Add on from Bill Diss Regarding Thursday, November 14th Meeting

Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25 NKJV)

Dear Friends for Life, Purity and Healing,

I wanted to thank all of you for your messages last week.  Some asked for handouts and I am including three different handouts that hopefully can be distributed and soon. 

Some asked about signs and we will have some signs.  The important thing is that the signs should reflect 1st Amendment Rights.  Some examples follow:

• Civil Rights Are Not Special Rights
• Teachers are Citizens
• We Support Rights for Teachers
• First Amendment Rights ???
• Freedom of Speech for Teachers
• Freedom of Religion for Teachers

The hearing is at 4:00 PM on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at the PPS Headquarters at 501 N. Dixon Street.  (Map)  Please, please attend and please pray.  I am not sure of my fate but I do believe that good will come out of all of this.

It is so ironic that I was the subject of many hearings in 2007 and 2008 at Benson because I told people I was a "teacher".  An administrator and the district lawyer told me I could not even state my occupation.  On the other hand the highest members of the district can say (watch video) [only 17 seconds].

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

(Acts 22:25 NKJV)

 

God Bless You All,

Bill Diss
503-334-6183

 

3 attachments — Download all attachments  

2013-11-08-General-Notice-Hearing.pdf 45K   View   Download

2013-11-08-Knight-Notice-Hearing.pdf 2057K   View   Download

2013-11-08-Catholic-Notice-Hearing.pdf 935K   View   Download

A Catholic Lament: Catholic Cemeteries

 VOCAL received this email yesterday.  This is one Oregon Catholics opinion and experience.  We are here to give people a voice for their observations that hinder our Faith.  

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

You might consider posting the following, especially during November.

Thanks.

A Catholic Lament:

One could do an interesting study as to how many people the former Archdiocesan Superintendent of Catholic Cemeteries, Pat Balfe, fired, as compared with the current Superintendent, Tim Corbett.  You will find that Pat probably never fired anyone, and that Tim has fired many.

Are people now-a-days just incompetent slobs, as compared to people in the not-so-distant past?  No.  A new inhuman and diabolical attitude has arrived.  It is that people are now not considered anything but expendable throw away items.  They have lost their human dignity and value through a new way of thinking which is spread throughout corporations via Human Resources departments.  “HR” departments only seem to care about corporate profits and expansion.  Their only interest in workers is how they might be used to advance the profits and expansions of their given corporations.  They have no concern for the worker as a person.  “Human Resources” in the Portland Archdiocese works in tandem with Tim Corbett to fire, fire, fire.

This dismissive attitude toward workers certainly does not take into account the Christian understanding that a worker (a person) is a creature created in the Love of the infinite God, in His Image and Likeness, and thereby is of an infinite value, and hence cannot be treated as something to be used and discarded at a whim.

Now, let us look again at the former Superintendent of Cemeteries, Pat Balfe.  Pat was a Catholic.  Tim Corbett, the current Superintendent, is not.  There are striking differences between the two.  It is not just a matter of how efficiently a business is run.  There is more to it than that: there is the Catholic perspective, which shows great respect for the living as well as the dead.

One really cannot adequately respond in a cemetery situation, where you have people coming in, in a highly emotional and perhaps vulnerable state who needs someone to talk to about Catholic beliefs and burial practices, and not be a Catholic.  A Catholic is truly necessary for the job.  And yet, and yet…so many non-Catholics are hired for so many positions within the Portland Archdiocese!  This is part of the reason that the Faith is not being adequately transmitted. 

We truly need to hire people who are actual practicing Catholics, who have letters from their parish priests attesting to their good standing in the Church.  Catholics are needed who have a true Catholic heart and a true Catholic way of looking at things; who have a knowledge of the Faith, and a baptismal certificate.

The hiring of actual practicing Catholics in the Catholic Cemetery system is the only way to correct the abysmal situation that Human Resources and the Catholic Cemeteries are in, in the Portland Archdiocese.  This would staunch the flow of cemetery workers being fired from their jobs, and would also restore a Catholic identity and presence in the Catholic cemeteries.

Bill Diss: Portland School joins Planned Parenthood to Destroy Award-winning Teacher on November 14th.

Also see new post from Bill Diss.
Handout downloads attached.

 

Photo: Planned Parenthood

Friday, November 8, 2013 - Common Sense by Paul E. Rondeau

Paul E. Rondeau

WASHINGTON, November 8, 2013 — Bill Diss is an experienced, highly qualified and popular computer science teacher. On November 14, the Portland school district and Planned Parenthood will try to have him declared unfit to teach.

Diss is the only teacher in Oregon to earn the distinction of being credentialed to teach computer science for college credit at the high school level. Diss is a highly qualified high school educator who has been teaching for more than a decade at a desperate public school that almost closed in 2010 — a school that serves a population which is 75 percent minority.

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SEE RELATED: RONDEAU: Christians have the moral & political right to be Christians

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Diss earned special recognitions for his work with at-risk black students and for helping to stop gang violence in Portland parks. But, because he refused to allow Planned Parenthood into his classroom, school administrators branded him “unfit to teach” and intend to end his career with Portland Public Schools on November 14.

