AND IT BEGINS: The Election of 2016 - The Archdpdx OCC Agent's Response to Questions.

And it begins:  I emailed Bill Allen.  He is listed as a volunteer for the Oregon Catholic Conference www.archdpdx.org (OCC). He was the only contact.  Bishop Peter Smith was listed as Secretary/Tresurer.

Here is the response.

Sent: Monday, August 29, 2016 1:27 PM
To: Allen, Bill
Subject: Election

Hello,

I was wondering if there was anything from the Archdiocese to help Oregon Catholics who to vote for President this election? 

There are certain things that Catholics need from the Archdiocese to make a decision.

The "seamless garment" thought/heresy as it makes giving money to the less fortunate as critical as abortion a child.

We really don't have much time to educate on this issue. 

The Peace and Justice Ministry is pushing this "heresy" in equating some issues that are not the issues of abortion and euthanasia in protecting our brothers and sisters against.

Please let me know if there is any movement at all.  Maybe I'm just missing something.

Thanks,

Carolyn Wendell

"Dear Carolyn,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The U.S. Bishops recently revised the document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”.  The document lays out the primary principles that Catholics should consider when voting.  You can find it online, along with other good resources at: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/ .

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

In the peace of Christ,                                                                                

 

Todd Cooper                                                                      

Department Director

Special Ministries of the Archbishop

Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon

Representative, Oregon Catholic Conference

503-233-8386

www.archdpdx.org"

Having more questions I continued:

Todd,

Thanks for getting back to me.  Just for point of inquiry, are you telling me that there is no Oregon Catholic Conference and that you and Matt Cato are the only ones that speak for the OCC and not Bill Allen or Bishop Smith?

The Faithful Citizenship info on the USCCB website is very confusing.  Wouldn't it be better to mention on "our" website the guidelines of not voting for intrinsic evils of abortion or euthanasia?  Feeding the hungry are not equal with these, even if there was a candidate, let's say, for President. 

Pointing out those qualities of each party would be very helpful since people's souls are a stake.  Don't you agree?

PATRON SAINT OF POLITICIANS

Thanks,

Carolyn 

Here is his response.  Many people have said that Matt Cato as agent had a "seamless garment" attitude and paraphrasing an Oregon Catholic,  Matt Cato said regarding the Life issues, "Oregon Right to Life can do the life issues".  Just ask him about them he is totally "Peace and Justice". The "Life" was added, in my opinion the make pro-lifers, "feel good".  And also save money. We need transparency and justice for the pro-lifers. But I digress.

Since Todd Cooper and Matt Cato are agents of  the Bishops, he continues:

Dear Carolyn,

The Oregon Catholic Conference is made up of the bishops in Oregon, including Archbishop Sample, Bishop Cary, and Bishop Smith.  I serve as representative of the OCC.  Matt Cato is on the OCC advisory committee.  Bill Allen works as a volunteer, assisting me with the work of the OCC and with other projects.  It is the bishops who speak for the OCC.  The rest of us serve as their agents.

Regarding the information on the USCCB website, if you find it confusing, I recommend reading in its entirety the recently revised edition of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.  The document lays out the principles by which Catholics can form their consciences and faithfully exercise their political responsibility.  This includes voting in good conscience.

A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who supports a policy that promotes intrinsic evil – if the voter’s intent is to support that position.  At the same time, a Catholic should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference to other important moral issues related to human life and dignity.

The challenge for Catholics is to allow their Catholic faith to inform their politics.  In the case of many, it is their politics that inform their Catholic faith. 

The Church respects freedom of conscience.  The US bishops do not tell Catholics which candidates or parties to support.  They simply give guidelines that help Catholics develop a well-formed conscience so that they can make well informed decisions and participate responsibly in political life.

Hope these thoughts are helpful.

In the peace of Christ,

Todd

Todd Cooper

 Representative

Oregon Catholic Conference

(503) 233-8386

 
The response will be posted soon.  Any comments from you would be welcome. 

 

 

From VOCAL reader: Is the $91 million Obama refugee grant to the USCCB tied to bishops’ silence on Hillary?

From almost the end of the column:  “Catholics are witnessing the bureaucratic deconstruction of the pro-life movement in chanceries and the elevation of migration and immigration in its place,” Yore concluded, and instead, “Catholic children are learning about the sin of littering, the importance of tree hugging and sexual hugging in the latest Vatican sex education curriculum.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) 

 After leaked documents show billionaire George Soros has been trying to purchase influence with Catholic Church leadership in the United States and Rome to advance his “progressive” agenda, details continue to surface that raise the question of just how successful Soros may have been in his quest. The massive funds coming to the USCCB from the Obama Administration over pet issues such as refugees ($91 million) have some wondering if that is a reason for the bishops' virtual silence on Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton's atrocious record on life and family.

The American Catholic hierarchy is elevating other causes to primacy in place of the life issue, a new report says, “relegating the pro-life ministries to the doctrinal ash heap and committing funds and personnel to promote environmental and migration issues.”

“Migration pays very well,” said attorney and international child rights advocate Elizabeth Yore, “pro-life pays nothing.”

Thousands of federal grants and contracts come from the Obama administration to the Catholic Church, Yore says in the report, but in particular, hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal year 2016 alone found their way to the USCCB, Catholic Charities, CRS, and the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), “jaw dropping grants to carry out the Obama agenda.”

