Still Running Off at the Keyboard

BRRRRRRRR.....

We're shivering in a foot of global warming here in northeast Ohio. Guess I'd better look up the schedule for Mass on EWTN. Keeping the roads clear hasn't been a high priority on the weekends. Nor the side streets during the week either for that matter. We need some chains on them thar tires!

I SEE THE HIT COUNTER HAS GONE DOWN AGAIN

The last count I have is 7147 on the 8th. Looks like the new one isn't going to be any better than the old one was. Must be my bubbly personality...No? Maybe I have B.O. Can you have B.O. on the web?

WHEN SEX AND VIOLENCE BECOME PASSE, ENTER THE OCCULT

Seems to be a little further down the slippery movie slope...

Catholic News Service reviews "The Unborn", a story of an unborn child haunting the living, complete with dybbuks, Kabbalah, and the goofy notion that the unborn can harm you. It's rated PG-13. The Catholic rating is A-III (adult). Think I'll skip this one!

FR. RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS HAS DIED

NEW YORK (AP) — The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, a leading intellectual of the Christian right who helped build an influential coalition of conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics and informally advised President George W. Bush, died Thursday. He was 72.

Neuhaus died from the side effects of treatment for cancer, said Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, the journal of religion and public policy that Neuhaus founded in New York.

Read the rest...

SATANIC WORSHIP IN ROME

If this article is to be believed, Rome is more than the capital of Catholicism, it is also the capital of satanic worship.

I first saw the article linked at Spirit Daily, but it has been elsewhere on the web as well. The video contained in the article recaps what the story tells, but was a bit slow to bring up. It seems that the Vatican is fully aware of this problem and is doing what it can to raise up an army to combat it.

CANCER JOURNAL - Zometa

I'm not sure whether it's supposed to kill metastisized breast cancer in the bone or not, but strongly suspect one of the side effects is that it can kill the patient. Of course they don't tell you about that.

The doctor and the infusion nurses make such light of it. "Oh, most people don't have any reaction to it at all. A few people get some flu-like symptoms, but they only last a couple of hours. It's just a simple 15-minute infusion."

Uh-huh. I have never had flu like that.

Got the infusion at 10:45 on Wednesday. By the time I drove home and fixed something to eat, I was starting to feel tired. Thought I'd just lie down for a short nap. Woke up at supper time in so much pain I could hardly walk to the bathroom. And I stayed that way until this morning. Couldn't keep food down, and even water was iffy. Shivered from cold then started to sweat. For a while I had trouble breathing. The dry mouth went all the way down my throat, and this morning's dry toast didn't taste like bread at all. Here is a list of side-effects for anyone out there who might be contemplating this drug.

I can tell without asking that my doctor and the lady who schedules tests in the doctor's office have never had cancer, because yesterday they had me scheduled for an MRI. Since I had been struggling with back pain even before the test, they gave me Hydrocodone, a narcotic form of pain reliever, so that I could lie still long enough to get the MRI. I'd never had one before. I thought all I had to do is lie still for an hour.

I'd been told to take the narcotic every four to six hours all night so I went in groggy and short on sleep and expecting to fall asleep on the table. I'd been able to lie still for a l-hour PET scan before, so no big deal, right? No one told me about the noise. Sure I had earplugs and ear protectors. The sound was so loud it felt like someone was attempting to drive a jack hammer through my right cheek. Sort of like a migraine coming on. By the time I'd been in the little tube for an hour, I was ready to scream. Got through the last 15 minutes of the first half of the test by saying over and over "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". But that was only the first part. Next they intended to inject die into me and repeat the scans. It was supposed to take only another 15 minutes. I simply told them I was not going back into their little tube no matter what they said to me, and I didn't. So I presume the test was incomplete and they will want me to do it again. Haven't decided yet for sure what I'm going to respond to that. When I tried to go to sleep last night, I closed my eyes and was back inside the tube. Had to get up and get online in order to distract my thoughts.

