'Bishop Aquila of North Dakota recently sent a letter to all Priests of his Diocese, asking them to participate in the 40 Days for Life campaign, which is a well established pro-life witness in the United States. The Bishop wrote: 'I will pray on the sidewalk in front of the abortion facility on Friday, September 25, at 11 a.m. and again on Respect Life Sunday when I lead a Eucharistic procession to the abortion facility, carrying our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament to the site of death for so many of His children.'
The BBC reports that...
Labour is in "the fight of our lives" but the party can win the next election, Lord Mandelson has said. The business secretary said a Labour government had "never been needed more than now", saying his party should behave as "fighters, not quitters." (That's how I've always felt about smoking...).
An old cowboy dressed to kill with a cowboy shirt, hat, jeans, spurs, and chaps went to a bar and ordered a drink. As he sat sipping his whiskey, a young lady sat down next to him. After she ordered her drink, she turned to the cowboy and asked him, "Are you a real cowboy?" To which he replied, "Well, I have spent my whole life on the ranch, herding cows, breaking horses, mending fences. I guess I am."
After a short while, he asked her what she was. She replied, "I am a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning I think of women, when I eat, shower, watch TV, everything seems to make me think of women."
A short while later she left and the cowboy ordered another drink. A couple sat down next to him and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?" To which he replied, "I always thought I was, but I just found out that I'm a lesbian."
'Two working mothers have been banned from looking after each other's toddlers because they are not registered childminders. The close friends' private arrangement had let them both return to part-time jobs at the same company. However, a whistleblower reported them to the education watchdog Ofsted and it found their informal deal broke the law....'
10.30am Papal High Sung Mass at St Mary Magdalen's Church, Brighton, with local priests as deacons and sub-deacons.Well, we can dream!
11.30pm Coffee with the parishioners of St Mary Magdalen's Church, Brighton and a swift Fanta at The Windmill, where he says he needs a light for his fag. Even rabid atheists go onto their knees and hold their lighters up to the Holy Father, like in that Marilyn Monroe flick. He enjoys one of Fr Ray's Camels with Fr Ray, me, and all of the parishioners some of whom never smoked before. All this we do inside the pub and break the smoking ban, but nobody cares because its the flippin' Pope!!! Bar staff at The Windmill come over and break open a dozen bottles of champagne, saying, "It's on the house, Your Holiness," having kissed his hands and feet. He blesses them, they rise and go back to serving customers. The Holy Father chinks glasses with Fr Ray, has a sip or three and then says, 'Must dash! May Almighty God bless you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit!'
1pm Meeting in London with the Bishops of England and Wales.
1.03pm Bishops of England and Wales make official statement publicly calling on all Priests to learn the Traditional Latin Mass...Now!
1.05pm Lunch with Richard Dawkins
1.06pm Dawkins cries like a baby, converts and asks for Baptism and the location of the nearest Carthusian monastery.
2pm Meeting with Her Royal Highness the Queen
2.05pm Queen requests intensive RCIA course. Prince Charles begs the Holy Father to address climate change and save the planet. Pope Benedict XVI tells him to save his soul and that the planet can go spin on its axis like it always has done and always will until the Lord Jesus returns in Glory at the End of Time and that if the Lord's main concern were that we save the rainforests he would have flippin' said so during His Ministry on Earth.
2.06pm Prince Charles converts to Catholicism.
3.30pm Meets Gordon Brown PM. PM asks if the Holy Father has a spare 'moral compass' on him as he seems to have lost his. Holy Father passes him a penny Catechism.
3.35pm Gordon Brown converts to the Holy Faith, reverses the smoking ban, bans abortion, tells Stonewall to get knotted, promotes marriage and England is Our Lady's Dowry glorious and everyone goes home and prays the Rosary in thanksgiving for the reconversion of the British Isles!
6pm Arrives in Birmingham and canonises Cardinal John Henry Newman.
"We've got to be really careful when we start making it legally possible to end any life. I don't think people who are against legalising euthanasia are any less feeling, they just see that there are great dangers in the state legislating for this, and indeed there are."
"Would it make a difference if a person was under the age of 18? Does it matter if the person who dies was not suffering from a terminal illness or severe degenerative condition, or if they had a mental illness or learning difficulty?" he wrote. Are any of these factors more worthy of sympathy than a criminal trial?
"If you answer “Yes”, you are exercising your discretion whether to prosecute. I think these factors do make a difference, and I will be setting out exactly how later on today."
"It is a clear signal that France is honouring the agreement... to build even stronger controls at the Calais border with the UK," he said.
Mr Johnson pledged continuing support for the French action, saying that the UK Border Agency officers "already work day and night alongside the French authorities to secure the border at Calais".
French riot police detained 278 illegal migrants in a dawn raid on a makeshift camp in northern France. Illegal migrants and left-wing protesters fought with police on Tuesday as armed officers began clearing the camp. As soon as dawn broke at 7.39am dozens of vans accompanied by bulldozers began circling the stretch of wooded waste ground a few hundred yards from the ferry port. Up to 500 officers had massed for the operation – at least two for each migrant who had stayed on in the blue tarpaulin tents and rickety shacks.
'Protesters, some in tears, shouted slogans at the police, including: "Shame on France!"' Aid worker Sylvie Copyans, from the group Salam, described the heavy-handed police response as "disproportionate and sickening’. To highlight this she told how a frightened Afghan boy called Ali was torn from her arms by police as she wept. She said: 'I tried to hide him, he was very, very frightened.’
Jessica Nora Shadia, 25, from Dunkirk, said: "It's shameful. They treat people like animals. Children were being pushed to the floor as if people have nothing. It's so sad. We tried to help them," she shrugged: "What can you do?"
