Anniversary of Pope Pius XII's Papacy and Birthday

March 2 marks the date when Pope Pius XII was elected as Bishop of Rome in 1939, and also the day he was born in 1876.

There has been much controversy over this pope for his alleged involvement in supporting Hitler. However, this has been thoroughly debunked. Check out my lengthier article here for further information.

The same old canards have re-emerged since Pope Benedict assigned him the status of Venerable, a step before Beatification and finally Canonization in the process of being declared a Saint.

Pope Pius XII reigned over the Church for almost 20 years until his death on October 9, 1958, at the age of 82.

Another article that is well worth reading is by a Jewish author who grew up hating the name Pius XII but later came to realize he may have been wrong. It can be found here.



Photos of Pope Pius XII:

Why Women Get Abortions

I wrote an article last week on why Planned Parenthood should not receive federal funding in the US. To read this article, click here. I received an interesting response to this article, part of which read:

Have you lost your damn mind???? A very, very small percentages of abortions are done because of a woman accidentally got pregnant and didn't want/couldn't support the baby. There are a lot done because of medical reasons too - because the mother will die, or because the baby has died or will die immediately after being born.

Maybe if this commenter knew the facts, she would not make such a claim. The reason for getting an abortion is divided into two sections:

1) Woman becomes pregnant "accidentally" and did not want to or could not support a baby

2) A woman's life is in jeopardy unless she has an abortion.

I could not find very many statistics on the reasons for which women choose to abort their babies. The only resource I could find was from Planned Parenthood's own statistics division, known as the Guttmacher Institute (named after Margaret Sanger's successor as President of Planned Parenthood Alan Guttmacher). Obviously, if any data were reported in favor of abortion, it would come from here.

The research from this organization reports the following reasons for a 10 year period:

• 25.5% Want to postpone childbearing
• 21.3% Cannot afford a baby
• 14.1% Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy
• 12.2% Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy
• 10.8% Having a child will disrupt education or job
• 7.9% Want no (more) children
• 3.3% Risk to fetal health
• 2.8% Risk to maternal health
• 2.1% Other

Remember the two categories first proposed? Here's how they would break down:

1) Woman becomes pregnant "accidentally" and did not want to or could not support a baby - 91.8%

2) A woman's life is in jeopardy unless she has an abortion. - 6.1%

3) Other - 2.1%

As we can clearly see, the vast majority of abortions have nothing to do with health considerations. Instead, innocent children are killed because their mothers want to further their education, would prefer not to have children, don't have enough money to raise them a certain way, etc.

Not to begrudge the tiny percentage that went to health reasons, but I think these statistics need to be sorted out as well. What does risk to fetal health mean? I'm assuming this would include mothers who abort their babies because the baby could have a birth defect or be hard to care for. It doesn't specify the severity of the health issue, so theoretically anything could be claimed as the reason.

In terms of the mother's health, it lists 2.8%, but again, what does this mean? Not all of this is for mothers whose lives are in imminent danger unless their child is killed. It could include smaller medical issues.

It's also worth noting that if there were a case where a mother's life was in danger, the life-threatening illness or disorder can be treated even if as an unintended side-effect, the child in the womb dies. This is permissible under Catholic morals.

It is also worth noting the case where the baby would be born dead. This one seems easy morally-speaking. If someone is going to die sometime in the future, that does not give us the right to terminate his or her life NOW. If the baby truly would die upon birth, why artificially speed up the process?

And on the last point of not telling a woman (or man) what to do with their body, I do not wish to do that. I am only advocating for another person, the unborn child.

New bishops for Grand Falls and Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Interestingly, this morning my article concerning my bishop's connection to the late Holy Father was published, and now the same day is news that there will be a new bishop for the Grand Falls diocese. This is a welcome relief for Archbishop Martin Currie who has been serving both St. John's and Grand Falls himself for some time now. This has required extensive travel on his part, and thus divided his time a lot. Now the archbishop is free to focus on the St. John's Archdiocese exclusively.

