The Synod has Opened: Hello Media!! It is About FAMILY!!

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IT  MAKES SENSE TO ME

by Larry Peterson

The secular media (print & broadcast)  has been salivating over the Synod of Bishops that has officially opened in Rome. They have been pounding the drum about the birth of a NEW church filled with the progressiveness of the “modern, secular world”. They have also completely ignored the reason this Synod has actually been called together. HELLO media, the Synod is about Family.  Stop picking and choosing what you perceive as newsworthy. Do your job. Report the facts. The primary purpose of the Synod is discussing FAMILY.

Have any of you actually read the following. Oh, I guess not. You have been  speculating way before any of this even began. Please, listen to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri. He is the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and in his opening statements said, “Feeling free to express what is believed or what is doubtful shows what distinguishes a human being from other creatures and makes him  a responsible person before God and man.”

“Consequently, discussion at the Synod is to be open. When differences arise, participants in their various roles are called NOT to stress their own interests or point of view but to seek the TRUTH which is not an abstract concept or the result of philosophical or theological speculation, but the person of Christ, the God-man, man born-in-time, and Son of the Father. ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6). He is the point of of departure. The first evangelizer is Jesus, who came down to walk among us and came to be known by His word and signs and, finally, with the witness of His life.”

Okay, one more time (albeit a bit shorter) “—to seek the TRUTH which is not an abstract concept or the result of philosophical or theological speculation, but the person of Christ, the God-man, man born-in-time, and Son of the Father.”

This Synod, called together by an organization that has been around for over 2000 years, will strive to adhere to the truth. It will do all in its power to defend and protect the bride of Christ which is His Church. It will do all in its power to be compassionate and understanding to all people are are hurting because of certain choices they have made and which are even given approval to by some in the Church. You see, the Catholic Church is guided by the Holy Spirit. (Hey, it really is and I do not care if you do not believe me. You simply have to open your hearts and you might understand. It is a Faith thing, okay.) When the bishops of the world conclave like this they call on the Holy Spirit to guide them. He does and as the cliche goes, “He has their backs”.

I think most people have been conditioned to giving the 1960s rave reviews. The decade began seeing John F. Kennedy elected the first Catholic President of the United States. It ended in a gathering of over 400,000 young people in the town of Bethel, NY. (Originally scheduled to be held in Woodstock, NY, the organizers could not get the necessary permits. It became known as “Woodstock” even though it took place over 40 miles south in Bethel.)  Woodstock had no sanitation facilities, no water except for hoses here and there and it poured rain for almost three days leaving most everyone wallowing in mud. Oh yeah, “It was great!!!”

The mid 60s, with the escalation of the war in Viet Nam and the rise of the “hippie” movement saw antiestablishmentism come under attack. Guys burned their draft cards and gals tore off their bras. This seemed to foment the start of the new generation where living together, premarital sex, birth control, and abortion started to become the new morality.  As we entered the 1970s, the family, as we knew it, was under attack and has been under attack ever since.

In his opening statement at the Synod, Cardinal Baldisseri has called for TRUTH. The truth is that the Family is the very nucleus of society. The Family has its beginning when a man and woman commit to each other and then join together as one in the Sacrament of Matrimony. This is how it is in the Catholic Church. Marriage unites God’s creations, a man and a woman. They vow (before God and man) to take each other and join together and remain together no matter what life hands them, until death separates them. Through the Sacrament they are strengthened and fortified to have the ability to confront all that comes their way. Most importantly, they will unite as one flesh and have children thus continuing the life of the family they have started. As the generations pass by this family grows and grows and the process continues expanding the human race as God planned.

