Furtive

Dorothy Day, who died in 1980, was an anarchist, a pacifist, and the co-founder of the Catholic Worker, a movement devoted to helping the poor and the homeless. Described by historian David O’Brien as “the most influential, interesting, and significant figure” in U.S. Catholic history, Day is currently being considered for canonization in the Catholic Church. Before her conversion to Catholicism in 1927, however, Day lived what the late Cardinal O’Connor of the Archdiocese of New York has referred to as "a life akin to that of the pre-converted Augustine of Hippo." That bohemian life included common-law marriage and an abortion. Some may feel that Day’s promiscuity precludes her cause for sainthood. But in his February 2000 letter to the Vatican in support of Day’s canonization, O’Connor contended “that her abortion should not preclude her cause, but intensifies it.” She is a model, he continued, “for women who have had or are considering abortions” because she “regretted” that action “every day of her life.”

Earlier this month, Father James Martin, the Jesuit priest, author, and go-to-guy on Roman Catholicism for Stephen Colbert (Colbert once called him “The Colbert Report chaplain”), reported on “A New Conversation” about Dorothy Day and abortion.

This private conversation with Catholic Worker member Daniel Marshall occurred in 1977 at a farm in Tivoli, New York. According to Marshall:

I seized the opportunity to ask Dorothy to write in the paper about abortion as possibly the central moral issue of our time.  She paused and gently answered, "I don't like to push young people into their sins" . . .

Then Dorothy said, "You know, I had an abortion.  The doctor was fat, dirty and furtive.  He left hastily after it was accomplished, leaving me bleeding.  The daughter of the landlords assisted me and never said a word of it.  He was Emma Goldman's lover; that's why I have never had any use for Emma."

I hung on every word that she said, not only because she was Dorothy, but because, although I had heard a rumor that she had an abortion, I was aware that few people knew of it from her. I understood from Dorothy that she was asking me to comprehend what the consequences would be of a public statement from her on abortion and also that the public consequences might be a distraction from the issue and the cause.  What she thought of abortion was clear as a bell from what she said.

Link (here) to the entire story at CNN

Jesuit High Schools In The Oregon Province Say They Are Not A Part Of Oregon Province

Later this summer, insurers for the Oregon Province will send payments to the trust of nearly $120 million, according to attorneys for the parties.

A last-minute objection to the bankruptcy plan by a lawyer for four high schools -- Beaverton's Jesuit High, Tacoma's Bellarmine Preparatory, Spokane's Gonzaga Preparatory and Seattle Preparatory -- nearly put a halt to today's long-awaited conclusion to the bankruptcy plan.

A lawyer for the schools wanted an agreement written into the plan that would release them from any legal claim that they were part of the Oregon Province. The province and the committee of creditors appointed in the case had recently reached such an agreement with Seattle University. However, the creditors committee argued against the high schools getting the same deal.

Lawyers huddled privately during a break in today's proceedings to reach a compromise: the settlement trust was given a deadline of up to nine months to commence any litigation against the high schools. The trust would also be required to file one lawsuit, and it would be limited to a pair of Portland venues: U.S. District Court or U.S. Bankruptcy Court. 

Link (here) to Oregon Live to read the full story.

Wincing

I winced and thought back to my own years on the Hilltop, when I briefly crossed paths with then-grad student John DeGioia. He was serving, believe it or not, as teaching assistant to Hadley Arkes, the professor whose powerful moral teachings – based on reason, not revelation – led my younger, atheist self to oppose abortion. 

Which only makes things sadder today, because one rather doubts that DeGioia will ever be able to plead invincible ignorance regarding the Church’s moral teachings – teachings which receive scant respect from DeGioia’s supposedly “Catholic and Jesuit” university.

My favorite example on this score is Melissa Bradley, class of ’89, now serving on the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association. While Ms. Martino of Notre Dame merely contributed to EMILY’s List, Ms. Bradley actually serves on the board of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which last year alone poured over $2 million into the election of candidates fighting for same-sex marriage and, of course, abortion. (The Victory Fund explicitly requires every candidate it endorses to “demonstrate support of federal, state or local efforts to safeguard privacy and reproductive rights.”) And that’s just one of Ms. Bradley’s achievements in her spare time. At her day job, she is CEO of the Tides Foundation, a public charity that donates millions to support what Pope John Paul II called the “culture of death.” Among their 2010 grants alone, one finds NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation ($39,385), Center for Reproductive Rights ($12,500), California Latinas for Reproductive Justice ($440,000), Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice ($322,500), etc. etc. 

