Happy All Saints Day

Everyone knows October 31st is Halloween. Most people especially most children celebrated by dressing up in funny and scary costumes and going door-to-door collecting candies from anybody who'll give them some. But what very few people actually stop to realize is that Halloween actually means All Hallows Eve. That's because the following day Is All Hallows day. That is the day in the Catholic calendar where we celebrate all the saints who are in heaven. This does not just include Saints who are officially named like Saint Teresa of Avila or st. Padre Pio or st. Francis of Assisi. This of course also includes anybody who is in heaven. Nobody currently knows exactly how many people are in heaven. But November 1st is designated as the official day of the year where Catholics around the world celebrate and ask for the prayers of these holy people in heaven who are very close to God. This year let's not just celebrate All Hallows Eve let's also celebrate All Saints Day which is today November 1st 2016.

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Catholic Comic #1

Alberta and Transgenderism

Alberta is jumping completely on the transgender bandwagon. They announced completely over-the-top legislation in relation to schools. Here are some of them:

1) Children pick their own pronoun.
A child determines if they want to be referred to as he, she, ze, it, they or use no pronoun whatsoever. On report cards, when being spoken to by teachers or parents, or in any other way, the school must under all circumstances abide by whatever the child decides. Even if the child is 4 or 5 years old, this still applies and can be changed at any time on the whim of the child.

2) Boys or Girls can play for any team
Boys and Girls will no longer be divided in Alberta based on gender. Rather, each child can pick whatever team they would rather play on. So a boy can decide to play on the girl's team or vice verse. Again, because gender is fluid and can change, a boy can switch to the girl's team and then back again at will.

3) Kids can choose whichever bathroom or locker room they go into
Again, with no other requirement than verbal request, a child can choose whether to go into a girls' bathroom or locker room or a boys'. There are no rules or conditions. They can just do whatever they want in this regard. Also, schools are mandated to have a third, gender-less bathroom for any student who hasn't decided to or doesn't want to disclose their gender.

4) Schools are mandated to have Gay-Straight Alliances.
These are clubs where gay and non-gay students can meet to talk about sexuality and to find ways of ending homophobia and transphobia. In reality, they tell every person to question their sexuality and encourage perversion.

Obviously there are some schools which oppose these measures for religious reasons, and Canada, being a country that recognizes religious diversity and various approaches to raising children, allows exemptions for such groups. LOL, just kidding. There are absolutely no such exemptions. Religious schools will absolutely be forced to participate in all of this.

If a religious school or school board refuses to call a 5 year old boy a girl upon request, they will lose all of their funding from the province. Of course, this is one more reason why public funding of schools needs to end immediately. As the advocates of this system long ago declared, public education doesn't exist because poor people couldn't get an education. It exists so that bureaucrats can more easily force people to act a certain way and for this to apply across the board.

All schools are doing is creating vast confusion for students as they struggle through school. Even though transgenderism only appeared extremely recently and it extraordinarily uncommon, everybody must be subject to its dictates. There is no place for good-willed Christian parents to send their children for school. The measures will only continue to get worse and worse as even private schools are forbidden from teaching real sexuality. Unless you are teaching perversion, you will be forcibly banned from education.

More on this perversion: CBC

Question #9: Do we have to take a Catholic baptism seriously or is it mostly just a fun little ritual?

This is Question and Answer #9 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.

Question #9: Do we have to take a Catholic baptism seriously or is it mostly just a fun little ritual?

One of my pet peeves is people who attend a baptism and snicker and joke throughout the whole thing. Some parents will purposely goad their kids into “performing” and everyone just pays attention to these kids instead of to the sacred event that is taking place. They take the whole thing as a joke. If it's such a joke, maybe you have to reconsider whether you should even be doing this.

October 22: Feast Day of Pope St. John Paul II

Question #8 My buddy is cohabiting or living together with his girlfriend and isn’t married. Can he be a Catholic godfather?

This is Question and Answer #8 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.

Question #8 My buddy is cohabiting or living together with his girlfriend and isn’t married. Can he be a Catholic godfather?

Again, as mentioned yesterday, if he is living in defiance of Church teaching then he’s not a good candidate. If him and his partner are living as brother and sister for the time being, then he would be allowed.

Question #7: Can my gay friend be a godparent at a Catholic baptism?

This is Question and Answer #7 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.

