Pro life flash mob

headsup from Father z, who explains:

"... CHICAGO – A pro-abortion “Walk for Choice” rally was held in
downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza on Saturday, February 26, 2011.
Participants of the “Walk for Choice” were protesting HR Bill 3
which limits taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.

As a response to the “Walk for Choice,” anonymous teens and young
adults organized a “Pro-Life Flash Mob” over the span of a few
days. The goal of the event was not to counter-protest, but to give a
positive message of joy and life to Chicago.

The youth assembled inconspicuously around the plaza before the rally
hiding their giant yellow balloons in black trash bags. When the
“Walk for Choice” had assembled, the youth prompted by music
coming from a backpack sound system then proceeded to unveil the helium balloons imprinted with the word “LIFE.”

Nino and Rizal

I wrote awhile back about Rizal being inspired by the occult atheists in Europe.

However, this letter from Nino Aquino (JR) points out the heroism of Rizal.


I now realize why Rizal reserved the little book by Thomas a Kempis ‘Imitation of Christ’ for his beloved Josephine. That little book, acclaimed as one of the greatest spiritual writings of all times by men of every faith and belief for the last five centuries, had a profound impact on Rizal. IT was from this little book that he drew the strength of his spirituality and inner peace. He bequeathed his talisman to Josephine.

And so, the writings of Rizal like that of a Kempis, are over new because they are perennially Christian, yet are old with the wisdom of the ancient truths as proclaimed by the church.

Like a Kempis, Rizal believed that He is the God of freedom who makes us love it by weighting the yoke upon our shoulders. And He is also the God of mercy and justice "who improves with His punishments and grants happiness only to those who have merited it with their exertions. The school of suffering tempers the spirit, the fighting arena strengthens the soul."

Unequivocably and so clearly, Rizal said that we can only win freedom by deserving it and that to earn it we must improve the mind and enhance the dignity of the individual, "love what is just, what is good, what is great, to the point of dying for it."

And when the people reach these heights, he said, "God provides the weapon, and the idols and the tyrants fall like a house of cards, and freedom shines in the first dawn."

Soc, we Filipinos have a penchant for blaming others for our faults. The hero rebuked us for this.

"If Spain," he said, "were to see us less tolerant of tyranny and readier to fight and suffer our rights, Spain would be the first to give us freedom because when the fruit of conception reaches the time of birth, woe to the mother that tries to strangle it."

Rizal’s final admonition rings with the universal truth that is timeless and ageless, applicable in his time and more so today. I have to quote him fully to do him justice.

"As long as the Filipinos do not have sufficient vigor to proclaim, head held high and chest bared, their right to a life of their own human society, and to guarantee it with their sacrifices, with their very blood; as long as we see our countrymen feel ashamed privately, while in public they keep silent and even join the oppressor in mocking the oppressed; as long as we see them wrapping themselves up in their selfishness and praising with forced smiles the most despicable acts, begging with their eyes for share of the booty, why give them independence?"

"What is the use of independence if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And so doubt they will because whoever submits to tyranny loves it! x x x Why give, the bride to the groom if he does not love her enough and is not ready to die for her?"

Soc, as I said, I heard the hero’s voice in Laur. How many of our esteemed colleagues are privately ashamed of what is happening and yet praise the dictator openly and on radio and television as if he were the greatest Filipino ever born? How many of our countrymen have joined the oppressor in mocking the oppressed? How many are repelled by the blatant injustices being committed, by the naked power grab of a tyrant with an insatiable list for power, and they have it within their offices to curb the abuses of the tyrant, but they would not because they would rather beg with their eyes "for a share of the booty."

I have no doubt, Rizal would have been the first to be picked up were he alive today and maybe, re-enact his martyrdom at Bagumbayan. He was victim of the New Land. Surely, his fate wouldn’t be better under a New Society Bagong Lipunan....