The new bishop for Grand Falls will be Rev. Robert Anthony Daniels. A new bishop will also be appointed for Corner Brook: Rev. Peter Joseph Hundt, who is currently serving in Toronto.

Papal nuncio for Canada, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, will preside over the installation ceremony.

Archbishop Martin Currie

Bishop Robert Anthony Daniels

Bishop Peter Joseph Hundt

Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana

My bishop's connection with Pope John Paul II

I was just doing some research on catholic-hierarchy.org, a great website. I located my local Archbishop, Martin Currie, to see who consecrated him. He was consecrated by an Italian cardinal named Paolo Cardinal Romeo. Cardinal Romeo in turn was consecrated in 1984 by Pope John Paul II. This kind of reminds me of the 6 degrees of Bacon where people try to connect two actors via other actors. In this case, it would look like this:

Pope John Paul II consecrated Cardinal Romeo
Cardinal Romeo consecrated Archbishop Martin Currie

Just thought it was interesting!

Answer to Who Am I

Yesterday's Who Am I was...

John the Baptist

His father, Zechariah lost the ability to speak when he questioned how his wife could bear a child at her age. John the Baptist is known as the Forerunner, because he foretold Jesus' coming. He was known for speaking out when necessary, and he couldn't get ahead is meant to be a play-on-words indicating he was beheaded.

Man "euthanizes" wife

Stephan Bolton from Liverpool Nova Scotia gave his wife Barbara, 59, who was suffering with Stage 4 Breast Cancer, a lethal injection without her knowledge. Now, he has confessed his actions to the local RCMP.

The man, 56, says his motivation for going to the police is pure guilt, stemming from his actions. He said his wife only had a couple of months to live at most and that she was suffering from depression.

One of the more interesting things Stephan said was "It's been over a month. Over that month, I tried to live with it and I just can't — not without being told by (some) authority that what I did wasn't wrong," he said. "I am racked by guilt and have to somehow resolve it."

Does he believe that if someone tells him his actions were morally okay, then he will no longer feel guilty? Perhaps. I believe a lot of people seek guidance for the morality of their actions. If they are not religious, they may look to other people for information, such as the government. That's why I think it's important for immoral actions to be illegal. For example, abortion. Some say you cannot legislate morality, but I believe in the case of abortion, many people consider themselves "pro-choice" because they see it as a legitimate position since the government permits it.

The actions of this man were quite immoral. He took the life of another innocent human being. Although she was suffering from depression, she needed help and reassurance and love, not death. Instead of seeking someone to tell him he did the right thing, this man should seek forgiveness for his sins. I think this is also a natural tendency. People would rather be told they are doing the right thing than go to confession. In fact, because many do not believe in confession, the only option they have is to believe their actions are justified.

Having said this, I feel terrible for this man and his wife. He is suffering tremendously. In his own misguided way, he just wanted to end his wife's suffering. I will make a Pope Benedict-like comment here and say his intention to reduce the suffering of another could be the the first toward a sense of morality. I can say this without condoning his actions.

This man discovered the hard way that euthanasia is not the answer. All too often with moral decisions we make, many will try to persuade us to behave against our better judgment. Sadly, we often only realize our mistakes after they are irreversible. We are struck by guilt which cannot be explained away.

Keep this man and his wife who has passed away in your prayers. And pray for those facing difficult life situations.

Who Am I?

Dad was speechless when I was born
I'm called the Forerunner.
I told it like it was
but sometimes couldn't get ahead

Put your response for who you think this is as a comment.

The Rite becomes profitable

The Rite, starring most notably Anthony Hopkins, has finally went past breaking even and has now made a profit for its studios. The latest numbers show that the expenses for the film totaled approximately $37 million. The film has so far earned $42,287,000, for a net profit of $5,287,000

To read my review of the film, go here.

To purchase the book upon which the film is based, click below. It only costs $9.57 from Amazon right now.

