Au Revoir, Redemptorists

SAINTE-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRÉ, QUEBEC  - The Redemptorists are leaving their Ste.-Anne-de-Beaupre monastery, where they have been living since the 19th century.

The monastery is adjacent to one of Canada's biggest shrines, both named after the mother of Mary. In a letter just sent to pilgrimage organizers and donors, the rector of the sanctuary, Redemptorist Father Bernard Gauthier, said most members of the community will now live in various residences, mostly around Quebec City.

Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de Beaupre

He said the decision was made after "several months of studies and reflections on the current state of the buildings, the ability of the Redemptorists to maintain a quality pastoral service, the financial resources available for the life of the sanctuary and for the life of confreres."

From Wikipedia:

On March 8, 1658, settler Etienne de Lessard donated two frontal acres from the west end of his property to the Catholic Church, so that a chapel could be built. This chapel eventually became the site of the modern-day basilica. 

1658 was the year that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Pierre Pineau dit la Perle married Anne Boyer. Pierre died about 45 miles from the Basilica, but lived about 100 miles up the St. Lawrence River.

Is There Anything Beer CAN'T Do?

Watch the video here.

Washington D.C., Feb 27, 2018 / 02:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the Lenten season fully in swing, Catholics are immersing themselves in 40 days of abstaining from sweets, technology, alcohol and other luxuries.

But did you know that Catholic monks once brewed beer specifically for a liquid-only Lenten fast?

Back in the 1600s, Paulaner monks moved from Southern Italy to the Cloister Neudeck ob der Au in Bavaria. “Being a strict order, they were not allowed to consume solid food during Lent,” the current braumeister and beer sommelier of Paulaner Brewery Martin Zuber explained in a video on the company’s website.

They needed something other than water to sustain them, so the monks turned to a common staple of the time of their region – beer. They concocted an “unusually strong” brew, full of carbohydrates and nutrients, because “liquid bread wouldn’t break the fast,” Zuber noted.

Punday Sermon

Claretians in the News!

This is the main reason why we are expected to fast: to discipline our physical appetites in order to concentrate on the spiritual realm. Rather than being satiated and dull as the result of too much food and drink, fasting makes our senses sharper and we become more aware of the spiritual realm.

Yes, of course. But it also gives us a reason to call a press conference.

CHICAGO - A Chicago pastor who has been on a strict fast for weeks to show solidarity for DACA recipients and push for humane immigration laws, plans to take his protest to Washington March 4 and 5.

Father Gary Graf said he will march in front of the White House for 40 hours straight, from 9 a.m. (local Washington time) on March 4 through 5 p.m. on March 5.

It will be the priest’s final attempt to encourage Trump to extend DACA. As he marches he will hold placards illustrating the number of “Dreamers,” as DACA recipients are known, who are losing their status per day, 916, and per week, 6,412. By the end of March, he said, 25,648 will have lost DACA status.

At a news conference in Chicago Feb. 12, Graf joined dozens of priests and religious sisters and brothers who promised to fast at least one day a week throughout Lent in solidarity with young people who were brought to the United States without documents as children and now face the possibility of deportation from the only home many remember.

Well, it's nice to see a Claretian priest get a little face time.

There's Snow Business Like Pope Business

Meanwhile, outside his apartment..

ROME –  Romans have awoken to a rare snowfall, after an Arctic storm passing over much of Europe dumped enough snow to force schools to close and public transport to reduce services.

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 67

That's right, YOGA. In the SANCTUARY of a Catholic Church (St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan) And promoted by the insufferable James Martin, SJ.

Can We Get This Over With So the USCCB Can Start Working On Something Important - like Climate Change?

If you would like to contact the President of the USCCB, Bishop Daniel Dinardo, to tell him to stop encouraging people to break the law, you can call him at 713-659-5461.

Washington D.C., Feb 20, 2018 / 11:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After the Senate failed to pass a bipartisan bill that would offer protections for immigrants, U.S. bishops noted their disappointment and urged leaders to focus their efforts on finding a humane solution for DACA recipients.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Senate was not able to come together in a bipartisan manner to secure legislative protection for the Dreamers,” read a Feb. 19 statement released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“With the March 5th deadline looming, we ask once again that Members of Congress show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution for these young people, who daily face mounting anxiety and uncertainty,” the statement continued.

