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One proviso, $9.99 shows you how to spend a day in a neighborhood for under $10.00, but note well, it usually omits the cost of the train or bus ride to get you there.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Chinatown in New York
WNYC has some good locally oriented programs including Secrets of New York, Cool in Your Code, and the following $9.99:
One proviso, $9.99 shows you how to spend a day in a neighborhood for under $10.00, but note well, it usually omits the cost of the train or bus ride to get you there.
One proviso, $9.99 shows you how to spend a day in a neighborhood for under $10.00, but note well, it usually omits the cost of the train or bus ride to get you there.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood
Through a link from A Washington DC Catholic I found the following article by Mary Ann Kreitzer at Les Femmes The Truth:
In today's culture of death, many elitists who fling around the word "choice" have nothing but contempt for individual rights. They are perfectly willing for the masses to choose as long as they make the "right choice" which is the one the elites know is good for them. Margaret Sanger was one of those elitists who detested freedom for those she considered unfit. The organization she founded, the American Birth Control League (later Planned Parenthood), continues to walk in her fascist footsteps. Sanger proposed the American Baby Code in 1934 in an article in American Weekly Magazine. It would more appropriately be called the American No-Baby Code. These are the poisoned roots of Planned Parenthood which continues to be a baby's worst nightmare. It is also the organization that Barack Obama has promised to expand through signing the Freedom of Choice Act. FOCA is more accurately described as the No Freedom of Choice Act since it will invalidate all current laws protecting the unborn and eliminate the rights of voters to pass state laws about abortion. FOCA entrenches and expands the murder of the unborn exponentially. Margaret Sanger would have approved. In fact, she very likely would have been Obama's choice to head Health and Human Services. Many of his nominees espouse the same evil philosophy! If you don't like what you read below FIGHT FOCA.
The American Baby Code
by Margaret Sanger
Article 1. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies. To assist couples who wish to prevent overproduction of offspring and thus to reduce the burden of charity and taxation for public relief and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.
Article 2. Birth control clinics shall be permitted to function as services of government health departments or under the support of charity, or as non-profit, self-sustaining agencies subject to inspection and control by public authorities.
Article 3. A marriage license shall in itself give husband and wife only the right to a common household and not the right to parenthood.
Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit for parenthood.
Article 5. Permits for parenthood shall be issued by government authorities to married couples upon application, providing the parents are financially able to support the expected child, have the qualifications needed for proper rearing of the child, have no transmissible diseases, and on the woman’s part no indication that maternity is likely to result in death or permanent injury to health.
Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth. [Sounds like Red China, no?]
Article 7. Every county shall be assisted administratively by the states in the effort to maintain a direct ratio between county birth rate and its index of child welfare. When the county records show an unfavorable variation from this ratio the county shall be taxed by the State…. The revenues thus obtained shall be expended by the State within the given county in giving financial support to birth control…..
Article 8. Feeble-minded persons, habitual congenital criminals, those afflicted with inheritable diseases, and others found biologically unfit should be sterilized or in cases of doubt should be isolated as to prevent the perpetuation of their afflictions by breeding. [No wonder Sanger got along so well with the Nazis.]
In today's culture of death, many elitists who fling around the word "choice" have nothing but contempt for individual rights. They are perfectly willing for the masses to choose as long as they make the "right choice" which is the one the elites know is good for them. Margaret Sanger was one of those elitists who detested freedom for those she considered unfit. The organization she founded, the American Birth Control League (later Planned Parenthood), continues to walk in her fascist footsteps. Sanger proposed the American Baby Code in 1934 in an article in American Weekly Magazine. It would more appropriately be called the American No-Baby Code. These are the poisoned roots of Planned Parenthood which continues to be a baby's worst nightmare. It is also the organization that Barack Obama has promised to expand through signing the Freedom of Choice Act. FOCA is more accurately described as the No Freedom of Choice Act since it will invalidate all current laws protecting the unborn and eliminate the rights of voters to pass state laws about abortion. FOCA entrenches and expands the murder of the unborn exponentially. Margaret Sanger would have approved. In fact, she very likely would have been Obama's choice to head Health and Human Services. Many of his nominees espouse the same evil philosophy! If you don't like what you read below FIGHT FOCA.
The American Baby Code
by Margaret Sanger
Article 1. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies. To assist couples who wish to prevent overproduction of offspring and thus to reduce the burden of charity and taxation for public relief and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.
Article 2. Birth control clinics shall be permitted to function as services of government health departments or under the support of charity, or as non-profit, self-sustaining agencies subject to inspection and control by public authorities.
Article 3. A marriage license shall in itself give husband and wife only the right to a common household and not the right to parenthood.
Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit for parenthood.
Article 5. Permits for parenthood shall be issued by government authorities to married couples upon application, providing the parents are financially able to support the expected child, have the qualifications needed for proper rearing of the child, have no transmissible diseases, and on the woman’s part no indication that maternity is likely to result in death or permanent injury to health.
Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth. [Sounds like Red China, no?]
Article 7. Every county shall be assisted administratively by the states in the effort to maintain a direct ratio between county birth rate and its index of child welfare. When the county records show an unfavorable variation from this ratio the county shall be taxed by the State…. The revenues thus obtained shall be expended by the State within the given county in giving financial support to birth control…..