“We’ve got the most virulently anti-life administration in the history of the United States,” Yore told LifeSiteNews. “And the Catholic Church is propping up the administration.”

Added by VOCAL

“I find it very troubling that the Church is cooperating with the Obama administration,” she said.

Three of the grant recipients comprise an ongoing fiscal relationship between the U.S. bishops and Obama’s administration, Yore said in the report published by The Remnant.

The figures available on the USASpending.gov website show the USCCB garnering more than $91 million for refugee resettlement programs, more than $202 million going to Catholic Charities, which also serves refugees, and the Boston-based ICMC getting more than $17 million in government funds stipulated entirely for U.S. refugee resettlement.

LifeSiteNews did not hear back from the USCCB from an inquiry for comment on Yore’s report.

“The size of these grants is enormous,” Yore told LifeSiteNews.

Catholic observer Deal Hudson, Ph.D, publisher and editor of The Christian Review, echoed Yore’s concern that the nation’s bishops had become too beholden to the Obama administration, stating, “It appears that the bishops' conference has become a virtual vendor of the federal government.”

Hudson had also detailed in his column last month at the Christian Review how the U.S. church is helping the Clinton/Kaine ticket with its silence.

Two weeks later, Hudson lamented the failure of Catholic bishops and clergy to reasonably respond to the Clinton candidacy and pro-abortion Democrat platform, writing, “Yes, there are some bishops and priests reminding Catholics to consider the abortion issue in casting their ballots, but the number is pitifully small, resulting in virtual silence from the Church.”

Yore said things have changed from the days of U.S. Catholic missionary forerunners Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini establishing charities where the Catholic faith was evangelized.

“That’s not what’s going on,” she stated. “It’s a bureaucracy that’s going on.”

The Obama administration’s agenda with the Syrian refugee crisis has become the Church’s mission, but Yore said Middle Eastern Christians make up only a tiny fraction of the refugees; otherwise, the federal contracts would be in jeopardy.

“Along comes mega-billionaire George Soros as the global architect of an international mass migration policy that fills the Catholic Church coffers and floods Europe and America with Muslim refugees,” Yore said. “Wake up, Catholics! The USCCB and its partners are quietly assisting the Obama administration in resettling into the United States tens of thousands of Muslim Syrian refugees.”

SOROS -ACORN founder too.VOCAL

There has been no opportunity for a discussion about this, she continued, and if there was nothing to hide, then Americans should know how many refugees are being settled in the United States. But there are huge numbers and no pictures.

“When in doubt, follow the money,” said Yore, a member of the Heartland Institute delegation to protest the Vatican exclusion of all scientific opinions and reliance on population control experts. “This ecclesial trail is flush with cash.”

Yore said that given the Obama mass refugee resettlement program has been so lucrative for the USCCB, and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s plan to suspend the Muslim refugee migration program into the United States would be quite costly for the bishops, it therefore is no surprise the bishops have been silent on the pro-abortion Clinton candidacy.

Individual bishops have been critical of Donald Trump, however, and Yore said as well it’s no surprise that the Catholic bishops, under Vatican direction, are promoting the migration of Muslim refugees into the United States.

“It’s no surprise that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan criticized Trump by writing that “Nativism is alive, well – and apparently popular!” she recounted.

“It’s no surprise that Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas condemned what he called the “déjà vu of immigrant bashing,” Yore continued, “reminding his diocesan Catholics of Trump’s words.”

And further, she said, “It’s no surprise that LA Archbishop Jose Gomez opined that Trump’s stance on immigration “is not right.”

“Catholics are witnessing the bureaucratic deconstruction of the pro-life movement in chanceries and the elevation of migration and immigration in its place,” Yore concluded, and instead, “Catholic children are learning about the sin of littering, the importance of tree hugging and sexual hugging in the latest Vatican sex education curriculum.”

It’s expected that the Bishops’ Conference will keep silent about Clinton while also criticizing Trump for his position on Syrian refugee migration, she said, opting to not bite the hand that feeds it. 

“We hear much about ‘vote your conscience,’” Yore said. “This isn’t about conscience, folks. It’s about their checkbook.”

BREAKING: Leaked e-mails show George Soros paid $650K to influence bishops during Pope’s US visit

VOCAL:  Saul Alinsky's  "pal", George Soros is no longer hiding in the bushes like he used to.  The "Puppet Master" is the Billionaire always pulling the strings by donating lots of money and starting many groups in which to hide doing his business to control and manipulate the Catholic Church. 

This hard push of George Soros is because he wants Hillary Clinton to be elected President and his input would further confuse Catholics as to who they could vote for.  

In 2007, Stephanie Block, with Catholic Media Coalition and a writer for Spero News for decades, has been informing us about Saul Alinsky and the "Faith in Public Life" network that is trying to destroy our Church.  She visited three venues, one in Portland then Salem and finally to the Baker Diocese where she met with Bishop Vasa after another workshop. 

You can go to the VOCAL main page and look up Stephanie Block, George Soros and Saul Alinsky.

Mary Jo Tully and Monsignor Lienart and Archbishop Vlazny were/are devotees of Saul Alinsky, according to sources. Alinsky started in Chicago where they are from and the Office of Justice and Peace is a conduit for teaching this error to Oregon Catholics.    "Saul in the Family"
is an interesting post on Saul Alinsky. 

