Dermot Healy points out: a) the pressure put on Congress by all major grain producers in the United States that want to increase their sales to Russia; b) the excessive sensitivity of American presidents to this pressure; c) the pressure of major private companies that have a near monopoly on U.S. grain exports. These companies would violate an em­bargo; d) once an American embargo was set up, the Russians would turn to other grain exporting countries, thereby rendering the embargo ineffective.

I would say that the only reason for the failure of such an embargo is the greediness of gargantuan capitalist companies. That is, to increase their profits, and therefore their capital, these companies do not hesitate to supply the means of victory to the inexorable enemy of all forms and degrees of capitalism and profit. Nothing could be more insane or repulsive as far as suicide is concerned.

Along with this deplorable example, Dermot Healy mentions a truly enlightening fact: the only noteworthy opposition to the grain sales came from Amer­ican longshoremen who, for a time, refused to load grain destined for Russia.

These workers showed more good sense and a better notion of their duty and rights than the "toads," that is, the moneyed bourgeoisie, who are by no means hostile to communism but very hostile to anticommunism.

Behold the toads, always indefatigably destroying themselves, indifferent and even hostile to those who, like the longshoremen, try to defend an order of things without which the toads... wouldn't even be toads!

(*) “Folha de S. Paulo”, 16th October 1983

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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".  A toad American Toad (Bufo Americanus). Picture taken in Deep Creek Lake State Park in Maryland. Date; 3 August 2007(2007-08-03); Source; Own work; Author; Aneta Kaluzna

Obama hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality

Associated Press - 6/30/2009 7:30:00 AM

Associated Press smallObama LGBT quoteWASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama says that while he's dedicated to expanding homosexual rights, many Americans still cling to what he calls "worn arguments and old attitudes."

At a White House celebration of Gay Pride Month, Obama said he hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality. ""There are good and decent people in this country who don't yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters -- not yet," said the president. "That's why I've spoken about these issues -- not just in front of you -- but in front of unlikely audiences, in front of African-American church members."

Obama acknowledged that many Americans still disapprove of homosexuality. "There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes," he stated.

Full story here:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=585846

Catholic balance: source of joy and calm in the Light Ages

Ávila, muralhas. Glória da Idade Média
(The walled city of Avila, Spain.)
 
There is something that speaks of battle and war in the walls of the cathedrals and castles and cities of the Middle Ages.

At the same time, these walls express something of balance and harmony, and joy of soul.

The famous walls of Avila were built to repel the Moorish invasions.  The walls are high, the towers are strong - they express days of tragedy.

From the top of one of these towers, you can imagine the sentries watching, from afar, the advance detachment of an Arab army that was approaching.

Here they prepared for an arduous fight, to defend the city from a rough siege, with all the dangers and risks involved in siege warfare of the time.


Ávila, muralhas. Glória da Idade Média

The Spanish defenders could lose the city and be enslaved by the Moors.  Husband and wife, for example, could be enslaved and sold in different markets and never see one another again.  Parents could see their children killed before their eyes.  Worst of all, they could be deprived of the Sacraments.

In the immoral and degraded civilization of the Moors, the occasions of sin were everywhere.

The captive ran the risk of dying without contrition for sin and end up in Hell.  Therefore, at the moment of battle, the mouth of hell could open for those who fought with heroism.

On the other hand, we see balance of soul expressed by those walls, and expressed in the dignity of those who faced all risks with Faith.  And this calm dignity seems to transmit joy to the very stones that shine in the light of the brilliant afternoon sun.

What equilibrium!


Ordem e alegria medieval, Glória da Idade Média

The virtue of equilibrium was the cornerstone of the happiness of the Middle Ages.

In this equilibrium, all licit states of soul were balanced and lived side by side in harmony.

As a result, the soul felt secure, calm, and grounded.   The soul had the psychological distance to consider beautiful things, ultimately reaching the consideration of Our Lady and God.

This equilibrium was the starting for all the great joy, heroism and sanctity of the Middle Ages.

It is this equilibrium, therefore, that Catholics should strive for more than anything else.

Search for this equilibrium and you will have the happiness of the Middle Ages and of the Holy Catholic Church.

by Plinio Correa de Oliveira, taken and translated and adapted by me from:

http://tudosobreidademedia.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

Authoritarian Regimes Censor News From Iran

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 27, 2009

BEIJING -- Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms.

Between 1988 and 1990, amid a lesser global economic slump, pro-democracy protests that appeared to inspire and energize one another broke out in Eastern Europe, Burma, China and elsewhere. Not all evolved into full-fledged revolutions, but communist regimes fell in a broad swath of countries, and the global balance of power shifted.

A similar infectiousness has shown up in subtle acts of defiance by democracy advocates around the world this week.

Full story here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062604343_pf.html

For Christians, Vietnam war rages

The Washington Times

Scott Johnson

Vietnam's "hidden" war on Christianity just rumbles along, and on March 13, the communist authorities demolished one of the first Christian churches built in Vietnam's Central Highlands. While religious persecution is nothing new to Vietnam, the significance of this demolition is particularly symbolic because the church was more than a historical landmark. The large stone Church at Buon Ma Thuot for the last 34 years had been deliberately closed by Vietnam's security police, and yet, all those years, the church remained a powerful symbol to the local indigenous Christians.

Unfortunately, the church was also an unwelcome reminder for the communists who had murdered a number of Christian missionaries near the grounds in 1968, and a reminder of the very movement the government is trying to eliminate. This movement, so hated by Hanoi, is nothing other than "independent" Christian house churches.

Thus, in the dead of night, with security forces keeping watch, heavy machinery came and brought the historic church toppling down. Word of this spread, and in mourning the loss on May 1, some 90,000 Degar Montagnards from 375 villages stopped everything and prayed for three days and nights. Security forces responded by making dozens of arrests of these tribal Christians, threatening them to cease their religious activities.

Full story here:

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/26/for-christiansvietnam-war-rages-will-obama-aid-ail/?feat=article_top10_read

Monday, June 29, 2009

Ireland grants rights to same-sex partnerships

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland recognized the legal rights of same-sex couples for the first time Friday in a civil partnership bill that gave people in long-term relationships many of the statutory rights of married couples.

But it stopped short of recognizing civil marriage. There are strong rights conferred to marriage under the constitution of the traditionally Catholic country, which was amended to lift a ban on divorce in 1995.

"This bill provides legal protection for cohabiting couples and is an important step, particularly for same-sex couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition by the state," Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said in a statement.

Full story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090626/wl_nm/us_ireland_partnership_1

Open House-Music Evening at TFP Center in France

Every year, TFP in France hosts a beautiful cultural open house with music, food and conviviality.

Here are some pictures from this year's event.

Marching band playing in front of the TFP center in Creutzwald, France.

Good food and drink helped the conversation get off to a great start.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Pictures from monthly rosary rally in Lafayette, Louisiana

Here is a picture of the Rosary Rally in Lafayette, June 26, at 7 PM, at the busy intersection Johnston and University next to the University of Louisiana.