Parents and students alike are thankful for his dedication. One parent (who holds an M.Ed.) wrote, “[My daughter] found a teacher that achieved tremendous balance between high expectations and accommodating individual needs.”
Another mother who says Diss is a gem wrote, “The highlight of [my son’s] day however is his math class with Mr. Diss. … It seems he goes to great lengths to make himself available for any student who needs additional help. … Mr. Diss cares enough about his students to have firm boundaries and tell them the truth, even when it hurts.”
And therein lies the problem: Diss is staunchly pro-life and does not hide those views from his students.

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SEE RELATED: Did Pope Francis really say that?

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Diss’ fight against sex industry giant Planned Parenthood on his own time is well-known. It has raised the ire of Principal Carol Campbell and other school administrators for years.

Diss said that, on one occasion, Campbell demanded to know exactly what Diss had said at a prayer vigil. Hearing there was video, she also wanted to see that.

On September 17, 2012, things escalated. With Campbell’s backing, an “education team” went to Diss’ classroom to enroll students in the Health and Human Services’ Teen Outreach Program (TOP). One of the TOP goals is to reduce teen pregnancy. It teaches students (among other things) about premarital sex, contraception, and abortion.

Pro-life critics of the program say that TOP is just a slickly packaged comprehensive sex education program promoted by $375 million rolled into Obamacare. As the de facto defunding of abstinence education by the White House progresses, TOP agents tempt parents with a $30 payment if the parents sign a medical release giving an undefined “healthcare provider” permission to treat the students in the absence of the parents.

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SEE RELATED: Planned Parenthood: Babies born alive can still be ‘aborted’

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When three TOP agents entered Diss’ math class, they immediately put up signs and began offering gift certificates and cash incentives to his students to enroll them in the program. Suspicious, Diss asked for identification.

It turned out the presenters did not work for Uncle Sam. Rather, they were employees of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette — the local PP that affirms homosexuality, promotes “sex-positive celebrations,” and offers abortions.

Diss asked them to leave the classroom but, within moments, Campbell arrived to enforce access to the students. Diss says that when he asked to be excused for religious preference reasons, Campbell refused.

In a formal letter to Principal Campbell written the following day, Bill Snyder, security/facilities manager for PPCW, complained that Diss told students that Planned Parenthood “was a racist organization, was involved in eugenics, and was a provider of abortions.”

While some black leaders like Jesse Jackson would not agree, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, goes even further: “The most obvious practitioner of racism in the United States today is Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by the eugenicist Margaret Sanger and recently documented as ready to accept money to eliminate black babies.”

Ryan Bomberger, a young rising star in the black pro-life movement, echoes the sentiment. His TooManyAborted project uses video to expose “Planned Parenthood’s history of eugenic racism and unaltered present.”

Snyder’s memo went on to complain that Diss was overheard “telling students in the hallway that PPCW was going to talk to them about abortion and students were intimidated to the point that none of them signed up for the class.” 

Planned Parenthood records show the organization committed over 332,000 abortions last year, estimated to be one-third of its total clinic revenues. The national abortion ratio by race is 300 percent higher for African Americans.

After that day, Diss says Planned Parenthood was allowed to monitor his class for the next two weeks and he has been monitored almost 40 times by Campbell, Vice Principal Jeandre Carbone, Frank Scotto of human resources, and even Planned Parenthood management.

Diss says he has been subjected to over a dozen hearings. On November 14, 2013, Portland schools will bring formal charges that Diss is unfit to teach. The formal hearing is meant to end his career.
One of the charges brought against him includes talking about premarital sex, sexual purity, and abortion in his math and computer science classes.

Do these educators know how to spell i-r-o-n-y?

While Planned Parenthood hopes to get Diss’s teaching credentials revoked, the Portland Association of Teachers has hired lawyers to protect Diss’ First Amendment rights.

Upon hearing of Diss’ troubles, a former student wrote the school: “Mr. Diss has done a lot for me and my family and there is no way that we could ever repay him. I believe that the world is in desperate need of good, honest people. If Mr. Diss gets his teaching license revoked, then that will only take another good source of help from the students.”

The grateful former student concluded, “This is all despite the fact that he and I have different points of view on Planned Parenthood.”

Jim Sedlak of STOPP.org, recognized as the leading national expert on Planned Parenthood, said, “Planned Parenthood is ruthless. This is about political power, not the truth, the children, or good teachers. They will no doubt pack the hearing with pro-choice activists to sway the outcome.”

The attorney representing Diss agrees, saying that it is imperative that families and teachers who support his civil rights attend. She believes that Diss is being persecuted for his religious beliefs. The hearing will be conducted at the headquarters of Portland public schools at 501 N. Dixon Street in Portland, Oregon, beginning at 4 p.m. on November 14.

Mr. Diss told Common Sense in an e-mail:

“The hearing is divided into two parts: The first part is at 4:00 p.m., when the district will have an hour to bring charges against me for misconduct and being unfit to teach.