With the impending deadline, the U.S. bishops announced a National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers, prompting the faithful toward action to safeguard immigrants.

“This coming weekend, we will be asking the faithful across the nation to call their Members of Congress next Monday, February 26, to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process,” the bishops said.

“Our faith compels us to stand with the vulnerable, including our immigrant brothers and sisters. We have done so continually, but we must show our support and solidarity now in a special way. Now is the time for action.”

He Might as Well Be King Canute Holding Back the Tide

Springfield, Ill., Feb 22, 2018 / 02:42 pm (CNA).- Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois has reiterated that U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin should not receive Holy Communion due to the Catholic lawmaker’s support for abortion, including a recent procedural vote against a bill that would bar abortion after 20 weeks into pregnancy.

“Sen. Durbin was once pro-life. I sincerely pray that he will repent and return to being pro-life,” Bishop Paprocki said Thursday. “Because his voting record in support of abortion over many years constitutes ‘obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin,’ the determination continues that Sen. Durbin is not to be admitted to Holy Communion until he repents of this sin. This provision is intended not to punish, but to bring about a change of heart.”

The Springfield bishop cited Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which says those who “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

He also cited the U.S. bishops’ 2004 statement on Catholics in Political Life, which said failing to protect the lives of the innocent and defenseless is “to sin against justice.”

“Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good,” the U.S. bishops’ statement said.

Rash Wednesday

Manila, Philippines, Feb 16, 2018 / 01:41 pm (CNA).- After some Filipino Catholics developed mysterious rashes on Ash Wednesday, the Diocese of Caloocan investigated to determine the cause of the skin irritant.

While sabotage was initially suspected as a possibility, the reason behind the rashes turned out to be less sinister and more scientific – the ashes had been overcooked, which increased their level of acidity, resulting in rashes and blisters when mixed with water and applied to the skin.

“They call it overcooked charcoal turned into caustic ashes that produce high acidity when mixed with water,” said Bishop Pablo David of Caloocan, according to Manila Bulletin.

During Ash Wednesday Mass at the San Roque Cathedral in Caloocan, Philippines, some worshipers noticed a burning sensation when the ashes where applied to their foreheads. Later, they developed a blistering rash where the ashes were touching their skin.

He's Only a Child, So It's OK

Keep this in mind when you are sick and your children want to keep you alive.

Liverpool, England, Feb 20, 2018 / 04:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A British court ruled Tuesday that physicians can stop providing life support, against his parents' wishes, to Alfie Evans, a 21-month old boy who has an unknown neurological degenerative condition.

Evans is in a “semi-vegetative state” and on life support at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, where doctors have said further efforts are futile and went to court to argue that continuing treatment, as his parents wish, is not in Evans' best interest.

Justice Anthony Hayden of the High Court ruled Feb. 20 that “Alfie's need now is for good quality palliative care … He requires peace, quiet, and stability, so that he may conclude his life as he has lived it.”

“I am satisfied that continued ventilatory support is no longer in Alfie’s interests. This decision I appreciate will be devastating news to Alfie’s parents. I hope they will take time to read this judgement again.”

Justice Anthony Hayden

Dr. Melissa Moschella, a Catholic University of America philosophy professor, said: “It seems to me completely wrongheaded that the state should be stepping in here when the decision that the parents are making is really aimed at the best interests of the child.”

“It’s not crazy, it’s not abusive, it’s not neglectful. It’s the decision of parents who want to, however they can, to give their very sick child a chance for life.”