Now, on this point I disagree. It is not enough to just say, "Well, Mengele was mad!" As Fr Ray Blake says in his blog, atheism is responsible for as many great evils of which he can think. Atheism does not defend all human life. It only defends human life it deems to be a life 'worth living'. Josef Mengele professed that all of his crimes he did "in the name of science". The poor and deluded individual simply could not help himself. And of course, as our Priest well knows, what with hearing our Confessions, we humans do not necessarily seek or will what is bad. We will what is good but go astray in attaining it because we very often seek a version of the good which has been divorced from the Will of God. We want something good, like love, sex and human intimacy and are prepared to do it unlawfully, outside of marriage, for example, to get it. Scientists want significant breakthroughs and scientific discoveries, treatments or cures, but they're willing to sacrifice some human beings in order to achieve it, which is, of course evil.In 1943, Mengele replaced another doctor who had fallen ill at the Nazi extermination camp Birkenau. On May 24, 1943, he became medical officer of Auschwitz-Birkenau's "Gypsy camp". In August 1944, this camp was liquidated and all its inmates gassed. Subsequently Mengele became Chief Medical Officer of the main infirmary camp at Birkenau. He was not, though, the Chief Medical Officer of Auschwitz — superior to him was SS-Standortarzt (garrison physician) Eduard Wirths.
Mengele's experiments also included attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations of limbs and other brutal surgeries. Rena Gelissen's account of her time in Auschwitz details certain experiments performed on female prisoners around October 1943. Mengele would experiment on the chosen girls, performing sterilization and shock treatments. Most of the victims died, either due to the experiments or later infections. According to a website, "Once Mengele's assistant rounded up 14 pairs of Roma twins during the night. Mengele placed them on his polished marble dissection table and put them to sleep. He then injected chloroform into their hearts, killing them instantly. Mengele then began dissecting and meticulously noting each and every piece of the twins' bodies."
The subjects of Mengele's research were better fed and housed than ordinary prisoners and were, for the time being, safe from the gas chambers. When visiting his child subjects, he introduced himself as "Uncle Mengele" and offered them sweets. Some survivors remember that despite his grim acts, he was also called "Mengele the protector". In addition to his studies on twins he did a number of horrifying experiments. Once he burned several Jewish prisoners in a gigantic oven to test how long it would take for the human body to get first, second and third degree burns at certain temperatures. He also tested how much force it would require to break a human skull.
Auschwitz prisoner Alex Dekel has said: "I have never accepted the fact that Mengele himself believed he was doing serious work — not from the slipshod way he went about it. He was only exercising his power. Mengele ran a butcher shop — major surgeries were performed without anesthesia. Once, I witnessed a stomach operation — Mengele was removing pieces from the stomach, but without any anesthetic. Another time, it was a heart that was removed, again, without anesthesia. It was horrifying. Mengele was a doctor who became mad because of the power he was given. Nobody ever questioned him — why did this one die? Why did that one perish? The patients did not count. He professed to do what he did in the name of science, but it was a madness on his part".
'The future global burden of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia has been underestimated, say UK experts. A report from King's College London suggests more than 115 million people across the globe will suffer from dementia by 2050. This prediction is 10% more than previous figures published in 2005, driven mainly by new figures from South Asia and Latin America.Interesting choice of language, isn't it? Instead of reporting that the number of dementia and Alzheimers sufferers is set to rise in the future, the report describes those suffering with the illness as a 'burden', and not just any burden but a 'global burden'. Does that sound like not-so-subtle news-speak propaganda or what?
The Alzheimer's Society said the data showed the "scale of the challenge". The rise in dementia fuelled by increasing life expectancies in countries around the world is causing widespread concerns.'
"The strain of caring for people with dementia is not just a social issue, butHow shocking and outrageous! The economically productive have to foot the bill for people who were economically productive but who now have dementia and so are no longer economically productive. Now they've got dementia they're just feeding off the rest of us, even though one day I might have dementia, but that's scary to think about and while I am fit and healthy I'm just going to think about how terrifying it is that these burdensome people are still with us today...Burdensome dementia burdens! If I ever get dementia I'm straight off to Dignitas pronto to get myself put down like an aged, limping yorkshire terrier! Anyone who doesn't do that is just plain selfish and nicking my hard-earned cash. There's nothing worse than someone being a burden!
an economic one, placing a growing burden on the working population and health
systems."
My drummer friend, Ali, and I did a Car Boot Sale at BHASVIC college car park in Brighton on Saturday and we managed to make a bit of cash for the Building Fund. There's so much stuff waiting to be sold. I'm really getting into it, all that haggling, dodging and weaving, ducking and diving, nipping off to get a burger with onions or the odd coffee. Ali seemed to enjoy it too, saying he'd happily do it regularly, which is helpful, as he is the man with the white van.
When we pulled up into our space punters crowded around the van as if the pound had just crashed and we were the only ones in the town with gold bars. Like vultures they descended on the boot to see what booty we had. I said, "Will you give us 5 minutes to set up?" One man answered back, "We might be gone in 5 minutes!" How naive of me! We got a fold-out table on which to put stuff to sell out of the van and one man shouted, "How much for the table!?" Oh boy, punters, it seems, love a good car boot sale.
I had a couple of St Therese of Lisieux statues with prayer cards and put them at the front of my saints section of the stall. I enjoyed shouting out, "St Therese statues for sale here! Get your statues of the Little Flower here! She's touring all over England at the moment, oh yes! That's right, the one Matthew Parris can't stand! £3 each or two for £5!"