It is not always a perfect marriage. We have this thing called Pride that is within us. We also have the Free Will that God has given us and, because He is perfect,will not ever tamper with. The secular world has promoted very successfully the beauty of self-gratification. Sacrificing for another is often times deemed foolish. The old cliche of “taking care of #1” has resonated in millions of minds. It has also been followed. Children, once thought to be the greatest joy that a husband and wife might be gifted with, are now planned and prepared for by having all the perceived material things that are deemed necessary to have before a trying to have children. Same sex couples are preaching the sermon that they have a right to “have” children too, even though this can never be and they must adopt or use an artificial means of having a child. The Church can never sanction these attitudes and these actions. In the Church the FAMILY is united in a Sacramental action and that is  how it is. This is what the media does not understand nor does it try to understand.

Everyone must remember that Marriage is not the key topic of the Synod of Bishops. FAMILY is and marriage begets a new family. The church leaders will do their best to promote a compassionate and understanding approach to divorced and remarried couples, to those who cannot receive Holy Eucharist, to those who decide to simply live together without marriage etc. But the Catholic Church cannot change its core teachings and/or principles to satisfy the mores of the current times.

Everyone should also realize that the church is always ready and willing to accept all people with open arms just as Jesus wants her to. But the individualistic and self-serving attitudes that some want to be accepted will never be. It is not about any of us as individuals. It is all about the Body of Christ which includes all of us in the Family of God. Some will accept that, some will never accept that.

One thing is for sure. The Synod will seek the TRUTH and we should all, Catholic and non/Catholic alike, appreciate their efforts to do so. In the year 2014 Truth often evades us and is even mocked. Not this time

Little Sisters Under Attack AGAIN; National Organization for Women Declares Them "DIRTY"

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by Larry Peterson

The vitriol, screeching and lying about the results of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case continue unabated from those who want EVERYTHING their way.  The National Organization for Women has decided to include in their nonsensical lying attacks a very “mean and nasty” bunch of women,  The Little Sisters of the Poor.

Yes, my friends, the Little Sisters of the Poor, that order of nuns founded in the 19th century and dedicated to helping the sick and elderly, an order that asks for nothing in return, including payment for services, has been declared DIRTY  by  NOW.   Encapsulated in their own self-serving and ‘meistic’ world, the leaders of NOW, in a hair-brained and outlandish decision,  created and published a  hit list  of 100 of their enemies. The “creme de la creme” of the women’s movement, an organization claiming membership in the hundreds of thousands, has placed The Little Sisters on their DIRTY 100 list.  (Take a look at that list)

What qualifies a person or organization to receive such an “honor”? All you have to do is seek  relief  from the contraception demands included under the Affordable Care Act aka, Obamacare.  If you do  it means that you “hate” women.  You hate their freedom, their sexuality including their ovaries and uteri.  Yup–The Little Sisters of the Poor made the grade.  NOW considers them nothing but compassionate lovers of the sick, elderly and infirm who embrace the virtue of personal poverty.  That does not prevent the Sisters from being classified “Dirty”.  Why?  Because they are against abortifacient drugs.  That’s right, this has nothing to do with contraception.  Abortifacient drugs destroy a fetus AFTER conception.  Therefore, they cause an abortion.  Since the Little Sisters of the Poor are pro-life and oppose abortion, NOW says they are “DIRTY”.  Nothing else matters.

Hobby Lobby still covers the 16 contraception drugs as set forth in Obamacare. They do NOT have to pay for the four abortifacient drugs prescribed. These drugs destroy a fetus after conception. That is NOT contraception. That is abortion.  End of story.  Promoting the narrative that the SCOTUS has taken away a woman’s right to contraception is hogwash.  This is a lie being pushed to promote this fake “war on women”. If there is a war being waged inside the United States of America it is a war on the millions of unborn who have been vanquished under the ridiculous guise of a made-up, politically expedient freedom to abort which is clouded in a pretend virtue that does not exist.  Give me a break.

How utterly preposterous and ridiculous this is.  NOW was founded back in 1966. The objective was equality for women. It was a noble motive and women needed an organization so they could join together to gain equality in the work place, equal pay and protection from sexual abuse.  There was a double standard in wages, hiring practices, college admissions, and in Social Security payments.  All of those goals have been achieved.  There are more women in colleges than men,  women equal men in the work place, there are countless numbers of women doctors, lawyers, accounting professionals etc.  There are even  professional women boxers and wrestlers.