“[During] the second hour from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., we get an opportunity to respond to the charges. I am asking all to pray and I would cherish your presence the second hour or for the entire hearing. Please bring your families. I think it is important that the school attorney and board members understand the importance of families and children. The press will also be there and I suspect many supporters of Planned Parenthood will be there.

At press time, Campbell, Carbone, Smith and Scotto have not replied to phone calls or e-mail requests for comment.

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/common-sense/2013/nov/8/school-joins-planned-parenthood-destroy-award-winn/#ixzz2kNNfGis0
Follow us: @wtcommunities on Twitter

Why are CRS, CCHD, and CCUSA ignoring Pope Francis?

Where are the real social justice agencies of the Catholic Church?

by Michael Hichborn, American Life League

Thu Oct 31, 2013 15:49 EST

 

  (LifeSiteNews.com) - Genuine social justice is not composed of bureaucracies, collaboration with government agencies, and high salaries. As Pope Francis has recently said, it begins with Christ: "The Church must bring Jesus, the love of Jesus, the charity of Jesus.

And that's the rub. Our research has repeatedly pointed out over the last four years that Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Catholic Relief Services have repeatedly shown that they are not bringing Jesus, but rather programs, projects, and agencies that focus specifically on "services" that are at absolute odds with Catholic teaching, such as those on abortion and contraception.

Because of our position and our well-documented research, we have taken a great deal of flak from people within the Catholic social justice community and even some Catholic bishops.
On the other hand, we have received private praise from many lay Catholics and numerous bishops.
So, when lay supporters ask us why the Catholic Church appears to be silent or even appears at times to defend the actions of organizations such as Catholic Charities, Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), and Catholic Relief Services, we hasten to point out that official teachings of the Church on life and family have always been consistent. It is those human beings within the Church that often go astray.

For over 40 years, the popes of the Church have expressed their concern for the direction of these agencies in general. We have simply applied their clearly enunciated general concerns to specific situations.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI penned the document Evangelii Nuntiandi, warning in paragraph 32 what would happen if the work of charity in the Church focused on the temporal while ignoring the eternal:

We must not ignore the fact that many, even generous Christians who are sensitive to the dramatic questions involved in the problem of liberation, in their wish to commit the Church to the liberation effort are frequently tempted to reduce her mission to the dimensions of a simply temporal project. They would reduce her aims to a man-centered goal; the salvation of which she is the messenger would be reduced to material well-being. Her activity, forgetful of all spiritual and religious preoccupation, would become initiatives of the political or social order. But if this were so, the Church would lose her fundamental meaning. Her message of liberation would no longer have any originality and would easily be open to monopolization and manipulation by ideological systems and political parties. She would have no more authority to proclaim freedom as in the name of God. This is why we have wished to emphasize, in the same address at the opening of the Synod, "the need to restate clearly the specifically religious finality of evangelization. This latter would lose its reason for existence if it were to diverge from the religious axis that guides it: the kingdom of God, before anything else, in its fully theological meaning....

In 1986, under the instruction of Pope John Paul II, then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger wrote “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation,” wherein he said (paragraph 98):

Thus a theology of freedom and liberation which faithfully echoes Mary's Magnificat preserved in the Church's memory is something needed by the times in which we are living. But it would be criminal to take the energies of popular piety and misdirect them toward a purely earthly plan of liberation, which would very soon be revealed as nothing more than an illusion and a cause of new forms of slavery.

Pope Benedict XVI’s document, “On the Service of Charity,” gave specific instructions to Catholic charitable organizations:

It is important, however, to keep in mind that “practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ”. In carrying out their charitable activity, therefore, the various Catholic organizations should not limit themselves merely to collecting and distributing funds, but should show special concern for individuals in need and exercise a valuable educational function within the Christian community, helping people to appreciate the importance of sharing, respect and love in the spirit of the Gospel of Christ. The Church’s charitable activity at all levels must avoid the risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance.

Pope Francis has recently echoed these popes on several occasions now. In his first sermon as Pope, he said:

We can walk as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord. When we are not walking, we stop moving. When we are not building on the stones, what happens? The same thing that happens to children on the beach when they build sandcastles: everything is swept away, there is no solidity. When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: "Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil." When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.

Just last week, Pope Francis reiterated these warnings:

Our Lady also wants to bring the great gift of Jesus to us, to us all; and with him she brings us his love, his peace, and his joy. In this, the Church is like Mary: the Church is not a shop, she is not a humanitarian agency, the Church is not an NGO. The Church is sent to bring Christ and his Gospel to all. She does not bring herself — whether small or great, strong or weak, the Church carries Jesus and should be like Mary when she went to visit Elizabeth. What did Mary take to her? Jesus. The Church brings Jesus: this is the centre of the Church, to carry Jesus! If, as a hypothesis, the Church were not to bring Jesus, she would be a dead Church. The Church must bring Jesus, the love of Jesus, the charity of Jesus.