Article 8. Feeble-minded persons, habitual congenital criminals, those afflicted with inheritable diseases, and others found biologically unfit should be sterilized or in cases of doubt should be isolated as to prevent the perpetuation of their afflictions by breeding. [No wonder Sanger got along so well with the Nazis.]
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
10 Signs You're from New York
1. You say "the City" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.
2. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
3. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
4. The subway should never be called anything prissy, like the Metro.
5. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual.
6. You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple."
7. Your door has more than three locks.
8. The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
9. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
10. You know how to use the "F" word as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and even part of another multi-syllable word, all in the same sentence.
1-9 edited from: aha jokes.com
2. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
3. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
4. The subway should never be called anything prissy, like the Metro.
5. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual.
6. You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple."
7. Your door has more than three locks.
8. The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
9. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
10. You know how to use the "F" word as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and even part of another multi-syllable word, all in the same sentence.
1-9 edited from: aha jokes.com
Monday, December 1, 2008
Keeping Christ in Christmas: Religious Christmas Stamps
From wdtprs:
"The Post Office is to issue both secular stamps and Religious stamps but like last year, you have to stipulate if you want religious!! Apparently each PO has been asked to send in to HQ totals for each (possibly to say there is no demand for the latter!) Please make everyone you know aware of this and the Christians amongst us should ask for religious stamps in order to keep Jesus at the centre of the event."
...
A very good point.
Ask not just for "Christmas" stamps, but "religious Christmas" stamps!
And in fact, why not consider, if possible, purchasing enough for usage well into the New Year - at least until February 2nd.
"The Post Office is to issue both secular stamps and Religious stamps but like last year, you have to stipulate if you want religious!! Apparently each PO has been asked to send in to HQ totals for each (possibly to say there is no demand for the latter!) Please make everyone you know aware of this and the Christians amongst us should ask for religious stamps in order to keep Jesus at the centre of the event."
...
A very good point.
Ask not just for "Christmas" stamps, but "religious Christmas" stamps!
And in fact, why not consider, if possible, purchasing enough for usage well into the New Year - at least until February 2nd.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Extraordinary Form in the Seminary of New York
wdtprs reports wonderful news out of St. Joseph's Seminary in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers, NY:
"On the feast of St. Cecilia (11/22), St. Joseph’s Seminary held its first Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the main chapel."
I like how the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe turns to face and worship the Lord.
A little investigation has revealed that the priest is Msgr. O'Brien, recently spiritual director of the seminary, but now a pastor in the Bronx.
It is noticeable that the Mass is taking place on a freestanding altar. I have heard that this altar is composed from two separate altars each of which used to be against one of the side walls of the sanctuary. Some liturgical Nazi cut the mensa of the high altar so that there is no room to offer a Traditional Mass upon it anymore.
All in all, it's a wonderful sign in the Archdiocese!
Cardinal Egan deserves to be commended as well as the Rector Bishop Gerald Walsh.
Blessed John Paul I? Possible Miracle
The following is a report of a possible miraculous cure due to the intercession of Pope John Paul I (N.B. It's not a typo - the First). The Pope so humble in life is often overlooked in death because of his namesake. Giuseppe Denora was healed of a tumor of the stomach 16 years ago.
The miracle is under investigation by the Congregation for Causes of the Saints.
...
Humilitas
Grazie, papa Luciani
di Stefania Falasca
Un caso di guarigione per l’intercessione di Albino Luciani sottoposto
alla verifica della Congregazione delle Cause dei santi.
Giusto il tempo per un caffè al bar e poi in pescheria per la spesa. Come ogni giorno, adesso che è in pensione. A casa ci arriviamo passando sopra millenni di storia. Strette stradine di pietra bianca che parlano ancora di greci e di mori, del nobile passato d’Altamura fatto d’indipendenza e di fiere battaglie. Ma quella di Giuseppe è un’altra storia, della più ordinaria quotidianità . La casa, la famiglia, i nipoti, la strada del suo tranquillo andare e della quale parla con riserbo, quasi montanaro. Giuseppe Denora, sessantenne altamurano, ex commesso di banca, è il beneficiario dell’intercessione di papa Luciani. Sedici anni fa guarì da un tumore maligno allo stomaco. Una guarigione repentina, completa e duratura, tanto che per il suo caso è stata aperta l’inchiesta per l’accertamento del fatto prodigioso che ora dovrà essere studiato dalla Congregazione delle Cause dei santi. Di quel fatto accaduto nel 1992 è la prima volta che parla, solo adesso che il processo avviato dal Tribunale ecclesiastico diocesano di Altamura sta per chiudere ufficialmente i battenti. “Siamo una famiglia come tante“, taglia corto mentre apre il portone di casa. “Del papa Luciani ho un ritaglio di giornale con la sua fotografia. Anzi due. Uno è giù in garage...
