More Lourdes, Oui Oui Merci.

 The town of Lourdes proudly displays two flags in front of the Mayor's offices housed in what is called the Hotel de Ville complex: the French and European Union one. Stunning buildings against the backdrop of Pyraneese Mountains.

--

Below is the super friendly and very helpful front desk receptionist person where I stayed close to the Mayor's offices.

 Below is the female owner (with her husband) of
the bistro NAVARRE which was one of the best in town- their pasta San Jaques was a seafood pasta that was awesome.  The guy below is a super fun friendly and slightly flirty waiter:-) They take reservations for groups, and its a favorite priest hang out apparently.  http://www.brasserie-le-navarre.fr
click HERE

Bright Beautiful day in the Mountains-

People Who Throw

Women Under the Bus
Need Not Apply (Please don't apply)


This Cardinal put it nicely:
Polish Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, told the synod that the greatest obstacle a priest or theologian faces in becoming an effective evangelizer "is without a doubt pride, along with its natural ally, selfishness. The obsession with becoming great, original (and) important reduces more than a few to being 'pastors who shepherd themselves and not their flocks,'" as St. Augustine once said.

Egoism, Grandstanding, and all that pompous pretentious parading siliness (like we don't know where you came from) 
running around in red dresses in Rome. Give me a Break. 

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed some might say, ‘you have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.”
— James 2:14-18

Cyber-strangeness

Hack Attacks and other Evils

     If you got an email from my email address that said click on this link where you were hit with an ad for Canadian generic pharmaceuticals or viagra or an all new insurance product or ranting heretically, this did not come from me. Trust me.   (well maybe the ranting heretically, but you want to ask to be sure).  I have had to change my password a number of times due to hacking. How do I know about this? Because the idiot cyber-hackers sent the same email to me with my email address on it or people emailed me and said WTF-is this you sending me this?  You get them too I am sure- its called email 'spoofing' because people misappropriate your email address and act like they are you. It is a type of identity fraud. Change your password immediately.

The Chinese are denying that they hacked sensitive US servers. There are criminali out there- not all or maybe any of them are chinese. Who knows. But immense damage can be done by it. So there should be a force of cybersleuth-security in the military staffed and budgeted as heartily as traditional military. More so.

This is the danger behind the blessing of new technologies-you do not know for sure who is sending anything to you. So if you have a question about "Did you really send this?" you should immediately email back and ask the person or better yet, call the person and say "Did you send this?" I have received a number of wierd emails from people I barely know with addresses of theirs I forgot I even had just because I might be in their email address book from five years ago peddling something I know that they have nothing to do with. If I have any question about it- I ask. I am an attorney. I do not have anything to do with Canadian generic pharmaceuticals. Here is another hint. I have never sent an email to anyone I did not know which started with "hello cutie would you like to see my picture, click here?"
Before you sabotage a relationship over it, just ask the person. Use a little common sense. Ask them in person.
     You should not hit "spam" even thought it is because the real email address will never get to you then. Tell the person to change their password. This is a way that someone can totally block the emails of anyone getting anything from that email address again- if everyone hits spam then no one will receive the emails from them any longer and they will wonder why no one is answering them. You should alert the person to the hacking immediately.

     There are very evil people out there- some even in the church who want to destroy other people in the church. Sickening I know. There are some who don't like the party political position of other vocal people, some who would like to destroy their reputations to dilute or discredit their message. They will use hacking if they have to. Some of these creeps are really cyper-sophistocated. Some cyberhackers have devised ways to put worms, trojans or devices loaded onto their emails which download malware and steal information from the recipient's computer.

     For the record, no, I never sent anything peddling canadian pharma, insurance, hello cutie photos of someone not me, and lets see what else .....emails that start with people pretending to me wierdly gratuitously opining on something you have to click to download, highly offensive material or other wierdness.

This isn't legal advice, its common sense advice- ask first.

Do to others what you want done to you. Would you want someone deleting you without asking it if was really you? Should people mistake you for the wierdo peddling Hello Cutie downoads? OBVIOUSLY there are ill intending people out there. The devil is real. Sometimes he sits in the pews.
Sometimes he even tries to stand guard at the front door.

 

 
 

Viva La France

Toujours.

      In tribute to great French patriots-  Here are some fun French markers I found, including a plaque on a hotel in Lourdes which indicates where the Germans surrendered to the French in that town, near the train station.

 DeGaulle's famous speech, we have lost the battle but not the war. ...Nothing is lost!...In the Free World, the immense (huge, vast) forced have not given in. One day these forces will crush the enemy.
On that day France will be there Victorious.  She will find again her freedom and grandeur. This is my only goal.  This is why I convoke all the French, wherever you find yourself, to unit with me in action, in sacrifice and in HOPE.  Our country is in mortal danger. Everyone fight to save it! Long Live France.  (speech given in London in 1940).

 Outside the magnificent mountain village gothic church in Carteret this monument, anchored by the Blessed mother, is to all the people of that town who lost their lives in the world wars. They name each person on the plaque to the left of the Mary medalion.

Chaque Mot de la Bouche de Dieu

I bought a Journal

   So I don't have to bother P3 fans with every waking thought. But before I start journaling-
one thought if you will indulge me.
Is it too late for the Conclave to make Msgr Brouwet a Cardinal? Because his homily this morning at the Feast of Bernadette was one of the most inspiring I have heard. Its about a girl called "La Folle"-the crazy one- because who thinks really the Virgin Mary actually appears?  The Virgin Mary herself could have been called La Folle for thinking the Holy Spirit got her pregnant. Riiiiight. Go sit over there little missy- we know what you have been up to.

   The Virgin Mary is fond of people called crazy. The disbelieved visionaries. Those a bit ahead of their time perhaps. Those with eyes to see and do. Those who believe in the supreme overwhelming overcoming Love of God the Almighty.