Stephanie Block would be willing to travel to Oregon for speaking engagements.  Exposing Saul Alinsky is one of her missions.

August 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Leaked emails through WikiLeaks reveal that billionaire globalist George Soros - one of Hilary Clinton's top donors - paid $650,000 to influence Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the USA with a view to "shift[ing] national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign." The funds were allocated in April 2015 and the report on their effectiveness suggests that successful achievements included, “Buy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages in order to begin to create a critical mass of bishops who are aligned with the Pope.”

The monies were granted to two US entities that have been engaged in a long-term project, according to the report, of shifting “the priorities of the US Catholic church.” Grantees were PICO, a faith-based community organizing group, and Faith in Public Life (FPL), a progressive group working in media to promote left-leaning ‘social justice’ causes. Soros has funded left-wing causes the world over and was just found to have been funding an effort to eliminate pro-life laws around the globe.

Board Minutes from the May 2015 meeting of Soros’ Open Society Foundation in New York reveal that in the planning stages of the papal visit initiative, the group planned to work through one of the Pope’s key advisors, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, naming him specifically in the report. In order to seize on the opportunity provided by the Pope’s visit to the US, says the report, “we will support PICO’s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues, including using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez, the Pope’s senior advisor, and sending a delegation to visit the Vatican in the spring or summer to allow him to hear directly from low-income Catholics in America.”

In 2013 Cardinal Rodriguez endorsed PICO's work in a video during a visit from PICO representatives to the cardinal's diocese. "I want to endorse all the efforts they are doing to promote communities of faith," he said, "... Please, keep helping PICO."

The post operative report on the funding to influence the papal visit comes in the 2016 report entitled, Review Of 2015 U.S. Opportunities Fund. The Soros group was pleased with the result of their campaign and saw statements by various bishops against presidental candidates who are using "fearmongering" - likely a reference to the GOP lineup, and perhaps Trump specifically - as one outcome of their efforts. “The impact of this work and the relationships it has fostered can be seen in the broad range of religious leaders hitting pointedly back at presidential candidates for their use of fearmongering,” the report said.

Additionally, the summary report says their funding was helpful to counter “anti-gay rhetoric” in the media. The “efficacy of the media campaign can be seen in the team’s ability to react to and counter the anti-gay rhetoric following the Kim Davis story (the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for defying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples whom the Pope visited),” the report states.

The grant specifically targeted the ‘pro-family’ agenda, redirecting it from defending marriage to being concerned with income equality. “FPL’s media, framing, and public opinion activities, including conducting a poll to demonstrate that Catholic voters are responsive to the Pope’s focus on income inequality, and earning media coverage that drives the message that being ‘pro-family’ requires addressing growing inequality,” says the May report.

Attorney Elizabeth Yore, who served on the Heartland Institute Delegation that traveled to the Vatican in April 2015 to urge Pope Francis to re-examine his reliance on UN population control proponents who promote climate change, spoke to LifeSiteNews about the Soros initiative. “Catholics serve as a huge and influential voting block in the U.S. election,” she said. Soros, she said, is “using the head of the Catholic Church to influence this key voting block,” with the “bully pulpit of the papacy” to ensure Hilary Clinton’s election.

Yore pointed out “this is not the first time that the unholy alliance of Soros and the Vatican successfully collaborated on a political project.” In 2015, she recalled, “the Soros operatives, embedded in the Vatican, directed Pope Francis’ Environmental Agenda, by delivering for Soros and the UN, an Apostolic Exhortation on Climate Change, and a prized papal endorsement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Pope’s apostolic blessing on the Paris Climate Treaty.”
In terms of the Soros goal of shifting the priorities of the Catholic Church away from moral absolutes, two US bishops stand out as champions of the move. San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy has repeatedly stressed changing the Church’s priorities and has had the backing of Pope Francis’ ‘favored son,’ Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich. McElroy created a furor at the U.S. Bishops Conference meeting last November over his attempt to change a document instructing Catholics on how to vote.

McElroy made a pointed argument that the document was out of step with Pope Francis’ priorities -- specifically, by putting too much emphasis on abortion and euthanasia, and not enough on poverty and the environment.  Cupich later praised McElroy’s intervention as a “real high moment” for the conference and supported the move to put degradation of the environment and global poverty on par with abortion and euthanasia.

Concluding their report reflecting on the success of the grant to influence the papal visit, the Soros group was very pleased with the results. Looking to the future, they are excited that the long-term goal of shifting the priorities of the Catholic Bishops in the United States “is now underway.”

My mother was advised to abort me, says Cardinal Burke in new book

Thank you Lord for Cardinal Burke. 

The cardinal said the devil tries to sow doubt in Catholics' minds about defending human life publicly.

Cardinal Raymond Burke has revealed that his mother was advised to abort him.

In a new book-length interview with the French journalist Guillaume d’Alançon, Cardinal Burke says that when his mother was pregnant with him, she became seriously ill and a doctor advised her to have an abortion.

According to Cardinal Burke, the doctor said: “You already have five children, it is important for you to be in good health so as to take care of them”.

“My parents refused,” says the cardinal, who is now chaplain to the Order of Malta. “My parents told him that they believed in God and that Christ would give them the necessary help. My mother gave birth to me, and everything went well.

“I was therefore quite touched by this question of defending human life, because I could very well have been killed.”

