Still Running Off at the Keyboard

SACRED SEX/SACRAMENTAL SEX

Remember my blog about Fr. Ron Rolheiser, who was on the program at Mundelein Seminary, sponsored by the Cardinal Suenens Center in my diocese. Fr. Rolheiser likes sacramental sex:

One can almost imagine him visualizing an illicit sexual relationship here. He knows just what to do with it, too, and he tells us all about it in "In Praise of Skin," my own personal favorite exposition of heresy.

Here he pulls no punches. In here he says that "skin meets skin, in sacramental sex, and temple commingles with temple." He knows he's being outrageous because he says "Not an easy thing for us to accept." (Um, yeah, ya got that right!) "Untouched skin is rife with fever spots...we don't get touched enough." But he doesn't quit there:

It seems too earthy to be spiritual. Consequently we generally lack the
courage to accept a theology of sexuality that is earthy enough to do justice to
how shockingly physical the incarnation really is. In sacramental sex there is
eucharist. Just as in eucharist, God enters, caresses, and kisses human
skin....God becomes more than words, more than a belief, more than a teaching.
In the eucharist, God...becomes the great healer who touches, caresses,
massages, and kisses our skin.

Fr. Rolheiser's book THE HOLY LONGING is on Phil's High Fives list at his Shalom Place website which is linked at the Dominican Heartland Center for Spirituality. Fr. Rolheiser was on a program for Chicago's Mundelein Seminary. The links are in my "Fr. Rohr and Fr. Rolheiser" blog.

Keep going down this sacred sex road and ritual sex will be here before you know it.

Lord have mercy!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

KUNDALINI

Is energy.

The Chakras

The center of physical energy and vitality,the energy to succeed in business or material possessions. Center of manifestations. Throughout the ancient world in historical and mythological stories, the root chakra has been associated with dragons and snakes. Dragons is a symbol for the kundalini fire energy.

* * * * *

Is used in Reiki.

A reiki attunement works exactly the same and is therefore a powerful healing in itself.
Reiki attunements work must faster than other spiritual practices however (unless kundalini breaks through): your frequency immediately lifts up with an attunement and you can start channeling healing energy. Next working with reiki, by preference daily, will only help you to get even better attuned by allowing positive energy to run through you. Remember: with reiki always both the healer and healee get healed!

(The website quotes "A Course in Miracles.")

* * * * * *

The practice of Reiki within the Catholic communities of women religious is commonplace. The Sisters of Charity, the Benedictines, the Sisters of St. Francis, the Sisters of Providence, to name a few, all have Reiki practitioners.

Reiki uses kundalini energy.

* * * * * * *

The Sisters of the Burning Branch, Order of the White Moon also practice Reiki. I challenge anyone to give me a plausible explanation of the difference between the practice of the Catholic nuns and the practice of this goddess school group.

* * * * * *

Kundalini is a part of sacred sex.

In non-religious tantric practices like karezza there is no premium placed on avoidance of the fully contractive orgasm -- that is, there is no theorizing about a man's kundalini energy shooting up from his testicles into his brain and being sucked back down and "wasted" if he ejaculates...

* * * * * *

Now I find out that a group of Catholics who claim to be orthodox but who only cite the writings of John Paul II are talking about sacred sex.

I am ashamed to be Catholic today. It is no longer a recognizable religion when this can take place. Our doctrine has been perverted, as have our priests.

* * * * *

Lord have mercy on Your people!

NEW SPRINGTIME

John Paul II called it that. Alice Bailey used the idea first.

Karma is therefore that which Man - the Heavenly Man in whom we live, humanity as a whole, mankind in groups as nations, and individual man - has instituted, carried forward, endorsed, omitted to do or has done right through the ages until the present moment. Today, the harvest is ripe and mankind is reaping what it has sown, preparatory to a fresh plowing in the springtime of the New Age, with a fresh sowing of the seed which will (let us pray and hope) produce a better harvest.

(quotation taken from ESOTERIC HEALING Chapter III - All of Bailey's books were channeled. Djwhal Khul was the entity she channeled.)


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

THE HISTORY OF SACRED SEX

Throughout history the "sacred prostitute" or priestess was seen as a holy person and these priestesses provided a service of the Goddess. A man could enter the temple with an offering, and request the services of a Priestess within.

He wished to gain the favor of the Goddess, or obtain an extra bit of fertility for his fields, or herds of sheep, cattle or camels. In having sex with the Priestess he would feel blessed and honored, and go home full of confidence.

To a great extent the myths of the Greeks is to a greater or lesser extent concerned with sex. The Greek pantheons constantly sought out human partners who's conceived children became demi-gods. These myths had both a good and bad side of their tale. On one hand, divine unions were seen as gifts from the Gods and often became ritualized. They became honored experiences even if they didn't yield a child. On the other hand some tribes such as the Samothraki, involved the sacrifice of young men at one point in their history. Some Priestess would lay with a young man and to ensure she would become pregnant, she carried a very sharp, leaf-shaped knife which she used to take the life of the man she lay with. Sacrificing his life would ensure his essence was transferred to her womb.

There is even evidence of Sex and the Goddess in Biblical Times. It is held by some historians that the Hebrew God Yaweh was originally a phallic deity. In fact it is an accept historical belief that the Hebrews were not always a monotheistic society. Phallic pillars were set up for worship in many of those early Hebrew villages, along with images of the Goddess Anat or Anath. Even today, the lineage of the faith is passed through the feminine side of the family. If a Jewish woman marries outside the faith, her children can be counted as Jewish, but if a man marries outside the faith it's not straight forward.

The website, "Celtic Sacred Sex and the Grand Rite," promotes ritual sex.

If sex is sacred, it is welcome in the House of God where other sacred things are appropriate. We have ample historical evidence that religious people ritualized sex. Why did the Catholics dispense with that ritual?

If sex is sacred and part of the marriage rite, why is it separated from the rest of the rite? Why does it not take place during the ceremony? Why is there not a bridal chamber in church where the sacrament can be consumated? What other sacrament has a portion of it which is not acceptable to take place in church? Why does this sacrament have an element of the ritual that is considered unacceptable in sacred places? Why does a portion of the sacrament need to be hidden from view as though there is something shameful about it?