Se ci tiene, glielo mostro“. Ed è così che inizia il suo racconto. Senza fronzoli, dal garage di casa. “Ecco vede, è là . C’è anche la data: 1978, 3 settembre 1978. In quei giorni mi trovavo con mia moglie alle terme di Chianciano. La domenica del 3 settembre decidemmo di fare una visita a Roma, così capitammo in piazza San Pietro all’ora dell’Angelus del nuovo Papa. Papa Luciani si affacciò e lo guardammo parlare. Dissi a mia moglie: “Questo qui si vede proprio che è una bella persona”. Mi rimase impresso. Un uomo leale. Di ritorno presi una copia del quotidiano “Avvenire” con la sua fotografia e me la portai a casa. Ci feci anche la cornice... Quella lì“. E poi? “Beh, morì presto...“. Lei, invece, cosa fece negli anni? “Il lavoro, i conti da far quadrare, i tre figli da crescere... sono sposato da trentasette anni e in banca ho lavorato fino al duemila... insomma, le cose e i sacrifici di ogni giorno“. E l’altra foto? “ No.
Quella è di sopra. Venga su. Ecco, vede, è con la mozzetta rossa e la stola, una delle prime foto da Papa... non è tra quelle più note e neanche tra quelle più belle. Anche questa qui viene da un ritaglio di giornale. Un pezzetto di giornale piccolo come un biglietto da visita che mi ritrovai non so come sulla scrivania dell’ufficio nel 1990. Chi ce l’avesse messo, come fosse capitato lì non lo so. A quel tempo non si sentiva più parlare di questo Papa. Io me lo presi, ne feci fare un ingrandimento e me lo misi in camera da letto, lì, tra la finestra e l’armadio, che guarda verso il letto dalla mia parte. E lì è rimasto... Non perché abbia qualche mania per le cose religiose”. Lo ha fatto per un gesto di devozione? “L’ho fatto e basta. S’era fatto trovare in modo discreto, come una persona vicina, leale. E anche dopo, quando sono caduto in malattia, a lui, che mi stava lì davanti, guardavo.
Ma io devo essere sincero, non l’ho pregato come si fa coi grandi santi, non mi sono rivolto a lui come a un grande santo... No, io ci parlavo da uomo a uomo“. Quando ha cominciato a stare male? “All’inizio del 1992. Andai dal medico qui ad Altamura. Mi fece fare una gastroscopia. Mi disse: “Qui purtroppo le cose si mettono male, molto male, vada da quest’oncologo all’ospedale di Bari”. L’oncologo mi fece fare un’altra gastroscopia. Stesso referto: “Linfoma gastrico non Hodgkin”. Me ne tornai a casa e iniziai la chemioterapia“. Non la operarono? “No“. A quel tempo lei aveva quarantaquattro anni... “Sì, quarantaquattro appena compiuti e mia figlia più piccola ne aveva solo quattro. In due mesi m’ero ridotto a un’ombra. Non mangiavo più, non riuscivo quasi più ad alzarmi dal letto. Stavo steso lì, e davanti a me la foto di quest’uomo. Lo guardavo, lo mettevo a parte delle preoccupazioni e ci parlavo in silenzio, a quel modo che ho detto: “Guardami come sto combinato, a lavorare non posso più... che devo fare? E Cecilia è piccola ancora... i figli hanno bisogno”. “Io sto qui, tu però stai lassù”, gli dicevo altre volte, “tu li conosci bene a quelli lassù, quelli che stanno più in alto di te. Chiedi tu a chi sta più in alto di te che devo fare, se mi aiutano. Se mi possono aiutare. Diglielo tu”.
La notte del 27 marzo mi sentivo proprio morire dai dolori. Nello stomaco un falò, tanto mi sentivo bruciare. E mi bruciava dentro anche il dolore di dover lasciare la famiglia. Lo guardai e gli dissi ancora: “Se devo morire adesso chi ci pensa al pane per questi figli...”. La stanza, quella notte, era rischiarata come sempre dai lampioni della strada... me lo vidi ai piedi del letto: un’ombra scura che si avvicinò e mi passò accanto rapida con una mano tesa; una mano, un attimo, e in quell’attimo esatto fu come se quel fuoco che avevo dentro fosse spento dall’acqua. Mi addormentai e al mattino mi risvegliai riposato, rinato. Al risveglio sentii mia moglie che mi chiamava scuotendomi un poco: “Peppe, Peppe hai la febbre?”.
Io mi alzai e andai a fare colazione, il giorno seguente tornai al lavoro. Niente, da quel momento più niente, mi sentii subito come mi trovo adesso: in pieno benessere. Ecco come è stato“. E rifece subito gli esami clinici? “Sì, visti i referti, i medici scrissero: “Remissione completa”. Lei non disse niente del fatto? “No. Per quale motivo dovevo andare in giro a dirlo? Vedevano che mi ero ripreso, basta”. Neanche ai suoi familiari? “A mia moglie sì, certo, lei sapeva.
Nel mese di giugno, tre mesi più tardi, andai con lei a Roma. Scesi sotto la Basilica di San Pietro e vicino alla tomba del papa Luciani ci misi un bigliettino: “Sono Giuseppe, sono venuto per ringraziare”. E da allora ogni anno così ho fatto. Nel 2003 era il venticinquesimo della sua elezione e una lettera di ringraziamento la mandai anche alla chiesa del suo paese natale. Ma da quella lettera lì poi partì tutto questo iter che mai avrei pensato“. A Canale d’Agordo ci è andato? “Ci sono andato per la prima volta due anni fa, nel 2006. Mi fermai una settimana. E per la prima volta lassù mi è passata tra le mani la vita di quest’uomo che è diventato Papa e anche la dignità di questa famiglia nelle prove sofferte per andare avanti... Ho visto la casa dove è nato, ho conosciuto una nipote, il fratello Berto”. E il fratello del Papa che cosa le disse? “Mi disse: “Sono contento che stai bene”. “Senta, io non lo so, non lo so come gliel’ho strappato questo favore. Meriti, certo no.
