Still Running Off at the Keyboard

FROM CHAOS TO HARMONY: THE SOLUTION TO THE GLOBAL CRISIS ACCORDING TO THE WISDOM OF KABBALAH

According to the website of Kabbalist Michael Laitman, he and Club of Budapest founder Ervin Laszlo have co-authored a book by that title which is being offered in a pdf file for downloading free of charge and also for purchase in the print version.

ST. VINCENT DEPAUL - UPDATE

I've been trying to find some indication of what may be prompting the St. V envelopes to be removed from the contribution packet in a local parish (see my first blog of the day down below). Haven't found much, but this story did turn up. It's a death notice for Baltimore's Leonard Whitehouse which describes his accomplishments. One in particular is a complete puzzle.

In 1947, he joined with a member of the Schapiro family, Daniel Schapiro, to start a business, Schapiro & Whitehouse, for many years at Parkin and McHenry streets....

His partner focused on rags. Mr. Whitehouse established the secondhand clothing division.

"Middle Easterners, Whitehouse learned, would buy men's jackets and shirts," The Sun's article said. "In search of foreign markets, he took the first of many trips to Africa in the early 1950s.

Back in Baltimore, he oversaw a clothing sorting and grading operation. Clothes, which the company purchased from charities, were carefully graded by quality, color and type. Mr. Whitehouse hired employees who sifted through tons of give-away dresses, shirts, coats, pants and blouses....

"He was good at finding customers in those overseas markets," said his daughter, Terry Whitehouse of Washington. "He had amazing stories about being held at gunpoint while going into the far reaches of the countries where he did business. He was once on a small plane when the engine caught fire. But he made friends wherever he went, and he'd be invited back for weddings."

His business became the largest clothing-grading operation in the United States, The Sun's 1997 article said. His employees processed a million pounds a week from the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries and the St. Vincent dePaul Society.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. American Catholics package up their seldom-used clothes that are still in good shape, and deliver them to St. Vincent DePaul so that someone in need will have a coat or a dress to wear. Maybe it's a coat or a dress that the donor still likes or has a fond memory of, but staying true to the gospel message of giving the extra garment to the poor, lovingly tucks it into the St. V bag.

I still remember one black fake fur coat that I especially loved but tucked into the Good Neighbors bag because I had a new coat and couldn't justify keeping two if someone was going to be without. Was that coat sent off to a processing plant that created a profit for someone who knew how to work the rag business? Was it sold to a needy person, or perhaps a not-so-needy person who just wanted to have something that looked American? Did this help the poor in some way that I can't see in reading this obit? Does anyone know how charitable clothing donations really do fare once they leave the hands of the donor?

When I was very much younger, I worked for an attorney whose wife was office manager. She told us about it more than once and was quite proud of the fact that she wore dresses to work that had been siphoned off the clothing donations to the poor at her church. Apparently she worked with the charitable clothing intake and got first pick. I was appalled, and I never saw her in quite the same light again.

CRECHE BOWS TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS - ENTER THE CRIB MOSQUE

New assaults on the Christian faith appear every day, and one has to put up new emotional walls of defense against the onslaught, because there is no indication that it is waning.

The hardest assault to overcome is the one taking place within Catholic churches, aided and abetted by once-trusted pastors...the near-blasphemous Masses that have been reported, the deviations from the rubrics, the nuns embracing earth worship, the priestly sexual abuse that seems to be ongoing.

This new wrinkle has me grasping my faith for dear life. BBC News reports:

Elaborate cribs with figurines enacting the nativity decorate most Catholic churches in Italy at this time of year.

A priest at a Genoa church put a mosque and minaret in his crib, while a crib at a Venice school also had a mosque....

...a senior church figure said there are no firm rules on what can be included.

Does that mean Satan is a welcome figure there? If not, what rule excludes him? If we must rely on a Catholic sensibility to exclude the enemy of God in the manger scene, how is it that the Catholic sensibility can include a mosque? Or is it that the priest doesn't know the Bethlehem story? Maybe he slept through that seminary class.

The article closes with this hardly uplifting tidbit:

Italians love to adapt new forms to ancient traditions and there is a new family in many of the Christmas cribs produced in Naples.

America's new President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle figure in many crib scenes being sold there.

Talk about turning the faith story upside down! The illegitimate Christ Child would have been aborted if Barak Obama had anything to say about it.

NOW THE ST. VINCENT DePAUL SOCIETY ?

Notice in the bulletin that I picked up at Mass yesterday:

Please Note: Because of some difficulties at the national and the Diocesan level of the St. Vincent DePaul Society, we are, as of January 2009, discontinuing the St. Vincent DePaul envelopes in the mailed set. All monies previously donated to our St. Vincent DePaul Society will continue to be used for the purposes for which the donations were made.

As of January 2009, the St. Vincent DePaul envelopes will be replaced with the ST. JOSEPH HELPING HAND FUND ENVELOPES. These donations will be used FOR THE SAME PURPOSE - to temporarily help our parishioners that are in need.

What is happening to the St. Vincent DePaul Society? I haven't seen anything in the news.

Are we to suffer through a total meltdown in confidence in Catholic institutions across America? I thought St. Vincent DePaul was solid.