In the book, entitled Hope for the World, Cardinal Burke argues that the “ferocious attack against life today” results from “the distortion of the sexual act by contraception”, and urges Catholics to defend human life.

He adds: “The devil, of course, wants to discourage us: he tries to sow doubt in our minds about defending human life publicly. And he subtly tempts us to remain silent, to mute our conscience, to tell ourselves that we are personally against abortion but do not have to express our faith and moral convictions in public.”

Elsewhere in the book, the cardinal claims Barack Obama “wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings”. He appears to be referring to the legal battles over President Obama’s healthcare mandate, the ongoing conflict surrounding religious freedom, and the administration’s demand that public schools, including Catholic ones, adopt gender neutral bathrooms.

“The federal government is trying to reduce religious liberty, contrary to the Constitution of the United States,” Cardinal Burke says in the interview.

“President Obama wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings and to prevent her applying her law to her own hospitals and schools.

“He claims that the Church may not intervene on the question of abortion, of homosexuality, but that the state alone must manage these questions.”

Cardinal Burke has previously said Obama seems to be “a totally secularised man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies”.

In the book, which covers the cardinal’s own life, his thoughts on the history of the Church in his lifetime, and the current situation in the Church and the world, Cardinal Burke talks about “the rejection of God and the culture of death”.

He argues that the French Revolution began a process of secularisation which has led to “the grand capitalism of those who adore mammon” and to Marxism. “All those who have turned away from Christ have seen that Satan is a bloody tyrant,” the cardinal says.

He says that Protestant and Anglican communities compromised with the world in the 1930s by accepting contraception. But he believes that in the 50s and 60s, the Catholic Church was also weakened because Catholics took the faith for granted and were swept up by “a very strong but erroneous feeling of human progress”.

The cardinal, who was made a cardinal and prefect of the Vatican’s highest court by Pope Benedict XVI, cites Benedict’s analysis of “the dictatorship of relativism”. The cardinal says the “greatest danger” today is “the loss of a sound metaphysics and, consequently, of a sense of an objective reality”.

"Treason, or Infiltration from the Very Beginning? Lucifer’s Unceasing Attacks on the Church" by Alice von Hildebrand

“He knows that he is running out of time”

From its very beginning, the holy Bride of Christ has been the butt of devilish attacks. In fact, Lucifer is paying her a compliment: he knows that to direct his poisonous arrows at sects which, born today, will be buried tomorrow, would waste his ammunition.

The Roman Catholic Church alone is the rock upon which Christ has built his Kingdom; she is the only one who never stops waging war on the satanic kingdom whose motto is “non serviam” (“I will not serve”). This duel will end in its total defeat and will be gloriously replaced by “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”


The Church was bound to be the victim of treason, starting with one of the Twelve. The evangelists warn us that the closer we come to the end of time, the more will Satan’s rage manifest itself, for he knows that he is running out of time. Has Christ not warned us when he said: “When I come back to the earth, shall I find some faith left?” Thus history repeats itself: whereas Peter, James and John were sound asleep in Gethsemane while Christ was sweating blood, Judas was very alert, guiding those who had been ordered to arrest Jesus.

That the 20th century has the doubtful honor of being the bloodiest of all centuries, cannot be denied. Thanks to the mind-boggling development of technology, many of us have closed our eyes to the fact that the Evil One saw these very inventions as a superb tool in his hand and managed to control the new media, entertainment, and “education,” thereby winning millions and millions of souls without much effort.


I recall that when the atomic bomb was invented in the 1940s (a gnat compared to the means of destruction now available), the first thought that came to my mind was that, being told in the Gospel that the world will be destroyed by fire, it was now quite conceivable that man might be the culprit: what a superb victory of death over life, of non-being over being. When Nazism was defeated in 1945 and “peace” was proclaimed, many fell into the illusion that men, now realizing that they could destroy the world, would unite forces to guarantee that it would never happen.

Alas, Satan, working underground, started promoting a new means of destruction which he presented as a “glorious victory of freedom” — the efficiency of which would put atomic bombs to shame, and carrying the noble titles of progress, choice, and liberation from the shackles of the past. I am referring to Roe vs. Wade — a decision legalizing abortion in the USA — a day of such darkness that it sealed the radical moral decadence of a once-great country.


Statistics showing the number of babies murdered by their mothers – and recalling the glorious title that Adam gave to Eve, the “Mother of the living” — make one sob. The legalization of abortion puts both Stalin and Hitler “to shame” — devilish as they were, they were just beginners by comparison.
But worse than that: the crimes of both dictators were condemned; whereas the crime par excellence — murder of the innocent by their own mothers — is now accepted and praised: a magnificent victory of women over their own bodies and the burden of pregnancies that could prevent them from competing with men.

This is what in some way makes this crime surpass all preceding ones: we justify the murder.

This satanic triumph should not be interpreted to mean that Lucifer gave up traditional forms of attack, such as the atrocious persecutions of Christians in the Middle East. But the Evil One also knows that the blood of martyrs has always fecundated the Church. In his devilish “creativity,” he realizes that “infiltration” by his cronies into the very heart of the Church is a superb road to an easy victory: the enemy should be “within.”

I will limit myself to a few remarks about the priestly scandals that have battered the Church: That many cowardly bishops, betraying their mission as shepherds, closed their eyes to this scandal cannot be sufficiently condemned. But let us also recall the cowardice of the apostles themselves: one of them was a traitor, another denied Christ three times; the others of them fled (St. John came back, but we do not know how soon).