The statements of these popes speak for themselves, and stand as a firm testimony to the truth; The Church has spoken against actions taken by the likes of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Charities USA, and Catholic Relief Services. The question is, “Why are these agencies ignoring the popes?”

Click "like" to support Catholics Restoring the Culture!
 
Hopefully, through prayer, fasting, and exposure of the truth, these organizations will sever their ties with the culture of death and conform to the authentic charity defined by the vicars of Christ.
Michael Hichborn is Director of Media Relations at American Life League.

Who's who? Plenary Indulgence Reminders for First Week in November

Plenary Indulgence Reminders for First Week in November

November, the month especially dedicated to the Poor Souls, begin today , with the most richly indulgenced week of the year - we could call it Indulgence Week, for the great generosity with which the spiritual wealth of indulgences is made available by the Church.

There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November. They are the following:

29

For the faithful departed 

§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:

1° on each single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed; [Note: one plenary indulgence for each day, if the usual conditions are met]

2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the Pater and the Credo. 

(Reference: Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th edition, al. concessiones.)

The Smoke of Satan Returns

 Saint Benedict Metals for Christmas?
 
Thanks to Catholic Parent's Online a member of Catholic Media Coalition for sending me this.
 
The Smoke of Satan Returns

October 28, 2013

William Doino Jr.

In 1972, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Paul VI delivered a sermon that startled the world. Describing the chaos then consuming the post-conciliar Church, he lamented: “From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

Paul’s words were a warning to all who, taken with the “spirit of Vatican II”—rather than the Council’s actual teachings—had fallen under the sway of dark spirits. But Catholic dissidents didn’t want to be criticized, much less told they might be assisting the devil. So they struck back—with sarcasm, ridicule and contempt. One of Paul’s biographers describes their reaction:

Cartoonists refurbished their stock of clichés, producing cloven hoofs, long sinuous tails, ugly contorted faces and terrifying implements of torture. For the cartoonists Paul VI was definitely not a modern man.

Neither, as we’ve come to learn, is Pope Francis—if by “modern” we mean an abandonment of the supernatural, and a flight from Christianity’s most challenging teachings. Like his venerable predecessor, Francis has made it a point to draw the world’s attention to the wiles of the devil. But whereas Paul waited nearly ten years to speak so dramatically about Satan, Francis took only a day.

Within twenty-four hours of being elected, the new pope declared: “When one does not profess Jesus Christ—I recall the phrase of Leon Bloy—‘Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.’” The following day, Francis continued: “Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil tempts us with every day.” In his homily for Palm Sunday, he spoke of problems which appear insurmountable: “In this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him!”

In July, Francis consecrated Vatican City State to St. Michael, the Archangel, who “defends the People of God from their enemies, and above all from the arch-enemy par excellence, the devil.” And in early October, Francis powerfully rebuked those who deny the existence of Satan, warning against relativism, deceit, and “the seduction of evil.”

Striking as his words are, they are not surprising. During his formation as a Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio adopted the intense spirituality of St. Ignatius, who always recognized the reality of spiritual warfare. In On Heaven and Earth, his 2010 book with his friend, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the then Cardinal Bergoglio spoke of the devil in the starkest terms: “He is the tempter, the one that looks to destroy the work of God, he that brings us to self-sufficiency, to pride. Jesus defines him as the father of lies.”

Contending with the devil, he continued, “is precisely man’s battle on earth.” That same year, Cardinal Bergolio rose to publicly challenge Argentina’s move to redefine marriage:

At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts. Let us not be naïve: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a “move” of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

President Cristina Kirchner, who pushed hard for the radical legislation, responded: “Bergoglio’s position is medieval.” But truth is objective and not time-conditioned, so Bergoglio’s defense of marriage stands.

During the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the devil was by no means downplayed: John Paul’s Catechism highlights his presence, and Benedict was inveighing against Satan long before he became pope, notably in the Ratzinger Report. But Francis has taken the subject to a new level. He has three very clear ideas about humanity’s struggle against Satan.

The first is that no one should ever use the devil to excuse scandal, immorality, and criminal behavior—as has sometimes happened in the Church. The faithful Christian always accepts personal responsibility, and understands that the devil can never force us to do anything against our will. He tempts, he misleads, he brings us to the point of danger, but in the final analysis, it is our choice whether to succumb to evil or not.

The second principle is never to allow our fight against Satan to end dialogue with our opponents. Back in May, Francis proclaimed, “You cannot dialogue with the prince of the world,” and his statement immediately provoked questions: How can we improve anything in a conflicted world, if we demonize our opponents and summarily end dialogue with them? But that’s not what Francis said, in context. In the very next sentence, he stressed the importance of dialogue, which is “necessary for peace.” What he meant by warning us never to dialogue with the devil is never to sacrifice ultimate truth when meeting with our opponents—not that we shouldn’t search for common ground, or try to win hearts for Christ.

