Real Catholic Blog

A nefarious group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which prides itself on stopping prayers from opening meetings of city councils and Nativity scenes in public areas in the grossly misunderstood name of the First Amendment, a group that bullies God loving organizations and Christians, now has set its sights on what it must think is its biggest fish yet: The U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS has a new stamp in honor of Mother Teresa, but the atheist group has set about to stop its issuance. In its efforts, not surprisingly for this group and others like it, it has taken to spreading lies and anti-Catholic propaganda. According to CatholicVoteAction.org’s Brian Burch:

A group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation is now spreading lies about Blessed Mother Teresa accusing this holy nun of having a ‘darker side,’ and calling her a ‘polarizing Roman Catholic figurehead.’

The stamp’s release date is scheduled for August. But we have no time to wait. CatholicVoteAction.org has established an online petition — StampOutBigotry.com — to Postmaster General Jack Potter to encourage the USPS to stick to its schedule and not bow to pressure from this anti-Catholic group. Click here to sign it!

But what’s behind the atheists’ real motivation to stop this stamp? After all, we heard nary a peep from them when stamps honoring Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were issued. Both were religious figures. Dr. King, in particular, proudly cast his movement in the most Christian of terms and it fostered a groundswell of Catholics and Christian denominations to his side.

Maybe, as Mr. Burch suggests, it’s because Mother Teresa was an outspoken proponent of the unborn. He cites her closing quote at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast:

From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak — the unborn child — must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!

Please stand up for Mother Teresa’s memory and all she did for the Faith. Sign the petition and do your part in your daily life to counter groups who try to impose their secular beliefs on the unsuspecting in our country. Then, in August, buy lots of Mother Teresa stamps!

The proposed Mother Teresa stamp. By getting it issued , we can stamp out another case of anti-Catholic bigotry.

Pope Benedict spoke about Saint Anthony of Padua earlier this week at his general audience. Saint Anthony is one of the most popular saints and one to whom I seek constant intercession. The Pope told the audience that, as Saint Anthony preached, the Cross is the mirror in which everyone can find a meaning that enriches life. That includes non-believers.

Therefore, “nowhere man can better realize what he is worth than by looking at himself in the mirror of the cross.” St. Anthony of Padua, was a man who always put “Christ at the center of life and of thought, action and preaching.” He spoke “of prayer as a relationship of love which impels a man to talk sweetly with the Lord. Only a soul that prays can make progress.”

Pope Benedict spoke of Saint Anthony of Padua as an example of one who used the Cross as his mirror.

Today is the feast day of Saint Scholastica (see Catholic Online), the sister of Saint Benedict (see Catholic Encyclopedia). Together, they founded the Benedictine way of life and order.

Here is a sweet and powerful homily about Saint Scholastica from Father Angelo Geiger of the Our lady of Guadalupe Friary and Air Maria. In it he tells a wonderful story about Saint Scholastica’s relationship with her brother — and God, and how God answered her prayer. He also expounds on the today’s Gospel reading about the 10 virgins and the importance to accept from God the gift of our lives and to resist temptation. We can pride ourselves on our belief, but unless we put it into action. … He also spells out the importance of praying our faith. It lasts 5:30.

The life of Saint Scholastica: The simplicity of faith is very powerful.

This was the real controversy of the weekend: Henry Knox, an appointee to President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said Pope Benedict XVI a is “hurting people in the name of Jesus” because he upholds Catholic teaching against birth control, pre-marital sex and homosexuality. It prompted a segment featuring Thomas Peters and Brent Bozell on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show Friday night. 

According to an April article at CNS.com, Knox is:

a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament’s teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong —which is found in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans — “is not true.”

(He) has also said that Obama’s decision to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inauguration “tainted” the ceremony and that Pope Benedict XVI is a “discredited leader.”

Knox (is) a professed gay Christian who is director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights group. …

Here’s the video from CNS.com of Knox’s more recent comment lie about the Pope. When confronted with the Truth, he sticks to his slander. It’s time President Obama, who claims to want friendly relations with the Vatican and Catholics, put an end to appointing people such as Knox to his administration. It’s another example of how leftists use the power of government to try to shut down and shut up people, through discrediting them, people who have a different point of view.

Hint, Mr. Knox: The Pope isn’t interested in your politically intolerant governance. He’s perpetuating the Truth of God. You might not agree, but your tactics won’t work.

Another radical leftist, homosexual activist in the Obama administration: Henry Knox takes every chance he gets to disparage Pope Benedict for upholding the Truth.

When I saw the “Tim and Pam Tebow Pro-Life Ad” earlier today, I was astounded. What was all the fuss about from the pro-abortion groups? Unless, of course, they are against free speech. That may be because they certainly are against choice, at least when that choice is a woman carrying her baby to term and giving birth. But, decide for yourself. Here’s the ad by Focus On The Family:

The “controversial” Tim and Pam Tebow pro-life ad: Not much to it, but it does ask that you see the full story at Focus On The Family’s Web site.

Below is a very informative video from RealCatholicTV.com (via YouTube.com) about corruption and scandal at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, especially as it relates to personnel there and the activities in which they are engaged which are counter to the teachings of the Church. One individual, John Carr, served on the board of the radical leftist group Center for Community Change (see Bellarmine Veritas Ministry).

Mr. Carr and others at the USCCB are funding organizations — remember the revelation of its funding to ACORN? — that have a left-wing political agenda including those that work to advance the agendas of pro-abortion and homosexual rights groups. As Michael Voris (Catholic.org) and Vic Faust (The American Catholic) explains in the video, it calls into question the role of the USCCB. For example, the Conference doesn’t rule on doctrine and teaching — that is up to the Vatican.