Today, NOW, supported by a very friendly administration,  panders to an ideology that  has negated the purpose of what the National Organization of Women originally stood for.  They are only for women who agree with their philosophy. Women who do not are attacked and vilified.  NOW has outlived its effectiveness and the purpose for which it was originally founded.

Evangelii Guadiam is about Dignity for ALL Men & Women; It Cares NOT for Politics

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by Larry Peterson

When Pope Francis released his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he also  inadvertently released  a swarm of pseudo experts on Catholicism and the Papacy. Why even Rush Limbaugh, who acknowledged his own non-catholicity, has decided that the Pope  is nothing but a “pure Marxist”. Those on the left have assumed that the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion,  contraception, women priests, and homosexual behavior and other issues are about to be changed. These folks, left & right,  are living in their own personal world of ‘relatavism’. Caught up in the secular world of ‘meism’ they cannot grasp for one tiny moment that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is the salvation of souls. First and foremost, the Church is here to guide ALL of us to an eternal life with God, our Creator. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,  founded the Church and appointed its first leader, the apostle Peter who was the first Pope. Pope Francis is #266. Their mission, which they graciously accepted, has always been the same, to lead the flock to Salvation. Nothing has changed.

Okay now, listen up all you clever pundits who have allowed yourselves to become  unknowing prisoners of the secular Age of Relatavism. Pope Francis has done no different than Pope Leo XIII who gave the world Rerum Novarum in 1891 and Pope Pius XI who gave us Quadragesimo Anno in 1931. These documents were papal encyclicals and they dealt with capitalism, socialism, labor, fair wages, working conditions etc. (Please feel free to see for yourself. Just ‘google’). We need to remember that Catholic social doctrine deals with the DIGNITY of man/woman because they are made in the image and likeness of God.  Poor and rich alike have responsibility to each other because they are all part of the human equation. There is nothing evil in being rich. There is nothing wrong with workers wanting a better wage and improved conditions. Evil enters when the deadly sin of greed is embraced by people when  they begin thinking of themselves first instead of God. Consequently they want more for themselves at the expense of others. Employers and employees have a responsibility to each other to be fair and just at all times. As Leo XIII addressed the social order so did Pius XI wherein he wrote about the dangers of “unrestrained capitalism” and “totalitarian communism”. John Paul II addressed the dignity of man in Centesimus Annus in1991 and  Benedict XVI followed with  Caritas in Veritate in 2009. Pope Francis has connected the dots with the Popes over the last 112 years. The dignity of all people from the lowest to the most exalted is considered. The Pope(s) wants all people to understand that justice must come from all of us not just from some of us.

The Catholic Church is primarily a ship navigating the turbulent and often times violent waters of pride and envy and greed. As the church forges through these deadly waters the ship’s captain, (Pope), his officers, (bishops) and  crew (priests and religious)  are supposed to work together to  keep the ship safe and on a true course to Salvation . They are responsible for the millions of souls that are their passengers. They are supposed to be teaching them how to remain safe and secure as they travel along and how to be ready to confront any and all emergencies. Many times an experienced crew member ignore’s his/her training. Often times untrained passengers do not listen. Sadly, they are lost. Pride, greed, envy, lust, anger, gluttony and even sloth combine to stretch their tentacles over the ship’s railings and grab the indifferent pulling them over the side and down into the blackness. And to think, all they had to do was listen. In the meantime the ship’s captain MUST stay the course even though at times he must adapt to changes in the weather. There is one thing he will not do, change the primary mission. No matter what, he will always move forward and never retreat from the goal of reaching the shores of Salvation.