Question #7: Can my gay friend be a godparent at a Catholic baptism?

If your friend is living in defiance of Church teaching on sexuality, then he is not permitted to be a godparent. Simply being attracted to people of the same sex would NOT disqualify the person however. It’s only if they are openly opposing the Church.

What day of the week is Christmas Day 2016?

Christmas Day 2016 is on SUNDAY, December 25, 2016

Because Christmas Day is on a Sunday, Advent is the earliest it can possibly be this year. In Canada, Christmas Day is a holy day of obligation, one of only two. Also, Catholics are required to attend Mass every Sunday. That means this season, there are no "additional" Masses that must be attended since they fall on Sunday. Same goes for New Years Day which is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. That's the other holy day of obligation and it falls on a Sunday, so no additional Mass day is required.

When is the First Sunday of Advent 2016?

The first Sunday of Advent 2016 prior to Christmas will be on November 27, 2016.

This is very unique in that it is the earliest possible day for Advent in any given year in the Catholic Church and for Christianity in general. That's because it's on a Sunday and because of that the fourth Sunday of Advent is a Sunday and the following week is Christmas day. Normally if it was another day of the week, the Christmas Day would be just the following Sunday. Since the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day cannot be on the same day, it is therefore the longest possible time in between.

The latest day possible for the first Sunday of Advent is December 3rd. Incidentally that's when it is next year! So this year it is the earliest possible Advent and next year it's the latest possible advent.

The rest of the Sundays of Advent are as follows:
1st Sunday of Advent 2016: November 27, 2016
2nd Sunday of Advent 2016: December 4, 2016
3rd Sunday of Advent 2016: December 11, 2016
4th Sunday of Advent 2016: December 18, 2016
Christmas Day: December 25, 2016

"Here she [Hillary Clinton] is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics."

Donald Trump blasted Hillary Clinton last night at the Al Smith Memorial Dinner. The last time the two candidates meet on the campaign trail before the election in November.

At one point in his speech, Trump said the following:

We’ve learned so much from WikiLeaks. For example, Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private. That’s okay. I don’t know who they’re angry at Hillary, you or I. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.

What is Trump referring to?

Wikileaks revealed a string of emails from the chairman of Hillary Clinton's Chairman John Podesta to John Halpin, former Democratic Strategist and Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton's Director of Communications. In them, they bash Catholics.

Here are some transcripts:

From: Halpin, To: Jennifer Palmieri and John Podesta:Excellent point. They can throw around "Thomistic" thought and "subsidiarity" and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they're talking about.
Jennifer Palmieri wrote:I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals.
John Halpin:Ken Auletta's latest piece on Murdoch in the New Yorker starts off with the aside that both Murdoch and Robert Thompson, managing editor of the WSJ, are raising their kids Catholic. Friggin' Murdoch baptized his kids in Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups.
It's an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.

You can just see the vitriol being spewed by these people, the highest officials in the Clinton presidential campaign.

Pretty much any Democrat, especially party officials who claims to be Catholic is so in name only. They are ardent defenders of abortion right up to moments before birth. Plus, it seems fine at Democratic gatherings to openly mock Catholics.

Later, one of the emailers stood by his comments and refused to apologize. Somehow his explanation is that he was just reacting to news that Rupert Murdoch had baptized his children in the Jordan river. Yes, I can see why he was so triggered by this! Makes perfect sense! He wants people to believe that the Clinton staffers involved in the email chain really respect Catholics. Give me a break!

Question #6: But I want to pick my best friend as godparent in Catholic ceremony!

This is Question and Answer #6 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.

Question #6: But I want to pick my best friend as godparent in Catholic ceremony!

Baptism is not some kind of personal statement to showcase your friends. It’s a solemn occasion where a person is being spiritually cleansed of original sin. You are choosing a godparent or sponsor to keep your child on the right spiritual path. If the whole thing is just a naming ceremony and you don’t really believe in a spiritual reality or in this sacrament, then you should consider whether or not to even baptize your child, as Canon Law states baptism should only be given to children who have a reasonable hope of being raised in a Christian fashion.

Question #5: When did godparenthood begin in the history of Catholicism?

This is Question and Answer #5 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.

Question #5: When did godparenthood begin in the history of Catholicism?

Most believe it started in the 4th century, once Christianity became legal to prevent pagan infiltration of the sacrament and to bolster it.