Lesson to self: NEVER allow them to schedule an unexperienced test on top of an unexperienced drug again! I AM worth more than that, after all, and I'm not dead yet, despite their best efforts!

FLU BUG

Either something not nice is making the rounds, or I have some new problem as yet undiagnosed. I've been feeling lousy for about a month, but the last few days have been an all time low!

FROM THE EMAILBOX

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

Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 04, Number 01 | Friday, January 02, 2009

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www.hli.org

Dignitas Personae and the Right to Life
Brian Clowes, PhD

NOTE: this is the first of a two-part series on the new instruction from the Vatican on bioethics. Dr. Brian Clowes has been an HLI missionary for twelve years and offers this first reflection of 2009 for the Spirit and Life® audience.

There are two causes of most of the human misery that afflicts the world today. The first is lack of respect for the transmission of life within the marital union, which leads to destructive practices such as contraception, sterilization, abortion, homosexual adoption and "gay marriage." The second is a lack of respect for the born human person, which has given us murder, genocide, racism, slavery, rape and many other evils.

On December 12 of last year, the highest doctrinal agency in the Catholic Church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), released its first comprehensive instruction on bioethics since Donum Vitae in 1987. This document, Dignitas Personae ["The Dignity of a Person"], is an "instruction," and therefore does not proclaim an infallibly defined dogma. However, it was carefully reviewed and approved by Pope Benedict XVI and thus carries his full authority. It is therefore an integral part of the universal ordinary Magisterium, with which Catholics must inform their consciences and adhere to with religious assent.

In Dignitas Personae, the Church applies timeless moral principles to new issues and situations that have arisen from biotechnology over the past two decades. This document is based on a foundation of consistency of respect for the human person at all stages of life. We have seen that, when we begin to make exceptions to the universal dignity of the human person for whatever reason, even if it is to promote the welfare of other human beings, we inevitably veer away from the natural law and flounder in the swamp of moral relativism.

Those who read Dignitas Personae in a cursory or superficial manner might believe it to be a mere laundry list of prohibitions. However, from the very first paragraph, the document affirms the fundamental dignity of every human person, from conception to natural death, regardless of race, sex or disability. To be created in the image and likeness of Almighty God is the highest calling, and Dignitas Personae vigorously defends this status.

Far from being a negative document, Dignitas Personae is very positive in tone, showing us how to live a life free of the oppressive worries and guilt suffered by those who even partially embrace the Culture of Death. It frequently refers to the dignity of marriage and the human person, in addition to the positive results of scientific research and therapy used to overcome infertility and disease.

The document does not shout "STOP!" at the progress of science, but instead guides it towards being truly at the service of life and not of death or the manipulation of human persons. As it so eloquently says, "Behind every 'no' in the difficult task of discerning between good and evil, there shines a great 'yes' to the recognition of the dignity and inalienable value of every single and unique human being called into existence" [37].

Dignitas Personae favors the weak. If we lose sight of the weak or exploit them, we also lose sight of our very humanity. In such a world, the strong rule without regard to the small and helpless, not only in the laboratory but also over entire continents.

Just because the Church renders negative judgments about some biotechnologies, or cautions about possible pitfalls, does not mean that it is anti-technological. Dignitas Personae says that, in using these new technologies, man "participates in the creative power of God" and is "the steward of the value and intrinsic beauty of creation" [36]. History has shown us that any new major technology can be used to enhance human dignity or to oppress, destroy and exploit entire populations. Science needs a firm and clear ethical framework precisely because it has such great potential for doing either good or evil.

The potential of the new biosciences seems to be limited only by man's imagination. Since it is sometimes difficult to find our way in a confusing and complex world, Dignitas Personae offers welcome guidance. It draws a straight and clear line between activities that treat human beings as a commodity to be produced -- or as God's greatest gift.

NEXT WEEK: Specific guidance from Dignitas Personae.