MCS_3297

The next Monthly Rosary Rally will be held on July 31, which is a Friday, at 7PM at the same location. 

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Family in the Crossfire

A review of Taken into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family by Dr. Stephen Baskerville

Written by John Horvat II

Click the image to buy the book.

There is a war that is very little noted in the media. Like all modern wars, civil liberties and the lives of innocent bystanders, often small children, are at stake.

However, this war is not in some faraway land. It takes place inside America itself and is a war upon the family, especially fathers. In a well-documented 352-page book, Taken into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family, author Dr. Stephen Baskerville argues that a "divorce industry" favors America's epidemic of divorce, family breakdown, and fatherlessness.

Many factors enter into this war. One driving force is the infiltration of feminist ideas that have become institutionalized in modern family law. This makes possible a penal apparatus that has proven an "effective instrument for waging gender warfare on the most personal level." Because they represent the hated "patriarchy," fathers are often demonized and automatically labeled as official villains by many social workers.

Equally important is the psychological climate that has been created around the "crisis in the family." Dr. Baskerville claims the media has created certain myths that predispose people to accept these policies that supposedly looked after the welfare of children often caught in the middle of divorce or abuse.

One of the greatest myths is that of the "deadbeat dad" which is not only a myth but a hoax, the creation of government officials and lawyers plundering parents whose children they have taken away. In fact, no evidence indicates that large numbers of fathers are abandoning their children. The author further documents the "hysterical propaganda" about domestic violence is destroying families, endangering children, and making criminals of innocent parents.

The result of feminist ideology, media myths and no-fault divorce policies is a government-run system tearing apart families, separating children from fit and loving parents, confiscating the wealth of families, and turning law-abiding citizens into criminals in ways they are powerless to avoid.

The evidence is overwhelming, and the author takes great pains to cite tragic real life cases. Family courts and feminist-influenced bureaucracies trample basic civil liberties, entering homes uninvited and taking away people's children at will, then throwing the parents into jail without any form of due process or trial.

Worst of all, parents and especially fathers accused of abuse or domestic abuse are themselves victims that are seemingly guilty until proven innocent.

Raising a family in these modern times is hard enough in today's hostile culture. Dr. Baskerville's devastating indictment of the divorce industry only highlights just how difficult, if not miraculous, it is that families survive at all in the crossfire of a brutal yet unacknowledged war on the family.

STEPHEN BASKERVILLE, Ph.D., is assistant professor of government at Patrick Henry College. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and is a Fellow at the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society.

ISBN-10: 1-58182-594-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-58182-594-7
$24.95, Hardcover

Friday, June 26, 2009

Statues can build or destroy the concept of God in our souls

Humans beings are made up of body and soul.  That is why we need concrete examples or parables to grasp things that we cannot grasp by theory alone. 
And human nature longs for a good fit between ideas and the symbols that match those ideas.
This explains the role of statues in the Catholic religion.  They provide us with something concrete to match the idea we have in our minds, to complete, for example, the idea we have of the Sacred Persons of Our Lord and Our Lady.
This also explains why, among other reasons, Our Lord wished to stamp His Face on the Holy Shroud, which is perhaps the greatest relic in Christendom after the  True Cross.

          

When we contemplate the Sacred Face, we see most precious elements to grasp the Majesty and Severity of Our Lord, as well as the seriousness with which we should consider His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

                    

Above is a statue of Our Lord, which is beautiful yet inferior to the Holy Shroud in strength.  This statue helps us understand the goodness and patience that Our Lord has towards us sinners.  It helps us to hope for Our Lord's forgiveness, and, therefore, for the day when He will receive us by His mercy into Heaven for all eternity.

This statue strengthens and confirms our faith.

Can we say the same about the statue shown below?

Who would dare say this statue strengthens our faith?  That it helps to make our idea of Our Lord more grand and majestic?  That it attracts us to Him?  That it gives us the desire to stay at His side?

Absolutely not!

At least for me, this statue is repugnant.  It stifles in my soul the true and authentic concept of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is attempt to smother my filial piety and adoration for Our Lord in the tabernacle of my soul.

By making these comments, I am not judging anyone.  This is a simple commentary on a statue made by human hands.  It brings me to conclude that it has an effect on my soul, which is the opposite of what it should have.

Where is the statue from?

It is from the main altar in the new basilica of Fatima, Portugal.  At the site where Our Lady appeared six times.  Where God worked the Miracle of the Sun, with the intention to bring mankind to conversion, to make us listen to Our Lady's message, and to make us love Our Lord more and more.

This statue is a sad contradiction with the Fatima message.

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This commentary was taken and adapted and translated by me from:

http://resistirnafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/imagens-pro-e-contra-deus.html

Modesty of Dress and the Love of God: An Effective Way to Defend the Family

Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo

The Face of Vulgarity.

“I love vulgarity. Good taste is death, vulgarity is life."[1] These words by English fashion designer Mary Quant, who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants, reveal one of the most important, though rarely pointed out, aspects of the “fashion revolution” that started in the sixties: vulgarity.


Indeed, fashions have increasingly tended toward vulgarity. It is a vulgarity that tramples upon not only good taste and decorum but which reflects a mentality opposed to all order and discipline and to every kind of restraint, be it esthetic, moral or social, and which ultimately suggests a completely “liberated” standard of behavior.

Are Comfort and Practicality Supreme Criteria?

The rationale for introducing ever shorter skirts was “to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus.”[2] The notion that comfort, practicality and freedom of movement must be the only criteria for dress has led to a breakdown in the general standard of sobriety and elegance, not to speak of the norms of modesty.

Thus, casual dress, being more comfortable and practical, increasingly becomes the norm regardless of people’s sex, age and circumstances. Jeans and the T-shirt (formerly a piece of underwear) became part of common attire.

Though one can wear less formal clothes at times of leisure, these clothes should not convey the impression that one is abandoning one’s dignity and seriousness. They should not give the idea that one is actually on vacation from one's principles.

In the past, even leisure dress, though more comfortable, maintained the dignity that one should never abandon.

It is curious to note that many companies require employees to wear business suits to convey an image of seriousness and responsibility. This is proof that clothes do transmit a message. They can express seriousness and responsibility or on the other hand, immaturity and a carelessness.

Unisex Garb

The premise that comfort and practicality must preside over the choice of clothes had yet another consequence: clothes no longer reflect one's identity. In other words, they no longer indicate a person’s social position, profession, or even more fundamental characteristics such as sex and age.

Thus, unisex garb has become widespread: jeans and shorts have come to be worn by people of both sexes and all generations.

Young men and women, the youth and the aged, single and married, teachers and students, children and adults, all mix together and wear one and the same clothing which no longer expresses that which they are, think or desire.


The Habit Does Not Make the Monk but Identifies Him
One could object that “the habit does not make the monk.” The fact that a person dresses with distinction and elegance does not mean, of itself, that he has good principles and good behavior. Likewise, the fact that a person always wears casual dress does not necessarily indicate that he has bad principles or a reprehensible conduct. At first sight, the argument appears logical and even obvious.