I think we must remember that the Catholic Church is here to guide us to a reward greater than we can ever imagine. It is not here to make everyone feel good about indulging in their own “feel good” world. Just as a parent must say ‘no” to their children the Church must say “NO” to ideas, behaviors and personal whims that violate the commandments. In today’s world many people do not like being told NO. There seems to be an idea that if  “I’m not bothering you I can do what I want.” Well, “NO”–none of us have that luxury. Pope Francis has embraced the people, the common people. It is a beautiful thing and God has done all of us a great favor in giving this man to the world. But make no mistake, he is the captain of the great ship and he is trying his best to guide it to “Salvation”. That will always be his primary goal and the ship’s ultimate destination.

"Little Sisters Threatened by Big Brother"

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The Little Sisters of the Poor is a catholic, religious organization founded in France in the first half of the 19th century. A woman by the name of Jeanne Jugan (now Saint Jeanne Jugan) felt the need to help care for the many poverty stricken elderly who seemingly were everywhere in France. She began her ministry by inviting an elderly woman into her home to care for her. One woman caring  for another and so began the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Let us fast forward about 160 years or so. The Little Sisters of the Poor serve people in 31 countries. They have grown from one woman helping one woman to one of the most successful religious organizations in the world. One country they serve is the good old U.S of A. They have about 30 homes here and care for 2500 elderly in the U.S. Enter Obamacare and the HHS Mandate.

There are certain penalties that accompany the Mandate. For example, if an organization were to stop offering health insurance rather than comply with the Mandate that organization, ie: The Little Sisters of the Poor, would be forced to pay a $2000.00 penalty per employee. If they chose to offer insurance without contraception, aborta-facient drugs or sterilization availability, they would be penalized $100.00 per day per employee. If there were 50 employees that would come to about $2,000,000.00 a year.

The Little Sisters of the Poor do one thing. They care for the elderly. They offer them homes where they are welcomed and lovingly cared for. These folks are treated with respect, dignity and love. The good Sisters do not want money. They do not need a fancy car or a big house to live in. They do not need  a flat-screen TV or contemporary clothing. All they want to do is serve other people. Half of all operating costs come from donations, the other half from Medicaid. The penalties for non-compliance with the Mandate would virtually wipe out their ability to continue this work.

The Department of Health and Human Services exemption criteria is so narrowly defined that hardly anyone will qualify. A religious employer will only be exempted if they hire & serve only people of their own faith. Catholic Charities and  Catholic hospitals serve all folks. So do other religious organizations. The penalties will force them to go out of business.  This is so crazy and I would ask, what do the elderly need birth control for anyway?

SO Disappointed with the DNC

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I have unceremoniously plodded onward in life and have crossed the senior citizen threshold. Therefore I remember VIVIDLY everything about the assassination of President Kennedy. Part of that entire memory includes his daughter Caroline standing next to her mom as the fallen President’s horse drawn casket passed them by. She had just turned six. (Of course, no one who witnessed it will ever forget John John’s salute). To the point. Now 55 year old,  Caroline Kennedy was introduced as a guest speaker at the Democratic National Convention. She looked so Kennedyish and for a brief moment, deja-vu, ah Camelot. Then she spoke and Camelot, once again, vanished. What a disappointment.

