Friday, March 04, 2005
HIT COUNTER
It reset itself again this week. It does that periodically. When it does, I like to add up the hits so far to see what it should say. Since April 27, 2004 there have been 38,447+ hits. (It reset when my computer was down last fall and I didn't get the number before it did.)
A BAPTISM GONE WRONG
Fr. Bryce Sibley has linked this BBC News story about a drowning that resulted from an immersion baptism in water with a rough current. Sort of makes me glad I'm a Roman Catholic.
ARCHBISHOP AKINOLA MOVES ANGLICANS ONE STEP CLOSER TO SCHISM
according to Catholic World News. The African bishops want none of the Western softening toward homosexuality, and see in this Western trend a break in communion. Archbishop Akinola refuses to give voice to the assumption that they share the same faith, and demands that this break in communion be a lead topic for discussion at the Anglican primates meeting in Northern Ireland.
Diogenes sums it up succinctly:
Poor Rowan Williams. How very inconvenient when your Third Worlders fail to play their assigned role and roll over in awe of their polysyllabically perverse benefactors. How vexing when they point out the emperor has no clothes. How easy the church game would be if it weren't for this religion business.
Does it require an AIDS epidemic to bring this kind of clarity of thought to the topic?
VATICAN BEING SUED BY A CALIFORNIA LAWYER ON BEHALF OF VICTIMS OF WAR CRIMES
from the Second World War. Sounds like Operation Paperclip or Operation Gladio, only it isn't. This is a new charge, with an old and familiar ring, against the Vatican Bank for laundering money.
Medjugorje is implicated.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
WILL CONGRESS SAVE TERRI
The Family Research Council reports:
Congressman David Weldon (R-FL), a medical doctor, plans to introduce legislation titled the Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act (Terri's Law), which will hopefully help save Terri Schiavo's life. The legislation would give Terri and others in similar situations the same constitutional protection of due process as death row inmates. Already this week, attorneys for Terri's parents have filed six different motions to help save their daughter, all of which are now on appeal. Dr. Weldon's legislation would allow Terri to have her own counsel who can argue her case, a right given to any criminal in the United States. Terri is, of course, not a criminal but a woman fighting for her life. As Terri's fight intensifies, I cannot be more frank on the fate of this poor woman if her husband has his way. If Terri's feeding tubes are removed, she will face a slow death through starvation, which can take anywhere from 7 to 30 days. Terri's parents, as do Congressman Weldon and I, truly believe Terri is alive and deserves to continue living. Please call, e-mail, AND fax your U.S. representative to support Terri's Law -- truly life-saving legislation. Time is of the essence.
THE DANCING DOMINICANS
Crux News has linked the story at Catholic World News about the Dominicans in an Oakland neighborhood who are warehoused clerical sex offenders. If you scroll down to the bottom, there is a little demonstration of this novelty. Crux has also linked the evidence. So which is worse, nuns performing in tights or Dominicans performing in dresses? Inquiring minds want to know.
BUT CAN SHE HANDLE THE PAPERWORK ?
Bride-to-be Sonia Wilde is likely to be upstaged on her big day by her chief bridesmaid - her pet dog, Lucy Brown.
Dressed in a pink, frilly dress, complete with bonnet, three-year-old Lucy will be the centre of attention when Sonia, 29, ties the knot with Steve Begley in October.
It was originally "a bit of a joke" but when the couple popped into St Matthew's Church in Edgeley, Stockport, and suggested the idea to vicar Brian Statham they were surprised by his response.
After a long pause, he said they could do it. Now, call centre worker Sonia is designing collie cross Lucy's dress.
Pictures of dog-in-dress at the Ananova website.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
An AP story at The Oklahoma Daily reports:
Just this week, John Paul appointed a bishop in Brazil...
From his hospital bed, apparently.
But John Paul now uses an Argentine archbishop from the secretary of state’s office, Leonardo Sandri, as his official voice for the public.
Sandri??? Where did Sandri come from? How are we supposed to know the Pope picked him? Suddenly it's a done deal. When the Pope is incapacitated suddenly we have a Leonardo Sandri to speak for him. If you believe the Pope is behind this, I have a nice geranium plant to sell you. It a little wilted since it's left from last summer, but I guarantee you it will be lush and green the moment you give it a little water. Uh-huh. 50% at best.