However, that doesn’t stop it from issuing letters, which it represents as authoritative. But its biggest fault is that it has and continues to staff its organization with leftist political ideologues who have, since the USCCB’s inception, used the imprimatur of the U.S. Bishops to influence the notions of the faithful, seminaries and Catholic colleges. In this way, it has poisoned the faithful by confusing them as to what the Church (God) teaches. This has led to division within the Church and a weakened voice in the culture of our country which abets abortion, a weakening of marriage and a general deterioration of our culture and spiritual lives.  

By the way, we have added two sources from the video — RealCatholicTV itself and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry to our Media section and Blogroll, respectively. Two others, American Life League (see article) and Pew Sitter (see article) are mainstays in our Public Policy Section and Media sections, respectively.

The USCCB needs a staff and policy house cleaning. Michael Voris and Vic Faust  provide a detailed report.

I just received this e-mail from our friends at CatholicVote.org. Last week, its president, Brian Burch, asked people to sign a petition to back up CBS’ decision to air an pro-life ad during this Sunday’s Super Bowl, featuring star college quarterback Tim Tebow and his mom, who was urged to abort him 20-plus years ago. Big money pro-abortion groups have pressured CBS to pull the ad, so CatholicVote.org stepped in as a counter balance. We hope you signed on. Here’s Brian’s update:

Dear CatholicVote Member,

The President of CBS received a surprise at 9:53 a.m. yesterday.

A large Fed Ex box filled with nearly 500 pages of signatures from over 50,000 friends of CatholicVote arrived at the office of CBS President Leslie Moonves.

Enclosed in the package was a personal letter thanking CBS for standing firm and agreeing to air the ad produced by Focus on the Family featuring Florida football star Tim Tebow and his mother.

I explained that CatholicVote was especially interested in their decision because of our own efforts last year. With your help last January, we pushed hard to have our ad featuring President Obama aired during the Super Bowl.

NBC ultimately rejected the ad, yet I remain enormously proud of what we did together. We stood firm for the principle that every human life matters. We proudly stepped forward to tell the world that every human life is a gift — including the lives of those with whom we may disagree.

We had 2 million people watch our ad on YouTube over the past 12 months, while also sparking a healthy discussion in the media and on the Internet. And the ad was mentioned repeatedly again this year as controversy over the Tebow ad was discussed.

Did we help pave the way for this year’s Tebow ad to be aired? Who knows? What really matters is that we are winning.

Focus on the Family has taken the lead in making a Super Bowl ad a reality for an estimated 400 million people around the world. They deserve our heartfelt thanks.

I know when I see the ad this Sunday, my heart will swell with pride. This ad is not merely a story about Pam Tebow and her son, but also a statement about being pro-life in America.

We aren’t outsiders. We are mainstream, proud, and inspiring the rest of America with what we believe.

And more people every day are coming to see what we see: Life is indeed beautiful.

Be sure to catch Thomas Peters on Fox News tonight. Enjoy the Super Bowl. See you next week.

Sincerely,

Brian Burch, President

CatholicVote.org

P.S. Send us your prediction on the score for the Super Bowl. Pick the winner and the score. Whoever is closest will receive a surprise gift next week and get a shout out at our legislative arm, CatholicVoteAction.org. (Our combined sites receive 15,000 visitors every day!)

This just in from Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org:

BREAKING: CatholicVoteAction.org blogger Thomas Peters will appear on Hannity on the FOX News Channel tonight at 9 PM EST. He will discuss the anti-Catholic attacks on Pope Benedict XVI made by Henry Knox, who serves on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. TUNE IN TONIGHT!

If you have never seen, read or heard Thomas Peters, do yourself a favor. He’s very well accomplished at a very young age, bright, articulate and witty — and sharp as a nearly forged sabre. He’s the founder of incredibly popular American Papist Blog. Be sure to watch or record this interview.

Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano is touting a new source of stem cells that it calls “the future of medicine” (see Catholic Online). The stem cells are taken from amniotic fluid to create a retinal regeneration therapy. The Biocell Center of Busto Arsizio in Milan is leading the research in the field and the Vatican, as per proxy in LR, is encouraging it.

Our faith teaches us that this type of  stem cell research is moral because it does not destroy human embryos. The fact is, despite the demagoguery of those who advance the embryonic stem cell argument, not one significant medical breakthrough has resulted from the millions of dollars and years of research that have gone into it. Meanwhile, hundreds of breakthroughs have occurred in adult stem cell research, such as from chord blood (see Family Foundation Blog).

Another fact: Even though research shows that adult stem cells can be manipulated into mimicking embryonic stem cells, thus eliminating the need for the destruction of embryos, the abortion lobby and allied groups  remain adamantly against defunding embryonic stem cell research. It exposes their real aim of encouraging abortion because if all they were concerned about was the research, then the “mimicking” process would be the “common ground” so-called “pro-choicers” always claim they seek (see telling video at Family Foundation Blog).

In addition to the Biocell Center of Busto Arsizio, Harvard Medical School’s Department of Opthalmology, the IRCCS Foundation and three Italian hospitals are among the institutions that have joined in the research. See Catholic Online via Catholic News Agency for the entire report.

Father Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests For Life, and one of the pro-life movement’s most tireless workers in the cause for the unborn and innocent life, celebrates his 51st birthday this week. Instead of seeking presents, or even well wishes, he seeks a commitment from us to protect unborn life.

Dear Friends,

My 51st birthday is this Thursday, February 4. While birthdays are happy occasions, and this is no exception, they also are sad memorials of the 50 million children, in this country alone, who have not had birthdays due to losing their lives to abortion. My birthday refocuses me to fight even harder for their lives and to rally the Priests for Life family to do the same.

Please join with me and support me in fighting for the lives of God’s children, on my birthday and every day. There would be no birthday gift greater than an end to abortion.

God bless!

-Fr. Frank Pavone