Sunday, February 27, 2011

Great Blessing for Men from Cardinal Burke and Bishop Vasa / "Bad Mass = Weak Faith"

Cardinal Raymond Burke
Newspaper Article on Success of Conference.

Cardinal Burke article - "Bad Mass = Weak Faith"

Thanks to Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Robert Vasa for taking their time to be touchstones of sanity in the age-old abuse of the true teachings of the Church.  Five hundred men were so blessed by this conference.

Bishop Robert F. Vasa



God Bless and protect them both.


Friday, February 18, 2011

"Capital Campaign" Coercion in the Pews.

"Coercion (pronounced /koʊˈɜrʃən/) is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats,or rewards intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced." Wikipedia

Dear Advocates for Life,

Now, the $50,000,000.00 five-year Archdiocese of Portland Capital Campaign...in addition as well as 10% our regular Sunday collection and all the other ways we give during mass including the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) .

The coercion:

1.  Changing the Liturgy of the Mass to raise funds through prayers and spiels during Mass, which is against the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM)

2.  Using psychological pressure to force funding this Campaign.

3.  Secular value on human beings according to the amount they give to the Archdiocese Capital Campaign.

4.  Invasion of privacy.

5.  What could be seen as "veiled threat" regarding campaign visit to every Catholic household to assure giving.

6.  Threat of penalizing priests who don't produce 120% above regular funds from their pews.

7.  Hiring people to do this for approximately 10% of the total of $50,000,000. or $5,000,000.

8.  Using parishioners collection plate to refill the coffers from the Sex scandal where the homosexual "climate" continues.

The Real Reason? Bottom Line.
Archbishop Vlazny's Catholic Sentinel Article on Capital Campaign 
"We’re doing it because the need is now and, frankly, I don’t have much time left. I certainly want my successor to be able to come in here and actively challenge all of us to work together to evangelize all the people of western Oregon, beginning with ourselves.  It will take a new bishop time to get to know all of you and I hope and pray that he will be able to focus on our number one priority, namely, growing in holiness.  During my tenure, the needs have been more mundane and our resources required for mission were diminished and need to be replenished."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click on "Sharing Our Faith" - Manual on Capital Campaign   (Sixty pages so takes a while to download.) 


Page 2
 "The aim of the campaign is to further educate the parishioners
to the concept of giving back—of sharing with the Lord the gifts He has provided—and to
incorporate this philosophy of giving in the archdiocese. In addition, the campaign will
address archdiocesan and individual parish needs"

Page 3 "The Archdiocese of Portland retained the services of the Steier Group, a Catholic fund raising and development firm, to help manage the campaign." 
Steier Group says:  "We assign a team of professionals to each client. Your campaign manager will be dedicated to your project – and only your project – throughout the effort and will handle the day-to-day campaign activities. Your campaign manager will be directly supervised by a campaign services director, as well as our CEO, Jim Steier. Your campaign manager will be supported by a staff of public relations and media specialists, full-time graphic designers, full-time grant writers and experts in planned giving, direct mail appeals, online fundraising, stewardship programs, major gift solicitations and event planning."

Page 4
"120% of collections are goal or parish will be penalized without a good reason.
+75% collected to Archdiocese and 25% for parish
Parishes will be asked to make every effort to achieve their goal. A parish
seeking to adjust its target must provide the archdiocese with justification
for the adjustment in order to be approved by the Archbishop.
     Plans to raise funds for new construction or renovation must be approved by
the Archbishop in writing........"
"If a parish follows the recommended campaign procedures, the parish will not be assessed any financial penalty if it does not reach its campaign target."  Any Funds Over Targeted Amount are Divided 50/50 Archdiocese and parish.
____________________________________________________


Apparently removed....

Page 4.  Annual Archbishop Catholic Appeal   The Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal (ACA) will be conducted during the Capital Campaign. Ministries and programs remain in need of the funds generated by
the ACA. The ACA and the capital campaign may fund similar needs.
Extensive communications and marketing is planned to clearly explain the need for
such levels of funding."