Caroline first proclaimed her Catholicism and then, to quote, “as a Catholic woman, I take reproductive rights very seriously, and today, they are under attack”. HUH ???? Under attack by WHOM???
The Catholic Church of course. Her church. her faith. So, for the sake of political expediency, she spits in her church’s face. What’s up with this hypocrisy? How can a person profess his or her belief in a church’s teachings and then pick and chose which ones they like? What if some outstanding baseball prospect came along and could virtually hit every pitch thrown his way at least 450 feet. But there was one problem–he always hit the ball foul. No matter how hard he tried he could never hit it fair. So he decided to challenge the location of the foul lines and went to court because he wanted his hits to be fair like everyone else who played the game. Far fetched analogy? Why? Foul lines in baseball are the same from Little League up through the Major Leagues. That’s it. End of story. The Catholic Church has always been against abortion and contraception. That’s it. End of story. Many Catholic women practice birth-control and have been doing so for decades. That is between them and their God. The church will never approve. But the church realizes that people have to live within their own consciences and sort of turns aside a bit when it comes to birth control. When it comes to abortion, the Catholic Church is  much more vocal and adamant in its opposition. Abortion takes a life. It will never change its stance on this topic and will always be there to offer every conceivable alternative to such an act. “Reproductive rights” include contraception, abortafacient drugs and abortion,  including partial-birth and after-birth abortion. “After-birth abortion”–just think about that one. By the way folks, there is no “war on women” being waged by the Catholic Church. It is the other way around; a war on the Catholic Church is being waged by secularists who want their own way.
The DNC also removed the name of GOD from their platform and the word Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. After urging from the President it was put back in but the majority of delegates objected. When did the name of GOD become offensive? Cardinal Dolan’s offer to give the closing benediction was at first refused. Then it was accepted. When he gave it the major networks did not broadcast it and afterwards hundreds upon hundreds of “F-Bombs” directed at the Cardinal were posted on Twitter. Why?—was it just because he is a priest and said a prayer asking God to protect life and freedom? 
Along with Caroline Kennedy there are quite a few “Catholics” who denounce their church and preach their own theology.  Vice-president Joe Biden, former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi,  and former presidential candidate John Kerry are a few of the  professed Catholics who approve of abortion and proclaim the wondrous freedom it gives to women everywhere. Sorry folks, just because you say it does not mean that they are going to move the foul lines. You want to make your own rules and then castigate those who might disagree. That is not the way it works. This is not spreading “freedom” but rather it is promoting servitude to one’s self. You and all of those like you have no idea what a big disappointment you are to so many.

The "Vacuous Virtuous" Need to Stay Out of Our Churches

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I am a blue-collar guy who has, based on my date of birth, become a “senior citizen”. That qualifies me for lots of discounts. No big deal because most of those start kicking in at age 55 and I passed that mark a while back. Now I qualify for Medicare. I am also, and this is most important, a Catholic. Okay, to the point.

I am tired folks. Not because of my age or bad back but because I am worn out from being slapped upside my head because I am Catholic. There are supposedly 77 million Catholics in the United States. That makes me one little pea in a great big pod. And this pea is pee-ode. I am sick and tired of hearing my faith denigrated and mocked by a secular world where the slightest hint of a moral boundary professed or defended is scorned and/or ridiculed by these secularists, many of whom claim to be “catholic”. God forbid anyone (especially someone like Cardinal Dolan of NY and the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)  attempts to defend his faith and his flock by saying “NO” to someone of modern virtue who has their own ideas as to what the Catholic faith should be. The Cardinal and his peers, including Pope Benedict himself, are deemed “out-of-touch”, “radical”, or “outside the mainstream”. Here’s the deal; there is no such thing as “progressive” catholicism.  The basic tenets of the faith have been around for centuries.

My three priorities have always been God, Family and Country—in that order. But you see, no one ever bothered me about that. No one ever bothered you either, right? God bless the framers of the Constitution. Were they SMART. Freedom of Religion–the very first amendment. They knew what kind of lid had to be placed on the pressure cooker of diversity that was to be America. They knew that religion transcended man made law. They knew that a sense of right and wrong was an inborn gift. Religion spelled it out. It provided a moral compass. Therefore, they left it alone and reinforced it with the First Amendment. But then a few hundred years went by and somehow “yes and no” became not only archaic but anathema to so many of our sophisticated and secular 21st century intelligentsia. I would like to dub them the “vacuous virtuous”. Their sense of great smartness has laid waste to any sense of humility they may have once possessed. The result—noxious fumes.

As a Catholic Christian I am supposed to try and live my faith 24/7. We Catholics can go to Mass and Communion every single day of the week if we so choose. There are still many of us, including me, that do. We go for spiritual reinforcement and nourishment so, when we leave the church and confront the world OUTSIDE, we are prepared to live up to out beliefs. We have to work at it, are quiet about it and just do the best we can with what God has given us. Sometimes we succeed, some times we don’t. After all, we are imperfect beings.