The third principle is to be on constant guard against the devil, never assume we cannot sin like those we are trying to correct, and ask ourselves some pointed questions:

Do I guard myself, my heart, my feelings, my thoughts? Do I guard the treasure of grace? Do I guard the presence of the Holy Spirit in me? Or do I let go, feeling secure, believing that all is going well? But if you do not guard yourself, he who is stronger than you will come.

On all these points, says Francis, “there are no nuances. There is a battle and a battle where salvation is at play, eternal salvation.”

Those who support Francis’ exhortations should follow his lead, knowing they will meet resistance. Sin, evil, temptation, the devil, eternal judgment—these are not topics the modern world wants to discuss, or even that many Christians do. When Archbishop Chaput addressed the reality of Satan a few years ago, he called out the “many religious leaders” who were “embarrassed to talk about the devil” and spiritual warfare. Doing so invites charges of harboring irrational, superstitious, even dangerous beliefs. But the real peril is the denial of evil that began with Satan, and is still being fomented by his legions. “I believe that the devil exists,” Francis told Rabbi Skorka. “Maybe his greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he does not exist.”

We need to keep driving that message home. For as Pope Francis keeps reminding us, until the Lord returns in his full triumph and glory, the smoke of Satan is here to stay.

William Doino Jr. is a contributor to Inside the Vatican magazine, among many other publications, and writes often about religion, history and politics. He contributed an extensive bibliography of works on Pius XII to The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII. His previous “On the Square” articles can be found here.

October 28, 2013

William Doino Jr.

In 1972, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Paul VI delivered a sermon that startled the world. Describing the chaos then consuming the post-conciliar Church, he lamented: “From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

Paul’s words were a warning to all who, taken with the “spirit of Vatican II”—rather than the Council’s actual teachings—had fallen under the sway of dark spirits. But Catholic dissidents didn’t want to be criticized, much less told they might be assisting the devil. So they struck back—with sarcasm, ridicule and contempt. One of Paul’s biographers describes their reaction:

Cartoonists refurbished their stock of clichés, producing cloven hoofs, long sinuous tails, ugly contorted faces and terrifying implements of torture. For the cartoonists Paul VI was definitely not a modern man.

Neither, as we’ve come to learn, is Pope Francis—if by “modern” we mean an abandonment of the supernatural, and a flight from Christianity’s most challenging teachings. Like his venerable predecessor, Francis has made it a point to draw the world’s attention to the wiles of the devil. But whereas Paul waited nearly ten years to speak so dramatically about Satan, Francis took only a day.

Within twenty-four hours of being elected, the new pope declared: “When one does not profess Jesus Christ—I recall the phrase of Leon Bloy—‘Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.’” The following day, Francis continued: “Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil tempts us with every day.” In his homily for Palm Sunday, he spoke of problems which appear insurmountable: “In this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him!”

In July, Francis consecrated Vatican City State to St. Michael, the Archangel, who “defends the People of God from their enemies, and above all from the arch-enemy par excellence, the devil.” And in early October, Francis powerfully rebuked those who deny the existence of Satan, warning against relativism, deceit, and “the seduction of evil.”

Striking as his words are, they are not surprising. During his formation as a Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio adopted the intense spirituality of St. Ignatius, who always recognized the reality of spiritual warfare. In On Heaven and Earth, his 2010 book with his friend, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the then Cardinal Bergoglio spoke of the devil in the starkest terms: “He is the tempter, the one that looks to destroy the work of God, he that brings us to self-sufficiency, to pride. Jesus defines him as the father of lies.”

Contending with the devil, he continued, “is precisely man’s battle on earth.” That same year, Cardinal Bergolio rose to publicly challenge Argentina’s move to redefine marriage:

At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts. Let us not be naïve: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a “move” of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

President Cristina Kirchner, who pushed hard for the radical legislation, responded: “Bergoglio’s position is medieval.” But truth is objective and not time-conditioned, so Bergoglio’s defense of marriage stands.

During the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the devil was by no means downplayed: John Paul’s Catechism highlights his presence, and Benedict was inveighing against Satan long before he became pope, notably in the Ratzinger Report. But Francis has taken the subject to a new level. He has three very clear ideas about humanity’s struggle against Satan.

The first is that no one should ever use the devil to excuse scandal, immorality, and criminal behavior—as has sometimes happened in the Church. The faithful Christian always accepts personal responsibility, and understands that the devil can never force us to do anything against our will. He tempts, he misleads, he brings us to the point of danger, but in the final analysis, it is our choice whether to succumb to evil or not.

The second principle is never to allow our fight against Satan to end dialogue with our opponents. Back in May, Francis proclaimed, “You cannot dialogue with the prince of the world,” and his statement immediately provoked questions: How can we improve anything in a conflicted world, if we demonize our opponents and summarily end dialogue with them? But that’s not what Francis said, in context. In the very next sentence, he stressed the importance of dialogue, which is “necessary for peace.” What he meant by warning us never to dialogue with the devil is never to sacrifice ultimate truth when meeting with our opponents—not that we shouldn’t search for common ground, or try to win hearts for Christ.