VOCAL - Maybe the "extensive communications and marketing cannot be clearly explained.

Remember:

The Archbishop's Annual Appeal spends almost $400,000 to oversee the yearly $3,600,000.00 (that includes one million dollars from Oregon Catholic Press as a grant.
We can only imagine what it costs for $50,000,000.00 overseen for five years.  It will assure those involved a hefty salary for five years. Funded by us.
Who's on this payroll and committees from the Archdiocese and laity?
________________________________________________

Page 7
Parishioners are judged on giving abilities.  Large Donors are "courted".
VI. Donor Evaluation
· All parishioners will be evaluated and assigned to a specific campaign phase
and section based on their gift request for the five-year campaign.
· Whereas the evaluation needs to include local knowledge regarding the
donors’ ability to give, each family’s current annual adult envelope giving will
provide a starting point for the evaluation.
· To assist in the evaluation of donors, the following matrix will be employed at
the parish-level (and the Steier Group will train parish administrative
assistants and secretaries in the use of the matrix):
INDIVIDUAL
ANNUAL OFFERTORY
CAMPAIGN CODING
GIFT REQUEST AMOUNT
(per year/total five-year pledge)

May the new Archbishop care for all of us equally without judging us on how much we give financially.

You of little faith! 31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:31-33

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Bishop Skylstad replaces Bishop Vasa in Diocese of Baker, OR

Bishop William Skylstad will replace Bishop Robert Vasa.  He will serve as the Apostolic Administor.  Bishop William Skylstad

From Wiki : "Apostolic administrators of stable administrations are equivalent in canon law with diocesan bishops, meaning they have essentially the same authority as a diocesan bishop. This type of apostolic administrator is usually the bishop of a titular see.

Administrators sede vacante or sede plena only serve in their role until a newly chosen diocesan bishop takes possession of the diocese. They are restricted by canon law in what they can do to the diocese they temporarily administer. For example, such an administrator may not sell real estate owned by the diocese. This type of administrator is commonly an auxiliary bishop of the diocese, a priest serving as the vicar general of the diocese, or the ordinary of a neighboring diocese.

Normally when a diocese falls vacant a vicar capitular/diocesan administrator is chosen locally, but the Pope, having full governmental power, can preempt this choice and name an apostolic administrator instead. Sometimes a retiring bishop is designated to be apostolic administrator until his successor takes office."

Bishop Vasa will have his last mass and a reception on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at the Youth Retreat Center, Powell Butte .

'And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.'
Douay-Rheims Bible

Monday, February 7, 2011

Archdpdx Lobbyist Voting to LEGALIZE ABORTION Hired Again / New Pro-life Bills

This email is quite like the first "Archdpdx Lobbyist Voted to LEGALIZE ABORTION....".  The years have changed but the main problems have remained......(see former post for articles)

     During the 2007 Legislative Session VOCAL reported that Roger Martin, the replacement lobbyist for long time Oregon Catholic Conference's Bob Castagna, voted to legalize abortion when he was a legislator in 1969. Abortion became legal in Oregon after that vote.

In 1970, Martin sponsored a bill to bar husbands or parents from being informed when an abortion was to be performed on the wife/child. That bill failed, but how responsible is he for the fact that we now have NO parental notification? There has been no confirmation from the Archdiocese or fellow lobbyists that he has changed his views. The Archdiocese of Portland still has   hope for a "conversion".

The "Respect Life Office" has now been swallowed by the Office of Respect Life, Justice and Peace and their "seamless garment" view of Life. Only the name has changed there's still no budget for a solely unborn protection focus.  This seems to protect the Archdpdx from being embarrassed on how little the babies are valued.  Matt Cato is head of this office, but is lacking education in this area.

There is now a $50 million Archdiocese Capitol Campaign that puts the $3.5 Archbishop's Catholic Appeal (ACA) on hold for now.  Are we replacing depleted coffers due to the scandals?

It cost around $350,000 or 10% of the ACA to raise the money.  How much will it cost to raise $50,000,000 for the Archdiocese Capital Campaign, $5,000,000?  Is there a plea to help the unborn in this?