A superficial reading of the history of the Church informs us that even though she produced a surprising number of Popes who were saints and martyrs, some of them, alas (let us think of several at the time of the Renaissance) were unworthy to sit on the throne of Peter: clearly they were careerists attracted by the dignity and the power conferred to popes. But if we compare the number of saintly Popes with the number of truly great heads of state, we shall conclude that the Church has an astoundingly good record.

Bella Dodd

Frontal attacks against the Church are mostly counter-productive; a more refined way of harming the Bride of Christ is to introduce into her bosom “snakes” who have neither faith nor morals, and whose mission is to spread doubt — to undermine the believers’ faith, and encourage immoral practices now fully justified according to the latest findings of social sciences.

That this infiltration has taken place and is still taking place cannot be denied, and to my surprise, is hardly mentioned at all. This is in spite of the fact that we have written testimonies such as School of Darkness by Bella Dodd, who ”converted” to Communism while studying at Hunter College, became an ardent Communist disciple of Marx and Stalin, and devoted her great talents to not only spreading Communism, but also following Stalin’s orders to penetrate Catholic seminaries and religious orders. She succeeded in bringing in some 1000 men who had neither faith nor morals (the easiest to recruit were of course homosexuals, seminaries being for them a rich hunting ground for the obvious reason that they are composed of males; the fox had been introduced into the henhouse).

Such men were superbly trained for their devilish mission. Many of them managed to gain positions of authority, and as related in Michael Rose’s great book, Goodbye, Good Men, the seminaries then turned down the applications of young men devoted to the Church, while accepting those who were “open” to views more in harmony with “modern scholarship.”


My husband and I met Bella Dodd in the sixties and we soon became friends. In the course of conversation, my husband said to Bella, “I fear, indeed I do fear, that the Church has been infiltrated.” She replied (I quote): “Dear Professor: you fear it; I know it: when I was a Communist working full time for the Party, I was in close contact with four cardinals in the Vatican, working for us. And they are still very active today.” Needless to say, we were shattered — and this explains why my husband started working on his book, Trojan Horse in the City of God.

Two key words are “up to date” and “scholarly,” superb tools used to spread both doubt and the seeds of sexual perversions. For, since original sin, lust has a devilish attraction for fallen men. How easy it is to convince “modern man” that it is high time for the Church to “liberate” herself from the choking net of prejudices prevalent in the “Dark Ages”: thanks to modern advances, we now have a broader and healthier view of problems which have burdened the Catholic conscience, and realize that many acts condemned in the past are perfectly acceptable, and even healthy, including homosexuality.

Soren Kierkegaard (calling himself the greatest Danish philosopher, while remarking that there is only one!) saw that one particularly subtle means of sapping truth is by “spreading doubt.” The serpent did not challenge the divine prohibition, he just raised a question: “Why can’t you eat of the fruit of that tree?” In other words, God has to justify Himself and His commands —therefore sapping His divine authority.


But there are questions which, by the very fact that they are raised, condemn the person raising them: why can’t a man abuse, torture and kill a child if he enjoys doing it ? Why can’t I spit in my parent’s face, if it gives me a well-deserved relaxation? One bit of fashionable nonsense one hears in universities is “all ideas should be welcome,” making no distinction between true and false, healthy and perverse, moral and immoral. Alas, the distance separating theory from practice is a very narrow one, for when one is intellectually convinced, action is bound to follow.
To summarize: satanic attacks take two forms; one is the frontal one, challenging dogmas and openly defying the moral teaching of the Church. But the other, which has possibly always existed, is the infiltration of evil forces into the Church herself, into the clergy and all religious orders. One tempting wrong response is to accept defeat and therefore to lay down our arms, which are prayer, the sacraments, and trust in the promise that the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Turning in prayer to God, to Mary, to the glorious saints and martyrs, and eliminating cheap optimism (“It is a temporary crisis that will soon be over”), we know with certainty that God will have the last word.

from Inside the Vatican.

The Supreme Law of the Church by Most Rev. Alexander Sample

I hope our readers will pardon a little wading into the Code of Canon Law, the system of law that governs the Catholic Church. I can’t help it — after all, I am a trained canon lawyer! Jesus teaches us in the Gospel that the two greatest commandments are love of God and love of neighbor, for sure.
But what is the greatest love we show for God and neighbor? Is it not to see as many people as possible, including ourselves, come to know the love and mercy of God and be with him one day forever in heaven?

The Church’s Code of Canon Law contains 1,752 laws covering everything from the structural organization of the Church as the people of God, the teaching of the Faith, the sacramental life of the Church, the administration of the material goods of the Church, and even penal and procedural law. But lest any of us (especially canon lawyers) forget the purpose of all of this body of law, the very last law (or “canon”) states that the “salvation of souls”, which must always be the supreme law of the Church, must be kept before our eyes.

The Salvation of Souls.

How often do we hear this language in the Church today? Not very often, I am afraid. And yet that is the very mission of the Church! To emphasize this very point, the Catechsim of the Catholic Church (# 776), quoting the Second Vatican Council, states: “As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. ‘She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ by which Christ is ‘at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.’ The Church ‘is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity,’ because God desires ‘that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit.’”