Forse il modo in cui gliel’ho chiesto... non lo so. E anche adesso mi chiedo: perché, perché è venuto fino quaggiù, proprio da me...”. Al ritorno verso casa, prima di andare via, entra in una panetteria e riesce con un pacco di tarallucci. “Assaggi quanto sono buoni, sono al vino bianco... se li porti a Roma. Una cosa però le voglio ancora dire: non scriva cose che non ho detto. La gente si sa com’è, si mette in testa chissà che cosa, anche riguardo a noi... gli straordinari invece io li ho fatti, sì, ma solo al lavoro”.
The miracle is under investigation by the Congregation for Causes of the Saints.
...
Humilitas
Grazie, papa Luciani
di Stefania Falasca
Un caso di guarigione per l’intercessione di Albino Luciani sottoposto
alla verifica della Congregazione delle Cause dei santi.
Giusto il tempo per un caffè al bar e poi in pescheria per la spesa. Come ogni giorno, adesso che è in pensione. A casa ci arriviamo passando sopra millenni di storia. Strette stradine di pietra bianca che parlano ancora di greci e di mori, del nobile passato d’Altamura fatto d’indipendenza e di fiere battaglie. Ma quella di Giuseppe è un’altra storia, della più ordinaria quotidianità . La casa, la famiglia, i nipoti, la strada del suo tranquillo andare e della quale parla con riserbo, quasi montanaro. Giuseppe Denora, sessantenne altamurano, ex commesso di banca, è il beneficiario dell’intercessione di papa Luciani. Sedici anni fa guarì da un tumore maligno allo stomaco. Una guarigione repentina, completa e duratura, tanto che per il suo caso è stata aperta l’inchiesta per l’accertamento del fatto prodigioso che ora dovrà essere studiato dalla Congregazione delle Cause dei santi. Di quel fatto accaduto nel 1992 è la prima volta che parla, solo adesso che il processo avviato dal Tribunale ecclesiastico diocesano di Altamura sta per chiudere ufficialmente i battenti. “Siamo una famiglia come tante“, taglia corto mentre apre il portone di casa. “Del papa Luciani ho un ritaglio di giornale con la sua fotografia. Anzi due. Uno è giù in garage...
Se ci tiene, glielo mostro“. Ed è così che inizia il suo racconto. Senza fronzoli, dal garage di casa. “Ecco vede, è là . C’è anche la data: 1978, 3 settembre 1978. In quei giorni mi trovavo con mia moglie alle terme di Chianciano. La domenica del 3 settembre decidemmo di fare una visita a Roma, così capitammo in piazza San Pietro all’ora dell’Angelus del nuovo Papa. Papa Luciani si affacciò e lo guardammo parlare. Dissi a mia moglie: “Questo qui si vede proprio che è una bella persona”. Mi rimase impresso. Un uomo leale. Di ritorno presi una copia del quotidiano “Avvenire” con la sua fotografia e me la portai a casa. Ci feci anche la cornice... Quella lì“. E poi? “Beh, morì presto...“. Lei, invece, cosa fece negli anni? “Il lavoro, i conti da far quadrare, i tre figli da crescere... sono sposato da trentasette anni e in banca ho lavorato fino al duemila... insomma, le cose e i sacrifici di ogni giorno“. E l’altra foto? “ No.
Quella è di sopra. Venga su. Ecco, vede, è con la mozzetta rossa e la stola, una delle prime foto da Papa... non è tra quelle più note e neanche tra quelle più belle. Anche questa qui viene da un ritaglio di giornale. Un pezzetto di giornale piccolo come un biglietto da visita che mi ritrovai non so come sulla scrivania dell’ufficio nel 1990. Chi ce l’avesse messo, come fosse capitato lì non lo so. A quel tempo non si sentiva più parlare di questo Papa. Io me lo presi, ne feci fare un ingrandimento e me lo misi in camera da letto, lì, tra la finestra e l’armadio, che guarda verso il letto dalla mia parte. E lì è rimasto... Non perché abbia qualche mania per le cose religiose”. Lo ha fatto per un gesto di devozione? “L’ho fatto e basta. S’era fatto trovare in modo discreto, come una persona vicina, leale. E anche dopo, quando sono caduto in malattia, a lui, che mi stava lì davanti, guardavo.