The third principle is to be on constant guard against the devil, never assume we cannot sin like those we are trying to correct, and ask ourselves some pointed questions:

Do I guard myself, my heart, my feelings, my thoughts? Do I guard the treasure of grace? Do I guard the presence of the Holy Spirit in me? Or do I let go, feeling secure, believing that all is going well? But if you do not guard yourself, he who is stronger than you will come.

On all these points, says Francis, “there are no nuances. There is a battle and a battle where salvation is at play, eternal salvation.”

Those who support Francis’ exhortations should follow his lead, knowing they will meet resistance. Sin, evil, temptation, the devil, eternal judgment—these are not topics the modern world wants to discuss, or even that many Christians do. When Archbishop Chaput addressed the reality of Satan a few years ago, he called out the “many religious leaders” who were “embarrassed to talk about the devil” and spiritual warfare. Doing so invites charges of harboring irrational, superstitious, even dangerous beliefs. But the real peril is the denial of evil that began with Satan, and is still being fomented by his legions. “I believe that the devil exists,” Francis told Rabbi Skorka. “Maybe his greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he does not exist.”

We need to keep driving that message home. For as Pope Francis keeps reminding us, until the Lord returns in his full triumph and glory, the smoke of Satan is here to stay.

William Doino Jr. is a contributor to Inside the Vatican magazine, among many other publications, and writes often about religion, history and politics. He contributed an extensive bibliography of works on Pius XII to The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII. His previous “On the Square” articles can be found here.

Archdiocese of Portland's Office of Justice and Peace Still Funding Same Blatantly Anti-Catholic Organizations.

Catholic Campaign for Human Development 2013 Grants

Catholic Sentinel: 2013 CCHD grants support social justice programs

These organization are chosen by the CCHD Committee.  These programs are funded year after year supporting values against the Catholic church. Sometimes fungible funding makes grantees seem in accordance with Church teachings, but this actually lets them use monies to work against the Church.

When CCHD collections are not supported the Catholic church organizations are forced to find other avenues of revenue which is really a good thing.  We need to be good stewards of our collection plate.

We need to know who's on the CCHD Board and their biographies and if they are being open to all people and not just their friends.

CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 2013 GRANT RECIPIENTS

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has awarded three Oregon organizations with its 2012-13 national grants. Two additional organizations were awarded Technical Assistance Grants. The Archdiocese of Portland's Catholic Campaign for Human Development has also awarded its 2013 local grants to five programs that aim to fight the root causes of poverty.

CCHD is the Catholic Church's domestic anti-poverty program. The campaign assists local anti-poverty groups in organizing programs by and for poor and marginalized people.

Grant applicants are assessed on their ability to find solutions to local problems and to improve local economic conditions.
CCHD supports programs that

• respect human life
• foster human dignity
• empower the disadvantaged to take control of their own lives by having and maintaining a strong voice in the organization's leadership
• strive to create economic opportunity or bring about institutional change by addressing the root causes of poverty in the U.S. through change to our laws, culture, corporations, stereotypes, or unjust social structures

2013 NATIONAL GRANT RECIPIENTS
Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) is Oregon's only grassroots, tenant-led, tenant-rights organization. CAT educates, organizes and develops low-income tenants into community leaders to challenge unjust housing policies and practices and obtain safe, stable and affordable housing. CAT's Housing Justice Program organizes buildings' tenants and empowers them to secure housing improvements and repairs.

Organizing apartment buildings develops tenant leaders and increases tenant knowledge and power. Tenant leaders become advocates, organizing renter-identified housing policy campaigns including: increased funding for affordable housing, rental inspections, and barrier free housing opportunities within the Oregon Landlord/Tenant statues and local policy.

This CCHD grant will fund the Housing Justice Program's efforts to mobilize and empower low-income tenants in buildings with serious repair problems to win immediate improvements; work for long-term funding for affordable housing; developing leaders to initiate campaigns for improved protections for tenants; and develop a comprehensive response to unsafe housing.
CAT is the epitome of CCHD and Catholic principles of listening to the cries of the poor and empowering them.

Hacienda Community Development Corporation (HCDC) works with a group of low-income Latino entrepreneurs to develop metro Portland's first Latino Public Market (the Mercado), owned and operated by a cooperative of the market vendors themselves. The Market is currently in a start-up phase.

While most of the Latino-focused CCHD-funded organizations in Portland work on metro, county and state immigrant right, all legislative issues, Hacienda CDC works on issues of economic opportunity for working Latino families and others in Oregon by promoting healthy living and economic advancement. HCDC is unique.

(Below is an organization following the Saul Alinsky anti-Catholic values formula.)

MACG Vision is the only established community organization with an identifiable faith-based -- Catholic -- element. Its organizing efforts are in the Latino communities of Catholic parishes.
MACG Vision applies the tools learned through training to change the culture of their parishes to ones that are based in strong relationships, shared leadership, and accountability among members.
Routinely in Catholic churches, skills learned through leadership training are used to share stories and strengthen community relationships.