We are in Danger

Why am I emphasizing this point, you may ask? Because I sincerely think that we are in danger of losing our focus in fulfilling the mission that Christ has entrusted to all of us in the Church. Our ultimate mission is to bring as many people as possible into the one People of God, to incorporate them into the one Body of Christ, and be built up as the temple of God, animated by the Holy Spirit. The gift of eternal salvation is the greatest gift God has given to us, a gift that was purchased at a great price, the blood of his only begotten Son.

Jesus began his public ministry by boldly proclaiming, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” His last words to the Apostles of his Church before his Ascension were, “Go forth and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The message is clear. Repent, believe, go forth and baptize. The essential mission is spiritual, focused on bringing people to life in Christ.

The Danger of Losing the Gift of Salvation

Throughout the Gospels Jesus speaks of the dangers of losing the gift of salvation, missing the moment of his redemption, and risking eternal punishment by rejecting the offer God has given us in the death and resurrection of his Son. One of Jesus’ most startling statements is: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

It seems our current environment cultivates the opposite view. Our culture seems to tell us that the way to life is easy and wide, and most people find it, while to find the road to destruction is narrow and hard, and really very few people end up there. I go by our blessed Lord’s words.
Part of the reason I think that we are in danger of losing the essential and primary message of salvation of souls is based on how I see many people defining what it means to be a good Catholic.

Many people have reduced being a good and faithful Catholic to being nice, tolerant and doing good works. They think if we do service projects for the poor and needy, and don’t make any judgments about human behavior and sin, then we are fulfilling the Gospel mandate.
While it is a good and even essential thing that a disciple of Jesus care for the poor and seek justice for the oppressed in this world, there is so much more to the message of redemption in Jesus Christ. We must follow the Ten Commandments, avoid sin, and repent and seek forgiveness when we fail. Our eternal salvation depends on all these things, as Jesus himself taught. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

God’s mercy extends to all of us when we have sinned and repented. There is no limit to this mercy. It is infinite. But we must seek it. If we say we are not sinners and are not in need of God’s mercy, we make God a liar. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:5-10)

True mercy goes beyond justice. But mercy does not oppose justice. Our mission is, only by the grace of God, to seek the salvation of our souls, and to bring as many with us to Heaven as we can, again only as God uses us as his instruments of grace and mercy. The supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls.

– The Catholic Sentinel:

Mary Jo Tully Resigns as chancellor.

Longtime chancellor moving on

Mary Jo Tully, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Portland for 27 years, is moving on. Mary Jo Tully, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Portland for 27 years, will be relocating to pursue other pastoral opportunities. The first lay woman to serve as chancellor of a U.S. archdiocese, Tully has led many initiatives, including ecumenical and interfaith relations, service to religious communities, Catholic health care policy, propagation of the faith and missions support. Archbishop Alexander Sample made the announcement July 11, saying he had  “a heavy but grateful heart.” The archbishop explained that Tully has offered “tremendous gifts” to the local church. “All of us owe Mary Jo our sincere and deep gratitude for all that she has done in serving Christ and His people,” the archbishop said, wishing Tully blessings. Tully, who holds advanced degrees in religious education and theology, formerly worked as head of faith formation in the Archdiocese of Chicago. She became a friend to Vietnamese Catholics of Oregon and Jews in the area. Both groups hold her in high esteem.

Venerable Fulton Sheen's words of wisdom.

From Our Friend Austin Ruse of C-Fam at the U.N. :Homosexual Marriage Not a Right Says European Human Rights Court

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | June 16, 2016 

 

NEW YORK, June 17 (C-Fam) A unanimous decision of the European Court of Human Rights has once again said that homosexual marriage is not a human right under European law.

Almost one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergfell v. Hodges case, which imposed homosexual marriage on the entire United States, the European Court opted with caution, declining to impose homosexual marriage on the 47 nations that make up the Council of Europe.

The Chapin and Charpentier v. France decision is the latest in a succession of cases out of Finland, Italy, Austria, and France, where the Court shut the door to a Europe-wide human right to homosexual marriage, but perhaps not completely.

The European Court opted for a de-centralized approach. The issue of homosexual marriage is “subject to the national laws of the Contracting States,” the Court said, once again stating that there was no “European consensus” to overrule the plain meaning of the European Convention on human rights.

Article 12 of the Convention, which pertains to the right to marry and found a family, “cannot be interpreted as imposing an obligation on governments of the Contracting States to grant homosexual couples access to marriage,” the Court said, because it only “sanctions the traditional concept of marriage, that is the result of the union of a man and a woman.”

As in past decisions, the Court was less categorical and less deferential to European nations in its interpretation of the right to privacy and family life in Article 8 of the Convention.

The Court recognized that “States are still free (…) to restrict access to marriage to different-sex couples,” but it also reiterated that they must allow some form of “civil union” for homosexuals.
While it again recognized the margin of appreciation of states in designing homosexual civil union regimes, it alluded to the possibility that some countries might “go beyond its margin of appreciation in the choice of rights and obligations it established through civil unions.”

The Court let it be known that it would have been willing to flesh out what protections are required by article 8 for homosexual civil unions if any “indication” had been present that French civil union laws were not adequate.

This dictum leaves the door open to the creation of a de facto right to homosexual marriage through a European right to civil unions.