It gets worse:
John Paul “spoke with his eyes,” the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said. Now his eyes "talk"? And just who is putting the words into them?
Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, speaking in New York, said John Paul “has very clear lucid judgment for the moment. I spoke with him a few weeks ago. He had difficulties in answering but he had a clear mind.” Like how would you know? Are you saying you're clairvoyant?
If the majority of American Catholic bishops had not been engaged in camouflage over the sexual abuse crisis, I probably wouldn't react negatively to all of this. But they have. They have shown us that in matters which affect the defense of the Church, lying is a given; and so what I expect from Rome now is more lying.
FROM NORTHERN IRELAND
Suzanne Breen critiques the state of health of the Pope, making a comparison to the English monarchy that doesn't entirely hold up given the difference between temporal and spiritual authority.
She concludes her article with an argument for democracy to replace what she considers an arcane method of election. One gets the impression she has little use for Catholicism apart from using it to make what she thinks is a stinging editorial.
Well, she's from Northern Ireland, so what would we expect?
But in the mid-point she does make some observations that ring true.
Regard the Pope with his head slumped forward, unable to speak, in his wheelchair.
Is this the image the Catholic Church wants to portray to the world?
It's a fair question. He doesn't fit the image of a powerful political leader. But then he isn't a political leader. What, exactly, are the criteria for a powerful spiritual leader?
In the last days the image of the Pope and the image of Terri Schiavo tend to jump into the mind's eye together, mostly because both are dealing with the potential or reality of a feeding tube. If we demand the power image in a Pope and ask him to step down, we would also unintentionally be making a statement about Terri. Either all life is valuable, or only productive life is valuable; and mostly by "productive" we mean "economic." Do we really want the Pope to demonstrate to us that only the latter has validity, knowing what it is going to say to us about the value of childhood, motherhood, retirement? That doesn't even begin to address the value of handicapped life. The call for the resignation or replacement of a spiritual leader is dangerous in its implications for every human who will live a diminished life at some point. And that means all of us, because unless we die young all of us will have one inadequacy or another to bear before we leave this earth.
Imagine if the Queen was in a similar state? Wouldn't there be calls for her to step down? Wouldn't she become a figure of ridicule?
The answer is "yes" she would become a figure of ridicule, just as this commentary of Ms. Breen is making of the Pope a figure of ridicule. It's doing something else as well. It's exposing the values Ms. Breen holds and is willing to voice--that old age is ridiculous. I don't look forward to the glances of the Ms. Breens of this world when my time comes. It's something I think about. Too often. Mostly because this world is getting more callous, more mean-spirited, more intolerant with each passing day. The idea that you make your own reality is permeating the culture. With enough Ms. Breens in the world Western philosophy will shift in her favor. With Christianity no longer standing in the gap, the disposal of all imperfect life will be inevitable. It might be my grandchild who is disposed of. It might be yours.
Ironically, a man who made his name championing the fight against communism, now resembles all those previous ageing Soviet presidents, barely alive but wheeled out every now and then for show.
In other words, as much as I dislike communism, they did get something right.
The sexual shenanigans of the Windsors are well documented but at least they don't cost lives; the Catholic Church's sexual politics do.
In Kenya, where a fifth of the population is HIV-positive, the Church has sponsored condom burnings and prevents doctors distributing a piece of rubber which could save millions of lives.
She seems to overlook the fact that the Catholic Church's policies are that sexual contact is to be reserved for the state of married life between a man and a woman. Had the Catholic Church's policies been the world's policies, and had they been adhered to, we would not have to use the letters A, I, D, and S to conujure up an image of debilitating disease. One wonders if Ms. Breen would be willing to demand that AIDS patients be scuttled off into invisibility?
The ban on contraception ensures thousands of women in developing countries die in childbirth needlessly, and thousands of children starve to death in families too large and poor to feed them.
