Against the Deathocrats: A Catholic Manifesto

In response to the Pope’s recent statement concerning Catholic politicians who support abortion 18 Deathocrats issued a repudiation of his words, saying in part that any punishment of Catholic politicians for pro-choice legislation “offends the very nature of the American experiment and does a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done.” In other words when Jochebed and Miriam, the mother and sister of Moses, hid him from Pharaoh’s murderous machinations intended to protect his own political interests, they were on the wrong side of “good work”. Ditto the Hebrew midwives. Ditto too, God, who blessed those midwives. And good St Joseph must have been truly unrighteous for his reprehensible actions, protecting the infant Jesus the way he did against the Herodian experiment in politically justifiable infanticide.

It’s very clear what these politico-abortionists are up to. They are trying to protect their status as pseudo-Catholics by hiding behind their political authority. In what they no doubt think is a brilliant ploy, they attempt to turn this into an Ecclesiastical usurpation of American politics. Here they show their deceit, or at least their stupidity; for one does not have to be a Catholic to be an American politician. To kick a Catholic politician out of the Church or deny him the Eucharist does not in any way hinder his actions as a politician.

I’ll try to make it real simple for these 18 dim-o-crats:
1) You DO NOT have to be a Catholic in good standing to be a politician.
2) You DO have to be a Catholic in good standing to validly receive the Eucharist.
3) Being denied the Eucharist or being excommunicated for not following the Church’s moral and sacramental teaching has no bearing on you as politicians and you’re being disingenuous for claiming otherwise. The very fact that you are already flouting the Church’s moral teaching shows that you have little if any real concern for the consequent disciplinary action of the Church.
4) By appealing to the “American experiment” and to your political positions you are attempting to thwart the Church’s mission and freedom. This attempt by you, members of the government, to hinder the Church’s mission and freedom is a direct violation of one of the founding ideals of this nation.
5) to repeat: you do not have to be Catholic to continue your support for baby-killers. You do have to be a good Catholic to receive communion.

Is this simple enough to sink into your heads or do you need funnels stuck into your ears and the information poured in?

MAY WITH MARY, DAY 16

On March 25, 2006, The Solemnity of the Aunnuciation, Pope Benedict XVI con-celebrated Mass with 15 newly installed cardinals.  In his homily he focused upon the importance of Christ’s incarnation and our Lady’s role in it:

Dear Cardinals and Patriarchs,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For me it is a source of great joy to preside at this concelebration with the new Cardinals after yesterday’s Consistory, and I consider it providential that it should take place on the liturgical Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and under the sunshine that the Lord gives us. In the Incarnation of the Son of God, in fact, we recognize the origins of the Church. Everything began from there.

Every historical realization of the Church and every one of her institutions must be shaped by that primordial wellspring. They must be shaped by Christ, the incarnate Word of God. It is he that we are constantly celebrating:  Emmanuel, God-with-us, through whom the saving will of God the Father has been accomplished.

And yet – today of all days we contemplate this aspect of the Mystery – the divine wellspring flows through a privileged channel:  the Virgin Mary.

St Bernard speaks of this using the eloquent image of aquaeductus (cf. Sermo in Nativitate B.V. Mariae:  PL 183, 437-448). In celebrating the Incarnation of the Son, therefore, we cannot fail to honour his Mother. The Angel’s proclamation was addressed to her; she accepted it, and when she responded from the depths of her heart:  “Here I am… let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1: 38), at that moment the eternal Word began to exist as a human being in time.

From generation to generation, the wonder evoked by this ineffable mystery never ceases. St Augustine imagines a dialogue between himself and the Angel of the Annunciation, in which he asks:  “Tell me, O Angel, why did this happen in Mary?”. The answer, says the Messenger, is contained in the very words of the greeting:  “Hail, full of grace” (cf. Sermo 291: 6).

In fact, the Angel, “appearing to her”, does not call her by her earthly name, Mary, but by her divine name, as she has always been seen and characterized by God:  “Full of grace – gratia plena“, which in the original Greek is 6,P”D4JTµXv0,  “full of grace”, and the grace is none other than the love of God; thus, in the end, we can translate this word:  “beloved” of God (cf. Lk 1: 28). Origen observes that no such title had ever been given to a human being, and that it is unparalleled in all of Sacred Scripture (cf. In Lucam 6: 7).

It is a title expressed in passive form, but this “passivity” of Mary, who has always been and is for ever “loved” by the Lord, implies her free consent, her personal and original response:  in being loved, in receiving the gift of God, Mary is fully active, because she accepts with personal generosity the wave of God’s love poured out upon her. In this too, she is the perfect disciple of her Son, who realizes the fullness of his freedom and thus exercises the freedom through obedience to the Father.  (Read the rest)