FR. BESTER - OTHERWISE KNOWN AS DRACULA

KTVA Anchorage broke this story on Catholic priest Fr. Bob Bester, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Anchorage, and a silent chancery. Fr. Bester claims to be Dracula in the process of soliciting for oral sex.

Lord have pity on Your Church!

ARCHIMANDRITE LUKE, HOLY TRINITY SEMINARY, JORDANVILLE DISCUSSES SACRED SEX

His teaching begins this way:

The carnal mind is enmity against God. (Rom. 8:7)

In the past few years the number of articles and books published by Orthodox writers on the subject of marriage and specifically marital relations has increased. The ideas expressed in some of these works are not always consistent with Orthodox Tradition. The essence of these ideas is the deification of carnal relations, or, as some express it, the sanctification of erotic desires. Authors claim that these desires can lead one to God—to the realization of God within us—that such union is a reflection of the Godhead.

These ideas are not original. They are found in pagan writings and the works of Gnostics. They are very popular in the philosophy of the New Age Movement. New Age philosophy believes that the world is about to enter into a new period of existence, a New Order in all areas of life. Our concern here is the religion that will be the spiritual force in this New Age.

The teaching goes on to address the very issues that have been raised by the discussion in Dom's blog and the things I have posted here in mine. Archimandrite Luke includes quotes from the Church Fathers.

John R. Willis, S.J. also discusses marriage briefly in his book THE TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS:

St. John Chrysostom:
'Marriage is right,' you say; I also assent to this. For 'marriage,' we read, 'is honorable and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge' (Heb. 13:4), but it is no longer possible for you to observe the right conditions of marriage. For if he who has been attached to a heavenly bridegroom deserts him, and joins himself to a wife the act is adultery, even if you call it marriage ten thousand times over; or rather it is worse than adultery in proportion as God is greater than man. (Letter fo the Fallen Theodore, Bk. 2, Chap. 3) (p. 447)

CHRISTIAN TANTRA

Meet Philip St. Romain. As you can see at the website, he teaches “Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality: A Workshop” which appears to extend the material available in his VHS Video. Notice that the description of the subject matter says:

This workshop builds on Philip's story told in the 90 minute video, "Christian Prayer and Kundalini" in which, after years devoted to the Christian life of prayer he experienced an unanticipated awakening of an energy that in ancient India was called Kundalini or serpent power, and which played an important role in Hindu mystical experience.

Scroll down a bit to see that

Philip is a resource to the staff at Heartland Center for Spirituality, and the coordinator of their website.

The link St. Romain offers will take you here. This is a Dominican facility.

At the bottom there is a link “Christian Spirituality Bookstore”. Click it and arrive at Philip St. Romain’s Shalom Place where you can see Philip’s book covers flashing on the screen. Among them, Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality. Look at the other authors and titles listed under “Phil’s High Fives”. “The Perennial Philosophy” by Huxley, “The Holy Longing” by Ronald Rolheiser, “On Being a Christian” by Hans Kung, “The Future of the Body” by Michael Murphy, “Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man” by Gopi Krishna.

What is Kundalini energy? It’s is described on the “Tantric and Sacred Sex Vocabulary” website this way:

Kundalini- latent energy located at the base of the spine. Kundalini is like coiled sleeping serpent. The yogi works to gently awaken this dormant energy to attain enlightenment.

Philip St. Romain is a Director of private retreats at The Heartland Center.. He is also listed as the presenter at several group retreats.

Lee Penn addresses the use of Tantra at the 1998 and 1999 State of the World Forum, saying in part:

Tantric sex teacher Margot Anand spread her message to Forum participants, including the usual swipe at Christianity….

At the 1999 Forum, Anand led a panel discussion on “Meditation, Power, and Politics,” with participation by New Age luminaries Dean Ornish, Deepak, Chopra, and Marianne Williamson. Anand made a repeat appearance in 1000, leading a discussion of “Sex, Power, and Globalization.” (FALSE DAWN, p. 373-374)

IS MARINI HISTORY ?

Joseph Ratzinger has always had serious reservations about Piero Marini, choreographer of John Paul II's masses. “La Civiltà Cattolica” explains how to coordinate the pontifical liturgies with the medium of television.

It's a long article at Chiesa that you can go over there to read.

If Benedict does return Papal Masses to their traditional Catholic appearance, it will certainly be welcome.

Blogger credit to Crux News for the link.

DEBATE AT BETTNET

Over at Dom's blog we have had a debate--a disagreement really--about sacred sex that grew out of a brief discussion of Lactivism, the activists promoting breast feeding in public. It has sort of occupied my time this morning, which is why there is nothing posted here yet.

I find it scandalous that Catholics are tossing around the term "sacred sex," particularly at the same time that Catholic priests are making the headlines for abusing children. I seem to be in the minority.

Sacred sex--tantra--is a branch of Yoga. This website dedicated to Yoga discusses it:

Probably the most misunderstood or misinterpreted of all the yogas, tantra, the sixth branch, is the pathway of ritual, which includes consecrated sexuality. The key word here is "consecrated," which means to make sacred, to set apart as something holy or hallowed. In tantric practice we experience the Divine in everything we do. A reverential attitude is therefore cultivated, encouraging a ritualistic approach to life. It is amusing to note that, although tantra has become associated exclusively with sexual ritual, most tantric schools actually recommend a celibate lifestyle. In essence, tantra is the most esoteric of the six major branches. It will appeal to those yogis who enjoy ceremony and relate to the feminine principle of the cosmos, which yogis call shakti. If you see—and are deeply moved by—the significance behind celebration and ritual (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and other rites of passage), tantra yoga may be for you. Many tantric yogis find magic in all types of ceremony, whether it be a Japanese tea ceremony, the consecration of the Eucharist in a Catholic mass, or the consummation of a relationship.