Alright, I didn't say that, but people did seem quite taken by the statues. Some people you could obviously see were interested in them for their 'kitsch' value but one man was particularly interested. He was an Anglican who had just returned from pilgrimmage to Fatima and Lourdes. He was retired so said he had the time to do those kinds of things now. He goes to St Patrick's Church, down the road from St Mary Magdalen's and mentioned he had been to the first Car Boot Sale and enjoyed talking to Fr Ray about the Church and the Faith. He bought Our Lady of Fatima off me.
He appeared to have an enormous devotion to the Blessed Virgin and even described her as 'Our Blessed Lady'. 'How refreshing', I thought, 'that an Anglican should revere Our Blessed Mother so much as to acknowledge her properly.' So many Anglican's just call her 'Mary'. He said he was thinking of the possibility of converting to the Catholic Faith and seemed interested in St Mary Magdalen's Church. He was a thoroughly pleasant chap.
A pair of Christian hoteliers in Lancashire who argued with a Muslim guest atIf I were a policeman and someone came up to me and said, "Officer! Someone just said something that really offended me! Please, do something, I feel genuinely insulted," then I think I'd reply, "Oh you poor lamb. We've all had days like that. Go home, have a bath, get some aromatherapy candles on and you'll have forgotten all about it in the morning, unless you're the type who really nurses grievances for long periods of time. Still, why not just turn the other cheek and forgive? Honestly, you'll feel better for it."
the breakfast table have been charged with a religiously-aggravated offence.
Dutch-born Ben Vogelenzang said that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was a
warlord, while his wife Sharon, 54, described the hijab as a form of bondage, it
is claimed.
The incident happened in March when the unnamed guest, who
was staying at the hotel while being treated at a nearby hospital, came down to
breakfast wearing a hijab, a traditional Muslim headdress covering the hair.
The couple had never seen her wear the religious clothing before and a
discussion ensued. The guest complained to police and the couple were charged
under the 1986 Public Order Act - with using “threatening, abusive or insulting
words” which were “religiously aggravated”.
Keir Starmer QC told the BBC factors that would be considered included
whether anyone helping in the suicide stood to gain financially. He said
assisted suicide would remain an offence as the law was unchanged.
Labour minister Ed Balls said he hoped Mr Starmer would "err on the side
of being very, very cautious".'
So let's recap then. The Director of Public Prosecutions is going to suggest that if you want to assist someones suicide, do it, but do it very, very cautiously, as quiet as a mouse and you'll get away with it.
If you do not do it with a profound sense of caution then you might get prosecuted...but probably not. So, in conclusion then, you almost certainly won't get prosecuted, unless you've "manipulated" someone into a suicide in a wicked manner.
But then, let's just think about it, the only truly credible witness to the "manipulation" is probably dead either having put a bag over her head because she felt like it, having had a bag put over her head by you after you've convinced her it was about time she took a sharp turn to the exit marked 'Death', or even because you put a bag over her head and you know there are no witnesses and this will look unmistakenly like a suicide, or even an 'assisted suicide'.
So, you probably won't get prosecuted. In conclusion, then, you almost certainly won't get prosecuted for assisting suicide. Therefore the State sanctions suicide and allows you to 'help' kill your family, friends and relatives with impunity.
Cracking stuff. The idea that this 'decriminalisation' is not wide open to gross and grave abuse is as laughable as the idea that Peter Mandelson isn't harbouring a deep and burning desire to become next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Dark Lord of the Whole Universe simultaeneously. People love grannies. People love grannies with money. People love money. People love their granny's money. Safeguards, they say!? What safeguards! The only truly credible eyewitness is dead, having conveniently left her inheritence to her doting son/daughter! You don't have to be P.D James to imagine what will take place following decriminalisation!
It wasn’t so long ago that Europe was almost awash with gallons of the milk of the Virgin Mary, treasured by the faithful (Anyone remember the Great Catholic European Milk-a-thon of 1965? No? Me neither). And fellow citizens ought usually to be polite enough to keep their critical thoughts to themselves, in the name of courtesy and mutual tolerance.So, Minette. What next? Ban Rosaries? Ban Confession? Ban the Eucharist? Ban the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Ban crucifixes? Ban prayer? Ban Catholicism? All of these things are a threat to your world view. All of these things are present in parish Churches in the UK and in prison chapels among the Faithful imprisoned. Today, it seems, people love talking about diversity...until they feel threatened, feel uncomfortable or challenged by one of the religions.
However, there is a difference in this case. The Catholic Church is actively encouraging people to hope for miracles of healing (The Church is not saying, "Roll up, roll up, get your miracle cures here". The Church is encouraging the Faithful to piety and devotion to a Saint who always had in her prayers those outcasts rejected by society.) These reliquary jamborees can only inflame irrational expectations in people who are suffering and suggestible. Surely it cannot be right to do so. Any face cream promising much lesser miracles — merely the disappearance of wrinkles — would soon fall foul of trading standards officers and have to be withdrawn, to protect the innocent public from being deluded by the false claims of charlatans. Why, then, have the media been so uncritical about this mass deception? (Why should the media be highly critical of a Catholic tradition that goes back to the Early Church? I mean, we expect it, but why?)
The intolerant, triumphalist atheists have never appealed to me (Could've fooled me!). I cannot see why it is so important to them to denounce other people’s religious beliefs so aggressively (So, why then denounce the Faithful's veneration of these relics?). I don’t know why people who pride themselves on their rationality can be so irrationally sure that they are right; absolute certainty is not a rational position (Good point, Melanie!). Besides, Catholics and Christians generally are very often a force for good; most of what’s best in our society is built upon Christian foundations. (Bravo! O boy, this girl is good! Fair, respectful and even-handed!)
