First "Year of Faith" Award: Portland Teacher Stands Up for Morals Against PP

Bill Diss is a man after God's Own Heart.  He is standing up for Him.  His Actions show his great Faith.   Here is a letter he recently sent.  God Bless you Bill.

Dear Father and Parish Family,      I do hope all is well as you head into the fall season. I know there are many programs starting at this time and a lot going on at parish schools. Again and again thank you for all you do to shepherd your flocks.

On Monday, September 17, 2012, a group of people came into my classroom called TOP (Teen Outreach Program). I was notified the week before that they would be coming into my tutorial class where I have been working with the children on basic math skills and helping them in other subjects.

I really felt that presence of evil in the classroom and I asked the fellow for his card and it turned out the people were from Planned Parenthood. I asked them to leave and they went to the principal's office and then a few minutes later the principal and a vice principal came to remove me from class and directed me to go to the principal's office.

I felt I abandoned my precious children because I did not want to be grilled and I took sick leave and went to church and prayed. I think most of you know that back in 2008 I had a wonderful visit with Archbishop Vlazny on Planned Parenthood and he asked me what kept me going with all of the attacks I could barely get the words out but I told him, "Father they are after my children." Our hearts met that day and he replied in his beautiful and soothing voice, "Oh I see."

I so ask you to please pray for my wife Cathy; this has been so very hard on her and it been going on since March of 2007 when I first got involved with trying to stop Planned Parenthood up by school. She has been stoic and supportive but it is killing her.

I am also asking your prayers for all of the children and I am begging you to even do more. Please read the attachment that Planned Parenthood set home with the children. The last sheet is especially scary because Planned Parenthood has the right to do medical treatment and to use the children in videos and pictures. The Planned Parenthood up on MLK Jr. Blvd. put together these videos (PP's view of abstinence, oral sex, love song, etc.) These are so foul and with computer technology, faces and bodies can easily be changed on videos and pictures.

I am also begging and pleading with you to notify parents, someway and somehow to really watch what they sign. Planned Parenthood is aggressively after the children at Benson, Roosevelt, Jefferson and Madison. I think you know that at the beginning of the school year parents sign many papers and they might not know what they are signing. Planned Parenthood can also sterilize children without parental notification if the child is 15 or over.

On Tuesday I went back to school and the principal told me I had to sit through Planned Parenthood's discussion and they were extremely aggressive obtaining children's signatures by promising them all sorts of gifts and cash. Planned Parenthood is also working on some schools in the Salem area.

I think you know that 40 Days for Life is starting next week and I cannot think of a better outreach then to protect our children by notifying parents. I think it also good for all to contact the district and let them know that we do not want Planned Parenthood in the schools.

All of this is for the children. It is is not a Bill issue and but today I would so appreciate your prayers as I have to meet with the principal and my lawyer and I have no idea how many lawyers or other district personnel will be present from the district. Two years ago during the school year I was part of 16 meetings with union people, lawyers, principals, etc.

As they say, "Life goes on." Let us make sure that happens to our precious children. They are so lovable as I look out at them, and so sweet, and some have had really rotten lives. Please, please, please let them not be harmed in any other way.

God Bless you today and always!

Trying to be Faithful,
Bill Diss 503-334-6183

Benson-PP.pdf 1626K View Download

Now what is it that Planned Parenthood REALLY wants to do with your kids?

This PDF file is the material from Planned Parenthood. Read it very carefully, it is very disturbing. 

Parents waive their rights to any injury to their child. This is after the TOP group even gives the girls an abortion and they hemorrage.Parents waive their rights when they children are having pictures taken for any reason and even possibly be used for advertisements or propaganda. Children are given money to get their parents to comply. You will note in the literature that the group is led locally by Austin Les and Ernesto Dominguez. Mr. Dominguez is listed as "undocumented". Hmm.... Look here at his bio.
We already have these people in Salem high schools, with NO dissension from the teachers. Don't let this happen again!
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N.B. TUESDAY is deadline for voter's registration.  TUESDAY. Oct.16th.

