TWILIGHT ZONE
***Catholic Herald Advertises Dissenter!
The June 30-July13 issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald carried an ad for a free lecture by Sr. Sandra Schneiders, IHM at the Washington Theological Union (WTU). Schneiders is a long-time dissenter from Catholic teaching and a well-known radical feminist. Donna Steichen exposed her in the 1992 book, Ungodly Rage. She was a leader in the assault on the faith by Catholic feminists, mostly nuns, “reimaging” the Church to meet their perverted feminist interpretation. Schneiders, a plenary session speaker at Call to Action’s 1995 convention, is among the most zealous of the betrayers. Mary Jo Anderson described Schneider’s talk and the closing Mass: All of Scripture is recast to fit feminist theology, complete with sacred sodomy, in a bare hour's time. Some samples: "God is more than two men and a bird"; "Not only Christ the King, but Jesus the Mother hen"; "Scripture is violently sexist - the problem is in the texts"; "we reject a woman made from man, subject to man, responsible for his sin"; "terror texts (Judges 19) paralyze women"; "the Bible becomes its own critic disallowing all texts that contradict the message of liberation"; "Jesus is a Sophia Incarnation." The concluding "mass" is too painful for these pages. It is enough to report that only at the words of consecration did a man appear on the "altar." Bishop Gumbleton strode to the table in his street clothes and spoke the words to "The Ultimate One." Only women were vested. Peasant bread was blessed and made available at the isle terminus for communicants to break off and pass back to the next in line.
This is the idea of “church” envisioned by Schneiders and her pals. In 2000 sixteen of them issued the Madeleva Manifesto which called for “far-reaching transformation of church and society.” They called on women to “carry forward the mission of ‘gospel feminism’” saying, “The way things are now is not the design of God.” What is the design of God? Approval of women’s ordination, abortion, contraception, new age practices, homosexuality, rewriting Scripture to eliminate male pronouns, “problem texts” (i.e., those that conflict with their approved immorality), eliminating the male priesthood altogether to be replaced by the “priesthood of all believers,” etc. Schneiders has been one a zealous faith wreckers. She went into attack mode during the recent apostolic visitation of religious orders with a five-part series in the dissent rag, the National Catholic Reporter. In a personal email she called the visitation “aggressive and dishonest” and a “hostile move.” To advertise this heretical nun in the Arlington Herald is a real head-shaker!
***Celebration Time!
There’s good news too though. WTU is folding in 2013 for lack of funds. Elderly dissenters like Schneiders just don’t have the same selling power these days. Good riddance and good-bye!
***Free Pass for Abortion-Paying Priest
Barcelona Cardinal Archbishop Lluís Martínez Sistach has said he will take no action against Fr. Manel Pousa who paid for two women to have abortions and blesses same-sex unions. Father also rejects celibacy but claims to have a platonic relationship with his “girlfriend” and endorses women priests. According to news reports, the CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) said Fr. Pousa did not incur the automatic excommunication over the abortions. If that’s true, what, pray tell, constitutes cooperation in moral evil? Many were concerned when Archbishop William Levada took over at CDF and this case certainly justifies that concern. Fr. Pousa is clearly not in line with the mind of Holy Mother Church. That he gets a free pass for his complicity in abortion and continues to scandalize with his public dissent from Church teachings is enough to chill the hearts of faithful laity in the pew. No wonder there are so few vocations to the priesthood and so many good priests taking off to “discern.”
***Swedish pre-school bans “he” & “she”
The madness continues over gender correctness. A pre-school in Sweden has banned masculine and feminine pronouns replacing them with a made-up word that means either male or female. They’ve also hired a “gender pedagogue” to make sure staff members cooperate with the insanity. But the goofiness isn’t restricted to one pre-school in Sweden. There’s a website called “My Princess Boy” about a mom whose 5-year-old son likes to dress in tutus and fairy wings and girly clothing. She must be buying it for him because his only other sibling is a brother. Any normal parent would be concerned about the sexual confusion of this child, but his mom affirms it and apparently Dad goes along. Then there’s the couple in Toronto raising their baby in a “gender-free” environment where they will not even tell the little one (or other people) whether he or she is a boy or a girl. [Seriously!] They want the baby to be free to choose to be -- whatever. Talk about a sick experiment! Those parents need their heads examined. But that’s what happens in the culture of death. People first lose their minds and then are in grave danger of losing their souls. Pray for a return to God.
***Bet the Devil Loves This Evil Lottery!
Guess what’s being raffled off in the U.K. -- IVF treatments, dubbed by media as the “win a baby” game. Here’s what Reuters says about it: Every month, winners can scoop 25,000 pounds' ($40,175) worth of tailor-made treatments at one of the UK's top five fertility clinics for the price of a 20 pound ticket bought online. The tickets may eventually be sold in [newsstands]. The lottery is open to single, gay and elderly players [our emphasis] as well as heterosexual couples struggling to start a family… Winners will be put up in a luxury hotel before being chauffeur-driven to a treatment center. They will also get a mobile phone and a personal assistant to help with queries. This item proves, once again, that the road to hell is lined with luxury, limos, and Lucifer’s lackeys. How many of the “win a baby” game winners will notice that they’re really losers in a land of lunacy? [Talk about treating babies like high-priced doll objects!]