Even so, the ruling comes as a disappointment to homosexual activists, who have brought homosexual marriage cases to the European Court in recent years in the hope that the Court might overturn itself. This time round, after the Irish referendum last May, and on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last June, the unanimous ruling against a European right to homosexual marriage appeared like a particularly harsh denial, and a discouraging one.

The U.S. and European courts on occasion, and especially in decisions involving contentious issues involving homosexual relations, have tended to march in lockstep.

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas’ sodomy statute in the case of Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, Justice Kennedy cited, among other sources of law, a decision of the European Court. But the European Court did not reciprocate the favor this time round, and declined to follow the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Loretto sisters summoned to Rome, raising questions on closure of apostolic visitation.

VOCAL: In 2008 we had and Apostolic Visitation by Mother Clare explained in this older post. Lent 2009 - Goodbye Father Cihak/Hello Mother Clare/40 Days of Prayer for Life and ACTION. 

You might notice the name Sr. Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministries who lead astray Catholics in the homosexual lifestyle.  In 2010, Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), stated that the New Ways Ministry for homosexual Catholics does not present an authentic view of Catholic teaching. Rather, it confuses the faithful about the Church’s efforts to defend traditional marriage and to minister to homosexual persons.  

<sup>These Sisters of Loretto tend to spred falsehood and confusion. Oregon has confused women who consider themselves "woman-priests".  We have an Order of Sisters that are not approved by the Vatican.  We have a lot of work to do.  Come Holy Spirit.  Have Mercy.


Loretto sisters summoned to Rome, raising questions on closure of apostolic visitation.</sup>

 The Vatican's congregation for religious life has summoned to Rome the superior of one of the major orders of U.S. Catholic sisters, asking her to "report on some areas of concern" following the controversial six-year investigation of the country's communities of women religious.

The head of the Sisters of Loretto, a Kentucky-based community founded in the early 19th century to educate pioneer children but now known for strong stands on social justice issues, has been asked to explain alleged "ambiguity" in the order's adherence to church teaching and its way of living religious life.

While the summons from the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is directed specifically at the Sisters of Loretto, it may raise questions for other U.S. women religious communities of apostolic life, who were subject to an unprecedented Vatican inquiry, known as an apostolic visitation, starting in 2008.

Although the congregation formally closed that visitation in December 2014 with the release of a report on the state of religious life in the U.S., it has in at least this instance used material gathered in the investigation to inquire into the life of the order.

Loretto President Sr. Pearl McGivney announced her summoning to Rome in a short June 1 letter to her order's members. In her letter, a copy of which was obtained by GSR, McGivney says she has been asked to visit the Vatican Oct. 18 to report on five so-called "areas of concern."

Among the areas McGivney identifies, quoting from the Vatican congregation's original letter:

• "Your way of promoting the spiritual and community life of the congregation, in light of the Church's definition of apostolic religious life;

• "A certain ambiguity regarding the congregation's adherence to some areas of Church doctrine and morality;

• "Your Congregation's policy regarding members of the community who are known to hold positions of dissent from the Church's moral teaching or approved liturgical practice."

In a statement to GSR Thursday, McGivney said her community "engaged wholeheartedly in the Apostolic Visitation process, and through it, affirmed our Loretto charism and our lives together."

McGivney said her order was one of about 90 nationwide that were personally visited in 2010 as part of the investigation and that during that visit, four members of other congregations interviewed about 90 Loretto sisters.

"The visitors seemed warm and genuinely interested in our lives," stated the president. "They did not inquire about these 'areas of concern' with our elected leadership during this visitation, and we had no expectation that six years later we would find ourselves being asked to come to Rome to address any outstanding issues."

Yet, McGivney added: "We are glad to accept this opportunity for conversation."

"Loretto's constitutions express the manner in which the mission of Loretto is incorporated into the universal mission of the church," she continued. "As our constitutions state, 'Their approval by the Holy See unites the Loretto congregation and its individual members in responsible fidelity to papal authority.'"

"We are confident that our dialogue with the Vatican will be fruitful and bear this out," she stated.

It is unclear from McGivney's letter to her order what information the Vatican congregation may have received to trigger the follow up on the visitation. McGivney does not mention specific allegations against individual members of the order nor cite specific concerns about its way of life.

One of the order's members has however drawn the Vatican's interest several times in the past.
Sr. Jeannine Gramick — who was a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame before joining the Loretto community in 2001 — was first criticized by the Vatican's religious congregation in 1984 for cofounding New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based group that advocates for LGBT Catholics.

In 1999, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a public notification about Gramick's work.

According to McGivney's letter, the religious congregation did cite two specific concerns about the Loretto order's organization structure: its system of allowing laypeople to join the community as "co-members" and a recent revision of some of the articles of incorporation of the order's diverse institutions.

The congregation, according to the letter, raised a concern about "the identity and role of co-members, assuring the distinction between vowed religious life and laity, in particular but not limited to the participation of the co-members in governance structures and decision-making."

Like many U.S. religious orders, the Sisters of Loretto have sought to incorporate laypeople more deeply into their work as the community has experienced a drop in vowed membership following an historically anomalous period of high membership in the early 20th century.

The Sisters of Loretto's website describes their co-members as "women and men of many faith traditions who live the spirit and mission of Loretto through individual mutual commitment."

While the co-members do not take final vows like women religious, they "commit themselves to participation in the life and work of the Loretto Community and share their time, talent and treasure in support of Loretto and its mission."