Liberating Lady

this weekend is the 25th anniversary of the "EDSA" people power revolt that overturned Marcos.

The PhilInquirer has an article on the Pilgrim virgin statue of our Lady of Fatima that was carried in the protest.

many people remember that, although Marcos' troops were ordered to fire on the protesters, that they didn't because a "beautiful lady" asked them not to do it.

Many folks believe that the beautiful lady was the Virgin herself, leading the procession.


Others say it is urban legend.

Cardinal Sin merely shrugs and quips: Some say she was a nun, but I know all the nuns in the front, and none of them were beautiful.

But in this article, Butz (Nino's brother) mentions seeing a beautiful lady:
Butz remembers EDSA.


We sat in front of the lead tank. Two nuns appeared and knelt in front of us. Then the tanks started rolling toward us.

I wanted to run but could not because the two nuns did not budge. I would rather lose my life than lose face. I could not imagine myself running ahead of the nuns. There was also a pretty lady beside me. I said that if the tanks would really run over us, I would have to protect her by throwing my body on top of her so we would get quashed together. Bahala na! (So be it!) I was very nervous.

The tanks stopped about three meters in front of us. There was a collective sigh of relief. There was wild jubilation. We were grateful that the tanks spared us...


you really should read the article, which is full of ironic humor...




and this is the statue that was erected at the intersection...

Folks here call it the "ugly madonna"...for obvious reasons.

Ten commandments in Cowboy

In Fairlie, Texas, a small community northeast of Dallas, you’ll find the Cross Trails Cowboy Church. Although I’ve passed it a couple of times while traveling through that area, I wasn’t aware that inside was posted the Cowboy’s Ten Commandments:

(1) Just one God.

(2) Put nothin’ before God.

(3) Watch yer mouth.

(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.

(5) Honor yer Ma & Pa.

(6) No killin’.

(7) No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal.

(8) Don’t take what ain’t yers.

(9) No telling tales or gossipin’.

(10) Don’t be han kerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff.

Lecture by Michael O'Brien

Michael O'Brien - Catholic Humanities and Hope for the Modern World from JE on Vimeo.

Yeah, sympathy for killers who save us money

Not Dead Yet points out that the "talking points" of the pro death movement usually include

1) sympathetic stories of men killing their disabled wives (who didn't ask to die)

2) hints that it will save money.

Nothing new here. Back in the mid 1990's, the main bioethicist of Michigan (the guy who persuaded the medical society there not to clamp down on Dr. Death) wrote an editorial in AAFP journal that started with a man with a disabled wife, who joked that Dr. Death seemed to be doing the right thing.

I guess I'm the only one who noticed, because they published my letter that pointed this out...the real question is why the AAFP editors didn't notice it.

Of course, the AAFP is supporting OBamacare despite most of their members being against it, but never mind. These organizations tend to be full of activists who entered medicine to "change the world" and then discovered their patients didn't even bother to take their medicine correctly. So they go into politics of the left wing sort, to get power to "improve" folk's lives.

In some way I get frustrated about my husband not seeing a doctor very often for his high blood pressure (it took me months to get him to get a chest x ray to see if he had CHF or TB: The xray was read as "normal", even though it had signs of mild CHF/Kurley B lines) so he said he was okay and wouldn't see a doc.

On the other hand, he isn't going to go onto dialysis, and all the cardiac ultrasounds and stuff isn't going to change his prognosis much. Sigh.

On the other hand, I'm not getting my mammograms etc. which I should. Yet the yearly mammogram didn't diagnose my mom's breast cancer either.

I spend a fortune keeping up my US health insurance, not because I don't have local insuance, but incase he dies and I go back to the US and get sick: Once I drop it, it's hard to get a new policy. I'm still waiting to see how the law in Obama care will work if I drop US insurance and then go home.

What is being planned in the US is the worst of both worlds: coercive government that decides what you are allowed to get, and a Republican budget cutting to make sure it's not paid for.