 

 

However, analyzed in depth, it does not stand.

True, the habit does not make the monk. Nevertheless, it is a strong element that identifies him. Furthermore, it influences not only the way people look at the monk but the way he looks at himself. No one will deny that the loss of identity by many nuns and monks that took place over the last forty years was largely due to their shedding the traditional habits, which adequately expressed the spirit of poverty, chastity and obedience, as well as an ascetic lifestyle proper to consecrated persons.[3]

The Need for Coherence Between Dress and Convictions

Given the unity that exists in our tendencies, principles, convictions and behavior, the way we dress cannot fail to influence our mentality.

Wearing a certain type of clothing constitutes a form of behavior; and when clothing no longer adequately reflect our tendencies, principles and convictions, one’s mentality begins to undergo an imperceptible change to remain ‘in sync’ with the way one presents oneself. This is because human reason, by the force of logic inherent in it, naturally seeks to establish consistency between thought and behavior.

This rule is magnificently summed up in the famous phrase of French writer Paul Bourget: "One must live as one thinks, under pain of sooner or later ending up thinking as one has lived."

The process of transformation or erosion of principles can be slowed down or impeded by a person’s religious fervor, deeply rooted tendencies or ideas, and other factors. However, if inconsistency between behavior - reflected in the way one dresses - and one’s principles and convictions is not eliminated, the process of erosion, no matter how slow, becomes inexorable.

The beautiful, simple, and modest dress of the Belle Epoque.

Living Faith, Inadequate Clothing

This subtle erosion is often manifested by a loss of sensitivity regarding the fundamental points of one’s mentality. One example would be the respect one must have for the sacred.

In some way, concessions to the principle that comfort must be the only rule of dress have ended up by giving a casual note to more serious and holy activities. How can one explain, for example, that persons who have true faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and who make admirable sacrifices to frequent perpetual adoration, nevertheless see no contradiction in presenting themselves before the Blessed Sacrament wearing shorts as if they were on a picnic?

The same person who shows up thus dressed for perpetual adoration would never don those clothes for an audience, say, with Queen Elizabeth II. This contradiction shows how, though the person has maintained his faith, to a certain degree the notion of the majesty of the Sacrament of the Altar -- the Real Presence -- has vanished from his soul.

Egalitarianism...

There is a general tendency in our times to establish a most radical egalitarianism at all levels of culture and social relations between the sexes, and even, in the tendency of egalitarianianism, between men and animals.[4]

In dress, this egalitarianism is manifested by the growing proletarianization, the establishment of unisex fashions and the abolition of differences between generations. The same garb can be worn by anybody no matter his position, age or circumstance (e.g. in a trip, a religious or civil ceremony).

Chaos reigns in the domains of fashion today. It is often difficult to distinguish, by their clothes, men from women, parents from children, a religious ceremony from a picnic. Haircuts and hairstyles follow the same tendency to confound age and sex and to break down standards of elegance and good taste.

...That Leads to Infantilization

One of the aspects that stand out the most in the modern dictates of fashion is the desire to create an illusion of eternal youth, even perpetual adolescence with no responsibility, a phenomenon that has been called the “Peter Pan Syndrome."[5]

Modern fashion shows a tendency to infantilize people.  A Brazilian fashion critic thus expressed herself: “For a long time now, we have seen on catwalks, both international and domestic, fashions that should be displayed at the Children’s Expo, such is the level of infantilization they suggest. Stylists over 25 years old were designing (and wearing) clothes that could be worn by children in a day care center.”[6]


Modesty is Essential to Chastity

In addition to the extravagant, egalitarian and infantilizing tendency of modern fashion, one needs to consider the attack on virtue and the complete lack of modesty.

The human body has its beauty, and this beauty attracts us. Due to the disorder which Original Sin left in man, the disorder of concupiscence, the delight in contemplating bodily beauty, and particularly of the feminine body can lead to temptation and sin.

That is not to say that some parts of the body are good and can be shown and others are bad and must be covered.  Such a statement is absurd and was never part of Church doctrine.  All parts of the body are good, for the body is good as a whole, having been created by God. However, not all body parts are equal, and some excite the sexual appetite more than others. Thus, exposing those parts through semi-nudity or risqué low cut dresses or wearing clothes so tight as to accentuate one’s anatomy poses a grave risk of causing excitation, particularly in men in relation to women.

Therefore, clothes must cover that which must be covered and make stand out that which can be emphasized. To cover a woman’s face, like Muslims do, shows well the lack of equilibrium of a religion that does not understand true human dignity. The face, the noblest part of the body because it more perfectly reflects the spiritual soul, is precisely the part that stands out the most in the traditional habits of nuns.

Just as masculine clothes should emphasize the manly aspect proper to man, feminine fashion should manifest grace and delicacy. And in this sense, having longer hair is a natural adornment to frame a woman’s face.

Immorality in Fashions and Destruction of the Family

Garb that does not show a person’s self-respect as an intelligent and free being (and, through baptism, as a son or daughter of God and a temple of the Holy Ghost), contributes to a large extent to the present destruction of the family. It does this by favoring temptations against purity. It also does this by its vulgarity and childishness that corrodes the notion of the seriousness of life and the need for ascesis (self-discipline), all of which are fundamental elements that maintain family cohesion and stability.

The struggle for the restoration of the family by opposing abortion, contraception, and homosexuality will be much more effective if done together with efforts to restore sobriety, modesty and elegance in dress.

Dress and the Love of God

The role of clothing is not only to protect the body from the elements but also to serve as adornment and symbolize someone’s functions, characteristics and mentality. Garb must be not only dignified and decent but also as beautiful and elegant as possible (which requires more good taste than money).

If the “way of beauty” leads us to God by seeing Him as the exemplary cause of Creation, the “way of ugliness” turns us away from the Creator and places us on the slippery slope of sin. That is why ugliness is the very symbol of sin and is so well expressed by the expression “ugly as sin.”

Footnotes:

  1. Mary Quant talks to Alison Adburgham, Tuesday, October 10, 1967, http://century.guardian.co.uk/1960-1969/Story/0,6051,106475,00.html.
  2. Cf., http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/mary-quant/
  3. Fortunately, for some time now there has been a wholesome reaction against the abandonment of the traditional habit, a fact that has brought an increase in the number of vocations. According to a recently published book, “communities of sisters whose members wear an identifiable religious habit” are the most flourishing and attract young women the most. (Book says young women attracted to orders whose members wear habits, CNS, http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20090526.htm).
  4. Cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, http://www.tfp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=691&Itemid=107.
  5. Cf. Dr. Dan Kiley, The Peter Pan Syndrome - Men Who Have Never Grown Up, Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1983.
  6. Gloria Kalil, Os kidults e a moda Alô Chics! http://chic.ig.com.br/site/secao.php?secao_id=1&materia_id=867.

Modesty, God and protecting the family

Did you ever come back from the store and think -- why are so many fashions terribly immodest or just vulgar?  Did you ever wonder?


It’s a good question which TFP author Luis Solimeo talks about in a recent article, Modesty of Dress and the Love of God: An Effective Way to Defend the Family.