Does this sound like something a Catholic should be encouraging? Doesn't it in fact hint at ritual sex, given the usual use of sex in the practice of tantra? The website discusses celibacy in connection with tantra. I guarantee it is not representational in that. Yet I keep running into Catholics who see nothing wrong with promoting sacred sex.

Maybe I'm just an out-dated fuddy-duddy, but I have had some experience with marriage--35 years of it--and I know a little more about the marital act than those who know the subject from textbooks and lectures which apparently promote a utopian romantic view of it.

The marriage act is very much a part of our human, and thus profane and fallen nature. It is motivated less by a sense of sacred than by physical reaction to stimuli. It is akin to sacred things because God is essential to procreation, but it is profane in that our fallen nature--our physical bodies--are essential to it. Our bodies cannot be extracted from our concept of sex, and we are not Gods.

This emphasis on sacred sex is just another example of the preoccupation of Roman Catholicism with sexuality in general, and our track record on sex ed is miserable. The discussion over there doesn't give me any reason to hope for a turnaround in the near term.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

SEXUAL RIGHTS TRUMP RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

OTTAWA, June 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler admitted Wednesday that, under the proposed Liberal same-sex “marriage” bill being fast-tracked through parliament, there would be no guarantees of protection for religious organizations that refuse to “marry” homosexuals.

When asked whether the provinces have supremacy over matters of marriage, thus overriding any federal protections in the bill, Cotler replied, “that’s right,” according to a National Post report. A vote on the controversial C-38 could happen as soon as next week, with Senators promising to work into the summer to ensure it becomes law.

Several marriage commissioners in Newfoundland, Manitoba, B.C. and Saskatchewan resigned after an ultimatum ordered them to perform the same-sex ceremonies or step down. Human rights cases against those who oppose same-sex “marriage” publicly, meanwhile – Calgary Bishop Henry is a prime example – are beginning to pile up.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

THE SCRANTON TIMES REPORTS

that the Vatican has spoken on the Society of St. John:

With that Vatican decree in hand, the Diocese of Scranton has issued a new set of directives for the Society of St. John:

* Priests may not celebrate Holy Communion at their private residence.

* Society members are prohibited from involvement in fundraising activities for any pious purpose.

* Its Web site, www.ssjohn.org,, must carry a prominent notice that the society is no longer a recognized ecclesial entity of the Catholic Church.

Blogger credit to Spirit Daily

YIKES !

Email from Lee Penn:

Check this out, from a Maryland transit agency .... straight out of the 1930s, in Russia or Germany ...

http://www.mdrails.com/images/marc_marshal.jpg

Unless this is proven to be a hoax ... we have a real artistic Freudian slip here, akin to the DARPA logo that was used for a short time, till the outcry became too great.

Lee

"WE ARE DROWNING IN PEOPLE"

In Lee Penn's book, FALSE DAWN, he lists multiple reasons why the URI must be opposed. Among them is this one:

The ninth reason to stand against the URI is that the movement, and its prominent allies, stand for population control, legal abortion, and artificial contraception--with a focus on the Third World.

(p. 217)

Bishop Swing has expressed the movement's dominant beliefs.

During Swing's global pilgrimage in 1996, he cited Pakistan as an example of overpopulation. He said "Now the world is drowning in people. You can see it plainly. Pakistan is only the size of Texas, and yet it is the 8th most populated country in the world...All through the middle of the earth, we are drowning in people. (p. 218)

This less-than-brilliant statement was not only Swing's "genius" at work, however.

URI supporter Barbara Marx Hubbard wrote, "The vast effort of humanity to 'be fruitful and multiply' would have to be curtailed in our generation. One more doubling of the world population will destroy our life support system. Our Mother will not support us if we continue to grow in numbers!" Her spirit guide said, "The population overgrowth on Earth must cease."

URI supporter Robert Muller, a former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, has given a UN imprimatur to efforts to reduce human population, and credits UN activities for preventing the birth of 2.2 billion people. (p. 219)

Racism lies behind the mantra.

Muller has urged the "white western world" to take up the cause of population control for racial reasons: "Business is not interested in population control: they are interested in growing numbers of consumers and new markets. But the white western world should be acutely interested, for within a few decades their children and children's children will be minimal in the world, close to disappearance." Muller predicts this response to the problem: "The time might come when laws will be adopted in some poor countries that no couple should have more than two children while in the western countries allowances will be given for more children. (p. 220)

URI support for population control has UN backing:

Jan Fransen, a demographer and former staff member for the UN Population Fund...said that the real concern should be the number of "people which the earth can hold in a sustainable way;" he believed the earth's carrying capacity is 700 million to 1 billion people. He added that "the focus on human rights disturbs him because it draws attention away from this more pressing matter of the carrying capacity of the earth." (p. 220-221)

It also has the backing of the money elite:

In its support for population control, the URI has elite company--including Bill Gates, the Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, Warren Buffett, the MacArthur Foundation, George Soros' Open Society Institute, and Ted Turner. (p. 221)

This is not a new concept:

In THE SECRET DOCTRINE, [published in 1888] Blavatsky urged that an astrologically based form of natural family planning be taught to "the armies of the ragged and the poor:" "If instead of being taught in Sunday Schools useless lessons from the Bible, the armies of the ragged and the poor were taught Astrology--so far, at any rate, as the occult properties of the Moon and its hidden influences on generation are concerned, then there would be little need to fear increase of the population nor resort to the questionable literature of the Malthusians for its arrest." (At the time, world population was about 1.6 billion people, roughly one-quarter of the current human population.) In the 20th Century, many others would follow the trail that Blavatsky blazed, and would concern themselves with limiting reproduction among the poor. (p. 252)

In the 1940s--when world population was less than half what it is today--Alice Bailey said, "certain physical restrictions should be imposed, because it is now evident that beyond a certain point the planet cannot support humanity." Bailey's proposed solutions were far-reaching: eugenics, and the reshaping of human sexuality so that people--like animals and plants--only mate and reproduce for a part of each year: "The emphasis in the future will shift from the urge to produce large families to that of producing quality and intelligence in the offspring. This will include that science of which eugenics is the distorted and exoteric indication." "The real change in human consciousness which is needed will appear only as the race itself is brought under a rhythmic law--under which, for instance, the animal lives function, or the seasonal law under which forms in the vegetable kingdom operate--thus transferring the whole concept on to a higher turn of the evolutionary spiral." (p. 263-264)

LOOK AT THE HEADLINES AT CRUX THIS MORNING !

