This year has been an important one for the Church. For example, Pope Benedict XVI was extraordinarily active over the last 12 months (Kevin Clarke/Zenit.org/Catholic.net): Five foreign trips, including a ground breaking one to England to beatify Cardinal Newman (Fr. Richard J. Shiefen/CatholicInsight.com), the Year of the Priest and the canonization of several saints (NewsAhead.com) were only a few of the visible accomplishments. He continues to right the direction of the Church, speak out against evil, and rejuvenate the flock. 

Year-ends allow us to reflect and ponder, and look forward with renewed vigor. It’s good for all of us to take some time off and recharge and renew. Whether you are one to make resolutions or not, it is important to refocus and approach our lives with a new vigor. That includes our spiritual lives, which requires consistent introspection.

From Brother John, myself and the team at RealCatholicBlog and RealCatholic.com, our online Catholic book an merchandise store, have a blessed, safe, healthy, prosperous and joyful New Year. Until we return shortly after the New Year, we leave you with this commentary on the meaning of the Christmas season and how to act upon it: The Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God Among Us. It is important that not only do we renew ourselves through Mass and the sacraments this New Year, but to bring others with us. We are called to God’s Grace but also, as Jesus tells us, to be a reflection of Him and win souls to him for their salvation.

Please view this video from Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com (no connection), who is at his most eloquent:

Cooperate with His Grace To be restored to the heights of Heavenly Communion with our infant savior  . . . is the quintessential gift. …

Not all bombs are massive, obvious things. Sometimes they are very small and deceptive, but with much bigger impact. This one is quiet, but no less devastating; actually more so. No one speaks about it much, which adds to its insidiousness. That’s why it is up to The Church, especially its bishops, to reinvigorate its role in promulgating the the sanctity of life that is the basis for a truly stable and sustainable culture.

Size can be deceiving: The bomb killing the West is very small indeed.

This week, the founder of RealCatholicTV.com started a series on progressives within The Church and goes into detail about their history, their aims and their motivation. They’ve already brought certain Christian denominations into irrelevancy, thus the schism we’ve seen in the Episcopal Church and the flight of many to the Evangelical movement. Now they want the Catholic Church to turn into nothing more than a social or community club that mires itself in moral equivalency.

For another lane on the same road, read George Neumayr’s piece in the latest issue of The American Spectator. It reveals the media and the political left’s assault on The Church and the Pope. 

Please watch the first two parts of the series. Think about what he says. Then, let me know what you think.

In the begining . . . . Progressives were innocuous.

Now, they have infested themselves in The Church for the purpose of ending it as we know it.

Parallels to today: Jesus betrayed and handed over to the state. Do we worship the state in this age?

The fact is, according to Voris and many others, tax-payer funded abortion is now a reality and the policy of the United States government. But is the real sin that Catholics were instrumental in bringing this about? This episode of The Vortex spells it out.

Taxpayer funded abortion is now a fact after the health care takeover by the Congress and President Obama. But what role did Catholics, unfortunately and sadly, play in this abomination?

Drive out the snakes as they are present among us to this day and we’re not talking reptiles, either.

Now Brian Burch from CatholicVoteAction.org has released this letter which outlines some very disturbing activities by these groups. It is up to counter them. Contact your bishops and encourage them to do all they can to motivate the flock to contact their Congressmen to vote no on the health care bill. Make sure they are doing all they can to influence your state’s legislators. Ask them what they are doing to clamp down on these dissident and dishonest “Catholic” groups. Tell them the USCCB must ensure there is no funding — directly or indirectly — of these groups as it has in the recent past and currently.

Get involved and make your voice known. Get your parish involved. Educate your friends on the issue. Contact your own U.S. Representative now and encourage him or her to vote no on this abortion-laden legislation. Also, please read Mr. Burch’s letter. It is very informative and, at the end, he explains further what action you can take to make a difference. In this season of Lent, when Christ died for our sins, we can do no less for the unborn who are innocently dying every day.

Dear CatholicVote Member,

If you are tempted to think Catholics in America don’t matter, I have some news for you.

The past 48 hours of the health care debate has been a pitched battle between Catholic groups fighting over the votes of Catholic representatives.