All the same, there comes a time when even a peaceable agnostic feels roused to indignation (Uh-oh...She's about to have a funny turn!). For me it was last week, at the news that the Home Office has seen fit to let the bones of the Little Flower into Wormwood Scrubs prison. This almost defies belief (Correction: It defies your unbelief). For, in allowing this, with all the due process and deliberation of bureaucracy, the government is conferring respectability on such relics (Not so, Minette. The Government is allowing the relics of a Saint to visit a prison. This is not illegal immigration nor a matter for HM Customs and Excise. St Therese is not a member of Al-Quaeda. They are merely allowing Catholic prisoners and those of good will to venerate a Saint's relics. In other words, respecting the right to freedom of religious expression. I mean, what are you going to do next? Call for the banning of Mass? I mean, to you Mass is dangerous because Catholics think we receive the Body and Blood of Christ?) And in so doing, it opens wide the gates of reason to let into any public place any and every fetish or juju that any religious group claims is part of its spiritual life. The laws on equality and religious respect will require it.
What the starry progress of the relics of the Little Flower has done for me is to remind me that we have in this country rather too much religious tolerance (Calling for the banning of relics of obscure french nuns who became canonized Saints seems very intolerant to me). The truth is that many religions — perhaps most — have certain doctrines and beliefs that are not merely irrational but sometimes dangerous and unacceptable. (Catholicism. The most dangerous and unacceptable religion in the World! All those St Therese devotees going around doing good, praying for troubled souls and being kind. They must be stopped!)
At this very moment there are religions, with countless adherents in this country, that teach that people can truly be possessed by demons, which must be exorcised, perhaps violently; that witches exist and must be punished or killed; that God has created women inferior and subject to men; that women are unclean and must be excluded from certain places and roles for that reason (Which religion is this? Oh, she must mean Christianity and in particular, Catholicism. She's right of course. I went to Mass last week and after coffee we had three witch burnings, five exorcisms and forced at least three women into labour camps to do washing up and laundry for the men. Thank God for true religion...). These beliefs — held until recently by most of Christian Europe — are actually against the law (This is rubbish. Beliefs, even wicked beliefs with little or nothing to do with Christianity are not against the law. Even Satanists are given a degree of protection against discrimination) in this country and contrary to the universal declaration of human rights. Yet the duty of religious tolerance persuades us to overlook this fact (and we, too, have to tolerate you, your vile anti-Catholic prejudices and your heresy). It persuades us to ignore the truth that religions are not really equal, in the sense that they are not equally benign or harmless. (Read: "Both these bones and the idea that some people believe they are the bones of a Saint who is now in Heaven frighten me terribly. Therefore, I want the State to ban them. Boo-hoo".)
Some religions do promote unacceptable things, while others peddle false hopes here on earth. I would not dream of suggesting that the government return to the ancient tradition of suppressing religious freedom (except that's what I've just said in my last paragraph). But I think we should insist that the Home Office does not lend any extra official respectability to religious hocus-pocus of any kind (Read: "The Home Office should not have allowed these relics to visit Wormwood Scrubs because I don't believe in Catholicism and therefore nobody else should"). Superstition, like St Thérèse, has a curious immortality on earth.
The youngster arrived for his first term at secondary school wearing a dress and with long hair in ribboned pigtails after his parents changed his name to a female one by deed poll over the summer holidays.
However, the boy, who is preparing to undergo hormone treatment and sex change surgery, was immediately taunted by classmates who recognised him from primary school. As a result, the 1,000-pupil school in south east England decided to call an emergency assembly ordering children to treat him as a girl and use his new name....
'If I believed in a God, I would be thanking Him now for sending me a sign (Not another one?! When will He ever stop?! Anyone would have thought He existed or something!). In yesterday’s newspaper arrived a story to rekindle my atheism. Just when my disbelief was flagging — not for want of certainty but out of weariness with banging on — comes a report that energises me with anger. The relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century Roman Catholic nun, have arrived in Britain for a month-long tour of England and Wales. (What could be more innocuous than a casket of bones? Anyone would have thought that hate-preacher with a hook for a hand was back in town!)
What? And we’re reporting this deadpan — and not in the Wacky World pages of light magazines? “Organisers said that the arrival of the casket, containing pieces of her thigh and foot bones, was likely to attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.” I’m sorry: “pilgrims”? Isn’t the word “dupes”? (Oi, Mr Parris! That's me you're talking about! And about 15 people from St Mary Mags!) Does balanced reporting require neutrality even towards the self-evidently preposterous? Would a conference of the Flat Earth Society get giggle-free treatment on the news?
The faithful will apparently be bringing roses, to be blessed by proximity to the bones. According to the BBC, the relics are thought to possess supernatural powers to promote reconciliation and were taken to Iraq; but it didn’t work. (Yeah, like the Sunnis and the Shias didn't all hug each other, go dancing in the streets and forget their history overnight! Still, just because peace didn't break out generally, does not mean her visit had no benefits at all. Heck! It was worth a try!) The casket will be visiting “28 centres of prayer” (Is that what the Bishops call them nowadays? Wouldn't surprise me!) including many Roman Catholic cathedrals. How can bishops sanction this paganistic nonsense? (Newsflash, Bro! Some of the Bishops probably don't. But hey, that's just their ignorance!) I had been wondering whether Richard Dawkins’s critics were right to complain that his atheism was intolerant; whether we atheists were wrong to rage with such certitude about what is really only an absence of belief. But these relics have performed a miracle: they have re-inspired in me a fiery conviction. We non believers must rage, insist, proclaim. (Chill out, Bro! Man, do you need a holiday or something?! You're so uptight!)