The Hypocrisy of "Catholic" Democrats

The party that represents these radicalized brunch-goers has no room for those who believe life begins at conception. They’ve expelled nearly all of its representatives who believe life begins at conception and vote accordingly. In Congress, only two Democrats belong to the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. That’s right, two. And the party is not running a single pro-life Democrat in any of the 91 districts they hope to win over this November. Both of these things are startling given that in 2009, 64 Democrats opposed the Affordable Care Act because they thought it didn’t come with enough restrictions on abortion.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), one of these Democratic congressmen who broke rank in 2009, has represented the Third District of Illinois since 2005. His seat is in jeopardy now that he's being challenged in the upcoming primary by Marie Newman, the darling of NARAL Pro-Choice America, EMILY’s List, Gloria Steinem, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Bringing God to the Field

Vietnam February 8, 1968 - Lieutenant S. J. Habiby, Chaplain of Second Battalion, Fourth Marines reads From the Scriptures during field church services held near the DMZ during Operation Kentucky. Photo by L. P. Brown

Baptism

Another Reason to Avoid Chicago

Denver, Colo., Feb 12, 2018 / 04:05 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Chicago has invited some U.S. bishops to a series of conferences on the 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The seminars will be held at three Catholic colleges later this month.

According to a letter obtained by Catholic News Agency, the meetings, dubbed “New Momentum Conferences on Amoris Laetitia,” are designed to offer a “tailor-made program that goes from why Amoris Laetitia provides New Momentum for Moral Formation and Pastoral Practice to how to provide formative pastoral programs.”
“The aim is to gather fifteen to twenty Bishops to have a conversation with the aid of theologians on the related topics,” the letter said.
The letter, written by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, explains that the conferences are modeled after a seminar of bishops and theologians discussing Amoris Laetitia held at Boston College (a Jesuit school) in October 2017.

Let's see who is presenting:


Several theologians and a canon lawyer will also present at the upcoming seminars.
Among the theologians is Dr. Kate Ward, a professor at Marquette University (a Jesuit school). From 2012-2015, Ward was a national board member of Call to Action, a group that has called for the ordination of women to the priesthood, expressed support for same-sex marriage, and said that the Church should re-evaluate its “position” on the use of artificial birth control.
From 2006-2009, Ward served as a national board member of Call to Action Next Generation, a youth affiliate of the organization. She chaired that board from 2008-2009.
In 2006, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then-prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, wrote that Call to Action’s activities “are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint. Thus to be a Member of this Association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith.”
Also scheduled to present is Dr. Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a theologian at Manhattan College.
Imperatori-Lee was also a presenter at the October seminar at Boston College. At that seminar, she criticized the Church’s “infantilization of the laity,” saying that “lay people are infantilized by a logic...where pastors serve as gatekeepers, offering permission for sacraments, rather than as counselors who accompany laypersons on their sacramental journeys.”
In a 2015 interview with the podcast Daily Theology, Imperatori-Lee described the late theologian and University of Notre Dame (formerly a Catholic school)  professor Fr. Richard McBrien as a mentor. According to the National Catholic Reporter, “McBrien advocated the ordination of women priests, an end to mandatory celibacy for priests, moral approval of artificial birth control, and decentralization of power in the church.”

Or as a famous Jesuit once said, "Who am I To judge?"

During his Feb. 9 speech, Cardinal Cupich said that Pope Francis has introduced a set of “hermeneutical principles” – principles of theological interpretation – that “force a paradigm shift” in the Church’s work with families.
Among the aspects of such a paradigm shift, Cupich said, is “rejecting an authoritarian or paternalistic way of dealing with people that lays down the law, that pretends to have all the answers, or easy answers to complex problems, that suggests that general rules will seamlessly bring immediate clarity or that the teachings of our tradition can preemptively be applied to the particular challenges confronting couples and families.”

Or as a Famous Jesuit Once Said, "Who Am I To Judge?"

By agreeing to provide contraceptive coverage, the university has violated its Catholic mission and revealed the emptiness of its lawsuit. In the tradition of the Land O’Lakes Statement and the “Cuomo Doctrine,” the University of Notre Dame continues to lead the way in compromising the moral traditions of the Catholic Church in order to accommodate modern attitudes about truth and the human person.