Bishop Vasa: “This is a clarion call for America"

“Physicians are being coerced to do things that they know are wrong, such as prescribing contraceptives, abortion or prescribing a lethal dose of medication,” said Bishop Vasa. “They’re told that their individual conscience doesn’t matter, that they must do these things, and if they do not, they may lose their ability to practice medicine.”“Those who are standing on the sidelines who think the mandate will not touch them are either naive or foolish,” added Bishop Vasa. “They may think they don’t have a dog in this fight, but it won’t stop at contraception.”  read on.

Doctors Tackle How to Survive in an 'Increasingly Toxic Culture'  

At the annual Catholic Medical Association conference, Bishop Robert Vasa says the current health-care crisis is ‘a clarion call’ for Catholic doctors in the U.S.

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by TIM DRAKE10/01/2012   National Catholic Register.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Conscience rights' protection and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contraception mandate were the topics foremost on the minds of medical professionals gathered in St. Paul, Minn., for the Catholic Medical Association’s (CMA) 81st educational conference.

The Sept. 26-29 conference, which drew more than 600 attendees, featured prominent speakers who shared the history of the present cultural battle and how to bear witness to the truth and bring it to bear on the practice of medicine.

Papal biographer George Weigel spoke on the crisis of modernity, author Brian Gail spoke on the life sciences’ challenges, First Things editor Russell Reno spoke about bringing faith into the public square, and Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, president of the Napa Institute, presented ways to use the new media for evangelization.

“The Catholic Church stands in the way of the sexual revolution — efforts to redefine marriage, access to abortion and reproductive technology and mercy killings,” said Reno. “Our increasingly aggressive adversaries will continue to use their political muscle to push us out of the way.”

“These are critical times,” said Bishop Robert Vasa of Santa Rosa, Calif. “Whether or not a physician is practicing in line with the teachings of the Church, they’re going to be forced to do something they may not want to do.”
“This is a clarion call for America,” added Bishop Vasa. “American Catholics, and in particular American Catholic physicians, have to wake up to the fact that they can no longer presume that their individual choices about how they practice medicine in this country will be respected.”

“We are in a very dangerous crisis,” agreed John Brehany, executive director of the CMA. “We see a deeply hostile government entering into the health-care sphere. We see an increasingly toxic culture. We know we’re heading into a time of great challenges. The Western world is facing economic challenges built up by social programs combined with the aging baby-boom generation. That is daunting.”

Physicians, nurses and medical students at the conference expressed similar concerns and anxiety about their ability to carry out their work.

Dr. James Brooke from Dickinson, N.D., spoke about a doctor’s ability to provide authentic health care for women.

“I’m not interested in providing birth-control pills for everyone,” said Brooke. “It’s not quality care to provide birth-control pills for women. That’s a lie.”

“Yet if you stand up and talk about these things, you’re painted as a bigot.”
Dr. Jeff Blickenstaff, a rural family physician from Perham, Minn., admitted that he is very concerned about the HHS contraception mandate and how it will impact his practice. Blickenstaff said he hasn’t prescribed contraception since his conversion to Catholicism in 1999.

“Catholic doctors, nurses and hospital administrators are being attacked because others cannot hear the tiny cries of the defenseless,” said Teresa Collett, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. “The youngest of all is not a creature of value or concern, except for its utility for scientific experiments.”

Collett provided an overview of the conscience-protection rule put into place by the federal government in 2008, which was later rescinded by the Obama administration.

“The 2008 regulation offered a remarkably broad understanding of protection for all health-care personnel and volunteers,” described Collett. “One of the first acts of the new administration was to withdraw those protections. The new rule gutted the 2008 rule.”

CMA Boot Camp
According to Dr. John Lane, CMA's president, when the association’s members were surveyed, they indicated that the most pressing issue was the formation of medical students. To that end, the CMA is offering a new program to help Catholic medical students. The association has created the CMA Boot Camp, a four-day course offered in partnership with St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where students will receive an intensive immersion in the life of the faith, the teachings of the Church and practical training on how to apply these in the art and science of medicine. The inaugural Boot Camp will be offered in June 2013.

“One thing a lot of people don’t consider is that, as they’re trying to expand health care for everyone, they’re asking doctors to violate their consciences,” said Tim Jay, a second-year medical student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Jay was one of 67 medical students attending the conference.
“The government has stripped conscience protection, and medical schools are asking students to look at ethics as relative," Jay said. "There is a demand for principled doctors, but our system isn’t producing them.”

