You Can't Fix Stupid

 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 26, 2020 / 03:00 pm MT (CNA).- A Boston priest has said he believes in “a woman’s right to choose” on the issue of abortion, and will continue his advocacy for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, despite Catholic teaching on abortion and a Church prohibition on clerical advocacy for political candidates. 

Msgr. Paul Garrity of the Archdiocese of Boston spoke to CNA Tuesday, after attracting criticism for a Facebook post endorsing former vice president Joe Biden for president. 

In an Aug. 23 Facebook post titled “I AM PRO-LIFE AND SUPPORT JOE BIDEN,” Msgr. Garrity wrote: “I am pro-life and I believe in a woman’s right to choose. I will vote for Joe Biden for President because I believe that Joe Biden is pro-life like me.”

 alling Biden the “pro-life candidate” despite his support for abortion, Garrity told CNA Tuesday that “in the 2016 election, church-going Catholics were told they had no choice by bishops and priests. I am hopeful this will not happen again.” 

It was unclear what Garrity was referring to in saying Catholics were told by bishops that they had “no choice” but to vote for Trump in 2016. The bishops do not endorse candidates; canon law prohibits clerics from taking “an active role in political parties” and civil law forbids nonprofits from endorsing political candidates. 

Profiles In Courage:

 CNA made several requests for comment on Garrity’s remarks from the Archdiocese of Boston. The archdiocese did not respond to those requests.

 

Amazon Alexius - Latin speaking digital assistant

Noted Theologian Joe Biden Picks Another Noted Theologian as a Running Mate

 

 

                                                            Menaces to Society!

Michael Sean Winters, a writer for the National Catholic Reporter and the author of “Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats,” also expressed his reservations about Harris. 

“After the racial tensions the nation experienced this summer, putting a Black woman on the ticket is to be commended,” Winters said, but called the selection of Harris a “setback for progressives.”

Winters was critical of Harris’ 2018 questioning of a judicial nominee over his membership of the Knights of Columbus, calling her treatment of Brian C. Buescher “embarrassing in both its ignorance and its bigotry.” 

“Whatever difficulties I have with the leadership at the K of C, they do not excuse her dismissiveness towards a religion held by millions of fellow citizens, including her new running mate,” Winters said Wednesday, after the announcement of Harris' selection was made. 

At the time CNA broke the story of Buescher's ordeal, America Magazine published an editorial saying Harris’ questions to the prospective judge had shown "a surprising ignorance of the Knights’ many religious, charitable and civic activities beyond their direct political advocacy, not to mention a complete disregard for their history in opposing virulent anti-Catholicism in the nation’s past."

National Review writer Alexandra DeSanctis made a similar observation, saying Harris’s time on the Senate judiciary committee had shown “reprehensible anti-Catholic bigotry, and there’s no reason to believe her views have changed.”

Several commentators from across the political divide also noted Harris’ noted support for unlimited access to abortion.

Baby Steps

 

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 12:00 pm MT (CNA).- Some Catholics in South Dakota will once again be obligated to go to Sunday Mass, after the Diocese of Sioux Falls it will lift the dispensation on Sunday Mass attendance this week. 

From this weekend, Catholics in the diocese who are not in high-risk categories for contracting coronavirus will once more be bound by the Sunday obligation, making Sioux Falls the first diocese to lift the general dispensation brought in across U.S. dioceses in the wake of the pandemic.

“After receiving clarity through prayer, consultation with clergy and others, and in light of this data, effective on August 17, 2020, I am changing the dispensation to apply only to those at increased risk for severe illness and those responsible for their care,” said a statement from Bishop Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls published on August 10. 

“It is important for all in the diocese to know that this modification is made out of pastoral concern for the souls entrusted to my spiritual care,” he added.

Correlation is Not Causation...I Don't Think

 

 

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2020 / 03:13 pm MT (CNA).- As North Carolina experienced a moderate earthquake Sunday, local pastors encourage Catholics to relinquish control to God.

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Sparta, about 100 miles north of Charlotte, struck at 8:07 am Aug. 9. There were no injuries but there have been reports of damages throughout Sparta, including cracks in the road and shelves displaced in grocery stores, the Associated Press reported.

The lesson at Mass was from 1 Kings 19, wherein Elijah said, “After the wind there was an earthquake - but the LORD was not in the earthquake.” 