 In 2015, Notre Dame lost its legal challenge to the Obama administration’s mandate that it provide contraception, sterilization, and abortificacient drugs through its health-care plans. When the current presidential administration offered relief from the mandate, many believed Notre Dame would claim the exemption it had fought so hard to win in court. However, after “prayerful attention to God’s guidance” through the process of discernment — and out of respect for the “religious traditions and the conscientious decisions” of all of the members of its diverse community — Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins, CSC, announced his compromise: The university will provide coverage through its own insurance plans for “simple contraceptives.” It will not cover abortion-inducing drugs or sterilization procedures done “for the purpose of preventing conception.” The university will fund natural family-planning options and will provide a statement of the Catholic teaching on contraceptives to all plan enrollees.

 In an interview with The Atlantic, Father Jenkins explained further his thoughts in crafting the compromise. Against the danger of diluting the university’s Catholic identity, he said, “There’s a danger of rigidity in adhering to certain tenets that make the institution more narrow.”

The USCCB Misses Another Opportunity to Shut Up

On February 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the much-watched case of Janus v. AFSCME. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has submitted an amicus brief in Janus. Both as a Catholic and as a lawyer, I find the USCCB’s brief badly misguided in important ways.

 The legal issue in Janus is whether, consistent with the First Amendment, government employees who refuse to join the public-sector union that has been recognized as their representative for purposes of collective bargaining may nonetheless be compelled to pay the union a fee (a so-called “agency fee”) to cover their share of the union’s collective-bargaining expenditures, even when those employees object to the union’s political advocacy and lobbying. 

 To illustrate the issue more concretely: In 2014, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) donated $400,000 to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which in turn funded political candidates who support Planned Parenthood’s abortion agenda. May a government employee who is a faithful Catholic, as a condition of continued employment, be required to pay AFSCME a monthly agency fee? The USCCB amicus brief would have you believe that the “widely held” position of American bishops is to answer “yes” to the question whether agency fees may be imposed on government employees.

 The conclusion:

To be sure, the attentive reader will discern that the brief implicitly recognizes that how best to defend the legitimate rights of workers is, unlike the matters of abortion and marriage, a matter of prudential judgment on which Catholics can in good faith disagree. But it’s no surprise—indeed, it’s entirely predictable—that those not well versed in Catholic teaching will imagine that the American bishops, through the USCCB brief, are now putting all three matters on the same moral plane. Why would the USCCB sow such confusion?

Prepare to be Saddened

Crises and scandals have gathered at the Vatican in the past month. This pontificate is spreading chaos and confusion. 

We are all familiar with parody Twitter accounts; someone called Donald J. Trump has a really rather good one going at the moment. When I read the words of a senior Vatican official recently, on the Twitter feed of the Catholic Herald, it seemed just so obvious. A Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorando, according to the report, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences — it sounds like a job of soul-destroying tedium but is in fact a rather significant position — had described the one country in the world that, in the bishop’s words, was “best implementing the social doctrine of the Church.” That would be the People’s Republic of China. 

 China is the country that had a remarkably successful try at enforcing a one-child policy, promoting massive abortion (a figure of more than 300 million has been suggested) — sex-selective, with boys highly favored for birth, girls for elimination — enforced sterilization, and execution of criminals. And, of course, the one-party state persecutes the Church and imprisons human-rights advocates. Bishop Sánchez, who said he had been to China and seen all this good work in person, so it must be true, probably wouldn’t agree with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, who recently protested the imminent decision of the Vatican to recognize the government-sponsored, quisling “Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.” That move would be at the expense of the members of the “underground” Catholic Church, which has stayed loyal to the Vatican and suffered persecution for decades. Zen said that the Vatican, and by that he means Pope Francis, was “ready to surrender to the Chinese Communist Party” — again, perfectly fine if it excelled at implementing the social doctrine of the Church.

Read the whole thing. Here's the final paragraph:

You can hide the rubbish in the streets only for so long. Eventually it overflows, out into the open. When the Church should be speaking with a clear and direct voice, it is instead spreading confusion, misunderstanding, and scandal. Francis famously called for the people to make a “mess” in the Church. To youth in Rio de Janeiro, he said in January 2013, “I want a mess. . . . I want trouble in the dioceses.” It seems, for now, he has got his wish.

The Governor Finally Expands Business in Illinois

It begins like any other recruitment ad for a leadership position at an influential organization. Planned Parenthood of Illinois recently engaged an exclusive recruiting firm to help it find a new president and CEO, one who has the “ability to lead and execute strategic plans.” 