  The homily noted that the Holy Spirit is guiding the church. This church in Lourdes was packed to the standing room only gills this morning for the Feast of Bernadette. The Holy Spirit is guiding it, and the fact that there will be a new Pope is being guided by the Holy Spirit. He called everyone to pray for the church and Benoit (as he applauded him).

 As I had my morning chocolate croissant I kept thinking "man can not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Thus the liturgy has both eucharist (bread of life) and liturgy of the Word (equally important.) Every Word that comes forth from the mouth of God. I actually kept hearing it in french. Chaque mot ...de la bouche de Dieu. And this is the great function of the church- to disseminate every word that comes forth from God's mouth as well as eucharistic bread of life. The church is God's bibliopatisserie. It will carry on with fortitude and grace because God's word never goes out idle-  and it's God's desire that it be known in every corner of the world.


The homily stressed that God despises the proud- and raises up the humble. Like a little poor mountain sheepherding girl. How can anyone be proud in the sight or thought of God?  God uses the weak things of the world to confound the arrogant. On purpose. Because he can't stand snobs. The proud. Orgeille. Its not only a sin, its one of those so obnoxious God has to break it down. Because it rises to idolotry of
one's own ego.

What Great God we have who loves a poor little mountain sheepherding girl to send the Virgin Mary Blessed Mother to have a little grotto-side chat with her. Of all the people in the world that the Virgin Mary could pick to hang out with, she wants to hang out with a little slightly outcast peasant girl from an impoverished family in the mountains.

Who do the big great people usually want to talk to? Other great important people? God wants to send the Virgin Mary to talk to a little sickly poor mountain sheepherding girl in a remote small village in the Pyraneese.

Whoever you are then, God wants to reach you too.  And he wants his message to get to you. Because his Word is Life.
Every one of his Words. Chaque Mot qui vient de la bouche de Dieu.


   

village of hope

Lourdes, Home town of

the girl they all thought was crazy.

She's Here

The Relics of Bernadette Soubirous

   Have landed in the local parish where she worshipped in Lourdes, France. Sorry the lighting was so dark lots of the pics didn't turn out well. The service was a moving chorale singing reception and liturgy with scripture readings.
   People prayed around the reliquary. Other annoying people like me took pictures. Not sure which parts of her are actually in this reliquary that the kind sisters from Nevers brought to Lourdes because she is mostly in Nevers incorrupt.

 

My Vote Goes To

CARDINAL SEAN O'MALLEY 

  of Boston. Of course I am completely disenfranchised, being female, under 80 and not a cleric much less a Cardinal.  Nevertheless....

  He's a Franciscan. He's from the South Hills of Pittsburgh (so are my parents), he speaks fluent Spanish (fastest growing area of the church is in Latin America) and he is Irish.

Any more questions?

      (Franciscans call themselves in all great humility the Friars Minor- because the Friars Major-e.g. Dominicans- can be intellectually snobbish in their zeal I have found-first hand experience trust me.)

    Franciscans follow the charism of the great peacemaker Saint Francis. You know the prayer- it was on my mother's fridge always- Lord, Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace.

  Franciscans missionized the world. Look at how many names are Franciscan that are in California alone- San Francisco for starters. Santa Clara after Saint Claire, etc...and all the other biblical names thanks to the Franciscans, Santa Ana, San Joaquin, San Bernadino, etc....

     As speculation abounds a Jesuit from Milan would be great but an irishman franciscan who speaks spanish from Pittsburgh- OH MY GOODNESS!! Sign me up.

 

voici, Lourdes, Fr

If this is the Off Season

I can't wait to come in High Season.


   Five priests from Chicago sat behind me in a bistro called Navarre. It boasts quite rightly some of the best basque regional cuisine. They are only here for three days and didn't know where anything was. I should be a guide of sorts I thought. Yes, there are two houses where Bernadette lived I informed them; the rather nice one where she was born and the prison holding cell pit of a residence called the Cachot where they had to live because her father became disabled-lost his sight due to an accident which meant before the days of social security, he lost all his income. A milliner could make a good living- except if you were blind and could not see the grains.  If you were disabled then you lost your income and ability to support your family. The town housed them all in a prison holding cell and you can see it to this day. Its tiny  Then another American priest, this time from Philadelphia entered seemingly just to use the bathroom. I told him Rigali could be Pope and he chuckled, then felt remorseful (guilty even) and said "maybe." A prophet is not without honor except in his own home I thought.

    This morning the town (above chatchkiville which is the souvenir part of town surrounding the sanctuaries and grotto) there was a huge market- think Eastern Market times ten on a Saturday. The real town, not the touristy part is a typical but more prosperous than some small french village town. Its charming. It has all the typical french town stores like the Monoprix (that's where you get underwear-better than Target), the Carrefour (supermarket) and boulangerie and pattiserie stores that make Paul's look like the McDonalds version of french pastries. But even the McDos here (as they call McDonalds) has croissants and colorful macaroons.

There was a stand at the outdoor market today overtly evangelizing, giving away tracks on the book of John and selling bibles and other spiritual literature. Try that at Eastern Market. There was a flower market, ski jackets for around $20, ski underwear, gloves, hats, vegetable markets, kiddies clothes (adorable)  the local cheese maker guy with rows of cheese, the guy who canes chairs and a woman who charmingly paints scenes on the mountain slate they mine in the region. If you just went to chatchkiville, you missed half the town's magic and charm. The above photo is one done by a woman who was born here- Carole Costes who has a blog at carole-costes.over-blog.com you can find HERE
The portrait of Bernadette was done on the local slate.

If you want her to paint anything she can and also works from photos. email: costes.carole@gmail.com

She has a gallery called Galerie de Caro.

This is a woman

who makes honey at her local farm in all these varieties. Who knew honey

came in so many varieties and colors!