Link (here) to the full story, Hoyas Whip The Irish at The Catholic Thing

Fr. Sebastien Rasles, S.J. In The Land Of The Illinois Indians

Their rivers are covered with swans, bustards, ducks, and teals. One can scarcely travel a league without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we seen in France. I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair, half a foot in length. Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they kill more than a thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of the latter can often be seen at one view, grazing on the prairies. 

They have a hump on the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled, and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light, that although eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. 

When they have killed a buffalo which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter.

Link (here) to the mentioned portion of the book entitled, The Early Jesuit Missions in North America by William Ingraham Kip

Who is Fr. Sebastien Rasles, S.J.? (here) , (here) and (here)

New Jesuit Priest

Archbishop Wilton Gregory with Fr. Joel Medina, S.J.

As a nurse, Fr. Joel Medina, S.J. treated physical ailments. Now, he wants to treat spiritual ones. After years working in health care, the 56-year-old has traded his scrubs for the collar of a Jesuit priest. “I was interested in serving people,” Medina said. “I felt the call to do that by serving as a priest.” Joel Medina Medina started his career in health care at age 19, working in Jackson as a nursing assistant. He went on to become a registered nurse through Jackson Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit. He then worked about 16 years off and on at the University of Michigan hospital. That all ended nine years ago, when Medina applied to be a Roman Catholic Jesuit and entered The Society of Jesus, Chicago-Detroit Province’s Novitiate at Loyola House in Berkley, Mich. Friends and family said they weren’t surprised by the decision. “We always knew (the priesthood) is where he’d end up,” said Medina’s sister, Linda Berkemeier, 51 of Jackson. “He was sensitive and interested in theology. We were just waiting for him to do it.”

Link (here) to read the full article at  MLive.com

Controversial Fordham University Professor's Unconventional Views On Our Lady

In Truly Our Sister, Elizabeth Johnson reveals that feminists have a grudge against Mary for standing above them as the Virgin Mother of Christ. Johnson, a Sister of St. Joseph who teaches theology at Fordham University, claims that a torrent of hatred for women has resulted from the honor given to Mary. 

But change is coming, she hopes, because devotion to Mary has died out among “hosts” of women and our culture scorns “medieval” faith symbols. Yes, medieval, even though there is evidence that our Lady was evoked in the third century. 

Johnson thinks it is time now to remove such titles as “Mother of mercy” from Mary and give them back to God — “She Who Is,” according to Johnson — and to “reclaim” Mary with “new liberating interpretations.” From now on, God will have “her own maternal face,” and 

Mary will be demoted to the level of other women. 

Accordingly, Johnson depicts Mary as a Galilean drudge and outcast lacking all supernatural privileges, but who is now “truly our sister” because she is no longer honored above other women. 

Link (here) to the full article at New Oxford Review

Chicago Province Jesuits Under Severe Legal Scrutiny

Former Provincial Fr. Robert Wild, S.J.

An Illinois judge sharply criticized the Jesuit order in a ruling issued yesterday for not taking adequate steps to rein in defrocked priest and twice-convicted child molester Donald McGuire, asserting that McGuire was preying on teenage boys "right under the noses" of his superiors and that rules established to protect minors from him were "a sham."

The ruling allows punitive damages to be levied against the Jesuits if they lose a lawsuit over McGuire's four-decade career as a predator priest that is now pending in Cook County Circuit Court. The lawsuit names as a defendant the Chicago Province of the Jesuits, where McGuire was technically based. McGuire -- an eminent Jesuit who served as spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa -- taught at the University of San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, and ministered to Bay Area families extensively throughout the 1990s.

"The court accepts that the Jesuits are a religious order with a rich history of service to the faithful," Judge Jeffrey Lawrence wrote. 

"However, the leaders of the Chicago Province fell far short of this ideal. Plaintiffs have amply demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of proving facts at trial which would support an award of punitive damages."  