This CCHD grant will fund its Latino Organizing outreach efforts to current and prospective member institutions with low-income and/or minority populations, focusing especially on the diverse, low-income East Portland/East Multnomah County areas, and fund a Latino organizer who will organize Latino members of these current and prospective member institutions.


2013 LOCAL GRANT RECIPIENTS

Huerto de la Familia offers Latino families a place to connect with their roots and the earth by growing their own food. Its vision is to cultivate community integration and economic self-sufficiency by offering opportunities and training in organic gardening and farming, and the development of food and farm-based micro-enterprises.

Thirty-percent of Oregon Latinos live below the Federal Poverty Level. The Cambios Micro Development Program offers business training and business counseling to Spanish-speaking individuals who want to create or enhance food and farm businesses and transition from laborers to business owners. Specifically, the program supports individuals in developing business plans, financial literacy, and marketing skills.

Huerto de la Familia has previously been awarded local and national CCHD grant. It is the only CCHD-funded organization in the Eugene Metropolitan area. We are glad to continue a wonderful relationship.

(Below is something for pregnant women that is a positive move)

Madonna's Center is a uniquely-designed response in Clackamas County serving Madonna's Center serves teens (age19 and under) who are “with child” and without essential family/financial support or not eligible for government-funded programs because of age/circumstances, and are assuming primary responsibility for parenting their children (age 3 and under) while also working towards self-sufficiency.

Madonna's Center serves Clackamas County, has Catholic roots, and is dedicated to protecting new life.

This CCHD grant funds the teen parents' efforts to mobilize to advocate for changes in public laws/policies regarding housing solutions for teen parents. Teen parents advocating for changes to unjust structures that are keeping them from succeeding. CCHD funded them two years ago for another project and it was remarkable to see the confidence instilled in these women.
Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE) organized in the Latino migrant community to develop meaningful parental involvement to increase the graduation rate for, and educational outcomes of, low income and minority students in Salem-Keizer.
Education is the surest way out of poverty.
SKCE is located in Salem, with workshops in Corvallis and Southern Oregon.
This CCHD grant will partially fund Reading Together We Advance (Leyendo Avanzamos), a parent-led, outcome-based family literacy project empowering low-income, Spanish-speaking parents of struggling or at risk pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first-, or second-grade students to become engaged in their children's school.

Unete is a volunteer-led movement of farmworkers and immigrants in rural Southern Oregon educating their community and advocating for worker rights, humane immigration policy, and full participation in the decision-making processes affecting their lives.

The CCHD funds Unete's organizing efforts -- Voces Unidas -- to improve educational outcomes for Latino students in the Medford School district. This program includes Parent Education, Peer Tutoring for Elementary through High school students, and parent leadership development, which gives parents the tools to advocate for their children in the public school setting.
Unete is the only Latino-led non-profit in the Rogue Valley and would be the only CCHD-funded organization in southern Oregon.

Voz Workers' Rights Education Project (Voz) is a worker-led organization that empowers day laborers to advocate for their own just working conditions through leadership development, community organizing, and policy reform. Voz operates the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worker Center, where day laborers find work and build community skills.
Voz is recognized as a leader for immigrant rights, especially at the local level but also at the state level, with an office at St. Francis Catholic Church.

CCHD funds will support Voz's efforts in its "Save the Center Campaign," mobilizing day laborers and community members to advocate the City of Portland government for a permanent solution for a Worker Center.
2013 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT RECIPIENTS
New City Kitchen and Catering is a project of New City Initiative that provides employment training and opportunity to people who have experienced homelessness. It also creates its own employment opportunities through a newly-launched catering program.
By creating employment opportunity, New City Kitchen supports respect for human life and dignity as well as cultural diversity (racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the homeless population).
This social enterprise has a promising future. To solidify this promise, New City will receive a Technical Assistance Grant for Business Planning.

OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon (OPAL) is a grassroots community-based organization working to educate, engage and empower low-income communities of color to build leadership and capacity to effectively participate in the civic process to protect their community health and interests.
It is the only membership-controlled, environmental justice organization supported by CCHD.
OPAL receives a Technical Assistance Grant for Strategic Planning for its Bus Riders Unite (BRU) membership program, focusing on developing BRU's core leadership, membership retention, and membership-driven campaign work.

This project seeks to educate and mobilize transit-dependent riders in East Portland to engage in a community-driven project to increase the accessibility, safety and connectivity of transit, and to build awareness of the connections between transit and positive health outcomes.

The project will also create opportunities for meaningful engagement in local decision-making and advocate for prioritizing the needs of transit-dependent communities. Organizing a voice for the voiceless.

"Our Differences Make Us Beautiful" Pope Francis

Ex-abortionist surrenders abortion instruments to Pope Francis.