Anniversary of excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I

It happened 441 years ago in 1570. Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I. He wrote a papal bull in 1570 calling Elizabeth a heretic for acting against the Catholic faith, and allowed any Catholic to disobey her on these grounds.

This prompted great persecutions of Catholics in England, and eventually in 1580 to relieve pressure on them, Pope Gregory XIII said the English should obey the queen until she is overthrown.

One of the effects of this was that there was a rift between Ireland and England, since most of Ireland chose to remain Catholic. This rift lasted for centuries.

The popes during this time believed the true heir to the British throne was Mary, Queen of Scots. Eventually Elizabeth had her executed.

In 1588, Pope Sixtus V, the famous namesake of the Sistine Chapel, renewed the categorization of Queen Elizabeth I as a heretic.

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A related movie to this era of Catholic persecution is a great one titled A Man for All Seasons, which profiles St. Thomas More and his interaction with King Henry VIII when he disagree with the monarch. It can be purchased for $7.49 on Amazon.com:

Photo Friday: 10 Tallest Catholic Churches in the World

(11. Honourable Mention): St. Joseph's Oratory Tallest Church in the Americas Height: 129 meters Montreal, Canada Completed 1967

10. St. Martin's Church 130.6 meters Landshut, Germany Completed in 1500

9. St. Peter's Church 132.2 meters Hamburg, Germany Completed in 1878

8. New Cathedral (AKA Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception) 134.8 meters Linz, Austria Completed in 1924

7. St. Stephen's Cathedral 136.4 meters Vienna, Austria Completed in 1433

6. St. Peter's Basilica 138 meters Vatican City Completed in 1626

5. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lichen 141.5 meters Stary Lichen, Poland Completed in 2000

4. Strasbourg Cathedral 142 meters Strasbourg, France Completed in 1439

3. Rouen Cathedral 151 meters Rouen, France Completed in 1880

2. Cologne Cathedral Cologne, Germany Completed in 1880 157.4 meters

1. Basilica of Our Lady of Peace 158 meters Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa Completed in 1989

Planned Parenthood Funding Must END

I was just reading some articles on Planned Parenthood in the mainstream media, and of course as you would suspect, nearly all of them are against defunding the organization with public money in the United States. No big surprise there. The logic behind this protestation is very flawed though. Let me explain why.

The main, and almost exclusively used, argument against defunding Planned Parenthood is that it provides many good services to women-in-need such as HIV tests and pap smears. Others cite birth control as a "good" service, but I would disagree. Opponents of the funding ban agree that Planned Parenthood performs abortions, but say instead of focusing on that, focus on all the "other" services provided by this organization.

The problem with this is quite evident, even to a 5-year old. You cannot fund an organization which is involved with serious evil, in this case abortion. It doesn't matter how much good this organization does, the good doesn't override the evil.

Under the Hyde Amendment, it is illegal for the US government to fund abortion. Planned Parenthood proponents say this is not happening. No US funds go toward abortion, they say. Even if this were the case, the government money is certainly having an impact on the availability of the procedure. With government money, Planed Parenthood can open dozens of new locations each year. They can build new rooms that can be used for many medical procedures, but can also be used for abortion. There is simply no possible way to parse the money.

Therefore, government funding sponsors an organization which commits an evil act. Morally speaking, such an organization should not be funded.

A good analogy would be the United States sending money to Nazi Germany. The argument could be made that the Nazis are doing a lot of good. The economy is recovering quite well. There is extremely low unemployment, technology is advancing, infrastructure is moving forward, etc. Of course, the Nazis are also killing millions of Jewish people as well. But that can be overlooked because the main thing we need to focus on, of course, is the building of roads and technology.

This is too absurd to even talk about. Planned Parenthood provides evil services which kill innocent children. It makes absolutely no difference how much "good" the organization does, it cannot compensate for the evil. The only way the United States Government could morally continue to support Planned Parenthood is if it ceased performing abortions and providing other immoral services. Otherwise, Planned Parenthood needs to be shut down completely.

Answer to Who Am I?