Now, unprecedented in American History, an administration in power is telling us that when we go OUTSIDE our church we must violate our beliefs under penalty of breaking the law, facing fine or even imprisonment. They have even suggested that we (as Catholics) have declared “war on women” because we are refusing to give women contraception and abortifacient drugs. Have they lost their minds? Not hardly. They know full well that Title X was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970 and that contraception has been available to all women in this country ever since. The problem with religion, and not just the Catholic religion, is that it sets boundaries and rules and says “NO”. The nerve to tell us we CANNOT do something or have our way. Who in hell do they think they are? Government is the “Great Benefactor”. So,  let’s kick down their doors and take charge.

The powers that “are” think that they have found the “weak link” in the suit of armor. How foolish they are.The Catholic Church has been around for two thousand years. It has survived onslaughts by the “vacuous virtuous” many times and it will again. It will also be around long after all of us here today are not. As for me, I just want them to leave me alone.

"Have They Lost Their Minds? Get Out of My Faith!"

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I’m tired. Not because I am a senior citizen or because my back hurts or because I am a cancer survivor or anything like that. All that stuff is GOOD. I am tired and worn out from being slapped upside the head because I am a catholic. Yeah–I am a blue-collar catholic guy who loves his faith and his church and that is all there is to it. My three priorities are; God, Family, and Country–in that order. But, no one ever bothered me about that. God bless the framers of the Constitution. Were they SMART. Freedom of Religion–the very FIRST amendment. God bless em—because those folks knew what kind of lid had to be placed on the pressure cooker of diversity that was to be America. Religion was the thing that transcended law. It made things either right or wrong. It said yes and no. Ah, “yes and no”–how archaic to so many in our sophisticated and secular 21st century world. Yet, how beautiful and reassuring to so many others. Such a paradox.

Okay–I, as do so many Catholics today and throughout the centuries past, like to, on occasion, pay a “visit” to our church. It doesn’t matter where the church is located. Anywhere in the world it is the same. Jesus is there. For real. We believe that. We know that for a fact. It is a faith thing. We can stop in for five minutes just to say HI Jesus. Or we can sit in His presence for five hours and just talk or not talk. If you have a problem with that–oh well. Freedom of religion—remember. For those who believe no explanation is necessary–for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible (unless you really want to have an open mind and check it out).

So–what’s my problem on this Memorial Day? Well, first of all I thought that we were supposed to live our faith the best we can, 24/7. I mean, when I leave church, is that it? Forget all the morality and faith and good works. The hell with the Golden Rule. Doesn’t going to church and attending Mass and sometimes making a “visit”prepare me and fortify me to leave that place and go out into the world? Am I now supposed to, by LAW, leave it in church.  My problem is that it seems that the Obama administration has sent forth a pseudo-catholic by the name of Sebelius who is now standing outside my church telling me just that. She and her other pseudo-catholic buddies like Biden and Pelosi and Kerry et al: are telling me that  as long as I am in church I can follow my faith. Once I leave church I had better follow the rule of law as set forth by the administration in power or face a hefty  fine or even imprisonment. They have even suggested that the church has declared a “war on women” because the church refuses to give contraception and abortifacient drugs. Have they LOST THEIR MINDS? President Nixon signed Title X into law in 1970, 42 years ago, and  contraception on demand has been available all over the country ever since.

Anyway, that’s why I am tired. Tired of this unrelenting attack on my faith supposedly being waged under the  banner of virtue. What a crock. Maybe we should close all the catholic hospitals and foundling homes and catholic charities and the St. Vincent De Paul Society and HIV/Aids centers and homes for the deaf and the blind and shelters for the homeless. HAVE THEY LOST THEIR MINDS?? Hey—get out of my faith.