An All Too Familiar Tune

By MIKE MANNO

A new drama is being played out in a federal courtroom near the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid, Ohio, that has all the notes we’ve heard sung before: “In the name of toleration you can’t practice your belief.”
The story is simply a remake of stories we hear from all parts of the nation. A local city, town, school board — you pick the place — has decided that if you cannot support and embrace the new political morality that rejects traditional concepts of marriage and gender, you must be bad and need to be silenced or put out of business.
The victim this time is a school, The Lyceum, which is described as “a classical religious school.” The city, as other cities, towns, school boards, and so on across the country have done, passed an ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on religion, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Gender is defined as “actual or perceived sex.” The ordinance applies to all public accommodations.
Now The Lyceum: The word itself refers to a classical educational system, and it is a Catholic school that, according to its petition to the court, “believes that a classical Catholic liberal arts education enables a person to seek the light of truth, especially ‘the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ’.” In keeping with its religious tradition, the school’s curriculum is ordered by its study of theology which is “based on the Holy Scriptures, Catholic Tradition, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, the Church Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, and Catholic authors.”
Thus the school upholds traditional Catholic values, including those based on the Church’s teachings on marriage, sexual identity, and sexual ethics. The Lyceum will not accept students who, along with their parents, reject Church teachings on “marriage as the union of one man and one women, sexual identity, and sexual ethics.”
In its court filing it further states that “The Lyceum will not permit employees, students, or parents or guardians to join or remain part of the school community if they wish to adopt a gender identity at variance with their sex…[and it] will not permit sex-specific facilities to be accessed by members of the opposite sex, regardless of gender identity.”
When the city drafted its legislation it originally included an exception for religious institutions. That provision, however, was removed by the city council before final passage. So the question for the school to answer was whether the newly passed ordinance applied to it as a public accommodation. So the school asked the city.
There was no response. … Continue Reading

He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid

Matthew 28:

28 And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.

² And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

³ And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow.

⁴ And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men.

⁵ And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

⁶ He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid.

⁷ And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen: and behold he will go before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Lo, I have foretold it to you.

⁸ And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples.

⁹ And behold Jesus met them, saying: All hail. But they came up and took hold of his feet, and adored him.

¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me.

¹¹ Who when they were departed, behold some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done.

¹² And they being assembled together with the ancients, taking counsel, gave a great sum of money to the soldiers,

¹³ Saying: Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep.

¹⁴ And if the governor shall hear this, we will persuade him, and secure you.

¹⁵ So they taking the money, did as they were taught: and this word was spread abroad among the Jews even unto this day.

¹⁶ And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

¹⁷ And seeing him they adored: but some doubted.

¹⁸ And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

Recall Cartoonist’s Fanciful Distractions?. . . U.S. Being Run Like A Crazy Rube Goldberg Machine

By DEXTER DUGGAN

Younger folks may be unfamiliar with the term, but beginning in the early twentieth century, a “Rube Goldberg machine” meant, as Wikipedia describes it, a series of simple devices that create a domino effect — sometimes including real dominoes — in which each device triggers the next one, achieving a basic goal only after complicated steps.
Goldberg, a cartoonist and inventor, produced hilarious drawings of how the insanely fanciful devices would work.
Activating his self-operating napkin, for instance, began with a diner raising a spoon to his mouth, which pulled a string that jerked a ladle that threw a cracker past a bird who jumped for it, allowing its perch to tilt, which upset seeds into a pail, causing the heavier pail to pull a cord that ignited a lighter to set off a skyrocket that caused a sickle to cut a string, allowing a pendulum with a napkin attached to swing back and forth, wiping the diner’s chin, Wikipedia said.
Although Goldberg had begun his career more than a century ago, Rube Goldberg devices remain very much with us, even though they may go by other names now. Such as “Democratic Party strategy.”
Attracting more traditional working-class voters might be accomplished simply by taking stands obviously appealing to them. But the Dems’ strategy is to make their party repellent and disgusting while figuring out some elaborate way to distract and deceive voters.
Don’t, for instance, give the party’s presidential nomination to a “San Francisco liberal.” Give it maybe to an abortion-loving Texas Irishman who pretends to be Mexican, or an unknown little Indiana mayor whose aggressively immoral views sprout behind the corn stalks.
But the result is the same as if a Manhattan leftist ended up on the ballot.
Do Democrats make many actual attempts simply to stand up for what the mainstream wants? Or do they define “mainstream” as some dry gulch way over to the side while Goldbergishly proposing to abolish the centuries-old Electoral College, pack the U.S. Supreme Court, give minors the vote (and maybe redefine “minor”), nurture vote fraud, and illegally import tens of millions of aliens?
If the voters don’t fall for this, Dems say, simply replace the voting population through massive abortion to wipe out their line while hustling those unending illegal immigrants into the U.S. to stay. … Continue Reading