"Judge orders Florida city to fly Gay Pride flags" - St. Augustine, no less...

"Scranton priest to boy to NYC gay bars" - same ole sexually abusing priest story in a Scranton wrapper...

"Child prostitution on the rise in US" - Dear Lord, they are as young as 9 and there are so many of them!

"Porn star: I'm a praying Christian" - Porn star and her pimp guests at President's dinner. Pimp claims he's a regular guy. What does that say about how we define "regular"?

"Cross removed from chapel, chapel renamed "ceremony hall" - hint: it's a crematorium.

Our culture is coming unglued.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

CHURCH DITTIES CONTINUED

This one's for you Psalm 41:

Converts, get your papers for prayer.
It's ablazing, the fire over there.
Your forgiveness is the subject tonight.
Spell your kinsmen's name correctly.

Converts, Marianne has the key
To the wonders that you're going to see
Toss your papers right on into the fire.
Banish all that hurtful anger.

It's great to be in the New RC Church
It's great to be in the New RC Church

Someone call 911. Grab your purses and run.
The fire is burning up the hymnals.

Fire in the Church
It's great to be in the New RC Church

It's the Spirit at work. Give a bark and a jerk
The tongues predict the New Age upon us

CATCHING UP ON EMAIL

Brian Fleming, Director of a new documentary titled "The God Who Wasn't There" which premiered in Los Angeles last week, offers the following comments on being an "Atheist Christian":

Once you're a Christian, I don't think you ever shake being a Christian, and personally I don't want to. When I realized that the first-century science that Christianity proclaims is basically completely wrong, that didn't mean Jesus was evil. It didn't mean Jesus was bad. Jesus is in many ways still a great character. As you see in the movie, when he calls for everybody who doesn't want him to reign over them to be killed, that's not the Jesus I'm talking about. But the Jesus that I hold in my mind as the Jesus who taught me my moral values in many ways, I don't want to lose that. I like Jesus. When I see a picture of Jesus that doesn't make me feel bad, it makes me feel good. I'm an atheist because I only believe those things that can be demonstrated and proved. I don't believe that faith is a good thing at all. But I'm a Christian in that I love Jesus.

How is that again? You don't believe Jesus was God because basically you don't believe there is such a thing as religion. You only believe in something you can prove? And yet you believe in "moral values" though presumably you can't prove them in any concrete way that would exclude proving religion is real. Which means that you are conflicted about what you really believe, holding two mutually exclusive concepts to be simultaneously true.

And we wonder why such strange nonsense comes out of Hollywood! Does this man even know who he is?

* * * * * * * * *

MORE JESUS IN THE NEWS

Reuters tells us:

An Israeli researcher has challenged the popular belief that Jesus died of blood loss on the cross, saying he probably succumbed to a sometimes fatal disorder now associated with long-haul air travel.

Professor Benjamin Brenner wrote in The Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis that Jesus’ death, traditionally believed to have occurred 3 to 6 hours after crucifixion began, was probably caused by a blood clot that reached his lungs.

Such pulmonary embolisms, leading to sudden death, can stem from immobilization, multiple trauma and dehydration, said Brenner, a researcher at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

* * * * * * * * *

HARVARD PROFESSOR BELIEVES ALIEN ABDUCTIONS ARE REAL

From BBC News:

Not many scientists are prepared to take tales of alien abduction seriously, but John Mack, a Harvard professor who was killed in a road accident in north London last year, did. Ten years on from a row which nearly lost him his job, hundreds of people who claim they were abducted still revere him.

Professor John E Mack was an eminent Harvard psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Pulitzer Prize winner whose clinical work had focused on explorations of dreams, nightmares and adolescent suicide.

Then, in 1990, he turned the academic community upside down because he wanted to publish his research in which he said that people who claimed they had been abducted by aliens, were not crazy at all. Their experiences, he said, were genuine.

I wonder if he and Fr. Seraphim Rose are collaborating up in heaven?

* * * * * * * * *

LET YOUNGEST PREMIES DIE

From the Times Online:

BRITAIN’S top medical ethics expert has urged doctors to let the most premature babies die, with treatment offered only in exceptional cases.

Baroness Warnock believes Britain should follow Holland in setting an age limit below which babies would not routinely be resuscitated.

She says this would prevent doctors competing for the “triumph” of keeping babies alive at increasingly young ages even though they may not survive in the long term or may be left severely disabled.

Warnock’s comments were backed in part by Britain’s most senior paediatrician, who said the setting of a lower limit should be considered.

In Holland, doctors do not routinely administer intensive care to babies born before 25 weeks of pregnancy. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, a medical think tank, is considering proposing similar guidelines in Britain. It is consulting doctors, nurses and parents about setting a 24-week limit.

I think I know what the Church's opinion on this would be, and I'm pretty sure it would not be what I think on this. So I'll refrain from comment.

CATHOLIC DITTIES

Over at Bettnet there is a blog on Catholic music that will give you a chuckle. A poster named Paul put up lyrics to the tune of "YMCA", and I couldn't resist adding a verse that I'm going to post here as well, because I've got another one to add to it.

With apologies to the Village People...

Faithful, there’s a lot to enjoy.
I said Faithful, there’s a chance to employ
All your talents, and I know you’ll feel great
Standing up there in the sanctuary.

Ladies, the equality’s yours,
In the pulpit--just sign up for the tour
Read the Scriptures to the folks in the pew
Like the fella in the chasuble.

It’s great to be in the New RC Church
It’s great to be in the New RC Church

You can get yourself fed you can get yourself wed
And you can pick and choose what to believe.