The lawsuit is being brought by several victims of McGuire, including one of two boys from Walnut Creek he allegedly molested. The Jesuits had argued that punitive damages should not be permitted in the suit because McGuire's bosses had no way of controlling him and the wayward priest flaunted his order's vows of obedience. But Lawrence, 

noting that the Jesuits received nine "credible" complaints against the priest over 33 years, 

rejected that argument. 

He stated that rules the Jesuits issued forbidding McGuire from ministering to minors were never enforced. "The guidelines they set for him were a sham," 

 he wrote in his ruling. Moreover, Lawrence noted, the Jesuits proactively lied to other church officials about McGuire's troubled past.

Link (here) to read the full article at the San Francisco Weekly.

Link (here) to read an extensive explanation of the sad saga at The Bishop Accountability website

Investigation Started In 2005

A D.C. Jesuit who has served as a national leader on spiritual music and African American worship has been permanently removed from ministry after an investigator concluded that he improperly touched a child in the 1980s. The Rev. J-Glenn Murray was associate pastor at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Northwest Washington when he was removed this month, according to a statement by the regional office of the Jesuits, an order of the Catholic Church.The abuse allegedly took place when Murray worked as a teacher at St. Frances-Charles Hall high school in Baltimore. The school is now called St. Frances Academy.

The accuser first made a complaint in 2005, the statement said, but an initial investigation concluded that the person was not credible. The statement said police told the Jesuits that their investigation was closed because the accuser would not speak with them.

A spokeswoman for the regional office of the Jesuits was not able to say immediately whether the allegation involves more than one incident. The pastor at St. Aloysius declined to comment.

Link (here) to read the full Washington Post article.

Conflicted

Suicide’s legalization has been advocated by prominent professors in Catholic universities including Georgetown, Marquette, Santa Clara, and Boston College. It is a particular irony that the bishops’ statement comes this year, even as the bishops are quietly reviewing the implementation of Vatican guidelines for Catholic higher education in the 1990 constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

The professors’ efforts came to light during a Cardinal Newman Society investigation in 2005, following news reports of a legal brief filed by 55 bioethicists in opposition to “Terri’s Law,” a Florida measure that empowered Gov. Jeb Bush to ensure that the comatose Terri Schiavo received water and nutrition. 

As reported in “Teaching Euthanasia,” an exclusive report in the June 2005 issue of Crisis, multiple professors at Catholic universities had taken positions on end-of-life issues that seemed to conflict with Vatican teaching.

Link (here) to the full article at Crisis Magazine

Catholic Education Tepid In Presenting The Faith In American Society

Fr. John Piderit, S.J.

“For teachers preparing to work in Catholic elementary or high schools, most offer little that is specifically Catholic,” said Jesuit Father John Piderit, president of the Catholic Education Institute, who served as president of Loyola from 1993-2001. “Why is this important for administrators?” asked Father Piderit’s colleague Melanie Morey, senior director of research at the institute. “Every year you bring young faculty into your schools” and they are by and large unprepared to teach specifically as Catholics, she said. That means the task of forming faculty in Catholic teaching methods falls almost entirely upon the shoulders of administrators, the two educators said. Bringing the Catholic faith and the Catholic view of the world and of the human person into the classroom “is adding texture and depth and meaning,” Morey said. Father Piderit and Morey spoke at a seminar for administrators as part of Marin Catholic’s second annual Substantially Catholic Conference, a three-day event presented by the Catholic Education Institute to help Catholic high school teachers and administrators infuse Catholicism across the curriculum and in the school culture. Father Piderit said that when comparing Catholic schools of today with those of 50 years ago, schools are more tepid in presenting the faith even as American society has become more aggressively secular. Some of that can be traced back to departments and schools of education at Catholic colleges and universities which, he said, are so concerned with keeping pace with secular competitors and meeting ever-changing requirements for accreditation, that they are not teaching, or doing research into, ways to present Catholic faith and culture in subjects other than religion.

Link (here) to read the full article at Catholic San Francisco

Black Culture, Fr. J. Glenn Murray, S.J. And Leprosey Of The Soul

Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J.

Jesuit priest James "J-Glenn" Glenn Murray was recently removed from ministry by his provincial after a credible accuser came forward about s@xual impropriety conducted by Fr. Murray. 
You can read about the  specifics  of the case (here).  

Below is an excerpt of a blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. after he attended a Mass presided by Fr. Murray.