With good medical practice, those thousands of dying women would live to raise their babies. Poverty, not the ban on contraception, is what ensures thousands of women die in childbirth. How about donating a month of your salary, Ms. Breen, to help insure that those women will live? Ditto for starving children.
What contraception does insure is that Western democracies are now finding that their population is decreasing, and that to keep the society running smoothly, workers must be imported from those countries where contraception is not practiced. One tends to suspect, however, that Ms. Breen has cast those workers into invisibility as well, since she doesn't seem to be able to acknowledge them.
It does seem that Ms. Breen, "the pride of Northern Ireland," is not all she is cracked up to be. Don't be fooled.
WHAT WAS HE THINKING...?
From the Akron Beacon Journal:
By the time bus driver Norbert A. Olzmann was relieved of his duties Tuesday, he had already dropped off 47 Hudson middle school students and was preparing to pick up another batch of students from Holy Family Catholic School -- all while, police say, he was legally drunk.
It was on the evening news as well. His blood alcohol content was 3 times the legal limit for a school bus driver.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
AN ARGUMENT FOR STOPPING CIRCUMCISION
sent in by a reader that doesn't call God immoral:
From the document, "Cantate Domino" (A.D. 1442), signed by Pope Eugene IV, from the 11th session of the Council of Florence (A.D. 1439, a continuation of the Council of Basle, A.D. 1431, and the Council of Ferrara, A.D. 1438) :
[The Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the Old Testament or the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, holy sacrifices and sacraments, because they were instituted to signify something in the future, although they were adequate for the divine cult of that age, once our Lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning. Whoever, after the Passion, places his hope in the legal prescriptions and submits himself to them as necessary for salvation and as if faith in Christ without them could not save, sins mortally. It does not deny that from Christ's passion until the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been retained, provided they were in no way believed to be necessary for salvation. But it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the [Jewish] sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors. Therefore it strictly orders all who glory in the name of Christian, not to practise circumcision either before or after baptism, since whether or not they place their hope in it, it cannot possibly be observed without loss of eternal salvation.
It does have another disadvantage, though. It makes generations of Catholic parents of sons into heretics.
MICHAEL D. O'BRIEN
discusses the legislation in Canada that made anti-homosexual language a hate crime, and the consequences of this legislation, in a special report at LifeSite linked at Crux News. He says in part:
The level of aggression on the part of militant homosexuals against their critics is indicative of their long-range aims, for it would seem that they have already achieved what they wanted, and then some. During the two years preceding the passage of C-250, a number of significant “human rights” law suits were brought against traditional Christians and Jews. In their decisions, the Canadian courts generally sided against the churches and individuals who did not want to cooperate with the “gay agenda.” For example, a printing company that declined to print letterhead and envelopes for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives was brought before the Ontario Human Rights Commission, fined $5,000, incurred $40,000 in legal costs and was forced to print the material or close their business. A Catholic school was coerced by a court order to admit an openly homosexual teenage boy and his older male lover to the school prom; the court also refused the school board permission to cancel the prom. A daily newspaper that published an advertisement page of Biblical quotes regarding homosexuality was fined. Such incidents are multiplying.
Clearly the new law will be used not so much to protect homosexual persons against unjust discrimination as it will be wielded as a cudgel to intimidate those who simply disagree with them and to punish those who are outspoken about it. It will also be used as a wedge to further invade the education systems and potentially invade the life of all families, disrupting the formation of the coming generations.
PAPAL HEALTH AND POSSIBILITIES
Lee Penn sent this the other day:
The headline and sub-heads for the following e-mail writes itself:
/sarcasm on/
Paralyzed Pope to be fed intravenously, with 3 MDs always on hand
Spokesman says Pope is fully in charge, plans to write 3 more books
World Youth Day trip to proceed as planned
"Pope in full command," says press rep Navarro-Valls
/sarcasm off/
Lee
He followed it up with the email feed for this story from "Inside the Vatican":
Pope To Be Fed Intravenously?
Ok, the juxtaposition is funny. I chuckled, and moved on.
Trolling the news today brings up the following:
Pope Still Plans Germany Trip
Somehow today it doesn't seem quite so amusing. There are probably countless reasons why the statements issued from Rome are so contradictory--most of them reasons I haven't got a clue about. But it just looks odd to have all this activity involving the Pope make the headlines while at the same time there is talk about his needing constant medical attention.