It’s great to be in the New RC Church
It’s great to be in the New RC Church

The confession line’s gone the Communion line’s long
And the party’s always in full swing.

* * * * *

Catholics, you will need a good sleuth
In the Vatican there's a spin on the truth
By the pressman named Navarro the Valls
Who fabricates the best encounters.

Catholics, did you think that the Pope
Wrote the story that was meant to give hope
Don't be foolish, someone else wrote the tale
For the truth go check out Magister.

New RC Church
It's great to be in the New RC Church

If you don't like the news, don't go singing the blues
Someone's bound to put a new wrap on it

New RC Church
It's great to be in the New RC Church

Where the lie is the name of the hierarchy's game
While commandments are the rule for strangers

ABORTION OR MURDER ?

If a pregnant woman doesn't want to be, she can hire an abortionist who can kill the baby with impunity.

If a pregnant woman doesn't want to be, she can use whatever methods she can concoct herself to kill the baby with impunity.

If a pregnant woman doesn't want to be, her boyfriend cannot do anything to induce an abortion because he will be charged with murder and could be executed, or will at least spend his life in prison.

Can we say double standards here? Yes, I think we can. Easily. The court is schizophrenic on abortion.

Hat tip to Crux News.

PLANNING TO REPEAT THEIR FOLLY

In a story linked at Spirit Daily:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Nine North American Catholic women will be ordained priests or deacons next month in what will amount to a test of Pope Benedict's determination to enforce the Vatican's ban on women's ordination.
The July 25 ceremony will take place on a boat on the St. Lawrence River in a bid to be in international waters, the coordinator said on Tuesday, though the U.S.-Canadian border actually goes down the middle of the river.

In a further challenge to Vatican orthodoxy, the women may be married, divorced or remarried -- "as long as they're in a stable relationship or are a stable person," said U.S. activist Judith Johnson, who is organizing the ordination....

This is a repeat of the Danube River "Seven" 2002 event that didn't work out. Do they really think Benedict is going to give his approval now that he is Pope? If they do, they are not just heretics, they are delusional. About all I can do is feel sorry for them. If I thought they were sane, I'd laugh. A better Catholic would pray for them.

It would be entirely reasonable for Pope Benedict to ignore their antics since it sounds as though the women are going to be "ordained" by the women who were "ordained" on the Danube and now claim to have been ordained bishops by Catholic bishops in "good standing." Uh-huh. If they were in "good standing" before making women priests into bishops, they were not in "good standing" after they did it.

There is a third ceremony planned for France in July.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

ROBERT MULLER

This man is no small heretic!

Lee devotes Chapter 14 of FALSE DAWN to his activities, opening with "Robert Muller describes himself as a Catholic, 'and considers himself a good one.' Indeed, Muller claims credit for 'three visits by two Popes to the UN' and 'the Assisi meetings of the Pope with religious leaders which I proposed to the Mayor of Assisi.'"

So what does this "good Catholic" believe?

Muller has declared his belief in Hindu astrophysics, and in the Hindu concepts of Karma, "prana..." and reincarnation....

Muller extols the linguistics and philosophy of the "indigenous People," especially "the remarkable cosmologies of the Mayas [sic], Aztecs, Inkas [sic] and others;" there should be "a global spiritual Department to study the indigenous spiritualities and rituals derived from their intimate relation with nature and Creation." Muller does not acknowledge that the "spiritualities and rituals" of the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas incorporated human sacrifice....

In My Testament to the UN, Muller said, "The tremendous spiritual, cosmic forces remain largely unemployed because very few people turn to them, pray to them." Jesus was one of many "great emissaries of the universe," who brought us messages "from outer-space." Echoing Theosophist author Alice Bailey, he says that meditators become aware of "the outlines, and later the details of the hierarchical Plan."

In 1998, Muller wrote, "It is becoming clear to me, dear God, that You cannot save us. It is us who must save ourselves, your miraculous nature and You, its Creator."

Lee has also quoted a Muller statement in which he asks the Pope for women priests, and the following statement from Muller which Lee says was written in all caps in his book Paradise Earth:

"THE UNITED NATIONS MUST BE VASTLY STRENGTHENED TO RESOLVE THE MAJOR GLOBAL PROBLEMS HENCEFORTH INCREASINGLY CONFRONTING HUMANITY AND THE EARTH. IT MUST BE EMPOWERED TO ADOPT AND ENFORCE WORLD LAWS AND REGULATIONS."

Among the laws to be enforced are laws requiring people to consume less. And just in case you are not enthusiastic about his laws and regulations, Muller has a solution:

Muller says that "all those who hold contrary beliefs" to those favored in the "next phase of evolution" will "disappear." He predicts a hellish destiny for those who balk at political and spiritual globalization: "Those who criticize the UN are anti-evolutionary, blind, self-serving people. Their souls will be parked in a special corral of the universe for having been retarding forces, true aberrations in the evolution and ascent of humanity."

That, fellow Catholics, would be you and me.

And a bit further on Lee writes:

He adds, "If I should ever be proclaimed a saint by the Catholic religion or by the United Religions Organization, I would like to be named or known as: Saint Robert of Mount Rasur."

Then there is this:

Robert Muller's connections with the Theosophical movement are of long standing. Muller wrote the World Core Curriculum, now being taught in 43 Robert Muller Schools around the world. He thinks that this curriculum "should be taught in all schools of Earth," and that it "could serve as a basic framework for a world employment policy" to be promoted by the UN's International Labor Organization. In 1989, Muller won the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for his work on the curriculum. These schools drew praise in 2002 from former President Carter...

Can we assume that Muller's ego has gone into overdrive? Kind of makes Hitler look benign.

Quoting from the "World Core Curriculum: Foundation", Lee writes:

The current manual for the World Core Curriculum says, "the underlying philosophy upon which The Robert Muller School is based will be found in the Teachings set forth in the books of Alice A. Bailey by the Tibetan Teacher, Djwhal Khul (published by Lucis Publishing Company)...and the Teachings of Morya as given in the Agni Yoga series books.

Lee is not the only one trying to raise the alarm. Enter Gary Kah.