Quote of the day

about a pew survey on marriage in the US:

But the fact is that only 29% of people think that the profusion of modern living arrangements is a bad thing--a whopping 66% think it's either a good thing, or that it makes no difference. Which is probably the most telling stat of all: Marriage isn't just dying away because of the pressures of modern life and the inability of people to commit. It's dying because people fail to see its importance.

Tsunami of atheism?

Father Z reports that Bishop O'Malley's examination of the Irish church confirms it is imploding, similar to the implosion in parts of Europe and Quebec at the time of Vatican II:

Cardinal O’Malley [of Boston] is one of several senior prelates charged by Pope Benedict with carrying out an apostolic visitation of the Irish Catholic Church following a series of highly critical judicial reports that revealed abuse by priests and a widespread culture of cover-up for decades among Church leaders.

Fr Tony Flannery, a leading member of the Association of Catholic Priests, revealed at a conference of lay people in the Irish capital that “Cardinal O’Malley told the association the Irish Church had a decade, at most, to avoid falling over the edge and becoming like other European countries where religion is marginal to society”.

Now, what a lot of folks don't realize is that the "elites" in Ireland and the UK have been holding a jihad against the Catholic church for many years (i.e. the media has tended to be very anti Catholic, ridiculing and misreporting to try to destroy the church).

The reason was that their aim was to bring Ireland in line with the present day secularization trends (i.e. abortion, homosexuality, completely secular laws where troublesome priests don't try to but in with moral objections).

And the "abuse" scandal was a gift to them. Never mind that the abuse, while terrible, was probably no better or worse than secular institutions in the UK; sin is sin, and the many Marian visions that urged us to pray for priests is now seen as prophetic indeed.

Yet if the church does implode, one wonders what will replace it? Apostacy tends to lapse into persecution or witchcraft (e.g. Nazism which adored the god of race and the gods of ancient Germans; communism which worshipped the gods of the state).

One is reminded of other prophetic insight into Ireland.

In an old play "Catholics", the church was weak and useless, except for one small area where the priest dared to say the Latin mass, and a revival was occuring. If I remember the play correctly, he was forced by the church to stop.

Another prophecy is an ancient one: That seven years before the antichrist, that Ireland would be covered by the waves, or sink into the ocean, to save her from the antichrist.

This sounds similar to (probably false) prophet Christine Gallagher, whose house of prayer was closed by the bishop (how dare folks pray). She has visions of a tsunami, which originally she interpreted as Ireland but later claimed it was the tsunami of Indonesia a couple years ago.

But, you know, a lot of lay commentators are saying the present day crisis is a "tsunami of debt". Is Ireland's economic troubles a tsunami of economic problems that will save her from the antichrist?

I was inspired to say a rosary for Ireland this morning, and since these "inspirations" are rare, I wonder what is going on.

On the other hand, that same Christine Gallagher prophecized that the "reign of the immaculate Heart" (the revival of the church against rising secularism, a grassroots revival, not one coming from the clergy) would start in the Philippines. That prophecy was 20 years ago, and I thought it was bunk, but with ten percent of our population spread through out the world, I wonder if indeed Christian and catholic pinoys could be behind the revival of the church in many areas of the world.

Are the Intercessors of the Lamb becoming "interdenominational"

from a local Omaha paper:
they are now affiliated with the International House of Prayer movement.

Not sure what all this means.

Good Catholic DA's go against crime wherever it is found

From Whispers in the The same DA office that dared to inspect an abortion clinic that killed live infants is now indicting not only pedophile priests but a bigshot who enabled these criminals to be reassigned.

The abortion clinic was allowed to go on despite numerous complaints because of pressure from pro abortion groups and a pro abortion governor.

The church had already been investigated for older crimes, but these accusations are more serious, because they couldn't claim the cases were "old" and get away with saying they didn't understand the problem.