The answer to Yesterday's Who Am I is:

Pope John Paul I

His name before being pope was Albino Luciani
He reigned as pope for only 33 days
He called himself "the first", which was rare and seemed to predict his successor
The Vatican declared that he died of a heart attack.

Bernard Nathanson dead at 84

A story which is being underreported as of right now in the mainstream media is the death of Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Early in his career, he performed thousands of abortions. After seeing medical evidence that an embryo/fetus is an actual human life, he quit performing the procedure and became a pro-life activist. He said his decision was not based on religion. Later, however, he did become Catholic.

Dr. Nathanson was at first so in favor of abortion that he formed NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League, formerly known as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. Today, this is one of the largest advocacy organization for abortion advocates in the world.

The mainstream media won't touch this story with a ten-foot pole, for the most part. In Google, if a popular story breaks, it will display a headline in the news section, and indicate the number of articles on the subject available to date. For example, the story on the Earthquake in New Zealand has 9208 articles. On the other hand, there are no news clusters for the news of Nathanson's passing. Most of the places carrying this story are Christian sites.

Many people believe the media is biased in favor of abortion, and this just provides further proof.

Who Am I?

I'm back with another Who Am I?

I was an Albino from Italy
I'm also associated with 33
I foretold the reign of my next
I most-likely died from an attack

(Post a comment with your guess on it. The answer will be posted tomorrow morning.)

Answer to Yesterday's Who Am I?

The answer to yesterday's Who Am I is St. Thomas Aquinas.

His philosophy, best represented in the Summa Theologica, has shaped our understanding of Christianity since the 13th century. He died when he was 49 years old, not having fully completed the Summa. OP refers to the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans. He is one of 33 doctors of the Church.

Come back tomorrow, same time, for another Who Am I

Who Am I?

This is a little game I am introducing to this blog. It's called Who Am I? The name basically says it all. I will give some clues on a saint, Biblical figure, bishop, priest, or someone otherwise famous within Catholicism, and you must guess who it is. The answer will appear the following day.

Post your response in the comments. Make this a real challenge and do not research the answer. If you get it wrong, that's ok, don't feel bad, and if you're not sure, make a guess anyway.

WHO AM I:
Not quite 50 at the time of my death
My philosophy has shaped the West
I was a member of the OP
and I'm in a group of thirty three

26 Saints A to Z

I'm just giving myself a challenge right now, and you can try it yourself. Perhaps do it before you read my list. I'm going to try to name one saint for each letter of the alphabet. I will see how many I can get. The rule is that you must be 99% sure it is a saint, and not just type a name hoping you can find a saint later that matches. So here goes:

Saint:
Alphonsus Liguori
Benedict of Nursia
Charles Borromeo
Denis
Edward the Confessor
Francis of Assissi
Gerard Megella
Hilarius
Ignatius Loyola
John
Kateri Tekaweta
Leo the Great
Michael the Archangel
Nicholas
O
Peter
Quirinus
Robert Bellarmine
Stephen
Thomas Aquinas
U
Veronica
Wenceslaus
Xystus
Y
Zossimus

Ok, so I couldn't get O, U, or Y. Plus, some are questionable. I will look them up. I will post updates or additional information in a comment to this post.

What if an animal snatches a eucharistic host and runs off with it?

I recently found out about a document issued by Pope Pius V soon after the Council of Trent, sometime in the late 1560 and early 1570s called De Defectibus. In it, almost every imaginable scenario is presented with regards to the validity and laicity of the Mass if certain events. I will look at these from time to time on this blog.

Under the section Defective Materials, it explains what should happen if a gust of wind or an animal carries away a consecrated host, which Catholics believe to be the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus.

Here is what the document spells out:

III. 7. If the consecrated host should disappear, either from some chance cause such as wind, or by a miracle, or from being consumed by some animal, and cannot be recovered; then another must be consecrated, after first being offered, beginning at the passage: Qui pridie quam pateretur.

A simple solution to a very uncommon situation.