Read more about modesty here.

The article makes a powerful point: The struggle for the restoration of the family will be much more effective if done together with efforts to restore sobriety, modesty and elegance in dress.

There something else I wanted to send you – a marvelous poem by Saint Teresa of Avila.  It’s really a short treatise on the love of God.  Please tell me if you like it.   Send your comments to mail@tfpstudentaction.org.

Read Saint Teresa’s beautiful poem here.

TFP Student Action is on Facebook.  If you also have a facebook account, please visit our page and become a “fan.”
It only takes about two seconds to click on the fan button.

Court Upholds VA Partial-Birth Abortion Ban - Judge Says Future Generations Will "Shudder"

RICHMOND, VA, June 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled Wednesday to uphold the constitutionality of Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban. The full court reversed a previous decision by a three-judge panel that determined the ban was unconstitutional.
In the opinion issued Wednesday, the 4th Circuit concluded that "little or no evidence" exists to suggest the ban would prevent other types of abortions from being performed without subjecting doctors to criminal liability.

The court wrote, "To hold the Virginia Act facially unconstitutional for all circumstances based on the possible rare circumstance presented ... is not appropriate under any standard for facial challenges. Moreover, the Virginia Act ... provides sufficient clarity as to what conduct is prohibited to enable a doctor of reasonable intelligence to avoid criminal liability under it, and therefore the Virginia Act is constitutional."
In his concurring opinion, Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote, "The fact is that we - civilized people - are retreating to the haven of our Constitution to justify dismembering a partly born child and crushing its skull. Surely centuries hence, people will look back on this gruesome practice done in the name of fundamental law by a society of high achievement. And they will shudder."

"No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless. Virginia has legitimately chosen to protect innocent life from a terrible procedure, and the court was right to uphold Virginia's law," said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence. The ADF provided funding for friend-of-the-court briefs for the case.

"The decision of the three-judge panel conflicted significantly with the Supreme Court's ruling two years ago that upheld the federal law banning partial birth abortion," he continued.

In light of its decision to uphold the federal partial birth abortion ban in Carhart v. Gonzales, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 4th Circuit panel to reexamine its initial Sept. 7, 2007, decision that found the Virginia ban unconstitutional. The review resulted in a 2-1 split-panel decision, handed down May 20, which also ruled the ban as unconstitutional. Virginia then asked the entire 4th Circuit to hear the case.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062501.html

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Animals are symbols...for those with eyes to see

I am disgusted with the way some left-wing eco-fringe reporters in the media today write about animals.
                
They refer to animals with the regard and consideration normally given to human beings alone.  Their columns on animals read like society news, or they print banal and insipid comments as captions for animal photos, such as:

Giant panda eats watermelon; or...

Eight month old gorilla


Please -- are their minds so empty and hollow?

In contrast, I share some comments of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira about the cat.

          

The mystery in a cat:

“The reactions that cats awaken in men are varied.  They range from extreme antipathy to extreme sympathy, and include the many degrees of  antipathy and sympathy which are between these two extreme positions.

"This is because the cat is an animal extraordinarily rich in aspects; it has everything.

"Tiger in miniature, the cat is a small beast that at times expresses itself by suddenly clawing, biting, jumping; scaring, and turning everything upside down.

"But when its ferocious side subsides, the cat shows its other side; lively and charming, delicate and classy in its movements, expressive in its attitudes, caressing, tender and cozy, in sum, a living bibelot.

"However, this living bibelot has no airs of bagatelle, inseparable even from the finest bibelots.  This is because in its gaze, which has something magnetic and unfathomable, of reserved and enigmatic, the can reserves the terrible and attractive superiority of mystery."

(Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Primeval Innocence and the Sacral Contemplation of the Order of the Universe, pg. 225)

Article taken in part and translated by Robert Ritchie from: http://resistirnafe.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

On Christ the King

"A heavenly King above all, But a King whose government is already exercised in this world. A King who by right possesses the supreme and full authority. The King makes laws, commands and judges. His sovereignty becomes effective when his subjects recognize his rights, and obey his laws.

    King of Kings

"Jesus Christ has rights over us all: He made laws, he governs the world and will judge men. It is our responsibility to make the kingdom of Christ effective by obeying its laws.

"This kingdom is an individual fact, if it is considered in regards to the obedience every loyal soul gives to Our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the kingdom of Christ is exercised over souls; and therefore the soul of each one of us is a part of the territory under the jurisdiction of Christ the King. The kingdom of Christ will be a social fact if human societies obey him. It can therefore be said that the kingdom of Christ becomes effective on earth, in its individual and social sense, when men in the intimate of their souls and in their actions conform to the law of Christ and societies do so in their institutions, laws, customs, cultural and artistic aspects."

"This quote of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira is from 'Crusader of the 20th Century' by Prof. Roberto de Mattei.)

Bishop and Mayor Clash Over Homosexual 'Pride' Events

By Hilary White

ROME, June 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An outspoken French bishop has clashed with local civic authorities over their promotion of the heavily anti-religious Gay Pride demonstrations held in his area on June 20, calling them "yet another official offence aimed at the Catholic Church."

Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne issued a press release June 18th, calling the Gay Pride events in the city of Biarritz in south-western France, "blasphemous" and an act of contempt for the "Catholic Faith and religious life that so strongly characterizes the soul, culture, and traditions of the Basque region." He singled out the presence of the anti-Catholic group "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," whose members dress in bizarre sexualized mock nuns' habits.

In a letter to Biarritz mayor, translated and published by the weblog Rorate Caeli, Bishop Aillet expressed his "profound incredulity" that the event was being allowed. He called the demonstrations, which he said are "made by groups who are for the most part outsiders in the city of Biarritz," "disruptive," and deplored the fact that they expose children and young people to "aggressive displays" of "sexual license." These, he said "can only have a negative effect on social morality and the common sense of the majority of our citizens."

"I cannot even imagine how Muslims and Jews would react if the symbols of their religious traditions were used in this way."

In response, Mayor Didier Borotra bluntly told the bishop to mind his own business. "I was ashamed to read your letter of June 18," he wrote. Borotra said that the bishop is obviously "not familiar with the laws of the Republic" under which the Gay Pride events are protected.

"As a politician I do not meddle in the affairs of the Church and I advise you to do the same concerning the affairs of City Hall." The mayor went on to say that he and the bishop "do not share the same concept of freedom of speech and public demonstration."

In his press release, the bishop said, "The Church intends to defend and promote, in all circumstances, the family, founded on marriage between persons of different sexes and the right of every child to be raised by a father and a mother."

He said while the Church rejects the claims of the homosexualist movement, it "eminently respects" persons with homosexual inclinations "with care and compassion for the suffering and difficulties that are so often theirs."

Aillet, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the diocese of Bayonne last year, is becoming known as one of France's most outspoken Catholic bishops on life and family issues.