Here above is Carole- the true Lourdes native who paints on the local slate. Her stand is next 

to the provence tablecloths (because where do you think people from provence go in the winter:-)

Actuellement présent Aucun pèlerinage officiel actuellement présent à Lourdes. Archives historiques Le 13 février 2013, Mgr Nicolas Brouwet a adressé une lettre aux habitants de son diocèse de Tarbes et Lourdes à l'occasion de l'annonce de la démission du pape Benoît XVI. Il les invite à la prière. L'INTÉGRALITÉ DE LA LETTRE DE MGR NICOLAS BROUWET Aux prêtres, diacres, religieux, religieuses, à tous les fidèles du diocèse de Tarbes et Lourdes Le Pape Benoît XVI a annoncé lundi 11 février sa renonciation à sa charge de successeur de Pierre. Nous avons tous été surpris par cette décision. J’y vois un acte d’humilité, de courage et de liberté. D’humilité parce que le Pape a su reconnaître qu’il n’avait plus la force physique nécessaire pour accomplir sa mission et qu’il devait laisser sa charge à un autre. De courage parce qu’il faut une véritable force intérieure pour prendre une décision si inhabituelle et oser affronter ce que personne n’avait envisagé, prévu ou organisé. De liberté intérieure parce que Benoît XVI a su discerner et accepter devant Dieu ce qu’il pensait être le mieux pour l’Eglise indépendamment de la manière dont cela pourrait être interprété. Nous rendons grâce à Dieu pour ces huit années d’un pontificat traversé par de lourdes épreuves mais qui a marqué la vie de l’Eglise par tant d’initiatives et d’écrits qui nous ont encouragés, fortifiés et dynamisés. Je cite quelques moments forts de ce pontificat : les JMJ de Cologne et de Madrid, la visite du Pape à Paris et à Lourdes en 2008, l’Année Saint Paul, l’Année sacerdotale et l’Année de la Foi, les encycliques sur l’amour et sur l’espérance, les synodes sur la Parole de Dieu et sur la nouvelle évangélisation, les efforts pour favoriser l’unité des chrétiens, les visites aux communautés juives, les livres sur Jésus, la béatification du Pape Jean-Paul II. Benoît XVI me surprend toujours par l’humilité de son intelligence, la profondeur de ses discours et de ses homélies, la clarté de ses propos. Au XXIème siècle nous avons besoin d’un Pape qui, pour faire la communion, nous aide à discerner ce qui est bon et juste pour l’homme et pour la société. Benoît XVI a, de ce point de vue, ouvert la route. Avec sa liberté intérieure et son immense culture, avec son esprit d’analyse et sa faculté de synthèse, avec sa modestie et sa courtoisie, il nous a montré comment chercher la vérité, comment chercher à grandir en partageant la vie de Dieu. Je confie les mois qui viennent à votre prière. Je demande aux communautés paroissiales, aux communautés religieuses, aux personnes qui ne peuvent plus se déplacer et aux familles de prier le chapelet – au rythme de leur choix - aux intentions de l’Eglise et du Pape. Confions à Marie, Notre-Dame de Lourdes, et à sainte Bernadette que nous fêterons ce lundi 18 février, le prochain conclave et le Pape que le Seigneur voudra donner à son Eglise. Mgr Nicolas Brouwet, évêque de Tarbes et Lourdes

Adorable man carting a candle taller than he is to the Shrine. It says "Ireland" so I had to take a picture (he said 'Grazie' :-)

     Candles in Lourdes come in normal dinner table size, as long as your arm size, as long as your arm and torso size and bigger than your tallest friend size. Because you can never light too many prayers.

     

   

Merci Dieu

Tout Puissant

    I am in Lourdes. There is a higher power than the Pope apparently. Thank you Benoit for resigning.
Today, the day after the resignation the snow and rain cleared and there is a beautiful sunny day in this Pyranees mountain valley town. Little kids are heard playing cheerfully in the playground of their schoolyard behind the tourist bureau.
The Mass in French at the main sanctuary displayed beautiful loud singing- Ave Ave Ave Maria. And even during this past weekend of snow and rain pilgrims flocked to Lourdes to wait in long lines for the baths or just to touch the walls of the Grotto by La rive Gave dripping with fresh mountain water. Some people wiped the walls with their hankerchiefs. Others poured the water from the faucets into whatever containers they had on them or bought on the way.

   Everything seems brilliant and better here than the dinginess I left. There is even skiing in the next town- if you avoid the avalanches. Surprise after surprise has me thanking God I got to get here- even the McDonalds is better  (and i confess i stepped in there:-) -they have pistachio milkshakes and cheeseburgers with either goat cheese or camembert. Twix come in white chocolate, and homemade knit scarves are only 5 euros. The librarie at the Shrine has a great CD collection of sacred music.

   The train from Paris only changed once at 'Bayonne' -and so by train with connections it takes a half a day to get here- but its a beautiful train ride and less than 100 Euros.   When I have a better internet connection I will post photos.

 Now I am checking on the bus schedules to get to the nearest ski town.

Excuse Me

Mr. Bishop

  But where is your law degree?  Are you opining without a law license on what is or is not required in terms of elements of an equal protection claim?  Then why are you telling people what is or is not
Constitutional under the US Constitution regarding marriage equality. Are you a Supreme Court judge that you have already written an opinion on what the precedent dictates in terms of stare decisis for equal protection purposes regarding the marriage equality question. Then why are you firing people from jobs for espousing their opinions on what should or should not be legal? How ignorant, rude, and UnChristian can you be to endanger people's livelihoods because they have an opinion regarding a constitutional precedent on any particular subject. Is denying people their livelihoods pro Life? An opinion on what is or is not mandated according to stare decisis precedent by any amendment or clause of the Constitution is not necessarily an endorsement pro or con of any practice permitted by the Constitution.  Carrying loaded rifles into a Babies R Us scaring all the toddlers actually is Constitutionally permitted under the Second Amendment but I find it disgusting. You all need to stop persecuting people who hold opinions regarding what the Constitution says- especially because you are not lawyers - and one could argue practicing law without a license.  Do you think insulting and intimidating people is going to make them like you more? How stupid and disgusting.
Really, seriously- this is 'new evangelism?'  If this is New Evangelism, bring back the crusades. This is ridiculous. What jerks.