Shortly into the job description, one finds an interesting requirement. The president and CEO will need to to launch a capital campaign that “will result in four new” Planned Parenthood “health centers.” Planned Parenthood already operates 17 clinics in Illinois, including a mega-clinic in Aurora, strategically located within an hour’s drive of both the Indiana and the Wisconsin borders. (Illinois law does not require a minor to be a state resident to get a judicial waiver to have an abortion.) And just last month, Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in Flossmoor, a suburban village that, while affluent and racially diverse, is almost entirely surrounded by economically challenged communities, largely populated by people of color. The new Flossmoor clinic offers medical (i.e., the abortion pill) and elective surgical abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy. Why the sudden expansion? Four new centers, in addition to Flossmoor? 

Why would the nation’s largest provider of abortions open additional clinics when even its former research affiliate, the Guttmacher Institute, has noted that nationally the number of women choosing to end their pregnancies is declining? The job description may provide a clue: The new president and CEO will “capitalize on the ongoing changes” in local and national health care to enhance the “organization’s financial success.” Couple that with the requirement, or “must,” that the new officer “actively cultivate relationships at the top levels” of the state’s “legislative and administrative leadership” and you have your answer. 

 Last year, Republican governor Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 40, which provides all Illinois Medicaid recipients and employees of the state of Illinois with abortion services at taxpayer expense. This new abortion benefit is limited with respect neither to the number of procedures a woman chooses to have nor to the stage in her pregnancy at which she chooses to have them.

After he had publicly promised that he would veto HB40, Rauner signed it, over the objection of most of those who put him into office. Not one of the 73 Illinois House and Senate Republicans voted for it. While no one knows for sure what goes on in backroom politics, it’s fairly obvious that Rauner’s decision has allowed Planned Parenthood to “capitalize on the ongoing changes” in Illinois as it seeks to expand its reach. At taxpayer expense — and at the expense of the developmentally disabled, who continue to see a reduction in the services they need because of Illinois’s ongoing fiscal crisis and failure to reimburse private social-service agencies.

VOTE FOR IVES!

"Open the Borders", Demands the USCCB

From the "Be Careful What You Wish For" Department:

Acapulco, Mexico, Feb 6, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Acapulco, Mexico, reported that two priests were murdered early Monday morning, Feb 5.

Fr. Iván Añorve Jaimes, pastor of Holy Family Parish in the town of Las Vigas, and Fr.  Germain Muñiz Garcia, the pastor of Mezcala; were killed in an attack by unidentified individuals in Taxco township.
According to a press release from the Guerrero State Attorney General's Office, the victims were traveling on the Iguala-Taxco highway when they were suddenly cut off by another vehicle, from which shots were fired. The assailants fled the scene.

Father ván Añorve Jaimes and Father Germain Muñiz García.

George Weigel Takes the Vatican To The Woodshed (it's about China)

 

Negotiating with the Devil has never been the long suit of Vatican diplomacy. The “examination of conscience” is an important part of Catholic spirituality, which always precedes confession but is ideally practiced at the end of each day: a review of what one got wrong, and what right, as preparation for an act of contrition and a prayer of thanksgiving for graces received. And while there are obvious and important differences between individual Catholics examining their conscience and Vatican diplomats reviewing the Church’s successes and failures in the thorny, dense thickets of world politics, one might have thought that this spiritual discipline would have some bearing on the diplomacy of the Holy See, if only as a reality check.

But if you thought that, you’d be hard pressed to find evidence for it in the history of Vatican diplomacy’s dealing with totalitarian regimes.
Read more at the link about the 1929 Lateran Accord with Italy, the 1933 Reich Concordiat, and...

Then came the Ostpolitik of the late 1960s and 1970s. Faced with what he once described as the “frozen swamp” of Communist repression behind the iron curtain, Pope Paul VI’s chief diplomatic agent, Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, began to negotiate a series of agreements with Communist governments. Those agreements were intended to provide for the sacramental life of the Church by facilitating the appointment of bishops, who could ordain priests, who could celebrate Mass and hear confessions, thereby preserving some minimal form of Catholic survival until Communism “changed.” And another disaster ensue.