For pity’s sake (he couldn't bring himself to say 'God's'), closet atheists of Britain, come out! Don’t “respect” this credulous folly! (Why not? Is it because we is Catholic?) Don’t let the madnesses of these faith minorities go by default! Stop our politicians kowtowing to nutters! (You want Gordon Brown to put St Therese of Lisieux on the list of dangerous terrorist types who cannot enter the country?) Cease the embarrassed muttering about being “don’t knows” on religion, and shout it out. We do know! (How so?) It isn’t true! All that is necessary for the triumph of religion is that disbelievers should do nothing. God speed to this ludicrous casket of bones; they have reminded me of an eternal truth: agnosticism is not enough.' (Now, now. Don't be greedy!)
Courtesy of The Telegraph
The relics and bones that bring us closer to God: Christopher Howse finds that the allure of relics beats the human revulsion for dead bodies.
A woman who has been dead for 112 years arrives in Plymouth today, and at the weekend thousands are expected to turn out when she moves on to Birmingham.
Thérèse Martin will be the centre of attention in a month-long tour of England and Wales, but while her picture dominates dozens of venues, all to be seen of her in person is a casket that holds her mortal remains.
These old bones of St Thérèse, or Teresa of Lisieux, as she is better known, will not be treated with the unease that relatives show departed loved ones, but as a sort of gateway into heaven for worshippers' devotions. Some will even hope for healing. Hunger for relics may be universal – one of Michael Jackson's gloves has just been auctioned for £30,000 – but dead bodies are a special kind.
I have often seen visitors to Westminster Cathedral recoil after inspecting a glass case in a side chapel. It holds the body of St John Southworth, a kindly man who worked in the slums nearby in the 17th century, and was executed just for being a Catholic priest. His body is decorously dressed in a red chasuble and his face covered in a silver mask. It is just that tourists, curious as they may be to see the world, through the optic of their mobile-phone cameras, are not used to stumbling across dead bodies.
So what's the official line on relics? The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts them in the same category as pilgrimages and holy medals, as expressions of popular piety. But there is a deeply mysterious root to their veneration.
For full article click here.
Ruth Gledhill of The Times infamy adds her comment to the arrival of St Therese, who seems to make an exception of the Saint of the Little Flower in what she perceives as an outdated practice of relic veneration.
Not since the Reformation, and perhaps not even before then, has England seen a pilgrimage quite like this.
The closest comparison might be to the Middle Ages, when “pardoners”, or salesmen, would travel the countryside hawking the “relics” of dead saints to credulous Christians who believed that they could buy themselves less time in Purgatory.
But that would not do justice to the phenomenon of St Thérèse, who within hours of touching down on British soil attracted a queue of hundreds of devout Christians who snaked around the Roman Catholic cathedral in Portsmouth merely to light a candle and touch the Perspex encasing the jacaranda casket in which rest the relics of this 19th-century child-like nun...
For more click here...
Time to put the kettle on, Philip. The one always so often criticised by the pot on the basis of its perceived colour. Only a 'fervid imagination' could come up with Pullman's idea of characaturing the Church and blackening Her name insidiously with rubbish about golden compasses, giant polar bears and an all-pervasive 'Magisterium'.
The Times article says... 'Although full details of the plot are being kept under wraps, the book’s title, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, gives a strong indication of Pullman’s views.
“For every man or woman who has been led to goodness by a church, and I know there have been many, there has been another who has been inspired by the same church to a rancid and fanatical bigotry for which the only fitting word is evil,” Pullman said.
According to the article, 'Pullman accepts the existence of a holy man called Jesus, but argues that Christ, or the Son of God, was “an invention” of St Paul. “By the time the Gospels were written down, Paul had already begun to transform the story of Jesus into something altogether different and extraordinary,” he said.“Paul was a literary and imaginative genius, who has had more influence on the world than anybody else, including Jesus. He had this great ability to persuade others and his rhetorical skills have been convincing people for 2,000 years.”'
Okay, Philip. The account of the conversion of St Paul takes place in the Acts of the Apostles, which is not a letter belonging to the pen of St Paul, as far as I know. In the account, a man named Saul was present at the murder of St Stephen and is more or less egging on the men who stoned the Proto-Martyr to death. Saul, who was to become St Paul, on the road to Damascas is converted by Christ from Heaven who says to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me." St Paul is a central figure in the spread of Christianity but not the only figure. St Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, in his letter, also claims the same Faith in the Divinity of Christ, as does St James, another Apostle. Also, so does St Jude. Also, so do the Four Evangelists, St Mark, St John, St Matthew and St Luke, who penned the Gospels. A great many of these men were martyred for what they proclaimed, victims of, dare I say it, 'a rancid and fanatical bigotry for which the only fitting word is evil'.
For full article click here.
'It is no accident there is a three year span between David and Grace Urbanski's fourth and fifth children. They planned it that way. "We had four children in four years," said Grace, an adjunct faculty member in the English department at Marquette University, and a professional vocalist and private voice teacher. "It was physically and emotionally exhausting."
While neither considered artificial contraception an option, they realized that the form of natural family planning that they were using was not working. Married 14 years, the couple, who belong to St. Mary Visitation Parish, Elm Grove, began with the sympto-thermal method taught by the Couple to Couple League. While effective for many, Grace's fertility cycle was erratic and she was unable to achieve an accurate morning basal body temperature reading. "And, if you are out of bed four times a night with babies and have to hit the ground running in the morning, there is no such thing as a stable temperature reading," she explained.