Benedict Emerges From The Shadows

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

On April tenth, an essay by the Pope Emeritus appeared in print in several languages. Clear and candid, it was more coherent and perceptive than anything else that has appeared from the Vatican since Pope Benedict’s departure six years ago.
The essay’s beginnings prompt more than a tad of curiosity. “After the meeting of the presidents of the bishops’ conferences was announced, I compiled some notes by which I might contribute one or two remarks to assist in this difficult hour,” Benedict writes. Perhaps he had in mind a brief address that he might deliver to the assembled prelates, many of whom he had named to their first see.
However, as we now know, Benedict was not invited to address the assembled prelates at all when they met in Rome in February, even though he had appointed many of them. On reflection, it’s not hard to see why. With his usual understated insight, Benedict employs his essay to address precisely the “forbidden question” that was avoided like a dread disease throughout the February meeting: What about homosexuality and its role in the abuse and coverup scandals?
Benedict focuses on the twin cataclysms of the ’60s: first, the sexual revolution, introduced and spurred on by the introduction of the birth control pill. And then came Vatican II. “Until the Second Vatican Council,” he writes, “Catholic moral theology was largely founded on natural law, while Sacred Scripture was only cited for background or substantiation. In the Council’s struggle for a new understanding of Revelation, the natural law option was largely abandoned, and a moral theology based entirely on the Bible was demanded.”
On reflection, we can consider the promulgation of Humanae Vitae in July 1968 as sort of a “Last Hurrah” for natural law; immediately after it appeared, the document was securely locked in the bottom desk drawer of virtually every theologian, bishop, priest, and seminarian worldwide. Students at prestigious Rome theologates in the 70s and 80s were bluntly told to ignore it, since “it would soon be overturned.”
Benedict doesn’t blame the collapse of theology on the sexual revolution. Rather, it had been a long time coming in the work of a generation of dissidents. The ’60s merely supplied a massive supporting cast. He recounts how “[t]he long-prepared and ongoing process of dissolution of the Christian concept of morality was…marked by an unprecedented radicalism in the 1960s,” a spirit that had a profound impact on priests and the seminaries that taught them. … Continue Reading

Good Friday… The “Hour” Of Christ’s Battle Against Satan And The Spirit Of The World