I've been in the hospital. It's not a good place from which to manage my home. After a week or so of hospital I found I was somewhat disoriented. Coming home was like coming back from a vacation. It all looks just slightly unfamiliar for the first hour or so. Surely I'm not alone in this. Surely the Papal residence looks just slightly unfamiliar to a Pope who has been away.
Then there are the moments of clarity that we get when we see him on TV and hear him try to speak. Don't get me wrong, he makes a valiant effort that I applaud. But I also take note of the reality, and give some consideration to what had been happening in the Church when he was young and still in full possession of all of his faculties, which obviously he no longer is. Frankly the hierarchy got away with murder when he was in his 60s and 70s. Are they likely to become paragons of virtue now in light of his declining health?
I imagine him trying to read a paper that is shaking because his hands are. I imagine those same hands holding a pen. Let's be reasonable. Some things are possible when the body rebels. Some things are not. Like writing three new books.
Yet I don't doubt that three new books may well be released in his name. The doubt comes when I consider just whose ideas may be presented in those books that are attributed to John Paul II.
If we had a Church that was liturgically orthodox across the board...if we had a Church filled with well-catechised Catholics...if we had a priesthood that is a paragon of holiness and a bishopric known for its honesty in all situations, I could say sure, it was the Pope who wrote them. We have none of these things. What we have is dissent across the board. What we have is lieing with the voice of authority, support of liturgical anomolies, resistence to obedience. What we have is an internet that makes it possible for all of us to know what we have.
I'm mostly a pessimist when it comes to human nature. I've lost the illusion that the good will rise to the top just because I want it to. If there is opportunity in Rome, I expect there is a line waiting to take advantage of it. Why wouldn't there be when taking advantage of opportunities, and even making them when they don't exist, has been the general operating parameter in the Church for most of my adult life.
I'm not calling for him to retire. I'm not calling for him to step down. I just wish there had been a mechanism for him to delegate who would speak for him when he could not speak for himself. Because changes happen at an unprecedented rate in 2005, and ill health recovers ever more slowly as the human body ages.
FIVE YEARS OF THE SUPERBUG
are coming in 2010 according to this Telegraph article linked at Crux:
Drugs to combat superbugs 'will soon be useless'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 01/03/2005)
The world may run out of effective antibiotics by the end of this decade and faces a gap of at least five years before new drugs can be developed to combat superbugs, according to one of the world’s most influential scientists.
The warning that the age of infectious disease control is almost over has come from Prof George Poste, Director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and an advisor to the US president.
“Frankly, most governments are asleep at the switch,” said Prof Poste. He predicts that from 2010 to 2015 will be a “window of vulnerability” when the toll of the superbug will reach its peak as a result of antibiotic resistance.
A TWYMAN TIDBIT
Lindisfarne Books has published James Twyman's The Prayer of St. Francis.
Lindisfarne Books is an imprint of SteinerBooks, an outreach of the Anthroposophical Society:
Christopher Bamford is the editor in chief of SteinerBooks and its imprint, Lindisfarne Books. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he has lectured, taught, and written widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions, and is a contributing editor to Lapis magazine.
Lindisfarne Association was the creation of William Irwin Thompson:
In 1972, Thompson founded The Lindisfarne Association, originally based in New York, later to find a permanent home in Crestone, Colorado, home of the Lindisfarne Fellows House and the Lindisfarne Chapel. For 25 years, under the sponsorship of its Dean--and chair of the Association--James Park Morton, Lindisfarne was head quartered in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.
But I digress.
Twyman's bio on the Lindisfarne Books website includes this interesting notation:
James F. Twyman received his Bachelors degree from Loyola University in 1984, and a Doctorate in Ministry from Agape Seminary in 1997.
Agape Seminary is an Old Catholic seminary.