During her fourth pregnancy, Grace wondered if practicing natural family planning was worth it. She prayed in earnest that God would provide an alternative...
Shall I apply and see if I can get an interview?
Life Coach (Pre- and Post-Termination Support) [Life Coach?! Life Coach?!]
Salary: Scale SO1-SO2 £ 24,402 - £ 28,353 [The pay goes up, but your soul?]
Fixed-term contract until March 2011
Reference: CYT14988
Location: Wistons Clinic, 138 Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 5PA [That's the Brighton abortion clinic, by the way. Looks like the 'Life' Coach is working in house!]
Hours: Full Time [Clearly the demand is high in this town...]
Closing Date: 5th October 2009
Interview Date: 15th October 2009
This post is part of the city partnership working to reduce unplanned early conceptions for young women under 19 and to improve the EET (Education, Employment and Training) and health outcomes for young parents.
The post holder will deliver high quality packages of psychological interventions to young women who will have accessed BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service) for a termination. The post holder will assist in building psychological and emotional resilience ["Be strong and terminate. Because your worth it! Don't worry about the child!"] amongst the young women, to ensure positive and healthy relationships with partners, reduce the likelihood of second conception [Yes, I hear abortion can do that!], improve self esteem, improve aspirations for themselves and engagement in positive activities/with other services where appropriate.
The post holder will have an accredited professional qualification in: counselling, psychology, mental health nursing, occupational therapy or psychotherapy and a working knowledge and experience of specific therapeutic approaches and techniques (especially CBT, motivational interviewing, and solution-focused models) when working with young people under 19.
The post holder will be supervised and employed by the IYSS within Brighton and Hove Children and Young People’s Trust and managed by BPAS. BPAS is a national pro-abortion organisation and the post holder will be expected to work within this ethos. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and is subject to a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Disclosure check. More information on CRB Checks [Nope, you don't need a CRB check to help kill the unborn!].
"Dan Brown may loathe Catholics, but he just adores the Masons. Brown goes out of his way in ‘The Lost Symbol’ to present the lodge as essentially benign and misunderstood. The Catholic Church, of course, is seen by Brown as essentially wicked and misunderstood only by its followers. Masons are praised for their religious tolerance,” the article says.
"Somehow Catholics failed to notice: so abhorrent were Masons in their thrashing of Catholicism that the 1917 Code of Canon Law provided for automatic excommunication to any Catholic who joined a lodge. The current stricture in the Church, following the 1983 revisions to the Code, doesn’t mention Masons by name, but does retain excommunication for those who join anti-Catholic organizations."
"In his new book, Brown defends the Masons against “unfair” portrayals. So kind of him. In real life Brown says he has “enormous respect for the Masons.” Must be their historic anti-Catholicism that won him over."
"Showing nothing but sweetness and light, the man who has made millions dumping on the Catholic Church says of his new work, “It’s a reverent look at their philosophy. I’m more interested in what they believe than all their rituals and conspiracy theories about them.”
"Now if only Brown had cut Catholics the same break," says Donohue.
"Brown says his own religious beliefs are a “work in progress.” Indeed, he is a work in progress. I spend part of every day thinking about religion, spirituality and God — maybe more than people who go to church. By Sunday, I’m pretty tired.”
"Good choice. The Lord said that was the day to rest. Maybe Brown will convert yet. Ron Howard must be salivating at the thought of directing the film version. At least he won’t have the Catholic League to kick him around."
New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Robert Hess (related to Rudolf?) today announced a package of reforms—from expanded prevention before homelessness begins to new rental assistance strategies that help clients move beyond shelter— that focuses on work as the path to self-sufficiency. The centerpiece of the reform package is Work Advantage, a rental subsidy which will help those in shelter secure permanent housing and reduce their reliance on public supports by rewarding work (Hmm...Sounds like work for shelter to me!). DHS’ comprehensive approach builds on the strengths of previous reforms and puts the Agency in position to meet the goals set by Mayor Bloomberg’s Five-Year Action Plan to reduce homelessness by two-thirds by 2009. (A 'final' solution?)When I say this is the reason I take a strong dislike to America, don't take it personally. I like Americans, in fact, one of my best friends is American. But the US government and the recent Mayors of New York stink to high heaven and have for a good while! In America and more and more in this country, if you don't have money you don't matter. What with homelessness going up in the US due to the foreclosure/sub-prime mortgage crisis, this could be a long, cold, lonely winter...
Elton John said, "David and I have always talked about adoption, David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I am 62 and I think because of the travelling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child. But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home. I've changed my mind today. Last week I lost one of my best friends, my keyboard player died of a heart attack at 52. It broke my heart because he was such a genius and so young and has two wonderful children. What better opportunity to replace someone I lost than to replace him with someone I can give a future to.And knowing the way things happen in the fantastical world of celebrity, he will probably get his way. But it is more than a little worrying that an aging rock star in a homosexual relationship, who tours so much and has always had the flamboyant edge that has endeared him to millions, will considered to adopt a little boy, while children are often removed from families in this country, sometimes very unjustly. The boy has 'stolen their hearts'. It makes it sound as if they have found some cute puppy at Battersea Dogs Home. Secondly, he sees the boy as a replacement for his keyboardist who died recently. Thirdly, he's bringing an adolescent into his homosexual relationship. I'm not sure what circles Elton moves in but I know the guy loves a party. Evidently, by his own words, the expressed decision is all about him, rather than the best interests of the child.
'State police at the Corunna post have confirmed a well-known anti-abortion activist was shot multiple times and killed this morning in front of Owosso High School. The victim's identity has not yet been released but the shooting occurred around 7:30 a.m., after most students were off the buses and safely inside the building, said Owosso schools transportation supervisor Jayne Campbell.Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon him.