“Physicians are being coerced to do things that they know are wrong, such as prescribing contraceptives, abortion or prescribing a lethal dose of medication,” said Bishop Vasa. “They’re told that their individual conscience doesn’t matter, that they must do these things, and if they do not, they may lose their ability to practice medicine.”
“Those who are standing on the sidelines who think the mandate will not touch them are either naive or foolish,” added Bishop Vasa. “They may think they don’t have a dog in this fight, but it won’t stop at contraception.”

In many ways, the conference had the feel of a retreat, with many speakers concentrating on the spiritual aspect of practicing medicine.

“Catholic health care needs more saints like Dr. Gianna Beretta Molla and Dr. Joseph Moscati, and they weren’t produced by conferences like this, but through their daily work,” said Father Joseph Johnson, pastor of the Church of the Holy Family in St. Louis Park, Minn., “We need to learn to love better.”

Other speakers, such as Legionary Father John Bartunek and Bishop Lee Piché, stressed the importance of witnessing the Catholic faith.

“The world is becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel,” auxiliary Bishop Piché of St. Paul and Minneapolis told the members. “We are called to be witnesses by carrying out the task of living out a daily martyrdom.”

There was a significant emphasis on upholding the Church’s teachings in medicine, especially with regard to the life issues.

“There will be no renewal without a bold proclamation of the eternal truths regarding the sacred transmission of human life,” Gail, the author of Fatherless, told the attendees. “You are at the epicenter of this culture war. You are who this remnant turns to for help. In the face of the life-sciences revolution and the soul- and life-deadening consequences of abortion, contraception and in vitro fertilization, advance a culture of life in your practices.”

 

 

Guest Post, the "Conference" and Carl

This guest post is dedicated to Carl Rossetti who passed away this weekend.
Carl was a pro-life warrior and I was blessed to know and love him for many years.

He worked with Bishop Vasa in Baker, Oregon as his Pro-Life Director when he and his lovely wife of over sixty years, Dorothy, lived in Sisters enjoying a change of pace.  They moved back after missing the kids and grandkids too much.   Having this guest post referencing Eastern Oregon compliments "Life" nicely.

We long remember Carl at Pro-life events telling his jokes.  At Board meetings he always had some old standbys: some at his wife's expense. :) His passion was his family; his Church and the unborn. 

His funeral mass will be on Friday, Sept. 28th, 11:00 am at  St. Edwards Church, North Plains (click for map) Oregon.  The Rosary is beforehand at 10:30 am.   God Bless you Carl.  You are loved and will be missed.

GUEST POST.

We had an opportunity to attend the Diocese of Baker's Respect Life Conference at the Powell Butte facility last Saturday.

Dr. Richard Thorne (formerly ORTL president) gave a powerful, comprehensive presentation entitled "Tyranny of the Minority," which described how several small, but powerful socialist and abortion lobbies worked to impose their agendas on the (complacent, uninformed) majority.

Our new Bishop Carey gave an alarming report on the unprecedented assault on religious liberty in this country by the current administration, using Obamacare as its weapon. He cited how so cleverly-crafted was the "healthcare bill" by the unscrupulous bureaucrats, that it was impossible for a Catholic employer to provide, or avoid providing, health insurance without either violating his religious conscience or incurring such severe penalties (monetary or jail) such as to destroy the entity.

I also had an opportunity to chat with the Bishop and asked him whether it was possible to be both a true Catholic and a Democrat. After some thought, he replied in the affirmative, but quickly qualified his response with the word "ignorance." Essentially, he was saying that ONLY if a Catholic was ignorant of the Dem's (and Obama's) platform/record/positions re. abortion, marriage, etc., could they support (i.e., vote for) that party or candidate. Otherwise, of course, they would be formally cooperating with an intrinsic evil, which would be a mortal sin. (It's hard to imagine that any voter would not know that Obama, who voted three times against the IL infant-born-alive-protection act, is the most pro-abortion president in history and that the Democrat party has a pro-abortion platform.)