They're not buyin it either

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx58ds_suivez-l-integralite-des-debats-sur-le-mariage-pour-tous-en-direct_news#.URRCT6V8vww

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx58ds_suivez-l-integralite-des-debats-sur-le-mariage-pour-tous-en-direct_news#.URRCT6V8vww

Bush-Cheney- possibly the most evil administration in American History. Read this and weep. (or you are not worthy of being called American)

http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/projects/globalizing-torture

Let me Count the Ways

About 120 Reasons why marriage is, as Martha Stewart says- "a good thing." Beliefnet breaks it down HERE. http://www.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/Galleries/21-Reasons-to-Get-Married.aspx?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=paid_distribution&utm_campaign=PharmaOutbrain

How to Love

Enemies. A very kind generous hearted Jewish woman friend of mine whose grandfather was a well beloved famous Rabbi from Long Island posted this to her facebook page:

What Were They

Thinking?

     The strongest woman in history must have been the Virgin Mary. Can you imagine keeping her peace when people first mocked her pregnancy, then strung up her son? Can you imagine how she felt and lived on? She was mocked and derided, she was the mother of what they strung up like a criminal and watched. Can you imagine what that felt like--being the mother of a reputed criminal then watching as they kill him off as the supposed baddest actor in the country?  Imagine suffering the injustice knowing that they were totally wrong. Couldn't be more wrong. Couldn't be more evil in destroying pure goodness.

     Do you recall what happened on Pentacost? Flames of Fire came down on everyone present. EVERYONE. Not just men. Not just white men over 70. EVERYONE started talking in different languages and EVERYONE understood what was spoken. That was clear witness to the fact that Jesus wants EVERYONE to know him, EVERYONE to understand what he came to do, EVERYONE to love him and each other and EVERYONE to be part of his kingdom. Not just men. Not just white men over 70.
Not just the guys who wear black cassocks or white monk robes.  EVERYONE. The Spirit of the Living Lord is accessible to EVERYONE who is open to it.


   This church witnessed this year a wierd preoccupation and persecution against women nuns that no one in America really appreciates, except maybe white men over 70.  Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with old age- sometimes the only thing that comes with old age is arthritis, baldness, dementia and missing teeth.

   This church witnessed this year a wierd campaign of litigation against a government elected by the majority of catholics in the country because the platform stood more for what they understand the Holy Spirit to be about in America in the name of a completely overused and ill understood term "Freedom."

   This year the church took on governments they thought were too secular because they loved gays equally and thought the best interest of children was found in giving them to adults in loving families rather than institutions or subject to abortion.

   This church witnessed this year the flagellation of a priest who served loyally his order for 40 years being humiliatingly excommunicated because he stood by women who wanted to be priests. I don't have a dog in that fight and I don't care if women are catholic priests or not. Women Presbyterian ministers have been known to be quite effective evangelists. But I do care about the abysmal treatment and deliberate humiliation of any priest by snotty little Dominican theologians because they stand with women.

   And if you think that white men over 70 are all infallible- just look at what Roger Mahoney of LA got away with and continues to get away with. This year witnessed the listing in LA of all the very dirty deeds by priests there that went on for decades.

     Grace is incompatible with snotty little reprisals. Grace is not seen in expelling people from ministries, or participating in the life of the Spirit.

    The Mother church of the strongest woman in history needs to wake up and renew itself not with the old wine skins of oppression, derision, reprisals mysogeny and 'discipline' but with a bigger vision of LOVE, which is as John the Apostle advised, God.  God is Love. Petty snottiness, devils of doubt and suspicion masqued as litigation risk management are not from God and have no place in His Church.

    The greatest sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and quenching it must come close.

If this Pope cannot embrace the fullness of the Spirit or Love all His children hiding behind Dominican DeNoias petty penalties and persecutions (are those people just sick?) then he needs to resign so the Holy Spirit can clean house. How can Jesus come in to a place he can't feel at home in?

  Maria Shriver on Facebook said that she believes the church needs to incorporate more women into the leadership - not the illusory token leadership- the real leadership. I agree. Start with making some families where women are in them. Start by letting priests have wives and their own children as they already do if they are episcopalians who switched and entered after marriage.

    The thred of what is considered holy in political life is not consistent with Grace or the Gospel. Some of the blogging of archdiocene PR priests is head scratchingly stupid.

     The church needs a Vatican III and serious fundamental reform. Before it kills off or drives out the best of their fans--or at least destroys their Faith in Church.

 

Look

what they found on the street:

--------musicians! click to hear

must see tv

you will thank me later

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151397745507577&set=vb.150082065062250&type=2&theater

And now for a little Comic Relief

And Why I don't live in the Burbs.

 Have you SEEN the show SUBURGATORY?

Like, uh, are your neighbors crazy as this? http://www.hulu.com/watch/450527

 Its not that I haven't had before a BMW, SAAB Convertible top of line cars and all my relatives drove Mercedes highest class there ridiculously is expensive cars, and its not that I have a DUI suspended license either (I don't)-thanks for guessing-, its that I don't WANT TO DRIVE TO THE SUBURBS.


Bougie, Bourgeois, totally impressed with their big alpha I'm the biggest Dog in the World of people who pay people to mow lawns, have you noticed the starving el salvadorans standing idle at the 7-11 waiting for anyone to pick them up to, I don't know, build you a porch?

How many massages and mani-pedis can you get in one week? Don't you have anything better to do than watch other people do your laundry?