Ma io devo essere sincero, non l’ho pregato come si fa coi grandi santi, non mi sono rivolto a lui come a un grande santo... No, io ci parlavo da uomo a uomo“. Quando ha cominciato a stare male? “All’inizio del 1992. Andai dal medico qui ad Altamura. Mi fece fare una gastroscopia. Mi disse: “Qui purtroppo le cose si mettono male, molto male, vada da quest’oncologo all’ospedale di Bari”. L’oncologo mi fece fare un’altra gastroscopia. Stesso referto: “Linfoma gastrico non Hodgkin”. Me ne tornai a casa e iniziai la chemioterapia“. Non la operarono? “No“. A quel tempo lei aveva quarantaquattro anni... “Sì, quarantaquattro appena compiuti e mia figlia più piccola ne aveva solo quattro. In due mesi m’ero ridotto a un’ombra. Non mangiavo più, non riuscivo quasi più ad alzarmi dal letto. Stavo steso lì, e davanti a me la foto di quest’uomo. Lo guardavo, lo mettevo a parte delle preoccupazioni e ci parlavo in silenzio, a quel modo che ho detto: “Guardami come sto combinato, a lavorare non posso più... che devo fare? E Cecilia è piccola ancora... i figli hanno bisogno”. “Io sto qui, tu però stai lassù”, gli dicevo altre volte, “tu li conosci bene a quelli lassù, quelli che stanno più in alto di te. Chiedi tu a chi sta più in alto di te che devo fare, se mi aiutano. Se mi possono aiutare. Diglielo tu”.
La notte del 27 marzo mi sentivo proprio morire dai dolori. Nello stomaco un falò, tanto mi sentivo bruciare. E mi bruciava dentro anche il dolore di dover lasciare la famiglia. Lo guardai e gli dissi ancora: “Se devo morire adesso chi ci pensa al pane per questi figli...”. La stanza, quella notte, era rischiarata come sempre dai lampioni della strada... me lo vidi ai piedi del letto: un’ombra scura che si avvicinò e mi passò accanto rapida con una mano tesa; una mano, un attimo, e in quell’attimo esatto fu come se quel fuoco che avevo dentro fosse spento dall’acqua. Mi addormentai e al mattino mi risvegliai riposato, rinato. Al risveglio sentii mia moglie che mi chiamava scuotendomi un poco: “Peppe, Peppe hai la febbre?”.
Io mi alzai e andai a fare colazione, il giorno seguente tornai al lavoro. Niente, da quel momento più niente, mi sentii subito come mi trovo adesso: in pieno benessere. Ecco come è stato“. E rifece subito gli esami clinici? “Sì, visti i referti, i medici scrissero: “Remissione completa”. Lei non disse niente del fatto? “No. Per quale motivo dovevo andare in giro a dirlo? Vedevano che mi ero ripreso, basta”. Neanche ai suoi familiari? “A mia moglie sì, certo, lei sapeva.
Nel mese di giugno, tre mesi più tardi, andai con lei a Roma. Scesi sotto la Basilica di San Pietro e vicino alla tomba del papa Luciani ci misi un bigliettino: “Sono Giuseppe, sono venuto per ringraziare”. E da allora ogni anno così ho fatto. Nel 2003 era il venticinquesimo della sua elezione e una lettera di ringraziamento la mandai anche alla chiesa del suo paese natale. Ma da quella lettera lì poi partì tutto questo iter che mai avrei pensato“. A Canale d’Agordo ci è andato? “Ci sono andato per la prima volta due anni fa, nel 2006. Mi fermai una settimana. E per la prima volta lassù mi è passata tra le mani la vita di quest’uomo che è diventato Papa e anche la dignità di questa famiglia nelle prove sofferte per andare avanti... Ho visto la casa dove è nato, ho conosciuto una nipote, il fratello Berto”. E il fratello del Papa che cosa le disse? “Mi disse: “Sono contento che stai bene”. “Senta, io non lo so, non lo so come gliel’ho strappato questo favore. Meriti, certo no.
Forse il modo in cui gliel’ho chiesto... non lo so. E anche adesso mi chiedo: perché, perché è venuto fino quaggiù, proprio da me...”. Al ritorno verso casa, prima di andare via, entra in una panetteria e riesce con un pacco di tarallucci. “Assaggi quanto sono buoni, sono al vino bianco... se li porti a Roma. Una cosa però le voglio ancora dire: non scriva cose che non ho detto. La gente si sa com’è, si mette in testa chissà che cosa, anche riguardo a noi... gli straordinari invece io li ho fatti, sì, ma solo al lavoro”.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Japanese Martyrs to be Beatified
From Catholic in Japan
188 Japanese martyrs and a Cuban brother to be declared blessed
Vatican City, Nov 20, 2008 / 11:07 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI has given the go-ahead for the beatification ceremonies of a group of 188 Japanese martyrs and the Cuban Br. Jose Olallo. The Japanese Catholics will be beatified on November 24 in Nagasaki and Br. Ollalo will be declared a Blessed on November 29 in Cuba.
The Japanese Martyrs
The Japanese martyrs were led by a priest named Fr. Peter Kibe Kasui, who was introduced to the faith by St. Francis Xavier’s group of Jesuit missionaries.
The Jesuits were so successful that the number of Christians in Japan grew to 400,000 in 50 years.
However, this growth soon drew the opposition of Tokugawa Ieyasu who was named the new shogun of Japan in 1600, according to the Hawaii Catholic Herald. By 1614 his desire to protect Buddhism and his people from outside influences led him to wage an intense campaign of persecution against the Japanese Christians.
All missionaries were banned from the island nation and all churches were ordered destroyed. Although Tokugawa died in 1616, his sons Hidetada and Iemitsu continued the persecutions, which claimed the lives of some 4,000 believers, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Fr. Kibe was tortured to death by being hung upside down with his head immersed in a pit filled with excrement and animal carcasses.
The beatification ceremony for Fr. Peter Kibe and his 187 companions who were killed in Japan between 1603 and 1639, will take place at midday on Monday November 24 in the Nagasaki’s Big N Stadium.
