TWILIGHT ZONE

***Fr. Pfleger Self-Destructs! Fr. Michael Pfleger, the bad-boy priest of St. Sabina’s in Chicago, thumbed his nose at his boss once too often. After saying on a national radio program that he would leave the Church rather than accept reassignment, his bishop, Cardinal Francis George, suspended him. The faithful who’ve watched his antics over the years are cheering. Pfleger supports abortion, was an outspoken advocate for Obama, promotes homosexuality, and is a radical liberal. His philosophy is anything but Catholic. On May 10th Pfleger threatened that if Cardinal George didn’t lift his suspension by the next weekend, he would begin preaching in other churches. [Hey, showmen can’t live without an audience!] As we go to press the soap opera continues. What next?

Other priests who’ve gone the Fr. Pfleger route show what may happen. Fr. George Stallings was a schismatic priest who left the Church in 1989 and formed the Imani Temple, an independent black church in D.C. He declared that his new church supported abortion, birth control, divorce, women priests, and homosexuality. His defiance resulted in excommunication, but later the breakaway sect, the Independent Old Catholic Church, made him a bishop. Stallings continues to run Imani Temple in D.C. and has started others in several places. Then there’s Fr. Jim Callan who was doing his own thing in Rochester at Corpus Christi. He “concelebrated” Mass with a woman, blessed same-sex unions, welcomed Protestants to Communion, and engaged in other heretical acts. He was removed in 1998 and a year later left to form his own congregation, Spiritus Christi. He was excommunicated also. There’s a boring sameness to heretic-priests. Like the first rebel they declare “I will not serve!” and make their dissent public whether it’s nailing their demands to the door of the church, going on Oprah, or talking to the local paper. They go off to do their own thing separated from the rock of Peter. And they take people with them, those who follow the cult of personality rather than the truths of the faith. What will Fr. Pfleger do? We’ll see soon enough, but it’s likely he’ll leave.

***Planned Parenthood and the Big Lie! You’ve heard it all before. Planned Parenthood (PP) promises that sex ed and birth control will: 1) make all babies wanted, 2) eliminate unsafe abortions, 3) reduce teen pregnancy, 4) reduce STDs, 5) guarantee you’ll win the lottery. [Oops…nix 5!] The reality is a little different, though, as the liars at PP are well aware. A few facts: Sex ed, contraception (including abortifacients like the morning after pill - MAP), etc. are more widespread than ever. In fact, MAP is available to 17-year-old minors over the counter. In the U.K. it’s even free. What’s the result? Studies show a drastic increase, yes INCREASE, in STDs. Kids are having more sex, presumably with multiple partners. The U.K.’s Daily Mail quoted Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust saying, “International research has consistently failed to find any evidence that emergency birth control schemes achieve a reduction in teenage conception and abortion rates….But now we have evidence showing that not only are such schemes failing to do any good, but they may in fact be doing harm.” [Duh…that’s what we’ve said for years!]

In fact, more birth control = more sex = more pregnancies and more STDs. And, of course, more money for PP. If PP’s strategy worked, there would be no abused children because every child would be a wanted child, etc., etc. [Just listen to their propaganda which hasn’t changed in 50 years.] The fact is that when you teach people to abuse children before birth, child abuse after birth is more likely. If it’s okay in the 9th month to stab a baby in the neck and suck out his brains, why not shake him to death two days later if he won’t stop crying! Taxpayer funding of PP must stop!

***More Lies from Planned Parenthood… Condoms are PP’s magic bullet. Their website states “facts” including that latex condoms “Prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection.” That’s a half truth at best. Some STDs are transmitted, not by fluid exchange, but by skin to skin contact. Condoms can reduce, but not prevent, those STDs. Chlamydia is by far the most common and also a silent desease which can destroy a woman’s fertility without her ever experiencing a symptom. Here’s what the Center for Disease Control says, “If untreated, chlamydial infections can progress to serious reproductive and other health problems with both short-term and long-term consequences. Like the disease itself, the damage that chlamydia causes is often ‘silent.’ In women, untreated infection can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This happens in about 10 to 15 percent of women with untreated chlamydia. Chlamydia can also cause fallopian tube infection without any symptoms. PID and ‘silent’ infection in the upper genital tract can cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues. The damage can lead to chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterus). Chlamydia may also increase the chances of becoming infected with HIV, if exposed.” The CDC recommends annual testing for the sexually active in non-monogamous relationships. [How many teenagers will get tested if they have no symptoms? Get real! Many teenage girls will be permanently sterile because they believed PP’s lie that condoms are their salvation?]