     The American obsession with keeping up with the Joneses  is even more hilarious when foreigners come to this country to keep up with the American Joneses. I think I'm losing my foie gras lunch.

Game Changer

Completely Mooting the Lawsuits which should now be dismissed en massse- HHS Regulations Revisions announced today. Everybody wins. Now take your toys and go home. Fr Thomas Reese on the new rules: Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: From: "Thomas J. Reese" Date: February 1, 2013 12:02:33 PM EST To: "Thomas J. Reese" Subject: revised contraceptive mandate HHS and the administration have gone out of their way to resolve the concerns of religious institutions that object to covering contraceptives in their insurance programs. They fixed the four-part definition of religious employer by eliminating the confusing first three parts and relied on the traditional definition of churches in the Internal Revenue Code. They have also found creative ways to provide contraceptives to the employees of religious colleges and hospitals without the involvement of these institutions. Thomas J. Reese, S.J. Senior Fellow Woodstock Theological Center Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057-1137 Office: 202-687-1941 Cell: 646-573-4877 @ThomasReeseSJ http://www.facebook.com/thomas.j.reese.9 http://Woodstock.georgetown.edu/ http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/this_catholics_view/

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU JAMES SALT OF THE CATHOLIC ALLIANCE. Find them on Facebook.


And as usual Michael Sean Winters has the straight scoop HERE----http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/sure-looks-miracle

Gabrielle

YOU CANNOT PUT A GOOD WOMAN DOWN.

No Marriage For You

Remember Seinfeld's Soup Nazi? Here are the people that the Catholic Church thinks are not good enough to marry each other so they won't permit it in their church 1. Mixed religions- no Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim or other religion may marry a catholic by a priest in a catholic church 2. No divorced person without an official annulment from Rome may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. 3. No gay person may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. 4. No Catholic Priest may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. And this is a reflection of a Life doctrine? REALLY?? "...and he came that you should have LIFE and HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY." Here I am compelled to advertise www.RENTAPRIEST.com where you can find the many tens of thousands of priests kicked out of the catholic church because they got married to women. Also see, Episcopalian.

There was once upon a time a woman who loved a man like a brother who knew he really wanted children but was gay. So she agreed to be an egg donor. Another woman agrees to be a surrogate. The gay man's sperm and the woman who loved him's egg was implanted in a surrogate and conceived a child that was then adopted by the man and his partner-a gay couple. True Story. Repeated a thousand times around the world. The one close enough that you might have heard about is Elton John and partner David who now have two children by that method. Should the church refuse to baptize such children? Should the church wish they had never been conceived 'in the best interest of the child.' Another true story: Two gay men who worked for a University had been monogamous together for about a decade. They had established themselves in the community and did lots of volunteer work for a church. They met through working with immigrants subject to deportation a woman who was illegally in the country being deported back to her home country of Senegal. She found out during her deportation proceedings she was pregnant. Because she was being deported penniless she wanted to abort the child. They offered to pay for everything she needed if only she would not abort. They then adopted the child- an African child to a white gay couple. This child would no doubt never have been born without this loving gay couple. The Angry, Zealots who refuse gay marriage seem to me to be so moronic and ignorant of what is going on in the world. In England over a quarter of all children under the age of 30 now have been conceived using some form of invitro. That is also against the rigid catholic church doctrine. Should they all not be baptized also? A woman died and left a widower husband and a small son. The husband was despirately in love with his wife but she died. He discovered he was bisexual. He found a lover after she died. They lived together and together raised his son. They for all practical purposes were married. What does the church do about that? Tell them not to be gay? Constitutionally there are serious problems with equal protection grounds that should in my view overrule gay marriage as a constitutional right. However in common sense there are fewer problems understanding what a government should do. That 800,000 people in France- a country in which women could not even vote until after WWII--would take to the streets to break up families that are not male-female spouses strikes me as horrendously stupid. What right do you have to tell anyone who they have to love or cannot love? Priests, who easily are told and believe they can marry NO ONE have no problem telling other people what they have no business telling anyone- you cannot marry that person. They are so lacking in identity as a person of any identity often they let someone living in a country thousands of miles away tell them they cannot marry anyone. A quarter are estimated to be repressed homosexuals who chose celibacy from a desire to suppress their natural attractions. Those are sometimes so secretly self loathing they despise happy gays. No, Sorry --you are wrong. Your ideology has cost you friends and supporters.

There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. Click your heels three times and say There is no Place Like Home.

The Politics of Papal Persecution How many more ways could the Archdiocene church (religious orders excluded except Dominicans) tell women that they are not wanted, not needed, nothing without their own kids that they can get paid to educate, and insignificant lives not worth living to their fullest potential? We should just slash our wrists and bleed to death on the front steps of the church because the church demands our ripped out bleeding hearts like Aztec sacrifices to appease the master Lord in Rome. Front and Center on the Cathedral's main website in Washington, DC- the website for the Cardinal's church, is a whole section on the "Home" page which boasts the litigation against HHS regulations on contraception when about 90% of all women in America including Catholic women have at one time or another in their lives taken contraception. Let me be clear. I am one of the 10% (due to my celibate singleness and a non-existent romantic life and if i got pregnant at my age it would be a divine miracle)- but I am a tiny minority. The Cardinal feels free to insult 90% of American women right on his church website- and sue the government to make the point about how much he can't stand womenkind. And they wonder why attendance drops. Was the last election a referendum on a 'War on Women?' Or was it just a statement that the world of mean vicious old men who take care of no families of their own and think they can be total sick Ba-tards because they bring Jesus to a piece of wafer is not a version of Christ that anyone recognizes as really Jesus. It is not 'goodness.' It is not 'kindness.' Rudeness, insult, ignorance, arrogance -which the church in parts thinks is a virtue- are not traits anyone finds in Jesus anywhere. In fact he hates the proud- scatters them in their own conceit. Lifts up the lowly. America is a country founded by outcast persecuted immigrants who fled the Dominican persecutions of Europe and other religious persecutions and religious wars. They said that sort of rigid ideological condemnation is not how we want to live, not a country we want to create. It is not a place big enough for Jesus to enter when one has rigid ideological even theological interpretations that cast out Love in the name of Religion. It doesn't matter how big the house annex is or how big your church is, if you cast out Love in the name of Religion you have thrown out the Baby with the Baptismal waters. You have created a massive idol of your own power. The church is a mess. Have you noticed? Old viciously jealous rich widows run parish counsels for their own emotional needs meddling in everyone's business like its their business and priests feel widow-whipped to cater to their meanness. It builds and maintains massive buildings that fewer and fewer people want to actually sit in. It takes money from people scraping by with barely enough to budget for gas money to feed litigations that no one wants in the name of a political party all tax exempt. And they wonder why. Building castles to your own egos isn't God. Its the opposite. ---------------------------------- UPDATE- they took down the BullShine about the HHS Litigation and in its place a more appropriate blurb about lent. Thank God. I mean it.