So, then, the challenge is to assist Catholics with their civic duty by informing them about the critical, non-negotiable, issues and eliminating the excuse of "ignorance." We are morally obligated to properly form and follow our conscience and if it happens to be in conflict with Church teaching, then we must defer/conform to the Church teaching (i.e., God's law as interpreted by His Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit), which takes precedence over strictly human laws/preferences. A common "Catholic" voter error is to morally equate all issues (e.g., welfare, housing, medical, etc.), which derives from the old Crd. Bernardin "seamless garment theory." Such an interpretation is both illogical and immoral, for one cannot give moral preference to the issue of health, or material status, over the issue of abortion, which is intrinsically (of its nature) evil; the two issues are not equivalent and can never have the same priority or rank of importance. The issues of food, clothing and care are irrelevant if one, first, does not have the right to exist (i.e., be born).

Anyway, I attached some "guides" that you might find helpful and/or wish to share with any friends who may be ignorant of the critical moral issues (including religious liberty itself) involved with the coming election!

Dominus vobiscum

James Strelchun

3 attachments — Download all attachments

2012PFLcandidateGuide.pdf 4949K View Download

2012PFLplatform-Comparison.pdf 814K View Download

VotersGuideInsert.pdf 575K View Download

Blessed Herman, the Cripple - 40 Days for Life

Blessed Herman the Cripple, monk 1013 - 1054 is living proof why we value each life instead of the seeing it as a burden on our "environment". Roman Catholics are benefiting from this man, almost one thousand years later.

Each time we say the Hail Mary we need to know that Blessed Herman was the author of the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen).

This year we start 40 Days for Life one day after his feast day, September 26th and ends on November 4th, two days from the elections. We believe each life has immeasurable value and we pray for leaders who see that value. Click on your area of Oregon for a 40 Days for Life near you. Portand Salem Beaverton Eugene McMinnville Klamath Falls St.Vincent dePaul - Portland Bend

Blessed Herman was born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida to a farm family. His parents cared for him until the age of seven, but in 1020 they gave him over to the abbey of Reichenau Island in Lake Constance in southern Germany; he spent the rest of his life there. He became a Benedictine monk at age twenty. A genius, he studied and wrote on astronomy, theology, math, history, poetry, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. He built musical instruments, and astronomical equipment. In later life he became blind, and had to give up his academic writing. The most famous religious poet of his day, he is the author of Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris Mater. (thanks, Blessed Herman information to inspire Pro-lifers)

Herman The Cripple
by
William Hart Hurlbut, M.D.

I am least among the low,
I am weak and I am slow;
I can neither walk nor stand,
Nor hold a spoon in my own hand.

Like a body bound in chain,
I am on a rack of pain,
But He is God who made me so,
that His mercy I should know.

Brothers do not weep for me!
Christ, the Lord, has set me free.
All my sorrows he will bless;
Pain is not unhappiness.

From my window I look down
To the streets of yonder town,
Where the people come and go,
Reap the harvest that they sow.

Like a field of wheat and tares,
Some are lost in worldly cares;
There are hearts as black as coal,
There are cripples of the soul.

Brothers do not weep for me!
In his mercy I am free.
I can neither sow nor spin,
Yet, I am fed and clothed in Him.

I have been the donkey’s tail,
Slower than a slug or snail;
You my brothers have been kind,
Never let me lag behind.

I have been most rich in friends,
You have been my feet and hands;
All the good that I could do,
I have done because of you.

Oh my brothers, can’t you see?
You have been as Christ for me.
And in my need I know I, too,
Have become as Christ for you!

I have lived for forty years
In this wilderness of tears;
But these trials can’t compare
With the glory we will share.

I have had a voice to sing,
To rejoice in everything;
Now Love’s sweet eternal song
Breaks the darkness with the dawn.

Brother’s do not weep for me!
Christ, the Lord, has set me free.
Oh my friends, remember this:
Pain is not unhappiness.

by Blessed Herman the Cripple

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us;
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us O holy Mother of God,
R. that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Thank you Lord for Blessed Herman and showing how Christ blesses each life, even when we feel alone and forgotten.