***How Many Genders? In Australia 23! “Down under” describes Australia because it’s in the southern hemisphere and most countries are above it on the globe. But we suggest a new meaning for the popular colloquialism – as in waaaay down under the norm for both intelligence and common sense. Why pick on Australia? The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a government agency, now declares there are some 23 “genders” out there in the bush. God made man, “male and female,” but AHRC knows better. Not only is man made LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer), but also intersex, trans, transsexual, androgynous, agender, cross dresser, drag king, drag queen, [Whew, take a break!] genderfluid, genderqueer, intergender, neutrois, pansexual, pan-gendered, third gender, third sex, sistergirl and brotherboy. [Yikes! This sounds like a joke!] Does anybody know what all those “genders” mean? Heck no! But they represent lots of special interests who can claim government aid. After all, if you’re a man trapped in a woman’s body (or vice-versa), you can demand surgical alteration at taxpayer expense, right? As for plain old male and female folk … just pony up to pay for it all.

***POLST: Hurry Up and Die Already! Are you familiar with the POLST document? The acronym stands for Physician’s Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment. POLST, an “advanced care planning document,” follows the patient from one medical setting to another outlining medical treatment (or non-treatment). Supporters claim POLST ensures self-determination, but some euthanasia watchdogs see it as one more way to pressure patients to accept an early imposed death. Whenever the patient’s situation changes he gets another interview about treatment options. Are you sure you want food? How about water? Antibiotics? You don’t want artificial tube feeding, right? Wouldn’t you rather just use pain meds? [Hmm…sound like Obama’s death panels?]

According to Ione Whitlock at LifeTree.org, POLST “owes its existence…to Oregon’s experiment with health care rationing….POLST grew out of an effort in the late 1980s by Portland area hospital ethics committees (not patients)…to limit ‘futile treatments.’ Eventually ethicists came up with a document that would discourage providers and patients from requesting treatments that were ‘not medically indicated’ – i.e., treatments not considered appropriate by a panel of ‘experts.’” [Like the experts who defended killing Terri Schiavo by starvation and dehydration even though the brain-damaged woman was not terminally ill or dying?] One of POLST’s early funders was, [guess who], George Soros who ignored his dad on his deathbed and offered to help his mom commit suicide, although, in the end, she decided against it.

Whitlock calls POLST “a process” document rather than a legal document. It is often filled out by social workers and counselors. The form has places for multiple interviews and a decision made one day, for example to choose hydration, can be eliminated by a “clarification” with another interview the next. In some regions no signatures are required on the document by the doctor, the patient, or a proxy. POLST is particularly dangerous, according to Whitlock, because it “creates an illusion of ‘self-determination’ while fostering consensus ethics.” Whitlock goes on to say, “ It is vague as a legal document, and the iterative, goal-oriented process is designed to reduce the use of what some ethicists call ‘inappropriate’ treatments, but what others may call ordinary and life-enhancing.” POLST appears to be just one more way to cut costs and convince patients to let ethics boards and hospitals hasten their deaths while leading them to believe they are in the driver’s seat. Let the buyer beware!

***Are Catholic Social Justice Bureaucrats really Catholic? If you were looking for evidence of it you’d be hard-pressed to find any. In 2006, The Roundtable, an association of diocesan social justice directors and directors of Catholic charities featured neo-Malthusian population controller Jeffrey Sachs at their meeting in San Francisco. Sachs advocates eliminating poverty by eliminating the children of the poor through birth control and abortion. His talk was so popular that a year later The Roundtable featured Sachs’ book, The End of Poverty, for their fifth annual book discussion. Time for the bishops to investigate and clean house. No wonder charity money goes to help kill children!

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