A mere six months after his installation, the 52 year-old Bishop Aillet blasted the French government for promoting the "barbarism" of embryonic stem cell research. In a statement in May, he accused the French Estates General on bioethics, in its endorsement of embryo research, of promoting "a violence committed against every human being and definitively against God."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

French Bishop Condemns Government Legal Body for Promoting "Barbarism" of Embryo Research

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062402.html

Slovakia: Worldwide Prolife Support to Slovak Parliament Defeats Abortionists

Contact: Estelle Duval, Familiokratos Coalition, +32495257444

BRATISLAVA, June 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- Informed consent before abortion has been adopted by the Slovak Parliament establishing a mandatory counseling requirement, a 3 days waiting period, and mandatory parental/guardian consent requirements for minors within the current Slovak abortion law.

International abortion groups' pressure, coordinated by the US based pro-abortion network "center for reproductive rights", called for rejection of the amendment claiming that it was "in conflict with women's rights to privacy, physical integrity and autonomy, confidentiality, health, and non-discrimination." A letter signed by 19 pro-abortion organizations/networks and 7 individuals was sent to all Slovak policy makers, quoting the World Health Organization: "Parental notification or authorization is considered a requirement that deters women from seeking timely care and may lead them to risk self-induced abortion or clandestine services", and also quoting the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

A couple of days before the vote, more than 80 organizations and 53 individuals from all over the world, alerted by the Familiokratos Coalition complimented all Slovak policy makers, stressing that: "the right to life is consistent with the legal rights afforded to mother and child by such binding international instruments as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, European Convention of Human Rights, and European Social Charter"; that "Informed consent laws have been internationally accepted as not placing an undue burden on a woman seeking to procure an abortion. Nor do reflection periods increase health risks to women seeking abortions.", "As many as 85 % of women surveyed feel that they were misinformed or denied relevant information during their pre-abortion counseling", and finally, that "While international abortion groups seek to put pressure on this Parliament to restrict a woman's choice, it is paramount that abortion is not a human right under European law and that individual States have the sole authority to determine the protections they wish to afford to life and to women's health".

The amendment has been adopted by 87 Members of Parliament voting for and only 7 against.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=10742

World Health Organization, Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems, Geneva, 2003, p.90

ECHR, Tysiąc v. Poland, no. 5410/03, § 116, ECHR 2007.

David Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987)pp 16-17, 335

ECHR, Vo v. France, application number 53924/00, judgment of 08/07/2004.

"Our Finest Hour": Chris Smith Invokes Churchill's Words in Keynote Pro-Life Address

By Peter J. Smith

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, June 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While the situation may look bleak for the pro-life movement, one Congressman has stated that the current time of crisis for pro-life advocates may actually be recorded in history as their "finest hour."

"You are the conscience of a nation that has lost its way," said Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) in a keynote address at the 37th convention of the National Right to Life Committee last weekend.

Smith, one of the most outspoken defenders of the right to life in Congress, praised the delegates gathered for their unflagging efforts to "admonish our country to embrace life and hope." He thanked them for "devoting your lives, your talent, your time and your money to defending generations of unborn children, their moms, their dads, the frail elderly and the disabled (like Terri Schiavo), most of whom you will never meet, at least not in this life."

The Congressman then turned to address what he called the "string of setbacks" suffered by the pro-life movement in the five short months of the administration of President Barack Obama.

"With all his gifts and charisma, it is tragic beyond words that Mr. Obama has chosen to promote the culture of death, and in record time has made the White House the wholly owned subsidiary of the abortion lobby," Smith said.

But despite the adversity faced by the pro-life cause and the promise of worse to come, Smith exhorted the delegates to "resolve to stop his misguided abortion agenda."

"This can and must be our finest hour," Smith declared, evoking the immortal words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who rallied the British people to brace themselves on the eve of the Battle of Britain to resist the indomitable forces of Nazi Germany. In that "finest hour" speech, Churchill told the British people that upon them "depends the survival of Christian civilization." The 69th anniversary of that speech, given June 18, 1940, had passed just two days before Smith's keynote address.

"At precisely the same time as President Obama continues to assiduously assure Americans, including graduates at Notre Dame last month, that he wants to reduce abortion at home and abroad, his administration is aggressively seeking to reverse virtually every modest pro-life law ever enacted or policy promulgated since Roe v. Wade," said Smith.

Smith explained that aggressive efforts to promote abortion were proceeding rapidly through the repeal of pro-life policies and laws, the refusal to renew funding for pro-life legislative riders, key personnel appointments, funding and lobbying abortion abroad, and restructuring health care to shore up a failing abortion industry.

"Personnel is policy," Smith observed, pointing to two examples that illustrate the extreme pro-abortion character of the administration: Dawn Johnson, a former NARAL lawyer, who called pregnant women "fetal containers," and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who praised the work of eugenicist and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, saying her leadership was "one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race and that Sanger's work both here and abroad was not done."

Smith stated that he asked Clinton how she could be in "awe" of Sanger, a racist, enemy of the poor, and population control advocate, who stated, "the most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it," and who called maternal health care for poor pregnant women both "nearsighted" and "stupid cruelty."

Smith recounted that Clinton also expressed candidly to him that the term "reproductive health" included abortion and that the Obama administration was "entitled" to advocate abortion all over the world.

"Thus it is abundantly clear a new, dark chapter in the Global push for unfettered abortion has commenced," stated Smith pointing to statements from US representatives to the UN that the federal government would now strive to achieve "universal access to reproductive health and the promotion of reproductive rights."

Smith pointed to the plight of women in China, saying that thanks to Obama's decision to donate $50 million to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the US will begin supporting one of "the most pervasive crimes against women in human history."

"China's one-child-per-couple policy relies on coerced abortion, involuntary sterilization, ruinous fines in amounts up to ten times the salary of both parents, imprisonment, and job loss or demotion to achieve its quotes," said Smith, who also observed that these efforts were being achieved with the direct complicity of UNFPA.

"Population control blames children for bad governance and the misuse and misallocation of resources," warned Smith. "If you want to know where that worldview takes us, just look at China."

In the United States, Smith said, the upcoming battle over universal health care will also become a battle to resist the imposition of taxpayer funded abortions and the forcing of physicians to perform abortions they are otherwise reluctant to provide. Smith said that under the current legislation shaping up under the Obama/Kennedy health care plan, a presidential advisory council will determine what services will be mandated under the new law, and, without any legislative guarantees, it will most certainly include abortion.

"We know that if the children and at risk persons in America and the world are to survive the newest aggression against their lives, you and I have no other option but to fight," said Smith, explaining that efforts must be redoubled and new activists recruited, especially among the young, both in the United States and overseas.

"This is no time for quitters or the faint of heart," concluded Smith.

"I truly believe that this will someday be regarded as our finest hour, when against overwhelming odds, we stood firm and overcame evil with good."

For the full text of the address click here.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062410.html

Total Breakdown in NY Senate Stalls Homosexual "Marriage" and Abortion Resolution

By Peter J. Smith

ALBANY, June 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite having been ordered into special session by Gov. David Patterson, the battle for control of New York's senate has now devolved into a vicious political bedlam that has no memorable precedent in the state's political history. The situation puts in legal limbo two bills: one to legalize same-sex "marriage" and another to codify Roe v. Wade in state law.