I attended the "Black Culture" liturgy, presided over by Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J., a liturgist renowned for his respect for the mass and his challenging depth of insight.  I went mostly to hear what J-Glenn had to say; and he was good, as always. He talked about the angers that we hold on to as a sort of "leprosy of the soul", eating away at us from the inside.  Really good stuff. (Here's some J-Glenn videos I found online.) But looking back, the most profound thing to happen to me at that Mass occurred during the opening procession. Rather than simply processing in, first the deacon holding aloft the book of the Gospels and

then J-Glenn actually danced up the central aisle, their movement a steady sway to the rhythm combined with fantastic 360 degree spins akin to a child imagining he is a soaring plane.  It was those spins that got me, the relish of it, the sense of a joy so wonderful 

it has to be delighted in, expressed.  More than any words could, they drew me into the Mass as a moment of celebration.  

Link (here) to the lengthy blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. at his blog entitled, Gone Walkabout.

Dancing With Their Smoking Bowls Of Incense During A Children’s Grade School Mass

Fr. J Glenn Murray, SJ. is a Jesuit liturgist and here’s his bio.   “J Glenn” specializes in African-American worship,..........He was Director for the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Cleveland from 1995 to 2007.  That’s the same diocese where the bishop (Bishop Pilla) resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, where the rainbow flag/colors have adorned their G@y & L@sbian Family Ministry website and where they supported dissident organizations like Future Church with office space in a rectory basement through 2006.  But I digress… Fr. Murray himself created a stir in 2003 by issuing new directives in the Cleveland diocese for how Catholics were to receive communion. An article in the August 24, 2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer that extensively quoted Fr. Murray said, “American Catholics are about to experience major changes in the Communion rite as dioceses begin implementing updated General Instruction of the Roman Missal.”   The only problem is that Fr. Murray’s changes were NOT actually what the GIRM called for. Among his changes were:

• the congregation using the “orans” posture during the Lord’s prayer (this means hands raised as only the priest does)
• embracing fellow worshippers during the exchange of the sign of peace
• “ undoing a lifetime of tradition by not kneeling in prayer after Communion.  Instead, in a sign of the communal nature of the sacrament, worshippers will stand and sing until each person has received Communion.”

Fr. Murray acknowledged the changes would “unsettle many Catholics” but said, “”I think it’s a vast improvement.”

Adoremus summarizes the situation and response. Here are a few excerpts:

These changes were advocated by some liturgists  a few years ago — a revision that was eventually rejected by the Holy See….[and] never approved by the bishops. And they were neither included in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the universal Church, nor in the ‘American adaptations’ of the GIRM.

Cardinal Arinze, then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, even was asked to weigh-in, and he said:

Earlier, similar responses from the Vatican made it clear that changing customary kneeling to standing was not intended; indeed was ‘laudably retained’.

Adoremus concluded:

The liturgy office in the Cleveland diocese (and several others) is mandating changes that are neither specified nor mandated in the norms for the universal Church or for the US Church. Far from promoting unity, the effect of mandating these deviations from the customary practice in the Catholic Church in the United States is literally divisive — dividing one diocese from another, one parish from another, one Catholic from another.

Besides having no basis whatsoever to change the Cleveland liturgy, he is also a fan of liturgical dance. In this 2004 report, Fr. Murray was seen “accompanied by scantily clad liturgical dancers in black skimpy costumes dancing with their smoking bowls of incense during a children’s grade school Mass.”  He was at the same Religious Ed conference in Los Angeles where Fr. Tim Radcliffe talked about g@y novels and movies. Fr. Murray led a “Black Culture” liturgy:

Beginning with a bongo drum sequence and featuring black Gospel singers dressed in native African costumes, the event featured Jesuit Father J. Glenn Murray…He concluded his homily by leading a hand-clapping rendition of “Can’t Nobody Do Ya Like Jesus,” and dancing all around the stage, with Cardinal Mahony, from his presider’s chair, clapping along with the crowd.

Murray left Cleveland in 2007 after Bishop Richard Lennon arrived in 2006 and started cleaning house.

Link (here) to read the full blog post at Bryan Hehir Exposed

Going Over A Cliff With Fr. Breaux

When I was a young seeker, at age 14, a most enlightened Jesuit priest encouraged me to throw all belief out the door, question everything, find out for myself. This was not how I’d been taught religion or belief – up to that point it had been rote memorization and coerced belief backed by threat of punishment. 