CULTURAL TRENDS
Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised, including houseborn slaves and those acquired with money from any foreigner who is not of your blood. Yes, both the houseborn slaves and those acquired with money must be circumcised. Thus my covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting pact. If a male is uncircumcised, that is, if the flesh of his foreskin has not been cut away, such a one shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. Gen: 17:12-14
There is a movement in society to abandon the practice of circumcision. It has entered the Church. I find the argument given by Petrina Fadel of Catholics Against Circumcision, to be strange indeed:
According to founder and director Petrina Fadel, “Many Catholics in the U.S. are unaware that infant circumcision goes counter to the Catholic Catechism teaching on “Respect for bodily integrity.” The Catechism teaches that non-therapeutic amputations performed on innocent persons go against the moral law.”
In other words, the Catechism is in the business of deciding that something God ordained is really immoral.
I have not formulated an opinion either way re circumcision, but to argue that God's laws are immoral, and that man has a much better grasp of morality than God does, is the height of irrationality for a Catholic.
FATHER LOU GUNTZELMAN
wants us to become our true self, and abandon the false self society has called us to adopt. To do this he recommends the teaching of Thomas Merton and psychological experts such as Jung, Erickson and Maslow. He does not mention homosexuality, but one can almost see a rainbow flag waving in the background. If Fr. Guntzelman would not help to wave it, his words will help others to do so.
He seems not to be able to take into consideration that we can easily be persuaded that a sinful predeliction is our true self. Development of the true self in the terms God intends is not a conversation with us and our inner voice. For a Catholic it must be a conversation with God as He comes to us through the channel of His grace, the Catholic Church. Merton, Jung, Erickson and Maslow do not present a united Catholic perspective on what it means to be authentic. Using these experts will bring us to the place of opposition to the teachings of Christ. Jung in particular had a non-Christian worldview. The theories of Maslow were responsible for the destruction of the communities of women religious.
If we want to develop our true self, a better source of information is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the teachings of the Gospels, the writings of St. Paul. Our self is not true until it conforms to the true human revealed in the Son of God.
JACQUELINE RIPSTEIN HAS WELL-PLACED ADMIRERS
Form an announcement for the Miami-Dade College Sister Cities Program:
Ripstein holds patents to the Art & Light Technique ©, which uses black light to reveal the various dimensions of her work on canvas. Her paintings are held in private collections worldwide, including the Mexico’s Presidential collection and that of former British premier Margaret Thatcher, and have been displayed in national and international galleries, the Holy Family Institute, and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
It appears that Fr. Zovko was not with her for this one.
=====================================
Ripstein was on the program at the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions.
From the website:
Engaged Wonder: New Pathways in Conflict Transformation
Jonah Friedman, Jacqueline Ripstein, Jeannine Hill-Fletcher, Mark Larrimore
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
OCCULTISM IN RUSSIA
A reader sent in this article about occultism in Russia and its growth rate since the fall of the iron curtain. Little wonder that the Orthodox Church has backed away from ecumenism with Rome considering the state of our covents. According to the article:
Lawmakers believe that the occult business is becoming increasingly anti-social in Russia. Indeed, even the police will in most cases find it hard to establish if there is any magic behind someone's departure from business, or from life.
Occultism corrupts public morals, submerging people, especially young ones, into a world of illusions and the irrational. The Russian Orthodox Church, too, is waging a fierce campaign against the magic business. A Christian rehabilitation center for occultism victims has just opened in the capital.
The numbers tell the story:
According to statistics, one in every 1,500 Russians is a professional magician. It is hard to believe that in our age of the Internet and genetic engineering, the turnover of the occult services market is comparable with that of the drug market. There are more than thirty magic schools and centers operating in Moscow alone, with their monthly revenues ranging from $60,000 to $120,000. An estimated 3,500 to 6,000 individual practitioners occupy the rest of the niche.
Considering what is happening in America, this is a disturbing article.
SISTER MARGARET ANN PAHL
Amy has blogged this story at Open Book. It appears from the story that the Toledo Diocese is doing its best to obstruct justice in the murder of Sister Margaret.
BISHOP OF MOSTAR COMMENTS ON MEDJUGORJE
and on Michael Davies book on the subject. The comments are dated May 2004 and the bishop still firmly states that the visions are not worthy of belief, and devotion to this apparition should not take place.