(In the 1970's such crimes were considered something that should be sent to psychiatrists. We were told in Medical school that these reports were fantasy according to Freudian theory, and if they were real, not to make a big thing about them unless it was a very young child, e.g. under puberty or age 10 or less...).

Thought for today

from First things;

"...The provocation in the 2011 report involves martyrdom. For purposes of research, the report defines “martyrs” as “believers in Christ who have lost their lives, prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.” The report estimates that there were, on average, 270 new Christian martyrs every 24 hours over the past decade, such that “the number of martyrs [in the period 2000-2010] was approximately 1 million.” Compare this to an estimated 34,000 Christian martyrs in 1900.,,"

Divine mercy take two

don't have the link but Archbishop Cruz says that Defense Sect Reyes should qualify for a Catholic burial since he probably was not in his right mind.

So we must remember compassion overcomes death, even in sad times like this.











(FYI: No relation: Reyes is a common last name)

Suicide and Divine mercy

Michael Brown links to a story about a woman who hearing trains going by, was inspired to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet:
only to find that someone was committing suicide at that very moment.


I continue to pray for this young man and all the souls who may be in Purgatory who have committed suicide. These souls could be the most neglected souls in Purgatory because many people think there is no salvation for someone who commits suicide. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Suicide is seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity. It is forbidden by the fifth commandment" (2325).

When my mother-in-law took her own life, my son, who was only in fifth grade at the time, asked, "Did Grandma go to hell?" The Catechism states: "Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide" (2282). It goes on to say, "We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to Him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives" (2283).

Right now in the Philippines, there is mourning about a former defense chief who killed himself at his mother's grave.

The new administration is trying to clean up corruption that went overboard during the last administration, and right now is digging into Military "slush funds", originally given to the big shots to award to their men or as retirement presents.

But the amounts were much too high even for the Philippines, where small gifts are a normal part of life.

Apparently, he was aware of the corruption, and under a lot of pressure from certain parties to remain silent...or to become the "fall guy" for those higher up.

In their conversations after the military corruption scandal erupted, Robles recalled hearing this refrain from Reyes: "Wala na ito p’re [This is no more, pal]. There's nothing I can do. They are determined to crush me.''... Robles added: "He was worried about what's happening to the Armed Forces. Because if he admitted wrongdoing, everyone will be implicated, even those who did not take money but never did anything about it...

in another story, the reason for his suicide is twisted into nobility:

MANILA, Philippines – Former Armed Forces chief Angelo Reyes “protected us all” when he died Tuesday, another ex-military chief said in an interview at Reyes’ wake in a funeral home in Quezon City.

“He protected all of us, even the institution, for the Filipino people, for us to move on,” General Dionisio Santiago, former Armed Forces chief when Reyes was defense secretary, said in Filipino in an interview with media in Arlington.There are libel laws here in the Philippines, but it is an open secret that the clans and a certain big shot are protecting themselves after plundering the country of millions of dollars for their personal use.

Yes, move on. Don't investigate the corruption and put your friends/relatives/compadres into jail.

but there is still resentment about this in the military itself: about the Trillianes mutiny, which was about corruption. Trillianes is said to have named Reyes as one of those involved in corruption in one of the earlier stories.

So the fingers of blame will probably be spun to point fingers at those who are trying to dig out who got the loot, not at those deeply involved in the culture of corruption. And alas many good people are involved in the spirit of corruption and got hurt.

So how should the churches respond?

The headline quotes a priest saying his suicide was similar to a samurai who was in disgrace, but this is a Catholic country, and the way of Christianity is to confess, repent, and do penance. Suicide, especially to "protect" important people who stole millions of pesos from this impoverished country, is not the answer, even if one does it to protect one's friends.

In the article, the various bishops are quoted with opinions different than that of this priest.

“His death leaves more questions than answers. I hope this does not stop the investigation. I believe everybody should be given the chance to explain their side or to testify freely and truthfully. Unless this is done, it may be impossible to find the truth,” said Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said corruption would only be addressed if people admit their wrongdoing and be mindful of the common good.