Both the Republican coalition and the Democratic caucus still claim the Senate's leadership for themselves, but their compliance with the governor's order yesterday took the form of each side conducting their own respective legislative sessions in the same Senate chambers - at the same time. Both claim that the presence of the other side gives them quorum to conduct business, but in the chaos each side shouted over each other, and the leaders of both camps claim that the other side's "silence" implies consent on the measures that they each pass separately.

That situation, however, places the legal validity of bills passed by either session in grave doubt. That would include not only the same-sex "marriage" bill, but also the Reproductive Health Act, which would have codified Roe v. Wade in New York State law. Abortion advocates once confident of its passage, are crying foul now that the bill's fate appears effectively dead thanks to the June 8 Republican coup.

Today Democrats actually staked out the Senate chambers early in the morning and called the special five minute session to order to call into question Patterson's legal authority to call the Senate without the Assembly as well into an extraordinary session. They then lambasted Republicans for refusing to show up at all in the Senate chambers before finally adjourning at 3:07 p.m. declaring their intention to go home.

Patterson had ordered the senate today to vote on same-sex "marriage" as the first bill out of ten for today's agenda for the Senate. The governor's list had made clear that same-sex "marriage" is a priority, ranking above a measure to impose spending caps, and a farm workers bill of rights.

But Patterson's decree enraged Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. (D-Bronx), an evangelical Hispanic and the most outspoken defender of traditional marriage in the Senate. The Bronx Democrat made clear that while he had loyalty to his party, he would do something "big" if the Democratic caucus attempted to bring the bill to a vote, leaving open the possibility that he might defect to the GOP caucus.

As of today's adjournment no vote has occurred on the same-sex "marriage" bill.

So the Senate continues to remain divided evenly 31 - 31 between Democrats and the Republican coalition led by Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) claiming the position of "Senate President pro tem" and Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Long Island) claiming the title "Majority Leader." Democrats disagree and say their "caucus leader," Sen. John L. Sampson (D- Brooklyn), deserves both titles. Democrats decided to sacrifice Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) as their leader in order to lure back Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) into their caucus, although Smith technically remains their titular leader.

The battle over the Senate's leadership would ordinarily not be a problem in case of a tie, but New York has not had a lieutenant governor (who would normally cast a tie-breaking vote) since Patterson left that post to replace disgraced governor Eliot Spitzer, who had been caught in a sex scandal involving a prostitution ring under federal investigation.

Legal action seems inevitable, including a constitutional crisis with Patterson threatening to take the legislature to court in order to force a resolution. The State Supreme Court justice in Albany, Thomas McNamara has pleaded for both sides to resolve the matter within the legislature in order to avoid the precedent of the judiciary intervening in the government of the legislative branch.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062408.html

Send Your Boys to the Call to Chivalry Camp

Written In Stone: Dates of TFP Call to Chivalry Camps

It's official. The dates for our 2009 TFP Call to Chivalry Camps have actually long been set. I am now just getting around to announcing it. I am told there are still places available for young men aged 13-18. The first camp is in Louisiana from June 30-July 10.

That's next week!

The second camp is set in Pennsylvania at the TFP-staffed St. Louis de Montfort Academy north of Harrisburg. It is set for August 9-20.

Here are some links that give you an idea of what to expect.
Louisiana
Pennsylvania

If you are interested in the camps, please call Cesar Franco at 717-521-8013 or email him at cfranco@tfp.org.



The theme of this year's camps is the Cristeros in Mexico.
Don't miss this opportunity.  (Click the rosary picture to read the caption)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

U.S. Public Television to Disallow Any New Religious Programming

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Kathleen Gilbert

ARLINGTON, Virginia, June 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a move some consider a "phasing out" of publicly broadcast religious content, Leaders of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have issued regulations disallowing any new "sectarian" shows to be added to its repertoire, reports FOX News.

While the six stations that currently broadcast heavily religious shows, such as the popular Catholic Mass broadcasts, will not need to drop their programs, none of the 350 other stations will be allowed to begin airing such content.

The new decision enforces a loosely-applied 1985 policy prohibiting commercial, partisan, or sectarian content.

Though federal law does not prohibit such programming, the broadcasting company is avowedly cracking down on religious content in order to avoid an appearance of endorsement.

According to a report in the Current, the Station Services Committee that re-examined broadcasting policy earlier this year said it was necessary to embrace the old prohibitions against commercial, political, and sectarian programming, since by carrying such programs “PBS could be hampered in its ability to carry out its mission.”

Because PBS “places a high value on presenting diverse perspectives, as opposed to rigidly adhering to any single political or religious point of view,” allowing such programming “would cause the public’s trust in PBS to erode, along with the value of the brand," said the committee.

However, Station Services Committee Chair Jennifer Lawson told Current that the board did not consider a show like Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, or the documentary Walking the Bible, to be too sectarian.

Religious groups have responded by saying that what the PBS board calls "sectarian," is simply programming that reflects the interests and needs of individual communities.

"This is community-based, locally produced programming that fills a community need," said Susan Gibbs, Communications Director for the Archdiocese of Washington, which broadcasts a weekly Mass on the local station.

The Archdiocese of Washington will have to spend around $60,000 to move its Sunday Mass broadcast to a private station, after local member station WHUT in February called off the broadcast in expectation of a harsher policy from the PBS board.

Gibbs told LifeSiteNews.com today that although WHUT verbally reversed the decision late yesterday, the archdiocese had already signed a contract elsewhere. "At the same time, it means coming up with funding in a tight economy," noted Gibbs.

In responding to the news, the Catholic League claimed that the "in-house conversation" over religious programming began in 2005, when PBS faced heat for running a Christmas-themed show and a show about the Bible.

"It never takes much to push secular buttons, but caving in to the voices of intolerance is shameful," said the League in a press release.

"That the religious gag rule is taking place in the age of Obama is not something that has escaped our notice. The stench is unmistakable.”

 www.LifeSiteNews.com.

Devout [Catholic] nurse quits job over crucifix ban

By James Woodward, Press Association

A Christian [Catholic] hospital worker who was ordered to remove a crucifix "which could harbour infection" has left her job in protest.

Devout Helen Slatter, 43, was told by Gloucestershire Royal Hospital the necklace posed a health and safety risk and could even be used as weapon.

Ms Slatter, a blood sampler - or phlebologist - was not content to accept the hospital's offer that she wear the emblem in her pocket and has now resigned.

The mother of one said she was not willing to choose between her job and her religion, despite the NHS trust insisting the issue was about safety, not faith.

Full story here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/devout-nurse-quits-job-over-crucifix-ban-1714887.html

The Important Mission of the Nobility and Analogous Elites in Our Day

In 1993, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was interviewed by "Catolicismo".  In the course of the interview on his latest work, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites, the author provides penetrating insights into the critical mission of the elites, which we are privileged to present to our readers. 

                image

The interview originally appeared in the July 1993 issue of the prestigious Brazilian monthly.