P.S. Thank you all for your prayers and loving me through this past year. Having just minimal depressions where I did feel alone, prayers did matter.
In a nutshell:

• Last Valentine Day, 2010, I fell onto a concrete garage floor while maneuvering some steps.
• Went to the doctor and found out I had torn ligaments in my knees.
• Doctor saved my life by ordering an ultrasound on my heart that showed a congenital defect of my aortic valve and how it was almost blocked.
• Had open heart surgery on May 20th and have a replacement valve. (Fortunately my other arteries were clean.) Stayed four days in hospital.
• June 1, 2010 while walking in home for exercise had a small stroke. Called 911. Went back to hospital for four more days.
• Mini-Stroke took away hearing in my right ear and gave me right brain stem damage. I'm wobbly and have to use a walker sometimes. The walker has room for three grandchildren so it can look like a stroller...:-)
• FELL again in May 2011 thinking I was okay to put socks on with foot on chair. Lost my balance and went flat on my back, heard a huge crack and 911 was called and I was in the hospital again for four days. (four is the lucky? number.)
• While seeing if my back was broken, no thank God. Two CAT scans showed my left thyroid had grown to the size of two tennis balls.
• This wasn't seen during open heart surgery as it was behind my collar bone.Had two surgeons remove the culprit. It had moved my windpipe and was cutting off my breathing. Four more days in the hospital, egads.
• I'm still wobbly, deaf, have scars from three surgeries that form the letter "J" for Jesus? :-) It's interesting that I had to have the open heart surgery before the thyroid surgery. Both were life threatening issues.
• I thank these two doctors who just "happened" to order tests that weren't common to have. They saved my life. They are from the same office and interestly Christian.
• Honestly the Good Lord was watching out for me. I want to listen to Him more and be thankful for small things. THEN.

In November of 2011 I had a pacemaker put which happens sometimes after open heart surgery. December 2011 I had rotator cuff surgery because I HAD torn my shoulder muscles off in three place. I told them it hurt.
On Feb. 3rd. I was at the hospital when where my daughter was having a baby and was hit by a hugh laundry cart that couldn't see me because of a wide turn. My back has a fracture of the T-11 vertibrae and I had to fake it so my daughter wouldn't know I was hurt. She was doing such a great job. I just took more muscle relaxants that I had because my arm was in the sling because of my rotator cuff surgery. She never knew until a few days later, but I didn't hold my new grandson that day. Emotionally I was almost gone.

What I continue to have to strive for is to let people help me.

I am so thankful for having a family that loves life in all it's stages and stands up to this challenge..

Grandchildren and children and husband are loved more dearly.

Learning how much I am loved by my family and how much they have sacrificed without grumbling.

I trust the Lord more, although I hope there's not another surgery on the horizon.

• This is too long, but I was saved and challenged by Christ and wanted to share this "adventure". So many people I've met have many more "adventures" than I could ever know.
• It shows for me, the Lord's wisdom and saving hand for all His Creation.