State police also confirmed that a suspect was taken into custody about 8:15 a.m. at the suspect's home...A black car can be seen parked at the corner of North and Whitehaven streets, where a portable oxygen tank is lying in a front yard next to a large sign bearing the image of a baby and the word "Life."'
'The Suffolk town's St Lawrence Church houses the oldest circle of church bells in the world. The five bells have been silent since the 1980s, but now they are ringing out over the rooftops once again. The restoration of the church, its tower and the five bells, which date back to the 15th century, has cost more than £100,000.For full story with video click here. If the Anglicans can raise £100,000 to fix the bells of a Grade II listed building, the same current grade of St Mary Magdalen's, then that should give us in Brighton some hope! Unfortunately, it appears that the church has now been turned into a community centre.
The oldest were cast in the 1440s. For hundreds of years they rang out from the church's distinctive tower in the heart of Ipswich town centre. But when the parish at St Lawrence dwindled away the building fell into disuse, then disrepair. The tower was declared too unstable for the bells to be rung, and they have been quiet since 1985.
'...The bells are known locally as Wolsey's Bells. Henry VIII's most influential adviser, (before Henry went mental, that is, and caused the rupture that means the delightful Ipswich church is no longer Catholic) Cardinal Wolsey, grew up in the area and would have heard them as a boy.'
This story blows every other story today out of the water. Totally. Yes, even the one about how the UN are trying to enforce guidelines on nations to teach and promote abortion and masturbation to children as young as five. Who gave them the right to start bossing us around on how to corrupt our nation's youth? Oi, UN! Get lost! Nobody asked you for your advice and besides, nobody can corrupt the nation's youth as well as we can. We don't need lessons! If you can't protect 5-year-olds from sex, let alone whole Rwandan tribes from mass murder, then how on earth could you be trusted to run a single currency?!
H/T to Creative Minority Report who spotted this story on the Daily Mail website.
Clearly, unless the Government enshrine the right to life in Parliament and do what the Church has always proclaimed it should - defend all human life - Doctors and medical staff will continue to show breathtaking disregard to the elderly, the unborn and, according to many people, just about anyone who walks through the door. I went to hospital with a friend of mine recently and she said, quite plainly, "They just don't care. Some do, but most don't care." This story is horrendous and for once I am rendered near speechless...
Sarah has set up a website called Justice for Jayden which you can visit here.
Doctors left a premature baby to die because he was born two days too early, his devastated mother claimed yesterday. Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy - almost four months early. They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines that babies born before 22 weeks should not be given medical treatment.Miss Capewell, 23, said doctors refused to even see her son Jayden, who lived for almost two hours without any medical support. She said he was breathing unaided, had a strong heartbeat and was even moving his arms and legs, but medics refused to admit him to a special care baby unit. Miss Capewell is now fighting for a review of the medical guidelines...
[For full story click here...]
Unless these two baby fish have a gift for hiding which even Osama Bin Laden would admire, I'm afraid that new baby fish 'Resurrectionem' and 'Baptisma' are now 'Mortuorum', having presumably been 'Et' by one, or possibly two of the semi-tropical fish.
Rest assured that I will not rest until the culprit is found. All six remaining fish have been extraordinarily rendered to a small tank called 'Santa Magdalena Bay' on a nearby shelf where normal codes of fishy rights are not recognised. Here they will be interrogated until one of them admits to the atrocity. All methods of interrogating will be considered, including waterboarding. No, wait...That might not work. Some kind of drip, drip sleep deprivation. No, wait...That won't work either.
This World is so cruel. It is sad that some fish will have to pay for this outrage. I'm going to put the fish inside the tank on 'orange alert' and ratchet up the terror threat so that the innocent fish spend the rest of their days living in fear of the next attack. I know, having watched the devilishly cunning behavior of the last US administration, and probably the current one, that if I can keep the fish in a perpetual state of fear then habeus corpus and the fishy constitution soon won't be worth the paper they are written on. Gradually, over a period of time my evil plans for a 'one tank order' will triumph, with one charismatic puppet fish at the head enslaving them in a diabolical plan for tankal domination.
Mwa-hah-hah! Mwa-hah-hah! Mwa-hah-hah! Mwa-hah...Okay, I'll stop now.
Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says. (Is there any area of our lives which is not 'for sale'?)So the UN, the same UN that wants a single currency for the whole world, also want to reduce the World's population by half a billion. What is it about people that the UN do not like? Last time I checked the UN had enshrined in its Declaration of Human Rights the Right to a Family. Hey guys! What changed!?
The report, 'Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost', concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction. The UN estimates that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended. (Ah, the UN again! United Nations? United Nazis more like!)
If these basic family planning needs were met, 34 gigatons (billion tonnes) of CO2 would be saved – equivalent to nearly 6 times the annual emissions of the US and almost 60 times the UK’s annual total. (You've got to hand it to their statisticians. They've certainly done their sums. Fewer people = fewer emissions).
Roger Martin, chairman of the Optimum Population Trust at the LSE, said: “It’s always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions – the carbon tonnage can’t shoot down as we want, while the population keeps shooting up.”
UN data suggests that meeting unmet need for family planning would reduce unintended births by 72 per cent, reducing projected world population in 2050 by half a billion to 8.64 million.
The research is published on the day that the Government’s climate change advisers, the Climate Change Committee, warned households and industry that a planned 80 per cent reduction in emissions are likely to prove insufficient. (What is that on the horizon? Oh, it's a future 'cap' on the number of children per family...)