He hints that he has information about irregularities that has not become public. He talks about Old Catholic involvement, and invalid sacraments. He talks about disobedient and expelled Franciscans.
Truly this is a scandal of the first order, touching as it does the honor of the Blessed Virgin.
---------------------
Also in the website is a statement about Fatima and the Hindu service conducted there. It contradicts John Vennari's version of the event, and gives the statement by the Shrine rector that has appeared elsewhere.
Monday, February 28, 2005
CITIZENS OF ONTARIO ARE NOW GENDER-NEUTRAL
LifeSite reports:
TORONTO, February 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At Approximately 5 p.m. today the Ontario Legislature passed, by voice vote only, Bill 171, which further enshrines same-sex marriage in Ontario law. Premier Dalton McGuinty proposed the move to change 73 provincial statutes, to introduce gender-neutral language that otherwise refers to wives and husbands.
Progressive Conservative MPPs Bill Murdoch and Frank Klees spoke against the bill and made strong appeals to other members of the Legislature to join them in standing immediately after the voice vote to request a recorded vote. Legislature rules are that only five members need stand for a recorded vote to be taken.
The voice vote appeared to indicate a significant number of Members opposed the bill. However, only PC MPP Jerry Oellette had the courage to stand with Klees and Murdoch to request that Ontario citizens be allowed to know how their MPP’s voted on the historic bill. Many citizens had called their MPPs insisting that a recorded vote be taken.
No two other members from any of the parties dared to defy the pre-arranged all-party collusion to withhold the individual members’ vote on the bill from the public. The bill was rammed through from introduction to final passage in only three days, with no significant debate and no opportunity for public input.
Thanks to a reader for sending in the link.
JUST RECEIVED IN EMAIL
A report from the ground on the effort to save Terri:
President, Catholic Media Coalition
www.catholicmediacoalition.org
"The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood; the second, not to fear to speak the truth."
Pope Leo XIII
Our Lady of Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statue visits Woodside Hospice
To all my dear Catholic friends...
On Friday, Father Thomas Euteneuer President of Human Life International in Va came down to Hospice and led us in prayer outside Hospice, in the pouring rain. With all the umbrellas, dark clouds and rain, rosaries swaying in the wind it looked a lot like Fatima and in fact I told Father that as I drove him back to pick up his car. But during the prayer, as the hour of 3:00 approached and we were preparing to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the rain became torrential and we huddled closer trying to keep dry - it almost seemed like great tears were falling from heaven. Father then consecrated the building to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and bound all those inside to her Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus so that no evil would befall Terri. He then blessed the rain as it fell, to make it holy water - and wash the evil from the Hospice bldg. Some of the people began dropping their umbrellas to let the holy rain wash over them - it was a beautiful and powerful time of prayer. Quite strangely it would also be at this precise moment that across town Judge Greer handed down his order of execution. The fax from his office is time stamped 2:59PM -hence the great tears from heaven.
But there is more... tonight, very unexpectedly we were blessed to have the touring statue of Our Lady of Fatima brought to Hospice by the pilgrims. This is the same statue that has been known to shed tears and has traveled worldwide since 1947 with several reported miracles. She had been down in southern Fl and was supposed to go to Chicago but the pilgrims told us they felt she wanted to come there. Again it had poured all day and we prepared for another Fatima -like setting - but late in the day, the sun broke through the clouds, the rain stopped. We went tonight with lighted candles and prayed - with a most gorgeous red and blue sunset against the evening sky. We then began processing with the statue of Our Lady held high in the air, singing and praying more.
Now for some highly strange reason there were no police guarding the parking lot and entrance to Hospice tonight - only a car with no police officer inside and so as we marched with Our Lady along the sidewalk, we turned right up the driveway and approached the circular drive at the main entrance. At first I was a little frightened - because in all the times I have been there there have always been armed guards and we have never gotten past the main public sidewalk. And we were certain that the police would appear at any moment to stop us. But as I looked up at that statue solemly leading the procession, my fear melted and I felt like heaven was protecting us. No one came and so we continued to march on. Then, just as Our Lady passed under the covered breezeway right in front of the electronic security locked doors, suddenly the doors opened wide - and we gasped and froze momentarily - figuring the police were now coming out - but there was no one there. The doors suddenly closed and then opened again - we looked all around -not a soul was there. And just as quietly as those doors opened, they closed as our Lady left the breezeway. I turned then and kept looking over my shoulder to see if we were somehow setting off a signal that caused the doors to open but the entire procession had been a good 30 feet from the doors and they never opened again as the others followed behind us.