Our Lady and Islam

OUR LADY AND ISLAM: HEAVEN’S PEACE PLAN

Fr Ladis J. Cizik, Blue Army National Executive Director

Islam Islam is an Arabic word that can be defined as "to make peace." Islam is the religion founded by Mohammed, which considers the Koran as its holy book. In addition, Islam accepts the New Testament of the Christians and the Old Testament of the Jews as Divinely inspired works. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims (also: Moors, Turks, and Moslems) and, just as Jews and Christians, believe in only one God. Yet, over the centuries, Muslims have engaged in tremendous wars with Christians and Jews. It would seem that there is little hope for peace. However, Heaven's Peace Plan, involving Our Lady, is evidenced at Fatima, Portugal as well as other places around the world. Fatima   The Moors once occupied Portugal. The village of Fatima was given the Islamic name of the well-loved Princess of the nearby Castle of Ourem. She died at an early age after marrying the Count of Ourem and converting to Catholicism. Baptized with the Christian name of Oureana, she was named at birth "Fatima," like many other Moslem girls, in honor of the daughter of Mohammed. Of his daughter, Fatima, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, said: "She has the highest place in heaven after the Virgin Mary." It is a fact that Moslems from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to Our Lady of Fatima's Shrine in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combination of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Moslems. God is writing straight with crooked lines, as we will see. Fatima is a part of Heaven's Peace Plan. It is hope for the world. The Koran In the Koran, the holy name of the Blessed Virgin Mary is mentioned no less than thirty times. No other woman's name is even mentioned, not even that of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima. Among men, only Abraham, Moses, and Noah are mentioned more times than Our Lady. In the Koran, Our Blessed Mother is described as "Virgin, ever Virgin." The Islamic belief in the virginity of Mary puts to shame the heretical beliefs of those who call themselves Christian, while denying the perpetual virginity of Mary. Make no mistake about it, there is a very special relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Moslems! The Holy Land  The Holy Land has been a real battleground between the Islamic peoples and Christianity over the centuries. Evidence of this are the numerous churches and basilicas that have been built by the Church, destroyed by, the Moslems, rebuilt by Catholic Crusaders, leveled again by the followers of Islam, and so on over the course of history. However, there is one remarkable exception: the Basilica of Saint Anne in Jerusalem. The Crusaders built this church and named it in honor of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Crypt of St. Anne's Basilica, a statue of the Infant Mary is venerated on what is believed to be the exact spot where Our Lady was born. Their great reverence for Our Lady precluded the Moslems from destroying her birthplace. The foundation for Heaven's Peace Plan at Fatima, Portugal, can be found in the Land of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Spain As the Moslems swept through Spain in the 8th century, a great religious treasure was buried for safe-keeping in the earth, high in the Estremadura Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of Seville. After the overthrow of Moorish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326, subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble shepherd by the name of Gil. Our Lady's very special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan Monastery next to the "Wolf River." The Moslems, during their Spanish occupation, had actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf River is "Guadalupe" (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of "Our Lady of Guadalupe." Mexico In the fullness of time, we can be sure that Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the "new world" from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone "serpent god" that demanded human sacrifice. It was extremely difficult to win souls for Christ from these bloodthirsty savages. However, with God all things are possible. Our Lady appeared to a humble Aztec Indian convert by the name of Juan Diego in 1531. When asked her name by Juan Diego, at the request of the local bishop, Our Lady's response, in the Aztec language, included the words "te coatlaxopeuh" (pronounced: "te quatlasupe") and meant "one who crushes the head of the stone serpent." To Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs, this revelation had great meaning, coupled with the miraculous image of Our Lady standing on top of a "crescent," the symbol of this evil serpent god. A tidal wave of conversions to Catholicism ensued. However, Bishop Zumarraga, who was from Spain, made what was no doubt a "heavenly mistake" that one day may lead to the mass conversion of Moslems. To the Bishop's Spanish ears, Our Lady's Aztec name of "Te Quatlasupe" sounded just like the name of the revered Madonna from Spain with the Islamic name, "Guadalupe." Hence, the bishop named the Mexican Madonna "Our Lady of Guadalupe." It is interesting that the "crescent" is also the symbol for Islam and that America's Shrine to Our Lady has an Islamic name. Battle of Lepanto On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between "oared" ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: "The Christian fleet is victorious!" and shed tears of thanksgiving to God. What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria. He carried a small copy of Mexico's Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshrined in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy. Not many know that at the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, one can view a huge warship lantern that was captured from the Moslems in the Battle of Lepanto. In Rome, look up to the ceiling of S. Maria in Aracoeli and behold decorations in gold taken from the Turkish galleys. In the Doges' Palace in Venice, Italy, one can witness a giant Islamic flag that is now a trophy from a vanquished Turkish ship from the Victory. At Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, close to the tomb of the great St. Pope Pius V, one was once able to view yet another Islamic flag from the Battle, until 1965, when it was returned to Istanbul in an intended friendly token of concord. The Rosary At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary. Even though they had superior numbers, the Turks really were overmatched. Blessed Padre Pio, the Spiritual Father of the Blue Army, said: "The Rosary is the weapon," and how right he was! The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as "Our Lady of Victory." Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716 (who canonized Pope Pius V in 1712). And with that we are back to Fatima, Portugal where Our Lady, when asked her name, said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary." At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world. Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Russia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Taken from: Soul Magazine © 2001 The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A., Inc. September - October 2001,  page 6 For subscription information: The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A., Inc. PO Box 976 Washington, NJ 07882-0976 Website: http://www.bluearmy.com E-mail: service@bluearmy.com  or Phone Toll Free:             866-513-1917

Provided Courtesy of: Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, AL 35210 www.ewtn.com HOME-EWTNews-FAITH-TELEVISION-RADIO-LIBRARY-GALLERY-CATALOGUE-GENERAL ESPAÑOL Thanks Myrna for sending this to VOCAL.