Exchange rate misalignments have become a major source of disruption for the world economy.... The question is: what can be done about it?...Or most daring of all, we could establish an international currency". (p. 328) (I say! What a spiffing idea!)
"The question is whether our government has the foresight, and our people the will, to accept the discipline that an international currency would impose." (p. 339) (Well, let's wait until a worldwide economic crisis and let's see how people feel then, be patient, George, be patient!)
"We cannot have a smoothly functioning international economy without a stable international currency." (p. 358) (Uh-huh, so we've gathered you are keen on the idea...)
"We desperately need an international currency system that is not based on the dollar...The ideal solution would be a genuine international currency, issued and controlled by a genuine international bank.... The idea of an international currency and an international bank has few supporters...." (p. 359) (Still, keep hoping George because your dreams could just come true...Honestly! Its amazing how regularly he is right in his global economic predictions/aspirations, isn't it?! Anyone would have thought he was whispering his ideas regularly in the ears of elected world leaders! Soros also takes an unhealthy interest in population 'control'. See this link).
Dr Michael Irwin paid £1,500 for Raymond Cutkelvin to have a lethal dose of the sleeping aid nembutal in the Swiss clinic Dignitas. The 78-year-old claims he helped around 50 people to die during his 40-year career as a GP.
He said that many doctors help patients to die by supplying them with higher doses of diamorphine and sedatives. Dr Irwin, of Cromwell Road, Hove, was arrested by police in London in July and is on bail until September 23.
Mr Cutkelvin, 58, from Hackney in London, was suffering from an inoperable tumour of the pancreas and requested to be taken to the Zurich clinic with his partner Alan Rees-Cutkelvin, 57.
Dr Irvin said: “I met Raymond and gave him £1,500, around a third of the total cost needed for him to got to Dignitas. I went with him and Alan and some family, we all had a last dinner together. The next morning we went to the clinic and arranged to have Raymond's favourite Mo Town music played so he could have his last dance with his niece to Diana Ross. It was surreal but beautiful. He sat down drank a sherry glass of nembutal and made a face because of the bitter taste. Within half an hour he was dead.”
The group travelled to Switzerland in February 2007, but were not arrested at the time. However after the story was highlighted recently by the media Mr Rees-Cutkelvin was arrested in July. Dr Irwin was so furious he called for police to arrest him too, which they did, a week later.
He said: “I gave financial support, moral support and advice. I consider myself equally involved.” Dr Irwin said it is common for doctors to increase the painkillers and sedatives of patients who are dying. He added that he could openly remember discussing the case of a Polish patient with terminal stomach cancer when he was a house physician at a North London hospital in 1956. He would have been in his mid twenties at the time.
He said: “In those days you could openly discuss it with the ward sister and the consultants and we agreed to keep on doubling the morphine every day.” During his career the Hove-based doctor said he helped patients in the United States and in South East Asia to die this way.
A survey of nearly 900 doctors by Professor Clive Seale from St Bartholomew's Hospital in London showed one in six people who are dying are given “terminal sedation” - meaning they are given so many painkillers and sedatives they die.
The shocking figures also revealed an estimated 1,000 people make a secret arrangement with their doctors to be given a lethal injection and 2000 are given one without their consent.
Dr Irwin said: “It's a total hypocrisy – if people have money they can pay to go abroad and have it done legally. The nembutal kills them over the space of half an hour. If they don't have money doctors give them a liberal amount of painkillers and sedatives and they die over the course of weeks. Most people in hospital die that way and there are no inquests into those kinds of deaths.”
Dr Irvin was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council in 2005 after he admitted a willingness to supply his farmer friend Patrick Kneen with the necessary sleeping pills to help him die.
Mr Kneen never took the pills as he slipped into a coma before Dr Irwin could “treat” him but the GMC still found him guilty of serious professional misconduct and said his actions were irresponsible. Dr Irwin said he has no regrets about what happened. He said: “I'm just sorry for Patrick we got there too late.”
When he was arrested over Mr Cutkelvin's death he went to police with no lawyer and handed over his bank statement showing the direct transaction from his account to Dignitas. Adding: “I have nothing to hide – I want to make this a big issue.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Two men have been arrested in connection with the investigation, a 78-year-old man and a 57-year-old man. They were both arrested on suspicion of aiding a suicide and have been bailed to attend an East London police station on a date later in September.”
"I feel that if you look at what progress women have made in the world one of the reasons they have been able to make progress is because they have been able to control their fertility."
“I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with that, and indeed without that being able to control I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the things that I’ve been able to do."Now I don't doubt that Cherie does some stirling work with people who need their human rights defending and all credit to the girl. I admire her ability to overlook the faults of her husband who, quite incredibly, has made himself one of the most universally hated figures of the 21st century...and look, the century only just really got started! Quite an achievement, really! However, Cherie's work with those who need their human rights defending should not be overshadowed by the fact that she has also raised a family. Not only has she raised about 5 presumably wonderful, healthy and doubtless successful-to-be children, but she has done this while still defending human rights victims.
“I think it’s a really important issue and personally I would prefer it if the Catholic Church took a more positive attitude towards contraception because I think there’s a lot of difference between preventing a life coming about and actually extinguishing a life when it has come about.”Now, there is a difference, but Cherie dear, the Church is trying to tackle a culture which the previous Pope John Paul II described as the 'Culture of Death'. You know the one, the one who told your husband not to rain bombs on Baghdad, but who your husband ignored, just like he ignores the current Pontiff when he speaks infallibly from the Throne of St Peter. The culture of contraception is the flip-side or even the embryo of the culture of abortion and human sterility. The use of artificial contraception means that a couple are saying, 'No' to new life.