Is This True???

 From Eye of the Tiber (so I guess, no):


The world’s most famous pope foresees no early end to his papacy.

 
The Pope’s handlers announced Friday that Pope Francis had seen his own shadow earlier that day.

Legend has it that if the furry Pope casts a shadow on the feast of St. Agatha, the people of the world are to expect no less that six more decades of the Francis papacy, or at least Francis-like papacy.

“It’s really a cool thing to see,” said Alice Moya, just one of the hundreds of spectators that gathered at the Vatican Friday. “It’s one of those things that you hope to one day scratch off your bucket list.

Bundled up and dancing to music in the freezing cold, another visitor, Tabatha O’Neill, told EOTT that the event was all that she had imagined.

“The event was really fun. One of the Pope’s handlers took him out of his cage, a humble looking cage, of course, and pulled him up by the scruff of his neck. Then he pretended to listen to something Francis was saying before finally announcing that the Pope had announced 60 more years of his papacy. That’s when I threw up. A lot of people booed while others cheered. Then, as is custom, everyone went on to their blogs or other website comboxes and started going apeshit at each other. It was fun.”

Don't Drive Angry

Redifining "Bipartisan".

 "Bipartisan now means, "You agree with me on everything"  A note to Senator McCain... thank you for your service. Now it is time to retire.

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced a bipartisan immigration plan on Monday that would provide a path to citizenship for “dreamers” who have been in the country since 2013, and increase border security. The bill would not immediately provide the funds for a wall or enact any new measures on “chain migration” or the diversity lottery.

President Donald Trump’s past proposals would put an end to the visa lottery and limit “chain migration,” the policy which allows immigrants to the US to sponsor the immigration petitions of family members, and would have provided funding towards the construction of a wall on the Mexican border.
A representative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told CNA Monday that the conference is in favor of bipartisan collaboration to solve this issue, and that they hope that a solution can be found quickly.
 

Canon Law 915

" Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion."

Yesterday was a day of shame and horror for Catholics in America

Fourteen of our senators who identify publicly as Catholics voted against a bill that would outlaw late term abortion.

 Remember the baby feels pain at this stage as he is dismembered.

The senators who vote to allow this to continue in America are:

Maria Cantwell – Washington

Susan Collins -Maine

Dick Durbin – Illinois

 

Kirsten Gillibrand – New York

Heidi Heitkamp – North Dakota

Tim Kaine – Virginia

Patrick Leahy – Vermont

Ed Markey – Massachussetts

Catherine Cortez Masto – Nevada

Claire McCaskill – Missouri

Bob Menendez – New Jersey

Lisa Murkowski – Alaska

Patty Murray – Washington

Jack Reed – Rhode Island

 

Eead more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2018/01/fourteen-catholic-senators-enabled-late-term-abortion.html#GTreTre6t5WSTMEw.99

The Unitarian Minister Must Have Been Busy

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a priest, a rabbi, and a pastor walk into an abortion clinic.
Whoops, a priest wasn’t in this story. But some ministers and a rabbi were at an abortion clinic. And this is not a joke, because sadly, it’s true.


Yes, clergy were on hand at the opening of an abortion facility in Bethesda, MD, run by the notorious late-term abortionist Dr. LeRoy Carhart. They went there to bless and sanctify the clinic.

 “God of grace and God of glory, in whom we move and live. Keep them safe and keep them strong. And may they always know that all that they do is for Thy glory.”

Are you as appalled as me? “All that they do is for Thy Glory? So butchering an unborn baby is for God’s glory? The same God of whom the Psalmist lovingly wrote, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)?

What kind of macabre theology is that?

But these clergy weren’t finished by just uttering their prayers. In addition, they went from room to room in the clinic, sprinkling water to “sanctify” the areas. They even sprinkled water in the parking lot because this was a “space of tremendous decision-making,” according to Rev. Cari Jackson of the United Church of Christ. Is that because women just might have pangs of conscience about having their unborn babies killed? No, it’s because of protestors they might encounter outside the clinic. Can’t have these women change their minds, you know.