More Thoughts on Gay Marriage

And Gay Divorce, and Gay reMarriage and Gay Anulments and Gay Turned Straightness. Oh My- Someone can be born with a predisposition to jealousy, or covetesness. Both are considered sins in the eyes of most major religions as a deviation of, to or for the highest path of God's will. But they are not illegal. Jealousy and covetesness are permitted sins in society. We figure you will work it out for yourself when you figure you are your best enemy and either straighen up and fly right or face the consequences. The Being of Jealous or the Being of Covetous isn't illegal. Just wrong. Say Most-and Moses. But if you take it one step further and in a jealous rage you take a sledge hammer to the object of your jealousy's car that is illegal. If instead of quietly coveting something (a leap beyond admiring) and you actually steal the thing, that is against the law. If you lust or long after someone's genitals which look like your own most major religions find that not the highest path to the advancement of God's will in your life- or 'sin.' A deviation off your highest path. But that is not illegal- just harmful (believe many if not most Americans.) If you however want to concretize your insistence upon lusting or longing after someone who has parts that look like yours now people who do so want to make that also legal- They want ALL of society to say that this is fine-OK, not sin, not a deviation from the highest path of God's will for them or society at large and anyone else involved. They want to make everyone say what is clearly in their minds sin is not sin, and is fine- Who is being more intolerant then? The people demanding that the other people agree with them and legalize something that they think is wrong or the people who insist it's still wrong, was wrong, always has been wrong and will forever be wrong? Are they equally intolerant of each other? Its not illegal to be gay. You can be gay in the privacy of your own home- if you want to act gay, and ask society as a whole to say acting gay, or being in gay relations is right, fine and legal-that is another matter all together. And if society doesn't have a right to say- sorry- no, then does it have a right to say stealing is wrong if someone is born covetous?

"Its at the core of who we are-the tolerance on which the United States is founded is one of our greater attributes....the puritains came to Massachusetts...and a guy named Roger Williams..travelled through the woods in the winter, called a place 'Providence' which became Providence, Rhode Island ....they all were getting away from religious persecution. It took us a while to get it right but I think we do. One of our roles in the State Department is to make people understand how important it is ..." John Kerry on Religious Liberty. "I have a lot of friends who are Muslim whom i have met over the years in my travels. Leaders in the region would be the first to tell others that what you see in radical Islam is not Islam-it is radicalized Islam-a hijacking of an old religion. We have to work at making people understand how that is happening....carrying the banner of religious tolerance is critical." John Kerry, SECRETARY OF STATE.

The legacy of Martin Luther King

Isn't Sodomy. There is a difference between doing something and being something. All laws regulate behavior. The Rule of Law seeks to impose a regime that separates good behavior from bad behavior, sheep from goats. I sometimes find it amazing that an African American (half at least) President would find an equivalence between Gay so called 'rights' and the civil rights struggle of African Americans- who were enslaved because of their color and national origin. What Gay person has ever been enslaved in America? It is true that the religious right zealots are obnoxious. They are so full of themselves its hard to ferret out the truth from their bravado and bullying sometimes. But Constitutionally, behavioral choices are not the same thing as that which one is created with or as. One may be created gay or 'born that way' but what one does with it is ones choice. One does not have a choice of race or gender. All persons are CREATED EQUAL. So the law should honor for equal protection purposes those things given by God as human attributes, not what one chooses to do with what one has been given. All persons are created equal, but not all persons do with that creation equal things, or advance to the potential of their humanity or evolve their persons in any aspect of human endeavor equally. All persons are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights by virtue of what they are created with. All persons are not thereafter equally educated, work equally hard, apply equally their intelligence, make equally wise life choices or equally produce to the maximum of their potential. We are each unique in that regard. Some choices are a function of opportunity and some are a function of will. I choose to work not sit at home watching soap operas. I chose to go to school not be a teenage drop out single parent. It is fair, right and just that different choices bear natural consequences. Those consequences should naturally then be unequal. Gayness may be intrinsic. But acting gay sexually is not the same thing as being Gay. Being and Doing are different. The Constitutional equal protection principles do not extend to behavioral choices. It is not value neutral when it comes to behavioral matters such that it is required to consider all behaviors the same. But this is not just a Constitutional argument but also a moral one- as all law is intrinsically a moral value judgment on what is or is not right and acceptable behavioral qualities. Consider this scenario- A woman and her husband have three children together. The woman one day decides one day after years of pondering that she is disgusted with her husband and leaves him for another women. The husband now has to raise three children without his wife. The lover of the abandoning wife wants now the same spousal rights to the wife's original spousal property- half the house the family lived in for example. To be 'equal' and give the gay couple equal treatment what happens to the house- and the three kids living in it. Suppose Michele Obama has secretly had an affair for years with Valerie Jarrett and Jarrett wants half the house in Chicago. What happens to Malia's and Sasha's inheritence rights in the house? You think that odd? It happens whenver a gay man announces he is leaving for another man- as in the former Governor of New Jersey. Where do Malia and Sasha live in that case? Whose house is it? Equal behaviors are not what is meant by 'created equal.' Endowed with certain inalienable rights does not mean endowed with the right to engage in any sort of behavior or decide anything is moral one wishes to decide is moral for them in a relativistic sense. What motivated 800,000 french people to take to the streets in a massive protest 'manifestation' against the marriage equality legislation there? One frenchman told me it was a deep concern for the welfare of the children involved. ---as in the above scenario. But gayness is not condemned by Jesus anywhere in the bible you argue. Right, and neither is clubbing your mother in law with a hard sausage or eating raw cat with Miso sauce- because it was so unheard of in Jesus' day it didn't merit mention as just preposterous. Every single monotheistic religion has a prohibition against gay relations. It's not a comment on people's predispositions-it is a comment on what they do with them. Being sexual with your same gender has a strong prohibition in Christian scripture, and it merits serious penalty in the Muslim world. In Christian scripture it is classed in the same category as drunkards and fornicators. Practcing Homosexuals are expressly excluded from the Kingdom in scripture so for those bible believing scriptural adherents it has a moral component to it which cannot be ignored. If any behaviors enjoy the same equal protection as any other behaviors where is the 'limiting principle' for equal protection purposes? Where is the dividing line? The Constitutional issues are not as clear as the Inaugural speech would make it. It appeared less the moral high ground than grounds for moral confusion and Robert Bork is rolling over in his grave.