CANCER JOURNAL - Bone Biopsy Results

I know some of you are wondering... I got the results this morning. Yes, it is in my bones, so I will have to start another IV drug that is taken once a month and has the potential to cause blood clots. This one produces flu-like symptoms, but they don't last very long. It also carries the warning that a woman must not take it if there is a risk of pregnancy. On the up side, I've been having a lot of backache for the last few weeks. Now that I know what is likely the cause that can be addressed.

A CURIOUS STORY ABOUT OCCULTISM IN ENGLAND

Susanna has turned up the story of King Edward VIII who was seeing a mystic at the time he was considering whether to abdicate the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson. The marriage was opposed by politicians of the day and would have caused a constitutional crisis if he had remained on the throne.
The story is available at BBC News and is dated December 6, 2008. From the website:

Previously undisclosed archives tell the story of a king in the grip of a man known as "The Yorkshire Yogi".

Dr Alexander Cannon trained as a medic, and dabbled in alternative treatments, mystic techniques and black magic.

Lambeth Palace was tipped off that the King was receiving hypnotic treatment from Dr Cannon for a drink problem.

The new archive evidence is examined by reporter Sean Stowell in BBC Radio 4's The Archive Hour.

Edward VIII reigned for only 11 months, abdicating in December 1936 so that he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson....

The allegation about the King's contact at that time with Dr Cannon was made in a letter from a country vicar to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Cosmo Lang.

The Archbishop began an investigation into the claims and alerted the prime minister about his concerns....

Dr Cannon was the subject of an MI5 investigation and then an establishment cover-up before settling in virtual exile in the Isle of Man, where he put on magic shows and psychic performances.

Taped recordings of Dr Cannon reveal some of his beliefs and theories, from how to be happy to the secret behind magic-carpet journeys across Asia....

Further evidence of the King's links to Dr Cannon come in a recorded interview with Piers Compton, the former literary editor of The Universe Catholic newspaper.

Ironically, Dr. Alexander Cannon looks rather like Aleister Crowley. Shares the same initials, too.

A review of the book SHOWMAN OR CHARLATANS? by Roger Woods and Brian Lead indicates that Crowley knew Cannon well enough to have a disagreement with him.

From the website:

The rest of the book is devoted to Cannon, Part V addressing the question of “Who was ‘Sir’ Alexander Cannon?” and presenting a résumé of his career following graduation from Leeds University. The Far East, work as a psychiatrist at Colney Hatch asylum on his return to Britain, and his prickly encounter with occultist Aleister Crowley when delivering a lecture in 1934 are all covered.

MARITAIN AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY

According to the Oxford University Press review of WESTERN EUROPEAN LIBERATION THEOLOGY, Jacques Maritain was an instrumental figure in introducing this concept to the Roman Catholic Church.

FROM THE EMAILBOX

Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)

Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 45 | Friday, December 19, 2008

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www.hli.org

A New Vaccine Research Initiative That Needs the Support of the Whole Pro-Life Community

Dear Friends,

It is not ironic that in this season of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, Human Life International has been asked to support a new pro-life vaccine research company that is challenging, to the core, the practice of pumping unethical vaccines into the bodies of our children. This non-profit company also provides a safe-haven for the consciences of parents that find themselves between the rock of government regulations and the hard place of vaccines made from cell lines using aborted fetal tissue. The Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI) is the answer to these tough realities. Don't be thrown by the "choice" in the name; their founders are actually helping to provide some real alternatives in this field. Dr. Theresa Dreisher, PhD, founder and CEO of parent company AVM Biotechnology, is a fantastic pro-life biomedical researcher, an internationally renowned stem cell scientist, guest lecturer and educator with over 22 patents. She has made a sacrificial commitment to provide necessary research for the pro-life community so that we can have ethical vaccines as well as credible research about unethical ones that will help us hold Big Pharmaceutical accountable for their practices.

I recently got introduced to their operation, and I can tell you that we just have to support this initiative! What do I mean? Here are a few stunning facts that her brochure highlights:

1. By the time a child enters school they have received an average of 36 vaccinations - a number of them during the first 12 months of life; several of these contain aborted fetal DNA and cellular contaminants, a fact that has many parents, scientists and medical professionals concerned. Also,

2. Before children received so many vaccinations and before modern vaccines with aborted fetal DNA, only 1 child out of 10,000 was diagnosed with autism, now 1 child out of 150 is diagnosed. Is there a link? Well, only serious and non-ideological research will give us that answer.

SCPI reviews, researches and disseminates the context and content of vaccines and other biologic medicines to enable physicians, pharmacists, parents and grandparents to be "informed consumers." They investigate the biologic and physiologic consequences of human DNA and cellular contaminants in our medicines. Furthermore, they provide a "Pro-Life Produced" stamp on their medicine so that physicians, pharmacists or patients can be confident that the drug does not contain human DNA or cellular contaminants. They also have a "Pro-Life Compatible" stamp to indicate that that drug was not tainted during discovery, development or commercialization by the use of electively aborted, embryonic or any other unethically obtained human material. I just can't see a downside to this great operation. They are just what we need!

We are asking that during this Advent and Christmas season you consider supporting them with a gift. They are a gift to men and women of conscience, and they need to know that we will stand behind them! Click here to access SCPI information.

Dear friends, as we approach the blessed day of the Birth of the Christ Child, please accept HLI's best wishes for you and your families and know that we are praying for you in gratitude for your ongoing support of the sanctity of life, marriage and family all around the world.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International