At their June meeting in Seattle, the U.S. bishops issued a “Statement of Episcopal Commitment” expanding the Dallas Charter adopted in 2002 to themselves. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing in reality. So why do it? The cynic might call it a PR move. After all, the bishops have been roundly criticized for throwing their priests and the laity under the bus over the sex abuse scandal while taking no responsibility for their own actions and inaction. In the new statement, they say they will “apply the requirements of the Charter also to themselves, respecting always Church law as it applies to bishops. Therefore, if a bishop is accused of the sexual abuse of a minor, the accused bishop is obliged to inform the Apostolic Nuncio.” Sounds good, eh? But as Chris Manion points out in his Wanderer column, “Bishop Bruskewitz repeatedly point[ed] out that ‘the USCCB bureaucracy cannot bind bishops to obey the Charter. USCCB members cannot bind themselves to obey the Charter. It is fundamentally dishonest to tell the faithful and the general public that the USCCB has any authority whatsoever to bind dioceses/eparchies to obey the Charter.’” The USCCB has NO AUTHORITY over any bishop. [Zilch, nada, none!] Each bishop governs in his own diocese - for better or worse.
Bishop Bruskewitz offered 26 amendments to the statement and all were rejected. He is the USCCB’s whipping boy, the only bishop ever publicly chastised by the USCCB bureaucracy. Child Protection Chairman, Patricia Ewers called for “fraternal correction” from his brother bishops because Bruskewitz refused to cooperate with her audits. Yet, Bishop Bruskewitz has one of the best vocation records in the country and, as Manion points out, his own way of enforcing proper actions toward minors. “Instead of depending on the Charter’s endless procedures and new bureaucracies, he has focused on substance. He tells his priests, ‘If you want me to visit you in prison, touch.’” Les Femmes lifts our glass of lemonade to a great bishop whose common sense is anathema to Church bureaucrats and some of his worldly confreres.
***Persecution of Christian Truth Tellers
Les Femmes has frequently reported on the persecution of pro-lifers working in health care. But their cases will likely be dwarfed by the persecution of those daring to defend traditional marriage against “gay” activists. In California “gays” boycotted businesses and got people fired for supporting Proposition 8 defending traditional marriage. A Catholic Canadian sports broadcaster, Damian Goddard, was fired within 24 hours of tweeting on his personal account that he supported a hockey agent who expressed regret over a player’s affirmation of “gay marriage.” The agent lost at least one client for his politically incorrect act. Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar resigned as chef de mission for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team after “gay” activists attacked him for his support of Prop 8. Carrie Prejean sank her chances to win Miss USA in 2009 when she didn’t jump on the “gay” marriage bandwagon in her response to a question by openly “gay” judge, Perez Hilton. Others who have lost jobs for supporting traditional marriage: a hostess at an L.A. Mexican restaurant, a Sacramento theatre director, and the director of the L.A. Film Festival. “Gays” have even organized boycotts against companies with one employee who donated to Prop 8. But even worse….
***Defend Traditional Marriage, You Die!
James Bopp, a lawyer with the James Madison Center, recently asked a federal court in Tacoma, Washington to redact the names and addresses of 138,000 residents who signed a 2009 petition to repeal a law giving the same legal rights to same-sex couples as those in traditional marriages. While petitions are generally open to the public, Bopp provided evidence of death threats and vandalism by “gay” activists against those who oppose same-sex marriage. Among letters and emails traditional marriage supporters have received are these: “I will kill you and your family.” “I am going to kill the pastor.” "You're dead. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon … you're dead." The filing points out that “gays” want the names and addresses of signers to engage in intimidation. “In an obvious attempt to dissuade people from signing the…petition, two homosexual advocacy groups – Massachusetts-based KnowThyNeighbor.org and Washington-based WhoSigned.org – announced their intentions to obtain the identities of every person who signed the petition; to publicly expose the persons on their respective web sites; and to make their web sites 'accessible and searchable.'” In other words, they will persecute and harass anyone who obstructs their agenda.
The tactics of these “gay” activists resembles those used by the KKK to intimidate blacks from going to the polls. So while “gays” demand state recognition of anal sex as a civil right equal to marital relations, many are eager to deny the constitutional right of opponents to free speech. If you want to see how far their intimidation can go, read When the Wicked Seize a City by Protestant minister Chuck McIlhenny and his wife Donna describing the “gay” takeover of San Francisco and personal attacks on their family which included death threats, vandalism, obscene phone calls, threats against their children, and a nighttime firebomb. Those that believe pacifying the gay community and enabling their depravity will bring peace are in for a rude awakening. As the McIlhennys warn, “What happened to us in San Francisco is coming your way, sooner or later, unless pastors and lay leaders wake up to their calling and take a stand for righteousness in their own communities….The homosexual movement is coming after your right to free speech, to religious freedom, and, most importantly, after your public school children through homosexual recruitment programs disguised as ‘safe sex’ and/or AIDS education classes, alternative lifestyle classes, or through counseling services for teens run exclusively by gays and lesbians. And, no, your private Christian school will not be spared if anti-discrimination/sexual orientation ordinances are passed in your community….The big question is: what will your church do when the wicked attempt to seize your city?” Good question.
***Despite the bad news, a positive sign!
Two million U.S. children are now home schooled, one in every 25 students, and numbers are likely to explode as early home schoolers marry and begin raising their own children. And who’s having children? You got it. Home schooling studies show larger families, three or more. Never lose heart. Pray and raise Catholic warriors!
Stop the cover-up! Spread the word. Go to http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/start/