Where's My Camera

ONLY IN AMERICA This is a F-----abulously Awesome Country! What a great country. I have heard stories from my uncle about how my father was on a crew that paved the Homestead Highlevel Bridge and worked in the steel mills as a teenager. Everybody did those days apparently in their hood. Either the coal mines or the steel mills to earn pocket cash. My Dad also parked cars for some nightclub in the Hill District in Pittsburgh when that was a rockin rollin place in the 40s. My Dad was born in 1932 before WWII. His uncle was a legit war hero in "The War" whose boat was sunk off the North African coast and he swam a mile to shore dragging someone with him, as the fish tale goes. His photo rests to this day on a table my uncle has in his living room in his Embassy Row house. Its a long way from a metal fenced small house in a suburb of Pittsburgh, but my uncle did well enough at Harvard and Yale law to be one of the officially Honorable Senate appointees and his brother, my Dad became eventually an international business executive starting offices all around the world for a Fortune 400 company. Its a long way from Pleasant Hills. This is a Great Country. Their father, my grandfather Francis Joseph Butler is buried in Thomas Jefferson cemetary in a suburb of Pittsburgh. That's where all my dead relatives live-- in the 'Garden of Peace' in the Thomas Jefferson cemetary. There is enough there to ponder on for a while. Francis Joseph was partially schooled by ruler knuckle slapping nuns and from an irish catholic immigrant family. That's where I can claim to be any part Irish- which seems to be a fairly dominant gene because my freckles overtake me with age. I am a JFK baby, born the year JFK was campaigning and won the Presidency in 1960. I can only imagine how my father felt when JFK was running. Probably something like unbelievable pride, admiration and a hope filled belief that if the skinny kid from "NINA" country (No Irish Need Apply, as it was known in Boston then) can be President, then ANYONE can do anything. My Dad can run a company, and did. My small claim to my strong willed irish side landed me today at the Irish Americans for Obama brunch where the Irish Ambassador reminded us that this year, 2013, everyone Irish is invited back to the motherland for a special "Gathering." The carrot-top from County Waterford sitting to my right told me to google it. Schumer, yes, the Senator, made an appearance at the coctail hour just before the sit-down, schmoozed a bit floating through on his way to solving the fiscal cliff. And I got to thank the wife of a former Ambassador to the Holy See for her talk at the JPII Center at the beatification of JPII, and thank her husband for coming even though he was a Bush appointee. I recognized him, I told him from Mass at the Catholic Information Center which shocked him because he wouldn't have expected anyone from the CIC to be at an Obama event. I was equally shocked to see him- but his claim to Irish is probably less tenuous than mine. I just kept thinking- what an unbelievably great country. And how unbelievably blessed I am to be American. I can sit and chat with a Senator, an Ambassador, a union President, a bunch of lawyers, who may or may not agree with me on everything or anything. But, Thank God Almighty We Are Free --at last. Congratulations to Obama on his Second Inaugural.

AMEN

Show This

On Every Jumbotron in the Verizon Center on the March For Life Day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-tsiaras/pregnancy-anatomy_b_2499945.html

Over and Over and Over Again.

family-niece and great-niece

update

The Supreme Court will hear argument in March on the Marriage Equality business. And if they come out in disagreement with the Pope will that silence the critics? Will there be more castigating the sodomites in the Judiciary? Scalia will surely vote down any marriage equality legislation-he all but said as much. Roberts did some pro bono work for a gay organization as he testified in his confirmation hearings. Doesn't mean he sympathizes with them but that he could be an independent advocate. Leviticus makes gayness evil. It also makes eating mussels, shrimp, and oysters evil. It also makes mandatory that a woman who assists her husband in fighting off an attacker by grabbing the guy by the cahoonas has to have her hand cut off. If gay is unmariageable, what about someone who defrauded their customers or subcontractors- no marriage for them too? What other evil people (so called) can't be married? What's the difference between one class of sinning folks and another. How about haters- hate is the opposite of God, thus really in a state of sin-the opposite of a state of grace. All haters - no marriage for you. Will the Supreme Court be like Seinfeld's 'soup nazi' on the "No Marriage For You" meme or will they say- hey, we all fall short of the glory of God, so why deny the tax breaks to other sinners? Anyone's guess. You got me there. No clue what they will do. There is one argument that distinguishes it perhaps. Not to get theological, but Gay Marriage is something that would be affirming gay sex which is a behavior and not an immutable character trait like race or gender for equal protection purposes- and clearly not all behaviors are permitted on equality grounds just because someone wants to commit said behaviors. Inquiring Constitutional scholars want to know. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/supreme-court-gay-marriage_n_2426035.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing9%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D253785