 St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte experienced the earthquakes within minutes of reading “the Lord was not in the earthquake.” Father Richard Sutter, the pastor of St. Gabriel, said it is a good reminder to trust in God.

He's Another Noted Theologian

CNA Staff, Aug 6, 2020 / 11:30 pm MT (CNA).- Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke about his Catholic faith, in response to comments from President Donald Trump that a Biden presidency would “hurt God.”

“Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: it's provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it's kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy. And in this moment of darkness for our country — of pain, of division, and of sickness for so many Americans — my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us,” Biden said in an Aug. 6 statement.

“For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful. It's beneath the office he holds and it's beneath the dignity the American people so rightly expect and deserve from their leaders," he added.

 

 Hey Joe! Do you remember the 5th Commandment? It goes like this:

Thou Shall Not Kill.

At the time Biden was denied Communion, his website stated that one of his priorities as president would be to “work to codify Roe v. Wade” into federal law, and that “his Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate the constitutional right to an abortion,” including laws requiring waiting periods, ultrasounds, and parental notification of a minor’s abortion.

“Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because healthcare is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income,” said his website.

Biden’s website also pledges him to “restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood,” and promises to “rescind the Mexico City Policy (also referred to as the global gag rule) that President Trump reinstated and expanded.”

Hey Joe! Do you remember the 7th Commandment?

Thou Shall Not Steal.

Last week, Democrat nominee for president Joe Biden delivered an economic speech under the slogan “Build Back Better.” Despite the radical proposals contained within the speech, that’s some clever branding.

 However, Joe Biden didn’t come up with the slogan, the United Nations did. That’s right—Joe Biden and his campaign plagiarized the title directly from a United Nations climate change initiative launched in April. In fact, Biden’s released economic plan seemed eerily similar to President Donald Trump’s “America First” message.

 Following these latest incidents, one can’t help but flash back to Biden’s well-documented history of plagiarism, which dates to his first presidential campaign in the summer of 1987, a bid that ended ignominiously amid repeated examples of plagiarism and outright fabrication.

It’s also important to note that he’s been accused of lifting entire sections of speeches from others for his own use without attribution. And of copying, almost word for word, policy platforms of other candidates.

 

What's Good For the Goose, Is Not Good For the Gander

Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2020 / 01:40 pm MT (CNA).- Protesters were arrested Saturday for writing a pro-life message on the sidewalk outside a Washington, D.C., Planned Parenthood clinic, but say police told them before the event they would not be stopped from writing there.

On Saturday, Students for Life of America (SFLA) published a video showing two members of the group—strategic partnerships advisor Warner DePriest along with a student member—being arrested by police outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington’s NoMa neighborhood.
The protestors were attending a planned demonstration, co-hosted by SFLA and the Frederick Douglass Foundation, to draw attention to the abortion rate in the African-American community.

As the two protesters were writing “Pre-born Black Lives Matter” in chalk on the sidewalk, a police officer can be seen telling them “if you continue chalking, you’re going to be placed under arrest.” They continued writing, after which two other officers approached the two and placed them in handcuffs. 

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Washington, D.C....

From America's Paper of Record

WORLD—In a Mass protest Sunday, Catholics around the world knelt in protest of something or another, then stood up in another apparent protest against the previous protesting, then sat down—the meaning of which is unclear— then knelt again, then stood up again.
It was all very confusing to religion and political commentators.

"Maybe they're mad about Luther still? I don't know," said one Protestant analyst. "It could be racism or something, but Catholics in every country from pretty much every ethnicity are kneeling and standing and sitting, so that can't be it."

“The messaging these days is very unclear. All I know is we are protesting something,” said one devout Roman Catholic.  “Like, I’m not sure if the kneeling is the protest part or if it’s the standing. I know when athletes kneel for the national anthem, that’s a protest, but, then again, just last week one athlete kept standing and everyone else was kneeling and that was considered a protest. It’s all very ambiguous.”

Unfortunately, Pope Francis added to the confusion when he gave a homily about how brown fragility is contributing to systemic racism, which is then causing both police brutality and global warming. During this time he instructed the Roman Catholic faithful around the world to repeat the cycle of kneeling, then standing, and then sitting, and then kneeling, and then standing again.
Cardinals close to Pope Francis attempted to clarify that the Pope was not saying anything about the sexual abuse scandal in the church at this time and was trying to focus his message on global warming, which he believed needed to be combatted by the repeated kneel-stand-sit protest routine each Sunday.