Obama's Proclaimed Criterion for Judges
Conservative Federalist Society Can Expect Its Status to Shrink
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 21, 2008; A21
Last year, there was a candlelight dinner at sold-out, shut-down Union Station to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, with President Bush on stage and three Supreme Court justices in the audience.
This year, it's "welcome to the wilderness," as a former Clinton administration appointee good-naturedly told the group of lawyers yesterday at its annual meeting. William P. Marshall, a former deputy White House counsel for President Bill Clinton who teaches law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, promised to share survival tips after his party's eight-year absence from power.
During that time, the conservative legal organization served as a catalyst for Bush's efforts to change the federal judiciary. But the group now finds itself sorting through the role it should play in scrutinizing President-elect Barack Obama's forthcoming efforts to bring about a similar change of his own.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that although Obama campaigned during the general election as a moderate, McConnell expects any judicial appointments to be from the far left.
Obama has "some very unorthodox views about the nominating and confirmation of federal judges," McConnell said, noting that as a senator from Illinois, Obama voted against the confirmation of two of the group's icons: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Federalist Society executive vice president Leonard A. Leo laughed when asked about the wilderness remark, saying, "I know the media likes to talk about us in terms of power and influence." But he said the group's primary goal has always been discussion of legal interpretation and limited constitutional government, and that that "remains as important as it was on November 3rd."
The organization has always believed that the promotion of judges who share its conservative views is the most lasting way to enshrine its principles, and it has been extremely successful. The liberal Alliance for Justice estimates that 46 percent of Bush's appointments have ties to the Federalist Society.
At one of the group's events last month, Bush bragged that he has appointed more than a third of the federal judiciary that will be in place when he leaves office. While he has appointed slightly fewer appeals court judges than Clinton -- 61 to 65 -- Bush's mostly young appointees will soon make up nearly two-thirds of the judges at that level, and Republican-appointed judges are in the majority on 10 of the 13 circuits.
Soon, it will be Obama's turn. He will immediately be presented with 15 circuit court vacancies, and there is a good chance that Congress will soon approve 14 new judgeships at the circuit level. Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, estimates that at the end of four years, Obama will have had the chance to increase the proportion of Democratic-appointed judges overall to nearly 60 percent. [And what are the chances that any of these will be Pro-life? None because of Obama's radical pro-abortion litmus test.]
McConnell and other speakers at the event were wary of Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and has talked about the intangibles that should go into choosing a judge. In particular, they recoil at a quote from Obama in a speech to Planned Parenthood in the summer of 2007. [He said this to his pals at Planned Parenthood. Freaking suprising!]
"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," [translation: someone who thinks murdering babies is a solution to an unwanted pregnancy.] Obama said then. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old. [Not Asian-American? Not Hispanic? Of course, not an innocent baby in the womb!] And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."
Said McConnell: "If President Obama's top criterion in selecting nominees is 'empathy,' then the burden will be on them to demonstrate that their political views do not trump their even-handed reading of the law."
Obama's defenders have said he was not suggesting judges put aside the law.
How contentious a role Republican senators and legal activists want in opposing Obama nominees, though, is itself controversial. Republicans have sharply criticized the way Democratic senators have treated Bush nominees, while Democrats contend that Republican senators started it when Clinton was president. [Like with Ginsburg...Oh wait, that radical leftist got a free pass.]
William K. Kelley, an associate professor of law at Notre Dame and a former deputy counsel to Bush, recommended detente to society members. "My own view is that Republicans ought not to escalate," he said. [Escalation is the only way to prevent abortophile Obama from destroying the judicial system.]
But he had sobering words for the group that has recently seen its own elevated to the Supreme Court. If and when Obama has a chance to make an appointment, Kelley said, he will be able to place there "whomever he wants."
"That's what 58 or 59 votes in the Senate does for you," said Kelley, referring to the size of the Democratic caucus in the 100-member body. [Sadly, there are not enough Catholics to vote pro-life.]
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 21, 2008; A21
Last year, there was a candlelight dinner at sold-out, shut-down Union Station to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, with President Bush on stage and three Supreme Court justices in the audience.
This year, it's "welcome to the wilderness," as a former Clinton administration appointee good-naturedly told the group of lawyers yesterday at its annual meeting. William P. Marshall, a former deputy White House counsel for President Bill Clinton who teaches law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, promised to share survival tips after his party's eight-year absence from power.
During that time, the conservative legal organization served as a catalyst for Bush's efforts to change the federal judiciary. But the group now finds itself sorting through the role it should play in scrutinizing President-elect Barack Obama's forthcoming efforts to bring about a similar change of his own.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that although Obama campaigned during the general election as a moderate, McConnell expects any judicial appointments to be from the far left.
Obama has "some very unorthodox views about the nominating and confirmation of federal judges," McConnell said, noting that as a senator from Illinois, Obama voted against the confirmation of two of the group's icons: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Federalist Society executive vice president Leonard A. Leo laughed when asked about the wilderness remark, saying, "I know the media likes to talk about us in terms of power and influence." But he said the group's primary goal has always been discussion of legal interpretation and limited constitutional government, and that that "remains as important as it was on November 3rd."