Catolicismo - Why did you select the nobility as the subject of your latest book?

PCO - It seems to me that public opinion towards the nobility is much less marked by the errors of the French Revolution today than it was even a short while ago.

As time goes by, we can see that the errors of the Revolution of 1789 are getting old and a bit outdated. This is not to say that they are no longer extensive, but they are less widespread than they were in the past, and are growing less and less so.

Accordingly, it is interesting to address this topic at the very time this historic transition is taking place, since the nobility was at the center of the thoughts, agitations, and virtually all the crimes of the French Revolution.

Catolicismo - What role do you attribute to the nobility today?

PCO - It is not really a matter of attributing a role to the nobility, but rather of acknowledging their role objectively in the panorama of contemporary life. The nobility still exists, its titles are being used, and its members are often the object of special consideration. And, along the line of what I said earlier, in many places the prestige of the nobility is on the rise.

What is the role of the nobility in our day? It is no longer the role that it played in the past, that of participating in some manner in governing the State, whether by governing lands wherein this social class exercised feudal power, or by having a leading role in affairs of capital importance to society and the State.

In the past, in every nation those accorded positions of importance were appointed from the nobility, an eminently military class. Nearly all military officers were nobles. The most elevated civil offices, such as diplomat and mag­istrate, were widely exercised by no­bles. These facts characterize the nobility as a very powerful class.

It happens that public opinion —­which had yet to be rendered a mass by the media, and by the many global ef­fects wrought by the industrial revolution—retained, to a large extent, an ap­preciation of the respectability inherent to each of the duties carried out by the nobility, and accordingly bestowed on them a high regard.

With the French Revolution, this changed drastically. The false revolutionary doctrine that the supreme rule of justice in human relationships is absolute equality between all was accepted as gospel by many. Whereby the egalitarian pressure of the Revolution produced immediate, often violent effects upon State and society, while simultaneously inducing gradual effects, primarily via propaganda in lieu of vio­lence.

In numerous States, political egalitarianism led to bloody coups, with the republic usurping the monarchy, and abolishing the duties of the nobility in the body politic.

In other States, egalitarianism advanced by slowly eroding the political powers of monarchs and aristocrats, reducing them to the rank of merely symbolic figures, as is the case of the King of Sweden or the British House of Lords in our day.

Catolicismo - And what of the social field?

PCO - The nobility's downfall in the political world naturally brought about a corresponding decline in the social order, as the exercise of power is itself a source of social prestige.

The significant changes in society, however, arose from scientific and economic factors. The rapid progress of the sciences, which began towards the end of the 18th century and persists, to a degree, today, prepared the ground for new technologies, applicable to any domain of human life. Consequently, the technology for agricultural, livestock and industrial production, together with the advent of new means of communi­cation and transport, etc., deeply influenced social customs—not only cus­toms, but the very structure of society. For some may deem the invention of a new means of production or the discov­ery of a scientific cure for a disease to be historic events of greater importance than a military victory.

Hence, the invention of the airplane or the telephone had greater importance in the history of the United States and the world, than many celebrated battles of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Add to this, the exercise of often highly profitable, if highly risky, professions, such as those strictly financial in character, and you have a picture of the paradigmatic shift that took place from a land, especially rural, based economy, to an urban, financial, indus­trial, and commercial economy. One can see that the professions that once bestowed wealth and prestige have declined to a lower level, to the advantage of the new professions amassed on the top.

Accordingly, the nobility, despite it's priceless abundance of principles, traditions, lifestyles, and ways of being, has lost a good part of it's influence, a loss cruelly felt by other social strata, subjected to life under the inelegant, at times cartoon-like influx of the nouveau riche.

Pius XII calls upon the nobility to use all the means yet at its disposal to coun­teract this baneful influence. The Pontiff expects the nobility to act on his call from a noble sense of duty to preserve and elevate religion, morality, and cul­ture—for it's own good, and for the good of all social classes, from the most modest worker to the richest tycoon.

Catolicismo - Is America a continent where truly traditional elites were formed?

PCO - Beyond a doubt. Till our days they exist in many countries in the Americas, from the poetic snows of Canada, which is still a monarchy, to the southernmost nations of the Conti­nent.

Catolicismo - Was the long preparation of this book necessitated by the extensive research it required?

PCO - The preparation was actually not that long. I began in 1989, and completed the first version in December 1991. The work was resumed in Feb­ruary of 1992, and the book was recently published in Portugal.

Catolicismo - Will it be published in other foreign countries as well?

PCO - An Italian edition has just been published by the Editora Marzorati, of Milan, as well as the Spanish Edition by Editora Fernando III, el Santo, of Ma­drid. Editions are presently in process in France, and in the United States.

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F l a n k e r; ({{Information |Description={{en|crown for the title of prince of the Holy Roman Empire}} |Source=self-made |Date=20 Apr. 2008 |Author= F l a n k e r |Permission={{cc-by-3.0}} |other_versions= }} Category:Heraldic crowns)

Sen. Dodd Comes Out in Favor of Same-Sex 'Marriage'

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a Roman Catholic, on Sunday declared he had changed his position on same-sex "marriage," and now calls law defining marriage between a man and a woman "archaic" and "unfair."  

“To my daughters, these couples are married simply because they love each other and want to build a life together," wrote Dodd on his Senate Web site. "That’s what we’ve taught them. The things that make those families different from their own pale in comparison to the commitments that bind those couples together.

"And, really, that’s what marriage should be. It’s about rights and responsibilities and, most of all, love."

Dodd said he believed that laws defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman will soon "seem as archaic, and as unfair, as the laws we once had against inter-racial marriage."

Dodd, who has a 100% NARAL pro-abortion rating, has drawn criticism for remaining active in the Catholic Church despite holding positions contradictory with fundamental Catholic teaching.

In response to Dodd's support for homosexual "marriage," Judie Brown of the American Life League renewed calls for bishops to take actions to remonstrate the senator, including the denial of Communion.

"I don't understand why these men can get away with this sort of frontal attack on the teachings of the Church and continue to receive Communion," Brown remarked to LifeSiteNews.com today. "It's just an abomination."

Earlier this month, Long Island Bishop William Murphy issued a strong rebuke against Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi after the Catholic politician said he had decided to support same-sex "marriage."  

"No Catholic is free to ignore or disregard this teaching," wrote the bishop, referring to the true definition of marriage. "It is normative in the formation of the conscience of every Catholic who seeks to be faithful to the Lord and qualify as a 'practicing Catholic.'

"In saying this, I am not singling out Mr. Suozzi. I am speaking to all Catholics in our diocese and beyond, reminding them that what we bishops teach is not ‘another opinion’ among many that Catholics may choose or not choose.

"Instead, such truths are 'non-negotiable,' binding on all of us who claim to be 'practicing Catholics.'"