What Fr. Breaux did was certainly not in the objectives of the Jesuit organization, which was to turn out well educated, strong men. Men who were good Catholics. Perhaps Fr. Breaux saw that in the long run, strength of spirituality is the most desired state, no matter the religious affiliation of the person. 

I am forever grateful to him. He gave me permission to explore and come up with the best spiritual way for me. He gave me permission to follow the path no matter where it leads, even if it’s off a cliff!

Link (here) to read the blog post at the blog called McJeff's and all about the cliff

Jesuit Archbishop's War Time Diary

Archbishop James T.G. Hayes, S.J.

A Jesuit missionary in Cagayan de Oro City kept a diary of the Japanese war in northern Mindanao. For security, he excluded personal names, but he could not pass over the "terrible days during the occupation, during the puppet Republic of the Japs." It covers a period of three years less three months, but here we cite only a few passages of the lengthy manuscript. Without any provocation or "just cause," the Japanese attacked the Philippines. On Jan. 2, 1942, Manila fell. Bishop James T. G. Hayes, S. J. of Cagayan left his convento and the cathedral for a safer place chosen by the commanding officer of the USAFFE. He left as vicar in charge of the diocese a Filipino Jesuit, the author of this diary.

An excerpt of that diary.

A Filipino Jesuit missionary went to Dansalan to minister to the people there. On July 1, 19__, guerrillas attacked the barracks the Japanese had built in the town. The missionary hid in a foxhole, but the Japanese caught him. They tied him up for interrogation. Many times, the poor missionary had to raise his voice and weep loudly as a little boy, according to a Filipino caught with him. They slapped him, kicked him from head to foot, hit every part of his body, and clubbed his shoulders.

Link (here) to read the article at Business World

Jesuit's Premier Educational Institution To Hold Important Symposium

Monsignor Charles Scicluna

The Vatican said Saturday it is working to give bishops information on the best ways to combat clergy sex abuse, teaming up with the Jesuit university in Rome to host a major symposium on abuse and launch an Internet learning center for follow-up guidance. The Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna told Vatican Radio the symposium is intended to send a very strong signal of determination, born of the Pope's own determination to look the sin and crime of pedophilia in the face, while at the same time affirming that we must be able to give a clear, credible, firm and effective response to this problem within the Church.. The symposium next February will draw experts in psychiatry, church law, sociology and child protection programs to the Pontifical Gregorian University for three days of meetings and workshops with 200 bishops and religious superiors.

Link (here) to read the full USA Today article.
Link (here) to a similar story in the New York Times. 
The Catholic News Agency on the same subject (here)

Flashback 1928: Assassin Breaks Into The Jesuit House In Rome

Jesuit Curia in Rome

A friend of Signor Benito Mussolini dating from before his rise to power is the learned Jesuit scholar, Father Tacchi-Venturi of Rome. He persuaded Il Duce some years ago to present a State collection of ancient religious books to the Vatican. Generally it is known that Father Tacchi-Venturi has since been the chief intermediary between his Great & Good Friend and Pope Pius XI in recent attempts to negotiate a settlement of the Roman Question (TIME, Feb. 13). Last week a paper knife entered the flesh of Jesuit Tacchi-Venturi amid dramatic circumstances. To the House of the Jesuits at Rome there had come and yanked the ancient bellpull a decently dressed youth who announced himself as Signor De Angelis. He must, he said, he must make an important confession to good Father Tacchi-Venturi. The porter, rubbing sleepy eyes, told the youth that his desired confessor was immersed in study, could not be disturbed.

Next day Signor De Angelis returned, yanked the bell still more violently, and prevailed upon the porter to usher him into the Jesuit's study. Father Tacchi-Venturi, upon raising his eyes from his papers, saw a pale, demented face and a hand which grasped a slender, dagger-like paper knife. Quick, the assassin sprang. Quicker, the Jesuit dodged. As a result the knife barely lacerated the neck skin of Father Tacchi-Venturi. 

Meanwhile the sleepy porter had valorously collared Signor De Angelis. The incident closed when Father Tacchi-Venturi's neck was neatly bound up at the Santo Spirito Hospital. Later, seated in an armchair, he received a visit of condolence from Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, suave Papal Secretary of State.