Eleven to twelve babies are killed through abortion each day in Oregon. How many Catholic babies are in these numbers? How many babies and their mothers would even a drop of money save? Catholics want to pay for Catholic, Christ-centered values
.
There are three bills now being drafted sponsored by Oregon Right to Life for this legislative session. They don't have the title wording or bill number yet but they are for:

  1. Putting an opt-out clause for the funding of abortion in President Obama's health care plan.
  2. Having abortion "clinics" included in current clinic health regulations.  They have always been exempt.
  3. Eliminating abortions at 20 weeks due to infant pain at that time.
We thank Archbishop Vlazny for the Roe v. Wade pro-life speech at the Oregon Right to Life rally in January 2011.  He has given the pro-life honor of speaking for many, many years.  With the lack of funds for the most vulnerable over these years, it seems like there are more words than action and they are just something to say for better PR. 

"Poor human reason, when it trusts itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts."

St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church

Articles Regarding Roger Martin 2007-2009

Mar 06, 2009
Before I write to the Archbishop and Mary Jo Tully, who hired Roger Martin, our Oregon Catholic Conference lobbyist, I need to let you know what happened this week at the Capitol. Both people recruited by Roger Martin to speak against ...
Jun 11, 2009
Roger Martin, the lobbyist for the Catholic Church, although he's not pro-life needs to get on this. It is frustrating for us who pay his wage and are for protecting innocent life to have him in such a position, but the Archdpdx hired ...
Feb 12, 2009
During the 2007 Legislative Session VOCAL reported that Roger Martin, the replacement lobbyist for long time Oregon Catholic Confererence's Bob Castagna, voted to legalize abortion when he was a legislator in 1969. ...
Apr 09, 2009
Wonders never cease...now we have Oprah..our new pro-life lobbyist, she must have heard about our trouble with Roger Martin. Here's the link. Dr. Oz is explaining stems cells with Michael J. Fox, who was recently elated with Obama's tax ...
Apr 20, 2008
Our 2007 lobbyist, Roger Martin, as you remember voted to legalize abortion in 1969 when he was a legislator, so this shouldn't surprise us. This liberal religious push shows we need to have answers: More problems with not hearing the ...
Jan 09, 2008
how at the 2007 Session of the legislature Catholic values were not as well represented as they should have been by Roger Martin the lobbyist for Oregon Catholic Conference who had voted to legalize abortion as a legislator in 1969 and ...
Dec 05, 2007
The Oregon Catholic Conference, led by Roger Martin our lobbyist who voted for legalizing abortion when he was a legislator, embarrassed thousands of Oregon Catholics by his lack of defense of marriage and family values. ...

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

"The Encounter"

The Presentation of the Lord is on February 2nd.

The feast was first observed in the Eastern Church as "The Encounter." In the sixth century, it began to be observed in the West: in Rome with a more penitential character and in Gaul (France) with solemn blessings and processions of candles, popularly known as "Candlemas."

The Presentation of the Lord concludes the celebration of the Nativity and with the offerings of the Virgin Mother and the prophecy of Simeon, the events now point toward Easter.

Here are readings from the "two lungs" of the Church.

Today's reading from the USCCB website.

"All-powerful Father, Christ your Son became man for us and was presented in the temple. May he free our hearts from sin and bring us into your presence. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Eastern Catholic Rite Readings.
"Rejoice, thou who art full of grace, Mother of God and Virgin, for from thee arose the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, to give light to those in darkness. Rejoice thou also, righteous elder, who didst take in thy arms the Redeemer of our souls who also gives us the grace of resurrection.

Thou Who didst sanctify the Virgin's womb by Thy birth and bless Simeon's hands as was fitting, hast now come to us and saved us, O Christ our God. But grant peace in the midst of wars to Thy community, and strengthen the Church which Thou hast loved, O only Lover of mankind."

The Presentation and The Encounter with thanks.

"And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord."

Luke 2:22 Douay-Rheims Bible
The Fourth Joyful Mystery