Ex-abortionist surrenders abortion instruments to Pope Francis

by Hilary White

Tue Oct 01, 2013 13:43 EST

ROME, October 1, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A former abortionist’s far-fetched dream of surrendering the medical instruments with which he had once performed abortions to Pope Francis became a reality recently, when, to his astonishment, Dr. Antonio Oriente found himself face to face with the pontiff.
In a testimony posted to Facebook, Dr. Antonio Oriente expresses his surprise at the encounter, explaining that he had originally decided not to go to Rome for a conference of gynecologists to which he was invited, because of a father-in-law in “grave health” and the fact that there was no guarantee he could even see the pope personally. But at the last minute, he changed his mind.

Former abortionist Dr. Antonio Oriente meets with Pope Francis

 

Oriente, the vice president and founder of the Associazione Italiana Ginecologi Ostetrici Cattolici (AIGOC), told ACI Presna, “I used to do abortions before my conversion, and I had the desire to entrust the [instruments] to the Holy Father, after I had failed to do it with John Paul II nor with Benedict XVI.”

A fellow member of AIGOC had confirmed that the group would be included in a papal audience for the conference, but said only a small number would be able to meet personally with the Holy Father. Of AIGOC, he said, only the president and secretary were in that number.

“I knew I could not confer with the Pope, and that therefore my desire to give him the surgical instruments which I used as an abortionist would have been nearly impossible,” Oriente said in his testimony. But despite these reservations, and worries about bringing the instruments on a flight, Oriente decided to take the flight up from Messina to Rome, “after I prayed and asked the Lord just the same”.

After explaining his desire to hand over his abortion instruments at an audience with Pope Francis, airport security authorities in Palermo allowed him to fly. “But in the meantime the boarding had concluded and the doors of the boarding gates were locked. But even here,” he wrote, “I prayed in my heart.” A policeman called a fellow employee, who allowed Oriente to reach the plane and board.
Click "like" if you want to end abortion! 



Upon arriving in Rome, more obstacles appeared, with little chance of speaking directly to the pope. But at the last possible moment, following the pope’s speech, Oriente said he told a bishop his story. This bishop, whom he did not name, spoke directly with “Padre George,” Archbishop Georg Ganswein, who brought him before the pope “immediately, without hesitation.”

Oriente handed the package of instruments to the pope, who, he says, “gave me the mandate to evangelize the pro life [message] and to defend life itself.”

Pope Francis, he said, told him, “This evening I will pray. This [the instruments] I have to bring with me to my room to Santa Marta.”

“Then he laid his hands on me, and said, ‘You are blessed and fight for life.”

Oriente said, “The instruments of death were abandoned at the foot of the successor of Peter in the world, as death is put at the feet of Jesus in favor of life.”

Oriente told ACI Prensa that he became an abortionist for the money, but changed his mind after he married and he and his wife experienced the pain of infertility. He attributed the start of his conversion to a meeting with a Christian couple who invited him to a prayer meeting, “to achieve some peace”.
Previously, he said, God had seemed like nothing more than an “obligation,” but at this meeting he encountered a merciful God.

Sitting one day before the crucifix, he said, he wrote a letter to the Lord, “What I call a spiritual Testament: never more death until death.”


“What kind of son am I that I am a killer to the children of others? I abandon the culture of death and embrace life.”
AIGOC, based at the famed Gemelli Catholic hospital in Rome, was formed in 2009 in order to make “a preferential choice to improving the life and health of mothers and children, either born or unborn, through new service initiatives, training, research and publicity intended to combat abortion in its varied forms, maternal mortality and perinatal, obstetric conditions”.

A member of the group, Dr. Giuseppe Noia, vice president of the Centre for Foetal Diagnosis and Therapy at the Gemelli, told the Catholic newspaper Avvenire that AIGOC “will fit into the contemporary cultural debate by proposing a language based on scientific data and philosophical foundations, legal and anthropological, to open up space for reflection on the dignity of the human person acceptable to believers and non-believers, because it is founded on evidence.”

Dr. Noia said the Association expects to see “a great cultural challenge in the current educational crisis.”

The aim is not to “to stir up a banner of victory or ideological supremacy, but to do a service of clarification of thought and promotion of discernment. Not to build walls or barriers of misunderstanding but to build bridges of sharing, with the aim to be more aware and more free and so reclaim the true meaning of humanity.”

Pro-abortion organisations are increasingly frustrated as the number of doctors and other medical professionals willing to participate in abortion goes down in Italy. In November, 2011 the Free Association of Italian Gynaecologists for the Application of Law 194 (Italy's law legalization abortion), met in Rome for its first national convention, and issued a statement that it is because “almost all new doctors employed make a conscientious objection.”

Government statistics from 2011 said that throughout the country, 70.7 per cent of gynecologists are conscientious objectors; 51.7 per cent of anesthesiologists, and 44.4 per cent of all nurses, also refuse.
Responding to LAIGA’s claims, Dr. Noia said that the choice of the majority of medical objectors was “formed by their awareness of the physical and psychological damage caused by the interruption of pregnancy”.

“They call it therapeutic abortion, but killing a fetus is not a therapy. Women who have had abortions, in fact, often fall into depression and are seven times more likely to commit suicide than others.”
Noia added, “Today, the doctor seems to want to regain possession of his identity: a professional in the service of life and not of death.”