The organization has always believed that the promotion of judges who share its conservative views is the most lasting way to enshrine its principles, and it has been extremely successful. The liberal Alliance for Justice estimates that 46 percent of Bush's appointments have ties to the Federalist Society.
At one of the group's events last month, Bush bragged that he has appointed more than a third of the federal judiciary that will be in place when he leaves office. While he has appointed slightly fewer appeals court judges than Clinton -- 61 to 65 -- Bush's mostly young appointees will soon make up nearly two-thirds of the judges at that level, and Republican-appointed judges are in the majority on 10 of the 13 circuits.
Soon, it will be Obama's turn. He will immediately be presented with 15 circuit court vacancies, and there is a good chance that Congress will soon approve 14 new judgeships at the circuit level. Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, estimates that at the end of four years, Obama will have had the chance to increase the proportion of Democratic-appointed judges overall to nearly 60 percent. [And what are the chances that any of these will be Pro-life? None because of Obama's radical pro-abortion litmus test.]
McConnell and other speakers at the event were wary of Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and has talked about the intangibles that should go into choosing a judge. In particular, they recoil at a quote from Obama in a speech to Planned Parenthood in the summer of 2007. [He said this to his pals at Planned Parenthood. Freaking suprising!]
"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," [translation: someone who thinks murdering babies is a solution to an unwanted pregnancy.] Obama said then. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old. [Not Asian-American? Not Hispanic? Of course, not an innocent baby in the womb!] And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."
Said McConnell: "If President Obama's top criterion in selecting nominees is 'empathy,' then the burden will be on them to demonstrate that their political views do not trump their even-handed reading of the law."
Obama's defenders have said he was not suggesting judges put aside the law.
How contentious a role Republican senators and legal activists want in opposing Obama nominees, though, is itself controversial. Republicans have sharply criticized the way Democratic senators have treated Bush nominees, while Democrats contend that Republican senators started it when Clinton was president. [Like with Ginsburg...Oh wait, that radical leftist got a free pass.]
William K. Kelley, an associate professor of law at Notre Dame and a former deputy counsel to Bush, recommended detente to society members. "My own view is that Republicans ought not to escalate," he said. [Escalation is the only way to prevent abortophile Obama from destroying the judicial system.]
But he had sobering words for the group that has recently seen its own elevated to the Supreme Court. If and when Obama has a chance to make an appointment, Kelley said, he will be able to place there "whomever he wants."
"That's what 58 or 59 votes in the Senate does for you," said Kelley, referring to the size of the Democratic caucus in the 100-member body. [Sadly, there are not enough Catholics to vote pro-life.]
Friday, November 21, 2008
Washington Post Indirectly Exposes the Insanity of Abortion
Honoring 'a Baby No One Loved'
Prince George's Police Hold Funeral for Abandoned Infant
By Aaron C. Davis and Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; Page B01
The homicide detectives stood in the cold wind yesterday at a quiet Clinton cemetery to bury an infant they named Maria del Pilar. They were the only mourners.
A month ago, the newborn was found alive in a trash bag in the Takoma Park area. She died later that day, and her mother was charged with murder. No one stepped forward to bury her, so Prince George's County police officers gathered yesterday morning to do so themselves.
"This was a baby no one loved. This was a child who did absolutely nothing wrong," said Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of major crimes for the Prince George's police. [The former is not true. There are many families who would have loved to adopt this baby. But, the second sentence is dead on. The baby was innocent. The baby, like every baby murdered by abortion, did not deserve to die.]
Maria is the third infant whom Prince George's police have named and buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, [NB a Catholic cemetary] a somber ritual that officers say is both cathartic and, they hope, a reminder to parents of what happens when they abandon a baby. [It was more than simple abandonment. She put her in a garbage bag!]
Buried next to Maria are two others: John Caleb Daniels, who was found in a plastic grocery bag in Oxon Hill in 2004, and Maria Grace Daniels, who was found in a plastic bag in a sediment pond in Riverdale Park in 2006.
The children could have been taken to a hospital, a church, a fire station or another safe haven, as allowed under Maryland state law, authorities said. Instead, police investigated their deaths and planned their funerals.
The lead investigator in Maria's case, Detective Nelson Rhone, organized yesterday's service and helped name Baby Jane Doe: Maria, because she was Hispanic, and del Pilar, after the Virgin of El Pilar, who is celebrated in Spain on Oct. 12, the day of the baby's birth and death.
"Every detective wants to close his case and provide some closure for the family. Unfortunately, when there is no family, the only closure we can provide is to the infant," Rhone said.
The funeral was a collaborative effort: The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 raised money for a headstone, Lee's Funeral Home donated all services and a tiny coffin, Clinton Floral Shop sent a basket of pink carnations and white daisies, and the police chaplain performed the ceremony.
In addition to showing compassion to infants who died within hours of birth, the funerals help detectives cope with the heartbreak of such cases, said Steve Rhoads, the police chaplain. Most people don't realize the strong bond that investigators often form with victims whose deaths they are trying to solve, he said.
"They think that these guys are robots and unfeeling," Rhoads said. "This proves that they are not."
The cases of the first two abandoned babies are unsolved, but police have an arrest in Maria's death because of an anonymous tip. Four days after Maria was found, Prince George's police arrested Wendy Y. Villatoro, 25, who lived in the Takoma Park area. She admitted abandoning the infant, police said, and was charged with second-degree murder. The baby's extended family declined to claim the body.