By JAMES MONTI

Each year the return of Holy Week brings with it a sense of entering into a loftier realm, a more sacred domain, the Holy of Holies surpassing any other liturgical season. From the middle of Lent onward, the daily readings from the Gospel of St. John at the weekday Masses have fostered within our souls a building sense of drama. Time and again in the pages of John’s inspired account, there appear the evocative words “hour” and “world.” Yet these are not mere literary inventions of the Evangelist; he has taken them from the lips of our Lord.
And it is from the lips of Christ that the Church has learned to understand His Passion as the ultimate battle between good and evil, an understanding that she eloquently articulates through the sacred liturgy of Holy Week. From an early date the Church has seen the palms of Palm Sunday as a symbol of this combat. Both St. Isidore of Seville (+636) and a prayer for the blessing of palm and olive branches from the tenth century Romano-Germanic Pontifical speak of the salutation of Christ with palms as anticipating His triumph over “the prince of death.”
The term “world” is used in a twofold manner by our Lord. There is the world as created by God, created to be good, created for our good, and it is of this “world” that He speaks when He tells Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).
Yet this world created by God has become a fallen world, which is precisely why it needs to be saved by Him. And it is of this world in the sense of its alienation from God that our Lord speaks when, in answering those urging Him to go to Jerusalem for the Passover, He replies, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). His enemies are the slaves of this alienated world:
“You are from below; I am from above; you are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). And this world alienated from God has its prince (cf. John 12:31), its tyrant, the author of its hatred for God, he who is “a murderer from the beginning…a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
There are those who insinuate that the Church has had a centuries-old “bad attitude” toward the world, with the Gospel of St. John blamed for this. First of all, the Church has never had a bad attitude toward the goodness of the world as God created it; in fact, she has condemned as heresy the idea that creation is evil.
As for the Gospel of St. John, this Gospel is the inspired and inerrant word of God. Like the other three Gospels, it has faithfully preserved for us the very words of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made man, uttered while He dwelt among us, and these words include warnings about the spirit of “the world,” that is, the ethos or culture that fallen, sinful man has fashioned for himself under the tutelage of Satan, an ethos of materialism, relativism, and the pursuit of carnal pleasure in which the sovereignty and very existence of God, the reality of the supernatural and an afterlife, as well as the reality of God-given Commandments are ignored or flatly denied.
It was all the amassed wealth and power of such a world, “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” (Matt. 4:8), that Satan offered to hand over to Christ when he madly dared to tempt our Lord, as recorded in the Gospels of Saints Matthew and Luke: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will” (Luke 4:6; see also Matt. 4:8-9). … Continue Reading

Pope Benedict: Hammer Of Heretics

By SHAUN KENNEY

Pope Benedict XVI (emeritus) has issued what some have termed a post-papal encyclical identifying the rot at core inside the Catholic Church — and it is worth reading in full.
One of the key highlights thus far? The source of the disease. Pope Francis, who not only signed off on the document but whom Benedict explicitly praised, has argued that the disease lies within a certain pernicious form of clericalism. What is clericalism, one might ask? No one is quite sure . . . but we are all very certain that it is very bad and we should all throw rocks at it this very moment.
Alternatively, Benedict offers a rather simple answer that — once his vision of a smaller, more faithful Catholicism proves true — should stand the test of time. Namely, that the world simply forgot God.
There are other bold lines in this letter that are worth noting, specifically the lens through which the Second Vatican Council was interpreted by certain theologians attempting to build a morality based purely on Sacred Scripture. In the end, Catholic natural law was quite nearly replaced by a form of relative judgments. Benedict explains this as an effort to replace morality with intention. Without the natural law to ground anyone, all acts are perceived through conditions. The very idea of an intrinsically evil act (or an intrinsically good one?) was very nearly wiped out.
Two things happened. First, the leader of this effort — the German theologian Franz Bockle — had sworn to fight any encyclical that determined that some acts truly were intrinsically evil. He died, and Pope John Paul II published Veritatis Splendor some months later, and the world was given insight into a new category of goods.
For those of you not acquainted with Catholic moral theology, most goods are broken down into two sorts: basic goods which require no further grounding, and instrumental goods which lead us to some other basic good (money or medicine in the pursuit of health, for instance).
Benedict mentions specifically that there are certain goods which can never be subject to a trade-off. “Martyrdom is a basic category of Christian existence,” Benedict writes. “The fact that martyrdom is no longer morally necessary in the theory advocated by Bockle and many others shows that the very essence of Christianity is at stake here.”
Benedict introduces a third category: Great Goods. What are these great goods, one might ask? The Catholic Faith — and not merely in the sense of some idealistic thing hovering in the clouds, but the Catholic faith both as a society and as an individual.
Yet this “great good” cannot be protected so long as basic goods can be pursued for illegitimate ends. Benedict mentions a reform of canon law that is oriented to the protection of “great goods” such as human persons and the Deposit of Faith. Yet once again Benedict imposes this consistent theme that humanity has forgotten God and expected freedom in return, and yet instead is coming to discover that by forgetting God we have put an end to human freedom. … Continue Reading