First a bit about Kah from his website:

Gary graduated Magna Cum Laude with three majors: Economics, Business Administration and German. His special focus was in the area of International Marketing and Economics.

After graduating, Gary became the Europe and Middle East Trade Specialist for the State of Indiana. In this capacity he traveled to more than 20 countries, working hand-in-hand with U.S. Embassies and top government officials in the area of export promotion.

In the mid 1980's, Gary stumbled onto some information about the United States printing a "new currency". After some investigation, he found that many countries around the world had already begun issuing new currencies similar in design. Gary discovered that this coordinated effort was merely a stepping stone toward establishing a single, global unit of exchange--which was to be part of a coming one world government.

In 1987, Gary was invited to join the World Constitution and Parliament Association, one of the organizations involved at the forefront of promoting the world government agenda. During the next 4 years he obtained detailed documents which demonstrate that the move toward a one world government is very real and active. Some of these documents are reproduced in his books. .,..

Along with providing an historical overview, Gary's book reports on the most recent developments in the One World movement, including the current effort to unite all of the world's religions through U.N. sponsored initiatives. It exposes the deception of interfaithism, documenting the growing influence of this thinking in Catholic and Protestant circles.

What Kah has to say about Robert Muller:

The New Religious Order

Ideally, from the standpoint of New Age planners, unity among religious leaders would eventually reach the point where all of the world's existing religions could be molded into one synthetic whole. However, for this to become possible, spiritual leaders would have to surrender some of their most cherished values and tightly held doctrines. Creating this atmosphere of tolerance and compromise has been Robert Muller's main pursuit.

As the UN's "Prophet of Hope" Muller believes that world unity cannot be achieved without a one-world government and a one-world religion. All of his efforts, be they in politics, education or religion, are therefore geared toward the realization of such an ecumenical world system. His religious goals - like most of his political activities - are in line with the occult mandates of Alice Bailey and Teilhard Chardin.

Although Muller grew up in a Catholic home, he admits that he wasn't inspired to become a "really spiritual person" until years later, when he joined the UN. Nevertheless, he feels that his Catholic upbringing prepared him to accept the New Age worldview which he now holds. ...

As a lifelong Catholic he had been practicing meditation "for years" in the name of Christianity, without realizing the occult origin of this type of meditation. He had been combining eastern mysticism with the teachings of Catholicism. Apparently Muller had become convinced that Roman Catholicism and the pantheistic religions of the East have the same spiritual roots - a conclusion also reached by Teilhard Chardin. ...

Through his associations at the United Nations, Muller, like so many of his colleagues, would eventually come to embrace the teachings of Teilhard Chardin. In fact, it was Secretary-General U Thant who kept telling Muller about Chardin's philosophy. Since Robert Muller continues to serve as the United Nation's leading figure in the area of religious development, we can learn a great deal about the spiritual direction of the UN - and the world - by examining his personal theology more closely.

Kah goes on to explore Muller's personal theology at the website.

Politicos in the pilot's seat of this world government supersonic transport would like all of us to believe that anyone trying to expose them are foolish "conspiracy theorists" who have no credibility. If convincing us of this becomes unrealistic, they will settle for promoting the idea that they are benign "world servers" with no objective but altruism. The reality is somewhat otherwise, as their writings demonstrate. We need to take them seriously, at their word, and recognize what they have planned for the world. We continue to ignore them at our own peril.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

NOR

One of the reasons I continue to subscribe to New Oxford Review is the editors' dry sense of humor. This month is no exception. "Fr. Fessio Goes Ballistic" had me chuckling yesterday afternoon. I hope he could finally laugh at that nuclear spiral cloud as well. He's had a tough couple of years.

[Reminder to self...stay below the NOR radar screen! ;)] [[I'm sure I have nothing to worry about.]]

WILL THE EU SURVIVE ?

Last week's double rejection of the European Constitution by the French and Dutch electorate is a huge blow for Europe and its attempts to make the European Union more manageable after the enlargement of the bloc.

The fact that the constitutional treaty was rejected by two founding members of the EU, France and the Netherlands, is especially significant. The huge size of the negative vote - 55 per cent in France and 63 per cent in the Netherlands - cannot be ignored or brushed aside and sends a very strong signal to both Brussels and these countries' respective governments that politicians are sometimes detached from their citizens. It is also very true, however, that voters, especially the French, were also voting on domestic issues.

Unfortunately the issue of the Christian history of Europe is not even mentioned.

Go to the website to read the rest of the story.

ALICE BAILEY'S ANTI-SEMITISM FINDS A HOME AT UNESCO

Hannah Newman warns the Jewish people what they have to fear in New Age teachings:

"Who's worried about a lunatic fringe group?" As you will see later, Alice Bailey was one of the most antisemitic occultists of this century. For those who insist that Bailey's doctrine is safely marginalized among obscure occultists, it will come as a shock to discover that she was indirectly awarded the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in 1989, and that her teachings are already incorporated in schools around the world, including U.S. public schools (via the "Goals 2000" program). "Lunatic," perhaps. "Fringe"? No longer. Especially not with global star Robert Muller openly promoting her teachings.

This time it isn't the "lunatic" Carrie Tomko saying it. It isn't even Harvard educated Lee Penn saying it. This time it is the Jewish Tribal Review making the claims in "Notes from the Author", a prelude to a paper titled THE RAINBOW SWASTIKA by Hannah Newman. But it is the same message. It is the same conspiracy formed in Hell. It is the same Arch Conspirator making a case against the Trinitarian God and the religion of Jesus Christ. It is the same story Lee has uncovered in FALSE DAWN.

How is it that Alice Bailey's ideas have risen to the level of the United Nations? She was clearly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian.

Lee writes in FALSE DAWN:

In a section of THE EXTERNALISATION OF THE HIERARCHY written in 1946, Bailey reiterated: "the failure of Christianity can be traced to its Jewish background (emphasised by St. Paul), which made it full of propaganda instead of loving action, which taught the blood sacrifice instead of loving service, and which emphasized the existence of a wrathful God, needing to be placated by death, and which embodied the threats of the Old Testament Jehovah in the Christian teaching of hell fire."