Sore Losers and Other Biblical Error

The Anti-Gay Marriage rant has ignited an unbelievable fury of self righteous indignation, especially in Maryland. "Welcome to Sodom" was how one Pastor titled his "Pastoral Letter." I wonder how Pastoral any gay person visiting his church would have felt he was picking up that bulletin. Biblically we all know that Sodom was where Lot lived with his wife and daughters until Abraham called him out. The wife turned to stone because she looked back when told not to- they fled debauchery, where gay men tried to rape forcibly angels at Lot's door. Rape. Gay Marriage is the opposite of Rape. It is by definition an act of consent-and one gay people apparently want badly enough to try to change the law about it. It is also the opposite of wild screwing about in orgiastic licentiousness which is what Sodom was all about. That is not gay marriage legislation either. It is a statement against it in fact when any two people make a lifetime monogamous commitment of intimate care to each other- something the "Welcome to Sodom" priest knows nothing about. Millions of Republican dollars were wasted on this fight to give people who already are gay, already living together in most cases certain legal adjustments other straight people have. Millions of dollars, collected that no one pays taxes on, because it's 'charitable.' And it was done with such an obnoxious self righteousness as if the opposers had no greater sin on their shoulders or rail road tye plank in their own eye that they could sit there spewing all kinds of hate to a community they know nothing about. "Satan's little helpers" is how the "Welcome to Sodom" Pastor called people like the Maryland Governor,(in writing no less, now all over the web by clicking on the bulletin feature of his parish website) who wants to make sure that if there is a loving stable gay family who is willing to house, feed, clothe, educate, nurture, love and support a child that this is preferable to them rotting in an orphanage with no parental figure. And people wonder why the Catholic Church as it makes a hard right turn to exclusionism, and driving out disagreement, is losing lots of fans and members who think 85 year old guys who persecuted anyone in their higher employ who wished to marry in dresses should not be dictating sexual policy to anyone. Maryland has a better cause- the Death Penalty. Now that is a real "LIFE" issue - or didn't you notice? The Death Penalty elimination legislation is a hot topic now in Annapolis. Why don't you mobilize your little posse of Annapolis 'lobbyists' to take that one on. It's actually a worthy fight.

The Letter

Every Lawyer Wishes They Could Write Once in Their Life Dear Client------------ While Your matter is intriguing and you certainly have a profound sense of the injustice done to you after thorough and thoughtful investigation we conclude that you are Crazy. While we would love to take your money and delude you otherwise until a Court confirms our suspicion that your next residence should be the Altzheimers Unit of Saint Es, that feels like stealing candy from a baby. Your file will be available for pick up at the front desk as soon as we have copied everything we need to in the event you decide to do something ridiculous like walk it next door for another opinion and that guy asks for the money back for all the time it took to conclude that you are indeed Crazy to pay him-because naturally you are broke. That is why you came to us thinking lawyers are ATM machines activated by insane griping. Plumb Bonkers. Bat out of Hades zooier than an arse -scratching ape-Crazy. If any of these terms confuses you feel free to call for clarification at the usual hourly rate. If you start obsessively emailing us demanding to know why we are dropping you on your head please be advised there is such a thing as cyber-stalking. p.s. this is a privileged and confidential attorney client communication so we only forwarded it to our spouses to get a chuckle. Happy Blessed Prosperous New Year. juuuust kiiiiiidding!

FLIM FLAM VICTIMHOOD

Have you ever met someone who is insistent that they, and they alone have the 'canary in the minefield' sensitivity to anything and everyone else is a brute because they can't smell it? Mold-heads, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity people, and others who are sure that their environment is killing them. It might be, but it also might be that they caused their sensitivity with the recreational cheap laced weed that they insist on using (because its medicinal) with about 400 known chemicals in it-and if it is the bad stuff from the wrong places it can even contain embalming fluids and chemicals. Tell me that doesn't fry your synapses. There is something called Contributory Negligence in the Tort world. That means, you are not a victim if you shot yourself in the head. If you forgot to tell me about the three abortions that you got and want to blame mold for your emotional distress I am not going to take on that case. If you are a mold-head you are not doing yourself any favors by smoking recreational weed. If you are a Multiple chemical sensitive personality, experimenting in illicit drugs isn't making life easier for you. If you get caught you go to jail for one thing. I imagine the smells in there are worse than the laundry detergent you can't stand the smell of. Do not come looking for a lawyer if you want to sue someone for using generic laundry detergent in your building basement while you are smoking weed in your apartment because you say the laundry detergent makes you sick. That isn't to say that mold isn't dangerous or some chemicals aren't dangerous. Some canaries however are really vultures. Also, it is not a defense to assault and battery that you can't stand the smell of dry cleaning and the clorox bleach made you crazy. Can't wait till that chemical sensitivity insanity defense gets briefed. I'm sorry you honor, she smelled bleach and it drove her in a frenzy to a point where she assaulted her roomate demanding cash. This growing field of 'environmental' ailments brings with it a spectrum of funny quack pretend experts- like pediatricians who call themselves environmental medicine practitioners diagnosing neurological disorders. After the massive flooding from Sandy and other disasters around the country, mold is something to pay attention to- but it can be treated and eliminated quickly. Remediation isn't hard. It isn't brain surgery. Its on you to go get it out quickly- by finding a good remediator. If you sit around and watch it grow so you can sue someone you should have your head examined. And not by a pediatrician. I can't believe I am a lawyer some days watching this nonsense.