St. John Paul’s Thought… Medical Workers Attend Program Of Reflection On Mystery Of Suffering

By DEXTER DUGGAN

PHOENIX — St. John Paul II’s 1984 apostolic letter on redemptive suffering, Salvifici Doloris, was the focus of a Lenten program of reflection offered to members of the Catholic Medical Association of Phoenix (CMAP) by a young pastor of the Diocese of Phoenix.
Fr. Dan Connealy, ordained in 2016 and recently appointed pastor of Phoenix’s St. Joan of Arc Parish, said St. John Paul “proposes the subject of suffering as a mystery,” not as a problem, which would have a practical solution to fix it.
Connealy previously served at the Newman Center at Northern Arizona University, in the mountains of Flagstaff, Ariz., in addition to doing parish work there.
The April 6 reflection, held at Phoenix diocesan headquarters, was one of CMAP’s monthly meetings seeking to reinvigorate Catholic medical workers’ involvement with Church teaching as part of their conscience and practice.
To the left of the lectern was a banner saying: “Catholic Medical Association: Upholding the principles of the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine.”
The monthly gathering typically lasts about four hours and includes Eucharistic adoration, opportunity for Confession, Mass, and a lunch, as well as a speaking topic of the day.
“John Paul II says suffering seems to belong to man’s transcendence,” Connealy said. “. . . Redemption is accomplished through the Cross. . . . If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us. . . .
“If you find a way to get rid of suffering, let me know….We want to approach it with compassion,” he said.
Jesus is waiting for people to turn to Him when nothing else satisfies, Connealy said. “It is Jesus who stirs in you” the desire “to do something great.”
Connealy recalled that the Pope said not all suffering is the result of sin.
The priest cited the biblical conversation between God and Satan where God praised His faithful servant Job, but Satan contended Job would turn against God if his prosperity ended. So God permitted Satan to tempt His servant severely.
Job’s “suffering is the suffering of someone who is innocent,” Connealy said, adding that this suffering shows God doesn’t punish “just for the sake of punishing.”
God allowed the suffering “to demonstrate His own righteousness,” he said. … Continue Reading

Benedict XVI Analyzes Roots Of The Scandal

By BILL DONOHUE

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has released a lengthy essay on the roots of clergy sexual abuse that is illuminating and courageous. It is illuminating because he shows how forces inside and outside the Church came together to create the problem, and it is courageous because he speaks the truth about matters that are already causing an uproar.
Benedict is no stranger to this subject. He previously condemned the “filth” in the Church that allowed for the scandal, and he did more to remove miscreant priests than either his Predecessor or Successor. He defrocked some 800 priests, including the notorious Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Now he tackles the issue again, this time with a blend of sociological and theological observations that are profound.
The Pope Emeritus starts with a macro sociological perspective, one that places the abuse scandal in social context. It is simply impossible to understand what happened, he says, without referencing the force of the sexual revolution.
It is not a coincidence that sexual abuse flourished in the Church at the same time that celebrations of sexual libertinism flourished outside the Church. The latter helped set the stage for the former. It was the triumph of moral relativism — the denial of moral absolutes — that helped to cripple the Church.
Benedict puts his finger on a harsh reality: Dissent in the Church peaked at the same time that the scandal unfolded. Catholic moral theology, which was always grounded in natural law, was abandoned in exchange for a more relativistic approach, one that denied the existence of evil. This was taught in the seminaries at the time. Not only that, but books by Benedict were censored.
When pornographic films are shown to seminarians, and a gay subculture is tolerated, Benedict notes, it is hardly surprising to learn that sexual misconduct will grow by leaps and bounds. “In various seminaries homosexual cliques were established,” he writes, “which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries.” The climate that emerged was toxic.
At bottom, Benedict stresses, the scandal is rooted in a crisis of faith. When the very existence of God is questioned, and when moral certainty dissipates — even with regard to foundational principles — then mere opinion becomes the new norm. This is a dangerous slope; it resulted in many sins, including priestly sexual abuse.
Some readers may think that Benedict exaggerates when he writes about pedophilia being seen as legitimate “only a short time ago.” But it was. Indeed, in some quarters, especially among intellectuals and celebrities, it still is. Recall that just recently Barbra Streisand justified Michael Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of children. … Continue Reading