She added, "I have sought--with love and understanding--to point out the faults of the world religions, with their obsolete theologies and their lack of love, and to indicate the evils of Judaism. The present world faiths must return to their early simplicity, and orthodox Judaism, with its deep seated hate, must slowly disappear; all must be changed in preparation for the revelation which Christ will bring. (FALSE DAWN p. 266, quoting from Bailey's THE EXTERNALISATION OF THE HIERARCHY, p. 543)

He poses the obvious question on page 269:

There is no evidence whatsoever that any URI leaders share Alice Bailey's anti-Semitic views. Nor have Robert Muller, Barbara Marx Hubbard, or Neale Donald Walsch repeated any of Bailey's diatribes about Judaism; they focus their scorn instead on orthodox, "fundamentalist" Christianity. Nevertheless, in most political and religious discourse since 1945 in Western Europe and North America, any hint of anti-Semitism has usually sufficed to make suspected writers, politicians, or religious leaders--and their avowed followers--outcast. As historian Philip Jenkins has said, "the anti-Semite is denounced in the United States and obliged to keep quiet." It is noteworthy that this social sanction seems not to apply to Alice Bailey, her teachings, and her present-day Theosophist followers. This is not because Bailey's feculent writings are secret. On the contrary. All of the Bailey books remain in print; they are readily available in bookstores, and as a Lucis Trust CD-ROM of all 24 volumes.

Why not indeed! Here is the Lucis Trust website offering Bailey's books.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

HOW BOOKS GET SOLD

If you walk around any Barnes & Noble or other large bookseller right about now, there's a good chance you will notice prominent stacks of a thick hardcover with an eye-catching jacket and the title ''Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power.'' The book, written by a former Clinton administration official, David J. Rothkopf, and published by PublicAffairs, is based on interviews with foreign policy insiders like Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice, and offers itself as a definitive study of the council, sometimes called the most powerful group of people in the history of the world.

Like many other customers, you might have thought the book was on display simply because the booksellers believed it was important, particularly relevant now and would practically sell itself.

This is also what Peter Osnos, the chief executive of PublicAffairs, would like to think. But he has been in the publishing business long enough to know that it's never that simple. In order to ensure the book was on display on the front tables, his company had to pay a total of about $11,000 to the large bookstore chains. Last fall the company also paid what Osnos called ''a significant amount of money'' for prominent placement of a new boxed edition of Lou Cannon's two-volume biography of Ronald Reagan, after the former president died in June.

''Had we not done that,'' Osnos said recently, ''there's no guarantee where the book would be. It could have been in the back somewhere.''

Full story at the New York Times, which unfortunately requires registration...

TOTAL IMMERSION IN LATIN

ROME, JUNE 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- It will be Latin-only for a week this July in the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Frigolet in France, even to ask for a glass of water.

A course entitled "Feriae XXIV Latinae Ferigoletenses," sponsored by the Holy See's Latinas Foundation, aims to promote Latin among people who have some knowledge of it and wish to improve their skills with it.

"Latin is an ancient language. The fact of using it as a modern language allows for better understanding of ancient texts," the organizers explained in a statement.

The course will not turn out orators like Cicero or Julius Caesar, but they will speak as the latter did in everyday life.

Go to Zenit for the rest of the story...

ANIMAL FEED TO BLAME FOR ANTIBIOTIC RESISTENT BACTERIA

Every worry that maybe those antibiotics meant to get you well might not work? According to Environmental Defense, overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health.

Antibiotics are added to feed not to treat sick animals, but rather to promote faster growth or prevent disease.

"With antibiotics, the more you use them, the faster you lose them," said Environmental Defense senior scientist Rebecca Goldburg, Ph.D., co-author of new report. "That's because bacteria become resistant in response to being exposed to antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing threat to human health, so it's just plain foolish to be feeding vast quantities of antibiotics to chickens, pigs, and beef cattle."

"Studies suggest that people living in areas with intensive use of antibiotics as feed additives are at greater risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections," said Ellen Silbergeld, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Health Services at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

According to the report around 90 percent of the 26.5 million pounds of antibiotics estimated to be used in the United States as feed additives each year - seven times the amount used in human medicine nationwide - occurs in 23 states.

Environmental Defense said its report, "Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs: Local Estimates of Antibiotics in Agricultural Feed and Animal Waste," is the first study to provide state and county level estimates of the quantities of antibiotics used as feed additives for chicken, hogs and beef cattle, along with estimates for antibiotics in animal waste.

Go to Spero News to read the rest of the story...

TOUCHED BY SOMETHING LARGER

Katie Grant at Scotsman.com describes the emotions she felt when unexpectedly becoming part of Pope Benedict's Corpus Christi Mass and procession in Rome. She is astonished that her sophistication fled from her during this encounter with a very Catholic ritual, bringing back memories of the practice of the faith of her childhood. Was it the memories? Was it being close to the Pope that reduced her to tears?

Perhaps what she can't put her finger on is the something larger even than the Pope to which he directed her sentiments. His actions seemed to say to her don't look at me, look at the Eucharist--look at Christ. Christ is the something larger that all of the ritual, all of the pagentry, all of the symbolism points to. It was not the encounter with the Pope, but rather the God-Man the Pope represents that brought tears to her eyes. It was knowing that in the Host, we have Someone here.

If the early days of his Pontificate are any indication, we may have in Pope Benedict a self-effacing shepherd who directs our attention away from himself and toward He whom he represents. A fortuitous characteristic to have in the Chief Shepherd, and one we have not seen in recent memory.

BAD WEATHER THIS WEEK

We're between storms right now so I have the computer on, but it probably won't last. I always shut it down when the weather is bad. Don't want it to fry. So if posting is light this week, that's the reason.