"These are the kinds of victims your heart just breaks for, because they were completely innocent," said Detective Kelly Rogers, who helped organize a funeral for Maria Grace Daniels, the baby found in Riverdale Park. "Most of us have kids and know that if you just hear somebody yelling 'Mommy' in a crowded store, you turn your head out of instinct. You know something must have been seriously wrong with them or going seriously wrong for them to do this." [And yet, our some state laws and our President-elect think that there is nothing wrong with this as long as a "doctor" rips the baby out of the womb either murdering it immediately or by letting it die on a tray.]
...
I commend the Washington Post for printing this story. It helps encapsulate all the emotion of the murder of innocent babies.
But, isn't it ridiculous that a few days makes a difference in people's reaction. If baby Maria del Pilar had been murdered by abortion on October 1st, there would be no funeral, and no mourners nor outrage except among those who are Pro-life. Yet, this post-partum abortion causes outrage even among Pro-aborts.
It is the abortion mentality that led the mother of this child to do this. Perhaps she would have had an abortion if she had had the money to pay it. I don't know. But, then some baby-killing "doctor" would be richer and the conscience of the abortion lovers would be more at ease with the whole matter. Sick, isn't it?
Let us remember this when our Congress and President-elect try to push FOCA on the nation.
Prince George's Police Hold Funeral for Abandoned Infant
By Aaron C. Davis and Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; Page B01
The homicide detectives stood in the cold wind yesterday at a quiet Clinton cemetery to bury an infant they named Maria del Pilar. They were the only mourners.
A month ago, the newborn was found alive in a trash bag in the Takoma Park area. She died later that day, and her mother was charged with murder. No one stepped forward to bury her, so Prince George's County police officers gathered yesterday morning to do so themselves.
"This was a baby no one loved. This was a child who did absolutely nothing wrong," said Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of major crimes for the Prince George's police. [The former is not true. There are many families who would have loved to adopt this baby. But, the second sentence is dead on. The baby was innocent. The baby, like every baby murdered by abortion, did not deserve to die.]
Maria is the third infant whom Prince George's police have named and buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, [NB a Catholic cemetary] a somber ritual that officers say is both cathartic and, they hope, a reminder to parents of what happens when they abandon a baby. [It was more than simple abandonment. She put her in a garbage bag!]
Buried next to Maria are two others: John Caleb Daniels, who was found in a plastic grocery bag in Oxon Hill in 2004, and Maria Grace Daniels, who was found in a plastic bag in a sediment pond in Riverdale Park in 2006.
The children could have been taken to a hospital, a church, a fire station or another safe haven, as allowed under Maryland state law, authorities said. Instead, police investigated their deaths and planned their funerals.
The lead investigator in Maria's case, Detective Nelson Rhone, organized yesterday's service and helped name Baby Jane Doe: Maria, because she was Hispanic, and del Pilar, after the Virgin of El Pilar, who is celebrated in Spain on Oct. 12, the day of the baby's birth and death.
"Every detective wants to close his case and provide some closure for the family. Unfortunately, when there is no family, the only closure we can provide is to the infant," Rhone said.
The funeral was a collaborative effort: The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 raised money for a headstone, Lee's Funeral Home donated all services and a tiny coffin, Clinton Floral Shop sent a basket of pink carnations and white daisies, and the police chaplain performed the ceremony.
In addition to showing compassion to infants who died within hours of birth, the funerals help detectives cope with the heartbreak of such cases, said Steve Rhoads, the police chaplain. Most people don't realize the strong bond that investigators often form with victims whose deaths they are trying to solve, he said.
"They think that these guys are robots and unfeeling," Rhoads said. "This proves that they are not."
The cases of the first two abandoned babies are unsolved, but police have an arrest in Maria's death because of an anonymous tip. Four days after Maria was found, Prince George's police arrested Wendy Y. Villatoro, 25, who lived in the Takoma Park area. She admitted abandoning the infant, police said, and was charged with second-degree murder. The baby's extended family declined to claim the body.
"These are the kinds of victims your heart just breaks for, because they were completely innocent," said Detective Kelly Rogers, who helped organize a funeral for Maria Grace Daniels, the baby found in Riverdale Park. "Most of us have kids and know that if you just hear somebody yelling 'Mommy' in a crowded store, you turn your head out of instinct. You know something must have been seriously wrong with them or going seriously wrong for them to do this." [And yet, our some state laws and our President-elect think that there is nothing wrong with this as long as a "doctor" rips the baby out of the womb either murdering it immediately or by letting it die on a tray.]
...
I commend the Washington Post for printing this story. It helps encapsulate all the emotion of the murder of innocent babies.
But, isn't it ridiculous that a few days makes a difference in people's reaction. If baby Maria del Pilar had been murdered by abortion on October 1st, there would be no funeral, and no mourners nor outrage except among those who are Pro-life. Yet, this post-partum abortion causes outrage even among Pro-aborts.
It is the abortion mentality that led the mother of this child to do this. Perhaps she would have had an abortion if she had had the money to pay it. I don't know. But, then some baby-killing "doctor" would be richer and the conscience of the abortion lovers would be more at ease with the whole matter. Sick, isn't it?
Let us remember this when our Congress and President-elect try to push FOCA on the nation.
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