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

NY Bishop Tells Politician: Same-Sex "Marriage" Stance is "Non-negotiable" for Practicing Catholic   http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062214.html

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062310.html

Video shows link between culture, sin and people going to Hell

On the VORTEX program, Michael Voris gives a great lesson about the need to fight the sinful culture around us.

http://www.realcatholictv.net/preview.php?videoID=1793

Apply what Saint John the Baptist said to Herod to today's state authorities

The natural moral law binds all people, in all times.  No State is above its precepts.  State authorities who enact or enforce same-sex “marriage” laws fail in their duty to uphold the common good.

To them can be addressed the words of Saint John the Baptist to King Herod: “It is not lawful for thee.” (Matt. 14:4; Mark 6:18)

File:Jesus-och-Herodes.jpg

Our Lord Jesus Christ before Herod Antipas, the same Herod that killed Saint John the Baptist.

PETA Opposes Killing Flies, but Has No “Specific Position" on Killing of Unborn Humans: Spokesman

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Calls pro-lifers "loathsome" and "hypocritical" for not condemning mistreatment of chickens

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to a spokesman for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA), which recently decried President Obama’s swatting of a fly during an interview, the organization urges "compassion even for the smallest and least of animals," but has no position on the killing of unborn human beings.

A spokesman for the organization told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview that it is "loathsome" and "grotesquely hypocritical" that pro-lifers oppose abortion, but are unconcerned about the mistreatment of chickens and other animals used in the food industry.

Asked about PETA's criticism of President Barack Obama's killing of a fly during a recent televised interview, group spokesman Bruce Friedrich told LSN that PETA "supports compassion even for the smallest and least of animals, much as Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer who included even insects in his realm of compassion."

However, when confronted with the example of abortion, in which unborn human beings are torn apart inside their mother's womb, Friedrich, who admitted that humans are animals, said that "as an organization we don't have a specific position on abortion, just as we don't have a specific position on global poverty, or any of the other areas where many noble people are working very diligently."

While Friedrich stated that he is a pro-life Catholic who has gone to protests and has even been arrested, he acknowledged that PETA's membership includes people who are "pro choice."

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"Why would PETA object to ... you know for example, chickens being drugged, or chickens being grown too fat, but would have no objection to the incredible brutal way that unborn babies are killed, millions of them a year in the United States?" Friedrich was asked.

"Ok, as somebody who has been going to pro-life rallies, and who has done rescues, and who has been involved for more than 20 years, I find it grotesquely hypocritical that people who say they are pro-life will, every time they sit down to eat, make a choice to add to the level of misery and cruelty in the world," he responded. "These are God's creatures too, and these industries have turned God's creatures into basically widgets. No abuse is too extreme."

Saying it "loathsome" that pro-lifers have "zero consciousness" on the issue of "animal abuse" in factories, Freidrich went on to say that "I would say to the pro-life movement, remove the log from your own eye, and then come after the speck in the eye of the animal protection movement. But until the pro-life movement does that, they have zero credibility in my book."

"What can you do about abortion?" asked Friedrich. "You can tell people not to do it. Some people will listen some people won't. You can go to demonstrations, you can write letters. There are a lot of things that we could do but it's all indirect. Every time you sit down to eat you're paying people to deny God's creatures everything that's natural to them, to slit their throats open while they're still completely conscious."

PETA's flippant attitude towards the killing of unborn human beings was illustrated in a recent blog entry on the organization's site, where the group thanked pro-lifers for erecting a billboard stating "What! Embryos are Babies!" above a billboard with a McDonald's Egg McMuffin advertisement.

"Thank you Prolife Across America for your excellent billboard juxtaposition. We're always trying to remind folks that the squishy part of their Egg McMuffin is just a fried chicken embryo. You've done future baby chicks everywhere a favor," wrote PETA's Jennifer Cierlitsky.

In an attempt to address the obvious fact that an egg is not an embryo at all, the blog entry contained a cryptic footnote at the end stating "OK, not exactly an embryo because it's not fertilized, but 'fried chicken period' ain't so appealing either!"

In addition to its dismissive view of abortion, the organization has also come under fire recently for its decision to pay “homage” to Ernesto "Che" Guevara by using his granddaughter posing semi-nude in PETA advertisements.

The revolutionary, who helped Fidel Castro impose a totalitarian regime on the island of Cuba, oversaw numerous executions of those who resisted Castro's communist system.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062313.html

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Español: Una mosca limpiándose con sus patas; Date;March 2009(2009-03); Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lcVfWzi80; Author; Charles Lam from Hong Kong, China

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Volunteers at rosary rally office show great love for Our Lady

     Why do volunteers travel all of the way to Kansas to volunteer for the Public Square Rosary Campaign? 

     I can say without hesitation that each and very volunteer has a great devotion to Our Lady.  Also, many volunteers have had to suffer some great trial or bear a heavy cross in their life.  They tell us that they only made it through with the help of Our Lady and they seek in some way to repay Our Lady's generosity towards them. 

    Others are grateful to Our Lady for protecting them from evil throughout their lives.  They sense that it was Our Lady who somehow prevented them from choosing paths that could have ended in their spiritual destruction. 

    Volunteering at our Rosary Crusade Office seems to these devotees of Our Lady, to be a way of demonstrating their gratitude to Our Lady in a most tangible manner.

    I received a note from one such volunteer today.  She wrote that she has been under Our Blessed Mother's care since she was a child and while she attended a Catholic convent school.  She also noted that she leads her neighborhood block rosary.

    Another volunteer told me that throughout her first year of life her mother dressed her in blue each and every day in honor of Our Lady.

Testimonials from Hosts of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima

    We recently received a good number of written comments about our home visit apostolate with Pilgrim Virgin Statues of Our Lady of Fatima.

    Here are some comments regarding the visits from various hosts.

      Maureen  from Rockford, IL commented on events leading up to her visit. She wanted to let us know that two weeks before her visit, she was in the hospital with a mini-stroke.  She said that she believed Our Lady made her well enough to be able to welcome her into her home as scheduled.  She wrote, "Our Lady made sure that I would be home to greet her."

    Mr. and Mrs. Olsen from Roscoe, Il wrote, "I thought I knew all that there was to know about Fatima, we were surprised and inspired."

    Mary from South Beloit, Il wrote about how she and her guests really did not know what to expect.  She commented on how all were impressed with the knowledge and presentation of the custodian describing him "as, a first class gentleman.  Everyone was very glad that they were able to be present."  She was particularly happy to be able to crown Our Lady.

    Arlene from Crystal Lake, Il wrote about how blessed she felt to have Our Lady come to her home.  She noted one correction, not only does America need Fatima, but the whole world does.

    Now for some comments regarding our custodians:

    Joan of Algonquin, Il wrote, "Rex was very good, kind and informative, he was also very devout."

    Teresita of Rockford, Il wrote, "Rex has a vocation dedicated to spread the message of Our Lady of Fatima."

    Anita also from Rockford, Il wrote that the custodian arrived ill, but still continued and gave a wonderful presentation.  She also wrote, "we were very humbled and honored to have Our Lady's statue in our home.  She is beautiful!"

    If you would like to receive the tremendous blessings of having Our Lady in your home, please call our scheduling office toll free, at: (888) 460 - 7371.