Link (here) to read the Time Magazine article.

Happy Father's Day

THE LIFE OF CHRIST OUR LORD FROM TWELVE TO THIRTY YEARS 

 St. Luke writes in the second Chapter [51, 52].

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; 

and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and 

age and favor before God and man.

First Point. 

He was obedient to His parents:  

“He advanced in wisdom, age and grace.”

Second Point. 

He exercised the trade of carpenter, as St. Mark shows he means  in the sixth chapter. 

“‘Perhaps this is that carpenter? ‘"

Link (here)

The True End Of Man

The earth, a comparatively small region of the solar system, is man's temporary habitation, the place, in which his life is originated, developed and completed. But what is the task which he is expected to accomplish during his brief sojourn in the present world? God creates nothing without a purpose or end. 

If His own rational creatures do nothing without some object or design, the same must, with far greater reason, be said of the infinite Creator, who could not make man, the crown and complement of creation, without a wise purpose, so that human existence might not be useless, so to speak, and meaningless. 

No necessity whatever pressed God to create the world, or man its inhabitant, for the infinitely perfect Being stands in need of nothing external to Himself. But when He once decreed to create, it was necessary that He should wish to attain by creation an end worthy of Himself. Such is evidently the postulate demanded by His infinite wisdom. Intending to speak further on of God's purpose in the creation of the universe, we ask now what is the end for which God made man?

Link (here) to read the mentioned portion of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.

Removed From Ministry

Fr. Glenn Murray, S.J.

The Society of Jesus has removed Fr. Glenn Murray, S.J., from the Ministry. Murray taught at Gonzaga from 1974 to 1976. Most recently, he was an assistant pastor at St. Aloysius Parish but wasn’t a staffer or part of the faculty at Gonzaga. There have been no reports of inappropriate conduct while Murray was at Gonzaga or St. Aloysius Parish.  

“I presume to take this occasion to assure all members of the Gonzaga community of our deep commitment to the safety and well-being of our students and all minors,” 

said Rev. Joseph E. Lingan, S.J., president of Gonzaga College High School. “I ask you to join in praying for the healing of the young person, now an adult, who came forward and for all those who are affected by this sad matter.”

Link (here) to the full story at WJLA

Man Can Become The Author And Maker Of His Own Everlasting Bliss

The Lord's promise registered in the Apocalypse (11,10), '' Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life," points out to us all our sublime earthly task in the clearest language.

Whoever fails to merit God's remunerative crown will fall into the hands of His punitive justice, the awful lot which the sinner himself freely and deliberately chooses. 

As it is stated in several parts of this work, the final decision as to the place where eternity is to be spent lies in the power and will of man himself—either eternal happiness or eternal misery, either heaven or hell. Such is the choice which he must make before departing from this world. With the help of divine grace, which is granted to all in answer to prayer, man can become the author and maker of his own everlasting bliss. No one will be reckoned among the elect unless he deserves this lot by his own earnest efforts. On the other hand, no one will be counted among the reprobates unless he brought upon himself that greatest of evils, the loss of celestial bliss. In the light of eternity our temporal life acquires a value and a significance which are truly astounding, nay, overwhelming.

Either man chooses the arduous and steep path of virtue, which leads to heavenly happiness, or runs headlong on the broad way of sin, which brings him to perdition, that is, everlasting misery. 

This is the alternative presented to all by Jesus Christ in His Gospel. Here there is no neutral ground for us to stand upon, for He tells us: "He that is not with Me is against Me." No mortal that has reached the use of reason can evade this dreadful alter

Link (here) to the position of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.
 

The Rest Of Us Who Escaped Abortion.

Theologically, we wonder about the ultimate status of these aborted children. They are created in and for the exact same eternal destiny as the rest of us who escaped abortion. As far as I know, no country has yet permitted the erection of a monument to aborted babies, at least to acknowledge their humanity, though I believe several have been proposed.  

Christians naturally associate this slaughter of the unborn with the Holy Innocents who were killed after Christ's birth. Though these latter were already born, Christians associate the killing of these innocent babies before they ever have a chance in the world with those killed by Herod who was trying to eliminate the Messiah, conceived as a threat to himself. 