CATHOLIC ALPHA

is reviewed by Paul Likoudis in this article at Catholic Culture, originally published in The Wanderer. It begins:

St. Paul — In the February 2002 edition of the British Catholic monthly, Christian Order, New Zealander David Selby asks, in the feature article, "The Second Reformation Engulfs New Zealand," questions increasingly on the minds of fellow Catholics:


"What's going on here? Why are our churches full of Protestant ministers calling themselves Catholic priests, and Protestant congregations calling themselves Catholic? Harsh words you may say, but what would Luther, Calvin, or Cranmer recognize them as — Catholics or Protestants?"


What provoked Selby was a parish mission experience where the priest, dressed in his civvies, downplayed, ignored, or rejected every essential item of the Catholic faith, including the Real Presence, Confession, Holy Orders. About 80% of Selby's fellow "Catholics" agreed with the "priest" and rebuked him — Selby — for acting "unecumenical" by insisting on Catholic doctrine.


Selby's experiences are not confined to New Zealand; indeed, they are commonplace throughout the Western world. So the question naturally arises, with Catholics already more or less Protestantized: Why are Catholic bishops from England to South Africa, and Canada to Florida, rushing to promote a Protestant evangelization program called "Alpha"?


The latest American bishop to endorse Alpha, and promote it in his archdiocese, is Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul/Minneapolis. In January, he sent a letter to his priests, deacons, and seminarians praising Alpha as "one of the most effective" evangelization tools available today, and observed:


"Catholic leaders recognize that [it] is consistent with the foundational teaching of the Catholic Church . . . If your parish does not have an active program for the new evangelization, then I strongly urge you to consider Alpha."


What is particularly curious is the embrace of the program by Archbishop Flynn and other Catholic prelates — including William Cardinal Keeler, who is permitting its use in numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore — is that there is no shortage of credible critiques, from evangelical, Anglican, and Catholic sources that the program is designed to create a new breed of "third wave" or "New Age" Christian who is cultish, charismatic, anti-dogmatic, and hostile to traditional Catholic worship, doctrines, and morality.


According to Christian Order's editor, Rod Pead, Alpha is merely "the latest in the long line of New Age/Protestant Trojan horses to be wheeled into Catholic parishes with episcopal blessing."


Pead further says that not only is it a big business, involving an estimated million participants worldwide, "built on copyrights, target figures, line charts, and multi-million pound advertising campaigns," it is a direct descendant of the Toronto Blessing. The latter is "a so-called Baptism of the Holy Spirit which induces hysterical, animal-like behavior (uncontrolled laughter, shaking, gibberish, grunting, howling, etc.) among congregations.


"Nicky Gumbel, who introduced this alien 'spirit' into England via HTB in 1994, is the prime mover behind Alpha: 'I believe it is no coincidence,' he stated in May 1995, 'that the present movement of the Holy Spirit [Toronto Blessing] has come at the same time as the explosion of the Alpha course. I think the two go together'."


Introducing Christian Order's feature article on Alpha for the issue of January 1999, Pead continued:


"One would have thought this connection [with the Toronto Blessing] alone sufficient to alert Catholic bishops and priests to keep their distance from Alpha; to dissuade them from flirting with 'angels of light' (2 Cor. 11:13-15).


"Alas, such is their general loss of faith and blind panic at the massive yearly decline in the Catholic population that our shepherds have rolled out the red carpet instead. Bishop Ambrose Griffiths of Hex-ham and Newcastle, who says that church attendance in his diocese 'has been going down on a straight line graph for the last 25 years,' has embraced Alpha with uncanny zeal."


And so have many other prelates, including the late Basil Cardinal Hume and Bishop Donald Konstant, the UK's pre-eminent catechetical "expert" who oversaw the demolition of religious education in Britain during the postconciliar period, Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver, B.C., among others.


Three years ago, Catholics in the English-speaking world were put on notice that Alpha, with its "Catholic" add-on "elements," was dangerous — specifically by Gillian Van Der Lande in Christian Order, January 1999.


She opened her essay with an admission she had participated in the program.

Go to the website to read the rest of the article.

Alpha was presented in my former liberal parish a couple years ago, so it's in the Cleveland Diocese. This is a new religion aborning. It does not serve Christ's Church, but rather works to tear it down. As the article indicates near the end:

Having analyzed the program from its own promotional materials, Van Der Lande then described her Alpha day experience:


"I attended the course 'Alpha Day in the Spirit.' After the three video sessions, lunch, and two small group discussion sessions we were invited to be prayed over by the Alpha leaders and helpers. I am afraid I sought sanctuary in the church at that point, so sickened was I at the sight of lay leaders advancing to pray over others, rub their backs, and cradle their heads.


"I do not know therefore if anyone received the gift of speaking in tongues and whether this was facilitated by the leaders or not. I returned to find another fugitive who was a convert from a Pentecostal Church in America. She was sickened too, having left that form of church to join the Catholic Church. She did not return to complete the Alpha course.


"That day of the Holy Spirit did not begin with Mass even though the parish priest was a helper. It did not even include a visit to the church of the venue, a shrine dedicated to our Lady. We did not even pray the Hail Mary, but of course our Lady is not part of Alpha and there is implicit rejection in Alpha of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady."


Among the components of the "Catholic" add-on "elements" of the program are two tapes, Why Should I Listen to the Church? and Why Bother Going to Mass?


Both will give little reason for an affirmative answer and, indeed, may leave the viewer with reasons to think there are no convincing reasons to either listen to the Church or go to Mass.

The Catholic Charismatic Movement is a Trojan Horse intended to destroy the priesthood, and thus the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the source of our Redemption. This movement is no friend of Christ. It is occult and serves the opposition.

It is best to treat all "programs" that creep into a parish with suspicion. Few of them are Catholic.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Playing around with one of the chaos magick websites I linked below, a reader found herself checked into this little gem:

http://www.normalbobsmith.com/design/

Normal Bob Smith, freelance artist.

Not surprisingly, he chooses to blaspheme Christ:

http://www.jesusdressup.com/


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Moving along, she came to this display of artistic talent, expressing the typical desires of a chaos magician, with a little blasphemy wrapping up the package, just in case you were in any doubt about what chaos magick represented.

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Lord, praise Your holy image!