If this pro-abortion legislation is ultimately passed, some so-called “Catholic” groups will be responsible. They have done major damage to the pro-life cause and provided cover for Democrats to abandon their pro-life record.

First, it was the Catholic Health Association writing a letter to pro-life Democrats encouraging them to vote ‘yes’ on the Senate pro-abortion healthcare bill. Then yesterday, it was a letter from NETWORK — an advocacy group of Catholic sisters who called for passage of the pro-abortion bill and promised they would be “working on all levels to promote [its] passage.”

Sadly, these groups got to Rep. Dale Kildee. You and I passionately pleaded with him to hold the line, running radio ads for days in his district. But he gave in to pressure yesterday saying he had consulted his priest and constituents and concluded “that no federal money can be used for abortion.”

This is bogus and he knows it. But the pressure was simply too great, and he gave in.

But we aren’t giving up. We have other votes including some “surprise” representatives we are working with that could replace the loss of Kildee and others.

What about the Bishops?

Whenever Catholic groups or politicians betray their faith and undermine our Church, people ask me why I don’t call out the Bishops more for not confronting people who spread dissent and attack our unity.

I agree that respectful criticism of our Bishops has a place, but in this fight, at this hour, I am convinced the Bishops need our help, not our condemnation.

CatholicVote is now working directly with Bishops across the country. They know about us and they are thrilled to have us working alongside them. I cannot emphasize enough how thankful they are for all that you’re doing.

I implored them to personally petition Members of Congress, and to speak out publicly against the distortions being spread by CHA and others. Every Bishop I have spoken with has agreed to do everything he can. And many are already doing so.

The USCCB is running editorials, and today is running ads in major newspapers urging the Congress to OPPOSE the pro-abortion bill.

We are also in direct contact with members of the Stupak Coalition and are assisting them with resources within the Church and in districts where undecided votes remain.

What you can do now

Finally, I have three last things you can do to fight against this horrendous bill.

I have two new Congressmen to call. These pro-life Democrats are sitting right on the fence. Call Rep. Jason Altmire at (724) 226-1304 and call Rep. John Boccieri at (330) 489-4414. With so many people calling Congress, you might have difficulty getting through to them. I didn’t say this was going to be easy.

Visit CatholicVoteAction.org for our primer: “Why the Senate bill must be opposed.”

Pray.

The last one is the most important. You and I have made the phone calls, we’ve defended the Church on the Internet and over the airwaves, we’ve fought the good fight.

But political pundits have said that Speaker Nancy Pelosi will stop at nothing to get this pro-abortion bill through.

Ultimately, though, the fate of this bill rests in greater hands.

Let every member of CatholicVote join together in prayer over these next few fateful days.

Let us boldly ask Our Lord during this Lenten season for victory in this battle. As hard as we have worked, if this bill is defeated, we will rightly give God all of the praise.

Please, take a moment now to make a call to the switchboard upstairs. His line is never busy.

Sincerely,

Brian Burch

That is the exact path taken by many protestant liturgical denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, which suffered a schism in North America last year (in one of the most important and under reported events of the decade). It happened primarily because it ceased to stand for the Truth and allowed “truth” to become relative among its dioceses, its parishes and even unto its parishioners. Truly, card or bowling clubs are more grounded in principle than some denominations.

But the Faith isn’t about accommodation. It’s about Truth and spreading it for the salvation of souls. “Social justice” is great, but there are several ways to achieve solutions to secular social issues — not the one-size-fits-all-big-government “fixes” unfortunately adopted by too many Church leaders. Not that they should even take sides. Besides, how is “global warming” a social justice issue?

If our Bishops only stayed quiet on these types of matters it would go a long way to furthering the Truth in that they could focus on the issues that have only one solution, such as protecting the unborn and traditional marriage. These are the Scriptural Truths we are called to defend.

Mr. Voris doesn’t mince words. He is on, and to, the point. He is worth listening to. What do you think?

Michael Voris doesn’t hold back. The leadership of the American Catholic Church runs the risk of emulating the disintegrating protestant liturgical denominations.

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.