Sometimes, when we look at the vehemence and dishonesty with which the abortion movements and procedures have taken place both in practice and in law, we cannot help but wonder if there is not something diabolical about it, something that does in fact relate to the birth of the Messiah as a human child among us. 

Link (here) to read the full blog post by Fr. James Schall, S.J. at Ignatius Insight

Controversial Fordham Professor On The Trinity

The feminist theologian Saint Joseph Sister Elizabeth Johnson says, “I would not be at all adverse if we simply dropped the word ‘Trinity,’”
Link (here) to read the full article by James Hitchcock entitled, The Failure of Liberal Catholicism

The Jesuit Is No Dreamer: He Is Emphatically A Man Of Action; Action Is The End Of His Existence.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

It was an evil day for new-born Protestantism when a French artilleryman fired the shot that struck down Ignatius Loyola in the breach of Pampeluna. A proud noble, an aspiring soldier, a graceful courtier, an ardent and daring gallant was metamorphosed by that stroke into the zealot whose brain engendered and brought forth the mighty Society of Jesus. 

His story is a familiar one, — how, in the solitude of his sick-room, a change came over him, upheaving, like an earthquake, all the forces of his nature; how, in the cave of Manresa, the mysteries of Heaven were revealed to him; how he passed from agonies to transports, from transports to the calm of a determined purpose. The soldier gave himself to a new warfare. In the forge of his great intellect, heated, but not disturbed by the intense fires of his zeal, was wrought the prodigious enginery whose power has been felt to the uttermost confines of the world.

Loyola's training had been in courts and camps; of books he knew little or nothing. He had lived in the unquestioning faith of one born and bred in the very focus of Romanism; and thus, at the age of about thirty, Ins conversion found him. It was a change of life and purpose, not of belief. He presumed not to inquire into the doctrines of the Church. 

It was for him to enforce those doctrines; and to this end he turned all the faculties of his potent intellect, and all his deep knowledge of mankind. He did not aim to build up barren communities of secluded monks, aspiring to heaven through prayer, penance, and meditation, but to subdue the world to the dominion of the dogmas which had subdued him; 

to organize and discipline a mighty host, controlled by one purpose and one mind, fired by a quenchless zeal or nerved by a fixed resolve, yet impelled, restrained, and directed by a single master hand. The Jesuit is no dreamer: he is emphatically a man of action; action is the end of his existence. 

Link (here) to read the mentioned passage of the book entitled, Francis Parkman's Works
Who is Francis Parkman? (here) 

Georgetown University Receives Thousands Of Dollars From Multinational Islamic Organization

Georgetown's John Esposito

Georgetown University has some explaining to do based on documents obtained exclusively by PJM from a confidential law enforcement source. The documents reveal a scheme to pass $325,000 through the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been identified by the FBI as a front for the Hamas terrorist organization. 

The money was paid to Georgetown by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to promote its “Islamophobia” agenda, which includes its stated international objective of criminalizing any criticism of Islam. 

Even more troubling: evidence that Georgetown is not the only American university to cooperate with CAIR and the OIC in their joint plan to subvert the First Amendment right to free speech. The plot was apparently initiated in 2006 by discussions between the OIC, CAIR, and Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU). An email dated November 20, 2006, sent from OIC permanent observer to the UN Abdul Wahab to Nihad Awad and Hadia Mubarak — a CAIR board member and Georgetown CMCU “senior researcher” — urged them to expedite arrangements. The email also promised that funds would be transferred to Georgetown as soon as the OIC received a letter from John Esposito, director of Georgetown’s CMCU.

Link (here) to the lengthy article and back story at Pajamas Media 
Link (here) to Jihad Watch

Jesuit Urban Center Again

Four years ago, a methodical search for a new place of worship led a group of g@y Roman Catholics to the Rev. John Unni, the youthful priest at St. Cecilia’s Church. The search committee was blunt: Would the priest accept an influx of gay and lesbian parishioners? “He told us, ‘All are welcome,’ ’’ said John Kelly, now head of the St. Cecilia Rainbow Ministry. 

Kelly and other parishioners credit Unni with managing the merger of the predominantly g@y congregation from the Jesuit Urban Center, which closed in 2007, 

and with keeping ga@s and les@ians in the Catholic Church, despite the uneasy balance between the church’s message of love for all and its strict doctrine against g@y relations.

Link (here) to the full article at Boston.com