Once we were all gathered again out front Terri's sister Suzanne spoke to all of us with tears in her eyes. She was so grateful for all the love and prayers we - and the whole world have shown her family. She told us just saying "thank you" did not seem like enough - she was lost for words really, but none were needed. We watched them pack our Lady away to take her on her scheduled trip to Illinois and as we turned to leave there in front were the police guards again. Perhaps they were on an extra long break - maybe they went for donuts - or maybe, Our Lady just wanted them to stay away. So for a few special moments under the protective mantel of the Blessed Mother we came that much closer to Terri in quiet peaceful prayer, song and praise. And I think that is just what She wanted.... To let us all know not to worry, not to get discouraged, not to despair...Our Lord is taking care of his precious child!
Much love in Christ,
Debi
Thank you to Debi for this beautiful description of the vigil with the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Please continue to pray, especially the rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Please also sign the petition to the Florida House asking for articles of impeachment against Judge George Greer. Visit this url (http://www.petitiononline.com/ijg520/petition.html), read the document, sign, and pass it on to as many as possible. Judge Greer recently lost in his bid to become the chief judge of Florida's Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. His opponent, David A. Demers, won an unprecedented third term. The chief judge is responsible for assigning cases. Greer had already announced that, should he win, he would assign himself to the Schiavo case. Demers can remove him. Let us pray that justice be done and that the Lord use this new event to help bring about Terri's release from the triumverate of evil: Michael Schiavo, death attorney George Felos, and Judge George Greer. (http://www.theempirejournal.com/0227052_schiavo_judge_loses_bid.htm) May the Divine Assistance remain always with us, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.
Mary Ann Kreitzer
President, Les Femmes
www.lesfemmes-thetruth.org
President, Catholic Media Coalition
www.catholicmediacoalition.org
Sunday, February 27, 2005
JACQUELINE RIPSTEIN'S SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE
has some interesting entries.
One mentions Fr. Jozo Zovko:
1997- Commissioned by the Holy Family Institute to paint “OUR LADY OF THE UNIVERSE: GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD” & “THY WILL BEDONE”. November 1997 tour for presentation of the painting in the United States with Father Jozo Zovko of Medjugorje, Croatia. Proceeds from the painting of “Our Lady” are being donated to the creation of a renewal center for the children of Bosnia and other areas. The tour took the painting to mayor cities, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pensilvania, Illinois, Louisiana and Florida.
One mentions the Knights of Malta:
1999 - The Grand Sovereign Dynastic Hospitable Order of Saint John Knights of Malta, Coral Gables, FL.
One event took place at the United Nations:
2000 - United Nation, New York. Painting “Our Lady of the Universe” with the events for youth Interfaith with Religious and Spiritual Leaders of the world, and painting in display for Aug 2000 in the UNITED NATIONS. New York.
She also taught a class at the UN to 400 children.
There is also an entry for an invitation from the King of Spain.
CHERYL ROSE AND JAMES TWYMAN
I blogged about her a while ago. Cheryl Yambrach Rose is the artist who painted Our Lady of Medjugorje and exhibited her work at the Rosicrucian Museum. She is the artist who sponsored "The Templar Code - Mysteries of Scotland" and the "Black Madonna Tour of Southern France" tours with Vanda Osmon of Joy Travel, both of which are cited on the linked website. There's a picture there as well. A picture of Cheryl Yambrach Rose with Peace Troubadour James Twyman. The picture was taken at the Neale Donald Walsch Foundation in Ashland, Oregon.
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
Fr. John Sistare. Yeah! Go Father!
There's proof he's scoring points. He has a detractor who has devoted his entire blog to his complaints about Father's defense. His detractor signs himself "Catholic Priest."