McGivney says that the order's executive committee, a group of five elected leaders including herself, met at the end of May to discuss her summons and "discern next steps." The president says the order will arrange for regional meetings in coming months to discuss the matter and undertake communal discernment.

In her statement to GSR, the president said the letter from the religious congregation was dated Jan. 1 and signed by the congregation's prefect, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz. McGivney said she received the letter on April 15.

The wider apostolic visitation of U.S. women religious was launched by the Vatican's religious congregation in 2008 under the approval of Pope Benedict XVI. Likely the largest such investigation in church history, it involved inquiry into 341 female religious institutes in the U.S. that include some 50,000 women.

The visitation included a process of written questioning of religious superiors along with on-site visits. The inquiry was one of two investigations of U.S. women religious launched by different Vatican offices in recent years.

The other investigation was a doctrinal assessment of an umbrella group of the elected leaders of U.S. sisters known as the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which was led by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. That investigation was concluded in April 2015.

The Sisters of Loretto were founded by three women in 1812 as the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross. They currently have communities in more than 30 U.S. states and several other countries, with their newest mission being founded in Pakistan in 2009.

They also maintain a non-governmental organization, the Loretto Community, which has consultative status with the United Nations in New York.

The order's website describes the landmark 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, widely known as Vatican II, as influencing the community's sense of its mission.

"Through the teachings and insights of Vatican II, we gained a new understanding of our vocation," it states. "Just as frontier living shaped the lives of our early sisters, so a global society shapes ours."
"Like our early sisters who called themselves Friends of Mary, we too stand at the Foot of the Cross as we strive to bring the healing spirit of God into our world and commit ourselves to improving the conditions of those who suffer from injustice, oppression, and deprivation of dignity," it continues.

[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @joshjmac.]

FYI: A Pro-Life Friend to the North. Another Oregon Right to Life Success

It is amazing how Jesus Christ has worked in the life of  Esther Hurni-Ripplinger.  Esther's trust in the Lord and her strong convictions as she is living out her Catholic faith will do Washington proud and save many souls. ESTHER HURNI-RIPPLINGER NAMED NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PICTURED WITH ABBY JOHNSON

	Dan and I are delighted to introduce Esther Hurni-Ripplinger to be designated as Executive Director of Human Life of Washington effective August 1, 2016. Esther has the broad skill-set required for this position, legislative, media, and business acumen. She also has extensive pro-life experience including five years at Oregon Right to Life, between 2002-2007. Hurni-Ripplinger recently served two legislative sessions as support staff for pro-life champion, Senator Mike Padden, Chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee in Olympia. As Session Aide, Esther Hurni-Ripplinger seamlessly coordinated several special projects. In addition, for one election cycle she performed a short-term contract for the Family Policy Institute of Washington. In the interim, she maintained several clients as an independent business development consultant. Esther not only drew from her experience as a lighting store owner with her husband, and previously as a manufacturer’s representative, but also from her Master’s degree in Business Administration, and a Bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in marketing. Before a move to the Oregon Right to Life Education Foundation, Ripplinger assisted the political director at Oregon Right to Life. She coordinated numerous events, including a workshop to prepare candidates for how to respond to the media regarding the life issue. In her free time, she perceived the need for a pro-life broadcast, and responded by getting certified to produce and host a syndicated pro-life talk show, which featured interviews with expert guests. Specials included a live-studio audience with a gubernatorial candidate, entirely in Spanish and a teen-led edition. (She is fluent in both Spanish and French, and is now learning German.) It ran weekly for four years under her direction, and another six under her successor. Ripplinger launched an unprecedented effort in Oregon to gather women who sought healing from the trauma of their abortions.  Many of whom felt called to share their testimonies, which organically formed a speaker’s bureau. Ripplinger coordinated speaking tours to state affiliates of Oregon Right to Life, and developed the church liaison project, which increased mobilization.  She was a frequent presenter at National Right to Life conventions, and represented Oregon for its American Victims of Abortion (AVA) division. She collaborated with a mental health care professional and team, for the development of an ecumenical program to equip pastors to confidently address the life issue. Esther knows first-hand the trauma of abortion and the difficult road to post-abortion healing. Her personal testimony of the trauma of abortion is on record in Oregon’s House Judiciary Committee advocating a Women’s Right to Know bill, and it is also included in an Amicus Brief in a winning case at the U.S. Supreme Court.  She also has fought to protect the end-of-life. Both she and her son had been pressured by the medical community to “pull the plug” on her severely ill husband, who has since recovered. Her personal testimony involving end-of-life matters was featured on the Life Talk NW program, on Sacred Heart Radio heard throughout Washington State.   “It is a profound honor to represent those who cannot speak for themselves, to continue the good work of Human Life of Washington, and to work with those across this great state who are working hard to build a culture of life. I would be remiss without mentioning my personal experience with the trauma of abortion for which I found healing. Additionally,  I defied medical suggestions to "pull the plug" on my severely ill husband who has now recovered. As a cancer survivor too, my intimate grasp of "patient care" in the midst of a culture of death compels me to advocate for LIFE, our first right. I ask for your help and look forward to working with all people of goodwill for the dignity and care everyone deserves” said Ripplinger. For those who would like to welcome Esther, you can email her at esther.humanlife@gmail.com