Progressive Plans Will Create Political Mischief

By MIKE MANNO

I’m not sure that the public quite understood what he meant when then-candidate Barack Obama pledged to “fundamentally change” the United States. At the time of Mr. Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009, who would have guessed that large segments of the population would now be accepting of same-sex marriage, unregulated immigration, post-birth abortions, and the concept that gender is fluid and can be changed at will? Or, for that matter, that our president was a Russian mole?
I don’t know if all of these things would have exploded after the 2016 election had Hillary Clinton been elected. I wonder sometimes if she would have steered a slightly more moderate course; after all, she wouldn’t have needed the extreme left-wing of her party to excite the electorate. Of course, when I refer to the extreme left-wing, I mean anything left of Mrs. Clinton.
I do know that had she been elected, we would not face the backlash against our entire system, as we do now, since there would have been no Uber Liberal resistance. But her loss gave an opening for some system-destroying ideas to take hold among liberal, but not necessarily far-left, Democrats.
Two weeks ago I criticized the movement to abolish the Electoral College, which is now gaining mainstream support and is largely a reaction to Mrs. Clinton’s loss. More about that a bit later, but first let’s turn our attention to the various court-packing plans that the “Resistance” is suggesting.
The Constitution, article III, establishes “one Supreme Court,” and “such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Thus, there is no constitutional requirement of any set number of justices. However, since the Judiciary Act of 1869, the number has been fixed by law at nine.
Now there are some that claim, rightly, that the number of members of the court has changed over time. That is true, but the numerical changes had to do with the composition of the Circuit Courts of Appeal — there were none; well, none as we know now. … Continue Reading

So Deep The Poison . . . Dad Rejoices At Grandchild’s Death

By DEXTER DUGGAN

The middle-aged man in a sweater, who looked like he might spend weekends thoughtlessly popping potato chips into his mouth as he watches sports on TV, was deeply grateful, with a touch of anxiety.
“I really appreciate what you’ve done for us. I’ll never forget it,” he said to an employee as he walked away supporting his teenage daughter.
The man wasn’t pleased because an entertainment broker finally managed to find him some discounted Super Bowl tickets. He was grateful because he’d been able to push his reluctant daughter into killing his grandchild at a Texas Planned Parenthood.
He didn’t know that his young daughter was bleeding to death after the Planned Parenthood abortionist perforated her uterus, nor that clinic director Cheryl forbade an emergency call for an ambulance because the sirens would get the pro-life prayer warriors outside stirred up.
Just like federal judges always seem to be there to save the day for PP, if not for the babies’ lives, PP lucked out again and the unhappy teenager had her blood supply, and her blood pressure, restored.
PP lied to the Dad about why her abortion was taking so long — supposedly a scheduling problem — when in fact the abortion already was over and frantic PP was trying to keep her out of a coffin. Dead clients mean lawsuits, while dead babies mean big profits.
This incident from Pure Flix’s recently released movie Unplanned didn’t mention why this abortion was done, but when a single clinic does dozens of abortions a day on healthy women, the reason is hardly never-ending severe medical emergencies. … Continue Reading