“Let us tell what happened and admit our wrongdoing because the country is prepared to forgive those who do so to rectify our system. Despite the problems, there is always the forgiveness and strength that the Lord gives us, so let us not lose faith. Suicide is a sign of loss of faith,” Pabillo said.

Blame our system

Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said: “Let us not forget that sometimes we make it appear that the military officials are guilty and directly accuse them. Maybe they are part of the wrongdoing but the blame is in our system. Maybe we are part of it so we have to change.”

Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Philippine Independent Church said: “Reyes could have redeemed his already damaged reputation by unveiling the truth and pinpointing the chief principal of corruption, but he rather chose to bring with him the dirty secrets during his term.”

------------------
So a good man, openly shamed and losing his dignity, chose to end his life.

Yet one senses that his death, which was not immediate, may have given him time to repent.

So we will pray for Divine Mercy, that God will ask him/did ask him to repent of his deed.

Yea, reproductive freedom means family without caregiving

the Philippines needs to note that the sexual mores of the US elites continue to hold that marriage is merely a way of saying you are okay, never mind that you cheat all the time.

At least here there is shame with cheating. In the US they expect you to congratulate them.

and here they pretend that ethical people of all faiths think their "swinging" is okay, but marriage isn't, (in truth, it's the abnormality of their idea of sex that makes a mockery of their claim to marry).

It’s disorienting to recognize that the more conventional our choices are, the more radical we are, that my days of party hopping and sexual adventuring were tolerable, but that our arguing about how much to babyproof, thinking about preschools, buying a swing set, and joining a church constitute an assault on family values

ah, he espouses sexual liberty:

Some people scorn the idea of calling five adults and four children in three states a family, or believe that the existence of our family undermines theirs. I do not accept competitive models of love, only additive ones. I espouse reproductive libertarianism, and would propose that when everyone has the broadest choice, love itself expands..

what is missing? The question if four children in three states is the best way to raise a family. sounds like he wants to be praised for his children growing up alone and fatherless...

Another expose on late term abortions in the US

another expose on the lack of oversight on abortion clinics, not only in Pennsylvania but in New Jersey.

this one points out that even when another abortion clinic director notified the state, they ignored her whistleblowing information, even though the doctor involved had been cited for doing the same thing in New York:

Elizabeth Barnes, director of Cherry Hill Women's Center, a South Jersey abortion clinic, said she wrote to New Jersey's medical licensing board in June 2009 detailing her suspicions that Brigham was starting third-trimester abortions in Voorhees and finishing them in a clandestine clinic, probably in Maryland.

In response, Barnes said, an investigator talked to her, off and on, for months. Yet no official action was taken against Brigham.

Barnes' suspicions should have rung bells. In the 1990s, Brigham did late-term abortions that straddled Voorhees and New York City.

In 1994, New York authorities took his license in that state for botching two abortions, one begun in Voorhees. They called him "undertrained," with "submarginal abilities" and "not the slightest recognition of his deficiencies." New Jersey prosecuted Brigham for those same cases, plus four more. But Brigham's appeals ultimately reached an administrative judge who found him "sincere" and "credible," and reinstated his license.

30 million street kids

The population control folks would tell you this proves one needs birth control, but it's actually because their families are destroyed by promiscuity and drugs.

That's why the danger to the PHilippines is western sex education, not birth control per se: The Mullahs in Iran stressed family planning for married women to space their children, included in a holistic package that supported strict Islamic laws.

responsibility not hedonism

catholic bishops here in the Philippines give their opinion.

In the meanwhile, the Democratic party ("democrats abroad") in the US emailed me and ordered me to join an anti catholic organization Move On to promote the abortion agenda.

There is big money behind pushing the westernized idea of sex to the Philippines...given the amount of sexual exploitation of our OFW's it makes one wonder...